Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images for Discovery(NEW YORK) -- Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he will stop using Facebook in protest of how the social media platform and other internet companies handle users' personal information.



Wozniak adjusted his profile on Facebook before deactivating his account and was shocked to see the extent of the platform's data collection, he wrote in an email to USA Today.



"I was surprised to see how many categories for ads and how many advertisers I had to get rid of, one at a time. I did not feel that this is what people want done to them," he wrote. "Ads and spam are bad things these days and there are no controls over them. Or transparency."



Wozniak's announcement comes as Facebook is under fire for its potential mishandling of user data with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that allegedly obtained personal information on as many as 87 million of Facebook users in an effort to influence elections.



Wozniak said he would rather pay to use the social media platform than have his personal information used by advertisers.



"Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and ... Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this," he wrote to USA Today. "The profits are all based on the users info, but the users get none of the profits back."



The Apple co-founder did not delete his Facebook account entirely but instead opted to deactivate it so that no one could take his screen name, he told USA Today.



Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company's practices, saying in a recent interview that the idea Facebook doesn't care about its customers because they don't pay for the service is extremely glib and not at all aligned with the truth.



He also said in the interview with Vox that an advertising-supported business model is the only way a company such as Facebook can connect people around the world regardless of their ability to pay.



The social media giant has also announced changes, including revisions to its privacy settings to make it easier for users to control who can access their personal information.



Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company's ongoing data-privacy scandal.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The Venue Lymm via Storyful(LONDON) -- Security footage from a pub shows a hooded man walking in and dousing more than 20 patrons in white paint.



Police said the incident in Lymm, England, just east of Liverpool, occurred the night of April 3 at The Venue, where customers were waiting for the pub quiz to begin, according to Metro.



"It went all over me and the customers, everyone was covered in it," Emily Clare, 25, owner of The Venue, told Metro. The incident lasted less than a minute. An accomplice of the suspect also splashed red paint across the front of the building. The two men may have fled in a red van.



Police are reviewing the footage and investigating the incident, according to Metro.



The Cheshire Police Department and the owner of The Venue did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Martin Luther King Jr. View Photos

During the Democratic Weekly Address, Representative John Lewis (D-GA) remembered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Lewis was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Hello. I am John Lewis, and I represent Georgias Fifth Congressional District.

On April 4, our nation and the world paused to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Growing up as a boy in rural Alabama, I remember when Rosa Parks and Dr. King came together in December 1955 to launch the bus boycott in Montgomery.

As a young man, I wrote Dr. King a letter, and his response changed my life forever. Dr. King was my inspiration, my leader, and my mentor. He was my friend.

Back then, segregation and racial discrimination were all around us  in the voting booth, in the courtroom, and in the classroom.

In many parts of our country, people of different races could not sit together on a bus, sleep in the some hotel, or drink water from the same fountain.

Dr. King taught us the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence and sparked a nonviolent revolution  a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas, and a revolution of action.

On August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the world learned of his dream of building the beloved community.

Over the years, he convinced President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and President Johnson to understand that civil rights was a moral issue.

He used his moral leadership to fight for equal justice for sanitation workers, for people of color, for those who had been left out and left behind.

In particular, I will never forget when Dr. King spoke in Berlin against the danger of building walls. He reminded the global family  the global community  that Gods children were on both sides of the wall.

In the past 50 years, as a nation and as a people, we have made progress. But there are new forces trying to take us back, trying to turn back the clock, trying to take us to a darker time.

Times like these can seem overwhelming, but I ask you to recommit yourself to the way of love, the way of peace, and the way of nonviolence.

I ask you to look in your heart and to trust that justice will prevail.

If Dr. King were with us today, he would continue to push our country to respect the dignity and the worth of every human being  no matter where they are born, no matter their race, age, religion, or gender identity.

He would argue that we have a right to know what is in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.

He would preach that we have a mission, an obligation, and a mandate to leave this country and this little planet a little cleaner, a little greener, and a little more peaceful for generations yet unborn.

Most importantly, if Dr. King were alive, he would ask each of us to speak up, to speak out in the face of injustice, and he would demand that each and every one of us to do our part and do it well.

Thank you.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7
After responding to the concerns of one rural resident, Hale County commissioners on Monday voted unanimously to impose a 90-day burn ban in the unincorporated portions of the county.

It would be irresponsible for us to hold out any longer, County Judge Bill Coleman explained. We are in a severe drought situation, and have been for some time, and we need to do this to protect those folks who work and live in the county. Its a critical situation.

Violating the ban on outdoor burning is a Class C Misdemeanor offense with a fine of up to $500.

We realize that its a great inconvenience to many rural residents, but its the prudent thing to do. Weve held off as long as we can, and hopefully well be able to lift it as soon as our next meeting. All we need is 3 to 4 inches of rain, Coleman said.

The ban will automatically expire in 90 days, or at such time that the Texas Forest Service determines that Hale County is no longer under drought conditions. The commissioners can also vote to terminate the ban when situations warrant. It went into effect April 9.

James Kelm, a rural Plainview resident, asked commissioners what rural residents should do with their household trash now that the burn ban is in place.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Benny Cantwell reminded him that state law forbids any burning of trash, where there is a burn ban in place or not. If a TCEQ investigator happens to see you burning trash in your barrel just driving by, they can fine you right on the spot.

Commissioners suggested that rural residents bring their household trash to the city landfill, which charges $42 per ton to accept refuse. They also can contract with various rural waste collection services which will place a Dumpster at the residence and empty it on a weekly basis.

The entire Texas Panhandle already is under a burn ban. Among the counties surrounding Hale, only Lubbock and Hockley have not placed restrictions on outdoor burning as of Monday morning.

In other action Monday, commissioners:

--Authorized the county judge to sign a $3.9 million paving contract, on behalf of the county, with Lone Star Dirt and Paving for demolition of the old Jimmy Dean Meat Co. facility and paving at the Plainview Business Park.

--Approved a plat for Unit #1 of the Plainview Business Park

--Authorized Xcel Energy to install three new utility poles and 456 feet of line at Plainview-Hale County Airport for improved electrical service to a hanger being used by Aerocare.

--Approved a $3,652.01 bid on a tax-forfeited trust property at 2604 Navasota Drive. The bid must also be approved by Plainview ISD, City of Plainview and High Plains Underground Water District.

-- Approved the hiring of Cecilia Chavez for the Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 office, Julian Torrez for the Precinct 3 crew, and Shane Harral as a deputy clerk under District Clerk Carla Cannon.

--Authorize storm-related roof repairs by Dickerson Roofing at the Justice Center, Annex 3 (Porches Furniture) and Adult Probation Office, for a total cost of $141,078.35, which will be paid from insurance recovery funds.

--Approved $1,800 in exterior repairs at the Justice Center, including replacement of loose tiles with stucco.

--Authorize Precinct 4 Commissioner Benny Cantwell to initiate an online auction of surplus equipment through Lone Star Auctions. The auction includes about 22 lots, including a 1966 Ford F250 pickup from Precinct 4, two pickups from the sheriffs office, the pickup formerly used by Constable Terry Timms and a Ford Crown Victoria being retired by the Petersburg Police Department. The sheriffs office has added a variety of abandoned and found property.

--Authorize Larry Stanley to install a 6-inch waterline under County Road A about a half-mile north of CR 282.

--Approved an interlocal agreement with Briscoe County allowing the use of Hale Countys asphalt zipper for a $500 payment.

--Approved a request by County Clerk Latrice Kemp to purchase a new computer server for $12,574 to store deed records.
Those who tuned in to "CBS This Morning" as they ate their breakfast and prepared for work were startled to see a familiar face and hear a familiar voice on Wednesday morning.

Joe Berry, longtime Plainview educator and choir director, was part of an a cappella choir that reunited in Memphis on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's death.

The Prairie View A&M a cappella concert choir from Houston went on tour for about two weeks every year.

"We were on our Midwest tour, coming down from Chicago to Memphis," recalls Berry, a 20-year-old sophomore at the time. "We didn't have a concert that night. It was a rest night, so we stayed at the Lorraine Motel."

The students didn't know Dr. King was scheduled to stay at the same motel, but their choir director, Dr. H. Edison Anderson, found out later in the evening. He spoke with staff and members of King's group, imploring them to allow the choir to sing.

Most of the students were sleeping when King got in around midnight.

"Word came from the director that we were to get up and put on something decent," Berry said.

The choir gathered in a meeting room where King was waiting along with other notable civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

"It was overwhelming when we found out that we would get to meet him and sing for him," Berry said. "He was a major figure of the time, big in the non-violent movement."

The choir sang "Alleluia" by Randall Thompson, and most members of the group, including Berry, were able to meet King and shake his hand.

It is difficult to spot Berry on the CBS video, but he notes that the camera pans from sopranos to tenors and altos, leaving the baritones and basses out of the picture. Berry is a baritone.

"Other videos have surfaced where you can see me walking into the room, standing close to Dr. King," Berry said.

The choir tour had ended, and students were back on campus when King was shot and killed at the same motel two weeks later during the evening of April 4, 1968.

"I don't know if I thought about the movement when I first heard about it," Berry said. "I just remember feeling shock and sadness that such a great man had been shot down. Later on, I began to think about what would happen to the movement."

Berry graduated from Prairie View in 1971 and received his master's in 1973. He and his wife Margaret moved to Plainview, where he taught music for Plainview ISD, retiring from the district in 2005.

Berry has been choir director at College Heights Baptist Church for 20 years, since 1997. He and Margaret have a daughter, Michelle, who is married to Justin Daniels. They live in Irving, and she teaches for Garland ISD.

James Brown of CBS interviewed six members of the original choir at the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum. The choir members joined with a larger alumni group in concert at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts. They drew a standing ovation for "Alleluia."

"Other members came a little bit later, members that did not make trip, members that came after I graduated, to celebrate and be a part of it," Berry said.

Berry reflected on King's legacy, saying he will be remembered for starting a movement that would change race relations in America.

"His dream, non-violence and his religious faith -- those are the things that he will be remembered for."

As a longtime teacher, Berry has some insight into the upcoming generation.

"If kids don't forget the history of Dr. King and what he stood for and what he tried to accomplish, this generation is gonna be OK. If they follow his examples and remember where blacks came from, where they are today and where they can be tomorrow, they'll be OK," he said.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump intensified preparations for a U.S. response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, canceling a planned trip this weekend to South America and conferring with European allies on retaliatory steps.

Trump spoke by phone Tuesday with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. Both leaders condemned Assads vicious disregard for human life, and agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue, the White House said in a emailed statement on the call.

The U.S. president spoke twice this week with French President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate a Syria response, said a person familiar with the matter.

Trump hasnt made a final decision on a response, and continues to meet with national security staff on the matter, an administration official said.

Trump said late Monday that the U.S. will respond forcefully to a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime over the weekend, after suggesting earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin may share responsibility. He would not describe the U.S. response or say when it would come. I dont like talking about timing, he said.

The development also comes a day after the FBI raided the office of Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, based on information gathered in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. That news caused Trump to lash out at Mueller to reporters late Monday, describing the FBI raid as a criminal act and an attack on our country.

Some of Trumps allies encouraged him to respond by firing Mueller, FBI Director Christopher Wray or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is supervising Muellers probe and approved the raid. Trump entertained a question about firing Mueller while speaking with reporters, but did not say whether he was considering the move.

Tensions in the Middle East escalated even higher early Monday with an airstrike by unknown warplanes against a Syrian airbase. Russia blamed the raid on Israel, which hewed to its customary no-comment policy.

The White House announced Tuesday morning Vice President Mike Pence would travel in Trumps place to the Latin American summit. The administration had already scaled back the trip in recent weeks, and one planned meeting with Perus president was canceled after he resigned amid corruption allegations.

"Theres a high bar for a president ever canceling a foreign trip," said Michael Singh, former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and managing director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Once arrangements for meetings and travel are made, logistics are put in place, money spent and diplomatic negotiations executed, "Its not something you do casually."

At the same time, Singh said past presidents have canceled or postponed trips to remain in the U.S. to deal with domestic and foreign policy crises. While the president has all the communications and support tools he needs to run a virtual White House from anywhere in the world, Singh said there may be no substitute for being able to sit down in the same room with key advisers.

"Theres a symbolic element as well," Singh said. Canceling the trip allows Trump to show he is personally engaged and takes the stakes seriously. "The U.S. ordering a military strike against another country is pretty serious business," Singh said. The change in travel plans is another indication Trump is leaning toward a military strike, he said.

Trumps decision to scrap the trip further dims prospects for the announcement of a deal in principle to rework the North America Free Trade Agreement at the summit. Negotiators from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico continue to meet in Washington this week in hopes of striking an agreement to rework the accord, and the Trump administration had pushed to announce a framework agreement at the summit. Mexicos economy minister said Monday he sees an 80 percent chance of a deal being reached by the first week of May.

Trump told reporters on Monday the U.S. was strongly renegotiating Nafta and that he sees a chance to make a deal.

We are fairly close on Nafta and if we dont make the right deal well terminate Nafta and well make the right deal after that, he said.

Trump is also scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following the summit at his private Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, in a discussion the White House said would focus on trade and investment issues as well as Trumps upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The White House has not yet said whether the president still plans to meet Abe in Florida.

Jarrod Agen, Pences communications director, said in a statement that the vice president is honored to represent the United States at the Latin American summit. Pence traveled to the region last year for meetings with several leaders and is scheduled to travel next month to Brazil, Agen said.

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove and Tim Ross

To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net, Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning, Joshua Gallu

2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Wealthy space enthusiasts are paying $80,000 deposits to secure spots in the solar system's first-ever space hotel, which could accept guests starting in 2022.

Aurora Station, the brainchild of Orion Span based in Houston and Silicon Valley, sold four months of reservations within 72 hours of being announced last week. The modular space station would allow guests to float in zero gravity, grow food to take home as a souvenir and see 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.
As San Antonio's high school seniors graduate or prepare for that big day, many of us are filled with nostalgic thoughts about our own graduation.

San Antonio's TV newscasters, weather anchors and hosts are no exception. For fun, many agreed to share their old photos -- some from yearbooks, others from their senior year or graduation ceremony. That way, viewers can see how they started out and ways they've changed.

RELATED: San Antonio TV news anchors come clean: No makeup!

Some even shared their insecurities and high points of high school; others offered advice to today's graduates.

For example:

KENS-TV's Deborah Knapp recalled her wonderful journalism teacher, "who ignited my passion for reporting. I decided I wanted to be a reporter when I was 14 and I love what I do today as much as when I began!"

WOAI-TV's Delaine Mathieu mentioned how much her appearance has changed thanks to modern beauty utensils: "In the world of flat irons and hair relaxers, my hair is so much easier to deal with these days, although I loved those curls."

RELATED: San Antonio TV anchors then and now

KSAT-TV's Leslie Mouton said of her graduation day: "I remember feeling so excited and scared -- ready to head off to college! How have I changed? I'm more confident and grounded in who I am -- but I still feel like that high school girl at heart."

Her KSAT morning and noon co-anchor Mark Austin will have the perfect opportunity to look back at the good times when he heads to his 30th reunion this fall. "It'll be fun to be back in the D.C. area right before the election. That area is home."

Karen Grace, formerly of KENS-TV, didn't always have the straight set of pearly whites that she flashes on the weekend news. "I learned to smile to compensate for my crooked teeth," she said.

After graduating, Grace endured three years of Invisalign followed by three more of adult traditional braces. "Now, I smile a lot more, not just because I'm happy working my dream job, but because I spent a small fortune on my smile!"

KABB-TV's Ryan Wolf, co-anchor of the 9 p.m. news, sends this advice to today's grads: Take risks and expose yourself to a variety of experiences to up your chances of "finding a career you love. Push yourself as much as possible!"

OK, now scroll through the slideshow above and guess which photo matches your favorite news anchor. My, how some have changed!

jjakle@express-news.net
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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456844.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456841.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456818.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456816.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456814.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456815.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456813.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456809.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456810.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456811.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456812.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456806.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456807.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456808.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456804.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456805.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456800.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456802.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456798.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456793.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456792.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456789.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456791.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456785.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456786.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456787.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456772.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456773.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456774.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456770.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456766.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456767.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456768.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456765.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456761.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456762.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456763.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456764.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456760.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456758.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456759.136254 -

Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456755.136254 -

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Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research and suicide prevention. less Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct. 16, 2016, for the roving motor bike ride known as the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research ... more Photo: By Richard Canfield, For MySA Buy photo Discerning men of both style and class to the streets Sunday. Oct....Photo-11456757.136254 -
Investigators believe actor T.J. Miller called in a false bomb threat on a train traveling through Connecticut last month because of a grudge against another passenger, the Department of Justice said.

Todd J. Miller, 36, of New York, N.Y., was arrested Monday night at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, N.Y. The former Silicon Valley actor and comedian was charged with intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device, the DOJ said.

Miller was also in movies including Cloverfield, Shes Out of My League, Deadpool and Office Christmas Party.

If convicted, the charge carries a maximum term of five years in prison.

On March 18, the DOJ said, Miller called a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey and reported a female passenger had a bomb in her bag on Amtrak train 2256. Miller boarded the train in Washington, D.C.

By the time Amtrak officials received notice of the call and were mobilized the train was stopped at Greens Farms Station in Westport. The train and passengers were searched, but it ended up being the wrong train.

An investigator contacted Miller, who was in New York, by phone. He insisted the womans bag needed to be checked. When the investigator heard Miller slurring and questioned it, he claimed he only had one glass of wine, the DOJ said.

Investigators soon learned Miller was on Amtrak train 2258. That train was also stopped and searched at the Westport station. No explosive devices or materials were found.

Amtrak officers interviewed the first class attendant from the car Miller had been sitting in, who told officers Miller appeared to be intoxicated when he boarded the train in Washington and had multiple drinks on the train, the DOJ said.

Miller was removed from the car in New York because of his intoxication, the DOJ said. The attendant also told officers he engaged in hostile exchanges with a woman sitting in a different row from him in the first class car.

The investigators identified and interviewed the woman and found she was not carrying any explosives and was not even directly in Millers sight path.

The complaint further alleges that Miller, motivated by a grudge against the subject female, called 911 to relay false information about a suspected bomb on the train, and continued to convey false information to investigators while the public safety response was ongoing, the DOJ said.

Miller appeared before a judge in New Haven on Tuesday and was released on a $100,000 bond.
MILFORD - A former Trumbull town employee is facing 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally shooting his wife in their Shelton home in 2015.

Thomas Infante, 54, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter under the provision of extreme emotional disturbance, as jury selection was about to begin for his case.
A freshly painted B-25 Mitchell, "Devil Dog," will arrive in Houston for the 16th annual Warbird Weekend April 14-15 at the West Houston Airport.

Ground tours will be available, and rides can be purchased for flights Friday through Sunday, April 15. Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Houston Wing hosts the event at the CAF Houston Wing museum at the West Houston Airport, located at 18000 Groeschke Road, Houston, TX 77084.

The PB-1J Devil Dog and the Vietnam era CH-46 helicopter from the Military Museum of Texas will be on display. Our Houston Wing aircraft will be on display and available for rides. There will be several visiting aircraft, which is subject to weather and availability.

The U.S. Marine Corps used B-25s - designated as "PBJs" - for "night heckling," anti-shipping missions or close air support of beachheads and landings.

As most of the missions were performed at low altitude, there was not much need for the glass nose/bombardier position. It was replaced with a solid nose and armed with up to eight .50 caliber machine guns. Nine PBJ squadrons made it overseas before the war ended in the Pacific. The Devil Dog memorializes the number 3 ship of the VMB 612 squadron which was declared missing on July 27, 1945, off Hachija Jima.

For the past 16 years, Warbird Weekend (formerly known as Open House) has emerged as the most entertaining annual World War II and 1940s theme event in Houston in the spring. It is a can't-miss experience for anyone who enjoys nostalgia, historic aircraft and military vehicles, antique cars and featuring reenactors from the 6th Cavalry in authentic uniforms with restored ground vehicles and the anti-aircraft gun mount from the Battleship Texas.

More Information About the Commemorative Air Force The Commemorative Air Force is a non-profit organization dedicated to flying and restoring World War II aircraft. Based in Dallas, Texas, the organization has more than 13,000 members and has a fleet of more than 175 World War II aircraft. About the CAF Houston Wing Warbird Museum The CAF Houston Wing, based in Houston, was founded in 1987. One of most active units of the Commemorative Air Force, the unit maintains and flies five WWII aircraft including the only authentic flying Lockheed C-60A Lodestar, North American AT-6, Vultee BT-13, Naval Air Factory N3N and the Fairchild PT-19. The unit, composed of more than 130 volunteers, is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. www.houstonwing.org. See More Collapse

Local artist Maria Thorne will perform Big Band standards from the 1940s both days.

Warbird Weekend has become an excellent way to honor the heroes of the Greatest Generation and educate all ages about the WWII experience and the science of aviation.

Advance tickets are available for $10 per car www.houstonwing.org or Facebook and $15 at the gate. Proceeds from the event help fund operation of the museum, restoration and operation of the Houston Wing fleet.
SBP, the New Orleans-based national disaster resilience and recovery nonprofit, is partnering with Whole Foods Market to host free disaster resilience trainings for local residents on April 19 at 10 Houston area Whole Foods Market locations.

These 45 minute trainings will educate residents in key preparedness measures such as identifying risks, creating a family emergency plan, protecting important documents, acquiring proper insurance coverage, physically protecting their homes and preventing contractor fraud.

"Hurricane season is right around the corner," said Zack Rosenburg, CEO/co-founder of SBP. "We need to start thinking of ways to reduce the needs of impacted communities in the face of future disasters. That's why these trainings are so important."

The training will be offered in Katy at 6:30 p.m. and in Sugar Land at 4:30 p.m.

Other training times and sites are Whole Foods Market Voss and Whole Foods Market Westchase at 10:30 a.m., Whole Foods Market Post Oak and Whole Foods Market Kirby at noon, and Whole Foods Market Montrose and Whole Foods Market Bellaire at 2:30 p.m. Visit http://bit.ly/SBPstormprep for more information and training times and locations.

Whole Foods Market is also donating 5 percent of its Houston stores' net sales that day to support SBP and its recovery efforts in the Houston.

SBP's mission is to shrink the time between disaster and recovery. By cultivating resilience before disasters occur and streamlining the post-disaster recovery process, SBP works to lessen the amount of time people experience stress and trauma.
Oscar Hung of the British International School is the winner of the 2018 Katy Bar Association Law Day writing contest.

Each year, the Katy Bar Association reviews numerous essays from Katy area students and selects three winners. In addition, the KBA submits the top essay to the State Bar of Texas for its statewide Law Day essay writing contest.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and the Democratic leaders of Maryland's General Assembly signed legislation Tuesday that will keep health-insurance premiums from soaring this year - a bill they said was just one example of the bipartisanship that characterized the 90-day legislative session.

The new law creates a "reinsurance fund" using about $380 million the state will charge insurance companies, which are paying about that much less in federal taxes because of a one-time exemption in the recent federal tax-code overhaul.

If the government did not act, Hogan said, all residents would have faced a "crisis," including anticipated increases in premiums of between 30 and 50 percent and the possible departure of CareFirst, Maryland's only statewide insurer.

"Washington has consistently failed to fix the problems with health care," Hogan said before signing the bill along with Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, and House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, sitting on either side of him. "They haven't taken action, so here, together, we have taken action."

A separate measure, intended to provide a long-term fix to increased premiums, did not advance out of committee. It would have charged residents who fail to purchase health insurance and put the funds toward their coverage.

When the governor walked into the bill-signing room Tuesday morning after an unusually drama-free final day of session, Miller gave him a wink and shook his hand. Busch smiled, and all three men - at Hogan's prompting - flashed a thumbs up when they finished signing. Soon after, Hogan's office sent out a "bipartisan alert" email with flashing purple fireworks and balloons.

Hogan said "a lot of smart people in Annapolis" warned before the session began about the difficulty of getting things done during an election year in which every seat in the General Assembly is up for grabs and eight candidates are competing for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. But Hogan said those fears have not come to fruition in a session he declared the most productive of his first term.

Almost every item on the "aggressive agenda" discussed by leaders at the beginning of session - including tax relief for many residents, addressing crime in Baltimore and improving funding for education - has been addressed, Hogan said. The federal tax overhaul was expected to leave nearly three in 10 Marylanders owing more in state and local taxes, officials said in January. But changes to the state tax code approved by the legislature reduced that percentage to nearly 1 in 10.

Todd Eberly, a political scientist at St. Mary's College of Maryland, said lawmakers were productive this session because Democratic leaders accepted Hogan's strong favorable ratings and stopped trying to paint him as an ultra-conservative Republican who is not right for Maryland.

"They realized that narrative had not worked in past sessions, so they said, 'forget Hogan' - we need to show voters why they want to vote for Democrats," Eberly said.

One of the victories celebrated by both parties was to require that every public school have police coverage or a school resource officers, lockable doors and age-appropriate active threat drills.

The school safety measure, signed into law by Hogan on Tuesday, gained momentum after a fatal school shooting in southern Maryland and increased national dialogue about gun violence following the shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Hogan and Democratic leaders celebrated the bill as an example of lawmakers rising above election-year politics that pundits predicted the session would be about fighting and name-calling.

"There was almost none of that," Hogan said during a news conference Monday.

But the session wasn't entirely devoid of political spats, the largest of which came when the General Assembly voted to remove the state comptroller from the process of awarding funds for school construction. Leaders in the General Assembly, which overrode Hogan's veto, said their intention was to remove politics from the awarding of construction funds. But Hogan said lawmakers were stripping power from Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot, a close ally of the governor's, for political purposes.

A key question in the coming elections will be whether Democrats' anger at President Donald Trump leads to a blue wave at the polls, as it has in Virginia and other races across the country, and to what extent that mobilizes progressives in Maryland, Eberly said.

Nine veteran senators, all Democrats are retiring, along with several Democrats who hold leadership positions in the House.

On Monday, a progressive group announced a campaign to oust Miller - the longest-serving state senate president in the county - because of their frustration with the way he wields his power. The Service Employees International Union Local 500, which has 15,000 members statewide, is creating a political action committee and plans to provide $100,000 in seed money to remove Miller and his "lieutenants."

"It's going to be an interesting election cycle and we'll see what happens," Miller said.

But Eberly said it remains an open question whether progressives can unseat more traditional Democrats, recalling the poor showing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 presidential primary.

"Maryland has never really been a state where 'establishment' is a bad word," he said.
Can you juggle? Can you solve a Rubiks cube? Can you solve three Rubiks cubes at once -- while juggling?

A 12-year-old Chinese boy named Que Jianyu is one of an elite few individuals who occupy the center of that Venn diagram, after he successfully performed the stunt on a reality show called Dream of China late last year.

Chinese news site Shanghaiist posted a video of Ques five-minute, six-second demonstration on its Facebook page on April 10.

On the show, a couple of Guinness World Records judges were present to acknowledge Ques obscure feat: He broke the record for fastest time recorded juggling and solving three Rubiks cubes.

Related: 5 Lessons From Kid Entrepreneurs Making More Money Than You

Mind you, this was not Ques first world record. Five years ago, at age 7, he became the youngest person to solve a 3-by-3 Rubiks cube while blindfolded. It took him four minutes and 49 seconds.

You can look at it in a couple of different ways. For one, this kids multitasking skills put yours to shame. Isnt multitasking supposed to be a myth, anyway? Not to mention, the kid is 12. What have you mastered, with years if not decades more time on earth to hone your craft?

Or, you might think, this kid is impressive, but his skills are impractical. Maybe so, but hes got the makings of a great personal brand going for him. Hes also been on an Australian reality show solving three Rubiks cubes at a time with his feet, CNET reports. Hes literally going places.

Watch the video below to see this dexterous 12-year-old at work.

Related:

Brain Break: Watch This 12-Year-Old Boy Solve 3 Rubik's Cubes While Juggling Them

5 Smart Ways to Do More in Less Time

Como Jeff Bezos pasea a su 'perro'



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has canceled a planned trip to the Summit of the Americas in Peru, the White House announced Tuesday, citing a need to remain in the United States to monitor the U.S. response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.

Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the gathering instead, according to a statement by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The cancellation comes during an unusually chaotic period of Trump's presidency, including an FBI raid Monday on the Manhattan office, home and hotel room of Michael Cohen, the president's longtime personal lawyer and fixer. Trump characterized the raid as a "witch hunt" during an appearance before reporters Monday and again Tuesday morning on Twitter.

"The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," Sanders said Tuesday.

The three-day trip, set to begin Friday, would have been Trump's first visit to Latin America since taking office. After traveling to Peru for the gathering of Western hemisphere heads of state, Trump planned to go to Colombia to meet with President Juan Manuel Santos.

Trump vowed Monday that the United States would take swift action in retaliation for the suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria, which has been blamed for the deaths of at least 49 people in the opposition-held town of Douma, outside the Syrian capital Damascus.

"It was an atrocious attack. It was horrible," Trump said at the start of a Cabinet meeting that was one of several White House gatherings Monday where possible military action was discussed.

Options include the sort of largely symbolic airstrike Trump ordered a year ago in response to a similar chemical attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or a wider and riskier assault. Trump oversaw that response from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

In addition to managing the potential U.S. response to last weekend's attack in Syria, Trump has been monitoring what he fears may be a migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico.

The wide-ranging Russian investigation being led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has also intensified in recent weeks, as have converging legal battles pertaining to Trump and his associates.

The legal controversies have monopolized much of the president's attention in recent days. Trump found himself consumed by the Cohen raids Monday, fuming in private as well as going on a tirade about the "witch hunt" in front of reporters.

Meanwhile, Trump has been undergoing a shake-up of his Cabinet and senior staff. And Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has been under increasing scrutiny for a growing number of possible ethical lapses.

The cancellation of Trump's trip took some aides by surprise.

Shortly before the announcement, Larry Kudlow, the president's new director of the National Economic Council, said Trump was able to "compartmentalize" and that he wouldn't be distracted by the drama surrounding Cohen.

"I'm going to bet you he holds his regular schedule today," Kudlow said. "I'll be traveling with him with a group going to Latin America. . . . I don't think it's going to stop him."

Trump had been slated to give a policy speech in Peru that a senior administration official told reporters last week would advance Trump's priorities for U.S. national security and "peace through strength."

Latin America analysts said they had expected to hear a national security-focused exploration of Trump's focus on border security and reducing illegal and legal immigration to the United States.

Trump was also expected to use the speech to criticize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist leader considered a dictator by his critics. The Trump administration accuses him of looting his country and starving his people.

Pence has been among the most vocal Maduro critics, and he is now expected to criticize Maduro at the summit. Maduro was disinvited from the gathering last month, an unusual diplomatic break among Latin American nations that U.S. analysts consider a positive sign.

"A win for this president at the summit will be a strong speech focused on regional governance, leadership on Venezuela and, of course, free and reciprocal trade, in addition to a positive regional receipt by Western Hemisphere presidents of his vision," a senior administration official told reporters last week.

The region has gotten little mention from Trump's White House except as a source of migrants, drugs and gang violence that the president blames Mexico and other neighbors for failing to stem. Souring relations with Mexico and the ongoing trade negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement were expected to hang over the meeting.

Trump had been expected to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, among other leaders, although the White House had announced no specific meetings.

White House officials said last week that Trump was not expected to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro, who is attending his last such gathering before a scheduled retirement later this month. Saturday's large gathering of leaders in Lima would have been the only opportunity for a chance meeting between Castro and Trump before the Castro era ends in Cuba.

Trump has reversed some of President Barack Obama's diplomatic and economic outreach to Cuba, including pulling many U.S. diplomats out of the country following unexplained health attacks on Americans last year.

In a statement Tuesday, a Pence spokesman said the vice president was "honored" to stand in for Trump at the upcoming summit.

"He looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger U.S. economy and working with our close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions," said Jarrod Agen, Pence's deputy chief of staff and communications director.
JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister said Tuesday that a Palestinian journalist who was shot dead by Israeli troops on the Israeli-Gaza border was a Hamas operative, although the media production company he founded had recently been vetted for a U.S. government grant.

Yaser Murtaja, the co-founder of Ain Media, was shot as he filmed protests at the border fence on Friday.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Murtaja, who used drones to film in the course of his work, was giving drone footage of Israeli positions to Hamas, was the equivalent of a captain in the group's military wing and had been on its payroll since 2011. He did not provide evidence for the assertions.

A ministry spokesman, asked for evidence, said Liberman's words "speak for themselves."

The Israeli military and the Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday on whether Murtaja was directly targeted.

Murtaja had worked as a cameraman on a documentary by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and had filmed others for outlets such as Al Jazeera. His family strongly disputed Israel's allegations. "His use of the drone was to show that Gaza has a beautiful and vibrant face," said his 24-year-old brother, Mutasim.

Murtaja's Gaza-based company had also recently been screened in accord with strict U.S. government requirements as part of an application for assistance from USAID, said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with protocol. The grant had been approved, the official said, raising questions about how an affiliation with Hamas' military wing would not have been flagged if Murtaja was known to Israeli intelligence.

The border demonstrations have fueled a fierce propaganda battle between the Israeli government and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and is classified by both Israel and the United States as a terrorist organization.

Israel has said that Hamas is attempting to use the cloak of peaceful protests to launch terrorist attacks, pointing to incidents of violence along the border, including what it describes as attempts to plant explosives and one shooting incident. It says it has no choice but to use live ammunition against violent "rioters."

Hamas, meanwhile, has evoked Martin Luther King Jr. in its public statements as it gives full backing to the demonstrations in the blockaded enclave, which have drawn tens of thousands of Palestinians. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh described a "battle for awareness" as he attended Murtaja's funeral Friday.

Many of the demonstrators, however, have said they are simply demanding what they say is their U.N.-supported right of return to areas now in Israel.

The State Department official said she could not provide further details on the vetting process for USAID grants or say whether recipients would be checked against Israeli blacklists. She said that a letter of agreement for an $11,700 grant for equipment and technical assistance had been signed with Ain Media but was in its "early stages."

"They are a beneficiary because we have signed this agreement, but the grant has not been delivered," she said. Rushdi Farraj, Murtaja's business partner, said the grant was awarded to establish a graphics department under USAID's "Compete" project, which helps develop the Palestinian private sector.

When Murtaja was shot Friday, he was wearing a vest clearly marked "PRESS." He was one of about 400 people injured by live ammunition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Liberman had said earlier that anyone using a drone near Israeli troops was putting themselves in danger. Journalists with Murtaja the day he was shot said he was filming with a steady cam.

A Hamas statement said Liberman's comments were contrary to the "facts on the ground" given that Murtaja was not filming with a drone Friday. The statement did not address the allegation that Murtaja was on the group's payroll.

Murtaja was one of six journalists the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said were shot Friday. The syndicate identified one of them as working for Hamas television.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham defiantly returned to the airwaves Monday, lashing out at "left wing retaliatory hit squads" that aim to silence conservative voices, and vowing to fight for the First Amendment.

It was Ingraham's first show back following a week-long Easter vacation. Before taking the time off, Ingraham came under fire for tweeting about David Hogg, a Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor and gun control activist, not getting into colleges to which he applied.

Hogg responded to the tweet, calling on people to boycott the top advertisers of Ingraham's show, "The Ingraham Angle." Within 24 hours, several companies announced they would pull their advertisements. Although, Ingraham tweeted an apology, it did little to quell the flight as about 19 advertisers have since stopped sponsoring the show, CBS News reported.

However, during Monday's show Ingraham made no explicit reference to the advertisers that had abandoned her show, the tweets that led to the boycott or her apology to Hogg. Instead, Ingraham announced she would be focusing on "bullies on the left aiming to silence conservatives."

In her opening monologue, she opted for a doom and gloom tone, saying that both liberals and conservatives should recognize they are on a "perilous road." The country, she said, is "reaching a crisis point" and the current climate has left the First Amendment "as a shell of its former self."

"Many of you have become accustomed to editing yourselves," she said. "Let's face it, expressing views that just five or 10 years ago were considered mainstream can now get you fired. It can cause you to lose a promotion, or you can be branded a hater, or yes, you can get boycotted."

Throughout the show, Ingraham referenced instances in which conservative voices have been squashed, sometimes even with violence.

She showed video footage of people she called "left wing nut cases" attacking Trump supporters in San Jose at a rally in 2016.

"This is the intolerant left in action," she said as the video of the attack played.

Ingraham said tactics such as violence, "striking voices from social media" or "organizing boycotts for perceived unforgivable offenses" come from a "desperate desire to stop debate by branding your opponent unacceptable and driving him or her from the public square."

The host also used guests to drive home her point that the free speech of conservatives is being stifled.

During the show, she spoke with vloggers Diamond and Silk, two black female Trump supporters otherwise known as Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, who say they were recently told by Facebook their "content and brand" were "unsafe to the community." The pair have spoken out against Facebook, accusing the social media giant of suppressing the reach of their online videos.

Ingraham told the women they are scaring liberals.

"They do not want you to reach people," she said. "They don't want your views out."

Throughout her hour-long broadcast, Ingraham continued to rail against the left, calling their efforts "Stalinist," resulting in more backlash on social media.

On Twitter, journalist John Aravosis said Ingraham's reference to Stalin "should help get the few remaining advertisers off the fence."

Parkland survivor and activist Ryan Deitsch also reacted, asking Ingraham on Twitter to "not call the Parkland Students Stalinist for trying to stand up for themselves when attacked."

Regardless of the responses, Ingraham announced Monday she plans to use her platform to "expose enemies of the First Amendment amendment" on a new recurring series called "Defending the First."

"What the speech czars don't seem to appreciate is that there are as many, or if not more of us, than there are of them, and we will never relent and we will never give in, never," she said.
As the explosions grew closer, the reporters and activists working at a clandestine media center in the Syrian city of Homs decided it was time to evacuate. American reporter Marie Colvin and a British photographer were steps from the exit when a rocket hit, instantly killing them both.

The Syrian general who allegedly planned and executed the 2012 attack in retaliation for Colvin's reporting congratulated his men with an impromptu party when he heard the news.

"Marie Colvin was a dog, and now she's dead," Maj. Gen. Rafiq Shahadah allegedly told the group. "Let the Americans help her now."

These are among the dramatic details revealed in sworn documents unsealed Monday on the orders of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a civil case against the Syrian government on behalf of Colvin's sister and heirs.

The Syrian government has never responded in court to the lawsuit, filed in July 2016. But a government spokesman, Mohammed Ramez Turgeman, earlier told The Washington Post the suit "is false by all standards and is certainly not true."

Lawyers are now asking the judge for a default judgment. The judge must decide whether to hold a trial without a jury but with live testimony, or only use the hundreds of documents submitted by the plaintiffs' attorneys, which include accounts from Syrian government defectors and government records purloined from the offices of Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal security services.

If Jackson ultimately rules in the plaintiffs' favor, which could take months, she would also award damages. The U.S. government holds millions in frozen Syrian assets, which she could tap as restitution.

Colvin, 56, who was working for the Sunday Times of London, was renowned for her fearless reporting in war zones and recognizable by the black eye patch she wore after losing an eye from the blast of a Sri Lankan army rocket-propelled grenade years earlier. Times photographer Paul Conroy, who was severely injured in the attack that killed Colvin, has written a book about their final hours.

The unusual insider accounts and records, which include never-before-seen details of Syria's military and intelligence command and control, and how it was used to target civilians, were obtained by the independent group Center for Justice and Accountability, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Colvin's family.

The San Francisco-based group includes war crimes investigators and lawyers who organized and trained Syrian students, researchers, activists and lawyers to find and extract government records for use in prosecuting Assad and others for their actions during the seven-year civil war.

A former Syrian intelligence officer code-named "Ulysses," who says he witnessed the general's post-assassination celebration, said he also watched as a low-level female informant showed intelligence officials where the media center was located on a map.

While it was not possible to independently verify Ulysses' account, the fact that he is being debriefed by security agencies overseas reflects their belief that he is credible.

Ulysses also described internal, secondhand conversations indicating that the death of French journalist Gilles Jacquier the month before Colvin's was also a premeditated assassination.

The government brought Arab League observers and foreign journalists near a staged mortar attack it pinned on rebel forces, Ulysses recounts in his statement. As Jacquier rushed around covering its aftermath, he was accompanied by an undercover intelligence officer who guided him to a predetermined location at a prearranged time. Government forces then targeted Jacquier but only injured him with mortar rounds.

Wael Salamah, a notorious pimp working with paramilitary forces, was at the ready nearby. He put Jacquier in a taxi instead of an ambulance and stayed with him to make sure he died.

"Salamah's preplanned role was to make sure Jacquier did not survive and he did not," said Ulysses, who has been given refuge in a third country and debriefed by multiple security agencies. "The government then circulated a fabricated story that rebel forces had killed him."

In Colvin's assassination, Ulysses said, the government used both traditional electronic intercepts and a mobile satellite tracking device mounted on a vehicle that drove around the Baba Amr neighborhood, honing in on Colvin's whereabouts before the attack.

Another defector, Abdel Majid Barakat, who describes himself as an intelligence officer with access to daily field reports and notes from Assad at high-level security meetings, said Syrian officials unsuccessfully tried to pressure an Arab League observer with access to the media center to tell them exactly where it was.

Barakat also made clear that Assad considered media activists who made YouTube videos of the reality on the ground and helped foreign journalists surreptitiously report from inside the country "the greatest threat to the regime," more dangerous even than protesters. Shutting them down was one of his top priorities. More than 100 journalists, most of them Syrian, have been killed in Syria since the war began.

In one of Colvin's last broadcasts, she invited viewers to watch with her as a 2-year-old died in a basement from shrapnel wounds. The regime's claim it was only targeting combatants was "a complete and utter lie," Colvin told CNN's Anderson Cooper in her last broadcast before she was killed. " . . . the Syrian army is simply shelling a city of cold and starving civilians."
NEW HAVEN  A member of the Red Side Guerilla Brims was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for racketeering and firearms offenses.

Kavon Rogers, 30, of New Haven previously pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon and one count of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity, according to a news release.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Haven Police Department began Operation Red Side in January 2014 through a series of controlled narcotics purchases and firearms seizures. The investigation revealed that members and associates of the Red Side Guerilla Brims, a sect of the Bloods street gang based in New Haven, were engaged in narcotics trafficking and related acts of violence, including murder, attempted murder, assault and armed robbery, the release stated.

In addition to distributing crack cocaine and other narcotics in and around New Haven, the investigation indicated that members and associates of the RSGB, under the direction of Jeffrey Benton and others, transported the drugs to Bangor, Maine, and sold them in Bangor and its surrounding communities, the release said.

The RSGB also traded narcotics for firearms, brought the firearms back to New Haven and distributed them to gang members. Rogers, as an RSGB member, sold crack in and around New Haven and traveled between New Haven and Bangor several times, according to the release.

Donnell Allick was shot and killed June 24, 2011, as he stood in his New Haven home. The investigation revealed Rogers had driven Benton and his associates, Luis Padilla and Keith Young, as they searched for a rival gang leader whom Benton intended to murder. Instead, Benton encountered Allick, with whom Benton was angry over a drug transaction, the release said.

After Benton, Padilla and Young exited the car, Benton fired multiple shots through an open kitchen window, killing Allick. Benton, Padilla and Young then returned to the car, where Rogers had been waiting. Rogers then drove to a location where Benton hid the gun, the release stated.

As a result of this investigation, 21 members and associates of the RSGB were convicted of federal charges in Connecticut and Maine. The investigation has resolved seven murder cases, four attempted murders and four armed robberies that occurred in 2011 and 2012, according to the release.

Benton, Padilla and Young pleaded guilty to various offenses stemming from this investigation, and admitted to participating in the murder of Allick. Benton also admitted that he participated in three other gang-related murders and one attempted murder; Padilla admitted that he participated in two other gang-related murders and two attempted murders; and Young admitted that he participated in one other gang-related murder, the release said.

Benton was sentenced to 480 months in prison Oct. 4, 2017, while Padilla and Young await sentencing.
DLR/via AP

BERLIN  Scientists in Antarctica have harvested their first crop of vegetables grown without earth, daylight or pesticides as part of a project designed to help astronauts cultivate fresh food on other planets.

Researchers at Germany's Neumayer Station III say they've picked 8 pounds of salad greens, 18 cucumbers and 70 radishes grown inside a high-tech greenhouse as temperatures outside dropped below -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit).
Back in 2014, after finding out through Sonys massive hacking scandal that her male co-stars in American Hustle had been paid more than she, actress Jennifer Lawrence wrote a now-famous essay for actress Lena Dunham's blog, reflecting on her own role in the situation.

Related: Women Won't Achieve Equal Representation in Business Unless Men Help Change the Status Quo

I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early, Lawrence wrote. Id be lying if I didnt say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight.

How many of us women have felt and done the exact same thing? With both hands in the air, Im ashamed to say this was also my story. Even after a 15-year career as a marketing and public relations executive whose main mission is promoting brands, I still cringe at the thought of having to sell the brand I live with everyday ... myself.

Its no secret that asking for a raise, promotion or bonus can be challenging. But full-time female workers are still earning just 79 cents for every dollar earned by men (pay parity won't be reached until 2059, it's predicted; and the date will be much later for women of color).

So, why is it that as many as one in three women give up the opportunity to negotiate at all?

The answer is that it comes down to gender stereotypes. Over and over again, weve seen examples of how behavior that can lead a man to be seen as a "straight-shooter" or a "no-nonsense guy" can lead a woman to be seen as bitchy or nasty. This, of course, puts women at an immediate disadvantage in negotiating. So how do we cultivate a direct and straightforward communication style the way men do without being perceived as jerks? Can we remain tough on the issues were negotiating for without being cast this way?

Whether youre just starting out in your career or already a seasoned professional, today, April 10 -- Equal Pay Day -- arm yourself with these 10 strategies so you have a fighting chance at the negotiating table.

Related: Girls Just Wanna Have (Equal) Funds

Stop being a people-pleaser.

As women, we tend to value personal relationships over negotiating because of an instinctive need to be liked or perceived as good or nice. We dont want to ruffle feathers over money, so we tend to shy away from it altogether.

There are a myriad of biases about women and men, and they affect how we see each other and our leaders at work. These include beliefs about what makes an ideal chief (strong, assertive, male) and what kind of qualities a woman should exhibit (warmth, sociability, compassion). And they shape everything from hiring and promotions to performance evaluations.

That is why when we do muster up the courage to negotiate, we either come across as too aggressive or lacking the skills and self-confidence to be good negotiators.

Have confidence, but dont show too much.

Remember that the purpose of compensation negotiation in a job interview or performance review is to sell and promote yourself as a brand. If you don't believe you're worth the price you're asking, your employer won't believe it, either. While women are perceived to have less confidence than men in a business setting, studies on womens and mens brains suggest that that might not be a deficiency, only a difference in women's personality.

Theres a difference between being confident and being egotistical. When a man displays aggression, hes considered confident. When a woman does, she may be considered "over the top." Since we women have that perception working against us, we should use our female strengths to our advantage, like listening and asking open-ended questions to gain more insight and understanding.

Related: History Is the Only Reason 'The Queen' Was Paid Less Than 'Prince Philip'

Negotiate your own way.

Because women have to worry more about how they're perceived, they face an unfair burden. In fact, studies show that acting the exact same way as men in negotiations doesn't work for women.

But women can turn this double standard to their benefit. Women who ask for what they want by not seeming overly aggressive and by acting in a more social, friendly way can be more effective at getting what they want -- without turning people against them.

As Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg wrote in Lean In, Think personally, act communally. So, in the salary context, that calls for using the female personality trait of a "relational account" and asking for what you want while signaling to your negotiating counterpart -- often a man -- that you are also taking his perspective.

How do you do this I-we strategy? Explain why -- in his eyes -- its appropriate for you to negotiate under the circumstances. Sandberg said she told Facebook, Youre hiring me to run your deal team, so you want me to be a good negotiator. This is the only time you and I will be on opposite sides of the table.

In other words, she wanted her future employer to see her negotiating as legitimate because that was going to be a major role in her job. But at the same time she made it clear that she cared about organizational relationships.

Related: This Tech Founder Was Often the Only Woman in the Room When She Started Her Company. Here's Her Advice for Young Entrepreneurs.

Understand your market value.

The No. 1 mistake people make in negotiating is trying to wing it. Instead, write everything down. Come to the negotiating table with a hard number in mind and also one that youre willing to accept. During one of my annual reviews years ago, I created a chart that compared my salary to others' in my industry based on title, location and experience.

I compiled this data through generic salary sites, conversations with industry peers and other job offers I had on the table. My boss was shocked to find the company was paying me less than a competitive salary -- and was impressed that I had done such thorough research. My strategy paid off, so dont be afraid to ask for what you need to remain truly motivated to get the job done well. Career sites like Glassdoor, Comparably or FairyGodBoss can be a great resource to use for your next negotiation.

Show the value you bring to the company.

To ask for a raise or to ask to move to another job, note your accomplishments and attach time and money to them. As women, we dont pat ourselves on the back for a job because we fear appearing egotistical. But this is not the time to hold back. Just state the facts. Prove how your projects, events or campaigns have translated to improving the bottom line, whether that be in ratings, revenue, ad value, online views, registered users or partnerships.

Show how you are uniquely positioned to take the company to the next level. I once asked a former boss to let me negotiate for myself with his boss. Doing that was risky, but it offered me the opportunity to sit down with the ultimate decision-maker and prove why I, too, deserved a seat at the table with my male colleagues. That meeting resulted in a 10 percent increase in my salary and a bigger bonus.

Related: How Reflexively Apologizing for Everything All the Time Undermines Your Career

Remain flexible.

Sometimes we feel that whoever is in the position of power is controlling the negotiation. Not true. Listening can be a position of power and strength.

If the company simply cant show you the money, ask for reasons why not and listen intently. Stay open to an alternative solution. I once took a new job at the same pay rate and title because it would give me new growth opportunities; however, I negotiated to receive a higher salary if I hit certain goals within six months. I asked for this in writing, and my employer made good on it six months later (side note: always have anything important in writing). You can also negotiate additional benefits, like stock, options, equity, bonuses, extra vacation days or a more flexible work schedule.

Be likable.

No matter how much youve accomplished on paper, anything you do in a work environment or negotiation that makes you less likable reduces the chances that the other side will work to get you the offer youre looking for. As an example, Netflix has an infamous culture deck considered one of the most important to come out of Silicon Valley.

Managers there use a keeper test to evaluate employees: if someone you managed was leaving for a job at a peer company, would you fight hard to keep that employee? Clearly, this test works because Netflix has become one of the most innovative companies out there. This sounds basic, but its crucial: People are going to fight for you only if they like you.

Related: How We Can All Elevate Women and Give Them a Voice in the Business World

Ask your male colleagues for help.

Dont be afraid to ask your male colleagues and industry peers how much they make or for advice on how they negotiated their salaries and benefits. This issue is not a male vs. female issue. This is an equality issue, and most men are happy to help their colleagues out.

Advocate for all women.

Last, but not least if you cant advocate for yourself, do it for the sake of other women. There are younger women watching to see if youre just accepting the status quo or pushing back and fighting for your position. Demonstrating that youre not going to take less than fair pay will motivate more women to do the same.

Realize that its not just about you. Youre negotiating for your colleagues, department, company, family, future. If that doesnt light a fire, remember that women often advance more slowly than equally qualified men because men are more likely to ask for prestigious assignments, volunteer for opportunities that will give them more visibility and pursue raises and promotions. Women, in contrast, often expect that hard work and high-quality work will be recognized and rewarded without asking. This is frequently not true.

Related: New Study Finds the Global Gender Pay Gap Won't Be Closed Until 2186

As presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech: "To all the little girls ... never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world. We still have not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling. But someday, someone will."

And I, for one, hope its you -- in whatever field or business youre in. So, start negotiating.

Related:

Mark Zuckerberg in the Hot Seat and 'Grand Theft Auto' Beats 'Star Wars'! 3 Things to Know Today.

Today Is Equal Pay Day. So, If You're a Woman Asking for More Money, Think Like a Man. Just Don't Act Like One.

Sexism in Tech Is Dying: Are You Still Part of the Problem?



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
New York

The FBI raided the office and hotel room of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, Monday, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including payments to a pornographic film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Cohen for possible bank fraud, and the documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search.

The prosecutors obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, according to Cohen's lawyer, who called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." The search does not appear to be directly related to Mueller's investigation, but most likely resulted from information that he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

"Today the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients," said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. "I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller."

Trump reacted angrily to the raid. "It's a disgraceful situation," he told reporters at the White House before a meeting with military leaders. He asserted that the FBI "broke into" Cohen's offices and added, "I have this witch hunt constantly going on."

The payments to the pornographic film actress, Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said. Agents searched space Cohen uses in the Rockefeller Center office of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, as well as a room Cohen is staying at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue while his apartment is under renovation, the person said.

In order to obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must convince a federal judge that agents are likely to discover evidence of criminal activity.

Searches are a significant intrusion by prosecutors into the dealings of one of Trump's closest confidants, and they pose a dilemma for Trump. He has dismissed Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," but these warrants were obtained by an unrelated group of prosecutors. The searches required prior consultation with senior members of Trump's own Justice Department.

The searches open a new front for the Justice Department in its scrutiny of Trump and his associates: His longtime lawyer is being investigated in Manhattan; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is facing scrutiny by prosecutors in Brooklyn; his campaign chairman is under indictment; his former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying; and a pair of former campaign aides are cooperating with Mueller.

It is not clear what Mueller saw that made him refer the matter to other prosecutors. But the searches show that Mueller does not believe that he has the authority to investigate all manners of allegations against everyone in Trump's orbit.
Middle schools often get overlooked when considering the importance of a child's education.

With elementary school, children are beginning their academic career. It is a time of multiple firsts on their educational journey. With high school comes the transition into young adulthood and preparing for college.
Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel took the stand Tuesday to testify about the possible jury pool for the trials of a sheriff's deputy and her husband who are charged with murder in the May chokehold death of John Hernandez at a local Denny's.

The defense for Ex-deputy Chauna Thompson - who has been fired from the sheriff's office - and her husband Terry Thompson are arguing for a change of venue, and want to move the case to another county because of publicity in the case.
AUSTIN  Authorities have concerns about releasing a confession recorded by the suspect in a series of deadly package bombings in Texas capital city because they dont want to inspire copycats, an FBI agent said Monday.

When you look at past active shooters or mass murderers, what we find is they study the previous events, said Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBIs San Antonio Division. We are concerned that it could inspire other people to do other acts. The subject in the audio confession says a number of statements that concern us, and we just dont want that to live forever on the internet.

RELATED: Suspected serial bomber Mark Conditt allegedly left confession

Combs was among authorities at a news conference to answer questions about the case, including a partly unsealed affidavit regarding suspect Mark Conditt of Plugerville, who died last month as police closed in and a device detonated in his vehicle.

Conditts death came after two people were killed and several others injured by exploding packages.

The newly released affidavit outlined some details of the crimes  including some components of the explosives  and details that officials used to support their plan to arrest Conditt.

Authorities dont plan to release the recording by Conditt while the case is ongoing.

But Combs suggested there is a debate about whether to ever release the recording, which he described as a videotape that contains only audio.

How do we meet the publics desire to know versus the public safety concerns that we have? Combs said. Theres a debate going on right now.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said last month that Conditt recorded the confession before he died, talking about challenges in his life but not saying how he chose his victims.

I know there is a great public interest in this tape  . We have a history of being transparent with our community, Manley said Monday. At the appropriate time, we will weigh the interest of the community versus the public safety concerns.

Conditts death ended a spree in which packages exploded after being found at the front doors of three homes in East Austin and a FedEx facility in Schertz, and a device connected to a tripwire detonated in a Southwest Austin.

One of the packages that exploded may have been addressed to a neighbor of the home where it was left, according to the affidavit released Monday, which cited communication from the injured victim.

Also according to the affidavit, the suspect used PVC pipe casing, enclosing a metal pipe surrounded by shrapnel, in a package that was recovered before exploding at an Austin FedEx facility.

That package, which was rendered safe after being X-rayed, was designed to be ignited by a trigger when a flap of the package was opened.

The components were pretty consistent throughout the explosive devices, said Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of the Houston field division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The affidavit was released by local and federal authorities as they dismissed a lingering federal charge pending against Conditt.
New Braunfels police arrested a man Tuesday in connection to a recent fatal shooting.

Paul Jason Roberts, 37, was taken into custody on suspicion of murder.

At 11:40 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a shooting call in the 2800 block of Windgate Drive, officials said.

When they arrived, they encountered a man with a shotgun wound to his chest, according to a news release.

RELATED: SAPD: Father sliced adult son with Katana sword for 'playing video games all day long'

Lifesaving measures were unsuccessful and the man, identified as 36-year-old Elezar Longoria Jr., was pronounced dead, authorities said.

The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, according to the news release.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
Police on Tuesday identified the 88-year-old woman who was killed in a crash as she was turning into the parking lot of her far North Side church.

Betty Smith was T-boned by a driver in a Ford F-350 around 9:10 a.m. just outside the Bulverde United Methodist Church in the 28300 block of U.S. 281, police said.
A man is in jail months after a 17-year-old accused him of sexually assaulting her and then promising to buy her a car, San Antonio police said.

Santos Reveles, 42, was arrested Monday on suspicion of sexual assault of a child. A judge set his bail at $100,000.
A San Antonio father faces criminal charges after police said he cut the back of his son's head with a Katana sword.

Antonio Juan Alvarado, 57, was arrested Monday for the alleged Feb. 23 assault.

That day, Alvarado grew upset with his 20-year-old son for not having a job and "playing video games all day long," according to the arrest affidavit.

RELATED: SAPD: Man promised girl a Jeep after sexual assault

Alvardo allegedly ridiculed his son until his son pushed him away.

The father went to his room and returned moments later with a Katana sword that was about three feet long, according to the affidavit. Alvardo swung the sword, eventually cutting the back of his son's head, police said.

The son went to the hospital and reported the assault that night, according to the affidavit. Detectives took pictures of the cut on his head, which required stitches to close.

Police returned to the home that night, but Alvarado allegedly fled.

Alvardo is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A judge set his bail at $75,000.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced during his first State of the City Address today that hes created a nonprofit to advocate for a modern multimodal transit system that would be a major legacy for his administration and pledged to bring some 70,000 new jobs to San Antonio over the next two years.

ConnectSA was officially formed Monday by the mayor and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, according to a City Hall source.

The nonprofit will be led by tri-chairmen  Henry Cisneros, Hope Andrade and Jane Macon  and include a board of 20 to 25 members representing the city, Bexar County, the state and each region of the city. The board will meet monthly. ConnectSAs tasks include gathering community input, gauging public buy-in  and promoting a modern, multimodal transit plan  and eventually supporting a campaign to convince voters about the benefits of a bolstered mass-transit system in San Antonio.

The nonprofit will not receive taxpayer dollars; it will raise private funds for its work.

Related: Transit plan would transform San Antonio

In his address, Nirenberg covered a wide range of topics, from the local economy and job creation to the housing crisis that continues to worsen in San Antonio. By the end of 2018, Nirenberg said the city would begin implementing recommendations from a housing task force that is currently working on the issue.

In 2017, he said, San Antonio gained 33,000 new jobs, eclipsing the growth rate in Texas and the U.S. But he said he wants to more than double that number over the next two years.

I pledge my commitment to help create more jobs than any mayoral administration in San Antonios history, he said. We will move agressively to create 70,000 San Antonio-area jobs  jobs with a future  over the next two years.

Related: City Council needs independent research agency

Late in the address, Nirenberg unveiled the details of ConnectSA and the work thats already been done on the transportation front.

Officials from the city, county and VIA Metropolitan Transit have been meeting to discuss options for the plan, which will incorporate VIAs corridor planning already under way and SA Tomorrow, the source said, adding that ConnectSA is modeled after former Mayor Julian Castros Pre-K 4 SA plan, which voters approved in 2012.

Nirenberg said in his 30-minute speech that voters will go to the polls on the transit plan in 2019 to approve transit corridors and funding for an initial phase of the proposal.

While Nirenberg has said in the past that rail could be a component in San Antonios future transit system, he made no mention of it during the address, and the City Hall source said that thinking has shifted and that experts worry rail isnt adaptable enough for emerging transit technologies. Experts here continue to study new technologies that are future proof, the source said.

When he was mayor, Castro used a State of the City address to unveil his concept for a brainpower initiative, which would evolve into Pre-K 4 SA. The annual speech sponsored by San Antonios several chambers of commerce tends to draw 1,000 or more attendees, and is sometimes used by the mayor to ask for support.

Nirenberg didnt ask the local business community for anything specific today, but he told them to be prepared for a future phone call seeking help in selling the transit plan to the community.

If voters end up approving the plan, it will be VIAs job to implement it. There are no plans, the source said, to create a new transit authority in San Antonio.
During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump excoriated President Barack Obama for the way he got out of Iraq, which Trump said was the founding of the Islamic State. As president, Trump reiterated during a meeting with Iraqs prime minister that we should never ever have left.

A vacuum was created, he said.

Trump was right. Obamas withdrawal did create a vacuum the Islamic State quickly filled. So why is Trump now threatening to repeat Obamas mistakes by withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria?

The president recently announced that U.S. troops will be coming out of Syria  very soon because we were very successful against ISIS and it is time to let the other people take care of it now. That is exactly the rationale Obama used when he pulled U.S. forces out of Iraq.

The terrorists had been driven from their strongholds, and, according to then-CIA Director John Brennan, they had just 700 or so adherents left. So Obama decided, with the Islamic State apparently defeated, that it was time for the United States to let Iraqis take responsibility for their country. But when Obama took the boot off the terrorists necks, it allowed the Islamic State to regroup and reconstitute itself.

Trump corrected this catastrophic mistake when he took the gloves off our military and drove the Islamic State from its physical caliphate. He deserves credit for this achievement. But the Islamic State is not defeated; it has simply reverted into an insurgency and remains a terrorist network with global reach. And it is not the only terrorist threat in Syria. Al-Qaida also has an army there waiting to replace the Islamic State. According to the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institutes Critical Threats Project, al-Qaida is more dangerous than ISIS, because although they share the same aims as ISIS, including the intention of attacking and destroying the West, al-Qaida is less focused on developing a physical caliphate and more on insinuating itself inside Sunni insurgencies by harnessing popular grievances  while continuing to build capabilities that could be turned against the West.

If Trump pulls out of Syria now, he will leave behind a haven for al-Qaida. And his withdrawal could also precipitate the comeback of the Islamic State. The Trump administration drove the Islamic State from its strongholds by working with Kurdish proxies despised by Turkey. If the United States leaves, Turkey will go after our Kurdish allies, leaving the Islamic State free to regroup and reconstitute  just as it did after Obamas disastrous withdrawal from Iraq.

Thats not all. A U.S. withdrawal would create an Obama-style vacuum that would be filled by Iran, Hezbollah, Russia and the Assad regime. Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad would escalate their brutal campaign of atrocities in Syria. This would radicalize the Sunni population, driving them into the waiting arms of al-Qaida. This could also create a new refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing to the West.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will not allow a regime hell bent on the annihilation of the Jewish state  to entrench itself militarily in Syria and warned that if Iran tried to do so, Israel would act.

Trump should maintain a U.S. presence to secure our militarys gains, protect our Kurdish allies, keep the Islamic State down and prevent al-Qaida from capitalizing on the Islamic States demise. He should prevent Iran from entrenching itself in Syria, expanding its military presence and threatening Israel. And in the longer run, he should be working to separate the Sunni population from al-Qaida by cultivating Sunni partners in Syria who are allied with the United States against the Salafi-jihadist cause, as well as the growing Iranian-Russian-Assad-Hezbollah alliance.

The temptation to declare victory in Syria and withdraw is understandable. But before he does so, Trump should ask himself: What would Obama do? Then he should do the opposite.
This new Trump Wall along the Texas border will be on our side of the Rio Grande River. So, that means we will not be able to go down to the river. This wall not only keeps people out but it keeps people in.

Gene Elder

Local news

Re: Commentary: TV stations promos on false news draw fire, Jeanne Jakle, front page, April 3:

Recently, the role of Sinclair Broadcasting in controlling the content of local TV stations became clear, and it is scary. I had always viewed local news stations like WOAI and KABB as locally owned and operated. Now we know that their content, like that of 171 other stations in 80 markets, is controlled by this large corporation headquartered in Maryland.

When local news anchors say, I believe something, it might really be some corporate officer back at headquarters putting the words in their mouths, as was the case in a recent Trump-like promo. The message was effectively the news from our competitors is fake, so listen only to us. Sinclairs political bias can also dictate what news stories are carried or skipped by their stations.

No thanks! It doesnt matter if I agree with their corporate bias or not; I prefer my local news to be local. I will no longer watch Sinclair stations.

John Fehlauer

Double standard

Re: Commentary: TV stations promos on false news draw fire, Jeanne Jakle, front page, April 3:

This column about one of the local TV stations commenting about Fake News  and that it does not want to be a part of such fake news  is an example of the liberal press bashing the station because it may have a conservative approach to news.

However, the liberal press can say anything and it has no problem with their comments. Another example is the front-page story of President Donald Trump sending troops to the border.

When President Barack Obama sent troops to the border there was no news because he was a great liberal.

Ron Huntsman, Cibolo

Cringe-worthy

Re: Commentary: TV stations promos on false news draw fire, Jeanne Jakle, front page, April 3:

American journalism has a long tradition of local control over local news.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of WOAI and KABB, violated those norms by forcing local TV newscasters here and across the nation to broadcast a broadside against fellow journalists.

The Sinclair statement accused other news outlets of producing irresponsible, one-sided news stories and recirculating biased and false news from social media without checking the facts.

No examples were given. No specific stories mentioned. No specific news media identified.

It was cringe-worthy to watch local news anchors read the Sinclair statement. One suspects many would have resigned if they didnt need the job.

Do journalists make mistakes? Sure. But they also make corrections. Journalists, and their news outlets, live and die by their credibility. Once lost, it is hard to recover. And the Sinclair stations are taking a hit on this one.

The Society of Professional Journalists has promoted the highest standards of ethical journalism since 1909. The Societys Code of Ethics is the industry gold-standard. Sinclair executives should look at it.

To read the code, and for more information on how responsible journalists conduct their business, please visit spj.org.

Michael Drudge, president Society of Professional Journalists, San Antonio chapter

Protecting schools

American schools should have well-trained, armed security personnel. And each teacher and administrator should have a can of wasp spray that shoots 27 feet, or perhaps a can of bear spray that shoots 26 feet, and if these schools advertise themselves as wasp spray schools, then the would-be school shooter would go somewhere else to exercise his insanity.

A school shooter may not fear death, but blinding, burning eyes will instill fear in the most deranged potential shooter.

James A. Eberwine

Transparent lies

Am I the only one, or are there other folks who wonder if our president seeks enjoyment, both financially and in terms of his ego, by being able to cause huge swings in the stock market via tweets.

What is incredible is that many of his tweets lack truth. Amazon is helping the Postal Service by having them deliver their packages. And people are not coming through Mexico to take advantage of DACA.

I am truly amazed that more people, regardless of political preference, are not seeing this.

Les Shafer

Pleasant surprise

I have been so stressed out, what with Rupert Murdoch letting Fox News run our government, with Dan Patrick unable to let go of directing everyones bathroom business, with so many of our trading partners finding new markets, with no new affordable health care for everyone, with new knowledge every day that our leader knows nothing about our government or how it works, with no end in sight.

Wait!! And then I opened my paper on April 1 and found solitude to take my mind off it all with a delightful BRAINBLITZ supplement. Thank you.

Vicki Seifert, Fredericksburg
The two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai, one led by Nelson Chamisa and the other by Thokozani Khupe, will have to fight it out for the name as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has refused to be drawn into the battle.

While the Chamisa faction says Khupe has no right to use the MDC-T name it now appears she has the right to use the name as far as the electoral body is concerned.

A letter by ZEC chair Priscillah Chigumba, that is now doing the rounds on the social media, says Khupe has written to the Commission indicating that she will be contesting and participating in local, parliamentary and presidential elections under the MDC-T name.

It is not the intention of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to wade into internal party politics but to bring to your attention issues that could have a bearing on future processes relating to the harmonised 2018 elections such as the nomination of candidates and the use of party symbols among others, she wrote.

Khupe was expelled from the MDC-T led by Chamisa together with Abednigo Bhebhe and Obert Gutu, but they argue that their expulsion is null and void because they belong to the genuine MDC-T and do not recognise Chamisa because he was appointed leader unconstitutionally.

Gutu welcomed the decision by the ZEC for flatly refusing to be dragged into internal party politics.

Part of the letter written by Justice Chigumba to the MDC and addressed to the party headquarters at Harvest House, reads,

Your letter dated the 5th of March 2018 regarding the above subject matter (Party Leadership) refers.

We bring to your attention that we are also in receipt of a letter from Honourable Dr Thokozani Khupe indicating that the Movement for Democratic Change under her leadership will be contesting and participating in local, parliamentary and presidential elections as they may occur.

We attach hereto a copy of the letter received from Honourable Dr Thokozani Khupe for your consideration. It is not the intention of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to wade into internal party politics but to bring to your attention issues that could have a bearing on future processes relating to the 2018 Harmonised Elections such as the nomination of candidates and use of party symbols among them.

 Pindula

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared, through Kola Ologbondiyan, its spokesperson, that the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term is an internal affairs of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP said it has nothing to say about the declaration by the president as it had only placed Buhari among the list of Nigerians seeking to contest in 2019.

The declaration has placed President Buhari among the ranks of aspirants seeking to be the president of the federal republic, effective May 29, 2019. Until he becomes the candidate of the APC, we will not spend precious time on his mere show of interest, a statement released by the party in the evening of Monday, April 9, said.

READ ALSO: Why I am running for second term - Buhari

Legit.ng earlier reported that some Nigerians welcomed the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to seek re-election in 2019, saying it was a good decision, as it would help consolidate the gains recorded by his administration, if re-elected.

However, some members of the opposition political parties said in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto and Kaduna that the president won t find it easy going for second term.

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Alhaji Sidi Ali, publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto state, said: Buhari has all it takes to re-contest and the decision is a welcome development."

Meanwhile, two APC chieftains in Ebonyi state applauded the declaration of President Buhari to run for second term saying that the decision would benefit all Nigerians.

The chieftains noted that the outstanding performance of the president qualified him to run for re-election to consolidate on the achievements recorded in his first term. The chieftains spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abakaliki.

Should President Buhari seek reelection in 2019? (Nigerian Street Interview) - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- Governor Yahaya Bello says he is excited that President Muhammadu Buhari finally declared for 2019

- Bello recalls that Kogi state was the first to call on the president to seek re-election

- He warns some members of the party who he alleged to be plotting to truncate its progress

The governor of Kogi, Yahaya Bello, in the evening of Monday, April 9, reacted to Muhammadu Buharis declaration of interest to seek re-election in 2019 pledging that the people of his state will support the bid of president.

In a statement by his director general, media and publicity, Kingsley Fanwo, Governor Bello said he was ready to mobilise the people for the reelection of the president.

I am a staunch supporter of Mr President and I am proud to be associated with such a great leader and personality," the statement said while reminding Buhari that the people of the state were the first to ask him to seek re-election at rallies organised in Anyigba, Kabba, Isanlu, Olamaboro and Okene.

READ ALSO: Why I am running for second term - Buhari

We thank Mr President for listening to the voices of Nigerians who are satisfied with his performance. Kogi people were the first to organize rallies in different towns and cities to call on Mr President to seek re-election.

As the leader of the state, I wish to assure Mr President that my people are solidly behind his policies of economic recovery, security and the fight against corruption. Kogi will deliver to Mr President, more votes than the state gave in 2015.

We are going to focus on the economic recovery of our state and ensure more people are empowered to become productive. That has been the mainstay of our economic policies as a government.

President Muhammadu Buhari has not lost his magic touch. He is a trusted leader who the masses want as their president beyond 2019. But it is also instructive for us to know that corruption will begin to fight back with renewed vigour to stop the march of the masses. We shall triumph," he said as reported by the Nigerian Tribune.

Bello pleaded with leaders of the APC to remain united behind the interest of the nation rather than trigger divisive explosions within the ranks of the party.

He also warned that some politicians who have lost relevance among their people were out to damage the good atmosphere in the ruling party.

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The position of Mr President at the party congresses is a welcome development. When a trusted leader speaks, followers believe him and toe the line of wisdom. We must be united against people who know they have come to their political dead ends.

Todays declaration of Mr President for second term has further reinvigorated our belief that he will continue to make sacrifices for the greatness of our nation.

Legit.ng earlier reported that some Nigerians welcomed the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to seek re-election in 2019, saying it was a good decision, as it would help consolidate the gains recorded by his administration, if re-elected.

However, some members of the opposition political parties said in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto and Kaduna that the President wont find it easy going for second term.

President Buhari on 2019 presidential election: will you vote for him? | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The Ondo state House of Assembly says it is not part of the fee hike in the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA)

- The House also blames the executive arm of government headed by Rotimi Akeredolu for not considering the economic status of people across the country

- The lawmakers want a review of the tuition hike

The members of the Ondo state House of Assembly have reportedly declared that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is acting alone on the recent 500 percent increase in tuition fees for the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA).

Premium Times reports that the lawmakers said this while the students of the institution were demonstrating in Akure on Monday, April 9, against the state government.

READ ALSO: Why I am running for second term - Buhari

Speaking concerning the issue, the chairman of the House committee on information, Fatai Olotu, who spoke on behalf of the assembly, noted that the action of the state government did not correspond with the submissions made at the meeting with the management of the institution.

While condemning the schools management for not being sincere with information given to the leadership of the House at the stakeholders meeting where the pro-chancellor said everybodys interest would be considered, Olotu was quoted as saying: The Ondo State House of Assembly will not be part of a policy or decision that would bring untold hardship on the people of the state.

The House asked the executive arm and the management of AAUA to review the decision to hike the school fees which was against the interest of the people and in keeping with the tenets of democratic practice.

The report said the House rejected the schedule of fees and argued that it was on the high side, especially considering the current economic hardship across the country.

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According to the report, the new schedule of fees shows an increase from N25,000 to between N120,000 and N200,000.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Adekunle Ajasin University students, on Monday, April 9, blocked roads in in Akungba Akoko to protest the sharp increase in school fees which was recently announced.

The report said the students marched through the Oba Adesida road to Alagbaka in Akure, hampering the flow of traffic through the city and armed with placards bearing various inscriptions.

What does Nigeria need right now? (Nigerian Street Interview) | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
- Regional director, World Health Organisation, Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, visited Toyin Saraki on Monday

- Mrs Saraki, wife of Nigeria's Senate president, is the founder-president of the Wellbeing Foundation (WBFA)

- Moeti hailed WBFA's partnership with midwives who she said were very key to solving the issues of maternal mortality

The wife of Nigeria's Senate president, Toyin Saraki, on Monday, April 9, received the regional director, World Health Organisation, Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, in her office in Abuja.

Saraki, who is the founder-president of the Wellbeing Foundation, was recently appointed by Dr Moeti as a special adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO).

Legit.ng gathered that the visit was part of a strategic plan for health development within the African region.

More importantly, the overall objective of the courtesy visit is to discuss the terms of partnership for implementing health strategies within Africa, and sharing learning and advisory for improvement and scale-up of existing programs.

Dr Moeti speaking during her visit to WBFA founder-president, Mrs Toyin Saraki. Photo credit: WBFA media team

READ ALSO: Toyin Saraki celebrates 1st birthday of Abuja triplets

WBFA has been on the forefront of providing accessible healthcare for all, especially though its mamacare antenatal and postnatal education classes, which takes important health education to expectant mothers irrespective of where they are located within states in Nigeria, wherein the program is being implemented.

Speaking during her visit, Dr Moeti stated that WHOAFRO is elated to be in partnership with the WBFA, and are particularly interested in strengthening midwifery education in Nigeria.

She particularly hailed WBFA's partnership with midwives, stressing that they are very key to solving the issues of maternal mortality.

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We are amazed at the work you are doing and we want to engage your foundation in the work that you do and we seek a partnership to address the shortcomings.

She lamented that Africa's health systems are not up to the task with no adequately trained and qualified attendants in the health sector, but expressed optimism that the proposed partnership with WBFA will promote affordable health insurance for low income earners.

Part of our responsibility is to look for what works, and have it adopted to mirror what we hope to achieve. We'll like to document your best practices, she said

Responding, Mrs Saraki said she used the opportunity of her trips to several countries across the world to model good health initiatives working in those countries and adopted it in Nigeria.

She noted that she observed that training given to doctors and senior health workers was not trickled down to midwives and nurses, hence WBFA's focus on them.

We hope you will be honest with us to call our attention to areas that need improvement in our work.

We are hungry to adopt the best practices in countries under your purview, she said.

READ ALSO: Saraki celebrates women on international womens day

Last month, Mrs Saraki was named Health-for-All Champion and one of four women making waves in global health by Devex, the international development media platform and social enterprise.

Upon receiving the accolade, Saraki canvassed for improving health outcomes as well as reducing poverty, driving economic growth and promoting gender equality around the world.

N1,500 for health of Nigerians on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
The police in Delta state have prevented the bombing of the Chevron Escravos Flow Station following the discovery and detonation of detonated a 2kg seismic dynamite.

According to Daily Trust, the discovery was made on Monday, April 9.

According to the Delta state commissioner of police, Muhammad Alhaji Mustafa, some credible persons provided information that led to the foiling of the attack. He said some hoodlums planted the dynamites inside in Chevron Escravos Flow Station.

READ ALSO: 5 top Nigerians who didn't want Buhari to run in 2019

He said: "The Commands IED experts were deployed to the scene and uncovered a 2kg seismic dynamite, electric detonator, 13 meters wire connected to the base of oil pumping pipe.

"They discovered that the objects were IEDs planted at the base of the Flow pump ostensibly designed to cause serious collateral damage as the petroleum product in the pipe could have caused serious conflagration on the facilities.

The police chief said investigation was still going on.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Navy said it has discovered six new illegal refineries with combined capacity to refine four million litres of crude oil daily in Alakiri, Asari Toru local government area of Rivers state.

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Leadership reports that the executive officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) pathfinder Port Harcourt, Capt. Victor Choji, disclosed this while destroying one of the illegal refineries on Friday, March 30, in Alakiri, Asari-Toru.

Legit.ng gathered that Choji said: The refinery (in Alakiri) has capacity to produce one million litres of refined petroleum products daily, while the five other refineries have production-capacity of three million litres daily."

Aliko Dangote invites IT billionaire Bill Gates to Nigeria | - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng News
- Governor Ortom calls on security agencies to be proactive in stopping further attacks in Benue state

- The Benue state governor says the state is not at war with any ethnic group

- He called for more security agents to be deployed in the flashpoints

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has condemned renewed attacks on the people of the state by suspected herdsmen.

Speaking in a statement by his media adviser, Tahav Agerzua, the governor described the fresh attacks as barbaric, inhuman and unacceptable. He called on security agencies to be proactive in stopping further attacks in the state, The Punch reports.

The governor said: Individuals, groups and communities should assist law enforcement agencies with information and other lawful support that would enable them to perform their duty of protecting lives and property of citizens by acting promptly on security reports and threats to peace.

READ ALSO: Why I am running for second term - Buhari

I want to restate the call on security agencies to take proactive measures to stop further killings in the state.

Ortom said the state was not at war with any ethnic group and that no one should make inciting statements or resort to attacking any group.

He urged the people of the state to avoid acts of criminality and criminal elements who were out to perpetrate crime.

The governor also commended the security agencies in the state whose members had died while trying to restore order in Benue.

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He however called for the deployment of more security agents in the flashpoints in order to enhance their operations.

Meanwhile, troops deployed in Exercise Ayem Akpatuma in Taraba state in conjunction with personnel of the Nigeria Police on Saturday, March 31, arrested some criminal elements operating in Mayo Ndaga area of the state.

Items recovered from one of the suspects Amos Titus- 35, include sheets of zinc, bed and locally made pistol.

Other suspects Palat Jafainal- 20 and Kingsley Benson- 25 were also arrested and items recovered from them include generating set, sewing machine as well as sheets of zinc.

One Rapheal Abel- 26 and Yusuf Abdulkareem- 20 were also arrested and sheets of zinc were recovered from them, a statement by Nigerian Army spokesman, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu said.

Herdsmen attacks: Benue's Attorney-General explains anti-grazing law | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng News
The King of Swaziland Mswati III is reportedly bereaved has one of his pretty wives killed herself after a drug overdose. Late Senteni Masango happens to be the eight wife of the monarch.

It was reported that the young lady was found lifeless on Friday morning, April 6. The deceased died few days after sister Nombusos final burial. Her sisters funeral took place on Sunday, April 7, at her parents home.

Reports have it that Masango consumed about 40 capsules of Amytriptyline, a drug used to treat a number of mental illnesses as well as major depressive and lack of attention disorder. Until her death, she allegedly lived alone for over three years in a big mansion without a visit from the king.

READ ALSO: Nigerian man brutalizes wife over consumption of alcohol (photos)

Leaving behind two daughters, the royal family reportedly organized vigil for her on Monday, April 9, at the palace and would be laid to rest on Tuesday morning, April 10. This was done according to the tradition of the Swazi royal family.

The deceased was known for her excellent painting skills as she often auctioned some of her good works in order to raise funds for a local charity group in Swaziland.

King of Swaziland Mswati III

Her last public appearance was at the recent Marula festival where she danced up a storm when it was time for members of the royal family to dance before the king and queen mother.

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RIP!

Should a 'homeless' man move into a house built by his wife? (Nigerian Street Interview)|Naij.com TV - on Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit
- President Muhammadu Buhari has been called upon to drop his 2019 re-election ambition

- The call was made by youths from the 19 northern states under the umbrella of Nigeria Youth Forum

- The group, which is working for the presidential aspiration of Senator Ahmed Makarfi, called on the president to allow the senator come on stage

Youths from the 19 northern states under the aegis of Nigeria Youth Forum (NYF) on Monday, April 9, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider contesting for second term and allow the younger generation to take Nigeria to the Promised Land.

The group, which made this call in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said that the only thing that President Buhari has is integrity, but added that integrity alone cannot take Nigeria to the Promised Land in this age, Leadership reports.

Legit.ng notes that the group spoke through the team leader of the project, Bobai Matthew Victor, who disclosed that it is working for the presidential aspiration of Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

READ ALSO: Governor Ortom calls for deployment more security agents in Benue

This current administration of Muhammadu Buhari is all about integrity, that is the only thing it has to offer and integrity alone cannot take us to the Promised Land," the group stated.

Speaking on Makarfi, Victor said: His achievements in this state, has shown what he can do and we are asking the chapel to partner with us, because your job changes the society. We have a dream and we believe you can assist us achieve that dream."

On his part, chairman of the project, Hon Gideon Goma Adawa said: We believe Makarfi if given the opportunity will make Nigeria proud, we are hoping to take our dreams to the next level and we are hoping to grow a Nigeria of our dreams. We are counting on you guys to assist us, because we believe all of us will benefit from his wealth of experience.

Makarfi will tackle the quantum of challenges in the country, herdsmen, Boko Haram and the killings will be a thing of the past.

We are calling on Buharis friends to advice him to rest in 2019 and allow his younger brother to come on stage."

Responding to the visiting team, the chairman of Correspondent Chapel, Midat Joseph, said that the chapel is always ready to partner with people that have the interest of Nigeria at heart.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he would seek re-election in the 2019 presidential election.

The development was made public by the president's personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmed.

Ahmad took to Twitter to announce the development on Monday, April 9. He further disclosed that the president made the announcement during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Should President Buhari seek reelection in 2019? (Nigerian Street Interview) - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng News
- Army has denied abandoning of wounded soldiers at referral hospitals

- A man had reportedly claimed that soldiers wounded while fighting insurgents in the northeast were abandoned at the Army referral hospitals

- But the acting CMD of the 68 Nigerian Army reference hospital, Lagos, Brig-Geneneral Adekola Dada, said the hospital only had one injured soldier who had a fracture in his right tibir

The acting chief medical director of the 68 Nigerian Army reference hospital, Yaba Lagos, Brig- General Adekola Dada, on Monday, April 9, dismissed as untrue allegation by a man who claimed to be an Army captain that soldiers wounded while fighting insurgents in the northeast part of the country, were abandoned at the Army referral hospitals.

Vanguard reports that he said that the hospital only had one injured soldier who had a fracture in his right tibir, at the male orthopedic ward in Yaba area of the state.

READ ALSO: 5 Nigerians who didn't want Buhari to run in 2019

Legit.ng gathered that Dada, who informed that the soldier, Sergeant Ahmed Abdulai, of the 19 battalion, Maiduguri, sustained the fracture while training, wondered why anyone could fabricate such falsehood at a time when all chiefs of the armed forces were putting more effort to boost the welfare and fitness of personnel.

Speaking during a tour with journalists round the 68 reference hospital, he said: The process for referral is very fast. If a soldier is wounded, he is evacuated to the base hospital depending on the nature of the injury. Some can even be managed locally at the 7 Division Medical Services and hospital at Maiduguri, which immediately takes care of wounded personnel.

If there is any issue with a personnel, he can equally be evacuated to Kaduna, where they(doctors) do the needful and the paper works start immediately. Sometimes, the process of setting up a board that will examine the soldier and determine his condition, takes five days or one week.

"Once that is done, the recommendation is sent to the office of the Chief of Army Staff who gives approval for the patient to be flown abroad for treatment. I dont remember anyone that was sent to him (COAS)by the headquarters of the Nigerian Army medical Corps that he declined.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Nigerian Army approved a special promotion for 3, 729 troops of Operation Lafiya Dole who participated in Operation DEEP PUNCH II in Sambisa forest.

It was reported that a statement released on Thursday, April 5, by the director Army public relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, said that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, approved the promotion.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The ongoing Second Niger Bridge is currently at 44.6% completion, according to the federal controller of works in Anambra

- Construction has now entered the fourth phase and this stage would run till July 2018

- According to the official, after the stage four is completed, it would not take long for the entire bridge to be actualized

The federal controller of works in Anambra state, Innocent Alumonah, has stated that the Second Niger Bridge linking Asaba and Onitsha which is currently being constructed, is already at 44.6% completion, Leadership reports.

Speaking on Monday, April 9, Alumonah disclosed that the company handling the project, Julius Berger, has accomplished about 85 piles of 914 millimeter in diameter in different axis.

Legit.ng notes that Alumonah stated that the project was divided into various phases and that construction had now entered the fourth phase.

He stated: The contract was split into phases. Phases 1 to phase 3 have been successfully accomplished and we are now on early works in phase 4. Part of this early works phase 4 forms part of the main contract.

READ ALSO: PDPs mistakes cannot be forgiven and forgotten - APC chieftain

So far, the 1.2 kilometer sand filling of the road at the Asaba end has reached the height of 2.2 meters out of the expected five meters. At the Onitsha end, we have done a lot of sand filling of embankments to a reasonable stage. We have done a lot of culverts as well. In all, we have achieved around 44.6 per cent of phase of early work stage 4."

Alumonah said when the contract for the early work stage four was awarded in October 2016, the sum of N2.166 billion was paid to the contractor as advance payment, out of the contract sum of N14.466 billion.

He said the life span for the early work stage four project would be nine months; running from November 2017 to July 2018, and that there would not be any interruption between stage four and the main contract.

He assured Nigerians that after the stage four is completed, it would not take long for the entire bridge to be actualized. He also stated that the federal government is handling compensation for those affected by the project.

He added: The bridge is a link road to all parts of the country not just the South East. It is not a bridge only for the southern part of the country. It is for all Nigerians.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the federal government re-stated its resolve to complete work on the Second Niger Bridge as well as other federal projects in the southeast zone.

The vice-president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo gave the assurance during a funeral mass for late Mrs Roseline Akabueze, the mother of Mr Ben Akabueze, the director-general, Budget Office, Abuja at St Gabriel Catholic church, Ifitedunu, Anambra state.

Osinbajo explained that the FG under President Mohammadu Buhari was committed to completing every federal project in the southeast especially the Second Niger Bridge.

What does Nigeria need right now? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit
- The Nigerian Air Force combined with their counterparts in Niger to launch coordinated attacks on Boko Haram

- The NAF says its action against the insurgents followed intelligence and surveillance carried out by the air force team from Niger

- It said its men also neutralised some members of the group who were trying to escape from the heat of the attack

The air task force of the Operation Lafiya Dole, in a combined operation with the Nigerien Air Force, have successfully launched coordinated strikes on Boko Haram locations at the Arege and Tumbun Rago areas of Borno state.

The air strikes were launched on April 8, with the Nigerian security body describing it as successful, adding that the attacks followed reports received sequel to an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission conducted by an aircraft belonging to Nigerien Air Force.

READ ALSO: PDP reacts to Buharis declaration for presidential re-election in 2019

According to a statement by Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, the director of public relations and information of the Nigerian Air Force, the surveillance revealed Boko Haram activities at Arege and Tumbun Rago.

The combined operations by the air forces of both countries are part of renewed efforts at clearing BHT elements

"Consequently, the ATF detailed Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jet and F-7Ni aircraft to conduct Air Interdiction strikes on the locations while the ISR aircraft from Niger provided necessary support and also conducted Battle Damage Assessment (BDA).

The subsequent BDA revealed that during the first wave of attacks at Arege, several vehicles belonging to BHTs were totally destroyed, killing all the occupants in the process.

Furthermore, the NAF fighter aircraft neutralized fleeing BHTs in subsequent waves of attack.

Thereafter, NAF fighter aircraft and the ISR aircraft from Niger again combined to successfully attack BHT locations at Tumbun Rago.

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The combined operations by the air forces of both countries are part of renewed efforts at clearing BHT elements from their known locations in northeast Nigeria," the statement obtained by Legit.ng read.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) intensified its air operations in northeastern Nigeria and in the process, neutralised scores of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) in Tumbun Rago, a settlement at the northern fringes of Borno state bordering Lake Chad.

According to a statement by NAF's spokesman, Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, the operation occurred during a routine Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission on Thursday, December 21.

Watch the video below:

Nigerian Air Force winged 10 flying officerson Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
- To improve security in Taraba state, Police IG Ibrahim Idris has ordered the deployment of a surveillance aircraft

- IGP Idris made this known when he paid a courtesy call on the governor of the state, Dairus Ishaku, at the Government House, Jalingo

- The IGP also inaugurated a mobile police squadron base in the state during his visit

The Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris has ordered for the deployment of a surveillance aircraft to Taraba in order to improve the security situation in the state.

IGP Idris made this known when he paid a courtesy call on Governor Dairus Ishaku of Taraba state at the Government House, Jalingo on Monday, April 9. He said his order was due to the governor's request for additional men and materials to curb the upsurge of killings in the state, when they met few weeks back.

I want to announce to you that the surveillance aircraft you requested is already in the state. We have also deployed additional mobile police units to ensure the total restoration of peace to the state.

I can assure you that we will do everything to ensure that the inhabitants of the state are safe," IGP Idris said amidst applause from those present at the occasion.

READ ALSO: Governor Ortom calls for deployment of more security agents in Benue

Ibrahim Idris also said he would inaugurate a mobile squadron base in Takum on today, Tuesday, April 9, to help in fighting criminality in the state.

In his response, Governor Ishaku commended the police command in Taraba for working tirelessly towards achieving peace in the state.

The governor also commended the IGP for his prompt response to his request for additional men and equipment to achieve peace.

His words: I want to commend the state Commissioner of Police, Mr David Akinremi for his tireless efforts at achieving peace in the state.

Mr IGP, I can tell you that the command in the state is doing very well. What I can ask for again is the construction of a permanent police headquarters in the state.

I have always said it that the police are trying their best. What they lack is the facilities and equipment to do their job.

READ ALSO: Exercise Ayem Akpatuma: Troops arrest criminals in Taraba state

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has announced that Exercise Ayem Akpatuma will be extended for two months in Taraba state.

This was disclosed in a statement sent to Legit.ng by the director army public relations, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu, on Monday, April 2.

According to the statement, the exercise needs to be sustained in some areas in other to consolidate on the initial gains.

Benue IDPs: Education amidst crisis | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The UK chapter of the APC says its expectations has been met by Buharis declaration to seek a second term

- The party states that Nigerians should consider the re-election bid as a major step to consolidate and re-invent the country into an emerging economic and democratic world power

- It assured that it would work assiduously for the electoral success of the APC at all levels

The All Progressives Congress (APC), United Kingdom chapter, said it would pay for expression of interest and nomination form for President Muhammadu Buhari to re-contest in 2019.

The chapter made the promise in a statement by its spokesman, Jacob Ogunseye, on Tuesday, April 10, in Abuja, following Buharis declaration that he would seek a second term.

It said that the presidents declaration was reasonable and satisfactory, adding that his second term would make Nigeria stronger as well as preserve the tenets of democracy in the country.

READ ALSO: 5 Nigerians who didn't want Buhari to run in 2019

It stated that the chapters expectations had been met by Buharis declaration, and assured that it would work assiduously for the electoral success of the APC at all levels.

President Buhari needs to consolidate on the achievements his administration has recorded in over three years, especially in economic growth, anti-graft war, security and youth development.

He deserves a second term and we are proud that he has yielded and declared his readiness to re-contest the election as Nigerias President in 2019 in earnest. His administrations achievements in the areas of security, economic growth, anti-corruption war and social development and other areas are visible to Nigerians, the chapter said.

It added that Nigerians should consider the re-election bid as a major step to consolidate and re-invent the country into an emerging economic and democratic world power.

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It called on Nigerians across the world, irrespective of religion and geographical location, to see the re-election bid of the president as a major step that would help Nigeria to stabilise.

Meanwhile, Edet Bassey, Akwa Ibom publicity secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), says President Buharis declaration of intention for 2019 is the best thing that has happened to the country in recent times.

Bassey told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo on Monday that the president had given the country a direction for Nigerians to appreciate his efforts in reviving the economy.

The senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly (Senate) Senator Ita Enang, said that Buhari was responding to the yearnings of Nigerians.

President Buhari on 2019 presidential election: will you vote for him? | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
A former governor of Katsina state, Ibrahim Shema, was on Tuesday, April 10, arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He pleaded not guilty to 24-count charge filed against him at the court.

Daily Trust reports that Shema was arraigned over an alleged financial misappropriation of local government funds amounting to N11.5 billion.

READ ALSO: Governor Ortom calls for deployment of more security agents in Benue

At the time of this report, the case was stood down for 15 minutes and was being observed by the court before proceedings would continue.

The report said a counsel in the case, Earnest Obunadike, said after the stand-down, the prosecuting team shall start presenting witnesses.

Legit.ng reported in 2016 that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission interrogated the aides of former governor Shema.

Some ex-heads of government agencies and some serving government officials were among those being quizzed by the EFCC men.

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Thirty four former local government chairmen who were elected under the Peoples Democratic Party regime in the state are also being interrogated by the operatives.

Legit.ng also reported that three houses allegedly belonging to Ibrahim Shehu Shema were sealed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

What does Nigeria need right now? (Nigerian Street Interview) | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper
- The Chief of Army Staff Conference is currently ongoing in Nigeria's capital, Abuja

- Army chief, Lieutenant General TY Buratai, delivered a powerful speech at the event

- The army boss warned officers and men of the Nigerian Army to steer clear of politics

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General TY Buratai has charged the various commands of the Nigerian Army especially Operation Lafiya Dole to sustain the numerous successes being recorded by the army across board on daily basis.

The army chief stated this in a speech at the ongoing Chief of Army Staff Conference in Abuja today, Tuesday, April 10.

Buratai while calling on troops to desist from hobnobbing with politicians ahead of the 2019 general elections, said the army is putting in place a robust procurement and operational plan to preserve and promote the successes of the Nigerian troops in all its engagements.

COAS, Buratai speaking at the ongoing Chief of Army Staff Conference in Abuja. Photo credit: Nigeran Army

READ ALSO: Ayem Akapatuma: Why the cats cant stop the race now by Idoko Ainoko (Opinion)

He also announced the establishment of a language department in all Nigerian Army training schools to enhance the communication skills of personnel.

The COAS also used the opportunity to outline the plans of the leadership of the Nigerian Army for female officers and soldiers with the army.

Read the full text below:

1. It is my honour and privilege to welcome you all to Abuja for the COAS First Quarter Conference 2018. Let me start by using this opportunity to thank you all for commiserating with me and the entire Buratai family on the demise of our beloved father, Alhaji Yusuf Buratai, who died on the 9 February 2018. I pray that Almighty Allah grant him eternal rest.

2. The COAS Quarterly Conferences serve as a pedestal for the hierarchy of the NA to appraise and discuss its doctrinal, operational and administrative matters as well as other security issues that are crucial to the stability of our country. This is with a view to fashioning out better ways through which the NA can implement the Federal Governments defence and security policies towards ensuring peace and development of our nation.

3. In this era of political and social transformation, the NA remains steadfast in carrying out its constitutional roles as well as providing aid to civil authority. My vision for the NA which is To Have a Professionally Responsive Nigerian Army in the Discharge of its Constitutional Roles is geared towards ensuring a safer environment for development and socio-economic activities to thrive in the country. We must ensure that we conduct ourselves professionally and respond adequately to threats against our nation in accordance with our constitutional roles.

4. The NA would continue to chart progressive paths towards tackling the security challenges confronting the nation. To this end, I have instructed that attention must be given to ongoing NA operations in various parts of the country to ensure that security threats are dealt with decisively. Training must also be given due attention so that we can outperform the achievements of the previous years. Furthermore, research and development must be sufficiently pursued and funded to promote and attain the desired transformation and innovation drive in the NA.

READ ALSO: Exercise Ayem Akpatuma: Troops arrest criminals in Taraba state

5. The successes achieved by troops in the ongoing operations, particularly OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE, has placed the NA on a good stead and the momentum must be sustained and consolidated. However, in conjunction with other services and security agencies, the NA must also deal decisively with other security challenges such as farmers-herdsmen clashes, armed banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, militant activities among other violent crimes.

6. Operations DEEP PUNCH II in the northeast and Exercise AYEM AKPATUMA in the north central have achieved tremendous successes leading to the arrest of key suspects as well as recovery of arms and ammunition in Benue, Kaduna, Kogi, Niger and Taraba states. The conduct of Exercise AYEM AKPATUMA has been extended in Taraba state till 30 May 18 based on the prevailing security situation in the state. While paying tribute to the officers and men in the field, I urge you all not to relent on your efforts at ensuring a safer Nigeria.

7. The need to review the conduct of NA operations across the country has become imperative in view of lapses recently observed among commanders. Some of the lapses observed can be partly attributed to indecisiveness when faced with obvious challenges. Hence, the attitude of commanders in the field must change especially towards decision making and taking appropriate action in line with the rules of engagements. In this regard, issues of murder, arson and other serious crimes perpetrated by ethnic and local militias, criminals and miscreants must be dealt with decisively. Commanders would be held responsible for any lapses arising from their actions or inactions. I have directed the CTOP (A) to set up a high powered team to review all our operations especially where lapses have been observed in order to bring to book all those involved in such cases.

8. Very recently, concerns have been raised by individuals and groups alike about the actions carried out by some units and formations in the course of operations. This has led to very strong comments and criticisms against the Nigerian Army. Some of the strongest comments have come from key citizens in Taraba state. In this regard, I have set up a panel to investigate some of the allegations that have been made, particularly with regards to operations in Taraba state. The panel was tasked to ascertain the veracity of the statements made and the true situation of things in the State. Nonetheless, we must put in more effort to improve our relations with civilians and the citizenry at large through better narratives and media operations.

9. Let me state emphatically here that the unity and integrity of Nigeria lies on the military and the NA in particular. Therefore, any act inimical to the unity and integrity of this country by personnel of the NA will be decisively dealt with. The NA must remain apolitical and professionally responsive in the discharge of its constitutional roles. GOCs and Field Commanders at all levels are, therefore, warned that anyone that runs foul of his professional ethics will be appropriately dealt with. You are all enjoined to continue to remind officers and soldiers under command to remain non-partisan and be guided by the stipulated code of conduct and rules of engagement in the discharge of their duties particularly in the coming 2019 general elections. Furthermore, NA personnel in any capacity who receives any form of inducement from politicians, public or private entities, knowingly or unknowingly will be severely punished. Both the giver and taker of such inducement will be investigated and appropriately sanctioned.

10. I have directed for a Special Standing Court Martial to be set up in preparation for the coming 2019 elections. I must warn that any NA personnel found hobnobbing with politicians or being partisan will be investigated and sent to the Special Standing Court Martial. I must state clearly that any officer or soldier who wishes to be sympathetic to a political, religious or ethnic group should voluntarily retire from the NA. Furthermore, all are reminded on the ban on any form of worship outside the barracks except those permitted for wedding and other social functions. Therefore, officers and soldiers must restrain themselves from any act of political, religious or ethnic patronisation as these would attract severe consequences. The fate of the 38 officers who were retired is still fresh in our memories.

11. I am quite aware of the logistics constraints affecting the sustainability of our operations across the country particularly Op LAFIYA DOLE. I want to assure you that a robust and comprehensive procurement plan is in place in the year 2018 budget. However, the effective implementation of the procurement plan is subject to budget releases. I, therefore, want to emphasize that personal clothing, protective gears, additional equipment/platforms, accommodation, welfare and other logistics provisions would be my top priority in the procurement plan this year.

12. In line with the Federal Governments drive to boost local content and patronage, the NA is collaborating with indigenous companies in the local production of vehicles, weapon and equipment spares as well as combat materiel. The companies include Innoson Vehicle Motors, Proforce Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Machine Tools amongst others. This is aimed at boosting local production and enhancing our growing military industrial complex.

READ ALSO: Air Force from Nigeria, Niger launch successful attacks on Boko Haram locations

13. In the First Quarter of 2018, I directed the procurement and supply of weapons, UAVs, vehicles, tyres, protective gears and spares to the theatre for enhanced operations. Commanders at all levels are, therefore, enjoined to ensure judicious use and periodic maintenance of the items under their command. I believe this can be achieved if commanders at all levels imbibe and practice purposeful leadership in the efficient and effective management of men and materiel.

14. Leadership remains a cardinal point in the command and administration of the NA at tactical, operational and strategic levels. This underscores the need for us to give leadership training the pride of place in our exercises and training. In this regard, I am pleased with the outcome of Lieutenant  Captain.

Promotion Examinations held in Port Harcourt, Rivers state which recorded 93 percent pass. Similarly, the final list of officers nominated to attend NDC 27/NIPSS SEC 41 and equivalent foreign courses for 2018/2019 as well as the AWCN Course 2/2018 have been released. It is gratifying to note that the AWCN programmes would be conducted at the newly constructed permanent site of the College here in Abuja. Presently, the modification and harmonization of the course curriculum with other services war colleges is ongoing. This is with a view to having a harmonized course content, coordinated approach to war fighting and cohesive decision making process.

15. The NA Resource Centre has also embarked on some strategic level partnership and collaboration with some renowned think-tank institutions across the world such as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Boston, USA and the United Services Institution of India. This is with a view to conducting international seminars, conferences and symposia for the benefit of NA personnel, other para-military and security agencies, the executive branch and the academia. Recently, I directed a team of officers led by the DG NARC to embark on a working visit to the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Studies to fashion out modalities for partnership. This is with a view to developing our capacity building and other leadership training programmes. It is hoped that on completion of the negotiations with Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), the NARC would begin to run some of HKS programmes based on needs assessment and memorandum of understanding. So far, 22 officers have been trained at the HKS. Officers at strategic levels are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to develop and further enhance their capacity.

16. The exigency of duty necessitated the regular posting of officers and soldiers in formations and units across the country as well as outside the shores of Nigeria. This brings to fore the need for NA personnel to acquire sufficient knowledge and skills to aid communication and the discharge of their duties. Accordingly, knowledge of the 3 major Nigerian languages will

ensure that NA personnel are able to fit in wherever they may be deployed. To this effect, I have approved the establishment of a language department in all NA training schools to enhance the communication skills of personnel. You are, therefore, enjoined to sensitize officers and soldiers to acquire basic knowledge of more Nigerian languages as well as major international languages, wherever they may be deployed.

17. In the past, our relationship with civil society groups was often marred by petitions and allegations of human rights abuses and other violations. However, since the establishment of the Human Rights Desk within the Army Headquarters and across formations, we have seen a sharp decline in the number of allegations against the NA. In addition, the desk has also helped in investigating human rights violations against serving personnel. I enjoin all to give the Human Rights Desk the required cooperation to enable them carry out their assigned tasks.

18. In recognition of the competence and capacity of the female soldier and also in line with global best practices, the NA is to establish Corps for women, which is aimed at developing professionally responsive female officers and soldiers that can be employed to support the NA in all its operational engagements and other commitments within and outside the country. The Corps will give the Nigerian Army an opportunity to reorganize the women in order to derive the maximum benefit from their contribution to the defence and security of our nation.

19. As part of efforts to complement the defence and security arrangements put in place to checkmate the security challenges in the Country, I directed the promulgation of the Establishment Order as well as the operationalization of 17 Bde Katsina. This became expedient due to the planned relocation of 8 TF Div Monguno (Op LAFIYA DOLE) to its permanent headquarters in Sokoto State as provided in the NA ORBAT 2016. Let me reiterate that the Nigerian Army will continue to remain neutral in ensuring the safety of Nigerians wherever troops are deployed for operations within the country. It is also important to recognise NA personnel who have paid the supreme sacrifice during various operations. Their sacrifices have contributed immensely to the stability which the country currently enjoys.

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20. At this juncture, I want to appreciate the media and the general public for their understanding and positive change of perception regarding the NA. I will also emphasize the need for enhanced and continued collaboration in tackling our security challenges by conscious media reportage. The NA has always enjoyed the support of sister Services and other security agencies in the discharge of its duties. The NA would continue to look forward to more support and collaboration towards making our dear country Nigeria safe for all.

21. Finally, it is with a high sense of responsibility and respect that I humbly express the NAs profound gratitude to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammad Buhari GCFR, for his invaluable support to the NA. On behalf of officers and soldiers of the NA, I once more pledge our total commitment to the defence of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In an earlier report, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Nigerias chief of army staff, ordered that a standing court martial be set up to try any officers who show partisanship.

Buratai warned all officers interested in politics, including GOCs and Brigade Commanders, to resign before it is too late.

Benue IDPs: Education amidst crisis | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
Certain things happen in Africa that many cannot believe is really true. For example, a minister in Cameroon is the bu*t of jokes because of an event he attended recently.

A Twitter user shared several photos that show the Cameroonian minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform Joseph Le commissioning an ATM recently.

The minster is seen commissioning the ATM in a lavish ceremony that attended by members of the press as well as other invited guests.

The ministers actions have earned him a lot of ridicule online. See the Twitter post below:

READ ALSO: BBNaija 2018: Tobi, Nina make it to the finals as Alex emerges head of house

If you're having a bad day, just keep in mind that a current Minister @JosephLE_ of the Biya Government inaugurated an ATM machine of the SGBC group in a lavish ceremony. Is this part of his job description ? Let's just auction this country already.

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Top-4 Things That Could Only Happen In Nigeria | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The federal government confirmed that Switzerland sent $322.51 million to it

- This is part of the loot reportedly stashed abroad by late Sani Abacha

- The government said the money has been paid since December

The federal government says it has received 322.51 million dollars from the Swiss Government as part of looted funds recovered from former Head of State, late General Sani Abacha.

Oluyinka Akintunde, the special adviser, media and communications to the minister of finance, said this in a statement on Tuesday, April 10, in Abuja.

According to Akintunde, the government received the money since December 2017.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Why FG cant seize my properties in UK, US and Dubai - Ekweremadu

Akintunde said there was no controversy surrounding the recovery of stolen funds by the former head of state from the Swiss Government.

The minister wishes to dissociate herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from recent reports on the Abacha refunds.

The minister had at no time written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery. She also refutes the flawed reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery.

We wish to state that the sum of 322,515,931.83 dollars was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Dec. 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government," he said.

Akintunde said the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, frowned at a recent report that she objected to the payment of 16.9 million dollars to two lawyers who recovered the Abacha funds.

Newsmen report that in 1999, the Nigerian Government hired Mr Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer to recover the Abacha loot.

After a successful negotiation by Monfrini, the recovered money was domiciled with the Attorney-General of Switzerland pending the signing of an MoU with Nigeria to avoid the issues of accountability that trailed previous recoveries.

All that was left after the signing of the MoU was a government-to-government communication for the money to be repatriated to Nigeria.

However, Abubakar Malami, the minister of justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, later engaged the services of another set of lawyers in 2016 for a fee of about N6 billion (16.9 million dollars).

The two Nigerian lawyers are Mr Oladipo Okpeseyi, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Temitope Adebayo.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari asked President Johann Schneider-Ammann of Switzerland to urgently release Nigerias stolen funds stashed in the country.

In a statement signed by the presidents special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the president said the country needed such resources, particularly for infrastructure.

With the two countries having agreed on projects to which the restituted funds would be deployed, President Schneider-Ammann promised quick action as soon as the draft agreement was signed.

How should convicted looters be punished? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit
- A suspected notorious armed robber has been arrested by Enugu state police

- The criminal has been terrorising members of Ibagwa Nike community of Enugu east local government area

- He was arrested by operatives attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the command on April 9

The police command in Enugu state has arrested a suspected notorious armed robber and cultist who had been terrorising members of Ibagwa Nike community of Enugu east local government area.

The suspect, Sopuruchukwu Anike, 24, also claimed to be from Ibagwa Nike community.

The commands spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday in Enugu.

READ ALSO: Former Katsina governor docked for alleged N11.5bn, pleads not guilty

Amaraizu said that a single barrel gun which the suspect and his cohorts used in unleashing mayhem on their victims was recovered during the operation

He said the suspect was arrested by operatives attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the command on April 9.

Amaraizu said that the suspect and his cohorts usually robbed their victims at gunpoint and dispossessed them of their telephones, money and other valuables.

He said that the suspect also confessed to being a member of the Aye confraternity.

The police spokesman said that the suspect said he bought the gun from one of his cohorts, Ikenna, who is currently in prison custody.

He said that the suspect joined the cult in 2016 and thereafter, dropped out from school in Senior Secondary one.

Amaraizu said that a full scale investigation had commenced into the incident.

Legit.ng had reported that the police have arrested a herder with one AK-47 Riffle and 7.62 ammunition in Isigwe Ugbawka community in Nkanu east local government area of Enugu state.

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The commands spokesman, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said in Enugu on Saturday, April 7, that the suspect was arrested on April 4 at a farmland in the community.

Amaraizu noted that the arrest was made possible because of prompt response to a distress call and intelligence information received from the residents of the community.

Herdsmen attacks: Benue's Attorney-General explains anti-grazing law | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development. Originally published at Inter Press Service

At Davos in January, US President Donald Trump warned that the US will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices of others, interpreted by many as declaring world trade war. Before the US mid-term elections in November, Washington is expected to focus on others alleged massive intellectual property theft, industrial subsidies and pervasive state-led economic planning pointing to China without always naming names. With the Republican Party already united behind his tax bill, Trump senses an opportunity to finally unite the party behind him and to continue his campaign for re-election in 2020.

Since January, Trump has taken steps threatened in his mid-2016 election economic policy document, drafted by USs National Trade Council head Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. In particular, he has imposed tariffs and other restrictions on imports to revive US manufacturing. Import tariffs of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminium respectively have been imposed by invoking Section 232 of the US 1962 Trade Expansion Act, allowing unilateral measures to protect domestic industries for national defence and national security.



Trumps action was supported by a US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security report, released earlier. It made the case for imposing import tariffs on both metals for national security reasons as national security can be interpreted more broadly to include the general security and welfare of certain industries, beyond those necessary to satisfy national defense requirements.

Trade War Memories

After his announcement, several major trading countries and blocs retaliated or threatened to retaliate against US imports, raising the prospect of a trade war. The resurgence of US trade protectionism poses two threats. The US has a long history of using anti-dumping measures, especially on steel. Earlier, imports of washing machines and solar panels were restricted by Trump after the US International Trade Commission declared that they unfairly hurt domestic manufacturers.

The US President has also threatened to impose reciprocal taxes against countries imposing tariffs on US exports. This threat has invoked references to the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Its Republican sponsors, Senator Reed Smoot and Congressman Walter Hawley then argued that it would protect US jobs by shielding American industries from import competition by imposing tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.

This aggressive protectionism then precipitated the collapse of global trade, as its trade partners then restricted US export access into their own markets. The ensuing trade war undoubtedly exacerbated the Great Depression. Recent developments have understandably revived fears of a new trade war, with similar consequences.

Undermining Trade Multilateralism

The USs unilateral actions have seriously challenged the multilateral framework of World Trade Organization (WTO) trade rules. The Trump administration has been challenging post-Bretton Woods rules-based trade multilateralism, which sought to develop international trade regulation. Besides many rhetorical attacks on the multilateral trading system, the Trump administration has largely avoided engaging with the WTO while also avoiding violating the letter of existing trade agreements.

Undermining the WTO and its rules is hardly new for the Trump administration, but what is rarely acknowledged is that it also represents continuity with previous presidents including his arch-nemesis, Obamas. Both administrations have blocked appointing WTO Appellate Body (AB) members, effectively undermining the WTOs dispute settlement process. The AB should have seven members, but will soon only have three members left, undermining its functioning. Aggrieved WTO members wishing to challenge alleged violations of its rules have no redress without a functioning AB.

Advocates of international trade liberalization have long claimed that it boosts growth and makes everyone better off in the long run, although many acknowledge shorter term casualties in uncompetitive economic activities. With successful political mobilization around growing doubts over such claims, these claims have lost credibility, feeding the tide of ethno-populist-nationalism in the West.

Freer trade has widely distributed benefits in terms of lower consumer prices while seemingly concentrating costs on displaced producers. Conversely, tariffs meant to protect particular industries have concentrated benefits while widely distributing costs. Thus, even without considering the consequences of retaliatory trade measures by others, some (e.g., US steel) jobs may be saved while consumers pay more for downstream products, threatening related jobs downstream. Consumers, however, are unlikely to act politically because they have to pay a little more for some goods, whereas workers are more likely to be mobilized if their livelihoods are threatened by foreign import competition.

Is Trump All That Different?

Trump has long complained about US and foreign trade policies. He seems to believe that trade is a zero-sum game in which the goal is to export more and to eliminate the US trade deficit. Importing from another country implies that country has won and the United States has lost. Thus, his version of US sovereigntism links trade to national pride. Thus, he accuses others, especially China, of laughing at us. As trade issues are about US jobs, pride and dignity, costs or losses become a small price to pay. Thus, imposing tariffs will show foreigners that the US is strong, and cannot be taken advantage of.

With this logic, winning may involve losing although the tariffs will benefit relatively few workers in protected industries at the expense of the vast majority of other workers in downstream industries and consumers. But longstanding economic imbalances and inequities are unlikely to be well addressed by protecting a few politically influential industries.

For half a century, the US has gone back and forth with trade liberalization, often coming dangerously close to trade warfare. President Ronald Reagans 1980s protectionism is rarely acknowledged as he is now the paragon of US economic neoliberalism. (Current US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer earned his reputation in Reagans administration.) His trade restrictions used loopholes in trade agreements to raise tariffs and limit many imports besides forcing political allies to accept voluntary restraints. Dani Rodrik has argued that Reagans protectionism let off political steam, enabling the US economy to recover and globalization to accelerate.

International economic liberalization or globalization since Reagan has also transformed the international context and the consequences of Trumps recent measures. Unlike Reagan who arm-twisted political allies to accept his demands as necessary concessions during the Cold War, Trumps US sovereigntism is based on victimhood, invoking the image of an ex-hegemon, and makes no pretensions of being mutually advantageous or reciprocal.

Yet, prematurely crying wolf about trade war may also accelerate trade war momentum as it remains unclear how international policy is made and changed in Trumps White House. While possibly ominous of much more to come, premature, exaggerated criticism of his unilateral trade measures may become self-fulfilling, given the political need for continued ethno-populist and nationalist mobilization against enemies, real or imagined.
Twisting laser light offers the chance to probe the nano-scale (Nanowerk News) A new method to sensitively measure the structure of molecules has been demonstrated by twisting laser light and aiming it at miniscule gold gratings to separate out wavelengths.

The technique could potentially be used to probe the structure and purity of molecules in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, foods and other important products more easily and cheaply than existing methods.

A twisted laser beam hits a nanoscopic U-shaped gold grating which further twists the beam in either a right or left-handed direction. This deflects the beam in many directions and further splits it into its constituent wavelengths across the color spectrum. (Image: Ventsislav Valev)

Developed by physicists at the University of Bath, working with colleagues at the University of Cambridge and University College London, the technique relies on the curious fact that many biological and pharmaceutical molecules can be either 'left-handed' or 'right-handed'.

Although such molecules are built from exactly the same elements they can be arranged in mirror images of each other, and this configuration sometimes changes their properties drastically.

Notoriously the morning sickness drug Thalidomide caused birth defects and deaths in babies before it was pulled from the market in the 1960s. Investigation showed that the drug existed in two mirror images - the right-handed form was effective as a morning sickness drug, but the left-handed form was harmful to foetuses. This is one example of why testing what 'handedness', or chirality, a molecule has is essential for many valuable products.

The research team from the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, and the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Bath, used a special white-light laser built in-house and directed it through several optical components to put a twist on the beam. The twisted laser beam then hits a nano-scopic U-shaped gold grating which serves as a template for the light, further twisting the beam in either a right or left-handed direction. This deflects the beam in many directions and further splits it into its constituent wavelengths across the colour spectrum.

By carefully measuring the deflected light scientists can detect tiny differences in intensity across the spectrum which inform them about the chirality of the grating the laser beam interacts with.

The study, published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials ("Circular Dichroism in Higher-Order Diffraction Beams from Chiral Quasiplanar Nanostructures"), demonstrates the technique as a proof of principle.

Christian Kuppe, the PhD student who conducted the experiments, said: "At the moment chiral sensing requires high molecular concentrations because you're looking for tiny differences in how the light interacts with the target molecule.

"By using our gold gratings we aim to use a much smaller amount of molecules to conduct a very sensitive test of their handedness. The next step will be to continue to test the technique with a range of well-known chiral molecules.

"We hope that this will become a valuable way to perform really important tests on all sorts of products including pharmaceuticals and other high-value chemicals."
Doing the nano-shimmy (Nanowerk News) Imagine a single particle, only one-tenth the diameter of a bacterium, whose miniscule jiggles induce sustained vibrations in an entire mechanical device some 50 times larger. By taking clever advantage of the interplay between light, electrons on the surface of metals, and heat, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have for the first time created a plasmomechanical oscillator (PMO), so named because it tightly couples plasmons--the collective oscillations of electrons at the surface of a metal nanoparticle--to the mechanical vibrations of the much larger device it's embedded in.

The entire system, no bigger than a red blood cell, has myriad technological applications. It offers new ways to miniaturize mechanical oscillators, improve communication systems that depend on the modulation of light, dramatically amplify extremely weak mechanical and electrical signals and create exquisitely sensitive sensors for the tiny motions of nanoparticles.

This is a schematic of the first-ever plasmomechanical oscillator (PMO), developed by NIST researchers. The orange-white ovals represent the localized plasmon oscillations. The cantilever, containing the gold cuboid nanoparticle, lies dead center. The series of white curves represents the electrical field applied to the cantilever. Data at right indicates that the device can lock onto and greatly amplify weak signals that oscillate at frequencies close to those of the PMO. (Image: B. Roxworthy/NIST)

NIST researchers Brian Roxworthy and Vladimir Aksyuk described their work in a recent issue of Optica ("Electrically tunable plasmomechanical oscillators for localized modulation, transduction, and amplification").

The device consists of a gold nanoparticle, about 100 nanometers in diameter, embedded in a tiny cantilever--a miniature diving board--made of silicon nitride. An air gap lies sandwiched between these components and an underlying gold plate; the width of the gap is controlled by an electrostatic actuator--a thin gold film that sits atop the cantilever and bends toward the plate when a voltage is applied. The nanoparticle acts as a single plasmonic structure that has a natural, or resonant, frequency that varies with the size of the gap, just as tuning a guitar string changes the frequency at which the string reverberates.

When a light source, in this case laser light, shines on the system, it causes electrons in the resonator to oscillate, raising the temperature of the resonator. This sets the stage for a complex interchange between light, heat and mechanical vibrations in the PMO, endowing the system with several key properties.

By applying a small, direct-current voltage to the electrostatic actuator that squeezes the gap shut, Roxworthy and Aksyuk altered the optical frequency at which the resonator vibrates and the intensity of the laser light the system reflects. Such optomechanical coupling is highly desirable because it can modulate and control the flow of light on silicon chips and shape the propagation of light beams traveling in free space.

A second property relates to the heat generated by the resonator when it absorbs laser light. The heat causes the thin gold film actuator to expand. The expansion narrows the gap, decreasing the frequency at which the embedded resonator vibrates. Conversely, when the temperature decreases, the actuator contracts, widening the gap and increasing the frequency of the resonator.

Crucially, the force exerted by the actuator always kicks the cantilever in the same direction in which the cantilever is already traveling. If the incident laser light is powerful enough, these kicks cause the cantilever to undergo self-sustaining oscillations with amplitudes thousands of times larger than the oscillations of the device due to the vibration of its own atoms at room temperature.

"This is the first time that a single plasmonic resonator with dimensions smaller than visible light has been shown to produce such self-sustaining oscillations of a mechanical device," said Roxworthy.
Gecko-inspired adhesives help soft robotic fingers to get a better grip

(Nanowerk News) A team of California researchers has developed a robotic gripper that combines the adhesive properties of gecko toes and the adaptability of air-powered soft robots to grasp a much wider variety of objects than the state of the art.

Researchers will present their findings at the 2018 International Conference on Robotics and Automation May 21 to 25 in Brisbane, Australia.

The gripper can lift up to 45 lbs. and could be used to grasp objects in a wide range of settings, from factory floors to the International Space Station.

The gripper can also handle porous objects, like this rock. (Image: JPL)

Geckos are known as natures best climbers because of a sophisticated gripping mechanism on their toes. In previous work, researchers at Stanford University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory led by Professor Aaron Parness recreated that mechanism with a synthetic material called a gecko-inspired adhesive. This material was used primarily on flat surfaces like walls. In the current work, researchers joined forces with engineers at the University of California San Diego. The team coated the fingers of a soft robotic gripper with the gecko adhesive, allowing it to get a firmer grasp on a wide range of objects, including pipes and mugs, while still being able to handle rough objects like rocks. The gripper can also grasp objects in various positions, for example gripping a mug at many different angles.

Researchers demonstrated that the gripper could grasp and manipulate rough, porous and dirty objects, such as volcanic rocksa task that is typically challenging for gecko adhesives. It also was able to pick up pieces of large, cylindrical pipea task typically difficult for soft robotic grippers.

We realized that these two components, soft robotics and gecko adhesives, complement each other really well, said Paul Glick, the papers first author and a Ph.D. student in the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

The gecko is one of natures best climbers, thanks to millions of microscopic hairs, with features about 20 to 30 times smaller than a human hair, that allow it to climb on virtually any surface. The hairs end in tiny nanostructures that interact at the atomic level with molecules on the surface the gecko is trying to grip. This interaction, powered by what is called van der Waals forces, causes the geckos toes to easily attach and detach as needed. Researchers at JPL use synthetic materials and similar arrays of microscopic features to harness the power of van der Waals forces and showed these adhesives retained many of the same properties as the toes of animal that inspired them.

Soft robotic gripper with gecko inspired adhesives.

Because gecko adhesives are powered by molecular interactions between surfaces, they work best when they have a large contact surface area. Coating the inside of the soft robotic fingers with these adhesives maximizes the amount of surface area they make contact with, ensuring a better grip.

The engineering team solves two different problems in this paper.

First, researchers at UC San Diego set about making sure that the grippers fingers would maintain constant contact with the surface of any object. A common problem with air-powered soft fingers is that they tend to bulge in the middle when inflated, reducing this surface contact. Glick found a study from the 1970s that provided the equations needed to solve the problem in the design process. This allowed researchers to make the gripper apply the correct forces along the entire length of the fingers.

Secondly, the researchers focused on distributing forces on surfaces that arent flat to optimize the performance of gecko-inspired adhesives. The researchers found a way to distribute force along a soft, flexible gripper, while maintaining the manufacturing precision required for the adhesives.

The team did this by using a high-strength fabric embedded in the finger that can easily bend but resists stretching to support larger loads. The fingers are rigidly clamped to a base, which keeps the easily stretchable silicone from deforming beyond what is needed. This combination of soft and stiff materials lets the gripper conform to many objects while withstanding large forces.

The gecko adhesives themselves are made in a three-step process. An original master gecko adhesive mold with millions of microscopic structures is made in a clean room using a photolithography process. Then, wax copies of the master mold can be made at low cost. The researchers then can make as many copies of the adhesive sheets from the wax mold as they often as want by using a process called spin coating. This allows them to make 10 to 20 adhesive sheets in under an hour. Meanwhile, the soft robotic gripper itself is cast in 3D print molds and is made of silicone-based rubber.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thanked Germany for its vital contributions to the Alliance in talks with the new German cabinet, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Tuesday (10 April 2018). Speaking at Schloss Meseberg, the German governments retreat outside Berlin, Mr Stoltenberg praised Germanys leadership of a multinational battlegroup in Lithuania and its decision to add more than 300 troops to the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces.

The Secretary General also welcomed Germanys increased defence spending, as the Alliance adapts to the most serious security challenges in a generation. He outlined preparations for the NATO Summit in July, which will take the next steps for NATO's future. While in Berlin, Mr Stoltenberg also met separately with Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
(Natural News) By the end of 2018, police departments across the United States will begin to use body cameras equipped with facial recognition, artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The technology is intended to scan all the faces in a crowd of people to help identify suspects and missing persons. The algorithm notifies an officer when their body camera has scanned a suspect, giving them the opportunity to act in some way.

The technology will indiscriminately analyze the details of everyones face in real time  a massive breach of privacy. The technology, intended to help law enforcement, will readily be abused and misused. This AI surveillance system, still in development, will be the enabling technology for the coming global surveillance state.

Everyone is going to be watched, 24-7. This will make it very easy to control peoples behavior and make them obedient to authority. This AI-driven global surveillance state will track your every move, understand your personality, and work to manipulate you. As everyone becomes watched and analyzed nonstop, it will be easier for authorities to tell people how to act, what to buy, what to think.

The tech giants that control 90 percent of the information that people read online are already trying to do just that, censoring intelligent commentary on controversial issues while de-monetizing and restricting access to channels and independent news publications that go against the status quo. Senator Richard Pan of California is even trying to force internet publishers in the state to verify their content with fact checker organizations. This is a way for Pan and other authoritarians to censor those who are speaking out about Californias forced vaccine laws. So-called fact-checkers routinely debunk articles and news stories that reveal the toxicity of vaccine ingredients and vaccine adverse events that destroy peoples lives. Senator Pan wants a warning label slapped on all false news stories while requiring publishers to provide a method to reach out to people on social media to warn of the false information. This is fascist, state-run media at its finest, while also enforcing propaganda through the free press.

With AI-driven facial recognition software deployed across the U.S., authoritarians can more readily identify suspects who are not conforming to the states ideas. This technology strips away privacy, autonomy, and provides a way for the government to enforce compliance and thought control.

Its only inevitable: Innocent individuals are going to be targeted and abused by this technology. The AI quickly analyzes information from a database. This database may include images and personal information such as gender, age, hair color, or distinctive features, such as scars, freckles, or moles. The ultimate goal will be to glean as much information in these databases to more easily get a profile on everyone. The AI gets smarter and more efficient as more data is collected on people.

What will make a person a suspect in the future? Who will facial recognition AI target? What behaviors will put people on terrorist watch lists? Today people are targeted for merely speaking out about an authority figure who has abused their power. (Related: Amazon patent admits it will listen in real-time for trigger words that could get you arrested and imprisoned.)

The technology gives police officers and government tremendous power to scan people 24-7 and know everything about everyone. Scientists at the Georgetown Law School estimate that 50 percent of American adults are already profiled in facial-recognition networks used by law enforcement. The personal information that Facebook collects on its users is being used by data collection firms such as Cambridge Analytica to analyze the personality, preferences, and politics of individuals to manipulate their purchases and votes. Facebook also uses facial recognition technology in photos posted online. It is very easy to connect all this data to these AI databases and create a personality profile on individuals and monitor them in real time. AI is the enabling technology to control, track, and manipulate people.

For more on the rollout of the AI-driven surveillance state, visit PrivacyWatch.News.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

NaturalNews.com

LegInfo.Ca.gov

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Theres an infertility crisis of epic proportions ravaging Western society, and the biggest victims are men, whose average sperm counts have reportedly plummeted to about half of what they should be  with no end in sight.

Scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem are reporting this shocking statistic after investigating the changes that have taken place within the male species over the past several decades.

According to the data they compiled, sperm counts in Western men are falling by an average of about 1.4 percent per year, which could very soon result in total extinction of the human race as men continue to lose their ability to reproduce.

The studys findings echo those of another similar study, entitled Temporal Trends in Sperm Count, that was recently published in the journal Human Reproduction Update. Researchers from Dundee University in the United Kingdom looked at 100 studies on reproductive health, in which they discovered a general progressively downward trend in male fertility.

The results, according to Professor Chris Barratt, are such that they should ring alarm bells as to the future of men. Manchester University Professor Daniel Brison agrees, having described the findings as shocking and indicative of the need for a wake-up call to prompt active research in the area.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also spoken out about the epidemic, describing the current amass of scientific knowledge about male fertility as being very low  meaning the scientific community at large remains ignorant as to both its existence and cause.

We are still relatively ignorant about the causes of male infertility, and as a matter of urgency we need to increase, substantially, our research effort into male reproductive health, says Barratt.

Feminism and the destruction of testosterone is destroying men in mind, body, and spirit

Plummeting sperm counts also points to the plummeting of something else critical to human male existence: Testosterone. Men are rapidly losing their maleness, science clearly shows, and this disastrous loss is having a profoundly negative impact on male existence as a whole, particularly in Western society.

The courageous, morally-resolute John Wayne type of alpha male from the past is rapidly disappearing from American society, and low testosterone seems to be the common denominator in this vanishing of real men.

In the age of #metoo, gender-neutrality, pronoun wars and social justice warriors, its not easy to recognize that men are facing some serious issues, and the cards are stacking against them, writes Isaac Davis for Waking Times.

The destruction of the male is well underway, but what will happen to the human race if men become less male?

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson was brave enough to address this issue recently on his show, unpacking some of the latest statistics about men that should have everyone concerned about both their well-being and future as a sex.

During his monologue, Carlson talked about how sperm counts in men have precipitously dropped by an astounding 60 percent since the 1970s, as have testosterone levels, which are currently plummeting by about one percent year after year.

He also explained how the constant assault against men by the media and in education is destroying men physically, spiritually, and mentally, which would explain why the male suicide rate is astoundingly higher than it is in women.

One study found that the average levels of male testosterone dropped by one percent every year after 1987. This is unrelated to age, Carlson explained.

The average 40-year-old-man in 2017 would have testosterone levels 30 percent lower than the average 40-year-old man in 1987.

Carlsons segment on the assault on men in America is available for viewing on YouTube.

Sources for this article include:

TheGuardian.com

WakingTimes.com

YouTube.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, filled in for Infowars creator and host Alex Jones on Sundays broadcast which he called his most important message ever: The tsunami of speech authoritarianism that is already sweeping the country as Left-wing social media giants commit online ethnic cleansing against conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump.

Adams led off by noting that Jack Dorsey, the CEO and co-founder of Twitter, endorsed a rambling, lengthy Medium post last week that calls for the political (and physical?) destruction of all conservatives and Republicans using the California model.

The piece, titled, The Great Lesson of California in Americas New Civil War, not only claims Americans are already engaged in a new ideological conflict (we are), but that there is likely no way the two opposing sides will ever compromise or see eye-to-eye anymore (we wont).

And while those two observations are, in my view, correct, the overall theme of the piece  that the entire country should follow Californias path and relegate Republicans and conservatives to the ash heap of history  is provocative and dangerous.

And yet, as Adams noted, Dorsey endorsed the piece  in a tweet, of course  as a great read.

But then Dorseys tweets arent getting shadow banned, either, like those of conservatives, Republicans, and vocal Trump supporters, which is more to Adams point and the basis of his claim that the Left, and in particular Left-wing tech, is engaging in online ethnic cleansing of competing ideological, cultural, social, and political voices.

Adams, in his broadcast, noted further that Facebook has recently labeled ardent Trump supporters Diamond and Silk as putting out dangerous content and that theyre unsafe to the community. This pair is funny, talented, and entertaining in their defense and support of the president  they are anything but dangerous, unless of course, youre a Marxist.

Because if you speak in a way the tech overlords dont like, all of a sudden you are unsafe, Adams said. This is a very dangerous precedent. Theyre censoring Diamond and Silk just like theyre censoring me, just like theyre censoring Infowars at every opportunity.

The war is on to silence all voices that do not comply with the totalitarian, authoritarian narratives of the Left, Adams noted further. (Related: California state senator who pushed vaccine mandate now seeks to CRIMINALIZE fake news about medicine, politics and government.)

Along these lines, Adams noted as well that The Washington Post at some point over the past two weeks memory-holed an Associated Press article noting that one of special counsel Robert Muellers witnesses in his never-ending, always expanding probe of all things Team Trump is a convicted pedophile. According to the article, George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, was a globe-trotting fixer who was convicted 15 years ago in Poland for 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and was given a one-year sentence in May 2003. You can draw your own conclusions as to why the Post would delete a widely syndicated article.

Adams noted that the story that Dorsey praised calls for Left-wing mob rule, essentially, and that view is reflected throughout YouTube, Twitter, Google, and Facebook  all of which are doing the same thing, which is censorship of conservative and pro-Trump voices.

They are now running the gamut of just deleting every conservative voice and independent media voice, every independent journalist, every libertarian voice that they dont like, said Adams.

The Health Ranger shared his recent personal experience of seeing his channel on YouTube, which featured hundreds of videos, taken down  all because he said that the human species comes in two genders, male and female.

That upset the LGBTQ community, said Adams, and YouTube used it as an excuse to ban him.

Watch more here:

Dont miss the really important news, check out Censored.news all day, every day.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

YouTube.com

Medium.com

TheNationalSentinel.com
(Natural News) Over the weekend late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel backed out of his Twitter war with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the latter called him out for mocking first lady Melania Trumps accent as she read a childrens book aloud during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll over the Easter holiday.

Kimmel apologized  sort of  to Hannity, noting that the back-and-forth wasnt helpful and was, in fact, harming the country.

The Left-wing darling was adamant about apologizing to gays and lesbians, however, after a series of tweets implying homosexual acts between President Donald J. Trump and Hannity in typical Alt-Left classless fashion, pointing out specifically that his choice of humor was done in poor taste.

While I admit I did have fun with our back and forth, after some thought, I realize that the level of vitriol from all sides (mine and me included) does nothing good for anyone and, in fact, is harmful to our country, he wrote. By lampooning Sean Hannitys deference to the President, I most certainly did not intend to belittle or upset members of the gay community and to those who took offense, I apologize. I will take Sean Hannity at his word that he was genuinely offended by what I believed and still believe to be a harmless and silly aside referencing our First Ladys accent.

Mrs. Trump almost certainly has enough to worry about without being used as a prop to increase TV ratings, he added, a likely reference to allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump from former porn stars and pin-up girls.

What Kimmel has yet to do, however, is apologize for mocking the first ladys accent as she read to the children in attendance (she is eastern European, having been born in Slovenia).

Like I said, classless. But typical.

Now, those upset with Kimmel are taking a page from the Alt-Left outrage machine playbook and are calling for a boycott of his program and the shows advertisers. Nearly 200,000 people have already e-signed it.

On Monday night [last Monday], left-wing host Jimmy Kimmel showed his true bigotry by mocking the way our First Lady was reading a childrens book during the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House, the petition reads, as reported by Infowars.

In the past he has claimed to be tolerant of all immigrants, but he openly made fun of her accent and his crowd laughed along. He even reenacted the way she says This and That. Then, he told his immigrant counterpart, Guillermo, that he too could be First Lady, the petition continues. Its clear that his entire goal was to insult her intelligence just because of the way she speaks.

The petition, when the goal of 200,000-plus is reached, will be delivered to ABC/Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif.

Now, what will ABC do with it? Probably nothing  not that the petition effort is not worthwhile because it is.

The network ought to know that there are a lot of angry Americans who are not just sick of this kind of blatant childishness that passes for political debate nowadays, they are tired of how this president is constantly disrespected, and with good reason.

Obama was not popular with conservatives and many libertarians, but he was never assailed in the manner Trump is routinely attacked and savaged on a daily basis. I cant remember Obama, for instance, ever receiving credible death threats from public figures or threats of physical harm, but Trump regularly receives them  from washed-up actors like Robert De Niro, D-list comedians like Kathy Griffin, and has-been rappers like Snoop Dogg.

Two things need to happen: We need to rediscover our funny bones and stop being so offended by everything that is said and we need to bring some civility back to the civil society.

See more at JimmyKimmel.news.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

Infowars.com
A former JetBlue Airways flight attendant was sentenced Monday for attempting to smuggle nearly 60 pounds of cocaine worth up to $3 million in her carry-on luggage, then fleeing when pulled aside for a baggage search at Los Angeles International Airport.

Marsha Gay Reynolds, 33, sprinted down an "up" escalator and out of LAX, leaving behind her luggage, after she was randomly selected for secondary screening on March 18, 2016. The following day, she worked a JetBlue flight back to New York and surrendered to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Citing her cooperation with prosecutors, a federal judge in Los Angeles has sentenced Reynolds to time she has already served in custody -- about two years. Reynolds will spend three years on supervised release.

She could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison.



A former beauty pageant contestant in Jamaica and New York University track athlete, Reynolds had been a JetBlue employee for six years. Her arrest gained national media attention.

The drug discovery was made in Terminal 4 by a Transportation Security Administration security officer who was screening the airline attendant's carry-on bags as part of a random search. As a crew member, Reynolds would ordinarily get to bypass bag screening.

As the TSA officer led Reynolds to a location to be searched, she made a cell phone call -- speaking with a heavy Jamaican accent -- then kicked off her Gucci high heels and ran down the escalator and out of the terminal.

Reynolds pleaded guilty in December 2016 to a single federal count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The felony charge is punishable by a 10-year mandatory minimum prison term, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Reynolds' supplier, Jamaican national Gaston Brown, was convicted at trial in February of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the drug and other federal charges. Reynolds testified against him in Los Angeles federal court in exchange for unspecified benefits from prosecutors.

The ex-flight attendant -- a U.S. citizen who had been living with her family in Queens, New York -- was paid thousands of dollars for smuggling drugs and money through LAX and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on about 10 occasions, starting in October 2015, using her crew member status to avoid security screening at both airports, prosecutors said.

Reynolds' abandoned luggage was found to contain 11 individually wrapped packages -- labeled "Big Ranch" -- that were taken to the Los Angeles police's Forensic Science Division, where the contents tested positive for cocaine, court papers show.

"It takes a very bold criminal to run through the airport -- and come back the next day and flee the district," Assistant U.S. Attorney Reema M. El-Amamy said after an early hearing in the case.

After Reynolds' arrest, Brown, 41, fled to Jamaica under a false name. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

Following the foiled drug-smuggling attempt, Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Police Officers Association, called for 100 percent screening of all airport employees.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for free Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

The Vermont-based ice cream chain will celebrate its annual Free Cone Day event on Tuesday, April 10.

Customers can get a free scoop of their favorite flavor from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at participating locations. And if after enjoying a Cherry Garcia cone your taste buds yearn for some Phish Food, just get back in line for another free cone. "Over and over again. We're not counting. Really, go for it," the company said on its website.

The first Free Cone Day was in 1979  one year after co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield launched the company in a renovated gas station in Burlington. The tradition has since expanded globally, and Ben & Jerry's says it will hand out more than 1 million free scoops this Tuesday.

Click here to find a participating Ben & Jerry's location near you.

Below is a list of Bay Area Ben & Jerry's locations participating in Free Cone Day:

San Francisco:

Macy's: 170 O'Farrell St.

Haight Ashbury: 1480 Haight St.

Fisherman's Wharf: Pier 41

Argonaut: 475 Jefferson St.

Oakland:

Jack London Square: 505 Embarcadero West

Berkeley:

Center Street: 2130 Center St.

Napa:
A San Francisco police officer detailed the racial slurs and discrimination directed at him from fellow officers over the past few years at a news conference Tuesday at the the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.

San Francisco's Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the SFPD officer of Afghan descent, who asked to remain anonymous, was asked "is anyone in your family a terrorist?," and called a racial slur four times by other officers.



The officer, who joined the department in June 2016, said he experienced blatant racism and witnessed blatant misconduct against citizens and said he raised concerns with Human Resources but was called a rat and shamed for whistleblowing.

"When I joined the SFPD, I was fulfilling a boyhood dream. I had admired the SFPD since my family came to this country. I was 8 years old. A kind SFPD officer helped my family find their way after arriving at SFO," the officer said and expressed his disappointment in the department.

"I am truly ashamed of them. They have dishonored every principle and ethics the Police Department stands for," he said.

Claim: Racial epithets & prejudicial lanaguage directed at SFPD officer of Afghani descent over last few years. SF Public Defender @JeffAdachi lays out accusations included in complaint against police. Including term sandn****. Says suit not for $...just change in culture. pic.twitter.com/ekugOlRwin  Sam Brock (@SamBrockNBC) April 10, 2018

The officer says hes been harrassed and demeaned by fellow officers because of his Afghan background and Muslim faith. He said the Internal Affairs department exposed his complaint instead of investigating.

Asked why he lost faith in the IA process, he said, "Leakage. Nonstop leakage. Finding out stuff that supposedly is supposed to be confidential, and yet everyone in their department knows about it."

Adachi also detailed other misconducts by SFPD officers, including using homophobic slurs and sexual misconduct, as alleged by the whistleblower.

Adachi said the officer first raised concerns about the racial comments in November of 2017 and filed an official Equal Employment Opportunity complaint in January 2018. Since then, the officer said he has received backlash from other officers and sergeants.

SFPD released a statement Tuesday in response to the allegations, saying in part it has "implemented a number of measures to ensure all members of the public and our department are treated with respect and dignity."



The officer has not filed a suit with the Police Department and is more interested in seeing change within the department, according to Adachi.

"This is not about money, this about wanting to improve the department," Adachi said.

This isn't the first time an SFPD officer faced retaliation for their complaint, according to the Public Defender's Office. In November 2017, an African American officer, Joel Babbs, claimed he have faced months of retaliation for alleging racism in the ranks, the Public Defender's Office said.

Here's the full SFPD statement released Tuesday:

"The San Francisco Police Department takes the allegations presented today very seriously. The department was made aware of these allegations in November, 2017 and immediately initiated an investigation. There are currently three ongoing investigations by SFPD and the Citys Department of Human Resources. SFPD will thoroughly investigate all alleged misconduct uncovered during these investigations which implicates any member of this department.

"In the past three years, SFPD has implemented a number of measures to ensure all members of the public and our department are treated with respect and dignity. The department has instituted implicit bias and procedural justice training for all sworn and civilian members; implemented best practices recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice; instituted electronic audits of communications; entered into agreements with academic partners to analyze vehicle stops and the use of force; and launched the Not On My Watch campaign to promote improved relations between officers and the public. We are committed to providing just, transparent, unbiased and responsive policing and will continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we serve.

Read the full EEO complaint below:
The U.S. government is awarding over $212 million worth of a disaster recovery grant to California for its housing, infrastructure and economic development needs after Northern California wildfires ravaged over 8,000 homes and businesses.

The grant comes a day after the six-month anniversary of the firestorm that destroyed entire neighborhoods in Napa and Sonoma counties.

Its clear that a number of states and local communities are still struggling to recover from a variety of natural disasters that occurred in the past three years, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a release.

These grants will help rebuild communities impacted by past disasters and will also protect them from major disasters in the future.

Many residents are still dealing with the consequences of the fires with their insurance company and one Napa County resident said "even though it's been six months, its still a little fresh."



"I cant hear wind or smell smoke without everything coming back," Linda Savoie said.

Sen. Bill Dodd who oversees the Napa and Sonoma County affected by the wildfires told NBC Bay Area that the grant is "a meaningful and important step toward recovery."

"Were very thankful for the federal support and to key members of Congress, including Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, for helping to secure it," Sen. Dodd said.



The grant to California is part of larger disaster recovery grants of $185 billion to disaster areas across the U.S. including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The funds covering last year's disasters include $4.7 billion for the state of Texas, $212 million for California, $707 million for Florida and $1.6 billion for the Virgin Islands.

Others receiving grants are the states of Louisiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina. Local governments in several of those states were also awarded the grants, including Houston in connection with flooding in 2015.
Hardly 'friends': Zuckerberg fends off senators on privacy

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, BARBARA ORTUTAY and DAVID HAMILTON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  Under fire for the worst privacy debacle in his company's history, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away often-aggressive questioning Tuesday from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the U.S. election.

During some five hours of Senate questioning, Zuckerberg apologized several times for Facebook failures, disclosed that his company was "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users' private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump's campaign.

Seemingly unimpressed, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Zuckerberg's company had a 14-year history of apologizing for "ill-advised decisions" related to user privacy. "How is today's apology different?" Thune asked.

"We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company," Zuckerberg conceded, and Facebook must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in "good and healthy" ways."

The controversy has brought a flood of bad publicity and sent the company's stock value plunging, but Zuckerberg seemed to achieve a measure of success in countering that: Facebook shares surged 4.5 percent for the day, the biggest gain in two years.

In all, he skated largely unharmed through his first day of congressional testimony. He'll face House questioners on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old founder of the world's best-known social media giant appeared in a suit and tie, a departure from the T-shirt he's famous for wearing in public as well as in private. Even so, his youth cast a sharp contrast with his often-elderly, gray-haired Senate inquisitors. And the enormous complexity of the social network he created at times defeated the attempts of legislators to hammer him on Facebook's specific failures and how to fix them.

The stakes are high for both Zuckerberg and his company. Facebook has been reeling from its worst-ever privacy failure following revelations last month that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Trump's 2016 campaign, improperly scooped up data on some 87 million users. Zuckerberg has been on an apology tour for most of the past two weeks, culminating in his congressional appearance Tuesday.

Although shaky at times, Zuckerberg seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed. An iconic figure as a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the way people around the world relate to each other, he made a point of repeatedly referring back to the Harvard dorm room where he said Facebook was brought to life.

At times, he showed plenty of steel. After aggressive questioning about Facebook's alleged political bias from Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, Zuckerberg was asked if he was ready to take a break.

No need. "That was pretty good," he said of the exchange with Cruz.

For the most part, his careful but generally straightforward answers, steeped in the sometimes arcane details of Facebook's underlying functions, often deflected aggressive questioning. When the going got tough, Zuckerberg was able to fall back on: "Our team should follow up with you on that, Senator."

As a result, he found it relatively easy to return to familiar talking points: Facebook made mistakes, he and his executives are very sorry, and they're working very hard to correct the problems and safeguard the users' data.

As for the federal Russia probe that has occupied much of Washington's attention for months, he said he had not been interviewed by special counsel Mueller's team, but "I know we're working with them." He offered no details, citing a concern about confidentiality rules of the investigation.

Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and politicking on U.S. soil. A number of the Russian ads were on Facebook.

Much of the effort was aimed at denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and thereby helping Republican Trump, or simply encouraging divisiveness and undercutting faith in the U.S. system.

Zuckerberg said Facebook had been led to believe Cambridge Analytica had deleted the user data it had harvested and that had been "clearly a mistake." He said Facebook had considered the data collection "a closed case" and had not alerted the Federal Trade Commission. He assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.

Separately, the company began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that "one of your friends" used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life." The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg is trying to both restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated.

Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida said he believes Zuckerberg was taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."

Republicans have yet to get behind any legislation, but that could change.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Zuckerberg if he would be willing to work with lawmakers to examine what "regulations you think are necessary in your industry."

Absolutely, Zuckerberg responded, saying later in an exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that "I'm not the type of person who thinks that all regulation is bad."

Ahead of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said, "This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action."

At the hearing, Zuckerberg said, "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

He outlined steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

___

Associated Press writers Richard Lardner and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Ortutay and Hamilton reported from New York.

___

For complete coverage of the Facebook privacy scandal, visit https://apnews.com/tag/FacebookPrivacyScandal

Under fire for the worst privacy debacle in his company's history, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away often-aggressive questioning Tuesday from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the U.S. election.

During some five hours of Senate questioning, Zuckerberg apologized several times for Facebook failures, disclosed that his company was "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users' private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump's campaign.

Seemingly unimpressed, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Zuckerberg's company had a 14-year history of apologizing for "ill-advised decisions" related to user privacy. "How is today's apology different?" Thune asked.

"We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company," Zuckerberg conceded, and Facebook must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in "good and healthy" ways.

The controversy has brought a flood of bad publicity and sent the company's stock value plunging, but Zuckerberg seemed to achieve a measure of success in countering that: Facebook shares surged 4.5 percent for the day, the biggest gain in two years.

In all, he skated largely unharmed through his first day of congressional testimony. He'll face House questioners Wednesday.

The 33-year-old founder of the world's best-known social media giant appeared in a suit and tie, a departure from the T-shirt he's famous for wearing in public as well as in private. Even so, his youth cast a sharp contrast with his often-elderly, gray-haired Senate inquisitors. And the enormous complexity of the social network he created at times defeated the attempts of legislators to hammer him on Facebook's specific failures and how to fix them.

The stakes are high for both Zuckerberg and his company. Facebook has been reeling from its worst-ever privacy failure following revelations last month that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Trump's 2016 campaign, improperly scooped up data on some 87 million users. Zuckerberg has been on an apology tour for most of the past two weeks, culminating in his congressional appearance Tuesday.

Although shaky at times, Zuckerberg seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed. An iconic figure as a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the way people around the world relate to each other, he made a point of repeatedly referring back to the Harvard dorm room where he said Facebook was brought to life.

At times, he showed plenty of steel. After aggressive questioning about Facebook's alleged political bias from Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, Zuckerberg was asked if he was ready to take a break.

No need. "That was pretty good," he said of the exchange with Cruz.

For the most part, his careful but generally straightforward answers, steeped in the sometimes arcane details of Facebook's underlying functions, often deflected aggressive questioning. When the going got tough, Zuckerberg was able to fall back on: "Our team should follow up with you on that, Senator."

As a result, he found it relatively easy to return to familiar talking points: Facebook made mistakes, he and his executives are very sorry, and they're working very hard to correct the problems and safeguard the users' data.

As for the federal Russia probe that has occupied much of Washington's attention for months, he said he had not been interviewed by special counsel Mueller's team, but "I know we're working with them." He offered no details, citing a concern about confidentiality rules of the investigation.

Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and politicking on U.S. soil. A number of the Russian ads were on Facebook.

Much of the effort was aimed at denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and thereby helping Republican Trump, or simply encouraging divisiveness and undercutting faith in the U.S. system.

Zuckerberg said Facebook had been led to believe Cambridge Analytica had deleted the user data it had harvested and that had been "clearly a mistake." He said Facebook had considered the data collection "a closed case" and had not alerted the Federal Trade Commission. He assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.

Separately, the company began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that "one of your friends" used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life." The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg is trying to both restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated.

Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida said he believes Zuckerberg was taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."

Republicans have yet to get behind any legislation, but that could change.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Zuckerberg if he would be willing to work with lawmakers to examine what "regulations you think are necessary in your industry."

Absolutely, Zuckerberg responded, saying later in an exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that "I'm not the type of person who thinks that all regulation is bad."

Ahead of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said, "This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action."

At the hearing, Zuckerberg said: "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

He outlined steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Associated Press writers Richard Lardner and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Ortutay and Hamilton reported from New York.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak said Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He said the "profits are all based on the user's info, but the users get none of the profits back."

Wozniak said he'd rather pay for Facebook.

"Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you," he said.

In an interview late Monday in Philadelphia with The Associated Press, Wozniak said he had been thinking for a while of deleting his account and made the move after several of his trusted friends deleted their Facebook accounts last week.

It's "a big hypocrisy not respecting my privacy when (Facebook CEO Mark) Zuckerberg buys all the houses around his and all the lots around his in Hawaii for his own privacy," Wozniak said. "He knows the value of it, but he's not looking after mine."

A British data mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's Republican presidential campaign gathered personal information from 87 million Facebook users to try to influence elections. Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, has announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.

Zuckerberg has apologized, and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, has said she's sorry the company let so many people down.

Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company's ongoing data privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

Wozniak said he doesn't believe in the current system that Facebook can fix its privacy issues, saying he doesn't think Facebook is going to change its policies "for decades."

Wozniak said Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, has systems and policies that in many cases allow people to choose whether to share certain data. He said he doesn't foresee Apple not allowing the Facebook app to be bought or downloaded on its phones but said he does not make those decisions for the company.

Other prominent supporters of the #DeleteFacebook effort include WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and celebrities including Cher, Rosie O'Donnell, Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey.

Carrey told CNBC he was also selling shares he owned in the company.

"We must encourage more oversight by the owners of these social media platforms," Carrey said. "This easy access has to be more responsibly handled. What we need now are activist investors to send a message that responsible oversight is needed. What the world needs now is capitalism with a conscience."

Playboy also said it was leaving the platform.

Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report from Philadelphia.
Chief Jeffrey Winward says dealing with drug overdoses is not what he signed up for when he joined the Lowell Fire Department 24 years ago.

"But unfortunately were in the middle of this opioid epidemic," says Winward.

Responding to opioid overdoses is now part of the daily job description, and theyre doing it with Narcan, a medicine that helps reverse the effects.

"Helping save more lives, as well," says Winward.

In Massachusetts, fewer people are dying from opioid overdoses, and Narcan is being credited for the decline.

However, a state trust fund that helps offset the cost of Narcan for police and fire departments is running out of cash, which could mean these departments would have to spend more of their own budgets to save lives.

Instead of $40 per box, communities would now have to pay more than $70.

"The price goes up, we may be able to buy fewer doses," says Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Attorney General Maura Healeys office is helping by adding money to the fund but says it will not be enough for the long run. More than half of the municipalities in the state have already used cash from this fund that was set up in 2015.

"Were going to continue to provide as much as we can, to as many people who need it," says Ryan.

For now, she says many cities and towns have enough Narcan and will not have to buy more for at least three to six months.

The AG's office is also asking the business community and lawmakers to help come up with more cash to reload this fund.
A 6-year-old girl is dead and a 9-year-old boy remains hospitalized in what police are calling a suspicious death investigation in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said police responded to a 911 call at 139 Stoneybrook Road around 11:58 a.m. Tuesday. When they arrived, they found an injured young boy and an unresponsive young girl.

Both children were brought to the UMass Memorial Health Alliance in Leominster, where the girl was pronounced dead. The boy was transferred to Worcester Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Early said state police detectives and Fitchburg police are investigating and are deeming it a suspicious death. The chief medical examiner has accepted jurisdiction and will determine the cause and manner of the girl's death.

"We are very early in this investigation," he said. "The case is very active. A lot of moving parts are going on right now."

"This was not a random act," added Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau. "The public is not in danger."

He would not answer questions about whether anyone is in custody, but the Sentinel & Enterprise is reporting that police have arrested a woman in connection with the investigation.

Martineau said the investigation is not connected in any way to a series of recent school threats in the city.

"This is a totally separate incident," he said.

Neighbors on Stoneybrook Road said they first started hearing sirens around noon Tuesday.

"Around noon we first started hearing the cops and sirens coming around, the helicopters, and we're all just listening to the scanners and trying to figure out what's going on," neighbor Mike Naughton said. "There are a lot of theories going around."

Massachusetts State Police said assets including Air Wing, K9, Crime Scene Services, patrols and detectives assigned to the Worcester District Attorney responded to assist Fitchburg police at the crime scene.

Aerial footage showed numerous police and fire vehicles blanketing the neighborhood. Police were seen checking IDs before letting drivers pass down Stoneybrook Road on Tuesday afternoon.

A DCF spokesman said in a statement Tuesday night, The Department of Children and Families received a report of this tragic situation and is assisting law enforcement in this active investigation.
After nearly a month off, Illinois lawmakers are returning to Springfield, and while Chicago leaders want to see an override of Governor Bruce Rauners veto of gun legislation, its unclear whether its possible in an election year.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and States Attorney Kim Foxx have already called upon the General Assembly to come up with the votes to override the veto, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel has also joined that push.

Forty percent of the guns recovered come from gun shops and gun dealers here in Illinois, Emanuel said. We have a responsibility to police and regulate what happens here.

Mayor Emanuel along with CPD who support stronger gun laws, criticize Governor Bruce Rauners veto on the gun dealer licensing bill. NBC 5s Mary Ann Ahern has reports.

A bill that would have ushered in a host of gun reforms was vetoed by the governor just before the March primary, but its unclear if Democrats can garner enough votes in an election year to override the veto.

On the GOP side, Rauner has said that he will unveil his own list of reforms, but didnt specify what those measures could entail.

We are going to come forward in the next few weeks with very specific proposals on a bipartisan basis, Rauner said.

To that end, Rauner has called for a meeting of the top legislative leaders of both parties this Thursday, with just seven weeks remaining until the end of the legislative season.

That appeal for bipartisanship may be a tall order for the governor, who has not yet spoken with former GOP primary challenger Jeanne Ives, whom he defeated in the March election.

Ives has returned to Springfield, and she isnt sure how the governor will achieve his stated goals of a balanced budget and pension reform.

People are very skeptical on the budget, she said. First of all, politically speaking I think House Speaker Mike Madigan wants to make sure Rauner doesnt have any success, but Rauner needs success if hes going to do anything in November to get elected.

Even though Ives has been publicly critical of the governor, GOP Leader Bill Brady believes the representative and her supporters will be in Rauners corner by the time the election rolls around.

They know. Theyre smart. Theyre activists, he said. They know staying home is a vote for JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan and I believe theyre smart enough to know that.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for free Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

The Vermont-based ice cream chain will celebrate its annual Free Cone Day event on Tuesday, April 10.

Customers can get a free scoop of their favorite flavor from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at participating locations. And if after enjoying a Cherry Garcia cone your taste buds yearn for some Phish Food, just get back in line for another free cone.

"Over and over again. We're not counting. Really, go for it," the company said on its website.

The first Free Cone Day was in 1979  one year after co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield launched the company in a renovated gas station in Burlington. The tradition has since expanded globally, and Ben & Jerry's says it will hand out more than 1 million free scoops this Tuesday.

Among the participating locations in Illinois are Chicago's Navy Pier, located at 600 East Grand Avenue, and The Glen, located at 1860 Tower Drive in Glenview's The Glen Town Center.

Click here to find a participating Ben & Jerry's location near you.
After a judge ruled against the city of Harvey as it seeks money the Illinois Comptrollers Office is holding, the citys mayor warns that massive layoffs could be on the horizon.

Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg convened an emergency meeting on Monday after a judge ruled that the state acted appropriately in withholding $1.4 million to cover shortfalls in the citys pension plan.

The city of Harvey has never undergone massive layoffs like the ones were expecting for our police and fire departments, Kellogg said.

Kellogg accused the state of playing politics, and city leaders are concerned that there isnt enough money in the bank to cover payroll expenses for first responders.

Its unfortunate that our state leaders, specifically our comptroller, have no interest in the safety of the people of Harvey, Police Chief Gregory Thomas said.

In a statement, Comptroller Susana Mendozas office said it acted appropriately.

The legislature passed a law allowing pension funds to certify to our office that municipalities have failed to make required payments to pension funds, the statement reads.

The municipality has a chance to respond. A judge ruled today in favor of the Harvey Police Pension Fund, saying the funds were appropriately put on hold. This dispute is between the pension fund and the city of Harvey," Mendoza's office continued.

In 2015, a Cook County judge ruled that the city of Harvey owed more than $7.3 million to its police pension fund after it failed to make payments for nearly a decade. Mendoza withheld the $1.4 million in revenues to satisfy that judgment, according to Courthouse News.

The mayor said Monday that city officials would be crunching numbers through the night to avoid what he called massive layoffs.

City employees said they anticipated finding out if they were still employed on Tuesday morning, with tensions high as they said they were waiting for the axe to fall.
For the second time in five months, a baby was placed in a Safe Haven box at a northwest Indiana fire department.

The child was placed in the baby box at the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department, located in Michigan City, Indiana, on Sunday evening, fire officials said.

Department members pagers went off at 7:05 p.m., signalling that the box had been activated, Chief Mick Pawlik said at a news conference Monday.

Lt. Chuck Kohler was leaving his home to go to the grocery store at the time and instead headed for the fire station, arriving less than a minute later, he said.

When I pulled the baby out of the box, my first thought was baby Grace  saving grace. It just popped into my head, Kohler said.

He and his colleagues stressed that the discovery of the baby  with its umbilical cord still attached  was a positive outcome in what can often be a difficult job.

Any time I think about this, I smile, Kohler continued. Its a happy, joyous occasion, we have a happy baby. The purpose for this box going in is being used and its wonderful.

The Safe Haven baby box was one of two installed at Indiana fire departments in April 2016, allowing parents to drop off newborns anonymously, with no questions asked, under state law.

The drawer in the box is designed to silently contact 911 when it is opened. Motion sensors contact 911 a second time when the baby is placed inside, and the person leaving the baby is given a third option of pushing a button to contact emergency officials.

The box has a heater to keep the baby warm and can only be opened from inside the building once it is closed with the baby inside. The two in Indiana are the only Safe Haven baby boxes nationwide, though advocate Monica Kelsey, president of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., said there are plans to install one in Ohio.

In November, the Coolspring Township Fire Departments baby box was used for the first time when someone surrendered a newborn girl, just an hour old, wrapped in a sweatshirt. Firefighters who discovered her named her Baby Hope.

As they did in November, fire officials once again shared their gratitude for the newborns parents.

We cant thank the mother enough. We cant thank the parents enough, Kohler said.

We dont know the situation, but to make this choice, to be strong enough to make this choice is wonderful. They had to choose something very hard and they chose right, he added.

The child was placed in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services, authorities said, and will be placed in foster care.

Kelsey asked that anyone looking to adopt the baby not call the hospital to inquire, but instead enter the proper channels to becoming a foster parent.
A new report has ranked the top school districts in Illinois for 2018 and a west suburban school district topped the list.

Napervilles Community Unit School District 203, which serves central Naperville and parts of Bolingbrook and Lisle, ranked no. 1 on the list of Illinois 100 best school districts by Backgroundchecks.org, an online portal that helps users find public records and run background checks.

Naperville Central High School, which is part of the district, has been listed as one of the top high schools in America by U.S. News and World Report and Meadow Glens Elementary was named a Blue Ribbon School in 2015, the report notes.

The ranking, which evaluated 9,577 districts, was made from data on students math and reading test scores from the Center for Education Policy Analysis, dropout rates and school funding from the National Center for Education Statistics and area poverty rates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Following Naperville on the list was District 709 in Morton, District 118 in Wauconda, District 323 in Dunlap and District 220 in Barrington.

Morton was noted for having an average ACT composite score that is 2.5 points higher than the statewide average, according to the report. Dunlap and Barrington districts also earned the highest financial rating in the state.

Heres a look at the top 10 school districts:

1. Naperville Cusd 203 Illinois

2. Morton Cusd 709 Illinois

3. Wauconda Cusd 118 Illinois

4. Dunlap Cusd 323 Illinois

5. Barrington Cusd 220 Illinois

6. Elmhurst Sd 205 Illinois

7. Indian Prairie Cusd 204 Illinois

8. Geneva Cusd 304 Illinois

9. St Charles Cusd 303 Illinois

10. Cons Sd 158 Illinois

See the full report here.
With federal agents digging into his personal affairs, Donald Trump drove his West Wing into deeper tumult Tuesday, canceling a South American trip to consider a military strike in Syria and bidding farewell to another top aide amid a continual staffing shakeup.

Trump, still fuming after agents on Monday raided the office of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has privately pondered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and publicly mused about firing special counsel Robert Mueller. The raid, in which agents seized records on topics including a $130,000 payment to a porn actress who alleges she had sex with Trump in 2006, comes as the president weighs imminent military action in Syria and ahead of what was supposed to be his first trip to Latin America this weekend.

Trump had been telling confidants for weeks that he was not eager to make the three-day trip, which had already been shortened from original plans, according to two people who have discussed it with him in recent weeks but were not authorized to disclose the private conversations. His decision not to travel was publicly tied to the need to monitor the situation in Syria, but privately Trump said he didn't want to be away from the White House amid developments in the China trade dispute and in the Mueller investigation.

A year ago, the president ordered a round of airstrikes while hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago.

Trump also expressed confidence in the loyalty displayed by Cohen, his longtime personal and professional fixer, who ascended to one of the most powerful roles at the Trump Organization not filled by a family member. Cohen has steadfastly denied wrongdoing in his payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and has publicly defended Trump, but he has confided in associates that he is fearful of being a fall guy, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

After the raid, Trump was the most irate his advisers had seen him in weeks, according to five people familiar with the president's views but not authorized to discuss them publicly. Trump tweeted Tuesday that "Attorney-client privilege is dead!" Nervous White House aides expressed new fears about the president's unpredictability in the face of the Cohen raid, which he viewed as an assault on a longtime defender and a sign that Mueller's probe into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was "going too far."

Cohen has said he took out a personal line of credit on his home to pay Daniels days before the 2016 election without Trump's knowledge. The raid was overseen by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and based in part on a referral from Mueller.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made clear that White House officials have explored Trump's authority to fire Mueller.

"He certainly believes that he has the power to do so," she said at Tuesday's press briefing.

Under Justice Department regulations, only Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation, can fire Mueller.

Trump spent Monday evening calling associates to vent and gauge their reaction to the news. He bitterly complained that the raids were meant to ruin Cohen's life and expressed frustration that it was another front from which to attack his presidency, according to a person familiar with the conversations but not permitted to discuss them publicly.

Trump also revived his broadsides on Rosenstein and, in particular, Rosenstein's boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he belittled to confidants for recusing himself from the investigation and, in turn, delivering him to Mueller.

The White House insisted Trump was focused on the response to Syria following the country's apparent use of chemical weapons on civilians over the weekend, killing more than 40 people. A military strike would mark Trump's second retaliatory strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad's government at a time when Trump is seeking to reduce the U.S. footprint in Syria.

The discussions come as Trump's newest national security adviser, John Bolton, stepped into the job this week. He encouraged Trump to skip the trip to South America to manage the Syria strategy.

Bolton, a seasoned bureaucratic operator, has been expected to put his stamp on the National Security Council staff. NSC spokesman Michael Anton resigned over the weekend, with two people familiar with the situation saying Anton resigned after learning he would be fired. Trump's homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, exited Tuesday. Bossert had overseen the administration's response to the 2017 hurricane season and was credited by his colleagues for leading the administration's efforts to bolster cybersecurity resiliency across government and private industry.

Asked if Bolton forced Bossert out, Sanders said: "I'm not going to get into specific details about the ongoings of personnel, but I can tell you that he resigned. The president feels he's done a great job and wishes him the best."

The mood at the NSC this week was described as grim, with aides fearful over Bolton's plans. More senior-level departures are expected in the coming weeks, said two people familiar with the dynamic but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Trump's administration has set records for turnover in his 15 months in office at all levels, with Bossert marking at least the 13th official who held the rank of assistant to the president at the start of the administration to depart.

There is growing concern in Trump's orbit that the turmoil will only continue following the release next week of former FBI director James Comey's book, which promises to reveal new details about his conversations with the president and the Russia probe. An administration official said the White House would largely defer to outside surrogates to push back on Comey, but there was concern as to how the director's interviews could rile up the president.
Victims' relatives who are seeking to hold Saudi Arabia responsible in the Sept. 11 attacks say their next step is to pressure U.S. security agencies to release withheld documents.

A federal court judge in New York last month rejected a Saudi motion to end the lawsuit.

Brett Eagleson, of Middletown, Connecticut, whose father was killed in the twin towers, said at a news conference Monday in Hartford that the plaintiffs plan a grassroots effort to compel the CIA, the FBI and others to turn over information that could shed light on Saudi complicity.

Hundreds of victims relatives and injured survivors, along with insurance companies and businesses, sued the Saudi government, saying its employees knowingly assisted hijackers who carried out the attacks. The Saudi government has long denied any involvement.
A Higganum woman turned to NBC Connecticut Responds when a check she wrote wound up cashed and cleared by her bank three times.

Theyre my bank. They should be protecting me. They should be protecting my interest and my money, Kelly Moyher said.

The troubles began in July, when Moyher hired someone through Thumbtack.com and paid him $500 to get rid of the clutter in her garage.

Well, it was some heavy lifting, definitely. Something that was going to take me alone to do, at least several days. So, I was looking to get it done, added Moyher.

Moyher told us the worker instructed her to write the check out to his fiancee.

Yeah, it definitely set off, yeah know, a little bell. But hes a younger gentleman and I thought maybe he doesnt have his own account or something like that, Moyher said.

Moyhers bank statement shows the $500 cleared her checking account with Webster Bank in September. Then, a month later, check number 2988, that same check she wrote to the worker, cleared her account a second time.

She said the bank reimbursed her account several days later.

I was really upset, you know, its tricky to know who to trust these days, said Moyer.

Moyher said she then discovered that check number 2988 cleared a third time in November at a TD bank branch.

This time it was altered. The amount was altered for $1500 and the bank didnt catch it, Moyher said.

That transaction resulted in overdraft fees and other charges. Moyher filed a fraud report with Webster and opened a new checking account at a different bank.

To balance the account, Moyher said Webster credited her $500 while the investigation was underway. But that only made up the amount the check was originally written for, not the altered amount. After going back and forth with her bank, Kelly asked NBC Connecticut Responds to intervene.

It wasnt until I did contact NBC that very day I believe they did put a $1,000 back into my account, said Moyher.

A spokesperson with Webster bank provided this statement to NBC Connecticut Responds:

"Webster began working closely with Ms. Moyher as soon as became aware of the issue. Based on a review of our records, we believe, at this point, we have completely reimbursed her the full amount related to this matter. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, and hope that we have reached a satisfactory conclusion."

We reached out to TD Bank regarding this incident. A spokesperson released this statement to NBC Connecticut Responds:

"Due to privacy concerns, we do not discuss the account activity and related facts pertaining to particular customers. However, I can tell you that TD Bank takes allegations of fraud very seriously and investigates customer complaints such as this, and makes determinations, based upon the specific facts."
A 23-year-old Eastern Connecticut State University student was killed in a crash on Interstate 384 in Bolton Friday afternoon.

Police said Thomas Jaquan Madden, of Manchester, was driving a Nissan Maxima and it went off I-384 in Bolton, at the Manchester line, at 1 p.m. at hit a tree.

Madden was transported to Hartford Hospital and later died, according to state police.

Eastern Connecticut State University said it in a statement on Facebook that Madden was a senior social work major who graduated from Manchester High School.

Thomas was active on campus as a member of the Caribbean Students Association, BSU, Fusion Dance Team, Fashion Forward, and MALES. He also presented at the 2017 CREATE conference on Services and Challenges of School Social Work in Connecticut. He will be sorely missed at Eastern. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends during this difficult time, the post says.
A Torrington volunteer fire department already grappling with budget and staffing issues is now facing criticism after responding to a fire without water.

According to Torrington Fire Chief Gary Brunoli, the Torringford Volunteer Department came to a call unprepared.

We had an open burning call in the volunteer district and they brought their small vehicle that should have had water in it, said Brunoli. We asked them to pull their hose off and we would use their truck and when they couldnt get water off they realized there was no water in it.

The situation, on top of budget concerns and staffing shortfalls, has Brunoli calling for funding cuts to the Torringford Department.

It hurts, said Gary DelMonte, Commissioner for the Torringford Volunteer Department. Weve been around for so long.

DelMonte tells NBC Connecticut the volunteers are in a rebuilding phase and the staffing situation is partly because members are moving into paid city department positions.

We lost four to five guys in the last three years to downtown, DelMonte said.

As for the water problem, DelMonte feels it is being blown out of proportion. He told NBC Connecticut crews have made several runs to the this location for resident burning wood pallets in his backyard. They took one of their smaller trucks to assist the city, a truck he says they were told to keep empty during the cold weather months.

Downtown firefighters, a couple of them, recommended no water in it for the winter so it wouldnt freeze, said DelMonte.

While the fire did not present a threat to people or property, Brunoli says in their profession situations can quickly spiral.

I have to make sure the people of the city have fire protection, he said.

If it was a house fire, we would have our large Truck 17 which always has water, said DelMonte.

Brunoli plans to retire at the end of April, but says he would be pushing for these cuts even if he stayed. If the money is not made up somewhere he runs the risk of having to let a paid city firefighter go onto of the service issues.

We are paying for something we are not getting, he said.

I feel we do a good service for the city, said DelMonte. We should receive the money.
Speaking for the first time since announcing her decision to not run for re-election, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty said she regrets the way she handled accusations against her former chief of staff.

"I am so sorry and I wish I could turn back the clock," Esty told NBC Connecticut political reporter Max Reiss.

On April 2, Esty announced she would not run for re-election amid criticism and pressure to resign after she admitted to keeping her former chief of staff on after he was accused of threatening another female staff member.

"I ran to serve, I did that in local office and if I tried to run for re-election, I think that would have become about winning and me and that's never what I wanted it to be about, and would have gotten in the way of actually trying to help people," Esty said.

On March 29, the congresswoman issued an apology for failing to protect the female employees who said Estys former chief of staff, Tony Baker, harassed them, including one woman who said she was punched in the back and received death threats.

Reports say Esty, a Democrat who represents Connecticut's 5th District, was informed that in 2016, Baker called Anna Kain, another office staff member with whom he had previously been in a relationship, more than 50 times before leaving a voicemail in which he threatened to kill her.

"I want to and I need to apologize, most importantly to Anna, to her family, her friends, to everyone who was hurt by the decisions I made and the system is," Esty said.

It took three months for the congresswoman from Cheshire to act, eventually signing a non-disclosure agreement, providing $5,000 in severance to Baker and assisting him in finding a job with the nonprofit organization Sandy Hook Promise.

Baker was Esty's chief of staff from 2014 to 2016. His spokesman denied many of the allegations.

Some lawmakers, including members of Estys own party, called for her to resign.

"The accountability is really important and that's why I'm not running for re-election," Esty said. "That's the accountability, my ownership of the mistakes I made."

The congresswoman said because a resignation would trigger the need for a special election over the summer that she is worried about "depriving the folks in the district of a vote in Congress."

Esty provided a favorable recommendation for Baker with the advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise, despite her knowledge of the accusations against him. She said Tuesday that recommendation was a mistake.

"I regret that," Esty said. "My effort in agreeing to provide a reference for him was to try to get him out of Washington."

Esty said time will tell whether her credibility and legacy has been significantly tarnished.

"I want to try to be helpful again so nobody else has to go through that," Esty said. "I hope my example of the mistakes that I made and the problems the way the system was then and still is in Congress is something we can try to fix. That's what 'Me Too' has been about."
Waterbury police are investigating after someone painted swastikas on trees and rocks at Fulton Park.

The graffiti was reported Sunday. Park officials have cleaned up the vandalism, but community members who spoke to NBC Connecticut said the Anti-Semitic message still hurts.

As a city were so culturally diverse. Theres people from every religion here and to do this to one religion is just wrong, said Waterbury resident Menachem Karolitzky.

Karolitzky came across the vandalism Sunday afternoon and immediately reported it. He said Waterbury police and other city officials were on scene within 20 minutes of his call, looking for any other vandalism and clues as to who did this.

I can tell you if in fact these perpetrators are apprehended they will be persecuted in the fullest extent of the law, said Waterburys Director of Operations Joe Geary.

Karolitzky said all he wants is for the person who left this message to think about their actions.

Were not gonna be here to hate you, were not gonna do anything to you, we dont want to hurt anyone, we just want you to get a history lesson and understand the meaning of such a symbol and why it hurts us so much, Karolitzky said.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on this incident should contact Waterbury police.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is awarding Texas $5,035,260,000 Tuesday to support long-term disaster recovery following Hurricane Harvey and flooding events in 2015 and 2016.



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday that the funds will inject billions of dollars desperately needed to help restore Texas communities.

Images of Recovery After Hurricane Harvey in Texas

"As the recovery process from Hurricane Harvey continues, the State of Texas is continuing to work as quickly as possible to ensure affected regions have the resources they need to fully recover. I thank Secretary Carson, as well as our federal partners, for their ongoing commitment and support throughout this process, and I look forward to continuing our work together to help communities rebuild," Abbott said.



The HUD funds will serve two purposes, recovery and mitigation from future storms.



$652,175,000 to help rebuild damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure.

$4,297,189,000 for elevating homes, property buyouts, and hardening structures from wind and water to help protect Texas families from future storms.

In addition, Houston received $61,884,000 and San Marcos $24,012,000 for mitigation of 2015 floods.

"It's clear that a number of states and local communities are still struggling to recover from a variety of natural disasters that occurred in the past three years," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. "These grants will help rebuild communities impacted by past disasters and will also protect them from major disasters in the future."

Texas Military Department Leads Rescue Effort After Hurricane Harvey

These funds are provided through HUD's Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program and are intended to rebuild seriously damaged housing, businesses and critical infrastructure.
The man accused of murdering a Pomona Police Department officer after a car chase and shootout served less than one month in the US Army before being discharged for an unknown reason.

Isaias DeJesus Valencia, 39, joined the Army in Los Angeles on June, 18, 1998 and "separated" from the Army 22 days later, on July 6, 1998, according to records obtained by NBC4 under the Freedom of Information Act. Valencia was briefly assigned to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, the documents said, and the reason for the abrupt separation from military service was not made public.

As a newly enlisted soldier Valencia would likely have gone through initial reception, "in-processing," and would have begun the most basic components of training during the first few weeks at the installation, according to an Army public affairs officer.

Relatives and family friends said after the incident that Valencia had served in the military and had suffered from depression and drug abuse.

Prosecutors filed a capital murder charge against Valencia following the car chase and gunfight March 9 that claimed the life of Pomona Police Officer Greggory Casillas.

A second officer was wounded during the confrontation that occurred inside an apartment complex on South Palomares Street.

The LA County District Attorney's Office also filed seven counts of attempted murder, one count of fleeing from a police officers vehicle, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Valencia could face the death penalty or life in prison if hes convicted.

The DA's office said Tuesday it had not yet decided whether or not to seek the death penalty.

Court and state prison records show Valencia has an extensive criminal history, including a 2014 prison sentence for possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition, firing a gun in a school zone, and destruction of jail property.

He was released from prison and placed on probation supervision in April 2015, according to the California Department of Corrections.

Valencia is expected back in court May 1 to enter pleas to the charges.
What to Know Shauna Haynes' body was discovered by a man who lives near The Chadwick Hotel on April 6, 2016.

Haynes was a 2013 graduate of Grossmont High School in San Diego's East County.

According to court records, Joshua Palmer had no prior criminal history in San Diego County

Seeing a woman he desired have sex with another man pushed a San Diego man to beat, rape, sodomize and strangle the woman to death, prosecutors told jurors Monday.



Joshua Palmer is on trial for first-degree murder in the killing and rape of his co-worker, Shauna Haynes.

Haynes, 21, was found dead on April 6, 2016, inside a suitcase left near trash bins outside The Chadwick, an apartment building at A Street and 7th Avenue in downtown San Diego.

Detective David Spitzer, now retired from San Diego Police Department, was the first to open the suitcase. He explained what he saw. So I pulled the flap all the way open, and you could see the full female, she had been squashed up to her arms and legs, she's a small girl and it's a travel size suitcase, one you can put up in the overhead bin in an airplane, she had been crammed in as far as she could, everything peeled in and then zipped up.

Two days later, Palmer was arrested in connection with Haynes killing.

As his trial began Monday, prosecutors described the victim as a platonic friend of the defendant. The two worked together at the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant.

However, the defense attorney told jurors that Palmer was in love with Haynes and that the victim had planned to move in with Palmer.

This is not a case where you will have to decide who caused the death of Shauna Haynes. The issues in this case are the circumstances surrounding her death and when and how the sex happened, said Palmer's attorney Katie Belisle.

Haynes was killed after an incident on the night of April 4, 2016, when she, Palmer and two other people were in the apartment.

Palmer was unable to sexually satisfy a woman he had brought home. The woman left Palmer and joined into a threesome with Haynes and a man she had brought home, attorneys said.

Belisle told jurors her client was humiliated.

"He was heartbroken," Belisle said. "All he could do was stand there and watch."

Jurors were warned they would be shown a video with evidence of necrophilia as part of the case.

"After she was dead, [Palmer] videotaped himself playing with [Haynes] in unimaginable ways on his cell phone, Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle said in his opening statement.

The defense agreed the video would be difficult to watch for the jurors but said there will be evidence presented that suggests there was no rape but rather, consensual sex.

She said forensic investigators found other DNA on Haynes' body not belonging to the individuals in the room on the night in question.

The jury also heard from the suspect himself. The day Haynes' body was discovered, Palmer called 911 to file a false missing person report.

In the call, Palmer tells a dispatcher he last saw Haynes, who he referred to as his girlfriend, at 12:30 in the morning on Tuesday and she has bipolar disorder.

Palmer sent text messages from the victims cellphone to family members to make it appear as if Haynes was still alive.

The San Diego County District Attorneys office has charged Palmer with murder and special circumstance allegations of murder during a rape. Hes also charged with murder during sodomy and murder during a rape by an instrument.
U.S. airlines are getting better at many things except getting you to your destination on time.

They are losing fewer bags. Complaints are down.

And on the anniversary of a man getting dragged off a plane because a crew member needed his seat, airlines are bumping fewer passengers.

That's the upshot of a report issued by academics who analyze numbers compiled by the Transportation Department. The annual Airline Quality Rating shows that as a whole, the 12 largest U.S. airlines improved their performance last year in three of the four categories tracked  on-time performance for flights, passengers denied boarding involuntarily, mishandled bags and customer complaints.

The authors ranked Alaska Airlines first, followed closely by Delta Air Lines in a report released Monday. Budget carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines finished at the bottom. United Airlines held on to the eighth position for the third year in a row and American Airlines remains ranked nineth.

"The industry is improving, but there are still a lot of frustrated travelers out there," said one of the researchers, Brent Bowen, dean of aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He blamed a lack of transparency in the ticketing process and the increase in delayed flights.

The industrywide on-time performance  never great  declined a bit last year, when 80.2 percent of flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule, which is the government's definition of on time. That was down from 81.4 percent in 2016.

Customer service hit bottom when Chicago airport officers bloodied and dragged a 69-year-old man off a United Express plane. An airline employee had called security to go on board and make room for a crew member commuting to work. Video of the incident was played countless times online and on television.

The passenger, David Dao, reached an undisclosed settlement. United and other airlines took steps to reduce overbooking, and they worked  bumping passengers off oversold flights fell to an all-time low, just one in every 30,000 travelers.

Complaints lodged with the Transportation Department dropped too, although most aggrieved travelers complain directly to the airline  carriers don't report those numbers.

Bowen surmised that most travelers don't know how to file a complaint with the government. Even if they do, he said, their expectations for airline service "are so low now that they just want to be done with the experience and not have to reflect on it and write a complaint."

The report compiled by Embry-Riddle and Wichita State University is now in its 28th year. It once stood alone, but there are now many ratings of airlines including ones from J.D. Power and Skytrax.

Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst in San Francisco, said airlines "don't care about these reports because they don't have to care."

Mergers have left consumers with fewer choices. Many passengers stick with one airline because they belong to its frequent-flyer program. And price, not quality, is often cited as the top factor when consumers shop for flights.

"The airline that comes in first in the AQR won't pop a bottle of Champagne, and the airline that comes in last won't shed a tear," Harteveldt said.

Here is the full ranking:

1. Alaska

2. Delta

3. JetBlue

4. Hawaiian

5. Southwest

6. SkyWest

7. Virgin America

8. United

9. American

10. ExpressJet

11. Frontier

12. Spirit
Two officers from a Maryland police department have been arrested in Miami in unrelated incidents.

The Miami Herald reports 27-year-old Steven Pascal was arrested on Sunday afternoon at Miami International Airport on an out-of-state warrant. Authorities said Pascal's girlfriend accused him of assaulting her and filed a warrant for assault and reckless endangerment with Anne Arundel County police while Pascal was on a trip to Mexico.

He's awaiting extradition to Maryland to face charges.

Charles Williams was arrested Monday while interfering in the arrests of people who were fighting.

Miami Beach police said he was a police officer, but was asked to leave. He took an "aggressive fighting stance" and was charged with resisting arrest.

Attorneys weren't listed on jail records. Prince Georges County police said the officers will be suspended.
Authorities in Florida are searching for a driver who ran a motorcyclist off the road during a violent road rage incident that was caught on camera.

The crash happened Sunday in Sarasota and video of the incident shows the motorcyclist arguing with the driver of a gray car.

A witness said the driver of the car threw spare change at the motorcyclist, identified as Darin Hendrickson, WFLA reported.

The video shows the car suddenly careen into Hendrickson, knocking him off the motorcycle and sending him onto the roadway. Hendrickson is still recovering from his injuries.

The Florida Highway Patrol is searching for the driver.
Authorities say a Florida woman is blaming a windy day for the cocaine that police found in her purse.

According to local reports, 26-year-old Kennecia Posey was one of two passengers in a car stopped by Fort Pierce police in late March. Police say an officer smelled marijuana and that, after searching the car, cocaine and marijuana in separate bags were found inside a purse Posey had on her lap.

Authorities say they questioned Posey about the drugs. According to the police report, Posey responded: "It's a windy day. It must have flown through the window and into my purse."

Posey was charged with a felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession. She was later released on bond.

It wasn't immediately known if she has a lawyer.
What to Know The new ownership of the team is claiming the organization is citizens of the country in a dispute with Miami and Miami-Dade County.

The case involving the team and both municipalities is over money both the city and county say they are owed from the sale of the team.

The British Virgin Islands Marlins?

As weird as it may sound, that is where the new ownership of the team is claiming the organization is citizens of in a legal dispute with the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County.

According to the Miami Herald, Marlins Teamco  the company formed by current CEO and former MLB star Derek Jerer and majority owner Bruce Sherman  told a federal judge that one corporation who owns part of the team is based in the territory of just over 28,000 people, which they say means the team has citizenship there.

Why the claim now?

The case involving the team and both municipalities  over money both the city and county say they are owed from the sale of the team last October as per their agreement with former majority owner Jeffrey Loria to help finance Marlins Park in 2009  is currently being heard in a Miami-Dade circuit court, which has sided against the team.

Miami-Dade County owns the stadium while the city owns the parking garages surrounding it. The county in February said it was suing over the team "refusing to make 5 percent equity payment to the county after the $1.2 billion sale.

If the Marlins are successful in their claim, the case would then be removed from Miami-Dade and be heard by a federally appointed arbitrator under rules applied for international disputes.

Lawyers for Loria claim the former owner took a loss in the deal, with the paper reporting the art dealer being out $140 million according to his records. The countys records say the former owners made $600 in profits.
What to Know An Amber Alert was issued for 10-month-old Noah Florvil, who was last seen Sunday night

Miami Police say that a young boy who went missing Sunday night was found safely in Miami Springs on Monday night.

Hours after an amber alert was missing for 10 month old Noah Florvil, the search intensified.

A K9 team helped Miami Police in Liberty City, hoping to find any trace of the boy.

"That baby is my all, that baby made me happy. That baby gave me love when nobody else did," said Neteisha Starling, the baby's grandmother.

Noah's grandmother spoke with NBC 6 before he was found in the Miami Springs area. According to her daughter, when she woke up, she realized the baby was missing, as well as her cell phone. Police said the child was last seen with a woman named Bella, a friend or acquaintance of Noah's mother.

"I don't know who this Bella person is. I don't know why she was babysitting in the first place, but if Alesia needed a babysitter, she should've called me," said Starling.

Police focused much of their investigation at an apartment building near Northwest 66th Street and 12th Avenue. Less than 24 hours after, baby Noah was found safe but several miles away.

It's unclear at this time who the child was with or where exactly he was found. A source told NBC 6 that he was not found with Bella.
Dozens of students from Miami Northwestern High School held a walkout Tuesday over recent incidents of gun violence.

Footage showed students walking out of the school on Northwest 71st Street and onto a nearby road.

The walkout comes just days after an honors student from the school was killed in a shooting in Liberty City that killed another teen and left two others wounded.

The students waved signs and chanted "no justice, no peace" as they made their way to the area where the shooting happened.

"I think it will help people see us black people are coming together as one and trying to stop the violence," student Kaliyah Thomas said.

Some of the students said they were there to honor their classmate, 17-year-old Kimson Green, who was killed in the shooting.

"Its hard because Kimson was an old friend of mine. We grew up together in elementary, middle high so its kinda heartbreaking," said Arrie McClendon.



"Im out here to support and show love for my homeboy. We were close friends and I was with him Saturday before he died. Its just shocking to see that," said Devonte Price.


Suspected poison gas was used to attack the last remaining foothold for the Syrian opposition in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, killing at least 40 people, including families found in their homes and shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said Sunday.

The attack on the besieged town of Douma came almost exactly a year after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people. That attack prompted the U.S. to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

President Donald Trump blamed Syrian government forces for what he called a "mindless CHEMICAL attack" and warned there would be a "big price to pay." He did not elaborate. In a series of tweets, Trump held Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar Assad's chief sponsors, responsible.

The Syrian government denied the allegations, calling them fabrications.

First responders entering apartments in Douma late Saturday said they found bodies collapsed on floors, some foaming at the mouth. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense rescue organization said the victims appeared to have suffocated.

They did not identify the substance used, but the civil defense organization, also known as the White Helmets, and the Syrian American Medical Society, a medical relief organization, said survivors treated at clinics smelled strongly of chlorine.

Those reports could not be independently verified by the Associated Press nor NBC News because of a government blockade around the town.

Hours after the attack, the Army of Islam rebel group agreed to surrender the town and evacuate their fighters to rebel-held northern Syria, Syrian state media reported. The group also agreed to give up its prisoners, a key demand of the government.

The government agreed to halt its assault after three days of indiscriminate air and ground attacks.

"There's nothing left for civilians and fighters. We don't have anything to stand fast," said Haitham Bakkar, an opposition activist inside the town. He spoke to the Associated Press by WhatsApp.

"People now are going out in the streets looking for their loved ones in the rubble," Bakkar said. "And we don't have any space left to bury them."

More than 100 buses entered the town Sunday night to transport fighters and their families to Jarablus, a town under the shared control of rebels and Turkey, said Syrian state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV.

The preparations follow a pattern of evacuations around the capital and other major Syrian cities as the government reasserts its control after seven years of war.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials say the tactic amounts to forced displacement, a war crime. The U.N. Security Council planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the attack.

The Army of Islam could not be immediately reached for comment.

In his tweets Sunday, Trump called Assad an "animal" and delivered a rare personal criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting him. A top White House aide, asked about the possibility of another U.S. missile strike, said, "I wouldn't take anything off the table."

The developments come as Trump has declared his intent to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in the coming months despite resistance from many of his advisers.

Bakkar said several bombs laced with chemicals landed in Douma Saturday night. Another activist, Bilal Abou Salah, said a large, yellow cylinder smashed through the roof of an apartment building and came to rest on the third floor and started to discharge gas.

The Syrian Civil Defense group documented 42 fatalities but was impeded from searching further by strong odors that gave rescuers difficulties breathing, said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the group.

A joint statement by the civil defense group and the medical society said that more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers complaining of difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes. Some had bluish skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation.

The symptoms were consistent with chemical exposure. One patient, a woman, had convulsions and pinpoint pupils, suggesting exposure to a nerve agent, the statement said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a higher death toll, saying at least 80 people were killed in Douma, including around 40 who died from suffocation. But it said the suffocations were the result of shelters collapsing on people inside them.

"Until this minute, no one has been able to find out the kind of agent that was used," Mahmoud said in a video statement from northern Syria.

The Syrian government, in a statement posted on the state-run news agency SANA, denied the allegations. It said the claims were "fabrications" by the Army of Islam and a "failed attempt" to impede government advances.

"The army, which is advancing rapidly and with determination, does not need to use any kind of chemical agents," the statement said.

The latest assault on Douma came after talks between the Army of Islam and Russia collapsed Friday, ending 10 days of calm for residents trapped inside.

Russia denied any involvement in the attack. Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by Russian news agencies Sunday as saying Russia was prepared to send specialists to Douma to "confirm the fabricated nature" of the reports.

Douma has been crippled by close to five years of siege by government forces. It was once one of the hubs of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising against President Bashar Assad's government.

In recent weeks, government forces have recaptured villages and towns in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of the capital. Douma was the only town left holding out.

A 2013 chemical attack in eastern Ghouta that killed hundreds of people was widely blamed on government forces. The U.S. threatened military action but later backed down.

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during the war and says it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia.

Associated Press writer James Heintz in Moscow, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Jonathan Lemire in Washington contributed to this report.
Last October, Jason Aldean was in a Las Vegas hospital visiting some of the victims injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival a week earlier. On that Sunday afternoon, the country star turned to his longtime manager, Clarence Spalding.

"He looked at me and said, 'This will be the hardest thing I ever do,'" Spalding recalled. "And it was."

Aldean, the reigning Academy of Country Music's entertainer of the year with a new album out this Friday, has built his career and reputation on his live shows that entertain tens of thousands every year. He had returned to meet face-to-face with those who had survived a terrible trauma during his performance at the festival, which had left him with lingering feelings of guilt.

In one room, a woman was still in a coma as he stood by her bed. Aldean recorded a message on her cell phone, promising to bring her to a show when she got better. Those moments in those hospital rooms were heavy with emotion, Spalding said.

"Jason would walk in and somebody who had been shot in the arm, leg, face or wherever would just start crying because it was such an emotional thing to see him," Spalding said.

Aldean was onstage when the gunman started shooting with high-powered weapons at the fans from hotel room window across the street from the outdoor Route 91 Harvest Festival. That night in October, 59 people were killed and hundreds more injured in what has become the nation's deadliest mass shooting in modern history.

The Macon, Georgia-born star has been singing about small-town, working class life since he started in Nashville two decades ago, and said he now feels a connection to the survivors of another recent shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

"Unless anybody has witnessed anything like that or been a part of it, it's really hard for people to really understand where you're coming from on that stuff," Aldean said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "It's like the kids from the school in Florida, that shooting. I get it, man. I understand how they are feeling."

About 40 members of his band and crew, as well as his pregnant wife, Brittany, were all there at the festival. Spalding said two of their tour buses were shot, as well as their lighting board and stage. Aldean's bass player found a bullet fragment in his bass guitar.

The aftermath for Aldean has been complicated. He said he felt thankful that his family, crew and friends weren't injured, but also guilt for all the people who were there because they wanted to see him play. And then he felt anger and disbelief.

"You start doing that thing, like, 'Man, did that really happen? It seems so crazy,'" Aldean said. "You just sit there and relive it a thousand times a day."

His recovery was helped by talking with his wife and his band and crew about what they experienced. And then he met those survivors.

"Going back to the hospital, going back to Vegas and seeing those people. Seeing some of the strength they were having. People laid up in the hospital and smiling and laughing and just being glad they were alive. That sort of stuff helped me to look at it in a different view," Aldean said. "Those people are here and pushing on."

Two months to the day after the shooting, Aldean's son, Memphis, was born and finally Aldean found some relief from the spiraling thoughts in his head.

"Really to me, he just gave me something else to focus on. Something else to think about on a daily basis," Aldean said.

And although other country musicians have spoken out about the need for gun control since the shooting, Aldean has avoided wading into the political debates about guns. "It's a no-win situation," Aldean said. "I think no matter what you say, whether you're for gun control or not, I mean, you're setting yourself up to be crucified in the public eye or in the media."

However, Aldean, who is a gun owner, said there are flaws in the nation's laws regarding gun ownership that need addressing.

"It's too easy to get guns, first and foremost," Aldean said. "When you can walk in somewhere and you can get one in 5 minutes, do a background check that takes 5 minutes, like how in-depth is that background check? Those are the issues I have. It's not necessarily the guns themselves or that I don't think people should have guns. I have a lot of them."

But his concern is that these tragedies are just used as fodder for the political arguments that have dominated any discussion about gun control.

"Nobody is looking at what the actual issue is and really how to come to an agreement and make a smart decision," Aldean said.

This Friday, Aldean is releasing his eighth studio album, "Rearview Town," which he had been working on all throughout last year in between touring. It features his bluesy new single, "You Make It Easy," which was co-written by Florida Georgia Line, as well as "Drowns the Whiskey," a duet with Miranda Lambert. Aldean said the title track appealed to him as a metaphor for his own life.

"'Rearview Town' just kind of says you're sort of putting some of the things that have kind of weighted you down and been on your shoulders," Aldean said. "You're putting that behind you and you're moving on and looking forward to everything in store."
What to Know A woman's armless and legless body was found in Canarsie Park in Brooklyn on Monday evening

A dog walker discovered the body, which was about 15 feet from the edge of a pedestrian path

A medical examiner will determine the woman's identity and cause of death

UPDATE: Another Body Part Turns Up in Brooklyn Park



Authorities are investigating the grisly discovery of a woman's armless and legless body in a Brooklyn park Monday evening.

A woman walking her dog in Canarsie Park made the gruesome discovery about 6 p.m., according to the NYPD. The body was about 15 feet off the edge of the pedestrian path where she was walking.

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It's not known how the woman's body ended up there, or if she was the victim of some sort of violence. Crime scene investigators were spotted at the scene.

Community activist Tony Herbert said he thinks the body must have been dumped there recently, adding that "it's a very active park."

[Photos-NY Subscription Service] Consumer Reports Ranks America's Supermarkets From Best to Worst

"This body couldn't have been here that long," he said.

The whereabouts of the woman's appendages is also unclear.

The NYPD is investigating the case, and Chopper 4 footage from over the scene shows several detectives around the scene.

A medical examiner will determine the woman's identity and cause of death.

[NATL-DC] These Images of the Abandoned Owings Mills Mall Will Give You Chills
An award-winning New York City paramedic has been accused of sexually assaulting a patient on the way to a Bronx hospital, according to the NYPD.

Karel Delgado was arrested on sex crime charges after he allegedly groped and tried to force himself on a sick woman who had called 911 Sunday morning, according to authorities.

Police said the 36-year-old married father of two groped the patient and tried to force her to perform a sex act while en route to Montefiore Hospital. She reported the episode after arriving at the hospital.

His mother, Nancy Delgado, said her son would never, ever do that and added that the 10-year FDNY veteran who won the 2015 pre-hospital save awards told her he was innocent.

He called me this morning and said, Relax, everything will be okay. I would never do anything like that, she said.

Its the second such arrest of a first responder this year. In February, an EMT technician was accused of sexually assaulting a woman on the way to Lenox Hill Hospital.

Attorney information for Delgado wasnt immediately available.
What to Know Seth and Alexi Meyers have welcomed their second son, Axel, who was born Sunday on the lobby floor of their Manhattan co-op building

Axel was surrounded by FDNY and NYPD, and a fireman cut his umbilical cord; he was then whisked away to Lenox Hill Hospital

Seth Meyers recounted the dramatic story on his show Monday; watch in the video player above

Seth Meyers' second kid may have just been born in the most dramatic New York City fashion ever.

It's a wild story the late night host told on air Monday night -- one of an unexpected delivery on the floor of a Manhattan building lobby filled with FDNY, NYPD, doulas and doormen, neighbors in action, an idling Uber driver outside and an ambulance ride to Lenox Hill Hospital.

The Sunday started off normally, with brunch and a visit to the park, before Meyers' wife Alexi started feeling contractions, only about 20 minutes apart, Meyers recounted. Seth and Alexi spoke with their doctor and their doula, and they decided they'd start working their way to the hospital at some point during the day. Their son Ashe had come close to being born in an Uber two years ago, and there was nothing in this case to indicate a similar urgency.

That quickly changed when, as Alexi was upstairs with her mother and Seth was feeding Ashe lunch, Seth's mother-in-law thundered downstairs: "We have to go the hospital, NOW."

Seth, still confident they had plenty of time, arranged to have his sister-in-law come over to watch Ashe, and he, Alexi, their doula, and his mother-in-law got into the elevator. By this time, Alexi was in an "intense amount of pain."

"It seems now it's just one long contraction," Seth said. "We get into the lobby of our building -- I had called an Uber, the Uber is outside -- we basically get to the steps of our building, we're in the lobby of our building and we're walking outside, and my wife is like, 'I can't get into the car, I'm gonna have the baby right now, the baby is coming.'"

Meyers and the doula insisted to Alexi she was fine. Alexi responded, "The baby is coming. The baby is -- the baby is out."

The doula checked. The baby, indeed, was out.

"I looked at my wife, and the only way I can describe how my wife looked -- she looked like someone who was hiding a baby in a pair of sweatpants," he laughed. "It was like someone was trying to sneak the baby on a plane."

Team Baby Meyers ditched their plan to Uber to the hospital, and frantically had to decide whether to stay in the lobby or go back onto the elevator ("Those are terrible options when what you're looking for is a hospital"). Alexi decided for them all as she lay down on the lobby floor.

"We sort of created like a semi-circle around her, and we undressed her, the baby was just -- out. The head of the baby was out," said Seth. "This is how fast this happened: I called 911 and over the course of a minute conversation, I basically said, 'We're about to have a baby; we're having a baby; we had a baby.'"

"I went from someone calling in about an emergency to sharing good news with a stranger. Like, 'Yeah, it's a boy!'" he joked.

Alexi calmly cradled the newborn against her chest as FDNY and NYPD swarmed the lobby: "The amount of people that were in our lobby was insane," Seth Meyers said. "What, you don't believe the entire Fire Department came into our lobby to help us deliver our baby?"

He whipped out a photo to prove it, hordes of uniformed FDNY and EMT crouching over Alexi and the baby. Another photo shows Seth laying next to his wife and their baby on the floor, grinning up into the camera as a fireman administered oxygen to Alexi.

One of the firemen cut the umbilical cord ("That is something I guess they also know how to do," Seth joked), and in the midst of fall this, the doorman was coralling neighbors outside the lobby, Seth Meyers said.

"The other thing is, my wife was facing -- her legs were like facing the elevators. And thank God no one came down, because that would have made for so many awkward interactions for the rest of the time," he said.

He added: "I should point out, we have not lived in this building for a long time at all. We just moved in at the end of last year. I am so glad we are already co-op approved."

Still, despite only knowing his neighbors a very short time from seeing them in the elevators or the lobby, "I cannot tell you the kindness we experienced from them. People were running up to get us blankets, they were putting towels in the dryer so we'd have warm towels to put on the baby. It was just an incredible outpouring of kindness from people we barely knew."

The EMTs loaded Alexi onto a stretcher and got her into a waiting ambulance outside the building. Meyers noticed a car stuck behind the ambulance on the one-way street and motioned apologetically to the driver, to which the driver responded by rolling his eyes and throwing his hand up in exasperation, "which was the most New York thing."

They all got to the hospital safely, and mom and baby are just fine.

Seth thanked everyone who assisted, including their "incredible" doorman, the NYPD, the firemen from Engine 24, the EMTs, the doctor and staff at Lenox Hill Hospital. And also: "The Uber driver who charged me. I mean, for real. Because we did you a huge favor."

The late night host and SNL alum proceeded to explain the touching story of Axel's middle name, which was Alexi's grandparents' last name.

"I never met my wife's grandparents. They were Holocaust survivors who met the day after they were liberated. They met in a hospital in Austria."

Tearing up, he said, "And days like this, you really -- you know, when someone's born, you have such appreciation for everyone in your lineage who lived so you could have this moment."

He continued emotionally, speaking of his wife, "Just the speed in which she took this guy and had him on her, and I was watching -- the kid's gonna be fine forever because of her."

"She's really amazing," Meyers said, breaking up. He added, jokingly, "I'm getting choked up thinking about how brave I was."

Welcome to the world, Axel Meyers. You're a real New York kid.
What to Know Florida Gov. Rick Scott is expected to finally jumpstart his long-anticipated campaign for U.S. Senate.

Scott first said he may challenge Sen. Bill Nelson right after President Donald Trump was elected.

Nelson is the only statewide elected Democrat and was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

Setting the stage for an expensive race that could help decide control of the Senate, Republican Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that he's running to unseat Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Scott, a friend and ally of President Donald Trump who is being term-limited out of office after eight years as governor, said he's now aiming for the Senate because "career politicians" have created gridlock and dysfunction in the federal government.

"Washington is a disaster," said Scott, who called for congressional term limits during his brief campaign kickoff at an Orlando construction company. "We shouldn't be sending the same kind of people to Washington."

Scott's entry poses a formidable challenge to Nelson, who has not had a serious challenge since winning his first term in 2000. Scott is a multi-millionaire businessman whose popularity has climbed during his final months in office, despite his sometimes rocky relationship with the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature.

Trump won Florida in the presidential election two years ago, but President Barack Obama carried the state in the two previous elections. Scott edged out narrow victories in his two runs for governor, both of them amid a backlash to Obama.

Nelson, in a brief statement, said he is ready for Scott.

"I've always run every race like there's no tomorrow - regardless of my opponent," Nelson said. "While it's clear that Rick Scott will say or do anything to get elected, I've always believed that if you just do the right thing, the politics will take care of itself."

Scott sought Monday to portray himself an outsider, an image he burnished in 2010 while riding a Tea Party wave into the governor's office. He predicted then that lobbyists would be "crying in their cocktails" once he won, but later obtained the support of the lobbyists and business interests that opposed his initial run.

Democrats have been anticipating Scott's campaign for months and have ramped up their criticism, noting that Scott was forced out as chief executive of Columbia/HCA amid a federal fraud investigation. Although Scott was never charged with any wrongdoing, the health care conglomerate paid a then-record $1.7 billion fine for Medicare fraud.

Democrats also plan to fault Scott over his wealth and his record while governor, including his initial push for deep budget cuts to education and his back-and-forth position on whether to expand Medicaid.

"Floridians will have the benefit of a clear-eyed view of a truly dismal record," said Dan Gelber, a former state senator and now Miami Beach mayor. "Floridians won't forget the damage Rick Scott's self-serving politics have done these last 7 years, no matter how he tries to change his spots and obscure his record."

Scott's record on gun laws earned him an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association before the killings of 17 people at a Florida high school this year. Ultimately, Scott signed Florida's new law raising the age limit to purchase rifles to 21 and creating a new process enabling law-enforcement to seize guns from someone who is considered a danger.

Scott took aim at Nelson meanwhile, contending the Democrat has "done nothing" in the Senate on high-profile issues such as gun violence. Nelson said Scott has not done enough -- he wants universal background checks and a ban on certain types of semi-automatic rifles.

Nelson, who talks with a Southern accent, began his political career in the era when Democrats controlled Florida government. He flew on a space shuttle as a member of Congress, and was elected as Florida's insurance commissioner before running for the Senate. His only notable election loss came in 1990 when he lost a Democratic primary for governor.

When Scott first entered politics, he appeared anxious with crowds and was an awkward speaker. Now, he's much more relaxed and self-assured. "I will bust my butt to win this election," he said.
President Donald Trump was so incensed by the FBI's raid of his personal attorney's office and hotel room that he's privately pondered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and publicly mused about ousting special counsel Robert Mueller.

The raid, in which agents seized attorney Michael Cohen's records on topics including a $130,000 payment to a porn actress who alleges she had sex with Trump, left the president more angry than advisers had seen him in weeks, according to five people familiar with the president's views but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that "Attorney-client privilege is dead!" Nervous White House aides expressed new fears about the president's unpredictability in the face of the Cohen raid, which he viewed as an assault on a longtime defender and a sign that Mueller's probe into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was "going too far."

Tweeting on Wednesday morning, Trump insisted that he is not distracted, though he acknowledged that the Russia investigation takes up "tremendous time and focus."

"So much Fake News about what is going on in the White House. Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair trade with China, the coming North Korea meeting and, of course, the vicious gas attack in Syria," he said, adding that it "feels great" to have his new national security and economics advisers John Bolton and Larry Kudlow at the White House.

Trump continued, "I (we) are ... doing things that nobody thought possible, despite the never ending and corrupt Russia Investigation, which takes tremendous time and focus. No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back), so now they do the Unthinkable, and RAID a lawyers office for information! BAD"

Trump also announced Tuesday he was cancelling plans to attend the Summit of the Americas over the weekend as well as an overnight visit to Colombia.

The president had been telling confidants for weeks that he was not eager to make the three-day trip, which had already been shortened from original plans, according to two people who have discussed it with him in recent weeks but were not authorized to disclose the private conversations. His decision not to travel was publicly tied to the need to monitor the situation in Syria, but privately Trump said he didn't want to be away from the White House amid developments in the China trade dispute and in the Mueller investigation.

Trump also expressed confidence in the loyalty displayed by Cohen, his longtime personal and professional fixer, who ascended to one of the most powerful roles at the Trump Organization not filled by a family member. Cohen has steadfastly denied wrongdoing in his $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and has publicly defended Trump, but he has confided in associates that he is fearful of being a fall guy, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

Cohen has said he took out a personal line of credit on his home to pay Daniels days before the 2016 election and without Trump's knowledge. The raid of his office was overseen by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and based in part on a referral from Mueller.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made clear that White House officials have explored Trump's authority to fire Mueller.

"He certainly believes that he has the power to do so," she said at Tuesday's press briefing.

Under Justice Department regulations, only Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation, can fire Mueller.

On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of four senators moved to protect Mueller's job.

Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Cory Booker of New Jersey planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would give any special counsel a 10-day window in which he or she could seek expedited judicial review of a firing, according to two people familiar with the legislation. They were not authorized to discuss the bill ahead of its release and requested anonymity.

Trump spent Monday evening calling associates to vent and gauge their reaction to the news. He bitterly complained that the raids were meant to ruin Cohen's life and expressed frustration that it was another front from which to attack his presidency, according to a person familiar with the conversations but not permitted to discuss them publicly.

Trump also revived his broadsides on Rosenstein as well as Rosenstein's boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he belittled to confidants for recusing himself from the investigation and, in turn, delivering him to Mueller.

The White House insisted Trump was focused on the response to Syria following the country's apparent use of chemical weapons on civilians over the weekend, killing more than 40 people. A military strike would mark Trump's second retaliatory strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad's government at a time when Trump is seeking to reduce the U.S. footprint in Syria.

The discussions come as Trump's newest national security adviser, John Bolton, stepped into the job this week. He encouraged Trump to skip the trip to South America to manage the Syria strategy.

Bolton, a seasoned bureaucratic operator, has been expected to put his stamp on the National Security Council staff. NSC spokesman Michael Anton resigned over the weekend, with two people familiar with the situation saying Anton resigned after learning he would be fired. Trump's homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, exited Tuesday. Bossert had overseen the administration's response to the 2017 hurricane season and was credited by his colleagues for leading the administration's efforts to bolster cybersecurity resiliency across government and private industry.

Asked if Bolton forced Bossert out, Sanders said: "I'm not going to get into specific details about the ongoings of personnel, but I can tell you that he resigned. The president feels he's done a great job and wishes him the best."

The mood at the NSC this week was described as grim, with aides fearful over Bolton's plans. More senior-level departures are expected in the coming weeks, said two people familiar with the dynamic but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Trump's administration has set records for turnover in his 15 months in office at all levels, with Bossert marking at least the 13th official who held the rank of assistant to the president at the start of the administration to depart.

There is growing concern in Trump's orbit that the turmoil will only continue following the release next week of former FBI director James Comey's book, which promises to reveal new details about his conversations with the president and the Russia probe. An administration official said the White House would largely defer to outside surrogates to push back on Comey, but there was concern as to how the director's interviews could rile up the president.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Holy mackerel, er, um, tuna!

A retired Army general from Delaware nabbed a trophy fish so big no mantle could hold it, according to officials in North Carolina.

Ret. Gen. Scott Chambers, of Townsend, reeled in a 877-pound bluefin tuna March 17, according to North Carolina state officials Tuesday.

For those of us who don't normally frequent online fishing forums, in layman's terms: That's a big, freaking fish. It shattered the previous state record for a bluefin tuna by 72 pounds.

Here's the details for all the angler aficionados out there, courtesy of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries:

"He caught the fish using trolling dead bait on 130-pound line test on a 130 Shimano rod and reel, aboard the charter boat A-Salt Weapon fishing out of Pirates Cove Marina in Manteo."

Chambers caught the tuna off Oregon Inlet, which was the location of the previous state record held since 2011.

The general fought the fish for two and a half hours, officials said.

The "all-tackle" world record for a bluefin is 1,496 pounds. It was caught in 1979 off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for free Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

The Vermont-based ice cream chain is celebrating its annual Free Cone Day event on Tuesday.



Customers can get a free scoop of their favorite flavor from noon to 8 p.m. at participating locations. And if after enjoying a Cherry Garcia cone your taste buds yearn for some Phish Food, just get back in line for another free cone. "Over and over again. We're not counting. Really, go for it," the company said on its website.

But, plan on waiting, shortly afternoon, the line outside the Ben & Jerry's on Sansom Street near Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square was already up the block.

The first Free Cone Day was in 1979  one year after co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield launched the company in a renovated gas station in Burlington. The tradition has since expanded globally, and Ben & Jerry's says it will hand out more than 1 million free scoops this Tuesday.

Click here to find a participating Ben & Jerry's location near you.
A shooter stood over a young father and went through the bleeding mans pockets, leaving just change on the Philadelphia sidewalk before making his escape.

The 21-year-old victim, known by family and friends as Diddy, had just wrapped up playing video games at a friends house and had called his mother to let her know he was on the day home when a gunman shot him around 1:30 a.m. along the 4800 block of N 5th Street in the Olney neighborhood.

A bullet struck Diddy in the back. He was rushed to Einstein Medical Center in critical condition, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

The victim managed to text his mother while on the way to the hospital, family said.

Witnesses told investigators that the shooter stood over Diddy and emptied his pockets.

The shooter was seen leaning over the victims body and reaching into his pockets, Small said.

Police found coins on the sidewalk. It wasnt clear what the robber took.

Diddy was just four blocks from his house, family told NBC10. He has a 2-year-old daughter.

"He's a good, funny, loving person... That's why I don't understand what happened, how it happened," the victim's brother Rafiq Parker said.
A suspected poison gas attack in a Syrian rebel-held town and airstrikes on a Syrian air base that Damascus and Moscow blamed on U.S. ally Israel escalated tensions in the already volatile Mideast on Monday and raised the threat of possibly imminent American retaliation.

The timing of the airstrikes in central Homs province, hours after President Donald Trump said there would be "a big price to pay" for the chemical weapons attack, raised questions about whether Israel was acting alone or as a proxy for the United States. The strike on the air base reportedly killed 14 people, including four Iranians.

The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, in his most dire warning since taking the job four years ago, warned the U.N. Security Council that recent grave events have drawn national, regional and international actors "into dangerous situations of potential or actual confrontation."

Israel did not comment on Monday's missile strike. The Jewish State typically does not comment on its airstrikes in Syria, which have been numerous in Syria's civil war.

The fast-paced developments threatened to further hike tensions between the U.S. and Russia, which has in the past warned against any U.S. military action against President Bashar Assad's government. Iran, a key ally of Assad, condemned the airstrikes, which it said killed four Iranians, including a colonel and a member of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace force.

Opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday night's chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, blaming Assad's forces. The attack killed entire families in their homes and underground shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

The Syrian government strongly denied it carried out a chemical weapons attack and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has opened an investigation. In a statement, it said a fact-finding mission was gathering information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, urged inspectors from the watchdog agency to fly to Syria's capital Tuesday and visit the site in a nearby rebel-held town. He denied any attack occurred, telling the Security Council that experts from Russia's military radiological, biological and chemical unit went to the site and found no chemical substances on the ground, no dead, and no poisoned people in hospitals.

Trump on Monday condemned the "heinous attack" in Syria and said later at a Cabinet meeting that he would "forcefully" respond. "Nothing is off the table," Trump warned.

He said that after conferring with his military advisers, he would soon decide on how to respond, and against whom. "If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," Trump said. Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added: "Everybody's going to pay a price  he will, everybody will."

Nebenzia called a U.S. military option "very, very dangerous," not only for Syria itself but for the world.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assad's government and its backers, including Russia, "must be held to account" if it is found to have been responsible for the suspected poison gas attack. "Yes, this is about the actions, the brutal actions by Assad and his regime. But it also is about the backers of the regime, and of course Russia is one of those backers. ... And they need to look very carefully at the position they have taken," she said.

The European Union also laid the blame squarely on Assad's government.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the chemical attack and the council president said experts were working on a resolution on the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria, but sharp differences remain between Russia and the U.S. and its allies.

The airstrike was the second this year on the Syrian air base, known as T4, where Iranian fighters are believed to be stationed. Israel hit the base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that violated Israeli airspace took off from it.

Russia's Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the base Monday, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base. Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about reports of the airstrikes.

Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli fighter pilot and ex-head of Israeli military intelligence, stopped short of saying Israel was responsible for the airstrike. But he suggested that the chemical attack had crossed a red line and prompted Israel to take action to send a message to Syria and arch-enemy Iran.

"The Iranians are determined to base themselves in Syria," he told the Army Radio station. "Israel is determined not to let them do that. And there is a strategic collision that perhaps tonight may have come together because of the chemical issue."

Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

The base, which was used as a launching pad for attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed nearby, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by U.S. missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack.

Syria's state news agency SANA initially said the attack on the T4 air base was likely "an American aggression," but the Pentagon denied involvement, and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead. SANA said the missile attack resulted in a number of casualties, but provided no specific figures.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of activists on the ground, said 14 died, including Iranians and three Syrian officers.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday that Israel had not notified Russia of the airstrike, even though there may have been Russian military advisers at the base, which he described as "a cause for concern for us."

The U.S. launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base after a chemical attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people almost exactly a year ago.

The Syrian government has denied the chemical weapons allegations, calling them fabrications. The Russian military said its officers visited the hospital in Douma and talked to the staff, and said they did not confirm reports of the assault.

First responders entering apartments in Douma late Saturday said they found bodies collapsed on floors, some foaming at the mouth. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense rescue organization said the victims appeared to have suffocated.

The organization, also known as the White Helmets, and the Syrian American Medical Society, a medical relief organization, did not identify the substance used but said survivors treated at clinics smelled strongly of chlorine.

Those reports could not be independently verified because of a government blockade around the town. A Douma-based Syrian opposition activist, Haitham Bakkar, said most of those killed in the attack had been buried.

Russia's Nebenzia said experts from Russia's military radiological, biological, chemical unit went to Douma after the purported attack and found no chemical substances on the ground, no dead bodies, and no poisoned people in the hospitals. Nebenzia said the bed where a missile purportedly fell wasn't damaged.

"The staged nature of this action is something of which we have no doubt," he said.

Nebenzia urged investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Damascus on Tuesday to visit the site, saying Russia and Syria would ensure they get to Douma.

Hours after the attack, the Army of Islam rebel group agreed to surrender the town and evacuate its fighters to rebel-held northern Syria, Syrian state media reported. The group also agreed to release its prisoners, a key government demand.

More than 100 buses entered Douma Sunday night to take the fighters and their families to Jarablus, which is under the shared control of Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces, Syrian state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV said.

Syrian state TV said two buses left early Monday and 11 more buses were getting ready to move.

Syrian state media said dozens of civilians who had been held for years by the rebels were set free.

The evacuations follow a pattern of departures around the capital and other major Syrian cities as the government reasserts its control after seven years of war.

In his tweets Sunday, Trump called Assad an "animal" and delivered a rare personal criticism of Putin for supporting him. Trump has declared his intent to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in the coming months, despite resistance from many of his advisers.

More than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers complaining of difficulties breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes. Some had bluish skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation, according to a White Helmets statement. The symptoms are consistent with chemical exposure.

Douma is part of the eastern Ghouta suburbs, where a 2013 chemical attack killed hundreds of people and was widely blamed on the government. The U.S. threatened military action but later backed down.

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during the war and says it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia.
Some U.S. military drones operating above Syria have had their signals jammed by the Russian military, four U.S. officials told NBC News.

It began several weeks ago with some smaller U.S. drones in the wake of a series of suspected gas attacks on civilians in eastern Ghouta. The officials said the Russian military jammed the drones' GPS systems out of a concern the U.S. military would retaliate.

The officials said the jamming technology  blocking or scrambling signal to a device  is sophisticated. One U.S. official said the jamming is having an operational impact on military operations in Syria.



A Pentagon spokesman didn't say whether jamming is causing drones to crash: "The U.S. military maintains sufficient countermeasures and protections to ensure the safety of our manned and unmanned aircraft, our forces and the missions they support."
NBC4, Telemundo 44 and the NBCUniversal Foundation are awarding a total of $225,000 in grants to six D.C.-area non-profit organizations as part of the first annual Project Innovation grant challenge, it was announced Monday.

The stations selected the winning organizations for their innovative programs that use technology to solve everyday problems in the areas of civic engagement, skills for the digital economy and STEM/STEAM youth programs.

"We live up to our brand of 'Working 4 You/Trabajando Para Ti' in so many ways," said Jackie Bradford, president and general manager of NBC4 and Telemundo 44. "Yet perhaps none is as significant than providing resources they can use in such significant ways."

The winning organizations' purposes for the grant range from helping veterans to helping homeless youth to helping underserved students in the D.C. area.

Below are the recipients of NBC4 and Telemundo44s local Project Innovation grant:

Arcadia Food, Inc: The grant will be used to install a Farm in a Box program on the Arcadia Veteran Farm Incubator in Alexandria, Virginia, where graduates of the Veteran Farmer Program will start businesses to train veterans to start businesses that will increase availability of healthy, nutrient rich food.

Community Youth Advance, Inc.: The grant will be used for its Summer Academy which delivers additional literacy, math and STEAM hands-on activities that extend students learning and prevent summer learning loss.

Manna Food Center, Inc.:The grant will support its Community Food Rescue, an innovative, technology-based system called The ChowMatch that offers real-time matching between food donors, recipient organizations and volunteer food runners.

Covenant House, Washington, D.C.: The grant will be used for its Workforce Readiness Program which encourages youth to further their professional skills and resources and maintain professional social media accounts during job searches.

The Fishing School, Inc.: The grant will go toward an afterschool program that will serve more than 345 students in Washington, D.C. communities.

Community Bridges, Inc.: The grant will help mentor a cohort of young women to design, build and install a demonstration for an urban polycrop farm in their local Silver Spring community.

Project Innovation is presented by NBCUniversal Foundation and NBCUniversal-owned TV stations. The grant challenged was announced in Jan. 2018. The grant aims to identify local organizations that embrace technology and innovation to develop real-life solutions for their communities.

The local stations create community panels to review the applications and select grant recipients. This year more than $2.4 million will be awarded across the country.
A Maryland county will continue to fund a safe house for abused women that has been plagued with problems for decades.

Prince George's County will continue to fund the nonprofit Family Crisis Center's shelter despite calls to close its doors, The Washington Post reports. Maryland law requires marriage license fees collected by the county go toward the nonprofit. Those fees totaled $385,000 last year.

Last year, the director of the Family Crisis Center of Prince George's County was fired after unlivable conditions were revealed in the home. The center is one of the county's only domestic violence shelters for women and children.

The substandard services and battered conditions prompted Democrat County Executive Rushern L. Baker III to submit a bill to the state General Assembly in March that would allow the fees to go to other organizations. Baker withdrew that bill last week.

Baker spokesman Barry Hudson says lawmakers agreed fee usage should be more flexible, but didn't agree on pushing the bill forward.
Prince George's County police have identified the woman who was found fatally shot in Maryland early Tuesday.

Officers heard gunshots in the 1500 block of Ray Road in Chillum and responded about 12:20 a.m., according to Prince George's County Police. They discovered 51-year-old Brenda Swann of Brentwood outside suffering from gunshot wounds.

Swann was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives are working to determine a suspect or suspects and motive. Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to call Prince George's County Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS. Callers may remain anonymous.
The Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire says an injured cat left at their door had rabies and the organization is trying to find who else may have been exposed to the animal.

The league says the female gray tabby was left at the shelter in Bedford on March 9. The cat may have recently given birth to kittens. It was quarantined, but later died and tested positive for rabies.

State health officials said although rabies is fatal, human infections are extremely rare in the United States.

"Rabies is a fatal illness that is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected animal," said State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Abigail Mathewson. "But rabies is preventable when people and animals receive treatment quickly after they have been exposed to this virus through infected animal saliva."

Officials are investigating the potential for other animal or human exposure to the cat before it was dropped off at the shelter.

Anyone with questions about rabies can call the New Hampshire Bureau of Infectious Disease Control at 603-271-4496. Additional information is available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Authorities say a 3-year-old Rhode Island boy drowned in about 18 inches of water on top of a neighbor's covered pool.

The boy. who has been identified as Jasper Sengsavangvong of Woonsocket, was found Monday afternoon after disappearing from his Poplar Street home in Woonsocket. Police say he had been outside with his father, who was working on a car. He then wandered from the home into a neighbors yard and fell into the pool.

"The pool did have water in it. The officers pulled the child from the pool and immediately began CPR on the child," Det. Sgt. Matthew Ryan told WJAR-TV.

CPR efforts at the scene were unsuccessful, and the boy was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.

Police say that no foul play is suspected at this time.
President Donald Trump says he will soon decide what action to take against Syria for a suspected chemical attack, but critics say uncertainty is part of the problem.

"My fear is that rather than finding a way here to resolve these issues, ultimately diplomatically, is that we could see a significant escalation in the Middle East," said Sen. Ed Markey.

The Democratic senator says the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria is a clear violation of international norms and that Russia and Iran must be held accountable for the actions of the Syrian government. But Markey also faults President Trump.

"He has been much too weak in his confrontation with Russia and their adventurism in the Middle East," Markey said.

Congressman Seth Moulton says that Congress needs to do its job and debate an authorization for the use of military force so that American troops know what their role is and what they are fighting for. He also points to a lack of leadership on the part of President Trump.

"One minute, the President says, 'We're getting out, we don't have any role there.' The next minute, he's saying 'We're doubling down and getting back in,'" Rep. Moulton, a veteran, said. "That's not fair to our troops."

Boston University Professor Joe Wippl expects that President Trump will react in a more lethal way than he did last year following a chemical attack in Syria.

"Do I think it's a good idea? Probably not. I think the best idea that he could possibly have is a political solution," Wippl said.

Both the Syrian government and Russia strongly deny any involvement in the chemical attack. They accuse rebels of fabricating it.
A Holyoke, Massachusetts man was arrested and charged after police responded to his home for report of explosives.

Edward Laboursoliere, 49, of Holyoke, was arrested Sunday and charged with 7 counts of possession or carrying a firearm without a license, 9 counts of weapon improperly stored or kept by the owner, discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, possession of a machine gun, 7 counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device, and possession of a substance intended to make a destructive device.

Holyoke police and the fire department responded to 1080 Main Street around 3 p.m. Sunday.

In a search of the residence, officers located several chemical components, to include 25-50 pounds of Ammonium Nitrate, and various materials consistent with manufacturing explosives.

The Massachusetts State Police Arson Unit and State Police Bomb Disposal Unit were called in to assist.

As investigators continued to search the home, they found 17 weapons, including a fully automatic rifle, and a large amount of ammunition. Authorities removed those from the house.

Laboursoliere was arraigned on charges in Holyoke District Court on Monday. He is being held without right to bail until a hearing early next week.

The incident remains under investigation.
On Wednesday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) plans to sign into law three bills pertaining to firearms, which Scott says are designed to make the state a safer place to live.

"This wasnt easy," Gov. Scott said Tuesday, acknowledging the considerable frustration gun rights supporters have expressed with the legislation in recent weeks.

The Republican governor, once seen by many gun rights supporters as firmly on their side, made a 180 on the legislation after what Vermont State Police labeled an extremely close callthwarting a suspected mass shooting plot at a Rutland County High School.

"The responsibility as governor to protect our citizens is enormous," Scott said.

The small state has historically had few gun restrictions, but still maintains a low violent crime rate.

The changes coming Wednesday create more stringent background checks for gun purchases, ban bump stocks, raise the age for most gun sales here to 21, and make it easier on law enforcement to, after due process, remove firearms from people deemed safety risks to themselves or others.

"Everyone needs to look at this as dispassionately as they can, and it's difficult when it's an issue of rights," observed Mike Donohue, the chair of the Chittenden County GOP and a spokesman for the state party.

Donohue told necn Tuesday that he has heard from vocal conservatives who are deeply disappointed in the governor. However, he said he has also heard from Republicans, independents, and some liberals who seem pleased with Scott's leadership on the issue.

Republican Keith Stern is challenging Scott in the state primary in August, and has outlined a stance on guns more to the right of the incumbent.

However, Donohue said his support remains firmly with Scott, adding, "The governor has the strong support of Republicans throughout the state."

At R&L Archery in Barre, which also sells firearms and ammunition, retailer Jon Sanborn is among the sportsmen disappointed in Gov. Scott's announcement hell sign the package of gun reforms into law.

"Im not happy about the laws," he said. "This is not something I ever foresaw in my lifetime happening here."

Sanborn is letting customers know certain magazines with higher bullet capacities wont be sold much longer under the new laws. He said people are stocking up, while telling him they fear possible future restrictions.

"We dont want it to get any worse," the businessman said of any possible future proposals to add more restrictions on gun owners.

Sanborn added that in recent days and weeks, he has seen a marked increase in sales of both higher-capacity magazines and firearms.

Gov. Scott said he accepts any disappointment in him, adding that if theres a price to pay at the polls, he'll have to pay it.

However, past polling has ranked Scott as one of the most popular governors in the nation, despite being a Republican serving in a state as blue as Vermont.

Necn partner NBC 5 News contributed to this report.
CBBC star and racing driver Rebecca Jackson was the special guest at Burnham Copse School, Tadley, recently as she helped launch a competition to encourage pupils to design their own playgrounds.

The competition, set up by Thermoplastic Designs & Lines (TPDAL), tasks pupils with designing a new game to rival hop-scotch, snakes and ladders and mazes, which they would like to play.

Year 5 and 6 teacher at Burnham Copse Richard Dutton said: The children had a wonderful morning meetingRebecca Jackson and we look forward to taking part in the competition.

The winner will be chosen by Rebecca Jackson and TPDAL will provide the triumphant school with the winning design.

TPDAL director Nina Osborne said: We think that if children have designed the playground they are also the ones who are going to be playing on it.

It could be a fitness game, a game they play together at school, or one that other schools will also want to play.

TPDAL will roll that design out to other schools as part of its standard stock following the competition.

The initiative is open to all primary schools in the UK and the winner will be announced in September.

To find out more, visit https://tpdal.co.uk/tpdal-schools-design-competition/
WASHINGTON, D.C.  The one question awaiting embattled U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty when she returned to work Tuesday on Capitol Hill was the one question she had no answer for.

Why?

Why did she help her former chief of staff, who was accused of harassing and abusing a former Esty aide, to get a new job with the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise  while keeping the scandal secret?

I failed. I tried, but it wasnt good enough, Esty said Tuesday in her first comments to Hearst Connecticut Media since the scandal broke two weeks ago. I should have suspended him immediately.

A contrite Esty went on to say she had made terrible mistakes in allowing her former chief of staff to victimize her female staffers in Washington, D.C., and pledged to spend her remaining months in office making amends.

The scandal focused on news broken first by Hearst Connecticut Media that Esty allowed her chief of staff, Tony Baker, to remain with her for three months in 2016 after accusations were made that he abused a former staffer named Anna Kain.

I want to use all the pain and suffering and mistakes I made not just for the purposes of accountability, but for prevention, because I dont want this to happen to anybody else, Esty said.

Esty on Tuesday planned to hold a staff meeting to try to clear the air. Staff members in Washington are said to be appalled by reports that Esty delayed Bakers dismissal in 2016 and ultimately recommended him for a job with the Ohio state office of Sandy Hook Promise.

Esty had negotiated a nondisclosure agreement with Baker that prevented her from disparaging him or sharing details about why he left her office.

When I heard that there was a call about (Baker) from Sandy Hook Promise, I never should have taken that call and recommended him, Esty said. Especially for Sandy Hook Promise. That was wrong.

Esty explained on Tuesday that the reason she wrote Baker a glowing job recommendation was to get him out of Washington, D.C., so that he wouldnt run into Kain or members of her staff.

I was going to use the only leverage I had to refuse to do anything for him in Washington, D.C., Esty said.

Sandy Hook Promise fired Baker shortly before the scandal broke and has refused to say anything further.

The Esty scandal has done more than end what appeared to be an easy run for a fourth term to represent the 5th District, a region of northwestern and central Connecticut that is traditionally the most competitive of the states five congressional districts.

Estys exit has thrown the race wide open in a midterm election year that already has people talking about the impact of GOP President Donald Trump and outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Now there is the Esty effect to consider. While Esty supporters said the 58-year-old from Cheshire has done everything shes needed to do to admit her wrongs and pledge to do better, critics say she should resign, because she has no credibility left.

On Tuesday, two parents from Newtown who lost first-grade boys in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre confirmed that they are exploring a run for Estys seat. Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley, co-founders of Newtown-based Sandy Hook Promise, said they will decide over the next two weeks whether one of them will run. They are both in conversation with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Esty, meanwhile, returned to work Tuesday on Capitol Hill noticeably subdued, two weeks after calling an abrupt end to her career in Congress by saying she would not seek re-election.

She cleared up one unanswered question on Tuesday about members of her female staff, who Esty had said had been victimized by Baker.

What I meant by that was they were victimized by his yelling  it was not sexual harassment or anything on the order like what happened to Anna, Esty said.

It is too soon to say how effective Esty can be in Congress as a result of the scandal. She said she decided against resigning, because that would deprive the 750,000 people in the 5th District a voice on the House floor.

The voters didnt make a mistake, Esty said. So why should they be deprived of a vote in Congress on important issues that are coming up?

Even as Esty pledged to work hard in her remaining months in office, she acknowledged that the scandal had changed the landscape.

Certainly things are going to be different, Esty said. I need to make amends for what I did.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
With at least two in three Australians diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70, monitoring moles and skin is vital in detecting skin cancer early for a generation of people who spent much of their upbringing in the sun (often with little to no protection).

To meet the massive unmet need in this area, Research Professor at UniSAs Future Industries Institute, Professor Tarl Prow led the team that has created a new needle device that will revolutionize how doctors test patients for rashes and diseases.

The microbiopsy device is a small needle that can take 100 to 200 cells to test for skin cancer and other diseases avoiding the need to take a 2cm to 3cm piece of tissue which results in some scarring.

Dr Prow says the device can take skin samples much more easily than a traditional biopsy and is easy and painless to use on children.

The innovation for this device comes from the idea of a diabetic test. We can easily take small skin samples which makes it much easier to use on children and allows us to take multiple samples over time to monitor a patients situation, Prof Prow says.

Given a standard biopsy is a significant procedure, we wanted to help make that process easier.

The device has already proved a possible game changer in underprivileged countries with doctors from Jerusalems Hebrew University already taking 502 units to Africa to use in the field.

With many parasitic diseases in Africa, where people dont have access to a hospital, researchers at Hebrew University undertook a study in northern Ethiopia testing hundreds of children and adults using the device, he says.

With skin cancer a more prevalent problem in Australia, doctors can spend up a significant amount of time checking a patients skin (including moles and pink spots) and Dr Prow and his team are working on developing cancer biomarkers, so the device can take samples and evaluate (and reveal) the results instantly.

With some clinical trials (unrelated to skin cancer) in the final stages, the team is monitoring feedback with thousands of devices already sold worldwide and is patented in the US, Australia and Europe.

We are planning to test the efficacy and safety for microbiopsy in skin cancer diagnosis that will start in early 2019 so some patients may be asked to be a part of this study. We hope to launch the approved diagnostic test in 2023, Dr Prow says.

Source: http://unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/2018/-New-needle-device-to-revolutionise-biopsies-and-reduce-scarring-/
Early Homo sapiens had thick bone brows, this made raising eyebrows and a host of other facial expressions difficult for them. With passage of time evolution took its course and the brows smoothened.

Image Credit: Carlos Restrepo / Shutterstock

Now, scientists at the University of York have speculated that raising eyebrows and other facial expressions evolved as the shape and structure of the face of men changed with time making them smaller and flatter. The study appeared in the latest issue of the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

A 3D rendering of a homo sapiens ancestor - homo erectus

Paul OHiggins, a professor of anatomy and lead author explained that thick eyebrows and forehead meant dominance and aggression. With time the face became smoother and smaller with the forehead flattened and the face now became a canvas of sorts.

A wider palate of expressions he said could be displayed on the face now. There are muscles of the face that could move and raise the eyebrows for example so that feelings could be expressed on the face.

Penny Spikins, a palaeolithic archaeologist at York and co-author explained that men were at a stage where they were more about competing with each other and aggression and dominance thus took an upper hand.

From there humans have moved to a place where people get along better with others, express sympathy and myriad of other emotions on their faces. She said that expressing emotions on the face led to the ability of humans to create social networks.

Prehistoric modern humans, she explained avoided inbreeding by moving out to different locations during hard times. Eyebrows are the missing part of the puzzle of how modern humans managed to get on so much better with each other than other now-extinct hominins, Spikins said.

For this study the team of researchers looked at the prominent brow ridges in the ancient humans. There have been many theories regarding why these ridges were prominent. Some speculated that these were a bridge between the brain case or the skull and the face that was more protruding. The ridges also structurally reinforced the face as the muscles worked at chewing say some experts. The team with the help of Ricardo Godinho, took 3D x-ray scans of an ancient skull. It belonged to a human ancestor called Homo heidelbergensis.

Mask representing the Homo Heidelbergensis, a caveman who lived on Earth thousands of Years ag. Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock.com

This human ancestor called Kabwe 1 lived in the region now Zambia between 600,000 and 200,000 years from now. Kabwe 1 had a brow ridge that was more pronounced than the Neanderthals.

OHiggins explained that next they took the 3D image and used their computer imaging to assess the amount of bone needed to fill the gap between the skull or brain case and the face. Soon they noted that the ridge was an extra. Much of it could be shaved off virtually. They also assessed if that thick a ridge was necessary for chewing functions. Again they noted that the ridge was not so important in allowing heavy chewing.

OHiggins said, What we are left with is the plausibility of a social explanation. This means that aggression and dominance was a reason behind the thick brow ridges in human ancestors. The team acknowledges that whole of this is merely a speculation and the reason why the faces of humans flattened out with time is not yet known.
The link between mitochondria and inflammation is still unclear. But it is known is that, for example, the accumulation of defective mitochondria, which should have been removed, causes inflammation. Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by Antonio Zorzano, also full professor of the University of Barcelona and researcher in the CIBERDEM programme, now demonstrate that the removal of a single mitochondrial protein in mouse muscle leads to severe inflammation throughout the body, causing the premature death of the animal. This study has been published today in the EMBO Journal.

Opa1 and inflammation

Opa1 is a mitochondrial fusion protein. It serves to fuse the internal membranes of mitochondria. Although present in all cells and tissues (except white blood cells), mitochondria are particularly abundant in muscle and liver, and their main function is to convert the energy in food into energy for cells. Mitochondria are highly dynamic; they join and separate, and grow and shrink constantly. These processes are known as mitochondrial dynamics.

Mitochondrial dynamics is one of the research lines addressed in Antonio Zorzano's Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria Lab. To study this process, the scientists examine the proteins involved in mitochondrial membrane fusion, namely Mitofusin 1 and 2, and Opa1.

Authored by 24 researchers from various centers and involving a significant contribution by Aida Rodriguez-Nuevo, Angels Diaz-Ramos and Eduardo Noguera from Zorzano's lab, this study focuses on the protein Opa1. To examine its functions, the researchers generated a mouse deficient in Opa1 only in skeletal muscle. "It was surprising to see how small they were and that they died after only a few months," explains Zorzano.

The article describes the animal phenotype and explains that the removal of Opa1 exclusively from skeletal muscle fibre triggers a severe inflammatory process that spreads from the muscle fiber throughout the body. The inflammatory response halts growth and shortens the lifespan of the animal. The scientists also describe the main molecular components of the cell signaling pathway that activates the inflammatory response in muscle.

"This is the first time that we've seen that the lack of a muscle mitochondrial protein triggers an inflammatory response of this magnitude, and these observations give us further information on the relation between mitochondria and inflammation," says Zorzano.

The head of the study explains that these results are of biomedical relevance. There is a set of diseases known as inflammatory myopathies, of unknown origin, in which patients show chronic muscle inflammation accompanied by muscle weakness. "The results of this study suggest that mitochondrial alterations may underlie inflammatory myopathies. More research is now needed to address this possible link," says the scientist.

Source: https://www.irbbarcelona.org/en/news/the-absence-of-a-single-mitochondrial-protein-causes-severe-inflammation
When you have diabetes then get an acute kidney injury there is a multiplier effect that can worsen your prognosis and destroy your kidneys.

Now scientists have evidence that at least part of the problem is that diabetes impairs the ability of kidney cells to consume the garbage they generate in the process of filtering more than 100 quarts of your blood daily.

It's called autophagy, and it helps kidney cells operate at a premium and that's where the problems occur, says Dr. Zheng Dong, cellular biologist, Regents' Professor and Leon Henri Charbonnier Endowed Chair in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at the Medical College of Georgia.

In diabetes, hardworking kidney cells must work even harder to handle high levels of glucose, which produces even more garbage, while autophagy activity is down. An acute kidney injury on top of that further heightens the trash and the damage.

Dong is principal investigator on a new $2.2 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that is helping parse just how autophagy is hampered in diabetes and finding targets to bolster autophagy and help patients and their kidneys better survive diabetes and recover from an acute kidney injury.

An acute kidney injury is mostly what it sounds like: when kidney function deteriorates in a few hours or days. It can result from a literal blow to the kidney, in a fall or car accident, or from dehydration in an overzealous student athlete. In the face of general good health, most patients recover fully and quickly, Dong says.

But acute kidney injury mostly occurs in people who already have another medical problem like diabetes. In fact, most are in the hospital when it happens, with problems like bleeding or shock, failure of other organs like the heart, even an overdose of over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories for problems like the cold or flu, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Despite these typically heightened scenarios, there aren't any targeted therapies for acute kidney injury, says Dong, rather supportive therapies like hydration, possible short-term dialysis and addressing the injury cause.

Even without an acute kidney injury, the heavy burden of glucose and inflammation that comes with diabetes causes related kidney damage in about a third of patients in about 15 years of living with the disease. The ceaseless filtering and reabsorption work of the kidney gets overwhelmed with the extra glucose, which can increase oxidative stress, prompt sugars to start binding to proteins, which can reduce their function, and inflammation becomes chronic and destructive.

In fact, diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of kidney failure in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Dong's team has evidence that diabetes makes people more susceptible to an acute kidney injury from which they don't recover well, which ties back full circle because an acute injury also increases the chronic kidney disease risk.

The bottom line is that in this so-called "comorbid" state, patients are at heightened risk for significant kidney damage, even kidney failure.

His team focuses on the acute injury piece of this interrelated health dilemma and the reality that treatment for acute kidney injury hasn't really improved after a half-century search for good therapies, Dong says. That's why he is looking for targets and therapeutic agents.

Blood enters the kidneys through clusters of small blood vessels called glomeruli. We have more than a million of these filtering units that each connect to a collecting tube called a tubule, which passes waste along to the bladder for elimination. Tubular cells also daily resorb nearly 50 gallons of usable items, including salt and glucose the kidneys filter from the blood. They typically resorb 80-90 percent of the glucose.

In their effort to maximize autophagy in the face of higher glucose, Dong and his team are delineating how diabetes reduces autophagy with the idea of restoring this innate ability when a patient is also bombarded with an acute kidney injury. They have their sites on some of our smallest RNA.

They have evidence that activity of ULK1, an enzyme and key initiator of autophagy, is reduced in the kidney both in diabetes and also by putting a lot of glucose directly on kidney cells.

MicroRNA, or miRNA, generally suppress expression of their target genes, and Dong's team also has evidence that in diabetes, expression of at least one miRNA is increased, which, in turn, decreases ULK1 expression and autophagy. Right now they don't know a lot about its functions, but high levels are associated with overgrowth of tubules and thickening and scarring of the kidney.

Also up in diabetes is p53, a known tumor suppressor that can help assess damage to a cell, help drive its repair if possible and its suicide if it's not. In a healthy cell, p53 levels are low.

Higher levels of p53 are associated with lower levels of autophagy and Dong has shown p53 is even more highly activated with an acute kidney injury, likely to help kill off freshly injured cells.

"Autophagy is generally a protective mechanism, so as this protective mechanism goes down, an injury mechanism goes up," Dong says of this inverse relationship.

He thinks his miRNA is essentially the middleman with p53 signaling for it to reduce autophagy and it responding by turning down expression of the ULK1 gene. That pivotal role makes the miRNA a likely and probably amenable drug target, he says.

"We need to find a way to make it go down," Dong says. "Maybe if we can normalize autophagy a little better we can help kidneys survive this period."

The new grant is enabling them to sort the details of how p53 induces the miRNA in diabetic kidneys, how it, in turn, suppresses ULK1 and autophagy and, finally, how reduced autophagy makes the kidneys more vulnerable to injury.

This shift is likely what makes a patient with diabetes more vulnerable to acute kidney injury. Another thing they are exploring further is what happens to cell death rates, but Dong has already watched tubule cells become less efficient and die. He's also now exploring the relationship between reduced autophagy and increased inflammation.

Diabetes is a common, chronic stressor of the kidney, Dong says. And he expects other common stressors, like the all too common hypertension, make some of the same unhealthy adjustments to tubule cells. In fact, he is collaborating with China's Central South University with the idea of delineating the autophagy pathway in a hypertension model as well.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has declared war against prostate cancer. Yearly, 47,000 men are UK are diagnosed with this cancer and 11,000 succumb to it, according to reports. Recent reports show that prostate cancer in men kills more than breast cancer does in women.

Prostate cancer has become the third common cancer in the UK. A report from a charity Orchid shows that a quarter of prostate cancer patients come in to the emergency late into their cancer. May is to announce 75m in research to fight this cancer.

Prostate cancer, 3D illustration showing normal prostate gland and presence of tumor inside prostate gland which compresses urethra. Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

The funds would go into recruitment of nearly 40,000 men into clinical trials that test for better diagnostic tests for prostate cancer and also better treatment schedules and drugs to combat this disease. Reports have shown that prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment is largely neglected and lack of awareness among the public regarding the symptoms and progression of this cancer means that cancers are detected late. In more advanced stages the cancer is more difficult to treat and this raises the mortality caused by this cancer.

May before a visit to a Cambridgeshire hospital where she would make the announcement on Tuesday says, Too many people endure the loss of a loved one because cancer diagnosis comes too late in the day Our cancer treatments are world-class and survival rates are at a record high, but prostate cancer still claims thousands of lives every year. I know we can do more. Thats why I am setting out new plans to help thousands of men get treated earlier and faster.

Prostate cancer is typically a slow growing tumour and this means that it is less likely to be detected early. However some men may have a type of prostate cancer that may progress rapidly. The difficulty lies in detecting the rate of progress of the cancer early on. Blood is usually tested for PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level. But this is not diagnostic in all men. In many men watchful waiting is advised to see how the cancer progresses.

Prostate cancer cells, SEM, illustration. Image Credit: royaltystockphoto.com / Shutterstock

Prof Mark Emberton from University College Hospital in London who specializes in this cancer said, PSA followed by a prostate biopsy may not be the correct diagnostic approach to detect men at higher risk. MRI scans he said, after the blood tests could be better predictors of the aggressive nature of the cancer.

The latest funds that would come into prostate cancer research would be moved via National Institute for Health Research clinical research network. Chief executive Dr Jonathan Sheffield says that the NIHR would work in collaboration with the NHS as well as charities, other sponsors as well as pharmaceutical industry to include 40,000 men in clinical trials over the next five years. This will provide more opportunities for earlier access to new drugs and therapies, which will ultimately lead to improved diagnoses and care in the future, he said.

This week, when the funding is being announced is marked as the Male Cancer Awareness Week.
Thought Leaders Prof. Parastoo Hashemi Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry and and Biochemistry University of South Carolina

An interview with Professor Parry Hashemi, conducted by Alina Shrourou, BSc.

In your talk at Pittcon 2018, you mentioned that depression is difficult to diagnose. Please can you outline the current issues with the serotonin hypothesis for diagnosing depression?

Its very difficult to diagnose depression. To explain this, I like to use the analogy of what you do if you suspect that you have a condition such as diabetes - you visit your doctor who takes blood tests, from which they measure your glucose and insulin levels to deliver a definitive diagnosis. With depression, you can't open the brain to find answers, and the chemistry of the brain is separate from the chemistry of the body.

 SARANS/Shutterstock.com

Instead, the doctor asks questions and forms an opinion based on your answers. Over the past few decades, there have been theories forwarded about brain activity during depression, and one of the major hypotheses is that serotonin is lower in the brains of people with depression. This is known as monoamine hypothesis of depression.

This fuelled the development of modern anti-depressants, and as a result, front line treatment for depression mostly consists of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, intended to increase serotonin levels.

However, without an effective method for measuring serotonin, it's difficult to test that hypothesis.

Please give an overview of the research that you have been working on which led to you winning the Pittcon Achievement Award.

We had many questions regarding serotonin, and it became clear that to answer them we'd need new technologies. We worked on creating microelectrodes made from carbon that we could implant into brain tissue. Carbon is a really good material for making biological measurements because our bodies are full of it, meaning the body doesn't have a negative immune reaction to an implanted carbon electrode, as it would to say gold or platinum, materials that arent present in our bodies.

We made them really small, measuring at about 1/100th or 1/1000th the diameter of a human hair. We implanted them directly into brain tissue and spent many years trying to develop different detection schemes, modifications, electrochemical parameters and physiological parameters that would allow us to measure serotonin.

Having acquired the serotonin measurements, we spent the past few years trying to figure out how to apply those to depression research, from different animal models, biochemical assays, and collaborative work with mathematicians.

What does it mean to you to win the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award?

I've been coming to this conference and attending the Pittcon Achievement Symposium for about 12 years, so it's really fantastic to be recognised amongst the other winners.

Its a huge honor, on both a personal and professional level, and really a milestone in my career. Research is such an unforgiving career choice sometimes. You can work hard for a long time and yet see very little result.

Weve worked hard, and are finally making an impact in the field, which is wonderful to be recognized for. It also means so much to my mentors, and of course, my students, who are honored to have their work recognized.

In your talk, you also discussed how in inflamed synapses, we see increased histamine levels and a decrease of serotonin levels. How can these findings be used to validate the serotonin hypothesis?

It's not the synapse that's inflamed, rather inflammation in general. To put it in perspective, when you're sick or some kind of bacteria enters your body, your body will have an immune reaction to it, and that's called inflammation. The same thing happens in your brain and is called neuroinflammation. While a lot of knowledge exists on certain markers for neuroinflammation, how neuroinflammation affects neurotransmission remains a grey area.

We found that during neuroinflammation, which is very prevalent in depression and other psychiatric diseases, serotonin levels are lower. We link this to greater levels of histamine, which inversely modulates serotonin.

For the first time we could verify the serotonin hypothesis of depression and conclude that the serotonin levels were lower. We know why they're lower, and are now examining what impact treatment really has, not just with serotonin but histamine too.

Eavesdropping on the Brain Play

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What neuroanalysis technology did you use to study the brain under healthy and disease conditions?

These were the tiny carbon fibers, and because it's new research technology, we actually made them by hand, and It's a real art. When people join my lab for a full year, they learn how to make these electrodes.

You take a tiny glass capillary and aspirate a tiny fiber, which are barely visible with the eye. You pull it apart under heat, so the glass forms a seal, then the hardest part is cutting that to a specific length under a microscope with a scalpel.

Once you become accomplished at that, then there's a whole bunch of instrumentation to learn how to make and troubleshoot, since they cant be bought. Next you have to learn about anaesthesia and brain surgery.

How translatable are your findings to the physiological response to depression seen in humans?

Most depression research occurs in mice and rats, and the big question in the field is how translatable is that to humans. There are very well-established behaviour paradigms in animals that will lead to depression phenotypes. But of course, it's a big jump to try to compare that with a human condition that's extremely complex.

To explore this, we've started working with stem cells taken from human skin, that we apply various different conditions and growth factors to, which turns them into any type of bodily cell. We work with people that can turn these into serotonin neurons, which is really cool.

The idea is that if these serotonin neurons are functioning the way that our brain serotonin neurons are, which we have some good evidence for, then we can make our measurements in a Petri dish from these cells.

From these we will know by proxy what's happening in your brain, so these are our efforts towards making what we've seen in the mice translatable to humans.

How would you like to see your findings on histamine inhibition influence antidepressant drug development in the future?

So right now, in terms of antidepressant therapies and drug discovery, there's been a loss of interest in SSRI research in developing new drugs. The major reason is because it's very difficult to screen these drugs. There's no chemical test for depression. There's no chemical test for antidepressant efficacy. Drug developers have traditionally relied on behavioural tests in mice, and it turns out they're not very reliable.

In recent years, we've seen quite a decline in drug development. Antidepressants currently work for about 30% of patients who take them, with the other 70% experiencing extremely variable efficacy rates. With this novel focus on histamine, perhaps we can reinvigorate the drug discovery efforts, and get that efficacy rate up.

What have you learned from Pittcon 2018? And what have you most enjoyed?

Pittcon is the forum for the most cutting edge analytical research, and what I love is the focus on real world, real life problems. You can attend sessions on environmental chemistry, food chemistry, and biological chemistry and more, so for students and for myself, it's always nice to see a real application behind this cutting-edge technology. This year's been a great example of that; there've been so many interesting talks about the development of chemical systems and applying it to a problem that would affect ordinary people in their every day lives.

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About Professor Parastoo Hashemi

Parastoo (Parry) Hashemi is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the University of South Carolina.

She obtained her PhD in the Department of Bioengineering in Imperial College, London under the mentorship of Martyn Boutelle. She then performed her Post Doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, with Mark Wightman.

Parry started her independent research career in 2011, pioneering a unique interdisciplinary program. Her group develop tools to study pertinent public health issues at the nexus of biology and the environment.

Parrys work has been recognized with a number of accolades including the Horiba Award in Analytical Chemistry, The Eli Lilly Young Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry, an NSF CAREER award, The Pittsburgh Conference Award, The Royce Murray Award for Analytical Chemistry and the University of South Carolinas Breakthrough Stars Award.
After creating a new world record by becoming the only company in India and the world to add 1 million incremental sales in one year, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) today announced its plans for the Indian market for FY18-19.

In line with Hondas business direction to Lead in India and the World with Quantity and Quality, Mr. Minoru Kato -President and CEO, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, India is already the Number One contributor to Hondas global two-wheeler business. Our record sales have set a solid foundation in 2017-18 and Honda 2wheelers India will further consolidate its position in 2018-19 as we get ready to lead the biggest paradigm shift of 2020. Moving ahead with the same momentum on back of customer demand, we will invest close to Rs. 800 crore as we aim for double-digit growth for the third consecutive year in a row as well.

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In the pipeline from Honda during this fiscal are be one brand new model and 18 exciting upgrades of existing products. Network expansion will be the next step from making for India to delivering to India. Honda 2Wheelers India will further expand its reach to 6,000 touchpoints with key focus on hinterlands. Honda Best Deal network will expand to close at 250 touchpoints this year.

With replacement period of two-wheelers coming down from 5-7 years to 3-5 years, Hondas existing customer base of 36 million valued customers will drive new opportunities of growth. Aiming to lead in customer satisfaction, Honda will introduce Honda Joy Club  a unique customer loyalty program in 2018 itself.

As part of future preparedness before the big jump to new BSVI norms in 2020, Hondas cross-functional BS-VI task-force from sales, engineering, R&D, purchase and quality is working on the primary objective of strengthening quality, product planning with cost competitiveness.

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Internally, Honda has initiated the modernisation and unification of production constitution across all plants. This move will help Honda reap the benefit of higher productivity with efficiency and match product quality to world standards. Externally, Honda has pro-actively announced its BS-VI roadmap with its suppliers to ensure a smooth and timely product portfolio upgradation.

To further differentiate brand Honda and strengthen its power among all stakeholders, Honda 2Wheelers India has created a new Brand and Communication operation. The new operations mandate includes Road safety promotion & Racing DNA of Honda through Motorsports.

Elaborating on Hondas performance in 2017-18, Mr. Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President  Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, 2017-18 was a historic year for Honda in more than one way. Honda 2Wheelers India is the only two-wheeler company in the world to grow at a pace witnessed never before, adding 1 million plus incremental customers in a single year. Led by strong demand in both domestic and exports front, Hondas sales apexed at 6,123,886 units with 22% growth. Honda successfully consolidated leadership further in scooter segment while aggressively gaining new motorcycle customers. The aggressive launch of 4 brand new models, new capacity infusion and addition of 500 new outlets propelled Hondas growth story further and set the solid foundation for future growth.

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Although they only power a relatively small number of Mercedes-AMG models these days, V-12 engines are something the performance arm of the German automotive giant is somewhat synonymous with. However, that's not going to be the case for too much longer as the company's boss Tobias Moers has told the Autoblog website he doesn't feel they're necessary for AMG's products, especially vehicles totally unique to the brand such as the AMG GT.

Some people will inevitably bemoan the demise of the V-12, but it's actually hard to argue against consigning it to history as something like the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 in the AMG GT 63 S produces more horsepower than the 6.0-liter V-12 twin-turbo in the S65 AMG. Ok, the V-12 does produce a lot more torque, but that's counteracted to some degree by the adverse effect the weight of the extra four cylinders has on handling. And as the V-8 is used extensively throughout the rest of the Mercedes vehicle range it's more affordable to modify and develop for different applications.

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Moers also gave an interesting insight into the company's decision to produce the AMG four-door. It seems a large part of the reasoning behind producing the more practical GT was because the brand was losing customers to rivals. Moers said existing E and C-Class AMG owners were increasingly in the market for more exclusive and higher performance models that were also still relatively practical. Until AMG launched the GT it didn't have a car to satisfy these customers, but now it does of course.

Another interesting fact is the reason why the AMG GT four-door can be had with even more power than the incredible GT R coupe, which most would probably expect to have been the more powerful of the two cars. It turns out it's mainly because the four-door GT is heavier and has all-wheel drive, so AMG saw the weight as a good argument for the additional power, and then there was the fact the all-wheel drive system meant the car would be more than capable of handling it.

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Frankfurt/Milan: Cryptocurrency miners are moving in to Norway and Sweden to take advantage of cheap hydro-electric energy and low temperatures to power and cool their servers.

Iceland has been Europe's most popular location for miners of digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum.

But at 6.5 euro cents and 7.1 cents per kilowatt hours, respectively, commercial power prices in Sweden and Norway are cheaper than Iceland's 8 cents and far below the European average of 11 cents.

The interest is good news for Sweden's Vattenfall and Norway's Statkraft, the dominant utilities in their countries. Supplying power to cryptocurrency miners is a tiny part of current business but the two state-owned firms have said they see it as an opportunity.

The process is energy intensive. Miners plug in thousands of servers at a time to get the computing power to produce cryptocurrencies, which is done by solving mathematical equations.

Miners of bitcoin will use about 130 terawatt hours of energy this year, matching Argentina's consumption or the projected usage of all the world's electric vehicles by the mid-2020s, according to Morgan Stanley.

"We're on a global hunt to secure as much power as we can," said Olivier Roussy Newton, director and co-founder of Canadian group HIVE Blockchain Technologies, which started mining ethereum in Sweden in January.

The company said it was expanding energy capacity for its crypto mining in Sweden to 17.4 megawatts, with funds available to ramp up a further 26.8 MW by September. Last month, it agreed to buy data centre company Kolos Norway AS for $9.9 million with a view to expanding its mining operations.

In March, U.S. miner Bitfury opened a new $35 million mining data centre in Norway. The miner will be buying 350 gigawatt hours of pure clean energy from local renewable energy provider Helgeland Kraft.

Many bitcoin miners are looking at the area including the Chinese because of abundant cheap hydro power, said Bill Tai, a member of Bitfury's board of directors.

China's Bitmain, the world's largest bitcoin miner which recently set up a unit in Switzerland, has also been investigating Sweden and Norway's potential, two industry sources with knowledge of the matter said.

China accounts for around 70 percent of the crytopcurrency mining industry but Beijing has discouraged it in part, due to concerns about pollution from coal-fired power. This has forced them to look elsewhere.

"A lot of miners are keen to get into Norway and that includes Bitmain and other Chinese names," said Mark Collins, chief executive of CBH Consulting AG, a Zurich-based clean energy consultant running for the blockchain industry.

A second source with knowledge of the matter also mentioned Bitmain's interest. "A number of nationalities are turning to the Nordics," that source said.

Bitmain spokesman Nishant Sharma said the company would announce expansions in Europe and other regions as they occur. He said he was not aware of any "special plans" for Sweden or Norway.

Green Power

Mining a single bitcoin requires $1,400-$1,800 worth of electricity, up to a quarter of the total costs and about the annual power bill of a four-person household in Germany.

This means that cryptocurrency miners are under pressure from policymakers to prove their green credentials and Norway and Sweden's clean energy holds even greater appeal.

"This area is the Saudi Arabia of green energy," said Tai.

In Norway, hydropower accounts for over 99 percent of electricity production while in Sweden the number is about 40 percent with the same again from nuclear.

Some utilities in Europe such as Italy's Enel and Germany's E.ON are worried that the speculation behind cryptocurrencies could lead to a market crash. Enel said in February it was not interested in powering cryptocurrency miners.

But Norway and Sweden have welcomed the business.

"It is an opportunity for energy providers in the area. It's a consistent power draw for them without spikes and troughs and energy providers like that," said Collins.

Norway recently changed tax rules to exempt data centres from paying property taxes in a bid to attract foreign companies.

Node Pole, a Swedish investment advisor owned by Vattenfall and smaller peer Skelleftea Kraft, helped Chinese tech company Canaan Creative, a miner and one of the world's largest makers of bitcoin mining chips, to set up shop in Sweden last year.

"For the last 6-8 months there has been an increasing interest in opportunities in Sweden," Node Pole Chief Executive Patrik Oehlund said.

Vattenfall provides Canaan with the roughly 10 MW of power capacity it needs and the utility sees more bitcoin deals on the horizon.

"There are a number of companies in different phases of evaluating establishment on the Nordic Market," said Matts Wesslen, Vattenfall's manager of energy intensive industries.

Nevertheless, Alex de Vries, blockchain specialist at PwC, said the opportunities in cryptocurrency mining may be short-lived.

"If bitcoin energy consumption continues like it does today it will become unsustainable," he said.

"That might be an opportunity for utilities in the short-term but over the long-term miners will have to find ways to become more efficient to cut electricity use."
Bengaluru: Vedanta Resources Plc said on Tuesday its application for renewal of consent to operate its copper smelting plant, one of India's biggest, in Thootukudi in Tamil Nadu was rejected by the state pollution regulator.

The rejection comes amid almost daily protests against a proposed expansion of the smelter by the people of Thootukudi, who have thronged the streets and shut shops demanding a closure of the plant. Vedanta says the protests are based on "false allegations" and the company has been providing "regular information through various media on the truth". The company plans to double capacity at the smelter to 800,000 tonnes per year.

The conglomerate - controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal - said the application was rejected for want of more clarifications and it was evaluating further course of action. The company did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters seeking further comment. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board was not immediately available for a comment.

The smelter, run by Vedanta's Sterlite Copper unit, is controlled by Vedanta Ltd, a majority-owned subsidiary of London-listed Vedanta Resources. The unit is currently closed as part of a 15-day scheduled maintenance, which started on March 27, and the company said the maintenance is now likely to be extended.

Cable makers such as Finolex Cables Ltd and Precision Wires India Ltd have traditionally bought copper from the two biggest producers, Vedanta's Sterlite and Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco Industries Ltd. India's consumption of copper has been increasing consistently over the last few years.

At current local demand growth of 7-8 percent per year, India may turn into a net importer of copper by the year ended March 2020 if no new plant is commissioned, consultancy firm ICRA Ltd said in a report last week. Locals and environmentalists say Vedanta's smelter is a major source of pollution and a risk to fisheries.

The smelter was shut for more than two months in 2013 by an environmental court after complaints from residents over emissions, then forcing India to ramp up imports of copper. Several cases have been filed against Sterlite since the plant started in 1996. In a different case, the Supreme Court in April fined the company about $18 million for breaking environmental laws at the smelter.
Mumbai: At least 17 labourers were killed and 15 others injured when a speeding truck overturned in western Maharashtra's Satara district in the early hours on Tuesday.

The truck, carrying construction labourers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway passing through the district, around 250 km from the city, Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said.

The driver apparently lost control over the wheels at an accident-prone stop near Khambatki ghat. As a result, the vehicle rammed into a barricade and then overturned, he said.

At least 17 labourers died on the spot, while 15 others sustained injuries, he said.

On being informed, the Khandala police rushed the spot and took all the victims to a nearby hospital, he said.

The police were trying to ascertain the exact reason of the accident, the official said, adding that they suspect the accident occurred due to the driver's lack of concentration as he had been constantly driving and was deprived of sleep.

The bodies were sent for postmortem and the process to identify the deceased was on, the police added.
New Delhi: The chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes said on Tuesday that all states will be urged to use the correct name of Baba Saheb Ambedkar as he had himself signed on the original draft of the Constitution.

Professor Ram Shanker Katheria told News18 that Ambedkar had signed his name as "Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar" and so, his name should be used as such everywhere in the country.

If we get an appeal to use Ramji with Ambedkars name everywhere, then surely I will consider it. I will personally write to all the Chief Ministers to use the name of Ambedkar as signed in the first copy of the Constitution," said Katheria.

The remark comes amidst what has been dubbed as an increasing push to saffronise the Dalit icon.

He also defended the saffron paint on a statue of Ambedkar in Badaun, saying that not all statues of the father of the Constitution have to be blue. I have seen his statues in other colours too, he said. A BSP leader had got the statue repainted as blue on Tuesday.

Recently, the UP government had also passed an order to add Ramji to Ambedkars name in all government documents and records.

The order was issued by Principal Secretary of general administration department, Jitendra Kumar, who took cognizance of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, in which Dr Bhimrao Ambedkars name is written as Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

The move invited sharp criticism from the opposition, which questioned the timing of the order and alleged that it was a political decision. Ambedkars grandsons Prakash and Anand had told CNN-New18 that the UP state governments move was nothing but vote bank politics by the BJP.

BJP wants to have their own agenda before the 2019 elections. My sense is close to elections, they might try to tell the voters that Ambedkar was also a Ram bhakt, Prakash had said.

But Katheria said there was nothing political about the decision and UP only used the name of Ambedkar as he had himself used in the primary book of Constitution as a signature.
Chandigarh: BJP-ruled Haryana's Education Department has stirred a controversy by asking students in private schools to furnish personal and family data, including religion, caste, bank account number, Aadhaar details and if their parents "(are) engaged in (an) unclean occupation".

These schools have handed over the two-page form to students, including those in Gurugram and Panchkula. Inquiries reveal that the forms have been distributed across Haryana.

State government officials, contacted by IANS, feigned ignorance about the form, which carries the Haryana government's official logo. They refused to be quoted on the issue.

A state government official spokesman said it was not clear who issued the form.

Private school authorities, in their communication to parents, have made it clear that the information was being sought by the state Education Department and not by the school.

"This is to inform you that we have received the attached format from the Education Department to be filled in by parents of all Haryana schools. Please note that the information being sought is not for school records but for use by the Government of Haryana. There are some mandatory fields that are marked with the * (star) symbol.

"In order to facilitate an easy flow of data from the parent to the school, we have created a Google link given below. You are requested to open the link, fill the details and submit the same to the school by April 16. Your early action will be greatly appreciated," the communication from one of the schools stated.

Other schools have mentioned that the form has come from the Directorate of School Education of the Haryana government.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala hit out at the Manohar Lal Khattar government on the issue.

"Khattar government does it again. Students labelled as 'untouchables' & their parents occupation as 'unclean'. The government, taking a cue from NaMo App, issues a 100 pointer student admission form. Since when has Aadhaar become mandatory for school admission?" Surjewala tweeted.

BREAKING! Khattar Govt does it again. Students labelled as 'untouchables' & their parents occupation as 'unclean'.Govt,taking a cue from NaMo App, issues a 100 pointer student admission form.Since when has Aadhar become mandatory for school admission?https://t.co/1l66WlN4ez pic.twitter.com/1IC9JXTUUS Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) April 10, 2018

"The Khattar government issues a 100-point Students Admission Form. It is really a Surveillance of Parents/Students Form. Height of insanity is the kind of private info of parents being sought. Calling vocation of parents unclean is absurd. Surveillance is the DNA of BJP."

The form also seeks personal details of the student, parents, siblings, bank account details, Aadhaar and PAN (permanent account number) card details, annual income of the parents and several other things. The students have been asked to specify their religion, caste and even category like Scheduled Caste.

"Asking details of religion and caste is appalling. If parents come from different religions, like Hindu and Sikh marriages are common in the region, what religion will the child mention. Moreover, why do they need bank account details of the student?" a harassed parent in Gurugram asked.

The students have even been asked to furnish information about genetic disorders.

"Why do they want so many details? What will they do with the bank account number of a student?" another parent in Panchkula asked.

Haryana has a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since October 2014, headed by Khattar, a former Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh ideologue.
New Delhi: Ahead of another Bharat Bandh on Tuesday, this one called by upper caste outfits, the situation in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar remained tense.

The bandh on Tuesday has been called by outfits such as Ranveer Sena to protest against the Bharat Bandh called by Dalit organisations on April 2, which had turned violent in certain parts of the country.

In western UP's Saharanpur district, which is the headquarters of the Bhim Army, internet services were suspended at 7 pm on Monday. The district administration said internet services will be down for two days, till Wednesday, to avoid rumour mongering during the protests.

During the April 2 protests, Bhim Army supporters had occupied a 2 km stretch in the centre of Saharanpur, from Ghantagar Chowk to Kalpana Cinema. However, it was in the rural areas that some violence was witnessed. A police car had been vandalised by some protesters.

Other parts of western UP, including Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat, also suspended internet services. The Muzaffarnagar SSP said that they would contain "anti-social elements" on social media platforms as well and anyone inciting violence would be punished.

Bihar, too, is on the edge. During the April 2 protests, several parts of Bihar had witnessed sporadic violence. Two people, including a newborn baby, had died during the protests. Police and administration are on standby as the Bharat Bandh is all set to begin on Tuesday.

On April 2, protests had broken out across India against the alleged dilution of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 by the Supreme Court. Since then, Dalit outfits have been protesting the "unfair targeting" of Dalits after the April 2 protests turned violent. Four BJP MPs from UP have written to the Prime Minister, claiming that cops were targeting Dalits. Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad Raavan has launched a hunger strike from Saharanpur district jail, where he is lodged under the National Security Act.
New Delhi: The central government on Monday advised all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the Bharat Bandh called by some groups on Tuesday reportedly against caste-based reservations in jobs and education, an official said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said the districts magistrates and SPs will be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The missive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of about a dozen people.

An official of the MHA said the ministry has issued an advisory to all states to take necessary precautionary measures in view of the calls on social media for Bharat Bandh on April 10 by some groups. "The MHA has advised the states to beef up security and make appropriate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident, including issue of prohibitory orders, if necessary," the official said.

The states have been asked to intensify patrolling in all sensitive locations so as to prevent any loss of life or damage to property. "The advisory stressed that district magistrates and superintendents of police be made personally responsible for ensuring that law and order situation remains firmly under control in the areas of their jurisdiction," the official said.

While the April 2 Bharat Bandh was called by groups opposing the alleged dilution of SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order, Tuesdays protest is being reportedly called by people opposed to caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh ahead of the country-wide shutdown, a senior police official said.

Officials in Madhya Pradesh said that they had been paying particular attention to messages being circulated on social media platforms.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Bhopal, Dharmendra Dubey said that social media messages were being monitored and warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked under section 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ajatshatru, Divisional Commissioner of Bhopal said that prohibitory orders under section 144 had been clamped in the city for Tuesday but services including schools, government offices and banks would operate as usual.

In Jaipur, too, prohibitory orders have been imposed. Mobile internet service has been blocked for 24 hours in Jaipur from Monday night as a precautionary measure, an official said.
New Delhi: Delhi Police's Special Cell has busted an international narcotics syndicate, recovering 29 kg of heroin worth approximately Rs 125 crore.

The narcotic syndicate originating from Afghanistan and terminating in Europe through Nigerian smugglers with Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi serving as transit points.

The syndicate was using the messaging app Viber to make their deals. They would delete the Viber account once the deal would be complete.

The four accused arrested have been identified as Jehangir Ahmad (41), a resident of Kashmir, Gorbachan Singh (40), a resident of Delhi, Mumtaz (70) and Nnadi, both residents of Afghanistan.

On March 26, Special Cells team arrested Ahmad and recovered 11 kg of heroin. Three days after his arrest and inputs provided to police, the team arrested Singh.

During interrogation, Singh told police how the syndicate was working. He said the consignments were delivered to an Afghan national who would further deliver it to Nigerians based in Delhi. Those Nigerians would then smuggle the drugs out of India to Europe and other parts of the country, said a senior police officer.

Based on his information, the police soon managed to arrest Mumtaz. He revealed to them that he got directions from Pakistan and Afghanistan to receive heroin in India and deliver it to Nigerians. When police investigated further, they got Mumtazs passport details which showed his travel diaries. He travelled to Pakistan before coming to India, said an officer investigating the case.

According to Delhi Police, this syndicate was working from Pakistan and Afghanistan border. This syndicate is being run by one Pakistan-based person named Azlam. The recovered heroin is manufactured in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in a factory owned by an Afghan national. The consignment is later shipped to Pakistan to Azlam who would then send the consignment to Jammu and Kashmir, said DCP Special Cell PS Kushwah.

The modus operandi of this syndicate was very typical. They would pack the heroin in capsules and insert them into the stomach to smuggle it abroad.

Delhi Police is looking for one of the main accused whose code name is Mota. Jahangir got in touch with Mota through a close friend. Mota is a drug supplier and stays in Tangdhar, Jammu and Kashmir.
Shimla: It was 10-year-old, Ranbir, who managed to alert the administration about his school bus falling into a gorge in Nurpur city of Himachal Pradeshs Kangra district.

Talking to News18, the Class V student said he and his Class IV friend Avni fell out of the bus when it began rolling down the 100-feet deep gorge. Ranbir then climbed 50 feet up the gorge and reached the main road. There, he stopped a passerby riding a motorcycle and reached a nearby shop from where the local administration was informed about the accident.

At least 27 people, including 23 children below the age of 10, one woman teacher, one male teacher, the bus driver and a local died in the tragic accident on Monday. Around 10 children are said to be critically injured.

The bus driver while trying to evade a bike rider turned the steering well towards the gorge leading to the accident. The window pane near my seat broke and I fell out of the bus. I then climbed 50-feet uphill and reached the road. I stopped a passerby riding a motorcycle and told him about the accident, said Ranbir. He is undergoing treatment in Nurpur Hospital.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jayram Thakur have all expressed condolence over the tragedy and solidarity with the bereaved families.

Thakur has also ordered a magisterial probe into the tragedy and relief of Rs 5 lakh each to families of the deceased. The government would also be bearing the cost of the treatment of the injured.
New Delhi: Senior Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph has said that judiciary and press are the two watchdogs of democracy which must act with utmost force when the democracy is in danger.

Speaking to the students of Kerala Media Academy in New Delhi on Monday, Justice Joseph also made it clear that he would not take up any government assignment after his retirement.

His statement came in less than 48 hours after his colleague Justice J Chelameswar issued a similar statement about not taking up any government post after demitting office.

Justices Chelameswar and Joseph were part of the four-judge press conference in January wherein the judges had in an unprecedented manner raised serious issues of administration in the top court, in particular manner of allocating cases to different benches.

On Monday, Justice Joseph told the students about the increased role of judiciary and press in India.

"Judiciary and media are two watchdogs of democracy. Watchdog barks. It barks when it faces a threat. It barks to alert the owner. Even after it barks and the owner doesn't wake up, then it bites. Barking dog seldom bites but it bites when the owner is in danger. That owner is the democracy here," said the judge.

Justice Joseph also regretted that journalists are perhaps not as free as they used to be.

" Even when reporters want the truth to be out, their employers want their version of the truth to be told. Freedom of the reporters are limited now. This is another danger to democracy," cautioned the judge.

Justice Joseph implored upon the media students to be diligent and patient with their assignments and commented that the" breaking news syndrome is the cancer of media reporting."

He also made a categorical statement that he will not take up any post retirement assignment bestowed by any government.

Justice Joseph is known in the top court as a very patient and indulgent judge, who never loses his temper and wears a smile always.

His humane manner of dealing with family disputes has made his court a centre of resolving discords through mediation and amicable settlement.

Ends
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the lawyers of Kathua Bar Association for stalling the Crime Branch from filing the chargesheet against the accused in the gangrape and murder of a minor Bakerwal girl in state court.

The officials had to wait for nearly six hours to file chargesheet in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kathua on Monday after the lawyers blocked the officials and raised slogans demanding case be shifted to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

DGP S P Vaid confirmed an FIR was registered in the case.

An FIR has been registered against the lawyers of the Kathua bar association,'' he told local media.

Police sources said charges under Section 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint) of RPC have been filed.

Amid high drama, the lawyers on Monday had staged a protest and prevented the Crime Branch from filing charge-sheet against the seven accused in the gangrape and murder of eight-year-old girl.

The Crime Branch has established that the girl was raped in temple and murdered by a few residents of Rasana and adjoining village to force the Bakerwal community to flee from the area with the intention to divest them of their landholdings.

Four cops - SPO Deepak Khajuria, SPO Surinder Verma, sub-inspector Anand Dutta, head constable Tilak Raj and three others including the mastermind, a retired patwari, Sanji Ram, his son Vishal Kumar, and a juvenile have been arrested in the case.

Ram, a retired revenue officer, is the custodian of the Devasthan temple where the minor girl was held captive for a week and later strangled to death and her head was smashed on a boulder.

The investigators have found out Datta and Raj were involved in destroying crucial evidence about the crime. Raj, in particular, had washed the blood stained clothes of the rape victim to clean evidence just before they were sent for forensic examination.

The viscera report of the deceased has established she was sedated by a high dose of drug that kept her unconscious for most period of her captivity.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir valley reacted sharply to the lawyers protest in Kathua and expressed satisfaction over the lodging of the FIR.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah welcomed lodging of FIR against lawyers and said, Good. Lawyers who have no respect for the law deserve to have the full weight of the law books crash down on them.

Congress state president GM Mir terming the move as politically motivated". Some social activists too held a protest in Srinagar demanding action.

Former vice-president of JNU Students Union, Shehla Rashid, said that some lawyers backed by the BJP tried to prevent the Crime Branch from filing a chargesheet against the accused.

"It is horrifying to see how blatant attempts to save the rapists are being made, first by cabinet ministers belonging to BJP, and then by lawyers backed by the BJP. Not only this, the lawyers who were preventing the Crime branch from filing a chargesheet were chanting Jai Shree Ram to spread communal poison, she said.

She said a united protest and sit-in would be held on Wednesday in Srinagar's Pratap Park.

"The purpose of the protest is to register our voice against the blatant attempts to subvert justice in this case, and to seek speedy justice for the victim'" she said.
Apr 10, 2018 08:23 (IST)

No impact of Bharat Bandh call seen as yet in Meerut. An official of the MHA said the ministry has issued an advisory to all states to take necessary precautionary measures in view of the calls on social media for Bharat Bandh on April 10 by some groups. "The MHA has advised the states to beef up security and make appropriate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident, including the issue of prohibitory orders, if necessary," the official said.
New Delhi: A recent verdict of the Supreme Court led to a lot of criticism from political parties and others who argued that it amounts to dilution of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. A two judge bench of the Supreme Court laid down new guidelines for police officers on how to ensure innocent persons, especially public officials, are protected from false complaints.

Angered over the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Dalit groups carried out protests across several states on April 2. The protests turned violent and nine people died across the country.

A week after the April 2 Bharat Bandh, in what is seen as a counter movement, some groups on Tuesday observed Bharat Bandh to protest against the caste based reservation in education and employment.

News18 here explores who the schedule caste and schedule tribes were before Independence and how the Constitution shaped their destiny. We also discuss if there is an end to this conflict, if any.

How were Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes identified prior to independence?

On the basis of the 1931 census that the British government had conducted, the Government of India 1935 Act was promulgated. The reservation for the Depressed Classes was incorporated into the act, which came into force in 1937. This Depressed class later came to known as the Scheduled Caste.

Scheduled Tribe were the tribes or communities who were isolated from the rest of the communities and wouldnt abide to any religion. The British government in 1935 identified 'Schedule of Tribes' which consisted of different types of indigenous tribal groups i.e. Denotified tribes, criminal tribes, forest dwellers etc.

By 1937 both the section were given positive affirmative action rights and political representation. After India got its independence, the Constitution continued the affirmative action for the depressed class which were now termed as 'Scheduled Caste' and 'Scheduled Tribe'.

What does the Constitution of India state?

According to the Constitution of India, under article 341(1), the President of India, after consultation with the Governor, may specify, the castes, races, tribes or parts of groups within castes or races, which shall be deemed to be Scheduled Castes. Accordingly, the President has notified the Scheduled Castes in the order called Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order-1950 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes List (Modification) Order-1956. However, under article 341(2), the Parliament of India by law can include or exclude the above-mentioned groups from the list of the Scheduled Castes.

What does the Presidential Order of 1950 state?

The order was called as the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. The complete list of castes and tribes was made on order of 1950 which had certain norms and criteria for inclusion of other community later. However the Scheduled tribe list was put in updation due to partition as it was very difficult to identify tribals as they were geographically isolated. Thus, the list of Scheduled tribe was completely updated by 1958 with 744 enlisted tribes.

What does the order say on religion and how it affects conversion?

Part 3 of the Presidential order of 1950 states that no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu [the Sikh or the Buddhist] religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.

This clearly lays down a religious barrier which states that any person who is not a Hindu, Buddhist or a Sikh, will not be entitled to reservation on the basis of being a Scheduled Caste.

This is also the reason why most Dalits who convert to another religion, take up Buddhism as opposed to any other religion, so as not to leave the fold of reservations.

What about the backward classes?

The First Backward Classes Commission was set up by a presidential order on 29 January 1953 under the chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar. The commission submitted its report in 1955. It had prepared a list of around 2400 backward castes for the entire country and of which 837 had been classified as the 'most backward'. The commission also put some recommendations like reserving 70% of reservations for OBC in education.

The second backward class commission was established on 1 January 1979, B.P Mandal as its chairperson. The commission submitted its report in December 1980 which included both Hindus and non-Hindus, and consisted around 52% of the total population. The Mandal Commission recommended 27% of reservation as the SC had set bar for reservation to not extend 50% in any case.

For identifying socially and educationally backward classes, the commission adopted the following criteria:

1. Low social position in the traditional caste hierarchy of Hindu society.

2. Lack of general educational advancement among the major section of a caste or community.

3. Inadequate or no representation in government services.

4. Inadequate representation in the field of trade, commerce and industry

Why is there a parallel Central and State OBC list in existence unlike the SC/ST list which is uniform for both state and the centre?

According to PS Krishnan, who was the Secretary, Ministry of Welfare when the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission Report in 1990, seeking to provide 27% reservations to socially and educationally backward classes, The first Backward Classes Commission that is Kaka Kalelkar Commission gave its report in 1955. The then central government in 1961 said centre will not make a list of backward classes and the states can have their own list if they choose. The argument was that the five year plans were already undertaken will mainly benefit the backward classes and hence no such list was required.

This proved to be erroneous because it was subsequently proved that gap between SEdBC on one end and socially advanced castes on the other continues to be was very wide in every parameter of development and welfare, with SCs and STs at the bottom and SEdBCs far below the socially advanced castes.

This dichotomy did not exist in the case of SC and ST, thanks to Baba Saheb Ambedkar and distinguished administrative and demographic scholars especially Mr Hutton who in 1931 census listed SC on the criteria of caste subjected to untouchability which was brought into effect by Government of India Act 1935 with the drawing up of state wise central SC list. This was continued in the Constitution of India following which the 1951 Presidential Orders scheduling SCs and STs were issued. So there was a single list for SCs and STs issued by the centre, state wise, which could be amended only by an act of parliament.

This dichotomy in SEdBC list is sought to be removed in this bill, but whether the states will agree to it is the question. The states will have to be taken into confidence and shown that no injustice will be done to backward classes in any way.

What about the Constitutional Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament to give constitutional status to National Commission for the Backward Classes or NCBC?

Article 342(A) provides, as in the case of SCs, that there will be a Presidential list issued first in consultation with the governor of the state and any subsequent change in the list can be made only by parliamentary law.

The bill has recognized that BCs also need development in addition to reservations. There are provision in the bill for development of SEdBCs and the new NCBCs role in the development process.

According to PS Krishnan, if this bill goes through, inclusion or exclusion of any caste subsequent to the initial press notification can be done only by an act of Parliament as in the case of SC and ST. In the case of SCs the criteria is untouchability. In the case of STs, the community must be shown to be a tribe which is isolated, and lives in vulnerable conditions. This has to be proved anthropologically. This is ensured by the long established process of referring every proposal for inclusion in the SC and ST list to the Registered General of India (RGI) that has an expert anthropological wing. Following this, the government moves a bill in the Parliament.
New Delhi: Group Captain Arun Marwaha leaked sensitive information on national security to Pakistan's ISI, Delhi Police said in its chargesheet against him.

The Police said that in total 12 sensitive documents, including the upcoming 'Ek Gagan Shakti' Air Force exercise and IAF-Army joint Human Aid in Disaster relief exercise, were passed on. The exercises now remain stalled.

The chargesheet said that Marwaha, who was in the post of Joint Director Operations (PARA) at Indian Air Force Headquarters, and the ISI agents would talk on a 'hookup' app. The platform provided them secured chats which get deleted every time the users log out.

The officer was first approached by the agents on Facebook from two IDs named Kiran Randhawa and Mahima Patel. They then started chatting with him on WhatsApp, followed by the app.

The chats between the agents and Marwaha were explicit in nature. It was done to honey trap him, the group captain confessed in his disclosure statement.

On approaching Facebook, the IP addresses of the IDs were ascertained to have been operated from Pakistan. Marwaha was arrested on February 7 this year by Delhi Police. He had been chatting with the ISI agents from December last year, police said.

The Group Captain was first detained by the Army for inspection and after proof of espionage was found, he was handed over to Delhi police who booked and arrested him under the Official Secrets Act. Laptops, Mobiles and CDs were recovered from him.
Thiruvananthapuram: In a serious allegation, the leader of the Islamic State module from Kerala has said the Salafi preacher M M Akbar has concealed information about the links of Peace Foundation with those who migrated from India and joined IS.

In the 56th audio clip sent from Khorosan province in Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Abdullah who hails from Thrikkarippur in Kasargod claimed that there are IS supporters among the teachers and parents of the students at the Peace International Schools where Akbar is the Managing director.

The 12.51-minute-long message came as a reaction to the remarks made by Akbar in an interview to a Malayalam TV channel.

According to Rashid, some of those who worked with Peace School had migrated to IS along with him and Akbar tried to conceal the names of two former employees.

One is Shihas from Kasaragod. He was the supply chain manager of the Peace Foundation. He was one of the prime members of the foundation who supplied materials including books and uniforms to all the schools under it, Rashid said.

Why did Akbar hide this fact as he was an employee of the foundation as well as the school? Shihas was with the school. However, he along with his family became martyrs recently. Shihas was an employee who was on the official payroll of the foundation, Rashid added.

"Then, Yahya alias Bexton Vincent who was converted from Christianity. He was the husband of Merin, a teacher of Ernakulam Peace School, who was mentioned by Akbar in the interview. He was in charge of the training and observation of teachers of the three schools under Peace foundation such as Ernakulam, Kollam and Mathilakam. Yahya was also the main teacher of another institution, Triple IS (International Institute of Islamic Sciences) owned by Akbar," said Rashid.

According to Rashid, in the beginning, the classes of Triple IS were conducted at the Salafi Mosque at Ernakulam Vyttila and it was later shifted to Wayanad. "You ask any student of the first batch. They will tell you about Yahya as he stayed with them and was very popular among them. Akbar hides this fact too," added Rashid.

Rashid termed Akbars assertion that Rashid had left the Peace School as he could not influence anybody from there to IS as a ' lie'.

It is not correct, 100%. We migrated to IS only to satiate Allah and not for any other gain. I shall tell you one thing frankly, there are IS supporters among the members of the Peace Foundation, teachers and the parents of the students at the Peace school. And even there are students. I don't want to disclose their names because I do not want to trouble them, Rashid said.

The IS leader claimed that the students of the Peace School would be the majority among those who would join IS in the next 10 years.

This is because they are being taught Salafism in the school. They may not be supporting IS direct. However, Salafism means the study of Quran and Hadith direct from the source unlike the other Sunni factions. Those factions have a belief which is adulterated by the beliefs of forefathers including Hinduism. They can be even called Sufis. They are also trying to teach many things by concealing some portions such as Hijr (migration) and Jihad (Holy war). However, when you learn Salafism, the puritanical Islam without any adulteration, they will follow our path. All those who follow IS across the globe do this and it will happen to those students who learn pure Islam when they begin to think. Then children will seek what Akbar wanted to conceal. A majority of those who seek truth will turn to Jihad. Everyone who can browse can learn and will join real Islam, Rashid said.

He also ruled out it Akbar's assertion that it is a local issue of Kasargod as Yahya is from Palakkad.

Akbar was detained at the Hyderabad airport when he was travelling from Australia to Qatar on February 25. His interview was aired soon after he was released from the judicial custody.

He was arrested in a case related to objectionable content in the textbook taught at the Peace School.
Motihari: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive on Tuesday to address "Swachchh Bharat Mission" volunteers and flag off a new bi-weekly all electric Humsafar Express connecting Katihar to New Delhi, an official of East Champaran district said on Monday.

The Prime Minister's visit is a part of the concluding celebration of Champaran Satyagraha centenary launched by the Bihar Government in April last year.

Mahatma Gandhi had set off on his Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 in protest against atrocities on Indigo planters.

Modi is also likely to launch electrification work of Motihari-Muzaffarpur rail line and doubling of Muzaffarpur-Narkatiyaganj railway track, the official said.

Modi will also dedicate to the nation a locomotive developed at the Electric Locomotive Factory, a collaboration between India and France, in Madhepura.

A sprawling tent-city, Swachhagram, has been set up to accommodate Swachchh Bharat Mission volunteers from other states, District Magistrate Raman Kumar said.
Lucknow: The saffron coloured coat on the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar, which was unveiled in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, has been painted back to its original Blue colour.

This comes a day after News18 published a report about the statue and how it was vandalised on Friday night after causing a furore in Dugraiyya village of UPs Badaun district.

BSP regional head Hemendra Gautam, who was present when the statue was unveiled, got it painted back to its original colour. The statue was vandalised on Friday night after which protesting locals forced the administration to arrange for a new statue from Agra district.

Till now, more than nine statues of Dr BR Ambedkar have been vandalised in the state. Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath had issued orders to safeguard the statues and provide adequate security to curb such incidents. However, no arrest has been made in a case of statue vandalism in Uttar Pradesh.

BSP chief Mayawati had also demanded that those disturbing peace and harmony by vandalising statues should be booked under the sedition law. She demanded security for statues and memorials built in the memory of icons, especially those of Dalits and other backward classes.

The state government had recently, issued orders to change the name of social reformer and Dalit activist Bhimrao Ambedkar as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in all government documents and records. The move has invited sharp criticism from the opposition, which has questioned the timing of the order and alleged that it was a political decision.

The order was issued by the principal secretary of general administration department, Jitendra Kumar, who took cognizance of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, in which Ambedkars name is written as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. This was done after the issue was raised by Governor Ram Naik last year. He pointed out that the signature by Ambedkar on the pages of the Constitution includes his full name and he should, therefore, be referred to by that moniker.

The spate of vandalism began when a statue of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was brought down in Tripura days after the BJP registered a thumping victory in the state Assembly elections. A statue of social reformer Periyar was vandalised in Tamil Nadus Vellore district and a bust of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee was blackened in Kolkatas Kalighat.
Unnao/Lucknow: The father of the Unnao rape victim died due to shock and septicaemia, according to the postmortem report. It also says there was bleeding in the man's lower intestine (probably due to injury) and points to the lack of proper treatment in time.

The 18-year-old woman has alleged that she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers. On Monday, her father died in custody in Unnao, prompting her to charge that he was killed inside jail at the behest of the lawmaker.

The Uttar Pradesh police has said that a special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted to probe into Unnao rape case involving BJP MLA and the death of victim's father.

"The SIT will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident," ADG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told a press conference.

Earlier in the day, Atul Singh, the brother of a rape-accused BJP MLA, was arrested in Unnao early on Tuesday, police said. According to a police spokesperson, a crime branch team arrested Atul Singh Sengar, on the directions of the state police chief.

An 18-year-old woman alleged that she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers. Yesterday, her father died in custody in Unnao, prompting her to charge that he was killed inside jail at the behest of the lawmaker.

The deceased, around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail on April 8 and died during treatment yesterday, Superintendent of Police, Unnao, Pushpanjali had yesterday said.

Four accused - Sonu, Baua, Vinit and Shailu - named in the FIR registered on April 4 for beating up Pappu had been arrested.

The complaint was lodged by the deceased's wife. He was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act after he was allegedly beaten up by Anil Singh, the MLA's brother.

Makhi police station SHO Ashok Kumar Singh had been suspended.
Jammu: Two jawans were killed in heavy mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics, and mortars from 1715 hours in Sunderbanisector along the Line of Control (LoC) last night," a defence spokesman said.

The Indian Army was giving a befitting reply, he said.

Riflemen Vinod Singh and Jaki Sharma were grievously injured in the firing and later succumbed to their injuries, the spokesman said.

Singh, 24, belonged to Danapur village of Akhnoor district in Jammu and Kashmir. He is survived by his father, Ajit Singh.

Sharma, 30, was from Sanhail village of Hiranagar district in Jammu. He is survived by his wife, Rajni Devi.

"Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were brave and sincere soldiers. The nation will always remain indebted to the brave hearts for their supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the defence spokesperson said.
Adil Hussain-starrer Unfreedom, which was earlier banned by the Central Board of Film Certification due to its bold content, is now available to Indian viewers. The Raj Amit Kumar directorial, which has love making scenes, depicts lesbian relationships, Islamophobia and religious fundamentalism, released in India and other countries on Netflix on Monday.

"I am glad that 'Unfreedom' finds such a popular platform like Netflix after the ban in India and the efforts of censorship guardians in India to stop the film. It also exposes the hypocrisy and divide between reality and fantasy of censorship system in India," Kumar said in a statement.

"There is no way they can control and censor content in digital age, yet, they try their best to choke filmmakers like me who have something relevant to say that makes them feel threatened," he added.

Unfreedom is a contemporary thriller based in a society torn apart by political, religious and sexual turmoil. Alternating between New York and New Delhi, the film combines two stories about religious fundamentalism and intolerance. Based on an original story by Kumar, the project's screenplay has been co-written by Damon J. Taylor. Its technical team comprises Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty, who has done the sound design for the film. It has been shot by cinematographer Hari Nair and edited by Atanu Mukherjee.

Unfreedom was banned by CBFC in 2015 as the film "will ignite unnatural passions and incite rapes and communal violence in India". Last year, the film was under review by the board, which wanted Kumar to cut crucial elements from the movie in order to be shown to the Indian public.

Later, Kumar also appealed to Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. FCAT banned the film without any possibility of cutting or further appeals.

A campaign was also run by the makers for a year during which they did around 100 screenings of the film globally in India and the US, among other countries. Following this, the film was released internationally by Netflix. The film also features actors Victor Bannerjee, Bhavani Lee, Preeti Gupta and Bhanu Uday.

(With IANS inputs)
Actor-writer-producer Twinkle Khanna, who has been a target of several trolls for her frank opinion, on Monday said that these social media trolls are like cockroaches. Twinkle Khanna was speaking during a panel discussion "Social Media Trolling on Social Platforms" that was organised for forthcoming OSM Awards in Mumbai.

During the media interaction, Twinkle expressed that online trolls are like cockroaches. "They come along and they do that to everybody and people who take trolls seriously, I'd rather say they are foolish. Trolls are like cockroaches, once in a while, you spray hit on them and get them out of the way and you go on," she said.

Eminent personalities, including Twinkle Khanna, Gul Panag, Jose Cavaco, Malini Agarwal and Tanmay Bhat hosted the "OSM" Outlook Social Media Awards Jury Panel discussion. Twinkle further said that she takes criticism carefully. "I do look at criticism and examine it carefully as sometimes it is valid and it always tells me about the world around me," she added.

Gul Panag has also been targeted several times on social media. Her political allegiance and strong viewpoint have attracted many threats.

Talking about online trolls and dealing with them, Gul said, "The moment you take a position, you set yourself up for an attack; either from people, who disagree with you or people who just don't like the fact that you have taken a position because traditionally women, especially those who belong to film industry, are not entitled to have an opinion," she said, adding, "A woman having an opinion was discouraged outside and within the industry, but it is changing now."
Mumbai: All "secular but Hindutva" parties will come together to counter the "pseudo- secular" opposition, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said, as he indicated that the BJP and its bickering ally Shiv Sena will fight the 2019 polls together.

"The Shiv Sena may be a party led by Uddhav Thackeray, but it is run on the ethos of late Balasaheb Thackeray. Looking at the current situation, I can say that all secular, but Hindutva parties will come together to counter the pseudo-secular opposition parties," he said. "This was Balasaheb's thinking as well," Fadnavis said, speaking at the `Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year 2018' awards here.

Lokmat Group chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda was also present at the event. Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha member and executive editor of its mouthpiece `Saamana', interviewed Fadnavis. Raut asked Fadnavis how did he know the Sena's future plans when he can't even predict what was the RSS's next move. "The Shiv Sena is a political party and hence it is easy to predict what will it do in future. The RSS does not have any political compulsions. Their programmes are fixed at times a year in advance and they execute them as per their schedule," Fadnavis said.

When Raut asked why Bal Thackeray's Hindutva ideology was forgotten by the BJP in 2014 when it snapped the ties with the Sena, Fadnavis blamed the estranged ally for being adamant for just four more seats. "We had offered you 147 seats, but you were adamant on 151. Had you accepted our offer, the Sena would have got more seats than the BJP (in ensuing Assembly polls), and either Uddhav-ji or you would have become the CM," Fadnavis retorted.

He denied that Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP chief Amit Shah hold the "remote control" of the Maharashtra government. "He (Modi) has asked us not to take populist measures.

He says don't take populist measures and don't make announcements that cannot be implemented," said Fadnavis. The chief minister also appealed to all political parties to introspect whether they were glorifying criminals by inducting them. People, too, should decide if such criminals should be elected, he said.

He denied that he has failed as the state's Home Minister, and said not the crime rate but the conviction rate is important. "In the last three years, we have taken the rate of conviction to 32 percent from 8 percent. That is my achievement.... (late NCP leader and former home minister) R R Patil had once told me that the CM must keep the home portfolio with himself, because most of the decisions of the Home department are given the final nod by the CM," Fadnavis said.

On a question on former Congress leader Narayan Rane, Fadnavis said the Sena -- Rane's former party  should introspect why the BJP had to take him in. "(We joined hands with him) Because you are giving us step-motherly treatment," he quipped.
Patna: Amid growing tension between coalition partners JD(U) and BJP in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday praised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

At a Swachh Bharat programme in Champaran, Modi offered the Centre's support to Kumar, saying he has waged a difficult war against corruption and anti-social elements.

I know how difficult a task Nitish Kumars government has undertaken. He is fighting against corruption and anti-social elements. He is trying for social change. I admire Nitish Kumars administration and assure full support from the central government, Modi said.

He also praised the state governments efforts in Swachhata Mission, saying more than eight lakh toilets were built in the last one week and special focus would be on Bihar in near future.

The PM also mentioned communalism as a menace and stressed the need to eradicate it from the society if development targets of 2022 had to be realized.

This comes at a time when the relationship between Modis BJP and Kumars JD(U) has become rocky following a spate of communal violence in Bihar.

On March 28, a religious procession on the occasion of Ramnavami in Nalanda district sparked off communal violence in the state which spread across other parts of the state. The BJP was accused of fanning the flames of the violence, with Union Minister and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat even arrested, accused of instigating communal riots. The BJP, in turn, has accused the state government of playing partisan politics in favour of a particular community after it decided to pay for repairing a mosque and madrassa damaged by riots in Samastipur district.

Modi inaugurated and laid foundation stones of developmental projects worth over Rs 600 crore and assured continuous support from the union government. He said that both NDA governments, in the state and Centre, understand each other well which was helpful for overall development.

In an apparent snub to Kumars rival and RJD leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav, He talked about Madhepura locomotive factory which was announced in 2007 but remained in the files till the NDA government took over. Modi also flagged off the first rail engine manufactured in this factory with the help of French company Alstom.
Kolkata: By issuing two contradictory orders inside 12 hours, the latter resulting in the recall and rescinding of the former, the West Bengal State Election Commission seems to have only added to the already existing environment of confusion and distrust in the murky and bloody run-up to the states rural polls.

Citing legal hurdles, the Commission issued a fresh order on Tuesday morning to recall the order for extension of nomination deadline for panchayat polls by a day, which it had issued the previous evening, minutes before that earlier order was supposed to take effect.

Ironically, the Commission was reported to have taken extensive legal opinions prior to its issuing the late Monday evening order that came in the wake of a Supreme Court order passed earlier in the day disposing a BJP petition that sought extension of nomination deadline and deployment of central paramilitary troops to man the elections.

Alleged widespread intimidation and violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress dispensation leading to obstruction and prevention of filing of nomination papers of prospective candidates formed the basis of that petition.

While the Apex court chose not to interfere in the matter since the poll process had already been set in motion, it observed that the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003 has empowered the state election commissioner to pass appropriate orders in relation to any grievance with regard to any matter relating to and arising out of the election and election process.

The court directed the aggrieved political parties and candidates to approach the SEC who would ensure disposal of any such grievance so made by the party concerned strictly in accordance with law forthwith.

We hope and trust that in order to ensure fair and free election to the panchayats, the State Election Commission shall take appropriate steps to remove the apprehensions of the petitioner and/or intending candidates and they may not be deprived of their chance to contest the panchayat elections, the Supreme Court observed.

It was in interpretation of this order and in the wake of opposition parties turning up with hundreds of nomination papers before the Commissions office in Kolkata demanding they be accepted there since the parties are unable to file nominations in the districts that the commission issued its Monday evening order to extend nomination deadline from 11 am to 3 pm on Tuesday. The order was passed nearly seven hours after the official deadline had passed on Monday.

In that order (No 982-SEC/IE-88/2017), AK Singh, the chief election commissioner observed information has been received through complaints, deputations etc that intending candidates and proposers are being obstructed or prevented from making nomination; and . Many intending candidates could not file their nomination papers due to the above disruption.

Honble Supreme Court of India has directed the Commission to consider the grievance once made by any party and/or candidate as the case may be so that the intending candidates may not be deprived of their chance to contest the panchayat elections, Singh stated in his order as justification for his deadline extension decision.

Less than 12 hours later, Singh took a U-turn to recall that order and issued a fresh order (No. 984- SEC/IE-88/2017) which stated it appears there was no specific direction by the Honble Supreme Court of India for extension of the nomination date.

Interestingly, Singh took recourse to the same law to nullify himself which the Supreme Court had referred to as the Act which empowered the SEC to issue appropriate orders. Singh made two points to justify the recall.

First, citing section 46(2) of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003, the commissioner stated that the deadline extension order should have been made along with the same order which allowed nominations to be received at the SDO offices besides the BDO offices and not subsequently.

Second, the extension should have been made before the expiry of the original deadline and not after.

In effect, Singh admitted that his Monday evening order was bad in law.

A close reading of the aforesaid section of the said Act gives the impression that Singh may just have made one among multiple interpretations of the law. No wonder the BJP moved both Calcutta High High court and the Supreme Court challenging the Commission and has managed to obtain an interim stay on that order from the former.

The Trinamool Congress, however, was firm in its interpretation of the law. The Supreme Court direction was clear. It asked the Commission to act in accordance with law and not go beyond it. Here the law is clear. The Commission cannot issue two separate orders for accepting nominations at SDO offices and extend deadline, said Kalyan Banerjee, party MP and advocate who appeared at Supreme Court to take on the BJP on Monday.

Also, can you revive a person after he is dead already? The extension should have been done before the expiry of deadline, Banerjee argued.

The dramatic developments of the past two days have, nonetheless, resulted in one discernable change in the behaviour of the opposition parties in Bengal: they have shifted the oppositions ire from the Trinamool Congress to a Constitutional body called the State Election Commission.

And thats not good news.
DAVAO CITYThe City Government was recognized Tuesday as a Gender and Development Learning Hub from 2018 to 2020 by the Philippine Commission on Women for its programs championing gender mainstreaming. The Philippine Commission on Women is a national agency under the Office of the President. On Tuesday, the Local Learning Hub plaque was presented to city officials led by Mayor Sara Duterte. Davao City has previously been awarded a certification on gender mainstreaming in the year 2015. Before the end of 2017, the awarding committee came to visit Davao to validate the citys practice of gender mainstreaming. Among the notable programs that the city offers include the establishment of the Integrated Gender and Development Division, Office of the Special Counsel on Violence Against Women and their Children, Child Minding Center, and the Operationalization of the Ray of Hope Village. Lorna Mandin, the head of the Integrated Gender and Development Division, said the PCW identified Davao Citys programs as innovative and unique, which was a big factor in choosing the city as awardee under the GAD learning hub category.Innovation is their basis for giving the recognition. These programs are not undertaken in other places, its only in Davao, she said. Mandin added it was no surprise that Davao will be recognized because the city pioneered the Women Development Code, the first of its kind in the entire Philippines. She also added that the city has a lot of active women Non-government Organization and the collaboration with them is very strong. Mandin believes that the award will attract more people to visit the city.
Kolkata: In the wake of violence over filing of nominations for the panchayat polls, the West Bengal Election Commission (WBEC) has extended the last date for filing nominations till April 10.

Earlier, WBEC announced that the last date to filing nominations will be April 9.

On Monday night, WBEC Commissioner AK Singh issued a statement saying that the last date of filing nominations has been extended by a day. Information has been received that intending candidates and proposers are being obstructed or prevented for making nominations and whereas many intending candidates could not file their nomination papers due to the above disruption. Therefore, the WBEC extends the last date for making nomination for one day (April 10, 2018) from 11AM to 3 PM, said a statement by Singh.

Recently, the BJP had filed two petitions in the Supreme Court against the Trinamool Congress for preventing opposition leaders from filing nominations.

However, the SC asked the petitioner to approach WBEC in case of any grievances and also instructed WBEC to exercise its power to ensure fair and peaceful polls. The apex court said that it could not interfere with the election process.

Speaking to News18, Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh said, We welcome WBEC decision. The ruling party is afraid of polls and therefore they are preventing us from filing nominations. They know that people will reject the ruling party because of false promises they have made.

Meanwhile, four policemen were injured in a clash between BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers at Usti in South 24 Parganas district over filing of nominations.

Panchayat polls will be held in three phases on May 1, 3 and 5. The counting of polls will take place on May 8.
Hyderabad: With the political battle against the Centre over granting of special status category to Andhra Pradesh not yielding any positive results, the common man in the state is now gearing up to lead the agitations and street protests to press home the demand.

Various social organisations, employee unions, political and non-political student organisations and many political parties in the state are together preparing road map for a year-long agitation to mount pressure on the Centre.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has appealed people to make their disappointment known to the Centre by peaceful protests across the state.

Naidu has also called for all like-minded forces to unite and intensify agitation over the special category status for the state. Two committees for coordination and planning have been tasked to come up with the required action plan.

After the second round of state all-party meet, it is also decided to extend support to each other and every agitation which takes up the fights for the rights of the state.

Already 27 students and youth organisations have come together to form a Joint Action Committee. Interestingly, all political parties are bringing in intellectuals, middle class people, employees, youth for a collective fight.

The Telugu Desam Party MPs, who were protesting in Delhi, have returned to their respective constituencies and would take up bus yatra to create awareness about the issue among people and also participate in agitations.

Earlier, Chandrababu Naidu, too conducted a bicycle yatra in Amaravati, demanding special status.

Naidu is also planning to hold a public rally in the month of April in Tirupati, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to fulfil assurances of special category status.

All major political parties, YSR Congress, Jana-Sena, BJP and Left refused to attend the all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister. The opposition is conducting protests in their own ways, with the participation of the public.

The CPI(M) is holding a "Praja Ballot" in Vijayawada. On April 10th and 11th, the ballot will be placed in over 200 places where people can give their vote of no-confidence.

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress MPs are continuing their indefinite hunger at the AP Bhavan in Delhi. In Andhra Pradesh too, party leaders and student groups are also on relay hunger strikes in their respective constituencies.

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan also recently carried out a Padyatra in Vijayawda. The party has also announced next protest in Anantapur on April 15.

Telugu cinema industry has also extended their complete support in fight against Centre over Special Status.

With growing anger, the protests are only likely to intensify in coming days.

With 2019 state Assembly election just a year away, the emotive issue of special status has become the biggest political agenda. With every political party raising the issue and concern, it is competitive politics that has taken centre stage. And the action has moved back to Andhra Pradesh from Delhi.
Bengaluru: With the campaign for Karnataka Assembly elections now over, the poll pundits are now shifting the focus from macro to micro issues.

Even though all three major players  ruling Congress, main opposition BJP and the third player JDS - claim that they will form the government on their own, some of their own leaders and the political analysts are furiously debating several post-poll scenarios.

In a highly caste-ridden state like Karnataka, all election debates finally lead to caste analysis slicing them into small pieces. The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led ruling Congress is confident of retaining the government and has been throwing all kinds of theories at the media to back its claims.

The BJP is also ready with its own data and hopeful of a win.

The JDS, trying hard to create a badly hung Assembly, claiming that it will come to power is making its own calculations.

But most agree that there can be only four post-poll scenarios.

Scenario One

The Congress wins again. If the Congress has to win again, it must get at least 40% of the total votes and push the BJP below 35% and JDS below 20%. Many political observers feel that if there is a big upper caste mobilisation against the Siddaramaiah government, he will have to make his core vote bank AHINDA (Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) rally behind him in large numbers.

According to leaked caste census, upper castes have about 35% population and the AHINDA, including STs, has 60% population. But it may not make the job easier for the Congress because this combination has too many sub-castes and sects. The OBCs or Other Backward Classes alone have 99 castes. Siddaramaiahs caste Kurubas constitute 7% of the total population and about 30% of the OBC population. Even among the OBCs there is a caste hierarchy and some castes are considered lower and some are considered upper. If there is an upper caste backlash, the Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Kurubas and STs stand behind the Congress, the hand can easily ride to power. The Muslims are about 16%, Christians 2-3%, Kurubas 7%, Dalits 19.5% and STs 5% are a formidable combination.

The same combination of the Congress led by Devaraja Urs had put an end to upper caste Lingayat and Vokkaliga hegemony in Karnataka politics in the early 1970s. In the last 20 years the same combination has got disintegrated and has not actually voted as a block to any single political party. Siddaramaiah dismisses all these theories as an academic exercise and claims that all castes and religions vote for the Congress and he wont believe in these things.

All castes and religions have rich and poor. All have their own ideologies. It would be unfair to say one particular caste votes for a particular party. The Congress is for all. We have done a lot for AHINDA. I am proud to say that I am with AHINDA. But at the same time, I am not against other castes, mainly upper castes. Our government schemes have benefited all including the Brahmins, Lingayats and Vokkaligas. I am sure all of them will back us, the Chief Minister said.

The political analysts believe that if 2/3 of AHINDA voters back Congress, a small portion of the upper caste vote is good enough for the Congress to sail through.

Scenario Two

The BJP wrests power. The BJPs core vote bank is Lingayats, who constitute about 14% of the states population. Some Lingayat organisations claim that they are over 17%. The separate religion fight and Congress full backing to that demand have complicated the matters this time. The Congress argues that many Lingayats no longer view BJP as their party and they may vote for the Congress in this election. But the BJP is confident of getting Majority Lingayat votes this time too. If it manages to split OBCs and Dalit votes plus STs, with the strong backing of Lingayats and other smaller upper castes the BJP can romp home. It is a fact that the BJP has been getting the support of several OBC and Dalit sub-castes for the past 15 years and the Congress no longer has a monopoly over it. A major breach in its Lingayat fortress and a moderate OBC, Dalits and ST backing can deny the BJP power this time. Otherwise, the BJP can put up a good fight and it can even win the state for the second time.

Scenario Three

The JDS surge creates a badly fractured Assembly. For that, the JDS needs its core vote bank Vokkaligas plus others. According to leaked caste census, Vokkaligas are just 11% of the total population in Karnataka. However Vokkaligas claim that they are 15-16%. Massive mobilisation of the Vokkaligas behind the JDS can get them a good number of seats, but to cross the 40 seats Gowdas party needs the backing of non-Gowda castes and minority votes. In 2004, the JDS won 58 seats creating a badly hung Assembly with the support of OBCs, Dalits and Muslims. And Siddaramaiah was with them then. The splitting of OBCs, Dalits and Minorities votes among the Congress, BJP and JDS can throw up a badly hung Assembly. The former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda is hoping for that to remain relevant in the state and at the Centre.

Scenario Four

Congress or BJP will cross 100 or go above 90 seats and the runner up will be close behind with JDS a distant third. It can happen only if the upper castes, OBCs and Dalits more or less equally divide their votes between Congress and BJP. And the JDS fails to get non-Vokkaliga votes in a big number. In that case the JDS will be vulnerable and may even face a split.

One thing is certain that political pundits and the political leaders alike will continue to debate these scenarios till the counting day and they do post-mortem based on the same caste combinations after that.
Bengaluru: The talk of former Congress stalwart SM Krishna returning to mother party has set the rumour mills abuzz in Karnataka ahead of a do-or-die battle for both Congress and BJP.

The former chief minister and external affairs minister joined the BJP in a surprise move a year ago, calling the Congress a party in rapid decline.

A year later, he seem to be interested in returning to the same party, claim state Congress sources.

According to these sources, SM Krishna is disillusioned with the BJP and feels that the saffron party has humiliated him by giving no importance to him.

It has also refused to field his daughter Shambhavi from Rajarajeshwarinagara Assembly seat in Bengaluru. Neither the state BJP, nor its national leadership is giving him any importance. He is actually a nobody in BJP. It has hurt him deeply. He has been sending the feelers to Congress for the past two months, said a senior leader of the party.

He said that state Congress president Dr G Parameshwara and power minister DK Shivakumar are ready to welcome SM Krishna back into the party.

These two have discussed it with Rahul Gandhi. If he and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah agree, the Vokkaliga leader may return to Congress even before the elections, he added.

When contacted, Krishnas personal staff told News18 that he was away in Mumbai on some personal work and they had no idea about him returning to Congress. The BJP has also declined to comment on mere speculations.

Krishna, who was also the Governor of Maharashtra, quit the Congress in early 2017, attacking Rahul Gandhis leadership. He had said that Gandhi had no respect for the seniority of leaders like him.

After joining the BJP, Krishna has been keeping a low profile, occasionally attending public functions. He has participated in only a few BJP functions and has stayed away from the ongoing electioneering.

According to one of his aides, no one visits his house in upscale Sadashivanagara these days.

Earlier, even Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi used to come home. Every day at least 50-100 Congress people, including top leaders, used to call on him. During elections, ticket aspirants used to line up outside his house right from early in the morning. After he quit the Congress, no one from that party comes here. Even the BJP people wont meet him. Mostly, he is alone. He travels and spends time reading books. He is mentally a Congressman. He cant adjust to the BJP culture.

Speaking to this reporter a month ago, Krishna had dismissed reports that he was unhappy with the BJP. He had said that he was not at all upset or angry with state BJP leaders. When asked about not participating in BJP events, he chose to ignore the question.

The BJP was planning to use him to woo Vokkaliga votes in old Mysore region where the saffron party is weak. It also wanted to use him in Bengaluru city to attract non-BJP votes, say some state leaders.

Krishna is credited with putting Bengaluru on the global map during his tenure as chief minister between 1999 and 2004, and was considered a big face of development in the state capital.

According to state Congress working president Dinesh Gundurao, The Congress had given him everything. It made him a Union Minister, Chief Minister, Speaker, KPCC president and Governor. It made him MLA and MP many times. Even after getting so much from the party, he left us to join the BJP. Even today, we dont know what made him quit the party.

It is no secret that many Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, were happy with his exit as he was not seen to be adding value to the party in the state.

Siddaramaiah and Krishna never shared a good rapport and the latter had publicly attacked him on many occasions.

Reacting to Krishnas absence at BJP meetings, Yeddyurappa denied any rift and said the party had always respected Krishnas experience and seniority.

Krishna, a Fulbright Scholar, won his first Assembly election in 1962 on a Praja Socialist Party (PSP) ticket from Maddur. As an MP, he joined the Congress in early 1970s and rose to prominence in the party.

He has held important portfolios in both state and central governments. He was the Chief Minister, Governor of Maharashtra and External Affairs Minister.
Voters pose outside a polling booth in Karnataka.



People were seen standing in queues to cast their votes in the early hours itself, factoring in that the temperature may go up later in the day. Also, it has been raining in different parts of south interior Karnataka for the last couple of days during the evening hours.



Senior citizens were seen in good numbers standing in queues at various polling stations to cast their votes early.



State BJP chief and party's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, and Pradesh Congress Committee G Parameshwara were among the first to cast votes in Shikaripura in Shivamogga and Yaggere in Tumakuru respectively.



Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda along with wife Chennamma cast their votes at Paduvalahippe in Hassan district. Film actors Ramesh Arvind, Ravichandran, also scion of Mysuru royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar were among the prominent personalities to cast their votes early today.



There are reports about delay in polling due to some technical issues with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) from different parts of the state.



Election for the Jayanagara seat in Bengaluru has been countermanded following the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA BN Vijaykumar.



The Election Commission has also deferred the polls for Rajarajeswari Nagar constituency to May 28 after a massive row erupted over a large number of voter ID cards being found in an apartment.



Suspecting something fishy, both Congress and BJP have pointed accusing fingers at each other in the matter. "Today people of Karnataka are standing in queues to create history & show the nation the way to liberal, progressive, peaceful & compassionate politics & governance. I thank them for their support & wish them well," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.



Over 2,600 candidates are in the fray-- more than 2400 men and and over 200 women. The total voters including service electors according to the 2018 final rolls are 5,06,90,538, of whom 2,56,75,579 male voters, 2,50,09,904 female and 5,055 transgender voters.



Officials said 58,008 polling stations have been set up across the state, of which 12002 have been designated as "critical", with over 3,50,000 polling personnel on duty. Police have made elaborate security arrangements for the smooth conduct of polls that will go on till 6 pm.



"82,157 people have been deployed for poll duty that includes DSPs, home guards and civil defence, and forest guards and watchers," Karnataka DGP Neelamani N Raju said. This also includes about 7,500 personnel from states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Kerala and Goa, she said, adding, central forces have been deployed.



One among the interesting aspects of this election is that four candidates who have served as Chief Minister of Karnataka are in the fray-- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (Chamundeshwari and Badami), B S Yeddyurappa (Shikaripura), H D Kumaraswamy (Chennapatna and Ramanagara) and Jagadish Shettar (Hubli-Dharwad Central.)
Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is likely to keep a safe seat in north Karnataka region as a back-up after being convinced by his well-wishers about the dangers of relying only on the Chamundeshwari seat in view of a deal between JDS and the BJP there.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Chief (KPCC) Dr G Parameshwara, who had lost the last time by over 30,000 votes, is also likely to contest from two seats - Koratagere in Tumkur district and Pulikeshinagara in Bengaluru.

Party insiders say that while Congress president Rahul Gandhi has given the green signal to Siddaramaiahs dual seat plan, Parameshwara is yet to get his approval.

According to sources, Siddaramaiah will contest from Badami in Bagalkote district along with Chamundeshwari. The sitting MLA of Badami, BB Chimmanakatti, is not well and the party has told him that Siddaramaiah may pick his seat.

Badami has a large number of Kuruba voters. Siddaramaiah is a Kuruba by caste and they look up to him as their tallest leader. Siddaramaiah has vacated his current seat, Varuna in Mysore district, for his son Dr Yatheendra.

Sensing that chief minister and state Congress president are planning to contest from two seats each, the main opposition parties - BJP and JDS - have already stepped up the attack, calling them cowards.

Siddaramaiah won five times from Chamundeshwari between 1983 and 2008. The first time was as an independent, second and third on a Janata Party ticket, fourth on a JDS ticket and the last time on a Congress ticket.

After the delimitation of constituencies, he moved to newly created Varuna for strategic reasons and has won twice from there on a Congress ticket.

The current MLA of Chamundeshwari, JD(S)s GT Deve Gowda, is a strong leader in Mysore district and former PM HD Deve Gowda is working overtime to on a strategy to defeat one-time shishya Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah is a megalomaniac. He is arrogant. He is abusing my party. The voters of Chamundeshwari will not like that. He will be defeated this time," he told News18.

The BJP is not considered a strong party in this seat and it is still searching for a suitable candidate who can take on Siddaramaiah. The chief ministers followers allege that BJP has a secret deal with the JDS to defeat Siddaramaiah.

The semi-urban seat has 72,000 Vokkaligas and 30,000 Lingayat votes. The Backward Classes, Muslims, SC/STs together have over a lakh votes. Siddaramaiah is confident of getting votes from people of all castes and religions.

He told News18 that BJPs caste politics will not work here as the voters see him as their chief minister, not as a Kuruba or OBC.

Veteran Congress leader H Vishwanath, who crossed over to the JDS after his relationship with Siddaramaiah soured, maintains that it is not going to be easy for the chief minister this time. Speaking to News18, he said, The hubris will finish him. He thinks too much of himself."

Another veteran Dalit leader V Srinivasa Prasad, who joined BJP after a public spat with Siddaramaiah, has vowed to defeat him this time. Speaking to News18, he said, Siddaramaiah has insulted all Dalits by humiliating me. We will teach him a lesson this time.

However, Vokkaliga leader from Chamundeshwari, Mavinahalli Siddegowda, believes that voters elect a tall leader like Siddaramaiah and not someone like GT Deve Gowda just because he is a fellow Vokkaliga.

Siddaramaiah is also playing a sentimental card by telling the voters that it is his last election and the people must back him one last time. JDS state chief HD Kumaraswamy is also contesting from two seats in this election. BJPs chief ministerial face B S Yeddyurappa is contesting from only one seat - his bastion Shikaripura in Shimoga district.
Bengaluru: Nine days to go for netas in Karnataka to start filing their nominations and both the national parties are in a huddle with hectic screening committee meetings as they try to finalise the highest winnable factor in each Assembly segment.

Constituencies are being divided caste-wise, the math being done on what should be the profile of certain candidates who would best win. That, coupled with the continuous list of aspirants and applicants, has put the BJP and the Congress in a fix.

Some have declared themselves candidates; some have declared their sons or relatives as candidates; a few others have declared themselves candidates from a different constituency every day over the past week, and a few who have been told by one leader they wont get the party ticket have declared they will get it from a different leader within the same party.

The BJPs first list of 72 candidates is out and it is on predictable lines. Most of the candidates are sitting MLAs who were assured of a ticket anyway. The party-hoppers who have moved to the BJP either from the JDS or the Congress in the last two months  Mallikarjuna Khuba, Mallikkayya Guttedar, AS Patil Nadahalli, Basavanagouda Patil Yatnal, Manappa Vajjal  have all been accommodated. This is despite some anger and ruffled feathers in some of their constituencies  where the original BJP aspirants are miffed that their loyalty of the last few years has been ignored.

In Chikpet constituency in Bengaluru, for example, traders shut shop because a former corporator NR Rameshwho has been most vocal in 'exposing' the Congress' misdeeds for over a yearwas denied a ticket to make way for Uday Garudachar, a real estate baron.

The BJPs first list also shows that the party is quite flexible in its own earlier-announced policy of No MP other than B S Yeddyurappa will contest the Assembly election. B Sriramulu, the Bellary MP and close aide of illegal-mining-accused Janardhana Reddy, is going to contest from from Molkalmuru, a constituency in neighbouring Chitradurga district. The party obviously cannot ignore his mass appeal among Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress will hold its central election committee meeting on Tuesday, and is caught in a bind. Some of their sitting MLAs are facing anti-incumbency in their constituencies while there are some constituencies like Hebbal where there are as many as 13 applicants and Chitradurga has 26 applicants. Most of them are irrelevant people, a Congress leader in the know says.

There are seven JDS MLAs who have moved to the party with the promise of tickets  and these promises have to be met.

The party is also trying to balance surefire winnability against its image of dynastocracy  a host of children of sitting MLAs want to contest (along with their dads). That means you will end up with many fathers and kids in the Assembly, similar to how M Krishnappa and son Priya Krishna represent neighbouring constituencies in Bengaluru.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs son Yathindra, PWD Minister Mahadevappas son Sunil, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddys daughter Soumya, KH Muniyappas daughter are all aspirants  and they want tickets for both fathers and kids. There are a few others like former MPs Rahman Khan, Jaffer Sharief and Margaret Alva rooting for their sons, grandsons.

To accommodate all of them would mean a family shindig at any strategy meetings, legislature party meetings and probably Assembly sessions as well. That could send a wrong message to party workers. But ignore these leaders love for their kids, and you risk the possibility that they would not back the other candidates chosen instead.

This is also a problem other parties are beseeched with as well  HD Deve Gowdas grandson Prajwal wants to contest, there are demands afoot to have both of BJP president BS Yeddyurappas sons to contest from two different constituencies and his bete noire within the party, KS Eshwarappa, has political aspirations for his son Kantesh too.

Congress leaders say all, or most, of their candidates will be announced by April 14. In some constituencies, the party is re-jigging its strategies based on announcements made by the BJP. What also matters is the caste-matrix.

The BJPs first list had 21 Lingayats, 19 OBCs, 10 Dalits, 10 Vokkaligas, six Scheduled Tribes, five Brahmins, and one Kodava. There are no minorities in this list (unless Lingayats are taken as a minority  in which case, they had the maximum minorities!).

The Congress most reliable votebank has been of the A-Hin-Da castes  a Kannada acronym that stands for Minorities, Backward castes and Dalits. Together, the SCs and STs constitute 25.5 per cent of the states population. MinoritiesMuslims and Christiansmake up 19 per cent, while OBCs make up 23 per cent of the population (this includes the largest community of Kurubas, who total 7 per cent of the population).

Going purely by math, this would give the Congress an upper-hand across the state if they think that A-Hin-Da population of over 67 per cent will actually en masse vote for them. But this is not going to happen (despite the Siddaramaiah government having spent thousands of crores for programmes aimed at these communities in the last five years).

Further, in each constituency, there is an intricate mix of these castes and the Lingayat (14 per cent) and Vokkaliga (11 per cent) communities hold a swing factor in many. Whats more the BJP too has this caste-matrix and will field candidates based on what sells better in each Assembly segment.

Decision-makers in both parties acknowledge that the final tally will hugely depend on the final choice of candidates  you cant make a mistake there. In Bengaluru, for instance, a city MLA felt they could have upped their tally in 2013 by at least five to seven seats but for the wrong choice of candidatesand wants these errors corrected. A BJP MLA talks of how they are expecting some more party-hoppers by Saturday, in which case they would be in a far better position than they are in currently. Saturday is just three days before nominations will have to be filed.

One Congress leader is confident that the party's first list may come next week, but its final list will likely come only on the April 23, with just hours to go before nominations close for the Assembly polls.

The mental turbulence of parties in finalising their candidates  either a winning horse or a super-expensive mistake  has even brought down the tone of campaigning in the last three days. The usual mud-slinging and rhetoric of campaign speeches have toned down considerably, as the top-brass frets over who to zero in on.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on April 12 in New Delhi to protest against the disruption of Parliamentary proceedings by opposition parties.

BJP president Amit Shah will sit on a dharna in poll-bound Karnataka and BJP MPs across the nation will also join the PM in fasting, in what is being seen as an attempt to turn the tables on the Congress, a day after it held a symbolic fast at Rajghat.

While observing fast, Modi will not disturb his daily official routine of meeting people and officials, and clearing files, sources in the know said.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said that the idea of the fast was mooted by the PM. He said that it is a way to communicate to the entire country that the BJP is aware of the suffering imposed on them by the logjam in the Parliament. This is why all NDA MPs had also decided to forego their salaries for 23 days of the budget session of the Parliament, he added.

This years Budget session has been the worst when it comes to productivity in the last eight years and the BJP has tried to put the blame on Congress for stopping deliberation in both Houses.

The Congress had stopped important bills from being passed, which led to a "criminal wastage" of the taxpayer's money, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar had told reporters.

The BJP's announcement of a fast comes just a day after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led his party on a nationwide fast targeting the Modi government over the washout of the Parliament session and a host of other issues, including the alleged caste and communal violence.

On Wednesday, a day before the fast, PM Modi will address all MPs through video conferencing as they hold "Samata Diwas" in their respective constituencies on the occasion of Jyotiba Phule birth anniversary.

With opposition parties targeting the government over Dalit protests, PM Modi also said BJP MPs and other leaders will spend a night between April 14 and May 5 in over 20,844 villages with over 50 per cent population of scheduled castes and tribes to inform the masses about the Centre's various measures aimed at their welfare.

The Congress said the PMs fast was nothing more than a "farce", adding that the PM should instead apologise to the youth, Dalits and other sections of the society, who were allegedly let down by his government.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala also said the BJP-led central government should be blamed for the Parliament washout, despite enjoying an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

"This is a farce of a fast by the Modi government. The BJP should apologise to the nation and hold a fast for disrupting Parliament for over 250 hours. The Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a majority, functioned for only one per cent of its time and the Rajya Sabha functioned for six per cent of its time," he said.

Surjewala also alleged that the government had "disrespected" and "degenerated" Parliament.
Bengaluru: The veteran Kannada film star Anant Nag has hit back at Tamil superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan for politicising the Cauvery River water sharing issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to News18 Anant Nag said, We expected Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan to have a different approach and attitude towards Karnataka and Cauvery. But they have failed us by toeing the same old line of typical Tamil Nadu politicians. The political goons of Tamil Nadu are playing politics with Cauvery. Sadly, Rajini and Kamal are also following the same line. I have nothing against Tamil people. They are nice people and close to Kannadigas. Stars like Rajini and Kamal should not behave like the rest of the lot. We have some expectations from their politics.

He said that both Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan are fighting for the political supremacy and using Cauvery as a weapon to achieve that.

Our state Karnataka is going to elect a new government in a month. The political atmosphere is surcharged here. The Centre is in a fix. There are no immediate elections in Tamil Nadu. Cant these stars wait till the elections get over? Why are they adding fuel to fire? Young Tamil actor Simbu has made a sensible comment on the Cauvery issue saying that Karnataka will release whatever water it can to Tamil Nadu. I am shocked that Rajini and Kamal dont have the maturity that this young actor Simbu has, the versatile actor said.

He said that the adamant nature of Tamil politicians had created the Cauvery dispute and they did not want a solution to it as it could be milked forever.

Even the Nile river water dispute has been resolved in Africa. Many other such disputes have seen a logical end all over the World. But Tamil politicians dont want to put an end to Cauvery dispute, because it helps them politically. It is already a 138-year-old issue. How long can we wait to end this? he asked.

Anant Nag said that even though Cauvery originates in Karnataka, neighbouring Tamil Nadu gets more water because it is a lower riparian state and they are abusing the generosity of Kannadigas.

We the Kannadigas are nice people. We are gentle. It seems Tamilians think that we are weak because of our inherent good qualities and nature. They are abusing our generosity. Only if we give them a fitting reply in the same language they understand, they may keep quiet, the top actor said.

The Tamil Nadu government and the politicians, including these two superstars, are not ready to accept the Supreme Courts final verdict and politicising it 24*7, Anant Nag said.

In a federal nation like India, states should have a cordial relationship with each other. But Tamil Nadu does not seem know that basic thing. I think we must teach them rules of federalism. This kind of thing cant go on forever, he said.

Anant Nag said that he was ready to join any movement to safeguard the interests of Kannadigas and Karnataka in future.

Anant Nag has acted in more than 300 films, including Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English. He has won several awards for his acting. He was a Karnataka minister in the Janata Dal government in the late 1990s.

His younger brother the late Shankar Nag produced the iconic Malgudi Days for the Doordarshan in the 1980s.
ParisThe skeletons of an allosaurus and a diplodocus are up for auction in Paris this week, marketed as hip interior design objects for those with big enough living rooms. The fossil market is no longer just for scientists, said Iacopo Briano of Binoche et Giquello, the auction house that is putting the two dinosaurs under the hammer on Wednesday. Dinosaurs have become cool, trendyreal objects of decoration, like paintings, the Italian expert told AFP, citing Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage as fans of such outsize prehistoric ornaments. Cage, however, did hand back the rare skull of a tyrannosaurus bataar, a close cousin of T. rex, that he bought in 2007 after it was found to have been stolen and illegally taken out of Mongolia. Dinosaur bones are increasingly gracing collectors cabinets, with another huge skeleton, that of a theropod, expected to fetch up to 1.5 million euros ($1.84 million) when it goes up for auction in June.For the last two or three years the Chinese have become interested in palaeontology and have been looking for big specimens of dinosaurs found on their soil, for their museums or even for individuals, Briano said. The new buyers are now bidding against multinational corporations as well as ultra-rich Europeans and Americans, the traditional buyers of dinosaur skeletons, Briano added. In 1997, McDonalds and Walt Disney were among donors stumping up $8.36 million to buy Suethe most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever found for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Millions of people come to see it, its incredible publicity for companies, said Eric Mickeler, a natural history expert for the Aguttes auction house.

Palaeontologists acknowledge that many fossils that go on the block are of limited scientific interest, but important specimens do go up for auction and can, as in Sues case, be bought through acts of patronage. The market remains small and isnt for everybody, Mickeler said.Only around five dinosaurs are put up for auction around the world every year.The allosaurus which goes on sale Wednesday, among 87 lots of natural artifacts, is considered small at 3.8 meters (12.5 feet) long. It is expected to fetch up to 650,000 euros, while the diplodocusdespite being bigger at 12 metres long from nose to tailhas a guide price of 450,000 to 500,000 euros. Carnivores like the allosaurus often fetch more than herbivores. People like the teeth, Mickeler said. The price also goes up if the skeleton shows traces of a fight or an incurable illness, as well as if it is considered rare, has a high percentage of verified bones, or a particularly impressive skull. We recently sold a very beautiful piece to a Venetian family, they have a magnificent big room in which the dinosaur is perfectly at ease, Briano said. But Ronan Allain, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris, denounced completely nonsensical prices. Its the luxury world, its not for people like us, he said. We could decide to buy it preemptively, but for the theropod, for example, that would mean shelling out more than a million, he said.
Facing the heat from the US Senate for the role of Facebook in the recently surfaced Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was bombarded with questions from 44 senators inquiring into the workings and policies of Facebook. One such question that surprisingly found Zuckerberg dumbfounded was if the social media website collected its users' data even when the users logged out of Facebook.

During the Congressional inquisition, US Senator Wicker asked Zuckerberg "There have been reports that Facebook can track user's browsing activity even after the user has logged off the Facebook platform. Can you confirm whether or not this is true?"

Zuckerberg was apparently taken aback with the question and reverted with the following answer: "Senator, I want to make sure that I get this accurate, so it'll probably be better to have my team follow up with you on this."

Even Senator Wicker was surprised with Zuckerberg's lack of awareness on the topic and immediately replied with "You don't know this?"

Zuckerberg then began to open up with his answer "I know that people use cookies on the Internet and that you can probably co-relate activities between sessions. We do that for a number of reasons including security and measuring ads to make sure that the ad experiences are most effective, which people can of-course opt out of. But I want to make sure that I'm precise with my answer so let me follow up with you on this."

Also read: Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Going Through 'Philosophical Shift'

Senator further asked Zuckerberg a follow-up question: "Would you also let us know how Facebook discloses to its users how engaging in this type of tracking gives a better result?"

With this, the four minutes allotted to the Senator were over and the question baton was then passed on to the next Senator.

No matter what Zuckerberg proves to the Senate after the inquisition through his team, it is kind of hard to believe that Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who started Facebook and is responsible for its working, does not know what can be considered as a highly-intrusive level of tracking performed by his platform. In a way, Zuckerberg has also answered this question with a yes but did not want to elaborate upon it.

On the flip side, however, it is perfectly alright for a person to abstain from answering a question in a Senate questioning as everything that a person states in a hearing like this can be held against him or her in a court of law. So it is a common practice to abstain from answering questions in such hearings, the correct answer of which may not be known to the witness.

The Congressional inquisition is still going on at the time of writing. You can follow up the live updates from the Zuckerberg's inquisition by the US Senate here.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Testimony Before Congress: Highlights of The Five-Hour Long Hearing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies on Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data" in front of 44 senators. Follow live updates of the testimony. News18.com | April 11, 2018, 04:51 IST
In a bid to bridge the widening skill gap, Microsoft on Monday announced the expansion of the capabilities of its Cloud-powered "Project Sangam" to the Middle East and Africa. Launched in India by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last year, "Project Sangam" is a Cloud-hosted platform that leverages Azure services and professional networking platform LinkedIn to support new entrants to the job market, enabling key stakeholders across the skilling ecosystem find the right talent.

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"Lack of skilled resources is one of the key issues that governments across the world are facing. There is an enormous scope for technology to come in to address the skill gap that exists in the workforce today," Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, said in a statement. Nadella launched "Project Sangam" to help the Indian government not only train but also assist people to get jobs via LinkedIn that was acquired by the company for $26.2 billion in an all-cash deal in 2016.

Also Read: Apple iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus RED Special Edition Launched For a Starting Price of Rs 67,940

"Project Sangam" was commenced from Andhra Pradesh. "'Sangam' is the first project that wields the combined strength of LinkedIn and Microsoft to tackle the challenge of how to provide every person with the opportunity to skill themselves," added Bhansali who is also Managing Director of Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited. As part of the expansion, Microsoft South Africa and the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) have launched "Thint'iMillion", an online mass learning system.

Part of the "Tshepo 1Million Digital Mass" learning programme, the "Thint'iMillion" programme will be deployed on "Project Sangam", allowing young people to access content via an on-phone app (Android only), tablet mode (Windows and Android) as well as an interactive web portal.

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Vietnamese human rights activists and independent media groups have written to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, questioning whether the social media platform was helping suppress dissent in the communist country. The letter, released on Tuesday by U.S.-based human rights group Viet Tan and signed by nearly 50 other groups, said Facebook's system of automatically pulling content if enough people complained could "silence human rights activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam". Despite sweeping economic reform in Vietnam, and increasing openness toward social change, including gay, lesbian and transgender rights, the ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism.Vietnam last year unveiled a 10,000-strong military cyber warfare unit, named Force 47, to counter "wrong" views on the internet.

Also Read: Apple iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus RED Special Edition Launched For a Starting Price of Rs 67,940

The open letter to Zuckerberg called Force 47 "state-sponsored trolls" and accused them of exploiting Facebook's community policies and disseminating fake news about the activists. Vietnam's government said Facebook has committed to working with it to prevent content that violates the country's laws from appearing on its platform and will also remove fake accounts and fake content about senior government officials. The activists said the frequency of takedowns had risen and Facebook's has been unhelpful in restoring accounts and content after its Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert met with Vietnamese Information Minister Truong Minh Tuan in 2017.

Facebook said at the time of the meeting it would set up a separate channel to directly coordinate with the communication and information ministry on reports of illegal content. "We appreciate Facebook's efforts in addressing safety and misinformation concerns online in Vietnam and around the world," the activists said. "Yet it would appear that after this high profile agreement to coordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of account suspension and content takedown has only grown acuter."

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Earlier this month, Vietnamese human rights lawyer and activist Nguyen Van Dai was jailed for 15 years on the charge he "aimed at overthrowing the people's administration". Another five activists were jailed for seven to 12 years. Their sentences prompted responses by representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the European Delegations among other rights groups.

But Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said "there is no such thing as people being arrested for fan really expressing opinion" in Vietnam. Facebook had not immediately responded to a request for comment on the letter to Zuckerberg. Vietnam's ministry of foreign affairs did respond lately responded.

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Apologetic Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told senators it had been clearly a mistake to believe the Trump-linked data-mining company Cambridge Analytica had discarded data that it had harvested from social media users in an attempt to sway 2016 elections. Zuckerberg told members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees that Facebook considered the data collection a closed case because it thought the information had been deleted. Facebook didnt alert the Federal Trade Commission, Zuckerberg said, and he assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.

Also Read: Facebook Shares Rise as US Senators Question Zuckerberg

On another issue currently in the news, he was asked whether his company had been contacted by the office of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian interference in the election. Yes, he said, I know that we are working with them. He provided no other details, saying he wanted to be careful not to break any rules of confidentiality. Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and politicking on U.S. soil. Some of the Russian ads were on Facebook.

Zuckerberg began a two-day congressional inquisition with a public apology for the privacy scandal that has shaken the social media giant he founded more than a decade ago. He took responsibility for failing to prevent Cambridge Analytica, a firm affiliated with Donald Trumps presidential campaign, from gathering personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections. Zuckerberg had apologized many times already, to users and the public, but this was the first time in his career that he had gone before Congress. He also is to testify Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Also Read: Zuckerberg Opens Senate Hearing With an Apology

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the Commerce Committee chairman, told Zuckerberg his company has a 14-year history of apologizing for ill-advised decisions related to user privacy. How is todays apology different, Thune asked. We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company, Zuckerberg responded. I think its pretty much impossible, I believe, to start a company in your dorm room and then grow it to be at the scale that were at now without making some mistakes. Zuckerberg said Facebook is going through a broader philosophical shift in how we approach our responsibility as a company. He said the company needs to take a more proactive role that includes ensuring the tools it creates are used in good and healthy ways.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg is not only trying to restore public trust in his company but also to stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated. In his opening statement, he also apologized for his companys involvement in facilitating fake news and Russian interference in the elections. We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake, he said. It was my mistake, and Im sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here.

Separately, the company also began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that one of your friends used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called This Is Your Digital Life. The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica. After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced  and the company confirmed  that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users data. Zuckerberg said his company has a responsibility to make sure that doesnt happen again.

Also Read: Does Facebook Track Your Activities Even After You Log Out? Zuckerberg Doesn't Know

His opening statement did not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry, Zuckerberg outlined the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders access to peoples personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case. Zuckerberg met Monday with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce panel, along with other senators. Nelson said afterwards that Zuckerberg was forthright and honest to the degree he could be in the private, one-on-one meeting.

Nelson said he believes Zuckerberg is taking the congressional hearings seriously because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation. Democrats like Nelson have argued that federal laws might be necessary to ensure user privacy. Republicans have yet to get behind any such legislation, but that could change. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary panel and the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, appeared open to regulation in a Tuesday floor speech ahead of the hearing. Cornyn said apologies are not enough and suggested that legislation could eventually be needed to give consumers more control over their own data privacy.

This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action, Cornyn told reporters after his speech.

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Washington: The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday raided the offices and home of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen, law enforcement sources said, in a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving close Trump associates.

Cohen's lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said that U.S. prosecutors conducted a search that was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating whether members of Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia during the U.S. presidential election. Trump has called the probe a "witch hunt" and denied any collusion.

The raid could increase legal pressure on the president, because it involves the records of his longtime attorney and indicates a second centre of investigations in Manhattan, alongside Mueller's Washington-based probe.

Cohen has been at the centre of a controversy over a $130,000 payment he has admitted making shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said that she had sex once with Trump in 2006 and was paid to keep quiet about it.

Trump reacted with unusually harsh language to news of the raid.

"It's a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time," Trump said at the opening of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria.

Asked whether he would fire Mueller, Trump said, "Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens."

Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, but he could order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel's probe, to end it, or Trump could fire Rosenstein if he refuses.

In a Tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against interfering.

"If @realDonaldTrump is thinking of using the FBI raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: dont," Schumer said.

Under federal regulations, if Mueller comes across information that is not directly related to his Russia-focused investigation, he must confer with Rosenstein. Rosenstein could direct Mueller to either investigate the issue himself or refer it to another law enforcement authority.

The raids were first reported by The New York Times.

Possible Bank, Tax Fraud

"Today, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients," Ryan said in a statement.

"I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller," Ryan said.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violation in connection with the Stormy Daniels payment, and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to Trumps 2016 campaign, a second source familiar with the investigation said.

The New York Times reported on Monday evening that Mueller is investigating a $150,000 payment made in September 2015 by a Ukrainian billionaire, Viktor Pinchuk, to Trump's charitable foundation in exchange for a 20-minute video appearance by Trump at a conference in Kiev.

Cohen solicited the Pinchuk donation, the Times reported, citing three sources it said were briefed on the matter, although it was not immediately clear if Monday's raids sought information on that issue.

Trump had declared his candidacy for president in June 2015.

Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters for a request for comment on the raids. A spokesman for Mueller had no comment.

Cohen has said that he paid the $130,000 settlement money to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from his own pocket through a personal home equity loan. Trump, in comments to reporters on Air Force One last week, said that he did not know about the payment.

According to a person familiar with the matter, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the New York offices of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs on the 23rd floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Cohen has an office.

The agents went there about 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and worked for several hours, the person said.

A source familiar with the investigation said the raid was conducted without prior warning.

Federal agents also raided a room at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where Cohen has been staying while his apartment is being renovated, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed person.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office on Monday also sought any emails between former White House communications director Hope Hicks and Cohen about a false and misleading account that Trump helped prepare of a June 9, 2016, meeting between Trumps son Donald Trump, Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians who had promised "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the first source familiar with the investigation said.

Such emails would not be covered by attorney-client privilege, this source said, because Cohen did not represent Hicks.

Ryan, in his statement, called the search warrants executed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients," he said.

Attorney-client privilege is intended to encourage open communications between lawyers and their clients, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice.

But the privilege is not absolute, and there is an exception for communications made to further a crime.

"The crime-fraud exception means the privilege does not apply to communications between the client and the attorney, if they are evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud, not just a past crime or fraud," said Christopher Slobogin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School specializing in criminal procedure and evidence.

A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs said in a statement that its arrangement with Cohen is ending.

"The firms arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement," the statement said. "We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation."

Ryan said that Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscow's alleged efforts to influence the U.S. election.
Dubai: Saudi Arabia could consider a proposal to dig a maritime canal along the kingdom's border with Qatar, turning the peninsula-nation into an island and transforming its only land border into a military zone and nuclear waste site, state-linked Saudi newspapers reported Monday.

The project has not been given official approval and faces many obstacles. Still, the proposal signals a new low in the 10-month-old feud between Qatar and a quartet of nations that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.

The four accuse Qatar of sponsoring terrorism because of its support for Islamist opposition groups in the region and its warm relations with Iran. Qatar denies the allegations and says the moves attempt to undermine its sovereignty.

Qatar's ruling emir, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met in Washington on Monday with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's Sabq and al-Riyadh newspapers carried nearly identical reports Monday saying that under the proposal, Saudi Arabia would transform part of its side of the border with Qatar into a military base and another area would become a dump site for waste from nuclear reactors the kingdom wants to build. The UAE, meanwhile, would also build a nuclear waste site at the closest point near its border with Qatar.

An earlier report by Sabq newspaper ran with a headline saying the canal project would "turn Qatar into an island" and would take just 12 months to complete.

The so-called Salwa Marine Canal project would be funded by Saudi and Emirati investors and dug by Egyptian companies with experience in the Suez Canal.

Sabq reports the canal would span the entirety of the border with Qatar, creating waterfront coastline for resorts, private beaches, and Gulf cruise liners. The canal, estimated to cost 2.8 billion riyals ($750 million), would stretch 200 meters wide (656 feet) wide and up to 20 meters deep (66 feet).

Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, became the first high-ranking official to comment on the proposal. In a string of tweets, he said the project is "proof of Qatar's failure to manage and solve its crisis" and that Doha's silence on the canal project "is proof of their fear and confusion."

Qatari government spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The quartet has imposed a de facto blockade of Qatar since June. Saudi Arabia sealed shut Qatar's only land crossing, cutting off a key route for food and construction imports. The four nations also expelled Qatari nationals and called on their citizens in Qatar to leave. They have barred Qatari flights from using their airspace and have supported alternative members of the ruling Al Thani family in exile.
Washington: The attorney for a porn actress who says she had sex with President Donald Trump said late on Monday that he may delay releasing a composite sketch of the person he says threatened Stormy Daniels to stay quiet.

Michael Avenatti said early on Monday that he would release the sketch on Tuesday, along with details of a reward for help identifying the person. He said late in the day that the timeline might change, after news broke about federal raid of the offices of Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. But Avenatti said he still expected to release the information this week.

Federal agents raided Cohen's offices on Monday, seizing records on topics including a $130,000 payment made to Daniels. The actress says she had sex with Trump once in 2006 and was paid by Cohen days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Avenatti said on Monday that a "sizeable monetary reward" will be offered to anyone providing information identifying the person that Daniels says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. He said the sketch will help provide "additional details about what happened here."

A hard-charging attorney who has relentlessly kept the case in the headlines, Avenatti said "common sense dictates" that this person could only have been someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization. He said the money would likely come from a crowd-sourced legal fund.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said in a recent interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that she was threatened to keep quiet by an unidentified man in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter. Avenatti tweeted a photo on Sunday that he said showed Daniels sitting with a forensic sketch artist to develop a sketch.

The "60 Minutes" interview prompted a lawyer for Trump attorney Michael Cohen to demand that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting Cohen was involved in her intimidation. Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.

Avenatti is also pushing to have Trump and Cohen answer questions under oath. He refiled a motion in federal court in Los Angeles on Sunday, seeking a jury trial and to depose Trump and Cohen. If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women.

Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and adding that he didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair and Cohen has held that he made the payment out of his own pocket, without involvement from the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign.

Cohen did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Sunday.

Avenatti filed a similar motion over a week ago, which a judge deemed premature. He refiled after Trump asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in the case. Trump and Cohen filed papers last week asking a judge to rule that the case must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. Avenatti opposes private arbitration.

In the filing, Avenatti says he wants to question Trump and Cohen for "no more than two hours." He says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the settlement agreement and if he "truly did not know about the $130,000 payment." He also asks if Trump was involved in any effort to "silence" Daniels.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (6th from right) and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio pose for a souvenir photo with other leaders from the participating countries in the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 at the BFA International Convention Center in Boao, Peoples Republic of China on April 10, 2018. Presidential Photo

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said the Philippines and China will stand and work together to fight criminality, the illegal drug trade and terrorism in the region. In a speech delivered at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, China, President Duterte did not mention the longstanding territorial dispute in the South China Sea, but said instead that the Philippines is ready to work with China and all nations in the region to seek friendship and cooperation. With China, we stand together in the war on criminality and the illegal drug trade. We are shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. Make no mistake: There can be no progress without stability in Asias lands and waters, he said. The Philippines has made considerable headway in improving the peace and order situation under this administration, Duterte said. China and the Philippines have long sparred over the South China Sea, but relations have improved considerably under Duterte. Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and Vietnam also claim some or all of the South China Sea and its myriad shoals, reefs and islands. China claims most of the waterway and has been aggressively building and militarizing artificial islands. Duterte said that bilaterally, the Philippines has shown how complex relations are, but said this is not a bar to positive and mutually beneficial engagement. Also in his speech, Duterte said the Philippines has dreamed of a comfortable life for its citizens, envisioning a society with opportunities for all and a nation of hard working, talented, and law-abiding people. We are slowly making the Filipino dream a reality. As we strive to push our economy forward, we encounter challenges. But we will not be deterred. We seek to partner with responsible businesseshomegrown and foreign basedto drive the progress we envision, Duterte said.The President noted that his administration has improved the peace and order situation and sustained the battle against corruption.We are strengthening the policy framework for businesses to thrive, he added, as he vowed not to tolerate corruption in his administration. Duterte noted that his administration has ambitious goals, as he underscored plans to spend 5 to 7 percent of the countrys GDP on infrastructure. He also noted the target of reducing poverty from 22 percent in 2015 to 14 percent by 2022. Duterte said his administrations flagship program, the Build, Build, Build, is expected to provide the solid backbone for growth and will upgrade infrastructure, connect more people and communities, and create more jobs. So far, the government has already started a three-year rolling program amounting to over $69 billion until 2022, the President reported. The President said his administration is also investing in innovation, particularly in science and technology and human development. With greater access to technology and financing, we will apply science, technology and nnovation in agriculture and the service industries. We will invest in improving research and development and intensify international cooperation in this area. We are willing to learn from others, he said. President Duterte also renewed the Philippines commitment to interconnectivity, both in functional terms and in political engagement. We will continue our efforts to broaden and deepen our economic engagement and cooperation with our friends and neighbors. We must harness the potential for shared growth in our region and beyond, he added. The BFA gathers over 2,000 participants worldwide to discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation, global governance, and world economy and trade in building a new consensus and produce new outcome.
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Good morning, brothers and sisters, Im Ned Lamont and Im running for governor. How are you? As your governor Im going to follow the principles of FDR: Fairness, dignity and respect.

That was the Greenwich entrepreneurs opening line Friday at the AFL-CIO convention in Hartford, where he came away with a powerful show of support from delegates  too powerful to ignore, even though it fell short of a formal endorsement.

The brothers and sisters line is a typical union salutation that other candidates, including former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, also used. But the FDR bit, that says a lot about Lamont, and about the political economy of 2018 in Connecticut, where a Democrat can get away with such a reference.

Lamont trounced the field in a straw poll of union delegates, and hes fast becoming a clear frontrunner. Why? Hes willing to fight for a wide spectrum of liberal economic policies and values without dancing around the flames, perhaps like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and also deliver a passionate show of respect for working people that transcends issues.

Lets start with respect, he said after the FDR line. The first thing Id do is Id thank our teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, tradespeople. ... We need to rebuild our state  taking care of the most vulnerable.

The other Democrats all talk about their deep experience in government, walking the walk, as they all say  perhaps in a shot at Lamont, whos served as a Greenwich selectman. Playing along, Lamont is fast to say what he doesnt know, practically boasting about how hes not the central-casting Democrat, as a business executive.

And hes having a blast at the podium. When someone asked him a hard question, he snapped back, Thats too complicated for me. Legalize marijuana, before giving a serious answer.

His undiluted embrace of the causes of the left will help Lamont win the Democratic nomination.

But it could also hurt him if hes the partys standard-bearer in the fall. A Republican hoping to claim the center, say, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, will pounce on Lamonts clear willingness to raise taxes, defend defined-benefit pensions and fight for universal health care, saying Connecticut cant afford such folly.

Or it could help him if Lamont could charge up the base, starting with the union leaders at Fridays convention, to do battle for him. Unions might be diminished from their past power, but AFL-CIO president Lori Pelletier made the point that 20 percent to 25 percent of general election voters are members of union families.

Lamont advances many of the same policies as his Democratic opponents. Jonathan Harris, the former West Hartford mayor, state senator and consumer affairs commissioner, for example, shouts to the heavens for a robust earned-income-tax credit for the working poor, and slams Republicans for saying the sky is falling so therefore we cant raise revenues.

Youve got me all riled up, the ever-more animated Harris said to the union crowd Friday.

So what should we make of Lamonts showing? He polled 48 percent among the 216 delegates present, more than triple the 15 percent of Harris, the next-highest candidate in the poll.

Bysiewicz and Sean Connolly, the former Army officer and commissioner of veterans affairs, each garnered 11 percent of the straw poll, which was done from delegates phones, through a website.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim trailed at 6.6 percent, below the 9.5 percent who tallied for no candidate.

All five offered solid pro-worker bona fides, and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, the other serious contending Democrat, who was excluded from the union convention, sent a statement saying he fully respects workers right to organize and collectively bargain, and would have liked to address the union leaders.

Some delegates said they were worried whether Ganim could win, and so perhaps some of Lamonts momentum is just that, momentum. His view is that it comes down to his embrace of new ways of looking at the economy and a respect for workers  despite his wealth and privileged background  that he shows as a candidate and private employer.

I just find in government theres not the same kind of respect, he told me later Friday.

As for that FDR reference, get this: He wasnt talking about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although like the defining 20th century president, Lamont is an old-money (and new money, for that matter) Democrat who believes in financial security for workers and redistribution of wealth.

No, he was talking about fairness, dignity and respect. The FDR hook was a sort of non-coincidental, inside joke that came from Chris Donovan, the former House speaker.

Im not identifying myself as one of the three greatest presidents of the United States, Lamont said.
WASHINGTON - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is apologizing - again. In his remarksprepared for Wednesday's House Energy and Commerce Committee, in advance of his turn in the hot seat following revelations about the misuse of Facebook user data, Zuckerberg said "we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

Communication and leadership experts said that clearly worded part of his testimony may have taken the right approach. They also said it could have trouble breaking through because of how many times Zuckerberg has said "sorry" for privacy-related mishaps in the past.

"When an apology keeps being issued over and over and a transgression keeps being repeated, the apology comes to have less meaning and less impact," said Gabrielle Adams, a professor at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. "When over and over [Facebook] keeps doing things that infringe on user privacy, at some point apologies become empty words."

For more than a decade, after all, Zuckerberg has issued a series of mea culpas, commitments to do better and promises to learn from Facebook's mistakes, often related to privacy or user data. Back in 2003, after creating Facemash, a "hot-or not" site that went viral at Harvard and was Facebook's predecessor, Zuckerberg said "this is not how I meant for things to go and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect." After it launched Beacon in 2007, sharing data with advertisers in outside web sites and apps, he said "we simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it. ... People need to be able to explicitly choose what they share."

When reporters spotted a privacy loophole in 2010, Zuckerberg promised to "add privacy controls that are much simpler to use," and he said "I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes" after Facebook reached a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.

And all of that preceded the recent round of explanations and promises after questions arose about its role in the 2016 election and after initial details emerged regarding the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica harvesting user data without permission.

"We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward," Zuckerberg said in March.

That rinse-and-repeat pattern to Zuckerberg's apologies hasn't gone unnoticed, whether on Twitter, in media coverage or by those raising alarm bells about Facebook's influence. As University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor and "techno-sociologist" Zeynep Tufecki wrote in Wired last week, "the constant repetition of 'sorry' and 'we meant well" and 'we will fix it this time!' to refer to what is basically the same betrayal over 14 years should no longer be accepted as a promise to do better, but should instead be seen as but one symptom of a profound crisis of accountability." (An email to a Facebook spokesperson Monday afternoon was not immediately returned.)

Those who study CEO apologies say that the repeat nature of Zuckerberg's apologies - even if the scope or impact of the problem has varied - could erode their power.

"When something is part of a routine or normative, what happens is it loses much of its significance," said Amy Ebesu Hubbard, the department chair of communicology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, who has studied apologies.

"Think about how our brain works. If we're learning to drive, the first time it takes all our cognitive resources. But after a while when it's routine, we don't think about it," she said. "When someone apologizes repeatedly, it's the same thing. In order to be seen as not being a platitude, you have to do something different to shed new light or have a deeper insight."

She said there are two key parts to being forgiven: The first is offering a forthright apology, but the second is making sure the recipient feels empathetic toward you. People, she said, have to feel bad for you, and "that entails recognizing that you realize the severity of the damage." When a leader is repeatedly apologizing, she said, "it calls into question your apology - was it really sincere?"

Paul Argenti, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business who studies corporate communication strategy, compared it to a relationship.

"If you do something wrong and say you're sorry - whether you don't take the garbage out or cheat on your partner - You might get another shot," he said. "Do it three times and it's time for a divorce."

How Zuckerberg's mea culpa will play in this week's hearings is not yet clear - he'll be drilled by lawmakers, and the apology could get lost in his responses about third-party developers, verified accounts and APIs. One suggestion, Adams offered, is to position Facebook's mistakes more in the moral terms that so many users see them.

"His apologies, in and of themselves, are not bad, but they're often defensive," she said.

Academics who study such communication patterns, she said, tend to divide transgressions into one of two types: Those of competence (not communicating something well; an employee error) and those of integrity (doing something people generally disagree with on a moral basis), and Zuckerberg can mix the two in his apologies.

"He tends to frame the mistake as a lack of communication and transparency, but what it comes down to is users are not OK with their data being shared," she said. "People see privacy as a moral issue."
Debora Cabral is bringing at little bit of the Azores to Monroe.

The Bridgeport resident and her husband, Manuel Rocha, opened the family-run Terra Cafe on Jan. 27 in a shopping plaza on 150 Main St., bringing a mix of vegan and gluten-free items to the health-conscious menu.

With a culinary background that stems to her days in the Azores, a string of islands off Portugal, Cabral said she wanted to bring her cafe to life to fill a void in the local dining scene.

My step-daughter is vegan, and when we decided to open this business, she recommended us to do something different, because vegans sometimes have trouble finding a place to order breakfast, Cabral said.

The business offers a mix of breakfast and lunch items from breakfast burritos with tofu to vegan paninis and wraps.

Terra Cafe throws in different tastes incorporating Portuguese and Brazilian culture. Items like acai bowls mixed with fruits are popular in Brazil, Rocha said.

Cabral also makes a daily, plant-based soup, another import from Portugal, where she said it has become a popular item.

No cafe would be complete without its coffee, and Terra makes its espresso drinks with a popular Portuguese brand Delta Coffee.

The restaurant also carries coffee from Massachusetts-based Jims Organic coffee. According to Cabral, the organic companys outreach caught their attention.

They deal directly with the farmers and buy directly from the farmers in South America, so there is a relationship between the brewer and the roaster, Rocha said.

Plus, they help build libraries and schools for the kids of the farmers, she added. Not only is the coffee of great quality and so good, (they) help the community that (they) work with, which is one of the reasons why we committed to that.

With roughly three months under their belt, Cabral and Rocha said they are looking to grow and continue serving their community.

I still dont believe it, but it has been a great experience, Cabral said. Its more than I was expecting. The feedback from the customers has been great. All the suggestions they are giving us and all the feedback is like making my dream come true.

Terra Cafe is open from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
BETHEL  Residents will vote Wednesday on the proposed $74.9 million budget for next fiscal year.

The referendum is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Residents vote at their assigned polling districts at either Berry Elementary School, the municipal center or Stony Hill Fire House.

The proposed operating budget includes $29.8 million for the town and $45.1 million for the schools. Residents will also vote on the proposed $2.3 million capital budget, which includes funding for a turf field at the high school.

The proposed budget is an increase of 2.8 percent in spending and a 0.48 percent increase to the mill rate.

A bulk of this increase is due to a rise in employment benefits and transportation costs, as well as additional funding for road repair, a police officer and the Senior Center.
JAKARTAIndonesia seized an alleged slave ship following a dramatic high seas chase sparked by an Interpol alert after the vessel escaped capture in China and Mozambique, authorities said Tuesday. Interpol tipped off Indonesian authorities that the stateless STS-50, a vessel with a notorious maritime rap sheet, would be entering the Southeast Asian nations waters with authorities concerned the crew were being forced to work. The boat, captured on Friday some 95 kilometers from Weh Island in Aceh province, had 20 Indonesians, two Ukrainians and eight Russians aboard, including the captain, a senior navy official said. The crew have been detained and are now being questioned. The Indonesian sailors said they were not paid and that their passports and other documents had been taken away as soon as they boarded the ship nearly a year ago, the navy said. These Indonesians had been sailing for 10 months without being paid so thats why we suspect there was slavery happening, Indonesian navy deputy chief Achmad Taufiqoerrochman said. The 850-foot-long vessel, which was flying the flag of tiny African nation Togo, has previously flown flags from a string of countries including Japan, South Korea and Mozambique, authorities said.It was on the run after escaping detention in China and also fleeing seizure in Mozambique. Before it was caught in Indonesia, the vessel used several other names including Sea Breeze, Andrey Dolgov, and Aida, according to the fisheries ministry. The vessel was equipped with some 600 gill netsbanned in some waterstargeting cod species and Antarctic tooth fish. It is also suspected of involvement in organized transnational crime, the ministry added without elaborating. Two years ago, Indonesian warships detained a Chinese trawler wanted by Interpol in Argentina. Jakarta has launched a tough crackdown on illegal fishing which involves sinking foreign vessels caught fishing without a permit after impounding the boats and removing the crews.
DANBURY - A judge has ordered the city to rehire a police officer who was fired five years ago after berating a motorist during a traffic stop.

A Superior Court judge ruled that city officials should comply with an arbitrators decision that Christopher Belair should get his job back. Belair was fired by Mayor Mark Boughton in June 2013 after a video surfaced showing him shouting profanities at the motorist.

If there weren't four other cops here, I'd beat the s--- out of you, Belair shouted, according to court documents.

In September, an arbitration panel found that while Belairs conduct was outrageous and disturbing, the city lacked just cause to terminate his employment and that a 90-day suspension would have been a more appropriate punishment.

The city appealed the decision in a lawsuit filed last year, but a Superior Court judge has ruled that the arbitrators decision should stand.

Its a little frustrating, but we will abide by the courts ruling, Boughton said Tuesday. Our labor attorney is reviewing the decision and we will make what ever accommodations are necessary.

The mayor said he stands by his decision to fire Belair, whose tirade was viewed by some as anti-immigrant. The officer could be heard in the video yelling, Stop being in this country and almost f-----g killing people.

Ive said it before and Ill say it again, would you want your mother, your father, your brother or your son treated that way? Boughton askedd. But I do believe that officer is remorseful for his actions.

Boughton said Belair, whose attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday, is no longer certified in the state to serve as a police officer.

Thats something were going to have to work out, the mayor said. It may not mean another trip to the police academy. It could just be some updating training that needs to be provided.

The arbitration panel concluded last year that Belairs actions were motivated not by the motorists immigration status, but rather his drunken state.

According to court filings, Belair had seen the motorist - Rene Chalco - stumbling in the middle of the street shortly before the traffic stop. Belair had offered the man a ride, which was declined.

Belair was charged with third-degree assault and threatening. He was found not guilty of the charges three years ago after a jury trial.
It was supposed to be a simple procedure.

Relatives said 28-year-old Ekaterina Fedyaeva had been diagnosed with ovarian cysts - a condition in which fluid-filled sacs attach to the ovaries, then usually disappear on their own. But in some cases, according to the Mayo Clinic, doctors have to remove them.

Fedyaeva was advised that she needed a routine laparoscopic procedure to remove the cysts, relatives said, so she underwent surgery last month at a hospital in Ulyanovsk, a city in western Russia, according to RT, a Russian government-owned television network.

During the operation, medical personnel made a tragic and irreparable mistake: Russia's state-controlled news agency, Tass, reported that instead of administering saline solution, medical personnel mistakenly gave Fedyaeva formalin, a solution that contains formaldehyde - which is used to preserve dead bodies. The medical team tried to wash Fedyaeva's abdominal cavity, according to Tass, but it was too late.

She was being embalmed - alive.

Fedyaeva's mother-in-law, Valentina Fedyaeva, told RT that after the operation, Fedyaeva told her mother, "Mom, I'm dying," but her mother thought that she was just complaining. Then her organs started to fail, according to reports, and she was connected to machines to help keep her alive.

On Thursday, according to Tass, she died.

The botched surgery has gained international attention with headlines such as "Russian woman dies after given formaldehyde instead of saline drip" and "Woman 'embalmed alive' in hospital error."

Rashid Abdullov, minister of health, family and social well-being for the Ulyanovsk region, called it "a terrible tragedy."

"My deepest condolences to the family, relatives of Ekaterina Fedyaeva," Abdullov wrote on Twitter late last week. "This is a terrible tragedy. We will provide all the necessary aid to the family. Those responsible for the tragedy have been already brought to liability and the investigative agencies continue to work."

It's still unclear exactly how it happened, but Abdullov said that medical personnel neglected to read the label on the lethal chemical before administering it to Fedyaeva during the operation, according to RT.

Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency confirmed that Fedyaeva was transported in critical condition from the hospital in Ulyanovsk to the A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center in Moscow, where doctors and nurses tried to save her, according to RT. The government-owned network reported that although she was suffering multiple-organ failure and had machines working for her lungs and kidneys, she briefly regained consciousness.

Fedyaeva's mother-in-law told RT that the young woman opened her eyes and whispered to them - a moment that she said gave them hope.

But her body could not clear the poison.

Family members and friends described Fedyaeva as a "sweet" and "tender" young woman who died far too soon, according to news reports.

Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergey Morozov and local authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the incident and, on the governor's orders, the head doctor at the hospital in Ulyanovsk, as well as other medical personnel involved in the operation, has been dismissed, according to local news reports. If criminally charged and convicted, the medical personnel could face time in prison, according to the reports.
Doing Politics Differently: My Vision for Canada

By Maxime Bernier, in collaboration with Martin Masse

TORONTO, April 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Optimum Publishing International is pleased to announce the release of Chapter Five of Maxime Bernier's upcoming book, Doing Politics Differently: My Vision for Canada.

In this chapter, entitled "Live or Die with Supply Management," Bernier tells the story of how and why supply management, one of the great taboos of Canadian politics, came to play a central role in his campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, and contributed both to its success and his defeat. He also lists all the major economic reasons for scrapping this costly, inefficient, and unjust system.

With the NAFTA negotiations nearing a conclusion, and with a new agreement possibly including a chapter dealing with supply management, Optimum's publisher, Dean Baxendale, thought it important to make the content of this chapter available to the Canadian public ahead of the book's publication in the fall of 2018.

Right after Donald Trump's election to the presidency, Maxime Bernier was the first one to suggest using supply management as a bargaining chip in the NAFTA renegotiation promised by Trump. In April 2017, Bernier wrote an open letter to Trump in the Globe and Mail to argue it would be advantageous for consumers and producers in both countries if he dismantled his tariff wall against Canadian softwood lumber, while we got rid of our restrictions on agricultural imports. Finally, in October 2017, the US government officially demanded an end to supply management as part of the negotiations.

"Canadians should know why it's in everybody's interest that supply management be dismantled as part of a renewed NAFTA treaty. And they should also be aware of Maxime's role in bringing this issue to the forefront," explains Baxendale. "This is a compelling chapter but there is a lot more to come in the book."

Today, Optimum is releasing the chapter on its website at www.optimumpublishinginternational.com/ The Globe and Mail and La Presse also received an embargoed copy of the chapter and are publishing excerpts today.

OPI is best known for delivering sensational crime and political best sellers like The Canadian Connection, 1976 by Jean-Pierre Charbonneau. Montreal Mafia: Beyond Reason by Margaret Trudeau, French Worldwide/ Global Syndication in French and English: Up the Hill by the Treasury Board President, Donald Johnson MP, 1986.

From the Plains of Africa to the Jungles of Parliament, Barry Turner MP, 2012 and most recently, General Beatty's book, Bullet Proof Flag, Canada's Peace Keepers in Cyprus, 2014. Optimum is now lead by Dean Baxendale after the passing of founder Michael Baxendale in January of 2017.

SOURCE Optimum Publishing International

For further information: please contact [email protected] or call Dean Baxendale at 416 962-3366, ext. 269.
Sales of condominiums were hot in Connecticut in February while single-family home sales were not, according to data released Monday by the Boston-based Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record.

There were 496 condominium sales in Connecticut during February, up by 9.3 percent from the same period in 2017. Single-family home sales in Connecticut during February were off 3 percent in February compared to the same period year earlier.

There were 1,688 single-family home sales in February, compared to 1,741 during the same period in 2017.

But while the number of single-family homes sold in February declined, the median price paid increased dramatically. The median price for the sale of a single-family home in the state increased by $16,000, or 7.2 percent, to $237,000 compared to a year ago.

The increase in median sale price for single-family homes was the largest year-over-year increase since September 2013, according to Timothy Warren, chief executive officer of the Warren Group.

Sales may have slowed in February, but the rising price is a good sign for any current homeowners who are thinking of selling, Warren said in a statement. The inventory of homes for sale is dropping in Connecticut and the tighter supply may be pushing up prices. Well soon know if this trend continues or if homeowners rush to put their homes on the market to take advantage of higher prices.

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, was a bit more skeptical about the increase in single-family home sale prices.

It looks to be somewhat of an anomaly given economic fundamentals, Klepper-Smith said. Job growth is non-existent and full job recovery isnt expected until the end of 2019. Add in the fact that traction in the housing markets is tied to traction in the labor markets and you can see that the small sample we have for the first two months of 2018 is probably overstating strength in the Connecticut housing market.

The median sale price for condominiums sold in Connecticut during March was up slightly, increasing by $1,625, or 1.1 percent, to $145,000

February single-family home sales decreased in five of Connecticuts eight counties, with the biggest percentage decrease coming in Windham County, where the number of transactions year-over-year was off by 15.2 percent. Tolland County led the state in terms of the percentage increase in single-family home sales, with a 17.2 percent increase.

Single-family home sales in New Haven County during February fell by 2 percent from the same period last year. But the median single-family home sale price there rose by 7.6 percent to $204,500, according to the Warren Group data.

Middlesex County led the state in median sale price gains. The median sale price of single-family homes in the county during February was $274,450, an increase of $44,450, or 19.3 percent.

The number of condominium units sold during February in New Haven County increased by 14.8 percent to 132. The median sale price of those units sold during February increased by 4.1 percent, or $4,800, to $123,000.
The die is cast for chief justice justice (on leave), Maria Lourdes Sereno. Before or after summer this year, two things could happen to hershe keeps her job or she is ousted. The odds are that she will be ousted, either by the Supreme Court itself, or the Senate acting as an impeachment court. By the Supreme Court for her being unqualified in the first place (through a quo warranto case), or by the Senate, for any or all of the six articles of impeachment against her which come under four categoriesculpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft, and abuse of power. Serenos removal will be processed on two frontsbefore an impeachment court at the Senate after the House plenary endorses the articles of impeachment, and before the Supreme Court itself, where Sereno, at this writing, in an unprecedented spectacle, was facing her own peers (most of the 13 now sitting en banc are hostile to her) to defend herself from allegations of the government (represented by Solicitor General Jose Calida) that she was not qualified to be a chief justice in the first place, having violated, before her appointment, the law and the Constitution on the rudimentary requirements for applicants for chief justice. One requirement is religious and timely filing of statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. Quo warranto is swifter and more surgical and requires the vote of just eight justices. An impeachment could be prolonged and messy and requires the three-fourths vote of all 23 sitting senators. To me, Serenos chief failing as chief justice is that she antagonized so many people for two reasons. One, something is wrong with her psychologically, and two, she has had too much power trip. For someone who is very young and to many, a very unqualified chief justice, those are fatal character flaws. Sereno antagonized the most important person in this countryPresident Rodrigo Roa Duterte. He has declared her his enemy if not an enemy of the people. Per Rep. Rey Umali, chairman of the House Committee of Justice which conducted hearings for five months (a record for an impeachment complaint) on her case, Sereno failed to file her SALNs 17 times, including the years 1996 to 2006. Umali says Sereno filed only three SALNs and in two of them, she did not even subscribe to their authenticity. According to SolGen Calida, the chief on an indefinite leave failed to file her SALN 11 times. Now, thats what I call serial impunity of the worst kind. Here is what Duterte said April 9 when asked by a newsman in Davao about Sereno: Sereno. Sinabi ko na sa iyo, hindi ako nakialam. If you are insisting, then count me in. Count me in. And I will egg (on) Calida to do his best. Ako na mismo maglakad rin kalaban sa iyo. Sinasabi ko na sa iyo na hindi ako nakikialam. Now sige ka diyan daldal nang daldal. O sige, upakan kita. I will help any investigator. Talagang uupakan kita.So Im putting you on notice that I am now your enemy. And you have to be out of the Supreme Court. I will see to it that after that, then Ill request the Congress, go into the impeachment right away. Because the two entities can hear it simultaneously. They can proceed with the quo warranto. Ang quo warranto is Supreme Court eh; impeachment is Congress. So that Id like to ask Speaker Alvarez now, kindly fast-track the impeachment of... she is bad for the Philippines. President Duterte minced no words in declaring Sereno is an enemy. In military terms, that is like a death sentence. In political terms, you are guilty as charged and should be removed from office. Allow me, however, to quote from a much admired law dean, Tony La Vinas column, on his thoughts on Serenos travails: For the first time in history, a sitting chief justice will argue her case as a respondent, not as a sitting judge, before her peers. Can the [Supreme] Court be depended on to pass judgment with impartiality and competence considering the perceived hostility and rumored squabbles which have been going on for years between Sereno and some of her colleagues? That there is bad blood among the members has been reinforced when some justicesAssociate Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Noel Tijam and Francis Jardelezatestified against her before the House Committee on Justice. The quo warranto decision, which could come soon, absolutely could change our constitutional system radically. The Corona impeachment  released destructive forces on the judiciary. This [Sereno] case could unleash even more dreadful consequences on the institution [email protected]
NEW HAVEN  A former Silicon Valley actor has been charged by federal criminal complaint with intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train traveling to Connecticut, according to a federal press release.

New York City resident Todd Joseph T.J. Miller, 36, known for playing Erlich Bachman on Silicon Valley, was arrested Monday night at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, N.Y., the release said. He appeared in court Tuesday and was released on a $100,000 bail, the release said.

More News Trains service resumes following report of suspicious package

Tracy Hayes, Millers public defender, declined to comment Tuesday beyond saying Miller entered a not guilty plea in U.S. District Court in New Haven. If convicted, Miller could spend up to five years in prison.

The criminal complaint alleges Miller called a 911 dispatcher March 18 in New Jersey and reported that he was on Amtrak Train 2256 traveling from Washington, D.C., toward Penn Station in New York City, and a female passenger, with brown hair and a scarf, has a bomb in her bag.

By the time Amtrak investigators received notice of the call and were mobilized to stop and search the train, the train was in Connecticut. Amtrak officials stopped Train 2256 at Greens Farms Station in Westport, where passengers were directed to disembark, and bomb squad members boarded and searched the train. No evidence of any explosive device or materials was detected, the complaint stated.

An Amtrak investigator contacted Miller, who was in New York, by phone. On the call, Miller allegedly said the woman, who he described this time as having red hair and a red scarf, was carrying a black bag carry on suitcase with a handle. The complaint alleged Miller stated she kept checking her bag without taking anything out, kept asking the first class attendant what the next stop was and seemed to want to get off the train and leave her bag behind.

The officer allegedly detected slurring in Millers voice and asked whether he had consumed alcohol that day. Miller replied that he had consumed one glass of red wine. When asked whether he suffered from mental illness, Miller replied No, absolutely not. This is the first time Ive ever made a call like this before. I am worried for everyone on that train. Someone has to check that lady out.

Investigators responding to the train determined that Miller actually had been traveling on Amtrak Train 2258, not 2256. When Amtrak Train 2258 arrived at Greens Farms Station shortly thereafter, it was stopped, inspected, and eventually found not to contain any explosive devices or materials.

During the stop, Amtrak officers interviewed an attendant from the first class car where Miller had been sitting. The attendant said Miller appeared intoxicated upon boarding in Washington, consumed multiple drinks  two glasses of wine and two double scotch and soda drinks - on the train, and he had been removed in New York owing to his alleged intoxication.

While the first class car attendant said Miller and the woman, who matched Millers initial description, got into a screaming match, the woman denied having a loud argument with him. The attendant said there was least one row of seats between where Miller and the woman were sitting.

The complaint said officers detected the smell of alcohol on the woman and she stumbled while disembarking with her fellow passengers. The woman told officers Miller had been scolded a couple times by the train attendant for speaking too loudly. While Miller was speaking on his phone, the woman said she looked at him and he asked, Hey, why are you looking at me?

At some point, the woman was talking on her phone and said, I think Im going to jump off when we get off in New York City and try to buy this thing. The woman said Miller sort of latched on to it, saying, oh, shes speaking, so why cant I speak?

Investigators determined that the woman was not carrying any explosives, was not checking a carry on suitcase with a handle and was not checking her bag without taking anything out. The complaint states the woman would have been largely out of Millers view unless he repeatedly stood up to observe her over or around the intervening seat row, or rows.

The complaint further alleges Miller, motivated by some perceived grudge against the woman, called 911 to relay false information about a suspected bomb on the train, and continued to convey false information to investigators while the public safety response was ongoing.

The complaint states four Amtrak trains were delayed due to Millers false explosive report, affecting 1,145 passengers.
Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim says its time for Connecticut to legalize recreational marijuana.

A legal regulated recreational marijuana industry would launch a new industry in Connecticut, create thousands of new jobs, and produce hundreds of millions of needed annual tax revenue for the state, said Ganim, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor.

It is time we treated and regulated marijuana the same way we treat alcohol or tobacco. It is long past time we in this country acknowledged that attitudes about marijuana have changed dramatically and it is time for us too in this land of steady habits to change with it, Ganim said in a Monday announcement.

Ganim urged the General Assembly to pass a comprehensive, smart approach to legalizing, regulating and taxing recreational marijuana in Connecticut.

Ganim recently submitted testimony to the General Assemblys Judiciary Committee favoring Senate Bill No. 487 sponsored by Senate President Marty Looney. The bill would allow anyone over the age of 21 to purchase marijuana for recreational use from state licensed retail outlets.

The entire New England region is moving towards legalizing recreational marijuana. Connecticut has already decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana and established medical marijuana that has been safely and effectively regulated by the state. With the proper regulations in place, Connecticut should take the next step and legalize recreational marijuana, Ganim said.

Last week, a bill that would begin the process of selling legal weed in Connecticut passed a key legislative committee on Thursday  and now heads to the House for a first ever vote.

The 27-24 vote by the General Assemblys Appropriations Committee broke mostly along party lines, with majority Democrats in support and Republicans mostly opposed.

"I think this is a practical move for us to continue the conversation," said state Rep. Juan Candelaria, D-New Haven and a supporter.

Candelaria told the committee  given the fact that Massachusetts is beginning legal sales this summer and Rhode Island is talking about legalizing pot  its only a matter of time before Connecticut allows sales.

The bill does not legalize weed and instead requires state departments to develop a plan to oversee sales and determine costs involved. A plan would be presented to the legislature by Oct 1.

Legal sale of marijuana could bring in between $45 million and $150 million annually supporters say, depending on estimates.
NEW HAVEN  A Mass on Sunday will be dedicated to the plight of minority Christians, who have been the victims of genocide by ISIS.

The Mass, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Hartford and the Knights of Columbus, will feature the presentation of donations raised by students from the nine high schools in the archdiocese. Students in each school have prayed for an adopted sister town in the Middle East, which will receive the donations to help in rebuilding, according to a press release.
WEST HAVEN  Finance Director Kevin McNabola, a holdover from former Mayor Ed OBriens administration who Mayor Nancy Rossi had kept on since taking office on Dec. 3, has left the city to take a job as finance director in Waterford.

Linda Savitsky, former director of municipal finance for the state Office of Policy and Management  and one of the people who worked most closely with West Haven when it sought state assistance and surrendered control to a state review board to cope with a $17.3 million cumulative deficit in 1992  will serve as acting finance director, Rossi said.

Coincidentally, Savitsky, now a private municipal finance consultant, just finished a stint as acting finance director in Waterford. Prior to going to work for the state, Savitsky served as finance director in Shelton, Cheshire and Groton.

I think she is going to work out great, said Rossi. Savitskys initial contract term is for 90 days, but that can be extended by mutual agreement, she said.

I think Im in real good hands and I think shes what West Haven needs, Rossi said of Savitsky.

She said of McNabola, I wish him well. I think hes going to do great in Waterford.

Both began their new jobs last week.

Savitsky, a resident of Essex, said she expects working in West Haven to be very different from Waterford.

Its going to be a challenge, she said. West Havens a city and its got city issues.

She said it does surprise her to see West Haven back in its current position, with a similar-sized deficit and seeking $9 million in state aid in exchange for working with the new state Municipal Accountability Review Board, or MARB.

When we left, the (former review) board went away, the financial plan was in place and Tom Hamilton, now finance director for the Norwalk public school system  and a member of the MARB  was West Haven finance director, she said.

Savitsky took early retirement from her state job in 2003 and has been a consultant in recent years. She worked in Waterford from last June until last month.

McNabola, who was making $121,447 annually in the West Haven job, joined Rossi and Savitsky last Thursday when West Haven appeared before the MARB in Hartford.

He said he worked hard during his more than four years in West Haven to achieve structural balance and fiscal stability. I feel that steps have been taken to get it on the right path, although its a continuing process.

McNabola, who lives Orange, grew up in West Haven and graduated from Notre Dame High School. He said hell miss working in West Haven.

The experience there has been great, he said.
NEW HAVEN  Yale University police, who say one of their primary jobs is to protect students engaged in protests, are accusing the university of violating the officers First Amendment rights.

Without a contract since June 2016, the university police protested the length of time it was taking to settle a successor agreement by passing out fliers to prospective students and their parents to seek their support for an agreement.

They did this outside the Shubert Theatre on Saturday as the families filed into the venue, as part of Bulldog Days, to listen to Yale officials as they pitched the university as the place where the students should matriculate this fall.

The flier also contained 12 headlines from television reports, the Yale Daily News, Breitbart, the New Haven Register and The Guardian from 2013 through 2017 on robberies, assaults, including a sexual assault in 2015, with the overline: Yales Campus May Not Be As Safe As You May Think.

Officer Richard Simons, president of the Yale Police Benevolent Association, said as the fliers were being handed out, ushers from the event came out and started taking them away from the visitors, while one of them stepped between an off-duty officer and the intended recipient. to prevent the handoff.

That incident was reported by WTNH, which had a video of the protest and a still photo showing the officer being blocked by a female usher.

Simons, in a letter to the editor at the New Haven Register, said that usher extended her arms and physically pushed our member back, away from the parent, as she escorted her charge into the theater.

He said the officer responded: Nice. You dont treat people that way. We are standing on the public sidewalk; we have the right to be there.

Simons wrote that aggressive behavior reflects poorly on Yale; however, our member remained professional, courteous and respectful.

Tell me, when it is OK to block protesters from exercising their First Amendment rights? Simons asked. Yale University, the First Amendment and liberal capital of the world! Hello? Simons said.

Simons said nothing in the flier was inaccurate.

He said, to his point, Police Chief Ronnell A. Higgins issued an alert to the Yale community Saturday night that New Haven police, around 7:45 p.m., reported two separate assaults in the area of Church and Wall streets.

It said a graduate student was walking there when she was approached by a woman who chased her, pushed her to the ground and attempted to punch her, before walking away. In the second incident, the victim, who was not a member of the Yale community, was walking in the same area when she was approached by a woman, possibly the same person, who punched her and fled.

No weapons were displayed and the physical injuries were minor, according to the alert.

Higgins did not respond to a request for a comment as he was on vacation.

Yale, on its website on police and security services, said violent crime on campus continues a 30-year downward trend, and the city of New Haven is also experiencing this downward trend.

It also states that the vast majority of crimes on Yales campus are property crimes.

Yale University spokesman, Thomas Conroy, issued a statement on the protest.

Yale respects the officers free speech rights as exercised Saturday, and we dont believe those rights were infringed as we accommodated our visitors, he wrote.

Regarding our contract negotiations with the police union, we have made progress in the negotiations on a number of issues and will continue to meet with the union on unresolved matters. Yale provides its officers with excellent pay, health care, and other benefits that are highly competitive with every police department in the state. As the union stated, Yale also devotes significant resources to its police department to ensure that the officers have the best training and are well-equipped for their responsibilities. As as result, Yale is able to attract and retain the most highly qualified candidates for its police department, and officer positions at Yale are highly sought after. Yale is proud of the women and men who serve our campus in a public safety capacity, Conroy wrote.

In the flier, Simons refers to the headlines.

As the accompanying newspaper headlines reveal, Yale and its host city, New Haven, can at times be a dangerous place, Simons wrote.

Simons said the main mission of the Yale police is the safety of the members of the Yale community, while its ancillary role is to police the downtown as well as areas contiguous to the campus.

A large portion of our work consists of preventing and reducing city crime, thereby ensuring the safety of members of the Yale community, he wrote.

He said the campus police are well trained and able to respond to bomb threats, as well as active shooter incidents, which are increasing at an alarming rate; moreover, these deadly incidents most often occur in academic settings.

We respectively request your support in our quest to achieve a fair and equitable contract settlement, Simons wrote in his appeal to the parents.

In the letter to the editor, Simons wrote that many issues have been settled, but health care, pensions, job security, and procedural due process protections in disciplinary matters have to be resolved.

He wrote that the ushers hired by Yale for the event acted rudely and unprofessionally in an attempt to obstruct the 20 officers, who were off-duty and were passing the fliers out on the sidewalk.

Simons said the ushers warned the public that the leaflets contained propaganda and misleading information, which he said was inaccurate.

In the letter to the editor, Simons referred to Yale President Peter Saloveys opinion piece in the New York Times on Nov. 26 when he praised Pauli Murray, a 1965 Yale Law School graduate, for whom one of the newest Yale residential colleges is named.

 ...Murrays prescient words  and her lifetime of action  speak forcefully to us about the essential freedoms at the heart of all struggles for equality and dignity ... our responsibility to protect freedom of expression.

Surely, President Salovey would appreciate the right of the Y.P.B.A. to speak freely regarding the need for a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement. Yale should practice what it preaches, Simons wrote.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 6:00 am

Democrat town hall meeting draws crowd

Webster County Democrats hosted an open town hall on Tuesday, March 6, at Sheilas Place, showcasing their candidates for the primary election in August. A crowd of 65 showed up for the event.

The candidates, Renee Hoagenson (4th Congressional District), John Farmer de la Torres and Vince Jennings (7th Congressional District) and Ray Lampert (137th District State Representative) presented their platforms and directly engaged in extensive Q&A on a broad range of issues effecting Missouri and the country in general. The Democrats followed the example of Senator McCaskills town hall meetings by demonstrating their willingness to meet in a public forum with any and all voters in a face-to-face setting, a practice not carried out by the current officeholders in the 4th and 7th Districts.

The crowd on hand was eagerly participative, enthusiastic and glad about being able to see and hear directly from the those who seek to serve them. It was all good.

Now we gear up for the mid-terms in November.
Cupertino, California  Apple today announced iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition, the new generation of iPhone in a stunning red finish. Both phones sport a beautiful glass enclosure, now in red, with a matching aluminum band and a sleek black front. The special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone will be available to order online in select countries and regions tomorrow and in stores beginning Friday, April 13.

Apple also introduced a new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone X Leather Folio, which will be available beginning tomorrow. Crafted from specially tanned and finished European leather for a luxurious look and feel, the new folio joins other (PRODUCT)RED devices and accessories available for customers to purchase. A portion of proceeds for all (PRODUCT)RED purchases go directly to Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants that provide testing, counseling, treatment and prevention programs with a specific focus on eliminating transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies. Since partnering with (RED) in 2006, Apple has donated more than $160 million to the Global Fund, serving as the organizations largest corporate donor.

This special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone features a stunning red and black color combination and also offers customers the opportunity to make an impact in fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS, said Greg Joswiak, Apples vice president of Product Marketing. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus improve on everything we love about iPhone, including Retina HD displays that are more beautiful than ever, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone with the A11 Bionic and more advanced cameras for unbelievable photos and videos. We are proud to support (RED) with this bold new iPhone and hope customers think it is as special as we do.

Todays announcement is further evidence of Apples leadership in and commitment to the AIDS fight since the beginning of (RED) in 2006, said Deborah Dugan, (RED)s CEO. The more than $160 million Apple has donated in the last 11 years today equates to more than 800 million days of lifesaving ARV medication that prevents the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. Were honored that Apple has dedicated its resources to our purpose, and cant wait to see customers bring our mission to life through the purchase of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are a new generation of iPhone featuring a glass and aluminum design made with the most durable glass ever in a smartphone, Retina HD display, A11 Bionic chip and are designed for the ultimate augmented reality experience. The worlds most popular camera is even better and wireless charging brings a powerful capability to iPhone. iPhone 8 Plus features dual 12-megapixel cameras and introduces Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, bringing dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone, allowing customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth of field effect in five different lighting styles.

Pricing and Availability

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition will be available in 64GB and 256GB models starting at an Apple retail price of $699 (US) from apple.com, the Apple Store app and Apple Stores, and is also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers (prices may vary). The special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone joins iPhone 8 finishes in space gray, silver and gold.

Both special edition models are available to order beginning Tuesday, April 10 after 5:30 a.m. PDT, and start delivering to customers and arriving in stores in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and US on Friday, April 13. Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE and other countries and regions will follow later in April, with Chile, Colombia, India, Israel, Turkey and other countries and regions following in May.

The new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone X Leather Folio will be available from apple.com, the Apple Store app and Apple Stores for $99 (US) beginning tomorrow, and joins other (PRODUCT)RED products including Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones, Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker and accessories for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

Through Apples iPhone Upgrade Program, customers in the US can get the special edition iPhone, with the protection of AppleCare+, choose their carrier and have the opportunity to upgrade to a new iPhone every year. The iPhone Upgrade Program is available at apple.com, the Apple Store app and Apple Stores in the US with monthly payments starting at $34.50 (US) for the iPhone 8 64GB model.

Every customer who buys iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition from Apple will be offered free Personal Setup in-store or online to help them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more.1

Anyone who wants to start with the basics or go further with iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iOS 11 can sign up for free Today at Apple sessions at apple.com/today.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 10:45 am

Beef herd owners profit from fewer calf death losses, steers grading USDA prime and cows staying in the herd longer. Improved herd performance comes from adding genetics to management.

That theme was repeated at three ReproGene Conferences held by University of Missouri Extension across southern Missouri in March. The final meeting was at Cuba Monday, March 26.

Adding genomics, the science of DNA, to beef breeding is here and working in Missouri herds.

That ship has already sailed. This isnt something new, said Jared Decker, MU Extension geneticist. Its working in herds already. Nows time to get on board.

A genomic test of a few drops of blood from a calfs ear can reveal a DNA map of lifetime production for a heifer. That predicts production.

Even with known genetic potential, a replacement heifer must be managed for proper development. That includes chores from feeding to breeding.

In the meetings, which will be repeated, reproduction management was told by Dave Patterson, MU reproduction specialist. Decker followed with research on genetic progress.

Jordan Thomas, recent MU Ph.D. graduate, followed with his research on split-time artificial insemination (AI) and use of sex-sorted semen.

Wrap-ups came from panelists from genetic suppliers and farmers who provide and use better breeding tools to produce quality beef.

Pattersons reports are based on his 20 years of research and development with the MU Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program. That plan has added millions of dollars of income to SMS owners.

Big benefits are more live calves and fewer deaths of heifers by using calving-ease genetics. A big change is switching from AI based on weeks of watching to find females in heat. Now, with fixed-time AI, all heifers are bred in one day. Calves that are born in about 14 days instead of months are more uniform. Buyers like that.

With short calving times, producers tell us they do a better job of watching their heifers, Patterson said. Fixed-time AI allows all to be from one top sire in the breed, using AI semen. AI offspring have better genetics.

Another benefit: Heifers that conceive and calve early in the breeding season stay in the herd longer.

Later in a panel discussion, Chip Kemp, a former MU faculty member, said, Daves program shows cows staying in the herd longer are where profits are made.

In the genomic section, Decker said a DNA test made soon after birth can be used for the lifetime of a cow. Bulls can be matched to make up for any shortcomings in the cows. The result is better calves.

A new finding shows that steers do not need to be DNA tested to reveal their superior genetics. Tests on heifer mates tell the steers potential.

Major progress simplifies use of genetic testing. Meanwhile, prices drop. What cost $50 a test last year can be had for $15 this year. That trend continues.

A specific test is needed for each breed or crossbreed. Make sure to use the correct test, Decker said.

Farmer Kenny Graham, Farmington, said the SMS heifer program allowed him to expand his cow herd. Genetics gave new profit potential.

Frank Barnitz, Lake Spring, an earlier user of AI, told how better breeding allowed him to add new enterprises to the family farm.

Farmers attending heard many more profit ideas.

Beef herd owners can find help on reproduction protocols and genetics from their regional MU Extension livestock specialist.
Cupertino, California  As part of its commitment to combat climate change and create a healthier environment, Apple today announced its global facilities are powered with 100 percent clean energy. This achievement includes retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries  including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India. The company also announced nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23.

Were committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work were proud to have reached this significant milestone, said Tim Cook, Apples CEO. Were going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.

Renewable Energy Projects

In China, solar panels are mounted high off the ground to let sunlight shine through, so grass can grow  and local yaks can eat it.

Apple and its partners are building new renewable energy projects around the world, improving the energy options for local communities, states and even entire countries. Apple creates or develops, with utilities, new regional renewable energy projects that would not otherwise exist. These projects represent a diverse range of energy sources, including solar arrays and wind farms as well as emerging technologies like biogas fuel cells, micro-hydro generation systems and energy storage technologies.

Apple currently has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world, totaling 626 megawatts of generation capacity, with 286 megawatts of solar PV generation coming online in 2017, its most ever in one year. It also has 15 more projects in construction. Once built, over 1.4 gigawatts of clean renewable energy generation will be spread across 11 countries.

Apples new headquarters in Cupertino is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, in part from a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation.

Since 2014, all of Apples data centers have been powered by 100 percent renewable energy. And since 2011, all of Apple's renewable energy projects have reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) by 54 percent from its facilities worldwide and prevented nearly 2.1 million metric tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere.

Apples renewable energy projects include:

 Apple Park, Apples new headquarters in Cupertino, is now the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America. It is powered by 100 percent renewable energy from multiple sources, including a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation and four megawatts of biogas fuel cells, and controlled by a microgrid with battery storage. It also gives clean energy back to the public grid during periods of low occupancy.

 Over 485 megawatts of wind and solar projects have been developed across six provinces of China to address upstream manufacturing emissions.

 Apple recently announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center in Waukee, Iowa, that will run entirely on renewable energy from day one.

 In Prineville, Oregon, the company signed a 200-megawatt power purchase agreement for an Oregon wind farm, the Montague Wind Power Project, set to come online by the end of 2019.

 In Reno, Nevada, Apple created a partnership with the local utility, NV Energy, and over the last four years developed four new projects totaling 320 megawatts of solar PV generation.

 In Japan, Apple is partnering with local solar company Daini Denryoku to install over 300 rooftop solar systems that will generate 18,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy every year  enough to power more than 3,000 Japanese homes.

 Apples data center in Maiden, North Carolina, is supported by projects that generate 244 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year, which is equivalent to the energy used by 17,906 North Carolina homes.

 In Singapore, where land is scarce, Apple adapted and built its renewable energy on 800 rooftops.

 Apple is currently constructing two new data centers in Denmark that will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one.

Supplier Commitments

Ibiden, a component supplier outside Nagoya, Japan, maintains a floating solar photovoltaic facility to power 100 percent of its manufacturing.

To get to 100 percent renewable energy for its own facilities, the company worked to set an example for others to follow. Apple also announced today that 23 of its suppliers are now committed to operating on 100 percent renewable energy, including nine new suppliers. Altogether, clean energy from supplier projects helped avoid over 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted in 2017  the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road. In addition, over 85 suppliers have registered for Apples Clean Energy Portal, an online platform that Apple developed to help suppliers identify commercially viable renewable energy solutions in regions around the world.

New supplier commitments include:

 Arkema, a designer of high-performance bio-based polymers, which manufactures for Apple at its facilities in France, the United States and China.

 DSM Engineering Plastics, which manufactures polymers and compounds in the Netherlands, Taiwan and China that are used in many Apple products, including connectors and cables.

 ECCO Leather, the first soft goods supplier to commit to 100 percent clean energy for its Apple production. The leather that ECCO produces for Apple is of European origin, with tanning and cutting occurring at facilities in the Netherlands and China.

 Finisar, a US industry-leading producer of optical communication components and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which power some of Apples most popular new features like Face ID, Portrait mode selfies and Animoji.

 Luxshare-ICT, a supplier of accessories for Apple products. Luxshare-ICTs production for Apple is predominantly located in Eastern China.

 Pegatron, which assembles a number of products, including iPhone, at its two factories in Shanghai and Kunshan, China.

 Quadrant, a supplier of magnets and magnetic components in a number of Apples products.

 Quanta Computer, one of the first Mac suppliers to commit to 100 percent renewable energy for Apple production.

 Taiyo Ink Mfg. Co., which produces solder masks for printed circuit boards in Japan.
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Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel, who resigned as Egypt's foreign minister in 1978 in protest against the Camp David peace accords with Israel, predicting accurately that they would isolate Egypt in the Arab world without resolving the Palestinian question, died on Nov. 22 in Cairo, the Foreign Ministry announced. He was 74.

No cause of death was given, but Egyptian diplomats said he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the last decade or so.

Under the Camp David accords, President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt secured the return of the Sinai Peninsula, which Egypt had lost to Israel in the 1967 war, after an exhausting two-week negotiation with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Jimmy Carter.

But this negotiation brought a widening gap between Mr. Kamel and Mr. Sadat, an old friend from his student days.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 3:30 am

Ozarks Technical Community College, in collaboration with local business and industry members, community partners, and regional workforce development agencies, will receive an $186,780 grant from the Missouri Registered Apprenticeship Grant Program. Funds will be used to expand and develop Registered Apprenticeship programs across southwest Missouri.

Through the grant, OTC will establish 12 new or expanded Registered Apprenticeship programs and serve 80 apprentices by June 2019. OTCs Registered Apprenticeship programs will focus on serving unemployed and underserved individuals as well as employees or students with a desire to improve their skills. For example, Abilities First Employment Services will receive a portion of the grant funds to provide training to individuals with disabilities. By the completion of the grant period, Abilities First will train 30 individuals as Registered Apprentices in materials handling.

Registered Apprenticeship programs combine structured learning with on-the-job training under the supervision of a trade professional. The training is tailored to meet the specific needs of the employer. Upon completion, apprentices receive a nationally-recognized credential that can be listed on a resume to showcase the skills they have earned. Apprentices also receive higher wages. Employers typically set wage increases every 6-12 months as certain milestones are met by the apprentice.

From an employer perspective, apprenticeships pay dividends for companies who use the program. Employers who utilize apprentices report higher productivity, higher retention rates and a substantial return on investment. OTCs current Registered Apprenticeship partners include Masters Plumbing, Positronic Industries Inc., Southern Missouri Containers, Tsay Professional Services, Inc., Tuthill Vacuum & Blower Systems and Springfield ReManufacturing Corp.

In January 2017, OTC received a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor ApprenticeshipUSA State Expansion Grant program. That grant, established in partnership with the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, allowed the college to hire a full-time apprenticeship specialist. That position, filled by Sara Coatney, will serve as the project manager for the new Registered Apprenticeships established through the grant.
As Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks co-founder, begins two days of testimony on Capitol Hill, where he will undoubtedly face withering criticism over his sites handling of user data, millions of people will spend the day the way they always do: scrolling through their News Feeds, sending each other messages and liking posts, oblivious to any privacy concerns.

The reality is that when it comes to privacy, the trade-off has already been made: We decided long ago to give away our personal information in exchange for free content and the ability to interact seamlessly with others.

With the latest disclosure about Facebooks data missteps  that the personal information of some 87 million users had been improperly harvested and shared with a British analytics firm  politicians can scream from the rooftops about privacy, and they should. But the public has proved over and over again that it doesnt care.

The evidence is all too clear: After just about every big privacy hack over the past decade, people quickly returned to the scene of the crime, using the same store or online site that had been compromised. Remember the massive breaches at Home Depot, Target and Yahoo? The number of consumers who never went back is minuscule.
When Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, faces questions before Congress this week about the abuse of its network, lawmakers will have an opportunity to press him on an important number that is under dispute.

After a hearing last year, Facebook informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that about 1.8 million people had followed Facebook pages associated with a Russian entity that was especially active around the presidential election of 2016. But an academic who specializes in social media data says Facebook appears to have significantly underestimated the pages reach. Facebook stands by its total.

Questions about the figure highlight the mounting skepticism around Facebooks disclosures. The companys faltering response to the Russian interference on its network has continued to draw criticism since the 2016 election. Then last month, Facebook found itself in the midst of a new firestorm, after reports that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, had misused the data of up to 87 million Facebook users, most of them in the United States.

Knowing more about the followings of the pages linked to the Russian entity, the Internet Research Agency, would help the public better understand the extent of Russias reach in the months surrounding the election. The Internet Research Agency, which has apparent ties to the Kremlin, proved successful in attracting followers to fake pages that were designed to look as if they had been set up by political groups in the United States. A person briefed on the Facebook data said fake accounts had not had a large role in driving up the follower counts of the fake pages.
Some were skeptical that China would follow through on its pledges of openness. People will say about the Boao speech: Show me. We heard this in Davos last year, Joerg Wuttke, former president of the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, said in referring to Mr. Xis 2017 speech at the World Economic Forum.

In a briefing, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said that the administration was encouraged by Mr. Xis words but that it wanted to see concrete actions from China. In the meantime, she said it would keep moving forward with its plans to impose tariffs.

At a time when the United States policies have threatened to upset the stability of the world order, Chinas growing confidence and its verbal support of global trade rules offer other countries a potentially appealing alternative to Mr. Trumps rhetoric.

Mr. Xi spoke just days after the United States and China exchanged tit-for-tat tariff threats that have ignited worries of a global trade war. Trump administration officials have accused China of forcing foreign companies doing business here to give up trade secrets as part of Beijings effort to retool the Chinese economy and create companies that can compete with American rivals.

On trade, China has tried to project a balanced tone. It retaliated quickly last week after the United States detailed proposed tariffs it wanted to levy on about $50 billion in Chinese-made goods, saying it would match Washingtons efforts dollar for dollar. At the same time, Chinese officials have said they want to avoid a trade war and negotiate.

On Tuesday, Mr. Xi appeared to have given Mr. Trump a concession by pledging to significantly lower tariffs on imported automobiles by the end of the year. Just hours before, Mr. Trump had taken to Twitter to complain about Chinas 25 percent tax on imported automobiles.
I like Mr. Arbesfelds debuting of SCIENCE FAIR, PSYCHED OUT and URBAN MYTH, although my brain really wanted it to be urban legend, which prevented me from thinking of MYTH until I solved the crossings.

Tricky Clues

5A: Some solvers might think this clue breaks the constructing rule of not having part of the answer in the clue, but it doesnt. Opinion pieces is a perfectly cromulent clue for OP-EDS because the OP does not stand for opinion. It stands for opposite the editorial page.

56A: Wordplay alert! Pin money was a phrase that originally had to do with the money housewives set aside to buy pins for sewing, but note that the word PIN is in all capital letters. Its not being shouted at you; its a hint that youre supposed to be thinking about a different kind of PIN, or a number that you might punch into an ATM.

11D: Hi, kids! Back in the 1960s (Google it), there was a band called the Rolling Stones, and they were deep, man. They released a song called Mothers Little Helper in 1966, in which they observed the trend of parental reliance on prescription medications to defer the psychological ramifications of aging, not that we, for one minute, are saying that this is a good thing to do. But there is that lyric What A DRAG it is getting old. We wouldnt know.
At least one of the 911 callers was later revealed to be someone working in a neighborhood laundromat, but it was irrelevant to the residents fear over who had alerted the police. The notion that the invaders, afraid of what they did not know, were surely responsible, exemplified the growing terror around gentrification circulating in Central Brooklyn, which is experiencing one of the most acute housing crises in the country.

Adem Bunkeddeko, a young son of Ugandan immigrants who is running for Congress in the district encompassing Crown Heights, on a platform almost entirely centered on the issue of affordable housing, had heard the speculation, often delivered with certainty, from people in the community. Like the corner of Utica and Montgomery, the site of his campaign office, several blocks away on Troy Avenue, is far from the section of Crown Heights that has so visibly changed.

East of Albany Avenue there are few clear markers of the high life but the apartments there were beginning to go to the young and affluent, he said. I asked him about a building visible from his headquarters and under renovation. I dont know, he said, but its not for anyone from around here. He remarked at how often he hears French when he walks around the district, the result of so many European tourists making a thing out of Airbnb rentals in Crown Heights.

Middle-aged couples from the Marais or recent graduates of Middlebury would have known nothing of Mr. Vassell, his eccentricities and patterns, the thinking goes. It has been this popular refrain that its not one of us who called, Candace Simpson, a young minister at the 171-year-old Concord Baptist Church of Christ, told me. Thats a lament. That is people saying, What do we do when a community isnt full of neighbors anymore?  She was speaking as someone who had spent her life in Brooklyn, in Crown Heights for a while and more recently in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

When she heard about the shooting, she thought about her first apartment in Bed-Stuy and a man on her block who had cognitive processing difficulties. Sometimes he would walk up and hug people and he was very strong, she said. The first time it happened to me I was startled. She came to see that this was just something he did, that he was friendly and no danger to anyone. She had been thinking about what had become of him, or would, at a time when the entire demographic of that block had changed so dramatically.
A state ethics panel investigating the activities of Mayor Bill de Blasios political nonprofit announced Monday that it had reached settlements with two prominent donors to the organization, known as the Campaign for One New York.

The settlements are the first to come out of a lengthy investigation by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which enforces state lobbying laws. The commission was looking into whether the nonprofit, now defunct, that Mr. de Blasio formed to back his prekindergarten initiative and other efforts lobbied the city in 2015 without registering to do so.

The investigation, which has stretched past two years, had been stalled, officials said, after it emerged that state and federal prosecutors were talking to many of the same organizations and donors as part of their inquiries into whether Mr. de Blasio solicited campaign contributions in exchange for official city actions. No charges were ever filed in those cases, and Mr. de Blasio has maintained he acted appropriately. He repeated that stance during in an interview Monday on NY1 in which he was asked about the settlements.

The panel reached its settlements in recent days with James F. Capalino, one of the top-earning lobbyists in New York City, and with New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, an animal rights organization known as Nyclass, whose 2013 campaign spending against Mr. de Blasios opponent, Christine C. Quinn, helped to propel his first successful mayoral run.
Ms. Ortega, 55, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing the siblings in a bathtub in the Krims Upper West Side apartment on Oct. 25, 2012. Their mother, Marina Krim, and her middle child, Nessie, arrived to find them lifeless and Ms. Ortega stabbing herself in the neck. Ms. Ortega has pleaded not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect. But the prosecution has said that though she was depressed, she was not psychotic. They argue her behavior on the day of the murders was that of someone who intended to kill the children because she was angry with their mother and overwhelmed by her workload.

The outcome of the trial seems to rest on the testimony of experts from the two sides, who have presented contrasting opinions about Ms. Ortegas mental state during the crime. Ms. Ortega must prove that she did not have the capacity to understand her actions that day or to know they were wrong. If a jury finds that she is not responsible for the murders, she would be committed to a secure psychiatric facility. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

The video presented to the jury on Monday undermines statements made by two psychiatrists for the defense who testified last week. They said Ms. Ortega was in a dissociative and psychotic state and had been overcome by voices, particularly Satans, in the weeks before the murders.

Image Yoselyn Ortega Credit... Pool photo by Jefferson Siegel

In his interview with Ms. Ortega on July 27, 2016, Mr. Khadivi asked: In September, until the time of the incident, you were not hearing any kind of voices telling you to harm yourself or experiencing the Devil taking over your body? Ms. Ortega, twisted her face, shook her head and said through a translator: No.
But pressure had been mounting on Ms. Olatoye, whom many considered to be a capable leader of the underfunded city authority, since it emerged last year that she had signed off on federal paperwork indicating that mandated lead paint inspections had been done when they had not. The agency receives the bulk of its funding from the federal government and has a backlog of needed repairs that could cost more than $20 billion to address.

The agency learned of the failure to conduct inspections, lapses that began during the Bloomberg administration, but Ms. Olatoye and top officials did not alert the public  or tenants  until much later, after they had done remediation in apartments. The false filings became public in a report from the citys Investigation Department  long after Ms. Olatoye first knew of the problem.

Last month, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development told the agency that it would no longer be able to draw federal funds without approval, a move that stemmed from the issue over the filings.

While her intentions were never in question, we are long overdue for a fresh start at Nycha, said the citys public advocate, Letitia James, who had called for Ms. Olatoyes resignation after revelations of false filings over lead paint inspections.

Her departure recalled other instances in which Mr. de Blasio had defended an embattled senior official before ultimately pushing the person out or seeing them abruptly leave his administration. His jails commissioner quit last year after it was revealed he had misused his city car for trips to his home in Maine. His commissioner for homeless services, Gilbert Taylor, left in 2015 as the city scrambled to cope with rising numbers of homeless people flooding into shelters.

And now Ms. Olatoye.

In his statement, the mayor said that Stanley Brezenoff would act as an interim chairman of the housing authority during the search for a permanent leader. Mr. Brezenoff recently served a similar interim role at NYC Health & Hospitals, the citys financially ailing public hospital system.

Ms. Olatoyes last day is April 30.

Im incredibly proud of the leadership team weve assembled and the strides weve made over the last 4 years to speed up repair times, reduce crime, launch a major development program and bring Nycha into the 21st century, Ms. Olatoye said in a statement.
The air-conditioning unit in the main hospital is 12 years past its expiration date, according to a statement from Mr. Schumers office. Among its other needs is an HVAC unit for four second-floor rooms that are intended to house patients with infectious diseases.

Several more buildings on campus need new HVAC units, including Building 5, which has had three failed HVAC units for over four years, and Building 7, in which the units are infested with rats and inoperable, the statement said.

As recently as February, Mr. Schumer said, the center shut five operating rooms, postponing 18 surgeries, because of HVAC problems. In 2016, the medical center closed its operating rooms for four months because particles from the HVAC system were blowing into operating rooms.

Can you imagine, if youre a veteran, or a family member of a veteran, you desperately need an operation, they say, We cant do it, not because the doctors arent there, not because you dont deserve it, but because the HVAC system is so deteriorated that gunk is blowing into the operating room, Mr. Schumer said.

Scott Guermonprez, the director of the Veterans Affairs center, previously served as director of the center in Albany. A Northport native who spent 30 years in the Air Force, he assumed the Long Island post in June after Philip C. Moschitta retired, amid an investigation into the centers shortcomings. A spokeswoman for the House Committee on Veterans Affairs confirmed on Monday that the congressional investigation was continuing.
The official said that there was no working smoke alarm in the apartment, such as the type of battery-powered alarms that homeowners typically install.

Mr. Brassner, 67, died from burns and smoke inhalation, the official said.

The head of the Real Estate Board of New York, an industry association, pushed back against the call to retrofit older buildings with sprinklers. The Citys Building Code has proven to be effective at significantly preventing fires in high rise multifamily housing or limiting their impact to a single residential unit in a building, John H. Banks, the boards president, said in an emailed statement. The statement listed obstacles to a blanket order to retrofit, such as cost and lack of adequate water supply in many buildings to operate a sprinkler system.

Image Trump Tower workers noticed smoke coming from Todd Brassners 50th floor apartment, but could not get in to help him, officials said. Credit... via Facebook

Mr. Brassner was an art dealer and a collector who had become something of a recluse in recent years, according to friends. He had a collection of about 100 vintage electric guitars, 150 ukuleles, and artwork by artists such as Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The official said that all the contents of the apartment were destroyed in the fire.

The fire was contained to Mr. Brassners apartment, but there was significant smoke and water damage in the building as a result of the fire and the efforts to fight it. The official said that smoke reached the buildings upper floors where Mr. Trumps triplex is, but did not cause damage.

Residents of the building said that no alarm went off to alert tenants of the emergency. Miles Fisher, an engineer who designs fire alarm systems, said that is standard protocol. He said that residents in fireproof high-rise apartment buildings like Trump Tower are instructed to remain in their apartments in case of fire elsewhere in the building and place wet towels at the base of their doors to keep smoke out.

Miriam Light, 67, a commercial and residential landlord who lives on the 39th floor of Trump Tower, said that she learned about the fire only when her father called from Florida while watching it on the news. She said that she left the building and returned later to find no damage to her apartment.
The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) has denounced the chemical attack carried by the Syrian regime forces against civilians in the city of Douma (East of Damascus), killing dozens of children, women and men.

The Rabat-based Islamic organization described the Syrian regimes assault as a war crime and a crime against humanity and called for protecting the Syrian people from the continuous atrocious crimes.

US President Donald Trump said there would be a big price to pay for what he said was a chemical attack in Douma. In April last year, the US fired cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase after a Sarin attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun killed more than 80 people.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis refused to rule out a military response to the latest incident.

Washington and Paris threatened a joint response, while UK Prime Minister Theresa May hit out at the Syrian governments Russian backers, saying they also needed to be held to account for the brutal actions of the Assad regime.

London condemned the barbaric chemical weapons attack in Syria, saying it is another example of the Assad regimes brutality.

But Russia has said there is no evidence of a chemical weapons attack in formerly rebel-held Douma.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons expressed grave concern about the alleged attack and opened an investigation.

UN Secretary-General called on all parties to cease fighting and restore the calm that had been in place and adhere fully to Security Council resolution 2401, adopted in February and which called for a ceasefire across Syria.

Any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation, stressed the UN Chief.

Since 11 March, some 25,000 people have reportedly left East Ghouta, seeking shelter in the rural Damascus villages of Dweir, Adra and Herjelleh.
A world grown numb to the slaughter of civilians in Syria has been roused in the last 48 hours by photographs on social media of lifeless men, women and children in the rebel-held town of Douma, many with white foam coming from their mouths and nostrils, victims of chemical weapons. Outraged Western nations blame President Bashar al-Assads regime and demand retaliation.

Russia and Iran, Mr. Assads callous enablers, have denied that he has once again used these horrific weapons on his own people. But Douma is surrounded by Syrian forces, whom experts have blamed for most of the 85 chemical attacks in the country over the past five years. Syria had a major chemical weapons program before pledging to surrender it after chemical attacks in 2013, a commitment it failed to fully honor.

President Trump took limited military action against Syria after a chemical weapons attack last year, largely ignored the issue after that and then last week surprised his military commanders by announcing plans to soon withdraw 2,000 troops in the fight against the Islamic State. Mr. Trump vowed on Sunday on Twitter that there would be a big price to pay for the latest killings, estimated at up to 70 people dead, according to aid groups.

But the president should know by now that tough talk without a coherent strategy or follow-through is dangerous.
With New York Citys public housing chairwoman, Shola Olatoye, on her way out the door after months of criticism, controversy and recrimination, the focus should return to the 400,000 people who call public housing home.

This winter, more than 323,000 of them went without heat or hot water, often for days at a time, when the housing authoritys ancient boilers failed. Thousands more residents are living amid broken elevators and mold. All of them are New Yorkers, and they deserve better.

Ms. Olatoyes departure may be satisfying to some. She had faced calls to resign since late last year, when the citys Department of Investigation revealed that she had formally certified to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that the authority had conducted lead paint inspections, when it hadnt done so for four years. Worse, Ms. Olatoye, along with Mayor Bill de Blasio and other senior city officials, failed for months to notify residents about the lapse in inspections. This makes Ms. Olatoyes claim that she had informally told HUD officials of the lapse in inspections rather pointless. A lawyer for one child, Kyan Dickerson, says Kyan was exposed to lead paint for nearly a year and a half after city officials knew of the increased risk.

But the departure of Ms. Olatoye will do nothing to address the deeper, more existential problems facing the troubled agency, the bitter fruit of decades of neglect by Washington and City Hall. The housing authority needs some $25 billion for infrastructure repairs. The United States attorneys office in Manhattan is also investigating health and safety issues at the agency. Under a settlement that is said to be imminent, according to a person familiar with the matter, the authority could agree to make upward of $1 billion in repairs. That money is likely to come from city taxpayers.
The result has been that the population actually signing up for coverage is both smaller and sicker than it would otherwise have been, forcing insurers to charge higher premiums.

But thats where the subsidies come in.

Under the A.C.A., the poorest Americans are covered by Medicaid, so private premiums dont matter. Meanwhile, many of those with higher incomes  up to 400 percent of the poverty line, or more than $95,000 for a family of four  are eligible for subsidies. Thats 59 percent of the population, but because many of those with higher incomes get insurance through their employers, its 83 percent of those signing up on the exchanges. And heres the thing: Those subsidies arent fixed. Instead, the formula sets the subsidy high enough to put a limit on how high premium payments can go as a percentage of income.

What this means is that of the 27 million Americans who have either gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion or purchased insurance on the exchanges, only about two million are exposed to those Trump-engineered premium hikes. Thats still a lot of people, but its not enough to get a death spiral going. In fact, for complicated reasons (silver-loading  dont ask), after-subsidy premiums have actually gone down for many people.

And that leaves the G.O.P. very, very frustrated.

From the beginning, Republicans hated Obamacare not because they expected it to fail, but because they feared that it would succeed, and thereby demonstrate that government actually can do things to make peoples lives better. And their nightmare is gradually coming true: Although it took a long time, the Affordable Care Act is finally becoming popular, and the publics concern that the G.O.P. will kill it is becoming an important political liability.

What this says to me is that if Republicans manage to hold on to Congress, they will make another all-out push to destroy the act  because theyll know that its probably their last chance. Indeed, if they dont kill Obamacare soon, the next step will probably be an enhanced program that lets Americans of all ages buy into Medicare.

So voters are right to believe that health care is very much an issue in the midterm elections. It may not be the most important thing at stake  theres a good case to be made that the survival of American democracy is on the line. But its a very big deal.
The W.F.P. is entirely pragmatic about the limitations of a third party in a two-party system. It runs primary challenges against centrist Democrats in places where more progressive candidates look viable, particularly in down-ballot races. But its careful not to act as a spoiler in general election fights, where it often works alongside Democrats. Cantor describes the W.F.P. as an independent faction of the Democratic Party; its model is more akin to the Tea Party than the Green Party.

I want to be part of a left, but a left that has a very sober assessment of where we are today, so we can build this visionary future, Mitchell said.

The W.F.P.s endorsement is particularly sought after in New York, where the party was born and where it helped make Bill de Blasio mayor of New York City. Cynthia Nixon hopes to get its nod in her primary against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and I suspect she will. Though Cuomo won the W.F.P. endorsement in 2014, many party activists believe he backtracked on his promises and feel betrayed. If the W.F.P. does throw its weight behind Nixon, it will be one of its highest profile challenges to an establishment Democrat and will elevate Nixons campaign considerably. They know how to knock on doors and get out the vote, and they dont give up, Nixon told me via email.

Since 2010, the W.F.P. has expanded nationally and now has chapters or organizing committees in 19 states. In 2017, it endorsed more than 1,000 candidates for state and local office and helped elect people like Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney who is fighting mass incarceration, and Chokwe Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Miss., who aims to make his city the most radical city on the planet. Ryan Frankenberry, who founded the W.F.P.s West Virginia affiliate last year, helped coordinate that states victorious teachers strike.

Building a party that can simultaneously encompass feminist actresses in Manhattan, black liberationists and white Appalachian strikers is no small thing. All over the world, right-wing populism is ascendant, and so far we have little evidence that multiracial left-wing populism can successfully challenge it. But one thing that Trumps election taught us is that just because something has never happened doesnt mean it cant. Can we merge these ideals with serious electoral heft? Mitchell asked. People dreaming of a country thats egalitarian, cosmopolitan and humane have no choice but to try.
Prosecutors will not file criminal charges against the director and screenwriter James Toback in five cases in which he has been accused of sexual abuse because their statutes of limitations have expired, the Los Angeles County district attorneys office said on Monday.

Mr. Toback, 73, was accused by five women of crimes ranging from misdemeanor indecent exposure to felony sexual battery, according to documents provided to The New York Times by a spokesman for the district attorneys office. The crimes were alleged to have occurred between 1978 and 2008.

According to the documents, Mr. Toback rubbed his groin, while clothed, on womens legs until he ejaculated; pushed one woman against a wall and asked her for sex; instructed one woman to masturbate; and touched the chest and buttocks of one woman and tried to kiss her.

Still, prosecutors said, the statute of limitations had expired in each case. They noted that the statute of limitations for the alleged sexual battery violations  two of which were said to have occurred in 2008  was one year. In one of the cases, they said the woman who had alleged abuse did not appear for a scheduled interview and could not be reached by an investigator.
For as much as Trump is mocked and ridiculed, he has played a forcing function in this discussion, Mr. Bannon said. Many of the elites, and many of the institutions, have become more much hawkish about China. There are very few cheerleaders anymore.

It is Trump and his collection of nationalists who have brought this to the forefront, he added.

Mr. Bannon was the standard-bearer for the nationalists during the 2016 campaign and as the presidents chief strategist before he was ejected from the White House last summer. Though he initially stayed in Mr. Trumps good graces  talking to him regularly  the president turned sharply against him after the publication of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolffs account of the White House, in which Mr. Bannon is quoted disparaging the president, his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

When he was fired, the president said in January, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.

In exile, Mr. Bannon has sought to restyle himself as a kingmaker in Republican politics, backing nationalist candidates in congressional races around the country. But he was dealt a stinging setback in Alabama, after his scandal-scarred protege, Roy S. Moore, was defeated in a special election for the Senate by the Democrat, Doug Jones.

While Mr. Bannon and Mr. Trump have yet to repair their rift, the presidents moves against China represent a policy victory for his excommunicated aide. During his final weeks in the White House, Mr. Bannon kept a whiteboard in his office, on which he had scrawled a calendar for trade actions against China, the European Union and others.

The rollout was delayed for a few months after other advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Gary D. Cohn, the director of the national economic council, persuaded Mr. Trump that he should not impose tariffs at the same time he was pushing a tax-cut bill, because it would antagonize Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Later, Mr. Cohn and Mr. Mnuchin warned the president that protectionist moves would pummel the stock market, which Mr. Trump views as a barometer of his success. That was true last week, when the market plunged over fears of a trade war with China. But Mr. Trumps more conciliatory tone over the weekend fueled a modest rebound on Monday.

Mr. Bannon blamed the news media and Wall Street for fanning fears of a trade war, even as he conceded that the tariffs would drive up the price of some consumer goods in the United States and that Chinas retaliation against soybean imports could hurt American farmers.
Last week, Mr. Trump announced that he would be pulling American forces out of Syria almost immediately, despite a previous declaration that troops would be there indefinitely. Advisers persuaded the president to delay the withdrawal for a few months. By Monday, he was hinting at a sudden escalation of force after another suspected chemical attack in Syria by its leader, President Bashar al-Assad.

We are meeting with our military and everybody else, and well be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours, Mr. Trump said on Monday morning. A chemical attack, he said, cant be allowed to happen.

Confusion over the Trump administrations regional policy goals has led a caravan of Middle Eastern leaders to come to Washington to lobby directly for their interests. Three weeks ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was hosted at the White House and then toured the United States; he headed home this past weekend, after a reunion with Presidents George Bush and George W. Bush.

Now, Mr. Al-Thani will get his moment.

The visit of His Highness will showcase the strength and honesty that exists between the U.S. and Qatar, said Jassim Al-Thani, a spokesman for Qatars embassy in Washington.

The Trump administration had hoped to bring all of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council together for a summit meeting in Washington this month. But Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia and leaders of the United Arab Emirates said they would decline such an invitation were it issued, since such a meeting would have required an end to their Qatar embargo, senior administration officials said.

Jon B. Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the growing disarray in the Middle East was in some ways reflected and grows out of a chaotic White House.

How do you pursue a coordinated interagency U.S. government strategy when the U.S. government isnt coordinating? Mr. Alterman asked, citing the absence of ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar and dozens of other countries along with vacancies in Washington.
But its wildly unparalleled for Justice Department officials to do so in response to presidential tweets that criticize them, said Ronald Weich, the dean of the University of Baltimores law school and the former assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department.

While Mr. Sessionss quick responses to the presidents wishes have yet to lessen the pressures on either him or the Justice Department, as demonstrated by Mr. Trumps outburst on Monday, some critics say they threaten to undermine the department.

Its unseemly to have the president publicly direct the Justice Department, especially when he tries to control investigations, said Paul Pelletier, a former chief of the Justice Departments fraud section who is now a Democratic candidate for Congress in Virginia. Its an affront to the historic independence of the department that weve guarded since the Nixon administration. Without it, all Justice Department investigations will be subject to attack on a political basis.

Publicly, Mr. Sessions stands by the president, never failing to mention Mr. Trump in speeches and news releases. In announcing the bump stock ban, he thanked the president for his courageous leadership. In remarks to police chiefs in Nashville, he emphasized that both he and the president stand by law enforcement. In his statement on immigration reform, he praised the presidents plans.

Privately, Mr. Sessions is aware that he has supporters at the Capitol and among former staff members, according to one person who has talked to the attorney general. While his friends worry that he could be fired, two of them say that the presidents attacks have made him more determined to remain on the job.

Although Mr. Sessions has called the president the countrys chief law enforcement officer, a title that is generally conferred on the attorney general, Mr. Trump still believes Mr. Sessions is not loyal.

Mr. Trump seemed to express that sense of betrayal again on Monday, when he said the attorney general made a terrible mistake when he recused himself, showing that he is still stung by a decision made more than a year ago, and despite all of the work that Mr. Sessions has done to support him policywise.

When he did this and when he recused himself, Mr. Trump said, We would have used a  put a different attorney general in. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country.
The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise of, you know, this nonsense thats going on. It dropped a lot. It was up  way up  and then it dropped quite a bit at the end, a lot. But that we have to go through that, weve had that hanging over us now from the very, very beginning and yet the other side, they dont even bother looking. And the other side is where there are crimes, and those crimes are obvious: Lies under oath, all over the place, emails that are knocked out, that are acid-washed and deleted, nobodys ever seen  33,000 emails are deleted after getting a subpoena for Congress, and nobody bothers looking at that.

Analysis

After repeatedly hailing stock market increases during his first year in office, Mr. Trump has all but ignored the markets steep declines in the wake of his protectionist trade policies. So it was ironic that the president would blame what he called this nonsense for a drop in the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average actually ended the day up slightly after at one point rising nearly 400 points.

TRUMP: And many, many other things, so I just think its a disgrace that a thing like this can happen.

With all of that being said, we are here to discuss Syria tonight. Were the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world. These gentlemen and ladies are incredible people. Incredible talent, and were making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met, and it will be met forcefully. And when, I will not say because I dont like talking about timing, but we are developing the greatest force that weve ever had.

We had $700 billion just approved, which was the reason I went along with that budget, because we had to fix our military. General Mattis would tell you that above anybody, we had to fix our military and right now were in a big process of doing that, $700 million and then $716 billion next year. So were going to make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter and youll be hearing the decision.

But we cant let atrocities like we all witnessed, and you can see that and its horrible. We cant let that happen. In our world, we cant let that happen. Especially when were able to, because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country, were able to stop it.

I want to thank Ambassador John Bolton for joining us. I think hes going to be a fantastic representative of our team. Hes highly respected by everybody in this room and, John, I want to thank you very much, this is going to be a lot of work. Interesting day, he picked today as his first day. So, generals, I think he picked the right day. But certainly youre going to find it very exciting but you are going to do a fantastic job and I appreciate you joining us.

Analysis

The president shifted briefly to Syria, taking note of John R. Boltons first day as national security adviser. He hinted that the United States would respond militarily to the chemical attacks in that country, saying that we cant let atrocities like we all witnessed happen. He did not indicate whether Mr. Bolton  a noted national security hawk  had argued for a strike.

JOHN R. BOLTON: Thank you. Its an honor to be here.

TRUMP: Thank you all very much.

REPORTER: Any concerns about what the F.B.I. might find, Mr. President?
Mr. Mueller also ordered the Trump Organization to turn over documents, emails and other communications about several Russians, including some whose names have not been publicly tied to Mr. Trump, according to the three people, who would not be named discussing the ongoing investigation. The identities of the Russians were unclear.

The payment from Mr. Pinchuk is curious because it comes during a campaign and is from a foreigner and looks like an effort to buy influence, said Marcus S. Owens, a former head of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees tax-exempt organizations. He called the donation an unusual amount of money for such a short speech.

Mr. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the president, did not return several messages seeking comment, nor did a lawyer for the Trump Organization. When The New York Times revealed the existence of the subpoena in March, Mr. Trumps associates played it down as a routine court order to ensure the Trump Organization had handed over all the documents Mr. Mueller had demanded.

Mr. Trump assailed the special counsel investigation on Monday as a witch hunt, reaching for a favored insult in response to the seizure of Mr. Cohens records. He complained that he had cooperated with the inquiry and viewed the warrant for the raid, obtained by federal prosecutors in Manhattan after a referral from Mr. Mueller, as an extreme step.

Its a disgraceful situation, he told reporters at the White House. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time. Ive wanted to keep it down. Ive given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel.
The meeting, held Monday in Laayoune, southern Morocco, by political parties and all components of Moroccan society, sends a strong message to the international community and enemies of Moroccos territorial integrity, said Head of Government, Saad Eddine El Othmani.

This meeting shows the constant mobilization of the Moroccan people and its unity to defend the countrys sovereignty, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, he added.

The Algeria-backed Polisario separatist front recently made repeated incursions in the buffer zone, east of Moroccos security berm. Under the UN-brokered agreements of 1991, Morocco had handed this demilitarized area to the MINURSO, entrusted with monitoring the ceasefire.

Lately, the separatist front revealed plans to transfer some of its military and civilian structures to the demilitarized zones and started mounting tents and deploying military equipment including in Tifariti, Bir Lahlou and Mahbes, in the buffer zone.

The Laayoune gathering is the best response to the provocations and maneuvers of the Polisario front in the buffer zone, said El Othmani, renewing Moroccos total rejection of the separatists desperate attempts to gain a foothold in that area.

Morocco rejects the policy of fait accompli and is ready to counter any eventuality with firmness, said El Othmani who attended the Laayoune meeting as leader of the ruling PJD. The North African Kingdom rejects any attempt to alter the status quo in the buffer strip and will respond with firmness to the separatists provocative acts he said.

During the meeting in Laayoune, leaders of political parties, MPs, elected officials, Chioukhs, dignitaries and Sahrawi activists condemned the Polisarios hostile acts and expressed their unity to foil all plots hatched against the countrys sovereignty.

Participants of the Laayoune meeting signed a joint signed statement, dubbed Laayoune Declaration, urging the United Nations to act against the Polisarios provocative actions that are threatening security and stability in the region. They called on MINURSO and the international community to take firm, resolute and deterrent measures to force the secessionists armed militia to withdraw from the buffer zone.

They also reaffirmed Moroccos attachment to the peaceful, political and lasting solution agreed upon under the auspices of the United Nations, making it clear that the UN is the sole framework to seek a solution that guarantees the protection of Moroccos rights and the preservation of peace in the region.

The Laayoune Declaration said the only option to end this artificial conflict lies in the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty described by the international community as serious and credible.

It urged the international community to act to put an end to the suffering of the sequestered people in the Tindouf camps and to exert pressure on Algeria and the Polisario to enable UNHCR to conduct a census according to international standards.

Last week, King Mohammed VI addressed a written message to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, renewing Moroccos rejection of the incursions of the Polisario in the Sahara buffer zone, describing these incursions as provocative and unacceptable.

The King made it clear that such incursions by the Polisario represent a threat to the ceasefire agreement and violate international law and UN resolutions in addition to undermining the political process.

King Mohammed VI also had a phone talk with the UN Chief and drew his attention to Algerias responsibility in perpetuating the Sahara conflict, which has dragged on for over four decades.

Algeria has a big responsibility as it funds, hosts, arms and backs the Polisario diplomatically, the sovereign had recalled.

In his annual report on the Sahara that he submitted last Wednesday (April 4) to the Security Council, the UN chief also hinted to the involvement of Algeria in the regional conflict through its funding, hosting and arming the Polisario separatist group.

He has thus urged Algeria to make important contributions to the political process and to step up its commitment to the negotiation process.

The UN chief said that in the era of global interdependence, the socio-economic, humanitarian and security consequences of this protracted conflict weigh heavily on regional and sub-regional integration.
Alicia Graf Mack, an educator and former performer with Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will become the director of the dance division at Juilliard, the school announced on Tuesday.

She will begin in July, when Damian Woetzel, the former New York City Ballet principal, takes over as Juilliards president.

Juilliard trains students to be dancers of the moment, Mr. Woetzel said in an interview, and Alicia has embodied that in her own work as a dancer and as a teacher.

Ms. Graf Mack, 39, has straddled the worlds of ballet and modern dance throughout her career. Under Arthur Mitchell at Dance Theater of Harlem, she performed the role of the Siren in George Balanchines Prodigal Son; later, she took on Aileys diverse repertory under Judith Jamison. But she has also made guest appearances with other companies, and danced for pop stars like Beyonce, John Legend and Alicia Keys.
For the first time in 60 years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has reached beyond its own doors for a new leader, choosing a Vienna-born museum director who is conversant in the old masters, modern art and Minecraft to steer the venerable institution through the digital age.

The Met announced on Tuesday that Max Hollein, 48, currently the director and chief executive of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and a veteran of Germanys oldest art foundation, will become its 10th director this summer. He will take command of the Met at a time when museums are under increasing pressure to remain relevant, raise funds and attract new audiences.

The Met is one of its kind, Mr. Hollein said in an interview at the museum. The museum has the opportunity to be not just an art destination, Mr. Hollein added, but a major provider of understanding and different narratives to a global audience.

Unlike his recent predecessors Philippe de Montebello, who served for 31 years, and Thomas P. Campbell, who served for eight, Mr. Hollein did not ascend from the Mets curatorial ranks. He was reportedly a runner-up when Mr. Campbell was chosen in 2008.
NORRISTOWN, Pa.  Bill Cosbys lawyers began a combative defense of the entertainer at his retrial on sexual assault charges here Tuesday, portraying Mr. Cosby as the lonely victim of a desperate con artist with financial problems who was steadily working her famous mark for a big payday.

Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., one of Mr. Cosbys lawyers, shredded any sense that the defense would be cowed by the #MeToo moment. He presented Mr. Cosbys accuser, Andrea Constand, in his opening remarks to the jury as a willful, greedy woman who ran a pyramid scheme and took advantage of a man who had lost a son.

You are going to be asking yourself during this trial, What does she want from Bill Cosby? And you already know the answer: Money, money and lots more money, he said.

She has a history of financial problems until she hits the jackpot with Bill Cosby, he added.

Ms. Constand, 44, will present her very different version of events when she takes the stand in coming days.
T. J. Miller, the comedian and former star of the HBO series Silicon Valley, was arrested Monday night at La Guardia Airport and charged by federal law enforcement authorities with calling in a false bomb threat from an Amtrak train, the United States attorneys office in Connecticut said Tuesday.

The charge, which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence, stems from March 18, when the authorities said Mr. Miller alerted a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey that a female passenger was hiding a bomb in her bag on Amtrak Train 2256, which he said he was on, and which was headed north from Washington. He described the female passenger as having brown hair and a scarf.

Law enforcement alerted Amtrak, disrupting service, but by the time the train was stopped and searched, it was already in Westport, Conn. Passengers were ordered to evacuate while bomb squads searched the train and found no evidence of any explosive materials.

It turned out that Mr. Miller had been on a different train  Amtrak Train 2258  which pulled into Westport soon after. According to the complaint, when investigators again contacted Mr. Miller, who was then in New York, he described the woman as having red hair, rather than brown, and said she had a black carry-on suitcase with a handle. Mr. Miller said she seemed eager to get off the train while leaving her bag aboard.
The endearing ensemble comedy New Girl returns for its final season. And a new documentary examines the many sides of the pro wrestler Andre the Giant.

Whats on TV

NEW GIRL 9:30 p.m. on Fox. When the creator of this sitcom, Elizabeth Meriwether, was told that Season 6 may be the shows last, she wrote a finale that could serve as a definitive ending or a precursor to one more run. And she wrapped that season up on a high note. (Major spoiler alert!) Winston (Lamorne Morris) and Aly (Nasim Pedrad) became engaged; Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Cece (Hannah Simone) discovered theyre expecting; and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick (Jake Johnson) finally admitted their feelings for each other. The seventh and final season picks up three years later, and the group has sure grown up: Jess and Nick have just completed a European book tour; Cece and a mustachioed Schmidt are raising their daughter; and the now-married Winston and Aly have a child on the way.

SECRETS OF THE DEAD: HANNIBAL IN THE ALPS (2018) 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). For years, historians have scratched their heads over which route the Carthaginian general Hannibal took across the Alps to invade Rome during the Second Punic War. With newfound evidence, a team of experts proves that Hannibal led his army of 25,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 37 elephants through the Col de la Traversette, the highest and most treacherous of the four possible paths.
Dear Match Book,

The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion, was a real hit with my book group. Ever since we read it I have been searching for something similar  for books that will leave us giggling on the sofa (unfortunately, I found the sequel disappointing). Sure, theres the dry wit of P. G. Wodehouses Jeeves stories, and Nancy Mitfords quirky family novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Gerald Durrells autobiographical My Family and Other Animals is also hilarious, but are there any funny novels that will appeal to a broader audience?

JANE ROSSI

SALINE, MICH.

Dear Jane,

Although I understand the type of warmly comic novel youre looking for, dont mistake P. G. Wodehouse as fringe: The master humorist edges out The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, and Stoner, by John Williams, to claim the top spot on the list of favorites sent to the Match Book inbox.

Note Books

By my informal tabulation, another fan favorite, Maria Semples Whered You Go, Bernadette, ranks as the book most frequently introduced into conversations Ive had at parties and at school pickups since the farcical, (mostly) epistolary novel was published in 2012. It could be Semples sharp takedown of precious parenting in a Seattle middle school that inspires the same kind of devotion readers have for The Rosie Project. But it is the wisdom and resolve displayed by the precocious 15-year-old Bee Branch throughout her search for her mysteriously missing mother  a brilliant, agoraphobic architect  that drives the books suspense.

Add another deliciously absurd novel-in-correspondence, Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher (the books sequel, The Shakespeare Requirement, is due out this summer), to your list. The zestful, bitter voice of the books protagonist, Jason T. Fitger, a professor of creative writing at Payne University and frustrated novelist, begs to be read aloud. The narrative is told entirely through Fitgers letters of recommendation, in which he overshares his grievances over academic politics and offers cautious praise for his students (he likens the intellectual style of one talented young woman to a highly articulate snake), while also revealing his fundamental decency.
1. Among the things that the F.B.I. was looking for when it raided the office of President Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, above, on Monday: records of payments to two women who say they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

Several people briefed on the investigation told us the agents were also seeking information related to the publisher of The National Enquirers role in silencing one of the women, the former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Were following the many strands of this story, including the dangers to the president as investigators sift through his lawyers communications, Mr. Trumps reported rage and his aides concerns that he will fire justice officials.
Most people know that Facebook has information about them. We submit things like our names, our hometowns, our ages, our birthdays and our interests, and we assume that Facebook is collecting that data. But Facebook has much more data on most people than they realize. Facebook can take all the data that you submit and combine it with data from other users and outside information to construct a profile of you. Facebook uses nearly 100 different data points to classify your interests and activities. This would include basic stuff like your age and gender, but also more complicated information like whether you own a motorcycle or you recently went on vacation or whether youre a gadget geek. Researchers have found that by using signals such as your likes and interactions, Facebook could tell if you were in a relationship or going through a breakup. Facebook doesnt just know who you are. It also knows where you are. If you have location tracking turned on, Facebook collects an enormous amount of location data about where youre going, where you came from, where you live, where you work, what restaurants and businesses you tend to go to. And they use this information to target ads at you. And location data could reveal other people who live in your house, even if youre not connected to them on Facebook. Now obviously, Facebook knows what its users buy when they click on ads from Facebook. But what most people dont realize is that they have ways of tracking your offline purchases as well. For many years, Facebook has had partnerships with data brokers that collected information about peoples purchases. So for example, if you buy a burrito with your credit card, Facebook could know about that transaction, match it with a credit card that youve added to Facebook or Facebook Messenger, and start showing you ads for indigestion medicine. One of the most controversial parts of Facebook data collection is a feature called People You May Know. And this is where Facebook uses many different signals of what it knows about you to determine who else you might be connected to. And this is not always things that you share with Facebook. It might be contacts in your phone. It might be people who have been in the same room as you. Facebook was using location data to recommend friends. So it might have been recommending people who share a doctor with you or work in the same building. Facebook can also be used to compile data about your political activity like protests or marches you go to. In one case in 2016, the A.C.L.U. found that 500 police organizations had signed up for a service called Geofeedia, which scraped data from social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to help officers look for users who might be in a specific location or attending a specific protest. For example, Geofeedia claimed it helped the Baltimore Police Department monitor and respond to the protests after the death of Freddie Gray. Facebook doesnt just know who you are, where you are and what you buy. It also can be used to figure out what kinds of things you might do in the future. To predict life outcomes, like whether you will be addicted to substances, whether you will switch political parties, whether youre physically healthy or physically unhealthy. These are all part of the information that advertisers love to know because it helps them better target users.
 This is about humanity, and it cant be allowed to happen.

President Trump said Monday that he would decide in the next 24 to 48 hours whether to retaliate militarily for the apparent chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria over the weekend  and seemed to imply that he could take action against Syrias patrons, Russia and Iran. Russias stock markets and the ruble slumped sharply.

Fighters from Iran were among the 14 killed in an airstrike on a Syrian military base that Russia and Syria attributed to Israel.

In the U.S., military officers and national security advisers, including John Bolton, above, second from right, on his first day in the administration, met to discuss options.
Bank of America will stop lending money to gun manufacturers that make military-inspired firearms for civilian use, such as the AR-15-style rifles that have been used in multiple mass shootings, a company executive said Tuesday.

The policy is the latest example of Wall Street wading into the divisive gun control debate after Citigroups announcement last month that it would require business customers to restrict certain types of firearms sales.

We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings, Anne M. Finucane, vice chairwoman at the Bank of America, said on Bloomberg TV.

The bank works with just a handful of manufacturers, with whom it has had intense conversations over the last few months, Ms. Finucane said. Their reactions to the new policy have been mixed, she said.
Syria, Russia, and Iran have blamed Israel for conducting air strikes on a Syrian air base in an act that reportedly killed 14 people including 4 Iranians and operatives of Lebanon-based Shia movement Hezbollah.

Syria backtracked Monday after it accused the US of act of aggression on its central Syria T-4 air. The US administration denied any involvement in the predawn air strikes, eight of them in total launched from Lebanon. Washington according to US officials was informed in advance.

Israel according to Russia launched air strikes shortly before 4am using F-15 fighter jets to hit the base. The Jewish state believes Iran uses the installation as drone producing factory. Five of the missiles were intercepted by Syrian forces, Moscow noted.

Fourteen people including 4 Iranians were reported dead. Teheran in a statement condemned the air strikes arguing that the operation amounts to flagrant aggression.

Moscow was up in arms over the strikes, protesting it was not informed beforehand and they could have killed Russian military experts. There were however no Russian military advisers at the base during airstrikes.

Israel conducted similar operation on the base early February after it accused Iran of piloting a drone in Israels air space. It downed the drone but Syrian defense forces hit F-15 which was used for the military assault.

Both Russia and Iran in addition to Hezbollah are backing President Bashar al Assad in his confrontation with armed opposition and militants. Russia helped turn the tide in 2015 after it entered the conflict on the side of the Syrian regime.

The air strikes followed President Trumps threats for big price to pay in the wake of Saturday alleged use by the Assad regime of gas bomb against the oppositions last foothold in Homs, Damascus suburb. At least 100 people among children and women had been reported dead.
CP Industries just got an expensive lesson in the unintended consequences of protectionism.

Based in McKeesport, Pa., the company makes seamless vessels to store gases at high pressure  steel cylinders of up to six tons that it sells to the likes of the Navy, NASA and T. Boone Pickenss Clean Energy. It has received the first bill from the 25 percent tariff that President Trump placed on steel from China and a few other countries: $178,703.09 assessed on a steel-pipe shipment scheduled to arrive at the Port of Philadelphia on Thursday.

Thats equivalent to about two weeks payroll. Over all, tariffs on steel pipe that the company has ordered from China  some already on its way across the Pacific  will add more than half a million dollars to raw-material costs over six months alone.

How long can we last? mused Michael Larsen, the companys chief executive. I dont know. We could go down relatively fast.
FRANKFURT  Volkswagen is set to oust its chief executive, Matthias Muller, as it grapples with a diesel emissions scandal that has cost it billions of dollars, led to the imprisonment of two executives, and scarred the German carmakers reputation.

Herbert Diess, who is in charge of the companys flagship Volkswagen brand, was likely to succeed Mr. Muller, according to two people with knowledge of the internal discussions. The company said earlier on Tuesday that it was considering a leadership change, and a final decision was expected by the end of the week.

While there was no obvious trigger for Mr. Mullers departure at this moment, his efforts to lead the company beyond the 2015 emissions cheating scandal have stalled.

The repercussions have continued to multiply, tainting not only Volkswagen but also its rivals BMW and Daimler just as they grapple with an industrywide shift toward electric and self-driving vehicles. Political leaders are pressing the German carmakers to compensate diesel owners who bought cars that turned out to be dirtier than advertised, which could add to the already astronomical cost of the scandal.
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WASHINGTON  An internal assessment of threats aimed at Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, undercuts claims made by Mr. Pruitts security team to justify millions of dollars in security expenditures, according to an internal document obtained by a Senate Democrat.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote in a letter on Tuesday to John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, that the E.P.A.s Homeland Security Intelligence Team reviewed an earlier memo in February and found no specific credible threats to the administrator.

The earlier memo, from October, was created by Mr. Pruitts protective security detail, led by Pasquale Perrotta, who is known as Nino. It was used to justify much of Mr. Pruitts large security detail and first-class travel.
Manhattan is an island. It sits at the northern end of New York Harbor. The bartender Brian Miller, who with Major Food Group is poised to open a sprawling tiki bar  in Midtown West, just a block from a bus depot with port in its name  wants you to remember that.

I want to bring the Polynesian islands to the island of Manhattan, Mr. Miller said. Just because we live in an urban jungle doesnt mean we cant celebrate that we live on an island.

The Polynesian, which will open the week of April 16 on the third floor of the Pod Hotel Times Square on West 42nd Street, is New Yorks latest attempt to embrace the tiki-bar revival. Past bars, most of them short-lived, have been small, even cramped affairs. The Polynesian will not be like that: Like most undertakings by Major Food Group, which owns Carbone and Dirty French, it is a tad over the top.
To eat out in New York is to drown in choices. Which neighborhood? Which cuisine? Updated or traditional? Speedy or stately? Loud or just moderately loud? Menus are getting busier, surrounding the usual appetizers and main courses with snacks and raw bar items and large-format platters.

Sometimes you will have a choice of desserts, but not always, and, it seems to me, the choices are fewer than you had a few years ago. More and more new restaurants offer just one or two desserts. And when you go out as often as I do, you start to notice that the one dessert you can count on seeing almost everywhere is an ice cream sundae. In many places, its the only dessert.

Some of these sundaes are obvious and unabashed nostalgia trips. These are the ones whose ice cream is piled up in a glass pedestal cup and then capped with whipped cream and the obligatory cherry on top. In this category we have the sundaes at 4 Charles Prime Rib in Greenwich Village and the Office NYC just off Columbus Circle, both elaborate do-it-yourself jobs to which you can add candy in more varieties than the most ambitious trick-or-treater has ever hauled home.

Other restaurant sundaes are more restrained. Evoking childhood without the dirty clothes and runny noses, they dispense with certain stereotypical elements. One of the most stylish examples is the frozen yogurt at the Pool, a formal restaurant in the former Four Seasons space. The pastry chef, Stephanie Prida, stacks three egg-shaped scoops not in a sundae cup but one on top of another, like an abstract sculpture. The sauces and toppings  whey caramel, rhubarb poached with hibiscus, grainola  come in little white dishes on the side. Is there whipped cream? A cherry on top? Do the servers Tom Ford suits have elastic waistbands and clip-on polyester neckties?
How do we know that Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook and man currently under scrutiny, really does feel contrite and humbled by his companys failure to protect users personal data, as he said during his testimony before Congress on Tuesday?

Well, he donned, if not a penitents robes, then what seems like his equivalent: a suit and tie.

It began on Monday, when Mr. Zuckerberg made the rounds of congressional leaders in a dark suit, white shirt and ink blue tie. On Tuesday, when he took his seat on the committee room floor, the suit was navy, and the tie was Facebook blue. It was somber. It was on brand.

And for someone who has made a professional and personal signature out of the plain gray tee and jeans  who has posted pictures of the row of gray T-shirts and hoodies hanging in his closet on his Facebook page; whose success has made those gray tees and hoodies into shorthand for a new generation of disrupters, as aspirational an outfit as a Savile Row suit once was  it was as much a visual statement of renunciation and respect as any verbal apology.

Cosmetic, perhaps. Superficial, sure. Presumably once he is back on the West Coast hell go right back to hoodies and tees. But it was strategic and optically effective nonetheless.
Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times.

When Rukmini Callimachi, a foreign correspondent for The Times, discovered yellow, twine-cinched folders full of internal Islamic State documents in a small village southeast of Mosul, Iraq, in late 2016, she was on the cusp of a story that would reveal the structure and the characters of a terrorist organization that defied understanding.

Over the next 15 months, and during five trips to Iraq to unearth more than 15,000 documents, Ms. Callimachi worked to show how ISIS governed: not just brutally, but also bureaucratically. The result would combine investigative storytelling and first-person narrative, in which the reporters experience  her document digs, her dead ends, the patterns she learned to follow  become an inextricable part of a story about the Islamic State that is perhaps the first of its kind.

It was a story, for Ms. Callimachi, about changing the way the world views Mosul, the Islamic State and terrorism  transforming these from distant, military terms to something more human, relatable and visceral. We have a long history of underestimating groups like ISIS, she said. If history is a guide, we should expect that the organization will both rebound and metastasize.

With the goal of avoiding that kind of oversimplification in mind, The Times put together a multipart project that would bring readers directly into Mosul, through Ms. Callimachis eyes. The Timess first narrative nonfiction podcast series, Caliphate, will be released on Thursday to subscribers. For the text story featuring the documents, The ISIS Files, published last week, a digital design team created an interactive experience that allowed readers to view annotated documents showing chilling, quotidian details of the elaborate bureaucracy that ISIS had created  including things like D.M.V. records, arrest records for children goofing off in prayer services and property seizure records.

It was first and foremost a human narrative, about not only the kinds of people who led ISIS, but also the ones who joined it. What we kept talking about was, picture you live in Brooklyn, and tomorrow scary men with guns come and say, Were in charge now. What do you do? said Sam Dolnick, an assistant managing editor at The Times who edited and oversaw the project.

Audio was a natural fit for such a project, and Ms. Callimachi, who has been reporting on extremist groups for The Times since 2014, a natural guide. Andy Mills, an audio producer and reporter for The Times, knew he wanted to pair the two, in part because much reporting about the Islamic State thus far lacked an immediacy that brought the story into the homes of listeners and stuck with them. When you hear the voice of someone like Michael Barbaro of The Daily or Ira Glass on This American Life, they feel almost like you know them. Like you have shared memories together, he said. And one of the things about the Islamic State  and this is partly by their design  is that they feel so entirely the opposite.

While the documents illuminated how a militant bureaucracy functioned and introduced the people it governed, the audio series introduced another human narrative  that of the reporter. In addition to the soundtrack of war, with bombs and bullets flying overhead, there is Ms. Callimachis role as protagonist and guide  listeners hear her fears, her motivations and her determination to understand the Islamic State.

I hope that readers and listeners will come away with a more refined understanding of ISIS, Ms. Callimachi said. And beyond their interactions with the stories she has crafted, she hopes they will uncover stories of their own. The Times plans to release the 15,000 pages, potentially through a partnership with a university, for those who are interested in learning from the blueprints. Whats at stake, she said, is an underestimation of an infrastructure that is likely to grow in size and sophistication over time.

As Ms. Callimachi put it, Were not fighting a bunch of guys in a cave.
What is the most interesting topic you have learned about in school? Why did it appeal to you?

In Pop-Ups Offer Classes on Todays Hot Topics, Abby Ellin writes:

The class was supposed to be temporary, a quick dive into the link between literature and anthropology. The professors had no idea if students would even come. It wasnt mandatory, they wouldnt get credit and it was taking place at night. Friday night.



So no one was more surprised than Kara Wittman and Joanne Nucho when 24 people showed up for their Essay as Resistance class, which had its debut at Pomona College in March 2017 and ran for three 90-minute sessions. We were shocked that it was so popular, said Ms. Wittman, an assistant professor of English at Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., who taught the class with Ms. Nucho, an assistant professor of anthropology there.

But thats exactly the appeal of the so-called pop-up class, an experiential, interdisciplinary, extracurricular workshop that appears briefly and usually vanishes.

Pop-up classes have grown in popularity over the last few years, with a number of colleges and universities offering them. Theyre often related to current events. Bennington Colleges Am I Charlie?, held in 2015, was a response to the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France. White Privilege was offered last year at St. Michaels College in Colchester, Vt., when Black Lives Matter gained traction on campus.

It was a time when our community on campus and nationally was divided around issues of race, and we wanted to give our students the opportunity to discuss some of these challenging topics, said Kimoi Seale, assistant dean of students, who taught the White Privilege class.
Experiences that test our trust of the free-services-for-personal-data internet are accumulating and threaten to become more personal: the failure of Twitter to ban someone who harassed or threatened you; a small but embarrassing email hack resulting in a scammer asking old friends for money and concluding with an admonishment from your provider that you just needed a better password; an identity theft, a suffering credit score and then news of a hack at Equifax, a service to which you never even chose to provide data. Or it could be nothing more than an eerily well-targeted ad, one that suggests that a certain service  maybe one you never even meant to interact with  knows things about you that you dont remember telling it.

The wider consequences of these arrangements are harder to quantify and sometimes even to see. They are: a social-media ecosystem that has annexed the news and the public sphere; nascent but increasingly assertive systems of identity and social currency that seek to transcend borders while answering only to investors; billions of lives worth of trustingly volunteered data in the hands of companies that might want to make money from it, or that might have no need for it anymore, or that might go out of business, change ownership or simply forget what they had in the first place. Perhaps someone  a new partner, an enterprising researcher, a repressive government  might, one day, discover new uses for the data.

A loss of faith in tech companies as semipublic infrastructure would also arrive simultaneously with an understanding that thats what they had been all along: services that we depended on, ones we gave ourselves to, and that revealed themselves to be  or merely became  the sorts of services wed rather not. Theyre not too big to fail in the banking sense. But theyre similarly hard to budge, having constructed entire modes of interaction, consumption and identity verification that are now intimately interwoven with our lives, so all-encompassing that theyve practically become invisible. To stop using these products is to leave the internet, and these companies made it their mission to make sure there isnt anywhere else to go.

In a recent conference call with reporters, Mark Zuckerberg, the companys chief executive, confessed that Facebook ought to do a better job of putting privacy tools in front of users, but in the same breath he encouraged people to use the tools and to make sure that theyre comfortable with how their information is used on our services and others. It was a gesture at dusty old user agreements  an emphasis on the fact that we technically consented to this, and that if he was expected to hold up his end of the deal, we should be too. It called to mind a line of the financial industrys post-crisis defense: Borrowers should have read the fine print. But for the tech industry, this posture is even more of a stretch: Its an argument for honoring the status quo, coming from the people who have made it their mission to destroy it.
But be sure youre right about whats in your childs best interests. You should take a closer look at your local public elementary school, and not content yourself with the general skepticism you express about the public-school landscape and the effects of standardized testing. If it turns out that the private option isnt obviously better, you can bring your beliefs as a citizen into a more natural alignment with your duties as a parent.

My children are currently in private school, although both were in public school for many years, and my younger one may switch back to public school for high school. Im a big supporter of public education, so I was already feeling guilty about my choice  and then the federal tax bill passed in December. New tax rules allow pretax 529 savings accounts to be used not just for higher education but also for private precollege education. What should I do, if I want to do all I can to be a public-school ally? It seems there are three options: 1) Not take the tax deduction; 2) Take the deduction and give the money I save to the P.T.A. of a local underresourced public school or an organization working to improve public education; or 3) Take the deduction, figuring that as an N.Y.C. resident it will help offset the huge increase I expect to see in my taxes. Name Withheld

Under the new federal tax act, you can withdraw up to $10,000 a year from a 529 savings account to pay for a students private precollege education. Vouchers lite! Previously, these accounts could be used only for higher education. But the way that the relevant deduction works hasnt changed. When you pay into these accounts in New York State, your state income-tax liability is reduced up to a limit of $5,000 for a single person or $10,000 for a couple. Once in the fund, your money grows federal- and state-tax-deferred; but you dont have to pay taxes when you take the money out, if its for a qualified educational expense. (The details here, as with much tax law, get complicated, but this is the basic picture.) You may well be paying into one of these funds already for your childs college education and getting the maximum state-tax deduction. If so, this particular change in the tax law should not affect your income taxes very much.

Of course, any money you take out in the next few years wont be available later for college expenses and wont have compounded for long. Still, the new federal law does encourage you to save for private school as well as college in one of these funds. If things remain as they are, the federal provision that increases the use of these funds threatens to reduce state income-tax revenue. Then again, a preliminary report from New Yorks tax department suggests that K-12 payments may not be considered qualified educational expenses and that the state could recapture any associated tax benefits. And, as youre aware, this new use for 529 funds may do little to offset the loss to you that comes from no longer being able to deduct more than $10,000 in state property and income taxes from your federally taxable income.

None of that is ethics, though. My ethical view is you should take all the tax deductions youre legally entitled to. Many features of our tax system are ridiculous; many are the product of lobbying without much regard for the public good. But you dont have a duty to pay more than you are required to by law just because you and people like you are benefiting from bad policies, any more than you have the right to pay less than youre required to when you take a hit from bad policies. The right thing to aim for is tax reform that makes the system fairer. (We will all have our own views about whether the recent tax reforms did that. Count me a skeptic.)
Internationally recognized Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas Monday conditioned a return to besieged Gaza only when Hamas, which controls the enclave, hands it over to the Palestinian Authority (PA), nearly one month after PA Prime Minister escaped an assassination attempt.

Abbas said he would not be responsible for anything in the enclave until the Islamist movement relinquishes full control and disarms all its militants.

Hamas and its rival Fatah, which dominates Abbass West Bank-based PA, last October inked a landmark reconciliation deal brokered by Egypt.

Under the deal, Hamas was to hand over full control of the strip to the PA by December 1 last year but the deadline has never been met with the Islamist movement refusing to lay down its weapons.

Abbas, in the wake the deal signing, warned that he did not want to have a replicate of Lebanons powerful Shia Hezbollah movement in Palestine. The Shia movement backed by Iran is a very mighty group to reckon with in Lebanon as it possesses its own army.

The 80-year old Palestinian leader, whose lawful mandate expired in 2009, reportedly instructed PA officials to no longer travel to Gaza following an assassination attempt on PM Rami Hamdallah early last month on a rare visit Gaza.

A roadside bomb exploded on his way few minutes after his convoy crossed into Gaza from Israel. Hamdallah was not hurt in the attack but seven people including six of his security guards were seriously injured.

Abbass Fatah lost Gaza in 2007 after Hamas flashed it out in an armed fighting, a year after the Islamist movement won general election.
The disruptions to train service in New York City that Amtrak has planned for this summer will not be hellish, but they will be historic, railroad officials said Tuesday.

Amtrak announced that it plans to take a track at Pennsylvania Station out of use for an overhaul similar to the work last year that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo predicted would cause a summer of hell for commuters. Amtrak also plans to reroute its trains that run along the Hudson River to Grand Central Terminal from Penn Station, from late May until early September.

During that diversion, there will be no direct service between New York City and Chicago for the first time since Amtrak was created in 1971  with the exception of unplanned disruptions, said Gary Williams, Amtraks chief engineer.

To get to Chicago from Grand Central, Amtrak passengers would have to catch a train to Albany and transfer there to the Lake Shore Limited, which usually runs between Union Station in Chicago and Penn Station.
At 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, 1992, a band of armed assassins burst into a crowded discotheque in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, looking for revenge. Drawing weapons from their coats, contemporaneous news reports said, the gunmen shot out the nightclubs lights and then trained their fire on the reveling members of a drug gang called the Arellano Felix organization.

Six people died in the shootout that ensued, and chroniclers of Mexicos brutal drug wars have long attributed the massacre to Joaquin Guzman Loera, a young kingpin known as El Chapo, who was settling a score with the leaders of the gang  the brothers Francisco Javier and Ramon Arellano Felix. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn claimed that Mr. Guzman was indeed involved and said that they planned to tell the tale of the decades-old slaughter at his trial.

The gunfight  which took place, prosecutors said, as Mr. Guzman was consolidating his control of smuggling routes as a rising power in the Sinaloa drug cartel  was mentioned in a 90-page government memo filed in the case on Tuesday. With the sprawling conspiracy trial set to begin in September, the memo was designed to list the crimes that Mr. Guzman was believed to have committed, but were not specifically laid out in his indictment. Those were legion, the memo said, and included murders, acts of torture, kidnappings, prison breaks and an attempt to smuggle seven tons of cocaine in cans of jalapenos.

In the 15 months since Mr. Guzman was sent from Mexico to New York, his prosecution has been bogged down in legal technicalities related to his extradition and in arguments about the harsh conditions of his confinement in the high-security wing of Manhattans federal jail. The governments new filing was the first detailed account of the often gruesome evidence that prosecutors plan to present to the jury.
It was an ambitious idea by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the focus of his 2016 State of the City speech: a sparkling streetcar running along the waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens.

But two years later, there has been little progress on one of Mr. de Blasios key transportation initiatives.

Mr. de Blasio has said little about the streetcar in recent months and his office has not identified a route, leading to persistent speculation that the proposal is dead. At the very least, it is delayed. Supporters now question whether a groundbreaking could happen before Mr. de Blasio leaves office at the end of 2021.

In a recent radio interview, Mr. de Blasio insisted that the streetcar was still on.

Were moving forward, but we have to get the exact details right, the mayor said on WNYC on Friday, calling the proposal a big complicated endeavor.
SAO PAULO, Brazil  On Saturday, the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, surrendered to the federal police to start a 12-year one-month prison sentence for corruption. Judge Sergio Moro had ordered Mr. da Silva to turn himself in to the police by 5 p.m. on Friday. But before doing so, Mr. da Silva had laid down a few rules of his own.

He would surrender only after attending an ecumenical service in honor of the birthday of his deceased wife, Marisa Leticia. Flanked by his political allies, among them two other presidential candidates, Mr. da Silva celebrated his wife at the same union headquarters where he first met her in 1973 and where he mourned her death last year.

Up until the minute before his surrender and subsequent transfer to the prison in the southern city of Curitiba, Mr. da Silva played politics, spending much of the day lecturing from his campaign bus and using the media attention to reiterate that jailing the countrys favorite candidate in the October elections would only further weaken Brazils democracy.

This will not be the end of me, he said to a throng of supporters. I am no longer a human being. I am an idea. An idea that is mixed with all of your ideas. Many in the crowd responded, Dont surrender! The police transport vehicle tried to leave the scene twice, but the former presidents followers blocked the way.
To the Editor:

Re Atlanta Hobbled by Major Cyberattack That Mayor Calls a Hostage Situation  (news article, March 28):

Without question, cybersecurity is a public safety issue; it is panic-inducing to think about the damage an attack similar to Atlantas could inflict on New York Citys 8.6 million residents.

While local governments are certainly vulnerable to such hacks, so, too, are the institutions that keep New Yorks economy running: our banks, media and tech companies, real estate companies and hospitals. A sustained, targeted attack on these economic engines could send us into a recession, or worse.

Some forward-thinking companies are already investing millions to protect their assets. But New York and other global cities need to support cyber companies developing the latest technology that can keep all our institutions, both public and private, safe.

New York recently announced that it will create a dedicated cyber hub to accelerate research and development, an important first step in bringing more cybersecurity options to the marketplace.
Following the investigation of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is an enduring lesson in humility, and not merely because no one  not the president, not legal analysts or anyone else  has been able to predict what his office will do next. Mr. Mueller is much more than a prosecutor. To many, he has become Mr. Trumps opposite: an avatar of justice and probity.

As special counsel, hes also a storyteller, unwinding the tale of what happened during the 2016 election, while revealing only glimpses of the overall narrative. Its not clear whether hell ever make public the whole of what he knows, or whether the regulations governing his appointment even allow him to do so.

The country is living through an astonishing story without a full sense of what that story is. But as the public waits to discover what the Trump team knew and when they knew it, Mr. Mueller has been telling another story, about draining the swamp. And how that story plays out stands to have a major effect on how our politics moves forward after the investigation is complete.

The themes of corruption and white-collar malfeasance link the cases of those caught up in the special counsels inquiry. Their indictments shed light on the culture of influence peddling and less-than-savory financial transactions that Mr. Trump promised to root out if elected president. (He has done the opposite.)
To the Editor:

Re Sweeping Election Victory Gives Hungarys Ruler Control Over Constitution (news article, April 9):

Viktor Orbans victory in Hungarys parliamentary elections was apparently fueled by his harsh stand against allowing immigrants into Hungary. We dont want migrants to come to Hungary, one supporter quoted in your article said.

My parents fled Hungary after World War II because their lives were in danger as a result of the Soviet occupation. They were migrants to the United States, as thousands more Hungarians were after the 1956 Revolution, a fact that Mr. Orban and his supporters have disgracefully chosen to ignore when given the opportunity to help other victims of persecution.

CHARLES PAIKERT

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J.
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Donald Trump doesnt like to follow the rules. He lies constantly. He cheats on his wife (and not just the current one). His businesses are notorious for stiffing customers and vendors. As president, he has violated one longstanding norm after another. When Trump believes its convenient for him to break a rule, he often just decides that the rule doesnt matter.

This longstanding pattern probably goes a long way toward explaining yesterdays events: The F.B.I. conducted a raid of the office and hotel room of Trumps personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen  a raid approved by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, who was appointed by the Trump administration just three months ago.

Think about how extraordinary this is.

Receiving a warrant to search any lawyers office is unusual, given the power of attorney-client privilege. And in this case, the office being searched is that of the lawyer representing the president of the United States. Which means that the search required the approval of both top Justice Department officials and a federal judge.
Imagine a black man who lived in the Bronx around 2011, the height of the stop-and-frisk era. New York police officers threw him up against walls; they turned his pockets inside out. Some days they accused him of trespassing in his own apartment building. Every time, the police let him go without a summons and without arresting him  because he was doing nothing wrong. He was only walking to the corner store or home. Now hes a father. And while the police department says that stops have dropped, his son is also getting stopped, tossed and humiliated,even if less often.

But the words of lawyers or federal court appointees cannot serve as a substitute for that black fathers voice and experiences. He knows better than we do what lasting change looks like.

Thousands of people like this man  people who were repeatedly stopped, or whose children or friends were repeatedly stopped  gave their input into the design of reforms through 64 focus groups and 24 community forums across the city. At the very least, the New York Police Department must adopt these three reforms to fix the problems that took it to court in the first place.

First, the department must establish progressive and serious penalties for unconstitutional behavior by officers. One unlawful stop might lead to retraining, for example, while two could mean a loss of vacation days. The police commissioner could diverge from the guidelines whenever he deemed it appropriate. But establishing minimum discipline standards that set strict penalties would encourage lawful behavior while communicating that the department is committed to addressing misconduct.

Second, the police must use department-issued smartphones to instantly collect information about investigative activities, and to briefly explain these activities in their notes. We heard many community members describe stops that we know police officers did not report. This reform would ensure that more encounters do get reported, which would give the department a better view of whether officers understand the limits on their authority.

Third, the department must create a citywide community oversight board consisting of those who have been most invested in advancing stop-and-frisk reforms. The board would monitor the departments fulfillment of changes and provide assistance. For example, it would help to identify penalties to use in the discipline standards. Such sustained and structured community oversight promises more complete and abiding reform. And its not unprecedented: Just last month, Chicago agreed to a similar measure.
D.B.: I know that some people worry that acknowledging progress will make us complacent. Do you encounter this?

S.P.: Yes, and I respond that denying progress can make us fatalistic: If all our efforts at improving the human condition have failed, why throw good money after bad? More generally, people are so jaded by the narrative of decline that they cant think coherently about progress; the concept just doesnt compute. Im regularly confronted with an example of something that has gone wrong, like the opioid epidemic or a rampage shooting, as a refutation of progress  as if progress meant that everything gets better for everyone everywhere always. That wouldnt be progress; that would be magic. Progress consists of solving problems, and problems are inevitable. So of course things can get worse for some people sometimes. A more sensible way to think about progress is the framing by Barack Obama, presumably channeling John Rawls: If you had to choose a time to be born and you didnt know who youd be or where youd be, what time would you choose? The answer is now.

D.B.: Of the advances you cite in the book, what three strike you as the most important?

S.P.: The components that go into the Human Development Index, namely being healthy, wealthy and wise. We live longer: Life expectancy at birth worldwide is now 71 years, and in the developed world, 80 years; through most of human existence it was around 30. Global extreme poverty has declined to 9.6 percent of the world population; 200 years ago, it was at 90 percent. In just the last 30 years, extreme poverty has declined by 75 percent  a stupendous achievement that is almost entirely unappreciated. Equally unappreciated is the fact that 90 percent of the worlds population under the age of 25 can read and write, including girls. In most of the history of Europe, no more than 15 percent could read and write, mostly men.

D.B.: Do you think a reluctance to point to progress inhibits our ability to achieve more progress?

S.P.: Yes, particularly among liberals, who in joining the chorus of decline have unilaterally disarmed in the fight for judicious regulation and social spending. Take pollution. Since the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, air pollution (aside from carbon dioxide) has fallen by 60 percent, even as Americans have become more populous and richer and have driven more miles. But because many liberals today cant bring themselves to acknowledge progress, they have cleared the field for opponents of regulation like Scott Pruitt to claim that the regulations have done no good and have only cramped our lives and dragged down the economy. Rather than saying Environmental regulation has improved the environment while allowing the economy to grow, they have said, ineffectually, If you oppose regulation, youre a bad person.

The same is true with poverty. Ronald Reagan famously wisecracked, Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won. Few liberals would disagree. But Reagan was mistaken. If you factor in government social spending, such as the earned-income tax credit, rates of poverty have declined significantly. But here again liberals hand their opponents a weapon: the conclusion that all social programs are ineffective.

D.B.: Journalists typically write about sudden rather than gradual changes. But progress unfolds slowly. How could the news better reflect it?
UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Monday briefed the emergency Security Council meeting following reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria over the weekend.

The recent escalating violence across Syria, including allegations of chemical weapons use in a Damascus suburb, could have consequences so devastating they are difficult to even imagine, the UN envoy warned, calling for unity among global powers to prevent a chain of events that could draw in actors far beyond the region.

The Council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front, he said.

Amid deadly attacks and heightened human suffering across the war-torn country, the first priority must be to protect civilians, he underlined, calling on all sides to respect international law and ensure humanitarian access to all people in need.

The Security Councils emergency meeting was convened amid sharp deterioration in the situation in the war-torn country with reports of dozens killed in an alleged chemical weapons attack as well as heightened conflict across Syria.

Also briefing the Council Monday, Thomas Markram, the Deputy High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said that the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)  which monitors implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and works to rid the world of such weapons  is gathering information on the alleged incidents over the weekend and will report its findings on this alleged attack.

The use of chemical weapons is unjustifiable. Those responsible must be held to account, he underscored.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed deep concern over renewed violence in Douma, particularly the alarming allegations that chemical weapons may have been used against civilians.

A statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said while the UN is not in a position to verify these reports about the chemical attacks, the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation.

The United States on its part said that if confirmed, the reports on the use of chemical weapons are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community.

The United States continues to use all efforts available to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable. The regimes history of using chemical weapons against its own people is not in dispute, and in fact nearly one year ago on April 4, 2017, Assads forces conducted a sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun, which killed approximately 100 Syrians, the State Department Spokesman Heather Nauert said in a statement released on Friday.

For the spokesperson, Russia, with its unwavering support for the regime, ultimately bears responsibility for these brutal attacks, targeting of countless civilians, and the suffocation of Syrias most vulnerable communities with chemical weapons.

By shielding its ally Syria, Russia has betrayed the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2118. Russias protection of the Assad regime and failure to stop the use of chemical weapons in Syria calls into question its commitment to resolving the overall crisis and to larger non-proliferation priorities, he said.

The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks.
He has long consoled himself with the mantra that there was no collusion, no collusion, no collusion. But in a manner thats entirely legal, not to mention an echo of President Bill Clintons experience, the investigation has traveled in additional directions and examined additional wrongdoing.

Having subpoenaed the Trump Organization, Mueller and his team now possess his business records. Having executed a warrant for material in the possession of Michael Cohen, federal officials will sift through the secrets of an insider who is not just Trumps lawyer but also his longtime fixer and friend.

Even though Cohen is the apparent focus of their interest, Trump, too, must feel hideously exposed. This is a man who refused, despite intense pressure, to release his tax returns, as candidates before him had done. Now information that may be much more private, and much more damning, is in strangers hands.

A single sentence in a story about the Cohen raid by my colleague Matt Apuzzo brilliantly hinted at Trumps vantage point, from which he sees any moat around him vanishing and his castle under siege. Apuzzo wrote: His longtime lawyer is being investigated in Manhattan; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is facing scrutiny by prosecutors in Brooklyn; his former campaign chairman is under indictment; his former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying; and a pair of former campaign aides are cooperating with Mr. Mueller.

Its in that context that Trump, during a meeting that was supposed to be about Syria, went on and on about the disgrace (he used that word seven times) of Muellers investigation, toyed with the idea of getting rid of him, excoriated Jeff Sessions anew, once again branded James Comey a liar and, for good measure, kicked around Hillary Clinton some more.

It was the full martyr complex and all the greatest hits in one meltdown. Mike Pence sat stone-faced on one side of him, John Bolton without much expression on the other. Its hard to imagine either of them having the rapport with Trump to calm him down.
To the Editor:

In Scrutiny for Trumps Allies as Trail of Money Widens (front page, April 10), you report that Mr. Trump accused his own Justice Department of perpetrating a witch hunt. 

Years of hounding former President Barack Obama about where he was born? That was a witch hunt. Looking into whether President Trump or his campaign committee was involved with the Russians in skewing our 2016 election? Thats an investigation, not a witch hunt, and as continuing revelations expose, it clearly has merit.

JAMES P. PEHL

MARLBOROUGH, MASS.

To the Editor:

Last year Donald Trump fired Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Jeff Sessions replaced him with Geoffrey Berman, a former law partner of Rudolph Giuliani. The matter of President Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, falls in the purview of the Southern District of New York, so Robert Mueller turns the case over to Mr. Berman, a Trump administration appointee, who orders the F.B.I. raid on Mr. Cohen.

This proves that we are still a country governed by the rule of law. Preet Bharara must be smiling.

ELLIE BERNER, STRATHAM, N.H.
After a year of almost weekly revelations about Robert Muellers investigation of Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, even indictments and guilty pleas of campaign officials have grown familiar. Its not that the special counsel, Mr. Mueller, is crying wolf; its that weve gotten used to real wolves. Only truly startling developments engage a lot of us.

The F.B.I. search of the office, home and hotel room of Mr. Trumps attorney Michael Cohen is such a development. Its historic, even in the lofty context of a special counsel investigation of the president.

This is what we know, in part from Mr. Cohens attorney: The United States attorneys office in Manhattan, acting on a referral from Mr. Mueller, sought and obtained search warrants for Mr. Cohens law office, home and hotel room, seeking evidence related at least in part to his payment of $130,000 in hush money to the adult actress Stephanie Clifford, who goes by her stage name, Stormy Daniels. There are reports that the warrant sought evidence of bank fraud and campaign finance violations, which is consistent with an investigation into allegations that the Daniels payment was illegally sourced or disguised. (For example, routing a payment through a shell company to hide the fact that the money came from the Trump campaign  if that is what happened  would probably violate federal money-laundering laws.)

What does this tell us? First, it reflects that numerous officials  not just Mr. Mueller  concluded that there was probable cause to believe that Mr. Cohens law office, home and hotel room contained evidence of a federal crime. A search warrant for a lawyers office implicates the attorney-client privilege and core constitutional rights, so the Department of Justice requires unusual levels of approval to seek one. Prosecutors must seek the approval of the United States attorney of the district  in this case the office of Geoffrey Berman, the interim United States attorney appointed by President Trump.
This is your president, ladies and gentlemen. This is how Donald Trump does business, and these are the kinds of people he surrounds himself with.

Mr. Trump has spent his career in the company of developers and celebrities, and also of grifters, cons, sharks, goons and crooks. He cuts corners, he lies, he cheats, he brags about it, and for the most part, hes gotten away with it, protected by threats of litigation, hush money and his own bravado. Those methods may be proving to have their limits when they are applied from the Oval Office. Though Republican leaders in Congress still keep a cowardly silence, Mr. Trump now has real reason to be afraid. A raid on a lawyers office doesnt happen every day; it means that multiple government officials, and a federal judge, had reason to believe theyd find evidence of a crime there and that they didnt trust the lawyer not to destroy that evidence.

On Monday, when he appeared with his national security team, Mr. Trump, whose motto could be, The buck stops anywhere but here, angrily blamed everyone he could think of for the unfairness of an investigation that has already consumed the first year of his presidency, yet is only now starting to heat up. He said Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a very terrible mistake by recusing himself from overseeing the investigation  the implication being that a more loyal attorney general would have obstructed justice and blocked the investigation. He complained about the horrible things that Hillary Clinton did and all of the crimes that were committed. He called the A-team of investigators from the office of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, the most biased group of people. As for Mr. Mueller himself, well see what happens, Mr. Trump said. Many people have said, You should fire him.

In fact, the raids on the premises used by Mr. Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen, were conducted by the public corruption unit of the federal attorneys office in Manhattan, and at the request not of the special counsels team, but under a search warrant that investigators in New York obtained following a referral by Mr. Mueller, who first consulted with the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. To sum up, a Republican-appointed former F.B.I. director consulted with a Republican-appointed deputy attorney general, who then authorized a referral to an F.B.I. field office not known for its anti-Trump bias. Deep state, indeed.
The United States will be making an exit from Syria very soon, President Trump said late last month in Ohio. Let the other people take care of it now. In making this announcement, the president ignored a cardinal principle of an author he holds in very high regard: himself.

According to The Art of the Deal, Mr. Trumps 1987 best-selling guide to business strategy, success in negotiations requires developing leverage. The crux of the matter is appearing unflappable while making the other guy sweat. The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it, Mr. Trump wrote. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then youre dead.

Mr. Trumps Syria announcement fostered the impression of a president desperate to get out of the Middle East. It also violated another oft-repeated Trumpian principle: never, ever telegraph your military moves. I dont want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is, Mr. Trump said during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The announcement generated considerable unease in the foreign policy establishment. Senator John McCain, among others, claimed that Mr. Trumps call for a withdrawal emboldened Bashar al-Assad, convincing him he could launch a chemical weapons attack a mere 10 days later.
A battle over pleasure has broken out. On Twitter and in the pages of scientific journals, psychologists, neurologists and neuroscientists are forging alliances over the question of whether pleasure we get from art is somehow different from the pleasure we get from candy, sex or drugs.

The debate was ignited by an opinion piece titled Pleasure Junkies All Around! published last year in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In it, Julia F. Christensen, a neuroscientist at the The Warburg Institute at the University of London who studies peoples responses to dance choreography, argued that many of us have been turned into mindless pleasure junkies, handing over our free will for the next dopamine shoot provided by social media, pornography and sugar.

She offered up an unconventional solution: art, which she says engages us in ways these other pleasures do not and can help overwrite the detrimental effects of dysfunctional urges and craving.

The paper struck a nerve with some of her fellow art and pleasure researchers, who published a rebuttal last month in the same journal. The idea that the way that art engages the brain is somehow special has been around for far too long and it is time to kill it off once and for all, they insist.
The couple met nearly 50 years ago at a party and have been together ever since. Mr. Getchell, raised in Maine and Harvard educated, was also an actor, then a television producer and programmer (of Sesame Street, among other shows) before running the business side of Moss, a job that often put him at odds with his partners curatorial tics. (Mr. Getchell likes to say that the only difference between television and retail is shipping.) The Great Enabler is how he described his role, writing in Please Do Not Touch: He could not have done it without me. Without him, I had nothing to do.

They are of one mind in their love for design, but split when it comes to what should be sold and what should not, said Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. If Franklin is the consummate businessman, Murray is the consummate collector. Hence the push and pull, yin and yang, Felix and Oscar relationship between them.

There was the time Mr. Getchell invited Mr. Moss to speak to the HCs  short for happy couples  as part of the stores wedding registry program, a sine qua non for a certain cohort of moneyed, aesthetically aspirational Manhattanites. (It was Mr. Getchells idea to pioneer a practice whereby couples would register for this or that small object as a kind of beard for their relatives, who would think they were paying for an Alessi cheese grater, and then cash in those amounts for big-ticket items like a sofa.) Mr. Moss was dimly aware that the registry existed, and less than enthusiastic about being asked to address its customers.

I was resentful, he said. It was a disaster. There were three couples 

There were three people, Mr. Getchell corrected.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, is testifying before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday to answer questions about the social networks failure to protect the data of millions of its users and its role in Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Here are some of Mr. Zuckerbergs claims, as well as some claims from the lawmakers, which we fact checked. The page will be updated throughout the hearings.

We made changes in 2014 that would have prevented what happened with Cambridge Analytica from happening today.

Not quite 

Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, used information that had been harvested from as many as 87 million Facebook users several years ago to build psychological profiles of voters. Facebook did announce changes in 2014 to limit the access that new apps had to data about its users, but it was not until 2015 that the company rolled out the changes to affect all of the apps on the platform.
College counselors say that depending on the institutions, the repercussions could range from schools canceling a students applications to rescinding admissions offers. A university could also retaliate against the students high school by limiting the number of students they admit.

Once a student signs something, they have you. And when a student pulls out of a decision, they lose so much control, said Craig Meister, who founded the college admissions consulting firm Admissions Intel, and serves as director of college counseling at Oxbridge Academy, a high school in Florida.

Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, said the early decision practice has been longstanding and without issue. He said the Justice Departments inquiry was surprising.

The early admission decisions have been criticized as potentially favoring alumni and higher-income applicants, but had never been raised as a potential antitrust issue. The councils position is that it is not.

If you want the certainty of your first choice school, and you agree not to consider other offers, then its the right way to go, Mr. Hartle said. And about 98 percent of people use it exactly in that way.

Mr. Hartle noted that students who apply to colleges through what is known as the common application acknowledge that following an offer of admission, the institution they are applying to may share their commitment with other institutions.

Daniel Obregon, a spokesman for the common application  which more than 1 million students use to submit 4 million applications annually  said that fewer than 10 percent of applicants apply through early decision.
WASHINGTON  A day after John R. Bolton went to work as national security adviser, he began shaking up the Trump administrations national security ranks, ousting President Trumps chief adviser on homeland security, Thomas P. Bossert.

Mr. Bosserts sudden departure on Tuesday was the latest in an exodus of senior officials, and it leaves the White House short-handed in counterterrorism and cybersecurity operations as the president moves closer to a military strike on Syria.

But it confirms that Mr. Bolton, a hard-line former ambassador to the United Nations, is determined to put his own stamp on the National Security Council. He also moved some of Mr. Bosserts duties directly under the council, according to administration officials.

While Mr. Bolton was widely expected to clean house, Mr. Bosserts ouster came as a surprise  at least to him. On Sunday, he stoutly defended Mr. Trumps immigration policies on the ABC program This Week, then traveled to a conference in Sea Island, Ga., where he gave a spirited defense of the way the White House makes policy.
Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term in office in February 2019, the Nigerian presidency said on Monday.

Buhari will seek his All Progressives Congress (APC) partys presidential ticket to contest the 2019 elections, the presidency said on its Twitter account.

According to the presidents top aide, Buhari has disclosed his decision to the APCs national executive committee.

The 75-year-old who was away from the country for more than three months on a medical vacation in London last year, faced intense speculation about his health and whether he is fit to contest for elections in the African most populous nation.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in an open letter earlier this year, called on President Buhari not to seek re-election because of his age and alleged poor health.

Obasanjo indicated that he was disappointed with President Buhari, particularly because of what he called his poor handling of Nigerias economy, the largest in Africa.

Buhari is also facing increasing criticism over security concerns in the West African nation in recent months. Militant group Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc in the northeast of the country.

Before his victory in 2015, Buhari said he would contest for only one term due to his old age. Also, 20 days after his swearing-in, the President made reference to the old age again, saying he would have loved being a president when he was at a younger age.
Mr. Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., last year when he ordered missile strikes in Syria in response to a chemical attack by government forces. And in 2011, President Barack Obama went ahead with a trip to Brazil while American forces were striking Libya. But White House officials argued that Mr. Trump felt strongly about remaining on United States soil as the situation in Syria unfolded.

The decision appeared to have taken even some senior White House officials by surprise. Mr. Trumps top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was unaware of the presidents new plans when he told a conservative radio host on Tuesday morning that he would be traveling with Mr. Trump to Latin America this week. He said Mr. Trump would be able to compartmentalize.

There were plenty of reasons for Mr. Trump to dread the trip to South America, which promised to include considerable behind-the-scenes friction and little of the flattering pomp and ceremony that he relishes  and to which he was treated during visits last year to Saudi Arabia and China.

The presidents approval rating in Latin America is extraordinarily low, and leaders there have been insulted by his anti-immigrant talk and alarmed by his threats to use military force in Venezuela. The White House had already scaled back Mr. Trumps trip, trimming what was initially intended as a five-day visit to one that involved fewer than three days on the ground.

Mr. Trump had planned to use that brief time to seek consensus on how to handle the crisis in Venezuela and press his case for better trade deals with Latin American nations. The presidents advisers had played down expectations for major advances during the trip, including saying it was unlikely to produce any breakthroughs on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

They had left open the question of whether Mr. Trump would meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, with whom he has had a stormy relationship. The two have clashed on the phone over Mr. Trumps promises to build a border wall and force Mexico to pay for it, and the latest such altercation led them to cancel a tentatively planned visit by Mr. Pena Nieto to the White House in March.

More recently, Mr. Pena Nieto has taken umbrage at Mr. Trumps decision last week to send National Guard troops to patrol the southern border.
Although it is unusual for the Justice Department to seek a lawyers materials, the United States attorneys manual contains procedures for how to get both subpoenas and search warrants in such cases. It tells investigators to exhaust all other ways of obtaining evidence first to avoid impinging on valid attorney-client relationships. It also encourages them to use a subpoena if possible. But it also acknowledges that sometimes a search warrant may be justified, even though it is more intrusive, such as if there is reason to believe the recipient would destroy the evidence rather than turn it over.

What is lawyer-client privilege?

Most of the time, if someone possesses information that is relevant to getting at the truth about a suspected crime, the rules require that person to disclose such evidence, and prosecutors can use those facts in court. But courts have created exceptions to protect confidential communications between a client and a lawyer and a lawyers work product on behalf of a client, like notes and files the lawyer gathered in anticipation of litigation.

The idea, said Samuel W. Buell, a former federal prosecutor who teaches white-collar criminal law at Duke University, is that it is generally in the broader public interest to encourage people to consult lawyers and talk candidly with them. That way, lawyers can steer their clients toward lawful conduct in the first place, and better-informed lawyers will make the legal system function more smoothly.

Against that backdrop, Mr. Buell said, the search warrant for Mr. Cohens office was not going to happen unless they feel that they have to, and they think they have something that is really serious going on.

I would say that for any law-office search warrant, he continued, but we just happen to be talking about a lawyer for the president of the United States.
Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, went from this: Ill do anything to protect Mr. Trump. They say Im Mr. Trumps pit bull. Ive stood by him, shoulder to shoulder. To this: Shock waves after President Trumps former attorney Michael Cohen ... Michael Cohen, pleading guilty and implicating the president ... ... possibly the worst day in Donald Trumps presidency thus far. So why did one of Trumps most trusted advisers flip? Cohen was known for being Trumps fixer and biggest defender. If theres an issue that relates to Mr. Trump that is of concern to him, its of course of concern to me. And I will use my legal skills within which to protect Mr. Trump to the best of my ability. In April, the F.B.I. raided Cohens office after he became a target in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Trump was quick to come to Cohens defense. But once the investigation zeroed in on Cohen, the lawyer began to change his tune. My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will. I put family and country first. In July, Cohen released audio from a conversation with Donald Trump that he secretly recorded two months before the 2016 election. The two appear to be discussing payments to a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump. [Cohen and Trump speaking] Heres when things between Trump and Cohen began to publicly fall apart. I expected something like this from Cohen, hes been lying all week. I mean, for two  hes been lying for years. Theres nobody that I know that knows him that hasnt warned me that if his back is up against the wall, he will lie like crazy, because hes lied all his life. On Aug. 21, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws and said President Trump directed him to make payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to avoid a potential sex scandal. Cohens lawyer suggested he knew more. Mr. Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows. Trump tried to play down the momentous admission via Twitter.
Though a federal review found private prisons are more dangerous than government-run prisons for both guards and inmates, the Trump administration indicated earlier this year that it will expand their use.

Private prison companies can be found at every level of government, housing 9 percent of the nations prisoners. They emerged in the 1980s, when the number of inmates was quickly outstripping capacity, and they have an outsize influence in certain states, including Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi and New Mexico.

Despite hundreds of lawsuits, findings that private prisons save taxpayers little to no money, and evidence of repeated constitutional violations, the number of privately housed inmates has risen faster since 2000 than the overall number of prisoners. In 2016, the number rose by about 1.5 percent, according to Justice Department figures.

Last week, Frank Shaw, a warden for Management & Training, or MTC, at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, was called to testify in a federal trial claiming that the prison routinely failed to shield inmates from beatings and left them so desperate for medical attention that they lit fires in their cells. Mr. Shaw had also been the warden in Arizona during the riot.

The trial concluded on Monday; the judge has yet to issue a decision.

Even states that have sworn off private prisons, or tried to cut back on their use, have found it difficult to extricate themselves. After the prisoners escaped in Arizona, the state tried to reduce the number of inmates held in that prison. But MTC claimed the state was violating its contract, which guaranteed a certain number of beds would be filled. Arizona had to pay the company $3 million. MTC still operates a facility in the state.
The president of Sudan has ordered the release of dozens of political prisoners, the state-run news agency Suna reported on Tuesday, an action that appeared intended to mollify human-rights critics.

The decision seemed to be a concession by the president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who came to power in 1989 in an Islamist and military-backed coup, and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

He is an international pariah. But Western governments have increasingly worked with his government, eager for his help in preventing violent extremism and in stemming the flow of African refugees northward into Libya and Egypt and then on to boats bound for Europe.

As a result, Sudan has achieved something of a rapprochement with the West. Last October, the Trump administration lifted a host of sanctions against the country, citing, among other things, its cooperation on counterterrorism.
MEDELLIN, Colombia  A former guerrilla peace negotiator has been arrested on drug trafficking charges in Colombia, after government officials said he and associates had returned to the drug trade his group had vowed to give up.

The arrest of Seusis Hernandez Solarte was a surprise turn of events for the FARC, the former rebel organization that has refashioned itself as a political party called the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force.

In signing a peace deal in 2016, its leaders  all wanted as drug traffickers in the United States  were promised immunity for past crimes and, in return, they renounced future ones.

But on Monday, the Colombian government said that Mr. Hernandez, whose nom de guerre was Jesus Santrich, had quickly returned to the drug business. Officials said that starting last June, just months after the peace deal was signed, Mr. Hernandez had sought to export roughly 10 tons of cocaine to the United States, whose value they estimated was as much as $320 million.
MEXICO CITY  Lawyers representing the Trump Organization in a bitter dispute over management control of a luxury hotel in Panama City appealed directly to President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama to intercede.

In the March 22 letter, the Panamanian law firm Britton and Iglesias told Mr. Varela that it was writing to request in an URGENT manner his intervention in the clash involving the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

The letter acknowledged the separation of powers in Panama but cautioned the president that the matter has repercussions for the Panamanian state, which is your responsibility.

At the time, the Trump Organizations hotel management team had been evicted from the hotel but was still fighting to regain control. Several days after the letter was sent, an arbitrator ruled against the Trump companys request that its management be reinstated.
When Hadiya converted to Islam in January 2016, her father filed a report with the police, claiming that his daughters conversion had been coerced as part of an elaborate tactic by the Islamic State to recruit her to fight in Syria. Months later, she married a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan, adding to her fathers resolve to have his daughter placed in his custody, at the family home.

Hadiya, who was born Akhila Asokan and changed her name after converting, said she had converted of her own free will and did not even have a passport that would have enabled her to leave the country to join the Islamic State.

The high court of Kerala State, where the family lives, annulled the marriage last May, ruling that a girl aged 24 years is weak and vulnerable, capable of being exploited.

Hadiya, who then returned to her family home, has told activists and the courts that her father beat her and committed her to a yoga center, where she says she was tortured and forced to convert back to Hinduism. Hadiyas father declined to comment.

Her lawyer, Haris Beeran, said on Tuesday that she was keeping a low profile. Worried about threats from right-wing Hindu nationalists, she filed an affidavit in the courts in February saying that she fears for her life.

Her husband, with whom she has been reunited, is being investigated by Indias National Investigation Agency, a government counterterrorism body, for possible links to radical Islamist groups. His supporters call it a trumped-up charge to derail the couples marriage in the courts by making it seem that her conversion was part of a larger jihadist plot.

They have been married and forced to live away from each other for the past year, facing harassment from her family and the N.I.A., Mr. Beeran said in a telephone interview.
The insurgent leader Isnilon Hapilon was killed in October, near the end of the siege. But about 200 fighters had managed to escape, and sporadic clashes continued weeks later.

Long known as the Islamic capital of the Philippines, Marawi has a history of marginalization by the government of the predominantly Catholic country. Even before the siege began, residents would stay away from banks in favor of keeping their money in vaults and doing business among themselves. Many refused to register their property, preferring to stay off government books.

As people began returning this week, some said they believed that the Philippine military, not the Islamist militants, had looted their homes. That has only added to the sense of isolation.

Our practice was staying together and closely guarding each other, said Samira Gutoc, a community organizer from Marawi. Now, if youre a Muslim Filipino, youre going to be suspected of being a part of this.

Across the city, the residents tried to gather up whatever belongings they could: scrap metal to sell in the market, old family photo albums, half-burned high school diplomas.

In the center of the city, Dr. Bedoria Macabalang, 52, was inspecting what remained of the family-owned, 50-bed Salaam Hospital, which was one of the citys most modern health facilities before the siege began. Militants had taken over the hospital and used it as an infirmary for their wounded. On the walls were pro-Islamic State graffiti.
YANGON, Myanmar  Once a week, the two Reuters reporters are shuffled out of their prison cells in Yangon, Myanmar, loaded into the back of a police truck and driven to a nearby courthouse.

Wearing handcuffs, the reporters, U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, hear one or two witnesses testify against them on the charge of violating Myanmars Official Secrets Act. Then they are taken back to their cells in Insein Prison, where they wait for the next weeks hearing.

The grim ritual, in its third month, will happen again this Wednesday, when the judge in the case, U Ye Lwin, is scheduled to rule whether the prosecutor has presented sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. It would be unusual if he sided with the defense.

The two journalists, who were investigating a massacre of 10 Muslim Rohingya men in Rakhine State, face up to 14 years in prison under the British colonial-era secrets act.
Botswanas new President Mokgweetsi Masisi is expected in Zimbabwe on a working visit, local media reports.

According to Zimbabwes state-owned Herald newspaper, President Masisi is expected to hold talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

President Masisi took over from President Seretse Ian Khama, who stepped down after completing his 10-year term.

Botswanas ministry of international affairs and cooperation said the visit would give the two leaders a platform to discuss regional, continental and global issues of mutual concern.

The two countries relations were strained for years, with Botswana President Ian Khama said to be one of the loud critics of Mugabe.

Last year Khama made headlines after he called ageing Mugabe, who was still in power then, to step down.

The working visit of President Masisi will serve to deepen and broaden the scope of bilateral cooperation between Botswana and Zimbabwe, the ministry said in a statement.

The advent of the new political administration in Zimbabwe has thawed previously volatile relations between the two neighbors.
SYDNEY, Australia  Australia prides itself on its fairness and multiculturalism. But wander through Sydneys corporate towers or Canberras halls of Parliament, and youll notice that Australias power structure is overwhelmingly white, nowhere near as diverse as the country at large.

That gap between self-image and reality is the focus of a new report released early Wednesday by the Australian Human Rights Commission, which scrutinized the backgrounds of more than 2,400 senior leaders across business, government and academia.

It found, in simple terms, that white Australians with European roots still run nearly everything.

Although those who have non-European and Indigenous backgrounds make up an estimated 24 percent of the Australian population, such backgrounds account for only 5 percent of senior leaders, the report states. Put another way, about 95 percent of senior leaders in Australia have an Anglo-Celtic or European background.

[Join the discussion about this issue in our Facebook group, NYT Australia.]

The report  the governments most comprehensive study of Australias multicultural identity to date  reveals a country opening to the world but still resisting equality. Even with an immigration system that prioritizes the highly skilled, and even as the children of immigrants outperform, on average, the children of Australian-born parents in school, Australias racial and ethnic realities remain stuck in place.
BERLIN  Insulting a king used to be dangerous business, but in the Netherlands, it could soon be the legal equivalent of trash-talking an ambulance driver.

Under Dutch law, insulting the monarch is a crime  though it is rarely prosecuted  punishable by up to five years in prison. But the lower house of Parliament voted on Tuesday to reduce the maximum sentence to four months for speaking ill of the king, his immediate family, or any other head of state, putting them on the same level as police officers, emergency room workers, social workers and ambulance drivers.

Our king, Willem-Alexander, and of course other heads of state should not be insulted, but if it does happen, then everyone should be equal in front of the law, said Kees Verhoeven, a lawmaker with the leftist party Democrats 66, who introduced the bill.

The 120-to-30 vote sent the bill to the upper house of Parliament, where it is expected to get approval.
A former senior United States official called the region a new Cold War battlefield, and said that Brussels was too rigid with the ways it tried to keep people on the good behavior track, while the money is not as connected as it should be to reform goals.

The official, who asked for anonymity to preserve influence in the region, said that the countries reformed only when Brussels and Washington worked together to push leaders hard to break old habits of corruption, state capture, a politicized judiciary and Russian shell companies trying to take over key infrastructure and media.

But Europe is not eager to import more problems. The argument is that only by taking in the Balkan states are we assured to strengthen stability, said Norbert Rottgen, the chairman of the German Bundestags foreign affairs committee. But is that true?

If we import fragile states into the E.U., we import fragility, he added. If we compromise on conditions, we let in fragile countries open to foreign influences, so we have to be tough on the entry requirements.

The irony of history, Mr. Bildt mused, is that had Yugoslavia remained together, it almost surely would have been in the European Union by now, having been well ahead in 1990 of current members Romania and Bulgaria.

If the wars of dissolution hadnt happened, all of this area would have been an E.U. member, he said. The Balkans have always lived best when integrated into a wider framework, as necessary today as in the past, and the one available today is the European Union.

Mr. Kupchan remains an optimist. We know where this story will ultimately end, with all the former Yugoslav states integrated into the European Union, he said. But when?
LONDON  After months of speculation about whether the Obamas or the Trumps would be invited to the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle next month the answer is finally in: neither.

Neatly sidestepping the issue, Kensington Palace released an opaque statement Tuesday saying that no politicians would be invited to the May 19 wedding at Windsor Castle, not even Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain.

It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both U.K. and international  is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markles wedding, Kensington Palace said in a statement. Her Majestys Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.

The lack of an official list was interpreted by royals watchers to mean that no invitations would be issued to political leaders.
Ms. Skripal, who lives in Russia, was visiting her father when they were poisoned, and it is not clear whether she will return.

Russian officials say they have been improperly denied access to her, but the British police said last week that Ms. Skripal was aware of the Russian offer to visit and help, and that she had turned it down.

On Tuesday, the Russian Embassy in London wrote on Twitter: We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

The Sunday Times of London, citing anonymous sources, has reported that senior intelligence officials in Britain were talking to their counterparts at the C.I.A. about sending the Skripals to the United States. The two Russians would be provided with new identities, part of a broader effort to keep them safe in case there should be another attempt on their life.

The Russian Embassy seemed to acknowledge that possibility with another post on Twitter later on Tuesday, again demanding proof that Ms. Skripal was acting of her own accord. Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation, the post read.

The case has mixed high-stakes international diplomacy with elements of farce. Hundreds of diplomats around the world have been expelled, Britain has moved to crack down on the financial dealings of Russians in the country, and President Vladimir V. Putins government has offered a variety of alternative explanations for what happened and complained that the Skripals pets  two guinea pigs and a cat  were killed by the British and then cremated to destroy evidence.
TEHRAN  A senior Iranian foreign policy official warned Israel on Tuesday that its strike on an air base in Syria that killed several Iranians would not remain without a response, the Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen reported.

Seven Iranian military personnel were killed on Monday in the strike on the Tiyas, or T4, air base near Homs, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. The semiofficial Fars news agency initially said that three were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but the report was later withdrawn without explanation.

Syria, Iran and Russia have accused Israel of mounting the attack, though Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. Israel has carried out several strikes in Syria in the past, some aimed at stopping what it says is a military buildup by Iran and its regional ally, Hezbollah, along the Syrian-Israeli border.

Along with Russia, Iran has been a crucial ally of Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, supporting his government militarily, financially and politically since a 2011 rebellion turned into a civil war. Iran has since extended its influence in Syria, something Israel views as a threat, leading to building tensions.
GENEVA  More than 133,000 people have fled a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in the face of the governments military onslaught, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday, as the United States and its allies weighed how to respond to a suspected chemical attack there.

The exodus from the suburb, eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel-held pocket near the capital city, has come after two months of ferocious bombardment by the Syrian military and by its Iranian and Russian allies, as the government of President Bashar al-Assad has retaken control of most of the region. It is estimated that more than 1,600 people have been killed in the campaign.

On Sunday, groups in Douma, a town in eastern Ghouta, reported what appeared to be a chemical weapons attack by the government, though Russian and Syrian officials have denied that chemical agents were used. Experts and Western officials say that multiple times in its seven-year civil war, Syria has used chemical weapons against its own people, including a sarin gas attack in Ghouta in 2013 that by some estimates killed more than 1,000 people.
Chemical weapons are again suspected to have been used in Syria, apparently by government forces, circumstantial evidence suggests. Again, many Americans, particularly in Washington, have responded with calls to do something. And, again, punitive airstrikes against the Syrian government are the most discussed option.

These debates over Syria are revealing, but not in the way the participants often intend. That Americans so often arrive at the same policy of limited airstrikes tells us a lot about why the Syria problem is so difficult. It also tells us a lot about the foreign policy hangups of the United States.

You can tell theres something odd about this conversation by the fact that its barely changed between the Obama and Trump administrations.

It was one thing, before 2017, to argue that, had then President Barack Obama followed through on his 2013 threat of punitive strikes, this would have deterred Syria from future use of chemical weapons, changed the course of the war, and perhaps even toppled Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader.
The speaker of Somalias parliament has resigned on Monday following a dispute with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

Mohamed Osman Jawari had submitted his resignation letter to Somalias president as lawmakers supporting the Prime Minister were planning to vote on a no-confidence motion against the Speaker on Monday.

Jawari had earlier defied calls to resign, saying, I am not going to resign.

The lawmakers behind the no-confidence motion accused the speaker of abusing his power and blocking constitutional reforms.

Jawari denied the allegations, arguing that it was the executive branch overreach from the office of the Prime Minister, who wanted him out.

He claimed the executive proposed no-confidence motions against him in order to consolidate power.

Jawaris resignation comes after the seizure of $9.6 million in cash at Mogadishu airport from a plane that had landed from the United Arab Emirates.

The president and speaker have long been rivals and they back opposite sides in the dispute that erupted last year between Qatar and Turkey against Saudi Arabia and its ally, the UAE.

Jawari, 73, became Speaker in August 2012, and was re-elected again in January 2017.
Bharat Bandh on 27th September 2021: What is Open, What is Closed

Bharat Bandh: Markets in Rajasthan's Jhalawar shut during protests

India

oi-Madhuri

The Union home ministry in view of the Bharat bandh had issued an advisory that some groups would be protesting against caste-based reservations in jobs and education. However, no impact of Bharat Bandh calls seen as yet in Meerut, while the situation in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar remained tense.

In Bihar's Arrah, protesters have stopped a train. They are protesting against caste-based reservations in jobs and education. A Clash broke out between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard.

#WATCH: Clash between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/s0RUA4KP2B  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

In Madhya Pradesh, curfew has been imposed in Bhind and Morena.

While calls for the bandh are being circulated on social media, no group has yet come forward to make it official.

The bandh on Tuesday has been called by outfits such as Ranveer Sena to protest against the Bharat Bandh called by Dalit organisations on April 2, which had turned violent in certain parts of the country.

The advisory had also stressed that district magistrates and superintendents of police be made personally responsible for ensuring that the law and order situation remained firmly under control in areas under their jurisdiction.

In Rajasthan, one of the five states that saw widespread violence, the government has snapped cellphone internet service in Jaipur and Alwar. Prohibitory orders, banning large gatherings, will also be imposed, the police said. Markets in Jhalawar were also shut during the protests.

The Bharat Bandh on April 2 was called by Dalit groups that were opposed to a Supreme Court order, which, they said, diluted a law meant for the protection of the community.
An Irish mans desperate attempt to find his missing wife in India and incompetence of police

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

It has been almost a month since his wife went missing in Kerala. Andrew Jordan, an Irish man who came to India to find his missing wife Liga Skromane (33) but was allegedly sent back to Ireland by the Indian police, is still hopeful that soon he would meet his wife. Unfortunately, the distraught man is finding it very hard to get any clue about his missing wife because of the alleged shoddy investigation by the Indian police.

Liga and her sister Ilze came to India on February 4 to join a six-week-long holistic Ayurvedic treatment in the southern state, stated a report by Independent.ie. Misfortune hit Andrew when he came to know that his wife was untraceable since March 14.

According to Independent.ie, on March 14 Liga left the treatment centre and was last seen chatting to people at Kovalam beach. "There have been no confirmed sightings of her since and she left her passport and phone in the resort," added Independent.ie.

Immediately after learning that his wife has gone missing, Andrew packed his bag and reached India on March 17. Hoping against hope, as several days have passed since Liga went missing, Andrew still strongly feels that his wife is alive but she is in some grave danger.

Talking about his bad experience with the Indian police, Andrew called them "incompetent". Worries of Andrew have been aggravated by the fact that last year Liga suffered from a mental breakdown and she later tried to commit suicide too.

"The police officer there told me everything was being done but when I started asking probing questions I realised nothing had been done, they just presumed that she was another holidaymaker gone awry and that she would turn up in a few days," Andrew told Liveline on RTE Radio One on Monday.

"I don't want this to be about criticising the Indian authorities but I do think they failed miserably in the early stages of the investigation, they missed the early signs. I hope they change their attitudes now and start to take it more seriously and fulfill their promises...," he added.

Andrew's mistrust against the Indian police has a strong reason. After he had a fight with a hotel manager, he was allegedly detained by the police and was kept in a hospital for six days. Later, the police sent him back to Ireland.

"Andrew is now trying to raise awareness about the search amongst the Indian community in Ireland and is also fundraising for a reward for information about her disappearance," stated Independent.ie.

The Kerala police had already closed the case, according to RTE Radio One's Liveline.

During his stay in Kerala, Andrew had put up around 50,000 posters of his wife and spoke to around 10,000 local people to help him find Liga. Along with the police, Andrew rued that the Indian media too is not doing anything to help him. He feels that every organisation in India are trying to hide the matter to avoid hurting the tourism prospects of Kerala.
44 fake accounts found during raid at an Axis Bank branch in Delhi

20 fake accounts, Rs 60 crore recovered in IT raid on Axis Bank branch in Noida

ATM cash withdrawal limit: Here's how much you money you can withdraw

Axis Bank chief Shikha Sharma to step down on Dec 31

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Axis Bank board has curtailed the fourth term of its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma to seven months following an unusual request from her that she be relieved on December 2018, 29 months ahead of the scheduled term.

The board's decision comes amidst RBI raising questions over her re-appointment for the fourth term as MD and CEO of the third largest private sector lender in the wake of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs).

Sharma, who would complete her third term on May 31, 2018, has been heading the bank since 2009.

The Axis Bank board accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from June 1 to December 31, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank said on December 8 last year, the board had decided to reappoint Sharma as the Managing Director and CEO, for a period of three years with effect from June 1, 2018, subject to receipt of requisite approvals.

The re-appointment, however, was yet to get the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"In this connection kindly note that Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank has requested the Board to reconsider the period of her re-appointment as the Managing Director and CEO of the Bank to be revised from June 1, 2018, up to December 31, 2018," it said.

The filing did not elaborate why Sharma wanted her fourth term to be curtailed to seven months from three years.

The board, the filing said, has "accepted" her said request, subject to the approval of the RBI.

According to sources said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shot off a letter to the Chairman of Axis Bank Sanjiv Misra, who is also a former Expenditure Secretary, with regard to the board's decision to re-appoint Sharma.

The RBI's letter has also cited the bank's performance and deteriorating asset quality condition over the years.

In July 2017, the board of Axis Bank had approved re-appointment of Sharma. Her new term will start from June 2018.

As per regulations, appointments of top management personnel at private sector banks require clearance from the RBI.

The private sector lender's NPAs jumped by over five-fold in recent financial years.

The gross NPAs worth Rs 4,110 crore at the end of March 2015 surged to Rs 21,280 crore at the end of March 2017. During the same period, the lender's net profit halved from Rs 7,357.8 crore to Rs 3,679.2 crore.

Recently, the RBI had also penalised the bank for incorrectly reporting bad loans. The asset-class divergence uncovered by the RBI was Rs 9,480 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 5,633 crore in 2016-17.

Laden with infrastructure loans, the bank has struggled to contain NPAs.

During demonetisation, Axis Bank was in the news for alleged involvement of its staff for suspected money laundering activities and illegal note conversions. Income Tax Department had conducted several raids and arrested few of its employees for indulging in illegal activities during the note ban initiated on November 8, 2016.

Last year, market regulator Sebi also ordered Axis Bank to strengthen its systems and conduct an internal probe to fix responsibility as the initial investigation showed the leakage of price-sensitive financial information was due to "inadequacy" of processes at the bank in the WhatsApp leak case.

The bank's results for the April-June 2017 quarter were "either identical or matched closely with the figures" that were in circulation on WhatsApp prior to an official announcement, Sebi had noted in its order.

Sebi's move followed a probe initiated after reports about Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI) being circulated in various private WhatsApp groups about certain companies, including Axis Bank, ahead of their official announcements.
BJP-Congress say donations, contributions are their main sources of income

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

BJP declared the maximum expenditure of Rs 710.057 cr during FY-2016-17 while INC incurred a total expenditure of Rs 321.66 cr (Rs 96.30 cr more than its total income).

Comparison of total income of BJP & INC between FY 2015-16 and 2016-17

Between FY 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18% (Rs 463.41 cr) from Rs 570.86 cr during FY 2015-16 to Rs 1,034.27 cr during FY 2016-17 while the income of INC decreased by 14% (Rs 36.20 cr) from Rs 261.56 cr during FY 2015-16 to Rs 225.36 cr during FY 2016-17 says Association for Democratic Reforms in this report.

7 National Parties (BJP, INC, BSP, NCP, CPM, CPI and AITC) have declared a total income of Rs. 1,559.17 cr, collected from all over India. The 7 National Parties declared a total expenditure of Rs 1,228.26 crore, the report also said.

The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was 30th Oct,'17. BJP submitted its audited report on 8th Feb 2018 (99 days delayed). INC submitted its audited report on 19th March 2018 (138 days delayed).

Top 3 sources of income of BJP and INC for FY-2016-2017

BJP and INC have declared donations/contributions as one of their 3 main sources of income. BJP- Rs 997.12 cr and INC- Rs 50.626 cr.

Grant/ donations/ contributions of Rs 997.12 cr declared by BJP forms 96.41% of the total income of the party during FY 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.644 cr Revenue from the issuance of Coupons by INC forms the topmost income of the party, contributing 51.32% of the total income of the party during FY 2016-17.

Top 3 items of expenditure of BJP and INC Parties for FY 2016-2017

The maximum expenditure for BJP during FY 2016-17 was towards Election/ General Propaganda which amounted to Rs 606.64 cr followed by expenses towards Administrative Cost, Rs 69.78 cr.

INC spent the maximum of Rs 149.65 cr on Election Expenditure followed by the expenditure of Rs 115.65 cr on Administrative and General Expenses.

All sources of income declared by National Parties: FY 2016-17

7 National parties have collected maximum 74.98% (Rs 1,169.07 cr) income from Voluntary contributions for FY- 2016-17.

During FY- 2016-17, National Parties have received Rs 128.60 cr income from Interest from Banks & FD.

7.98% or Rs 124.46 cr was income generated through Revenue from Issuance of coupons by National parties during FY- 2016-17.

BJP declares maximum expenditure of Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17

Observations

4 out of 7 National Parties (BJP, INC, NCP and CPI) have consistently delayed submitting their audit reports for the past five years. The top major parties, BJP and INC, have delayed submitting their audit reports by an average of almost 6 months.

It is observed that the 7 National Parties' total income has increased by 51%, in other words by Rs 525.99 cr. The total income of the 7 National Parties increasing from Rs 1,033.18 cr during FY- 2015-16 to Rs 1,559.17 cr during FY- 2016-17.

7 National parties have collected maximum 74.98% (Rs 1,169.07 cr) income from voluntary contributions for FY- 2016-17. In contrast, the parties had have received 60% (Rs 616.05 cr) of their income from voluntary contributions during FY- 2015-16.

Recommendations

The Supreme Court gave a judgment on September 13, 2013, declaring that no part of a candidate's affidavit should be left blank. Along the same lines, we recommend that the Election Commission India impose rules that no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank.

Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for 75% of the source of funds to be unknown.

According to the Finance Bill, 2017, Section 13A of the IT Act was amended to state that tax exemption will be given to registered political parties "Provided also that such political party furnishes a return of income for the previous year in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (4B) of section 139 on or before the due date under that section." Thus, any party which does not submit its IT returns on or before the due date, their income should not be tax-exempted and defaulting parties should be derecognized.

Those parties not following the ICAI guidelines for auditing of reports should be scrutinized by the IT department.

The National political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will only strengthen political parties, elections and democracy.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been given vote of confidence to stand for next year election despite his poor health condition, since he suffered a stroke in 2013.

Djamel Ould Abbes, secretary general of the ruling FLN party told Turkish news agency Anadolu that the party asked the 81-year old President to enter the presidential race next year if he feels fit.

A majority of the partys central committee members  who are elected  have submitted requests  asking the president to continue leading Algeria, Abbes told Anadolu.

Bouteflika came to power in 1999 and won four consecutive mandates, the fourth while he was in a wheelchair.

The 2013 stroke affected the Algerian leaders speaking abilities and mobility.

He has made rare public appearances which brought many to believe that the former general has been unable to rule. Public and oppositions figures have demanded his resignation and the army takeover of countrys affairs.

The ailing leader made a public appearance in a wheelchair Monday, his first in two years, for the inauguration of a mosque and the extension of Algiers metro. He waved hand to waiting crowd at the scenes of the ceremonies.
CBSE Class 10th Results 2021: Board likely to declare results soon; here's how to check your roll number

CBSE to conduct re-examination in Punjab on April 27

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) will conduct the re-examination of papers, which could not be held on April 2 in Punjab, on April 27. Class 10th French, Sanskrit and Urdu Course-B and class 12 Gujarati, Nepali, Kashmiri, Hindi- Elective and Core exams were scheduled to be held on April 2, but could not be held due to Bharat Bandh.

CBSE had said that the board conducted Class 12th and 10th exams smoothly on April 2 as per schedule across the country despite the call for Bharat Bandh.

On April 2, barring Punjab, approximately 6.2 Lakh students of class 10 and 12 appeared in various exams for various subjects including Hindi, Gujarati, Nepali, Kashmiri (of Class 10), Sanskrit, French and Urdu (of Class 10).

In few instances, at some centres in the country, the exam was delayed by a few minutes to half an hour due to the bandh. However, the students were facilitated to reach the exam centres and also given additional time to complete the exam without any Inconvenience or anxiety, as per standard procedures.

The decision to postpone the examinations in Punjab came at the request of Director General, School Education of Punjab Government. The state government had also taken a decision to keep all schools shut on that day.

Bharat Bandh' on April 2 was called by several Dalit organisations against the alleged "dilution" of the SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 20:20 [IST]
Our servers were hacked, internal documents may get uploaded on public websites: IndiGo

IndiGo passenger says he is COVID-19 positive; airline offloads him at Delhi airport

Vaccinated? Now get 10% discount on Indigo air ticket: How to avail it?

IndiGo does it again: Bengaluru surgeon complains of mosquitoes on plane, offloaded

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Dr Saurabh Rai, a prominent heart surgeon from Bengaluru was on Monday 'forcibly' offloaded from the Indigo flight at the Lucknow Airport after he complained about mosquitoes on flight!

Dr. Rai, the offloaded passenger on Tuesday said that the "Indigo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru was full of mosquitoes when I raised objection, I was manhandled by the crew and offloaded from the aircraft, I was even threatened."

"I was called a terrorist by Indigo and was forced to write an apology letter after I complained of mosquitoes in the plane," he further said.

However, the airline has claimed that the surgeon used "threatening language" and words such as "hijack" and that they had acted according to safety protocols.

According to reports, co-passengers have claimed that Dr Rai was manhandled by the staff members and forced to offload the plane after boarding it on seat number 22 C. He was asked to take another flight for Bengaluru.

Staff and security men did not even allow Dr Rai any bus or car service to take him back to the airport lounge. He had to walk from the plane to lounge on foot.

The Indigo staff at the Amausi Airport in Lucknow have not yet issued any statement on the incident and remain tight-lipped.

However, private airline's internal tweets on social media @InndiGo6E claimed that Dr Saurabh Rai was offloaded from 6E541 due to 'unruly' behaviour.

"Dr Rai had initially expressed concern s regarding mosquitoes on board. Before his concern could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language, including the word 'highjack'. He also attempted to instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft," said an internal tweet.

In a similar incident, last November, Indigo had to apologise to a passenger, Urvashi Parikh Viren, after she fell off her wheelchair while being assisted by its staff at Lucknow airport.

Civil Aviation ministry had condemned the assault on the passenger by IndiGo staff and sought a report from the DGCA.
To observe August 5 as Black Day in J&K, Pak Army, ISI put out detailed flow chart

Let Abhinandan go: When Pakistan Army chief was jittery and his legs shook in nervousness

Thaw in tensions? Pak Army chief says time to bury the past

J&K: Two jawans killed in ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani sector

India

oi-Madhuri

Two jawans have lost their lives on Tuesday in ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani sector along the Line of Control.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 1715 hours (5.15 PM) in Sunderbani sector along the Line of Control (LoC). Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said.

"However, in the exchange of fire, Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were grievously injured and succumbed to their injuries," the spokesman added.
Karnataka: Will Congress not allow Kumaraswamy to be CM for full 5-year term?

Is it chief minister Kumaraswamy or chief manager of Congress Ktaka ATM? BJP has an answer

All is well between Congress, JD(S)? Kumaraswamy meets Rahul as Karnataka waits for full cabinet

India

oi-Madhuri

It surely was a gruelling election which had all the essence that one could have asked for. Karnataka witnessed all the big wigs from all political parties hitting the campaign trail for the May 12 Karnataka elections.

We hope you enjoyed out LIVE coverage of the elections. Thank you for staying tuned with us.

Newest First Oldest First Election observer conducted a raid in Banaswadi area and seized Rs 19 lakh along with voter list and other election related materials. FIR registered. RR Nagar MLA Muniratna ran his constituency like an independent Republic where rule of law had no place. People were harassed and abused. False cases were filed against political opponents. Finally, seems like karma has caught up with Muniratna. Massive blow to Siddaramaiah, says BJP. Victory for Democracy! EC orders countermanding of RR Nagar polls after court ordered FIR against Congress candidate Muniratna Naidu for creating more than 10k fake voter ids. With Siddaramaiah's money bag, Muniratna in the dock, Congress is in a big soup in Karnataka, tweets BJP Karnataka. Polling in RR Nagar has been deferred. Polling to now be held on May 28 and counting on May 31. Earlier this week 9746 voter IDs were seized from a flat in the area. According reports, IT sleuths and district election commissioner conduct raids at Congress candidate Ashok Kheny's residence in Bidar. Kheny is contesting from Bidar South constituency. RSS ideologue Ram Madhav, says, "Karnataka Elections 2018 is an important election. Both parties, namely BJP & Congress have invested heavily in it. I am certain that BJP will be in a comfortable position & will get simple majority & will form the government in the state." Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) & Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) being dispatched from Smt. Kamala Bai Educational Institution to polling booths. The Congress has sought for the lifting of the ban on telecasting the Sriramulu video in which he is alleged to be discussing a pay off with a Supreme Court judge to bail out Janardhan Reddy in the illegal mining scam. Law and order is completely under control says Neelamanu Raju, Karnataka state police chief. 22,000 home guards have been deployed for security, she says. BJP MP, Prathap Simha urges EC to monitor religious places on polling day. He said that political parties would use these places to lure voters as there is no restriction on gathering there. Security has been tightened across the state ahead of polling to be held tomorrow. In Bengaluru, 14 additional commissioners, 1 joint Commisioner and 16 DCPs will oversee security. EC officials seize Rs 20 lakh unaccounted cash from a house in Bagalkote. The money was seized from the house of a man named Sandeep Maji. A Congress delegation has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The Congress has accused both of misleading people and launching personal attacks. Minister Viany Kulkarnis close aide raided by IT officials. Prashanth Kekare whose house was raided was taken into custody. Congress submits memorandum to the Election Commission regarding allegations of bribery of a Judge by BJP candidate B Sriramulu Income Tax Department conduct raids at house of Congress candidate Satish Sail's close associate Mangaldas Kamat in Ankola. According to reports, IT officials raid Prashant Kekare, a close associate of Congress minister Vinay Kulkarni in Dharwad. I-T sleuths raid a house belonging to a doctor in #Mangaluru. I-T officials scrutinise documents. EC officials seize innova car carrying unaccounted cash amount of around Rs 17 lakh in Devanahalli. Poll officials seize Rs 2.17 crore unaccounted cash in Molakalmuru, Chitradurga. Close associate of Congress leader Ramanath Rai, Kachigudda Sanjeev Kumar, allegedly attacked in Bantwal; 4 others including Kumar's wife injured, 2 cars damaged. Police arrest 2 men for trying to bribe voters at Chikkodi in Belagavi. Accused allegedly tried to bribe voters in favour of Rayabagh BJP candidate Duryodhana Aihole. The EC has directed television channels not to air the Sriramulu video in which allegations of him bribing a judge to bail out Janardhan Reddy was made. The direction comes hours after State Home minister Ramalinga Reddy called what the Congress described as an 'explosive press conference' and released the video clippings which were in circulation on social media. Congress claimed the 'sting operation' revealed that alleged attempts were made to bribe to seek a favourable verdict for Reddy. The party alleged that just one day before the then CJI retired, he passed an order in a case related to Reddy brothers' Oblapuram Mining Company. Here are some tips to vote if you do not have a voter ID card. You can vote as long as your name is on the electoral roll. If you do not have a voter ID, then alternative ID proofs can be carried. They are Passport, Driving License, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central/State Govt PSUs/Public Limited Companies, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, MNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Pension document with photograph,Authenticated Photo Voter Slip issued by the election machinery, Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs. The big fear among the candidates especially those contesting from Bengaluru is that polling day is a Saturday. Bengalureans who have this habit of complaining about everything ironically are the worst when it comes to voting. They need to shrug off their weekend mode and go out and vote. In the 2013 assembly the voter turn in Bengaluru was 57 while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls it was 54. Those are poor numbers. The Income Tax Department (ITD) today said that at Rs 37.33 crore, it has seized "six times" more cash and jewellery in poll-bound Karnataka this time as compared to the last elections in 2013. The poll campaign, for the 224-seat Assembly to be held on May 12, ended today. "From the beginning of the code of conduct period on March 27 to till date, the department has seized unaccounted cash of Rs 31.50 crore and unexplained jewellery worth Rs 5.83 crore. This is nearly six times the seizure made by the department in the last state assembly election in 2013," the department said in a statement. "The seizures are likely to further go up in the last days of electioneering," it added. Even in case, if the EC is able to ascertain that attempt was made to stop people from voting, it can cancel the poll. If the EC finds that a fraud was involved, it could even cancel election to the constituency. The Commission, the sources said, deliberated on the issue and decided to seek more information from the state election adminstration before arriving at a conclusion. The Election Commission tonight deferred a decision on the recovery of nearly 10,000 voter I-cards from a flat in Rajrajeshwari Nagar assembly seat of poll-bound Karnataka even as it sought fresh information from the state election machinery. The Election Commission of India has proposed 450 women-friendly booths. Known as Pink or Sakhi booths, these booths would be run by women only. A team of the EC is on a three day visit to Karnataka. Arrangements such as ramps, wheel chairs and magnifying glasses are also being made to ensure that differently abled persons have a smooth voting experience. Congress will have 35 manifestos. The manifesto committee headed by senior Congress leader, Veerappa Moily is already ready with the draft and the same will be released in another 2 weeks. The manifestos would be district and administrative region wise. There would be one common manifesto for the entire state. P.Muralidhar Rao, National BJP General Secretary and Karnataka in charge and N.Ravikumar, state General Secretary will address media at BJP media centre, Malleshwaram in Bengaluru. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on April 4 visited the Lingayat seminary Siddhaganga Mutt and met the 111-year old seer along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and KPCC President G Parameshwara. Gandhi's visit comes against the backdrop of the Siddaramaiah government's move to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, who are politically powerful. Kannada actor, Sudeep who recently met with JD(S) chief, H D Kumaraswamy has now called on Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah at his residence. There has been a big push to rope in cine stars into this campaign. Following Sudeeps meeting with Kumaraswamy there were speculations of him either joining the party or campaigning for it. Rahul Gandhi accuses Narendra Modi of disrespecting various institutions by having RSS men sitting in every ministry and giving orders. He said if voted to power, Congress would free these institutions of RSS control. "I don't know if you all know that in every single minister's office, there is an RSS man sitting and giving orders. So what can you expect.... nothing but disrespecting the institutions. The banking system of the country has been demolished by having this structure. "18 lakh people are missing from the voting list. We met with the Chief Electoral Officer and urged him to look into it", said Congress spokesperson, Brijesh Kalappa. "At least 18 to 20 lakh names have gone mysteriously missing. It appears as though only members of a particular community find their names missing in the list", Kalappa said. "EC told us that there is still time to rectify this until April 14," he further added. Lies and only Lies!



See how @RahulGandhi fictitiously revokes the SC/ST Act to incite hatred in society. pic.twitter.com/4vcnM0zltM  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 5, 2018 BJP President Amit Shah attacks Congress President Rahul Gandhi in his latest tweet, says "Lies and only Lies". He claimed that the Congress president was "lying and fictitiously revoking the SC/ST Act to incite hatred in society." Karnataka Congress on Thursday tweeted saying, "Thank you Amit Shah for speaking the truth yet again. You are turning out to be our Star Campaigner! Karnataka's Silk production hit an all-time high in 2016-17. Major cocoon markets have been modernised & integrated with e-Mandi platform." Manickram Tagore, Secretary, All India Congress Committee, denied reports suggesting announcement of chief ministerial candidate on April 15. He tweeted, "I am surprised that I was misquoted in an article @thenewsminute about things I have neither said nor implied. Thank you @dhanyarajendran for immediately stepping in and clarifying the same and removing this article." Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, wife of late Srikantadatta Narsimharaja Wadiyar, on Thursday ruled out her entry into politics. I am not entering politics. I have been saying this for a long time. I have no interest in contesting elections, she told the media persons as she ended speculations over her possible entry into politics. Amit Shahs visit, which came ahead of the state assembly elections had attracted unnecessary media attention, she felt. The scion of the erstwhile royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar too had no interest in joining politics, she added. Senior BJP leader K S Eshwarappa on Thursday 'advised' Chief Minister Siddaramaiah not to contest from Chamundeshwari Constituency or face a defeat. Taking a dig at Siddaramaiah's statement to the effect that BJP and JDS have joined hands to defeat him from Chamundeshwari segment on the fringes of Mysuru city, the BJP leader said that by making such a statement Siddaramaiah had conceded his defeat. ''When such is the case why should he contest? That too when he has stated that this is his last election?" he asked. BJP General Secretary, incharge of North East and J&K Ram Madhav has been roped in for Karnataka and is looking at crucial aspects of BJP campaign. Madhav has been tasked to push for a decisive shift in BJP campaign efforts and work towards a repeat of Tripura type performance in Karnataka. He held a series of meetings in Bengaluru today with top Sangh functionaries, intellectuals and civil society members, reports ANI. The BJP's first list of candidates for the Karnataka assembly election 2018 is ready. The party has finalised the names of 130 candidates and would release it soon. The BJP has roped in its Tripura architect Ram Madhav for the Karnataka elections. Sources say he met with several eminent persons in the city to discuss the election strategy. Madhav who is the national general secretary will spend a considerable amount of time in the state, sources say. VS Ugrappa, MLC and Minister Sri HM Revanna to hold press conference at 1:30pm on Friday at KPCC Office today. The party claims that the leaders will give "Breaking News against BJP". The Ministry for Home Affairs has stayed clear of the Lingayat religious minority status issue. The issue is beyond it jurisdiction and the Ministry of Minority Affairs would look into it. An MHA spokesperson said that a decision to this effect would not be taken anytime soon as the model code of conduct is in force in Karnataka. We will win 150 seats in the elections. We will provide good and clean governance. We have to realise Narendra Modis and Amit Shahs dream of a "Congress mukt Bharat. Let also ensure that Karnataka is Congress mukt", B S Yeddyurappa said. "People are in distress because of Congress. Crime rate has gone up, farmers have committed suicide. The only solution to all these problems is the BJP", he also said. Karnataka Assembly Elections: Chamrajpet constituency in Bengaluru set to witness an interesting battle. Zameer Ahmed who quit the JD(S) to contest on Congress ticket while Altaf Khan who quit the Congress to quit on JD(S) ticket. The BJP will field a strong candidate to take advantage of the split in Muslim votes. Will the trick pay off? Let us wait and see. Congress MLC, V.S. Ugrappa and Minister Sri HM Revanna to hold press conference at 1:30pm on Friday at KPCC Office today. The party claims that the leaders will give, "Breaking News against BJP". LED van for BJP campaigning will be inaugurated at Bashan Circle in Bengaluru by B.S.Yeddyurappa, P.Muralidhar Rao, Shobha Karandlaje and other leaders today at 2.30 p.m "I will contest from Chamundeshwari constituency and I will definitely win," says CM Siddaramaiah in Mysore. "Son Dr. Yateendra will contest from Varuna constituency if only party high command decides," he said. CM Siddaramaiah visits famous Lingayat mutt in Suttur. Seeks blessings from the seer. The Election Commission of India has sacked Home Ministry Advisor Kempaiah. This action comes in the wake of JD(S) supremo, H D Deve Gowda complaining to the poll body that Kempaiah was using government vehicles to transport money for the elections. Congress leaders begins press conference at KPCC office in Bengaluru. MLS VS Ugrappa releases 3 Income Tax documents against BJP's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa. The party alleged that Yeddyurappa is involved in Rs 1033 Cores scam. Yeddyurappa as CM issued a tender worth Rs. 1033 cr to RNSIL in Upper Bhadra Project.



IT Depts order dated 28/03/2016 after a seizure operation states that Sunil(V.P,Finance,RNSIL) has on oath & based on diary jottings admitted to have paid bribe to BSY: MLC Ugrappa#BSY420 pic.twitter.com/WyydHmT00O  Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) April 6, 2018 Congress levels graft charges on BSY These are not our documents. This is an order against Shri Yeddyurappa by the Income tax department under the Central Govt. Yeddyurappa has even paid a fine for non-declaration, which is in itself an admission of guilt of receiving Rs. 4.11 crore bribe, Karnataka Congress quoted MLC Ugrappa as saying. Former TV journalist and MP Tejaswini is expected to take on HD Kumaraswamy in Ramanagara on a BJP ticket. BJP state general secretary CT Ravi demanded that Jignesh Mewani be barred from entering Karnataka till voting day on May 12. This comes a day after Dalit leader Mevani advised people to disrupt Prime Minister Narendra Modis upcoming rally on April 15. Mevani called for people to enter Modis rally, throw chairs in the air and question the prime minister's promise to generate two crores worth of employment in the state. He said that if Modi does not answer, then he should be asked to leave and take shelter at a Ram Mandir in the Himalayas. Mevani is currently in Chitradurga and he has been appealing to all Dalit groups in the state to not vote for the BJP in the assembly elections. Amit Shah said on Friday he is a Hindu Vaishnav, refuting Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiahs claim that the BJP chief is a Jain. Amit Shah is a Jain. He needs to clarify first whether he is AHINDU. Jain is a separate religion. How can he talk about me like that, Siddaramaiah had said.
National Selfie Day 2019: Remembering the man who took the first selfie in the world in 1839

Karnataka elections: BJPs selfie hypocrisy gets exposed by targetting Rahul for imitating Modi

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, April 10: Are you selfie-addicted like our netas too? Don't worry in today's world when narcissism rules the roost, selfies are just an extension of our society. From college-goers to politicians, nobody can resist the temptation of taking selfies anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes in toilets too. After all, we are all answerable to social media. Unless and until we don't post nth numbers of selfies on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others, the world would come crashing down. Right?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections first told the countrymen that a leader is as good as his selfies. He took selfies with his supporters, poor women, Dalits and in front of polling booths too. No matter wherever he was, he made it a point to inundate our social media feeds with his selfies. Modi's selfie rage soon spread like a tsunami and all our leaders, cutting across party lines, started following in the footsteps of the PM.

Even Modi's vocal critics could be seen imitating him, taking selfies after selfies, these days. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, infamous for being the reluctant politician, too overcame his inhibitions by posing happily for selfies with his fans. During his Sunday visit to Bengaluru to campaign for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, Rahul posed for several selfies. Every selfie saw him with commoners and the Congress president flashing a warm and a kind smile.

However, now it seems the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a problem with Rahul taking selfies. The BJP cadres are openly criticising Rahul for taking selfies. Probably, they have forgotten that it's their "leader" only who taught Rahul to be selfie-friendly to get closer to voters and win elections.

On Sunday, as Rahul was hopping from one place to another in Bengaluru, he made it a point to travel in the city's famous metro. Before boarding the metro, Rahul took a selfie with Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara near the ticket counter. That selfie, we must say, badly miffed the BJP.

The BJP, which is in a direct fight with the Congress in Karnataka, compared Rahul with a "rich kid" (of course, he is rich, after all, he is the scion of Gandhi family, but a kid, we leave it to readers) for taking selfies. The BJP complained that Rahul was having a taste of "commoners' life".

"Taking selfies at Metro ticket counter--things rich kids do in their rare encounter with a commoners life!" tweeted BJP.

Taking selfies at Metro ticket counter - things rich kids do in their rare encounter with a commoners life! pic.twitter.com/9W6LuGgQTn  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 8, 2018

It is really astonishing to see that political parties have now started attacking each other over selfies. Politicians who are infamous for not talking about real issues like water scarcity, bad roads, farmers' suicide, agrarian crisis, unemployment, lack for good government schools and bad healthcare system, to name a few agonies of voters, have enough time to indulge in selfies and then fight over them.

Karnataka is voting for the 224-member Assembly on May 12. The results of the elections will be declared on May 15. Once the results will be out, we will know who has won the selfie battle between Modi and Rahul.
Karnataka: Will Congress not allow Kumaraswamy to be CM for full 5-year term?

Is it chief minister Kumaraswamy or chief manager of Congress Ktaka ATM? BJP has an answer

All is well between Congress, JD(S)? Kumaraswamy meets Rahul as Karnataka waits for full cabinet

Karnataka elections: Congress list likely to be announced on April 12

India

pti-PTI

Bengaluru, Apr 10: The list of Congress candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections, scheduled for May 12, could be released on April 12, a party functionary said on Tuesday.

The screening committee has already submitted its report to the Congress Working Committee, Congress spokesperson Prof K E Radhakrishna said. During his visit to Karnataka on April 7 and 8, Congress president Rahul Gandhi too had deliberated on the names of candidates and their ability to win.

"The list is likely to be out in the next two days.I think most of the names will be out in the first list itself," Radhakrishna said.

The party has assigned sitting MLAs, ministers and senior party functionaries to quell possible dissidence once the list is out, he said.

"Compared to BJP, we will have less rebellion. We will counsel the rebels," a party functionary said.

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

PTI
As Karnataka polls on May 12, here are the top ten constituencies to watch out for

Ktaka polls: Congress unlikely to give ticket to NA Harris, is he paying price for his sons sins?

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Controversial Congress leader NA Harris seems to be paying a heavy price for his son's sins. If reports are to be believed the Congress is unlikely to give a ticket to Harris to contest the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections from the high-profile Shantinagar constituency in Bengaluru. Harris is a two-time MLA from Shantinagar and he was hoping to contest polls from his home turf, but that seems unlikely now.

According to a report published by the News18, Congress screening committee is against re-nominating Harris from Shantinagar constituency. It is stated that Harris, who shares a good rapport with the Congress leadership in Delhi, has a lot of enemies within his own party in Karnataka. However, the final nail in the coffin of Harris' career is the sensational pub attack case in Bengaluru involving his son Mohammed Nalapad Harris. Junior Harris was booked for attempt to murder for allegedly assaulting a man in a pub in February this year.

Reports say that Harris' son has been involved in several criminal activities. However, he was only booked in the pub attack case. Moreover, Harris has totally mismanaged his constituency which is located in the centre of Bengaluru.

A lot of voters in Shantinagar told OneIndia that if Harris once again contested the polls from the constituency, he had to taste defeat for sure. Along with water scarcity, Shantinagar roads are in a mess. The constituency is yet to see proper drainage system.

According to reports, the Congress will pick up the names of all its candidates for the upcoming polls on April 15. Karnataka is voting for the 224-member Assembly on May 12. The results of the elections will be declared on May 15.

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
PM Introduces New Tax Initiatives

By Tea Mariamidze

Georgian government has introduced new tax initiatives, aimed at promoting business environment in the country.At the governmental session on Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated that the initiative will increase the share of small and medium sized businesses.The three new initiatives are really as large-scale and innovative as already initiated reforms, the PM said and explained that the first initiative envisages exempting entrepreneurs from any additional bureaucracy-related challenges.Instead of five tax documents, the entrepreneurs will be required to present only one tax document. Our entrepreneurs will be able to get rid of a huge bureaucratic burden and they will not spend much resource on the documentary turnover as they spend today, he added.According to Kvirikashvili, the second initiative the government simplifies the procedures of purchasing products from local entrepreneurs, people living in the village and small farmers. The PM believes that businesses should be promoted to buy Georgian products easily.Local products should be maximally presented in small hotels or family guest houses in order to promote locally produced goods, he noted.As for the third initiative, it aims at turning Georgia into a regional financial center. According to the PM, this initiative will allow foreign investors to register their companies online in Georgia, open bank accounts and also manage their companies online outside Georgia.I'm sure this initiative will be a very important new source of income for our country and we will allow us be established as an international financial center not only in the region but abroad as well, " said Kvirikashvili.The Prime Minister noted that the initiative was preceded by in-depth discussions of the economic team of the government and the parliamentary majority, adding such coordination will continue.In March the government declared that tax for small and medium entrepreneurs would be reduced five times, which aims to support businesses in Georgia and increase the share of small and medium sized business in the countrys economy.
Kerala: Accused in suicide case dies in hospital following alleged custodial torture

India

oi-Madhuri

Sreejith, an accused in an alleged suicide case in Varapuzha, in which a man committed suicide after a gang attacked his house, has passed away in a hospital. The family has alleged that he was tortured in police custody.

Sreejith, 26, a resident of Devaswompadam, Varapuzha, was picked up from his residence around 11 pm on Friday by plainclothes policemen. Around 4 am on Sunday, he was brought to the emergency department of Aster Medcity on referral from Ernakulam Medical College in a critical condition.

On arrival, he complained of abdominal pain, vomiting and inability to pass urine.

Varapuzha police had registered a case against 14 persons and arrested 10 in connection with the death of a 55-year-old man, who was found hanging in his house after a gang attacked his house on April 6.
Gujarat: Woman forces 11-year-old girl to dip her hand in boiling oil to prove she was not lying

Lost and found: Thanks to Aadhaar, a mentally-ill woman reunites with her family

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

New Delhi, April 10: At a time when doubts over Aadhaar have been raised over the issue of privacy, a woman from Rajasthan, suffering from mental illness, got reunited with her family recently because her biometric details existed with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

In November last year, the 31-year-old woman from Rajasthan's Alwar district went missing from her house. Her husband had lodged a missing complaint about her in the Malakhera police station in Alwar district on November 30, 2017. However, she could not be traced.

As her family was struggling to find their beloved, the Delhi police rescued her after she was found abandoned on roads. As the police had no clue about her address, she was sent to a short-stay home, Nirmal Chhaya, by a court which had directed the authorities to help her undergo Aadhaar registration.

In the process of making her Aadhaar card, it was revealed that her biometric records pre-existed in the Aadhaar database and the Delhi Police were able to obtain her details from the UIDAI.

The consistent efforts of the court to reunite her with her family proved fruitful when metropolitan magistrate Abhilash Malhotra was informed by police officials that they have found her antecedents. When the police contacted her husband, he willingly came forward to take her back home.

During a recent hearing, the woman, who was kept in Asha Kiran, a home for the mentally disabled in Rohini, Delhi and her husband were brought to the court. The investigating officer submitted that they have verified the credentials of the man and the police has no objection to the reintegration of the woman to her family.

"Accordingly, the patient was handed over to her husband after completion of necessary formalities in Asha Kiran. The husband of the woman has been directed to ensure proper treatment of the patient is continued," the magistrate said.

The family of the woman said that they are indebted to the UIDAI because of which she was reunited with them.
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Modi flood swept away snakes, mongooses, but tiger cant be tamed: Shiv Sena

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Modi floods may have swept away snakes and mongooses by the tiger cannot be tamed, the Shiv Sena said while rebuffing BJP president Amit Shah's rapprochement efforts.

The bickering ally, which has declared its intention of going alone in the next polls, made strong comments against the BJP, saying the party was "still living in the golden era of 2014" while "the picture of 2019 will be completely different."

In a hard-hitting editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamna', the Sena said the BJP had forgotten "humility" after coming to power in 2014 but has started getting "some thoughts" after the Lok Sabha bypoll results of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, where the party suffered a serious setback last month.

The BJP lost both the seats which had been won by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"The BJP does not need friends. They are strong and self-reliant," the Sena editorial said.

"Their (BJP's) wingless plane flew in the sky and kept on flying. Now they want to land but there is no place to land," it said.

"Let the BJP keep dreaming about the golden era. We wish them luck," it added.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections together but the BJP subsequently decided to go alone in the Maharashtra assembly polls in October same year.

The BJP-led government came to power in the state in October 2014, while the Shiv Sena joined the government in December that year.

A few months back, an unhappy Sena had announced that it would contest all the future elections alone.

Amit Shah, while addressing a press conference here on April 6, had said the BJP hoped the Uddhav Thackeray-led party would continue to be the part of NDA.

It said Shah's comment that Shiv Sena should be with the BJP was made in an indirect manner.

"They (BJP) did not get this wisdom in 2014 and after getting power, they even forgot humility," the Sena said.

Apparently referring to Shah's analogy of animals while attacking the opposition parties getting together against the BJP, the editorial said, "In the 2014 Modi floods, snakes, mongooses, dogs and cats were washed away. Similarly, on the BJP Foundation Day in 2018, the nationalist thoughts too were washed away."

Without naming Amit Shah, the Sena said, "The opposition parties were compared with animals such as snakes, mongoose, dogs and cats. Some of them were also with the UPA earlier. Recently, the TDP left the BJP camp but the Shiv Sena's tiger (to which Sena associates itself with) is not a caged animal; hence it continues to roar on the state and national issues," it said.

"You cannot tame the tiger," it added.

The editorial also mocked the BJP over the "extravagant" manner in which it celebrated the Foundation Day on April 6.

"...it was so because the party is in power both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. The Congress rallies earlier also used to be equally grand."

On Maharashtra Congress party chief Ashok Chavan's allegations that Rs 50 crore was spent on one rally of Amit Shah in Mumbai on that day, the Sena said, "If Chavan's allegations are correct, it does not look good to spend so much amount on a single rally."

It also said many leaders who were mere party workers in early days of the BJP, were now sitting on the dais.

But, the leaders like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who took pains for the party's growth, were not even mentioned on the party's banners or on the list of invitees, the Shiv Sena said.

It said it was expected that Amit Shah, during his rally, would comment on issues like corruption, unending violence in Kashmir and attacks on Dalits, but he did not speak on these issues.
A matter of immense pride says PM Modi on BJP getting first RS seat from Puducherry

'Bihar made Gandhiji Mahatma', says PM at Satyagraha se Swachhagraha event

India

oi-Madhuri

PM Narendra Modi arrived in Bihar on Tuesday, he will lay the foundation stone for various projects in the state and speak at a Swacch Bharat Abhiyan event. He was received upon arrival by Governor Satyapal Malik and CM Nitish Kumar.

Addressing a rally in Champaran, Modi said,'' 100 years ago, people from across the country came to Champaran and worked under the leadership of Gandhi ji. Today, enthusiastic youngsters are working shoulder to shoulder with cleanliness workers: PM Modi at Motihari, Bihar.''

''I am very proud that the people of Bihar have once again shown their leadership ability in this journey from Satyagraha to Swachhagraha,'' PM Modi said at Motihari.

Meanwhile, security has also been tightened and nearly 3,000 policemen have been deployed for PM Modi's Bihar visit.

Modi will also flag off a number of railway schemes. He is also likely to flag off a new bi-weekly train Humsafar Express connecting Katihar to New Delhi, launch electrification work of Motihari-Muzaffarpur rail line and doubling of Muzaffarpur-Narkatiyaganj railway track.

PM to flag off India's Superfast train: All you need to know

Modi will also dedicate to the nation a locomotive developed at the Electric Locomotive Factory, a collaboration between India and France, in Madhepura. A sprawling tent-city, 'Swachhagram', has been set up to accommodate 'Swachch Bharat Mission' volunteers from other states.

The Prime Minister's visit is a part of the concluding celebration of Champaran Satyagraha centenary launched by the Bihar Government in April last year. Mahatma Gandhi had set off on his Champaran satyagraha in 1917 in protest against atrocities on Indigo planters.
Telangana says, 'meeting on south funds for north not good for country'

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Telangana government has decided not to take part in the South Indian Finance Ministers' conference called by the Kerala government against the Centre trying to divert more funds to north India at the cost of the southern states.

Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao advised his finance minister, Etela Rajender not to attend the meeting in Kerala as it would not be good for national integration or national interests.

The meeting was called against the Terms of Reference by the Centre for the 15th Finance Commission for devolution of Central taxes to states which stipulate that the 2011 Census should be taken as a basis instead of the 1971 Census taken earlier.

Rajender confirmed that he would not be taking part in the meeting. However, Andhra Pradesh has confirmed that its finance minister would be part of the meeting.
Telangana, Tamil Nadu skip southern Fin Min's meet over 15th Finance Commission

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The crucial meeting of the ministers of the southern states is underway in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram to discuss the concerns and views on the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission. However, Tamil Nadu, Telangana has pulled out of today's meeting.

The meeting has been organised by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac in Thiruvananthapuram after the southern states opposed the latest terms of reference (ToR), which they claim will cut their share in revenues while benefitting the Centre with a bigger slice of the pie.

Talking to reporters, Kerala finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said the changes in the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission, that would adversely affect the southern states, has not become a debate in the country.

"The objective of the conference was to highlight the issue and make it a national agenda for debate", Isaac said. Slamming the Centre, he said the ToR was against the federal co-operative structure of the country. "We will not allow destroying the federal co-operative structure of the nation," he said.

The ToR has recommended using the 2011 census to calculate population for allocation of union tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by previous finance commissions. This would adversely affect the southern states, he said.

There was uncertainty over the incentives to be given to states, he said. There were several issues that have to be discussed at the national level. The meeting would be the first step towards that, he said.

The Centre should provide freedom to the 15th Finance Commission to hear the states, Isaac said. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have confirmed participation in the conference, which would be inaugurated by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, he said.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)
The BJPs gamble in shifting Sriramulu from Ballari to Chitradurga

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

When the BJP announced its first list of 72 candidates for the Karnataka election, there was a surprise. B Sriramulu the strongman from Ballari was given a ticket from Molakalmur in Chitradurga.

Sriramulu had first represented Ballari city for one term before shifting to Ballari rural which was among the five seats reserved for Schedule Tribes post the delimitation of constituencies. He won from this seat thrice- 2008, 2011 (by-election) and in 2013 on a BSR Congress ticket, a party that he had formed after falling out with the BJP.

Dissent grows in BJP after first list of candidates for Karnataka election is announced

What one needs to note here is that he was instrumental in ensuring the victories of three of his candidates in the last election from Molakalmur, Kampli and Kudachi in Belagavi.

Molakalmur borders both the Davangere and Ballari region and the population among the Nayaka community is very high. Sriramulu is considered to be the undisputed leader of the Valmiki Nayaka community. He has often been termed as the saviour of the community.

Pulling out Sriramulu from Ballari would mean that the party gets to expand its vote share about the Nayaka community in Chitradurga, Raichur and Gulbarga. Further, he would also oversee Ballari for the BJP. Sriramulu would want to ensure the 2008 performance of the BJP in Ballari when the party won 8 out of the total 9 seats.

BJP's first list: Big push for Lingayats

Sriramulu would have a bigger role to play in the elections. He would be the one taking Siddaramaiah head-on on his AHINDA policy ( Kannada acronym for minorities, OBCs and Dalits). Chitradurga which has six seats would be crucial for the BJP. The Dalit and ST votes play a key factor here and Sriramulu being an ST would help the BJP secure these votes, the party feels.

Sriramulu has been portrayed as the undisputed leader of the ST community. The party felt that such strong leaders must be moved out of their comfort zone so that they can influence a larger number of votes outside their original constituency. The BJP is also toying with the idea of projecting Sriramulu as the deputy chief minister candidate in a bid to bag the ST votes.

If one takes a look at the numbers in Ballari and Chitradurga, there are around 8 lakh ST votes. The vote share in the 15 assembly constituencies in both Ballari and Chitradurga add up to 18 per cent. In addition to this five assembly segments in Ballari are reserved.

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018: BJP announces first list of 72 candidates

Further, the party has also taken note that it had failed miserably in Chitradurga in 2013. It managed to win just one out of the six seats that it contested. In Ballari too the BJP lost seven of the seats thanks to the internal bickering and Sriramulu quitting the party.

The BJP has taken a huge gamble, but party insiders are confident that this would pay off. The one point is that by fielding Sriramulu, the party is looking at his influence over the voter, especially the ST community in both Ballari as well as Chitradurga.

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
Unnao rape case: 'Victim's father did not die in jail, will form SIT to probe', says ADG

India

oi-Madhuri

Rape accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar's brother, Atul Singh was arrested on Tuesday from Lucknow in connection with the death of Unnao rape victim's father in jail. Three other people have also been arrested. Meanwhile, the body of Surender Singh, father of the rape victim, has been handed over to the family. Cremation will happen at some time.

Speaking on the issue, UP police while addressing a press conference declared that a SIT (Special Investigation Team) will be formed to probe the case.

Also, the official claimed that the "rape-victim's father; who died on Monday, did not die in the police custody".

''Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe all allegations related to Unnao matter. Investigation is being done & action will definitely be taken,'' said Anand Kumar, ADG Law and Order on rape allegations against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar & death of the father of rape victim.

''Postmortem report states 'Cause of death shock & septicemia due to peritonitis & ascending colon perforation,'' he said.

The rape victim's father Pappu Singh, 50, was rushed to a hospital from the Unnao district jail on Sunday night and died during treatment. He had been arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act after he was allegedly beaten up by Sengar's brother Anil Singh.

After her father's death, the victim alleged that he was "killed at the behest of the BJP MLA" inside the jail.

Taking serious note of the custodial death, the Yogi Adityanath government has instituted a judicial probe into the death of the rape victim's father and suspended five policemen, including SHO Makhi Police Station.

On Sunday, the victim had alleged that she was raped by the BJP MLA and his accomplices in May last year, but police took no action on her complaint. She also said that she and her family were threatened after they filed an FIR. The woman who has accused the MLA had even tried to immolate herself outside Adityanath's office.

Meanwhile, MLA Sengar denied the allegations: "Since the last two days, conspirators have been trying to make this incident successful. They reached the Chief Minister's residence and tried to give shape to an incident. I request the administration that the mobile numbers of these people should be taken, and there should be an investigation into who all are part of this conspiracy, and who are the criminals. Whoever is at fault should be punished."
Dont be nervous says Chandrababu Naidu after four of his MPs join BJP

Immoral and un-democratic says TDP after four of its MPs join BJP

Vote anyone but BJP: TDP tells Telugu people in Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Telugu Desam Party which broke away from the NDA recently has told the Telugu speaking population in Karnataka to vote for anybody but the BJP in the Karnataka assembly election.

At a press conference, Deputy Chief Minister K E Krishna Murthy said that the Telugu people of Karnataka, Tamil Naidu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh should vote against the BJP because Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done an injustice to Andhra Pradesh by not according it special category status.

He also added that if the Union Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues with its dictatorial attitude, it would bring about differences between the north and south in future.

Meanwhile, there is talk that the TDP has sent its teams to Karnataka to campaign against the BJP. The party has however denied these allegations.

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
Mamata failed to stop post-poll violence, has no right to attend peace meet in Rome: Suvendu

West Bengal Panchayat elections 2018: What you need to know

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

West Bengal is all set to witness a triangular contest between Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), BJP, CPI(M) and Congress in West Bengal Panchayat elections, scheduled to be held next month.

The rural polls are being held at a time state chief minister Mamata Banerjee is trying to unite opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 parliamentary polls. She is seen as key player in uniting opposition ahead of general elections. She has also met a host of leaders, including those from the Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Accordig to the reports, the BJP is trying to gain ground in West Bengal, a state where it hopes to do well after an emphatic victory in Tripura, where the party ousted the Left Front government of 25 years in this year's assembly polls. It is crucial for the ruling TMC to maintain strong mandate it got in 2016 Assembly polls. Left and Congress will fight for their existence in West Bengal politics.

A warm up match for BJP

The upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal are rapidly emerging as a warm up match for the BJP ahead the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with the saffron party pulling out all stops to reach out to the people, political observers say.

With nearly 40 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal located in villages and semi-urban areas, administered by panchayats, an absolute control of the rural bodies is a must for political parties to have an upper hand on rivals in the next year's Lok Sabha polls.

BJP president Amit Shah had recently said the party is aiming to win 22 seats in Bengal.

Crucial for TMC

The battle is interestingly poised as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is planning to play a bigger role nationally after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the BJP aiming to emerge as the main opposition to the TMC in the state.

An estimated 50 million voters are eligible to vote in these elections to gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads.

Elections will be held in 48,751 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 9,240 seats in 341 panchayat samitis and 825 seats in 20 zilla parishads. There will be 57,233 booths spread across the 20 districts.

The districts voting in the first phase are Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, West Midnapore and East Midnapore.

On May 3, polling will be held in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts, while in the third phase on May 5 is scheduled for Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda districts, Singh said.

Repolling, if required, for the first phase will be held on May 3; for the second phase on May 5 and for the third phase on May 7.

Panchayat elections in Bengal have often been marred by violence. However, the scale of such attacks appear to have increased in 2018. At least two have died and more than 200 people are reported to be seriously injured.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)
A secret trip to an ISIS medical camp in Syria changed the course for this Bengaluru doctor

After Skripals case, Syria chemical attack intensifies US-Russia confrontation

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

After the expulsion of diplomats from both sides in the wake of the allegations that Moscow poisoned of its former spies Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, UK, violating international law and sovereignty of another country, it is Syria which has emerged as the latest venue of confrontation between the US and Russia.

On Monday, April 9, after US President Donald Trump said a decision on a response to the alleged use of chemical weapon by the Syrian regime in Douma to crush the rebel's last stronghold was imminent, Russia warned that any sort of military action by the Americans would lead to "grave repercussions".

Russia led by Vladimir Putin has backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad against the West for political and strategic reasons and the latest confrontation proved that it is in no mood to concede any territory over the Syrian problem.

Trump met his generals in the White House on Monday to discuss on options available to respond to the attack in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, which killed several dozens of people and left hundreds sick and injured.

The act earned the Assad regime an international wrath and even Trump, who is otherwise known to be soft on Putin despite his country's long tradition of rivalry with Moscow, said Putin also bore some responsibility for the act by supporting "Animal" Assad.

Russia has countered the allegations of the use of chemical weapon saying there was none and even if there was, it was an act carried out by the rebels backed by the West.

Trump, while heading for the cabinet meeting with his new national security adviser John Bolton, told the media that a decision on Syria was shortly due as the US could not allow such "atrocities" to continue.

Trump also had a talk with French President Emmanuel Macron, who also has threatened a military action if it was found that the Syrian regime had indeed carried out a chemical weapons attack. A statement issued by the White House said the US and French governments would maintain their coordination on responding to the "use of chemical weapons" in Syria on April 7.

The Syrian state media also brought counter charges on Monday saying the US had carried out a missile strike at an airbase in the country's Homs province which led to deaths of many, including Iranians. Pentagon denied the charges. Syria and Russia also accused Israel of the missile strike.
Amid trade war with US, China promises to open markets for foreign players; lower car tariffs

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

China has reiterated its commitment to economic liberalisation amid its rising tensions with the United States over restricting their own trade relations. On Tuesday, April 10, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a major speech in a development conference on the Chinese island of Hainan that Beijing was all set to expand the scope of permitted business to foreign financial institutions and reduce tariffs on imported cars and ownership limits for foreign automobile companies.

Jinping's address came a few days after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose fresh tariffs on Chinese goods worth $150 billion in what has emerged as a tense trade war between the two largest economies of the world.

Both sides have already imposed tariffs on imports from each other's territories starting with Trump's announcement on the tariff on imported solar panels, washing machines followed by those on steel and aluminium.

Jinping vowed to cut auto tariffs along with taking other steps to open up Chinese economy to the outside world although his announcements were not entirely new. In November last year, China promised to slowly reduce tariffs on imported vehicles although it did not lay down a specific time frame to do so.
Japans activating marines since WWII a serious worry: Chinese media

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

After Japan activated its first marine unit since the Second World War to counter outsiders occupying its islands along the flank of the East China Sea that its authorities fear could be threatened by China, an op-ed in China's Global Times website expressed concern over the Japanese plan.

Titled 'Asia needs to be wary of militarism revival in Japan', the op-ed said after the end of World War II in 1945, a clause was inserted into Japan's constitution barring maintenance of armed forces that could wage a war. It said Tokyo's "efforts to strengthen its military defence capabilities" were at odds with the constitution. It also raised the possibility of Japan using the necessity to protect its sovereignty as an excuse to promote militarism which it had abandoned. It said other countries in the region "must stay on high alert".

Japan said defending its islands became a "critical mandate" in its increasingly difficult defence and security situation.

China media blasts Shinzo Abe govt

The op-ed took a dig at the Shinzo Abe government of Japan for promoting militarism. "Such concerns are well-founded as militarism is seeing an upward trend in Japan. Reports of Abe's alleged connections with a nationalist kindergarten where children are educated with a prewar style of militarism refuse to go away. Last year, Japan's education ministry approved the introduction of "jukendo," or the "way of the bayonet," in physical exercise classes for junior high schools. By far, the Japanese government is still reluctant to sincerely apologize for war crimes, and its efforts in whitewashing the country's wartime past are known to all," the Global Times which is run under the auspices of the People's Daily said.

It said Abe did not care for the opposition's objection and "rammed through" the security bills to give a legality to lift the post-war ban on collective self-defence and the ability to mobilise Japanese troops in wars wherever its allies are under attack. It said this move by Japan has made Asia's countries anxious.

"China has paid for Japan's military aggression in past"

The op-ed then raised China's concern with Japan's rising militarism, saying the former has suffered a great deal from Tokyo's military aggression in the past and added that even though China's relation with Japan has seen improvement in recent years, Beijing should view its maritime neighbour's latest tendencies with more alarm. It said China must act to counter the right-wing forces from manipulating, among other things, territorial disputes and cause harm to Beijing-Tokyo relations.

The op-ed concluded by advising Japan to adjust its mentality and see China's "peaceful rise" more as an opportunity and not a threat and share the riches with its big neighbour.

Japan perceives threat to its sovereignty owing to the presence of China and North Korea in its vicinity and the retreat of the United States under Donald Trump from being as charitable as it was towards its allies in the past has made Washington's allies in the Far East like Japan and South Korea more concerned about their own security.
On Nirav Modis arrest, China leaves it to Hong Kong to take final call

International

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

China has left it to Hong Kong to take a final call on the arrest of fugitive PNB scam accused, Nirav Modi. China said the special administrative region which functioned under its effective control can take a decision over the issue based on its laws and judicial assistance agreements. India has reportedly sought Nirav's arrest under the "Surrender of Fugitive Offenders Agreement" with Hong Kong.

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh told Parliament last week that his Ministry had sought the provisional arrest of Nirav by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Asked about India's request, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing that "according to the one country two systems and basic law of HKSAR, under the assistance and authorisation of the Central Government, the HKSAR can make proper arrangement on judicial mutual assistance with other countries". "If India make relevant request to the HKSAR, we believe HKSAR will follow the basic law and relevant laws and under relevant judicial agreements with India with the relevant issue," he said.

Now that China said Hong Kong could act based on judicial agreements, officials say the "Surrender of Fugitive Offenders Agreement" between Hong Kong and India could come into play.

While Hong Kong could act on India's request, it is not yet clear whether Nirav stayed put in the former British colony where he has a diamond store beside the one in Beijing.

Modi, who is wanted in connection with the Rs 12,700-crore scam at the Punjab National Bank, is reportedly in Hong Kong which is a Special Administrative Region of China. Hong Kong was formerly a colony of the British Empire after the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island from Qing China in 1842. China resumed sovereignty over the former British colony in 1997. As a Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system apart from mainland China.
The News in Brief

President pardons 64 prisoners for Easter



President Giorgi Margvelashvili has pardoned 64 inmates, the head of the Pardon Commission Zviad Koridze announced on April 4.



Of those who will be released, three are women and one is a minor.



41 out of 64 convicts have left prisons, while the remaining twenty-three will have their terms commuted,said Koridze.



Koridze said the president of Georgia and the Pardon Commission have discussed 335 cases in total.



The President is the only authorized person to pardon inmates in Georgia.







Fines increase for Illegal Street Vending



The Parliament of Georgia has proposed the draft law and in case of its approval physical and legal entities will be fined 50 GEL and will have goods and other properties confiscated for illegal street vending.



Under current legislation the same illegal action is fined 20 GEL fine and confiscation of goods.



Repeating the same action will result into a fine of 300 GEL (instead of existing 100 GEL).



Repeating the same action along with the disobedience to the representative of the competent authority will be fined 200 GEL, confiscation of goods or up to 7 days of imprisonment. Under current law, this offense is fined 50 GEL, and the term of detention is the same.



Illegal street vending with the use of vehicle will be punished with a fine of 1,000 GEL, and confiscation of goods.



The draft law will be discussed at the Bureau session on April 26. Authors of the bills are MPs of the ruling party.

(By Mariam Chanishvili)




Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus A.Dapkiunas participates in the CPD session

10-04-2018

On April 9, 2018 the 51st session of the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD) was opened at the UN Headquarters in New York. Its main theme is Sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration.

The Belarusian delegation at the session is headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Dapkiunas.

In his statement during the general discussion, the Deputy Minister emphasized the relationship between sustainable urbanization, international migration and the economic and social development of society.

A.Dapkiunas presented Belarus' approaches to the formation of safe, regulated and organized migration aimed at effective social integration and adaptation of migrants.

The Deputy Foreign Minister also informed about a special state policy on levelling possible negative effects of uncontrolled growth of cities in Belarus, aimed at creating social and economic conditions for stimulating development of small and medium-sized cities. In particular, A.Dapkiunas noted that according to the decision of the Head of State, 2018 was declared the Year of Little Motherland in Belarus. The implementation of this year's activities is aimed at reviving rural areas, reducing the overpopulation of cities as factors of internal migrations regulation and environmental sustainability of settlements.

The CPD session at the UN Headquarters in New York will last until April 13.

   

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Ambassador of Belarus O.Paferov meets the Venezuelan party of the Joint Commission

10-04-2018

On April 9, 2018 the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Oleg Paferov, met with representatives of the Venezuelan part of the Joint Belarusian-Venezuelan Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation headed by the Vice-President for Planning, Ricardo Menendez.

The meeting was also attended by the Vice-President for Economy and Minister of Productive Agriculture and Lands, Vilmar Castro, the Minister of Economy and Finances, Simon Zerpa, the Minister for the Living Environment and Hosing, Ildemaro Villaroel, the Minister of Basic Strategic and Socialistic Industry, Juan Arias, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Gil, the Head of the Venezuelan Corporation for Foreign Trade, Giuseppe Yoffreda.

The sides discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral relations, including the development of industrial, trade and economic cooperation, as well as prospects for the implementation of the concept of complementarity of the economies of the two countries, search for new forms of financing and new markets for joint products.

The sides noted progress in the implementation of the Program The Road Map of Bilateral Cooperation for Middle-term and Long-term Perspective.

   

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North Mississippi Medical Clinics recently named Elizabeth Bean, LPN, as the March Employee of the Month.

Bean works at Chickasaw Medical Clinic, where she has served since July 2016. She is a graduate of Amory High School and attended Itawamba Community College. She is a certified LPN and is a certified CPR instructor.

Elizabeth always goes above and beyond to help her patients and coworkers, said a coworker who nominated Bean. She is an awesome team player and performs her duties with a smile.

Bean says the best part of her job is being able to do what she loves and helping those who need it the most.

She is expecting her first child in April.
@NewsbySmiley

Only hours before Gov. Rick Scott made his plans to run for the U.S. Senate official, the Bill Nelson reelection campaign sent out a warning to their supporters  and a request.

Polls show the race to November extremely tight little more than half a year out. And if Sen. Nelson is going to keep his seat, he said, he needs money. Lots of it. Floridas must-win Senate race is a statistical TIE, and the stakes couldnt be higher.

Nelson, a three-term incumbent and the last statewide elected Democrat left standing in Florida, has been striking this same desperate chord for months, with a challenge from Floridas Republican governor known long ago to be all but certain. Already in his fifth decade in public office and seeking a sixth, Nelson is running scared and hardly bashful about showing it.

The veteran Democrat has never faced an opponent quite like Scott, an independently wealthy businessman with sky-high name recognition among voters and a formidable campaign machine bolstered by incumbency. But the same could be said of Scott, whose entry into the race sets up an epic clash in one of the countrys most important mid-term battle grounds.

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Contact (1998) Searching for peace

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Sagan was riding on the last wave of detente in 1978, and wrote a film about the possibility of world peace, depicting the aliens (aka, earth's aliens, the Soviets) as friendly, although the US government almost scuttled scientists' efforts. The US philanthropist behind the mission dies of cancer in the Russian Mir space station, leaving a hopeful legacy. But the Soviet Union suddenly became evil again in 1979, and the idea had to go on the shelf until two decades later, when another brief period of detente with the now capitalist Russian allowed the realization of Sagan's dream.

The Afghan snowball started rolling in April 1978, briefly became an avalanche, but looked like it might peter out by 1988, only to pick up steam and become the world crisis by 1998, the aftershocks of which we continue to suffer two decades later. Evil aliens? Force majeure? Systemic? In each case, the US controlled the outcome, and did everything possible to make it worse.

The 1970s were the zenith of Soviet world power, after the US defeat in Vietnam. South Yemen became the one and only Soviet-style socialist regime in the Arab world from 1970 to 1990. Angola, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia all had socialist revolutions, though they all were bloodbaths, with US and South African troops defending the 'bad guys' to undermine those who wanted socialism.

The Yankees had already dropped more bombs in Vietnam than in the whole of WWII, leaving Vietnam to deal with the aftermath itself. They undermined Cambodia and Laos, but US imperialism was on the rocks' in the 1970s, allowing a window of freedom in international affairs. The Cubans came to the aid of the 'good guys' in Angola and Ethiopia with some success. Brave Fidel, defying the angry Americans and taunts of being a Soviet proxy.

But it hardly looked like smooth sailing for the Soviet sponsors of these plucky countries, and it wasn't. Rather than uniting as comradely socialists, Somalia and Ethiopia went to war. Angola and Mozambique were invaded by US proxy South Africa. The devastated Cambodia descended into its Maoist nightmare under Pol Pot, rescued only by long-suffering Vietnam. China was already in league with the US after Nixon made his shocking visit in 1972. These were warnings for future would-be revolutionaries, which in Afghanistan's case went unheeded.

Even Pakistan had its (troubled) moment of Soviet quasi-socialism under Zulfikar Bhutto, president and then prime minister 1971--79, who in 1974 became the first Pakistani leader to make a state visit to Moscow, and managed to get a grudging peace with Afghanistan in 1976, nationalized industries, attempted land reforms, hinting at a new (successful) turn away from the US. It was a heady time for anti-imperialists.

1978 - the Saur [revolution] coup

Lame duck Afghan president Sardar Mohammed Daoud was ripe for the picking, and his fury at Moscow for their support of Pakistan over Afghan revanchism* prompted him to turn to the US, now eager to stop more Soviet 'victories' in the still hot Cold War. The coup in Afghanistan in 1978 looked like the icing on the Soviet cake of world socialism, but the cake, unexpected and unwanted by Moscow, carried a time bomb. The 1978 coup by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was called precisely that in Soviet media, but the genie was out of the bottle and the ongoing Soviet aid continued and could only increase, given the premature Afghan baby was already on life support.

Andropov saw this clearly and vehemently argued against sending troops. He told the Politburo in March 1979: "We must consider very, very seriously the question of whose cause we will be supporting if we deploy forces into Afghanistan. It's completely clear to us that Afghanistan is not ready at this time to resolve all of the issues it faces through socialism. The economy is backward, the Islamic religion predominates, and nearly all of the rural population is illiterate. We know about Lenin's teaching about a revolutionary situation" it is not that type of situation. We can suppress a revolution in Afghanistan only with the aid of our bayonets, and that is for us completely inadmissible." Afghanistan was not Czechoslovakia, and Andropov realized that another intervention like that would be the kiss of death.

At that point it was starry-eyed poet Nur Mohammad Taraki who was nominally the chief revolutionary, though he was in fact a front for the struggling factions between moderates (Parcham) and Maoist-type radicals (Khalq). Andropov could have added the pragmatic advice of Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to then Afghan Amir Amanullah in the 1920s (heeded by Castro in Cuba): You need a strong, loyal army and bureaucracy in order to undertake ambitious reforms in education and to end restrictions on women. The Afghan dreamers -- Taraki and the Khalq leader Hafizullah Amin -- ignored this vital advice and both were assassinated.

Lenin had made it clear in 1920 at the Comintern congress in Moscow that liberating the colonies would require alliances with bourgeois-nationalist liberation movementts (viz. Mustafa Kemal in Turkey, Reza Shah in Iran, Amanullah Khan in Afghanistan, Sun Yat Sen in China), that the rush to communist insurrection would be foolhardy. This was confirmed at the September 1920 congress of peoples of the East in Baku Azerbaijan, attended by revolutionaries from the Dutch east indies, Iran,* India, China and Japan. Only Zinoviev and the young Indian Roy wanted to build communist parties to organize peasants and workers to establish Soviet-style republics right away.

The 'great leader' Taraki pleaded for Soviet troops to stabilize 'his' regime. He told Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin to put Afghan flags on the tanks and send Uzbek soldiers who could pose as ethnic Afghans. Taraki wavered back and forth between the moderate Babrak Karmal and the fanatic Amin, a textbook psychopath, with spies warning him of plots, and his own plots against internal enemies multiplying. His reign of terror mercifully left Karmal alive, shipped to Czechoslovakia as ambassador.

Taraki was murdered by Amin, who issued edicts on land reform and education, sending young idealists to villages to enact the reforms, where they were promptly shot. The anti-regime revolt spread like wildfire. The Allah-u-akbar organization sprang up, with processions, and nighttime sessions on rooftops across the land to intone the azan, emulating the campaign in Pakistan that encouraged Zia ul-Haq to overthrow Zulfikar Bhutto and execute him in 1979. Iran had its Islamic revolution in 1979. Islam was on the march.

It was an impossible situation for the Soviet Union. Abandon a revolutionary government? One that was on its vulnerable underbelly, with now-hostile Pakistan a US client? The rest is history, a fascinating if gruesome one, with the US slavering at the Soviet quandary. Suddenly the Cold War tables were turned. Socialist Bhutto was gone, Afghans were in revolt against communism. A new anticommunist client of anticommunist client Pakistan. How could Reagan resist?

Karmal came back from Prague on a Soviet plane. He did his best, setting up a department of Islamic affairs for first time in Afghan history. He renovated and built 600 mosques. Provincial schools taught in ethnic mother tongues, newspapers from Central Asian republics showed what advantages Soviet support would provide. Teaching emphasized historical and cultural affinities between ethnic groups in north and Central Asians across the Amu Darya. He lobbied Pashtun tribes with food, cash, non-interference in customs and traditions. In 1985, a high jirga of the tribes 4,000 (1,000 exiles from Pakistan) was convened, where he resigned and passed the reigns to Dr Mohammad Najibulllah.

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Movements that are serious about human survival, economic justice, environmental protection, the creation of a good society, or all of the above, address the problem of militarism. Movements that claim to be comprehensive yet run screaming from any mention of the problem of war are not serious.

Toward the not-serious end of the spectrum sit most activist efforts devoted to political parties in a corrupt political system. The Women's March, the Climate March (which we had to work very hard to squeeze the slightest mention of peace out of), and the March for Our Lives are not especially serious. While the March for Our Lives is a single-issue "march," its issue is gun violence, and its leaders promote military and police violence while shunning any recognition of the fact that the U.S. Army trained their classmate to kill.

It's certainly encouraging that some "Indivisible" groups have been opposing Trump's latest disastrous nominations in part on anti-militarist grounds. But one should hesitate to look to partisan groups for a revaluation of moral values.

Toward the more serious end of the spectrum are Black Lives Matter, which includes a serious analysis of militarism and the relationships among supposedly separate "issues" throughout its platform, and the Poor People's Campaign, which on Tuesday published a report by the Institute for Policy Studies that takes on the interlocking evils of militarism, racism, extreme materialism, and environmental destruction.

"Few recall," the report says, "that the war in Vietnam drained away many of the resources for the War on Poverty, which did much but could have done much more. 'Bombs dropped in Vietnam explode at home,' Dr. King said. Fewer still recall the prophetic voice of the Poor People's Campaign and that Dr. King died organizing a nonviolent revolution to push America toward a social ethos grounded in love. . . . [T]he new Poor People's Campaign will bring together people from all walks of life to the National Mall in Washington and to state capitols across the nation from May 13th to June 23rd, 2018, just over forty days to demand that our country see the poor in our streets, confront the damage to our natural environment, and ponder the ailments of a nation that year after year spends more money on endless war than on human need."

The new Poor People's Campaign knows where the money is.

"The current annual military budget, at $668 billion, dwarfs the $190 billion allocated for education, jobs, housing, and other basic services and infrastructure. Out of every dollar in federal discretionary spending, 53 cents goes towards the military, with just 15 cents on anti-poverty programs."

And it doesn't fall for the lie that the money needs to be there.

"Washington's wars of the last 50 years have had little to do with protecting Americans, while the profit motive has increased significantly. With private contractors now performing many traditional military roles, there have been almost 10 times as many military contractors per soldier in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as there were during the Vietnam War. . . "

The new Poor People's Campaign recognizes the other 96% of people as being people too.

"U.S. military interventions have caused staggering numbers of civilian deaths in poor countries. According to the United Nations, almost one-third more civilians died in Afghanistan during the first nine months of 2017 than during that same period in 2009 when the counting began. . . . Perpetual war has also taken a toll on U.S. troops and personnel. In 2012, suicide claimed more military deaths than military action."

This campaign recognizes the connections.

"Militarism abroad has gone hand in hand with the militarization of U.S. borders and of poor communities across this country. Local police are now equipped with war machinery such as the armored military vehicle deployed in Ferguson, Missouri, in response to protests over the police killing of a Black teenager, Michael Brown, in 2014. Young Black males have been hardest hit by this escalation in force. They are nine times more likely to be killed by police officers than other Americans."

This campaign also recognizes things that any organization devoted to one of the two big political parties is strictly incapable of recognizing, such as when something necessary is completely lacking:

"Unlike President Dwight Eisenhower, who warned against the 'military-industrial complex,' no contemporary political leader is putting the dangers of militarism and the war economy at the center of public debate."

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Yes, there was a Black president. And during those eight years Barack Obama consistently and significantly damaged the interests of Black people--and other oppressed people.

Widespread, powerful protests against the ongoing epidemic of the murder of Black and Brown youths rocked the country during Obama's presidency. For his entire presidency, Obama consistently defended murdering police against the youth who protested them. This is no exaggeration. One example: he called youths protesting the murder of Freddie Gray "thugs," but spoke nary a word to condemn the cops who killed him. Another: his Department of Justice supported the police in every case of police violence that came before the Supreme Court.

Obama continually chastised Black youth, and Black people generally, and blamed them for the oppression they face under this system. In a time of mass incarceration and criminalization of Black youth, Obama told the youth their problem was they didn't take "personal responsibility"! Hundreds of thousands of Black youths in New York and other cities were subjected to stop-and-frisk, young people came of age in crumbling communities, police patrolled schools, communities were drained of jobs--and Obama wanted to preach at and mock them for their sagging pants. He told graduates of Morehouse College, an historically Black school, that "We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices." And "there's no time for excuses."

Who better than Barack Obama to get across this poisonous message and blame the youth for the system's oppression?

When an avowed white supremacist went to a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdered nine Black people, Obama went to the church and actually said these murders were part of "God's plan," and that people in Charleston needed to learn the "power of forgiving." In other words, accept and learn to live with the oppression of Black people--when what is needed is determined resistance to it, from all sections of people.



Baltimore, April 25, 2015, protesting the police murder of Freddie Gray.

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Obama presided over a period of a record number of deportations and a hugely militarized border. He ordered ten times the number of drone bombings that Bush did, hitting weddings and killing children in the name of America's "war on terror." The U.S. under Obama waged unjust wars on seven countries, and supported Israel in genocidal, criminal assaults on Palestinian people in Gaza. He promoted the poisonous idea that Black and other oppressed people should join the military and be part of going all over the world to kill other oppressed people in the interests of U.S. imperialism.

This is just a brief outline of some of the ways Obama made things worse for Black people. He benefitted from and promoted the deadly illusion that the United States--a country which has the nightmares of slavery, genocide, and horrific oppression embedded in its history, development, and current reality--had somehow become "color blind," that "anyone can make it" in this country. This is not just tired, worn-out bullshit. It is deadly poison.

But here's the worst thing about Obama. He's serving to normalize Trump, the fascist. Trump, who has openly called for more police brutality, and has pledged his unwavering support for all acts of violence police commit. Trump, the white supremacist, who has stuffed his administration with longtime racists. According to Obama, he's on the "same team" as Trump.

Look, Trump is deadly serious about accelerating the slow genocide that Black people have been facing. He heads a fascist regime that urgently needs to be driven from power--but Barack Obama says he's part of Trump's team. And he wants others to be there too. That's aiding and abetting attempted genocide. People really need to throw away illusions about Obama. We are living in some seriously heavy times, and this is no time to cling to illusions of any sort.

Yes, we had a Black president. Now is a time to wage a serious fight for an end to the oppression of Black people, as part of the emancipation of all humanity.
@AlextDaugherty and @NewsbySmiley

Bill Nelsons word carries weight in Florida.

The states longest-serving elected official, a man who has spent decades building connections with law enforcement agencies and lawmakers from both parties, is a go-to source for information during big events like Hurricane Irma and the Parkland school shooting.

But Floridas only statewide elected Democrat spread misinformation after the Parkland shooting, and now hes spreading misinformation about a shooting in Liberty City that claimed the lives of two young people and wounded two more.

In a tweet on Sunday night, Nelson cited a Democratic state representative and said apparently assault weapons [were] used in the Liberty City shooting."

But on Monday, Miami police said handguns, not assault-style weapons, were used in the shooting.

The shooting, on the eve of Gov. Rick Scotts U.S. Senate announcement, became a political flashpoint in South Florida.

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Here's how things have come down in the past two years, near as I can tell.

Hillary did every dirty trick in the book to get elected. She also siphoned off something like $150m to the Clinton Foundation, to line the pockets of the "foundation," while selling gobs of fissionable material to Russia, for their nukes. Now she's obsessed with more utterly insane lying in an effort to camouflage her bruised ego and utter psychopathy.

Bernie was totally snuffed in real time, living color, as he was swept under the bus, taking my 500 bucks and my untold hours trying to prop him up. Probably along with your hard pressed donations too.

He failed to fight his completely evident win, then promptly switched trains, heading 180 degrees in the neocon (planet extinctionists') direction. Propped up HC whose train was headed the opposite way from his alleged train, as if on Viagra for the sicko.

Joined HC and other insane folks on the loose and running the show to bash Russia and Putin, the one guy who might possibly help humankind avert nuclear annihilation, as BS sold his soul to the devil.

Now the whole MSM has hopped on the Russia bashing train to accelerate our extinction, because we can't seem to shake hands instead of nuclear weapons at each other.

That's my obligatory intro article for Debbie Lusignan, one of the few serious truth tellers with a spine left on this pale blue dot.

I can see why otherwise sane people don't particularly like her, including many of my friends and Rob Kall, because of her "style." Yes, I too agree it is a bit rambling and could be much better condensed, but I cut her a wide path as a bona fide truth teller with a backbone and a fire in her belly--and who can possibly have "volunteer time" to do the research she does and become a Hollywood star at the same time. The best man from my decade ago wedding complained that she presented no facts, to which I say listen closer and look at the links she posts and encourages you to look at.

She was probably Bernie's most ardent advocate, even knowing his foreign policy or lack thereof, and did a long line of real time videos of how he got shafted, and encouraged him to fight back. So fbs is all I can add to this video.

And perhaps also reiterate that the whole "bash Putin" is utter lunacy, putting Homo so-called sapiens and complex life on earth on the knife-edge of extinction, in the very near future.
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From LA Progressive

Scott Pruitt flies first class international with his entourage to Paris for a couple of days -- just to party -- and then on to Morocco for one day to promote the sale of liquefied natural gas produced by a crony -- a lobbyist for the LNG company that gives Pruitt a sweetheart deal on a fancy place to stay in Washington DC.

Pruitt is head of the EPA, not the Department of Energy or Commerce. He has no official business pushing LNG, yet the entire trip for him and his crew of sleazy associates was paid for by those of us who pony up every paycheck and every April -- you, the American taxpayer. Turns out Trump's buddy, billionaire Carl Icahn, was the majority stockholder in the LNG corporation. Crony corruption.

Pruitt was basically installed by Trump as head of the Environmental Protection Agency with a stated mission to undermine, subvert, and reverse the EPA core mission. To rich Republicans -- well, perhaps to most Republicans -- the environment is simply a dumping ground for toxics, hazardous waste, and other effluents of industry. Why? So that their corporations don't have to pay clean-up costs either in prevention or remediation. The rich ones profit. The poor ones vote to get back dirty jobs that have gone overseas where environmental laws and labor laws are nonexistent or toothless. Crony corruption coupled with a devil's bargain.

To make certain that no fraudulent stone was unturned, Pruitt signed off on massive pay raises for loyalists, lied and denied that he did so on Fox News, and remains untouched by the "You're fired" King. Crony corruption.

Ah, they all do it. And? Trump came in claiming he would "drain the swamp." Liar. The swamp is crawling with worse than anything since Mobutu Sese Seka. Crony corruption.

That Trump himself refuses to make public his tax returns, refuses to divest himself in any way from his corporate profit-taking related to his public office, and that so many of his appointees are wallowing in seamy travel, insider fraud, and shady foreign connections, makes this just part of the Washington wallpaper, right? You hear Trump the carny barker candidate and you elect him -- WTF do you expect?

Naturally, Trump just said Pruitt was "doing a great job." Crony corruption.

Even the Trump White House has criticized Pruitt's ethics. Huh? We are on Full Oxymoron Alert when we hear the phrase Trump Ethical Standards, yet it happened. Still, at least so far, Pruitt's in his gig, swinging his wrecking ball at environmental and ethics rules literally left and right. Crony corruption.

Nixon was Mr. Clean by comparison. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld made $millions off their policies while they ruled and yet never quite exuded the moral and ethical swampy stench we now endure from Team Trump.

Crony corruption. Do we deserve better? Certainly our children and grandchildren do.
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From Our Future



Oklahoma teachers' union extends strike with calls for more funding in schools

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When coal-mine bosses said mules were more precious than men because dead miners could be replaced for free, but not dead mules, it demonstrated disrespect. That contempt from the top provoked pitched gun battles between workers and mine-owner militias in West Virginia a little over a century ago.

Ill-paid, mistreated and insulted, what did the miners have to lose?

The same was true for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., half a century later. Subjected to dangerous equipment that killed four workers in four years and paid so little they qualified for food stamps, more than 1,300 walked off the job on Feb. 12, 1968. They demanded respect, carrying signs stating, "I am a man." The day after Dr. Martin Luther King marched to support these workers, he was assassinated in Memphis.

Now, a half century later, GOP politicians have so denigrated public school teachers that the educators in three states have engaged in wildcat strikes, mobbing their capitol buildings and demanding improved school funding for students and better pay and benefits for themselves and other workers.

Teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, like the 1920s West Virginia coal miners, had nothing to lose. Educators in Arizona, who began demonstrating at their capitol last week, may walk out soon as well.

What these states have in common is Republican control and union suppression. All are states that forbid labor organizations from charging workers who choose not to join the union fair share payments to cover the costs of collective bargaining. This, of course, weakens unions, which are required by federal law to represent workers who don't join and don't contribute. Some states, like West Virginia, go even further, outlawing teacher strikes.

The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating a case, Janus vs. AFSCME, that is likely to end with a decision prohibiting collection of fair-share fees by every public sector union in the country. That will weaken all of them. In the end, such a decision from the Supreme Court may inflame more labor unrest and wildcat strikes. The 1935 National Labor Relations Act, passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress and signed by a Democratic President, was intended to facilitate labor organizing because lawmakers believed that would reduce strikes and increase labor peace.

Republicans have worked every day since then to weaken the law, with the Janus case just the latest iteration. By undermining organized labor and empowering employers, Republicans have incited labor strife.

Parents, communities and educators in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona know that tax-cutting, labor-hating Republican politicians are to blame for the school disruptions.

Of course, teachers don't live in mine company-owned shacks or get paid in company script that can be used only in company stores.

But for 2018, the conditions in which these educators find themselves are deplorable.

These are professionals with four-year college degrees and teaching certifications. They adore their students, as illustrated by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School geography teacher Scott Beigel, 35, who opened the door of his classroom to get a group of students to safety during the mass shooting there Feb. 14, but then was shot to death as he attempted to relock the door.

Teachers work nights and weekends to grade papers and write lesson plans. They sew costumes for student performances, drive youngsters to competitions, meet with concerned parents.

These four states are among the lowest-paying in the nation. West Virginia was 45th when it granted striking teachers a 5 percent raise in February. Oklahoma is dead last. These teachers struggle to meet their college loan obligations, make car payments and cover the mortgage.

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Bratislava-Evil-Putin

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After Russia's disastrous war with Japan in 1905 it wasn't quite ready to enter World War I. In fact, World War I was one of the key reasons that the Russian people revolted against their government and eventually installed a Marxist-Leninist government. We vilified the Russians for selecting that type of government in their own country and sent troops to quash the Russians from exercising their right of self-determination. The problem with communism was that it threatened the capitalistic system that we had in United States, although that didn't stop American bankers from funding both sides of the conflict.

This mindset was continued all the way up to 1941 when we entered World War II and found ourselves allied with the Soviet Union. It was all brotherly love until 1945 when President Harry Truman put in the Dulles brothers, one as Secretary of State and the other head of the CIA. The US the turned it's back on our Russian allies and took credit having one World War II having lost 600,000 men while the Soviet Union lost 20 million of their soldiers not to mention another 10 million civilians.

We all know about the Cold War and how we managed to take down the Soviet Union because of sheer brilliance and superior economic system. It was a testament to American ingenuity that we manage to outwit and outlast the evil Soviets.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union we kindly sent our NGOs and statesmen to the new Russian Federation to introduce them to capitalism. Even though President Ronald Reagan had vowed that NATO would not move 1 inch east we brilliantly managed to bring Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Moldavia into that wonderful alliance called NATO to protect these countries from threats of missile attacks from Iran. Just because we put anti-missile defenses into these countries to protect them from ICBMs from nations like Iran, President Vladimir Putin is claiming that United States has encircled the Russian federation. It seems that President Putin doesn't understand that we are only doing these things to protect our allies from "The great Iranian threat".

In recent history, we helped Ukraine in their Civil War by donating $5 billion courtesy of our State Department via Secretary of State for Eastern European affairs Victoria Newland, to install a right-wing government in the western half of that country, a government that idolizes the Nazi SS and proudly wears patches on their uniforms that resembled it. It was unthinkable that the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin would annex the Crimea just because they had a referendum where 90% of the people voted to become part of the Russian Federation. It seems that Putin is taking the right of self-determination a little too far.

There are other reasons to distrust and dislike the Russian Federation. I'm going to skip over some of things that happened and bring us right to the present.

There is not a day where you don't hear about Russia meddling in our elections. You hear constantly on MSNBC especially from Rachel Maddow and you also hear it nonstop on CNN. It is unthinkable to think of another country involving itself in the electoral process of another country. As Americans, we believe that all countries have a right to self-determination, except for countries in South America like Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Venezuela, Argentina, and some other nations that need help and guidance from the United States.

A good example of how the United States helps other nations can be seen by looking at nations that we recently helped in the Middle East like Iraq, and Libya. We freed the people of Iraq from the tyrannical government of Saddam Hussein and help liberate the people of Libya from Muhammar Qaddafi. We all know about Iraq and how our troops were greeted as "liberators" and welcomed on the streets as heroes, except for people who didn't understand democracy like the people in Falluja and some other areas.

The people of Libya are also grateful that they don't have to put up with getting a free house when they get married and the government paying for their education anywhere in the world and let alone free medical care and the highest living standard in Africa. Now, they have the freedom to choose what government they want, courtesy of the United States (and Hillary Clinton), if they don't get killed in the street fighting between the warring militias that run various parts of that nation. We did all that under "The responsibility to protect", and we can see how far Libya has progressed by noting that its oil wells are still producing that light crude that is so valuable.

Now the Russians have sent troops and warplanes to Syria presumably to fight Isis. Even though, since they've arrived, Isis has been defeated more than 90%, we know that they are just doing it to gain a foothold in the Middle East. That's why, the United States in its infinite wisdom, against all international law, has stationed 2,00 US troops in Syria over the Syrian government's objection.

It is incumbent on the United States to send troops to Syria because of the chemical weapons attacks. Even though most of the attacks according to the UN, have been carried out by the rebels. The latest attack on a rebel stronghold outside of Damascus using chlorine gas has been attributed to none other than the Russians and the evil Syrian government. We are not sure who is responsible, but the United States has a wonderful record on knowing what governments have weapons of mass destruction. Our ally Israel, has already attacked Syrian installations and the United States government has promised it will also bring its power to bear on the evil dictator Bashir al-Assad.

In the United Nations, our ambassador Nikki Haley, has promised to "slap the Russians" if they get out of line. Between Russia interfering in our elections by posting things on Facebook and helping their longtime ally Syria, the government of the United States, the same government that and can intercept and read the e-mails, texts or tweets that may be sent by American citizens, will not tolerate any nation that interferes in the internal affairs of other nations.

Russia and the rest of the World should understand that the United States "is an exceptional" nation and just because it appears that we interfere in the affairs of other nations doesn't mean that they can do the same. We are the nation that is bringing "democracy" to other nations even though it appears that sometimes we prop up dictators, they don't understand that in the long run the United States always does the right thing. Even though United States is continuously at war doesn't mean that we are a warlike people. Bringing democracy to the rest of the world is challenging work and sometimes it means killing people to make them understand democracy. In the case of Afghanistan, we have had to kill for 17 years!

I hope that people reading this will understand the grave threat that the Russian Federation poses. Nikki Haley said something that is still ringing in my ears when she talked about Russia. She said that Russia should start acting "like a normal" nation. I guess that means that Russia should not interfere in the affairs of other nations the way we do.

So, in conclusion, after looking at all the facts, it is indeed and Vladimir Putin's Russia that is the cause of all the world's problems. It is probably the reason why Hillary Clinton didn't win the presidential election and we ended up with Donald Trump. To understand the world's political problems according to American mainstream media all one has to do is click their heels and say; "there's no place like home", "there's is no place like home" "there's no place like home".

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From Beat The Press

Seriously, the NYT ran a piece with the headline, "why Trump's tariffs could raise the cost of a hip replacement." The point of the piece is that we now import a substantial amount of medical equipment and devices from China. This means that if we have to pay 25 percent more, then the price of these items in the United States will be higher. This means that operations like hip replacements that might require some equipment now purchased from China will cost more.

Okay, let's try to use some numbers here. The piece tells us that we import $3 billion a year in medical equipment from China. According to the Commerce Department, we spent over $90 billion on medical equipment and devices last year (National Income and Product Accounts, Table 5.5.5U, Line 6). This means that the items imported from China came to a bit more than 3 percent of the total.

If the tariffs are passed on in full (a very questionable assumption, both because of the large market here and the fact that actual production costs are a small fraction of the price of these patent-protected items), then the price of medical equipment would rise on average about 0.8 percent. Most of the cost of major surgeries like hip replacements go to the doctor and hospital, not the artificial device, but let's say that half of the cost is the device itself.

This means that the cost of your hip replacement surgery will rise by a whopping 0.4 percent as a result of the Trump tariffs! The NYT should look for some better ammunition if it wants to seriously push its case.

Addendum

Robert Salzberg points out to me that if the artificial hip itself were produced in China, then the price increase resulting from the tariff would be 25 percent on the implant, not 0.8 percent as I assume above. In this post, I assumed that implants are as likely to be produced in China as medical equipment more generally, but Robert's point is worth noting.

He also points me to an old NYT piece on medical travel, which gives the price of manufacturing an implant at $350 in the United States and $150 in Asia. This piece gives further evidence that any increases in the price of implants from China due to the tariff will be virtually invisible in the cost of the procedure.

It is also yet another reminder of the enormous potential gains from free trade in medical travel. If any of our politicians actually supported free trade, the gains from setting up an institutional structure (i.e. rules for insurers and malpractice) to facilitate medical travel would swamp the gains from trade deals like NAFTA and the TPP.

Unfortunately, most politicians are staunchly protectionist when it comes to measures that might reduce the income of doctors, hospitals, and medical equipment manufacturers. They only are interested in reducing trade barriers when most of the losers are less-educated and less politically powerful workers.
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From Reader Supported News

Police in Brooklyn, New York, last week killed a mentally-ill man named Saheed Vassell. The story won't shock you. A variation of it happens all the time in America. Somebody calls 911, says that a black man may or may not have a gun. The cops arrive. And 10 seconds later the man is dead.

That's what happened in Brooklyn. Saheed Vassell was mentally ill. That fact was known by practically everybody in the neighborhood, including the neighborhood beat cops. Vassell was a broom handler at a local barbershop. He liked to drink outside. The local beat cops routinely stopped to talk to him. They occasionally bought him Jamaican food and once took him to the hospital when he went off his anti-psychotic medications.

Last Wednesday, somebody called 911 and said that a man in a brown jacket was pointing "what was described as a silver firearm" at people on the street. One caller said, "There's a guy walking around the street. He looks like he's crazy, but he's pointing something at people that looks like a gun and he's, like, popping it as if, like, if he's pulling a trigger." Indeed, surveillance video showed Vassell aggressively going from person to person on the street, pointing what was clearly not a firearm at them. None of his "victims" called the police.

Three plainclothes and two uniformed officers arrived on the scene. They said that Vassell "took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the officers." Six seconds later, he was dead. The cops had fired 10 shots. Vassell wasn't holding a gun, of course. He was holding what has alternately been described as a pipe, a piece of a welding tool, and a showerhead.

This scene repeats itself all over America, every few days. Vassell's death came only a week or so after police in Sacramento, California, shot and killed Stephon Clark in his grandmother's backyard. The police said that Clark, too, was holding a gun. He wasn't. Two cops had answered a call that somebody was breaking windows in the neighborhood. Clark was walking to his grandmother's house at the same time. A police helicopter saw him and notified the cops on the ground. Clark, fearing for his safety, ran from the front yard to the back. When he was cornered there, one of the cops shouted "Gun! Gun! Gun!" Both opened fire, hitting Clark eight times. Six bullets hit him in the back.

The forensic evidence contradicts the police version of events. The cops said initially that when they arrived at the front yard and commanded Clark to show his hands, he fled to the backyard. They pursued him. At that point, "the man turned and advanced toward the officers while holding an object extended in front of him. The officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapons, striking the suspect multiple times."

But that story wasn't true. What the Sacramento Police didn't say in their original statement to the press was that Clark had a white iPhone in his hands. When additional cops arrived on the scene, one is heard on a body camera asking, "What did he have on him?" Another responded, "Like this, something in his hands. It looked like a gun from our perspective." Minutes later, another voice is heard to say, "Hey, mute that." The audio on the body camera then cuts off.

I can tell you that when I went through weapons training at the CIA, not all of that class had to do with what guns to use, how to use them, and how to clean them. Some of the class had to do with what to do when you actually shot someone. We were told first never to draw the weapon unless we intended to kill someone. We were to never draw the weapon to frighten someone, to fire a warning shot, or to intimidate. The weapon was meant solely to kill someone. I remember one instructor saying, "You wouldn't believe the paperwork involved when you draw a weapon. So if you draw it, make sure it's worth drawing."

The second part of that lesson was something that I'm sure cops around the country are taught every day. My instructor said, "Remember, if you have to kill somebody in the line of duty, it's because you feared for your safety. Always say you feared for your safety." I thought that was something of a bad joke at the time. But we see it play out all across the country all the time.

Just look at the statement from the Sacramento Police Department: "The officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapons, striking the suspect multiple times." This statement could be copied and pasted into every police report in America that involves a fatal shooting.

I don't have the space here to debate the pros and cons of police policy. It is the place, though, to say that the police kill far, far more people of color than they do whites. They are far quicker to resort to violence without even understanding the basics of what is happening; indeed, they usually fire at a suspect within seconds of their arrival on scene.

But when the police kill 10.1 Native Americans per million residents and 6.7 African-Americans per million residents versus only 2.9 per million residents, you have a problem. Are the cops racists? Are they afraid? Are they poorly trained? Are they unqualified? The answer may be yes to all of these questions. So long as the system -- police departments, local and state governments, and courts -- cover for them, though, we'll never know the answers. In the meantime, innocent people of color will continue to die at the hands of the police. And nobody is doing anything about it.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I believe that our only alternative is to take to the streets. In the past few years, I've become personally acquainted with leaders and participants in the Black Lives Matter movement, the ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, and other organizations. I'm going to follow their lead. We accomplish nothing by sitting quietly and hoping that the politicians do something. We have to force them to.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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From Consortium News

By Dennis J Bernstein and *Randy Credico





After nearly six years in exile holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in the heart of London, Wikileaks founder and publishing visionary Julian Assange has suffered another body blow; Assange, who has been absolved of all accusations, has now been rendered incommunicado inside the tiny embassy in the Knightsbridge section of London.

This latest attack on Assange, this shutdown of crucial communication devices, obviously challenges Wikileaks publishing activities and undermines the crucial work of this incredibly important global news and publishing service.

Meanwhile, the US and UK governments continue their drumbeat demonization of Assange, who has become part of their Russiagate frenzy towards a new Cold War and maybe World War III. Indeed, the US and UK continue to threaten him. In the US, some senators and the current CIA director [Mike Pompeo], about to become Secretary of State, want to see Assange tried for treason and put to a public death. They threaten to arrest Assange in violation of two UN rulings and their own laws, as soon as he walks out of the embassy.

Change.org said in a statement they released, as a part of a petition in support of Assange, "It is with great concern that we learned that Julian Assange has lost access to the internet and the right to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian London Embassy. Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador's authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian. We demand that Julian Assange's isolation ends NOW!"

In the following interviews with noted journalist and filmmaker John Pilger and Christine Assange, mother of the WikiLeaks founder, we attempt to shed some light on the crucial case of Julian Assange and why he should finally be freed from further prosecution so that he can continue unfettered the great work WikiLeaks has done as one of the most significant publishers of government whistleblowers in modern history.

Dennis Bernstein: Well, there have been some changes at the [Ecuadorian] embassy. They have cut off Julian's Internet, effectively his lifeline. He has been living in that small room for so many years, and now they are trying to make it a little smaller. Could you give us your best understanding of what is going on now? Have you spoken to him?

John Pilger: No, I haven't spoken to Julian. It's not possible. They have done more than cut off the Internet, they have cut off the phone. Ecuadorian authorities have placed a blocker on all communications at the embassy. Perhaps worst of all, he is denied visitors. I know that his lawyers are meeting today and there is possibly a meeting with the Ecuadorians. Beyond that, I don't know anything.

You can appreciate the effect of these measures on someone who has been effectively imprisoned in a very small space without sunlight for going on six years now. This is tragic and it is coming from a small country that recognized the justice in the Assange case and gave him political asylum.

While I am not excusing this government's actions, we must recognize that it is under direct pressure from the United States, which is rolling back so many of the so-called progressive governments in Latin America. They cut off the communications for Julian just a day after Ecuador welcomed a delegation from the US Southern Command, the Pentagon's arm in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The government in Ecuador has tried almost everything to bring justice to Julian. It has tried to negotiate with the British government, it has called on the British government to give Julian free passage out of the embassy. He is not even given right of passage to a hospital.

There is a particular cruelty being imposed on Julian Assange because he is the embodiment of dissent which is missing across the political spectrum in Western countries. He has become the enemy to governments in the West.

Taking away his right to communicate is an attack on freedom of speech. It is an attack on our rights as well as his. I have never met anyone as defiantly courageous as Julian. Not at all courageous are the so-called opposition, who are silent.

DB: Assange is a very special kind of publisher who has an impact on history and the way we are going to remember it. But there is a cynical chorus of corporate journalists who scoff at truth tellers. It is almost out of style to tell the truth, to do your job of reporting.

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

Note: See UPDATE below

"The Russian view is simple: the West is ruled by a gang of thugs supported by an infinitely lying and hypocritical media while the general public in the West has been hopelessly zombified." -- The Saker

"The US generals, unlike the US politicians and media and US administration, are risk-averse if the outcome may be catastrophic." -- Gilbert Doctorow

Above are two of the three most intelligent and reliable Russian experts. The third is Professor Stephen Cohen, who worries, as I do, that an arrogant Washington drowning in hubris is provoking Russia to war.

The Saker has concluded that the Russians have concluded that it has been a mistake to put up with Washington's lies, insults, and orchestrated events and have decided that if the dumbshit Americans attack Syria, Russia is going to take out the US forces involved.

Doctorow has concluded that as dumbsh*t as Washington is, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff have more sense and will not go along with an attack on a Russian ally.

I hope that Doctorow is correct. However, with that crazed demented warmonger John Bolton sitting in the White House next to Trump, who enjoys the role of tough guy, I am more scared by The Saker's reading than I am reassured by Doctorow's.

There are reports, the validity of which I cannot confirm at this time, that the entirety of the Russian military has been put on high alert, not merely the Russian forces in Syria. See here for example.

Nikki Haley's threats against Russia today in the UN do not support Doctorow's hopes that reason will prevail in Washington. The crazed b*tch said that the US will act against the "monster" Assad with or without the UN.

Tough man Trump, sitting next to the crazed warmonger Bolton, declared that the alleged chemical attack in Syria "will be met and it will be met forcefully. We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed... we can't let that happen in our world, especially because of the power of the US, we are able to stop it."

There was NO chemical attack by Syria. I know that for an absolute 100% fact. I would bet my life on it. Yet here is the US president declaring a total non-fact to be something "we all witnessed." Little wonder that the Russians have concluded that the West is ruled by a gang of thugs supported by an infinitely lying and hypocritical media while the general public in the West has been hopelessly zombified.

If Doctorow is not correct that a sane US Joint Chiefs of Staff will prevail over the crazed President and his National Security Adviser, we are headed for war.

It is a war that the US will not win.

Notice that there is no mention of this pending crisis in the Western media. Instead the media whether CNN or the BBC has as the lead news story the FBI's raid on Trump's lawyer.

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From Smirking Chimp



'Daily Missourian' headline from 1917

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At this writing, President Trump is considering "the possibility of retaliation in Syria in response to a suspected chemical attack on young children and families in the Syrian city of Douma," reported CBS News. "If it's the Russians, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," Trump said. "Nothing's off the table," including a military attack by the United States.

Whether that possibility involves a cruise missile strike, drone attacks or conventional bombing raids by fighter jets, this is deadly serious business. People, mostly innocent civilians and Syrian grunts who had nothing to do with the "suspected" chemical attack, will die. People will be injured. Survivors will be traumatized. An attack could escalate and expand the current conflict, leading to more death and destruction.

The stakes are high, but U.S. policymakers are as glibly insouciant as if they were choosing between Hulu and Netflix. This is not new or Trumpian. It's always been like this. American leaders don't take these life-and-death decisions seriously.

If the United States were a sane country populated by rational, civically-engaged citizens, Americans would pour derision and ridicule on anyone who seriously considered raining bombs over a "suspected" anything. And the skepticism in this case ought to be exponentially greater considering that this is Syria.

We've already been down this "Syria's Assad regime used chemical weapons against their own people so we should bomb his forces" road. It happened under Obama. What is certain here is uncertainty: maybe it's true, maybe it's not. As legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh pointed out in 2014, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) believed that at least one major faction of the Syrian opposition, the al-Nusra Front, possessed significant manufacturing facilities and stockpiles of sarin nerve agent and other proscribed toxic chemicals.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Since when is "maybe they did it, maybe they didn't, oh well," sufficient?

American political culture has devolved from the Vietnam era, when pacifists were marginalized, to a kneejerk bellicosity in which they don't exist as part of the debate.

To its credit, The New York Times -- still with blood on its hands from its unwholesome publishing of Judith Miller's pro-Iraq War screeds -- has printed statements by those who oppose rushing into war with Syria. "We would prefer to start with a proper investigation," the newspaper quoted Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. It also ran letters to the editor that expressed doubts about Syria's motivations and Trump's trustworthiness.

Nowhere to be found was a pacifist: someone who opposes war, all war, no matter what. Nor were there any anti-interventionists: people who say Syria is not our business and should be left to sort out its own affairs.

It's the same at The Washington Post. Some writers there wonder aloud whether Trump's sabre-rattling is more "Wag the Dog" than "Doctor Strangelove": if he bombs Syria, will it be to take our minds off the Russia stuff? Also, weirdly, this headline: "Something for Trump to keep in mind on Syria: His strikes last year were pretty popular." How does Amber Phillips sleep at night? Again: no pacifists. No anti-interventionists.

It's not like they're not out there in Real America. The nativist America Firsters who formed the core of Team Trump in 2016 included a lot of isolationists -- and Trump ran on a no-more-nation-building platform. They're disgusted more by the cost of the bombs we drop on Muslim countries than the lives they destroy; if there's any nation-building to be done, they ask quite reasonably, why not start with America's own rusted-out, broken-down infrastructure?

Getting the paper out every day is a miracle. Editors can be forgiven for sometimes forgetting to cover all the bases by offering a wide spectrum of solutions to the problems covered by their news stories and debated in their opinion sections. The same goes for the producers laboring through cable news' 24-7 news cycle. At a certain point, however, they ought to take a step back and consider the effect of their editorial decisions. They've created a relentless culture of ultraviolence, a debate without diversity between those who want bombs and those who want even more wars, to the point that not going to war isn't even something we get to consider as a legitimate option.
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Being the continuation of Preface to the book in my, Steven Jonas', voice, Part 1 of which was published on OpEdNews on March 8, 2018, and Part 2 of which was published on March 20, 2018. This is the last installment of this very lengthy Preface. Readers may (or may not) recall that this Preface is written in my, Steven Jonas', voice. The balance of the book, beginning with the next installment, is written in the voice of the putative author, "Jonathan Westminster," who published his political history of the Fascist Era in the United States on the projected 25th Anniversary of the Restoration of Constitutional Democracy to the United States in 2048. I (Steven Jonas) will remind readers once again that I wrote this book in 1994-95. The first version was published in 1996. The third version (NOT a third edition, for it retains virtually all of the original text) was published in 2013: The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S. 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel : click here

VI. Other Republicans and the "Supremacy of God"

As it happens, these references to "God" and his/her/its influence on the affairs of state are not confined to major Republican candidates for their party's nomination for the Presidency in 2012. For example, in 1996 Patrick Buchanan said: "We're on the verge of taking [the Republican Party] back as prelude to taking back our country as prelude to taking back the destiny of America, and when we get there, my friends, we will be obedient to one sovereign America and that is the sovereign of God himself" (26). But that's Pat Buchanan. Is there a higher authority on the role of the Higher Authority?



Kinda God-like, doncha think?

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How about one of George W. Bush's two favorite Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia, considered by many to be the representative exemplar for the Republican Religious Right? Beginning with a quote from St. Paul as his thoughts are represented in the New Testament, Scalia had this to say about the subject (27):

"'For there is no power but of God [St. Paul is said to have said]; the powers that be are ordained of God. . . . The Lord repaid --- did justice --- through his minister, the state. . . .' "[This was the consensus] of Christian or religious thought regarding the powers of the state. . . . That consensus has been upset, I think, by the emergence of democracy. . . . The reaction of people of faith to this tendency of democracy to obscure the divine authority behind government should not be resignation to it, but the resolution to combat it as effectively as possible [emphasis added]."

Justice Scalia is still fighting the dyed-in-the-wool religionists' battle against The Enlightenment which, ironically enough, was the inspiration of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Further, Scalia has said on more than one occasion that he thinks that there is some divine "authority" standing above the Constitution (28). His soul mate Clarence Thomas does too. Scalia could have written this book's "33rd Amendment" himself.

Of course, there is no mention of such an authority, God or otherwise, standing above its precepts and proscripts in the Constitution itself, and it was written by the Founding Fathers to be the supreme law of the land. But Scalia is in a position to interpret the document and say "what it really means." So much for the Doctrine of Original Intent. Too bad I didn't have the above quote from Scalia at the time I wrote the book. I would have made it the rallying cry of the Republican-Christian Alliance as they proceed to use the Constitutional amendment process to destroy the Constitution and convert the United States into a "Christian Nation."

Finally on this point, like Mitt Romney, Pres. George W. Bush has been quoted as claiming something that Jefferson Davis Hague never does, even at the height of his powers: that he acts under the direct instructions of God. The quote came from what the leading Israeli daily Haaretz (29) stated was the transcript of the conversation of a meeting between Bush and the Prime Ministers of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas on June 25, 2003. No denial of its validity ever came from the White House. And so:

"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem of the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

Bush did not claim, however, that he was acting under divine instruction in dealing with the Israel/Palestine conflict. Nor did he claim that God had already told him that He would be on his side in the upcoming elections.

And so, it happens that references to the "Supremacy of God" litter the speeches of the leaders of the Republican-Christian Alliance in the book, just as they litter the leadership of the 21st century Republican Party and its peripheral formations in reality. In the book's scenario the concept actually makes it into the Constitution (the "33rd Amendment," see chap. nine) and then helps to pave the way for their eventual formal declaration of the United States as a "Christian Nation" (a long-time goal of such Christian Right leaders as David Barton [30]). That "God is supreme" is a theory of government (theocracy, in one form or another) that the Christian Right has publicly subscribed to for quite some time now.

VII. An Increasing Focus on Homophobia

Homophobia and its political consequences are very important in the ideology and subsequent policies of the Republican-Christian Alliance of the book. First, as noted, in "2005" the Alliance puts into the Constitution (!) the notion that homosexual behavior is a matter of choice (chapter 7). In "2009", the President, under his emergency powers, declares homosexuality to be a crime (chapter 11). Finally, in "2020", with an active rebellion underway, the regime begins the "Second Final Solution," in which that "scourge upon society" on which all the people's troubles are blamed, are now to be arrested and sent to passive extermination camps (chapter 18).



.Back in the 1960s, school yearbook editors could read your thoughts.. And let's hear it for Pence and Conversion Therapy.

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How far-fetched is this scenario? Well, at some time during the first two years of the G.W. Bush Administration, when Trent Lott was Senate Minority Leader, he said words to the effect that homosexuality is a sin and therefore evil, because the Bible says so. This man was the third-ranking leader of the Republican government at the time. A 2003 Bush nominee for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Attorney General of Alabama Bill Pryor, in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, at one time compared homosexuality with necrophilia, bestiality, incest and pedophilia. In April, 2003, Rick Santorum, when he was the third highest ranking Republican in the United States Senate, compared homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery. Pres. Bush's response to this statement was that he (Bush) was tolerant of a range of views on social questions. That range apparently didn't include the view not held by Sen. Santorum that homosexuality, regardless of origin, is a perfectly legitimate lifestyle, protected by the Constitutional right to privacy (declared by the Supreme Court in "Griswold" to be found under the Ninth Amendment). More recently, former Wisconsin Rep. Mark Neumann allowed that "If I was elected God for a day homosexuality wouldn't be permitted" (31). Mr. Neumann was a Republican candidate for the Senate from his state in 2012.

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@alextdaugherty

Former Rep. Joe Garcia, a Miami Democrat who served one term in Congress from 2013 to 2015, has registered as a foreign agent for the Qatari government.

According to a Justice Department registration notice, Garcia will engage in "strategic consulting and management services" on behalf of the Qatari government. Senior Qatari officials are meeting with President Donald Trump this week amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

Garcia isn't the only South Florida political figure doing work for the Qataris. Mike Hernandez, Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez's former communications director, and Danielle Alvarez, a former campaign staffer for Gov. Rick Scott, are also working the account for Mercury, a public strategy firm that employs a number of South Florida political campaign veterans.

Ashley Walker, a partner in Mercury's Florida office, said the trio helped organize a recent trip and meetings for Qatari government officials and businessmen in Florida.

"I think that Qatar is looking at investing in Florida and our team helped set up some meetings so that they could meet the right folks about various opportunities," Walker said.

Walker, the Florida director for Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, is not involved in lobbying for Qatar.

Three of Qatar's neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, along with other Middle Eastern countries have cut diplomatic ties with the Qatari government after accusing their government of financing terrorism, cozying up to Iran and harboring fugitives. The freeze forced changes to airplane routes and severed Qatars only land border with Saudi Arabia.

The Qatari government has already hired former Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard's firm to advocate on its behalf and the New York Times reported that the effort has appeared to pay off, with Trump set to push for a settlement between Qatar and its neighbors.

Garcia joined Mercury in October 2017. In 2016, he lost to Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo in a bid to regain his former seat.
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From af.mil: DOD to observe Constitution Day, Citizenship Day > U.S. Air Force

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The ease with which Americans are prepared to welcome boots on the ground, regional lockdowns, routine invasions of their privacy, and the dismantling of every constitutional right intended to serve as a bulwark against government abuses is beyond unnerving.

I am referring at this particular moment in time to President Trump's decision to deploy military forces to the border in a supposed bid to protect the country from invading bands of illegal immigrants.

This latest attempt to bamboozle the citizenry into relinquishing even more of their rights is commonly referred to as letting the wolves guard the henhouse.

We are long past the stage where the government--at any level--abides by restrictions on its powers.

What we are dealing with is a run-away government hyped up on its own power, whose policies are dictated more by paranoia than need.

It works the same in every country.

Time and again, we keep sacrificing our liberties for phantom promises of safety.

The lesson is this: once a free people allows the government to make inroads into their freedoms or uses those same freedoms as bargaining chips for security, it quickly becomes a slippery slope to outright tyranny.

This is fast becoming a government that has no respect for the freedom or lives of its citizenry.

Yet there are warning signs we cannot afford to ignore.

First off, there is no such thing as a "border" in the eyes of these military patrols. The entire United States of America has become a Constitution-free zone.

According to journalist Todd Miller, the "once thin borderline of the American past" is "an ever-thickening band, now extending 100 miles inland around the United States--along the 2,000-mile southern border, the 4,000-mile northern border and both coasts... This 'border' region now covers places where two-thirds of the US population (197.4 million people) live" The 'border' has by now devoured the full states of Maine and Florida and much of Michigan."

The U.S. government has also declared that ever-expanding border region a Constitution-free zone.

Second, this de facto standing army that has been imposed on the American people is in clear violation of the spirit--if not the letter of the law--of the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the government's ability to use the U.S. military as a police force.

America's police forces--which look like, dress like, and act like the military--have undeniably become a "standing" or permanent army, one composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband, which is exactly what the Founders feared.

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

The rise and fall of empires has long been a story at the heart of history. Since the Europeans first burst out of their then-marginal region on wooden sailing ships mounted with cannons in the fifteenth century, the planet seldom has had a moment in which several imperial powers weren't competing for supremacy. In 1945, that number was reduced to two and then, for what the Washington elite briefly imagined would be forever, to one. Now, as historian Alfred McCoy, author of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, describes in his vivid way today, we seem to be returning to an updated imperial version of the naval contests that began modern history so many centuries ago. The Americans, the Chinese, and in a more modest way the Russians are all bolstering their forces on the high seas in increasingly challenging ways.

But there is a catch. Two actually. It's not the fifteenth century anymore. It's not even an early-twentieth-century moment of dreadnoughts and battleships. The tale of imperial rise and fall is now taking place in a different context: the potential fall of planet Earth itself (at least as a reasonable human habitat). As a start, since the middle of the last century, all imperial confrontations, naval or otherwise, have taken place on a globe where any confrontation between major powers has had an apocalyptically loaded and cocked gun behind it. If you wonder what I mean, just think about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 in which a naval face-off between the Soviet Union and the United States threatened to end life as we know it on this planet. Don't for a second think that it couldn't happen again.

But there's a second cocked gun on Planet Earth these days and it goes by the name of climate change. In a sense, it's the very opposite of the nuclear one in that the potential Armageddon would arrive not with the speed of the Roman god Mercury but in dreadful slow motion as the planet slowly heats; the melting of Antarctica and Greenland causes sea levels to slowly rise, imperiling coastal cities; fire seasons lengthen; droughts and extreme weather of every sort become the norm; water becomes ever scarcer; vast human populations are set in motion; and... well, you get the idea. The question is: on a planet already beginning to degrade, what exactly does it mean for a new power like China to "rise" or an old one to "decline"? Tom

Gunboat Diplomacy and the Ghost of Captain Mahan

Or How China and the U.S. Are Spawning a New Great Power Naval Rivalry

By Alfred W. McCoy Amid the intense coverage of Russian cyber-maneuvering and North Korean missile threats, another kind of great-power rivalry has been playing out quietly in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The U.S. and Chinese navies have been repositioning warships and establishing naval bases as if they were so many pawns on a geopolitical chessboard. To some it might seem curious, even quaint, that gunboats and naval bastions, once emblematic of the Victorian age, remain even remotely relevant in our own era of cyber-threats and space warfare. Yet if you examine, even briefly, the central role that naval power has played and still plays in the fate of empires, the deadly serious nature of this new naval competition makes more sense. Indeed, if war were to break out among the major powers today, don't discount the possibility that it might come from a naval clash over Chinese bases in the South China Sea rather than a missile strike against North Korea or a Russian cyber attack. The Age of Empire For the past 500 years, from the 50 fortified Portuguese ports that dotted the world in the sixteenth century to the 800 U.S. military bases that dominate much of it today, empires have used such enclaves as Archimedean levers to move the globe. Viewed historically, naval bastions were invaluable when it came to the aspirations of any would-be hegemonic power, yet also surprisingly vulnerable to capture in times of conflict. Throughout the twentieth century and the first years of this one, military bases in the South China Sea in particular have been flashpoints for geopolitical change. The U.S. victory at Manila Bay in 1898, the fall of the British bastion of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942, America's withdrawal from Subic Bay in the Philippines in 1992, and China's construction of airstrips and missile launchers in the Spratly Islands since 2014 -- all have been iconic markers for both geopolitical dominion and imperial transition. Indeed, in his 1890 study of naval history, that famed advocate of seapower Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, arguably America's only original strategic thinker, stated that "the maintenance of suitable naval stations", when combined with decided preponderance at sea, makes a scattered and extensive empire, like that of England, secure." In marked contrast to the British Navy's 300 ships and 30 bases circling the globe, he worried that U.S. warships with "no foreign establishments, either colonial or military... will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting-places for them... would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea." So important did Captain Mahan consider naval bases for America's defense that he argued "it should be an inviolable resolution of our national policy that no European state should henceforth acquire a coaling position within three thousand miles of San Francisco" -- a span that reached the Hawaiian Islands, which Washington would soon seize. In a series of influential dictums, he also argued that a large fleet and overseas bases were essential to both the exercise of global power and national defense. Although Mahan was read as gospel by everyone from American President Teddy Roosevelt to German Kaiser Wilhelm II, his observations do not explain the persistent geopolitical significance of such naval bases. Especially in periods between wars, these bastions seem to allow empires to project their power in crucial ways. Historian Paul Kennedy has suggested that Britain's "naval mastery" in the nineteenth century made it "extremely difficult for other lesser states to undertake maritime operations or trade without at least its tacit consent." But modern bases do even more. Naval bastions and the warships they serve can weave a web of dominion across an open sea, transforming an unbounded ocean into de facto territorial waters. Even in an age of cyberwarfare, they remain essential to geopolitical gambits of almost any sort, as the United States has shown repeatedly during its tumultuous century as a Pacific power. America as a Pacific Power As the U.S. began its ascent to global power by expanding its navy in the 1890s, Captain Mahan, then head of the Naval War College, argued that Washington had to build a battle fleet and capture island bastions, particularly in the Pacific, that could control the surrounding sea-lanes. Influenced in part by his doctrine, Admiral George Dewey's squadron sank the Spanish fleet and seized the key harbor of Manila Bay in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

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From Telesur

This is about the people finding expression outside the confines of factional interests; a new strategy. This time, the world must listen.

Why did Israel kill many unarmed Gaza protesters and wound over 2,000 on Friday, March 30 and on the following days, when they clearly posed no threat to Israeli soldiers?

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, many of them snipers, were deployed to the deadly buffer zone that the Israeli army has created between besieged Gaza and Israel, as tens of thousands of Palestinian families held mass rallies at the border.

"Yesterday we saw 30,000 people," tweeted the Israeli army on March 31. "We arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed."

The tweet, which was captured by the Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, was soon deleted. The Israeli army must have realized that killing children and bragging about it on social media is too cruel, even for them.

Palestinian popular mobilization deeply concerns Israel, partly because it is a PR nightmare. By killing and wounding this number of Palestinians, Israel had hoped that the masses would retreat, the protests would subside and, eventually, end. This was not the case, of course.

But there is more to Israeli fear. The power of the Palestinian people, when united beyond factional allegiances, is immense. It disrupts Israel's political and military tactics entirely, and places Tel Aviv wholly on the defensive.

Israel killed those Palestinians precisely to avoid this nightmarish scenario. Since the cold-blooded murder of innocent people did not go unnoticed, it is important that we dig deeper into the social and political context that led tens of thousands of Palestinians to camp and rally at the border.

Gaza is being suffocated. Israel's decade-long blockade, combined with Arab neglect and a prolonged feud between Palestinian factions, have all served to drive Palestinians to the brink of starvation and political despair. Something has to give.

Last week's act of mass mobilization was not just about underscoring the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees (as enshrined in international law), nor about commemorating Land Day, an event that has united all Palestinians since the bloody protests of 1976. The protest was about reclaiming the agenda, transcending political infighting and giving voice back to the people.

There are many historical similarities between this act of mobilization and the context that preceded the First Intifada (or "uprising") of 1987. At the time, Arab governments in the region had relegated the Palestinian cause to the status of "someone else's problem."

By the end of 1982, having already been exiled to Lebanon, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) along with thousands of Palestinian fighters, were pushed even further away to Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen and various other countries. This geographic isolation left the traditional leadership of Palestine irrelevant to what was happening on the ground.

In that moment of utter hopelessness, something snapped. In December 1987, people (mostly children and teenagers) took to the streets, in a largely non-violent mobilization that lasted over six years, culminating in the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993.

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From AlterNet

New advertising rules and European Union privacy standards seek to clean up dirty politics.



Mark Zuckerberg

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As Zuckerberg heads into congressional hearings spurred by revelations that a GOP-connected political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, stole personal data from 87 million users in 2014 before working for 2016 Republican presidential candidates, Facebook has done something that will make members of Congress take notice: It has taken more steps to curb abusive campaign advertising and to protect user privacy than anything Congress has done in years.

On the political advertising front, Facebook announced last Friday that it was not going to post any ad from anyone who would not identify themselves, say where they're located, and it would also post links showing all of that political advertisers' messaging. On the privacy front, Facebook also announced it would globally adopt forthcoming European Union rules, which return control over that online personal data to users from advertisers, including campaigns.

Both of these steps have been overlooked in the loud media narrative of how "No One Trusts Facebook" anymore, as a New York Times report put it Monday; one of many accounts where Facebook users lamented the lack of privacy surrounding their personal information. However, what Facebook is doing in the political world is going to be very significant -- if it holds.

Facebook is a must-use platform for campaigns. Part of the upset over the Cambridge Analytica scandal was the extent to which tens of millions of voters were targeted by propaganda based on their Facebook profiles. (The same targeting occurred on other platforms, like Google's YouTube.) The House Energy and Commerce Committee Monday published a copy of Zuckerberg's prepared testimony, where he estimated "approximately 126-million people may have been served content from a Facebook Page associated with the IRA [Internet Research Agency, a Russian government front] at some point during that period [the 2016 election]. On [Facebook-owned] Instagram, where our data on reach is not as complete, we found about 120,000 pieces of content, and estimate an additional 20 million people were likely served it."

Placed in context, those are remarkable figures. IRA's messaging reached more Americans in 2016 via Facebook than the total number of people who voted for president, which was 139 million. Thus, for Facebook to identify and verify who is behind political messages on its must-use platform is doing what Congress has not done for a long time: shine a light on partisan operatives.

If anything, many candidates and the political consulting industry have gone in the opposite direction. The Senate Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, followed by the likes of super-operatives like Karl Rove and super-funders like the Koch brothers, have mainstreamed what's called "dark money" in politics. That's where the identities of those buying political ads stay hidden, in contrast to attacks that have only become more vitriolic. The Democrats are no saints on this front either. They have adopted their opponents tactics in the equivalent of a partisan arms race -- where everyone copies everyone else and no one disarms.

Meanwhile, as campaigns have gotten meaner and less truthful, the federal regulatory landscape has become increasingly toothless. This goes beyond the Supreme Court's campaign finance rulings to vacant federal regulatory seats, which, together, have created a catalog of loopholes favoring big money and secretive donors. Stepping into this mix now is Facebook, a private company, whose corporate-created user and advertising rules don't have to pass the same courtroom tests as federal legislation.

In short, Zuckerberg wants out of the dirty business of anonymous smears and propaganda. Under the heading of "strengthening our advertising policies," his remarks said, "We know some members of Congress are exploring ways to increase transparency around political or issue advertising, and we're happy to keep working with Congress on that. But we aren't waiting for legislation to act."

To Republicans like McConnell, those likely will be fighting words. In the 1990s, McConnell was known for opposing all campaign rules except one: disclosing one's name next to the message sent. Of course, he has long abandoned that stand. What has resulted since are all kinds of front groups throw partisan mud, while efforts to identify who is behind the latest smears often hit brick walls.

But Zuckerberg said that dirty dynamic not going to happen on Facebook anymore, if he can help it.

"From now on, every advertiser who wants to run political or issue ads will need to be authorized. To get authorized, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location," he said. "Any advertiser who doesn't pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads. We will also label them and advertisers will have to show you who paid for them. We're starting this in the U.S. and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months."

Then Zuckerberg said Facebook would go further: it would name those holding the biggest partisan megaphones.

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[Reprinted from Black Agenda Report]

"There is no reason to believe that Dr. King would have abandoned his pro-peace (and "democratic socialist") principles if he were alive today."

The line of preachers stretched 100 yards to the door of Columbus, Georgia's radio station WOKS, where the pastors had each been allotted a few minutes to testify to their deep commitment to the ideals espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., shot down in Memphis three days earlier. Nearly every Black minister in town was there, waiting his turn to lie. Although they would sound like an amen corner for "the Movement" on this mournful Sunday morning, the assembled clergymen had, in fact, acted as the front line of resistance to King's gospel of nonviolent confrontation with the white powers-that-be.

Both before and after the tumultuous Birmingham campaign of 1963, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had hoped to bring the movement to Columbus, the second-largest city in Georgia, 100 miles due south of Atlanta. The protocols of Black Baptist behaviour, however, required that ministers first receive an invitation from a local congregation before setting up shop in someone else's city. All 100 of Columbus' Black churches shut their doors on Dr. King, rejecting any outside interference in their long accommodation with white supremacy.

"Dr. King's early southern campaign itinerary was shaped primarily by the places he was locked out of."

The same solid phalanx of Jim Crowed preachers kept King out of Georgia's other large cities: Macon, Augusta, and Savannah. Indeed, Dr. King's early southern campaign itinerary was shaped primarily by the places he was locked out of-- ultimately, almost everywhere except small backwaters like Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine Florida .

The myth of the "Black Church" as the central player in the huge social transformations of the 1960s begins with the false testimonials that poured from pulpits and Black radio microphones on that Sunday, April 7th, 1968 -- and have soiled the historical record ever since. Accommodation with Power -- not transformation or liberation -- was the watchword of the Black church, then as now. King and his SCLC were a rogue faction of dissident Baptists in a sea of petty capitalist hustlers in clerical collars whose mission was to reconcile Black people to life under apartheid.

"Accommodation with Power was the watchword of the Black church."

I watched with disgust as the Uncle Tom preachers composed their mini-sermons for the radio microphone. An 18 year-old paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I had been on field exercises with my unit the week before, providing security for the commanding general's headquarters. Under a big tent, company commanders and their executive officers spent that Wednesday, April 3, pouring over maps of Washington, DC, in the event we had to occupy the city. When King was killed on the evening of the next day, the division hastily packed its gear and moved back to barracks to prepare for deployment to burning cities. The general, however, somehow forgot to restrict all 12,000 of us to base. Some of us took advantage of the oversight, and went home for the weekend.

When I and hundreds of other paratroopers straggled back to Fort Bragg early Monday morning, April 8, the rest of my unit was sitting on an airfield near Baltimore, as the brass tried to decide whether we should be deployed in that city or nearby Washington. Both were burning, along with over 100 other cities. We wound up in the nation's capital.

"The Guardsmen behaved like an Army of White Vengeance."

The year before, Newark, New Jersey, had been occupied by nearly lily-white units of the National Guard, sent there to quell a four-day rebellion in which 26 Blacks were killed. The Guardsmen behaved like an Army of White Vengeance,joining the racist cops in savaging Black people and shooting up businesses displaying "Black-owned" and "Soul Brother" signs on the Springfield Avenue thoroughfare. However, the 82nd Airborne Division was a different social organism, entirely; our ranks were 60 percent Black, and we had been transformed. All of us (at least in my company) were aware of what had happened in Newark. As far as the Black troops were concerned, our division had only one mission in Washington, DC: to make sure the white soldiers -- especially the mostly white military police -- did no harm to the Black population. And they did not dare. Not one Black citizen of Washington was hurt by a soldier of the 82nd Airborne division -- or, to my knowledge, even verbally abused -- during the occupation.

Our officers took note, and were clearly disturbed by our protective postures. The same Black ghetto army that was rebelling in Vietnam, was showing that it would not be a party to abuse of Black people at home. It was the beginning of the end of the draft.

"Not one Black citizen of Washington was hurt by a soldier of the 82nd Airborne division during the occupation."

Dr. King's April 4, 1967, anti-war speech at New York's Riverside Church likely began the countdown to his assassination. A year later, as the fires of Black rage at King's murder burned in the nation's capital, it was dawning on the top brass that the entire institutional structure of the U.S. Armed Forces had to be scrapped. Not only was the genocidal U.S. imperial project in Vietnam doomed, but there must never again be allowed to arise a critical mass of Black ghetto soldiers to dominate the ranks of combat units -- men that fought pitched gun battles with military police outfits in Da Nang and other posts, burned down the military stockades at Long Bihn and Da Nang, and fragged (blew up with grenades) countless officers and sargeants. (See "Fear of a 'Black Street Army ,'" The Black Commentator, July 3 2003, and "No Draft No Peace: Rangel and Conyers Are Right " July 9, 2003, The Black Commentator.)

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From AlJazeera

Bad as Bolton is, he is not the problem. Bad as Trump is, he's not the problem. The problem is "them" -- Republicans.

John Bolton is back!

Bolton is ridiculously bad. But the key two words in the above sentence are not his name, they are "is back."

Bad as Bolton is, he is not the problem. Bad as Donald Trump, who brought him back, is, he's not the problem. The problem is "them" -- Republicans. Self-designated conservatives.

In case you need a guide to what's wrong with Bolton, besides his moustache, recall the Iraq War. Not hard to do, since it's still going on. And still un-won, by anyone. It was brought to us by -- among others -- John Bolton. He still believes it was a good thing. He helped massage the "evidence" that the Iraqi regime had weapons of mass destruction. Before that, in 2002, he wanted to go to war with Cuba. Why? Because they were developing weapons of mass destruction! Though that wasn't true either.

Now he wants another war. What for? To stop weapons of mass destruction. As he wrote in a New York Times op-ed, "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran. "

He is adamantly against the Iran nuclear deal. He says it's a horrible deal because it has "sunset provisions" that would allow Iran to leap into nuclear development action after 10 or 15 years. So what should we do? The US -- or Israel, encouraged by the US -- should launch a strike! That -- according to Bolton -- "could set back its program by three to five years." But the internationally backed Iran deal looks like it will delay Iran's nuclear development by far more than that. Also, if military action is just a strike, it would motivate Iran to move to nukes as fast as possible. If it means a land war, it would be far worse than the war in Iraq.

Bolton came to us in the Bush-Cheney administration. George W Bush wanted to make him ambassador to the UN. To most observers that seemed strange, since Bolton hated the UN then, as he does now, and thought it shouldn't exist.

It wasn't strange . It's them. That's what they do.

Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pruitt's a perfect example of "them." Not only he is responsible for the EPA being sued by 14 states, most of his money came from the kinds of polluters he is supposed to regulate. That's part of their grand tradition.

Ronald Reagan put Anne Gorsuch Burford in charge of the EPA. She cut the agency's budget by almost a quarter and the staff by 30 percent. She cut back on enforcement against polluters. She "came under fire for accepting expensive dinners from industry and striking sweetheart deals with those companies. She later served time in jail for lying to Congress about a conflict of interest involving a former employer. Gorsuch herself was cited by Congress for contempt after refusing to turn over documents during the investigations. By Gorsuch's own admission, the resulting political meltdown paralyzed the agency, preventing it from getting any actual work done." Her son, Neil Gorsuch, is now on the Supreme Court.

George W Bush appointed a "moderate" Republican to head the EPA, Christine Todd Whitman. During her short time in charge, the number of smog days went up 32 percent. Completion of Superfund clean-ups of the worst pollution sites was cut in half. " [A] multi-million-dollar verdict ... was changed in Monsanto's favor just days after Whitman received a 45-minute 'briefing' on the case." But when she came out in support of the Kyoto Protocols, the Bush administration found her too liberal and forced her out.

The Trump administration steams with the odors of financial scandals. Donald and his family appear to be using the White House as a means to promote their private businesses -- People with policy interests staying in Trump hotels and signing up for membership at Mar-a-Lago; Trump condos being sold to shell companies; US visas being offered to foreigners who buy Kushner real estate; the Secret Service leasing space in Trump Tower for $130,000 a month.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and leading adviser on the Middle East, went to the Gulf looking for money. Qataris said no and the US foreign policy turned against Qatar. Saudis gave him funds, and the US started supporting Saudi Arabia's interests in the region. Michael Flynn lobbied for Turkey. Paul Manafort laundered money. The Health and Human Services Secretary with the incredibly apt name, Price, had (allegedly, apparently, obviously) used non-public knowledge he acquired on House and Senate committees to make lots of money in stocks. He also got in trouble for running up over $400,000 chartering flights. He did offer to reimburse the government $52,000 for doing so.

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From Mike Malloy Website

Geez, you take a spring break and visit family and look what happens?

Thank you Bob Kincaid for covering all the breaking news last week. Mike is back in black tonight and boy, what a day to jump into the fray!

"Lightening" Bolton fixes Syria in his brushy crosshairs on his first day at the Ministry of War, Tinyhands turns weirdly tough on Assad and Putin with threats of bombs and sanctions, and the President of the United States' personal attorney was just raided by the FBI. Bank fraud, wire fraud, campaign finance violations, possible tax fraud, and more.

Wow. They've been working on this Cohen raid for months, they must have some serious dirt to compel a judge to order such an alarming raid today. Reminiscent of Manafort.

Maybe we'll get to see those elusive tax returns after all!

The mean tangerine is pissed. Bigly. He freaked out on camera and tore into Sessions for his Russian recusal and Mueller for the "witch hunt" being conducted by "all these democrats" in the FBI. Its a crime against the country, according to Trump. Horrible. All this investigating of his criminal associates and appointees.

So unfair, so disgraceful, this digging into his misdeeds to uncover the truth. This protecting the US Constitution and our national institutions instead of his ample grifting ass.

Panicky stammering aside, is The Don so invested in his psychotic delusions that he really believes that Flynn and the other criminals in his inner circle pled guilty for the fun of it? Just for kicks? Dozens of Russians indicted for nothing? And that the US Attorney General's primary job is to help him obstruct justice and cover up his crimes?

As David Corn said on Hardball tonight, the only thing worse than the FBI raiding your office is the FBI raiding your Fixer's office.

Speaking of cable news, what the Fock do Fox "News" anchors do with all this breaking news? They can't dig up Billy Graham and eulogize him for another week like they did when the Stormy Daniels news broke across the telescreens. So, what to talk about?

Ooh! Ooh! I know! Syria!

Bolton's on board and Trump is feeling the breath of the law on his lacquered neck hairs, so look for a new hot war in the Mideast.

Dang, this would be the Best Season Ever of "The Apprentice" if all these innocent lives weren't at risk, here at home and all around the world.
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Undoing the New Deal: Clinton Rolled Back the Deal, Obama Blew an FDR Moment (pt6)

[The entire series can be seen at The Real News Network]

Historian Gerald Horne says that President Clinton's "reforms" were a staggering blow to the social safety net; President Obama had a rare political moment where he could have created a modern New Deal, but he wouldn't do it.

Dr. Gerald Horne holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war. Dr. Horne has also written extensively about the film industry. His latest book is The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America . Dr. Horne received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Princeton University.

Paul: Gerald is the John Jay and Rebecca Morris Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He's the author of the Counterrevolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the united states of america. Thanks for joining us again, Gerald.

Gerald Horne: Thank you for inviting me.

Paul: So, before we kind of pick up again a bit of Reagan and then move into Clinton. You wanted to make a comment about FDR. Go ahead.

Gerald Horne: Well, I think that in our previous analysis, we were relatively charitable toward FDR, and I don't think that was necessarily misplaced. What I mean is we were trying to explain how and why it was that so many New Deal programs tended to exclude black workers, and can you lay that wholly at the doorstep of the occupant of the Oval Office or should you do a broader analysis of the race and class forces that he was confronting? That is to say, the opposition in Dixie, not only by Dixiecrats, that is to say political leaders within his own party, but also a mass movement amongst many white workers, who were upset about any uplifting of black workers.

Gerald Horne: What was interesting about FDR, what he was trying to do and run around that, by having a dual partnership with his spouse, Eleanor Roosevelt, who in many ways, was saying many progressive things that the president himself felt he was not able to say because of this relationship with the Dixiecrats. And I think that that same kind of political configuration that we're confronted with, which is really screwy in the United States, that is to say, we don't have a Labor Party that represents labor. Black, white, brown, etc.

Gerald Horne: We have these parties of mixed-class formations, a Democratic Party that unions at its base and has, at the elite level, has many Wall Street elements, who are not necessarily dependent upon an organized labor force, and then you have a Republican Party that has many white, working class and middle class folk at its base, but then has at its apex many bosses who are dependent upon a broad swath of working class labor.

Gerald Horne: As long as you have that rather dysfunctional class and political party configuration, you're gonna have difficulty pushing through any kind of social democratic measure.

Paul: Okay. So, let's move into ... in terms of Reagan, we talked about he takes advantage of this moment that the legislation of the 1960s sent a lot of what were Dixiecrats, southern racist members of the Democratic Party over to the Republican Party. There's resentment in the white working class about many of these reforms; Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, which did benefit black workers, certainly more directly than New Deal measures in the 1930s. And in a time of globalization; it takes a great big leap, to my mind, it's a whole other conversation, but it has a lot to do with the development of digitization.

Paul: You can now rationalize international production in a way that you never could and in the 1980s, this really starts to take off, weakening the power of American workers and American unions. But big government, to a large extent, actually really means, undo social programs. When Reagan says, "Let's have smaller government," he doesn't mean let's have a smaller military. He means, let's get rid of social programs, those from the 30s and the 60s. And that message tends to resonate in his favor.

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Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market

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Survey Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market 2018A market study "Global Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market" examines the performance of the Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market 2018 report includes Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors market Revenue, market Share, Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors industry volume, market Trends, Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market 2018 :BroadcomQorvoRF360TAIYO YUDENTeledyneAPI TechnologiesVectronQualtreBulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market : By ApplicationAerospace and MilitaryTelecommunicationsConsumer ElectronicsIndustrialOthersBulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market : By TypeQCM-TSMFBAR-SMRFirstly, the report covers the top Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors industry, Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors market revenue worldwide.Finally, Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensors 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 single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We have a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of the technology industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@globeinforesearch.com
Canned Tuna Market Projected to Increase at a CAGR of 3.8% during 2017-2025

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According to the latest market report published by Transparency Market Research titled Canned Tuna Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast 2017-2025, the revenue generated from canned tuna has been estimated to be valued over US$ 10,496.1 Mn in 2017, which is projected to increase at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period (2017-2025).Download PDF Brochure @Market Taxonomy: By Species, Distribution Channel, and RegionBy species type, the global canned tuna market is segmented as albacore, skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, Bluefin tuna, bigeye tuna and longtail tuna. By distribution channel the market is segmented as direct and indirect. Furthermore, by indirect channel, the market is segmented as hypermarkets/supermarkets, specialty stores, online channels, convenience stores and others. By end use, the market is segmented as foodservice and households.On the basis of region, the market in Europe is anticipated to dominate the global canned tuna market both in terms of value and volume in 2017. North America is expected to gain significant market share in revenue terms by 2025 end. This trend is attributed to the consumer dependence on canned tuna as demand for processed and ready-to-eat food is growing in this region. Moreover, BENELUX is projected to exhibit significant CAGR in terms of value during the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @While the consumer demand for canned tuna witnesses a downward trend, the increasing demand from the Middle East is leveling off this decline, and emerging as an attractive market for ASEAN canned tuna exporters. The exemption from import duties in the Middle East has led to higher exports in this region. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel are the largest importers of tuna in the Middle East, accounting for 21%, 19%, and 11% import share, respectively. The import tariff in most of the countries in this region is only 5%, which is very low as compared to the U.S. and the EU. In spite of the large scope for fishing, the Middle Eastern region is poorly developed in fishing, and hence, is heavily dependent on imports from ASEAN countries, especially Vietnam. High demand from non-traditional markets is the only rescuer of the canned tuna market from declining in the near future.US Canned Seafood Market to Face a Downward TrendOverfishing has led governments to ban commercial fishing in parts of the Pacific Ocean. The ban on fishing has led to the overall lower supply of tuna, consequently leading to higher prices of canned tuna. Higher prices have, in turn, led to lower demand for canned tuna from regions such as Europe. Tuna species such as yellowfin are overfished and are categorized as an endangered species. Concerns against overfishing are growing and are leading to the fluctuating supply and demand of canned seafood, globally.In the U.S., the canned seafood market is also indicating a clear downward trend due to the lack of sustainable and regular supply of its main product. Consumers in the U.S. and Europe are highly concerned about dolphin deaths caused due to tuna fishing. A vast number of dolphins have been killed during tuna fishing, and consumers are averse to buying products that have resulted in the deaths of this large by catch. Consumer sensitivity towards the sustainability of canned tuna dictates the growth of the market. The dolphin safety issue has been trending in the canned tuna market over the past many years and is still a major obstacle being blamed for the decline of the canned tuna market.Key Market PlayersSome of the major companies operating in the global Canned Tuna market are Thai Union Group, Alliance Select Foods International, Inc., Ocean Brands GP, Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, StarKist Co., Raincoast Trading Company, Princes Group, Golden Prize Canning Co., Ltd., PT. Aneka Tuna Indonesia., Wild Planet Foods Inc.., Hi-Q Food Products Co., Ltd., American Tuna Inc., Safcol Australia Pty. Ltd., Conga Foods Pty Ltd, Millaton Fishery Co. Ltd., Sadr Darya Co., Dorj Group Companies, Tohfe Food Product Company, C-Food International LLC and Pegasusfood Co., Ltd.Get more Information:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Clutch Market: 2018 To 2022 By Global Key Players - Eaton, Magneti Marelli, Valeo, Aisin Seiki, EXEDY, FCC, Schaeffer, BorgWarner

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April. 6, 2018 (NEWS)  Automotive Clutch Market research report 2018 explores Automotive Clutch Market by Transmission (Manual, Automated), by Clutch Type (Dog Clutch, Friction Clutch, Hydraulic Clutch and other), by Vehicle Type (Passenger vehicle, Commercial Vehicle), and region Forecast To 2022 by MarketResearchFuture. The global market for global automotive pressure sensor market analysis shows that market will grow at significant growth rate during 2018 To 2022.Global Automotive Clutch Market Highlights:Automotive Clutch helps to enjoy a smooth start and facilitate shaft. It also prevent the transmission overload and reduce the impact of torsional vibration. Features such transmitting required power as well as serve as safety device are acting as a primary factor for the growth of market. Stringent emission norms, need for fuel efficiency as well as technological advancement such as the dual clutch transmission system are driving the market of Automotive Clutch Market. Moreover, shifting preference towards manual or fully-automatic transmission systems spur the market growthGet Sample Report on Global Automotive Clutch Market At:Market Competitive Landscape: Eaton Corporation, Magneti Marelli, Valeo, Aisin Seiki, EXEDY, FCC, Schaeffer, BorgWarner Clutch Auto Limited and ZF are major player operating in the market of Global Automotive Clutch are Friedrichshafen.The report for Global Automotive Clutch 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.Market Segmentation:Automotive Clutch Market segmentation is based on Transmission (Manual, Automated), Clutch Type (Dog Clutch, Friction Clutch, Hydraulic Clutch and other), Vehicle Type (Passenger vehicle, Commercial Vehicle), and Regions.Geographic Analysis:Asia pacific is dominating the market of clutch due to majority of automotive sales in the region as well as technological advancement such as duel clutch transmission system and automated manual transmission systems which helps the market to grow in this region. Development of automotive manufacturing industries in developing economies such as china and India are driving the market for automotive Clutch. Factors such as availability of low-cost manual transmission clutches as well as consumer preference towards convenient mode of transmission are some of the factors pushing the market of automotive Clutch. Whereas, increasing vehicle purchase as well as shift towards electric vehicle are some of the factors driving the demand for clutch market in the North American region.Target Audience of Report:This report mainly focuses on Automotive Clutch market Manufacturers, Distributer & Supplier companies, and end Users. Investment bankers and consultants with end user for Automotive Clutch market also analyzed. And finally Government and Independent Regulatory Authorities involved with Global Automotive Clutch market studied.List of Tables:TABLE 1 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 2 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 3 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPETABLE 4 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY REGIONSTABLE 5 NORTH AMERICA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY COUNTRYTABLE 6 NORTH AMERICA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 7 NORTH AMERICA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 8 NORTH AMERICA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPETABLE 9 U.S. AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 10 U.S. AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 11 U.S. AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPETABLE 12 CANADA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 13 CANADA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 14 CANADA AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPETABLE 15 EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY COUNTRYTABLE 16 EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 17 EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 18 EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPETABLE 19 GERMANY AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY TRANSMISSION TYPETABLE 20 GERMANY AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY CLUTCH TYPETABLE 21 GERMANY AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCH MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPEContinued..Browse market data Tables and Figures spread through 100 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Automotive Clutch Market"About 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.528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Online Dating Services Market to grow at a CAGR of 5.31% during 2017-2021 | Match.com, eHarmony, Tinder, Zoosk

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Online dating services provide users the ideal platform to interact with the interested people through computer or mobile devices. Online dating services have become extremely credible with increasing number of users accepting the idea of meeting a random stranger through online dating services. Also, the verification processes are tightened due to which there are very few fake profiles, which make online dating service a safe environment for the users.The global online dating services market to grow at a CAGR of 5.31% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global online dating services market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from online dating services.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAClick to get Sample PDF:Technavio's report, Global Online Dating Services Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Match.com- eHarmony- Tinder- ZooskOther prominent vendors- Badoo- BlackPeopleMeet- Bumble- Elite Singles- happn- OurTime- Spark- Tastebuds.fmMarket driver- Low hassle in order to find a partner- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Limited trust on online dating services- For a full, detailed list, view our reportView Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Plant Growth Regulators Market Poised to Bring in more than US$ 3,000 Mn Revenues by 2026-end

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Albeit there are few players that dominate the global market for plant growth regulators, nature of the market is highly competitive on account of numerous small vendors that hold significant market shares. The intense competition in the market can be mainly attributed to the widespread foothold of leading market players coupled with their huge production facilities globally. These players compete on the basis of product innovations, cost and quality. A new report of Transparency Market Research identifies key players underpinning growth of the global plant growth regulators market that include WinField Solutions, Dow Chemical Company, Valent Bioscience Corporation, Nufarm Limited, Syngenta AG, Xinyi Industrial Co., Ltd., Somitomo Chemicals Company LTD, Bayer Cropscience, FMC Corporation, and BASF SE.Download PDF Brochure @According to the report, an impressive expansion will be reflected by the global market for plant growth regulators between the forecast period 2017 and 2026. Sales of plant growth regulators around the world are poised to bring in more than US$ 3,000 Mn revenues by 2026-end.Adoption of New Farming Methods to Drive Adoption of Plant Growth RegulatorsIn a bid to curtail production costs and ensure crop protection, farmers are being prompted to employ new methods such as utilization of agrochemicals and organic farming, driven by increasing profitability concern. Adoption of these farming methods will create significant demand for the plant growth regulators, especially in agriculture-driven nations. In contrast, robust use of fertilizers in agriculture sector will constrain adoption of plant growth regulators upto a certain extent. Stricter regulations associated with use of pesticides will further restrain demand by shifting focus of farmers toward bio-based alternatives that are cost effective. Plant growth regulators seek extensive adoption in modification of the plant physiological processes, which include regulation of the plant metabolism and inhibition or stimulation of enzyme systems. Growth in textile industry in countries such as Turkey, India, Germany, Bulgaria, and China, will create high demand for cotton. Plant growth regulators are extensive used for the regulation of cotton metabolism, which in turn will augment the market expansion.Obtain Report Details @Tremendous surge in expansion of the organic industry is considered to be a major factor fuelling demand for plant growth regulators. Soaring awareness on health hazards apropos to utilization of chemicals in household and food products has been impelling individuals in shifting their preference toward organic food products. In addition, there has been a rapid growth of the pharmaceutical sector in the recent past, driven primarily by rising prevalence of chronic diseases, growth in aging population, unhealthy consumption patterns of consumers, and their changing lifestyles. Growing pharmaceutical industry entails the requirement for herbal medicines, owing to rising prices of their allopathy counterparts. Leading pharmaceutical companies have been making huge investments in research and development of plant-derived medicines for coping up with growing demand for herbal medicines. These instances will further create demand for plant growth regulators in the foreseeable future.Key Prospects of Plant Growth Regulators MarketEurope will continue to spearhead the global plant growth regulators market in terms of revenues, trailed by Asia-Pacific excluding Japan and North America. However, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is projected to register a relatively faster expansion in the market through 2026.Cytokinins and auxins will prevail as top-selling hormone type segments in the market, with revenues collectively estimated to close in approximately US$ 2,100 Mn by 2026-end.Fruits & vegetables are likely to remain dominant as well as fast-expanding crop type segment in the market.Wettable powder formulation of plant growth regulators are set to exhibit the highest CAGR through 2026.Based on function type, plant growth promoters will continue to remain leading revenue contributor to the global plant growth regulators market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Mechanical Locks Market 2018-2023:

Mechanical Locks Market, Mechanical Locks Market size, Mechanical Locks Market share, Mechanical Locks Market trends, Mechanic

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Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 60 market data tables and figures spread in 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Global Mechanical Locks Market information from 2011 to 2022"Market HighlightsThe growth of construction industry in China, U.S and India is driving the demand of mechanical locks. Various electrical locking devices still require mechanical lock override in case of power failure or system error, which is boosting demand for mechanical locks. Affordable prices of mechanical locks over electrical access controllers is driving the growth of the market. The sales of mechanical locks in increasing among the small scale industries and household especially in rural area.Global Mechanical Locks Market Key Players:The key players profiled mechanical locks Serrature Meroni (Italy), ECO Schulte (Germany), ASSA ABLOY (Sweden), Fermax Electronica (U.S.), Mul-T-Lock (U.S.), Nuova Oxidal (Italy), AGB  Alban Giacomo (Italy), Codelocks (U.K.) and Frosio Bortolo (Italy)Get Sample Copy of this Report @Market Research Analysis:Secondary data reveals that the mechanical locks market is projected to grow more than 4.5% annually post the year 2022The top 5 importers of mechanical locks are U.S., Germany, Mexico, China and U.K.Geographocal Analysis:Strong construction activities in region like China, India and South East Asia is driving the growth of mechanical locks market. The demand for interconnected lock is increasing globally compared to other types of mechanical locks due to its multi-point lock system. The growth of electric access controller is also supporting demand for mechanical locks as they require in case of power failure or system error. The sales of grade2 and grade3 mechanical lock is rising in U.S. and Europe whereas garde1 locks are still popular in Asian countries.China accounts for higher market share in the mechanical locks during the period 2011-2015 accounting for USD XX million and is expected to grow over USD XX million by 2022. U.S., Germany, Mexico and Italy being major importers of mechanical locksStudy Objectives of mechanical locks MarketDetailed analysis of segments and sub-segments of mechanical locksTo estimate market size by type, material and gradeMarket dynamics including trend and factor analysis for supply and demand of mechanical locks consumptionRegion level market analysis and market projections for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countriesCompetition mapping and positioning of major market players, evaluation of key company strategiesCompany profiling of major players in the marketValue chain analysis and supply chain analysisAnalysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirementsFull report on Mechanical Locks Market report spread across 110 pages, profiling 15 companies and supported with tables and figures available @Report provides the insights, on various levels of analyses such industry analysis, market share analysis leading market players and their profiles. This report also helps in studying the target segments by providing views on emerging & high-growth segments and market conclusion. Together the market data comprise and discuss with the basic assessments on the competitive scenarios & strategies, of the global mechanical locks market, including the high-growth regions, countries and their political, economic and technological environments. Furthermore the project report also provides the views over the historical market values as well as, pricing and cost analysis of the same.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Tanzania Country Director, John Ulanga (L) hands over a Memorandum of Association (MoU) to the Executive Secretary of Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) Captain Dieudonne Dukundane (R) during the ceremony of signing a financing agreement to provide a total of USD 1.3m (Equivalent to approximately TZS 2.86 billion) over a 3-year period (2018 to 2021) held in Dar es Salaam last week. (Photos by Cathbert Kajuna - Kajunason/MMG).

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Tanzania Country Director, John Ulanga explain to journalist how the TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency whey are working. TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) is an aid-for-trade organization that was established with the aim of growing prosperity in East Africa through increased trade. TMEA operates on a not-for-profit basis and is funded by the development agencies of the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, UK, and USA. TMEA works closely with East African Community (EAC) institutions, national governments, the private sector and civil society organizations.

Executive Secretary of Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) Captain Dieudonne Dukundane (C) explaining a few things to the journalist about their publications that help traders in offering them various education.

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) have signed a financing agreement geared towards strengthening and enhancing the Central Corridor Transport Observatory (CCTO). The financing will specifically improve monitoring of the Central Corridor performance in-order to support evidence-based advocacy and decision making to remove trade barriers. To that effect, TMEA will provide a total of USD 1.3m (Equivalent to approximately TZS 2.86 billion) over a 3-year period (2018 to 2021).





TradeMark East Africa is delighted to provide this support to CCTTFA because the organization is producing reliable and timely data on the performance of the Central Corridor Transport Network. This support therefore will further strengthen that work and enable the countries served by the corri dor to design interventions to further improve performance of the corridor said John Ulanga, the Tanzania Country Director.





CCTTFA highly appreciates this funding support from TMEA for our Central Corridor Observatory work, the funding will go a long way to support our ongoing efforts and enable us to work with various stakeholders in central corridor partner states to further improve efficiency of the corridor and hence increase the volume of trade going through the corridor for the benefit of the countries. said Captain Dieudonne Dukundane, Executive Secretary of CCTTFA.




Actuators Automotive Market: 2018 To 2022 By Global Key Players - Continental, Delphi, Denso, Hell, Bosch, Stoneridge, Wabco, Mitsubishi, Nidec

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April. 6, 2018 (NEWS)  Actuators Automotive Market research report 2018 explores Actuators Automotive Market by Product Type (Throttle, Power Seat, EGR, Brake, VGT, Wastegate, Grille Shutter, Intake Flap, Electrical Exhaust/Sound Flap, & Thermo Module / Thermal Actuators) by Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Light Commercial Vehicle, Heavy Commercial Vehicle) by Region (North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World) Forecast To 2022 by MarketResearchFuture.Global Actuators Automotive Market Highlights: Increase in the demand for automobiles especially in the developing economies has boosted the market of actuators. There is a rising demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, will aid the growth of the automotive actuators market to grow. Growing influence of regulations on vehicle's carbon emissions and emission ratings on OEMs is also driving the market.Get Sample Report on Global Actuators Automotive Market At:Market Competitive Landscape: Continental AG, Delphi Automotive, Denso Corporation, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Robert Bosch GmbH, Stoneridge Inc., Wabco Holdings Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Company, Nidec Corporation, Sonceboz SA are some of the leading players operating in this market.The report for Global Actuators Automotive 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.Market Segmentation: Actuators Automotive Market segmentation is based on Product Type (Throttle, Power Seat, EGR, Brake, VGT, Wastegate, Grille Shutter, Intake Flap, Electrical Exhaust/Sound Flap, & Thermo Module / Thermal Actuators), Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Light Commercial Vehicle, Heavy Commercial Vehicle), Region ( North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World).TABLE OF CONTENTS1 MARKET INTRODUCTION1.1 INTRODUCTION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.3 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:1.3.1 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ACTUATORS MARKET: BY PRODUCT1.3.2 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ACTUATORS MARKET: BY VEHICLE1.3.3 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ACTUATORS MARKET: BY REGION2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH TYPE2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH2.4 FORECAST MODEL2.4.1 MARKET DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS & FORECAST2.4.2 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION2.4.3 MARKET CRACKDOWN & DATA TRIANGULATION3 MARKET DYNAMICS3.1 INTRODUCTION3.2 MARKET DRIVERS3.3 MARKET CHALLENGES3.4 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5. MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS5.1 PORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS5.2 SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS6 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ACTUATORS MARKET6.1 INTRODUCTION6.2 MARKET STATISTICS6.2.1 BY PRODUCT TYPE6.2.1.1 WASTEGATE ACTUATOR6.2.1.2 VGT ACTUATOR6.2.1.3 POWER SEAT ACTUATOR6.2.1.4 EGR ACTUATOR6.2.1.5 INTAKE FLAP ACTUATOR6.2.1.6 GRILLE SHUTTER ACTUATOR6.2.1.7 BRAKE ACTUATOR6.2.1.8 THROTTLE ACTUATOR6.2.1.9 THERMO MODULE ACTUATOR6.2.1.10 ELECTRICAL EXHAUST OR SOUND FLAPS ACTUATOR6.2.2 BY VEHICLE6.2.2.1 PASSENGER CAR6.2.2.2 LIGHT COMMERCIAL VEHICLE6.2.2.3 HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE6.2.3 BY REGION6.2.4.1 NORTH AMERICA6.2.4.2 EUROPE6.2.4.3 ASIA-PACIFIC6.2.4.4 REST OF THE WORLD7 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS7.1 MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS7.2 COMPANY PROFILES7.2.1 CONTINENTAL AG7.2.2 DELPHI AUTOMOTIVE7.2.3 DENSO CORPORATION7.2.4 HELLA KGAA HUECK & CO.7.2.5 ROBERT BOSCH GMBH7.2.6 STONERIDGE INC.7.2.7 WABCO HOLDINGS INC.7.2.8 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC COMPANY7.2.9 NIDEC CORPORATION7.2.10 SONCEBOZ SABrowse market data Tables and Figures spread through 100 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Actuators Automotive Market"About 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.528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Whipples Disease Market is expected to reach USD 255.3 million by 2023 at a CAGR of 3.1% | Major Key Vendors - AbbVie Inc. US, Allergan Republic of Ireland, Bayer AG Germany

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Whipples disease market information: by diagnosis (physical exam, biopsy, and others), by treatment (medications, supplements, and others), by end user- global forecast till 2023. The global Whipples disease market is expected to grow at the CAGR of ~3.1% during the forecast period and is estimated to reach USD 255.3 million by 2023.KEY PLAYERS FOR WHIPPLES DISEASE MARKETAbbVie Inc. (US), Allergan (Republic of Ireland), Bayer AG (Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Henry Schein, Inc (US), Pfizer Inc. (US)Get Sample Report @REGIONAL ANALYSIS FOR WHIPPLES DISEASE MARKETThe Americas holds the largest share in the global Whipples disease market. North American region, especially, the US dominates the market in this region. It is a rare disease and found in around less than one in million people in US. Some other factors such as advanced medical facilities, ongoing research and clinical trials, and availability of skilled health professionals. Increasing awareness about this disease in Latin America drives market growth in this region.The new cases of this disease is increasing in Europe. Availability of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic options, high awareness among the European population, and availability of skilled medical professional drive the European market. Availability of cost-effective of treatment in East European countries, for instance, Poland than the other parts of the region add fuel to the growing demand. Owing to availability of cost-effective treatment, patients from Western European countries and Russia travel to East and Central European countries to treat this disease.Asia Pacific region shows low prevalence of the disease. Increasing awareness about this disease in the Asian population leads the market growth. The rapidly developing healthcare sector is another major driver of the market. Due to rapid economic growth, rising middle class population, and their spending on healthcare and related services add fuel to the growth of this market.SEGMENTS FOR WHIPPLES DISEASE MARKETThe global Whipples disease market is segmented on the basis of diagnosis, which includes physical exam, biopsy, blood tests, polymerase chain reaction, endoscopy, and others. Biopsy plays important role in diagnosis of this disorder, these tests include needle biopsy, CT-guided biopsy, ultrasound-guided biopsy, aspiration biopsy (fine-needle aspiration), skin biopsy, surgical biopsy, and others. Blood tests sub-segmented into complete blood count (CBC), Red Blood Cell Count (RBC), serum albumin test, total protein test, and others.On the basis of treatments, the market is segmented into medications, supplements, and others. Medications is sub-segmented into Intravenous (IV) ceftriaxone (Rocephin), Intravenous (IV) penicillin, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, SMX-TMP, oxycycline (Vibramycin), hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), and others. Supplements include vitamin supplements, mineral supplements, and others.On the basis of end user, it is segmented into hospitals & clinics, academic institutes, medical research centers, and others.MARKET SCENARIO FOR WHIPPLES DISEASE MARKETWhipples disease (WD) is a rare, chronic, systemic infectious bacterial disease caused by Tropheryma whipped that affects gastrointestinal system, especially, the small intestine. The infection may spread to any part of the body but mostly it affects the central nervous system, joints, lungs, heart, and eyes. Some common symptoms of this disease are weight loss, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and pain, weakness, fatigue, anemia, inflamed joints, and some other less common symptoms. The prevalence is one in one million people. The prevalence of this diseases is more in men than women.Ongoing research and clinical trial to find effective cure drive the growth of market. Advancement in medical technology and increasing awareness about this disease boost the market growth.Top 5 Reasons to Get this Report:Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisGet Discount @MAJOR TOC FOR WHIPPLES DISEASE MARKET1. 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 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Mega Trends4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators5. Market Factor Analysis5.1 Value Chain Analysis5.2 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.3 Demand & Supply: Gap Analysis5.4 Pricing Analysis5.5 Investment Opportunity Analysis5.6 Merger and Acquisition Landscape5.7 Upcoming TrendsTOC Continued..Asked for Expertise Report @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 Future, Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Mechanical Locks Market 2018-2023 : Serrature Meroni ,ECO Schulte ,ASSA ABLOY ,Mul-T-Lock ,Nuova Oxidal ,Fermax Electronica

Mechanical Locks Market, Mechanical Locks Market size, Mechanical Locks Market share, Mechanical Locks Market trends, Mechanic

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Latest Research Report Mechanical Locks Market 2018| Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants.  MarketResearchFuture.comMarket HighlightsThe growth of construction industry in China, U.S and India is driving the demand of mechanical locks. Various electrical locking devices still require mechanical lock override in case of power failure or system error, which is boosting demand for mechanical locks. Affordable prices of mechanical locks over electrical access controllers is driving the growth of the market. The sales of mechanical locks in increasing among the small scale industries and household especially in rural area.Global Mechanical Locks Market Key Players:The key players profiled mechanical locks Serrature Meroni (Italy), ECO Schulte (Germany), ASSA ABLOY (Sweden), Fermax Electronica (U.S.), Mul-T-Lock (U.S.), Nuova Oxidal (Italy), AGB  Alban Giacomo (Italy), Codelocks (U.K.) and Frosio Bortolo (Italy)Get Sample Copy of this Report @Market Research Analysis:Secondary data reveals that the mechanical locks market is projected to grow more than 4.5% annually post the year 2022The top 5 importers of mechanical locks are U.S., Germany, Mexico, China and U.K.Geographocal Analysis:Strong construction activities in region like China, India and South East Asia is driving the growth of mechanical locks market. The demand for interconnected lock is increasing globally compared to other types of mechanical locks due to its multi-point lock system. The growth of electric access controller is also supporting demand for mechanical locks as they require in case of power failure or system error. The sales of grade2 and grade3 mechanical lock is rising in U.S. and Europe whereas garde1 locks are still popular in Asian countries.China accounts for higher market share in the mechanical locks during the period 2011-2015 accounting for USD XX million and is expected to grow over USD XX million by 2022. U.S., Germany, Mexico and Italy being major importers of mechanical locksStudy Objectives of mechanical locks MarketDetailed analysis of segments and sub-segments of mechanical locksTo estimate market size by type, material and gradeMarket dynamics including trend and factor analysis for supply and demand of mechanical locks consumptionRegion level market analysis and market projections for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countriesCompetition mapping and positioning of major market players, evaluation of key company strategiesCompany profiling of major players in the marketValue chain analysis and supply chain analysisAnalysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirementsFull report on Mechanical Locks Market report spread across 110 pages, profiling 15 companies and supported with tables and figures available @Report provides the insights, on various levels of analyses such industry analysis, market share analysis leading market players and their profiles. This report also helps in studying the target segments by providing views on emerging & high-growth segments and market conclusion. Together the market data comprise and discuss with the basic assessments on the competitive scenarios & strategies, of the global mechanical locks market, including the high-growth regions, countries and their political, economic and technological environments. Furthermore the project report also provides the views over the historical market values as well as, pricing and cost analysis of the sameAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Communications & Collaboration Market Current and Future Trends, Growth Factors, Development Status and Forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia 2025

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The latest Research on Global Communications & Collaboration Market added to Reportsweb Database. The current growth status in each of the regions along with an analysis of growth in these regions in the future is presented in the report.The objective of the report is to compile valuable market information and present to readers the opportunities and threats of the market. The market study segregates the Global Communications & Collaboration market size status and forecast 2025 market into various categories to present a 360 degree overview of the said market and also to present a clear picture of development trends in the market.As new generations have entered the workforce the traditional barriers between departments have started to blur. No longer are projects completed in silo, it is increasingly becoming the norm that the right people with the required skills are pulled from multiple departments to create the ultimate team which has all the expertise needed to create a successful project. Logistically, this requires the ability to work across different sites and offices for the length of the project, to then return to working where the home department is based once completed.This report studies the global Communications & Collaboration market, analyzes and researches the Communications & Collaboration development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeMicrosoftNEC CorpIBMALEHOLLYCRM SOFTWAREHPECiscoHuaweiUnifyPanTerra NetworksGenesysFuzeBoxBroadsoftMitel NetworksPGiAvayaAlcatel-LucentYunEasySimbaWafer SystemsHanyun SoftwareHuagai TechDamakaDigiumEricssonGenbandGet Free Sample of Report at -The exclusive details of the market provided in the report can be useful for market players to foresee their position in the coming years. Using industry-centric analytical tools, the report gauges competition in the market and predicts the change in competition in the forthcoming years. Competition in the market is assessed based on development pursuits of leading players in both regional and global markets.Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoHybridCloud Based (Only)Market segment by Application, Communications & Collaboration can be split intoSMELarge EnterpriseBrowse Complete Report at Few points from Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview of Communications & Collaboration2 Global Communications & Collaboration Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Microsoft3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Communications & Collaboration Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 NEC Corp3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Communications & Collaboration Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 IBM3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Communications & Collaboration Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments4 Global Communications & Collaboration Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2018)5 United States Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook6 EU Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook8 China Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook9 India Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Communications & Collaboration Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Communications & Collaboration Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors AnalysisGet discount on report at -List of Table and FiguresFigure Hybrid Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)Figure Cloud Based (Only) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)Figure Global Communications & Collaboration Market Share by Application in 2017Figure Communications & Collaboration Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate in SME (2013-2018)Figure Communications & Collaboration Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate in Large Enterprise (2013-2018)Figure Communications & Collaboration Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate in Applications 3 (2013-2018)Table Communications & Collaboration Market Size (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018)Figure Communications & Collaboration Market Size Share by Players in 2013Figure Communications & Collaboration Market Size Share by Players in 2017Table Microsoft Basic Information ListPurchase Complete Report atContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Native Organic Cane Sugar Market Size & Share, Forecast 2017-2025: Development Trends and Future Growth

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MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "Native Organic Cane Sugar Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its database.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Native Organic Cane Sugar market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Market Introduction:Native Organic Cane Sugar also called as evaporated sugar, which is the evaporated juice of the sugarcane in its whole, natural state. Only the water is removed, meaning it retains most of the Vitamins and Minerals found in raw sugarcane. It is a golden sugar that contains molasses and has a slight caramel flavor.Sugar has been repeatedly demonized by some health experts, as it is the monolithic cause of insulin resistance and obesity. In terms of availability, versatility, convenience, texture, price, eco-friendliness and nutrition, the best substitute for the ubiquitous white crystal sugar is the Native Organic Cane Sugar. Native Organic Cane Sugar is sugar minus the cancer causing and environmentally damaging pesticides present in conventionally grown sugarcane. Hence, the global cane sugar market has proven to be truly sustainable and is liable to be given many accolades for having built a trust in midst of the potential consumers which contributes directly in strengthening of the global native cane sugar market.Market Segmentation:Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented on the basis of form, distribution channel, end user, packaging and region.On the basis of form, Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented into Confectioners Sugar and Liquid Sugar (Invert Syrup). Confectioners sugar which is made from very finely ground organic cane sugar, also known as powdered sugar or icing sugar whereas, the liquid sugar is the crystallized organic cane sugar dissolved in water.On the basis of distribution channel, Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented into direct sales and indirect/retail sales. In direct sales, the native organic cane sugar can be delivered in large quantities for manufacturing of some other products like beverages, dairy products mainly yoghurt. In retail sales, it is found in the hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores for organic products and e-retailers.On the basis of end user, Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented into industrial and household use.On the basis of packaging, Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented into silos, standard pouches, and jars/bottles/jugs as well as in small pouches.On the basis of region, Native Organic Cane Sugar market can be segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Japan.View Full Report @Drivers, Restraints, and Trends:Demand for Native Organic Cane Sugar is increasing as the consumers are interested in healthy and natural products. This provides particularly interesting opportunities for the manufacturers of native, organic and ethically produced products. In comparison to overly process and highly Refined White Cane Sugar, Native Organic Cane Sugar contain some nutritional properties. When organically processed, it possess amino acids, minerals (such as Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium and Iron), and different vitamins. Also it is well known for its therapeutic properties and for this the organic cane sugar is the best to retain the nutrients and the therapeutic properties.Organic market in Europe is becoming a mainstream business. Hence, the EU has been actively promoting organic production by developing a single harmonized standard and product logo for application in the entire EU.The rising food innovation trends and healthy food alternatives among consumers is giving rise to organic cane sugar as a substitute to crystal refined sugar in beverages and dairy products.Regional Outlook:Depending on the country of origin, whole cane sugar goes by many different names including panela (Latin America), rapadura (Brazil), jaggery (India), kokuto (Japan) etc.The Americas and Asia-Pacific are the largest producers of Native Organic Cane Sugar in the world. The Native Organic Cane Sugar Market is highly concentrated, with the top three manufactures accounting for 75% of the global native organic cane sugar trade. The largest global manufacturing countries of Native Organic Cane Sugar include Brazil, Thailand, Guatemala, Cuba and Mexico. Brazil is one the largest producer of Native Organic Cane Sugar in the followed by India, China, Thailand, and Pakistan.Europe is the largest importer of the Native Organic Cane Sugar. European consumers are increasingly concerned with the impact of agricultural activities on the environment and looking for products with lesser environment impact. This trend has benefited the market for products with organic certification. Overall the outlook for global Native Organic Cane Sugar market is positive over the forecast period.Key Players:Major players in the Native Organic Cane Sugar segment are Global organics, Florida Crystals, Specialty food association (Native Organics), Wholesome mindfully delicious, Anthonys Goods, Organic delight, BSYD Corp., Delphi Organic are amongst to name a few.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Organic Coconut Sugar Market Size & Share - Industry Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "Organic Coconut Sugar Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its database.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Organic Coconut Sugar market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Market Introduction:Organic Coconut Sugar is a delicious, pure, unrefined alternative to processed sugar and artificial sweeteners. It has been used as a traditional sweetener since centuries, in coconut trees flourishing regions, such as Southeast Asia. Coconut Sugar, also referred sometimes as palm sugar, is produced from the flower bud of the coconut tree. Coconut sugar is mostly comprised of sucrose, which gives it a sweet, caramel-like flavor. It is devoid of added chemicals, unbleached and contains no preservatives. Organic coconut sugar has naturally occurring nutrients including magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, B vitamins and amino acids. Coconut sugar serves a delicious addition to tea or coffee, smoothies, fruit juices, cakes, pancakes, curry dishes, dessert toppings, puddings, any type of fruit pies and more.Market Segmentation:Organic Coconut Sugar can be segmented on the basis of form, end use application, packaging, distribution channel, and region.On the basis of form, Organic Coconut Sugar Market can be segmented into fine powdered, powdered, crystal/ granular, block form and liquid syrup.On the basis of end use application, Organic Coconut Sugar Market can be segmented into the household, foodservice, food and beverage manufacturers, personal care and cosmetics and others. In personal care, it is used in coconut scrubs and face and body creams as a natural ingredient and associated benefits to skin texture.On the basis of the type of packaging, Organic Coconut Sugar Market can be segmented into pouches/ sachets, jars/ bottles and corrugated boxes.On the basis of the distribution channel, Organic Coconut Sugar Market can be segmented into direct and retail sales. Direct sales refer to direct selling of organic coconut sugar as an ingredient to other industries. Retail sales are further segmented into convenience stores, grocery retailers, online retailers, and other retailing formats.View Full Report @Drivers, Restraints, and Trends:Growing demand for the product to replace cane sugar is likely to drive the market in next few years. The Organic coconut sugar has a low glycemic index as compared to cane sugar and honey. As a result, it reduces the rising sugar level rise in the bloodstream. Rising popularity of Asian Cuisine, increasing demand for dairy substitutes and associated health benefits associated with the Organic Coconut Sugar is expected to drive the market further in the projected period. Also, the increasing lactose intolerant among people worldwide is driving the market with its wide application in food and beverage industry. Increasing demand for the organic coconut sugar for manufacturing skin care products such as body scrubs, shaving gels, face and body creams is also contributing towards the growth of the market in the projected period.Fluctuating prices in raw material and also the production process is more labor-intensive owing to lack of mechanization thus it is a time-consuming process which is further producer concentrated and poses some hindrances in the projected period for the market to flourish.Increasing focus on healthy lifestyle, the inclination of consumers towards organically produced products and rising demand for natural cosmetics and personal care products is the rising trend among the consumers and is further expected to grow the market in the projected period.Regional Outlook:Asia pacific is the largest producer of organic coconut sugar owing to the abundant raw material. The rapid growth in food and beverage and cosmetics industry in Korea, India, and China is expected to have a positive impact in the future period. Increasing diabetic's patients and obesity are further posing consumers to look for alternatives like organic coconut sugar that lower the risk. Further, in U.S. Market, the organic coconut sugar is going to grow rapidly due to the rising health-conscious population. Also, low glycemic index and environmental sustainability are further going to grow the market in the projected period.European consumers are more concerned about the nutritional values and also inclined towards the organic products. Thus the market is expected to grow in the forecasted period with the introduction of organic coconut sugar in the recipes and dishes in the cuisines. Growing diseases among the aged population are expected to increase the demand for alternative sweetener such as coconut sugar over the forecasted period.Key Players:Some of the prominent players of Organic Coconut Sugar are Coco Sugar Indonesia, IMC Organic Food Co., Connecticut Coconut Company (CCC), Celebes Coconut Corporation, CV. India sourcing, Singabera, PT Mega Inovasi Organik, Holos Integra, Tree Life and various other regional manufacturers.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Tropical Fruit Puree Market: Demand for Fiber in Fruit Juices Augurs Well for Market

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The global tropical fruit puree market is anticipated to flourish significantly within the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The worldwide tropical fruit puree market is probably going to see a huge development in the scope of items sooner rather than later. Driving players, for example, AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG, Kagome Co., Ltd., Tree Top Inc., ITC Limited, KUO Group, and Dohler GmbH, are relied upon to concentrate on item advancement in the coming years. Moreover, the developing interest in innovative work of flavors, better safeguarding strategies, and connecting with more current economies are relied upon to characterize the accomplishment for the worldwide market.Request to view Sample Report:As per the exploration report, the worldwide tropical fruit puree market is required to be worth US$5,749.2 mn before the finish of 2025 from US$3,519.9 mn in 2017. Amid the figure time of 2017 and 2025, the worldwide market is ready to show a steady CAGR of 5.6%. Among the end clients, the baby food section is expected to outperform all others portions as the number babies over the globe are on the rise. Regarding regions, Asia Pacific is probably going to demonstrate striking development rate. The expanding utilization of juices and enhancing discretionary cashflow are expected to work for this territorial market.Usage of Puree in Making Fruit Juices to Increase the Market Demand for Tropical Fruit PureeConventionally, fruit juices are made from juice. However, now-a-days various manufacturers are using fruit purees as well to prepare juice, in order to have a smooth texture and blend with more thickness. As puree holds the greater part of the juice along with an extensive extent of the sinewy issue that are normally present in the fruit, the demand for puree is ascending in the juice business. An expansion in the utilization of purees in juices will prompt a comparing development in the interest for purees. Such an expansion in business will bring about the development of tropical fruit puree market.Obtain Report Details @An uneven situation is moving our food supply to a negative development, which is causing the extending of the making obstacles in the food safety projects of different nations and demand-supply gap,. This can be relied upon to be the real restriction in the development of tropical fruit puree market.Rise in Production of baby Food to Propel Market Growth in Coming YearsThe worldwide tropical fruit puree market have seen development in the course of the most recent couple of years, with ascend in production of baby food with purees for improving taste. Packaged infant food makers are utilizing purees rather than fruits or vegetables that they say in the item bundling. Most makers utilize water or puree as their first item (with greatest offer per gram) in their infant sustenance items. Numerous enormous multinational organizations, for example, Heinz, Plum Organics, Kellogg's, Clif Bar and Company, and numerous more are utilizing purees in their infant nourishment items in a huge amount. The greater part of the items which mark as sound and entire fruit or vegetable are produced using water and purees, with a trace of fruits or vegetables. The offers of child nourishment is on the ascent because of the quick paced life of guardians. Individuals living in urban ranges don't have room schedule-wise to get ready sustenance at home, and therefore, tend to purchase child nourishment items to satisfy their child's fundamental necessities.Get More Information:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Adhesion Promoters Market Size and Key Trends in Terms Of Volume and Value - Forecast to 2025

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MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "Adhesion Promoters Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its database.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Adhesion Promoters  market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Adhesion promoters, also known as coupling agents, are materials that increase the adhesive strength of coatings, thereby strengthening the bond between the coating and substrate. Adhesion promoters are applied as thin film thickness. They are used in a wide range of applications such as paints and coatings. They are also used to improve the reliability of flat panel displays and semiconductors, and manufacture high performance rubbers and weatherable paints.Key factors driving the adhesion promoters market include increase in demand for adhesion promoters in the automotive industry and rise in usage of adhesion promoters in composites. Demand for adhesion promoters is expected to increase due to the new applications such as printed circuit boards. This is encouraging companies to expand the production of adhesion promoters. Additionally, easy availability of raw materials is anticipated to boost the demand for adhesion promoters in the near future.The global adhesion promoters market is witnessing technological advancements. Companies are constantly striving to develop new and better adhesion promoters. Development of new manufacturing processes and applications of adhesion promoters is estimated to propel the adhesion promoters market. However, environmental concerns related to some adhesion promoters are expected to hamper the global adhesion promoters market.Based on type, the adhesion promoters market can be classified into silane, maleic anhydride, chlorinated polyolefins, titanate & zirconate, and others. Silane is a commonly used type of adhesion promoter due to its excellent chemical properties. These are used for ultrahydrophobic treatments in urethane, epoxy and acrylic systems. Titanates and zirconates are used in sealants, surface primers, industrial coatings, and various other industrial applications.View Full Report @Adhesion promoters are used in a wide range of applications due to their chemical properties. Based on application, the market can be segmented into plastics & composites, paints & coatings, rubber, adhesives, metals, and others. The plastics & composites segment accounted for significant share of the adhesion promoters market in 2016 owing to the high demand for these in the plastics industry across the globe.In terms of geography, the adhesion promoters market can be segregated into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America is anticipated to constitute key share of the market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is estimated to be a rapidly growing region of the adhesion promoters market, owing to the increase in demand from the automotive industry in the region. Middle East & Africa is likely to be an attractive region of the adhesion promoters market during the forecast period due to the rise in demand from the packaging industry in the region.Prominent players operating in the global adhesion promoters market include Momentive Performance Materials Inc., Eastman Chemical Company, DOW Corning Corporation, BASF SE, and Arkema SA.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Shortenings Market - Segmentation Detailed Study with Forecast to 2025

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Global Shortenings Market: OverviewShortening is considered as a vital baking ingredient, thanks to which the global market is expected to exhibit a healthy growth in the next few years. The easy availability of shortenings and the increasing popularity of a wide range of baking products are anticipated to fuel the growth of the global shortenings market in the coming years. With these factors, the global market is likely to witness healthy growth and register a progressive growth rate in the near future.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Shortenings Market: Key TrendsThe key players in the global shortenings market are projected to face several challenges in the near future. The rising demand for clean label products and the increasing use of shortenings substitutes are anticipated to restrict the growth of the overall market throughout the forecast period. Nonetheless, the growing demand for low-calorie products from consumers worldwide is estimated to offer promising opportunities for players in the next few years. Moreover, the expansion of the application base of baking ingredients is expected to augment global shortenings market in the near future.Global Shortenings Market: Market PotentialA tremendous rise in the demand for shortenings in bakery products, owing to the rising popularity of baked food products is one of the important factors expected to augment the growth of the global shortenings market in the next few years. In addition, the changing lifestyle of consumers and their rising disposable income are estimated to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the forecast period.Request TOC of the Report @On the contrary, the rising health concerns associated with the excessive consumption of oils and fats are anticipated to restrict the growth of the global shortenings market in the coming years. In addition, the increasing health consciousness among consumers is predicted to hamper the development of the market in the near future.Global Shortenings Market: Regional OutlookIn the last few years, Asia Pacific led the global shortenings market with a key share on the basis of volume as well as value. The increasing contribution from China, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia is estimated to supplement the growth of the market in the forecast period. In addition, the rising purchasing power of consumers and the increasing population are some of the other factors predicted to encourage the growth of the market. As per the research study, Asia Pacific is expected to witness healthy growth and remain in the prominent position over the forecast period.Furthermore, the improving lifestyle of consumers in several developing nations and the increasing rate of consumption of bakery products are projected to accelerate the growth of the Asia Pacific shortenings market in the forecast period. The North America and Europe market for shortenings are estimated to register moderate growth rates in the forecast period.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Shortenings Market: Competitive AnalysisThe global shortenings market is highly competitive and fragmented in nature, with the presence of a large number of players. Some of the leading players operating in the shortenings market across the globe are AAK AB, Bunge Limited, Conagra Brands, Associated British Foods PLC (ABF), Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland Company, International Foodstuff Company Holdings Limited, Wilmar International Limited, Ventura Foods, LLC, and Manildra Group.The development of the food and beverages industries across the globe is one of the key factors encouraging the development of the shortenings market in the next few years. The key players in the market are focusing on marketing activities and tactics in order to enhance their presence and reach a large volume of consumers across the globe. In addition, the expansion of the product portfolio is likely to benefit the leading players in the near future.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
Global Dental Endodontics Market: Consumables will Continue to Outsell Instruments During the Assessment Period

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A new research report titled Dental Endodontics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017  2025 has been added to the repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). According to the report, the global dental endodontics market is likely to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% during the assessment period 2017-2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:The report is a comprehensive source of information and analysis for stakeholders in the dental endodontics market. In addition to offering market forecast and projections, the report also includes a detailed qualitative analysis that throws light on the key factors shaping this landscape. A detailed profiling of the leading market participants has also been included in the report.According to the report, the global dental endodontics market continues to remain highly fragmented, especially in the consumables segment. Some of the key market participants profiled in the report include Ultradent Products Inc, Dentsply Sirona, Ivoclar Vivadent, Mani, Inc, Danaher Corporation, FKG Dentaire S.A., Septodont Holding, Coltene Holding AG, Peter Brasseler Holdings, L.P., and Henry Schein, Inc. The product and business strategies of these leading players has been discussed in detail in the report.Growth of the dental endodontics market is fuelled by a range of factors, including greater emphasis on maintaining proper dental hygiene, and availability of advanced instruments and consumables. Growing awareness on the importance of dental health, and upgrades in the healthcare system are among the key factors that are promoting the growth of the market.The report also includes a detailed segmentation to offer readers insights on the lucrative and sluggish avenues of growth in the market. On the basis of product type, the market has been broadly categorized into instruments and consumables  between these, consumables account for higher revenue share, and the status quo is likely to remain unchanged during the assessment period.View Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:A region-wise analysis has been offered to readers, with market forecast and projections offered on North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. According to the report, Europe is likely to remain one of the leading markets for dental endodontics globally. North America is another key market, with the US accounting for dominant revenue share. In addition to these developed markets, manufacturers can also expect a slew of opportunities in the Asia Pacific region, where China and India are likely to witness steady demand.By end-user, the report offers market forecast and analysis on dental hospitals, dental academic and research institutes, and dental clinics. According to the report, demand for endodontic instruments and consumables will remain robust in dental hospitals and dental clinics during the assessment period.Overall, the research study is a holistic piece of information and analysis on dental endodontics market. Stakeholders can expect a thorough, accurate, and unbiased analysis on the key factors that will play a key role in shaping this landscape during the assessment period 2017-2025.About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Home Healthcare Market 2020 Analysis, Growth Forecast by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application

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Home healthcare refers to a wide range of medical products (include heart rate monitors, blood glucose level indicators, and nebulizers), services, and solutions that provide health monitoring, treatment, and physical support to patients or customers at home. People do not need to visit a hospital or any other healthcare facility to benefit from these offerings; they can be accessed in the comfort of homes. The home healthcare market offers complete solutions that include the product as well as software and support from consultants and physicians.Publisher's analysts forecast the Global Home Healthcare Market to grow at a CAGR of 8.85% during the period 2016-2020.For more informationCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Home Healthcare Market for 2016-2020.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- Europe- MEAPublisher's report, Global Home Healthcare Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Johnson & Johnson- Omron Healthcare- Philips- McKesson- Roche HoldingsRequest Sample CopyOther prominent vendors- A&D Company- Abbott- Almost Family- Apria Healthcare- eCaring- Fresenius- Gentiva Health Services- Interim Healthcare- Kindred Healthcare- Linde Healthcare- LJC Group- Kinnser Software- Rotech HealthcareTable of ContentPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Market research methodologyPART 04: IntroductionPART 05: Global organic personal care marketPART 06: Market landscapePART 07: Market segmentation by typePART 08: Geographical segmentationPART 09: Key leading countriesPART 10: Market driversPART 11: Impact of driversPART 12: Market challengesPART 14: Market trendsPART 15: Vendor landscapePART 16: Explore PublisherMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Robotics in Healthcare Market Analysis, Opportunities and Forecasts to 2023 with Emerging Technology, Opportunities & Future Threats

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Publisher's Robotics in Healthcare market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, Analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.Global Robotics in Healthcare Market: Application Segment AnalysisGlobal Robotics in Healthcare Market: Application Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSouth East AsiaRequest Sample Copy is Available at:The Players mentioned in our reportToyotaAethonAnybotsBlue BeltEngineering ServicesCovidienHocomaAutomHondaEpson RobotsInquire before Buying at:Table of ContentChapter 1 About the Robotics in Healthcare IndustryChapter 2 World Market Competition LandscapeChapter 3 World Robotics in Healthcare Market shareChapter 4 Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 5 Company ProfilesChapter 6 Globalisation & TradeChapter 7 Distributors and CustomersChapter 8 Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major CountriesChapter 9 World Robotics in Healthcare Market Forecast through 2022Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market OverviewComplete Report is Available at:Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout Us:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township, Amanora Chambers, East Block, Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Filters and Particle Monitoring Market Outstanding Revenue in 2018 and Prediction to Get Boost by 2027

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Filters and Particle Monitoring play very vital role in the life science industry. As this industry is highly sensitive towards the external contamination and cannot bear a single foreign particle inside the facility, thus this market becomes the very important in the development of life science industry. Global Filters & Particle Monitoring market has been evaluated as $XX million and is continuously growing from past 2 decades as the government and private institutional become more sensitive and knowledgeable for the need of medical science research and development. Life science industry is only industry which helps to bring out a patient from the any condition by the new achievements. Filters and particle monitoring are those equipments which helps to monitor the environment and keep it safe and clean for various applications. In the life science these equipments are mostly get used in the air monitoring and filtration and water monitoring and filtrations and others.Get PDF Sample Copy of This Report @Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market: ApplicationsFilters and particle monitoring market application includes the air monitoring & filtration, water monitoring and filtration and others. Global Filters and Particle monitoring market research report provide the detailed analysis of how the filters and particle monitoring get used in these applications. This is very important for the research institutions to monitor the environment of the facility in order to bring out the best and pure conclusion. Filters helps to keep the environment clean under the facility as per the need of the facility. Some research facilities does not tolerate .001% of change in the environment by any means including the level of nitrogen and oxygen in the air and monitoring equipments helps to keep the record of the environment for both air and water.Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market Report: Regional AnalysisNorth America is having lead in the market of Filters and Particle monitoring with the market share of more than XX% followed by the Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Countries in the North America are well developed and established in the segment of technology and this industry is totally driven by the growth and development of the technology. As the research institution and pharmaceutical market is growing these countries, demand for the filters and particle monitoring market is also increasing. The next big market for the filters and particle is Eastern Europe. Countries like Germany and France who pays high attention to the life science industry consumes more equipments of filters and particle monitoring. Asia Pacific market is emerging as the fastest growing market in the market of Filter and Particle Monitoring as countries like China, India is adapting the new technologies for life science industry.Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market Report: Key PlayersThe prominent player in the market of Filters and Particle Monitoring are:- Cantel Medical Corporation (Filtration)- Sartorius Group (Filtration)- MachereyNagel Gmhb & Co. Kg (Filtration)- Cantel Medical Corporation (Filtration)- Merck Millipore (Filtration)- Danaher Corporation (Particle Monitoring)- Thales Group (Particle Monitoring)- Siemens AG (Particle Monitoring)- TE Connectivity Ltd. (Particle Monitoring)- Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Particle Monitoring)Get Prime Discount on This Premium Report @Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market: Market SegmentationFor the better understating of the Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market, this report has been segmented on the basis of Filters and Particle Monitoring:For Filter, market has been segmented:On the basis of product it comprises Filtration accessories, Filtration assemblies, Filtration media, on the basis of technology it comprises ultra-filtration, Vacuum filtration, Micro filtration, Nano-filtrationFor Particle Monitoring, market has been segmented:On the basis of product type it comprises Monitors (Fixed, Portable), Sensors, Software, on the basis of Monitoring it comprises Air Control monitors, Water Control monitors, Other And on the basis of Sensors it comprises Digital (Temperature, Noise), Analog (Chemical testing, Moisture control), on the basis of end Users it comprises Pharmaceutical Companies Research institutions, Hospitals and Diagnostic centers.Global Filters & Particle Monitoring Market: Market InfluencerIn the 21st century, Life science industry plays very vital role in the development of healthcare industry. As the life science industry is growing it is taking the healthcare industry to the new highs. The main market driver for the filters and particle monitoring market is the development in the both industries. New technological developments in the life science on the daily basis are demanding more of new facilities. Life science industry is one of the fastest growing industries in todays worlds and as the new developments are taking places, it is creating heavy demand for the filters and particle monitoring market.Do You Have Query Or Specific Requirement? Inquire @Every report 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 also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.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
Italy Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices Key Players - Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic plc, and Getinge AB. Market Analysis & Forecast 2017 to 2025

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Italy Cardiovascular Prosthetic DevicesOverview"Italy Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices Market Outlook to 2025", provides key market data on the Italy Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average prices (USD) within market segments - Cardiac Valve Repairs and Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair (TMVR).Click here for sample report @Major Key Players:Abbott LaboratoriesMedtronic plcGetinge AB.Major Highlight of the report:The 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.Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size, company share and distribution share data and analysis.Scope- Market size and company share data for Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices market segments - Cardiac Valve Repairs and Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair (TMVR).- 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 Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices market.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Italy Cardiovascular Prosthetic Devices market.- Key players covered include Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic plc, Edwards Lifesciences Corp. and Others.Reasons to buy- Develop business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future.- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies.- Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market.- Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future.- What are the key distribution channels and whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand and capitalize..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
Industrial IOT Platform Market 2018 Global Key Players: Microsoft, PTC, International Business Machines, General Electric Corporation, Siemens, Hitachi Insight

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Market Highlights:Industrial IoT platform is a division of IoT which is used in industrial application areas and allows the organizations to get real time insights about the machines, their health and their efficiency. As IOT is growing, their applications areas are increasing at much faster pace. IoT in manufacturing industries will help to gain the optimum utilization of resources without making any extra efforts. Connected devices and machineries will be transmitting real-time data to server which will be very helpful in their smart management. Factors such as high efficiency, low breakdown of machineries and high efficiency are some of the major factor which are directly associated with the industrial IoT whereas government rules regarding the use of automation in the industrial process, technological advancement, increasing demand for industrial process are also some of the indirect factors which is helping into the market growth.Industrial IoT market has seen tremendous opportunities in future, high demand and low supply, growing IT and Semiconductor industry, high demand for consumer electronics devices will lead to the high adoption of industrial IoT to meet demand. Whereas factors such as price and need of technical knowledge will likely to hamper the market growth during forecast period.The Global Industrial IoT Platform Market is expected to grow at USD ~650 million by the end of 2022 with ~23% of CAGR.Request a Sample Report @Key Players:The prominent players identified in the market of Industrial IoT Platform are - Microsoft Inc. (U.S.), NEC Corporation (Japan), PTC (U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), General Electric Corporation (U.S.), Fujitsu (Japan), Siemens AG (Germany), SAP SE (Germany), Hitachi Insight Group (U.S.), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China) among others.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:October 18, 2017  General Electric Co. and Apple Inc. announced a partnership, aimed at bringing GE's industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform Predix to Apple's iPhones and iPads. The partnership will provide developers a new software development kit to make industrial IoT apps for Apple's operating system iOS. As part of the partnership, GE will standardize on iPhone and iPad for mobile devices, and promote Mac as a choice for its global workforce, while Apple will promote Predix as the industrial IoT analytics platform of choice for its customers and developers.December, 2017  Aspen Technology, Inc., the asset optimization software company, announced the acquisition of Cipher Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) cloud-native software and edge connectivity assets of RtTech Software Inc. of New Brunswick, Canada. The acquisition would strengthen AspenTechs asset optimization strategy by providing sophisticated cloud and edge processing technology that captures and aggregates critical data from assets throughout the plant and across the enterprise.December, 2017 - Ooredoo Tunisia and Sagemcom have just launched the first Tunisian Internet of Things (IoT) network, based on LoRa technology. The network enables devices to exchange small amounts of data, with a standard battery providing independent battery life of up to 10 years. This IoT network will also facilitate the development of solutions in various areas: smart city, smart industry, smart environment and other uses in health, transport, agriculture, etc.The Global Industrial IoT Platform Market is expected to grow at USD ~650 million by the end of 2022 with ~23% of CAGR.Regional Analysis:Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global market of Industrial IoT Platform. High population and high consumption of electronic devices in Asian countries is supporting the market share. China is one of the biggest manufacturing driven economy. Rich consumer electronic industry and high supply is leading to high adoption of industrial IoT platform whereas rich automotive industry in South Korea and Japan is also supporting the market growth. North America stands as second biggest market of industrial IoT platform due to the heavy investment in technology startups from past several years. North America is one of the developed nation who holds advance technologies which is not available to many other countries. Rich defence sector and manufacturing industry is leading to the high growth of North America Industrial IoT Platform Market.Access Report Details @Segments:The Industrial IoT Platform market has been segmented on the basis of-By Component- Hardware (Sensors, Cameras, Processing Units among others) and Software.By Application- Asset Management, Remote Monitoring, Network System Management among others.By Verticals- Manufacturing, Power and Utilities, Aviation, Oil and Gas among others.By Region- North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the WorldAbout 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.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Advanced Wound Care Market Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Analysis and Forecast Report 2018-2025

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The advanced wound care market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% and reach US$ 11.96 Bn by 2025.Advanced Wound Care products are used to treat different types of wounds such as, ulcers, burns, trauma, surgical, and diabetic foot among others. Advanced Wound Care products such as, dressings, wound therapy devices, and bio-active wound care products, are used to heal patients suffering from chronic wounds.Rising attentiveness towards health and growing occurrence of diabetes & related chronic wounds are the major drivers which are likely to aid the growth of advanced wound care market. Escalating technological advancements and research for the development of novel treatments for chronic wounds are likely to add new opportunities for this market in the coming yearRequest Sample Copy is Available atThe Global Advanced Wound Care Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the advanced wound care industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global advanced wound care market with detailed market segmentation by product, wound type, end user, and geography. The global advanced wound care market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview on the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global advanced wound care market based on product, wound type, and end user. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall advanced wound care market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South & Central America. The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 13 countries globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Inquire for Detail Facts and Figures atThe report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South & Central America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.The report also includes the profiles of key advanced wound care manufacturing companies along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. In addition, the report 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.Some of the key players influencing the market are Acelity L.P., Integra Lifesciences, The 3M Company, Mimedx Group, B. Braun, Molnlycke Health Care, Cardinal Health, Paul Hartmann, Smith & Nephew, and Convatec Group among others.Access Complete Report With TOC and Company Profiles atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Predictive Maintenance Market - Latest Trends and Future Growth Study by 2025

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Predictive Maintenance Market: OverviewPredictive maintenance (PdM) solutions are designed to help predict when an in-service equipment might fail and to perform maintenance before the failure occurs. This approach enables convenient planning of corrective maintenance resulting in considerable cost savings as action is taken before the equipment failure occurs.Other advantages of predictive maintenance include increased equipment longevity, increased plant safety, better spare parts handling, and fewer accidents that can be detrimental to the environment.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The predictive maintenance ecosystem constitutes vendors that provide predictive maintenance solutions to carry out the maintenance needs across several industry verticals.Predictive Maintenance Market: Key TrendsPredictive maintenance solutions are increasingly being adopted across several industry verticals such as aerospace and defense, energy and utilities, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, and government. This is due to their ability to reduce operational and maintenance costs and minimize asset downtime. The adoption of predictive maintenance solutions enhances decision making capabilities of enterprises for planning production cycle and related aspects.Predictive maintenance solutions have the ability to precisely predict asset failure, which is one of the major reasons for the increasing adoption of these systems. This helps enterprises plan removal of the asset before it fails, thereby ensuring production is not affected due to action taken beforehand.The explosion of big data due to digitisation of processes across industry verticals is also favoring the adoption of predictive maintenance solutions for real-time monitoring of complex equipment.Request TOC of the Report @Organizations that are trying to embrace predictive maintenance solutions face difficulties in terms of lack of training provided to operators and dearth of experts to provide guidance for best-suited predictive maintenance solutions. Furthermore, in predictive maintenance, technical personnel involved need to be well-versed to interpret data generated by predictive maintenance technologies. These factors are limiting the markets growth to some extent.Nonetheless, the predictive maintenance market is expected to be benefitted from increasing demand from small and medium-sized enterprises and rising demand for real-time streaming analytics.Predictive Maintenance Market: Market PotentialPredictive maintenance solutions are spreading wings to rock excavation activities from their traditional use in the manufacturing sector. In a recent industry development, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology and IBM have joined hands to develop technology for predictive maintenance services for rock excavation and data driven productivity. The terms of the agreement involve Sandvik and IBM to work together on advanced analytics solutions to for improving productivity, safety, operational services, and maintenance of rock excavation equipment.The IBM-Sandvik alliance will employ the use of advanced analytics, cognitive technologies, and remote monitoring. The combination of services will assist in rock excavation by facilitating well-informed decisions regarding production cycles and maintenance schedules.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Predictive Maintenance Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is expected to hold the leading market share and dominate the predictive maintenance market in the near future. However, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as a significant market for predictive maintenance and display the fastest growth rate in the near future. Developing countries in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa are investing heftily on predictive maintenance solutions to enhance their operational efficiency by minimizing machine downtime and operational costs.Predictive Maintenance Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players in the predictive maintenance market include Software AG, IBM, Robert Bosch, PTC, RapidMiner, SAP SE, General Electric, Rockwell Automation, Warwick Analytics, and SKF.These vendors are engaged in various types of organic and inorganic growth initiatives such as partnerships and collaborations, mergers and acquisitions, and new product launches to strengthen their position in the predictive maintenance market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Investments in Smart City Projects Israel Market Segments, Opportunity, Growth and Forecast by End-use Industry 2021

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SummaryTelecom services revenue in Israel is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 1.1% during 2016-2021, primarily driven by growth in mobile data, fixed Internet and VoIP revenue. Mobile data will be the largest revenue-contributing segment until 2021. Going forward, operators will focus on data-centric services and invest in 4G and FTTH deployments to boost broadband penetration in the country. Operators push for digital solutions such as M2M/IoT, smart cities and businesses will create significant opportunities for vendors and investors in the coming years.Click here for sample report @Scope of the Report- Overall telecom service revenue in Israel will grow at a CAGR of 1.1% during 2016-2021, mainly driven by growth in the mobile data, VoIP and fixed Internet segments.- Mobile revenue will account for 41.1% of total telecom revenue in 2021, with mobile data accounting for 72.0% of mobile revenue in 2021.- 3G will be the most adopted mobile technology through 2021. However, its share will decline during the forecast period as customers migrate to higher-speed LTE/LTE-A services.- The top two operators, Bezeq and HOT Telecom, accounted for 62.7% of overall service revenue in 2016. We expect competition to intensify as operators focus on fixed and mobile broadband expansions across Israel and services such as M2M/IoT and smart cities to drive additional revenue.Key PlayersBezeqCellcomPartnerHOT MobileHOT TelecomPelephoneGolanTable of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of contents 3Executive summary 4Market and competitor overviewRegional context 6Economic, demographic and political context 7Regulatory environment 8Demand profile 15Service evolution 17Competitive landscape 18Major market players 19Segment analysisMobile services 24Fixed services 28Pay-TV services 32Identifying opportunitiesOpportunities in the market 34About the authors 35Country Intelligence Report coverage 36.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
Juvenile Macular Degeneration Market Factor Analysis 2018  With Top Leading Players Acucela Inc. U.S., Alkeus Pharmaceuticals Inc. U.S., Astellas Pharma Inc. Japan, Current and Future Scope Seen in Healthcare Industry 2023

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Bone Scan Market Information: By Product (Radiopharmaceuticals, Imaging Devices), Application (Fractures, Arthritis, Paget's disease of Bone, Cancer Originating in Bone), End User (Hospitals, Clinics, Diagnostic Centers) - Global Forecast till 2023The global bone scan market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period.KEY PLAYERS FOR BONE SCAN MARKETSome of the key players in this market are Siemens (U.S.), Hitachi, Ltd. (Japan), Carestream Health, Inc. (U.S.), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Toshiba Corporation. (Japan), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), General Electric Company (U.S.), and others.Get Sample Report @SEGMENTS FOR BONE SCAN MARKETThe global bone scan market is segmented on the basis of product, indication, device, and end user.On the basis of the product, the market is segmented into radiopharmaceuticals and imaging devices. The imaging devices are further segmented into Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), X-ray, Computed Tomography (CT), Single-Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT), and others.On the basis of the application, the market is segmented into fractures, arthritis, Paget's disease of bone, cancer originating in bone, and others.On the basis of the end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, and others.REGIONAL ANALYSIS FOR BONE SCAN MARKETThe Americas lead the global bone scan market owing to the rising prevalence of bone disorders in the U.S. Furthermore, increasing demand for diagnostic services in various also influences the market growth. In North America, the U.S. is the largest market followed by Canada. Increasing penetration of orthopedic specialty hospitals and healthcare insurance is adding fuel to the market growth. Furthermore, the concentration of key players in the market along with the availability of various technologically advanced devices is boosting the market growth in the U.S.Europe is the second largest bone scan market across the globe. The market is accelerated by the extensive use of diagnostic devices for diagnosis of various chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, obesity and others. Furthermore, extensive research and development (R&D) activities carried out by clinical research and academic institutes stimulate the growth of the market. Germany and France contribute to the growth of the market owing to increasing expenditure on R&D and extensive demand for diagnostic devices.MARKET SYNOPSIS FOR BONE SCAN MARKETA bone scan is a test of nuclear medicine and is mostly used to diagnose various bone diseases such as arthritis and bone cancer. It includes an injection of radioactive material and then the bone scan. Radioactive material also known as the tracer is injected into a vein. After injecting this material, the radiologist performs a bone scan. The radiologist may perform the bone scan in phases depending upon the condition to be diagnosed such as the presence of bone disease or cancer.Rising prevalence of bone disease, increasing demand for imaging devices such as MRI, CT scan, SPECT scan, and increasing health care services are accelerating the growth of the market. Furthermore, the increasing expenditure on medical devices influences the market growth. Technological advancements in radiology devices affecting the market growth. However, the efficiency of bone scan may hinder the market growth over the forecast period. Additionally, the bone scan may determine the inaccurate cause of the abnormality.Get Discount @MAJOR TOC FOR BONE SCAN MARKETChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restrains4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & AssessmentChapter 5. Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.1.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers5.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers5.1.3 Threat of New Entrants5.1.4 Threat of Substitutes5.1.5 Intensity of Rivalry5.2 Value Chain Analysis5.3 Investment Feasibility Analysis5.4 Pricing AnalysisLIST OF TABLESTable 1 Bone Scan Industry Synopsis, 2017  2023Table 2 Global Bone Scan Market Estimates and Forecast, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 3 Global Bone Scan Market by Region, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 4 Global Bone Scan Market by Product, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 5 Global Bone Scan Market by Application, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 6 Global Bone Scan Market by End Users, 2017  2023, (USD Million)LIST OF FIGURESFigure 1 Research ProcessFigure 2 Segmentation for Global Bone Scan MarketFigure 3 Segmentation Market Dynamics for Global Bone Scan MarketFigure 4 Global Bone Scan Market Share, By Type 2016Figure 5 Global Bone Scan Market Share, By Application 2016Figure 6 Global Bone Scan Market Share, By End Users, 2016TOC, TABLE OF LIST AND FIG CONTINUED.Asked 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 Future, Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Ultra-Fast Speed Mobile and Fixed Broadband France Market Value Share, Supply Demand, share and Value Chain 2021

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Ultra-Fast Speed Mobile and Fixed BroadbandSummaryThe telecom service revenue in France is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 2.2% during 2016-2021, due to growth in the mobile data and fixed Internet segments. Mobile data and fixed Internet growth will be driven by the expansion of 4G services and proposed 5G rollout before 2020, and fixed infrastructure developments, respectively. Pay-TV revenue will witness a declining trend owing to the shift to lower ARPS IPTV. The overall telecom service market is dominated by Orange France and SFR, and the same is forecast to continue through 2021. Vendors and investors have an opportunity to benefit from the expansion of fixed Internet service as well as the anticipated rollout of 5G before 2020.Click here for sample report @Scope of the Report- The overall telecom service revenue in France will grow at a CAGR of 2.2% during 2016-2021, mainly driven by growth in the mobile data and fixed Internet segments.- Mobile revenue will account for 54.6% of total telecom revenue in 2021; mobile data will witness a CAGR of 8.6% during 2016-2021.- The top two operators, Orange France and SFR, accounted for 66.3% share of overall service revenue in 2016. We expect competition to intensify as operators are investing in 5G trials and fixed Internet developments.- Operators are offering competitive entry-level plans as well as value-added services to sustain their market position.Key PlayersOrangeSFRBouygues TelecomFreeVirgin MobileLa Poste MobileLycamobileCanal+Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of contents 3Executive summary 4Market and competitor overviewRegional context 6Economic, demographic and political context 7Regulatory environment 8Demand profile 17Service evolution 20Competitive landscape 21Major market players 22Segment analysisMobile services 27Fixed services 31Pay-TV services 35Identifying opportunitiesOpportunities in the market 37About the authors 38Country Intelligence Report coverage 39.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
Power Monitoring Market (Manufacturing & Process Industry, Datacenters, Utilities & Renewables, Public Infrastructure & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations) is expected to reach USD +787 Million by 2026

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Power Monitoring Market is expected to reach USD +787 Million by 2026 from USD +411 Million in 2016 at a CAGR of +6 % Power monitoring systems are used to measure electrical energy or power and other parameters for any feeder of an Electrical distribution network such as an industry can monitor grid feeder, all generators, and all electrical loads simultaneously in real time. Power quality analyzers, loggers, recorders, sensors, current transformers, and voltage transformers. The segment is expected to hold the major share due to the smart meter rollout plans and increasing investments in smart grids in regions, such as Asia-Pacific and North America.Request sample pdf of Report at:This research report presents a comprehensive overview of the worldwide market for Power Monitoring discusses the driving forces, limiting factors, opportunities, and challenges of this market at length. This detailed evaluation of the driving factors, obstacles, and the prominent market trends assists the companies in understanding the issues they may face while functioning in this market over the coming years.Some of the leading players functional in the global market: ABB Ltd, Eaton Corporation PLC, Emerson Electric Co., Fluke Corporation, Fuji Electric FA Components & Systems Co., Ltd., General Electric Company, Littelfuse, Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Omron Corporation, Rockwell Automation, Inc., Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, Yokogawa Electric CorporationThe research report further presents a study of the existing status of the main geographical categories of the global market for Power Monitoring that are Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Various market parameters, such as the volume of the production, product pricing, dynamics related to demand and supply, utilization capacity, revenue, and the growth rate of this market in each region have been taken into consideration while preparing this study.The CAGR of each of the categories, globally, and in each of the geographical categories, has also been provided in this research study, leading to a descriptive assessment of the Global Market for Power Monitoring The statistical surveying report further deliberates the current and the upcoming players in the worldwide market at length, which makes this report of special value for businesses, professionals, and shareholders operating in this market.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report@:As per the research report, the Global Power Monitoring Market is estimated to witness an extraordinary growth rate in various sectors such as commercial, public, and private. Rapid progressions in technology are likely to enhance the growth of the market in the near future.The report depends upon in-depth and detailed market analysis, with involvement from industry experts. It evidently depicts the merchant scenario and an in-depth examination of the key traders functioning in the overall Power Monitoring market. Additionally, the publication also discusses the key driving factors influencing the continuous rise in the development in the business sector, and the obstructions going up against the vendors to a great extent. It additionally includes the key opportunities that are trending in the market.Table of Content:Chapter 1 Power Monitoring Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisAbout 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
Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market 2018 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2022

Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Industry

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Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs IndustryMarket Insights:The Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.09% during 2017-2022. Ovarian cancer is one of the most dangerous cancers among all different cancers in females. This cancer grows inside an ovary, results in abnormal growth of cells that have the tendency to attack or harmfully affect the other parts of the body. Ovarian cancer is difficult to predict since very few vague symptoms show up in the early stages. When the cancer grows considerably it starts to show symptoms which includes abdominal puffiness, inflating, pelvic ache, and loss of appetite. This cancer can spread in the different parts of the body associated with ovary such as liver, lymph nodes, abdomen layers, lining of the bowel and bladder. This diseases is very rare in nature, however, the risk in such kind of cancer is relatively higher. Around 10% of ovarian cancer cases are related to inherited genetic risk.Moreover, there are an estimated 50% chances of development of these diseases to women with mutations in the breast cancer genes. The most common ovarian cancer is ovarian carcinoma.The market is boosted by the increasing incidence of ovarian cancer, rising aged women population. The need for more effective treatment options is pushing growth of the global ovarian cancer drugs market. High cost of ovarian cancer drugs and inaccurate diagnostic of ovarian cancer acts as a barrier in the growth of this market. The report includes detailed Market Overview, Analyst Insights and predictive analysis, Market Determinants, Market Segmentation, Geographical Analysis, Strategic Recommendations, Key Company Analysis, Key Findings, Market Insights and Company Profiling.Try Sample Report @Geographical InsightsGeographically market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. North America is having the largest market share in this market. U.S and Canada are the two major countries in this region. The major factors that thrives this market are increasing number of aging population, presence of major market players, and adoption of latest technologies. Asia pacific region is expected to show high growth rates in the upcoming years in the ovarian cancer drugs market globally. China and India are anticipated to be the fastest growing ovarian cancer drug markets in Asia Pacific region. Some of the key boosting forces for ovarian cancer drug market in emerging countries arelarge pool of patients, rise in healthcare expenditure, and rising government funding.Competitive Insights:The key players in the global ovarian cancer drugs market includes Roche, BoehringerIngelheim, Amgen, Astrazeneca, Glaxosmithkline, Abraxane, Doxil, Exelixis, Delmar Pharmaceuticals Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Alkeran, Lynparza, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, Clovis Oncology, Alza, Eli Lilly And Company, GlaxosmithklinePlc, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Novogen, Inc., Genentech Inc. and so forth. Partnership, r&d, m&a, product launch are the key strategy adopted in the global corrosion inhibitor market.Market Segmentation:GlobalOvarian Cancer Drugs Marketis segmented on the basis ofcancer type, treatment, drugs and regional outlook. In cancer type segment the major cancer type is primary peritoneal carcinoma. This is the most common ovarian cancer type.1. Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market Research And Analysis, By Cancer Type1.1. Epithelial Ovarian Tumors1.2. Ovarian Germ Cell Tumors1.3. Ovarian Stromal Tumors1.4. Primary Peritoneal Carcinoma2. Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market Research And Analysis, By Treatment2.1. Chemotherapy2.1.1. Localized Ovarian Cancer Therapeutics2.1.2. Metastatic Ovarian Cancer Therapeutics2.1.3. Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Therapeutics2.2. Immunotherapy2.3. Hormonal Therapy2.4. Targeted Therapy2.5. Radiation Therapy2.6. Surgery3. Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market Research And Analysis, By Drugs3.1. Alkeran (Melphalan)3.2. Avastin (Bevacizumab)3.3. Bevacizumab3.4. Carboplatin3.5. Clafen (Cyclophosphamide)3.6. Cisplatin3.7. Cyclophosphamide3.8. Cytoxan (Cyclophosphamide)3.9. Doxorubicin Hydrochloride3.10. Dox-Sl (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)3.11. Doxil (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)3.12. Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome3.13. Evacet (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)3.14. Gemcitabine Hydrochloride4. GlobalGlobal Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market Research And Analysis, By Region4.1. North America4.2. Europe4.3. APAC4.4. RoWOMR Report covers: Comprehensive research methodology of Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market. This report also includes detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights. Exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market. Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Ovarian Cancer Drugs Market. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @Some points from table of content:REPORT SUMMARY1.1. RESEARCH METHODS AND TOOLS1.2. MARKET BREAKDOWN1.2.1. BY SEGMENTS1.2.2. BY GEOGRAPHY1.2.3. BY STAKEHOLDERS2.4. EXCEPTIONS2. MARKET OVERVIEW AND INSIGHTS2.1. DEFINITION2.2. ANALYST INSIGHTS & CURRENT MARKET TRENDS2.2.1. KEY FINDINGS2.2.2. RECOMMENDATION2.2.3. CONCLUSION2.3. RAW MATERIAL ANALYSIS2.4. REGULATION2.4.1.1. UNITED STATES2.4.1.2. EUROPEAN UNION2.4.1.3. CHINA2.4.1.4. INDIA3. MARKET DETERMINANT3.1. MOTIVATORS3.1.1. HIGH INCREASE IN HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURE3.1.2. INCREASING HEALTHCARE AWARENESS3.1.3. INCREASING INCIDENCES OF OVARIAN CANCER WORLDWIDE3.1.4. GREATER USE OF COMBINATION THERAPIES FOR THE TREATMENT3.2. RESTRAINT3.2.1. LACK OF ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS OF OVARIAN CANCER3.2.2. LAUNCH OF GENERIC DRUGS3.3. OPPORTUNITY3.3.1. RISING POPULATION OF FEMALES IN ASIA PACIFIC REGION3.3.2. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT IN DRUG SECTORContinued.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comWise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Endoscope Flushing Pumps Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Review 2017 to 2027

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To study the market for Endoscope Flushing Pumps in a precise manner, Fact.MR has included a new research report. The report is titled Endoscope Flushing Pumps Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Review 2018 to 2027, which enlightens the readers about the market share as well as growth rate during the period 2018-2027. The research study estimates that the Endoscope Flushing Pumps manufacturing sector would be rising with a positive CAGR during the same stated forecast period.Request TOC of this Report-Endoscope flushing pumps have now replaced the manual flushing procedures while improving the colon visibility after or during endoscopic procedure. These automated flushing endoscopic cleaning equipment pumps automates the manual flushing phase for all flexible scopes. Endoscope flushing pumps eliminates the manual flushing of all channels with automated one for all flexible endoscopes with varied sizes. Endoscopes flush the fluid at a pressure that is non-damaging but creates physical cleaning action. Newly manufactured endoscope flushing pumps are one of a kind innovation guarantees even the elevator channel is flushed. It even has innovation that faculties if the pressure increases, ensuring that no harm can occur while flushing the scopes. Right from leak testing to full sterilization, worked by touch screen, followed by on board computer screen (putting away 1 million cycles) and printer it guarantees reprocessing just turned out to be more gainful.Endoscope flushing pumps market is mainly driven by increasing application endoscopic procedures in various disease conditions, conducive reimbursement policies and increasing prevalence of diseases that necessitate endoscopic processes. Other factors that contribute to overall growth of the market are: small portable manufactured units, easy fit for all types of standard endoscopes from manufacturers, fully automated, stops repetitive strain injuries, leak testing, self-cleaning coupled with disinfection cycle and others. For e.g. the OFP-2 endoscopic flushing pump (Olympus) felicitates washing of gastric and colonic mucosa resulting in improved visualisation, diagnosis and therapy during endoscopic procedures and Aids in the use of trans-endoscopic ultrasound probes by providing rapid filling of the organ to be examined.Aside from previously mentioned factors, expanding geriatric populace, innovation headway in endoscopic systems like diagnostic analysis, representation and visualization etc. expected to further spur revenue growth of endoscope flushing pumps market over the forecast period. In addition, rising awareness of endoscopic procedures, increasing product reach worldwide are projected to lift the revenue growth of endoscope flushing pumps market over the forecast period. However, more usage of manual flushing in many regions worldwide, low effective measures via infection control units, lack of endoscopy skilled professionals to operate these pumps and lack of awareness regarding newly automated endoscope flushing pumps among medical device professionals is expected to affect the endoscope flushing pumps market revenue growth over the forecast period.Browse Report-Endoscope flushing pumps market has been segmented on the basis of product type, application end user, and regionBased on the product type, the endoscope flushing pumps market is segmented into the following:Automated Portable PumpBased on end user, the endoscope flushing pumps market is segmented into the following:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)ClinicsOthersPlayers in the market offering products and after sale services to better create demand and retain customers for companys products. Players in the market coming with innovative products and adopting geographic expansion strategies by to increase geographic footprint in global endoscope flushing pumps market.Geographically, endoscope flushing pumps market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe regions are expected to garner larger market revenue share in endoscope flushing pumps market over the forecast period owing to presence of key players in the regions and availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure which are expected to propel the demand for endoscope flushing pumps during the forecast period in the above mentioned region. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth owing growing healthcare infrastructure, rising out of pocket healthcare expenditure in the region.The players in endoscope flushing pumps market include MEDIVATORS Inc., Amity International, Olympus America and to name a few.Pre-book Global Endoscope Flushing Pumps Market Forecast Report-Continued@@@...About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:
Cable Car & Ropeways Market by Product Type, End User, Supply Chain and by Geography - Global Trends and Forecast to 2025

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Cable transportation systems includes cables, to travel from one end to another, especially at high altitudes places. Ropeways are generally used as a public transportation systems for carrying goods & passengers in cities as well as in mountain areas. Global cable car & ropeway market is expected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period. This market growth is attributed to increasing adoption of cable cars & ropeways in tourism industry to attract more customer base, introduction of cable cars in public transport, steady growth of material handling industry where ropeways & cable cars are used for transit, and introduction of technologically advanced products by key market players. For instance, in 2016, Government of India launched an initiative to develop cable cars at four locations in Karnataka, to promote tourism activities. However, high costs associated with these airlifts and stringent safety & security norms such as EU cableway directive 2000/9/EC, which relates to installations designed to carry a person, may hamper the market growth.Constant technological advancements is one of the major factors for growth of cable cars and ropeways market. For instance, The Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group offers tricable gondola detachable (TGD) ropeways that combines the advantages of reversible aerial tramway and gondola lift. Furthermore, detachable installations have gained significant traction across end users, owing to its ability to detach the vehicle in the station from rope, which enables higher speed on the line and lower speed at station. This makes boarding and de-boarding of passengers convenient, comfortable, and safer.Innovation in cable cars & ropeway technology and designs is expected to boost the market growthKey market players in the global cable car & ropeway industry are focusing on upgrading the technology and designs of their products. The primary factor for this continuous innovation is complete satisfaction of customers in terms of safety, comfort, and security of the transit. For instance, SigmaCabins, a France-based company and provider of carriers for ropeway transport, offers a variety of designs, shapes, and curves on cable cars that adapts to the surrounding environment and are comfortable for the travelers. Furthermore, LEITNER, a global provider of cable cars & ropeways, launched new 8-seater 'Jufen' chairlift in January 2018, which incorporates latest generation ropeway technology to provide greater transport capacity and comfort.Request Sample Copy of this Report @Airlifts as a mode of public transitCable cars or airlifts can be alternative solution for growing traffic congestions across cities, worldwide. Rising population and growing per capita spending on automotive industry has led to excessive traffic congestions and increasing pollution levels. Therefore, cableways of transit can offer effective alternative solution to reduce traffic congestion and also aid in reducing pollution. Furthermore, it can offer benefits such as cost-effective transportation.However, implementation of this is a challenge, owing to a variety of geographical economic constraints. Cable cars have been implemented as a public transit mode in several countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Hong Kong, and Turkey; however, is still not widely accepted. Also, factors such as high costs of cable cars & related services and safety & security concerns are major challenging factors for growth of the market.Cable car & ropeway market in material handlingRopeway conveyors is a type of gondola lift, which is specifically designed to transport goods through containers. These type of gondola lifts are majorly used in mining industry, where materials are transferred over long distance. The adoption of such conveyors have increased in the recent past in material handling industry, owing to their benefits over conventional conveyors such as reduced downtime and minimized recurring failures. Furthermore, availability of variety of ropeways such as monocable, bicable/tricable, & others from local as well as international vendors has increased the adoption of ropeway conveyors at a considerable rate.Request For Customization of this Report @Some of the key players operating in the global cable car & ropeway industry include Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group, Leitner S.p.A., POMA Group, Bartholet Maschinenbau AG (BMF), Nippon Cable Co., Ltd., Damodar Ropeways & Infra Ltd., Bullwheel International Cable Car Corp., Vergokan, Dubrovnik cable cars, Kreischberg: Cableways, Syneron Medical Ltd., and Venus Concept Canada Corp.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Concrete Admixture Market to Cross $38bn by 2024

U.S. Concrete Admixture Market Size, By Application, 2013 ? 2024 (USD Billion)

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Concrete Admixture Market size is forecast to exceed USD 38 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights,Inc.Strong demand of concrete admixtures in the emerging economies of Middle East & Asia-Pacific coupled with rise in spending on infrastructure activities globally will drive the concrete admixtures market. For instance, UAE has been making considerable investment in constructing ports. The Khalifa port is itself valued at USD 24 billion which will boost the demand of concrete admixtures. These trends are probable to make subsequent influence on concrete admixture market size by 2024. Additionally, growing urbanization rate in the Asia Pacific is another major factor which will help achieve promising gains to concrete additive market size by 2024. These products possess exceptional properties, such as high workability, reduced water cement proportion which makes it preferable across construction sector.Request for a sample copy of this report @Strong need to revamp the construction industry in Europe and North America to promote sustainable construction practices will help make significant gains to the concrete admixture market size by 2024. Limited product responsiveness across unorganized construction industry along with unavailability of trained labor are probable to impede the concrete admixture market size by 2024. However, rising need to conserve water resources will generate plentiful opportunities for product which in turn will propel concrete additive market size by 2024.Water reducer concrete admixture accounted for more than 50% of the overall market size in 2016. This is mainly attributed to its superior properties which helps in creating slumps at lower water cement ratio and henceforth results in improving concrete properties for its application under difficult conditions including bridge decks, patching concrete, low slump concrete overlays, etc.Browse Complete Summary of this Report@Some of the commonly used water reducers are lignosulfonic acids, hydroxylated carboxylic acid, etc. their salts and derivatives. Consistently advancing admixture technology to improve the concrete performance has resulted in development of mid-range water reducers which will drive the concrete admixture market size by 2024.Concrete admixture market size for commercial applications is projected to rise at a CAGR of more than 9% by 2024 fueled by rise in infrastructure activities in developing economies such as bridges, tunnels, airports, roads, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, etc. For instance, government of India have announced spending USD 59 billion to modernize its infrastructure in the coming years which will make noteworthy contribution to the overall concrete admixture market size by 2024.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Middle East & Africa concrete admixture market size is likely to grow at a CAGR of more than 9.5% by 2024. Governments of Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia have been making huge investment to improve the overall infrastructure of the region and shift from oil-based economy.Concrete admixture market share is exceedingly consolidated, with prominent players accounting for over half of the total business size in 2016. The major players include CEMEX, BASF, RPM International, Bostik, CICO Group, Sika, MAPEI, Dow, FOSROC, Euclid Chemical and Cementaid. The players are expanding their volume to fulfill the growing product demand in the world. For example, in November 2017, Sika launched a new concrete admixture manufacturing plant in Ethopia to fulfill the growing admixture demand regionally.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact UsArun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1 888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Spain Clot Management Devices Key Players - Boston Scientific Corp, Vascular Solutions Inc, and Medtronic plc. Market Analysis & Forecast 2017 to 2022

Spain Clot Management Devices

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Spain Clot Management DevicesOverview"Spain Clot Management Devices Market Outlook to 2025", provides key market data on the Spain Clot Management Devices market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average prices (USD) within market segments - Embolectomy Balloon Catheters and Peripheral Venous Thrombectomy Devices.Click here for sample report @Major Key Players:Boston Scientific CorpVascular Solutions IncMedtronic plc.Major Highlight of the report:The 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.Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size, company share and distribution share data and analysis.Scope- Market size and company share data for Clot Management Devices market segments - Embolectomy Balloon Catheters and Peripheral Venous Thrombectomy Devices.- 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 Clot Management Devices market.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Spain Clot Management Devices market.- Key players covered include Boston Scientific Corp, Vascular Solutions Inc, Medtronic plc. and Others.Reasons to buy- Develop business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future.- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies.- Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market.- Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future.- What are the key distribution channels and whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand and capitalize..ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @About UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)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
Learn Where Cloud Supply Chain Management Market Now & Beyond

Cloud Supply Chain Management Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Cloud Supply Chain Management market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of United States Cloud Supply Chain Management 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 [Public Cloud, Private Cloud & Hybrid Cloud], products type [Training and Consulting, Support and Maintenance & Managed Services] and various important geographies like ].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the United States Cloud Supply Chain Management 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 Cloud Supply Chain Management 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 United States Cloud Supply Chain Management Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of United States Cloud Supply Chain Management Market, some of them listed here are Cloudlogix, Inc., Highjump Inc., Infor, Inc., JDA Software Group, Inc., Kewill, Inc., Kinaxis, Inc., Logility, Inc., Manhattan Associates, Inc., Oracle Corporation, SAP SE & Tecsys, Inc.. 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.United States Cloud Supply Chain Management (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Training and Consulting, Support and Maintenance & Managed Services. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Public Cloud, Private Cloud & Hybrid Cloud 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 Cloud Supply Chain Management in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering 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 United States Cloud Supply Chain Management market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Cloud Supply Chain Management, Applications of Cloud Supply Chain Management, 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 Cloud Supply Chain Management, 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 , Cloud Supply Chain Management Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Cloud Supply Chain Management Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Cloud Supply Chain Management;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Training and Consulting, Support and Maintenance & Managed Services], Market Trend by Application [Public Cloud, Private Cloud & Hybrid Cloud];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of United States Cloud Supply Chain Management;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Cloud Supply Chain Management sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:United States Cloud Supply Chain Management 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.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Insights of Graphic Films Market in Global Industry : Overview, Size, Share and Trends 2018-2022

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Albany, NY, 10th April : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Graphic Films Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022" globally.The global graphic films market is predicted to find major applications in the advertising and automotive industries. Graphic films could be increasingly engaged for manufacturing vehicle wraps and promotional banners. Moreover, compared to traditional types of films, graphic films are expected to be a cost-effective alternative.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Transitions caused in the lifestyle of consumers as a result of improving purchase power and aggressive technological developments could be responsible for the further growth of the market.The report presented herewith is a brilliant compilation of significant studies of the global graphic films market. Buyers of the report will be exposed to some of the most important factors of the market affecting its growth and future projections. Each segment of the market is carefully analyzed with special focus on their future prospects and statistical information.Global Graphic Films Market: DynamicsThe world graphic films market is foretold to witness the dominance of polyvinylchloride (PVC) expected to be retained in the near future. While there could be various end users associated with the market, the advertisement sector could showcase a stronger growth. The automotive sector is projected to tread on the heels of the advertisement sector in the coming years. Asia Pacific could be empowered with a major uplift due to its bolstering economic condition. The International Monetary Fund (IME) had declared the economy of Asia Pacific to have grown by an over 5.0% in 2016, and is anticipated to rise further between 2017 and 2022.Global Graphic Films Market: SegmentationThe international graphic films market is predicted to be segmented as per three categories, i.e. type of film, type of material, and end use. According to film type, the market could be classified into opaque, transparent, translucent, and reflective and other films. Among these segments, transparent films could garner a colossal growth in the market for the coming years. In 2017, this segment collected a share of 32.7% in the market.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @In terms of material type, the international graphic films market is prophesied to be segregated into PVC, polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) and other materials. By end use, the market could see a segmentation into automotive, promotion, advertising, and branding, and industrial and other end-use sectors.Geographically, the international graphic films market is envisaged to testify the leading position of Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) expected to be maintained all through the course of the forecast timeframe 2017-2022. This regional market could rise at a 7.0% CAGR. North America and Europe could be the other larger regions but with a lesser growth than APEJ. Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are forecast to exhibit a slower growth in the market. The report also foresees Latin America as a vital region of the market.Browse Report @Global Graphic Films Market: CompetitionThe worldwide graphic films market could include dominant companies such as 3M Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH, Avery Dennison Corporation, Amcor Limited, DUNMORE Corporation, Achilles Corporation, Hexis S.A., Arlon Graphics, LLC, and Dunmore Corporation.ResearchMoz 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 :
Vitamin Supplements Market is Expected to Witness Highest Growth in Personal Care Sector

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The global vitamin supplements market, estimated to be valued at $36,929 million in 2014, is expected to grow at 6.5% CAGR during 2014 to 2020, mainly attributed to growing consciousness among consumer about preventative healthcare. Healthcare spend is increasing with the increasing research and development (R&D) expenditure. Due to the increasing cost of healthcare, people are turning towards supplement products, including vitamin supplements, for a healthy life.Explore Full Report Description At:According to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) member associations, the European pharmaceutical R&D expenditure increased from $37,030 million in 2011 to $38,055 million in 2012. In the U.S., the expenditure increased from $36,374 million in 2011 to $36,810 million in 2012. Asia-Pacific holds a major market share in the global vitamin supplements market, followed by North America and Europe. Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the market in the forecast period owing to increasing geriatric population.Deficiency of vitamin in body at older age increases the risk of diseases, such as night blindness, diminishing eyesight, fragile bones and mental disorders. This requires more nutrient-rich foods at older age. It is important to maintain balance of nutrients, including vitamin, to keep the body functioning properly.Download Free Report Sample:Some of the major competitors in the global vitamin supplements market include Glanbia plc, NBTY, Inc., Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, Archer Daniels Midland Company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Royal DSM N.V., BASF SE, Integrated BioPharma Inc, Bayer AG, Pharmavite LLC, Nutraceutical International Corporation, Herbalife 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:
Structural Insulation Panels Market size is estimated to exceed USD 600 million by 2024

North America Structural Insulation Panels Market, By End-Use, 2016 & 2024, (USD Million)

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Structural Insulation Panels Market size is estimated to exceed USD 600 million by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.Growing demand for modern, energy-efficient and fast track building techniques will drive structural insulation panels market growth. Shifting trends toward green building construction to reduce energy consumption and global CO2 emissions will propel the product adoption rate. Factors such as ease of installation, sound proofing and light weight product properties will boost SIPs market size.Request for a sample copy of this report @Rising global warming level and increasing consumer concern pertaining to high electricity bills is anticipated to support structural insulation panels adoption. Continuous legislative amendments including LEED and Model Energy Codes regarding sustainable building measures for construction companies will improve SIPs market development.Globally, increasing labor cost is expected to shift manufacturers preference towards advanced construction materials. Benefits such as cost, and design flexibility is augmenting product demand. Increasing government support to promote green building technologies will significantly enhance industry expansion. For instance, in 2016, the EU enacted Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to encourage better renovation and cost-effective material usage in the regionBrowse Complete Summary of this Report@EPS was valued over USD 180 million in 2016. High compatibility with oriented strand board, low vapor permanence and minimum water absorption are the key properties influencing EPS demand in SIPs. Easy availability, rigidness, low maintenance cost and lightweight features are major aspects likely to influence segment growth.OSB one side is expected to observe growth over 7% up to 2024. Improved code-compliant air barrier due to better permeability is the key factor propelling OSB one sided structural insulation panels market expansion. Strong application scope in sliding and roofing walls for improved heat transfer and moisture resistance will support segment growth.Residential sector dominated the structural insulation panels market share in 2016 and will witness over 6% CAGR up to 2024. Expansion of zero energy homes industry and affordable housing schemes supported by government will provide lucrative opportunity for industry manufactures. For instance, U.S. Department of Energys (DoEs) planned to reduce residential energy consumption by supporting zero-energy homes development by 2020.Commercial sector is projected to witness fastest growth over the projected time frame. Increasing necessity for high thermal insulation to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings will propel segment demand. In addition, surge in electricity bills is anticipated to trigger product penetration rate. Rapid expansion of hotel chains, malls and hospitals will also boost SIPs market expansion.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @North America is expected to hold over 35% structural insulation panels market share by 2024. Escalating government regulations including EPA's Energy Star Home will drive regional industry size. Increasing preference for low maintenance building materials among manufactures likely to propel SIPs market. Rising energy security concern along with social awareness regarding efficient technologies will boost structural insulation panels industry size.Global structural insulated panels market share includes ArcelorMittal, Isopan, Lattonedil, k Metecno, Romakowski, J-Deck Inc. and Nohara. Rising competition among organizations is resulting into several mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances to enhance market share foothold. Other prominent industry participants include Foard Panel, Foam Laminates Future Building of America, ICS Eco-SIPs, T. Clear Corporation, Murus Company, and Eagle Panel Systems, Inc.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact UsArun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1 888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Research of Anti-Reflective Glass Coatings Market in Global Industry : Overview, Size, Share and Trends 2018-2025

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Albany, NY, 10th April : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Anti-Reflective Glass Coatings Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.The global anti-reflective glass coatings market report provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period and 2016 is the base year.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a key role in anti-reflective glass coatings market growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence markets growth during the said period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the anti-reflective glass coatings markets growth throughout the above mentioned forecast period in terms of revenue (in US$ Mn), across different geographies, including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA) and South America.The market overview section of the report demonstrates the market dynamics and trends, such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. An attractiveness analysis has also been provided for every geographic region in the report, in order to give a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the anti-reflective glass coatings market, globally. Moreover, the report provides an overview of the various strategies of key players present in the market. Introduction and market definition chapter helps in understanding different technologies of anti-reflective glass coatings along with their applications which are included in the report. . A standard anti-reflective glass with the minimum reflection of on both the sides transmits about 98% of the light and produces only 1% of residual reflection.The advancements in deposition technologies such as thin film fabrication and development of new coating materials are increasing the use of anti-reflective products in various applications. The report segments the global anti-reflective glass coatings market on the basis of technology into physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition. The report provides in-depth cross-segment analysis of the anti-reflective glass coatings market and classifies it into various levels, thereby providing valuable insights at the macro as well as micro levels. The anti-reflective coatings are widely used in various end-use industries owing to improvements and rapid developments in optical coating technology. The anti-reflective glass coatings market is segmented by application into large area glass coatings [picture frames, electronic displays, refrigerated displays, solar, automotive, others], and small batch-coated lenses.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The report also highlights the competitive landscape of the anti-reflective glass coatings market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their geographic presence and recent key developments. The comprehensive anti-reflective glass coatings market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting the anti-reflective glass coatings markets growth.Global Anti-reflective Glass Coatings Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of country, North American market is divided into The U.S., Canada, Mexico and Rest of North America. Similarly, Europe market is divided into Germany, UK and Rest of Europe. Asia Pacific has been segmented into China, India and Rest of Asia Pacific. Middle East and Africa covers the Saudi Arabia, UAE and Rest of Middle East and Africa. Similarly, South American region includes Brazil and Rest of South America. This report provides all the essential information required to understand the anti-reflective glass coatings market. Furthermore, Porters Five Forces analysis explains the factors which are currently affecting the market. This report also provides the value chain analysis for the anti-reflective glass coatings market which explains the participants of the value chain.Global Anti-reflective Glass Coatings Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the key players engaged in anti-reflective glass coatings market include DuPont, Honeywell International, PPG Industries, DSM, Asahi India Glass Limited, Guardian Glass, Essilor, and Schott AG. Details such as financials, SWOT analysis, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to the industry has been duly provided.Market SegmentationGlobal Anti-Reflective Glass Coatings Market, By TechnologyPhysical Vapor DepositionChemical Vapor DepositionGlobal Anti-Reflective Glass Coatings Market, By ApplicationLarge Area Glass CoatingsPicture FramesElectronic DisplaysRefrigerated DisplaysSolarAutomotiveOthersSmall Batch Coated Lenses (SBCL)Global Anti-Reflective Glass Coatings Market, by RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyUKRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaRest of Asia PacificBrowse Report @Middle East and Africa (MEA)Saudi ArabiaUAERest of MEASouth AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :
Blood Plasma Derivatives Market, Growing $44,333 Million By 2023

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Blood plasma is liquid component of blood where the blood cells are suspended. It contains dissolved proteins (albumins, globulins, and fibrinogen), clotting factors, hormones, and electrolytes. Plasma maintains the blood pressure and helps in exchange of important minerals such as sodium and potassium to maintain the pH balance in the body. Plasma derivatives are products that are manufactured from human plasma by plasma fractionation techniques. These derivatives include albumin, factor VIII & IX, anti-inhibitor coagulation complex (AICC), and immunoglobulins, including Rh immune globulin, alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor concentrate, and anti-thrombin III.For More Info, Get Sample :The global blood plasma derivatives market was valued at $23,613 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $44,333 million at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2017 to 2023. The major factor that contributes towards the growth of the blood plasma derivatives market is increase in prevalence of life-threatening diseases such as immunodeficiency disorders and hemophilia. Moreover, other factors boosting the market growth include increase in awareness for blood & plasma donation, rise in geriatric population, and high adoption of blood plasma derivatives products. However, high cost of treatment and risks of side effects associated with the use of plasma derivatives hamper the market growth. Conversely, development of enhanced methods for preservation of plasma derivatives along with advanced procedures for fractionation and high market potential in untapped emerging economies are expected to provide lucrative growth opportunities for the market.The global blood plasma derivatives market is segmented on the basis of type, application, end user, and region. Based on type, the market is fragmented into albumin, factor VIII, factor IX, immunoglobulin, hyperimmune globulin, and others. The applications covered in the study include hemophilia, hypogammaglobulinemia, immunodeficiency diseases, von Willebrand's Disease (vWD), and other application. By end user, the market is classified into hospitals, clinics, and other end users. Region wise, it is analyzed for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS The study provides an in-depth analysis of the global blood plasma derivatives market with current trends and future estimations from 2016 to 2023 to elucidate the imminent investment pockets. Comprehensive analysis of factors that drive and restrict the market growth is provided. Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenario, rise in opportunities, and identification of key companies that can influence this market on a global & regional scale are provided. Key players are profiled and their strategies are analyzed thoroughly to understand the competitive outlook of the market.Key market segmentsEnquire About Report :By Type Albumin Factor VIII Factor IX Immunoglobulin Hyperimmune Globulin OthersBy Application Hemophilia Hypogammaglobulinemia Immunodeficiency Diseases von Willebrand's disease (vWD) Other ApplicationBy End User Hospitals Clinics Other End UsersBy Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany France UK Italy Spain Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China Japan India Australia South Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Brazil Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of LAMEAAlso Request For Discount :LIST OF KEY PLAYERS PROFILED IN THE REPORT Grifols, S.A. SK Plasma Co., Ltd. Fusion Health Care Pvt. Ltd. Biotest AG Green Cross Corporation Baxter International Inc. LFB S.A. Octapharma AG CSL Limited Shire Plc.Table Of Content CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4: BLOOD PLASMA DERIVATIVES MARKET, BY TYPE CHAPTER 5: BLOOD PLASMA DERIVATIVES MARKET, BY APPLICATION CHAPTER 6: BLOOD PLASMA DERIVATIVES MARKET, BY END USER CHAPTER 7: BLOOD PLASMA DERIVATIVES MARKET, BY REGION CHAPTER 8: COMPANY PROFILESAbout UsWe have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities. Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.com
Personal Emergency Response Systems Market 2018 Global Leaders: Alertone Standalone PERS, ADT, Valued Relationships, LifeStation, Bay Alarm Medical, Medical Guardian, Tunstall Healthcare Group, GreatCall

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Personal Emergency Response Systems Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioThe companies such as Alertone Standalone PERS, LLC (US), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), ADT Corporation (US), Valued Relationships, Inc. (US), Nortek Security & Control LLC. (US), are the leading providers of personal emergency response systems in the market. These companies are providing the personal emergency response systems which are helping the people by giving the signals to the representatives, in case of emergency. These alerts are available with medical alert plus, on-the-go emergency response system, on-the-go emergency response system and others, which are widely used by the people.The personal emergency response systems is next generation technological revolution in healthcare industry which are available with different feature such as in home operations, fall detection available, GPS location capabilities, home temperature monitoring, and others. The cellular based personal emergency response systems are widely used among the people as it offers immediate response in the emergency time with hands-free, two-way communication over a cellular network.The global Personal Emergency Response Systems Market are bifurcated on the basis of type, component, applications and region. The types are segmented into mobile PERS, landline PERS, standalone PERS and others. The component are segmented into hardware, solution, service, and others. The applications are segmented senior living facilities, home user, assisted living facilities and others. The region includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world.The global Personal Emergency Response Systems Market is expected to grow at USD ~9 Billion by 2023, at ~6 % of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Get Sample of Report @Segments:The global personal emergency response systems market has been segmented on the basis of type, component, applications and region.Global Personal emergency response systems Market By Type: Mobile PERS Landline PERS Standalone PERS OthersGlobal Personal emergency response systems Market By Component: Hardware Software ServicesGlobal Personal emergency response systems Market Applications: Senior Living Facilities Home User Assisted Living Facilities OthersGlobal Personal emergency response systems Market By Regions: North America Europe APAC Rest Of The WorldKey Players:The prominent players in the global personal emergency response systems market are  Alertone Standalone PERS, LLC (US), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), ADT Corporation (US), Valued Relationships, Inc. (US), Nortek Security & Control LLC. (US), LifeStation, Inc. (US), Bay Alarm Medical (US), Medical Guardian LLC (US), Tunstall Healthcare Group Ltd. (UK), GreatCall (US), Guardian Alarm (US), MobileHelp (U.S) among others.Regional AnalysisThe regional analysis of personal emergency response systems market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading region across the world in terms of market share in personal emergency response systems market as the medical alert systems are widely used for the senior citizen. The personal emergency response systems market in Europe region is expected to witness rapid growth in the forthcoming period. Whereas, Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and India is an emerging market for personal emergency response systems market and expected to be the highest CAGR in the coming years as the companies are taking interest in targeting the personal emergency response systems in these market to meet the requirement of customers need.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Professional service providers Research and development companies Market research and consulting firms Solution providers Component standards organizations Component investors System IntegratorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Corrugated Boxes Market is Projected to Increase Further to US$115.15 bn by the end of 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Corrugated Boxes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Corrugated Boxes Market: OverviewOf late, the global market for corrugated boxes has been witnessing a surge in the valuation and is expected to remain observing so over the next few years. In this research report, an in-depth and strategic analysis and the growth forecast of the worldwide corrugated boxes market for the period between 2017 and 2022 is offered to readers. Under the scope of this research study, the assessments of various segments in this market that are differentiated on the basis of the efficiency, sector, capacity, and the geography, are included.The report, further, provides a comprehensive assessment of several factors, such as the driving factors and limiting forces, as well as lucrative opportunities, which will influence the growth of this market in the near future. Apart from all these factors, the key trends, which impact the overall growth of this market have been identified in this study. Furthermore, an exhaustive assessment of this market, together with the estimations regarding its growth during the forecast period has also been discussed at length in research report. Together with this, it also concentrates on the rise in the demand for various corrugated boxes across the world in the years to come.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Corrugated Boxes Market: SegmentationThe report consists of in-depth evaluation of the performance of various segments in the global market for corrugated boxes, analyzed on the basis of the source of the material, end user, packaging form, and the type of board. Based on the source of the material, the market has been classified into virgin fiber and recycled fiber.By the end user, the market has been categorized into the food, beverages, tobacco, healthcare, personal care and cosmetics, homecare and toiletries, electronic and consumer durables, e-commerce, and chemical and fertilizers. In terms of the packaging form, the market has been bifurcated into primary packaging and secondary packaging. Based on the type of board, the market is divided into single wall, double wall, and triple wall.Global Corrugated Boxes Market: Geographical OutlookOn the basis of geography, the worldwide market for corrugated boxes has been segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), North America, and Japan. Moreover, the analysis of the performance for the key countries, such as Canada and the U.S. (North America), Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina (Latin America), Italy, Germany, the U.K., France, and Spain (Europe), India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, and the Rest of APEJ (APEJ), GCC countries, South Africa, Israel, and the Rest of MEA (MEA), and Japan have also been presented in this research report.Further, the research study presents a qualitative assessment of the factors responsible for driving as well as restraining the growth of the global corrugated boxes market in each of these regions. It also discusses the regional or country specific trends, which influence the overall market globally.Global Corrugated Boxes Market: Competitive AnalysisFor better decision making, the competitive evaluation and the profile reviews of the key players in this market have been covered within the scope of this research study. Along with this, the respective market share, prominent developments, and key business strategies, adopted by the key participants for the progress of their businesses have also been studied thoroughly in this research report.Stora Enso Oyj., International Paper Co., Smurfit Kappa Group Plc., Pratt Industries Inc., Sonoco Products Co., Huhtamaki Oyj, WestRock Co., KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp., DS Smith Plc., and Georgia Pacific LLC are some of the key vendors of corrugated boxes in the global market.Table of Content1. Global Corrugated Boxes Market - Executive Summary2. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Overview2.1. Introduction2.1.1. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Taxonomy2.1.2. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Definition2.2. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20222.2.1. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Y-o-Y Growth2.3. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Dynamics2.4. Supply Chain2.5. Cost Structure2.6. Pricing Analysis2.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis2.8. List of Distributors2.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region3. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Analysis and Forecast By Material Source3.1. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Size and Forecast By Material Source, 2012-20223.1.1. Virgin Fiber Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region3.1.2. Recycled Fiber Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @4. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Analysis and Forecast By End User Industry4.1. Global Corrugated Boxes Market Size and Forecast By End User Industry, 2012-20224.1.1. Food Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.2. Beverages Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.3. Tobacco Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.4. Healthcare Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.4.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.4.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.5. Personal Care & Cosmetics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.5.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.5.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.5.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.6. Homecare & Toiletries Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.6.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.6.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.6.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.7. Electronic & Consumer Durables Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.7.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.7.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.7.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @
Global Calcium Alginate Market Top Players: Kimica Corporation, Danisco, FMC Corporation

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Calcium Alginate to its huge collection of research reports.The global Calcium Alginate market is driven by a variety of regional and global factors, a critical assessment of which forms the crux of the report. The key dynamics of the market is constantly influenced by changing business models and several paradigmatic shifts in recent years, holistic insights of which is offered in the report. The study on the market tracks the vendor landscape, changes in regulatory framework, and the prevailing governmental policies in major countries. The analysis zeroes in on the prevalent risks, strategic as well as tactical, impacting the dynamics of the Calcium Alginate market. The report takes into account recent offerings of major players and key strategies adopted by them to gain a better foothold in the global Calcium Alginate market. An analysis of the key strategic dynamics also includes recent investments made by them to expand their presence across new geographic regions. In addition, the analysis takes a closer look at research and development (R&D) activities being undertaken by them. Furthermore, the study evaluates the impact on emerging avenues and lucrative prospects in various regions.Get Sample Report of the Research Study at:The findings and insights offered in the study is a useful guide for investors, new entrants, emerging and established players, and any stakeholder interested to track the growth trajectory of the market. Prepared with the help of invaluable inputs from a large number of secondary and primary sources, the study offers evidence-based insights which will guide companies in effective strategy formulations. The research employs a number of prominently recognized industry methods to ascertain the attractiveness of key segments. Combing these methods with SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis, the report intends to present a comprehensive insight into the competitive dynamics of the global Calcium Alginate market. In addition, key trends likely to bring disruptive changes in various regional markets are also analyzed at length in the study.Global Calcium Alginate market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingKimica CorporationDanisco (Dupont)FMC CorporationDastech InternationalSNAP Natural & Alginate ProductsJiuLong Seaweed IndustryAllforlong Bio-TechBright Moon SeaweedXiangyu SeaweedHone SeaweedShuangcheng SeaweedFengrun SeaweedGFURI Seaweed...Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Calcium Alginate Market Research Report 20181 Calcium Alginate Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Calcium Alginate1.2 Calcium Alginate Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Calcium Alginate Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Calcium Alginate Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Food Grade1.2.4 Industrial Grade1.3 Global Calcium Alginate Segment by Application1.3.1 Calcium Alginate Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Food1.3.3 Pharmaceutical1.3.4 Industrial2 Global Calcium Alginate Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Calcium Alginate Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Calcium Alginate Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Calcium Alginate Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Calcium Alginate Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Calcium Alginate Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Calcium Alginate Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Calcium Alginate Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Calcium Alginate Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Calcium Alginate Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Agriculture Equipment Market by Product Type and by Geography - Global Trends and Forecast to 2025

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Global agriculture equipment market have generated the revenue of US$ 103,463.9 million in 2016 up from US$ 100,321.0 million in 2016. By 2025, the agriculture equipment market is expected to generate a revenue of US$ 136,527.1 million with a CAGR of 3.53% in the forecast period. According to Population Reference Bureau, the world wide total population was 7,536 million in 2017 and is projected to reach 8,563 million by 2030. Increasing population is propelling demand for food, which in turn accelerated the demand for equipments in agriculture industry to reduce production time, increase efficiency, and save cost.Increasing government initiatives accelerated growth of the agriculture equipment marketIncreasing population is major challenging factor for government of various economies. Increasing population have increased the demand for food and it is important for the government of various countries to support the agriculture industry by providing subsidiaries schemes and availability of advance equipments in low cast. For instance, in India, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare started Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization schemes in 2014 to provide subsidiary to farmers on machinery.Request Sample Copy of this Report @The tractor segment held the dominant position in 2017On the basis of product type, market is segmented into Tractors, Combine Harvesters, Rotavators, Power Tillers, Seed Drill, Thresher, Power Weeder, and Others. The tractor segment held the dominant position in the agriculture equipment market and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In 2017, the tractor segment generated the revenue of US$ 80,396.8 million and is expected to reach US$ 105,732.9 million by 2025 with a CAGR of 3.48%. The tractors are essential farming equipments used for various activities, both as standalone equipment and with other implements. Moreover, rising mechanization trend in agriculture is a major factor for the growth of segment in the agriculture equipment market.North America held the dominant position in Agriculture Equipment market in 2017On the basis of geography, the Agriculture equipment market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The North America region held the dominant position in the market in 2017 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In 2017, the North America generated the revenue of US$ 37200.0 million and is expected to reach US$ 48774.5 million by 2025 with a CAGR of 3.44%. The U.S. and Canada are major economies driving the growth of agriculture equipment market in this region. The availability of advance machines with better fuel efficiency and advanced features have encouraged farmers to purchase the new machinery for agriculture. Furthermore, the government support by implementing various program and scheme is also one of the major factor for the growth of agriculture equipment market in this region. For instance, the Canada government stared Canadian Agricultural Loans Act program is a federal loan guarantee program, which is designed to increase the lean availability for the development and improvement of farmers.Request For Customization @Key Players- Global Agriculture Equipment Market.The major players operating in the global agriculture equipment market include AGCO Corporation, Agrostroj Pelhrimov A.s, China National Machinery Industry Corporation, Concern Tractor Plants, Deere & Company, Escorts Limited, Mahindra Group, Same Deutz-Fahr Group (SDF), Valmont Industries Incorporated, and Weifang Euroking MachineryAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Big Data Analytics Market 2018-2023: Kay Players - Google Inc, Pentaho, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tableau Software, IBM Corporation, SAP SE, Datameer, VMware Inc, Teradata Corporation

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Big Data Analytics Global Market - OverviewBig data is usually called as a set of big and diverse data. This data is used to inspect the trends related to customer buying preferences, purchase patterns, and social behaviour. This helps the enterprises to execute better cultivated strategic business decisions. Big data analytics market is growing due to factors such as augmented evolution of internet of things. IoT is largely responsible for devices to stay connected with each other, which in-turn leads to generate a huge amount of data as the devices interact with each other. Additionally, there is a lot of data which is collected from the within the organizations, social media, open forums and websites. This data is unstructured and fragmented, thereby creating opportunity for big data analytics.Request Sample Report @Industry NewsFebruary 2018, Splunks data analytics gets a security boost with $350 million acquisition of Phantom Cyber. Splunk has acquired Phantom Cyber, security automation technology developer.February 2018, Aussie master distributor acquired by data analytics vendor Alteryx. The company acquired its Australia and New Zealand division to increase and enhance sales and marketing in those regions. The company also plans to extend its regional workforce, with additional sales support, and supply chain channels to serve regional partners in Australia and New Zealand.March 2018, Wineman Technology Partners with Viviota to Bring Insight to Big Data with Automated Test and Data Management Solutions. The company Wineman, has made a strategic partnership with Viviota. The acquisition plans to offer electromechanical test and analytics solutions for industrial sectors like transportation and automotive, healthcare and medical device and aerospace.The Big Data Analytics Market is expected to reach approximately USD 275 billion by the end of 2023 with approximately 12% CAGR during the forecasted period from 2018  2023.SegmentationSegmentation by component: hardware and softwareSegmentation by Solution: fraud detection, risk management, customer analytics, content analyticsSegmentation by End-User: banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, government, telecommunication, insurance, transportation and utilitiesSegmentation by region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa.Key PlayersThe prominent players in the big data analytics market are IBM Corporation (U.S.), Teradata Corporation (U.S.), VMware, Inc (U.S.), Tableau Software (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Pentaho (U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Google Inc (U.S.), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (U.S), Datameer (U.S.) among others, are profiled in Market Research Future analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the global big data analytics market. The prominent vendors are aiming to invest more in technology, research and development to innovate and expand their present product portfolio.Access Report Description @Regional AnalysisThe geographical analysis of the big data analytics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world. Out of these regions, North America is mainly dominating the big data analytics market and will continue to lead the market for investments in the big data analytics with nearly 80% investments. This is majorly due the concentration of the large big data companies in the U.S, the growing advancement in technology adoption. On the other hand, Europe claims the second spot in this market. However, there has been a high growth during the forecast period by Asia Pacific. This growth is majorly due to growing advancement and globalization, growing number of big data analytics usage in IT & Telecom, healthcare, tourism, and retail.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst membersContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Industry Dynamic Analysis of Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Market Report 2018

Industry Dynamic Analysis of Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Market Report 2018

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The Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Market Report 2018 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Industry analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development 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 (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.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.Get a complete & professional report sample:In this report, the Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) 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 Asia-Pacific into several key Regions, with sales (K MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), including Chin, Japan, South Korea, Taiwai, India,Southeast Asia and Australia.Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) market competition by top manufacturers/players, with 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingBASFShanghai HoldenchemAnhui Wotu ChemicalJiangxi Jinkai ChemicalYinzhou Minghao PharmaceuticalChangzhou Chongkai ChemicalJiangsu Cale New MaterialJiaxing Isen ChemicalOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volum, revenue, product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPharma Grade 1-MethylimidazoleIndustrial Grade 1-MethylimidazoleOn 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, includingPharmaceuticalsResinsTextile & PlasticsOtherTable of contents:Chapter 1 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) OverviewChapter 2 Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and ApplicationChapter 3 China 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 4 Japan 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 5 South Korea 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 6 Taiwan 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 7 India 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 8 Southeast Asia 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 9 Australia 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Chapter 10 Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataChapter 11 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 12 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 13 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 14 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 15 Asia-Pacific 1-Methylimidazole (CAS 616-47-7) Market Forecast (2018-2025)Chapter 16 Research Findings and ConclusionChapter 17 AppendixContact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersTel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Email: sales@qyresearcheurope.com or tinaning@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 2901 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road
Global Heart Health Functional Food Market Professional Survey Report 2018 - Nestle, Raisio, Kraft, Marico, Kalbe Farma,

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Heart Health Functional Food Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Heart Health Functional Food in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringNestleRaisioKraftMaricoKalbe FarmaBagrryAssociated British FoodsConAgraPepsiCoTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDairyEdible OilBreakfast CerealNutritional BarsBy Application, the market can be split intoSuper/ Hyper StoresDepartment StoresGroceryOnline RetailersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaTable of ContentsGlobal Heart Health Functional Food Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Heart Health Functional Food1.1 Definition and Specifications of Heart Health Functional Food1.1.1 Definition of Heart Health Functional Food1.1.2 Specifications of Heart Health Functional Food1.2 Classification of Heart Health Functional Food1.2.1 Dairy1.2.2 Edible Oil1.2.3 Breakfast Cereal1.2.4 Nutritional Bars1.3 Applications of Heart Health Functional Food1.3.1 Super/ Hyper Stores1.3.2 Department Stores1.3.3 Grocery1.3.4 Online Retailers1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Heart Health Functional Food2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Heart Health Functional Food2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Heart Health Functional Food2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Heart Health Functional Food3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Heart Health Functional Food3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Heart Health Functional Food Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Heart Health Functional Food Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Heart Health Functional Food Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Heart Health Functional Food Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Heart Health Functional Food Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Heart Health Functional Food Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Heart Health Functional Food Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Heart Health Functional Food Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Heart Health Functional Food Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2013-2018E Global Heart Health Functional Food Sales Price4.4.2 2017 Heart Health Functional Food Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @5 Heart Health Functional Food Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Heart Health Functional Food Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Heart Health Functional Food Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2013-2018E Heart Health Functional Food Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2013-2018E Heart Health Functional Food Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2017 Heart Health Functional Food Market Share Analysis5.2 China Heart Health Functional Food Market Analysis5.2.1 China Heart Health Functional Food Market Overview5.2.2 China 2013-2018E Heart Health Functional Food Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2013-2018E Heart Health Functional Food Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2017 Heart Health Functional Food Market Share AnalysisContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @
Analysis of Automotive Mudguards Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Automotive mudguards, also known as fenders, are parts of automobiles that frames the wheel and prevent the sand, rocks, mud, liquids or any other forms of dust from getting sprayed into by the wheels of the vehicle in the air or on vehicles and pedestrians. These are standard fixtures that can also be customized based on the consumer requirement in aftermarket and attached externally. Commonly used materials include steel, aluminum, ABS plastics, PE and carbon fibers.Increasing demands for automobiles, specifically green mobility will provide considerable growth opportunity for the automotive mudguards marketIncreasing consumer concerns regarding global warming, increasing investments in advancement of electric & hybrid vehicles and advanced engines to reduce emissions, regulatory amendments such as EPA in U.S. and European emission standards in EU are expected to drive the demands for better fuel efficiency vehicles. Various peripheral components of the vehicle influence the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. These factors inadvertently are projected to majorly contribute to the automotive mudguards market growth over the forecast period.Ask for detailed Sample of this Research Report @China and countries in Western Europe are increasingly encouraging the electric and hybrid vehicle purchases to regulate the fuel emissions and optimize their environmental impacts through government incentive plans, tax exemptions and dedicated parking spaces among the few other initiatives to encourage ownerships of these vehicles. In conjunction with the high growth market for these vehicles, increasing sales figures of other conventional vehicles is expected to provide potential growth prospects over the next few years. According to Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs dAutomobiles (OICA), international sales of vehicles witnessed an increase of around 4.65%, accounting for a Y-o-Y increase of over 93 million units in 2016.Utilization of natural fibers in the manufacturing is expected to drive the demand growthIncreased usage of natural fibers in the manufacturing processes is a major trend gaining traction in the industry. These natural fiber polymer composites are environment-friendly, lightweight, and bio-degradable. Moreover, according to our research, incorporation of natural fibers can reduce over 25% of the vehicle weights in comparison to other glass reinforced fibers. These enhanced features are expected to provide large growth potential to the automotive mudguards market.Passenger cars are expected to dominate the industry segment demands over the forecast periodPassenger car segment dominated the overall automotive mudguards market share in 2016, and is expected to continue its dominance over the next few years. Its growth can be attributed to large inclination of consumers towards owning cars, proliferation of commercial usage of automobiles such as car sharing and cab aggregators, and the pre-existing large consumer base across the globe. Moreover, large presence of aftermarket players that offer custom-made solutions to enhance the vehicle aesthetics and performance, will also continue to contribute to the industry growth.Asia Pacific will continue its dominance in the automotive mudguards marketAsia Pacific held the largest industry share in 2016 and is expected to continue its dominance, primarily owing to the presence of the worlds largest automobile market, China and the fastest growing automotive market in India. Growing employment opportunities have led to substantial per capita income and the affording capability of the population in the region. Moreover, increased spending on road infrastructure and manufacturing activities in the region will drive the growth of commercial and passenger vehicle demands. This will provide the required boost to the industry growth. Increased inclination of consumers towards high-end automobile solutions and decreasing price of gasoline will present considerable opportunities in the developed economies, such as U.S., Canada, UK, Germany and France.Industry presence is characterized by established presence of major players with moderate competition among them. Chief players in the automotive mudguard market include MrMudguard, Rhino Manufacturing, FeatherWing, KN Rubber, Jonesco, KWIK PFYT mud flaps, FIEM Industries, and Sant Manufacturers.Request for Customization As per your Need :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website :
Surgical Imaging Displays Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Surgical Imaging Displays Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.An operating room encompasses equipment such as operating room lights, operating tables, surgical booms and operating room integration systems, and surgical imaging displays. In order to ensure efficient workflow during surgeries, surgeons need proper integration of video, image, and data display devices. The modern day operating rooms equip surgeons with high definition and high resolution display monitors for producing better and efficient surgical results. Various technologically advanced surgical and medical grade display monitors are available with features such as multiple inputs, multi-image as well as multi-modality viewing, surgical team viewing, point-of-use viewing, wireless 1080 HD broadcasting, LED backlight, 120 hertz refresh rate, touch screen, and screen size up to 55.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @An average to high rate of growth is expected in the global surgical imaging displays market during the forecast period. Rising concerns about reduction in health care spending and achieving accurate surgical outcomes have induced health care providers across the globe to focus on enhancing operating room efficiency, while minimizing the required resources and related costs. This is facilitated by continued technological advances in surgical imaging displays that have brought significant change in the way surgical procedures are carried out presently. Growth of the market is also attributed to rise in demand due to improving economic conditions in several countries after the global recession. Postponed orders are being unleashed and sales are rising especially in countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. According to IHS, a market intelligence firm, the surgical imaging displays market will be benefitted from the increase in demand in important markets such as the U.S. where hospitals after years of postponing purchases are now loosening up to purchase multiple operating room equipment that will include displays. Many developing markets mainly in the Asia-Pacific region are still in the developing stage. Moreover, increase in adoption of newer technology by hospitals and clinics for better and faster results will create significant demand for all kinds of surgical display monitors.The global surgical imaging displays market can be segmented based on application, type, display screen size, end-user, and region. In terms of application, the global market can be categorized into endoscopy, laparoscopy, fluoroscopy, and arthroscopy. Based on type, the global surgical imaging displays market can be divided into OLED, HD, 2D, and 3D. In terms of display screen size, the global market can be classified into 19 inches, 21 inches, 24 inches, 26 inches, 32 inches, 42 inches, and 55 inches. Based on end-user, the global surgical imaging displays market can be categorized into hospitals, clinics, and research institutions.The global surgical imaging displays market can be segmented into four major regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America and Europe hold a large share and dominate the global surgical imaging display market. These two regions are expected to retain their leadership positions throughout the forecast period. Most of the hospitals in these regions are increasingly adopting modern OR equipment and hybrid ORs. This along with the rise in number of surgical procedures contribute to market growth in North America and Europe. Japan, China, India, Malaysia, and Australia are the major markets in Asia Pacific that present significant opportunities for equipment manufacturers. The market in the region is projected to expand at a high growth rate during the forecast period. Rest of the World comprises countries such as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Israel, and the UAE. The surgical imaging displays market in these countries is expected to record strong growth.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Key players in the global surgical imaging display market are Stryker Corporation, Steris Corporation, Skytron LLC, Getinge Group, and Berchtold Corporation.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @
Analysis of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Disaster Recovery as a service (DRaaS) market refers to replication or hosting of virtual or physical servers to a third party business location, which either includes backup appliances or cloud, for enabling data and information recovery in case of any natural or manmade calamity. Significant number of advantages over the conventional disaster recovery, such as elimination of downtime, reduction in IT costs and resources is expected to present major traction to the industry growth.Requirement to fix first and run later is eliminated owing to adoption DRaaS, is expected to prominent factor propelling the market growthMitigation and preparedness in emergence of a calamity is of significant importance, as corporate data is considered as high value asset in this data driven world. According to our research findings, digital information accounts for over 50% of the companys total business value exceeding the software and IT infrastructure costs. Loss of consumer information, company and brand reputation, additional data recovery and other IT costs, and long business downtimes are among the major factors that can negatively impact the business propagation. Capacity of DRaaS to overcome these drawbacks is anticipated to be the major factor that will contribute to the disaster recovery as a service market growth. Moreover, owing to the cloud operations, these offerings provide smooth functioning of businesses through virtualization of the whole infrastructure. This enables the concept of run first and fix later capability for business functioning, which will continue to be the major growth factor over the forecast period.Ask for detailed Sample of this Research Report @Advancements to enable full data recovery in least time requirements is expected to provide considerable boost to the industry growthAccording to Coherent Market Insights research findings, hardware failures, software or upgrade installation, power loss or interruption, and accidental data deletion are among the major reasons leading to loss of data. Ability of the solutions to provide 100% recovery in matter of hours in such circumstances is expected to boost the adoption over the forecast period. Moreover, other attributes of these DRaaS include application recovery, ability to run IT systems through cloud, high resilience and security, and adherence to Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) regulations have led to increased end use participants inclinations towards these solutions. Owing to increasing adoption, it is anticipated that these disaster recovery as a service market segment will evolve as part of the sustainable platform over the forecast years.Growing security concerns and compliance requirements are expected to present major growth challenge to the industry participantsIncreasing threats from malwares and data hacking incidences are expected to consistently challenge the overall IT infrastructure developments through the forecast period. Industry participants are increasingly required to meet the distinct regional regulatory requirements and international standards such as BCI standards, HITECH, PCI, and SOC2 among many others. Moreover, flow of data across international borders have to meet with several compliance obligations and restrictions. This is expected to present major growth challenge over the forecast period.U.S. held the largest disaster recovery as a service market share in 2016, is expected to continue its dominance over the next few years owing to high adoptions and presence of reliable and chief industry participants in the region. Owing to considerable business demands in Asia Pacific, that specifically include countries as China, India, Japan and Singapore, the region is expected to witness growth over 30% CAGR during the forecast period.Chief industry participants include Acronis International, Amazon Web Services, Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, Sungard Availability Services, VMWare, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, iland Internet Solutions, and NTT Communications Corporation, among few others. Collaboration and business expansion is expected to be the part of major strategic initiatives adopted by the industry participants. For instance, in June 2017, iland introduced secure cloud services from a new location in Amsterdam to enhance its offerings for end users.Request for Customization As per your Need :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website :
Biometric Vehicle Access Market, By Vehicle Type, Authentication Type, Technology, and Region - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Biometric technology is a system, which measures the statistical analytics of any individual, based on the physiological and behavioural characteristics. It is used for the recognition of manual access by using finger prints, voice recognition, iris recognition, and others. Biometric technology benefits the vehicles, as it increases the efficiency, helps in easy tracking and strengthens the vehicles safety & security system.Increasing demand for authentication and high security are the major factors driving growth of the global biometric vehicle access marketPrivacy is the major concern regarding biometric solution resulting in the increasing demand for authentication. Vehicle theft is one of the major problems faced by the consumers due to lack of security systems in the vehicles. For instance, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the global vehicle theft, which accounted to 3.8% in 2015 increased to 7.4 % in 2016. Therefore, increasing threat of vehicle stealing is resulting in increasing demand for biometric authentication solutions in vehicles, which is a safer security solution. This factor is expected to positively influence the market growth over the forecast period.Request Sample Copy of this Report @The fingerprint recognition segment is projected to hold the largest market share in the marketThe fingerprint recognition segment witnessed largest market share in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance over the forecast period. Owing to its high reliability and uniqueness, the fingerprint recognition system is expected to account for the major share of biometric vehicle access system market. Fingerprints are unique for every individual person, as they can be distinguished. Therefore, the probabilities of fraudulence in the fingerprint recognition system is less than that in the conventional recognition, which is expected to significantly increase the use of finger print recognition systems in the biometric vehicles.Global Biometric Vehicle Access Market: Regional InsightsOn the basis of region, the global biometric vehicle access market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The market in Asia Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth rate in the biometric vehicle access market over the forecast period. China is a major contributor to the growth of biometric vehicle access market in Asia Pacific region. China is the leading country in global electric vehicle industry, which is expected to increase the growth of the market. For instance, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2016, China held the largest share in the electric car market accounting for over 40% of the global electric cars sold in the country. Increasing sales of electric vehicles is expected to increase the demand for advanced security solutions. Therefore, increasing demand for electric vehicles is projected to further boost the demand for biometric solutions in vehicles.Request for Customization of this Report @Global Biometric Vehicle Access Market: Competitive BackgroundThe major players in the global biometric vehicle access market include Safran S.A, Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Nuance Communications, Synaptics Incorporated BIODIT, Denso Corporation, EyeLock, FPC, HID Global, IriTech, KeyLemon, NEC, Olea Sensor Networks, and VOXX International Corporation.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Cocoa Nibs Market Set to Witness an Uptick during 2017-2025

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Cocoa Nibs Market: Introduction:Cocoa Nibs are simply chocolate in its purest form. Cocoa Nibs are dried and fermented bits of cocoa beans. The texture of cocoa nibs are similar to that of roasted coffee beans. Cocoa nibs have a deep chocolate flavor which can be described as slightly bitter and nutty. Raw cacao nibs are the less processed version of chocolate with no unhealthy additives, so they preserve all the nutrients of the natural cacao bean. Cacao nibs are an excellent source of antioxidants, fiber, iron and magnesium. Consumption of Cocoa nibs have several health benefits such as stabilizing blood sugar, improving insulin sensitivity, anti-depression agent, reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions.Cocoa Nibs Market: Segmentation:Cocoa Nibs market can be segmented into Nature, End Use, Application and distribution channel.On the basis of nature, Cocoa Nibs is segmented into organic and conventional. Owing to the rising demand for organic products, the value share for organic format of cocoa nibs is being anticipated to have higher value share as compared to conventional formats.On the basis of end users, Cocoa Nibs is segmented into Retail, Food Processing Industry and HORECA. There has been rise in demand for cocoa nibs from the household segment which is attributable to the health benefits associated with its consumption. Moreover the manufacturers are coming up with retail formats cocoa nibs in the market due to the rise in demand for the product. As a result, volume share of Cocoa nibs in retail sector is expected to be higher as compared to other sectors.Request for Table of Contents @On the basis of application, Cocoa Nibs can be segmented into Breakfast foods, trail mix, frozen dessert, baked goods, and others. Cocoa nibs are generally being used as sweeteners as well as toppings in frozen desserts such as yogurts, ice creams and smoothies. Due to its large scale application in frozen desserts, the segments is being expected to grow at a faster rate in terms of value sales.On the basis of distribution channel, Cocoa nibs is segmented into direct and indirect channel. The indirect channel is further sub segmented into Supermarket/Hypermarket, Convenience Store, Specialty Store and E-Retailers. Due to rise in demand for cocoa nibs from the household sectors, the volume sales for cocoa nibs in indirect channel is anticipated to be higher as compared to direct channel. Moreover, taking into account the rise in penetration level of internet in the global market, distribution through E- Retailers is expected to surge over the forecast period.Cocoa Nibs Market: Regional Outlook:The global Cocoa Nibs market has been categorized into seven key regions including North America and Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. According to stat, the ice cream and frozen desserts industry is an important sector of the U.S. dairy industry, and the U.S. has consistently ranked as a world leader in ice cream production. Market saturation for ice cream and related frozen desserts was estimated to be greater than 90 percent of all households. About 9 percent of the U.S. milk supply goes toward the production of ice cream. Moreover consumers look out for flavor oriented ice cream as well as yogurts having ingredients such fruits ingredient, cocoa chips or nibs, fruit flakes etc. Hence, due to rise in consumption rate of frozen desserts in U.S, North America is being considered as the major market for cocoa nibs.Cocoa Nibs Market: Demand Driver:Over past five years, there is rise in consumption of cocoa oriented products which is attributed to health benefits associated with the consumption of the product. Cocoa and chocolate products have recently attracted the attention of many investigators and the general consuming public because of their potential nutritional, medicinal and mystical properties. As a result, the rise in consumption rate of cocoa products help drive the demand for cocoa nibs in the global market.Request to View Sample of Research ReportCocoa Nibs Market: Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are Navitas Organics, Adam Vacon, Edica Naturals Ltd, Viva Naturals, Sunfood Corporation and others.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Dipping Oil Market foreseen to grow exponentially over 2025

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Dipping Oil Market: Introduction:Dipping Oil is one kind of an oil that is used for dipping, frying, baking as well as marinating. Dipping oil is cold pressed with the olive, a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. Dripping oil mainly consist of ingredients such as olive oil, extracts of black pepper, dried tomato, basil extracts and garlic. For maintaining its quality, dipping oil are being advised to be kept in cool dry place and away from direct sunlight. Dipping oil is famously being used in European regions specifically Italy, Greece, Morocco, Spain and other major parts of Western Europe. Dipping oil is generally being used to enhance flavor of several food products such as pastas, meat products, soups etc.Dipping Oil Market: Segmentation:Dipping Oil market can be segmented into type, applications, end users and distribution channel.On the basis of type, Dipping Oil is segmented into Mediterranean dipping oil, Sicilian dipping oil, Balsamic dipping oil, Moroccan dipping oil, Parmesan dipping oil and others (Tuscan dipping oil, Mediterranean dipping oil). Due to higher preference for Balsamic and Parmesan dipping oil, the value sales for these two types of oils is expected to surge in the forecast period.On the basis of application, Dipping Oil is segmented into salad dressings, vinaigrettes, soup & sauces, Marinades & drizzles for meat products, seafood, fast food and roasted vegetables. Usually dipping oil are used for frying or drizzling meat products and also in the preparation of salad dressings. Hence the volume share for these two is being anticipated to be higher in the dipping oil market.On the basis of end users, Dipping oil is segmented into retail and food service industry. Though there is high demand for dipping oil from both the segments, retail segment is expected to grow at a faster in terms of value sales due to higher demand for the product from the household sector.Request for Table of Contents @On the basis of distribution channel, Dipping oil is segmented into direct and indirect channel. The indirect channel is further sub segmented into Hypermarket/Supermarket, Convenience store, Specialty store and E-Retailers. Due to easy availability of the product in modern stores such as hypermarket/Supermarket, the value share for indirect channel is being anticipated to be higher as compared to direct channel. Moreover, taking into account the rise in penetration level of internet in the global market, distribution through E- Retailers is expected to surge over the forecast period.Dipping Oil Market: Regional Outlook:The global Dipping Oil market has been categorized into seven key regions including North America and Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Dipping oil has higher preference in European regions especially Italy, Morocco, Spain and the Mediterranean regions. These regions has witnessed higher consumption rate of dipping oil year-on-year. As a result, Europe has major share in the global dipping oil market in terms of value sales. Moreover North America has witnessed rise in consumption of salad dressing and meat products. Since dipping oil is being used to enhance the flavor of salad dressing and marinating meat product, North America is being tagged as the emerging market for dipping oil.Dipping Oil Market: Demand Driver:There is a rise in consumption of fast foods in developed regions such as the North America and Europe. This factor could be attributed to rise in number of working women which results in busy lifestyle adopted by these kind of consumers. As a result, consumer look out for easy and convenient way of satisfying their hunger in their daily routine. There is a rise in trend in Europe of having fresh baked bread with dipping oil which can be consumed with Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and red pepper. It is being considered one of the convenient way of satisfying hunger in ones daily hectic routine. Hence, the busy lifestyle factor can help drive the demand for dipping oil especially in European market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Dipping Oil Market: Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are McCormick & Company, Inc., Chicken Scratch LLC, AAK(UK) Limited, WINDSOR VINEYARDS, Olivier Napa Valley, Greek Mama and others.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Analysis of Hyperlocal Services Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Hyperlocal services refers to online business models that provide various products and facilities that rely on the platform of smartphones with GPS technology. The offerings include food delivery from restaurants, grocery from superstores or hypermarkets, logistic services, and home utility services such as electrical repairing, plumbing, carpentry, laundry, and personal tutors.Increased adoption of smartphones featuring internet connectivity is the prominent factor driving the industry growthAccording to GSM Association Intelligence report in October 2016, around 44% of the total smartphone users, had subscribed to internet connectivity which is projected to account for around 60% by 2020. Moreover, hyperlocal services market participants are increasingly enhancing search options and application support for better consumer experience. Proliferation of improved and secured mobile payment gateways such as, Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc. has led to significant increase in consumer confidence for the application of mobile platform for transactions. These factors are expected to provide strong industry growth prospects through the forecast period.Ask for detailed Sample of this Research Report @Large discounts on first purchase and competitive product offering costs are expected to present potential growth landscapeThe hyper local services market is characterized by the presence of large number of local players venturing for better business growth prospects. Moreover, some competitors have entered into significant private ventures offering capital investments to the start-ups for enhancing their presence through marketing and promotional activities for acquiring large consumer base. This has led to increased competition among the global and local players in the industry, in turn leading to frequent major discounts and competitive pricing strategies for consumer retention. Large savings on purchases and increased consumer convenience owing to easy accessibility to resources is expected to present solid growth prospects for hyperlocal services market.Grocery and food delivery segment dominated the global hyperlocal services market shareGrocery and food delivery segment participants perform the aggregation of local restaurants and superstores through smartphone applications and provide products on demand. This helps participants gain the trust of the local shops through online shopping. Moreover, owing to presence of large untapped potential consumer base and almost everyday requirements of foods and groceries will drive growth of these market segments.Expansion of product offerings to rural and remote locations is expected present consistent challenge over the forecast periodCatering to customers with best product quality with access to marginal profits is major challenge hindering the market growth. Increasing consumer base and business activity may also lead decline of the product quality that can result in loss of consumer retention. Industry is characterized with large number of global and local choices available in the industry, causing increased consumer volatility. Moreover, customer catering potential of these hyperlocal service market is limited to urban regions only. These factors are expected to consistently challenge the business growth of the players.Developed economies such as the U.S. and countries in Western Europe have witnessed major adoption of hyperlocal services and are leading the market in terms of revenue and consumer base. However, with the increasing proliferation of mobile devices in emerging economies such as China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for market players over the forecast period.Industry is characterized by the presence of large number of players acquiring small hyperlocal services market shares. This is expected to continue over the forecast period, however, few industry participants have gained competitive edge over other participants. These participants include GrubHub, Just-Eat, Swiggy, Delivery Hero, Foodpanda group, BOXC, Shipster, and HelloFresh Group.Request for Customization As per your Need :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website :
Sodium Cyclamate Market Estimated to Experience a Hike in Growth by 2025

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Sodium Cyclamate Market: Introduction:Sodium Cyclamate is an artificial sweetener which is 30 to 50 times sweeter than sucrose also known as table sugar. Cyclamate is the sodium or calcium salt of cyclohexanesulfamic acid which is processed by the sulfonation of cyclohexylamine. Sodium Cyclamate s less expensive than most sweeteners, including sucralose, and is stable under heating.Sodium cyclamate has several key advantages like excellent stability, tooth friendly, Synergistic with other sweeteners and it is Complementary with fruit flavors. Sodium Cyclamates approval as a sweetener has been controversial in several countries around the world. Initially Sodium Cyclamate was banned in United Kingdom but was approved with limited use level after being re-evaluated by the European Union in 1996.Sodium Cyclamate Market: Segmentation:Sodium Cyclamate market can be segmented into form, applications and end users.On the basis of form, Sodium Cyclamate is segmented into liquid, powder and granular form. Among these forms, the powder format of sodium cyclamate is being used in large scale especially in the food industry. As a result, the volume share of powder format is being anticipated to be higher as compared to other format.On the basis of application, Sodium Cyclamate is segmented into food & beverages industry, pharmaceutical industry and cosmetic industry. Food & Beverage industry is further sub segmented into seasonings and sauces, baked goods, confectionery, canned products, soft drinks. Owing to the large application of sodium cyclamate in various food products, food & beverages industry accounts to higher value sales comparatively.On the basis of end user, Sodium cyclamate is segmented into retail and industrial. Taking in account the fact that sodium cyclamate being used in large scale in the food industry, the volume sales for industrial segment is being expected to be higher as compared to the retail segment.Request for Table of Contents @On the basis of distribution channel, Sodium cyclamate is segmented into direct and indirect channel. The indirect channel is further sub segmented into hypermarket/supermarket, convenience store and E-Retailer. The distribution through direct channel is being anticipated to be higher with respect to volume sales due to the rising demand for sodium cyclamate by food processing industry.Sodium Cyclamate Market: Regional Outlook:The global Sodium Cyclamate market has been categorized into seven key regions including Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Sodium cyclamate has been controversial in terms of its use in several countries around the world. In the Philippines, sodium cyclamate was banned until the Philippine Food and Drug Administration lifted the ban in 2013, declaring it safe for consumption. Similarly In the late 1960s cyclamate was banned in the United Kingdom but was approved after being re-evaluated by the European Union in 1996.However in United States, the use of sodium cyclamate is currently been prohibited. Sodium cyclamate is being approved as sweetener in at least 130 countries. Post upliftment of ban in European nations, sodium cyclamate is being used in the production of various confectionery products in the region. It is also being used as a preferred tale top sweetener in Eastern Europe like Poland and Germany. Being a low cost sweetener, sodium cyclamate is being used in the production of food products in Asia-Pacific regions as well. Hence, the value share for Europe and Asia Pacific regions is being anticipated to be higher over the forecast period.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Sodium Cyclamate Market: Demand Driver:There are various types of sweetener used in the production of wide range of products. However most of these sweetener are being charge higher making it difficult for food manufacturer to incur cost. As a result, manufacturer look out for economical sweetener. Sodium Cyclamate are considered to be low cost sweetener which the manufacturers look out for. Moreover it is being used extensively in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors. As a result, its wide range of application helps drive the demand for sodium cyclamate in the global market.Sodium Cyclamate Market: Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are Fisher Scientific UK Ltd, Tongaat Hulett Sugar South Africa Ltd, PT. BATANG ALUM INDUSTRIE, Sigma-Aldrich, Inc, Fagron UK Limited, Fuerst Day Lawson, MCM Klosterfrau Vertriebsgesellschaft and others.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Para xylene Market Key Futuristic Trends and Competitive Analysis and Forecast To 2022

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Para xylene Market Overview:The global para xylene market is expected to grow at USD 81.02 billion by 2022 growing with the CAGR of 12.05% from 2016 to 2022. The source for producing para xylene is naphtha. Para xylene (PX), an aromatic hydrocarbon, is the source for the commercial production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), which are further used to produce polyester. The para xylene production process includes the conversion of naphtha into BTX, a mixture of benzene, xylene, and toluene, and the separation of PX by fractional crystallization. PX is an important petrochemical as its end-product polyester is used for various industrial purposes, including textile manufacturing and packaging. It also finds usage as a solvent, along with being the raw material to manufacture Di-PX and herbicides.Para xylene (PX) had witnessed a rapid growth demand from last few years due to steady demand from polyester manufactures. It is majorly used for producing PTA (Purified Terephthalic acid) and DMT (Dimethyl Terephthalate) which are used in production of polyester. In 2015, the polyesters demand reached around USD 50 million tons making it the most commonly used synthetic fiber across the globe. A small amount of Para xylene is also used as a solvent and in the production of herbicides and di-Para xylene. Rising demand for Para xylene from numerous end user industries including packaging, textiles and construction materials is significantly influencing the demand for Para xylene.Get Sample Page Para Xylene Report Link@Market Trend Growth rate:Data integration and capabilities are analyzed to support the findings and study the predicted geographical segmentations. Various key variables and regression models were considered to calculate the trajectory of para xylene market. Detailed analysis is explained and given importance to with best working models.Geographically, the segmentation is done into several key regions like North America, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. The production, consumption, revenue, shares in mill UDS, growth rate of para xylene market during the forecast period of 2016 to 2022 is well explained.The ongoing market trends of para xylene market and the key factors impacting the growth prospects are elucidated. With increase in the trend, the factors affecting the trend are mentioned with perfect reasons. Top manufactures, price, revenue, market share are explained to give a depth of idea on the competitive side.Regional Analysis:Geographically, maximum consumer of para xylene market is in Asia-Pacific followed by Europe and all of them contributes greatly in the growth of the market. North-America are facing sluggish market growth rate. Growth of para xylene market is Asia Pacific is maximum due to the growing use of PARA xylene for various applications along with macroeconomic growth of textile and plastic industry in the region.Increasing demand for polyester fiber in emerging markets of Brazil and India is anticipated to significantly influence the demand for the para xylene in the upcoming scenario. As per the Indian Chemical Industry Five Year Plan 2012-2017, the production of Para xylene is expected to reach 5.5 million tons in 2016 whereas the consumption rate is anticipated to stand at USD 4.9 million tons in 2016.Key Players:Key players of the global para xylene market are Honeywell UOP, BP, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., CNPC, S-Oil, Reliance Industries Ltd, Dragon, NPC Iran, FCFC, GS Caltex, KPPC, ONGC, Orpic, China National Offshore Oil Corporation.Reliance Industries contributes about 14% to the total Indian export it has presence in various sector. In India, Reliance is the largest producer of polyester fiber and yarn and the 5th largest producer of Para xylene.Honeywell UOP, has developed and successfully commercialized its latest breakthrough in Para xylene technology. Use of ADS-37TM adsorbent, UOPs latest adsorbent for the ParexTM Process, while carrying out a high capacity revamp, can result in a capacity increase in the range of 10 to 30% compared with operation with previous generation. The improvements associated with ADS-37TM adsorbent and high capacity revamp can be implemented quickly and at relatively lower cost.Get Browser Page Para Xylene Report Link@About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Fiber Laser Market, By Product Type, Application, and Region - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Fiber laser is a type of laser, in which the beam transfer and the laser cavity is incorporated into a solitary system inside an optical fiber. It is doped with rare-earth elements such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, thulium, praseodymium, holmium or dysprosium. Gas lasers typically use helium-neon or carbon dioxide, whereas, crystal lasers (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) are used for solid state laser in various laser operations. Fiber lasers offer advantages such as ease of use, high reliability, maintenance-free operation, high integration capability, and high stability, which are expected to be factors driving the market growth.Request Sample Copy of this Report @Increasing use of laser in the medical sector is leading to rising demand for fiber lasersDemand for fiber lasers is expected to increase significantly for application in medical surgeries including, cosmetics, hair treatment, skin diseases, laser tattoo removal, aesthetic plastic surgery, and dentistry, among others. This is due to reliable, flexible, and compact advantages offered by fiber lasers. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in 2016, the surgical procedures such as Liposuction, and Eyelid Surgery accounted for 56% of the total expenditures and non-surgical procedures accounted for 44%. Furthermore, the study also suggests that 650,000 procedures of photo-rejuvenation, a non-surgical procedure, was performed, which is around 36% higher as compared to that in 2015. Also, laser tattoo removal treatments increased up to 13% in 2016 than the previous year.Material processing held the largest share in the fiber laser market in 2016. This is due to increasing adoption of high beam quality with high energy efficiency for material processing applications such as welding, cutting, and etching and this is expected to aid in growth of this market. Extensive use of fiber lasers in industrial laser applications is expected to support fiber laser market growth. Fiber lasers are increasingly being adopted for application in barcodes and traceable labels, diamond industry, scientific research, semi-conductor industries, and 3D printing. Fiber lasers are used for marking or laser engraving process in barcodes and traceable labels application. Furthermore, semiconductor industries widely use fiber laser, to reduce the damage to the object.Global Fiber Laser Market Regional Insight:North America is expected hold the largest share in the global fiber laser market over the forecast period. This is due to high adoption of fiber lasers for application in laser operations such as cosmetic surgeries in the region. For instance, according to The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), in 2016, total number of cosmetic surgery procedures performed in the U.S. was pegged at 4,217,862, which is 17.9% of all the cosmetic surgery procedures performed, globally. This is expected to be major factor for growth of the region.Asia Pacific was the fastest growing fiber laser market in 2016. The market growth is attributed to high presence of electronics manufacturers in this region such as marking electronic epoxy, disk drive flexure welding, battery welding, and sensor welding. According to ZVEI - German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association, in 2015, electronics manufacturing sector in Asia accounted for around US$ 3.61 billion with 73% the market share in the global marketRequest For Customization of this Report @Global Fiber Laser Market Competitive Background:Key players in the global fiber laser market are TRUMPF, ROFIN-SINAR Technologies Inc., Newport Corporation., IPG Photonics Corporation, Coherent Inc., Calmar Laser Inc., AdValue Photonics, Lumentum Operations LLC, Epilog Lasers Corporation, Fujikura Ltd., Maxphotonics Co. Ltd., and Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies Co. Ltd.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
VoLTE Technology Market 2016-2022 Key Vendors by: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, KT, SK Telecom, Rogers Communication

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Market Scenario:The major growth driver of VoLTE Technology Market includes evolution of 4G LTE network, growing popularity of video conferencing and instant file transmission services by enterprises, and growing demand of efficient voice call services in telecommunication sectors among others.Hence the market for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology is expected to grow at High CAGR (2016-2022).However, high price of calls and lack of technical expertise are some of the factors which are hindering the growth of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market.Key Players: AT&T Inc. (U.S.), Verizon Wireless (U.S.), Nokia Corporation (Finland), Alcatel-Lucent (France), Ericsson (Sweden), KT Corporation (South Korea), SK Telecom Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Rogers Communication (Canada), LG Uplus Corporation (South Korea), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China).Request a Sample Report @Segments:Global VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market can be segmented as follows:Segmentation by Device: Smartphones, Tablets/Laptops, Routers, and Wireless modem among others.Segmentation by Technology: Voice over IP Multimedia subsystems (VoIMS), Circuit switch fall back (CSFB), Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC), and Simultaneous voice & LTE (SVLTE) among others.Regional Analysis of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market:North America is dominating the Global VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market with the largest market share in the region, and therefore accounting for high million and is expected to grow over high billion by 2022. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market in Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at CAGR from high million in 2016 to high million by 2022. The Europe market for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market is expected to grow at high CAGR (2016-2022).Industry News:AT&T has announced in August 2016 that it is working with global leaders of technology such as Ericsson, Nokia Corporation, Samsung, Qualcomm Technologies, for faster deployment of 5G technologies.Roger communication has launched Voice over LTE technology in Year 2015 cross Canada to provide fast and clear video calling services to its customers.Access Report Details @VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology is based on LTE network architecture which allows users to do call over high speed data connection by keeping data connection active during the call. Growingpenetration of smartphone market and growing radio spectrum traffic over the network is making operators to invest more in broadband networks which is thus creating need of availability of better network technology in the market such as voice over LTE technology market.The report for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Target Audience: Research Organizations Education institutes Media Web service providers Telecom industries Resellers and Distributors Government AgenciesObjective Study of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To Analyze the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology Market based on various factors- porters five force analysis, mega trend analysis, macroeconomic indicators etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by device, by technology, and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Technology 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), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +91 841 198 5042Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Industrial Revolution - Cubitainers Market Will Drive Packaging Industry by 2026

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Global Cubitainers Market- OverviewCubitainer is the highly preferred packaging solution for liquid products. Plastic cubitainers are being used on a large scale across the globe due to its lightweight and 100% recyclable quality. Cubitainers protect the product from gases, odor, bacteria and moisture. The market for cubitainers is anticipated to witness growth in the coming years. Its eco-friendly nature and reusability are also contributing towards the market growth.With the industrial revolution, manufacturers are focusing on including smart manufacturing processes, artificial intelligence, robotics, and internet of Things (IoT). Changing lifestyle and food habits is resulting in the increasing use of packed liquid foods, thereby driving the demand for cubitainers. There have been a number of regulatory programs introduced globally to reduce use and disposal of various packaging materials. Hence, research is being conducted by leading players to use eco-friendly packaging material.Get the sample copy of report:Global Cubitainers Market- Research MethodologyThe report on the global cubitainers market includes an overview of the market, analyzes global market trends, and includes key market segments. The report also covers strategies employed by the leading market players. It also offers profiles of the leading players in the market. The report also provides current market scenario and growth prospects of the global market along with the market size, revenue generated, CAGR, year-on-year growth, etc. The report has been prepared on the basis of in-depth market research. Both primary and secondary research was conducted to offer key insights on the market. Primary research included important inputs from industry experts. While the secondary research included data from annual and financial reports and investors presentation.The report comprises of qualitative and quantitative data based on the micro and macro-economic factors. The report also provides details on the market dynamics including major trends, market drivers, opportunities in the market and factors hampering market growth. Porters five force analysis and SWOT analysis was also done to provide in-depth information on the market. Market attractiveness analysis was also done to help in identifying opportunities and make investments accordingly. Absolute dollar opportunity is also given in the report as it is considered to be an important factor identifying market growth.The report also includes a discussion on the leading players in the market. In order to provide a clear picture of the leading companies, the report offers company overview, financial overview, latest developments, key strategies including both long-term and short-term, and product portfolio. The report also comprises information on various regulations, advancements in technology, and new techniques adopted by the leading players in the global cubitainers market.Request for complete report TOC :Global Cubitainers Market- SegmentationThe global cubitainers market is segmented on the basis of material type, capacity type, end users, and region. By material type, the market segment includes Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). On the basis of capacity, the segmentation includes 1 liter, 3 liter, 10 liters, 16 liters, and 20 liters. By end users, the market is segmented into food & beverage industry, chemical industry and pharmaceutical industry.The global market for cubitainers segmented on the basis of region includes Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), North America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America.Global Cubitainers Market- Leading CompaniesThe report also comprises details on the leading market players in the global cubitainers market such as Zacros America, Changshun Plastic Co. Ltd, ChangZhou HengQi Plastic Co. Ltd, The Cary Company, Changzhou Sanjie Plastic Products Co., Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Avantor Performance Materials, Inc., Quality Environmental Containers, Cole-Parmer, and Berlin Packaging.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 Biological Seed Treatment Market Outlook and Growth Forecast during 2017-2026

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A latest research report titled as Biological Seed Treatment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2026 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 contents.Click to Get Free Sample Report @Increasing impact of unfavorable farming conditions on the global agricultural production has weighed down the production of food items and beverages. To avoid famines and starvation, farmers are partnering with leading agricultural research organizations and adopting biological seed treatment options. From insects and insecticides to rare plant diseases, biological seed treatment is witnessing higher adoption for its advantage in enabling the crop to fight such deterrents. In addition, proliferation of sustainable agricultural practices has driven the adoption of biological seed treatment, particularly among government-controlled farming communities. Farmers are demand an early evaluation of field performance to understand the treatment specification of their crop profile.Transparency Market Research has developed an exclusive forecast study, which weighs the impact of such trends and factors on the expansion of the global biological seed treatment market. The report estimates that by the end of 2026, around US$ 715 Mn worth of biological seed treatment will be adopted across the globe. The report further projects that the global biological seed treatment market will expand robustly at a CAGR of 10.2% over the forecast period, 2017-2026. The report also observes North America as the largest and the fastest-growing market for biological seed treatment. By the end of 2026, North Americas biological seed treatment market is pegged to touch valuation of US$ 306 Mn.Demand for Biological Seed Treatment against Bacteria to Register an UpsurgeThe report reveals that by the end of 2026, majority of biological seed treatments adopted across the globe will be directed to protect the seeds from bacterial intervention. Growing vulnerabilities of seeds towards bacterial attacks has driven the adoption of biological seed treatments against bacteria. By the end of 2026, over US$ 300 Mn worth of biological seed treatment will be adopted globally for treating the seeds with bacterial resistance. The report also reveals that the fungi-type and botanical-type biological seed treatment will reflect healthy revenue growth at 11% CAGR over the forecast period.View Full Report with TOC @Biological Treatment of Corn Seeds to Gain TractionIn 2018 and beyond, corn will remain a key type of crop in the global biological seed treatment market. Biological treatment of corn seeds is expected to bring in more than US$ 305 Mn revenues by the end of 2026. Extensive use of corn in production of multiple food products is expected to drive its demand during the forecast period. The report also reveals that biological seed treatment of cash crops such as cotton will be highly prioritized by market players in order to reap high profit growth. The report also reveals that by the end of 2026, majority of biological seed treatments will serve the function of biostimulants, raking in revenues worth nearly US$ 240 Mn from around the world.Key StakeholdersThe report has identified leading market players, which include companies namely, Syngenta AG, Bayer CropScience, BASF SE, Monsanto Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, INCOTEC Group BV, Koppert B.V., Italpollina SpA, Precision Laboratories, Inc., Plant Health Care, Inc., Valent Biosciences Corporation, and Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC. In the foreseeable future, several companies in the global biological seed treatment market are expected to witness a growing adoption of advanced seed coating technologies. New biological seed treatment options will enter the market, and companies will focus on extending their function as growth regulators and biological nutrient enhancers.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:
Rotogravure Printing Machine Market Outlook, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017 - 2025

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Global Rotogravure Printing Machine Market: OverviewThis report provides forecast and analysis of the rotogravure printing machine market on global level. It provides actual data of 2016 along with estimated data of 2017, and forecast data up to 2025 in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (units). The report also includes macroeconomic indicators along with an outlook on rotogravure printing machine consumption pattern across the globe. It includes drivers and restraints of the global rotogravure printing machine market and their impact on each region during the forecast period. The report also comprises the study of current issues with end users and opportunities for rotogravure printing machine manufacturers. It also includes value chain analysis.In order to provide users of this report with comprehensive view of the market, we have included detailed competitiveness analysis and company players with their SWOT analysis and strategy overview. The dashboard provides detailed comparison of rotogravure printing machine manufacturers on parameters such as operating margin, total revenue, product portfolio, and what we call innovation scale. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis by number of colors type, automation type, ink, substrate, ink and end use industry and by region.Request for sample copy of this report:Global Rotogravure Printing Machine Market: Scope of the StudyThe report includes consumption of rotogravure printing machine and the revenue generated from sales of rotogravure printing machine across the globe and key countries. By no of colors type, rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into less than 2 colors, 2 colors-5 colors, 6 colors-8 colors, more than 8 colors. By automation type, rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into automatic rotogravure printing machine and manual rotogravure printing machine. By drying source, rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into electrical, thermal fluid and gas. By substrate, rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into Plastic, aluminum foil, paper & paperboard. By ink, rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into solvent, water and radiation. By end use industry rotogravure printing machine market is segmented into publishing and packaging. Publishing segment is further sub segmented into newspaper and security printing. Packaging segment is further sub segmented into Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Consumer goods, Industrial and Others.Global Rotogravure Printing Machine Market: Research MethodologyMarket numbers have been estimated based on extensive secondary and primary research, average pricing of rotogravure printing machine by no of colors type and the revenue is derived through regional pricing trends. Market size and forecast for each segment have been provided in the context of global and regional markets. The rotogravure printing machine market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Prices considered for the calculation of revenue are average regional prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional rotogravure printing machine manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. All key end users have been considered and potential applications have been estimated on the basis of secondary sources and feedback from primary respondents. Country demand patterns have been considered while estimating the market for various end users of rotogravure printing machine in the different regions. Bottom-up approach has been used to estimate the rotogravure printing machine market by regions. Global market numbers by number of colors type, automation type, drying source, substrate, ink and end use industry have been derived using the bottom-up approach, which is cumulative of each countrys demand. The same has also been validated from top-down approach. Company-level market share has been derived on the basis of revenues reported by key manufacturers. The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates.Request for complete report TOC @A number of primary and secondary sources were consulted during the course of the study. Secondary sources include Factiva, FAO, Packaging Digest, and Hoovers, and company annual reports and publications.Companies Mentioned in ReportThe report provides detailed competitive and company profiles of key participants operating in the Global market. Key Players of the rotogravure printing machine market are J M Heaford Ltd, Bobst Group SA., Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corporation, Comexi Group S.L. DCM-ATN, KKA Gmbh, ROTATEK S.A, Uteco Converting SpA, Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd., Hsing Wei Machine Industry CO.LTD, QUEEN'S MACHINERY CO., LTD, Pelican Rotoflex Pvt Ltd., HYPLAS MACHINERY CO LTD, Fuji Kikai Kogyo Co Ltd, Weijin Machinery Industry Co. Ltd, Jiangyin Lida Printing & Packaging Machinery Co.Ltd, Officine Meccaniche Giovanni Cerutti SpA.Rotogravure printing machine market segmentation is belowBy No of Colors TypeLess than 2 colors2-5 Colors6-8 ColorsGreater than 8 ColorsBy Automation ModeAutomatic Rotogravure Printing MachineMannual Rotogravure Printing MachineBy Drying SourceElectricalThermal FluidGasBy SubstratePlasticAluminium FoilPaper & PaperboardBy InkSolvent InkWater InkRadiation InkBy End-UsePublishingNewspaperSecurity PrintingPackagingFood & BeveragesPharmaceuticalsConsumer GoodsIndustrialOthersBy RegionNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)Middle East & Africa (MEA)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
Whipping Agent Market is likely to register double digit CAGR during 2017-2025

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Whipping Agent Market: Introduction:Whipping agent is one kind of food ingredient that helps to enhance the taste and texture of various kind of convenient products and frozen desserts which includes flavored cakes, pastries and ice creams. Volume, texture and mouth feel are the key factors in the end consumers enjoyment of an appealing dessert. And whipping agent has those characteristics that can make the dessert look much more creamy and catchy. Along with these significant characteristics, whipping agent provides excellent melting properties, delivery of fast and reliable aeration and foam stability. Whipping agent are available both in retail and commercial sectors.Whipping Agent Market: Segmentation:Whipping Agent market can be segmented into Application, End User and distribution.On the basis of Application, Whipping Agent is segmented into Frozen Desserts, Ice creams, Cakes, Confectionery, Juice Concentrates, Smoothies and others (Sherbat or Sherbet).Owing to the large scale application of whipping agent in the production of pastries, cakes and ice creams, the value share for Ice creams and cakes is being anticipated to be higher as compared to other products.On the basis of end user, Whipping Agent is segmented into HORECA, Food processing and Retail. Taking into account, rise in demand for whipping agent in HORECA and food processing sectors, the volume sales for whipping agent in these two sectors is expected to rise in the forecast period.On the basis of distribution, the Whipping Agent can be segmented into direct and indirect channel. The indirect channel is further segmented into Supermarket/Hypermarket, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores and E-Retailers. Due to the increasing demand for whipping agent from the HORECA sector, the growth rate is being expected to be higher in terms of volume sales.Request for Table of Contents @Whipping Agent Market: Regional Outlook:The global Whipping Agent market has been categorized into seven key regions including North America and Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. According to recent stats, New Zealand leads the world in ice cream consumption of 28.4 liters per year. The country is renowned for the high standard of its dairy products. United States is another country having the second largest consumption of Ice cream annually i.e. 20.8 liters per year.Pastries is the fastest growing category among the baked goods. Asia Pacific and Latin America regions witnessed increased product innovation and penetration for pastries in the global market. Since whipping agent is being used as a prime ingredient in pastries and ice creams, Asia Pacific and North America is being considered as the major market of whipping agent owing to the large scale consumption of these kind of products. Due to the rise in demand for frozen desserts in MEA region especially in the GCC countries, the region is being tagged as the emerging market for whipping agent.Whipping Agent Market: Demand Driver:The Millennial population has been on the rise globally. Countries like India, United States, China, and United Kingdom have been known for having larger population of millennial demography. Owing to the busy lifestyle adopted and more and more women entering the workforce sectors has leads to rise in demand for frozen foods and desserts. The millennial population has witnessed higher rate of consumption for frozen desserts in their daily routine. Hence due to the rising demand for frozen desserts such as ice creams, pastries and cakes from the millennial population, helps drive the demand for whipping agent in the global market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Whipping Agent Market: Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are BASF SE, Avril Group(Oelon), Univar Inc., Lake Foods, Meggle Foods, Royal FrieslandCampina(Kevit), Acatris, Ingrizo NV, Ingredion Inc. and others.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Enterprise Resource Planning Market, by Deployment, ERP Function, Verticals, End User, and Geography - Global Industry Insights, Trends, and Opportunity Analysis, 2015-2025

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Enterprise resource planning or ERP is a software that enable organizations to integrate their application systems along with the ERP, which help them to manage core business. An ERP software combines all processes that are associated with some particular operation. These processes could be product development, planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. The technology therefore enables a business to function smoothly and automate its core operations.Increasing competition among the enterprise is one of major factor driving growth of the marketThe ERP systems solve a number of challenges and provides invaluable benefits to the enterprises in terms of reducing costs, manage growth, streamline processes, and gain a competitive advantage. The ERP software provides the right way to manage the business growth and maximize their profit margins. As the ERP software works on real insights, which helps in delivering accurate and real-time information, which required a little customization instead of excessive customization. Therefore, ERP software guides the organizations to manage the changes, which help them to remain competitive in the market, which in turn is fuelling growth of ERP software market.The large enterprises segment held the largest market share in 2017 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In large enterprises, it become difficult for the companies to maintain data base for all department. The ERP tools help business by offering integrated platform for all process, providing quick access to the information within the department by maintaining uniqueness. Hence this advantage have driven the ERP market.Request Sample Copy of this Report @Enterprise Resource Planning: Regional InsightsOn the basis of geography, global enterprise resource planning market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The U.S. is early adopter of advanced technologies. Rapid technological advancement in ERP software coupled with presence of numerous market players is expected to enhance the growth of market over the forecast period.However, APAC also show the potential growth opportunities in the ERP software market during the forecasted period. Due to the increase in number of SMEs turned to hosted ERP solutions to efficiently manage their business processes, particularly in developing countries such as India, China, and Singapore.Request For Customization of this Report @Enterprise Resource Planning: Competitive BackgroundMajor player operating in enterprise resource planning market include Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation., SAP, Infor, Sage, Netsuite Inc., SYSPRO, Epicor Software Company, and Daffodil Software Ltd.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Wire and Cable Management Market to Garner Staggering Revenues by 2025

Wire and Cable Management Market

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The qualitative research study conducted by HTF MI titled Global Wire and Cable Management Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 provides primary Data, surveys, Scope of the Product and vendor briefings. The market dynamic forces have been determined after conducting a detailed study of the Global Wire and Cable Management market. The study provides forecasts for Wire and Cable Management investments till 2022.If you are involved in the Wire and Cable Management industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It offers a consequential analysis of the Wire and Cable Management company, key tactics followed by leading manufactures and trending segments.Get the inside scoop of the Sample report @:The research study is segmented by Types [Power Cable & Communication Wire & Cable] as well as Key Applications [Trays & Ladders, Raceway, Connectors, Ties & Conduit] with historical and projected market share along with the growth rate, revenue figures and gross profit margin in tabular format which makes easy to understand product/service differences, market concentration rate and product distribution for past 5 years.Major geographical regions like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and leading players such as Legrand (France), Eaton (Ireland), Hellermann Tyton (England), Atkore (US), Panduit (US) & Obo Bettermann (Germany) involved in this report. The report gives a clear idea about the growth factors, reasons for deterioration of Global Wire and Cable Management in recent years and different opportunities and strategies to expand market.Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports. Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.Each player highlighted in the research study contains companies Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors, in-depth business overview, geographic footprint and contact information. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to SWOT Analysis.Buy this research @Reasons to Buy:- What will be the market size in 2022 and at what rate will it grow?- What growth potential do Wire and Cable Management market have?- Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies.- Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage.- Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic.- Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and its most promising contributions.- New Development and identify prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scope.- Influential factors that are thriving demand and constraints in the market.To add, value to product and services research report comprises of valuable insights with distinguishable traits that influence consumers behavior and demand. The report offers a measurable and verifiable method made towards analysis of market concentration, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Some of the key questions answered in this report:- Detailed Overview of Global Wire and Cable Management market helps deliver clients and businesses making strategies.- Influential factors that are thriving demand and constraints in the market.- What is the market concentration? Is it fragmented or highly concentrated?- What trends, challenges and barriers will impact the development and sizing of Wire and Cable Management market?- SWOT Analysis of each key player mentioned along with its company profile.- What growth momentum or acceleration market carries during the forecast period?- Which region is going to tap highest market share in future?- What Application/end-user category or Product Type may see incremental growth prospects?- What focused approach and constraints are holding the market tight?Any Query or Specific Requirement? Ask to our Expert @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Wire and Cable Management marketChapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Wire and Cable Management, Applications of Wire and Cable Management, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Rate, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, Export & Import, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Wire and Cable Management Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Wire and Cable Management Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Trays & Ladders, Raceway, Connectors, Ties & Conduit]) & Type [Power Cable & Communication Wire & Cable] Major Manufacturers Analysis of Wire and Cable Management;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Power Cable & Communication Wire & Cable], Market Trend by Application Trays & Ladders, Raceway, Connectors, Ties & Conduit;Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Wire and Cable Management;Chapter 12, to describe Wire and Cable Management Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Wire and Cable Management sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.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
Air Quality Monitoring Software Market: Development Factors, Key Players, Regional Analysis, Applications and Forecasts By 2024

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A recent report published by Infinium Global Research on air quality monitoring software market provides in depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in global as well as regional markets of air quality monitoring software market. The study also highlights the impact of drivers, restraints and macro indicators on the global and regional markets of air quality monitoring software over the short term as well as long term. The report is a comprehensive presentation of trends, forecast and dollar values of global air quality monitoring software market. According to report the global air quality monitoring software market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% over the forecast period of 2018 - 2024.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on global air quality monitoring software market covers segments such as application, and end-user. The application segments include indoor application, and outdoor application. On the basis of end-user the global air quality monitoring software market is categorized into government agencies and research institutes, industries, commercial bodies, urban air quality monitoring agencies, and others (residential buildings, and old age homes, and small infrastructure).Geographic CoverageThe report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2016  2024. The countries covered in the North America region include the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; while Asia-Pacific includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, Malaysia and among others. Moreover, European region covers countries such as Germany, UK, France, Spain, and rest of Europe. The U.S. drives the growth in the North America region as it is the largest market in the region. The Asia-pacific region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as India and China.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global air quality monitoring software market such as, Environnement S.A, Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, Robert Bosch GmbH, 3M Company, Horiba, Ltd., Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants Ltd, OPSIS AB, Aeroqual Limited, Lakes Environmental Software, and Kisters AG.For More Enquiry on This Report:Report Highlights:The report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends and micro and macro indicators. In addition, this report provides insights on the factors that are driving and restraining the global air quality monitoring software market. Moreover, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider. The report provides insights into the market using analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis and DRO analysis of air quality monitoring software market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2018 to 2024. We also have highlighted future trends in the air quality monitoring software market that will impact the demand during the forecast period. Moreover, the competitive analysis given in each regional market brings an insight on the market share of the leading players. Additionally, the analysis highlights rise and fall in the market shares of the key players in the market. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the air quality monitoring software market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategiesAbout UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.com
Tuberculosis Biomarkers Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Review 2017 to 2027

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To study the market for Tuberculosis Biomarkers in a precise manner, Fact.MR has included a new research report. The report is titled Tuberculosis Biomarkers Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Review 2018 to 2027, which enlightens the readers about the market share as well as growth rate during the period 2018-2027. The research study estimates that the Tuberculosis Biomarkers manufacturing sector would be rising with a positive CAGR during the same stated forecast period.Request TOC of this Report-Tuberculosis is a major dilemma in low and middle- income countries, accounting for second leading cause of death from an infectious disease, globally. The diagnosis of tuberculosis is crucial for controlling the disease. Biomarkers are biological markers which measure and asses as an indicator of normal biological states, pathogenic process, pharmacological responses and future disease risk of patients. The tuberculosis biomarkers can help classify patients at a single time point having active tuberculosis, latent M. tuberculosis or no diseases. In addition, these biomarkers have potential to predict future reactivation risk, support monitoring of the diseases and support in development of new drugs for tuberculosis. Scientists are exploring more about the tuberculosis biomarkers for accurate, cost effective and rapid diagnostic assay for better predictive of tuberculosis treatment outcome. In 2015, Spring Meeting of the Biomarkers and Correlates Working Group (BCWG), tuberculosis experts from around the world, discussed and made recommendations for the TB vaccine community regarding the studies needed to better define biomarkers or correlates for risk of TB infection or disease. Furthermore, there has been an increase in investment of tuberculosis research which have help address shortcomings in tuberculosis biomarkers research and development. For instance, in 2012 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $7.7 million funding for 10 new grants to identify biomarkers for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB). Thus, increase in investment and rising research and development activities associated with the tuberculosis biomarkers is anticipated to create new opportunities for the market, during the forecast periodTuberculosis biomarkers Market: Drivers and RestraintsTuberculosis biomarkers market primarily driven by a key factors such as the increasing incidence of tuberculosis. According to the WHO, in 2016 approximately 1.7 million people were dead and 10.4 million new cases were reported, worldwide. The introduction of newer tuberculosis biomarkers is expected to play a crucial role in helping scientist in the characterization and selection of suitable treatment strategies. For instance, in 2016 scientist from Oxford University identified new biomarkers for Tuberculosis (TB) which will provide valuable clues to assess whether potential new vaccines could be effective. The antigen detection technology and biomarkers discovery strategies are rapidly evolving, which is expected to fuel the Tuberculosis biomarkers market growth. Increasing awareness among doctors, patients and technicians in the developing countries would help in promoting the growth of market. However, more chances of experimental failure, ethical issues associated with the tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, huge investment, time consumption, low validation and independent confirmation of biomarkers limits further development of tuberculosis biomarkers market.There is no evidence based results showing the best way to treat osteonecrosis and it acts as a restraint in the growth of the Tuberculosis biomarkers marketBrowse Report-Tuberculosis Biomarkers Market: SegmentationSegmentation based on TypeImmune response-based testsSerologic and antigenic biomarkersNAATOthersSegmentation based on End UserResearch InstitutesDiagnostic laboratoriesPharmaceutical IndustryGovernment InstitutesSegmentation by ApplicationDrug Discovery and Research / Clinical TrailsDiagnosticsDisease PrognosisTuberculosis biomarkers Market: Market OverviewThe global tuberculosis biomarkers market is expected to expand due to increasing rising healthcare burden of tuberculosis among different age groups. Tuberculosis biomarkers market has a presence of many regional players which have a huge market share in emerging countries operating at regional or country level. The future of tuberculosis biomarkers market anticipated with double CAGR during forecasting period. Biologic drug industry is investing on R&D and the key players are focusing on increasing their production capacity for tuberculosis biomarkers.Tuberculosis biomarkers Market: Region-Wise OverviewGlobal tuberculosis biomarkers market segmented into following regions North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East and Africa. North America holds significant market share in the global tuberculosis biomarkers mainly due to the well-established players. The emerging regions in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa holds promising future for rise in tuberculosis biomarker market, due to increase in awareness towards the tuberculosis and increase in population simultaneously. In developing economies such as India and China, new industry players are trying to establish their market presence by developing the generic version of the biomarker, through contract research organizations. This is expected to support in reduction in the manufacturing cost for the company and other production related cost.Tuberculosis biomarkers Market: Key ParticipantsKey players in the tuberculosis biomarkers market are Antrum Biotech, QIAGEN, Thermo Fisher Scientific, QuantuMDx, bioMerieux, Abbott, Rapid Biosensor Systems Ltd, GlobalBio Diagnostics Corp., Danaher Corporation, Alere Inc and Cisbio Bioassays.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also includes projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application, and industry.Pre-book Global Tuberculosis Biomarkers Market Forecast Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:
Wireless Power Receiver Market 2016 Comprehensive Research Study, Opportunity Analysis, Future Estimations, Industry Set for Rapid Growth and Trends by Forecast 2022

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Global Wireless Power Receiver Information, By Technology (Inductive Coupling, Capacitive Coupling), By Application (Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial) - Forecast 2016-2022Market Scenario:World is changing, and due to the technological advancement, new products are coming into picture every day. Wireless Power Receiver Market is a product which helps to receive the power for a product wirelessly. The most relevant example for wireless power receiver are Galaxy S6 smartphone and Apple Smart Watch.These products are designed in such a way that it can help to transmit the electric energy without any wires or cables. Growing smartphone industry and increasing consumer awareness are few factors which is driving the market of Wireless Power Receivers. Global Wireless Power Receiver Market has been valued at US high million in the year 2015 and as the shipments around the world for the end products are increasing, it is expected that market will reach the market size of US high million by the end of forecasted period.Request a Sample Report @Key Players for Wireless Power Receiver Market: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (South Korea), Texas Instruments Inc. (U.S.), Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (U.S.), NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands), Powermat Technologies Ltd (Israel), WiTricity Corporation (U.S.), PowerbyProxi (New Zealand), Qualcomm Inc. (U.S.), TDK Corporation (Japan), Convenient Power HK Limited (China).Segments:Global Wireless Power Receiver market has been segmented on the basis of Technology includes- Inductive coupling, Capacitive coupling and others. On the basis of application, the market has been segmented as Consumer Electronics which includes- Smartphones, Tablets, Wearable Devices, Others, Healthcare, Automotive, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial among others.Regional Analysis of Wireless Power Receiver Market:Globally, Asia Pacific holds largest market share.North America is the second largest market for Wireless Power Receivers with market size of US high million in the year 2015 and expected to be the second biggest market by the end of year 2022.Europe Wireless Power Receiver market is expected to grow with CAGR high.Access Report Details @Intended Audience Smartphone Manufactures Battery Manufacturers Technology Providers Wireless Charger Manufactures Chip Manufacturers Wireless Charger SuppliersStudy Objectives of Wireless Power Receiver Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Wireless Power Receiver Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Wireless Power Receiver market based on various factors- supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by technology, by applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Wireless Power Receiver Market1 MARKET INTRODUCTION1.1 INTRODUCTION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.3 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:1.3.1 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGY1.3.2 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET: BY APPLICATION2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH2.4 FORECAST MODEL2.4.1 MARKET DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS & FORECAST2.4.2 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION2.4.3 MARKET CRACKDOWN & DATA TRIANGULATION3 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET: OVERVIEW3.1 INTRODUCTION3.1.1 DEFINITION3.1.2 MARKET SEGMENTATION OF WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKETContinue...List Of TablesTABLE 1 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGYTABLE 2 GLOBAL INDUCTIVE COUPLING MARKET, BY REGIONTABLE 3 GLOBAL CAPACITIVE COUPLING MARKET, BY REGIONTABLE 4 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET, BY APPLICATIONTABLE 5 GLOBAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MARKET, BY REGIONContinue...List Of FiguresFIGURE 1 RESEARCH PROCESSFIGURE 3 GLOBAL WIRELESS POWER RECEIVER MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGYFIGURE 4 GLOBAL INDUCTIVE COUPLING MARKET: BY REGION (%)FIGURE 5 GLOBAL CAPACITIVE COUPLING MARKET: BY REGION (%)Continue...About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application,Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +91 841 198 5042Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Automotive Smart Display Market 2018 - Magna International Inc., LG Display Co. Ltd., Valeo SA

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Automotive Smart Display Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Automotive Smart Display Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Automotive Smart Display on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Automotive Smart Display performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Automotive Smart Display Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Automotive Smart Display Market. The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Automotive Smart Display Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Automotive Smart Display. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Automotive Smart Display Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportRobert Bosch GmbHPanasonic CorporationContinental AGDenso CorporationMagna International Inc.LG Display Co. Ltd.Valeo SADelphi Automotive PLCKyocera Display CorporationYazaki CorporationAU Optronics CorporationJapan Display Inc.Pioneer CorporationVisteon CorporationAlpine ElectronicsNippon Seiki Co. Ltd.The competitive landscape of the global market for Automotive Smart Display is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Automotive Smart Display Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Automotive Smart Display Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Automotive Smart Display Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Automotive Smart Display production volume, data pertaining to demand and Automotive Smart Display supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Automotive Smart Display along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Automotive Smart Display across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Needle Coke Market Technological Advancements Benefit & Key Players by Regions 2025 - Phillips 66, JXTG Holdings, Inc., Seadrift Coke LP, C-Chem CO., LTD.

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Needle Coke Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Needle Coke Market: OverviewNeedle Coke is a premium grade, high-value, petroleum coke employed in the manufacture of graphite electrodes of very low thermal expansion coefficient for the electric arc furnaces in the steel industry. Only a few companies in the world manufacture needle coke. Production of needle coke involves specific feedstocks, coking environments, and calcination settings. The hardware components employed are similar to that of conventional delayed coker unit. Any heavier streams in the refinery and particularly with low sulfur content are considered as the feed, depending on the type of hydrocarbon molecules present.The Asia Pacific region is estimated to hold a significant share of the needle coke market due to the rise in demand for steel and increased mining activities in China and India. The market in North America is anticipated to expand at a considerable pace during the forecast period due to higher demand for needle coke from India, China and other countries in Asia for superior needle coke in steel production including Russia. Needle coke has a direct impact on determining the prices of graphite since there is a direct correlation between steel production through EAF and graphite prices. Needle coke is majorly petroleum derived, and hence, prices can fluctuate significantly as its oligopolistic in nature.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Needle Coke Market: Research MethodologyPrimary research represented the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunitiesSecondary research sources which were typically referred to, but are not limited to, include: company websites, annual reports, financial reports, internal and external proprietary databases as well as relevant patent and regulatory database, national government documents, market reports, news articles, press releases, industry magazines, webcasts specific to companies operating in the market, and regulatory databases such as Factiva and Bloomberg, national government documents, statistical databases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the Needle Coke market.We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with mining industry participants and commentators to validate data and analysis. Primary and secondary research were conducted to understand and arrive at trends, which were employed to carry out forecasts for the needle coke market. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis, teams expertise and market understanding.Global Needle Coke Market: Competitive LandscapeKey major players operating in the needle coke market include Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Phillips 66, JXTG Holdings, Inc., Seadrift Coke LP, C-Chem CO., LTD., PETROLEUM COKE INDUSTRIES CO. (K.S.C), Baotailong New Material Co., Ltd., Bao-steel Group, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited, Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical Co Ltd., Sinosteel Anshan Research Institute of Thermo-Energy Co., Ltd., Petrochina International Jinzhou Petrochemical Co., Ltd., and Shijiazhuang Deli Chemical Co.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @1.Preface1.1. Market Definition and Scope1.2. Market Segmentation1.3. Key Research Objectives1.4. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary : Global Needle Coke Market3.1. Global Needle Coke Market Size, US$ Mn, 2016-20254. Market Overview4.1. Introduction4.1.1. Needle Coke Market Definition4.1.2. Industry Developments4.2. Key Market Indicators4.3. Market Dynamics4.3.1. Drivers4.3.2. Restraints4.3.3. Opportunity4.4. Porters Five Force Analysis4.5. Value Chain Analysis4.5.1. List of Key Raw Material Suppliers4.5.2. List of Key ManufacturersAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @
Automotive Radiator Market: Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Market Via In-Depth Qualitative Insights

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A radiator is a component meant for cooling the internal combustion engine in automobiles, locomotives, aircrafts and motorcycles. Internal combustion engine is cooled by introducing a liquid know as engine coolant through the engine block where it gets heated and then through a radiator where it loses heat to the outside atmosphere. After losing heat, the engine coolant is returned to the engine. Engine coolant are generally water based but can also be in the oil form.There are two types of radiators such as cross flow and down flow. Both these types of radiators have lower and upper tubes, which are used to antifreeze the coolant and circulate the radiator fluid in the cooling system of automobiles. Hot radiator fluid enters the upper tube of the system and crosses through a number of smaller and thinner tubes where it is cooled by cooler air and returned back to the automobiles engine through lower tube of the system.Obtain Report DetailsThe vital difference between a cross flow and down flow radiator is the location of the tank of the radiators where the antifreeze coolant is stored. A down flow radiator has its tank located above and below the radiator core. A cross flow radiator has its tanks located on the sides of the radiator core, where it cycles across the radiator core side to side. Aluminum, brass and copper are the three major materials used for the manufacturing of a radiator.In the past 20 years, aluminum was the most used material for radiators. However, aluminum are prone to pin-hole corrosion and expensive to repair. Therefore, copper and brass radiators, which are lighter, stronger and more durable than aluminum are finding more application in radiators as compared to aluminum.Download PDF Brochure For Future AdvancementsThe automotive radiator market can be classified by type, by material, by application and by geography. The type segment can be classified into cross flow and down flow. By material, the market can be bifurcated into aluminum, copper and brass. By application, the market can be segregated as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles. By geography, the market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.Rising trend of engine downsizing for better fuel efficiency and performance is a major driving factor for the global automotive radiator market. In addition, stringent emission norms and automobile standards across the world are encouraging the use of environment friendly radiators in automobiles. Moreover, increasing production of vehicles and rising private equity investments in automotive radiator manufacturing companies is also set to bolster the growth of this market globally. In terms of market revenue share, Asia Pacific is expected to hold the largest share by the end of forecast period followed by Europe, North America, Latin America and, Middle East and Africa.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and TablesThe report also provides company market share analysis of the various industry participants. Acquisition is the main strategy being widely followed by leading market players. In case of an acquisition, the acquirer takes advantage of existing synergies. As a result, both companies are expected to emerge more profitable and stronger than before. Key players in the global automotive radiator market have been profiled and their company overview, financial overview, business strategies and recent developments have been covered in the report.Major market participants profiled in this report include: Denso Corporation, Behr GmbH &Co.KG., Dongfeng Radiator Co., Ltd., Delphi Automotive plc, Visteon Corp., Modine Manufacturing Co., Calsonic Kansei Corp., Valeo SA, Faret International Holdings Limited, Guangdong Faret Auto Radiator Co., Ltd., Anhui Fengyang Radiator Co., Ltd, Keihin Corp., Shandong Houfeng Group, Sanden Corp., Yonghong Radiator Company and Tianjin Auto radiator Co., Ltd., among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Connected Agriculture Market to Witness a Healthy Y-o-Y Growth during 2017-2025

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Many people are depending upon agriculture for their livelihood. There are many smallholder farmers are facing problems due to poverty, literacy and not able to access the information in the country. To avoid the poverty smallholder farmer has to enhance their skills and knowledge to improve the productivity of farming and raise the income. So Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Mobile telecommunications play an important role by providing the information of Connected Agriculture technology, this will provide knowledge to the farmers by their various tools methods, pesticides, seeds, fertilizer, fuel and machinery used in agriculture. Connected agriculture technology has also improved the financial solutions for farming. Due to this advanced technology, there is greater investment in agriculture and farmers are having access to real-time information and services in agriculture.Connected Agriculture Market: Drivers and ChallengesThe key driving growth in the market for connected agriculture is the source of mobile telecommunication which can connect the farmers to different markets such as finance, education, can check commodity price, weather forecast, different agriculture techniques, commodity exchanges, different traders, sellers and buyers for the agriculture products for farming. This will increase the production in farming and proper use water and greenhouse gas emission. By this, many telecommunication service providers are focusing on connected agriculture, as the demand is increasing.By mobile, the farmers use payment services, where they can trace their payment which is given to traders, or loans taken from the bank and many other things. Connected agriculture technology is enhancing farmers capability to have financial transaction easily, especially in rural areas.Request for Table of Contents @In contrast to this, many farmers dont know how to use this different technology and their functions on mobile or on the internet. Many farmers are still living in remote areas due to poverty where they dont have access to the internet or telecommunication services.Connected Agriculture Market: SegmentationSegmentation on the basis of applications:Smart irrigationSmart logisticsSegmentation on the basis of service:Mobile information servicesMicro- Lending servicesMobile payment servicesMicro- Insurance servicesOthersSegmentation on the basis of solution:TenderingTradingBarteringRequest to View Sample of Research Report @Connected Agriculture Market: Recent Contracts/DealsThe key players in connected agriculture market are Vodafone PLC, Syspro, Trimble Navigation Limited, SAP A.G, Cisco Systems, Inc., Orange Business Services, Microsoft Corporation, Epicor Software Corporation, SAGE.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Spa Furniture Market: Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects and Key Opportunities

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Spa furniture is a high-quality, luxury furniture that is designed specifically for the spa service market. Numerous luxury spa, beauty, and wellness centers across the globe utilize different types of spa furniture such as pedicure chairs, massage tables and beds, massage chairs, and spa loungers. Spa furniture can be used outdoors as well as indoors. Furthermore, high-end luxury spa furniture is used by several spas for its superior design and quality.Spa furniture is considerably strong, as it is made by using high quality material such as slim line aluminum along with a polyester powder coating, which is highly durable. It also possess resistance to corrosion and also complies with hygiene standards. Generally, spa furniture does not absorb any spa oil or cream, which keeps the table clean and facilitates hygienic and superior spa treatment to customers.Read Comprehensive Overview of ReportThe expansion of the wellness tourism industry, increase in the number of spa and wellness centers around the world, and the rising health consciousness among consumers, especially among the high-income population, are expected to have a positive impact on the spa furniture market. There is a lot of focus on the well-being of the residents among large number of economies across the globe. This encourages the governments from these economies to support and promote the wellness tourism.For instance, according to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), approximately US$ 3.4 trillion global wellness market is three times bigger than pharmaceutical industry around the world. Wellness tourism involves spiritual, physical, psychological, and spiritual activities to boost an individuals health. There is an increasing need for wellness tours, due to the rising number of different health related problems including obesity, skin problems, heart problems, poor immunity and various other chronic diseases. This, in turn, is likely to eventually drive the demand for spa services and spa furniture.Get Brochure for Latest Advancements and Research InsightsThe higher initial and maintenance cost of luxury and high end spa furniture is estimated to restrain the global spa furniture market. High-end luxury spa furniture is mostly expensive and unaffordable for the general population. Generally, spa furniture including pedicure or luxury chairs require high investment, as they are made of premium and high quality raw materials.The presence of customized spa furniture is expected to present growth opportunity for the spa furniture market. There are several players such as The Art Spa who offer customized spa furniture. These spa furniture include portable and massage beds, multi-purpose chairs, and outdoor relaxation beds. These players offering customized spa furniture manufacture spa furniture as per the customers requirement.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and TablesThe spa furniture market can be segmented based on product type, sales channel, end-user, and region. Based on product type, the spa furniture market can be segmented into pedicure chair market, spa luxury massage table, luxury massage chair, spa luxury lounger, and others. In terms of sales channel, the spa furniture market can be classified into offline sales and online sales. Furthermore, based on end-user, the spa furniture market can be segregated into hospitals, households, and others.In terms of region, the spa furniture market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. North America and Europe are expected to lead the global market due to the large number of spa and wellness luxury centers across the countries such as the U.S. and Canada. However, the rising awareness about products related to personal care, increasing disposable incomes, changes in lifestyles across the countries especially India and China are expected to boost the spa furniture market in Asia Pacific at a significant pace during the forecast period.Key players operating in the global spa furniture market are Esthetica Spa and Salon Resources Pvt. Ltd, TRIBU NV, Style Spa Furniture Ltd., Continuum, Gharieni Group, Vaibhav Stores, TouchAmerica, Living Earth Crafts, Family Inada Co., Ltd., and Marc Slimming, Beauty Equipment, and MONICA BEAUTY CENTRE.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Loan Origination Software Market Professional Survey by Key Players : Fiserv, Pega, Tavant Technologies, Juris Technologies, FIS, D+H, SPARK, Mortgage Builder

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The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Loan Origination Software industry market by types, applications, players and regions. This report also displays the production, Consumption, revenue, Gross margin, Cost, Gross, market share, CAGR, and Market influencing factors of the Loan Origination Software industry in USA, EU, China,India, Japan and other regions, and forecast to 2023, from 2018.Market Analysis by PlayersFiservPegaTavant TechnologiesJuris TechnologiesFISD+HSPARKMortgage BuilderAxcess Consulting GroupCompass TechnologiesIntegrated Accounting SolutionsTurnkey LenderEGROUP EUByte SoftwareEllie MaeRequest a Sample Report @Market Analysis by Regions:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaOthersMarket Analysis by Types:SaaS-basedOn-premisesMarket Analysis by Applications:CommercialRetailOtherTable of Content1 Loan Origination Software Market Overview1.1 Product Overview of Loan Origination Software1.2 Classification and Application of Loan Origination Software1.3 Global Loan Origination Software Market Regional Analysis1.3.1 USA Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.2 Europe Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.3 Japan Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.4 China Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.5 India Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.6 Southeast Asia Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.7 South America Market Present Situation Analysis1.3.8 South Africa Market Present Situation Analysis1.4 Loan Origination Software Industry Development Factors Analysis1.4.1 Loan Origination Software Industry Development Opportunities Analysis1.4.2 Loan Origination Software Industry Development Challenges Analysis1.5 Loan Origination Software Consumer Behavior Analysis2 Global Loan Origination Software Competitions by Players2.1 Global Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Players2.2 Global Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2017-2018)2.3 Global Loan Origination Software Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2017-2018)2.4 Global Loan Origination Software Gross Margin by Players (2017-2018)3 Global Loan Origination Software Competitions by Types3.1 Global Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Types3.2 Global Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Type (2013-2018)3.3 Global Loan Origination Software Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2013-2018)3.4 Global Loan Origination Software Gross Margin by Type (2013-2018)3.5 USA Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.6 China Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.7 Europe Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.8 Japan Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.9 India Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.10 Southeast Asia Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.11 South America Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.12 South Africa Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type4 Global Loan Origination Software Competitions by Application4.1 Global Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.2 Global Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Application (2013-2018)4.3 Global Loan Origination Software Price (USD/Unit) by Application (2013-2018)4.4 Global Loan Origination Software Gross Margin by Application (2013-2018)4.5 USA Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.6 China Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.7 Europe Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.8 Japan Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.9 India Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.10 Southeast Asia Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.11 South America Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application4.12 South Africa Loan Origination Software Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Application5 Global Loan Origination Software Production Market Analysis by Region5.1 Global Loan Origination Software Production (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Region5.1.1USA Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.2 Europe Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.3 China Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.4 Japan Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.5 India Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.6 Southeast Asia Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.7 South America Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.8 South Africa Loan Origination Software Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.2 Global Loan Origination Software Production Value (Million USD) and Share by Region (2013-2018)5.3 Global Loan Origination Software Price (USD/Unit) by Region (2013-2018)5.4 Global Loan Origination Software Gross Margin by Region (2013-2018)ContinuedAccess 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
Temperature Indicator Industry - An insight on the important factors and trends influencing the Industry by 2025

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Temperature indicator is a device which is used to indicate the fluctuation in temperature range, that can be detected by sensor and the changes are being displayed in display. There are two types of temperature indicators present in the market namely, electro-mechanical temperature indicators and electronics temperature indicators. The major driver which will drive the temperature indicator market is the increasing growth of applications to deliver high quality and safety of packed foods like fresh food, vegetables, meat and fish.The factor that can act as a restraint in the growth of the market is the replacement of traditional temperature indicators by advance digital temperature indicators leads may hamper the temperature indicator market. However, the increasing development in industries especially in healthcare will create new opportunities in the market of temperature indicator in the forecast period.Get sample of this Report @The report aims to provide an overview of global temperature indicator market with detailed market segmentation by type, components, applications, and geography. The global temperature indicator market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global temperature indicator market based on type, components, and applications. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall temperature indicator market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments.Segmentations Covered in the Temperature Indicator Market:Overview: Global Temperature Indicator Market  By Type, By Component, By Region, By ApplicationGeographical Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), South America (SAM)Get Complete Report @Some of the leading players in Temperature Indicator Market:1. Nippon Instruments (India) Pvt. Ltd.2. DeltaTrak3. Rototherm Group4. 3M COMPANY5. Ashcroft Inc.6. Qualitrol Company LLCAbout The Insight Partners:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comOrganization: The Insight Partners
Advancement in technology foreseen to drive the Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market by 2025

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Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market: IntroductionAutomotive selective catalytic reduction systems are integrated with diesel engines to meet regulations regarding very low emissions. Selective catalytic reduction systems are one of the most cost and fuel efficient systems which are utilized for the purpose of reduction of nitrogen oxides that are released as emission from automobiles. Along with nitrogen oxides, these systems also reduce Hydrocarbon and CO emission by 50-60% and PM emissions by 25  40%. In Automotive selective catalytic reduction systems, urea is injected -- which acts as a liquid reductant through a catalyst into the exhaust stream of a diesel engine.Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market: Market DynamicsOwing to the increase in demand for light and heavy commercial vehicles, the Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market is anticipated to grow at a substantial rate over the forecast period. Rising concerns among the governments of many countries regarding automobile emission and its consequences, such as diseases, health issues and degradation of eco system, has led to the implementation of stringent vehicle emission norms.This factor is anticipated to boost the automotive selective catalytic reduction system market. Increasing demand for diesel engine vehicles has propelled the use of selective catalytic reduction systems in vehicles to control the emission levels of nitrogen oxide, hydro carbons and carbon monoxide from diesel engines. This is another key factor that is likely to accelerate the demand for automotive selective catalytic reduction systems during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing demand for heavy and light commercial vehicles, owing to growing demand from end use industries, such as construction, mining, logistics and transportation, among others, is expected to fuel the growth of the automotive selective catalytic reduction market during the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @In countries that have less stringent emission norms, automobile manufacturers are using alternatives of selective catalytic reduction. This may hinder the growth of the automotive selective catalytic reduction system market. Moreover, increasing demand for hybrid/electric vehicles and promotion of alternative fuels across the globe may also hamper the growth of the automotive selective catalytic reduction system market.In the coming years, Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will aim to improve fuel economy and power output of the vehicles by integrating selective catalytic reduction systems into almost every vehicle. Moreover, OEMs are also focusing on getting into long-term alliances with selective catalytic reduction system manufacturers to enhance the quality of materials used and to design unique systems. These factors are expected to become drivers for the said market in the upcoming years.Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market: SegmentationThe Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System market can be segmented by sales channel and vehicle type.On the basis of sales channel, the market can be segmented as:-Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)AftermarketOn the basis of vehicle type, the market can be segmented as:-Passenger CarsLight commercial vehicleHeavy commercial vehicleAutomotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market: Regional OverviewAccording to Euro VI norms, all the diesel vehicles in Europe should integrated with Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction Systems to comply with environment safety standards. This factor is expected to fuel the growth of the Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System market in the upcoming years. Additionally, Europe is the one of the largest manufacturers and consumers of automobiles and commercial diesel vehicles.Owing to the increasing number of diesel vehicles, Asia Pacific is expected to spearhead the growth of the said market throughout the forecast period. Additionally, growing infrastructural developments and need for transportation by construction companies will propel the demand for diesel commercial vehicles, which in turn, will boost the growth of the market. Moreover, North America also holds a prominent share in the global Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System market owing to stringent rules and regulations concerning automotive emission.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System Market: Market PlayersExamples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of the global Automotive Selective Catalytic Reduction System market include:-Scheuch GmbHRochlingJohnson MattheyHitachi ZosenGEADuPontDonaldsonDCL InternationalBaumotBabcock Power EnvironmentalBabcock & WilcoxABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Bottle Blowing Machine Market Drivers, Competition, and Opportunities Analyzed Till 2025

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A latest research report titled as Bottle Blowing Machine 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 contents.Click here For Free Sample Report @The global bottle blowing machine market was valued at US$ 1.907 Bn in 2016 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.0%, during 2017-2025. The global market volume for bottle blowing machine is expected to expand 1.2x during the forecast period. Transparency Market Research, in its recently published report titled, Bottle Blowing Machine Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017-2025, has segmented the global bottle blowing machine market by machine type, product type, end use industry, and geographic region.Injection blowing machine leads by technology typeOn the basis of technology type, the global bottle blowing machine market is segmented into extrusion blowing machine, injection blowing machine, and injection stretch blowing machine. Injection blowing machine segment accounted for the largest market share of 43% in 2016 among the technology type segment, owing to widespread adoption of the injection blowing technology in developed countries. Injection stretch blowing technology, which is specifically used in production of PET bottles, it represents a passively growing segment. This segment is expected to witness a sluggish CAGR of 3.4% during 2017-2025. Extrusion blowing technology segment covered over 27% market share in 2017 and will reportedly expand at a declining CAGR of 2.5% over the forecast period.Based on machine type, the global bottle blowing machine market is classified as automatic and semi-automatic machine. Automatic machine segment, CAGR of 3.2 % during 2017-2025. On flipside, semi-automatic machine segment is expected to expand at a much lower CAGR of 2.3% over the assessment period, with a ceasing market value share over the time. This decline is attributed to the inconvenience associated with operation of this machine, as it compels manual control.Browse Full Report with TOC @According to material type, the global bottle blowing machine market is categorized into polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and others. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) segment is estimated to account for the largest market share in this segment, owing to superior properties of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) such as flexibility, durability, and reliability. This segment registered a major market value share of over 57% in 2017.In terms of end-use industry, global bottle blowing machine market is segmented into key industries that the bottle blowing machine companies serve - food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics & personal care, household, and others. Among these end-use domains, food & beverage industry registered a share of 59.6 % in terms of value in 2017. Pharmaceutical industry is expected to expand at the CAGR of 2.7% through to 2025.Geographically, the global bottle blowing machine market is segmented geographically into 5 key regions including North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America and Europe, together account for nearly 50% of market share in 2017. This factor increases the demand of bottle blowing machines globally. Latin American market for bottle blowing machine is expected to reach US$ 258.1 Mn in 2025, with a sluggish CAGR of 3.0% over 2017-2025. Asia Pacific is expected to expand at the CAGR of 4.6% during 2017-2025 due to increasing investment of European companies in Asia Pacific region. According to the global bottle blowing machine market report, China was the largest importer of plastic bottles in 2017 and will possibly retain the top importer position in near future as well. In Middle Eastern & African region, manufacturers are majorly importing packaging machineries from Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America.The report provides detailed competitive analysis that includes detailed company profiles of key participants operating in the global bottle blowing machine market. Some of the leading players are Krones AG, Sacmi Imola S.C, Nissei ASB Machine Co., Ltd., Chumpower Machinery Corp, Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc., KHS GmbH, Sidel, Guangzhou Tech-Long Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd, SMI S.p.A., and Zhejiang East Zhouqiang Plastic & Mould Industry Co. Ltd. Etc.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:
Mud Terrain Tires Market to Surge at a Robust Pace in Terms of Revenue Over 2025

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Global Mud Terrain Tires Market: IntroductionMud terrain tires typically have an aggressive tread pattern and deep lugs with self-cleaning bars in order to eject mud and other material. Mud terrain tires are rubber compound specially designed and manufactured to suit off-road, rough and mud terrains. Sports, high-performance ATVs, and utility ATVs are mainly equipped with mud terrain tires. Besides, demand for ATVs or off-road vehicle grows and subsequently, stimulates the demand for mud terrain tires. Moreover, among the product type of mud terrain tires, radial construction tires dominate the light-truck tire market.Additionally, the mud terrain tire market has prominent players at a global level serving the customers across the globe and domestic players to cater the demand for mud terrain tires. Subsequently, this has led to intense competition amongst the players. Raw material cost and availability play a vital role for the OEM to setup manufacturing facilities in any of the region. China and South East Asia are the chief hubs for the production of rubber, which is used to manufacture mud terrain tires. Many of the manufacturing facilities are operating in this region and expected to enhance current capabilities in the coming years.Global Mud Terrain Tires Market: Market DynamicsOne of the chief utilization of mud terrain tires is identified in off-road vehicles. The global off-road commercial vehicle industry is expected to experience a transition in the customer environment owing to fast-changing regulations, shifting demands of fleet owners and rising industrial activity. Moderate growth after a downturn in last few years, increase in recreational activities is expected to flourish the global mud terrain tires market in the coming years.A large number of off-road events organized in many countries attribute in elevated sales of mud terrain tires. Substantial spending by the regional governments to enhance the fleet of military vehicles is likely to strengthen the demand growth of mud terrain tires. Global grains and food products demand is anticipated to drive the utilization of economical and environment-friendly agricultural equipment & vehicles. Consequently, robust growth in the production of agriculture equipment and farm tractors are foreseen to trigger the pace of mud terrain tire market.Request for Table of Contents @Original equipment manufacturers emphasize on developing technologies that can counter and withstand tough terrains. Treads patterns are designed by selecting superior rubber that provides a competitive edge to the players of mud terrain tire market. Dominance shown by the local player to the global players in the regional mud terrain tires market decelerate the market growth of prominent players. Cheaper rate offered by them significantly reduces the market share of the global players. However, acquisitions and strategic partnerships made by prominent players with domestic players can counter this trend.Global Mud Terrain Tires Market: Market SegmentationGlobal Mud Terrain Tires market can be segmented on the basis of design type, product type, sales channel and regionsOn the basis of product type, global Mud Terrain Tires market can be segmented asRadial TiresBias-ply TiresOn the basis of sales channel, global Mud Terrain Tires market can be segmented asOriginal Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)AftermarketOn the basis of application, global Mud Terrain Tires market can be segmented asFarm TractorsMilitary VehiclesUtility VehiclesHeavy TrucksOthersGlobal Mud Terrain Tires Market: Regional OutlookThe global sales of construction equipment and vehicles are estimated to reach a significant value in the coming years aided primarily by sales in developing countries such as China, Brazil, and India. Amongst Western European countries Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic are projected to create high dollar value owing to strong sales and robust manufacturing facilities owned by prominent companies. The strengthened efforts by the Chinese government to promote economic reforms through bumper agricultural harvest has aided the sales of farm tractors and thus, the consumption of mud terrain tires is expected to witness unprecedented growth.Amongst Eastern European countries, heavy spending by the Russian government in military vehicles bolsters the pace of mud terrain tires market. The Middle East is foreseen to witness hefty growth sales of mud terrain tires in military vehicles as compared to other segments. North America is expected to hold the majority of market share owing to several off-road events and a large number of recreational activities.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Global Mud Terrain Tires Market: Key ParticipantsExample of some of the market participants in the global Mud Terrain Tires market discerned across the value chain includeContinental AGThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber CompanySumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (Falken Tire Corporation)Bridgestone CorporationPirelli Tyre S.p.A.The Yokohama Rubber Company LimitedGoodrich TyresAtturo Tire CorporationNITTO TIRE U.S.A. INC.Cooper Tire & Rubber CompanyMickey Thompson Performance Tires & WheelsLexani WheelsFederal Corp.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Cholesterol Test Kits Market Analysis 2018-Worldwide Business Growth and Consumption Status, Segmentation And Drivers,Survey And Industry Study To 2023

Cholesterol Test Kits Market

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Cholesterol is a substance (a steroid) that is essential for life. It forms the membranes for cells in all organs and tissues in the body. It is used to make hormones that are essential for development, growth, and reproduction. It forms bile acids that are needed to absorb nutrients from food. The test for cholesterol measures total cholesterol that is carried in the blood by lipoproteins.Looking for more information on this market? Request for Free Sample Copy of Report @This report focuses on the global Cholesterol Test Kits market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Cholesterol Test Kits Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Alere Roche PTS Diagnostics Beckman Coulter Bioptik BeneCheck ACON Quest Accutech ZCALSON Akers BiosciencesMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Analyzer Kits Test Strip KitsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Home Using Hospital UsingEarly Buyers Will Receive Instant Discount On This Report @Short review On Table Of Content-1 Market Overview1.1 Cholesterol Test Kits Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Analyzer Kits1.2.2 Test Strip Kits1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Home Using1.3.2 Hospital Using1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.5 Market Dynamics2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Alere2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Cholesterol Test Kits Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Alere Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Roche2.3 PTS Diagnostics2.4 Beckman Coulter2.5 Bioptik2.6 BeneCheck2.7 ACON2.8 Quest2.9 Accutech2.10 ZCALSON2.11 Akers Biosciences3 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.1 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Market Concentration Rate3.4 Market Competition Trend4 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Market Analysis by Regions4.1 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions4.2 North America Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.4 Asia-Pacific Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.5 South America Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.6 Middle East and Africa Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5 North America Cholesterol Test Kits by Countries5.1 North America Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries5.2 United States Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.3 Canada Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.4 Mexico Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6 Europe Cholesterol Test Kits by Countries6.1 Europe Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries6.2 Germany Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.3 UK Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.4 France Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.5 Russia Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.6 Italy Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)7 Asia-Pacific Cholesterol Test Kits by Countries7.1 Asia-Pacific Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries7.2 China Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)7.3 Japan Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)7.4 Korea Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)7.5 India Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)7.6 Southeast Asia Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)8 South America Cholesterol Test Kits by Countries8.1 South America Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries8.2 Brazil Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)8.3 Argentina Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)8.4 Colombia Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)9 Middle East and Africa Cholesterol Test Kits by Countries9.1 Middle East and Africa Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries9.2 Saudi Arabia Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)9.3 UAE Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)9.4 Egypt Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)9.5 Nigeria Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)9.6 South Africa Cholesterol Test Kits Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)10 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Market Segment by Type10.1 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)10.2 Analyzer Kits Sales Growth and Price10.3 Test Strip Kits Sales Growth and Price11 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Market Segment by Application11.1 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)11.2 Home Using Sales Growth (2013-2018)11.3 Hospital Using Sales Growth (2013-2018)12 Cholesterol Test Kits Market Forecast (2018-2023)12.1 Global Cholesterol Test Kits Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2023)12.2 Cholesterol Test Kits Market Forecast by Regions (2018-2023)12.3 Cholesterol Test Kits Market Forecast by Type (2018-2023)12.4 Cholesterol Test Kits Market Forecast by Application (2018-2023)13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers13.1 Sales Channel13.2 Distributors, Traders and Dealers14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 Appendix15.1 Methodology15.2 Data SourceIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Know More About our Knowledge store @About Us:Research For Markets indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East And Africa.Contact Us:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com+44 8000-4182-37
Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services Market : Demand, Trend, Key Manufacturers Development Status Analysis and 2022 Global Industry Growth Forecast Report 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017- 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Electronic contract manufacturing services is a form of outsourcing that provides wide range of core manufacturing capabilities. Electronic contract manufacturing services providing companies are basically manufacturers that contracts with the organizations to manufacture electronic products on behalf of them. In contract manufacturing business, the hiring firm approaches the electronic contract manufacturers with design and specification requirements. The contract manufactures would quote material costs, tooling, labor, and other processes according to the companies design and specification requirements. Typically the hiring firm would approach multiple contract manufacturing firms for the best quotations. After completion of selection and legal formalities, the electronic contract manufacturer can now start the factory production of electronic components and devices on behalf of the hirer.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @There are many other industries that uses this type outsourcing manufacturing practices including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, medical, food manufacturing and others. This outsourcing practice is not suitable for small organization but it very useful for large organization who have global presence across many regions. One of the major advantage of using electronic contract manufacturing services is designing and assembling of PCBs can be time consuming, challenging and costly to electronic operations with finite resources and also companies can focus on their core competencies better, rather than utilizing resources for manufacturing activities.The key drivers for the growth of electronics contract manufacturing services market includes economies of scale, advanced skills and focus on core competencies. Contract companies take multiple contracts from multiple customers. Servicing multiple customers at the same time helps them to procure large quantity of raw materials at lower prices. Furthermore, companies can take advantages of the skills possessed by the contract manufacturers that the hirer companies do not have, to manufacture the electronic goods. Contract manufacturing also helps expansion of businesses in new markets. Despite several advantages of contract manufacturing there are certain major challenges faced by the hirer organization. This challenges include intellectual property loss, quality concerns and lack of control over production. While entering into contract, a company reveals their formulas or technologies to the contract manufacturers that can lead to loss of pivotal information. Moreover the company has to rely on contract manufacturers suppliers for quality raw materials as well as the company lose their significant control over their product.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Electronics contract manufacturing services can be segmented according to by application, by type of contract electronics manufacturers and by region. By application, electronic contract manufacturing can be bifurcated as Electronics components, consumer electronics, industrial electronics, computers & peripherals & others. By type of contract electronics manufacturers the market can be segmented as PCB assembly manufacturers, system assembly manufacturers and design and build manufacturers.Geographically, by region electronics contract manufacturing services market can be segmented into North America, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific, Europe and South America. Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the Electronic contract manufacturing services market. China is the most influential country in the electronic contract manufacturing services, as the business ecosystem in china relies on network of suppliers, component manufacturers, government agencies, distributors who are all involved in the process of production. Lower wages, less compliances and robust supply chain are also some of the factors for the growth of contract manufacturing services in China. For instance, Shenzhen a bordering city to Hong Kong has evolved as a hub for the electronics industry.Browse Report @Some of the key players in the electronic contract manufacturing services include Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), Flextronics International Ltd, Jabil Circuit, Celestica, Sanmina-SCI, New Kinpo Group, Plexus, Shenzhen Kaifa Technology, Venture, Benchmark Electronics,, Elcoteq, Universal Scientific Industrial Co Ltd, SIIX, Zollner Elektronik, Beyonics Technology and many others. These key players are constantly focusing and improvising on increasing their operational efficiencies and supply chain in order to gain competitive advantage over their competitors.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @
SiC Substrates Market: Challenges to Industry Growth, Size, Share, Forecast 2025

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MarketStudyReport.com Add New SiC Substrates Market Report by Company, Regions, Types and Applications, Global Status and Forecast to 2025 to its research database presenting an informative study covering the market with detailed analysis. The report will assist reader with better understanding. The report spread across 153 pages with 182 table and figures in it.This report studies the SiC Substrates Market status and outlook of global, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the SiC Substrates market by product type and application/end industries.The global SiC Substrates market was XX million US$ in 2017 and is expected to XX million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Request Sample Copy of this Report:The major companies in this report including Cree (Wolfspeed), ROHM (sicrystal), II VI Advanced Materials, Dow Corning, NSSMC, SICC Materials Co., LtdMarket segment by Type, the product can be split into:2 inch/3 inch, 4 inch, 6 inchMarket segment by Application, SiC Substrates can be split into:LED lighting, Power ElectronicsGlobal SiC Substrates Market: Regional Segment Analysis:United States, EU, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia.The Major objectives of the study are as follows: Define, analyzes and forecast SiC Substrates Market by Product type, applications, key players and region. Forecast the market size with the help of value & volume for various segments regarding main regions (United States, Canada, Mexico and Rest of the World). Provide detailed information concerning the major factors (opportunities, drivers, restraints, and industry-specific challenges) influencing the growth of SiC Substrates market. Analyze the industry with respect to individual growth trends, prospects and contributions to the total SiC Substrates market. Analyze opportunities in the market for various stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments of SiC Substrates market. Profile the key players and comprehensively analyses their market position in terms of ranking and core competencies along with detailing the competitive landscape for the market leaders.Key questions answered in the report include: What are the key role in SiC Substrates market report? What was the market size in 2018 to 2025? How will market change over the forecast period and what will be the market size in 2025? Who are the key market players and what are their strategies in the SiC Substrates market? What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the SiC Substrates Industry? What are the market opportunities and challenges faced by the vendors SiC Substrates market? What trends, drivers and barriers are influencing its growth? What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the SiC Substrates market?More Report At:Related Report: -Europe Waveguide Circulators Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023A circulator is a passive non-reciprocal three- or four-port device, in which a microwave or radio frequency signal entering any port is transmitted to the next port in rotation (only).Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Fluid Sensors Market : Global Business Insights and Development Analysis, Key Players Profile, Trend, Size, Share and Growth by Forecast to 2025 - TE connectivity, Honeywell, Omron Corporation, SICK AG

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Fluid Sensors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Fluid Sensors Market: OverviewThis report on the global fluid sensors market provides analysis for the period 2015-2025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints opportunities, and trends expected to influence the global fluid sensors market growth during the forecast period. Product type (such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow sensors and level sensors) are playing a major role in driving the global fluid sensors market have also been covered in the report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the above mentioned forecast period in terms of revenue and volume estimates (in US$ Mn and Thousand Units), across different geographies. Sensing fluid levels is critical to automating systems and protecting equipment. The primary use of fluid sensors is to control the temperature, pressure and flow of various types of fluids such as liquid, gas and plasma. Market watchers are forecasting continued, explosive growth in the fluid sensors business. Increasing the demand of pressure and level sensing techniques across the different industry vertical is predicted massive growth will be driven of fluid sensors in coming years.Global Fluid Sensors Market: SegmentationsThe fluid sensors market has been segmented on the basis of product type, detection medium, measurement type, end-use industry and region. On the basis of product type, the market is segmented into pressure sensor, temperature sensors, flow sensor and level sensor. Based on detection medium, the fluid sensors market has been bifurcated into various type such as liquid, gas and plasma. In addition, the fluid sensors market is bifurcated on the basis of measurement type into contact and non-contact. Based on end-use industry fluid sensors market has been compartmentalized into various segments such as oil & gas, chemical, power generation, food & beverages, water & waste water treatment.Geographically, the global fluid sensors market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America. We have analyzed the regions in terms of revenue (US$ Million) and volume (Thousand Units). Region wise prominent countries covered in the report include the following  the U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., France, China, Japan, India, GCC, South Africa and Brazil. Furthermore, the study also includes quantitative analysis of the competitive scenario for region wise prominent countries. The market size and forecast for each region has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the CAGR (%) for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Global Fluid Sensors Market: Key Research AspectsThe report also includes key market trends in the fluid sensors market. Porters five forces analysis (Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Threat of Substitutes, Threat of New Entrants, Bargaining Power of Buyers, etc.) is also included in the report. Value chain analysis which identifies the key participants in the fluid sensors is also covered in the report. The fluid sensors market report covers segment wise comparison matrix and value share analysis in the scope of our research study. The report also includes market attractiveness analysis for all the segments and for all the regions in the scope of study which identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.Global Fluid Sensors Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report includes competition landscape which covers competition matrix, market share analysis of major players in the global fluid sensors market based on their 2016 revenues and profiling of major players (fluid sensors manufacturers). Competition matrix benchmarks leading players on the basis of their capabilities and potential to grow. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are included to explain the companys capabilities. Further, factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities and future outlook are attributed to companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Browse Report @Company profiling includes company overview, major business strategies adopted, recent developments, SWOT analysis and market revenues for past years. The key players in General Electric, Infineon Technology, BOSCH (Bosch Sensortec ), NXP Semiconductor, Schneider Electric AG, STMicroelectronics, Sensata Technologies Holding N.V., TE connectivity, Honeywell, Omron Corporation, SICK AG and Yokogawa Corporation among others.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @
Polyvinyl Chloride Argentina Market 2018 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2021

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SummaryPolyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry Outlook in Argentina to 2021 - Market Size, Company Share, Price Trends, Capacity Forecasts of All Active and Planned Plants, provides up to date in-depth information on Argentinas Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry. The report presents major market trends. The report covers Argentinas Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plants and presents installed capacity by process and technology. The report offers historical and forecast market size, demand and production forecasts, end-use demand details, price trends, trade balance data, and company shares of the countrys leading Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) producers.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Scope- Comprehensive information of all active Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plants in Argentina- Comprehensive information of all planned Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) projects in Argentina- Capacity forecasts to 2021 with details like process, technology, operator and equity- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry supply scenario in Argentina from 2007 to 2021- Plant capacity growth and installed plant capacity by production process and technology- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry market dynamics in Argentina from 2007 to 2021- Market size, demand and production outlook, demand by end-use sector, and average prices- Trade balance data from 2007 to 2021- Import and export data and net exports and imports as a percentage of demand- Company details, including company overview, business description and information on current and upcoming Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plants- Company capacity shares for key Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) producers in Argentina.Reasons to buy- Latest information on Argentinas Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry- Macro and microeconomic trends affecting Argentinas Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry- Market positioning of the countrys Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) producers- Opportunities in the Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) industry- Market-entry and market-expansion strategies- Enables you to benchmark your operations and strategies against those of major companiesTable of Content: Key PointsList of Tables 3List of Figures 3Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Supply Scenario, 2007-2021 4Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Total Plant Capacity, 2007-2021 4Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Industry, Installed Plant Capacity by Production Process, 2016 11Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Installed Plant Capacity by Technology, 2016 13Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Company Share, 2016 15Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Market Dynamics, 2007-2021 16Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Industry, Market Size, 2007-2021 16Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Demand and Production Outlook, 2007-2021 18Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Industry, Demand by End Use Sector, 2016 20Argentina, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Price Forecasts, 2007-2021 22Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Trade Balance, 2007-2021 24Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Imports and Exports, 2007-2021 24Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Net Exports, 2007-2021 26Argentina Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Industry, Imports as Percentage of Demand, 2007-2021 28ContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Blueberry Flavor Market 2018 Global Analysis By key Players  Jinlu Flavor, Nanchang DuoMei Bio-Tech, Beijing Perfect Food, Northwestern Extract

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Blueberry Flavor Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com adds Blueberry Flavor Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2025 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Blueberry Flavor Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Blueberry Flavor Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.This report studies Blueberry Flavor in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringZHUHAI JINGHAO BIOLOGICAL-TECHXIMEIJinlu FlavorNanchang DuoMei Bio-TechBeijing Perfect Food MaterialHunan Lvhua BiotechSuzhou Dongwu AromaticsNorthwestern Extract...Request a Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPowderLiquidBy Application, the market can be split intoBeverageDairyBaking foodCandyOther usesBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaThis report provides valuable information for companies like manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, traders, customers, investors and individuals who have interests in this industry.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:1 Industry Overview of Blueberry Flavor1.1 Definition and Specifications of Blueberry Flavor1.1.1 Definition of Blueberry Flavor1.1.2 Specifications of Blueberry Flavor1.2 Classification of Blueberry Flavor1.2.1 Powder1.2.2 Liquid1.3 Applications of Blueberry Flavor1.3.1 Beverage1.3.2 Dairy1.3.3 Baking food1.3.4 Candy1.3.5 Other uses1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Blueberry Flavor2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Blueberry Flavor2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Blueberry Flavor2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Blueberry Flavor.8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Blueberry Flavor8.1 ZHUHAI JINGHAO BIOLOGICAL-TECH8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 ZHUHAI JINGHAO BIOLOGICAL-TECH 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 ZHUHAI JINGHAO BIOLOGICAL-TECH 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 XIMEI8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 XIMEI 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 XIMEI 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Jinlu Flavor8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Jinlu Flavor 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Jinlu Flavor 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Nanchang DuoMei Bio-Tech8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Nanchang DuoMei Bio-Tech 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Nanchang DuoMei Bio-Tech 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Beijing Perfect Food Material8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Beijing Perfect Food Material 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Beijing Perfect Food Material 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Hunan Lvhua Biotech8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Hunan Lvhua Biotech 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Hunan Lvhua Biotech 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Suzhou Dongwu Aromatics8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Suzhou Dongwu Aromatics 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Suzhou Dongwu Aromatics 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Northwestern Extract8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Northwestern Extract 2016 Blueberry Flavor Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Northwestern Extract 2016 Blueberry Flavor Business Region Distribution AnalysisContinued.Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Innovations in Raw Materials to Boost Sales in the Global Cleanroom Consumables Market | Arizton

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Cleanroom technology and management systems are widely used in operating theaters, life sciences, and semiconductor products. The increasing importance and demand for dedicated products, including cleanroom control products and related consumables, used in cleanroom facilities to avoid contamination, is leading to the development of this global market.A recent report by Arizton on Global Cleanroom Consumables Market forecasts the market reach values of over $16 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of approximately 9% during 2018-2023.Rising urbanization means higher standards of living, which imply an increased usage of electronic devices, improved medicare, demand for smart tech, increased security, and better connectivity. A diverse range of breakthrough technologies is evolving to improve lives, transform industries, connect people, and safeguard the planet for a prosperous and sustainable future, thereby, driving the growth of the global cleanroom consumables market.View report details:The various products available in the global cleanroom consumables market are:1. ApparelCleanroom apparel is made up of a special fabric that does not accumulate dust or particulate contaminants on its surface since they are vital components in maintaining cleanliness inside cleanrooms. Without proper cleanroom apparel, the personnel working in a cleanroom can be a source of contamination. Several industries require different types of fabrics for reusable garments thereby, driving the growth of the global cleanroom consumables market. In industries such as semiconductor, electronics, and aerospace, fabrics made of polyester or carbon grid are most appropriate.In the medical, pharmaceutical, food and biological industries, fabrics made of a polyester or carbon stripe are preferred. For disposable apparel, non-woven fabrics are used in cleanrooms. Cleanroom apparel can be broadly categorized as disposable and launderable garments.2. GlovesCleanroom gloves cover hands for preventing particles and marking fingerprints on clean surfaces. These are primarily used in the semiconductor, electronics, pharmaceutical, medical, and aviation industries to prevent and control contaminants inside the clean manufacturing floors. Cleanroom gloves can be broadly sub-categorized into two types that includes natural latex and synthetic rubber gloves. The increasing number of geriatric population, strong growth forecast of the semiconductor and pharmaceutical markets due to the emergence of technologies like IoT, growing safety concerns, government regulations for safety, and efficacy of medicines and drugs are some of the factors attributing to the growth of the global cleanroom consumables market. The other factors are higher hygiene standards, emphasis on increased quality, and use in new markets such as food and beverage production and packaging.3. WipesCleanroom wipes are made up of low lint cloth used in cleanrooms to wipe cleanroom contamination and spills. Berkshire provides a variety of wipes that meet the requirements and standards of the semiconductor & microelectronics, healthcare (USP 797), bio-medical & medical device, aerospace & defense, print, university & research, and automotive industries in the global cleanroom consumables market.BioClean, another major provider of wipes in the industry, offers top quality, low-linting, ISO Class 4 and 5 compatible wipes in a range of sizes and variety of materials. The different type of cleanroom consumables available is dry cleanroom wipes, pre-saturated wipes, sterile wipes, ESD wipe, and microfiber wipes.4. ChemicalsChemicals are not only used as integrated ingredients for products such as swabs and wipes but are also sometimes used in their standalone form. The choice of the chemical is dependent on the substrate type within F&B, medical and pharmaceutical cleanrooms that require large volumes of disinfectants. Spermicidal and anti-bacterial chemicals are the widely used products in these end uses, with more than one chemical agent being often used for effectiveness in the global cleanroom consumables market. The rise of automated disinfection systems wherein disinfection robots are increasingly being sought by medical centers, research houses, clean rooms, and hospitals will propel the adoption of chemicals in the global cleanroom consumables market.5. OthersCleanroom swabs are the fine-quality special material used in the cleanroom for precision surface or to apply compounds like adhesive, lubricants, or liquids on the work surface in the global cleanroom consumables market. Cleanroom swabs are broadly categorized based on the material used for making them  cotton-tipped swabs, rayon swabs, calcium alginate swabs, nylon swabs, polyester swabs, ESD swabs, and anti-static swabs. Other cleanroom consumables products available in the market are lotion & hand cleaner, stationery like cleanroom paper and ink, floor mats, tapes, labels, and mop systems, etc.The leading vendors in the global cleanroom consumables market are DuPont, ITW  Texwipe, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Berkshire Corporation, and Aramark Corporation.Read: Cleanroom Consumables Market in APAC to Worth $9 Billion by 2023Read: Global Cleanroom Consumables Market Size is Projected to Worth $16 Billion by 2023You can order a report here for more information:About Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.Arizton has gained a paramount standpoint in the market research arena as it offers top of the line solutions to clients to assess market landscape and to finalize foolproof business strategies. We are committed to provide inclusive market research reports and consulting services to clients from diversified industries including Consumer Goods & Retail Technology, Automotive and Mobility, Smart Tech, Healthcare and Lifesciences, Industrial Machinery, Chemicals and Materials, IT and Media, Logistics and PackagingArizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864
Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Research: Agilent Technologies, JDS Uniphase, Anritsu Corporation, Centellax

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global market for Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester is written with the intent to provide a focal point of market analysis to readers and analysts. The report considers a multitude of factors that are projected to create growth spaces within the market. The propensities of the customers and the corresponding strategies of the market players have been included in the report in order to give a wholesome view of the market. The global market for Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester has undergone fundamental reforms over the past, and each of these changes have been expounded within the report. Since the global market for Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester is expanding across several regional pockets, the fettle of different regions has been discretely explained.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:The researchers have maintained the integrity of their research by referring to authentic sources of information with regards to the market. Moreover, a multifaceted approach of analysis has ensured that the insights in the report assist in comprehending the market dynamics. Statistics with regards to market value, growth rate, segmentation, and regional market share form a vital segment of the report. Evidences that point to the emergence of new trends along with the nature of those trends have been included in the report to support further research.The product portfolio of established as well as the new market players has been listed in the report. Moreover, the execution of business strategies by these market players is a key highlight of the report.Table of ContentsGlobal Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Research Report 20181 Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester1.2 Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Traditional Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester1.2.4 Functional Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester1.3 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Segment by Application1.3.1 Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Banking1.3.3 Healthcare1.3.4 Telecom and IT1.3.5 Government and Public Utilities1.3.6 Aerospace and Defense1.3.7 Retail2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Bit Error Rate (BER) TesterFigure Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Product Picture of Traditional Bit Error Rate (BER) TesterTable Major Manufacturers of Traditional Bit Error Rate (BER) TesterFigure Product Picture of Functional Bit Error Rate (BER) TesterTable Major Manufacturers of Functional Bit Error Rate (BER) TesterFigure Global Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2013-2025)Get discount copy @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Pallet Displays Market Is Thriving Worldwide with Smurfit Kappa Group PLC, Georgia-Pacific LLC, DS Smith Plc, U.S. Corrugated

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Pallet Displays Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Pallet Displays market is comprehensively assessed in this report bears ponders on top-need development viewpoints and how they could affect amid the fulfillment of the figure residency under thought. The investigators have played out a splendid activity of exhaustively surveying every development factor of the market, other than indicating how certain market limitations could represent a danger to players in the coming years. So, the report likewise gives data on top patterns and openings and how players could take advantage of them to take up the difficulties in the market. This could be a valuable rule for players to concrete their situation in the business or make a rebound in the market.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:From the territorial division perspective, the global Pallet Displays market has been isolated into various topographies that could essentially impact development sooner rather than later. The report discusses factors that assistance the main locale to grab hold of a great looking offer of the market. It likewise reveals insight into different areas trailing the main one and how they could add to the market within a reasonable time-frame. The creators of the report have utilized factual data to introduce a more profound investigation of the market in view of its land ponder.Regarding market rivalry, perusers could adjust their techniques to basic patterns of the global Pallet Displays market for picking up an edge over different members. While profiling a portion of the solid names of the business, the report has made a point to enable perusers to see how these players could support their status in the market or could keep up it in the future.Table of ContentsGlobal Pallet Displays Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Pallet Displays1.1 Definition and Specifications of Pallet Displays1.1.1 Definition of Pallet Displays1.1.2 Specifications of Pallet Displays1.2 Classification of Pallet Displays1.2.1 Quarter Pallet Display1.2.2 Half Pallet Display1.2.3 Full Pallet Display1.3 Applications of Pallet Displays1.3.1 Foods and Beverages1.3.2 Cosmetics1.3.3 Personal Care Products1.3.4 Pharmaceuticals1.3.5 Electronics1.3.6 Automotive1.3.7 Others2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pallet Displays2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pallet Displays2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Pallet Displays2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Pallet Displays3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Pallet Displays3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Pallet Displays Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Pallet Displays Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Pallet Displays Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Pallet Displays Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Pallet Displays Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Pallet Displays Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Pallet Displays Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Pallet Displays Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Pallet Displays Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Pallet Displays Sales PriceRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Pallet DisplaysTable Product Specifications of Pallet DisplaysTable Classification of Pallet DisplaysFigure Global Production Market Share of Pallet Displays by Type in 2016Figure Quarter Pallet Display PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Quarter Pallet DisplayFigure Half Pallet Display PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Half Pallet DisplayFigure Full Pallet Display PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Full Pallet DisplayTo Get Discount Of This Report Click here @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Managed Security Services Market to Exceed US$ 100,800 Mn in 2026

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The ever-growing list of cyber threats is resulting in the companies in various sectors to opt for managed security services. The two most important factors driving the global managed security services market are cost and complexity. The complexity of threats continues to grow and the shortage of security skill and absence of experienced security professionals are resulting in the outsourcing to the managed security services providers. Evolution of advanced technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and virtual reality is resulting in new threats, thereby, fueling the growth of the global market for managed security services.Managed security service providers are also working on introducing solutions for new threats such as IoT-based DDoS and ransomware. Managed security service providers are also focusing on balancing device management, incident response, risk, and compliance functions. Customized service is also one of the growing trends in the global managed security services market. Companies are providing services customized to the regional requirements including language support, and data sovereignty.Request to Sample of Report @The market is highly fragmented due to the presence of small players. Hence, large vendors are entering the niche markets by acquiring small vendors in the global market for managed security services. Managed security service providers are also adopting network behavioral analysis and predictive analysis to detect unknown threats and events likely to take place in the future in systems and network.As per the report by Persistence Market Research (PMR), the global managed security services market is expected to see a robust growth between 2017 and 2026. The global market for managed security services is also estimated to reach more than US$ 100,800 Million revenue by 2026 end.Managed Security Services to Find Large Application in BFSI SectorBased on the application, managed security services are likely to find the largest application in the BFSI sector. By the end of 2026, BFSI is estimated to reach close to US$ 36,300 Million revenue.By the organization type, compared to the small & medium enterprise, large enterprise is expected to emerge as the largest users of managed security services. By the end of 2026, large enterprise is likely to exceed US$ 65,600 Million revenue.Based on the service type, IPS/IDS is likely to witness the highest growth in the global managed security services market. By the end of the forecast period, IPS/IDS is projected to surpass US$ 25,500 Million in terms of revenue.On the basis of deployment type, web-based deployment is expected to gain the highest traction in the market during 2017-2026. Web-based deployment is estimated to exceed US$ 66,000 Million revenue by 2026 end.North America to Rule the Global Market for Managed Security Services During 2017-2026Presence of the leading managed security services companies in the U.S. is driving the growth of the market in the region. Companies in the region are also focusing on developing new security solutions to fight new cyber-security threats in the market. North America is projected to exceed US$ 35,000 Million revenue by 2026 end. Meanwhile, increasing risk of cybercrime in the developing countries due to low-security strategies and services also presents a huge growth opportunity for managed security service providers.Request Report for TOC @Key Companies in the Global Managed Security Services MarketIBM Corporation, Fortinet Inc., Symantec Corporation, Accenture PLC, Computer Science Corporation, AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation, Trustwave Holdings Inc., and Checkpoint Software Technologies Limited, are some of the companies operating in the global market for managed security services.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Waterproof Breathable Textiles Market Analysis including Top key players: Helly Hansen, Mitsui & Co., Tanatex Chemicals B.V., Nextec Applications, APT Fabrics, Jack Wolfskin GmbH & Co., HeiQ Materials

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The report on global waterproof breathable textiles market is an in depth analysis of the segments and sub-segments in the waterproof breathable textiles market. The report provides analysis for the global as well as regional markets over the period of 2015 to 2023. According to report the global waterproof breathable textiles market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% over the forecast period of 2017 - 2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on global waterproof breathable textiles market covers segments such as raw material, product, textile, and application. The raw material segments include polyurethane, polyester and ePTFE (Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene). On the basis of product the global waterproof breathable textiles market is categorized into footwear, gloves and garment.Furthermore, on the basis of textile the global waterproof breathable textiles market is categorized into Membrane, Densely, Coated, Woven. on the basis of application the global waterproof breathable market is categorized into Active Sportswear and Others.Geographic CoverageThe report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2015  2023.The countries covered in the North America region include the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; while Asia-Pacific includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, Malaysia and among others. Moreover, The European region covers countries such as, Germany, UK, France, Spain and Rest of Europe. The U.S. drives the growth in the North America region as it is the largest market in the region. The Asia-pacific region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as India and China. The APAC region is projected to experience a growth at a CAGR of x.x% over the period of 2017 - 2023.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global waterproof breathable textiles market such as, Helly Hansen, Mitsui & Co., Tanatex Chemicals B.V., Nextec Applications, APT Fabrics, Jack Wolfskin GmbH & Co., HeiQ Materials, Tanatex Chemicals B.V., Rudolf Group, and Dow Corning Corp.For More Enquiry on This Report:Report Highlights:The report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends and micro and macro indicators. In addition, this report provides insights on the factors that are driving and restraining the global waterproof breathable textiles market. Moreover, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider. The report provides insights into the market using analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis and DRO analysis of waterproof breathable textiles market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the waterproof breathable textiles market that will impact the demand during the forecast period. Moreover, the competitive analysis given in each regional market brings an insight on the market share of the leading players. Additionally, the analysis highlights rise and fall in the market shares of the key players in the market. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the waterproof breathable textiles market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.About UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,UK: +44-2033182010Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.com
U.S. Convenience Store Foodservice Market Analyzed with Key Factors and Opportunities Forecasted to 2022

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently announced the inclusion of a new study to its mega-repository of research reports, which is titled as "Convenience Store Foodservice - US-March 2018". This study highlights the convenience store foodservice in the U.S., which includes consumer behavior towards foodservice purchases in the market. Additionally, the report includes market size and forecast analysis, complete with market drivers that illustrate the forces that shape the overall digital trends market. In order to provide accurate results, the research considers total US sales and fan chart forecast of c-store foodservice sales, at the current prices for the forecast till 2022.Request For Sample Report:Research Inclusion and Key findingsInitially, this comprehensive research report starts with a market definition which provides details about the market and an executive summary of the report that gives an idea as to what is being projected in the report further. Moreover, the report provides insights into market perspective, issues, hidden opportunities in the market and competitive threats.Convenience stores can be defined as establishments that retail a limited line of goods, primarily groceries and ready-to-consume beverages and snacks, in easily accessible locations. With the appropriate modifications to their operating systems and procedures, convenience store owners can slowly show a foodservice offering. Many items need to be addressed including a concerted effort in marketing outside the store to attract new customers. In the year 2017, total convenience store foodservice sales reached an estimated $38 billion in 2017. In the coming years, while foodservice sales will grow, analysts predict that growth will occur at a slower rate relative to previous years.Another section of the report reveals that prepared foods command the largest share of the market. C-store food is getting better, but there is still room for improvement. Presently, it is important to have a loyal consumer base in the c-stores market that drives most foodservice purchases. Also, most C-store foodservice consumers want more choices/healthy options, in which C-stores respond to consumers' interest in health. It has been analyzed that Four out of five consumers visit c-stores, while iGens represent core c-store customers. This is because C-stores satisfy various needs for heavy visitors. Considering these facts, it can be said that operators need to focus on converting more general customers to foodservice customers. New concepts can attract a more diverse audience.Browse Full Report with TOC-Further, the research also finds that competitors in this market will experience strong growth. Some of the other major factors of the market include gas prices rebound only slightly, the creeping threat of electric cars, and the rise in road trips.USPs of the ReportThe report is created with the help of a team of expert analysts who have gone through an extensive research process in order to get useful insights into the market. The details are intended to help market players and other readers so that they could get all the information related to the market scenario and preferences of the targeted group. Once the data is collected through primary and secondary research it also goes under different levels of validation to confirm its precision.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 market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :Read Industry News at -
Top Key Market Trends of Hepatitis C Drugs Market in Pharma Industry

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Hepatitis C virus is a blood-borne virus that infects liver cells, resulting in illness that ranges from mild and transient effects such as easy bleeding, fatigue, yellow discoloration of skin and eyes, and others to chronic and serious life-threatening conditions such as liver cirrhosis, liver cancer or liver failure. Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through needlestick injuries, organ transplant from a carrier, sexually or from infected mother to fetus. Globally, hepatitis C virus exists in six distinct forms based on its genotypes amongst which Type 1 is the most common form representing around 60 -70 per cent of global infections. Hepatitis C is diagnosed by blood tests for estimating viral load and genotyping, and liver damage tests such as magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), transient elastography, and liver biopsy. Antiviral drugs, which inhibits protease or polymerase enzyme of virus is one of the treatments available for infection caused due to hepatitis C. Currently, no vaccines are available for the prevention of hepatitis C virus and this provides scope for the market players to expand their company portfolio.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report:Hepatitis C drug market TaxonomyBy Drug Class-Hepatitis C Virus Protease Inhibitor-Glecaprevir-Grazoprevir-Paritaprevir-Simeprevir-Voxilaprevir-Nucleoside/tide Polymerase Inhibitors-Sofosbuvir-NS5A Inhibitors-Daclatasvir--Elbasvir-Ledipasvir-Ombitasvir-Pibrentasvir-Velpatasvir-Non-Nucleoside Polymerase Inhibitors-Dasabuvir-Interferon-Combinational drugBy Distribution Channel-Hospital Pharmacies-Retail Pharmacies-Online Pharmacies-Hepatitis C drug market DriverAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017, around 71 million people were infected by chronic hepatitis C worldwide. Furthermore, WHO considers Eastern Mediterranean and European regions to be the most affected regions with the prevalence rate of 2.3% and 1.5% respectively. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in the U.S. suffer from hepatitis C. This increasing prevalence of hepatitis C will drive growth of hepatitis C drug market. Furthermore, this blood- borne virus is easily transmitted by sharing injection equipment, transfusion of infectious blood, sexually or from infected mother to infant, which will further propel growth of hepatitis C drug market.The governmental initiatives for patients to receive expanded drug coverage is also expected to drive growth of the market. For instance, in 2018, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care of Ontario announced that all patients are eligible for Ontario Drug Benefit (ODP) irrespective of severity of their disease. In the same year, Thunder Bay group, HIV / AIDS / hepatitis C education and support services provider, expanded its access to medicines, as a result of successful negotiations between the provinces and drug manufacturers.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!There are significant number of drugs available for Hepatitis C over the past few years and is expected to increase over the forecast period due to large number of drugs in pipeline. Hepatitis C drug market is revolutionized by direct acting antivirals (DAAs), which aid in the development of highly effective, INF-free hepatitis C drug regimen in contrast to standard treatment. The pipeline consists of dual as well as triple DDA combinational therapy against hepatitis C virus. A combination of drugs is more effective for the treatment of hepatitis C as compared to single regimen. For instance, in 2016, Gilead submitted a new drug application to the U.S. FDA for the fixed-dose combination SOF/VEL/voxilaprevir for treatment of HCV genotypes 16. Moreover, in January 2017, EMA granted assessment of SOF/VEL/voxilaprevir combination. Furthermore, in 2017, the U.S. FDA approved AbbVies Mavyret, a combination of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir for the treatment of hepatitis C. Hepatitis C drug market is hindered due to high medication cost and denial for Medicaid patients.Hepatitis C Drug MarketThe major players in hepatitis C drug market include Merck & Co. Inc., Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Gilead Sciences Inc., AbbVie Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Intelligent Greenhouse Market Research 2018-2025: Global Industry Key Players (Venlo, Palram, RBI, Kubo, Nexus Corporation and Agra Techt)

Intelligent Greenhouse Market

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In this report, the Global Intelligent Greenhouse 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 Intelligent Greenhouse in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaBuy PDF version of this research report @Global Intelligent Greenhouse market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Venlo Palram RBI Kubo Nexus Corporation Agra Tech Luiten Atlas Manufacturing AgrowTec TOP Greenhouse FatDragon Fenglong Technology Hua Kun HuiZhong XingTong Shangyang Greenhouse Shanghai Jinong Xinyu Greenhouse NongBang Greenhouse GaoZongZhi Nanjing Tengyong Jin Zhi You Qingzhou JinxinLooking For More Information on This Market? Get Free Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Hydroponic Non-HydroponicOn 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, including Flower Planting Vegetable Cultivation Fruit Cultivation OtherThe report is available on discount for a limited time only @Table of Content1 Intelligent Greenhouse Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Intelligent Greenhouse1.2 Intelligent Greenhouse Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Segment by Application1.4 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Market by Region (2013-2025)2 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Intelligent Greenhouse Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Intelligent Greenhouse Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Price by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities7 Global Intelligent Greenhouse Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Venlo7.2 Palram7.3 RBI7.4 Kubo7.5 Nexus Corporation7.6 Agra Tech7.7 Luiten7.8 Atlas Manufacturing7.9 AgrowTec7.10 TOP Greenhouse8 Intelligent Greenhouse Manufacturing Cost Analysis8.1 Intelligent Greenhouse Key Raw Materials Analysis8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Intelligent Greenhouse9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9.1 Intelligent Greenhouse Industrial Chain Analysis9.2 Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing9.3 Raw Materials Sources of Intelligent Greenhouse Major Manufacturers in 2017Looking for more insights from this report? @About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Our purpose is to serve you, the most customized in-depth Market access data. Our plethora of titles made us one of the most searched market research library across the globe. We work with the most esteemed Publishers around the globe who caters vast industries. We are quick and fragile, when it comes to your various queries, and we ensure our team caters your needs to the best of our abilities, we promise to stay by your side for both pre and post sales servicing, as we believe in long everlasting symbiotic relationship.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com
Juvenile life insurance Market Research 2018-2025: Global Industry Key Players(Allianz, AXA, Nippon Life Insurance, American Intl. Group and Avivat)

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This report studies the Global Juvenile life insurance Market, analyzes and researches the Juvenile life insurance development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, like Allianz AXA Nippon Life Insurance American Intl. Group Aviva Assicurazioni Generali Cardinal Health State Farm Insurance Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Munich Re Group Zurich Financial Services Prudential Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Sumitomo Life Insurance MetLife Allstate Aegon Aetna CNP Assurances PingAn CPIC TIAA-CREF Mitsui Mutual Life Insurance Royal & Sun Alliance Swiss Reinsurance Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Standard Life Assurance Prudential Financial New York Life Insurance Meiji Life InsuranceBuy PDF version of this research report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States EU Japan China India Southeast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split into Web-based Juvenile life insurance Emergency/Mass Notification System Surveillance System Traffic Management System Inventory/Database Management System Safety Management System Remote Weather Monitoring System Tsunami Warning System Earthquake/Seismic Warning System CBRNE/HAZMAT Detection DystemLooking For More Information on This Market? Get Free Sample Report @Market segment by Application, Juvenile life insurance can be split into >10 Years Old 10~18 Years OldThe report is available on discount for a limited time only @Table of Content1 Industry Overview of Juvenile life insurance1.1 Juvenile life insurance Market Overview1.2 Global Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Juvenile life insurance Market by Type1.4 Juvenile life insurance Market by End Users/Application2 Global Juvenile life insurance Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Juvenile life insurance Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Allianz3.2 AXA3.3 Nippon Life Insurance3.4 American Intl. Group3.5 Aviva3.6 Assicurazioni Generali3.7 Cardinal Health3.8 State Farm Insurance3.9 Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance3.10 Munich Re Group4 Global Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)4.1 Global Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)4.3 Potential Application of Juvenile life insurance in Future5 United States Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)5.2 United States Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 United States Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)6 EU Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)6.2 EU Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)6.3 EU Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)7 Japan Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)7.2 Japan Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)7.3 Japan Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)8 China Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)8.2 China Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)8.3 China Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)9 India Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)9.2 India Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)9.3 India Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)10 Southeast Asia Juvenile life insurance Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Juvenile life insurance Market Size (2013-2018)10.2 Southeast Asia Juvenile life insurance Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)10.3 Southeast Asia Juvenile life insurance Market Size by Application (2013-2018)Looking for more insights from this report? @About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Our purpose is to serve you, the most customized in-depth Market access data. Our plethora of titles made us one of the most searched market research library across the globe. We work with the most esteemed Publishers around the globe who caters vast industries. We are quick and fragile, when it comes to your various queries, and we ensure our team caters your needs to the best of our abilities, we promise to stay by your side for both pre and post sales servicing, as we believe in long everlasting symbiotic relationship.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com
Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices Market  What Factors will drive the Market in Upcoming Years?

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Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring devices measures blood glucose levels in patients suffering from diabetes, without puncturing the skin, or causing pain or trauma. The frequent change in blood glucose levels in diabetic patients has to be tracked by the glucose monitoring device. Glucose monitoring devices can be invasive or non-invasive but the non-invasive blood glucose monitoring devices market is increasing due to the need of an economic, compact, painless and convenience for the patients to use. Non-invasive glucose monitoring holds great promise for improving diabetes management by providing better and pain-free blood glucose measurement leading to expansion of non-invasive blood glucose monitor market in the forecast period.Request a sample copy of this report:Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Taxonomy:By Technology:-Bio-impedance spectroscopy-Electromagnetic sensing-Fluorescence-Mid-infrared / Near infrared spectroscopy-Optical coherence tomography-Optical polarimetry-Raman spectroscopy-Reverse iontophoresis-Ultrasound technologyBy Modality:-Wearable-Non-wearable / table topBy End Users-Hospitals & Clinics-Diagnostic centers-Homecare settingNon-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices Market DriverThe global non-invasive blood glucose monitoring devices market is expected to be boosted by the increasing diabetes prevalence. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2014, diabetes mellitus is a worldwide epidemic disease affecting 422 million people and seventh leading cause of death in US. The glucose concentration of diabetic patients fluctuates significantly throughout the day which can lead to serious consequences like kidney failure, strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, blindness and coma. These demand the technologically advanced devices for frequent monitoring of blood glucose levels. Moreover, the invasive techniques of blood glucose monitor are painful and expensive as compared to non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device, this makes non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device as the device of choice amongst the patients. Furthermore, the high percentage of prediabetes patients, a condition were blood glucose levels are high but not sufficient to detect the diabetes, will also propel the non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device market in the forecast period. According to NIDDK, in 2015, 33.9% of US adults are estimated to be prediabetes, at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.Traditional glucose detection device based on electrochemical sensors which requires a small amount of blood sample by finger pricking makes the method inconvenient and painful, which demanded emergence of non-invasive blood glucose monitor device. Currently, non-invasive blood glucose monitors are under great technological advancement to overcome this challenges in currently available glucose monitor. For instance, in March 2018, Nemaura Medical Inc. developing the wireless sugarBEAT, a non-invasive blood glucose monitoring system, received positive results from European clinical trial program which makes a significant milestone towards commercialization of sugarBEAT in the UK, followed by other territories upon achieving CE approval. Furthermore, research institutes and universities are also engaged in developing novel non-invasive blood glucose monitor device. For instance, in February 2018, the researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed a smart lens. The smart lens has inbuilt pliable, transparent electronic glucose monitor which can detect the glucose levels using tears of eyes. Moreover, in same year, Glasgow University developed a wearable sweat-monitoring sensor which uses pH levels of patients sweat. Furthermore, rapid advancements in smart-watches and smartphones will also propel the non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device market.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices- Regional AnalysisOn the basis of region, the global non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America is expected to be dominant region with respect to non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device market due to high prevalence of disease in geriatric population which is 25.2 % in US population as per American Diabetes Association of year 2015.Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices Market - CompetitorsThe major players for non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device market are Abbott Laboratories, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Integrity Applications, Inc., Bayer Healthcare, Pendragon Medical, Animas Technologies, Omron and OrSense.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Silica Gel Market Share, Size, Top Global Key Players Analysis till 2023- DowDuPont, Clariant, Solvay, Merck Group, Fuji Silysia Chemical

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Market Overview:The desiccant and absorbent segment are anticipated to observe a higher CAGR due to increased applications in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, oil and gas industry. The rising development in the biotechnology, especially in the emerging economies, is expected to drive the growth of the biopharmaceuticals, which, in turn, may fuel the demand for chromatographic silica gel. Moreover, the growing application in paints and coatings, steel refinery industry, and oxygen plants for removal of ethane from oxygen is positively impacting the market growth.Read More About Report @Market Segmentation:The global Silica Gel Market is segregated into:On The Basis Of Product Type: Type A, Type B, Type C, Silica-Alumina Gel, Other Segments.On The Basis Of Application Type: Desiccant, Chromatography, Food Additives, Water Filtration, Other SegmentsOn The Basis Of End-Use: Oil and Gas, Pharmaceutical, Petrochemical, Cosmetic and Healthcare, Others.Major Key Players:Some of the Top Key Players operating in the global Silica Gel Market are: Evonik Industries (Germany), Clariant (Switzerland), Solvay (Belgium), Merck Group (Germany), China National Bluestar Company Limited (China), Fuji Silysia Chemical (China), Nissan Chemical Industries (Japan), DowDuPont (U.S.), Qingdao Haiyang Chemical (China), Millennium Chemicals (U.S.),Regional Analysis:The global Silica Gel Market is spanned across Five Key Regions: Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa.North America holds the major portion of the global market and is anticipated to continue its dominance due to rising demand for silica gel from various developed end-user industries such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Moreover, the encouraging government regulations and investments in the healthcare and food and beverage are expected to contribute to the growth of the market.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market and is expected to grow at the higher CAGR during the forecast years. The growing GDP coupled with the increasing government investment has augmented various end-user industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and health care, which is boosting the market demand for silica gel in the developing economies in the region.The European region is estimated to witness a significant growth in the countries owing to the presence of the well-developed cosmetic and personal care industry. The excellent properties of silica gel for absorbing moisture has paved the way to the packaging of cosmetics and electronics industries among others. Thus, it is creating immense demand for the product.The Middle East & Africa is estimated to observe a considerable growth due to increasing consumption of silica gel in their dominant oil and gas and petrochemical industry. The favorable government participation and the expansion of oil field in the region is the driving factor of the market.Request For Sample Report@About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Market Research Future+16468459312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Over-the-Counter Drugs Market - Global Competitive Analysis

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Over-the-counter drugs, also known as non-prescription drugs, are available in pharmacies and other retail stores and can be used without being prescribed by a doctor. These drugs are critical components of the pharmaceutical industry as they are highly potent and have the capability to show effective results for simple diseases. The number of competitors diving into the large pool of pharmaceutical industry are increasing day-by-day making the industry a promising venture for new comers to capitalize upon. This review will help to attain a competitive analysis of developments such as strategic alliances, mergers and acquisition, joint ventures as well research and innovation leading to product development with respect to over-the-counter drugs market. According to Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the total U.S. sales for OTC medicines accounted for US$ 34,327 million in 2017.Request a sample copy of this report:Competitive Analysis - The top 10 players operating in the global over-the-counter drugs market include:-Pfizer, Inc.,-Novartis AG-GlaxoSmithKline Plc-Bayer AG-Sanofi-Glenmark Pharmaceuticals-Merck KGaA-Teva Pharmaceuticals-Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.-Boehringer Ingelheim1.Pfizer, Inc. - Pfizer, Inc. is a global leading manufacturer and distributor of over-the-counter drugs, managing its commercial operation through two major business segments namely, Pfizer Innovative Health and Pfizer Essential Health. OTC drugs contribute to a major part of Innovative Health Segment, comprising annual revenue of US$ 29,197 million in 2016. The company OTC drugs portfolio includes over 40 products, whereas the leading OTC brands that generated significant revenue for Pfizer included Advil (Ibuprofen capsules for migraine) and Centrum (Multivitamin Tablets), in 2016. Moreover, the company collaborated for the license of Nexium OTC rights under the exclusive agreement with AstraZeneca Plc made in 2012, Pfizer paid US$ 93 Mn to AstraZeneca in April, 2016 as accrued milestone payments as per the norms of the agreement. Pfizer, Inc. adopts strategies such as entering into partnerships and collaborations with companies that adopts incorporation of novel, proprietary drug-delivery technologies as well as unique ingredients of the OTC drugs to expand their OTC product portfolio to retain their significance in global over-the-counter drugs market.2.Novartis AG - Novartis AG, is widely known for its research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of healthcare products across the globe. Novartis operates its drugs business through two major operating channels Innovative Medicine and Drugs manufactured by Sandoz which is a subsidiary of Novartis, has contributed to positioning the company as one of the top players in global Over-the-counter drugs market. In March 2015, Novartis OTC and GlaxoSmithKline Plc created a combined consumer healthcare business named GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings Ltd, as a completely new entity, for which Novartis has an interest of 36.5% in the investment and profit shares and the resulting pre-tax income from this alliance was valued at US$ 5.9 billion in 2016. The company also markets and manufactures its products through Sandoz. Sandoz specializes in OTC medications for allergy and pain relief and is available in pharmacies across the world. The channel focuses on business expansion and distribution in the Central & Eastern Europe region, including Germany, as the company believes European region to be an integral part of the business and a potential market for growth of companys business.3.GlaxoSmithKline Plc - GlaxoSmithKline, one of the renowned giant in pharmaceutical industry and over-the-counter drugs market is a global science-led company headquartered in Europe, which develops and manufactures pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, health-related consumer products, and over-the-counter medicines. The consumer healthcare business of GlaxoSmithKline is operated through its subsidiary named GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings Ltd. the subsidiary is split into two equal businesses, namely Over-the-counter Medicines and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), across four major categories of Oral Health, Wellness, Skin Health, and Nutrition. The companys consumer healthcare business segment recorded annual sales of US$ 5,023 million in 2016, of which Europe contributed to the major share of around 30.4%, with U.S. accounting for 24.4% of the share. The company adopts strategy of expanding the business in a growing marketplace thereby developing products that responds to the challenges in Over-the-counter drugs sector that includes educating the users to prevent adverse side effects of these drugs when consumed inappropriately and others. The company also focusses on providing products at a sustainable price to help increase customer adoption and allow access to several patients around the world.4.Bayer AG - Bayer AG is a global life science company that has a history of over 150 years in areas of healthcare and agriculture. The company operates its business through four major segments namely, Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Crop Science, and Animal Health. Over-the-counter drugs contribute to a major revenue share of the consumer health segment, which accounted for US$ 7,179.19 million in 2016. The company caters to the users of over-the-counter drugs market through Consumer Health segment that includes major non-prescription drugs and products in the dermatology, gastrointestinal, analgesic, cold, allergy, and sinus, and sun protection categories. The consumer health segment is responding to the challenge in public health care system with mainly non-prescription (OTC) brand products by providing the consumers with their corresponding self-care solutions that are easily available at the pharmacies and online drug stores. The core brands leading to organic growth of the companys segment include Aspirin, Aleve, Canesten, Dr. Scholls, Coppertone, Elevit, Bepanthen, Alka-Seltzer, and Berocca. The company is investing in geographical expansion to strengthen its presence in the U.S. Brazil, Russia, and China through marketing innovations and novel digital offerings. For instance, the company introduced a number of new product line extensions in the U.S. of its existing brands, including ClariSpray in the Claritin portfolio added in April, 2016. The extension of Alka-Seltzer product family with the addition of Alka-Seltzer Plus as an OTC medicine for treatment of cold. Successful strategic implementation and new product development by the company is expected to significantly affect the growth of global over-the-counter drugs market.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!5.Sanofi - Sanofi is a global life science company based in France (Europe) that is aimed towards improving healthcare access to people. The company operates its business through two major segments namely, Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines. The company operates its over-the-counter business as a part of a major business segment named Consumer Healthcare (CHC). Sanofi focuses on partnerships and acquisitions to expand its consumer healthcare business. For instance, Sanofi completed acquisition of Boehringer Ingelheims CHC business in 2017, expand the companys global footprint and product portfolio. In February 2017, Sanofi sold 5 of its over-the-counter drugs to Ipsen SA on closure of its asset swap with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. Ipsen SA was entitled for a payment of US$ 98.70 million to purchase the deal from Sanofi. The total revenue of the companys consumer healthcare segment was valued at US$ 4,141.31 million in 2016. The company reported of good performance and growing sales in developing regions such as New Zealand and Australia. The major brands in the companys OTC segment include Allegra, Doliprane, Essentiale, Nasacort, Maalox, Dorflex, and LactacydThe global over-the-counter drugs market is highly competitive, owing to increasing adoption of personal healthcare and self-medication due to rising awareness among the people regarding health precautions and basic drug knowledge. Under such conditions, the competitors experience performance pressure in terms of pricing. Market players are thus focusing on development of OTC drugs in cost-effective way that will help to cater price-sensitive customers, in turn, significantly maintain and subsequently increase profit margins, especially in emerging economies.Following is the Impact Analysis of the strategies employed by the competitors and its impact on the revenues and sales in the global over-the-counter drugs market.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Predictive Analytics Market: Application in Retail Big Data with Improving Health Outcomes

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Predictive analytics is the use of data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. The goal is to go beyond knowing what has happened to providing a best assessment of what will happen in the future.Market HighlightsPredictive analytics for marketing would have been adopted years ago  if only the compute power were more ubiquitous, the data were more accessible, and the software were easier to use. Now predictive analytics itself is almost a buzzword, after nearly 30 years of backward-looking marketing tracking.Today, well over 30 years after the founding of Lotus Software, even medium-sized businesses are often still operating their marketing scoreboards in Google Sheets or One Drive throw it in a spreadsheet still works. But businesses with an eye on the future want to know more than just what happened in the past. Scoreboards (most analytics tools and tracking) dont tell you what the score will be. Some of our recent AI for marketing articles have gained readership because more and more executives are searching for ways to look forward with their numbers, not just back. SAS defines the term well.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Key Benefits -like article will aim to cover the following: Current applications of predictive analytics for marketing The role of data and machine learning Existing market research on predictive analytics Prominent vendors and service providers in predicitive analyticsTop Industry Players:This report studies the global Predictive Analytics market, analyzes and researches the Predictive Analytics development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, like: IBM, Oracle, SAP, SAS Institute, Accretive Technologies, Angoss Software, HP, Information Builders, Megaputer Intelligence, Microsoft, Microstrategy, Pegasystems.Existing Market Research on Predictive Analytics for MarketingLike machine learning, predictive analytics is getting a lot of attention. While predictive analytics has been kicking around in the world of business and marketing for longer than ML, it only appears to have been this year (2016) that teams using some form of marketing analytics platform are starting to outpace those who still choose to go without. Forrester published a study a few years ago outlining two big challenges that modern marketers face: Creating more personalized and relevant messages for increasingly selective buyers Creating customized marketing campaigns that engage a wider range of key decision-makers and influencers earlier in the buying processRequest Discount on this repots @Market Segment United States EU Japan China India Southeast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Predictive Analytics can be split into Predictive Models Descriptive Models Decision ModelsMarket segment by Application, Predictive Analytics can be split into On Premise CloudBrowse Report @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:Future Generic Reports244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@futuregenicreports.com
Bacillus Subtilis Market Shows Expected Trend to Guide from 2017-2025 with Growth Analysis

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Global Bacillus Subtilis Market Outlook:Western European economies of Germany, U.K., and France are the major contributors to the growth of the bacillus subtilis market for waste water treatment. According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2015, out of 912 million people living in the WHO European region, more than 60 million people were devoid of proper water sanitation facilities and an additional 14 million people did not have access to safe drinking water. Increasing awareness about waterborne diseases is expected to propel the growth of bacillus subtilis market in near future.Bacillus subtilis is utilized in applications such as feed additives, pesticides, and starch processing which directly cater to the food industry. Increasing demand for food & beverages in Asia Pacific economies such as China and India has in turn boosted Bacillus subtilis market growth. With a population of 1.3 billion, China has surpassed the U.S. as the worlds largest consumer of food and beverages. According to the China Britain Trade Council, the food industry in China had overall turnover of US$ 514 Bn in 2014. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the food processing industry in India was valued at US$ 258 Bn in 2015. These factors are expected to fuel the growth of the bacillus subtilis marketSample Copy of This Report@The pharmaceutical industry in India and China is thriving due to a population boom in these countries. The economies together accounted for 36% of the worlds population in 2016. The low cost of labor and raw materials for pharmaceuticals has resulted in India becoming a hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), India accounted for 20% of the worlds supply of generic drugs. Also, with government initiatives such as Pharma Vision 2020, the pharmaceutical industry is slated to grow in India. This is expected to result in increased pharmaceutical applications where the microbe is used as an antigen bearer and thrombolytic agent.Key factors driving the growth of the market include an increasing demand for probiotics due to the associated health benefits with its consumption such as increased immunity, gut health, and reduced risk of cancer. Also, increasing demand for enzymes in leather, starch, paper and textile applications has bolstered market growth of bacillus subtilis.Global Bacillus Subtilis Market Taxonomy:By Product Type:< 100 Billion CFU/g, 100-300 Billion CFU/g, >300 Billion CFU/gBy Application:Cleaning AgentStarch Processing, Waste Water Treatment, Pollution Treatment, Pesticide, Feed Additive, Probiotic Drink, Pharmaceutical, OthersBacillus subtilis is utilized for foliar application using conventional spray equipment. It is compatible with most of the commonly applied fertilizers and pesticides. In pharmaceuticals, bacillus subtilis strains are utilized in the bacterial vaccines as antigen bearers and antigen cellular manufactories. These drinks are particularly popular in South Korea and Japan due to traditional predilection towards consumption of therapeutic foods and beverages. Furthermore, the bacterium is also used as a feed additive to poultry and livestock feed. The consumption of bacillus subtilis by poultry has been observed to lead to improved gut health and resistance to diseases.Request To View Table of Content:Major players in the bacillus subtilis market include Bayer AG, BASF SE, Jocanima Corporation, Tonglu Huifeng, Kernel Bio-tech, Wuhan Nature's Favour Bioengineering Co., Ltd., Real IPM, ECOT China, and Qunlin.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market Research 2018-2025: Global Industry Key Players (Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Estee Lauder)

Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market

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In this report, the Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products 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 Pregnancy Personal Care Products in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaBuy PDF version of this research report @Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Johnson & Johnson L'Oreal Procter & Gamble Unilever Estee Lauder Clarins Group Expanscience Laboratories, Inc. (Mustela) Mama Mio US Inc. (Mio) Noodle & Boo Novena Maternity Nine Naturals, LLCLooking For More Information on This Market? Get Free Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Stretch Mark Minimizer Body Restructuring Gel Toning/Firming Lotion Itching Prevention Cream Nipple Protection Cream Breast Cream Stressed Leg ProductOn 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, including Pregnancy 0-3 months Pregnancy 3-6 months Pregnancy>6 monthsThe report is available on discount for a limited time only @Table of Content1 Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Pregnancy Personal Care Products1.2 Pregnancy Personal Care Products Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Segment by Application1.4 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market by Region (2013-2025)2 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Pregnancy Personal Care Products Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Pregnancy Personal Care Products Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Price by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities7 Global Pregnancy Personal Care Products Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Johnson & Johnson7.2 L'Oreal7.3 Procter & Gamble7.4 Unilever7.5 Estee Lauder7.6 Clarins Group7.7 Expanscience Laboratories, Inc. (Mustela)7.8 Mama Mio US Inc. (Mio)7.9 Noodle & Boo7.10 Novena Maternity7.11 Nine Naturals, LLC8 Pregnancy Personal Care Products Manufacturing Cost Analysis8.1 Pregnancy Personal Care Products Key Raw Materials Analysis8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Pregnancy Personal Care Products9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9.1 Pregnancy Personal Care Products Industrial Chain Analysis9.2 Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing9.3 Raw Materials Sources of Pregnancy Personal Care Products Major Manufacturers in 2017Looking for more insights from this report? @About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Our purpose is to serve you, the most customized in-depth Market access data. Our plethora of titles made us one of the most searched market research library across the globe. We work with the most esteemed Publishers around the globe who caters vast industries. We are quick and fragile, when it comes to your various queries, and we ensure our team caters your needs to the best of our abilities, we promise to stay by your side for both pre and post sales servicing, as we believe in long everlasting symbiotic relationship.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com
Instant Beverage Premixes Market, By Product Type, Form, and Distribution Channel

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As the name suggests, instant beverage premixes are drinks that can easily be prepared usually by adding water. These premixes are available in various forms such as paste, powder, and granular. Owing to benefits offered by instant beverage premixes, adoption rate of these drinks is increasing substantially. For instance, ginger tea premix are rich in anti-oxidants and offers weight reduction and lowering the risk of heart disease.The corporate sector is the largest consumer segment in the market for instant beverage premixes. This is owing to time saving and easy preparation of these remixes, as people do not the time for preparing conventional drinks such as tea or coffee. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employed populace in the U.S. was 154.43 million in January 2018, which was 152.07 million in January 2017. This is another factor boosting the overall instant beverage premixes market growth.Request Sample Copy of Report@However, stringent government regulations for ingredient approval in these premixes is expected to hinder growth of the market of instant beverage premixes. For instance, in 2017, Bestherbs Coffee LLC, a U.S.-based company, recalled its instant coffee product Kopi Jantan Tradisional as FDA confirmed that it contained desmethyl carbodenafil, which is similar to the active ingredient in Viagra. This expected to be a major restraining factor for growth of the market.Instant coffee premix segment dominated the instant beverage premix market in 2016. This is owing to coffee being the preferred drink in the world. According to International Coffee Organization, the consumption of coffee was 155.1 million bags in 20162017, which is expected to increase up to 157.6 million bags in 20172018. Moreover, players in the market are focusing on launching instant coffee premixes, which is further expected to aid in growth of the market. For instance, in 2015, Tata Global Beverages Limited entered into instant coffee business through the launch of Tata Coffee Grand.Online stores segment is projected to exhibit high growth over the forecast period. This growth is attributed to increasing inclination of consumers towards online shopping, owing to high availability of options, discounts, home delivery, and others. Therefore, major players are focusing on collaborating with online shopping stores to enhance their businesses and consumer base. For instance, in 2016, Nestle India partnered with Snapdeal for the distribution of its new Nescafe Sunrise Insta-Filter product.Ask for Customization of Research Report@Major players in the instant beverage premixes market include Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., The Republic of Tea Inc., Tata Group, Monster Beverage Co., The Coco-Cola Co., Neel Beverages Pvt. Ltd., Keurig Green Mountain Inc., Starbucks Corp., Dunkin Brands Group Inc., and PepsiCo Inc.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Household Cleaners Market Revenue Growth Predicted by 2026

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Global Household Cleaners Market Outlook:North America accounted for 30% of the global household cleaners market followed by Europe in 2016. These products have been already adopted for very long time in these developed markets as a result of existing awareness and importance of cleaners. Similarly, high standard of sustainable living lifestyle also appertains to maturity of these markets. However, increasing regulation on use of chemical cleaners has led to minimal growth in both of the regions. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revised its regulations by GHS (HazCom 2012), which will govern labelling of products. According to OSHA, products labelling must have brand name, hazard statement, precautionary statement, and pictogram. This is expected to lead to declining popularity of these cleaners among consumers, owing to increasing awareness regarding harmful chemicals used in them.Request Sample Copy of This Report@Enhanced sanitation standards in emerging countries of Asia Pacific is expected to lead to increasing demand for household cleaners. According to country statistics available in JMP database of 2010, there has been a proportional increase of 20% in people of East Asia, who have improved sanitation from 1998 to 2008. Therefore, Asia Pacific market is expected to exhibit high growth over the forecast period.According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, the market in China is expected to exhibit 5% CAGR over the forecast period (20172025).According to World Vision Data of 2010, emerging countries such as India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Nepal are expected to witness growth, as over 2.6 million people lack proper sanitation, therefore demand for these is high in these countries.According to Coherent Market Insights, specialty household cleaners segment is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.9% in the U.S. Increasing demand for chemical-free solution and development of eco-friendly cleaners has boosted demand for specialty cleaners. For instance, Resolution, a U.S.-based company launched ResGel in 2017, which is a non-toxic cleaning solution and is free of volatile organic compounds.Key players in the market are focusing on increasing their product portfolios through acquisition strategy and to maintain their positions in the competitive market. For instance, SC Johnson, a U.S-based company that manufactures household cleaning products acquired Method and Ecover brands from People Against Dirty in September 2017.The objective of the company was to enhance its product portfolio.These cleaners are formulated with synthetic fiber materials, plastics, and an array of chemical ingredient ranging from solvents, petrochemicals to surfactants. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 62 chemicals found in these household cleaners are toxic and are unsafe to use. According to EPA, chemicals such as phthalates, perchloroethylene (PERC), triclosan, Quarternary ammonium compounds (QUATS), 2-Butoxyethanol, Ammonia, Chlorine, and Sodium hydroxide are commonly used in cleaners and are potential skin-irritant and can cause sore throat or asthma. Moreover, the artificial fragrances that are added in these cleaners can also cause headache, irritation in eyes, respiratory irritation, and others. As per data released by National Institute of Occupational Health, 2012, that one-third of these fragrances are deemed to be toxic. These are the major factors expected to hinder growth of the market. Owing to these above mentioned factors, consumers have started adopting natural home-made solutions made from baking soda, vinegar, citric acid, and essentials oils.Global Household Cleaners Market Taxonomy:By Product Type:All-Purpose Cleaning, Powders, Liquids, Scouring Pads, Non-Abrasive Cleaners, Specialty Cleaners, Kitchen, Bathroom, Glass and Metal Cleaners, Floor and Furniture Cleaner,OthersBy Distribution Channel:Supermarkets,Hypermarkets,Specialty Stores,Convenience Stores,Online Stores,OthersGlobal players in the household cleaners market include Godrej Consumer Products, S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Henkel AG & Company KGaA, The Clorox Company Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, Kao Corporation, Bombril S.A, Colgate-Palmolive, McBride Church & Dwight Co. Inc. Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Seventh Generation.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702
Network Forensics Market on Track to US$ 1,874.4 Mn in 2025

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The global market for network forensics is witnessing rapid growth due to increasing sophistication in cybercrimes and increasing digitalization of information. However, the lack of skilled investigators may restrain market revenue growth during the forecast period. According to a new report published by Persistence Market Research titled Network Forensics Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025), high revenue growth in the market was witnessed due to the rising number of DDos attacks and cybercrimes reported during the historical forecast period 2012 to 2016. Revenue from the global network forensics market is forecasted to increase from US$ 512.3 Mn in 2017 to US$ 1,874.4 Mn by 2025 end, representing a CAGR of 17.6% from 2017 to 2025. This increasing revenue growth is attributed to the increasing adoption of IoT and connected devices and virtualization of servers.Request Report for TOC @Global Network Forensics Market: TrendsPopularity of cloud-based forensicsDemand for managed security servicesIncreasing digitalization of informationRapid advancements in technologies, the adoption of IoT, connected devices, and smartphone penetrationNetwork forensics providers are adopting the trend of entering into strategic partnerships, mergers, and/or acquisitions in the global marketGlobal Network Forensics Market: Forecast by ComponentOn the basis of component, the global network forensics market is segmented into software and services. Services segment is further sub-segmented into consulting and support & maintenance. In terms of value, the consulting segment is expected to increase at a relatively higher CAGR during the forecast period.Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by VerticalOn the basis of vertical, the global network forensics market is segmented into Government, BFSI, Education, Energy & Utility, Healthcare, IT & Telecom, Retail and Others. In terms of value, the government segment is anticipated to increase at a high CAGR during the forecast period and register high Y-o-Y growth rates. In terms of value, this segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 21.7% during the forecast period.Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by DeploymentOn the basis of deployment, the global network forensics market is segmented into On-premises and Software-as-a-Service. In terms of value, the on-premises segment is projected to be the most attractive in the global network forensics market during the forecast period. In 2017, the on-premises segment was valued at US$ 361.6 Mn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue throughout the period of forecast.Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by RegionIn terms of value, the APAC network forensics market is anticipated to increase at a high CAGR during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific regional market is expected to increase 4.8X between 2017 and 2025. However, in terms of revenue share, the North America network forensics market leads the global market with 33.4% value share estimated in 2017. In 2017, the North America regional market was valued at US$ 150.6 Mn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue through 2025.Request to Sample of Report @Global Network Forensics Market: Key PlayersIBM Corporation, Symantec Corporation, RSA Security LLC, NIKSUN Incorporated, FireEye, Inc., PacketSled, Inc., Riverbed Technology, Savvius, Inc., NETSCOUT, LogRhythm, Inc., Cisco System Inc., Corero Network Security, Inc., VIAVI Solutions Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Packet Forensics, LLC and Network Critical Solutions Limited are some of the top companies in the global network forensics market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Offshore Power Grid System Market Evolving Industry Trends and key Insights by 2020

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled Offshore Power Grid System Market Evolving Industry Trends and key Insights by 2020In this report, the Offshore Power Grid System market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Offshore Power Grid System for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.Request Sample of Copy of the Business Report:EMEA Offshore Power Grid System market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Offshore Power Grid System sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including : FMC Technologies , ABB , General Electrics , Aker Solutions ,Cameron International ,Siemens...On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into : Cables ,Variable Speed Drives ,Transformers ,Switchgears ,OthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Offshore Power Grid System for each application, including : Captive Generation ,Wind Power ,OthersRequest For Discount:** If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.*Important Points From TOC Covered In Report:1 EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Offshore Power Grid System Market Report 20172 EMEA Offshore Power Grid System Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application3 Europe Offshore Power Grid System (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application4 Middle East Offshore Power Grid System (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application5 Africa Offshore Power Grid System (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application6 EMEA Offshore Power Grid System Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data7 Offshore Power Grid System Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10 Market Effect Factors Analysis11 EMEA Offshore Power Grid System Market Forecast (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 AppendixList of Tables and FiguresContinue** The Values marked with XX is confidential data. To know more about CAGR figures fill in your information so that our business development executive can get in touch with you.About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email: sales@worldwidemarketreports.com
Alzheimers Drugs Market is the future of pharma industry Market Analysis

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The Alzheimers disease is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, which is associated proportionately with increased life expectancy worldwide. Patient suffers and encounters various behavioral change with dementia, as a primary symptoms, which gets worse as disease progress. It majorly affects people of age group 65 and above. Currently, there is no therapeutic cure available for Alzheimers disease, however, available drugs can lower symptoms or severity of the disease. Although many companies have invested in the development of new drug for Alzheimers disease, a very few molecules have shown a steady improvement in condition of patient and many of those investigational candidates failed to provide significant improvement in patients condition during phase three clinical trials.To understand Research Methodology, please click:Major factor fueling growth of the Alzheimers drugs market is large number of drugs in pipeline, which are expected to enter into market by 2022. According to the study published by Translational Research and Clinical Intervention in September 2017, there are 105 new drugs in pipeline, out of which 25 are in phase one, 52 in phase two and 28 are in phase three. These new products has novel approach such as immunotherapy to target amyloid beta, beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 inhibitors, tau aggregation inhibitor, serotonin 5-HT6 receptor antagonist. Along with this there is an increase amount of collaboration amongst companies for developing drugs in joint effort, for instance in November 2017, Novartis and Amgen, along with the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, announced a collaboration to assess potential of the BACE1 inhibitor CNP520 to prevent or delay symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. In 2016, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company entered into worldwide agreement to co-develop MEDI1814, an antibody selective for amyloid-beta 42 (A42), which is currently in Phase I trials, as a potential disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimers disease. These collaborations are expected to accelerate the development process and bring efficiency in entire arena of operations. However, failing of investigational candidate in late stage is expected to be a huge setback in the current Alzheimers drugs market, for instance in February 2017, an external data monitoring committee warned that Merck & Co. terminated study of Alzheimer's candidate verubecestat due to potential failure in a Phase II/III study.The global Alzheimers drugs market was valued at US$ 7 billion in 2016 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 9.5% over the forecast period (2017 - 2025).Increasing prevalence of Alzheimers disease to drive growth of the Alzheimers drugs market worldwideIncreasing prevalence and incidence of Alzheimers disease worldwide is expected to drive the growth of Alzheimers disease therapeutics market. According to World Alzheimer Report in 2016, an estimated 46.5 million people were suffering from Alzheimers disease and the number is projected to reach 50 million by 2017, every three second there is new patient of Alzheimers disease worldwide.Increasing age and aging global population are major risk factors for Alzheimers, which increase the disease incidence and provide growth opportunity for Alzheimers treatment market. For instance, according to World Population Prospects (WPP) published by United Nations in 2017, an estimated 962 million people are of age 60 or above, which accounted for 13 per cent of the global population. The number is projected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030, growing with annual rate of 3 percent. Europe currently has highest geriatric population (25% of population), Asia Pacific had geriatric population of 547 million people and it is projected to reach 900 million by 2025, therefore these regions have potential opportunity for growth of the market. India has more than 1 million cases of Alzheimers disease annually. North America holds dominant position in the Alzheimers disease therapeutics market with estimated 5.5. Mn patients in 2017. The robust healthcare infrastructure in the region, and the region being an early adopter of novel technologies, positions it as a major market for Alzheimers disease.Ask for customization:Large number of undiagnosed patients and revised diagnostic guidelines to propel growth for Alzheimers drugs marketPeople suffering from early stage of Alzheimers disease with some dementia do not have appropriate access to the healthcare infrastructure to diagnose and treat the disease. For instance according to World Alzheimer Report in 2016, only around 50% patients suffering from dementia undergo diagnosis. The rate of underdiagnoses is 10% in low and middle income economies, therefore, this is expected to propel growth of Alzheimers drugs market. As of 2011, there were no standard guidelines for diagnosis of disease. Currently, biomarker tests involving amount of beta-amyloid in the brain, which can be visualized in positron emission tomography imaging are under research to diagnosis develop treatment for Alzheimers disease. Currently, there is no curative therapy available for Alzheimers disease. However, drugs for Alzheimers therapy are in pipeline, which are expected to launch in near future, which in turn is propelling growth of Alzheimers disease therapeutics market.Key players operating in Alzheimers drugs market include Pfizer, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutical, Novartis International AG, Eisai Co. Ltd., Lundbeck A/S and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., Other prominent players whose products are under clinical trials are Eli Lilly and Company, TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd, VTV Therapeutics, Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., AstraZeneca plc, and AC Immune.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
AI Market in Agriculture Is Expected to Witness High Growth Due to High Penetration of Internet of Things (IoT) In Agriculture Industry

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AI market in agriculture is expected to attain a size of $465.6 million by 2023. The market is expected to witness high growth due to high penetration of internet of things (IoT) in agriculture industry and increasing number of IoT device installations in agriculture. The decreasing price of sensors and increasing adoption of cattle facial recognition are facilitating the market growth. Increasing government support for the development of new farming techniques, and surge in global awareness regarding the benefits of AI in agriculture over the years, are expected to boost the growth of the AI market in agriculture during the forecast period. Among all solutions, crop monitoring is the largest market throughout the period of analysis, and AI-guided drone will be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period. Hardware based products are growing at higher pace than software in the AI market in agriculture. Due to surge in the adoption of AI based agricultural products, installation is the largest service category throughout the period of analysis. Owing to a rising number of agriculture-based startups in Asia-Pacific, the region is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period.Explore Full Report Description at:Geographically, North America is the largest region in the AI market in agriculture with the U.S. alone contributing more than 30% of the revenue to the global market in 2016. The country is also expected to lead the global market during the forecast period. Speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and animal facial recognition are some of the applications on which the companies in the U.S. AI industry are focusing. The U.K., Germany, and France are the major markets in Europe; while in Asia-Pacific, Japan, India, China, and South Korea are the key markets.AI in agriculture industry has been thriving on account of growing need for high volumes of agricultural produce. According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), the world will need to produce nearly 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006, to feed the growing population. To meet this emerging demand, agricultural companies and farmers are rapidly turning to the benefits of IoT for crop analytics and greater production capabilities. There has been an increased number of product launches from these players in the recent past. For instance, in October 2017, Climate Corporation announced the launch of the Climate FieldView digital agriculture platform in western Canada for the 2018 growing season. Through the new launchs analytics-based digital tools, Canadian farmers will now be able to harness their data in one connected platform.Download Report Sample At:IBM and Robert Bosch GmbH are the top companies operating in the AI market in agriculture. The other key players in the industry include Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Climate Corporation, and Microsoft Inc.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:
E-cigarettes Market from 2023: Growth Analysis by Manufacturers, Regions, Types and Applications

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Global E-cigarette Market Outlook:North America region is leading global e-cigarettes market. Increasing educational campaigns coupled with ban on smoking in public places in the U.S. has resulted in an approximate 31% drop in the sale of conventional cigarettes since 2005. This has created a large scale opportunity for e-cigarettes manufacturers in the U.S. thereby resulting in the growth of the market in North America. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), an estimated 27.1% of U.S. adolescents used of e-cigarettes in 2015. This has resulted in 41 states banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors due to the increasing number of health complications associated with it. These factors could greatly hamper the growth of the e-cigarettes market in North America.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @*The Sample consists of Table of Content, Research framework of the actual report & research methodology adopted for it.Europe is projected to be the fastest growing market for e-cigarettes, owing to the high prices and regulations that are imposed on cigarettes in the developed economies of the European region. For instance according to the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), number of smokers using e-cigarettes regularly have increased from 2.7% in 2010 to 17.7% in 2014 in the U.K. and it is expected to witness a substantial increase during the forecast period on account of the health complications due to the combustion of tobacco in cigarettes. The smoke forms a sticky chemical slurry called tar, and the tar coats delicate parts of the lungs. However e-cigarettes dont produce tar, because they dont burn (or even contain) tobacco or other plant material. This is expected to drive growth of the market in the European region.Manufacturers are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions in order to increase their share in the global e-cigarettes market. For instance Philip Morris International (PMI) merged with Altria in 2013 in order to market e-cigarettes. This resulted in PMI gaining the right to sell Altria's e-cigarettes outside the U.S.Increasing health awareness regarding the use of cigarettes, adoption of eco-friendly products, and the tax hike of regular cigarettes are the factors contributing to growth of the e-cigarettes market. In July 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement regarding the potential risks of using e-cigarettes, which include throat irritation and coughing. This is expected to hamper the growth of the global e-cigarettes market.Key players in Global E-Ciggaretes Market -Some of the key players operating in the global e-cigarette market include Japan Tobacco Inc., Reynolds American, Philip Morris International, Altria Group Inc. VMR products, and British American Tobacco.To get detailed table of content (ToC)@Global E-Cigarettes Market Taxonomy:Global E-cigarettes market is segmented into:By Product Type: Modular, Rechargeable, DisposableBy Distribution Channel: Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, Specialty stores, Online Stores, OthersAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
World Chia Seeds Market Analysis 2018, Key Players Updates | Benexia Europa S.A., The Chia Company, Chia Bia Slovakia s.r.o., Naturkost Ubelhor and ChiaCorp | Industry Research Future

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Market Overview:Chia seeds are obtained from a species of flowering plant called Salvia hispanica which belong to Lamiaceae or mint family. Chia seeds have gained their popularity based on their nutritional value and diverse application across various industries. Chia seeds contain nutritional supplements like Omega3 fatty acids, good quality proteins and fibre. Owing to the benefits obtained from chia seeds, the product have gained popularity on a global level as a superfood. Demand of chia seeds is found to be escalating among health conscious consumers, due to on its cholesterol lowering properties. Chia seeds are now widely used in functional food and beverages to enhance the overall nutritive value of the product. Overall, rising health awareness among the present population is supporting the growth of chia seed in the global market.Increasing health concerns and high demand of protein and fiber rich food products from consumers end have a significant impact on this market. Manufacturers highly focus on the product innovations which has resulted in fortification and value added product offerings. Technological strides and a keen focus on R & D has supported in fueling up the market share of chia seeds in the global scenario. Players emphasize on manufacturing natural and organic chia seeds to suffice the growing demand of consumers. This has further led to increased sale of the product. Increasing population of women adopting a healthy lifestyle and traditional food consumption pattern have increased the sale of chia seeds globally.Try Sample Report Here @Competitive Analysis:The major key players in the Chia Seeds Market areChiaCorp (U.S.)Bob's Red Mill (U.S.)Glanbia plc (Ireland)Benexia Europa S.A. (Belgium)Chia Bia Slovakia s.r.o. (Slovakia)Naturkost Ubelhor (Germany) andThe Chia Company (Australia)Chia seeds manufacturers across various regions are following the strategy of geographical expansion to penetrate the global market and to meet the growing demand for chia seeds. Furthermore, the key players are found to be investing highly in R & D sector to improve their existing products line and to enhance the quality of the product. This is one of the major factors that propel the demand for chia seeds as a potential nutraceutical product. In the North America, the U.S. is amongst the dominating countries holding a major share in chia seeds market and export of the product to various other countries, which include the Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and others.Regional Analysis:Global Chia Seeds Market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world (RoW). North America holds a major market share followed by Asia Pacific. High demand for chia seeds owing to increasing disposable income from the developed countries of these regions is contributing to the positive growth of the chia seeds market. Germany, the U.S., the Netherlands, the U.K. and China are the major importers of chia seeds. Economic growth and developed trading channels are also driving the growth of chia seeds market in these countries.Table of ContentExecutive SummaryMarket IntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsPremium InsightsMarket TrendsContinued.Access Report Details @List of TablesTable 1 Pestle Analysis  U.S.Table 2 Pestle Analysis- GERMANYTable 3 Pestle Analysis- CHINATable 4 Pestle Analysis- U.K.Table 5 Pestle Analysis- JapanTable 6 Key Suppliers of Chia SeedsContinued.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactAkash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Snail Beauty Products Market - Industry Insights till 2025

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Snails naturally secretes slimy mucus/snail extract (Helix aspersa muller glycoconjugates) to protect themselves from cuts, bacteria, and UV ray. This protective slimy mucus is enriched with beauty enhancers such as hyaluronic acid, glycolic acid, elastin, glycoprotein enzymes, anti-microbial, copper peptides, and various others. In ancient Greece, snail mucus was applied on wounded or burned skin to enhance skin healing. Currently, snail mucus is used to prepare serums, facial masks, moisturizers, and fading creams, which are mainly used to treat dry skin, wrinkles, stretch marks, acne & rosacea, age spots, burns, scars, razor bumps, and flat warts. Factors such as increasing inclination of mid age population towards grooming, shifting preference towards natural skin enhancing ingredients, and favorable growth of snail farming are major factors driving growth of global snail beauty products market.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report@Among product type, anti-ageing cream segment generated highest revenue in global snail beauty products market in 2016. The segment is expected to lead the market over the forecast period. Snail mucus stimulates the formation of collagen and elastin, which repairs damaged skin and restore skin hydration. Increasing demand for snail creams especially from mid-age population is the prime driver for the growth of this segment. According to United Nation survey, about 65% of world population is under age group of 15 to 64 years. Such huge population base is creating positive environment for growth of anti-ageing cream segment.Asia Pacific held highest revenue share in the global snail beauty products market in 2016 and it is projected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In Asia Pacific, South Korea contributed highest revenue share in the regional market. Shifting consumer preferences towards natural skincare ingredients fuelled by favorable growth of cosmetic industry in the region is bolstering growth of snail extract based beauty products. According to South Korean government, South Korea is the eighth largest cosmetic market in terms of sales in the world. Moreover, increasing popularity of snail spas in Thailand, Korea, and Japan is boosting demand for snail beauty products in the region.North America region is expected to be the fastest growing region, witnessing CAGR of 11.23% over the forecast period. In North America, the U.S. is projected to witness significant growth in the regional snail beauty products market over the forecast period. Increasing focus of leading players to tap potential market in association with local retailers in North America is expected to have positive impact on growth of regional snail beauty products market. CVC Pharmacy, a subsidiary of American Retail and Healthcare Company CVC Health began to promote K-Beauty HQ, which contain more than 100 South Korea beauty brands including snail creams & gels at 2100 stores in April 2017.Request For Customization@According to a study by Coherent Market Insights, the global snail beauty products market was valued at US$ 338.3 million in 2016 and is expected to reach to US$ 769.5 million, by witnessing a CAGR of 10.82%, in terms of revenue, over the forecast period (2017  2025).Anti-ageing creams segment held highest revenue share of 33.25% in the product type and the segment is projected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Cell renewal cream is projected to be the fastest growing segment in the market during the forecast period.Major Players in the Global Snail Beauty Products Market -The major players operating in the snail beauty products market include Mizon, COSRX, KENRA Professional, DRAN Co. Ltd., Owlcare Co. Ltd., and Laboratories Portugal S.R.L. Key players are strategically investing in the snail beauty products market to enhance their product portfolio. For instance, KENRA Professional has developed snail extract based hair care products such as anti-aging shampoo, anti-aging conditioner and cream, which are formulated without sulphates, parabens, and sodium.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Gouty Arthritis Market at the Brink of Witnessing a Healthy Growth Ahead

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North America holds dominant position in gouty arthritis marketRegional segmentation of gouty arthritis market by Coherent Market Insights consist of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. North America is expected to dominate gouty arthritis market, owing high prevalence of gouty arthritis in the U.S. According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 54.4 million patients annually suffered from some form of arthritis from 2013 - 2015, in which gouty arthritis carries significant share. According to clinical guidelines for gout published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2017, about 3.9% of U.S. adults older than 20 years reported about gout at least once in lifetime. Furthermore, increasing geriatric population is driving growth of the market, owing to high prevalence of gouty arthritis in patients above 40 years of age. New and effective therapies to treat gouty arthritis are expected to fuel growth of gouty arthritis market. For instance, in 2015, Astra Zeneca received FDA approval for novel molecule lesinurad (Zurampic), lesinurad is a urate transport inhibitor which inhibits URAT1, a protein responsible for reabsorption of uric acid in kidneys, given in combination with xanthine oxidase inhibitor helps achieve target serum uric acid level. Asia Pacific region is gaining significant traction in this market, owing to increasing number of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease or chronic kidney disease, which are rising incrementally as stated by WHO factsheet 2012,this is owing to established fact that around 75% hypertensive patients had gouty arthritis as study published in Journal of Rheumatology in 2014.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report:Gouty Arthritis Market TaxonomyOn the basis of Drug Class-NSAIDs-Corticosteroids-Colchicine-Urate-lowering agentsOn the basis of gouty types-Acute gouty arthritis-Chronic gouty arthritisGouty arthritis is characterized by intense joint pain due to deposition of uric acid crystals. Symptoms of gouty arthritis include redness and swelling of joints and intense pain. The condition can be treated with the help of medication. Uric acid is deposited either due to its excess intake or bodys inability to process it leading to inflammation of joint sites such as ankles and toes or wrist. Untreated gouty arthritis may damage joints or kidney as excessive accumulation of uric acid crystals would lead to kidney stone, kidney failure. In most cases, it is observed with other metabolic diseases or conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.High prevalence of associated chronic diseases to provide growth to gouty arthritis marketOther comorbidities such as hypertension is often associated with gout. As per study published in Journal of Rheumatology in 2014, around 75% of gouty arthritis patient were reported to be suffering from hypertension. Therefore patients suffering from chronic disease are at high risk of developing gouty arthritis .High prevalence of gouty arthritis is expected to drive the growth for global gouty arthritis market. According to study published in British Medical Journal in 2017, prevalence of gouty arthritis is 1% to 10% globally. Furthermore, factors such as increasing consumption of high protein food worldwide, linked with gouty arthritis and increasing awareness amongst people for early treatment of disease are the factors boosting growth of gouty arthritis market.However, lack of awareness among the medical fraternity regarding effective treatment of the condition, especially in emerging economies creates a hindrance for gouty arthritis market growth. For instance, there is different opinion on whether to use urate lowering agents in acute gouty arthritis, urate lowering agent lowers serum urate levels for the dissolution of urate crystals, which is done either by reducing the production of serum uric acid or by promoting its excretion. Moreover, high costs associated with treatment therapy in chronic gouty arthritis hinders the growth of gouty arthritis market.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!Major players operating in the gouty arthritis market include AstraZeneca plc, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Novartis AG; Savient Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Merck& Co. Inc., Teijin Pharma Ltd., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, JW Pharmaceutical Corporation, and Nippon Chemiphar Co. Ltd.In August 2017, FDA approved first fixed dose combination called Duzallo (Ironwood Pharmaceuticals) of lesinurad with allopurinol to treat hyperuricemia in patients with uncontrolled gout. Duzallo is a one a day combination oral treatment.In 2015, Prasco Laboratories and Takeda Pharmaceutical Inc. entered into a distribution and supply agreement for the rights to distribute Colchicine Tablets, USP, which is generic version of Colrycs, colchicine brand by Takeda Pharmaceutical Inc., this would strengthen the distribution for colchicine and improve accessibility.Novartis in 2013 received European commission approval for Ilaris in treatment of acute gouty arthritis for patients who suffer from frequent attacks of gouty arthritis and are contraindicated to use other treatment option. Illaris is first biologic product to be used in gouty arthritis in Europe.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Sex Toys Market, By Product Type, and Distribution Channel Sex toys are those that may enhance sexual health and also sexual pleasure. Sex toys are gaining popularity due to the increasing acceptance and use of these products. Most of these toys are designed to resemble human genitalia. Sex toys are widely available globally for both men and women and include dildos, vibrators, and sex dolls.



The major factors that contribute to the growth of the sex toys market include increasing awareness and acceptance of such toys for sexual pleasure and increasing use of these amongst couples and the LGBT community. However, various government regulations and low government approval of sex toys products in emerging economies such as India and South Africa with regards to the sale and distribution of these toys due to the taboo related to the use of the products is a major factor that is expected to affect the growth of the sex toys market.



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The vibrator segment is expected to be the most dominant among product types and is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. According to the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality, the vibrator segment accounted for 19.2% of total online sex toys sales in 2017. Among distribution channels, the online channel is expected to be the most dominant segment during the forecast period. Online channels provide the benefit of privacy along with added features such as discussions on the product performance via forums which help drive sales. Among end users, women dominated the sex toys market and are expected to continue to do so during the forecast period. According to the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality, around 44% of women aged between 18 and 60 years have used a sex toy in 2017 as compared to 20% men who have used a sex toy in the same age group.



Global Sex Toys Market Outlook



The North America sex toys market is expected to be the most dominant during the forecast period. This is mainly due to the wide scale acceptance of sex toys in North America especially in the U.S. According to the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality, the U.S. accounted for the highest number of Google searches for sex toys, standing at approximately 100 searches per 1000 people. The U.S.-based company Comingle launched the Mod in 2014, a vibrating dildo that could be customized and can be set to vibrate according to the requirement, level of excitement, amongst others. Factors such as these are expected to drive the growth of the sex toys market in the region.



Challenges in the sex toys market



A major factor that is expected to affect the sex toys market is the low government approval of sexual products especially amongst the emerging economies in the regions of Asia Pacific. For instance sale of sex toys is illegal in India. Sale of sex toys is a punishable offense under the section 292 of Indian penal code, as sex toys are considered an "obscene" product. However, the online sale of sex toys is not illegal and could prove to be a major driver for the growth of the sex toys market in India.



Apart from this, currently there are no safety regulations that exist in the sex toy industry. These toys are sold as novelty items and do not need to comply with any specific regulations that include reporting the chemicals and materials such as phthalates and chemical plasticizers levels used in the product. However, regulations such as REACH do exist, and some sex toys are compliant to this though, there is no obligation for manufacturers to comply with these regulations.



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The wide scale acceptance of sex toys has resulted in the rise in number of manufacturers of sex toys and online channels adding numerous new products in their product portfolio. The National Association for the Advancement of Science & Art in Sexuality (NASAAS), was established in 2013, which is the first trade group that exists in the sex-toy industry and has around 700 member companies. Manufacturers are integrating innovative technologies in their products in order to strengthen their presence in the global sex toys market. For instance, Honk Kong-based Lovense launched Max and Nora the first app-based, Bluetooth sex toys in 2013



Some of the major manufacturers in the Global sex toys market are BMS Factory, Doc Johnson Enterprises, LELO, PHE Inc, Aneros Bad Dragon Enterprises, Inc., Beate Uhse AG, and Tantus, Inc.



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Integration Security Service Market is Projected to Register at a Healthy CAGR of 13.6%

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The latest report by Persistence Market Research (PMR) expects the global integration security services market to witness robust growth. The market is estimated to expand at the CAGR of 13.6% during the forecast period 2017-2026. By the end of 2026, the global integration security services market is expected to reach US$ 36,135.9 million revenue.Request to Sample of Report @Companies are offering integration security services by integrating multi-layered security system into one solution. Key market players are focusing on offering integration security services that can centralize business security operations and real-time monitoring of the facility and different areas of work. Integration security services are being provided with solutions for cyber security management, identity and access management, and compliance management. The demand for an integrated solution with the single user interface that can integrate directly with diverse systems and networks is increasing to keep systems, data, and content protected.Increasing Demand for Easy to Deploy and Easy to Use Integrated Security SolutionsWith the availability of various security solutions in the market, it has become difficult for customers to choose the right solution. Moreover, it is also time consuming and expensive to implement single security solution. Hence, customers are demanding security solutions that are integrated into a single package, is easy to use and easy to deploy. Hence the adoption of integrated security solutions has increased among large as well as small and mid-sized organizations. Integration security service providers are also focusing on enhancing network visibility and incident response.Global Integration Security Services Market- Market SegmentationThe global integration security services market is categorized into end user, industry, deployment type, application, and region. Based on the deployment type, the market segment consists SaaS and on-premises. Among these, on-premises is expected to witness robust growth, accounting for more than half of the revenue share by the end of 2017.End User segment is further bifurcated into small & medium enterprise and large enterprise. Large enterprise is expected to be the largest user of integration security services. By the end of 2026, large enterprise is estimated to surpass US$ 23,600 million revenue.By application, the market is segmented into theft management, identity & access management, compliance management, and others. Integration security services are anticipated to be largely used for compliance management. By the end of 2026, compliance management is estimated to surpass US$ 13,500 million revenue.Based on industry, the market is categorized into healthcare, manufacturing, BFSI, energy & utilities, retail, IT & telecom, and other industries. Healthcare is likely to witness strong growth in the global integration security services market during the forecast period 2017-2026.On the basis of region, the market segment includes Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Japan. Europe is likely to be the largest market in the global integration security services market. The demand in the region is growing due to the presence of key players.Request Report for TOC @Global Integration Security Services Market- Competition TrackingThe report also offers detailed profile of some of the key players in the market such as Symantec, CGI, Decipher Works Pty Ltd, Cisco Systems, Trend Micro, IBM Corporation, Sophos, Optiv, Microsoft Corporation, and DynTek. These key players are constantly working on offering an advanced solution by integrating innovative technologies in the integrated security solution. The companies are also entering into a partnership to expand globally and offer a unique solution.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Biochar Market Investigation Highlights Growth Trends in the Coming Years

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In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Biochar, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Biochar Market to its wide online database. This research assessment offers a clear insight about the influential factors that are expected to transform the global market in the near future. Readers can access the regional as well as segment-wise analysis for acquiring precise information about the global market structure.Get Sample PDF or View Summary of Report @Global biochar market is prosperous. And, although the market is currently in nascent stage, its stockholders will gain new revenue opportunities as a result of its diverse applications in soil amendment, greenhouse gas remediation, and energy production. The report identifies Vega Biofuels, Inc., Pacific Pyrolysis Pty Ltd, Phoenix Energy, Biochar Supreme LLC, Agri-Tech Producers, LLC, Full Circle Biochar, Diacarbon Energy Inc., Genesis Industries LLC, Earth Systems Bioenergy, Pacific Biochar, CharGrow, LLC, and Cool Planet Energy Systems as some of the key companies currently operating in the global biochar market.As per the projections of the TMR report, the demand in the global biochar market will multiply at an impressive CAGR of 14.5% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025, estimating it to reach a valuation of US$14,751.8 thousand by 2025, considerably up from its evaluated worth of merely US$444.2 thousand in 2016. The report also detects Federal Rural University of the Amazon, Aberystwyth University, University of East Anglia, and Massey University as some of the institutes that are currently involved in the research and production of biochar, and may redefine the future of the global market for it. As far as the share of domestic players in the global pie is concerned, the report notes high concentration of manufacturers in the region of North America. These small enterprises are completely integrated into the value chain of the biochar market, right from the production stage to its commercialization.Based on feedstock type, the global biochar market gains maximum demand from woody biomass segment, whereas agriculture and forestry are two important application categories. Geographically, North America is most profitable region, followed by Europe, although vastly populated region of Asia Pacific is projected to increment the demand for biochar at most robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Increasing Usage for Soil Enhancement Driving DemandThe global biochar market is gaining traction from a number of factors, such as its growing usage for soil enhancement, escalating demand for organic food, strict government regulations for soil preservation, waste management benefits, growing investment in the bio-fuels sector, increasing environmental concerns and the consequent need to reduce greenhouse gas emission, and the availability of cheaper feedstock and management of waste disposal. Biochar is produced mainly through modern pyrolysis processes in which direct thermal decomposition of biomass waste in the absence of oxygen takes place, resulting into biochar along with bio-oil and syngas.Biochar is rich in carbon content and is fine grained residue. Biochar can also be obtained using different technologies such as gasification and microwave pyrolysis. In the agriculture sector, biochar is primarily used to enhance soil fertility, increase yield, and provide crop nutrition. Besides improved overall productivity, biochar is also gaining considerable popularity in livestock farming as an animal feed. Owing to the surge in the food industry, the agriculture industry is expected to increasingly adopt biochar as the forecast period unfolds. On the other hand, financial barriers in a number of emerging economies and the lack of consumer awareness are a few hindrances faced by the global biochar market.Growing Popularity of Biochar Certification Opening New OpportunitiesThe growing popularity of biochar certification and standards programs such as IBI Biochar Standards, IBI Biochar certification, European Biochar Certificate, and Biochar Risk Assessment Framework (BARF) is also expected to aid the global biochar market in a longer term.The study provides comprehensive view of the biochar market by dividing it into feedstock, application and geography. The biochar market has been segmented into woody biomass, agricultural waste, animal manure, and others. Application segments electricity generation, agriculture, forestry and others have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Complete Report Details with TOC @Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for biochar in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for end-user segments. Key countries such as the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., China, India, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual end-users in all the regions and countries.Global Biochar Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Major players profiled in the report Pacific Pyrolysis Pty Ltd, Vega Biofuels, Inc., Full Circle Biochar, Genesis Industries LLC, Diacarbonn Energy Inc., Earth Systems Bioenergy, Agri-Tech Producers, LLC , Pacific Biochar, Phoenix Energy, Biochar Supreme LLC, CharGrow, LLC, Cool Planet Energy Systems. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).The global Biochar market has been segmented as follows:Global Biochar Market  Feedstock Type AnalysisWoody BiomassAgricultural WasteAnimal ManureOthersGlobal Biochar Market  Application AnalysisElectricity GenerationAgricultureForestryOthersAbout 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.com
Alternative Payment Solution: M-Pesa Market

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled Alternative Payment Solution: M-Pesa MarketM-Pesa is mobile-based fund-transfer and micro-level banking service available to customers of Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile network. Introduced in 2007, the service has become a primary channel for fund transfers in the country. As of March 2017 it had an active customer base of 26.6 million in Kenya.Originally developed as a low-cost microfinance loan-repayment system, it was extended as an open platform to remit funds and make consumer payments, due to its rising popularity. This was largely a result of factors such as the high cost of remitting funds through banking, a lack of banking facilities, low card penetration, minimal card acceptance infrastructure, and the high costs involved with dealing with cash in Kenya.Request Sample of Copy of the Business Report:Users can register for the service at an authorized M-Pesa agent, and transfer money from an M-Pesa account to a recipient by mobile phone. In addition to money transfers, M-Pesa users can also carry out transactions such as ATM cash withdrawals, and online and in-store payments using a mobile phone. Safaricom expanded its services in May 2017 to include NFC-based in-store payments. The new service, called M-Pesa 1Tap, allows users to make payments simply by tapping a card, mobile phone sticker, or wristband device that is connected to their M-Pesa account onto a contactless POS terminal. Furthermore, Safaricom has collaborated with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), allowing users to open an M-Shwari bank account on a mobile phone without having to visit a bank branch.Following its success in Kenya, the M-Pesa service was expanded to nine countries outside Kenya, and is now available in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Mozambique, Egypt, Lesotho, Ghana, Albania, and Romania.Request For Discount:The report provides information and insights into alternative payment solution M-Pesa, including -- Detailed insight into its business- Comprehensive coverage of its products and services- Comparative assessment with key alternative payment solutions- Information on its performance, including its revenue model- The company's important events and milestonesScope- Launched in Kenya in March 2007, M-Pesa has expanded into nine other markets: Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Mozambique, Egypt, Lesotho, Ghana, Albania, and Romania.- In February 2016, M-Pesa partnered with PayPal, allowing PayPal users to transfer money to an M-Pesa account.- In May 2017, launched NFC-based tap-and-go payment service M-Pesa 1Tap.- As of March 2017, M-Pesa has active customer base of 26.6 million in Kenya.Reasons to buy- Gain insights into M-Pesa's business operations, and key events.- Gain insights into its product portfolio and revenue model.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the alternative payments industry by comparing its performance against competitors.Important Points From TOC Covered In Report:Table of ContentsOverviewGeographical PresenceHistoric MilestonesBenchmarkingPerformance HighlightsRevenue ModelProducts and ServicesSignificant EventsAppendixList of Tables and FiguresContinue** If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.** The Values marked with XX is confidential data. To know more about CAGR figures fill in your information so that our business development executive can get in touch with you.About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email: sales@worldwidemarketreports.comWebsite :
Drugs of Abuse Testing Market to Expand at a CAGR of 5.4% by 2025

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An up to date business intelligence study by Transparency Market Research (TMR) has detected that while the drugs of abuse testing market continues to gain strong demands in North America and Europe, the competitive landscape remains fairly consolidated among a handful of players. This leadership position of some of the prominent companies in the global drugs of abuse testing market, such as F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Siemens Healthineers, Abbott Laboratories, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, and Danaher Corporation (Beckman Coulter, Inc.) is a reflection of their strong presence in the developed countries. In addition to that, these players have been the pioneers of some of the latest testing instruments, and are expected to maintain their stronghold in the near future too.For instance, Thermo Fisher Scientific has several featured products such as CEDIA Oral Fluid Drugs of Abuse Assays, DRI Cocaine Drugs of Abuse Assays, and DRI Ethyl Alcohol Drugs of Abuse Assays. Each of these products are designed to integrate with existing operations of an organization. On the other hand, the Drager DrugTest System (Drager Safety) from the namesake company is a lateral-flow immunoassay for the detection of drugs of abuse in oral fluid, such as saliva.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Global Drugs of Abuse Testing Market to be worth US$6,781.6 mn by 2025The analysts of this TMR report have evaluated that the global drugs of abuse testing market was worth approximately US$4,443.9 mn in 2017 and by the end of 2025, future opportunities are expected to translate into a revenue of US$6,781.6 mn. During the forecast period of 2017 to 2025, the demand in the global drugs of abuse testing market is projected to increment at a CAGR of 5.4%.Based on product type, the TMR report segments the drugs of abuse testing market into analyzers, rapid testing devices, and consumables. The analyzers segment is further sub-segmented into immunoassay analyzers, chromatographic devices, and breath analyzers, whereas rapid testing devices have been bifurcated into urine testing and oral fluid testing. Consumables are divided into fluid collection devices and others. Based on sample type, the market has been categorized into breath, saliva, blood, urine, and hair and sweat. Testing type bifurcation of the market has been done into paint management testing, criminal justice testing, and workplace screening. The report also evaluates the potential of demand that can be expected from the end users in hospitals, diagnostics laboratories, on-the-spot testing, and forensic laboratories. Geographically, North America and Europe have been identified as the two most profitable regions.Request for TOC @Government Initiatives for Workplace Drug Testing Driving DemandAccording to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, more than 115 US citizens die as a result of opioid overdose every day. The country has been taking vigorous efforts to curtail this growing concern and consequently, the demand for equipment and instruments that can test the presence of drugs of abuse is increasing. Similar adoption is also being noticed in some of the European regions including the U.K., France, and Germany. Governments in these countries are also encouraging the corporate sectors to provide for work place drug tests in order to hold the escalating percentage of drug addicts. The mushrooming of diagnostic laboratories, improving healthcare infrastructure in several emerging economies, and prevalent demand for prohibited drugs are some of the other factors augmenting the demand in the global drugs of abuse testing market.Obtain Report Details @Key Takeaways:Demand in the global drugs of abuse testing market to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% during the forecast period.There are only a limited number of players operating in this market, keeping the shares largely consolidated among themselves.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. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Elemental Analysis Market Intelligence Report Offers Growth Prospects

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Elemental analysis is a process of detection and quantification of elemental compounds, molecular species and elements. This analysis technique is a part of analytical chemistry and can be qualitative and quantitative in nature. Sample types tested for trace elements comprises of aqueous, non-aqueous, organic and non-organic materials. For organic chemists, elemental analysis refers to CHNX analysis, which is used to determine the purity and structure of a compound. In this technique, a sample is burnt in excess of oxygen and thereby collecting combustion products like carbon dioxide, nitric acid and water.The masses of these products are used to determine composition of the sample. Ultra trace analysis and elemental trace analysis detection range from parts per million (ppm), to parts per billion (ppb) and parts per trillion (ppt) levels, using updated techniques and instruments. Some of the major technologies used for elemental analysis include inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, X-ray Fluorescence and X-ray Diffraction among others.Download Report Brochure @Some of the key driving factors for elemental analysis market are increasing concern for food safety, increasing usage of X-ray fluorescence in clinical research and growing R&D funding in life sciences. Moreover, this technology has a wide range of application areas in different segments of industry and thus has a major market worldwide. There are other geographical drivers which are also responsible for the growth of the market. In addition, demand from emerging markets across India and China are expected to create opportunities for elemental analysis market in the future. However, high cost of elemental analyzers and urge for efficient professionals act as major restraints to the growth of the market.Global elemental analysis market can be broadly classified on the basis of types, technology, applications and geography. By types, the market for elemental analysis is segmented into organic and inorganic. The market is divided by technology into destructive and non-destructive technologies. Moreover, elemental analysis has different application areas including food and beverage testing, life sciences, environment testing and geology among others.Request for TOC @Currently North America is dominating the market for elemental analysis in terms of revenue, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. The major factor responsible for immense development of elemental analysis market in North America is rapid technological advancement of this technique in various application areas, such as food and beverage, biotechnology, chemical and semiconductor industries among others. However, Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at a significant rate in the future, primarily due to increasing awareness for elemental analysis in China and India coupled with rising demand from applied markets. Furthermore, strategic expansion by manufacturers in China and use of modern analysis technique in Chinese medicines are likely to develop the market for elemental analysis in Asia Pacific.Obtain Report Details @Some of the key players in this market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), AMETEK, Inc. (U.S.), PerkinElmer, Inc. (U.S.), Bruker Corporation (U.S.), Shimadzu Corporation (Japan), Elementar Group (Germany) and Rigaku Corporation (Japan) among others.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. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Flexo Ink Market Booming at 5.72% CAGR | Dominated by Packaging & Label Industry

Ink

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Global Flexo-ink Market research report published by Market Research Future sharing details on Market Analysis, new Technology, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast up to 2023. Key players of the global Flexo-ink market are Sun Chemical Group, Flint Group, TOYO INK SC HOLDINGS CO., LTD., HuberGroup Deutschland GmbH, T & K TOKA CO., LTD., SAKATA INX CORPORATION and Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA among others.For Details Get Sample Copy of Flexo-ink Market Research Report atGlobal Flexo-ink Market research report spread across 140 Pages consist 170 Tables and 21 Figures also include Top 10 Global key players that sharing latest types, technology, application by 2023.Flexo-ink Market Market Overview / Study Objective / SynopsisThe Global Flexo-ink Market is expected to witness a significant growth by 2023 with CAGR of 5.72%. The prominent factors fuelling the growth of flexo-ink market are, new technologies and growing demand of solvent based inks in flexible packaging. Moreover, rising demand for packaged food and beverages has led to development in labelling industry which ultimately upsurge the flexographic printing ink in quality products and services. Apart from this, favouring government regulations and improved performance are key to future gains in the water based flexo-ink market.Flexo-ink Market - Key FindingsGlobal Flexo-ink market is projected to reach USD 6,840.5 million in 2016 and expected to reach USD 10,030.3 million in 2023 with a CAGR of 5.72%.Asia Pacific accounted for largest share due to easy availability of raw material, lower labor cost and minimal legislations by government regarding usage of VOCs contain inks in end user industries like packaging, label and paper.Key players including SunChemical, Flint Group, Toyo Ink and Siegwerk among others are investing more into product development and shifting towards UV based inks owing to zero VOC contain and high profit margin.Flexo-ink market is a fragmented market, however, tier 1 and tier 2 manufacturers dominate the market share.Asia Pacific dominate the market accounting for 40%, followed by Europe and North America. Asia Pacific is forecast to be the fastest growing region in Flexo-ink market at close to 6.09% CAGR from 2017 to 2023Flexo-ink Market - Intended AudienceFlexo-ink manufacturersTraders and distributors of Flexo-inkProduction Process industriesPotential investorsRaw material suppliersNationalized laboratoryFor more technical and professional details Book Complete Flexo-ink Market Report atFlexo-ink Market Competitive AnalysisFlexo inks are produced with mixture of resins, additives, pigments, surfactants, adhesion promoters and micro amounts of deformers and silicones to provide excellent properties with cost advantages. Flexo inks are available in three forms, water based, solvent based and UV based. Solvent based flexo inks are ideal for plastics films, wallpaper and commercial uses while water based inks works well with porous materials like cardboard and paper. However, with increase in achievable quality combined with savings in downtime and waste have made UV Flexo inks one of the popular standardised ink in the sectorFlexo-ink Market  Segmentation AnalysisThe global Flexo-ink market is majorly segmented on the basis of Type, Resin Type, End Use and Region. On Basis of Type, global Flexo-ink market is segmented into Water Based Flexo, Solvent Based Flexo, and UV Based Flexo. Based on Resin Type, Flexo-ink market is segmented into Acrylic Resin, Polyurethane Resins, Polyamide Resins, Cellulosic Resins, Vinyl Resins, Others. Based on end use, Flexo-ink is segmented into Packaging Industry, Label Industry, and Paper Industry. Based on region market is divided into North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Flexo-ink Market - Regional AnalysisGeographically, Asia Pacific region is the largest market of Flexo-ink due to growing Flexo-ink manufacturers owing to minimal legislations by environmental regulation bodies. Asia Pacific accounts for 40% of market share in which China is dominating segment with more than 50% of market share. With increasing investments in expansion and product development by major players in market especially in packaging industry are also projected to boost the market for flexographic ink market. In addition, packaging industries are gathering more attention to flexible packaging by offering attractive look for customers to purchase. Further in coming years, it is expected that key players will target these region in order to form strategic alliance with local players in market to maintain market share.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 Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Streptococci Testing Market Shares, Strategies and Forecast Worldwide, 2016 - 2024

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Streptococci Testing Market: OverviewStreptococcal infections are caused by a microorganism called Streptococcus which is a non-motile, microaerophilic, grampositive spherical bacterium. Several disease causing strains of the bacteria include streptococci (groups A, B, C, D, and G). Each group causes specific types of infections and symptoms. Group A strain of the bacteria are the most virulent species for humans and cause wound and skin infections, strep throat, scarlet fever, tonsillitis, blood infections (septicemia), pneumonia, Sydenham's chorea., rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis.Streptococci are known to originate from several natural sources, including humans and diverse animals. These bacteria often colonize on the mucosal surfaces of the mouth, nasal passages, intestinal tract, and pharynx. Moreover, the bacteria may also cause contamination of drinking water due to feces. Food products which are at high risk of contamination include milk and dairy products, steamed lobster, eggs, potato salad, ground ham, rice pudding custard, and shrimp salad. Some streptococci are commercially important for the production of cheese and yogurt, though are known to be potent pathogen.Download Report Brochure @The bacteria species which do not cause any infection and are used in food industry include S. lactis, S. diacelillactis S. cremoris, and S. thermophilus, the latter being the most well-known. The factors affecting the incidences of sore throats (pharyngitis) include seasonal variation, patients age, and geography. Pharyngitis most of the times is bacterial, though can be viral. Children ranging from 5 to 15 years of age are most susceptible to the infection by group A strep during the winter or early spring season. Symptoms of this infection include stomach aches, headaches, vomiting, nausea, and listlessness.Streptococci Testing Market: Key SegmentsThe global streptococci testing market can be segmented based in tests type, end users and geography. Antibody tests include the antistreptolysin O titer (ASO), anti-DNase-B (ADB) test and Streptozyme. ASO test helps in determining a kidney disease glomerulonephritis, scarlet fever or rheumatic fever. ADB test is performed to determine a previous infection of a group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus. Streptozyme is a screening test used to detect antibodies to several streptococcal antigens. Diagnostic tests include throat culture and rapid antigen test. Diagnostic tests are used to confirm the infection where in the sample from the infected area is used as culture, a means of growing bacteria artificially in the laboratory.Request for TOC @The cause of a sore throat is usually diagnosed on the basis of a physical exam and lab tests. A throat culture also known as strep test helps in detection of the presence of group A strain of streptococcal bacteria by using a throat swab. This strain is the most common cause of strep throat infection. Various other infections caused by these bacteria include pneumonia, meningitis and tonsillitis. Rapid antigen test can detect strep bacteria in minutes by looking for substances (antigens) in the throat. The rapid strep test detects the presence of a carbohydrate antigen which is unique to group A Streptococcus.The downside to the rapid test is that it cannot detect the presence of Group C and G which can also cause streptococcal pharyngitis. On positive rapid strep test, the treatment is started with appropriate antibiotics to prevent long-term damage and recurrence. End users segment include hospitals, private labs, physicians offices and public health labs. Geographically, the global streptococci testing market is segmented into four major regions namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World.Obtain Report Details @Streptococci Testing Market: Key PlayersThe key players contributing to Streptococci market include Abbott Diagnostics, Beckman Coulter, bioMerieux, DiaSorin, Hologic, Qiagen, Roche Diagnostics, Novartis Diagnostics, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Sigma Aldrich, and Thermo Fischer Scientific.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. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Overview Of Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Market 2018 | WHC, Viva, OmegaVia, Nutrigold, Omax3 and Others

EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global EPA/DHA Omega-3 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 Pcs), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of EPA/DHA Omega-3 for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 market competition by top manufacturers/players, with EPA/DHA Omega-3 sales volume, Price (USD/Pcs), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingWHCVivaOmegaViaNutrigoldOmax3OceanInnovixLabsControlledOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCapsulePowderOn 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, includingInfant FormulaFortified Foods and BeveragesNutritional SupplementsPharmaceuticalsClinical NutritionTable of ContentsGlobal EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Market Report 20181 EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of EPA/DHA Omega-31.2 Classification of EPA/DHA Omega-3 by Product Category1.2.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Capsule1.2.4 Powder1.3 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Infant Formula1.3.3 Fortified Foods and Beverages1.3.4 Nutritional Supplements1.3.5 Pharmaceuticals1.3.6 Clinical Nutrition1.4 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market by Region1.4.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India EPA/DHA Omega-3 Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of EPA/DHA Omega-3 (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume) by ApplicationGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Value (2013-2018)4.1.1 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.2 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.3 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)4.2 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)4.3 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.4 China EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Value (2013-2018)5.1.1 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.2 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.3 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)5.2 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Europe EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Value (2013-2018)6.1.1 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.1.2 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.1.3 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)6.2 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)6.3 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)6.4 Japan EPA/DHA Omega-3 Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Continue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Flexible Plastic Packaging Market to Reach an Estimated Value of US$ 202 Bn by 2022

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Persistence Market Research (PMR) has published a new report, which is titled, Global Market Study on Flexible Plastic Packaging: Asia Pacific Excluding Japan to Lead the Global Market in Terms of Revenue During 2017-2022. Flexible plastic packaging is one of the growing trends in the packaging industry.Flexible plastic packaging makes use of various types of plastic material for packaging of different products. Depending on the application and type of product to be packaged the material to be used is chosen. The most commonly used material is plastic such as polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polypropylene.Request for Table of Contents @Flexible plastic packaging is highly in demand on account of the convenience it provides and prolonged shelf life it offers to the products. Flexible plastic packaging is considered to be effective for distributing and packaging food items, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and consumables. It is an economical way for preserving items.This form of packaging is witnessing much demand on account of the efficient distribution and as it helps minimize losses. According to Persistence Market Research, the global flexible plastic packaging market is expected to witness a robust CAGR through 2017 to 2022. The market for flexible plastic packaging is estimated to reach a value of around US$202 bn by the end of 2022.The report segments the global flexible plastic packaging market on the basis of pack type into the sachet and pouches, bags, tubes, films and wraps, and others. Of these, the sachet and pouches segment is witnessing highest potential of growth. This segment has been contributing the most to the flexible plastic packaging market ever since 2016. The sachet and pouches segment is anticipated to expand at the fastest pace, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period from 2017 to 2022, and is estimated to portray a high share in the market. This segment is also estimated to show a high BPS by 2022 end.By material type, the global flexible plastic packaging market is segmented into polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyamide, ethylene vinyl alcohol, and polypropylene. Of these, the BOPP material is witnessing highest demand. The segment is anticipated to be in high demand for packaging potato chips, packing snacks, reusable woven bags for shopping, and in labels and wrapping films. The BOPP material is expected to expand at the highest CAGR of 10% throughout the forecast period. It is leikly to gain a high BPS by 2022.The polyethylene segment is anticipated to continue witness steady growth and maintain an attractive market share through 2017-2022. The segment is likely to enjoy a high market share and this is attributed to its use in various FMCG products such as foil pouches, beverages, and in metallized lids. It is also used for packaging of confectioneries, yoghurt, and carton windows. In 2017, the polyethylene segment accounted for a whopping 50% market share in the global flexible plastic packaging market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The global flexible plastic packaging market is led by key players such as Berry Global Group, Inc., Bemis Company, Inc., Amcor Ltd., Sealed Air Corporation, Mondi Group plc, Huhtamaki Oyj, Sonoco Products Company, Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH, Bischof & Klein GmbH & Co. KG, and Ampac Holdings LLC.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
Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Trend to 2023 Profiling Medtronic, St. Jude Medical (Abbott), Boston Scientific, Biotronik, LivaNova (Sorin), Medico, IMZ

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Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market report 2023 focuses on the major Types and Applications for the key players. Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices market research report also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market. The Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices market research report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Industry.Cardiac Rhythm Management Device is a medical device which uses electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contracting the heart muscles, to regulate the beating of the heart. A cardiac rhythm management device (CRMD) refers to any permanently implanted cardiac pacemaker or any implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The term CRMD also refers to any cardiac resynchronization device. The term CRT refers to a CRMD that provides cardiac resynchronization therapy using biventricular pacing techniques.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request for a Sample Copy of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Report @Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:Medtronic, St. Jude Medical (Abbott), Boston Scientific, Biotronik, LivaNova (Sorin), Medico, Lepu (Qinming Medical), IMZ, Cardioelectronica and Pacetronix.An inherent sub-vertical of the Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Industry space, Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market OverviewGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices by CountriesGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Segment by TypeGlobal Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Segment by ApplicationCardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversPacemaker, ICD and CRTMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Bradycardia, Tachycardia, Heart Failure and OtherThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices market.Chapter 1, to describe Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices, with sales, revenue, and price of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -Global Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Market Research Report 2018Global market of Cardiac Rhythm Management Device developed smoothly, with an average growth rate of 4.5%. In 2017, Global Revenue of Cardiac Rhythm Management Device is nearly 10.2 billion USD; the actual production is about 1360 K Unit.More Report @Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:
Global Artificial Intelligence Courses In BFSI Sector To Grow At A CAGR Of 37.78% During The Period 2017-2021 : EDUCBA, IBM, futuretext

Artificial Intelligence Courses in BFSI Sector

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Artificial Intelligence Courses in BFSI Sector 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.AI is defined as a computer technology that performs tasks, which previously required human intelligence and manual support. At present, working professionals are availing AI certifications for advances in their career and to effectively contribute to business trends. By learning and developing AI skills, they can take a strategic and thoughtful approach to their career development. On doing so they get to understand AI concepts, and can easily identify and eliminate errors with the use of algorithms and processes.Technavios analysts forecast the global artificial intelligence courses in BFSI sector to grow at a CAGR of 37.78% during the period 2017-2021.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global artificial intelligence courses in BFSI sector for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the AI certification courses segment in prominent geographies, which include North America, Europe, APAC, and ROW.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEuropeROWGlobal Artificial Intelligence Courses In BFSI Sector 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsHong Kong Securities and Investment InstituteEDUCBAIBMfuturetextOther prominent vendorsIvy Data ScienceCFTEInfosysByte AcademyMarket driverIncreasing use of AI technology for cost reduction and quality researchFor a full, detailed list, view our reportGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Market challengeChallenges related to patenting and protecting dataFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmerging cybersecurity professional trainingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global LLDPE Market Is Likely To Exhibit A Steady 6.2% CAGR Over The 2017-2022 Rise To To US$70.6 Bn

LLDPE Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "LLDPE Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.The global LLDPE market report examines a market rife with promising investment opportunities following the unfolding of several positive developments for the market in recent years. The LLDPE market is analyzed in the report in terms of its future growth potential over the 2017-2022 forecast period. The historical growth trajectory exhibited by the global LLDPE market from 2012 to 2017 is assessed in the report with the help of detailed factbanks demonstrating the direction taken by various components of the LLDPE market in recent years. The present condition of the LLDPE market and the path taken by it to reach its present figures is analyzed in full in the report to present readers with accurate information about how the global LLDPE market is positioned at present and where it stands to grow in the coming years. Segmentation and key drivers of the global LLDPE market are assessed in the report in order to provide readers with a clear picture of the LLDPE markets growth prospects in the coming years.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @According to Transparency Market Research, the global LLDPE market is expected to rise to a valuation of US$52.2 bn by the end of 2017 and further rise to US$70.6 bn by the end of 2022, exhibiting a solid 6.2% CAGR therein.Global LLDPE Market: DynamicsThe rapidly advancing LLDPE market stands to gain from several developments in the global economic and industrial fields, which have brought about conducive conditions for widespread adoption of LLDPE in a number of industrial sectors. The major drivers and restraints having a decisive impact on the growth trajectory of the global LLDPE market are assessed in the report in order to provide readers with an accurate portrayal of the factors likely to determine the global LLDPE market in the 2017-2022 forecast period. Analysis of the major drivers and restraints of the LLDPE market will enable market players to formulate market strategies tailored to make the most of the LLDPE markets driving factors while avoiding damage due to the restrictive effects hampering growth of the LLDPE market.Global LLDPE Market: SegmentationThe report provides a comprehensive view of the global LLDPE market by illustrating its granular composition in terms of the leading contributors to the market by each criterion. The report studies the growth patterns of each segment of the LLDPE market from 2012 to 2017 in order to provide clear indicators to readers about the direction the segments are likely to take in the 2017-2022 forecast period.The report segments the global LLDPE market by application into packaging and nonpackaging films and coatings, injection and blow molding, sheets, and containers, tanks, toys, rotational molded outdoor products, etc. By grade, the global LLDPE market is segmented into extrusion grade LLDPE, injection molding grade LLDPE, rotomolding grade LLDPE, and others. To understand the geographical distribution of the global LLDPE market, the report studies the performance of the LLDPE market in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Japan, and Asia Pacific except Japan.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Global LLDPE Market: Competitive DynamicsThe report sheds light on the competitive dynamics of the global LLDPE market by performing a crucial analysis of the leading players operating in the global market. Key companies in the global LLDPE market include The Dow Chemical Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, LyondellBasell Industries NV, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., SABIC, Mubadala Investment Company, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Reliance Industries Ltd., Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, and Sasol Limited.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Ebola Vaccine Market at the Brink of Witnessing a Healthy Growth Ahead

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Increasing number of Ebola cases in affected regions and new vaccine development for this are expected to be factors driving growth of the marketIncreasing mortality rates due to Ebola is expected to be a major factor for growth of the market. According to World Health Organization, in January 2018, around 50% people infected with EVD, have died. African countries such as Siberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Mali, Nigeria were affected with EVD. In 201416, outbreak in West African countries such as Siberia, Leone, and Guinea, lead to deaths of around 11,300 individuals. Some cases were observed during 201416 outbreak in the U.S., Spain, Italy, the U.K. among people that travelled to affected African countries and people who came in contact with infected patients. In May 2017, WHO declared outbreak of EVD in Democratic Republic of Congo. There is still fear about potential outbreak of EVC in vulnerable regions of Western Africa which earlier faced EVD outbreak due to gaps in public health infrastructure.Various institutes and pharmaceutical companies are focusing on developing vaccines against EVD.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report:According to study published in the journal, The Lancet, in December 2016, rVSV-ZEBOV also known as V920 vaccine, which is jointly developed by Newlink Genetics and Merck and Company, was found to be effective in protection against EVD in phase three trial. rVSV-ZEBOV uses strain of Zaire Ebola virus. Merck is planning to file for final marketing approval of its EVD vaccine with the U.S. FDA in 2018. Moreover, it produced 3,00,000 vaccines, in case of fresh outbreak in vulnerable regions. Various key players are focusing on developing vaccines for EVD, in order to expand its market share. For instance, GlaxoSmithKline developed CAd3-ZEBOV vaccine, derived from chimpanzee adenovirus and was tested by National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Disease, which started its phase three trials in February 2016. Janssen Pharmaceuticals Ad26-ZEBOV is an experimental vaccine under development and currently in phase one. In 2014, Novavax Inc. developed Ebola vaccine by using its proprietary recombinant technology.Ebola Vaccine Market Taxonomy:On the basis of virus strain, the global Ebola vaccine market is segmented into:Recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-Zaire Ebola virusChimpanzee Adeno virus type 3-Zaire Ebola virusAdeno virus serotype 26- Zaire Ebola VirusIn January 2018, GeoVax Labs Inc., published results tested in non-hamate primates for its experimental vaccine, GEO-EM01 against EVD. It is based on companys novel Modified Vaccinia Ankara Virus like Particle (VLP) platform, which produces non-infectious VLPs in body of vaccinated individual. These VLPS mimics the natural infection, which triggers the body to produce immune response with both antibodies and T cells.GAVI is an international organization (global Vaccine Alliance) paid US$ 5 million to Merck & Company in 2016 for procurement of the vaccine (V 920 vaccine). Key players in the global Ebola vaccine market are Merck and Company, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novavax Inc.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!Ebola virus disease (EVD) causes viral hemorrhagic fever. It is a life threatening disease, which is spread to humans from animals. Direct contact with body fluids of infected person is one of largest causes of spread of this infection. Symptoms of Ebola disease include high fever, vomiting, sore throat, diarrhea, headache and muscular pain, and in few cases, internal or external bleeding. Although, there is no cure for Ebola virus disease, symptomatic treatment such as maintaining electrolyte balance, imagining required oxygen level, and treating infectious condition might help in improving patients health. Most of vaccines to prevent Ebola virus disease are under different developmental stage.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Luggage and Leather Goods Market will Reach US$ 361.3 Bn by 2024

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Innovatively designed baggage & leather goods will remain in great demand as tourists from all parts of the world will prefer travelling in style. Soaring demand for trendy suitcases and hand bags will also be instrumented by higher durability of leather goods and luggage.Request for Table of Contents @A latest report published by Persistence Market Research projects that during the 2016-2024 forecast period, the global market for luggage & leather goods will reach US$ 361,326.1 Mn value. The report further estimates that the market, which is presently valued a little over US$ 244,000 Mn, will soar steadily at a CAGR of 5%.Key factors impacting the dynamics of the global luggage & leather goods market are compiled in the report, which follow:Growing preference to vegetable-tanned leather is influencing the global consumption of leather luggage. Manufacturers of such goods are labelling their products according to such popular consumer preferences.Flourishing tourism industry is directly boosting the global sales of luggage & leather goods, with favors pouring in from both domestic and international tourism.However, the demand for luggage & leather goods is also expected to witness restrain from surging adoption of substitute materials. The demand for leather luggage products is expected to lose traction, gradually, to polyester, nylon, rexine, and other equally-durable synthetic materials.Rising demand for lightweight bags, organic leather products and affordable luggage goods is also expected to favor the growth of global market for luggage & leather goods. Over nine out of every ten luggage goods sold in the world will continue to be leather goods.The report predicts that by the end of 2024, the world will have witnessed sales of US$ 331,000 Mn worth of leather goods. Among which, footwear and leather accessories are anticipated to be top-selling leather products.The report further reveals that specialty & multi brand stores, single brand stores, and general retail outlets will collectively serve as largest sales channels for luggage & leather goods. In 2016, over 2,000 million units of luggage & leather goods were sold through general retailers, while online sales accounted for a little over 4.5% revenue share.Key findings in the report also exhibit that North America and Europe will collectively dominate the global market for luggage & leather goods. Nevertheless, these regions are likely to showcase value CAGRs below 5%. Contrary to this, Latin Americas luggage & leather goods market is projected to soar at 5.3% CAGR. Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, will witness fastest revenue growth at 5.8% CAGR.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The report has also profiled globally-prominent manufacturers of luggage & leather goods, which include, Knoll, Inc., Samsonite International SA, Hermes International SA, American Leather, Inc., Aero Leather Clothing Ltd., Timberland, Woodland, Johnston & Murphy, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, and VIP Industries Ltd.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.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
Adult Diapers Market - Global Industry Growth, Trends, and Forecast For 2023

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Global Adult Diapers Market: OverviewOver 19 million people in the U.S. have some form of incontinence or other, and almost 85% of them are women. Incontinence is a common condition, which can treated by suitable medication or surgery in some special cases. However, those unwilling to undergo intrusive procedures have the option of choosing adult incontinence products. An adult diaper can be classified as incontinence care products and those meant to be worn if suffering from severe diarrhea, incontinence, mobility impairment, or dementia. The growing aging population, urbanization, greater affordability, and improved awareness are the chief factors driving the global adult diapers market.Download Brochure For More Information@By product, the global adult diapers market can be segmented in terms of product, application, and geography. By product, the market constitute reusable and disposable adult diapers. The market can be further classified into pad type diapers, pant type diapers, and flat type diapers. The report provides a detailed analysis of the various factors supporting the markets growth across the aforementioned segments. It also lists the restraints that could inhibit the markets expansion. It compiles exhaustive information sourced through proven research mythologies to help stakeholders get a better perspective of the global adult diapers market.Global Adult Diapers Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSlow growth in personal income, lingering unemployment, and high cost of living have continued to weigh on the spending habits of consumers and their decisions to expand families. As per information shared by the Census Bureau, the retiring baby boomers have resulted in the surge of geriatric population (65 years of age and older) in the U.S., which is expected to nearly double itself from that in 2012 and reach nearly 83.7 million in 2050. The rapidly growing aging population, improvement in the healthcare system, and economic affluence are the chief factors driving the global adult diapers market.The geriatric care takers and parents are commonly educated and trained through media regarding the importance of hygiene when using baby or adult diapers. Some of the branded manufacturers are consciously focusing on creating awareness regarding the same, which is projected to have a positive influence on the market.Despite the favorable opportunities, lack of awareness and social stigma often attached with incontinence especially in underdeveloped economies are hindering the growth of the market. Nevertheless, with efforts by governments and big brands to eradicate such social stigma, in future the market will witness considerable growth for raking in higher profit.Global Adult Diapers Market: Regional OutlookRegionally, the global adult diapers market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, MENA, and Rest of the World. As China, trailed by India, has the largest population of aged people, these countries are also expected to demonstrate the fastest growth in terms of the demand for adult diapers through the course of the forecast period. Market trends suggest, a majority of new entrants will focus on expanding their business in emerging economies to capitalize on the opportunities prevalent therein.Get Customize Report@Global Adult Diapers Market: Vendor LandscapeSome of the most prominent companies operating in the global adult diapers market are DSG International, Covidien, First Quality Enterprises, Inc., Daio Paper, Hengan Group, Fu Burg Industrial, Medline Industires, Kao Corp., Nippon Paper Industries, Kimberly Clark, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), P&G, Ontex International, Unicharm., and Tranquility. In the forthcoming years Procter & Gamble (P&G) is projected to strengthen its market position as compared to other leading brands in the market.About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs 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 TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Diabetic Foot Ulcers Treatment Market: Technologies and Global Markets

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Diabetic foot ulcers is a common disease observed in diabetic patients. According to facts presented in fact sheet 2017, Center for Disease and Prevention, among the total diabetic population, 60%80% suffers from foot ulcers. New and innovative treatments in wound dressings and therapy devices is expected to augment the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market growth. Since there are less availability of products to treat diabetic foot ulcers by device, provides a great opportunity for key players as well as new entrants to enter the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market. Furthermore, Negative pressure wound therapy devices essential for the management of diabetic foot ulcers, as also expected to favor the growth of diabetic foot ulcers treatment market.Request a sample copy of this report:Diabetic foot ulcers treatment market is mainly driven by increasing prevalence of diabetes. According to World Health Organization, it was estimated that 422 million adults were suffering from diabetes, in 2014 globally. Furthermore, according to National Diabetes Statistics Report 2017, 30.3 million people in the U.S. have been estimated to have diabetes. This is expected to favor growth of the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market.Furthermore, according to the data published by Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) in October 2014, over 2.5 million individuals in the U.S. develop pressure ulcers annually, which costs the U.S. health care system around US$ 9.1 billion to US$ 11.6 billion per yearIncreasing number of product launches and innovative therapies are also expected to drive the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market growth. For instance, in December 2017, FDA approved shockwave therapy by Dermapace for diabetic foot ulcers treatment. The FDA also approved a spray, Granulox by infirst Healthcare Ltd, in November 2017, for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.The global diabetic foot ulcers treatment market was valued at US$ 1,209.4 million in 2017 and is expected to witness a robust CAGR of 29.4% over the forecast period (20172025).Rising prevalence of diabetes is expected to favor growth of the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market in the near futureNorth America accounted for the largest share in the global diabetic foot ulcers treatment market, followed by Europe, in 2017. This is attributed to increasing prevalence of diabetes in North America. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2015 and 1.5 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed among people aged 18 years and older.Ask for customization:Furthermore, CDC partnered with various organizations to launch programs to create awareness about diabetes. For instance, CDC established National Diabetes Prevention Program in 2010, which provides a framework to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes efforts in the U.S., where this program is still active and effective.In Asia Pacific region, the diabetic foot ulcers treatment market is expected to exhibit a high growth rate over the forecast period. This is owing to increasing number of population suffering from diabetes. For instance, according to The International Diabetes Federation, there were 382 million people with diabetes in 2013, of which over 60% of the people live in Asia, with almost half in China and India combined.Some major players operating in the global diabetic foot ulcers treatment market include 3M Healthcare, Coloplast A/S, B.Braun Melsungen AG, Acelity L.P. Inc., Smith & Nephew Plc., Medtronic Plc, ConvaTec Inc, and Molnlycke Health Care.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Mobile Backend as a Service (BaaS) Market by Top Manufacturers - Oracle Corporation,IBM Corporation,Microsoft Corporation,Kony,Appcelerator, Cloudmine

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Mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), also known as ""backend as a service"" (BaaS), is a model for providing web app and mobile app developers with a way to link their applications to backend cloud storage and APIs exposed by back end applications while also providing features such as user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services. These services are provided via the use of custom software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs).Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Mobile Backend as a Service (BaaS) in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversOracle CorporationIBM CorporationMicrosoft CorporationKonyKinveyAnypresenceAppceleratorBuilt.IoKII CorporationCloudmineParseFeedhenryMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversAndroidiOSOthersGet more Information about this Report@Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoData and application integrationIdentity and access managementUsage analyticsSupport and maintenance ServiceOthersaAbout 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-USA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomSend Us An EmailE-mail: sales@futuregenicreports.comCall UsToll Free: +1- 844-445-2861Phone: +1- 347-983-9688
Master Data Management (MDM) Market to register high demand rate Worldwide

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled Data Management (MDM) Market to register high demand rate Worldwide.Master Data Management (MDM) is a method of helping organizations in linking all critical and important data to a master file.MDM is the process of the collection of best data management practices. The benefits of the Master Data Management (MDM) model increase as the number and diversity of organizational units, the role of workers, and the expansion of computing applications. MDM may be more valuable to large or complex businesses than small, medium, or simple businesses. Master data management can facilitate the operation of a variety of system architectures, platforms and applications.Request Sample Copy of the Business Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Master Data Management (MDM) in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSAP,Oracle, IBM, Informatica, Stibo Systems, TIBCO Software, Riversand Technologies, Orchestra Networks, EnterWorks, Magnitude, Talend, SAS Institute, Microsoft, KPMG, Teradata Corporation, Software AG, Agility Multichannel, VisionWare, SupplyOn AG, Sunway World, YonyouMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited States, Canada, MexicoMarket Segment by Type, coversCustomer Data, Product Data, OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBanking, Finance and Insurance (BFSI), IT and Telecommunications, Government & Health Care,Manufacturing & Logistics ,OthersGet discount on this report :Table of Contents1 Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 North America Master Data Management (MDM) Market Competition, by Manufacturer4 North America Master Data Management (MDM) Market Analysis by Countries5 North America Market Segmentation Master Data Management (MDM) by Type6 North America Market Segmentation Master Data Management (MDM) by Application7 United States Master Data Management (MDM) Sales, Revenue, by Type, Application and Manufacturers8 Canada Master Data Management (MDM) Sales, Revenue, by Type, Application and Manufacturers9 Mexico Master Data Management (MDM) Sales, Revenue, by Type, Application and Manufacturers10 Master Data Management (MDM) Market Forecast (2017-2022)11 Master Data Management (MDM) Manufacturing Cost Analysis12 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 Appendix**If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About WMR :Worldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email: sales@worldwidemarketreports.comWEBSITE :
Insulin Delivery Devices Market makes it a Booming industry according to following research report: 2017-2025

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Direct subcutaneous insulin injection are the most common form of drug delivery, using a needle and syringe. There are different types of insulin delivery devices available including, syringes, pens, jet injectors, and insulin pumps. Insulin can be packaged in vials (bottles), cartridges or prefilled pens. However, several disposable and reusable pen devices have been developed that provide options for delivering rapid insulins and insulin premixes. Type or dosage of insulin can be changed according to the requirements to meet the individual needs of the patient Manufacturers are focusing on designing products, which are cost effective for people with diabetes which is expected to propel the growth of the insulin delivery devices market. For instance, in July 2017, Becton, Dickinson and Company launched BD Viva pen needles, have a highly engineered needle tip design for improved comfort and considered as the most cost-effective option for insulin-injecting people with diabetes in the UK.Request a sample copy of this report:The global insulin delivery devices market was valued at US$ 11,326.9 million in 2017 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 11.3% over the forecast period (20172025).The market is gaining significant traction due to increasing prevalence of diabetes, and new innovations in terms of design. According to the World Health Organization, in 2016, an estimated 422 million adults are living with diabetes globally. The major spike in incidence of type 2 diabetes over the last decade is mainly attributed to rising prevalence of obesity. However, high cost of some insulin delivery devices is expected to be a restraining factor for the market growth. For instance, insulin analogs supplied in cartridges or prefilled pens have a higher per unit of insulin cost than insulin analogs supplied in vials. For example, one vial (1000 U) of insulin costs US$ 105.95, which equates to a cost of 10.6 cents per unit of insulin. Five prefilled insulin pens containing insulin glulisine (total of 1500 U) have a total cost of US$ 201.01, equating to a cost of 13.4 cents per unit of insulin (26% over the cost of insulin glulisine supplied in a vial).Increasing prevalence of diabetes is expected to drive growth of the insulin delivery devices market over the forecast periodIncreasing prevalence and incidence of diabetes is a major factor driving the insulin delivery devices market growth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2014, about 29.1 million people in the U.S. have diabetes with a healthcare burden of around US$ 245 Bn and with an estimated 4.69.2% of pregnant women affected by gestational diabetes. Moreover, the Australian government launched National Diabetes Strategy (201620), for an action to prevent diabetes and support the people living with diabetes. Thus, rise in government initiatives to support diabetic patients is expected to favor growth of the insulin delivery devices market.Development of systems and devices for improved drug delivery is expected to be factor for growth of the market. When compared with vial and syringe regimens, insulin pens offer a greater clinical efficacy, improved quality of life, and increased dosing accuracy, particularly at low doses. Thus, introduction of insulin pen devices has aided patients with diabetes mellitus in easier and more convenient treatment regimens. For instance, in January 2014, Novo Nordisk launched the NovoPen Echo in the U.S. market. This is the first and only pen device available in the U.S. with half-unit dosing and a memory function that can record the dose and time passed since the last injection.Ask for customization:Key players in the market are focusing on developing next generation devices to remain competitive, while seeking ways to enhance their design capabilities. For instance, in October 2017, Eli Lilly and Company announced its plans to invest US$ 72 million in an insulin manufacturing project at one of its Indianapolis facilities. The investment will be used to replace an existing insulin vial filling line and allow Lilly to meet growing demand for its insulins - including Humalog (insulin lispro) and Humulin (human insulin) - while upgrading to state-of-the-art technology and preparing for its insulin pipeline.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Elderly Care Market Research Study Including Growth Factors, Top Key Players, Drivers, Competitive Analysis by Regions from 2018 to 2024

"Elderly Care Market"

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Global Elderly Care Market accounted for USD 863.7 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.Get Free Sample Copy @Global Elderly Care Market, By Type ({Home Care (Health Care, Non-Medical Home Care), Adult Day Care, Institutional Care (Nursing Homes, Hospital Based, Assisted Living, Independent Senior Living)}), Product Type (Pharmaceuticals, Housing & Assistive Devices, Technology); Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, Africa) and Forecast to 2024.Summary of Market Drivers and Restraints: Rising geriatric population Increased life expectancy Prevalence chronic illness among aged population Growth in health expenditure by senior citizens Rise of technology-enhanced senior care Easy reimbursement policies Lack of qualified employee Cost affordabilityGlobal Elderly Care Market Company Analysis: Amedisys Brookdale Senior Living Solutions Japan Senior Living Investment Corporation. Econ Healthcare Group Epoch Elder Care Extendicare Inc. Gentiva Health Services Inc. Genesis HealthCare Kindred Healthcare, Inc. NTUC HEALTH CO-OPERATIVE LTD ST LUKES ELDERCARE LTD Samvedna Senior Care Goldencare among others.Definition of Global Elderly Care Market:Senior citizens need assistance with daily activities as well as healthcare requirements. Elderly careis the fulfilment of the special needs and requirements in terms of medical support that are unique to senior citizens.Have Any Query? Ask Ours Expert @Scope of the Report: On the basis of type, global elderly care market is segmented into home care, adult day care, and institutional care. On the basis of product types, global elderly care market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, housing and assistive devices, and technology. On the basis of geography, global elderly care market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.Competitive Analysis:The global elderly care market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of global elderly care market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and South America.Read more about the Global Elderly Care Market Visit @Key Topics Covered:1. INTRODUCTION1.1. OVERVIEW OF THE GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET1.2. CURRENCY AND PRICING1.3. LIMITATION1.4. MARKETS COVERED2 MARKET SEGMENTATION2.1. KEY TAKEAWAYS2.2. ARRIVING AT THE GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET SIZE2.2.1 VENDOR POSITIONING GRID2.2.2 TECHNOLOGY LIFE LINE CURVE2.2.3 MARKET TIME LINE2.2.4 MARKET GUIDE2.2.5 COMPANY POSITIONING GRID2.2.6 COMAPANY MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS2.2.7 MULTIVARIATE MODELLING2.2.8 STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT2.2.9 TOP TO BOTTOM ANALYSIS2.2.10 VENDOR SHARE ANALYSIS2.2.11 DATA POINTS FROM KEY PRIMARY INTERVIEWS2.2.12 DATA POINTS FROM KEY SECONDARY DATABASES2.3. GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET: RESEARCH SNAPSHOT2.4. ASSUMPTIONS3 MARKET OVERVIEW3.1. DRIVERS3.1.1. INCREASE IN GERIATRIC POPULATION3.1.2. RISING PATEINT POOL FOR CHRONIC ILLNESS IN AGEING POPULATION3.1.3. RISING AWARENESS OF HOME CARE SETTING DEVICES3.1.4. INCREASING HEALTHCARE SPENDING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE IN DEVELOPED ECONOMIES3.1.5. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO PROVIDE COST-EFFECTIVE MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR AGEING POPULATION3.1.6. FAVOURABLE REIMBURSEMENT POLICIES3.2. RESTRAINTS3.2.1. LOW PENETRATION RATE FOR ELDERLY CARE PRODUCTS3.2.2. HIGH COST OF ELDERLY CARE SERVICES AND PRODUCTS3.3. OPPORTUNITIES3.3.1. INCREASING MARKET TREND TOWARDS ELDERLY CARE SERVICES3.3.2. TECHNOLOGY DRIVING THE MARKET PROVIDES OPPURTUNITY TO UPCOMING PLAYERS3.4. CHALLENGES3.4.1. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLED PROFESSIONALS3.4.2. GAP IN DEMAND AND SUPPLY4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5 PREMIUM INSIGHTS5.1. DATA STATISTICS OF GERIATRIC POPULATION BY COUNTRY5.2. VENDOR POSITIONING GRID AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES5.3. TECHNOLOLGICAL ADVANCEMENTS5.4. REIMBURSEMENT RATES BY DIFFERENT FORMS OF ELDERLY CARE SERVICES AND PRODUCTS5.5. INSIGHTS ON TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET5.6. MARKET REGULATORY SCENARIO BY COUNTRY5.7. INTERVIEW KEY INSIGHTS6 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPE6.1. OVERVIEW6.2. PHARMACEUTICALS6.3. HOUSING AND ASSISTIVE DEVICES6.4. TECHNOLOGY7 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, BY SERVICE7.1. OVERVIEW7.2. INSTITUTIONAL CARE7.2.1 NURSING HOME7.2.2 HOSPITAL BASED7.2.3 ASSISTED LIVING7.2.4 INDEPENDENT SENIOR LIVING7.3. HOMECARE7.3.1 HEALTH CARE7.3.1.1 MEDICAL CARE7.3.1.2 PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES7.3.1.3 TELEHEALTH7.3.1.4 PALLIATIVE CARE7.3.1.5 HOSPICE CARE7.2.2 NON-MEDICAL CARE7.2.2.1 PERSONAL CARE7.2.2.2 REHABILIATATION7.2.2.2 OTHERS7.3. ADULT DAY CARE8 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, BY APPLICATION8.1. OVERVIEW8.2. HEART DISEASES8.3. CANCER8.4. KIDNEY DISEASES8.5. DIABETES8.6. ARTHRITIS8.7. OSTEOPOROSIS8.8. NEUROLOGICAL8.9. RESPIRATORY8.10. OTHERS8 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY8.1 COUNTRY WISE GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, (ALL SEGMENTATION PROVIDED ABOVE IS REPRESENTED IN THIS CHAPTER BY COUNTRY)8.1.1 NORTH AMERICA8.1.1.1 U.S.8.1.1.2 CANADA8.1.1.3 MEXICO8.1.2 EUROPE8.1.2.1. GERMANY8.1.2.2 FRANCE8.1.2.3 U.K.8.1.2.4 ITALY8.1.2.5 SPAIN8.1.2.6 RUSSIA8.1.2.7 TURKEY8.1.2.8 BELGIUM8.1.2.9 NETHERLANDS8.1.2.11 SWITZERLAND8.1.2.12 REST OF EUROPE8.1.3 ASIA-PACIFIC (APAC)8.1.3.1 JAPAN8.1.3.2 CHINA8.1.3.3 SOUTH KOREA8.1.3.4 INDIA8.1.3.5 AUSTRALIA8.1.3.6 SINGAPORE8.1.3.7 THAILAND8.1.3.8 MALAYSIA8.1.3.9 INDONESIA8.1.3.10 PHILIPPINES8.1.3.11 REST OF APAC8.1.4 SOUTH AMERICA8.1.4.1 BRAZIL8.1.4.2 REST OF LATIN AMERICA8.1.5 MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA8.1.5.1 SAUDI ARABIA8.1.5.2 REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA8.2 KEY PRIMARY INSIGHTS: BY MAJOR COUNTRIES9 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET: COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE9.1. GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET: COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS9.2. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS9.3. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & APPROVALS9.4. EXPANSIONS9.5. REGULATORY CHANGES9.6. PARTNERSHIP AND OTHER STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS10 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, COMPANY PROFILES10.1 EXTENDICARE10.1.1 COMPANY OVERVIEW10.1.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.1.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.1.4 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.1.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.2 BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVING SOLUTIONS10.2.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.2.2 FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.2.3 PRODUCT MATRIX10.2.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.2.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.3 KINDRED HEALTHCARE INC.10.3.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.3.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.3.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.3.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.3.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.4 GENESIS HEALTHCARE10.4.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.4.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.4.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.4.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.4.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.5 MILLENNIA PERSONAL CARE SERVICES10.5.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.5.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.5.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.5.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.5.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.6 ALMOST FAMILY10.6.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.6.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.6.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.6.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.6.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.7 BAYADA HOME HEALTHCARE10.7.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.7.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.7.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.7.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.7.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.8 AMEDISYS10.8.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.8.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.8.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.8.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.8.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.9 ENCOMPASS HOME HEALTH10.9.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.9.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.9.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.9.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.9.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.10 TRINITY HEALTH10.10.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.10.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.10.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.10.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.10.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.11 LHC GROUP, INC.10.11.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.11.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.11.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.11.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.11.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.12 INTERIM HEALTHCARE10.12.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.12.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.12.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.12.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.12.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.13 BENESSE STYLE CARE CO., LTD.10.13.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.13.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.13.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.13.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.13.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.14 ECON HEALTHCARE GROUP10.14.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.14.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.14.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.14.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.14.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.15 EPOCH ELDER CARE10.15.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.15.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.15.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.15.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.15.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.16 ST LUKES ELDERCARE LTD.10.16.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.16.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.16.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.16.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.16.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.17 NICHIIGAKKAN CO. LTD.10.17.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.17.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.17.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.17.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.17.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.18 ROSEWOOD CARE GROUP10.18.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.18.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.18.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.18.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.18.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.19 KAIJIAN HUAZHAN SENIOR CARE SERVICE10.19.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.19.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.19.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.19.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.19.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSIS10.20 UNITED MEDICARE PTE LTD.10.20.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.20.2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS10.20.3. PRODUCT MATRIX10.20.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.20.5. DATABRIDGE ANALYSISRelated ReportGlobal Healthcare IT Market  Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Healthcare IT Market, By Product (EHR, RIS, PACS, VNA, CPOE, MHealth, Telehealth, Healthcare Analytics, Supply Chain Management, Revenue Cycle Management, CRM, Claims Management, Fraud Management), By End User (Providers (Hospitals, ASCs, Home Healthcare, Diagnostic Centers, Pharmacies), Payers (Private, Public)), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Rest of the World)  Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. Get 10% Discount on Report by emailing sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com . We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Major Growth Factors of the Global Endovascular Aneurysm Repair Market

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North America is expected to hold a dominant position in global endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) market over the forecast periodNorth America accounted for the largest share in the global endovascular aneurysm market in 2016, owing to increasing prevalence of aneurysms and rising geriatric population, which is more prone to this condition. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, 2016, 278,921 patients underwent repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm in the U.S. during 20052012. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2014, aortic aneurysms led to death of 9,863 in the U.S. Moreover, aneurysm is more prevalent is geriatric population i.e. 50 years and above. According to the U.S. Population Reference Bureau, the population aged 65 years and above is expected to increase from 46 million in 2014 to over 98 million by 2060. With increasing geriatric population, prevalence of aneurysm is also expected to increase. Europe is expected to be the second largest market for EVAR. This is owing to implementation of the National Health Service program across the U.K. This involves screening for various disease conditions among the populace in the region. Successful implementation of this system has in turn led to fast detection of abdominal aneurysm especially in the U.K., Italy, and Sweden. This helps in early diagnosis of disease, thereby, increasing demand for AAA treatments such as EVAR.Get sample copy of this report:Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) Market TaxonomyBy Product Type-Fenestrated Stent Graft-Adjunctive Stent Graft-Branched Stent Graft-OthersBy Indication-Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)-Thoracic Aortic aneurysm (TAA)-Descending Aortic Aneurysm-Ascending Aortic AneurysmBy End Users-Hospitals-Ambulatory care services-Specialty clinicsBy Geography-North America-Europe-Asia Pacific-Latin America-Middle East-AfricaAortic aneurysm is a medical condition, in which aorta, gets enlarged. Abdominal and Thoracic are two categories of aortic aneurysm. These conditions can lead to abdominal pain, low blood pressure, loss of consciousness or even death. Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is a minimally invasive surgical method to treat abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysm. It is an alternative to open surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), which makes it relatively safe and less time consuming. However, not all patients suffering from aneurysm are suitable for EVAR. Also, it is difficult to treat aneurysm near or on the kidney using EVAR.Increasing demand for minimally invasive surgeries to treat various medical conditions to boost growth of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) marketAccording to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2016, the number of patients opting for endovascular aneurysm repair has increased significantly during 20052012. For instance, in 2005, the percentage of patients in the U.S. suffering from aneurysm opting for EVAR was around 50%, which increased to 75.4% in 2012. A similar pattern was observed in England. Increasing consumer inclination towards this revolutionary procedure is attributed to it being a minimally-invasive method of treatment that requires minimal stay in hospitals, smaller incisions, less scaring, and aids in rapid recovery. This is expected to aid in growth of the market.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!Key players operating in endovascular aneurysm market include Medtronic plc. Cook Medical, Gore Medical, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Terumo Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, Volcano Corporation, C.R. Bard, Spectranetics International BV, Cordis Corporation (Johnson and Johnson Co.), and St. Jude Medical Inc.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) Therapeutics Market To Hold a High Potential for Growth by 2024

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JIA is also known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis and is the most common inflammatory arthritis of childhood, musculoskeletal pain is a common symptom in childhood and is usually benign and self-resolving. JIA is affected to children who are under age 17. Recognizing rare but treatable causes, including inflammatory, malignant and infectious etiologies, remains a constant challenge. According to the American College of Rheumatology, Juvenile idiopathic arthritis affects one in 1000 children, it is also inter related with ethnicity. JIA is an autoimmune disease and is known to cluster in families with other autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes mellitus. Like many other autoimmune diseases, JIA is over-represented in children of European heritage. JIA has a complex genetic basis and is present in both HLA and non-HLA gene associations play a role in its development, and susceptibility genes shared with other autoimmune conditions that have been identified. Complications of JIA can be either articular or extra-articular. One of the most common disease found in children is inflammatory eye disease which is anterior uveitis that is affecting up to 30% of children with JIA. Prevalence of eye disease varies significantly with the disease subtype children younger than six years are at highest risk in ANA-positive girls with oligoarticular disease. Symptoms such as Joint pain, swelling loss of appetite, rash, and fever are being observed.Request Report for Table of Contents @According to the American College of Rheumatology, in 2015 around 3, 00,000 children in the United States have been diagnosed with JIA. Also the study shows that JIA is most common in children in the United States. It seen more in girls often than boys, and the ratio is about two to four times more than boys. In addition to this due to government initiatives and rising healthcare expenditure it is expected to fuel the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market over the forecast period. Some key factors such as rising awareness of these drugs and products, and patient education program that are conducted by government and companies for better knowledge of these drugs and products is likely to drive the growth of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market over forecast period. However juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market has some restraints such as cost of treatment is expected to hinder the growth of the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market.The global juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market is segmented on the basis of product type, route of administration, drug class and regional presence:Segmentation based on Product Type:Computed TomographyMagnetic Resonance ImagingUltrasonography and EchocardiographyNuclear ImagingSegmentation based on Route of Administration:OrallySubcutaneouslySegmentation based on Drug ClassNonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers drugsCorticosteroids drugsImmune suppressants drugsRise in the incidence of chronic arthritis is expected to boost the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market over the forecast period. In addition with better awareness among general population, significance of this condition and better understanding of these drugs is expected to drive the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market during the forecast period.Geographically the Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) Therapeutics Market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and MEA region.North America followed by Europe is dominating the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market as high prevalence of JIA cases. Apart from these combination therapies and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are becoming more popular and preferred choice of treatment in the U.S. as they have better efficacy. In Asia Pacific region the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market is expected to deliver significant growth as the prevalence rate of JIA in China is estimated to be 1, 63,006, this is expected to boost the demand for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market over the forecast period. Also partnership between companies in Asia-Pacific is expected to drive the growth for the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market over the forecast period. For instance In Japan, Wyeth K.K. (Wyeth) and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited came into partnership for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and launched ENBREL which is anti-TNF receptor used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the companies in the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) therapeutics market are Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Novartis International AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Zydus Cadila, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Genentech, Inc., Latona Life Sciences., and othersAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Earthenware Market - Global Industry Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Global Earthenware Market: OverviewEarthenware refer to a variety of articles made from ceramic materials and used for a wide ranging purposes including tableware, pottery, and decorative objects. Most of the amateur pottery and modern craft falls in the earthenware category. While porcelain has become one of the most preferred material for manufacturing these artifacts these days, earthenware represented a majority of pottery known to be made by the humankind from times ranging to thousands of years from now.Fossils and excavations show that earthenware have been made for the past more than 9,000 years across the globe. These continue to remain one of the most popular kinds of pottery till date. Some of the key varieties of earthenware to be used widely across a number of applications are tin-glazed pottery, creamware, yellowware, terracotta, victorian majolica, delftware, faience, raku, and ironstone ware.Download Brochure For More Information@Earthenware is made by heating a mixture of clay between 1000 and 1150 degrees Celsius. The blend of materials used for manufacturing earthenware generally differs depending on the specific application or the region of manufacture. However, the key materials used are generally quartz, feldspar, china clay or kaolin, and ball clay.Global Earthenware Market: Scope of the ReportThis report on the global earthenware market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and its segments and includes vast projections regarding the growth prospects of the market over the period between 2016 and 2024. The report includes a thorough analysis of factors expected to have a notable impact on the overall development of the market in the next few years, including drivers, restraints, opportunities, competitive landscape, and regulatory scenario.A detailed analysis of the competitive landscape of the global earthenware market is also presented in the report, wherein business profiles of some of the key vendors in the market are evaluated. Details such as recent technological advancements, product portfolios, participation in strategic mergers and acquisitions, finances, and growth opportunities for these companies are also included in the report.Global Earthenware Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global earthenware market is chiefly driven by generic home decoration trends. As such, growth opportunities are vast in regional markets where the consumer is willing to pay for innovative and exceptional design efforts. Although earthenware are highly appreciated for their brilliant looks, their market could be hampered due to the easy availability of cheap alternatives made from polymers.Get Customize Report@Of the key regional markets for earthenware, Asia Pacific represents one of the key producers as well as consumers of high-class earthenware. Countries such as India, China, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia are amongst some of the primary consumers of a variety of earthenware owing to the rising demand for home decoration artifacts from the rising population of affluent middle class consumers in these countries. These countries are expected to remain the key markets for earthenware in the next few years as well, with an increasing number of regional and domestic vendors venturing in the field and making it increasingly competitive.Focus on the development of high-class logistics systems and world-class production processes, to guarantee the production and delivery of innovative and high-quality product varieties could help vendors gain an edge. Some of the key companies operating in the global earthenware market are CoorsTek, CeramTec, Ceradyne, Corning, Stryker, Kyocera, and Asahi Glass.About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs 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 TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Self-Administered Drugs Market Display Significant Growth by 2024

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Self-administered drugs are those that can be administered by the patient without the help of the medical practitioner. Self-administered drugs include over-the-counter drugs, topical prescription drugs and self-administered intravenous drugs. Intravenous self-administered drugs are administered into the body through implantable or non  implantable infusion pumps that can be regulated by the patient. Self-administered drugs are mainly consumed by patients suffering from chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and others. With the increasing number of people suffering from chronic diseases globally the self-administered drugs are expected to witness high demand, mainly among old and working population. Moreover owing to increasing health care cost and sensitivity of drugs several drug which reduces over time medical devices manufacturers are increasing emphasis on patient self-administration of drugs.Request Report for Table of Contents @The demand for self-administered drugs is increasing rapidly owing to the changing lifestyle of the people. Self-administration of the drugs saves time and money of the patients required for visiting the physicians or nurses. Increasing outpatient medical services is expected to boost demand for self-administered drugs over the forecast period. Government insurance organizations are providing medical coverage on some self-administered drugs which in turn is expected to increase adoption among end users. For instance, Centers for Medicare cover usually do not cover self-administered drugs however it provides medical coverage to some outpatient prescription drugs like injectable drugs, some antigens, drugs used with durable medical equipment and others.Increasing healthcare costs for patients seeking medical treatment in hospitals and increasing trend towards use of self-administered drugs among working population is expected to provide high growth opportunities among manufacturers over the forecast period. Moreover introduction of new patient administered drugs in the disposable prefilled form aimed to address the inconvenience created through unregulated dosages and regulatory compliance is expected to increase adoption rate of self-administered drugs globally over the forecast period. However, low or no reimbursement for some self-administered drugs and increasing number of cases of side effects caused by the unregulated dose of self-administered drugs may hamper the revenue growth of the self-administered drugs market over the forecast period.The global self-administered drugs market is segmented into following three segments: by product type, by route of administration and by geographySegmentation by product typeTabletsSyrupsCreamsInjectablesSegmentation by route of administrationOralTransdermalIntravenousNasalSegmentation by geographyNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)Middle East and Africa (MEA)Geographically, North America and Europe regions are expected to contribute to the largest share of the self-administered drugs market. The shifting patient population from low to high income countries in North America and Europe is expected to propel demand for self-administered drugs over the forecast period. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness fast growth in the self-administered drugs market owing to high population in the region and growing geriatric population. Latin America and MEA regions are also expected to witness significant growth in self-administered drugs market owing to availability of the products due to increased market penetration of the market participants in these regions.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some players in the self-administered drugs market are Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Mayers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Novartis AG, Eli Lilly & Company, Pfizer, Inc., and Antares Pharma, Inc. The market participants are focusing on competitive pricing and product innovation strategies in order to increase their market share in the global self-administered drugs market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Laundry Care Products Market, by Product Type, and Distribution Channel

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The laundry care products market is majorly driven by high daily consumption of these products. Laundry care accounts for 50% of daily used products. Increasing awareness regarding health and hygiene among the consumers is expected to boost growth of the laundry care products market over the forecast period. Laundry is the largest category in the home and personal care segment. For instance, Procter & Gamble has 57 different products under the brand name Tide. These products are also categorized based on size as 'Family Loads', 'Heavy-Duty Loads', and 'Quick Loads'. A wider range of products are now offered by industry players, such as washing machine-oriented detergents, which offer functional benefits such as addition of fragrance, developing new forms of products such as liquid detergents. They also offer pre-wash and post-wash products to further increase their reach and increase sales by targeting various complementary segments.Request Sample Copy of Report@Increasing adoption of cloth wash line in various developed economies such as US and Canada has allowed the government organizations such as Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to exert strict rules on the practice of publicly availed cloth wash lines. According to CDPHE, Laundry facilities, shall be maintained clean and in good repair; except when life skills training is provided, laundry facilities shall be inaccessible to children. These regulations provide safety to children from various chemicals, which they are exposed during usage of various laundry care products such as fabric softeners and bleaches. High competition among various brands such as Ensueno, Cloralen, Pnol detergents, and Pril, results in major price wars, with consumer largely characterized by a lack of brand loyalty. This leads to major market volatility in terms of key players in the market. However, stringent regulations leading to product recall is one of the major factor restraining growth of the market. Various brands from major companies were recalled due to their harmful side effects of health. For instance, gain liquid laundry detergent, a product of Procter & gamble co. was called back due to eye irritations and symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea by exposure. In 2012, laundry detergent pods were launched. However it caused serious health hazard in young children such as skin irritation, nausea, diarrhea etc. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, in 2015, around 6,046 incidences were reported wherein, children of age five year and younger ingested or inhaled pods or got pod contents on their skin or in their eyes. Due to this, companies such as Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide Pods provided opaque hard-plastic container with three safety latches and added more prominent safety warnings.On the basis of product type, innovation of liquid detergent such as introduction of hyper-concentrated liquid laundry detergent by Chinas Bluemoon Company Ltd. helps consumers to save more water and electricity as it contains 47% of surfactant as compared to other laundry detergents and its effect on cleaning supported by the quick and effective results have made it popular amongst the consumers. This correspondently affected the global demand for powdered detergents, which lacked standardization in measuring the amount of detergent to be used. Furthermore, in 2018, Tide launched Tide PODS, which is capable of cleaning more than 900 laundry combinations together.Global Laundry Care - Market OutlookAsia Pacific is projected to generate highest revenue share in global laundry care products market during forecast period due to high penetration by companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever among others with brands such as Surf Excel, Ariel etc, as manual washing is the most common form of washing clothes in emerging economies such as India, Indonesia, and China. Unilever held leading position in laundry care products market in 2017, owing to its strong distribution network and vast product portfolio, which includes products such as Cif, Comfort, Domex, Rin, Surf Excel, Molto etc. In terms of sales, detergent bars are very profound in the rural areas while liquid detergents are the preferred option in the urban areas conducive to washing appliances.Europe is the second largest market of laundry care products with the positive development was mainly attributed to the growth in the premium segment such as detergents and fabric softeners. For instance, Unilever in 2017 launched Persil Powergems, which is neither powder nor liquid and provides the power of the major three factors which are cleanliness, freshness, and care coupling with its environment friendly nature reducing time required for washing clothes.Key strategies adopted by market players includes incorporation of innovative technologies that offers consumers benefits such as tough stain removal, easy dissolution, and superior fragrance. For instance, in 2017, Rin added Rin Matic to its portfolio, a specialist washing machine powder. Furthermore, several manufacturers are also opting for mergers and acquisitions to increase its market presence. Henkel acquired The Sun Products Corporation in 2016.Ask for Customization of Research Report@Key players in the global laundry care products market include Clorox Company, Huntsman International LLC, Wipro Enterprises Limited, Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Kao Corporation, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Henkel AG & Co. KGaA.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Needles Market  Advancing Technology for Painless Future

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Needles are integral part of healthcare functions. Needles provide advantage over other routes of administration such as quick release of the drug in bodily fluids and instant relief for the patients. It has various applications ranging from surgical use to blood collection to drug administration. Needles such as safety needles are increasingly used in order to avoid needle stick injuries and infection. Needles such as pen needles are used by diabetic patients who need daily dose of insulin which is injected subcutaneously.The needles market was valued at US$ 5.75 billion in 2017 and is expected to witness a robust CAGR of 7.6% over the forecast period (20172025).Request a sample copy of this report:Major factor driving growth of the needles market is increasing demand for vaccines, globally to prevent various diseases such as measles, rubella and hepatitis B. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 2018, globally around 86% of infants are vaccinated against 26 diseases, however, 19.5 million children unvaccinated leading to death of 2-3 million children each year. Human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer and around 280,000 women died from cervical cancer in 2015 globally, which led to introduction of vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, in turn positively affecting needles market. Introduction of stringent guidelines for safe injection practices is expected to aid in growth of the needles market. For instance, WHO issued safe injection practices and guidelines in 2010, for its member country. Also, Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in the U.S. issued updated guidelines in 2016 to prevent spread of infectious disease through unsafe injection practices.Rising prevalence of chronic diseases worldwide is expected to be factor driving growth of the needles marketThere are number of factors propelling growth of the global needles market, however, the most significant factor is rising prevalence of chronic disease. According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and lung diseases are collectively responsible for 70% death globally, mostly in middle and low income countries, and by 2020 chronic diseases is expected to account for almost three-quarters(up to 75%) of all deaths worldwide. This is expected to aid in market growth as needle is an integral part of chronic disease treatment, which may require hospitalization. For instance, according to 2017 Diabetic Atlas by International Diabetes Federation (IDF), diabetes affected around 425 million people worldwide. Patients have to administer insulin on the basis of severity of the disease and requires continuous glucose monitoring, thus, leading to increasing demand for pen needles. U.S. spends highest cost for treating diabetes and cancer, annually. For instance, it spends US$ 377 Billion, which accounts for 52% of the total diabetes expenditure worldwide as mentioned in IDF report 2017. Also, according to World Cancer Research Organization, 2014 report, cancer incidence in the U.S. is one of highest at 328 per 100,000. This is expected to propel growth of the needles market in this region.Key players are focusing on strategic mergers and acquisitions and development of innovative products, in order to enhance their market share. For instance, in September 2017, Becton, Dickinson and Company introduced BD Ultra-Fine micro pen needle for use with different pen injection devices, for people with diabetes, in order to reduce accidentally injection of insulin dose into a muscle and it provides one of shortest length pen needle. Nipro Medical Corporation launched SafeTouch safety needle in 2016, which is known to protect the patients from needle stick injuries. Terumo Medical Corporation innovative product K-Pack Surshield launched in 2012 claims to be 20% sharper than its competitor and fits in all types syringes.Ask for customization:Some of the key players operating in the global needles market are Becton, Dickinson and Company, Medtronic plc, Hamilton Company, Stryker Corporation, Terumo Corporation, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Boston Scientific Corporation, Nipro Medical Corporation, Novo Nordisk A/s, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Smiths Medical.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Doxorubicin Market Highly Favorable to the Growth Rate by 2024

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Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide with 8.2 million cancer related deaths in 2012 estimated by World Health Organization (WHO). Anthracycline especially doxorubicin has been the mainstay of cancer treatment since many years. Doxorubicin also known as doxorubicin hydrochloride is an antibiotic belonging to class of medication known as anthracycline antibiotics, and is the first liposomal encapsulated anticancer drug to receive clinical approval and is used in the treatment of several types of carcinomas. Doxorubicin is produced by the soil fungus belonging to genus Streptomyces.The drug is used in combination with other drugs to treat cancers such as, breast, lung, bladder, stomach, ovarian, neuroblastoma, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and certain types of leukemias. It is less commonly used in treatment of squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck, cervix and vagina, carcinomas of testes and prostate. The drug kills the cancerous cells in several ways including intercalation between DNA pairs thereby preventing replication of cancer cells, DNA strand breakage and inhibition with enzyme topoisomerase II. Doxorubicin is marketed either in the powdered or in solution form and is administered intravenously every 21 to 28 days. However, the treatment depends upon the type of cancer being treated, the types of other drugs that are taken during the treatment and how well the body response to the medicine. The drug is sometimes given as a continuous infusion wherein the drug is infused slowly into the patients body.Request Report for Table of Contents @Global doxorubicin market is expected to witness upsurge in its revenue over the forecast period attributed to growing prevalence of cancer worldwide. WHO estimates that cancer prevalence is expected to increase at an estimated rate of 50% by 2050. Furthermore, increasing use of drug in the treatment of ovary cancer is further expected to increase the sales of the doxorubicin over the forecast period. The drug is also known to have high treatment efficacy in patients with AIDS-related Kaposis sarcoma after failure of prior systemic chemotherapy. However, conventional doxorubicin treatment imposes several side effects such as nausea and vomiting that may last 2448 hours after treatment, hair loss, myelosuppression, loss of appetite, diarrhea, localized swelling etc. Therefore, the need for development of doxorubicin with liposomal formulation arose improving therapeutic index of conventional doxorubicin. This strategy resulted in preferential accumulation of doxorubicin within the cancerous cell in order to maximize the drug efficacy and minimize toxicity, thus fueling the doxorubicin market growth in the near future.One of the most common and prevailing side effect of doxorubicin is cardiomyopathy with an estimated incidence of 4% at a dose of 500550 mg/m, subsequently leading to congestive heart failure. The rate of cardiomyopathy reaches to 36% when the dose exceeds 600 mg/m. This may lead to introduction of drugs with lesser side effects replacing the doxorubicin in the future. However, ongoing shortages of the drug has also affected the revenues of the doxorubicin market contently.The global market for Doxorubicin is segmented on basis of formulation, cancer type, distribution channel and geography:Segmentation by FormulationLyophilized Doxorubicin PowderDoxorubicin SolutionSegmentation by Cancer TypeBreast CancerProstate CancerOvary CancerLung CancerBladder CancerStomach CancerLeukemiaOthersSegmentation by Distribution ChannelHospitals PharmaciesRetail PharmaciesE-CommerceIncreasing prevalence of several cancer types have resulted in increasing usage of doxorubicin in clinical practice thus driving the revenues for the same. By formulation, the global market for doxorubicin has been classified into, lyophilized doxorubicin powder and doxorubicin solutionBy cancer type, the global doxorubicin market is segmented into, breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovary cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, leukemia and others. Breast cancer and prostate cancer segments are expected to account for maximum revenue share in global doxorubicin market over the forecasted period.On the basis of distribution channel, the global doxorubicin market is segmented into, hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies and e-commerce.On the basis of regional presence, global doxorubicin market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America will continue to dominate the global doxorubicin market attributed to growing number of cancer epidemiology in the region. Furthermore, doxorubicin shortages in the past few years due to manufacturing issues have resulted in entry of increasing number of players in the market. This has substantially improved the revenue of global doxorubicin market in the near future. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in global doxorubicin market attributed to increasing prevalence of breast and lung cancer.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the major players operating in global doxorubicin market are Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., MicroBiopharm Japan Co., Ltd., and Synbias Pharma. Companies are involved in collaboration agreements for R&D in order to exploit maximum potential.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Treatment Devices Market Latest Trends by 2024

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Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a chronic condition of a body, which adversely affects the pumping efficiency of the cardiac muscles and the heart. It occurs due to accretion of fluid around the heart that may contribute towards ineffective pumping of the heart. This condition may result in shortness of breathing, swelling and weakness. Left-sided CHF is the more commonly noted than right-sided CHF. Left-sided CHF occurs due to malfunctioning of the left ventricle leading to fluid accumulation in lungs making breathing difficult. In right-sided CHF, blood backs up in blood vessels leading to fluid retention in lower extremities of the body including abdomen and other vital organs. Common reasons for onset of congestive heart failure are hypertension, coronary arterial disease and malfunctioning of heart valves. Some symptoms for onset of CHF include continued fatigue, irregular heartbeat, chest pain, increased need to urinate, wheezing, continued weight gain and fainting. Symptoms vary with the severity of the disease. It can be diagnosed by a careful physical examination and selected laboratory tests. Some of these are EEG, ECG, MRI, various stress tests, blood tests and cardiac catherization.Request Report for Table of Contents @Lifestyle modification, administration of prescription medicines, mechanical therapies and surgical intervention are four widely adopted treatments for CHF. Mechanical therapies and surgical interventions are more commonly adopted treatments by physicians in hospitalization cases. The devices used for the treatment of congestive heart failure include implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), ventricular assist devices (VADs), or pacemakers.Increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases across regions is one the major factors driving the revenue growth of congestive heart failure treatment devices globally. Lifestyle related factors are expected to add to growing disease incidence of CVDs and thus raise adoption of treatments. Fast track approvals of devices coupled with technological advancement in developed countries will propel market revenues further. Huge unmet treatment demand for congestive heart failure is expected to be noted in developing markets. High cost of devices and unfavorable reimbursement policies are few factors that could hinder the revenues growth of the congestive heart failure treatment market.The congestive heart failure treatment devices are expected show significant growth in demand over the forecast period owing to rising incidences of cardiovascular diseases. Congestive heart failure is one of the most common medical conditions which is responsible for the death of people globally. Around 6.5 million of people are diagnosed with congestive heart failure every year. According to a survey around 2% of global population are hospitalized due to congestive heart failure.Based on product type, congestive heart failure treatment devices are segmented as cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), ventricular assist devices (VADs) and pacemakers. The Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) is expected to hold the maximum share of congestive heart failure devices market. The ventricular assist devices (VADs) segment is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period due to technological advancement.Based on the end user, the congestive heart failure treatment devices market is segmented as hospitals, cardiovascular center, and ambulatory surgical center. The hospital is expected to share maximum share of congestive heart failure devices market among all end user.Based on geography, global congestive heart failure devices market is segmented into five broad regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to be the largest market for congestive heart failure devices market. This market is then followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific region. North America and Europe market are growing significantly owing to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Asia-Pacific region is expected to show high growth for congestive heart failure devices market due to rise in geriatric population in India and China.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the key players of congestive heart failure disease are Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic PLC, Abiomed, Inc., HeartWare International, Inc., Jarvik Heart, Inc., LivaNova PLC, ReliantHeart 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.comWeb:
Computer Aided Detection Market Prevalent Opportunities up to 2024

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Computer Aided Detection (CAD) software is a set of algorithms that uses pattern recognition method predominantly to aid physicians for interpretation of medical images. Increasing number of patients opting for diagnostic imaging techniques is expected to propel the volume of image data to be analyzed. This factor increases the probability of risk for failure in detecting abnormalities. To rectify this situation, CAD as a diagnostic analysis technology was introduced to assist physicians in reducing detection errors. This is achieved by using the clinical images generated through various imaging modalities such as X-Ray imaging, MRI, and computed tomography and ultrasound imaging.In recent years, the global CAD market experienced strong growth owing to increasing awareness of cancer diagnosis in early stages. Incidences of various types of cancers such as lung, prostate, breast and colorectal cancer is gradually increasing. For instance, the American Cancer Society estimated that more than one Mn people in U.S. are diagnosed with cancer every year and in 2012, 14.1 Mn new cases of cancer were reported. It has also been reported that in the same year, 8.2 Mn people died of cancer, which accounted for 14% of the overall deaths in 2012. Cancers such as colorectal, lung, stomach, breast, prostrate, cervical cancer and leukemia are the most common types of cancer. A publication in association with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), stated that occurrence of cancer increased with the growing age of individuals.Request Report for Table of Contents @Increasing awareness of successful cancer treatment which needs early diagnosis is driving the population towards routine checkups and is expected to boost global CAD market growth during the forecast period. Furthermore, availing health insurance requires mandatory pre-screening tests for chronic diseases. Thus, as the demand for insurance will gradually increase, the need for precise screening tools shall also increase correspondingly.Hence, growth in demand for insurance policies is expected to increase the adoption rate of CAD solutions in diagnostic tools. High preference for digital breast tomosynthesis is another factor that drives the growth of the global computer aided detection market. In digital breast tomosynthesis, the radiation is more concentrated and imaging is done of the complete breast with limited degree scan. Most of the imaging done is by reconstruction and is generally based on expectationmaximization algorithm. Digital breast tomosynthesis is, therefore, a computer aided detection wherein great computational power and image construction algorithm is required to produce detailed images of the breast.Technological advances such as evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to augment the continuous development of the global CAD market. The evolution of artificial intelligence globally is projected to drive growth of detection and diagnostics, and be a valuable asset in the investigation of cancer. This factor is anticipated to boost the growth of the global computer aided detection market in forecast period.Based on application, breast cancer segment is expected to contribute largest share in global computer aided detection market due to increasing incidences. According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally, with nearly 1.7 Mn new cases detected in 2012. Additionally, breast cancer accounted for about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women. Based on end users, the global computer aided detection market has been segmented into hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and research centers. Hospital end user segment is expected to contribute the maximum share among end users.On the basis of regional presence, global computer aided detection market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to lead the global computer aided detection market due to high adoption of CAD in cancer diagnosis. The European region is anticipated to be the second largest market with a prominent share of the breast cancer segment through 2024. The Asia-Pacific and Latin America region on the other hand are expected to represent the highest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the growing incidence of cancer in these regions. The Middle East & Africa market is not well established as compared to the other regions.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the major players in global computer aided detection market are Hologic, Inc. iCAD, Inc., Agfa-Gevaert N.V., EDDA Technology, Inc., Fujifilm Medical Systems, Inc., Invivo Corporation, GE Healthcare Ltd., Philips Healthcare, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Siemens Healthineers, etc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Paclitaxel Injection Market Display Significant Growth by 2026

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Paclitaxel injection is a gelatinous drug, which is obtained from Pacific yew trees, after chemical synthesis process. Its a sub-segment of antineoplastic drug class, used to cure cancer in breast, lungs, ovaries, stomach, cervix and other. Paclitaxel infection targets the tubulin, which is small globular protein in the human cell. It should be injected under the supervision of oncologist having experience in chemotherapy. It is not prescribed by the physician if a patient has some allergic disease. Before prescribing this medication physician also confirm that patient is not suffering from high or low-pressure problem. Paclitaxel injection has several side effect such as it cause allergy, decrease the WBC count and also generate blood pressure problems.The increasing prevalence of cancer is the major driving factor for the significant growth of this market. Paclitaxel injection has better efficiency for the treatment of cancer than other medication, besides that this is also easily available in the market which is responsible for the growth of this market. Major players of paclitaxel injection market are focusing on development of more improved paclitaxel injection which will be a remarkable opportunity for this market to grow. Several adverse effects such as blood clot, allergy, leucopenia, diarrhea and weight loss can restrain the growth of paclitaxel injection market. The high cost of drug, which is less affordable in low economic countries can also hinder the growth of paclitaxel injection market.Request Report for Table of Contents @SegmentationThe global market of paclitaxel injection is segmented on the basis of indication, end users and geographical region.Segmentation by IndicationBreast CancerCervical CancerOvarian CancerStomach CancerProstate CancerLungs CancerEsophageal CancerTesticular CancerPancreatic CancerAIDS related Kaposis SarcomaOthersSegmentation by End UserHospitalsClinicsCancer Research InstituteSegmentation by RegionNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East & AfricaPaclitaxel injection market is expected show substantial growth over the forecast period. According to World Health Organization, in 2012 around 8.2 million died due to cancer globally. Based on indication paclitaxel injection market is segmented as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, lungs cancer, stomach cancer and other. From all indication, breast cancer segment is expected to gain maximum share for paclitaxel injection market due to growing incidences of breast cancer. Based on the end user, paclitaxel injection market is classified as hospital, clinics, and cancer research institute. Among all end user, hospital segment is expected to gain maximum share for paclitaxel injection market.On the basis of regional presence, global paclitaxel injection market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to dominate the paclitaxel injection market due to high prevalence of breast cancer and stomach cancer. Europe and Asia-Pacific then follow this market. Asia-Pacific region is projected to show remarkable growth for paclitaxel injection market. In Asia-Pacific, India and China are major markets due to high population. Paclitaxel injection is the second largest pharmaceutical market in China.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the major players in paclitaxel injection market are Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Inc., Fresenius Kabi SE & Co. KGaA., Strides Arcolab Limited, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Celgene Corporation, Taj Accura Pharmaceuticals, Khandelwal Laboratories Pvt. Lmt., Luye Pharma Group, Youcare Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and BEIJING Union Pharmaceutical Factory.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Event driven Patient Tracking Market Highly Favorable to the Growth Rate by 2026

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Patient tracking is a refined process intended to screen patients movements, outside conventional clinical settings such as clinics, hospitals, laboratories and diagnostic center. This increases the admission to care, and reduces cost of health care. Several health care providers have started adopting this method which has considerably pulled down the personal patient cost, condensed complications and upgraded quality of life of patients. The process of Event driven patient tracking frequently involves screening and preservation of patients medical records.This can be done by entering the details of location of the patient manually, or by use of software like Remote Landing Site Tower (RLTS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS) etc. and hardware components such as detectors, sensors, and others. The authorized person is only responsible for making the manual entries, which usually includes caregiver or a doctor, who makes entries as soon as the event occurs. Such hardware and software technology is used to track the patient location and trace their positions depending on their last known location. Initially, for event driven patient tracking process manual methods were adopted by healthcare providers, but shifting market scenario, increasing the focus on patient centric methodology, and rising financial and operational costs of hospitals, have shifted the trend towards sophisticated systems to monitor patients.Request Report for Table of Contents @The demand for capacity of bed is expected to rise by 2024, which is estimated to be a challenge for hospitals and other healthcare settings because increasing capacity of bed physically is not a feasible option. This is the main reason that healthcare settings are changing their focus in improving their capability to move patients through a treatment system, which is known as throughput. New technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Real Time Locating System (RTLS) and other technologies in event driven patient tracking systems, allow caregivers to perform efficiently by providing real-time information about the patient and refining the workflow. The technology adopted by major healthcare settings and hospitals is RTLS, whereas smaller clinics, hospitals, and diagnostic centers mainly choose for RFID, GPS, and other systems, owing to the fact that RTLS are comparatively more expensive that other technologies due to which affordability of this technology is a major issue for smaller healthcare set ups.Global Event driven Patient Tracking Market has been segmented on the basis of product type, delivery mode, components and End UserBased on the product type, the global Event driven Patient Tracking Market is segmented into the following:Stand-Alone DevicesIntegrated DevicesBased on the delivery mode, the global Event driven Patient Tracking Market is segmented into the following:Cloud-Based Delivery SolutionsWeb-Based Delivery SolutionsPremises Based Delivery SolutionsBased on the components, the global Event driven Patient Tracking Market is segmented into the following:Hardware ComponentsSoftware ComponentsServicesBased on the end user type, the global Event driven Patient Tracking Market is segmented into the following:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersSpecialty ClinicsGeographically, North America holds the largest share of the event driven patient tracking systems market owing to the fact that advanced technologies, and increasing emphasis on improving patient flow combined with increased focus on reducing costs related to health care services are being practiced. Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR, during the forecast period from 2016-2024, owing to increasing gap between supply and demand of health care services, large population base, technological advancements in web based services and cloud computing, and high scope of adoption of event driven patient tracking systems owing to large unorganized patient flow management.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the key players in global Event driven Patient Tracking Market includes Cerner Corporation, Sonitor Technologies, Allscripts, TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., Centrallogic Medworxx, McKesson Corporation, Epic Systems and others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Fetal and Neonatal Care Equipment Market Comprehensive Review of its Applications Growth Opportunities and Future Prospects

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Fetal monitoring is required to constantly monitor health of the unborn baby and ensure a safe birth. Equipment, which helps to assist in diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of newborn babies are neonatal care equipment. Healthcare professionals perform fetal monitoring during pregnancy and labor, as that process is crucial for keeping the mother and the child safe and healthy. Growth in fetal and neonatal care equipment market is attributed to increasing rate of birth and preterm births. For instance, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in 2017, nearly 386,000 babies were born on 1st January worldwide, over which, half of these births were estimated to have taken place in nine countries: India (69,070), China (44,760), Nigeria (20,210), Pakistan (14,910), Indonesia (13,370), the United States (11,280), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (9,400), Ethiopia (9,020) and Bangladesh (8,370).Request a sample copy of this report:The global fetal and neonatal care equipment market is estimated to be valued at US$ 7,279.5 million in 2017 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period (2017  2025).Fetal and neonatal care is critical during and after pregnancy, as the fetus and neonates are prone to infections and diseases, owing to low immunity. Therefore, regular diagnosis and monitoring is essential. In emerging economies such as those in Africa, increasing number of at-home births results in high mortality rate. According to NCBI data, 2015, Zambia is one of the sub-Saharan African countries with a high maternal mortality ratio (MMR), and the demographic and health survey (DHS) showed that the countrys MMR is 591 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Fetal and neonatal care equipment manufacturers are focusing on offering high-end, home-based infant care and neonatal solutions and this is expected to be one of the major factors driving growth of the market. For instance, in February, 2017, Masimo received CE marking for Eve  a critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) newborn screening application, for the Rad-97 Pulse CO-Oximeter. Eve is integrated with Masimo SET Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry with a pre-ductal to post-ductal synchronization algorithm designed to reduce calculation errors and in turn saving newborn lives.North America is expected to account for highest market share in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market, owing to the presence of a better reimbursement structure, development of well-equipped neonatal intensive care unit by hospitals. The Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH) is a 60-bed Level III newborn intensive care unit that provides complex multidisciplinary care to more than 3,000 babies each year. Moreover, Asia Pacific is expected to witness high growth in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market. This is owing to increasing incidences of premature births, high birth rates in countries such as India and China, and increasing healthcare awareness are the factors boosting growth of the market in this region. According to WHO, 2012, most neonatal deaths occur in Asia, which accounted for 40% of the global neonatal deaths, given the high mortality rate in the South-central Asia sub-region. Furthermore, neonatal equipment has been observed to have increasing demand in the middle-income countries, as birth rates in these countries are higher, and the priority for improved fetal & neonatal care is high in these countries. As a result, sales of the equipment are expected to flourish at a rapid rate.Ask for customization:Key players in the region are focusing on offering clinicians, innovative tools and devices for enhancing safety for mothers, babies, and families. For this, companies are focusing on acquisition strategy and increasing regulatory approval for the devices. For instance, in March, 2017, GE Healthcare expanded its Maternal-Infant Care business with the acquisition of Monica Healthcare  a U.K.-based monitoring technology company. This acquisition enhances GE Healthcares mobile and digital offerings by providing clinicians and patients around the world with more innovative solutions for labor, delivery, and home care. Furthermore, in February, 2017, Masimo received CE marking for Eve  a critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) newborn screening application, for the Rad-97 Pulse CO-Oximeter. Eve is integrated with Masimo SET Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry with a pre-ductal to post-ductal synchronization algorithm designed to reduce calculation errors and giving appropriate outcomes for the treatment of newborn lives.Key players operating in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market include Koninklijke Philips N.V., General Electric Company, Medtronic plc, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited., FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc., Masimo, Natus Medical Incorporated, Atom Medical Corporation, and CooperSurgical Inc.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Sun Care Market - Growing Threat of Skin Cancer Driving Sales of Sun Care Products

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Sun Care Market: SnapshotThe rising awareness regarding the importance of sun protection and the launch of new products with more effective formulations have significantly driven the global market for sun care products. The growth in this market in the coming years is pinned on the development of products with natural and organic ingredients. Emerging economies in Latin America and Asia Pacific are anticipated to present lucrative opportunities for players in the sun care market as increasing disposable income and growing awareness levels direct their purchasing patterns.The global sun care market is poised to expand at a 5.8% CAGR during the forecast period, rising from a value of US$14.8 bn in 2015 to US$24.9 bn by 2024.Download Brochure For More Information@After Sun Products to Expand at Rapid Pace through 2024Sun care products have come a long way from being products exclusively meant for skin care to being a beauty necessity. One of the key factors driving the sun care market is the growing multifunctionality of almost all sun care products. Apart from sun protection, these products also serve multiple purposes. Based on type, there are three main products available in the sun care market: self-tanning, sun protection, and after sun. Among these, sun protection products held the leading share in 2015 in terms of revenue and are likely to retain their dominance through 2024. After sun products are anticipated to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, followed by sun protection products.Growing Risk of Skin Cancer Driving Sales of Sun Care Products in Asia PacificThe global sun care market is segmented on the basis of geography into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. North America led the overall market in 2015, contributing over 35% of the total revenue generated by the sun care market that year. Expanding at a steady pace, this market is anticipated to retain its lead throughout the forecast period. The persistent demand for sun care products in various forms is spurring the growth of this market in North America, especially in the U.S. The market is also fueled by several other factors, including rising customer knowledge, growing skin care concerns, and considerable research and development in the U.S. Sun protection products, especially cream-based and liquid sunscreen products, have been witnessing increased demand in the region. Encouraged by the massive size of the North America sun care market, several local and low-grade products have been flooding the market. However, these lowly-priced poor quality products are a restraint in the growth of the sun care market in North America.Get Customize Report@Consumers across Asia Pacific are increasingly becoming more conscious about skin care and the use of specialized skin care products. Products with additional benefits such as anti-blemish, anti-aging, and dark spot reduction have gained much popularity in Asia Pacific and are likely to push this market to become the fastest growing regional segment during the forecast period. Owing to the harsh climatic conditions in the region, the adverse impact of sun rays and the risk of skin cancer is high. With the increased knowledge about this fact, consumers are driven to purchase more sun care products.Some of the leading players in the sun care market are Beiersdorf AG (Germany), Groupe Clarins. (France), Johnson and Johnson (U.S.), Coty Inc. (US), Shiseido Company Ltd. (Japan), LOreal (France), Bioderma Laboratories. (France), Estee Lauder Companies (U.S.), Burts Bees (U.K.), and Unilever (Netherlands).About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs 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 TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Bromine Market Reflecting a CAGR of 4.1% by 2024

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Global demand for bromine market will reach 483 kilo metric tons (KMT) in 2016, up from 470 KMT in 2015. Demand will be impeded by growing regulation and legislation, especially in the European Union (EU), where the use of certain brominated flame retardants is banned or restricted.Flame retardants will continue to remain the largest application segment, accounting for 203 KMT volume in 2016, a y-o-y increase of 2.8% over 2015. Use of bromine in oil and gas drilling will continue its upward momentum in 2016, growing at 4.3% in terms of volume  the fastest among all the application segments.Request for Table of Contents @The chemicals industry will remain the largest consumer of bromine, accounting for 292 KMT volume in 2016, representing market value worth 1,284 Mn. Use of bromine in the oil and gas sector will also continue to witness steady growth, as clear brine fluids gain traction for drilling purposes.Demand will be offset by sluggish adoption in the electronics industry, as use of brominated flame retardants continues to face stricter regulations. Demand for bromine from electronics sector will witness a growth rate of 2.1% in 2016 over 2015.Asia Pacific will remain the largest market for bromine, representing annual revenues worth US$ 1,087 Mn in 2016, up from 895 Mn in 2015. This is primarily due to expansion of end-use industries such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and electronic in APAC.Latin America will continue to offer growth opportunities to manufacturers, with global demand witnessing a 2.0% volume growth in 2016 over 2015. Demand will face constraints in the mature markets of North America and Western Europe in 2016 as well.Israel Chemicals Limited, Chemtura Corporation, Albemarle Corporation, Gulf Resources Inc., Tosoh Corporation, Tetra Technologies Inc., Tata Chemicals Limited and Hindustan Salts Limited are the key players in the market.Top players are continuously focusing on expanding their product offerings, especially in flame retardants segments. Collaborations and joint ventures are key business strategies to develop green brominated flame retardants.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Long-term Outlook: PMR projects the global bromine market to witness moderate growth during the forecast period 2016-2024. APAC will continue to remain the largest market for bromine, growing at 4.1% revenue CAGR during the forecast period.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 Transmission Filter Market Segment by Applications, Manufacturers, Regions and Forecast to 2023

Automotive Transmission Filter Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Automotive Transmission Filter Market Segment by Applications, Manufacturers, Regions and Forecast to 2023.Description:The transmission filter is a vital part of that system and is situated above the transmission pan, which catches any excess fluid, and below a pickup tube that connects to the oil pump, which regulates the pressure of fluid in the transmission. The transmission filter functions as a sieve to collect contaminants like dirt and debris before sending lubricating fluid to the transmission itself.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comScope of the Report:This report focuses on the Automotive Transmission Filter in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversMann-HummelMAHLECummins FiltrationToyota BoshokuFram GroupFiltration GroupDonaldson CompanyParker HannifinAC DelcoFreudenbergHengstFebi BilsteinSure Filter TechnologyMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversOEMAftermarketsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Automotive Transmission Filter market.Chapter 1, to describe Automotive Transmission Filter Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Automotive Transmission Filter, with sales, revenue, and price of Automotive Transmission Filter, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Automotive Transmission Filter, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;ContinueComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1 Market Overview1.1 Automotive Transmission Filter Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 OEM1.2.2 Aftermarkets1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Passenger Vehicle1.3.2 Commercial Vehicle1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Mann-Hummel2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Mann-Hummel Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 MAHLE2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 MAHLE Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Cummins Filtration2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Cummins Filtration Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Toyota Boshoku2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Toyota Boshoku Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Fram Group2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Fram Group Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Filtration Group2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Automotive Transmission Filter Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Filtration Group Automotive Transmission Filter Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinueFor 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.
Industrial Hydrogen Market in U.S., Europe, and Asia to Reach a Valuation of US$ 19.8 Bn by 2024

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The industrial hydrogen market in U.S., Europe (U.K. & Germany), and Asia (South Korea & Japan) is estimated to be valued at US$ 13.6 Bn, with hydrogen consumption pegged at 1,826.0 KT by the end of 2016. Sales revenue of industrial hydrogen is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period (20162024), to be valued at US$ 19.8 Bn by the end of 2024.Request for Table of Contents @In a new report titled Industrial Hydrogen Market: U.S., Europe, and Asia Industry Analysis & Forecast 2016-2024, Persistence Market Research provides a comprehensive analysis of the industrial hydrogen market across these regions and offers insights into the key factors and trends likely to shape the market in the next eight years.Hydrogen is touted as the clean fuel of the future and finds application in various industries including chemical, electronics, glass, metal production, pharma and biotech, and welding and metal fabrication. Increasing demand from various end-use industries such as electronics, glass, metal production, welding, and metal fabrication is anticipated to boost growth of the industrial hydrogen market over the forecast period.Preference for onsite hydrogen generation systems and increasing technological advancements that promote reduction in the overall hydrogen production cost by electrolysis of water are other factors likely to push the demand for industrial hydrogen through 2024. However, a high cost of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water as compared to other conventional methods of production is likely to pose a challenge for the sustained growth of the electrolytic hydrogen market.Global hydrogen production  both captive and merchant  is estimated to be pegged at 57.5 Mn metric tons by the end of 2016. Globally, 4% of total hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water. The Electrolysis segment in the industrial hydrogen market is estimated to expand at a higher CAGR compared to the Conventional & Others segment.Technological advancements leading to reduced cost of production are expected to support growth of this segment over the forecast period. The Conventional & Others segment is expected to hold a disproportionately large market value share in the industrial hydrogen market throughout the forecast period. This segment is expected to hold 92.5% value share by the end of 2024, representing a sales revenue of US$ 18.3 Bn.By application, the Electronics segment is estimated to expand at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period; macroeconomic growth of the electronics industry is expected to be the major factor driving demand and fueling growth of the industrial hydrogen market over the forecast period.Also, an increasing use of hydrogen as a carrier gas in the manufacture of LED and semi-conductors is expected to drive growth of this segment. The Electronics segment is likely to dominate the industrial hydrogen market with 22.0% market share, valued at US$ 2.98 Bn by the end of 2016. In terms of value CAGR, the Electronics segment is estimated to be followed by the Metal Production and the Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology segments respectively.Request to View Sample of Research Report @In terms of region, the U.S market emerged as the dominant market in 2016 with over 50% market share owing to a high demand for hydrogen from across various end-use industries. This market is estimated to expand at a higher CAGR than that of Europe and Asia over the forecast period.Air Liquide, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., The Linde Group, Praxair Inc., and Messer Group GmbH are some of the primary producers of industrial hydrogen across the world.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
Australia Nitric Acid Market is Expected to Expand US$ 1.3 Bn by 2024

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The Australia nitric acid market is expected to be valued at US$ 725.3 Mn in 2016 and is expected to grow 1.8X by the end of 2024 to be valued at US$ 1.3 Bn. The market is estimated to be pegged at 1,856.0 kilotons by the end of 2016 and is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 7.8% in terms of volume over the forecast period (20162024).Request for Table of Contents @In a new report titled Australia Nitric Acid Market: Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024, Persistence Market Research provides in-depth insights into the performance of the nitric acid market in Australia and highlights important factors and trends influencing the market.Capacity expansion of ammonium nitrate facilities and increasing mining activities are some of the factors expected to drive growth of the Australia nitric acid market over the forecast period. An increased production of ammonium nitrate owing to increasing demand for ammonium nitrate-based explosives is in turn expected to drive demand for nitric acid during the forecast period.Demand for ammonium nitrate explosives is highly dependent on mining exploration activities. Increasing mining exploration activities in Australia  especially in Western Australia and Queensland  are expected to boost the production and consumption of nitric acid in the country. However, enhanced efforts toward development of alternatives for ammonium nitrate-based explosives in the mining industry could restrain the growth of the nitric acid market in Australia during the forecast period.By application, the explosives segment accounted for over 90% volume share in 2015 and is expected to continue to dominate the nitric acid market in Australia, registering a CAGR of 8.0% over the forecast period. In the product type category, the non-fuming segment is likely to account for the largest share of the nitric acid market in Australia and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.2% over the forecast period, creating total incremental opportunity of US$ 580.4 Mn between 2015 and 2024. The non-fuming product type segment in the Australia nitric acid market was valued at US$ 609.7 Mn in 2015 and is projected to increase to US$ 1.24 Bn by the end of 2024. Application of fuming nitric acid in precious metal refining as well as in litho printing is expected to drive growth of the fuming segment over the forecast period.The commercial grade segment accounted for 95.3% share of the nitric acid market in Australia in terms of value in 2015 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.9% during the forecast period. The explosives segment accounted for 95.4% share of the Australia nitric acid market in terms of value in 2015 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 8.0% over the forecast period.Queensland and Western Australia are the largest markets for nitric acid in Australia, cumulatively accounting for 58.0% share in 2015. Western Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland are expected to be the most attractive markets for nitric acid in Australia over the forecast period. Consumption of nitric acid in these three regions is expected to reach 1,444.9 kilotons by the end of 2016.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Leading players in the Australia nitric acid market include Orica Limited, Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilizers, and Incitec Pivot Limited.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
Breast Feeding Aid Market Display Significant Growth by 2025

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Breastfeeding has boundless benefits. Breast milk has everything that baby needs, such as proteins, fats, minerals, iron, lactose and vitamin which is necessary for the babys growth. Breastfeeding keeps the baby away from all types of infections and allergies and creates an emotional bond between mother and baby. Breastfeeding might be a natural thing for many moms, but for some, it does not come naturally. They either have leaky breast or they experience pain whenever their babies latch on to the breast. These new-age mommies need little help and breastfeeding aids may help them during their feeding challenges. There are some must have breastfeeding aids such as breast milk pump, breast milk storage bag, nursing pillow, breast pads and ointment, breastfeeding cover, nursing bras, breastfeeding vitamins, silicon nipple shield, breast shells etc.Request a Toc of the Report @Breast Feeding Aid Market: Advantages and disadvantagesFor many moms, breast feeding is deprivation from sleep. Sleep deprivation may lead to a decrease in their milk supply. In such situation, breast milk pump makes their lives easier. Through breastfeeding pumps women can extract some milk during the day which can be useful in feeding the baby at night with the help of a bottle. However, to store the milk which is extracted through breast milk pump is not possible without milk store bag. These are specially designed bags which ensure to keep the beneficial properties of the milk. To hold the baby in arms during the entire breastfeeding session can cause back pain. However, the nursing pillows not only support babies during a feed but also give comfort to moms which make easier the entire birth recovery period.Breast pads can absorb the milk from the leaky breast and keep the area dry, while nipple ointments reduce the pains and inflammation in nipples. Although the breastfeeding aids have many beneficial qualities, there are some disadvantages too which are associated with these aids. For instance, silicon nipple shield is recommended to many moms who have sore nipples, however, they can reduce the amount of milk that baby gets as baby do not get milk straight from the breast. The milk expression can also be decreased due to excessive use of breast milk pumps, while in the case of milk storage bag, they are not eco-friendly. They are not as strong as plastic or glass containers, so the chances of leaking are comparatively more in milk storage bags.Breast Feeding Aid Market: Drivers and restraintsThe rise in the population of working mother is one of the driving factors which is contributing to the growth of global breastfeeding aid market. Breast milk pumps are particularly popular among working moms, as they can ensure that their babies would get breast milk even when they are away from their babies at work for long hours. Increasing world population is also creating a positive impact on the breastfeeding aid market. Apart from this, technological advancement fast paced lifestyle, and favourable health care policies are creating robust development in global breastfeeding aid market. This market, however, has hindrances too and one of the major factors which are hampering the growth of global breastfeeding aid market is to launch a new device is a costly affair. The amount of investment in launching a new product is very high and even after investing this amount the approval process from FDA for these new products is tedious. Besides, there is a growing debate on the usage of breastfeeding aids which will act as a hindrance in the growth of global breastfeeding aids market.Breast Feeding Aid Market: RegionsNorth America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world are some of the regions which are considered while covering this market. At present, North America is dominating the breastfeeding aid market with more than half of the market share followed by Europe. Due to rising population, favourable healthcare policies initiated by the government, and an increasing number of working mothers are some of the important factors in Asia-Pacific market which are fuelling the breastfeeding aid market.Request a Brochure of the Report @Breast Feeding Aid Market: Key playersPigeon, Tommee Tippee, Philips, Comotomo, Playtex, Nuby, Chicco, Medela and Summer Infant are some of the prominent players across the globe.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Blood Sugar Strips Market Highly Favorable to the Growth Rate by 2025

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The market for the self-monitoring of blood glucose is worth billions of dollars and is a lucrative market, despite the fact that the industry is facing declining prices and slower growth. Given the fact that blood sugar test strips are seen as generic products by consumers and insurers, without introducing any innovative technology, it would be extremely difficult for the new entrants in the self-monitoring of blood glucose market to entrench themselves. In addition, the prices of the blood sugar testing strips are declining, market growth can only occur by convincing the existing patient base to test themselves more frequently and to identify more of the undisclosed diabetes suffering patient pool. United States is the largest market for the self-monitoring of blood glucose and other regions of the world are fast catching up. There has been an exponential growth in the market for blood sugar strips and they have now become more affordable to the general public and their cost is generally reimbursed in the health insurance policies.Request a Toc of the Report @The main market driver for blood sugar test strips is the growing epidemic of diabetes the world over. As per the figures provided by the World Health Organisation, the population of the world suffering from diabetes in the year 2000 was 171 million which is going to rise to 366 million in the year 2030. Coupled with this, the growing scourge of obesity in the world, especially in the United States, and the increasing number of geriatric population is also fuelling the population of people suffering from diabetes. Moreover, with the increasing affluence in the developing and major economies of China and India, where incomes are rising, the market for blood sugar test strips is growing at a faster rate. A rising population in these economies combined with an increased impetus on the healthcare is going to give a boost to the blood sugar test strips market in these developing economies.Increasing awareness about diabetes in the world is also giving a fillip to the worldwide blood sugar test strips market. While still people are not self-testing their blood glucose levels as per the recommended limits set by various medical organisations, the awareness to test and avail protection against diabetes is rising the world over, giving a boost to the worldwide blood sugar test strips market. In addition, advances in the self-monitoring of blood glucose testing technologies have made it easier for individuals to test themselves for diabetes and monitor their blood glucose levels. These advancement in technology and the ease of testing has also given a boost to the blood sugar test strips market. In this context, advances in software, that allow medical professionals to directly download patient data from blood glucose monitors has also paved the way of increasing the use of such devices, thereby increasing the market for blood sugar testing strips.However, there are various factors that are acting as a restraint to the worldwide blood sugar test strips market. One of the major factor is the falling prices of blood sugar test strips due to intense competition and the overabundance of market players in this field. Also, besides United States, there are certain countries where blood sugar test strips are available at half the prices than those available in United States, and this is creating an intense price pressure on the vendors of blood sugar test strips all over the world. There is a general unwillingness from the patients suffering from diabetes to pay more out of their pocket for the treatment of diabetes, thereby the frequency of self-testing of blood glucose levels is becoming less and less among such pool of patients.Request a Brochure of the Report @Companies that dominate the blood sugar test strips market include F.Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Abbott Laboratories, LifeScan, Inc., and Bayer Healthcare AG.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
New Data Shows Magnificent Trends for RESIDENTIAL ELEVATORS Market

RESIDENTIAL ELEVATORS Market

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The qualitative research study conducted by HTF MI titled Global Residential Elevators Market Professional Survey Report 2018 provides primary Data, surveys, Scope of the Product and vendor briefings. The market dynamic forces have been determined after conducting a detailed study of the Global Residential Elevators market. The study provides forecasts for Residential Elevators investments till 2023.If you are involved in the Residential Elevators industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It offers a consequential analysis of the Residential Elevators company, key tactics followed by leading manufactures and trending segments.Get the inside scoop of the Sample report @:The research study is segmented by Types [Platform Lifts, Cabin Lifts, Wheelchair Lifts & Other] as well as Key Applications [Private Home, Public Space & Other] with historical and projected market share along with the growth rate, revenue figures and gross profit margin in tabular format which makes easy to understand product/service differences, market concentration rate and product distribution for past 5 years.Major geographical regions like North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India and leading players such as ThyssenKrupp, Orona, Stannah, Dongnan Elevator, Cibes Lift, Otis, Sigma, Aritco, Schicro?Barduva), Changzhou Jiangnan Elevator, YunCheng(Artist), Austand, Kleeman, Hitachi & Mitsubishi involved in this report. The report gives a clear idea about the growth factors, reasons for deterioration of Global Residential Elevators in recent years and different opportunities and strategies to expand market.Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports. Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.Each player highlighted in the research study contains companies Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors, in-depth business overview, geographic footprint and contact information. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to SWOT Analysis.Buy this research @Reasons to Buy:- What will be the market size in 2023 and at what rate will it grow?- What growth potential do Residential Elevators market have?- Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies.- Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage.- Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic.- Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and its most promising contributions.- New Development and identify prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scope.- Influential factors that are thriving demand and constraints in the market.To add, value to product and services research report comprises of valuable insights with distinguishable traits that influence consumers behavior and demand. The report offers a measurable and verifiable method made towards analysis of market concentration, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Some of the key questions answered in this report:- Detailed Overview of Global Residential Elevators market helps deliver clients and businesses making strategies.- Influential factors that are thriving demand and constraints in the market.- What is the market concentration? Is it fragmented or highly concentrated?- What trends, challenges and barriers will impact the development and sizing of Residential Elevators market?- SWOT Analysis of each key player mentioned along with its company profile.- What growth momentum or acceleration market carries during the forecast period?- Which region is going to tap highest market share in future?- What Application/end-user category or Product Type may see incremental growth prospects?- What focused approach and constraints are holding the market tight?Any Query or Specific Requirement? Ask to our Expert @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Residential Elevators marketChapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Residential Elevators, Applications of Residential Elevators, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Rate, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, Export & Import, 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 North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India, Residential Elevators Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Residential Elevators Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Private Home, Public Space & Other]) & Type [Platform Lifts, Cabin Lifts, Wheelchair Lifts & Other] Major Manufacturers Analysis of Residential Elevators;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Platform Lifts, Cabin Lifts, Wheelchair Lifts & Other], Market Trend by Application Private Home, Public Space & Other;Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Residential Elevators;Chapter 12, to describe Residential Elevators Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Residential Elevators sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :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
Blood Sugar Lancets Market to Reap Excessive Revenues by 2025

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Diabetes is a global scourge that is largely due to our modern day, fast-paced lifestyle. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 415 million adults were living with this disease in the year 2015, which is a sharp rise from 108 million in 1980. This corresponds to roughly 8.5% of the global population or one in eight adults. While it was largely seen in developed countries initially, the prevalence has unfortunately risen much faster in low and middle-income countries in recent times. While diabetics would fret over researching the correct insulin pumps or glucose meters, how many would consider devices in the blood sugar lancet market with the attention required? Most people use the device that comes along with their glucose meter, but these are also sold as a separate device.Request a Toc of the Report @A blood sugar lancet is a small medical device used in capillary blood sampling. It looks similar to a scalpel but has a double-edged needle or blade. Blood sugar lancets are used to make minuscule punctures to obtain blood samples and are mostly disposable. The blood sugar lancet market is a part of the global diabetes market as they are commonly used to measure blood glucose levels. The depth of the skin to be penetrated can be adjusted for various levels of skin thickness. Some devices can even be used to measure the acid base status of an unborn foetus.Blood Sugar Lancets Market Drivers & RestraintsAs per the International Diabetes Federation, it is estimated that nearly 642 million people will suffer from diabetes by the year 2040. This amounts to nearly 1 in 10 adults. They are anticipated to be the biggest driver of the blood sugar lancet market in the coming decade. Diabetes is far more likely to occur in obese or senior citizens in any country. Western countries are already troubled by both these health predicaments. There is also an increasing number of both type 1 and type 2 cases of diabetes being reported in children and thus, governments will be under increasing pressure to tackle the issue head one. The blood sugar lancet market will allow people to monitor their glucose level, keep it under control and take the medication as and when required.The second driver of the blood sugar lancet market is the reimbursement options available, especially in developed countries. These devices are typically replaced every six to eight months which makes them expensive in the long run. Thus, patients prefer health insurance plans that cover most of the device expenditure. These plans also provide coverage for glucose test strips, glucose meters and diabetes testing supplies. In the U.S. alone, Medicare covers almost 80% of the cost of blood glucose monitoring devices like blood sugar lancets. The American Association of Diabetes Educators has also published a reimbursement procedure for primary caregivers, which categorically states that Medicare will reimburse medical service costs of diabetic patients.A key challenge in the blood sugar lancet market is a lack of patient awareness. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that almost one in two cases will remain undiagnosed. A person dies approximately every six seconds and 12% of global healthcare expenditure i.e. $673 billion is spent on treating diabetes. Diabetes can be a life-threatening disease if not properly treated. However, if it is, a patient can almost lead a completely normal life, with very few restrictions. Governments must educate their citizens about the disease and the self-monitoring of blood glucose with the help of devices like blood sugar lancets.Request a Brochure of the Report @Blood Sugar Lancets Market Key Market PlayersSome of the blood sugar lancets market key players are Abbott, Baye, LifeScan, and Roche. Between themselves, they account for a lions share of the entire blood glucose device market. (SMBG). Other companies include AgaMatrix, Dexcom, Nova Biomedical and Integrity Applications, DarioHealth International Biomedical, and Medisana.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Acromegaly Treatment Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017 - 2025

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Acromegaly is a rare disorder caused due to the excess production of growth hormone by the pituitary gland, affecting a patients physical appearance and internal organs. It is usually caused by benign pituitary tumor (adenoma), however, in rare cases acromegaly symptoms can be observed due to ineffective control of growth hormone-secreting cells by hypothalamus. Abnormal enlargement of hands, arms, feet, legs, and head, and gradual changes in facial features such as eye-brow, lower jaw, and nose are visible symptoms of this disorder. Untreated acromegaly leads to serious and life threating complications such as cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmia. Blood test to measure levels of growth hormones or insulin-like growth factor and imaging of tumors through MRI scan and CT scan are commonly used diagnostic approaches to detect acromegaly. Some medications are 90% effective in shrinking tumor, however, success rate of type of treatment varies based on age, health or medical history of patients. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), 14,230 individuals of the U.S. were diagnosed with pituitary gland tumor in 2017, of which majority are benign tumor. Furthermore, in 2017, the National Organization for Rare Disorders estimated the prevalence rate of acromegaly as 50-70 person per million and 3 new cases occurs per million every year, which is expected to increase the demand for acromegaly treatment market.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report:Market Driver:New drugs in the market widens the choice of therapies for doctors and patients. In 2017, Midatech Pharma PLC submitted clinical trial application in human study of Q-Octreotide (MTD201) programme in cancer and acromegaly, and now it has received oral confirmation from Polish regulators for its approval in January 2018. Furthermore, Chiasma Incs new oral maintenance therapy for acromegaly treatment named Mycapssa, which has completed an international Phase 3 trial and further conducting an international Phase 3 clinical trial under a protocol accepted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for adult patients with acromegaly is also expected to boost growth of acromegaly treatment market over the forecast period. Expiration of drug patents during the forecast period can hamper the market temporarily.As acromegaly is a non-preventable disease, early detection of the disease will help to cure the disease symptoms. Increasing awareness to differentiate between acromegaly and other disorders like gigantism, Marfan syndrome, and Pachydermoperiostosis, and further detecting the symptoms and diagnosing it will help in propelling the acromegaly treatment market growth. For instance, Acromegaly Awareness Day was celebrated on November 1, 2017 for the first time by World Alliance of Pituitary Organization (WAPO) and Pituitary Network Association to increase awareness on diagnosing the symptoms of this disease without any delay. Some foundation provided financial assistance to medicare patients suffering with acromegaly. For instance, in December 2017, HealthWell Foundation launched a new fund scheme where it provided a fund of US$ 10,000 for a 12-month grant to acromegaly patients who have annual household incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Such funding programs will provide financial ease to the patients suffering from acromegaly, which in turn will propel growth of acromegaly treatment market. In 2017, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was awarded Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of up to US$ 2.8 million from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of companys orally-available, non-peptide somatostatin agonist drug candidate, CRN00808 that can be used for the treatment of acromegaly.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @Acromegaly Treatment Market - Competitors:Pfizer Inc., Novartis Pharma AG, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Midatech Pharma PLC, Strongbridge Biopharma plc, Chiasma Inc, Aegis Therapeutics LLC, Amryt Pharma plc, Antisense Therapeutics Ltd, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc, Dauntless Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. are the major players involved in acromegaly treatment market.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Cervical Dysplasia Diagnostic Market Global Industry Insights, Trends, and Analysis 2017-2025

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Cervical dysplasia is a precancerous condition characterized by abnormal growth of endocervical canal cells. Cervical dysplasia is also called as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. It is a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) caused due to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Cervical dysplasia can be of two types based on the type of cells it affect - squamous intraepithelial lesion and glandular cell lesions. It occurs in all age groups and it is common in women with 30 years age. Cervical dysplasia can be detected by Pap test, endocervical curettage, and loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) or HPV DNA test. The cervical dysplasia diagnostic market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period, owing to increasing prevalence of disease and increasing awareness regarding utilization of detection test through government screening programmes for regular screening for human papillomavirus. Moreover, high accuracy of HPV test at low cost is expected to fuel growth of the HPV test segment in cervical dysplasia diagnostic market.Request a sample copy of this report:Market DriverCervical infection is major risk factor for progression of HPV. Currently, conventional Pap smear test or HPV test are the only test available for screening cervical infection, which in turn propels the demand for development of DNA-based molecular testing to detect human papillomavirus for diagnosis of cervical cancer. For instance, in 2016, Becton, Dickinson and Company received pre-diagnostic market approval from FDA for its Onclarity HPV assay, type of HPV test. However, current practices for cervical dysplasia diagnostic through colposcopy requires trained professional to perform the test, which is major challenge for growth of the market. To overcome this, research institutes and universities are involved in development of innovative diagnosis devices, which in driving growth of the cervical dysplasia diagnostic market. For instance, in July 2017, Duke University in North Carolina developed a pocket colposcopy device enable with laptop and mobile connection. The device was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH).The untreated cervical dysplasia progresses into cervical cancer or cervical carcinoma, which is the leading cause of cancer death for women in the US. According to American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in 2017, an estimated 12,820 women in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with cervical cancer along with 4210 deaths every year. Furthermore, ASCO reported 68% increase in survival rate of cervical cancer patients, which suggest increasing use of cervical dysplasia diagnostic and boosting cervical dysplasia diagnostic market to prevent the cervical cancer. Moreover, Europe witnessed high prevalence of cervical cancer. For instance, in 2012, the incidence of cervical cancer in Europe was 58348 individuals per millions, increased by rate of 13.4% whereas mortality was raised by 4.9%. Moreover, government organisation of emerging economies are involved in spreading awareness and conducting screening test for cervical dysplasia, which is expected to drive growth of the cervical dysplasia diagnostic market. Organisations such as National Health Service (NHS) offers cervical screening programmes since 1980s, at the interval of every three year for women of age group 25 to 64 year and every five year above 64 in England, wales and northern Ireland.On the basis of region, cervical dysplasia diagnostic market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East. Increasing awareness regarding cervical dysplasia screening programs and technological advancements in screening are the key factors fuelling growth of the North America cervical dysplasia diagnostic market. Moreover, market in Asia Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period, owing to increasing government funding for cervical research and improving healthcare infrastructure.Access Table of Content (TOC) Of the Report:Abbott Laboratories, Qiagen N.V., Hologic Inc., F. Hoffmann La-Roche Ltd., Quest Diagnostics Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Atmos, and Karl Kaps are the major players involved in cervical dysplasia diagnostic market.Cervical Dysplasia Diagnostic Market TaxonomyBy Diagnostic: Diagnostic Test, Pap smear Test, HPV Test, Biopsy Test, Exocervical Biopsy, Endocervical Biopsy, Diagnostic Device, Colposcope,.By End Users: Hospitals & Clinics, Diagnostic Centers, Ambulatory Surgical Centers,.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Osteonecrosis Treatment Market Global Industry Insights, Trends and Analysis, 2017-2025

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Osteonecrosis is a disease in which bone cells dies or bones collapse due to lack of blood flow to the bones. It is also known as avascular necrosis, aseptic necrosis or ischemic necrosis. Osteonecrosis is most commonly developed in hip bone (femur) or knees, while less often in shoulder, wrist, ankle, hands, and feet. It can cause mild to severe pain and may lead to micro-fracture. Osteonecrosis can be diagnosed by using X-ray, CT scan, MRI, bone scan, and functional bone tests. Osteonecrosis treatment targets symptoms and reduces pain via medication or surgery in extreme cases. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, osteonecrosis is one of the rare diseases, where less than 1 in 2000 are only affected by this disorder. In 2017, Bone Therapeutics reported that around 170,000 patients were suffering from osteonecrosis in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. The advancements in treatment technologies and gene therapy and stem cell based osteonecrosis treatment are expected to propel growth of the osteonecrosis treatment market.Request a sample copy of this report:Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) to boost osteonecrosis treatment market. Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products is a class of innovative therapies that comprises of gene therapy, somatic cell therapy, and tissue-engineered products, which is expected to drive growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. Osteonecrosis usually affects young population and this significantly will contributes towards growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. For instance, according to the American College of Rheumatology, in 2017, around 10,000 to 20,000 people in the U.S. who suffered from osteonecrosis were between the ages of 20 and 50. Currently, the osteonecrosis non-surgical treatment (medication) is symptomatic treatment that targets the symptoms and try to cure the disease. Hence, emerging players in the field of bone disease treatment is gaining momentum by introducing gene regulation approach. Key players like Enzo Biochem, Inc. and Bone Therapeutics are aiming gene regulation and cell-based product treatment, which is expected to augment growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. For instance, PREOB manufactured by Bone Therapeutics, a cell based medicinal product derived from autologous bone marrow stem cells has been approved in the U.S., however, it is currently in phase III in Europe.In spite of being a rare disease, osteonecrosis treatment market is expected to propel due to the prevalence of causative agent for osteonecrosis. Side effects of various medicines taken during cancer, HIV/AIDS, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis or blood disorders or medical treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, high-dosage of steroids or organ transplants may increases the chances of having osteonecrosis. Furthermore, few interventions such as Stanford Universitys sponsored project aims at evaluation of osteonecrosis before and after decompression surgery with ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI, which improve detection and allow to track transplanted bone marrow cells. This intervention is in phase 4 clinical trial and is expected to complete the project over the forecast period, which in turn will propel growth of the osteonecrosis treatment market.On the basis of region, the global osteonecrosis treatment market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America is expected to hold a dominant position in the global osteonecrosis treatment market over the forecast period due to increasing prevalence pool of osteonecrosis, prior Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the new treatments in this region. For instance, according to NCBI 2015, it is estimated that around 20,000 to 30,000 new patients are diagnosed with osteonecrosis annually in the U.S. Asia Pacific is also expected to witness faster growth in the global osteonecrosis treatment market over the forecast period, owing to increase in development activities by various key players in this region. For instance, Bone Therapeutics and Asahi Kasei Corporation signed a license agreement in 2017 for the development and commercialization of PREOB in Japan.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @Major players involved in osteonecrosis treatment market include Bone Therapeutics, Enzo Biochem Inc., and K-Stemcell Co Ltd. Hospitals, clinics, universities, and institutes are other major participants in the osteonecrosis treatment market.Osteonecrosis Treatment Market Taxonomy:By Drug Class: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), Anti-coagulant, Other drugs,.By Distribution Channels: Hospitals pharmacies, Retail pharmacies, Online pharmacies,.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
$15.85 billion of Information Security Market Expected to Reach by 2024| Top Key Players are IBM Corporation, Wipro Limited, KPMG, Accenture

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In this Report Information Security Consulting Market and industry investigation, measure, diagram, development, viewpoint, ace highlights, top players, contenders examination and application its assistance to develop your business at universal level.The Global Information Security Consulting Market accounted for USD 15.85 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 10.65% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.For In depth Information Get Free Sample Copy of this Report@Global Information Security Consulting Market, By Geography, Security Type (Network Security, Application Security, Database Security, Endpoint Security), Organization Size (SMEs, Large Enterprises), Vertical (Aerospace & Defense, Government & Public Utilities, BFSI, IT & Telecom, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Information Security Consulting Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Information Security Consulting MarketThe information security consulting helps in protection of the organization by providing expertise and experience that lack internally. The services comprises of including security engineering, management, assessment, and compliance provided by certified consultants. The growing network complexities, growing trends of IoT among others are some of the drivers for the growth of this market whereas the budget constraints are the restraining factor for this market.Key Questions Answered in Global Information Security Consulting Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Information Security Consulting Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Information Security Consulting Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Information Security Consulting Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Information Security Consulting Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Information Security Consulting Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Information Security Consulting Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Major Market Drivers: Growing Network Complexities Increased Sophistication in Attacking Growing Trends of IoT Budget Constraints Growing Cyber-Attacks On Business NetworkTop Key Players: IBM Corporation Wipro Limited Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP BAE Systems. KPMG Accenture Ernst & Young Global Limited Atos SE Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Optiv Security Inc. SecureWorks, Inc. among others.For more insightful information visit@Customize report of "Global Information Security Consulting Market" as per customers requirement also available.Company Share Analysis: Global Information Security Consulting MarketThe report for information security consulting market include detailed vendor level analysis for market shares in 2016 for Global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America specifically. Also impact and development analysis of key vendors is registered in the market and factored on the basis of Vendor Positioning Grid Analysis which measures the vendors strengths and opportunities against present market challenges, measure providers ability to identify or satisfy present market needs, map providers market vision to current and upcoming market dynamics among others. The report also measures technology life line curve and market time line to analyze and do more affective investments.Market Segmentations:Global Information Security Consulting Market is segmented on the basis of Security Type Organization Size Vertical GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Security Type into network security, application security, database security and endpoint security.On the basis of Organization Size, the global information security consulting market is segmented into small & medium enterprises and large enterprises.On the basis of Vertical, the global information security consulting market is segmented into aerospace & defense, government & public utilities, BFSI, IT & telecom, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and others.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaSpeak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Geotechnical Instrumentation & Monitoring Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Geotechnical Instrumentation & Monitoring Market, By Geography; Offering (Hardware, Software, Services); Structure (Tunnels Bridges, Buildings Utilities, Dams); Technology (Wired Networking Technology, Wireless Technology); Application (Pore Water Pressure, Soil Stresses, Lateral Deformation, Vertical Deformation), End-Users (Building, Infrastructure, Energy, Power, Oil, Gas, Mining)  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:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Global GPS Tracking Device Market | Commercial Vehicles increment leading to large supply of GPS system

GPS Tracking Device Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024

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Global GPS Tracking Device Market including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Global GPS Tracking Device Market. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Global GPS Tracking Device Market before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2018-2024 Global GPS Tracking Device Market covering all important parametersGlobal GPS Tracking Device Market accounted to USD 1.5 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 13.0% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.A GPS tracking unit is a device, normally carried by a moving vehicle or person, that uses the Global Positioning System to determine and track its precise location, and hence that of its carrier, at intervals. The latest trend in this market is growth in commercial vehicle leading to the growth of GPS system, they are in small in size, easy to carry, which may further develop the market in future. There is need of GPS tracking devices for several applications like Transportation & Logistics, Construction, Oil & Gas, Metals & Mining, Government; others will create a huge market for the GPS tracking devices.FREE | Sample Copy is Available@Global GPS Tracking Device Market By Type (Standalone Tracker, PBD Device, Advance Tracker) By Deployment type (Commercial Vehicle, Cargo and Container, Others), By Application (Transportation & Logistics, Construction, Oil & Gas, Metals & Mining, Government, Others) By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Major Market Competitors: Calamp Corporation, Sierra Wireless, Inc., Orbocomm Inc., Queclink Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd, Shenzhen Concox Information Technology Co., Ltd, Laird PLC., Tomtom International Bv, MeitrackGroup, Teltonika UAB, Atrack Technology Inc., Trackimo LLC,Geotab Inc., Shenzhen Coban Electronics Co., Ltd, Xirgo Technologies, Inc., Maestro Wireless Solutions Ltd., Ruptela UAB, Spy tech, Inc., Verizon Wireless among others.In 2017, Volkswagen sign a deal with Sierra wireless Inc. to use the GPS tracking devices in their cars.Competitive Analysis:GPS Tracking Device Market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of flow cytometry market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Major Market Drivers and Restraints: Commercial Vehicles increment leading to large supply of GPS system Smaller Size, Longer Life, and High ROI Low Prices Several Environmental Factors Leads to Poor User Experience Advancement in the SoftwareSpeak to our Expert for more Details @Some Major Countries Covered in This Report:- U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil among others.In 2017, North America is expected to dominate the market.Read More @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:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Hybrid Operating Rooms Market: Players Leverage Mergers and Acquisitions to Gain Access to Different Markets

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Some of the prominent participants in the global hybrid operating room market are Trumpf Medical, Toshiba, IMRIS, Eschmann Equipment, Skytron, Stryker, MAQUET, Philips, GE Healthcare, and Siemens Healthineers. In order to steal a march over their competitors, such players are banking upon mergers and acquisitions and partnerships which will enable them to tap into larger resources, diversify products, and access markets in various corners of the world.Request for Sample Copy of Report @A report by Transparency Market Research predicts the global market for hybrid operating room to witness intense competition in the years ahead with players trying to outgun one another on the basis of product differentiation and competitive prices.As per the TMR report, the global market for hybrid operating room will likely rise at a steady CAGR of 4.60% from 2017 to 2022, to become worth US$828.1 bn by the end of 2022 from US$661.8 mn by 2017.Component-wise, key segments of the global market for hybrid operating room are operating room fixtures, surgical instruments, intraoperative diagnostic imaging systems, and audiovisual display systems and tools. Among them, the segment of intraoperative diagnostic imaging systems are witnessing significant demand  a trend that is expected to continue in the near future.Geographically, some of the key regions of the market for hybrid operating room studied in the report are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East and Africa. North America, of them, is a key contributor to the market. The market in North America is powered by the U.S. and Canada. In the near future too, the market is predicted to hold on to its leading share on the back of growing initiatives by hospitals to upgrade their operating rooms, the increasing number of ambulatory surgery centers, and rising requirement for various surgical procedures.At the forefront of driving the global market for hybrid operating room is the continuous technological progress in the domain. Leading players are seen pouring money into creating more sophisticated equipment, which in turn is driving demand.Request a Brochure of the Report @Besides, swift uptake of robotic surgeries in Asian nations of Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan are also catalyzing growth in the market, along with continued upgrading of operating rooms, particularly in developed regions.Further serving to boost the market for hybrid operating room is the increasing allocations by the healthcare sector and government support towards research and development of novel equipment.Dealing a blow to demand for hybrid operating rooms, on the other hand, is the high cost of installation of the equipment. Complexity of the installation process is also proving to be a restraint. However, helping to overcome the obstacle is the rising preference for minimally invasive surgeries among patients, supportive policies, and increasing investments for development of new technologies.The most prominent trend in this market is the strategic alliances among multinational players and regional and small-scale OEMs.Enquiry for discount on this report @Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) are key end use segments in market.About UsTransparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Detail Study on Agricultural Crop Insurance Market | Estimated to Grow Rapidly | Forecast till 2023

Agricultural Crop Insurance Market

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BusinessIndustryReports.com has new research report on the global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market. The global Agricultural Crop Insurance market is growing continuously and expected to grow healthy CAGR by Forecast year 2023Agricultural Crop Insurance Market is purchased by agricultural producers, including farmers, ranchers, and others to protect themselves against either the loss of their crops due to natural disasters, such as hail, drought, and floods, or the loss of revenue due to declines in the prices of agricultural commodities. The two general categories of crop insurance are called crop-yield insurance and crop-revenue insurance.A farmer or grower may desire to grow a crop associated with a particular defined attribute that potentially qualifies for a premium over similar commodity crops, agricultural products, or derivatives thereof. The particular attribute may be associated with the genetic composition of the crop, certain management practices of the grower, or both. However, many standard crop insurance policies do not differentiate between commodity crops and crops associated with particular attributes. Accordingly, farmers have a need for crop insurance to cover the risk of growing crops associated with particular attributes.Get a Premium Sample Report atAgricultural Crop insurance is purchased by agricultural producers, including farmers, ranchers, and others to protect themselves against either the loss of their crops due to natural disasters, such as hail, drought, and floods, or the loss of Premiums due to declines in the prices of agricultural commodities.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Agricultural Crop Insurance in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa.This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversPICCZurich (RCIS)ChubbQBEChina United Property InsuranceAmerican Financial GroupPrudentialXL CatlinEverest Re GroupEndurance SpecialtyCUNA MutualAgriculture Insurance Company of IndiaTokio MarineCGB Diversified ServicesFarmers Mutual HailArcher Daniels MidlandICICI LombardMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, igeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversMPCIHailMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoDigital & Direct ChannelBancassuranceAgenciesBrokersComplete report on Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market Size, Status and Forecast 2023 is spread across 101 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and landscape details in this niche sector. Get Direct Copy of this Research Report @Major Table of Content1 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market Research Report 20182 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market Analysis by Application7 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Agricultural Crop Insurance Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Agricultural Crop Insurance Market Forecast (2018-2023 )13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixKey questions answered in the report:What will the market growth rate of Agricultural Crop Insurance market in 2023 ?What are the key factors driving the global Agricultural Crop Insurance market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis of top manufacturers of Agricultural Crop Insurance market?Who are the distributors, traders and dealers of Agricultural Crop Insurance market?Who are the key manufacturers in Agricultural Crop Insurance market space?What are the Agricultural Crop Insurance market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Agricultural Crop Insurance market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of Agricultural Crop Insurance market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of Agricultural Crop Insurance market?What are the market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Agricultural Crop Insurance market?More inquire atAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined - we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune  Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940
Worldwide Digital Banking Market | Top Key Players Urban FT, Kony, Backbase, Technisys, Infosys, Digiliti Money, Innofis, Mobilearth, D3 Banking Technology, Alkami, Q2 | Forecast till 2023

Digital banking market

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BusinessIndustryReports.com has new research report on the global Digital Banking Market. The global Digital Banking market is growing continuously and expected to grow healthy CAGR by Forecast year 2023Digital Banking Market is the move to online banking where banking services are delivered over the internet. The advantages for banks and customers are providing more convenient and faster banking services. The shift from traditional to digital banking has been gradual and should be rather described in degrees of service digitization than through a categorization into yes and no. It involves high levels of process automation and web-based services and may include APIs enabling cross-institutional service composition to deliver banking products and provide transactions. It provides the ability for users to access financial data through desktop, mobile and ATM services.Digital Banking Market represents a virtual process that includes online banking and beyond. As an end-to-end platform, digital banking must encompass the front end that consumers see, the back end that bankers see through their servers and admin control panels and the middleware that connects these nodes. Ultimately, a Digital Banking Market should facilitate all functional levels of banking on all service delivery platforms. In other words, it should have all the same functions as a head office, branch office, online service, bank cards, ATM and point of sale machines.The reason Digital Banking Market is more than just a mobile or online platform is that it includes middleware solutions. Middleware is software that bridges operating systems or databases with other applications. Financial industry departments such as risk management, product development and marketing must also be included in the middle and back end to truly be considered a complete digital bank. Financial institutions must be at the forefront of the latest technology to ensure security and compliance with government regulations.Get a Premium Sample Report atThis report studies the Digital Banking market. In contrast to the traditional banking business model, Digital Banking is the move to online banking where banking services are delivered over the internet. It has all the same functions as a head office, branch office, online service, bank cards, ATM and point of sale machines.Scope of the Report: This report focuses on the Digital Banking in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa.This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications. Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversUrban FTKonyBackbaseTechnisysInfosysDigiliti MoneyInnofisMobilearthD3 Banking TechnologyAlkamiQ2MisysSAPMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPCMobileMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoRetail Digital BankingSME Digital BankingCorporate Digital BankingComplete report on Global Digital Banking Market Size, Status and Forecast 2023 is spread across 100 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and landscape details in this niche sector. Get Direct Copy of this Research Report @Major Table of Content1 Global Digital Banking Market Research Report 20182 Global Digital Banking Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Digital Banking Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Digital Banking Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Digital Banking Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Digital Banking Market Analysis by Application7 Global Digital Banking Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Digital Banking Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Digital Banking Market Forecast (2018-2023 )13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixKey questions answered in the report:What will the market growth rate of Digital Banking market in 2023 ?What are the key factors driving the global Digital Banking market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis of top manufacturers of Digital Banking market?Who are the distributors, traders and dealers of Digital Banking market?Who are the key manufacturers in Digital Banking market space?What are the Digital Banking market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Digital Banking market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of Digital Banking market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of Digital Banking market?What are the market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Digital Banking market?More inquire atAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined - we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune  Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940
Lipidomics Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023

Lipidomics Market

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The Lipidomics Market: By Sample Type (Blood Sample, Tissue Sample, Others) By lipid source (Human Source, Animal Source, Plant Source), By Application (Drug Discovery, Biomarker Discovery, Personalized Medicine, Diagnosis and Treatment, Others), By End user (Biopharmaceutical Companies, Agriculture Industries, Food and Beverage Industries, Academic Research Institutes) By Geography (Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and Europe)  Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023Market Outline: Lipidomics MarketLipidomics is an emerging biomedical research discipline, which involves complex lipidome analysis. Lipidome is a quantitative and comprehensive description of a set of lipid species in an organism. Lipidomics involves system level quantitation and identification of several number of networks and pathways of cellular lipids and interaction with other proteins and moieties.Market Dynamics: Lipidomics MarketIncrease in need for accurate disease diagnosis, growth in demand for personalized medicine, technological advancements in field of lipidomics and huge investments from the public and private sectors for R&D activities are anticipated to fuel the lipidomics market growth over the forecast period. Moreover, wide range of applications of lipidomics, increase in the prevalence of target diseases such as cancers, and increase in scope of clinical trials and toxicological studies are expected to boost lipidomics market. However, stringent regulatory guidelines, unavailability of advanced instruments, lack of technology adoption, dearth professional researchers, high cost for R&D activities, and issues with data examination and processing are expected to hamper the growth of lipidomics services over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Lipidomics MarketThe Lipidomics Market is classified on the basis of sample type, service type, lipid source, application, end user and regions.Based on sample type, market is segmented into the following Blood Sample Tissue Sample OthersBased on the lipid source, market is segmented into the following Human Source Animal Source Plant SourceBased on the application, market is segmented into the following Drug Discovery Biomarker Discovery Personalized Medicine Diagnosis and treatment OthersBased on end user, market is segmented into the following Biopharmaceutical Companies Agriculture Industries Food and Beverage Industry Academic Research InstitutesBased on Region, Market is segmented as North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific The Middle East and AfricaTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Regional Analysis: Lipidomics MarketLipidomics market is segmented as Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and The Middle East and Africa. North America estimated to account for significant revenue share in global services market owing to huge number of bio pharmaceutical companies focused on the R&D activities of lipidomics, rise in funds from the government organizations, and availability of professional researchers and well-established infrastructure. Europe is expected to expand at significant growth rate due to high adoption of novel technologies; researchers and governments concentrated on prevention of genetic disorders, and increase in target disease conditions. Moreover, increase in population and birth rate, rise in prevalence of diabetes and other targeted diseases, increase in R&D activities in China, Japan, and India, rise in demand for personalized medicine in Asia-Pacific region expected to create significant opportunities for Lipidomics market over the forecast period.Need more information about this report @Competition Assessment: Lipidomics MarketSome of the players in Lipidomics market are Zora Biosciences Oy (Finland) OWL Metabolomics (Spain) ProSciento (U.S.) Avanti Lipids Polar, Inc. (U.S.) The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (U.S.) VCU Massey Cancer Center (U.S.) Virginia Commonwealth University (U.S.) Lipotype GmbH (Germany) School of Medicine (Wayne State University) (U.S.) Metabolon, Inc. (U.S.) Waters Corporation (U.S.) Lipotype GmbH (Germany)Notable Market Developments In September 2016, Lipotype GmbH launched its novel Lipotype shot gun skin lipidomics technology. In June 2015, SCIEX a lifescience analytical technologies company and Metabolon a lipidomics company entered into a multi-year collaboration, and they released The Lipidizer Platform, aan integrated solution for accurate next generation lipidomics.Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) 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 marketGet 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 @
Rheumatology Therapeutics Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023

Rheumatology Therapeutics Market

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Global Rheumatology Therapeutics Market: By Drug Class (Disease Modifying Anti Rheumatic Drugs (Synthetic, Biologic), Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), Corticosteroids, Others), By Disorder (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gout, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Osteo Arthritis, Others), By Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral, Topical), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, Online Pharmacies) By Region  Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023Market Outline: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketRheumatology is the branch of medicine devoted to diagnosis and treatment of the rheumatic diseases. Rheumatology diseases mainly affect the connecting and supporting parts of the body such as ligaments, joints, muscles, tendons and rarely some organs of the body.There are more than 100 types of rheumatic diseases are present but more common are psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and others. Rheumatology diseases can be caused by various factors such as change in lifestyle, aging, unhealthy food and even genetic factors. The treatment is generally given with disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs and other drugs may be used to decrease the symptoms.Market dynamics: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketContinuous growth in aging population, rise in prevalence of the diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and increase in R&D activities by the companies to develop new rheumatology therapeutics projected as primary drivers for the global rheumatology therapeutics market. In addition, rise in awareness related to symptoms and treatment of rheumatological disorders coupled with the recent product launches are expected to bolster the market growth over the forecast period. However, availability of the biosimilars, and patent expiry of some drugs is expected to hamper the global rheumatology therapeutics market during the coming years.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketGlobal rheumatology therapeutics market is segmented based on test type, end user, and regionBased on class of drug, market is segmented into Disease Modifying Anti Rheumatic Drugso Synthetico Biologic Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) Corticosteroids OthersBased on disorder, market is segmented into Rheumatoid Arthritis Gout Ankylosing Spondylitis Osteo Arthritis OthersBased on route of administration, market is segmented into Oral Parenteral TopicalBased on distribution channel, market is segmented into Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Online PharmaciesBased on region, market is segmented into North America Latin America Asia Pacific The Middle East and Africa EuropeMarket Summary: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketThe market is highly competitive due to the presence of the strong market players involving in development of new rheumatology therapeutics. Companies are developing the novel drugs and expanding the therapeutic applications of existing drugs. For instance, in January 2016, Novartis AG has got two U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals for its County to treat ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis in U.S. in May 2017, Sanofi S.A. has got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its kevazara (sarilumab) to treat active rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, companies also focusing on inorganic growth through acquisitions and mergers. For instance, in April 2016, Bristol Myers Squib acquired the Padlock Therapeutics Inc. along with the pipeline of rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune drug pipeline to strengthen their market position.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Regional Analysis: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketGeographically rheumatology therapeutics market is divided into five key regions, i.e. Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia- Pacific, and The Middle East & Africa. North America rheumatoid arthritis market is expected to grow at significant rates owing to rise in prevalence of the rheumatoid disorders coupled with the recent product launches and established healthcare infrastructure. According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, in U.S. adult population by the year of 2040, the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed arthritis will reach to 78.4 million compared with 54.4 million in 2013 to 2015. Asia Pacific rheumatology therapeutics market is expected to have lucrative growth opportunity owing to the prevalence of disease, developed healthcare infrastructure and expansion of global players into emerging Asian countries such as India and China. Europe rheumatology therapeutics market projected to have significant growth rate owing to the rise in aging population, well established healthcare infrastructure and increase in disposable income.Need more information about this report @Competition Assessment: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics MarketSome of the players in global rheumatology therapeutics market include AbbVie, Inc. (U.S.) Pfizer Inc. (U.S.) Bristol-Myers Squibb (U.S.) Merck & Co. (U.S.) Amgen, Inc. (U.S.) Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson) Novartis AG (Switzerland) Genentech, Inc. (U.S.) Sanofi S.A. (France) Takeda Pharmaceutical (Japan) Celgene Corporation (U.S.) Flexion Therapeutics, Inc. (U.S.)Notable Market Developments: Global Rheumatology Therapeutics Market In October 2017, Flexion Therapeutics, Inc. got U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Zilretta, sustained release intraarticular injection to treat osteoarthritis In September 2014, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved OTEZLA (apermilast), oral selective PDE4 inhibitor to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and symptoms of psoriatic arthritis.Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) 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 marketGet 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 @
Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  3M, AllTrust Networks, Cross Match Technologies, Digital Persona

Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  3M, AllTrust Networks, Cross Match Technologies, Digital Persona.Description:In this report, the global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services 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 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services 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 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including3M (US)AllTrust Networks (US)Cross Match Technologies, Inc. (US)Cyber-SIGN, Inc. (Japan)Digital Persona, Inc. (US)Fujitsu Frontech North America, Inc. (US)Ingenico SA (France)Lumidigm, Inc. (US)Morpho (France)Nuance Communications, Inc. (US)Precise Biometrics AB (Sweden)Suprema, Inc. (US)VoiceVault, Inc. (US)Voice Commerce Ltd. (UK)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFace BiometricsVoice BiometricsFingerprint BiometricsIris BiometricsHand Vein BiometricsOthersOn 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, includingMobile BankingElectronic BankingOthersComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsGlobal Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market Research Report 20181 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services1.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Face Biometrics1.2.4 Voice Biometrics1.2.5 Fingerprint Biometrics1.2.6 Iris Biometrics1.2.7 Hand Vein Biometrics1.2.8 Others1.3 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Segment by Application1.3.1 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Mobile Banking1.3.3 Electronic Banking1.3.4 Others1.4 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services 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 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)7 Global Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 3M (US)7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 3M (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 AllTrust Networks (US)7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 AllTrust Networks (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Cross Match Technologies, Inc. (US)7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Cross Match Technologies, Inc. (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Cyber-SIGN, Inc. (Japan)7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Cyber-SIGN, Inc. (Japan) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Digital Persona, Inc. (US)7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Digital Persona, Inc. (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Fujitsu Frontech North America, Inc. (US)7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Fujitsu Frontech North America, Inc. (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Ingenico SA (France)7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Ingenico SA (France) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Lumidigm, Inc. (US)7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Lumidigm, Inc. (US) Biometrics for Banking and Financial Services 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.
Fluoropolymer Films Market Showing 5% CAGR Growth to 2024: Company Profiles & Trends Analysis

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MarketStudyReport.com adds a new Fluoropolymer Films Market research report that provides a detailed market overview as well as industry analysis for / of companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.Rising popularity of fluoropolymer films as a substitute for glass photovoltaic (PV) modules shall boost the market during the forecast timespan. International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) stated that solar energy shall power above 13% of global electricity demand by 2030, rising from its 2% share in 2016. As a result, the surge in PV modules market will drive the demand of fluoropolymer films in the coming years.Fluoropolymer Films Market will surpass USD 2 billion by 2024 with projected gains close to 5% CAGR between 2016 and 2024; according to a new research report.Request a sample copy of Fluoropolymer Films Market Research Report @Fluorine-based organic polymer films industry is expected to witness significant requirement in various other end-use sectors including: construction, transportation, industrial processing, etc. in the future years. Growing awareness of the unique characteristics of fluoropolymer films such as chemical inertness, UV resistance, dielectric properties, frictional resistance, etc. will expand their applicability by 2024.Medical sector shall hold robust demand for fluorine-based organic polymer films in the near future. The product will observe high applicability in accordance to the upgrading drug delivery measures including: stoppers, plunger laminates, cap-liners as well as other advanced drug containers, during the forecast period. Market will be flourished by the cumulative healthcare investments by various countries in order to match safety needs demanded by a growing populace.Global fluoropolymer films market might face some restraining factors in the next 5-7 years. For instance, their key raw materials which are the fluoropolymers, involve high pricing. Complex manufacturing procedures and uncertainties amongst the consumers regarding the fluorinated pollutants could affect market growth negatively.PTFE films led the overall fluoropolymer films industry in 2016 with more than 50% market share. The massive share was ascribed to vast availability and the low pricing of PTFE resin. These films are expected to have strong prospects by 2024 in packaging applications for their usage as release films, supported by their low frictional coefficient, high chemical, thermal & electrical resistance.By 2024, the PVDF films shall witness significant rise with probable gains exceeding CAGR 5%. PVDF films will have sturdy growth in industrial processing, electrical & electronics, etc. for their suitability in the respective application areas such as: thermoformed pump diaphragms, piezoelectric films and in tank linings.Europe contributed about 20% share in fluorine-based organic polymer films industry in 2016. Europe is projected to have sluggish growth by 2024 for the matured market status. Asia Pacific is certain to hold highest share in the coming years. Upward growth aspects of construction sector in Asia Pacific, cheaper pricing involved in the product manufacturing and strong solar capacity with Japan (42.8 GW) and China (78.1 GW) are some factors that present promising gains for fluoropolymer films market.Key manufacturers are: The Chemours Company, The 3M Company, Polyflon Technology Limited, Kureha Corp., DAIKIN Industries Ltd., DUNMORE Corp., Saint-Gobain S.A., SKC Corp., Asahi Glass, etc. Most of the industry manufacturers are engaged in strengthening the geographical reach by consistent expansion initiatives.For more information on this report, please visit @Related Reports: -Global Fluoropolymer Films Market Research Report 2018In this report, the global Fluoropolymer Films 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. ...More Reports @About Us:Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place. Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 193901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2390Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Connect with us:Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter
3D Glass Cover Plate Market 2018 Trends and Development Analysis For Key Manufacturers

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This report studies the global 3D Glass Cover Plate market, analyzes and researches the 3D Glass Cover Plate development status and forecast in Regions like Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The report analyses the entire production and supply chain of the Market and provides information as per different phases. Whereas, on the basis of sales, data related to sales volume, sales price, cost, sales income, and profit margin etc. of 3D Glass Cover Plate Market used in different fields, sold in different regions and by different companies is provided in this report.The 3D Glass Cover Plate market research report analyzes global adoption trends, future growth potentials, key drivers, competitive outlook, restraints, opportunities, key challenges, market ecosystem, and value chain analysis. This report presents a detailed analysis, market sizing, and forecasting for the emerging segment within the 3D Glass Cover Plate market. The report is thoroughly segmented by product type, application, vertical, and region. The report also focuses on various regional markets for each of the segment within the 3D Glass Cover Plate market. The major regions include North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and Latin America.Get Free Sample Copy of this report atThis study includes the profiles of key players in the market and the strategies adopted by them to sustain in the competition. Recent developments and barriers of the market is expected to help emerging players to design their strategies in an effective manner. The study is expected to help key players in broadcast 3D Glass Cover Plate manufacturers to formulate and develop new strategies.Market Segmentation:By Region and Country Coverage:Europe; UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Poland, Western Europe, Central and Eastern EuropeNorth America: USA, CanadaAsia Pacific: Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New ZealandBrowse complete Report atKey Issues AddressedCompetitive Landscape and Strategic RecommendationsThe market forecast and growth areas for 3D Glass Cover Plate MarketChanging Market Trends and Emerging OpportunitiesHistorical shipment and revenueAnalysis key applicationsMain Players market shareContinue.Else place an Inquire before Purchase Global 3D Glass Cover Plate Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 @(Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.)About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505,6th floo,Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers,East Block,Kharadi Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028
Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size, Segments and Demand by Worldwide Competitive Players as bioMeriux, Roche, MDx Health, Beckman Coulter and Myriad Genetics Till 2023

Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market

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The Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market report titled Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size, Status and Forecast 2023 is added to the huge warehouse of BusinessIndustryReports.comProstate Cancer Diagnostics refers to using PSA, rectal exam, biopsy and others to diagnostic whether patients with breast cancer."The prostate is a walnut-sized gland located behind the base of a mans penis, in front of the rectum, and below the bladder. Cancer begins when healthy cells in the prostate change and grow out of control, forming a tumor. A tumor can be cancerous or benign. A cancerous tumor is malignant, meaning it can grow and spread to other parts of the body. A benign tumor means the tumor can grow but will not spread.Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Segment by Type, covers:Tumor Biomarker TestsImagingBiopsyOtherGet Exclusive Sample Copy @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Prostate Cancer Diagnostics in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversGenomic HealthAbbottOPKOSiemens HealthcareDiaSorinbioMeriuxRocheMDx HealthBeckman CoulterMyriad GeneticsAmbry GeneticsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into< 5555-75> 75Get Discount @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics market.Chapter 1, to describe Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Prostate Cancer Diagnostics, with sales, revenue, and price of Prostate Cancer Diagnostics, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Prostate Cancer Diagnostics, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Prostate Cancer Diagnostics market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Prostate Cancer Diagnostics sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceAsk Questions to Expertise @About us:BusinessIndustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media Contact:Business Industry ReportsPune - 411002MaharashtraCall: +19376349940Email: sales@businessindustryreports.com
World Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market Leading Players Excellent Growth Rate by Lithium Energy Japan, LG Chem, BYD, Samsung and Hitachi Forecasts Till 2023

Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market

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The International Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market report titled Global Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 is an expert analysis report give niche segment data from each topmost players Globally.Electric vehicle battery pack is providing driving force by consuming the power and it is installed in the electric vehicle. Electric vehicle battery pack designed for Electric Vehicles (EVs) is complex and vary widely by manufacturers and specific application. However, they all incorporate a combination of several simple mechanical and electrical component systems which perform the basic required functions of the pack.Scope of the Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market Report:This report focuses on the Electric Vehicle Battery Pack in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversBYDPanasonicCATLOptimumNanoLG ChemGuoXuanLishenPEVEAESCSamsungLithium Energy JapanBeijing Pride PowerBAK BatteryWanXiangHitachiACCUmotiveBoston PowerElectric Vehicle Battery Pack Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversLithium Ion BatteryNI-MH BatteryOther BatteryElectric Vehicle Battery Pack Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPHEVsBEVsThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Electric Vehicle Battery Pack market.Chapter 1, to describe Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Electric Vehicle Battery Pack, with sales, revenue, and price of Electric Vehicle Battery Pack, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Electric Vehicle Battery Pack, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Electric Vehicle Battery Pack market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Electric Vehicle Battery Pack sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Discount @Major TOC Global and Chinese Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Industry, 2018 Market Research Report:1 Market Overview1.1 Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Lithium Ion Battery1.2.2 NI-MH Battery1.2.3 Other Battery1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 PHEVs1.3.2 BEVs1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market DynamicsTOC Continued.!Ask Questions to Expertise @About us:BusinessIndustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media Contact:Business Industry ReportsPune - 411002MaharashtraCall: +19376349940Email: sales@businessindustryreports.com
Tuesday 10 April 2018 10:10am



An MoU was recently signed between the University of Otago and the Women in Wine  Central Otago group from Ata Mara vineyard. Photo: Creative Commons.

The University of Otago is partnering with Central Otago vineyards to improve business practices in the sector.

A memorandum of understanding was recently signed between the University and Women in Wine  Central Otago.



Business School Dean, Professor Robin Gauld.

Business School Dean, Professor Robin Gauld says the University is looking forward to working with the group by providing research, education, and training opportunities in every aspect of the wine industry.

This new and exciting collaboration will foster multi-disciplinary initiatives across the University of Otago, in particular by developing staff and student research and workshops led by the Business Schools Department of Tourism, recently recognised by the World Leisure Organization as a World Leisure Center of Excellence.

Women in Wine  Central Otago founder, of Ata Mara Vineyard, Janiene Bayliss describes it as an important partnership as it will determine the way we do business.

It would also allow the University to delve deeply into an exciting industry, right on its doorstep, for the purposes of excellent research and active student participation.

The very first thing we will be undertaking is identifying research areas and topics key to our members, for example, wine tourism, wine-making technology, wine waste and wine bioactives.

We hope that before the next tourist season begins we will be undertaking some data analysis to give us meaningful trends, she says.

Despite being made up of many small vineyards, the Central Otago wine industry is one of the regions largest generators of revenue, creating more than $300 million in value, and investing more than $50 million into the region in the way of machinery, costs and labour.

Ms Bayliss says the wine industry now operates as part of the tourism experience providing a range of vineyard experiences, including food, accommodation, tastings and tours.

To leverage that properly, and make the very best business decisions, we need much better trend information and usage of the data from a number of contact points. The University of Otago partnership is the perfect tool to enable us to move forward and do some exciting thinking pieces together.

Insights gained through expert advice from the University together with our own knowledge will allow us to plan better and make informed decisions.
To bring attention to gender pay inequality, members of the Midland Equal Pay Coalition lobbied for the City of Midland to proclaim April 10 Equal Pay Day.

April 10 signifies the day when wages of full time working American women catch up to their male counterparts from the previous year. On average, full-time working women in Michigan earn 78 percent of the wages of full-time working men, which is reflected similarly on a national scale in every occupation.
Midland County lost a dedicated servant with the death of Richard O. Diment on Sunday. The 88-year-old served with distinction the City of Coleman and then as Midland County register of deeds for 33 years.

As a public servant Dick was a giant among Michigan's Register of Deeds, said Judy Rapanos, Republican chair for the 4th Congressional District.

Diment was born Sept. 3, 1929, in Geneva Township to the late Vernell and Thelma (Sprenger) Diment. Following graduation from Coleman High in 1947, he married Joan (Methner) on June 17, 1951.

He took a job with Robinson Industries before a distinguished tour in the U.S. Army from 1951-1953 during the Korean War.

His initial foray into public service came in 1959 when he was elected to the Village of Coleman Board of Supervisors representing the First Ward. He also worked for the Coleman Department of Public Works.

He handled every request with enthusiasm, timeliness and a smile, Rapanos said. As a Republican colleague, he was great to work with. He never hesitated to help out when called upon. He will be remembered for his kindness.

Nine years later he was appointed Midland County register of deeds. He held that position for 24 years before retiring in 1992.

A Dec. 30, 1992, editorial in the Daily News read: It isnt often that an elected official serves with the sincerity and grace that has been demonstrated during the past 24 years by outgoing Register of Deeds Dick Diment.

The editorial went on to state that Diment served his constituency with, zeal, honesty and a sense that he truly was more than the custodian of the office.

Although he won many awards, the most meaningful recognition was the Citizens Advocacy Relationship Award, in 1983, sponsored by the Arc Center. Diment was a mentor to Clarence Mumford of the Arc.

Diment said in a Daily News article at the time, Ive received more than Ive given in this. Through Clarence, I have become more aware of the handicapped segment of our community.

Diment is survived by his wife, Joan Diment of Midland; children, Thomas (Pat) Diment of Riner, Va., Steven (Marina) Diment of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Diment of Midland.

A celebration of Dicks life is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at the Faith United Methodist Church in Coleman. Friends may call at the church starting at 10 a.m. until the time of services. OLaughlin Funeral Home Inc. is assisting the family with arrangements.
Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Donald Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case.

FBI agents on Monday raided Cohen's Manhattan office, home and hotel room as part of the investigation, seizing records about Cohen's clients and personal finances. Among the records taken were those related to a 2016 payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, according to another person familiar with the investigation.

Investigators took Cohen's computer, phone and personal financial records, including tax returns, as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the second person said.

In a dramatic and broad seizure, federal prosecutors collected communications between Cohen and his clients - including those between the lawyer and Trump, according to both people.

The raids - part of an investigation referred by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to federal prosecutors in New York - point to escalating legal jeopardy for a longtime Trump confidant who is deeply intertwined in the president's business and personal matters.

Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, called the tactics "inappropriate and unnecessary," saying Cohen has "cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath."

Among the records seized by investigators were "protected attorney client communications," Ryan said.

The aggressive tactics by prosecutors drew the president's ire. As Trump sat down for dinner Monday with military leaders at the White House, he repeatedly calling the raid "a disgrace," railing that he and his administration are the subject of unfair, baseless and misguided investigations.

"I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now or longer," he said. "It's an attack on our country in a true sense; it's an attack on what we all stand for."

Revisiting his grievances about Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump complained about what he suggested was a concerted and sometimes partisan effort to target his leadership. He noted that he has been urged to fire the special counsel, calling Mueller's investigators "the most biased group of people."

Dawn Dearden, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, declined to comment.

One person familiar with the probe said investigators have been gathering material on Cohen for weeks, including his bank records.

Two of the potential crimes being investigated - bank fraud and wire fraud - suggest prosecutors have some reason to think Cohen may have misled bankers about why he was using particular funds or may have improperly used banks in the transfer of funds.

Cohen has acknowledged facilitating a $130,000 payment in October 2016 to Daniels, who claims she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Trump made his first comments about the payment last week, saying he did not know about the transaction.

Cohen has said he used a home-equity line of credit to finance the payment to Daniels and said that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign reimbursed him for the payment.

Banks don't usually require much explanation from customers about how they use such credit lines. However, Cohen may have been asked to provide explanation for the large-dollar transfers he made when he moved the money to a shell company and then to a lawyer for Daniels.

The search requests for records related to the payment to Daniels cited investigators' interest in possible violations of election law, according to one person familiar with the investigators' work.

The seizure of Cohen's records was first reported by the New York Times.

The Cohen raids required high-level authorization within the Justice Department. Under regulations governing the special counsel's work, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if his team finds information worth investigating that does not fall under his mandate to examine Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Rosenstein, as the acting attorney general supervising Mueller's work, has the responsibility of deciding whether to expand Mueller's mandate to include the new topic or to refer it to a U.S. attorney's office.

Since Cohen is a practicing attorney whose communications with clients are considered privileged, federal prosecutors would have been required to first consider a less intrusive investigative tactic than a search warrant before executing the raids.

To serve a search warrant on a practicing attorney, federal prosecutors are required to obtain approval from top Justice Department officials. That means the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, who was appointed to his role by Sessions in January, as well as Justice Department officials in Washington, probably signed off.

Known for his combative style and fierce loyalty to Trump, Cohen served for a decade as a top lawyer at the Trump Organization, tangling with reporters and Trump's business competitors on behalf of the celebrity real estate mogul.

He never formally joined Trump's campaign but was in close contact with his longtime boss from his Trump Tower office throughout the 2016 race and presidential transition.

Cohen left the Trump Organization in January 2017, around the time of Trump's inauguration, and since then has served as a personal attorney to the president.

Squire Patton Boggs, the law firm where Cohen had an office for the past year, said in a statement Monday that its "arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

"We have been in contact with federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen," the firm said. "These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation."

To pursue criminal charges against Cohen for breaking federal election law, prosecutors would have to prove that he made the payment to Daniels to influence the election, rather than for personal reasons - to protect Trump's reputation, for example, or his marriage.

Cohen has acknowledged that he facilitated the payment to Daniels, but he has not said why.

On Oct. 17, Cohen established Essential Consultants Limited Liability Co. as a vehicle for the $130,000 payment, records show. Ten days later, on Oct. 27, the bank Cohen used in New York transferred the money to Daniels via a California bank account belonging to her lawyer, Keith Davidson.

Eleven months later, in September 2017, that California bank - City National Bank in Beverly Hills - asked Davidson about the source of the payment, according to an email reviewed by The Washington Post. Bank officials declined to comment on whether the inquiry was triggered by a request or subpoena from law enforcement.

At some point, Cohen's New York bank, First Republic, flagged the transaction to the Treasury Department as a suspicious payment, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Cohen used his Trump Organization email in negotiating the agreement with Davidson and in communicating with his bank about the funds.

In February, after a watchdog group filed a complaint about the payment with the Federal Election Commission, Cohen released a statement saying he "used my own personal funds to facilitate" the payment. He rejected the idea that the payment should have counted as a campaign contribution.

"The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone," he said, referring to Daniels' real name, Stephanie Clifford.

While the timing of the payment - 12 days before the presidential election - might suggest an attempt to influence the outcome, timing is not enough to prove intent, said Rick Hasen, a professor specializing in election law at the University of California at Irvine.

"It would be very difficult to bring one of these cases without some good documentary evidence," he said. "I think a lot of people are underestimating the hurdles that it takes to bring a criminal prosecution."

Cohen's work for Trump has been a topic of particular interest in recent months to Mueller's investigators. Although there has been no sign that he is a subject or target of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the investigation have said that Cohen has come up repeatedly in interviews and document requests.

Cohen played a central role in two Russia-related episodes Mueller has been investigating, including negotiations to build a Trump tower in Moscow that the Trump Organization undertook after Trump announced his candidacy for president. Cohen also was fleetingly involved with an effort to call attention to a Russia-friendly proposal for peace in Ukraine shortly before Trump took office.

---

The Washington Post's Mark Berman, Emma Brown, Josh Dawsey, Anne Gearan, Rosalind S. Helderman, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, Matt Zapotosky and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.
Midland County Habitat for Humanity is partnering up with Consumers Energy to raise funds for affordable housing in Midland County with Home Run for Habitat.

"We appreciate Consumers Energy's continued support of the Habitat mission. With their matching gift donor's dollars will go even further to building strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter," said Midland County Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Jennifer Chappel.
When veteran Rick Fall took his wife to Gladwins Riverwalk Grill last Monday for their 20th wedding anniversary, the evening didnt go as planned.

The couple was turned away because of Falls service dog.

Riverwalk Grill owner Brock Dennings was blindsided when he heard that a veteran was asked to leave his restaurant because he brought his service dog into the eatery.

Fall, a Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran from Beaverton, was at the restaurant April 2, to celebrate his wedding anniversary. Dennings said a staff member reportedly approached Fall and said he couldnt have his dog, Ben, inside, due to health codes. Dennings said it is unknown if the dog was wearing the required service uniform or if Fall explained the golden lab was a service dog.

We told them at least six times it was a service dog, Fall said. Weve been there before with Ben and its never been a problem.

Dennings said he is not attempting to pass blame.

We just want to know what happened and ensure it does not happen again, Dennings told the Daily News. That is what I know for sure. Im not saying we didnt have any fault. We just want to understand what happened.

He is working on establishing that employees are educated in dealing with service dogs and having them sign that they understand.

This way we wont have any confusion going forward, the restaurant owner added.

Dennings is also going a step further to host a service dog workshop at 11 a.m. April 25, at Riverwalk Place, with Lori Shaw, of Helping Paws LLC in Farwell. Shaw also runs Helping Paws for Veterans and worked with Fall and his dog, Ben.

Shaw said the workshop will cover understanding service dogs in the community and what to do if you suspect a fake service dog. The trainer said she has literally run in to people with fake service dogs, noting that it is an issue.

Dennings wasnt made aware of the situation until Shaw reached out to the restaurant, noting that Fall was offended by the treatment. Since then, Dennings and his staff immediately reached out to Fall to apologize.

The owner said he hopes to apologize to Fall in person.

Service dogs are allowed in nearly all establishments per the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, the act stipulates that excessive barking or disruptive behavior can have them removed.

We love service dogs and we love veterans, said Dennings whos family recently added a golden retriever to their family, noting the dog has lit up their home.

Service dogs are huge, Dennings said. They do something a person cant.

Dennings and Shaw said the restaurant incident will have a good outcome by raising awareness of service dogs in the community.

Restaurant employees have offered Fall complementary meals because of the incident. Yet, Fall said what he wanted was to raise awareness.

Fall said he doesnt want to shine a negative light on the restaurant, he just wants people with service animals to be treated with respect.

Fall, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, said Ben has blessed his life.

I feel more normal now, Fall said of life with Ben. He is a loving and caring dog. Hes my best friend.
The use of deadly force by a Midland Police officer who was fired at by a fleeing 16-year-old a month ago has been deemed justified, and the case is now closed.

Midland County Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks announced his findings this afternoon in the investigation of a police-involved shooting that occurred after authorities were called to a theft from a vehicle and were fired upon by Jaden Marsh. Michigan State Police previously reported a medical examiner determined the fatal wound was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

Marshs father told the Daily News the teen had made multiple attempts to end his own life before the March 12 incident.

We will probably never know what his true intent was that morning and it is very tragic that Jaden Marsh, just 16 years old, lost his life that day, Brooks said. But clearly the officers use of deadly force against him, again regardless of who fired the fatal shot, was reasonable, justified and legal under these circumstances.

In an analysis of the case, Brooks gave numerous details.

At 1:39 a.m. that morning, 911 dispatchers received a call from a Birchfield Drive resident reporting items being stolen from a vehicle. The resident described two suspects, both carrying backpacks, had tried to enter a vehicle at that home, and were walking toward East Ashman Street.

Midland Police Officers Mark Stefaniak and Jerry Wilson responded to the call from the Law Enforcement Center, both wearing full police uniforms and driving separate fully marked patrol cars. According to Brooks, police had received a number of reports of property being stolen from vehicles in the weeks before.

The officers reached the scene five minutes later, and Stefaniak saw two males matching the description on the suspects walking east on Ashman near Birchfield. He stopped at the curb and used lights to illuminate the pair, then exited his car and identified himself as a police officer.

As soon as Stefaniak contacted the first suspect, the second, identified as Marsh, began to run around the police cruisers and west down the sidewalk on Ashman.

Wilson chased Marsh and radioed the information to dispatchers. Stefaniak placed the first suspect in custody and watched Wilson chase Marsh near Dawn Drive. Stefaniak then lost sight of Wilson and Marsh due to poor lighting.

About the same time that he lost sight of the two, Stefaniak heard Wilson warn the second suspect about using a taser, followed by two gunshots. After a short pause, Stefaniak heard a series of shots fired.

Wilson told investigators he drew his taser and warned Marsh he would be tased if he kept running. Marsh stumbled, then continued running as Wilson closed the distance between them. At that point, Marsh turned and fired twice, close enough that Wilson said he could feel the concussion from the gun shots.

Wilson, indicating that he was then in fear for his life, dropped his taser device and his flashlight, drew his service weapon, a 9 mm Luger Glock semi-automatic pistol, and returned fire until the suspect fell to the ground, Brooks wrote.

Midland Police Sgt. Corey Armstead reached the scene 18 seconds after the first radio call that shots had been fired, and the camera in his cruiser captured a recording of Wilson still approaching Marsh as he laid motionless on the sidewalk, holding the gun in his right hand with his index finger against the trigger, Brooks wrote. Marsh suffered wounds to his head and his right hamstring.

Armstead removed the handgun, a 9 mm Luger Kahr semi-automatic pistol reported as stolen from a vehicle the day before, from Marshs hand. Wilson was then removed from the scene and turned over his equipment, including his service weapon, to Michigan State Police detectives at the Law Enforcement Center.

The teen who was with Marsh spoke with police, giving insight into the events.

He told Stefaniak that Marsh had a gun and had threatened to kill himself that night as well as showed him the gun. The teen said he went with Marsh, supposedly heading for the K-Mart Store although it was closed at that time, to try to keep him from killing himself. Marsh also wrote a note before they left the house.

Detectives found the note, which is addressed to Marshs former girlfriend. It reads, This decision that Im making is going to hurt a  ton of people, I know. Im selfish & I couldnt possibly say sorry enough times. Please understand its been my goal to do this for a very long time, years before I met you. I dont think I shouldve ever been born, all I contributed to this world was a whole lot of problems.

After they left the house, Marsh tried to break into several cars as they made their way down East Ashman near Swede Road. The teen said Marsh got into one vehicle where he found what they believed to be marijuana and other items, and they took phone chargers and cigarette lighters from vehicles on Birchfield.

The teens had just reached Ashman when Stefaniak found them. Marsh immediately ran, the teen said.

State police detectives gathered evidence from the scene beginning about 4:30 a.m., blocking a section of East Ashman Street until later, just after 8 a.m.

The investigation found Wilson fired four times.

Five rounds were collected by detectives  two from a sidewalk, one from the roof of a parked Nissan, and two from Marshs clothing and body. Marsh fired one of the rounds recovered from the sidewalk as well as one found between the hat he was wearing and his head. A round recovered from Marshs leg likely came from Wilsons gun but could not be positively identified. The round taken from the Nissan also likely came from Wilsons gun. Investigators could not determine who fired the final round, which was pulled from a sidewalk.

Neighbors were interviewed, all giving consistent reports of what they heard during the incident. Brooks said one man was working in his garage at the time and reported hearing people running as well as talking outside, then about six gunshots. He hid behind a workbench until he heard police sirens outside.

Marsh had been reported as a runaway on Feb. 23, and was considered as a juvenile probation absconder. His father, Todd Marsh, told police he assumed his son was dead when he was first contacted by the officials that morning.

Jaden had texted his brother a picture of the gun, and had previously told his father he would shoot at the police if he was caught again, Brooks said. Jadens friends and family both told detectives the teen was severely depressed and often spoke of suicide.

An autopsy was performed on March 13, and the medical examiner found a large presence of gunpowder residue on the right side of Marshs head, consistent with a close contact injury from a firearm. The medical examiner determined the bullet entered the right side of Marshs head and exited through the left. The injury to Marshs right leg was caused by a bullet entering the back of his leg, striking bone and then exiting the front of his leg. Based on the findings from the autopsy, other facts and circumstances of the investigation as well as the ballistics report, the medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was the gunshot wound to Marshs head, and the manner of death was suicide.

In using the findings to reach a decision on the use of deadly force, Brooks said regardless of if the fatal wound came from the hand of the suspect or the officer, Wilsons use of force was justified.

Every person in the State of Michigan when threatened with deadly force against their person, or against another person, has the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force if reasonably and honestly believed to be necessary, to protect themselves or another person, Brooks wrote. He explained police have a special duty to protect others as well as the right to use deadly force to stop a dangerous fleeing felon.

Stefaniak and Wilson had the right to stop and question the teens, who matched the description of the suspects in the report of the in-progress break in. As soon as Marsh refused the officers orders to stop, he was in violation of the felony statute of resisting and obstructing a police officer, and he became a fleeing felon as he ran from Wilson.

When he turned and shot a firearm in the direction of the officer, he clearly was a dangerous fleeing felon and the officer had the right to use deadly force to stop him, Brooks said.
Do you think it should be illegal to compile public information? To participate in a boycott? U.S. Republicans and Democrats seem to think so.

In fact, they are currently trying to make it law. The bill currently has 269 co-sponsors; 225 in the House (H.R.1697) and 51 in the Senate (S.720). This includes our own Republican Rep. John Moolenaar and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is a direct response to the BDS movement, which stands for Boycott. Divestment. Sanctions. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would make it illegal for U.S. businesses to cease doing business with Israel, or companies that operate on illegal Israeli settlements, if it is  or is only perceived to be  for political reasons.

In May 2017, I went on a delegation to Palestine/Israel that met with the co-founder of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti. A Palestinian human rights defender, Barghouti says when the international community sanctioned apartheid South Africa it ended segregationist laws. Barghouti would like to see this in Palestine/Israel.

Since 2005, people across the world, including Jews in the United States, have been boycotting products made on settlements. The goal is to put pressure on Israel to follow already existing international laws:

1. Granting Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel equal rights as other Israelis.

2. Allowing Palestinian families expelled from their homes by the Israeli military in 1948, the right of return to move back home, as stipulated by UN Resolution 194.

3. Ending Israels occupation of Palestine by withdrawing Israeli military and settlers from Palestinian territory.

On the delegation, I saw the effects of Israels human rights violations firsthand.

I stayed overnight at a refugee camp where I was told to keep the windows closed because the Israeli military frequently comes at night and shoots guns and releases tear gas. Our hosts showed us a room where we could go if the tear gas was intolerable. I also met a Palestinian farmer who said Israeli settlers poisoned 300 of her sheep and even tried to poison her family. I met a Palestinian man who was tortured as a youth in an Israeli prison built on Palestinian land. I met a woman who can no longer attend her place of worship because of the wall Israel built and we paid for.

These are just a few of the things Palestinians deal with every day.

These are the tactics Israel uses to coerce Palestinians to leave the homes they have lived in for generations to make way for Israeli settlers.

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is illegal for an occupying power to use coercion to force a population to leave an occupied territory. Its also illegal to move a population into an occupied territory. Yet, this is what Israel is doing in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). In fact, the United Nations (UN) labels what Israel is doing to the Palestinians as genocide.

The power dynamic between Israel and the Palestinians is not an accident. While Israel receives $3.8 billion in military aid from the U.S. each year, Palestinians dont have a military to protect them. So, Palestinians are using non-violent means to pressure Israel to end the illegal occupation: BDS.

Proponents of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act say that BDS is anti-Semitic and those who participate want to destroy Israel. However, BDS only seeks to pressure Israel to follow laws that already exist.

The bill would forbid U.S. businesses from providing information to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The UNHRC is creating a database of companies operating on Israeli settlements. The UNHRC found 206 companies doing business with settlements, including 22 companies in the U.S. The exclusion of U.S. companies would make it difficult for citizens who oppose settlements to know which companies to boycott.

In contrast, the European Union (EU) requires imports to specify on product labels if it is built on an Israeli settlement so that EU citizens can decide for themselves.

If the bill passes, U.S. companies following UN guidelines could be denied U.S. governmental loans, fined a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million, and employees could face 20 years in prison.

Companies not doing business with Israel could even face penalties if they are perceived to be politically motivated. But, how would a corporations intentions be monitored? Would companies continue unprofitable business relationships with Israel simply to avoid fines?

Besides being impractical, it would also conflict with existing U.S. foreign policy.

U.S. policy condemns Israeli settlements and our aid to Israel is even contingent on no settlement construction. So, why would we add a provision in the law to protect the settlements from financial pressure? We at least need to be consistent.

Many Jews  including Jews in the U.S. and Israel  are against Israeli settlements. There are now more members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) than The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). While AIPAC lobbies for the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, JVP actively supports the BDS movement. This law wouldnt protect the interests of a minority population; it would oppose their wishes.

Finally, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act is an assault on our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. U.S. consumers would be denied a voice via the right to vote with their dollars.

Rep. Moolenaar and Sen. Peters should withdraw their co-sponsorship for the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.

Moolenaar should take the conventional Republican stance: Get the government out of the way and let the free market decide. Peters should heed the Democratic slogan of serving the people rather than the powerful.

In February, Norwegian parliamentarian Bjornar Moxnes nominated BDS for the Nobel Peace Prize. Our U.S. Congress should be supporting  not obstructing  Nobel Peace Prize nominees efforts.

This bill opposes the values of the international community as well as our own. So, why would our politicians suggest that the government pick winners and losers in terms of where businesses source their products and services, making Adam Smith spin in his grave? Why would lawmakers seek to hinder the work of Nobel Peace Prize nominees?

One likely explanation is the large campaign contributions by the Israel lobby, the strongest lobby in Washington D.C. surpassing even the gun lobby. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) alone contributed $3.4 million dollars to Republicans and Democrats alike in 2017. Another factor could be that politicians receive more correspondence from constituents involved with the Israel lobby.

However, this shouldnt dissuade politicians from doing whats right.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is in opposition to freedom of speech, international law, human rights, and even capitalism. The Anti-Boycott Act is not about what is best for American democracy. Its about placating lobbyists and hoping most citizens arent paying attention.

It takes a lot of moral and political courage for politicians to reverse positions in public, but we should expect no less from our elected officials.

Palestinians, on the other hand, dont have the luxury of deciding to be brave. Every day Palestinians live under Israeli occupation and are denied basic human rights.

Should the risk of being primaried by AIPAC-funded candidates dissuade politicians from fighting for basic human rights? Should the risk of losing their seats compel Rep. Moolenaar and Sen. Peters to make it illegal for citizens to support freedom of speech, international law, human rights, Nobel Peace Prize nominees efforts, and capitalism?

I hope not, but our elected officials current positions indicate otherwise.

Johnson is a Midland resident who visited the Middle East for two weeks in 2017 as part of a delegation from Interfaith Peace Builders.
Over the weekend the Syrian government reportedly carried out a chemical attack on its own citizens in the town of Douma, killing dozens of people, including children. President Trump immediately tweeted a response:

The statement was unusual in several ways, not least of which being Trumps first direct condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. More importantly, though, is that this position is one more bounce in Trumps pinballing Syria policy. He has no idea what to do about that war, which explains why he wasnt present this morning at the emergency National Security meeting to discuss our response to the chemical attack.

After that meeting, Trump said hell decide on a response within 24-48 hours. Well almost certainly launch a limited strike (Israel already did). Trump already committed himself to this decision when, almost exactly a year ago, he retaliated to a similar chemical attack in Syria with a missile strike. If Trump lets this one go he shows his weakness, so Assad will continue to gas his own people and Russia will continue to support Assad. He also has to live up to that tweet and make Syria, Russia, and Iran pay a big price for their support.

The real question then isnt whether well attack, but what well do after we attack. Coincidentally, and luckily for Trump if not the rest of the free world, this is also the first day on the job for John Bolton, Trumps new National Security Adviser. Bolton is a hawk on Syria, Russia, and Iran, and also the odds-on favorite to have authored Trumps retaliatory tweet this weekend. That gives us some insight into what we might be doing in Syria for the at least the near future.

We have two questions: Can Bolton shape Trumps non-ideology into a coherent Syria policy? And if so, what would that policy look like? Assad and Russia are forcing Bolton to pick a path early on, and their timing is pretty good: Bolton also has to prepare Trump for a meeting with Kim Jong Un in May, and, along with Secretary of State-nominee Mike Pompeo, he has to develop new policy on Iran. Heres what we might expect.

I dont envy Trump. Hes got to reckon with the same unsolvable problems that plagued the Obama administration. Before Trump actually had to think about it, he thought Syria was easy: Just get out. Turns out it isnt easy at all.

Its unfair to criticize Trump too harshly for his confusion, but the problem is that hes not simply confused: Hes ignoring his confusion and declaring contradictory policies with alarming and unsustainable frequency. Heres Trump last July after meeting with Russia at the G-20 summit:

Here he is last November:

Here he is last month, again in reference to Russia:

Hell, here are a bunch more from across the ages.

Last November:

And in the context of announcing well make the decision to retaliate in the next couple of days:

Also, heres what Trump said last summer in a speech announcing an unspecified troop increase in Afghanistan:

Ive said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin or end military options. We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. Americas enemies must never know our plans, or believe they can wait us out.

But according to an administration official, heres what Trump said last week in White House discussions about Syria: If you need more time, how much more time do you need? Six months? A year? When the security team told him they couldnt give him a time frame, because in addition to defeating the Islamic State, theyd have to train local forces to hold the ground theyd won. Trump reportedly wasnt thrilled about that either.

And beyond even this, a couple weeks ago Trump gave an incoherent speech in Ohio during which he promised that the U.S. military will be coming out of Syria like very soon. Defense officials didnt know what Trump meant by those remarks, which came just hours after Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said that important work remains to guarantee the lasting defeat of these violent extremists in Syria, referring to our official mission to eliminate the Islamic States presence in the country.

Then the next week Trump agreed not to withdraw from Syria, but demanded the Pentagon find a way to pull us out soon. And now, just a few days after that, hes talking about attacking Syria.

The U.S. has about 2,000 soldiers in Syria.

Its also worth remembering that back in December the Russian government told the U.S. it was time for us to pull out of Syria. So its no coincidence Assad, backed by Russia, chose to launch another chemical attack just days after Trump announced wed be stepping up in Syria. Theyre not just testing Trumps hypocrisy, though, theyre testing his base.

And so Bolton faces a unique challenge: Not only does Trump not have any ideas, he doesnt have any ideology. None of Trumps policies are governed by a sense of right or wrong, nor are they the product of calculations of long-term American interests. Theyre simply what Trump feels in his gut makes him look strong in the moment. Depending on the day, strength can mean, among other things, bomb the shit out of ISIS, working with Russia, making Syria and Russia a big price, pulling out of that country entirely, airstrikes on a sovereign nation, and the old reliable America First! This explains why Trumps contradictions on Syria continue to this day, and why his base waffles mindlessly along with him.

Its not hard to understand this, because Trump is a pathological narcissist and a simpleton. It is, however, a dangerous and unsustainable way to run military and foreign policy. We cant change those commitments day to day or even month to month As many of Trumps previous advisers have found out, its almost impossible to contain the pinball president, let alone direct him.

Bolton, then, will need to convince Trump of one path being the strongest. This will be difficult in an election year, when the GOP will push and pull between bomb-em-all and America First.

But this might be easy for Bolton. Trump is a sailboat in search of a wind. He doesnt care about anything: not the Syrian people, or the beautiful babies Assad gasses but whom Trump still wont welcome into the country he leads. He also doesnt care about the war itself: Following the botched Yemen raid in February, Trump immediately took himself out of the loop of all military decisions in Syria.

And in an election year. This will be one of Boltons biggest problems: Checking Trumps populist instincts.

Luckily for them, Trumps base wants to bomb the shit out of anyone in the Middle East. The choice, then, seems pretty obvious: War.

John Bolton isnt one for half measures, either. He was a Bush administration official who manipulated evidence to push us into the Iraq War. But theres Trump-pocrisy there, too. Heres what he thought of Bolton in 2013:

In fact, Bolton still believes that the Iraq War, which gave us the Islamic State in the first place, was a good idea?. And given what happened in Iraq, you might believe theres a good argument for withdrawal in Syria. But thats only if you believe that a) our only important task in Syria is to eliminate the Islamic State, and b) weve eliminated the Islamic State.

It isnt, and we havent.

Though the Islamic States self-proclaimed caliphate will collapseand likely soonthe group is still a very real threat. The same day that Trump promised Ohioans hed pull us out of Syria like very soon, an IED killed U.S. special forces operative Master Sgt. Johnathan Dunbar and British soldier Sgt. Matt Tonroe. They were part of a coalition operation fighting the Islamic State in Manjib.

Im a pacifist and dont want U.S. soldiers anywhere, but I also understand that, given the events of the last 17 years, my personal position is unrealistic. Theres no solution to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or the quixotic war on terror. We can either do things that will make it worse, or things that will make it a hell of a lot worse.

This is because other countries in the region dont just want to fight the Islamic State, and in fact for many of them its not even a priority. If the Islamic State can exploit a security vacuum in Syria to regroup, it will come back to bite the United States. Despite Trump bragging about the Islamic States defeat, the war on terror will never end, at least not in any practical sense for the foreseeable future. The group will lose its land, but it wont have been defeated. Instead it has taken a cue from the far less foolish al Qaeda and decentralized, installing and inspiring affiliate groups around the world. And if we pull out of Syria, the Islamic State will also take advantage of the certain emergent chaos in Syria to regroup.

There are actually hundreds of loose threads. For example, what would we do with the hundreds of Islamic State captives currently held by Syrian freedom fighters? Trump would also need to decide what ultimately to do about Assad, and how to check Russias regional presence. Also, if we pull out and leave Syria to Assad and Russia, they invite Iran in. Suddenly the conflict expands, and without the heavyweight United States in the region, then Iraq, Russia, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Kurds, the Islamic State, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Israel face each other in like fourteen different permutations of unmediated war triangles. There will also be a lawless security vacuum in the middle of Syria, which the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and other extremist groups will exploit.

Plus, if we leave Syria to Assad and Russia, we abandon the Syrian people. Assad will slaughter them. Maybe you dont really care about that. If you dont, you and I lead incompatible existences.

On one hand, then, you cant really blame Trump for sounding like a pinball machine. In a weird way the best policy, at least for now, might be a purely reactive one in hopes that incrementally increasing punishment will dissuade Assad and Russia from carrying out more of these horrific attacks. But this policy carries its own risks, and Assad and Putin dont seem to care much. Apparently they still see value in defying us, then lying about it.

On the other hand, if we ramp up the fight then we run a serious risk of mission creep. and that might put us face-to-face with Iran. One of Irans long-term goals for Syria, its strongest regional ally, is to use it to geographically connect to Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon. But we need to pull back one more level: This is all a strategic check on Saudi Arabia, Irans longtime regional enemy and the United Statess longtime ally.

In the end, I think Bolton really wants this showdown with Iran. Syria has always been a proxy war against Iran, and Bolton believes Obamas nuclear deal with Iran has made that war worse. Yet Bolton has also promoted regime change in Syria, which Trump promised his isolationist base wed no longer pursue.

Youre probably more confused for having read this article, and if so, congratulations: You get it. The most important takeaway, I think, is the very real risk for a very big war. Times like these we should be thankful our president is an aging, apoplectic narcissist under extreme psychological distress, and whose biggest successes to date are a reality TV show and cheating to win an election, democracy be damned.
Petoskey volleyball struggles to keep up with Cadillac, fall in three
I live for travelling, adventures, and riding new places. The allure of riding new trails and expecting the unexpected has become a way of life for me. When I first began planning my trip to Ecuador, I thought back to my first visit there in 2012. I wanted to revisit some of my favourite places, but I was also ready to go further and sink my tires into something new.This time around, I was lucky enough to be travelling with one of the best guides in the country, my friend Mateo. Mateo is a passionate rider that loves to explore (like me), and always comes up with crazy ideas for the next big ride. He rides super hard and isnt afraid of taking on the big epics.Ive always loved sketching and painting, and my artwork has allowed me to keep the memories from my trips alive long after theyre over. From brightly colored paintings to simple pencil drawings, my art is a reflection of what Ive seen and experienced along my adventures.I started my trip from just south of Quito and was in awe of Ecuadors beauty from the minute I stepped off of the plane. The first part of my journey would take me towards Laguna de Quilotoa, a stunning lake that shifts in color as the sun moves across the sky. Mateo and I were joined by our friend Dani, would join us for the first major ride around the Quilotoa crater rim. The Quilotoa rim trail is both technical and very physically demanding, making it an aggressive way to start off the trip.Riding at 3900m elevation was slowly wearing us down, and the threatening rainclouds had us worried about overexhaustion and exposure. The clouds were moving quickly, so we dropped in from rim trail and headed towards the town of Chugchilan in the valley far below. Navigating through farm lands and sandy singletrack, it was an amazing experience passing through villages along old roads, and eventually being rewarded with food and shelter.The terrain in Ecuador is incredible. After Quilotoa, we travelled north from Quito towards the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, an area which was very different than what I expected. As we approached the area it appeared like all the other dry mountains nearby, but the reality was it couldnt have been more different. When we finally arrived and dropped into the crater, we were treated to a winding singletrack through an endlessly lush rainforest.Everywhere we went seemed to hold some sort of historical significance. We were riding deep inside a volcanic crater on ancient trails and learned that we were actually riding through lands that belonged to a pre-Incan culture, the Yungos. The Yungos community used this fertile land as trade leverage during colonialism. In between the land they used for farming, they had developed an intricate network of trails and paths for moving through the area, which were now perfect for mountain biking!The black sandy trail was surrounded by walls of vegetation, and we were navigating what was one of the most unique trails Id ever ridden. From weaving through the dank humid rainforest to emerging into a dry dusty desert, the dirt under our tires turned from black to red. Ecuador switched it up on us once again. We had gone from rainforest jungle to a desolate crater-like area that was appropriately nicknamed, the moon.From the Pululahua crater we drove south passed Quito and Machachi to the base of Cotopaxi, an active volcano in the Andes. We set up in a mountain hostel for the night hoping for good weather, but this was a story Id seen unfold before.Cotopaxi is a very special place to me. When I first came to Ecuador in 2012, I was on a 19-day bikepacking trip and I spent 4 days waiting for the clouds to clear but never actually saw it. I was always drawn to come back but would again strike out on this trip.The snow was low, but we decided to make the most of it. The soil was incredibly soft, but still ran insanely slightly frozen ground and cold temperatures. The feeling of freedom and happiness from riding these lines surrounded by deep canyons and crazy colors is something Ill never forget.Mateo and I tried three separate times to approach and ride Chimborazo, and on the last attempt I had one of the best rides of my life. We descended from Condor Lake at 5100m into the low-lying jungle at 700m. From the volcanic rock field and sand slopes, to the high mountain ridge lines and impossibly thick jungle, we had proven once again that Ecuador has some of the most diverse riding on earth.After two weeks of riding in Ecuador and visiting many of the places Ive dreamed of, I once again feel incredibly lucky for getting to travel to ride my bike. Everything from the adventurous riding to the unique culture and passionate people, has made my experience in Ecuador unforgettable. I would like to thank Mateo and his company Ride Equador for his help.Whenever we travel we leave certain expectations in our mind and assume we know how things are going to go, but once your hands are on the bars its always a little bit different. Once youre there, the only thing that matters is the trail in front of you. This is when you know youre living 100% in the moment.Vive la VieTito
Updated: 11am PST on April 11, 2018 // Official Statement from The Queenstown Mountain Bike Club and Queenstown Lakes District Council



The Queenstown Mountain Bike Club (QMTBC) and Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) would like to clarify some well-intentioned, but inaccurate information that has been circulating over the past week regarding the Gorge Road Jump Park.



The jump park is situated close to town on land that has been identified as important to Queenstowns growing infrastructure requirements, which needs to expand as the town continues to experience increasing and sustained population growth.



QLDC owns the land that the Gorge Road Jump Park is situated on, and QTMBC has previously held a Licence to Occupy (LTO) the site. This has recently expired and was a five year LTO which had been renewed on the back of a previous five-year licence. The recently expired LTO does not have a right of renewal.



QLDC and the QTMBC have been in discussion around the future of the jump park for the past year, working together towards a mutually agreeable solution. To assist with this process, QLDC has offered financial assistance to help identify a new site for the jump park.



Until the exact nature of the future of the Gorge Road site has been determined, QLDC has also agreed to provide QTMBC yearly renewals of their LTO. The first of these renewals will expire at the end of April 2019 and if the site has yet to be repurposed by this time, an additional year may be granted.



Both QMTBC and QLDC are committed to ensuring that the jump park continues to provide a world experience for its users.



QMTBC has been aware of this licence expiry for some time and has been working with riders to gain an understanding of the best solutions and options for an alternative site. They are confident they will find an equal or better site, and will lobby QLDC to continue to support the jump park.



QMTBC has no desire to let the legend of Gorge Road die, and while this may be on another site in the future, they are working with QLDC to ensure this rich history lives on.



Both organisations appreciate that this is an issue the local, national and international biking community are passionate about, and they look forward to being able to announce further details as they become available.





We don't have a new site locked in as yet. We'll let everyone know as so as we do, we'll be pretty stoked. That'll be at least a couple of months away as we go through the consent process etc. There's a fair bit of comment going around on the fact that jumps can't be picked up and moved. We're not rocket scientists, but we do understand that. We also understand that dirt can be moved and re-shaped, and sometimes the new shapes are better than the old ones. The new Dream Track refurb is an example of that, there was some dirt moved, everyone seems pretty stoked! We are doing all we can, hopefully the new venue will be as sick as the existing one, if not better.  Adam Carlson

The Gorge Road dirt jumps are a world-class facility for BMX and Mountain Bikes, created and maintained by more than a decade of passion and dedication from Queenstown locals. Despite their immense value to the world of riding and the Queenstown community, the jumps existence is now in jeopardy. The Queenstown Lakes District Council has announced that it will destroy Gorge in the foreseeable future, citing Infrastructure as its reason. While a replacement location is being discussed, it is as yet unidentified, may be much further from town, and would need to be built up from scratch. However, if enough public protest is raised, the Council may reconsider.  Lowell Smyth

From April 10, 2018:

The Gorge Road dirt jumps are a worldclass facility for BMX and Mountain Bikes, created and maintained by more than a decade of passion and dedication from Queenstown locals. Despite their immense value to the world of riding and the Queenstown community, the jumps existence is now in jeopardy. The Queenstown Lakes District Council has announced that it will destroy Gorge in January of 2019, citing Infrastructure as its reason. However, if enough public protest is raised, the Council may reconsider.



Gorge is more than a set of jumps. It is a work of art, a labor of love, a training ground for some of the worlds best athletes, and a place for young and beginning riders to discover and progress in a new sport. More than anything, it is a home that brings together people from all over the world. Its value to the bike community, and to the character of Queenstown, cannot be overstated. Help us save the best jumps in the world!  Lowell Smyth

In an email that accompanied the official statement, Adam Carlson, President of the QMTBC, added that:Petition organizer Lowell Smyth updated his statement as well:Gorge is more than a set of jumps. It is a work of art, a labor of love, a training ground for some of the worlds best athletes, and a place for young and beginning riders to discover and progress in a new sport. More than anything, it is a home that brings together people from all over the world. Its value to the bike community, and to the character of Queenstown, cannot be overstated. Help us save the best jumps in the world!The Gorge Road Jump Park was created more than a decade ago and has been maintained by a dedicated crew of Queenstown, New Zealand locals ever since. You may know the massive park from Brandon Semenuk, Brett Rheeder and Cam McCaul's section in. It's a favourite training spot for athletes from around the world.After hearing the future of the jumps was in jeopardy, Lowell Smyth started this petition on Friday, April 6: "QLDC: Save gorge road jump park" More than 10,000 people have signed, the petition, but there is more to the story. "Long-term the park will move," said Adam Carlson, President of the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club. "But land and resources will be available for a new location."

Who owns the land that the Gorge Road Jumps are on?

Adam Carlson:

Queenstown Lakes District Council

How has the park been able to exist for so long?

Adam Carlson:

The great work done by the club in maintaining a good relationship with the council and the great work done by vollies and paid contractors to keep it a community asset.

What are your thoughts on the petition?

Adam Carlson:

The petition has helped to inform the landowner of the passion of the riders and the worldwide value of the asset.

What are the chances that the park will be relocated?

Adam Carlson:

Chances are pretty damn good, the council and the club are doing everything they can!

How is the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club working with Queenstown Lakes District Council?

Adam Carlson:

It was a positive discussion and well be putting out a joint statement tomorrow that explains the current situation and the plan to move forward.  Jimmy Sygrove, Communications Advisor at Queenstown Lakes District Council

Photo by Sterling Lorence

Photo by Matthew DeLorme

We work with the council on many issues, events, trails, weed control, and all bike related issues. The club has a longstanding relationship with the council and we meet with them regularly to discuss these matters.Pete Hansby, QLDC General Manager of property and Infrastructure met with QTMBC today to discuss the future of the park.
If Edgar Allan Poe  and his writing  has not aged well and seems more than a little passe for 21st century sensibilities, its not entirely his fault. Like others who have done things first, and best, its likely we grow more impatient with their imitations than the original.

In any event, Poe was a pioneer in almost too many ways to count. If his work and his life (and most especially his death) seem cliched, dying young, debauched and with too little money was not yet the career move it would eventually become for other artists. With vices and an intensity that would give even a young Charles Bukowski pause, and would have buried the punk rock poseur Sid Vicious, Poe managed to be for literature what Miles Davis was for jazz: he didnt merely set new standards, he changed the course of subsequent art, perfecting entirely new paradigms in the process.

Some might claim Poe gets too much credit for perfecting (if not inventing) the American short horror story and detective story. The fact is, he doesnt get enough.

Perhaps the best way to gain historical perspective on the proper scope of Poes achievements and influence is to consider an abbreviated list of legends who stood on his doleful shoulders: French poet Charles Baudelaire (who both championed and translated Poe), H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Faulkner, Flannery OConnor and a trio of tolerably impressive non-Americans: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Oscar Wilde and Sigmund Freud. Suffice it to say, if your work has any part in shaping or inspiring authors who make significant contributions to the canon, your status is more than secure.

Arguably, no American figure has influenced as many brilliant  and imitated  writers as Poe. The entire genres of horror, science fiction and detective story might be quite different, and not for the better, without Poes example. More, his insights into psychology, both as narrative device and metaphysical exercise, are considerable; he was describing behavior and phenomena that would become the stuff of textbooks several decades after his death.

He also happened to be a first rate critic, and his insights are as astute and insightful as anything being offered in the mid-19th Century (his essay The Poetic Principle comes as close to a how to manual for aspiring writers as Orwells justly celebrated Politics and the English Language). Oh, and he was a pretty good poet, too.

When assessing Poe, 150-plus years after he died, its imperative to interrogate and untangle that fact that not all cliches are created equally. Or, put another way, we must remember that before certain things became cliches, they were unarticulated concerns and compulsions.

When we talk about old school we typically call to mind an era that was pre-TV and even pre-movie. Well, Poe was writing in an era that was pre-radio and practically pre-daguerreotype. With no Snopes or MythBusters, encyclopedias not readily available and religion the common if inconsistent arbiter of moral guidance, Poe was not after cheap frights so much as uncovering the collective unconscious. Put more plainly, this was a time when being accidentally buried alive was something that could conceivably occur.

The reason Poe remains so convincing and unsettling is because he doesnt rely on goblins or scenarios that oblige the suspension of belief; he is himself the madman, the stalker, the outcast, the detective and, above all, the artist who made his lifes work a deeper than healthy dive into the messy engine of human foibles, obsessions and misdeeds. He stands alone, still, at the top of a darkened lighthouse, unable to promise a happy ending and half-insane from what hes seen.

Here we celebrate Poes ten greatest tales, but first, a brief sample of tales that dont quite make the cut, but warrant attention and approbation.

First and foremost, the almost unclassifiable (and Poes only novel-length work) The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Jorge Luis Borges loved it, Jules Verne was undoubtedly influenced and without this model, we may not have gotten our great (white) American novel. If its good enough for Melville, its good enough for everyone.

Berenice and Eleonora, two character studies of doomed women, both epitomizing some of Poes most persistent fixations (teeth, premature burial). Theres also the whole cousin thing.

The type of story O. Henry would make a career of, The Oval Portrait is an early shocker even though contemporary audiences will see the conclusion coming a mile away. Like Pym, this one makes the cut if only for the eventual masterpiece it influenced, in this case Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray.

It might be a stretch to say that Hop-Frog presaged all the slasher dramas of the 70s and 80s, but its definitely a quite satisfying prototype of the abused outcast getting his revenge, equal parts Michael Myers and (Black Sabbaths) Iron Man with grating teeth.

Finally, A Descent into the Maelstrom is rightly credited as being an early attempt at a proper science fiction study, and the technique of an older, wiser sailor recounting his tale as narrative is an obvious antecedent to Conrad.

10. The Gold Bug

You almost have to transport yourself back to a time without electricity to fully appreciate Poes achievement here. In terms of influence, Robert Louis Stevenson merrily declared he broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe (for the creation of Treasure Island), and the bug bite instigating heightened awareness anticipates both Spiderman and The Fly. The extensive use of ciphers  cryptography being a big fad of the time  also may have inspired Zodiac (the killer and the subsequent movie). Even the appallingly dated dialect of Jupiter is a prelude for the cruder moments of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The sheer effort of imagination alone in seeing this one through requires that it be regarded as an important work.

9. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Another one that must be properly appraised as a product of its time, the fact is that, upon publication, this tale caused a public uproar because it was sufficiently believable. This tale employs the ostensibly scientific case study of a hypnotized patient who, in his mesmerized state, is able to exist in a surreal, inexplicable condition where hes dead but still alive. Once again, as preposterous as this sounds, today, and as outlandish as it clearly was, even in 1845, its a credit to Poes masterful description, pacing and use of suspense that he actually pulled it off.

8. The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Celebrated as the first modern detective story, Poes hero C. Auguste Dupin is featured in two subsequent tales, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter, but Rue Morgue is the most famous, and best of the three. One of the many Poe efforts made into an inferior, and terribly dated, film, it works best on the page. Using his powers of deliberation, Dupin is an undeniable model for Doyles Sherlock Holmes. Poe is in full command of his considerable powers here, employing the process of investigation and discovery, cleverly employed humor and terror, and a character who proves hes smarter than everyone else.

7. William Wilson

It seems impossible to prove that Dostoyevsky was directly influenced by Poe, but its difficult to believe early novel The Double was not in some way informed by this compact tale that manages to invoke class, the concept of the doppelganger, split-personality and the self-corrective of ones conscience (all themes Dostoyevsky would make his calling card, culminating in his masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov).

In only a handful of other stories was Poe so deftly able to balance shock and humor, albeit of a very dark variety. Cognizant that the narrator is a scoundrel, its difficult to pity his plight even as we shudder at the humiliation he suffers. Although not often described as such, William Wilson is a tour de force psychological case study of an unreliable narrator tortured by a deservedly conflicted sense of self.

6. The Pit and the Pendulum

Darkness. Torture. Rats. Any questions? How about a slowly descending, foot-long razor ever-so-slowly descending from the ceiling, giving you plenty of time to think about how it will eventually (and ever-so-slowly) slice open down the middle? And thats just a basic summary.

Here is a one of Poes most fully realized attempts at totality. Poe creates a complete atmosphere of terror, where the narrator and reader understands its not random, his captors are very aware of the conditions theyve created, making the tension difficult to endure. Where other stories describe, in often excruciating detail, the anguish inflicted on an overly sensitive individual, in this one Poe makes the reader acutely aware of their own senses: unable to see inside the pit, smelling the rats as they gnaw at the ropes, hearing the deliberate hiss of the pendulum, feeling the sweat frozen by the fear of death.

5. The Tell-Tale Heart

Another one thats easy to imagine Dostoyevsky studying, this time in the construction of his underground man (Notes from Underground): an unreliable narrator, or a narrator so reliable  -and truthful  that he indicts himself in the attempt to be understood, and pitied. As a study of horror, The Tell-Tale Heart, perhaps Poes most (in)famous story, seems tame to contemporary audiences. But as an examination of obsession and psychosis?

An amazingly compressed rendering of a pathology pushed to irrational extremes, Poe laid the groundwork for everyone from Fantomas to Norman Bates. The real fear an adult can derive from this story is not the narrators brutality or even innocence, but his insistence that hes sane.

With understated irony, Poe decodes the self-deceived stratagem of our most dangerous sociopaths.

4. The Masque of the Red Death

Although if only considered an unrivaled allegory of death (and its inevitability), that somewhat superficial analysis still sells this one short as a blistering critique of social stratification. Here Poe uses a rampant disease to illustrate not only the behaviors but attitudes of the haves toward the have-nots: actively walling themselves inside a fortified castle while misery wipes out the countryside, the superbly named Prince Prospero and his court cant be bothered with empathy for the afflicted, they have lavish masquerade balls to attend.

A masterful clinic of the Gothic aesthetic ensues as different-colored rooms are described, the air of revelry undercut with hourly reminders of mortality, courtesy of the ebony clock. Finally, theres the spectacle of a silent intruder who mockingly moves from room to room, until finally confronted by the unfortunate prince.

And then, comeuppance courtesy of one of the great closing lines in literary history: And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

3. The Black Cat

Self-loathing? Poe, at times, makes the Grunge and Goth movements look like an ecstasy-addled rave. His irredeemable spiritual desolation was rooted not in anything like the info-overload pressure of too many choices we confront today, or finding the perfect partner or job, but fear of poverty, hunger and the unremarkable ailments that preyed upon humanity for so many centuries before sufficient medical advancements were made. He lived in a time when even libraries might not have the information you needed, so you wrote it down or took to sea or went insane as a matter of principle.

In The Black Cat, when the narrators abuse of the bottle becomes unmanageable, it seems not autobiographical so much as an expression of the authors greatest fear: that his appetite for alcohol would poison his personality and override his ability to create. Its also Poes first extended interrogation of PERVERSENESS (all caps here, just like the story), which is described as an unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself  to offer violence to its own nature. The image of the corrupted narrator, hanging his beloved cat with tears streaming down his cheeks, remains among the most pitiful, and genuinely haunting images in the Poe catalog.

Once more, its tantalizing to contemplate the ways Dostoyevsky may well have been developing the possibilities of an irresistible perversity driving one to self-defeat (which Poe himself expanded upon in The Imp of the Perverse) in both The Double and Crime and Punishment. The Black Cat, while quite successful as a spooky tale with an outrageous ending, presents Poe the psychologist at his most incisive  and unsettling.

2. The Fall of the House of Usher

If The Masque of the Red Death features one of the all-time great closing lines, The Fall of the House of Usher contains one of the most sublime opening passages: in one extended paragraph containing 417 words, Poe provides an enduring showcase for his unity of effect theory. Practically every image, every action, every word is dedicated toward the invocation of dread, and the suspense careens toward a conclusion that is literally shattering (in several senses of the word).

The tale concerns itself with the narrator and his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, as well as his twin sister Madeline. And yet the main character is the house itself. The narrator feels a palpable sense of dreariness and decay as he approaches the family mansion, a foreboding that comes full circle as the house collapses into itself in the final scene.

Its the effect the house has on its tenants, however, where Poe couples supernatural suspense with a human frailty to devastating effect. Sensitive to the point of intolerance to sound, Roderick has become an imploding specter of nervous energy and despair. As he confesses to his friend, I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.

With astonishing economy (this story could  and likely would, by a lesser writer  have easily been stretched into a novel, albeit with lesser impact and effect), Poe manages to invoke his enduring preoccupation of live burial, split personalities, ruminate on the sentience of inanimate objects, and complicate the notions of art imitating life and vice versa, all while steadily orchestrating the ultimate confrontation (twin vs. twin, brother vs. sister, human vs. house, life vs. death). Tragic and absurd as the events become, the narrator is content to leave it as a family matter, hastily escaping as the history of the house and its occupants sink into nothingness.

1. The Cask of Amontillado

Weve discussed a perfect opening section and a perfect closing sentence; The Cask of Amontillado is just perfection, period. It represents the consummation of so many of Poes aesthetic innovations, crafted so each sentence builds upon the next (like an expertly tiered stone wall), amping up the humor, irony and, finally, horror. Not a word wasted, an image unnecessary, a line of dialogue inessential and yet, despite the formal symmetry at its heart, a mystery.

What is the insult that drives Montresors homicidal rage? Its never clear, and that only adds an element of menace. Is Montresor, like many of Poes most inscrutable murderers, more or less insane? Put another way, its difficult to fathom, since he and Fortunato are still at least superficially cordial, any offense that would warrant live entombment.

As with The Masque of the Red Death, Poe nimbly operates on multiple levels: theres an element of class disparity and resentment seething within the dialogue. When Montresor insists that he is, in fact, a mason (one of the delightful ironies, as he pulls out his trowel), its easy to overlook Fortunatos offensive disbelief (You? Impossible! A mason?).

Theres also the not inconsiderable matter of Montresors family crest, wherein the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel. Its simple to imagine Montresor is the foot smiting the serpent, but its possibly more appropriate to consider Montresor as the snake, refusing to die or, if hes to be defeated, fighting to the death. The motto Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (You will not harm me with impunity) is at once appropriate for his character, yet repugnant.

A writer has succeeded if, in creating a story, a single unforgettable image is imprinted within the readers mind. How many such scenes exist in this one short tale? The image of a drunken Fortunato (that name!), in motley  playing the clown, being played for a clown  insistent on proving his expertise, as hes drawn deeper into the catacombs; the aforementioned passage concerning whether Montresor is, in fact, a mason (producing the trowel, one of the great incidents of foreshadowing in fiction); Montresor, the mason, hurriedly piling brick upon brick; Fortunato, finally comprehending his plight, screaming inside the depths of his crypt, only to have Montresor, full of malevolent confidence, screaming back at him (no one will hear us down here, my friend).

And finally, the most cold-blooded line in Poes collected works: My heart grew sick  on account of the dampness of the catacombs. Is it, finally, the pang of human remorse? Or is it one last twist of the trowel, one final act of impunity to repay the insult made more than 50 years before? Like the insult itself, well never know.
On a morning much like any other, Chelsea Babbage (Geraldine Hakewill), a primly dressed accountant in her late 20s, waits at the bus stop. Alongside her, only a bench-length away, stands Lola Buckley (Rebecca Gibney), a mid-40s grocery store cashier with a dark secret. These women are, by all accounts, perfect and complete strangers. That is, until they both witness a fatal carjacking and become party to a violent feud between crooked law enforcement officers and drug kingpins. Running for their lives, Chelsea and Lola are chased across Australia, Thailand, and New Zealand by everyone from dirty cops, to hired assassins and small-time crooks, to well-meaning detectives.

On its surface, the Australian television series Wanted relies upon a well-trod premise in the genre of crime drama, one in which seemingly ordinary people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This idiomatic explanation, however, privileges an ahistorical worldview in which pure happenstance is the prime, determinative factor that shapes our lives. It also begs the question: what exactly is the right place, and when exactly is the right time?

In her book You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, and Other Mixed Messages (Mariner, 2017), Carina Chocano examines the perverse ways in which women are characterized by media. In a close analysis of the 1988 French film Camille Claudel (Bruno Nuytten, 1988) about the 19th century female sculptor of the same name, Chocano posits that women are destined for one of two institutions: marriage or the nuthouse. The former is more suited for those willing to submit to impossible and oppressive patriarchal standards, the latter for those who are unwilling to conform to misogynistic societal expectations, and are, therefore, deemed crazy. Either way, female ambition is met with institutionalization.

In the case of Wanted, both Chelsea and Lola are trying to evade law enforcement and extensive prison sentences for crimes that they have either not committed, or that they have been forced to commit to preserve their own lives, and therefore, the ability to narrate their own stories. Chelsea is also trying to outrun the possibility that she may have inherited Huntingtons disease from her mother whom, a decade ago, was hospitalized after experiencing a deterioration of her mental faculties. While the first season of Wanted shies away from romantic subplots, the second season introduces love interests for both Chelsea and Lola, suggesting that even in a show that works against genre conventions by casting two female leads, women are still bound for one of two institutions.

Thelma & Louise, final scene.

One of the few movies about female-best-friends-turned-partners-in-crime, and perhaps also the most iconic, manages to completely subvert the expectation that women who refuse to conform are bound to be institutionalized. The 1991 film Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991) is famous because of what it refuses: both capture and surrender. The final scene centers on the green 1966 Thunderbird convertible that has, up until this point, allowed best friends and fellow fugitives Thelma Yvonne Dickinson (Geena Davis) and Louise Elizabeth Sawyer (Susan Sarandon) to evade the long arm of the law. In that final scene, staring down the gaping maw of the Grand Canyon with an entire fleet of armed lawmen at their backs, Thelma turns to Louise and says, Lets not get caught. Lets keep going. Louise nods, and with that, Thelma punches the accelerator and sends them and the Thunderbird flying over the edge of a cliff. Before they can fall, the screen fades to white and it seems as if, for just a moment, they might take off into the clouds  defying gravity and death.

The films screenwriter Callie Khouri explained that women who are completely free from all the shackles that restrain them have no place in this world. The world is not big enough to support them. With an ending as epochal as the one presented in Thelma & Louise, it can be easy to forget the causal factors that pushed the two women over the edge in the first place. Because they were pushed, and pushed, and pushed. The film begins with an attempt at freedom from domestic life in the form of a weekend getaway, with Thelma trying to escape her abusive husband and Louise needing to get away from her drudge work at the diner. While the two friends are en route to their vacation cabin, however, they stop at a roadside bar, get a little drunk, and a flirty stranger named Harlan follows them out of the bar tries to rape Thelma in the parking lot. At this point, the two women are presented with limited options: surrender or fight. Louise, who was herself a victim of rape, responds by shooting Harlan dead. Her act is not only motivated by his attempted rape of Thelma, but also by the fear that he would likely continue to terrorize women in the future.

Wanteds Lola Buckley is, in some ways, like a modern-day amalgam of both Thelma and Louise. Much like Thelma, she too has endured an abusive relationship, and much like Louise, she understands that violence is sometimes the only viable source of resistance. Long before she meets Chelsea, Lola was trapped in a marriage with a violent husband, a marriage that she was only able to escape when she killed her husband in self-defense, then fled for fear that the police wouldnt believe what had happened. And therein lies Lolas dark secret: she has been a fugitive from the law for most of her life, a fact that has honed her distrust of the law, and therefore, her ability to survive on the margins of a structurally flawed criminal justice system. On the morning of the fatal carjacking that ultimately sets them on their journey, Lola kills one of their assailants, a dirty cop who attempts to murder Chelsea. This pattern repeats itself over the course of the series. As they are pursued by a psychopathic hitman employed by a high-ranking crooked cop, Lola makes the decision to use lethal force, not only as a means of protecting her friend, but also as a method of disrupting future violence at the hands of powerful men.

In her 2016 Atlantic article Thelma & Louise Holds Up Wella Little Too Well, writer Megan Garber explains that the fundamental fact of Thelma & Louisethe one that ultimately drives its plot, and the one that makes it feel so disappointingly fresh todayis the womens recognition that they cant trust the law, because the law doesnt trust them. This fundamental fact is the same one that drives the plot of Wanted. As Garber writes of Thelma & Louise, no one would believe us runs like a refrain throughout the entire series, and similarly underscores pretty much every decision the two women make.

Perhaps Wanteds most obvious plot element that makes it difficult for Chelsea and Lola to trust the police is that dirty cops are embedded within the system and are actively trying to kill them. In both the series and Thelma & Louise, however, the presence of distinctly recognizable villains such as dirty cops and misogynistic rapists is only one of the factors that erodes trust between women and the systems that are supposed to both protect and believe them. A far more insidious problem is manifested in the form of the nice guy who believes that the system is not broken. Instead, the nice guy posits, the system is simply inhabited by a few noticeably bad apples. In Wanted, this figure manifests in the character of starry-eyed and strong-chinned Detective Josh Levine (Stephen Peacocke), who insists that, even though cops have been trying to kill them, Chelsea and Lola should be able to trust him, a good cop with even better intentions. Despite being a nice guy, however, Detective Levine is ultimately complicit in a system that propagates violence against women, and as such, Chelsea and Lola repeatedly reject his attempts to help them. The same can be said for Thelma & Louise when Arkansas Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) attempts to talk the two women into surrendering just before they drive over the edge of the Grand Canyon.

When Garber writes that Thelma & Louise could have been made, with its script pretty much entirely unchanged, today she reiterates that this is not, to be clear, a good thing. She asks, What is Thelma & Louise, if not a parable of two women, navigating a world that was not built for them? Because the womens world was, after all, built  it was assembled and constructed by men with power, men with their own biases and prejudices embedded into the very foundations of the systems that govern our daily lives.

Today the same could be asked of Chelsea Babbage and Lola Buckley: What is Wanted, if not a parable of two women, navigating a world that was not built for them? It seems to be an ongoing question that extends beyond factors of time and place. As Chocano pointed out in her book, 19th century France was both the wrong place and the wrong time for Camille Claudel. The early 90s was the wrong place and the wrong time for both Thelma and Louise. So, what exactly is the right place and when exactly is the right time to be a woman in this world, to have access to a kind of freedom that isnt death?

In the finale of the second season of Wanted, theres a moment when Chelsea and Lola are holed up in a rural house in New Zealand, completely surrounded by armed police. They sit on the floor beneath a window as armored officers approach the door. With a rifle draped across her lap, Lola turns to Chelsea and says, We dont do anything unless we both agree. Chelsea, teary-eyed, responds, Its always just been you and me. Then, they share a look similar to the one that passed between Thelma and Louise in their final moments. But just when it seems like they are about go out in a blaze of glory, Lola suggests that they stop running. They grasp hands and walk out into the daylight as the screen fades to white. The ending is eerily familiar, but the scene unexpectedly rolls on and Chelsea and Lola are arrested.

Whether or not this outcome is subversion or surrender is difficult to judge. There is a third season in store, so only time will tell, but as history shows, time on its own is a poor indicator of meaningful progress.
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As online sales climb, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a new case this month to determine if states should get new power to collect sales taxes from remote sellers. File/AP
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This image made from video released by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows medical workers treating toddlers following an alleged poison gas attack in the opposition-held town of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, Syria, Sunday, April. 8, 2018. The Civil Defense said patients were having difficulty breathing and burning in their eyes. Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said Sunday that a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town near the capital. The Syrian government denied the allegations, which could not be independently verified. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)
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FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen appears in front of members of the media after a closed door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Federal agents carrying court-authorized search warrants have seized documents from Cohen according to a statement from Cohens attorney, Stephen Ryan. He says that the search warrants were executed by the office of the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York but they are in part related to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
United Airlines has announced it will add 20 additional flights from Tokyo/Narita and Nagoya to Guam in August.

The additional flights are being added to meet high Japanese travel demand during the summer holidays, according to a release from United corporate communications.

Thirteen of the flights will fly out of Tokyo/Narita, and seven will be coming from Nagoya.

The airline will fly 120-seat B737-700s and 166-seat B737800s for these additional flights.

We are pleased to see that the demand for summer travel is increasing to Guam, said Sam Shinohara, Uniteds managing director of operations for the Asia/Pacific. Our team continuously monitors the market for opportunities to add flights."

This is great news for Guam," said Guam Visitors Bureau president Nate Denight, "as we continue our efforts with GIAA to increase air seat capacity from Japan." Denight thanked United Airlines "for their commitment to our island" adding that "this will definitely have a positive effect on our economy."

Guam's tourism industry lost nearly 200,000 flight seats a year with the complete pullout of Delta Airlines and the reduction of regular United flights, a decision both airlines made last year.
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PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 08:06:03

Zaandam, the Netherlands, April 10, 2018 - Ahold Delhaize has repurchased 1,417,107 of Ahold Delhaize common shares in the period from April 3, 2018 up to and including April 6, 2018. The shares were repurchased at an average price of 19.29 per share for a total consideration of 27.3 million. These repurchases were made as part of the 2 billion share buyback program announced on November 8, 2017.





The total number of shares repurchased under this program to date is 27,648,644 common shares for a total consideration of 501.7 million.





Download the share buyback transactions excel sheet for detailed individual transaction information from www.aholddelhaize.com/en/investors/share-information/share-buy-back-programs/





This press release is issued in connection with the disclosure and reporting obligation set out in Article 2(2) of the EU Regulation that contains technical standards for buyback programs.

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: Ahold Delhaize via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 07:46:03

Cycas Enters French Market with Deal to Manage Hyatts First European Dual-Branded Hotel

Redleaf Communications

Emma Kane / Henry Columbine / Rishi Banerjee

020 3757 6890

cycas@redleafpr.com

or

Cycas Hospitality

Suzanne Seyghal

+44 (0)7967 978 911

suzanne@cycashospitality.com

Twitter: @CycasHotels

Cycas Hospitality, one of the largest branded extended-stay hotel operators in the UK, is continuing its international rollout by signing its inaugural deal in France, which will see it manage the first dual-branded Hyatt property in Europe.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005

Cycas has signed a lease agreement to operate the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels, which are both on one site, close to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. Cycas currently operates Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport.

The 21,631 sq m, five-storey building is located in Paris Nord 2 business park at 241 rue de la Belle Etoile in Roissy. It will have a total of 430 rooms - 309 at Hyatt Place and 121 at the Hyatt House extended-stay hotel - with the hotels sharing conference, extensive all-day dining/bar facilities, a gym and a large swimming pool; a rare amenity in this location.

Hyatt House will be the first extended-stay hotel around Charles de Gaulle airport and follows a detailed feasibility study by Cycas showing that there is a strong market for extended-stay hotels at major airports; Hyatt has also experienced success with similar locations in the US.

As well as appealing to international guests, the hotel location will attract corporate demand from the local major commercial and industrial hubs around Charles de Gaulle airport and the A1 corridor, which links Paris with Lille and the north of France.

Developed by Kaufman & Broad, the hotels are set to open in the second half of 2020.

Asli Kutlucan, Partner at Cycas Hospitality, said: We are proud to continue our relationship with Hyatt through this agreement, which sees us managing the Hyatt House extended-stay brand for the first time. This is a major milestone in our international rollout plans, taking advantage of the growing and widely untapped market for the extended-stay concept in Europe to bridge the gap between hotels and home.

With further deals in our pipeline in France and Germany, our next key focus, we are making steady progress towards our target of having more than 10,000 guest rooms open and operating by 2022. These are exciting times and we look forward to announcing further news soon.

Felicity Black-Roberts, Vice President Development, Europe and North Africa at Hyatt Hotels, said: We are delighted to be partnering with Cycas Hospitality on our first dual-branded project in Europe. We are confident that Cycass extensive experience of successfully managing double-decker hotels will help us take full advantage of the many opportunities that this prime airport location offers for corporate as well as leisure travellers.

David Laurent, Senior Vice-President Commercial Property and Major Urban Projects of Kaufman & Broad, said: This realisation demonstrates our expertise in hotel residences and proves our ability to respond to the hotel residence industrys demand. It also shows the capacity of Kaufman & Broad to develop several complex projects and meet the expectations of the population density and the new customs of the city.

The deal is Cycass first following a major investment from Huakee Group, the Thai family office and a major hotel owner and operator in Southeast Asia. With this backing, Cycas is rapidly growing its operations in Europe, including opening its first dual-branded hotel in Amsterdam at the beginning of the year under Marriotts Moxy and Residence Inn brands.

Notes to Editors

About Cycas Hospitality

Founded in 2008, Cycas Hospitality is a hotel management company which specialises in extended-stay properties. Its spacious hotel apartments combine the flexibility of home with classic hotel services.

With a total of 2,782 suites and rooms open or under development across 18 hotels, 11 of these are open and three will open in summer 2018. These are in key city centre locations across the UK (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle) and include Cycas first properties in mainland Europe (Amsterdam, Paris).

Following recent investment from the family-owned Huakee Group, Cycas intends to grow its portfolio to more than 10,000 guest rooms in the next five years.

Having pioneered the branded extended-stay hotel concept in Europe, Cycas is Londons leading operator in this field and a partner of choice for major global hotel franchise brands plus international investors. In Europe, Cycas is the largest extended-stay operator for IHGs Staybridge Suites brand and Marriotts Residence Inn, and helped develop the dual-branded hotel concept in the region for each company.

The heart of Cycas first-class guest experience is a dedicated Culture Team who ensure each property operates with Cycas signature positively outrageous service and the philosophy that our job is not over until we get a smile.

Cycas delivers a combination of expertise in hotel operations, property development and asset management. Its overarching goal is to become one of the best hospitality employers in the market, making its hotels the best places to work as well as stay.

To find out more visit www.cycashospitality.com or connect with us via LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 14 premier brands.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company's portfolio included more than 700 properties in more than 50 countries across six continents. The Company's purpose to care for people so they can be their best informs its business decisions and growth strategy and is intended to attract and retain top colleagues, build relationships with guests and create value for shareholders.

The Company's subsidiaries develop, own, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels, resorts, branded residences, vacation ownership properties, and fitness and spa locations, including under the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva  , Hyatt Zilara  , Hyatt Residence Club and exhale brand names.

  and brand names. For more information about Hyatt Hotels Corporation, please visit www.hyatt.com.

About Kaufman & Broad

Kaufman & Broad has been designing, building, and selling single-family homes in communities, apartments, and offices on behalf of third parties for 50 years.

Kaufman & Broad is one of the leading French Property Development & Construction companies due to the combination of its size and profitability, and the strength of its brand.

For more information: realestate.kaufmanbroad.fr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005

@cycashotels entered the #French market with a deal to manage @Hyatts first European dual-branded hotel
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 08:02:01

Draft agenda and draft decisions for the Annual General Meeting of Telia Lietuva, AB (hereinafter the Company or Telia Lietuva) shareholders to be held on 25 April 2018 proposed by the Board of the Company:





1. Information of the Companys auditor.



Taken for the information.





2. Approval of the annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2017 and presentation of the consolidated annual report of the Company for the year 2017.

Draft decision:

1) To approve the audited annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2017.

2) The consolidated annual report of the Company for the year 2017, prepared by the Company, assessed by the auditors and approved by the Board, was presented.





3. Allocation of the profit of the Company of 2017.



Draft decision:

To allocate the Companys profit for the year 2017 in line with the proposal for profit allocation as presented to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.



The Board proposes to allocate from the Companys distributable profit of EUR 116,746 thousand an amount of EUR 40,783 thousand for the payment of dividends for the year 2017, i.e. EUR 0.07 dividend per share, and carry forward to the next financial year an amount of EUR 75,962 thousand as retained earnings (undistributed profit). For two independent members to the Board  Inga Skisaker and Rolandas Virsilas  as tantiems (annual payment) for the year 2017 to allocate in total an amount of EUR 31,280, or EUR 15,640 each.





4. Election of the Companys auditor.



Draft decision:

1) To elect UAB Deloitte Lietuva as the Companys audit enterprise to perform the audit of the annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2018 and 2019, and to assess the consolidated annual report of the Company for the year 2018 and 2019.

2) To authorize the CEO of the Company to conclude the agreement for audit services, establishing the payment for services as agreed between the parties but in any case not more than 240 000 (two hundred forty thousand) euro (VAT excluded) for the audit of the Companys annual consolidated and separate financial statements and the assessment of the consolidated annual report (i.e. 120 000 (one hundred twenty thousand) euro (VAT excluded) per each financial year).





5. Regarding the approval of a new edition of the By-laws of the Company.



Draft decision:

Taking into consideration the amendments of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Companies, that came into force after registration of the last wording of the Companys By-Laws, to approve the new wording of the Companys By-Laws. To authorize CEO of the Company (with the right to reauthorize) to sign the new wording of the By-Laws of the Company.





6. Election of the Companys Board members.



Draft decision:

Taking into consideration that members of the Board Stefan Block, Ole Stenkil, Inga Skisaker and Rolandas Virsilas have resigned from the Board of the Company as of 24 April 2018, to elect to the Board of the Company for the current term of the Board:

1) ________________ (proposed by [...]),

2) ________________ (proposed by [...]),

3) ________________ (proposed by [...]),

4) ________________ (proposed by [...]).





There are no proposed nominees to the Board.





7. Regarding the implementation of decisions.



Draft decision:

To authorise the CEO of the Company to implement all decisions (2-6), sign all the related documents and conclude all the transactions required for the implementation of the aforementioned decisions. The CEO of the Company shall be entitled to authorise any other person to perform the aforementioned actions and to sign the aforementioned documents.





The documents possessed by the Company related to the agenda of the Meeting, including draft resolutions, are available at the headquarters of Telia Lietuva, Lvovo str. 25, Vilnius, Lithuania, or at the Companys internet website www.telia.lt.





ENCL.:

- Draft of Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements, Consolidated Annual Report and Independent Auditors Report for the year ended 31 December 2017.

- Draft of profit allocation for the year 2017.

- Draft of the Companys By-laws.

Attachments
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 10:01:01

Fiskars Corporation

Press Release

April 10, 2018 at 11:00 (EEST)

Fiskars to publish its Interim Report for January-March 2018 on April 27, 2018

Fiskars Corporation will publish its Interim Report for January-March 2018 on April 27, 2018 at approximately 8:30 a.m. (EEST). The Interim Report will be available on the company's website www.fiskarsgroup.com after publication.





A presentation for analysts and media on the first quarter results will be held on April 27, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at the company's headquarters, Fiskars Campus, Hameentie 135 A, Helsinki. Presentation materials will be available at www.fiskarsgroup.com

A conference call and live web cast for analysts and investors will be held on the same day at 11:30 a.m. (EEST). The conference call will be held in English. To participate in the conference call please dial 5-10 minutes prior to the start of the conference. Questions can be asked in English after the presentation.

International dial-in number: +44 (0) 2071 928000

Denmark: 32728042

Finland: 09 42450806

France: 0176700794

Germany: 06924437351

Norway: 23960264

Sweden: 08 50692180

USA: 16315107495



Conference ID: 5896295

The presentation can be followed as a live webcast at: https://engage.vevent.com/rt/fiskars/index.jsp?seid=41

An on-demand version of the webcast will be available on the company website later the same day. Personal details gathered during the event will not be used for any other purpose.



Media and investor contacts:

VP, Corporate Communications and Sustainability Maija Taimi, tel. +358 204 39 5031, communications@fiskars.com





Fiskars - Making the everyday extraordinary

Fiskars serves consumers and customers around the world with globally recognized brands including Fiskars, Gerber, Iittala, Royal Copenhagen, Waterford, and Wedgwood. Building on our mission to create a family of iconic lifestyle brands, Fiskars' vision is to create a positive, lasting impact on our quality of life. Please visit www.fiskarsgroup.com for more information.

Attachment
Hepatitis C Drugs Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 11:29:54

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave, #3200



Seattle, WA 98154



Mr. Shah

CEO

2067016702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/





# 693 Words

1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154CEO2067016702

Hepatitis C virus is a blood-borne virus that infects liver cells, resulting in illness that ranges from mild and transient effects such as easy bleeding, fatigue, yellow discoloration of skin and eyes, and others to chronic and serious life-threatening conditions such as liver cirrhosis, liver cancer or liver failure. Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through needlestick injuries, organ transplant from a carrier, sexually or from infected mother to fetus. Globally, hepatitis C virus exists in six distinct forms based on its genotypes amongst which Type 1 is the most common form representing around 60 -70 per cent of global infections. Hepatitis C is diagnosed by blood tests for estimating viral load and genotyping, and liver damage tests such as magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), transient elastography, and liver biopsy. Antiviral drugs, which inhibits protease or polymerase enzyme of virus is one of the treatments available for infection caused due to hepatitis C. Currently, no vaccines are available for the prevention of hepatitis C virus and this provides scope for the market players to expand their company portfolio.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report:Hepatitis C drug market TaxonomyBy Drug ClassHepatitis C Virus Protease InhibitorGlecaprevirGrazoprevirParitaprevirSimeprevirVoxilaprevirNucleoside/tide Polymerase InhibitorsSofosbuvirNS5A InhibitorsDaclatasvirElbasvirLedipasvirOmbitasvirPibrentasvirVelpatasvirNon-Nucleoside Polymerase InhibitorsDasabuvirInterferonCombinational drugBy Distribution ChannelHospital PharmaciesRetail PharmaciesOnline PharmaciesHepatitis C drug market DriverAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017, around 71 million people were infected by chronic hepatitis C worldwide. Furthermore, WHO considers Eastern Mediterranean and European regions to be the most affected regions with the prevalence rate of 2.3% and 1.5% respectively. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in the U.S. suffer from hepatitis C. This increasing prevalence of hepatitis C will drive growth of hepatitis C drug market. Furthermore, this blood- borne virus is easily transmitted by sharing injection equipment, transfusion of infectious blood, sexually or from infected mother to infant, which will further propel growth of hepatitis C drug market.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now! https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/talk-to-analyst/1489 The governmental initiatives for patients to receive expanded drug coverage is also expected to drive growth of the market. For instance, in 2018, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care of Ontario announced that all patients are eligible for Ontario Drug Benefit (ODP) irrespective of severity of their disease. In the same year, Thunder Bay group, HIV / AIDS / hepatitis C education and support services provider, expanded its access to medicines, as a result of successful negotiations between the provinces and drug manufacturers.There are significant number of drugs available for Hepatitis C over the past few years and is expected to increase over the forecast period due to large number of drugs in pipeline. Hepatitis C drug market is revolutionized by direct acting antivirals (DAAs), which aid in the development of highly effective, INF-free hepatitis C drug regimen in contrast to standard treatment. The pipeline consists of dual as well as triple DDA combinational therapy against hepatitis C virus. A combination of drugs is more effective for the treatment of hepatitis C as compared to single regimen. For instance, in 2016, Gilead submitted a new drug application to the U.S. FDA for the fixed-dose combination SOF/VEL/voxilaprevir for treatment of HCV genotypes 16. Moreover, in January 2017, EMA granted assessment of SOF/VEL/voxilaprevir combination. Furthermore, in 2017, the U.S. FDA approved AbbVies Mavyret, a combination of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir for the treatment of hepatitis C. Hepatitis C drug market is hindered due to high medication cost and denial for Medicaid patients.Hepatitis C Drug MarketThe major players in hepatitis C drug market include Merck & Co. Inc., Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Gilead Sciences Inc., AbbVie Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Visit our news Website: http://www.coherentchronicle.com/
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 14:38:30

ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, today announced that it has enhanced https://www.manageengine.com/ad-recovery-manager/,its Active Directory and virtual environment backup and restoration solution, with the ability to periodically back up Windows servers and restore them. Available immediately, the latest version of RecoveryManager Plus helps administrators withstand any attack on or disaster to their Windows servers with its file, folder and volume-level backup and one-click restoration, providing greater control in managing an organizations data.According to the Cybersecurity Ventures 2017 Ransomware Damage Report, ransomware damages are predicted to exceed $11.5 billion by 2019, clearly demonstrating that ransomware is a major threat to organizations. The report estimates that ransomware attacks on businesses will occur every 14 seconds by the end of 2019, so the real question is when an organization is going to be affected by ransomware, not if. Windows servers, which hold a third of the enterprise systems market, are especially prone to ransomware attacks, making backup and recovery solutions a must-have for organizations. Systematic backup procedures and granular restoration methods give organizations a way to retrieve sensitive data after a disaster or a security mishap to maintain business continuity and minimize the financial repercussions of an attack."To mitigate the ongoing flood of cyberattacks, organizations should factor a holistic backup and recovery solution into their cybersecurity plan," said Subramanyan Balakrishnan, product manager at ManageEngine. "You cant plan for something like a ransomware attack, but you can set up automatic backups for better control over data and the ability to recover sensitive data in case of any incident." HighlightsWith backup and restoration support for Windows servers, administrators can use RecoveryManager Plus to: Back up entire servers and restore them from scratch. Take incremental backups to drastically improve backup duration and reduce storage space. Perform file, folder and volume-level backup and restoration of Windows servers. Schedule backups to occur during non-business hours to ensure minimal strain on servers.In addition to the products existing capabilities to back up and restore Active Directory objects, virtual machines such as VMware and Hyper-V, and Windows servers, ManageEngine plans to extend backup and restoration features to Linux servers and Office 365 as well.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 14:00:51

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Organto Foods Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Organto Foods Inc. (TSX Venture:OGO). has issued a press release with the following headline:Organto Announces Leadership ChangesTo 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 Organto Foods 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/Organto Foods Inc.Source: Organto Foods Inc. (TSX Venture: OGO, OTC Pink: OGOFF)Date: April 10, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Organto Foods 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.)
The advancements in treatment technologies and gene therapy and stem cell based osteonecrosis treatment are expected to propel growth of the osteonecrosis treatment market.

Osteonecrosis Treatment Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 16:19:25

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave, #3200 Seattle, WA 98154



Mr. Shah

CEO

2067016702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/





# 687 Words

1001 4th Ave, #3200 Seattle, WA 98154CEO2067016702

Osteonecrosis is a disease in which bone cells dies or bones collapse due to lack of blood flow to the bones. It is also known as avascular necrosis, aseptic necrosis or ischemic necrosis. Osteonecrosis is most commonly developed in hip bone (femur) or knees, while less often in shoulder, wrist, ankle, hands, and feet. It can cause mild to severe pain and may lead to micro-fracture. Osteonecrosis can be diagnosed by using X-ray, CT scan, MRI, bone scan, and functional bone tests. Osteonecrosis treatment targets symptoms and reduces pain via medication or surgery in extreme cases. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, osteonecrosis is one of the rare diseases, where less than 1 in 2000 are only affected by this disorder. In 2017, Bone Therapeutics reported that around 170,000 patients were suffering from osteonecrosis in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. The advancements in treatment technologies and gene therapy and stem cell based osteonecrosis treatment are expected to propel growth of the osteonecrosis treatment market.Request a sample copy of this report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1490 Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) to boost osteonecrosis treatment market. Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products is a class of innovative therapies that comprises of gene therapy, somatic cell therapy, and tissue-engineered products, which is expected to drive growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. Osteonecrosis usually affects young population and this significantly will contributes towards growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. For instance, according to the American College of Rheumatology, in 2017, around 10,000 to 20,000 people in the U.S. who suffered from osteonecrosis were between the ages of 20 and 50. Currently, the osteonecrosis non-surgical treatment (medication) is symptomatic treatment that targets the symptoms and try to cure the disease. Hence, emerging players in the field of bone disease treatment is gaining momentum by introducing gene regulation approach. Key players like Enzo Biochem, Inc. and Bone Therapeutics are aiming gene regulation and cell-based product treatment, which is expected to augment growth of osteonecrosis treatment market. For instance, PREOB manufactured by Bone Therapeutics, a cell based medicinal product derived from autologous bone marrow stem cells has been approved in the U.S., however, it is currently in phase III in Europe.In spite of being a rare disease, osteonecrosis treatment market is expected to propel due to the prevalence of causative agent for osteonecrosis. Side effects of various medicines taken during cancer, HIV/AIDS, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis or blood disorders or medical treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, high-dosage of steroids or organ transplants may increases the chances of having osteonecrosis. Furthermore, few interventions such as Stanford Universitys sponsored project aims at evaluation of osteonecrosis before and after decompression surgery with ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI, which improve detection and allow to track transplanted bone marrow cells. This intervention is in phase 4 clinical trial and is expected to complete the project over the forecast period, which in turn will propel growth of the osteonecrosis treatment market.On the basis of region, the global osteonecrosis treatment market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America is expected to hold a dominant position in the global osteonecrosis treatment market over the forecast period due to increasing prevalence pool of osteonecrosis, prior Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the new treatments in this region. For instance, according to NCBI 2015, it is estimated that around 20,000 to 30,000 new patients are diagnosed with osteonecrosis annually in the U.S. Asia Pacific is also expected to witness faster growth in the global osteonecrosis treatment market over the forecast period, owing to increase in development activities by various key players in this region. For instance, Bone Therapeutics and Asahi Kasei Corporation signed a license agreement in 2017 for the development and commercialization of PREOB in Japan.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/1490 Major players involved in osteonecrosis treatment market include Bone Therapeutics, Enzo Biochem Inc., and K-Stemcell Co Ltd. Hospitals, clinics, universities, and institutes are other major participants in the osteonecrosis treatment market.Osteonecrosis Treatment Market Taxonomy:By Drug Class: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), Anti-coagulant, Other drugs,.By Distribution Channels: Hospitals pharmacies, Retail pharmacies, Online pharmacies,.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 14:00:45

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Quantum International Income Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Quantum International Income Corp. (TSX Venture:QIC). has issued a press release with the following headline:Quantum Announces Closing of US$75 Million Credit FacilityTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Quantum International Income Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Quantum International Income Corp.Source: Quantum International Income Corp. (TSX Venture: QIC, OTC Bulletin Board: QNIIF, ISIN: CA74766M1005)Date: April 10, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Quantum International Income Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-10 18:29:15

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Urban Select Capital Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Urban Select Capital Corp. (TSX Venture:CH). has issued a press release with the following headline:Urban Select Capital Adds Alex Klenman to the BoardTo 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 Urban Select Capital Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Urban Select Capital Corp.Source: Urban Select Capital Corp. (TSX Venture: CH)Date: April 10, 2018Time: 12:29 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Urban Select Capital Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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On the day President Muhammadu Buhari announced he would seek re-election, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a negative trend as the market capitalisation lost N150 billion and volume depreciated by over 42 per cent.

Mr Buhari had declared his intention to run at the National Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress on Monday in Abuja.

The declaration put to rest speculations over his intention after the president suffered ill health in 2017. There is no evidence the declaration was directly related to the stock markets negative trend.

At the stock exchange, the market capitalisation, which opened at N14.753 trillion, shed N150 billion or 1.02 per cent to close at N14.603 trillion, amid three-month losses.

Checks by our correspondent shows that the All-Share Index dipped by 1.01 per cent to close at 40,429.18 compared with 40,841.14 posted on Friday.

Unilever led the losers table, shedding N4.80 to close at N55 per share while Lafarge Africa trailed with a loss of N3.20 to close at N41. Dangote Cement also shed N2.90 to close at N252, while Guinness depreciated by N1 to close at N103.

Dangote Flour on its part lost 65k to close at N13.15 per share.

GlaxosmithKline led the gainers table during the day, growing by N10 to close at N30 per share. It was followed by Champion which closed at N2.48, CCNN at N18, Mansard at N2.52, and Fidson at N5.8.

Analysts said the market was weighed down by profit-taking by investors, with major firms recording price losses.
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The Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Shehu Sani, says his committee is yet to receive any letter from the Presidency to the Senate on the $2.5 billion Eurobond.

Mr Sani told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that though the committee had not been contacted on it, if the request is received, justice will be done to it.

President Muhammadu Buhari had last October, asked the Senate to grant him approval to secure external borrowing of $5.5 billion to fund deficits in 2017 Budget.

The request was contained in a letter which was read by the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, at plenary.

According to the letter, out of this external borrowing sought by the president, lawmakers approval was need for the government to issue a $2.5 billion dollar-Eurobond or Diaspora bond in the international market.

Mr Buhari, however, stated that the terms and conditions of the loan were unknown but could only be determined at the point of issuance of finalisation based on prevailing market conditions in the International Capital Market (ICM).

He explained that the loan would be applied in the implementation of some infrastructural projects in the capital component of the 2017 Budget, which would be impossible without the loan.

The president had stated that the budget had a deficit of N2.36 trillion, which made it impossible for the executive to effectively implement the Appropriation Act.

He said that the bonds would be channelled to funding the 2017 budget while the loan would be used in refinancing maturing domestic debts.

(NAN)
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For the full year ended December 2017, Lafarge Africa Plc declared a dividend of N1.50 per share totaling N13 billion. This represents a 43 per cent increase growth relative to the dividend paid in 2016.

Bruno Bayet, Chief Financial Officer Lafarge Africa Plc, disclosed that the dividend will be paid from the 2012/2013 pioneer profit reserve

In addition, the companys recurring Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) doubled to N57.6 billion. The CEO of Lafarge Africa Plc, Michel Puchercos, attributed the strong margins in the Nigerian business to cost initiatives and more favourable pricing.

Mr Puchercos stated that Lafarge Africa Plcs industrial operations in 2017 were stable with plants operating at high reliability levels. He also noted that the energy optimisation plan for the company has been successful with increased use of alternative fuel and coal to offset gas shortages in operations in the west while plant operations in the eastern and northern part of the country relied mainly on gas and coal. He said these logistic, commercial and operational initiatives helped to sustain market share in the year under review.

The expected recovery in the macroeconomic environment in Nigeria is likely to have a positive impact in the overall cement market in Nigeria. Our business turnaround actions will be consolidated further in 2018 through energy optimisation as well as commercial and logistic improvement.

In 2018 we shall implement a continuous improvement programme that will see us building on EBITDA margins above the 35 per cent benchmark, says Lafarge Africa CEO Michel Puchercos. The capital expenditure expectation for Nigeria will be mainly devoted to Energy and Production Optimisation.

For South Africa the economy is expected to grow by 3 per cent in 2018. The turnaround plan of the South African operations is focused on cost containment, commercial transformation and industrial stabilsation. The overall goal is to create value for shareholders through an attractive growth profile and good margins.

Lafarge Africa successfully raised N131 billion by way of Rights Issue, the largest Rights Issue by size raised in Nigeria so far. Minority participation was in the 50s, while LafargeHolcim subscribed to the un-allotted portion. This brings the ownership of Lafarge Holcim to 76.32 per cent from 71.35 per cent prior to the Rights Issue.
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Multiple music award winner, Innocent Idibia, aka Tuface, is set to swell the ranks of entertainers seeking political offices.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos, the R&B crooner and songwriter said it is about time good people intervened in Nigerias politics.

He however, did not reveal under which political platform and at what level he would be seeking to actualise his political aspiration.

Nonetheless, Mr Idibia said he was interested in affecting lives positively and would soon pick up the challenge of a political position.

He also urged youth to get more involved politically.

Politics affects everything I do. So, I am definitely going to be interested in politics. I will soon participate as a contestant and speak the truth at all times.

I hope and pray that good men will rise up and make a difference in this country, because we need more patriotic people in all aspects of life, he said.

Also, Mr Idibia called on Nigerians to come to the aid of victims of the herdsmen and farmers clashes.

There is so much weve been saying about this crisis, but nothing much has come the way of the victims.

We just need more people to support and join hands to continue extending relief materials to affected people.

This is the most important thing we can now do; bring succour to the victims, he said.

The musician said people need to be sensitised on safety precautions during times of crisis.

Mr Idibia appealed to the federal government to do the needful by ensuring permanent solution to the crisis.

This thing is going on for too long, repeating itself over and over. There has to be a solution, the victims are not goats they are humans and should be taken care of.

I feel terrible not because it also happened in Benue State, where I hail from, but because it is also happening almost throughout the federation.

It does not have to happen to someone you know before you speak up about it, he said.

(NAN)
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The EU says on Monday it is eager to mend relations with Zimbabwe but emphasised that the success of the re-engagement process is dependent on Harares ability to deliver free, fair and credible elections scheduled for mid-2018.

Visiting EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, made the remarks soon after meeting Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare.

Mr Mimica, the first high-ranking EU official to visit Zimbabwe since 2009, said the bloc is looking forward to normalising ties with Zimbabwe, which were severed in 2002 over alleged human rights abuses by Harare.

My visit comes at the highest political level after 2009 but this only demonstrates that the EU would like to be a reliable partner of Zimbabwe in the process of the historical political, democratic and economic transition, Mr Mimica said.

The EU is keen to support Zimbabwe in its reform agenda to open space for a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe, he said.

Since the advent of Mr Mnangagwas new administration, the EU and other members of the international community previously hostile to Zimbabwe have begun to warm up to the country.

Mr Mnangagwa has promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and to buttress this promise; the government has for the first time in over a decade invited election observers from the UN and the EU.

Acting Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, Simon Moyo, said the meeting was productive, with discussions on political and economic issues.

He said the EU would be sending another delegation, which would focus more on areas of economic cooperation.

Meanwhile, the EU announced a new funding package of 23 million euros to support Zimbabwes health sector and youth projects.

The majority of the funding announced on Monday (20.6 million euros) will be dedicated to ensuring equitable access to quality health services for women and children.

Furthermore, a programme with non-governmental organisation Save the Children worth 2.8 million euros will help grassroots associations to work toward improving the livelihoods of 15,000 young women and men, the EU said in a statement on Monday.

(Xinhua/NAN)
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Somaliland Parliament passed a law recommending 20 years in jail for rapists, the first law against rape in a drive to combat gender violence, a senior official said.

The bill, which passed parliaments upper house, also criminalises other forms of gender violence such as forced marriage, trafficking for sexual slavery and sexual harassment.

Ayan Mahamoud, Somalilands representative in Britain, said the draft law had been awaiting parliamentary approval for years  and that President Musa Abdis government, which was elected in November, saw curbing sex

crimes as a priority.

This really is a historic law for Somaliland. For the first time, potential rapists will be scared that they will be punished and end up in jail for years, Mr Mahamoud told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from London.

It also means that survivors can at last seek redress and have access to justice, instead of being forced to marry their rapists to save the so-called family honour.

The bill was passed by the lower house in January.

Mr Mahamoud said it was expected to be signed into law by Mr Abdi in the coming weeks.

Until now, rape was not defined as a crime in Somaliland, a self-declared republic in the Horn of Africa.

That meant perpetrators faced no penalty. Victims families were instead paid off or the victim was forced to marry her rapist to avoid public shame.

Womens groups said they were encouraged that parliaments more conservative upper house, known as the House of Elders, had approved the bill with 35 out of 50 votes in favour.

This bill provides both procedural provisions to support managing sexual offences and substantive provisions on the punishments of the offences, said a statement from Nagaad, a network of 46 womens organisations in Somaliland.

However they stressed that the government would need to ensure people knew about the law, and that adequate resources be provided to ensure law enforcement agencies and the judiciary implemented and enforced it.

Somaliland, which has a population of about four million, declared independence from Somalia in 1991 following a bloody civil war, but is not internationally recognised as a country.

Somalia does not have legislation against sexual violence.

(Reuters/NAN)
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Rwanda Tuesday announced a ban on importation of sheep, goat and their products from neighbouring Burundi following reports of a viral disease outbreak.

The Minister of Agriculture, Gerardine Mukeshimana, in a statement said the Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) that primarily affects goats and sheep has been reported in Burundis provinces of Gitega, Mwaro, Kirundo and Karuzi.

Movement of livestock including sheep and goat and their products; meat, hides and fertilizers from Burundi are hereby banned, the minister said in the statement.

She appealed to livestock farmers, traders, veterinary officers and security agencies in the country and at the border points to be vigilant.

The ministry added that the ban was based on a report about the disease outbreak that was done earlier by Burundian veterinary services and sent to the World Organisation for Animal Health.

According to the FAO, PPR, also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease affecting small ruminants.

Once introduced, the virus can infect up to 90 per cent of an animal heard, and kill between from 30 and 70 per cent of infected animals.

The FAO said the virus does not infect humans.

(Xinhua/NAN)
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Lebanon will file a complaint to the UN after its airspace was allegedly used to attack targets in neighbouring Syria on Monday, state media has reported.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemns the raids against the Syrian Arab Republic and affirms its previous positions that Lebanese airspace should not be used to attack Syria, the Lebanese National News Agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The report made no mention of Israel, but the Lebanese army on Monday said that four Israeli warplanes had breached the countrys airspace.

(dpa/NAN)
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The Palestinian national unity government on Tuesday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an immediate investigation into Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity of killing Palestinians.

In a press statement issued after its weekly meeting, the Palestinian government highlighted the urgency of the ICC move to hold Israel accountable to stop its crimes against the Palestinians.

The statement renewed the call for a unified and serious international position and work to provide immediate international protection for the unarmed Palestinian people and take effective positions towards the U.S. position that threatens international peace and stability.

The government also criticized the Israeli soldiers for their killings of Palestinian peaceful demonstrators, describing them as cold blooded field executions.

It slammed the U.S. for blocking a UN Security Council resolution urging Israel to respect international law and the right of civilians to hold peaceful demonstrations.

It also said that the failure of the UNSC for the second time to reach a final statement on Gaza showed the incompetency of the system to fulfil its duties and its inability to stop crimes committed against Palestinians.

About 30 Palestinians have been killed and over 3,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since the beginning of the Great March of Return at the Gaza border on March 30.

(Xinhua/NAN)
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U.S President Donald Trump on Tuesday cancelled a visit to Peru and Colombia this week to oversee the U.S. response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria.

The cancellation of Trumps plans came three days before his scheduled departure for Lima, Peru, where he was to attend the 8th Summit of the Americas before travelling to Bogota, Colombia.

White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said Vice President Mike Pence will stand in for Trump so the president can remain in Washington to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

Mr Trump said on Monday that he was consulting with advisers on a response to a suspected chemical attack in a rebel-held town near Damascus in which 42 people were killed.

He called the attack atrocious and said the U.S. would respond forcefully within two days.

Mr Trump had planned to use the Lima summit to meet with leaders of the region, including Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

His objectives included discussing ways to fight corruption and transnational crime, as well as urging Latin American countries to take a hard line on Venezuela.

A planned face-to-face meeting with Nieto was expected to cover trade between the U.S. and Mexico, which has been fraught with controversy over Mr Trumps insistence that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) be renegotiated.

The meeting, which now is expected to be handled by Pence, also was expected to cover the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

(dpa/NAN)
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The World Health Organisation has urged African political leaders to increase their commitment towards the elimination of Yellow Fever on the continent by year 2026.

The DG, WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus at the formal launch of the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) in Africa strategy programme in Abuja on Tuesday said the organisation will be partnering with 27 countries in Africa on yellow fever vaccinations with the aim of eliminating the disease from the continent.

Mr Ghebreyesus said yellow fever is a vaccine-preventable disease and as such would have been expected not to be a problem, however such is not the case.

He lamented that reasons why the disease still prevails inspite of an obvious solution (vaccine) is the low political commitment of many leaders.

The DG said addressing the low routine immunisation rate across Africa will help in curtailing many vaccines preventable diseases and not just Yellow Fever.

The world is facing an increased risk of Yellow Fever outbreaks and Africa is particularly vulnerable. With one injection, we can protect a person for life against this dangerous pathogen.

Mr Ghebreyesus said the agency is targeting nearly one billion people to be vaccinated against the disease in 27 high risk African countries by 2026 with support from WHO, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and more than 50 health partners.

He said the unprecedented commitment by countries will ensure that by 2026 Africa is free of the epidemic.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti said Africa as a continent is prioritising Yellow Fever because of it is a vaccine-preventable disease which unfortunately has had a large fatality rate.

Ms Moeti said though there are other high burden diseases in Africa, yellow fever vaccination would help reduce the spread of the disease across borders.

She said the disease has the tendency to spread from one region to another especially in places where there are mosquitoes.

We are investing in vaccination to reduce the financial burden which would be incurred for curative measures. It will also help reduce the high morality rates which has been associated with the disease outbreak, she added.
Police have ordered the arrest of the operatives of a rogue unit after armed officers cornered a Nigerian writer at a bank in Lagos on Monday, held him hostage for hours demanding bribe.

The writer, James Ibe-Anyanwu, who is also a businessman, hid in the toilet of a Zenith Bank branch at Ago Palace-Way, Okota, as eight armed operatives of the police special anti-robbery squad laid siege outside.

The officers initially accused the man of being a fraudster, before asking him to withdraw money from his bank account and pay them off.

The standoff, posted real time to Facebook, ended after police deployed its X-squad to the bank. The Lagos police commissioner has ordered the erring officers be arrested and prosecuted, a spokesperson said.

Mr. Ibe-Anyanwu in the Facebook post narrated how he was accosted by SARS officials who humiliated him and accused him of being a fraudster. He said he called the police spokesperson in Lagos State but his phone was seized from him by the police officers.

Im updating from my hiding place. They are waiting for me by my car. Phone battery down. Please Share, he said in the post.

The apprehensive tone of the post immediately sparked outrage on his wall with many calling for immediate intervention by the Lagos police authorities.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that many hours after they failed in their bid to extort the writer-businessman, the police officers, led by one Inspector Jude Akhoyemta attached to FSARS Ikeja, later ran away from the scene upon the arrival of the police X-squad personnel.

Narrating his ordeal Tuesday morning, Mr. Ibe-Anyawu said It was past 2 p.m. yesterday and I was at Zenith Bank Okota Branch to submit a document prepared on my company letterhead. I was asked to edit a part of it and resubmit.

Because I wanted to conclude the transaction same yesterday, I had to go look for a business center around to type in the edit. Across the bank was one and, as I walked towards it, a young, scruffy-looking man accosted me, saying he was a police officer. His superiors wanted to see me inside a bus waiting around, he said.

He was slightly bearded and on mufti, so I was skeptical. I asked for his ID card and he unhooked it from his waist and showed me. The prints were tiny and blurred, so I reached out to collect it and read properly. So you want to snatch my ID card, he shouted. He took from me the PLANEX-branded envelope containing plain letterheads and other documents, and walked towards the bus, asking me to come along. Right away I made a call to my brother, Ekene Okoro, and briefed him.

Mr. Ibe-Anyawu, who owns a company called PLANEX, said by the time he got to the bus, the story had changed and he was accused of snatching the police officers ID card from him.

He said, They were about seven armed men, and one of them started interrogating me. Why did I choose to use this branch of Zenith Bank instead of the one close to my office in Ikoyi? Where is the other director of PLANEX? Why was the document I was to edit not stamped with my company stamp? Dismissing all my answers, he said they would take me to my office in Ikoyi to confirm.

That he knew people on that street and had just spoken to them, and they couldnt identify me. Speak to my office landlady,  I said. He ignored me.

At that point I stepped aside and called the Lagos PPRO and narrated my experience. He asked me to pass on the phone to them and they took the phone from me, cut the call, and seized the phone. I became scared and started inviting passers-by into the argument and people gathered. One man intervened and begged them a lot and they calmed down, though insisting that they would still take me away anyway.

Then they asked to search my car, parked outside the bank premises and I let them. Finding nothing, they took my ID card and demanded my car key and car documents. I had to corner their leader to a side and beg him, telling him he was like a father to me and should appeal to his men. His men were almost going violent but he kept calming them down.

He told me to go arrange some money and I told him I needed the phone to transfer money from the corporate account to my ATM account. I needed the car key too to get the ATM card. On my way to the ATM, the one who arrested me asked me how much I was going to withdraw. I told him N5,000 and he flared up.

He explained further that when he called the PPRO at the ATM, he instructed him not to give them any money, promising to send down a team of police officers. He said he withdrew some money and ran into the banking hall instead, went straight to the bank toilet and hid, before making tha update on Facebook.

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He said, My phone battery was on 2 per cent and I needed to save it, in case the rescue came. I sat there in the toilet for close to two hours. By past 4 p.m., I feared the bank would soon close and called the PPRO again, who assured me his men were on the way. He asked me to put the CSO of the Branch on the line for him, since his men were being held up on the way.

They spoke and he asked the CSO to put the bank mobile police unit on the line too for him to instruct them on what to do. But before the banks policeman could come speak to the PPRO on phone, the phone battery had gone flat.

I narrated everything to him, the Bank policeman. But he was skeptical, saying if I did nothing, SARS would not be after me. I learnt from the CSO that the SARS people actually came inside the bank to look for me while I was in the toilet, purporting to want to give me back my documents. The bank policeman now said I should leave the bank, that the bank was not the place for people to hide. So he eased me out of the bank and, outside where my car was parked, I noticed the number plates had been taken away. The SARS bus was no longer around so I assumed they had left.

When he got into his car and plugged the phone to reach people, the writer said, the SARS bus came from nowhere and double-crossed the car.

I turned swiftly facing the bank gate and blocking it, hooting crazily to draw attention and for the bank security to let me in. The bank security, on the order of their skeptical policeman, refused me entry, leaving me out for SARS to devour. It is a branch I have frequented for over 10 years, visiting there almost weekly.

SARS people jumped out of their bus and started banging on my car windows. One attempted to puncture the tyre but that superior asked him not to. My phone was still yet to come on, heightening my fear. It was the longest moment of my life, as I was surrounded by 7 armed policemen who had patiently waited for me for over 2 hours. They ordered me to wind down but I wouldnt and a crowd began to gather.

They stepped aside, speaking to the bank policeman. The bank policeman later came to me and asked me to wind down, that he had spoken to them, and that I should leave even outside the bank premises where all this was happening. The management had asked him to chase me away, he said, adding that the bank was not the place for me. Shouting through shut windows, I pleaded with him to let my phone come on so help could reach me. He threatened to use force on me if I didnt leave that very minute. I steered out of the gate and parked in the outside parking lot, still locked up in the car.

Despite every efforts to run away from them, he said, they came again, asking him to wind down. According to him, one of the officers was impatient and wanted to smash the glass while their superior who had been soft all along got angry and dumped the number plates and documents on the car bonnet and stormed out.

The others followed him, entered their bus, and they drove ahead and waited, he said.

I was scared that they were still waiting along the same road I was to take, so I remained in the car. The bank policeman came back again, fuming, banging on the car and urging me to leave. I had to take the opposite direction amid a slow-moving traffic, driving insanely cutting through the traffic until I found a free road which was in the opposite direction to my house. I fled, literally.

At that point my phone had come on. The PPRO and his deputy called respectively. They had been trying to reach me. Their men who were on the way also called me saying they had been unable to reach me since and were now around. For the next hour they all kept calling checking up on me. Even the Lagos SARS commandant called, apologetic. They all rose to the challenge and began to look for the erring officers.

Meanwhile, the Lagos Police said on Monday that the state commissioner of police, Edgal Imohimi, had ordered the arrest and trial of the officers.

A statement by Chike Oti, the police spokesperson, said the erring police officers ran away when they saw the X-Squad personnel of the Lagos command.

The statement said, On sighting the X- Squad personnel of the command, the erring policemen hurriedly left the scene in a manner suggestive that they were on an illegal duty.

The Lagos State commissioner of police directed the Officer-in -Charge of the X- Squad Section to fish out the policemen within two hours. That directive was actualised with the identification of the policemen involved. They were led in that inglorious duty by one Inspector Jude Akhoyemta, attached to FSARS Ikeja. The Commissioner has ordered their arrest and as soon as that is done, the public will be notified.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ibe-Anyanwu lamented the Nigerian situation, saying the nation is not a country to die for.

But I recognise that one is not protected by silence, he said.

I am grateful to all of you, even as I remain fearless in my advocacy for a decent nation-space.
Controversy has continued to trail the alleged moves to pay $16.9 million fees to two new lawyers hired by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for the recovery of the loot traced to a former Nigerian head of state, Sanni Abacha.

The recovery of the loot, worth $321 million, has been a subject of controversy following the decision of Mr. Malami to engage the services of two new lawyers after a Swiss lawyer hired to help in the recovery completed his brief.

Enrico Monfrini, the Swiss lawyer hired by the Nigerian government since 1999 to work on recovering the loot, completed the Luxembourg part of the job in 2014 during the reign of Bello Adoke as Attorney-General of the Federation.

Mr. Monfrini had also been paid his fees by the Nigerian government, in a deal that reportedly saw both parties agree that no other lawyer would be hired to execute the repatriation.

But in 2016, Mr. Malami, under curious circumstances, engaged the services of another set of lawyers for $16.9 million (about N6 billion).

The two new lawyers are Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Adebayo, both of whom worked for the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), then led by President Muhammadu Buhari. The CPC was one of the parties that metamorphosed into the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

Mr Malami was also the legal adviser of the defunct CPC.

The Nigerian government had entered into an agreement with the Swiss authorities to ensure smooth transfer and judicious use of the loot. The recovered money was domiciled with the attorney-general of Switzerland before the signing of the MoU with Nigeria.

On Monday, TheCable reported that Mrs. Adeosun rejected request to approve the controversial $16.9 million proposed by Mr Malami as payment to Messrs Okpeseyi and AAdebayo.

Quoting an unnamed source, the newspaper said the request had been sent back to the ministry of justice by the finance ministry.

PREMIUM TIMES efforts to reach the finance minister proved abortive till late Monday evening.

Oluyinka Akintunde, spokesperson to the minister, did not pick repeated calls placed to two of his known telephone numbers. He also did not reply a text message sent to one of the numbers.

On Tuesday, the ministry in a statement denied The Cables claim that the minister objected to payment of the fee.

Mr Akintunde in the statement said, the attention of the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has been drawn to false media reports of a strongly-worded letter to the President objecting to the payment of $16.9 million fees to two lawyers for the recovery of Abacha funds.

The Minister wishes to dissociate herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from recent malicious and misleading media reports on the Abacha refunds. The Minister had at no time written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery.

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun

She also refuted the flawed media reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery, disclosing that the sum of US$322,515,931.83 was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government.

The spokesperson said there was no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government.

But TheCable in a separate report Tuesday insisted that the minister was pressurised to make the disclaimer.

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Again, quoting an unnamed aide to the finance minister, the paper reported that there have been calls from all over the country putting her under pressure and suggesting that she is fighting the president.

The paper, however, said that it had a private WhatsApp message exchange with Mrs Adeosun before publishing the contentious report, threatening to make the WhatsApp message public if its integrity is questioned by the disclaimer.

The management of TheCable has decided to make the screenshot of the conversation public if it has to come to that, the paper said.

Mr Malami, who is at the centre of the controversy, is yet to make any public statement on it.
A Nigerian lawmaker, Foster Ogola, has taken his spot on the infamous list of prominent Nigerians with certificate scandals attached to their names.

A few weeks ago, a confidential report was made using the Leaks.NG platform hinting that the senator, currently representing Bayelsa West senatorial district, has fake credentials from an unaccredited university in Nigeria.

Sen. Foster Ogola has a fake PhD. His official profile on the NASS Website says he has a PhD from GMF Christian University. There is no official site for the university and it is not accredited by the NUC. There is also no research paper or thesis to his name online. Although he got the degree in 2012, the report alerted.

On his official National Assembly profile, the senator is credited with having a PhD in Christian Leadership from the GMF Christian University Lagos, the same course he reportedly has an MSc. in from the Imo State University, Owerri.

Upon enquiry by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), it was revealed that the federal government has not licenced the GMF Christian University, Lagos, where Mr Ogola claims to have earned his PhD from in 2012.

NUC reacts

The Director of Corporate Communications of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Ibrahim Yakasai, was contacted on the validity of the institution.

We have never heard of that name, he said.

A copy of the commissions weekly bulletin provided by Mr Yakasai showed a list of 57 illegal universities operating in the country; GMF Christian University was not among, buttressing the fact that the commission is even not aware of its existence.

The director also said that since 1999, the NUC has approved 74 private universities in the country and any certificate obtained from the GMF Christian University or any other degree mill will not be recognised by their authority.

Other discoveries made by Leaks.NG coalition informed that the GMF Christian University still has no website offering information on the institution or its courses and there is no information on the Christian Leadership course the embattled senator purports to have a PhD in.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to Mr Ogola, who is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology and Cybercrime, to speak on the allegations levelled against him including attending an illegal university and obtaining a fake certificate.

Screenshot of Foster Ogolas profile on the National Assembly website

In response, he said: Kindly clarify for me if Premium Times does exist, to entertain allegations from third parties, whose identities are not mentioned, especially, when they are criminal in nature.

Rather than answer the questions raised, the lawmaker stated that the allegations could be a product of mischief makers with a potential to foment distraction from weighty matters of state.

On the unaccredited GMF Christian University, the senator was asked if there was an exemption from the NUC on the Christian Leadership course which Mr Ogola purportedly has a doctorate degree in.

When did students or products of universities become accrediting bodies?, the lawmaker said obviously not addressing the question.

In an attempt to verify GMF Christian Universitys existence and understand how it operates in Nigeria, a member of the Leaks.NG coalition, TheCable, paid the academy a visit.

TheCable traced the Gospel Missionary Foundation (GMF) Theological University to 165 Isolo road, Cele bus stop, Egbe-Ikotun, Lagos.

It was revealed that the controversial university lies on the first floor of a two-storey building. Besides the one and only lecture room, which was empty at the time of visit, there are about three other rooms serving as offices.

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Hope Obioha, the registrar and wife of the president of the university, Daniel Obioha, who claimed to be a professor, received the reporter who went there under the guise of a prospective student.

She took the reporter to her office where she introduced him to the university and the courses it offers.

According to the materials given, GMF Christian Theological University was established on May 4, 1988 and is registered by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

It says it seeks to fulfil its commitment to individual special ministry calling, through graduate education, professional development and spiritual formation in all its activities including teaching, nurturing, worship, service, research, publication and missions.

Mr Obioha and his wife established the university. When asked if the NUC has accredited the university, the registrar said that they do not operate like a secular university, hence, the university is not registered under NUC.

She presented the accreditation certificate of the university by some international bodies. Checks revealed that all the bodies that gave the debatable accreditation do not have an online presence.

However, one of the materials she released contains the graduating list from 2013 to 2016.

It is worthy to note that 2012 is the year Mr Ogola claims to have obtained his PhD in Christian Leadership.

Additionally, the Christian Leadership course was not reflected in the list of courses offered by the illegal university at doctorate level.

On a second visit to the GMF Christian University on March 13, the centre was empty again as the man who introduced himself as a lecturer said it was examination time.

He said while the full-time students attend lectures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the part-time students go on Saturdays alone.

He was reluctant to release the list of those who graduated in 2012, but the reporter obtained a Skye bank account of the university in order to pay for the admission process for a diploma in theology.

At the end of both visits, TheCable was still unable to establish the veracity of the senators claim that he attended the school and has a PhD. in the Christian Leadership.

The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) was unable to find any Christian Leadership course offered by any school in Nigeria.

However, a university in Boston, U.S. explained that the course teaches how to apply biblical and theological principles to leadership situations. Courses may cover topics such as, cultural diversity, Christian ethics and Church history. Students may need to complete an internship or field experience amongst other things.

In an attempt to verify the senators contribution to legislative activities, OrderPaper NG also reached out to his office in the National Assembly to enquire about bills he has sponsored or motions he has raised.

His legislative aides proved highly unhelpful, claiming they could not divulge any information without Mr Ogolas approval.

A quick search through National Assembly archives shows that the senator has sponsored two bills. One of them was stood down.

Although credited with contributing to motions and debates on the floor, there is nothing exclusive Mr Ogola has spearheaded during his tenure.

Not the first time

Nigerian lawmakers have come under fire for a barrage of reasons lately. From their gargantuan salaries to unproductive and unsatisfactory representation, especially in the implementation of constituency projects, the National Assembly has had a tumultuous journey so far.

In addition to the above, lawmakers who reportedly own false academic certificates from questionable institutions are now being discovered. However, it is important to note that this did not start with the 8th Assembly. Since the inception of the recent democracy in Nigeria, lawmakers have been exposed for this wrongdoing.

In 1999, for example, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, was entangled in several lies that led him into the Hollowed Chambers. The disgraced lawmaker had falsified his age and academic endowments, claiming he had attended the University of Toronto, Canada. This was refuted by the academy, while the Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna State, had expelled him for using fake credentials to gain admission.

The embattled lawmaker eventually came out to apologise to the country.

Also, a serving senator, Dino Melaye, included Harvard University and the London School of Economics and Political Science as some of the schools he attended. This turned out to be false, as both institutions denied his studentship.

Dino Melaye

On March 30, a member of the House of Representatives, Nse Ekpenyong, was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, for the alleged forgery of a polytechnic diploma.

This report was put together by Leaks.NG, a coalition of news and civil society organisations, which provides a platform for Nigerians to submit evidence of wrongdoing by public office holders in Nigeria.

We have permission to publish.
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The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has expressed concern over the use of technology in elections particularly in the area of communication and security as seen in many countries in the past.

However, the official, who is also the President of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions said technology has come to stay, and election management bodies must learn to use it for the benefit of the people.

The INEC chairman made this known in a copy of his speech at the opening ceremony of the three-day conference on technology use in elections.

The conference was organised by INEC in collaboration with the Electoral Commissions Forum of the SADC and with technical support from the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).

Speaking at the conference with the theme Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Technology in Elections, Mr Mahmood said African countries must explore the advantages and challenges of technology in election.

Given the high stakes of conducting elections in developing countries, electoral commissions must understandably be worried about the twin issues of communication and security especially in situations where data reside with and is directly transmitted to the tallying centres through offshore vendors rather than exclusively controlled within national boundaries by election monitoring bodies.

In addition, we have to contend with the disturbing but rapidly increasing incidence of election meddling through the deployment of counter-technology on a global scale by state and non-state actors.

Mr Mahmood also noted that despite his fears, technology can be used to curb electoral malpractice and ensure more people exercise their franchise.

Already, election management bodies in our sub-regions and beyond have deployed technology in one way or the other to improve on the processes, administration and outcome of elections.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya, Wanyonyi Chebukati, said the controversy in the two elections he conducted was caused by the use of technology.

The election in Kenya led to a lot of controversies with President Uhuru Kenyatta and opponent, Raila Odinga claiming victory.

Mr Odinga went ahead to swear himself in as the peoples president.

Mr Chebukati said there was the need for election management bodies to be strengthened and given total autonomy to reduce suspicion.

From the Kenyan experience, technology does not come in to replace concerns over absence of trust, transparency and integrity. This must equally be addressed including through aptly setting out the structure of election management bodies, he noted.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday in Abuja, re-arraigned Nanle Dariye, son of former Plateau governor, Joshua Dariye, on a six-count amended charge of money laundering.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the total sum in question is about N1.5 billion.

Mr Dariye who was re-arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu at the Federal High Court, Abuja, entered a not guilty plea to all six-counts.

When the matter was called, the prosecuting counsel, George Adebola, said that the matter was for re-arraignment and prayed the court to read the charge to the defendant to take his plea.

Justice Ojukwu adjourned the matter until April 27 and May 10 for commencement of trial.

The EFCC had first arraigned the younger Dariye, who father is also facing prosecution, on February27 on the same charges alongside Apartment le Paradis, a hotel where he was a director.

The anti-graft agency alleged that the defendant sometime in 2013, failed to report a cash transaction to the tune of about N1.5 billion which he received through the hotels account in one of the old generation banks.

It said that the amount was above the threshold of the N10 million permissible by law and that the hotel was also not registered as Designated Non-Financial Institution, (DNFI).

The agency said the offense contravened Section 5(1) (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 5 (b) of the same Act.

He was admitted to bail in the sum of N5 million with two sureties in like sum.

(NAN)
A constitutional lawyer and critic of the current federal government, Mike Ozekhome, says though he welcomes President Muhammadu Buharis declaration to seek a second term, he believes the president will be sent packing at the 2019 polls.

Mr Ozekhome noted that it was the presidents constitutional right to seek re-election, just as it is the duty of Nigerians to decide his fate at the polls.

In a statement titled, President Buharis Declaration for a Second Term: Matters Arising, which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, the lawyer reviewed his performances in economy, security and the fight against corruption, and concluded that the President had failed to fulfil his campaign promises.

He blamed Mr Buhari for the recession the country witnessed, after inheriting a rebased economy reportedly worth $500 billion as stated by World Bank and IMF.

Nigerians are hungrier today than they were three years ago. They have been rendered destitute and impecunious, he said.

Many have resorted to going to Lybia and attempting to cross the seas to European countries, to escape from hunger and squalour, thereby dying in the process. More Nigerians have taken to prostitution across European nations more than ever before.

Many of them are gang-raped, sodomised, enslaved and bestialised. The youth have taken up arms, committing more heinous crimes, such as robberies and kidnap, more than ever in the history of this country.

Mr Ozekhome also queried Mr. Buharis claims of addressing insecurity, saying there had been more deaths and fear, occasioned by the activities of Boko Haram and herdsmen.

On fight against corruption, the lawyer dismissed the presidents role, saying three years down the line, he had not secured a single conviction of any high profile, politically exposed person.

Rather, Nigerians have been treated to ludicrous media trial. In desperation, the government has now released names of opposition members whom they have charged to court, but cannot prove their cases against as looters, without any court conviction or judicial pronouncement to that effect, he said.

This is in sync with the governments now infamous disrespect and disregard for due process, rule of law, independence of the judiciary and disobedience to court orders. Impunity reigns supreme.

In appointments, cronyism, nepotism, tribalism, clannishness and favouritism triumph over merit and competence.

He argued that the government fights corruption amongst opposition and critics with pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, it caresses and deodorises its own corrupt officials, ministers, serving military generals and kitchen cabinet members with sweet smelling sasarabia cologne.

I therefore welcome Buharis declaration. Let me remind him that he had sent packing a sitting president, GEJ, in 2015. In Sierra Leone, a sitting president Samura Kamarathe, the All Peoples Congress (APC), (note the similarity of names), has been sent packing by the opposition contestant, Julius Bio. So, the rumours that the APC/PMBs government is banking on massive rigging of the 2019 election to win is merely illusory. It cannot work, Mr Ozekhome added.

Nigerians are more enlightened today than ever before. They will use their PVCs to vote wisely, notwithstanding any acts of intimidation or coercion. 2019 is just 10 months away.

I will keep my fingers crossed to see how it all plays out. The months ahead will be very interesting and quite testing.

The controversial lawyer was recently in the news when protesters in Lagos at the 14th Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture mobbed him, preventing him from mounting the podium to speak.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the protesters comprising youth, shouted down Mr. Ozekhome and physically restrained him from entering the venue.

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They accused the Lagos lawyer of defending corrupt individuals in court and shielding them from justice.

It took the intervention of Adeshina Ogunlana, the Chairman of Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Femi Falana and Mohammed Fawehinmi to douse tension.
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Justice Abba-Bello Muhammad of the FCT High Court, Abuja on Tuesday dismissed the suit filed by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, alleging violation of his fundamental human rights by the Senate.

The judge said that the suit lacked merit as Section 88 and 89 of the Nigerias Constitution empowers the lawmakers to carry out investigations on issues of public interest.

Joined in the suit are the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Isah Misau and members of the ad-hoc committee that heard complaints of financial misappropriation leveled against the Police.

The judge said the IGP failed to establish the element that constituted infringement on his fundamental human rights as he alleged against the Senate.

His right has not been infringed to require the courts intervention, inviting the applicant is a mere invitation to shed more light on the allegations leveled against him.

More so, the Police Act also empowers the Police to carry out investigation about itself which the Police was already doing as at the time the allegations were raised, the judge said.

Mr Idris had approached the court seeking a declaration that the investigative activities of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee breached his rights as the Head of the Police Force.

He also sought for a declaration that his invitation to appear before the ad-hoc committee based on Mr Misaus petition was also a violation of his rights.

(NAN)
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The management of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) say they will deepen and strengthen their collaboration to track both individuals and organisations who refuse to pay the right taxes.

They also said their partnership has already led to the recovery of N29 billion.

The partnership will beam searchlights on defaulting taxpayers who also refused to rely on the federal governments tax amnesty programme: Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) to offset their tax liabilities, a statement from the tax agency said.

Already, the FIRS-EFCC partnership has led to the recovery of the sum N29 billion Withholding Tax from banks and other financial institutions in the country only between November 2017 and March 2018, Wahab Gbadamosi, a spokesperson for the FIRS said in the statement.

Mr. Gbadamosi said at a meeting on Tuesday at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, said Nigeria, just like other countries across the world, is looking inwards to raise the economic base and would not tolerate tax defaulters. The FIRS Executive Chairman was at the EFCC headquarters on a courtesy visit.

There are some issues of non-remittance of Withholding Tax, Value Added Tax and Personal Income Tax. The EFCC has shown support before. When tax defaulters are invited to your office (EFCC), we see result. I dont know how you do it but we see result. Recently, two banks came forward to comply on their own. I think that they must have heard words. We want joint assistance with the EFCC, especially now that VAIDS is over, to make sure that all tax defaulters get the lawful treatment, Mr. Fowler was quoted as saying.

I want to let every taxable person in Nigeria know that we are ready to deploy all powers within our disposal to ensure that every tax defaulter is punished according to the law.

The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, said the EFCC is ready to do more to bring culprits to book.

Mr Magu said: People are in a hurry to collect taxes but are reluctant to remit them. It is very distressing. We may put a team together to ensure that whatever taxes collected by anybody is remitted and on time. I also want to congratulate you (FIRS) because of the change in the narrative. There is no doubt that there is a real improvement in our tax system. We will collaborate. We had done this in the past when we had a joint training in Kaduna. We will make sure that we do anything you ask us to do as far as it is lawful, he said.

The EFCC boss urged every Nigerian to join in the fight against corruption, saying everyone has a role to play.

Everyone has the responsibility to fight corruption. You may not do it the way Magu does his own. the best approach is for us to agree that corruption is bad. I appeal to everyone to fight corruption even at home. Tell the children that corruption is bad, he said.
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Nigeria will not graduate from the GAVI intervention funds for the next 10 years as the expiration term of the country has been extended to allow the country prepare to take over, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole has said.

The minister made this revelation at the launch of Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE), by the World Health Organisation in Abuja on Tuesday.

Present at the event was the WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, Deputy DirectorGeneral, six regional directors, and Executive Director of the WHO emergencies programmes and heads of health parastatals in Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Mr Adewole revealed that contrary to previous notion that Nigeria might soon graduate from receiving vaccinations from GAVI, the country has received grace of ten years to put in place mechanism to sustain immunisation process.

Nigeria has been tagged to graduate from the scheme after the country had declared that it had graduated from the low income economy to the middle income economy.

This automatically disqualifies the country from benefiting from the GAVI intervention funds.

The country was expected to graduate and begin taking care of the immunisation challenges five years after the declaration.

The minister however said GAVI had reconsidered the countrys early graduation.

In 2014 the minister of finance announced to the whole world that we are no longer a low income country, GAVI thus said we are going, that we have to graduate, under normal condition, we are expected to graduate within five years but given that Nigeria is just coming out of recession, we have been talking to GAVI to allow us a special favour to stretch the graduation period from five to ten years and GAVI has agreed provided we meet certain conditionality.

This conditionalitys includes a strong commitment from the government of Nigeria to put more money in immunisation and we are getting a yes feedback from government. GAVI is giving us a ten-year period to get up and take over the immunisation of our children and citizens of the country, he said.

Also speaking at the event, the Director General WHO, Tedros Ghebreyessus, said the agency is collaborating with the Nigerian government to solicit for more time to graduate from GAVI intervention.

Mr Ghebreyesus said many preventable diseases could be prevented through routine vaccination and Nigeria still needs help to achieving the feat before graduating.

He explained that WHO has advised that GAVI should still keep supporting Nigeria as one of the problems in the vaccine sector is the shortage of most vaccines which has made the purchase expensive for most countries.

Speaking on the Yellow Fever vaccination campaign to be conducted in Nigeria and 26 other high burden risk African countries, Mr Ghebreyesus said WHO in partnership with GAVI and other health partners decided to step in because there is limited stock of the vaccine in the world.

He said there will be a need for the expansion of vaccine production companies as most of the companies producing manufacture limited quantity.
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A group of Nigerians resident in the UK on Tuesday staged a protest against President Muhammadu Buhari.

The protest took place at the Abuja House official residence of the Nigerian president in London.

The protest came 24 hours after Mr. Buhari declared his intention to contest for another term in office as president of Nigeria in 2019.

The presidency, however, said the protest was sponsored by supporters of alleged looters and corrupt elements within and outside the country.

A source in the presidency said those affected by Mr. Buharis anti-corruption crusade were jolted by his decision to seek re-election, forcing them to push panic buttons including renting a motley crowd of professional demonstrators to protest against the President on his arrival into the United Kingdom.

The source said extremely corrupt Nigerians who are custodians of slush funds stolen from Nigeria, and hiding in UK or are resident cronies of such elements, have colluded to form a league of protesters with a singular aim of distracting and disorganising the scheduled state visit of the president to England for bilateral talks with Prime Minister Theresa May and other dignitaries.

Esteemed Nigerians home and abroad, friends and business investors in Nigeria, should please see through the veil of the motive behind the Abuja House, Kensington London demonstration.

It was an orchestrated act of desperation and a ploy to blackmail and hoodwink the President from concentrating on his anti corruption campaign , which is fast gaining grounds locally and internationally, the source said.

He said the protest may also be because of the Nigerian governments decision to name and shame corrupt citizens and looters, as well as to collate database of Nigerians with homes in UK who are not paying the right taxes.

He said the move by the government to prosecute all financial defaulters through bilateral and multilateral means is another reason they are coming after Mr. Buhari.

The government recently released a list of persons, mostly members of the opposition PDP, who, they said looted the treasury while they were in power.

The list has been criticised by the PDP and civic groups.

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed on Monday said another shocking list of looters would be released soon.

The presidency source told PREMIUM TIMES that security sources had informed the government that the protesters are determined to embarrass Mr Buhari throughout his stay in the UK.

He said they have information that the protesters will take their demonstrations to the venue of the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM), holding on April 16-17 in Britain.

In reaction to the protest, Mr Buharis spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said the president will not be distracted from his mission in the UK.
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Suspected thugs have attacked the presidential campaign office of a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in Katsina State.

The politician is one of those who have indicated interest in wresting power from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

The office, situated along Dandagoro road, Batagarawa Local Government Area of the state was attacked on Saturday night, a day before President Buhari left the state.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the thugs stormed the premises around 8.00 p.m. armed with weapons.

They smashed windscreens, side mirrors and bodies of vehicles parked within the premises of the campaign office.

The attack occurred hours after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), North-west held a zonal rally in the state.

The donor of the campaign office, Masaudu Abdulkadir confirmed the incident, adding that it was the handiwork of enemies of progress.

Mr Abdulkadir also said the office was undergoing renovation when the attack occurred.

The office is (was) almost completed when they (thugs) came. We will not be deterred by the attack rather our love for Atiku is waxing stronger by the day, he said.

Broken windscreen of a vehicle

No life was lost during the attack neither was anyone injured.

Mr Abdulkadir urged party loyalists to remain calm as the incident has been reported to the Divisional Police Officer in Batagarawa.

The Katsina police spokesman, Gambo Isah, confirmed the attack saying the command has arrested three suspects who would soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, a group under the name Atiku Care Foundation in a statement quoted its chairman, Aliyu Ibn Abbas, as describing the attack as barbaric.

Mr Abubakar quit the ruling All Progressives Congress a few months ago citing lack of internal democracy and being sidelined in party operations as prime reasons. He is one of those expected to slug it out with the incumbent president next year at the polls.
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The Commissioner of Police in Rivers, Zaki Ahmed, has launched a manhunt for the killers of Kingsley Chukwuegu, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Rumuolumeni Police Station in the state.

A statement issued in Port Harcourt on Monday by Nnamdi Omoni, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, said the commissioner had promised to arrest the killers.

Mr Omoni also said that the commissioner had already led a delegation of senior police officers to commiserate with the wife of the deceased officer and other family members.

With a deep sense of loss, the Police Command in Rivers announces the sudden death of SP Kingsley Chukwuegu who died in the early hours of Monday.

Until his death, he was the DPO, Rumuolumeni Police Station. The Commissioner of Police has this morning led a delegation of senior police officers to commiserate with his wife and other members of his family.

The commissioner has launched a serious man-hunt for the perpetrators of the dastardly act and promised to fish them out soonest, the spokesman said. (NAN)
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The Ogun State Police Command on Tuesday said it arrested 29 suspects over the cult clash which occurred in Ijebu-Igbo between members of Odua Peoples Congress(OPC) and Aiye cult group.

The fracas claimed the lives of six persons including a police officer.

Also, the governor, Ibikunle Amosun said the state would pull down all buildings which harbour criminals in the state and environs.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, made the arrest of suspects known to journalists, adding that the command broke into the enclaves of the two groups where the suspects were arrested. He said a pump-action gun and one locally made pistol were recovered.

Following the bloody clash between the OPC and Aiye cult group which claimed the lives of a police inspector and three others, men of the command have been able to break into the enclaves of the two groups where 29 suspects were arrested and a pump-action gun and one locally made pistol were recovered, Mr Oyeyemi said.

He added that the combing of various hideouts of the hoodlums was ongoing and more arrests would be made.

The command hereby assures members of the public of their security and advises them to go about their lawful business without fear of harassment or intimidation from any quarter. The command is resolute in its determination to bring to book all those who are directly or indirectly linked to the fracas no matter how highly placed such persons may be and while we are doing that, no innocent person will be unjustly punished, he added.

He said the police commissioner, Ahmed Iliyasu, had ordered a 24-hour surveillance/patrol of the town and its environs.

Meanwhile, Mr Amosun, while speaking with journalists after his visit to the scene of the bloodletting said the violence was the fallout of money given to the hoodlums by a politician.

He did not name the politician.

He also said he had ordered the police to arraign in court all suspects arrested over the incident.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




"Buying a new car is a huge financial decision, and our 2018 Edmunds Best Retained Value Awards are designed to help shoppers discover the vehicles that can help them get the most out of their investment," said Avi Steinlauf, Edmunds' CEO. "This year's winners underscore a commitment to quality and reliability, and are good bets to hold their value over the course of ownership."

The 2018 Edmunds Best Retained Value Awards are determined based on the qualifying new models that have the highest projected private-party residual value five years after their launch, expressed as a percentage of their initial True Market Value.

To be considered for a model-level award, a vehicle must be a 2018 model year, have launched before December 31, 2017, and account in January 2018 for at least 25 percent of the average sales for the models that fall in its award segment. To be eligible to win a brand-level award, an automaker must have eligible vehicles competing in at least four of the 17 award segments.

About Dodge Charger

With the quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world to efficient V-6 power and all-wheel-drive capability, the Dodge Charger lineup is designed and engineered to provide the ultimate in high-performance comfort and road-ready confidence as America's only four-door muscle car. Dodge Charger's rear-wheel-drive architecture enables a model lineup highlighted by extensive performance-driven powertrains with the latest technology under the hood and behind the wheel  further building on the Dodge brand's promise to deliver American performance machines with world-class power, efficiency, technology, authentic materials and standout styling.

For 2018, Dodge repositions its Charger model lineup on vehicles equipped with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6, now offering the SXT, SXT Plus, which is available with and without leather seating, and the GT and GT Plus equipped with the segment's most advanced all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. Offering a sleek and aggressive look on all models, the performance exterior is now available on the SXT Plus with Super Track Pak, which includes Nappa/Alcantara performance seats, while the GT AWD comes standard with a Gloss Black fascia applique and 19-inch aluminum wheels.

Dodge Charger offers a full range of fuel-efficient and powerful engine options. Standard on every Charger model is the innovative TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission. The award-winning 3.6-liter V-6 Pentastar engine delivers up to 30 miles per gallon (mpg) on SXT models and up to 27 mpg on GT models.

The legendary 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 on the R/T and Daytona models delivers 370 horsepower. The 6.4-liter HEMI V-8 punches out a best-in-class, naturally aspirated 485 horsepower and 475 lb.-ft. of torque in the R/T Scat Pack, Daytona 392 and SRT 392 models.

As quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world, the 6.2-liter supercharged Charger SRT Hellcat delivers 707 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque and for 2018 adds new grille and fender badges, a new Matte Vapor wheel finish option, optional black, orange and gunmetal Brembo brake calipers, new Demonic Red Laguna seating and a new red IP badge.

About Edmunds

Edmunds is the leading car information and shopping platform, helping millions of visitors each month find their perfect car. With products such as Edmunds Your Price, Your Lease and Used+, shoppers can buy smarter with instant, upfront prices for cars and trucks currently for sale at more than 13,000 dealer franchises across the U.S. Edmunds' in-house team of unbiased car-shopping experts provide industry-leading vehicle reviews and shopping tips. Edmunds has a 20-year-old forums community of car shoppers and enthusiasts, where members can get shopping advice and learn what others are buying and leasing cars for. The company is regarded as one of America's best workplaces by Fortune and Great Place to Work. Edmunds is based in Santa Monica, California, and has a satellite office in downtown Detroit, Michigan.

About Dodge//SRT

Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out in their own segments. Dodge is FCA North America's mainstream performance brand, and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.

For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge, who founded the company in 1914. Their influence continues today. New for 2018, the 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, the fastest quarter-mile production car in the world and most powerful muscle car ever, is taking the world by storm, along with the new 2018 Dodge Durango SRT, America's fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV, and the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody. These new SRT ultimate performance models join a brand lineup that includes the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger, including the 707-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Charger SRT Hellcat, the quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world.

Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com

Dodge brand: www.dodge.com

Dodge blog: blog.dodge.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

http://www.fcanorthamerica.com


This year's challenge, Monarchs on the Move , developed by Iowa State University, engages youth to learn about monarch butterflies, pollination, and the need to work together to be good stewards of the land. Through collaborative, hands-on experiments, participants will learn about the unique lifecycle of butterflies, understand the factors that impact the monarch butterfly's declining population rates and explore ways to increase monarch habitat.

Working in teams, youth will operate as caterpillars as they navigate the model milkweed plant to gather food and react to variables that affect survival rates. Youth will then evaluate land satellite images to identify land management practices that provide opportunities to increase biodiversity. The recommendations of each team will be evaluated to determine the best proposal for increasing monarch habitat and biodiversity, while maintaining productive farmland.

"The 4-H Ag Innovator's Experience provides youth with an opportunity to better understand the challenges facing today's agriculture industry while giving them a platform to practice teamwork, communication, workforce development and STEM skills," said National 4-H Council President and CEO Jennifer Sirangelo. "These life skills will be critically important as youth become the next leaders in agriculture innovation."

Since 2014, more than 40,000 youth from across the U.S. have participated in nearly 800 domestic and global 4-H AIE events, led by 892 trained teen leaders. The Monarchs on the Move Challenge will take place March through July 2018 at various sites, including 4-H clubs, 4-H camps, school enrichment and 4-H Afterschool settings.

"Monsanto is proud to continue to partner with 4-H on this year's Ag Innovator's Challenge," said Aimee Hood, Science & Policy Information Management and Communications Lead. "This year's challenge 'Monarchs on the Move' will help students understand the amazing lifecycle of the monarch butterfly, the challenges it faces, and how all sectors can help this iconic species."

To learn more about the 4-H Ag Innovators Experience, visit http://www.4-h.org/about/partners/monsanto/.

About 4-H

4H, the nation's largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4H is the youth development program of our nation's Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4H collaborates with independent programs to empower one million youth in 50 countries. The research-backed 4H experience grows young people who are four times more likely to contribute to their communities; two times more likely to make healthier choices; two times more likely to be civically active; and two times more likely to participate in STEM programs.

Learn more about 4H at www.4H.org, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/4H and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/4H.

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world. We produce seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops - such as corn, soybeans, and cotton - that help farmers have better harvests while using water and other important resources more efficiently. We work to find sustainable solutions for soil health, help farmers use data to improve farming practices and conserve natural resources, and provide crop protection products to minimize damage from pests and disease. Through programs and partnerships, we collaborate with farmers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, universities and others to help tackle some of the world's biggest challenges. To learn more about Monsanto, our commitments and our more than 20,000 dedicated employees, please visit monsanto.com. Follow our business on Twitter at twitter.com/MonsantoCo.

SOURCE National 4-H Council

Related Links

https://www.4-h.org


"Preventing suicide and providing assistance for those at risk of taking their lives is of dire importance, and I am grateful for the AFSP's efforts to bolster mental health awareness, increase research funding and explore effective programming to help those in need," said United States Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).

"The Stronger Communities conference is bringing national suicide prevention leaders to our local community to present the latest research and advancements in the field and community-based programs that work," said Lisa Riley, chair of the AFSP NH Chapter and serves on the AFSP National Chapter Leadership Council.

This conference is designed for suicide prevention advocates, mental health professionals, social workers, guidance counselors, caregivers, survivors and individuals living with mental illness and their families.

Some presentations will include national experts presenting on topics such as:

Critical Role of Family Support in Preventing Suicide and Promoting Well-Being for LGBT Youth by Caitlin Ryan , Ph.D., ACSW, Director, Family Acceptance Project, San Francisco State University

by , Ph.D., ACSW, Director, Family Acceptance Project, Overview of Project 2025 and AFSP Programs: What They Mean for the Community by Doreen Marshall , Ph.D., Vice President of Programs, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

by , Ph.D., Vice President of Programs, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Moving Forward Following a Medically Serious Suicide Attempt by Stephen O'Connor , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Director of Faculty Research Development, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine

by , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Director of Faculty Research Development, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Suicidal Behavior: Current Understanding and Future Directions by Jaimie L. Gradus , D.Sc., M.P.H. Boston VA Research Institute

by , D.Sc., M.P.H. Boston VA Research Institute Suicide Prevention in the Health Care System: What's New That Works? by Mike Hogan Ph.D., co-lead of the Zero Suicide Advisory Group and representatives from Exeter Hospital, NH

by Mike Hogan Ph.D., co-lead of the Zero Suicide Advisory Group and representatives from Exeter Hospital, NH Suicide Risk in Older Adults: What Have We Learned? by Kelly Cukrowicz , Ph.D., Texas Tech University

by , Ph.D., Loss and Healing Clinician Program by Dr. Doreen Marshall , AFSP VP of Programs

by Dr. , AFSP VP of Programs How Advocacy Fits into Suicide Prevention, Education and Research by John Madigan , AFSP VP of Public Policy

This conference is being presented by AFSP New England Chapters using funds raised at their Out of the Darkness Community Walks. The New England Chapters include: AFSP Greater Boston, AFSP Maine, AFSP New Hampshire, AFSP Rhode Island, AFSP Vermont and AFSP Western Massachusetts.

A limited number of scholarship spots are still available. Those attending may receive CE credits by the National Board for Certified Counselors for 6 contact hours or the National Association of Social Workers for 6 contact hours.

For more information or to register: https://afsp.org/event/stronger-communities-strategies-for-suicide-prevention-in-new-england/

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Related Links

http://www.afsp.org


SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BootstrapLabs, a leading venture capital firm focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence, announced its third annual Applied AI Conference to be held on April 12 in San Francisco. After the success of the 2016 and 2017 conferences, over 800 AI leaders, corporate executives, venture capitalists, startup founders, government officials and researchers will be getting together again for a full day of exciting conversations around the application of AI technologies across all major sectors.

World-class leaders at the AAI17 from research, entrepreneurship, investment and business transformation in the AI landscape today.

AI's disruptive power and impact on society, enterprise and people are not yet fully understood, but it is already evident that everything will be transformed. Accenture's latest report shows that "AI has the potential to boost rates of profitability by an average of 38 percentage points and could lead to an economic boost of US$14 trillion in additional gross value added (GVA) by 2035."

"At BootstrapLabs, we aspire for the Applied AI Conference to be a source of inspiration, conversation and practical advice on how Artificial Intelligence can be used in a positive way to empower people, organizations and society in general." - Nicolai Wadstrom, founder and CEO of BootstrapLabs

This year, all attendees will receive a copy of the recently published book, "Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI," by conference speaker Paul Daugherty, chief technology & innovation officer, Accenture.

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce, had this to say about the book: "Human + Machine is a roadmap to the future - read it if you're serious about understanding the impact of AI and how it is driving growth."

The Applied AI Conference 2018 agenda is focused on key themes and industries that are at the forefront of this revolution: Transportation & Logistics, IoT, Financial Services, Cyber Security, Healthcare, Future of Work, Energy, Robotics and more. Some of the session highlights include: work in an AI world, the death of Moore's Law, the future of machine learning, how AI will shape the future of energy, practical enterprise and industrial AI applications, the deep impact of AI in healthcare, where robotics and robots are going, the need for new public-private partnerships for the greater good and whether AI will save or destroy the media industry.

Leaders from organizations including Apple, Cisco, GE, Intel, Samsung, Lyft, Salesforce, Oracle, IBM, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Swisscom, SingTel, Deutsche Telekom, Capital One, Mastercard, Visa, Qualcomm, World Economic Forum, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan, SoftBank, BAE Systems, innogy, EDF, Shell, Accenture, PARC, UC Berkeley, Stanford, emerging AI founders, top venture capitalists and many others will be in attendance.

Some of the 2018 speakers include:

Kay Firth-Butterfield - Head of AI and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum

- Head of AI and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum Richard Socher - Chief Scientist, Salesforce

- Chief Scientist, Salesforce Gilad Lotan - VP and Head of Data Science, BuzzFeed

- VP and Head of Data Science, BuzzFeed Sangeeta Chakraborty - Chief Customer Officer, Ayasdi

- Chief Customer Officer, Ayasdi John Absmeier - VP Smart Machines, Samsung

- VP Smart Machines, Samsung Paul Daugherty , Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Accenture

, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Accenture Nisha Talagala - CTO/VP Engineering, Parallel Machines

- CTO/VP Engineering, Parallel Machines Steve Carlin - Chief Strategy Officer, SoftBank Robotics America

- Chief Strategy Officer, SoftBank Robotics America Nadeem Sheikh , VP of Self Driving Programs, Lyft

SoftBank Robotics' friendly humanoid robot Pepper will make an appearance at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference, offering attendees multiple opportunities to stand face-to-face with the four-foot humanoid robot. Featured unlike ever before, Pepper will utilize facial recognition to assist many of the 800-plus attendees with the check-in process, ensuring that guests are registered quickly and efficiently.

Full speakers lineup and conference program are available at bootstraplabs.com.

About BootstrapLabs

BootstrapLabs is a leading venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence. We actively invest in passionate entrepreneurs building disruptive startups that use AI technologies to solve global problems in sectors such as Transportation, Logistics, Financial Services, Future of Work, Cybersecurity, Energy and Healthcare.

Select portfolio companies include AEye, Mendel Health, Qurious, Vidora, Sibly, SmartEar, Roger.ai, Pryon, Indus.ai, Pinn Technologies, Prezi, Trusted Insight and AngelList.

BootstrapLabs leverages its community of successful entrepreneurs, AI experts, corporate executives, investors and thought leaders to support its portfolio companies and investment strategies.

Press Contact Information: [email protected]

Luigi Congedo, Principal, BootstrapLabs

Email: [email protected]

Edward Farraye, Marketing Manager, BootstrapLabs

Email: [email protected]

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World-class leaders at the AAI17 from research, entrepreneurship, investment and business transformation in the AI landscape today.

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SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Nutrino, a leading provider of nutrition-related data services and analytics technology, announced today the completion of its Series A round of $8 million, bringing the total raised to $10 million. Pereg Ventures, Nielsen Ventures and Gandyr Group joined existing investors - including the New York Angels group, which led the seed round for the company.

The funds will be used to expand Nutrino's services across the multibillion-dollar digital health sector and foster additional partnerships in the spheres of food analytics and nutrition insights for people living with diabetes. Nutrino's advanced platform and comprehensive food database enable companies in these fields to improve the success of their products and programs, better understand populations and eating patterns, and identify new areas of opportunity.

Funding will also go towards further developing Nutrino's database, which collates data from millions of food items globally, and is one of the largest in the world. The database is currently utilized by companies in industries from food & beverages to digital health, fitness and beyond.

"Digital Health is predicted to be worth several hundreds of billions in the coming decade," said Ziv Ben Barouch, Managing Partner of Pereg Ventures. "With skyrocketing consumer demand for increased information about what they eat and growing health awareness, nutrition data is the largest untapped sector of this industry, and Nutrino is perfectly positioned to address this opportunity."

Nutrino's robust nutrition insights platform for collecting, processing and analyzing food-related data serves as an invaluable tool for individuals and businesses alike. Nutrino uses AI and machine learning to better understand individual responses to particular foods via feedback from wearables and other data-points. These unique contextual insights allow Nutrino to define an individual's FoodPrint: the digital signature of how food affects a person's body. Understanding one's FoodPrint gives individuals greater control in using nutrition as a means of combatting chronic disease, managing weight and improving overall wellbeing. With an estimated 415 million people living with diabetes worldwide, expected to reach 642 million by 2040, Nutrino can offer smart, data-based, individualized insights for personal nutrition. The depth, precision, and clarity that Nutrino delivers empowers better food decisions and shapes better outcomes for individuals and businesses.

"Our proprietary technology, FoodPrint, uncovers the previously invisible connections between people and their food," said Nutrino CEO Yael Glassman. "Nutrino is where data meets nutrition, and as we've demonstrated in our work with multinational partners around nutrition and diabetes, the opportunity is vast. This funding round will enable us to significantly expand our commercial reach."

About Nutrino

Nutrino is a leading provider of nutrition-related data services, analytics, and technologies. At its core, Nutrino strives for improved universal health by enabling AI-led analysis of how nutritional intake will affect a person's health. Nutrino has also built one of the world's leading food databases and nutrition data insights platforms, collating data from millions of access points and food items globally. Nutrino works with global medical companies which serve hundreds of thousands of diabetics to understand these clients' individual FoodPrint, determining in almost real-time a personalized assessment of their personal response to different foods.

Smarter about food and smarter about people, Nutrino's revolutionary approach uncovers connections of how individuals and groups metabolize and respond to foods. Through existing partnerships with some of the largest names in global health, Nutrino's capabilities target a multibillion-dollar market. The company is already paving the way for capitalization on this largest untapped sector in the field of digital health. Founded by Jonathan Lipnik and Yaron Hadad, PhD, Nutrino is building a global FoodPrint; with offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv. To find out more, click here.

About Nielsen Ventures

Nielsen Ventures is the venture investing arm of Nielsen. Nielsen is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Their approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what's happening now, what's happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge.

For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world's population.

About Pereg Ventures

Pereg Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in New York City. The firm offers unique expertise to entrepreneurs who are leading innovative B2B information services companies, particularly those that help consumer-driven companies measure their market performance and/or optimize their marketing investments. Pereg's investment focus is Series A and B financing rounds. Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) is a strategic investor in Pereg Ventures.

Media Contact:

Jill Burkes

[email protected]

+1-917-722-5054



SOURCE Nutrino
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AIS is proud to announce that we were awarded a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) on the Army Cloud Computing Enterprise Transformation (ACCENT) contract vehicle. With this award, it's easier than ever for Department of Defense customers to access the extensive Azure knowledge and experience AIS has gained on the platform. AIS began working with Azure in 2008 and now has ten years of experience applying cloud capabilities to create mission-oriented solutions for our commercial and government clients. Issued by the Enterprise Computing and the US Army Contracting Command (ACC) - Rock Island (ACC-RI), ACCENT is specially awarded to support the DoD effort to move designated information technology applications, systems, and associated data to the commercial cloud.

About AIS

AIS provides software and systems engineering services to government agencies and businesses across the United States. We specialize in cloud services, DevOps, custom application development and IT services. Our areas of expertise include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Office 365, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, software development, User Experience (UX), Data and Analytics, Emerging Technologies (i.e., AI, Blockchain, and IoT), and Managed Services.

Our customers range from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies and include state and local governments as well as defense and national security agencies. Our analysis-driven approach to solving business problemscombined with our commitment to deadlines and budgetsresults in successful projects and long-term relationships with our clients. We're a top-tier cloud partner for Microsoft, Amazon, and Equinix with proven capabilities and a track record of success.

AIS is a Microsoft managed partner with six gold competencies and have been selected as a Microsoft National Solution Provider (NSP). From over 750,000 Microsoft partners, there are less than 50 partners in the NSP organization. Microsoft chooses NSP partners based on their proven capabilities to scale to the needs of large enterprises across the United States. Founded in 1982, AIS is a growing and privately held company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with offices in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and India

To learn more, visit us at https://www.appliedis.com or contact us at [email protected].

SOURCE AIS (Applied Information Sciences)

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VANCOUVER, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Alexco Resource Corp. (NYSE American: AXU, TSX: AXR) ("Alexco" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that on April 3, 2018 its wholly owned US subsidiary, Alexco Water and Environment Inc. ("AWE"), entered into a Master Services Agreement ("MSA") with Colorado Legacy Land LLC ("CLL") to become the Operator of Responsible Charge for the Schwartzwalder Mine and the former Canon City Uranium Mill reclamation and cleanup projects located approximately 45 miles northwest and 115 miles south of Denver, respectively. The two projects comprise a total of approximately 3,300 acres of freehold land which are subject to a mine reclamation permit and radiation materials licenses.

As part of the MSA, AWE, on a fee-for-service basis, will be responsible for all work to complete the reclamation obligations assumed by CLL associated with the regulatory closure, environmental compliance, investigation and cleanup for the Schwartzwalder and Canon City properties. The scope of services to be performed by AWE will be jointly developed by CLL and AWE through annual work plans to meet regulatory and cleanup requirements under the Schwartzwalder mining reclamation permit and radiation materials licenses, and the cleanup plan that is being developed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA") process for the former Canon City Mill site. AWE will be responsible for the implementation and execution of all the components within those work plans.

Paul Newman, Managing Director of CLL, commented "Alexco's experience in mine closure, water treatment, radiation management and cleanup services, and brownfields remediation provides CLL with a partner that can achieve the best remediation outcomes for these sites, and support the best possible reuses that will benefit our neighboring communities. We are pleased to have this expertise to energize these cleanup and reuse projects."

Clynt Nauman, Alexco CEO and Chairman commented, "We are very pleased to be working with CLL to actively cleanup these long standing and relatively high profile contaminated areas. This long-term agreement is expected to take more than ten years to complete and generate revenue in excess of US$20 million for AWE while underpinning the ongoing growth of our US environmental group. We remain committed to growing our environmental business by providing a range and quality of services to clients across North America, which is complementary to our mining business and cleanup of legacy environmental issues at our Keno Hill Silver District in Yukon, Canada."

With ongoing growth in both its environmental and mine-related business units, Alexco has strengthened its management structure through the appointment of James Harrington to the position of President of Alexco Environmental Group ("AEG") where he will be responsible for executive, strategic and technical leadership of AEG and its various subsidiaries. In a related management change, Linda Broughton, currently Vice President, Projects for AEG, will be appointed Vice President, Technical Services for Alexco in support of mining operations at the Keno Hill Silver District. Ms. Broughton will also be appointed to the position of President of Alexco's subsidiary, Elsa Reclamation and Development Company, where she will lead the implementation of the reclamation and closure plan for the legacy environmental liabilities in the Keno Hill Silver District.

About Alexco

Alexco owns 100% of the high-grade Keno Hill Silver District ("KHSD") in Canada's Yukon. Alexco published an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") in March 2017 which anticipates the sequential development of four high grade silver deposits over an eight year mine life to produce more than a million tonnes with an average grade of 843 grams per tonne ("g/t"), 3.3% lead and 4.2% zinc. Silver production is anticipated to be approximately 3.5 million ounces per year.

Employing a unique business model, the Alexco Environmental Group also provides mine-related environmental services, remediation technologies and reclamation and mine closure services to both government and industry clients.

Please visit the Alexco website at www.alexcoresource.com

Some statements ("forward-looking statements") in this news release contain forward-looking information concerning Alexco's anticipated results and developments in Alexco's operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, plans related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future, made as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the MSA and the economic benefits thereof to AWE, the development of the scope of services to be performed by AWE under the MSA, AWE's obligations and responsibilities under the MSA and the expected timing for completion of services under the MSA, proposed changes in management of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries, the future remediation and reclamation activities, future mineral exploration, the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, future mine construction and development activities, future mine operation and production, the timing of activities and reports, the amount of estimated revenues and expenses, the success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, requirements for additional capital and sources and uses of funds. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the failure by either party to the MSA to satisfy its obligations pursuant to the agreement, risks related to actual results and timing of exploration and development activities; actual results and timing of mining activities; actual results and timing of environmental services activities; actual results and timing of remediation and reclamation activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of silver, gold, lead, zinc and other commodities; possible variations in mineable resources, grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; First Nation rights and title; continued capitalization and commercial viability; global economic conditions; competition; and delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development activities. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that management believes are reasonable at the time they are made. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, Alexco has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that Alexco will be able to raise additional capital as necessary, that the proposed exploration and development will proceed as planned, and that market fundamentals will result in sustained silver, gold, lead and zinc demand and prices. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Alexco expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

SOURCE Alexco Resource Corp.

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CENTENNIAL, Colo., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AlloSource, an organization dedicated to advancing the science and use of transplantable allogeneic cells and tissue, today announced that clinical and scientific data on its ProChondrix osteochondral allograft will be presented at the International Cartilage Repair Society's 14th World Congress on Wednesday, April 11 from 13:00-14:00 in the Almaty 3 Room.

Dr. Vishal Mehta will present his 24-month clinical experience with ProChondrix in the knee. Dr. Mehta performed the first ProChondrix implantation in December of 2014 and will share his clinical experience with the product.

"ProChondrix has been a valuable addition to my cartilage restoration treatment protocol and my patient outcomes have been encouraging," said Dr. Mehta. "I look forward to sharing these clinical results with the international cartilage community."

AlloSource's Chief New Ventures Officer, Peter Stevens, PhD, is presenting on "ProChondrix CR Post-Cryopreservation Cell Viability and Basic Science." AlloSource's research demonstrates that ProChondrix CR contains viable and metabolically active cells that are comparable to fresh osteochondral allografts. The cryopreservation technology ensures cellular viability for a longer period of time than many osteochondral allografts available today.

"This study demonstrates our commitment to advancing the science behind biologics," said Stevens. "Our proprietary process enables us to provide a cryopreserved graft that maintains cellular viability with a longer shelf-life, allowing ProChondrix CR to help more patients return to an active lifestyle."

ProChondrix CR is a laser-etched, cryopreserved osteochondral allograft that helps deliver the necessary components for articular cartilage restoration. This next generation of cartilage restoration therapy provides the viable cells and other biological components necessary for repair and regeneration of damaged cartilage tissues.

About AlloSource

AlloSource is dedicated to advancing the science and use of transplantable allogeneic cells and tissue through pioneering research in regenerative therapies. The organization offers life-saving and life-enhancing solutions in orthopedic, spine, burn and wound procedures to help restore patient health and mobility. As a world leader in cell-based products, fresh cartilage tissue for joint repair and skin allografts to help heal severe burns, AlloSource's products bridge the proven science of allografts with the advanced technology of cells. The company is accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks and is headquartered in Centennial, CO. For more information, please visit allosource.org.

Media Contact:

Megan Duggan

AlloSource

720. 382. 2766

[email protected]

SOURCE AlloSource

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AMERICAN FORK, Utah, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AllThingsCrypto has rated the most popular cryptocurrencies based on past performance and future potential. This review provides viewers with a synopsis of each crypto coin/token and its corresponding crypto-company. AllThingsCrypto acts as a library of valuable information and educational resources that helps keep followers informed on all the latest developments in the crypto world.

AllThingsCrypto's review of cryptocurrencies supplies visitors with a foundational understanding of the crypto-company, their mission, and their strengths and weaknesses. The cryptocurrency review ranks both coins and tokens on several parameters: investment risk, return on investment (in comparison to the general market trend), technological capabilities, and the team's performance.

"Many exchange services and other websites focus on providing the latest news on crypto companies but that information is pretty much meaningless to an investor who doesn't understand what that company does. We, however, want to provide crypto investors with a central location where they can learn the purpose of crypto coins/tokens and crypto companies and how they compare to their competitors within this space. To be clear, this is not financial advice but a starting point to understand each cryptocurrency," said Michael Templeman, the founder of AllThingsCrypto.

The AllThingsCrypto cryptocurrency review list is not a comprehensive list but an ongoing project. The list can be viewed here: https://allthingscrypto.tech/cryptocurrency-reviews/

About AllThingsCrypto

AllThingsCrypto is a helpful resource for all prospective and current crypto-investors. The website caters to beginners and intermediates by providing educational guides and an extensive blockchain glossary. AllThingsCrypto also caters to blockchain experts by publishing in-depth reviews of altcoins, impactful news, and insightful reviews of cryptocurrencies and exchanges.

As decentralized, digital technology becomes more mainstream, it is essential that people everywhere educate themselves about not only cryptocurrencies, but the crypto-market in general. AllThingsCrypto's mission is to provide the information, education, and new updates to its followers in a simple and efficient manner.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit https://allthingscrypto.tech

Disclaimer: The information published by AllThingsCrypto is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice. You should consult with a professional to determine what may be best for your individual needs.

SOURCE AllThingsCrypto

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DETROIT, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Financial Inc. and Fair today announced a strategic relationship in which Fair will use Ally's SmartAuction as a remarketing solution for its returned cars, and offer consumers flexible car financing powered by Ally's Clearlane program.

Under the agreement, vehicles returned to Fair as a result of a customer exiting a Fair agreement will be listed on Ally's digital wholesale auto auction, SmartAuction, as a remarketing option. Additionally, Southern California dealers using Ally's Clearlanea multi-lender, digital financing platformwill be able to use Fair's mobile application to help consumers who don't qualify for traditional financing or want more flexibility.

The companies are also exploring options to expand the agreement nationwide later this year, which would further enable Fair's mission to provide flexible access to mobility for all consumerseven if they have less-than-perfect or non-existent credit.

"Fair is a leader in the evolution of used vehicle financing and we're thrilled to work with such a trailblazer to support a flexible solution for the benefit of both consumers and dealers,'' said Tim Russi, president of auto finance for Ally. "We see this as a starting point for our companies to work together and are engaged in exploratory discussions on several other fronts to expand our relationship."

Fair is an app that lets customers locate and select a pre-owned car entirely on their phone, with the ability to turn it in any time. Customers can shop from a wide variety of Fair's dealer partners right in the app and scan their license to see if they are pre-qualified for a range of monthly payments. If approved, they can sign for their car with their finger, pick up their keys, and keep the car for as long as they want.

When a vehicle is returned by a customer, Fair gives the dealer that originated the transaction the first right to buy it back. If the dealer doesn't purchase the car, Fair will make it available to other dealers on SmartAuction, beginning this month.

Through the new agreement, Fair will also provide dealers with a flexible financing alternative for consumers leveraging Ally's Clearlane platform. Ally launched Clearlane in April 2017 to help connect consumers with leading auto finance providers online. "Our vision for the program is to complement our dealer business by helping them close deals and provide consumers with access to a vehicle they might not have been able to get otherwise," Russi said.

This is the latest strategic alliance for Fair. In January, it began a partnership with Uber that provides its ride-share drivers in the U.S. with flexible access to vehicles through Fair via the Uber app. Fair also acquired the active lease portfolio of Uber's subsidiary, Xchange Leasing, which includes existing lease contracts and vehicles. In February, Fair acquired certain assets of vehicle-delivery app, Skurt, as part of its plan to quickly scale a cost-effective platform for vehicle delivery, pick-up and fleet management.

"As Fair scales nationwide after our successful launch throughout California, it's important that we continue to find efficient ways to automate our processes, ideally through mutually beneficial alliances with proven industry leaders like Ally," said Scott Painter, Fair's founder and CEO. "SmartAuction will be an important remarketing channel for Fair, while Clearlane will serve as the ultimate win-win for dealers and customers alike. Combined, these two programs are just the beginning of what we can accomplish with Ally as we broaden our relationship going forward."

With over 25,000 vehicles available daily, SmartAuction is an industry-leading online auction that offers access to a virtual inventory of wholesale vehicles for eligible dealers of all brands. All purchases on the SmartAuction site are backed by a comprehensive arbitration policy.

About Ally Financial Inc.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a leading digital financial services company with assets of $167.1 billion as of December 31, 2017. As a client-centric company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions, Ally is relentlessly focused on "Doing it Right" and being a trusted financial partner for its consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. Ally's award-winning online bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender) offers mortgage-lending services and a variety of deposit and other banking products, including CDs, online savings, money market and checking accounts, and IRA products. Ally also promotes the Ally CashBack Credit Card. Additionally, Ally offers securities brokerage and investment advisory services through Ally Invest. Ally remains one of the largest full-service auto finance operations in the country with a complementary auto-focused insurance business, which together serve more than 18,000 dealer customers and millions of auto consumers. Ally's robust corporate finance business offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures.

About Fair

Fair offers a forward-thinking model of flexible car ownership that responds to consumer demand for more freedom. Fair gives customers the flexibility to drive the car they want for as long as they want, and lets them walk away any time, eliminating the long-term commitment of traditional financing or leasing. Fair allows you to select your car, miles, and view your paymentsall in a mobile and paperless end-to-end experience that's simple, transparent and affordable. Fair is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. For more information, please visit www.fair.com.

Contact:

Brenda Rios

Ally Financial Inc.

[email protected]

SOURCE Ally Financial

Related Links

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HOMEWOOD, Ala. and MEDFORD, Mass., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- INVO Bioscience, Inc. (OTC: IVOB), a medical device company granted FDA clearance for the first Intravaginal Culture System, INVOcell, today announced that the America Institute of Reproductive Medicine  Alabama, is the second clinic in the state of Alabama to add INVOcell to its scope of reproductive treatments.

Katie Karloff, CEO of INVO Bioscience, said, "We are pleased that America Institute of Reproductive Medicine  Alabama ('AIRM') has chosen INVOcell to expand the palette of reproductive treatments. AIRM is the second clinic in Alabama to adopt INVOcell as an important alternative to more traditional in-vitro fertilization ('IVF'). The success rates of INVOcell coupled with the cost effectiveness of the therapy is being increasingly acknowledged by reproductive clinics throughout the U.S. We are excited to provide a workable solution that positively impacts the lives of so many people."

INVOcell has the ability to significantly transform the way in which doctors assist infertile patients to become pregnant in a simpler, more natural and cost-effective manner. INVOcell is a patented medical device used in the treatment of infertility that enables egg fertilization and early embryo development to take place in the woman's body, in vivo. The simplistic INVO can be easily performed in an appropriately trained physician's office without the need for expensive overhead.

Dr. Cecil Long, M.D., co-founder of America Institute of Reproductive Medicine  Alabama, commented, "Providing the highest quality infertility treatments is one of the driving motivations of AIRM. We believe that INVOcell meets all of our criteria to serve the patients that have trusted in us to help them create the families that they have not been able to create to this point. INVOcell is another important option that can help us to achieve the goals of our patients with compassion."

AIRM Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Karen Hammond, commented, "We are very excited to offer an affordable IVF option to improve access to care. Not only is the INVOcell more affordable than conventional IVF, fewer medications are needed, so the total costs for an IVF treatment cycle are much lower, as well."

About America Institute of Reproductive Medicine  Alabama

Co-founded by Dr. Cecil Long and Dr. Marius Meintjes, Ph.D., H.C.L.D., America Institute of Reproductive Medicine  Alabama, will do all that is possible to help build families through comprehensive diagnostic testing and assisted reproduction technologies, if necessary. Under the medical guidance of Dr. Cecil A. Long, a board-certified endocrinologist, patients will have his 30-years of experience in infertility on their side as he navigates their health history and determines why they are experiencing infertility. Our team of compassionate nurses and medical technicians will be a great resource to guide patients through learning more about procedures when you have questions or feel uncertain about decisions that need to be made. We also have a world-class, assisted reproductive technology laboratory available for your reproductive health needs right in Birmingham.

About INVO Bioscience

We are a medical device company focused on creating simplified, lower cost treatments for patients diagnosed with infertility. Our solution, the INVO Procedure, is a disruptive new technology. The INVO Procedure is a revolutionary in vivo method of vaginal incubation that offers patients a more natural and intimate experience. Our lead product, the INVOcell, is a patented medical device used in infertility treatment and is considered an Assisted Reproductive Technology ("ART"). The INVOcell is the first Intravaginal Culture ("IVC") system in the world used for the natural in vivo incubation of eggs and sperm during fertilization and early embryo development, as an alternative to traditional In Vitro Fertilization ("IVF") and Intrauterine Insemination ("IUI"). Our mission is to increase access to care and expand fertility treatment across the globe with a goal to lower the cost of care and increase availability of care. For more information, please visit http://invobioscience.com/

Safe Harbor Statement

This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Company invokes the protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategies, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those set forth in our filings at www.sec.gov. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:

INVO Bioscience, Inc.

Kathleen Karloff, CEO

978-878-9505 ext. 504

[email protected]

SOURCE INVO Bioscience, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.invobioscience.com


LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A&R Logistics ("A&R") announced today it has retained the services of Mr. John Barrett as a strategic consultant. Mr. Barrett recently retired as the Global Supply Chain General Manager of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company.

Commenting on the announcement, Mark R. Holden, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are thrilled to have someone of John's expertise and character join our leadership team. Having spent over 40 years working in the chemical industry, including responsibility over global transportation and logistics activities, polyethylene supply chain, import/export compliance and distribution safety for one of the largest producers in the world, John is well versed in the challenges and opportunities facing plastic resin producers. Plastic resin production is in the midst of dramatic growth in the United States and A&R Logistics is the largest dry-bulk transporter of plastic resin in the country. We have spent the past several years preparing for this day and are seeing substantial, strategic opportunities to participate in the chemical industry growth, both domestic and export. We welcome John to the team and look forward to his expertise in helping us grow."

John Barrett added, "I am very excited to collaborate with an organization such as A&R Logistics. As a former customer, I witnessed first-hand A&R's commitment to Safety and Service for several years and in my opinion, A&R is very well positioned to participate in the significant growth of the chemical industry. This growth is just now coming on-line and will extend well into the next 5  10 years. I believe my experiences are well aligned with A&R's strategic goals."

About A&R Logistics

Headquartered in Louisville, KY, A&R Logistics, Inc. is a leading provider of dry-bulk transportation, packaging, distribution and logistics solutions to numerous multinational companies within the chemical and plastic industries. A&R provides a comprehensive suite of services including over-the-road transportation, trans-loading, packaging, warehousing and end-to-end outsourced transportation management through a nationwide network of 25 facilities, a combination of company-owned equipment and owner operators and a non-asset based transportation management division. For more information on A&R Logistics, Inc. please visit www.ARDoingItRight.com.

SOURCE A&R Logistics

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PHOENIX, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- House Concurrent Memorial 2004 was unanimously passed on April 4, 2018. This resolution "expressing concern regarding organ harvesting in the People's Republic of China" exposes a crime targeting prisoners of conscience in China, mainly practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation. The Phoenix Falun Dafa Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and was active in bringing this issue to state representatives.

In 2006, allegations began to surface that China's lucrative organ transplant industry was being supplied with the organs of Falun Gong practitioners  the largest group of prisoners of conscience in China then and now. Since then, much analysis and investigation, corroborated by witness testimony, has led to the publication of several books, investigative reports and a Peabody Award-winning documentary on this horrendous crime.

A 2017 Freedom House report on religious freedom in China states (p.120): "The above review found credible evidence suggesting that beginning in the early 2000s, Falun Gong detainees were killed for their organs on a large scale. There are reasons to believe that such abuses continue."

This issue has also gained more international attention in the past few years. Several countries, such as Israel, Taiwan, Spain and Italy have passed laws to restrict their citizens from going to China for organ transplants. An updated independent 680-page investigative report from the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuses in China can be found at https://endtransplantabuse.org/.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.Res.343 unanimously in June 2016, which condemns China's forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience. Sponsored by Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the resolution was widely supported by 185 bi-partisan co-sponsors.

Why is this important for Arizona and the United States? This new Memorial addresses the problem that China could send its doctors to the Mayo Clinic and the University of Arizona School of Medicine as well as other medical schools in the United States. These doctors are trained as transplant surgeons and will be going back to China where their training could be used to carry out forced organ harvesting. This memorial will also help the medical community educate the public that Arizona residents could be going to China to get an organ and unknowingly be partaking in this medical genocide. Currently, there is no system for donor transparency in China. The direct link to this memorandum HCM2004 can be found at https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/HCM2004/2018.

Diana Molovinsky - (480) 382-3105

Phoenix Falun Dafa Association

Related Links

Learn more about live Forced Organ Harvesting

Information on Falun Gong

SOURCE Phoenix Falun Dafa Association
ARLINGTON, Va., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations announced its Technology & Maintenance Council is hosting TMC's Fleet Data Management and Cybersecurity Conference, a new event to address best practices in fleet data management and cybersecurity. Attendees will learn how to extract more business value from the data that fleets collect to make cost reporting and operations more efficient. The Conference will have a special focus on leveraging the power of the Council's Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards as well as new breakdown maintenance benchmarking services available through a joint project with FleetNet America.

TMC's Fleet Data Management and Cybersecurity Conference registration is now open, and the event will be co-located with the National Accounting and Finance Council's Annual Conference. The two adjoining conferences will be held June 5-7 in Raleigh, North Carolina and will include two joint sessions.

Registration is now open for the NAFC conference, which will cover a number of areas critical to ensuring the business of trucking runs smoothly  from the impact of tax reform on fleets and risk management to emerging trends like blockchain and the latest developments in mergers and acquisitions. All NAFC participants will have the opportunity to earn up to nine Continuing Professional Education credits.

"It is an exciting time for the trucking industry as emerging technologies present new challenges and enormous opportunities," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "These two conferences will place attendees at the cutting edge of cyber tech and finance and equip them with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate and lead in a business environment that is constantly changing."

"NAFC is thrilled to host our first stand-alone conference in many years after being included for some time with ATA's Annual MCE Conference," said Jenny Wieroniey, NAFC's manager. "It could not come at a better time with all of the issues facing financial leadership in the trucking industry today."

TMC's inaugural Fleet Data Management and Cybersecurity Conference will bring together fleets, manufacturers, software providers, OEMs and more to address a wide range of prominent issues, including VMRS, software procurement and cybersecurity best practices.

"The worlds of trucking and technology are merging more than ever before," said Robert Braswell, executive director of TMC. "We are very excited about this new conference, which will deliver value to our members as they prepare and build cyber and data strategies."

For more information on ATA Events, visit http://www.trucking.org/Events.aspx.

About the American Trucking Associations

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

SOURCE American Trucking Associations

Related Links

http://www.trucking.org


ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott Lucas Strategies, a technology and web consulting company, is pleased to announce the Asirvia Go Services and the Go. This handheld, portable device broadcasts a notification to every Bluetooth and Google Nearby-enabled Android phone and all iPhones with the Physical Web app within a 400-yard radius. Business owners who purchase the Asirvia Go Services and the Go will be provided with training and the website access needed to construct and program advertisement or promotional messages. Consumers will receive these messages when close-by, generating leads for the business.

Robert Burns from Richardson, TX says, "75 hits before it reached the door to my business." The device is activated before being shipped to the business owner, resulting in possible leads and new customers along the entire shipping route. Once the device has been received, the business owner is able to broadcast messages from any location. The device works especially well in crowded areas like shopping malls and movie theaters, but will broadcast from any location. This technology is here to stay but it is still new and under-utilized. Compared to traditional advertising, this proximity marketing device is bargain-priced.

Asirvia's Go is a wireless Bluetooth advertising platform that will broadcast a 40-character message for any product, service, promotion, event, or news alert.

The Go can be turned on or off as desired, and broadcasts a message within a 400 meter distance. The device has a 2-year battery life and will be replaced for free when needed.

A user may update messages at any time, with new notifications showing up on consumers' phones within 15 minutes.

Android represents 60% of the North American smart phone market (85% globally).

To receive promotional messages and links from the Go, Bluetooth and Google Nearby must be enabled on the Android device.

About Scott Lucas Strategies: Scott Lucas Strategies is an IT consulting company and provides technology strategies, technical support and proximity marketing services. Local business owners can use the proximity marketing device to cut down on advertising costs by broadcasting their products/services to any nearby Android phone using Google Nearby. Check out the link for more details at http://ScottLucasStrategies.com/pr

Scott Lucas

Scott Lucas Strategies

(270) 872-6990

[email protected]

SOURCE Scott Lucas Strategies
"The addition of five 777 Freighters is a significant moment for our cargo division," said His Excellency Mr. Al Baker. "As the world's third-largest cargo operator, Qatar Airways continues to invest in fleet expansion. This transaction will be a reinforcement of our confidence in Boeing to continue to deliver an outstanding product that meets our exacting standards. We expect no less than perfection, and we are confident that Boeing will continue to deliver that."

Qatar Airways currently operates a fleet of nearly 100 Boeing widebody airplanes and has about 100 more Boeing airplanes on order.

"We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Qatar Airways and we value their business and the positive impact on Boeing, our employees, suppliers and communities," said McAllister. "We are honored that one of the world's leading international cargo carriers recognizes the unmatched capabilities of the 777 Freighter to continue to lift their growing freight operations."

The 777 Freighter is capable of flying 4,900 nautical miles (9,070 kilometers) with a payload of 112 tons (102 metric tonnes or 102,000 kg). The airplane's long range translates into significant savings as fewer stops mean lower landing fees, less congestion, lower cargo handling costs and shorter delivery times.

Boeing is the air cargo market leader, providing over 90 percent of the dedicated freighter capacity around the world.

About Qatar Airways:

Qatar Airways is proud to be one of the youngest global airlines to serve all six continents, and thanks to our customers' response to our offerings, we are also the world's fastest-growing airline. We connect more than 150 destinations on the map every day, with a fleet of the latest-generation aircraft, and an unrivalled level of service from our home and hub, the Five-star airport, Hamad International Airport in Doha, the State of Qatar.

Qatar Airways Cargo, the world's third largest international cargo carrier, serves 60 exclusive freighter destinations worldwide via its world-class Doha hub and also delivers freight to more than 150 key business and leisure destinations globally with 200 aircraft. The Qatar Airways Cargo fleet includes eight Airbus A330 freighters, two Boeing 747-8 freighters and 13 Boeing 777 freighters.

For further information, please contact:

Qatar Airways Group, Corporate Communications Department

Tel: +974 4022 2200

Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Saffana Michael

+9 7150-4590651

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing

Related Links

http://www.boeing.com


The San Diego Heroes Day event will begin with welcome remarks from Bridgepoint's Chief Executive Officer Andrew Clark, California Senator Joel Anderson, Ashford University President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Craig Swenson, STEP Chief Executive Officer Tony Teravainen, and STEP Director of Development Laura White.

"At Bridgepoint Education, we are committed to giving back to the communities where we live and work," said Andrew Clark, chief executive officer of Bridgepoint Education. "Heroes Day is an opportunity for us to work together with local organizations and make a difference in our community."

Bridgepoint Education and Ashford University employees and students donated more than 3,300 items of gently used clothing during a clothing donation drive leading up to the Heroes Day event. On Saturday, volunteers will help sort donations at 9715 Businesspark Avenue, San Diego, Ca. 92131. Bridgepoint and Ashford employees will work alongside Ashford students to organize and process donated items for STEP's Warehouse on Wheels program to support junior active-duty enlisted service members and their families in Southern California.

This weekend's events will mark the 17th Heroes Day celebrated by Bridgepoint Education. Past Heroes Days events in San Diego have focused on service projects such as revitalizing Fiesta Island Youth Camp, cleaning Juniper Canyon, and other activities to help improve local communities.

About Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE:BPI) harnesses the latest technology to reimagine the modern student experience. Bridgepoint owns two academic institutions  Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Together, these programs, technologies, and resources represent a unique model for advancing education in the 21st century. Bridgepoint stands for greater access, social learning, and exposure to leading minds. For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or www.facebook.com/BridgepointEducation.

About Ashford University

Where heritage meets innovation  that's Ashford University. At Ashford, students discover relevant degree programs, innovative technology, and cherished tradition. Ashford offers associates, bachelor's, and master's degree programs online, allowing students to balance life by providing the flexibility to do school work anywhere, anytime. For more information, please visit www.ashford.edu, www.facebook.com/ashforduniversity, or www.twitter.com/AshfordU.

Contact: Kathleen Park

858.513.9240 x11636  [email protected]

SOURCE Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bridgepointeducation.com


HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitol Music Group (CMG), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), has launched the Capitol Innovation Center (CIC) to bring together leading thinkers from the music and technology industries, as well as the student community, to help drive the future of innovation in music. Based in the iconic Capitol Tower and the company's state-of-the-art Studios in Hollywood, California, the CIC will provide space and conduct event programming designed to foster innovative ideas, bridge the gap between content creators and the tech community, and foster the next generation of leaders in music.

The CIC opens its doors on April 15 with a collaborative workspace and songwriting studio where students, technologists, and content creators will work together under one roof. At the recent SXSW Music Hackathon in Austin TX, winning teams were chosen to spend a week in June at Capitol Tower, gaining access to the CIC's workspace, studio, and team of mentors. Other initial participants in the CIC include UMG Accelerator Engagement Network and Abbey Road Red Incubator.

The CIC will host a series of events, including Speaker Workshops and Hackathons. CIC's first Speaker Workshop: The Future She Built, a conversation on inclusion and change, will be held on April 18 in partnership with Select Management Group. Confirmed speakers include COO of CMG Michelle Jubelirer, Founder/Director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Stacy Smith, President of SAG-AFTRA Gabrielle Carteris, and President & COO of the LA Sparks Christine Simmons.

The first CIC Hackathon, set for June 2 and 3, will bring together software developers, acclaimed producers, songwriters, and influencers in a challenge to incubate new waves of music-related products, services, and content. For the duration of the Hackathon, participants will have access to the state-of-the-art Capitol Recording Studios, as well as a catalog of UMG audio streaming tracks delivered by partners 7digital (B2B digital music and radio services company) and Cloudinary (cloud-based media management for developers and brand managers).

Winning developer teams will be eligible for an 8-month innovation license to draw from this catalog, while winning content teams will have their finished pieces heard by representatives of Capitol's A&R team.

The Hackathon will be held in collaboration with Travis Laurendine, the producer behind North America's top music festival and conference hackathons including SXSW, Outside Lands, and Canadian Music Festival.

On June 9, CIC will host A Women's Immersive Recording Arts Summit, an all-day series of keynote speakers and production workshops held in partnership with Women's Audio Mission (WAM). Confirmed speakers for the event include COO of CMG Michelle Jubelirer, recording and mixing engineer Marcella Araica, VP/Studio Manager of Capitol Studios Paula Salvatore, Founder & Executive Director of WAM Terri Winston, and music producer, songwriter and entrepreneur TRAKGIRL.

Of the upcoming CIC launch, CMG Chairman & CEO Steve Barnett: "With its diverse offerings of original programming and communal workspace, we believe that the Capitol Innovation Center has the potential to further transform our Tower into a destination where brilliant minds can come together to share ideas, knowledge, and creativity across social and generational barriers, as well as pioneer breakthroughs that will drive the music industry into the future."

About Capitol Music Group

Capitol Music Group (CMG) is comprised of Capitol Records, Virgin Records, Motown Records, Blue Note Records, Astralwerks, Harvest Records, Capitol Christian Music Group, Priority Records, as well as Capitol Studios and the company's independent label services and distribution division, Caroline. Capitol Music Group is based in Hollywood, California in the iconic Capitol Tower.

Artists that record for CMG labels include: Ryan Adams, Erykah Badu, Banks, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Beck, Bee Gees, Jon Bellion, B.J. The Chicago Kid, Rosanne Cash, Christine and the Queens, Neil Diamond, Robert Glasper, Halsey, Don Henley, Hillsong United, Niall Horan, Illenium, Judah And The Lion, Tori Kelly, Kem, Lil Yachty, Charles Lloyd, tobyMac, Paul McCartney, Vic Mensa, Migos, NeYo, NF, Norah Jones, Katy Perry, Gregory Porter, Rich Homie Quan, Maggie Rogers, Calum Scott, Bob Seger, Troye Sivan and Chris Tomlin. For the U.S only.: 5 Seconds Of Summer, Bastille, Disclosure, Empire Of The Sun, Glass Animals, MNEK and Sam Smith.

Capitol Music Group is a division of Universal Music Group, which is a fully owned subsidiary of Vivendi.

About the UMG Accelerator Engagement Network

Universal Music Group launched the Accelerator Engagement Network in October 2017 to partner with generalist accelerator programs throughout the world to assist in the evaluation, mentorship and development of innovative music start-ups. The UMG Accelerator Network is currently partnered with the Axel Springer/Porsche Accelerator (Berlin), NYC MediaLab (New York), Sparklabs (Seoul and Taipei), LeanSquare (Belgium) and China Accelerator (Shanghai).

About Abbey Road Red

Abbey Road Studios, the birthplace of stereo and countless innovations in recording technology, created Abbey Road Red in 2016. Abbey Road Red is our open innovation department designed to support the endeavors of the brightest music tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers. We run a unique music tech start-up incubation programmed  the first of its kind in Europe  to support the most promising music tech start-ups, as well as collaborating with the brightest minds in academic research. In 2018, the program is now expanding with in-house R&D activities within the music creation space.

About Women's Audio Mission

Women's Audio Mission (WAM) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts. WAM has provided training, work experience, and career counseling to over 1,500 women and girls every year in creative technology and has placed over 600 young women in positions at companies like Google, Pixar, Dolby, Facebook, and Electronic Arts.

SOURCE Capitol Music Group

Related Links

http://www.umusic.com


DEERFIELD, Ill., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) will release first-quarter 2018 financial results at 6:30 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, April 24. The release will be available at caterpillar.com/earnings and the full text of the news release will also be available on PR Newswire at about 6:30 a.m. CDT. The news release will be furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) via a Current Report on Form 8-K in compliance with applicable SEC rules.

Teleconference and webcast access:

A real-time, listen-only teleconference and webcast of the quarterly results call that Caterpillar conducts with security analysts and institutional investors will begin at 10 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, April 24. Supporting materials will be available before the webcast at caterpillar.com/investors/events-and-presentations.

In addition to the webcast, the one-hour conference call can also be accessed by telephone from both domestic and international locations, with a listen-only entry code provided below:

Conference Call Number: 877-216-8554 (domestic)

973-528-0009 (international) Listen-Only Entry Code: 5621

The call can be accessed in real-time at caterpillar.com/irwebcast. Listeners should go to the website at least 15 minutes before the live event to download and install any necessary audio software. The transcript from the conference call will be made available at caterpillar.com/irwebcast following the webcast.

For those unable to participate in the live broadcast, the replay will be available at caterpillar.com/irwebcast shortly after the live event. There is no charge to access the webcast. A telephone replay of the call will not be available. Those without access to the Internet may listen to an audio summary of Caterpillar's press release by calling 800-228-7717 (for U.S. and Canada) or 858-764-9492 (for all other regions).

About Caterpillar

For more than 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2017 sales and revenues of $45.462 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three primary segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.

Related Links

http://www.caterpillar.com


MCPHERSON, Kan. and LAKELAND, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Christian College of Kansas (CCC) and International Aero Academy, Ltd. (IAA) today announced the formation of the International School of Aerospace & Aviation, which will pair CCC's four-year and two-year Aviation Bachelor and Associate's Degrees with IAA's innovative accelerated FAA 141 pilot training programs.

IAA's facilities at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida is now a satellite campus for IAA and CCC's joint International School of Aerospace & Aviation. IAA and CCC designed the programs to provide aviation students from all over the world with an efficient, cost-effective and student-oriented program.

"U.S. and foreign students will have the opportunity to complete their private pilot through commercial multiengine and Flight Instructor ratings during their first eight months of enrollment, allowing them to work as flight instructors in their first year  building flight hours and earning wages, while accelerating their post-graduate careers," said Hal Hoxie, President of Central Christian College, who is a retired pilot and Colonel in the United States Air Force. "We are modeling our program after the U.S. Military and no other accredited degree program offers this unique student-centric approach."

"Together with CCC, we will institute a complete paradigm shift in aviation degree programs allowing students to focus first on flight training, attaining their ratings so that they can gain valuable flight hours working as Flight Instructors while completing their degrees," said Steven Markhoff, President of International Aero Academy. "Unlike most of today's degree programs, we are providing an excellent opportunity for students to accelerate their pilot training and careers."

These aviation degree programs will be open both to U.S. students who may avail themselves of Federal Student Loans and to foreign students who will be able to work as flight instructors utilizing their F1 visa issued by CCC. Courses will be held both online and in classrooms at Lakeland Linder International Airport.

The International School of Aerospace & Aviation will begin later this month offering an associate's degree and will inaugurate its bachelor's degree program for both U.S. and foreign students early this summer.

Program Highlights:

50% less cost than current programs

50% less time to complete the program

Program will meet FAA requirements for employment as pilots

Students will be paid for their work as instructors

Student continuity a key factor in expected graduation rates of 90%

About Central Christian College

Central Christian College of Kansas was established as a two-year college in 1914. The college offered aviation programs beginning in the early 1970s. In 1991, Central Christian became a regionally accredited institution offering multiple undergraduate degrees. Central's current president Hal Hoxie is a retired pilot and Colonel in the United States Air Force. His expertise in aviation is a key factor in the expansion of Central Christian's program. For more information about CCC, please visit http://www.centralchristian.edu/about.

About International Aero Academy

International Aero Academy (IAA) is a Lakeland, Fla.-based FAA-certificated 141 ab initio and accelerated flight school with authority to issue foreign student visas for training. With a focus on training the next generation of domestic and foreign professional pilots, IAA has a growing fleet of aircraft, its own modern 12,000 square foot maintenance facility with dedicated maintenance professionals, and over 11,000 square feet of office, onsite dormitory housing for students and training space. IAA is owned and managed by former senior executives of international, major, regional, LCC and cargo airlines. For more information about IAA, please visit https://www.internationalaeroacademy.com.

IAA contact:

Steven Markhoff

863-213-5267

or

[email protected]

SOURCE International Aero Academy, Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.centralchristian.edu/about


MEXICO CITY, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Citla Energy, SAPI de CV ("Citla" or the "Company"), an independent Mexican hydrocarbon exploration and production company, is pleased to announce that it has won its fourth production-sharing contract as part of Round 3.1 of the Mexican Energy Reform. The newly won contract is associated with "Block 15," a geographic area located in the Tampico Misantla basin of the Gulf of Mexico, covering about 962 km2. With the addition of "Block 15," Citla's portfolio has abundant prospective resources throughout an area of 2,581 km2 and geologic diversification across the two most important and prolific basins in the country  the South East and Tampico-Misantla basins. Citla has obtained this award in a 50/50 consortium with Cairn Energy PLC as operator.

Citla's success in Round 3.1 is another important step in the Company's strategy to build a strong portfolio of carefully selected assets in Mexico, through active participation in the Mexican Energy Reform, both independently and in partnership with other participants.

Citla is an independent Mexican oil company founded in 2015, with a strong institutional investor base that includes international and local funds managed by affiliates of ACON Investments, L.L.C. ("ACON"), including capital from some of the largest Mexican pension funds, as well as other institutional investors.

Alberto Galvis, CEO of Citla, commented: "The award of this contract is another milestone in our growth and diversification strategy, and one that consolidates Citla's platform as one of the few leading Mexican companies in the nascent oil and gas sector in the country."

About Citla

Citla Energy is a Mexican independent exploration and production company. With offices in Mexico City and Houston, Citla is an active participant in the opening of Mexico's oil & gas sector, where it is building a portfolio of selected onshore and offshore assets both independently and in partnership with other industry participants. For more information, visit www.citlaenergy.com.

About ACON

ACON Investments, L.L.C. is a Washington, DC-based international private equity investment firm that manages private equity funds and special purpose partnerships that make investments in the United States and Latin America. Founded in 1996, ACON has responsibility for managing approximately $5.5 billion of capital. ACON has professionals in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Bogota. For more information, visit www.aconinvestments.com.

Citla Contact:

Alejandro Murphy

Phone: +1 (832) 458 6347

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Citla Energy

Related Links

http://www.citlaenergy.com


Little's promotion comes on the heels of Community Brands earlier this year forming K-12 Solutions previously known as the stand-alone software organization Education Brands (owned by Insight Venture Partners, which is also the same investment partner of Community Brands). Education Brands was integrated into Community Brands during January 2018 as a new vertical to provide a more powerful set of solutions to the education and schools market. The K-12 group, under Little's leadership, is now focused on delivering a technology strategy across admissions, enrollment, tuition management, financial aid and student information systems to bring students, families and schools further into an ever-changing digital world.

"During her previous time at Abila and the past year with Community Brands, Bethany's contributions have been invaluable to driving the growth of the business," said Jean-Paul (JP) Guilbault, CEO, Community Brands. "I'm looking forward to her leveraging her experience and leadership from across association, nonprofit and education markets, as well as her proven track record of integrating teams, products and growing revenue."

Little is charged with bringing a "best-of-the-best" product strategy to the larger education market, as schools are under increasing pressure to effectively manage their admissions, financial aid and enrollment programs with limited resources. At the same time, parents and their families are craving more real-time, mobile-friendly communications and engagement from schools. Little will also launch a "data-first" initiative across several of Community Brands K-12 products to bring predictive data insights to schools in a never-been-done-before way.

"We have amazing, proven brands in K-12, where we will continue to offer choice to our customers," Guilbault added. "But, ultimately, as an integrated portfolio, we can provide an even more compelling set of outcomes for the unique demands of different schools, users and audiences. These are exciting times to offer schools and families modernized technology platforms as is expected in the general consumer market with the advent of the digital age."

"Using technology to create engagement around social good is my passion," Little said. "I'm excited to carry this focus more deeply into the K-12 space." Little grew up military, moved around the world and throughout the United States, collecting experiences at more than 10 schools, being in Europe during the Cold War, and living in a combat zone during Operation Just Cause in Panama. For Little's family, these life and world events created a heavy reliance on community leaders, teachers and special programs. She says her upbringing has led her to her careersupporting organizations that supported her throughout the earlier part of her life.

Little has recorded more than 20 years of experience leading revenue-generating teams at digital and software companies focused on cause-marketing, associations, nonprofits and education-based organizations. Her proven leadership includes eight years with Blackbaud, where she led Client Services, Product Management, Sales Enablement, Marketing and Operations. Prior to Community Brands, she served as Vice President, Client Services at Abila, which is now a part of the Community Brands family.

Education Brandsnow K-12 Solutions under Community Brandswas formed in 2016 when several technology companies already serving schools joined together to deliver a more powerful bundle of solutions. Those companies include inRENOSANCE, Ravenna Solutions, Senior Systems, School and Student Services, SchoolSpeak and TADS, to name a few. Since 2017, Community Brands has brought together leading technology solutions focused on purpose-driven organizations. Now, Community Brands offers a comprehensive portfolio of products to allow schools to elevate their enrollment and student management programs with a choice of technology options for the smallest to largest of schools, scholarship funds and education-focused enterprises.

To learn more about Community Brands K-12 Solutions, as well as Membership Solutions, Nonprofit Solutions and Payment Solutions, visit CommunityBrands.com.

About Community Brands

Community Brands is a purpose-driven company that delivers purpose-built solutions for nearly 100,000 leading associations, nonprofits, K-12 private schools and faith-based organizations worldwide to thrive and succeed in today's fast-paced, evolving world. Our focus on accelerating innovation, fulfilling unmet needs, and bringing to market modern technology solutions and engagement platforms helps power social impact, affect positive change and create opportunity. With Community Brands solutions and services, purpose-driven organizations better engage their members, donors, educators and volunteers; raise more money; effectively manage revenue; and provide professional development and insights to power their missions. To learn more, visit www.communitybrands.com. Get social with Community Brands on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Contact: Michael Piotrowski, (727) 492-5988, [email protected]

SOURCE Community Brands

Related Links

https://www.communitybrands.com


PLANO, Texas, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Hospital Consulting, the management and consulting arm of Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), has announced a new relationship with North Texas Medical Center (NTMC), Gainesville, Texas, for an initial five-year management term. Management services by CHC Consulting will begin May 1, 2018.

To ensure a smooth transition, CHC Consulting is working alongside NTMC leadership and UHS/Texoma Medical Center, who has been operating the hospital for the past year. UHS/Texoma Medical Center announced their decision not to pursue continued management or a lease arrangement, but will continue to collaborate as a tertiary partner in the region.

"We are excited to bring CHC's expertise in hospital management and talent in critical areas such as the revenue cycle and supply chain to strengthen NTMC. CHC's mission to guide, support and enhance the mission of community hospitals and healthcare providers aligns with NTMC and its mission to serve residents of Cooke County with quality healthcare for years to come," said CHC President and CEO Jim Kendrick.

"Partnering with CHC is the best option and alignment for NTMC. This gives us an opportunity to join a strong organization that has a strong footprint in rural hospitals and will only enhance the quality healthcare provided to the patients in Cooke County," said Robbie Baugh, NTMC Chairman of the Board.

NTMC is a 60-bed acute care hospital situated on 52 acres located within the city limits of Gainesville, a community approximately 60 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth and five miles south of the Texas-Oklahoma border. Since NTMC's campus was rebuilt in 2004, it has continued to grow to better serve the medical needs of the North Texas area.

CHC Consulting specializes in the management and operation of smaller, community-based hospitals across the country.

About Community Hospital Corporation  HELP WHERE HOSPITALS NEED IT

Community Hospital Corporation owns, manages and consults with hospitals through three distinct organizations  CHC Hospitals, CHC Consulting and CHC ContinueCARE, which share a common purpose to guide, support and enhance the mission of community hospitals and healthcare providers. Based in Plano, Texas, CHC provides the resources and experience community hospitals need to improve quality outcomes, patient satisfaction and financial performance. For more information about CHC, please visit www.communityhospitalcorp.com.

SOURCE Community Hospital Consulting

Related Links

http://www.communityhospitalcorp.com


HERNDON, Va. and PHILADELPHIA, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet), Connect For Education (C4E)  a full-service educational services company  announced today the launch of the pilot program of their Penn Vet Behavior Web App, a new, groundbreaking telemedicine portal, training and education web application that will give veterinarians from all over the U.S. access to the expertise of dog behavior specialists at Penn Vet. Veterinarians accepted into the pilot will have free access to the program for a six-month period, during which they will be able to consult with Penn Vet behavioral specialists. The goal of this pilot is to gather feedback on the user interface and experience. A widespread rollout to dog owners and veterinarians nationally is planned for late 2018.

About Penn Vet Behavior App

The portal integrates video, communication, and file sharing tools allowing all stakeholders precise feedback to specific issues. When necessary, veterinarians can consult with specialists at Penn Vet for a detailed patient assessment. Dog owners have access to C-BARQ (Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire)  a robust, widely-used mechanism to assess their dog's behavior traits  and to an expanding library of resources created and curated by Penn Vet.

Dongsook Whitehead, President of C4E, said: "Penn Vet is ranked as one of the best veterinary programs in the world, so we are thrilled to be partnering with them. As a dog-lover and owner, I know how frustrating it can be when your pet is exhibiting behavioral issues, but your vet isn't equipped to diagnose and treat them. This application means every vet can have access to the best minds in behavioral veterinary medicine."

James Serpell, BSc, PhD, and Director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at Penn Vet said, "C4E has done an amazing job bringing this idea to life. As a top specialty hospital, we're often consulted as a last resort. That can be needlessly frustrating for the dog, the owner, and the vet. This application removes those barriers, and we hope will empower vets and dog owners to more quickly find the answers they need."

Penn Vet is accepting veterinarians' requests to participate in this pilot. For more details email: [email protected].

SOURCE Connect For Education

Related Links

http://www.connect4education.com


NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Catholics in the Archdiocese of Hartford are partnering with the Knights of Columbus and area Catholic schools on an initiative to raise money and awareness for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East who are suffering religious persecution.

WHAT: A Catholic Mass to pray for peace, reconciliation and forgiveness in the Middle East, especially in war-torn countries like Iraq and Syria.

WHEN: Sunday, April 15, at 2 p.m.

WHERE: St. Mary's Church, 5 Hillhouse Ave. New Haven

WHO: Hartford Archbishop Leonard P. Blair will be the main celebrant at the Mass. Those who will speak at the Mass or at a Q&A and reception that follows include:

Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Canada Bawai Soro

Andrew Walther , vice president for communications and strategic planning, the Knights of Columbus

, vice president for communications and strategic planning, the Knights of Columbus Stephen Rasche  counsel to the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese in Erbil, Iraq

BACKGROUND: An archdiocese-wide effort has been underway in recent months to educate and generate solidarity with Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. All nine high schools in the Archdiocese have made efforts to familiarize students with the genocide and have each adopted a "Sister Town" in the region to keep in their prayers. The schools have held assemblies on the persecution and the efforts of Middle East Christians to remain in and rebuild in places where Christians have lived since the time of the Apostles.

The Knights of Columbus has provided each school with "solidarity crosses" made in the Middle East that students have sold for $10 donations. All proceeds from the sale of the olive wood crosses will be presented at the Mass and sent to the "Sister Towns" to help in rebuilding efforts.

MORE INFORMATION: Christiansatrisk.com

SOURCE Knights of Columbus

Related Links

https://www.christiansatrisk.org/


"We are pleased to welcome Sean to our Cubic family," said Dave Buss, president of Cubic Global Defense. "Sean's extensive background in operational finance and prior experience as controller for a number of corporate business units makes him a strong asset to the CGD leadership team as we continue to strengthen our global business."

Prior to joining Cubic, Palleschi was the regionals and geared turbofan (GTF) associate finance director for UTAS Aerostructures, where he led the full profit and loss; balance sheet and controls; and compliance responsibility for nine regionals and GTF programs. Palleschi also completed a 14-year career with Pratt & Whitney where he served in a number of finance leadership roles, spanning various business units. His roles included finance controller and transition manager for the company's Military Auxiliary Power Engines unit, financial planning and analysis manager for AeroPower as well as controller, business practices officer for manufacturing operations.

Palleschi holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

About Cubic Corporation

Cubic is a market-leading, technology provider of integrated solutions that increase situational understanding for transportation, defense, C4ISR and training customers worldwide to decrease urban congestion and improve the militaries' effectiveness and operational readiness. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services to create intelligent travel solutions for transportation authorities and operators. Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security and commercial missions. Cubic Global Defense is a leading provider of live, virtual, constructive and game-based training solutions, special operations and intelligence services for the U.S. and allied forces. For more information about Cubic, please visit the company's website at www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp.

SOURCE Cubic Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cubic.com


Sonderman's previous experience includes work on brands such as Apple, HP, PGA Tours, Victoria's Secret, BMW Financial Services, GE Healthcare, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Frisch's Big Boy, and Listerine. His work has been recognized by Clio, National ADDY, NY Festivals, Emmy and Cannes Lions.

The Shipyard's Chief Operation Officer Todd Cameron adds: "Science and technology have always been passionate subjects and terrific outlets for Dave's creativity. We are confident that he will bring the same level of talent, ingenuity and creative expression to his new role."

Sonderman has brought his knack for insight-driven creative problem to a distinguished advertising career that spans 25 years and work across disciplines from higher education and retail, to technology and lifestyle, to healthcare and social causes. In 2016, he presented at the Lions Festival of Creativity in Cannes, joining forces with an experimental VR filmmaker from London and a psychiatrist from Harvard to expound on the art and science of empathy in creativity. His award-winning creative also includes memorable campaigns for Stryker's knee replacement system and The Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to help shape creativity's relationship with data science and to challenge old assumptions," says Sonderman. "The Shipyard's backbone of creative data science modeling, insights and media is already proven  it's what so many other agencies are trying to figure out."

About David Sonderman

Sonderman is a highly talented advertising executive with vast experience in delivering creative experiences that produce value for the world's top brands. Prior to his current role, Dave led the creative, technology and UX teams as Executive Vice President/Chief Creative Officer at GSW Advertising. His storytelling creativity has been recognized by Clio, National ADDY, NY Festivals, Emmy and Cannes Lions.

About The Shipyard

The Shipyard is a leading, independent marketing consultancy and the world's first "marketing engineering" agency. The company was founded in 2013 by industry veteran Rick Milenthal, who was CEO of the leading national digital agency, Engauge, now a part of Publicis Groupe; and marketing technology pioneer, Ben Clarke, who was CEO of People To My Site.

Media Contact:

Lynne Collins

[email protected]

1-646-286-4724

SOURCE The Shipyard

Related Links

www.theshipyard.com


LONG BEACH, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America, Inc. today announced it is expanding the WorkForce and Expression line of small business and home printing solutions. The new affordable, compact printers  the WorkForce WF-2860 All-in-One Printer and the Expression Home XP-5100 and Expression Premium XP-6000 Small-in-One Printers  deliver fast print speeds, powerful performances and amazing prints for less than $200.

"The latest affordable print solutions from Epson are designed with home users in mind, delivering fast print speeds and hassle-free features," said Steve Michell, product manager, Epson America, Inc. "The newest All-in-One and Small-in-One printer offerings are the ultimate additions to any home. The WorkForce WF-2860 is an excellent solution for the home office, while the Expression Home XP-5100 delivers great everyday printing in a small footprint and the Expression Premium XP-6000 is ideal for photo enthusiasts delivering impressive prints quickly."

Packed with convenient features, fast print speeds and individual ink cartridges, Epson's new home and small office models offer an affordable solution to enhance the at-home printing experience.

For the SOHO Entrepreneur: Powered by PrecisionCore  printing technology, the WorkForce WF-2860 delivers laser-quality performance and offers a versatile, fast, and compact printing solution for small and home office businesses. This space-saving all-in-one includes a 150-sheet paper capacity, a 30-page Auto Document Feeder for copying and scanning and auto 2-sided printing to enhance work productivity. The WF-2860 leverages a 2.4" color touchscreen for easy setup and navigation as well as network-free wireless printing, NFC 1 touch-to-print capability and Ethernet. With laser-quality black text for crisp, professional proposals, reports and brochures, and print speeds up to 14 ISO ppm (black) and 7.5 ISO ppm (color)  , while using up to 70 percent less power than laser printers 2 , the WF-2860 is ideal for any busy entrepreneur.

Powered by PrecisionCore printing technology, the WorkForce WF-2860 delivers laser-quality performance and offers a versatile, fast, and compact printing solution for small and home office businesses. This space-saving all-in-one includes a 150-sheet paper capacity, a 30-page Auto Document Feeder for copying and scanning and auto 2-sided printing to enhance work productivity. The WF-2860 leverages a 2.4" color touchscreen for easy setup and navigation as well as network-free wireless printing, NFC touch-to-print capability and Ethernet. With laser-quality black text for crisp, professional proposals, reports and brochures, and print speeds up to 14 ISO ppm (black) and 7.5 ISO ppm (color) , while using up to 70 percent less power than laser printers , the WF-2860 is ideal for any busy entrepreneur. For Everyday Home Printing Needs: Packed with convenient features and auto 2-sided printing the Expression Home XP-5100 is designed to meet the everyday printing needs of the home user. With print speeds of up to 14 ISO ppm (black) and 7.5 ISO ppm (color)  this compact, space-saving printer is ideal for creating high-quality, personalized projects. Leveraging a 2.4-inch color LCD for simple set up and navigation, and easily print, copy or scan directly from the screen. Reload paper less often with a 150-sheet capacity paper tray. With complete wireless connectivity, users can print from virtually anywhere, with or without a network 4  even from a tablet or smartphone. The Expression Home XP-5100 is compatible with Epson Creative Print, allowing members of the family to seamlessly create and print borderless photo collages from Facebook and Instagram  , customized stationery, calendars, and more.

Packed with convenient features and auto 2-sided printing the Expression Home XP-5100 is designed to meet the everyday printing needs of the home user. With print speeds of up to 14 ISO ppm (black) and 7.5 ISO ppm (color) this compact, space-saving printer is ideal for creating high-quality, personalized projects. Leveraging a 2.4-inch color LCD for simple set up and navigation, and easily print, copy or scan directly from the screen. Reload paper less often with a 150-sheet capacity paper tray. With complete wireless connectivity, users can print from virtually anywhere, with or without a network  even from a tablet or smartphone. The Expression Home XP-5100 is compatible with Epson Creative Print, allowing members of the family to seamlessly create and print borderless photo collages from Facebook and Instagram , customized stationery, calendars, and more. For the Busy Family: The Expression Premium XP-6000 is ideal for multi-tasking families, delivering amazing photo output quality and fast speeds and printing 4" x 6" photos in as fast as 15 seconds5. Leveraging affordable, individual 5-color Claria premium inks, it can create stunning borderless photos up to 8" x 10" and sharp text for eye-catching documents. This ultra-powerful, ultra-slim printer features enhanced photo tools, a 2.4" color LCD and built-in USB and dedicated photo/DVD trays for versatile printing. It also features print speeds up to 15.8 ISO ppm (black) and 11.3 ISO ppm (color), and built-in USB and memory card slots3 for convenient PC-free printing. Plus, easily print from your iPad, iPhone and Android tablets or smartphone devices4  with or without a router.

The WorkForce WF-2860 ($129.99 MSRP) Epson Expression Home XP-5100 ($119.99 MSRP), Expression Premium XP-6000 ($149.99 MSRP) and are available now through major retail stores nationwide and Epson's retail site, www.epsonstore.com. For more information, please visit www.epson.com.

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a lineup that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics.

Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 80,000 employees in 86 companies around the world and is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts.

Epson America, Inc., based in Long Beach, Calif., is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: epson.com. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), YouTube (youtube.com/EpsonAmerica), and Instagram (instagram.com/EpsonAmerica).

*These products use only genuine Epson-brand cartridges. Other brands of ink cartridges and ink supplies are not compatible and, even if described as compatible, may not function properly.

 Black and color print speeds are measured in accordance with ISO/IEC 24734. Actual print times will vary based on factors including system configuration, software, and page complexity. For more information, visit www.epson.com/printspeed

1 NFC requires use of a device that includes NFC and may require additional software.

2 Up to 70 percent based on comparing manufacturers' reported TEC values of the best-selling, multifunction color laser printers with print speeds of 20 ppm or less as of August 2017. Actual power saving will vary by product model and usage.

3 Adapter may be required.

4 Most features require an Internet connection to the printer, as well as an Internet- and/or email-enabled device. For a list of Epson Connect enabled printers and compatible devices and apps, visit www.epson.com/connect

5 Color photo in Draft Mode on Premium Photo Paper Glossy measured from start of paper feed. Actual print times will vary based on factors including system configuration, software, and page complexity. For more information, visit www.epson.com/printspeed.

EPSON, Claria, WorkForce, Expression, and PrecisionCore are registered trademarks, and EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Small-in-One is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc. iPad and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Wi-Fi Direct is a registered trademark and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED is a trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Epson disclaims any and all rights in these marks. Copyright 2018 Epson America, Inc.

SOURCE Epson America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.epson.com


TORONTO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Exact Imaging (www.exactimaging.com), the world's leader in high resolution micro-ultrasound systems enabling real-time imaging and biopsy guidance for the prostate, announced that Randy AuCoin, its President and CEO, will be participating on a panel at RESI (Redefining Early Stage Investments) Conference on April 10, 2018 in Toronto, ON and presenting at the forthcoming Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference, from May 2- 3, 2018 in Toronto, ON.





At the RESI Conference, Randy is participating in "Tales from the Road", a panel bringing together leading biotech and medtech entrepreneurs to tell their stories of successfully fundraising. The panel is at 3:00 pm on April 10, 2018 at MaRS Discovery District, Toronto, ON.

At the forthcoming Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investment Conference, on May 2nd, 2018, Randy is presenting Exact Imaging and its rapidly growing business commercializing its ExactVu high resolution micro-ultrasound system for targeted prostate biopsies. The session is being held on 10:30 am on May 2nd, 2018 in Hall C at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto, ON.

About Exact Imaging:

Exact Imaging (www.exactimaging.com) is the world's leader in high-resolution micro-ultrasound systems enabling real-time imaging and guided biopsies in the urological market for prostate cancer. Exact Imaging's ExactVu micro-ultrasound platform operates at 29 MHz and enables a whole new level of resolution with the benefits of ease of use, affordability, and being an extension of the current urological workflow. Using the Exact Imaging platform, urologists are able to visualize areas of interest in the prostate and specifically target biopsies at those areas, aided by the PRI-MUS (prostate risk identification using micro-ultrasound) evidence-based micro-ultrasound protocol. For the minority of cases where MRI might assist (i.e., prior negative biopsies), FusionVu is the micro-US/MRI fusion application operating on the ExactVu micro-ultrasound platform enabling cognitive fusion called Cognitive Assist for fusion with MR images. The ExactVu micro-ultrasound system has received regulatory approval in the European Union (CE Mark), the United States (FDA 510(k)) and Canada (Health Canada medical device license).

SOURCE Exact Imaging

Related Links

www.exactimaging.com


"We are delighted to announce the release of DentalCAD 2.2 Valletta and energized about the new possibilities it presents for dental professionals," said Tillmann Steinbrecher, CEO. "This release, as always, is very much a collaborative effort between exocad and its customers. The product evolves as a result of invaluable feedback and feature requests we receive from users, enabling us to drive innovation and continuously set the industry standard in digital dentistry excellence."

Major highlights of the new release are among others:

dentalshare webview : True 3D preview links that work in a web browser and on your mobile device

: True 3D preview links that work in a web browser and on your mobile device Faster interaction thanks to many usability and performance improvements

Many new hotkeys for frequently used functions

New Contact Point tools: Smarter approximal adaptation, easy editing with Disc Cutter

Simplified nesting in CAD (Production Blank Selection) for CAM export, multi-layered blank rendering with TruSmile support

support New HD tooth library with natural and aesthetically pleasing tooth set

Articulator: Free selection of guidance surface in articulator movement

Model Creator: Implant models with gingiva mask and individual insertion directions for dies

Improved rendering of textured/colored scans from intra-oral and face scanners

Option to display additional interactive cut views

All users who already have an update contract will be able to use the new release.

About exocad GmbH

exocad GmbH (exocad.com) is a dynamic and innovative software company committed to expanding the possibilities of digital dentistry and providing OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) with flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use CAD/CAM software for dental labs and dental practices. exocad software has been chosen by leading OEMs worldwide for integration into their dental CAD/CAM offerings, and thousands of exocad DentalCAD licenses are sold each year. For more information and a list of exocad reseller partners, please visit exocad.com.

SOURCE exocad GmbH
Farmwise has been providing a fresh take on America's favorite frozen foods since 2014, when, with families and fries in mind, Boston-based couple Dave and Cristina Peters and their three children created the first batches of Veggie Fries in their home kitchen. Using a blend of farm-grown vegetables and beans, the Peters developed a patent-pending process to provide consumers a healthier alternative to America's beloved fry. Farmwise continues to deliver break-through innovation with the launch of three varieties of Veggie Tots (Broccoli, Cauliflower and Beets) and two varieties of Veggie Rings (Cauliflower and Butternut Squash).

"Our Cleveland Avenue investment philosophy is to search for emerging companies that have potential for mainstream success across multiple channels," said Thompson. "What Dave and Cristina have achieved in just four short years is impressive, and we look forward to helping Farmwise further accelerate their growth."

"As parents of three daughters, we're focused on creating healthy products that we're proud to serve our own family. Veggie Fries, Tots and Rings are a parent's dream  crispy, fluffy and delicious with an exceptional nutritional profile," said Cristina Peters.

"We're so excited to be partnering with the Cleveland Avenue team to bring our products to every family in America. Don and his wife Liz are also strong believers in "family first" and giving back to the community, and we are proud to be a part of their extended Cleveland Avenue family," said Dave Peters.

Joining Cleveland Avenue is Home Market Foods, Inc., a leading protein company with the number one brand of frozen meatballs (Cooked Perfect) and one of the fastest growing brands in the frozen chicken category (Fire Grilled).

ABOUT FARMWISE LLC

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Farmwise LLC is a privately held company with a mission of developing healthier alternatives to some of America's favorite foods without compromising on taste. All Farmwise products are made from real, farm-grown vegetables and beans, are Non-GMO Project Verified, Free of the Top 8 Allergens, Vegan Friendly, provide a Good Source of Fiber, 3+ grams of Protein and an Excellent or Good Source of Vitamin A, C and/or K. Farmwise products are found in over 8,000 supermarkets in the USA.

ABOUT CLEVELAND AVENUE, LLC

Cleveland Avenue, LLC is a privately-held venture capital firm which accelerates and strategically invests in innovative restaurant, food and beverage concepts and emerging brands including Beyond Meat, Drink Maple, Bhakti, Farmer's Fridge and SomruS.

*Cleveland Avenue is the General Partner of the Cleveland Avenue Food and Beverage Fund I

Visit us at www.clevelandave.com and @CleveAveLLC on Twitter and Instagram.

Contact: Cristina Peters, 508-282-0648, [email protected]

SOURCE Farmwise

Related Links

http://www.eatveggiefries.com


AUSTIN, Texas, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Catherine Monson, CEO of FASTSIGNS International, Inc., will keynote the Texas Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) Annual Employer Awards Dinner on April 13 in Austin, Texas, where companies will be honored for supporting their employees serving the National Guard and Reserve.

"I'm honored to keynote at this event and be with other businesses and organizations that support active duty, National Guard, Reserve and veteran employees," Monson said. "It's heartening to see company leaders from so many different industries being recognized for the respect and assistance they give their military employees. I believe it is a corporate responsibility to stand behind those who serve our country and hope more businesses will be motivated to do the same."

Each year, ESGR State Committees and the Department of Defense recognize employers across the United States that support their employees who are National Guardsmen or Reservists through a series of employer awards. FASTSIGNS International, Inc., the franchisor of FASTSIGNS sign and visual graphic centers, is a 2016 recipient of the Patriot Award, Seven Seals Award, Above and Beyond Award, Pro Patria Award and the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, which is the highest recognition given by the U.S. government to employers.

Additionally, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. was named one of the Best Franchises of 2018 by Military Times and participates in the International Franchise Association's (IFA) VetFran program (Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative), which assists military veterans by helping them access franchise opportunities through training, financial assistance and industry support.

About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of more than 675 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in eight countries including the U.S., Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE).

FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or on LinkedIn. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or call 214.346.5679).

SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.fastsigns.com


DETROIT, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Unique opportunity for suppliers, Tier II and below to engage purchasing and engineering leadership at SAE

Exclusive to FCA US at SAE International's WCX 18

In conjunction with SAE, FCA US will set up "Pitch Pit" April 10  11, 2018. There, in private meetings with FCA US purchasing and engineering representatives, suppliers who might not otherwise have such an opportunity will tout their innovations and products in an energetic setting.

The activity is a first for SAE's annual engineering showcase, now in its 112th year. Pitch Pit is exclusive to FCA US.

"The motivation behind Pitch Pit is consistent with our continuous pursuit of innovations that exceed the expectations of our customers," said Scott Thiele, Chief Purchasing Officer, FCA.

"This departure from our conventional purchasing protocols can only energize the process of finding the best available technologies," added Thiele.

The meetings will take place in a secure setting on the exhibit floor at Detroit's Cobo Center. Suppliers who have exhibits will have 30 minutes to explain how their innovations address consumer needs in an efficient, cost-effective manner.

"SAE is excited to work with FCA to help deliver the first-ever Pitch Pit," said Jim Forlenza, Group Director, Engineering Events, SAE International. "Pitch Pit embodies the continuing evolution of WCX by fostering networking platforms that lead to new conversations, new ideas and new business opportunities."

FCA US also holds its annual MatchMaker event where it brings more than 3,000 minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses to its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, to connect FCA US leadership and buyers with potential suppliers. The trade show has generated more than $3 billion in new business opportunities for participating companies since 2000.

About FCA US LLC

FCA US LLC is a North American automaker based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It designs, manufactures, and sells or distributes vehicles under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, FIAT and Alfa Romeo brands, as well as the SRT performance designation. The Company also distributes Mopar and Alfa Romeo parts and accessories. FCA US is building upon the historic foundations of Chrysler Corp., established in 1925 by industry visionary Walter P. Chrysler and Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (F.I.A.T.), founded in Italy in 1899 by pioneering entrepreneurs, including Giovanni Agnelli. FCA US is a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) family of companies. (NYSE: FCAU/ MTA: FCA).

FCA, the eighth-largest automaker in the world based on total annual vehicle sales, is an international automotive group. FCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FCAU" and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario under the symbol "FCA."

Follow FCA US news and video on:

Company blog: blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter: www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter (Spanish): www.twitter.com/fcausespanol

YouTube: www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica

Media website: media.fcanorthamerica.com

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

http://www.fcanorthamerica.com


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 []
HOUSTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Even after more than 5,000 women have complained about Essure, a dangerous contraceptive device, Bayer Pharmaceuticals continues to make and sell this lucrative device. Essure is a permanent contraceptive device that creates a blockage in the fallopian tubes, thus preventing the sperm from reaching the egg. However, several women have reported device ineffectiveness, as well as serious, life-threatening complications.

For years the FDA has monitored Bayer, ordered medical investigations, implemented safety warnings, and enforced protection measures in an effort to safeguard potential patients. Unfortunately, their actions have not been enough to stop thousands of women from suffering serious, debilitating side effects. Women just aren't getting the warnings they need about the undisputed risks of Essure. These measures by the FDA will hopefully help this failure to warn. Erin Copeland, a respected attorney at our firm, focuses on personal injury cases and is recognized as a leader in the Essure litigation. She has even been appointed to the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee by Judge Winifred Smith in the Essure JCCP pending in California. Her mission is to help women in their fight to seek justice against Bayer, though the pharmaceutical company continues to produce and sell their harmful contraceptive device.

In an effort to further restrict Bayer's distribution of Essure, the FDA recently ordered Bayer to add a multi-page checklist of potential health risks to the Essure label. Now, however, that checklist of side effects must be distributed to potential users. Each patient must be allowed the opportunity to read and sign this document of risks before they agree to use the Essure permanent contraceptive. All doctors and health-care facilities that provide Essure will need to give potential patients this document, and the physician who implants the device must sign the form.

The FDA has stated that Bayer will be responsible for upholding these new rules and could face serious criminal and civil penalties if they fail to comply.

To date, thousands of women have dealt with life-altering complications caused by Essure. Side effects reported by Essure users include chronic pain, heavy bleeding, debilitating fatigue, device migration, depression, headaches, unintended pregnancy, stillbirth, and autoimmune disorders.

Our very own Attorney Erin Copeland has helped to lead the battle against this dangerous contraceptive device, standing up for injured women across the country. Attorney Copeland has participated in countless lectures, legal events, and mass tort seminars as a primary authority on Essure. She was appointed the Co-Chair of the Essure Litigation Group within the American Association for Justice and was appointed to the Essure Executive Committee for California as a Judicial Council Coordinate Proceeding. Her extensive knowledge and ongoing involvement with the Essure litigation has helped Erin Copeland represent injured women with compassion and unparalleled skill.

If you were harmed by the hazardous contraceptive device Essure, you have a right to fight for justice and fair compensation. Our firm has more than 100 years of legal experience at our backs and our attorneys are not afraid to go toe to toe against major corporations, like Bayer Pharmaceuticals. For more information, visit us at fibichlaw.com.

SOURCE Fibich, Leebron, Copeland & Briggs

Related Links

http://www.fibichlaw.com


"Fast-growing and increasingly distributed workforces are in need of a way to streamline Apple fleet management, from employee onboarding to patch management and fleet intelligence. Fleetsmith saves IT departments precious time in provisioning and updating devices, with security built into every step," said Zack Blum, CEO and cofounder of Fleetsmith. "Fleetsmith's secure, intuitive design and deep integration with G Suite make it the only product on the market to enable truly automated macOS account creationno 650-page manual or tedious assembly required."

Intuitive Design and Advanced Automation Provide an Efficiency Boost

Despite widespread business adoption of Apple products, compatible device management options are scarce and often demand time-intensive, multi-step processes with manual software updates. IT departments have become accustomed to using tools that require hours of training and certifications, as well as ongoing maintenance, leading to a higher total cost of ownership. While some vendors claim to offer instant device deployment, most still involve complex setup procedures that burden both employees and IT teams. Fleetsmith's fully hosted, SaaS-based solution and intuitive interface simplify Apple device management so that even non-technical users are up and running in seconds. Fleetsmith's latest product release includes new features to further improve efficiency:

Zero-Touch Deployment via G Suite Integration and DEP Support  Unlike other device management offerings that require hours to provision and secure new devices, Fleetsmith's automated Apple user account setup through G Suite and Apple DEP allows organizations to ship Apple devices directly to employees without IT intervention. Apps, settings, and security preferences are instantly managed from the moment a user connects to WiFi.

Unlike other device management offerings that require hours to provision and secure new devices, Fleetsmith's automated Apple user account setup through G Suite and Apple DEP allows organizations to ship Apple devices directly to employees without IT intervention. Apps, settings, and security preferences are instantly managed from the moment a user connects to WiFi. Upcoming Support for iOS and tvOS Devices  Building on existing support for macOS, Fleetsmith will expand to help organizations manage their entire fleet of Apple devices, including iOS and tvOS products.

 Building on existing support for macOS, Fleetsmith will expand to help organizations manage their entire fleet of Apple devices, including iOS and tvOS products. Seamless WiFi and Printer Configuration  Fleetsmith administrators can now preconfigure new employee laptops with company WiFi credentials and printer drivers, even in remote offices. Whenever WiFi settings are updated or new printers are purchased, companies can immediately and securely deploy the updated configurations worldwide via Fleetsmith.

 Fleetsmith administrators can now preconfigure new employee laptops with company WiFi credentials and printer drivers, even in remote offices. Whenever WiFi settings are updated or new printers are purchased, companies can immediately and securely deploy the updated configurations worldwide via Fleetsmith. Automatic Kernel Extension Whitelisting for Managed Apps  Apps that IT manage with Fleetsmith now have their kernel extensions whitelisted automatically, while other extensions still require user approval. This solves a deployment headache for IT and employees while maintaining security.

Added Security with Remote Lock and Wipe

Fleetsmith is secure by design, offering a robust set of features that enable fleet-wide protection. These include the industry's only fully automated application and OS patching feature, FileVault enforcement with built-in key escrow, and screen lock and passcode enforcement settings. Now with remote device lock and wipe through Apple Mobile Device Management (MDM), IT teams can benefit from new levels of access and control in managing their fleets. This allows companies to protect their valuable data when a device is lost or stolen, ensuring corporate security regardless of timing or location.

"It's a common misconception that simply installing antivirus software will solve all your endpoint security woes. In reality, patching is one of the most important things an organization can do to eliminate vulnerabilities," said Jesse Endahl, CPO and CSO at Fleetsmith. "Most commonly used enterprise applications release security vulnerability fixes regularly, requiring organizations to be highly disciplined in downloading, packaging, and distributing updates on a frequent basis. Fleetsmith removes the burden of manually updating apps by offering automatic patching to ensure the highest level of security without eating up hours of IT's time or inconveniencing employees."

Fleetsmith and G Suite Enable Swift and Secure Device Management for Monzo

Although Fleetsmith supports the needs of many different companies, it's particularly compelling for startups that need to be strategic in using their time and resources. Such is the case at Monzo Bank, a digital, mobile-only challenger bank based in the United Kingdom. Monzo sees app-based banking as the future and its customers agree  the company has grown quickly, expanding from 70 employees to more than 300 in a single year to support its growing user base. To sustain this growth, Monzo, which relies on G Suite to gain the same capabilities and security benefits as larger competitors, selected Fleetsmith to deliver easy and secure fleet management.

"We wanted a security-focused Mac management solution, so we chose Fleetsmith. Having G Suite integration out of the box was also a huge draw for us," said James Lichtenstein, Tech Ops Lead at Monzo. "Especially during periods of fast growth, the combination of G Suite and Fleetsmith is invaluable. Instead of spending hours provisioning machines and user accounts, we can spend more time with our users to provide in-depth training, and help them increase their productivity using advanced G Suite features."

Once the Fleetsmith desktop agent was in place on Monzo's computers, it took only minutes to enroll the company's entire fleet of 100 machines. Today, Monzo is managing more than 300 devices with Fleetsmith, saving up to 26 hours of Tech Ops staff time per week. Fleetsmith also enforces fleet-wide encryption, strong passwords, and firewall settings, helping Monzo stay secure. Tech Ops engineers are now able to use their time to support continued product innovation as Monzo works to transform the financial services industry.

Supporting Quotes

"At HackerOne, maintaining the security of our products is essential. Keeping your software up to date is one of the most important things you can do for device security. Fleetsmith helps us keep our 'fleet' of employee computers running the most up-to-date software, which allows for quick and easy onboarding of new employees across the globe, and overall helps us gain peace of mind. It is an intuitive tool that easily connects to our existing suite of IT products allowing us to easily achieve multiple goals quickly and easily."  Aaron Zander, senior IT engineer at HackerOne

"As a fast-growing company, it is critical for our IT team at Robinhood to work quickly when provisioning and managing our Apple fleet and Fleetsmith enables us to do just that. Fleetsmith is fast, reliable, and integrates easily with our existing G Suite usage, enabling automatic account creation. This has dramatically simplified the process of adding new team members and allows us to have new devices up and running within seconds. Fleetsmith's high-touch customer support also ensured for a quick and smooth onboarding."  IT engineer at Robinhood

About Fleetsmith

Fleetsmith automatically manages apps, settings, and security preferences across a company's Apple device fleet. Founded by former IT and security leaders from Dropbox and Fandom, Fleetsmith combines world-class product and security engineering with a powerful, intuitive interface that makes advanced Apple device management available for everyone. Fleetsmith is based in San Francisco and backed by Index Ventures, Harrison Metal, and Upfront Ventures. Try it for free at fleetsmith.com.

SOURCE Fleetsmith

Related Links

http://www.fleetsmith.com


"This is a truly unique leadership team that is focusing world-class security and DevOps expertise on solving a real-world pain point for both IT and HR professionals," said Kara Nortman, Partner at Upfront Ventures. "Zack, Jesse, and the Fleetsmith team are developing cutting-edge security solutions, but packaging them into delightful, easy-to-use products that are already attracting a loyal and growing customer base. It is rare to see such a broad early customer base ranging from some of the most respected names in security to those without an in-house IT team."

Fleetsmith has emerged as one of the fastest growing next-generation SMB software companies by providing a first-of-its-kind solution to businesses' increasing Apple IT challenges. Companies already spend millions of hours per year setting up macOS, iOS, and tvOS devices manually, which is a highly inefficient and costly process. For example, a single laptop takes up to four or more hours to set up for a new employee. Further, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 61% of data breach victims are SMBs with under 1,000 employees.

Some SMBs are overwhelmed by the explosive growth of Apple devices, leading to inefficient IT processes and weak security practices that can affect their bottom line. As Macs, Apple TVs, and iPads move swiftly into the enterprise, these challenges are becoming even more prevalent and complex.

"Fleetsmith is automation applied perfectly, handing all of the menial work to the computer so the people do less firefighting and more strategic work. This is especially important in the mid-market because the teams are leaner and every computer counts," explained Luke Kanies, founder and former CEO of Puppet. "I'm thrilled by how far Fleetsmith has already come and what that means for the future. Their mixing the self-service experience of the cloud with the DevOps mindset is a perfect strategy for the SMB space, and I'm excited to work with them."

Fleetsmith's product is built to eliminate the pain, cost, and security challenges of manual Apple device management. It unifies IT processes across an organization's entire fleet of Apple devices during deployment, ongoing maintenance and management, reassignment, and retirement. The product delivers on the promise of the next generation of Apple device management, transforming how companies compete through better IT operations. Fleetsmith gives organizations the freedom to easily and securely add or update whichever devices they want, when they want. This translates into significantly higher employee productivity for the hundreds of companies that use Fleetsmith, including HackerOne, Monzo, and Robinhood.

"With the seed round we steadily grew our customer base. The A round allows us to win in this market, expand our team to release product features more quickly and get the word out about our unique security-first, cloud-native mindset," said Zack Blum, Fleetsmith CEO and cofounder. "Our customers already live in the cloud. We meet them where they are experiencing their greatest pain points and solve them through intuitive design and rapid but thoughtful product iteration. We are excited about the ongoing vote of confidence from top-tier investors and advisors, whose support validates our mission to bring the best in Apple device management to everyone."

About Fleetsmith

Fleetsmith automatically manages apps, settings and security preferences across a company's Apple device fleet. Founded by former IT and security leaders from Dropbox and Fandom, Fleetsmith combines world-class product and security engineering with a powerful, intuitive interface that makes advanced Apple device management available for everyone. Fleetsmith is based in San Francisco and backed by Index Ventures, Harrison Metal, and Upfront Ventures. Try it for free at fleetsmith.com.

SOURCE Fleetsmith

Related Links

https://www.fleetsmith.com/


MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds more children from low-income Memphis families will soon find a gateway to college on the grounds of an old church, thanks to a loan announced today.

The $3-million loan from Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) and Boston Community Capital (BCC) will help Bluff City High School advance toward its goal of enrolling 640 students in Grades 9-12 by 2021. The school, part of the Green Dot Public Schools national network, opened last fall with 154 ninth-graders and plans to add a grade each year. Renovations to the site, former home of the Solid Rock Christian Church, and the addition of modular buildings are creating classrooms and staff offices, providing an infrastructure in which Green Dot Public Schools Tennessee can help close academic achievement gaps especially for students of color, from low-income communities, and with special needs.

Public charter schools in Tennessee face a number of financing challenges. For example, local bank mortgages rarely exceed 80 percent of a property's value, while charter schools often need financing at 100 percent or more to cover development costs, and they tend to be in neighborhoods with low property values. In Memphis, charter schools are multiplying and growing, but many are still start-ups with limited assets. They are public schools but don't get public funding for facilities or access to free facilities as others do, so many have to compete in the private real-estate market.

Enter Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) such as NFF and BCC, which can make loans that fit a school's needs with, for example, high loan-to-value ratios, and interest-only periods that defer principal payments and allow time for the school to grow and generate more revenue. These loans can also utilize US Department of Education-awarded credit enhancement grants, which guarantee a portion of the loan, allowing financing with less risk.

The deal announced today marks the sixth NFF-BCC loan to charter schools in Tennessee, collectively helping more than 5,400 students get a high-quality education and providing more than 200 new school jobs.



"CDFIs can be great financing partners for charter schools, community health centers, and other nonprofits when traditional lending isn't the right fit for their facilities projects," said Norah McVeigh, Managing Director, Financing, at NFF, which has supported more than 70 charter schools across the US with $135M in financing to date, including loans to Green Dot in California. "We are proud to partner with BCC and with Green Dot, and to provide the flexible capital that nonprofits need to do their important work in underserved communities."

"BCC continues to expand its efforts to bring educational excellence to underserved communities across the nation by collaborating with public, private, and nonprofit organizations such as NFF and Green Dot," said Elyse Cherry, CEO of Boston Community Capital. "Such partnerships increase access to high-quality education, create jobs, and contribute to the long-term economic viability of the community."

"We are grateful for the partnership with NFF and BCC," said Megan Quaile, Executive Director of Green Dot Public Schools TN. "The continued growth of Bluff City High School allows us to offer quality academic options to the students of the Hickory Hill community. Bluff City High School will serve as the proof point that all students can learn at high levels when provided the opportunity."

About Nonprofit Finance Fund

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) advances missions and social progress in underserved communities through financing, consulting, partnerships, and knowledge-sharing that empower leaders, organizations, and ideas. A leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), NFF currently manages over $310 million. Since 1980, we have provided almost $700 million in financing and access to additional capital in support of over $2.3 billion in projects for thousands of organizations nationwide. Learn more at nff.org and @nff_news

About Boston Community Capital

Boston Community Capital (BCC) is a nonprofit community development financial institution dedicated to building healthy communities where low-income people live and work. Since 1985, BCC has invested more than $1.4 billion in projects that provide affordable housing, good jobs, and new opportunities in low-income communities, connecting these neighborhoods to the mainstream economy. To date, BCC has provided $16 million in financing for projects in Tennessee. In addition to Boston Community Capital's support of education, the organization's other programs include the Stabilizing Urban Neighborhoods (SUN) Initiative, a foreclosure relief program, and BCC Solar, which helps low-income communities gain access to the cost savings and price stability of solar power. Visit Bostoncommunitycapital.org or follow us @bococapital

About Green Dot

Green Dot Public Schools is a non-profit network of 30 Title I public charter schools, free and open to all, with a mission to help transform public education so that all students graduate prepared for college, leadership, and life. Purposefully locating its schools in historically underserved communities lacking in high-quality educational opportunities, Green Dot seeks to close discrepancies in access and opportunity between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers. Learn more at greendot.org and follow us @greendotschools

Media contacts:

for NFF: Tricia McKenna, [email protected]

617-553-8020

for BCC: Susan Rivers,

[email protected]

617-933-5853

for Green Dot: Sean Thibault,

[email protected]

213-444-8613

SOURCE Nonprofit Finance Fund

Related Links

http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org


NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FOOD & WINE announces that Lasa in Los Angeles, Grand Cafe in Minneapolis, and Superior Motors in Braddock, Pennsylvania are among the 10 new restaurants across the country named to the fourth annual FOOD & WINE Restaurants of the Year list. Restaurants of the Year are FOOD & WINE's definitive list of the 10 most exciting new places to eat in America now. This year's winners not only create something delicious, but also transcend the dinner plate and reflect the communities of which they are a part.

Food & Wine Restaurants of the Year May issue cover

The complete Restaurants of the Year 2018 report, with insights on why all 10 restaurants made the list, is featured now at www.foodandwine.com/restaurants-of-the-year and will also be in the May issue of FOOD & WINE, on newsstands April 13. All of the restaurants opened within the past 14 months.

FOOD & WINE Editor in Chief Hunter Lewis said: "Restaurant editor Jordana Rothman traveled 37,000 miles over six months to research and deliver FOOD & WINE's 2018 Restaurants of the Year. The winners offered more than unforgettable food. They are the first places we seek out when we step off the plane, and they showcase the important role that restaurants play in their communities. From the end of a cobblestone alley in Washington, D.C. to the first restaurant in decades to open in Braddock, Pa., we applaud how they are pioneering a new emerging culture of more community-minded restaurants."

FOOD & WINE Restaurants of the Year 2018

Maydan, Washington D.C.  Chef Gerald Addison, Co-Chef Chris Morgan and Restaurateur Rose Previte

Better Luck Tomorrow, Houston TX  Chef Justin Yu and Proprietor Bobby Heugel

Fairfax, NYC  Restaurateur Gabriel Stulman and Chef Jack Harris

Reem's, Oakland CA  Proprietor Reem Assil

Superior Motors, Braddock PA  Chef Kevin Sousa and General Manager Chris Clark

Grand Cafe, Minneapolis, Minnesota  Chef Jamie Malone

Voyager, Ferndale, Michigan  Chef Jennifer Jackson, Co-Chef Justin Tootla and Restaurateur Eli Boyer

JuneBaby, Seattle, Washington  Chef Edouardo Jordan

Lasa, Los Angeles, California  Chef Chad Valencia and General Manager Chase Valencia

Kemuri Tatsu-ya, Austin TX  Chef Tatsu Aikawa and Co-Chef Takuya Matsumoto

ABOUT FOOD & WINE

FOOD & WINE is the ultimate authority on the best of what's new in food, drink, travel, design and entertaining. FOOD & WINE has an extensive social media following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapchat. FOOD & WINE includes a monthly magazine in print and digital; a website, foodandwine.com; a books division; plus newsletters, clubs, events, dinnerware and cookware.

SOURCE FOOD & WINE

Related Links

http://www.foodandwine.com


Diagnostic Network is a next-generation community platform designed to enable successful repair of modern vehicles through peer discussion, partner collaboration and education. Diagnostic Network is focusing initially on the diagnostician and the industry partners who provide the tools, equipment, software, and training for the vehicle service industry, by creating a bi-directional channel between all parties.

"To date, we have over 14 corporate partners who have pledged to support Diagnostic Network, not only financially, but also by bringing their subject matter experts onboard for collaboration and communication on behalf of their companies. We strongly believe that through industry collaboration, stakeholders can gain a deeper understanding of the wants and needs of the diagnostician, which will result in the delivery of the products, services, and training the market demands. Additionally, we hope to inspire others to take the initiative to push their diagnostic proficiency forward in order to better service the deep, technology-rich vehicles rolling into today's service departments. Within this new, modern community platform, we plan to deploy features needed to support knowledge expansion for today and tomorrow's technician operating in the automotive service, collision repair, medium- and heavy-duty vehicle markets," said Scott Brown, President of Diagnostic Network.

The service is due to launch in the second quarter of 2018. Today, those interested in joining can become Founding Members and lock in their subscription at a 17% discount, for life. The regular subscription price at launch will be $19.99 per month. Visit diag.net for more information, or contact [email protected].

SOURCE Diagnostic Network

Related Links

http://diag.net


SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortemedia Inc., the global leader in small array microphone and acoustic processing technology, at the end of January 2018 in Shenzhen, held a Voice Interface Portal Seminar to explore and share a variety of key voice processing technologies in increasingly broad voice interface markets. As well as announcing its opening of world-class acoustics laboratory in Shenzhen, Fortemedia can respond to customers and support partners instantly. Key speakers are invited to this great event including Patrick Cheng, CEO and Board Director of NavInfo Co., Ltd; Elwin Ho, CEO, Pachira Information Technology Co. Ltd; Elaine Huang, VP of Acoustics, Shenzhen Aoni Electronic Co., Ltd; Koji Kawakita, Principal Advisory Engineer of Lenovo Strategic Technology; Guenael Strutt, VP of Products, Elliptic Labs; Dr. KP Yang, Chairman, UnlimiterHear Incorporated. These speakers shared prestigious viewpoints in voice technology and market information along with unprecedented demonstrations in voice applications to audience.

Voice Interface Portal

The era of voice is coming eying on all the debuts of intelligent voice-enabled devices and products. From Apple's Siri, Google's voice assistant Google Assistant, to Amazon's voice assistant Alexa, these smart speakers with personal assistants have been widely discussed in the market. The artificial intelligence (AI) is well deployed, allowing machine to human communication, facilitating personal instructions to smart devices, or ever performing conversation among devices. Before voice stream is identified and analyzed for voice recognition, the key lies on voice quality, which takes noise suppression process to enhance signal and lower noise influence. If the voice is not processed and handled properly, the recognition rate could be greatly degraded. As an illustration, in a quiet environment, the voice can be clearly recognized, while in a noisy spot, speech recognition rate will be dropped significantly. Fortemedia's technology and products provide advanced noise suppression, greatly reducing background noise affection and performing crystal-clear voice quality. It brings customers a whole new trend in voice market for hands-free voice interface application even under noisy environment.

Fortemedia to Debut Advanced Acoustics Laboratory in Shenzhen, China

Fortemedia has built professional acoustics laboratories both in Nanjing and Taipei, providing best support for local customers. In light of deepening customer relationship and service, Fortemedia further launched its world-class acoustics laboratory in Shenzhen, China in Jan of 2018. Multiple laboratories can provide debugging testing services for different types of customers in different regions, and can cover a variety of different testing standards including international standards such as ITU and ETSI, or telecom carrier standards such as AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone and China Mobile, etc. Other voice quality standards defined by international leading enterprises are also included as follows: Apple CarPlay, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon AVS. With this new acoustics laboratory in Shenzhen, Fortemedia can provide real-time customer service for southern China regions. Shenzhen laboratory is equipped with a listening room and a real car acoustics lab. In addition to these three laboratories, Fortemedia and Nessie Industrial Corp jointly built a Semi-Anechoic room and a listening room. This laboratory provides another service alternative for its customers in voice performance tuning, debugging and testing.

Virtual Lab

No matter how close the test results can be between an internal laboratory and certification laboratories, the labs can sometimes be full loaded and over occupied. In addition, actual test and certification consumes considerable time. With this, Fortemedia develops a Virtual Lab, utilizing simulation as a substitution for the actual test. It greatly reduces signal processing development and testing cycles as well as the load of laboratories. Virtual Lab is not only an independent simulation system tool, but also a valuable database for all the data collection during its accumulative testing batches. Customers can summarize the effective development experience through the analysis of large database, reduce the development cycle, and improve the development efficiency.

Fortemedia, Inc.

Fortemedia, Inc., headquartered in the US Silicon Valley with global operations and offices in Asia, focuses on developing high quality solutions and semiconductor products to enhance human-to-human and human-to-machine voice communication quality and efficiencies.

As a technology leader, Fortemedia's ASIC devices and solutions with advanced voice processing technologies, SAM (Small Array Microphone), SAMSoft, and ForteVoice, have all been widely deployed in numerous commercial systems, devices, and applications for better user experience in voice communication. Fortemedia is well-positioned to fulfill customer and market needs in mobile (smartphone and tablet), automotive (in-vehicle infotainment system), PC (VoIP communication), and wearables, with its wide range of product offering in software, DSP IC, and small array microphone. Learn more at www.fortemedia.com.

For more information please refer to: www.Fortemedia.com.

Fortemedia, Inc. News media Contact

Jimmy Hsu +886 2-25462100 #296 [email protected]





Illy Wang +886 2-25462100 #277 [email protected]

SOURCE Fortemedia International, Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.fortemedia.com


Guy Citarella, founder and CEO, noted, "We are very excited about our office expansion. We've been in the Hartford Trust Building since we launched the company back in 2010, so it's nice to be able to grow at the same location."

The new space will be used in part to add capacity for support technicians and additional sales staff. Existing Tech to Us clients and customers will receive the same affordable, high quality, 100% U.S.-based IT support services that they have come to expect over the years.

Citarella added, "As we take on new managed business IT service clients, we still take great pride in our directto-consumer technical support. We look forward to continuing to service our home customers who are looking for technical support with the same level of exceptional quality for which we have become well known."

Tech to Us believes that tech support should be an easy and streamlined process. By being based in the United States and exclusively employing U.S.-based team members, Tech to Us is able to provide services at a highly competitive price point. All IT team members are professional expert technicians, and the company has a friendly sales and customer support staff.

About Us

Tech to Us is both a remote managed IT services provider for businesses and a remote home technical support services provider for home users. The company was founded on the idea of offering high quality, no hassle remote support for home users and businesses alike. To date, Tech to Us has helped thousands of satisfied customers with a wide array of technical support issues. Visit www.techtous.com to learn more.

SOURCE Tech to Us

Related Links

http://www.techtous.com


DUBLIN, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cyber Security Market by Service Type, by Technology, by Application, by Geography - Global Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security Market is expected to reach $18.2 billion by 2023.



As per the findings of the research, network security accounted for the largest market during the historical period, and is expected to grow at a CAGR 34.5% during the forecast period in the artificial intelligence in cyber security market. Growth of network security market is predominantly driven by the upsurge in the adoption of wireless networks and their susceptibilities, as establishments nowadays are increasingly depending on wireless networks for data transfer.



On the basis of technology, machine learning is gaining traction in the artificial intelligence in cyber security market, and is projected to cross $6 billion by 2023. The larger revenue share of machine learning is mainly attributed to better threat learning algorithm using voluminous data to protect businesses.



During the forecast period, the fastest growth in artificial intelligence in cyber security market is expected in Asia-Pacific, owing to the increasing incidence of cyber-attacks. High value targets in a less secure environment have made this region a potential target for cyber-criminals.



The artificial intelligence in cyber security market has been escalating with the rising incidence of cyber-crimes, where AI plays a vital role to combat cyber-attacks. Cyber-frauds such as identity and payment card thefts, account for over 55% of all cybercrimes, and may become costly for organizations if not resolved quickly. AI offers solutions to combat cyber fraud by detecting threats, reducing response time, and refining techniques to distinguish attacks that require immediate attention. In an inter-connected business ecosystem, where business interacts with multiple systems across regions; there are high chances that organizations' digital landscape may get compromised during global interaction, leading to cyber fraud and malicious attacks.



Use of cloud to combat cyber-crimes through AI is gaining traction with some of the major companies investing heavily in AI capabilities for cognitive computing. AI not only improves current cloud platform incumbency, but also empowers new generation of cloud computing technologies to mitigate security risk. This factor will drive growth for artificial intelligence in cyber security market.



Lack of trust on technology is one of the major factors hindering the growth of artificial intelligence in cyber security market. At times, machine gets biased because the data that is fed may not be detailed and structured. People are more concerned about how AI system arrives at any conclusion or recommendation. The cyber world is facing more sophisticated and organised attacks with the number of cases rising on yearly basis. Lack of trust on AI to overcome cyber threat will further aggravate the situation and may result in huge spending getting washed away by using manual processes.



The research states that the artificial intelligence in cyber security market is moderately competitive, with players offering advanced technology solutions to overcome cyber challenges. Some of the major players in the artificial intelligence in cyber security industry are BAE Systems Plc, RSA Security LLC, IBM Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Fortinet, Inc., FireEye, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, Cisco Systems Inc., and Juniper Networks, Inc. Most of the vendors are actively focusing on enhancing their offerings to meet the ongoing demand to combat cyber-attacks, globally.

Market Dynamics



Trends

Rising adoption of chatbots to combat cyber attacks

Growing usage of cloud in cyber security

Drivers

Increasing number of cyber frauds and malicious attacks

Adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

Restraints

Lack of trust on technology

Safety & privacy issues related to artificial intelligence in cyber security

Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

Opportunities

Increasing interaction between human and artificial intelligence to overcome cyber threats

Emergence of super intelligent artificial intelligence in cyber security

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Background



Chapter 2. Research Methodology



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction



Chapter 5. Global Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 6. North America Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 7. Europe Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 8. APAC Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 9. MEA Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 10. LATAM Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 11. Competitive Landscape



Chapter 12. Company Profiles



BAE Systems, Plc.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Cisco Systems Inc.

FireEye, Inc.

Fortinet, Inc.

IBM Corporation

Juniper Network, Inc.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

RSA Security LLC

Symantec Corporation

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/35scht/global_artificial?w=5

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []
DUBLIN, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis, 2017 - Clinical Trials & Results, Patent, Designation, Collaboration, and Other Developments" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The study analyzed that PSP therapeutics pipeline comprises approximately 14 drug candidates in different stages of development.



According to research findings, most of the drug candidates in PSP therapeutics pipeline are being developed as small molecule agents. Also, majority of the pipeline drug candidates are being developed using the oral route of administration.



Many companies are more focused on developing their drug candidate's as small molecule, since small molecule can easily pass through the blood brain barrier due to their low molecular weight and small size.



In April 2017, Biogen Inc. entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to develop and commercialize BMS-986168, a Phase II investigational medicine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and PSP. Some of the key players developing drugs for the treatment of progressive supranuclear palsy include AbbVie Inc., Biogen Inc., Asceneuron SA, Alzprotect SAS and others.



Report Segmentation



By Phase

By Molecule Type

By Route of Administration

By Company

Key Topics Covered



Chapter 1. Research Background

1.1 Research Objectives

1.2 Definition

1.3 Research Scope

1.4 Key Stakeholders



Chapter 2. Research Methodology

2.1 Secondary Research

2.2 Primary Research



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Pipeline Outlook

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Drivers

4.3 Key Barriers

4.4 Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis



Chapter 5. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis by Phase (2017)

5.1 Phase II/III: Drug profiles

5.2 Phase II: Drug profiles

5.3 Phase I: Drug profiles

5.4 Pre-Clinical: Drug profiles



Chapter 6. Clinical Trials Analysis

6.1 Clinical Trials by Region for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline

6.2 Clinical Trials by Trial Status for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline



Chapter 7. Competitive Landscape

7.1 Key Players Benchmarking for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline

7.2 SWOT Analysis of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Therapeutics Pipeline



Chapter 8. Company Profiles

8.1 Business Overview

8.2 Product and Service Offerings



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jc2bd7/global?w=5

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


NETANYA, Israel, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbit Communications Systems Ltd. (TASE: ORBI), a leading provider of precision tracking-based communications solutions and airborne communications management systems, announced today that a global NGSO (Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit) operator placed orders totaling approximately US$2.2 million for Orbit's multiband maritime satellite communications solutions.

Sample cruise ship photo by Royal Caribbean

Delivery of the company's OceanTRx 7 Multiband terminals, which support both C/Ka and Ku/Ka frequency bands for continuous broadband connectivity aboard cruise ships, is expected in 2018 and 2019.

"We launched our 2.2-meter multiband maritime terminal just last month," said Eitan Livneh, Orbit's CEO. "Since then, the influx of orders is the best technological and commercial validation we could ask for."

About Orbit's OceanTRx 7 Multiband

Orbit's 2.2m (87") OceanTRx 7 Multiband C/Ka- and Ku/Ka-band stabilized maritime satcom solutions enable the most demanding maritime vessels and platforms to enjoy fiber-like broadband communications for high-speed and cost-effective Internet services  all contained in a very simple system with relatively few moving parts.

It is a revolutionarily compact maritime VSAT system that offers industry-standard RF performance equivalent to a 2.4m (95") dish with only 2.7m (106") footprint. The key to this breakthrough is an extraordinarily-small footprint with outstanding RF performance relative to its size, strict regulatory compliance and support for multiple swappable RF chains.

The multiband system's 2.7m (106") radome takes up significantly less deck space than industry-standard 4.2m (165") systems and is much lighter too. Small enough to be shipped as a fully assembled and tested unit in a standard 20-foot container, OceanTRx 7 Multiband can be installed in half a day.

About Orbit

Orbit Communications Systems Ltd. is wholly-focused on precision tracking-based communications  in the areas of satcom, telemetry and remote sensing  and provides an innovative solution for airborne audio management. With certification by defense, government and commercial agencies, we deliver tailor-made, turnkey solutions on land, at sea and in the air. Orbit's unique combination of smart design, high reliability and field-tested experience means that if you can conceive it, we can provide it.

Contact information

Orbit

Ian Tick

Head of Communications

[email protected]

Gelbart-Kahana Investor Relations

Aviram Uzi

[email protected]

SOURCE Orbit Communication systems Ltd

Related Links

http://orbit-cs.com/


GREATER FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, in partnership with the Cultural Heritage Alliance for Tourism, Inc. (CHAT), presents the inaugural 2018 Synergy Summit for Cultural & Heritage Tourism, taking place May 16-18, 2018, at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale-Plantation Hotel. The two-day conference, which is the first of its kind in Florida, was created to broaden inclusion, opportunity and engagement of small businesses, local attractions, tour operators and tour guides in Florida's tourism ecosystem. More than 200 attendees are expected to gather to communicate and explore synergies for collaboration as well as form strategic partnerships that strengthen and elevate multicultural tourism in Florida and nationally.

"This is an ideal time to present the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit as a way to help small businesses understand what tourism is all about and the tremendous financial benefits that it can drive into their businesses as well as creating jobs for locals," said Albert Tucker, Vice President, Multicultural Business Development, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We are excited about partnering with CHAT to present this unique platform that will bring together tourism professionals with small businesses and attractions to explore business development opportunities within the tourism industry."

The conference kicks off with a symposium titled, "The Heart of Heritage Neighborhoods," at Old Dillard Museum on Wednesday, May 16. The pre-summit symposium will feature a diverse panel of leaders of cultural & historical organizations discussing the historical and economic impact of tourism for heritage communities and historic sites. A book signing featuring the historians will follow the discussion, which will be live streamed on www.sunny.org/tv. Following the symposium, tourism professionals will participate in Cultural & Heritage Familiarization Tours showcasing the community assets of the cities of Oakland Park and Miramar.

"Last year, Florida had a record breaking year of tourists who visited our beautiful state. However, research shows that tourists stay longer and spend more money in a destination to have off the beaten path experiences that immerses them in the rich culture and history found in our heritage neighborhoods and multicultural communities. The Summit will create opportunities to broaden engagement and inclusion of small businesses, local attractions, artists and community tour guides to further strengthen and diversify Florida's tourism ecosystem," says Stephanie M. Jones, President, Cultural Heritage Alliance for Tourism, Inc.

Eugene Franklin, Director of the National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, will address the importance of cultural heritage tourism in supporting economic development for small businesses in multicultural communities during the opening session on Thursday, May 17. This will be followed by the keynote address by Rosemary Rice McCormick, co-founder and President of the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council and publisher of "The Cultural Traveler" guide. She will be discussing the national and global impact of cultural & heritage tourism, one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. Kelly Tortoriello, Vice President, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, will moderate a panel on building relationships with key tourism and travel professionals and associations to drive tourists and tourism dollars to a business or attraction. Kenneth Lawson, President and CEO, VISIT FLORIDA, will host the Tourism Power Players Awards Luncheon, addressing attendees about the State of Tourism in Florida as well as acknowledging and honoring the best in tourism including CVBs, hotel concierges, DMCs, meeting planners, tour operators, artists, tour guides, travel agents, city/county Cultural Affairs agencies and tourism-related businesses.

Throughout the conference, attendees will have an opportunity to partake in informative knowledge sharing sessions hearing from tourism industry experts on a wide array of topics from marketing to multicultural audiences and changing stereotypes and perceptions about multicultural neighborhoods to drive more locals and visitors to these destinations to monetizing the creative arts to generate jobs and revenue and positioning yourself for success in the travel & tourism industry.

Early Bird Registration, at a rate of $99, is now open through April 15, 2018. For more information on the summit including a complete list of scheduled events and speakers and to register, log onto www.culturalheritagesummit.com.

About Greater Fort Lauderdale

From the seagrass to the sawgrass, Greater Fort Lauderdale, located in Broward County, boasts more than 34,000 lodging accommodations at a variety of hotels, luxury spa resorts, and Superior Small Lodgings reflecting a vibrant cosmopolitan vibe. Visitors enjoy 23 miles of Blue Wave certified beaches, discover 300+ miles of inland waterways that run from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Everglades, dine at thousands of restaurants and eateries, get immersed in a thriving arts and culture scene and indulge in top shopping.

For more information, contact the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) 22-SUNNY or visit www.sunny.org. Get social and engage with Greater Fort Lauderdale on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @visitlauderdale.

Media Contact:

Jessica Savage

Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB

Tel: 954-767-2444

E-mail: [email protected]

Barney A. Bishop

Finn Partners

Tel: 212-715-1600

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau

Related Links

http://www.sunny.org


HOUSTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- cPanel is excited to announce the Annual cPanel Conference will be returning to cPanel's home in Houston, Texas. This year the event will be on October 2 and 3. This conference boasts two days packed with highly technical talks and three evening networking events all included in the attendee ticket price. This conference will educate, excite, and refresh all attendees.

conference.cpanel.com, Houston, Texas, October 1st - 3rd, 2018

The first sponsor of the 2018 cPanel Conference, SiteLock, has sponsored the cPanel Conference for the 3rd year in a row! SiteLock is a cloud-based security tool that detects and responds to malware and vulnerabilities on your website.

"We are excited to sponsor cPanel Conference for the third consecutive year," said Tom Serani, Executive Vice President of Business Development for SiteLock. "As the demand for cybersecurity continues to grow, the cPanel Conference offers an opportunity in the marketplace to communicate the importance of proactive website security and how SiteLock can help."

"Last year the cPanel Conference had speakers from more than ten different companies, and this year we want to double it," said Ken Power, VP of Product Development at cPanel. "The call for talks is open now and will remain open until May 31st, 2018, or until we fill all the available speaking spots."

Anyone wishing to find more information about the conference can do so on the cPanel conference site, https://conference.cpanel.com. For business inquiries or any other questions, email [email protected].

Since 1997, cPanel has been delivering the web hosting industry's most reliable and intuitive web hosting automation software. The robust automation software helps businesses thrive and allows them to focus on more important things. Customers and partners receive first-class support and a rich feature set, making cPanel & WHM the Hosting Platform of Choice. For more information about cPanel, visit https://cpanel.com.

"cPanel" and "cPanel & WHM" are registered trademarks of cPanel, Inc.

Media Contact:

benny Vasquez  Manager of Community Engagement

Phone: (832) 433-4005

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

cpconference-2018.png

cPConference 2018

conference.cpanel.com Houston, Texas October 1st - 3rd, 2018

cpconference-2018.png

cPConference 2018

sitelock.png

SiteLock

Related Links

cPanel Conference Website

cPanel.com

SOURCE cPanel, Inc.
Altura-branded complexes will bring a fresh, new living option for Las Vegas renters. The brand's initial property will feature 228 apartment homes and is called Altura on Duneville, with a second property to be announced in May and plans for additional acquisitions later this year. Each Altura property will be renovated to bring a modern, contemporary look as well as upgraded amenities to the community.

"We are excited to be partnering with Tower 16 to acquire this asset and launch a new residential brand in the market," said Garrett Solomon, President of Henley USA. "Once renovations are complete, we believe the Altura brand will be an attractive rental choice for millennials, young families and empty nesters."

Principals of Tower 16 Capital Partners, Mike Farley and Tyler Pruett, remarked, "We're thrilled to be co-founding an apartment brand that will provide updated, functional and attractive homes for people who serve the community, such as teachers, nurses and first responders."

Every Altura property will have a completely refurbished clubhouse, a 24-hour fitness center, new laundry equipment and enhanced common spaces, including the lobby and pool. Apartment interiors will also be upgraded with contemporary finishes and the latest in residential technology.

Avenue5, a multifamily property management firm, headquartered in Seattle, will manage the Altura on Duneville community and has a proven track record of success in the Las Vegas market.

Ian Rickwood, Chief Executive Officer of Henley, commented, "The acquisition of these properties represents an attractive value-add investment and aligns with our strategy to identify investment opportunities in high-demand areas where we can build return through unit renovation. Our partnership with the experienced principals at Tower 16 allows for the off-market acquisition of assets meeting key criteria.

"This purchase builds on Henley USA's strong track record, having recently completed five transactions in quick succession with a combined value of more than $160 million. With the launch of this new brand, Altura, and an extensive pipeline of deal flow, we are confident that Henley USA is on track to double its US footprint in the near-term, and continue that success through 2018 and beyond."

Henley

Established in 2006, Henley is a leading UK private equity real estate investor focusing on development, investment and asset management in the commercial, residential, healthcare, land infrastructure, debt and other alternative real estate assets. Since inception, Henley has approximately doubled in size every year. The company currently has around $2 billion in assets under management.

With offices in Boston, Massachusetts; Newport Beach, California and Naples, Florida, Henley USA is headed by Garrett Solomon, who previously founded the award-winning, nationally recognized residential land development and management company, Corbelis. Prior to forming Corbelis in 2012, Solomon spent almost two decades with a series of well-known real estate private equity firms.

SOURCE Henley USA
NEW YORK And TEL AVIV, Israel, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Illusive Networks, the leader in deception-based cybersecurity solutions today announced Attack Surface Manager (ASM), the first automated solution to continually reduce the attack surface, and proactively lower the likelihood of targeted cyberattack success.

Illusive ASM discovers hidden elements throughout the network that enable lateral movement and otherwise facilitate advanced attacks. In today's fast-changing business environments, it is difficult for security teams to identify and control credentials and other sensitive data elements that proliferate during normal day to day operations. ASM automatically identifies these risks, revealing policy violations, and enabling security professionals to proactively deprive attackers of the keys they need to reach critical assets. For further product information and to book a demo at RSA, please see here.

"Nearly every security breach that I've investigated involved the theft and abuse of credentials," says Charles Carmakal, vice president of cyber incident response firm Mandiant. "ASM enables organizations to identify and decrease the exposure of credentials, reducing the ability for attackers to move laterally once in an environment."

"For years, organizations have felt at the mercy of sophisticated attackers who maneuver their network undetected for months," said Ofer Israeli, CEO, Illusive Networks. "By removing the very elements attackers need to progress, ASM stops the attack before it creates a business crisis. This significant new release continues our progress in addressing the complete advanced attack lifecycle."

In a recent CyberEdge survey, only 38% of respondents stated they were confident in their ability to avoid a successful cyberattack in the coming twelve months. ASM was developed in response to customer requirements to eliminate standing threats missed by traditional cyber defense offerings, and represents continued progress toward Illusive's vision of applying deception-based technology against all stages of advanced cyber-attacks, including prevention, detection, response, and remediation.

"Deception solutions will play a greater role in the future of enterprise threat defense," according to Gartner."Detection is often a prerequisite for higher-quality deceptions. However, organizations are beginning to use deceit to actively thwart or isolate malware botnets, threat actors and suspicious connections.1"

"While some organizations may need large-scale analytics solutions or advanced threat hunting teams," Israeli continued. "These investments take time to bear fruit. We provide an extremely lightweight, nimble, and easy to deploy solution that automatically adapts to changes in the environment, and immediately enhances an organization's ability to avoid the heavy toll targeted attacks can take."

Key Benefits

Organization using ASM preemptively manage and reduce attack risk through:

Continuous minimization of the attack surface , even when user populations and systems are rapidly changing

, even when user populations and systems are rapidly changing Unprecedented visibility to their access footprint and credential-related policy violations that facilitate attacker mobility

to their access footprint and credential-related policy violations that facilitate attacker mobility Efficient and scalable credential management of credentials through intelligent automation

of credentials through intelligent automation The ability to prioritize remediation by understanding the risk and criticality of each violation

by understanding the risk and criticality of each violation Early detection of advanced attackers by reducing attack vectors in the environment, decreasing real credentials, and increasing the odds of detection

by reducing attack vectors in the environment, decreasing real credentials, and increasing the odds of detection Rapid correction of policy violations by both automated and manually-driven methods

Illusive ASM enhances the company's award-winning deception-based cybersecurity platform, which uses intelligent automation and machine learning to support creation, deployment, and refresh of deceptions at massive scale.

The agentless system allows swift and easy deployment of deceptions with minimal manpower required for both roll-out and daily operations. As soon as attackers attempt to use any form of deceptive information, Illusive detects and alerts enterprise security teams and integrates real-time, contextual forensic data directly into the incident record, enabling rapid and informed incident analysis and response.

"The combination of ASM's ability to reduce the exposure of credentials in advance of attacks, with Illusive's existing ability to plant convincing and realistic deceptions throughout an environment, will help organizations better prepare for attacks, and detect threat actors earlier in the attack lifecycle," concluded Carmakal. "Illusive continues to innovate technology that helps organizations reduce their attack surface and mitigate the risk of data breaches."

Over the past 12 months, Illusive has received recognition by The Wall Street Journal in its inaugural Tech Companies to Watch, was honored as a finalist in CRN's Tech Innovators Awards, named as one of CRN's '25 Coolest Network Security Vendors', by Momentum Partners as one of ten cybersecurity companies on their Watch List and more recently, by InformationWeek as a Top Vendor to Watch in 2018. The company recently announced high 2017 growth with industry-wide implementation from Fortune 50 customers alongside an expansion of their executive leadership team.

1 Gartner, "Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018: Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust," David W. Cearley, Neil MacDonald, et al., 8 March 2018.

About Illusive Networks

Illusive Networks is a pioneer of deception technology, empowering security teams to take informed action against advanced, targeted cyberattacks by detecting and disrupting lateral movement toward critical business assets early in the attack life cycle. Agentless and driven by intelligent automation, Illusive technology enables organizations to significantly increase proactive defense while adding almost no operational overhead. Illusive's Deceptions Everywhere approach was conceived by cybersecurity experts with decades of combined experience in cyber warfare and cyber intelligence. With the ability to proactively intervene in the attack process, technology-dependent organizations can preempt significant operational disruption and business losses, and function with greater confidence in today's complex, hyper-connected world. For more information, visit us at www.illusivenetworks.com, contact us at [email protected] or follow on LinkedIn, @Illusivenw on Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE Illusive Networks

Related Links

http://www.illusivenetworks.com


PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An inventor from Dodge City, Kan., has developed the KNOTHOLE NECKTIE CONTROL SYSTEM (KNCS), an improved necktie with the major modification involving the means of securing or stabilizing the tie being incorporated within its design. A prototype is available.

"A lot can be determined by a person's appearance, which can sometimes be directly correlated with job performance. My invention will provide a male with a proper-looking tie and thus a proper-looking appearance," said the inventor. The KNOTHOLE NECKTIE CONTROL SYSTEM (KNCS) allows a necktie to remain stationary. It eliminates having to employ tie clasps, pins or tacks. This necktie leaves the wearer with a neat and attractive appearance. This will, in turn, provide self-confidence, which may result in increased productivity.

The original design was submitted to the National Sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 17-RGL-144, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com


SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Socius Insurance Services, Inc., a management liability and property/casualty insurance wholesaler, announced today the opening of a Texas branch. The leadership personnel, Assistant Vice President of Property and Casualty Chris Barnes, will oversee Socius' newest office located in Dallas.

With over 17 years' of experience, Barnes focuses in marketing of Property and Casualty insurance products with a emphasis on delivering high level service through relationship building, communication, review of risks and follow through. Property and Casualty specialties include Property, Inland Marine, Oil and Gas, Contractors and Professional Lines.

"I am very passionate about improving a client's situation through the best service possible," said Barnes. "And I'm looking forward to leveraging my background and work ethic with a motivated company that wants to grow."

Additionally, with over 12 years of comprehensive leadership and business experience in military and commercial industry, the company hired Associate Broker Erin Tallant who will work alongside Chris in Dallas. Tallant is a strategic thinker who brings a foundation of experience, knowledge and understanding of how strong leadership and teamwork plays in bottom line business results.

"We are very excited to bring Chris and Erin on board and open our first office in Texas," said Eric Shapiro, Regional President of Socius Insurance Services. "They both bring a wealth of experience and great relationships with agents in the area. We look forward to growing the office and growing our presence in Texas in the near future."

Socius continues to expand its business through new programs and office locations and looks forward to a bright future of continued growth.

Contact:

Chris Barnes

[email protected]

Direct: (786) 235-8937

Mobile: (214) 336-4115



About Socius Insurance Services, Inc.

Socius Insurance Services, Inc. is a property/casualty and management liability wholesale broker based in San Francisco, with regional offices in Los Angeles, CA; Elgin, IL; Birmingham, AL; Dallas, Texas; and Tampa and Miami, FL. Socius specializes in D&O, E&O, EPL, property & casualty and umbrella coverages. Founded in 1997, the company currently has approximately 50 employees, and is privately held.

For more information, please visit Socius online at www.sociusinsurance.com.

License #0D60776

SOURCE Socius Insurance Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sociusinsurance.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers from Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), one of the fastest growing genetic information companies, will present findings showing proactive genetic health screening reveals medically significant findings for a substantial portion of patients, and looking for secondary findings during genetic testing provides a substantial yield of actionable risk factors for disease. The studies are among the company's data being presented this week at the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) annual meeting in Charlotte, NC.

Healthy individuals are increasingly seeking genetic testing to identify their personal risks for inherited conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. An analysis of 1,300 patients tested with a diagnostic-grade genetic screening panel designed for healthy adults found clinically actionable results in 16 percent of patients, predominantly in genes associated with an elevated risk for cancer or cardiovascular disease.

"Healthy adults are increasingly interested in using genetic information to understand their risk of disease and these data show that interest is warranted. But it is essential that consumers receive medically sound testing to assess their risk of diseases like cancer where monitoring and early intervention can be helpful," said Robert Nussbaum, M.D., chief medical officer of Invitae. "Talking about genetic screening with a physician or genetic counselor and then using the highest quality testing can help ensure people receive accurate results and, just as importantly, sound medical advice on how to respond to those findings."

Invitae's proactive genetic tests are currently being provided at a number of institutions enabling clinicians to use this type of genetic screening with patients in a variety of clinical settings, including primary care.

In another platform presentation at the meeting, researchers from the company are reporting on an analysis of the frequency of actionable variants in hereditary cancer syndrome genes found in more than 3,000 patients referred for testing for hereditary cardiovascular disorders. Under an IRB-approved protocol that allowed review of de-identified test data, the researchers analyzed genetic testing results for a number of well-known genes associated with increased cancer risk in patients with no known indication for hereditary cancer gene testing. The researchers found that six percent of patients had pathogenic variants in clinically actionable hereditary cancer genes.

"Current ACMG guidelines on secondary findings support providing such information regardless of the original indication for testing," said Dr. Nussbaum, one of the authors of the study. "Our study indicates that one in 16 individuals could receive actionable information from hereditary cancer gene testing even in the absence of personal or family history that would suggest the need for a diagnostic evaluation of cancer risk. The results suggest the importance of screening for medically actionable gene mutations regardless of original indication."

The company's research presentations includes one platform presentation, one plenary presentation, and participation in fourteen posters at the meeting:

Wednesday, April 11

Platform presentation, 5:15 p.m. Eastern:

Secondary Findings in Hereditary Cancer Genes from Multigene Panel Data: A New Frontier Unanticipated by the ACMG

Presenter: Ed Esplin, MD, PhD, FACMG, FACP

Presentation #40

Thursday, April 12

Plenary presentation, 9:30 a.m. Eastern:

An Interlaboratory Study of Complex Variant Detection in Clinical Testing

Presenter: Stephen Lincoln

Poster presentations, 10:00 a.m.  11:30 a.m. Eastern:

Poster #81: Diagnostic yield analysis of Invitae's metabolic analyte panels

Presenter: Michelle Fox, MS, LCGC

Poster #333: The Paperwork Matters! Phenotypic Information Significantly Impacts Variant Interpretation in Hereditary Cancer Testing

Presenter: Carolina Pardo, PhD

Poster #355: Detection of NF1 variants by NGS Panels with SNV and CNV Identification Exceeds Published Estimates and Improves Clinical Utility

Presenter: Karen Ouyang, PhD, FACMG

Poster #379: Behind the Seizure: A No-Cost, 125-Gene Epilepsy Panel for Pediatric Seizure Onset Between 2-4 Years

Presenter: Nicole Miller, PhD

Poster #723: Current challenges in the classification of large genetic events affecting TTN

Presenter: Matteo Vatta, PhD, FACMG

Friday, April 13

Poster presentations, 10:30 a.m.  Noon Eastern:

Poster #142: The Clinical Impact of Mutations beyond BRCA1/BRCA2 in Breast Cancer Patients

Presenter: Judith Westman, MD

Poster #166 - Blue Ribbon: Down Syndrome Resources from the National Institutes of Health: Research Projects Supported by the DS-Connect Registry

Presenter: Melissa Parisi, MD, PhD

Poster #218: ClinGen's GenomeConnect Registry Enables Patient-Centric Data Sharing

Presenter: Juliann Savatt, MS, LGC

Poster #326: Reducing VUS Rates Among Ethnic Groups: Sequencing Smarter, Not Harder

Presenter: Shan Yang, PhD

Poster #458: Quantitative Determination of SMN2 Copy Number using Next Generation Sequencing and Correlation to Disease Severity

Presenter: Sarah Klemm, MS

Poster #572: Are we ready for Telegenetics? Surveying the current landscape among ACMG members

Presenter: Shweta Dhar, MD, MS

Poster #622: Misattributed Paternity as an Unanticipated Finding During Exome/Genome Sequencing: Current Clinical Laboratory Practices and an Opportunity for Professional Recommendation Development

Presenter: Celeste Eno, PhD

Poster #628: Improved Diagnostic Confirmation of Newborn Screening Conditions by Next-Generation Sequencing: A Collaboration Between Laboratory and Clinician

Presenter: Michelle Fox, MS, LCGC

Poster #666: Multigene Panel Screening for Hereditary Disease Risk in Healthy Individuals

Presenter: Eden Haverfield, PhD, FACMG

About Invitae Corporation

Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a genetic information company. Invitae's mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medical practice to improve the quality of healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate most of the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the utility of proactive genetic screening; the increase in healthy individuals seeking genetic testing to identify personal risks for inherited conditions; and the importance of assessing secondary findings in genetic testing. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the company's ability to continue to generate substantial demand for its tests: the company's ability to compete; the company's history of losses; the company's ability to use rapidly changing genetic data to interpret test results accurately and consistently; laws and regulations applicable to the company's business; and the other risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Invitae Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Source: Invitae Corporation

Contact:

Laura D'Angelo

[email protected]

314-920-0617

SOURCE Invitae Corporation

Related Links

http://invitae.com


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Joy MacPhail has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees of Adler University, Canada's only university dedicated to social justice.

A longtime member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP), MacPhail joined the Adler University Board of Trustees in 2013 and has served as Vice Chair for the past four years.

Joy MacPhail serves as the Chair of the Adler University Board of Trustees.

"Throughout my career, I have advocated for working families, for women, and for marginalized people," MacPhail said. "With its focus on community engagement and social justice, Adler University is a natural home for me. I look forward to leading the Board of Trustees in its efforts to increase the University's impact."

MacPhail is an owner of OUTtv, the world's longest-airing LGBTQ television network. She served as an elected member of British Columbia's Legislative Assembly in a variety of roles, including Minister of Health, Minister of Finance, Deputy Premier, and Leader of the Opposition. She is currently chair of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC).

"We're delighted to have Joy leading the Board of Adler University, which will benefit from her broad governance wisdom and experience, and from her passion for justice," said Raymond E. Crossman, Ph.D., President of Adler University, which also has Chicago and online campuses. "Joy will help the University achieve our vision of advancing community health and wellness, in Vancouver and beyond."

Adler University has offered graduate education in Vancouver since 1978. Academic programs include a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology, the first of its kind in Western Canada. The University also offers master's degrees in fields such as counselling psychology, art therapy, organizational psychology and public policy administration.

Located near the city's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, the University's new campus facility places Adler students and faculty at the epicenter of British Columbia's most urgent social needs. Adler University works with more than 250 community partners in Vancouver to give students the opportunity to improve access to mental health care, empower the marginalized, and fuel social change in the city.

MacPhail is one of three Vancouver-based trustees for Adler University, and the first Vancouver-based chair of the Board of Trustees. She succeeds Chicago nonprofit executive David Sinski, who recently completed his successful five-year term and remains on the Board as a trustee.

About Adler University (https://www.adler.edu)

Adler University educates students to engage the world and create a more just society. Established in 1952, it enrolls more than 1,400 students in master's and doctoral programs for social change through its three campuses: Vancouver, Chicago, and Online. Learn more at adleru.ca.

Contact:

Carrie Frillman

312-662-4123

[email protected]

SOURCE Adler University

Related Links

https://www.adler.edu


WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HAYMAN-WOODWARD PLLC, the rising Immigration and Business Advisory law firm based in Washington, D.C., has announced its recent participation with SelectUSA, a government program that facilitates job growth and foreign investment in the US. Through a series of personalized one-on-one sessions for prospective individuals and businesses looking to expatriate to the States, the firm continues to solidify its presence abroad and strengthen its position and business relationship with the US government.

Held in four cities throughout Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Recife, the firm provided its expertise on immigration and the differences between different visa programs that provide a pathway to entering into the US and a snapshot of the services that HAYMAN-WOODWARD offers.

"During SelectUSA we had the opportunity to speak about the importance of growth, while educating the audience about immigration," said Leonardo Freitas, Managing Business Partner of HAYMAN-WOODWARD. "It was a chance to understand the needs and opportunities of bilateral collaborations between investors and governments, as well as private sector projects available for foreign direct investors," he said.

ABOUT HAYMAN-WOODWARD PLLC

HAYMAN-WOODWARD PLLC is an Immigration and Business Advisory law firm, located in the heart of Washington DC. The company is one of the most prestigious international law firms in the United States supporting companies and individuals in their challenges to build value across borders. HAYMAN-WOODWARD PLLC offers professional and personalized advice to clients and partners, in areas such as expatriation, international trade, tax and fiscal consulting and government liaison and business advisory services. HAYMAN-WOODWARD PLLC assists different target groups such as big and small companies, families, and individuals with every step of the expatriation and relocation process. The legal team in each jurisdiction assists clients with visa management, the logistics team help with the transportation, safe passage and delivery of household goods, while the Family Office group takes care of all the other needs, including taxation, schools, legal and any other ancillary needs.

Media Contact:

TARA, Ink.

305.864.3434

Dilara Tuncer; [email protected]

SOURCE HAYMAN-WOODWARD
CHINO, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviation enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that the lawsuit between Yanks Air Museum, Flying Tigers Aviation FBO and Planes of Fame Air Museum has been settled and the air show will go on this year.

The settlement was reached with all parties interested in reuniting the aviation community. All parties have pledged to work together for the success of future air shows.

Yanks Air Museum will display their Lockheed P-38 Lightning at the 2018 Chino Air Show.

"We are happy to have reached an agreement so Planes of Fame Air Museum can bring to the aviation community one of the premier aviation events in the United States and the world," stated Steve Hinton, president of Planes of Fame. "We are pleased that the tradition will continue as many in the aviation community from all over the world look forward to their annual trip to Chino for the air show."

"Yanks Air Museum has the world's largest collection of historic all-American aircraft. Yanks was created to share aviation history with everyone and we look forward to displaying and flying the museum's aircraft at our home in Chino," said Charles Nichols, founder of Yanks Air Museum.

"I'm glad we have settled the lawsuit and are looking forward to better serving the aviation community. I know with the additional support of Flying Tigers FBO and Yanks Air Museum, it will be the best air show ever and create a win-win for us all," stated Michael Thayer, president of Flying Tigers.

Each year the air show attracts thousands of visitors. With the lawsuit now settled, the county has approved May 5 and May 6 as the 2018 Planes of Fame Air Show dates.

Media Contacts:

For Yanks Air Museum: Jeanette Knutti, (949) 514-1176, [email protected]

For Flying Tigers Aviation: Michael Thayer, (909) 606-0100, [email protected]

For Planes of Fame Air Museum: Harry Geier, (909) 597-7576

Related Images

yanks-air-museums-lockheed-p-38.jpg

Yanks Air Museum's Lockheed P-38 Lightning

Yanks Air Museum will display their Lockheed P-38 Lightning at the 2018 Chino Air Show.

yanks-air-museums-lockheed-p-38.jpg

Yanks Air Museum's Lockheed P-38 Lightning

Yanks Air Museum will display their Lockheed P-38 Lightning at the 2018 Chino Air Show.

Related Links

Yanks Air Museum Website

Flying Tigers Website

SOURCE Yanks Air Museum

Related Links

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LVADs are complex heart pumps for patients with significant cardiac muscle weakness. LVADs assist the patient's heart for the duration of his life, and existing LVAD batteries require a powerline exiting the patient's body (generally chest) for recharging.

Numerous experts have long viewed the driveline exiting a patient's chest as the weak link in the LVAD architecture as it restricts patient lifestyle and is associated with high rates of infections, which can be lethal. Leviticus is the leader in wireless power transfer for LVADs which would eliminate the driveline.

In the latest study, conducted at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, under the supervision of Professor Bart Meyns, MD, Ph.D., the technology has demonstrated efficiency, safety, and stability with repeated cycles of eight hours of discharge and recharge of an internal battery-powered mechanical circulatory support (MCS) device for more than 60 days.

Michael Zilbershlag, CEO of Leviticus Cardio comments, "This is the first step of an ambitious strategy. Our goal is to offer versatile wireless energy transfer to all patients requiring long term MCS support. Many key international opinion leaders have already expressed their willingness to support us and demonstrate the possibility of our CET technology."

Professor Stephan Schueler, M.D., Ph.D., Newcastle upon Tyne, Freeman Hospital, UK, commented, "The successful completion of the animal trials with the wireless Coplanar Energy Transfer system opens a new era for long term LVAD implants." Professor Jiri Maly, MD, Ph.D., from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, stated that "based on our current experience, the CET system is easy to implant and doesn't increase the complexity of surgery compared to a standard LVAD procedure."

CALENDAR INFO

Leviticus will participate in the ISHLT 2018 (International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation) meeting at The Acropolis Congress Centre, Nice, France. April 11th -13th, 2018, VAD update session.

To request a one-on-one meeting during the Congress please send a request to: [email protected].

About Leviticus Cardio

Leviticus Cardio (Leviticus-cardio.com) is a medical device company founded in 2008 and dedicated to improving the clinical outcome for patients implanted with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) for impaired cardiac function. Major investors include The Trendlines Group, Israel's foremost seed- and early-stage investment group, a consortium of acclaimed cardiovascular physicians, private investors and the Israel Innovation Authority of the Ministry of Economy.

Contact:



Michael Zilbershlag, CEO

T: +972-50-880-7135

[email protected]



Press Relations

Glenn Kenworthy

GlennKenworthy MarketingConsultancy

Tel: +44(0)1296-738-516

M: +44(0)7769-255-245

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Leviticus Cardio

Related Links

http://leviticus-cardio.com/


"The Lockheed Martin and Cobham team will leverage expertise in both companies to offer the U.S. Navy a critically important system with increased capability and reduced risk," said Joe Ottaviano, director of electronic warfare at Lockheed Martin. "Our team is confident we can meet the Navy's need for improved jamming capabilities with a scalable, open architecture design that balances capabilities with size, weight and power constraints."

Both partners on the team bring critical capabilities and areas of expertise. Cobham developed and was the only production partner to the U.S. Navy for the ALQ-99 Low Band Transmitter/Antenna Group (LBT/AG) and has been supporting the LBT/AG program for more than 20 years. Lockheed Martin has been developing electronic warfare solutions for more than 40 years and has experience with various airborne and naval electronic warfare programs, including the Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare (AOEW) system and the multi-mission AN/ALQ-210 and AN/ALQ-217 Electronic Support Measures (ESM) systems for the U.S. Navy. These Lockheed Martin products provide situational awareness, threat warning and proven electronic warfare solutions to detect, track and deter incoming threats.

"Cobham has continued to invest in state-of-the-art, next generation Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) transmitter capabilities for the EA-18G community and looks forward to continuing to deliver reliable and scalable solutions well into the future," said Jim Barber, senior vice president of Cobham Integrated Electronic Solutions, a business unit of Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions. "Our strong partnership with Lockheed Martin on programs such as AOEW and the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2, along with our collective capabilities and heritage with the electronic warfare community will provide the best value for the U.S. Navy."

The NGJ-LB system will be integrated on the EA-18G aircraft and will replace the ALQ-99 low band pods. The ALQ-99 is a tactical jamming system that has been deployed on the EA-6B Prowler and now the EA-18G Growler. The NGJ-LB system will provide significantly greater electronic attack capabilities in the lower frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum against modern threats.

Cobham is the only company to continuously provide ALQ-99 Airborne Electronic Attack transmitters to the U.S. Navy since the initial operational deployment of the EA-6B in 1972, delivering over 850 transmitters. Since that time, Cobham has invested in cutting edge Gallium Nitride (GaN) power amplifier and antenna technology to ensure that the Navy's high performance, reliability, and sustainability needs are met. Cobham's latest ALQ-99 Low Band Transmitter has provided critical protection for U.S. and coalition warfighters since 2005.

For more information, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/electronicwarfare and www.cobham.com/ew

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 Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions

We provide critical solutions for communication on land, at sea, and in the air and space, by moving data through off-the-shelf and customized products and subsystems including RF, microwave, and high reliability microelectronics, antenna apertures and motion control solutions. Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions supplies defense, aerospace, security, medical, and industrial markets.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


PEARLAND, Texas, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lonza today is opening the world's largest dedicated cell-and-gene-therapy facility, which was built in anticipation of the rising demand from developers of cell and gene therapies  the next era in medicine  and with the mission of enabling them to deliver these types of treatments to patients around the world more quickly and efficiently.

During a grand opening ceremony today in Pearland, TX (USA), Lonza executives and industry leaders will unveil the 300,000-square-foot (27,870 square-meter) facility and its offerings  highlighting its state-of-the-art, fully integrated, everything-under-one-roof access to some of the world's most innovative cell-and-gene-therapy manufacturing technologies.

"Lonza Houston will serve as a center of excellence for cell-and-gene-therapy process development from concept through pre-clinical, clinical and commercialization, all the way to the patient," says Andreas Weiler, Business Unit head for Emerging Technologies at Lonza Pharma & Biotech. "This facility has the potential to produce treatment for thousands of patients suffering from rare genetic disorders or life-threatening diseases, under one roof. It will set a new standard in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and stand as one of four centers of excellence in cell and gene therapy in the only global network spanning three continents."

He adds: "Outstanding teams of top experts from around the world are gathered here and are empowered to elaborate on innovative concepts, develop and optimize complex processes, and seamlessly deliver cell and gene therapies that adhere to the industry's current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) standards."

The Lonza Houston Center of Excellence is already operational and manufacturing for several customers. This facility is recruiting employees and will have more than 200 full-time staff including scientists, engineers, MBAs and biotechnology professionals by the end of 2018 and continue to recruit high-value positions as market demand increases.

"Lonza is committed to the evolution and cultivation of a diverse medical and life-science community in the Greater Houston area for many years to come," says Marc Funk, Lonza Pharma & Biotech Chief Operating Officer. "The site is well positioned to meet the demands of the growing cell-and-gene-therapy field. Combining this leading-edge facility with our unmatched experience and expertise in cell and gene therapy will allow us to provide a key advantage to biopharmaceutical companies and academic researchers and ultimately to the patients they serve."

The opening ceremony will feature commentary from Richard Ridinger, Lonza Chief Executive Officer; Marc Funk, Lonza Pharma & Biotech Chief Operating Officer; Patrick Aebischer, President Emeritus of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Lonza board member; Ed Thompson, Texas State Representative, 29th District; Pearland Mayor Tom Reid; Nick Leschly, Chief Executive Officer of bluebird bio; Brad Zakes, Chief Executive Officer of Cerevast Medical, Inc., and founder of the Ethan Zakes Foundation, an adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) patient advocacy association; Luk Vandenberghe, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Director, Ocular Genomics Institute, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; and other representatives from Lonza.

Additional Resources

An explanatory cell-and-gene-therapy animation is already posted here.

Photos of the day's events will be posted here 24 hours following the event.

Video of the event will be posted to Lonza's YouTube channel 24 hours following the event.

About Cell and Gene Therapy1,2

Cell therapy is the administration of living cells into a patient's body with the purpose of growing, replacing or repairing damaged cells for the treatment of a disease. These cells can come from an individual's own cells (autologous source) or from a donor (allogeneic source).

Gene therapy is defined as a set of techniques that seek to modify, replace, inactivate or introduce genes into a patient's body with the goal of treating, preventing or even curing disease. These techniques include transferring genes to cells inside a patient's body (in vivo) or modifying a patient's cells outside of the body and re-introducing them into a patient's body (ex vivo). Each technique involves the application of a nucleic acid (specifically, DNA or RNA). Since DNA and RNA are normally not absorbed by cells, special carriers called vectors are required. Vectors can be either viral or non-viral.

Lonza's Role in Cell and Gene Therapy

The field of cell and gene therapy is transforming the way patients diagnosed with cancers or genetic diseases can be treated. These novel drug candidates provide drastically improved patient outcomes and, in some cases, can be curative. However, the manufacturing of such medicines poses complex new challenges. With small patient-scale batch sizes, centralized production using scale-up processes is no longer applicable; and scale-out approaches become the norm.

Today the cost of production still represents a major hurdle on the way to the market. New technologies are needed that enable robust and cost-efficient manufacturing and yield replicable high-quality medicines. While the therapeutic opportunities for patients are potentially life changing, the stakes for both patients and drug developers are high.

Lonza invests in enabling technologies and builds expertise to support the development and commercialization of new, innovative therapies. Highly skilled Lonza scientists and engineers bring decade-long development experience across a broad spectrum of cell types and technologies. This expertise builds the backbone of an extensive service offering, providing tailored process and analytical development, manufacturing and regulatory services.

About Lonza

Lonza is one of the world's leading and most-trusted suppliers to the pharmaceutical, biotech and specialty ingredients markets. As an integrated solutions provider, Lonza is boosting its value creation along and beyond the healthcare continuum with a strong focus on patient healthcare, consumer preventive healthcare and consumer's healthy environment.

Lonza harnesses science and technology to create products that support safer and healthier living and that enhance the overall quality of life. With the recent Capsugel acquisition, Lonza now offers products and services from the custom development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients to innovative dosage forms for the pharma and consumer health and nutrition industries.

Benefiting from its regulatory expertise, Lonza is able to transfer its know-how from pharma to hygiene and fast-moving consumer goods all the way to coatings and composites and the preservation and protection of agricultural goods and other natural resources.

Founded in 1897 in the Swiss Alps, Lonza today is a well-respected global company with more than 100 sites and offices and approximately 14,500 full-time employees worldwide. The company generated sales of CHF 5.1 billion in 2017 with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.3 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.

Additional Information and Disclaimer

Lonza Group Ltd has its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited ("SGX-ST"). Lonza Group Ltd is not subject to the SGX-ST's continuing listing requirements but remains subject to Rules 217 and 751 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual.

Certain matters discussed in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and estimates of Lonza Group Ltd, although Lonza Group Ltd can give no assurance that these expectations and estimates will be achieved. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty and are qualified in their entirety. The actual results may differ materially in the future from the forward-looking statements included in this news release due to various factors. Furthermore, except as otherwise required by law, Lonza Group Ltd disclaims any intention or obligation to update the statements contained in this news release.

Lonza Contact Details Dirk Oehlers, Head Investor Relations Lonza Group Ltd Tel +41 61 316 8540 [email protected]

Dominik Werner, Head Corporate Communications Lonza Group Ltd Tel +41 61 316 8798 [email protected]

Constance Ward, Head External Communications Lonza Group Ltd Tel +41 61 316 8840 [email protected]

1Industry Overview. Alliance for Regenerative Medicine website. https://alliancerm.org/page/industry-overview. Accessed 3 April 2018.

2Cell and Gene Therapy Defined. American Society of Cell & Gene Therapy website. https://www.asgct.org/education/gene-and-cell-therapy-defined. Accessed 3 April 2018.

SOURCE Lonza

Related Links

http://www.lonza.com


The best assay result reported is PAL0118, drilled at the Raja prospect , which intersected 5.0 metres @ 12.4 g/t gold from 381.0 metres (Figures 1 and 2) within a broader mineralized zone of 23.1 metres at 3.4 g/t gold (no lower cut) from 368.1 metres. A separate intersection in PAL0118 intersected 7 metres at 2.8 g/t gold from 322 metres;

drilled at the Raja prospect which intersected gold from 381.0 metres (Figures 1 and 2) within a broader mineralized zone of (no lower cut) from 368.1 metres. A separate intersection in PAL0118 intersected from 322 metres; PAL0118 was drilled 120 metres down plunge to the NNW of prior high-grade intersections including PAL0093 with 31.7 metres @ 8.4 g/t gold from 244.1 metres. See Mawson News Release March 01, 2018 and Figures 3 and 5.

was drilled 120 metres down plunge to the NNW of prior high-grade intersections including with gold from 244.1 metres. See Mawson News Release and Figures 3 and 5. Gold mineralization was intersected by diamond drilling at all 5 prospects drilled within the Rajapalot Project (Figure 1), across an area of 2.5 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres, as shown in Table 1 below which summarizes drill highlights:

Hole_id From (m) To (m) Width (m) Gold g/t Prospect PAL0118 322.0 329.0 7.0 2.8 Raja PAL0118 368.1 391.2 23.1 3.4 Raja Including 381.0 386.0 5.0 12.4 Raja Including 381.0 382.6 1.6 37.3 Raja PAL0109 15.6 23.0 7.4 2.4 Rumajarvi PAL0097 256.6 264.3 7.7 1.5 Raja PAL0099 65.7 70.4 4.7 2.1 Terry's

Hammer PAL0110 37.6 42.3 4.8 2.5 Palokas

Fifty-nine holes (PAL0083PAL0139, 141142) have now been drilled during the winter program for a total of 13,079 metres of diamond drill core. Including holes from this release, 14 from 59 drill holes have now been released with gold assay data (also see Mawson News Release March 01, 2018 ). Results are pending for the balance of 45 diamond drill holes.

). Results are pending for the balance of 45 diamond drill holes. Drilling continues 24/7 with three diamond drill rigs and one base-of-till rig, with the program on track to complete 15,000 metres in over 60 diamond drill holes by late April when winter conditions are forecast to end. Drilling is planned to recommence in summer after the winter melt.

Mr. Hudson, Chairman and CEO, states, "Mawson's dual aims for this winter's drill program were to systematically grid drill and extend known gold prospects, while also testing a dozen new semi-regional structural-stratigraphic targets. Although still less than a quarter of drill core from the winter program has been assayed, the first part of this strategy is clearly delivering at Raja, with further high-grade mineralization discovered including 5.0 metres @ 12.4 g/t gold in PAL0118 lying 140 metres down-plunge from 10.9 metres at 21.0 g/t gold in PAL0093."

"In addition, we have drill discovered significant gold mineralization at five other prospects that were defined within Mawson's extensive geophysical, geochemical and geological datasets across the 12 square kilometre Rajapalot project. We are excited to have increased the mineralized footprints of each of these prospects, while receiving validation of the targeting methods developed by our technical team in the search for gold under thin glacial cover."

A plan view of the drill results and named prospects is provided in Figure 1. Cross and longitudinal sectional views and prospect plan views are included in Figures 29. Tables 13 include all relevant collar and assay information. Assuming a predominant stratabound control, the true thickness of the mineralized interval is interpreted to be approximately 90% of the sampled thickness. Intersections are reported with a lower cut of 0.5 g/t gold over 2 metre lower cut, no upper cut-off was applied.

Raja Prospect

Drilling of known prospects has been successful in delineating further extensions to known gold areas, in particular at the Raja prospect where over 470 metres of down plunge gold mineralization has been tested. Mineralization is unconstrained down-plunge and partly across strike. The gold mineralization contains sufficient associated sulphide to form an electrical conductor, and examination of VTEM geophysical data indicates a down-plunge extent from surface of over 900 metres. The structurally-controlled mineralized footprint trends approximately 340 degrees and is oblique to the surface orientation of the host strata. Highlights include:

Gold mineralization at Raja now has a down-plunge extent of over 470 metres and remains open down plunge and partly across strike (Figures 26).

PAL0118 intersected 5.0 metres @ 12.4 g/t gold from 381.0 metres (Figure 2) within a broader mineralized zone of 23.1 metres at 3.4 g/t gold (no lower cut) from 368.1 metres. A separate intersection in PAL0118 intersected 7 metres at 2.8 g/t gold from 322 metres;

intersected gold from 381.0 metres (Figure 2) within a broader mineralized zone of (no lower cut) from 368.1 metres. A separate intersection in PAL0118 intersected from 322 metres; PAL0118 was drilled 120 metres down plunge to the NNW of prior high-grade intersections including PAL0093 with 31.7 metres @ 8.4 g/t gold from 244.1 metres. See Mawson News Release March 01, 2018 and Figures 3 and 5.

was drilled 120 metres down plunge to the NNW of prior high-grade intersections including with gold from 244.1 metres. See Mawson News Release and Figures 3 and 5. PAL0097 intersected 7.7 metres @ 1.5 g/t gold from 256.6 metres (Figure 3) within a broader mineralized zone of 40.3 metres at 0.8 g/t gold (no lower cut) from 256.6 metres. PAL0097 was drilled 30 metres across strike to the east of PAL0093, suggesting structural controls, yet to be fully understood, play a large control in grade distribution. Additional drilling is required to determine the extent and grade distribution of gold mineralization in this area (Figure 6).

intersected gold from 256.6 metres (Figure 3) within a broader mineralized zone of (no lower cut) from 256.6 metres. was drilled 30 metres across strike to the east of suggesting structural controls, yet to be fully understood, play a large control in grade distribution. Additional drilling is required to determine the extent and grade distribution of gold mineralization in this area (Figure 6). Gold mineralization coincides with a conductor from geophysical airborne VTEM data with a down-plunge extent of over 900 metres;

Rumajarvi Prospect

Drilling at Rumajarvi prospect (Figure 7; PAL0109) intersected 7.4 metres at 2.4 g/t gold from 15.6 metres to the north of PAL0037 which intersected 56m @ 0.53 g/t gold with no lower cut, see Mawson News Release March 06, 2017. A new interpretation of VTEM line data indicates undrilled conductive targets over 100 metres deep to the east of current drilling, apparently along strike from the Terry's Hammer intersection above. Further geophysical modelling of geophysical data is required to define the shape and size of this target.

Palokas Prospect

At Palokas (Figure 8), drill hole PAL0110 intersected 4.7 metres at 2.5 g/t gold from 37.6 metres. This hole was drilled at the southern margin of the Palokas prospect and extends mineralization 30 metres further south towards South Palokas.

Terry's Hammer Prospect

Drilling at Terry's Hammer (Figure 9) intersected 4.7 metres at 2.1 g/t gold from 65.7 metres in PAL0099, the first large diameter drill test of a combined remanent magnetic/chargeable/conductive anomaly comprising gold-bearing sulphidic rocks in outcrop. This hole opens up the potential of a new area between South Palokas and Rumajarvi.

The Hut Prospect

A similar remanent magnetic/chargeable/conductive anomaly was targeted (PAL0126) at The Hut (Figure 9), and the first hole into this target intersected gold-bearing sulphides (0.8 metres at 0.6 g/t gold) before the hole was abandoned at 8.9 metres. This drill hole was the first large diameter drill test of a combined remanent magnetic/chargeable/conductive anomaly at the Hut prospect. The hole was stopped at 8.9 metres when drilling ceased at Rajapalot (see Mawson News Release March 23, 2018). Nevertheless, the hole intersected pyrite- and pyrrhotite-bearing mineralized rocks below a thin cover of glacial till.

General Observations

Structural interpretation of new drill core indicates a previously unrecognized early folding event causing regional inversion of the stratigraphy during F1 isoclinal folding. This effectively doubles the available volume of reactive rocks to the hydrothermal gold mineralizing event. The recognition of this early F1 folding event combined with our geophysics data has been instrumental in creating targets along strike to the east and of the Raja prospect and to the northeast of Palokas. Drilling continues at these targets.

Much of the mineralization at Rajapalot consists of sulphide (pyrrhotite>>pyrite), magnetite, biotite, muscovite and chlorite hydrothermal mineral assemblages hosted in predominately grey albitites and muscovite-biotite schists. Iron-and magnesium-rich hydrothermally altered sulphidic rocks are abundant at Palokas, and form local pods or structurally controlled void infills at other prospects. Textures range from veined albitic granofels through fractured and brecciated to locally schistose. Veining and fracture fill minerals include pyrrhotite, magnetite and magnetite-pyrrhotite (+/- quartz). Local retrograde chlorite after biotite and vein-controlled chlorite+/- tourmaline and magnetite are also present. Preliminary hand-held XRF analysis confirms the presence of associated scheelite and molybdenite, the former visible under UV light as tiny veinlets and disseminations. The iron-rich nature of the mineralized rocks is a common theme in either the oxide or sulphide form, with a variably sulphidic and chloritic overprint. The alteration is clearly post-metamorphic, reduced, and most likely driven by granitoid intrusions. Chlorite is regarded as the lowest temperature silicate mineral with gold, structurally controlled in apparent spatial association with quartz and/or K-feldspar veins. Altered rocks enclosing the mineralized package contain locally abundant talc and tourmaline.

Of the 59 holes drilled during the winter program for a total of 13,079 to date, a total of 44 diamond drill holes for 9,838 metres were completed within the Kairamaat 2/3 exploration permit this winter. The Kairamaat 2/3 permit is currently granted but not in legal force while appeals are being heard and therefore drilling ceased this winter three weeks earlier than planned on March 23. The Company is again working with all relevant authorities to be back drilling in Kairamaat 2/3 next winter (late 2018). Three drill rigs continue drilling today at the adjacent Hirvimaa and Raja exploration permit areas and drilling will restart during the 2018 summer at Hirvimaa, Mannisto and Raja exploration permit areas.

Technical and Environmental Background

Five diamond drill rigs from the Arctic Drilling Company OY ("ADC"), Oy Kati Ab ("Kati") and MK Core Drilling OY ("MK"), all with water recirculation and drill cuttings collection systems were used for the drill program. Core diameter is NQ2 (50.7 mm) or WL76 (57.5mm) diameter core. Core recoveries were excellent and average close to 100% in fresh rock. After photographing and logging in Mawson's Rovaniemi facilities, core intervals averaging 1 metre for mineralized samples and 2 metres for barren samples were cut in half at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) core facilities in Rovaniemi, Finland. The remaining half core is retained for verification and reference purposes. Analytical samples were transported by Mawson personnel or commercial transport from site to the CRS Minlab Oy facility in Kempele, Finland. Samples were prepared and analyzed for gold at Kempele using the PAL1000 technique which involves grinding the sample in steel pots with abrasive media in the presence of cyanide, followed by measuring the gold in solution with flame AAS equipment. The QA/QC program of Mawson consists of the systematic insertion of certified standards of known gold content, duplicate samples by quartering the core, and blanks the within interpreted mineralized rock. In addition, CRS inserts blanks and standards into the analytical process.

The qualified person for Mawson's Finnish projects, Dr. Nick Cook, President for Mawson and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining Metallurgy has reviewed and verified the contents of this release.

About Mawson Resources Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, PINKSHEETS:MWSNF)

Mawson Resources Limited is an exploration and development company. Mawson has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic Arctic exploration company with a focus on the flagship Rompas and Rajapalot gold projects in Finland.

On behalf of the Board,



"Michael Hudson"

Michael Hudson, Chairman & CEO

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements Mar 01, 2018in, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although Mawson 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. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements 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, but not limited to, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, planned drill programs and results varying from expectations, delays in obtaining results, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, local community relations, dealings with non-governmental organizations, delays in operations due to permit grants, environmental and safety risks, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mawson's most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. 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, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Table 2: Collar Information from 2018 Winter drilling at the Rajapalot Project (Finnish Grid, Projection KKJ2003)

HoleID East North Azimuth Dip RL Depth Prospect Reported (m) PAL0083 3408879.4 7372218.7 60 60 172.1 101.7 Raja Results Awaited PAL0084 3408480.4 7373564.5 116 65 175.0 191.2 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0085 3408764.2 7372323.9 60 70 173.5 215.7 Raja Mar 01, 2018 PAL0086 3408742.9 7373932.4 116 60 175.0 135.0 Palokas Results Awaited PAL0087 3408764.2 7372324.0 60 50 172.0 241.7 Raja Mar 01, 2018 PAL0088 3408764.2 7372323.9 60 88 173.5 221.5 Raja Here PAL0089 3408438.4 7373589.0 155 60 176.4 169.0 South Palokas Mar 01, 2018 PAL0090 3408590.7 7374004.3 116 74 175.4 320.3 Palokas Results Awaited PAL0091 3408412.0 7373658.1 155 60 176.3 352.8 South Palokas Mar 01, 2018 PAL0092 3408703.1 7372438.0 60 83 174.8 323.9 Raja Results Awaited PAL0093 3408703.1 7372438.0 60 75 174.8 329.8 Raja Mar 01, 2018 PAL0094 3408525.5 7373608.3 116 60 174.2 191.0 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0095 3408590.7 7374004.3 116 88 175.4 370.0 Palokas Results Awaited PAL0096 3408590.4 7373662.5 116 60 173.8 131.0 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0097 3408703.1 7372438.0 60 69 174.8 344.7 Raja Here PAL0098 3408379.1 7373476.6 116 60 173.7 199.9 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0099 3408188.6 7372763.8 110 60 179.7 154.6 Terry's Hammer Here PAL00100 3408703.1 7372438.0 60 62 174.8 343.8 Raja Here PAL00101 3408109.8 7372764.0 105 60 174.0 182.7 Terry's Hammer Results Awaited PAL00102 3408757.7 7374034.7 116 60 176.9 202.7 Palokas Results Awaited PAL00103 3408053.3 7372789.4 105 60 173.4 172.9 Terry's Hammer Results Awaited PAL00104 3408703.1 7372438.0 240 88 174.8 326.7 Raja Results Awaited PAL00105 3407898.2 7372624.5 120 60 173.0 220.9 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0106 3408863.7 7373985.4 130 60 175.2 161.1 Palokas Results Awaited PAL0107 3408775.6 7372487.6 60 70 176.8 335.1 Raja Results Awaited PAL0108 3407960.9 7372405.2 116 60 176.4 226.9 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0109 3407962.1 7372405.1 60 50 176.1 289.9 Rumajarvi Here PAL0110 3408646.1 7373807.1 116 60 174.1 128.2 Palokas Here PAL0111 3408577.4 7372513.9 60 69 178.3 432.3 Raja Here PAL0112 3408288.9 7373153.0 180 55 171.8 221.7 Hut Results Awaited PAL0113 3408532.9 7374097.2 116 70 174.3 20 Palokas Results Awaited PAL0114 3407874.3 7372385.0 116 47 174.7 218.4 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0115 3407903.4 7372520.2 123 48 173.4 320.1 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0116 3408861.0 7372371.6 240 82 173.8 186.7 Raja Results Awaited PAL0117 3408479.3 7373336.5 116 45 172.4 148.9 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0118 3408577.4 7372513.9 60 62 178.3 445.6 Raja Here PAL0119 3408915.9 7372341.2 240 88 172.9 178.2 Raja Results Awaited PAL0120 3408531.3 7373318.5 116 47 171.7 170.1 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0121 3407986.0 7372584.6 116 50 177.5 249 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0122 3408354.0 7373580.0 116 60 174.7 209.6 South Palokas Results Awaited PAL0123 3407939.0 7372655.0 120 60 173.8 198.45 Rumajarvi Results Awaited PAL0124 3408561.5 7372192.0 70 50 173.7 132.6 Raja Results Awaited PAL0125 3408577.4 7372513.9 60 56 178.3 112.5 Raja Results Awaited PAL0126 3408089.0 7373033.2 90 60 173.7 8.9 Hut Here PAL0127 3409496.5 7374569.3 142 50 178.7 157.7 Hirvimaa Results Awaited PAL0128 3410577.1 7372673.7 35 50 150.5 305.7 Regional Results Awaited PAL0129 3409604.1 7372111.5 36 50 151.8 305 Regional Results Awaited PAL0130 3409436.6 7374642.8 142 50 179.4 212 Hirvimaa Results Awaited PAL0131 3410496.2 7372437.2 125 50 145.9 149.4 Regional Results Awaited PAL0132 3409524.4 7371979.3 36 50 163.7 300.1 Regional Results Awaited PAL0133 3410334.0 7373237.0 135 50 175.0 167.3 Regional Results Awaited PAL0134 3409376.7 7374729.6 142 50 182.4 281.2 Hirvimaa Results Awaited PAL0135 3410400.7 7373174.3 135 50 161.5 196.3 Regional Results Awaited PAL0136 3409442.3 7371858.5 216 60 165.5 293.3 Regional Results Awaited PAL0137 3410477 7373094 135 50 159.6 212 Regional Results Awaited PAL0138 3410583 7372990 135 50 156.8 221.2 Regional Results Awaited PAL0139 3409645 7374573 142 50 181.4 139.4 Hirvimaa Results Awaited PAL0140 3409356 7371737 216 60 159.9 in progress Regional Results Awaited PAL0141 3411012 7372821 135 50 160 143.4 Regional Results Awaited PAL0142 3410964 7372857 135 50 163.2 157.3 Regional Results Awaited PAL0143 3409600 7374623 142 50 180.8 in progress Hirvimaa Results Awaited

Table 3: Better intersections from the 2018 Winter Drill Program.

Intersections are reported with a lower cut of 0.5g/t gold over 2 metre lower cut, except where indicated by **. No upper cut-off was applied.

Hole ID Depth

From (m) Depth To

(m) Width (m) Au (g/t) Date Reported PAL0085 124 133.9 9.9 4.1 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0085 137.9 138.9 1.0 0.5 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0085 170 171 1.0 1.7 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0089 86.65 88.65 2.0 1.2 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0089 92.45 93.45 1.0 1.7 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0089 101.2 102.2 1.0 0.6 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0091 145.9 155.8 9.9 2.5 Mar 01, 2018

includes 155 155.8 0.8 19.9 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0091 159.4 160.5 1.1 0.9 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0091 248.6 251.7 3.1 2.3 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0091 256.5 257.4 0.9 0.6 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0093 186 187 1.0 0.6 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0093 244.05 275.7 31.7 8.4 Mar 01, 2018

includes 252.15 263 10.9 21.0 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0093 280.4 281.4 1.0 6.8 Mar 01, 2018 PAL0088 142.0 143.4 1.4 0.6 Here PAL0088 205.0 206.0 1.0 0.6 Here PAL0097 164.0 165.0 1.0 0.7 Here PAL0097 169.6 170.6 1.0 0.7 Here PAL0097 197.0 198.3 1.3 0.7 Here PAL0097 200.3 201.4 1.1 0.6 Here PAL0097 256.6 264.3 7.7 1.5 Here PAL0097 269.3 270.3 1.0 1.5 Here PAL0097 281.3 285.3 4.0 1.9 Here PAL0097 290.5 291.6 1.2 2.5 Here PAL0097 294.8 296.8 2.1 2.7 Here PAL0099 16.7 17.7 1.0 1.2 Here PAL0099 65.7 70.4 4.7 2.1 Here PAL0100 289.0 291.8 2.8 0.8 Here PAL0100 294.0 296.3 2.3 2.9 Here PAL0100 300.0 301.0 1.0 1.4 Here PAL0109 15.6 23.0 7.4 2.4 Here PAL0109 79.2 80.2 1.0 0.6 Here PAL0109 83.2 84.2 1.0 0.6 Here PAL0110 25.2 26.3 1.1 4.0 Here PAL0110 37.6 42.3 4.8 2.5 Here PAL0118 322.0 329.0 7.0 2.8 Here PAL0118 368.1 391.2 23.1 3.4 Here** Including 381.0 386.0 5.0 12.4 Here Including 381.0 382.6 1.6 37.3 Here PAL0126 6.65 7.5 0.85 0.64 Here

Table 4: Individual assay data from reported drill holes

Hole number Sample

ID From To Length Au ppm PAL0097 259340 158.0 160.0 2.0 0.1 PAL0097 259341 160.0 161.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 259342 161.0 162.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 259343 162.0 163.0 1.0 0.3 PAL0097 259344 163.0 164.0 1.0 0.3 PAL0097 259345 164.0 165.0 1.0 0.7 PAL0097 259346 165.0 166.0 1.0 0.2 PAL0097 259348 166.0 166.9 0.9 0.4 PAL0097 259349 166.9 167.6 0.8 0.0 PAL0097 259352 167.6 168.6 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 259353 168.6 169.6 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 259354 169.6 170.6 1.0 0.7 PAL0097 268352 256.6 257.6 1.0 0.8 PAL0097 268353 257.6 258.5 0.9 0.5 PAL0097 268354 258.5 259.5 1.0 2.1 PAL0097 268355 259.5 260.2 0.7 1.4 PAL0097 261101 260.2 261.3 1.1 4.1 PAL0097 261102 261.3 262.3 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261103 262.3 263.3 1.0 0.7 PAL0097 261104 263.3 264.3 1.0 1.7 PAL0097 261105 264.3 265.3 1.0 0.2 PAL0097 261106 265.3 266.1 0.9 0.2 PAL0097 261107 266.1 267.3 1.2 0.0 PAL0097 261108 267.3 268.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261109 268.3 269.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261110 269.3 270.3 1.0 1.5 PAL0097 261111 270.3 271.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261112 271.3 272.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261113 272.3 273.3 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261114 273.3 274.3 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261115 274.3 275.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261116 275.3 276.3 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261117 276.3 277.3 1.0 0.3 PAL0097 261118 277.3 278.3 1.0 0.2 PAL0097 261119 278.3 280.3 2.0 0.1 PAL0097 261120 280.3 281.3 1.0 0.5 PAL0097 261121 281.3 282.3 1.0 1.7 PAL0097 261122 282.3 283.3 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261123 283.3 284.3 1.0 2.8 PAL0097 261126 284.3 285.3 1.0 3.2 PAL0097 261127 285.3 286.3 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261128 286.3 287.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261130 287.2 288.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261131 288.2 289.2 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261132 289.2 290.5 1.3 0.0 PAL0097 261133 290.5 291.6 1.2 2.5 PAL0097 261134 291.6 292.6 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261135 292.6 293.8 1.2 0.1 PAL0097 261136 293.8 294.8 1.0 0.0 PAL0097 261137 294.8 295.8 1.0 2.8 PAL0097 261138 295.8 296.8 1.1 2.5 PAL0097 261157 315.1 316.0 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261158 316.0 317.0 1.0 0.2 PAL0097 261159 317.0 317.8 0.8 0.0 PAL0097 261160 317.8 318.8 1.0 0.1 PAL0097 261161 318.8 319.8 1.0 0.1 PAL0099 253606 13.7 14.7 1.0 0.4 PAL0099 253608 14.7 15.7 1.0 0.0 PAL0099 253609 15.7 16.7 1.0 0.1 PAL0099 253611 16.7 17.7 1.0 1.2 PAL0099 253613 17.7 18.7 1.0 0.1 PAL0099 253614 18.7 19.7 1.0 0.2 PAL0099 253616 19.7 20.7 1.0 0.0 PAL0099 253617 20.7 21.7 1.0 0.1 PAL0099 253640 43.0 44.0 1.0 0.1 PAL0099 253641 44.0 45.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0099 253642 45.0 46.0 1.0 0.2 PAL0099 253643 46.0 47.0 1.0 0.3 PAL0099 253644 47.0 48.0 1.0 0.5 PAL0099 253662 64.6 65.7 1.1 0.4 PAL0099 253663 65.7 66.7 1.0 0.7 PAL0099 253664 66.7 67.7 1.0 2.5 PAL0099 253666 67.7 68.5 0.9 3.0 PAL0099 253667 68.5 69.5 1.0 3.1 PAL0099 253669 69.5 70.4 0.9 1.2 PAL0100 267854 287.0 288.2 1.2 0.3 PAL0100 267855 288.2 289.0 0.9 0.4 PAL0100 267856 289.0 290.0 1.0 0.6 PAL0100 267857 290.0 291.0 1.0 0.6 PAL0100 267858 291.0 291.8 0.8 1.4 PAL0100 267859 291.8 293.0 1.3 0.0 PAL0100 267860 293.0 294.0 1.0 0.5 PAL0100 267861 294.0 295.0 1.0 1.2 PAL0100 267862 295.0 296.3 1.3 4.1 PAL0100 267864 296.3 297.0 0.7 0.0 PAL0100 267865 297.0 298.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0100 267866 298.0 299.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0100 267867 299.0 300.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0100 267868 300.0 301.0 1.0 1.4 PAL0109 255206 14.6 15.6 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255207 15.6 16.6 1.0 1.1 PAL0109 255208 16.6 17.1 0.5 0.3 PAL0109 255210 17.1 18.0 0.9 1.3 PAL0109 255211 18.0 19.0 1.0 4.4 PAL0109 255212 19.0 20.0 1.0 3.8 PAL0109 255213 20.0 21.0 1.0 0.8 PAL0109 255214 21.0 21.9 0.9 4.5 PAL0109 255215 21.9 23.0 1.1 2.1 PAL0109 255237 69.6 70.6 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255238 70.6 71.1 0.5 0.1 PAL0109 255239 71.1 72.1 1.0 0.0 PAL0109 255240 72.1 73.1 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255241 73.1 74.1 1.0 0.0 PAL0109 255242 77.2 78.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255243 78.2 79.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255244 79.2 80.2 1.0 0.6 PAL0109 255245 80.2 81.6 1.4 0.0 PAL0109 255246 81.6 82.6 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255247 82.6 83.2 0.7 0.1 PAL0109 255248 83.2 84.2 1.0 0.6 PAL0109 255251 84.2 85.2 1.0 0.0 PAL0109 255252 85.2 86.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0109 255254 86.2 87.6 1.4 0.1 PAL0109 255255 87.6 88.8 1.3 0.1 PAL0109 255256 88.8 90.8 2.0 0.1 PAL0109 255257 90.8 92.8 2.0 0.0 PAL0109 255258 92.8 94.8 2.0 0.1 PAL0110 260913 22.1 23.1 1.0 0.4 PAL0110 260915 23.1 24.1 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260916 24.1 25.2 1.1 0.5 PAL0110 260917 25.2 26.3 1.1 4.0 PAL0110 260918 26.3 27.0 0.7 0.0 PAL0110 260919 27.0 28.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260920 28.0 29.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260922 29.0 30.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260923 30.0 31.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260924 31.0 32.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0110 260926 32.0 33.7 1.7 0.0 PAL0110 260927 33.7 34.3 0.6 0.0 PAL0110 260928 34.3 35.3 1.1 0.0 PAL0110 260929 35.3 36.6 1.3 0.3 PAL0110 260931 36.6 37.6 1.0 0.1 PAL0110 260932 37.6 38.6 1.0 1.1 PAL0110 260933 38.6 39.6 1.0 0.8 PAL0110 260934 39.6 40.6 1.0 6.3 PAL0110 260936 40.6 41.6 1.0 2.7 PAL0110 260938 41.6 42.3 0.8 1.5 PAL0110 260939 42.3 43.1 0.8 0.1 PAL0118 263856 319.0 320.0 1.0 0.1 PAL0118 263857 320.0 322.0 2.0 0.0 PAL0118 263858 322.0 324.0 2.0 6.1 PAL0118 263859 324.0 325.6 1.6 0.1 PAL0118 263860 325.6 327.0 1.4 1.6 PAL0118 263861 327.0 328.0 1.0 1.7 PAL0118 263862 328.0 329.0 1.0 3.0 PAL0118 263863 329.0 330.4 1.4 0.3 PAL0118 263864 330.4 331.6 1.2 0.2 PAL0118 263884 363.0 364.1 1.1 0.1 PAL0118 263885 364.1 365.3 1.2 0.0 PAL0118 263886 365.3 367.1 1.8 0.1 PAL0118 263887 367.1 367.5 0.4 0.1 PAL0118 263888 367.5 368.1 0.6 0.2 PAL0118 263890 368.1 370.0 1.9 1.9 PAL0118 263892 370.0 371.0 1.0 4.4 PAL0118 263893 371.0 372.0 1.0 0.2 PAL0118 263894 372.0 373.4 1.4 0.0 PAL0118 263895 373.4 374.3 0.9 1.4 PAL0118 263896 374.3 375.2 0.9 1.4 PAL0118 263898 375.2 376.2 1.0 0.1 PAL0118 263900 376.2 377.1 0.9 0.4 PAL0118 261177 377.1 378.4 1.3 0.2 PAL0118 261179 378.4 379.7 1.3 0.3 PAL0118 261180 379.7 381.0 1.3 0.4 PAL0118 261181 381.0 381.9 0.9 3.8 PAL0118 261183 381.9 382.6 0.7 80.3 PAL0118 261184 382.6 384.0 1.4 0.3 PAL0118 261185 384.0 385.0 1.0 0.9 PAL0118 261186 385.0 386.0 1.0 0.9 PAL0118 261187 386.0 387.0 1.0 0.2 PAL0118 261188 387.0 388.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0118 261189 388.0 389.0 1.0 2.4 PAL0118 261190 389.0 390.0 1.0 0.4 PAL0118 261191 390.0 391.2 1.2 0.5 PAL0126 263837 5.0 6.0 1.0 0.0 PAL0126 263838 6.0 6.7 0.7 0.0 PAL0126 263839 6.7 7.5 0.9 0.6 PAL0126 263840 7.5 8.9 1.4 0.0

SOURCE Mawson Resources Ltd.

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DENVER, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC) will release its 2018 first quarter earnings before the market opens on Thursday, May 3, 2018. MDC will host a teleconference the same day at 12:30 pm ET. The live teleconference will be available by calling 866-816-5116 and entering Conference ID # 5593988. A replay of the teleconference will be available through June 3, 2018 by calling 855-859-2056 and entering Conference ID # 5593988.

A webcast of the teleconference will be available live at www.mdcholdings.com, and beginning two hours after the call, a replay of the webcast will be available on the website.

About M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1972. MDC's homebuilding subsidiaries, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American Dream for more than 195,000 homebuyers since 1977. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in each home its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Northern Colorado, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Orlando, Jacksonville, South Florida, Seattle and Portland. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. MDC's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC" For more information, visit http://ir.richmondamerican.com/.

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global medical device testing services market size is expected to reach USD 13.4 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period. Increasing spending in preclinical phase of medical devices coupled with growing outsourcing rate is anticipated to help the market gain significant traction.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg )



Surging demand for in-vitro test is also projected to fuel demand for testing services as many CROs are developing novel in-vitro methods to replace traditional in-vivo methods, which require animal testing. Improvements in procedures for development and standardization of novel in vitro test methods, particularly for sensitization, cytotoxicity, and irritation, are also working in favor of the market.

There has been a significant increase in preclinical spending for both pharmaceutical and medical devices. This trend is estimated to contribute to the demand for testing services by medical device companies.

Stringent regulatory standards pertaining to user safety are supporting growing trend of outsourcing medical device testing services. Increasing demand for good quality products is poised to further trigger the demand for testing services by medical device companies. These companies are constantly trying to comply with stringent regulatory norms put forth by authorities across the globe.

A significant consolidation in the CRO space has been observed in recent years. For instance, in October 2017, Sterigenics International LLC acquired Toxikon Europe N.V., the European division of Toxikon Corporation, to strengthen its preclinical service portfolio for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Medical Device Testing Services Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Microbiology & Sterility Testing, Chemistry, Biocompatibility), By Phase (Preclinical, Clinical), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-device-testing-services-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

The global biocompatibility testing market is anticipated to reach USD 4.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 11.3% from 2017 to 2025

by 2025, at a CAGR of 11.3% from 2017 to 2025 In terms of service, the chemistry test segment is likely to show the fastest growth during the forecast period

In terms of development phase, preclinical testing held the largest market share in 2016. The segment will continue to dominate the market throughout the forecast period, accounting for about two third of the overall revenue by 2025.

Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the medical device testing service market during the forecast period. The regional market will post a CAGR of over 12.0% during the same period. Europe and North America held remarkable cumulative share in 2016 owing to well established manufacturing infrastructure for high end and complex medical devices

is expected to dominate the medical device testing service market during the forecast period. The regional market will post a CAGR of over 12.0% during the same period. and held remarkable cumulative share in 2016 owing to well established manufacturing infrastructure for high end and complex medical devices The market is partially consolidated and competitive in nature. Some of the key companies present in the market are Toxikon, Inc.; SGS SA; Eurofins Scientific, LLC; Intertek Group plc; WuXi AppTec, Pace Analytical Services, NORTH AMERICAN SCIENCE ASSOCIATES INC.; Sterigenics International LLC; Charles River Laboratories International Inc.; American Preclinical Services; and Medical Device Testing Services.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Surgical Incision Closure Market - Surgical incision closure market is expected to register significant growth over the forecast period.

Air Ambulance Services Market - The global air ambulance services market size was valued at USD 3.7 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.3% over the forecast period.

Thermometer Market - The global thermometer market size was valued at USD 769.3 million in the year 2016

Mortuary Equipment Market - The global mortuary equipment market size was valued at USD 678.7 million in 2016.

Grand View Research has segmented the global medical device testing services market report on the basis of service, phase, and region:

Medical Device Testing Services Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Biocompatibility Tests Chemistry Test Microbiology & Sterility Testing Bioburden Determination Pyrogen & Endotoxin testing Sterility Test & Validation Antimicrobial Activity Testing Package Validation

Medical Device Testing Services Phase Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Preclinical Clinical

Medical Device Testing Services Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe France Germany Asia Pacific Japan China India Latin America Brazil Mexico MEA South Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/healthcare

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

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Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

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During the episode titled "Beware: Avoiding hidden antitrust dangers," Cleveland antitrust attorneys Jennifer Dowdell Armstrong and Christopher Dean sit down with host Mike Witzke to discuss the hidden dangers regarding antitrust violations that businesses must be aware of, such as algorithmic pricing, merger review and per se offenses. Armstrong and Dean also discuss why small and mid-sized businesses must be aware that civil and criminal antitrust concerns are not only an issue for large corporations.

To listen to this and previous episodes, subscribe to the podcast or sign-up to receive announcements when new episodes of MH Business Exchange are released, listeners may visit mcdonaldhopkins.com/podcasts.

About McDonald Hopkins

Founded in 1930, McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm with locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, and West Palm Beach. With more than 50 service and industry teams, the firm has the expertise and knowledge to meet the growing number of legal and business challenges our clients face. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com.

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http://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com


TAMPA, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Miss America's Outstanding Teen announces that its national titleholder, Jessica Baeder, has accepted an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. "In joining the Long Gray Line, I am honored to continue the military legacy of my father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who all served in the military," says Baeder. "This has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl."

Miss America's Outstanding Teen Jessica Baeder has accepted an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. She is also the recipient of a $35,500 scholarship from Miss America's Outstanding Teen. In addition to military leadership training, she plans to pursue an engineering degree with an emphasis on biomedical sciences. In a picture taken for her 5th grade "Career Day" Baeder wore her father's beret, ranger t-shirt and a lab coat decorated with her father's military insignia. "In joining the Long Gray Line, I am honored to continue the military legacy of my father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who all served in the military," says Baeder, who is the reigning Miss America's Outstanding Teen. She will attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this fall for military leadership training.

Baeder was especially influenced by her father, Patrick, who was an Army Ranger and was serving with the much-celebrated 10th Mountain Division in New York when she was born. Her grandfather was a career soldier in the U.S. Army Special Forces and a founding member of the elite Delta Force unit, where he served for more than 35 years, with an additional decade of service with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Baeder, an 18-year-old honors student at Auburn High School in Auburn, Alabama, will attend the Academy this fall for military leadership training and plans to pursue an engineering degree with an emphasis on biomedical sciences.

Since being named Miss America's Outstanding Teen last summer, she has traveled the country speaking to audiences about her platform "Healthy Food For All" and acting as the official National Teen Goodwill Ambassador for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. A passionate advocate for healthy lifestyles and the reduction of food insecurity, she serves as the only teen member of the Task Force to End Child Hunger in Alabama. Baeder is also on the national Alliance to End Hunger Committee, teaches Fit for Life lessons at schools, and runs Jessica's Pantry, a food drive initiative that supplements summer lunch programs for low-income children in her home state.

Baeder was nominated for admission to West Point by Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers (AL-03) and United States Senator Richard Shelby. "Jessica is truly an outstanding young woman," said Congressman Rogers. "I was happy to nominate her for West Point, and I think she will make the State of Alabama proud."

Baeder was also awarded a $35,500 scholarship from Miss America's Outstanding Teen provided by the Harris Rosen Foundation and the Orlando Scholarship Foundation, Inc. "Jessica serves as a wonderful role model for all young people and embodies the Miss America's Outstanding Teen organization's values of positive achievement and community involvement," says Donna Bozarth, Founder and Chair of the Board, Miss America's Outstanding Teen. "We believe that education is key to an individual's success and are proud to have become one of the top scholarship providers for teen girls in the United States. We commend Jessica for choosing a path that highlights not only her strength of character, but also a commitment to her country."

"There is no doubt that the emphasis that the Miss America's Outstanding Teen and Miss America programs place on service, community engagement, scholastic achievement, physical fitness and leadership skills prepared me well," says Baeder. "I look forward to serving my country to the best of my ability."

About Miss America's Outstanding Teen

Miss America's Outstanding Teen, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is one of the nation's leading achievement programs. The MAOTeen organization encourages positive achievement by helping to nurture and build the scholastic achievement, creative accomplishment, healthy living and community involvement of our nation's young women. MAOTeen provides educational scholarships for deserving young people and has developed mentoring programs and community-based initiatives across the country. Miss America's Outstanding Teen has a long-standing relationship with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals; through this partnership, MAOTeen contestants raise over $450,000 annually to help improve the lives of CMNH children and families. Additional information about Miss America's Outstanding Teen can be found at www.maoteen.org

Media Contact:

NouSoma Communications, Inc.

Ellen Langas, 610-658-5889, 610-256-2946 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Miss America's Outstanding Teen

Related Links

http://www.maoteen.org


GREENFIELD, Mass., April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The registered nurses of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, are preparing to take a series of actions this week in support of safe patient care as they hold a 24-hour strike and Baystate threatens to lock nurses out of their hospital for an additional two days.

"Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurses want to be inside our hospital caring for our patients with the resources they need and deserve," said RN Donna Stern, Senior Co-Chair of the BFMC RN Bargaining Committee. "Instead Baystate is forcing us to strike for 24 hours to advocate for safe patient care.

"On top of that, Baystate is using public money to lock our own nurses out before our strike and for two days afterward," Stern said. "Executives will be paying replacement nurses from around the country instead of allowing our nurses, who know our patients and our community, to provide care at our hospital."

Tuesday, April 10

Rally 6-8 p.m. in front of the main entrance of the hospital. Nurses who are preemptively locked out by Baystate will exit at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 11

One-day strike begins at 7 a.m. Picketing from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with rallies at noon and 5 p.m.

Thursday, April 12

Rally for nurses trying to return to work at 7 a.m. One-day strike ends.





One-day strike ends. Starting at 10 a.m. nurses and community members will take part in a "Community Day"  cleaning up the parks and streets around BFMC





nurses and community members will take part in a "Community Day"  cleaning up the parks and streets around BFMC Rally at 5 p.m. outside BFMC and picket until 8 p.m.

Friday, April 13

A "Baystate Bankers, Bigwigs and Business Owners Brigade" starting at 11 a.m. The tour will take nurses and community supporters to Baystate Corporate offices in Springfield and five businesses owned or operated by trustees.





The tour will take nurses and community supporters to Baystate Corporate offices in and five businesses owned or operated by trustees. Rally from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. outside BFMC. Nurses will walk returning nurses into work when Baystate's lock out is schedule to end.

On March 26, BFMC nurses provided the hospital more than the 10-days' strike notice required by law. A 24-hour strike is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, April 11 and end at 7 a.m. on Thursday, April 12 unless Baystate agrees to a fair contract that improves nurse staffing and patient care conditions.

Baystate has threatened to lock out BFMC nurses starting at 7 p.m. on April 10 and continuing until 7 p.m. on April 13.

For more information on nurse negotiations, including details on their current patient care and staffing proposal, visit www.massnurses.org/Baystate.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses Instagram.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org


In a recent study conducted by YouGov, 42 percent of women reported that the pain of their monthly menstrual cramps is so debilitating that it regularly interferes with their ability to do work. With that in mind, Nannocare was established to present women with a safe alternative to drugs or medication which may aid in naturally relieving menstrual discomfort. Nannocare 's proprietary NannoPad contains Nannogenic technology which is engineered using natural fibers containing organically occurring earth elements broken into nanno particles. These nanno particles naturally and safely work with your body to emit a needed amount of molecular vibrational energy into the body which may increase blood flow. Through increasing microcirculation within the body, over 75% of women tested via our in-house study found NannoPad effective for menstrual cramp relief. Nannogenic technology also purifies the area around the pad from bacteria which has been proven to decrease odor.

Beyond offering a never-before-seen solution and that seeks to reduce cramping, the NannoPad was also designed with comfort in mind. All Nannocare products are made with 100% OCS Certified Organic Cotton giving the product a soft, comfortable feel without causing itching, rashes or irritation. Each ultra-absorbent layer of cotton works to firmly lock in even the heaviest of flows. For those who are not regular pad users, consumers are able to safely to use NannoPad pantyliners in conjunction with their usual tampons or menstrual cups. To achieve optimum results, it is recommended that consumers begin using the NannoPad system in the week leading up to their period.

The NannoPad range is available in the following size options to meet a wide array of consumer needs:

NannoPad Pantyliners are for users experiencing their lightest flow; available in an 18-unit pack for $7

are for users experiencing their lightest flow; available in an 18-unit pack for NannoPad Regulars are for mid-range flows; available in a 20-unit pack for $12

are for mid-range flows; available in a 20-unit pack for NannoPad Supers are for those experiencing a heavy flow; available in a 20-unit pack for $14

are for those experiencing a heavy flow; available in a 20-unit pack for Our NannoPad Multi-Pack contains 18 Pantyliners, 12 Regular Pads, and 6 Super Pads; available for $19

Nannocare products can currently be purchased online through the company's website. Users can opt in to Nannocare's customizable monthly subscription service to receive their first multi-pack box of NannoPads free of cost. Products are also available for one-time purchase. For additional information or to purchase Nannocare's product range, please visit www.nannocare.com.

About Nannocare

Nannocare seeks to provide women with an innovative solution which may aid in the alleviation of pain caused by menstrual cramping. Through incorporating cutting edge Nannogenic technology into our products, they present women with a holistic alternative to drugs and medication. Though Nannogenic technology is new to American consumers, aspects of this technology have been widely practiced by Eastern medical practitioners for hundreds of years. All Nannocare NannoPad products are carefully crafted with hypoallergenic, ultra-absorbent 100% OCS Certified Organic Cotton. Nannocare's product range has been tested in house through surveying the results of 244 participants that used the NannoPad over a 2-month time period. All Nannocare products are produced by an accredited FDA approved manufacturer and have been tested for safety by university labs. For additional information or to purchase Nannocare's product range, please visit www.nannocare.com.

SOURCE Nannocare

Related Links

http://www.nannocare.com


LEXINGTON, Ky., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Naspo ValuePoint, the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting, is announcing the new office furniture contract. The portfolio for these services has increased to a total of six contractors that includes Allsteel, Haworth, Herman Miller, Krueger International (KI), Steelcase, and The HON Co. Benefits include a fixed discount percentage and environmentally-preferred products available in all product categories.

The contracts offer states, local governments, public school districts, and higher education institutions a Master Agreement for office furniture and related installation and design services. In this re-solicited contract portfolio for NASPO ValuePoint, the sourcing team established terms up to five years.

The RFP was led by the State of Utah and developed with sourcing team participation from six states: Utah, Minnesota, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and South Carolina. They received 26 proposals for evaluation and scoring. Access the Office Furniture State Rollout Webinar here: naspovaluepoint.org/#/contract-details/96/overview/general

The RFP allowed for multiple vendor awards based on a minimum technical point threshold which successful offerors were required to meet, as well as mandatory minimum requirements for both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) qualifications and product qualifications. Evaluation of costs was the final stage. The RFP included product categories for:

Workspace Furniture  the following three categories grouped together to allow options for coordinating furniture:

Systems Furniture and Accessories



Desks/Tables and Accessories



Filing and Storage and Accessories

Desks/Tables and Accessories

Filing and Storage and Accessories

Seating and Accessories

Category and Vendor awards are as follows:

Workspace Desks and Tables Filing and Storage Seating  Systems Furniture and Accessories  Desks/Tables and Accessories  Filing and Storage and Accessories Allsteel Krueger (KI) Krueger (KI) Haworth Herman Miller



Allsteel Steelcase



Herman Miller The HON Co.



Steelcase





Krueger (KI)

Key benefits of new agreements are highlighted below:

Workspace product category awarded to allow for comprehensive planning solutions. New vendors available for the desks and tables, filing and storage, and seating categories. Maintained favorable discounting from national manufacturers offering a broad selection of office furniture solutions; states may negotiate deeper discounting. Environmentally-preferred products available in all product categories. Fixed discount percentage off price list firm for five years. Master Agreements awarded to qualified original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their Authorized Dealers within each state will provide customer service, sales service, warranty service, design service, and installation service.

About NASPO ValuePoint

NASPO ValuePoint is a unified, nationally-focused cooperative aggregating the demand of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the organized US territories, their political subdivisions and other eligible entities spurring best value, innovation and competition in the marketplace. The NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization (formerly WSCA-NASPO) provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting. By leveraging the leadership and expertise of all states with the purchasing power of their public entities, NASPO ValuePoint delivers best value, reliable, competitively-sourced contracts. Since 1992 NASPO ValuePoint has been the cooperative purchasing arm of NASPO (the National Association of State Procurement Officials) encouraging, fostering and guiding the nation's most significant public contract cooperative.

Contact:

Amanda Graves

[email protected]

(859) 514-9824

SOURCE NASPO ValuePoint

Related Links

http://naspovaluepoint.org


WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of National Small Business Week, April 29  May 5, the U.S. Small Business Administration and SCORE, mentors to America's small businesses, will host the first-ever National Small Business Week Virtual Conference. The conference will include educational webinars, mentoring sessions and business resources. National Small Business Week cosponsors Visa, Chase for Business, Constant Contact, Google and Square will host webinars. The webinars are free of charge, but registration is required.

NSBW 2018  Virtual Conference Schedule:

1. How Changing Consumer Behavior Impacts Your Business

Presented by Google

May 1, 2018

1-2 p.m. EDT

Technology allows you to understand consumer behavior better than ever. Join this webinar to learn how these insights can help shape your digital marketing plan, and what you can do to position your business for success.

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

2. Get New and Repeat Business on Autopilot with Email Marketing

Presented by Constant Contact

May 1, 2018

4-5 p.m. EDT

Your business thrives on bringing in sales from new and existing customers. Wouldn't it be great if you could bring in those sales more frequently without having to spend a lot of time doing so? In this webinar by Constant Contact, we'll show you some simple ways to repeatedly reach customers with email marketing.

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

3. The U.S. Economic Outlook and Its Impact on Small Businesses

Presented by Visa

May 2, 2018

1-2 p.m. EDT

Join Visa's Senior U.S. Economist Jay Hawkins as he shares the near-term outlook for the U.S. economy including the health of consumer spending, housing prices, and more. You'll learn how consumer spending preferences are changing, what stock market growth and volatility mean for consumer spending, and what all of this means for small businesses.

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

4. Grow Your Business in 2018

Presented by Square

May 2, 2018

4-5 p.m. EDT

Join this webinar by Square to learn how to use small business technology tools to streamline your work and give you back valuable time

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

5. Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints & Keep Your Customers

Presented by Chase for Business

May 3, 2018

1-2 p.m. EDT

In this webinar sponsored by Chase, Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert, reveals brand-new, proprietary research into why and where your customers complain, and why the rise of customer complaints is actually an enormous opportunity.

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

6. Sharing Your Story Through Video

Presented by Google

May 3, 2018

2:30-3:30 p.m. EDT

Today's consumers can watch video content whenever and wherever they want. This creates an opportunity for businesses to reimagine the role of video content in their marketing strategy. Join this webinar to learn best practices for connecting with consumers through online video.

Register here

https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week/virtual-conference

Additional National Small Business Week cosponsors Lockheed Martin, National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders (NAGGL), UPS Store, Raytheon, Verizon, DexYP/Thryv, Salesforce, Facebook, Main Street Hub and Comcast Business will host booths during the Virtual Conference.

For additional information on National Small Business Week, please visit http://www.sba.gov/nsbw.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start and grow their businesses. It delivers services to people through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Cosponsorship Authorization #SBW2018 SBA's participation in this cosponsored activity is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products or services of any Cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA/SCORE programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Contact: [email protected]

Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs & Instagram

Release Number: 18-24

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

Related Links

http://www.sba.gov


WESTLAND, Mich., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Summertime and family reunions go hand-in-hand, and that's no exception for the hundreds of Palestinian Americans, who have been living in diaspora for more than 60 years, and who plan to attend their family reunion in their ancestral city of Ramallah, Palestine, July 4-7, 2018.



The 60th Annual American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine (AFRP  www.afrp.org) Convention will take place in Ramallah, located 10 miles north of Jerusalem. Each year, the AFRP hosts the annual convention/family reunion in a U.S. city populated by large numbers of Ramallahites. This is the second reunion held in the family's ancestral homeland of Palestine. The first was held in 2014.



The attendees include immigrants  now naturalized U.S. citizens, and up to fourth-generation, are the descendants of five brothers whose family settled and founded the Christian city of Ramallah in the early 1500s. During the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948, and following the creation of Israel, many fled to the U.S. hoping to return. However, subsequent wars and conflicts in Palestine prevented families from returning, and most became U.S. citizens who are successful, productive and contributing members of their communities.



Today, there are more than 40,000 descendants of the five brothers living in the U.S., with approximately 10 percent of the original family living in Ramallah.



"Traveling nearly 6,500 miles to attend a family reunion is in itself unique but going back to the place where our ancestors started it all and reconnecting with aunts, uncles, and cousins from throughout the U.S., gives you a sense of connectivity, being united with each other and our land," said Najwa Baba, a first-generation Arab American from San Francisco, California.



Convention Committees  one in Ramallah and one U.S.based, have been planning the reunion for more than a year. Events include a welcome dinner, a parade through Ramallah, nightly "haflehs," or parties celebrating traditional singing and dancing, etc. Following the reunion, sightseeing tours of the Palestinian territories including Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, will take place.



"We are excited to go back home to Ramallah and celebrate with our families near and far," said Dr. Hanna G. Hanania, current President of the AFRP. "While we live in diaspora, our hearts and our deep roots are forever in Ramallah. This is an opportunity for our children to see firsthand, their ancestral homeland and participate in our traditions and culture."

SOURCE American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine

Related Links

https://afrp.org


Offering a diverse set of solutions for marketers, publishers and agencies, NetLine provides a lead generation platform that leverages the largest B2B content syndication network to drive repeatable and scalable lead generation success. Using predictive technologies and hyper-targeting capabilities, marketers can leverage NetLine to drive pipeline for their organization or to fit their clients' needs.

NetLine achieved the Leader rating on the Spring 2018 Grid and Index reports by receiving positive reviews, from verified users compared to similar products in the Lead Capture Software category. For inclusion in the report a product must have received ten or more reviews.

NetLine CEO and Founder, Robert Alvin shared his thoughts on the recognition from G2 Crowd and clients, "We are excited and honored to be recognized as a Leader in Lead Capture by our customers and G2 Crowd. Feedback from our clients drives us in our approach to innovation in lead generation solutions. Through relationships with clients and shared vision to democratize lead generation, our technology helps all marketers give their content and brand a voice."

This distinction follows a recent release of several enhancements to the NetLine Portal. Interactive and dynamic reporting features provide marketers with complete control and visibility into campaign performance. With greater quantity and ease of use for analyzing data, marketers are empowered to optimize campaigns based upon real-time consumption data. Impressions are part of this data, showing content marketers how their content is resonating with the larger audience footprint that sits outside of the target profile.

Between the recent updates and the ongoing commitment to customer-focused solutions, NetLine demonstrates the fundamentals of the G2 Crowd qualifications for this recognition.

"Rankings on G2 Crowd reports are based on data provided to us by real users," said Michael Fauscette, chief research officer, G2 Crowd. "We are excited to share the achievements of the products ranked on our site because they represent the voice of the user and offer terrific insights to potential buyers around the world."

Learn more about what real users have to say (or leave your own review of NetLine) on G2 Crowd's NetLine Corporation review page!

About NetLine Corporation:

NetLine Corporation empowers B2B Marketers with the reach, technology, and expertise required to drive scalable lead generation results and accelerate the sales funnel. Operating the largest B2B content syndication lead generation network, NetLine reaches 125 million unique visitors and processes more than 700 thousand leads monthly across 300 industry sectors. NetLine's AudienceTarget technology drives prospect discovery, quality customer lead acquisition, and buyer engagement from real prospect intent as professionals consume content directly across the network. Superior quality, on demand access, and advanced campaign reports enable all clients to achieve lead generation success. Founded in 1994, NetLine is privately held and headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Successful B2B Marketers Start with NetLine, visit www.netline.com.

About G2 Crowd

G2 Crowd, the world's leading business solution review platform, leverages more than 381,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Business professionals, buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software and services based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Every month, more than one million people visit G2 Crowd's site to gain unique insights.

Contact: Elizabeth Van Osten, 215-855-3547, [email protected]

SOURCE NetLine Corporation

Related Links

http://www.netline.com


HOUSTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pioneering wellsite safety experts AIRIS Wellsite Services welcome Joseph Kraham, CIH, CSP as Director of Industrial Hygiene. With more than a decade of industrial hygiene expertise, Kraham's hire strengthens AIRIS' growing industrial hygiene consultancy services.

Based in AIRIS' Houston office, Kraham joins AIRIS' consultancy team at a time when wellsite operators are in urgent need of compliance expertise. Employers have just two months to determine how they'll achieve compliance with stricter standards for employee silica dust exposure. OSHA will begin enforcing the new standards in June 2018.

"As OSHA equips itself for stricter enforcement, we're also equipping our clients with a greater depth of expertise," says AIRIS Vice President & Controller Katie Sallee. "Joseph's experience and expertise reinforces AIRIS' commitment to a harm-free wellsite."

Kraham is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a Certified Safety Professional. He joins AIRIS from Exxon Mobil where he was contracted to a review board to evaluate the company's global silica operations, measuring the impact of respirable crystalline silica on employees at sites around the world.

Breathing silica dust can result in devastating health impacts including chronic lung disease, silicosis and cancer. Overexposure can leave employers vulnerable to citations, fines and lawsuits.

AIRIS is a trusted partner guiding employers on the path to compliance. A Total Dust Control Solution begins with initial monitoring and a gap assessment, mapping where employers are and where they want to be. In his career, Kraham has managed the collection and reporting for thousands of data samples.

After initial meetings with clients, Kraham says, "Employers are not just asking 'how do we achieve compliance?' but 'how do we do the right thing and make sure our people are as protected as possible?' And AIRIS gives them the tools to get there."

Visit airiswellsite.com for the latest on OSHA compliance and to reach an AIRIS solution provider in your area.

About AIRIS

AIRIS Wellsite Services is the market-leading provider of industrial hygiene consulting and silica dust control. AIRIS' Total Dust Control Solution puts wellsite operators and pressure pumpers on the path to total compliance and harm-free wellsites. With regional offices in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, AIRIS provides services throughout the Rocky Mountains, Mid-Continent, Northeast and Texas regions.

Contact:

Katie Sallee

(918) 728-7026

[email protected]

SOURCE AIRIS Wellsite Services

Related Links

http://www.airiswellsite.com


Brookfield Residential, the project's developer, unveiled never-before-seen floorplans for the 1- and 2-bedroom residences at Del Ray Place. Within days of the Grand Opening, all 2-bedroom residences have been sold, leaving only select 1-bedroom residences available.

Those interested in learning more about Del Ray Place can visit DelRayVA.com. They can also call 571.388.3000 or visit the Sales Gallery, open daily at 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue, Suite 208, Alexandria, VA 22301.

Special Grand Opening pricing remains available for a limited time with residences starting from the mid $300's.

Known as "The Mid-Atlantic's Most Innovative Homebuilder," Brookfield Residential has designed each residence with a spacious floorplan, modern finishes and voice-enabled Smart Home automation. Private balconies with neighborhood views are available with select residences.

Del Ray Place will feature a spacious club room for residents, but the best amenity is its location. Residents will have access to all of Del Ray's signature shops and restaurants, as well as new places opening all the time. Fitness centers and recreation areas are within walking distance.

It's less than a mile to Braddock Road Metro Station, and Del Ray Place is just a 10-minute drive from Old Town and a 15-minute drive from Washington, D.C.

About Brookfield Residential

Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. opened its Washington, D.C., division in 1984. Offering an array of home styles, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and active-adult residences, Brookfield Residential understands how families live today. It is why the homebuilder creates communities near great schools and amenities, and also why its homes feature innovative, stylish and current designs. Learn more at BrookfieldDC.com.

Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. is a leading land developer and homebuilder in North America. It entitles and develops land to create master-planned communities, builds and sells lots to third-party builders and operates its own homebuilding division. Brookfield Residential also participates in select, strategic real estate opportunities, including infill projects, mixed-use developments and joint ventures. Further information is available at www.brookfieldresidential.com

Contact: Erin Smith

Phone: 703.240.1700

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Brookfield Residential
JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- From Three Olives Vodka, the original innovator in bold and fun flavors, comes Three Olives Rose Vodka, a new flavored vodka that combines the refreshingly fruity taste of rose wine with signature smooth, crafted vodka. To celebrate the great taste and mixability of Three Olives Rose Vodka, the brand has teamed up with Betches Media, the satirical socially-driven authority behind the "rose all day" lifestyle to collaborate on custom social content, limited-edition merchandise and events rolling out all summer long.

Just as Three Olives Vodka celebrates those who seek out unique and fun moments of self-expression, Betches' multimedia platform empowers millions of millennials to keep it real and embrace life's challenges with a sense of humor. Throughout the summer, Three Olives and Betches Media will collaborate on custom social content, including a rose vs. vodka rap battle music video, limited edition merchandise for sale at Shop Betches and a special appearance at AEG's Day Club party in Palm Springs during the country's hottest music festival.

"If vodka, rose and summer had a baby, their love child would be called Vose," said Jordana Abraham, Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of Betches Media. "Summer is a type of feeling, not a season, and that feeling begins when you pop your favorite bottle of rose vodka. We are always looking for a great way to upgrade our fun, and we'll be saying 'yes way Vose' this summer to our very own cocktail creation, Three Olives Rose Vodka with a splash of prosecco."

Three Olives Rose Vodka is delicious sipped over ice or with a splash of club soda, and at 30% ABV is extremely mixable in a variety of day-party and cocktail party drinks, from frose to sangria and spritzers. In addition to content and events with Betches Media, the brand will collaborate with the refreshingly honest actress and star of the upcoming rom com "I Feel Pretty", Busy Philipps, to showcase her rose all day and night style and a unique take on cocktails made with Three Olives Rose Vodka.

Now available nationwide, Three Olives Rose Vodka is priced at $17.99 per 750mL bottle. Visit www.threeolives.com for recipe ideas that are anything but basic and visit Shopbetches.com to shop limited edition merchandise and celebrate rose all day and all night.

Rose all day and all night with these refreshing drinks made with Three Olives Rose Vodka:

Frose Vose

1.5 parts Three Olives Rose Vodka

.75 part lemon juice

.75 part grapefruit juice

.75 part raspberry or simple syrup

.75 part dry vermouth

Ice

Red, White and Rose

1 part Three Olives Rose Vodka

Top with soda water

2 dash Peychaud's bitters

Spritz & Giggles

1 part Three Olives Rose Vodka

1 part bitter orange liqueur

3 parts sparkling wine

1 part soda bar

About Three Olives Vodka

Launched in 1998, Three Olives Vodka is the ultimate expression of creativity in an imported premium vodka brand. Inspired by the classic vodka martini served garnished with olives, Three Olives is made from the finest wheat harvested in England and undergoes quadruple distillation and filtration to produce a smooth and elegant taste that serves as the base for our highly mixable flavored offerings. Three Olives offers a classic, unflavored vodka as well as more than 20 distinct flavors. Visit threeolives.com for more information.

About Betches Media

Betches Media is a multi-platform media company for millennial women to experience comedy and empowerment in an honest environment. Founded in 2011 by Cornell University alumni Aleen Kuperman (CEO), Samantha Fishbein (COO) and Jordana Abraham (CCO), the company was launched as a blog with the core column "Betches Love This." Betches has since expanded to become a robust, digital destination that boasts a strong social media presence through their cult Instagram, @Betches, two New York Times bestselling books, e-commerce platform Shop Betches, an upcoming animated show on Comedy Central titled "Betches," and vast editorial content including multiple pop culture, political and news-centric podcasts and video.

SOURCE Three Olives Vodka

Related Links

http://threeolives.com


ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NSF International, a global organization with more than 70 years of independent testing, auditing and certification expertise, including extensive experience in the automotive supply chain, has appointed Scott Dunfee Global Managing Director of Automotive Certification. Dunfee brings more than 20 years of insurance, technical leadership and repair expertise to NSF International.

NSF International provides oversight and accountability to the automotive parts and repair industry by ensuring manufacturers, distributors, repair shops and recyclers provide high-quality products and services at each step of the supply chain. As Global Managing Director, Dunfee will oversee NSF International's automotive certification programs working closely with automotive parts manufacturers, distributors, collision repair shops, automotive recyclers and insurers.

"Scott's extensive insurance and aftermarket parts and service expertise will help address the needs of NSF International clients and other stakeholders throughout the automotive supply chain, while expanding services both in the U.S. and globally," said Bob Frayer, Sr. Global Managing Director of Automotive Certification at NSF International. "Scott is the ideal fit for this position and I look forward to working with him to grow and advance the program."

Prior to joining NSF International, Dunfee worked 23 years for Nationwide Insurance. During his tenure with Nationwide's material damage claims operation, Dunfee played a leading role in the development and implementation of several key automotive parts and distributor-based initiatives. Most recently, he successfully served as a Material Damage Claims Director in the insurer's centralized claims operation.

"I am excited about the opportunity and look forward to working with Bob, his team and an organization so committed to protecting public health and safety on a global scale," said Dunfee.

For media inquiries, please contact Thomas Frey, APR, at +1.734.214.6242 or email [email protected].

About NSF International: Founded in 1944, NSF International is an independent global organization that writes standards, and tests and certifies products for the automotive, food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects and protect the environment. In addition to NSF's automotive certification programs, the company is one of the world's largest automotive registrars to IATF 16949 via NSF International Strategic Registrations (NSF-ISR).

SOURCE NSF International

Related Links

http://www.nsf.org


It is well-known that an omnichannel sales approach has become a buzzword in payment technology. It's importance in guaranteeing complete, integrated customer experience is something vital to today's market and N&TS GROUP has responded to this need with their ability to process omnichannel transactions with simplicity and security. Their turnkey payment software solutions are modular, secure, scalable and deployable worldwide, even in the most complex scenarios, as licenses, hosted licenses or managed services. All solutions can be integrated with their Fraud Prevention solution, which is also available as a stand-alone product.

N&TS GROUP boasts a unique multi-acquiring configuration which allows real-time management of acquiring services, enabling significant cost savings and maximum return on investment. A firm commitment to security and compliance makes N&TS GROUP stand out from the crowd, as they are the first provider in the world to be certified for Point-to-Point Encryption (PSPE), along with level 1 PCI DSS and PCI PA-DSS compliance certification.

N&TS GROUP is actively seeking partnerships, their partner program directed to Companies requiring white-labeled software solutions, as well as Regional and Vertical Market partnerships. The main focus is offering new opportunities by leveraging N&TS GROUP payment solutions to complete Partner offers, addressing the needs of enterprises operating globally as well as integrating multiple devices and manufacturers, payment methods and financial partners in a single agnostic solution.

N&TS GROUP is a leader in the payment processing industry thanks to more than 20 years of experience. They develop electronic payment software applications for everything that concerns the handling of cards as well as channel and device management. N&TS GROUP has a proven history in developing modular solutions designed to support businesses in their international payment processing, with applications seamlessly processing transactions in multiple countries, languages and currencies worldwide. The ability to create and install applications quickly and maintaining consistency with market demands gives them the edge.

N&TS GROUP headquarters are located in Milan and the company has branches in both Europe and North America, with offices in London and Miami.

Please visit the company website at: www.netsgroup.com or contact them at [email protected]

SOURCE N&TS GROUP

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http://www.netsgroup.com


ORLANDO, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nutriband Inc. (OTC: NTRB), a Nevada Corporation, is pleased to announce the acquisition of 4P Therapeutics Inc. on April 5, 2018.

Nutriband has acquired 100% interest in 4P Therapeutics for a total of $1,900,000 payable in both company stock and cash. 4P Therapeutics will receive 250,000 shares of common stock and a cash amount of $400,000. Steven Damon, CEO of 4P Therapeutics, has been appointed to the Nutriband Inc. Board of Directors.

4P Therapeutics will now become the Pharmaceutical and Development arm of Nutriband Inc. with a specific focus on Transdermal and Topical Technologies, prescription drugs and clinical development.

Included in the acquisition of 4P's IP Portfolio is Defent abuse deterrent patch technology, an opioid abuse deterrent platform for the transdermal delivery of opioid-based medications. Defent lowers the risk of abuse and misuse, creating a safer treatment for patients.

Nutriband has also acquired 4P's Exenatide transdermal delivery system, currently in Phase I clinical development. If successfully taken through Phase III and to commercialization, it will compete with injectable Exenatide such as Byetta and Bydureon by providing an injection free alternative for patients with type II diabetes.

A Full Pipeline of drugs and technology can be found on 4P's website http://www.4ptherapeutics.com/.

4P Therapeutics is a private company focused on the research and development of novel drug delivery technologies and therapeutics. 4P develops products that meet the needs of patients, physicians and payers. The company has capabilities for developing pharmaceutical products ranging from pre-clinical testing to clinical manufacturing and early stage clinical development (Phase I/II). A key company focus and area of expertise is in the development of transdermal products for currently injected compounds, including proteins, peptides, macromolecules and biologics. Transdermal delivery of commercially available drugs or biologics that are typically delivered via injection has the potential to improve safety, efficacy and therapeutic outcomes associated with these treatments.

Nutriband Inc. appointed Steven Damon to its Board of Directors. Steven Damon has over 30 years of experience with various business roles in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. As well as founding 4P Therapeutics, Steven also maintains an executive leadership role as Vice President for Business and Commercial Development with Femasys an Atlanta based women's health care medtech company. In addition, he serves on the boards of Micron Biomedical, Carmel Bioscience, Temple Therapeutics and Georgia BIO. He actively consults with various companies on strategy, financing and M&A.

Before founding 4P Therapeutics, Steven led the Business Development team at Atlanta based Altea Therapeutics as the company's Senior Vice President of Business Development. He founded and was President of Absorbable Polymers International a Birmingham, Alabama company. He was an Executive Director at DURECT Corporation in Cupertino California where he led Business Development activities and was responsible for the ALZET research drug delivery pump business. Steve started his life science career with Kimberly-Clark Healthcare (now Halyard Healthcare) with lead responsibilities for commercial development of the healthcare business in Europe and the acquisitions of a number of life science companies and products. Additional activities include industry related speaking engagements, publications and committee participation. Steven has been a long time mentor for the Emory and Georgia Tech Ti:GER program and also participates in other GT student mentoring programs.

Nutriband Inc. appointed Alan Smith Ph.D. as Head of Regulatory and Clinical Operations. Alan Smith, Ph.D., co-founded 4P Therapeutics in 2011 and serves as Vice President, Clinical, Regulatory, Quality, and Operations. Previously, he was with Altea Therapeutics, most recently serving as Vice President, Product Development and Head of Clinical R&D, Regulatory Affairs, and Project Management. At Altea, he led major research and development programs with pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, Amylin, Hospira, Elan, and Novartis. He joined Altea as one of the first employees and spent 12 years growing its multidisciplinary drug delivery research and development organization.



Dr. Smith has 20 years of experience in the research and development of drug and biologic delivery systems, diagnostics and medical devices for treatment and management of diabetes, chronic pain and cardiovascular disease. Prior to joining Altea Therapeutics, he led the development of transdermal glucose monitoring systems at SpectRx, Inc., a publicly traded noninvasive diagnostics company. Dr. Smith received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.

Nutriband Inc.

Nutriband is a unique, result's driven, health and pharmaceutical Company based in Orlando Florida. Unlike traditional health product companies, Nutriband found its start by spotting and targeting a gross and virtually unexplored niche in the market through its method of ingredient delivery. All Nutriband products are based around the science of transdermal / Topical technologies.

http://www.nutriband.com/

About Our Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "expects" and words of similar import, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve both known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including our ability to create, sustain, manage or forecast our growth; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; changes in our business strategy or development plans; competition; business disruptions; adverse publicity and international, national and local general economic and market conditions. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to revise or update any of our forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date hereof.

For more information, contact:

Gareth Sheridan

CEO

Nutriband Inc.

407-880-6810

[email protected]

www.nutriband.com

SOURCE Nutriband Inc.

Related Links

https://nutriband.com


In addition to product manufacturing, the new facility will include a testing lab & technical service center, a microbiological lab, and warehouse & distribution facilities. All equipment has been built and validated to meet or exceed ISO 13485 quality specifications.

CEO of Oliver Products Company, Mike Benevento, had this to say, "On behalf of the global team at Oliver, we are thrilled to open our new facility in Suzhou. Our customer base has grown significantly in the Asia Pacific market, and we are doing all we can to help drive and support their success, including opening this facility in addition to a regional office in Singapore. It's important to me that every Oliver customer, regardless of their location, experiences the same level of technical support and customer service. Investments like these are critical to delivering what our customers need from a global supplier."

Brady Tong, General Manager of Asia for Oliver, also shared his excitement for the new facility, citing the growing population, an increased focus on high quality healthcare, and the demanding regulatory environment. "With quality healthcare in such high demand, there is significant growth for our customers in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries," Tong stated. "Packaging suppliers like Oliver must be prepared to meet this increased demand. This new facility enhances our ability to serve the Asian market with rapid production, and an unwavering commitment to high quality and customer service."

Oliver will host a private grand opening celebration on April 10, 2018 to showcase the new facility. The celebration will include a welcome ceremony, before moving on to a guided plant tour, industry presentations, and a roundtable discussion.

As a part of their global expansion, Oliver is also opening a technical service center & lab in Galway, Ireland, later this year.

About Oliver

Oliver Healthcare Packaging is a leading supplier of pouches, lidding, roll stock, and mounting cards for the global healthcare industry. Our packaging protects medical devices and pharmaceutical products throughout the sterilization, shipment, and storage processes. We offer an extensive portfolio, including specialty products designed to solve tough packaging issues like the award-winning Dispos-a-vent pouch. In addition, Xhale and SealScience adhesives allow for increased productivity, better evidence of seal integrity, and ease of aseptic presentation for improved patient safety. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI (USA) and with manufacturing around the globe, Oliver is ISO 13485 certified. Visit us at www.oliverhcp.com.

SOURCE Oliver

Related Links

http://www.oliverhcp.com


NEW YORK, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Operative, the preferred advertising management technology partner for media companies, today announced a groundbreaking partnership with Mediaocean, the leading software provider for the advertising world. This partnership integrates Operative's media sales platform with Mediaocean's buying platform Prisma - used by all major holding companies and independent agencies today. Media buyers and sellers will now be able to transact electronically and seamlessly between these platforms.

Buyers and sellers alike demand automation, auditability and actionable integrations for faster execution of direct sold IOs and audience-based campaigns. This partnership enables each company's clients to operate more efficiently and smartly. The initial phase of the partnership will:

Streamline negotiation processes between buyers and sellers through electronic delivery of RFPs, proposals, and orders

Remove double entry and potential errors from using disconnected systems

Increase accountability with paperless audit trail tracking

"The marketing landscape has become increasingly fragmented at a time where interoperability is critical in creating an efficient and open market," said Bill Wise, CEO, Mediaocean. "While there are parts of our respective businesses that compete with each other, I am proud of Mediaocean, and applaud Operative for putting those aside to create an integrated solution for the industry. We look forward to this partnership providing solutions to help buyers and sellers work together to achieve larger scale execution, uninhibited by technological barriers."

"Media companies win when they offer the same buying simplicity and scale of Facebook or Google, combined with premium content and audiences. Our partnership with Mediaocean delivers simplicity and scale for our publishers, while providing an automated platform tailored to their business," said Lorne Brown, CEO at Operative. "With Mediaocean, we set the stage for premium media companies and media buyers to transact in a marketplace that is fluid across channels such as digital, Advanced TV and more."

In the future, the partnership will include the ability to send plan details directly through to trafficking and delivery, connect billing modules, and streamline reporting and insights. For more information contact [email protected], or [email protected].

About Mediaocean

Mediaocean is the world's leading media software company that automates every aspect of the advertising workflow - from planning, buying and selling, to analyzing and optimizing, to invoicing and payments. Mediaocean's open cross-media platforms power $140 billion in global media budgets and have unmatched reach and bridge traditional and digital media. Mediaocean serves more than 80,000 users across agencies, advertisers, broadcasters and publishers worldwide. The company employs 950 people worldwide and is part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of software companies. Mediaocean is headquartered in New York with fourteen offices worldwide. Learn more at mediaocean.com, or connect with Mediaocean on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

About Operative

Operative is the preferred broadcast management for linear and digital, and a software partner for over 300 of the world's top media brands, including NBCU, CBS, ABC, AT&T, STARZ, Star India, Seven Australia and Sky. No other software company brings a comparable depth of experience to create truly innovative software that performs across all platforms, revenue models, and business units. Since 2000, Operative has grown to over 1200+ employees in 12 offices around the world and processes more than $40 billion in linear and digital advertising revenue for the best-known companies in the industry. For more information, visit www.operative.com

SOURCE Operative

Related Links

http://www.operative.com


NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced it has further advanced its efforts to gain regulatory recognitions for OTCQX and OTCQB markets, with Blue Sky secondary trading exemptions in 30 states.

Connecticut marks the latest addition to the growing roster of states that recognize the OTCQX and OTCQB markets, following recent exemptions in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Tennessee. Each state has tailored its approach to granting Blue Sky exemptions, using no-action letters, rule changes, administrative orders and existing trading exemptions.

Since the SEC recognized OTCQX and OTCQB as established public markets, OTC Markets Group has worked collaboratively with state regulators to apprise them of the easily accessible, free, public online disclosure of current information provided by companies traded on the OTCQX and OTCQB premium markets. The results since then have been overwhelmingly positive, with 60% of the 50 states now acknowledging the OTCQX Market for the purposes of secondary trading exemptions.

"We appreciate the thoughtful approach taken by each state in recognizing the disclosure provided by companies on our premium markets," said Dan Zinn, OTC Markets Group General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. "OTC Markets Group remains committed to providing easily accessible company and trading information. We look forward to continuing to work with NASAA and individual state regulators as we pursue our goal of securing Blue Sky exemptions across the country."

A breakdown of the 30 states is as follows:

The OTCQX and OTCQB markets have exemptions in 27 states: Alaska , Arkansas , Connecticut , Colorado , Delaware , Georgia , Hawaii , Indiana , Iowa , Louisiana , Maine , Mississippi , Nebraska , New Jersey , New Mexico , Ohio , Oregon , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Utah , Washington , West Virginia , Wisconsin and Wyoming .

3 states solely recognize the OTCQX Market: Idaho , Kansas , and Vermont .

State Blue Sky laws generally help investors make informed decisions by mandating that companies disclose accurate and current information when offering or marketing securities. Regulators and brokers across the country rely on disclosure-based exemptions from individual state Blue Sky laws. Forty-four U.S. states and jurisdictions maintain "Manual Exemptions," which generally allow for secondary trading of qualifying companies as long as certain key information about the company is published in a nationally recognized securities manual or its electronic equivalent. Each state determines which manuals qualify under its rules.

OTC Markets Group continues to be a proponent of transparency and remains actively engaged in having OTCQX and OTCQB recognized by other states that maintain a Blue Sky Manual Exemption. In states without a Manual Exemption, the Company is actively pursuing marketplace exemptions for OTCQX and OTCQB. The Company's outreach focuses on making state regulators aware of the easily accessible current disclosure available on OTCQX and OTCQB securities at www.otcmarkets.com. All state Blue Sky exemptions may be subject to additional conditions under each state's applicable regulations. Contact our Issuer Services department for more information.

About OTC Markets Group Inc.

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.

OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC and SEC regulated ATS.

Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed

Media Contact:

OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected]

Issuer Services:

+1 212.896.4420, [email protected]

SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc.

Related Links

https://www.otcmarkets.com


The campaign, which will run through July, will be displayed on OUTFRONT properties throughout Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, San Antonio and Orlando.

"OUTFRONT Media is thrilled to partner on this exciting, engaging initiative," said Jodi Senese, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at OUTFRONT Media. "Our premium digital assets, in concert with the colorful Mustang logos as visualized by fans, connects the online to the physical and highly visible delivery of out-of-home assets."

Since its introduction more than 50 years ago, Ford Mustang has given enthusiasts the opportunity to personalize their ride in ways that no vehicle has done before. The Pony Personalizer epitomizes the consumer's desire for customization, enabling fans to order prints, clothing, and even a limited-edition grille badge for late model Mustangs, all of which display their personalized logo design. Mustang enthusiasts nationwide, including performance icons such as Ken Block and Vaughn Gittin Jr., and YouTube star David "ThatDudeinBlue" Patterson, are joining in to create their own personalized art.

"There's no better way to celebrate Mustang tradition than to ask our fans to build a customization profile that's uniquely their own," states Corey Holter, Ford car group marketing manager. "This brand has long been about giving Mustang enthusiasts the keys to drive their own experience, and it's through this activation with OUTFRONT Media that we are able to showcase their contribution in a new and meaningful way."

About OUTFRONT Media Inc.

OUTFRONT Media connects brands with consumers outside of their homes through one of the largest and most diverse sets of billboard, transit, and mobile assets in North America. Through its ON Smart Media platform, OUTFRONT Media is implementing digital technology that will fundamentally change the ways advertisers engage people on-the-go.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 202,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.

Website references included in this press release have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

SOURCE OUTFRONT Media Inc.

Related Links

http://www.outfrontmedia.com


SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), the next-generation security company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Israel-based Secdo. The acquisition brings sophisticated endpoint detection and response, or EDR, capabilities  including unique data collection and visualization  to Palo Alto Networks Traps advanced endpoint protection and the Application Framework in order to enhance their ability to rapidly detect and stop even the stealthiest attacks.

Secdo's team of elite engineers will complement the deep security expertise and innovation inside the Palo Alto Networks research and development organization. The company's thread-level approach to data collection and visualization goes far beyond traditional EDR methods, which only collect general event data, hamstringing security operations teams as they try to reconstruct each step of an attack and distinguish malicious activity from normal. Once integrated with Traps and the Palo Alto Networks platform, this rich data will feed into the Logging Service and give applications running in the Palo Alto Networks Application Framework greater precision to visualize, detect and stop cyberattacks.

QUOTES:

"We believe security operations teams need the most advanced and consistent approach to endpoint security. With Secdo's EDR capabilities as part of our platform, we will accelerate our ability to detect and prevent successful cyberattacks across the cloud, endpoint, and network."

- Mark McLaughlin, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks

"We are delighted to join the Palo Alto Networks team. We founded Secdo to dramatically increase visibility for security operations teams to reduce the time it takes to detect and respond to an alert. The combined capabilities of Secdo and Palo Alto Networks will provide customers the capabilities they need to swiftly and accurately detect and respond to cyberattacks."

- Shai Morag, co-founder and CEO of Secdo

The acquisition is expected to close during Palo Alto Networks fiscal third quarter, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

About Secdo

Secdo combines Next-generation Endpoint Detection and Response with Security Automation to provide the only purpose-built solution that force multiplies the productivity of security operations teams' day-to-day, allowing them to get ahead and be proactive in defense. Secdo makes this possible with a patented technology that uses assisted learning combined with the only thread-level visibility to automatically investigate and respond to every alert from any security technology, increasing ROI of current technology investments, resolving staff shortage issues and providing quantifiable risk reduction by cutting the security alert triage, response and remediation process down to seconds.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is the next-generation security company, leading a new era in cybersecurity by safely enabling applications and preventing cyber breaches for tens of thousands of organizations worldwide. Built with an innovative approach and highly differentiated cyberthreat prevention capabilities, our game-changing security platform delivers security far superior to legacy or point products, safely enables daily business operations, and protects an organization's most valuable assets. Find out more at www.paloaltonetworks.com .

Palo Alto Networks, Traps and the Palo Alto Networks logo are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements that are based on Palo Alto Networks management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intention to acquire Secdo; expectations regarding the timing of when the acquisition will be completed; the expected benefits of the acquisition of Secdo to us and customers of Palo Alto Networks and Secdo; and our expectations regarding our combined offerings performing as intended. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including risks associated with new product and subscription releases, including our limited operating history; risks associated with managing our rapid growth; our ability as an organization to acquire and integrate other companies, product or technologies in a successful manner; the risks associated with new products and subscription and support offerings, including the discovery of software bugs; our ability to attract and retain new customers; delays in the development or release of new subscription offerings, or the failure to timely develop and achieve market acceptance of new products and subscriptions as well as existing products and subscription and support offerings; rapidly evolving technological developments in the market for network security products and subscription and support offerings; length of sales cycles; and general market, political, economic and business conditions. Additional risks and uncertainties are included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 27, 2018, which is available on our website at investors.paloaltonetworks.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in other filings that we make with the SEC from time to time. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we do not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made or to update the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

SOURCE Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.paloaltonetworks.com


SEATTLE, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Panopto, a leading video platform provider for businesses and universities, today announced an integration with GoToMeeting that dramatically simplifies the process of managing, sharing, and searching inside GoToMeeting recordings.

For many organizations, recording online meetings and web conferences has become an efficient way to preserve and share the knowledge of their employees. Many web conferencing solutions, including GoToMeeting, provide basic recording functionality that captures the audio and screen content presented in online meetings. However, GoToMeeting's built-in recording capability has three fundamental shortcomings:

At the end of a meeting, GoToMeeting recordings are simply downloaded to the presenter's computer, limiting how easily they can be shared with co-workers. GoToMeeting video files aren't formatted for efficient streaming across corporate networks and the internet, creating an unnecessary strain on bandwidth. GoToMeeting recordings don't make the content from online meetings searchable, thereby limiting the value of each video as an on-demand reference for other employees.

Today's announcement addresses these shortcomings with an elegant solution that requires minimal setup and configuration. Users simply install GoToMeeting, install Panopto, and click one checkbox within the Panopto interface. From that point, any recordings initiated from GoToMeeting will be automatically uploaded to Panopto and published to the user's personal folder for instant access and secure sharing.

"Online meetings have become the preferred way to exchange ideas and information in real time, but their value is transient if the meetings aren't recorded and shared," said Eric Burns, co-founder and CEO of Panopto. "Today, we're taking the next logical step, enabling employees to automatically publish their GoToMeeting recordings and share them in a secure, searchable video library."

Making GoToMeeting Recordings Network-friendly and Searchable

When GoToMeeting recordings are uploaded to Panopto, they're automatically transcoded for optimal playback on any device and efficient streaming across corporate WANs and the internet using modern video streaming protocols.

Panopto also indexes each GoToMeeting recording so that the content presented during the meeting, including every word spoken and shown on-screen, can be searched by keyword without the need for manual tagging. This enables viewers to find and fast-forward to precise moments in the meeting where a given topic was covered.

Panopto's GoToMeeting integration will be available at no additional cost to Panopto customers. This new integration with GoToMeeting follows similar integrations Panopto has established with other web conferencing solutions, including Zoom, Bluejeans, and Skype for Business.

About Panopto

Panopto helps businesses and universities create searchable video libraries of their institutional knowledge. Since 2007, the company has been a pioneer in video capture software, video content management systems, and inside-video search technology. Today, Panopto's video platform is the largest repository of expert learning videos in the world. Headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Pittsburgh, London, Hong Kong, and Sydney, Panopto has received industry recognition for its innovation, rapid growth, and company culture. For more information, visit www.panopto.com.

SOURCE Panopto

Related Links

http://www.panopto.com


CHICAGO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Parker Dewey, a Chicago based organization that improves college-to-career transitions, announced that it has identified the top human resources trend of 2018: the emergence of gigs as a pathway to improve hiring effectiveness. Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) estimates that the number of companies using gig workers has grown over 60% per year since 2012; however, companies have focused on leveraging gigs primarily to access international labor or address single-instance needs. Now, human resource leaders recognize that short-term professional assignments can be used as a more effective way to identify and hire candidates, especially those from diverse or non-traditional backgrounds according to Parker Dewey data from the first quarter of 2018.

The gig-to-career model has gained significant traction for hiring college students and recent graduates as companies recognize that major, academic pedigree, and GPA do not predict career success or fit. "We were looking to justify adding a Junior Analyst to our Credit team," shared Greg Watkins, Talent Acquisition leader at M. Holland Company. "Not only did [the student] help us scope the role, we determined she was an ideal fit based on the quality of her work and fit for our culture."

Unlike traditional freelance models, college students and recent grads have intrinsic motivation to exceed expectations. "While we were focused on just getting some help on a project, we quickly realized that the student was incredible, and ultimately hired her as a summer intern," said Adam Hecktman, Microsoft's Director of Technology & Civic Innovation. "We saw her work ethic and skills, and got an inside track on hiring her."

This new model is already receiving tremendous support from academic institutions. "Many of our students pursue majors with names that don't sound like job titles  this helps them understand how the skills developed in philosophy, history, and other courses relate to those jobs they will have after graduation," said Lori Sparger, the Chief Operating Officer of Purdue University's College of Liberal Arts. "In addition, our students seek advice on these assignments from faculty and staff members as well as alumni, driving engagement in a way that goes beyond the classroom or typical conversations."

College students and recent graduates are also benefiting from the increase in gigs: gaining professional experience, generating income, getting in the door at companies, building professional networks, and exploring career paths. "I now have a better idea on what it's like working in different departments and industries, and understand what roles would be best for me when I graduate. Plus, the variety of these experiences has helped my resume stand out and show me as more than a GPA and hourly jobs," shares Noel Arellano, a Dell Scholar graduating from Texas A&M in 2019.

About Parker Dewey

Parker Dewey, the largest freelance platform for college students and recent graduates, helps companies get immediate support on short-term, professional assignments through Micro-Internships. Not only can companies get support on tasks that may otherwise be neglected or completed by employees whose time is better spent elsewhere, they can also build a pipeline of diverse candidates for longer-term roles. For Career Launchers, Parker Dewey provides the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, explore careers, develop their networks, and generate income as they seek internships and full-time roles. Academic institutions also benefit from insights to enhance relationships with employers, effectively engage alumni and professors as mentors, and drive academic and career outcomes for students and recent graduates.

Founder and CEO Jeffrey Moss will be speaking at the upcoming ASU + GSV Summit, April 16-18, 2018 in San Diego, California, and at the Future of Work Summit, April 23-24, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York.

For more information, visit www.parkerdewey.com.

Media Contact:

Michele Aymold

[email protected]

312.767.8601

SOURCE Parker Dewey

Related Links

https://parkerdewey.com


PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO 43rd Constitutional Convention began at 9:30AM in Pittsburgh at the Wyndham Grand - Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel. Hundreds of union activists from across Pennsylvania came together to continue the fight for working people. The theme of the Convention, "Fighting for Today's Workers into Tomorrow's Workplaces", focusing the Commonwealth's Labor movement on a conversation focused on the future of work; a future that adapts to automation, expands opportunities to enter the middle class for working families, and prioritizes safety and equality in the workplace.

Today's featured speakers included: Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, AFT-West Virginia, Marion County Local President Stacey Strawderman. The Convention runs through Thursday, April 12.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf addressed the delegates and guests. He received a standing ovation after vowing to veto any 'right-to-work' legislation, should it come before him. "We have got to stand up and actually make the case that [right-to-work legislation] doesn't make any sense. It's not just wrong, it's stupid, really, really stupid". He called the Janus vs. AFSCME Council 31 case, an assault not only on public-sector unions, but on democracy itself.

President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder made the following joint statement:

"For the past three years, Governor Tom Wolf has been a true friend and partner to Pennsylvania's working people. The Officers and Vice-Presidents of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO are proud to endorse Governor Tom Wolf for a second term. We look forward to continuing to work with him to advance economic justice, workplace safety and dignity for the next four years. The Labor movement is energized and committed to electing candidates who are as dedicated to the values of fairness, equality, and respect, as we are."

The Executive Council of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO endorsed Governor Tom Wolf for reelection at its Executive Council meeting on Monday, April 9.

SOURCE Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
BOSTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Revolution Foods, the healthy school meals provider for Boston Public Schools (BPS), is deepening its commitment to making nutritious meals available to students in the Greater Boston area by expanding production at a new 27,000 square foot culinary center in Newmarket Square.

"Since the beginning of our partnership, Revolution Foods has embraced our mission to make sure every student has access to healthy and nutritious foods in order to be well fed and successful in the classroom," said BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang. "We're committed to working together to improve the quality of our school food program and to delivering sustainable meals featuring local foods whenever possible."

Revolution Foods has served fresh and healthy breakfast and lunches for BPS since Fall 2017. In addition to expanding its operational capacity in a new culinary center, the company has also accomplished the following significant milestones in recent months:

Served over 5.3 million meals across 84 campuses in Boston , featuring chef-crafted and kid-inspired menu items, including mini cheese omelets with whole grain French toast sticks, chicken drumsticks with rice and collard greens, veggie chef salad, and BBQ-rubbed chicken breast sandwiches served on whole wheat buns.

, featuring chef-crafted and kid-inspired menu items, including mini cheese omelets with whole grain French toast sticks, chicken drumsticks with rice and collard greens, veggie chef salad, and BBQ-rubbed chicken breast sandwiches served on whole wheat buns. Created over 80 new jobs in the Boston community.

community. Expanded capacity to produce more than 750,000 meals per week and streamlined operations enabling a wider selection of fresh local and regional produce, high quality proteins, and rBST-free dairy products.

Hired Executive Chef and Vice President of Culinary Excellence, Chef Clifton Lyles , to steward culinary development and expand menu offering that are culturally relevant to Boston , including bean and cheese pupusas and sweet potato-crusted fish sandwiches.

, to steward culinary development and expand menu offering that are culturally relevant to , including bean and cheese pupusas and sweet potato-crusted fish sandwiches. Partnered with the local chapter of Food Corps to develop nutrition education programs in schools including monthly vegetable tastings for students and families.

"At the core of our partnership with Boston Public Schools is a shared dedication to championing healthy family nutrition and city-wide wellness in the Boston community," said Kristin Groos Richmond, CEO and co-founder of Revolution Foods. "Our recent investments in our new culinary center and ongoing local partner programs signal our deep commitment to building lifelong healthy eaters with chef-crafted, kid-inspired meals to ultimately expand our service to other community and school partners to make healthy meals even more accessible. We're focused on ensuring that all students get the proper nutrition they need to fuel success both in and out of the classroom."

As the leading national school meal provider to offer a national clean label supply chain, Revolution Foods creates healthy meals made from wholesome ingredients free of artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. The new Boston facility sources ingredients from local providers, enabling the company to provide a great balance of real foods and nutritious, high-quality meals that are culturally relevant to the communities they serve.

Revolution Foods currently serves over 2.5 million meals per week to more than 2,000 schools and community sites throughout the U.S, including San Francisco, Austin, Texas, Newark, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. For more information on Revolution Foods visit RevolutionFoods.com.

ABOUT REVOLUTION FOODS:

Founded in 2006 by two moms on a mission to transform the way America eats, Revolution Foods set out to solve the problem of limited access to healthy meals. The company's innovative approach began with serving freshly prepared, healthy meals to students in schools nationwide, and the company is now serving over 2.5 million chef-crafted and kind-inspired school meals every week in 15 states. Revolution Foods aims to promote overall family wellness by equipping parents, teachers and students with valuable tools and resources to continue positive nutrition education beyond the lunch line, such as its Feeding Good program, which includes a mobile educational kitchen, nutrition advocacy partnerships, and school grants program. Revolution Foods aims to drive systems changefrom policy and food systems evolution to driving positive student academic and health outcomes, the company is setting the standard for how businesses can build a brighter future for our nation's youth and families. Revolution Foods was listed in 2015 among Fast Company's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Media Contact:

Jessica Lieu

Havas Formula

619-234-0345

[email protected]

SOURCE Revolution Foods

Related Links

http://revolutionfoods.com


BOSTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Royal Wedding fever grows on both sides of the pond, a group of U.S. travelers will join the festivities in London for a once-in-a-lifetime experience that offers a peek at the preparations and protocol of an International celebration. These 50 travelers, aged 48-87, will participate in a special Road Scholar program, having the rare opportunity to learn from former royal staff members and experience the historic event.

Photo courtesy of Road Scholar

Road Scholar, the nation's largest not-for-profit travel organization for adults, created this remarkable adventure hosted by a regal roster of expert guides and lecturers. Road Scholar participants have long been fascinated by all things British, making England one of the organization's most popular learning destinations. Each year, thousands enroll in dozens of learning adventures with Road Scholar and discover the rich history, culture, architecture and royal heritage of one of the world's oldest monarchies.

Highlights of this six-day program include:

Discovering the inner workings of the wedding from the former head of royal event security and the former royal chef.

Participating in an exclusive Road Scholar "street party"-themed luncheon and watching the live, televised wedding from the comfort of their hotel.

Exploring Kensington Palace  the future home of Harry and Meghan  with Ken Wharfe, former Royal Protection Officer to the late Diana, Princess of Wales , from 1987-1993.

"We are thrilled to offer this new learning adventure surrounding the royal wedding of this amazing young couple," said JoAnn Bell, Senior Vice President of Programs at Road Scholar. "We created similar experiences for the marriage of Harry's brother William, and for Charles and Diana's wedding. Both were so well-received that we decided to continue the tradition with the marriage of Meghan and Harry."

For information on Road Scholar programs, please visit www.roadscholar.org/royalwedding

About Road Scholar

Road Scholar is the nation's largest not-for-profit educational travel organization for adults  a true university of the world. Road Scholars are immersed in educational activities led by expert faculty who offer insider access not available to most people. It offers 5,500 programs in 150 countries and 50 states and financial aid for those who otherwise could not participate in its programs.

Road Scholar educational adventures are created by Elderhostel, the world leader in educational travel since 1975. Learn more at press.roadscholar.org.

SOURCE Road Scholar

Related Links

http://www.roadscholar.org


PLYMOUTH, Wis., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sargento Foods Inc. announces today the release of TREATED LIKE FAMILY: How an Entrepreneur and His "Employee Family" Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company (Center Street, ISBN: 9781478992868, $27.00), the story of how Leonard Gentine built Sargento, a billion-dollar cheese company and household name, using family values, hard work and compassion. It is a timeless story that showcases three generations of Gentines turning a Wisconsin-based business into a thriving company by redefining the meaning of "family business."

Sargento Foods Presents: TREATED LIKE FAMILY, A Story of Perseverance, Integrity and Loyalty

This biography, told from the viewpoint of the Gentine family, places the reader in Leonard's shoes as he advances from young man to old age and discovers life's foundational lessons, persevering no matter the obstacle. Along the way, he endures outstanding debts, vast disappointments, and a collection of small businesses. From these experiences, Leonard formed his own simple philosophy: "Hire good people and treat them like family."

"The story of how the Gentines ideated, persevered, stumbled occasionally and ultimately architected and created one of America's most beloved brands is impressive. While the recipe for cheese starts with a 'culture,' it is in fact an adherence to a culture of dedication, appreciation for the contributions of others coupled with leadership and at times a little good luck that build a $1BB brand enjoyed by millions of consumers."

--- Mitch Hersh, National Director of Sales,

Florida's Natural Growers, a Division of Citrus World, Inc.

Leonard dedicated himself to treating his employees like family and the philosophy came full circle when the employees saw him as part of their own family. This belief, foundational to the company, proved to be only one of many tenets underlying his success. It is the story of Sargento but also of its employees who, empowered by the Gentine family, took Leonard's vision and nurtured it into a formidable company. Author Tom Faley, a 29-year employee of Sargento, had the opportunity to share numerous, private conversations with Leonard Gentine before his passing. As a long-time veteran of Sargento, Tom speaks on a large portion of the company history from first-hand experience. Based on more than 180 interviews--the collective voices of the company's employees, retirees and friends, TREATED LIKE FAMILY gives the reader a true understanding what makes Sargento a great company!

"With business changing so rapidly in the age of information, this is the perfect time to share this story with the world. Leonard's philosophy of 'hire good people and treat them like family' still lives on today at Sargento and the tales told in this book are invaluable to anyone who reads it, whether it is in business, in life or with their own family. I was truly honored and privileged to write about this wonderful journey of the Gentine family."

--- Tom Faley, Author of TREATED LIKE FAMILY

To purchase a copy of TREATED LIKE FAMILY, please visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Faley, as a 29-year employee of Sargento, had the opportunity to share numerous, private conversations with the founder, Leonard Gentine, before his passing. As a long-term veteran of Sargento, Tom speaks on a large portion of the corporate history from first-hand experience. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Tom played active roles in shaping Sargento, including starting and developing many departments within the company: marketing, consumer research, consumer promotions and new product development. In addition, he holds a patent in his name for Sargento. For over eight years, he has written a blog as well as weekly essays underscoring the company's culture.

ABOUT SARGENTO FOODS INC.

With 2,000 employees and net sales of $1.4 billion, Sargento Foods is a family-owned company that has been a leader in cheese for more than 60 years. Founded in 1953 in Plymouth, Wisconsin, Sargento created the world's first successful pre-packaged sliced and shredded natural cheeses. Today, Sargento Foods is still based in Wisconsin, where they manufacture and market amazing shredded, sliced and snack natural cheese products, as well as ingredients and sauces. Company leadership lives to serve local communities and employees, whom they lovingly refer to as the Sargento Family.

www.sargento.com

https://www.facebook.com/SargentoCheese

https://www.instagram.com/sargentocheese/

https://twitter.com/SargentoCheese

https://www.linkedin.com/company/sargento-foods/

TREATED LIKE FAMILY

How an Entrepreneur and His "Employee Family" Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company

By Tom Faley

ISBN: 9781478992868



Media Contacts:

Eric Kurbyun, Golin

312-729-4317

[email protected]



Laini Brown, Center Street

615-371-7763

[email protected]

SOURCE Sargento Foods Inc.

Related Links

https://www.sargento.com


RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice today announced that it had reduced the processing time for power of attorney applications to just 10 minutes, in accordance with the efficiency directives of National Transformation Program and Vision 2030.

"My last visit to the notary department was extremely impressive," said Mohammad bin Saif, a Saudi businessman, during a discussion on the ministry's latest leap forward in its drive to increase efficiency. "The whole journey of issuing a power of attorney document for myself took less than 10 minutes, from the moment I entered the notary department's door until I received my papers and left the building."

Progress on power of attorney processing is just the latest example of how the ministry of justice has been working to accelerate processes and procedures in furtherance of the objectives of the National Transformation Program and Vision 2030.

"We are working tirelessly to ensure all our NTP plans and objectives are in place, so we can deliver a future in which our nation's judicial infrastructure is more open and efficient," says the Ministry of Justice. "We have already connected the ministry to 22 governmental entities. We are looking to have a fully integrated system that will greatly enhance the performance of our courts."

The official launch of commercial courts with clearly defined roles, operations and functions is a clear indication of the kingdom's determination to support the private sector and investors, as the country boldly moves to diversify its economy away from oil dependency.

The government's transformation programs have also been well received by the international community. According to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2018 report, Saudi Arabia is ranked second among G20 countries, in implementing reforms and improving the business climate. The kingdom's economic initiatives have been lauded as a major development over a short period of time.

The World Bank's excellence ranking included areas in which the Ministry of Justice has played a role, such as increased efficiency, the facilitation of online services and the reduction in processing time. The ministry's efforts have encouraged many investors, both locally and globally, to feel more confident about Saudi Arabia's investment climate, which is expected to lead to greater economic stability for the nation in the longer term and contribute to accomplishing vision 2030.

For more information, please visit the Saudi ministry of justice website on : www.moj.gov.sa/en or the twitter account @mojksa_en

SOURCE Saudi Ministry of Justice
This years program will also highlight a variety of Sciton's other laser modules as well, with over 15 podium mentions from 10 of their esteemed luminaries including: Dr. Jason Pozner, Dr. Jill Waibel, Dr. Matthew Avram, Dr. Joel Cohen, and more.

Visit Sciton at booth #207 to learn more about the new Halo features including Tempo technology which helps ensure even treatment; new state of the art software templates for off-face treatments; ABM (Adjustable Beam Placement) technology to treat areas with distinct edges or smaller zones; and Customizable Pass Selection which puts the practitioner in control of the treatment speed and energy density.

Sciton will hold expert sessions, during exhibit hours, for individuals curious about what Sciton products can mean for the future of their practice. Sciton's experienced line-up of speakers will be accessible at booth 207 to share their insights and experience. "I look forward to sharing my many years of experience on Sciton technology during the Meet Expert Sessions at ASLMS -- particularly heavy full-field erbium resurfacing for severe etched lines on the upper lip," said Dermatologist Joel Cohen, MD.

Sciton will also host a technology-focused strategic advisory board meeting at ASLMS which will take place on Thursday, April 12th. "The insights we gain from these meetings are extremely important to Sciton's future as we turn to our key opinion leaders for guidance regarding industry trends, needs, and expectations," said Jim Hobart, Sciton's CEO. Among the topics to be discussed will be the company's recent partnership with diagnostic imaging technology, VivoSight OCT, and the future of women's health.

About Sciton

Sciton is committed to providing best-in-class laser and light solutions for medical professionals who want superior durability, performance, and value. Sciton offers best-in-class medical devices for laser-assisted lipolysis, fractional and full-coverage skin resurfacing, hair removal, phototherapy, wrinkle reduction, treatment of vascular and pigmented lesions, scar reduction and acne. For more information, and a complete listing of Sciton systems, visit www.Sciton.com.

Facebook: Sciton, Inc.

Instagram: sciton_inc

LinkedIn: Sciton

SOURCE Sciton, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sciton.com


BOSTON, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lois Simon, Seniorlink, Inc.'s Executive Vice President of Policy and Programs, will join the panel discussion "Technologies that Enable Cross-Sector Collaboration" at the "Technology Summit: Transforming the Experience of Care in the Home" on April 9th at Georgetown University. The Summit is hosted by the Long Term Quality Alliance (LTQA) and AgingWell Hub at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

The panel will explore the needs and opportunities involved in developing technologies that support and promote greater cross-sector collaboration for in-home caregiving. The Technology Summit, held April 9-10, will include technology presentations; moderated panel discussions between LTSS providers, consumer advocates, payers, and technology innovators; and participant roundtables that will delve into the issues involved in transforming care - in the home environment- through the development and application of new technologies.

"As the U.S. population ages and our nation cares for more medically complex elders, connecting with family caregivers becomes critical to ensure that patients can remain in their homes and communities as long as possible with empowered, knowledgeable support from engaged caregivers," said Simon. "Those of us in the field have a responsibility to arm family caregivers with the information and technology that makes their work easier and gives them all necessary support to care for loved ones effectively."

Simon will join the panel discussion featuring executives from companies/organizations such as CareGeneral, ClearCare, SEIU, Aging 2.0, Daughterhood, AUCD, and Anthem.

More information about the "Technology Summit: Transforming the Experience of Care in the Home" event can be found at www.ltqa.org/upcoming-technology-summit-transforming-the-experience-of-care-in-the-home. More information about Seniorlink can be found at www.seniorlink.com.

About Seniorlink

Seniorlink is a tech-enabled health services company that builds care collaboration solutions. The company serves patients and caregivers by partnering with risk-bearing provider and payer organizations to augment existing care management capabilities through solutions that leverage human touch and technology. Seniorlink's team of compassionate, experienced professionals uses a proprietary platform, Vela, to encourage real-time collaboration among the extended care team that results in better outcomes at a lower cost. Backed by nearly two decades of care expertise, Seniorlink leads the way on delivering high quality care. Seniorlink's Caregiver Homes Network is the first Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) provider in the U.S. to receive National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Case Management Accreditation with Long Term Services and Support Distinction. More information about Seniorlink can be found at www.seniorlink.com.

SOURCE Seniorlink

Related Links

http://www.seniorlink.com


LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spidey Tek LLC and Utah State University, on April 10, 2018, announced they have signed a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement for the mass production of spider silk proteins and commercialization of spider silk-related technologies.

The Spidey Tek Team brings Real Spider Silk to the manufacturing marketplace.

The Spidey Tek Team is a world leader in spider silk-based lightweight material development and engineering. The Spidey Tek Scientific Team, led by Utah Science Technology and Research Biology and Spidey Tek Scientific Officer professor Randy Lewis, Ph.D., have been on the forefront of developing technologies and processes to produce large quantities of spider silk protein  one of the strongest materials on Earth. Professor Randy Lewis, Ph.D., leads the spider silk research at USU and is the chief science officer of Spidey Tek LLC. "This Spidey Tek Scientific Team is making science fiction  science fact," said world-class designer and lightweight material science expert Roberto Velozzi, CEO of Spidey Tek.

It is a long-standing scientific reality that actual spider silk is the strongest natural fiber on the planet. Until now it has been impossible to produce real spider silk proteins and fibers in commercially viable quantities. The Spidey Tek Team has not only discovered the pathway to the mass production of actual spider silk proteins and fibers, Spidey Tek has recently developed breakthrough methods to inexpensively mass produce Real Spider Silk. Spidey Tek's Real Spider Silk proteins and fibers are made utilizing the genes used by actual spiders in nature, matching and at times exceeding the mechanical properties of the natural spider silk. These enhanced mechanical properties will be added to many existing and future products to improve their performance.

Spider silk has tensile strength greater than most man-made materials, and has the added benefit of elasticity, making it far tougher (more energy required to break) than other materials. It is a bio-material stronger and lighter than steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, Kevlar or almost any other manufactured substance. "Imagine a material stronger and much lighter than steel that can be mass-produced and used in composite materials to make automobiles lighter and more durable, or in other applications that call for stronger and lighter materials," said Dr. Lewis.

The Spidey Tek Team is the only scientific group in the world with this technology and the ability to utilize this super-material in a wide array of products such as adhesives, coatings, films, gels and 3-D printing materials. Spidey Tek has already developed a basic spider silk glue which is many times stronger than the leading brand of consumer glue. Spidey Tek plans to bring this line of glues and adhesives to market as the initial products for the company. Additional testing on this base-line adhesive is underway and the results will be shared in subsequent announcements, along with side-by-side comparisons with other well-known adhesive products. "No other company can match Spidey Tek's Real Spider Silk's test results and product versatility," Velozzi added.

All of the Spidey Tek's spider silk technologies and processes will be trade-marked worldwide by Spidey Tek under the trade names Spidey, Spidey Tek and ARACHNO.

Since its founding in 1888, Utah State University has evolved from a small-town college tucked away in the Northern Utah mountains to a thriving research university respected around the world. Students can choose from an array of academic and social opportunities at a university known throughout the world for its intellectual and technological leadership. The mission of Utah State University is to be one of the nation's premier student-centered land-grant and space-grant universities by fostering the principle that academics come first, by cultivating diversity of thought and culture and by serving the public through learning, discovery and engagement. "Spidey Tek fully supports this great academic tradition and will be instrumental in supporting further opportunities in the bourgeoning spider silk research being conducted at Utah State University," stated Roberto Velozzi.

Spidey Tek, based in Sherman Oaks, California, is a bioengineering company dedicated to the mass production of spider silk protein and using it to produce superior products for the 21st century. "The combination of exclusive genetic science from USU combined with Spidey Tek's spider silk technologies, material science expertise and product  market access makes for a great partnership. Plus, all of the science, production, technology applications and methods are protected under the Spidey Tek Team's combined international patents," Velozzi concluded.

Media Contact:

Spidey Tek

[email protected]

www.spideytek.com

SOURCE Spidey Tek LLC

Related Links

https://www.spideytek.com


DENVER, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spinnaker Support, a leading and trusted provider of Oracle and SAP third-party support, today announced expansion of their global Sales Partner Network. The company reports that more than 40 organizations around the world are already members of the growing network. Sales Partners are instrumental in raising brand awareness and driving incremental business to supplement Spinnaker Support's direct sales and marketing efforts.

Spinnaker Support opted to create and develop a strategic partner network to grow sales, build market intelligence, address geographic intricacies, and deepen existing customer relationships. The program is simple, flexible, and profitable for partners, rewarding them for their lead generation and sales successes.

"Being a Spinnaker Support sales partner is bringing tremendous value to our company," stated Pim van der Vorst, CEO at Performance to the Max, located in the Netherlands. "We can now offer additional value to our existing customers, and at the same time, expand our own business leveraging a thriving market like third-party support."

"Strong sales and lead referral partnerships are accelerating our global reach," said Nigel Pullan, Vice President of Global Alliances and Emerging Markets at Spinnaker Support. "A robust ecosystem of partners, alliances, and influencers separates us from our competition and is helping us more rapidly spread third-party Oracle and SAP support to organizations across the world."

Companies wishing to partner with Spinnaker Support should visit www.spinnakersupport.com/partner-program.

About Spinnaker Support

Spinnaker Support is a leading and trusted global provider of Oracle and SAP third-party support. Spinnaker Support customers get more comprehensive and responsive service, save an average of 62% on their annual maintenance fees, and can remain on their current software releases indefinitely. A rising number of our third-party support customers are utilizing incremental services we provide. We remain the only third-party support vendor to deliver application managed services, technology managed services and consulting when customers prefer to consolidate with a single vendor. They trust Spinnaker Support to keep their enterprise applications running at peak performance, while helping them navigate from on-premise to hybrid to cloud.

Spinnaker Support's award-winning blend of services span SAP, BusinessObjects, Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Siebel, Oracle Database, Oracle Technology and Middleware products, Hyperion, Demantra, Agile PLM, ATG/Endeca, and more. To learn more about Spinnaker Support, visit http://www.spinnakersupport.com/. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

Contact: Michelle Wilkinson, 720-457-5442, [email protected]

SOURCE Spinnaker Support

Related Links

http://www.spinnakersupport.com


LAKELAND, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tecnam, one of Europe's leading manufacturers of general aviation aircraft and International Aero Academy, Ltd. ("IAA") today announced they have completed an aircraft purchase agreement for an initial six (6) P2008 aircraft with the first delivery scheduled in the 2nd quarter of 2018.

The IAA Tecnam P2008, will be equipped with state-of-the-art Garmin G3X touch screen displays. GTN-650 GPS/Comm/Nav and a GTX45R that provides ADS-B in and out, traffic and weather. To enhance primary training, the Garmin displays can be quickly reconfigured to display the classic six-pack instrument view. Building on the base of European FTO's utilizing the P2008, IAA will be the first FAA part 141 flight academy to acquire a fleet of P2008's.

IAA is a Lakeland, FL-based FAA-certificated ab initio and accelerated flight academy with authority to issue foreign student visas for training. With its focus on training the next generation of domestic and foreign professional pilots, IAA has a modern 12,000 square foot maintenance facility with dedicated maintenance professionals, and over 12,000 square feet of office, onsite dormitory housing for students and training space.

"We are thrilled to have been selected by IAA for their next generation of training aircraft. The P2008 will deliver unprecedented economics to flight schools with its proven low-fuel consumption Rotax engine, next generation avionics suite, durable strategic combination of carbon fiber and metal, and U.S.-based AOG support," said Shannon Yeager, Tecnam Director of Sales. "We look forward to supporting the IAA team and the entry into service of the P2008 with anticipated aircraft utilization exceeding 1,000 hours per year."

"The analysis for our fleet renewal was no different from the analysis we have done as airline executives for Boeing and Airbus acquisitions - capital cost, maintenance cost projections, performance, fuel burn, manufacturer support, environmental compatibility, safety, reliability and customer acceptance. The Tecnam product line far exceeded the competition in this analysis and we are proud to be the U.S. 141 fleet launch customer for the P2008," said Steven Markhoff, IAA President & CEO. "Our commitment to Tecnam is reflected in the arrangement that allows for additional models of Tecnam aircraft. IAA will soon become a Tecnam service center and a showcase for excellence."

"We are proud of this new contract signed with IAA, because they will be the first FAA part 141 FTO to utilize the P2008 and we know that many other U.S. schools will follow. This fleet will be proof of a best practice model both from the student and school perspective: students will benefit from the new generation aircraft and avionics, and the school will benefit from the very low acquisition and operating costs," said Paolo Pascale, Tecnam CEO.

"The Tecnam P2008 represents enhanced evolution in primary flight training for both students and flight academies: (i) next generation avionics, (ii) reduced maintenance costs (iii) state of the art materials integration (iv) remarkably low fuel consumption that effectively operates as a long-term hedge against potential increases in fuel cost," said Gerald Gitner, IAA's Non-Executive Chairman.

About TECNAM; "Quality Aircraft since 1948"

TECNAM's roots go all the way back to the Italian brothers Luigi and Giovanni Pascale who began to develop and produce innovative aircraft soon after the end of WWII. Since those early beginnings, the family has continued to create original models, first gaining worldwide recognition under the name Partenavia, which translates as "Naples Aviation."

Costruzioni Aeronautiche TECNAM was established in March 1986 and now operates in three production facilities. The Casoria facility is located adjacent to Naples' Capodichino Airport while the main factory is next to the "Oreste Salomone" Airport in Capua. Recently a new facility was established in Sebring, Florida, USA to serve and support the needs of Tecnam's North American-based owners and operators.

About IAA

IAA based in Lakeland, FL is a FAA 141 certified flight academy with authority to grant foreign student visas. IAA is a leader in ab initio and accelerated flight training with a successful history of total immersion two-week private pilots' courses, three-week instrument rating courses, three-week Certified Flight Instructor courses and a six-month private pilot through commercial multiengine rating course. IAA's facilities include over 12,000 sq. ft. of dedicated hangar space with a dedicated team of maintenance professionals and on-site housing.

For more information about IAA, contact:

Steven Markhoff

863-213-5267 or [email protected]

www.InternationalAeroAcademy.com

For more information about this News Release (photos, links, etc.) and News about Tecnam and its products please visit media.tecnam-crm.com

Tecnam Media contact:

Stefano Mavilio [email protected] +39 329 377 24 55

For more information on the extensive range of Tecnam aircraft, please visit www.tecnam.com or contact Shannon Yeager, Tecnam US Director of Sales +1 863-655-2400 [email protected] and Walter Da Costa, Tecnam Global Sales and Marketing, +34 616 481143, [email protected].

SOURCE International Aero Academy, Ltd.
WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Longtime national partners KaBOOM! and The CarMax Foundation are building a community playground and providing ten life-size creative play sets to organizations that serve military families during the "Week of Play" from April 9-13. The month of April is designated as the Month of the Military Child which was established to bring awareness to the important role children play in the armed forces community. The partners will host eleven community events across the country during "Week of Play" to bring play opportunities to kids of veterans and active duty service members. Together, they will make it easier for kids to get the childhood they deserve filled with play.

Many kids experience significant emotional impact when a parent deploys or returns home from military service, or when they move locations frequently. According to Blue Star Families' annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey, "military child education and impact of deployment on children" ranked among the top five concerns for both service members and military spouses for the first time in the history of this survey. When kids face uncertainty or stress, play creates a safe buffer against the change or adversity around them. The opportunity to play is crucial for kids to restore normalcy and stay active and healthy.

On April 11, The CarMax Foundation and KaBOOM! will bring a new playground to Chloe Clark Elementary School in DuPont, Washington, a community with a large military family population, for area kids to explore, imagine and create. Hundreds of community volunteers will come together to build a new playspace that experts designed based on local kids' drawings of their dream playgrounds at a special event last month. Many families in this community have expressed that while their experience moving to Seattle has been positive, they are still seeking additional community support to make the transition easier on their kids.

"We are proud to be the first corporate partner with KaBOOM! to make a significant commitment to bringing playspaces to military communities across the country," said Matt Aman, president of The CarMax Foundation. "Our associates are excited about seeing the impact these new spaces will have on the communities in which we live and work, and they understand the importance of promoting and protecting opportunities for kids to play. We have a deeply rooted commitment to supporting our military community, so this effort aligns perfectly with our goals."

The CarMax Foundation has provided the majority of the funding for the playgrounds and creative play sets through its national partnership with KaBOOM!, supporting The Foundation's commitment to furthering the cause of kid's healthy living. Through a multiyear national partnership with KaBOOM!, The CarMax Foundation will help build 33 playgrounds and provide 32 creative play grants across the country by the end of 2018  a $5 million investment that will serve thousands of kids. The CarMax Foundation supports KaBOOM! in ensuring that all kids get the play they need to thrive.

"Opportunities to play are an essential part of childhood and help kids develop resiliency and grit, as they fall and pick themselves up," said James Siegal, CEO of KaBOOM!. "When kids experience stress or transition in their lives, play also provides a creative outlet to help them cope, and can restore normalcy and stability. We know this is particularly true for kids who move often or have deployed parents. Thanks to The CarMax Foundation's continued leadership and commitment to supporting our military community, we're able to create more opportunities for kids to experience the healing power of play."

The ten grants for creative play sets, Imagination Playground and Rigamajig, will be provided to child-serving non-profits across the country during the "Week of Play." Each grantee from Charleston, SC to Oceanside, CA is celebrating the receipt of the play sets through community events. Imagination Playground empowers kids to build and rebuild the playspace of their dreams using a collection of blue foam blocks with no limits to their creativity. Rigamajig, a collection of wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and rope, allows children to follow their curiosity through play while learning 21st century skills. This type of play helps military families have fun and healthy experiences together.

The CarMax Foundation

The CarMax Foundation enriches the communities where our associates live and work. Together with CarMax, Inc., the Foundation has donated more than $50 million since 2003. Funding programs are made available through a portion of CarMax, Inc.'s pre-tax profits. CarMax, a member of the FORTUNE 500 and the S&P 500, and on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list for 14 consecutive years, is the nation's largest retailer of used cars. For nearly 25 years, CarMax has made car buying more ethical, fair and stress-free by offering a no-haggle, no-hassle experience and an incredible selection of vehicles. CarMax makes selling your car easy too, by offering no-obligation appraisals good for seven days. At CarMax, we'll buy your car even if you don't buy ours. For more information, access the CarMax website at www.carmax.com.

KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids  especially those living in poverty  the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of PLAYces. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or restore more than 17,000 playspaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served over 9 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom and instagram.com/kaboom. #playmatters #PLAYceforKids

SOURCE KaBOOM!

Related Links

http://www.kaboom.org


"The diversity of our membership is one of our greatest strengths," said Jenny Rickard, President & CEO of The Common Application. "By joining The Common App, these institutions have demonstrated a shared commitment to pursuing access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Thanks to our members, all students, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to easily apply to the college or university that will help them achieve their best future."

In addition to providing a single, online application and 24/7/365 support for all students applying to member colleges and universities, the Common App connects applicants to financial aid and scholarship tools, digital portfolios, virtual mentors, a Virtual Counselor, and a library of resources for counselors, advisors, and recommenders working with students to complete their college applications that includes Spanish language translations.

"As an investment into college access, the University of Iowa is excited to join the Common App," said Jeffrey Waechter, Director of Operations at the University of Iowa. "Financial aid is challenging for students in general, and the Common App integrates financial aid information right within the application. Additionally, the Common App's one-step, need-based fee waiver simplifies the process for applicants."

By becoming a Common App member, these colleges and universities will gain exposure to students who may not have otherwise considered the institution while making the application, including fee waiver, process more efficient. One-third of the more than one million Common App applicants are the first in their family to pursue a college degree.

"The University of Pittsburgh wants to make the college application process as easy and accessible as possible for all students," said Kellie Kane, Executive Director of Admissions at University of Pittsburgh. "We wanted to be a member, in part, because of The Common App's dedication and success with advancing college access for first-generation and underrepresented students."

Students can create a Common App account now because their account will roll over from year to year. Beginning this year, Common App members will also begin using the newly introduced Common App for transfer, a separate application designed exclusively to meet the needs of transfer and adult student populations.

"By being on the Common App, UNC Charlotte not only serves high school students and counselors - who've told us directly about the benefits - but we will be able to reach transfer applicants and returning adults," said Claire Kirby, Director of Admissions at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "We appreciate The Common App's focus on this significant student group."

New Members of The Common Application for 2018-2019

(as of April 10, 2018)

New England

Bridgewater State University (MA)

Mid-Atlantic

Cairn University (PA)

Penn State (PA)

Queens College, CUNY (NY)

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (PA)

St. Francis College (NY)

University of Pittsburgh (PA)

Webb Institute (NY)

South

Bellarmine University (KY)

Florida State University (FL)

Radford University (VA)

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (NC)

The Wilkes Honors College of FAU (FL)

University of North Carolina at Charlotte (NC)

West

Oregon State University (OR)

The University of Utah (UT)

Warner Pacific University (OR)

Midwest

CCAD - Columbus College of Art & Design (OH)

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) (IN)

Lewis University (IL)

Michigan State University (MI)

Morningside College (IA)

Quincy University (IL)

The University of Kansas (KS)

University of Central Missouri (MO)

University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash College and Clermont College (OH)

University of Iowa (IA)

University of Mount Union (OH)

Walsh University (OH)

Wright State University (OH)

Hawaii

Chaminade University of Honolulu

Puerto Rico

Universidad del Este (UNE)

International

Arts University Bournemouth (United Kingdom)

Temple University, Japan Campus (Japan)

About The Common Application

Founded in 1975, The Common Application is a not-for-profit member organization committed to the pursuit of access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Each year, more than one million students, one-third of whom are first-generation, apply to college through the Common App's online application.

To learn more, visit commonapp.org, follow @CommonApp, and #CommonApp.

SOURCE The Common Application

Related Links

http://www.commonapp.org


WASHINGTON, DALLAS and RALEIGH, N.C., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Halifax Group is pleased to announce that David Bard has joined the firm as a Managing Director, based in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. He will be responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and working with the firm's investments.

An experienced investment professional, Mr. Bard was previously a Principal at American Securities, where he invested across sectors and served as a director for several companies. Prior to that, he was with Bain Capital for nearly nine years and worked with the firm across several geographies. He began his career with McKinsey & Company.

David Dupree, Halifax Senior Partner and co-founder, said, "We are thrilled that David has joined the team, and we look forward to the flexibility his broad range of capabilities will bring to our firm. His experience and areas of expertise are complementary to the rest of the Halifax team and we believe he will help Halifax continue to focus on creating value for our investors."

Mr. Bard is currently a Senior Fellow at The Wharton School, is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and works with Year Up, a nonprofit providing education and support to young adults. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Cambridge. In addition, he completed the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a BS in Economics from The Wharton School and a BAS from Penn Engineering.

About The Halifax Group

The Halifax Group is a private equity firm that partners with managers and entrepreneurs to recapitalize and grow lower middle-market businesses with total enterprise values generally between $50 million and $250 million. Halifax invests across a variety of industries, including health and wellness, outsourced business services, franchising and infrastructure. The firm maintains offices in Washington, D.C.; Dallas, TX; and Raleigh, NC. For more information, please visit www.thehalifaxgroup.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Hurson

Owen Blicksilver Public Relations, Inc.

(845) 507-0571

[email protected]

SOURCE The Halifax Group

Related Links

http://www.thehalifaxgroup.com


Canopy Growth Corporation will be participating in the inaugural event this June.

SAINT JOHN, NB, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Executives from Canopy Growth Corporation will be in Saint John, New Brunswick this June for the first-ever World Cannabis Congress. Canopy Growth Corporation is sponsoring the event at a Platinum level, making them one of the biggest supporters of the event.

The World Cannabis Congress, presented by Civilized, is an invitation only event that will welcome 350 of the brightest minds and biggest influencers for two compelling days of expert talks, engaging panel discussions, and unparalleled networking opportunities.

"The World Cannabis Congress will help propel the industry forward and encourage global collaboration, and we are excited to be a part of it in a province we call home," said Mark Zekulin, President, Canopy Growth.

Zekulin, a trade lawyer by training, will join other industry leaders on the closing panel discussing The Future of Cannabis.

"Our goal is to bring together the best-of-the-best in the industry," says Derek Riedle, Congress Co-Chair and Publisher of Civilized. "So working with Canopy was a no brainer  after all, they are the global trailblazers of the cannabis industry."

The World Cannabis Congress is also supported by the provincial government through Opportunities New Brunswick, as well as a number of corporate sponsors from around the world.

For more information on the World Cannabis Congress, please visit www.worldcannabiscongress.com.

About Civilized Worldwide Inc.:

Civilized is a premium media and lifestyle brand that seeks to expand modern cannabis culture, reflecting the millions of motivated, productive adults who choose to enjoy cannabis as part of a balanced lifestyle, but don't define themselves by it. Reaching over 2 million monthly unique visitors, Civilized produces engaging content for and about people who enjoy cannabis responsibly. For more information, visit: www.civilized.life

SOURCE Civilized Worldwide Inc. (Civilized)
In a society where social media and technology often take the place of human interactions and leave a sense of inauthenticity, Thoughtfully is committed to closing the impersonal gap and bringing people closer by means of thoughtful gift giving. This shift in strategy will enable the brand to resonate more with the target consumer, broaden its reach, and differentiate itself from the competition.

The response to the brand has been incredible, and was amplified even further when Thoughtfully's breakout product, The Good Hurt Fuego: A Hot Sauce Lovers Set was selected to be featured in Oprah's Favorite Things 2017. Oprah's quote and video with the product featuring herself for the category on Amazon catapulted the newly established brand into the spotlight.

As Oprah says in the December 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine: "Spoiler alert, Beyonce: Your present's been selected. These seven hot sauces range from mild to uh-oh, so naturally they're designed to look like sticks of dynamite." The Thoughtfully brand has since been featured on nationally syndicated television shows like Good Morning America, The Talk, The Doctor's and in top lifestyle publications like Rachael Ray Every Day, O, The Oprah Magazine, People Style Watch amongst many others.

The brand is also expanding its online reach with several newly established retail partnerships including, Costco.com, Wayfair.com, Samsclub.com, and BedBathandBeyond.com, with several others coming before the holiday season.

"I'm incredibly proud of our team and our brand's success to date," stated Nicholas Marlin, GM of Thoughtfully. Marlin continued, "We're excited about the initial response to our brand's new direction and how well our products are resonating with both our partners and customers. There's nothing more rewarding than hearing from our customers how perfect the gift and experience was for their loved ones who received it."

Thoughtfully's user friendly website allows shoppers to easily browse through with convenience and immediacy, eliminating the hassle of in-store shopping and DIY gift wrapping. Thoughtfully has even created a "Gifting Assistant" that helps shoppers to find the perfect gift for whomever their searching for. You can now select gifts based on personality types and occasions. Forget brown postage boxes and plastic bags, each gift arrives beautifully packaged in a perfectly designed gift box ready to be opened and enjoyed. Gift sets range from $19.99 to $119.99 and there is sure to be one for every gifting occasion. www.thoughtfully.com

About Thoughtfully:

Thoughtfully was founded by Boaz Shonfeld of Modern Gourmet Foods, whose wealth of knowledge and experience spans over 20 years and has contributed to successful partnerships with brands such as Starbucks, Corona, Godiva and many others. With a unique understanding of gifting, Shonfeld has redesigned the process of gift giving, placing more focus on the stories behind the gifts and the memorable experience of receiving them. Inspired by his passion for food, travel and culture, Shonfeld journeyed around the world collecting mementos. By the end of his journey, Shonfeld had curated a unique collection of souvenirs, each with a distinct story, all of which he soon realized made for a thoughtful gift. Thoughtfully is composed of individuals with a shared passion and appreciation for capturing special moments and creating a personalized and authentic gifting experience. The thought put into every gift reflects the family dynamic within Thoughtfully's small, but mighty team.

CONTACT:

Jen Betts

Innovative PR for Thoughtfully.com

[email protected]

323.207.7882

SOURCE Thoughtfully

Related Links

http://www.thoughtfully.com


SHANGHAI, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows Co., Ltd., a leading producer and supplier of broken bridge aluminum and pneumatic windows in China, announced that they have finished assembling a comprehensive system of production equipment for broken bridge aluminum doors & windows and pneumatic windows. The high efficiency of these products demonstrates their technical proficiency, reliability and suitability for the market. These newly-equipped production systems are set to make Tianjin Lian Jilong to be one of the world's top manufacturers in the aluminum alloy door & window and pneumatic window markets. To further enhance its development, the company utilized the latest technology from South Korea, starting off by improving windows for industrial factory buildings. Leveraging its design expertise, the company has researched, developed and eventually launched its Automatic Ventilation Windows. This product solves the difficulties surrounding smoke ejection, ventilation and switching windows effectively.

Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows Co., Ltd. has been working closely with a wide range of companies, helping to complete a transformation of production workshops pneumatic windows for Beijing Hyundai Mobis Transmission Co. Ltd.; a plant remould for Southeast Beijing Die Casting Co., Ltd.; a Phase II workshop for Modern Paiwotai Automatic Gearbox (Shandong) Co. Ltd.; new buildings for Jiangsu Yancheng Yueda KIA; Phase I, II and III projects for Sichuan Ziyang Hyundai Dymos; a new plant building for Aerodynamic Windows Engineerings; factory building pneumatic window engineering for Shandong ALTEC Air Compressor; and an aerodynamic windows project for Tianjin Logistics Park. In total, the company has fulfilled projects with a production value of nearly 20 million yuan.

In 2013, the company applied for and received approval for a utility-model patent. As the project was carried out, the team gained experience took opinions from customer feedback on board, made continuous efforts and performed numerous experiments, finally developing a new generation of firefighting linkage windows. When a fire hazard or incident occurs and a fire signal is transmitted to the control box, within 5 seconds all the windows connected to the control box will be fully opened, helping minimize losses from fires. In this way, Tianjin Liao Jilong has further tackled the bad energy-saving loopholes in the domestic market, while also effectively reducing the costly risks of fire damage.

Mr. Daji Zheng, CEO of Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows Co., Ltd. commented, "We believe that the more and more customers can accept our products due to our high production capacity. We are fully confident in our ability to increase market penetration and capture all opportunities to obtain a greater share of overseas markets."

About Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows Co., Ltd.

Tianjin Lian Jilong consists of two branches, a Foreign Trade Company and a Steel Structure factory, with strong cohesion, gathering lots of highly-skilled and highly-efficient staff, as well as a group of experts and engineering technicians with international vision. The company boasts an annual broken bridge aluminum doors & windows capacity of over 80,000 sets, and its quality has reached an advanced, international level. The company obtained the ISO9001 certificate in 2015. Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows sells well at home and exports to the Middle East, Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Tianjin Lian Jilong is mainly specialized in producing and processing aluminum alloy doors & windows according to overseas designs, and also help customers with these designs. Now its subsidiary corporation, which currently produces steel structure houses, has been fully integrated into various engineering projects in the international market. Tianjin Lian Jilong insists on excellent quality, competitive prices and constant product improvement, while staying true to the idea of "Specific Product, Specific Service."

For more information about Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows, please browse our company website http://www.tjlajlmc.com

Contact:

Tianjin Lian Jilong Doors & Windows Co., Ltd.

Mr. Richard Zhou, Mr. Jackson Cao, and Mr. Daji Zheng(CEO),

Address: No. 21 Keda First Road, Teda Microelectronic Industrial Park, Jinnan District, Tianjin, China

Tel.:+86-22-24680086 ext. 8006

Fax.:+86-22-24689604

Wechat/Whatsapp: +86-13820866328

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.tjlajlmc.com

SOURCE Tianjin Lian Jilong (LAJL) Doors & Windows Co., Ltd.
WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On April 9, 2018, 138 Holocaust survivors as well as supporters from around the country gathered to mark the 25th anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. During the celebration, leaders announced they would advance the Museum founders' bold vision for a "living memorial" to the victims of the Holocaust by ensuring the permanent relevance of Holocaust history for new generations, reaching global audiences, and creating more agents of change who will work to make the future better than the past. To realize these ambitious goals, the Museum is extending its successful campaign to reach $1 billion by its 30th anniversary in 2023.

"The lessons Holocaust history teaches about the fragility of freedom, the dangers of hate, and the consequences of inaction have never been more timely," said Museum chairman Howard Lorber. "Twenty-five years ago we aspired to reach every part of America. Today, with the rising tide of denial, antisemitism, and extremism and continued threats of genocide, our message can and must span the globe."

During the anniversary event, the Museum presented its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, to all survivors for their courage and resilience and for inspiring the global movement for Holocaust remembrance and education, which the Museum leads today.

"We live in challenging times, marked by unprecedented change and uncertainty. Times like these call for trusted institutions, a strong moral compass, and new ways of thinking about our personal responsibility in advancing pluralism and social cohesion," explained Museum vice chairman Allan Holt, the son of two Holocaust survivors. "That is our Museum and its mission."

The initial $540 million goal of the campaign Never Again: What You Do Matters, which was publicly launched at the Museum's 20th anniversary, was met 18 months ahead of schedule; to date a total of $715 million has been raised. Donations from 356,466 supporters across the country, with gifts ranging from a few dollars to $30 million, made this possible.

Notwithstanding the campaign's success, critical unmet needs remain. "We will not stop," said Museum director Sara Bloomfield. "Twenty-five years is only a beginning, and we are building an institution for the ages to keep Holocaust memory alive and at work in the world. Our campaign will secure the resources to ensure that the Museum can remain relevant and responsive. Not only can we do this; we must do this. We owe the survivors and victims no less."

The Museum was established as the result of a commission created in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter. Led by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, the commission envisioned a "living memorial" that would honor the memory of the victims by teaching the lessons of the Holocaust to new generations and by doing for victims of genocide today what was not done for the Jews of Europe.

More than 43 million people have visited the Museumincluding 15 million students. Five million have seen its traveling exhibitions in the United States and Europe, and 20 million each year rely on online resources available in 16 languages. Through its exhibitions, educational resources, digital outreach, and wide-ranging partnerships, as well as its programs for teachers, students, and leaders, the Museum seeks to motivate individuals to not only understand the lessons of the Holocaust but to act on them.

The Museum's leadership programs for law enforcement have trained 150,000 law enforcement professionals at the federal, state, and local levels, including all recent FBI cadets. Similar programs have been developed for members of the military, judiciary, and other professions.

The Museum has made two formal genocide determinations in Darfur, Sudan in 2004; and in 2016, a finding of genocide perpetrated in Northern Iraq by ISIS against Yazidis and other religious minorities and crimes against humanity against Christians. In November 2017, the Museum issued a report detailing mounting evidence of genocide committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya civilians. For several years, the Museum has been educating policymakers and the public about the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Assad regime against the Syrian people.

The Never Again: What You Do Matters campaign has secured funding to double the Museum endowment; revitalize its renowned permanent exhibition; build the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center to house the collection of record on the Holocaust; and name its core programs: The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, the Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education, and the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.

During the final phase of the campaign, funds raised will enable the institution to: build the fully accessible collection of record; secure the permanence and vitality of Holocaust studies; advance quality Holocaust education with a focus on emerging adults and leaders; create greater global Holocaust awareness; confront Holocaust denial and state-sponsored antisemitism; and build a global architecture aimed at preventing and responding to genocide and other mass atrocities.

ABOUT THE 25th ANNIVERSARY

The Museum is marking its 25th anniversary under the banner "Never Stop Asking Why" to inspire people to reflect on the questions raised by the Holocaust and our responsibility in society today. The milestone year launched in January 2018 with a social media initiative #AskWhy that has sparked 675,000 engagements with our content. During the Days of Remembrance on April 9, the conversation expands to reach leaders in technology, science, history, and policy when the Museum holds its inaugural Global Issues Forum to explore what Holocaust history can teach us about human nature. At the 25th Anniversary National Tribute Dinner that evening, the Museum will honor all Holocaust survivors with its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, for their courage and resilience and for inspiring the global movement for Holocaust remembrance and education. On April 23, the Museum opens a groundbreaking exhibition on Americans and the Holocaust. Five years in the making, it presents a portrait of America in the 1930s and '40s that shows what shaped Americans' responses to Nazism. Twenty-fifth anniversary programs and events will continue throughout 2018 in communities across the nation.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Visit www.ushmm.org for more information.

SOURCE United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Related Links

http://www.ushmm.org


VANCOUVER, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - UrtheCast Corp. (TSX: UR) ("UrtheCast" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has been advised by Clarus Securities Inc. and Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the "Agents") that investors have committed to purchase CAD$35 million (or approximately US$27.3 million) of subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts") in connection with its previously announced brokered private placement (the "Subordinated Capital Financing"). The Agents have provided the Company with confirmation of commitments in excess of CAD$35 million, which are intended to satisfy a condition precedent to the closing of the previously announced US$142 million senior secured facility for the UrtheDaily Constellation (the "UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility").

As announced on April 3, 2018, the purchase price for each Subscription Receipt is CAD$0.35. Each Subscription Receipt will be convertible into a non-interest bearing, unsecured convertible note in the principal amount of CAD$0.35 (the "Notes"), such Notes convertible at a conversion price of CAD$0.32 (the "Original Conversion Price") for a period of six years following issuance of the Notes and a number of Common Share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") equal to 50% of the number of Common Shares the holder would receive if the Note were converted at the Original Conversion Price, such Warrants exercisable at an exercise price equal to CAD$0.48 for a period of five years following issuance of the Warrants.

The Subordinated Capital Financing remains subject to completion and execution of definitive documentation satisfactory to the Agents and the Company, each acting reasonably and in good faith, and receipt of all required consents and approvals. The UrtheDailyTM Senior Secured Facility remains subject to the completion and execution of definitive documentation for the Subordinated Capital Financing satisfactory to the senior lenders and the Company, and finalization of definitive documentation for the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility, which is ongoing. The Subordinated Capital Financing will enable the Company to meet its immediate financing requirements. The UrtheDaily Financing (as defined below) remains subject to TSX approval for reliance by the Company on the financial difficulty exemption set out below.

Details of the UrtheDaily Financing

Subordinated Capital Financing

As announced on April 3, 2018, the Company has agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to file and obtain a receipt for a final prospectus within 45 days of closing to qualify the Notes and Warrants issuable on the conversion of the Subscription Receipts, such that the Common Shares underlying the Notes and Warrants become freely tradeable.

The proceeds of the Subordinated Capital Financing will be placed into escrow to be released upon the execution of finalized documentation for the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility and the qualification of the Notes and the Warrants issuable on the conversion of the Subscription Receipts under a prospectus. The Company will use the proceeds of the Subordinated Capital Financing to help finance the UrtheDaily Constellation and for general corporate purposes, with at least 50% of the proceeds being used for the UrtheDaily Constellation.

From the date of closing of the Subordinated Capital Financing until the later of (i) the eighteen month anniversary of the closing date and (ii) the date on which no Notes remain outstanding, the holders of the Notes will have the right to participate in any offering of equity securities by the Company to permit the holders of the Notes to maintain their percentage ownership interest of equity securities in the Company as at the date immediately prior to such offering.

The UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility

The UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility will make available to the Company US$142 million in two equal drawdowns subject to such finalized documentation and upon satisfaction of the conditions precedents described below. Details of the arrangement fee and payment terms of the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility, including a gross revenue royalty and warrants payable to the senior lenders, are set out in our news release of April 3, 2018.

As a condition precedent to the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility closing, the Company was required to raise subordinated capital of at least US$25 million. The Subordinated Capital Financing is intended to satisfy this condition. In addition, prior to drawdown the Company will be required to refinance an existing credit facility and may be required to raise additional subordinated capital financing to facilitate that refinancing. We continue to be in discussions regarding a conditional backstop commitment to support any such subordinated financing. There can be no assurance that the conditional backstop commitment will be completed.

The availability of the first and second drawdowns will also be subject to the Company maintaining certain maximum leverage and total contracted value ratios, as ordinarily required of debt financing facilities of this type.

The Company expects to be in line to close the facility over the next two weeks, although there can be no assurance that the transaction will be closed on the terms described in the Company's April 3, 2018 release or on any other terms. On closing of the transaction, a copy of the credit agreement will be filed and will be available for viewing and download on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and readers are encouraged to review it in its entirety.

The terms of the Subordinated Capital Financing and the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility (together, the "UrtheDaily Financing") were negotiated on an arm's length basis. The Subordinated Capital Financing will not materially affect the control of the Company. No insiders will participate in the Subordinated Capital Financing. Upon closing of the UrtheDaily Financing, SMF Investments Limited or its affiliate ("SMF") may become an insider of the Company, as SMF will be issued CAD$10,001,250 principal amount of Notes and 15,626,953 Warrants, which upon the respective conversion and exercise thereof, would result in SMF holding 46,880,859 Common Shares (representing 27.85% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis assuming no participants in the UrtheDaily Financing convert or exercise their Notes or Warrants; provided, however, that SMF will be restricted from converting its Notes and exercising its Warrants if such conversion or exercise would result in a new aggregate holding of more than 19.9% of the Common Shares of the Company).

Securities Issuable and Expected Shareholdings after Completion of the UrtheDaily Financing

Subordinated Capital Financing

The Notes will not bear any interest and will be convertible into Common Shares at the option of the holder, at any time prior to the six-year anniversary of the issuance of the Notes at the Original Conversion Price of CAD$0.32, which represents 99% of the volume weighted average price of the Common Shares for the five trading days (the "5-day VWAP") ending on April 2, 2018 (the date prior to announcement of the transaction). The conversion price of the Notes will be adjusted down if the Company issues Common Shares (other than issuances in connection with its stock option plan or in the ordinary course of business) below the then-existing conversion price to such lower issuance price, provided that the conversion price may not be adjusted below CAD$0.24 (which represents 74.26% of the 5-day VWAP ending on April 2, 2018). The Notes will also be subject to other customary anti-dilution protections.

Assuming the completion of the Subordinated Capital Financing for CAD$35 million, the Company will issue CAD$35 million of Notes, convertible into (i) 109,375,000 Common Shares (representing 90.06% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof), assuming conversion at the Original Conversion Price; and (ii) 145,833,333 Common Shares (representing 120.09% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof), assuming conversion at CAD$0.24.

Each whole Warrant will be exercisable by the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price equal to CAD$0.48, which represents 148% of the 5-day VWAP as at April 2, 2018 (the "Original Exercise Price") for a period of five years following issuance of the Warrants. The exercise price of the Warrants will be adjusted down in the event that the Company issues Common Shares (other than issuances in connection with its stock option plan or in the ordinary course of business) below the then-existing exercise price to such lower issuance price, provided that the exercise price may not be adjusted below the Original Conversion Price. The Warrants will also be subject to other customary anti-dilution protections. The Warrants will be subject to early exercise, at the election of the Company, if the 5-day VWAP exceeds 250% of the Original Exercise Price for a period of at least 20 consecutive trading days. The Warrants will not be listed on any exchange.

Assuming the completion of the Subordinated Capital Financing for CAD$35 million, the Company will issue Warrants equal to 50% of the number of Common Shares the holder would receive if the Notes were converted at the Original Conversion Price, being 54,687,500 Warrants exercisable into 54,687,500 Common Shares (representing 45.03% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof).

The UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility

Under the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility, the Company will issue Senior Lender Warrants to the Senior Lenders, on substantially similar terms and conditions as the Warrants, as is equal to 5% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares immediately after completion of the Subordinated Capital Financing, calculated by assuming that the Notes have been converted at the Original Conversion Price and the Warrants have been exercised.

Assuming the Company enters into the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility, the Company will issue approximately 14,275,172 Senior Lender Warrants exercisable into 14,275,172 Common Shares (representing approximately 11.75% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof).

UrtheDaily Financing

Assuming completion of the UrtheDail Financing, including completion of the Subordinated Capital Financing for CAD$35 million, the Company will issue CAD$35 million of Notes, convertible, in the aggregate, into (i) 109,375,000 Common Shares (representing 90.06% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof), assuming conversion at the Original Conversion Price; and (ii) 145,833,333 Common Shares (representing 120.09% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof), assuming conversion at CAD$0.24.

Assuming completion of the UrtheDaily Financing on the terms described above, the Company will also issue approximately 68,962,672 Common Share purchase warrants, consisting of Warrants and Senior Lender Warrants, exercisable into 68,962,672 Common Shares, at each applicable exercise price, (representing approximately 56.79% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof).

Assuming completion of the UrtheDaily Financing, including completion of the Subordinated Capital Financing for CAD$35 million of Notes, convertible, in the aggregate, into 145,833,333 Common Shares, assuming conversion at CAD$0.24, and the issuance of approximately 68,962,672 Common Share purchase warrants, consisting of Warrants and Senior Lender Warrants, exercisable into 68,962,672 Common Shares, the total potential number of Common Shares issuable under the UrtheDaily Financing is 214,796,005 (representing 176.87% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of the date hereof).

Financial Difficulty Exemption

Under the TSX Company Manual (the "Manual"), shareholder approval would be required for the UrtheDaily Financing as a result of (i) the number of Common Shares issuable at a discount being greater than 25% of the currently issued and outstanding Common Shares, and (ii) as a result of that fact that the conversion price of the Notes may be adjusted downward to be equal to CAD$0.24.

The Company has applied to the TSX under section 604(e) of the Manual for an exemption from the requirement to obtain shareholder approval for the UrtheDaily Financing. The Company's Board of Directors, who are free from any interest in the UrtheDaily Financing and unrelated to the parties involved in the UrtheDaily Financing, have authorized such application on recommendation of a special committee of the Board and have concluded that the Company is in serious financial difficulty, the UrtheDaily Financing is designed to improve the Company's financial situation, and the terms of the UrtheDaily Financing are reasonable for the Company in the circumstances.

As a consequence of relying on the serious financial difficulty exemption, the TSX has informed the Company that it will place the Company under review for continued listing, which is standard practice when a listed issuer seeks to rely on this exemption.

Each component of the UrtheDaily Financing is conditional on the others, and there is no assurance that any of the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility or the Subordinated Capital Financing will be completed on the terms set out herein, or at all. Further, there is no assurance that the TSX will approve the UrtheDaily Financing, or any component part or aspect thereof, or the Company's application to rely on the serious financial difficulty exemption from the requirement to obtain shareholder approval for the UrtheDaily Financing.

The disclosure in this news release assumes an exchange rate of US$/CAD$ of 1.282.

About UrtheCast

UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company operates Earth Observation (EO) sensors in space, through its subsidiary Deimos Imaging, including two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2, to produce imagery data for partners and customers in multiple markets. UrtheCast processes and distributes imagery data and value-added products on behalf of the PanGeo Alliance, a network of seven satellite operators with a combined 13 medium- and high-resolution EO sensors. UrtheCast is developing a satellite constellation designed to capture high-quality, medium- resolution optical imagery of the Earth's entire landmass (excluding Antarctica) every day, called UrtheDaily. UrtheCast is also developing the world's first fully-integrated constellation of sixteen multispectral optical and SAR satellites, called OptiSAR. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker "UR".

For more information, visit UrtheCast's website at www.urthecast.com.

Forward Looking Information

This release contains certain information which, as presented, constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-oriented financial information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information involves statements that relate to future events and often addresses expected future business and financial performance, containing words such as "anticipate", "plan", "explore" and "expect", statements that an action or event "may", "should" or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions and includes, but is not limited to, statements relating to: UrtheCast's expected completion of the UrtheDaily Financing on the terms set out in this press release or at all; UrtheCast's ability to satisfy the escrow release conditions in connection with the issuance of the Subscription Receipts; UrtheCast's ability to satisfy the escrow release conditions in connection with the issuance of the Subscription Receipts; and UrtheCast's expectations with respect to its ability to raise proceeds from a subordinated capital or equity offering sufficient to satisfy the related drawdown condition of the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility in a timely manner. Such statements reflect UrtheCast's current views with respect to future events. Such statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by UrtheCast as at the date of this release, are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause UrtheCast's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others: UrtheCast's inability to enter into definitive documentation relating to the UrtheDaily Financing; UrtheCast's inability to close the UrtheDaily Financing on the terms set out in this press release, the definitive documentation related thereto, or at all; UrtheCast's inability to satisfy the escrow release conditions in connection with the issuance of the Subscription Receipts; and UrtheCast's inability to raise proceeds from a subordinated capital or equity offering sufficient to satisfy the related drawdown condition of the UrtheDaily Senior Secured Facility in a timely manner or at all; as well as those factors and assumptions discussed in UrtheCast's annual information form dated April 3, 2018, which is available under UrtheCast's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. UrtheCast cautions readers that such factors and uncertainties are not exhaustive and that should certain risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements may vary significantly from those expected. There can be no assurance that the actual strategies, results, performance, events or activities anticipated by the Company will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company.

UrtheCast undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

SOURCE UrtheCast Corp.

Related Links

www.urthecast.com


WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fully supports the administration's One Federal Decision Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed Monday by numerous secretaries of federal agencies, including the Department of the Army.

President Donald J. Trump established the policy of One Federal Decision for the federal government's processing of environmental reviews and permits for major infrastructure projects in Executive Order 13807, signed by the president August 15, 2017. Monday's MOU formalizes the commitment by all the signatory agencies to implement EO 13807's framework. It ensures the federal processing of environmental reviews and permits for major infrastructure projects is coordinated, predictable and transparent.

Under One Federal Decision, Executive Order 13807 requires each major infrastructure project to have a lead federal agency responsible for navigating the project through the process, all federal agencies to sign one "Record of Decision" (for purposes of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act), and relevant federal agencies to issue the necessary permits for the project within 90 days of the signing of the Record of Decision.

Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark Esper signed the MOU for the Army and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Esper said, "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is committed to meeting the needs of our nation's project sponsors in the processing of its environmental reviews and permits in a timely, coordinated and concurrent way as called for in the MOU."

The agencies that signed the One Federal Decision MOU have committed to work together to make the necessary environmental and permitting decisions for major infrastructure projects with a goal to complete the entire process within two years. In general, the MOU commits agencies to process their reviews in accordance with the following four principles:

Establish a Lead Federal Agency for the Complete Process. Under the current process, project sponsors are responsible for navigating the decision-making processes of multiple federal agencies. Under the MOU, federal agencies agree to establish one Lead Federal Agency that will navigate the federal environmental review and permitting process. Commitment to Meeting the Lead Federal Agency's Permitting Timetable. Under the current process, agencies are not generally required to follow a comprehensive permitting timetable. Under the MOU, federal agencies agree to follow the permitting timetables established by the Lead Federal Agency with the goal of completing the process in two years. Commitment to Conduct the Necessary Review Processes Concurrently. Under the current process, agencies may conduct their own environmental review and permitting processes sequentially resulting in unnecessary delay, redundant analysis and revisiting of decisions. Under the MOU, federal agencies agree to conduct their processes at the same time and rely on the analysis prepared by the Lead Federal Agency to the maximum extent possible. Automatic Elevation of Interagency Disputes. Under the current process, interagency disputes sometimes linger for years in agency field offices before being elevated and resolved. Under the MOU, federal agencies agree that interagency disputes will be automatically elevated and expeditiously resolved.

The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Mr. R.D. James, who attended the signing ceremony and is responsible for providing oversight for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Civil Works program, said, "One of the driving forces behind my interest in accepting this position was a desire to identify and implement opportunities and procedures that will improve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' ability to work better with other federal agencies to move dirt and get results for the nation. This MOU will help achieve that objective."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been and continues to be part of the federal team assisting the administration in the efforts to develop and implement the infrastructure initiative. USACE is working to streamline processes and procedures in an effort to remove roadblocks which delay the implementation of projects and increase project costs unnecessarily.

SOURCE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Related Links

http://www.usace.army.mil


MUMBAI, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Company had applied for renewal of consent to operate (CTO) for its existing Smelter plant at Thoothukudi (Tuticorin). The application has been rejected for want of more clarifications. The Company is evaluating further course of action.

As informed by the Company vide its announcement dated March 27, 2018, the scheduled maintenance activities were supposed to be for a period of approximately 15 days from the said date. This is now likely to be extended given the above development. The Company shall update on further developments from time to time.

About Vedanta Limited

Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, aluminium, copper, iron ore and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa and Namibia. Vedanta Ltd has a portfolio of world-class, low-cost, scalable assets that consistently generate strong profitability and have robust cash flows. The company holds industry-leading market shares across its core divisions.

Vedanta Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company is conferred with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label', ranking among the top 10 most sustainable companies in India. To access the Vedanta Sustainable Development Report 2017, please visit http://sd.vedantaresources.com/SustainableDevelopment2016-17/

Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India. The company is in the Nifty 50 Index and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information please visit www.vedantalimited.com

Vedanta Limited

Vedanta, 75

Nehru Road

Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 099

www.vedantalimited.com

Registered Office:

Regd. Office: 1st Floor, 'C' wing, Unit 103,

Corporate Avenue

Atul Projects

Chakala, Andheri (East)

Mumbai  400 093

CIN: L13209MH1965PLC291394

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements"  that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forwardlooking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

For further information, please contact:

Communications

Arun Arora

Head Communications

Tel: +91-1244593000

[email protected]



Investor Relations

Rashmi Mohanty

Director  Investor Relations

Tel: +91-22-6646-1531

[email protected]



Aarti Raghavan

VP  Investor Relations



Sneha Tulsyan

Associate Manager  Investor Relations

SOURCE Vedanta Limited

Related Links

http://www.vedantalimited.com


SAN DIEGO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of VeriFone Systems, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) ("VeriFone") breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to Francisco Partners. VeriFone provides payments and commerce solutions at the point of sale (POS) worldwide.

On April 9, 2018, VeriFone announced that it had signed a definitive merger agreement with Francisco Partners. Under the terms of the agreement, VeriFone shareholders will receive $23.04 per share in cash.

The investigation concerns whether the VeriFone board failed to satisfy its duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for VeriFone shares of common stock. Nationally recognized Johnson Fistel is investigating whether the proposed deal represents adequate consideration, especially given one Wall Street analyst has a $26.00 price target on the stock.

If you are a shareholder of VeriFone and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ( [email protected] ) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.

About Johnson Fistel, LLP:

Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com . Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:

Johnson Fistel, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

[email protected]

SOURCE Johnson Fistel, LLP

Related Links

http://www.johnsonfistel.com


Labbrand, a global brand consultancy with strong expertise in Chinese brand naming, worked closely with Voya to create a Chinese identity for the brand that is optimistic, approachable, and relatable to the Chinese-American community, who are in need of smart and professional financial planning and management. Labbrand created the Chinese brand name [wo ya], conducted linguistic tests in major Chinese dialects, and designed the bilingual brand signature.

The Chinese brand name [wo ya] envisions a rich and happy journey towards and through retirement, while maintaining similar pronunciation in Chinese to the original name "Voya". [wo] stands for richness, implying an aspirational life full of joy. [ya] means elegance and peace, reflecting peace of mind and assurance for the future and life during retirement. The name has an optimistic and trustworthy tone, resonating with Voya's brand image and customers' expectations. This name was linguistically tested among speakers of Mandarin and two major Chinese dialects spoken in the U.S.  Cantonese and Minnanhua. Additionally, the two characters chosen for the name are readable in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters.

Labbrand also designed the bilingual brand signature for Voya, maintaining a strong resemblance with the distinct traits of Voya's original visual identity. Voya plans to utilize the Chinese brand name and visual identity for various marketing touchpoints including website, social media, TV ad, print media, video, and other collateral.

"We are very thrilled to work with Voya Financial on this naming and design project," said Ying Mu, Vice General Manager of Labbrand New York. "What makes the U.S. market so special is its diversity. And as a growing segment of this market, the Chinese-American community is definitely one that has many opportunities for brands. We are happy to provide our multi-cultural knowledge and approach to help our clients to achieve consistent growth."

About Labbrand

Labbrand is the leading China-originated global brand consultancy with a rapidly expanding global footprint that includes regional operations in APAC (Shanghai, Singapore), Europe (Paris), and North America (New York, Vancouver). We lead branding journeys and facilitate implementations to light up companies and products with the power of your brand. Through brand innovations, we steer brands towards unrivalled brand space. On our journeys we Create, Grow and Disrupt to build resilient brands in dynamic markets. Our cross-disciplinary approach in research, strategy, naming, design and digital gives us the foresight and ability to guide brands beyond the status quo.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc. helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings  to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13.6 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $11 billion in revenue in 2016. The company had $541 billion in total assets under management and administration as of September 30, 2017. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible  one person, one family, one institution at a time  Voya's vision is to be America's Retirement Company. Certified as a "Great Place to Work" by the Great Place to Work Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has been recognized as one of the 2017 World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, one of the 2018 World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine and one of the Top Green Companies in the U.S., by Newsweek magazine.

SOURCE Labbrand
DUBLIN and ATLANTA, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Waratek, the virtualization-based application security company, announced today the company will be demonstrating Waratek Patch at RSA 2018. Waratek Patch is a tool for Java and .NET applications that applies virtual patches for long-term and newly discovered vulnerabilities.

Waratek Patch is a lightweight agent that allows security and development teams to easily create and apply custom patches based on scanning tools. Regular updates from Oracle, Microsoft, Apache and other software developers can also be instantly deployed using functional-equivalent "virtual" patches that operate just like a physical binary without delay and the risk of breaking an application.

With Waratek Patch, organizations can quickly and easily improve compliance with company, industry and government regulations such as the GDPR and New York Department of Financial Services by reducing the time to apply required critical patch updates.

Cybersecurity breaches in the month of April are stark reminders of the need for organizations to secure vulnerabilities in their networks. Under Armour, Panera Bread, Delta Air Lines, retailers Best Buy, Sears, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth, and Lord & Taylor stores are among companies reporting successful cyberattacks resulting in the loss of valuable customer data. The scale of these security breaches highlights the importance of detecting software flaws and patching vulnerable software before attackers have the chance to take advantage of a flaw.

Waratek Patch is one of three solutions in Waratek's Runtime Application Security Platform. Waratek Secure offers highly accurate "always-on" protection against the OWASP Top Ten, SANS Top 25 and other known attacks with no code changes. Waratek Enterprise combines the features of Patch and Secure, and adds the ability to virtually upgrade applications built on out of support Java applications without source code changes.

Waratek will be demonstrating their products at RSA at booth #4341 in the North Hall of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

For more information on Waratek please visit https://www.waratek.com/

About Waratek

Waratek is a pioneer in the next generation of application security solutions. Using patented technology, Waratek makes it easy for security teams to instantly patch known flaws, virtually upgrade out-of-support Java applications, and protecting against known and unknown attacks  all without time consuming and expensive code changes or unacceptable performance overhead.

Waratek is one of CSO Online's Best Security Software solutions of 2017, a winner of the RSA Innovation Sandbox Award, and more than a dozen other awards and recognitions.

Waratek is based in Dublin, Ireland and Atlanta, Georgia. For more information visit https://www.waratek.com/

Media Contact

Mike Gallo for Waratek

Lumina Communications

(212) 239-8594

[email protected]

SOURCE Waratek

Related Links

http://www.waratek.com


WGU's competency-based education programs provide military personnel the ability to apply their life experiences and knowledge to more than 60 industry-relevant, accredited bachelor's and master's degrees in business, information technology, teacher education, and health professions, including nursing. Currently, 19 percent of WGU North Carolina's students are part of a military community.

"WGU North Carolina's online degree programs put education in reach of service members and their families as they look to either upskill while on active duty or as they transition to civilian life and a new career," said Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin (Ret.), a member of WGU North Carolina's Advisory Board. "Military personnel are accustomed to using competency-based education and training to achieve their professional goals, and that's what makes WGU North Carolina a natural fit for those with a military background."

Recognized as one of the nation's "Top Military-Friendly Colleges and Universities" for 10 consecutive years, Western Governors University (WGU) has a long-standing commitment to supporting military servicemen and women. Under the partnership, the university and the USO of NC will create special events and programs designed to support the unique needs of active duty military, veterans, and their families. Workshops, such as the USO's Operation Exit Strategy, will be supported by WGU representatives to help equip service members with the transition skills and career resources necessary to make the next steps in their careers, from resume writing to interview techniques and more.

"As a nonprofit organization not funded by the government or national USO, partnerships like this one are critical to the success of our mission. We welcome WGU North Carolina to our Patriot Circle as a one-star partner," said John Falkenbury, president of the USO of North Carolina. "With WGU's support even more service members and military families will have access to educational and career resources, ensuring a successful transition to civilian life when they leave the service."

The USO of North Carolina supports the fourth largest military population in the U.S., through life-changing and even life-saving programs offered at 11 locations across the state. The organization stands by the side of our service members from the time that they enter the military through their transition to successful veteran status.

WGU North Carolina officially launched in October 2017 through a partnership between the state and nationally recognized WGU. As of April 2018, WGU has more than 1,600 students in the state, and nearly 2,200 North Carolinians have already graduated from WGU.

About WGU North Carolina

WGU North Carolina is an online, competency-based university established to expand access to higher education for North Carolina residents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the fields of business, K-12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing.

Degrees are granted under the accreditation of WGU, which is accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Teachers College programs are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE*). More information is available at nc.wgu.edu or by calling 866.225.5948. *Western Governors University offers nursing programs that are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 5380, Washington DC 20036, 202-877-6791).

Follow WGU:

https://www.facebook.com/WGUNorthCarolina/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wgu-north-carolina/

https://twitter.com/WGUNC

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJuqHy5TAPmlEOARBEnEHA

https://www.wgu.edu/newsroom

Contact for media inquiries: Contact for enrollment information: Noelle Motley  Public Relations Manager 866-225-5948 757-814-7178 nc.wgu.edu [email protected]



SOURCE WGU North Carolina

Related Links

http://nc.wgu.edu


SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- "Fintech is playing an important role in China. Given the demands for consumer finance are not yet fully satisfied and credit system is not perfect, financial technology has a golden development opportunity in China, which leads the world in data mining and processing capabilities in the mobile Internet market." said Simon Cheng, President of X Financial, a leading fintech company in China at LendIt USA recently.

From April 9-11, LendIt USA 2018 was held in San Francisco with more than 1,000 global institutions including Lending Club, SoFi, Kabbage, WELLS FARGO and Morgan Stanley participating. The summit concentrated on such hot topics as blockchain technology, AI, integrated innovation of finance and technology, and global policies and regulations.

The Chinese consumption market has great potential

Over the past few years, the development of fintech has drawn a lot of attention, especially when it comes to prominent institutions such as SoFi, Kabbage and so on. As far as Simon Cheng is concerned, Chinese consumer finance should develop with distinctive Chinese characteristics. "The household consumption expenditure in China has risen for multiple consecutive years, but the share of Chinese consumption in GDP is far from the world average level. Besides, the opening up of the two-child policy has also produced a new round of demographic dividend. So the Chinese consumption market has great potential."

The development of mobile Internet gives more innovation spaces to Chinese fintech companies. "In China, traditional financial institutions are faced with many service problems, including service costs, effective coverage, information asymmetry and risk control. As the main source of netizens, the Chinese emerging middle class shows a wide variety of characteristics and demands on consumption concepts and usage habits. X Financial's users are mostly active on mobile devices, benefiting from financial services through their mobile phones." said Simon Cheng.

Offer all our users the most friendly and humanized products

As a company with an over 3-year history, X Financial has unique advantages in the fintech industry, according to Simon Cheng, a financial practitioner with more than 20 years of experience. The company's Internet team, which boasts experience from first-class Chinese Internet teams such as Alibaba and Tencent, also helps X Financial provide the best Internet product experience. The Vice President Gardon Gao, who once worked for Tencent, said, "We set up offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in order to attract better talents."

"I have visual impairment, so I interact via intelligent devices such as screen readers, computers, mobile devices, etc. I found that some modules of xiaoying.com couldn't be read by screen readers and hope the problem to be dealt with." Read one user mail received by the Internet team of X Financial. "We will not only carefully read each mail concerning the needs of our users, but also understand their needs through chat groups on WeChat. It is often the case that we grow with the help of our users, so we wish to offer all our users the most friendly and humanized products." said Gardon Gao.

Fintech create a better life for users

Kent Li, the chief risk control officer of X Financial, attracted by the blueprint of financial science and technology depicted by Simon Cheng, left Capital One in Canada and joined X Financial in November 2015. Then, talents from Capital One, Discover, and Ping An joined in succession and formed the gold risk control team. Kent Li introduced the WinSAFE intelligent risk control system, created by X Financial, which is a precise system where data flow are connected and mutually restrained and that is composed of a series of closely interconnected "parts", such as an intelligent decision-making engine, data engine, anti-fraud model, credit model, mortgage valuation model and so on. The system has greatly improved users' experience on the basis of ensuring safety and operation efficiency. The "data engine", one of the cores of the WinSAFE intelligent risk control system, uses AI technology to realize the convenient submission of the data of users applying for loans. It also enables real-time cross validation with up to dozens of data sources and ensures the data authentication of applicants by means of real name authentication, face recognition and living body identification. The data engine performs the "cross validation" of risks by analyzing multiple data points, and is thus able to discriminate potential risks to a very high degree.

The excellent risk control capability facilitates the success of Xiaoying Cardloan, a geek product of X Financial. Its number of users exceeded 10 million and the cumulative amount of loans issued was more than 2 billion dollars by the end of December 2017. "It is our mission to create value and premium experience, provide intelligent financial services solutions and build an efficient financial services ecology on the basis of Internet technology and data. We believe that financial technology can create a better life for our users." With these words, Simon Cheng made it clear that he is quite confident in the development of Fintech in China.

SOURCE X Financial
Cushman & Wakefield has signed an exclusive arrangement with CBS International as its affiliate in Serbia and Montenegro. CBS International has entered into a second decade as real estate consultancy in Serbia for seven years now, advising property owners, investors and occupiers across all sectors on every aspect of their

Photos: Petr Pelucha



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Hufvudstaden is due to commence construction of an additional 2,600 square metres of office space at the Skaren 9 property in Bibliotekstan in Stockholm. The two-storey extension offers a magnificent view of Norrmalmstorg and the bay of Nybroviken. There will also be comprehensive refurbishment of existing floor space and a

[]
Investors looking to snap up a slice of one of Melbournes most iconic landmarks may be about to run out of time.

76B and 76C Dendy Street Beach in Brighton are set to go under the hammer, with price hopes in excess of $280,000 each, through Nick Johnstone director Nick Johnstone.

But the auction may be some of the final lots for the beachs famous bathing boxes.

Bayside City Council have said that after the slated April auction of two bathing boxes at Dendy Street Beach, only one more will be built and sold during the 2018/2019 financial year.

As part of its 2013 Dendy Street Beach Masterplan, Council proposed to construct eight additional bathing boxes at Brightons iconic Dendy Street Beach, Bayside City Council acting director of corporate services Bill Shanahan told the Herald Sun.

Since this time Council has built and auctioned one to two bathing boxes each year.

Council does not have plans to construct any further bathing boxes at Dendy Street Beach following the completion of the current program.

The original objective of the construction program was to fill in gaps between existing boxes, Brighton Bathing Box Association secretary John Rundle said.

We have a neutral stance as to whether any more should be built, Rundle said.

We supported the infill objectives, and I dont know if they could fit too many more in down that end of the beach.

Im not sure well see any more built in the foreseeable future.

Johnstone says that Brighton beach boxes are a rare opportunity to buy the boxes which are often held by families across generations.

Theyre a fantastic lifestyle opportunity, with great scope for capital growth; in my opinion theyre still undervalued when you compare them to some along the Mornington Peninsula, he said.

Bayside residents and rate payers are the only people permitted to purchase the beach boxes.

The auction is scheduled for on Saturday, April 28.
The Gold and Sunshine Coast housing markets are now approaching their peak, suggests the latest property clock from the valuation firm Herron Todd White (HTW).

Melbourne is also in the same category as the two Queensland coastal localities, while Sydney remains the only capital city starting to decline.

Click here to enlarge.

The rural areas in Queensland, as well as Darwin and Perth, are at the bottom of the market.

Canberra, who two months ago was in the same starting to decline category as Sydney, remains in the rising market.
Major projects are in the planning pipeline for Darwin and the Northern Territory and Darwins real estate market desperately needs some of them to proceed.

The local economy lacks activity, jobs creation and population growth  and, as a consequence, property market statistics remain highly negative.

The regular data on prices and rents continue to show the Darwin market in reverse. Unit prices in Darwin, for example, are down 10.6% (CoreLogic) or 11.7% (SQM Research) in annual terms. The trends also remain negative for house prices and rentals.

Unlike the other downturn capital city, Perth, there are as yet no signs of recovery for Darwin.

The Darwin market downturn has coincided with the end of the resources investment boom and the consequent decline in the Northern Territory economy. As a result, jobs creation and population growth has suffered.

This inevitably has fed through to Darwin real estate, with sales activity falling away dramatically. In Darwin City, residential sales totalled between 435 and 565 in every quarter of 2014 and 2015. But in 2017, quarterly sales been regularly below 330.

In the apartment market, the rate of sale in 2014 and 2015 was well over 200 sales per quarter, but in 2017 the average was less than 150 per quarter.

The slump has been even more dramatic in the Palmerston LGA adjoining Darwin City. Residential sales totalled over 1,200 in 2014 and 1,100 in 2015, but below 500 in 2017.

Given that Palmerston is where most of the new residential suburbs have been emerging, these figures illustrate the slump in buyer demand for new homes in the Darwin market.

This has pushed down prices markedly. Virtually every suburb in the Darwin metropolitan area has recorded price decline in the past quarter, the past year and the past three years.

Most suburbs in the Darwin region have house price levels lower than five years ago.

Examples include the suburb of Alawa, where the median house price has dropped 9% in the latest quarter, 10% in the past year and 22% in the past three years. Its median house price is now $465,000.

In Karama, the median price has dropped 6% in the past quarter, 11% in the past year and 22% in the past three years, and is now $430,000. The Moulden median house price is down 2% (quarter), 11% (12 months) and 20% (three years) to reach $310,000.

There are similarly negative results in the apartment market.

There are two exceptions to this story of decline: the upmarket suburbs of Nightcliff (median house price $770,000) and Rapid Creek ($720,000) have each recorded growth in the past quarter, year and three years - and, unlike most Darwin suburbs, have median prices higher than five years ago.

Significantly, Nightcliff and Rapid Creek show up in Hotspottings quarterly surveys of sales activity as suburbs with fairly consistent sales performance. This is in contrast to our overall findings, where most suburbs are classified as danger markets (which means sales activity has dropped markedly and remain well below the peak levels).

Beyond the Darwin metropolitan area, Alice Springs continues to be the strongest market in the Territory, based on the consistency of its sales performance. It has recorded between 100 and 130 dwelling sales in most of the past 12 quarters - and lately has shown an upward trend.

The Alice house market was at its strongest in 2015 and now quarterly sales (rising from 62 to 73 to 77 to 88 house sales in the past four quarters) are approaching those levels again.

As a result, and in sharp contrast to Darwin, most suburbs in Alice Springs have shown solid growth in median house prices. Braitling, East Side, Larapinta and Gillen have all recorded growth in the past quarter, year and three years.

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au

[email protected]

twitter.com/hotspotting
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In her latest novel for middle grade readers, Ghost Boys, Jewell Parker Rhodes blends history with current events and historical characters with fictional ones to weave a tale of an African-American boy whose life is cut short by a white policemans bullet. We spoke with Rhodes about her personal experiences of racism in America, why Emmett Till, an African-American teenager lynched in Mississippi in 1955, plays a major role in a story set in contemporary Chicago, and how writing this novel was painful, but also cathartic for her. Ghost Boys is Indiebounds #1 Kids Indie Next pick this spring.

What inspired you to write Ghost Boys?

Every child everywhere deserves to have a childhood. It is a betrayal of innocence and trust when adults who have a responsibility to protect and nurture children instead harm or murder them. This is tragic. Yet, as a writer I believe words have the power to shape the world. I believe todays youth are going to make the world better. These two beliefs inspire me to write about resilience and to mirror childrens unlimited capacity for compassion, empathy, and love. As an author I bear witness, my characters bear witness, and I know my readers will bear witness to the belief that everyones story needs to be told and in the telling, we can cauterize grief and pain and transform it into a force for good.

Though I write about tough subjects, kids know that my stories are also infused with kindness, hope, and, ultimately, it empowers them. As the ghost boy Jerome says: Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better. That is the clarion call I believe all children want to hear: Live. Make the world better.

It is essential for adults not to patronize kids. They are far more sophisticated and knowledgeable about inequities in the world. More importantly, in a few short years they will be adults voting and participating in our civic discourse. Before that time, young readers need opportunities to discuss significant issues with their family members and in their school community.

This novel is for middle grade readers, yet it deals with some intense issues. Do you think middle grade readersespecially boys of African heritagecan handle such a story without being traumatized?

Children do not live in a vacuum. History and current events both demonstrate racism and racial biases. African-American families have to prepare their children at a young age for the possibility of prejudice and discrimination. From the 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation to the 2017 film Get Out, cultural stereotypes about black people abound.

Last year, I talked to fourth graders in Louisiana about my novel, Sugar. The very first question came from a black boy who asked: Why do white people hate us so much? My heart broke. Why should any child in 2018 feel hated because of the color of their skin?

In 1992, my son was two when the L.A. riots exploded after four police officers were acquitted of wrongdoing during the arrest of Rodney King. I still worry about my son because I know racial bias still exists. Today, beyond increasingly segregated schools, studies document that black children are seen as less innocent, more sexually knowledgeable, and physically older than their actual age. In schools, black children are far more likely to have police officers called to arrest them than be disciplined by school officials.

In my novels, I always focus on seeing, really seeing another human being. Forget labels, drop biases, and connect as people. In Towers Falling, Deja, an African-American homeless girl, is best friends with Sabeen, a Muslim Turkish American girl, and Ben, a Jewish military kid. In Ghost Boys, Jerome, an African-American Chicagoan, becomes friends with Carlos, a Hispanic boy relocated from Texas. Jerome as a ghost, and the white police officers daughter, Sarah, see each other, too. Through understanding and empathy, Sarah takes steps to make her family and world better.

Now forget all the labels Ive just used. The truth is that when I write, I focus on my characters interior lives. With character-driven stories I hope to convey the feeling, the emotional truth that people are people are people and that all should be treated equitably and given respect.

What was your writing process for Ghost Boys?

Writing Ghost Boys was challenging and emotional. Emmett Till was murdered when I was a year old. As a woman and as a mother of a black son, Ive had my own challenges with discrimination. And as a grandmother, I still live in a time when black boys and men can be murdered due to racism or racial biases. Before I could bear witness to tragedy, I had to experience my own catharsis.

I first wrote 27 pages and said, Thats it. Im done with the novel. Then after several weeks, Id dive back into [it] and write another 10 pages. Then, Id repeat, Thats it. Im done! Over a two-year period, the novel grew in increments with long breaks in between, during which I read volumes on discrimination and felt sorrow. I had to experience my own painful journey in order to experience and reaffirm transformative love for our common humanity. I felt such a special obligation because I was writing for youth. My novel makes a space for strong emotions but doesnt slay hope and optimism, and celebrates the inherent power in each child to be and make the change.

Why did you feature in such a prominent role Emmett Till, who was murdered in 1955, when there are so many other recent victims, including Trayvon Martinwho was murdered in 2012who make only a cameo appearance?

All of the ghost boys symbolize individuals and the spiritual legacy of a community of boys who died too soon. The historical context from 1955 to 2012 is what is important. It allows me to draw distinctions between the overt and conscious racism of the 1950s with the still prevalent legacy of racial biases in the current day.

Research for the novel was ongoing. Even after Ghost Boys was in copyediting, I was able to rewrite Emmetts story to reflect Mrs. Carolyn Bryants recent admission that she lied about Emmett physically and verbally assaulting her. Ghost Boys bears witness to the truth of Emmetts undoubtable innocence.

What function does Sarah serve in Ghost Boys? Why is only the daughter of the white policeman who killed Jerome able to commune with himrather than Carlos, for example?

Because of his cultural beliefs in ancestors and Day of the Dead rituals, Carlos already has a friendship with Jerome that extends beyond life. It was exciting to me that Carloss Hispanic traditions mirror Jeromes grandmothers African diasporic belief that Every goodbye aint gone. Throughout the world, honoring the dead is a cultural theme. Over a million African slaves were in colonial Mexico and their afterlife beliefs may have influenced Day of the Dead and vice versa.

By Sarah seeing and hearing Jerome, Sarah becomes an empowered character who, with critical thinking skills and love, forgives her father and advocates for social justice. Sarah is changed by Jeromes story and, in turn, she will help improve the world. I love the line when Jerome asks about who could see Emmett as a ghost. Emmett replies: A guy with a funny name. Thurgood Marshall. Why cant Sarah then be as impactful as Thurgood Marshall?

What do you hope young readers will take away from your novel?

I hope young readers will feel inspired and know that their thoughts and feelings matter. By their presence and their actions, young readers can make (and are making) the world a better place. Whether the book is read by one child or a trillion children, young readers should know that this author and wonderful booksellers are honoring them by fully and firmly believing that their lives, thoughts, and actions matter. Children are the heroes of our time. It is a special grace to hand a child a book. Storytelling is the human discourse that unites and inspires us all.

Young readers will live and make the world better. They will tell their own powerful stories. And because of the example of booksellers, teachers, and parents, they will hand a book to their future children. And in another generation, future books may indeed fulfill Jeromes admonitionDont let me/(Or anyone else)/Tell this tale again/Peace out/Ghost Boy.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Little Brown, $16.99 Apr. ISBN 978-0-316-26228-6
The American Library Associations's annual State of America's Libraries report, released yesterday, may have turned some heads in the publishing world after books by Jay Asher and Sherman Alexie landed at the top of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom's Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2017 list. Asher and Alexie, two authors of significance in the children's publishing world (and, in Alexie's case, in Native American publishing), have, as PW previously reported, been accused of, and respectively denied in some capacity, sexual and professional harassment.

The placement, to some, might seem a bit oddespecially considering that another branch of the ALA awarded Alexie its prestigious Carnegie Medal earlier this year, which he later declined. But Jamie LaRue, director of the OIF, is clear on the matter: the list is a compilation of data, and that data showed that Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian were the two most challenged books of 2017, for reasons irrespective of the allegations surrounding them.

"Both of these books have been on the list for a long time," LaRue told PW. "Thirteen Reasons Why was released in 2007, was a bestseller, and returned as controversial after the TV series on Netflix came out. Many superintendents and principles were the ones who went in and pre-emptively removed the book from the self. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, that one has long been challenged for acknowledging issues like poverty, alcoholism, and sexuality, and its portrayal of the difficulties of Native American life."

He added: "By the end of the year, allegations began to surface about both of these authors, which kind of came to fruition in February. We recognize these authors now have a different challenge to their works and speech, but none of that happened last year." (Reports of allegations by the authors first became public in the comments in the comments section of a January article in School Library Journal, "Childrens Publishing Reckons with Sexual Harassment in Its Ranks," where comments alleging abuse against these authors and others began rapidly piling up in February.)

The report, according to the ALA's release, found that libraries continue to face challenges that carry with them the potential for censorship of a variety of books, programs, and materials; to discern this, the OIF, as it does yearly, tracked a number of challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2017, finding a total number of 354 challenges targeting 416 books. Asher's and Alexie's were among themand LaRue is concerned that their placement there will be misinterpreted.

"We have, [in sexual harassment in the publishing industry], an emerging issue. I'm happy to talk about that, and we sounded the alarm last year that this would happen with Bill Cosby, but it really didn't come to fruition [with Alexie and Asher] last year. That report is about something else."

That said, LaRue makes clear that the OIF lands on the side of intellectual freedom, no matter which way you slice it. The tricky part, he added, is that not everyoneeven in the ALAentirely agrees with him.

"The Office of Intellectual Freedom believes no idea, no story should be forbidden or censored just because of what it says," he said. "The book continues to need to be read in its entire context and thought about that way. But even within ALA, you're going to find a lot of different viewpoints about this. Someone will say that it's impossible for them now to imagine reading a book given the allegations against one of the authors. There are some individual responses to that. There are speaking engagements we know are being canceled, and there are some booksellers, we understand, who are pulling books by Jay Asher and Sherman Alexie. And I think that's a good time for us to stop and say, 'Are we rushing to judgment? Is there a difference between an allegation and proof? Is there a difference between the book and the person? Do we need to silence the idea because we disapprove of the person? "

LaRue sees this as an upcoming, and sure to be ongoing, issue of intellectual freedom, pointing to a long history of great authors, "very few of whom were saints," whose work might also end up in the scrap pile should "moral perfection" become our benchmark for whether or not an author deserves to be read. "The concern that I have is the idea that we paint somebody where the whole thing becomes a moral issue," he said. "We decide that somebody is off-limits, and then we stop paying attention to the things that they said that were significant."

LaRue called the issue "part of a larger swell of concern," which, he says, is rooted in the " real conflict right now in our society, and certainly in librarianship, between intellectual freedom and social justice." That conflict has seen more and more complaints or challenges to books arise not from the white cisgendered populationwhich LaRue said has been the traditional source of such challengesbut instead from minority groups.

"We're seeing a shift in the complaints about, for instance, To Kill a Mockingbird," he said. (Harper Lee's classic novel landed at #7 on this year's list.) "'I find that To Kill a Mockingbird is a story told about black people by white people. Why can't we tell our own stories?' And I think that's a shift in the conversation as well. My stand on this, from the perspective of censorship and intellectual freedom, is that more books are better. You don't need to remove To Kill a Mockingbird to make room for a new book by a black author. We can teach both, and remain open to both."

In terms of Alexie, Asher, and the like, he added: "It can't just be about the allegations. Both of those books have been profoundly challenged, over and over and over, for things we would have said, up until that allegation, was a terrible reason to remove a bookthat it was saying something important, that it was worthwhile to discuss. And so now, if we say, 'Well, the person did something wrong,' are we now giving people permission to censor it? I think that's a very dangerous proposition."

This story has been updated with further information.
Anne Frank Book Draws European Pubs

Anne Frank, A Cold Case Diary by Vince Pankoke sold to Ambo Anthos in the Netherlands in a six-figure deal right before the start of the London Book Fair. Rights to the title also sold in Hungary to Partvonal; in Serbia to Vulkan; and there are offers on the title in from houses in several other countries. Pankoke, a former FBI agent, has been working on an investigation into what happened to the Frank family and, specifically, who revealed their location to the Nazis, as he thinks it was never adequately investigated or solved. Working with a team of historians and police officials, the group has been relying on modern technology methods for the investigation. Marianne Schonbach Literary is representing world rights to the book, which will detail the culmination of the investigation and research. A proposal will be available after this week's London Book Fair, which publishers will need to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to read. The investigation is in collaboration with The Anne Frank Foundation Netherlands, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other organizations.

Swedish Thriller Drums Up Pre-London Interest

Mattias Edvardsson's A Nearly Normal Family, which will be published by Sweden's Forum in June, has sold in a number of deals in advance of the London Book Fair. In a preempt, U.S. rights were acquired by Deb Futter at Celadon Books, and additional deals have been made with houses in Finland, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. (At press time there were ongoing auctions for the book in the U.K., and several other territories.) The thriller is about a teen girl who is accused of murdering an aging businessman. Astri von Arbin Ahlander of the Ahlander Agency controls all rights.

Formula 1 Champion Bio Creating Buzz

Finland's Siltala Publishing is fielding interest in a new biography of a Formula 1 racer. The book, The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen by Kari Hotakainen, is about the Finnish F1 auto-racing World Champion, who has been racing since 2001, having once left F1 and then making a comeback. Sales for the book have been recently closed with houses in Hungary, Estonia, Italy, and Poland, with, at press time, offers in from houses in several other territories. Siltala will publish the book in August, and a sample English translation is currently available with a signed nondisclosure agreement.

Ghanaian Novelist Lands U.S. Deal

North American rights have sold to Other Press for The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah, a Ghanaian author who is represented by Spain's Pontas Literary & Film Agency. Other Press will publish the book in February. (German rights have also just sold to Diana Verlag, after an auction.) The novel, set in precolonial Ghana, is based on the life of Attah's great-great-grandmother, who was sold into slavery. Cassava Republic will publish in the U.K. and Nigeria next month.

Humorous Finnish Novel

The Angry Widow by Minna Lindgren, which was published in Finland by Teos last month, has sold to Albatros Media in a deal for Czech & Slovak rights. Elina Ahlback Literary Agency controls all rights to the book, which is about a 74-year-old woman who gets a new lease on life after her mean and alcoholic husband dies. Lindgren is the author of the Sunset Grove trilogy, which is published by Pan Macmillan.
The legal fallout from Canadas 2012 Copyright Modernization Act has once again led international observers to question Canadas commitment to its creative industries and the intellectual property framework that sustains them. In February 2018, a group of provincial governments and school boards initiated legal action against Access Copyright (the copyright collective responsible for administering Canadian licenses outside of Quebec), seeking to recover more than $30 million (CAD) in legally certified tariff fees collected for the period of 2010-2012, an aggressive action that Canadian writer and publisher organizations have described as as everything from a cynical tactic, to a disturbing attack on creators and publishers.

How Did We Get Here?

The suits are the latest development in an ongoing battle that began with the introduction of fair dealing as a purpose for education under the Copyright Act in 2012.

Following the 2012 change to the Copyright Act, the provincial Ministries of Education informed Access Copyright that they would be opting out of the K-12 tariff starting January 1, 2013, and ceased making payments to the collective. In 2016, the Copyright Board of Canada, an independent federal body mandated to establish royalty rates for the use of copyright protected works, set a mandatory K-12 tariff rate of $2.46 (CAD) per FTE for the years 2010-2012 and $2.41 (CAD) per FTE for the years 2013-2015. These tariffs were retroactive and replaced the previous rate of $4.81, which covered the period of 2005-2009.

In the Ministries view, because they had continued paying the 2005-2009 rate through the end of 2012, they had overpaid their bill. But in Access Copyrights view, because the K-12 system stopped making mandatory payments when the 2013 term began, millions of dollars in unpaid royalties are in fact owed to rightsholdersnot the other way around.

The amount the provinces are trying to recover in this latest suit amounts to a rounding error in a country that spends more than $50 billion (CAD) annually on K-12 education, but is significant to a cultural industry that operates on slim margins, and would go a long way to fuel investment in Canadian learning resources.

 The legal action appears both aggressive and frivolous, intended to deplete the already limited resources of a vital cultural sector. 

In their legal action, the Ministries point to Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright, a 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision, as having removed their obligation to pay for educational copying. They fail to acknowledge, however, that that case examined only the copying of short excerpts of supplementary textbooks, not the widespread and systemic copying that is now viewed by the education sector as being permitted by Canadian law.

In arriving at the mandatory rates payable by K-12 schools, the Copyright Board closely examined and applied both the Supreme Courts Alberta (Education) decision and the change to fair dealing in the Copyright Modernization Act. And after making a considerable deduction to account for fair dealing, the Copyright Board determined that K-12 schools copy more than 150 million pages of published works annually that do not qualify as fair dealing and require compensation.

Indeed, the status of tariffs certified by the Copyright Board, which is at the heart of this dispute, is a question that was examined by the Federal Court of Canada in Access Copyright v. York University, along with the legality of Yorks copying guidelines. And in a clear and carefully considered 2017 decision, the Court determined that the guidelines do not withstand the application of the two-part test laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada, and that there is no opting out of tariffs approved by the Copyright Board.

Given that the copying guidelines adopted by Ministries of Education are virtually identical to those scrutinized during the York trial, and that approved tariffs are in place for the period outlined in the suit, the legal action appears both aggressive and frivolous, intended to deplete the already limited resources of a vital cultural sector.

Not surprisingly, the education sector has appealed the York decision. What is surprising, however, are these new lawsuits being filed during the lead up to that appeal.

Where are we going?

I am often asked by international colleagues about the prospects for the long awaited parliamentary review of the Copyright Act, and whether that process will solve Canadas copyright mess. While the Association of Canadian Publishers and our industry colleagues will participate fully in the review, we do not believe that this process will restore a functioning marketplace, at least not any time soon.

Over the next year, testimony will be heard, briefs will be submitted, competing positions will be debated, and a report will eventually be presented to Parliament. If recommendations for legislative change are included in that report, they will likely be made mere months before a federal election, leaving writers and publishers to withstand another election cycle and endure the uncertainty that comes along with it.

An optimistic estimate places the prospect for meaningful copyright change coming sometime in 2021, provided a number of variables fall into place, of which there is no guarantee. In the meantime, economic damage continues to mount and investment in new curriculum resources for Canadian students is on the decline.

Collective licensing remains a practical solution for Canadas education sector, and is recognized around the world for its flexibility and good value. A return to a licensed system would be welcomed by the writing and publishing sector. But until then, the actionsand inactionof governments at all levels speak louder than words.

Kate Edwards is Executive Director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.
The London Book Fair put the issue of censorship in the spotlight with a seminar run by the International Publishers Association called Censor, Advocate, or Disruptor?

Mark Stephens, a well-known human rights lawyer, said that when it comes to censorship around the world, publishers and freedom of speech advocates have a nest of trip wires we have to navigate. He offered an overview of several trouble spots around the world, noting that that the big question is whether to engage in dialog with a country that engages in censorship or to leave it alone. This question is particularly relevant to the IPA, which is still criticized by many in publishing for elevating China, in particular, to full membership.

Several seminar sessions referenced Turkey, where press freedom has been in significant decline since the political crackdown following the attempted coup in 2016.

Maureen Freely, president of English PEN and translator of Orhan Pamuk, noted that a crackdown on intellectuals and the media has put a significant amount of people out of work. The people who have been dismissed from their jobs had their passports confiscated and can no longer find work, include 116,250 people dismissed from public service; another 5,822 from 118 public universities; 2,500 media workers have been sacked; 140 media organizations have been shut down, as have 30 publishers and 18 magazines; there are 80 writers in prison, but only 3 are in prison for their books, while the others are there for alleged membership in terrorist organization, Freely said.

She noted that when Pamuk was tried in 2005 for his public statements about the Armenian genocide, the Turkish government opted to punish him in ways that were more discrete than imprisonment. They made sure he was a hate figure, which was actually more dangerous than his being in prison, said Freely. They took away his privacy, and that was an impediment to his ability to think, to imagine and to play.

Kristenn Einarsson, CEO of the Norwegian Publishers Association and chair of the IPAs Freedom to Publish committee, pointed out that there are other countries in Europe where there are threats to free speech. The governments of Poland and Hungary are becoming increasingly problematic, he said.

Bangladesh is another country that was described as especially troublesome.

Dr. Razia Rahman Jolly, whose husband was a publisher and murdered in Bangladesh for his work, noted For the last two-and-a-half years, I have not been able to get justice. And there have been many people murder there, particularly for criticizing religion. Jolly, who at times makes public appearances in a white sari of mourning bearing an image of her husbands face,  said, I am wearing this wristwatch in which my husband was murdered, I am feeling he is holding my hand. Its symbolic that you cannot stop time, but I am carrying out his work. I was trained and work as a physician. But for the last year-and-a-half I have been carrying on his publishing house. Now I too am at risk.

Rarely is censorship a black and white issue. Azadeh Parsapour, who runs U.K.-based Nogaam Publishing, which publishes books in Farsi that it distributes in Iran, explained that what is censored changes as the governments change. We are required to submit our books to the book department of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for approval, Parsapour explained. They require a print book and a PDF, which they use to search for keywords that are banned. Of course, these words change depending on which government is in power.

Among the words that have been banned in the past are wine, tattoo, park, dance, and mediation. You will then get a letter dictating corrections to the text. It does not come with letterhead or an official stamp, but you know who sent it, she said.

Worse is when a book is banned, a situation that often happens after the book is published. It is then pulled from bookstores and burned, which is is very expensive for the publishers.

The result has been a worrying form of self-censorship, with publishers keeping a member of staff on hand to police texts for potentially volatile material.
Keshet International has reached sales deals for its talent show Masters of Dance in Spain, Norway, Poland and Vietnam, following the success of the shows first series in Israel.





In Spain, the show will be adapted by Endemol Shine Iberia , while in Norway the format has been sold to public broadcaster NRK and to Rochstar in Poland. Purpose Media has acquired the first and second seasons (still under production) to air in Vietnam on HCM City Television (HTV) channel 3. The first series of the show attracted an average audience share 24% higher than the last dancing show to air in Israel.Created by Keshet Broadcasting and produced by Tedy Productions, the series sees four professional dance masters taking on the challenge of forming a new company of dancers to compete in a series of battles.Masters of Dance has proved to be a great success in Israel, and its fantastic to see so much interest in it on a global scale. I am confident that we will see the format go into production in multiple territories in the upcoming months with the hopes that viewers in those territories will take the show to their hearts in the same way that Israeli viewers have, said Keren Shahar, COO & president of distribution for Keshet International.
A study from Digital TV Research has forecast that the global pay-TV market is to add 95 million subscribers between 2017 and 2023 to take the global total to 1.10 billion.





Based on forecasts for 138 countries, The Global Pay-TV Subscriber Forecasts report suggests that the number of pay-TV subscribers passed the billion barrier in 2017 and that growth will be mostly located within the IPTV market which will accelerate past satellite in 2018 and will account for 81 million of the additional subscribers by 2023.In all, satellite TV is forecast to grow by 31 million subs and pay-DTT by ten million. Digital cable TV will add at 61 million subs between 2017 and 2023, but analogue cable TV will lose 88 million subs  meaning a net loss for cable. Digital TV Research found that there were still 90 million analogue cable TV subscribers by end-2017. Although this figure is down from 335 million in 2010, it still to the analyst represents a major hurdle for pay-TV operators to convert.Commenting on the research, Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: Some operators, such as Telefonica in Spain, are encouraging subscribers to convert to IPTV from other platforms. IPTV/broadband subs are more lucrative than satellite TV ones.Geographically, the report noted that the number of pay-TV subscribers was flat in Latin America in 2017. Fewer than five million more pay-TV subscribers are expected between 2017 and 2023  bringing its total to almost 76 million. Eastern Europe is set to lose 2.4 million subscribers between 2017 and 2023  down by 2.9% to 79 million while Western Europe is set to gain subscribers between 2017 and 2023. Although this only represents a 2.6% increase, it means nearly three million more subs to take the total to 106 million.The report adds that pay-TV subscriber numbers are falling in North America. It forecast 92 million pay-TV subs in the region by 2023; down by 20 million from 112 million in the peak year of 2012.
Afghanistan is no stranger to brutal terrorist attacks, but this year began with a series of particularly vicious deadly attacks in Kabul, the only secured and highly fortified city in the country. Even more worryingly, most of these attacks were claimed by the local franchise of Islamic State (IS), known as IS-Khorasan. Over the first three months of the year, the group carried out more than six attacks, targeting a military hospital, the Supreme Court, police officers, the military and Afghanistans Shia minority. Last year, between October and December, IS-Khorasan carried out over half a dozen bombings in Kabul and killed over 130 people.

IS formally launched its Afghanistan operations on January 10, 2015, when Pakistani and Afghan militants pledged their allegiance to its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq (Lomritob, February 8). Since then, IS-Khorasan has proved itself to be one of groups most brutal iterations, attacking soft targets, targeting Shia populations, killing Sufis and destroying shrines, as well as beheading its own dissidents, kidnapping their children and marrying off their widows.

Tactical Decisions and Strategic Targets

IS-Khorasan chose to base itself in Afghanistans Nangarhar Province, a strategic location bordering Pakistans tribal areas. Its recruits came from both sides of the porous border and could easily escape a surgical strike or military operation by fleeing to either side of the Durand line. It took them only a few weeks to expand their outreach from their Nangarhar base to at least four other provinces in the east, south and west, namely Logar, Zabul, Helmand and Farah provinces (BBC Pashto, February 25, 2017).

The presence of IS-Khorasan in these five provinces was important from a strategic point of view. Nangarhar is, no doubt, a safe place for staging militant activities and recruitment due to its geographical proximity to Pakistan, while Logar is considered a gateway into Kabul and is frequently used as a staging ground for attacks in the capital. During the war against the Soviets, it was referred to as Bab-ul-Jihad (the Gate to Jihad). Zabul is equally important, being a transit route for insurgents and also for U.S./NATO supplies and convoys. Helmand, despite a large presence of international troops, has its own importance as a home to the Taliban and a hub for the drugs trade, a lifeline for insurgents, including IS-Khorasan. Finally, the eastern province of Farah, into which the group infiltrated within the first few weeks of its existence, borders Iran and has a sizable Shia majority population (Mashriq TV, January 6).

From the very beginning, IS-Khorasan identified its targetsShia communities, foreign troops, the security forces, the Afghan central government and the Taliban, who had not previously been challenged by an insurgent group.

Despite rigorous bombing and military operations against IS-Khorasanincluding the deployment of the largest conventional bomb, the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, in April last yearthe group has maintained its presence in almost 30 districts across the country. In the north, the group has made bases in Kohistanat, Sar-e-Pol province, Khanabad, Kunduz province and Darzab, Jowzjan province. Its penetration and influence in the north has worried the Central Asian Republics and Russia (Shamshad TV, January 22). IS has attracted and recruited militants from terrorist outfits like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). However, it is the Kabul Cells of IS-Khorasan that has most concerned the Afghan government and the international community.

Attacks by Kabul Cells

Kabul became the first target on the IS-Khorasan agenda after the group established a base in neighboring Logar province in early 2015. From the beginning, it carried out small-scale attacks and targeted killings, but most of these went unnoticed by the international media.

It received more attention when it carried out at least four targeted attacks against Shia Muslims in Kabul late in 2016. The first attack was in July that year when two suicide bombers struck a peaceful rally of Shia minority and killed about 80 people and wounded more than 230, the deadliest attack in Kabul since 2001. The Taliban condemned these attacks, which marked a shift in the 40-year long war in Afghanistan along more sectarian lines.

Since then, the group has expanded its operations, with at least three IS-Khorasan cells in operation in Kabul. These are unconventionally structured terrorist cells in comparison to others in Afghanistan, which goes some way to explaining how they have remained undetected. Many of those involved are middle-class, educated people, including professors, doctors, engineers and young university students. They go about their work and in the evenings meet to plan, before returning to their homes. They change and adapt their tactics to the changing needs and situations.

Afghan security forces claim to have busted several such cells recently. One such cell, IS-Khorasans coordination and planning center, which had been used for storing weapons and ammunition, was uncovered and busted in January. Another 13-member IS cell in Kabul was busted in January, and had allegedly been planning a series of major terror attacks in the city (Tolo News, January 3).

Over time, these cells have become increasingly active, sophisticated and barbaric. Despite tight security, IS-Khorasan was able to attack a Shia crowed near Kart-e-Sakhi shrine in Kabul on March 21, while worshipers were celebrating Nowruz, the New Year festival. The suicide bomber killed at least 33 people and injured 65 (Shamshad TV, March 22). On March 9, an IS-affiliated suicide bomber attacked a Shia crowd in Kabul and killed at least nine people who had gathered to mark the anniversary of the death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari (BBC Pashto, March 9). Only a day before, fighters from IS-Khorasan stormed Sardar Daud Hospital, the largest military hospital in Kabul, and killed more than 30 people. The gunmen had dressed as doctors. In February, the group attacked the Afghan Supreme Court, killing 22 people in the immediate vicinity (Radio Azadi, February 8). IS-Khorasan called those they attacked apostates and tyrant judges with blasphemous judgments.

The group also took responsibility for the January 4 suicide attack in Kabul, which claimed the lives of more than 20 people, including a number of police officers (Tolo News, January 5). Just a week before, it claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Shia cultural center in Kabul, in which more than 41 people were killed and another 84 were wounded (Tolo News, December 28, 2017). On Christmas Day, IS struck near the building of the Afghan intelligence service and killed six people. And just a week before Christmas, IS attacked another intelligence center in the capital.

Brutal and Resilient

IS-Khorasan has modeled its brutal tactics on those of its parent operation in Iraq and Syria. It considers itself to be the only pure Islamic group, rejecting the radical but more traditional Deobandi Sunni Taliban and the Salafist beliefs of al-Qaeda. IS-Khorasan promotes an ideology that classifies Shias as apostates, although Afghanistan had been largely unfamiliar with sectarian violence, and their methods have often been found unacceptable in Afghanistans traditional society (Daily Wahdat, January 18).

This has, however, left IS-Khorasan isolated. Not only are the Afghan government and its U.S. allies seeking to combat it, but neighboring countries including Pakistan, Iran, the Central Asian states and Russia have showed serious concerns at its growing influence. Furthermore, while there are some 20 terrorist outfits operating in Afghanistan, none are friendly to IS.

Over the last three years, the Taliban has fought the group. The Afghan government is conducting operations to uproot them. U.S. and NATO forces continue to bomb their bases. General John Nicholson, commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, has said that since March 2017, they conducted some 1,400 operations against IS-Khorasan and killed half of their fighters, estimating that about 1,500 remain (1TV News, February 25).

The reality on the ground, however, is that IS influence and attacks are becoming more pervasive and more deadly. Dozens of IS-Khorasan senior leaders, including its four emirs, were killed in air strikes and operations leaving IS-Khorasan as a somewhat leaderless group, but it has not lost its strength to strike back in Kabul or been forced from its stronghold in Nangarhar. Indeed, the Afghan media claims that in recent months the group has been able to attract disgruntled Taliban members and foreign fighters, including militants from China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Chechnya, France, Algeria and Pakistan (Lemar TV, February 18).

Implications for Afghanistan

IS-Khorasan remains unpopular among the deeply traditional society of Afghanistan, but it has proven itself able to lure Taliban defectors and disgruntled youth to its cause. The groups propaganda is more sophisticated than that of the countrys other militant group, with dedicated teams for social media platformsa major concern for many Afghans because of social medias popularity among the Afghan youth (Shamshad TV, January 20; Pajhwok News,December 5, 2017).

There are fears that if IS-Khorasan continues to gain ground and influence, fleeing jihadists from Syria and Iraq will make Afghanistan a new base for their efforts to form an Islamic caliphate (Daily Hewad, March 10). With Afghanistan struggling to reach political settlements with its insurgent groups, a strengthened IS-Khorasan could deepen the sectarian rifts the group has established in the country, and this would make it harder to bring about the social cohesion necessary for this kind of dialogue. If IS-Khorasan cannot be effectively countered, then the political landscape of an already complex society stands to become even more complicated.

Mukhtar A. Khan is a Pashtun journalist based in Washington, D.C., covering the issues of Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions. Since 9/11, he has extensively covered the War on Terror in Pakistan-Afghanistan tribal areas, both for the local and international media, including the BBC, Mail on Sunday, and Voice of America. Before shifting to Washington D.C., Mukhtar closely monitored Pakistans tribal areas by paying frequent visits to it and interviewing top Taliban leadership.

This article appeared originally at The Jamestown Foundations' Terrorism Monitor.
The U.S. military killed Qari Hikmatullah, who was described as the senior ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan province or IS-K) commander and the main facilitator of ISIS-K fighters into northern Afghanistan in an airstrike in the northern Afghan province of Faryab on April 5. Hikmatullah is part of the contingent of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan that defected and joined the Islamic State after the Taliban was caught hiding the death of Mullah Omar.

NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan reported that Hikmatullah and his bodyguard were killed in an airstrike in the Bal Chiragh district in Faryab province.

The military described Hikmatullah as a a native Uzbekistani who had a history of divided loyalties, as he first served as a leader in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), then in the Taliban, and then in the Islamic State Khorasan province (IS-K). However, this characterization is not accurate. The IMU swore allegiance to the Talibans emir, Mullah Omar, but still maintains a cohesive structure, so there were no divided loyalties involved. A faction of the IMU broke with the Taliban in 2015 after they found out the Taliban hid the death of its founder and first emir, Mullah Omar, for nearly two years.

Hikmatullah has been replaced by Mawlavi Habibul Rahman, who also is identified as an Uzbek national. According to NATO, Rahman has had intermittent ties to both the Taliban and GIRoA, highlighting the difficulty [IS-K] is having replacing leaders.

Nevertheless, in the Afghan north, the former IMU members who defected to IS-K often coexist and even cooperate with the Taliban. Unlike Islamic State fighters in other areas of Afghanistan, such as Nangarhar, where the Taliban and IS-K fighters often are at war, the break between the IMU and the Taliban did not result in widespread infighting.

IS-K targeted in Jawzjan

While announcing Hikmatullahs death, the military disclosed an interesting detail on IS-Ks foreign facilitation network.

Jawzjan province is the main conduit for external support and foreign fighters from Central Asian states into Afghanistan, the NATO statement said, and Hikmatullah was the key leader for those operations.

The U.S. military hinted at the existence of this network in the past. During a raid in neighboring Sar-i-Pul province in 2013, the U.S. targeted a senior Taliban leader who has ties to foreign fighter facilitation networks and suicide training camps. The Taliban leader was identified as a key power player in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Sar-i-Pul provinces.

Jawzjan province has been a major hub for the IMU for well over a decade. The U.S. military has targeted IMU leaders in Jawzjan in the past.

The U.S. military continues to target that network to this day. According to NATO, U.S. and Afghan special operations forces have killed 21 low level IS-K, including three platoon commanders who served as head facilitator of foreign fighters in Jawzjan since Jan. 28, 2018.

Targeting the IS-K leaders in Afghanistan

The U.S. military has put an emphasis in targeting IS-Ks network since it emerged in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2014. IS-K is primarily made up of former disaffected mid-level leaders from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, as well as a faction from the IMU.

The U.S. military has killed IS-Ks first three emirs in the span of one year.

IS-Ks first two emirs were killed in U.S. military operations in Nangarhar. The U.S. killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, its first emir, in an airstrike in Nangarhars Achin district on July 26, 2016. Khan, a former leader in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, served as the groups emir for more than one and a half years before his death.

The U.S. killed Abdul Hasib, Khans successor, during a joint U.S. and Afghan raid in Nangarhar on April 27, 2017. Two U.S. soldiers were killed during the fighting.

On July 11, 2017, the U.S. killed Abu Sayed in an airstrike in Kunar. IS-Ks leadership is thought to be relocating to the remote, mountainous province in an effort to dodge U.S. operations.

The last major IS-K leader killed by the U.S. military was Abdul Rahman, on Aug. 10, 2017. Rahman was said to be in the running to lead IS-K after Abu Sayeds death. Also killed were IS-Ks mufti or religious leader, as well as a member of its shura, or executive council.

U.S. military commanders have touted the killing of IS-Ks leaders as a major defeat for the group and has predicted its eminent collapse. However, the Islamic States Khorasan province  which has far fewer resources and personnel, and a smaller base a of support than the Taliban and its allies  has weathered a concerted U.S. and Afghan military offensive in Nangarhar and the persistent targeting of its leaders for nearly three years.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

This article appeared originally at FDD's Long War Journal.
School choice remains a popular concept across the nation. A recent national poll by the American Federation for Children found that 63 percent of likely voters supported school choice. The movements next step should involve expanding Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which give parents greater control over how and where their education dollars are spent while also granting them tax savings.

In the places where ESAs have been implemented families have welcomed greater choice. They are able to use their accounts for many things beyond tuition, including tutoring and supplemental instructional materials. States like Arizona have passed legislation that would implement broad-based ESAs, and smart, forward-thinking ESA legislation remains alive in states like New Hampshire. Surveys in Arizona have found that families using ESAs are very satisfied.

But in a number of other states with conservative leadership, progress on ESAs has been much slower. In Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi, for example, efforts to advance school choice have failed in the legislature this year.

The case of Wisconsin may prove particularly illustrative. There, a very modest ESA bill that would only have been open to a small subset of gifted and talented students was not even voted out of committee in the Republican-controlled legislature. That bill would have provided $1,000 to the families, on top of their regular school aid, to pay for educational supplements such as tutoring, text books, or online courses. But a coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans skeptical of school choice put an end to it.

From a historical perspective, this is surprising since Wisconsin has long been at the forefront of education reform. In 1990, private school tuition vouchers were little more than a theory put forth by economist Milton Friedman. Yet, Republican Governor Tommy Thompson worked across the aisle with Democratic leaders like Representative Polly Williams to create the nations first voucher program in Milwaukee. It was without precedent. The move was politically risky for all involved, but a bipartisan passion for providing better educational options for the Milwaukee families most in need overrode short-term political concerns. Since then, the program has grown dramatically from just over 300 children in 1990 to more than 27,000 today.

We know that school choice works: It has improved the lives of thousands of children across the country. Research has found that many kids have graduated high school, avoided crime , or entered college who otherwise might not have thanks to higher quality education options.

So why are some states falling so behind the education reform curve? The simple answer is that, while school choice is popular, higher funding for public schools is even more so.

Despite limited evidence of how effective it can be, additional funding for public schools is politically safe for politicians. In rural districts, where the image of the public school as the center of the community perhaps remains strongest, scare tactics about the so-called destruction of public schools can be particularly effective.

Pushing a substantial change to the status quo is always politically risky but, as Wisconsin showed in the 1990s and early 2000s, it is the best outcome for families who need options. Such reforms are possible only when policymakers are passionate about providing better opportunities for the children of their state and willing to take risks. Policymakers, both in Wisconsin and around the country, should look back to Tommy Thompsons efforts as evidence of what can happen when politicians choose the future of children over their political careers.

Will Flanders is the Research Director at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
April 10 is a day worth celebrating: It marks Justice Neil Gorsuchs first anniversary on the United States Supreme Court. Gorsuch has proven himself to be precisely the type of person President Trump pledged he would nominate to the bench, someone in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia: an impartial judge who applies laws as they are written and shows an abiding respect for the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Moreover, he has been an articulate spokesman for this approach to judging, showing strength and integrity and achieving a remarkable reputation for a first-year justice.

Gorsuchs decisions so far show a firm commitment to protecting our First Amendment rights. This is clear from what was perhaps the highest profile case his tenure so far, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. In this case, a church fought a Missouri policy that denied certain public benefits to religious organizations. Gorsuch joined the majority in the 7-2 ruling that the state couldnt deny the benefit merely because Trinity Lutheran Church is a house of worship. But Gorsuch went further to write a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, suggesting that the court should recognize more robust protections for religious liberty. He found unconvincing the courts distinction between laws that discriminate on the basis of religious status and religious use, and suggested this line  if it could even be drawn  was irrelevant to the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment, which guarantees the free exercise of religion, not just the right to inward belief (or status).

During oral arguments for several important cases still awaiting the courts decision, the newest justice also expressed concern about threats to free speech. In oral arguments for NIFLA v. Becerra, Gorsuch suggested that a California law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to advertise free or low-cost abortion requires [the state] to compel speech from someone else  that implicates First Amendment concerns, adding that this Court is normally pretty jealously protective of speech. Similarly, in arguments for Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission this past December, Gorsuch was skeptical not only of the states ability to force a baker to use his skill to design cakes celebrating same-sex marriages, he also challenged the states requirement that the bakery owner lead his employees in sensitivity training. He asked, Why isnt that compelled speech and possibly in violation of his free-exercise rights? Because presumably he has to tell his staff, including his family members, that his Christian beliefs are discriminatory.

Much like Scalia, Gorsuch has shown himself to be a proponent of Second Amendment rights. When the court declined to hear Peruta v. California, thereby leaving in place restrictive concealed-carry laws, Gorsuch joined Thomas in dissent, proclaiming that the courts denial of cert reflects a distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right. That point is especially important at a time when activists are trying to persuade policymakers to enact increasingly restrictive gun laws.

Property rights dont grab the same headlines as speech and gun rights, but they, too, face a danger this term. At stake in The Oil States v. Greenes Energy Group is the constitutionality of an administrative tribunals power to revoke patent claims. In oral arguments, Gorsuch observed that theres an abundance of law going back 400 years making clear that once a patent is granted, its a private right belonging to the inventor. With Chief Justice John Roberts, he worried that current policy threatened the Fifth Amendments protection of private property, enshrined in what is known as the takings clause: nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

In addition to his clear and consistent defense of specific rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Gorsuch has also been an articulate spokesman for originalism and textualism, the approaches to the law that Scalia was crucial in returning to the mainstream.

During a speech at Stockton University in New Jersey, Gorsuch explained, When Im interpreting the Constitution, Im looking at sources that are external to myself. ... I look to what the Founders understood, what the original public meaning of that document was, and I take great care to pay attention to the words on the page. Or as he said at the Federalist Societys Lawyers Convention Annual Dinner last November, Originalism has regained its place at the table of constitutional interpretation, and textualism in the reading of statutes has triumphed. And neither one is going anywhere on my watch.

As attorney general under President Reagan, I worked hard to assist the president in nominating federal judges who understood that their job was to interpret the laws as written, not as they might wish theyd been written. As Gorsuch has said, The duty of a judge is to say what the law is, not what it should be. This simple distinction separates good judges from activists wearing robes. Im gratified that the current administration is carrying this torch more than 30 years later. Gorsuch should be applauded for his commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law  as should President Trump for keeping his word on his Supreme Court nomination.
Its Equal Pay Day  an opportunity for activists to raise awareness about the perceived pay gap between Americas working men and women. Its also an opportunity for politicians to attack gender bias in private companies, as they do throughout the year.

But as politicians point fingers and demand gender equality in private companies around the country, its important to ask how those politicians are doing with their own hiring.

In October, we published our OpenTheBooks Oversight Report  Federal and State Governments Gender Hiring Gap Oversight Report analyzing payrolls from federal agencies, Congress, the White House, and government positions at the state and local levels. We found its still a mans world in government. Across the board, we found that men significantly outnumber women in the top-paid government positions.

However, its important to note that we didnt find any evidence that men and women in the same position were paid differently  that would be illegal. We didnt find a gender pay gap, but a gender hiring gap, meaning men far outnumber women in highly compensated executive positions.

For example, in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio issues Equal Pay Day proclamations, and, last year, made quite a spectacle hugging the Fearless Girl statute that faces the Charging Bull on Wall Street. Yet, 197 out of the 200 top-paid New York City workers are men. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emmanuels controlled payroll has just 12 females out of the top 100 most highly compensated city employees.

Heres how some members of Congress are doing on their own executive-controlled payrolls:

Nancy Pelosi  minority leader of the House

On Equal Pay Day 2017, Pelosi issued a press release alleging that women in the U.S. who work full time, year-round earn only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, on average. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental principle of fairness in our economy and in our democracy, the former speaker said. Although Pelosi employed 25 men compared to 30 women, her male employees made a collective $3.1 million while the women made $2.8 million. On average, male employees made $124,404 while female employees made $94,398. Does Pelosis call for equal pay not include her own office?



On Equal Pay Day 2017, Pelosi issued a press release alleging that women in the U.S. who work full time, year-round earn only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, on average. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental principle of fairness in our economy and in our democracy, the former speaker said. Although Pelosi employed 25 men compared to 30 women, her male employees made a collective $3.1 million while the women made $2.8 million. On average, male employees made $124,404 while female employees made $94,398. Does Pelosis call for equal pay not include her own office? Kevin McCarthy  majority leader of the House

McCarthy is up for re-election this November, and three of his five competitors are women. In 2016, he employed 19 men and 10 women. Collectively, his male staffers made $1.68 million while female staffers made $755,500. On average, men in McCarthys office made $88,289 while women made $75,550.



McCarthy is up for re-election this November, and three of his five competitors are women. In 2016, he employed 19 men and 10 women. Collectively, his male staffers made $1.68 million while female staffers made $755,500. On average, men in McCarthys office made $88,289 while women made $75,550. Paul Ryan  speaker of the House

In 2009, Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, arguing the bill was more about lawsuits than equal pay. The bill passed, however, and Ryan has faced allegations of fighting a war on women ever since. But his hiring practices were better than those of his Democratic counterpart, Pelosi. In 2016, Ryan employed 24 men and 27 women. Collectively, men earned $2.52 million while women earned $2.48 million. On average, male employees made $104,846 while female employees made $91,846.

A few leaders in the Senate employed more women than men, but paid male employees more on average. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer employed 27 women compared to 13 men in fiscal year 2017. But on average Schumers male employees made $66,590 while his female employees made $59,489. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin also had more women on staff: 33 female employees compared to 25 male employees. On average, however, women earned $63,941 while men earned $71,675.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell  who has been criticized for his awful positions on womens rights  employed 23 men and 23 women on his staff. On average, however, male employees made $99,010 while female employees received $66,202.

On both sides of the aisle, some congressional members run their payrolls without gender disparity. For example, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D) employed 14 women and 15 men on his staff. On average, Hoyers female employees received $104,213 while male employees made $99,106. In the Senate, John Cornyn (R) employed 24 women and 23 men. On average, Cornyns female employees made $75,471 while male employees made $72,864.

Often times, politicians talk about a war on women in an effort to score political points. Its time the American people used hard data to fact-check our politicians and demand results, not rhetoric.
For all her beauty and charm on and off the television screen, Betty Kyallo was always bound to have both fans and stalkers alike. It is an occupational hazard that the KTN news presenter seems to be handling well at the moment.

The latest victim of Bettys enchanting persona is one Naphas Masia. Masia appears to have crossed the line between fan and stalker, and has ultimately been blocked by Betty Kyallo on her social media platforms.

Apparently, he has been showing too much love.

But Naphas says: She blocked me on social media because of some issues. You do know that Betty is no longer pals with Susan Kaittany? Well, I was pals with both of them, and when she found out that I had gone to meet Susan, she got angry and blocked me.

Asked by Hotsecretz if he is a stalker, he said: Apana, mimi si stalker.

Betty and I talk. I meet her at various events. We do know each other. We talk all the time. I even have her number. We chat all the time on WhatsApp. I just want you to tell her I love her.

In fact, the Kenyatta University law student left a special message and insisted that its forwarded to Betty Kyallo.

It reads: Dear Betty Kyallo, I will always be there for you, fight for you and try to make sure you smile. You know that I love you with all my heart, I want to keep you and never let you go. My love for you is like corruption in Kenya, it will never end.

We searched for Naphas Masia on Instagram and this is what we found:
It came over the city during the night, hovering eerily over the Capitol. Some people saw a spooky cloud, while others saw a haze of sorts, appropriately tinged yellow. But as it moved over the Capitol dome, everyone heard the same thing -- a terrifying crunching sound. One by one, congressional leaders were having their spines removed.

The first person to be filleted in this matter was Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. He was averse to Donald Trump, but he has subordinated the larger agenda of opposing an antidemocratic president to a smaller agenda of tax cuts and regulatory reform. Ryan would make a splendid president of any chamber of commerce.

The other leaders have been similarly de-spined. They chortle among themselves as Trump says in the morning that he will veto this or that bill and in the afternoon signs it. They say nothing about the rhetorical mugging of Mexico or his long-held and mysterious adulation of Vladimir Putin. They stay silent while being soaked in a rain of lies, dignity running off them and splashing into the Washington gutter.

So maybe it's foolish to think they might speak up when the president uses his office to attack the free press. He calls stories he doesn't like "fake news," as he did with reports that he would fire national security adviser H.R. McMaster -- just before doing so. The incessant barrage of bogus criticism from the White House, the constant attack on the impartiality and professionalism of the press, has taken a toll. A recent Monmouth poll confirmed what we all know: The term "fake news" has been widely accepted. Republicans see fake news in stories that are critical of Trump; Democrats see it in those that aren't.

This division is not entirely new. For years, major American cities had "Democratic" and "Republican" newspapers. In Chicago, the Tribune was unabashedly Republican. In New York, the Daily News was once Republican, and The Post once Democratic. Still, Democrats read Republican newspapers and the other way around. Now, though, a Fox News viewer is likely to watch only Fox. Too bad. "Fox & Friends" has the ratings, but it is to journalism what pornography is to sex.

Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP congressional leaders surely do not for a minute believe that CNN, The New York Times or The Washington Post invent stories critical of Trump. They not only know better, they rely on these organizations to stay informed. Moreover, they appreciate why freedom of the press is embedded in the Constitution -- No. 1 among amendments.

These leaders can probably all cite John Adams on the subject and certainly Thomas Jefferson, who said that if he had to choose between "a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government," he'd prefer "the latter." Hannah Arendt, the philosopher who fled Nazi Germany, put it this way: "The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen." And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., after being freed as a POW in North Vietnam, first asked for a decent meal and then for newspapers. It was a deprivation he keenly felt. "Of all the privations and injustices suffered in undemocratic nations, lack of a free press is among the worst," he later wrote in a preface to David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest," a journalist's account of government deception in Vietnam.

Of course, Trump's defenders would say that he doesn't want an unfree press, he just wants a fair one. Not so. What Trump actually wants is a servile press, one that offers praise, withholds criticism and refrains from reporting awkward truths. That's probably the reason he has criticized Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. That might also be a reason the Justice Department is trying to block the merger of Time Warner and AT&T. Time Warner owns CNN, which Trump loathes.

Amazon can take its lumps. But the use of the bully pulpit to punish a corporation for a political reason would be yet another thing Trump has in common with Putin. It is, at its core, deeply un-American. This does not mean that the press is above criticism. It is not. But that criticism must be fair and fact-based -- not a lie.

If America emerges from the Trump years with a corrosive distrust of the press and a less vigorous democracy, then Republican congressional leaders will have to take some credit. Instead of protesting, they preferred to protect their political fortunes, play to the basest part of their base and remain meekly mute. They lack spine. Trump took them all.

(c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group
The purpose of all wars, is peace. So observed St. Augustine early in the first millennium A.D. Far be it from me to disagree with the esteemed Bishop of Hippo, but his crisply formulated aphorism just might require a bit of updating.

Im not a saint or even a bishop, merely an interested observer of this nations ongoing military misadventures early in the third millennium A.D. From my vantage point, I might suggest the following amendment to Augustines dictum: Any war failing to yield peace is purposeless and, if purposeless, both wrong and stupid.

War is evil. Large-scale, state-sanctioned violence is justified only when all other means of achieving genuinely essential objectives have been exhausted or are otherwise unavailable. A nation should go to war only when it has to -- and even then, ending the conflict as expeditiously as possible should be an imperative.

Some might take issue with these propositions, President Trumps latestnational security adviser doubtless among them. Yet most observers -- even, Im guessing, most high-ranking U.S. military officers -- would endorse them. How is it then that peace has essentially vanished as a U.S. policy objective? Why has war joined death and taxes in that select category of things that Americans have come to accept as unavoidable?

The United States has taken Thucydides's famed Melian Dialogue and turned it inside out. Centuries before Augustine, the great Athenian historian wrote, The strong do what they will, while the weak suffer what they must.Strength confers choice; weakness restricts it. Thats the way the world works, so at least Thucydides believed. Yet the inverted Melian Dialogue that prevails in present-day Washington seemingly goes like this: strength imposes obligations and limits choice. In other words, we gotta keep doing what weve been doing, no matter what.

Making such a situation all the more puzzling is the might and majesty of Americas armed forces. By common consent, the United States today has the worlds best military. By some estimates, it may be the best in recorded history. Its certainly the most expensive and hardest working on the planet.

Yet in the post-Cold War era when the relative strength of U.S. forces reached its zenith, our well-endowed, well-trained, well-equipped, and highly disciplined troops have proven unable to accomplish any of the core tasks to which theyve been assigned. This has been especially true since 9/11.

We send the troops off to war, but they dont achieve peace. Instead, Americas wars and skirmishes simply drag on, seemingly without end. We just keep doing what weve been doing, a circumstance that both Augustine and Thucydides would undoubtedly have found baffling.

Prosecuting War, Averting Peace

How to explain this paradox of a superb military that never gets the job done? Let me suggest that the problem lies with the present-day American military system, the principles to which the nation adheres in raising, organizing, supporting, and employing its armed forces. By its very existence, a military system expresses an implicit contract between the state, the people, and the military itself.

Here, as I see it, are the principles -- seven in all -- that define the prevailing military system of the United States.

First, we define military service as entirely voluntary. In the U.S., there is no link between citizenship and military service. Its up to you as an individual to decide if you want to take up arms in the service of your country.

If you choose to do so, thats okay. If you choose otherwise, thats okay, too. Either way, your decision is of no more significance than whether you root for the Yankees or the Mets.

Second, while non-serving citizens are encouraged to support the troops, we avoid stipulating how this civic function is to be performed.

In practice, there are many ways of doing so, some substantive, others merely symbolic. Most citizens opt for the latter. This means that they cheer when invited to do so. Cheering is easy and painless. It can even make you feel good about yourself.

Third, when it comes to providing the troops with actual support, we expect Congress to do the heavy lifting. Our elected representatives fulfill that role by routinely ponying up vast sums of money for what is misleadingly called a defense budget. In some instances, Congress appropriates even more money than the Pentagon asks for, as was the case this year.

Meanwhile, under the terms of our military system, attention to how this money actually gets spent by our yet-to-be-audited Pentagon tends to be -- to put the matter politely -- spotty. Only rarely does the Congress insert itself forcefully into matters relating to what U.S. forces scattered around the world are actually doing.

Yes, there are periodic hearings, with questions posed and testimony offered. But unless there is some partisan advantage to be gained, oversight tends to be, at best, pro forma. As a result, those charged with implementing national security policy -- another Orwellian phrase -- enjoy very considerable latitude.

Fourth, under the terms of our military system, this latitude applies in spades to the chief executive. The commander-in-chief occupies the apex of our military system. The president may bring to office very little expertise pertinent to war or the art of statecraft, yet his authority regarding such matters is essentially unlimited.

Consider, if you will, the sobering fact that our military system empowers the president to order a nuclear attack, should he see the need -- or feel the impulse -- to do so. He need not obtain congressional consent. He certainly doesnt need to check with the American people.

Since Harry Truman ordered the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, presidents have not exercised this option, for which we should all be grateful. Yet on more occasions than you can count, they have ordered military actions, large and small, on their own authority or after only the most perfunctory consultation with Congress. When Donald Trump, for instance, threatened North Koreas Kim Jong-un with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen, he gave no hint that he would even consider asking for prior congressional authorization to do so. Trumps words were certainly inflammatory. Yet were he to act on those words, he would merely be exercising a prerogative enjoyed by his predecessors going back to Truman himself.

The Constitution invests in Congress the authority to declare war. The relevant language is unambiguous. In practice, as countless commentatorshave noted, that provision has long been a dead letter. This, too, forms an essential part of our present military system.

Fifth, under the terms of that system, theres no need to defray the costs of military actions undertaken in our name. Supporting the troops does not require citizens to pay anything extra for what the U.S. military is doing out there wherever it may be. The troops are asked to sacrifice; for the rest of us, sacrifice is anathema.

Indeed, in recent years, presidents who take the nation to war or perpetuate wars they inherit never even consider pressing Congress to increase our taxes accordingly. On the contrary, they advocate tax cuts, especially for the wealthiest among us, which lead directly to massive deficits.

Sixth, pursuant to the terms of our military system, the armed services have been designed not to defend the country but to project military power on a global basis. For the Department of Defense actually defending the United States qualifies as an afterthought, trailing well behind other priorities such as trying to pacify Afghanistans Kandahar Province or jousting with militant groups in Somalia. The United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps are all designed to fight elsewhere, relying on a constellation of perhaps 800 bases around the world to facilitate the conduct of military campaigns out there, wherever there may happen to be. They are, in other words, expeditionary forces.

Reflect for a moment on the way the Pentagon divvies the world up into gigantic swathes of territory and then assigns a military command to exercise jurisdiction over each of them: European Command, Africa Command, Central Command, Southern Command, Northern Command, and Pacific Command. With the polar icecap continuing to melt, a U.S. Arctic Command is almost surely next on the docket. Nor is the Pentagons mania for creating new headquarters confined to terra firma. We already have U.S. Cyber Command. Can U.S. Galactic Command be far behind?

No other nation adheres to this practice. Nor would the United States permit any nation to do so. Imagine the outcry in Washington if President Xi Jinping had the temerity to create a PRC Latin America Command, headed by a four-star Chinese general charged with maintaining order and stability from Mexico to Argentina.

Seventh (and last), our military system invests great confidence in something called the military profession.

The legal profession exists to implement the rule of law. We hope that the result is some approximation of justice. The medical profession exists to repair our bodily ailments. We hope that health and longevity will result. The military profession exists to master war. With military professionals in charge, its our hope that Americas wars will conclude quickly and successfully with peace the result.

To put it another way, we look to the military profession to avert the danger of long, costly, and inconclusive wars. History suggests that these sap the collective strength of a nation and can bring about its premature decline. We count on military professionals to forestall that prospect.

Our military system assigns the immediate direction of war to our most senior professionals, individuals who have ascended step by step to the very top of the military hierarchy. We expect three- and four-star generals and admirals to possess the skills needed to make war politically purposeful. This expectation provides the rationale for the status they enjoy and the many entitlementsthey are accorded.

America, the (Formerly) Indispensable

Now, the nation that has created this military system is not some shithole country, to use a phrase made famous by President Trump. We are, or at least claim to be, a democratic republic in which all power ultimately derives from the people. We believe in -- indeed, are certain that we exemplify -- freedom, even as we continually modify the meaning of that term.

In the aggregate, we are very rich. Since the latter part of the nineteenth century we have taken it for granted that the United States ought to be the richest country on the planet, notwithstanding the fact that large numbers of ordinary Americans are themselves anything but rich. Indeed, as a corollary to our military system, we count on these less affluent Americans to volunteer for military service in disproportionate numbers. Offered sufficient incentives, they do so.

Finally, since 1945 the United States has occupied the preeminent place in the global order, a position affirmed with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991. Indeed, we have come to believe that American primacy reflects the will of God or of some cosmic authority.

From the early years of the Cold War, we have come to believe that the freedom, material abundance, and primacy we cherish all depend upon the exercise of global leadership. In practice, that seemingly benign term has been a euphemism for unquestioned military superiority and the self-assigned right to put our military to work as we please wherever we please. Back in the 1990s, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said it best: If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

Other countries might design their military establishments to protect certain vital interests. As Albrights remark suggests, American designs have been far more ambitious.

Here, then, is a question: How do the principles and attitudes that undergird our military system actually suit twenty-first-century America? And if they dont, what are the implications of clinging to such a system? Finally, what alternative principles might form a more reasonable basis for raising, organizing, supporting, and employing our armed forces?

Spoiler alert: Let me acknowledge right now that I consider our present-day military system irredeemably flawed and deeply harmful. For proof we need look no further than the conduct of our post-9/11 wars, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

These myriad undertakings of the last nearly 17 years have subjected our military system to a comprehensive real-world examination. Collectively, they have rendered a judgment on that system. And the judgment is negative. Put to the test, the American military system has failed.

And the cost so far? Trillions of dollars expended (with trillions more to come), thousands of American lives lost, tens of thousands of Americans grievously damaged, and even greater numbers of non-Americans killed, injured, and displaced.

One thing is certain: our wars have not brought about peace by even the loosest definition of the word.

A Military Report Card

There are many possible explanations for why our recent military record has been so dismal. One crucial explanation -- perhaps the most important of all -- relates to those seven principles that undergird our military system.

Let me review them in reverse order.

Principle 7,the military profession: Tally up the number of three- and four-star generals who have commanded the Afghan War since 2001. Its roughly a dozen. None of them has succeeded in bringing it to a successful conclusion. Nor does any such happy ending seem likely to be in the offinganytime soon. The senior officers we expect to master war have demonstrated no such mastery.

The generals who followed one another in presiding over that war are undoubtedly estimable, well-intentioned men, but they have not accomplished the job for which they were hired. Imagine if you contracted with a dozen different plumbers -- each highly regarded -- to fix a leaking sink in your kitchen and you ended up with a flooded basement. You might begin to think that theres something amiss in the way that plumbers are trained and licensed. Similarly, perhaps its time to reexamine our approach to identifying and developing very senior military officers.

Or alternatively, consider this possibility: Perhaps our theory of war as an enterprise where superior generalship determines the outcome is flawed. Perhaps war cannot be fully mastered, by generals or anyone else.

It might just be that war is inherently unmanageable. Take it from Winston Churchill, Americas favorite confronter of evil. The statesman who yields to war fever, Churchill wrote, must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

If Churchill is right, perhaps our expectations that senior military professionals will tame war -- control the uncontrollable -- are misplaced. Perhaps our military system should put greater emphasis on avoiding war altogether or at least classifying it as an option to be exercised with great trepidation, rather than as the political equivalent of a handy-dandy, multi-functional Swiss Army knife.

Principle 6, organizing our forces to emphasize global power projection: Reflect for a moment on the emerging security issues of our time. The rise of China is one example. A petulant and over-armed Russia offers a second. Throw in climate change and mushrooming cyber-threats and you have a daunting set of problems. Its by no means impertinent to wonder about the relevance of the current military establishment to these challenges.

Every year the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain and enhance the lethality of a force configured for conventional power projection and to sustain the global network of bases that goes with it. For almost two decades, that force has been engaged in a futile war of attrition with radical Islamists that has now spread across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa.

I dont know about you, but I worry more about the implications of Chinas rise and Russian misbehavior than I do about Islamic terrorism. And I worry more about changing weather patterns here in New England or somebody shutting down the electrical grid in my home town than I do about what Beijing and Moscow may be cooking up. Bluntly put, our existing military system finds us focused on the wrong problem set.

We need a military system that accurately prioritizes actual and emerging threats. The existing system does not. This suggests the need for radically reconfigured armed services, with the hallowed traditions of George Patton, John Paul Jones, Billy Mitchell, and Chesty Puller honorably but permanently retired.

Principle 5, paying -- or not paying -- for Americas wars: If you want it, you should be willing to pay for it. That hoary axiom ought to guide our military system as much as it should our personal lives. Saddling Millennials or members of Generation Z with the cost of paying for wars mostly conceived and mismanaged by my fellow Baby Boomers strikes me as downright unseemly.

One might expect the young to raise quite a ruckus over such an obvious injustice. In recent weeks, weve witnessed their righteous anger over the absence of effective gun controls in this country. That they arent comparably incensed about the misuse of guns by their own contemporaries deployed to distant lands represents a real puzzle, especially since theyre the ones who will ultimately be stuck with the bill.

Principles 4 and 3, the role of Congress and the authority of the commander-in-chief: Whatever rationale may once have existed for allowing the commander-in-chief to circumvent the Constitutions plainly specified allocation of war powers to Congress should long since have lapsed. Well before Donald Trump became president, a responsible Congress would have reasserted its authority to declare war. That Trump sits in the Oval Office and now takes advice from the likes of John Bolton invests this matter with great urgency.

Surely President Trumps bellicose volatility drives home the point that its past time for Congress to assert itself in providing responsible oversight regarding all aspects of U.S. military policy. Were it to do so, the chances of fixing the defects permeating our present military system would improve appreciably.

Of course, the likelihood of that happening is nil until the money changers are expelled from the temple. And that wont occur until Americans who are not beholden to the military-industrial complex and its various subsidiaries rise up, purge the Congress of its own set of complexes, and install in office people willing to do their duty. And that brings us back to

Principles 2 and 1, the existing relationship between the American people and their military and our reliance on a so-called all-volunteer force: Here we come to the heart of the matter.

I submit that the relationship between the American people and their military is shot through with hypocrisy. It is, in fact, nothing short of fraudulent. Worse still, most of us know it, even if we are loath to fess up. In practice, the informal mandate to support the troops has produced an elaborate charade. Its theater, as phony as Donald Trumps professed love for DACA recipients.

If Americans were genuinely committed to supporting the troops, they would pay a great deal more attention to what President Trump and his twenty-first-century predecessors have tasked those troops to accomplish -- with what results and at what cost. Of course, that would imply doing more than cheering and waving the flag on cue. Ultimately, the existence of the all-volunteer force obviates any need for such an effort. It provides Americans with an ample excuse for ignoring our endless wars and allowing our flawed military system to escape serious scrutiny.

Having outsourced responsibility for defending the country to people few of us actually know, weve ended up with a military system that is unfair, undemocratic, hugely expensive, and largely ineffective, not to mention increasingly irrelevant to the threats coming our way. The perpetuation of that system finds us mired in precisely the sort of long, costly, inconclusive wars that sap the collective strength of a nation and may bring about its premature decline.

The root cause of our predicament is the all-volunteer force. Only when we ordinary citizens conclude that we have an obligation to contribute to the countrys defense will it become possible to devise a set of principles for raising, organizing, supporting, and employing U.S. forces that align with our professed values and our actual security requirements.

If Stormy Daniels can figure out when an existing contract has outlived its purpose, so can the rest of us.

Reprinted with permission from TomDispatch. In between his contributions to TomDispatch, Andrew J. Bacevich is trying to write a book about how we got Trump. He is the author, most recently, of Americas War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.
So far, twenty-eight nations have sent home more than 140 Russian diplomats and spies in a coordinated response to the Russian nerve agent assassination attempt in Salisbury, England. Symbolically, this unprecedented expulsion of Russian officials constitutes an important show of unity, but its practical impact in terms of hindering Russian subversion operations is limited. With the exception of the United States and Britain, which expelled sixty and twenty-three Russians respectively, most countries expelled four individuals or feweran insufficient number to deliver a meaningful hit to Russian spy networks.

Meanwhile, Putins Russia continues ravaging Ukraine, where more than 10,000 Ukrainians have died defending their country since 2014. It is still supporting or even orchestrating massive atrocities in Syria, and it is behind increasingly audacious cyber and disinformation attacks globally.

Welcome to Cold War 2.0: we are in it, and its time to fight back. Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon in a NATO country for the first time is the Kremlins latest benchmark. While Western military deterrence has so far stopped Russia from physically attacking NATO countries, allied deterrence in the non-kinetic sphere is failing spectacularly.

Putin is not afraid to continue targeting the West with ever more aggressive tools and tactics, hacking elections and buying off Western politicians and public figures. There is only one reason why Russia can continue down this path: because the West has not issued proportionate punishment for any of these aggressive acts. History has repeatedly taught us that appeasement of dictators doesnt work and that bullies must be stopped with force. If the Western response only involves the expulsion of a few diplomats and intelligence officers, Russias leadership will be affirmed in its view that the West lacks the political will to engage a forceful pushback.

There are five things Western democracies should do immediately to increase the costs of Russian subversion and pressure Putin to reevaluate his aggressive behavior.

First, every Western democracy should establish its own parliamentary investigative committee to map hostile foreign influence activities within its borders. Relevant activities include disinformation campaigns, covert intelligence operations, co-optation of local politicians, exploitation of local extremist groups, and economic pressure to realize geopolitical goals.

Congress has several committees investigating this threat in the United States, which has contributed to considerable growth in public awareness as details of Russian subversion activities have been brought to light. A similar parliamentary effort has just been launched in the British House of Commons, where it is already yielding major revelations about the work of Cambridge Analytica in conjunction with various Russian actors. Every European parliament should instigate a similar course of investigatory action, since national lawmakers have the highest level of credibility when it comes to national security.

Second, dirty Russian money is the Achilles heel for Kremlin-linked oligarchs. While European countries have been reluctant to pursue this agenda, Americans have again stepped up to the plate, hitting the Kremlins friendliest oligarchs with a new round of sanctions that has seriously frightened supporters of the Russian leadership. While London is the most prominent nexus of dirty Russian money, other European cities such as Zurich and Berlin have also been harboring Putins oligarchs, their relatives, and their money. Now is the time to get tough on those who prop up the Russian regime and enable its destructive machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Third, if Europe wants to stop Russian aggression, it cannot systematically provide funding for Putins regime. Given the lack of diversification of the Russian economy, Moscow relies almost exclusively on revenue from energy exports. For this reason, the Kremlin has developed Nord Stream 2, a controversial gas pipeline that would connect Russia directly to Germany, bypassing Eastern European countries. This project enables pure Russian political blackmail and must be stopped.

Not only will the completion of Nord Stream 2 increase German dependence on Russian energy, it will also provide the Kremlin with leverage for major strategic corruption known today as schroderization after the former German chancellor and current Putin ally. If Nord Stream 2 is built, it will become a funding tool for Putins elite in years to come. This is hardly how European energy security will be achieved. At the least, influence linkages in the lobbying for Nord Stream 2 must be thoroughly investigated. Even better would be the freezing of Nord Stream 2 construction until Russian occupying troops exit Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

Fourth, it is time for European governments to finally get real on countering pro-Kremlin disinformation. So far, only a few capitals are taking this threat seriously and dedicating resources and specialized personnel to study, map, and fight hostile information influence operations conducted by Russian entities and their local proxies. Most of the European research on this issue is still financed by US taxpayer-funded foundations and programs, with the United Kingdom also recently stepping up its game to counter Russian influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Although all major Western European allies have been hit by brutal disinformation attacks, there have not been any major policy shifts that would effect concrete pushback.

At the EU level, chief diplomatic and security bureaucrat Federica Mogherini has been sabotaging efforts to counter pro-Kremlin disinformation, despite numerous EU members asking her to reinforce and fund the specialist team stationed at the EU diplomatic body, the EEAS East STRATCOM Task Force. Incredibly, after three years of growing pressure, there are still only three EU specialists tasked with countering pro-Kremlin disinformation.

Fifth, every European country should adopt its own version of the Magnitsky Act. A legal instrument that sanctions major human right abusers is now in force in the United States, Canada, Britain, and the three Baltic republics. Other European countries may want to adopt such legislation in synchronization so that they cannot be easily singled out by Russian counter pressure. Meanwhile, other allies can lend support through collective action, should Russia retaliate with increased belligerence and subversive tactics.

We can win Cold War 2.0. First, however, we must recognize that we are facing a bellicose dictatorship that can only be reliably stopped with all the force the rule-based international order can bring to bear. At heart, this is what the Western liberal-democratic alliance stands for. Lets defend it.

Reprinted with permission from The Atlantic Council. Jakub Janda is executive director of the Prague-based European Values Think-Tank, where he heads the Kremlin Watch Program focusing on Russian subversion operations.
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Here is a weekly snapshot of events taking place in Athens. The event listings provide the what, where, when and price of the go-to spots in t
National Pet Day, recognized on April 11, is meant to celebrate all of the furry friends in our lives. If you dont have a pet, however, here 
The history of Dixie is as messy as it is long: a southern folk song that was claimed to be written by an Ohioan, as well as a favorite tune o
Self-styled NRM general Miguna Miguna has laid into ANC Party leader Musalia Mudavadi describing him as a certified coward.

According to the embattled lawyer, Musalia Mudavadi has never earned any position he has held or the wealth he enjoys.

Miguna was reacting to an interview by the Nasa co-principal on his deportation saga.

During the interview at KTN, Mudavadi alluded that Miguna Miguna broke the law when he refused to produce his passport.

If you moved into a country and a travel document is required, and you dont produce it. What are you doing? posed Musalia.

But Miguna on Monday took to his popular venting channel, Twitter, to make a scathing retort referring to Musalia as a fat KANU toad.

MusaliaMudavadi is a typical Kenyan tumbocrat who has never EARNED any position he had held or wealth he enjoys. Everything he has is traceable to his father Soapstone Mudamba and Daniel arap Moi.

He added: A fat KANU toad with zero integrity. A certified coward. He deserves what he gets because he is a lazy, lying, despicable coward. No sympathies.

The attack comes barely two months after Miguna savagely attacked the three (NASA) co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi, and Moses Wetangula.

He described them as jokers and hypocrites for betraying Raila Odinga during his mock swearing-in on January 30.
NEW HAVEN  Allegations of sexual abuse and assault at Indian Mountain School in Lakeville were filed Friday in a federal lawsuit by an attorney representing a former student at the private school. The legal action is the fourth in three years to be filed against the school.

The suit was brought by a former student who now lives in Vermont and attended the school from 1977 to 1980 beginning when he was 12 years old. The civil action charges that former English teacher Christopher Simonds, now deceased, was a pedophile who preyed on vulnerable children in the schools care.

The suit claims Christopher Simonds sexually abused, assaulted, molested, exploited and threatened (plaintiff) when (he) was a vulnerable and defenseless boy at the school. The plaintiff, whose name is not being released, is represented by attorney Antonio Ponvert, who also filed lawsuits against the school for other former students in 2016 and 2017.

In a statement about the allegations, Ponvert wrote another brave victim of the schools negligence has come forward seeking justice for the horrific abuse he suffered as a child.

A school spokesperson did not return a request for comment about the lawsuit. Former headmaster Mark A. Devey in 2014 responded to an earlier lawsuit and said the school was shocked and disheartened by the allegations against Simonds.

Because our first priority is to protect the health, safety, and well-being of the students here, it is deeply disturbing to learn that 30 years ago a student at IMS might have been abused, Devey said in 2014. We are looking into these allegations and we take them very seriously.

Indian Mountain School is a member of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, an organization that offers accreditation to private schools, which arent governed by state oversight. The school received its latest accreditation review about three years ago, according to the associations director, Douglas Lyons.

Lyons said the accreditation process is the first line of defense against sexual abuse allegations for member schools. He said schools must now document their processes for protecting students.

Were smarter now, he said. Back in the 80s, when an accusation was made, we had a hard time believing it was true.

Lawsuits filed against Indian Mountain School in 2015 and 2016 also accused Simonds of years-long abuse of middle school students. The documents allege that the school failed and refused to stop teachers as well as the schools headmaster from predatory sexual assaults and pedophilia inflicted on minor boys, including fellatio, anal sex, sodomy, voyeurism, fondling and forced masturbation.

The Connecticut Law Tribune reported in January that the school had settled three lawsuits brought by students who claimed they were also abused by Simonds in the 1980s.
Unless you live under a rock, you probably already know all about Kenyan-born Australian Senator Lucy Muringo Gichuhi.

As it turns out, the Senator is not the only Kenyan taking Australia by storm. Meet Lucy Goodwin alias Ninny Zerah, a Kenyan bred recording artist and businesswoman doing great things in Australia.

Miss Lucy Goodwin is the director of Zhiro premium Wines. She is the first Kenyan-Australian to own an Australian Wine; ZHIRO Pinot Noir Chardonnay, which she named after her mother SHIRO.

The wine is doing incredibly well in Australia and a few Africans were lucky to have a taste of ZHIRO in Kenya, as its rumoured that Lucy Goodwin had an intimate wine theatre at Hemingways Karen where a few high profile businessmen were spotted. They included C.E.O of Blackrock Capital Investments, Managing Director of the Enterprise Division at Telkom Kenya Kris Senanu, Dr Pam Sitienei C.E.O Onaps Holdings, as well as businessman Edwin Oduk C.E.O Akania investment company and others.

Zhiro Pinot Noir Chardonnay was well endorsed by Senator Lucy Gichuhi. They recently met at her Excellency Hon Senator Lucy Gichuhis office in Adelaide Australia.

From our source, Zhiro is a dry, delicate sparkling wine of integrity with fine bubbles, lifted aromas of lemon, strawberry and honeyed cream, exquisite flavours layered with freshness, and interspersed with texture and length.

It is very significant and sets it at the forefront of sparkling wine.

Adelaide Hills is Australias premier cool climate wine region where Zhiro sparkling Wines is produced in a vineyard and winery internationally recognised for the production of high quality, highly awarded wines.

From our source, a wealth of experience and history has gone into making Zhiro as the vineyard where its produced was first established in 1983. Both Lucys are taking Australia by storm!

Zerah Ninny has as well collaborated with Kidum on a single, Hadi Kifo thats available on YouTube, doubling in support of her endless passion for music.
Residents on neighborhood watch look for suspicious activities in a village near Korla, in China's Xinjiang region, Nov. 2, 2017.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party is developing a new system of social control that will allow it even closer control over its citizens' lives, RFA has learned.

The system will carve up neighborhoods into a grid pattern with 15-20 households per square, and give each grid a dedicated monitor who will report back on residents' affairs to existing neighborhood committees.

Neighborhood committees in China have long been tasked with monitoring the activities of ordinary people in a certain area, but the new grid management system will allow the ruling party to manage the daily lives of ordinary people even more closely, as well as giving indicators of possible dissent at an early stage.

A copy of a directive sent out to neighborhood committees in recent weeks that was obtained by RFA set out the details of the new plan.

"The basic task of the grid monitor will be to gain a full understanding of the situation within the grid," the document explains.

They will need to fully understand the residents of their grid, including exactly who lives where, which organizations they belong to and the sort of lives they lead, it says.

They will be asked to mediate in family conflicts and other disputes and to carry out "psychological intervention" when required.

But grid monitors will also be expected to report back to neighborhood committees on "hidden dangers" in their grid, as well as all the aspects of residents' lives, political opinions and complaints, the document says.

Last November, official media reported that some neighborhoods in the eastern province of Zhejiang are already recruiting grid staff, offering a salary of 5,000 yuan (U.S. $792) per month.

A dangerous move

But freedom of speech activists say the move is a dangerous one, and will end up with unprecedented levels of government involvement in people's private lives and daily interactions.

"The divisions will be much smaller, and this will mean far more micromanaging [of people's lives]," Beijing-based political commentator Zha Jianguo told RFA.

"This way, they will be able to get hold of information more quickly and exert much stricter controls," he said.

According to China's Baidu, community grid workers are fully paid staff members who can be recruited from among government officials, community leaders, teachers, doctors, police officers, and other professionals.

They are designed to enable the authorities to "step up inspections" so as to identify and deal with social tensions at an early stage, while also resolving conflicts and disputes, the search engine and knowledge site said.

They are also designed to provide a window onto disadvantaged groups such as the elderly, disabled, left-behind children with parents in other cities, and "other special groups," it said.

An online activist who goes by the nickname "Western Fighting Monk" said the concept of "grid administrator" has existed for a long time in China, but was generally only found in large cities.

"I think we are likely seeing them far more among ordinary people, and so the neighborhood committees are starting to hire grid administrators," he said.

"[In imperial China], there used to be one administrator per 10 households, and the Communist Party's method of putting a party committee in all companies traces its roots back to that time," he said.

He added: "I think this shows that they are getting less and less able to control society; that's why they are doing this."

They will be thwarted

But online activist Xing Jian called on ordinary people to resist the move.

"The moment any ordinary citizen wants to speak out about something, this will be reported back immediately by these grid monitors, and they will be thwarted," Xing said.

He said the system represents an expansion of the existing "stability maintenance" system from targeting government critics, dissidents, rights lawyers, and activists, to everyone.

"It will mean that many more ordinary citizens come to fear the stability maintenance system," Xing said. "It will only increase the tension between officials and the people and will do nothing to make people feel secure."

"I think people will eventually rise up in opposition to them, if they are under this sort of long-term pressure from the stability maintenance regime," he said.

The expansion of the "stability maintenance" system comes as President Xi Jinping begins an unlimited term in office.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Pro-democracy groups and rights activists gathered outside the ruling Chinese Communist Party's representative office in Hong Kong on Tuesday in protest at the continued 'disappearance' of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang.



The protest came as police in Beijing prevented Wang's wife Li Wenzu from finishing her planned 120 kilometer (60-mile) trek from the capital to neighboring Tianjin to highlight his disappearance.



Several dozen protesters gathered outside Beijing's central liaison office in Hong Kong, holding banners and chanting slogans calling for Wang's immediate release.



Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki told the crowd that Wang has now been missing for more than 1,000 days, with no official announcement on his status and no access to a lawyer or family visits.



Li Wenzu, who was forced by dozens of police officers to return to Beijing on the sixth day of her march, and who has now been prevented from leaving home to complete it, says she fears Wang may have died in custody, in the absence of any official information.



"The most outrageous thing the Communist Party does is to bully women and children, which is truly shameless," Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki told journalists on Tuesday.



"She was unarmed and only doing it for her own family, but they were desperate enough to send in dozens ... of state security police to detain them," Kwok said.



Civil Human Rights Front activist and ousted lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung said there are fears that Li may now be treated similarly to Liu Xia, widow of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been under house arrest since her husband's award was announced in October 2010.



He said the protest was a bid to make more international noise around Wang and Li's situation, in the hope of influencing the authorities in Beijing.



"Of course, we can't expect to end all persecution by the Communist Party ... its oppressive policies will always be there," Leung said.



"But the breadth and intensity of that oppression has a direct [and inverse] relationship to the level of solidarity shown by the outside world," he said.



Li detained



Police in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on Monday briefly detained Li as she marched with friends and fellow rights activists from Beijing, en route to the Tianjin No. 2 Detention Center, where she believes Wang may be being held.



Li said she was taken away on the day that she had planned to visit the Tianjin courts and the No. 2 Detention Center in the hope of finding out any information at all about his whereabouts or status.



"If they hadn't forced me to come back here, I definitely wouldn't have cooperated with them," Li told RFA on Tuesday. "I would never just have come home of my own accord."



"They grabbed, shoved and tugged at me, so I had no choice but to go with them," she said. "They brought me straight home, and a state security police officer escorted me all the way upstairs."



Li said her home is now under surveillance by state security police.



"I looked down from the window and saw more than a dozen of them sitting in the pavilion there," she said. "There are state security police and some people from the neighborhood committee."



Li said the authorities should have had nothing to fear from her march.



"Actually I think it's pretty silly, ridiculous," she said. "We were just a group of women walking along a road."



Reported by Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Aung Ko Htway, who was abducted when he was a teenager and forced to serve in the Myanmar army for nearly 10 years, leaves his clothing shop in Kalaware village, Thanlyin township, in the suburbs of Yangon, August 2017.

A prominent Myanmar attorney has agreed to handle the case of a former child soldier sentenced to two years of hard labor following his conviction for describing his abduction and forced military service as a minor in an interview last year with RFAs Myanmar Service.

In late March, Dagon Seikkan Township Court in Yangon convicted Aung Ko Htway, 27, who spent nearly a decade as a child soldier, for public incitement under Section 505(b) of the countrys Penal Code.

Aung Ko Htway appeared before judge Chit Ko Ko at the same court on Tuesday along with three others accused of desecrating the countrys seal during a previous hearing in January when they trampled on a copy of the military-drafted 2008 constitution in a sign of protest.

All four face a maximum sentence of three years in prison if found guilty.

Legal activist and human rights lawyer Robert San Aung, who attended the hearing, said he is taking up Aung Ko Htways case and will represent him in future court hearings.

In 2015, Robert San Aung received the annual Martin Ennals Award in recognition of his work as one of Myanmars top human rights defenders.

Aung Ko Htway was abducted by a Myanmar army sergeant in 2005 when he was 14 years old and later imprisoned after he and two others escaped and robbed the owner of a motorcycle. One of the other boys had strangled the man, though Aung Ko Htway maintains that he did not participate in the murder.

He served seven months at a prison camp in Lashio, the largest town in Myanmars northern Shan state, where he was shackled and fed a mixture of rice and sand until he agreed to sign a confession.

Though Aung Ko Htway was originally sentenced to death, he had his sentence reduced twice under presidential amnesties. He was finally released on July 15, 2017, and returned home where he started a business with his sisters help selling cotton clothing in Kalawae village in Yangon regions Thanlyin township.

Interviewed about his experiences by RFA in August 2017, he was arrested about a week after his story aired.

Aung Ko Htway's next hearing is scheduled for April 24, the online news service Democratic Voice of Burma reported.
The surveillance application that authorities in northwestern Chinas volatile Xinjiang region are forcing Muslim Uyghurs to install on their mobile devices to track online activities and censor content lacks encryption to secure the transfer of collected data, according to a report by a group that supports global internet freedom technologies.

The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a program under the auspices of U.S.-government funded Radio Free Asia, said in a recent report that the app sends the unsecured data to an outside central server operated by the Chinese government.

Authorities began requiring citizens in Xinjiang to install the Android app known as Jingwang, or clean internet in Chinese, on their mobile devices last year in another move to fuel repression in the heavily surveilled Muslim-majority region.

Local police have enforced the policy with spot-checks of mobile phones on the street.

The app records each devices identifying information, scans the devices external storage for files it deems dangerous, and transmits the information to the server without encryption, said OTF, which supported the investigation of Jingwang by third-party cybersecurity researchers.

This means all the data the app collects is transmitted to the unknown entity on the receiving end in a way that allows someone with a trivial amount of technical knowledge to intercept and potentially manipulate, OTC said in a blog post on Monday.

While the forced installation of this mobile app serves to monitor the activities of an entire population, the broad scope of the app combined with its lack of basic security only further harms those required to use it, the post said.

Though the server scans the transmitted data for information the government disapproves of and prompts users to delete it, it is not yet clear what content is being targeted for deletion, said Omer Kanat, chairman of the executive board of the World Uyghur Congress based in Munich, Germany.

The fact that this makes all private data easily hackable by criminals further demonstrates that the government has little concern for its citizens, he said in a statement to RFAs Uyghur Service on Tuesday. Uyghurs are once again the first targets of new repressive technology.

Police continue to physically check Uyghurs' phones on the streets of Xinjiang to ensure they have installed the app, Kanat said.

This new technology means that Uyghurs have lost whatever privacy they might have had, making it extremely dangerous for them to express any dissent or dissatisfaction, he said. This reminds everyone that they are constantly being monitored, and this automated repression is truly something unprecedented, and again shows how Orwellian life has become for Uyghurs.

Authorities in Xinjiang also use surveillance cameras and facial-recognition systems to monitor Uyghurs, and have recently expanded their activities by implementing a big data program, called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), designed to predict offenses, Human Rights Watch said in a report it issued in March.

The system combines information from police reports, vehicle checkpoints, banking and health-care records, and technological collection systems into a single program for police reference, the report said.

Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called two-faced Uyghur officialsa term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of disloyalty.



China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.



Additional reporting by Alim Seytoff for RFA's Uyghur Service.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing in Washington, DC, April 10, 2018.

Facebook on Tuesday rebutted criticism from Vietnamese activists and journalists that the social media giant favored Hanoi's communist government in its content removal practices, and vowed to work with and protect civil society in the country.

Facebook told RFA's Vietnamese Service that it took those complaints seriously and wanted to get a better understanding of concerns raised Monday in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg from dozens of Vietnamese civil society organizations, human rights activists and journalists.

The Vietnamese organizations and individuals told Zuckerberg that Facebook's "frequent account suspensions and content takedown" was doing Hanois bidding by shuttering their accounts during a severe crackdown on dissent in the one-party state.

The activists further said that a group of Vietnamese "state-sponsored trolls" amplified the effect of government censorship when Facebook acted on requests to remove content, and that the company was not transparent in explaining why accounts were suspended or posts were removed.

We urge you to reconsider your companys aggressive practices that could silence human rights activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam, wrote dozens of NGOs, activists and journalists in a letter addressed to Zuckerberg on the eve of his scheduled appearance before U.S. lawmakers in Washington.

In response to the letter, a Facebook spokesperson told RFA the company was "committed to protecting the rights of the people who use Facebook, and to enabling people to express themselves freely and safely" while upholding content rules it refers to as "Community Standards."

"We will remove content that violates these standards when we're made aware of it. There are also times when we may have to remove or restrict access to content because it violates a law in a particular country, even though it doesnt violate our Community Standards," the spokesperson said in an e-mailed comment.

Addressing the activists' assertions about Facebook's relationship with Vietnam's government and transparency questions, the spokesman said: "We have a clear and consistent government request process, which is no different in Vietnam to the rest of the world, and we report the number of pieces of content we restrict for contravening local law in our Transparency Report.

Monday's letter to a letter addressed to Zuckerberg, on the eve of his scheduled appearance before U.S. lawmakers in Washington, was signed by 16 groups  including the pro-democracy group Viet Tan, the Free Journalists Club, New Horizon Media, Viet Labor Movement, Good News for the Poor, Catholic Youth, and Saigon Broadcasting Television Network  and some three dozen individuals.

The groups wrote that they had a "fruitful" working relationship with Facebook until 2017, and they speculated that the U.S. company had begun working more closely with Hanoi after an April 2017 meeting between a Facebook executive and Vietnam's information minister, which reportedly produced an agreement to coordinate in the monitoring and removal of content.

But Facebook said the meeting did not change its government request process or content policies and that the firm challenges requests it deems to be unreasonable or too broad. Content treated as illegal in a country might be removed in that country alone, but remain on Facebook, it added.

Reacting to Facebook's response, Duy Hoang, a spokesman for Viet Tan, told RFA: "Facebooks official response confirms the fears of many Vietnamese activists."

"Facebook is saying that they do remove content at the request of the Hanoi government. This is content that does not violate the community standards. Also, we can infer that when content is taken down, the author doesnt know the specific reason, as Facebook doesnt publicize which content was removed because of government censorship requests," said Hoang.

'Morally wrong and terrible for their brand'

But the spokesman added that the response to the open letter shows that "Facebook clearly knows that censorship is morally wrong and terrible for their brand."

"We activists have an opportunity to help Facebook live up to their corporate social responsibility and their own stated mission of an open and connected world," he said.

Hanoi-based activist La Viet Dung told RFA his fellow activists have struggled with account suspensions for what they believe are unclear reasons.

"Most of those whose accounts blocked are the result of reports from the community of opinion-shapers or Force 47," said La, referring to a notorious Vietnamese government-sponsored cyber army, set up to help the government censor unflattering reports about the country.

"They are so quick in blocking. In my opinion, the blocking mechanism seems to favor the Vietnamese government without considering giving assistance to independent voices, he told RFA.

"I myself, as well as others who post critical status updates, do not know why our posts are taken down or accounts are blocked for a while before being restored. Much information and photos cannot be posted," said Vietnamese lawyer Vo An Don, who signed Monday's open letter.

Vo lost his ability to practice law in Vietnam over personal opinions he shared on social media.

Facebook needs to know that respecting and creating favorable conditions for independent voices is more important than supporting an authoritarian regime. Because when Facebook helps the independent voices, society will be changed for the better, and then more users will take to Facebook," said activist La.

Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people, of which 55 million are estimated to be users of Facebook, has been consistently rated "not free" in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.

Reported by RFA's Vietnamese Service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Munzires husband Elyasjan Rahman, from Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) city, in northwest Chinas Xinjiang region, is among 16 Uyghur students who remain unaccounted for nine months after authorities in Egypts capital Cairo launched a dragnet targeting more than 200 members of the ethnic minority at Beijings behest. Egyptian authorities claimed that the roundup was part of a bid to curb illegal immigration, although most of the Uyghurs detained were enrolled in studies at Cairos prestigious Al-Azhar Islamic University.



Dozens of Uyghurs are believed to have already been deported home to Xinjiang, where rights groups say they face a serious risk of incarceration and torture. The arrests constitute what New York-based Human Rights Watchs China director Sophie Richardson said is an example of one of the most powerful governments in the world  arbitrarily detaining people for no legal reason.



Munzire, now 20, fled Egypt for Turkey when the manhunt began in July last year, ahead of Elyasjan, but he never made it onto his flight. Her brother, Nur Eli, who also studied at Al-Azhar with Elyasjan, said he was likely targeted because he was a bright academic that the other students looked up to. Munzire recently described to RFAs Uyghur Service how her husband was detained, what she knows about his situation, and the effect his absence has had on her young family.



RFA: Do you remember the day when the mass arrests started, and how your husband came to be detained?



Munzire: On July 4, we received messages from various social media groups that police [in Cairo] were raiding houses and arresting Uyghurs. On hearing the news, we drove our car to the outskirts of the city. We returned home early next morning around 5:00 a.m., and quickly had our breakfast before packing a bag. Having decided to leave the country we went to the airport [with six others] and bought tickets to Istanbul.



RFA: So all of you were students with valid student visas?



Munzire: Yes, we were all legally residing in the country. After we bought our tickets, my husband and his best friend Muhamad Yasin were concerned about themselves, as we overheard that they were on a blacklist, so we decided to travel separately. My husband and his friend said, If we are wanted, and we all travel together, it might implicate the others. Therefore, you should board the flight and we will depart later.



I left Cairo with some other students, while my husband and Muhamad remained there. We passed through security and passport control without any problems and arrived safely in Istanbul. My husband and his friend planned to travel on July 7. Their plan was that Muhamad would pass through security first, after which my husband would follow him. Muhamad got out of the taxi and went into the airport, while my husband remained in the taxi, but soon they lost contact with each other. As my husband got out of the taxi, he was arrested immediately by a plainclothes policeman. He told me this when we spoke on the phone after his arrest.



On the seventh day after he was arrested, we lost contact. Later, I heard from his lawyer that he had been transferred to Tora Prison [in Cairo]  On the morning of Eid [the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan on Aug. 31], he texted me, so I called him and we had a long chat  The investigators told him they would never hand him over to the Chinese authorities. They said they only arrested him because the Chinese government claimed that they were terrorists, but they realized that they had made a mistake, and it would only be a matter of time before they were released.



RFA: Have you heard anything from his lawyer since? Hasnt he provided any information regarding your husbands situation?



Munzire: No, he has only told us that he was unable to obtain any information  Ive tried everything I can, but I havent heard a thread of news.



RFA: When your husband was arrested, you were pregnant, and you gave birth to your daughter on your own. Is that right?



Munzire: Twenty-five days after losing contact with my husband, I gave birth [to my second daughter]  When I look at my two children I become deeply heart-broken  There were other Uyghur men released from prison after being arrested, some of whom shared a cell with my husband. They told me that my husband sat looking at my daughters picture all the time. I feel unbearable pain when I think of him.



Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Barring an act of God, and despite a serious economic downturn in recent years, Azerbaijan's incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, will almost certainly be reelected on April 11 with a landslide majority for a fourth consecutive term.

Since succeeding his late father, former Politburo member Heidar Aliyev, in 2003, Ilham Aliyev has systematically sidelined or jailed his political opposition and silenced independent media outlets, correctly assuming that his country's growing strategic importance as a supplier of natural gas to Europe would outweigh the misgivings of the international community.

Of the handful of opposition candidates who in a fair ballot might have posed a serious challenge to the incumbent, Republican Alternative (ReAl) movement head Ilqar Mammadov was jailed for seven years in 2014 for allegedly organizing a large-scale public protest.

In protest at the timing of the ballot, other prominent oppositionists decided not to participate. It was initially announced in mid-January that the election would take place on the third Wednesday in October, in line with the constitution.

Less than three weeks later, on February 5, President Aliyev brought the date forward without offering any explanation for doing so. Scheduling early presidential elections was one of the additional powers granted to the president under constitutional amendments adopted in a referendum in September 2016. At the same time, the presidential term was extended from five to seven years.

Outrage And Consternation

The scheduling of the early vote was met with outrage and consternation by prospective opposition candidates, who were thus left with just five weeks to collect the minimum 40,000 signatures in their support required for registration, the deadline for which was March 12.

The National Council of Democratic Forces (NSDS) formed in the run-up to the 2013 presidential ballot, and which unites prominent opposition figures, immediately declared its intention to boycott what its leader, Camil Hasanli, termed "a farce" and "flouting the institution of elections."

Arif Hacili, chairman of the opposition Musavat Party, which is one of the country's oldest and most respected, similarly branded the ballot illegal.

Hacili's predecessor as party chairman, Isa Qambar, placed second to Aliyev in the 2003 presidential ballot, which he claimed was rigged to deny him victory.

The Umid (Hope) party, for its part, decided not to field a candidate: its chairman, Iqbal Agazade -- who garnered under 3 percent of the vote in the 2008 and 2013 presidential ballots -- explained to the news portal Caucasian Knot that the party's statutes require it to convene a congress to select a presidential candidate, which was impossible given the time constraints.

ReAl and the youth organization Nida both announced that they will not acknowledge the election outcome as legitimate, Caucasian Knot reported, while in late March, the religious movement Muslim Unity, most of whose leaders are currently in prison, called on its members and supporters to boycott the vote.

A total of 15 hopefuls sought to register for the election, of whom only eight succeeded, including Aliyev. All but one of them have run for president at least once before.

The eight candidates are:

President Ilham Aliyev, nominated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party (YAP);

Social-Democratic Party leader Araz Alizade (polled 0.87 percent in 2013);

Parliamentarian and United Popular Front Party Chairman Qudrat Hasanquliyev (polled 0.55 percent in 2003, 2.28 percent in 2008, and 1.99 percent in 2013);

Parliamentarian and Party of National Rebirth Chairman Farac Quliyev (polled 0.86 percent in 2013);

Modern Musavat Party Chairman Hafiz Haciyev (polled 0.40 percent in 2003, 0.65 percent in 2008, and 0.66 percent in 2013);

Democratic Party of Azerbaijan nominee Serdar Calaloglu (polled 0.61 percent in 2013);

Independent candidate Zahid Oruc (polled 11.45 percent in 2013);

And Razi Nurullayev, a former deputy chairman of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, which he quit in 2015.

Those refused registration, mostly on the grounds that some signatures in their support were invalid, were:

Citizen and Development Party Chairman Ali Aliyev (no relation to Ilham);

Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Fuad Aliyev (no relation to Ilham or Ali), who polled 0.78 percent in 2008;

Elsan Hasanov, who heads the unregistered Socialist Party;

Former Musavat Party youth wing head Tural Abbasli, who in 2016 founded the White Party;

And virtually unknown independent candidates Ramazan Bekirov and Asif Mamedov.

Classical Popular Front Party chairman Mirmahmud Miralioglu, who had announced in late January his intention of participating in the election, withdrew his candidacy two weeks after the revised date was announced. He argued that without a substantive revision of the electoral law and the release of political prisoners the elections could not be considered democratic.

Given that neither Ilqar Mamedov, Hasanli, nor Qambar are participating, there is every chance that President Aliyev will receive a higher proportion of the vote than ever before. In 2003, he polled 75.38 percent, with three influential oppositionists, Qambar, Lala-Sovket Haciyeva (Liberal Democratic Party), and Etibar Mammedov garnering 21.70 percent between them, and in 2013 he polled 84.55 percent (NSDS head Hasanli placed a distant second with 5.53 percent). By contrast, in 2008 when, as now, he faced no serious opposition challengers, President Aliyev won 89.04 percent of the vote.

President Aliyev's reasons for bringing the election forward by five months remain unclear. Presidential administration official Ali Hasanov told journalists that, since the presidential term has been extended by two years, the incumbent wanted to secure a vote of confidence from the electorate. Hasanov also cited a heavy schedule of important events later in the year, starting with the centenary in late May of the proclamation of the short-lived independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

Tensions And Dissent



Analyst Togrul Cafarli, however, suggested that the real reason was tensions and dissent within the ruling YAP. President Aliyev has resorted before to wrong-footing potential rivals, most recently in 2016 when he scheduled at short notice the referendum on constitutional amendments that empowered him to appoint his wife, Mehriban, as vice president.



The actual election campaign, which kicked off only on March 19, has been muted. Hamstrung by a chronic lack of both financial means and organizational resources, opposition candidates had few possibilities for making their views known. True, state-controlled media outlets allocated free airtime, but it was confined to a series of one-hour debates among the candidates. Meanwhile, the cost of airtime on private channels was, to quote Calaloglu, "astronomical" -- up to 3,000-6,000 manats ($1,800 - $3,600) per minute of prime time.

Even President Aliyev was not campaigning energetically, having announced just days after setting the date of the ballot a 10 percent pay raise for all public employees at a cost of 40 billion manats ($23 billion). According to economist Qubad Ibadoglu, up to 2 million voters, or almost 40 percent of the total 5.2 million electorate, will benefit from that increase.



State-run media, meanwhile, gave extensive coverage to the president's engagements.

While the outcome of the ballot is a foregone conclusion, the geopolitical, economic, and domestic political context of this election nonetheless differs significantly from previous ones. The national currency has plummeted in value over the past three years, as have oil prices. Vahid Magerramli of the NSDS estimates that Azerbaijan's gross domestic product and budget are currently no more than $40 billion and $10 billion, respectively, compared to $75 billion and $25 billion three-four years ago.



Despite these obstacles, President Aliyev has managed to strengthen his position by removing from power several ministers with extensive private economic interests and replacing them with younger, Western-educated technocrats who, unlike their predecessors, are not tainted by allegations of corruption.

This approach, which essentially undercuts the influence of the country's oligarchs, allowing for the implementation of badly needed fundamental economic reform, is likely to continue after the election, Caucasian Knot quoted Turan News Agency director Mehman Aliyev as predicting.



In addition, the president-elect will nominate a new prime minister and government, a requirement that could bring about the retirement of Artur Rasizade, now 83, who has served as prime minister since July 1996, apart from a three month period in 2003 when Ilham Aliyev was maneuvered into that post to govern in the run-up to his father's death.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.


Authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has dangled the prospect of decreasing the ample powers of the president in Belarus, but suggested that such a change should not be expected in the near future.

In a meeting with heads of Belarusian media outlets on April 10, Lukashenka suggested that the powers of the prime minister and cabinet should be strengthened.

He added, however, that "the moment to change the constitution has not come yet."

Lukashenka has ruled Belarus with an iron grip since 1994, quashing political dissent, independent media, and civil society groups.

Dubbed "Europes last dictator" by some in the West, he has sought greater engagement with the European Union and the United States while also trying to avoid upsetting Russia, with which Belarus has close ties.

Lukashenka's remarks to the media came after a March 15 meeting in which he told Constitutional Court judges to work out proposals on changes to the constitution and judicial system, and said that a constitutional referendum should not be ruled out.

The chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Lidzia Yarmoshina, had said earlier that there would be no referendum on constitutional changes before presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2020.

A move to shift power to the prime minister would be likely to prompt speculation about a bid by Lukashenka to retain power while stepping down from the presidency.
Police in Bosnia-Herzegovina have arrested two men suspected of being members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

"A certain quantity of arms was found, as well as grenades, ammunition, automatic rifle magazines, knives, combat vests, and flags looking like Islamic State insignia," a statement from the Prosecutor-Generals Office said on April 10.

Police said the two men were arrested after raids on two properties in the capital, Sarajevo.

No further details were given.

In December, a 25-year-old Bosnian man, in possession of a large quantity of weapons, was arrested in Sarajevo near the U.S. Embassy.

In 2016, the man was sentenced to one year in prison for joining the IS group in Syria in 2013.

Police found a rocket-launcher, two automatic rifles, a large amount of ammunition, an antipersonnel mine, four grenades, and two combat vests in his car.

About 1,000 people from the former Yugoslavia have joined extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq since 2014. An estimated 200 have been killed and another 300 have returned home.

Based on reporting by AFP and Balkan Insight
Hundreds of farmers have demonstrated in the Iranian city of Isfahan over the lack of water available to irrigate their fields.

Amateur video posted on social media on April 10 showed angry farmers marched through the streets.

Much of Iran is suffering through drought that has sparked several protests across the country in the past month, including in towns near Isfahan and around the western province of Khuzestan.

But farmers have said the drought has been exacerbated by mismanagement and corruption.

The farmers in Isfahan have been hit especially hard and say water has been diverted from the province's main river to neighboring Yazd Province.

They accuse officials of mismanaging water resources and allowing water to be diverted from their areas in return for bribes.

The government has promised to pay compensation to help the struggling farmers.

Iran Meteorological Organization has said around 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree.

Rights groups say the drought has driven thousands of people from their homes.
Raise enough money so that we can commit to a permanent lease for our school. We started a GoFundMe account (to) help us get there.

Also, I am trying to finish my fourth book. My first book is about the history of the radio station at UC Irvine. My second and third books are murder mysteries.

The fourth is about a painter and boatman named Stewart Robertson. He worked for MGM for a while (and) he taught Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn how to navigate.

7. Whats new at your nonprofit?

Weve created an advisory board with members of the community who will help guide us to get the funding and build the school.

8. Who do you most admire in the business world?

I admire leaders who are good at what they do but remain modest, humble and friendly.

Two that come to mind right now are Mark Foxworthy of Printing Services Napa Valley and Kevin Morrissey, the winemaker and manager at Ehlers Estate.

9. What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime that you havent yet?
An official decision to grant unfiltered Internet access to 100 handpicked reporters in Iran threatens to backfire, with journalists and editors blasting it as discriminatory and a transparent effort to curry media favor beyond the already extensive reach of state censors.

Some critics also complained that Internet use under the Iranian government's aegis could jeopardize their personal privacy or security, hinting at public mistrust of homegrown apps and the clerically led regime.

The governmental Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content issued the call for applications from journalists for the 100 spots following a request by the press office of the Culture Ministry, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported on April 4.

Journalists could apply by sending their name, ID number, contact information, and the name of their media organization to the Office of Press and Domestic News Agencies by April 20, the report said.

It was unclear what the criteria for approval would be.

Journalists took to Twitter to blast the invitation, adopting the hashtag #Man_nistam (#_), or "I'm not in."

"Internet without filter is the right of everyone and not only journalists and not only 100 journalists!" tweeted reporter Yeganeh Khademi.

Journalist Sonita Sarabpour, who covers technology for Peivast Monthly, reacted similarly, saying in a tweet that "#Imnotin because access to the free flow of information is everyone's right and separating 100 people and giving them unfiltered Internet is against citizens' rights."

Anti-Filtering Tools

Sarabpour added that she feels "safer" using a so-called virtual private network (VPN) to access the Internet.

Iran has one of the world's toughest Internet censorship regimes, and many Iranians are forced to use anti-filtering tools and VPNs on a daily basis to circumvent official blocks on a wide array of social media and many websites.

But senior state officials are believed to enjoy largely unrestricted Internet access. Communications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in January that he and some other senior officials were allowed, because of their duties, to browse the Internet freely without anti-filtering tools.

Journalists and others have been harassed, summoned, and even imprisoned over their online writings and social-media posts.

"#Imnotin because access to free Internet is everyone's right. In the name of journalists, we should not be given a right that many have been deprived of in the form of a bribe and join this unjust lawlessness," tweeted Hossein Norouzi, the editor in chief of the Iranian publication Cinema.

Blocking Telegram

The offer comes amid a state push to promote homegrown messaging apps to replace the wildly popular Telegram believed to be used by around half of Iran's 82 million people.

An Iranian lawmaker said earlier this month that Telegram would soon be blocked for security reasons and replaced by a similar local service.

The announcement has met with criticism from Iranians expressing their lack of trust in domestic apps due to what they suspect is state surveillance. Many have vowed to continue using Telegram via anti-filtering tools.

Some journalists suggested they would similarly distrust unrestricted Internet provided by the state.

"We don't trust the unfiltered Internet provided by the Culture Ministry as much as we don't trust domestic messaging apps," a journalist identified as Zahra told the daily Ebtekar on April 7. "As a journalist, I'm prepared to access the Internet with an anti-filtering tool and search with difficulty for information rather than use an unfiltered Internet that would put my security at risk."

Another journalist, identified as Ali told Ebtekar, said he would not use unrestricted Internet provided by the government even if it were offered free of charge.

"I'm routinely being monitored on Twitter. Now imagine what would happen if I became active in a platform that can be fully monitored by some special bodies," he said.

Iranian satirist Hooman Jafari reacted to the offer by noting that many Iranians don't know exactly what unrestricted Internet is, as they are so used to accessing the Internet via proxy servers.


Moldova's Constitutional Court has ruled that polygraph tests may continue as part of job interviews for managers of a top anticorruption body but their results should not be the determining factor.

The April 10 decision followed a complaint by a candidate who last year failed a polygraph test while interviewing to head the National Integrity Authority (ANI), a government body that checks the asset declarations of politicians and public officials for inconsistencies and investigates possible conflicts of interest.

Teodor Carnat was refused the ANI job after he failed the test in October and challenged the ANI board's decision in court.

The Constitutional Court ruled that while polygraph results will not be disqualifying, candidates for the positions of ANI president and vice president still must take them.

"This shouldn't be an eliminatory test," Carnat told reporters after the court announced its decision. "In a democracy, a polygraph operator cannot decide who runs a country and who is qualified to occupy public posts."

Moldova's Justice Ministry acknowledged the court's ruling.

"The government will obey the court's decision," Eduard Serbenco, a senior Justice Ministry official, said. But he added that polygraph testing would remain mandatory for those applying for jobs in anticorruption bodies, future judges and prosecutors, and intelligence service employees.

International organizations say Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, is also one of its most corrupt. Transparency International says two-thirds of Moldovans regard corruption as one of the biggest threats to their country.

The disappearance of some $1 billion from Moldova's banking system between 2012 and 2014 was dubbed by Moldovans the "theft of the century" and cost the country roughly one-eighth of annual GDP. A number of people including former Prime Minister Vlad Filat have been jailed in connection with the case, which crippled the national currency and led to street protests and aid freezes.

Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by Tamara Grejdean
Pakistan has launched a nationwide polio-vaccination drive to try to reach 38.7 million children and eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus in one of the last countries on Earth where it is found.

Nearly 260,000 volunteers and workers fanned out across Pakistan in an effort to vaccinate every child below the age of 5 in a weeklong campaign, Pakistan's national coordinator on polio, Mohammad Safdar, said on April 9.

He said the authorities hoped a similar campaign will soon be launched in Pakistan's tribal regions.

"We're really very close to eradicating the disease," Safdar told Reuters, calling on Pakistani citizens to cooperate with the door-to-door effort.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that suffers from endemic polio, a childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.

In 2018, Pakistan has had just one polio case, which was reported last month, Safdar told Reuters. The number of cases has steadily declined since 2014, when 306 were reported. Last year, there were only eight cases, he said.

Efforts to eradicate the disease have been undermined by opposition from the Taliban and other Islamist militants, who claim that immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.

In January, gunmen killed a mother-and-daughter vaccination team working in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where the year's only case so far was later reported.

Three years earlier, 15 people were killed in a bombing by the Pakistani Taliban outside a polio-vaccination center in Balochistan.

Polio teams on April 9 were working undeterred.

"Yes, we feel threatened, but our work is like this," Bilquis Omar, who has served on a mobile vaccination team for the past six years in the southern port metropolis of Karachi, told Reuters.

"We are working for the children," she said.

Aziz Memon, who heads the Rotary Club's PolioPlus program that funds many of the immunization teams, said this year the drive was also making a renewed effort to reach migrants who come back and forth from Afghanistan.

"Mission No. 1 is to get to zero cases and eradicate polio," Memon said.

A country must have no cases for three consecutive years to be declared free of polio by the World Health Organization.

Pakistan has to contend with extra suspicion of immunization drives because of the 2011 U.S. Special Forces raid inside the country that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

A Pakistani doctor was accused of using a fake vaccination campaign to collect DNA samples that the CIA used to verify bin Laden's identity. The doctor remains jailed in Pakistan, convicted of waging war against the state.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
A veteran adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has abandoned its centuries-long hopes of integrating with the West and is bracing for a new era of geopolitical isolation.

In an article for Russia In Global Affairs magazine released on April 9 and titled The Solitude Of A Half-Blood, Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov wrote that "Russia's epic journey toward the West" is over, marking an end to its "repeated fruitless attempts to become a part of Western civilization" over four centuries.

Relations between Moscow and the West are at lows not seen since the Cold War, severely strained by issues including Russia's takeover of Ukraines Crimea region, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, its role in Syrias seven-year conflict, and the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain last month.

Surkov, 53, a longtime Putin aide who served as his top domestic-policy strategist for many years and currently works as the presidential adviser on Ukraine, wrote that the 2014 split with the West over Ukraine marked the beginning of a new era in which Russia faces "100 years (200? 300?) of geopolitical solitude."

Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine severely strained Moscow's ties with the West and led to U.S. and European Union sanctions that, together with a slump in global oil prices, sent the Russian economy into a two-year recession.

The Minsk accords, Western-backed cease-fire-and-peace deals signed in September 2014 and February 2015, have not ended the conflict in Ukraine's east, where fighting between government forces and separatists has killed more than 10,300 people.

With Russia's hopes of rapprochement growing dimmer as conflicts have flared with the West, the country is increasingly looking inward as well as eastward, rather than toward the West, Surkov said.

He cited the saying in Russia that the country has "only two allies: the army and the navy."

"Solitude doesn't mean complete isolation," Surkov wrote, but he said Russia's openness would be limited in the future.

"Russia without doubt will engage in trade, attract investments, exchange know-how, and fight wars...compete and cooperate, cause fear, hatred, curiosity, sympathy, and admiration," Surkov wrote. "But without false goals and self-denial."

The journey that Surkov said Russia had traveled to some degree mirrors the evolution of Putin's own outward attitude toward the West.

Putin engaged with the West after his first election in 2000, but later grew increasingly critical of the United States, the EU, and NATO. He now frequently accuses them of shunning Moscow's offers of cooperation, fostering hostility, and trying to sideline and weaken Russia.

Surkov's article was published three days after the United States imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen tycoons, security officials, and politicians thought to have close ties to Putin, in an attempt to punish Moscow for what the U.S. Treasury chief called "malign activity around the globe."

It also followed rare criticism of Putin from U.S. President Donald Trump over Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Surkov recalled what he said were futile attempts at Westernization by past Russian rulers, writing that Russia once attempted to imitate the United States and "edge into the West."

He attributed Russia's fascination with joining the West to "excessive enthusiasm" by Russia's elite. But he said that fervor was now all but gone.

Surkov, who was first deputy Kremlin chief of staff from 1999 to 2011, was the architect of "managed democracy" -- his term for a policy under which Putin tightened control over Russian politics and society in his first two terms, in 2000-08.

He has many interests outside or alongside politics and has written novels, essays, and song lyrics.

In the article, he describes Russia as a kind of "mixed breed" culture that incorporates elements of both the East and the West, like "someone born of a mixed marriage."

"He is everyone's relative, but nobody's family. Treated by foreigners like one of their own, an outcast among his own people. He understands everyone and is understood by no one. A half-blood, a half-breed, a strange one," he wrote.

He said it was up to the Russian people whether Russia now becomes "a loner in a backwater" or "an alpha nation that has surged into a big lead" over other nations.

"It's going to be tough," he said, but Russia faces a long journey "through the thorns to the stars."

"It'll be interesting," Surkov wrote. "And there will be stars."

With reporting by AP and Interfax
Deputy Kazakh Defense Minister Talgat Mukhtarov has announced that Kazakhstan will be sending peacekeepers to Lebanon to serve among UN forces there.

It was a surprise announcement despite the fact that units of Kazakhstan's armed forces have trained for peacekeeping duties for most of the country's independent history, most recently with U.S. and British troops as part of the Steppe Eagle-2017 exercises in Kazakhstan last summer.

In fact, Kazakhstan's peacekeepers have already served abroad, in Tajikistan in the 1990s; but what happened there one day almost exactly 23 years ago is at least part of the reason large numbers of Kazakh peacekeepers have not served abroad since then.

However, Mukhtarov said on April 9 that 120 peacekeepers would be sent to Lebanon, probably in September. He made clear they would be wearing the "blue berets" of UN forces in Lebanon but did not mention where in Lebanon they would be stationed, though he did mention he had recently been in Lebanon and seen the areas where the Kazakh unit might be based.

"We have not deployed them before because we had no law on peacekeeping activity," Mukhtarov said in allusion to a law that was passed in 2015.

Prior to the passage of that law, Kazakhstan had sent service members to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraqi role, from 2003 to 2008, was the more significant. Those troops were sometimes labeled peacekeepers, but primarily they were engaged in the dangerous work of demining and detonating unexploded ordnance and are credited with neutralizing millions of potential explosions during their time in Iraq.

Kazakh authorities talked briefly at the end of 2010 and early 2011 of sending a small number of troops to Afghanistan, but that idea was unpopular with the Kazakh public and was quickly scrapped, though some handfuls of officers and medics from Kazakhstan have rotated through.

And it is true that Kazakhstan has four soldiers serving with UN peacekeepers in Western Sahara and one soldier with UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast.

Bad Memory

Earlier this week, at a military base near the northeastern city of Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk), Kazakh soldiers took time to commemorate the anniversary of a national tragedy.



Far away, in the mountains along the Tajik-Afghan border, a unit of Kazakhstan's peacekeepers were ambushed by Tajik opposition forces on April 7, 1995.

The Kazakh troops were peacekeepers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) deployed -- essentially at Russia's urging -- during Tajikistan's civil war (1992-97). Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan also contributed to the force. They were in Tajikistan to help secure the Afghan frontier while government forces fought the opposition inside the country.

Seventeen Kazakh peacekeepers were killed in the ambush and dozens more wounded. It was the worst single incident involving CIS peacekeepers during the Tajik civil war was a shock to Kazakhstan, at that time not even four years an independent country. Kazakhstan had sent peacekeepers and was receiving coffins and wounded soldiers.

Officially, Kazakhstan continued to rotate troops through until 1999; but in reality, after April 1995, the numbers were only a few officers serving on the CIS peacekeepers' command staff.

A generation has passed since then.

Bad Timing?

The ceremony at the base in Oskemen received some publicity in Kazakhstan's media, but not much.

The timing of Mukhtarov's announcement of an impending deployment of peacekeepers would seem poor, considering the somber anniversary two days earlier. But timing might be the most important detail.

In June 2017, Russian officials started mentioning the possibility of sending peacekeepers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to Syria to guard so-called safe zones that the Russian and the Syrian governments were talking about creating. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, both CSTO members, were named as potential contributors.

If officials from either of those Central Asian countries discussed with Russian officials the deployment of peacekeepers to Syria, it was not widely known in Astana and Bishkek.

The Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments said they knew of no such plans, but the matter did not go away. Russian officials have since continued to mention the possibility from time to time. Kazakh officials have equivocated, not rejecting the idea outright but suggesting a formal request would be needed before any consideration could be given to such as proposal.



Astana might feel that by deploying peacekeepers to Lebanon under the UN flag, it has done its share for peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East and should not be asked to contribute an additional force to Syria.

Of course, the Kremlin probably won't be disappointed to have Kazakh troops among the UN forces in a state neighboring Syria.

But there is still some risk to deploying the Kazakh peacekeepers. A new generation has grown up in Kazakhstan since the ambush in Tajikistan, and memories have faded of Kazakh soldiers trapped in a gorge fighting for their lives.

After the first stage of Steppe Eagle-2017 in March 2017, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said Astana would be deploying peacekeepers to a UN mission but added, "We will select a less dangerous place."

Of course, the situation in Lebanon is difficult to predict. If the Kazakh unit were to get caught up in violence that caused casualties, the Astana government could face serious criticism.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL


Veteran Russian politician Aman Tuleyev has been elected as speaker of the Kemerovo regional legislature in Siberia, eight days after he resigned as governor following a shopping-mall fire that killed 64 people.

Tuleyev was elected speaker on April 10 by vote of 38-1 in the legislature, which like others across Russia is dominated by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party.

Tuleyev, 73, had been governor of the coal-mining region in Siberia since 1997.

He resigned on April 1, saying it was "morally impossible" to stay on after the March 25 fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) mall in the regional capital -- one of the deadliest blazes in post-Soviet Russia.

Tuleyev had faced public calls to step down, including by people in a crowd of thousands who demonstrated outside his administration's office two days after the fire.

He and his subordinates were criticized over what many have seen as a callous response to the tragedy, including their characterizations of public outrage as the work of political opportunists.

Tuleyev received a parliamentary seat on April 3, two days after he resigned as governor.

His election as speaker came after the previous speaker resigned from the post and said Tuleyev deserved to replace him.

Residents, relatives of victims, and Russians nationwide blamed corruption and government negligence for the high casualty toll in blaze, whose victims included 41 children -- some of whom died after being trapped in a locked movie theater at the mall.

Investigators said initial investigations indicated that blocked fire exits, a shutdown alarm system, and "glaring violations" of safety rules exacerbated the human toll of the fire.

Seven people have been arrested in the case, including the head of the local building-inspection agency and an executive with the firm that owns the shopping mall.

With reporting by Tayga.info
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that a new natural-gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany cannot go ahead without clarity on Ukraine's role as a gas transit route.

"I made very clear that a Nord Stream 2 project is impossible without clarity on the future transit role of Ukraine," Merkel said at a news conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Berlin on April 10.

She said that "it is not just an economic issue but there are also political considerations."

Merkel had in the past called Nord Stream 2 a purely "economic project" with no need for political intervention.

Nord Stream 2, which is to run from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany -- the European Union's biggest economy -- would double the existing Nord Stream pipeline's annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.

But critics argue it will increase dependence on Russia and enrich its state-owned energy companies at a time when Moscow stands accused of endangering European security.

Merkel said she had told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on April 9, "It cannot be that through Nord Stream 2, Ukraine has no further importance regarding the transit of gas."

She insisted that Ukraine relied heavily on income from transit fees.

In an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt on April 9, Poroshenko urged Berlin to abandon plans to build Nord Stream 2, saying it would enable an "economic and energy blockade" against Ukraine and blasting it as "political bribe money for loyalty to Russia."

He accused Russia of being an "extremely unreliable partner" as a gas supplier, citing state-owned energy firm Gazprom's refusal to pay Ukraine billions of dollars after shutting off supplies in the middle of winter.

Poland and the Baltics oppose Nord Stream 2, and U.S. officials have spoken out against it.

In Warsaw in January, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that "the United States opposes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline," adding, "We see it as undermining Europe's overall energy security and stability and providing Russia yet another tool to politicize energy as a political tool."

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Lawmakers in the town of Volokolamsk, near Moscow, have decided to hold a referendum on the future of a garbage dump that has been emitting toxic fumes and prompting protests by residents.

The mayor of Volokolamsk, Pyotr Lazarev, said members of the town's Council of Deputies decided on April 10 to organize a referendum in order to resolve problems linked to the landfill.

The date of the referendum will be decided later, Lazarev said.

Residents have been demonstrating against the dump since January, and their protests intensified after dozens of children were rushed to hospitals with symptoms of gas poisoning on March 21.

The Yadrovo landfill was opened in 2008 and is a dumping site for garbage from Moscow and nearby regions.

Thousands protested in Volokolamsk in the latest rally on April 1, demanding the dump's closure.

On the eve of the rallies, police detained one of the protest organizers, Artyom Lyubimov, who was charged with and found guilty of disobeying police and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Volokolamsk is a town of around 20,000 people about 120 kilometers west of Moscow.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Some 1,500 people have gathered in the southern Serbian city of Nis to protest against the planned transfer of ownership of the Constantine the Great airport from the city to the state.

The participants in the April 10 demonstration also called for the firing of the mayor, a member of President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party.

Meanwhile, Nis's local assembly postponed a scheduled vote on the proposal by city authorities to transfer the property and management of the airport to the state without compensation.

The city council adopted the proposal on March 30, saying the state will "help the airport become economically stronger and gain an even better position in the market." But the move has triggered a wave of protests.

Nis is the closest airport to citizens in the eastern and southern parts of Serbia. Last year, more than 330,000 people took flights to or from the airport, which serves 11 destinations.
DUSHANBE -- Authorities in Tajikistan have lodged a formal request for Turkey to extradite two Tajik opposition politicians who were detained in Istanbul on March 19.

Tajik Interior Ministry spokesman Umarjon Emomali told RFE/RL on April 10 that Dushanbe is in talks with Ankara on the extradition of the leader of Group 24, Suhrobi Zafar, and another member of the opposition organization, Nasim Sharipov.

Emomali did not specify exactly when Tajik authorities asked Turkey to extradite the two men.

On March 23, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Central Asia researcher, Steve Swerdlow, told RFE/RL that Turkey's Constitutional Court had ruled to suspend their possible extradition amid concerns that they might face torture while in custody in Tajikistan.

The Tajik Embassy in Ankara and Tajik Interior Ministry officials told RFE/RL that they had no information about the two politicians.



Group 24 spokesman Saidali Ashurov, who also lives abroad, told RFE/RL that the possible extradition of Zafar and Sharipov has been suspended for three months.



Tajik authorities banned Group 24 in 2014 after labeling it an extremist group.



Group 24 was founded by fugitive tycoon Umarali Quvatov, who was shot dead in Turkey in March 2015.



Opponents of President Emomali Rahmon who live abroad say they believe Quvatov's killing was orchestrated by authorities in the Central Asian country.



Several members of the group were jailed in Tajikistan after he was killed.
YOUNTVILLE  Sixteen years after opening Hurleys Restaurant, Chef Bob Hurley has announced he will close on Sunday, after selling the property to the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.

I have a really big bucket list and Im not getting any younger, so it was just time to move on to my next adventure, Hurley said. My wife (Cynthia) and I would like to do a lot more traveling  like we did when we were younger  and I intend on redefining myself.

Hurley sat down to discuss the sale, his past and his future at the bar of his restaurant just as lunch service last Thursday was about to begin. The staff, who had been informed of the closing only a few days earlier, put on brave faces and went about their business of greeting customers warmly. The news had just begun to trickle out into the community.

Our team is the best Ive ever worked with, and I wanted to make sure that the deal was 100 percent sure before I announced the sale, Hurley said. We have provided each member of the staff severance and are helping them with the transition as much as we can.

Given the chronic labor shortage in the Napa Valley, it is unlikely that his staff will find it difficult to procure work. But replacing the culture of Hurleys will be a challenge.
Five of the weirdest creations that ever flew, skimmed, or twisted their way across the Soviet Union.

1. The KM Ekranoplan (aka 'The Caspian Sea Monster')

Less a plane than "a boat that flies," the giant Ekranoplan represented a completely new kind of vehicle when a champagne bottle was cracked against its nose and it slid into the Caspian Sea in 1966. The freakish addition to the Soviet navy used what pilots call the "ground effect," where airflow under low-flying wings creates a cushion of high pressure (the reason some seabirds skim just above the water, and why passenger planes sometimes loft slightly before touching down). When CIA agents first spotted the mysterious vehicle in satellite images, they were said to have been so spooked that a plan was hatched to fix a camera onto a radio-controlled "bird" in order to get more detailed photos. (The plan was dropped after the drone-bird repeatedly crashed in tests.) And maybe they were right to be worried. The Caspian Sea Monster could scream along at 650 kilometers per hour, would skim harmlessly over antiship mines, and flew too low for most radar to spot. One analyst told the Science Channel: "[The Soviets] could be invading San Francisco in three hours and we wouldnt know they were there until they arrived."

And it got scarier. After pilot error caused the original monster to crash and sink into the Caspian Sea in 1980 (where it reportedly still lies today), a 1987 Ekranoplan called the Lun (pictured) went full Thunderbirds, with six nuclear-capable Moskit missiles mounted along its spine.

Despite Ekranoplans adding a new dimension to naval warfare, the project was shelved as the Soviet Union collapsed and money ran dry. But a careful scan of Russias southern coastline reveals a Lun still sitting, derelict, on a barge today.

2. The Zil 4904 screw-propelled vehicle

With deep snow in winter, fragile ice in the spring and autumn, and swampy forest in the summer, Russias outback can be a tricky place to get around. But if theres one example of a truly Russia-proof vehicle, it's the amphibious ZiL 4904. This swamp beast was propelled forward by two aluminum pontoons wrapped in a screw-like thread that churned through squishy terrain the same way a screw twists into wood. The ZiL could plow through snow at running speed, could outpace any human swimmer on the open water, or could crunch through swamps when the need arose.

The Soviets were unable to find a use for the massive vehicle, and the Zil 4904s were soon retired. But with the onset of the Soviet space program, the screwy design was resurrected in the smaller Zil-2906 (pictured swamp-crunching above).

The little ZiL was tasked with fetching cosmonauts parachuting down to the plains of Kazakhstan in reentry capsules. The twisted little sister remains in active service today as part of the Blue Bird cosmonaut search-and-rescue team.

3. The Sever-2 Aerosled

What might be the worlds funkiest-looking aerosled was created in 1959 when Soviet engineers bolted the engine from a Yak-12 airplane onto the back of a GAZ M20 sedan, then fitted the craft with Teflon-coated skis. But for all the Sever-2s hot-rod swagger, it had a pretty boring job.

Tasked with delivering mail to the isolated villages of Russias north, the vehicle made quite a sight cruising the frozen rivers of Siberia. But the glorified mail car was beset with problems. The Sever-2 struggled to climb hills, and on narrow forest paths it slid around hopelessly. Add to that the tight space for carrying the postal cargo, and its days were numbered. After three years of bedeviling mailmen, the model was replaced with the sturdier, roomier KA30, which served until the 1990s.

Out of around 100 Sever-2 aerosleds built, only one vehicle remains intact, looking like a duck out of water inside Moscows Central Air Force Museum.

4. The 'High-Speed Car-Laboratory' jet-powered train

The Soviet Unions first and last jet-powered train was built in 1970 at the Tver Wagon Works in central Russia. It featured an ordinary locomotive body with a bulbous, sheet-metal nose fitted to the front and a pair of jet engines pulled from a Yak-40 passenger plane fixed onto the roof. The experimental trains career peaked in 1972 after it reportedly topped 250 kilometers per hour on a stretch of straight railway and had a gushing report on its performance written up in Pravda, the propaganda mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

Despite Pravdas breathless report on the trains performance, its fatal flaw is hidden in plain sight in the article: "to take passengers from Moscow to the shores of the Neva [in Saint Petersburg] would take six tons of jet fuel." Thats nearly three times the fuel a modern Boeing 737 would use for the same trip. The train was retired from tests in 1975 and sat slowly falling to pieces in the old railyard, where some urban explorers found what is claimed to be the sad wreckage in 2014.

5. The Mil V-12 Helicopter

Looking like a praying mantis in a permanent threat display, the worlds biggest helicopter was rolled out of the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant in 1968. The giant prototype choppers measured 67 meters from rotor-tip to rotor-tip and needed six crew, including an electrician, to keep the Mil V-12 aloft. The crafts harbinger-of-doom appearance is well-suited to the task it was designed for -- whisking intercontinental nuclear missiles to their launch sites.

In 1969, a brave test crew flying a Mil V-12 carried a 40,000-kilogram load to an altitude of 2.25 kilometers, a helicopter-weightlifting record that remains unbroken today.
U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled a scheduled trip to South America later this week as Washington considers military action against Syria over an alleged chemical attack.

Trump threatened on April 9 to take conduct military strikes against the Syrian government over a suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians over the weekend, even as Russia warned any such action would have "grave repercussions."

In a bid to head off Western military strikes, Syria's Foreign Ministry said on April 10 that it had invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the site of the alleged attack.

The Syrian government has denied it was behind the alleged attack in the rebel-held town of Douma near the capital, Damascus.

Several hours after the invitation, the OPCW said it will "shortly" deploy a fact-finding team to Douma to probe the alleged chemical attack that killed at least 40 people, including children.

In anticipation for a potential strike, Syrian military forces were mobilizing, according to a war monitor.

"At midnight, the army command put all military positions on alert, including airports and all bases, for a period of 72 hours," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on April 10.

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump would not attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru on April 13 and later visit Colombia, remaining in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

Sanders said Vice President Mike Pence will travel in Trumps place.

The decision came a day after Trump threatened to conduct a military strike against Syria, saying he would "forcefully" respond to the alleged chemical attack and would soon decide how.

Trump declared that the Syrian government's allies, Russia and Iran, or any other nation found to share responsibility for the alleged chemical attack on April 7 in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, would "pay a price."

The attack in Douma killed at least 40 people, including children.

Trump's decision came as the Syrian government invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international chemical weapons watchdog, to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the suspected chemical attack.

The Syrian government has denied it unleashed a chemical attack in Douma.

The United States has requested the Security Council vote on April 10 on a proposal for a new inquiry on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, even though the resolution would likely be vetoed by Syrian ally Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on April 10 that Moscow will propose a UN Security Council resolution calling for an investigation by the OCPW into the attack.

In November, Russia used its veto at the Security Council to force the shutdown of a joint UN-OPCW panel investigating chemical attacks, after the panel said the Syrian government was behind a deadly sarin gas attack earlier last year.

Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun. Syria denied it was responsible for the attack, which killed at least 80 people.

With reporting by AP and AFP
Yulia Skripal, the poisoned daughter of a Russian former spy, has been discharged from a hospital in the English city of Salisbury.

"Yulia has now been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital," Christine Blanshard, medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, said in a statement on April 10, adding that her father had also made "good progress."

"This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," she added.

The BBC earlier reported that the 33-year-old had left the hospital on April 9 and taken to a secure location.

The Russian Embassy in London issued a tweet in which it congratulate\d Yulia Skripal on her recovery. "Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will," it added.

Yulia Skripal and her father, Sergei Skripal, 66, were hospitalized on March 4 after being exposed to a potent nerve toxin and found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, in southern England.

In an April 5 statement issued by police on Yulia Skripal's behalf, she said her strength was "growing daily" and asked for privacy during the period of her convalescence.

"Yulia has asked for privacy from the media and I want to reiterate that request," Blanshard said on April 10.

She added that Sergei Skripal, who is no longer in critical condition, had "also made good progress."

"Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course," Blanshard said.

The British government is expected to keep details about Yulia Skripal's location secret given the sensitivity of the case, which dramatically deepened already severe strains in ties between Moscow and the West.

Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the news of her discharge from hospital and wished her the best for her recovery.

The Russian Embassy in London also congratulated Yulia Skripal on her recovery in a tweet.

"Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will," it added.

A separate Twitter post said, "Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation."

Britain accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin's government of trying to kill the pair with a military-grade chemical substance known as novichok, which was developed in the Soviet Union.

Russia denies involvement in the poisoning, which prompted Britain and more than two dozen Western allies to expel over 150 Russian diplomatic staff, in a move reciprocated days later by Moscow.

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russia's military intelligence agency, was convicted of treason in 2006 by a Russian court that found him guilty of spying for Britain.

Russia released him from prison in 2010, sending him to the West in a Cold War-style spy swap.

With reporting by the BBC
Ukrainian law enforcement officers have searched the home and office of lawmaker Nadia Savchenko, who is in jail pending trial on charges of plotting a terrorist attack on parliament with grenades and automatic weapons.

Two lawyers for Savchenko, Dmytro Buhay and Oleh Solovey, said that Security Service (SBU) officers conducted the searches on April 10.

Savchenko's mother, Maria Savchenko, said the officers confiscated a pistol that her daughter received as an award as well as some ammunition for the gun.

SBU spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska said that the searches were linked to investigations into Savchenko, a former military aviator who spent two years in Russian prison before returning home in a swap connected to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

A court in Kyiv placed Savchenko under two-month pretrial arrest on March 23, a day after fellow lawmakers voted to strip her of her immunity from prosecution and authorized her arrest.

Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban are accused of plotting to overthrow the government, carry out a "large-scale terrorist attack" in central Kyiv, and kill senior officials.

Ruban was detained earlier in March while crossing into government-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, allegedly with large amounts of weapons and ammunition hidden in a shipment of furniture.

Savchenko maintains her innocence and says her arrest was illegal.

Savchenko says she was abducted in 2014 in the eastern Ukrainian area known as the Donbas, where a war that has now killed more than 10,3000 had erupted that April between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists.

She spent two years in prison in Russia, defying the Kremlin with a series of hunger strikes, and returned to a hero's welcome in Kyiv when she was released as part of a prisoner swap in May 2016.

Elected to parliament on an opposition party ticket while still held in Russia, Savchenko became a vehement critic of President Petro Poroshenko's government after her return.

She has drawn fire from several political camps, facing criticism for holding talks with the separatists without government consent and for comments nationalists said indicated she advocated accepting Moscow's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

With reporting by bykvu.ua, obozrevatel.ua, and pravda.ua
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to take military action against Syria over a suspected chemical-weapons attack on civilians over the weekend, while Russia warned any such action would have "grave repercussions."

Speaking at a meeting with U.S. military advisers late on April 9, Trump said, "we're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus...and it will be met forcefully."

"We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed...we cant let that happen in our world...especially when were able to because of the power of the United States...we're able to stop it."

"We have a lot of options militarily, and we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact," Trump said.

The U.S. president later conferred with French President Emmanuel Macron, and they agreed on the need for a "firm response" to the attack, Macron's office said.

Trump had earlier said that Syrian allies Russia and Iran may also bear some responsibility for the alleged chemical attack on April 7 in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, in which at least 40 people were reportedly killed.

"Everybody's going to pay a price.... If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," Trump said.

Russia and Iran have given crucial military and diplomatic backing to Assad's government throughout Syria's seven-year conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, urged joint action against Syria at a meeting of the UN Security Council on April 9, but vowed that the United States would act on its own if the UN didn't respond.

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley told the council.

Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to a sarin-gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun. Syria denied it was responsible for the attack, which killed at least 80 people.

At the time of the weekend attack in Douma, Syrian government forces and their allies were in the midst of clearing the last pocket of rebel resistance in the eastern Ghouta region, where the town is located. Russia announced on April 9 that it had resumed evacuating rebels and civilians from Douma under a negotiated pullout deal.

The threat of what could be imminent U.S. military action prompted Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya to warn on April 9 that Moscow will not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk.

"From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," he said after the UN meeting, where he said Russia had investigated the scene in Douma and found no evidence that chemical weapons were used.

"There was no chemical-weapons attack," Nebenzya said, adding that Syria and Russia had invited the international chemical-weapons watchdog to inspect the site.

"Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the U.S. that armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria -- where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed -- could lead to grave repercussions," he said.

"Without any grounds and without thinking about the consequences, the governments of the U.S., the U.K., and France are pursuing a confrontational policy towards Russia and Syria and are pushing the others toward this," Nebenzya was quoted as saying by Russian state-run news agency TASS.



The situation has "gone beyond the scope of what was acceptable even during the Cold War," he said.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy on Syria, warned that the Syrian war has expanded beyond a national or regional conflict and is now a "threat to international security." He said an escalation of the conflict could have "unimaginable consequences."

Haley castigated Russia for backing Syria, saying that "Russia's hands are covered in the blood of Syrian children." She called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a "monster" who "no civilized government would have anything to do with."

Haley accused Russia of repeatedly allowing Assad to carry out "war crimes" against innocent civilians by vetoing UN efforts to hold him accountable.

The United States has repeatedly offered measures to establish an independent UN investigation of who is behind the chemical attacks in Syria. Haley offered another such resolution on April 9 and called for a council vote on April 10.

But Russia blocked several similar resolutions in the past, and Nebenzya hinted that the latest one -- which he called "unacceptable" -- would meet the same fate.

Haley accused Russia of protecting Syria at the UN while Moscow's military advisers in Damascus are helping Assad wage a "starve or surrender campaign" against Syrian civilians that includes the use of chemical weapons.

"We are on the edge of a dangerous precipice," she said. "The great evil of chemical-weapons use that once unified the world in opposition is on the verge of becoming the new normal. The international community must not let this happen."

Earlier on April 9, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that "provocation and speculation" on the matter was unacceptable.

The UN's top human rights official, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, warned against what he called a "collective shrug" and "impotent" international response to the possible use of chemical weapons in Douma.

He said veto-wielding UN council members need to "wake up fast to the irreparable damage" being done to international efforts to ban such weapons of mass destruction.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa
A top U.S. official says Syria is not qualified to serve as head of the UN's Conference on Disarmament as scheduled next month in light of its alleged chemical attack last weekend on residents of a Damascus suburb.

"Syria has neither the international credibility nor any moral authority" to lead the forum, "given what they have done to their own people with use of chemical weapons," the U.S. ambassador to the disarmament conference, Robert Wood, said at the United Nations on April 9.

The United States is examining "how best to deal with" Syria's scheduled presidency of the forum, he said.

The conference's presidency is rotated among 65 member states based on alphabetical order. Syria is to take over from Switzerland on May 28 for four weeks.

The disarmament conference produced the treaty that banned chemical weapons -- a treaty that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claims to be honoring but which the United States and European states say Assad has repeatedly violated during his country's seven-year civil war.

The most recent alleged violation was over the weekend in the Damascus suburb of Douma. where war monitors say 40 people were killed by what appeared to be an attack with a chlorine-like gas.

"The Assad regime's documented use of chemical weapons remains the most serious violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in the treaty's 20-year history," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch.

Neuer said allowing Syria to assume the presidency of the disarmament body "at a time when Syria is gassing its own men, women, and children to death" would "simply shock the conscience of humanity."

Based on reporting by AP
FBI agents have raided the office of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, seizing records on various topics in a move that prompted an angry presidential response.

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House on April 9, accused the FBI of "breaking into" the attorney's office and blasted U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between Russia and his presidential campaign.

"It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch-hunt, I have been saying it for a long time," Trump said.

"It's an attack on our country in a true sense," he added. "It's an attack on what we all stand for."

Trump's remarks renewed speculation that he might try to dismiss Mueller, who was appointed last year after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who at the time was leading the Russia investigation.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, noted that the FBI's warrant to search the attorney's office was approved by a judge.

"That's no witch-hunt. That's the rule of law," he tweeted.

"As Trump floats firing Mueller, all members [of Congress] must speak out -- or stop feigning devotion to the constitution," he added.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. lawmakers that the company is fighting an "arms race" against Russia-sponsored groups trying to use the social network to manipulate elections and public opinion.

The 33-year-old Internet mogul made the remarks during his testimony before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate's Commerce and Judiciary committees on April 11, during which he was grilled on a range of issues -- from Facebook's handling of alleged Russian attempts to interfere in elections to consumer privacy and hate speech.

Zuckerberg took responsibility for failing to prevent Cambridge Analytica, a firm affiliated with U.S. President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, from gathering personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

He also said Facebook did not do enough to tackle "fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

In his first-ever U.S. congressional appearance, Zuckerberg said there are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other Internet systems."

"So this is an arms race," he said, adding that it was important to invest in the ability of Facebook to stop foreign attempts to alter elections.

Zuckerberg said one of his "greatest regrets" was that Facebook was "slow in identifying the Russian information operations" during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2016.

"We expected them to do a number of more traditional cyberattacks, which we did identify...but we were slow in identifying the new information operations," he said.

Facebook plans to have more than 20,000 staff working in security and content review by the end of the year to help counter the threat, he said.

He said Facebook has deployed new artificial intelligence tools to identify fake accounts.

Zuckerberg also said Facebook was working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating ties between Russia and President Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will tell Congress in scheduled appearances this week that his company should have spotted Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election earlier, a transcript of his testimony released on April 9 says.

"We were too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we're working hard to get better," Zuckerberg will say in testimony before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee scheduled for April 11, the transcript says.

Zuckerberg, 33, is also due to appear before joint Senate committees on April 10, in his first congressional appearance.

His testimony says Facebook had been aware of traditional Russian cyberthreats such as hacking and malware for years prior to the reports of Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election.

The transcript says Facebook "detected and dealt with" several threats with ties to Russia, including activity by a group called APT28, which the U.S. government says has links to Russian military intelligence.

The transcript says the group created fake personas that were used to funnel stolen information to journalists before the fake accounts were shut down.

Zuckerberg will also testify that the disinformation campaign run by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian "troll farm" that tried to manipulate people in the United States, Europe, and Russia, reached about 126 million people before Facebook shut it down.

Zuckerberg will testify that Facebook is building new technology to prevent states from interfering in foreign elections, is developing artificial-intelligence tools to remove fake accounts, and will hire more people to work on security and content review.

He is also expected to announce that the company is establishing an independent election-research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy.

Based on reporting by dpa and AP
Mexicos National Electoral Institute signs deal with Google

Mexico City, Mexico  For the upcoming elections, Mexicos National Electoral Institute has signed a deal with Google to help Mexican voters.

The new deal with the Internet search giant will see them provide extensive information about electoral candidates while also providing citizens with voting-related services. Google will provide online information such as the location of ballot boxes through Google Maps, candidate information, live streaming of presidential debates via YouTube and even instructions on how to vote.

The National Electoral Institute (INE) says the joint deal for the 2017-2018 Federal Electoral Process is to provide information to the public and collaborate in the process of building a free and informed vote for Mexicans.

INE says that having the online Google information will strengthen democracy by making the most relevant information about this years elections accessible by putting it in the hands of citizens through their mobile devices.

INE says some of the online features will include:

Useful information generated by INE about the significant moments of the election

Offer service to voters to locate their nearest ballot box via Google Maps

Offer guidance on how to vote

Create reminders so that users do not forget the relevant dates of the electoral process

Transmit live candidate debates through YouTube

Make public information available about the candidates and their proposals

Circulate the preliminary results of the election through PREP on election day

INE says that their collaboration with Google does not imply, in any way, the sharing or making use of personal data held by any of the parties.

The President of the National Electoral Institute, Lorenzo Cordova Vianello, said that this INE-Google accompaniment is part of the logic to provide citizens with the most broad information about the electoral process.

He says that the collaboration between the National Electoral Institute and Google will allow the contribution to the construction of a more informed and participatory society in the largest elections in Mexican history.

There are four Mexican presidential candidates running to fill the seat for July 1. The elections will also include voting for 128 new senator positions and 500 deputies of the Lower House across Mexico.
The Open Space District previously championed Measure Z on the November 2016 ballot. The measure would have raised the sales tax by a quarter-cent to provide $8 million annually for parks and open space. One goal was to buy 30,000 acres of open space from willing sellers.

Voters in November 2016 gave the Measure Z quarter-cent sales tax for open space a 64.7 percent yes vote. That proved a losing effort, though, because this type of tax hike needs a two-thirds vote, or 66.6 percent, to win.

Measure C isnt the only factor on the minds of Open Space District board members as they ponder another possible sales tax run. They are also looking at what the potential competition might be from other revenue-raising measures.

Board Member Tony Norris noted that local affordable housing advocates are talking about a county ballot measure at some point. He said Napa Valley College might try another bond measure for college facilities.

If the Open Space District takes up the issue again after the June 5 election, it will be faced with deadlines for a November ballot attempt. The Board of Supervisors must place a measure on the ballot by Aug. 13. However, the last Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled before that date is July 31.
His jail term and murder conviction remains the same. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku welcomed the decision. Former prosecutor in the case Gerrie Nel said in reaction to the news on Monday: Justice has been done. Im just glad that this is over. Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp dead on Valentines Day 2013 after firing four times through the locked door of his bedroom toilet claiming later he believed that had been an intruder. No further recourse to appeal is available for Pistorius. He was initially sentenced to six years in prison for culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter.



South Africa Constitutional Court

The supreme court of appeal commented it was difficult on the evidence to accept Pistorius was genuinely remorseful, noting contradictions in his account meant one did not know his explanation is for having fired the shots. Ms Steenkamp was a successful model, 29 old. Tania Koen, the Steenkamps family lawyer, said that Reevas parents had always had faith in the justice system and had no further comment to make. It is unclear when Pistorius, who is detained in prison outside the capital Pretoria, could be eligible for parole. Former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius sustained minor injuries after a fight in prison last Wednesday, the Department of Correctional Services said on Tuesday. It is alleged that he was involved in an altercation with another inmate over the use of a public phone in the special care unit, where both offenders are detained at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, said department spokesman.
A telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to listen to a mysterious cigar-shaped object that entered our Solar System late last year.

The unusual object -- known as 'Oumuamua -- came from another solar system, prompting speculation it could be an alien spacecraft.

So astronomers went back through observations from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope to check for radio transmissions coming from the object between the frequencies of 72 and 102MHz -- similar to the frequency range in which FM radio is broadcast.

While they did not find any signs of intelligent life, the research helped expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) from distant stars to objects closer to home.

When 'Oumuamua was first discovered, astronomers thought it was a comet or an asteroid from within the Solar System. But after studying its orbit and discovering its long, cylindrical shape, they realised 'Oumuamua was neither and had come from interstellar space.

Telescopes around the world trained their gaze on the mysterious visitor in an effort to learn as much as possible before it headed back out of the Solar System, becoming too faint to observe in detail.

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John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the MWA team did not initially set out to find 'Oumuamua.

"We didn't set out to observe this object with the MWA but because we can see such a large fraction of the sky at once, when something like this happens, we're able to go back through the data and analyse it after the fact," Professor Tingay said.

"If advanced civilizations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, we can speculate that they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and that these spacecraft may use radio waves to communicate."

"Whilst the possibility of this is extremely low, possibly even zero, as scientists it's important that we avoid complacency and examine observations and evidence without bias."

The MWA is located in Western Australia's remote Murchison region, one of the most radio-quiet areas on the planet and far from human activity and radio interference caused by technology.

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It is made up of thousands of antennas attached to hundreds of "tiles" that dot the ancient landscape, relentlessly observing the heavens day after day, night after night.

Professor Tingay said the research team was able to look back through all of the MWA's observations from November, December and early January, when 'Oumuamua was between 95 million and 590 million kilometres from Earth.

"We found nothing, but as the first object of its class to be discovered, `Oumuamua has given us an interesting opportunity to expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence from traditional targets such as stars and galaxies to objects that are much closer to Earth.

"This also allows for searches for transmitters that are many orders of magnitude less powerful than those that would be detectable from a planet orbiting even the most nearby stars."

'Oumuamua was first discovered by the Pan-STARRS project at the University of Hawaii in October.

Its name loosely means "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past" in Hawaiian, and is the first known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System.

Combining observations from a host of telescopes, scientists have determined that `Oumuamua is most likely a cometary fragment that has lost much of its surface water because it was bombarded by cosmic rays on its long journey through interstellar space.

Researchers have now suggested there could be more than 46 million similar interstellar objects crossing the Solar System every year.

While most of these objects are too far away to study with current technologies, future telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will enable scientists to understand more about these interstellar interlopers.

"So once the SKA is online, we'll be able to look at large numbers of objects and partially balance out the low probability of a positive detection."
VALLEJO -- Four people suffered gunshot injuries outside an apartment complex in Vallejo late Monday night, a police lieutenant said.

Police received reports of 10 to 15 gunshots at the Marina Vista Apartments at 201 Maine St. around 11:20 p.m., Vallejo police Lt. Herman Robinson said.

There were no victims or suspects at the scene when police arrived and found a silver Chevrolet and Ford Focus parked next to each other and a dozen bullet shells in the parking lot, Robinson said.

Police impounded the Ford that had several bullet holes on the passenger side and blood smears on the outside, and it's believed the Chevrolet was not involved in the shooting, Robinson said.

Two 27-year-old Vallejo men, a 23-year-old woman from Oakley and a 23-year-old woman from Oakland showed up at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo with gunshot injuries that were not life-threatening, Robinson said.

All four did not cooperate with the shooting investigation and there have been no arrests in the case, Robinson said.
A team of California researchers has developed a robotic gripper that combines the adhesive properties of gecko toes and the adaptability of air-powered soft robots to grasp a much wider variety of objects than the state of the art.

Researchers will present their findings at the 2018 International Conference on Robotics and Automation May 21 to 25 in Brisbane, Australia. The gripper can lift up to 45 lbs. and could be used to grasp objects in a wide range of settings, from factory floors to the International Space Station.

Geckos are known as nature's best climbers because of a sophisticated gripping mechanism on their toes. In previous work, researchers at Stanford University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory recreated that mechanism with a synthetic material called a gecko-inspired adhesive. This material was used primarily on flat surfaces like walls. In the current work, researchers joined forces with engineers at the University of California San Diego. The team coated the fingers of a soft robotic gripper with the gecko adhesive, allowing it to get a firmer grasp on a wide range of objects, including pipes and mugs, while still being able to handle rough objects like rocks. The gripper can also grasp objects in various positions, for example gripping a mug at many different angles.

Researchers demonstrated that the gripper could grasp and manipulate rough, porous and dirty objects, such as volcanic rocks -- a task that is typically challenging for gecko adhesives. It also was able to pick up pieces of large, cylindrical pipe -- a task typically difficult for soft robotic grippers.

"We realized that these two components, soft robotics and gecko adhesives, complement each other really well," said Paul Glick, the paper's first author and a Ph.D. student in the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

The gecko is one of nature's best climbers, thanks to millions of microscopic hairs, with features about 20 to 30 times smaller than a human hair, that allow it to climb on virtually any surface. The hairs end in tiny nanostructures that interact at the atomic level with molecules on the surface the gecko is trying to grip. This interaction, powered by what is called van der Waals forces, causes the gecko's toes to easily attach and detach as needed. Researchers at JPL use synthetic materials and similar arrays of microscopic features to harness the power of van der Waals forces and showed these adhesives retained many of the same properties as the toes of animal that inspired them.

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Because gecko adhesives are powered by molecular interactions between surfaces, they work best when they have a large contact surface area. Coating the inside of the soft robotic fingers with these adhesives maximizes the amount of surface area they make contact with, ensuring a better grip.

The engineering team solves two different problems in this paper.

First, researchers at UC San Diego set about making sure that the gripper's fingers would maintain constant contact with the surface of any object. A common problem with air-powered soft fingers is that they tend to bulge in the middle when inflated, reducing this surface contact.

Glick found a study from the 1970s that provided the equations needed to solve the problem in the design process. This allowed researchers to make the gripper apply the correct forces along the entire length of the fingers.

Secondly, the researchers focused on distributing forces on surfaces that aren't flat to optimize the performance of gecko-inspired adhesives. The researchers found a way to distribute force along a soft, flexible gripper, while maintaining the manufacturing precision required for the adhesives.

The team did this by using a high-strength fabric embedded in the finger that can easily bend but resists stretching to support larger loads. The fingers are rigidly clamped to a base, which keeps the easily stretchable silicone from deforming beyond what is needed. This combination of soft and stiff materials lets the gripper conform to many objects while withstanding large forces.

The gecko adhesives themselves are made in a three-step process. An original master gecko adhesive mold with millions of microscopic structures is made in a clean room using a photolithography process. Then, wax copies of the master mold can be made at low cost. The researchers then can make as many copies of the adhesive sheets from the wax mold as they often as want by using a process called spin coating. This allows them to make 10 to 20 adhesive sheets in under an hour. Meanwhile, the soft robotic gripper itself is cast in 3D print molds and is made of silicone-based rubber.

Next steps in the research include developing algorithms for grasping that take advantage of the adhesives, and investigating the use of this gripper for zero-gravity and space operations.

Video: http://bit.ly/geckogrippervideo
The money is overseen by the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, a low-profile government agency that was established in 2008 when former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law supported by environmental groups and many Bay Area business leaders.

The $500 million  raised from a $12 per home annual parcel tax over 20 years, is considered a down payment on the estimated $1.5 billion cost to restore  where possible  most of the remaining shoreline areas around the bay back to natural conditions, from hay fields in the North Bay to former salt ponds around Silicon Valley.

From the Gold Rush until the 1970s, San Francisco Bay shrunk by about one-third, due to diking, dredging and filling to build highways, airports, farms and neighborhoods. Although modern environmental laws stopped that practice, scientists, government leaders and local officials have been on a slow campaign to enlarge the bay and bring back fish, wildlife and public access over the past two decades  a mission that also includes restoring wetlands to help protect Bay Area communities from sea level rise as the climate continues to warm.

The restoration authoritys board, which is made up seven local political leaders and chaired by San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine, will meet at 11 am Wednesday at the Santa Rosa City Council chambers to vote on the projects.
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Milk Chocolate

It's impossible to speak of milk chocolate in broad strokesits quality and character span a maddeningly vast spectrum. For many folks, traumatic experiences with poor-quality milk chocolate have been enough to convince them to go dark or bust. But there's so much more to discover in the realm of milk chocolate; when done well, the addition of dairy fat brings out a whole new range of flavor. It's an expression of cocoa that's mellow, soft, and nutty, able to furnish desserts with a sweet richness and creamy consistency distinct from dark chocolate. Those characteristics make milk chocolate ideal for recipes that are otherwise low on sugar and fat (think chocolate-covered pretzels or whipped ganache), as well as those with a strong salty or bitter element, such as peanut butter, burnt sugar, or coffee.

As much as I love splurging on high-end milk chocolate couverture from brands like Valrhona, I'm hard-pressed to justify spending that kind of money unless it's for tempering. For a low-key batch of chocolate chip cookies, in a pinch, I'm willing to turn to the offerings of well-stocked supermarkets and specialty stores. With a little forethought, though, I'm happier to wait on a shipment of milk chocolate that I've purchased online, where bulk buying power helps drive the cost down. These eight milk chocolates are available nationwide and/or online, and are my favorites for baking at homethough they're but a small sampling of what's available in any given market.

Divine

At 26%, Divine Milk Chocolate is the sweetest option on my list, but not obnoxiously soa great choice for folks who have fond recollections of hanging off a shopping cart in the checkout aisle, begging for a chocolate bar.

Thanks to the addition of powdered cream along with milk, this chocolate has a dairy-forward flavor and a richness reminiscent of a truffle. I can always count on my local Kroger to keep it in stock, but I've seen it in wine shops and fancier groceries as well. Use it for a burst of sweetness in low- to no-sugar recipes, like cream scones and ganache, or just smear some inside a fresh baguette along with a sprinkling of sea salt for a midnight snack.

Divine Chocolate Milk Chocolate Bars (Pack of 10) Buy on Amazon

Callebaut

In culinary school, Callebaut's 33.6% was my gateway to milk chocolate, which I had once scoffed at with all the sanctimony of a newly minted food snob. ("Milk chocolate? Oh. My word, haven't touched the stuff since I was five!") Mercifully, I got over myself and learned to appreciate what different types of chocolate have to offer in flavor, melting point, and richness, and the versatility of this milk chocolate is a great jumping-off point if you're still warming up to the idea. It's easy to find in large, shrink-wrapped chunks at supermarkets like Whole Foods and The Fresh Market, and it can also be ordered as callets (drops) in bulk online; the latter is simply a convenient, no-chop incarnation that's formulated the exact same way.

Callebaut is easy to temper (a skill you can master with Kenji's excellent guide), so it's a tasty yet affordable option for any of the classic candy bars in my cookbook, such as homemade Reese's Cups and Crunch bars. But its sweet, nutty notes are just as welcome in bold and bitter desserts, like these double-chocolate cookies.

Callebaut Milk Chocolate Callets Buy on Amazon

Lake Champlain

I can reliably find Lake Champlain's 38% milk chocolate in the candy aisle of my local supermarket, but it turns up in all types of specialty stores as well. Though it's not terribly distinctive, it's that middle-of-the-road quality that makes it an easy choice for desserts ranging from hazelnut cookies to all types of sauces and ganache.

Lake Champlain 38% Milk Chocolate Bars (12 Pack) Buy on Amazon

Jelina

I first picked up this fair-trade milk chocolate at an organic supermarket in Brooklyn, so it wasn't until I spotted it at a wine shop in Kentucky that I realized it wasn't a local specialty. At 36% cocoa solids, Jelina's Au Lait milk chocolate has a rich mouthfeel and balanced sweetness, with a profile that's a little brighter than the mellow earthiness that characterizes most milk chocolates. I dig it in fruitier applications, like chocolate cherry muffins or orange chocolate cookies, but its creaminess is well suited to leaner scenarios, such as homemade digestive biscuits or chocolate-covered pretzels.

Jelina's Milk Chocolate Bar (8-Pack) Buy on Amazon

Whole Foods

There was a time when a supermarket's house brand was the least likely source for good chocolate, but Whole Foods' 39% milk chocolate isn't joking around. It's earthy, rich, and darker than I expected given the percentage, a profile that works nicely to balance its sweetness. Give it a shot alongside something a little darkersay, as part of a blend for chopped chocolate chip cookiesor sandwich it between some graham crackers to tame the sweetness of toasted marshmallows in your next batch of s'mores. For folks who don't live near a Whole Foods (e.g., me), it's available online as well.

Theo

Theo's a Seattle-based, fair-trade, bean-to-bar chocolate company that sources most of its cocoa (and vanilla, too) from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Befitting that heritage, its 45% milk chocolate bar has a strong cocoa profile that veers toward the darker side of milk chocolate with its nutty toffee notes. For those whose primary objection to milk chocolate is textural, this option has a cleaner mouthfeel than more dairy-forward brands; it's still creamy, to be sure, but not as tongue-coating as milk chocolate can often be. Try it as part of a blend for chocolate chip skillet cookies, as a chunky mix-in for banana bread, or in any recipe that would benefit from a hit of chocolate flavor without the bracing bitterness of dark.

Theo 45% Milk Chocolate Bars (12-Pack) Buy on Amazon

Endangered Species

Endangered Species is a fair-trade chocolate company that sources its beans from West Africa, and each of its chocolate bars comes with its own animal mascotnone more worthy of attention than the humble sea otter. This 48% milk chocolate is among the darkest around, and strong enough to make milk chocolate skeptics rethink their stance.

While it's darker than any other milk chocolate on this list, its overall flavor profile is somehow more traditional, what I imagine other milk chocolates strive to bebuttery, rich, and nutty, with a backbone of pure cocoa. It's sweet enough to take the place of dried fruit in oatmeal cookies, but bold enough to stand on its own in truffles or a whipped-ganache frosting. Look for it in the snack or candy aisle of supermarkets like Kroger and Whole Foods, as well as slightly fancier groceries and specialty shops.

Endangered Species 48% Milk Chocolate Bars (Pack of 12) Buy on Amazon

Remember that the milk chocolate selection can vary from store to store and even state to state, so be on the lookout for unique offerings at your local supermarket. For baking, aim for milk chocolates that list a cacao content of at least 20%; if you can't spot that information on the packaging, it's a solid indication of a brand scooting by with the FDA minimum of 10%, making it too sweet and mild to lend much chocolate flavor to baked goods. Also, steer clear of any brand that lists palm oil or added fats other than cocoa butter on its label, as these will affect its behavior in recipes designed around pure milk chocolate.

As you explore, keep in mind that few milk chocolates can be a one-size-fits-all ingredient for every recipea bar that's too sweet to enjoy on its own may be perfect for an unsweetened ganache frosting or a bitter chocolate cookie, while one that's too lean for tempering may be spot-on in a richer cookie. As you taste your way through new varieties, try to imagine how the specific qualities of a given brand can be used as a counterpoint in desserts that are salty, bitter, bold, or otherwise in need of the creamy sweetness of milk chocolate.
San Francisco, whose sidewalks and streets have seen just about everything, were invaded by something new at the tail end of March  hundreds of motorized stand-up scooters meant to be shared for short rides.

The scooters, capable of speeds up to 15 mph, appeared suddenly, and since their arrival, theyve drawn praise from early users and a flood of complaints from people who dont like one of the slender two-wheelers biggest features: They can be parked anywhere.

And they are.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said his office has received numerous complaints, particularly about sidewalks becoming dumping grounds for commercial scooters. His office, he said, is examining all of our legal options to protect the more than 1 million people who use San Franciscos sidewalks every day.

Detractors complain that riders are leaving the scooters  sometimes piling them  in the middle of sidewalks and bike lanes, and blocking building entrances with them. Pedestrians say theyve tripped over them, and people with disabilities say theyre unwelcome and difficult obstacles to navigate around.

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Some users exacerbate the problem by illegally riding the scooters on sidewalks, buzzing pedestrians as they weave in and out of crowds.

The scooters, deposited on the sidewalks by three transportation startup companies, have quickly become common sights downtown, South of Market and in the Financial District.

Kids, parents with strollers, seniors or people in wheelchairs shouldnt be tripping over scooters or forced into traffic to get around them, Herrera said. San Franciscans safety and public resources are not commodities for these companies to monetize. San Francisco has had enough of the mantra move fast and break things.

Some cities, including Austin, Texas, and Santa Monica, have adopted ordinances or policies that allow scooters left on sidewalks to be impounded. And San Franciscos Municipal Transportation Agency also wants to regulate scooters, beginning with requiring the companies that own them to seek operating permits and agree to comply with regulations yet to be established.

The MTA is working with Supervisor Aaron Peskin on legislation.

Peskin said he gets daily complaints from constituents, often including pictures of people riding scooters on sidewalks or of scooters parked where they block people walking or using wheelchairs on city sidewalks.

They decided to dump these things on the streets and not ask for permission first, he said.

The shared electric scooters arrived in San Francisco en masse during last few days of March, following previews at the citys St. Patricks Day and Sunday Streets events a couple of weeks earlier.

Three companies  LimeBike, based in San Mateo; Bird Rides, headquartered in Venice (Los Angeles County); and Spin, located in San Francisco  own the scooters and lease them to people who unlock them with a mobile phone app. For now, all three charge the same rates: a flat $1 fee to unlock the scooter plus 15 cents per minute of use.

The companies scatter the fully charged scooters around the city at locations where they believe theyll be used. The scooters are popular with people trying to get from BART to work, heading to a meeting a few blocks away, or visiting the city and observing the sights.

Juliana Greene, 28, an education administrator, has become a regular user, even renting a scooter near AT&T Park on Sunday to get back to BART after a Giants game.

It was better than waiting for Muni, she said Monday, as she unlocked a scooter near Fifth and Mission streets to get to a South of Market destination several blocks away.

For now, the MTA cant do anything about the scooters, agency spokesman Paul Rose said, because theyre not mentioned in any city or agency ordinances. Peskin introduced a bill on March 6 giving the agency that power. The soonest the MTA is likely to be able to adopt regulations is the end of this month, Peskin said.

The MTA sent all three companies letters on March 29 notifying them that permit requirements are imminent and encouraging their cooperation in keeping sidewalks and streets passable in the meantime.

State law does impose some rules on electric scooters that the police can enforce. Theyre banned from sidewalks, they can be used only by licensed drivers older than 18, and riders must wear helmets. The scooters cant be parked where theyre an obstruction, according to the law. But the city wants tighter regulation.

The scooters are widely viewed as a problem. Representatives for all three companies, however, say theyre following the laws, and that they have processes that require users to acknowledge that theyll abide by the rules before they rent the scooters.

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Michael Macor / The Chronicle

All three also acknowledge the parking issue, and have told the MTA theyll work to resolve it. Bird, which ran into trouble in Santa Monica, settling three complaints for breaking city ordinances for more than $300,000 in February, created a Save Our Sidewalks pledge about the same time its bikes appeared in San Francisco.

The program vows to pick up scooters nightly, reposition them to areas where theyre most likely to be used, and remove any that arent used at least three times a day in an effort to limit the number of scooters. The pledge, which Bird has invited other operators to sign on to, also promises to pay $1 per scooter per day to the city. So far, no one else has agreed, said David Estrada, Birds chief legal officer and head of government regulation.

Estrada, who formerly held the same post for Lyft, said Bird is committed to working with the MTA and suggested that the scooters could be accommodated by taking a parking place on each block, applying diagonal stripes and reserving it for scooter parking only.

Joe Arellano, a spokesman for Lime, said his company is working to set up hubs at businesses where riders could park scooters. He also suggested that the city could mark spots on sidewalks to advise renters where to park.

People who rely on the city sidewalks say something needs to be done. Allen Johnson, 61, relies on crutches to get around. He hasnt had a run-in with a scooter yet, but he says theyre additional obstacles, and challenges, for people with disabilities.

Just putting these things everywhere and anywhere doesnt make sense, he said. As a person who has a mobility problem, I have an issue with that.

So does Cathy DeLuca, policy and program director for Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group. The group successfully battled to keep delivery robots off of sidewalks and has turned its attention to motorized scooters.

We dont want people using motorized devices, she said, on the one safe place to walk.
For months, the candidates hoping to become San Franciscos next mayor have relied more on their personal backstories than their policy positions to separate themselves from one another.

But on Monday evening, at a mayoral forum sponsored by The Chronicle and the City Club of San Francisco, three of the leading contenders for the citys top job  Supervisor London Breed, Supervisor Jane Kim and former Supervisor Angela Alioto  sought to put some daylight between themselves and their rivals.

Former state Sen. Mark Leno missed Mondays debate following the death of his father on Friday. Leno was with family in Milwaukee on Monday, but was expected to return to San Francisco and the campaign trail on Tuesday.

In the event at the City Club in the Financial District, Kim responded first to a question posed to each candidate by Chronicle editorial page editor John Diaz about which policy position the candidates disagreed on the most.

After a moments pause, Kim centered on a claim that Alioto has made frequently: that the citys homeless shelters and Navigation Centers are dead-end options that ought to be abolished in favor of steering people toward long-term housing.

We have to invest in shelters because we have to get people off our streets immediately, Kim said. Longer-term options, like permanent supportive housing, were also essential elements of tackling the citys homelessness crisis, she said, but it takes time to find or build those units.

We wont get people off the street quickly if we dont invest in shelter beds, Kim said.

In a somewhat ranging and puzzling response, Alioto said she was the sole candidate in the mayors race to openly embrace the citys police force, and called that a key policy difference between her and the other two.

Im blown away by the total lack of respect for police officers, Alioto said, adding that she was very proud to accept the endorsement of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, the police departments union, last week.

Now Playing: The Chronicle and the City Club of San Francisco are hosting a debate with three leading contenders for Mayor of San Francisco: Angela Alioto, London Breed and Jane Kim. Mark Leno, out of state for his father's funeral, was invited but unable to attend. The 90-minute debate will be moderated by Editorial Page Editor John Diaz.

She also claimed to be the only candidate willing to support the San Francisco Police Departments ability to communicate openly with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to thwart terrorists threats.

After citing the experiences living in San Francisco during the Zodiac murders of the late 1960s and other violent crime sprees, she said the SFPD needed all the resources it required to catch the bad guys before we get blown up.

Breed corrected Alioto, saying that she was a big supporter of our officers, and that, as mayor, she wanted to put another 200 police officers on the streets.

Breed said she had no qualms about police cooperation with Homeland Security for addressing terrorist attacks, but reiterated her support of San Franciscos sanctuary city laws.

I dont think they should be cooperating with ICE for the purpose of deporting people, Breed said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

None of the leading candidates support the SFPD working with ICE on deportation efforts.

After that detour, the topic of SFPD gave rise to what Breed said was one of the biggest differences between herself and Kim, because she (Kim) believes that police officers dont prevent crime, and I do, Breed said, citing her work to build trust between police officers and the Western Addition neighborhood where she grew up.

We had funerals on a regular basis, and I wanted to make sure that my community was protected, Breed said. Thats why I got involved in politics in the first place.

Kim was quoted as saying that police officers do not prevent crime during a contentious debate at the Board of Supervisors in 2015 over an ordinance to establish a policy at the Police Department that tied staffing levels to population levels.

But Kim said her remark was taken out of context.

I dont want to be misquoted, she said, explaining that while police absolutely address crime, she does not belive that adding to the Police Departments ranks alone will cut down on criminality. Education and jobs prevent crime, she said.

Instead, she suggested a more holistic approach to improving communities and cutting down on crime, like investing in after-school programs and public schools.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Kim said she also supported the SFPDs communication with Homeland Security officials, but recounted fielding troubling complaints from residents in her district that police had been surveilling mosques without any probably cause and sharing that information with the FBI.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Surveillance based on religion and ethnicity without any probable cause is unacceptable, Kim said.

The candidates also quarreled over a state bill thats become a third rail in San Francisco politics lately: SB827, the very mention of which drew scattered hisses from the audience.

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, broadly seeks to grow urban housing supplies by increasing density and building height limits along transit corridors.

While all three candidates Monday night agreed that San Francisco was in desperate need of new housing, they sparred over whether SB827 was the right remedy for the citys housing shortage.

Breed, who was endorsed by Wiener last week, said she supports the bill. But, she added, shes been in communication with Wieners office, urging the senator to amend the legislation to, among other things, provide greater protections against potential displacement when developers descend on a plot of land.

I understand that its not perfect legislation, Breed said. I understand that it is pretty extreme and, in some instances, it goes too far. What it is trying to accomplish is to push the region to build more housing and to build more housing faster  hence her support of the measure, she said.

Kim, a reliable political rival of Wiener, doesnt support the bill, saying it would be a bonanza for developers  giving them far more opportunities to build in the city. She said it doesnt go far enough to extract concessions from them in return, like affordable housing requirements or increased fees.

Youre enriching the pockets of developers who are already doing extremely well in San Francisco, without asking them to do anything in return for San Francisco, Kim said.

Alioto, in her customarily fiery rhetoric, said that if that bill gets anywhere close to passing, it will destroy who we are as a city. Alioto condemned the bill for giving away too much local control over zoning decisions to the state.

You do not give away your zoning powers to the state of California, she said, a line that drew perhaps the loudest applause of the night. We will lose the soul of San Francisco completely.
San Francisco has always been a big union town, so news of a shake-up at the top of the citys labor organizations is worth noting.

Mike Theriault, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, had announced his retirement  and his successor and that successors successor have now been chosen.

Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, which represents 140 unions in the city, will take over Theriaults position. Paulson, a former tile setter, will work with Theriault, an ironworker by trade, until the latter retires in July.

Paulson is also on the executive committee of the State Federation of Labor and chairman of the Labor Caucus of the California Democratic Party.

Larry Mazzola Jr., president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, said hes thrilled that Paulson is coming on board.

Tims history of legislative and electoral success and his state-level profile will bring our issues to a new level, Mazzola said.

Taking over for Paulson at the Labor Council is Rudy Gonzalez, vice president of the Teamsters Local 856. He was unanimously selected by his colleagues on the labor councils executive board.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin presided over a lunch recognizing Paulson and Gonzalez at Original Joes on Friday.

Theres been jockeying as to who goes where, and it all got worked out internally among them, Peskin said, adding he has respect for all the men involved. I think its fine news.

Heather Knight

More power: The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has signed up another major customer for its electricity service that is free of greenhouse gases.

Digital Realty, a real estate company that acquires and manages energy-intensive data centers, has agreed to connect its 365 Main St. location on Rincon Hill to the SFPUCs Hetch Hetchy Power program.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

By making the switch to Hetch Hetchy Power, which generates electricity from hydrolectric, solar and bio-gas sources, Digital Realty will eliminate about 24 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to the SFPUC. Thats the rough equivalent of 1,600 households.

More than 100 Digital Realty customers house their data centers at the companys 365 Main Street location, its largest in San Francisco at nearly 227,000 square feet. The company has two other data centers, at 360 Spear St. and at 200 Paul Ave.

This project builds on our steadfast commitment to lower our overall carbon footprint, transitioning this data center to a regionally sourced, zero greenhouse-gas emission power supply, said Aaron Binkley, Digital Realtys director of sustainability programs, in a statement.

The Hetch Hetchy Power system serves about 17 percent of San Franciscos electricity demand and is used as the primary energy source for municipal facilities and Muni.

 Dominic Fracassa
As anyone who has gone through firearms training, such as that required for a concealed weapons permit, can attest, deadly force is justified only when there is an immediate threat to oneself or another and when the target and the threat can be accurately identified. Moreover, one is supposed to use the minimum force necessary to counter the threat.

In this case, however, it was very dark and Clark was a shadowy figure some yards away. The fact that one of the officers mistook a cellphone for a gun proves just how indistinct Clark was. Nevertheless, they unleashed a barrage of bullets in his general direction.

Only eight of the 20 shots hit Clark, meaning the other 12 went somewhere else in a crowded residential neighborhood, putting other lives in danger.

The autopsy indicated that Clark was facing the house, not the officers, when he was shot and that the two shots in his side spun him around so the other six hit him in the back.

Were a civilian to have fired at and killed a shadowy figure in a backyard under similar circumstances, he or she would almost certainly be prosecuted. Its highly unlikely, however, that the two Sacramento cops will face criminal charges, because under long-standing law and practice, their belief that they were threatened will probably protect them.
The Bay Area's "atmospheric river" reared its head by the coast Friday night, forcing a major parking lot in Stinson Beach to collapse overnight.

Video footage showed the north parking lot at Stinson Beach engulfed in water from the storm. A waterfall sprouted from where the asphalt caved in. The National Park Service said the beach would remain closed Sunday due to the damage from the storm. One woman called it a mini "Stinson Niagara Falls" in an interview with KPIX.
As the threat looms of a trade war between Washington and Beijing, a new report finds that Chinese investment in the United States plunged by more than a third last year, a result of policy changes in both capitals.

That downward trend, if it continues, could have big implications for California.

No other state has received as much investment from Chinese companies, which since 2000 have sunk an estimated $21 billion into opening Silicon Valley technology labs, buying or funding local companies, and financing real estate development.

Chinese investment in U.S. companies and properties soared in the past decade, from less than $1 billion per year before 2008 to $46 billion in 2016. But according to the new report from the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Rhodium Group, investment tumbled to $29 billion in 2017.

And that number was propped up by deals announced in 2016 but completed last year. Remove those, and the value of new Chinese investments in 2017 dropped 90 percent, according to the report  and fewer new deals were announced in 2017 than in 2016.

The trend means that American companies may not be able to attract as much investment as they otherwise could, potentially limiting their growth.

The authors lay the blame squarely on decisions made by government officials in both countries  not market changes.

In China, government authorities sought to rein in irrational international investments by companies overextending themselves and posing a risk to the countrys financial system.

Meanwhile, in Washington, proposed deals came under much more aggressive scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign purchases of U.S. companies for potential threats to national security.

Starting under President Barack Obama and accelerating under President Trump, some federal officials have charged that the Chinese government has encouraged Chinese companies to buy or invest in American businesses as a way to obtain trade secrets and dominate key industries, particularly in technology. According to the report, an unprecedented number of Chinese-American deals were delayed or blocked by CFIUS in 2017.

As a result, some in Washington will likely welcome the drop in Chinese investment, said Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He does not share their view.

There are folks in the security community who think its a wonderful thing, Orlins said. There are folks in China who believe the state should interfere in investments, and they think its a wonderful thing. I think the majority of the American people and the majority of the Chinese people would say its not a good thing.

Both governments are now threatening punitive tariffs on each others goods, from dishwashers to soybeans. And yet the worlds two largest economies remain tightly linked.

A companion report also issued by Orlins committee and the Rhodium Group shows that Chinese investment in American companies has spread across the country. Companies with at least 50 percent Chinese ownership now employ about 139,600 people in full-time positions across the United States, with the number growing by 7,400 employees last year.

California has been the biggest recipient, followed by New York and Massachusetts. The Golden State has an estimated 530 Chinese-owned businesses, with 16,000 jobs, compared with roughly 200 businesses in New York employing 6,440 people.

Within California, most of the money has flowed to the Bay Area and the Los Angeles region. Chinese businesses such as Internet search giant Baidu and telecom equipment-maker Huawei have opened labs in Silicon Valley to tap the regions engineering talent. Chinese investors have also bought some firms outright, such as digital imaging company OmniVision, and purchased minority stakes in others, such as social networking business Snap.

Not all of the investments have panned out. As the report notes, LeEco  once described as the Netflix of China  had to sell its U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara last year, as the company scaled back after years of rapid international expansion.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

The Bay Area has also actively courted Chinese investment. San Francisco has a public-private partnership organization, ChinaSF, that tries to facilitate Chinese investments in the city and the region, while also helping Bay Area companies expand to China.

Other cities have come to us and said, Hey, whats your secret sauce? said Darlene Chiu Bryant, the groups executive director. She is not particularly worried about last years drop in investment, saying, Its a time when the market levels off a bit, so Im not surprised.

Chinese investment in the Bay Areas tech industry troubles critics who see in it a danger to Americas economic future. It is, they say, another way to gain access to intellectual property that China can use to seize the lead in such fields as renewable energy and electric or autonomous cars  property that the U.S. government has at times accused China of stealing outright.

China has engaged in a wide-ranging, well-funded effort to direct and support the systematic investment in, and acquisition of, U.S. companies and assets to obtain cutting-edge technology, in service of Chinas industrial policy, read a report issued in March by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, arguing for tougher trade policies toward the country.

Chinas acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable because they are directed and supported by the government, and unfairly target critical U.S. technology with the goal of achieving dominance in strategic sectors, the report read.

Bryant considers that fear overblown.

At the end of the day, every tech company I know of wants to become a global company, she said. This is a global economy. Your technology is going to leave this country one way or another, its just a question of whether youre going to be part of that transfer.
WASHINGTON  Just hours before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was set to testify on Capitol Hill, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that the technology industry is long overdue for an examination of its privacy and transparency practices.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa released an op-ed in Fortune magazine saying transparency has been woefully absent in the tech industrys use of the personal data it collects from billions of users.

Thats why its necessary to hear directly from Zuckerberg on what he sees as Facebooks most pressing problems and what his company is doing to fix them, Grassley said.

Zuckerberg will be testifying Tuesday before a joint hearing of Grassleys committee and the Senate Commerce Committee.

Grassley stopped short of calling for regulation of social media companies. But he demanded at the very least that the companies that control personal data  which he called the most valuable form of currency  be more transparent in how they use the data they collect. He included technology behemoths Google, Twitter, Apple and Amazon as companies that have endless opportunities to collect increasing amounts of information on their customers.

He dismissed the pages of fine print in esoteric terms and conditions agreements as satisfying the need for transparency.

If these companies can find a way to notify a distant relative about what Im eating for dinner, they can certainly find a way to notify users about our our data is used, Grassley said.

The Judiciary and Commerce committees hold oversight powers over the tech industry, which has enjoyed a relatively hands-off approach from Congress. Both parties, led by the powerful California delegation, have generally been reluctant to place any hurdles in front of its growth. The industry is also a deep well of campaign contributions.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

But evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has taken the glow off Silicon Valleys status in Washington. Grassleys comments carry special weight, as Republicans typically seek to deregulate rather than regulate industries.

Although Grassley encouraged voluntary actions, he warned that the tech industry has a duty to respond to widespread and and growing privacy concerns and restore the public trust. The status quo no longer works.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions Tuesday in a hearing with U.S. senators concerned about data from millions of users that may have found its way to political firm Cambridge Analytica.

The joint hearing, hosted by the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees, lasted five hours. Here are all the highlights.

4:18 p.m.: The hearing is almost wrapped up. Sen. Thune asks a final question about bias on Facebook.

"Overall, I want to make sure that we provide people with the most voice possible," Zuckerberg says. "I don't want anyone in our company to make decisions on the political ideology of the content."

"Overall a very informative hearing," Sen. Thune says.

Sen. Grassley says a CEO of a rival tech company he would not identify said he viewed himself as "more left than right" politically in a conversation Monday. "When there are suspicions that you're playing it one way or another ... bending over backward to protect political speech right or left, I'm not telling you how to do it, and I'm not telling you you don't do it, but we've got to do something to reduce the cynicism," the senator says.

Grassley urges Zuckerberg to do what he can to "reduce cynicism" and "enhance respect for government."

"Sorry you had to listen to me," says Grassley, as he thanks everyone. Additional written questions will be taken for 14 days.

The hearing is adjourned.

4:12 p.m.: Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, asks the "threshold question of what reasonable expectations of privacy users should have."

Young calls attention to the issue of different expectations of privacy on Internet access services and on applications like Facebook. To users, Young points out, it's all the Internet, and they don't really make a distinction.

Zuckerberg says Internet access providers  "the pipes"  should not be able to see any of the data. "When data is going over the Verizon network, I think that should be as encrypted as possible so Verizon is not able to look at it," Zuckerberg says. "For a service like Facebook or Instagram, where people want to share that, people want to access that from lots of different places," so it needs to be stored centrally, Zuckerberg says. That means expectations of what Facebook would "have knowledge of" will be different, he says.

Zuckerberg and Young conclude by agreeing to work on privacy issues.

4:06 p.m.: Sen. JonTester, D-Montana, thanks Zuckerberg for putting up with the "mental gymnastics" of the long hearing.

He asks: Besides taking reactive steps, what are you doing to make sure Cambridge Analytica ever happens again?

Zuckerberg says Facebook is restricting the amount of access to information developers have. He said in 2014, Facebook changed its rules that would have prevented the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Tester asks if Zuckerberg feels that its actions in 2014 will adequately protect Facebook users. Zuckerberg says yes.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is waiting on the audit and a U.K. investigation into Cambridge Analytica. Tester asks if the information is stored in another country besides the U.K. would Facebook be able to audit that? Zuckerberg says if he feels like the audit isn't enough, Facebook could take legal action.

4:00 p.m.: Senator Cory Gardner, R-Colo., asks if, when a user deletes his or her Facebook account, whether all the backups of the data get wiped.

"That is certainly been the way it is supposed to work," Zuckerberg said.

The senator asks if there been any instances of privacy violations on the scale of Cambridge Analytica that has occurred in the past. Zuckerberg says not that he has been aware of.

Gardner asks if there has been a breach of data, Zuckerberg says no. Gardner asks if there have been a hack, Zuckerberg says someone was able to install malware that was installed on employee devices but that it did not affect Facebook data.

3:55 p.m.: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, seems very fluent in Facebook's sharing tools, referring to things like "limited profile," a feature which restricts what content some users' friends can see.

She talks about the FTC consent decree and the commission's concerns about Facebook's sharing of data with third parties.

Zuckerberg says that Facebook established a robust privacy policy in response.

Cortez Masto says that it had to be something more specific than a privacy policy.

"Had you addressed those issues then, had you done an audit ... you would have known that this type of data information is being shared," says Cortez Masto. "That's our concern. It's time to make a change."

3:50 p.m.: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R. W. Va., asks Zuckerberg to bring high-speed fiber-optic Internet the next time he visits the state. She also asks for help dealing with the opioid crisis by enforcing policies against ads for illegal drugs.

Zuckerberg says he does have a team working on spreading Internet connectivity in rural areas and that his team will  you guessed it!  follow up.

3:44 p.m. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, seems to have read Facebook's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Risks disclosed in those statements include a decrease in user engagement, which concerns her because she feels too much time spent on social media could affect users' mental health.

Another risk is users opting out of certain types of ad targeting, she said.

"There is clearly tension between your bottom line and what's best for your users," Hassan said.

Zuckerberg says that the Cambridge Analytica scandal "has made it harder to achieve our social mission."

3:35 p.m.: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., asks how many users actually read Facebook's terms of service. Zuckerberg can't or won't give a number, but Johnson says "common sense" says most don't.

Johnson asks if users should be able to make money from their own postings and user data. Zuckerberg says, again, that he believes a free service is the right way to go. "The ads experience is going to be the right one," he says. "This aligns with our mission the best."

3:30 p.m.: Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., mostly retreads old ground, but there's one interesting bit: Zuckerberg reveals that Facebook believes Aleksandr Kogan sold data from his quiz app to companies besides Cambridge Analytica.

3:25 p.m.: Sen. Joe Kennedy, R-La., starts off with a greeting: "Mr. Zuckerberg, I come in peace." And then he lays in: "Your user agreement sucks." He tells the Facebook CEO to go back to his "$1,200-an-hour lawyers" and rewrite it in "English, not Swahili." His tone is like a teacher telling a student to go back and rewrite an essay assignment.

Kennedy says that he is disappointed with today's hearing. "I don't feel like we're connecting," he says. The senator says he doesn't want to vote to regulate Facebook, but he may have to.

"The promised digital utopia we have discovered, has a mine field," he says. "There are some impurities in the Facebook punchbowl and they got to be fixed and I think you can fix them."

Kennedy asks if he should be able to control and delete his Facebook. Zuckerberg says Kennedy already can do that. Kennedy asks if he can take his data elsewhere. Zuckerberg responds that he can already do that.

Kennedy asks Zuckerberg if someone can call him up and ask if they could see Joe Kennedy's file. Zuckerberg says he does not believe Facebook has the right to do that. It may have the ability to do that but he would consider that a breach.

3:20 p.m.: Sen. Kamala Harris, the junior Democratic senator from Facebook's home state of California, starts her questions.

"You've been asked several critical questions for which you don't have answers," Harris asks, rattling off issues like whether Facebook retains data, who Facebook's biggest competition is, and why Facebook didn't notify users about Cambridge Analytica's misuse.

"Were you part of a discussion, a decision not to notify users?" Harris asks?

"I don't remember a conversation like that," Zuckerberg says. "I can tell you the thought process of the company at the time. We banned the developer and demanded they delete all the data."

"In retrospect, we view that as a mistake that we didn't inform people and we did that because we thought the case was closed," Zuckerberg adds.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "Harris is trying to pin down Zuckerberg on whether there were individuals responsible for the decision not to notify users. He's not going to play that game."

3:15 p.m.: We're back from a break.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asks about whether the 2012 Obama campaign committed similar abuses by "sucking out the social graph" through an app. Amidst an amusing aside about avoiding "haters" on his Facebook page, Tillis says "bad actors across the political spectrum" need to be examined.

Tillis says he is a proud member of Facebook and says he got notified today is National Sibling Day. Zuckerberg smiles.

"If you don't want to share it, don't share it," Tillis says.

Tillis didn't actually ask Zuckerberg any questions. Instead, he's using his time to lecture the audience about how Facebook is a "free app" and people should use its privacy settings.

Zuckerberg is listening, his eyes blinking rapidly.

2:55 p.m.: Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., starts with remarks about Facebook's algorithmic News Feed and observes that people don't understand why they're being shown particular items.

Peters asks about rumors that Facebook targets ads by snooping on people's conversations with microphones in smartphones.

Zuckerberg says, "You're referring to the conspiracy theory that we listen to what's going on around your microphone and use that for ads. No."

Peters and Zuckerberg discuss artificial intelligence. "It's hard to understand how those decisions are arrived at," Peters observes. "Is your company developing a set of principles to guide that development?"

In an answer that is becoming a cliche of this hearing, Zuckerberg promises to have his team follow up on that.

2:50 p.m.: Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, says his daughter and six of his staff members received the notification that their data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Heller asks how many Nevadans were affected. Zuckerberg says his team will follow up.

Heller asks if Zuckerberg would ever draw the line in terms of selling data to an advertiser.

Zuckerberg says Facebook does not sell data, and that this is something that is "widely mischaracterized" about the service.

Heller asks if Facebook lets advertisers target ads to the contents of a phone call. Zuckerberg says Facebook does not monitor or store the contents of a call.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas writes: "Most senators have avoided major technical gaffes. Sen. Heller has probably done the worst in terms of demonstrating familiarity with how Facebook works."

Heller asks if Zuckerberg thinks he is a victim or if Facebook is a victim. Zuckerberg says no.

The senator asks if Zuckerberg considers the people who had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica are victims. Zuckerberg says yes.

"Even though we didn't do it, we have a responsibility to prevent that," Zuckerberg said.

2:45 p.m.: Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, asks if "self-certification" is the best way to prevent entities like Cambridge Analytica from misusing data.

"It's hard to review every single thing up front," says Zuckerberg. "In this specific case, I'm not happy with where we are."

Booker asks about law-enforcement organizations that use Facebook to "surveil" African American activist groups like Black Lives Matter. "Is this something you're committed to addressing?"

"Unless a law enforcement organization has a subpoena, we're going to push back against that across the board," Zuckerberg says.

2:40 p.m.: More discussion of the quiz that led to the Cambridge Analytica leak. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, asks if Zuckerberg is suggesting that the friends of the users who took Kogan's quiz consented to have their data shared.

Zuckerberg says he thinks that they did.

2:30 p.m.: Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) asks if Zuckerberg is going to come back to Washington and be an advocate to get the Honest Ads Act passed.

Zuckerberg says that he's speaking out publicly on the issue. "I don't come out to Washington, D.C. that often," Zuckerberg says.

2:25 p.m.: Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, points out that Zuckerberg started Facebook in a dorm room: "Only in America, right? ... You couldn't do this in China, what you did in 10 years?"

Zuckerberg hesitates. "Well, there are some very strong Chinese Internet companies."

"You're supposed to answer yes," Sullivan says, as the room breaks out in laughter.

Sullivan asks whether regulation could hinder smaller competitors. Zuckerberg more or less concedes the point.

"Part of the challenge with regulation in general is that when you add more rules that companies need to follow that is something that a company like ours have the resources to do, which may be harder for a company just getting started to comply with," Zuckerberg says.

Sullivan then asks a question Facebook gets asked a lot: Is it a tech company, or a publisher?

Zuckerberg says Facebook is a tech company.

"When people ask us if we are a media company or a publisher, the question they're getting at is whether we feel responsible for the content shared" on Facebook, Zuckerberg says.

2:20 p.m.: Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asks if Facebook would cooperate with ICE, if ICE told Facebook someone was going to commit a crime. In general, Zuckerberg says it would not cooperate. Facebook can cooperate with law enforcement if presented with a subpoena but if the subpoena is too broad Facebook will push back, Zuckerberg says.

2:15 p.m.: Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., asks about moderation and whether Facebook can hire enough people.

Zuckerberg says the senator is "right" that AI tools will be the way to address harmful content in the long term, but in the short tem, it is doubling the number of people reviewing content.

Flake asks if the Chinese government has harvested Facebook data.

Zuckerberg says it has an internal investigation and is committed to telling users affected when Facebook knows.

2:10 p.m.: Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asks whether "opt in" should be the standard and whether Zuckerberg will support a law that permission must be obtained before information is shared.

Zuckerberg says he would support that in principle, but the "details matter" and that his team would work with the senator.

Markey asks about a "bill of rights" for children's privacy. Zuckerberg says he looks forward to having his team flesh out the details. Markey is cut off as he runs over his time.

2:07 p.m.: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., says he thinks violence has no place on Facebook but adults need to engage in vigorous debates.

The senator asks Zuckerberg whether he, as a dad, worries about social media addiction among American teens. He asks about whether Facebook hires consultants to create "dopamine feedback loops." Zuckerberg says it does not.

1:58 p.m.: Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., asks if Facebook would let advertisers of diet products target teenagers struggling with their weight, and mentions the problems with discriminatory targeting of renters in housing ads.

"Policies aren't worth the paper they are written on, if Facebook doesn't enforce them," Coons says.

Coons also asks about a fake account created in his name "with a lot of Russian friends."

Zuckerberg is taking a sip of water.

"Isn't it Facebook's job to better protect its users and why do you shift the responsibility to users to flag content and take it down?" Coons asks.

Zuckerberg says Facebook started off in his dorm room and just because of the sheer volume of content and the main way is that people report things to us and his team reviews that. He says in the future, the content is going to flag before hand by artificial intelligence tools.

Zuckerberg says in 5-10 years, he thinks there are going to be more artificial intelligence tools.

1:53 p.m.: Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, struggles to articulate her questions in ways Zuckerberg can understand. She seems to be asking about what data Facebook stores.

"Senator, this is how the service works," Zuckerberg says.

"Is Facebook safe?" Fischer asks.

"Senator, I think Facebook is safe. I use it, my family uses it," says Zuckerberg.

1:49 p.m.: Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asks if he is emailing within WhatsApp, does that inform Facebook's advertisers?

Zuckerberg says Facebook systems does not see the content of messages sent through WhatsApp.

Schatz expresses skepticism that users don't really own their data because they don't get a cut of Facebook's revenue. Zuckerberg says users license their data to Facebook.

1:40 p.m.: Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asks if Facebook would "put its thumb on the scale" to influence which viewpoints are seen on Facebook.

Zuckerberg says the company tries to make sure Facebook feels safe, so bullying isn't allowed, for example. "In general, our goal is to have as much expression as possible," he says.

Lee asks if the free market gives social media companies an incentive to safeguard users' data. Zuckerberg agrees.

Zuckerberg says what we saw in the Cambridge Analytica example was that users agreed to share their information with Kogan's quiz, then Kogan chose to sell that data to Cambridge Analytica.

"Once it is out of our system it's hard for us to understand what is happening," Zuckerberg says.

Lee says "the real issue it comes down to me is what you tell users what you are going to do with the data and how you are going to use it."

"What I hope we do with data is not surprising to people," says Zuckerberg.

1:35 p.m.: Hearing is starting again. Zuckerberg says he wants to correct something that Sen. Leahy asked him. Zuckerberg says that Cambridge Analytica did start as an advertiser later in 2015, so Facebook could have banned them then and we made a mistake in not doing so.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, asks Zuckerberg about which entities and which people were banned in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. What if Cambridge Analytica opens up another entity?

Zuckerberg says Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica's parent company and firms associated with them.

Whitehouse asks if Facebook needs to look behind shell corporations "to find out who is behind the content."

Zuckerberg admits that Facebook could not determine that a company incorporated in Delaware was controlled by a Russian entity.

1:21 p.m.: After some jocular push-back from Zuckerberg, who offers to continue, the hearing goes into recess for a break.

1:16 p.m.: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas gets right into it: "Are you a First Amendment actor stating your views, or are you a neutral platform?"

Zuckerberg says some speech isn't allowed, like hate speech and nudity.

Cruz presses the issue: "Are you engaged in political speech?"

Zuckerberg says he's not familiar with the "specific legal language" and will have to get back to Cruz.

Cruz expresses concern about allegations of censorship of conservative views. Among other examples, he cites the blocking of the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Page.

The senator raises concerns about perceptions that Facebook employees are biased againstconservatives. Zuckerberg says he is trying to make sure that Facebook doesn't have bias. Cruz asks whether Zuckerberg knows about the political orientation of the roughly 20,000 people Facebook will soon employ to moderate content. Zuckerberg says he does not.

"Why was Palmer Luckey fired?" Cruz asks, referring to the founder of Oculus VR, who was revealed to support a conservative group that posted anti-Hillary Clinton memes, and left Facebook a few months afterwards.

At first, Zuckerberg says he can't comment on a specific personnel issue, but then says, "I can commit that it was not because of political views." Facebook has not previously acknowledged that Luckey was fired.

1:10 p.m.: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. says that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a "heedless and reckless" violation of Facebook's 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission over user privacy.

Zuckerberg disagrees.

Blumethal says: "I don't see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road ... Unless there are specific rules and requirements enforced by an outside agency, I have no assurance that these outside commitments will produce actions."

The senator says legislation may be necessary to set new "rules of the road."

1:09 p.m.: Sen. Thune suggests a break.

"We can keep going," Zuckerberg says. "Maybe 15 minutes?" Laughter from the room, and Zuckerberg cracks a goofy smile, perhaps the first real moment of levity.

1:04 p.m.: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asks about Facebook's "move fast and break things" mantra. Zuckerberg says the company changed it to "move fast with stable infrastructure," which he admits is "much less sexy."

Zuckerberg says the problem wasn't the company mantra, it was viewing the company's responsibility as "just building tools."

Cornyn asks whether companies that view themselves as "neutral platform" take responsibility for content shared through them.

"We are responsible for the content," says Zuckerberg.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "This is a big admission from Zuckerberg, who like other tech leaders has said users are responsible for content."

12:59 p.m.: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asks Zuckerberg if he would share the name of the hotel he stayed at last night. "I would not," says Zuckerberg. "Would you share the people you messaged with?" Durbin continues. "I would not," says Zuckerberg. Durbin is making a point about people's feeling about privacy.

Durbin asks about the controversy about Facebook's Messenger Kids app, which targets children between 6 and 12.

Zuckerberg says it heard feedback from thousands of parents that they want to stay in touch with their kids and they want to have complete control over that. That information is not going to be shared with third parties, Zuckerberg says.

12:54 p.m.: Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., starts with a folksy introduction about whether "Facebook friends" are really friends, and gives his grandson Charlie, an avid Instagram user, a shout-out.

Then he gets into it, asking about cross-device tracking, even when devices aren't used to access Facebook.

"There may be some data necessary to provide the service that we do, that's something that I would like to follow up with you on," Zuckerberg says.

Blunt seems surprised that Zuckerberg doesn't know the answer.

12:49 p.m.: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., starts with a statement comparing the Cambridge Analytica situation to someone breaking into her home, taking things  and learning that the apartment manager had given the thieves the key.

"I believe we need to have laws and rules that are sophisticated as the products you have developed here," she says.

She then asks about the Honest Ads Act. Zuckerberg says the company will work to help Congress pass the law regulating online political advertising.

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Klobuchar asks if it's true that some Cambridge Analytica may be stored in Russia, as a former Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower has claimed. Zuckerberg says there's a government investigation ongoing in the United Kingdom.

Klobuchar asks about whether Facebook should be obliged to disclose a breach within 72 hours.

"That make sense to me," Zuckerberg says, and says his team will get back to the senator on the proposal.

A phone rings in the room, prompting glances from Zuckerberg's team.

12:43 p.m.: Sen. Lindsey Graham asks about a 2016 memo written by Facebook executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, which suggested that Facebook values growth and connection over everything else. Zuckerberg says he didn't agree with the memo but that he tries to run a company where discussion is encouraged.

Graham moves on to questions about regulation.

"You don't think you have a monopoly?" Graham asks?

"Certainly doesn't feel that way to me," Zuckerberg says. Laughter from the room.

"What do we tell our constituents given what's happen here, why we should let you self regulate?" Graham asks.

Zuckerberg says he would submit to Congress some proposed regulations.

Graham reads from Facebook's terms of service.

"I'm a lawyer and I have no idea what that means," Graham says.

"We think for the core of the service it's quite clear," Zuckerberg says.

12;41 p.m.: Leahy asks about Facebook's response to the situation in Myanmar.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is working on this problem, hiring more Burmese-language content reviewser and working with civil society in Myanmar to take down accounts involved with hate speech rather than specific content.

12:37 p.m.: Sen. Patrick Leahy asks if Facebook has received a subpoena from Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference. Zuckerberg says he personally has not, but that Facebook has been contacted by the special counsel's team but could not confirm whether it has been issued by a subpoena.

Leahy then asks about election interference. Zuckerberg points to Facebook's efforts to verify political advertisers.

12:33 p.m.: Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asks questions about Internet regulation and privacy, using insidery terms like "edge provider": "Do you think we need consistent privacy protections across the entire Internet ecosystem regardless of the entity doing the using or sharing?"

Zuckerberg says he supports net neutrality.

Wicker then asks about issues with Facebook accessing Android users' text messaages. Zuckerberg says users opt in to that feature.

Wicker says there have been reports that Facebook can track users activity even after they logged off of the Facebook platform.

Zuckerberg says that people use cookies on Internet and you could probably correlate activity between sessions. Zuckerberg says part of the reason they do this is to see if ads are effective. He also said his staff can get back to Wicker for more info on that.

12:25 p.m.: Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a politician with a background as a tech executive, asks pointed questions about Palantir and whether it scrapes Facebook data. Zuckerberg denies knowledge of that. She also asks if Facebook employees directly assisted Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg says his team will get back to her on that.

Note from Houston: Dwight Silverman observes that the senators have not made a major technical gaffe yet: "We have not yet had a 'series of tubes' moment from the committee, fortunately." That's a reference to then-Sen. Ted Stevens' 2006 reference to the Internet as a "series of tubes" in discussing net neutrality.

Dwight Silverman observes that the senators have not made a major technical gaffe yet: "We have not yet had a 'series of tubes' moment from the committee, fortunately." That's a reference to then-Sen. Ted Stevens' 2006 reference to the Internet as a "series of tubes" in discussing net neutrality. Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "Cantwell is drawing blood with questions about Palantir. She doesn't spell it out, but Facebook board member Peter Thiel is also a backer of Palantir, a major data-mining company which does a lot of government work."

Cantwell says given the track record that Facebook has, some would say Facebook didn't act boldly enough.

She wants to know if the concerns around apps were discussed at Facebook board meetings.

"Do you have all the will to help us solve this problem?" Cantwell asks.

12:21 p.m. Sen. Orrin Hatch opens with a comment on how this is the most momentous hearing since the days of the Microsoft antitrust trial in the 1990s.

Hatch says the issue here is transparency and consumer choice. Do consumers know what they are agreeing to? And will Facebook always be free?

Zuckerberg says there will always be a version of Facebook that's free. "We have to offer a service that everyone can afford."

How will you sustain your business, Hatch asks. "Senator, we run ads," Zuckerberg responds after a brief pause.

12:15 p.m. Sen. Feinstein opens with a question about Russian election interference. Zuckerberg calls it "one of his biggest regrets."

"When did you identify new operations?" Feinstein asks.

"It was right around the time of the 2016 election itself," the Facebook CEO says. He shifts to talking about protecting the integrity of elections around the world in places like Pakistan and cites the company's performance in the French election and the Alabama special election.

He says the company has deployed new artificial intelligence tools that do a better job of detecting fake accounts. He says he detected 470 accounts detected to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian cybertroll operation, which interfered in the U.S. election, and 270 which recently tried to interfere in countries neighboring to Russia.

Feinstein asks Zuckerberg "why did you wait" before removing Cambridge Analytica.

The problem, Zuckerberg said, was that in 2015, the data-mining firm wasn't an advertiser or page operator, so there was nothing to remove.

12:10 p.m.: Sen. Thune cites Wired's history of Facebook's 14 years of apologies.

"We've made a lot of mistakes running the company," Zuckerberg says.

Thune asks a question about hate speech. Zuckerberg says hate speech can be challenging to detect in AI because it is "very linguistically nuanced."

"You need to understand what is a slur and whether something is hateful," Zuckerberg said.

He said AI efforts have been successful at detecting terrorist propaganda and that 99 percent of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda related content has been flagged by the AI systems.

12:09 p.m.: Zuckerberg says that it has been challenging for FB and others in the tech industry to make privacy policies simple enough for people to understand. "We understand that most people don't want to go through and read a full legal document," he says.

12:05 p.m. Sen. Nelson gives an example of communicating with friends about chocolate and then seeing ads about chocolate, and asks Zuckerberg if that can be turned off.

Nelson points out some comments that Sandberg said in an interview that mentioned the idea of having consumers pay to not have ads targeting them. "Are you actually considering to have Facebook users pay for you to not use that information?" Nelson asks.

Zuckerberg says that people have control over what ads they see today, including ones they don't find relevant but notes that there's currently no way to pay to turn off ads.

12:01 p.m.: Grassley asks a question about data transfers between developers. He asks if Zuckerberg knows of any other data transfers besides Prof. Kogan's quizthe quiz which Facebook said could have leaked 87 million users' data to Cambridge Analytica.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is doing audits of suspicious activity that happens on the apps. "If we find they do anything improper, we will ban them on Facebook and let users know," he says.

Zuckerberg implies by promising "a more proactive approach" in the future, that in the past Facebook was a passive player, relying on outside reports of "sketchy" activities.

Note from Washington: Carolyn Lochhead reports that Zuckerberg is sticking almost word to word for his written testimony.

11:57 a.m.: Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook not taking a broad enough view of its responsibility. "I'm sorry," he says, his voice breaking a little. "I started Facebook. I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."



"It's not enough to connect people, we have to make sure those connections are positive."

11:54 a.m.: And now Zuckerberg begins to speak. He opens with well-worn lines that Facebook has used throughout its response to the Russian election interference and Cambridge Analytica crises, citing the "hard questions" that Facebook faces and saying it is an "idealistic and optimistic company." Another familiar line: "We did not take a broad enough view of our responsibility."

11:50 a.m.: Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.: "Let me cut to the chase. If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore."

Nelson called Zuckerberg a "genuine" person and that he appreciated his conversation with Zuckerberg. "You want to enact reforms, we want to know if it's going to be enough," he says. "I hope that will be in the answers today."

11:45 a.m.: California Democrat Dianne Feinstein takes a softer stance toward Zuckerberg than GOP colleague John Thune. Feinstein says she hopes Zuckerberg's testimony will "indicate how strongly your industry will regulate and reform the platforms they control," suggesting voluntary self-regulation might continue.

Feinstein says this hearing is important: "I believe that Facebook through your presence here today and the words you are about to tell us will indicate how strongly your industry will regulate and or reform the platforms that they control."

Zuckerberg looks serious, taking sips of water.

11:42 a.m.: Thune says some of his colleagues in the past have deferred to tech companies to regulate themselves, but this may be changing. He pointed out how the Senate approved an anti-sex trafficking bill, which affected online platforms: "This should be a wakeup call to the tech community," Thune says.

Note from Houston: Dwight Silverman points out that Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm accused of misusing Facebook user data, did work for the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz is at today's hearing. More here.

Dwight Silverman points out that Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm accused of misusing Facebook user data, did work for the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz is at today's hearing. More here. Note from Washington: Carolyn Lochhead points out that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has called for the Federal Trade Commission to "thoroughly investigate" Facebook. Harris is also at the hearing.

11:36 a.m.: John Thune, chair of the Commerce Committee and member of GOP leadership, opens hearing with a hard line on Facebook, citing Zuckerberg's own admissions. Congress has "been willing to defer to tech companies efforts to regulate themselves. This may be changing."



He calls this hearing "extraordinary," pointing out that Zuckerberg  a single CEO  will face nearly half of the U.S. Senate today. Facebook has more than 2 billion people monthly users, more than 4 times the population of the U.S., he sai



"Facebook's incredible reach is why we are here today," Thune says. "Right now, I'm not convinced that Facebook users have the information they need to make meaningful choices.



11:33a.m. : "Although not unprecedented, this is a unique hearing," Grassley says. He says issues to be considered include data privacy, security, consumer protection and FTC enforcement. There are 44 members between the two senate committees. That may not seem like a large group by Facebook standards," he says.

11:32a.m. : Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, calls the meeting to order.

11:31 a.m.: Zuckerberg has walked over to his seat. He's wearing a suit with a purple tie, different from his typical T-shirt. Lots of photographers are crowded around him taking his photo.

Other developments Tuesday:

Zuckerberg says in a Facebook post that I will do everything I can to make Facebook a place where everyone can stay closer with the people they care about, and to make sure it's a positive force in the world.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., tweeted there are two fake Facebook accounts impersonating him. This is unacceptable, he says.

Nonprofit and advocacy group Common Sense Media, sent a letter to the FTC on Tuesday asking it to investigate if teens using Facebook were impacted by the Cambridge Analytica data sharing.

Facebook has created a way for users to check to see if their data was grabbed by Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg shared a post on her Facebook page by former company director Don Graham, who wrote that Zuckerberg was someone of great decency. Sandberg wrote that Graham was her reference check on Zuckerberg before she joined Facebook. Zuckerberg has also shared Grahams post.

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Facebook by people who have used Facebook and had their information shared with Cambridge Analytica. The lawsuit is seeking class action status. Another lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Monday.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote that tech companies need to do more to make it clear how consumer data is being used and what the companies are doing to protect that data. As social media further affixes to daily routine, the question becomes: Do users understand how much of our lives is unknowingly converted to profitable data points?

The Information Technology Innovation Foundation think tank says that if the U.S. adopted rules similar to Europe, it would kneecap the U.S. Internet economy and would significantly erode U.S. competitiveness and Internet innovation.

Check back at 11:15 a.m. to watch the hearing and see live commentary from Chronicle staff, or follow @techchronicle on Twitter to get an alert when the hearing starts.
Author Michael Lewis has no idea where the next big short is coming from but says it wont come from the banking system.

Lewis best-selling book The Big Short chronicled traders who anticipated the housing market collapse and made a fortune shorting, or betting against, complex mortgage securities. It was later made into a movie with an all-star cast including Brad Pitt.

Banks are much better capitalized than they were before the financial crisis, Lewis said at the LendIt financial technology conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Insufficient bank capital will not be the cause of the next financial crisis.

The Berkeley resident has written other books about Wall Street but hasnt been paying it much attention lately, because hes been researching the inner workings of the federal government. Lewis has been writing for Vanity Fair magazine about how ill-prepared and uninterested in such details the Trump administration appears to be.

Lewis said people had been nagging him to write about bitcoin. So about two years ago, he agreed to drive down to a fancy rented house in Palo Alto that reeked of marijuana to possibly meet Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrencys reputed inventor. Instead, he was greeted by a group of bitcoin entrepreneurs who tried to convince him bitcoin would replace currency.

He said they put $5 worth of bitcoin on his phone and took him to a nearby coffee shop to buy a latte. After about a half hour fumbling with the bitcoin, which the shop really didnt want to accept because the price was moving so quickly, he took a $5 bill out of his wallet.

The technology was spectacular, he said, referring to the paper bill.

(I had a very similar experience in 2013 when the Internet Archives Brewster Kahle tried to show me how easy it would be to buy sushi with bitcoin.)

Lewis said he finally cashed in the bitcoin a few months ago for about $600. The idea that bitcoin will replace currency is insane.

Lewis is probably best known in the Bay Area for Moneyball, his 2003 book on how Oakland As general manager Billy Beane used statistical analysis to scout players who had been cast off or overlooked by richer teams that relied more on human intuition. It also was made into a movie starring Pitt, as Beane.

Lewis said most of the stories he has written since then are spokes off the hub of Moneyball. His most recent book, The Undoing Project, was about two Israeli psychologists, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and the late Amos Tversky. The duo pioneered the field of behavioral economics, which attempts to explain how psychological and emotional factors lead to irrational decision making and market inefficiencies.

When Donald Trump was elected, Lewis began wondering how you would evaluate a president who is so radically different than his predecessors.

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He discovered that the Obama administration, a year before the transition, had assigned several thousand people to write up detailed instructions on how to run the country, not from an ideological standpoint. They described such things as how to deal with an Ebola outbreak and preserve the nuclear arsenal. He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has people shooting geese at Americas airports because the birds fly into airplanes. Some Elmer Fudd character ... with a shotgun, Lewis said.

Previous administrations had prepared similar transition documents. But Trump appointees paid virtually no attention to these briefings. The administration, he said, had no idea it was responsible for the weather forecasts that show up on AccuWeather and weather apps and what could happen if a satellite that collects the data is allowed to deteriorate.

He said a lot of the federal governments collective knowledge is leaking out, and a lot of whats left is demoralized.

The nation, Lewis said, is ignoring this huge risk. People arent focused on the important stuff. They are focused on the day-to-day drama, such as the Stormy Daniels story.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
The long-tangled case against a San Francisco firefighter accused of drunkenly plowing his fire rig into a motorcyclist in the citys South of Market neighborhood  only to then run to a nearby bar to chug water  ended in a guilty plea on a significantly lesser charge, prosecutors said Monday.

Michael Quinn, who resigned from the San Francisco Fire Department after the 2013 crash, pleaded guilty Friday to one misdemeanor count of delaying an arrest and was sentenced to two years probation, bringing an end to an unusual saga.

A grand jury indicted Quinn, 47, in 2014 on three felony counts of drunken driving, but more than a year later a San Francisco judge tossed key evidence, including Breathalyzer and blood tests, hobbling the prosecutions case.

District Attorney George Gascon, nevertheless, opted to pursue charges after the judges ruling.

The episode began around 11:30 p.m. on June 29, 2013, when Quinn, a 20-year department veteran, slammed his rig into motorcyclist Jack Frazier at Fifth and Howard streets. Frazier was thrown into a nearby fire hydrant and suffered serious injuries to his ribs, hip and ankle.

Now Playing: Here's a look at San Francisco's most dangerous intersections for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. Video: Ted Andersen, SFGATE

Frazier, who was under the influence of marijuana, had a green light but was required to yield to emergency vehicles. The San Francisco city attorneys office and Board of Supervisors in 2016 agreed to pay Frazier nearly $5 million to settle his civil case against the city.

Video evidence of the crash was played for the grand jury and showed Quinns truck blowing through a red light at the intersection at 25 mph. Department rules require fire rigs to slow down as a precaution.

Quinn left the scene half an hour after the wreck and was captured on video chugging nearly four pitchers of water at the nearby Chieftain pub. A fellow firefighter reported that hed seen Quinn vomit into a trash can, prosecutors said.

Whats more, prosecutors said, Quinn didnt return to his nearby fire station for nearly two hours.

Once back at the station, he submitted to three Breathalyzer tests, all of which showed he was over the legal limit. Police arrested Quinn and drew his blood at 6 a.m. the next morning. The test showed his blood alcohol content was .11  still over the .08 legal driving limit.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Prosecutors estimated Quinns blood alcohol level at the time of the crash could have been as high as .31 percent.

The case against him began to fall apart when San Francisco Superior Court Judge Kay Tsenin dismissed the Breathalyzer tests as unreliable, because the Fire Department did not properly calibrate its equipment. As a result, there wasnt enough evidence for police to arrest Quinn, Tsenin ruled, and the blood evidence collected by police was also tossed. Prosecutors appealed the ruling but lost.

Several firefighters, including two assistant chiefs, were suspended by Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White for mishandling the incident.

Quinns attorney, James Bustamante, did not immediately return phone calls. Officials with the San Francisco Fire Department said they could not comment on the case.
As students begin signing up this week for the summer semester at City College of San Francisco, school officials have a sober message for them: Theyll have to pay for classes.

No Free City for this summer, Chancellor Mark Rocha emailed college trustees over the weekend, referring to the two-year, $11.2 million program that began last fall and will let San Francisco residents attend the college for free through spring 2019.

Through the program, city residents have rediscovered the college that is anchored in San Franciscos foggy Ingleside neighborhood, but which has campuses from Chinatown to San Francisco International Airport. Enrollment had plunged in recent years as the college struggled to retain its accreditation. But now, with City College again in good standing with the accreditor  and with classes available for free  enrollment is up by 17 percent, college officials said.

However, under an agreement between the city and the college, free classes are funded only for fall and spring semesters. So on Thursday, Rocha asked the mayors office for summer funding.

Hydra Mendoza, the mayors deputy chief of staff for education, told Rocha that City College will have to comply with the original terms.

I have always advised City College that we implement the program with fidelity as agreed before making any major changes, Mendoza said, noting that Rocha approached her informally to request advice on how to approach the mayors office for summer funding.

Im kind of shocked that the city would do this to the students of San Francisco, college Trustee John Rizzo said. After all, the politicians took credit for it and said what a great thing it was  and now theyre just pulling the rug out from under the students.

Brigitte Davila, president of the Board of Trustees, said City College officials hoped that students could roll out of high school in June, and into free college classes this summer.

I am remaining hopeful, Davila said. Im hoping the city changes its mind and will be flexible about this.

Meanwhile, the City College website  which touts Free City / Walls Torn Down / Barriers Busted  has added a qualifier: Fall & Spring Semesters.

The money comes from a voter-approved tax on San Francisco properties that sell for at least $5 million and is estimated to raise about $44 million a year for the city. A portion of the money is used to buy out the $46-a-credit fee usually paid by students.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

So far, the city hasnt paid City College because the citys Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, which reimburses the school, hasnt been satisfied with the accuracy of the enrollment numbers provided, or with City Colleges efforts to inform students that they must first apply for state and federal financial aid before registering for free classes.

Now the city is evaluating the colleges updated request for nearly $2.8 million and its supporting documentation, said Leo Chyi, the departments chief finance officer. If all is in order, the city will have 30 days to cut the check.

Meanwhile, college officials say they are not giving up on free summer classes. The 11-member board that is supposed to oversee the Free City program will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. on April 20, at a site yet to be determined.

The college will continue to make a case for an increased budget that fully meets the student demand, Rocha promised the trustees.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
President Trump last week demanded military protection on the U.S.-Mexico border until his border wall can be built.

Defense Secretary James Mattis complied with the presidents request, signing a memo Friday that authorizes up to 4,000 National Guard troops to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border. About 500 troops have already deployed, along with vehicles, equipment and helicopters.

Whats less clear is whether California will be part of the effort.

Most of the states that Trump is depending on to send the troops have been quick to respond  and their responses have been partisan. Republican governors in the border states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are supporting the deployment. Democratic governors in Oregon and Montana have declined to send troops.

But one governor whos remained silent is Jerry Brown.

Brown may have good reasons for staying mum.

The Trump administration has yet to provide a solid plan for the troops. We dont yet know whos paying for the deployment, or how long its expected to last. We dont know what Trumps goals are for the troops, or what he would consider to be success for this mission.

If the deployment turns out to be little more than political theater, Brown may not want to pick another public fight with the administration over it.

Deploying National Guard troops to the border isnt necessarily a partisan issue  Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama each sent troops there during his tenure. Depending on the mission, a deployment can even make sense. The California Guard has 55 employees there right now, fighting drug trafficking and repairing roads.

But the Trump administration doesnt seem to have a sensible goal in mind. So the governor needs to say no  and soon.

The reason Congress hasnt funded Trumps border wall is because its a self-serving fantasy that antagonizes a critical trading partner. It wont stop illegal immigration or improve U.S. security.

Trumps call for troops at the border is more of the same. Without a defined mission and clear goals, its impossible to say what California, the United States or Mexico stand to gain from this plan. In the absence of better answers, the only choice is for Brown to say no.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
The state-owned Cow Palace hosts five gun shows every year, each featuring hundreds of tables of firearms and ammunition for sale and trade, with free admission for children under 12. The next Cow Palace gun show will take place on April 14-15  just three weeks after tens of thousands of Bay Area youth and adults took to the streets to protest gun violence as part of the March for Our Lives.

It is time for the Cow Palace to stop renting space to gun shows. No California state agency should facilitate or profit from the proliferation of firearms.

A Congressional Research Service report estimated there were 317 million civilian firearms in the United States in 2009. Updating that number with a 2015 federal report on firearms commerce, the Washington Post estimates that we now have more firearms than people  millions more. Our horrific gun violence rates reflect those numbers.

Guns kill nearly 100 Americans daily, including seven children and teens, and injure twice as many more. Fifty women are shot to death by intimate partners each month.

The Gun Violence Archive counted more than 730 children and teens killed or injured by guns between Jan. 1 and the recent March for Our Lives. The San Francisco Police Department reported 160 non-fatal shooting victims, 38 firearm homicides, and more than 1,000 firearms seized in 2017.

Even when firearms are sold legally (at least initially), they may be used to kill or injure, whether accidentally or intentionally.

San Francisco and San Mateo counties have passed unanimous resolutions opposing gun shows at the Cow Palace. But because the property is owned and managed by the California Department of Food and Agricultures Division of Fairs and Expositions, it is immune from local control. The Legislature has passed, but governors have vetoed, bills to prohibit Cow Palace gun shows. In vetoing the most recent bill in 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown left the issue to the Cow Palace Board of Directors, encouraging the board to work with their local communities when determining their operations and events.

The board should listen to its local communities. It should listen to the unanimous resolutions from San Francisco and San Mateo counties objecting to Cow Palace gun shows. It should listen to Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Sonoma counties, which have banned firearms (and therefore gun shows) on county property, and to Santa Clara County, which recently voted to do the same. And it should listen to the tens of thousands of local youth and adults who are saying, Enough.

In todays world, it is unseemly for a state agency to promote and profit from sales of gun and ammunition. The Cow Palace board members are state officers and must consider factors beyond maximizing revenue (although even some businesses have turned away profits by changing their policies regarding sales of firearms or partnering with the NRA). The question for the Cow Palace board is simple: Do you want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?
But census information now goes far beyond that. It also determines for the next decade how much money each state gets for education, highways, homeland security, health care, welfare, natural disaster preparation, sewers and much more.

The more people live in your state, the more money it gets for services Congress has decided everyone in America should have. Citizenship doesnt matter in those distributions.

Thats why, every 10 years for the last half-century, California has mounted a loud campaign to convince illegal immigrants to let themselves be counted. For neither federal funding nor apportionment of congressional seats is set by the number of citizens in any state, only by the number of people living there.

In short, the more fear the Trump administration can strike in Californias large undocumented immigrant populace, the less money the state will get for a host of vital functions.

Thats because illegal immigrants have never completely trusted Census Bureau promises that their information will be confidential and not passed along to immigration authorities. Many fear being counted might lead to deportation, so they avoid census takers.
When I arrived at Saratogas Indo Cafe on a rainy afternoon, owner Maria Handayani was making martabak. A thick and spongy pancake, martabak is one of the most popular street snacks back in our shared motherland, Indonesia. Served with lavish amounts of Wijsman (a Dutch canned butter) and a choice of chocolate sprinkles or grated cheese, martabak is the most sinful of desserts.

Each bite oozes butter, chocolate and cheese in your mouth. Its usually served as a late-night supper, since street vendors start making it only after maghrib, the Muslim call of prayer at sunset, making it the only acceptable kind of nightcap in Indonesia.

Martabak is also the one piece of home I have been unable to find here. Ive lived all over the United States for nine years now and have managed to find acceptable replacements for traditional Indonesian dishes  except for the magical martabak.

Its probably why I feel so invested in Handayanis efforts to master this recipe. Upon my arrival, I learned that Handayani had been baking martabaks nonstop for the previous three weeks in an effort to create the perfect version. She has practically perfected many other Indonesian dishes evident at Indo Cafe, which Handayani has run since 2011.

Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle

Indonesian food is as diverse as its 17,000 islands, so for any restaurant to accurately capture the whole breadth of the cuisine is close to impossible. But with that being said, Handayanis cooking is as close as it gets to traditional Javanese fare in the Bay Area, a nod to Handayanis childhood growing up in east Java. The rice combos, for instance, come with either nasi uduk (coconut rice) or nasi kuning (lemongrass and turmeric rice) and the option of fried chicken and/or beef rendang. There is also an array of curries to choose from, including gulai nangka (jackfruit curry), spicy pork rind curry and telor balado (egg curry). These were the kinds of dishes I ate growing up: humble yet flavorful home-cooked food in its nature, perhaps the equivalent to the American plate of mashed potatoes, roast chicken and green beans.

But unlike American comfort food, these dishes are far from simple. Indonesian food is very labor intensive. I have to be physically fit to make it, Handayani said. Unlike in American cuisine where they just use salt, pepper and maybe garlic or chile powder to marinate the meat, we spend at least three to five hours just trimming spices like galangal and lemongrass for the rub. Its why Handayani intentionally kept Indo Cafe a small operation, because she wanted to make the food as it is done back in Indonesia.

Other transporting dishes on the menu include Handayanis version of mie tek tek, a Javanese stir-fried egg noodle dish whose name is derived from the sound street hawkers make when cooking (tek tek being the sound of the spatula hitting the wok). While Handayanis version doesnt come with the charred, smoky flavor, it still reminds me of one I would eat on a hot humid night in Yogyakarta. Then, theres the lontong cap go meh, rice cakes served with chicken and egg curry. Its a dish that catches the attention of visitors who speak Chinese, because cap go translates to 15 in the Hokkien dialect. Chinese Indonesians have adopted the dish during the 15th day of Chinese New Year celebrations despite its Indonesian roots  just another example of the complexity in Indonesian cuisine and culture.

I did wonder whether Handayanis cooking would be appreciated in Saratoga. After all, Saratoga suburbia is a far cry from the culinary capital that is San Francisco. Plus, Indo Cafes hidden location, tucked behind the UPS on Big Basin Way, doesnt even allow much foot traffic, if any.

Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle

But she chose to be in Saratoga for a very specific reason. I wanted to start small because I knew how much work it would be. I did not want to take any shortcuts, she said. Plus, I like that its not too crowded, and that we are surrounded by other mom-and-pop stores. (Saratoga has strict formula retail laws.)

According to Handayani, the people who first discovered Indo Cafe were primarily Indonesian students living in the area. But word spread quickly. (Handayani jokes its because of the recent gluten-free trend in America, even though Indonesians have been eating naturally gluten-free for years.)

One customer, Amy Gu, found out about Indo Cafe through a Yelp newsletter. It was a fresh experience, since I never had Indonesian food before, she said.

It certainly leads me to ask the question whether Indonesian cuisine can become part of the mainstream American palate, the way sushi and ramen have for Japanese food.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Who knows, maybe that dish could be the martabak, thanks to Handayani. Its not part of the regular Indo Cafe menu yet, but she hopes to launch it once she perfects it.

After our interview, I waited patiently for several hours for the martabak to rise to the exact height desired. During that time, Handayani force-fed me ayam goreng penyet, fried chicken covered with sambal, in a true tante (auntie) hospitality, an Indonesian warmth she extends to her customers.

I would have waited anyway, for that is what you do for a piece of home, even if it may just be a possibility.

And I am happy to say, that when I took my first bite and got that familiar  albeit slightly smaller  explosion of butter, chocolate and cheese, it was pretty close ... as close as it gets to perfect.

Indo Cafe: 14443 C Big Basin Way, Saratoga. (408) 741-1514. Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.
Burning Man founder Larry Harvey was hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke on April 4 and remains in critical condition.

A statement posted on the Burning Man website on Tuesday says Harvey's "prognosis is unknown at this time."

"We know this news may be startling and saddening for many of you, as it has been for us. Please send your positive thoughts and intentions to Larry and his family," the site reads.

The inner flame of the annual Burning Man Festival, Harvey, 70, spontaneously organized the first event in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco with his pal Jerry James. They built a wooden figure, dragged it down to the beach, lit it on fire and a bunch of people gathered around. His son, Tristan, 5 years old then, also attended.

GALLERY: Burning Man 2017

The event was moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990 and has been held there ever since, attracting some 70,000 people come from across the globe. They arrive at this amazing party that unfolds in a swirl of dust in buses, motorhomes, art cars and private jets, and spend a week romping around in outlandish costumes, building massive art structures, putting on fantastical performances, and zipping across the Playa in bicycles, cars, vans, churches on wheels.

The festival is unique from other mass events as it lacks mass commercialization. With the exception of ice and espresso, nothing is for sale at Burning Man.

Harvey has attended every festival since 1986 and is now the founding board member and chief philosophic officer of the Burning Man Project that puts on the annual festival and hosts events worldwide.
A Chronicle investigation that revealed hundreds of questionable arrests in Californias shelters for abused and neglected children won top honors Monday in the prestigious Investigative Reporters and Editors annual awards.

The story, called Fostering Failure, documented how shelter residents as young as 8 were arrested and jailed for relatively minor incidents, after calls to law enforcement by shelter staff. The contest judges called it a heartbreaking story... (that) is both rage-inducing and depressing. It was named best investigative story of the year in its circulation category.
There are enough alternative facts about San Francisco to create an alternative city  maybe when you're surrounded by translucent fog, some of the details are prone to get lost within the shapes.

The true stories, urban legends, and myths are multitude and easy to confuse. San Francisco has had its own United States emperor (true), who banned the use of the word "Frisco" (probably false). There are more dogs than children here (true), and one of those rare children was suspended from school for wishing his teacher a merry Christmas (false).
In the wake of a shooting at YouTube headquarters that left three people injured last week, Google, YouTube and their employees are donating at least $280,000 to the San Bruno Community Foundation, to fund an initiative aimed at first responders.

Google and YouTube are making a $100,000 grant to the foundation, which was created to administer restitution funds after the PG&E gas pipeline explosion in 2010. YouTube and Google also invited employees to make individual donations, which Google said it would match.

In the first 48 hours, more than 800 Googlers from around the world donated more than $90,000, said Leslie Hatamiya, executive director of the San Bruno Foundation in a statement. Google.org  Googles philanthropic arm  is matching those donations, so the San Bruno Community Foundation expects to receive at least $280,000, and possibly more.

Hatamiya told the Chronicle that YouTube, which is the largest employer in San Bruno, has previously partnered with the organization three times and contributed to their community grants program.

They contacted us recently and said theyd heard about our first responder initiative and asked if that was something they could piggyback off, Hatamiya said.

After the shooting, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki tweeted, There are no words to describe how horrible it was to have an active shooter @YouTube today. Our deepest gratitude to law enforcement & first responders for their rapid response.

The foundations First Responder Effectiveness Strategic Initiative was launched in March.

Thinking about what was going on in the world, with the hurricanes and the fires and school shootings and being respectful of our own past, it seemed like a great initiative for foundation to take on, Hatamiya said. Unfortunately our initiative was a lot more timely than we expected it to be.

Hatamiya said discussions are ongoing about what the money from Google and YouTube will ultimately fund, but that the initiative has three main projects. One is funding for emergency shelter supplies, which will enable San Bruno to operate a stand-alone emergency shelter. Another is a series of trainings and site assessments and incident plans.

The third, according to the foundations website is, Police Officer Mindfulness, Compassion, and Resiliency Training, which aims to equip police officers to perform through occupational trauma with greater capacity for awareness, cognitive performance and humanity.

Hatamiya said that the donation was bittersweet because of its origins in the shooting, but that the foundation is grateful for the companys support following the shooting.

We are grateful our first responders were so effective in their response, she said, and we are now pleased that Google and YouTube want to partner with us, and contribute to our important initiative.
The combined effect of President Trumps tax cuts and last months budget-busting spending bill is sending the governments budget deficit toward the $1 trillion mark next year, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

The offices report says the twin tax and spending bills will push the budget deficit to $804 billion this year and just under $1 trillion for the upcoming budget year.

CBO says economic growth from the tax cuts will add 0.7 percent on average to the nations economic output over the coming decade. Those effects will only partially offset the deficit cost of the tax cuts. The administration had promised the cuts would pay for themselves.

Instead, Mondays report estimates that the GOP tax bill, which is Republican-controlled Washingtons signature accomplishment under Trump, will add $1.8 trillion to the deficit over the coming decade, even after its positive effects on the economy are factored in. Republicans once laced into President Barack Obama for trillion-dollar-plus deficits but mostly fell quiet on Mondays news.

Lawsuits

Backpage execs face indictment

The founders of Backpage.com and five others at the classified site have been indicted on federal charges in what authorities say was a scheme to facilitate prostitution by running ads for sexual services and hiding their revenues.

An indictment unsealed Monday alleges that Backpage.com on some occasions had helped customers edit their ads so they would stay within legal limits while still encouraging commercial sex.

Website founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin are charged with facilitating prostitution and money laundering.

Authorities also have seized Backpage.com and its affiliated websites. They are already facing state money laundering charges in California.

Cryptocurrecy

Geminis new

trade service

Gemini, the digital-asset exchange run by the Winklevoss twins, is introducing a service that will allow investors to make big trades outside of the firms order books.

The service will allow traders to buy or sell large quantities of Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies and will compete with companies that cater to large institutional traders. Block-trading companies have recently popped up in Hong Kong, Australia and other markets to meet demand from hedge funds and similar institutional buyers. One such service, Circle Trade, is already directly moving more than $2 billion a month in crypto assets.

Due to go live at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) on April 12, the Gemini Block Trading service will electronically broadcast orders to participating market makers simultaneously, the company said in a blogpost Monday.

Air travel

Airlines better except for time

U.S. airlines are getting better at many things except getting you to your destination on time. They are losing fewer bags. Complaints are down, and fewer passengers are getting bumped.

Thats the upshot of a report issued by academics who analyze numbers compiled by the Transportation Department.

The authors ranked Alaska Airlines first, followed closely by Delta Air Lines in a report released Monday. Budget carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines finished at the bottom.

The industrywide on-time performance declined a bit last year, when 80.2 percent of flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule, which is the governments definition of on time. That was down from 81.4 percent in 2016.

Transportation

Musk, safety chairman talk

Tesla Inc.s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and a top U.S. transportation safety investigator spoke over the weekend to patch things up after testy exchanges related to the investigation of a fatal crash.

Musk and Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, talked by phone over the weekend, agency spokesman Peter Knudson said. The two discussed the March 23 fatal crash in California involving a Tesla Model X thats under investigation, plus recommendations the agency made after its probe of a 2016 deadly crash involving a Tesla Model S, Knudson said. Both drivers had engaged Teslas driver-assistance system Autopilot.

Chairman Sumwalt had what he described as a very constructive conversation with Mr. Musk, Knudson said in an email. A Tesla spokeswoman declined to comment on the call.

The conversation followed an April 2 tweet by Musk that was dismissive of the companys role in regulating cars and defended the companys release of information regarding the recent crash, which ran afoul of NTSB protocol. In a March 30 blog post, Tesla said that the Model X drivers hands werent on the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the fatal crash.

An NTSB spokesman on April 1 said the agency was unhappy with the disclosures by the company.

The NTSB is investigating the March 23 crash as well as a collision in January involving a Tesla Model S that was using Autopilot when it rear-ended a fire truck parked on a freeway near Los Angeles.

The death of Model S driver Joshua Brown in May 2016 spurred a NTSB report in September in which the agency recommended that automakers do more to guard against driver misuse of automated vehicle control systems.

Chronicle News Services
The fine print of YouTubes terms of service has a warning that goes unheeded by millions of children who visit YouTube to watch cartoons, nursery rhymes, science experiments or videos of toys being unboxed.

If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service, the terms say. There are lots of other great web sites for you.

In a complaint filed Monday, child advocates and consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google for allegedly violating childrens online privacy and allowing ads to target them.

Google profits handsomely from selling advertising to kid-directed programs that it packages, said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the groups that drafted the complaint. They created a successful model monetizing kids data.

Television networks also run ads during cartoons and other programs aimed at kids.

The difference? YouTube does so with a lot of data collection. Its business model relies on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about its users so that it can gauge their interests and tailor advertising to them. But a 1998 federal law prohibits Internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents consent.

The coalition accuses YouTube of violating that law and deliberately profiting off luring children into what Chester calls an ad-filled digital playground where commercials for toys, theme parks or sneakers can surface alongside kid-oriented videos.

YouTube said that it will read the complaint thoroughly and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve. Because YouTube is not for children, weve invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.

That toddler-oriented YouTube Kids app, released in 2015, offers more parental controls but is not as widely used  and features a selection of the same videos and channels that kids can also find on the regular YouTube service.

Although its not known if the FTC will take action, the complaint comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the tech industrys mining of personal data and after the FTC opened an investigation last month into Facebooks privacy practices.

For that reason, the FTC may be more reinvigorated and ready to take these issues seriously, said Josh Golin, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which drafted the complaint along with the Center for Digital Democracy and a Georgetown University law clinic. Several other groups have signed on, including Common Sense Media, which runs a popular website for families, and the advocacy division of Consumer Reports.

FTC spokeswoman Juliana Gruenwald Henderson said the agency looks forward to reviewing the letter. She said the FTC already has brought more than two dozen cases for violations of the 1998 law. It has settled child privacy cases with Yelp, mobile advertising network inMobi and electronic toy maker VTech.

None of those services are as popular for kids as YouTube, which has toddler-themed channels with names like ChuChuTV nursery rhymes, which as of last week counted more than 16 million subscribers and 13.4 billion views. It also has many channels that cater to preteens.

Kandi Parsons, a former FTC attorney who now advises companies on child-privacy compliance, said that because YouTube is a general-audience service, it could be hard to determine whether parents are curating content for their kids to watch or letting them use it on their own. Parsons said the FTC so far hasnt gone after kid-directed channels within broader media websites, though that doesnt mean it wont.

Consumer advocates say Google knows what it is doing. They point to its Google Preferred program that allows advertisers on YouTube to pay extra to get their ads on the most popular videos. The program includes a Parenting & Family Lineup that has featured channels such as ChuChu TV, Foxs BabyTV and Seven Super Girls, whose topics include fluffy unicorn slime.

YouTube does block children who identify themselves as under 13 from posting video, by prohibiting them from creating an account to begin with, but an account isnt needed merely to watch.

Its laughable if Google execs claim that they think the parent is in charge of the online viewing behaviors of tens of millions of children, Chester said. Children are watching this content by themselves. Google is trying to look the other way.
Theres no sign on the door, no dress code, and kombucha flows freely from a tap in the break room.

Goldman Sachs Groups new San Francisco office bears few of the buttoned-down Wall Street markings the New York investment bank typically sports. The vibe is decidedly West Coast startup, and thats the way Jeff Winner likes it.

Hired in January to run what will eventually be an 80-person office, Winner helps lead the engineering team for Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the firms digital consumer bank thats supposed to take in $1 billion in revenue by 2020. Competing for talent with the likes of Google and Amazon.com means out with bespoke suits and in with jeans and sneakers.

The bank still has a significant amount of stuffiness, but theyre getting rid of it, Winner said in a phone interview.

Winner, 55, moved to Goldman after stints leading engineering teams for Twitter, Uber, and most recently Stripe, which sells software for running Internet businesses. The startup culture hes pushing is part of CEO Lloyd Blankfeins drive to adapt the 149-year-old firm to a world in which technology underpins almost every pursuit and recruits demand a more flexible work environment.

To be an engineer at Goldman has often meant being relegated to the back office, or toiling away on internal financial models and products for institutional clients. Those somewhat esoteric roles made for difficult conversations with potential new hires, said Andrew Trout, who joined last year from payments startup Square to head Goldman Sachss engineering-recruitment efforts.

But that was before Marcus  developed in isolation at the firms Manhattan headquarters in an environment designed to resemble a startup. With the 2016 launch of the online lender, the bank has developed more cachet with San Franciscos tech workers, according to Trout.

Marcus has been a great opportunity, he said. Its deepened our knowledge and heightened our presence in Silicon Valley, and its provided us with access to talent that maybe we havent had in the past.

Winner brought updated interviewing techniques to the task, including structured, rubric-driven interviews, and pair programming, where two people sit together and take turns writing and evaluating code, he said. White-boarding is downplayed. And prior financial-services experience is discouraged as he tries to infuse a more entrepreneurial culture throughout the company.

The need for such changes might come as something of a surprise to Blankfein, who has for years touted Goldman Sachs as a technology firm. Its risk-management system, known as SecDB, is considered among the industrys best. And Goldman engineers sat side by side with traders long before finance fell in love with quantitative analysts. A young engineer in the 1990s, Marty Chavez, has risen to the chief financial officers position.

Whats different with Marcus is that engineers weighing a move to Goldman Sachs can see the product before they arrive for their first interview, according to Omer Ismail, the units chief commercial officer. And since they interact with banks in their personal lives, they can more easily understand their underlying mission, he said.

Part of their job includes a weekly meeting that starts with recordings of two customer service calls: one handled successfully and another that ends with a dissatisfied customer.

Engineers like taking complex problems and removing the friction for end users, Ismail said. They see how financial services are broken in their personal lives.

Heres the pitch for potential recruits: Work on cutting edge micro-services architecture, not ancient systems. Use Agile development to speed new projects. Develop software natively in the cloud. Those techniques, despite being heavy on the industry jargon, are now being exported to other parts of the firm. (Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, might take longer to catch on.)

So far it seems to be working. Engineering applications from undergraduates and lateral candidates are up substantially year over year, Trout said, though he declined to give numbers.

A decade ago, Goldman Sachs became shorthand for politicians demonizing Wall Street greed as a cause of the financial crisis. On top of that obstacle, the industrys thicket of regulations and decades-old mainframe infrastructure made it seem stodgy to a generation of computer scientists looking to move fast and break things. With the backlash mounting over Facebooks sale of consumer data, Amazons influence over a struggling brick-and-mortar retail industry and Apples creation of allegedly addictive devices, finance may be becoming an easier sell.

Thats not to say there isnt more work to do. Winner acknowledged that the firms intense focus on reaching consensus can be frustrating. And many employees in other parts of the bank remain skeptical, though theyre coming around, he said. Adding new colleagues used to doing things differently should help, he said.

This is a big company, making a strategic change, Winner said. The simple thing would be to recruit a team from all the big financial players. But were specifically recruiting from Silicon Valley. And big tech.
SMART, the North Bay's nascent commuter railroad, got word Monday that it will receive $22.5 million in federal funding to complete a critical extension to the Larkspur ferry terminal.

The 2.1-mile extension to the Golden Gate Ferry terminal is considered a vital link that will lure commuters who travel between the North Bay and San Francisco. To make the trip now, SMART riders have to get off the train at the current end-of-the-line station in downtown San Rafael and take a bus to the ferry terminal or into San Francisco.

SMART officials believe a direct connection to ferries to and from San Francisco will significantly boost ridership.

"Our Larkspur connection is an important link to San Francisco and will connect residents, employers and visitors to Sonoma and Marin counties," said Judy Arnold, a SMART board member. "It will provide an economic boost for the North Bay."

SMART had been awarded the grant from the Federal Transit Administration in February 2015, but as the Trump administration overhauled the Department of Transportation, the funding became uncertain.

The grant makes up a large chunk of the $55.4 million cost of the extension, which is expected to carry trains by the end of 2019.
Novartis has agreed to acquire Avexis for $8.7 billion to gain a promising drug to treat a rare disease that afflicts infants, hastening a shift toward gene therapy and precision medicines.

Shareholders of the Illinois biotech company will receive $218 per share in cash in a tender offer, Novartis said this week. The price is 88 percent above where Avexis closed Friday.

The transaction is Novartis second deal to advance in gene therapy this year, and the first led by new Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan. The Swiss drugmaker is using some of the $13 billion in proceeds from the sale of its stake in a consumer-health joint venture to partner GlaxoSmithKline to strengthen its position in prescription medicines before some of its best-sellers lose patent protection.

Our goal is to build on a core of medicines as a medicines company powered by data and digital, Narasimhan said in a conference call with investors. A deal like this fits right in that sweet spot.

Avexis is developing a product to treat spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a defect in a single gene, which shows the potential to become a blockbuster, according to Novartis.

In buying Avexis, the Swiss drugmaker is also gaining a product to address a rare disease. Like gene therapies, such treatments command high prices that have sparked interest even from unexpected players in the industry. Last month, Takeda Pharmaceutical said it was considering a bid for Shire, a leader in rare diseases, which would rank as the Japanese companys biggest takeover ever.

Avexis also has valuable manufacturing and research capabilities that would give its Swiss buyer a platform alongside its CAR-T research in cancer to advance a growing pipeline of gene therapies across therapeutic areas, according to Narasimhan.

Novartiss Kymriah won Food and Drug Administration approval in August, making it the first drug approved from a new class of treatments called CAR-Ts that have been heralded as a promising approach to treating and potentially curing cancers as well as genetic conditions such as blindness. Like other gene therapies, its used only once on a patient, and thus carries a high price tag  $475,000, in the case of Kymriah.

The acquisition was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies. Novartis will continue to assess potential options for other acquisitions to build its portfolio, Narasimhan said.

AVXS-101 helped a small group of babies with spinal muscular atrophy hit development milestones at a rate previously unseen, a study showed in November. The first medication for the disease, Biogens Spinraza, won approval less than a year ago. Babies with the most severe form of the disease typically die before age two.

Avexis expects to file in the second half of this year for approval from U.S. regulators, with marketing of AVXS-101 expected in 2019, according to Novartis.

This acquisition makes strategic sense, Stefan Schneider, an analyst at Vontobel in Zurich, wrote in a note to clients. Novartiss drugs Gilenya and Afinitor will probably face competition from cheaper generics in 2019  about the same time that Avexiss first experimental drug may reach the market, Schneider said.

Avexis, incorporated in 2010, sold shares in an initial public offering in 2016 at $20 per share. CEO Sean Nolan is a former executive at InterMune and Ovation Pharmaceuticals.

The first gene therapy approved in Western Europe, UniQures Glybera, turned out to be a flop. The company withdrew it from the market last year and is shifting its focus to hemophilia treatments.
FRANKFURT, Germany  Volkswagen is set to oust CEO Matthias Mueller as it grapples with a diesel emissions scandal that has cost it billions of dollars, led to the imprisonment of two executives and scarred the German carmakers reputation.

Herbert Diess, who is in charge of the companys flagship Volkswagen brand, is expected to succeed Mueller, according to two people with knowledge of the internal discussions. The company said Tuesday that it is considering a leadership change, and a final decision is expected by the end of the week.

While there was no obvious trigger for Muellers departure at this moment, his efforts to lead the company beyond the 2015 emissions cheating scandal have stalled.

The repercussions of the wrongdoing have continued to multiply, tainting not only Volkswagen but also rivals BMW and Daimler just as they are dealing with an industrywide shift toward electric and self-driving vehicles. Political leaders are pressing the German carmakers to compensate diesel owners who bought cars that turned out to be dirtier than advertised, which could add to the already astronomical cost of the scandal.

Word of Muellers expected departure came only days after Deutsche Bank, Germanys largest lender, fired CEO John Cryan amid chronic losses. The boardroom turmoil at two of the countrys most prominent companies is symptomatic of the clouds that are beginning to gather around the German economy. While unemployment is at record lows, other recent indicators have pointed to slower growth, including falling industrial production.

Mueller, 64, took over Volkswagen amid the worst crisis in its postwar history, days after it admitted in September 2015 that it had cheated on diesel emissions tests, installing illegal software in 11 million vehicles.

He succeeded in preventing a collapse of sales and profit. But Mueller, who has spent his entire career at Volkswagen or its subsidiaries, struggled to deliver on his promises to remake the companys insular culture. The carmaker continued to suffer blows to its reputation, including revelations in January that it had financed tests on monkeys in a bungled attempt to show that diesel exhaust was not as dangerous as it once was.

Diess, 59, carries less baggage than Mueller because he arrived at Volkswagen only a few months before the diesel scandal erupted. And Diess has led Volkswagens push to mass-produce electric cars, which are seen as essential to the companys ability to defend itself against challengers such as Tesla, Uber and Google that are trying to remake the auto industry.

This is a chance for Volkswagen to make a change, said Christian Strenger, former head of Deutsche Banks wealth management division, who is suing Volkswagen because he said it violated its duty to shareholders by failing to be forthcoming about the emissions scandal. But Strenger said that Diess would have to have the guts to clean things up.

Volkswagen is still the target of a wide-ranging criminal investigation that has included searches of Muellers offices. However, there has been no new information that would have prompted Mueller to leave now, said Klaus Ziehe, a spokesman for the prosecutors in Braunschweig who are conducting the inquiry.

German prosecutors have not charged anyone in the Volkswagen case, but they expect to complete their investigation this year. Two former Volkswagen executives, James Liang and Oliver Schmidt, are serving prison sentences in the United States after pleading guilty to charges including conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.

Mueller was a high-ranking executive involved in product development at the same time that the company was concocting the illegal software and installing it in vehicles. He also worked closely with some of the people under investigation over possible involvement in the emissions scandal. Mueller has insisted he was ignorant of any wrongdoing, but he has nonetheless faced the accusation that he was part of a system that allowed it to take place.

The challenges that Diess faces are considerable. Even now, the diesel scandal continues to corrode Volkswagens reputation.

In January, the New York Times reported that the company had helped to finance experiments in which monkeys were forced to breathe diesel fumes at a lab in Albuquerque. The exposure of the research caused a furor in Germany and beyond. Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the experiments, the German Parliament debated possible consequences and animal welfare activists demonstrated outside Volkswagens headquarters.

Volkswagens cheating has also had an effect on the wider industry. Diesel was once the most popular engine option in Europe because of its fuel economy. But diesel vehicle sales have been dropping since Volkswagens deception was uncovered.

The scandal exposed the degree to which virtually all of the European carmakers took advantage of regulatory loopholes to sell diesels that polluted far more in everyday use than in official tests, causing poor air quality that led to thousands of premature deaths. As a result, cities across Europe have taken steps to restrict the use of diesel vehicles in urban centers. German carmakers have suffered the most from the backlash because of their dependence on the technology.

Jack Ewingis a New York Times writer.
Wells Fargo & Co. could be fined several hundred million dollars by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the banks mortgage-lending and auto-insurance abuses.

The agency is in talks with the San Francisco bank over penalties for the problems, Reuters reported Monday, citing two unidentified people with knowledge of the discussions. Bureau acting Director Mick Mulvaney is pushing for fines as large as $1 billion, Reuters said.
The latest incident of perceived passenger mistreatment  a teenager with Down syndrome kicked off an Alaska Airlines flight because he got sick  raises an important question: Just how much latitude do airlines have in deciding who can fly with them and who cant?

In the Alaska Airlines incident, the teenager and his parents were told to deplane just after boarding a St. Louis-Seattle flight because the boy threw up. The airline rebooked them on a flight the next morning but didnt provide overnight hotel accommodations.

An Alaska Airlines official said the deplaning of the family was justified because the teenager was visibly ill, and it is safer for guests to be treated on the ground, as our crew are not trained medical professionals.

The boys sister (a law student) told NBC News she considered it a case of disability discrimination, alleging that if her brother didnt have Down syndrome, he wouldnt have been removed from the flight simply for throwing up. The NBC report states that Alaska Air upgraded the family to first class for the trip home the next day.

Was the airline within its rights to remove this passenger? It probably was, if you consider that airlines define their own rights when it comes to deciding who can fly and who gets the boot.

Passengers are scrutinized during the boarding process by flight attendants who look for lots of things that could potentially disqualify a traveler from taking his seat. Flight attendants told the U.K. newspaper The Independent last year that one of the first things they look for is a passenger who is visibly drunk or appears to be under the influence of drugs. These individuals are considered clear safety risks, and the captain  who holds the ultimate authority on a plane  will almost always back up the flight crews call.

They also keep an eye out for passengers who appear to be seriously ill. This is not always obvious, but when it is, the individual could be denied boarding to protect other flyers from catching whatever he or she has. (And not just physical illness  travelers who are clearly deranged or overtly hostile could also pose a safety threat.) Flight attendants were one of the first lines of defense during recent outbreaks of SARS or the various influenza panics that have hit the travel industry in recent years.

And they watch for travelers who try to carry on something they shouldnt, like a small pet in a handbag, or an open liquor bottle. Flight attendants said they also try to identify passengers who are big and strong, in case they need to call on them for assistance during an emergency (like sitting on an unruly passenger until he is restrained).

For details of boarding denials, take a deep dive into the airlines contracts of carriage. These are the carriers lengthy legal statements of just what a customer is  and isnt  entitled to.

For example, United's contract of carriage  under Section 21 H, Safety  lists 19 categories of passengers who can be denied boarding or removed from a flight. For example, passengers (or their service animals) who demonstrate disorderly, offensive, abusive or violent conduct. (Id say that offensive conduct could cover a multitude of sins and is really in the eye of the beholder.) Other violations: passengers who are barefoot or not properly clothed (again, a pretty subjective judgment); passengers who violate smoking rules; passengers who have or cause a malodorous condition (no argument there!); passengers who make voice calls on their phones after the aircraft doors have closed; and women in the ninth month of pregnancy (unless they have a doctors certificate).

And to get back to the issue we started with, Uniteds contract of carriage permits flight crews to deny boarding to passengers who appear to have symptoms of or have a communicable disease or condition that could pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others on the flight, or who refuse a screening for such disease or condition.

Delta's contract of carriage, under its Rule 35 F, covers many of the same reasons for keeping passengers off a flight. One of its stated reasons is a real catch-all in case the flight crew wants someone off the plane but cant nail down a specific violation: It permits denied boarding when a passengers conduct creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.

Are airlines within their rights to keep certain passengers off planes? Was it okay to remove the teen for throwing up? Please leave your comments below.

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
Two people were fatally shot within three days in Richmond, marking the citys first two homicides of the year, authorities said.

On Monday, Mark Henderson, 29, of Richmond, was shot and killed just after 9 p.m., said Lt. Felix Tan, a spokesman for the Richmond Police Department.

The shooting reportedly occurred on the 4900 block of Hartnett Avenue near Crescent Park.

No arrests were made and no suspect information was available.

Hendersons slaying was the second fatal shooting to occur in Richmond in the span of three days.

On Saturday, 20-year-old Antioch resident Javoni Foster was fatally shot about 1 p.m. while driving his car near the 1000 block of South 55th Street, Tan said.

Foster was reportedly found in the drivers seat of his car with gunshot wounds at the intersection of Bayview Avenue and Ells Street, a half-mile from where the shooting occurred.

He just drove away from the scene after he was shot and crashed (into a parked vehicle) and died, Tan said.

There were no arrests and no suspects identified.

Its unclear if Foster was an innocent bystander.

The detectives are still trying figure out what part he plays in anything, Tan said.

The shootings occurred a little more than half-mile from each other, but its still too early to tell if they are related, Tan said.

The bottom line is we need to find out what the motive is, he said. Once we find out what the motive is we can really focus on our investigation. So, right now, we are at the early stages.

The two shootings were the most recent slayings to occur in Richmond since November.

On Nov. 14, Hayley Flores, 26, and Robert Bill, 24, were killed by gunfire in a residence on the 900 block of View Drive, in the Hilltop Green neighborhood.

No arrests were made in the shooting.

The sudden rash of killings over the last several days doesnt necessarily mean that the city is experiencing increased violence, Tan said.

Its not like we have a complete uptick in homicides now, Tan said. Its still too soon to tell.

Anyone with information on the recent shootings can contact the Richmond Police Department at (510) 233-1214.
The Big Man Bandit, a 300-pound serial bank robber who evaded arrest for weeks, was finally taken into custody outside of an off-track betting site in San Mateo, authorities said Monday.

Gregory Alan Vaughan, 50, of Daly City, admitted to being responsible for five bank robberies throughout San Mateo and the Bay Area, according to the San Mateo Police Department.
A Manteca man accused of threatening to kill female staff members of U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges, officials said.

Ronald Joseph Lafaye, 52, was arraigned Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court on charges of criminal threats, threatening a public officer and making annoying telephone calls. He allegedly left 12 threatening voice mails on the office phone for the congresswoman.

Speiers office on Tuesday declined to comment on the allegations.

The incident started with a very innocuous sort of call made in December, according to the office of San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Lafaye was reportedly seeking help with veterans affairs. The Chronicle could not immediately confirm that Lafaye is a veteran.

Months later, on March 19, he left a dozen voice mails peppered with expletives and threats of violence, according to prosecutors. During the calls, Lafaye allegedly said that he used to pray for Jackie Speier in junior high school and has nothing against her, but that her staff is worthless.

Lafaye also threatened to torture one of the women on staff, adding that hed been taught how to torture women, Wagstaffe said.

Its very obvious from this there are serious mental health issues going on, he said. What exactly provoked the call to this office? Dont know at this point.

Lafaye also allegedly threatened staff members by saying he would carve your f heart out, according to prosecutors.

Its not clear why Lafaye called the office when his home of Manteca (San Joaquin County) is not in the 14th District represented by Speier.

Lafaye left his first and last name and his number on the voice mail, Wagstaffe said. Police found him in Oregon, where he was extradited from in the last two weeks, officials said.

Prosecutors were discussing with the U.S. attorneys office if the case should go through federal court.

Lafaye was being held at Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
ABC News(LONDON) -- The poisoned daughter of a former Russian spy has reportedly been discharged from hospital after being targeted with a suspected nerve agent alongside her father.



Hospital officials said Yulia Skripal, 33, left the hospital early on Tuesday morning having made a rapid recovery after spending almost a month unconscious and in critical condition.



A statement delivered by Salisbury Hospital Medical Director Christine Blanshard said they "wish Yulia well," but said "this is not the end of her treatment."



"Yulia has asked for privacy from the media and I want to reiterate that request," Blanshard said.



Yulia and her father Sergei, 66, were found slumped on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Blanshard said Sergei has also made "excellent" progress and they hoped he would also be released from the hospital "in due course."



Assessments by the British government concluded they were attacked with a type of Russian nerve agent known as Novichok.



Russia has fiercely denied allegations it is responsible and accused the Brits of fabricating the attack.



Doctors at Salisbury District Hospital said last week that Yulia Skripal was "responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition."



"Our job in treating the patients has been to stabilise them -- ensuring that the patients could breathe and that blood could continue to circulate," Blanshard said Tuesday morning of the treatments used to save Yulia and her father. "We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning."



Shortly after the hospital's announcement, it emerged that Yulia may have spoken to her cousin in Russia by phone.



A recording which purported to be of the conversation was aired on Russian television, consisting of a brief conversation between the two, with Yulia saying she did not think her cousin would be given a visa to enter the U.K. to visit her.



Over the weekend the British press reported the Skripals may be resettled in one of the western countries involved in the "five-eyes" intelligence-sharing community -- the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Contradictions are nothing new for the 62-year-old former Air Force colonel. As a member of the House of Representatives in 1998, he went along with the Republican leadership and became a manager of the foolish effort to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about sex with a White House intern. He then broke with the party establishment to support McCain's 2000 presidential campaign.

A politician of unsurpassed personal charm, he even won over his Democratic opponent, Alex Sanders, after his first Senate run in 2002. Sanders said in defeat that if he'd known that "Lindsey would be that good a senator, I'd have voted for him."

Even so, watching Graham deal with Trump is like following an instruction manual on how to have it both ways. Like other conservatives, he supported the White House in both its successful tax-cutting initiative and its failed effort to repeal Obamacare, even offering up a slipshod alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

But he also bucked the Republican right wing as a champion of immigration reform. He worked diligently to cut a deal with the White House that could get through Congress; it failed, but immigration advocates applauded his dedication and sincerity.
State law also requires that the grand jury undertake certain other actions. The jury must inquire into the condition and management of the public prisons within the county. It must inquire into the willful misconduct of public officials.

Most investigations are conducted by a committee of three to five jurors who interview officials and review relevant reports and documents. The committee also prepares a final report on its facts and findings, which must be approved by a majority vote of the jury.

All proceedings of the jury are confidential. All interviewees are admonished to maintain in strictest confidence the nature of the investigation and any details of the inquiry. The jurors, themselves, must also maintain confidentiality about any investigation or even that there is an investigation. A question that is frequently asked is, What if individuals or officials refuse to be interviewed? The grand jury has the power to subpoena an individual for interview, but in general Napa County officials have been very cooperative.
SACRAMENTO  Sixteen Democratic attorneys general pushed back Monday against a Texas lawsuit aimed at striking down former President Barack Obamas health care overhaul.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led 14 other states and the District of Columbia in filing a motion to intervene in the Texas case and defend the law, suggesting the Trump administration wouldnt take such action.

Were taking this action to protect the health and financial security of millions of people in our country, as well as billions of dollars of federal funds that go to our states to make sure that we can afford the health care that our families need, Becerra said at a news conference.

The motion sets up a battle between Democratic- and Republican-led states, 19 of which joined the Texas case that was filed in February. It argues the Affordable Care Act is no longer valid because of a provision in the Republican-backed tax overhaul that removed fines for not having health insurance.

It also points to a prior effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Acts individual mandate that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court upheld the mandate, ruling it was constitutional under the taxing power of Congress.

Last years Republican-led tax overhaul law removed the financial penalty for not purchasing health insurance. The Texas lawsuit argues that by removing the financial penalty, the individual mandate can no longer be considered a tax and is therefore unconstitutional.

Joining California are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
WASHINGTON  President Trump angrily unloaded on his top law enforcement officials Monday night, complaining that the FBI broke into the office of Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, and assailing two early-morning raids as a disgraceful situation and an attack on our country in a true sense.

The president repeatedly said the raids were part of a witch hunt against him that has been conducted since he took office, and he mused about the possibility that he might soon fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia inquiry.

Well see what may happen, Trump said as he began a meeting with senior military officials to discuss responses to a chemical attack in Syria. Many people have said, You should fire him.

The president railed against Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, for recusing himself in the Russia investigation, and he blasted the FBI for failing to investigate Hillary Clinton where there are crimes. He also lashed out at Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who is overseeing the Russia investigation.

Trump delivered the tirade hours after federal officials raided Cohens office and hotel room, seizing business records, emails and documents, including information related to a payment that Cohen made to a pornographic film actress.

The raids were in part the result of a referral to federal officials by Mueller. Trump called Muellers team the most biased group of people and said that it contained mostly Democrats and some Republicans who worked for President Barack Obama.

That is really now in a whole new level of unfairness, Trump said of the raids involving Cohen.

Officials said the White House learned about the raids from Cohens lawyer after they were carried out but before they became public knowledge.

Trump has long complained that the Russia inquiry was a politically motivated bid to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory. And he has been highly critical of Sessions and the FBI for failing to adequately investigate Clintons use of a private email server.

But the aggressive move by federal officials against Cohen, the presidents longtime personal lawyer, appeared to strike a particularly sensitive nerve. Cohen, who works for Trumps private company, has long been considered one of the presidents closest confidants.

Trump reacted to the raids without any prompting from reporters, who had been brought into the Cabinet Room where the president was meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, new national security adviser John R. Bolton and other military officials to discuss the situation in Syria. As the cameras began rolling, Trump immediately condemned the actions against Cohen.

So, I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and its a disgraceful situation, he said. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time. Ive wanted to keep it down.

It was unclear what Trump meant by saying he wanted to keep it down. He went on to criticize Muellers team for examining the presidents associates.

They only keep looking at us. So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, Well, lets keep going, and they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning, and I think its a disgrace, Trump said.
1 Senators baby: Sen. Tammy Duckworth gave birth to a baby girl Monday, making her the first U.S. senator to have a child while in office. The Illinois Democrat announced she delivered her second daughter, Maile (MY-lee) Pearl Bowlsbey. Her office said Duckworth is recovering well. Duckworth, a 50-year-old veteran who lost her legs in the Iraq War, is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while in Congress. Her first daughter, Abigail, was born in 2014. Duckworth said Mailes middle name is in honor of her husbands great aunt, who was an Army officer and nurse in World War II.

2 Border forces: Arizona was sending 225 of the states National Guard members to the border with Mexico on Monday and pledged to deploy another 113 on Tuesday to support President Trumps plan to use the military to help fight illegal immigration and drug trafficking. GOP Gov. Doug Ducey said the deployments are needed to stop a surge of border crossings since March and accused the U.S. government of previously ignoring the border for nearly a decade. The Arizona troops were being sent after Texas announced Friday it would send 250 National Guard members. Texas raised the mobilization to 1,000 members on Monday. New Mexicos Republican governor has said her state would also take part in the operation.
AL DRAGO/NYT

WASHINGTON  The FBI agents who raided the office of President Trumps personal lawyer Monday were looking for records about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump, and information related to the publisher of the National Enquirers role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on the investigation said.

The search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the New York City federal attorneys office seeks information about Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she carried on a nearly yearlong affair with Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the Enquirers parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Trumps.
Berkeley's Virginia Bakery, a decades-old institution just south of the famed Gourmet Ghetto, has announced it is closing its doors at the end of this month.

The old-fashioned bakery, located on the corner of Shattuck and Virginia, broke the news with a brief Facebook post on Monday afternoon:

"Virginia Bakery is closing permanently on April 28, 2018 after 65 years in the Erdmann family. We will miss you, but it's time to retire. We hope to see you sometime before we close.

Fondly, John and Anne"

But news spread quickly, and hundreds of longtime customers left comments expressing their appreciation, sadness and decades of sweet memories:

"I remember Virginia Bakery fondly from my childhood! You've definitely earned your retirement. All the best."

"Your birthday cakes are the only ones that actually get eaten up. I will miss you!"

"Noooooooooo"

"This is terrible news. Don't you have a son or daughter to take over? Oh, my."

While many had especially fond memories of the birthday cakes, fans of the dinner rolls also spoke up and there were plenty of blissful memories of cookies with one person giving a shout-out to the "best bear claws!"

In 2005, when Virginia Bakery was celebrating its 50th anniversary, Chowhound proclaimed that it made "the finest Irish Soda Bread in the Bay Area." This may still be true, but, if so, that mantle will soon be up for grabs. Have a look at Virginia Bakery's sweet offerings while they're still around.
As students begin signing up this week for the summer semester at City College of San Francisco, school officials have a sober message for them: Theyll have to pay for classes.

No Free City for this summer, Chancellor Mark Rocha emailed college trustees over the weekend, referring to the two-year, $11.2 million program that began last fall and will let San Francisco residents attend the college for free through spring 2019.

Through the program, city residents have rediscovered the college that is anchored in San Franciscos foggy Ingleside neighborhood, but which has campuses from Chinatown to San Francisco International Airport. Enrollment had plunged in recent years as the college struggled to retain its accreditation. But now, with City College again in good standing with the accreditor  and with classes available for free  enrollment is up by 17 percent, college officials said.

However, under an agreement between the city and the college, free classes are funded only for fall and spring semesters. So on Thursday, Rocha asked the mayors office for summer funding.

Hydra Mendoza, the mayors deputy chief of staff for education, told Rocha that City College will have to comply with the original terms.

I have always advised City College that we implement the program with fidelity as agreed before making any major changes, Mendoza said, noting that Rocha approached her informally to request advice on how to approach the mayors office for summer funding.

Im kind of shocked that the city would do this to the students of San Francisco, college Trustee John Rizzo said. After all, the politicians took credit for it and said what a great thing it was  and now theyre just pulling the rug out from under the students.

Brigitte Davila, president of the Board of Trustees, said City College officials hoped that students could roll out of high school in June, and into free college classes this summer.

I am remaining hopeful, Davila said. Im hoping the city changes its mind and will be flexible about this.

Meanwhile, the City College website  which touts Free City / Walls Torn Down / Barriers Busted  has added a qualifier: Fall & Spring Semesters.

The money comes from a voter-approved tax on San Francisco properties that sell for at least $5 million and is estimated to raise about $44 million a year for the city. A portion of the money is used to buy out the $46-a-credit fee usually paid by students.

So far, the city hasnt paid City College because the citys Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, which reimburses the school, hasnt been satisfied with the accuracy of the enrollment numbers provided, or with City Colleges efforts to inform students that they must first apply for state and federal financial aid before registering for free classes.

Now the city is evaluating the colleges updated request for nearly $2.8 million and its supporting documentation, said Leo Chyi, the departments chief finance officer. If all is in order, the city will have 30 days to cut the check.

Meanwhile, college officials say they are not giving up on free summer classes. The 11-member board that is supposed to oversee the Free City program will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. on April 20, at a site yet to be determined.

The college will continue to make a case for an increased budget that fully meets the student demand, Rocha promised the trustees.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
We take for granted that the ordinary things we use every day are, in fact, extraordinary inventions and breakthroughs that took years of investment, work, and commitment to bring to life.

Among these are the technologies that allow you to watch a movie on a streaming platform or read the new novel from your favorite author on your tablet, or the life-saving medicine that wasnt around 10 years ago, or even 10 months ago.

The United States stands alone as the global leader in innovation. For decades, we have recognized the tremendous value of innovation and creativity and established a strong intellectual property system that consistently rewards, protects, and pushes the boundaries of future possibilities. This system attracted investment from markets with weaker protections and gave birth to the core driver, and future, of the U.S. economy.

An unlevel playing field with our trading partners threatens this future by handicapping and hampering creative and innovative U.S. industries.
Monday, April 2

0210  Non-injury accident on Madrona Avenue.

0850  Police responded to a two-car injury accident at Silverado Trail and Pope Street. One of the vehicles was overturned.

0959  A person reported receiving threatening emails.

1003  A person in New Mexico received suspicious phone calls from someone claiming to work for Sonoma County and asking for personal information. The person didnt provide any information, and when they looked up the phone number they saw it belonged to a St. Helena man.

1422  A Sylvaner Avenue resident said her neighbor had parked in the area where she needs to put her garbage cans.

1540  Report of a car parked in the middle of Scott Street, blocking a driveway.

1540  A caller requested extra patrol on Allyn Avenue, due to cars speeding before and after school. Police asked Public Works to place a radar trailer there.

1558  Report of a car speeding, weaving, and almost causing an accident when it tried to pass another car near Oakville Cross and Highway 29.
A San Francisco police officer who is Muslim and emigrated from Afghanistan said Tuesday that fellow cops and superiors repeatedly referred to him as a terrorist and subjected him to ugly jokes, slurs and other blatant racism in his first two years with the department.

The officer, who spoke at a news conference arranged by city Public Defender Jeff Adachi  but asked not to be identified by name, citing fear of harassment or attacks  said he witnessed colleagues engaging in sexual and racist misconduct toward citizens as well, including calling a black motorist a monkey.

Among the officers allegations are that co-workers routinely muted their body-worn cameras before making crude comments at crime scenes, and that several expressed support for the white nationalist movement.

He said he came forward because he lost faith after reporting the alleged misconduct in November to his departments Internal Affairs Bureau and in January to the citys Department of Human Resources.

Since filing the reports, the officer said, hes been labeled a rat, singled out by my colleagues, and I now fear for my safety. He said he was profoundly disappointed things turned out the way they did. When I experienced racial and religious harassment, and also witnessed blatant misconduct against citizens, I reported it. Thats my duty as a police officer.

In a statement Tuesday, San Francisco police officials said they take the allegations very seriously.

The department was made aware of these allegations in November 2017 and immediately initiated an investigation, officials said. There are currently three ongoing investigations by SFPD and the Citys Department of Human Resources. SFPD will thoroughly investigate all alleged misconduct uncovered during these investigations which implicates any member of this department.

The officers accusations come as the police force works to implement reforms after a U.S. Department of Justice review that was spurred by past charges of racism and several controversial police shootings. The department was rocked by scandal in 2015 and 2016, when it was revealed that several police officers had been exchanging racist and homophobic text messages.

The officer has not filed a lawsuit against his department and only wants it to properly train these officers, said Adachi. He said he got involved because all efforts by the officer to report the allegations were met with inaction or retaliation.

This is not about money, he said. This is about wanting to improve the department.

The officer began working for the city force in June 2016 after graduating from San Franciscos Police Academy. A year later, he completed field training and was assigned to Central Station, he said. Within a month, he said, he was being harassed.

Adachi provided reporters with a redacted copy of the officers human resources complaint, which details the alleged misconduct. In July 2017, the officer said, fellow officers took him to a gentlemans club on Broadway while they were on duty to embarrass him. Over the next month, he said, he was harassed over his race and religion.

The incidents described by the officer include:

A fellow officer asking him, Do you know any towel heads?

A fellow officer telling him, I would appreciate it if you tell me the place of your terrorist network, so I can plan in advance. When your family members come out here as an active shooter or ram a car, Id appreciate it if you give me a heads up so I can put them down gently.

An officer saying a Muslim ban should go into effect, asking, Why do we have them here? Get them all out.

An officer asking if his police earpiece wire was connected to a bomb.

In August, the officer reported that someone wrote tick tick on his police locker. Officers later asked him, according to his report, if he could take a joke: Youre not one of those crybabies are you? Shortly after, an officer called him a racial slur roughly four times, he said.

Adachi showed a picture of the officers Central Station locker, on which someone allegedly wrote the words, ISIS go back.

The officer also alleged misconduct toward citizens. In one November incident, Adachi said, a fellow cop told the officer they had to respond to a 911 call outside their district and ended up at an apartment on Union Street. An intoxicated woman inside said shed met the officer before, when he stopped her for driving under the influence and then let her go after she showed him her breasts, Adachi said. He said this officer then told his shocked partner to wait while he had sex with the woman.

The officer who spoke at the news conference Tuesday said he left the apartment and reported the incident.

That same month, he said, he was on patrol with an officer who told him, I want to get guns, and the only people who have guns are blacks and Hispanics. The department doesnt like us to make judgments like that, but if I see a black person behind the wheel of the vehicle, Ill pull the car over and figure out my probable cause later.

Later that night, according to the complaint, the fellow officer said in reference to an African American driver, Did you see that f monkey?

The reporting officer added that he heard officers repeatedly use homophobic slurs, including one officer calling another a f faggot.

The officer said joining the San Francisco force was a boyhood dream, and that he had admired the organization since he was 8, when an officer helped his family as they arrived at San Francisco International Airport.

Despite the allegations, he said he plans to continue working for the department for the next 30 years.

Im not going anywhere, he said.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Oak Knoll District grapegrower Steve Moulds has been named the 2018 Napa Valley Grower of the Year.

Napa Valley Grapegrower vice president Paul Goldberg said, Steve has contributed to the overall success of the Napa grape growing community in many ways. Among numerous achievements, Steve has exhibited a long-standing commitment to sustainable and high-quality farming practices, he has helped define the role of the Farmworker Foundation in educating and improving the lives of farmworkers throughout the valley, and his service to the Grapegrowers and other community organizations has been unparalleled.

Moulds began his farming career in the early 1970s, on a ranch in Morgan Hill, raising animals to sell at auction. During that time, he served in the Department of Social Services in Gilroy, helping Spanish-speaking migrant workers gain skills and remove barriers to employment.

While serving in the Peace Corps, he worked in Orocuina, Honduras, focusing on rural community and agricultural development. Moulds was instrumental in building schools there and he established a co-operative savings and loan, which is still in operation.

In 2000, he and his wife Betsy moved to the Oak Knoll District, where they planted 11 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and committed themselves to producing high quality winegrapes.
***

Word has it that Amy Carabba-Salazar and Joaquin Razo from the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce have temporarily set up shop in the old Goodmans space at the Masonic building. Theyll be there until approximately April 20, when they plan to move into their new permanent home in the former La Condesa building across the street. In the meantime, its good to know that someone is making use of the Goodmans space.

***

The St. Helena Rotary Clubs Kentucky Derby Party is back at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at the Cameo Cinema. Highlights will include a Best Hat Contest, Best Male Derby Style Contest, southern food, wine, a silent auction, and the big race projected on the Cameos big screen. This years event is being dedicated to the late Joice Beatty, a longtime Rotarian who threw herself behind more worthy causes than I have room to list. Proceeds will benefit St. Helena Preschool For all. Tickets are $65. RSVP to Roxann Schaubhut at 965-9131 or roxann@exede.net or John Muhlner at 963-6166 or jbmuhlner@earthlink.net, or mail a donation to the St. Helena Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 211, St. Helena, CA 94574.

***
RICHMOND (BCN)

A 20-year-old Antioch man died in a shooting in Richmond on Saturday, the city's first homicide of 2018, a police spokesman said.

The shooting was reported around 1 p.m. Saturday in the 1000 block of South 55th Street, Richmond police Lt. Felix Tan said.

The victim has been identified by the Contra Costa County coroner's office as Javoni Foster.

No arrest has been made in the case and no suspect information was immediately available, Tan said.

Richmond's previous homicide was a double fatal shooting on Nov. 14, when a man and woman were killed on View Drive.

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SAN MATEO (BCN)

A man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of robbing five banks in the Bay Area, police reported.

A San Mateo police officer was driving through the parking lot of the Jockey Club at 2495 S. Delaware St. at 12:45 p.m. when he identified a gold Cadillac sedan that was allegedly used by the suspect to get away after the robberies.

Police made contact with the driver as he walked away from the car. They identified him as Gregory Vaughn, a 50-year-old Daly City resident.

Later, Vaughn allegedly told police in a statement that he was responsible for three robberies in San Mateo, one in San Jose and one in Campbell.

He was booked for multiple counts of robbery in the San Mateo County Jail, according to police.

###
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled today that workers' previous salaries can't be used to justify unequal pay for women and men doing the same job.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in the case of a Fresno schools mathematics consultant, said different pay based on past salaries violates the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The late Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, "Prior salary is not job-related and it perpetuates the very gender-based assumptions about the value of work that the Equal Pay Act was designed to end."

The court noted in a footnote that Reinhardt completed the lead opinion in the case before his death on March 29 at age 87 after more than 37 years on the bench.

Reinhardt wrote, "Salaries speak louder than words.... Although the Act has prohibited sex-based wage discrimination for more than fifty years, the financial exploitation of working women embodied by the gender pay gap continues to be an embarrassing reality of our economy."

The plaintiff, Aileen Rizo, was a middle and high school math teacher from Arizona who was hired by the Fresno County Office of Education as a consultant in 2009 to train teachers in new ways of teaching math.

After three years on the job, she found she was paid more than $10,000 less than her male colleagues who were doing similar work and had either similar or less experience.

At the time, the county set the employees' pay according to a 10-level salary schedule. New hires' initial salary levels were based on their previous pay.

Rizo sued Fresno County Schools Superintendent Jim Yovino in federal court in 2014, claiming that her lower pay was illegal.

Today's decision was issued by a rarely convened 11-judge panel of the appeals court. Rizo appealed for review by the expanded panel after a three-judge appeals panel ruled in favor of Yovino. Earlier, a federal trial judge in Fresno sided with Rizo.

The Equal Pay Act, signed in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, requires equal pay for equal work, but makes exceptions for pay based on seniority, merit, productivity or "any other factor other than sex."

Yovino's lawyers claimed that previous salary was a valid factor "other than sex."

But the appeals court majority said that a woman's prior salary was not a valid consideration because it was likely to be tied to past discrimination.

It said legitimate other factors must be job-related, such as a prospective employee's experience, educational background, ability or prior job performance.

All 11 judges on the panel agreed that the salary disparity was illegal in Rizo's case.

The six-member majority of the court, led by Reinhardt, said that in general, previous salary cannot be a consideration even when combined with other factors.

The five other judges said in concurring opinions that they believed previous salary could sometimes be considered in conjunction with other factors.

Yovino's lawyer, Michael Woods, said the superintendent will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for further review.

"We remain confident that the policy of determining salaries by the Fresno County superintendent of schools, which was in effect through December 31, 2015, was absolutely gender-neutral, objective and effective in attracting qualified applicants and complied with all applicable laws," Woods said in a statement.

###
Ephesians 2:8-9 wraps a bow around this entire issue of how God has shown us His grace, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The grace of God has been shown to every man, woman and child through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We were all created to know God in a personal way  to have a relationship with Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Through a personal relationship with Jesus we can experience the fullness of Gods grace. It cannot be experienced any other way.

When Paul pleads with the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 6:1 not to receive the grace of God in vain, he is essentially begging them not to turn away from the gracious opportunity to hear the gospel of forgiveness.

And I am doing the same thing for you today  begging you  pleading with you  urging you to hear the Good News of the Gospel.

No matter how good a life we try to live, we still fall miserably short of being a good person. The reason is that we are all sinners. The Bible says, No one is good  not even one. We cannot become who we are supposed to be without Jesus Christ.
OAKLAND (BCN)

A man with prior felony convictions in three different Northern California counties was arraigned today on an attempted murder charge for allegedly stabbing a man in West Oakland late last month.

Troy Foote, 29, who has addresses in Oakland and Berkeley and also has family members in Antioch, is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Wednesday for further arraignment.

Foote, who is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and listed his occupation as freeway cleanup, is accused of stabbing another man in the area of Sixth and Castro streets, near where Interstate Highway 880 and Interstate Highway 980 merge, at about 3 p.m. on March 29.

Oakland police Officer Gedam Gebremichael wrote in a probable cause statement that Sgt. Jeffrey Smoak saw Foote, who's also known as Harold Levi, in a physical altercation with the victim in which he appeared to strike the other man in the neck.

When Smoak got closer to the two men he discovered that Foote actually had stabbed the victim, according to Gebremichael.

Foote was arrested nearby a short time after the stabbing, Gebremichael said.

When officers searched Foote they recovered a folding knife with dried blood, gloves and bloody shoes, Gebremichael wrote.

A witness identified Foote as being the person who stabbed the other man, according to Gebremichael.

The victim suffered three stab wounds and was listed in critical condition so he wasn't able to provide a statement to police, Gebremichael said.

Prosecutors say Foote was convicted of battery by a prisoner on a non-prisoner in Solano County in 2012, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in Monterey County in 2007 and resisting an executive officer in Amador County in 2007.

Last Christmas Eve Berkeley police issued an alert asking for the public's help in trying to find Foote after he allegedly walked away from the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley against the advice of hospital staff.

Berkeley police classified Foote as a missing "at risk" person and said he might be suicidal.

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272-6280
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded more than $212 million for long-term natural disaster recovery efforts in California.

The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery money will address seriously damaged housing, businesses and infrastructure predominantly from wildfires and mudslides in the state in 2017.

The $28 billion grant nationwide also will go to eight other states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that suffered damage from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Of the $212.3 million to California, $124.1 million is dedicated to unmet needs and $88.2 million is for mitigation efforts to protect communities from predictable damage from future events, HUD officials said.

The Community Development Block Grants for disaster recovery support housing redevelopment and rebuilding, economic revitalization and infrastructure repair. The bulk of the money must be spent in the "most impacted" areas identified by HUD.

HUD will issue administrative guidelines shortly for the use of the funds for long-term recovery, particularly in housing.

HUD spokesman Eduardo Cabrera said the HUD grant specifically addresses the wildfires in Northern and Southern California depending on where the "most impact" occurred.

The HUD grant is the beginning of a planning process and more specific notices will be sent to California counties that will receive the recovery funds.

###
SANTA CRUZ (BCN)

A man who was wanted in a bank robbery at a U.S. Bank in Santa Cruz in January was arrested last week in Mountain View, police said Monday.

Randall Young, 48, was taken into custody last Wednesday on suspicion of robbery and kidnapping after Santa Cruz police obtained a $100,000 warrant for his arrest.

The Santa Cruz robbery took place on Jan. 10 at the bank location at 110 Morrissey Blvd. Young allegedly brandished a firearm and demanded cash, then fled the scene before police arrived.

Santa Cruz police said Young is currently at the San Mateo County Jail on separate charges, but the process to extradite him back to Santa Cruz County has started.

His charges in San Mateo County are for separate robberies at a gas station in Pacifica and a liquor store in San Bruno last month. A preliminary hearing in those cases is set for today in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Anyone with more information on the bank robbery case is asked to call Santa Cruz police at (831) 420-5820.

###
SAN JOSE (BCN)

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has issued a memorandum about updating the City Council's travel policy for trips made to sister cities as a response to five city councilmembers and multiple staff members traveling to Japan this week.

San Jose City Council's Sylvia Arenas, Lan Diep, Sergio Jimenez, Johnny Khamis and Raul Peralez as well as a number of city staff members traveled to the sister city of Okayama, Japan.

Liccardo recommended three modifications to the Council Travel Policy regarding trips to sister cities: that the mayor should nominate a single councilmember to represent San Jose, subject to approval, if he or she cannot go, that the Council approval should be sought out if more than one member wants to go on a trip that public funding is being used for, and that councilmembers should not use public dollars to bring additional staff.

Jimenez tweeted a picture of four of the councilmembers, including himself, around noon Monday at a welcoming ceremony that featured Okayama Mayor Masao Omori. He described the welcome as warm in the social media post.

Khamis paid for his own expenses to go on the trip, which was commended by Liccardo in his memo.

"Good sense and adherence to the existing city policy has generally ensured that we avoid 'junkets,'" the mayor said.

Liccardo said his two main concerns about sending so many city representatives to Okayama were that city business was interrupted in the form of a lighter agenda for today's 1:30 p.m. Council meeting as well as other cancellations, and the expenditure of public dollars for elected officials and staff to go on the same trip.

A Neighborhood Services Committee meeting was supposed to take place today as well as a study session, but they were both rescheduled due to the absences, the mayor said.

"Interrupting meetings for lobbying trips to Sacramento or Washington may understandably have superseding priority -- for example, to obtain critical resources for our city," Liccardo said in the memo. "Travel on 'sister city' trips is substantially less compelling as a public priority, however."

The mayor said he believes that the hard-working public paying for these trips "justifiably sees declining marginal returns with the attendance of each additional member."

The mayor listed recent measures spanning from 2008 to 2016 in which the city has asked for voters to pay out of pocket in order to drive the point home that the city should not be abusing money that voters think "will be used appropriately."

"That trust is vital to our ability to do our jobs, and to serve our residents," Liccardo said. "I urge that we enact some minor reforms to the policy to ensure that we preserve it."

San Jose has eight sister cities: Okayama in Japan, San Jose in Costa Rica, Veracruz and Guadalajara in Mexico, Tainan in Taiwan, Dublin in Ireland, Pune in India and Ekaterinburg in Russia, according to the city's website.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A San Francisco police officer said today he is being targeted and retaliated against for filing a complaint last year against other officers in which he claimed racial and religious discrimination.

The San Francisco Public Defender's Office announced that the officer, who's not being named, initially made the complaint because in addition to being harassed for being of Afghan descent and Muslim, he also witnessed several incidents of racism and homophobia at the hands of officers at the city's Central Station.

According to an Equality Employment Opportunity complaint filed on January with the city's Department of Human Resources, the officer said that he started working for the Police Department in 2016 and in June 2017 was assigned to the Central Station in the city's North Beach neighborhood.

In the complaint, the officer described several incidents of misconduct and harassment by other officers, including an instance when other on-duty officers took him to a Broadway strip club to purposefully embarrass him.

He also claimed to endure repeated accusations of his family being terrorists and of him having bombs or weapons.

In addition, the officer said another officer once called him a "sand ni****" about four times and on another occasion, someone vandalized his locker at Central Station, writing a flag with the word "ISIS" on it and the words "go back" underneath.

The officer also said in the complaint that he witnessed other officers use the word "fa****" several times and on one night, an officer confessed to him that he would only pull over drivers because they were black and Hispanic and figure out a probable cause afterward. Later that night, the same officer allegedly referred to a black driver as a "monkey."

After filing a complaint with the department's Internal Affairs division in November, against the advice of his superiors, the officer said he was moved to the Richmond Station.

However, after growing tired with the unit's inaction, the officer went to the city's human resources department where he filed the EEO complaint, which was made public today.

The officer is alleging that details of his initial complaint with the Internal Affairs unit were not kept confidential and led to him being retaliated against.

"Since making my complaint, I have been labeled a rat, singled out by my colleagues, and I now fear for my safety," the officer said.

"Last week, it was brought to my attention that IA shared confidential information about me and their investigation with those I accused of harassment," he said. "I am truly ashamed of them. They have dishonored every principle and ethics the Police Department stands for," he said.

According to Public Defender Jeff Adachi, the officer has not filed a suit with the Police Department and is more interested in seeing change within the department.

"This is not about money, this about wanting to improve the department," Adachi said.

The officer said he has no plans to leave the department and is requesting that officers receive cultural sensitivity education and training, and that the police academy update its curriculum to include Middle Eastern cultural studies along with existing African American, Latino and LGBT cultural studies.

The officer, who is still on his probationary period, is choosing to remain anonymous since he plans to stay with the department for years to come.

The officer said he has wanted to be a San Francisco police officer since he was 8 years old, after an officer helped his family when they first arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Afghanistan.

"This comes at a time when there is increasing scrutiny on the Police Department, following the racist text messages, following (the U.S.) Department of Justice's COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program coming in, and the so-called reforms that were supposedly implemented to ensure that this doesn't happen," Adachi said.

Today's allegations come against a backdrop of several other alleged incidents involving misconduct, including two separate racist and homophobic text message scandals in 2015 and 2016.

In 2017, Officer Joel Babbs claimed he was being retaliated against for complaining of harassment and discrimination within the department, after he was arrested and charged with using false vehicle registration stickers and filing a false police report, both misdemeanors.

San Francisco police officials were not immediately available for comment on the officer's allegations.

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PLEASANT HILL (BCN)

Two men were arrested, including one after a 120 mph chase through Arizona, in connection with a Pleasant Hill homicide on Saturday, police said.

Pleasant Hill police contacted the Arizona Department of Public Safety and asked them to be on the lookout for Luther Lee, who they believed was an accessory in the homicide of Oshry Elor, 23, who was found fatally shot at his home on Norse Drive around 11:15 p.m. Saturday.

Police determined that Lee was driving east through Arizona on Interstate Highway 40, and Arizona state troopers conducted a traffic stop.

Lee and two others exited the vehicle and Lee was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Pleasant Hill. Keith Jones, another person who was still inside the vehicle, then allegedly fled in the car, police said.

Arizona state troopers pursued Jones for about 90 miles at speeds reaching up to 120 mph. They finally apprehended him with a spike strip after he crossed the New Mexico state border, police said.

Police arrested Jones and said they later determined that he killed Elor, who had been shot multiple times. Police said the shooting and robbery happened after a planned marijuana deal.

Jones, 29, is being held at McKinley County Adult Detention Center in New Mexico on suspicion of murder. Lee, 24, is being held at the Navajo County Detention Center in Arizona on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery and murder.

Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to contact Pleasant Hill police at (925) 288-4600.

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LOS GATOS (BCN)

Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police are asking for the public's help in identifying two suspects who robbed a US Bank on Monday morning.

Police said the two suspects entered the bank on 127 N. Santa Cruz Ave. sometime around 11:30 a.m., brandishing handguns and demanding cash. No employees were injured, but at least one customer suffered injuries due to some type of physical force exerted by the suspect, according to police.

The suspects took cash and fled in an awaiting four-door sedan with moderate right-front end damage that was waiting on a nearby street.

Police describe the suspects as both being between 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, wearing facemasks, sunglasses and black-hooded sweatshirts. One suspect had gray Nike running pants and black-and-red Nike shoes, while the other suspect donned dark gray pants and white running shoes.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call police at (408) 354-8600.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW (BCN)

An initiative that would revise a rent control policy put in place in Mountain View in 2016 is under fire after 18 of the city's residents filed a complaint with the city attorney's office Monday morning.

The group is alleging that the Mountain View Homeowner, Renter and Taxpayer Protection Initiative filed by former mayor John Inks and real estate agent Bryan Danforth on March 30 is "rife with misleading statements and inaccuracies," according to Steve Chandler of the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.

Chandler and the coalition said Measure V, the 2016 ballot measure approved by voters, is "a rent stabilization program," while its opponents, including the coalition Measure V Too Costly, call it "overly restrictive."

He and the residents who have complained said they consider the initiative nothing more than "a sneaky repeal of the voters' decision to protect the diversity of Mountain View."

Chandler said Inks and Danforth are working as "puppets" for the California Apartment Association, who he alleged both spent more than a million dollars to try to stop Measure V from passing and employ paid signature-gatherers who misrepresent petitions in order to obtain signatures.

"Our new tenant protections are an important part of the puzzle in addressing the housing crisis in Mountain View," resident Heather Phipps said in a statement. "The landlord initiative is an attack on the people who help make our town strong."

Laura Teutschel, spokeswoman of Measure V Too Costly, said that this is typical from the Mountain View Tenants Coalition and that they are scared.

"They would rather pick apart semantics than have a discussion," Teutschel said.

The purpose of the initiative is to place common sense limits on the unelected Rental Housing Commission, prohibit the commission from making funding demands on the city's general fund, require the commission to be transparent to citizens, encourage property owners to keep rental properties on the market for renters, encourage property owners to maintain and improve properties and increase public safety by evicting tenants who commit crimes, Inks and Danforth state in their "Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition" request.

"We filed the initiative to fix the inherent flaws within Measure V," Inks is quoted as saying in Teutschel's blog. "Measure V was proving to be too costly for taxpayers and was jeopardizing the city's General Fund, which are critical to Mountain View's public safety and infrastructure budgets."

Teutschel outlines in a blog post on the campaign's website that the first step of filing an initiative is that the City Attorney must issue a title and summary for it. They have 15 days to do so.

Once that happens, a notice to circulate the initiative for signature gathering must be published in a local newspaper. Once published, the signature gathering may begin.

Due to the fact of the initiative being a charter amendment for the city of Mountain View, 15 percent of total registered voters must be deemed valid in a sampling done by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

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Southwest Airlines started flying eight new nonstop flights from Bay Area airports to cities across the U.S. on Sunday, Southwest officials said on Monday.

Southwest has started flying directly from San Jose to Boise, Houston, Spokane, St. Louis, New Orleans and Albuquerque. Also on Sunday, Southwest started flying from San Francisco to Austin and from Oakland to Newark.
An inmate who apparently killed himself at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on Sunday afternoon had just been arrested last Wednesday for allegedly carjacking a woman at gunpoint in Livermore and leading officers on a high-speed chase, authorities said.

Logan Masterson, 37, was the inmate who was found unresponsive in his one-person cell at Santa Rita at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

Jail medical staff, firefighters and paramedics attempted life-saving measures on Masterson but he was pronounced dead, according to Kelly.

Masterson was booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of carjacking, burglary, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of stolen property, felony reckless evading, resisting arrest and possession of metal knuckles, according to Livermore police.

The case began when a woman reported that when she was walking to her vehicle in the 2100 block of Third Street at about 7 p.m. Wednesday when a man, later identified as Masterson, pointed a handgun at her and demanded her keys, police said.

Fearing for her safety, the woman gave up the keys and Masterson drove away in the victim's vehicle, police said. The victim immediately called police.

Officers found the vehicle traveling north on North Livermore Avenue at Las Positas Road and tried to make a traffic stop but Masterson zoomed away, taking the Greenville Road exit and fleeing east on Altamont Pass Road, police said.

With officers in pursuit, Masterson stopped on the shoulder of the road. He resisted arrest, but officers were able to take him into custody.

The officers allegedly found two handguns in the carjacked vehicle. Another victim later reported a residential burglary in which the two handguns and other property were stolen, police said.

In accordance with Alameda County's inmate death protocol, detectives from the sheriff's Eden Township Substation in San Leandro are investigating Masterson's death, Kelly said.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office have also been notified of the death, according to Kelly.

The county coroner's bureau also reesponded to the jail and will conduct an autopsy to determine the manner and cause of the inmate's death, Kelly said.

Four people suffered gunshot injuries outside an apartment complex in Vallejo late Monday night, a police lieutenant said.

Police received reports of 10 to 15 gunshots at the Marina Vista Apartments at 201 Maine St. around 11:20 p.m., Vallejo police Lt. Herman Robinson said.

There were no victims or suspects at the scene when police arrived and found a silver Chevrolet and Ford Focus parked next to each other and a dozen bullet shells in the parking lot, Robinson said.

Police impounded the Ford that had several bullet holes on the passenger side and blood smears on the outside, and it's believed the Chevrolet was not involved in the shooting, Robinson said.

Two 27-year-old Vallejo men, a 23-year-old woman from Oakley and a 23-year-old woman from Oakland showed up at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo with gunshot injuries that were not life-threatening, Robinson said.

All four did not cooperate with the shooting investigation and there have been no arrests in the case, Robinson said.

Oakland police evacuated a business in the Fruitvale district Monday night after a report of a robbery in progress.

The robbery was reported at 8:38 p.m. at 3020 E. Ninth St., a shopping center near the intersection of Ninth Street and Fruitvale Avenue that is roughly a quarter-mile from the Fruitvale BART station.

Investigators said the suspect approached an employee and demanded money, then fled the scene empty-handed before police arrived.

At this point, police said they're following up with witnesses and looking for video surveillance footage. Anyone with information or evidence in the case can reach out to the department's robbery section at (510) 238-3326.

The founder of Burning Man, Larry Harvey, has been hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke, organizers of the arts festival said.

Harvey, 70, was taken to a hospital on Wednesday and he remains in critical condition. He is receiving around-the-clock medical care, organizers said, but his prognosis is currently unknown.

"If there's one thing we know for sure, Larry wants us to burn the Man," organizers wrote in a post on Burning Man's website, assuring attendees that the community will continue to grow.

The event began in 1986 when Harvey burned the first "Man" at San Francisco's Baker Beach. The 8-foot structure was made of scrap lumber and a group of about two dozen people watched it burn.

The gathering has grown to about 70,000 people in Nevada's Black Rock Desert and a "Vitruvian Man" figure last year stood at 70 feet tall.

Organizers said many people will be startled and saddened by the news, but asked those who are affected to share well wishes, notes of gratitude and their "best and craziest" stories about Harvey.

"Thank you for sharing your love with each other, and your love of Burning Man with the world," organizers wrote.

The San Francisco-based Burning Man group said they will share more information once it becomes available.

A 33-year-old man was injured in a shooting early this morning in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley neighborhood, police said.

At 2:47 a.m., officers responded to the 1500 block of Sunnydale Avenue after a ShotSpotter device detected gunshots nearby.

At the scene, officers found a man suffering at least one gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, according to police.

The suspect fled before officers arrived and a description was not immediately available.

A victim of a fatal shooting in unincorporated Soquel on Sunday night has been identified by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office as Ivan Villalobos, 26.

Deputies responded just after 10 p.m. Sunday to find Villalobos had been shot while sitting on steps with a friend in a common area of the Emerald Bay Apartments, located at 2500 Soquel Drive, according to sheriff's Lt. Jim Ross.

Villalobos, a Soquel resident, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ross said while no motive or confirmation of gang-related activity has been discovered yet, the sheriff's office is sure that the act was intentional.

There is no indication at this point that there was an issue the victim had with anyone else before his death, Ross said.

"But it did happen pretty quick," he said.

Detectives are working on leads and will get information out to the public as soon as it is appropriate, Ross said.

The suspect's vehicle was described by a witness as a newer model, dark-colored sedan.

Anyone with tips about the shooting should call sheriff's Sgt. Dee Baldwin at (831) 454-7635.

A 52-year-old man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he called and threatened to kill staff of Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

Ronald Lafaye, a resident of Manteca, pleaded not guilty to felony charges of making criminal threats and threatening a public official, as well as a misdemeanor charge of making a phone call with the intent to annoy or threaten, prosecutors said.

Lafaye had called Speier's office in December and spoke with staff members who tried to assist him. Then on March 19, he allegedly left 12 "bizarre" voicemails at the office threatening to kill and harm the staff members, prosecutors said.

According to the district attorney's office, Lafaye said he had no problem with the congresswoman herself and said he had prayed for her when he was in school.

Lafaye has a lengthy history of making criminal threats and this would be a second strike under the state's "three strikes" law if he is convicted.

He will return to court on April 20 for a preliminary hearing and remains in custody on $150,000 bail.

Redwood City police are asking for the public's help in identifying four suspects who were involved in a drug deal gone bad on Sunday evening that resulted in a man being shot and seriously injured.

Police responded to the BevMo store at 1745 El Camino Real around 7:45 p.m. Sunday and found a 31-year-old man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The man was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery and was in critical but stable condition as of Monday night.

According to Redwood City police, the victim and suspects allegedly met for a prearranged sale of a large quantity of marijuana. During the transaction, the suspects shot the victim. It's unclear if only one or multiple suspects shot the man.

The four suspects left the scene in a black, four-door sedan that appeared similar in shape to a Honda. Two are described as black men between 20-25 years old, with slender builds. One man has short natural hair and was armed with a handgun and the other had black "Faux-Hawk" hair and was not armed, according to police.

The other two suspects were a male and female with no detailed descriptions available.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Redwood City police Detective Joe O'Gorman at (650) 780-7147.

A man who was wanted in a bank robbery at a U.S. Bank in Santa Cruz in January was arrested last week in Mountain View, police said Monday.

Randall Young, 48, was taken into custody last Wednesday on suspicion of robbery and kidnapping after Santa Cruz police obtained a $100,000 warrant for his arrest.

The Santa Cruz robbery took place on Jan. 10 at the bank location at 110 Morrissey Blvd. Young allegedly brandished a firearm and demanded cash, then fled the scene before police arrived.

Santa Cruz police said Young is currently at the San Mateo County Jail on separate charges, but the process to extradite him back to Santa Cruz County has started.

His charges in San Mateo County are for separate robberies at a gas station in Pacifica and a liquor store in San Bruno last month. A preliminary hearing in those cases is set for today in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Anyone with more information on the bank robbery case is asked to call Santa Cruz police at (831) 420-5820.

An initiative that would revise a rent control policy put in place in Mountain View in 2016 is under fire after 18 of the city's residents filed a complaint with the city attorney's office Monday morning.

The group is alleging that the Mountain View Homeowner, Renter and Taxpayer Protection Initiative filed by former mayor John Inks and real estate agent Bryan Danforth on March 30 is "rife with misleading statements and inaccuracies," according to Steve Chandler of the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.

Chandler and the coalition said Measure V, the 2016 ballot measure approved by voters, is "a rent stabilization program," while its opponents, including the coalition Measure V Too Costly, call it "overly restrictive."

He and the residents who have complained said they consider the initiative nothing more than "a sneaky repeal of the voters' decision to protect the diversity of Mountain View."

Chandler said Inks and Danforth are working as "puppets" for the California Apartment Association, who he alleged both spent more than a million dollars to try to stop Measure V from passing and employ paid signature-gatherers who misrepresent petitions in order to obtain signatures.

"Our new tenant protections are an important part of the puzzle in addressing the housing crisis in Mountain View," resident Heather Phipps said in a statement. "The landlord initiative is an attack on the people who help make our town strong."

Laura Teutschel, spokeswoman of Measure V Too Costly, said that this is typical from the Mountain View Tenants Coalition and that they are scared.

"They would rather pick apart semantics than have a discussion," Teutschel said.

The purpose of the initiative is to place common sense limits on the unelected Rental Housing Commission, prohibit the commission from making funding demands on the city's general fund, require the commission to be transparent to citizens, encourage property owners to keep rental properties on the market for renters, encourage property owners to maintain and improve properties and increase public safety by evicting tenants who commit crimes, Inks and Danforth state in their "Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition" request.

"We filed the initiative to fix the inherent flaws within Measure V," Inks is quoted as saying in Teutschel's blog. "Measure V was proving to be too costly for taxpayers and was jeopardizing the city's General Fund, which are critical to Mountain View's public safety and infrastructure budgets."

Teutschel outlines in a blog post on the campaign's website that the first step of filing an initiative is that the City Attorney must issue a title and summary for it. They have 15 days to do so.

Once that happens, a notice to circulate the initiative for signature gathering must be published in a local newspaper. Once published, the signature gathering may begin.

Due to the fact of the initiative being a charter amendment for the city of Mountain View, 15 percent of total registered voters must be deemed valid in a sampling done by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has issued a memorandum about updating the City Council's travel policy for trips made to sister cities as a response to five city councilmembers and multiple staff members traveling to Japan this week.

San Jose City Council's Sylvia Arenas, Lan Diep, Sergio Jimenez, Johnny Khamis and Raul Peralez as well as a number of city staff members traveled to the sister city of Okayama, Japan.

Liccardo recommended three modifications to the Council Travel Policy regarding trips to sister cities: that the mayor should nominate a single councilmember to represent San Jose, subject to approval, if he or she cannot go, that the Council approval should be sought out if more than one member wants to go on a trip that public funding is being used for, and that councilmembers should not use public dollars to bring additional staff.

Jimenez tweeted a picture of four of the councilmembers, including himself, around noon Monday at a welcoming ceremony that featured Okayama Mayor Masao Omori. He described the welcome as warm in the social media post.

Khamis paid for his own expenses to go on the trip, which was commended by Liccardo in his memo.

"Good sense and adherence to the existing city policy has generally ensured that we avoid 'junkets,'" the mayor said.

Liccardo said his two main concerns about sending so many city representatives to Okayama were that city business was interrupted in the form of a lighter agenda for today's 1:30 p.m. Council meeting as well as other cancellations, and the expenditure of public dollars for elected officials and staff to go on the same trip.

A Neighborhood Services Committee meeting was supposed to take place today as well as a study session, but they were both rescheduled due to the absences, the mayor said.

"Interrupting meetings for lobbying trips to Sacramento or Washington may understandably have superseding priority -- for example, to obtain critical resources for our city," Liccardo said in the memo. "Travel on 'sister city' trips is substantially less compelling as a public priority, however."

The mayor said he believes that the hard-working public paying for these trips "justifiably sees declining marginal returns with the attendance of each additional member."

The mayor listed recent measures spanning from 2008 to 2016 in which the city has asked for voters to pay out of pocket in order to drive the point home that the city should not be abusing money that voters think "will be used appropriately."

"That trust is vital to our ability to do our jobs, and to serve our residents," Liccardo said. "I urge that we enact some minor reforms to the policy to ensure that we preserve it."

San Jose has eight sister cities: Okayama in Japan, San Jose in Costa Rica, Veracruz and Guadalajara in Mexico, Tainan in Taiwan, Dublin in Ireland, Pune in India and Ekaterinburg in Russia, according to the city's website.

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Candler School of Theology will welcome international lecturer and award-winning author Joan Chittister on April 29 to speak about her most recent book, Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life.

International lecturer and award-winning author Joan Chittister will speak on her latest book, Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life, on Sunday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Emory Universitys Cannon Chapel.

The event, hosted by Candler School of Theologys Aquinas Center, is open to the public, but registration is required. Register here. A suggested donation of $25 will be taken at the door. Chittisters books will be available for purchase and a book signing will follow her lecture.

Chittisters book draws on ancient teachings of the saints to offer a practical program to help people transform their thinking and rebel against fears, judgments and insecurities. Through these simple rules for healthy spiritual living, Chittister reminds us to develop enduring values by shifting our attention to how God wants us to live.

A member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, Chittister has authored more than 50 books and won 16 Catholic Press Association awards, as well as numerous honors for her work for justice, peace and equality. She also pens an online column for the National Catholic Reporter and a blog for the Huffington Post.

Chittister has been featured on Oprah Winfreys Super Soul Sunday, Meet the Press, CBS News, NOW with Bill Moyers, and On Being with Krista Tippett. She is a former fellow at St. Edmunds College, Cambridge University, and currently serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations. She also has served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses, and prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie.

Chittister is executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality, and the founder and animator of Monasteries of the Heart, a web-based movement sharing Benedictine spirituality with contemporary seekers. She earned her doctorate in speech communications from Penn State University.

This event is co-sponsored by Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center, St. Thomas More Catholic Church, and Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church.

Cannon Chapel is located on the campus of Emory University at 515 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322.
A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday that workers' previous salaries can't be used to justify unequal pay for women and men doing the same job.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in the case of a Fresno schools mathematics consultant, said different pay based on past salaries violates the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The late Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, "Prior salary is not job-related and it perpetuates the very gender-based assumptions about the value of work that the Equal Pay Act was designed to end."

The court noted in a footnote that Reinhardt completed the lead opinion in the case before his death on March 29 at age 87 after more than 37 years on the bench.

Reinhardt wrote, "Salaries speak louder than words.... Although the Act has prohibited sex-based wage discrimination for more than fifty years, the financial exploitation of working women embodied by the gender pay gap continues to be an embarrassing reality of our economy."

The plaintiff, Aileen Rizo, was a middle and high school math teacher from Arizona who was hired by the Fresno County Office of Education as a consultant in 2009 to train teachers in new ways of teaching math.

After three years on the job, she found she was paid more than $10,000 less than her male colleagues who were doing similar work and had either similar or less experience.

At the time, the county set the employees' pay according to a 10-level salary schedule. New hires' initial salary levels were based on their previous pay.

Rizo sued Fresno County Schools Superintendent Jim Yovino in federal court in 2014, claiming that her lower pay was illegal.

Monday's decision was issued by a rarely convened 11-judge panel of the appeals court. Rizo appealed for review by the expanded panel after a three-judge appeals panel ruled in favor of Yovino. Earlier, a federal trial judge in Fresno sided with Rizo.

The Equal Pay Act, signed in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, requires equal pay for equal work, but makes exceptions for pay based on seniority, merit, productivity or "any other factor other than sex."

Yovino's lawyers claimed that previous salary was a valid factor "other than sex."

But the appeals court majority said that a woman's prior salary was not a valid consideration because it was likely to be tied to past discrimination.

It said legitimate other factors must be job-related, such as a prospective employee's experience, educational background, ability or prior job performance.

All 11 judges on the panel agreed that the salary disparity was illegal in Rizo's case.

The six-member majority of the court, led by Reinhardt, said that in general, previous salary cannot be a consideration even when combined with other factors.

The five other judges said in concurring opinions that they believed previous salary could sometimes be considered in conjunction with other factors.

Yovino's lawyer, Michael Woods, said the superintendent will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for further review.

"We remain confident that the policy of determining salaries by the Fresno County superintendent of schools, which was in effect through December 31, 2015, was absolutely gender-neutral, objective and effective in attracting qualified applicants and complied with all applicable laws," Woods said in a statement.

A 26-year-old man was sentenced Monday to three years in state prison for his role in the attempted robbery and fatal shooting of another man in Oakland's Fruitvale district two years ago.

Rasenoch Allen was charged with murder for allegedly being the driver in the shooting of Kevin Hokes Jr., 22, of Oakland, in the 3300 block of International Boulevard, a few blocks from the Fruitvale BART station, at about 3:40 a.m. on March 17, 2016.

But on March 8 the Alameda County District Attorney's Office agreed to allow Allen to plead no contest to the lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact in the shooting.

Allen was sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer.

Justin Lewis, 24, of San Leandro, was also charged with murder as well as the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery for allegedly being the person who fatally shot Hokes.

Oakland police Officer Michael Valle wrote in a probable cause statement that after Lewis was arrested on March 21, 2016, he "provided a full confession to the attempted robbery and shooting."

However, on March 12 of this year, the District Attorney's Office agreed to allow Lewis to plead no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter as well as to attempted robbery.

Lewis' plea bargain calls for him to get 21 years in state prison when he's sentenced by Judge Cramer today.

Hokes was standing on the sidewalk at 33rd Avenue and International Boulevard when he was approached by a man, later identified as Lewis, who tried to rob him of his money, Valle wrote.

A struggle ensued and Hokes was struck in his stomach by a single gunshot, according to Valle.

Lewis dropped his gun at the scene and fled in a white Ford Escape, Valle wrote.

Hokes was transported to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said witnesses helped them identify Lewis as the suspect who carried out the shooting.

There were two separate kidnappings reported in San Francisco's Mission District early Sunday morning, police said.

The first one happened around 1 a.m. at 20th and Shotwell streets. Two men and women in their late teens to early to mid 20s allegedly approached a woman in their vehicle and dragged her inside.

The 19-year-old victim was eventually able to escape, according to police. No arrests were made.

The second kidnapping happened at about 3 a.m. at 19th and Capp streets. Three suspects, two men and one woman, allegedly approached a 17-year-old girl in their vehicle. The two men jumped out and demanded that she get inside.

The girl saw that one of the men had a gun and complied, according to police. The female suspect drove the car away with the victim inside, but police said the victim was eventually able to escape.

The female suspect and one male suspect were arrested. Police said the two kidnappings don't appear to be related and the suspects' identities are not being released at this time.

A man with prior felony convictions in three different Northern California counties was arraigned Monday on an attempted murder charge for allegedly stabbing a man in West Oakland late last month.

Troy Foote, 29, who has addresses in Oakland and Berkeley and also has family members in Antioch, is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Wednesday for further arraignment.

Foote, who is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and listed his occupation as freeway cleanup, is accused of stabbing another man in the area of Sixth and Castro streets, near where Interstate Highway 880 and Interstate Highway 980 merge, at about 3 p.m. on March 29.

Oakland police Officer Gedam Gebremichael wrote in a probable cause statement that Sgt. Jeffrey Smoak saw Foote, who's also known as Harold Levi, in a physical altercation with the victim in which he appeared to strike the other man in the neck.

When Smoak got closer to the two men he discovered that Foote actually had stabbed the victim, according to Gebremichael.

Foote was arrested nearby a short time after the stabbing, Gebremichael said.

When officers searched Foote they recovered a folding knife with dried blood, gloves and bloody shoes, Gebremichael wrote.

A witness identified Foote as being the person who stabbed the other man, according to Gebremichael.

The victim suffered three stab wounds and was listed in critical condition so he wasn't able to provide a statement to police, Gebremichael said.

Prosecutors say Foote was convicted of battery by a prisoner on a non-prisoner in Solano County in 2012, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in Monterey County in 2007 and resisting an executive officer in Amador County in 2007.

Last Christmas Eve, Berkeley police issued an alert asking for the public's help in trying to find Foote after he allegedly walked away from the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley against the advice of hospital staff.

Berkeley police classified Foote as a missing "at-risk" person and said he might be suicidal.

A female suspect was arrested after a carjacking and assault in Berkeley Monday morning, police said.

Berkeley police dispatch received a call reporting what was initially thought to be an auto burglary at 6:12 a.m. in the 1600 block of Walnut Street. Police responded and located a woman who said she was pulled out of her car and assaulted.

She told police she was getting into her car when a dark sedan occupied by two people pulled up beside her. A suspect got out of the car, assaulted her and drove away north on Walnut Street in her black Lexus RX 350, according to police.

Dispatchers entered the car in their stolen vehicle system, and California Highway Patrol officers found the stolen car in Golden Gate Fields at 9:35 a.m. and contacted police.

The CHP patrol car tried to stop the Lexus, but had a collision with another car that was with the stolen Lexus.

A CHP helicopter followed the Lexus as it sped through Berkeley and Oakland and the driver eventually abandoned the car in the 1300 block of Mandela Parkway in front of an apartment building, according to police.

The suspect got into another vehicle and attempted to flee, but crashed the vehicle and attempted to run away in the area of 10th and Pine streets, police said.

Police took the suspect into custody without incident and said they recovered property stolen from the victim during the carjacking. The suspect's name is not yet being released, police Sgt. Andrew Frankel said.

Police said there are still suspects at large and no other details were immediately available.

The autopsy of a Google employee whose body was found floating in the water of a drainage canal in Sunnyvale in December indicated no foul play, according to the city's Department of Public Safety.

On Dec. 7, 23-year-old Chuchu Ma's body was found by a passing bicyclist in the canal near the San Francisco Bay Trail.

It was confirmed just days after her death that Ma was employed by the tech giant.

Based on the investigation and the autopsy from the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office, it has been determined Ma did die from drowning, public safety officials said.

Because intent could not be determined, the medical examiner's office ruled Ma's manner of death as "undetermined," public safety officials said.

No additional information on the investigation or the autopsy was immediately released.

A stabbing in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood early Saturday morning left a 40-year-old man with life-threatening injuries, police said.

The stabbing was reported at 12:15 a.m. at the intersection of Union and Buchanan streets. A man was trying to exit into the road when several people blocked his car, according to police.

He stepped out of the car and was physically assaulted and stabbed. The man was then taken to a hospital.

The suspect is believed to be a man between 20 to 30 years old who used a sharp object to stab the victim. He remains at large, police said.

A 56-year-old Yucca Valley woman is in critical condition after her van went down a cliff on the Sonoma Coast north of Bodega Bay on Saturday afternoon, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The CHP responded around 4:25 p.m. to a crash involving a Chrysler Town & Country van that left state Highway 1 near Coleman Valley Road, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.

The vehicle drove through a parking lot, left the road and landed approximately 100 feet down a cliff stopping about 5 feet from the waterline, Sloat said.

There was no indication the woman applied her brakes, and the CHP is investigating whether the crash was intentional, Sloat said.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office's helicopter Henry-1 was dispatched to the crash site and arrived in seven minutes, sheriff's officials said.

Medical responders were giving the woman first aid and had secured the woman in a litter that a sheriff's deputy then secured to the bottom of a 100-foot line, according to the sheriff's office.

The helicopter lifted the woman, a deputy and a fire paramedic to the top of the bluff and the California Highway Patrol's helicopter then flew the woman to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

A dog and a cat in the van were rescued, Sloat said.

Firefighters from Bodega Bay and Graton also responded to the crash.

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has been awarded $22.5 million to connect the passenger train service between the San Rafael train station to the Golden Gate Bridge District's Larkspur Ferry Terminal.

The grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration was announced Monday. The funding is from the FTA's Capital Investment Grants program for major capital infrastructure projects nationwide.

The 2.1-mile extension to Larkspur is an important link between San Francisco and the North Bay, SMART officials said. SMART currently runs trains 43 miles with 10 stations between Airport Boulevard north of Santa Rosa and downtown San Rafael. Service began in August.

The Larkspur extension, including the train station platform and a retaining wall, is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. SMART also plans to extend service north to Windsor, Healdsburg and Cloverdale in the coming years.

"We want to thank all of our federal partners for securing funding for this important extension. This provides us with the resources needed to complete our work in Larkspur and successfully expand the system," SMART board of directors chairwoman Debora Fudge said.

Judy Arnold, SMART's board vice chair, said the extension will connect residents, employers and visitors from San Francisco to Sonoma and Marin counties, provide an economic boost to the North Bay and create new business and tourism opportunities for local communities.

Voters in Sonoma and Marin counties approved a quarter-cent sales tax in 2008 for the 70-mile train service and a bike and pedestrian pathway in some areas between Larkspur and Cloverdale.

An at-risk elderly woman who was reported missing after last being seen Monday evening was found later that night, according to Union City police.

Pedrita Lipang, 72, was returned to her home after being located, police said. She was last seen at 7:30 p.m. Monday near Medallion Drive and Alvarado-Niles Road. Police announced she had been found just before 11:50 p.m.

Police thanked the public for their assistance in locating Lipang.

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Season 1 spoilers ahead.

HBO's "Big Little Lies," the dark comedy-drama revolving around the lives of five mostly wealthy Central Coast women and their families, will pick shooting back up on the show's second season on Wednesday in picturesque Pacific Grove, Monterey and Carmel.

The crew began production work in the area back in March.

The show's central stars will return to set, including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoe Kravitz. But perhaps most exciting for Hollywood buffs is the recent casting of Oscar queen Meryl Streep, in a rare TV role portraying the mother of Alexander Skarsgard's character, who was killed at the end of the first season.

Off to work #biglittlelies2 A post shared by @ lauradern on Apr 10, 2018 at 6:34am PDT

As KSBW outlines, the cast and crew are already in place for filming. The crew has already been building gazebos and other props and preparing to call extras to the set. As the publication notes, more than 2,000 locals auditioned for a background role in the show. Among those chosen was Nick Cunningham, a Monterey local and Olympic bobsledder, who will play a surfer.

As the Daily Mail reports, season two picks up with the debut of Streep's character, Mary Louise Wright, seeking answers about the death of her son Perry (Skarsgard). Woodley's character, Jane, may also find a new love interest in the form of her co-worker Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith), who is reportedly "an off-beat surfer (and) aspiring marine biologist."

"Big Little Lies" will return to HBO in 2019.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


BEIRUT  The international chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it was sending a fact-finding mission to the Syrian town where a suspected chemical gas attack took place over the weekend, following a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers that appeared to be aimed at averting punitive Western military action.

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement would delay or prevent a U.S. strike in Syria. President Trump has vowed to respond forcefully to Saturdays attack on civilians in the town of Douma, and warned that Russia  or any other nation found to share responsibility  will pay a price.

In a statement, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a fact-finding mission was preparing to deploy to Syria shortly, though it did not give a more precise timetable on when the inspectors would arrive.

Trump on Tuesday canceled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the response to the events in Syria. The White House said he later spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May and the two agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.

Trump also discussed Syria with French President Emanuel Macron, who said Tuesday that France would decide in the coming days on a strong and joint response with the U.S. and Britain to the suspected attack.

The incident has sparked international outrage and ratcheted up tensions in the already volatile Mideast, raising the specter of possible imminent American retaliation amid Russias warnings against any such action, and denials that any chemical weapons attack took place.

Adding to the tensions, Iran, a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that the Syrian government, Russia and Iran blamed on Israel.

Seven Iranians were among the estimated 14 people killed in the missile strike, and a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus said the attack will not remain unanswered. Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Irans supreme leader, spoke upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.

Syrian government forces were on high alert and taking precautionary measures Tuesday at military positions across the country amid fears of a U.S. strike.

Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam are Associated Press writers.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. Bill Cosbys lawyer launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedians accuser Tuesday, branding her a con artist whose goal was money, money and lots more money.

Tom Mesereau told jurors in his opening statement at the former TV stars sex-assault retrial that Andrea Constand wasnt attracted to Cosby but was madly in love with his fame and money and made up the accusations to score a big payday.

He said she hit the jackpot when Cosby paid her $3.4 million more than a decade ago to settle her lawsuit over allegations he drugged and molested her in 2004.

Prosecutors say it was the Cosby Show star who betrayed Constands trust by giving her pills and then violating her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion. Cosby, 80, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

A jury deadlocked at his first trial last spring, setting the stage for a retrial.

Seeking to blunt any skepticism about Constands behavior after the alleged assault, prosecutors called as their first witness Tuesday a sexual assault expert, Dr. Barbara Ziv, who told jurors that it is common for victims to be reluctant to go to police and normal for them to maintain contact with perpetrators.

Constand spoke with Cosby dozens of times after the alleged assault and waited more than a year before going to the police.

Ziv, a psychiatrist, also told jurors that the use of drugs and alcohol can lead to clouded memories and prevent victims from giving a clear account of what happened to them.

Some 60 women have come forward with allegations against Cosby dating to the 1960s.
LONDON  Yulia Skripal, who was targeted along with her father in a nerve agent attack in England, has been discharged from the hospital, a British health official said Tuesday.

This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone, said Dr. Christine Blanshard, medical director of Salisbury District Hospital.

She said she would not provide details about Skripals condition for reasons of patient privacy.

The 33-year-old daughter of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, 66, has been taken to a secure location.

Blanshard said Sergei Skripal, the apparent target of the attack, is recovering more slowly than his daughter but continues to improve.

Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment weve been providing. But, equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery, she said.

The doctor said no date has been set for the elder Skripals release from the hospital.

The two were poisoned March 4 in an attack that has led to a prolonged confrontation between Russia and Britain that has revived Cold War tensions. Both were in critical condition for several weeks after the poisoning.

The British government, which accuses Russia of carrying out the attack, is likely to keep details about Yulia Skripals location secret, given the sensitivity of the case.

If she is well enough, she is likely to be extensively questioned by British security officials and police about her recollection of events leading up to her poisoning.

The Russian Embassy congratulated Yulia Skripal on her release in a tweet but said pointedly that Russia needs urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

Russia says it has no role in the attack and has demanded consular access to Yulia Skripal, who has Russian nationality.

It is not clear where the Skripals will live if they recover enough to resume normal activities. British officials may feel Sergei Skripal would not be safe to live in the open any longer.

Bob Ayers, a security analyst who used to work with the CIA, said it is possible Sergei and Yulia Skripal would be given new identities in Britain or the United States under a program like those used to protect witnesses in high-profile criminal trials.

They could also choose to live in the open under the assumption that Russia would not attack a second time, he said.

They may not want to go into hiding, Ayers said. Now that the assassination attempt has been uncovered, the odds are pretty good the Russians wont take another run at them. Theyll be under surveillance, the cops will put cameras up, theyll keep good track of the Skripals.
BOGOTA, Colombia  Leaders of Colombias disbanded FARC rebel army accused the U.S. on Tuesday of trapping a prominent rebel negotiator on a drug warrant in order to sabotage the countrys already struggling peace process.

The shock arrest Monday of Seuxis Hernandez, a blind former peace negotiator best known by his alias Jesus Santrich, played into fears that the former guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia havent cut ties to the countrys flourishing criminal underworld.

But his former comrades in arms have vehemently rejected the accusation, saying Santrichs arrest on drug conspiracy charges was the result of a plot hatched during Attorney General Jeff Sessions visit to Colombia in December and is intended to cover up for the failure of the war on drugs to stanch cocaine production that has skyrocketed since the signing of the peace deal in 2016. The FARC didnt provide any evidence to back up the claim.

In addition to being a shameful subordination of the Colombian justice system, its clear were witnessing another set up by the distorted American justice system, the FARC said in a statement read Tuesday by Ivan Marquez, the rebels chief negotiator during the peace talks.

More than 100 former rebels and FARC sympathizers gathered late Monday outside the heavily guarded prosecutors bunker where the 51-year-old Santrich was being held.

Riot police flanked by a water cannon watched as former rebels shouted freedom and waved white flags emblazoned with the red rose symbol of their fledgling political movement, also known as FARC. Inside, Santrich was believed to have initiated a hunger strike to demand his release, according to his lawyer.

President Juan Manuel Santos defended the arrest on a U.S. warrant as necessary to maintain the credibility of the peace accord, which Colombians overwhelmingly consider too generous to rebels responsible for atrocities committed during five decades of bloody, armed conflict.

My hand wont tremble to authorize the extradition, Santos said in a nationally televised address in which he tried to reassure demobilized fighters that they have nothing to fear as long as they uphold their commitments under the peace accord.

Santrich was picked up on charges filed in a New York federal court alleging he conspired with three others to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the U.S. with a wholesale value of $15 million, or $320 million when broken up and sold on American streets.
KABUL  It was an evening like many others. Faisal teased his mother, Adila, before leaving for the Kabul pharmacy where he worked to earn enough money to pay for math and English classes. The 17-year-old dreamed of becoming a doctor.

After kissing his mother goodbye and telling her he loved her, he left the home for the last time. Moments later  in a scenario that has played out in similar fashion throughout Afghanistan for years  a suicide bomber detonated his explosives nearby, killing Faisal and his 15-year-old cousin Ahmadullah, as well as three others.

He ran out the door. He was laughing. Then just five minutes later I heard this big explosion, Adila Hamidi said of her sons last moments in a recent interview, choking back tears.

War and death have dogged Afghans like Hamidi and her family for the past four decades, giving birth to a project known as the Memory Box Initiative, designed by the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization. The project pays tribute to the millions of Afghans killed and wounded in 40 years of relentless war and to help heal the wounds of the living, said Salim Rajabi, project organizer.

Stacked in a room in Kabul and padlocked against intruders are about 300 of the memory boxes stuffed with mementos of Afghanistans war dead. Each is decorated with an Afghan flag, created by owners of the boxes to depict the country they hope Afghanistan will become. Inside the box is a second Afghan flag, this one reminiscent of the time in which the killing occurred. Afghanistan has had dozens of flags, including the white and black of the Taliban. Still, many of the deaths commemorated in the memory boxes happened since the collapse of the Taliban, most killed in horrific suicide bombing attacks.

As Hamidi recalled her sons death, she toyed with a small container of rice she had chosen to place inside her memory box dedicated to Faisal and to Ahmadullah as well as to her husband, Zabiullah Abdali, who is alive, but lost his hand and eyesight in two of Afghanistans earlier wars.

Each memory box takes four days to prepare. Its more than just bringing in a favorite item of the dead, said Rajabi, the project organizer. Survivors meet with other survivors, they talk of their loss, they exchange stories and then they are asked to write two letters  one to the loved one who died and the other to the larger Afghan community, telling about themselves and about their disappointments and desires for their country.
WASHINGTON  President Trump will not attend the Summit of the Americas this week as originally planned, the White House announced Tuesday, citing the crisis in Syria. The announcement came one day after the FBI raided the office and hotel room of the presidents personal attorney, which Trump called an attack on our country.

In a brief statement Tuesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said the president will stay in the United States and oversee the U.S. response to a suspected and deadly chemical attack in Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

Trump was to leave on his foreign trip Friday.

In her statement Tuesday, Sanders said Trump asked that Vice President Mike Pence attend the meeting of the leaders of countries in the Western Hemisphere in his place. Pence was honored to go, the vice presidents office said in a separate statement.

The decision appeared to have taken even some senior White House officials by surprise. Trumps top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was not aware of the presidents new plans when he told a conservative radio host Tuesday morning that he would be traveling with Trump to Latin America later this week.

The White House had already scaled back the scope of Trumps travels in South America. What was initially planned as a five-day visit evolved into one that involved fewer than three days on the ground for the president.

Trump had planned to use that brief time to seek consensus on how to handle the crisis in Venezuela and press his case for better trade deals with Latin American nations.

The presidents advisers had downplayed expectations for major advances during the trip, including saying it was unlikely to produce any breakthroughs on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Still, they had left open the question of whether Trump would meet with Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto. The two presidents have had a stormy relationship given Trumps rhetoric about illegal immigration and demands that Mexico pay for a border wall, as well as his decision last week to send National Guard troops to patrol the border.
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Raids at the UK offices of Rupert Murdochs media empire over possible antitrust violations relating to sports rights wouldnt have been welcome news to News Corps Foxtel as it continues discussions for Australias $1 billion cricket rights.

The European Commission raided the offices of a number of EU companies involved in sports broadcasting and rights, including the London, Hammersmith offices of Fox Networks Group (FNG)  owned by Murdochs 21st Century Fox.

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox says it is cooperating with the investigation. Credit:AP

The raids did not happen at 21st Century Foxs Soho Square-based headquarters, despite earlier reports.

FNG is the operating unit handling TV and cables, producing and distributing sports and entertainment shows across brands such as Fox Sports Media Group and Fox Cable Networks.
Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, urged Mark Zuckerberg to tackle the growing criticism aimed at Facebook by regulators and users around the world, and "really take it seriously."

Alibaba's Jack Ma. Credit:Bloomberg

China's richest man and chairman of Alibaba Group on Monday weighed in on the controversy, calling on his fellow internet pioneer to "fix" a social network that had grown explosively over the past decade and a half. Asked at the Boao Forum about the Facebook furor, the billionaire started dismissing questions but then couldn't help opining on the crisis facing the US company.

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Facebook's shares have tumbled since the company disclosed in March that it may have shared the personal data of tens of millions of users with Cambridge Analytica, a research firm that helped elect President Donald Trump. Enraged users launched a #deletefacebook campaign and regulators around the world are investigating its handling of sensitive personal information.
A Feng Shui masters seal of approval has helped the private Virtus Property Group to pocket an 88 per cent windfall on a south-east Melbourne industrial property in the space of only six months.

Virtus, which specialises in smaller industrial developments overlooked by the bigger players, sold the six sub-divided lots to separate Chinese investors for a combined $7.55 million.

Run by Peter Fountas and Angelo Bruno, Virtus acquired the 9981 square metres of land, at 103-113 Fairbank Road Clayton South, for $4 million only last October.

In a double bonanza, Virtus has also sold a separate Clayton South property at 90 Whiteside Road to a local developer for $15.5 million.

Both sales  handled by Cushman & Wakefield agents Andrew OConnell, Robert Colaneri and Jordie Cassidy  are believed to set a new record for the area.
A $1.2 million loan for beauty business ModelCo will help it almost double its staff as it prepares to roll out a new product range of new colour products and to launch a collaboration with designer Karl Lagerfeld.

The loan, which helped it overcome a funding gap experienced by many small businesses, has been provided through NSW government-backed scheme Jobs for NSW.

ModelCo founder and chief executive Shelley Sullivan.

"It will make a tremendous difference - cash flow and funding is always a small business struggle, especially when you are growing so rapidly," ModelCo founder and chief executive Shelley Sullivan says. "Small business lending has been challenging since the global financial crisis."

Funding shortfall
Aboriginal protesters have once again descended on the set of Sunrise.

This time there was no sound-proof glass or blinds to shield viewers from the placards and shouts of: "Always was, always will be Aboriginal land."

Co-hosts Samantha Armytage and David Koch were broadcasting live from the Gold Coast on Tuesday morning when a large group of protesters descended on the beachfront.

The move forced the presenters to address what was happening behind them live on air.
To ward off dementia, do something you're bad at.

If you can play guitar, pick up the trumpet. If you can beat the cryptic crossword, tackle Sudoku.

Oh, and if you're a woman, get married.

That's the advice from a new Australian paper summarising the best available research on preventing cognitive decline and dementia, released on Wednesday.

Every pay day, most Australians squirrel away a little money for old age to ensure they have a comfortable retirement. We dont treat our grey matter the same way, says Professor Kaarin Anstey, the report's lead author.
Chinas motives in seeking a foothold in Vanuatu are unclear. Though we may be major trading partners, Chinas strategic interests align only intermittently with Australias. The ANUs Rory Medcalf has pointed out that the islands are distant from areas of obvious military or strategic interest to China. Beijing may intend a base in the region primarily to facilitate non-military or quasi-military operations such as disaster relief and training. Or it may have an eye on the potential exploitation of economic resources in the surrounding seas.

If Chinas negotiations with the government of Vanuatu result in the development of a military outpost relatively close to our shores, it would be a sudden and unwelcome change in our strategic situation.

The Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, is sounding unworried by the Heralds revelation that China appears to be thinking seriously about setting up a military base in Vanuatu. As Australias chief diplomat, it is her job to handle tricky situations with as little drama as possible. Clearly, though, Australias military planners should be far more concerned.

Whatever Beijings motives, the move would be part of an emerging pattern. China has been extending its military reach in other directions, most obviously through the construction of its base, built contrary to international law and despite the protests of countries including Australia, in the South China Sea. It has also set up a base in Djibouti, at the entrance to the Red Sea. The strategic interests behind these two developments  unlike Vanuatu  are obvious.

China has also been building influence assiduously with countries far and near through its massive Belt and Road initiative, which offers loans to build infrastructure. Ostensibly this is to boost trade, but the boundary between trade and a diplomatic or military initiative will always be blurry.

Australia thus faces a challenge close to home. At this stage it is a diplomatic challenge, but that may change into something more serious. The generations of Australians alive today, who have been sheltered since the Second World War behind the United States defence umbrella, are not accustomed to being exposed to, or thinking very much about, the hard strategic realities which other countries face daily. We must get used to it.

In coping with the challenge, this country is not without resources  if it chooses to use them, and makes the right decisions. Ms Bishop has said she is confident Australia remains Vanuatus strategic partner of choice. She has some reason for her confidence. Australia has been generous with aid to Vanuatu, giving more than half what that country receives in overseas aid from known sources (China publishes no figures on its aid.)

However, as we have reported, Canberra is also looking to cut back its aid budget by 10 per cent. The cuts are directed at middle-income countries  where economic development has proceeded successfully  and are unlikely to affect Vanuatu.

In the changed circumstances revealed by our report, saving money this way looks like false economy. Any surplus should be redirected where it is needed  places such as Vanuatu and elsewhere in our immediate neighbourhood. It is not only the right thing for a rich country such as Australia to do; it also increases this countrys foreign policy choices. Aid buys us friends. Without it, Australias scope to counter Chinas influence in peaceful ways is reduced, leaving confrontation as the only option.
A teenager has been charged after an alleged home invasion in which police say a dog's ear was severed and a gun fired.

ACT Policing said an 18-year-old north Canberra man would face the ACT Children's Court on Tuesday, charged with aggravated burglary after the alleged incident in Watson on March 17, 2017.

At 10.47pm that night, police say two males wearing balaclavas forced their way into a home on Molesworth Street before threatening the occupants.

During a brief altercation, it is alleged one of the occupants was put through a glass window and suffered a cut to the head. Police said a gun was also fired in the house, and a dog's ear was cut off with a machete.

Seven months after the alleged incident, police were forced to shoot the dog dead after it fatally mauled its owner, Tania Klemke.
I read the headline about China and Vanuatu and dismissively turned my attention elsewhere, saying to myself, "It will never happen". The thought then occurred to me, "Is this what my parents' generation said about Japan (and Germany for that matter)" in the 1930s? - Genevieve Milton, Newtown At last, a bulwark for us against American aggression! - Robert Hosking, Paddington Coalition finally flocks to cause in case of animal cruelty The Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud, is to be congratulated for taking action over cruelty to sheep being transported to the Middle East ("Minister calls for investigation over cruelty", April 10). However, having seen the Channel Nine footage of the dreadful conditions on board, I fail to see how sheep can ever be shipped in acceptable conditions in such large numbers. Most of the sheep packed into the confined space would not have been able to reach water or food, so were always doomed to an appalling death. - Lee Andrews, Faulconbridge Who can forget the outrage of the industry and the opposition when the Gillard government shut down down live sheep exports over a failure to implement humane standards? Now we have a National Party Agriculture Minister threatening executives with jail and another Coalition MP foreshadowing a shutdown of the industry if things do not improve. Worryingly, the report did not match the reality, the new minister was misled. Was there a failure of oversight or a deliberate turning of the blind eye? Perhaps Barnaby Joyce had other things on his mind last year. - Arthur Cooper, Alstonville

How could it ever be humane to send thousands of sheep, penned in for weeks at sea, to stifling Middle Eastern temperatures? What happens on the majority of ships where there is no principled whistleblower to record the suffering? Time to ban this morally bankrupt trade. My parents ran a sheep farm, and would never have sent their sheep to such a fate. - Tanya Hall, Newcastle Every time cruelty is exposed to sheep or cattle  and it happens often  there is a fuss, then it dies down and nothing changes. Those in charge tut tut and say there should be changes, but nothing happens. Aren't there vets on board these vessels? Are they paid to keep quiet? Live animal export needs to be stopped now, right now, we don't need another useless inquiry. - Janet Griffin, Breakfast Point The cruelty is not just confined to the overcrowded, under-ventilated ships. I've no doubt the fate that awaits surviving sheep is equally, if not more, cruel after they reach their destination. It is well and truly time for Australia to 'own' this issue and make a stand once and for all. If the humane treatment of beast from paddock to plate can't be guaranteed, then live export should be banned. - Viv Munter, Pennant Hills New Zealand does not export cattle for slaughter and its last export of sheep for slaughter was in 2003. NZ exports live animals, but mainly for breeding purposes. We seem to be some way behind. - Ian Ryan, Dee Why Joyce hardly in a position to lecture

Its a bit late for Barnaby Joyce to be lecturing Malcolm Turnbull on doing the honourable thing (Joyce sets deadline for Turnbull to improve in the polls, April 10). - Don Smith, Ashfield The first thing youve got to be with the electorate is truthful. Is Barnaby having a laugh? His sheer hypocrisy coming so soon after his affair was revealed is truly breathtaking. - Diane Erickson, West Ryde With reference to the Liberal Party and recent stunts such as polly-pedalling and playing with coal, it seems that WB Yeats could foretell the future. He wrote, The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. In the light of a former PMs hopes, its also intriguing that Yeats wrote the poem in 1919 and called it The Second Coming. - Peter Krinks, Waverton One fact that seems to have escaped the many wise political journalists who are crowing about Malcolm Turnbulls polling is that somewhere in the middle of that 30 Newspolls he was involved in a more significant poll: in which he came first. It was called an election: it is the only poll that counts. - Chris Keay, Kenthurst Vexing, taxing times

Surely, high time for the Inspector-General of Taxation, as independent statutory agency, to initiate and fully investigate the Heralds expose on high-handed, if defective, ATOs administration (ATO whistleblower exposes cruel debt collection tactics, April 10). - Steve Ngeow, Chatswood Now that we know that these are so easy to enact, what possible barrier could there be to issuing garnishee notices to all multinationals and other large entities and the super-rich who currently shirk their tax responsibilities? - John Hackett, Alexandria So we have a toxic culture in the ATO. Nothing to do with the current head, recruited from one of the big four accountancy firms? Long-term efficiency dividends, with no corporate knowledge left? An overly complicated tax act? No implementation of the recommendations from reviews? Australia is in debt. We need to face the fact the only way out is through running surplus budgets and all of us paying our rightful taxes. Using artificial means to avoid tax is bludging on your fellow Australians. - Stephen Dunn, Bonnells Bay We could go even slower If speed is so directly linked to the incidence of fatal crashes, why stop at a 30km/h limit in built-up areas? (Speed the key factor in road deaths, OECD review finds, April 10). Why not 20, or 10? We are witnessing a creeping and inexorable trend in this direction, as governments, having vacated the field on so many other public interest policy areas, try to look as though theyre doing something useful. Fiddling with traffic rules fits the bill.

And so we see, among other things, 40 km/h school speed zones in force when no one is at school, 70 km/h speed limits on wide open country roads, and an ever-widening ambit for double demerit point periods. - Michael Hinchey, New Lambton It beggars belief that the point-to-point camera system has not been implemented for all vehicles. A cynic might say, what about the lost revenue? An altruist might say, what about the lives to be saved? Apparently the politician says, what about the lost votes. - Paul Stevens, North Epping Our Opera House Re Philip Drews article, Sculpture by the sea (Spectrum, April 7-8). A number of errors and inconsistencies need to be corrected. The platform was not covered as some sort of bad accident. The podium and the shells were conceived as one composition. The interiors of concert halls must be prioritised over the exteriors. Says who? Why couldnt both be developed in unison? Utzon crippled the interiors of the major and minor halls. If that was the case where does Drews comment later that Utzon interiors would have been as a truly fitting climaxes to the spectacular exterior sit? As a historian, how can Drew not mention that it was a decision by the SSO that they would not tolerate the main hall as an opera theatre and the instruction to change its use that placed almost unsolvable pressure on the team who had to change midstream. The sad saga of the Opera House since is an unnecessarily bleak view. Drew should know that, for example, Gothic cathedrals were built, modified, and added to without loss of their architectural authenticity. Time simply tells a story. - Paul Huxtable, Forestville

BUPA goes missing Jenna Price has been lucky to get answers from her health fund to questions about her cover (What happened when I asked for a better deal from my health fund, April 10). On March 19 I asked BUPA through its contact form how removal of obstetrics would affect my premiums (my wife is 72). On March 26 an email came asking for a convenient time to receive its call and discuss the best course of action and to perform a full-cover review. Next day I reply with some convenient times. No reply to this day. - Jacek Olszewski, Faulconbridge Migrant blame game So its come to this. Reading Tuesdays letters it seems many Australians have joined Trump supporters in the US, Brexiteers in Britain and the right-wing populists sweeping Europe in blaming immigrants for all our economic and social woes. And where exactly do we cut our immigration levels? Skilled migrants? Family reunion? Refugees? - Daniel Maurice, Glebe Vale Angela Bennie

I am sad to hear of the death of Angela Bennie (Arts journalist Bennie dies, April 10). In an area of literature where its too easy to be unfairly critical she was not. She brought poise, humour and cosmopolitism to an editors role. Interviewed by her once about growing up in Regents Park, she talked about how much she loved Italy. Saying goodbye, I asked what she thought of her job. She replied: Its the best job at the newspaper. A beautiful mind if ever there was one. Grazie. - Peter Skrzynecki, Eastwood Making a comeback? The answer to 21, 6 across, Aussie captain in Tuesdays cryptic was Steve Smith. Does DH know something the rest of us dont? - Colin Beszant, Moss Vale Replays all too Common

Of course they are the Com Games! Com for commercial. It is a test of stamina and endurance to watch Seven's coverage when it is peppered with ads and if that is not enough we have replay after replay, even replays of interviews, and anything to avoid actually showing an event that does not feature Australia. I am sure there would not have been coverage of Duncan (no relation) Scott's gold medal swim had there not been three Australians in the final. - Eric Scott, Bondi Junction Why do reporters insist on trying to make athletes answer questions after a race when they can't talk for puffing? Can't they wait a few minutes until the get their breath back. They also ask stupid questions. For instance: how do you feel about winning? What were you thinking on that final lap? "I am puff pleased puff-puff to have won puff-puff. Get that puff mike out of puff my puff face." - Ken Thompson, Lithgow Gold, silver, bronze for one two, three. How about a brass for the best PB? - Bob Arnold, Berry Cheeky suggestion Settle down Rosemary O'Brien (Letters, April 10). The fourth place is obviously 'cheek'.

Uh, oh ... I see what you mean. - Diane Turner, Bowral
The mother of a Sydney teenager cried as footage of her fatally wounded son collapsing to the street was shown in court.

Bassil Hijazi, 18, died after being shot in the chest and neck during a confrontation in a car park behind a Bexley shopping strip on July 29, 2013.

Shot dead: Bassil Hijazi. Credit:Facebook

Dramatic CCTV aired during the Supreme Court trial of Joseph Gatt, the man accused of pulling the trigger, on Tuesday showed the teenager running down the street before hitting the ground, lying there motionless.

Justice Monika Schmidt called a brief adjournment after Mr Hijazi's visibly distressed mother, Hannah, cried in the back of the court in reaction to the video.
The actions of a former chief-of-staff to the National Australia Bank boss and the role of a long-serving corporate supplier are at the centre of a police investigation into allegations of corporate fraud worth tens of millions of dollars.

Detectives raided properties in North Sydney, Milsons Point and Potts Point on Tuesday over allegations that a NAB employee obtained commissions for approving over-inflated invoices to an executive events firm, Human Group, well in excess of what they should have been.

Rosemary Rogers and one of her properties in Melbourne's inner west. Credit:Fairfax Media.

Police are reviewing what role, if any, was played by Rosemary Rogers, the former chief-of-staff to NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn who worked for the bank for two decades.

No charges have been laid.
Prince Charles has met with the families of fallen soldiers in Darwin on the final leg of his jam-packed trip to Australia.

The Prince of Wales laid a wreath at the city's Cenotaph on Tuesday to commemorate fallen Australian servicemen and women, before taking time to greet the well-wishers who had turned out to see him.

Prince Charles visits the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct in Darwin on Tuesday. Credit:AAP

The prince then visited Larrakeyah Defence base, taking a short tour of Darwin harbour on a regional patrol craft.

He will later be shown around Royal Darwin Hospital, before attending the Northern Territory Governor's reception and will fly out later tonight from Darwin's RAAF base.
In all of his many and varied endeavours, Stuart McDonald, who has died aged 89, left an enduring and positive impact. He was widely and warmly respected as a farmer, community member, politician and leader in agribusiness.

Stuart Richard McDonald AM was born in Timmering, near Rochester, Victoria on April 18, 1928 to Angus, a farmer, and Lily. He was the eldest of three brothers. Russ was born in 1929 and Murray in 1940.

Stuart McDonald, farmer and politician.

Stuart went to school at Timmering East Primary in 1934, riding a horse four kilometres each way. The school population rarely exceeded 12 pupils. He proceeded to Echuca High School in 1940 and completed his secondary education at University High School in Melbourne in 1945.

Stuart began a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University in 1946 and graduated with an honours degree in chemistry and then a Master's degree in 1952. He was the first of his family to attend university and remained deeply grateful to his parents for their encouragement and the sacrifices they made to enable him to achieve this goal.
A woman who swindled $42,000 from family and friends by claiming she was dying from cancer but then spent the money partying overseas has been jailed.

Hanna Dickenson was 19 and leading a party lifestyle of drugs and booze in 2013 when she told her parents she was gravely ill with leiomyosarcoma, not responding to treatment at the Epworth and Peter MacCallum hospitals and needed money for overseas trips for treatment.

None of her claims were true.

Cancer conwoman Hanna Dickenson has been jailed.

Dickenson told her parents that without treatment in Thailand and New Zealand she would die within months, according to a summary released by Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Sorry its a bit messy, she says. We try to clean it up, but sometimes were in a rush. The 29-year-old has been sleeping rough for four years. Trouble at home saw the couple head to Perth, but lifes not much better here. We usually try to sleep undercover somewhere, she says as she rolls a cigarette from whats left of others butts.

Its safer to sleep during the day. Vickis tale is not unlike others who live in the central business district park: theyre escaping violence at home, in the grip of crippling addictions, or they have mental health issues. Vicki has two black eyes. I can only imagine how bad her past must have been for her current situation to be preferable. Everybodys story is pretty much the same, she says.

Once you get here, its hard to get out. Ive got just enough time to let Vicki know of a fresh strategy launching in Perth this week to combat homelessness in WA. That sort of shit usually lasts about a day, she says. Youve gotta go now. Her boyfriend is approaching.

It's all drugs. It's f---ed' Them two argue all the time, Aileen says of Vicki and her partner. At 60, and homeless for the past six years, the matriarch for many of the younger kids sleeping rough in Perth has raised her own child without a roof over his head. Shes proud of the job she did. Her son got a bit of schooling, and hes got his drivers licence.

But the weekend saw him thrown in jail after a brawl, and now Aileen is scared. Im lost without him, she says. We usually stick together, but Im out on the streets by myself now. Aileen favours an inner city squat over sleeping in a park, but without her son around, she feels like shes in more danger than usual. Do you know how many homeless old women there are on the streets? she says.

Were mothers of kids; its f---ed up. Ive seen people get killed; like, get stabbed and stuff. While Aileen is speaking, a man on the other side of the park hits a woman over the head with a bottle. Did you see that? she asks. Its all drugs. Its f---ed.

Leaving her own brand of family violence behind her, Aileen reckons shes safer on the streets than where she came from. But she admits to her own drug use, and says she often uses amphetamines to keep her awake at night, the most dangerous time of any homeless persons daily life. Sometimes [drugs] are good because it means I can sit and watch other people while they sleep, Aileen says. We take turns watching over each other. If youre not on it yet, you soon will be

At 100 bucks a pop, a packet of the drugs Aileen favours doesnt last her long, but when she runs out, theres plenty more around. Its everywhere, she says. Everyone sells it. If youre not on it yet, you soon will be. She says most people living rough favour uppers, but there are heroin addicts who have their own little circle. I feel completely lost, Aileen says.

These people dont care if they rob an old woman for drugs. Ive got nothing - Ive got no phone - the c---ts took it off me. Ill probably die out here No stranger to begging for money, Aileen says her pension usually lasts a couple of days before shes asking people on the street for cash. Do you think I want to live like this? she asks.
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When the scientific community first caught a glimpse of 'Oumuamua,"everyone had in the back of their mind: 'this could be it', and 'what if this is the one?'", says Curtin University Professor Steven Tingay.

Curtin University professor Steve Tingay said 'Oumuamua excited the scientific community.

'It' and 'the one' being the long-sought proof that there was other intelligent life besides us in the universe.

It was at the end of last year that astronomers in Hawaii first discovered the cigar-shaped object with the unpronounceable Hawaiian name 'Oumuamua, loosely meaning a messenger that reaches out from the distant past.

"It was the first object we've ever come across that came from outside of our solar system," Professor Tingay said.
But Ms Walker said that because she was already using two special magistrates "probably significantly in excess of a whole magistrate", the addition of an eighth magistrate would maintain the "status quo".

The ACT government announced on Monday ahead of its 2018 budget that it would give the court $3.1 million over the next four years for an extra magistrate . Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said that the new magistrate would increase access to justice and timeliness in the courts system.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said the modelling that had been done suggested the court needed more than eight and at least nine magistrates if it wanted a "slight increase" in efficiency.

The ACT's Chief Magistrate said on Tuesday that the addition of an eighth full time magistrate to the court will not be enough to improve timely access to justice.

She said that situation was not ideal because special magistrates were not tenured and were instead appointed only for certain lengths of time at the discretion of the government.

Ms Walker said that when the justice system was understaffed, one of the biggest problems, particularly given the fullness of Canberra's prison, was that people spend more time in custody on remand. Delays in the justice system also meant people waited unreasonably long times for a hearing.

She said not only is a person entitled to have their matter dealt with quickly, but sometimes when those on remand in Canberra are eventually dealt with, they spend no further time in custody, having either served the jail term or are not sentenced to full time imprisonment.

Ms Walker said she understood the allocation of government resources was a balancing act.

"I'm not going to advocate for extra judicial resources over extra psychiatric units, for example, because obviously that need is huge. But what I would say is, have a look at what the delays in justice are costing, and it's not just about people feeling good and feeling happy," she said. She said she would like to see more research done on the known costs associated with people being kept in custody, and whether that was influenced by the lack of judicial resources.
Australia's electronic spy agency should sharpen its cyber weaponry with reforms that could attract the nation's top technical operators and ease restrictions on information shared with the private sector, a defence think tank says.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in a review of the government's readiness for cyber warfare released on Tuesday suggested it consider looking at a "substantial" increase in spending on cyber to grow its arsenal against future adversaries.

Its report came after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 confirmed Australia had an offensive cyber capability, and as electronic warfare emerges as a new battleground on the international stage.

The institute identified weaknesses in the nation's cyber operations - those that manipulate, deny, disrupt, degrade or destroy targeted computers or networks - saying the Australian Signals Directorate faced competition from private companies in attracting talent, and that the government needed to review how information was classified.

It told the government to invest in training and raise salaries at the ASD, a move the report said would be easier as it became a statutory agency following an intelligence review released last year.
The maintenance of peace and stability in the Pacific is of utmost importance to us, to Australia  its one of the key priorities of the foreign policy white paper, he said. We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbours of ours." However, Chinas foreign ministry responded to the report on Tuesday with spokesman Geng Shuang saying: One word, fake news. The Global Times newspaper reported that he had used English at the foreign ministry press conference, which is rare. You should have already noticed that the foreign minister of Vanuatu clarified this when accepting media interview today, he added.

Senator Wong said the countries of the Pacific wanted stability and prosperity rather than a competition for military power. This is a potential game-changer for the region and for Australia, Senator Wong said. Jacinda Ardern has vowed to oppose the militarisation of the Pacific. Credit:Kevin Stent We should regard it as a wake-up call for Australia in terms of our position in the South Pacific and the leadership role we are expected to play and need to play in the region. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said any military arrangement was a matter for the two sovereign nations but added she would "privately and publicly" push her government's position against military build-up in the region.

While the US and France have been Pacific powers for decades, the rise of China has triggered concerns among members of the Australian Parliament who have witnessed, during overseas visits, the mammoth flow of Chinese aid into the islands. The joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade has launched an inquiry into Australian aid in the Indo-Pacific, a forum that will hold public hearings later this year and is expected to canvass the growing influence of China. A Chinese construction group site in Port Vila. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The committee chairman, South Australian Liberal senator David Fawcett, said Australia needed to continue to invest in Vanuatu and other islands. The presence of a major military power in the Pacific would significantly change the dynamics that have been in existence for six or seven decades that have created a rules-based order that has allowed prosperity and stability in the region, Senator Fawcett said.

Another committee member, Labor MP Michael Danby, warned that the speed of construction of Chinese military bases in the South China Sea showed the urgency of dealing with any similar plans in the waters near Australia. This is the nightmare scenario that Australia faced during the Second World War. Im not saying it is a nightmare scenario now, but during the Second World War the fear was that the Japanese would dominate what were known as the New Hebrides and the islands to the east of Australia, Mr Danby told Fairfax Media. Liberal Senator Jim Molan, a former major-general in the Australian Army, said there was a case for a greater Australian naval presence in the region but should avoid anything dramatic in response to the Vanuatu reports. This is what you would expect China to be doing. Whether it is doing it now, or whether it will do it in the future, is the question, Senator Molan said.

The concerns echoed a warning in January from the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, about the inflow of Chinese aid to win favour from the island nations. Senator Fierravanti-Wells said on Tuesday that the establishment of any foreign military base in the region would be of grave concern. Loading Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu on Tuesday denied a formal base proposal had been discussed, adding: We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was not aware of a military offer being made by China to Vanuatu and the government of Vanuatu had said there was no such proposal.
Australians are being promised a stronger cyber defence agenda in Canberra to protect them from online crime that costs up to $1 billion a year, as key ministers warn of increasing attacks on essential infrastructure.

The threats include privacy breaches to harvest the personal details of consumers as well as targeted strikes on essential services such as hospitals, according to details to be presented to a cybercrime summit this week.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will warn of devastating threats to Australian infrastructure, revealing that Australian agencies helped bring down the Phantom Secure group of online criminals using encrypted communications.

In his speech to the cyber security conference, Mr Dutton will cite estimates that Phantom Secure had more than 10,000 clients in Australia and had become a leading supplier to organised crime groups including outlawed motorcycle gangs.

Constant online exposure increases opportunities for those with nefarious intentions to exploit and target us, Mr Dutton will tell the gathering of government officials and industry experts.
From Vanuatu to Papua New Guinea, from Sri Lanka to Pakistan, from the Maldives to the tiny republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, Chinese assistance follows roughly the same pattern.

It comes in the form of loans, not much cheaper than, and sometimes more expensive than loans that could have been obtained from organisations set up for the purpose such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But their advantage is that they are approved quickly and are often for purposes more attractive to elites than to the countries themselves.

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China was insistent on lending for a 1000-seat convention centre in Vanuatu rather than the hospital that some of the local authorities would have preferred.

It's also often smaller things; bursaries for children of the elites to be educated in China, contracts for their families.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made clear her government's strong opposition to militarisation in the Pacific after Fairfax Media revealed China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence on the island nation.

The New Zealand leader said any military arrangement was a matter for the two sovereign nations but added she would "privately and publicly" push her government's position against military build-up in the region.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was not aware of a Chinese "military offer" to Vanuatu and expressed confidence the small Pacific nation considered Australia to be its preferred strategic partner.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Credit:Mark Coote

Responding to the revelation that China and Vanuatu have conducted preliminary discussions about a military build-up, a move that would have global implications, Ms Ardern said she was not aware of a specific proposal.
London: Theresa May's former chief of staff says China's attempted military foray into the Pacific Islands shows its interests are not benign and the West needs to be much tougher in dealing with Beijing.

The UK government is monitoring China's increasing military expansion, including revelations from Fairfax Media on Tuesday that China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a military base in the Pacific Islands. Beijing is likely to come under pressure to explain its motives.

But Nick Timothy, who served as May's chief of staff until last year, said Beijing's intentions were clear.

"For years the West has treated China as though its intentions were completely benign," he told Fairfax Media.
The NSW government will withhold the business case for the controversial relocation of the Powerhouse Museum for three months after the final decision is made.

Despite having received the business case for the move to Parramatta last year, and just days after releasing the same documentation to justify its revised stadiums policy, the government has promised to release a summary of it 90 days after the decision.

The site of the new Powerhouse Museum in Parramatta. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Arts Minister Don Harwin, via a spokesman on Sunday, gave the strongest indication yet that the government had reached the final stages of the decision-making process.

"The business case was delivered to the government in December, and has since been going through a number of assurance processes that need to be completed before an informed decision can be made," the spokesman said.
The National Union of Workers has suspended and launched an investigation into two officials allegedly linked to a fundraising scam on a Facebook page titled Black Lives Matter.

NUW Western Australian branch vice-president Ian Mackay and another organiser have been suspended following revelations in a CNN report that the Facebook page was a scam with alleged links to the white Australian union official.

A screenshot of the Facebook page, taken by CNN.

National Union of Workers National Secretary Tim Kennedy said it launched an investigation into the claims last week and had "suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation".

"The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNN's story," Mr Kennedy said.
Lecture to examine how sex divides nations culture and political debate

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill.  A lecture will examine the ways sex has divided the nations culture and politics and been pushed to the center of the publics debate next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

R.Marie Griffith, a distinguished historian of American religion, will present Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics at 7 p.m., April 16, in Student Center Ballroom D. Griffiths presentation is part of the Morton-Kenney Public Affairs Lecture Series presented by the Department of Political Science and the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directs the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and is editor of the centers journal, Religion & Politics.

Media Advisory

Reporters, photographers and news crews are welcome to cover the lecture. To arrange for interviews or for more information on the event, contact Natalie Sutton, Department of Political Science, at 618/453-3166.

The event is free and the public is invited. After the lecture, there will be time for a Q-and-A with the audience and Griffith will be available to sign copies of her new book, Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics which was published in December 2017.

Political and religious disagreements began almost a century ago

Griffith said while many scholars and commentators have said the emergence of the religious right as a political force in the late 1970s was a reaction to the sexual rebellion and social movements of the proceeding decade, the true origins of our political and religious divides lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians almost a century ago.

After women gained the right to vote in the 1920s, a longstanding religious consensus about sexual morality began to fray irreparably, she said.

Talk will focus on several social and moral issues

Griffith said her discussion will touch on debates that pertain to topics including birth control, censorship, interracial marriage, sex education, abortion, sexual harassment and LGBTQ rights.

Griffith will provide important insights into the current state Americas political affairs, said John Shaw, institute director.

The Morton-Kenney lectures are important events for the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute each year as we join with the Political Science Department in celebrating both academic political science and the importance of public service, Shaw said.

Griffith to meet with students while on campus

Griffith will have a roundtable discussion Monday morning with graduate students and be a guest lecturer later in the morning in an Introduction to American Politics class. She will also have lunch with about 20 undergraduate students who are political science ambassadors and Paul Simon Public Policy Institute ambassadors.

A distinguished career

The author of six books, Griffith was a member of Harvard Universitys faculty for two years as the John A. Bartlett Professor before coming to Washington University in 2011.

She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in political science and social thought, and her doctorate in the study of religion from Harvard University.

She joined the Princeton faculty as associate director of the Center for the Study of Religion and was promoted to professor of religion in 2005. She also directed the women and gender studies program there, and received both the Presidents Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Cotsen Fellowship for Distinguished Teaching.

Lecture series honors two former SIU political science professors

Griffith is the 43rd lecturer in the series that began in 1995. The Morton-Kenney lecture series brings speakers to campus in the spring and fall of each year.

The late Jerome Mileur, originally from Murphysboro, was a professor emeritus in political science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and retired in 2004 after a 37-year teaching career there.

Mileur established the series in 1995 in honor of two of his political science professors  Ward Morton and David Kenney  who inspired him as a student.

Mileur, who died in September 2017, earned his bachelors degree in speech communication in 1955, and a doctorate in government in 1971, both from SIU Carbondale.
Live: Mark Zuckerberg testifies before US Congress

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Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says "genocide" is taking place in Myanmar and he is willing to accept Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing from it, though Europe should help too.

The United Nations and rights groups say some 700,000 people, most of them Rohingya, have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August last year when Rohingya militant attacks on the security forces sparked a military crackdown.

Rohingya refugees sit in a queue at a Red Cross distribution point in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The United Nations and several Western countries have said the Myanmar action constitutes ethnic cleansing but Myanmar rejects that. It says its security forces have been conducting legitimate operations against "terrorists".
Jakarta: Thousands of members of Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra party will demand that he run in the 2019 Indonesian presidential elections at a national conference on Wednesday.

But the former military strongman, who lost the 2014 Presidential election to Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, is hedging his bets about standing and will likely resist those calls  at least for now.

Prabowo campaigning unsuccessfully in Jakarta's central stadium for the 2014 presidential election. Credit:Michael Bachelard

Prabowo's nephew, Aryo Djojohadikusumo told Fairfax Media Prabowo's final decision would likely be by August 10, when nominations close.

Aryo, who is himself a Gerindra MP, said the party was also still working through a long list of vice presidential running mates.
Illustration: Dionne Gain

You can understand her frustration. More and more of Rebiya Kadeer's family have been rounded up into Chinese Communist Party re-education camps. She was once one of the richest women in China, a successful retail entrepreneur, a member of China's National People's Congress, Beijing's model member of its Uighur minority. Today she lives in exile in America accused of sedition for championing Uighur rights. Thirty-seven of her clan members, including 11 children under the age of 10, are locked up. How many of her family are free? "None," the slight, 71-year old grandmother answers matter-of-factly.

She's at liberty because, as the face of the world's Uighur ethnic minority, the US has granted her residency as protection from Chinese government repression.

Most Uighurs live in China's remote north-west province of Xinjiang. They are an ethnically Turkic people who call their land East Turkestan and practice Islam. She's been called the Muslim Dalai Lama.

More and more of the Uighur people are being penned up in the camps, and the Chinese Communist Party doesn't even bother with a legal pretext any more, Kadeer says.
London: Yulia Skripal, one of two Russians poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, has been released from hospital, British media is reporting.

BBC News said on Tuesday that Skripal, 33, had been discharged from hospital on Monday and taken to a "secure" location.

Britain's Press Association said hospital officials would make an official statement shortly.

The British government is likely to keep details about her location secret given the sensitivity of the case.
London: Animal welfare campaigners say international momentum is turning in favour of outlawing live exports as the British government considers a ban on the trade following another case of abuse of Australian animals.

The Australian government is mulling a summer moratorium on the live export trade to the Middle East following the deaths of 2400 sheep on board a ship during a heatwave last year.

British Prime Minister Theresa May's conservative government has also begun a six-week consultation with the industry and left open the possibility of Britain banning the trade after Brexit.

Britain's trade in live animals is small compared with Australia's $1.4 billion sector. The British government says 4000 sheep were transported to Europe for slaughter in 2016, although the British National Farmers Union put the figure at 20,000 for 2017.
London: Trade between the Commonwealth nations could explode to $3.86 trillion in value by the end of next decade a British inquiry committee has said.

The predicted boost in the value of trade depended on the 53 member countries of the Commonwealth signing up to a series of proposals to lower the cost of trading goods, particularly in African nations.

The South African team enters the arena for the Commonwealth Games. More trade would particularly help African nations. Credit:AP

The committee said they would also need to harmonise regulations to facilitate the booming services sectors seen in countries such as Australia and Singapore.

Next week's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) should "tackle head on" rising protectionism around the world, a veiled reference to US President Donald Trump's "America First" pledge, which has sparked a potential trade war with China.
Lima: US President Donald Trump, who has disparaged Latin American countries over immigration, narcotics and trade, heads to the region this week for a summit that diplomats say is likely to be awkward and tense.

Trump will arrive in the Peruvian capital, Lima, on Friday for the Summit of the Americas with an agenda of encouraging commercial ties and urging allies to take a hard line on Venezuela, according to US officials who briefed reporters on the trip.

US President Donald Trump is due in South America on Friday. Credit:AP

But the Presidents divisive rhetoric and fraught relationships with Latin leaders such as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto make it unlikely he will make big strides toward his goals, experts said.

"He is going in profoundly unpopular in the region, and that obviously complicates the ability of leaders to work with him," said Mark Feierstein, who managed hemispheric issues for former president Barack Obama's White House, and is now an adviser with the Albright Stonebridge Group.
Is hybrid working a red flag for business security?

The new normal was all we heard about when it came to the working model shift after the pandemic hit. Businesses worldwide adopted working from home, and then the hybrid model: a balance of remote work and office work. And according to a recent survey by 451 Research, nearly 80% of organisations surveyed said they have implemented or expanded universal work-from-home policies as a result of COVID-19, whilst 67% expect these policies to remain in place either permanently or for the long-term. With more vacant office spaces, the question is: is hybrid working a red flag for business security? Empty-office days When buildings and office spaces are still active with advanced technology, equipment and assets on show, yet footfall is not as busy as it once was, opportunistic criminals are closely watching and taking note. But what are they learning? Security systems provider, Expert Security UK, investigates our new normal. Offices are nests for expensive, valuable equipment, with maybe the latest technology Instead of a packed, busy office five or six days a week, hybrid working means more empty-office days, which is music to the ears of burglars. Offices are nests for expensive, valuable equipment, with maybe the latest technology and safes sitting there, or potential stacks of cash or company cards. You may be thinking, well, who leaves company cards or cash out? Youd be surprised, especially when business owners think theyll never be a victim, or sometimes, staff make mistakes. Hybrid working model And dont forget, burglars dont always know whats been left and will take their chances. And when a hybrid working model is the new normal, that means a lapse in security - at least in a thiefs mind. So how worried should business owners be? Well, the latest figures are pretty worrying, but also, not massively shocking. Reiterating the temptation and lure the working model shift has on robbers, Statista recorded a 12-year high for robbery offences in the UK in 2019/2020. When more businesses either shut up shop or sent staff away to home offices, its not hard to make a connection. These figures reflect how, when given the opportunity, thieves will strike and take advantage. Handing vital information Whether youve decided to go fully remote, its crucial to review and rethink your business security However, its worth noting that the lockdowns and empty streets would also have played a part in this spike, and now that were out of lockdowns with a world back to flipping its sign to open, many businesses will be carrying on working from home, but towns, shops, and streets are busy again. Whether youve decided to go fully remote, or have adopted the hybrid model, its crucial to review and rethink your business security, starting with your social media presence. Its a good idea to review your social media channels. We forget how open we can be on social media, and how our digital presence can actually work as a perfect guide and insight for criminals. All they have to do is follow your channels to pick up on clues. And if youre not giving it a minutes thought about what you're putting out there, you may even be just handing them vital information and helping their plans. Remote working shift Of course, there is information readily available such as your opening times, location etc. But, do you really want/need to show off the new, state-of-the-art tablets youve just kitted your office out with? It can be hard as a business, or even as a social person, to not want to share positive news on social media, but we really do have to stop and think, especially if people know a lot about the company and its remote working shift. Its also a good idea to have a meeting with your staff about a social media policy Maybe share a post about that new, intelligent security system you've installed instead. Its also a good idea to have a meeting with your staff about a social media policy or maybe just a casual chat about best practices, e.g. not to tag the business in a post about their new office gadget etc. Improving business security With fewer office days, you probably wont need to take up as much work space anymore. Maybe some equipment has become more ornamental. Anything you dont use or need, you could sell or donate. If you do have expensive equipment lying around thats not being used, try and make money back from it or store it elsewhere. If you are keeping a lot of expensive equipment in vacant premises, especially fixed equipment and technology, then consider installing bars and shutters over the windows. Whatever your budget, you can improve your business security tenfold with key security measures. One of them being access control. Security gates with access control are incredibly effective at stopping unauthorised people from gaining entry. There are also car park barriers and bollards that are highly effective at keeping any potential getaway vehicles out. Easily portable technology High-quality CCTV is a best friend to any business, but you need to be reviewing it frequently High-quality CCTV is a best friend to any business, but you need to be reviewing it frequently, especially if youve done a perimeter check and noticed any signs of forced entry or damage. Dont forget those signs either, let visitors or trespassers know theyre on camera. To fit in with the hybrid working model, static fixtures are becoming redundant. For instance, companies are switching to laptops instead of computers, so that workers can transport them easily to and from the office. This is not only more efficient and convenient, but it means assets are more guarded. Its the same for any other gadgets. Having easily portable technology is good for business, hybrid working, and security. Dont forget about your deterrents. Simple signs to warn people of alarms, CCTV, and even the fact that you dont leave equipment inside overnight can go a long way. Best security technology Thieves are famous for taking their chances. Some will meticulously plan, and many strike at a convenient, opportune time. So having signs in place that show you have high-quality, intelligent security in place can work wonders, making them think twice. Its also worth noting that you may not have the best security technology in place at the moment, but those on the outside dont need to know that; they can be fooled. However, having the best physical security in place is vital, as criminals lurk and will take chances. Keep reviewing your security, especially as your business adapts and reshapes - whether you return back to full office days or carry on the hybrid working model. This guest post was contributed by Danny Scholfield, Managing Director of Expert Security UK.
In January 2018, the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio and the Citys Security Infrastructure Working Group announced plans to bring permanent perimeter barriers, or bollards, to high-profile sites and to create a process to streamline their design and construction. With funds exceeding $14 million for permanent bollards in Times Square and more than $50 million to commence the broader rollout of new protective measures in phases.

Mayor de Blasio said, In 2017, New Yorkers witnessed the horrible capacity of people willing to do us harm, whether it was in our subways, on our bike paths or in Times Square. But we will not be cowed and our expanded investment today in barriers and bollards in our public spaces underscores our resolve in keeping New York City safe from future attacks. In this new year, we can and will protect our iconic public spaces while New Yorkers go on living our lives, including by hosting a record number of tourists.

These additional safety bollards will allow New Yorkers and visitors to be more secure at landmark locations and other sites throughout our City, said Police Commissioner James P. ONeill.With vehicles becoming a weapon for terrorists, the need to protect citizens has dawned on most large cities

Ensuring public security



And with vehicles seemingly becoming the weapon of choice for terrorists, the need to protect citizens from 'people willing to do harm' has dawned on most large cities, leaving many still trying to find the best way to protect their citizens.

Admittedly in many cases, it seems to be after the horse has bolted so to speak. In 2016, a lorry was driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 87 people and injuring 458. This was an awful, cowardly and devastating attack that had a huge impact on so many lives.

The stark reality is however, after two previous vehicle attacks in France, if there had had been tougher security measures in place, rather than an increased police presence, and a plastic temporary barrier, then many of those citizens would still be alive today.

MacSafe for vehicle incursion prevention



Reacting to these devastating events, Metropolis Nice C.te dAzur decided to install a safety barrier along the Promenade des Anglais. The new barrier, or vehicle incursion prevention system, MacSafe, was tailormade for the Promenade des Anglais by Maccaferri and J&S Franklin.

It was inaugurated in July 2017. It is crash test rated to stop a 19-tonne truck travelling at 50km/h and impacting at 20, equivalent to the vehicle used by the terrorist in Nice in 2016 and can withstand two successive impacts. The system is also accredited by the UIAU (University of Venice).

The MacSafe system consists of two high tensile steel cables supported on tubular steel posts and anchored at each end with our patented energy dissipation system. The posts are secured to ground foundations and all external fixings are designed to prevent them being easily removed.

The force of the vehicle impact is distributed through the cables and posts and absorbed within the patented energy dissipaters. The energy is absorbed through compressive deformation and not by friction. This ensures better and more reliable performance throughout the long-life of the barrier.Las Vegas plan to have their existing 800 bollards updated to some 7,000 by the end of 2018

Balancing security and aesthetics



On the 19th December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. One year on, and the Christmas Market in Berlin is protected by large concrete barriers, armed police patrols and stop and search checks.

In January 2017 in Melbourne, 6 people were killed and 37 injured when a car sped down a footpath crashing into pedestrians, by June 2017 $10 million had been allocated, and temporary concrete barricades and bollards had been installed around the City of Sydney.

In January 2018, the City of Gold Coast began installing heavy duty retractable bollards capable of repelling the force of a large heavy goods vehicle. They had previously resolved to spend $515,000 on bollards which met the Australian standard, but on the advice of the QPS Commonwealth Games security adviser, it was recommended that the bollards comply with a European standard bringing the cost of the project to $1.095 million.

Las Vegas plan to have their existing 800 bollards updated to some 7,000 by the end of 2018, to increase the safety of those walking The Strip in Sin City. However, some cities are still concerned about the aesthetics of concrete bollards on their historic cities, a case of balancing security over protecting tourism.

Physical barriers for pedestrian security



Take for instance, Barcelona in Spain. On the 17th August 2017, a van was driven into pedestrians strolling along Las Ramblas, in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring at least another 130. Advice was given that bollards were needed, warnings of impeding threats were given, and yet, the action taken was to increase policing levels on the streets.

Now, thankfully, there are a few bollards and increased police presence on the streets, and going forward they are studying the possibility of installing physical barriers to prevent further attacks with vehicles.Although guard rails would not have stopped either of the London attacks, they can limit the damage

In London on 22nd March 2017, a car was driven into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing 5 people and injuring 49 others. The driver also stabbed a policeman to death.

Built-in counter terrorism design

Again, in London, on 3rd June 2017, a van was driven at pedestrians in the London Bridge Area. Three attackers began stabbing people, before being shot by police. 8 people died. 48 were injured, 21 critically. Controversially previously installed 'Guard Rails' had been removed from Londons streets to protect cyclists and make the Capital more attractive.

Although guard rails would not have stopped either of the London attacks, they could have limited the damage. However, today, protective barriers are erected on Thames bridges and from Londons experience of previous terrorist activities (IRA) there are very few buildings or indeed public spaces that dont have counter-terrorism design inbuilt.

Government-initiated guidance



The UK Government has produced a 174-page guide, Crowded Places Guidance, that highlights the threat as a vehicle being used as a weapon, but also highlights that these threats can be mitigated by installing physical measures (including blending into the landscape or streetscape) which may be passive (static) or active (security controlled). These measures can be installed either on a permanent or temporary basis. All such measures should meet appropriate standards in terms of their vehicle impact performance, design and installation.

Vehicle security barriers, need not be ugly concrete monstrosities. Nor do they need to be concrete lumps that need huge lifting gear to place them. They can be totally inconspicuous, letting everyday life continue and forgetting they are there, or full on in your face shouting a warning to would be terrorists that this area is safe.Planters can be installed quickly and are sited to allow pedestrians to pass through while vehicles cant

PAS68 Street Planters

They come in many guises, from retractable bollards and passive static bollards to street furniture. Even cleverly disguised PAS68 Street Planters from Securiscape, which have an attractive floral display whilst cleverly acting as a security barrier.

These planters can be installed quickly and are sited to allow pedestrians to pass through while vehicles cant, but due to intelligent design, incorporating a surface mounted, reinforced structure which can stop a vehicle if it is used as a battering ram. But if none of that appeals, then there are many landscaping options, including, ditches, bunds and berms.

DefenCell mesh gabion



DefenCell by J&S Franklin, is a lightweight geotextile welded mesh gabion that once filled with locally available materials, can be incorporated into security measures for public places and protection. Filled and stacked, these gabions can be covered and planted, maintaining the aesthetic and environmental considerations of high profile or sensitive locations.

Sadly, people with evil intent are a fact of life. Which makes vehicle security barriers a permanent part of our city landscapes. So, whether hidden or in plain sight they will be there be to Protect and Protect again.
Teachers protesting for higher pay in the West Virginia capitol during a statewide school closure in early March.
An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon.

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)  pronounced "laddie," not "lady"  launched Sept. 6, 2013, for a mission to the lunar surface. The spacecraft ended its mission on April 18, 2014, when it was intentionally crashed into the surface of the moon after running low on fuel.

The 844-pound (383 kilograms) spacecraft orbited the moon between October 2013 and April 2014. It investigated lunar dust, the lunar atmosphere and conditions near the moon's surface, NASA officials have said.

"While we know Earth's atmosphere has oxygen, we do not know what comprises the moon's atmosphere," NASA officials wrote in a fact sheet. "To help us understand what it contains, LADEE will dip into the lunar atmosphere, and instruments onboard the spacecraft will send detailed measurements to scientists to analyze on Earth." [Photos: NASA's LADEE Moon Dust Mission in Pictures]

Lunar atmosphere?

The moon's atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's. Scientists suspect that the lunar atmosphere is about 1/100,000th the density of Earth.

Because the atmosphere is so thin, temperatures reach 273 degrees Fahrenheit (134 degrees Celsius) on the sunny side of the moon, but the temperature can get as cold as minus 243 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 153 degrees Celsius) on the far side of the moon.

The moon's atmosphere can be compared to the fringes of Earth's atmosphere, right above the area of space where the International Space Station orbits, NASA officials have said. Scientists also suspect that the moon's atmosphere could be analogous to the atmospheres of other relatively small planetary bodies throughout the solar system.

LADEE is the latest in a long line of probes NASA has sent to the moon.

The space agency's Pioneer 4 completed the first successful American flyby of the moon in 1959. The Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 successfully flew by the moon a few months earlier. [How NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Works (Infographic)]

In 2011, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back the most high-resolution moon map ever constructed.

That same year, the twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory-A) spacecraft launched. The two probes, responsible for investigating the structure of the lunar interior, were purposefully crashed into the moon in December 2012.

LADEE's Science

The LADEE spacecraft comes equipped with three science instruments and a technology demonstration:

Ultraviolet and Visible Light Spectrometer  This instrument will analyze the light signatures of materials around the moon to understand the composition of the satellite's atmosphere.

 This instrument will analyze the light signatures of materials around the moon to understand the composition of the satellite's atmosphere. Lunar Dust Experiment  This instrument will collect and analyze moon dust in the atmosphere. The instrument could also help NASA scientists solve a mystery, NASA officials wrote in a facts sheet: "Was lunar dust, electrically charged by solar ultraviolet light, responsible for the pre-sunrise horizon glow that the Apollo astronauts saw?"

 This instrument will collect and analyze moon dust in the atmosphere. The instrument could also help NASA scientists solve a mystery, NASA officials wrote in a facts sheet: "Was lunar dust, electrically charged by solar ultraviolet light, responsible for the pre-sunrise horizon glow that the Apollo astronauts saw?" Neutral Mass Spectrometer  The spectrometer will look for variations in the lunar atmosphere while the moon is in different orbits and various space environments, according to NASA officials.

 The spectrometer will look for variations in the lunar atmosphere while the moon is in different orbits and various space environments, according to NASA officials. Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration  For this technology demonstration, LADEE will use lasers (and not radio waves, like other spacecraft that have flown beyond close Earth orbit have used) to communicate with controllers on Earth. This could allow the spacecraft to communicate at broadband speeds with the ground.

A history-making launch

The LADEE launch was the first lunar mission to launch from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This mission also marked the first time a payload has been launched aboard a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket integrated by Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA officials have said.

Once launched, the probe took about 30 days to get to the moon; LADEE then went through a checkout period for another 30 days. After that, the probe was scheduled to conduct 100 days of science operations.

NASA's LADEE mission cost $280 million and did last longer than its designed lifetime. In February 2014, NASA officially extended the mission to mid-April as fuel was beginning to run low. At the time, mission managers expected the probe to crash into the moon by April 21.

Ending with a bang

The final crash occurred on April 18 between 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT) and 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT).

LADEE crashed into the moon about 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) from the eastern rim of the larger Sundman V crater, just 0.2 miles (0.3 km) north of the spot where mission team members predicted the spacecraft would go down based on tracking data, NASA officials said in October 2014. The agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took a photo of the crater caused by LADEE when it crashed.
Humanity needs to step up its asteroid-hunting game.

To date, astronomers have spotted more than 8,000 near-Earth asteroids that are at least 460 feet (140 meters) wide  big enough to wipe out an entire state if they were to line up our planet in their crosshairs. That sounds like good progress, until you consider that it's only about one-third of the 25,000 such space rocks that are thought to zoom around in Earth's neighborhood.

"There's still two-thirds of this population out there to be found," Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said during a presentation last week with the agency's Future In-Space Operations working group. "So, we have a ways to go." [In Pictures: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids]

A near-Earth object (NEO) is anything that comes within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of our planet's orbit. The overall NEO population is almost incomprehensibly large; there are likely tens of millions of such space rocks between 33 feet and 65 feet (10 to 20 meters) in diameter, Johnson said.

Asteroids of this relatively small size can cause damage on a local scale. For example, the object that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, smashing thousands of windows and wounding more than 1,200 people, measured about 62 feet (19 m) across, scientists have said.

But the really worrisome asteroids are the big ones. So, in the 1990s, Congress directed NASA to find 90 percent of the NEOs that are at least 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter  a mandate the space agency fulfilled in 2010. Currently, 887 of these mountain-size space rocks are known, and perhaps just 50 or so are left to be discovered, Johnson said. (None of the cataloged behemoths pose a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future.)

In 2005, NASA got some further instructions from lawmakers: Spot 90 percent of all NEOs 460 feet and larger by the end of 2020. It's clear at this point that the agency will not meet that ambitious deadline. And getting such a detailed handle on the NEO population will require the launch of a dedicated asteroid-hunting space mission, according to a& NASA-commissioned study that was published in September 2017.

The space telescope for such a mission would ideally set up shop at the sun-Earth Lagrange point 1, a gravitationally stable spot about 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from our planet, and scan the heavens in infrared light using a telescope at least 1.6 feet (0.5 m) wide, the study found. Such a mission's observations, combined with the contributions of ground-based telescopes, could probably bag the required number of 460-footers in a decade, Johnson said.

NASA is already working on such a space project  a concept mission called the Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam). NEOCam was one of five finalists for the next launch opportunity in NASA's Discovery Program, which funds relatively low-cost and highly focused missions. NEOCam ended up missing out on that slot  NASA picked two other asteroid-studying missions, called Lucy and Psyche  but it did get another year's worth of funding.

There's still hope that NEOCam will fly someday, Johnson said.

"We have taken it over into the Planetary Defense Program," he said. "All we are [lacking is] the entire budget to be able to put a mission like this  a space-based survey capability, which is highly recommended and very necessary for our future capabilities  into development." [Photos: Asteroids in Deep Space]

A viable planetary-defense plan requires more than just asteroid detection, of course; humanity also needs to be able to deflect any dangerous space rocks that are headed our way.

An artist's illustration of the proposed NEOCam spacecraft, which would hunt for asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA and its partners around the world are working on potential solutions to this problem as well. For example, NASA aims to launch a mission called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2020. If all goes according to plan, in October 2022, DART will slam into the 500-foot-wide (150 m) moon of the asteroid (65803) Didymos, which itself measures about 2,600 feet (800 m) across. This impact will change the orbit of "Didymoon" in ways that Earth-based telescopes should be able to detect, NASA officials have said.

DART will be a demonstration of the "kinetic impactor" deflection strategy. NASA had also planned to test the "gravity tractor" technique  using a fly-along probe to gradually nudge an asteroid off course via gravitational forces  in the coming years as a part of the agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). But the White House zeroed out funding for ARM in last year's federal budget request, and that mission is no more.

There's one more possible way to knock out an incoming asteroid, and it was made famous by the 1998 movie "Armageddon." Blasting a space rock apart with a nukewouldn't be the first choice of most scientists or policymakers, but such an extreme measure may be the only way to deal with a big space rock detected with little lead time. (And this would be a robotic mission, by the way; you wouldn't need a space cowboy like Bruce Willis to get the job done.)

Such preparatory work shouldn't unduly alarm the public, Johnson stressed; the odds that a big asteroid will strike Earth are very low on a day-to-day basis.

"These are very rare events," he said. "But they're also an event that, if we don't find this population, can happen any day on us."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
The Atlas V is a type of rocket that is commonly used for interplanetary missions, military payloads and cargo runs to the International Space Station. This rocket type has had more than 75 launches (as of March 2018) with no complete failures, making it among the most reliable in the world.

The rocket used to be operated by Lockheed Martin, but it is now operated by United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture). Some of the notable missions it has launched include the Pluto-bound New Horizons mission, the top-secret X-37B space plane and the Mars Curiosity rover.

An Atlas V rocket will also be used to launch the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft, which will ferry astronauts to the International Space Station in the next few years.

Rocket specs

Height: 205 feet (62.5 meters)

Diameter: 12.5 feet (3.81 m)

Mass: 46,678 lbs. (21,173 kilograms)

Stages: 2. The first stage uses a Russian-built RD-180 engine, which is fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen. The second stage uses an American RL10 engine manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Solid rocket boosters: Up to three (as required per mission payload) Aerojet Rocketdyne SRBs on the Atlas V 400 series, and up to five on the 500 series.

Payload capacity: Low Earth orbit: 18,190 to 45,240 lbs. (8,250 to 20,520 kg); geostationary transfer orbit: 10,470 to 19,620 lbs. (4,750 to 8,900 kg)

Launch pads: Space Launch Complex 41, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and Space Launch Complex 3-E, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

History and notable successes

Lockheed Martin Commercial Services originally developed the Atlas V for the U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The first launch of an Atlas V took place on Aug. 21, 2002. It successfully lofted the Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 broadcast satellite into orbit.

On Aug. 12, 2005, an Atlas V performed its first launch for NASA  an interplanetary mission. The rocket hefted the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for an eventual rendezvous with the Red Planet. The spacecraft is still in operation around Mars as of April 2018. Some of its notable finds include imaging possible water streaks (called recurring slope lineae) in craters, tracking Martian weather and surface change and finding past and present landers.

NASA's New Horizons probe, bound for Pluto, lifted off on an Atlas V on Jan. 19, 2006. The spacecraft successfully flew by Pluto in 2015 and is on its way to an object in the Kuiper belt for a flyby in early 2019. And there are many other interplanetary missions that left Earth on an Atlas V:

The Curiosity rover lifted off for Mars on an Atlas V on Nov. 26, 2011. Curiosity has found extensive evidence of past liquid on the Red Planet's surface.

The Juno spacecraft started its journey to Jupiter on Aug. 5, 2011. The spacecraft is still in orbit around Jupiter and beaming back information about the gas giant's weather and interior.

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission left Earth on Nov. 18, 2013, aboard an Atlas V rocket. MAVEN is investigating atmosphere loss from Mars, which could explain why the Red Planet doesn't have the vast streams of running water today that are evident in the geological record.

Other space missions include asteroid mission OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Van Allen Probes and the (future) Mars InSight lander.

Atlas V rockets also have been used for International Space Station missions. The first one took place on Dec. 6, 2015, when an Atlas V lifted Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft to orbit for a resupply mission. Even the mysterious Boeing X-37B spaceplane missions have been taken into orbit using the Atlas V. This reusable, uncrewed spacecraft is used by the United States Air Force, but its true mission is classified.

Failures

Atlas V rockets are known for their incredible success rate, flying more than 75 launches between August 2002 and March 2018 with no complete failures. On at least two occasions, though, Atlas V rockets had partial failures that (luckily) did not affect the outcome of the mission. The first was on June 15, 2007, when the Atlas V put two reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office into a lower orbit than expected. More recently, the first stage shut down early during a Cygnus resupply mission that lifted off on March 23, 2016.

Cygnus was still able to make it to the International Space Station, but Spaceflight 101.com said it was a very close call: "Had the RD-180 engine shut one second earlier than it did, Centaur [the upper stage] would not have been able to compensate and Cygnus would have ended up in a lower orbit. With shutdown another 1.3 seconds earlier, there would not have been a mission for Cygnus as perigee would have remained within the atmosphere, even when using all of Centaurs performance."

This United Launch Alliance graphic shows how the Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser space plane will launch atop Atlas V rockets to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

Commercial crew and other human spaceflight

Boeing's CST-100 is one of two spacecraft selected to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. The company received a contract valued at $4.2 billion from NASA in 2014 for the first round of commercial crew flights; SpaceX's Dragon received $2.6 billion at the same time. CST-100 will use an Atlas V to send astronauts to the orbiting complex.

A January 2018 update from NASA described the various tests that the CST-100 will undergo before carrying astronauts. This will culminate with an uncrewed orbital test flight that will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; at the time, NASA did not give a date for this flight, but media reports say this could take place in 2018 or 2019. After the test flight is complete, Boeing will send a crewed test flight with two astronauts on board.

Other companies have also considered using Atlas V for their own human spaceflight programs. Sierra Nevada Corp. once submitted a proposal to NASA saying its Dream Chaser would use the Atlas V for ISS astronaut flights, but its proposal was not selected. Bigelow Aerospace has also said it might use the Atlas V for flights to its own, future private space station.

Additional resources
The graceful arcs at the center of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope are actually the distorted light of distant galaxies, twisted to form an "Einstein ring" by the gravitational influence of the closer galaxy cluster SDSS J0146-0929.

The perfect circle surrounding a galaxy cluster in a new Hubble Space Telescope image is a visual indicator of the huge masses that are bending time and space in that region.

The galaxy cluster, called SDSS J0146-0929, features hundreds of individual galaxies all bound together by gravity. There's so much mass in this region that the cluster is distorting light from objects behind it. This phenomenon is called an Einstein ring.

The ring is created as the light that comes from distant objects, like galaxies, passes by "an extremely large mass, like this galaxy cluster," NASA said in a statement. "In this image, the light from a background galaxy is diverted and distorted around the massive intervening cluster and forced to travel along many different light paths toward Earth, making it seem as though the galaxy is in several places at once." [Hubble's Most Amazing Discoveries]

The ring is named after Albert Einstein, who wrote his theory of general relativity in the early 1900s. In it, he suggested that a massive object would warp space and time. This process is known today as a gravitational lens. When the most massive galaxies and galaxy clusters get in line with a more distant object, they produce an Einstein ring  a type of gravitational lens.

Einstein rings (and gravitational lenses more generally) give astronomers a huge advantage when they are trying to look at faraway objects. The rings and lenses magnify objects that otherwise would be too distant and dim to see in today's telescopes.

In 2015, for example, astronomers took advantage of an Einstein ring to look at star-forming regions in a galaxy formed just 2.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This will provide more insight into how galaxies came together in the early universe.

Another Einstein ring popped up in 2016, in a star group within the Sculptor dwarf galaxy. At the time, researchers said there are less than a dozen known Einstein rings that are partial or full. The scientific team added that they plan to use this particular Einstein ring in Sculptor to probe the nature of dark matter. This may help scientists learn about the large-scale structure of the universe, since roughly 80 percent of it is made up of dark matter and dark energy, which cannot be directly observed.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Hiding from Camila in Malta, Teresa tries to launch a drug empire of her own by striking a deal with a dangerous money launderer.On the run from hitmen in Malta, Teresa is helped by an old friend whose intentions are anything but clear.Teresa puts her life and her empire on the line when she attempts to rescue girls being trafficked by her new European business partner.Teresa flees Europe and starts fresh in Phoenix, Ariz.; she must deal with a commission of cartel bosses and a corrupt local sheriff.An old enemy lays siege to Teresa's new Phoenix winery; in defending her business, she finds passion with an old friend.Teresa tries to escape her captors with the help of an unexpected ally.
Shaheed El-Hafed (Refugee Camps), April 9, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, on Sunday received the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Hamdi Boukhari, at the Presidency of the Republic.



The meeting, attended by the president of the Sahrawi Red Crescent Buhubeini Yahya, addressed the plight of the Sahrawi refugees and the efforts of UNHCR to sensitize donors to redouble their efforts to meet the growing needs of refugees.



The meeting was an occasion for Mr. Boukhari to express his gratitude for the constructive cooperation of the Saharawi partner institutions.



For his part, the President of Republic expressed the constant willingness of the Sahrawi authorities to support and facilitate the noble humanitarian mission carried out by the UNHCR in the Sahrawi refugee camps, emphasizing the need to intensify efforts to alleviate their suffering. (SPS)



062/SPS/TRA
STAMFORD  City legislators say its time for the people to weigh in on a controversy that has emerged from an item in the budget proposed for the next fiscal year.

They have scheduled a public hearing on Mayor David Martins plan to cut the number of park police officer positions from three to two, and hire park ambassadors instead.

During a Board of Representatives meeting Monday night, the Parks and Recreation Committee co-chairwoman, city Rep. Marion McGarry, D-12, called for the hearing and her colleagues agreed. A hearing has been scheduled for 7 p.m. April 17 at the Stamford Government Center.

There has been an overwhelming outcry from the people of Stamford as to why there has been a reduction in park police since it was announced (last month) that the mayor wants to start an ambassador program, McGarry said Tuesday. We had ambassadors in the past and it did not work, and Stamford is bigger now than it was then. There are things going on in the parks. We need a bigger presence.

The city tried ambassadors at Cove Island in 1998, when the number of park officers was shrinking because of budget cuts and their unit was folded into the police department. The job of the ambassadors, riding bikes and carrying cellphones, was to encourage people to obey park regulations and report serious incidents to police.

Thats not what Stamford needs now, said city Rep. Rodney Pratt, D-9, the boards majority leader and a member of the Parks and Recreation Committee.

Residents have been complaining to their representatives about underage drinking, drug dealing, fighting, loitering, noise, speeding, illegal dumping and homeless encampments in the parks.

The only way I can see ambassadors working is if we are fully staffed with park officers. Otherwise, youre putting people in harms way to do a job police should be doing, Pratt said. The feedback from my neighborhood and other neighborhoods is overwhelming. This is not something a representative is dreaming up. People are saying this is not going to work.

The proposal needs to reverse order, Pratt said.

First park police, then ambassadors, he said. Dont put the horse before the cart. Its dangerous.

Stamford now has two park police officers for 65 parks, about half of which are active. Martin wants to cut the third park police position that has been open since Officer Frank Green died last year, and spend $300,000 to create an ambassador program.

Some representatives have said the money should be used to hire more park police, not ambassadors. Martin has said that the best way to provide maximum coverage is with a mix of park police, regular police, ambassadors, security cameras, better lighting and other elements.

City Rep. Dennis Mahoney, R-20, the other Parks and Recreation Committee co-chairman, said Tuesday its good to get input from constituents and neighborhood associations.

I would say security in our parks is a citywide concern, but thats what the public hearing is for, Mahoney said. People may come out and say they want an ambassador program, I dont know. The hearing gives us an opportunity to take that temperature.

Another committee member, city Rep. Raven Matherne, D-19, said she needs to learn more about Martins idea.

From what the administration has said so far, ambassadors would allow us to have more people, but they would do less. Ambassadors cant do more than say. Hey, you, stop that, Matherne said. Having park officers would mean fewer people, but they can do more. They have all the abilities of regular police officers.

Park police sounds like a better approach, Matherne said, but she is open to persuasion.

I dont think the administration did a good job of presenting their case. If they present a more detailed plan, I could say, Wow, that makes sense. Lets give it a shot, Matherne said. As of now, I feel like I am in the dark.

It will be good to hear from residents next Tuesday, she said.

Pratt agreed.

The goal of a public hearing is to empower the people, but they have to come out and let the government know what they think, Pratt said. It makes a difference.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com.
STAMFORD  As the roles of libraries evolve in society, so does the responsibilities of their staff. Ellie Kousidis, a library media specialist at Rippowam Middle School, is doing more than helping students find books. Shes helping them find new ways to learn through technology.

Kousidis was recently recognized for her work with the 2018 Stamford Public Education Foundation award at the organizations Excellence in Education Awards Celebration. Kousidis was among 19 Stamford educators nominated by their parent-teacher organization.

Kousidis was also recently named a Stamford 2018 Supporting Fund for Teachers fellow and will attend the 2018 International Society for Technology in Education conference in Chicago to learn from experts on how to re-engage learners with modern tools to improve academic outcomes.

Kousidis has been at Rippowam for two years, and previously taught social studies and history at Westhill from 2005 to 2011. Before becoming a teacher, she worked in technology as a troubleshooter for a software development company.

I really enjoyed learning about technology, Kousidis said. It was all new when I graduated high school. I just got lucky and got good opportunities in that field. I always in the back of my mind felt I wanted to do something with technology and education. It was the perfect combination of the skill set I had and the skill set I developed.

When Kousidis returned to work after taking time off to be with her children, she got certified as a library media specialist. Now she teaches students how to build websites and blogs for classes. She also runs a site for student announcements and surveys in addition to supporting everyone who uses the media center.

A lot of it has to do with technology, she said. The traditional stuff is teaching kids how to do good research, deciphering whats credible. I do a lot of traditional and digital literacy. The kids right now, they love learning about technology because its relevant to them. When we teach them to blog, they care more about the work theyre doing because they know itll go out there.

Kousidis said she was honored to receive the award, along with the $1,000 donation that comes with it, but shes remaining mum on what shes going to do with the funds, saying its going to be a surprise for her community.

Beth St. James, the Rippowam PTO co-president who nominated Kousidis, said its an honor to have Kousidis at the school.

We have a lot of superstar educators at Rippowam, but Ellie stands above even our stars, St. James said. Ellie is a shining beacon of positivity. I have never seen an educator have so many ideas and not only follow up to get her things done, but she continues the momentum, spreads that motivation and helps get others projects going as well. She is truly that ripple in the pond that touches so many, and inspires others.
Stamford police / Contributed

STAMFORD  A tip led police to a loaded gun and a box of bullets in a wooded area on the citys West Side this week.

Capt. Richard Conklin said officers in the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad were alerted to the gun, which was found buried beneath leaves Monday morning in the woods off Myano Lane.
C ampaigners left bankrupt by Dunbar Bank on Tuesday demanded UK and Swiss regulators investigate owner Zurich over claims of bad practice during the insurance giants ownership of the lender.

The Dunbar Action Group, a campaign group set up by ex-customers, has written to the Financial Conduct Authority, Swiss regulator Finma, and Zurich chief executive Mario Greco calling for a probe into the Swiss giants governance.

More than 100 Dunbar customers were left bankrupt by its downturn after the 2008 financial crisis when the lender was majority owned by Zurich. The FCA has previously indicated it is powerless to act in the case because it has no oversight of commercial lending and Dunbar was delicensed as a bank in 2011.

However, the action group says Zurich is regulated by the FCA and Finma and should come in the crosshairs of regulators.

DAG chairman Ben Warren said: DAG considers it likely that Zurich would be considered negligent in relation to its ownership of Dunbar Bank.

A Dunbar spokesman said: If we are contacted by the FCA or Finma, we will engage with them fully. Dunbar strenuously rejects any allegations of wrongdoing.

The FCA and Finma declined to comment.

In the letter, the action group claims customers property assets were secretly security reviewed by the bank between 2008 and early 2010 and then revalued to a lower level.

They say Zurich deliberately delicensed the bank in 2011 to run off its portfolio of assets outside City regulations, an attempt to absolve itself of responsibility, it claims.

DAG also said Zurich applied unreasonable pressure on individuals to close the bank.

Dunbar has previously highlighted it made commercial loans to property developers who knew what they were doing and that bankruptcy was always a last resort.
T he fallout from US sanctions reverberated through London markets again on Tuesday as trading giant Glencore shelved a major share-swap deal with Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaskas EN+ business.

Glencore had planned to swap its 8.75% stake in aluminium producer Rusal  another Deripaska company  for about 10% in EN+, giving it more exposure to that firms power assets.

Rusal is the worlds second-biggest producer of aluminium and Glencore is also its biggest customer under a multi-year deal to buy Rusals metal, worth $2.4 billion (1.7 billion) last year.

But Glencore said on Tuesday it was abandoning the share swap and Ivan Glasenberg  the trading giants billionaire founder  has resigned from Rusals board.

Swiss-based Glencore also said it was evaluating the position under its contracts with Rusal, although it stressed they were not material to the group.

That helped the shares to bounce back 6.6p, or 2%, to 345.7p today after fears the company could be caught up in the fallout from the sanctions hit the stock yesterday.

The dramatic moves announced last week ban US individuals and companies from doing business with 24 Russians  including Deripaska  and 14 companies in total.

Although Glencore is not a US firm, the sanctions massively complicate doing business with the oligarch, laying open the risk of heavy penalties for sanction-busting. Deripaska has called the US move groundless, ridiculous and absurd.

Glencore said it was committed to complying with all applicable sanctions in its business and is taking all necessary measures to mitigate any risks to the business.

But sources also said Glasenberg could revive the share swap deal if and when sanctions are lifted.

London investors have been burned in the EN+ float four months ago with shares down more than half since then. Rusals shares  which lost half their value in Hong Kong yesterday  fell another 9% overnight.

Bloomberg was not displaying prices for the EN+ and Rusals London-listed stock today, stating they were subject to US sanctions.

Glencores interest in Rusal goes back to at least 2007, when Deripaska and fellow billionaire Viktor Vekselberg  also sanctioned  merged their companies with its aluminium plants.
IFLA Unveils the Next Steps for Its Global Vision



At the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Presidents Meeting, held in Barcelona, Spain, on March 19, 2018, the organization unveiled the next phase of its Global Vision project . IFLAs president, Gloria Perez-Salmeron, and its secretary general, Gerald Leitner, stressed that the main finding of the ongoing project is unity: Librarians around the world share common values and are united in their goals.The 4-page  Global Vision Report Summary  presents 10 highlights paired with 10 opportunities. The full report will be distributed at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2018, following more member input. Perez-Salmeron said at the Presidents Meeting, The report is just the beginning. In line with her presidential theme of Libraries: Motors for Change, she sees the Global Vision report as a driver of change.

The Global Vision project reflects input from more than 31,000 participants from 213 countries, including 190 United Nations member states from all seven continents. Participation came in the form of 9,291 people who attended 185 workshops and from 21,772 who voted online. Leitner noted that IFLA had members in 140 countries before voting began, and now there are 150 countries represented. No one anticipated that the project would double as a membership tool, but no one is complaining either.

The project began in April 2017 with a meeting in Athens, Greece. IFLAs professional units were asked to discuss the core values of libraries, what they are exceptionally good at, what they should do more and less of, and the main challenges to institutions and the profession.

Global Vision Report Summary Highlights and Opportunities

The Global Vision Report Summary highlights are as follows:

Dedication to equal and free access to information and knowledge

Deep commitment to supporting literacy, learning, and reading

Focus on serving communities, regardless of how those communities are defined

Embrace of digital innovation

Strong advocacy supported by leadership

Challenge of funding

Need to build collaboration and partnerships

Desire to avoid bureaucracy, inflexibility, and resistance to change

Define libraries as guardians of the memory of the world

Young professionals are deeply committed and eager to lead

One quibble I heard from the meeting attendees was the use of the word young in the 10th highlight. Those new to the profession arent necessarily young. Thus, many would have preferred the terminology of new professional (which is also the name of the related IFLA Special Interest Group) rather than young professional.

The opportunities identified spring directly from the highlights. They constitute the beginning of an action plan for global libraries and librarians:

Be champions of intellectual freedom

Update our traditional roles in the digital age

Understand community needs better and design services for impact

Keep up with ongoing technological changes

Need more and better advocates

Ensure that stakeholders understand our value and impact

Develop a spirit of collaboration

Challenge current structures and behaviors

Maximize access to the worlds documentary heritage

Give young professionals effective opportunities to learn, develop, and lead

Workshops Around the World

Following the Presidents Meeting were 2 days of workshop activities. The Barcelona Kick-Off Workshop participants comprised IFLA section officers and governing board members. They were divided into 10 groups, each of which was charged with creating an action plan for one of the opportunities from the Global Vision Report Summary assigned to it. At the end of the workshop, each group presented its best bold ideas for implementing the opportunity. Ideas included verbal translation apps, restructuring IFLA to create an IFLA Academy, and adding a staff member at IFLA headquarters who is devoted to innovation.

Leitner cautioned, A vision without execution is a hallucination. Thus, the next phase is to conduct six regional workshops in the AprilJuly 2018 time frameone on each continent except Antarctica. Results from the regional workshops and the Barcelona meeting will be synthesized into the document to be presented in August 2018 at WLIC. The IFLA Global Vision project then moves into the action phase. Between September 2018 and March 2019, there will be an analysis and design of Global Vision actions, with the launch of the new IFLA strategic plan to be revealed in August 2019 at the WLIC in Athens.



Photos courtesy of Marydee Ojala
I ts not only the Royal Family who have bagged themselves a Suits star. Behind the scenes, Britains top law firm, Allen & Overy, has been courting OMelveny & Myers, the west coast litigator which had a starring role in the hit TV series after being name-checked in the show as one of the countrys most prestigious law firms.

Neither firm has confirmed the talks  first reported in Legal Week  but those close to the negotiations say they are well advanced, with details hammered down right to the new name.

Merging with such a high-profile American litigator would be a stunning coup for Allen & Overy, already one of the worlds biggest law practices, and a timely reminder that the UK is pretty hot when it comes to the soft power of our professional services.

More pertinently, the merger would put Allen & Overy streaks ahead of its four magic circle rivals  Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May  and will force them to rethink their own future strategies.

Allen & Overy  which is also in the news advising WPP on its investigation into allegations made against chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell - is already the most global of the five top UK firms, with offices in 31 countries, employing 2800 lawyers and 5400 staff.

By contrast, Los Angeles-based OMelveny & Myers  which dates back to the 19th century and employs 740 lawyers  has five west coast offices and a big presence on the eastern coast. Its business is almost entirely domestic with a client list dripping with high-tech royalty including Apple, Google, Tesla, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Warner Brothers, and Samsung.

They make a good couple: the new firm would span most of the globe with annual revenues of nearly $3 billion (2.1 billion), ranking third in the world behind US giants Kirkland & Ellis and Lathams & Watkins, and bigger than Baker McKenzie and DLA Piper.

UK firms have typically struggled to get a foothold in the US, mainly because their transatlantic peers pay so much more than British firms which makes it difficult for them to hire top New York partners. Clifford Chance tried a merger with Rogers & Wells and failed, whereas Linklaters is not believed to be pursuing a merger. There are rumours that Freshfields is driving up profits to make itself a more attractive suitor but that is said to be causing pain in the partnership.

But Allen & Overy has always taken the view that if you want to be a world player, you have to be in the US as it makes up half the worlds market in legal services. It follows that the UK firm that gets its US merger right is most likely to become the worlds leading player as most global corporates or banks now use one of the five in the circle for their non-US work, but a US firm for transatlantic work. Which is why Allen & Overy has been out hunting to find the perfect match for years, and why it believes OMelveny & Myers is the one as their cultures are so alike.

As one partner close to the talks says: When you have a partnership with hundreds of people involved, youve got to make sure your style fits well together. Having similar profit levels should oil the culture too  Allen & Overys profit per equity partner is unusually higher than that of its US partner at 1.51 million last year against OMelvenys 1.4 million.

Theres another reason why it makes sense to hit the big time in the US: its lucrative business. Litigation usually makes up between half and two-thirds of the revenue of leading US firms, driving profits because its such high- margin work. Compare that with UK magic circle firms which earn about a third of revenues from litigation.

Allen & Overys profits are at record levels. Neither it, nor its UK rivals, have been hurt by any loss of revenue from Brexit uncertainties despite fears banks are retreating from London. Ironically, perhaps, Allen & Overy is going great guns in Luxembourg and other EU countries where banks are expanding in the event of the loss of passporting.
H ungary, in my student days in the old East Germany, was the most liberal country in the thoroughly illiberal Eastern Bloc. My friends relished excursions to a less hidebound land of Western jeans, better bars, a freer feeling in the streets.

In 1989, Hungary was first to dismantle border fences with the West. So its painful to see it re-erecting barbed-wire fences, real and ideological, with the rest of Europe.

Back then,Viktor Orban was a bright law student. Now he is Europes leading illiberal democrat  a phrase he uses himself.

Hungarys election result this week should resonate far beyond his borders, because it represents a consolidation of authoritarianism. This suggests that far from being a spasm, his brand of populist politics may be rather harder to get rid of than opponents have so far factored in.

Hungarys Fidesz party and its allies gain two-thirds or the seats in parliament, with the right to sweeping constitutional changes and a clear intention of shoring up a stable of pliant oligarchs and bringing pressure to bear on political opponents, notably George Soros and his institutions.

But contempt for the new breed of Europes neo-nationalists is not in itself a remedy. Centrists need to consider more imaginatively how effective their responses have been to populist trends, if only because the notion those voters will soon come rushing back is flawed.

This applies (allowing for obvious differences) to the hankering for an elusive neither-Corbyn-nor Brexit new force in Britain, just as much as Germans figuring out the best way to combat the far-Right AfD.

So, what might defenders of a progressive centre do differently? For one thing, I would suggest thinking more as pluralists than in rigid set recipes, which can end up sounding like a repetition of the recipes that have been punished electorally.

They should also lose the irksome habit of starting conversations with the expectation that any interlocutor must agree with them. I used to think this was a small-c conservative trait, but it has spread to progressives too. Allowing for difference is one of the most vital liberal traits and it needs a reboot.

The US academic Amy Chua presented a good challenge in her latest book on tribalisms, noting that contemporary movements in the US, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter build on justified outrage, only to squander their energy by becoming too censorious. Progressive undertakings need to encompass radical and more cautious wings if they are to thrive.

Second  dont copy bad populist ideas, but do learn from their energy. They are good at something that their opponents are not, namely selling themselves to the voters and making a mark (a talent that is then most often marred by oppressing opponents).

Orbans views are awful  barely-hidden racism, being both anti-Semitic and anti-Islam in one inglorious bundle. His Orbanomics miracle of low unemployment and high growth masks a system of random raids on personal wealth and protection for cronies.

But one political asset he has in common with the currently most successful example of his liberal counterparts in Europe, Emmanuel Macron, is drive and irreverence in putting forth his message and draping himself in national interest.

Defenders of the centre ground need to figure out how they can deal with the desire for clearer identity inside national or regional borders without lapsing into petty chauvinisms. That may well mean giving soft populists more prominence in governments (Norway and Germany factor in parties beyond the main centre-right, for fear or something worse emerging). In Britain, soft populism thrives via Corbynism, which has many flaws but is certainly not dull.

The ability to entertain and persuade at the same time is vital as pressure rises and battles harden.

Even on the stolid centre-Right, Germanys Christian Democrats are excited over the rise of a fresh cabinet talent, Jens Spahn, whose outspoken directness contrasts with the careful formulations of the Merkel ascendancy.

One reason Macron has out-performed the uninspiring centrist norm is his chutzpah. In the face of strikes annoying French commuters he responded to a supporter shouting Dont give in! with a clenched fist aloft and response of No fear! The ability to entertain and persuade at the same time is vital as pressure rises and battles harden.

Opposing bad populism demands vitality, even a twist of here-I-am cockiness. Its one small but important ingredient that Theresa May lacks, even as she hangs onto the job  the ability to look like she relishes being Prime Minister rather than suffering.

There is much rocky territory for moderates ahead, across Western democracies. We have to work out better when to defend established positions, chiefly on managing immigration and the worries than spring from it and where to defend globalisation, or mitigate it to allay its impact on those who do not benefit.

It will also entail balancing a dizzying array of identity politics and intersectionalities, many of which have claims on attention, but not all of which can or should be fulfilled at once or in equal degree.

The answer from the likes of Orban is cynical, narrow-minded and cannot create flourishing societies, because it is a mirage not a promise of wellbeing. But liberals will not regain the upper hand by telling everyone how depressing or catastrophic matters are, from London to Berlin or Budapest.

Democracies go through peaks and troughs, fits and fashions, but rarely do they buy a message of more gloom. So anti-populists will need to get less preachy and predictable, and more adventurous. At which point, they might even get a bit more popular.
W e can assume that if Donald Trump launches US air strikes against the Assad regime to punish it for using chemical weapons, Theresa May would like Britain to take part.

Although she is by instinct not an interventionist, she is clearly keen that our country is seen to cement itself in the broader western alliance  especially as Brexit involves breaking one part of that alliance.

Were President Macron to commit French planes to action alongside the Americans, as seems likely, the absence of any British contribution would be noticed across the world as further evidence of our reduced role.

Indeed, it would call into question why we seek to spend more than most nations on maintaining such a large, advanced military if we are never able to use it.

Above all, Mrs May presumably shares the widespread abhorrence at the use of chemical weapons and wants to ensure Britain plays its part in upholding international law and deterring their future use.

Polling suggests that the British public wants it both ways: they support action, but dont want Britain to take part.

With leadership, Mrs May can convince them that to achieve the ends you have to provide the means.

There is another obstacle, however: the House of Commons. If Mrs May follows recent precedent, and recalls Parliament and seeks its consent before committing British forces, she may well lose the vote.

Thats what happened to the Coalition government in almost identical circumstances in 2013.

Five years later, the governments majority is much smaller, the Labour leader even more certain to oppose, and while there could be some Labour rebels who would support action there remain (as there was back then) a sizeable number of Tory MPs who will oppose it.

For a government MP, its easier to withhold support in advance of action rather than joining in censure after it takes place.

For all these reasons, we suspect the whips will have told Mrs May not to risk it.

Cop-out

But, as the impressive Conservative MP, Johnny Mercer, says today, thats a cop out.

Mrs May does not need to hold a parliamentary vote. There is no law that requires the government to seek the consent of the House of Commons before taking part in air strikes.

Our constitutional arrangements are clear: the Prime Minister, using the powers delegated by the Queen as our commander-in-chief, can alone authorise the deployment of military forces.

Indeed, premiers do that all the time. The sad death of the SASs Sergeant Matt Tonroe in Syria itself last month reminds us that Mrs May is one of them.

The question, therefore, is not a legal one but a political one. Could she get away with ordering overt military action without a vote?

Her immediate predecessors felt they couldnt, but they faced particular internal constraints. Tony Blair, on Iraq, faced a huge backbench rebellion and needed to demonstrate he had the support of a majority of them.

David Cameron was governing with Liberal Democrats who had long supported a UK version of the US War Powers Act, mandating parliamentary approval.

But no parliamentary votes were held before action in Afghanistan, Kosovo, the first Gulf War, the Falklands or the two World Wars  and in 2015, Mr Cameron only came to parliament after the strike against so-called Jihadi John in Raqqa had been carried out.

The Evening Standard would support Mrs May if she follows suit. It is overwhelmingly in Britains interests that the taboo against the use of chemical weapons is maintained.

When our closest allies, the US and France, act in a just cause, then we should expect to be alongside them.

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If we do not, Britain and the values we hold dearly will be further diminished. The result will be a more dangerous and violent world.

It is the responsibility of government to act in that national interest and the role of Parliament to hold it to account.
S harp memories bite for the smallest of reasons. Different for each of us, mine hit from a chance mention that an old restaurant is new in town.

The place is called Poons and it was big, for a bit, many London restaurant half-lives ago, before vegan filth food took over, before Peruvian-Japanese fusion, before Nordic, before foraging  basically before we started downing negronis and slurping wasabi-infused burrata in converted Shoreditch knicker factories lit by fireflies in hand-blown glass vases.

Anyway, back before all this, Poons was where you went to eat Chinese food if you didnt want takeaway bright-orange chop suey. And then one day it wasnt there and no one really noticed because in London food is always about the next thing and not the last one.

Well, this spring Poons has come alive again, as a pop-up (obviously), near Old Street (of course), but run by the same family. I dont know how often I went to the old place with my family  the Soho one, with wind-dried sausages in the window  but news of its return suddenly jolted me back to my London life.

Not much is sharper in the mind than things you used to taste and the people you ate with.

Theres the cafe I used to go for lunch when I got my first go at journalism (I think we drank a bottle of rough Italian wine each, each day, but I cant really remember because, well, we did). Theres Granita in Islington, where, pretentiously, I had a birthday even before Tony Blair and Gordon Brown carved up the future of the Labour Party over rocket salad.

Much later, as a special adviser in government, there was the wonderful Regency Cafe in Pimlico, where I used to sneak off with a secretary of state for sausages, chips and grilled tomato for less than the cost of a Pret wrap.

Anyone who has worked in London will have memories like these: and going back is like returning to an old school or home

Anyone who has worked in London will have memories like these: and going back is like returning to an old school or home.

The other day I returned to the Kolossi Grill, a Cypriot place that was the first restaurant near Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell, and now sits in a sea of them, and happily it hasnt changed at all, except the waiters walk a little more slowly.

They still sell wine in tin pots by weight. And they recognised me for coming in, just as John Wrobel at the Gay Hussar in Greek Street did, when I returned the other day, sheepishly, to his Hungarian joint after a decade. He still has a photo on the wall of a scowling Gordon Brown at midnight, leaving a hellish (the atmosphere, not the food) dinner with the Guardian, which had been all my terrible idea.

And the thing is, in all these memories its not what you actually ate that counts. The other night I had a brilliant meal in Brixton market, at a place called Salon, better than any of the places of my past. But it didnt feel part of my London. Not yet, at least. But then Im definitely going back.

Youth culture now heads home at 10.30

I was in Brixton having a M-ment. The Brixton Academy isnt my usual haunt but Id been roped in to hear the Danish electropop sensation (yes, Danish electropop is a thing).

A friends teenage daughter crowded at the front while her mother and I bounced at the back to the shockwave beat, along with all the other parents trying not to embarrass their kids  Darling, but its so loud.

Not so wild night out: Danish electropop sensation M / Getty Images

M was K. She danced. She panted. She threw everything at it. But if this is youth culture, then its been tamed.

At 10.30pm precisely M left the stage, the lights went up and everyone filed out to the Tube politely. Ive had wilder nights at the Royal Opera.

Charles needs to choose clothes that suit the scenery

My Aussie family rumour has it that Charles and Diana secretly rented my mothers Australian beach cabin in 1981, just before they were married, and were spotted on nearby Mollymook Beach.

If Prince Charles really was there, we dont know what he wore. Dressing for the beach is easy for an Australian man: tight budgie-smuggler trunks of the kind the countrys ex-PM Tony Abbott boasted of wearing (I once borrowed his successor Malcolm Turnbulls baggies to jump into Sydney harbour, but thats another story). But what for a future king?

Charles sported surfer-dude chic at Bondi in 1977. But what was he thinking the other day turning up on Queenslands sands in a crumpled white suit and check red tie?
I n the age of outrage, it is not difficult to scandalise. Though if you are an amateur provocateur I can recommend a sure-fire controversy: simply admit, in polite company, that youve never been inclined to try Stranger Things. As jaws swing in horror and eyes boggle alarmingly, add that youve never seen any Game of Thrones, and  with an overlong pause for dramatic impact  that you didnt watch a single episode of The Handmaids Tale.

I am a modern television refusenik. I watch the box  well, strictly, I stream on a MacBook Air  but I rarely engage with anything zeitgeisty. I have heard of the programmes, but in much the same way that my parents have heard of Dalston.

I am told we are in televisions golden age but I live, voluntarily, in its darker one, watching reruns of Friends and old episodes of Jonathan Creek that I vaguely remember seeing the first time around.

I cannot quite account for this cultural self-seclusion. I see new films and plays, and read new novels. I am not a philistine or, conversely, a snob. But if youre not immersed in the matrix of modern TV, it can be an impenetrable world, and refusal begets more refusal. If you havent watched the first season of Big Little Lies theres no point starting the second.

I suspect it started when I was at university, where spare time was for essay crises, or personal ones, and I no longer had access to my parents Sky box. When I moved to London we didnt have a TV and definitely didnt have a TV licence, so we ended up watching whatever a housemate had downloaded on iTunes during a particularly desperate hangover.

I havent seen a single episode of The Crown but have probably seen Bring It On more than 20 times. Maybe in 10 years time I will finally get around to watching all these current cult hits  a mere decade too late.

The boyf is lasting but will the hype?

I am finally going to see Hamilton next week  only 14 months after I booked tickets.

My boyfriend and I, then in the early days of our relationship, joked darkly that if we broke up before the show wed have to make sure we were at least on speaking terms so we could both go.

Very happily, we havent, though now my apprehension has changed: Im terrified I wont love it as much as I hoped. Ive listened to the soundtrack at least once a week for a year; Ive fallen hook, line and sinker for the hype. Im terrified I will end up disappointed. My neurosis, apparently, knows no limits.

Molly Ringwald is in her own special club

Molly Ringwald

Molly Ringwald has written an eloquent essay for The New Yorker about playing muse to director John Hughes in the Eighties, and re-evaluating her breakout role as Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club in the light of #MeToo.

Rewatching it with her 10-year-old daughter, Ringwald was especially disquieted by a scene when the bored, angsty agitator John Bender looks up her skirt and, it is suggested, touches her.

Ringwald did not shoot the scene herself: she was too young. I worried that my daughter would find aspects of it troubling, Ringwald writes. But I hadnt anticipated that it would ultimately be most troubling to me.

Her experience occupies a strange position: Ringwald is examining the movement of #MeToo through a cult Eighties film that almost everyone has seen, but which for her represents a very personal episode in time.

All this amounts to a unique take on a movement that needs persuasive voices.

No wallet wellness with Muji products

Critics of the minimal Japanese homeware brand Muji were appalled to learn this weekend that it is selling a bag of 10 small pink decorative pebbles for 8.95. This, as The Times pointed out, equals almost 90p a pebble.

Obviously, its absurd  though the shop charges about a tenner for a pen, so it is at least consistent. But it is the brands explanation thats really rubbish.

Mujis philosophy is promoting wellness through the joy that well-made, simple products can provide, said a spokesperson.
C harles Dickens is big in China. So is D H Lawrence. As for Charlotte Bronte, the affection expressed by people in Shanghai for Jane Eyre (known in China as Jian Ai) suggests that she may be more popular among Chinese readers than she is in her native land.

Brontes handwritten fair copy of Jane Eyre, with other manuscript treasures from five of the greatest writers in the English language, have just gone on display in a major exhibition at Shanghai Library  Where Great Writers Gather: Treasures of the British Library.

As well as the immortal line Reader, I married him, the Jane Eyre manuscript bears the inky fingerprints and the name of one of the typesetters who prepared the blocks of type for printing. The much messier draft of Dickens The Pickwick Papers testifies to the fact that he was writing at great speed for serial publication.

The earliest Chinese translation of an English or Irish novel was  appropriately  Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels, published as Tan Ying Xiao Lu in 1872. The many translations of the five featured writers show the scale of the Chinese publics appetite for English literature, as well as Shanghais historic role as a gateway through which English works first arrived in China.

The exhibition is our third in China in less than a year, with another opening in Hong Kong this autumn. Its the latest milestone in an ambitious programme supported by funding from HM Treasury, The British Library in China: connecting through culture and learning.

The displays in Beijing and Wuzhen each attracted more than 40,000 visitors and we engaged many hundreds of thousands more people through live webcasts of literary events, and local collaborations such as a cycle-trail competition across Beijing.

We also have a lively and growing presence on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo. Digital innovation is at the heart of this, an area where the British Library has unparalleled expertise.

Arts, education and heritage have an extraordinary power to bring people together across boundaries of language, politics and distance. As Britain prepares to engage in new ways with partners worldwide, including shaping new and lasting relationships across Asia, Africa and the Americas, the great cultural institutions of London and the wider UK have a vital role to play.

Speaking at the launch of our China programme in London last year, His Excellency Ambassador Liu Xiaoming observed that there were now more students of English literature in China than in the UK. This growing global fascination with British culture  from Shakespeare to Sherlock  makes the British Librarys international mission, to advance knowledge and mutual understanding, more exciting and urgent than ever.
I n 1768, equestrian Philip Astley drew a circle on the ground in Waterloo and created something entirely new: a variety show that would soon become a worldwide phenomenon.

This year marks 250 years since the beginning of modern circus. Its an art form that, despite its long history, never ceases to inspire awe in its audiences.

Now, theres much more to it than a horserider and his company of clowns and nowhere is this clearer than at CircusFest.

The Roundhouses festival has been delivering cutting edge circus acts from around the world since 2009. Running until May 6 at the Chalk Farm theatre and its associated venues, the festival proves that circus is anything but a one trick pony.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Relentless Unstoppable Human Machine by Pirates of the Carabina

Trapezes, never-ending ropes, a spinning carousel and a high wire: Pirates of the Carabina are all about equipment. They even create their own apparatus. This world premiere from the troupe is a perfect occupant for the Roundhouses cavernous space, venturing into worlds of technology, time and imagination.

Until April 15, Roundhouse Main Space. Book tickets here.

The Bekkrell Effect by Groupe Bekkrell

French company Groupe Bekkrell take inspiration from physicist Henri Becquerel and his discovery of radioactivity. Five performers combine acrobatics, poetry and the anarchy of punk to channel a nuclear reaction.

April 19 - 22, Roundhouse Main Space. Book tickets here.

No Show by Ellie Dubois

Many of us have dreamed about what it would be like to run away and join the circus. Ellie Dubois took Edinburgh Fringe by storm last year with her performance of No Show, which tells you just what thats like: how you expect it to be and the reality of the pain and cost of hard work. After this, if you still want to join the circus, at least youll be prepared.

April 18 - 22, Roundhouse Main Space. Book tickets here.

Throwdown by Roundhouse Street Circus Collective

Twenty local street dancers and circus performers aged between 16-25 come together to show off their skills. Its a celebration of the venues history of working with young people, and proves that circus is just as multifaceted as the people who perform it.

April 12 - 14, Roundhouse Sackler Space. Book tickets here.

Yablochkov Candle by Ilona Jantti and Aino Venna

Set in 1920s Vienna, seductive jazz and aerial skills meet French chansons and old school rock n roll in an eclectic night of cabaret. What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play.

April 19 - 21, Jacksons Lane, 269A Archway Rd, N6 5AA. Book tickets here.

SARAB (Mirage) by Palestinian Circus Company

In transition: Palestinian Circus School explore migration

Palestinian Circus School explore the rehabilitative effects of circus, travelling through issues of migration and being a refugee heading towards an uncertain future. Seven performers use juggling, Chinese pole and acrobatics to express the plight of refugees around the world.

April 13 - 15, Jacksons Lane. Book tickets here.

Friday Late: Circus - Past, Present & Future

Dig into the rich history of circus with this glimpse into the V&A archives and discover whats next. There are workshops, live performances and talks from entertainers quite literally putting their lives on the line for our enjoyment.

April 27, Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL. Book tickets here.
T he first months of 2019 will see many of us banish the Baileys, wave goodbye to the wine and shut away the sherry.

The temptation to stray, however, is great, especially for those trying to maintain their bar-centric social life.

Luckily, cocktail bars across the capital are aware of your predicament and have mixed up up some innovative, exciting and tastebud tantalising mocktails to whet your teetotal appetite.

Put down the lemonade, because these are some of the best non-alcoholic cocktails in London.

Nettle fizz at The Zetter Townhouse

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Award-winning mixology master Tony Conigliaro is in charge of the bar offerings at this Victorian-styled Clerkenwell hangout, so you can be sure that all drinks  alcoholic or otherwise  are in good hands. Green fingers are at the ready for the Nettle Fizz then, which mixes a homemade nettle cordial with lemon juice and soda.

49-50 St John's Square, EC1V 4JJ, thezettertownhouse.com

Nearly negroni at American Bar at The Savoy

Cocktails dont come much more alcohol-packed than a negroni  or so you thought. The world-beating bar staff at The Savoys American Bar have reimagined this staple of a sun-soaked Italian summer without a drop of gin, Campari or vermouth in sight. The Nearly Negroni uses Seedlip 94, non-alcoholic aromatised wine and bitter sweet cordial.

The Savoy, Strand, WC2R 0EZ, fairmont.com

Mango and fennel lassi at Dishoom

Plumping for this fragrant and fruity lassi makes for both a perfect accompaniment to the dishes on Dishooms menu, and a soothing solution for those who struggle with spice. Yoghurt is blended with fresh mango pulp and fennel seeds in this version  and you can even enjoy it without a meal attached by heading for a drink at The Permit Room, the downstairs bar at Dishooms Kings Cross location.

Flu fighters martini at Redemption Bar

Redemption Bar by Andrea Waters and Catherine Salway, Kyle Books. Photography by Catherine Gratwicke.

Dry January participants cant really go wrong at Redemption  there is not a drop of alcohol behind the bar at these health-conscious spots. You can even beat off the winter chill if you opt for a Flu Fighters Martini: Redemption suggests you give your immune system a boost with this mix of ginger, citrus, aloe vera and more than a hint of fiery chilli.

Glossy at Connaught Bar

It may look like a cuppa, but this cocktail packs quite bit more punch. Take time for tea with the Glossy, an aromatic offering from the acclaimed bar at The Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. The non-alcoholic cocktail blends the fermented flavours of red berry kombucha with milk oolong tea, and adds amalfi lemon leaf syrup and pink grapefruit for a bit of zing.

The Connaught, Carlos Place, W1K 2AL, the-connaught.co.uk

Rickie No.17 at 45 Jermyn St.

45 Jermyn St. wants you to have your cocktail just how you like it. The drinks on the Rickies menu are all made from homemade syrups, acids and carbonated water, and you can choose whether or not to add a recommended spirit to the mix, as well as how much of the (totally harmless and very tasty) acid is dropped into it. No 17 comes with sour cherry and orange infusion cordial, the house acid and soda, and is recommended with Maxime Trijol VS Cognac if you feel so inclined.

45 Jermyn Street, SW1 6DN, 45jermynst.com

Watermelon, pink peppercorn and habanero agua fresca at Ella Canta

Mexican chef Martha Ortiz is passionate about the wealth of ingredients to be found in her home country, and the bar at her London restaurant shows them off to full effect. Freshen up with the agua fresca menu, a south American drink which blends fruits, cereals, flowers, seeds and more. For freshness with a spot of spice, go for the mix of watermelon juice, pink peppercorn syrup and habanero bitters.

One Hamilton Place, Park Lane, W1J 7QY, ellacanta.com

Pura sangre at Nightjar

The folk at Speakeasy-style bar Nightjar are so clever, theyre even turning wine into water. The Pura Sangre is a non-alcoholic twist on sangria, featuring a complex concoction of Seedlip Garden 108, aronia berry juice, fresh grapefruit, bee pollen, Mediterranean tonic and grilled starfruit. The Costa Brava is calling  and you needn't go further than the Old Street roundabout.

129 City Road, EC1V 1JB, barnightjar.com
T he Brits have had something of a 200 year long love affair with gin  but even the most solid relationships need some spicing up every once in a while.

Londoners are so well-acquainted with the gin and tonic that the capital's bars are even producing some pretty quirky versions to tantalise  and even electrify  your tastebuds.

Forget your limp lime quarter, these are the G&T concoctions you need to try.

Electric Earl at the Gibson

At Shoreditch cocktail bar The Gibson, the gin and tonic is set up to give you the shock of your life. A nod to the scientific discoveries that charged the Edwardian era, the Electric Earl is a cocktail of Tanqueray No.10 gin with tonic, plus a zingy combination of fresh grapefruit, lime, Lady Grey liqueur, citrus grass cordial and electric bitters, which makes the drink fizz like poppy candy on the tongue.

44 Old Street, EC1V 9AQ, thegibsonbar.london

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Star of the Program at Mr Foggs Gin Parlour

Most things about Mr Foggs are quirky to start with. With intrepid adventurer Phileas Fogg of literary fame as their muse, the bars are a compendium of 19th century curiosities, with avid attention given to the Victorians favourite tipple. Mr Foggs Gin Parlour offers more than 300 gins to team with your tonic, or you can opt for Phileas own concoction. The Star of the Program pairs Star of Bombay gin with homemade lavender syrup & homemade grapefruit tonic  a sparkling blend of cinchona bark, agave syrup and grapefruit oil.

1 New Row, WC2N 4EA, mr-foggs.com

Flora G&T at Gymkhana

At Gymkhana, gin and tonic goes back to its roots. The drink was initially conceived by British officers in India as a way to stomach their quinine, the bitter tasting anti-Malarial medicine. The Michelin-starred Indian restaurant has a plentiful G&T list, including one with garnishes so unusual you might not even know what they are: the Flora G&T combines Hendricks gin with tonic, but also nasturtium and watermelon radish, a peppery Asian vegetable that is vibrantly pink at its centre.

42 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, W1S 4JH, gymkhanalondon.com

Tarquins Sea Dog G&T at Graphic

Rum may be the most famed choice of seafaring folk, but the salty air of the ocean is much better replicated with a spot of Mothers Ruin. Soho gin bar Graphic has a variety of flavoured gin and tonic options, with the most intriguing choice pairing Tarquins Sea Dog  an award-winning gin hailing from north Cornwall  with more coastal character provided by garnishes of dill and seaweed.

4 Golden Square, Soho, W1F 9HT, W1, graphicbar.com

West Winds Sabre at GinTonica

As you can probably guess, GinTonica knows its gin and tonic. The bar is located at the Distillery, a working distillery producing Portobello Road gin, and offers a super charged lists of G&Ts that take on a cocktail twist. The West Winds Sabre is sure to put the wind in your sails: the house gin and 1724 tonic is served with cold brew coffee and cocoa bitters, garnished with orange, lavender and cocoa nibs. Now thats a good morning.
S ummer may be the time for jetting off this damp island to getting a taste of the world, but there's plenty of chance to do that inside the M25.

London boasts a world of cuisines and with a plethora of food and drink festivals populating the warmer months, its never been easier to expand your culinary horizons without leaving the city.

Take a look at our list of foodie festivals taking over the capital this season and be sure to check back to see more as they get announced.

Cheese Street

When and where? April 28 (Parliament Hill), June 17 (Blackheath), September 2 (Walthamstow), September 30 (Islington)

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This roving festival is celebrating all things cheese across the capital this summer, with four one-day events happening at four different locations. Try out the wares of UK cheesemakers, from Cropwell Bishop stilton to Cornish Gouda, and pick up some hot treats too from attending street food vendor. Maltby Street regulars The Cheese Truck will be doing the grilling, while Mac To The Future will be firing up the fluxcapacitor to make some un-brie-lievable mac and cheese.

The Craft Chocolate Takeover at Canopy Market

When? May 11-13

Where? King's Cross

If your street food market forays always have you skipping straight to dessert, then theres one festival you shouldnt be missing this summer. Canopy Market has teamed up with chocolate club Cocoa Runners to create a three-day event especially for chocoholics. Chocolate makers including Pump Street Bakery and Venezuela-based Franceschi Chocolate will be showcasing their wares, with experts on hand to share their knowledge, including Wine Car Boot founder Ruth Spivey running a wine and chocolate pairing session.

London Wine Week

Addie Chinn/London Wine Week

When? May 14-20

Where? Southwark

This homage to all things vino is rolling back into town for its fifth year, showcasing over 500 different wines in a week-long stint at its new home in Flat Iron Square. More than 125 wine bars will putting on wine tasting flights and Sip and Snack food and wine pairings, with masterclasses, dinners and parties also happening throughout the week. Dont want to miss Harry and Meghans nuptials? The festival will be putting on a free screening of the event, complete with a garden party.

Feria de Londres

REUTERS

When? May 25-27

Where? Southbank

Hola! Theres quite the fiesta going on at the Southbank over the Late May Bank Holiday. Feria de Londres (or London Fair) will see colourful casetas popping up along the river, serving up Spanish tapas favourites from croquetas to churros, regional wines to cocktails. Tio Pepe will be hosting sherry masterclasses and Flamenco dancing shows are sure to get your own feet tapping.

Foodies Festival

Spicing it up: the MPs favourite has undergone a change to keep it ahead of its competition / Jean Cazals

When? May 26-28

Where? Syon Park, Brentford

South west London is getting in on the party with stars in its eyes as Foodies Festival returns to London with a top line-up. Great British Bake Off 2017 winner Sophie Faldo will be baking live and the Chefs Theatre will host the likes of Michelin-starred Benares chef Atul Kocchar, Cinnamon chef Vivek Singh, Tam Storrar of Blanchette and more. Music comes courtesy of the Hoosiers and Toploader.

GALA

When? May 27

Where? Peckham Rye Park, Peckham

Peckham Rye Park will be pumping with tunes and tasty titbits over the course of the bank holiday with two festivals happening in just two days. GALA boasts music from the likes of Norman Jay MBE and Derrick Carter, as well as food from pie purveyors Young Vegans, Maltby Streets Cheese Truck and the ever fabulous Honest Burger.

Jam on Rye

When? May 28

Where? Peckham Rye Park, Peckham

Street food market sensation KERB will take over the next day, celebrating the day off with music from reggae, afrobeat and new wave jazz artists, as well as food from some of its trusty street vendors. The Caribbean vibe will be helped along with the likes of White Men Cant Jerk and Only Jerkins, with Breddos Tacos continuing the spicy spirit.

Fork To Fork

When? June 16

Where? ARK Franklin Primary School, Kensal Rice

Masterchef winner turned Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers and Caravans Laura Harper-Hinton have amassed a stonking list of chefs and eateries for the third year of this food festival. Skye Gyngell, Yotam Ottolenghi and Jose Pizzarro will be cooking live, while guests can sample 3 dishes from London stalwarts Chotto Matte, Dishoom, Bone Daddies, Pizza Pilgrims and more.

Taste of London

Matt Writtle / Matt Writtle

When? June 13-17

Where? Regents Park

Taste of London takes over Regents Park in their usual style, which a huge amassing of London restaurants. Guests can get a taste of some of Londons most talked about restaurants, including Cantonese connoisseurs Duddells, taco supremos El Pastor and Sri Lankan pancake pioneers Hoppers. At the Fire Pit Stage, chefs including Michelin-starred Stockholm chef Niklas Ekstedt, Smoketaks David Carter and Som Saas Andy Oliver will be flame-grilling fare across the weekend.

Meatopia

When? August 31-September 2

Where? Wapping
S weet dreams are made of cheese and theres never a bad time to chow down on a chunk of cheddar.

The We Love Cheese festival is returning to the capital for two dairy-filled days in April and May.

On April 22, Dickens Yard in Ealing will welcome the likes of the Raclette Brothers with their artisan alpine street food, mac n cheese gurus Mac to the Future and pizza lovers The Good Slice.

Grace Dent is set to host Ealing Bites Live in the talks tent, while Weird Beard Brew CO and wine experts Park & Bridge are teaming up with Heritage Cheese to run pairing sessions.

From Somerset Ploughman to the French Comte, fromagers are coming from far and wide and festival goers will be able to vote for their favourite to win the We Love Cheese Cup.

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Across London in Deptford Market Yard on May 5, the permanent market vendors will be cooking up some cheesy specials for the day. On top of that will be grilled cheese from Meltsmiths, decadent breakfast buns from Original Fry Up Material and vegan Palestinian food from What the Fattoush.

Both events are free to attend, but tickets for the We Love Cheese Cup include tasters of all the competing cheeses and a drink.

Food festivals in London - In pictures 1 /10 Food festivals in London - In pictures Food festivals in London - In pictures KERB's Jam on Rye Food festivals in London - In pictures Feria de Londres REUTERS Food festivals in London - In pictures Cheese Street Food festivals in London - In pictures London Wine Week Addie Chinn/London Wine Week Food festivals in London - In pictures Taste of London vendors Duddell's Matt Writtle Food festivals in London - In pictures Meatopia Food festivals in London - In pictures GALA Food festivals in London - In pictures The Craft Chocolate Takeover at Canopy Market Food festivals in London - In pictures Foodies Festival chef Vivek Singh at The Cinnamon Club Jean Cazals Food festivals in London - In pictures Fork to Fork founders Laura Harper-Hinton and Thomasina Myers
D id you know there was a fourth kind of chocolate? Neither did we.

Along with milk, dark and white, ruby chocolate or couverture chocolate is made from specially selected cocoa beans.

The pink hue comes naturally after the beans have gone through a unique process to unlock the flavours and colour tones.

Now, Nestle have covered their iconic four-finger KitKat with the delicacy and they are available to buy in the UK at Tesco from Monday, April 16.

Ruby chocolate KitKats - in pictures 1 /4 Ruby chocolate KitKats - in pictures Nestle Nestle Nestle Nestle

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Already a hit in Japan and Korea, the ruby KitKat offers a new taste experience as the ruby chocolate has an intense berry-flavoured taste.

Alex Gonnella, Marketing Director for Nestles UK confectionery business, said: Ruby chocolate is a big innovation in confectionery and we are very proud that KitKat is the first major brand in the UK to feature this exciting new chocolate.

Pink KitKat hitting UK shelves

Nestle has launched more than 350 different variants of KitKat over the years, including green tea, wasabi and cherry blossom versions.

KitKat taste test

If you want to be one of the first people in the UK to try the new KitKats, make sure you head down to your local Tesco next Monday.
T wice now has my journey to starting a family been compared to a work of science fiction.

The first time was in a meeting when a younger colleague shared her views on the London Sperm Banks new app, which allows prospective parents to navigate easily for potential donors and search by basic physical characteristics such as hair and eye colour. Her view was that this was reminiscent of the plot of an Aldous Huxley novel and that we were in danger of creating a master race of designer humans. What, I asked her, did she think would be a less troubling way for my wife Jenny and I to fulfil our dream of having children.

Her idea was for a kind of sperm roulette, where wed get what we were given rather than have the ability to choose a donor who shared my hair colour (so our child might at least look a bit like a bit of both of us). The second time was just recently, and Jenny is six months pregnant. A tenuous Facebook friend messaged to say congratulations, quickly followed by. Its pretty crazy isnt it! Have you seen the film Gattaca?!! I hadnt but Google revealed it to be a dystopian exploration of eugenics. There goes his invitation to the baby shower.

Putting aside the ignorance and insensitivity of these, thankfully isolated, comments, the fact is that nothing about the way my child has been conceived is that bizarre any more. There is increasingly, in London at least, no normal way to start a family. And lesbians using donor sperm to get pregnant is one of the most vanilla options available. Among my social circle are a straight couple using a surrogate and egg donor, a gay couple fostering, a single woman adopting, a married heterosexual who doesnt want children considering donating his sperm, single women freezing eggs, lesbians thinking about sharing eggs, IVF, intrauterine insemination (IUI), DIY and, of course, a couple of regular breeders among them too.

When I tell people Im expecting my first child in three months, their first reaction tends to be confusion because I dont look pregnant. Ill quickly explain that my wife is carrying and often there are very few follow-up questions. Maybe people are being polite, or maybe its just not that interesting. I make it sound like it was quite easy, and while we were lucky that the actual getting pregnant part was for us, the road to insemination was long and emotionally draining. Im all for talking about our journey in the hope it normalises it for the few people who still think that conceiving via anything other than straight sex means a reckless messing with nature.

Jenny and I talked for years about the right way to start a family. Days and nights of yeah but and what if, trying to figure out what might be easiest on our unborn child growing up. Three friends offered to be donors and then pulled out (no pun intended), and eventually we decided to use an anonymous donor whom our child could track down at the age of 18 if she wanted to. We used the Cryos sperm bank in Denmark because you are offered more information about the donor, including photos of them as a baby and a voice recording explaining why they want to donate their sperm. Our criteria for a donor was someone healthy who seemed kind and maybe had dark hair. What we were definitely not doing was picking and mixing genes to create our very own mini uber-mensch.

We used The London Womens Clinic in Harley Street for an IUI, which was quick and easy. There was absolutely no romance. On the train home, the whole thing  the years of build-up, the expense, the enormity of what had just happened  was amusingly anticlimactic.

Lotte Jeffs and her wife Jenny

My friends Bola and Rebecca have been thinking about taking the possibilities for lesbian parenting one step further. Shared motherhood [where one womans egg is fertilised with donor sperm and planted into her female partners womb] felt like the best way for both of us to feel a connection with our child, they say. The expectant mother carrying the child would be recognised as the biological mother, the other donating her egg would be known as the genetic mother  both equally playing a part in the pregnancy experience. In the end, though, the financial implications of this procedure (starting at 7,000) were prohibitive. They concluded: If money was no object we would definitely still be considering egg-sharing. But were both going to be equal parents no matter how the baby is conceived, so why put ourselves through extra financial pressure when really, its not necessary.

Their next hurdle is choosing different donors so that their children, if they have one each, reflect the fact that they are an interracial couple. Bola, a few years older than Rebecca and in a more secure job with a good maternity policy, is going first. She is of Nigerian descent and has ample Caucasian donors to choose from the London Sperm Bank. But when Rebecca is ready to be pregnant it wont be so easy. She says: There is a real shortage of black and ethnic minority donors. When we first looked a couple of years ago there was only one donor with a Nigerian background on the sperm bank website. But since then that donor is no longer listed. Bola adds: We absolutely want our children to reflect both our ethnic backgrounds, as they would if we were a straight interracial couple. As siblings we want our kids to have the same life experiences as much as possible. If we were to, say, have one black child and one white child, for us it would raise the question of what that would mean for their social development and how they relate to each other.

"When I tell people Im expecting a child in three months they look confused  its my wife Jenny who is carrying our baby."

My friend Sophie and her husband have tried everything to get pregnant, but due to Sophies treatment for breast cancer a few years ago it has thus far proved impossible. Now at almost Yerma levels of heartbreak and desperation, the couple have remortgaged their house and are embarking on surrogacy using a donor egg and her husbands sperm. The worst thing people can say to us is Why dont you just adopt, as if we havent considered that. I have had to let go of the idea that I might be able to conceive, that my eggs might be viable for someone else to carry (theyre not), that I can have donor eggs implanted into my own womb so I could be the biological mother. We have come this far on a journey to have at least my husbands genes in our child and we are determined and excited to see it through, says Sophie.

The number of women using donated eggs has risen sharply in the past 10 years. In 2006, 1,912 women had IVF using a donor egg, compared with 3,924 in 2016, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said in a recent report. Sophie and her husband have now found an egg donor, and a surrogate  for legal and moral reasons these cant be the same woman  both in the US, but the process is long, expensive and fraught with complications. I work with a lot of women and when someone announces theyre pregnant I do feel a pang of jealousy, says Sophie. But the process has certainly brought the couple together in a new way. Sophies husband tells me: The more complex the foundations [for starting a family] are, the more bonding it is as an experience. Adversity can be the glue.

My friend James and his wife have been open about not wanting children for nearly ten years. He says in that time the reaction he gets has gone from open surprise to people not giving a hoot. The cost of living in London makes it an easier decision not to have children. I dont think I could afford to bring up kids and still live in Zone 2, even if I was so inclined.

He considered offering to be a donor for some lesbian friends. I felt it was a great privilege to be in a position to help a lovely couple bring another life into the world. I spoke with my wife and  given that we dont plan on having children ourselves  she did not have an issue with it. It was speaking to his mother that made him rethink. She seemed a bit disappointed that I would have a child whose life she could not be part of. I was a little taken aback by this as (foolishly) I hadnt really thought about the effect on other people in my family, given that they knew I had no desire to raise a child. I also started wondering how my mother-in-law would react as she is disappointed at not having grandchildren, and this would surely be magnified if she knew I was willing to provide that for another family.

Pandora Sykes Maternity Style File 1 /5 Pandora Sykes Maternity Style File Pandora Sykes Pandora Sykes/ Instagram Pandora Sykes Pandora Sykes/ Instagram Pandora Sykes Pandora Sykes/ Instagram Pandora Sykes Pandora Sykes/ Instagram Pandora Sykes Pandora Sykes/ Instagram

It wasnt right for James in the end but a family where a known donor has a role works for lots of people. I know one woman who lives in a house with her gay best friend and their child. They lead separate lives but raise the child together. Another friend is the donor daddy of a lesbian couple in New York. He lives in London and they have a transatlantic queer family. The mums are the primary parents but my friend visits every couple of months and is involved in all decisions about his sons upbringing.

According to a recent report by the Office for National Statistics, the growing number of women delaying motherhood has resulted in those in their 40s being the only group with a rising pregnancy rate. Conception among women in their 30s fell for the first time on record in 2016. My friend Ella, who is single and in her mid-40s, froze her eggs five years ago. It seemed quite forward-thinking at the time. Now, more women are setting themselves free from a lot of pain by letting go of their childhood dream of how they would have a family and are considering other options. Women were given one route, and if that route was blocked, it was over for you. I barely know anyone who has conceived traditionally among my group.
A murder suspect who allegedly confessed to killing his mother and friend in a chilling Facebook post has been found dead, US police said.

Casey James Lawhorn, 23, died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound and was found by police in Mississippi on Monday morning.

Lawhorn had allegedly detailed in a post on his Facebook page how he shot his mother Vi Lawhorn and friend Avery Gaines on Sunday morning in his East Ridge, Tennessee, home.

Police said the Facebook post was authentic and that Lawhorn was wanted for committing a double homicide.

Mississippi Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said the man's body was found Monday morning in Vossburg, a community about 330 miles southwest of East Ridge. Lawhorn "used social media to announce he had murdered his mother and friend," Strain said in a statement.

In the Facebook post, Lawhorn detailed how he shot his friend in the head while he was sleeping and went on to shoot his mother three times.

Mr Lawhorn said he carried out the attack with a stolen .22 LR rifle calibre at 1.20am.

The Facebook post said he then proceeded to steal heroin and cash from the pockets of his victims.

In a bizarre statement at the end of his post, Mr Lawhorn said he spared the lives of his pets.

I didn't hurt our dog or cat, in case anyone was wondering about the animals," he said.

A SWAT team from the Jasper County Sheriffs department discovered Lawhorns car on Sunday evening. His body was found the following morning.

East Ridge Police Assistant Police Chief Stan Allen told ABC News that Lawhorn contacted the police after carrying out the attack.

Allen said: "The suspect called us and identified himself and talked to our dispatchers for some time."

"He told them that he had committed the crime and that he was going to a location north of our city to find a secluded spot to kill himself."
A vet who helped an illegal puppy-farming gang con animal-lovers into buying sick and dying dogs is facing jail.

Daniel Doherty, 49, claimed thousands of puppies were family-friendly domesticated pets when they had been imported or reared on farms.

He also signed off immunisation certificates, falsely claiming the dogs had been treated for worms and fleas and were clear of deadly viruses.

Some of the pets fell seriously ill or even died within days of arriving at their new homes, despite Dohertys assurance of a clean bill of health.

Doherty, who runs two MyVet24-7 surgeries in Uxbridge and Hillingdon, charged 16 per puppy for the bogus papers, Isleworth crown court heard.

Victim: Rebecca Reed

The RSPCA believes he raked in more than 75,000 during a six-year scam between 2011 and last year, signing documentation for more than 4,500 puppies supplied by the gang.

He was caught out after a former MyVet24-7 employee and a fellow vet in Hertfordshire raises concerns, and several puppy owners contacted the RSPCA to complain that their dogs had fallen seriously ill.

Doherty, who lives with his wife in a 2.1 million six-bed home in Iver, Buckinghamshire, denied fraud by false representation but was found unanimously guilty by a jury yesterday following a four-week trial.

The vet, who graduated from the University of Londons Royal Veterinary College in 1991 with a distinction, will be sentenced next month alongside five co-conspirators.

Puppy farm: A London vet has been convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud by falsifying paperwork for thousands of puppies who were being sold by a puppy farming gang

One of his victims, Rebecca Reed, from West Sussex, told the Standard she fell for the scam after seeing a puppy called Max being advertised online in November 2015.

The mother-of-two paid 470 cash for the dog, listed as a cavapoo crossbreed, but he fell seriously ill just a day after they took him home.

He couldnt lift his head, he couldnt stand up  nothing. He was just a wet blanket on the floor, she said. He was then at the vets for 10 nights  they couldnt work out what was wrong with him. She said the pain of him being taken away after less than 24 hours was heartbreaking.

After extensive tests Max was diagnosed with megaesophagus  a hereditary condition which means the dog struggles to eat food or even swallow  and required feeding and burping every two hours.

Mrs Reed said: There were two occasions I didnt send the children to school and I didnt go to work because we were living hour by hour  was he going to be alive that day?

The family put Max through surgery, costing 5,600, and he has now made a full recovery. However, Mrs Reed said she was angry they had fallen hook, line and sinker.

The court heard RSPCA investigators raided two properties used by the puppy-farming gang to supply pets to homeowners across London and the South-East, and they found evidence of 4,689 dogs given discounted vaccinations through Dohertys MyVet24-7 over six years.
A new street art mural depicting Donald Trump as the Statue of Liberty with a raised gun has appeared in London.

The elusive graffiti artist - known only as Pegasus - told the Standard the piece was a reaction to "unbelievable" levels of gun violence on either side of the Atlantic, hitting out at Theresa May's cuts to frontline police.

A Chicago native, Pegasus has lived in London for 15 and cites the likes of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Banksy as influences on his work.

The 34-year-old artist said: "I've been shocked by the way gun and knife crime appears to have gone out of control in London.

Pegasus Street Art - In pictures 1 /31 Pegasus Street Art - In pictures Amy Winehouse @pegasusart A Karl Lagerfeld Street Art tribute by Pegasus in London with assistance from Global Street Art @pegasusart Meghan Markle @pegasusart Donald Tump Statue of Liberty @pegasusart Madonna @pegasusart Tribute to George Michael @pegasusart Kim Jong Un @pegasusart Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Getty Images Aretha Franklin @pegasusart Pegasus Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Moving Street Art Installation around London @pegasusart Pegasus strikes with a powerful Donald Trump artwork @pegasusart Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' @pegasusart Kate Moss @pegasusart David Bowie @pegasusart Amy Winehouse Jeremy Selwyn Tribute to Carrie Fisher @pegasusart Renowned graffiti artist Pegasusass Charlie Chaplin in new artwork for exhibition launching at landmark development, Two Fifty One Theresa May and Donald Trump @pegasusart Hillary Clinton @pegasusart Depiction of a Syrian boy pulled from the rubble after airstrikes in Aleppo @pegasusart Street artist Pegasus poses for photographers at an exhibition celebrating the life of musician Amy Winehouse at the Jewish Museum in Camden, Joel Ryan/Invision/AP Tribute to George Michael @pegasusart Amy Winehouse Jeremy Selwyn Tribute to Carrie Fisher @pegasusart Amy Winehouse @pegasusart St Giles Hotel unveils works by London street artist Pegasus @pegasusart St Giles Hotel unveils works by London street artist Pegasus Nigel Howard Renowned graffiti artist Pegasusass Charlie Chaplin in new artwork for exhibition launching at landmark development, Two Fifty One Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' @pegasusart A new street art mural of Madonna in Shoreditch @pegasusart Stonewall trubute: Love always wins @pegasusart

"Of course, I'm from Chicago (one of the most dangerous states in the US) so, y'know, I'm used to the realities of that...the possibility you might get shot up on your front door.

"Gun control is such a passionate subject leading to fiery debates on both sides of the argument. It is sad to see that gun culture in the UK seems to have taken inspiration from America and their lack of safety control.

Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' - In pictures 1 /6 Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' - In pictures Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' @pegasusart Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' Pegasus Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' Pegasus Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' Pegasus Pegasus Street Art: Theresa May 'Dressed to Kill' @pegasusart Pegasus

"And it's not as if I don't feel safe in London but...things have clearly got worse. We need more police on the streets. All these cuts are clearly having an effect."

The Trump portrait, painted over two hours on Tuesday morning, is the latest in a string of Pegasus's political works - one of his most famous featuring Mrs May mocked up as Cruella de Vil, carrying a dead fox below the caption: "Dressed to kill".

"I started off as a Pop artist but after a while I realised I could use my work to start a conversation and spread my voice.

"I'm obviously not a fan of Trump but, with the levels of gun violence climbing the way they are right now, he has an opportunity to change things - I don't want to see that wasted."

London's murder rate recently overtook New York City's for the first time ever, with 15 dead in February and 22 fatal stabbings and shootings in March.

Home secretary Amber Rudd recently denied cuts to frontline policing were responsible for the spike in gun and knife crime, claiming statistics showed otherwise.
A Winner takes it all planning showdown tonight will decide the future of a proposed Abba-themed restaurant close to Waterloo.

Lambeth councillors will vote on whether Abbas Bjorn Ulvaeus, who is promoting the spin-off from the West End musical and film smash hit Mamma Mia!, has done enough to allay concerns about late-night noise and disruption from fans of the Swedish pop group leaving the venue.

Up to 520 visitors a night are expected to attend Mamma Mia! The Party, where they will eat a meal at a Greek taverna-style dining area while the musical is played out around them.

At the end of the performance tables are cleared away and the guests are invited to join in with dancing and singing along to hits such as SOS, Voulez-Vouz and Take A Chance On Me.

Local groups have complained that the plan, which won conditional consent from Lambeth in November, will result in large groups of rowdy Abba enthusiasts disturbing local residents until late into the night.

They also claim that the proposed site on Stamford Street, which has been derelict since 1985, has long been earmarked for affordable housing.

Many opponents of the scheme are expected to attend the meeting this evening, where Lambeths planning committee will vote on the proposed visitor management plan from Ulvaeus and his business partner Ingrid Sutej. The plan was prepared by Andy Young, who has advised on crowd control at the London Olympics, the O2, Wembley Arena and the Science Museum.

Officers at Lambeth council have recommended approval of the plan, after an analysis of the original version of the show in Stockholm indicated that the number of guests arriving and leaving would be staggered evenly over the hour-long periods before the start and after the end of the main performance.

Michael Ball, who runs the Waterloo Community Development Group, said the meeting is likely to be packed out with opponents. Campaigners have also applied for a judicial review of the conditional planning consent.
L abour was plunged into fresh embarrassment today after it was claimed one of its frontbenchers had rubbished part of its Brexit policy.

Barry Gardiner, trade spokesman and an ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, was recorded during a question session at a think tank discrediting one of the partys proposed six tests on whether Labour should support a Brexit deal in Parliament, according to the BBC.

Mr Gardiner was forced to apologise today for apparently describing the Good Friday Agreement, the culmination of Northern Irelands peace process, as outdated at the same event.

In the recording he allegedly discusses Labours six tests on whether it will vote for a final deal. He reportedly said: Well, lets just take one test  the exact same benefits. Bollocks.

He had already come under intense criticism for describing the Good Friday Agreement as a shibboleth, a Hebrew description of a custom that is no longer of use.

He said today: I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point  in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of password or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Mr Gardiner had been accused by Owen Smith, Labours former shadow Northern Ireland spokesman, of being reckless when trying to downplay the role of border arrangements in the Brexit talks.

Meanwhile former US president Bill Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair and former Irish premier Bertie Ahern, the architects of the peace deal, were due to meet in Belfast this afternoon to mark the 20th anniversary of the agreement.

Mr Blair said: We used to wake every day in the UK to fresh outrages, terrorism, sectarian hatred, death, destruction. Weve come a long way and weve got to be vigilant in preserving it.

Northern Ireland has been without an executive for 15 months since talks broke down between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, while Brexit has also thrown the future of its border with the Republic into flux.
L abour frontbencher Barry Gardiner was today forced to apologise after appearing to suggest that the Good Friday Agreement was outdated.

He came under intense criticism after describing the landmark agreement as a shibboleth, a Hebrew description of a custom which is no longer of use.

In a statement this morning, shadow international trade secretary Mr Gardiner said: I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point - in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of pass word or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton were flying to Belfast today to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement amid a growing row over whether it will be undermined by Brexit.

The architects of the landmark peace deal which ended decades of sectarian conflict were set to be joined by former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern early this afternoon.

Speaking ahead of a commemorative event at Belfasts Queens University, Mr Blair said: We used to wake every day in the UK to fresh outrages, terrorism, sectarian hatred, death, destruction.

Weve come a long way and weve got to be very vigilant in preserving it.

Northern Ireland has been without an executive for 15 months since talks broke down between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, while Brexit has also thrown the future of its border with the Republic into flux.

There is concern that Britain will not be able to leave the EU without introducing checks and controls on the Irish border - contrary to the terms of the 1998 agreement.

Asked by the Radio 4 Today programme if todays Northern Ireland was what he had hoped for, he said: Probably I would have hoped to see the executive still up and running and some of these deep divides withering away, but I think what youve got to do is compare Northern Ireland today with how it was before we signed the Good Friday Agreement.

He said freedom of movement of goods and people across the border has been one very important part of keeping the deal intact.

Meanwhile, a senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn was forced to apologise for reportedly suggesting the importance of the border issue and Good Friday Agreement had been played up.

Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner was accused by Owen Smith, Labours former shadow Northern Ireland spokesman, of being reckless for describing the deal as a shibboleth - a Hebrew term used to describe an outdated custom.
T his year marks 20 years since The Good Friday Agreement was made.

The historic agreement, which was signed in Northern Ireland on April 10, 1998, effectively brought an end to The Troubles.

It established a consensus for peace and the future direction of the region after the political conflict had been raging for thirty years.

Painstaking negotiations saw the full weight of the British and Irish administrations brought to bear ahead of the agreement which brought unionists and republicans together.

Tony Blair recalls 'incredibly complicated and difficult' Northern Ireland talks

Many people had been killed in the fighting between the two groups.

What caused The Troubles?

In the 1960s Northern Ireland faced a bitter conflict between unionists who wanted to remain within the UK and republicans who wanted the province to become part of a united Ireland.

Republicans and the wider nationalist community are mostly Catholic, while unionists mostly Protestant.

The conflict was perpetuated by paramilitary groups the IRA and the UVF.

Other people were killed by the British security forces after the army was deployed in 1969.

More than 3,500 people died, many of whom were killed in tit-for-tat attacks across the sectarian divide.

The situation worsened in 1972 when 14 people were killed by British troops during a peaceful civil rights march led by Catholics and Republicans in Londonderry. This day became known as Bloody Sunday.

Police fight with rioters in the area of Londonderry in 1969 / PA

What was included in the agreement?

The Good Friday Agreement, also known as The Belfast Agreement, was formally made by the British and Irish governments and eight political parties of Northern Ireland.

It acknowledged Northern Irelands constitutional status as part of the UK.

It also established a principle of consent. A united Ireland could happen if a majority of people in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland wanted it to.

In this instance, the British government would be bound to hold a referendum, and honour the result.

Tony Blair (R), US Senator George Mitchell (C) and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (L) smiling on April 10, 1998, after they signed an historic agreement / AFP/Getty Images

The agreement committed the parties to democratic and peaceful methods of resolving political disputes.

It marked a commitment to the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community.

What has happened since the Good Friday Agreement was made?

British and Irish governments agreed to hold referendums on 22 May 1998. The Northern Ireland referendum was on accepting the Good Friday Agreement itself. Some 71 per cent voted Yes.

The referendum in the Republic was to amend the countrys constitution to acknowledge the new principle of consent, for which 94 per cent of people voted in favour of.

In the years that followed there was still turbulence. While the Northern Ireland Assembly was established it was periodically suspended largely over concerns about paramilitary activity in the region.

It was not until 2005 that the IRA was decommissioned. In 2007 Sinn Fein threw its support behind the newly-established policing force the PSNI.

Northern Ireland experienced relative political stability due to the power sharing agreement made. The relationship between Ian Paisley, a loyalist, and Martin McGuinness, a republican, as First and Deputy First Minister, was a sign that Northern Ireland had changed.

Martin McGuinness resigned in January last year in protest over a political scandal involving the new First Minister Arlene Foster, also citing issues including that the DUP were failing to honour the commitments to basic equality made clear in agreements.
N either Donald Trump nor Theresa May have been invited to the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, it emerged today.

Former US leader Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are also missing from the guest list, but the prince and his fiancee are said to be looking forward to seeing them soon, possibly during an official overseas trip once they are married.

Harry and his bride-to-be have picked 600 guests they have a direct relationship with to watch them exchange their wedding vows on May 19 at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel.

By contrast the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 2011 wedding had leading figures from national life and foreign heads of state or their representatives at the Westminster Abbey ceremony.

No invite: Trump is not going to Harry and Meghan's wedding / Getty Images

Kensington Palace said no official list of political guests will be provided.

The Prime Minister has also not been invited, it emerged today / PA

A Kensington Palace Spokesman said: "It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK and international - is not required for Prince Harry and Ms Markle's wedding.

Prince Harry gestures while watching a wheelchair basketball event with Barack Obama / Reuters

Members of the public from around the United Kingdom also this week learned that they will be amongst the 2,640 people in the grounds of Windsor Castle on May 19th.

Royal wedding countdown: The plan so far for Harry and Meghan

Prince Harry and Ms Markle have said they wanted their wedding day to be shaped to allow members of the public to feel part of the celebrations.

Prince Harry hugs First Lady Michelle Obama during last year's Invictus Games / PA

As previously announced, the couple asked Lord Lieutenants to invite 1,200 people to join the celebrations, including young people who have shown strong leadership, and those who have served their communities.

The group includes:

Northern Ireland

Philip Gillespie, 30, from Ballymena. Philip, who lost his right leg in an IED incident in Afghanistan, raises funds and awareness for ABF The Soldiers' Charity and has just taken part in Invictus Games UK Team Trials for rowing, swimming and archery.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Invictus Games UK Team Trials 1 /20 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Invictus Games UK Team Trials Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle watch athletes at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Reuters Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation meet Invictus Games hopefuls on the athletics track and field during the UK Team Trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Meghan Markle watches athletes at the team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 Reuters Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village PA Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AP Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his Meghan Markle watch athletes at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation meet Invictus Games hopefuls on the athletics track and field during the UK Team Trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation attend the UK Team Trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village Getty Images Meghan Markle and Prince Harry watch participants try out for the track and field events at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry applauds as he and Meghan Markle watch participants take part in the track and field events at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images Meghan Markle meets Invictus Games hopefuls on the athletics track Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle accompanied by Invictus Games UK Team Chef de Mission Jayne Kavanagh meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village AFP/Getty Images

Catherine Cooke, 53, and Julie-Ann Coll, 35, from Londonderry. Catherine and Julie-Ann are a mother and daughter who have been nominated for their charity work. Catherine is a co-ordinator at the Foyle's Women's Information Network and Julie-Ann runs a support group that helps parents cope with child bereavement.

West Midlands

Rashid Bhayat, 38, from Coventry. Rashid is CEO of Positive Youth Foundation, a charity set up in 2011 to support young people in challenging circumstances.

Rosie Ginday, 34, from Birmingham. Rosie is the founder of Miss Macaroon, a social enterprise that provides culinary training and employment opportunities for disadvantaged young people.

Tessa Hince, 32, and Hayley Ash, 32, from Banbury and Shipston-on-Stour. Tessa and Hayley founded the Shipston Christmas Community Lunch, which caters for people who are lonely or on their own over Christmas.

East Midlands and East England

Jorja Furze, 12, from Ely. Jorja is an amputee from birth and ambassador for the Steel Bones charity. She has also set up an Anxiety Group for Year Sevens to help new students adjust to life at high school.

Reuben Litherland, 14, from Derby. Reuben was born deaf and has started lunchtime lessons to teach sign language at school. He also works to raise the awareness of the Deaf community's needs to access to public services.

Royal wedding: Deaf teenager gets invite after community work

South West

Kai Fletcher, 18, from Bath. Kai received support from the Southside Family Project and now works with the charity to help other children and young people through similar challenges.

Grant White, 52, from Dorset. Grant was a Royal Marine for 22 years and continued to serve after losing his leg. He now volunteers to help other wounded or sick military men and women by running the off-road rally, adventure and training team Race2Recovery.

South East

Laurelle Henry, 14, from Lewisham. Laurelle was the Young Mayor of Lewisham 2017. She aims to develop more activities and safe social spaces for young people.

Pamela Anomneze, 52, from Haringey. Pamela is the Manager of Studio 306 Collective CIC, a social enterprise that helps those recovering from mental health issues through the creative arts.

North East and Yorkshire

David Gregory, 28, from Blyth. David is a primary school teacher who aims to strengthen and celebrate his local community in Blyth through practical projects with his pupils.

Amelia Thompson, 12, from Dronfield Woodhouse. Amelia was caught up in the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017.

Girl caught up in Manchester Arena attack receives royal wedding invite

North West

Saeed Atcha, 21, from Bolton. Saeed founded a youth-led charity called Xplode that teaches young people employable skills and gives them experience in the field of journalism.

Shaneil Hodges, 15, from Manchester. Shaneil was the 2017 winner of Manchester's 'Be Proud' award for bringing communities together. A member of the organisation 'Reclaim', Shaneil works to break down barriers and give young working class people a voice.

Scotland

Amy Wright, 26, from Annan. Amy is Chair of Board of Directors for the Usual Place cafe in Dumfries, which provides employment training and support for young people aged 16-25 with special needs.

Wales

Zoe Arundell, 20, from Penycraig. Zoe has been volunteering with Valley Kids since the age of 13, and attended as a young person herself from age six. She met Prince Harry and Ms. Markle on their recent visit to Cardiff.

They will join 200 guests from organisations which Prince Harry and Ms. Markle have a close association with, 100 pupils from two local schools and 500 members of The Royal Household. They will watch the arrivals of the Bride and Groom and their wedding guests at the Chapel and will see the Carriage Procession as it departs from the Castle.
T he daughter of poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal has been discharged from hospital.

Yulia Skripal, 33, had spent more than a month in hospital after coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok in the centre of Salisbury.

She was released on Monday and was reportedly taken to a secure location to continue her recovery. She will now be quizzed by detectives.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire town on March 4.

Dr Christine Blanshard, Salisbury District Hospital's medical director, said Mr Skripal is recovering at a slower rate but is also expected to be discharged from hospital soon.

"We have now discharged Yulia," she said. "This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone.

"Her father has also made an improvement. Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia we hope that he too will be able to leave the hospital in due course."

Emergency services investigate the scene where the pair were found last month / AFP/Getty Images

Dr Blanshard also paid tribute to the staff at the hospital where the Skripals have been receiving treatment.

"The past few weeks have been enormously testing for all our staff. They have pulled together not just to deliver outstanding care for the individuals caught up in these terrible events, but to all our patients, as they do day in and day out," she said.

"Both our clinical staff and our staff behind the scenes have been a credit to our hospital, to the NHS, and to the city of Salisbury."

Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning

Reports suggest the nerve agent used in the attack was specifically designed to take about four hours to kill, allowing the perpetrators to flee the country.

Viktoria Skripal, Yulia's cousin, told Sky News on Tuesday morning that she had only heard her cousin had been discharged on the news.

She said: "I think Britain will insist that she claims asylum. I've tried lots of numbers for her but have had no response.

"How should I feel? I'm feeling pleased that she's well enough to be released from hospital.

"So far my feelings are unclear because I have not seen her and nobody has seen her, we've just had information."

On Friday, doctors at Salisbury District Hospital said Mr Skripal, 66, was "responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition".

But the Foreign Office has said the pair are likely go have "ongoing medical needs".

Moscow has denied being responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals but the incident has plunged diplomatic relations between Russia and the West into the deep freeze.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used a Sunday Times article to accuse Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of lending "false credibility" to Moscow by not blaming the Russian state unequivocally over the incident.
A former London gang member has blamed hip-hop music for a spate of violence in the capital.

The man, known only as Shaun, told LBC in a candid interview that rival gangs keep a scoreboard to mark the number of opposition members  referred to as ops - that have been stabbed.

He also told presenter Ian Collins that hip-hop music and a rise in the popularity of so-called drill rap was contributing towards violence among gangs.

He said he couldnt stress enough how much hip-hop music is influencing you to do things.

He said: A major, major thing that no one is talking about is hip-hop music.

London Murder investigations 2018 1 /10 London Murder investigations 2018 Victim: Oluwadamilola Odeyingbo, 18, died in hospital Metropolitan Police Lewis Blackman was stabbed to death in Kensington Twitter Kyall Parnell, 17, was attacked on his way to a New Years Eve party and died after being chased through traffic in Tulse Hill Steven Narvaez Jara was attacked at a block of flats near Old Street Seyed Khan went missing in Ilford on 24 January Metropolitan Police Yaya Mbye, 26, collapsed in a childrens play area in Stoke Newington, north east London Kelva Smith, 20, was found collapsed with multiple knife wounds following the sustained rush-hour attack in South Norwood Russian exile Nikolay Glushkov was found strangled in his hotel room AP Beniamin Pieknyi was stabbed after apparently stepping in to help a friend Tanesha Melbourne was shot dead in a suspected drive-by shooting while chatting with friends

When youre a kid, someone comes back to the block and they say someones done something, and you get in the car and the first thing is someone puts a track on and that track is going to be something like shoot em shoot em shoot em.

Thats all youre listening to day and night. When you get into a situation your mind goes back to what you have been listening to all this time, [you think] I cant let them violate me, I must shoot them, I must stab them, he added.

Scotland Yard has launched 56 murder investigations in the capital this year.

Thirty five victims were stabbed to death and six shot dead.

Shaun warned a growing interest in a rap scene, known as the drill scene, which emerged in Chicago has sparked more violence.

Sadiq Khan 'heartbroken' by London murders

He said: One of the biggest murder capitals is Chicago. Chicago has created a particular type of rap scene called the drill scene. And what drilling is, is you get your gun and you go looking for rival gang members, ops.

In another shocking revelation he said the drill scene had led to young gang members keeping a tally of the number of people they had stabbed.

The young kids have a scoreboard between them and the rival gang. And they text each other, they say were 4  1 up or were 5  3 up. And thats all come for the Chicago drill rap. It has to stop.

Shot dead in Tottenham: Tanesha Melbourne / PA

Shaun said his own dad was now serving life in prison and added that an uncle had fathered 36 children.

I grew up in a single mother household, our father was the biggest drug dealer on the estate and this is who you looked up to. You wanted to impress him. Hes doing life now. Hes changed his life around in prison to be fair to him.

But we were left to the TV screen to be our father. Youre looking up at a person, when I was growing up you looked at So Solid like they were our long lost dads.

A murder scene in Walthamstow / PA

We couldnt believe that people like us was on the TV accepting Brit Awards. You aspire to be like them and in these songs all theyre rapping about is hurting people.

He also claimed that violent crime in the capital stems from small things and said teenagers were being pushed by older men to carry out stabbings.

Its not to do with drugs, these problems start from a lot of small things. Like a close friend of mine got killed and it all started from somebody staring.

Investigators at the scene of the fatal shooting in Tottenham / Nigel Howard

Ive got stabbed up off the back of just speaking on the phone, he said.

When youre young, youve got older people above you. Theyre putting pressure on you, theyre saying things like are you gunna let them get away with that?

The first thing you start to do it think is I need to impress this man above me.

Shaun said he no longer lives in London and now has a wife and children after converting to Islam.

Following a spate of murders in the capital, Met Police chief Cressida Dick pledged to use Al Capone tactics to curb the surge in murders and knife crime.
T he furious family of a burglar who was stabbed to death in a scuffle with a pensioner replaced a shrine that had been put up in his honour... only for it to be torn down again minutes later.

Loved ones of career criminal Henry Vincent started re-attaching tributes to a fence opposite the home of Richard Osborn-Brookes on Tuesday afternoon just hours after an original shrine was pulled down.

Mr Osborne-Brooks killed the 37-year-old, who would prey on the elderly, while he was in his home earlier this month.

Several women arrived in South Park Crescent, Hither Green, South London, at about 2pm and began fastening fresh tributes after an enraged man ripped down balloons, cards and flowers on Monday night.

Moment 'furious' man destroys shrine to dead burglar Henry Vincent

However, within half an hour, a man in a beanie hat had cut down everything and left it in a heap on the ground.

The man said he was "taking these s*** flowers down" calling it an "insult" to Mr Osborn-Brooks. He added: "These need burning."

A woman replaces the shrine to Henry Vincent on Tuesday / Rob Todd

A woman, who said she was Vincent's aunt, said: "If people leave the flowers alone within a week they'll die, we will come here, clean this road, and go and never come back.

"All we want is them just left until the flowers die and we will take them away."

A man in a beanie hat turned up and removed the shine for a second time / Rob Todd

Earlier Elvina Lee, who said she was Vincent's first cousin, called whoever had initially pulled the tributes down "scum" and labelled 78-year-old Mr Osborn-Brooks a "murderer" and a "lowlife".

She said: "This is the best place for these flowers to be. I don't know what's wrong with these people (who dismantled them)... I think they're scum."

A second man removes floral tributes to Henry Vincent from a fence / Thomas Hornall/PA

Regarding Vincent she said: "He was like a brother to me, he loved his family and his three babies. He wasn't a murderer, he wasn't a rapist, they're putting (sic) him as a monster.

"Murderer? The murderer is over there."

Henry Vincent's family reinstated the shrine on Tuesday afternoon (Thomas Hornall/PA ) / Thomas Hornall/PA

The 37-year-old's cousin Phoebe Smith, 34, told the BBC whoever had torn down the flowers "should be ashamed of themselves".

She added: "It's terrible, they don't understand that it's somebody's child. They're a memory of a son and a friend."

The shrine to Henry Vincent after it was torn down for a second time (Thomas Hornall/PA ) / Thomas Hornall/PA

However local residents were not so appreciative of the shrine, with Theresa Webb, 43, saying: "It was inappropriate, poor taste really.

"You're thinking 'how long will it be up there?' I'm relieved it's down. There was 101 bouquets down there."

Shrine to stabbed burglar torn down

Saverimuthu Augustine, 78, said he was "annoyed" that some flowers had been attached to fences around his house.

He said: "I don't appreciate it.

"If it's a normal person it's different, but he went and burgled a house - it could have been my house."

An inquest into the death of Vincent, 37, was opened at Southwark Coroners Court on Tuesday.

Killed: Henry Vincent, 37, who died from a stab wound at the home where pensioner Richard Osborn-Brooks lived was wanted for previous burglaries

His cause of death was not disclosed. Coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe said she was releasing the body back to his family.

Vincent, from Sidcup, broke into the home with an accomplice and was stabbed whilst committing a burglary at 12.40am on April 4, the court was told. He died at University Hospital Lewisham.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding told the court nobody had been charged in connection with the incident.

Richard Osborn-Brooks has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a burglar at his home

Mr Osborn-Brooks, who was asleep with his wife Maureen, 78, when Vincent entered the home, was arrested on suspicion of murder but was later told he will face no further action over the death.

The Metropolitan Police said on Monday that Billy Jeeves, 28, was wanted in connection with the burglary.

A white Vauxhall Astra van belonging to Jeeves was found burnt out in Orpington, Kent, on Saturday evening.
B ritish supermarket Iceland has vowed to stop selling all own-brand products containing palm oil by the end of 2018.

The company said it made the decision after Greenpeace alerted it to the devastating effect the growing demand for palm oil was having on tropical rainforests across Southeast Asia.

Forests are being chopped down to make way for palm oil plantations which has led to wildlife being displaced.

The Indonesian orangutan population has been particularly devastated by the destruction.

Managing director Richard Walker recently went to Indonesia and witnessed the devastation first-hand / Iceland

Palm oil is currently found in half of all supermarket products, from bread to biscuits and breakfast cereal to soap.

Icelands ban on palm oil only applies to own-brand products meaning that some products sold by the retailer by different brands may contain the ingredient.

Iceland Managing director Richard Walker said: I recently went to Indonesia to witness first-hand the environmental devastation caused by the expanding palm oil industry.

I feel passionately about the importance of raising awareness of this issue I know many British consumers share my concerns and want to have a real choice over what they buy.

Currently no major supermarkets or food manufacturer can fully prove that the palm oil they use is fully sustainable.
I mmigration detainees are being held alongside serious criminals and suffer months of gang violence fuelled by illegal drugs at a London detention centre, an official report warned today.

The Independent Monitoring Board for the immigration removal centre at Heathrow said the centre, which houses around 1,000 people scheduled for removal abroad, is blighted by gang culture caused by rival nationalities.

There is also an escalating drug problem, exacerbated by new psychoactive substances such as Spice, with detainees suffering bullying, extortion and violence as a result.

The board blamed much of the problem on the presence of convicted foreign offenders awaiting deportation.

It said they account for up to a third of those held at Heathrow and are being allowed to mix freely with immigration detainees  held because of concerns about their entitlement to be in this country  in a practice which is not desirable and leading to serious security problems.

The board added the situation is made worse by the fact some of the detainees are being held for years, describing it as inhumane to keep people in custody for such unacceptably long periods when there is often little prospect of their imminent removal.

It also pointed out that only half of those held are ultimately deported, with the rest freed to stay in Britain, a success rate it said would suffer severe criticism if achieved by a company.

Todays findings, in the monitoring boards annual report, will heighten concerns about the way immigration detainees are treated after complaints by charities and other campaigners about the conditions and lengthy detention some are forced to endure.

The report stated that the high proportion of convicts at Heathrow affects the atmosphere within the centre and may be a reason for gang culture and an increase in drug use.

It added: It is not desirable to mix those with serious criminal records with immigration offenders and applicants for asylum. It does allow more opportunity for drug dealing and the activity of criminal gangs. The gangs are largely based on nationality. This has led at times to violent incidents.

The report also raised concerns about the mental health of some detainees and said too many are kept in detention for long periods in what is meant to be a short-term holding centre.

The statistics show that appreciable numbers stay for over six months and some for over one or two years, the report added. Analysing detention overall the eventual removal rate is just under 50 per cent. If this was a companys success rate in achieving its results it would suffer severe criticism.

The Home Office, if unable to remove a detainee, should not prolong their stay in detention. To do so is inhumane.

A Home Office spokesman said: Detention and removal of those with no lawful basis to stay in the UK are essential parts of effective immigration controls. We do not detain individuals indefinitely - when people are detained, it is for the minimum time possible and detention is reviewed on a regular basis.
S ix-year-old Ellie Butler, who was battered to death by her father in 2013, was unlawfully killed, a court ruled today.

Ben Butler murdered his daughter at their family home in Sutton, south London, in October 2013.

The two-week inquest examined whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regards to Ellie's murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

But Dame Linda Dobbs today ruled that none of the authorities involved could be held responsible for her death.

Ben and Ellie Butler / Metropolitan Police

Concluding a 30-minute ruling at South London Coroner's Court, Dame Linda said: "On the evidence I am unable to conclude that any acts or omissions by the relevant agencies possibly or probably contributed to the death of Ellie."

The six-year-old was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after her father was accused of shaking her.

She was returned to the care of Butler, and her mother, in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court.

Ellie was battered to death at the family home in Sutton, south London, in October the following year.

The six-year-old was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby / Metropolitan Police

Butler was convicted of her murder in June 2016 after a trial at the Old Bailey and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.

Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month term after being found guilty of child cruelty after the Old Bailey trial. She had admitted perverting the course of justice.

The inquest's scope covered the period from July 6 2012 - the date of Mrs Justice Hogg's decision - to Ellie's death on October 28 2013.

The inquest was examining whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regard to Ellie's murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

She was killed at home in Sutton in 2013 / PA

It was not examining the family court ruling which returned the schoolgirl to the hands of her abusive father.

Formally concluding the inquest with a 30-minute ruling, Dame Linda Dobbs said Ellie had been unlawfully killed, having suffered fatal head injuries caused by her father.
T he London offices of Rupert Murdochs entertainment empire 21st Century Fox have been raided by investigators.

European Commission investigators reportedly seized documents and computer records from the companys offices in Hammersmith, west London, on Tuesday.

Fox Networks Group, a unit of Mr Murdochs firm, said it was cooperating fully with the competition watchdogs inspection. It said the precise nature of the confidential investigation, which is believed to be in its early stages, was unclear.

Sources at the offices said officials were trying to keep a low profile and that staff were warned to keep quiet about details of the raid, according to the Telegraph.

"Fox Networks Group (FNG) is cooperating fully with the EC inspection," a spokesman said. FNG is an operating unit of Fox, which distributes TV and cable channels and content around the world.

The Commission can investigate firms they believe are abusing their market dominance or are involved in price fixing with other companies.
If Donald Trump has heeded his military advisers, he knows he will have to act quickly, proportionately and with significant international support, against Syrias use of chemical weapons.

Action in any form is sure to provoke the Russians  but the Trump military team know that despite all the bluster, Russian military options in the Syrian theatre are more limited than theirs.

Trumps plans will be conditioned by the two important recent episodes of the use of chemical weaponry in Syria  the attacks on Eastern Goutha in August 2013 and the detonation of chemicals that killed 87 in Khan Sheikhoun in April last year.

The first attack led to threats of punitive retaliation from President Obama, and then non-action and a deal brokered by Russia for Assad to dump his chemical arsenal.

The Khan Sheikhoun incident led to Trump launching 59 cruise missiles at Syrias Shayrat base, also manned by Russians.

It had a limited result  as both the Russians and the Syrian military got wind of the attack. Trump had chosen not to consult allies before launching the Tomahawks.

This time the script is different. Trump will seek the backing and support of key allies, Britain and France in the first instance, and crucial regional Nato players such as Turkey, Romania and Germany  largely for the provision of air bases.

The key concept in international law for such action is proportionality. The evidence suggests that despite all promises and denials the Assad military regime has persisted in storing and using chemical weapons.

The first targets, therefore, must be the known storage points and launch bases for such weaponry. Both US and Israeli intelligence are likely to know where 90 per cent of these facilities are.

The bases would be targeted by land attack missiles launched from naval surface ships and submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean, and possibly the Northern Gulf, where Britain has just opened a new naval base in Bahrain.

Aircraft would be launched for jamming air defence radar, in particular the effective S300 and S400 air defence systems the Russians say they have deployed to Syria.

Aircraft would also be involved in second-wave strikes, using satellite guided JDAM precision bombs and air-to-ground missiles. Britain and France could be asked to involve their own aircraft, and possibly submarine-launched cruise missiles.

America may want to use the British sovereign bases in Cyprus and the Turkish base at Incirlik  though both present delicate local security and diplomatic issues.

The main British military contribution will be in targeting, surveillance, intelligence and logistical support  particularly inflight refuelling, a skill at which the RAF excels.

The military operation is sure to involve more than one raid and strike. This raises the question of how far it should go and how far should it reduce Assads power, now entirely reliant on the military muscle of Russia and Iran. If the target list includes the port at Tartus and the airfield and port at Latakia, this involves facilities shared with Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces.

A US-led strike will be seen as part of a wider regional war, such as Israels growing confrontation with Iran. Israel attacked the T-4 base at Tiyas early yesterday to write down an Iranian facility its planes had bombed earlier in the year.

Mindful of the rejection of action against Assad by the UK parliament in August 2013, the Trump team is unlikely to make excessive demands for support from Theresa Mays government. They may not even ask for UK participation in a first strike  though this likely to be offered by France.
B oris Johnson has said Russia is holding Syrian people to ransom by failing to back a UN resolution calling for a new body to investigate a suspected poison gas attack.

The Foreign Secretary described Moscows move to veto the US-drafted resolution as hugely disappointing, adding that it is supporting a regime responsible for heinous chemical attacks.

Mr Johnson tweeted: "Hugely disappointing that Russia vetoed the proposal at the UN for an independent investigation into Syrian chemical attacks.

"Russia is holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting a regime responsible for at least 4 heinous chemical attacks against its people."

Karen Piece, the UK ambassador to the UN, said it was a "sad day for the Security Council" and "for the people of Douma".

Ms Pierce told the Security Council: "By vetoing, Russia has crossed the line in the international order and worse, if possible, history is repeating itself one year on from Khan Shaykhun."

Russia was joined by Bolivia in voting 'no' at the Security Council in New York on Tuesday afternoon, while China abstained.

Trump says US will 'forcefully' respond to Syria 'chemical weapons attack'

Downing Street said the Prime Minister spoke to the US and French presidents on Tuesday, and they agreed to "continue working closely together" to ensure those responsible were "held to account".

The United States is looking to the UK and France for support as it finalises its response to the assault on the rebel-held town of Douma.

President Trump and his French counterpart Mr Macron had already agreed to co-ordinate a "strong, joint response" after talks by telephone.

Attack: Image released by Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets shows a child receiving oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack in Douma / AP

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mrs May held separate calls with the two leaders and that they agreed the reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were "utterly reprehensible".

"They agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

"They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account."

Mrs May sidestepped questions about whether Britain would be involved in military action during a visit to Cambridge earlier on Tuesday.

She said: "This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

"Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

"If this is the responsibility of Assad's regime in Syria then it's yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people that they show.

The National Security Council brings together relevant intelligence and defence chiefs and Cabinet ministers for top level briefings.

President Trump had said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be "met forcefully" and held talks with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night.

Theresa May: Syria and Russia must be held to account on chemical weapons attack

Mr Trump did not give a time-frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because "we are able to stop it".

The president's comments came after Moscow's ambassador to the UN warned of the potential consequences of Western intervention in Syria.

Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria "could lead to grave repercussions" during heated exchanges at the UN Security Council.

US ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia of having "the blood of Syrian children" on its hands after Mr Trump said that "nothing's off the table" in dealing with the alleged outrage.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as "fake news".
A husband who killed his wife with a hammer in Dubai is appealing for his 10-year jail sentence to be reduced, the victim's family has said.

British newspaper editor Francis Matthew was found guilty in the Emirate of killing his 62-year-old wife Jane Matthew on July 4 last year.

Matthew initially told police that robbers had broken into their villa and killed his wife of 30 years, but during a later interrogation he allegedly said there had been an argument over money.

He was reportedly convicted of assault leading to death, and not of murder, following representations by his lawyer.

The family of Jane Matthew said in a statement that they were "very upset" that her husband was appealing against the sentence, and that women should be "deeply worried" by the case.

They want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict in a bid for a harsher sentence.

Matthew, who is the former editor of the English-language Gulf News, and who had lived in east London with his wife before emigrating to Dubai, was sentenced in March.

He had allegedly told police officers that his wife had grown angry with him because they were in debt and needed to move, and his temper rose when his wife called him a "loser" and told him "you should provide financially".

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.

In a statement, the victim's family said: "Jane's family is very upset that Francis Matthew has appealed to further reduce his sentence after he killed Jane with a hammer.

"We want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict. Women, in particular, should be deeply worried.

"This verdict says that, just by having a common domestic argument with her husband, Jane was responsible for provoking her own death.

"The court's finding is also deeply unfair to Jane because, while Matthew has apparently had his defence of provocation considered by the court, he has at the same time benefited from having ensured Jane couldn't defend herself against his claims."

They said they were concerned that Matthew's sentence should not be reduced further.

The statement continued: "The court also seems to be saying that Jane's death was unintentional.

"But of all the items that Matthew could have picked up during the alleged argument, he chose a hammer.

"By his own description, he collected the hammer in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors of the house to the bedroom.

"Why would he do that?

"It is also not believable that Matthew, who is over six feet tall, did not think he would kill Jane if he gave her two very hard blows to the face with the hammer."
P resident Donald Trump angrily blasted an FBI raid on his personal lawyers office as an attack on our country.

In a furious tirade, the US president lashed out at Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

He even blamed the FBI seizure of his lawyer Michael Cohens records relating to an alleged affair between Mr Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels for a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average - despite the stock market closing at about the time the news of the raid first broke yesterday.

Among the documents reportedly seized were papers detailing a $130,000 hush money payment allegedly made by Mr Cohen in return for Ms Daniels silence about an alleged 2006 tryst with the president.

Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen (PA ) / PA

Its a disgraceful situation, raged Mr Trump after federal agents raided Mr Cohens office and hotel room. Its a total witch hunt.

Its an attack on our country - what we all stand for. When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness, he added.

The stock market dropped a lot today, as soon as they heard the noise, you know, this nonsense that was going on, said Mr Trump. It was up, it was way up. It dropped quite a bit at the end.

Once again, the president raised the spectre of firing Mr Mueller, the Special US Counsel heading up a probe into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump election campaign.

Mr Cohens lawyer Stephen Ryan said in a statement the office raid followed a referral from Mueller.

Donald Trump denies knowledge of lawyer's payment to porn star

I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens, Trump said. Many people have said you should fire him. Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, thats a big statement.

He called Mr Muellers investigators the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest Ive ever seen. Democrats all, just about all.

According to the Washington Post, the FBI is investigating Mr Cohen for bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

In addition to the lawyers office, agents also raided his home and the Park Avenue hotel where hes been staying, according to reports.

Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she was paid $130,000 in a deal with Mr Cohen, 51, shortly before the election to keep the fling quiet. Mr Trump said last week that he had no knowledge of the payment. Because the deal was struck so close to the 2016 presidential election, legal sources say the cash could be seen as an illegal campaign expense.

It emerged on the same day it was alleged that the Special Counsel is also looking into a $150,000 donation made to Mr Trumps foundation by Victor Pinchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman. The payment was made in return for Mr Trump shooting a 20-minute video for a conference in Kiev. Mr Mueller is reportedly investigating the unusually large donation as part of his wider examination of the flow of money to the billionaire in the run-up to the election.

Mr Pinchuk, who has been accused by American companies of selling steel on US markets at artificially low prices, claims he made the contribution following a specific request from Mr Trump.
D onald Trump has warned nothing is off the table as he made clear that US military action was possible in response to an alleged poison gas attack in Syria.

The US President promised to decide whether or not to launch military reprisal against Bashar al-Assads regime within 48 hours, he said at a cabinet meeting earlier.

Asked if military action was a possibility, Mr Trump said: Nothing is off the table If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out."

And asked at the meeting if Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility for the attack, Mr Trump responded: "He may, yeah, he may. And if he does its going to be very tough, very tough."

Attack: Image released by Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets shows a child receiving oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack in Douma / AP

It came as the US and Russia traded barbs at a UN Security Council meeting on the alleged attack.

Mattis not ruling out military strikes

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow has warned the US of "grave repercussions" if the US takes the military option, adding that "there was no chemical weapons attack.

Nikki Haley US Ambassador to the UN, told the council that Washington "will respond" to the alleged attack regardless of whether the United Nations Security Council acts or not.

Vassily Nebenzia addresses an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria / EPA

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," she said.

Horrific images have been shared on social media showing a number of dead men, women and children, some with foam at the mouth, in buildings after the alleged attack in the rebel-held town of Douma in eastern Ghouta.

The Union of Medical Relief Organisations, a US-based charity that works with Syrian hospitals, told the BBC that the Damascus Rural Specialty Hospital had confirmed 70 deaths.

It came amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces in the area following the collapse of a truce.

Syrian state media denied government forces launched a chemical attack as reports emerged late on Saturday.

The UK has called for an urgent investigation.

Theresa May: Syria and Russia must be held to account on chemical weapons attack

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called the reports "deeply disturbing", also criticising Russia for its involvement in the seven year long war.
'Don't take peace for granted'

Former US envoy George Mitchell has warned the absence of violence should not be taken for granted in Northern Ireland.

The chairman of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations had required a commitment to non-violence and democracy from all the parties before entering dialogue, one which endures today.

Mr Mitchell said the country was a much safer and greater place now but urged political leaders to rekindle the spirit of 20 years ago after months of failure to restore devolved institutions at Stormont.

Mr Mitchell said: "There is an ovewhelming majority of people in Northern Ireland of all communities and all walks of life who understand that the significance of the Good Friday Agreement was not that all problems would be solved for all time.

"The significance was that a commitment was made that future problems would be solved by democratic and peaceful means, not by violence, that is the significance.
A dog which wandered on to Subway tracks in New York subway was saved by a kind L-train operator who slowed to a snails pace for nine stops to avoid hitting it.

Ernest McClain spotted the dog on the tracks near the Wilson Avenue station in Bushwick as he was heading towards Manhattan at 3.39am on Monday.

He told the New York Post: I was beeping the horn and yelling at the track workers, Theres a dog on the track!

The train operator followed the brave beige pit bull for 3.2 miles before it was finally rescued by MTA workers.

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I didnt want to see the dog die, Mr McClain said.

He described how he called a dispatcher who advised him to continue with extreme caution to avoid startling the canine.

MTA track maintenance workers managed to rescue the dog at Graham Avenue station.

The track worker jumped down, got the dogs attention, grabbed the dog by its hind legs, and pulled it on the platform, Mr McClain said.

He said he barely had time to thank the workers before continuing with his service.

I had so many trains backed up behind me that I couldnt stop to talk,he added.

Transport Worker Union Local 100 President Tony Utano told the New York Post: That dog had a rough night but it could have been a lot worse.
R ussia has warned of grave repercussions if the US takes military action against the Syrian regime in response to an alleged chemical weapon attack.

Moscow's ambassador to the UN made the comments after US president Donald Trump said he would decide on a response to the "heinous attack" on Douma within 24 to 48 hours.

In heated exchanges at the UN Security Council, US ambassador Nikki Hayes accused Russia of having "the blood of Syrian children" on its hands.

Following remarks by Mr Trump that "nothing's off the table" as he meets with military advisers to decide America's response, Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria "could lead to grave repercussions".

Donald Trump: The US President has warned 'nothing is off the table' for the US response to the alleged attack / AP

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as "fake news" as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Ms Haley urged the UN to take action, but stressed whether it acts or not "either way, the United States will respond".

Mattis not ruling out military strikes

She added: "Meetings are ongoing. Important decisions are being weighed, even as we speak."

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK was considering what action was necessary in response to the "barbaric" attack which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Mrs May sidestepped a question on whether Parliament would be recalled from recess to debate any military intervention.

Attack: Image released by Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets shows a child receiving oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack in Douma / AP

Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague said he had "little doubt" that if he was still in office he would recommend military action in Syria.

Mr Trump said the US is still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the apparent strike on Douma.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," he said.

He added of Russian president Vladimir Putin, "everybody's going to pay a price - he will, everybody will".

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assad's regime if there is fresh "incontrovertible" evidence he has used chemical weapons against his own people.

Mr Johnson discussed the situation with acting US secretary of state John Sullivan twice on Monday.

The US State Department said Mr Johnson and his Washington counterpart had discussed "potential further steps the US and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners".

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has called reports of the attack "deeply disturbing" / PA

The attack in Douma occurred late on Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.

Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.

Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths.
H elping your partner with the washing up could save your relationship, a new study has revealed.

Out of all the house hold chores, it is washing the dishes that is the biggest source of conflict for men and women in heterosexual relationships.

A report from the Council of Contemporary Families revealed that women who are left to do all the washing up argued more with their partner.

They also reported less sexual satisfaction compared to those who had a partner who helped.

Dan Carlson an assistant professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah and the lead author of the study told The Atlantic that he thought one of the reasons for this was because doing the dishes is not a glamorous task.

Doing dishes is gross. There is old, mouldy food sitting in the sink. If you have kids, there is curdled milk in sippy cups that smells disgusting, he said.

Using data from between 1992 and 1994 obtained by the National Survey of Families and Households and the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey, researchers analysed the importance of sharing household tasks in a relationship.

The report noted that traditionally women have been associated with unpopular household chores, often shouldering the responsibility of the laundry, cooking and cleaning.

Men are more often associated with tasks such as cleaning the car or mowing the lawn.

Mr Carlson said that women today see themselves as relegated to the tasks that people dont find desirable.

He said that that can lead to feelings of resentment.

The study also revealed that over the past few decades men have taken on more household chores performing an average of four hours of housework every week compared to two in 1965.

Researchers found that dishwashing is a task that couples are most likely to take turns doing.

From 1999 to 2006 the number of couples taking it in turns to wash up rose from 16 to 29 per cent.

Mr Carlson said that couples who share the washing up are more likely to have a better relationship.

He said this is because the task can be performed as a team with one person washing and the other drying.

My wife and I could take out the trash together, we could clean the toilet together, but that wouldnt make much sense, said Mr Carlson.

He said that the team work required in doing the dishes can make people feel closer.

In general the study revealed that that sharing all household chores could improve a couples relationship.
D onald Trump has moved the US closer to direct confrontation over an alleged poison gas attack in Syria as he warned a decision on his response was imminent.

The US President had earlier told how nothing is off the table as he made clear the military option was possible as he met with officials to discuss the events.

He met with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night to discuss the response to the "horrible attack" on Douma, saying a decision would be made "tonight or very shortly thereafter".

Trump: The US President said a decision was imminent / AFP/Getty Images

It followed heated exchanges at the UN Security Council, where US ambassador Nikki Hayes accused Russia of having "the blood of Syrian children" on its hands.

Following remarks by Mr Trump over the possibility of the military option, Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria "could lead to grave repercussions".

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as "fake news" as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Ms Haley urged the UN to take action, but stressed whether it acts or not "either way, the United States will respond".

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia / AFP/Getty Images

She added: "Meetings are ongoing. Important decisions are being weighed, even as we speak."

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK was considering what action was necessary in response to the "barbaric" attack which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Mrs May sidestepped a question on whether Parliament would be recalled from recess to debate any military intervention.

Mattis not ruling out military strikes

Mr Trump said the US is still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the apparent strike on Douma.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out, he said.

He added of Russian president Vladimir Putin, "everybody's going to pay a price - he will, everybody will".

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assad's regime if there is fresh "incontrovertible" evidence he has used chemical weapons against his own people.
A womans limbless body has been found in a gruesome discovery in a Brooklyn park in New York.

Police said the head and torso of the unidentified woman were found in Canarsie State Park near East 85th Street and Seaview Avenue at 6.20pm on Monday.

According to Channel 4 New York, a woman walking her dog found the body and alerted the police.

Detectives investigating said the body was located 15 feet away from the pedestrianised path.

It was found discarded in foliage covered by some leaves and branches with its arms and legs chopped off.

Community activist Tony Herbert told Channel 4 New York that he thinks the body must have been dumped there recently, adding that "it's a very active park."
W ind River actress Elizabeth Olsen has built up her reputation working on a string of acclaimed indie films.

But the star is worried that becoming too much of a household name could make her on-screen characters less believable.

The 29-year-old even said she had to think twice about joining the cast of the blockbuster Avengers movies as Scarlet Witch.

She told A List: I did and I still do [have concerns]. I still think, Uh! Who would I have worked with if I hadnt done a superhero movie?

Decisions decisions: Elizabeth Olsen had to think hard about doing Avengers / Dave Benett

"And then youre like, Ah forget it. Its a woulda shoulda coulda kind of thing.

I did think about [the difference] because its an association  an image thing  and you still want to be taken seriously for other kinds of story-telling.

"You also dont want to get bigger than your characters ever  there are some actors that are hard to watch because you think of them as [a famous character]... and so youre like, I cant think of you as this person whos a janitor... 

Avengers: Infinity War UK Fan Event - In pictures 1 /11 Avengers: Infinity War UK Fan Event - In pictures v PA Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland pose with Marvel cosplayers attending the Avengers: Infinity War UK Fan Event held at Television Studios in White City, London PA Anthony Russo, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Letitia Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland and Joe Russo attend the UK Fan Event for "Avengers: Infinity War" at the Television Studios White City Dave Benett Benedict Cumberbatch and wife Sophie Hunter attending the Avengers: Infinity War UK Fan Event held at Television Studios in White City, London PA Tom Holland poses with a Marvel cosplayer attending the Avengers: Infinity War UK Fan Event held at Television Studios in White City, London PA Letitia Wright Dave Benett Tom Hiddleston Dave Benett Elizabeth Olsen Dave Benett Paul Bettany Dave Benett Tom Holland PA Sophie Hunter and Benedict Cumberbatch Dave Benett

Olsens recent credits include Ingrid Goes West and the Hank Williams biopic I Saw The Light, opposite Tom Hiddleston, and she is currently shooting comedy drama series Sorry For Your Loss for Facebooks new on-demand service.

The younger sister of fashion designer twins and former child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, she made her breakthrough in the thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, about a woman returned to her family from a cult.

Avengers: Infinity War - Trailer

Olsen, below, returns to the Marvel universe for the fourth time in Avengers: Infinity War, having first played the role in 2014s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

She said: The thing I love about Scarlet is its not about matching the mens strength. She is a character thats very emotional  and thats OK. There are aspects of being a woman that should be embraced  its not just about fighting and putting on pants.

Olsen says she has her own action figure of Scarlet at home: I dont even want it out  it just needs to be in a bin in a cupboard, so when I have children one day, theyll be like, This is so weird!
B rad Pitt was pictured at the lab where rumoured girlfriend Neri Oxman works six months ago, suggesting they may have been dating for a while.

The American actor posed in a snap at the lab where the MIT professor works in November 28 last year, shared on Instagram.

According to Page Six, the 54-year-old actor met the artist and architect through an architectural project at a university that Pitt is involved with.

In the snap, the War Machine actor poses next to six women when he reportedly visited Oxman at the educational institution.

The picture was uploaded by student Kathy Camenzind with the caption: Oceans six? #whatjusthappened #bradpitt #medialab.

According to People, there had been a subsequent photograph of Pitt and Oxman which had been removed from social media.

Oxman: The pair have reportedly met each other months ago / Getty Images

A source told Page Six: Brad and Neri instantly hit it off because they share the same passion for architecture, design and art. This is best described as a professional friendship.

They added that Pitt is reportedly very interested in spending more time with the 42-year-old.

The news comes after Pitts Tomb Raider ex-wife was reported to be dating a new man.

The Hollywood A-listers called time on their relationship in September 2016 after nearly 12 years together, having been married for two.

Both have remained largely out of the spotlight since the high-profile break-up but new reports claim that Jolie has a new man in her life, although it is not serious.
D avid Walliams has said he can relate to Ant McPartlin following his drink driving charge and return to rehab.

Walliams, who worked alongside McPartlin on Britains Got Talent, said struggling to deal with personal hardships is difficult when youre in the public eye.

The comedian compared dealing with his fathers death to McPartlins situation, telling Radio Times: Ant and Dec are incredibly relatable and recognisable and the hard thing when youre well-known is that when things go awry in your life, it gets played out in public.

I remember when my father was dying, I was on the phone to him and people were coming up for selfies.

New Britain's Got Talent trailer missing Ant and Dec

Its hard as they want you to be smiley and happy but youre going through something thats causing you pain.

McPartlin, 42, was charged with drink driving after crashing his car into two vehicles in Richmond earlier this month.

All together: Ant McPartlin with David Walliams and co at the Britain's Got Talent auditions / PA

He later announced his return to rehab and the cancellation of all his upcoming work commitments. It has yet to be confirmed if he will host the Britains Got Talent live shows with Declan Donnelly.

Britain's Got Talent 2018 Judges - In pictures 1 /7 Britain's Got Talent 2018 Judges - In pictures David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Simon Cowell and Amanda Holde ITV Alesha Dixon ITV Simon Cowell. ITV Amanda Holden ITV David Walliams ITV Alesha Dixon ITV David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Simon Cowell and Amanda Holde ITV

The Geordie TV star, X, was forced to present the remaining episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway alone, including the series finale at Universal Studios, Florida.

Donnelly thanked the audience for their support after the show went off air, adding that it had been "fun" but "tinged with sadness".

He then asked for a round of applause for McPartlin who is back at home".

He added: "He'll appreciate that."
H arry Styles paid an emotional tribute to the 22 victims of the Manchester terror attack as he played on the Arena stage for the first time since the tragic events of May 2017.

Styles took a moment to address the crowd and remembered those who lost their lives as he prepared to perform ballad Just a Little Bit Of Your Heart, which he wrote for Ariana Grande.

A bomb detonated in the foyer just as a Grande concert finished on May 22 2017 claimed the lives of 22 people, including children, and injured many more.

Styles said: The next song were going to play I wrote it a couple of years ago and it's always meant a lot to me but tonight I think it means so much more than it ever has before being in this room.

I thank you so much for being with me here tonight. I grew up coming to my first concerts in this room, I love this room. And I thank you for spending some time with us," he said.

Fans at the concert had also planned their own tribute as they held banners and signs with the number 22, the Manchester bee and Grandes signature bunny ears aloft during the song.

Remembered: Ariana Grande returned to Manchester last June for a benefit concert in aid of the One Love Manchester fund / Dave Hogan via AP

The 13-year-old only survived the attack after being shielded by her aunt Kelly Brewster, who was killed by the attack.

Booth  who broke both her legs in the blast - performed in a wheelchair alongside friends, all wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the bee.

Girl caught up in Manchester Arena attack receives royal wedding invite

Simon Cowell later praised the teen for her performance, describing the routine as a statement and saying he would never forget it.
K hloe Kardashian is set to produce a new true-crime television series about murderous sisters.

Reality star Kardashian will executive produce a 2019 series called Twisted Sisters for Investigation Discovery.

In a statement, the reality star said: I am so excited to be bringing you Twisted Sisters.

As a self-proclaimed true-crime addict there is no better way to tell these tales about the bonds that sisters possess and how they can go so terribly wrong.

Sisters: Khloe Kardashian, pictured here with sister Kim, is a part of one of the most famous reality families / Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

The six-part series will focus on sisters who kill each other or siblings who team up to murder others.

Group President of Investigation Discovery Henry Schleiff said: We are thrilled to be working with Khloe on this new venture.

Khloe Kardashian - In pictures 1 /44 Khloe Kardashian - In pictures Khloe Kardashian/Instagram REUTERS Lamar Jr., Lamar Odom, daughter Destiny, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian arrive at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre on August 7, 2011 in Universal City, California Jason Merritt/Getty Images Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian attend the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Michael Buckner/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom attend Kanye West Yeezy Season 3 on February 11, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Pharrell Williams and Khloe Kardashian attend the collaboration celebration of Pharrell Williams and Adidas at Hinoki & The Bird on December 3, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2015 NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Upfront on May 14, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2016 Angel Ball hosted by Gabrielle's Angel Foundation For Cancer Research on November 21, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration at Ysabel on October 12, 2015 in West Hollywood, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends The Hollywood Reporter's 23rd Annual Women In Entertainment Breakfast at Milk Studios on December 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Valerie Macon/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner speak onstage at the 2014 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 23, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Kevin Winter/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian Odom arrives at Nickelodeon's 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards at USC Galen Center on March 23, 2013 in Los Angeles, Californi Mark Davis/Getty Images Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian attend DuJour magazine's Spring issue collaboration with Kim Kardashian and Bruce Weber at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on March 2, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 21st Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park on February 24, 2013 in West Hollywood, California Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at Fox's "The X Factor" Season Finale - Night 2 at CBS Television City on December 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2011 Z100 & Coca-Cola All Access lounge at Z100's Jingle Ball 2011 pre-show at Hammerstein Ballroom on December 9, 2011 in New York Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian (3rd from L), Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian pose with models backstage at the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian, winners of the Favorite TV Guilty Pleasure award pose for a portrait during the 2011 People's Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on January 5, 2011 in Los Angeles, California Michael Caulfield/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian make an appearance at Borders Century City to sign copes of their book "Kardashian Konfidential" on December 2, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian poses for a picture at the Beach Bunny Swimwear's grand opening party on April 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Toby Canham/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives to NSF & GQ Magazine's Stop Puppy Mills Humane Society benefit at a private estate on September 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California Angela Weiss/Getty Images Kris Jenner, Khole Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian threw out ceremonial first pitches prior to the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals on May 6, 2009 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California Juan Ocampo/LA Dodgers via Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the grand opening party of Sapphire Pool on May 2, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada Jacob Andrzejczak/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian unveils her PETA "Fur? I'd Rather Go Naked" billboard on December 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California Charley Gallay/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian walks the runway at the Dash & Smooch Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New Yor Rob Loud/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian pose backstage in the Awards Room at the MTV Australia Awards 2008 at the Australian Technology Park, Redfern on April 26, 2008 in Sydney Maree Williams/Getty Images Khloe Kardahian arrives at the National Lampoon Premiere of "One, Two, Many" on April 10, 2008 at the Arclight Theatre, in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the Premiere of the new reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians" held at the Pacific Design Center on Octorber 9,2007 in Los Angeles, California Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attending the Kardashian Kollection For Lipsy launch party at the Natural History Museum, London PA Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian arrive for the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 22nd annual Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles PA Khloe Kardashian attending the Hairfinity UK Launch Party, at Il Bottaccio, in central London PA CALLIPYGIAN corset, 98, at openingceremony.com. GOOD AMERICAN jeans, 118 (goodamerican.com). JACQUIE AICHE choker, 4,320 (special order), at matchesfashion.com. LANA JEWELRY necklace, 1,045 (lanajewelry.com). HENRI BENDEL earrings, 38 (henribendel.com). EFFY ring (middle finger), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI ring, 10,753 (tacori.com). Bangles, Kardashians own Credit: Mike Rosenthal Mike Rosenthal Y/PROJECT bodysuit, 358, at avenue32.com.MELODY EHSANI earrings, 28 (melodyehsani.com). EFFY ring (right hand), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI rings (left hand) from 10,790 (tacori.com) Khloe Kardashian and daughter True Thompson Khloe Kardashian Instagram Khloe Kardashian attends GQ and Giorgio Armani Grammys After Party on February 8, 2015 Getty Images for GQ Khloe Kardashian appears At ULTA Beauty's West Hills Store To Promote Kardashian Beauty Hair Care And Styling Line on April 2, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration on October 12, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian signs copies of her new book 'Strong Looks Better Naked' on November 13, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the A+E Networks 2016 Television Critics Association Press Tour for Kocktails with Khloe on January 6, 2016 Khloe Kardashian walks the red carpet at the official grand opening party for Mohegan Sun's new ultra-lounge, novelle, on Saturday, June 22, 2019 Getty Images for Mohegan Sun Khloe Kardashian attends Allergan KYBELLA event on March 3, 2016 Khloe Kardashian attends the 2017 NBCUniversal Upfront on May 15, 2017 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian celebrates the launch of Good American with Emma Grede on October 28, 2017 Khloe Kardashian attends the PrettyLittleThing LA Office Opening Party on February 20, 2019 Getty Images

With one of the most renowned experts on sisters now a member of our own ID family, we know she will be able to bring a unique perspective that will inform and entertain our fans, while enticing new viewers to tune in.

The show will produced by 44 Blue Productions, made up of hour-long episodes investigating the "how and why" of the crimes.

Kardashian is due to give birth to her first child, a girl, with Tristan Thompson any day now.
S tanley Johnson has revealed he once thought Ant and Dec were one person called Anton Dec.

The 77-year-old, who tickled viewers with his one liners on Im A Celebrity, said he was left confused on meeting the Geordie duo.

Speaking on Loose Women he said: I thought they were just one person called Anton Dec. I kept on saying: Which is Anton?

Johnson finished 7th on last years series of the ITV jungle reality show. He said he had no idea what he was letting himself in for.

Confused: Stanley Johnson on Loose Women / S Meddle/ITV/Rex

I had absolutely no idea what this jungle thing was about at all, he said, but admitted he soon realised it was a superb place.

The British politician and author struck up an unlikely friendship with Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toff Toffolo who admitted to having a crush on Johnson.

'Anton Dec': Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly / ITV

The two have remained friends since returning from the Australian jungle and recently attended the Conservative Partys Black and White Ball.

Johnson, who was on Loose Women to promote his new book, was asked whether or not Toff has read it.
A lesha Dixon was reportedly moved to tears as a young survivor of the Manchester Arena attack auditioned on the new series of Britains Got Talent.

The judging panel looked on in awe as Hollie Booth, 13, who broke both her legs during the blast, returned to Manchester to dance to a medley of Ariana Grande songs.

The teenager only survived the attack at Grande's concert after her aunt Kelly Brewster shielded her and Booth's mother when the blast ripped through the foyer of the arena on May 22 last year, leaving 22 victims dead.

"I would say that, for me that audition was bigger than the show, that's the only way to describe the magnitude of what she's been through and the moment of her performing on the show. It felt bigger than us, said Dixon.

Comeback: Britain's Got Talent returns on Saturday / ITV

"It was one of those moments where everyone is humbled. Everybody kind of gets lost in the reality of how cruel the world can be.

"It was an interesting audition because on one hand your heart is bleeding and you feel so sad, but by the end of the audition you're completely uplifted because you're watching this young girl do the most inspiring routine in such a beautiful way, that you then just felt this joy.

New Britain's Got Talent trailer missing Ant and Dec

Dixon added: I'd never experienced anything quite like it, actually. I was trying so hard, obviously we were moved to tears, but I tried to keep it together, by the end we were smiling and happy crying. I've never experienced that on the show."

Head judge Simon Cowell added: God only knows how she dealt with that at her age, the effect it must still have. The fact that she got together with a bunch of friends and did something, more than just an act, it was a statement.

Britain's Got Talent 2018 Manchester Auditions - In pictures 1 /8 Britain's Got Talent 2018 Manchester Auditions - In pictures Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon attend the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA Anthony McPartlin, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden, Simon Cowell, Declan Donnelly and David Walliams attend the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA Anthony McPartlin attends the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford. PA Declan Donnelly attends the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon attend the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA Amanda Holden attends the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA Alesha Dixon attends the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford. PA Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon attend the auditions for Britain's Got Talent at The Lowry in Salford PA

"It showed that the cowards can't win and that she overcame it. I thought it was respectful, it was one of those moments I will never, ever forget.

He continued: To come back in front of a theatre, and think about that for a moment, after everything she's been through - and in Manchester - you just have to go, 'Respect'. I saw the friendship and their bond. I was so happy that they trusted us enough to come on our show. It was a good thing.

Britains Got Talent returns to screens this Saturday, with presenters Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly hosting the auditions, filmed before McPartlin was charged with drink driving.

Britain's Got Talent returns on Saturday at 8pm on ITV.
S upermodel Karlie Kloss wants more young women to get into coding, calling it a creative, artistic expression.

The tech entrepreneur was in London yesterday to discuss her coding scholarship, Kode with Klossy, created in collaboration with the coding school Flatiron School.

Kloss herself became interested in technology after meeting entrepreneurs building tech businesses through coding.

I was curious  what did they know that I didnt? What is this thing called code? I wanted to demystify what the language was, she explained, at a packed event at WeWork Moorgate.

After meeting Avi Flombaum, co-founder of Flatiron School, Kloss began to learn how to code and program. She enjoyed the experience so much, she wanted to encourage more young women to follow in her footsteps.

"I was surprised that [tech] was such a creative industry and [coding is] a creative skillset."

Its this experience that led to Kode With Klossy. The annual summer camps teach girls aged 13-18 to learn the skills needed to become a programmer.

I set out wanting to learn how to code and then continued to learn about tech and how this is a big gap in womens representation in the industry, said Kloss.

I decided to reach out to my audience of young women through Instagram, Twitter and YouTube about a scholarship to teach girls how to code at a summer camp at Flatiron.

After beginning with 20 students four years ago, this years intake will see 1,000 students learn to code across 25 cities in the US.

I was blown away by the amount of young women interested in learning how to code. I realised this wasnt about me, this was about the doors I can open for other young women to have this same aha moment, to gain the skillset to make whatever impact they want to make, through code.

Whilst Klosss programme only runs in the US, aspirational coders in London will have the chance to learn from Flatiron teachers this year.

The company is running its first international coding school at WeWork Finsbury Pavement this year.

FlatIron will be offering two courses at first, a full-time Software Engineering Immersive course for 15 weeks and a part-time Front End Web Development course for 10 weeks.

As well, WeWork, which acquired Flatiron last year, and the coding school are pledging to give over 1 million in scholarships for the courses to underrepresented groups in the UK tech ecosystem, including women and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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A recent cluster of unrelated events is bringing Israel to a point of inflection; or at least, to a moment of deep almost existential reflection  on this, the seventieth anniversary of its founding. The depth of this quite anxious introspection became explicit in a discussion (Hebrew original) hosted by Yediot Ahronoth, Israels widest circulation Hebrew newspaper, with six former heads of Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Service.

The most iconic irruption into this sombre mood was the statement in the Knesset (parliament) that the population between the Jordan and the sea, was exactly balanced at 6.5 million each, between Israelis and Palestinians. Of course, that demographic equality would occur at some point, everybody knew. It was not as such, then, a surprise; but it constituted a slap of reality, nonetheless. These figures were published by the IDF and are therefore difficult to contest. This moment of reality thus curtails the ability of some Israelis to persist with the wishful thinking that the number of Palestinians is far less. This hugely symbolic tipping point is here  the point has arrived.

The question of what type of state will Israel be is no longer theoretical. One of the six former Mossad directors, Pardo said, in answer to the question, what, in your opinion, is the greatest threat to [Israeli] national security:

[The greatest threat, is the] fact that between the sea and the Jordan [river], there is a nearly identical number of Jews and non-Jews. The central problem from 1967 until today is that Israel, across the entire breadth of its political establishment, hasnt decided what country it wants to be. We are the only country in the world that hasnt defined for itself what its borders are. All of the governments have fled from coping with the issue  If the State of Israel doesnt decide what it wants, in the end there will be a single state between the sea and the Jordan. That is the end of the Zionist vision.

Two other events have served to sharpen the dilemma: Firstly, the Israeli Prime Minister was forced into a U-turn on an initiative that would have allowed tens of thousands of recent African immigrants to Israel, to be resettled in Europe. The right wing of his coalition government did not want Israel to become a pipeline for African economic migration into Europe  and forced a political retraction. The refugees are likely now to be expelled back to Africa.

It might seem a relatively unimportant event (except to the migrants), but it again brought into focus  especially amongst liberal Jews in Israel and the US  the question of what now, is the moral basis to the Israeli state: Israel took in a million immigrants from the USSR (many of whom were not Jews). Is Israel now abandoning the exile and refuge mission of the state? It widens the schism in American Jewry.

The third disconcerting event, was the mass March of Return" of Gazans towards the fence separating Gaza from Israel. Israel responded with live fire, killing 17 Palestinians: Picture the outcome, an Israeli defence official told Ben Caspit, "if they would have burst through the fence, even at a single point, and begun marching into Israel. It would have ended in a bloodbath". The collision of the news that Palestinians now number 6.5 million, with the new Palestinian mass "unprecedented civil rights movement" tactics of peaceful protest, sent a shiver down the spine of the Israel security establishment: What would be the consequence if one hundred thousand Palestinians swarmed the fence, broke through, and overran the neighbouring towns and countryside? Panic  and hence, the live fire.

But these existential questions are arising as a difficult constellation is arising in Israels geo-strategic situation. As one example, the New Yorker quotes, a former US official attending Jared Kushners initial briefing by the NSC:

We took out the map and assessed the situation, the former defense official said. Surveying the region, they concluded that the northern tier of the Middle East had been lost to Iran. In Lebanon, Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, controlled the government. In Syria, Iran had helped save President Bashar al-Assad from military disaster and was now bolstering his political future. In Iraq, the government, nominally pro-American, was also under the sway of Tehran. We kind of set those to the side, the official told me. We thought, So then what? Our anchors were Israel and Saudi Arabia.

And the upshot: Kushner, who had no experience of the Middle East, took himself off to Riyadh for several all-night sessions with his new friend MbS, to discuss the latters ideas about how to remake the Middle East  But, Bannon told [the New Yorker], the message that he and Kushner wanted Trump to convey to the regions leaders was that the status quo had to change, and in the more places the better. We said to themTrump said to them, Well support you, but we want action, action, Bannon said. No one seemed more eager to hear that message than the deputy crown prince. The judgment was that we needed to find a change agent, the former defense official told me. Thats where M.B.S. came in. We were going to embrace him as the change agent.

What? Bannon and Kushner, declare that they want to change the status quo of the Middle East, but having only just concluded that they had already lost the northern tier, and possibly Iraq too, to Iran  they decide that they will give the job to MbS who had said to an incredulous Tony Blinken (in 2015): He told me his goal was to eradicate all Iranian influence in Yemen, Blinken said. I was taken aback, noted Blinken: to purge Irans sympathizers from the country would require a bloodbath. I told him, you could do many things to minimize or reduce Iranian influence. But to eliminate it ?.

Is MbS the one who can roll back the Persians, as Steve Bannon argued? This cannot be taken seriously. Did anyone remind Kushner of Stalins words to Pierre Laval in 1935: The Pope! Just how many Divisions does the Pope of Rome have?.

No wonder the Israeli security establishment is cautious. Yediot Ahoronot relates: I asked them [the former Mossad Directors] whether they, looking at Israel on its 70th anniversary, are pleased: I was the first Mossad director who wasnt part of the 1948 generation, said Shabtai Shavit. I was born into the state, and I feel very bad about what is happening in it. The problems are so great, so deep, so comprehensive. There arent any red lines, nothing is taboo. As members of the intelligence community, our most important capability is to try to anticipate the future. I ask myself what kind of country Ill be leaving for my grandchildren, and I cant come up with an answer.

Shavit was referring mainly to internal divisions, and to the loss of integrity amongst the Israeli political leadership; but the external geo-political situation is not favourable to Israel either. America, one way or another, is winding down in the Middle East. More significantly, however, it is becoming apparent that, with Americas desire to cut China and Russia down to size, it has triggered an unexpected response.

It seems both China and Russia have had enough of it (western bellicosity). Maybe it was the revisionist power jibe in the US National Defense Posture statement; maybe it was the escalation to tariff war; or maybe the last straw that broke the camels back was the Skripal co-ordinated mass expulsion of Russian diplomats (which seems to have infuriated China as much as Russia) that triggered this reaction. Whatever the exact cause, the gloves are off, it seems. China and Russia are not going to take it any more.

This has major implications for the Middle East: China and Russia have been putting on a very visible display to America of the depth and strength of the strategic unity that exists between them. Iran is very much part of this. It is a strategic partner, too.

China will inflict pain on the US should the latter persist with a tariff war (or other mode of financial war). Russia, working with China will cause pain to America and the US, should it believe that the American Deep State continues to threaten Russia. Neither will accept Iran or Syria being unjustifiably targeted by western interests, either. President Putin made this clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu in the wake of the shoot-down of the Israeli F16: Russia has it interests in the region now, and it will not permit Israel to mess with them.

Who will back down in this game of chicken? It is not clear. It may instead escalate. Ostensibly, China has much to lose in a pure tariff war, but the US may be more vulnerable than thought. This Administration has tied political credibility indissolubly to the state of its asset markets (particularly the stock market). Asset markets therefore have become the litmus of political achievement and success in America.

There are signs that China understands that US asset markets and debt markets represent Americas Achilles heel. Steven Englander of Rafiki Capital Management notes:

The trade spat is largely being played out in financial markets, with the reaction in equities being used to determine the wisdom of China or the U.S.s policy. The US tariffs seem to have been chosen to make a point on economics and trade. Chinas response today was driven by the desire to inflict as much visible political and financial market pain. It is hard to believe that a country with higher tariffs, and US exports, that are both labor intensive and almost four times its US imports, can win a trade war. However, this could emerge if US policy is more sensitive to asset prices and to politically sensitive products, than Chinas policy is, to the goods that are newly tariffed. A perceived vote of confidence from financial markets can have real world consequences in strengthening respective negotiating hands: positive reactions give policy makers more leeway to push their policies; a market sell-off will increase pressure to back off, or find a quick resolution.

Israels deterrence is likely to be one casualty, as America and the China-Russia axis lock horns. Bannons belligerent bluster about our plan [being] to annihilate the physical caliphate of ISIS in Iraq and Syrianot attrition, annihilationand to roll back the Persians", may sound neo-Realist, but may well have been hollow rhetoric. Iran is a Russian interest  in diverse ways. The Israelis have been warned. Their ability to act has been circumscribed.

And Israels asset markets, as an adjunct of Wall Street, may be collateral damage too, in these new financial wars, exacerbating its internal tensions.

Finally, this concatenation of events may cause some Israelis to ponder why be Irans antagonist at all  if China and Russia look poised to emerge as the coming axis of power in Eurasia. A strategic shift is under way. And, after all, Israel was then pragmatic enough to have relations with the new revolutionary leaders of Iran immediately after 1979. Israel only broke off and began demonising Iran, only as a result of a shift in domestic Israeli politics  and not from any new sense of threat.
NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg believes Russia has "underestimated the unity of NATO allies" who see eye to eye on the issue of anti-Russia policy. But has it?

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban secured a third successive term in office in a landslide electoral victory on April 8. His party Fidesz is projected to maintain key two-thirds majority in parliament. Ever since coming to power in 2010, the PM has been criticized inside the alliance for his friendly attitude toward Moscow and good personal chemistry with its leader. According to CNN, Hungary looks more and more like Russia. Just like Moscow, Budapest has problems with Ukraine, blocking its way to NATO and Western organizations. Orban has always strongly opposed Russia sanctions and supported a dialogue with Moscow at all levels. The PM counters George Soros attempts to influence the countrys policies. This policy is popular inside the country.

The new Italian coalition government to be formed after the March election will also hardly approve anything to spoil further the relations between Russia and the alliance. All the political forces that did well in the elections openly say they want to be friends with Moscow.

Anti-NATO sentiments are on the rise in Slovakia. Portugal and Greece did not join other members of the bloc in expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal poisoning case. Athens has always been friendly with Moscow, giving rise to fears that it would undermine NATO from within while its rift with Ankara is widening. The two countries keep on discussing further plans to boost military cooperation. Some experts hold the opinion that the Russia-Greece relations could be viewed as a "poke in the eye of NATO.

If Scotland chooses to leave the UK in an independence referendum, it will no longer be a blocs member. Despite the Skripal scandal and the noise raised over the alleged chemical attack in Syria, French President Emmanuel Macron has just confirmed his plans to visit the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in May. In late March, the German government gave final approval for construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The decision angered Poland and the Baltic States, creating another crack to endanger the blocs unity.

Turkeys relations with other NATO partners are at the lowest ebb. The US military is leaving the country. Germany has moved its forces from Incirlik air base. The German ruling coalition harbors plans to freeze negotiations on Turkeys accession to the EU due to human-rights abuses. The disagreement on Syria appears to be intractable. The recent events in northern Syria may lead to a clash between Turkish troops and the US-French military contingent.

Ankara has signed a contract to buy the Russian state-of-the-art S-400 long-range air defense system, which is not interoperable with NATO weaponry. The US has warned that the move will have consequences, including sanctions, if the deal with Moscow goes through. The alliance has failed to settle the old conflict between Greece and Turkey.

Its not the first time the unity is threatened. Its enough to remember the events of 2003, when the US and the UK invaded Iraq, although Germany and France opposed the move. The idea of a pan-European security order is gaining momentum. Washington has expressed grave concern over the Permanent Structured Cooperation on defense (PESCO), warning that it could undermine NATO. This project as well as the creation of EU defense fund will facilitate joint purchases of European weapons and equipment to hurt American arms exports.

A proposal to form new defense alliance outside NATO has been added to the European security agenda. It is backed by Germany and France. German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that Europes security can no longer rely on America and Great Britain.

The US and its European allies are divided over the Iran deal that President Trump wants to decertify in May. This is another divisive issue. If America walks away from the Iran nuclear deal and Europe does not, NATO will face a very difficult period in its history. There is very little time left till President Trump announces his decision.

Europe wants a force to fight illegal migration while the US is pushing for power projection capability. Add to it the recently unleashed tariff war between America and Europe. Tit-for-tat trade restrictions will turn the NATO allies into belligerents.

And now the main thing. NATO is an organization which takes decisions on the basis of consensus. Until now, the US has had enough clout to maneuver all the member states into submission. The election results in Hungary and Italy have changed the balance of forces inside the alliance. With such an overwhelming public support, the new Hungarian and Italian governments can stand up to pressure and defend their views. The attempts to coerce them into observing the principle of transatlantic solidarity can backfire to make the disagreements come into the open. The policy of maintaining the much-vaunted unity at all cost may not work this time. Its hardly the right time for NATO to test it.
In the last few years Israel has modified its infantry training to put more emphasis on dealing with an enemy that uses a lot of tunnels and militarizes high-rise buildings, often including keeping some of the civilian residents of these apartment towers for use as human shields.

The tunnel anxiety began in 2014 as an after-effect of the mid-year 50-Day War between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. The discovery of how much Israel had underestimated the Hamas tunnel system led to some immediate changes in infantry training. Soon the army had developed a tunnel warfare course for the troops. This was justified by the extent to which anti-Israel Islamic terror groups have adopted the use of tunnels to get into Israel as well as using more tunnels to shelter their forces when engaged in open warfare with Israel. Thus the Israeli Army is now giving all their combat troops training in detecting, destroying and fighting in tunnels. To facilitate the training of over 100,000 active duty and reserve troops the army spent several million dollars to build ten tunnel training facilities. In addition to realistic sections of tunnel, where troops can also use their weapons, there is also a highly detailed computer simulator for planning and carrying out a combat operation against an enemy tunnel.

In 2015 work began on the main Israeli tunnel warfare facility. Israel and the United States cooperated on building this new instrumented training center in northern Israel (Snir). This was not the first such realistic training facility but was the first one to consist largely of tunnels, of the type encountered in Gaza and believed also used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. These tunnels have become a favorite with Islamic terrorists seeking to escape UAVs and smart bombs. What is happening at Snir is a continuation of what Israeli and American manufacturers have individually, or through collaboration, been doing since the 1990s to develop new features for highly realistic (NTC type) facilities. These include portable equipment that can allow any area to be wired to provide the same effect (constant monitoring, and recording, of everything everyone does). There are also VPUs (Vehicle Player Units) that make Hummers appear as armored vehicles (tanks, infantry vehicles, or artillery) to the monitoring system and save a lot of money (by not using the real thing). There is also a system that releases different colored smoke when a vehicle is hit, indicating if it is damaged or destroyed. Helicopters and warplanes, for example, are being wired to operate as part of NTC exercises.

More recently Israel added special training courses for dealing with Hamas plans to use the many high-rise buildings (mostly residential) for fighting positions. Hamas fighters plan to take over some of these tall buildings and install snipers, observers as well as rockets and guided missiles. To deal with that Israel infantry and their air support forces (tanks, aircraft and artillery) are now trained to fight 360-degree warfare with the enemy potentially below you as well as firing out of tall buildings. In addition to lots of actual training in realistic training centers, there has been a lot of training on simulated (computerized) versions of these training centers where new weapons and tactics can be developed more inexpensively and quickly.

The United States pioneered the use of instrumented (with computers and other electronics) training areas where troops could engage in very realistic simulated combat. For the ground troops, this involved the use of MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) equipment that came to be called laser tag. MILES has undergone several upgrades since first introduced in the 1980s. Thats when the National Training Center (NTC), a 147,000 hectare (359,000 acres) facility in the Mohave Desert at Fort Irwin, California was established in 1982. There the United States Army revolutionized the training of ground combat troops with the development of MILES equipment for infantry and armored vehicles and the use of MILES in a large, "wired" (to record all activities), combat training area. Other countries soon realized the importance of these innovations and a growing number have built their own NTC clones. The U.S. and other users of these networked training centers also had a growing library of electronic data on these exercises and this was increasingly used to build or modify tactical simulations of combat.

NTC type training centers are usually built to enable a combat battalion or brigade to go through several weeks of very realistic combat exercises. Ft. Irwin itself has been expanded and the United States has established many similar training centers, all using lots of electronics to assist the trainees in having a realistic experience while also enabling them to see their mistakes and learn from them.

One later (2009) American innovation was I-TESS (Instrumented-Tactical Engagement Simulation System) which provided more data and realism. Thus hits now caused more realistic damage (to individual troops or vehicles) and all troops and vehicles are tracked (and recorded) in real time. In addition to providing more compelling after action briefing (where lessons learned are absorbed) the real-time monitoring allows the training staff to change the action in the middle of an exercise. This makes the training more realistic and useful. The more realistic damage includes dealing with the impact of grenades, shells, and bombs as well as chemical weapons. The marines phased out their MILES gear as the new I-TESS equipment arrived in 2010 and looked forward to a growing number of I-TESS upgrades as did most other MILES users.

By the 1990s other countries began building their own NTC facilities. Israel has a 39,000 hectare (98,000 acres) Tactical Training Center (TTC) at Ze'elim in the Negev desert. In addition to wide open areas for the training of armor, infantry, and artillery units there are several villages and urban areas wired for training troops to fight in close quarters. Israel has developed a portable version of this technology and many other innovations as well. Major NATO nations, China and even Pakistan adopted the NTC concept.

NTC type training is not only very close to the experience troops get in actual combat, but it also stresses commanders the same way actual combat does. This enables commanders to test themselves, and their subordinate commanders, before they get into a real fight. You can also use NTC type facilities to experiment with new tactics, in addition to keeping troops well trained in whatever the current tactics are. This includes counter-terror operations as well as the kind of novel combat tactics that might be encountered in the future. One of the critical aspects of this type of training is the playback. Instructors can edit the electronic record of who did what when and show commanders and troops where they made mistakes. This feedback makes the troops much more effective in the future.

Israel has found the NTC type training so useful that it now gives new troops a year of it and many other nations that adopted NTC are going in the same direction. The Israelis have also taken the lead in developing computerized versions of these training centers so more troops can get NTC type training at any base and do it more frequently and a much lower cost. These simulations (that look and operate much like 3-D computer games) also enable planners to more quickly adapt to new Hamas or Hezbollah tactics and weapons. The simulations also enable small unit (platoons and companies) to hone their tactical leadership skills and quickly learn of new developments they will have to teach their troops. This includes training on how to deal with civilians (friendly, enemy or unknown). The Americans and Israelis made heavy use of civilians hired to act as battlefield civilians and act (after some instruction) as the ones the troops would encounter. This is most useful on the non-simulator training but is also programmed into some of the simulations.
ATLANTIC OCEAN (April 6, 2018) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) fires a Standard Missile (SM) 2 from the forward missile deck. The ship is currently deployed to promote maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jared Hallahan)

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The two major trouble spots in Mali are in the north, where Islamic terrorists continue to operate despite the continued presence of French counter-terror forces as well as most of the 13,000 peacekeepers assigned to Mali. Most of the Islamic terrorists up north are affiliated with al Qaeda and many are involved in a lucrative snuggling enterprise. Islamic terrorists have, since 2005, been dominating a very profitable cocaine smuggling operation that runs from Guinea-Bissau (where the stuff is flown or shipped in from South America) and then moved north to the Mediterranean coast and finally the millions of cocaine users in Europe. This effort brings in over $100 million a year for the Islamic terrorists involved and has proved impossible to shut down. The French move into northern Mali in 2013 disrupted the cocaine operation, but the smugglers reorganized and, thanks to all that cash, were able to hire new people (and bribe new officials) to get the shipments moving north again. There is now opium and heroin from Afghanistan showing up as well as a lot of locally produced cannabis and hashish that is also sold locally and in North Africa.

Increased security on Algerias southern border (especially the ones with Mali and Niger) catches more people illegally cross the border but most of them are smugglers. While most of the smuggled goods are consumer items (easier to see in Algeria) weapons and drugs were encountered. It was the drug shipments that had the heaviest security. This often meant crossing the border at night and then hiding the drugs or weapons at a hiding place known only to partners in Algeria, who had a legitimate reason for being down south. These weapons and drugs were then smuggled north to the coast and another gang of smugglers got the drugs on ships or airplanes headed for Europe. The weapons were for local markets (mostly criminals). Since moving drugs involved so many people, it is more expensive. But thats the nature of drug smuggling and Islamic terror groups tend to supply most of the security and maintain that monopoly by killing any competitors. Drug shipments still get seized. This is usually when the hiding places on the Algerian side of the border are stumbled on by patrols or the transporters moving the drugs from the southern border to the coast have an accident or get exposed as smugglers for some other reason. The Algerian police estimate that over 90 percent of the drugs get through and the Islamic terrorists get paid more than enough to keep them in business. For this reason, small groups of Islamic terrorists survive in northern Mali, near the Algerian and Niger borders not because of Islamic radical locals but because of the cash. With that, you can buy all the hospitality and discretion you need.

Northern Mali is also where the local branch of ISIL operates. Calling itself ISGS (Islamic State in the Greater Sahara) this group is frequently encountered in northeastern Mali (around Gao) on both sided of the Niger border. The ISIL personnel frequently clash with pro-government Tuareg militias and usually lose. Its not that these ISIL men are not fanatic enough but that the Tuareg know the area well and have lots of experience in irregular warfare. In the last two weeks, ISGS took very heavy losses as the Tuareg militias worked with a special French counterterrorism operation that included troops from Mali and Niger and spent over a week searching for and finding several ISGS camps and forcing the Islamic terrorists to fight. The ISIL forces lost over a hundred dead and captured. ISGS is still up there but in much reduced circumstances and the French were ready to collect and analyze the flood of new information gained from all those dead or captured ISGS men as well as several of their camps. The Americans stand ready to provide airstrikes for as many ISGS targets as the French intel effort can locate. The Americans are keen to eliminate the local ISIL franchise because ISGS was responsible for a late 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four American soldiers. ISGS wants to kill more American troops because that is a big deal with ISIL since Islamic terror groups tend to consider Israel and the United States the main enemies of Islam. Israel and the Americans have also proved to be the most effective at hunting down and killing ISIL groups. So this particular battle with ISIL is more of the same, just in a very remote part of the world. Even ISIL is attracted to the lucrative drug smuggling operation but that is one conflict with less radical Islamic terror groups that ISIL tends to lose. That rivalry is being resolved in northeast Mali and ISIL is not doing well.

In Mali and neighboring states, most of the Islamic terrorists are not ISIL and are largely united. Most of the Islamic terrorist activity is the work of JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems), which was formed in early 2017. In part, this was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Ansar Dine, FLM and al Mourabitoun (an al Qaeda splinter group). Another reason for the merger was to make it easier to pool resources (including information and advice) and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the area. This reduces friction and destructive feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. The FLM is Fulani while the other groups are largely Tuareg, Arab and some have a l0t of foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM or al Mourabitoun, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. Al Mourabitoun is believed to have largely rejoined al Qaeda. Internal politics for Islamic terror groups is a lot messier than these religious zealots like to admit. Thats mainly because each group believes they are uniquely qualified to be the supreme leader of all Islam. Coping with this aspect of Islamic radicalism has proved burdensome and ultimately becomes a major reason for Islamic terror movements to fail and fade away (via desertion and other forms of self-destruction). JNIM is more heavily influenced by its Fulani component and that is another reason for more attacks in central Mali, which has long been the scene of conflict between Fulanis and other tribes. Largely because of the Fulani and JNIM there has been more Islamic terrorist activity in the last year and that has impeded reconstruction and foreign aid efforts. Add to that the existing culture of corruption, especially in southern Mali and you have an atmosphere that is hostile to good government, national unity or economic growth. The attacks also serve to keep the security forces away from the smuggling operations, which pay for most everything the Islamic terrorists do.

April 6, 2018: In the northeast (outside Gao) two gunmen opened fire on a peacekeeper vehicle and killed a peacekeeper from Niger. The shooters were believed to be Islamic terrorists as many of them operate in that area.

April 5, 2018: In the north (Kidal) several mortar shells were fired into a peacekeeper camp leaving two peacekeepers dead and eight wounded.

In central Mali (Dioura) soldiers arrested 14 men believed to be Islamic terrorists and the next day the suspects all died during an attempted escape. While Islamic terrorists in Mali will stage jail breaks they will rarely spontaneously attempt to escape soon after arrest or capture. Mali soldiers have suffered a lot of casualties from Islamic terrorist attacks, including roadside bombs and landmines. So it is suspected that some army units are implementing their own illegal catch and kill (while attempting to escape) policy. This practice is common in many parts of Africa. At least one recently discovered mass grave in Mali contained bodies of people last seen in army custody.

April 2, 2018: In the northeast (Akabar near the Niger border) two different pro-government Tuareg militias clashed with ISGS, which lost twenty dead and several captured in two separate encounters. The Taureg militias and ISGS have been feuding to as long as ISGS has been trying to establish itself in this area. The Tuareg are difficult to terrorize and are keen on avenging bad treatment from anyone. The French understand this better than most other foreigners in the area.

April 1, 2018: In the northeast (Akabar near the Niger border) French and Mali troops encountered about 60 Islamic terrorists and killed at least 30 of them. There were no French casualties but several Mali troops were wounded. Aircraft and helicopter gunships were called in but the surviving Islamic terrorists had fled before the air support arrived. Since this took place about three kilometers from the Niger border the fleeing Islamic terrorists were probably headed in that direction. Examination of the dead indicated they probably belonged to the local ISIL group ISGS. The French and Mali forces had been searching this border region for five days in an effort to find these men. This clash took place less than 50 kilometers where ISGS ambushed U.S. and Niger troops in October 2017. Four American Special Forces troops died in that incident, which took place in Niger.

March 31, 2018: In central Mali Fulani attacks on farmers has left over 25 dead in March. Most of the victims are the farmers, whose settlements are raided by the Fulani herders moving south seeking more grazing land and water for their animals.

March 28, 2018: In central Mali, four gunmen attacked the Hotel la Falaise in the city of Bandjagara. The four men opened fire and killed one civilian but a soldier on guard fired back and the attackers fled. Two other bystanders were wounded in the brief clash. Hotel la Falaise is popular with foreign aid workers and local businessmen. The attackers may have intended to kidnap some of the foreign guests and hold them for ransom. Local businessmen are also frequent kidnap targets but are not as lucrative (and newsworthy) as the foreigners.
TICKERS: EFR; UUUU

Source: Streetwise Reports (4/10/18)

Under difficult uranium market conditions, this U.S. producer is capitalizing on a number of innovative opportunities.



With the price of uranium so low, miner Cameco Corp. (CCO:TSX; CCJ:NYSE) has shuttered its McArthur River Mine in Canada, and Kazakhstan's Kazatomprom announced that it is cutting production.

Energy Fuels Inc. (EFR:TSX; UUUU:NYSE.American) President and CEO Mark Chalmers addressed the uranium market issues in a recent letter to shareholders, "Things are happening in global uranium markets, namely major production cuts, that we believe will rationalize this market and, with it, the return of much higher uranium prices. . .eventually. Unfortunately, that has been the definingand frustratingcharacteristic of the uranium market over the past few years. We all see the positive supply and demand fundamentals. We see the production cuts, the policies to address climate change and air pollution, and the slow and steady global growth of nuclear energy. However, no one knows when these fundamentals will spawn higher prices, and the recovery has thus far eluded us."

"UUUU should benefit from rising uranium prices driven by significant production cuts across the industry." - Joe Reagor, ROTH Capital Partners

Energy Fuels, along with Ur-Energy Inc., has taken action by submitting in January a Section 232 Petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce to reduce the quantity of uranium coming into the U.S. from other countries. The company noted, "The Petition describes how uranium and nuclear fuel from state-owned and state-subsidized enterprises in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and China potentially represent a threat to U.S. national security." The point of the petition is to allow for the increase of uranium production in the U.S., which is the largest consumer of uranium in the world. Less than 3% of the uranium consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically. "The Petition seeks a remedy which will set a quota to limit imports of uranium into the U.S., effectively reserving 25% of the U.S. nuclear market for U.S. uranium production." The petition also requests "implementation of a requirement for U.S. federal utilities and agencies to buy U.S. uranium in accordance with the President's Buy American Policy."

The company believes the petition will be initiated soon. Once initiated, the Secretary of Commerce has 270 days after initiation to prepare a report to the President and a recommendation, and the President has 90 days to act on the Secretary's recommendation.

Energy Fuels is also exploring additional opportunities, including the potential of its vanadium resources at the Whirlwind Mine and the La Sal Complex, which recently received government expansion approvals. "Our mill last produced vanadium (as V2O5) in 2013, and during its 38-year operating history, it has actually produced over 45 million pounds of vanadiumor over $500 million at today's vanadium prices. We have a number of mines in Utah and Colorado that contain large quantities of high-grade vanadium resources," Chalmers explained. According to the company's 2017 10-k, they are also "evaluating. . .the potential to recover vanadium dissolved in the ponds at the White Mesa Mill. . .and/or recovering vanadium from non-ore sources."

As another source of revenue, Energy Fuels is processing alternate feed materials at its White Mesa Mill. Chalmers explained, "In 2017, we re-processed about 950,000 pounds of off-spec uranium concentrate for a third party, earning fees of about $6 million. Today, we are talking to several additional parties about new business for 2018 and beyond." He projects that the White Mesa Mill will continue to be cash-flow positive in 2018.

Energy Fuels also recently announced that it has accomplished final groundwater restoration at Alta Mesa Production Area 1 as confirmed in a notice from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ("TCEQ").

Completion of wellfield restoration is a very important environmental milestone and the company can now move on to well plugging and final closure of PAA1. Groundwater restoration is a crucial compliance milestone that must be completed after uranium recovery. The company can also proceed to a reduction of the reclamation bond on the project and the return of restricted cash.

"We are extremely proud to receive government confirmation of final restoration of the wellfield at Alta Mesa. Energy Fuels and the rest of the U.S. uranium industry operate under the highest health, safety, and environmental standards in the world, including state-of-the-art protection of groundwater and drinking water. This is a major milestone for Energy Fuels and further proof of our commitment to environmental stewardship. I congratulate our team on the ground in Texas and the support staff here in Denver for their hard work and professionalism on this important achievement," said Chalmers.



Located in South Texas, Alta Mesa is an ISR uranium project that is both constructed and fully permitted. It produced approximately 4.6 million pounds of U3O8 from 2005 to 2012.

About 200,000 acres comprise the total project area, and Alta Mesa is currently on standby. Operations there could be re-started in 12 months if the company decides to do so. A licensed and constructed ISR processing plant with a production capacity of 1.5 million pounds of U3O8 per year is onsite.

According to the company, Alta Mesa has "1.6 million tons of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources with an average grade of 0.111% U3O8 containing 3.6 million pounds of uranium, with 7.0 million tons of Inferred Mineral Resources with an average grade of 0.121% U3O8 containing 16.8 million pounds of uranium."

In a call with Streetwise Reports, Chalmers went into greater detail, "When you're doing in situ recovery uranium projects, after you've mined an area you're required to clean up the aquifer where you were doing the mining. When you get sign-off, as we described in that press release, the state of Texas gave us approval to close out that mining area after we've plugged the wells and taken down the miscellaneous equipment."

Land clean-up work is another opportunity the company is pursuing. "The White Mesa Mill is located just a short distance away from the northern edge of the Navajo Nation, so it is the perfect facility to cost-effectively recycle low-grade ore from these sites and produce uranium that can be used for the generation of clean electricity," stated Chalmers, who added, "there are numerous other companies with reclamation obligations at abandoned uranium mine sites in the region, and the White Mesa Mill is the most rational facility to handle this material."

The company has been on the radar of analysts and industry observers.

ROTH Capital Partners analyst Joe Reagor noted on March 18, "With the recent actions of the U.S. government on trade, we believe the section 232 petition by the U.S. uranium producers has a significant chance of driving higher domestic uranium prices during 2018 and beyond."

"Even if [the petition] is unsuccessful, UUUU should benefit from rising uranium prices driven by significant production cuts across the industry. However, the company also has the potential to significantly increase production if the petition is successful," Reagor stated.

Analyst Brien Lundin, in the April issue of Gold Newsletter, noted that Energy Fuels is "a holding we'll keep for the long-term, as few companies are better positioned to quickly monetize higher uranium prices."

Want to read more Energy Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.

Disclosure:

1) Jake Richardson compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise reports as an independent contractor. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Energy Fuels Inc. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article.

Disclosures from ROTH Capital Partners, Energy Fuels Inc., Company Note, Mar. 18, 2018

Regulation Analyst Certification ("Reg AC"): The research analyst primarily responsible for the content of this report certifies the following under Reg AC: I hereby certify that all views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject company or companies and its or their securities. I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.

Disclosures:

ROTH makes a market in shares of Energy Fuels Inc. and as such, buys and sells from customers on a principal basis.

Shares of Energy Fuels Inc. may not be eligible for sale in one or more states.

Shares of Energy Fuels Inc. may be subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Penny Stock Rules, which may set forth sales practice requirements for certain low-priced securities.

ROTH Capital Partners, LLC expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking or other business relationships with the covered companies mentioned in this report in the next three months.

Disclosures from Gold Newsletter, April 2018

The publisher and its affiliates, officers, directors and owner actively trade in investments discussed in this newsletter. They may have positions in the securities recommended and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. The publisher is not a registered investment advisor. Authors of articles or special reports are sometimes compensated for their services.
Wajid Zia, the Federal Investigation Agency additional director who headed the Panama case joint investigation team (JIT) which probed the Sharif familys assets last year, was cross-examined for the ninth time today in the Avenfield properties reference.

The reference is among three filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last year on the Supreme Court's directives.

Accountability Court-I Judge Mohammad Bashir, who has been conducting corruption proceedings against the Sharif family since September last year, resumed hearing the case today.

Nawaz arrived at the court along with his daughter Maryam and son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar.

Nawaz's counsel, Khawaja Haris, has been cross-examining Zia after he recorded his statement over six hearings earlier.

As the hearing went under way, Haris and the NAB prosecutor resumed their regular cross-questioning of each other.

The NAB prosecutor argued that Haris is attempting to delay the case unnecessarily by going in circles during his questioning of Zia.

He claimed that Nawazs Iqama [foreign work permit] and salary have been accepted but still the defence claims that the former premier did not take any salary.

Haris responded that the matter is debatable and they can argue over it endlessly.

Later, Nawaz and Maryam were allowed to leave the court and the hearing was adjourned for a brief period.

As the hearing resumed, Zia informed the court that the JIT did not probe the matter of the UAE government's wage protection system, wherein it is, as per Haris, necessary to pay salaries via banks to all employees registered with a UAE company [Capital FZE].

The hearing was later adjourned until tomorrow.
[April 10, 2018] SYNNEX Corporation Named Distributor of the Year in the US and Canada at 2018 Aruba Americas Partner Summit GREENVILLE, S.C., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a leading business process services company, today announced that it was honored as the 2018 Distributor of the Year in the US and Canada at the Aruba Americas Partner Summit, held March 25-30 in Las Vegas. The annual Top Channel Partner awards recognize the achievements of the leading Americas channel partners and distributors for Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company, in the areas of sales, expertise in delivering Aruba solutions, and commitment to customer service. SYNNEX is recognized by Aruba for outstanding performance in 2017, including significant growth in the US and Canada, as well as for its contributions to the small-to-medium business segment. This marks the third year SYNNEX has been named Distributor of the Year in the US since 2015. "We are honored to be recognized for our continued success with Aruba in the US and for our increased momentum in Canada over the past year," said Peter Larocque, President, North American Technology Solutions, SYNNEX Corporation. "These awards reflect SYNNEX' commitment to helping our partners succeed through customized offerings that address the most pressing business needs around wired and wireless infrastructure in an increasingly complex technology landscape." In addition to its core Aruba offerings, SYNNEX provides support and training around E-Rate; access to Aruba ClearPass; complimentary services including free RF planning and a top-ranked demo program; nationwide installation and on-site survey support; flexible financing options; and exclusive VIP artner and buyback programs. SYNNEX also recently launched an Aruba-specific Wireless-as-a-Service Program, which allows partners to rely on SYNNEX for managed services without having to add internal resources. "Aruba's long-standing philosophy of 'Customer First-Customer Last' would not be possible without our partners, who are some of the very best in the business," said Jim Harold, Vice President of North America Channels for Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company. "As organizations wrestle with enhancing the user experience and ensuring business resilience as they continue to adopt mobility, cloud and IoT, they need not just access to industry-leading intelligent edge solutions, but also expertise in how to deploy these products to solve real-world challenges. We congratulate SYNNEX for being named a 2018 Aruba Top Channel Partner and thank them for their dedication to their customers' success." For more information about Aruba through SYNNEX Corporation, email aruba@synnex.com. About SYNNEX SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX) is a Fortune 500 corporation and a leading business process services company, providing a comprehensive range of distribution, logistics and integration services for the technology industry and providing outsourced services focused on customer engagement strategy to a broad range of enterprises. SYNNEX distributes a broad range of information technology systems and products, and provides systems design and integration solutions. Concentrix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation, offers a portfolio of strategic solutions and end-to-end business services around customer engagement strategy, process optimization, technology innovation, front and back-office automation and business transformation to clients in ten identified industry verticals. Founded in 1980, SYNNEX Corporation operates in numerous countries throughout North and South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Additional information about SYNNEX may be found online at www.synnex.com. Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release that are forward-looking, such as features and capabilities of products and services, security product offering expansion, technology trends, and general success of collaborations, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release. Copyright 2018 SYNNEX Corporation. All rights reserved. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, CONCENTRIX, and all other SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of SYNNEX Corporation. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo and CONCENTRIX Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners. SNX-G View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/synnex-corporation-named-distributor-of-the-year-in-the-us-and-canada-at-2018-aruba-americas-partner-summit-300626607.html SOURCE SYNNEX Corporation

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Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said Pakistan offers tremendous investment opportunities, said that Pakistan will maintain 6 percent growth rate this year.

Addressing an opening ceremony of Boao the forum in Hainan Province of China, CPEC is superb plan of mutual cooperation and unprecedented progress.

The Prime Minister said fourth economic revolution is knocking at our doors with artificial intelligence and bio-technology creating new world.

He said Pakistan will take lead in regional connectivity and BOAO forum has proved important to raise stature of Asia.

The conference in Hainan province is being attended by top leaders from China, Philippines, Singapore, Mongolia, Austria and several other countries.Known as Asias Davos, the conference will also host Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will deliver a keynote speech at the forum.

PM Abbasi said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the most visible part of One Belt and One Road Initiative and would give benefit to both countries.

Pakistans adoption of yuan as the reserve currency would be very beneficial for bilateral trade. It will help yuan to become an international currency, PM Abbasi said.He said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor would promote connectivity in Asia. Pakistan aspires to see growth in the region and is very optimistic about One Belt and One Road Initiative, and is sure that it will benefit the region and the world, the premier said.

He said that Pakistan has built 1,700 miles of multi-lane motorways and set up special economic zones, adding that the Gwadar port is providing access to the sea to Central Asian countries.

He commended China for being champion of economic liberalization in a time when the US is talking about protectionism. Pakistan does not believe in protectionism. Opening and liberalization is the way forward, he said.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Tuesday said the deliberate and unprovoked ceasefire violations by India along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary could escalate dangerously if not put to an end.

He was talking to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres who called on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia.

The Prime Minister said the violations by India were moving towards a dangerous escalation resulting in martyrdom of innocent civilians, a press release issued here from the PM Office said.

He also expressed deep concern at deteriorating situation in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) and the mindless killing spree of innocent Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces.

Abbasi conveyed grave concern over the use of pellet guns by Indian forces in IoK and said Pakistan seeks a just and peaceful resolution of the dispute, reflecting the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions.

The Prime Minister said that the UN must play its part in highlighting Indian atrocities being inflicted upon Kashmiris in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan followed Zero tolerance policy towards terrorism and extremism and has achieved significant success in this regard.

The Prime Minister also expressed grave concern at the plight of Rohingya Muslims.

The UN Secretary General acknowledged Pakistans efforts towards counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance to the Afghan refugees and the UN peacekeeping operations.

He maintained that he had been advocating the need for a serious dialogue on the Kashmir issue.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Interior, Planning, Development & Reform Ahsan Iqbal, Ambassador Masood Khalid and senior officials were also present during the meeting.
President Mamnoon Hussain Tuesdays said that indiscriminate action was the basis for eradication of corruption, so that confidence of the masses in the national institutions could be restored.

He stressed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers should be very honest and unbiased because corruption free administration and decisions were the hallmarks of NAB.

The president was talking to chairman NAB justice (retd) Javed Iqbal who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, said a press release.

The chairman NAB also presented Annual Report  2017 of his organization to the president.

While appreciating the annual report, the president emphasized that corruption could be only eliminated from the society if all the requirements of justice were fulfilled.

He directed that reservations of the courts and public against NAB should be removed.The president also underlined that the ongoing development process should not be affected by the steps taken by the accountability institutions and officers.

He underscored that extermination of corruption and firm accountability were considered as national agenda therefore, all efforts should be made to enhance the confidence of public in such institutions.

He observed that Pakistan made significant improvement in the international ranking with reference to the indicators of corruption in which NAB had played an important role.On the occasion, chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal assured the president that NAB would continue to take indiscriminate action against corruption.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have re-affirmed to take Pak-China relations to new heights through Belt and Road Initiative.

They made the resolve at their meeting on the sidelines of Boao on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan is an iron friend of China and their friendship has been further strengthened by China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

He said Pakistan intends to promote cooperation with China in finance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and human development sectors.

Lauding the role of China for global peace and stability, the Prime Minister said Pakistan desires to deepen cooperation with Beijing in international affairs.

He said China's Belt and Road Initiative has become an international product for global development in the 21st century.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Chinese reforms and open policy are no threat to any country.

The Chinese President appreciated the prominent progress in strategic partnership between the two countries since his visit to Pakistan in 2015. He said as the regional and international scenario is undergoing massive changes today, the cordial and friendly relations between Islamabad and Beijing carry much importance.

President Xi said China wants to take relations with Pakistan to a new height, which should serve as a great example of bilateral cooperation under Belt and Road initiative.

He assured China's cooperation to accomplish development projects under CPEC, including Gwadar Port, industirial zones, and power houses.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Bahadurabad has given party's PIB faction convener Farooq Sattar deadline of April 16 to return and work with them.

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, the convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Bahadurabad faction, remarked that if Sattar joins after April 16 then his status would be no more than that of a party worker.

While addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Siddiqui remarked that he hopes to resolve his differences with Farooq Sattar.

I understand the predicament of Farooq bhai [brother]. We want to work with Farooq Sattar and move forward. We have to resolve our differences, he added.

He remarked that he wont allow Farooq Sattar to deface the party because of one person. I sent a message to Farooq Sattar that if he comes to talk to us then I am responsible for his respect. However, I am not responsible for the respect of people who accompany Farooq Sattar.

Siddiqui shared that he sent a positive message to Sattar despite all their difference. Farooq Sattar should come and work with Bahadurabad, he said.

He remarked that some forces are working together to weaken MQM.

On March 30, Dr Farooq Sattar, while addressing a joint press conference with Bahadurabad faction leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, remarked: "Bahadurabad is our joint home despite differences."

All workers in PIB and Bahadurabad are part of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he added. Sattar also noted that the two groups shared an ideological bond despite their disagreements.

The conflict

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.

Sattar was elected as the party convener on February 18 after securing 9,433 votes an intra-party poll held in Karachi and Hyderabad. He, however, was deposed by the Rabita Committee on February 11.

Appeasement efforts by the Bahadurabad faction bore no fruition and the rift between splinter groups of the party worsened after the Bahadurabad group filed a petition challenging the intra-party elections held by Sattar.

On March 26, a five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, had ruled that Sattar could no longer serve as the convener of MQM-P.

But in a dramatic turn of events, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed the ECP's order after Sattar challenged the order in the IHC.
US Forces confirmed Monday (April 9) they had killed (Daesh) commander in Afghanistan in an airstrike, describing the leader as "key" to foreign fighters entering the country's north.

Qari Hikmatullah also spelled Hekmat and his bodyguard were killed in the northern province of Faryab on Thursday (April 5), US Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement.

The airstrike happened in Bal Chiragh district, the statement said. That borders Darzab district in Jowzjan province, which Afghan officials on Saturday had given as the location of the airstrike. Some had also said the incident happened on Friday (April 6).

Hikmatullah was a "native Uzbek" who previously belonged to other militant groups, including the Taliban, before joining Daesh's local franchise in northern Afghanistan, US Forces said.

The group has established a stronghold in Jowzjan after coming under intense pressure in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Afghanistan's defence ministry said on Saturday (April 7) that Hikmatullah was involved in or responsible for "deadly terrorist attacks" and had been replaced by Mawlawi Habib-ul-Rahman.

General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, vowed to kill "any successors" to Hikmatullah, adding that Daesh would be "eliminated".

Asked about the discrepancy in the location of the airstrike, defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told AFP on Monday that some district borders were not marked clearly.

Afghan and US forces have ramped up airstrikes and ground offensives against daesh fighters in Jowzjan in recent months as the group seeks to expand its foothold in the country.

Afghan security forces last month detained a French woman fighting for Daesh in Jowzjan. AFP has reported that French and Algerian fighters, some arriving from Syria, have joined Daesh in the restive province.

Also on Monday, at least six people were killed and another seven were wounded when explosives on a three-wheeled motorcycle exploded in the western province of Herat, officials said.
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It hasn't been a great 2018 for Facebook. The company is reeling from several scandals involving fake news, Russian interference in elections, and of course, its ongoing privacy issues regarding Cambridge Analytica. Since the latter was revealed, many people have started a #deleteFacebook movement to protest the company's mismanagement of user data. Count Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as one of those people.

Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this. The profits are all based on the users info, but the users get none of the profits back, Woz said in an email to USA Today. "Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you. As they say, with Facebook, you are the product."

If that line sounds familiar, it's almost exactly what Apple CEO Tim Cook said in response to the scandal. "The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer -- if our customer was our product," Cook said. "We've elected not to do that."

Woz added saying that he would prefer to pay for Facebook if it meant not having his personal data exploited for monetary gain. In fact, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg confirmed as much by stating that users would need to pay to avoid having their data used for advertising.

Although Wozniak is no longer working Apple, his comments continues the back and forth between Facebook and Apple in which Apple is trying to position themselves as the bastions of privacy and security. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg responded to Apple's criticism by calling Cook's response as "extremely glib".

In Facebook's (and Google's for that matter) perspective, they are providing a free service that is accessible to everyone. Indeed, Facebook's strategy allows people from every economic spectrum to participate and connect with friends and family. Unfortunately, introducing paid version of Facebook to remove data exploitation for ads would disproportionately affect users who could not afford the paid tier and effectively divide Facebook into two.

Woz isn't the only high profile user to delete Facebook. Firefox developer, Mozilla, announced that they were removing ads from Facebook after launching a petition for Facebook to change its approach to user privacy. Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, also encouraged his followers to delete Facebook.
According to the CNE, the EU observation mission will respect the national legal framework during the regional elections. | Read More
The Commonwealth Bank has found itself in the middle of a battlefield between two class action laws firms and their respective litigation funding partners.

Both firms are clamouring for a slice of the damages they expect will arise from the lack of disclosure by Australias largest lender about its money-laundering scandal.

CBA may need to spend an extra $200 million a year on "defensive actions" in response to the Austrac allegations, analysts predict. Credit:Louie Douvis

Lined up on one side is Maurice Blackburn, whose action is being bankrolled by IMF Bentham, and on the other is Slater and Gordon breakaway firm Phi Finney McDonald, which is funded by UK-based Therium.

Presumably both see CBAs possible lack of disclosure about Austracs investigation into an alleged 50,000 or more breaches of money laundering and terrorism financing laws, as fertile ground for shareholder compensation.
When Amazon's Australian boss, Rocco Brauniger, speaks, ears prick up. And not just human ones.

The man Australian retail CEOs probably fear the most, who was parachuted in from Germany to lead Amazon's e-commerce operations in this country last year, made a rare public appearance in Sydney on Tuesday.

Rocco Brauniger played his cards close to his chest. Credit:Christopher Pearce

Speaking to an audience of a few thousand developers and tech industry executives, Brauniger played his cards close to his chest, but revealed a few things that should make his competitors sit up and take notice.

He revealed he has two Echo smart speaker devices in his home, running two different versions of Alexa, the company's audio-based virtual assistant - one in his native tongue, and one in English. Or to be precise, Australian English.
The Blazing Stump Hotel at 4327 Anzac Parade has sold for $6 million, fetching a strong regional hotel yield of 6.76 per cent. The hotel was purchased by a wealthy local investor looking to expand and diversify their property investment portfolio. CBREs Scott Callow and Will Connolly said gaming hotel investments were keenly sought after in metropolitan and strong regional areas.

An investor paid $451,000 on a tight 3.49 per cent yield at a Teska Carson auction for a shop at 138 Austin Road leased to Austin Road Fish & Chips for $15,747 per annum net. The very affordable opportunity drew a lot of attention from small investors and SMSFs, George Takis said.

Moonee Ponds

Leased to MLC financial Group for $24,000 per annum, a small strata office at 5/38 Hall Street sold at a receivers auction for $830,000, about $270,000 above the reserve price. The property sold on a very low 2.9 per cent yield, Morley Commercials James Lie said.

Collingwood

A local developer has purchased a boutique 142 sq m site at 23 Little Oxford Street for $1.55 million. Beller Commercials Liam Rafferty said demand in inner-city pockets remains high because of the opportunity for commercial office and residential space.
A former horse paddock on the banks of the Toolern Creek in Melton South has sold for around $13 million. The 16.78 hectares of land at 60-72 Bridge Road is already zoned GRZ1 and can bear around 150 lots of land. The Toolern Creek border of the Melton South horse paddock which fetched around $13 million. The deal, negotiated by Knight Frank agents Stephen Kelly, Danny Clark and Yvonne Zhou, was struck at around $86,000 a lot. Mr Kelly said a Malaysian group beat eight other offers for the site which is in a Precinct Structure Plan (PSP).

The price is significantly less than the $300,000 a lot achieved recently for land in Leakes Road, Tarneit, but its a serious premium on the propertys 1983 purchase price of just $57,500. Located off Exford Road, the property is close to Lendleases Atherstone Estate and near Melton train station and the Western Freeway. It has been used as a horse paddock for the past 35 years and is one suburb further out than Rockbank where land has been selling for between $100,000 and $110,000, Mr Kelly said. But Rockbank is pretty much done and Melton South is closer to the station. People are already getting pushed out of Rockbank, he said. This is a growth story and we think the upward trend for Melton South and Bacchus Marsh will continue, he said.
Peter Bonds failed coal gasification company, Linc Energy, may have been found guilty this week of causing catastrophic environmental damage in the agricultural areas surrounding its Queensland plant - but CBD can exclusively reveal that Bondy himself has turned over a new leaf.

Illustration: John Shakespeare

He still sees a future in energy, but this time it is green energy. None of that messy coal-related stuff.

"A technology unlike any other, a power source with near limitless application. From phones to a satellite," claims the website for Kinetic Energy Australia (KEA).

Google reliably informed CBD that kinetic energy is the energy possessed by an object due to its motion or movement, and we understand that it is potentially a big deal.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is set to offload a prime Collins Street building in Melbourne in a move that will boost government coffers by an estimated $110 million.

The Reserve has quietly called for tenders from real estate agents to transact a B-grade, 15-storey tower it owner-occupies on the strategic corner of Collins and Exhibition streets.

No agency has yet been chosen, with tender documents listing a closing date in late April.

Vacancy in in Sydney and Melbourne's A-grade buildings is at its lowest level in a decade, around 4.6 per cent.

The forthcoming sale will shift the banks focus to Sydney, consolidating its operations at its Martin Place headquarters which sits alongside a bevy of other Australian corporate financial heavyweights.
Feverish and shaking, Cheryl Tate was relieved to finally be in the hands of the nurses and doctors at Liverpool Hospital. But their multiple attempts to insert a catheter into a vein nearly caused her to scream.

"They tried many, many, many times - on my hands, my feet, my arms, everywhere - but they just couldn't do it," Ms Tate, 60 from Fairfield, said.

Dr Evan Alexandrou uses ultrasound technology to find a vein on patient Cheryl Tate at Liverpool Hospital. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

"I just wanted them to stop, I felt like screaming because it was horrible, but I knew it wasn't their fault and they had to do it to get fluids and antibiotics into me."

In a final attempt, a nurse wheeled in an ultrasound machine and used it to guide the catheter into a viable vein near her elbow. It was successful, and notably, pain-free.
Alister Spong was attempting a burnout in his revamped 1942 flat bed ute when it suddenly lunged forward, throwing his friend off the tray and killing him at last year's Summernats festival, prosecutors told a jury at the opening of his criminal trial on Tuesday.

But the man's lawyers said he was trying only to "chirp" or cause a minor spin of the truck's wheels. They said Mr Spong, 33, is devastated by the death of his friend Luke Newsome, 30, and had taken responsibility for it by admitting he had driven negligently.

Alister Spong's flat bed ute.

While Mr Spong, on trial in the ACT Supreme Court this week, has admitted he drove negligently, prosecutors have pressed the more serious charge of culpable driving. Namely, that Mr Spong was negligent by failing "unjustifiably and to a gross degree" to observe the standard of care that a reasonable person would have in all the circumstances. To that charge he has pleaded not guilty.

On January 5, 2017, the festival's first day, Mr Spong was lapping the cruise route, a ring road around Canberra's Epic showground where the annual car festival is held. On the back of the truck's flat bed tray was his wife and his best friend, Mr Newsome, and two other friends.
UPDATE 4.46pm

Police said the driver of the car, a woman aged in her 60s, is seriously injured and has been airlifted to Canberra Hospital.

They said the woman is believed to be in a critical condition. They did not specify where she was from.

Eight cattle have been killed and a woman critically injured in a crash near Tarago. Credit:Elspeth Kernebone

The male truck driver was uninjured. He was taken to Goulburn Hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.
"The lights will burn bright in Russell tonight as a result of this," senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Malcolm Davis said.

Vanuatu has already received development funding from China, including a new wharf on the north island of Espiritu Santo and a commitment to fund a new prime ministerial residence.

Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday that China had approached Vanuatu about building its military presence in the country, with the ultimate ambition being a full military base. China has just one overseas military base already, in Djibouti in Africa.

Australia will have to step up and rethink its strategic and diplomatic efforts in a bid to counter China, experts say.

A Chinese military base in Vanuatu would be just 2000 kilometres from Australia, and would also send a message to the United States on Beijing's plans for the region.

It would have significant implications for Australia's defence capabilities and strategy if a military base were to be built, experts say, although they say the plans are likely to be incremental. Australia must keep a close eye on what is developed in Vanuatu and consider if current military structures are suited to responding to the challenge, Dr Davis said.

"Its going to require us to fundamentally do some hard thinking about our strategic environment, how that changes our strategy, how it changes our force structure, and our force posture as well," Dr Davis said.

"[A future military base] does fundamentally change our strategic circumstances in a very negative way," Dr Davis said. The landscape would be significantly different to that experienced during the Cold War, where Australia was "pretty much in a strategic backwater", he said.

"Now with this and with other developments we are very much a frontline state. So our strategic circumstances are changing rapidly and that could demand that we do some sort of strategic update or strategic review following on from the 2016 White Paper just to make sure that our policy is up to date and syncing with the strategic outlook," Dr Davis said.
In 2002, amid global angst about terrorism after the previous years attacks on America by Islamist group al-Qaeda, the Howard government sought to reassure Australians with an awareness campaign centred on the catchphrase Be alert, not alarmed. The government exhorted people to report any suspicious activity, but to go about their daily lives confident that security authorities were minimising any risk.

With The Ages revelation that rising superpower China might be seeking to establish a military base on Australias doorstep, in Vanuatu, that phrase again comes to mind  albeit regarding a different issue. And this time it is the people who need the government to assiduously monitor and report on suspicious activity.

Close monitoring of China's rising might is needed. Credit:People's Liberation Army

Geopolitical tensions  fuelled by Chinas evident global ambitions and the relative decline of the influence of Australias most important ally, the United States  have provided a new crucible of concern.

An exclusive report by The Ages national security correspondent, David Wroe, that China and Vanuatu are in preliminary talks about China building a permanent military base in the tiny nation has reverberated around a world roiled not only by apparent reduced US engagement under President Donald Trumps America First policy and by Chinas global thrust, but by escalating strife in the Middle East, North Koreas illegal nuclear weapons program and Russias devolution into a rogue state. The base would be the Chinese militarys second outside China, after one in African nation Djibouti.
Its far from a done deal, but if China builds a military base in Vanuatu, Australia will have failed in a key strategic objective. The story broken by Fairfax media yesterday should be real cause for concern.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday expressed confidence that Australia will remain Vanuatus strategic partner of choice. We can assume that Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States  the established security partners in the South Pacific  will make a concerted effort to keep it that way.

And whether Vanuatus denials of any China base negotiation reflect its true position or a change of heart, the status quo would be the best outcome for Australia.

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After all a Chinese military base in Vanuatu would mark an accumulative and long-term failure of Australian policy, in terms consistently defined in every Australian defence guidance document for decades.
A movie star accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a luxury Sydney hotel lost a bid for bail, despite his lawyer arguing his career as "China's Hugh Jackman" would be ruined if he fled justice.

Dramatic scenes unfolded as a crowd of Chinese media and court watchers clashed with sheriffs in an attempt to watch actor Yunxiang Gao's bail application at Central Local Court on Tuesday.

Yunxiang Gao has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault.

The sheriffs locked and guarded the courtroom under a magistrate's order about 20 minutes before the case was set to start, saying the public gallery was full and no one was allowed in.

They later reshuffled the seating area to give priority to family members and journalists.
If you put the whole pot of $1 billion together with our $206 million then we can absolutely fund that section from Varsity Lakes to the border, he said. The Queensland government already has two smaller M1 highway projects ready to begin straight after the Commonwealth Games. They are the sections dubbed the Gateway merge from Eight Mile Plains to Rochedale and the Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes section. They are both to be completed by 2020. The Queensland government has committed the $206 million for these two projects with extra money from the federal government, originally from a $500 million joint-funding pot announced in March 2017. Mr Bailey welcomed Tuesdays funding, but said he had not received a phone call, nor an email, or any paper work from a federal minister about the funding promise and noted Mr Turnbull was very unpopular in Queensland, suggesting the announcement was linked to the Coalition finishing behind Labor in 30 consecutive Newspolls.

Mr Turnbull on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the $1 billion would go to the two M1 highway projects which "ran on" from the already-funded Gateway "merge" and Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes projects which will begin in weeks and finish in 2020. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will explain his 2018 $1 billion M1 funding promise on the Gold Coast. Credit:AAP "They will then be followed by these projects, Mr Turnbull said. 'So what we are seeing is continued investment, bringing Queenslanders home sooner and safer," he said. "$1 billion congestion-busting dollars. Queenslanders will have more hours at home with their families instead of being stuck in a car park on the M1."

Mr Bailey said it would cost about $2 billion to upgrade the Pacific Motorway from Brisbane to Tugun. He still questioned why some federal highways in urban areas are funded 80-20 - such as the Gateway Arterial and sections of the Bruce Highway- and others are funded 50-50 by state and federal governments. "If the Bruce Highway to the north of Brisbane is funded 80-20 and the Pacific Motorway south of the border is funded 80-20, why isnt the road that connects it funded 80-20?" Mr Bailey said. "If National Land Transport Network Roads only get 50-50 funding as the Coalition argues, then why are they funding the Gateway Arterial North on an 80-20 basis?" Mr Turnbull dismissed that argument and said historically all Gold Coast M1 highway projects were funded 50:50 by federal and state governments.

"Historically the practice has always been for both LNP and Labor governments for the federal and the state has always been for the funding to be 50:50 on the M1," he said. "And the existing projects; the Gateway merge and the Mudgereeba to Varsity Lakes projects are 50:50 projects." Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher said the Queensland government now needed to develop detailed business cases for the two newer projects to Infrastructure Australia. Mr Bailey said the business case was already finalised for the southern section of the Pacific Motorway from Varsity Lakes to the border. Mr Bailey said the business case for the section around Springwood and the Gateway merge would be finished by the end of the year and then it would need to go out to tender.
Melbourne lord mayoral candidates Sally Capp and Gary Morgan after the draw. Capp is second and Morgan 10th on the ballot paper. Credit:Justin McManus

Former Property Council boss Sally Capp has been given a decisive edge over her competitors in her bid to be Melbournes next lord mayor, drawing second place on the ballot paper.

Ms Capp was one of the first to nominate to replace Robert Doyle as mayor and is considered a frontrunner.

Until recently she was head of the development lobby, but she has promised not to accept campaign donations from developers.

Fourteen candidates have nominated to be lord mayor, and a high position on the ballot paper is considered important for winning votes from less engaged voters.
Deaths from heroin overdoses in north Richmond have risen sharply. Credit:Eddie Jim

Drug users will be allowed to consume ice under medical supervision at Melbourne's new safe injecting room, despite previous state government assurances that it would be banned from the centre.

Users will be able to take up to three grams of drugs such as heroin or ice into the injecting centre without penalty.

The government released regulations for the North Richmond Centre late on Tuesday afternoon that revealed there will be no restriction on the drugs of dependence that can be used in the injecting room.

It come after Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said last October there would be protocols developed to keep ice and amphetamines out of the centre.
Former Greens leader Greg Barber reached a $56,000 settlement with a female staff member over sexual discrimination and bullying allegations, and quit politics two days after the claims were aired within his party.

The settlement was reached in July 2017 after the woman threatened to take Mr Barber to the Federal Court alleging she had been subjected to sex discrimination, bullying and victimisation during her five-year employment in the politicians office.

Mr Barber denies the allegations, and paid $9000 of the confidential payout from his own pocket on the condition there would be no apology to the woman.

The state government's Department of Parliamentary Services paid the remaining $47,000.
On Saturday morning I woke to discover, via The Canberra Times, that I was being assigned to live in a quite different federal electorate. This bracing experience set me thinking about elections and democracy.

The recent Batman by-election in Victoria alerted us to the tribal significance of Bell Street in Melbourne.

Batman to the north of Bell Street is populated by traditional blue collar Labor voters. The picture south of Bell Street is different. Demographic change and gentrification in areas such as Northcote is favouring the Greens.

So Batman has a split personality. Once a safe Labor seat that could be gifted at will to factional hacks, it is now marginal. The Greens, with a good candidate, can win it.
Public housing has fallen from 12.4 per cent of Canberra's housing stock to 7.1 per cent in the last 27 years, with applicants now waiting on average nearly 1000 days for a place.

The ACT's ageing public housing flats are being sold off and replaced with up to 1288 new homes across Canberra.

The Stuart Flats in Griffith. Public housing stocks in Canberra have fallen to 7.1 per cent. Credit:Karleen Minney

However more than 1700 people are on the waiting list for public housing in the territory.

Applicants can wait anywhere between 274 days for priority housing, through to 983 days for standard applications.
Future generations will judge current world leaders for how rigorously they defended the rules that have underpinned a period of relative global peace and prosperity, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has declared as seismic shifts in strategic and economic power play out on Australia's doorstep.

Ms Bishop has issued the warning about "the test for our generation" as governments of the Asia-Pacific respond to Fairfax Media's revelation that China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence on the island nation.

In a foreign policy address on Wednesday at La Trobe University, the Foreign Minister will compare the generational challenge of maintaining the rules-based international order to historical responses to the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression and the rise of Nazi Germany.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Ms Bishop will argue that, in the decades since the end of World War Two, the rules-based order has protected smaller nations from larger ones and enabled a period of stability and prosperity that has carried particular benefits for Australia and its neighbourhood.
The federal government must overhaul its centrepiece power policy or suffer defeat at a crucial meeting with states and territories, the ACT government has signalled after a report found the package risked driving up electricity prices and may not reduce the chance of blackouts.

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is due to address the National Press Club on Wednesday, when he is expected to issue a rallying cry to states and territories to sign up to the national energy guarantee and end the ideological stalemate that has paralysed Australia's climate policy for more than a decade.

Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg is on Wednesday expected to urge the states to adopt the national energy guarantee. Credit:James Alcock

But the ACT government  geographically Australias smallest jurisdiction  has received expert advice that cast serious doubt on aspects of the package, and on Tuesday warned it will not back a plan that is detrimental to its constituents.

The Turnbull government needs unanimous support to change electricity laws at a Council of Australian Governments energy ministers meeting in Melbourne next week.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian would not be drawn on when the significantly delayed Sydney light rail project would be finished, as the government faces a legal battle with the Spanish subcontractor building it.

When asked in question time on Tuesday about the delays, Ms Berejiklian did not provide details around when the project connecting the CBD to the eastern suburbs would be completed. It was due to be finished in 2019.

The state government is facing a legal battle over the light rail project.

But she did stress that NSW would "not be held to ransom" by the Spanish subcontractors who are reportedly demanding an extra $1.2 billion from the government.

Spanish builder Acciona, subcontracted by ALTRAC, is taking Transport for NSW to court, with the dispute listed to appear in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
Outspoken NSW Liberal MP Matthew Mason-Cox says the state government has developed a perverse culture of secrecy that threatens the publics confidence in its decision making.

Mr Mason-Cox, the only government MP to publicly attack the stadiums policy, said the controversial decision to relocate the citys Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta was another poor decision where the government had failed to do its homework.

The former fair trading minister said it was the governments latest long running, self-inflicted saga.

The state government has not revealed its plans for the Powerhouse Museum site. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Good process is characterised by wide consultation, the preparation of a strong business case and finally a decision informed by these facts, Mr Mason-Cox said.
A Tasmanian man has been charged after a campervan was driven the wrong way down a busy city pedestrian thoroughfare.

Nobody was injured as the blue and white Mazda campervan made its way along Swanston Street on Tuesday afternoon.

It was stopped by police near Flinders Lane about 3pm.

While there were no collisions in the CBD, it is believed the campervan was involved in several minor collisions earlier on Tuesday in the Richmond area.
Beijing: She was a promising young student of Chinese literature with sterling grades and an industrious work ethic.

But in 1998, during her second year at one of China's most prestigious universities, Gao Yan was raped by a professor, her friends and relatives say, and soon afterwards, she killed herself.

Now, on the 20th anniversary of her death, Gao's story has become a rallying cry for China's fledgling #MeToo movement, inspiring calls for the government to do more to prevent sexual assault and harassment.

Zhang Qiongwen, who says she was sexually abused by a dean at her university in southern China, is pictured in Wuhan, China. Credit:New York Times

China has so far greeted the #MeToo movement with caution, seemingly out of concern that it could threaten stability in the country's male-dominated halls of power.
Illustration: Andrew Dyson

Seven years into its catastrophic conflict, Syria has witnessed yet another major chemical strike. This time the target was the rebel-held city of Douma in eastern Ghouta, just outside Damascus. The death toll currently stands at around 70  making the attack as deadly as the infamous sarin strike at Khan Sheikhoun almost exactly a year ago to the day. It is thought the number of confirmed fatalities could rise to 150.

The White Helmets have reported that most of the victims were women and children. A local journalist said the scene was like judgment day  the situation, the fear, and the destruction are indescribable.

Like previous incidents, the attack has been widely blamed on Bashar al-Assads government. The agent used has not been confirmed. Witnesses say they smelled chlorine, but the sheer level of destruction suggests that something more lethal may have been used as well. There are allegations that the regime used a sarin barrel bomb.
Washington: President Donald Trump has cancelled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the US response to Syria's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as planned, remaining in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world".

The decision marks the first time an American president has not attended the summit. Vice President Mike Pence will travel in Trump's place.

Trump on Monday promised a decision on Syria within hours, declaring that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility for Saturday's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians will "pay a price".
"It's an attack on our country in a true sense," he said, flanked by the nation's top military brass, who watched the scene stone-faced. "It's an attack on what we all stand for."

The raid infuriated Trump who unleashed his sharpest invective to date against the sweeping investigation, calling the search "a disgrace".

New York: The FBI, armed with search warrants, raided the office of US President Donald Trumps long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Monday, seizing records related to several topics including payments to porn-film actress Stormy Daniels.

The President didn't bat away the idea of firing Mueller, saying people have advised him to take that action: "Why don't I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on - we'll see what happens."

He said the raid in New York marked a "whole new level of unfairness" by Mueller and his team.

Trump called the probe a "witch hunt", as he has many times in the past, complaining that it distracts from serious issues such as consideration of a military response to the apparent use of a chemical weapon on Syrian civilians over the weekend. That was the intended subject of his Monday evening meeting with the defence secretary, the joint chiefs of staff and US combat commanders.

Instead, with reporters in the room and cameras rolling, Trump opened the meeting with an unprompted four-minute critique of Mueller's investigation.
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "The Future of Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment Markets to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment market is expected to witness a strong growth rate in the medium to long term future. Driven by surge in market conditions and technological advancements, the Automotive Parts and Service Equipment has witnessed strong growth in terms of sales. In terms of investment opportunities and product sales, the sector is offering strong growth prospect for both domestic and international companies.

New market trends continue to emerge in Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment, in particular, driven by improving economic conditions. Foray of new companies coupled with technological advancements continue to shape new market dynamics. The Automotive Parts and Service Equipment is further segmented by type and in addition to overall market forecast, the report provides forecasts for Automotive Parts and Service Equipment by type. Further, the growth and industry conditions in the Honduras market are assessed in comparison to regional Automotive Parts and Service Equipment.

Report Scope

Market overview for Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment along with regional comparison and competitive analysis

Current status of the market together with detailed analysis on drivers and challenges

Identification of factors fundamental for growth in the industry, potential opportunities along with trends shaping the future of global and regional Automotive Parts and Service Equipment

Supply opportunities including tenders available for bidding in Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment segment

Trade value, import and export values and quantities of Automotive Parts and Service Equipment sector

In depth analysis of companies present in Automotive Parts and Service Equipment along with their strategies and company SWOT profiles

Analysis and forecasts of both macro and micro factors set to impact the existing players in Automotive Parts and Service Equipment

Insights into recent industry developments and their impact on companies operating and planning to enter Honduras Automotive Parts and Service Equipment

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/97wxhg/honduras?w=4

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Related Topics: Automotive Parts
Harpy Anna, a 29-year-old sex worker in Chicago. There was always Backpage. Then, one day it just disappears? Photo: Sergio P.

On Friday, the Department of Justice seized backpage.com, the website that was once the most accessible online marketplace for sex workers. All that remains is a large banner announcing the shutdown under a row of law-enforcement logos. The site was a target for groups opposed to sex work, and for legislators, who in the last few weeks converged to pass the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, meant to remove such ads from the internet. More than a dozen websites hosting ads for sex work have since gone offline. On Monday, the criminal indictment against Backpage was unsealed; seven of their staffers were charged with money laundering and violations of the Travel Act concerning facilitating prostitution. Backpage could not violate FOSTA; the president has not yet signed it into law.

Sex workers have used the internet over the last decade to carve out some independence, safety, and community in their work. For many, advertising online is a form of harm reduction  a way to choose how to work and whom to work with. To lose online ads means different things to different sex workers: For some, it means losing the equivalent of a paycheck, and for others, it will lead to losing control over their jobs, if not losing their jobs altogether.

Friday evening, as it became clear that backpage.com was gone, I began contacting sex workers from across the United States: from a range of backgrounds, types of sex work, and years of work experience. Here are some of their stories, in their own words, as told to me on Saturday, April 7, and Sunday, April 8, 2018.

On finding out backpage.com was shut down

Trinity Collins (27, African-American trans woman working in New Orleans): How did I find out Backpage was shut down? I like to use the term How did I find out I was fired?

Simone (20, Middle Eastern/North African cis woman working in New York City): I was on the J train on my way to meet up with some other sex workers in the city, when I got this very frantic phone call from a friend. Hey, I just tried to post up my ad on Backpage and I got this pop-up, do you know whats going on? And then immediately she just started sobbing on the phone.

Glenn Spence (37, white cis woman working in New England): I was in this motel room that Im in right now, this exact same motel room, actually. I was freaking out because when I logged onto the site, the only payment option was in cryptocurrency.

Harpy Anna (29, white, Female/Politically Queer, working in Chicago): Way before I was ever an escort, I had looked on Backpage just to see what was going on on there. There was always Backpage. Then, one day it just disappears?

Sarah (30s, white and Jewish cis woman, living in Michigan): I found out on Twitter that Backpage shut down  almost two years after I left survival sex work. Backpage helped keep me safe during one of the scariest, most dangerous times of my entire life. Being homeless and under the control of an abusive man who needed an illegal substance to stay semi-functional was scary. Backpage was the best option I had for people who would give me money, so I could stay alive.

On how the site helped them make money

Harpy Anna: Our business has been declining for about a year. I feel like maybe about four years ago, it was like really, really good. Backpage was popping. You didnt have to take clients you didnt want to take because you were always going to get calls. But then, over the last year  whenever they took out the escorts section  that affected business. (In January 2017, Backpage removed its Escorts section, though advertisers soon moved to the Personals section.)

Trinity: When this happened, I only had $100 to my name. Backpage offered me options to do gift cards, and I would go to Best Buy and buy $150 gift cards. I had just done that the day before. That was $150 down the drain.

Natalia: I had a pending $85 in credits for Backpage. This whole weekend, which is usually the first weekend of the month after rent, is usually one of our busiest weekends. We basically lost everything because I didnt get any phone calls whatsoever.

Harpy Anna: There is this thing that Backpage guys do, the predatory ones, not the typical client, but people that just prey on sex workers. They will wait until the end of the month and try to contact you, and try to get you to lower your rate, because they might think that you are desperate because you have to pay rent and bills soon.

I had a regular client for several years and then, he went kind of off the deep end and assaulted me. I havent been in contact with him at all. The day that Backpage went down, it was like within the next two or three hours, he was texting me like, Hey, whats up? Hey, can I come over? Just really trying to  I dont know, capitalize on the fact that people are going to be in panic mode.

Glenn: Ive been helping out a couple of women who had started out working on Backpage  they were working the streets for a while and I would just run into them. And they basically begged me to help them get on Backpage. These women are living in overpriced motel rooms, where theyre charged by these opportunistic motel owners. They could be homeless and in agonizing withdrawal within like five or six or seven hours. So they have to take care of that every day, they have to take care of their habits, and thats what I was thinking.

Joy (40, African-American trans woman working in East Texas/Louisiana): I am originally from Southern California. My professional background is in TV and film production. While living there as a gay male, I was assaulted when I was 19  and since then have had post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a sex worker, I do erotic massages. That has provided a certain amount of income for me, as well as freedom, to pursue my writing goals as well as to just be able to pretty much be with myself and by myself. I have been coming down here since November and I kept coming back because it was like sitting on an oil well and it was just gushing and gushing, the amount of money I was making.

Simone: I am a Middle Eastern, Muslim 20-year old woman from a very poor part of the South who has been living independently in New York for about two years now. I primarily work out of a massage parlor in the West Village but also do full-service sex work and fetish stuff occasionally. Backpage is currently  or it was  my sole source of income. Backpage is a lot easier than running a website or using Eros. It has the lowest pay barrier. Ive been told that I need to start posting on Eros, and thats fine and thats cool, but its also $200 per ad as opposed to Backpages $7.

On how the site gave them stability

Natalia: I am a grad student; my internship does not pay. I have no financial help from anybody whatsoever. I attended one of the top schools in my program, and this is the only way that I could keep attending school.

Sarah: I became homeless in March of 2016 when I abandoned my home, marriage, job, my entire life, because I was manic and under the spell of a charismatic abuser, Barn Cat. Barn Cat was a $100$300 a day heroin user. Barn Cat needed heroin. Heroin costs money. Barn Cat had no money. I had to get money, somehow. From somewhere.

Natalia: I share a workspace with one of my closest friends. She works as a massage therapist. So, in our work, that is what we go under and we do post on Backpage as that. She is being burdened in a completely different way because  she doesnt go to school, but she is a single mother with no other source of income whatsoever, because she got married very young, so she has zero experience. Her situation is completely different because there is a child on the line.

Sarah: We were stuck at a gas station on US 23. Barn Cat, throwing up blood. Me, panicking. I walked around the parking lot, from semitruck to semitruck, asking in broad-ass daylight if any truckers would like to have sex with me. Yes, really. When none of the truckers took me up on my super-appealing, totally not suspicious offering, I started approaching men on motorcycles. BECAUSE I WATCHED SONS OF ANARCHY OKAY, I thought it would work. It did not.

Simone: I worked at a record label for about a year before layoffs, in like August 2017? So I havent hit my full year since I started doing sex work, which has been my shtick, my gig. Ideally, if I make enough money itd be nice to go back to school, but priorities are priorities.

Joy: I did work in the streets for quite some time when I lived in Los Angeles, and then, I stopped, once there was Craigslist, Backpage, Eros  I have been on there since the inception. When I worked in the streets in Hollywood, Santa Monica Boulevard where the trans are, I was arrested several times and placed on probation for several years.

Sarah: Someone on Twitter told me about Backpage. I took my laptop to a coffee shop, took a picture of my boobs, and posted a free ad. An hour later, I made $100, bought $20 worth of food, and gave the rest to Barn Cat. After that, we got into a routine. Barn Cat would yell at me to post ads three times a day. I would do out calls until I could convince a man to get me a cheap hotel room, then I would do in calls. In three months, I estimate I made around $10,000 for Barn Cat. AND IM STILL GRATEFUL AS FUCK FOR BACKPAGE, because without them, I would have still been knocking on semitruck doors.

Trinity: I started college long ago. I owe on my student loans. I started my own business about two months ago, the Bomb Agency, and I am trying to get that off the ground because I knew this day was coming. I developed a passion for photography. And part of my business plan was to go on Backpage and offer the photo shoots to the girls because we always need new pictures.

Glenn: Ive had this uptick of business, but it feels very calm-before-the-storm-y. Like because I have a lot of regulars, and because Ive been around a while, Im a known presence, Im somebody secure that people can turn to, like oh well I still have this girls number even though Backpage is down. So I have this weird juxtaposition of feeling financially secure in the moment but not knowing what my business plan is gonna be and not knowing how Im going to be making money a month from now.

Joy: The money that I earned over pretty much the decade was just money for me to live comfortably, for me to travel, for me to do things in my personal life like laser hair removal, which cost thousands of dollars.

Natalia: I felt safe with it. I choose whether or not I want to do something. The way that I work is, You come here and you get a massage, and if I think the client is going to be cooperative and he is going to have the means to pay  if I feel like I want to do something, I will do it. If not, I will just finish the regular massage. If I go work somewhere else, whether it is the street, whether it is for somebody else, I wont have the freedom to do that and I wont feel safe anymore.

Sarah: With Backpage, I could post my phone number, and I could talk to these dudes a little bit, to weed out the worst ones. If Barn Cat was really dope sick, sometimes I had to go anyway. But if I had a polite, respectful dude on the line, I could choose him over another.

On whats next

Glenn: What Im really concerned about is the loss of screening information and the loss of community blacklists is going to mean. I have enough shaky social capital and have enough latitude that I can say, Give me some employment verification, whereas, most workers who are even a degree or two below me on that hierarchy cant afford to spook clients by asking those questions. The only thing they can rely on is shared community information.

Simone: Right now, the focus is on finding the next Backpage. Once theres a vacuum like this, something will come to fill it. The demand in the market for commercial sex is never going to stop.

Joy: I am working on my memoir Shooting Range. Sometimes I will get a grant here and there. I enter writing competitions. Now I will be entering a whole lot more of those. But, I have resources, financial resources. I would like to believe Im an expert budgeter. I am okay in that sense.

Harpy Anna: I, personally, am going to probably look for a part-time job. Several of us have some regulars, but that is probably 2550 percent of peoples business. That is not enough to sustain you. I have been exploring the idea of freelancing in the bars.

Sarah: Backpage gave me a basic screening tool, which led to money, food, and shelter. Backpage wasnt at fault for Barn Cat being abusive, or for the few men I ran into who really got off on hurting me in ways I dont want to describe. Backpage didnt turn me into a sex worker, any more than YouTube can turn people in musicians or comedians. It was just the medium. An accessible and free medium.

Joy: This has just changed everything. I know girls are going to be struggling because everyone is saying, Those streets are going to be packed. We have been working out of the privacy of our homes for over a decade and hotels and motels and extended-stays. I am sure people have probably been working out of campers and RVs, too. But now, where are they going to go?

Natalia: I am definitely scared. I dont want to not finish school. It is a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, a lot of frustration mainly because that was the way we felt safe. I dont think I have the courage to go on the street and do this kind of work. Ever.

Trinity: Well, I am still here. I am still in New Orleans. I have been doing this for a long time, maybe about ten years. I am thinking about going back to the streets, but it is just so dangerous, and the police dont understand getting a job isnt easy for everyone. New Orleans has just installed a bunch of new crime cameras. They are criminalizing everything  They have always criminalized being transgender and walking the streets late at night.

Sarah: And yes, I tried to get out. On three occasions, I walked up to police officers and said Help me, Im a prostitute, that man makes me post ads and takes my money, please take me or him to jail and they laughed at me and turned me away. Im white, thats all that saved me, I think. Im still mad at those cops. HELLO OFFICER I AM DOING CRIMES RIGHT NOW PLEASE SAVE ME. Nothing.

Glenn: I knew someone who had, you know, she was mostly street-based, but she had a side hustle doing the Craigslist personals, and even that just makes you able to say no to maybe one dicey street client that week, you know?

Simone: Im in a Facebook group where one woman is going as far as to reaching out to her software and dev friends about moving Backpage onto a Tor browser, onto the dark web. Its really inspiring but also makes you think, Why arent I doing more?

Joy: Who is going to benefit off of this now? All of the police stations when they are out there arresting the sex workers. This has nothing to do with morals. This has nothing to do with Christianity. Dont give me that shit. You can go on down the road with that. This is real life.

These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Amal Clooney. Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Internationally acclaimed barrister Amal Clooney finally landed the cover of American Vogue. In the accompanying profile, Vogue attempted to give equal airtime to Amals widely beloved sense of style, her year-old twins, and her high-profile international human-rights cases.

Annie Leibovitz shot Clooney, who is co-chairing the Catholicism-themed Met Gala next month, at her British estate, Aberlash House. The result is a wide-ranging profile touching on everything from her work representing young refugees to the way she seduced George Clooney via email. Read the full article here, and check out the best moments below.

Her twinss first words were mama. Amal told Vogue that George was very careful to ensure that Mama was the first word.

Amal is a self-defined party animal. When talking about her college days at Oxford, Amal said that it was important for her to maintain a work/life balance. When she studied, it was in a effortless way and she loved going to Oxford because it was much more international. There were boys there!

Her own mother corroborated her party-girl status, saying, Amal partied hard and worked hard.

George knows his wife is much cooler than he is. The article repeatedly quotes him gushing about his wife and her career.

Shes the professional, and Im the amateur, says George, whos done a share of humanitarian work on his own. I get to see someone at the absolute top of their game doing their job better than anybody Ive ever seen.

George decided to propose after seeing Amal interact with giraffes. Apparently, if youre trying to land one of the worlds most notorious bachelors, the trick is to befriend some really tall animals. Explains Clooney:

If you know anything about my crazy life, you know that Id pretty much committed to the idea of never marrying again, he says. (He was married to the actress Talia Balsam for a few years in his late 20s and early 30s.) But I started dating Amal, and I immediately knew that something was very different. When they went with friends on a safari trip in Africa (giraffes), George had one of those epiphanies that arrive in the interstices of a life.

Some giraffes walked up to her, he recalls. They just came out of the blue. I took a picture of her, and she was smiling. I said to my buddy Ben, You know, I think I should ask her to marry me. And Ben said, I think thats a good idea. 

Amal stress-eats sour candy. Who knew that a woman working on a book called The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law would be so relatable! Amal is co-writing the book with a colleague, who is set to come to their estate in England for a writing intensive. Apparently, during these sessions, Clooney stress-nibbles unholy amounts of sour candy. What counts as unholy is not specified; those are Vogues words, not Amals.

Shes an outspoken supporter of the #MeToo movement. Amal is all here for men being a bit more scared in the workplace. Were in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and thats where we need to be.

George and Amal kept their romance going via email. In the early phases of their relationship, George wrote her repeated notes in the voice of his dog Einstein, who claimed to be trapped in various places and in need of legal rescue. Its not the worst e-flirting weve ever heard of.
Barack Obama and Prince Harry. Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

As the upcoming royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle inches closer and closer (how time flies!), theres been a lot of speculation as to whether Barack and Michelle Obama would be invited to the nuptials  especially since the royal ginger is friendly (and dare we say, perhaps even close) with the former president and First Lady. But now, a spokesperson for Kensington Palace has confirmed that the Obamas wont make the guest list  nor will any other world leader, including Donald Trump, for that matter.

There will be no official UK or overseas guests at Prince Harry and Meghans wedding. No Theresa May, President Trump or Obamas.  Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) April 10, 2018

Back in December, Prince Harry told CNN that he didnt want to ruin the surprise as to whether the Obamas would be invited to his royal wedding. It had been said that Prince Harry and Markle were quite keen to invite the former First Couple to the nuptials, but given that they didnt seem to want to invite President Donald Trump, that may make things a bit  awkward between the two countries. So, the couple had reportedly been strongly advised to not invite their pals Barack and Michelle to their wedding.

On Monday, the Palace confirmed that the Obamas wont be attending. According to the Daily Mails Rebecca English, the couple decided not to invite any political leaders  from abroad or in the U.K.  to the event, which theyre apparently allowed to do since Prince Harry is not the direct heir to the throne.

Kensington Palace said: It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK & international - is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.  Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) April 10, 2018

But even though the Obamas arent invited, sources told English that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are very much looking forward to seeing them soon. In the meantime, we guess Trump can stop checking his mailbox for a royal-wedding invite 
Ive Been Good To Me, 2015, by Mickalene Thomas. Photo: Courtesy of Mickalene Thomas

Tonight the New York Academy of Art will kick off spring gala season at its 23rd annual Tribeca Ball, honoring the acclaimed artist Mickalene Thomas. The evening will feature a one-night-only all-women exhibition devoted to explorations of female sexuality.

Sponsored by Van Cleef and Arpels, each year the Tribeca Balls co-chairs invite notable names in art, fashion, and the media to the Academy for a star-studded celebration of a single artist. This evening, event co-chairs Naomi Watts, Mary-Kate Olsen, Gabby Karan de Felice, Jane Holzer, and Stephanie Ingrassia will honor Thomas with Julianne Moore, Donna Karan, Kehinde Wiley, Mark Ruffalo, and more celebrity names on the guest list.

Titled Electric Palace, the exhibition features work by Thomas and ten other women artists, including Zanele Muholi, Catherine Howe, and Hilary Harkness. Each artist examines different aspects of female sexuality. The show centers on two of Thomass collages, one of which is pictured above. Both feature African-American women gazing from her canvas. The theme of female sexuality was inspired by Mickalene Thomas, the exhibitions curator, Renee Bovenzi, told the Cut. Her works seduce the viewer to enter a complex and emotional relationship with the subject.

Thomas is best known for her rhinestone-embellished paintings, portraits, and collages of African-American women, and she also produces videos and installations. She often explores beauty and sexuality through a historical and pop-cultural lens. Her work appears in the permanent collections of every major contemporary art museum, from MoMA to the Guggenheim and Brooklyn museums. Funds raised from tonights Tribeca Ball will go toward both the Academy and a new Mickalene Thomas Artist Scholarship, which will provide financial aid to students at the New York Academy of Art. See a preview of works in Electric Palace below.

Feelings, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of Panni Malekzadeh

Phaphama, at Cassilhaus, North Carolina, 2016. Photo: Courtesy of Zanele Muholi and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York

Three Angels, 2017. Photo: Naudline Pierre Photography/Paul Takeuchi
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Filed under: Didnt think Id be saying that in 2018.

But, its all good.

I am grateful to Ben Eubanks and the Northern Alabama Chapter of Society for Human Resource Management for this opportunity to debut my new and improved My Employees Can Miss How Much Work?!? Managing the Challenges of Leave Under the FMLA and ADA? to a fantastic audience of HR professionals in Huntsville, AL today.

The reboot features Breaking Bads Gustavo Fring in an anti-harassment training video, The Fonz jumping the shark, and this photo.

What could possibly go wrong?

I mean, besides everything.

Actually, my glass is half full.

To wit, I set the Alabama bar way low back in college when I drew the short straw and, consequently, the midnight shift dring back to school in the northeast from Mardi Gras.

Picture this: three college students in a Ford Probe, one passed out in the back, me driving, and my navigator (remember this is the days of MapQuest printouts) realizing that someone had slipped mushrooms (not Shitake) into his beer.

Needless to say, Im looking forward to making new memories  good ones!  in Alabama.

If youd like to be there in spirit with me  at NASHRM, not in a Ford Probe  Ill hook you up with a copy of my FMLA/ADA slide deck. Just email me, and Ill email you back a copy of the slides when I get back to Philadelphia.

Yes, Im flying. Ive matured since college.

**burp**
As US and China Trade Tariff Barbs, Others Scoop up US Soybeans

CHICAGOEscalating tensions between the United States and China have triggered a flurry of U.S. soybean purchases by European buyers, in one of the first signs that trade tariff threats lobbed between the worlds top two economies are disrupting global commodity trade flows.



News of the sales, confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday, helped to underpin benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soybean prices after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.



The USDA said 458,000 tons of U.S. soybeans were sold to undisclosed destinations, which traders and grains analysts said included European Union (EU) soybean processors such as the Netherlands and Germany.



If the entire volume is confirmed to be going to the EU, it would be the largest one-off sale to the bloc in more than 15 years, according to USDA data. The USDA could not immediately be reached for comment.



Were seeing a realignment of trade, largely because the politics is driving up Brazilian soybean prices, said Jack Scoville, analyst with the Price Futures Group.



Traders and analysts said the unusual trade flows were likely to continue in the near term.

Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have rattled markets over the past week. Soybean prices tumbled by as much as 5 percent after China threatened to levy extra duties on U.S. shipments, though the market ultimately ended the week down about 1 percent.

The United States is the second-largest soybean exporter in the world after Brazil. China is by far the top buyer, importing about two-thirds of all soybeans traded globally.



The big U.S. soybean sales come at a time when U.S. shipments are traditionally costlier than newly harvested soybeans shipped from Brazil, the worlds biggest exporter.



But accelerated buying of Brazilian beans by Chinese importers, weary of potentially paying steep tariffs on U.S. purchases, has sent Brazilian export premiums to historic highs.



Near-term soybean shipments from Brazil peaked near 200 cents above CBOT May soybean futures before pulling back to around 170 cents over by the end of the week, traders said. U.S. Gulf Coast shipments, by comparison, were only around 90 cents a bushel above futures.



The Brazilian beans are likely going to go to China in the short run and the U.S. beans are available. With whats happened to the price spreads, U.S. beans are sort of on sale for these buyers, said Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council.



Some of the sales announced by USDA on Friday were initially booked as Brazilian shipments, but were switched to cheaper U.S. beans when Brazils prices spiked, traders said.



U.S. prices got exceedingly cheap compared to Brazil, said a U.S. trader who asked not to be named. Some of this is outright new business. Some of it is arbitraging away from Brazil.



The current-season shipments are slated for loading from May to July, they said, typically the height of Brazils export season and a low point for U.S. shipments.



I think well see more (U.S.) selling to some destinations in volumes that we dont ordinarily see, at least in the short term until the Brazilian basis calms down, Scoville said.

From Reuters
Beijing Will Launch Short, Sharp War To Take Senkaku Islands from Japan, Report Says

A new report published by a U.S. think tank says that it is just a matter of time before the Peoples Republic of China launches a limited yet decisive military invasion against the Senkaku Islands, the disputed islands in the East China Sea currently controlled by Japan.

Published by the Project 2049 Institute, the reports title White Warships and Little Blue Men is a reference to the Chinese regimes Coast Guard and Maritime Militia, both of which have seen a dramatic buildup in the past decade together with the rapid modernization and expansion of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.

The authors of the report, James E. Fanell and Kerry K. Gershaneck, are retired U.S. military officers with decades of experience serving in the U.S. military and intelligence community.

The Chinese regimes massive buildup of maritime power and statements by regime officials and military officers are cited as evidence that aggression will come between the years of 2020 to 2030. This period has been cast as a decade of concern during which resistance against the Chinese regimes coercion, such as that offered by Japan or Taiwan, will be forcibly defeated.

Fanell and Gershanecks report cites Yin Zhuo, a Rear Admiral of the PLA Navy, who revealed on Beijing Television in January 2013 that the Chinese military has plans for a short, sharp war to take over Japans Senkaku Islands, which are claimed as the Diaoyu Islands by China. The real fight could be very short, and could even end in a few hours, Yin said.

The actions of the PLA Navy and the Chinese Coast Guard have subsequently validated Yins claims, according to the report. The Chinese regime prefers never to fire a single shot, or to fire as few shots as possible, to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A surprise attack on the Senkakus would seem to be consistent with this strategy.

The report stipulates that Beijing would invade the Senkaku Islands the same way it seized Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines, by progressively leaning in on the Senkakus with Chinese fishermen, while the Chinese Coast Guard would follow along to protect them. Eventually the Japanese would be left with one of two choices: either surrender territory, as the Philippines did at the Scarborough Shoal, or to defend against the encroachment.

Defensive action by Japan, no matter the scale, would be magnified in Beijings propaganda and exploited as an excuse for the Chinese regime to escalate the conflict and to commit further aggression, the report says.

The report says that Beijing could also invade the Senkakus at the same time it launches an invasion of Taiwan, but the scenario is less likely as the PLA anticipates that a successful war against Taiwan will involve a much larger scope and a longer campaign.

Plausible Scenario

Chinese military activities around the Senkaku Islands have soared in recent years in terms of the volume and frequency of both military aircraft and naval vessels, a development that has alerted not only Japan but also Taiwan, which is situated even closer to the Senkaku Islands than Japan.

While the Japanese government has not publicly elaborated how it will defend the Senkakus in the case of a limited, fast Chinese invasion, another expert says that Fanell and Gershanecks prediction is not far-fetched.

This is Chinese Maritime Hybrid warfare based on Sun Tsu, said Fumio Ota, a retired Vice Admiral of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force who discussed the Project 2049 Institute report with The Epoch Times. China will invade Senkaku when it thinks it has the chance, when the United States is involved in other areas and cannot afford to support Japan.

Ota said the reports hypothetical scenario of a gradual encroachment by the Chinese regimes maritime militia followed by occupation with regular coast guard and navy is a highly plausible one. Common point is that they create de facto control [over the disputed islands] and therefore compile a fait accompli [a done deal].

Among the reports list of policy recommendations is for the United States to encourage Japanese physical occupation of the Senkaku Islands, an act that the report says would create additional deterrence against a surprise Chinese invasion, although some have said that doing so would cross Beijings red line and could force it to act militarily.

Another good countermeasure to Beijings plot, Fumio Ota said, would be for the United States to revitalize part of the Senkaku Islands as a firing range for U.S. military exercises, as was practiced before 1978. This would send a clear message to Beijing that the United States recognizes not only administrative control but Japanese sovereignty over the Senkakus, according to Ota.
Facebooks Zuckerberg Faces Senate Hearing

Lawmakers prefer focused legislation over major regulatory change

WASHINGTONFacebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerbergs No. 1 mission during his appearance before U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday will be to defend against calls mostly from Democrats to regulate internet-based companies.

The prospect of new laws that restrict Facebook and other internet companies, however, is extremely unlikely because few lawmakers feel confident they can grapple with the sheer complexity of the ethical, psychological and technical issues involved.

Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees.

He is confronting combined outrage over how Russia used Facebook to spread divisive political propaganda during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and how Facebook seemed unaware that a political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, improperly harvested personal data of about 87 million Facebook users, most of them Americans.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined to say on Monday if new regulations were needed. I dont have a specific policy announcement on that front, but I think were all looking forward to that testimony.

Republicans are generally against more corporate regulation and they are not persuaded that tech companies need more of it. I dont want to hurt Facebook. I dont want to regulate them half to death, said Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a member of the Judiciary Committee But we have a problem. Our promised digital utopia has minefields in it.

Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said on Monday that while he believed new regulation was needed in the face of Facebooks twin scandals, he did not expect anything substantive to happen.

He attributed that in part to the format for Tuesdays joint hearing before the Senates Commerce and Judiciary committees that will give Zuckerberg an advantage, saying it would be a challenge to explore any thoughtful dialogue.

How in the world can you have 44 senators do a hearing that has a lot of substance when each senator only has four minutes? Nelson asked reporters on Monday.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters after speaking with 33-year-old Zuckerberg, that he was a very nice young man who obviously knows what hes doing and has a very pleasant personality.

Congress Revisits Honest Ads Act

Companies that have been victimized by computer hacks have been accused by lawmakers of failing to take adequate security measures to protect their customers personal information.

Senior executives from a host of companies including Target Corp, Alphabets Google, United Airlines and Equifax, have testified before Congress on a variety of issues including network security and walked away with a scolding for now and a temporary dip in stock price.

Instead of major regulatory changes, lawmakers in Congress have offered narrowly focused legislation.

The Honest Ads Act, for instance, aims to address concerns about foreign nationals covertly purchasing ads on social media to influence American politics. It would require political ads on the internet to reveal who paid for them, much the same as ads on television and radio. It legislation has been stalled since its introduction last October, although Facebook endorsed it on Friday.

Congress did pass legislation last month that chipped away at the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which for decades has guarded internet-based companies from liability for what users post on their platforms.

The legislation, which is expected to be signed into law this week by U.S. President Donald Trump, was aimed at penalizing operators of websites that facilitate online sex trafficking. Internet companies have expressed worry that it could be the first step toward dismantling decades of a hands-off regulatory approach by Washington.

Technology industry officials said they also expected Zuckerbergs testimony to be long on political point scoring and short on legislative ideas.

They dont understand ad targeting and they will probably ask him a bunch of unrelated questions that play to their respective political bases, said one technology industry source, who spoke on condition on anonymity because his company had not authorized him to speak on the matter for the record.

So Democrats will ask about monopolies and Republicans will ask about anti-conservative bias in Silicon Valley.

By Dustin Volz

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Central American migrants taking part in the caravan, which originally planned to reach the U.S. border, are greeted by supporters as they arrive in Mexico City on April 9. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

How the Caravan of Migrants Is Helping Trump

Immigration in spotlight as loopholes are exposed and National Guard is deployed

WASHINGTONA caravan of more than 1,200 migrants, mostly from Honduras, started trudging northwards on March 25 from Tapachula, southern Mexico, just across the Guatemalan border.

The caravans final destination was to be the U.S.Mexico border, but organizer Pueblo Sin Fronteras has since said Mexico City will be the last scheduled stop. However, many of the migrants intend to carry on and seek asylum in the United States.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a U.S.-based advocacy group, demanded in a March 23 press release that Mexico and the United States open the borders to us because we are as much citizens as the people of the countries where we are and/or travel.

On its website, the group says it aims to build solidarity bridges among peoples and turndown border walls imposed by greed.

[The] broken asylum system is the weakest link in our immigration security right now.  Jessica Vaughan, director of policy, Center for Immigration Studies

The annual caravan attracted many more participants this year, as well as more attention, partly because President Donald Trump has used it to highlight gaps in U.S. border security.

The caravan is helping Trumps case for a more secure border, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.

The first thing that it did, the size of it was so startling to people that it got everyone thinking about what would happen if a group like that showed up at the border, Vaughan said on April 6.

It was a perfect illustration of the issue that Trump has been trying to get Congress to focus on: that a broken asylum system is the weakest link in our immigration security right now.

Asylum System

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are crossing the southwest border every month and claiming asylum, according to statistics by Customs and Border Protection. In March, more than 37,000 unaccompanied minors and family units were apprehended by Border Patrol after illegally crossing.

Most unaccompanied minors and family units seek out Border Patrol agents after crossing because they know they will get processed quickly and, usually within three weeks, will be released into the United States with a court date set for years down the road. This is known as catch and release.

Half of those who claim asylum, or credible fear, at the border do not file an official asylum application within the requisite year, according to administration officials, and most will not show up to their hearing.

If applicants do file an asylum claim (which is free) and it has been pending for six months, then they are routinely provided with work authorizationregardless of the merit of the application.

We have a country where if they step one footnot two feetif one foot hits our country, we have to take those people gently, register them, and then release them, Trump said at a roundtable in West Virginia on April 5.

Now theyre on the land. We release them. They go someplace into our country. Theyre supposed to come back within two or three years for a court case, but nobody ever comes back.

The number of cases that began with a credible fear claim leaped from approximately 3,000 in 2009 to more than 69,000 in 2016, according to the Justice Department.

If the problems arent fixed, then the inducement to come to this country unlawfully, or to file frivolous claims for asylum, will not be abated, a senior administration official said on a press call on April 2.

Asylum is not meant for people fleeing for a better life just because conditions are difficult in their home country, Vaughan said.

Mexico

On April 2, Trump started publicly pressuring Mexico to stop the caravan from entering the United States, which, he said in a tweet, has no effective border laws.

Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large caravans of people enter their country. They must stop them at their northern border, Trump tweeted on April 2. He ended with a plea to politicians: Act now, Congress, our country is being stolen!

Mexico responded by saying it had already sent 400 people back to their home countries and that it was accepting applications for asylum by others. It has since issued more than 200 transit visas to members of the caravan, which gives them 20 days to leave Mexico. Many others have already broken off from the caravan to continue traveling north.

The trip is fraught with danger, and the cartels control the Mexican border.

Marlene Castro, a supervisory Border Patrol agent in Texass Rio Grande Valley Sector, said migrants can travel all the way from Central America to the border, which is defined by the Rio Grande in Texas, but you will not cross from that bank into the United States without paying some money.

You have to at some point pay something. Sadly, a lot of women pay with their bodies, she said last year. There are cases where the womenwith the expectation of getting rapedprepare themselves by getting on birth control  for the purpose of the journey.

Vaughan said the caravan is also helping Trump by validating the administrations concern about Mexicos role in facilitating illegal migrationthrough their territoryfrom other parts of the world.

[Mexicos] policies matter to us. Even though we cant control them, we obviously can influence them, Vaughan said. The Mexican government is uncomfortable with this perception, but they cant avoid the perception that the presidents tweeting about the situation prompted them to do something about the caravan.

Trump has threatened to leverage the continuation of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement to force Mexico to assist more in border control.

Mexico said on April 9 that it will review all forms of cooperation with the United States, including efforts to combat powerful drug cartels.

President Enrique Pena Nieto gave the order to his cabinet in a meeting on April 8, after a week of heightened bilateral tensions, during which he rebuked Trump for chaffing against Mexico.

Mexicos secretary of foreign affairs, Luis Videgaray, said the review would cover all aspects of the relationship, ranging from border security and migration to trade and the fight against drug gangs.

Congress

Vaughan said the caravan also helps Trump by illustrating to Congress why border security is so imperative, and how concerning it is that Congress did not try to address border security to a significant degree in the spending bill that was just passed.

This is a genuine need. We do have very real problems at the border that need to be solved, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security is working to present Congress with new legislation to close loopholes it says are catastrophic to border security.

The new bill will seek to stop the exploitation of the asylum system and the practice of catch and release, according to senior administration officials on a press call on April 2.

Both problems can largely be addressed with fixes to the Flores Settlement Agreement and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), officials said.

The TVPRA should be amended so that minors who are not genuine trafficking victims can be quickly returned home or removed to safe third countries, Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said. Currently, a minor from a noncontiguous country cannot be returned to Mexico, even if theyre not a victim of trafficking, and therefore must be accepted into the United States.

The Flores Settlement Agreement is a Clinton-era settlement of a class-action lawsuit that facilitates the practice of catch and release.

Under the agreement, unaccompanied minors must be released by Border Patrol within 72 hours to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Resources. From there, most are released within about 45 days to a parent or family member already living in the United States.

Family units are transferred from Border Patrol to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which must release them after 20 days.

We cannot possibly get a removal order within three weeks, which means we have to release these family units, a senior administration official said on April 2.

On April 6, Trump ordered the attorney general and the heads of the State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments to prepare a comprehensive report detailing all that is being done to end catch-and-release. The report is due within 45 days, and the officials have 30 days after that to recommend additional resources and authorities needed to end the practice.

Enforcement

Also on April 6, in an unprecedented move for the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to adopt a zero tolerance policy and charge first-time border crossers with illegal entry.

Currently, many are deported after pleading guilty and spending a few days in jail.

A conviction for illegal entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison for first-time crossers and two years for repeat offenders.

Border apprehensions reached 50,308 in March, up 37 percent from February and more than triple from the same period last year.

Adding the deployment of the National Guard in a week of immigration focus, Vaughan said Trump is doing as much as he can without congressional support.

Politically, it has also been an opportunity for the president to show that he is trying to do things to address urgent problems, rather than just sitting back and watching things and waiting for Congresshe wants to be more proactive than that, she said.

Reuters and Epoch Times staff member Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.
Poisoned Yulia Skripal Has Been Discharged From British Hospital

SALISBURY, EnglandYulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital more than a month after she was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent together with her father, a former Russian spy, the English hospital treating them said on Tuesday.

Watch

Medical director Christine Blanshard on Yulia and Sergei Skripal

Yulia and Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of spies to Britains foreign intelligence service, were found unconscious on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

With Britain accusing Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack, the affair has blown up into one of the biggest Russia-West crises since the Cold War.

Britain, the United States and other Western governments have expelled scores of Russian diplomats while Moscow has retaliated in kind. Russia denies any involvement in an attack on the Skripals.

The couple were in a critical condition for weeks and doctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have suffered brain damage. But the Skripals health since then has begun to improve rapidly.

Yulia, 33, has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters and her father could be discharged in due course.

We have now discharged Yulia, Blanshard said. This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone.

Her father has also made good progress, Blanshard said. On Friday I announced he was no longer in a critical condition. Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.

Yulia has been taken to a secure location, the BBC said.

Russia has denied Britains charges of involvement in the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two and suggested Britain carried out the attack itself to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

Both Moscow and London have accused each other of trying to deceive the world with an array of claims, counter-claims, and threats.

Blanshard, a doctor with 25 years experience, said nerve agents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in the body that then stop the nerves from functioning. She said this had resulted in sickness and hallucinations.

Giving the first details about the medical treatment of the Skripals, Blanshard said doctors had first sought to stabilize them to ensure that they could breathe and that blood could circulate.

We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients, until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning, she said. We also used specialized decontamination techniques to remove any residual toxins.

She did not say when Yulia had been discharged but the BBC said she had left hospital on Monday night and was now in a safe place.

Novichok Poisoning

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.

Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery, the Russian embassy in London said. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

The attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War as allies in Europe and the United States sided with Mays view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.

But Moscow has hit back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering its rival interpretations, including that it amounted to a plot by British secret services.

Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britains MI6, was arrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the United States.

Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned.

By Peter Nicholls

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Powerful Tornado Ravages College CampusEye-Opening Security Footage Released

After a tornado touched down in Alabama last month, Jacksonville State University released security camera footage on April 7, showing the element wreaking havoc on campus.

The EF-3 tornado hit on the night of March 19, impacting 73 buildings and leaving 23 severely damaged, the university stated on its website.

For those who are interested in donating or volunteering to rebuild our city, please visit https://t.co/Gc5KzzmtWw. We will continue to keep you posted on social media with additional information as we learn more. #JSUStrong pic.twitter.com/Ld6UJrxtuj  Jacksonville State University (@JSUNews) March 20, 2018

At least four people were injured, Jacksonville Mayor Johnny Smith, told WHNT, but no fatalities were reported.

We were very fortunate I think, in the fact that is was spring break, because a lot of those damage on campus was at the housing area where students would have been, Smith said. But a lot of those people were gone. I think that was really a blessing for us.

EF-3 tornadoes reach wind speeds of 136-165 mph, tearing roofs off buildings, uprooting trees, overturning trains, and lifting cars off the ground, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

JSU was hit by an EF-3 tornado last night. At this time the city of Jacksonville has issued a curfew that will begin at 7 p.m. The entire JSU campus off-limits and we are asking that all people stay off the roads at this time. pic.twitter.com/ONLtR2f1Xj  Jacksonville State University (@JSUNews) March 20, 2018

Drone footage of the college campus shows fallen trees, broken windows, and torn roofs across the area.

The footage from the colleges security cameras shows the devastation reached inside the buildings too, as the wind swept through halls and corridors.

It appears that this storm cycled and produced 3 tornadoes as it moved east from Ashville to Southside to Jacksonville, the National Weather Service Birmingham tweeted on March 20.

A look at some of the most significant damage in and around Jacksonville/Jacksonville State University. It appears that this storm cycled and produced 3 tornadoes as it moved east from Ashville to Southside to Jacksonville. We've not yet gone into Cleburne Co. #alwx pic.twitter.com/tkMrWhrgOB  NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) March 20, 2018

Credit: Jacksonville State University via Storyful

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U.S. President Donald Trump (3L), U.S. First lady Melania Trump (2L), Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (C), and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (3R) pose during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh on May 21, 2017. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Reforming Saudi Arabia

Over one and a half billion MuslimsSufis, Sunnis, and Shias, and their offshoots, the Ahmadiyyas, Alawites, Bahais, and Ismailislive peacefully as good neighbors and valued global citizens. Unfortunately, a sect, Wahhabism, has long encouraged virulently anti-Western ideas and became what The Economist terms a petri dish for jihadism.

Wahhabi clerics have been close to the al Saud dynasty since the mid-18th century, offering Islamic legitimacy in exchange for control over mosques and universities.

The Saudi-American alliance began in early 1945 when King Abdul-Aziz al Saud met with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt on the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal. The Saudis guaranteed access to oil; the United States guaranteed Saudi Arabias security from foreign enemies.

In the 1950s, the CIA teamed up with the Muslim Brotherhood, then backed by Saudi Arabia, to weaken secular Arab nationalism. In the 1980s, the two countries became major supporters of the Mujahedeens struggle to end the Soviet Unions occupation of Afghanistan.

Read More The Saudis Flex Their Muscles

Jihadist textbooks were disseminated to Afghan school children in Pakistani refugee camps, encouraging violence against infidels and the Soviet Union in the name of Islam.

During his recent trip to the United States, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, known as MBS, indicated that Saudi Arabias Western allies had urged it to invest in mosques and madrassas overseas during the Cold War (1947-1991) to prevent encroachment in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union. Billions of Saudi oil dollars helped to spread Wahhabism globally.

MBS aims to diversify the Saudi economy by transforming the petro-state into an open economy open to U.S. investments. Having consolidated his influence in the Gulf kingdom, he wants his Vision 2030 to move the kingdom from an oil-dependent economy to a hub of international trade and commerce.

Both President Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and Middle East adviser, support the Saud regime, but Trump told it at a summit last May to stop funding Islamic terrorism. In what New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof calls an unholy alliance, Washington announced that it would sell the Saudis about $110 billion worth of arms. Last month, it concluded a $670 million arms sale; numerous other deals arose from the Saudi-US CEO Forum in late March.

U.S. foreign policy today involves working with the Saudis to pursue counter-terror policies and to break with the past on religious extremism. MBS understandably wants to rehabilitate Saudi Arabias image in American minds. At the Future Investment Initiative (FIT) summit in Riyadh last October, MBS stressed: We want  a moderate Islam  open to all religions  and people.

His father, King Salman, ordered by decree a new authority to scrutinize uses of the hadithaccounts of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad. Some preachers have interpreted hadiths to justify violence. Sunni Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood associatesbanned as a terrorist organization since 2014have been the largest group of activists. The new authority will monitor hadiths and prevent them from being used to justify terrorism.

The Muslim World League says that it will now wipe out extremist thinkingin contrast to its past interpretation of Islam. The Saudi government, which vets clerics in 70,000 mosques, has dismissed extremists. In December, Saudi officials told the Washington Institutes Riyadh delegation about their accelerated policies to counter extremism.

Two government bodies are now addressing extremism and promoting a more moderate interpretation of Islam: the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (ETIDAL) to combat, expose, and refute extremist ideology globally, and the Ideological Warfare Center.

The Saudis could also tighten teacher training/supervision over religious figures traveling internationally for work and control religious materials sent abroadthereby restricting the export of extremist ideology and accelerating the removal of extremist content from Saudi schoolbooks.

Saudi Arabia remains an absolute monarchy. Its lobbying apparatus supports its rivalry with Iran and combats negative press related to Riyadhs U.S.-backed war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. However, to its credit, it is now curbing extremism, and will attend the first annual meeting of the U.S.-Saudi Strategic Joint Consultative Group (SJCG) later this year.

MBS has taken some unquestionably positive steps, particularly his declaration that he intends to lead Saudi Arabia to practice a less fanatic and more tolerant interpretation of Islam, notably in terms of its attitude toward Christians and Jews. Thomas Friedman, foreign-affairs columnist for The New York Times states that if MBSs reforms succeed, they will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe.

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.
President Donald Trump stands for a photo with U.S. military commanders at the White House on April 9, 2018. (Public Domain)

Trump Cancels South America Trip to Oversee Response to Syria

President Donald Trump canceled a scheduled trip to Peru and Columbia in order to coordinate the response to the suspected chemical attack in Syria, the White House announced on Tuesday, April 10.

President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

Trump was scheduled to depart for South America on Friday, but on Monday he met with U.S. military commanders and told reporters that a response would be decided on by Wednesday.

President Bashar al-Assads government has invited international inspectors to send a team to Syria to investigate an alleged chemical attack in the town of Douma, in a move apparently aimed at averting possible Western military action over the incident.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturdays suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syrian relief group.

The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilized world, Sanders said on Monday. Sadly, these actions are consistent with Assads established pattern of chemical weapons use.

The White House blames the Syrian regime for the attack. The Syrian regime and Russia said there was no evidence that a gas attack had taken place and the claim was bogus.

Adding to the volatile situation, Iran, Assads main ally, along with Russia, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus, and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

Meanwhile, on the ground, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held northwestern Syria after surrendering Douma to government forces. The evacuation deal restores Assads control over the entire eastern Ghouta  formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is already at work trying to establish what exactly took place in Douma.

But whether a team would try to get there was unclear. OPCW inspectors have been attacked on two previous missions to the sites of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions, state news agency SANA said, quoting an official Foreign Ministry source.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin would submit a resolution to the U.N. Security Council proposing that the OPCW investigate the alleged attack.

Military Options

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States.

TASS news agency quoted Bogdanov as saying Russia and U.S. officials had working contacts over Syria and he believed common sense would prevail.

On Monday, Trump told a meeting of military leaders and national security advisers in Washington that he would take a decision that night or shortly after on a response, and that the United States had a lot of options militarily on Syria.

But we cant let atrocities like we all witnessed  we cant let that happen in our world  especially when were able to because of the power of the United States, the power of our country, were able to stop it, Trump said.

The United States has requested the U.N. Security Council vote at 3 p.m. on Tuesday on a proposal for a new inquiry on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, diplomats said.

At a meeting on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Washington would respond to the suspected attack whether the Security Council acted or not.

France said it would respond if it was proven that Assads forces carried out the attack. Any riposte would most likely be in coordination with the United States, government aides said.

The British government is also discussing military intervention with its allies in Syria in response to the alleged attack. Prime Minister Theresa May will talk to Trump later on Tuesday.

That kind of atrocity is not acceptable, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said. My prime concern is that we do not have a repeat of those appalling atrocities and that we are doing everything we can to protect men women and children who are targeted.

U.S. officials told Reuters that Washington was weighing a multinational military response. Washington bombed a Syrian government air base last year over a toxic gas attack.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France, and Britain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a confrontational policy against Russia and Syria.

Russia is being unpardonably threatened. The tone with which this is being done has gone beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the Cold War.

More Clarity

Initial U.S. assessments have been unable to determine conclusively what materials were used in the attack and could not say with certainty that Assads forces were behind it.

Trump said, however, that Washington was getting more clarity on who was responsible.

A previous joint inquiry of the United Nations and the OPCW had found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in April 2017, and had also several times used chlorine as a weapon. Damascus blamed Islamic State militants for mustard gas use.

The suspected chemical attack came at the end of one of the deadliest Syrian government offensives of the war, with an estimated 1,700 civilians killed in eastern Ghouta in air and artillery bombardments.

Despite the international revulsion over the chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents is in the dozens, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since an uprising against Assads rule broke out in March 2011.

The deal over the rebel evacuation of Douma took effect on Sunday, hours after medical aid groups reported the suspected chemical attack.

RIA news agency quoted Russias Defence Ministry as saying 3,600 militants and their families had left Douma over the past 24 hours. About 40,000 militants and their families are expected to leave, the pro-government Watan newspaper said.

Sixty-seven buses carrying hundreds of fighters, along with family members and other civilians who did not wish to come back under Assads rule, reached opposition areas near Aleppo on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

As part of the surrender deal, the Jaish al-Islam group that controlled the town released scores of people it had been holding.

Jaish al-Islams departure will bring to an end the opposition presence in eastern Ghouta, giving Assad his biggest battlefield victory since late 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Recommended Video: President Donald Trumps Weekly Address, April 7, 2018
Trump Decries FBI Raid on His Lawyers Office as an Attack on Our Country

President Donald Trump derided the FBI raid on his personal lawyers office on April 9, calling it a disgrace.

Its an attack on our country, in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for, Trump said before a security briefing at the White House on April 9.

FBI agents raided the offices and home of Michael Cohen, according to law enforcement officials. Raids on personal attorneys require the highest level of vetting at the Justice Department, according to Frank Montoya, a former senior FBI official.

No question, a search warrant for a lawyer is an extraordinary act, he told Reuters. Factor in that, in this instance, it was the presidents own attorney. Unprecedented.

Attorneyclient privilege is dead, Trump wrote on Twitter the next morning. Total witch hunt!

Cohens lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said on April 9 that prosecutors had seized communications between Cohen and his clients based in part on a referral by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The attorneyclient privilege Trump referred to is intended to encourage open communication between lawyers and their clients, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice.

Former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz criticized the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over its silence on the raid. He called April 9 a very dangerous day for lawyerclient relations.

Trump said that his lawyers have handed over more than 1 million pages of documents to Muellers team. Dershowitz believes Trumps team is fully cooperating with Mueller.

If this were Hillary Clinton [having her lawyers office raided], the ACLU would be on every TV station in America jumping up and down, Dershowitz told Fox News. The deafening silence of the ACLU and civil libertarians about the intrusion into the lawyerclient confidentiality is really appalling.

Mueller is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and so far has not produced any indictments supporting the collusion claim. Trump denies all allegations.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein signed off on the raid, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials. Rosenstein also signed the controversial warrant application to surveil Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page during the 2016 campaign.

That application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) was based in part on the so-called Trump dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Former FBI Director James Comey has testified under oath that the contents of the dossier were both salacious and unverified. According to an investigation by the House intelligence committee, the FISA court was left in the dark about the fact that unverified opposition material was used in the FISA warrant application.

Mueller is investigating a $150,000 donation made to the Trump foundation in 2015 by a Ukrainian businessman in exchange for a teleconference speech by Trump, The New York Times reported. Cohen made the arrangement.

The same Ukrainian businessman, Viktor Pinchuk, funneled $13 million to the Clinton Foundation starting in 2006 and had access to Clinton while she was the head of the State Department, The Daily Caller reported. In comparison, Trump accepted the donation when he was not yet chosen as the Republican candidate.

The other side is where there are crimes, and those crimes are obvious, Trump said, referring to Clinton. Lies, under oath, all over the place. Emails that are knocked out, that are acid-washed and deleted. Nobody has ever seen33,000 emails are deleted after getting a subpoena for Congress, and nobody bothers looking at that. And many, many other things.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Chinese shoppers wait outside a pharmacy in Beijing, China, on Aug. 13, 2013. China imposes high tariffs on imported medicines, which has made it difficult for many citizens to afford treatment for their illnesses. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

US Tariffs Might End up Benefiting Chinese Economy, While Chinas Retaliatory Tariffs Hurt Consumers, Say Chinese Netizens

Chinese netizens are hotly debating the U.S.-China trade tariffs, and many have come to an unexpected conclusion: the United States tariffs might end up being beneficial to the Chinese economy.

On the popular Chinese internet forum KD Net, where users frequently discuss current affairs, an article has been making the rounds, titled, Why do so many people in China support Trump fighting a trade war?

The author, writing under the pen name You Bin, hoped that trade tensions will force the Chinese regime to open up its economy, especially in the area of pharmaceuticals.

Speaking from experience, he talked about the exorbitant costs of medication in China; many patients and their family members seek out relatives living abroad to help them buy medication, particularly cancer treatment drugs.

Among low and middle-income countries, China indeed has some of the highest tariffs imposed on imported medicine. A 2017 analysis by the European Centre for International Political Economy determined that import tariffs on pharmaceuticals have the highest compounded financial burden on consumer prices in Chinaup to $6.2 billion annually.

China relies heavily on foreign imported medicinethey exceed Chinas exports by $11.3 billionbut has continually increased tariffs. The number of tariffs increased from 30 in 2007 to 125 in 2016, indicating a serious shift towards protectionism within the Chinese government, read the analysis.

You Bin wrote in the article that he hoped the Chinese regime could lower tariffs on life-saving drugs and open up its trade policies. This could help lower the trade deficit [the United States faces], elevate medical standards, and at the same time push domestic industries to truly innovate in science and technology, he wrote.

Netizens React to Chinas Retaliation

In the past few weeks, many scholars have analyzed the negative impact on Chinas economy should a real trade war break out.

On Sina, a popular blogging platform, an economist formerly employed with Chinas central government broke down why the regimes retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans would hurt China more than the United States. He blogs under the name Ganwu Shenghuo.

He predicted that China will likely end up buying soybeans from the United States anywaysvia other countries that will import U.S. soybeans to meet Chinas high demand. Meanwhile, other countries are likely to raise the priceswhich will end up hurting Chinese consumers pockets.

The United States is the second-largest soybean exporter in the world after Brazil. China, meanwhile, is the worlds top buyer, importing about two-thirds of all soybeans traded globally, according to Reuters.

China heavily relies on foreign soybean imports. In the period of 2016 to 2017, China produced only about 12.9 million tons of soybeans, compared to its imported total of 96.1 million tons, according to data from the Agricultural Market Information System, an online database launched by the ministries of agriculture among the G20 nations.

Of the other products on Chinas tariff list, he predicted that duties on U.S. chemicals will hurt Chinese businesses most, as they rely on imports for many raw materials, he said.

Other items such as tobacco and high-end cars are likely to only affect wealthy consumers, who may not be deterred by higher prices anyway, according to the blogger.

Another blogger, under the name of Leng Yan, pointed out that the argument that China can rely on Brazilian soybeans to replace U.S. imports is faulty: Brazil, located in the southern hemisphere, harvests in early spring, while the United States harvests in late fall. With year-round demand, China will find it difficult to import soybeans solely from Brazil.
Connecticut students continue to do better in reading than math according to results of a national assessment released on Tuesday.

Some 43 percent of Connecticut fourth graders and 44 percent of eighth graders are deemed proficient in reading, according to results of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)  known as The Nation's Report Card.

In both grades, Connecticut students outperformed the nations public school proficiency rate in reading by eight or more percentage points. Only a handful of states had higher proficiency rates.

In math, 40 percent of Connecticut fourth-graders scored in the proficient range or better  on par with fourth-graders across the nation  while 36 percent of Connecticut scored in the proficient range, three points above the national public school proficiency average of 33 percent.

Math continues to be a challenge for us as a state, Ajit Gopalakrishnan, chief of the state Department of Educations performance office, told reporters on Monday.

Gopalakrishnan said the state has embarked on a program to improve math but it hasnt had time to fully take hold  at least by the time the NAEP test was given in the winter of 2017.

The new standards focus on core concepts at a deeper level. There are places where (conceptual understanding) is happening, he said. We have no one answer as to why. It is a combination of things.

A test given every other year to a representative sample of students in all 50 states, NAEP is administered by the U.S. Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics. In Connecticut, some 2,300 public school students in each tested grade and subject from more than 100 school districts participated in what is now an online test.

State officials view the assessment as the most consistent way to size up how Connecticut is doing academically versus the nation and other states.

And while scores seem to be in a holding pattern, Gopalakrishnan said there is some narrowing of the achievement gap when 2017 scores are compared with 2011.

In fourth-grade reading, the gap between White and Hispanic scores narrowed from 35 to 25 points. Similarly, the fourth-grade gap between economically disadvantaged students and non-disadvantaged peers shrunk from 35 to 29 points.

Gopalakrishnan called it bright spot in an otherwise bland report.

It is a meaningful reduction, he said.

National Results

As a nation, when public and private students are counted, the only noticeable improvement is in eighth-grade reading. Some 36 percent of students scored at or above proficient in 2017, a two-point gain over 2015.

The increase in the average score for eighth-grade reading was driven by improvement among the higher-performing students ... while the performance of lower-performing students stayed about the same, Peggy G. Carr, NCESs associate commissioner of assessment, said. In eighth-grade math, the average score of higher-performing students increased, but those gains were offset by similar declines among lower-performing students.

In 2017, the test was given to 298,200 fourth-graders and 286,800 eighth-graders in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Department of Defense schools, Puerto Rico (mathematics only), and in 27 large urban school districts.

The NAEP reading and mathematics scales range from 0 to 500.

More Information Connecticut's Report Card 2015 to 2017 Grade 4 Grade 8 % Proficient Average Score %Proficient Average Score 2015 2017 2015 2017 2015 2017 2015 2017 Reading 43% 43% 229 228 43% 44% 273 273 Mathematics 41% 40% 240 239 36% 36% 284 284 See More Collapse

In fourth-grade math, the average scale score in 2017 was 240 the same as in 2015, and 27 points higher than in the first administration in 1990. In eighth-grade math, the average scale score in 2017 was 283, not significantly different from 2015.

In eighth-grade reading, the average scale score in 2017 was 267, a one-point increase from 2015 and seven points since the reading test was first given in 1992. In fourth-grade reading, the average scale score was 222, not significantly different from 2015.
Rep. Elizabeth Esty is due back in her office at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday after a self-imposed two-week exile in the wake of abruptly withdrawing from her 2018 re-election bid.

Tuesday is Estys first full day back at work after acknowledging serious errors in judgment in handling the firing of her former chief of staff, who abused Estys former scheduler.

The political firestorm that ensued led Esty to announce the end of what had been a promising political career in Congress.

Esty said she was unaware of the abuse, even though it had been going on for more than a year.

The turn of events led to deep dismay and discontent among staffers, many of whom knew the former chief of staff, Tony Baker, and his victim, Anna Kain.

Esty was likely to hold a staff meeting to assuage hurt feelings.

Esty arrived Monday for a full work week on Capitol Hill that includes House floor votes and a Veterans Affairs subcommittee vote on a veterans-COLA bill she co-wrote.

I am looking forward to getting back to work and continuing to serve the folks of central and northwestern Connecticut, Esty said in a statement Monday. I was elected to do a job, and I will continue to do that job to the best of my ability for the remainder of my term.

On Tuesday, Esty is to receive a Roadway Safety Champion Award from the American Traffic Safety Services Association for her work on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

For Esty, 58, its a last hurrah of sorts  a beginning of the end of what had been a promising career in Congress.

On March 26 with fellow Democrats in Connecticut abandoning her, Esty bowed out of what was shaping up as an easy election for her fourth term.

She did so just three days after Hearst Connecticut Media and other news outlets detailed efforts to quietly ease out a former chief of staff who abused a former scheduler  a process Esty herself described as faulty.

In announcing her decision not to seek re-election this November, Esty said she would devote the remainder of her time on Capitol Hill to fight for action and meaningful change on workplace anti-abuse protections  the kind Congress overall has specifically avoided even though the House in February passed a far-reaching reform bill.

Tuesday, Estys first full day back, is to be punctuated with media interviews, including ones with Hearst Connecticut Media and Connecticut-based network affiliates.

Estys COLA bill guarantees a cost of living adjustment for veterans with service-related disabilities, as well as at least some of their survivors. It is an example of the kind of nuts-and-bolts work that Esty relishes.

Her office wall is adorned with bipartisan bills she navigated into enactment during five years in Congress: The INSPIRE Act, aimed at getting women and girls interested in aerospace careers; the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017; and bills to break up the transportation pipeline of sex trafficking in young girls and boys.

Esty returned to D.C. from her home in Cheshire, her true political base of operations.

More as an explanation than an excuse, Esty said one reason she did not know of the abusive behavior of former chief of staff Tony Baker toward former scheduler Anna Kain was that she was in the D.C. office only three or four days a week, and not at all during lengthy congressional recesses.

That, plus her attention to detail on legislation and search for bipartisan common ground, arguably blinded her to what was going on virtually under her own nose.

Baker and Kain had a consensual relationship through much of 2013, Estys first year in office after winning her initial election to Congress in 2012. The two broke it off by mutual consent.

But when Baker switched from his initial role as legislative director to chief of staff in January 2014, he became Kains boss.

That is when the abusive behavior started in earnest, former Esty staffers have said.

An affidavit for a protective order against Baker that Kain obtained in 2016 stated Baker screamed at Kain, and once punched her in the back  an assault that Baker denied through a spokesman.

It also said Baker told Kain if she reported his abusive behavior, he would prevent her from getting another job in D.C.

Kain left Estys office in March 2015 but the abuse continued. It blew wide open after a party at a bar that Baker threw for himself to mark his 10th anniversary of working on Capitol Hill, the affidavit states.

Baker became intoxicated and after the gathering was over, he called or texted Kain about 50 times. His manner grew increasingly belligerent when she didnt respond, and he threatened to find her and kill her.

Kain initially was determined to keep the abuse hidden. But as the #MeToo movement flourished and powerful men such as Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and Sen. Al Franken fell amid disclosures of improper behavior, Kain decided to go public with her account of what transpired in Estys office.

In interviews leading up to the disclosure, Esty said she bore responsibility for allowing Baker to work for almost three months after the May 5 incident, instead of suspending him immediately while an investigation proceeded.

She also blamed herself for following a lawyers advice and concluding a nondisclosure agreement with Baker that included a letter of recommendation.

Esty said she offered what she termed a limited recommendation on the phone that enabled Baker to get a position as Ohio coordinator with Newtown-based Sandy Hook Promise.

The organization, which conducts training workshops for schools, students and community organizations to help them spot violence-prone individuals, discharged Baker as revelations began bubbling to the surface.

After the abuse story became public, Esty tried to withstand the inevitable firestorm, saying: I have to do better.

But after returning home to Cheshire, she faced a rising chorus of Democrats either lukewarm to her staying in office or outright calling for her to step down.

In the end, Esty could not withstand the political tsunami she was partly responsible for unleashing.
BROOKFIELD  Gubernatorial candidate Lee Whitnum was charged with breach of peace and trespassing after officers were forced to drag her off the stage during a forum Monday.

Seven Democratic candidates for governor were invited to speak in Brookfield Monday night. They were joined, temporarily, by Whitnum, a minor candidate who was not invited to the event.

Whitnum, a perennial candidate, pulled up a chair, plopped down a sign with her name on it and refused to leave, shouting, I am a Democratic candidate for governor! to a crowd of more than 200, most of whom will be delegates at the May party convention.

The invited candidates left the stage as officers tried to remove her  grabbing her by the ankles and arms to drag her off the stage when she laid down in the middle. The audience booed Whitnum and applauded the officers who removed her, and the invited candidates returned the stage to talk about their platforms.

Whitnum, police said, provided officers with several identifications and was charged under the name Lisa Baker. She was released shortly after her arrest on a $500 bond.

Despite appearances to the contrary, this has been an extraordinarily cordial and civil campaign, said Ned Lamont, the Greenwich businessman and progressive crusader who fell to Dannel P. Malloy in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Were going to fight for Connecticut values every day. Fighting for our Connecticut values means that were not afraid to change.

Democrats have been avoiding drama and holding forums in town committee meetings across the state in advance of their convention in May. The state Republican party, on the other hand, has held sometimes fractious debates.

When it was Hartford Mayor Luke Bronins turn, he said the Democrats need to harness the energy the electorate has seen since the 2016 presidential election.

The energy is on our side, he said. I believe that the future of our state hangs on what happens in the next two to four years. We all know the fiscal challenges this state faces, and we know over the next few years, our budgets are going to be awfully tight.

Susan Bysiewicz, the former three-term secretary of the state, said the future of the state is personal for her. Her daughters have both left the state for jobs elsewhere.

We are losing young people, we are losing seniors, Bysiewicz said. We havent recovered the jobs that Connecticut has lost since the the recession of 2008, and I think about these issues a lot because two of my daughters have both found their first jobs in New York City. This is personal to me.

Sean Connolly, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and a former commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, stuck to his script, opening with his usual, My name is Sean Connolly and I love Connecticut.

More News Governor hopefuls reach funding thresholds

Jonathan Harris, a former West Hartford mayor and state senator, called himself a progressive problem solver and said the Republicans are wrong about the future of the state.

We need someone that can hit the ground running, Harris said. The Republicans are wrong. The sky is not falling, but it is cracked.

Greenwich executive Guy Smith cited his experience as a former leader at Stamford-based Americares as reason to trust him in the midst of a financial crisis.

Ive been to every disaster, natural and man-made, on the planet, he said. I know what its like to make real-time decisions in crisis.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim addressed the elephant in the room  aside from the person escorted out by police  right off the bat. Ganim, who was first elected in the 1990s, was re-elected mayor of Bridgeport in 2015 after serving a seven-year federal prison sentence for public corruption.

Im known as a comeback or second chance mayor, he said, referencing his felony conviction. I led the city through some good times, and I made some terrible mistakes. But I learned from them.
NORWALK  A leader in the national conservation organization that helped the Norwalk Land Trust create the Farm Creek Preserve a decade ago returned to Norwalk this week to encourage the trust to stay focused on its latest endeavor, conserving the White Barn property.

The next chapter of conservation here in Norwalk is unfolding, and you guys are addressing, again, another inflection point in your history, said Reggie Hall of The Conservation Fund. Youve set a high bar and youre working to redefine your impact in this community. Key representatives are working hard with the Fieber family and other partners, including the city, to acquire conserve the White Barn property.

Hall is director of conservation loans and a conservation acquisition representative for Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for The Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit that has preserved 7.8 million acres of land and water in all 50 states since 1985.

On Monday evening, he addressed nearly 50 people in the Community Room of City Hall as part of the Norwalk Land Trusts 2018 annual meeting.

His invitation to serve as keynote speaker came as the land trust works to raise money to buy the White Barn property and preserve the 15.4-acre parcel as woodlands on the Norwalk/Westport line.

Farm Creek would not exist without The Conservation Fund and without the efforts of Reggie Hall, and hes back to do the same thing with the White Barn, said D. Seeley Hubbard, chairman of the land trusts board of directors. I couldnt be more delighted and I couldnt be more happy to have him here to speak today.

The land trust, which already has a conservation easement on the property, announced in late November that it had an agreement in place with the property owner to purchase the entire White Barn parcel at 78 Cranbury Road. In January, the trust launched its campaign to raise $4 million to purchase the land.

One of the last large parcels of private open space in Norwalk and Fairfield County, the property has woodlands, wetlands and meadows that are home to blue herons, little brown bat, great egret and snowy egret and spotted and Eastern box turtles.

The price of the property is $5 million. A $1 million pledge by developers James, William and Robert Fieber leaves $4 million to be raised by the land trust, including $1 million in pledges and donations that the trust must raise. A one-for-one challenge matching grant of $300,000 has been established toward that goal, according to the land trust.

The land trust now must raise $1 million in additional donations toward the $5 million purchase. The conservation group is applying for a loan from The Conservation Fund for the remainder of the purchase price. Peggy Holton, land trust board member, said the trust hopes to see The Conservation Fund take up the application at its quarterly meeting in July.

We will close the instant we have that money, Holton told Hearst Connecticut Media.

The land trust has requested $200,000 from the citys Open Space Fund. So far, the request has received the support of the Norwalk Conservation Commission and the Common Councils Land Use & Building Management Commission, Holton said.

The White Barn property is owned by 78 Cranbury Road II, which received city approval in October 2015 to build 15 homes on the property. James Fieber, manager of the property owner, is now working with the land trust to preserve the land. He and his wife donated $1 million toward the purchase price. Several other members of the family attended the annual meeting Monday evening and were applauded by land trust members.

We could not accomplish or do this without their generosity, help and support, Hubbard said. They are continuing to give us that support.

Since its establishment in 1973, the Norwalk Land Trust has gained stewardship of 31 properties totaling nearly 100 acres of open space.

For more information, visit norwalklandtrust.org.
NORWALK  Norwalk-based World Health Clinicians, its founder and a former employee have agreed to pay $650,830 to settle false claims allegations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

John H. Durham, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced Tuesday that WHC, Chief Executive Officer Scott Gretz and Dr. Gary Blick had entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal and state governments in which theyll pay the money to resolve allegations that they violated the federal and state False Claims acts.

Gretz could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Based at 618 West Ave., WHC specializes in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients and sexually transmitted infections. Gretz is founder and chief executive officer. Blick worked at the practice from 2011 until 2016. Prior to working at WHC, Blick had his own medical practice specializing in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients, according to the Department of Justice.

The government alleges that WHC, Blick and Gretz submitted false claims to the Medicare and Medicaid programs by billing for physical therapy services and certain office visit services that were not provided. Instead of receiving physical therapy or office visit services, Medicare and Medicaid patients seen at the practice received massages provided by a massage therapist. Those services were billed to Medicare and Medicaid as if the patients had, in fact, received physical therapy services and office visit services, according to authorities.

Medicare does not recognize massage therapists as providers and expressly prohibits massage therapists from enrolling in the Medicare program. Under Connecticut law, massage therapists may not provide physical therapy, as physical therapy is expressly excluded from a massage therapists scope of practice. In addition, a massage therapist is not qualified to provide office visit services, according to the justice department.

To resolve the allegations under the federal and state False Claims acts, WHC, Blick and Gretz have agreed to pay $650,830, which covers conduct occurring from Jan. 1, 2007, through Sept. 30, 2015. Pursuant to their agreement with the government, WHC and Gretz will pay $361,013 and Blick will pay $289,816, according to authorities.

We expect that medical practices and physicians who participate in federal health care programs will bill for their services accurately and honestly, Durham said in a statement. The U.S. Attorneys office in Connecticut is committed to vigorously pursuing health care providers who submit false claims to federal health care programs.

This matter was investigated by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Molot and by Assistant Attorney General Gregory OConnell of the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.

As a nonprofit organization, WHC is required to file with the Internal Revenue Service income tax exemption forms detailing revenues and expenses. For the year 2016, the organization reported $15 million in revenues and nearly $14.8 million in expenses. Gretz received $250,000 in compensation, Blick, then listed as former medical director, was paid $261,346.

In June 2013, Gretz spoke at the ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony of the new headquarters of CIRCLE CARE Center, Mid-Fairfield AIDS Project & Triangle Community Center under the banner of WHC.

He and Blick, a co-founder of WHC, traveled to Zimbabwe in January 2014 to renovate their newly acquired clinic as part of their nonprofit initiative, BEAT AIDS Project Zimbabwe.

Through our recently acquired clinic in Victoria Falls, we believe that it will become the prototype for comparable clinics in other communities of Zimbabwe and HIV/AIDS-ravaged countries throughout Africa, Blick said at the time. Our mission is to treat anyone living with HIV, as well as to prevent mother-to-child transmission. We also tend to the medical needs of orphans and children already plagued by HIV/AIDS.
MARYVILLE  Residents of Maryville will soon have the opportunity to buy fresh produce and other food without leaving the village.

At the last regular meeting of the full Village Board, trustees approved a motion to allow a farmer's market to be held on village-owned property. The market, organized by the Maryville Farmer's Market group, will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, and run until Oct. 11.

The location of the market will be in the parking lot behind the Maryville Library near the Water Maintenance Shed off Schiber Court.

Anne Matthews, president of the Maryville Farmer's Market organization, said many of the vendors from the Goshen Market in Edwardsville have committed to sell their goods in Maryville during the Thursday night market.

"We have 15 vendors committed for the whole season and another 10 who will be here on certain dates," Matthews said. "The goal is to have 80 precent agricultural products and 20 percent of other products that are locally sourced and sustainably created."

Maryville Mayor Craig Short, who said he was excited about the project, said the market will benefit all Maryville residents.

"Anne has contacted the Maryville Food Pantry and will be working with them to provide produce to food pantry customers," Short said.

Matthews said vouchers will be given to the Food Pantry for them to hand out to clients. She added that residents will be able to purchase fresh food through various government programs such as WIC EBT. Because there is no grocery store in Maryville, Matthews said the USDA has designated Maryville a "food desert."

"Because people don't have access to fresh produce and meat within the village and there is no grocery store, the market will qualify to receive grants for its operation," she said. "This is also why recipients of WIC EBT will be able to purchase food at the market because the only other option to purchase food is from convenient stores."

While the board was in overwhelming support of the Farmer's Market, some did voice concerns about parking and insurance issues.

Short said he had walked the property and believes there is ample parking for the once-a-week market.

"The concerns I had were in regard to making sure we keep the library parking spaces open because the library will still be open," Short said. "But after walking the property, we determined there will be plenty of parking."

Because of the market's location next to Drost Park and the bike trail, Short said people can utilize parking in the park or access the market from the bike trail.

In regards to the insurance and liability issue, Matthews said the Maryville Farmer's Market organization has already purchased a general liability and product liability insurance policy. Trustee Mike Vallino asked if by granting a non-profit access to sell food on city property, it would hurt other local businesses.

Village Attorney Ron Motil said after discussing issues with the City of Edwardsville, he feels there will be no problems.

"I discussed this topic with officials from Edwardsville and they said they have never had an issue with businesses complaining," Motil said. "It brings people to the community and the benefits far out weigh those types of issues."

Board members unanimously approved the motion to allow the Maryville Farmer's Market to use village property.
EDWARDSVILLE  Look to the skies and start seeing kites later this month.

The Edwardsville Parks and Recreation Department is hosting its annual "Flying 4 Kids" kite fly event as part of the Illinois Association of Park Districts' (IAPD) statewide kite fly. The event is set from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, April 28, at Joe Glik Park.

Recreational Activities Supervisor Hayley Verheyen said the department is expecting a good turnout, weather permitting.

"We usually get around 50 people every year. Obviously weather is very dependent on that. If it's a beautiful day, we could have 75  80 kids out there, but we do usually have around 50," Verheyen said. If the weather isn't cooperative, Verheyen said the event will be rescheduled, but the date is not yet set. "We will have a rain date...If there is bad weather, it will be posted on our Facebook page," she said.

The kite fly will be the same as last year's and is free for all ages. The first 50 participants will receive goodie bags and the kites will be provided, courtesy of Cassens Transport Company. All participants will be able to decorate their kites on site and take them home for keeps.

Verheyen said the annual event first started in 2005 and locals have been getting involved ever since.

"It started in 2005 and how it started was there is a state-wide fly-in for kids  kite fly events that go on  and they help raise awareness for the Park District youth license plate," Verheyen said. "For $25 extra, you can get a special license plate and it goes toward parks and park agencies throughout Illinois." "It has just become an annual event that we put on. Joe Glik is a wonderful place to have a kite fly. There always seems to be a nice breeze out there," she added.

The Gateway Kite Club will also be on site as well, performing with stunt kites and demonstrating kite demos.

Verheyen said the kites are easy to fly and control and children of all ages can enjoy the event.

"The kites that we have for the kids  they're super easy to fly. So even a 2-year-old can get out there and fly a kite with no problem. It's definitely a wonderful event. Kids of all ages can come out and fly a kite," she said.

For more information about the "Flying 4 Kids" event, visit the IAPD's website at www.ilparks.org or contact the Parks Department at 618-692-7538. In the case of bad weather, check the Parks Department's Facebook page for updates by searching "Edwardsville Parks and Recreation" on Facebook.
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EXPLAINER: Why coffee could cost more at groceries, cafes

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP)  As if a cup of coffee wasnt expensive enough, a confluence of factors is driving up farmers' costs to grow the beans and it could begin filtering down to your local cafe before

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The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc..
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.

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Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

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UK has promised to offer Libya technical expertise and practical support to help the North African country in its efforts to curb illegal migration.

The pledge was made by British Minister for Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, during talks in Tripoli Monday, with UN-backed Libyan officials.

Talks discussed how Britain can help Libya, which has long been a major transit hub for people trying to reach Europe, monitor the routes that migrants take from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya.

The monitoring should be combined with awareness campaigns to inform would-be migrants on the exploitation risks and hardships they may face in their hazardous journey.

Britain has allocated in recent months 75 million British pounds ($105.96 million) to support anti-illegal immigration programs in Libya. Since 2016, Britain earmarked 170 million pounds to crisis management in Mediterranean countries.

Last month, Britain has launched new projects to develop healthcare centers throughout Libya to support and improve the quality of Libyan medical services. The first phase of the project targets six medical centers in a number of Libyan cities.
King Mohammed VI had a meeting Tuesday at the Elysee Palace in Paris with President Emmanuel Macron of France during which the two leaders have discussed at length the situation in the Middle East as well as regional and international issues, said the royal office in a statement.

The two leaders noted a broad convergence in their views on the topics discussed, the statement said.

The two heads of state hailed the excellent relations existing between Morocco and France and voiced their shared resolve to strengthen these relations in all areas, including political, security, economic and cultural.

The richness, density and vitality of Moroccan-French exceptional partnership reflect the solid foundation of a strategic relationship based on trust, mutual respect and fruitful cooperation in the service of the interests of both countries, the statement noted, adding that the Sovereign reiterated his invitation to President Macron to pay a state visit to Morocco.

King Mohammed VI and President Macron met several times last year. Their latest meeting dates back to the One Planet Summit held in France between November 29 and December 12.

They had also met in November 2017 during the dedication of the Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum and during the Europe-Africa Summit convened in Abidjan.
Walder pleads not guilty to murder, other charges in toddler death

Murder suspect pleads not guilty as Judge Carmen Means set bond at $50,000. The trial is expected to begin in November.
The best job security in all the land. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

As President Trump raged, fumed, and rage-fumed a day after his personal lawyers home and office were raided  an indication that Trump might be in more legal jeopardy than previously thought  a group of Democrats huddled together to discuss what to do if he finally fires Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Republican senators party line, meanwhile, amounted to a familiar refrain of the Trump era: Theyre concerned, but not enough to do anything about it.

Sure, multiple GOP senators issued dire warnings about what would happen if Trump pulls the trigger. But even the most outwardly concerned remain pretty unperturbed about a looming constitutional crisis. Even as Mueller blows past the red line President Trump set up in his mind as an unbreachable barrier, even as President Trump informed reporters on Monday that many people have told him to fire Mueller, even as Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed on Tuesday that Trump has the legal authority to fire the special counsel directly (he probably doesnt)  despite all this, most members of the GOP dont seem bothered enough to advance and support existing legislation to protect him. In fact, many seem strangely confident that the president has no intention of dispatching Mueller at all. Why? Well  they just dont, okay?

Just witness these blithe dismissals:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: My view is that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I havent seen an indication yet we need to pass something to keep him from being removed because I dont think thats going to happen. (Apparently the plan is to pass legislation between when whoever Trump gets to carry out his command utters the words Youre and fired.)

Joni Ernst: No, because I dont think the presidents going to do it  and do you think the president would sign that legislation? (Thats the spirit, senator! Dont even try!)

Bob Corker: I would sign onto legislation that protected him, but I just dont see a lot of momentum around it. I think wed be better off with (the president) knowing that itd be a huge problem if he did something than unsuccessfully passing legislation. (Yes, Trump is famously concerned about provoking disapproval from Establishment Republicans.)

Lindsey Graham: Ive talked to Trump. I think he understands the consequences, Graham said. I think itd be the end of his presidency, for the political chaos. (Trump was probably daydreaming about the 2016 electoral-college map as you were speaking to him.)

Susan Collins: If the president were to fire the deputy attorney general, that would be an extraordinary crisis and a real problem. And I just dont think hes going to do it. (Rod Rosenstein can sleep easy now.)

Grahams assessment was echoed by Iowas Chuck Grassley, who said on Tuesday that it would be suicide for Trump to fire Mueller, but didnt propose doing anything to prevent that outcome. As the Washington Post reports, Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, has refused to consider a pair of bills released last year to protect the special counsel before they were merged into one. That bill, co-sponsored by Republican senator Thom Tillis, would institute a ten-day delay before anyone from the Justice Department could fire a special counsel.

On Tuesday, Tillis pressed the Senate to vote on his bill, but did not exactly sound urgent about it. I want to separate me continuing to have the dialogue and get to a bill from, like, Its gotta be passed by midnight tomorrow, or all is lost. I dont buy that.

Graham and Grassley seem to think that just because an action would carry obviously explosive consequences, Trump would shy away from executing it. But that supposition is contradicted by his business history and by his natural impulsiveness  perhaps his defining characteristic  which often wins out over rationality. After all, firing James Comey wasnt a smart idea, either.

As ever, Republicans describing Trumps behavior sound like theyre describing someone very different from the president we all witness bullying and blustering his away across our screens every day.

But in this case, lets really hope they know something we dont.
Gray America. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

One of the many odd features of American politics, circa 2018, is that the primary beneficiaries of our nations social safety net are also the core supporters of the party that wants to slash it. No age group derives a bigger benefit from our welfare state than Americas elderly; but no cohort is as susceptible to the cultural paranoia and racial resentment that sustain the modern right, either. Thus, conservatives cant shrink big government without retaining the allegiance of the voters who stand to lose most from the erosion of social insurance.

The tensions inherent to this arrangement grew conspicuous during last years fight over Obamacare repeal  when congressional Republicans tried to pass a health-care bill that would have drastically increased the cost of health insurance for older, working-class voters in rural America (a core GOP constituency) while dramatically lowering premiums for 20-something city-dwellers (an overwhelmingly Democratic demographic). Many purple-district Republicans voted for the bill, anyway, effectively betting that it was more politically hazardous to thwart the ideological goals of their big-dollar donors, than to betray the material interests of their gray-haired voters.

This may have been costly mistake.

According to polling from Reuters/Ipsos, the percentage of college-educated white voters who say health care is their top issue rose from 8 percent in 2016 to 21 percent today; over that same period, the demographic went from favoring a Republican Congress by ten points, to backing a Democratic one by two.

Of course, this shift isnt solely the product of health-care politics. While older whites with college diplomas have swung left by 12 points since 2016, those without bachelors degrees have remained solidly in the GOPs camp. If material self-interest were the only force pushing older whites out of the Republican tent, one might expect working class elderly whites to be leading the exodus. Nevertheless, the Ryan agenda does seem to have played a role in alienating college-educated white Republicans, whose educational backgrounds already rendered them a less-than-ideal audience for Trumps anti-intellectual shtick. As Reuters reports:

John Camm has been a Republican since the Nixon Administration, but the 63-year-old Tucson accountant says he will likely support a Democrat for Congress in November. He is splitting with his party over access to health insurance as well as its recent overhaul of the nations income tax system. He also supports gun control measures that the party has rejected.

Im a moderate Republican, and yet my party has run away from that, Camm said. So give me a moderate Democrat.  Voters between the ages of 60 and 65 are particularly worried about healthcare, said Brigid Harrison, a political scientist at Montclair State University in New Jersey, because they are paying ever higher private health insurance premiums and are not yet eligible for Medicare.

Polling on this falls elections have consistently demonstrated that the Democratic base is more energized than the Republican one. In the face of this grim data, Republicans have sought consolation in the fact that core Democratic constituencies (like nonwhite and younger voters) have historically failed to turn out for midterms in high numbers. But the Democrats turnout advantage in the past years special elections put a dent in that hope  and the leftward lurch of elderly whites all but eviscerates it. Older, college-educated whites are among the most reliable voters in the nation. And in many of this falls most competitive districts, such voters account for nearly 10 percent of the population, according to Reuters analysis. Republicans were already at risk of losing the House due to shifts in turnout patterns, alone  but if those shifts are accompanied by significant defections among reliable GOP constituencies, the party could suffer historic losses up and down the ballot.

The real core for the Republicans is white, older white, and if theyre losing ground there, theyre going to have a tsunami, political scientist Larry Sabato told Reuters. If that continues to November, theyre toast.

Remarkably, even as Republicans have lost ground with this key demographic  and Democratic candidates have won improbable special election victories while painting their Republican opponents as enemies of Medicare and Social Security  Paul Ryan has persisted in calling for sweeping cuts to entitlement spending. Meanwhile, House Republicans are preparing a symbolic vote on a balanced budget amendment  a gesture meant to appease die-hard fiscal conservatives, but that seems just as likely to help Democrats put a spotlight on the potential costs of the Trump tax cuts to ordinary Americans, not least those who are relying on Uncle Sams largesse to get them through their golden years.
Trump doesnt seem to grasp what just happened to his longtime attorney. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

On the same day that Robert Mueller made a splash last October by unsealing indictments against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, kicking off the public phase of the special counsels criminal investigation into Russias dealings with the Trump campaign, his office quietly unsealed other documents that served as a window into his no-nonsense style. One of them was a 37-page decision, handed down earlier that month, in which the chief judge of the federal court in Washington allowed Muellers team to force a lawyer for Manafort and Gates to appear before a grand jury and, in essence, testify against them.

When a person uses the attorney-client relationship to further a criminal scheme, wrote U.S. Chief Judge Beryl Howell in the once-secret ruling, the law is well established that a claim of attorney-client or work-product privilege must yield to the grand jurys investigatory needs. In other words, when a client commits a crime and the lawyer is in on it, or vice versa, both may as well forget about any claim of privilege that may exist between them. Their privileged interactions, so long as theyre connected to a criminal enterprise, are fair game for prosecutors.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trumps longtime lawyer, attack dog, and fixer, may very well find himself in that situation today. Every major news outlet reported on Monday that his law office at 30 Rock was raided by the FBI  with The Wall Street Journal adding that the operation extended to his home and hotel room, a sign that federal investigators in Manhattan obtained more than one search warrant for the operation. The Washington Post, meanwhile, noted that the warrants relate to a criminal investigation into allegations that Cohen may have committed bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign-finance violations stemming from a hush payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress that Cohen attempted to silence in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

Even Alan Dershowitz, who has become one of Trumps favorite lawyers to watch on Fox News, allowed that this was the kind of coordinated law-enforcement action often reserved for organized crime, against very serious, very serious criminals and lawyers who are operating outside of the protections of the law.

In Trumps mind, which has a limited capacity to grasp the nuances of Muellers work, the Cohen raids were a break-in, a total witch hunt, and, more dramatically, an attack on our country. He even noted that many people have said he should fire the special counsel. Trumps first mistake was in thinking that Mueller is the one orchestrating the investigation into his personal lawyer. For one, the special counsels authority is limited, and anything that falls outside of it requires the approval of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the Russia investigation. Critically, Bloomberg News reported that Mueller did bring up Cohen with his direct supervisor, who in turn determined that federal prosecutors in Manhattan should be the ones to pursue any leads the special counsel may have on the lawyer, who has enough of a history with Trump to know a thing or three about his clients darkest secrets.

This in itself is a remarkable development. The involvement of the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York  which takes pride in its independence and is singular for being at the epicenter of many financial crimes and public-corruption cases that are unique to Manhattan  means that the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, agreed to go along with the referral. And that Bermans office, working alongside local FBI agents, had enough evidence to convince a magistrate judge to issue warrants for Cohens personal effects. The Post indicated that federal investigators seized his computer, phone and personal financial records, including tax returns from his office, and Lord knows what else from his home and hotel room.

More remarkable still are the legal and procedural hurdles that Bermans office was willing to jump through to seek the warrants. As one-time federal prosecutor Ken White observed over at Reason, because the ensuing searches would invariably turn up confidential attorney-client communications between Cohen and Trump, Department of Justice guidelines require federal prosecutors to seek approval from higher-ups and set up an intricate system to make sure they only get to review and use those documents related to the suspected, underlying crimes  no more, no less. That a Manhattan judge signed off on all of this and likely accounted for the political sensitivity of the matter is yet another sign that federal investigators had probable cause, and then some, to go after even confidential information in Cohens possession.

Whether the sweep will help prosecutors make a case that Cohen committed federal crimes related to the Stormy Daniels payoff or other episodes remains to be seen. But expect the lawyers criminal defense attorneys to argue forcefully, should their clients troubles ever evolve into a full-blown prosecution, that Bermans office violated Cohens constitutional rights with Mondays raids and that any evidence uncovered in the process cannot be used against him in court. Thats precisely what Manaforts lawyers are trying to do now by seeking suppression of evidence Muellers team obtained from a storage unit the FBI gained access to last year, turning up valuable information the special counsel is using to prosecute Trumps former campaign chairman.

If Muellers past moves serve as any guide (and so far his actions have been beyond reproach), expect Cohen to face an uphill battle as he faces off with federal prosecutors, and Trump to grow more unhinged as the pressure on his trusted confidant intensifies. The little we know so far  which doesnt even take into account Cohens entanglements with the ever-complicated Russia story  points to a complicated future for one of the presidents most trusted advisers. Josh Campbell, a former assistant to James Comey, may have best captured what awaits Cohen in this quote from a special agent currently with the FBI: Ive been an FBI special agent for 20 years and have only seen a handful of searches executed on attorneys. All of those attorneys went to prison.
CALGARYThe suspension of work on Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will have a chilling effect on overall investment in Canada, industry observers say.

Any slowdown or uncertainty regarding a pipeline is clearly a major factor impacting business investment in the energy space, CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal said in an interview on Monday.

Energy investment is a very important part of total investment in Canada especially when it comes to rate of growth. To the extent that we see some uncertainty there, it can have a macro impact.

Read more:

Kinder Morgan announces suspension of Trans Mountain expansion

Trans Mountain pipeline dispute needs political solution, Kinder Morgan CEO says

Kinder Morgan says Trans Mountain pipeline project could be a year behind schedule

Shares in Kinder Morgan Canada were down about 10 per cent at $16.61, a day after it announced it was suspending all non-essential construction on the project.

The move came as the TSX/S&P Capped Energy Index, which tracks Canadas largest oil and gas industry members, was up slightly on news of rising oil prices.

The pipeline company said it plans to consult with stakeholders to try to find clarity on the viability of its $7.4-billion project in view of continuing government opposition in B.C., setting a deadline of May 31 to reach a deal or consider cancelling the project.

The warning ups the stakes, but shouldnt come as a surprise to those who have watched the companys five-year struggle to win approval and build the pipeline, said analysts at Desjardins Capital Markets in a report on Monday.

The bottom line is that the future of the TMX project remains cloudy, and yesterdays announcement is only likely to further entrench opposition activists by providing a calendar target, the report says.

It added that Alberta Premier Rachel Notleys declaration that her province is prepared to invest in the project is comforting and suggests that the project might survive the companys deadline.

Greenpeace campaigner Keith Stewart called the May 31 deadline a power play by Kinder Morgan, whose securities filings show that the B.C. governments opposition is only one of many obstacles.

Bad projects are bad projects, so if this redirects investment toward good projects that contribute to Indigenous reconciliation and meeting our climate commitments, then thats a net benefit, Stewart wrote in an email.

In a statement, the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association said uncertainties created by those who seek to subvert the rule of law undermine Canadas ability to attract capital to grow the economy and provide jobs for Canadians.

Business investment in Canada is being diverted to the United States, Royal Bank CEO Dave McKay warned recently. He said the investment exodus is already underway, especially in the energy and clean-technology sectors, due to Ottawas lack of response to a U.S. tax overhaul.

In a report in February, Scotiabank said delayed construction of pipelines including the Trans Mountain expansion, Enbridges Line 3 replacement and TransCanadas Keystone XL is causing discounts for Canadian crude prices that are costing the economy roughly $15.6 billion a year, with the impact expected to moderate as more rail shipping capacity comes on line this year.
The association representing Ontarios real estate agents wants stronger rules to protect home buyers against the risks involved in purchasing a former grow-op, a situation it says will increase once cannabis is legalized this year.

The Ontario Real Estate Association has proposed a series of changes it says can help ensure home buyers are protected from health and safety risks linked to grow-ops.

The group is asking the government to restrict the number of plants a homeowner can grow in a unit 1,000 square feet or smaller to one plant, down from four.

It also says home inspectors should receive training on how to spot the signs of a former marijuana grow operation.

It also wants to ensure all illegal cannabis operations are inspected by a building inspector and wants all municipalities to be required to register remediation work completed on a property.

Once cannabis is legalized, Ontario intends to sell it in up to 150 stores run by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to people 19 and older.
You might soon be able to sneak down to the cargo hold for a nap the next time you take an ultralong transoceanic flight.

Thats the idea being floated by Airbus and seatmaker Zodiac Aerospace. The pair say theyre working to develop sleeping berths that could be installed in the cargo holds of certain long-range Airbus aircraft.

Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace say the cargo compartment modules would offer new opportunities for additional services to passengers, improving their experience while enabling airlines to differentiate and add value for their commercial operations.

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The companies say they hope to offer the option to airlines for orders beginning in 2020. Initially, the sleeper modules would be offered on Airbus A330 wide-bodies  either on new deliveries or with an option to retrofit existing aircraft. Adding the option to Airbus new long-range A350 jets is also being studied.

Its unclear how the sleeper berths might be offered to passengers. Decisions on how to market and sell such options are typically left up to airline customers.

Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace did not detail any specific concepts, but its likely passenger carriers would consider several options. One might include selling access for passengers sitting elsewhere on the plane, presumably letting them pay for access for several hours  or perhaps an entire flights worth  of time in the sleepers.

Some higher-end carriers might explore the idea as a possibility to add a lounge area, where one of the perks could be a nap.

Airbus and Zodiac offered several concepts in mock-ups accompanying their press statement. One shows a standard lounge; others show options that include a conference room, a kids and family zone and even a medical care zone.

Absent additional details, the berths do not seem as though theyd become likely options for actual seats for the entire duration of a flight. Safety rules require passengers to be buckled into seats during takeoff and landing, and its not clear whether such an option would be available in a cargo area of sleeper berths. It also seems unlikely that a passenger would want to commit to a sleeper berth for flights of eight hours or more without a dedicated option for upright seating.

The modules would not be occupied during takeoff or landing, Airbus spokesman Martin Fendt said by email. These underfloor sleeping berths would be aimed more toward economy class market, and would be available for a lower price for a passenger than a premium class flatbed seat.

Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace touted the ease of installation to carriers, saying modules would be easily interchangeable with regular cargo containers during a typical turnaround if required. Moreover, the aircrafts cargo floor and cargo loading system will not be affected at all, as the passenger module will sit directly on it.

For now, Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace will likely test the market to see if any airlines might are interested.

There might be at least one. It was just last month that the CEO of Australian carrier Qantas  which just launched a 17-hour route between Perth and London  expressed interest in just such an idea.

One of the concepts that we have is maybe if were not carrying freight you do something lower where cargo is on the aircraft; do you have an area where people can walk? Do you have berths like on a train?, Qantas Alan Joyce said in during a March conversation quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Theres a lot of out there thinking thats going on, Joyce added. I dont know if in 2022 if theres another going to be another class but if there is Qantas is likely to be the airline that creates it.
Bunz, the Canadian online bartering community known for promoting a cash-free economy, is not abandoning its ethos with plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, company CEO Sascha Mojtahedi said Monday in the wake of some user revolt.

Founded in Toronto in 2013 by Emily Bitze, Bunz began as a Facebook group that encouraged users to trade their unwanted goods rather than seeking cash. Because users wish lists didnt always align neatly, booze, transit tokens and  somewhat controversially  gift cards became commonly requested in trades.

On Monday, Bunz announced it was launching BTZ, a digital currency for the community that can also be used at participating retailers. Mojtahedi said BTZ is not yet an actual cryptocurrency but the plan is to eventually convert it into one. New and existing users of the Bunz app will get 1,000 units of BTZ, which the company says has a current value of about three coffees.

Read more:

Facebook flea market has just one rule: no cash allowed

Bunz: Trading on its good name

Because its a bartering community weve had a number of issues around value disparity ... the divisibility of goods and all these problems can be solved by a cryptocurrency, Mojtahedi said.

I think this just gives our community more flexibility.

The initial reaction to the announcement on social media leaned negative, with Facebook user Melissa Neill writing So much for subverting capitalism and Ray Wilkes posting RIP Bunz spirit & integrity.

Develop something to help poor people get around the financial constraints of capitalism. Capitalize the hell out of it. Develop your own currency for it (but dont call it money lol). Stand back and watch something that was once beautiful die a protracted, awkward death, Wilkes added.

Mojtahedi said the launch of BTZ should not be seen as Bunz heading in a new corporate direction, even though the company has secured funding from institutional investors.

I actually see it as doubling down rather than diverging from the ethos Bunz represents, he said.

Khatereh Vesal, a self-professed crypto nerd and Bunz nerd, said she has no issues with the use of cryptocurrencies on Bunz, but objected to the fact that the companys announcement claimed BTZ was an actual cryptocurrency.

Its like they just kind of decided this was a neat idea  and it might be, as a loyalty points program kind of thing  but we have to be very careful what were calling it because its not technically on a blockchain yet and its not really even an initial coin offering yet, Vesal said, adding she wished the company had more information for users lined up before making its announcement.

Mojtahedi said Bunz wanted to create something that people could interact with and learn from the data and the information and the (user) behaviours before converting BTZ into a cryptocurrency. He added that its not yet determined whether there would be a mining element to the cryptocurrency as is the case with Bitcoin.

I think were looking at a number of different solutions around mining that are pretty different than the way the market approaches it currently, Mojtahedi said.

While the local businesses that are now accepting BTZ have essentially set a baseline value for the currency  one Toronto cafe is charging 300 BTZ for a latte while a bar is asking 600 BTZ for a pint of beer or order of fries  Mojtahedi said he doesnt want to interfere in setting its value. He also wants to avoid speculation in the currency.

Were not offering any inference of the foreign exchange value because we dont know, were really just starting. Weve established a value with our shops and we think its an opportunity to learn from the community themselves rather than trying to peg some value to this currency, he said.

Jean-Paul Lam, an associate professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, has used Bunz as an example when teaching students about concepts around money as a medium of exchange and bartering.

Any type of barter system creates problems with finding partners and you have to spend a huge amount of time to find the right partner and find an exchange that would be satisfying to both parties. So I can understand why they are trying to introduce that medium of exchange that is standardized, Lam said.

But at the same time, it completely defeats the purpose of what it was in the first place, which was a cashless society that would exchange goods for goods.

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STOCKHOLMIkea Group, the worlds largest furniture retailer, is getting ready for a future where people have little to spare: both in their wallets and in terms of space.

The Swedish furniture giant is now abandoning its custom of planning five to 10 years ahead, setting a new three-year approach to keep pace with a rapidly transforming society.

The strategy will ensure that the company caters to an urbanized world where people live in small spaces, have thin wallets and little time, according to chief executive officer Jesper Brodin. Company research shows that by 2030, about 60 per cent of the worlds population will live in large cities, double from now, he said.

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We will take three years where we increase our ambitions for our business targets and where we also partly transform how we meet our customers, he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The company is in the midst of a transformation where its placing more stores in city centres to better reach customers. It has opened more than a dozen small showrooms in cities such as London and Paris to better cater to urban buyers.

Brodin said the strategy is to reach directly into peoples living rooms by increasing its digital focus, online shopping and provide better service to those that need home delivery. The focus on large warehouses will remain, but it will be tempered by other priorities.

We need to think about where we will open our large warehouses and also a lot of investments in the city centres and then scale that up to our mega cities and then to all countries and markets, he said.

Overall, the company wont abandon the low-cost obsession of its founder Ingvar Kamprad, who passed away this January.

We have a financial plan for all of this, taking into account investments in lower prices, Brodin said. Its always the No. 1 priority for us.
A group representing about half of Canadas Tim Hortons franchisees is vowing to do everything in our power to assist a prominent member whose licence renewal was denied amid his ongoing tensions with the fast food giant.

In a letter sent to franchisees on Monday and obtained by The Canadian Press, the Great White North Franchisee Association board said it is appalled that Mark Kuziora, who owns two Toronto Tim Hortons franchises, was allegedly told by Tim Hortons parent company Restaurants Brands International in early April that he would be denied a renewal for one of the restaurants at the end of August.

The board said Kuziora had been negotiating with RBI and TDL Group, a Tim Hortons subsidiary, since September and trusted the negotiations were being done in good faith. Last week it said he received an email from RBI and TDL out of the blue, saying they will be in touch with him in the coming weeks to discuss the transfer of the restaurant to a new owner.

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GWNFA said it considers the move an intimidation tactic.

The management at RBI has no idea how hard we are going to hit back. We will not stand by and let a good franchisee, who cares deeply about his fellow franchisees and the Brand, be railroaded this way, said the board.

This action is unfair, unethical and a manifestation of the lack of character of RBI management. You cannot trust them. Dont doubt for one minute that you are next.

Tim Hortons said in an email to the Canadian Press that Kuziora doesnt have any renewal rights under the licence agreement for the restaurant.

We regularly onboard new Restaurant Owners and transition Restaurants as part of our normal course of business activity, the statement said.

GWNFA President David Hughes called the fast food companys actions preposterous and said Kuziora has been an exemplary franchisee for years and has given his heart and soul to the chain.

Kuziora was recently involved in a class-action lawsuit that alleged RBI used money from a national advertising fund improperly.

Kuziora accused RBI of funnelling nearly $700 million to be used for advertising, marketing and sales promotions to itself and TDL.

At the time, RBI said it vehemently disagreed with and denied all the allegations.

Its current tussle with Kuziora comes after the company faced fierce criticism and customer campaigns to boycott the restaurant in January after two Cobourg, Ont. franchises owned by Ron Joyce Jr. and Jeri Horton-Joyce, the children of the companys billionaire co-founders, moved to offset Ontarios recent minimum wage hike by cutting paid breaks and forcing workers to cover a bigger share of their benefits.

In late February, tensions flared once more when some franchisees experienced intermittent cash register outages that forced them to partially or fully shut down some stores. GWNFA demanded compensation for the outages, caused by a virus, and threatened legal action if it didnt get a meeting with RBI to discuss deficient IT practices.

A month later, they were sparing again over a $700-million renovation plan to bring a more natural look and open-concept seating to Tim Hortons locations. GWNFA said the plans  which asked franchisees to kick in $450,000 each for renovations  were ill-conceived.

GWNFAs letter said Kuziora was willing to have his restaurants undergo renovations and called him a good operator who has put his life savings into his business.

He has pinned the hopes of his family and their future on his investment in Tim Hortons, GWNFAs letter said. Marks needs us today.

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Nobodys going to out-Trump Indiana Senate candidate Todd Rokita.

One reason there are so many Democratic Senate seats at stake in this years midterm elections is that the Donkey Party had a boffo performance in Senate races six years ago. And a major contributor to that success was the tendency of Republicans to nominate teeth-grinding wing nuts who said really dumb and self-destructive things during the general election campaign  especially dumb and self-destructive things about abortion.

Most famous was Missouris Todd Akin, who threw away a probable win against Claire McCaskill by insisting (in the context of opposing rape-and-incest exceptions to a hypothetical abortion ban) that legitimate rapes dont produce pregnancies. Similarly, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock faded after arguing that rape pregnancies were part of Gods plan, and lost an entirely winnable race against Democrat Joe Donnelly. Arguably, these acts of piggish idiocy marginally hurt Republican candidates all over the country by dramatizing their partys extremist stance on reproductive rights. And they wouldnt have occurred if Republicans had not nominated the most ideologically conservative candidates available in competitive primaries (Akin beat two competitive GOP rivals while Mourdock purged RINO senator Richard Lugar).

The specific mistakes made by Akin and Mourdock probably wont recur this year; Republicans (particularly a certain consultant named Kellyanne Conway) spent a lot of time after 2012 training conservative candidates that its never a good idea to tell rape victims why they should be forced by the government to carry pregnancies to term. But looking at some of the hotter GOP primaries this year makes you wonder if another problem for Republicans is emerging: too much MAGA.

Given the dynamics of the Republican Party at present, its understandable that candidates facing primary opposition will want to snuggle up to the president. The most reliable primary voters, after all, are members of the partys conservative base, and at the moment there is no easier way to pander to them than going over the top in support of the wild man in the White House. But that could have consequences in November, since Republican base affection for Trump is not shared that widely among swing voters, and may also help energize Democrats.

Perhaps the clearest example of this dynamic is in Arizona, where Jeff Flakes Senate seat is ripe for the plucking by Democrats (and their likely nominee, U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema). Trumps average 2017 Gallup approval rating in the state was an anemic 41/53. The GOP Establishment favorite, Sinemas House colleague Martha McSally, is being opposed by two hard-core conservative rivals, Kelli Ward (who built name ID in a 2016 challenge to John McCain) and the ever-infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the only candidate anywhere who can boast of a Trump pardon for criminal contempt of a federal judges order. McSally has been pursuing Trump like a smitten teenager, as Jonathan Martin noted earlier this year:

[W]hen she entered the Republican primary to succeed the retiring Senator Jeff Flake, Ms. McSally veered right. She gleefully describes her budding relationship with President Trump, a commander in chief she harshly criticized and may not have even voted for in 2016. Ms. McSally, the first female fighter pilot in the Air Force, recalled how at a West Wing meeting with Mr. Trump last year, she made the case for the A-10 Warthog by calling her old jet a bad-ass airplane with a big gun on it.

In Indiana, another close three-way Senate primary is also producing a Trump-a-palooza, where bitter enemies and U.S. House colleagues Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, and self-funding former state legislator Mike Braun have all, as Cameron Joseph puts it, bear-hugged President Trump in the race, attacking one another for not being sufficiently pro-Trump. Rokita could well be the poster-child for outspoken Trumpism in the Senate field:

You might think this would be a safe tactic in Mike Pences home state. But Hoosiers arent as mad for MAGA as you might think: Trumps average 2017 approval ratio in Indiana, according to Gallup, was a less than dazzling 44/51. Democrat Joe Donnelly could win again, particularly if his opponent goes out of his way to make the election a referendum on Trump.

Even in West Virginia, where Trump really is still popular, the competition to praise him is causing trouble. Ex-coal baron and ex-con Don Blankenship is depicting himself as Trumps best friend in the state  and as a victim of a conspiracy by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that led to his imprisonment for complicity in a horrific mining disaster. The president recently helped out West Virginia Republicans (who fear that Blankenship would be a weak nominee against Democratic senator Joe Manchin) by appearing with both of his rivals, Representative Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. But with the May 8 primary rapidly approaching, the Trumpian intervention against hyper-Trumpian Blankenship could be too little, too late. Blankenship has outspent his rivals on television ads, and in a race with virtually no independent public polling, seems to be running at or near the top of the pack.

While competing for the MAGA mantle makes sense in West Virginia, the phenomenon is occurring even in hyper-blue California, where the big issue between the states two Republican gubernatorial candidates, wealthy businessman John Cox and state legislator Travis Allen, is whether the former can live down his admitted vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson over Trump in 2016. Cox allows as how hes a big fan of Trump now, but Allen seems to have the grassroots right-wing mojo going for him. Cox, however, is probably the GOPs best hope to place a candidate in the general election under Californias top-two primary system; after some heavy ad spending, he was running second behind Gavin Newsom in one recent independent poll. Allens attacks on him for being insufficiently committed to the president could easily drag him down to third (another Democrat, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to spend a small fortune to make the general election matchup with Newsom), and Cox certainly wont be helped in the general election itself by association with a president who is very unpopular in the Golden State.

All in all, the GOP competition to show love for Trump is an important wild card in a midterm election cycle that is already likely to revolve around perceptions of the 45th president. Normally members of an unpopular presidents party avoid being associated with him (there werent a lot of Republicans in competitive races running intensely pro-W. campaigns in 2006, or Democrats in close contests insisting on identification with Barack Obama in 2010). But Trumps not your normal president, and he is impossible to ignore. Maybe Republicans are just embracing the inevitable association and trying to make hay with it while the sun shines on Trump in the primary season. But the MAGA hat may not fit on their heads so comfortably come the fall.
CALGARY  Its lunch time at James Fowler High School, and the learning, English and academic development (LEAD) class is serving up ice cold slushies to their fellow students just in time for the spring melt.

According to Carla Belanger, James Fowlers English language learning leader and teacher of the LEAD class, about 90 per cent of the class 45 students are Syrian refugees who came to Calgary from the refugee influx two years ago.

Belanger said the purpose of the LEAD class is getting students up to speed on where they should be in the Canadian school system, and filling gaps in students education.

Just like any other high school students in Calgary, theyre handling cash, and conversing in English, a language not their first, all despite some having huge gaps in their education stemming from displacement back in Syria.

When we first came, the first day it was hard, because everything is new, but now its better because we learned English, we can speak to the people, said student Murhaf Aolthman, who came to Canada two years ago as a Syrian refugee from a refugee camp in Jordan.

Canadians are good because they helped us to be confident in Canada, to get (to) school, to have work, to be the same as Canadians, said Aolthman.

They gave us a lot of chances to learn, to have friends, to have a new life, to have freedom, he said.

The LEAD class came up with the idea to sell slushies to raise money for the Mustard Seed, a Calgary organization that helps the homeless.

Belanger said the students wanted to help the Mustard Seed because, earlier this year, they had a guided tour of the facility. She said they can relate to being without a home.

Another Syrian student in LEAD, Mahmoud Atik, said he also had some trouble finding his bearings when first coming to Canada, but after a couple of months, Atik was able to make some friends and progress further in his studies at James Fowler.

I felt so excited over that, said Atik, who said he came to Canada one-and-a-half years ago, from Turkey as a Syrian refugee.

Atik, and Aolthman, said that when Syria stabilizes, theyd like to go back to visit friends and family, but also that theyre enjoying life and going to school in Calgary now that theyve adjusted.

Atik said he aspires to study and go into business after graduating from James Fowler, and Aolthman said hed like to work as a barber after graduating high school, something he said he already has experience in.

Canada is a safe country anyone can live in, its so beautiful, especially Canadian people, their culture, said Atik.

Nothing is impossible in Canada, he said.

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EDMONTONAn Alberta judge has rejected attempts to justify a law that requires anyone convicted of two sex offences be automatically placed on the national sex offender registry for life.

In a ruling released Monday, Queens Bench Justice Andrea Moen re-affirmed her earlier decision that judges and prosecutors should have discretion over who is added to the list.

She also said it was unconstitutional to automatically keep an offender on the list permanently.

Moen says the Crown failed to prove that police investigations would be made easier by keeping all offenders on the list, even those whose risk to re-offend was barely higher than an average citizen.

She points out that being put on the list has significant consequences.

The director of Edmontons Sexual Assault Centre called the decision a step backward.

Alberta Justice was unable to say immediately if the decision will be appealed.

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CALGARY  Residents who live near a police-involved shooting that happened in Bridgeland late Monday night say they still feel safe in their community.

According to a release from Calgary police, plainclothes Calgary Police Service officers were at the corner of 2 Avenue and 6 Street NE when a confrontation occurred between an officer and a man who is alleged to have been armed.

An officer shot the man, who died at the scene.

Anthony Sturgess lives across the street from the gravel parking lot where the shooting took place. He heard the commotion and then gunfire.

I was inside at the time and I was just in the kitchen, he said. I heard some arguing and it got a little heated and then I heard a sudden shot.

Sturgess said he only heard one shot.

This is the first time Ive heard something like this, he said. Normally this is a very quiet neighbourhood.

Sturgess neighbour Judy Stephenson did not hear the shooting but did notice the police presence, saying there were about a dozen police cars.

She said shes never had any worries living here and this shooting hasnt changed anything.

Its something that happened. Stuff happens.

Graham Newby was out for a walk with his one-year-old son on Tuesday morning and lives just blocks from the corner where the incident happened. He said the shooting doesnt alarm him.

Weve lived here for three years and this is the first thing of this nature Ive been aware of, he said.

I love this neighbourhood. Its close to downtown. It feels safe with lots of families.

Newby said he realizes its a mix of million-dollar homes and some lower income properties but thats just the nature of the community.

Thats life. Thats what you get when you live in the inner city, he said.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has now taken control of the investigation into the shooting, as is the norm whenever an officer fires a service sidearm.

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EDMONTON  The citys shisha dreams could go up in smoke, if one city councillor has his way.

Shisha bars have already been banned in Toronto, Halifax and Ottawa, and Coun. Scott McKeen says he wants Edmonton to consider following suit, for the sake of public health.

He plans to make an inquiry into the impact of banning shisha in Edmonton at an upcoming community and public services committee meeting.

How do you ban smoking and allow shisha? It doesnt make any sense, McKeen said.

Somehow shisha was ignored, I think, because of cultural tradition. And we were all told that this was nontobacco harmless product.

A hookah is a tall water pipe that burns charcoal at the top to heat tobacco and/or molasses (also known as shisha). Many hookahs come with flavoured tobacco to mask the harsh flavour.

Because smoking tobacco indoors is not allowed in Canada, bars serve herbal hookah or just shisha instead.

McKeen says he decided to make the inquiry because Edmonton Police told him many shisha bars in Edmonton use tobacco, illegally.

Sgt. Colin Simpson of the public safety compliance team says there are definitely a number of lounges on their radar out of the 35 shisha venues in town.

We havent been able to obviously hit every single hookah lounge in town, so I cant say that its in all of them. But the ones we have frequently gone to, we have found them, he said.

Simpson says there are also health reasons for a ban.

We want the public to be safe. If you want to smoke them in your own home thats fine, everybody can do their own thing. The primary problem is the health concern, he said citing an Alberta Health Services document about the risks of water-pipe use.

In recent years, several Canadian cities have made the decision to clamp down on hookah smoking at lounges.

In 2016, the city of Toronto passed a bylaw banning the use of water pipes in all licensed establishments, after a medical officer of health said pipes burning tobacco or other substances, including molasses, pose a health hazard, not only to users, but also non-users through second-hand smoke.

Lounge owners challenged the ban, but the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the case in 2017.

In Nova Scotia, the province passed a controversial bill called Bill 60 that banned e-cigarettes and shisha in public places.

For Bilal Ahmed, a recent graduate, smoking shisha holds cultural significance.

Hookahs origins are traced to India, where Ahmeds parents are from.

How I would essentially put it is like, (its) the social equivalence of tea-time in England or having a beer with friends here, he said. Its very relaxing, very calming, you have a good conversation and nobody does anything stupid when they smoke shisha.

He says because people have been smoking hookahs for hundreds of years, banning it would be taking out a huge part of peoples culture and identity.

Ramin Sedighi, a student at MacEwan University who attends hookah lounges four or five times a week, says he is sure that an Edmonton ban is looming.

One hundred per cent it will be banned. Its just a matter of time, he said. Even if they dont ban it, they will shut it down. They will give you a massive fine where they know you cant pay.

But he will not be happy if the city bans the lounges.

It pisses me off, because its something I have liked doing for so long, he said.

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The Rob Ford saga is making a comeback  on the big screen. English actor and producer Damian Lewis is portraying the controversial late mayor of Toronto in an upcoming film called Run This Town, currently being shot in Toronto, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The movie follows a reporter (Ben Platt) who attempts to expose a scandal involving a politician who doesnt play by the rules, according to the movie-industry publication.

Ford, of course, was Torontos mayor from 2010 to 2014. He had a history of public intoxication and substance abuse, culminating in his being recorded smoking crack cocaine, as reported in Star investigations led by investigative reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle.

The film is currently being shot in Toronto and has no release date.

Ricky Tollman, the Canadian writer-director of the film, said its not a Rob Ford biopic, and that Ford is a fairly minor character. The main story is about how millennials like Platts character struggle to make a living in a post-recession economy.

This isnt the Rob Ford story, Tollman said, adding that he wants to create a sympathetic portrait of the late mayor.

Rob isnt just a caricature, hes a person and hes a human, Tollman said. He cared very deeply about the city he was the mayor of. And this was a guy with demons.

An interview with Lewis  an Emmy winner for his role in Homeland, the current star of TVs Billions and a notably sleeker figure than the late mayor  was published in Kit Magazine, which described the prosthetic the actor was wearing for his role.

The process involved getting his face and head completely covered in silicon strips, breathing through a small hole near the nose, the article stated.

The politicians aides, played by Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud, try their best to handle him and keep the story suppressed.

The film was initially reported to be a thriller; however, a publicist for the film contacted the Star and said the movie is in fact a drama  and all characters aside from Ford are fictitious.

The Star won the prestigious Michener Award in 2014 for its coverage of the scandals surrounding Ford. The investigation, led by Donovan with Doolittle, resulted in a police investigation and eventually Ford losing many of his mayoral powers.

The Toronto Star exposed Fords public drunkenness, boorish behaviour, abuses of his office and existence of a video of him smoking crack cocaine accompanied by members of a drug gang, the foundation said at the time. The Star did not waver as the mayor countered every story with vehement denials and attacks.

Doolittle on Tuesday tweeted about the fact that the lead reporter in the movie is a male role.

Im glad theyre rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated Rob Ford, tweeted Doolittle, now at the Globe and Mail. Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it? Ammaright?

After being criticized on social media, Platt replied in a tweet of his own, saying that he plays a reporter at a fictional paper, and that his character does not represent Doolittle.

The character is in no way based on Robyn Doolittle and does not attempt to co-opt her narrative, he wrote. He added that he would never be in a film that would attribute the accomplishments of a remarkable woman to a fictional man.

Ford died in 2016 at the age of 46 after a struggle with cancer; the story takes place in the last year of his term. The film is the first feature film directed by actor/producer Ricky Tollman.

With files from the Canadian Press
HALIFAXThe body of Montreal-born yoga instructor Kristin Johnston was found on a blood-soaked bed next to a steak knife, a mitre saw and Nicholas Butchers severed hand, a Halifax jury heard Tuesday.

The Crown has alleged the law school graduate killed Johnston and tried to kill himself inside her Halifax-area home on the morning of March 26, 2016.

Responding officers told the jury they found Johnstons lifeless body in the master bedroom, her head covered with a pillow and a black-handled steak knife lying beside her.

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On the floor was a mitre saw, and an amputated hand, the jury heard.

Minutes earlier, Butcher had frantically told a 911 dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend and tried to kill himself.

The dispatcher, Jordan Masters, took the stand before the call was played for the 14-member Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury.

Butcher, 35, was breathing heavily as he told Masters on the call he had killed his girlfriend and had cut off his hand.

I killed my girlfriend. I tried to kill myself. I cut off my hand. I need help, said Butcher, whose lawyer Peter Planetta confirmed it was his clients voice on the call.

The dispatcher repeatedly asked Butcher to identify himself, but the caller never responded, often replying with, Im dying.

During the call, Butcher gasped, wailed, sobbed and, at times, sounded like he was vomiting.

No, he cried. Oh God.

Eventually, the call was lost. The dispatcher tried to call the number back twice. You have reached  Nick Butcher, the voicemail message said.

Friends of Johnston, 32, could be heard sniffling as the call was played loudly over courtroom speakers.

Butcher, wearing a navy suit and glasses, sat quietly at his lawyers bench and stared forward.

Halifax police Const. Ray Turner was one of the first officers on the scene after the 911 call came in.

Turner told the jury that when he arrived, a shirtless man wearing pyjama pants came out of the front door of the house in Purcells Cove.

The officer said he told the man to put his hands up, and the suspect complied. Turner said he noticed the man appeared to be missing his right hand.

Turner said he was surprised there wasnt more blood.

He seemed to be conscious and aware, he said.

Turner said he eventually entered the house and saw a trail of blood leading down a hallway. He followed the trail to the master bedroom at the end of the hall.

We located a female on the bed ... pillow over her head, lying on her back, yoga pants on, bedsheets to the right of her and to the left saturated in blood ... what appeared to be a steak knife, he said.

Turner said another officer called out to her, but there was no answer.

Also found in the bedroom was a mitre saw and a severed hand, he said.

Paramedic Jessica Dipasquale, who was also on scene that morning, testified that Butchers injury was a clean slice.

She said Butcher was saying: Help me. I dont want to die. Call my mom.

A doctor who treated Butcher in the hospital testified Butcher also had penetrating wounds to his neck.

Dr. Genevieve McKinnon, an anaesthesiologist, said Butcher was conscious as she was helping him with his airway, and he told her several times he had messed up.

She said he didnt elaborate, but appeared remorseful.

The trial continues Wednesday.

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HALIFAX  Nova Scotia will get $828 million in federal infrastructure funding over the next 10 years under an agreement announced Tuesday that will see much of the money go to small, cash-strapped communities.

The province is the seventh province or territory to sign on to the $180-billion, 12-year Investing in Canada Plan.

Premier Stephen McNeil said the money would assist with water and sewer projects and other provincial priorities, including the twinning of 100-series highways, the expansion of broadband internet in rural areas and construction of a new art gallery in Halifax.

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The money would also allow the province to help fund infrastructure projects in 13 Mikmaq communities, including the cleanup of the Northern Pulp waste water lagoons which sit on the property of the Pictou Landing First Nation, he said.

We believe there is an important opportunity, he said. I made a commitment on behalf of the province that we would deal with the issue of Boat Harbour and this will allow us and the federal government to be part of that.

Treasury Board President Scott Brison said the key for rural communities will be the flexibility of the funding formula, which is calculated to reduce their burden.

The fact we are enabling smaller communities to attain up to 60 per cent of federal funding for their projects is a real game changer, said Brison. Its going to make a difference for a lot of these communities that simply dont have the tax base to raise the money.

Officials said the municipal funding contribution could go as low as seven per cent of a projects cost.

Geoff Stewart, president of the Nova Scotia Union of Municipalities, said the program would provide some relief for struggling towns and villages.

Municipalities have been struggling for many years to try to maintain a level of service that is expected by the public. This announcement can only enhance the opportunities for better waste water treatment and water treatment.

Reporters also asked McNeil whether there was any opportunity to help fund a Halifax stadium that might attract a potential CFL franchise.

McNeil downplayed the possibility, but said the province would look at all projects brought forward under the program.

While this is a substantial amount of money the need is great in our province, he said. We need to make sure we address the issues that we have no choice but to do. Municipalities are mandated by law to deal with the water and sewer issues and we have to make sure those are our priority.

McNeil said the long-term nature of the funding would help with planning for projects that will benefit the entire province. He said there would also be the opportunity to draw in private sector help.

Under the plans first phase, the federal government has approved nearly 3,500 projects across Canada worth $8.4 billion.

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OTTAWADefence Minister Harjit Sajjan sidestepped a question Monday about Canadian peacekeepers supporting an African-led counterterror force in Mali, saying Canada has already helped what is known as the Group of Five Sahel.

The United Nations Security Council in December authorized the peacekeeping mission in Mali to provide assistance to the group, a military force composed of troops from five African nations.

That assistance includes medical evacuations for combat and non-combat injuries as well as the provision of fuel, water and rations  exactly what the six Canadian military helicopters due to arrive in Mali in August will be configured to do.

The revelation last week that Canadian helicopters could be used to support the G5 Sahel force sparked opposition calls for the Liberal government to provide more information about what the Canadian military is walking into in Mali.

While Sajjan did not say Monday whether Canadian peacekeepers would end up helping the counterterror mission, he did note that Canada has actually been supporting the G5 Sahel force for some time.

Weve been doing capacity-building in that region, he said during an event at the University of Calgary. Weve been supporting with logistical support to the French with tactical airlift.

Canada has sporadically provided a heavy transport aircraft to move weapons and equipment into Mali for the French military, which helped establish and has been working alongside the G5 Sahel since last year.

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The most recent flight was in February, and there were four before that going back to November 2016.

The Canadian military has also been helping train local forces in Niger, one of the five African countries participating in the G5 Sahel.

So weve been supporting that and being a responsible partner for some time, Sajjan said. We will always look at how we can best support our partners in all aspects of challenges around the world.

The G5 Sahel, whose members are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Mali, has been tasked with fighting jihadists and transnational crime groups across a large swath of West Africa south of the Sahara desert.

The force was the brainchild of France, which has been conducting counterterror operations in Mali and the region since 2012, and it enjoys financial backing from France, the U.S., the European Union and others.

But the 5,000-strong forces first operation in November was plagued by logistical problems, and it remains very much a work in progress despite political support from a variety of powers including Russia and China.

It was in that context that the UN Security Council passed a resolution Dec. 8 emphasizing the G5 Sahels role in bringing security to the region and authorizing the UN mission in Mali to provide support to the African force.

An agreement between the UN, the EU and G5 Sahel members to provide operational and logistical support to the force through the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, was signed in February, a UN spokesperson said.

Security Council members specifically authorized the provision of medical evacuations, including those related to combat and other malicious acts, as well as fuel, water, rations and engineering services to the G5 force.

Such support is to be restricted to Mali, in accordance with the UN missions own boundaries, and only when it wont negatively affect the peacekeeping missions own operations.

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EDMONTONAlberta United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney says proposed legislation creating safe zones around abortion clinics is political game-playing by the NDP government.

He said Monday he will abstain when the bill comes to a vote. His caucus members will be allowed to vote freely.

Kenney said Premier Rachel Notleys government has never proposed or discussed such legislation before. He said they are doing so now to distract from a budget that promises an $8.8-billion deficit this year and more long-term debt.

Read more:

Alberta introduces bill for no-go zones around abortion clinics

Abortion clinic buffer zones coming to Ontario

Nova Scotia one of the worst places in Canada to get an abortion, advocates say

This is so obviously a transparent effort by the NDP to distract attention from its failed economic record, said Kenney. Were not going to play games with divisive social issues. Were here to focus on job creation and economic growth, (and) market access for energy products.

I will be abstaining from the vote, as will most of our caucus.

Kenney has been clear in the past he is against abortion, but has said he would never legislate on the issue.

The proposed legislation would create 50-metre buffer zones around abortion clinics to keep protesters away and would also forbid them from taking video or pictures of those going in or out under penalty of fines or jail terms.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said the government began looking at legislation last year, and said Kenneys non-stance speaks volumes.

The fact that Mr. Kenney refuses to stand up for women is disappointing. Its not surprising, but its disappointing, said Hoffman.

Women deserve to have peace in accessing health care services. What were doing is in line with other jurisdictions in the country and it is about making sure that they are not bullied or harassed.

Liberal legislature member David Swann said Kenneys abstention is his choice.

For the rest of us, most Albertans, this is a clear issue of protecting employees, protecting patients, and getting fair and safe access to recognized health services.

The two main clinics in Alberta that handle about 75 per cent of all abortion procedures have civil restraining orders in place to keep protesters across the street, but they say demonstrators routinely ignore or violate those rules.

The bill, introduced last week, would also designate similar no-go zones around homes and offices of doctors and other staff who provide abortions.

It would also be illegal for anyone to harass a doctor or staffer by phone, mail or online to convince them to not provide abortion services.

Anyone breaking the law faces fines up to $10,000 or a year in jail. Corporations that violate the rules can be fined up to $100,000.

If the bill passes, Alberta will join British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador in creating so-called bubble zones around clinics.

The operators of the clinics say the legislation has helped reduce harassment in those other provinces.

Anti-abortion advocates say the bill is an assault on free speech and that adequate laws already exist to prevent bullying and harassment of patients and staff.

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VANCOUVERA B.C. Supreme Court judge says the Crown should consider laying criminal contempt of court charges against Green Party leader Elizabeth May and dozens of other demonstrators alleged to have violated a pipeline court injunction.

May, New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, and others arrested last month are currently charged with civil contempt of court over allegations that they protested within five metres of two Trans Mountain sites in Burnaby, B.C.

But Justice Kenneth Affleck said the case should not be left to Trans Mountain to pursue as a private litigant and the matter should be taken over by B.C.s attorney general.

Read more:

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, NDP MP arrested at Trans Mountain pipeline protest in B.C.

Kinder Morgan announces suspension of Trans Mountain expansion

Trans Mountain pipeline extension will be built, Trudeau vows

There is no doubt in my mind that the conduct that is alleged here amounts to criminal contempt of court, he said Monday.

They are matters of public importance, they ought not to be left in the hands of a private litigant.

May was arrested with several others on March 23 when she joined protesters to rally against the expansion of the pipeline.

The B.C. Prosecution Services civil disobedience policy manual says whether contempt is a civil or criminal matter is determined by the character and nature of the conduct.

A dispute of civil contempt would remain between the parties involved, while criminal contempt involves the public interest in administering justice, says a copy of the manual posted to the B.C. government website.

A criminal contempt often involves a mass disobedience of a court order which tends to bring the administration of justice into disrepute or scorn, it says.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP MP Kennedy Stewart were among people arrested March 23 at a B.C. protest against Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. May called the project a crime against future generations. (The Canadian Press)

Trevor Shaw, a lawyer for the B.C. Prosecution Service, told the judge it would carefully consider a referral of the case from the court and report back on what we see as the next steps that are viable and appropriate.

Civil and criminal contempt charges have substantial overlap, Shaw said.

The contempt, when its criminal in nature, is typically reserved for cases where there has been a failure for an effective civil enforcement, there has been particularly egregious conduct, repeat offenders or sentences where there have been violence or damaged property, he said.

Maureen Killoran, counsel for Trans Mountain, said its the responsibility of the court, not the company, to move forward on prosecuting the 150 people arrested at the site since the injunction was granted.

The injunction order from the perspective of Trans Mountain is meaningless. It is a circus on site, and the court must take steps to protect the rule of law, she said.

Affleck said the trials, which should be expedited, arent determining the merit of the pipeline expansion project that faces fierce opposition in B.C.

This trial is not about the whether the work being done by Trans Mountain or Kinder Morgan is lawful or environmentally wise, none of that, he said. The only issue is, has there been public defiance of the order?

Mays lawyer, Andi MacKay, said the courts direction to have the charges proceed as criminal rather than civil were clear, and while defendants intend to co-operate, they need more time.

She said only 15 of the 25 people in court on Monday had actually been served, and many people still needed time to find a lawyer.

Individuals who are alleged to be in contempt of the court order are entitled to the time to retain counsel, to instruct counsel, to consider their options, to receive disclosure and to have proper notice, MacKay said in court.

The judge released the group on a promise to appear in court next week.

May declined to comment on the proceedings.

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Victor Pinchuk is a big fan of Donald Trumps oratory. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump savaged Hillary Clinton for accepting speaking fees and charitable donations from globalists who sought to establish open borders. Clinton, meanwhile, accused Trump of favoring Vladimir Putin over the European Union, especially on the issue of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

And yet, in the fall of 2015, Donald Trump instructed a Ukrainian billionaire to donate $150,000 to the Trump Foundation (a now-defunct charity that had specialized in helping real-estate moguls secure legal aid and Tim Tebow memorabilia) as compensation for a speech the Republican candidate gave to a proEuropean Union strategy conference in Kiev.

As the New York Times reports:

The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Trumps foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Mr. Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.

Investigators subpoenaed the Trump Organization this year for an array of records about business with foreign nationals. In response, the company handed over documents about a $150,000 donation that the Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, made in September 2015 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute appearance by Mr. Trump that month through a video link to a conference in Kiev.

This latest peek behind Robert Muellers curtain is a bit disorienting, for reasons alluded to above: Victor Pinchuks conspicuous generosity to the Clinton Foundation  while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of State  was among the first pseudo-scandals to dog her campaign. In March 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Pinchuks foundation had donated at least $8.6 million to her familys charity during her time in the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, the narrative about the Trump campaigns dealings with foreign oligarchs has not, generally, involved the mogul taking money from interests hostile to Putin and supportive of the (globalist, pro-open borders) European Union.

Further complicating matters, the payment to Trump was reportedly arranged by former Bill Clinton adviser Doug Schoen  the same Doug Schoen who withdrew his support from Hillary Clintons campaign in October 2016, on the grounds that her presidency would be hobbled by scandals. Our national security will continue to be jeopardized by ongoing investigations by the FBI, Schoen wrote, and potentially the Justice Department and Congress, putting us at immediate risk of more assertive actions in Europe, Middle East and Asia by the Russians and Chinese (thank god Trump won and spared America these risks).

Anyhow, on first blush, theres nothing obviously unlawful about Pinchuks donation to the Trump Foundation. And accepting money from a billionaire with connections to a foreign government  while Donald Trump was running for U.S. president  is among the least shady things the Trump Foundation has done: Even if Pinchuk gave $150,000 to Trumps self-portrait slush fund with the intention of buying the candidates favor on American policy toward Ukraine, theres little sign it worked. And anyhow, at the time the gift was given, there was very little reason for Pinchuk to believe that Trump would actually win the GOP nomination and then the presidency.

Nevertheless, the Pinchuk payment is yet another sign that the special counsel is scrutinizing the Trump campaigns relationships with foreign interests other than Russia  and, also, that Trump may be an equal-opportunity kleptocrat, as happy to take money from pro-EU forces in Ukraine as he was to take campaign advice from political operatives who served pro-Putin forces in that country.
Canadian cities struggling to reduce needless deaths of people with unaddressed mental health and addiction problems need more from Ottawa than unco-ordinated hodgepodge responses.

That is the call from the mayors of Kitchener, Mississauga, St. Johns, Toronto, Vancouver and Windsor who spoke to reporters during Mondays summit on mental health and cities.

Torontos John Tory, a co-host of the event at the University of Toronto, said the federal government must urgently get and distribute data on the extent of the problems as the first steps to establishing benchmarks for government responses in terms of supportive housing, drug treatment and more.

Cities dont need new federal or provincial ministries, Tory added, but better co-ordination among the existing ones responsible for health, education, housing, policing and others impacted by unaddressed mental health issues and the related opioid overdose epidemic.

Ministries need to start sitting together for real and actually making decisions and setting goals together for real instead of this unco-ordinated hodgepodge of efforts which are all well-meaning, Im sure, and some are actually quite well-funded, but its not working because its a patchwork..., he said.

People dont care about boundaries between governments  they just want to see people getting helped.

Earlier, each of the mayors told a cavernous, crowded dining hall about the challenges their cities face and how they are trying to cope.

The most dire came from Vancouvers Gregor Robertson, whose city has been ground zero for fatal overdoses from fentanyl and other opioid narcotics and noted the morgues have been full.

Safe-injection sites and emergency responders have saved countless lives but opioids still kill, on average, an unbelievably horrific four British Columbians per day, at least one of them in Vancouver, Robertson said.

This is a crisis like weve never seen before in public health and its wiping out many, many people with mental health challenges who are self-medicating with opioids, laced with poison, he said.

This is a preventable epidemic and we need to see federal government leadership in co-ordinating the data, in focusing the resources where they can turn this crisis around, and making sure cities are at the table working with the feds and provinces to tackle this brutal crisis.

He highlighted the complexity of the problem by noting that few Vancouverites actually die on the street in the citys Lower Eastside, where vigilant harm-reduction workers and first responders work to prevent or quickly treat overdoses.

Instead 80 per cent die alone in their homes or in single occupancy hotel rooms  bare-bones rentals sometimes found with help from government agencies to help get addicted people off the street or out of emergency shelters so they can better access city and provincial programs.

Thats where the stigma with mental health and addictions has to be broken, Robertson said of people hiding drug use and dying without anybody knowing, much less intervening.

There has to be a far bigger (anti-stigma) campaign at the national level, and easier access to safer drugs including hydromorphone pills, a pharmaceutical narcotic derived from morphine, he said. Thats what will save lives.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told the audience about the trauma of two police officers last month fatally shooting a mentally ill man who had stabbed one of the officers, and had said he went off his medications because they turned him into a zombie.

Other mayors told of the vast majority of calls to their police services relate to mental illness or addiction, of surges in demand in hospital emergency departments, and of challenges in finding homes for people trying to get treatment that can help them regain their lives and employment.

Mississaugas Bonnie Crombie noted that a coalition of Canadas big city mayors have had success pressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government for help paying for new transit, affordable housing and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sewers.

Co-ordinated efforts to help people with mental health and addictions is the next issue that we should tackle as a unified group of mayors, Crombie said, adding it also might be time for companies and cities to hire mental health officers to help in the effort.

Ontario Health Minister Helena Jaczek told the summit she agrees mental health issues are a crisis and listed millions of dollars in spending in her Liberal governments recent budget that she said could help to address it.

But Jaczek also noted Ontario is on the eve of a provincial election. With Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford leading opinion polls, she warned: Now is not the time for deep cuts.

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OTTAWAFacing a political test that could mark his government as dithering or decisive, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is vowing that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will be built, as Ottawa considers a broad range of unspecified options to make the controversial project a reality.

Those options could include direct investment or some kind of financial backstop to the project, as the Alberta government says its prepared to make, or withholding discretionary federal spending from British Columbia to punish the provincial NDP government for delaying its own permits and threatening more court challenges to the project. It could even see Ottawa assert federal constitutional authority over the project and guarantee construction via a promise to arrest protesters who are equally adamant to stop it.

We are determined to see that pipeline built. It is in the national interest, Trudeau said Monday in Montreal, setting the stage for federal intervention to push ahead with its construction.

Neither Trudeau nor Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr is ruling anything out after the government of Alberta and Kinder Morgan, the company behind the pipeline, stepped up pressure on the federal Liberals.

Kinder Morgan, which gave Ottawa a heads-up on Saturday, announced Sunday that due to extraordinary political risks, it was suspending non-essential spending on Trans Mountain until May 31 while it seeks greater clarity for its investors that the project can indeed proceed.

Trudeau, who has staked his own political fortunes on the project by promising to get Alberta oil to market, said, This is an important project, not only for the western part of the country but for all of Canada.

In an interview with the Star, Carr signalled the Liberal government is prepared to act with our willing partners  to create the environment within which theres sufficient clarity for the project to proceed. But Carr refused to provide details other than to say the government will address the anxiety in the oil and gas sector around competitiveness issues, including nervousness that has intensified since the U.S. brought in broad corporate tax cuts.

He later told CBC that Ottawa has legislative, regulatory and financial tools to get the pipeline built.

Read more:

Trans Mountain pipeline dispute needs political solution, Kinder Morgan CEO says

Pipeline protesters including Green Party leader Elizabeth May should face criminal charges: judge

Kinder Morgan announces suspension of Trans Mountain expansion

Carr denied the Liberal government has failed to champion the project and allowed opposition in B.C. to grow, saying people there feel passionate about the issue and are free to express opposition as long as they do it legally.

If opponents go outside the law, then somebody might arrest them, and thats happened, he said.

Carr and Trudeau openly voiced frustration with B.C. Premier John Horgans opposition to the pipeline, saying he is obstructing progress.

Unfortunately for the premier of British Columbia, it is not up to him to interfere with a project of national interest, said Trudeau, adding hed had a long conversation with the B.C. premier Sunday. I can reassure all Canadians right across this country that this project of national interest will be carried out.

Have your say

For his part, Horgan showed little sign of relenting, saying Sunday his party was elected last year on a promise to defend and protect our coast. He held out little hope that talks over the coming weeks could break the impasse. It is our view that provincial jurisdiction should prevail, Horgan told reporters.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Monday she is prepared for her province to take an equity stake in the project, vowing Alberta would not be a nervous investor. She urged the federal government to act as well, saying Ottawa has greater fiscal and financial leverage to advance the project.

If the federal government allows its authority to be challenged in this way  the reverberations of that will tear at the fabric of Confederation for many many years to come, she said. So were not going to let that happen.

New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, who represents the Vancouver-area riding of Burnaby South, said the company doesnt need Ottawas financial backing but rather wants a promise the federal Liberals would send in the military to guarantee the pipelines construction  a move Stewart believes the government is considering, but which would trigger massive opposition in B.C.

Carr landed in hot water in 2016 for appearing to suggest that defence forces would protect the peace in the face of violent protests.

Kennedy himself was one of two MPs arrested on March 23 and now faces charges of civil contempt in connection with a protest against the project. A B.C. judge recommended Monday that the province take over the civil prosecution as a criminal contempt case. The B.C. government is to reply next week.

Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank, said the federal Liberals are in a no-win situation. Noting that the Trans Mountain expansion would run right through the B.C. Lower Mainland, a Liberal stronghold where opposition runs high, he wondered if the party has the intestinal fortitude to push it through. But he said with the latest Trudeau pledge that the project will be built, the Liberals must make it happen to protect federal jurisdiction.

I think this has gone way beyond a conflict over an individual project. I think its now become a challenge to federal power and the rule of law, Crowley said. If they fail to follow through, they will have  damaged federal standing.

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This years Grade 10 literacy test is old school  pen-and-paper  after a pilot project to move it online ended in digital disaster.

But in a new-age twist, stressed students who need more time to finish it will get it  even if they dont have previously arranged approvals in place allowing them additional minutes.

The relaxed time rule will also apply to Grade 9 students writing the provincial math test.

Think you are smarter than a 10th Grade student? Scroll down to the bottom and take our quiz

Although schools will have identified students who regularly require additional time prior to the assessment, there may occasionally be students who request extra time to complete a booklet on the day of the assessment, due to individual circumstances, said Steven Reid, chief assessment officer for the EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office), in a memo to boards.

Additional time may be allowed with supervision, so long as the booklet is completed in one continuous sitting.

Boards across the province have said their understanding is that extra time is allowed for any student who needs it.

Students write the literacy test  which they must pass in order to graduate  on Tuesday.

The literacy test comprises two booklets, and under past rules students were allotted 75 minutes for each one, with a break in between. Those formally identified as needing extra time were given it.

The EQAO said the change in time constraints is not to coddle students; Reid told the Star it is to help students be the best they can.

The EQAO has no plans to track how many students receive additional time, but said the results of the test will remain comparable to those in past years.

Charles Pascal, an education professor at the University of Toronto and former chair of the board of EQAO, said aptitude should be defined in terms of how long it takes two different learners to achieve the desired result rather than whether some can or cannot perform.

When it comes to measuring educational results, including literacy via the (literacy test), I have no problem with holding success constant and allowing time to vary.

Reid said the EQAO will let teachers professional judgment prevail, and is expecting them to treat the literacy test as they would any test in their classroom.

The 75-minute allotment already builds in a buffer for students, he said, and in the past most teens have completed it without issue.

Tests are administered in reading, writing and math in Grades 3 and 6, math in Grade 9 and literacy in Grade 10. They were first introduced in 1997.

The time change for high school students was already in place for elementary testing.

York University Education Professor Heather Lotherington, who questions the value of the test  saying it is out of step with contemporary literacy evaluations  said nonetheless additional time is more humane for students.

The last literacy test, which was piloted online, was shut down after a massive cyber attack impacted 150,000 teens. The saboteurs have never been found.

Originally, the EQAO planned to run a make-up test online last spring, but played it safe and resorted to the traditional paper version, as it will again this year.

The government is currently reviewing EQAO testing, as it looks to modernize the model and make the exams more inclusive and culturally relevant.

Teacher unions continue to push for random sampling as opposed to the current widespread testing.

Correction, April 10, 2018: An earlier version of the quiz incorrectly stated that a pass is 5 out of 10. A pass on the literacy test is 75 per cent.
A judge has acquitted a brave Toronto man of gun charges after accepting a relatively rare public duty defence that he grabbed the weapon to prevent a late-night altercation from turning lethal.

Adebowale Adedokun, 33, an event planner and artist manager with ties to rap superstar Drake, was in a downtown Toronto restaurant early May 25, 2015, when his group of friends got into a physical altercation with some young men seated at another table.

During a struggle, one of his friends dropped a loaded gun on the ground where it was knocked about, according to the ruling. Adedokun grabbed the firearm, tucked it into the waist of his pants, left the restaurant and put it inside the rented limo, according to evidence presented at a two-day trial. He returned to the restaurant, pulled his friend away from the dust-up and together they headed to the vehicle parked nearby.

A waiter called 911 and reported the incident, licence plate number, and minutes later Toronto police pulled over the limo and conducted a high-risk takedown.

The gun was found beneath the middle row under a seat. Its serial number had been removed and there were no fingerprints on the weapon. Adedokuns friend pleaded guilty to gun charges.

That left Adedokun facing gun possession charges.

During the trial, Toronto defence lawyer Adam Newman argued Adedokun possessed the gun as part of a public duty with the intention of preventing it from being used to harm anybody and did not intend to obstruct the police.

He thought he was doing the right thing, Newman told the Star.

Adedokun took the stand and told the judge his initial reaction was to stand back and not get involved. But he testified he made a split decision to take the gun and get out so nobody was hurt.

I didnt know what to do with it, I was ... in a panic, like now I have a gun on me thats not mine ... so I put it under the seat, Adedokun testified, according to an audio recording of the February proceeding.

Adedokun told the judge there was no obvious place to dispose of the weapon so he thought the safest place was beneath the vehicles seats.

The Crown argued Adedokun was not motivated by any public duty, that rather, he wished to prevent his friend from getting into trouble. And even if he was reacting out of a sense of public duty, the prosecution argued, his failure to turn the gun over to the police or take further steps to keep it from his friend disentitles him from relying on the public duty defence.

Superior Court Justice Andras Schreck sided with Newman and found Adedokun not guilty. Accepting the Crowns submission would undermine the purpose of the public duty defence, Schreck wrote.

Mr. Adedokun could have stood by and done nothing. No criminal liability would have attached to him had he chosen to do so, even if the struggle for the gun had resulted in the death of either of the individuals fighting or an innocent bystander, the judge said.

To convict Mr. Adedokun for his actions, which may well have prevented a senseless death, is to send the message that people who find themselves in his position are better off doing nothing. Such a message does not advance the public good. Mr. Adedokuns actions were brave, not criminal.

Newman said it is a novel defence and that it was the first time in 20 years of practising law that he has used it.

One of the reasons for its infrequent use is that there needs to be an air of reality to it, the lawyer said.

An accused person could anytime theyre caught with a gun say oh I just found it, I was going to return it to the police. In this case, we knew minute-for-minute what happened inside the restaurant, because of surveillance video played in court.

Adedokun declined to be interviewed but praised Newman on his Instagram account as the best lawyer in the city.

Adedokun told court he runs Right Time Management, an event planning company that throws parties and concerts and manages artists, including Toronto rapper P Reign, also known as Preme, and we do some work with Drake too as well.

His surety was Nessel Chubbs Beezer, Drakes head of security.

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Torontos ailing public housing portfolio is one step closer to receiving concrete financial support, with the creation of a multilateral government framework that pledges to preserve, repair and regenerate social housing across the country.

Toronto, for all the reasons that we know, heavily invested in community housing many years ago and with the disengagement of the federal government it found itself lacking the resources that it needed to look after the existing housing stock and to build more of the community housing that we need, said Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, after a news conference at the InterContinental Hotel on Monday.

Eventually we just decided to change course and recognize that the federal government had a responsibly to look after the existing housing stock, as well as support the construction of new community housing.

The 10-year, $40-billion National Housing Strategy was announced in November, building on Ottawas $11.2 billion budget commitment in March 2017. The strategy aims to lift 530,000 families out of unaffordable and substandard housing and reduce chronic homelessness by 50 per cent.

Mondays multilateral agreement lays out the broad cost-sharing commitment between the federal, provincial and territorial governments and a deal to consult, share information and assume mutual accountability after a range of housing plans are implemented and the money is spent. Provinces and territories will match federal funds through several measures, including a $4.3 billion Canada Community Housing Initiative.

The exact details of those investments will be hashed out over the coming months.

The plan also outlines the basis for bilateral arrangements that will include terms on the preservation, regeneration and expansion of social housing  which includes co-ops and non-profit housing  including units dedicated for Indigenous people, support for repairs and the design and implementation of a portable housing benefit. Federal targets include a 15 per cent expansion of social housing units and support of at least 300,000 households through the housing benefit.

Toronto Community Housing is Canadas largest landlord, managing more than 60,000 units with an estimated 110,000 tenants. The housing provider is facing a $2.6 billion repair backlog. When that capital plan was approved in 2013, city council pledged to handle one-third of the cost. Council was counting on the provincial and federal governments to each step in and cover a third, but neither level of government has committed to those funds.

Despite broad federal promises of an influx of cash, the city has been forced to create an interim strategy to cover repair costs for crumbling TCH units until 2020, at which point the city runs out of funding for the plan. Without more money, thousands of units are slated for closure. Duclos said social housing needs identified by all levels of government were taken into account during development of the overall strategy

In Toronto, the active wait-list for subsidized housing hit almost 92,500 households in late 2017, according to city data.

Pedro Barata, vice-president, United Way Greater Toronto, said the portable housing benefit is a critically important piece of a plan designed to get all Canadians into safe and decent housing, while the details of repairs and new construction are being worked out.

It recognizes that we are not going to build our way out of this and that we can begin to provide support for households that are in greatest need, said Barata.

Greg Suttor, a senior researcher at the Wellesley Institute, described the federal commitments and targets on repairs and expansion as very promising, and also praised Ottawas strong support for the portable housing benefit.

The public needs to see clear federal-provincial agreements, detailing firm commitments on how the money will be spent and when, said Suttor. One area where Toronto has experienced huge pressure on its budget is through covering rent subsidies in social housing, including Toronto Community Housing, he added.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro

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Hamilton police officer Craig Ruthowsky said he kept as much as $70,000 cash in his Ancaster home even as his familys line of credit began running up significant debt in the months before he was suspended from the police service in 2012.

I was keeping that money separate for an investment property he wanted to purchase, Ruthowsky told a Toronto court as his cross-examination from Crown attorney John Pollard began Monday afternoon.

Im an aggressive saver, Ruthowsky said. It works for me.

But the Crown suggested Ruthowsky was aware he could face questions from financial regulators if he was depositing large amounts of cash into his bank account.

Ruthowsky is facing criminal charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust, trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

Ruthowsky spent five years in the Hamilton police guns and gangs unit. A Hamilton drug dealer  who Ruthowsky claims was one of his informants  has alleged he paid Ruthowsky $500,000 in monthly instalments of $20,000 for information from the Hamilton officer that would help protect his drug business.

The identity of the drug dealer witness is protected by a publication ban.

Ruthowsky has testified the cash came from a pool installation and supply business he operated on the side, a business that was conducted mostly in cash.

The officer also testified that unexplained income in a financial report prepared as part of the Crowns case against him was the result of his poor paperwork while he operated the pool business.

The report allegedly shows $130,000 in unexplained income to Ruthowsky, and that his familys line of credit rose by $47,000 between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011.

Ruthowsky said much of the discrepancy could be explained by the large amounts of cash he kept at home from the pool business and some of it could be explained by his failure to keep or obtain receipts.

Im saying I didnt keep the greatest of books, Ruthowsky testified.

But Pollard suggested the police officer knew it would be difficult to take a $20,000 bribe and deposit it in your account.

Youre suggesting somewhere out there in this world, I have a hole dug with $500,000 in it? Ruthowsky shot back.

Pollard responded by noting Ruthowsky closed his pool business in 2012, because that was the same year you stopped receiving payments from (the alleged informant) because you were under suspension, the Crown said.

You can suggest anything you want, Ruthowsky replied.

I never accepted any money from (him) at any time.

As the cross-examination began, Ruthowsky testified he was comfortable having large amounts of cash on hand and he never considered buying a safe.

Im a police officer and I have police equipment around, he said.

Ruthowskys examination-in-chief by his lawyer Greg Lafontaine concluded Monday morning with several hours spent reviewing dozens of pages of text messages between Ruthowsky and his stable of informants.

Lafontaine concluded by asking Ruthowsky if he ever accepted a bribe. Not one penny, Ruthowsky said.

Are you guilty or not guilty of the charges? Lafontaine asked.

I am not guilty, Ruthowsky said.

The trial continues Tuesday.
As a single mother raising two kids and attending university, Chelsea Chen admits she has often had to resort to offbeat parenting solutions when she needs to do some schoolwork.

The 38-year-old post graduate student is pursuing a certificate in teaching English to adults at the University of Toronto. For someone relying on part-time jobs, hiring a babysitter is expensive. So too is daycare.

If Im up against a deadline, I have to find a creative way to do my assignments with them, said Chen.

Her tricks have included taking kids to private Chinese or music classes and concentrating on her work while theyre there. Other times shes had to sit at McDonalds and study while keeping a watchful eye on them as they play. Shes even occasionally taken them inside the library, much to the angst of other students who complain about the noise.

Theyre basically flanking me, one on my right, one on my left, all three of us on the computer. Its very cumbersome, she said.

A new family study space at the Robarts Library was designed to help ease some of the burden Chen and other student-parents in similar situations face.

Modelled on similar spaces at academic libraries in European countries and in the USA, the free study space at UofT is believed to be the first in Canada. It has enough room for about 20 parents and their children under 12, and includes work stations, child-sized furniture, chalk boards, TV screens and a bunch of toys to keep young hands busy.

Chen said the designated study room for parents, which opened in March, has brought her some peace of mind. She no longer has to worry about her kids disturbing other students in the library. She can even leave them briefly in the study room and go look for study material while other parents watch out for her. It has created a sense of community among student-parents, she said.

My kids, theyre very happy when they know were going to the study room, said Chen.

Shes far from alone in needing the assist. At UofT, as many as 600 student-parents contact the Family Care Office each year looking for advice and assistance with childcare, said the schools director of family programs and services Francesca Dobbin.

The universitys own survey in 2016 found that between 10 and 15 per cent of PhD and masters students ranked raising a family as a major obstacle to their studies and academic success, she said.

We are always looking at creating spaces that are inclusive to our employees and students with family responsibilities, said Dobbin, noting the university has also created designated breastfeeding spaces and family-friendly washrooms throughout the campus.

The study space will for now operate as a pilot project. Its usage rate could inspire the creation of similar spaces at other libraries in an effort to make common places friendlier to parents, she added.

Chen said other universities and colleges have to start thinking about these kinds of programs to facilitate a growing breed of students, who are marrying and/or having children early before going back to school.

A lot of campuses dont make allowances for student-parents. Its like were invisible on campus, she said.

Faced with a similar issue and lacking an appropriate space and resources, Ryerson University library recently launched a Busy Box initiative. Each Busy Box contains age-appropriate items, from kids books and craft supplies to colouring sheets, Perplexus and Lego boxes. A student-parent can borrow the box for a period of four hours and use its contents to keep their child busy.

A university library is not by any stretch like any public library. We dont have children reading sections or anything like that, said Ryerson librarian Jane Schmidt. This is just a nice, fast, relatively low-risk, easy and inexpensive project to help parents as they study or do research.
Amazon officials evaluating Toronto as a potential host for the companys second headquarters were keen to learn about the benefits of government-provided universal medicare, Torontos education system and the citys booming tech sector.

Toronto Global, the federal-provincial-local agency co-ordinating the regional bid for Amazons HQ2, revealed those details, and few others, about Amazons two-day visit in mid-March.

They were very interested in hearing more about our tech sector and the benefits that come from our publicly funded health care and education systems, Julia Sakas, Toronto Global spokesperson, wrote in an email.

It was a very productive and positive visit, and an opportunity for us to promote the incredible access to highly-skilled, highly-educated, diverse, global talent available to them in the Toronto Region.

Amazon officials told the bid promoters they are visiting all 20 shortlisted cities  Toronto is the only non-U.S. finalist  and asked for discretion about details of the working visit.

Sakas would not say how many Amazon employees visited or where they went.

She did say that Toronto Global reinforced to the Amazon delegation the message in the regions bid book  that the GTA has a steady, sustainable supply of skilled talent at a cost that few others can even come close to matching. And as a result of our nimble immigration system, we offer access to the worlds top talent in a way that U.S. locations cant match.

Mayor John Torys office confirmed Tory was glad to have the opportunity to tell the Toronto Region's unique story in person, to Amazon officials, his spokesperson Don Peat said. The mayor told them there is no other city region in North America that can boast the same talent, the same quality of life, the same vibrancy and economic strength.

The Seattle-based retail behemoth says it plans to invest more than $5 billion (U.S.) into the second-headquarters and hire as many as 50,000 highly-paid employees in the city chosen to host it. The stakes have inspired a fevered competition reminiscent of those for rights to host an Olympics.

Torontos rivals include Washington, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Newark, and Raleigh, N.C.

As well as being the only city on the list where employee health costs are primarily covered by government medicare, Toronto is rare in making its entire bid public and by deciding not to dangle financial incentives that, for some bids, total billions of dollars.

A 10-person Amazon delegation toured Denver in January, the Denver Post reported.

Chicago, aggressively courting Amazon with tools including a slick video voiced by Canadian Star Trek actor William Shatner, got a two-day visit from company officials also in March after the Toronto stop.

The Amazon delegation hit Washington, D.C., the home of company founder Jeff Bezos, in early March.

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When the U.S. government shut down Backpage.com last week, sex workers in Toronto  who used the site to advertise  started calling a local advocacy group in a panic.

People are frantic, said Monica Forrester, who works for Maggies Toronto, an organization run by local sex workers that provides education, advocacy and support. Because they have mortgages, or theyre really invested in Backpage and its their main source of income. And now their main source of income is gone, so theyre really scrambling.

Backpage, a classifieds site where users advertised everything from sex to accommodations, was seized on Friday as part of a crackdown by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. The site now displays a U.S. Justice Department notice announcing the seizure.

The site has been a hotbed of controversy. In 2015, major credit card companies stopped processing transactions with Backpages adult section over allegations it was facilitating the sex trafficking of children.

But the shutdown is a cause of fear for some sex workers, Forrester said. Backpage was one of few sites available to sex workers to advertise their services, she said, adding she worries sex workers who were used to finding clients through Backpage ads may feel pushed into working the streets of Toronto.

For a lot of them the fear of working outside is a really scary reality, because a lot of them are not very comfortable or even have any sort of knowledge of where to work outside.

Sex work wasnt going to be clipped by the shutdown of Backpage either, Forrester said, but rather be forced to move somewhere else. Its just shifting the sex work community into another venue to work, she told the Star. Sex workers have always been resilient that way, but at the same time its really showing the stance that they want to abolish sex work. And its unrealistic.

A 2015 Star investigation found that Backpage was the most-used advertising platform for human sex-trafficking victims in Ontario. Of the 359 sex trafficking cases Toronto police investigated from 2013 to 2015, every single girl was advertised on Backpage.com.

Read more:

Beaten. Branded. Bought. Sold: A Star investigation into the dark underbelly of sex trafficking in Ontario

Sex trafficking case turns on whether websites can be held liable for content created by users

Airbnb rentals used for human trafficking, Toronto police say

Det. Sgt. Nunziato Tramontozzi has spent four years working human trafficking cases for the Toronto police. He told the Star that Backpage was still the No. 1 site used by traffickers in Toronto to exploit their victims  primarily young, often underage, women.

But he also said Toronto police had a good relationship with Backpage  if officers found out there was an underage girl advertised on their platform, wed call them up and they would pull that ad. If they needed to gather evidence from Backpage, theyd get their warrant, and Backpage would hand it over. In that sense, they were good to us, Tramontozzi said.

He learned of the shutdown on Friday, the same day as everyone else, when emails started arriving in his inbox. It was quite a big surprise, Tramontozzi told the Star. But he doesnt think their investigations and tactics will change much moving forward. Its going to go from Backpage to another internet site. Thats what these traffickers are going to do.

A Justice Department press release on the seizure calls Backpage the internets leading forum for prostitution ads, including ads depicting the prostitution of children.

Seven people from Arizona and Texas were indicted on charges from conspiracy to facilitate prostitution to money laundering.

The charges have not yet been proven in court.

The indictment including troubling allegations of corruption and exploitation, said IRS Criminal Investigation chief Don Fort in the Justice Department press release.

The masterminds behind Backpage are not only alleged to have committed egregious amounts of financial crimes such as money laundering, they did so at the expense of innocent women and children, he said.
I dont know what I was thinking, I pulled out all of your teeth.

Lee Schwaderers eyes fills with tears and he thumps his cane on the floor of his Keswick home in frustration when he remembers the words Newmarket dental surgeon Dr. Ford Moore said to him when he emerged from anaesthetic at Southlake Regional Health Centre.

I just couldnt believe it. Astonished. I cried, Schwaderer said.

His wife, Enid, a retired health-care worker, describes the ordeal as a nightmare, saying she spends every day making food her husband can eat without teeth. His favourite, corn on the cob, is a distant memory now.

On Feb. 13, 2015, the then 65-year-old grandfather went into the hospital to have all of his 14 upper teeth and two cysts removed, according to a statement of claim filed in a lawsuit against Southlake and Moore.

Schwaderer, a woodworking craftsman, needed the operation because his antiseizure medication had caused tooth decay.

Moore negligently and improperly extracted all of his remaining seven lower teeth, the lawsuit filed with the Ontario superior court said.

Southlake knew or ought to have known that Moore was incompetent, lacking in reasonable care, skill, ability, training and judgment, the statement of claim said.

The hospital also employed incompetent staff who failed to follow proper procedures regarding the patients preoperative intakes and/or completion of his consent for treatment forms, the claim said.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Moore did not respond to messages left at his Eagle Street office in Newmarket, Ont.

But on the bottom of a physician progress report for Schwaderer on that date, there is a handwritten note saying, in error, I removed all of his teeth. I apologized (several times). No excuses. Im sorry. I said to them Id cover the cost of the lower denture.

Schwaderer said he hasnt received money or dentures from Moore.

Southlake provided an emailed comment:

We cannot comment on any case that is before the courts. For any patient to experience surgery that is more invasive than they were expecting is very stressful and upsetting, it said.

We take any complaints from patients very seriously and we do thorough investigations of patient complaints to ensure all our processes keep our patients safe.

Left unable to eat anything but soft food and often even choking on his own saliva because he has no teeth to keep it in his mouth, Schwaderer went to a Toronto hospital to repair some of the damage, including bone slivers in his jaw.

The doctor there said his jaw is too damaged to allow him to wear lower dentures.

Schwaderer got upper dentures made, but can only wear them for a couple of hours because they dont fit properly and are too painful to keep in longer.

The denturist who made them has moved away and Schwaderer says he cant afford to buy new ones.

The lawsuit is seeking $500,000 for assault, battery, breach of contract and negligence and another $500,000 in special damages for Schwaderer and $100,000 in damages for Enid.
Cheeky. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

As a tornado of ethics scandals swirled around Scott Pruitt heading into the weekend, the EPA administrator and avowed foe of breathable air managed to emerge on the other side with his job intact, and even a presidential endorsement to show for his troubles.

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

But the questions about his casual corruption are hardly disappearing.

On Monday morning, an official from the Office of Government Ethics sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agencys top ethics official, asking him to take appropriate actions to address any violations Pruitt had committed.

The American public needs to have confidence that ethics violations, as well as the appearance of ethics violations, are investigated and appropriately addressed, the letter read in part.

Later, the EPA official, Kevin Minoli, said that he was referring the inquiry to the departments inspector general, which carries investigative powers that the ethics office does not.

The letter mentions three areas of concern surrounding Pruitt: the fact that he secured an apartment for $50 a night from the wife of an energy lobbyist whose company had business with Pruitts agency (weve all been there, right?); his frequent first-class flights back to his home state of Oklahoma on the taxpayer dime; and his reassigning or demoting of EPA officials who questioned his lavish spending habits. These incidents dont cover all of Pruitts wide-ranging impropriety, but theyre a start.

Then theres the matter of the pay raises. Pruitt has been accused of using an obscure provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to give two loyal aides huge salary increases, after being turned down to authorize more money by the White House. In a surprisingly tough Fox News interview last week, Pruitt denied knowing anything about the raises under direction questioning from Ed Henry.

I didnt know they got the pay raises until yesterday, Pruitt said.

But the Atlantic reported on Monday that Pruitt almost certainly did know:

In the last few days, top staffers became aware of an email exchange between one of two aides who received such a raise and the agencys human resources division. In mid-March, Sarah Greenwalt, senior counsel to the administrator, wrote to HR in an attempt to confirm that her pay raise of $56,765 was being processed. Greenwalt definitively stated that Pruitt approves and was supportive of her getting a raise, according to an administration official who has seen the email chain.

Now, the magazine reports, Pruitt deputies are trying to shield the damning email from the inspector general, which, given the fact that youre reading about it right now, may not be a workable strategy.

Amid all of this Sturm und Drang, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that the White House was reviewing the allegations around Pruitt  though she has previously echoed the president by defending his tenure at EPA.

.@PressSec can't confirm any security threats against Pruitt. "There have been a number of questions raised" she tells @jdawsey1



She says the WH is reviewing the report by the EPA about Pruitt's First Class travel and $50 a night condo rental.  David P Gelles (@gelles) April 9, 2018

Sixty-four House Democrats and two Florida Republicans have called for Pruitts ouster so far. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer added his name to the list on Monday afternoon:

.@realDonaldTrump: the corruption and incompetence of this Administration has reached a fever pitch. If you truly mean to drain the swamp you ought to fire Administrator Pruitt or accept his resignation.  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2018

But conservatives have largely defended Pruitt in the mistaken belief that he is rolling back all of President Obamas environmental regulations, and liberal calls for his head may only embolden them, and the president, further. For now, Trump is digging in and sticking by his man.
Toronto police officers should not have been inside a hospital operating room while a doctor removed heroin from a stabbing victims rectum, a judge ruled.

In her decision to exclude the evidence in the case of Ashraf Suliman, who had pleaded not guilty to possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking, Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein blasted the officers for invading the mans privacy while he was under general anesthesia for surgery at Sunnybrook hospital in September 2015.

With the evidence excluded, its highly unlikely the case against Suliman will proceed.

The notion of police presence in the operating room, I feel would be most shocking to other Canadians, the judge wrote in her decision, released last month.

I am unable to accept the notion that when we submit ourselves to anesthesia and surgery we can have no reasonable expectation that the intimate aspects of our medical procedures will be shielded from state surveillance.

If police wanted access to Mr. Sulimans health records regarding his treatment that night, they would have to obtain a warrant because of privacy concerns. Surely, if police could not obtain the records relating to what happened in the operating room without a warrant, they should not be able to acquire the same information by being physically present during the procedure.

A spokesperson for Toronto police said the force is reviewing London-Weinsteins ruling.

A Sunnybrook spokesman said police are invited into hospital rooms, including during medical procedures, when staff believe their safety (or those of other patients) may be at risk, such as in cases of victims of violent crime.

However, in those situations, we trust the police to respect the rules around the collection of evidence and the patients right to privacy, said Craig DuHamel.

This case has reminded us of the importance of reminding our staff of the importance of maintaining patient privacy.

Few details about Sulimans stabbing were presented in court, other than the fact that he was stabbed on the evening of Sept. 24, 2015 and eventually transported to Sunnybrook after first arriving at a different hospital. (Sulimans lawyer, Paul Quance, declined to comment to the Star.)

Two Toronto police officers, Const. Keith George and Const. Alexandre Poltavets, arrived to relieve the officers who initially accompanied Suliman to Sunnybrook, and stayed with him throughout the evening, according to the judges ruling.

They remained in the trauma room while the resident on duty that night tried to conduct a rectal exam to check for intra-abdominal bleeding before surgery. The doctor palpated a foreign object when he was attempting to examine Mr. Sulimans rectum, London-Weinstein wrote, but the patient resisted.

The decision was then made to remove the object during surgery while Suliman was under general anesthesia which would reduce risk of injury to the patient and the medical staff, the judge wrote.

While the officers were not specifically invited into the trauma room, the evidence ... was that Officer George regularly attended the interior of trauma rooms while on duty. The purpose of this attendance is to protect victims of violence, to continue investigations, and also to provide security to medical staff, London-Weinstein wrote.

Officer George fairly conceded in cross-examination that it would not have impaired police in the execution of their duties if he had waited outside of the trauma room for the few moments it took to conduct the rectal examination of Mr. Suliman by the medical staff.

A member of the medical team did, however, invite the officers into the operating room where the foreign object was removed, the judge wrote, which turned out to be about 12 grams of heroin. The drugs were handed over to police.

Despite the invitation, London-Weinstein nonetheless found that it was unnecessary and a significant intrusion on Sulimans privacy for the police to be in the operating room.

The judge noted that the presence of police officers in examination and operating rooms could have a chilling effect on patients ability to communicate with medical staff out of fear of being arrested. She threw out the evidence after finding that the state had intruded on Sulimans constitutional right to privacy and conducted an unreasonable search and seizure when the police took the drugs.

I do not find the presence of police in an operating room during an intimate medical procedure on an unconscious patient to be a reasonable manner of effecting the goals of law enforcement, she wrote in her ruling.

I recognize that the goals of law enforcement must be balanced against the right to privacy of the individual. In this case, the goals of law enforcement could have easily been attained without such an intrusive interference with the human dignity of Mr. Suliman.
This fall, students at Ryerson University will see a new educational campaign incorporated into the usual campus cautions about binge drinking and safe sex.

Responsible marijuana use.

As the government of Canada prepares to legalize the drug this summer, local universities and colleges are confronting a wave of questions around how to deal with it on campus, and the best way to talk to students about what will by next September go from forbidden to an out in the open part of the university experience.

At Ryerson, Allan Macdonald, director, student health and wellness, said a campus-wide campaign will approach marijuana use in a serious straightforward manner similar to the education already in place around alcohol.

Its not a should or shouldnt, its a heres the deal kind of thing, he said.

Theres a choice here for you. Abstinence is a choice. If you do choose to partake, heres the harm that happens, heres how you reduce your harm and prevent it.

Ryerson also has an internal committee looking at their policies to get ready for the new legislation, said a spokesperson, as does York University. That school is working on updating current policies and practices so that we are ready to respond once cannabis is legalized, said spokesperson Janice Walls.

The University of Toronto has put together a working group that is considering this issue and we want to wait until they finish their work, said Elizabeth Church, interim director of media relations, in an email.

At George Brown there are no plans to implement a specific marijuana policy, wrote spokesperson Rima Kar in an email. In general, the existing rules apply to employees when it comes to the use of any substance in the workplace.

Dessy Pavlova, a member of the advocacy group Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy whos currently studying at Ryerson says universities need to take a harm reduction approach because zero-tolerance hasnt worked.

A long-time medicinal marijuana user for nerve pain, she said most students will have already been introduced to the drug long before they get to university or college, but there is some concern around where it can be smoked and where it can be sold.

She doubts smoking marijuana will be allowed on campus but doesnt think thats the right approach.

Give students a place to smoke, she said.

Because it will happen anyways, and then that allows for a lot more problems in terms of trying to secure where folks do what.

Pavlova thinks universities and colleges have a role to play in stamping out stigma around marijuana use, and have an opportunity to shape this through rules on campus, like not suspending someone if they are caught smoking, for example.

What people are choosing to use shouldnt be the problem, it should be when they need help or when its becoming problematic or affecting people around them. There should be resources available to help and right now we dont have that, she said.

We hope with legalization it will just allow for more open conversation overall.

But even with legalization and students being able to purchase marijuana from provincial LCBO-run stores, universities need to recognize that a black market will probably still exist, said Eric Muellejans, a third-year student in management information systems at Ryerson.

At the end of the day if the student can get the marijuana faster and cheaper from a black market dealer, theyre more likely to purchase it there, he said.

On more practical concerns, like where students can smoke, he thinks common courtesy should kick in, but if youre allowed to smoke a cigarette, you should be allowed to smoke a joint in the same area, or vice-versa.

Twenty-one-year-old Adam Shpilt, a recent grad who now works in the cannabis industry and is a recreational user, agrees that while most university students will already have been introduced to pot by the time they get to post-secondary, schools owe them an education session at least.

For some students, Shpilt said, marijuana can improve creativity, focus and even ease insomnia.

I think its everyones choice if they smoke before studying, or smoke before a presentation, he said.

If its not interfering with other students learning experiences, Im all for it.
Lawyers for a Toronto man accused of attacking soldiers at a military recruitment centre two years ago say he should be acquitted of terror-related charges and found not criminally responsible for lesser offences in the case on account of his mental state and the fact he has no affiliation to a terrorist group.

Ayanle Hassan Ali has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count of carrying a weapon for the purpose of committing an offence, all at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group.

The 2016 incident at a north Toronto military recruitment centre left at least two soldiers with minor injuries.

Read more:

Man accused of stabbing soldiers at Toronto military centre found fit to stand trial

Accused in military centre stabbing now charged with terrorism offenses

Dramatic changes seen in alleged Forces attacker Ayanle Hassan Ali

In written arguments filed as part of Alis trial, defence lawyers argue the 30-year-old  who a psychiatrist said shows signs of schizophrenia  should be acquitted on the terror-related charges altogether and found not criminally responsible for the lesser included charges of attempted murder, assault and weapons offences.

In other words, the defence is arguing that Ali did commit attempted murder, assault and weapons offences  for which he should be found not criminally responsible  but the crimes were not committed with any relation to a terror group.

Terrorism is such a loaded term and connotes a level of dangerousness that ... we worry that if he is in the system as not criminally responsible for terrorism, it might unfairly affect how he is treated, defence Nader Hasan said in an interview.

More fundamentally though, hes not a terrorist, hes someone who is ill, and so this process and the ultimate disposition ought to reflect that reality and ultimately what we want is that he is treated as someone who is mentally ill who needs to get better.

The Crown, however, wants Ali to be found not criminally responsible for the terror offences, defence documents show. Prosecutors are expected to make their case and call witnesses in court later this week.

Hasan said Ali would be in custody at a secure treatment facility whether he is found not criminally responsible on the terror charges or the lesser included offences.

Finding someone not criminally responsible acknowledges that the person committed the crime they are accused of but, as a result of a mental disorder, they were incapable at the time of appreciating that their actions could cause harm, or were unacceptable by societal standards, Alis lawyers explained in their arguments.

The incident at the centre of the case began when Ali entered a Canadian Forces recruitment office in March 2016 and repeatedly punched and slashed at one soldier, leaving the man with a three-inch gash on his arm, according to an agreed statement of facts presented by the Crown and defence at trial.

Ali tried to stab or slash three other military personnel one of whom was left with bruises and a small, superficial nick  before being subdued, the statement said.

There is no evidence of any connection between Ali and any other person or group in relation to the crimes, and the Crown does not allege that Mr. Ali committed the ... offences for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with anyone but himself, prosecutors acknowledged in the agreed statement of facts.

If Ali was not affiliated with any terrorist group, he cannot be guilty of terror offences, because Canadian terror law does not apply to alleged one-person terrorist groups, Hasan and co-counsel Maureen Addie argued in their filings.

In creating (anti-terror laws), Parliament was not intending to target individuals working alone, but to provide additional censure to people who commit indictable offences to assist terrorist groups, they argued.

In the weeks after his arrest, Ali was sent to a forensic psychiatry hospital unit, where he has remained in the two years since.

On Monday, a psychiatrist who supervised Alis care testified that the man has shown signs of schizophrenia, including delusions and paranoia, since about 2010.

Around the time of the attack, Ali believed the government was listening to him and thought he was being possessed by spirits from Muslim mythology known as Jinns, Dr. Gary Chaimowitz said.

Ali became angry over Canadian military involvement in Muslim countries and came to feel that if he martyred himself all his sins would be forgiven in the afterlife, the doctor told the court.

Alis trial resumes Thursday.
Uber drivers who want to fight their employer in court will have to go to the Netherlands to do it, an Ontario judge has ruled  exposing what employment lawyer Lior Samfiru calls a dangerous loophole in the provinces labour laws.

The decision follows a class-action lawsuit launched by Toronto-based Samfiru Tumarkin LLP arguing Uber drivers are employees entitled to protection under the Employment Standards Act  not independent contractors as the company claims.

Uber fought the class action, arguing that its service agreements with individual drivers specify that disputes must be resolved through arbitration in the Netherlands, where one of the companys arms is incorporated.

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The Ontario superior court agreed, quashing the class action for now. The firm representing drivers has served its notice to appeal the decision, which Samfiru says sets a dangerous precedent for Ontario workers rights.

It robs any driver from having a remedy here, Samfiru said. Aside from the obvious logistical issues, the cost is prohibitive.

You can take our employment laws and essentially throw them in the garbage. Rights are of no value if they cannot be enforced.

Uber spokesperson Xavier Van Chau said the superior court decision pointed to the dispute resolution mechanisms the company already provides, such as drivers In-App Support where customer service representatives respond to queries and complaints over small sums of money.

Ubers legal team is located primarily in the Netherlands with local assistance in certain jurisdictions in which Uber operates. When drivers complaints or disputes with Uber cannot be resolved through either level of assistance with In-App Support or at a Greenlight Hub, the matter may be referred to Ubers legal team, the decision said.

Samfiru says the Ministry of Labour should intervene by changing its employment laws to prevent disputes being arbitrated overseas. Currently, the Employment Standards Act is silent on the matter, which Samfiru argues could open the door to other corporations adding arbitration clauses to workers contracts to evade local legal obligations.

This is not an Uber specific situation. Theres nothing unique to the Uber arrangement, he said.

Ministry of Labour spokesperson Janet Deline said Minister Kevin Flynn was aware of the superior court decision.

The Government of Ontario is currently reviewing the case and considering whether to seek leave to intervene in this matter, she said.

The original class action filed last year sought $200 million in damages on behalf of around 20,000 Uber drivers in Ontario and claimed they were Uber employees entitled to rights like the minimum wage and overtime pay.

Uber argues its drivers are independent contractors, a category of worker that is not covered by employment legislation.

Under Ontario law, a worker is generally considered an employee if the business directs the nature of their work, including deadlines and pay rates. Other indicators include providing a worker with tools and equipment to do their job or the ability to suspend, dismiss, or discipline a worker. The Ministry of Labour can find a worker is an employee even if their employer calls them an independent contractor.

Recent reforms introduced through new employment legislation, Bill 148, mean it is now explicitly prohibited to misclassify an employee as an independent contractor. When disputes arise, the onus is on the employer to prove the worker is not an employee.

Courts in the United States, Australia and France have all recognized that rideshare drivers are self-employed, said Van Chau. Drivers can set their own schedule hour-by-hour, day-by-day, and week-by-week. In Canada, approximately half of all drivers drive less than 10 hours a week. This means that these partners can tend to child care, invest in their education or work another job, driving only when they need or want  even if thats just to pay an unexpected bill or the rent between jobs.

South of the border, Uber has been the subject of numerous class action suits arguing its drivers are employees. Uber initially agreed to a $100 million settlement to one of the first such suits launched in California, after a district judge called their arbitration agreements unconscionable. But an appeals court subsequently upheld Ubers arbitration clause.

Samfiru says he is not aware of any jurisdiction with legislation that forbids arbitration clauses when it comes to employment rights, although there is a similar provision in Ontarios consumer protection laws.

Given new protections for vulnerable workers introduced by the provincial government in November, Samfiru says its now more urgent than ever to ensure they cant be sidestepped.

If the ESA can now be circumvented that way, these changes are meaningless, he said.

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Doug Ford is distancing himself from former Progressive Conservative leadership rival and would-be MPP Tanya Granic Allen, under fire for her social media posts comparing women in burkas to bank robbers and questioning gay marriage.

These comments do not reflect the position of Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford or the party, the leaders office said Monday in a statement to the Star.

On Twitter and in her blog in recent years, Granic Allen has linked Muslims to ISIS through her use of hashtags and made other comments as an outspoken social conservative active in the fight against the Wynne governments sex education curriculum and a law banning conversion therapy for gay teens.

Read more:

Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Without reporters to bear witness, how can voters really judge Doug Ford?

Ontario Tories turf MPP Michael Harris over sexting allegations

Opinion | Thomas Walkom: Doug Fords media bus controversy is much ado about very little

Were always concerned when there are people in the public eye making any sort of Islamophobic innuendo, Rabia Kheder, executive director of the Muslim Council of Peel, said Monday, dubbing the comments insulting and disturbing.

It gives fuel to people who are motivated by hate.

Granic Allens remarks are coming under increased scrutiny as the 39-year-old mother of four seeks the Conservative nomination in Mississauga Centre. Local party members vote April 21.

In one blog post now drawing attention on social media, Granic Allen took aim at Muslim dress after Quebec proposed a controversial charter of values in 2013.

What I do take issue with is the niqab and burka because they are masks which cover the face. I dont believe people should dress like ninjas, she wrote.

I dont believe that people should dress like bank robbers when going to vote, she added, also comparing burkas to her daughter wearing a Spider-Man mask.

In a tweet she referred to a 2013 acid attack on two teens in Zanzibar, writing yet another reason not to vacation in a Muslim country and a year later tweeted so shocked that Malta has passed a law allowing gay adoption and marriage.

First contacted about these and other social media posts last Friday, Granic Allen said: Ive worked with people from all faiths, all walks of life...we live in a pluralistic society.

I advocate for womens rights, she added when asked about the burka comments, saying she considers the headwear a tool of oppression.

Granic Allen declined the opportunity Monday to comment further after asking for time over the weekend to read through the tweets and blog.

Muslim and gay community leaders said Granic Allens views are germane because of her elevated public profile and the possibility she could become an MPP and named to Fords cabinet if she and the party win on June 7. Ford made a play for second-ballot support from Granic Allens backers in the leadership race, promising to reconsider the sex ed curriculum and musing about requiring teens to get parental permission for abortions.

We are concerned about a number of message that she promotes, said Eric Lorenzen, vice-president of communications for the group LGBTory.

If she advocates any restrictions on the teachings of LGBT acceptance, same-sex marriage or sensitive age-appropriate LGBT sex education in the secular public school system, we vigorously oppose that.

Khedr said Muslims in Canada do not represent what ISIS represents and defended women of Islam who wear burkas as very firm in their faith. I admire their strength and courage.

Moe Ladha, director of the group Canadian Muslim Vote, noted there are more than 800,000 Muslims in Ontario, with 575,000 of eligible voting age, and invited politicians of all stripes to break down barriers.

Whatever we think were reading on social media from that lens indicates that we want and need more engagement so that we can know each other.

An earlier version of this story stated that there were more than 400,000 Muslims in Ontario. The actual number is more than 800,000.

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PC Leader Doug Ford is resisting pressure to bar former leadership contender Tanya Granic Allen from seeking the partys nomination in Mississauga Centre over controversial social media posts about Muslims and gays.

The comments, first revealed in the Star, compared women in burkas to bank robbers and ninjas and questioned gay marriage, now legal in Ontario.

Those remarks prompted rival parties and a Muslim clergyman to call on Ford to disqualify Granic Allen from the April 21 nomination race, whose winner will carry the Progressive Conservative banner in the June 7 provincial election.

Its pretty disappointing to see somebody seeking public office who has those kinds of attitudes that can be described as racist and homophobic, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Tuesday.

The Conservatives will have to decide...how they will go forward, Premier Kathleen Wynne told reporters at a west-end school. But that kind of behaviour, that kind of language, that kind of attitude, I believe has no place in our society.

Ford, who enjoyed support from social conservative Granic Allens backers after she was knocked out of the March 10 leadership race, again distanced himself from her but stopped short of taking further action.

The Ontario PC Party is an inclusive party. These statements are not reflective of what we stand for or how we will govern this province, he said in a statement.

Our base is growing, and we want all Ontarians to feel like they have a place in our party.

Granic Allen passed the partys vetting process for candidates during the leadership race to replace ousted leader Patrick Brown.

She did not reply Tuesday to requests for an interview with the Star but told Canadian Press her comments, made in 2013 and 2014, do not reflect an anti-Muslim or anti-gay attitude.

My concern....has always been about the freedom of religion, the freedom of conscience and freedom of expression and protecting those very important rights, she said, declining to comment on whether she supports gay marriage.

It has nothing to do with this election.

The imam at the Dar Al-Tawheed mosque in central Mississauga said concern about Granic Allens social media posts has been percolating in the Muslim community, leaving the Progressive Conservatives in a difficult spot.

They have to address the situation, he urged.

You cant hold public office and then on the other hand be vilifying the people youre supposed to be serving.

A party source described the nomination race in Mississauga Centre as tight. Granic Allen initially declined to talk about her social media posts at length on Friday, saying that day was the cut-off for selling party memberships crucial to securing enough support to win the nomination.
Premier Kathleen Wynne said she personally called Progressive Conservative MPP Michael Harris after hearing he was resigning from public life for health reasons.

The two spoke Saturday about his eye condition  for which he needs surgery next month  and only learned of the allegations of inappropriate texting when they publicly surfaced Monday.

Read more:

Liberal cabinet ministers Michael Chan, Tracy MacCharles, and MPP Grant Crack say they are retiring

When asked about the allegations, Wynne said issues like this are systemic.

These are serious issues. We have to take them seriously, Wynne told reporters at an event Tuesday morning at a Toronto Catholic elementary school.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault are never okay, it doesnt matter where. But we have to understand that they are systemic, you know, and that across society, no matter the sector, these things happen and when someone has the courage to step forward and reveal that this has happened, they have to be taken seriously.

Harris was kicked out of the PC caucus midday Monday. He had been informed Saturday that his nomination papers would not be signed because of accusations of inappropriate text messages with a young woman who had worked for the party. However, over the weekend, he only mentioned health issues as the reason for his departure.

Wynne reached out to the Kitchener-Conestoga MPP after seeing the statement about his deteriorating eyesight. Hes a young man with a family, and I said to my staff Id like to give them a call because I had no idea he was struggling with that health condition, she told reporters.

When I called him, thats all we talked about and I wished him well. I asked him a little bit about when he had to have the surgery and what the prognosis was. Thats all we talked about. I didnt know about anything else.

On Monday, Harris said in a statement that he wanted to issue an unequivocal apology for what happened six years ago, calling it a mistake. He also said the PC party knew about the incident for years.

Although that (texting) conversation was the end of this interaction and nothing further occurred, I think we are all looking back on past actions in a new way following the revelations in various industries over the past number of months, Harris said.

It was a mistake. During my time as an MPP Ive always respected all those I work with and have always strived to provide a safe working environment.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the PC party, and leader Doug Ford, need to explain why the reasons behind Harris resignation were not disclosed until days later.

Wynne was at the elementary school on College St., near Dufferin St., on Tuesday touting her governments pledge to offer free childcare for preschoolers until they enter full-day kindergarten.

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NORRISTOWN, Pa.The start of Bill Cosbys criminal retrial on sexual assault charges was delayed for several hours Monday as the judge reviewed a motion brought by Cosbys lawyers to dismiss a juror.

Opening arguments were pushed back as Judge Steven T. ONeill of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas met privately with both sides to discuss a defence contention that one juror had told another prospective juror last week that he thought Cosby was guilty.

Cosbys lawyers are seeking to have the juror dismissed before the start of the trial, which is taking place 10 months after the first trial ended inconclusively with a deadlocked jury and a mistrial.

Read more:

Cosby defence claims juror told others: I just think hes guilty

Jury selected for Bill Cosby retrial after showdown over race

How Bill Cosbys sex assault retrial will be different from the first

Cosbys entry to the courthouse was briefly delayed Monday morning by the protest of a topless woman, later identified as Nicolle Rochelle, a former actress who had appeared several times on The Cosby Show. She jumped over a crowd barrier outside the courthouse and yelled Womens lives matter before being wrestled to the ground by courthouse deputies about 10 yards in front of Cosby as he walked toward the buildings front doors.

Rochelle, 38, of Little Falls, New Jersey had written on her torso the names of some of the many women who have accused Cosby of assault. Cosby, wearing a dark suit and using a cane, was guided toward a side entrance instead.

In an interview after her arrest on disorderly conduct charges, Rochelle said she is a performing artist and activist who now lives in Paris.

I wanted to get as close to him as possible without touching him, she said. It was a peaceful demonstration, but I wanted him to feel uncomfortable.

She had appeared on The Cosby Show in the early 1990s when she was 12 years old in a part as a friend of Cosbys daughter on the show, Rudy. She said that nothing inappropriate had happened on the set with Cosby, whom she said she liked as a young actress.

But now she said she wanted to express the anger of the other women and had chosen to do it topless so as to use her body as a political tool.

I was contesting the image of a womans body as constantly sexual, she said.

About a dozen other protesters also demonstrated outside the courthouse, an indication of how Cosbys profile has changed since he was one of Americas most beloved entertainers. His is the first high-profile sexual assault trial of the #MeToo era, and experts are watching to see what effect the eruption of accusations of harassment and assault against prominent men may have on the trial and on jurors attitudes toward sexual assault.

Andrea Constand, 44, has accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her in 2014 at his home near here after establishing a mentor relationship with her. She was a Temple University staff member at the time. Cosby, 80, perhaps the most high-profile Temple graduate, has said the sex was consensual. A handful of supporters shouted encouragement to him before his walk into the courthouse was halted by the protest.

The testimony of Constand will be central to the retrial  as it was in the first trial. The defence will almost certainly attack her credibility with questions about why she maintained contact with Cosby after the encounter and why she took a year to come forward to police, both issues Cosbys lawyers raised in the first trial.

But there are also expected to be crucial differences in how this trial unfolds. At the first trial, for example, testimony was heard from just one other woman who said she was also drugged and assaulted by Cosby. This time, ONeill is allowing prosecutors to present the accounts of five additional women with similar accusations  a change that experts say will help bolster Constands credibility as just one in a line of women who say Cosby abused them.

Another key difference is that the defence is being allowed to introduce testimony from a Temple University academic adviser who says that Constand once told her that she could make money by falsely claiming that she had been molested by a prominent person. The testimony of the adviser, Marguerite Jackson, 56, was barred during the first trial when Constand testified that she did not know Jackson. But the defence has since brought forward two former Temple colleagues of Constands who said she knew Jackson.

Jacksons account is part of an anticipated effort by Cosbys defence team to portray Constand as someone motivated by greed who had a premeditated plan to make money from the entertainer.

She sued Cosby in 2005 and won a financial settlement. ONeill has ruled that Cosbys financial payment to Constand can be brought into the public for the first time at the retrial after Cosby lifted his objections  although experts say the disclosure of the payment could also hurt Cosby if jurors interpret the money as an admission that he did something wrong.

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WASHINGTON  Last week was relatively quiet by Trump-era standards.

Monday was a week in itself.

The U.S. president contemplated a major military strike. The office of the presidents lawyer was raided. The president lashed out at the special counsel investigating his campaign. The presidents company pressured the president of Panama.

Among other things.

Heres a play-by-play of another extraordinary day in Washington:

8:08 a.m.: Trumps company pressures Panamas president

The presidents company, which he still owns and his two sons control, pressured the president of Panama to intervene on the companys behalf in a bitter legal dispute over the management of a hotel in Panama City, the Associated Press reported.

The Trump Organization sent a letter to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela URGENTLY seeking his influence in the dispute  and appeared to threaten harm to the Panamanian government if he did not help. (He didnt.) Panamanian officials were baffled, and ethics experts said the letter appeared to be using the power of the presidency for private profit-making purposes.

11:55 a.m.: Trump hints at military action against Syria over Saturday chemical attack

Well be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours. We are very concerned when a thing like that can happen. This is about humanity. Were talking about humanity. And it cant be allowed to happen, Trump said in remarks televised shortly after he delivered them.

11:57 a.m.: Trump says NAFTA deal is in sight

In his most optimistic comment to date on the status of North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, Trump said, Were fairly close on NAFTA. He appeared to be referring to the prospects of some sort of agreement in principle.

Immediately afterward, he reverted to his usual threat: If we dont make the right deal well terminate NAFTA and well make the right deal after that. But then he returned to his new positivity: But we have a chance to make a deal on NAFTA.

12:01 p.m.: Trump says hell probably find a way to avoid a tariff war with China

The move was a response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff on steel and alumnimum. (The Associated Press)

Joining his economic team in signalling an openness to trade negotiation with China, Trump said probably we will come to an agreement with China to avoid the tariffs both sides have threatened.

But he also played down the danger of Chinas threatened retaliatiatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. American farmers are great patriots, he said, and if they get hit with tariffs, they will understand that they are making a sacrifice for the country.

And well make it up to them, he said. And in the end, theyre going to be much stronger than they are right now.

2 p.m.: Budget office says Trump tax cuts will cause debt to balloon

Trumps administration claimed his tax cuts would pay for themselves. Congresss independent budget experts disagree. In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office said the tax cuts would add a total of $1.9 trillion (U.S.) to the federal deficit by 2028. The CBO also said the national debt would spike from $21 trillion to $33 trillion under Trumps policies.

2:51 p.m.: A Pruitt smoking gun?

The Atlantic magazine, which last week broke the story that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt used an environmental law to give hefty raises to two close aides in defiance of White House wishes, reported that there is an email confirming Pruitt knew at least about the $56,765 raise to senior counsel Sarah Greenwalt  though he claimed on Fox News last week that he had known nothing until the day prior.

3:02 p.m.: Trump strongly feels a lie

Challenged about Trumps lie last week that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended him  by talking about his unfounded feelings. Certainly, the president still strongly feels that there was a large amount of voter fraud, she said.

3:54 p.m.: A sensational raid on Trumps lawyer

The New York Times reported the FBI just raided the office of Trumps longtime lawyer and problem-fixer Michael Cohen and secured records related to Cohens $130,000 payment in the last month of the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels  as well as emails, tax documents and business records, plus communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.

Read more: Many people have said you should fire Mueller, Trump says after FBI raid on his lawyers office

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the investigation into the Trump campaigns relationship with Russia, referred the Cohen matter to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which obtained the search warrants.

This is a big deal, Ken White, a former federal prosecutor, wrote on the website Reason. Such a search, he wrote, would have required high-level approval from the Trump-backed U.S. Attorney himself, an elaborate review process, and consultation with the Department of Justice, which is led by other Trump appointees.

Around 6:10 p.m., the Washington Post reported that Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

6:19 p.m.: Trump denounces special counsel, attorney general

Asked about the Cohen raid, Trump, sitting with military leaders in the White House, resumed his attack on Mueller and on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. He called Muellers probe an attack on our country in a true sense, an attack on what we all stand for. He called the raid disgraceful. Asked if he would fire Mueller, he said, Well see what happens ... Many people have said, You should fire him. And he described the execution of the search warrant as a break-in: They broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, he said.

6:27 p.m. Trump promises military action against Syria

It will be met, and it will be met forcefully, he said.

Daniel Dale is the Stars Washington bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @ddale8

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Federal prosecutors investigating U.S. President Donald Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, are seeking records related to two women who received payments in 2016 after alleging affairs with Trump years ago  adult-film star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The interest in both Daniels and McDougal indicates that federal investigators are trying to determine whether there was a broader pattern or strategy among Trump associates to buy the silence of women whose accounts could harm the presidents electoral chances and whether any crimes were committed in doing so, one of those people said.

Investigators are also seeking all communications about Daniels and McDougal between Cohen, David Pecker  a personal friend of Trump and the chief executive of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer  and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media and a reporter there.

Daniels is co-operating with federal prosecutors, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Her co-operation was first reported by NBC News.

The high stakes of the case were underscored by the involvement of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who personally approved the move to seek a search warrant for Cohens records, which included raids Monday on his home and office, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The raid infuriated Trump, who was left stunned and livid by the aggressive move by prosecutors Monday, according to an outside adviser in frequent touch with the White House.

Trump privately continued to gripe Tuesday about Rosenstein, who also oversees Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the situation. Many in the presidents orbit think Rosensteins position is currently the most endangered if the president decides to take action to try to halt the probe, the people said.

Cohen, Trumps longtime attorney, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The New York Times first reported prosecutors interest in McDougal. The former Playmate has said she had a 10-month relationship with Trump beginning in 2006 and then sold her story to American Media for $150,000 about three months before the 2016 election.

No story about McDougal ever appeared in the publication, a tabloid practice sometimes referred to as catch and kill.

American Media spokesman Jon Hammond did not respond to questions about whether the company had been contacted by federal investigators.

American Media Inc. has, and will continue to, comply with any and all requests that do not jeopardize or violate its protected sources or materials pursuant to our First Amendment rights, Hammond said.

McDougals attorney, Peter Stris, declined to comment on the Cohen investigation.

The search warrants served Monday on Cohens Rockefeller Center office and home sought his personal financial information and client communications, including records related to Daniels, who was paid $130,000 by the Trump lawyer just days before the 2016 election in what she described as an effort to buy her silence.

U.S. President Donald Trump also called special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation "an attack on our country." (The Associated Press)

The raids, which also swept up communications between Cohen and Trump, left the White House scrambling to contain yet another crisis in an administration rife with them.

Some White House allies think that this one, like many of the administrations pockets of turbulence, was brought on by Trump himself  specifically, by comments he made last week aboard Air Force One, when he claimed he had no knowledge of the payment Cohen made to Daniels, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

He shot himself in the foot by saying he didnt know anything about the payment, one the people said.

Several lawyers noted that public statements from Cohen and Trump that the president was unaware of the payment may have significantly aided federal prosecutors legal arguments to justify searching the lawyers office, home and hotel room.

If both the lawyer and the client insisted that Trump had no idea that Cohen had made the payment, they cannot assert that those activities were protected by attorney-client privilege, legal experts said.

At that point, anything to do with that entire incident is, I would argue, not attorney-client privilege, said Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who practices law in Chicago. If I were a prosecutor hearing both the lawyer and the client say the client had no awareness whatsoever of that, I would now feel very confident going to a judge to seek that material.

On Monday, asked by reporters why he doesnt just fire Mueller, Trump said, Well see what happens, and added, Many people have said, You should fire him. And on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president believes he has the authority to fire Mueller.

Special counsel regulations say only the attorney general  or in this case, the acting attorney general on the Russia probe, Rosenstein  can dismiss the special counsel. But legal experts say the White House could achieve the same end result by rescinding the regulation that allows for a special counsel.

Within the presidents orbit, people described Trump as furious and lit up by the recent developments and floating a trial balloon to test the boundaries of trying to halt Muellers burgeoning probe.

His anger is unabated, said a Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House, who added the mood there is extremely grim.

Someone else in contact with the White House said aides have likened the current atmosphere to two previous crises  when Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey and when the White House was embroiled in the saga of Rob Porter, a former staff secretary accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans were divided over Trumps implicit threats to possibly fire Mueller, while legislation to protect the prosecutor remained stalled.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said it would be suicide for the president to move to remove Mueller as special counsel.

I have confidence in Mueller, the president ought to have confidence in Mueller, and I think, to answer your question, it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller, Grassley said on Fox Business Network. The less the president said on this whole thing, the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be.

But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, one of Trumps leading allies on the Hill, privately urged Republican colleagues on Tuesday to consider holding Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department does not provide him with documents he has sought about the Russia probe in coming days.

Nunes is readying proceedings and keeping several House Republicans briefed on his plans, including members of the Judiciary Committee and Oversight Committee, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Nunes has also spoken in the past week with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has been supportive of Trump, about how a potential contempt effort could unfold. He has not yet spoken with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., about possibly moving forward, the two people said.

Nunes, who has been signalling that Congress could take action this month, declined to comment.

At the Justice Department, meanwhile, some officials made a point of watching Trumps comments on television after the Cohen raid, looking for any hint that his rage this time would lead to consequences beyond a few angry tweets.

The mood at the department has been grim for months and those inside fear their pool of allies is shrinking. Republicans in Congress  once considered a reliable bulwark that might help keep an angry president at bay  have become increasingly incensed over the departments slow production of documents on controversial cases, including the Hillary Clinton email case.

Trump was already complaining publicly about that controversy when the FBI raided his personal lawyers office.

On Tuesday, the president also cancelled a plan trip to the Summit of the Americas in Peru, sending Vice President Mike Pence instead. The White House cited a need to remain in the United States to monitor the U.S. response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.

The decision to remain stateside, however, further inflamed the anxiety of aides, who worry about the president stewing in Washington as the Cohen case further unfolds and as Comey gives his first interview to ABC News Sunday evening as part of a planned book tour launch.

I think its going to get gnarly this weekend, said a Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House.

Meanwhile, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan has been recused from involvement in the FBIs probe of Trumps lawyer.

Geoffrey Berman, a Republican and former law partner of Rudy Giulianis, was named the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in January.

He was removed from the investigation before investigators obtained search warrants in the case, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The reasons for his removal werent immediately clear. Under Justice Department policy, a U.S. attorney cannot remove him or herself from a case. That decision is made by a senior Justice Department official in consultation with its general counsels office, usually when a U.S. attorney has a potential conflict of interest or a question about impartiality may arise.

A spokesman for Berman declined to comment on Tuesday.

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Henry Waxman, the master of taking advantage of whats possible in health care, warns against single-payer litmus tests. Photo: Leigh Vogel/WireImage

One of the big trends in Democratic policy thinking since the 2016 elections has been the ever-increasing ranks of elected officials and advocates supporting single-payer health care. Indeed, in many parts of the country  most notably in the largest state, California  the main remaining question is whether single-payer should become a mandatory litmus-test enforced element of Democratic orthodoxy, like support for civil rights, Social Security, or reproductive rights.

The reasons for this gathering force behind single-payer are well-known. The Obamacare experience has shown that less sweeping health-care initiatives tend to be too complicated, too compromised in terms of the profit motive in health care, and too limited in appeal. Single-payer is simple, doesnt involve reliance on private health insurance, and includes every American. Particularly at a time when Democrats (at the national level and in a majority of states) dont have the power to enact any major health-care legislation anyway, why not go for the gold? The logic is compelling, if not air-tight.

But its important to remember that while past health reforms have fallen short of the simplicity and universality of single-payer, they have also over the years made enormous contributions to public health, equal opportunity, and progressive politics. We dont usually think of Medicare (the primary model for single-payer) and Medicaid as incremental steps towards universal health coverage, but they were. And without them, and the many tweaks these and related programs have received over the decades, America would be much further away from the goal of health care as a right.

So its appropriate that the person who probably did more than anyone between LBJ and Obama to expand health-care coverage, former congressman Henry Waxman, has offered a Washington Post op-ed warning against the temptation of single-payer-or-nothing thinking in the Democratic Party.

Waxman, who retired from the House in 2014 after an amazingly productive 40 years, is no private-insurance-loving single-payer opponent or professional centrist. As his op-ed notes, he sponsored a single-payer proposal with his close ally Ted Kennedy. And he was a California Democrat from a safe Democratic district. But he was also the master of taking what he could get in measures to expand health coverage, particularly via serial expansions (and standardizations) of Medicaid, the 1997 enactment of the CHIP program, and finally passage of the Affordable Care Act during the last phase of his congressional service. And now hes making the arguments that no single-payer model is really all that pure, and that the political capital necessary to enact single-payer may be lacking for the foreseeable future.

Much as I respect the passion of Medicare-for-all advocates and share their broader goals, single-payer is no panacea. We couldnt muster the votes for single-payer nine years ago when we had a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate and a 255-179 majority in the House. Even if we recapture control of Congress in 2018, our margins will be smaller. And of course, the Republican in the White House would veto any such legislation.

Just as important, single-payer is no policy panacea. Medicare is hugely successful and popular, but most beneficiaries purchase private supplemental insurance to reduce the burden of large out-of-pocket costs. The most prominent single-payer bill would eliminate all out-of-pocket costs for Medicare, a move whose astronomical costs would require tax increases at politically suicidal levels.

Moreover, most countries with universal coverage, including Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, do not have what we would define as single-payer, instead relying on private insurance as part of the mix.

Waxman doesnt just tout past incremental reforms or point out problems with single-payer: he also lays out an ambitious agenda of new incremental reforms, aside from fixing Obamacare: expansion of Medicare to cover the long-term care needs of the elderly; initiating the serious cost-containment measures that can make universal health coverage more feasible; and making existing programs more seamlessly compatible to avoid disruptions of and gaps in coverage.

Indeed, one can argue that one of the problems with the rush to embrace single-payer is that it has inhibited fresh thinking on how to expand coverage through other means  which may prove necessary. There are sound progressive reasons for exploring them that have nothing to do with triangulation or corporate campaign donations or lack of courage. As Waxman concludes:

Lets be united on the goal of universal coverage, pragmatic on tactics and focused most of all on making a positive difference in as many peoples lives as possible.

Thats not as simple as Medicare for All, but its a strong message nonetheless.
LONDONThe spy saga that set off international tumult last month took a positive turn Tuesday as Yulia Skripal was released from a British hospital more than a month after she and her father were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.

This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone, Salisbury District Hospital medical director Christine Blanshard said after the 33-year-old Skripal was discharged and taken to a secure location.

Blanshard would not provide details about Yulia Skripals condition for reasons of patient privacy. Sergei Skripal, 66, the apparent target of the March 4 attack, is recovering more slowly than his daughter but continues to improve, she said.

Read more:

Russia wants meeting with U.K.s Boris Johnson as public feud over ex-spy poisoning continues

Poisoned ex-Russian spy no longer in critical condition, U.K. hospital says

Britain and U.S. spreading lies and disinformation about poisoning of ex-spy: Russian foreign minister

No date has been set for his discharge, the doctor said.

Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment weve been providing. But equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery, she said.

The father and daughter were found unconscious on a bench and remained in critical condition for several weeks. Their poisoning has revived Cold War tensions between Russia and the West.

The British government is likely to keep details about Yulia Skripals location secret, given the sensitivity of the case. It accuses Russia of carrying out the attack, which Moscow vehemently denies.

If she is well enough, she is likely to be extensively questioned by British security officials and police about her recollection of events leading up to her poisoning.

The Russian Embassy in London tweeted its congratulations to Yulia Skripal, but said pointedly that Russia needs urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

The embassy accused British authorities of concealing important evidence and blocking an impartial and independent investigation by isolating the woman.

It reaffirmed its request for consular access to her. She is a Russian citizen.

It is not clear where the Skripals will live if they recover enough to resume normal activities. British officials may feel Sergei Skripal would not be safe to live openly in England any longer.

Bob Ayers, a security analyst who used to work with the CIA, said it is possible the Skripals would be given new identities in Britain or the United States under a program like those used to protect witnesses in high-profile criminal trials.

They could also choose to live in the open under the assumption that Russia would not attack a second time, he said.

They may not want to go into hiding, Ayers said. Now that the assassination attempt has been uncovered, the odds are pretty good the Russians wont take another run at them. Theyll be under surveillance, the cops will put cameras up, theyll keep good track of the Skripals.

He said he would not expect Yulia Skripal to return to Russia despite her Russian nationality.

In a later tweet, the Russian Embassy said any attempt to settle her in another country would be regarded as abduction.

British police say the lethal nerve agent Novichok was placed on the door handle of Sergei Skripals house in Salisbury, an English city 160 kilometres west of London.

The nerve agent also sickened Nick Bailey, a police detective who came to their aid. He was the first of the three to be released from the hospital.

Yulia Skripal arrived in England from Moscow the day before the attack to spend Easter with her father

Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain.

He was imprisoned in Russia and eventually settled in England after a 2010 spy swap.

He was living under his own name in Salisbury, apparently believing he would be safe because there was no known history of Russia attacking former spies who had been part of exchanges.

The British government maintains the Skripals were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent that could only have been made in Russia. Russia has denied the allegation.

The incident has led to a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from countries aligned with Britain. Russia in turn retaliated by expelling diplomats from countries that sided with Britain.

There are still many unanswered questions about the brazen attack.

If Britain is correct that the Russian government is to blame, it is not clear why Sergei Skripal was poisoned now, some eight years after his swap.

Some analysts believe Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to send a message to others who had betrayed Russia that they are not safe anywhere in the world. Others believe Sergei Skripal might have been involved in some private business that made Russian officials uneasy.

British officials have also not revealed how the Novichok was brought into Britain.

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MEDELLIN, ColombiaA former guerrilla peace negotiator has been arrested on drug trafficking charges in Colombia, after government officials said he and associates had returned to the drug trade his group had vowed to give up.

The arrest of Seusis Hernandez Solarte was a surprise turn of events for the FARC, the former rebel organization that has refashioned itself as a political party called the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force.

In signing a peace deal in 2016, its leaders  all wanted as drug traffickers in the United States  were promised immunity for past crimes and, in return, they renounced future ones.

But on Monday, the Colombian government said that Hernandez, whose nom de guerre was Jesus Santrich, had quickly returned to the drug business. Officials said that starting last June, just months after the peace deal was signed, Hernandez had sought to export roughly 10 tons of cocaine to the United States, whose value they estimated was as much as $320 million (U.S.).

President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia announced the arrest on television. He issued a stern warning to the FARC, saying that while past offences were forgiven under the peace accord, future ones would be handled by prosecutors.

The accords are clear: Whoever commits a crime after the signing of the deal will be sent to the courts for the new crimes committed, Santos said.

FARC leaders rallied around Hernandez on Monday, contending that the government was breaking the peace deal by ordering the arrest.

What theyve done to Jesus Santrich they can do to any of us, said Judith Simanca Herrera, a former FARC leader known by her war name, Victoria Sandino.

The arrest, which officials said involved information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, also showed the U.S. involvement in continuing to capture FARC leaders when they are wanted on trafficking accusations.

U.S. officials have warned repeatedly that former guerrillas have not left the drug business and continue to have involvement in the U.S. market.

Nestor Humberto Martinez, the Colombian attorney general, said Hernandez had access to planes registered in the United States to transport drugs, as well as cocaine laboratories. He said Hernandez had been involved in drug smuggling scheme until this month.
PARISCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia wrapped up his first official visit to France by meeting Tuesday with President Emmanuel Macron on defence, security and economic issues  and to share their concerns over the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The two leaders were expected to sign agreements and hold a joint news conference before a gala send-off dinner at the presidential Elysee palace. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was invited to meet with them and to attend the dinner.

Macron and the crown prince planned to discuss a strategic partnership that would yield contracts by the time Macron visits Saudi Arabia at the end of the year, the French presidency said.

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Also atop the agenda were the wars in Yemen and Syria; Saudi Arabias regional rival, Iran; and the fight against terrorism and terrorist financing.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, speaking Tuesday to reporters in Paris, said Saudi Arabia is greatly concerned about the apparent chemical weapons attack Saturday in Douma, Syria, amid speculations over an eventual U.S.-French operation against Syrian President Bashar Assads government.

Al-Jubeir said he wants the perpetrators held responsible. He would not comment on whether Saudi forces could join the potential intervention.

Macron called for a strong reaction of the international community during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday evening.

France traditionally has been a major arms supplier to the Saudis, but French officials said no big weapons contracts were planned to coincide with the crown princes three-day official visit.

Saudi national company Aramco and French oil giant Total announced a deal earlier Tuesday to build a petrochemical complex in Jubail in Saudi Arabia. In total, $9 billion will be invested, a joint statement from the company said.

Human rights groups have expressed concerns about the crown princes visit, and a lawyer representing one group filed a lawsuit Tuesday in France accusing him of complicity in torture in Yemen.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia and France signed agreements over cultural and artistic co-operation that include training for Saudi filmmakers and plans for the National Opera of Paris to help the Saudis create a national orchestra.

The conservative kingdom will be represented at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time next month.

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WASHINGTONSyria President Bashar Assads forces targeted veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin and then celebrated after they learned their rockets had killed her, according to a sworn statement a former Syrian intelligence officer made in a wrongful-death suit filed by her relatives.

New court documents unsealed Monday include the statement by the officer, who has defected from the war-ravaged nation. The intelligence defector, code-named Ulysses, provides a detailed account of how Assads military and intelligence officials sought to capture or kill journalists and media activists in Homs, a centre of the pro-democratic revolution that erupted across Syria in the spring of 2011.

He said that when Colvins death was confirmed, Syrian Maj. Gen. Rafiq Shahadah exclaimed: Marie Colvin was a dog and now shes dead. Let the Americans help her now.

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At that time, Shahadah was a security official in Homs. He now runs the Syrian military intelligence directorate.

The Syrian government has not responded to the lawsuit, but Assad has denied that his forces targeted and killed Colvin in 2012 to silence her reporting on the conflict. The 56-year-old New York City native was reporting on the Syrian governments bombing of residential areas when she was killed by a rocket attack on a media centre.

The defectors identity and allegations contained in his affidavit could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, but his account is corroborated by Syrian government documents filed as evidence in the case.

The defector said that as an intelligence officer he reviewed intelligence and surveillance reports, arrest orders and field reports during 2011 and 2012 from around the country. He said he was privy to open and secure communications broadcast over hand-held radios issued to him and all other intelligence officers. The defector currently lives legally in Europe because he fears he is wanted by Syrian intelligence officials.

His deposition includes a flow chart identifying eight Syrian officials who were involved in the attack on the media centre where Colvin was killed. The defector said the eight include Assads brother, Maher, who leads the armys elite 4th Armoured Division. He claims Assads brother gave one of the eight officials a new, black Hyundai Genesis as a reward for the successful operation against the media centre in Baba Amr, a working-class neighbourhood of Homs.

The Center for Justice and Accountability, based in San Francisco, filed the wrongful death suit against Assad in 2016 on behalf of Colvins relatives, including her sister, Cathleen. The new court records became public after being unsealed by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

The defectors account is consistent with another deposition in the case from Annouar Nouar, a former Algerian member of an Arab League observer team. He said a deputy Syrian defence minister told him that the media was his main problem and that Baba Amr could be destroyed in 10 minutes if there were no video cameras. Nouar said the deputy defence minister referred to The Washington Post and New York Times as terrorist newspapers.

The actual maliciousness that the Syrian regime had against Western reporters and their Syrian counterparts and sources is on display through multiple witnesses and multiple documents, said Scott Gilmore, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

By the end of 2011, the lawsuit said, Syrian forces had encircled Baba Amr with checkpoints, tanks and artillery. After learning that Western journalists were arriving in Baba Amr from Lebanon, Syrian forces were ordered to intercept their communications, track their movements and locate their media centre so they could be captured or killed, according to the lawsuit.

The Syrian forces used a mobile satellite interception device that could tap broadcast signals and locate their origin, the lawsuit said. Still, Syrian forces were not able to locate the media centre, which was on the ground floor of a three-story apartment building. The journalists were using a clandestine satellite and proxy internet services to mask their location.

Colvin, a correspondent for the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, and photographer Paul Conroy sneaked into Homs through an underground water tunnel. In Baba Amr, they toured a field hospital and a cellar called the widows basement where mostly women and children sought shelter from the bombs. They fled through the same tunnel and filed a story, which was published on Feb. 19, 2012.

The next day, the two returned to the media centre where they witnessed even heavier shelling that kept them from fleeing. They stayed and on Feb. 21, 2012, Colvin gave live interviews over the media centres satellite link to the BBC and CNN. Syrian forces were shelling with impunity and a merciless disregard for the civilians who simply cannot escape, she said.

That day, an informant told Syrian intelligence officers the location of the media centre. That corresponded with information the intelligence officers had obtained from their satellite interception device, which had pinpointed that same location as the place where Colvin did her broadcast interviews with the BBC and CNN, the lawsuit said.

At about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 22, 2012, the centre was destroyed by several rockets. Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed and several other people were injured.

Colvin had years of experience in war zones. She covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, East Timor and Sri Lanka where she lost the sight in her left eye in a blast. The black patch she wore over her eye became her trademark.

Her sister is seeking an undetermined amount for the emotional pain of losing her sister, compensatory damages for her three children, who are beneficiaries of Colvins estate, and punitive damages against the Syrian government.

So far, the Syrian government has not filed any response to the lawsuit.

Their only response in this case is an interview Assad gave to NBC the week the suit was filed, Gilmore said. He issued first a blanket denial, and then stated that Marie had entered the country illegally, worked with terrorists and was responsible for everything that befell her.

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Ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergs appearance on Capitol Hill this week, number of civic organizations and human rights groups in Burma have shared a detailed presentation with U.S. lawmakers on how the social network helped spread hate speech in the country.

The presentation, sent to key American leaders who will be questioning Zuckerberg on Tuesday and Wednesday, highlights a number of examples of alleged negligence by Facebook that they say helped propel violence in the Southeast Asian nation.

It features a video shared by a nationalist monk on Facebook in January 2016 that provocatively reenacted a controversial rape and murder of a Burmese woman. It took three days for the video to be removed, the organizations say, although it was clearly designed to ignite further tensions between Buddhists and Muslim communities.

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Before being removed from Facebook, the video had been viewed more than 120,000 times, according to the presentation. Indeed, despite the removal of the original video, the groups found copies of it in at least eight places on Facebook.

In other examples, the groups pointed to a November 2016 post on Facebook that described a respected journalist working for international media as a terrorist and called for him to be killed. The post was not found to violate the social networks community standards, but it was later removed when Facebook representatives were contacted directly, according to the presentation.

The groups also cited the Facebook page of nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu. His page had been reported for spreading inflammatory content for years but kept returning.

In a letter to U.S. lawmakers, the organizations emphasized that Burma should be a key priority in the questioning of Facebook because lives are literally on the line. They pointed to a recent statement from United Nations investigators that concluded Facebook had played a determining role in alleged ethnic cleansing in the country.

In a phone call, Htaike Htaike, director of the Burma ICT for Development Organization, said that U.S. pressure was necessary after years of promises for action from Facebook. After these endless promises, we believe that the U.S. Congress can really help force Facebook to do something, she said.

The groups suggested four questions for senators to ask Zuckerberg, included verbatim below:

What concrete actions are you going to take to ensure that content that clearly breaches your own Community Standards is immediately removed?

Countries such as Germany require Facebook to remove hate speech within 24 hours or face significant fines. Will you commit to removing all incitements to violence in Burma within 24 hours?

Your emergency escalation processes clearly do not work. Will you put in place clear, easily accessible emergency escalation processes in all relevant languages?

There is extensive misuse of your platform by bad actors, yet even serial offenders very rarely face closure of their account. How do you decide who is taken down, and what concrete actions are you going to take to remove users who breach your Community Standards?

Zuckerbergs appearance on Capitol Hill this week comes as the American social media giant reels from the alleged misuse of its platform for political influence in the 2016 U.S. election. Last month, it was revealed that a political consultancy firm hired by the Donald Trump campaign and other Republicans had improperly gained access to 87 million Facebook users, including 71 million Americans.

In planned testimony released this week ahead of Wednesdays appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Zuckerberg is expected to personally apologize for the misuse of the platform he created. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here, the Facebook executive plans to tell lawmakers.

The testimony is expected to deal almost exclusively with issues surrounding Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy firm, and alleged Russian interference in Western elections. Facebooks role in smaller countries such as Burma is not directly addressed.

Burma represents only a tiny slice of Facebooks giant global business. However, the social network has played a powerful role in Burma society as the country opened up to the world after years of isolation. One study found that 38 per cent of Facebook users in Burma got most, perhaps even all, of their news from the site.

The U.S. social media giant has been accused of spreading fake news that inflamed ethnic tensions between the countrys Buddhist majority and its minority Muslim populations. In 2017, a military crackdown caused more than 600,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya in the countrys Rakhine province to flee across the border with Bangladesh  and left an unknown number of people dead.

In an email, the founder of one of the Burmese organizations said they have been corresponding with a number of senators offices about Zuckerbergs comments. We would therefore be very surprised if one or more senators did not ask about Burma, said David Madden of Phandeeyar, a leading tech hub that has worked with Facebook to draft its community settings for the Burmese language.

Sen. John Neely Kennedy of the Senate Judiciary Committee told CBS News last week that he wants Facebook to stop people from running advertisements on Facebook that encourages the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, quizzed Facebooks general counsel last October about its role in Burma. You have a great responsibility, Leahy said. Not only can elections be swayed by people who are not favourable to the United States, but people can die.

Zuckerberg has acknowledged some of the criticisms from groups such as Phandeeyar. The Facebook CEO responded with a personal message to the groups after they published an open letter that accused him of misrepresenting Facebooks success in combating hate speech in Burma during a recent media interview. A spokeswoman for the groups later told BuzzFeed News that the response was grossly insufficient.

Although the situation in Burma is especially fraught, critics in other non-Western countries have argued that Facebook turns a blind eye to the misuse of its platform. On Monday, a number of activists and independent media professionals in Vietnam released their own open letter to Zuckerberg, pointing to account suspensions in the country.

Without a nuanced approach, Facebook risks enabling and being complicit in government censorship, the Vietnamese groups said.

Htaike Htaike said it was clear that concerns about Facebook are a global problem. Its actions in the United States and Europe may have drawn most of the attention, she said, but many people in other countries are asking: What about us?

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LONDONIt will be friends and family, rather than politicians and world leaders, at Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding.

Kensington Palace says it has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both U.K. and international  is not required for the wedding.

That means U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May are not among 600 people invited to the May 19 ceremony at Windsor Castles St. Georges Chapel.

A person with knowledge of the guest list who spoke on condition of anonymity says former U.S. president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, also are not invited.

Many politicians and world leaders attended the much larger 2011 wedding of Harrys older brother, Prince William, and Kate Middleton. The rules of succession mean that, unlike William, Harry is unlikely to one day occupy the throne.

Prince Harry and Markle got engaged in November and will be married on Saturday, May 19 at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle. (The Canadian Press)

That gives him and Markle, an American actress, some leeway to make the wedding more of a personal and less of a state affair.

The Obamas have a warm personal relationship with Harry, which had led to speculation they would be at Windsor Castle for the wedding.

Officials, however, were likely concerned Trump would feel snubbed if he was left out while his predecessor attended.

It is not yet known how many representatives of Europes other royal families will be invited or how many of Markles friends and colleagues from Hollywood will make the trek.

Also Tuesday, Kensington Palace officials named some of the 1,200 members of the public who have been told they will be among the 2,640 people invited to the grounds of Windsor Castle for the big event.

That will give them an excellent vantage point to see the royals arrive at the chapel and to see Harry and Markles carriage procession after the wedding ceremony.

The list includes Phillip Gillespie, a soldier from Northern Ireland who lost his right leg in a combat incident in Afghanistan, where Harry also served, and a number of people who have founded charities.

Also on the list is Amelia Thompson, 12, who was caught up in the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people last year. Shes taking the grandmother of a 15-year-old who died in the attack as her guest.

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WASHINGTONTrump administration officials consulted with global allies Tuesday on a possible joint military response to Syria's alleged poison gas attack, as U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Trump spoke with other world leaders, and other U.S. officials said the U.S., France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week. None of the three countries' leaders had made a firm decision, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss military planning by name.

A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syria's political and military support from Russia and Iran.

White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump was missing the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, and stop in Bogota, Colombia, as planned to stay home to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

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The president's new national security adviser, John Bolton, urged Trump to skip the trip, an official said. This reflects a view in the White House that deeper Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria have complicated calculations about a response to any U.S. military attack, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Moscow has cautioned the U.S. not to launch a military attack.

President Emmanuel Macron said France, the U.S. and Britain will decide how to respond in the coming days. He called for a "strong and joint response" to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which Syrian activists and rescuers say killed 40 people. The Syrian government denies responsibility.

The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the U.S.-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Multiple IS attacks have targeted French soil, including one last month.

Trump suggested Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence. Officials suggested such evidence was lacking, or at least not yet at hand. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which U.S. intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of Sarin gas. Trump responded by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

One official said the U.S., France and Britain were considering military options that would be more extensive than the punitive, one-day strike last April. That strike did not appear to have had the desired effect of deterring Assad from further use of chemical agents. So the three countries are discussing a range of options, including preventing Assad from conducting future attacks by striking military capabilities involved in carrying out such attack, the official said.

Asked whether France would take military action, Macron said his country will continue discussing technical and strategic information with U.S. and British allies and "in the coming days we will announce our decision." He said any action would "target chemical weapons" stocks. Under a 2013 agreement for which Russia was a guarantor, Syria was to have eliminated all its chemical weapons, but it has used chlorine and perhaps other chemicals since then.

Trump spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May. A British government statement said the two agreed the international community must respond "to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons." Trump met at the White House with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who told reporters that he and Trump "see eye to eye" on the Syria problem.

"We cannot tolerate with a war criminal," the emir said. Qatar hosts the United States' main air operations centre for the Middle East, which would co-ordinate any American air attack in Syria.

The Russian military, which has troops in Syria, said on Monday that its officers had visited the site of the alleged attack and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

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Last month in San Jose, a woman told one of her heroes that he was wrong.

Nanine McCool had heard quite enough of self-help guru Tony Robbins thoughts on the #MeToo movement. In an interview with Refinery29, McCool, a survivor of childhood abuse, said, I dont remember making that decision to stand up but at some point I was like, Oh my god, Im yelling at Tony Robbins. I need to sit down, but it was too late.

In an 11-minute video of their interaction that circulated this weekend, McCool pushes back on Robbins mischaracterizations of the people whove spoken up about abuse over the past few months. He claims, Im not knocking the #MeToo movement. Im knocking victimhood.

(At one point, he goes through a chilling exercise with McCool that involves pushing her backwards by her hands then asking why shes resisting. Oddly, he concludes saying, When you push someone else, it doesnt make you more special.)

Robbins shares an anecdote about a very powerful man he knows who declined to hire a woman who was the most qualified for the job citing a fear of sexual harassment claims. Ive had a dozen men tell me this, says Robbins.

To her credit, McCool never stands down, saying to him, You are a leader and an influential man, and you are doing a disservice to the #MeToo movement.

Robbins has since apologized. But his anecdote isnt new. The newly felt discomfort of male superiors surfaced almost simultaneously with the allegations against Harvey Weinstein. One New York Times blog piece reported on the heightened caution of men in hiring positions who were now avoiding interactions with women. The Associated Press reported that people in tech, politics, and law are essentially effecting the Mike Pence Rule, that is, theyll avoid hiring or being alone with women.

Its doubtful any of these men were knitting pink pussy hats prior to the hundreds of allegations of sexual assault, harassment and abuse. Those who face exclusion women, racialized people, LGBTQ persons, really any mix of non-white, non-male identities have long been underrepresented, underpaid and frankly unwelcome in the spaces where Tony Robbins friend is powerful.

The burden remains on victims like McCool to speak up against the rhetoric of harassment and exclusion.

The #MeToo movement has cracked something open, chipping away at a culture that does not value women as human beings. But for some in this culture our culture that erosion has hardened them.

Justifying the further exclusion of women under the guise of self-protection is simply the status quo re-asserting itself. Whether its the Mike Pence Rule or simply not hiring women, the patriarchy will find new ways to blame victims for being victimized.
Bill C-75s elimination of peremptory challenges will make it harder for Indigenous people and people of colour to get a fair trial in this country.

The peremptory challenge is a tool in the jury selection process. The Criminal Code gives both the defence and the prosecution a limited number of these challenges, which allow them to dismiss prospective jurors from the jury without giving a reason.

The rationale for the peremptory challenge is to help ensure an impartial and representative jury.

Where the accused is a person of colour, ensuring an impartial and representative jury means getting some diversity on the jury. Every day in Canada there are trials in which the accused and every non-police witness are persons of colour, while every police officer and member of the administration of justice is white. Having a diverse jury is important to the integrity of our system. It legitimizes the process in the eyes of the accused and the communities to which they belong.

Without the peremptory challenge in our toolkits, diversity will prove elusive for most juries. Even in a city as diverse as Toronto, there are relatively few people of colour and Indigenous people in the jury pool. (That is a problem in itself that governments must address.) The peremptory challenge permits defence counsel to pursue a diverse jury, and that is how we use them every day in this country.

Can peremptory challenges be abused? Absolutely. The prosecution can abuse them and so can the defence. We ought to guard against that abuse. If either side appears to use their challenges in a discriminatory manner, then the other side should stand up and object. Canadian courts have already held that the discriminatory use of the peremptory challenge would run afoul of the Charter.

In the United States, the courts have formalized this procedure. It is called a Batson challenge, named after the 1986 case, Batson v. Kentucky, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that using peremptory challenges to eliminate African-American jurors was a violation of Equal Protection Clause.

Some Canadian commentators have dismissed the Batson approach because, they argue, Batson challenges have a low rate of success. These critiques miss the point. In some places, the mere existence of the Batson process has a mitigating effect on a prosecutors conduct.

Having practised in the U.S., I have seen the Batson process work. Years ago, I was the junior member of the pro bono defence team in the retrial of a African-American man who had been wrongfully convicted of murder. After the prosecution had used two peremptory challenges in a row on African-American jurors, the senior lawyer on our team jumped to his feet, telling the judge he felt the prosecution was using its peremptories against African-Americans. The prosecutor, when questioned by the judge, gave a racially neutral explanation. Ultimately, the judge dismissed our challenge.

The prosecutor was incensed that we had questioned his integrity, but the objection worked. He did not use any of his remaining peremptories on African-American jurors. Coupled with the strategic use of our own peremptories, we ended up with five African-American jurors (which was unheard of in that county).

I have no doubt that the Batson process may be illusory in some U.S. states, which suffer from injustices that go far deeper than the jury selection process. But I have a high regard for Canadian judges ability to adjudicate objections to discriminatory peremptory challenges. Just because it does not work in Alabama does not mean it wont work in Canada.

Somewhat paradoxically, the federal government has asserted that the elimination of peremptory challenges will have an equality enhancing effect. I would love to see the evidence supporting that argument  because it flies in the face of my own experience and the experience of every criminal lawyer I know.

Undoubtedly, Canada needs criminal justice reform. But this government should pause and listen to those in the field before throwing out an important tool of trial fairness that has existed for nearly a millennium.
April 10 is Equal Pay Day this year, an event that marks the size of the gender pay gap. It reflects how far women on average need to work into the New Year to earn what men earned by Dec. 31 of the previous year.

The latest census data show that Indigenous women in Ontario face a 43 per cent gender pay gap. Racialized women face a 38 per cent gap. Immigrant women face a 34 per cent gap.

On average Ontario women earn 29.3 per cent less than men.

The gap isnt new. And its not inevitable. Its a product of systemic discrimination sustained by employer and government choices. The solutions to close the gap have been known for decades. Its time for bold action.

Its time to show women the money. Ontario can do that by taking three bold steps on pay transparency, child care and funding of public services.

Ontario is introducing a Pay Transparency Act (Bill 3). But the Bill must be strengthened so all employers with at least 10 employees must prove they are complying with the existing laws that prohibit pay discrimination.

Pay transparency laws require employers to disclose anonymized wage data by sex showing pay for each occupation, employment status, and distribution throughout the company hierarchy.

A strong law can expose when women and men are paid differently for the same work; when female-dominated jobs are underpaid relative to mens work of similar value; when women are concentrated in precarious employment; and when women encounter glass ceilings and sticky floors that deny them career progression.

In the U.K., all employers with 250 or more workers had to file pay transparency reports by April 4. The reports show that 78 per cent of U.K. employers have a gender pay gap.

While Ontario wrestles with who should be subject to pay transparency, Canadian companies  and transnational companies that operate in Canada  must already file such reports in the U.K. and elsewhere around the globe.

For example, RBCs U.K. report shows that womens average pay is 51 per cent lower than mens, and women are concentrated in the companys lowest income quartile. Similarly, Blackberrys report shows womens average pay is 33.8 per cent lower than mens. Even at a female-dominated company like Blue Cross UK, where women outnumber men at all income quartiles, womens average wage is 25.5 per cent lower than mens.

While revealing, the U.K.s law is the least comprehensive global model because it applies only to the largest employers.

Pay transparency in Iceland, Denmark and Belgium applies to employers with 25, 35 and 50 employees respectively. Australias law applies to employers with 100 employees.

Canadas federal government has promised a pay transparency law that will apply to all employers with 10 or more workers. Ontarios Bill 3 must keep pace.

Ontario also needs to show us the money by investing in child care.

As early as 1970, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women called for a national child-care plan, noting that the equality of women means little without such a programme. Ontarios 1985 Green Paper on Pay Equity also recognized that closing the gender pay gap requires a comprehensive strategy with child care as a cornerstone. For more than 40 years, the Equal Pay Coalition has called for universally accessible, affordable, public child care for infants, preschool and school age kids, with decent wages for child care workers.

Ontario recently announced a plan to extend publicly funded child care to preschool children as of 2020.

This is an important first step toward building a comprehensive system. But weve known for more than two generations that a deep investment in child care is needed. Its time for bold action that delivers.

Finally, government must ensure that public services are funded to provide pay equity wages now. Women delivering important public services through community and social agencies have waited for pay equity wages since 1994. Because pay equity is being phased in so slowly, many of them will continue to wait decades before their pay gaps are closed. Public services shouldnt be subsidized by womens undervalued and underpaid labour.

Women are done waiting. Show us the money.
IDLIB, SYRIA - APRIL 08: A man holds a photo of a victim baby as he and other demonstrators gather to protest against Assad regime forces allegedly conducted poisonous gas attack to Duma town of Eastern Ghouta, in Saraqib town of Idlib, Syria on April 08, 2018. (Photo by Mahmut Bekkur/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

More than 400,000 dead since 2011. Men, women and children. Dead from chemical-weapons attacks, but also dead from barrel bombings, gunshots, torture, starvation. Dead from routine illnesses and injuries untreated because more than half the countrys public hospitals are damaged or shuttered. Dead while trying to reach safety.

And of the living, some 6 million  half the population  forced to flee their homes.

The country, once a flourishing crossroads for commerce, is now the site of proxy wars between the U.S. and multiple jihadi groups. Between the U.S. and Iran, Israel and Hezbollah, Turkey and the Kurds, and even the U.S. and Russia.

Why? Because Syrias strongman ruler, Bashar al-Assad, was and remains quite willing to lay waste to his country to save his own regime. Extremist groups of many stripes are eager to exploit the conflict for their own purposes. And every power with the ability to intervene  Syrias neighbors, Iran, Russia, Europe, and the U.S. under successive administrations  judges its interests in Syria to be both more important than stopping the killing, and less important than the effort it would take to impose and keep a peace.

That is the plain and unattractive truth. Nobody comes off looking good, except the Syrian civilians and their humanitarian helpers who still try to feed families, tend the sick, bury the dead, shelter the refugees, and record the atrocities for history, if not for justice.

So does it matter if Assad uses chemical weapons, again? Do the ghastly deaths of babies have any meaning?

Maybe. Maybe, at minimum, the norm against using chemical weapons can be upheld. Maybe punishment by the U.S. and its allies will deter others from using chemicals on other civilians, other children. That seems to be the thinking of the French, the Trump administration, and others calling for retaliatory strikes.

But maybe not. To all appearances, Assad has continued to use chemical weapons unhindered since the last time the United States launched a retaliatory strike one year ago. Human Rights Watch has documented at least five likely uses of chemical weapons by the Syrian government just since November 2017. And since the August 2013 attack that prompted the Obama administration to declare that its red line had been crossed, Human Rights Watch confirms 85 chemical-weapons attacks, the majority traceable to the Assad regime.

Assad  and his adversaries, and others, like the Russia-attributed attack on a former spy and his daughter in England last month  uses chemical weapons exactly because of the terror they produce, because of the awful pictures. They communicate to the living, to those who are not in rebellion: dont even think about it.

Pinprick missile strikes wont change that calculus. The presence or absence of U.S. troops on the other side of Syria doesnt do much to change it either. Trumps angry tweets aside, the debate over Syria policy that has been ripping up Washington in recent weeks is almost totally irrelevant to the lives of civilians under Assads rule.

Washington could do three things to help ease the suffering of Syrians and bring some energy to the stalled, broken search for an end to the fighting. All are deeply unsatisfying. But each, for the cost of a few cruise missiles, would alter thousands of lives for the better.

First, get back to saving the easy lives by supporting refugees and displaced people. The Trump administration has pulled the United States out of global coordination on where to send refugees and cut and threatened to cut off U.S. support for overwhelmed UN refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere. And his decision to slash U.S. refugee admissions by more than half  and admissions of Muslims even more drastically  is a godsend to every other government that wants to refuse to do its share.

Second, prevent mass killing from recurring in areas where it has been stopped. The debate over whether or not U.S. troops stay in eastern Syria is the wrong one. The question is how the areas from which ISIS and other jihadi groups have been driven can rebuild security and basic institutions that can resist the urge to be drawn back into violence. Local leaders want to do that, and humanitarian groups like Mercy Corps have detailed proposals for how international civilians can help. If the best the world can do is support Syrians in establishing territories where hospitals operate, terrorists dont plot, civilians dont flee, and babies breathe safely, this would be how. But no such plan is on the table in Washington, where the debate imagines that either the U.S. plays no role or that the U.S. military is in charge of reconstruction.

Third, many of the multiple conflicts now playing out in Syria will have to be settled at the negotiating table. Washington has chosen largely to withdraw from the fray  the post of special envoy for Syria is one of many empty diplomatic slots in the State Department  but there is much it could do. The biggest outside actors in Syria, who prop up Assad and even help him kill civilians, are Russia and Iran. Washington is wasting his leverage with its inattention, conflicting policies, and unfulfilled threats. But the Trump administration still has plenty of tools to deploy, and not just military ones, to pressure Moscow and Tehran to rein Assad in; reconvene more productive peace talks; or even do more to mediate between our Turkish NATO allies and the Kurdish forces we empowered, who are on the edge of all-out conflict in the parts of Syria where ISIS has been driven out.

Doing that would require discipline and long-term focus; willingness to think smartly about non-military tools, instead of reflexively toggling between bombs and nothing; and keeping our focus on living Syrian babies every day rather than on dead Syrian babies occasionally. President Trump is terrible at this. But hes not alone.
Body hair is not only natural, its one of our defining characteristics as mammals. Before birth, we are all covered by a downy layer of hair known as lanugo. Most of us shed that hair by the time we are born. Later, we adopt societal beliefs about male and female body hair.

Conspicuous hair on the arms, legs and elsewhere on the female body, is largely considered undesirable and unattractive. More and more young women, however are making a personal and social statement by choosing not to remove sightly body hair.

Wednesday marks the 6th annual Day of Pink  an international event against bullying and discrimination, especially relating to the LGBTQ community. The event will sprout nationwide conversations about social media behaviour, inclusivity, and acceptance along with gender constructs, body shaming and more.

For women with prominent body hair, these concepts are often entangled. While not LGBTQ-specific, it appears the dialogue about body hair is shifting among young adults who are questioning binary concepts of gender and challenging assumed beauty standards.

Jennifer Do, a Toronto-based cosmetics consultant now in her 30s, recalls her teen years and an awareness of the disparity between the dark hair that covered her forearms, and the smooth hairless bodies that she saw on television.

Advertisements devoid of women with visible body hair, encouraged the removal of unwanted hair with shaving, waxing and depilatory products. Commercials made me believe I had to be hairless, she said, along with the hurtful laughs and comments from peers and family during those years.

Do, together with model Markana Minor and fashion design student, Tiffani Colwell, are speaking up about body confidence and bullying in a new body positivity project created by Toronto artist, Chris Pieneman. Do, Minor and Colwell, who all identify as women with hairy arms, share their experiences in a series of online video stories.

Colwell, who endured name calling like monkey and gorilla in her youth, and who happens to identify as genderqueer, loves participating in this dialogue. This is something I didnt realize was a relatable experience. Its definitely a valid conversation. We need to strive toward a culture where we are accepting of peoples bodies, she says.

Last fall, sportswear company Adidas raised eyebrows with an ad campaign that included a young Swedish woman baring unshaved legs while modelling sneakers in a short lace dress. While the company hailed her boldness on Instagram, the move was met with mixed reviews as the model, Arvida Bystrom, received responses ranging from you go girl to reported rape threats.

Likewise, Canadian fitness personality, Gabby Scheyen, received a combination of negative and supportive comments in response to a bikini beach pic posted on Instagram. The most loyal of her 239K followers were quick to defend her natural beauty, after Shave your forearms and That hair on your arm tho  appeared in the comments.

For women who feel more confident and attractive without body hair, theres no shortage of razors, wax strips, and laser treatments available to achieve their desired look. However its refreshing to see the conversation shifting to one of choice rather than supposition.

At a time when bullies can shatter confidence and damage a persons social acceptance with a few words and the click of a button, its encouraging to see young women taking online to support one another, and to challenge this generation-old beauty esthetic.
Workers in Ontario have the right to a safe workplace. Thats something generations of workers, advocates and politicians fought hard to enshrine in legislation.

But an investigation last year by Star reporters Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Brendan Kennedy showed that companies increasingly flout those laws and deny workers just treatment and protection by hiring temporary workers through dodgy agencies.

Their series continued this week with fresh evidence, obtained through freedom of information laws, about how far outside the lines unscrupulous temporary agencies  and companies like Fiera Foods that hire workers through them  are operating.

Temporary workers are being treated shamefully as disposal workers. Some workers at the Fiera Foods Toronto bakery were so poorly trained that when Amina Diabys head scarf was sucked into a machine, strangling the 23-year-old woman, an employee working with her didnt even know how to use the machines emergency stop buttons, according to the new documents.

Ontario has just enacted legislation that will require the compensation board to hold temp agencies and their client companies jointly responsible when a temp worker is injured. Thats a critical move to help close a loophole that exploitative companies and temp agencies have been using to boost their profits at the expense of paying the appropriate Workplace Safety and Insurance Board premiums that are used to fund benefits for injured workers across the province.

Since temp agencies have proven adept at skirting other employment laws, the job is not done. Ontarios Ministry of Labour must also move ahead with plans to enhance enforcement and thoroughly investigate this sector. Vulnerable workers deserve nothing less.
If more evidence were needed to make the case that Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives require continuous media monitoring during the Ontario election campaign, it arrived this week in events surrounding the expulsion from caucus of MPP Michael Harris.

The PCs ejected Harris on Monday over allegations that he sent inappropriate texts to an intern in 2013, only two years after the married father of four was first elected in Kitchener-Conestoga.

Notably, however, the bouncing occurred only after the Stars Robert Benzie made inquiries about Harriss conduct.

The chronology of the affair raises questions about just how much was learned by the party  reported to be atop most polls taken in advance of the June 7 vote  from the Patrick Brown fiasco that resulted in Fords election as leader.

Exactly what constitutes zero tolerance about sexual misconduct in the world of Doug Ford?

How transparent is the party apt to be about nominations compared to the dodgy days of his predecessor?

And is the PC caucus still prepared, astonishingly, to put political calculus ahead of cleaning a house that even veteran MPP Vic Fedeli not long ago described as full of rot?

As the Star reported, a conference call was held last Friday by party brass to discuss Harriss candidacy after the allegations were made. Two MPPs were among the dozen or so people on the call.

The Star also quoted sources as saying that one female MPP said during that call  apparently not having heard from the new leader of any zero tolerance policy  that Harris should be given the benefit of the doubt.

For his part, Ford said he did not become aware of the issue until late Friday.

Just after midnight Friday, Harris was reportedly informed by email that his nomination papers to seek re-election would not be signed due to the allegations against him from the young woman who once worked at Queens Park.

On Saturday, Harris announced he would not seek re-election in the June 7 vote because he needed eye surgery. On Sunday, his wife, Sarah Harris, announced she planned to seek the PC nomination in his stead.

In speaking to the Waterloo Region Record, Sarah Harris did not sound to be acknowledging that there was more than health problems behind her husbands decision to leave politics. Elected office had been a dream of his, she said, and leaving was a tough decision.

On Monday morning, just after 10 a.m., Benzie called Fords office to ask about the Friday conference call.

Two hours later, a statement was issued saying Michael Harris had been expelled  even though he had been seated with PC colleagues in the legislature for most of that mornings Question Period.

That might well leave Ontarians with a few questions.

How long had the party, most notably its female MPPs, known about the allegations against Harris?

Can there possibly be a zero-tolerance policy when MPPs are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to those accused of sexual misconduct?

Until the Star called, was the party content to let the fiction of Harriss reason for not running stand?

Was it prepared, further, to maintain that silence to allow the outgoing MPP to remain unsullied by scandal so he could hand the baton to his wife?

If there is zero tolerance in Fords PC party, why was Harris still sitting in the legislature with the caucus three days after the new leader learned of his misconduct?

Its reasonable to suspect that had the Star not made inquiries, the PCs might still be allowing voters in Kitchener-Conestoga to be sold a tale in which Michael Harris was the victim of misfortune.

Its also easy to see why Doug Ford is eager to scrap a media bus during the campaign in order to shake off that pesky truth squad.

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The proposed Trans Mountain heavy-oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast has law, economics and the Constitution on its side.

It has been approved by the National Energy Board and okayed by the federal government which, under the constitution, has the ultimate authority in such matters.

First Nations along the right of way may not all agree. But they have been consulted, which is all that the law demands.

The project would boost Albertas economy and, by opening up new energy markets in Asia, reduce Canadas unhealthy reliance on the U.S.

Barring one thing, it is a no-brainer.

But that one thing  the danger posed by climate change  is the deal breaker that could and should kill this project. It trumps everything else.

By itself, the proposed pipeline expansion would not increase the greenhouse gas emissions that, according to scientists, threaten to dangerously alter the worlds climate.

But it would support Albertas troubled oilsands industry, which does.

While the oilsands accounted for just under 10 per cent of Canadas greenhouse gases in 2014, they are the fastest growing source of carbon emissions in the country.

In climate terms, the most sensible course of action would be to gradually shut the oilsands down. Thanks to the growth of cheaper forms of energy, they are already headed in that direction. It wouldnt take much of a nudge to finish the job.

Instead, both the New Democratic Party government in Alberta and the Liberal government in Ottawa have been trying to have it both ways.

On the one hand, theyve put in place measures to reduce emissions marginally. On the other, they have been pushing pipelines, like Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain conduit, that would encourage expanded oilsands production and thus more emissions.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says this shows that fighting climate change need not threaten economic growth. What it really shows is that half measures get you only halfway.

Government action on the climate front has been so timid that Canada is not on track to meet the carbon reduction targets it agreed to in Paris in 2015  targets that the Trudeau Liberals, when in opposition, used to dismiss as grossly inadequate.

All of this is background to the political story being played out in Alberta and British Columbia. Albertas NDP Premier Rachel Notley needs the Trans Mountain pipeline built if she is to have a chance of winning the next election. B.C. Premier John Horgan needs the pipeline scuppered if his Green-supported, minority NDP government is to survive.

To add to the complications, much of the opposition to the project comes not from critics who object to the pipeline itself but from those who worry that the increased tanker traffic resulting from the pipeline might foul B.C.s pristine coastline.

As well, Horgans attempts to lure liquefied natural gas plants to B.C. cast some doubt on his commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

In the background, Kinder Morgan is becoming increasingly nervous about the future of its pipeline project, while the federal government tries desperately to figure out what it can do to solve the mess.

If this dispute is to be handled by law alone, then pipeline proponents have the edge. The Constitution seems clear that Ottawa has the ultimate authority over interprovincial undertakings.

It also has the constitutional authority to declare its unilateral jurisdiction over any project that it deems to be in the national interest. It has used this power at least 470 times since Confederation.

But anti-pipeline protestors have already shown they are willing to face arrest to make their point. If this becomes a showdown over the future of the planet, law may not be enough.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Sometimes leadership means recognizing that train in the distance is headed straight at you and doing something about it before you are forced to jump out of the way.

For Justin Trudeau, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion train has been bearing down on him and his government for close to a year, yet it has been allowed to become a crisis worthy of an extraordinary cabinet meeting and an interprovincial fight that should concern all Canadians.

For all the prime ministers talk about how the economy and the environment go hand-in-hand, sometimes they become detached and action is needed, not a continuation of a Goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-cold mantra that works as a sound bite, but not always as policy.

Trudeau has allowed himself to be held hostage by a Texas-based energy corporation so tone deaf it issued an ultimatum on the project as this nation was mourning the Humboldt Broncos tragedy in Saskatchewan and a rookie premier who signalled a year ago he would do exactly what he is doing today.

John Horgan is defending the British Columbia coast against increased tanker traffic, and whether or not one believes he has the right to hold up a project Trudeau has declared to be in the national interest, he is doing precisely what he promised he would do if elected.

Immediately after his election there was rampant speculation that he would try to run out the clock to make the entire pipeline twinning project unpalatable to Kinder Morgan.

So here we are, a defining moment for the Trudeau government, with the clock ticking; a defining moment which Trudeau has largely brought upon himself.

Trudeau watched as Horgan and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley ratcheted up a trade war and Kinder Morgan should not have shocked anyone when it finally decided it couldnt continue to pour money into a project that has been continually stalled.

The Liberals, having already killed the Northern Gateway pipeline watched Energy East die and their grand bargain with Notley rested solely with the Trans Mountain project.

Trudeau needed Notley and her environmental initiative to sell his national climate change plan. Notley needed a pipeline win as her quid pro quo, a lifeline which could win her re-election.

That grand plan is falling apart. With Jason Kenney waiting in the wings in Alberta and Doug Ford looking covetously at Queens Park, that national plan faces further peril.

It is important to remember how a campaigning Trudeau promised to deal with pipelines and other resource development compared to where he stood Tuesday.

Justin Trudeau says the federal government remains determined to see the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built after Kinder Morgan hit pause on the project, but the prime minister wouldnt say what Ottawas next steps would be. (The Canadian Press)

On social license the Liberal platform read: While governments grant permits for resource development, only communities can grant permission.

That was modified a year into the mandate with a more broad definition that dealt with consultation and dropped any reference to permission.

Also, from the 2015 platform was a promise to Indigenous Canadians that they would be full partners on resource projects: This will ensure on project reviews and assessments, the Crown is fully executing its consultation, accommodation and consent obligations, in accordance with its constitutional and international human rights obligations, including Aboriginal and treaty rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Conservative opposition does itself no favours as it takes aim at Trudeau. Conservative MPs have been hit by a collective amnesia that makes them forget 10 years of Stephen Harper championing various pipelines accomplished nothing more than irritating official Washington and an infamous Harper declaration that Obamas approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, was a no-brainer.

When Harper okayed the Northern Gateway pipeline, no one from his government would stand in front of a camera to back the decision. It was left to wither until Trudeau mercifully killed it.

With two NDP governments at war, federal leader Jagmeet Singh has effectively gone to ground, refusing to stand up to either Notley or Horgan.

Trudeaus toolbox remains more formidable than Horgans and federal action should win the day. This is a federal project that cant be held up by a province.

But to get there, Trudeau is going to have to force an unpopular pipeline expansion by bulldozing it past a provincial government, Indigenous leaders and protesters.

Trudeau will expend much more than political capital. He will have his green bona fides shattered.

And he still might end up having to deal with Kenney and Ford in 2019.

A plan that looked so sound on paper has fallen apart on the ground.

Tim Harper is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @nutgraf1

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VANCOUVERExperts arent surprised by Kinder Morgans decision to pull back spending on the Trans Mountain expansion, saying its highly unlikely the pipeline will be built in the face of enduring resistance and limited demand.

After a years-long battle with B.C. municipalities, First Nations and environmentalists, and now the premier  shaking investors faith the company announced it would stall all non-essential spending Sunday.

Theres a lot of strategic stupidity here, said regulatory lawyer Bill Gallagher.

Kinder Morgan should have learned the importance of community support from the projects that failed before them, he said, including Enbridges Northern Gateway project in northern B.C. or the much earlier McKenzie Valley pipeline. And Sundays announcement was a clear sign its Houston boardroom is starting to blink or lose their nerve in the face of investors concerns.

Theyre so deep into it they have to devise a strategy that allows them to minimize their exposure and cut their losses, Gallagher, author of the book Resource Rulers: Fortune and Folly on Canada's Road to Resources, told StarMetro Vancouver. They should have learned from those other project train wrecks: Having rights-of-way along your route is not enough; you have to win the support of communities.

Kinder Morgan Canada announced Sunday that it is suspending all non-essential activities and related spending on its Trans Mountain project to protect shareholders from risk in the face of opposition from the Province of British Columbia. The project would double its existing 1,100 km pipeline and nearly triple the flow of diluted bitumen west. It would also increase the number of oil tankers in the Burrard Inlet sevenfold.

Concerns about the potential for environmental damage from a diluted bitumen spill and increased carbon emissions in the face of climate change have galvanized opposition to the project in B.C. Though the B.C. Liberals supported the project, NDP Premier John Horgan has been clear hes against it.

The Alberta and federal governments, meanwhile, are strongly in favour of the project. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that the expansion is in the national interest and we are determined to see that pipeline built, while Premier Rachel Notley has gone so far as to say her government would invest in the project to ensure it moves forward.

While we are prepared to accept the many risks traditionally presented by large construction projects, extraordinary political risks that are completely outside of our control and that could prevent completion of the project are risks to which we simply cannot expose our shareholders, said Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean in a statement Sunday.

Kean added that the company plans to work with stakeholders to try and find a way for the project to move forward, but cautioned that if they cant find an agreement by the end of May that it could spell an end for the project.

In the meantime, Indigenous-led resistance to the project will continue.

Will George, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation member leading the resistance movement behind the traditional Coast Salish Watch House built within sight of Kinder Morgans Burnaby Mountain property last month, said he plans to continue occupying the camp until the project is dead, dead, dead.

Were costing them money and thats ultimately what we wanted to do to get the investors to realize that this is a poor investment, he said. It is a small victory but were not going to stop until this is absolutely dead.

Kinder Morgan is facing legal challenges launched by B.C. First Nations, municipal governments and environmental groups, as well as a reference case sought by the B.C. government to clarify whether it has the right to restrict the flow of diluted bitumen to protect the environment.

At the same time, the project is up against a more public form of opposition thats drawn hundreds and sometimes thousands of people to protest the project on Burnaby Mountain every weekend for the last month no matter the weather.

Justin Trudeau says the federal government remains determined to see the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built after Kinder Morgan hit pause on the project, but the prime minister wouldnt say what Ottawas next steps would be. (The Canadian Press)

At each of those protests, George has addressed the crowds offering words of both inspiration and thanks. But when the throngs have gone home, George and a handful of others remain at a small camp, just a short walk through the trees from the Kwekwecnewtxw Watch House.

This is really serious what were doing, standing up against Kinder Morgan, he told StarMetro one morning last week as he sat by the sacred fire in his camp.

George, 37, has spent the last 15 summers fishing the Fraser River catching food for his community. For him, this fight is about ensuring the next seven generations can do the same.

My elders think we cant let this unfold in court, this is how we see were going to stop it, with our spirituality and our culture, by putting that Watch House there, he said.

We had those Watch Houses for centuries in strategic locations to watch out for any enemies, invaders, coming after our resources, our land, our people, he said.

The movement hes leading is focused on First Nations culture and spiritual teachings.

Were changing the tactics from the yelling, the screaming, what were going to do is were going to teach them. Were going to teach Kinder Morgan, were going to teach the investors, he said.

The pressure from all sides is working, Gallagher said.

Through both lawsuits and protests Indigenous groups have strategically applied pressure  not just in courts, but finding choke-points directed at investors and markets, he said.

In contrast, Trans Mountain and its backers have cited the need to respect the rule of law on the federally approved project. That approach has failed, Gallagher argued. Liberal changes to the National Energy Board were too little, too late to shake the tremendous lack of confidence in approving it in the first place.

With the downturn in oil markets that started about two or three years ago, the demand for new pipeline projects has also declined significantly, said Tom Gunton, the director of Simon Frasers Resource and Environmental Planning Program and a former deputy minister of B.C.s environment ministry.

Of the three major pipeline projects with federal approval, the Trans Mountain expansion is the most controversial and the least likely to move forward, Gunton said, noting it poses greater environmental risks than Enbridges Line 3 replacement or TransCanadas Keystone XL project (view map).

Theyre less controversial and so those other two projects are more likely to proceed, he said.

For the Alberta, B.C. and federal governments the issues caused tensions to rise and tempers to flare.

At this point, Gunton said all parties need to instead of fanning the conflict look for a compromise solution that meets everybodys interests.

That solution may be to focus on another pipeline project to get Albertas oil to world markets with less environmental risk, he said.

Kinder Morgan is up against a disciplined, strategic mindset I dont think they properly appreciate, Gallagher said. Theyre in over their heads in Houston.

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NEW YORK CITY  Jerseyville native Carolyn Molloy has come a long way from acting in middle school and high school productions to starring in an off-Broadway premier play.

Im thrilled to be making my off-Broadway debut with the New York premier of The Edge of Our Bodies (this month) at 59E59 Theaters, Molloy said in a phone interview with The Telegraph on April 7, in between rehearsals.

The Edge of Our Bodies is a one-woman show written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp. It follows Bernadette, an aspiring young writer, as she journeys through New York City at the threshold of vulnerability, experience, and the thorns of her imagination.

The show began on Easter Sunday and runs through April 22, Tuesdays-Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An additional show was scheduled on April 8.

I arrived to New York City last Sunday, Molloy said. Its been two years since I did the show in Chicago. In many ways it feels like no time has passed at all. In other ways, it feels as though I am a completely different person.

Her parents, Sheryl and Steve Pegram of Jerseyville, attended the show last weekend. She said she showed them Times Square.

When the former area resident graduated from Jersey Community High School in 2008, she moved to Chicago to study theatre and English at UIC.

After graduating from college, I started performing at the TUTA Theatre in Chicago, Molloy said. I did The Edge of Our Bodies with them two years ago, and was so thrilled to hear that the 59E59 Theatres in NYC was interested in remounting it. I love New York, and am really inspired by this particular piece so its a huge honor being able to pick it up again and explore the material from a fresh perspective.

Molloy said it is a unique experience, being the the sole cast member (although she did hint that another person does give the audience a brief surprise). She is retelling memories, and she has to let go and trust the words. The actress is comfortable with the same design team that worked with her in Chicago.

The former local student said that she received encouragement as far back as middle school when former teacher Martha Harpstrite encouraged her and gave her confidence that she could perform. Her first acting experience at JCHS was in Our Town, under the direction of Brett Beauchamp, who has headed the theater department for many years.

She wore her t-shirt from that long-ago play to the New York production, she said. She also credited the late Cliff Kaminsky for his help.

She has been living in Chicago for the past nine years, and her experience in theater there has prepared her for the New York off-Broadway offering.

What I love about this show is that each day, something new resonates with me, Molloy said. I have been sitting with the material for a long time, and it always hits me in a new way, every time I do the show. Picking up the material again after two years of additional life experience definitely added different nuance to it, I think. One of the beautiful connections I love exploring in the piece is her connection to her boyfriends father, who becomes a father-figure to her as well, as he is struggling with terminal cancer.

The show explores teenage pregnancy, heartbreak, abandonment and mental illness.

There are definitely moments of levity, but as a story-teller, there is this huge sense of responsibility that comes along with it as well, Molloy said. The audiences in NYC are much different than the audiences in Chicago, but what I love and appreciate about this piece is that I believe it has something in it for everyone.
EDWARDSVILLE  An ordinance requiring pawn and resale shops to put merchandise purchased from others into a computer database was talked about at Mondays Madison County Board Public Safety Committee meeting.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Maj. Jeff Connor said the Sheriffs Office is looking at a county-wide ordinance to require pawn and resale shops to use LeadsOnline, a computer data system for recording merchandise.

Currently, some cities and individual pawn shops use the system. Current county ordinances require pawn shops to provide written documentation of items sold or pawned to the store.

He said it will streamline efforts to locate stolen merchandise. Presently, he said they have to go through multiple written reports.

Its something were going to be moving towards, he said.

Connor did not give a timeline for plans to initiate the ordinance.

In other business, the committee approved the purchase of 11 vehicles  one for the Coroners Office and 10 for the Sheriffs Office  at a cost of about $330,000. Connor said the cost of equipment for the Sheriffs Office vehicles would be approximately $50,000.

There was also some debate about sending a person from the IT Department to a conference. Board Member Lisa Ciampoli, R-Collinsville, who also chairs the Finance Committee, said she had concerns about travel.

Because the conference is related to the countys 911 operations, the cost is being considered out of that department.

Ciampoli has in the past objected to sending people to conferences, specifically a number of trips by IT Department personnel.

County Board Member Mike Parkinson, D-Granite City, disagreed, saying the issues relating to the 911 system are complex and that the county needs to keep current with technology. No official action was taken.

The committee also met in executive session to discuss legal issues relating to several mobile home parks near Interstate 270 and Illinois Route 3 near Granite City.

There have been numerous concerns by several departments about issues relating to those mobile home parks; the Old 66 Mobile Home Park in the 5400 block of Maryville Road, Granite City; and Edwards Mobile Home Park and Lakeshore Estates Mobile Home Park, both in the 3100 block of West Chain of Rocks Road, Granite City.

Among the issues are large outstanding sewer bills owed to the county-operated Special Service Area No. 1.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.
EDWARDSVILLE  Civil engineering major Dylan Mueth, of Waterloo, captured first place for his Mueth Produce concept in Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles eighth annual TheOther40 Business Plan Competition. The School of Business hosted the competition and held its final pitch event Monday, April 9 at SIUEs Morris University Center.

TheOther40 competition offers SIUE students the opportunity to take a business idea through stages needed to launch a product or service. Participants have access to business resources and develop entrepreneurial skills during the three-month process. TheOther40 derives its name from data that shows approximately 60 percent of startups fail within five years. The programs goal is to find, engage and support the other 40 percent.

As the winner, Mueth received $5,000 as part of more than $10,000 in cash prizes awarded to this years finalists. Mueths concept aims to meet the ever-growing demand for locally grown food. Through its uniquely designed aquaponics system, Mueth Produce will be able to grow fresh produce using less water and less space year-round to supply the local market.

Runner-up Eli Ball of Midway Spark received $3,000. A Rockford native, Balls start-up looks to push the limits of human-machine interaction by creating interactive digital systems that use speech, emotions and virtual characters to build engaging experiences. The core technology is re-trainable for different uses and is able to be deployed to phones, mobile apps and websites.

In third place, Preston Walkers Pursuit Lures was awarded $2,000. Walker, of Edwardsville, makes high quality handmade fishing lures, designed specifically to catch trophy fish. With varying colors, sizes and styles to choose from, every angler can fish in their preferred method.

Remaining TheOther40 finalists in 2018 included Rachael Ostertag (Crafting Frenzy), Galvin Misquith (Fortula), Brooklynn Rosa (Kind Gestures), Gage Thomas (MANCAST Media) and Julian Smith (Tech Fusion).

The on-campus business plan competition is supported in part by an entrepreneurship education initiative gift provided to the SIUE School of Business by the Martinson Foundation.

SIUEs School of Business and the accountancy programs are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, representing the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. The Princeton Review lists SIUE as one of the top 294 business schools in the U.S. for the 11th-consecutive year. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in accounting, computer management and information systems, economics, finance, management and marketing. More than 20,000 alumni have earned degrees from the SIUE School of Business. For more information about the School of Business, visit siue.edu/business.
Not a great day for the president. Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Hours after FBI agents raided the home and office of his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, an angry President Trump lashed out at Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Its a disgraceful situation, Trump said, according to a press pool report. I have this witch hunt constantly going on  Its an attack on our country, what we all stand for.

Trump on raid of Michael Cohen: "It's an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for." pic.twitter.com/6aKs0A5Y3k  Axios (@axios) April 9, 2018

Trump referred to the FBI raid as a break-in. He said that Special Counsel Robert Muellers team is the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen, and sounded ready to dispatch Mueller:

Trump on Mueller: "We'll see what happens. Many people have said you should fire him."  Burgess Everett (@burgessev) April 9, 2018

And he once again attacked his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and for other offenses.

Trump says Sessions should have told him he was going to recuse himself because then Trump could have fired and replaced him. pic.twitter.com/xPFSjUPO3Z  Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 9, 2018

Buckle up.
For Sadhu Aliyur who found his calling in watercolour paintings, all art stems from inspiration he draws from his hometown Mahea former French colony, now part of union territory of Pondicherry. The beautiful town at the mouth of the Mahe river, known as Mayyazhipuzha, and its unadulterated natural beauty nurtured the artist.

Aliyur is a prominent Indian face among international masters in the world of watercolour painting. He is the only Indian whose works have been exhibited at the prestigious International Watercolour Society (IWS) for three consecutive years2012, 2013 and 2014. At the International Watercolour Festival held in Dubai recently, he demonstrated his signature style, along with international masters like Alvaro Castagnet. The event, attended by more than 660 artists from 50 countries, is the biggest art festival dedicated to watercolour in the region.

Choosing watercolour as a medium is a big challenge for any artist, says Aliyur. Unlike oil paintings or pastels, it offers little option for corrections on the canvas once the painting is finished. Also, if something goes wrong, that's itone has to start from scratch again. None of these reasons, however, have held back Aliyur in engaging in a four-decade-old love affair with washes and dabs.

Watercolour is a medium that soothes the audience, says Aliyur. When you stand in front of an original watercolour work, you will feel a lot of positive energy." Aliyur has a unique transparent style of water-colouring in which he doesn't use white pigment on the paper. His early learning days at the Kerala School of Arts, Thalassery formed the base for this style.

From the 'Rooftop' series

Those who study watercolour fundamentally, will not use white pigment in their paintings, he says. The white spaces required will be obtained by avoiding use of any pigment, he explains.

Aliyur points out that water-colouring is a process of shading, not drawing. It is a reverse process, he says. In watercolour painting, we bring the picture out to light. It is opposite to what is followed in opaque medium. It took him years to develop a signature style for his work. I struggled as an artist to discover my unique style, he says. But now, anybody who has seen my paintings can identify them, even without my signature inscribed on it. Aliyur points out that it is important for any artist to seek uniqueness to be recognised by art connoisseurs.

Nature is the biggest source of inspiration for his works, says Aliyur. Mahe, the meeting point of Mayyazhi river and the Arabian sea, instilled the passion for art in himto capture its beauty with brushes and colours, much before it became his profession. He started doodling at a very small age. And later, his minimal strokes on paper brought alive his feelings and convictions that define the idea of nature around him. Mahe's landscape, river and its reflections are central to a major chunk of his earlier works.

But, the motif of one of his masterpieces was developed in the tranquility of Varanasi. The Rooftop series which won him Kerala Lalithakala Akademi's Vijaya Raghavan Endowment Gold Medal in 2012, encompasses 37 paintings that capture the aerial view of Varanasi. The series was also nominated for the exhibitions of IWS for three consecutive years. Retire, one of his personal favourites, is a series of 35 paintings that reflect the emotional tussle of abandoned things and people. These things and people were once dear to us. But, they were cast aside once they stopped fulfilling our needs, says Aliyur.

From the 'Retire' series

Aliyur's serious entry into exhibitions happened in early 2000s. He has done more than 5,000 paintings in which around 3,000 have been bought by art enthusiasts. Many of his works can be spotted adorning the walls of government offices in Bengaluru. Aliyur remembers his exhibition days in Bengaluru, around 15 years back, when elderly people would eagerly wait for his work, since there are very few watercolour artists in India. This is a vanishing medium, says Aliyur. It is not promoted on an academic level. And, new artists are not taking up this medium.

To keep the medium alive, Aliyur continues his journey, keenly observing the world and taking inspiration from nature to express himself.
On a day three non-BJP ruled states and a union territory held a meeting denouncing the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a "needless controversy" was being created.

A conclave was organised in Thiruvananthapuram on the behest of Kerala government to express their apprehensions about the Terms of Reference of 15th Finance Commission. Apart from Kerala, finance ministers from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh as well as the Congress-ruled Puducherry participated. They said the Terms of Reference (ToR) were in contradiction to the principles of federalism enshrined in the Constitution. They said it would result in revenue loss to the performing states.

They opposed the ToR recommendation to use the 2011 Census to calculate allocation of central tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by the previous Finance Commissions.

The AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu and TRS-ruled Telangana opted out of the conference.

Rubishing the concerns Jaitley said a wrong impression was being created that the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission were loaded against any particular region of the country. "Nothing could be farther from truth," Finance minister said in an article released by the BJP.

Jaitley added that the share in central taxes was allocated to the states based on recommendations made by the Finance Commissions (FCs) to help states meet the fiscal deficiency in providing a minimum standard of services to their people.

"This calls for assessing states needs on rationale and equitable basis. FCs use appropriate criteria to assess true needs of states. Population proxies very well for the needs of the people in quantitative sense. Another criterion, the Income Distance, which captures very well relative poverty of people in the states, is used to assess qualitative needs. These two parameters allocate more resources to the populous and poorer states, which need additional funds for providing education, health and other services to the people, which own resources of these poorer states may otherwise not allow, " he argued.

Rederring to objection about the use of 2011 Census data, Jaitley said, "The 14th FC had no specific mandate for using 2011 Census. Yet, 14th FC rightly used the 2011 census population data to capture the demographic changes since 1971 to make realistic assessment of the needs of the states. It allocated 10 per cent weight to 2011 population. The 14th FC had allocated a 42 per cent share in the Central taxes to the states more than ever before."

He said another specific ToR would allow the 15th FC to propose a specific incentive scheme to reward the states which have achieved replacement level of population growth, and also, if the 15th FC wishes to do so, to assign appropriate weight to the progress made in population control while allocating resources.

As the issue was turning out to a political, with Opposition ruled states turning against the BJP-run central government, Jaitley said, "there was no inherent bias or mandate in the ToRs of the 15th FC which can be construed as discriminatory against the states which made good progress in population control."
Online search giant Google has filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against a judgment from Indias competition watchdog that found it guilty of search bias, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters.

The appeal was filed on Monday, one of the sources said.

In February, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a Rs 136 crore ($20.95 million) fine on Google, saying it was abusing its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets.

A CCI official said that its judgment was robust and that the competition watchdog plans to defend its verdict at the NCLAT.

Google was found to be indulging in practices of search bias and by doing so, it causes harm to its competitors as well as to users, the CCI said in its 190-page judgment.

The Indian watchdogs judgment is the latest antitrust setback for the worlds most popular search engine. Last year, the European Commission imposed a record 2.4 billion euro ($3 billion) fine on the company for favoring its shopping service and demoting rival offerings. Google has appealed against the verdict.

In India, the Commission found that Google, through its search design, had placed its commercial flight search function at a prominent position on the search results page to the disadvantage of businesses trying to gain market access.

The CCI ruling brought to an end a probe first started by the watchdog in 2012 on complaints filed by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not-for-profit organisation, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).

Reuters
India needs to do much more to improve "Ease of Doing Business", feels Vivek Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of The Leela group of hotels. "While we have moved up 30 ranks, the fact is that there are 99 countries that are still ahead of us, said Nair. He was speaking from his specific experience in hospitality where his hotel project in Agra has been stuck for the past three years.

"We needed some 18-20 permissions for the project and we got most of them. But now Agra Development Authority has said that a Supreme Court committee needs to examine the project and then only it can be cleared. We are waiting for the visit of this committee but it has not happened so far", he said at a press conference to announce Leela's new property at Gandhinagar.

He further said that while the government talks about increasing tourist arrivals to 20 million in the next ten years, number of rooms will also have to go up in that proportion and therefore it is important to look at the ease of doing business.

Being the chairman of services export promotion council, Nair also furnished a list of demands to the government to give boost to hotels and tourism. Prominent among those is the granting of infrastructure status to hotels with a project cost of Rs 50 crore and above and tax benefits.

"Tax benefits would permit hotels to avail term loans with a long repayment schedule of 15 years or even 25 years under the new infrastructure policy for all sectors," said Nair in his list of demands.

Among other things, the council has also asked for rationalisation of GST imposed on hotels charging over Rs 1500 per room per day. "The recent levy of GST at 28 per cent has crippled the hotel industry as tourists find the tax rates very oppressive compared to other competing tourism minded countries who charge 0 to 12 per cent", said the council's note.

Apart from announcing Leela Gandhinagar, which will open in January next year, the group has also bagged contract to manage India's largest convention centre. Spread over 34 acre, the Mahatma Mandir convention centre can handle up to 15000 people, and includes a convention hall boasting a seating capacity of 6000 people as well as state-of-the-art exhibition centres, hi-tech conference halls and seminar rooms. It is a 25-minute drive from the Ahmedabad international airport.

"The addition of Mahatma Mandir and The Leela Gandhinagar to our MICE portfolio reinforces our plans to expand further into the international conferences and events space, and underscores our asset light growth strategy. The projects combine grand space with global standards of service and cater to the growing demand for world-class venues," said Nair.

Some of Leela's upcoming projects include a resort in Jaipur and hotels in Bangalore and Hyderabad. It also has projects coming up in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Vietnam.
IANS | Los Angeles: Comedian Bill Cosby paid Andrea Constand $3.38 million to settle the sexual assault lawsuit she brought against him in 2005, said prosecutors at the opening of his criminal retrial.

The amount was part of a confidential settlement between Cosby and Constand, a former employee of Temple University who had accused the entertainer of first befriending her, then drugging and molesting her during a visit to his home outside Philadelphia in 2004, reports The New York Times.

The Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, told the jurors on Monday: "This case is about trust, This case is about betrayal, and that betrayal leading to a sexual assault of a woman named Andrea Constand."

The payment had never been disclosed before publicly, but Cosby, 80, agreed to reveal it during the pretrial discussions.

His lawyers are expected to argue that the large amount of the payment is not an admission of wrongdoing on his part, but rather evidence of Constand's financial incentive in pursuing charges against him.

One key defence witness, a Temple University academic adviser, is expected to testify that Constand once told her she could make money by falsely claiming she had been molested by a prominent person.

Cosby's entry to the courthouse was briefly delayed in the morning by the protest of a topless woman, later identified as Nicolle Rochelle, a former actress who had appeared several times on The Cosby Show.

She jumped over a crowd barrier outside the courthouse and yelled "Women's lives matter" before being wrestled to the ground by courthouse deputies about ten yards in front of Cosby as he walked toward the building's front doors.

About a dozen other protesters also demonstrated outside the courthouse.
In a well calculated move, the BJP in Karnataka has fielded its tallest Valmiki (Nayaka) community leader and sitting Bellary MP B. Sriramulu from Molkalmuru assembly constituency in Chitradurga, to directly strike at the Ahinda (minorities, dalits and backward classes) vote base, carefully nurtured by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Sriramulu, a close aide of Reddy Brothers of Bellary, has been moved out of his hometurf Bellary to the neighbouring Chitradurga, which is a strategic seat to create a ripple effect in the ST belt and galvanise the tribal votes towards the BJP. The saffron party is hoping to ride on the huge popularity of Sriramulu to consolidate the ST votes, spread across the 15 ST reserved seats in Chitradurga, Davangere, Mysore, Bellary, Raichur, Yadgir and Belagavi districts.

This is the second significant move of the BJP to woo to the ST community after the Union cabinet recently approved the inclusion of Talwara and Parivara (synonyms to Nayakas) into the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Karnataka. This inclusion is believed to pull the ST votes in Mysuru and Chamarajnagar districts, as it also establishes the historical context too. Parivara and Talawara are references to the Nayaka clan of the Chitradurga. They were captured by Hyder Ali who seized the Chitradurga Fort in 1779 (after three failed attempts) and imprisoned Madakari Nayaka, the feudal king. Hyder Ali, in order to break the power of the Nayakas (Bedar caste), moved them out to Srirangapana and inducted them into his army.

Interestingly, the ST communities started gravitating towards the BJP after the Siddaramaiah government introduced state-wide celebrations of Tipu Jayanti in 2015. The move angered the Nayaka community in Chitradurga, as Hyder Ali (Tipu's father) is believed to have poisoned Madakari Nayaka to death.

The recent visit of Amit Shah to Chitradurga to address a massive ST convention, his gesture of garlanding the statue of Madakari Nayaka, and giving assurance of building a memorial for the feudal king, has sent positive vibes to the community, claim BJP sources.

The BJP, which started making inroads into the ST bastions, had given three cabinet berths to ST communityB Sriramulu, Balachandra Jarkiholi and Raju Goudain 2008. But Siddaramaiah inducted a sole member (Ramesh Jarkiholi) into his cabinet.

Who is Sriramulu?

Sriramulu commands a sizeable vote bank, as he represents the ST community that accounts for seven per cent of the state's population.

In 2011, Sriramulu, who was Bellary Rural MLA, quit the BJP after being dropped from the cabinet. He was also upset with the ill treatment meted out to his mentor and mining baron G. Janaradhana Reddy, following his indictment in the illegal mining scam. Sriramulu won the byelection by a huge margin of 48,000 votes, causing a huge embarrassment to the BJP, which was pushed to the third place. Enthused by the victory, he floated his own party, Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress (BSR Congress), which won only four seats, grabbing a voteshare of 2.81 per cent in the 2013 assembly polls. But it dented the BJP votes across six to seven districts. Simultaneously, a disgruntled B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had stepped down as CM over corruption charges, had floated the Karnataka Janata Party.

In the 2013 assembly polls, both the splinter parties cut into the BJP vote, reducing the party to a mere 40 seats. The BJP's vote share, which was 34.29 per cent in 2008, was reduced to 20.12 per cent, as KJP got 9.98 per cent and BSR Congress 2.81 per cent.

Ahead of the 2014 Parliament election, both Yeddyurappa and Sriramulu came back into the BJP fold. The party welcomed Sriramulu and fielded him from the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency amid strong opposition from Sushma Swaraj, who till then had a good rapport with him.

In 1999, when Sushma Swaraj contested the Lok Sabha from Bellary against the then AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, Sriramulu, had been her local aide. However, the senior leader distanced herself from Sriramulu and the Reddy Brothers, after their names figured in the mining scam.

Today, Sriramulu has emerged as a successful leader within the BJP, and perhaps out of the shadow of his mentor G. Janardhana Reddy, who is out on bail, but restrained from entering Bellary. Interestingly, the BJP central leadership, which had ruled out giving the assembly tickets to sitting MPs except Yeddyurappa, seems to have made an exception in Sriramulu's case, owing to his ability to catch ST votes.
The Budget session of the Delhi assembly, which began on March 16 and was originally scheduled to go on till March 28, saw four extensions, the last being on April 9, for a day.

This made the session, which finally culminated on Tuesday, the longest that the Vidhan Sabha has seen in the last 23 years.

The extensions were utilised to attack Lt Governor Anil Baijal, with a white paper brought out by the Kejriwal regime to highlight what it claims is an obstructive attitude displayed by Raj Niwas when it comes to clearing the proposals of the Delhi government. Baijal was also accused of being in agreement with the non-cooperation of bureaucrats in Delhi, and not taking steps to get the officers to bring the situation back to normal. Officers in Delhi have been in protest mode ever since Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly beaten up by AAP MLAs at the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

During the extension, there was a discussion on the stand-off between the ministers and the bureaucrats, and AAP MLAs criticised the officers for not answering the questions they had asked during the session.

Another highlight of the extra time that the session ran was the tabling of the CAG report on the functioning of various departments of the Delhi government. The irregularities pointed out by the CAG in the transportation of foodgrains under PDS raised doubts about largescale corruption akin to the fodder scam of Bihar.

The AAP leadership feels that a number of important issues were discussed at length due to the Budget session getting extended, and the government could make a comprehensive criticism of the functioning of the Lt Governor. However, the MLAs had begun complaining about not being able to go to their constituencies.

An MLA revealed that AAP legislators did urge the leadership to not announce any further extensions of the session. A certain amount of fatigue set in amongst the MLAs because of the extensions. We conveyed to the leadership that we have adequately raised issues of importance during the session, and we need to get down to work now, said an AAP MLA.
Calmer than you are. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

The White House announced on Tuesday morning that President Trump would not travel to the Summit of the Americas in Peru as scheduled this week, but would stick around Washington to oversee the American response to a suspected chemical-weapons attack committed by the Assad regime in Syria over the weekend. Vice-President Pence will attend the gathering in Trumps place, and travel to Colombia, as Trump had planned.

Trump had said on Monday evening that the U.S. would respond forcefully to the Syria attack.

The president is, to put it generously, a big-picture guy, so its tough to say what his style of military-strike management looks like  though he has surrounded himself with an increasingly hawkish group of advisers. The White House has never had a coherent Syria strategy, and all the options on the table now  perfunctory air strikes, a more robust intervention  are likely to be destructive, ineffectual, or both. Just last week, Trump said he wanted to pull all U.S. troops out of the country.

The president has a lot on his plate besides deciding whether to become further embroiled in the Middle East. With his personal lawyer under FBI investigation and former FBI director James Comeys book about to drop, he is reportedly angrier than ever, which is really saying something. His aides who were hoping that a change of scenery might calm him down are out of luck.
The race between cities to be counted among India's cleanest cities is going to get hotter.

Even as 4,203 cities and towns are waiting to see who will be the toppers in the survey of Swachh Sarvekshan 2018 (cleanest cities in 2018), garbage strewn across pavements and in street corners in major parts of our metros and towns points to a problem of people who could not care less and unabashedly throw their waste anywhere.

The number of cities contesting for this survey has gone up from 434 in 2017. It was just 73 cities in the first survey done in 2016.

And to add further impetus to the survey of the cleanest cities, the ministry of housing and urban affairs has launched a star-rating protocol for garbage-free cities.

People shamelessly throwing litter all over as well as collection of garbage apparently are the vexing problems in our Swachh Bharat Abhiyan!

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday took pride in the principles of 'reduce, reuse and recycle' being an integral part of Indian culture, wherein people preserved biodiversity and promoted sustainable living from ancient times.

And Hardeep Puri, minister of state with independent charge of housing and urban affairs, affirmed the government's commitment to moving towards 100 per cent scientific solid waste management under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mahajan, who addressed the inaugural ceremony of the eighth Regional 3R Forum, reminded the participating mayors and the municipal commissioners that they have special responsibility of maintaining the cleanliness of their cities. She emphasised on the active participation of the people to achieve the goals of 'swachhta' and sustainable development.

Puri said his ministry was promoting scientific processing of waste, using the principles of 3R, and actively engaging in behaviour-change initiatives, including messaging through both traditional mass media and interpersonal communications.

The government is building awareness on waste segregation at source at the household level as well as bulk waste generators and promoting composting options.
Spiritual leaders contesting elections and assuming political power would be tantamount to compromising their 'loftiness', Pejawar Mutt pontiff Vishwesha Teertha has said.

The seer was responding to the move of Shiroor Mutt chief Sri Laxmivara Teertha Swamiji to enter the electoral fray in Udupi in the May 12 Assembly polls in Karnataka.

He said seers who win elections would be compelled to work under the instructions of a certain political party and obey the whip from them, which would dent the nobility of the seers.

The seer, who was speaking to reporters at Kundapur on Monday, was asked whether he would support the candidature of Shiroor Mutt Swamiji in Udupi.

The Pejawar Swamiji said he had always supported people who believed in the ideology of Hindutva.

However, in a democratic system, parties reigned supreme, compared with individuals.

Any person who decides to fight election and win as an independent would not be able to do much on his own, he said, adding, the support of all political parties was required for the protection of the concept of Hindutva.

"Fighting the election is the independent decision of Shiroor Swamiji and I have nothing to say on the matter," he said.

The Shiroor Swamiji had expressed his intention to contest the election as an independent, but had said that if the BJP gave him the ticket, he would "happily accept it."

Analysts believe the BJP has been courting religious figures like the Shiroor Swamiji to boost its popularity among some caste groups in Udupi against the Congress. Moreover, the BJP has been perceived to be on the backfoot over its opposition to separate religion status for the Lingayats, an influential community in the state.

Shiroor Mutt (institute) is one among the Ashta (eight) mutts of Udupi, established by 13th century philosopher, Madhwacharya, who founded the Dvaita (dualism) school of Vedanta.

Madhwacharya appointed eight of his direct disciples as head of each Mutt that was established in eight villages in and around the Udupi Krishna Temple.
Weeks ago, when Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac called for the southern finance ministers' conclave at Thiruvananthapuram, every other south Indian state expressed concern and willingness to participate, while Tamil Nadu government chose not to respond. The state decided to sit on it, and it comes hardly as a surprise that Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam gave it a miss on Tuesday when the finance ministers of all the six southern states came together.

A week ago, while on a hunger strike against the Centre over its failure to set up the Cauvery Management Board, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy had said, We will not compromise states rights. The state government will fight legally in all ways to ensure our rights. His deputy and Finance Minister Panneerselvam seconded him, saying the states rights will be protected. A week later, on Tuesday, when the finance ministers of the southern states met to discuss states federalism advocacy and the implications of the 15th Finance Commission, Panneerselvam was conspicuous by his absence.

When the meeting was called by Isaac, chief ministers of other south Indian statesSiddaramaiah, Chandrababu Naidu and Pinarayi Vijayanand DMK leader M.K. Stalin expressed their concern and the displeasure over the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission. Stalin argued that certain elements of the ToR will affect the very fabric of equitable and just devolution of Central tax revenues to the states. It may not be an overstatement to suggest that the fiscal autonomy of many states could be reduced to that of municipalities due to ill-conceived ToR.

Siddaramaiah and Naidu too supported him, and Stalins statement was seen as a smart political move to oppose the BJP in the Centre by way of voicing the states rights, falling in line with DMKs rhetoric , maanilathil suyatchi; mathiyil kootatchi, meaning autonomy for states and federalism in the Centre.

Taking part in the conference, Tamil Nadus neighbor Puducherry expressed grief.

There is a grave injustice to the best performing states. We are penalised, while the worst performing states are being rewarded. The PM always says about cooperative federalism, but it is actually a dictatorship. The states are suffering as the Centre is taking away the power of the states. Who are you to dictate us? We know the pulse of the people. We are designing the populist schemes by knowing the pulse of the people, said Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, who holds the finance portfolio.

But, Tamil Nadu choosing to stay away has raised several eyebrows at this juncture. The deputy chief minister's act may not come as a surprise for those who have been watching the Tamil Nadu government and his political activities for the past one year after the death of his leader J. Jayalalithaa. In fact, the Tamil Nadu government chose not to express its opinion on the 15th Finance Commissions ToR.

Tamil Nadus decision to stay away from the meeting may be a strategic move by the state to keep the Centre happy and to show that the state is not keen to take on the Modi government. Nonetheless, the irony is that the state will lose Rs.40,000 crore between 2020-21 and 2024-25 if the 2011 population census is used as a reference.If the 2011 population census is used as a reference, Kerala will lose Rs.20,000 crore between 2020-21 and 2024-25, while Tamil Nadu will lose Rs.40,000 crore, said Thomas Isaac.

It may be noted that states such as Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra will lose more funds, as the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission are devolved to the northern states at the cost of those in the south. According to the statistics available with the Centre, the population in south India went up just by 85 per cent, while in the BIMARU states in north IndiaBihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradeshhad gone up by 144 per cent. To be more specific, the south got back only 52 paise compared to the Rs.3.25 got back by the north Indian states for every rupee they gave to the Centre.

Again, by skipping the conference, Tamil Nadu has lost its opportunity to register its voice against the Centre along with its southern counterparts. The conclave provided a politically significant opportunity to project a collective voice against the Terms of References of the 15th Finance Commission which are prejudicial to Tamil Nadu. It is important for Tamil Nadu to work alongside southern states in this effort as we stand to lose the most. However, the present AIADMK dispensation refuses to take a stand against the Central government, be it in Cauvery or 15th Finance Commission. AIADMK continues to be more loyal to Modi government than other state BJP units, said Manuraj Shanmuga Sundram, DMK spokesperson.

The conclave gains importance in the background that a fire has been lit against the 15th Finance Commission from the southern states, to say how they are victimised and robbed. Tamil Nadu, being one of the major contributing states with regard to tax and other benefits like power supply from NLC, will lose its rights. The meeting was convened as the finance ministers of the southern states realised the seriousness of the matter.

When it is true that the southern states have contributed to human index and other developmental issues, the recent Finance Commission has planned to reduce the share of the southern states by way of revenue allocation. This will cause major catastrophe and various welfare schemes may come to an end due to shortage of funds. The other alarming criteria is populist schemes should be abandoned or reduced. In fact, a state like Tamil Nadu has been standing tall only because of these populist schemes, and by way of contributing more for the welfare of the people. This would take a major beating if the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission is implemented. And as a responsible finance minister, Panneerselvam, say the political observers and economists in the state, should have understood this and voiced the concerns of the southern states in a united manner. By boycotting, Panneerselvam has chosen to ignore the welfare of the state for reasons better known to him and the government.

At a time when the state is reeling under Rs.4 lakh crore debt, skipping this meeting is a very wrong move. But the reason is obvious. Fearing Narendra Modi, the government of Tamil Nadu has taken this decision. This shows both politically and administratively the Tamil Nadu government and the ruling AIADMK are nothing but chamchagiris of Narendra Modi, said R. Mani, senior journalist.

In his column, former finance minister P Chidambaram wrote, the Central government has lit a fire. It should be doused before the southern flames scorch the federation. But the irony is that the Tamil Nadu government is trying hard to douse the fire by way of skipping the meet.
A special investigation team (SIT) was constituted on Tuesday to probe the rape of an 18-year-old woman, allegedly by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers, in Unnao and the custodial death of the victim's father on the previous day.

"The SIT will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident," ADG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told a press conference.

Earlier on Tuesday, Atul Singh, the brother of the rape-accused BJP MLA, was arrested in Unnao; three others were also arrested with him. The arrests were made on the directions of the UP DGP.

The ADG also said that, so far, a clean chit had not been given to anyone in the matter.

The victim's father died after being in custody in Unnao on Monday, prompting her to charge that he was killed inside the jail at the behest of the lawmaker.

The victim claimed that she was unaware of the arrest and urged that the accused be hanged.

"Kuldeep Singh (Sengar) isn't being arrested. I don't know if his brother is arrested. I demand that they be hanged till death. They've made my life miserable. I want justice. They killed my father," she told reporters.

On Sunday, the woman, along with her family members, tried to commit suicide in front of the residence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow, alleging that she was raped by Sengar and his fellow accomplices.

Later, the victim's father was arrested from the location. However, he was admitted to a hospital on Sunday night after complaining of abdominal pain and vomiting and subsequently passed away in the early hours on Monday.

Following this, six police personnel were suspended and four accused were arrested for allegedly beating up the victim's father in jail.

Meanwhile, the accused BJP MLA on Monday refused to resign from his post following the allegations of rape against him. The BJP MLA has rejected the charge as a conspiracy by his opponents.

Speaking to the media, Sengar said, "If somebody's name crops up into some issue does not mean that he shall resign."
A hartal called to protest the death of a youth in police custody turned violent at Varappuzha in Kerala's Ernakulam district on Tuesday. According to reports, a group of BJP activists are blocking the national highway that connects Kochi and Guruvayoor.

Sreejith (26) died on Monday at a hospital in Kochi where he had been admitted to the gastroenterol department after allegedly suffering damage to his internal organs. The autopsy on the youth's body will be conducted on Tuesday.

Sreejith, along with nine others, was taken to custody on Friday relating to the suicide of a man whose house at Varappuzha had come under attack.

Following the incident in Varappuzha, a down to dusk hartal called in Paravur Taluk resulted in widespread violence on Tuesday. A man who was taking his infant baby to hospital was brutally assaulted by the protesters, reports Manorama. Meanwhile Congress party is planning a police station march to protest the incident, said DCC president T.J. Vinod.
Calling for speeding up of its ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Chinese President Xi Jinping today told Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that the ties between the two countries should be a pillar for regional peace and stability.

In his meeting with Abbasi on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia in the southern Chinese city of Boao, Xi called for efforts from both sides to advance the construction of CPEC and ensure the sound planning and implementation of cooperation projects involving infrastructure construction, such as the Gwadar Port, as well as energy and industrial parks.

The controversial USD 50 billion CPEC connects China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar Port. India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The ties between China and Pakistan should become a model for good-neighbourly relationship and international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi told Abbasi, who was one of the guests at the Forum.

"The China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership has made outstanding progress since I visited Pakistan in 2015," Xi said.

The international and regional situation is undergoing profound and complex changes, which makes it more important for the two countries to consolidate the all-weather friendship and deepen strategic cooperation, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

China is willing to make joint efforts with Pakistan to push bilateral ties to a higher level and build a more closely-knitted community with a shared future between the two countries, Xi said.

What China wants to see is stable development and prosperity in Pakistan, Xi said.

China firmly supports Pakistan in its efforts to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate rights and interests. China opposes interference from any country in Pakistan's internal affairs, and firmly supports Pakistan in maintaining its national unity and the fight against terrorism, he said.

On his part, Abbasi said China and Pakistan are "iron friends" who always support each other on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.

Hailing CPEC's important role in the development of both countries and the region, he expressed Pakistan's willingness to promote bilateral cooperation in finance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and human resources.

After their meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Somehow, this photo of Trump and Varela got even more awkward. Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

One might think that with dozens of scandals swirling around President Trump, his business would be very careful not to do anything that could be construed as inappropriate. But hey, whats the point of working for the president if you cant use his position to sway business dealings in your favor?

That appears to be the thinking behind a letter Trump Organization attorneys sent to Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela last month, warning that there could be repercussions for Panamas reputation if he declined to intervene in a dispute involving the Trump International Hotel in Panama City  though that would involve violating the nations separation of powers by having Varela meddle with the judicial branch.

The problem started in February, when the hotels majority owner, Orestes Fintiklis, tried to fire the Trump Organization as its manager, alleging mismanagement by local officials and damage to the Trump brand. Last month Panamanian judicial officials sided with Fintiklis, allowing him to kick the Trump team off the property and rename it the Bahia Grand Panama.

In the March 22 letter to President Varela, the Panama-based law firm Britton and Iglesias wrote in Spanish to urgently request your influence in relation to a commercial dispute regarding the Trump hotel, according to the Washington Post.

The Trump Organization lawyers werent clear about what they wanted Varela to do, but they asserted the company had been treated so poorly by the nations courts that it amounted to a violation of a 1983 investment treaty between the two nations. We appreciate your influence in order to avoid that these damages are attributed not to the other party, but to the Panamanian government, said the letter.

While Trumps role as U.S. president is not mentioned, the letter notes, the dispute could affect the entire nation. This situation is currently before the courts, but it has repercussions for the Panamanian state, which is your responsibility, it said.

The move backfired as an arbitrator ruled days later against reinstating the Trump Organization, though he agreed that the company should not have been kicked out while the arbitration was ongoing.

A Varela spokesperson told the Post that he is still evaluating the issue, and had not decided wether to intervene. Multiple government officials were copied on the letter, and a spokesperson for Panamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the request, saying, this is about differences between businesses, a case already attended by the court. This is not a bilateral matter between governments and not even a political issue.

The Trump Organization released a statement on behalf of Britton and Iglesias, saying the letter was a common and routine legal tactic, and they had not sought their clients approval before sending it.

We categorically reject any assumption or assertion that the letter sought to pressure the President of the Republic of Panama, or other officials, the statement said. The authorization of Trump Organization for its delivery was not requested, and nobody at Trump Organization was aware [of] the letter until today.

Regardless, ethics experts said this is the kind of thing they were worried about when they argued that Trump should fully divest himself from his business upon becoming president. Instead, he gave his sons Eric and Don Jr. day-to-day management of the Trump Organization while maintaining full control of the business.

This could be the clearest example weve seen of a conflict of interest stemming from the presidents role as head of state in connection with other countries and his business interests, Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, told the AP.
There are no great options. Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Hours after promising a speedy decision on whether and how to respond to an apparent chemical-weapons attack by Syrian government forces on rebel holdouts in Douma on Saturday night, President Donald Trump tipped his hand in the direction of punitive strikes Monday night, saying during a meeting with top military leaders that the incident will be met and it will be met forcefully.

We have a lot of options militarily, and well be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact, Trump said, reiterating that he and the military brass would likely make a decision either tonight or soon thereafter.

These forceful words came scarcely a week after Trump commented at an event in Ohio that U.S. forces would be leaving Syria very soon, because were knocking the hell out of ISIS and should let the other people take care of it now.

That remark came out of left field for U.S. military and national-security leaders, who talked Trump down afterward from demanding an immediate withdrawal to insisting on a plan to wrap things up in five or six months. Just dont call that a time line, because Trump is very much against setting arbitrary deadlines for military withdrawals, much less leaking them to our enemies.

When Syrian president Bashar al-Assads helicopters (allegedly) dumped chlorine gas on innocent civilians in Douma, it was not unreasonable to see that as a response to Trump signaling that his administration was looking to end U.S. involvement Syria post haste. After all, this is what other people taking care of it would inevitably look like. (Israels alleged bombing of a Syrian air base, which reportedly killed four Iranians and ten others, is perhaps closer to what Trump had in mind in that regard.)

The White House, of course, categorically rejects this characterization of events, but it is entirely consistent with Trumps theory that whenever the United States shows weakness or indecision, its enemies take advantage. Or perhaps that was true only when his predecessor Barack Obama did it.

Ironically, Trump, who blames the current state of affairs in Syria on Obamas dithering, now finds himself in a situation somewhat similar to the one Obama faced in 2012: publicly committed to keeping the U.S. out of any more dubiously winnable entanglements in the Middle East, but compelled to act by Assads crimes against humanity. That similarity, if it is not lost on the president entirely, is more likely than not to motivate him to intervene, perhaps even more severely than he did last year when he responded to another Assad atrocity with an ineffectual volley of Tomahawk missiles.

Trumps abrupt change of tone is indicative not of a shift in his administrations Syria strategy, but rather of the absence of any such strategy in the first place. Impatiently pressing his generals to wrap up the fight against ISIS (which he is already taking credit for winning) and get the hell out of there, then making plans for an aggressive intervention on a whole separate front of the Syrian civil war a week later, is no more strategically coherent than Obamas much-derided decision to draw Assad a line in the sand and subsequently refuse to intervene when the Syrian dictator crossed it.

Neither, for that matter, would it be any better for American credibility for Trump to threaten a very tough response and fail to follow through. Another round of Tomahawk missiles is unlikely to fundamentally change the course of the intractable conflict or impress upon Assad any need to change his behavior, much less abdicate. Given that past strikes have failed in this regard, experts tell Foreign Policy a more forceful response is more likely this time around.

There are indeed signs that Trump is contemplating a more robust intervention, including talks with the U.K. and France about a multilateral campaign. The Pentagon has presented Trump with a wide range of options; ostensibly, well only find out which ones he chose after the fact.

Whether a major intervention at this point is wise is a separate question from whether the administration arrives at its decision thoughtfully. In all likelihood, as Heather Hurlburt explained in this space, military strikes wont make much difference in the lives of the besieged Syrian people. Steps that might make a difference  more support for refugees and displaced people, helping with reconstruction of areas liberated from ISIS, and taking a leadership role in the international political and diplomatic process of resolving the conflict  do not appear to be on the administrations agenda.

While the upsides of a U.S. intervention at this point are hazy, the risks involved are tremendous. As Dave Majumdar warns in the National Interest, the risk of U.S. and Russian forces coming into direct conflict in Syria threatens perhaps the most dangerous escalation of tensions between the worlds two biggest nuclear powers since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia insists that the evidence of a chemical-weapons attack in Douma has been fabricated as a pretext for American aggression and has declared in no uncertain terms that it will strike back if U.S. missiles hit the Russian forces on the ground there. That retaliation would not necessarily be geographically limited to Syria, and Russia experts tell Majumdar that this is not a bluff by the Kremlin. The risk that even accidental Russian casualties of a U.S. strike would spiral into an uncontrollable escalation is something for the hawks currently clamoring for a forceful response to keep in mind.

Chemical attacks on civilians are an atrocity, and one for which Assad should be held accountable by all possible means. Expanding the Syrian civil war into a full-fledged great-power conflict would not achieve that goal. If anything, Assad would probably be delighted to have caused such a stir.
EAGAN, Minn. April 10, 2018  Thomson Reuters is proud to honor the Springfield (Mass.) Police Department (SPD) with its 2018 Everyday Heroes award.

The SPD was recognized for its use of Thomson Reuters CLEAR to locate and arrest a sexual predator. Armed only with the perpetrators first name and potential street location, investigators were able to find the suspect and uncover his significant criminal history. Soon after, the victim was able to positively identify the suspect via a photograph.

Crimes of this sort are difficult to investigate and unfortunately many cases never close, said Steve Rubley, managing director of Thomson Reuters Government business. It is a testament to the tenacity and skill of the investigators, along with the courage of the victim in this case, that the suspect of this violent crime was located and captured. It is an honor to recognize the dedication of the Springfield Police Department with this years Everyday Heroes Award.

As the recipient of the award, the SPD received a $10,000 charitable donation made by Thomson Reuters on its behalf to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The award and check presentation to SPD and NCMEC, respectively, occurred at a ceremony in Springfield last week.

The annual Everyday Heroes award is given to Thomson Reuters customers who use CLEAR, PeopleMap on Westlaw and other Thomson Reuters public records solutions. Customers are encouraged to share their stories on hero.thomsonreuters.com, and a panel of Thomson Reuters employee judges from the Government, Corporate and Law Firm business segments evaluate customer submissions and select the recipients.

For the complete stories of this and prior Everyday Heroes award winners, visit hero.thomsonreuters.com.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

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As he sits in the White House seething about the FBI raid on his lawyer, is the president in the best state of mind to consider a strike on Syria like the one last year? Photo: Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

Normally I would be reluctant to suggest that the president of the United States  even this president of the United States  would launch a military strike because hes infuriated with things that have nothing to do with Syria. But reading through the news accounts today of Trumps state of mind after he canceled a trip to South America, you have to wonder. Heres an item from the New York Times:

In a brief statement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said the president would stay in the United States and oversee Americas response to a suspected and deadly chemical attack in Syria, and to monitor developments around the world.

But when the president himself spoke, it was not about Syria but of his outrage that federal agents in New York on Monday raided the office and hotel room of Michael D. Cohen, his longtime lawyer and fixer. The F.B.I. seized documents in what Mr. Trump called a disgraceful situation and an attack on our country.

And it gets worse:

[A]t a meeting with his military commanders at the White House, Mr. Trump reserved his harshest words for the F.B.I. and top Justice Department officials, railing against the raids in which he said agents broke into Mr. Cohens office.

Addressing the brass gathered to soberly assess the world situation with rage at federal investigators isnt a good sign. Politico suggests it could soon get worse:

Trumps decision to scrap this weekends long-planned travel to the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, will leave the president largely alone in the White House with little on his schedule, giving him time to stew and watch cable news.

Angry and increasingly isolated, the president is more unpredictable than ever, according to four people close to him.

And BuzzFeed adds some heat to the story:

Sources close to the administration who had had been in touch with officials described a White House that was at a high level of freak out Tuesday morning, as one put it. Putting aside whatever comes out of Trumps longtime attorney Michael Cohen getting raided, another source said plainly, I am worried about [Trumps] response.

All this worrying from sympathetic aides and supporters appears focused on fears that he will do something politically damaging, like firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who personally approved the raids that have so enraged POTUS) or his ultimate nemesis, Robert Mueller. But so far none of the insiders seem concerned that Trump might overreact to reports that the Assad regime has again used chemical weapons on the rebels they are fighting in their nearly won civil war. Indeed, you have to wonder if some advisers who want to keep Trump from doing something self-destructive against his inquisitors might even encourage him to slake his rage by doing something purely destructive to the Syrians.

Now a strike on Syria might be justified even if the commander-in-chief conducting it is consumed by fury at a very different target that he cannot hit with cruise missiles. An incident similar to the one being alleged right now did, after all, convince Trump to scrap his hands-off policy toward the Syrian civil war and launch a strike just over a year ago.

But the most prudent decisions are not usually or often made by people who are melting down from anger. And aside from the people who might want to deflect Trump from firing everyone in sight with a connection to the Mueller investigation, there are a goodly number of people in his circle who seriously believe that its healthy to promote the impression of Trump as an uncontrollably aggressive leader. One of them, it seems plausible, might be his new National Security adviser, John Bolton. Lets hope hes not too close by as Trump seethes in the White House this week.
ALBANY  The Troubles seems a mild phrase to describe more than 30 years of bombs, shootings, stabbings and beatings that left about 3,600 dead in Northern Ireland. Catholics and Protestants living a few streets from each other became lethal enemies.

No wonder April 10, 1998's Good Friday Peace Agreement seemed like an Easter miracle to Albany historian and former assemblyman Jack McEneny, who traces his roots to Belfast, He flew on his own dime to Northern Ireland many times, often supporting Pres. Bill Clinton who helped negotiate the agreement.

"I remember sitting in cars at checkpoints with soldiers holding machine guns on us in the 1990s because the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was so dangerous," McEneny said. "It was like an armed camp in the 1980s, it was so dangerous, You had to show your passport when traveling between certain counties within Belfast. There were blast walls everywhere in case of car bombs. All that changed for the better when peace came."

Now, the border is porous with people crossing it easily every day for work or fun. But since Britain voted to leave the European Union, aka Brexit, many inside and outside Northern Ireland worry violence might erupt again.

On the 20th anniversary of the Peace Agreement, McEneny will be at the Irish American Heritage Museum with a panel that examines why the peace may or may not hold. He will be joined by Siena College professor Karen Sonnelitter, an expert in Irish and British history, museum trustee Ed Collins and Boston College professor Peter Moloney who is both Irish and an expert on Brexit. The panelists know how to wrestle a complex topic into compelling insights.

"The peace agreement promised the United States, Ireland and Europe would protect the civil rights of Northern Ireland's residents regardless of religion," Moloney said, simplifying for his listener's sake. "The agreement promised an end to employment and housing discrimination based on faith."

While many in Northern Ireland distrusted Britain, it was part of the European Union and they liked feeling that Europe had their backs. Brexit or Britain's exit from the European Union has caused many in Northern Ireland to worry whether Europe would still want to referee civil rights conflicts in a non-EU nation. Interestingly, 64 percent of voters on Northern Ireland's border wanted to remain in the EU, while 55.8 percent of all voters were also in favor of staying in the EU.

"Current tension is partly a reflection on how Norther Ireland still tends to self-segregate into Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods," Sonnelitter said. People of different faiths may mingle in the workplace but "most children in Catholic neighborhoods attend Catholic schools."

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During the Troubles, Sonnelitter says much of the violence started in working class neighborhoods where high unemployment fueled anger. She sees hope in the north's healthy economy. But she is aware of how fresh the scars are.

She notes that Sinn Fein political party president Gerry Adams was implicated in and questioned by police about the kidnapping and murder of a mother of 10 children, Jean McConville, as recently as 2014. McConnville was suspected by the Irish Republican Army of being a spy for British soldiers.

The panel's April 10 audience will have a chance to explore all this as well as Moloney's belief in how those who have suffered can maintain a peace and create a future together.

"It must be a strange feeling, a terrible feeling to know the guy on the next street killed my brother during the Troubles and he's never been in jail," Moloney said. "But if the Irish can see a greater good for everyone, then the dead haven't died in vain. And you don't have endless score settling and feuds that continue the bloodshed. Yes, that murderer is alive, a guy may think, but so am I. And maybe this is where the war ends."
SCHENECTADY  Bill Murray seems like he does only the things he wants to do. This includes teaming with acclaimed German cellist Jan Vogler for New Worlds, a collection that paired chamber music with pop standards and readings from classic American authors.

Its an intriguing project for the comic legend and beloved actor. Monday night at Proctors, Murray and Vogler, accompanied by Mira Wang on violin and pianist Vanessa Perez, brought it to life with a deft touch for a consistently entertaining two-hour performance that showcased the versatility of all performers and their thematic interconnectivity.

The show began with Murray reading from an Ernest Hemingway interview in which the literary titan talks about playing the cello poorly. It served to introduce Vogler and his tasteful rendition of the first movement of Bachs Cello Suite No. 1. This led to a reading of Walt Whitmans Song of the Open Road and a pairing of James Fenimore Coopers Deerslayer with Schuberts Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat that illustrated the largeness of the world and its possibilities.

From there, the show moved from the Earth to the people living on it. After reading the Billy Collins poem Forgetfulness, Murray sang Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair. He handled the delivery of the lyrical content (marital separation and yearning) delicately and thoughtfully, showing himself to be a savvy interpreter of song.

Murrays most triumphant reflection on the human condition was an absolutely stunning cover of Van Morrisons When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God. The ensemble shone here, providing an arrangement that heightened the songs dramatic arc and tension, while Murray changed his vocal style from that of a gentle crooner to an impassioned shouter and pleader that had the audience roaring in appreciation.

After reading from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and James Thurbers satirical If Grant Had been Drinking at Appomattox, where Murray utilized different accents and dialects to great dramatic and comedic effect, the ensemble played a triptych of selections from West Side Story to close the main set. Somewhere served as a thematic companion to the Thurber story, which was originally written to mock the what if brand of historical fiction in that era. Somewhere asks that same question, but in an immediate, more personal way.

I Feel Pretty was something else entirely, as Murray transformed it into a hilariously awkward, angst-riddled piece, sprinting and dancing around stage anxiously to the laughs of the audience and the suppressed laughter of Wang and Vogler. Murray was seemingly keeping it light on the immigrant anthem America until he stopped his exaggerated dance moves and use of a Hispanic accent to shout, Puerto Rico is in America at the end of the number. For this, he received a rousing ovation.

On the current tour, Murray and his compatriots have played only a couple of songs for an encore. On Monday night they played seven, including several Murray said they had never tried before. This included a cover of the Lovin Spoonfuls Do You Believe in Magic that balanced deliberately hammy vocals from Murray and a subtle symphonic arrangement to create something a lot of fun. After a dramatic take of El Paso, Murray was given a bouquet of roses.

Instead of taking a bow and walking off, he went into the audience to distribute them, even chucking several into the balcony. It served as an irreverent end to an evening that managed to present serious musical and literary topics in a digestible, lighthearted format.

Concert Review

Bill Murray, Jan Vogler and Friends

When : 7:30 p.m. Monday

Where: Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady

Length: Two hours, five minutes

Highlights: When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God, readings from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox and Do You Believe in Magic

Crowd: Just over half full but vocal in its appreciation
Albany

Something about the Child Victims Act got the attention of New York's teachers unions. But what?

They aren't saying.

The Child Victims Act is the much-discussed and long-debated bill that would extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, presumably allowing more victims to come forward.

Those changes are not controversial nor should they be.

New York has one of the strictest limitations for child sexual abuse claims in the country, and nearly everybody agrees that needs to change. As I've noted in prior columns, many victims of child sexual abuse don't come to terms with what happened until they are well into adulthood.

The law would already have changed, except that the proposed Child Victims Act also includes a one-year look-back window during which victims could bring lawsuits for past abuse, even if it occurred decades ago.

That's where the bill gets controversial. Republicans in the Legislature for years have blocked its passage.

But let's get back to the teachers unions.

State records show that the United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers lobbied lawmakers about the Child Victims Act in 2016 and 2017, a revelation first reported by WNBC in New York.

The lobbying is surprising, because, to my knowledge, the unions representing hundreds of thousands of public school teachers did not have an active position on the legislation.

I wasn't wrong. Carl Korn, the NYSUT spokesman, repeatedly told me Monday that the union has not taken a stance. Then why the lobbying?

"We have not lobbied on the bill this session," Korn said. "We are not actively lobbying on it."

You'll notice that Korn's words do not preclude the unions from having lobbied on the Child Victims Act in the past.

I asked Korn, or started to ask him, whether the union had concerns about what the one-year look-back window might mean for teachers.

I hadn't finished the question before Korn told me that NYSUT has no position on the Child Victims Act, meaning he wouldn't answer. An attempt to rephrase the question got the same response.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for United Federation of Teachers did not return a phone call. The unions spent a combined $1.1 million on lobbying last year.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Believe me, I understand the reluctance to comment. It is beyond difficult for any institution or group to raise concerns about the Child Victims Act, given that its most vocal supporters suffered terrible abuse.

Just ask the Catholic Church, which has been lambasted in some corners for continuing to oppose the look-back window.

The church and other groups worry the window would force institutions into the difficult position of defending against alleged abuse from decades ago. Statutes of limitations exist for a reason: Memories get fuzzy. Evidence disappears.

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Given that, it's not unreasonable to think teachers' unions might have wanted to get public schools excluded from the look-back window.

Did they succeed?

Welcome to my headache.

Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, said its attorneys warn that, unlike the bill included in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget, the version of the Child Victims Act passed by the Assembly might give public schools the legal wiggle room needed to evade being sued for past abuse.

That would be a travesty. There's no reason someone abused at a parochial school deserves compensation, while a victim from a public school does not. It's the same crime.

But state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a champion of the Child Victims Act, said the Catholic Conference is dead wrong. He insisted that the Assembly version of the bill, which mirrors one he has introduced in the Senate, absolutely includes public schools and institutions. The Democrat from Manhattan said he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I found it atrocious that the bill was written previously to exclude public schools," Hoylman said. "At the same time, I think we've taken away one of the major arguments from the opponents, which is that this is anti-religious."

Child Victims Act advocates are feeling confident. Gary Greenberg, abused decades ago at the old Cohoes Hospital, even believes victory is imminent, given how Democrats seem poised to take control of the state Senate.

And what will the bill mean for public schools?

Well, I looked at the language in the Cuomo bill and compared it to the Assembly version. They both include mind-numbing legalese about eliminating notice of claim rules for sexual-abuse cases.

But until I get that law degree  any day now, I swear  I can't say for sure whether the Assembly bill might allow public schools a pass on the one-year window.

I do agree with Poust, however, that the governor's version is written more clearly. And I'd still like to know WHAT the teachers unions were up to.
An Albany County jury acquitted Waverly Pleasant, 32, of killing Alonzo Garaycochea, 25, last February in a basement apartment at 256 Clinton Ave.

Pleasant's acquittal on Monday was the second trial he faced in the case. His first trial ended in a hung jury. The second one ended after about 30 minutes of deliberations.

"I appreciate that the jury was able to look at the evidence and see the case the way we saw it," said Pleasant's attorney, Timothy Berry.

Pleasant, 32, was part of a group that came to Garaycocheas apartment at around 12 a.m. on Feb. 12 in a party bus after Garaycochea and another man in the group, Justin McGraw, had a dispute.

McGraw had been texting with Garaycocheas girlfriend, who knew McGraws brother.

According to the District Attorney's office, the group was let in to the apartment and began arguing and fighting with Garaycochea. At one point, McGraw pointed a handgun at Garaycochea, one eyewitness testified.

The fight was broken up and as the group left, prosecutors alleged, Pleasant fired a shot from a .22-caliber handgun.

But Berry said there were credibility issues with the prosecutions case and eyewitnesses offered conflicting stories on what had happened that night.

Garaycochea, who was shot once in the torso, died at Albany Medical Center Hospital, police said at the time.

Police stopped the bus that Pleasant, McGraw and others had ridden on that night twice after the shooting and no one told police what they had seen, Berry said. But Pleasant had not gotten back on the bus after it stopped at Garaycocheas apartment.

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The next day, a report was made to police.

The prosecutions case was hamstrung by the fact that they had no forensic evidence tying Pleasant to the scene. The gun used in the shooting was never recovered and a lack of witness cooperation slowed down the case, prosecutors said.

Garaycochea was the father of a 8-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl.

Garaycochea, who loved to make music, rapped under the name Zoe Rage. He nicknamed himself "The King," the mother of his daughter said at the time.

He grew up in Washington, D.C., but moved to Albany to be close to his two children, she said.

Pleasant, who was on parole at the time, was arrested April 13, 2017 in Scranton, Pa., by U.S. marshals.
ALBANY  Less than a month after talks of reforming the Albany County Legislatures grant program, a $12,900 check was cut for an Albany nonprofit to purchase a boiler.

Legislative Chairman Andrew Joyce said Monday that the African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region on South Pearl Street in the South End went without heat this winter and this request was time-sensitive.

A broken boiler in the middle of winter is an emergency, he said. Its a case-by-case basis  a building burns down, pipes burst  thats what we should be able to do.

While Joyce has said he wants to create a written policy that improves the legislatures process in awarding grants, and the policy will include authority to expedite a request if it is an emergency.

Center officials applied for the grant in February through Deputy Chair Wanda Willingham. The check for the cultural center was cut March 28, but hasnt been cashed, the Albany County Comptrollers Office confirmed.

The African American Cultural Center offers exhibitions, performances and educational programs that promote awareness and raise the consciousness of all ethnicities to the history, contribution and culture of African Americans.

The lack of heat during the past winter limited programs, and due to the extreme cold weather, many days the doors were closed, said Linda Jackson-Chalmers, president of the African American Cultural Center, in a news release. We are so thankful to once again offer year-round programs and events because our work motivates and enlightens our youth, pays tribute to our ancestors, and exhibits a bright and meaningful future and home for African-American culture in the Capital District.

The cultural center has been at 135 S. Pearl St. since 2012. The boiler gave out a year ago, and the center has been dealing with the ramifications of that ever since. The grant will allow the center to purchase a gas boiler, necessary piping and fittings, and ventilation work so it can continue its mission.

The funding is the single largest grant the legislature has awarded since at least 2014. The largest one prior to this was $12,000 awarded to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Little League in 2016 for concession, bleacher and scoreboard upgrades. In 2017, the legislature's leadership capped the awards to $5,000.

The center received a $3,500 grant from the legislature in 2016 to fund a youth theater program.

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The grant program also typically prohibits funding organizations that have received federal, state, county or local funding for the same, or similar, projects and programs in the last three years. In fact, former Majority Leader Gary Domalewicz said when he was made aware of the request, he was under the impression that because they'd received county funding in 2016 they'd be ineligible.

Albany County has awarded grants totaling $263,555 since 2014, not including the latest award.

But not all Albany lawmakers were aware that emergency requests could be pushed through, and some questioned the process in which this request was granted.

"I have never heard of a grant being issued outside of the grant cycle, nor without the knowledge of the entire body, much less one that was in the amount of $12,900," said Menands Democrat Alison McLean Lane. "This grant approval never came across my desk as deputy majority leader. So much for transparency."

Joyce said hes still committed to reforming how grants are awarded and anticipates a written policy by the time leadership weighs in on this years applications. Nonprofits have until April 30 to submit applications for a grant in 2018.

I stand by my original plan to change how theyre reviewed under normal circumstances, he said. Its the review process that we want to change  make it independent of leadership. These are simple changes we can make, and the changes will be in place prior to our review process in 2018.
ALBANY  X doesn't have to mark the spot.

That's the hope of state Assemblyman John McDonald, D-Cohoes, and advocates who want to revitalize the South End neighborhood of Albany, which on Tuesday was added to a list of seven endangered properties that the state Preservation League wants to revitalize.

Part of that effort involves curtailing the use of red 2-foot-square placards marked with an X to warn first responders that a structure is unsafe. Critics say the signs are scarlet letters in the literal and figurative sense: promoting a sense of neighborhood blight by highlighting neglect and disinvestment, and serving as invitations for people to use the properties for illicit activities.

McDonald believes they've found a workaround to the requirements of the International Fire Code  adopted by the state in 2015  that resulted in the use of the placards.

"Municipalities can meet the intention of the code by requesting a variance if they can include the information in their 911 responding system," McDonald said.

Instead of having firefighters, police and paramedics determine the possibility of hazardous conditions with a visual confirmation on the outside of the building, they would instead be alerted to the potential dangers by the emergency dispatcher.

McDonald said the proposal was born out of recent conversations with New York's Department of State, which includes the Division of Building Standards and Codes and would be responsible for approving alternatives to the placards. The process would involve loading local building records into a computerized automated dispatch system so that first responders would be automatically notified as part of their 911 protocol.

"As long as first responders have that information, we can seek a variance," explained McDonald.

It's not clear whether the city of Albany currently has the capability to alert first responders about dangerous conditions in a structure. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the county system, which is undergoing upgrades, will have this capability by the end of May, but he didn't expect a takeover of the city's dispatch system "any time soon."

By placing the neighborhood on the Preservation League's list, Historic Albany Foundation's Acting President Kimberly Alvarez hopes they can foster a larger conversation about the use of the placards and consider new ways to save the buildings in question. She said that despite being on the national historic register since 1984, the South End has seen its housing stock reduced by about a third to less than 400 buildings.

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"The South End-Groesbeckville historic district best represents what we think is the issue of vacancy and statewide placarding of the red X's," said Alvarez.

A local exception to the code could be especially beneficial for cities in the Capital Region with older housing stock that are dotted with the red eyesores.

The Preservation League also added the Watervliet Shaker National Register Historic District in Colonie and the Schoharie Aqueduct in Fort Hunter to its list of seven sites that it wants to save. The organization mobilizes local stakeholders to secure resources for revitalization efforts and promote public awareness of the properties.

One weapon that is back in the group's arsenal after a contentious budget process is the state's historic tax credit. The program was threatened with a deferment in the governor's initial budget, but the legislature restored the credit and extended it for five years.

Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, touted the restoration as a "wonderful win" and noted that a decoupling from the federal historic credit would have a positive impact on New York.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Tomorrow and on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will finally appear before Congress to answer questions about user privacy, data exchange and what the site is doing to help fight misinformation and election tampering as it serves more than a quarter of the worlds users every month.

Whats this whole thing about? Russia? Trump? Cambridge Analytica? Fake news? The Trump campaign using Russia and Cambridge Analytica to spread fake news? Part of the difficulty in mapping out this scandal is that Facebook has been accumulating scandals for something close to a decade and quibbled about the semantics and specifics of its business. Put simply, tomorrows hearings are probably going to be a complete mess; a combination of political bluster, a lack of technical knowledge, and technological pedantry.

You can read Zuckerbergs planned testimony here, but well also lay it out for you. Here is what, potentially, might come up.

The Facebook business model

Before anything else, its important to understand how Facebooks business works. Facebook collects a ton of info about its users  not only what users explicitly provide, but also web browsing behavior  and then places users in categories based on that data. Advertisers can then specify what categories they want to advertise to, and Facebook acts as a middleman. If an advertiser wanted to reach New Yorkers in their 20s who like Rock music, Facebook could likely do that. Facebook does not sell this data to advertisers, it offers advertisers the ability to put that data to use. This is an important technical distinction that Facebook has been stressing a lot in the past month.

Cambridge Analytica

This is the precipitating event. The rundown is this: years ago, Facebook allowed users to link their account to third-party apps, and those apps were then able to use that access to collect a lot of data on users. They collected data not just on the users who voluntarily connected to the apps, but also that users friends. In other words, Facebook allowed users to share information about their friends, even if those friends didnt consent.

In 2013, a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan made an app that 300,000 people linked their Facebook accounts to, and through this, Kogans app was able to get the information on roughly 50 million people. That is, the 300,000 app users and each users friends. That data was then sold (illicitly) to Cambridge Analytica, according to Christopher Wylie, a whistleblower who worked for the political consulting firm. Cambridge Analytica, according to themselves, specializes in using this data to build psychographic profiles that influence potential voters.

The important thing to know about Cambridge Analytica is that it receives a lot of its funding from Robert Mercer, a right-wing billionaire whose fortune also funds Breitbart News. As a prerequisite for receiving Mercer funding, many conservative candidates had to contract Cambridge Analytica. Among the candidates using the firms services was Donald Trump.

For congressmen and women opposed to Trump, it would be politically expedient to draw a line between Facebook offering easy access to user data to Trumps win in 2016. Whether Cambridge Analytica actually had an effect on the election is very much an open question, but what is indisputable is the fact that Facebook estimates that the firm at one point had the personal information of 87 million Americans. And the firm was able to obtain that data because Facebook left the door wide open.

According to his statement to Congress, Zuckerberg will be apologetic about the lax practices that led to the current state of affairs. Throughout this whole scandal, however, he has not indicated any willingness to collect less data on Facebook users. He still believes that Facebook is a responsible data holder. Expect some pushback on that point.

Russia

The Russia situation is also going to confuse the Cambridge Analytica issue. A representative from Facebook has already appeared before Congress regarding the Russian online influence campaign, and its mostly separate from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but that probably wont stop someone from bringing it up with Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg has already announced changes to Facebooks political ad policy. Advertisers are now required to authenticate their identity, and users will be shown information about who paid for an ad in their feed, and what the targeting criteria was. Political ads will also be publicly available for anyone to review, not just whoever is targeted. These changes are in line with possible Congressional regulation on the issue, and would bring online ads mostly in line with the transparency regulations governing radio and television.

Fake news

I mean, who even knows. Someone will probably try to yell at Zuckerberg about fake news and cloud this whole issue even further. Zuckerberg will stress that Facebook is getting even better at using artificial intelligence to spot inauthentic users and fake news, but probably wont get any more specific  and given the technical knowledge of this Congress, can you blame him? He will also probably reiterate Facebooks just-announced data-sharing program with researchers from various academic institutions.

One of the many problems with fake news and Russian trolls is that the trolls were not sharing things any different from what partisan groups were sharing. Posts about gun rights, and Black Lives Matter, and immigration and so on. To draw a line would be to take a stronger stance on moderating speech, something Facebook does not want to do.

All three of these issues are interwoven, and can be weaponized on either side of the aisle. For Republicans, Facebook has long faced accusation of being a liberal platform that suppresses conservative views. For Democrats, Facebook can be framed as a company willing to sacrifice user safety and election integrity in exchange for advertisers dollars. The only thing that can be safely assumed is that neither side likes Mark Zuckerberg or his company, and thats a dangerous place for the social network to be in.
Albany

New York high school students in future years may be able to swap an arts assessment consisting of portfolios or performances for one of the two required social studies Regents exams now needed for high school graduation.

While theres no firm timetable, state education officials say they have been working steadily toward creating guidelines and requirements for an arts pathway that could start in the lower grades and run through high school.

Were not quite completed yet, Regents board member Roger Tilles said of the initiative which dates back at least three years.

Many people are getting, as I am, questions about whether we are really serious, he said Monday at a Board of Regents meeting during which state education officials gave an update on a special commission to develop the arts pathway.

Schools that offer Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs already have established arts sequences but such schools tend to be in more affluent areas and relatively few students take those as a Regents exam substitute.

Indeed, educators said, the lack of resources both to develop a cohesive arts sequence and to implement it in the schools remains a problem.

We have never made this a priority in the budget, said Tilles.

The arts assessment could consist of a portfolio as well as a performance in one of several arts disciplines such as visual arts, music, or theater.

Students who are new English speakers or who have disabilities could, through their portfolios, demonstrate skills and abilities that wouldnt come through on a traditional multiple choice or essay exam.

The arts pathway would likely be part of the four plus one option in which students can forego either the US history or global studies Regents in favor of an alternative.

There already are some options in that vein, including a career and technical education assessment.

Of students who were on track to graduate in 2017, about 6 percent statewide took one version of a four-plus-one assessment, according to data from The Education Trust-New York which tracks educational equity issues.

The four-plus-one programs varied between students taking advanced math exams instead of a social studies tests to those taking a career and readiness assessment.

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In Albany County, about 20 students used a four-plus-one track.

More for you Regents expand graduation options

Typically, a Regents diploma requires passing five Regents exams in English, math, science and U.S. history as well as global studies.

While some believe that avoiding the Regents exams in favor of another assessment amounts to lowered standards, others noted that the four-plus-one program doesnt allow students to avoid math or science exams. Such exams have often been viewed as more rigorous and precise than those in the social sciences.

The Board of Regents on Monday also reviewed some of the new requirements that schools will face as part of the federal Every Child Succeeds Act, passed by Congress in 2015 which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.

Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said the new law continues the concept of receivership, under which schools that have shown three years of decline on English and math results would face closure or reorganization.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
When Hakan Karacay, a then-28-year-old immigrant from Turkey who lived in New Jersey, disappeared 19 years ago, State Police found no trace of him.

On Sept. 20, 1999, he left his home in a car that later was found in an isolated part of Lewis in Essex County.

The Clifton Police Department in New Jersey received a missing person report about Karacay the day after he vanished.

State Police said Karacay is the subject of an active missing person case and they are still looking for tips on him. They said he was depressed when he vanished.

Troopers said Karacay did not take along his medication when he disappeared. On Sept. 25, 1999, state troopers in New York were told of a suspicious vehicle on Wells Road in Lewis. Troopers said they found the 1989 Mazda connected to Karacay but they found no sign of him nor any sign of foul play.

A massive search of the area was carried out by state troopers, forest rangers and conservation officers. Karacay was never found and troopers say no evidence was developed to determine if he or someone else drove his car to Lewis.

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Troopers described him as 6-foot-2, weighing 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes at the time of his disappearance. He was last seen wearing a gray, short-sleeved collared shirt, khaki pants and black dress shoes.

Anyone with information can call the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Lewis at (518) 873-2750.
ALBANY (AP)  A New York preservation group says the site of the first U.S. settlement of the Shaker Christian sect and a crumbling Erie Canal aqueduct are among the organization's list of seven historic places in the state that are endangered.

The Preservation League of New York State on Tuesday released its "Seven to Save" designees for 2018-2019.
A pending Senate Democratic reunification deal has the potential to greatly augment the conference's campaign fundraising under a prior agreement between the breakaway Democrats and the Independence Party.

The group of senators formerly known as the Independent Democratic Conference are hosting a fundraiser on Thursday, following through on an arrangement they had with the party before the conference was dissolved.

The fundraiser, which will take place at a restaurant in Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, is happening four days before the Senate is scheduled to return to Albany with the eight ex-IDC members slated to be officially inducted into the Democratic conference.

Donors are being urged to write checks to the Senate Independence Campaign Committee, which was created by IDC founder Senator Jeff Klein to aid the IDC's fundraising efforts in 2016. Tickets for the dinner start at $1,000, with "supporters" paying $2,500, and "sponsors" shelling out $5,000.

Through its affiliation with the state-wide party, the IDC has been able to collect donations of more than $100,000 for the campaign committee's housekeeping account and then transfer large amounts to its members -- putting the conference in the same fundraising sphere as its former rivals, the mainline Democrats.

Now that the factions have joined ranks, it's unclear how the two campaign committees will interact.

Thursday's event previously was dubbed an IDC event, but newer invitations sent to IDC donors, and shared with the Times Union, have rebranded the dinner a "Democratic Unity" fundraiser --though the funds raised are intended to bolster former IDC members in the upcoming primaries.

"It is the intention of Sen. Klein to protect all the members of the former IDC in the upcoming primaries with all the resources he can muster," IDC campaign spokeswoman Barbara Brancaccio said in a statement.

Rumors swirled on Twitter that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who brokered the unity deal between Klein and Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins last week, will speak at Thursday's event. A person familiar with the fundraiser confirmed that organizers have talked with the governor's office about a possible appearance.

Cuomo, a second-term Democrat who is up for reelection, said at last week's press conference that both campaign committees, as well as his $30 million war chest, would be used to try to elect enough Democrats to retake the majority in the Senate.

"We agree that we're all going to work in a coordinated way, so having funds in separate accounts they're all going to be -- the IDC has an interest in protecting their members if there are primaries -- but other than that, we are focused on the special election, we're focused on November, and we're all focused on those goals together," Cuomo said.

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But coordination between the Independence committee, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and members of the Democratic conference may be complicated, in part, because of ambiguously written anti-coordination regulations passed by the Legislature in 2016.

"There is a morass of rules about coordination of expending money that has been largely untested, since they are under two years old," said Sarah Steiner, an attorney who specializes in election law. "I'm sure [Klein] doesn't want to run afoul of them, but no one knows exactly what they mean."

The state Board of Election's chief enforcement counsel, Risa Sugarman, has probed the Independence Party/IDC arrangement, questioning its legality since IDC members are enrolled as Democrats, not members of the Independence Party.

Maintaining the two fundraising apparatuses is also complicated on a political level, given the cozy relationship the Independence Party maintains with Senate Republicans. Also, the Senate GOP employs a number of Independence Party officials, and the GOP contributes heavily to the party's campaign housekeeping account.

Independence Party chairman Frank Mackay, who in the past has vigorously defended the party's affiliation with the IDC, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
STILLWATER  Town police have arrested a 20-year-old Hudson Falls man on child sex charges.

Tylor J. Sherman was charged with rape and endangering the welfare of a child following an investigation, Stillwater police said. The defendant allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with a victim under the age of 15.

Sherman was found in the Saratoga Springs area and taken into custody without incident, police said. He was arraigned in Mechanicville City Court, where bail was set at $20,000 cash or $40,000 bond.

He was later turned over to police in Mechanicville, where the defendant faced additional felony charges.

Stillwater Police were assisted by the Mechanicville Police Department and Saratoga Springs Police Department.
NISKAYUNA - A public hearing about plans to build a Holocaust memorial on Route 7 is expected to draw a standing-room-only crowd to Town Hall Tuesday night.

The hearing begins at 7 p.m. at the Nott Street Extension building.

Michael Lozman, a Latham orthodontist, is spearheading the effort to build a Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial on Troy-Schenectady Road, in a lot east of the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery donated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

A recent planning board hearing about the memorial drew supporters and opponents who spoke for hours about the plan.

The memorial is designed to have railroad tracks in the shape of the Star of David leading to a box car standing in front of a stone wall  representing the gas chamber  on the back of which Lozman plans to engrave the names of Holocaust survivors that lived in the community. An exterior pathway leading to the memorial will be lined with educational kiosks.

Lozman said the design symbolizes the Jews who were transported in box cars to death camps.

"It will be a serene park-like setting for meditation, prayer and learning," he said. "It's designed to symbolically represent what happened during the Holocaust, and why we always have to be diligent of what's going on to prevent this kind of thing from happening again."

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But the strong statement made by the memorial has draw opposition.

"It is not the least bit true that there's unity among the Jewish community for this," said Mishka Luft, whose parents are survivors of the Holocaust. "I felt a gut punch on this because of the design of it."
Artist Fujiko Nakayas Fog Bridge at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/REX/Shutterstock

As of January 1, 2018, you can legally buy cannabis at any dispensary in California  just for the sheer pleasure of it. All you need is 21 years under your belt, a valid ID from any state, cash-money (dispensaries dont take credit or debit cards), and a sense of adventure. Marijuana lounges  along the lines of what youd see in Amsterdam  are taking root. Local chefs are experimenting with high-end, cannabis-laced meals. And the word cannabis? Its the preferred term of choice by the people leading the way, so save pot, weed, dope, and other synonyms for the privacy of your own bake-space. Here, the industrys vanguard share their favorite places to get stoned on San Francisco.

Get outside

Golden Gate Park Photo: Lonely Planet/Getty Images

Golden Gate Park is huge. It sounds cliche, but there are so many secret pockets. One of my girlfriends and I once took two chocolate-covered espresso-bean edibles and ventured into the park to find the live bison that live there. Wed heard there was a field of bison but couldnt believe it, so decided to go see for ourselves. [Editors note: Its true.] Another time, we did a hike all the way up to Strawberry Hill, and came across what looked like a fairy house. It was a tree trunk that had fallen over and there was a tiny little doorway carved into the side of the trunk. Later we found out that its an installation by an artist, Tony Powell, and there are many of these little fairy doors on different tree trunks throughout the park. Sheena Shiravi, communications manager at Eaze, a marijuana delivery service

The three-mile coastal trail at Lands End is beautiful. You can see the Bay and lots of sailboats out in the ocean. There are eucalyptus trees  theyre really fragrant and thats one of the first things you notice  and the strong, gusty winds. [Ganja Yoga] once organized a trip there, so that people could consume cannabis while hiking. Its a great way to enjoy nature and community and cannabis while getting fit. You really feel the aliveness of it all. Dee Dussault, founder of Ganja Yoga, a series of cannabis-incorporating yoga classes held in studios throughout the Bay Area

The Exploratorium. Photo: Eric Risberg/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Im not a huge nature person, so if Im out enjoying the day, and Im specifically like, Lets use a lot of cannabis and go do something fun, I like to do touristy things. Ill get very medicated and walk around Fishermans Wharf or go to places like the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum. Its tons of fun. You can spend hours there doing crazy sensory experiments. The Tactile Dome is one. Its pitch black and you have to guess what youre touching. Robbie Rainin, retail director of the SPARC dispensary

Eat something delicious

Flour + Water. Photo: Erin Vogel Riordan

My friends and I do a ladies who dine night. Typically well smoke a joint on the way to dinner. One of my favorites places to eat is Flour + Water, an Italian spot in the Mission. It has a warm ambience and that wood-and-Mason jar rustic feel. They make fresh pasta. A lot of times when you eat, youre not paying attention to what youre eating. But when youve consumed cannabis, its different. When the food comes  we might get the salumi board, the bianco verde pizza, or the black garlic campanelle  little by little we stop talking. Theres a moment of silence. And then theres always a moment when someone is like, Oh my god, this is so good. Sheena Shiravi

The classic San Francisco Mission burrito is a good choice if youve got the munchies after ganja yoga. I recommend El Faro on Folsom; [I like] classic beans, rice, cheese, and guacamole on a fresh tortilla. Dee Dussault

Millionaires bacon at Kitchen Story Photo: Courtesy of Kitchen Story

I like to consume a lot of cannabis before I go to brunch, because the lines for brunch in San Francisco are very, very long; it makes the wait more tolerable. My favorite brunch spot is Kitchen Story. Its like American-Asian fusion. They have normal eggs and potatoes and stuff, but theyll do an open-face breakfast sandwich with a Wagyu patty. Or huevos rancheros with pork belly and kimchee pico de gallo. What theyre really known for though is Millionaires Bacon, which is triple-thick bacon covered with, like, syrup and spices. My friends and I  everyone gets their own side order of Millionaires Bacon. Robbie Rainin

Entertain Yoself

Ocean Beach Photo: National Parks Service

There are fire pits at Ocean Beach provided by the National Park Service. Its cold as heck, but you get all bundled up and get your thermos of hot cocoa, and you have a beautiful fire right by the water. Dee Dussault

The Fillmore is one of my favorite venues. Its small and has an old-timey feel: You walk in and there are posters of all these performers whove been there. Because its such an intimate venue, if youve taken an edible, the crowd kinda melts away and its just you and the artist. I saw Birdy at the Fillmore. Shes got this deep, moving voice that drew me to tears. I could feel her pain and the love and everything she was singing about. I was standing maybe 20 feet away. And you look around and no one else is talking, everyone is mesmerized, and you know everyone else there has consumed cannabis, too. Sheena Shiravi

There are hidden slides in the Castro called the Seward Street Slides. Theyre made of cement and you go down on a piece of cardboard. Thats a lot of fun to do while using cannabis. The ride is just a few seconds long, but its fast and fun and you can do it again and again. Theres a beautiful view, too, because its really high on a hill. Lucky me, when I last went down, someone before me went down on wax paper  I flew! Robbie Rainin
We're 24 hours away from finding out what LG has in store for its next smartphone and whether it can break out of the big shadow Samsung's flagships cast over the Android market.



Last year's LG G6 was a giant step forward for the electronics giant. Unfortunately for the company, the phone's extra-wide display was quickly overshadowed by similar-looking phones with more cutting-edge features, such as Samsung's Galaxy S8.

LG learned its lesson. The company's long-rumored G7 didn't take center stage at Mobile World Congress (MWC) this past February, avoiding direct comparisons with Samsung's Galaxy S9. Instead, LG seems to be moving away from a strategy of annual phone updates in favor of introducing new models when there are enough noteworthy changes.

(Image credit: The LG G7 ThinQ may come in five colors. (Credit: Android Headlines))

So, what's new with LG's next phone? We'll find out tomorrow (May 2), when LG unveils the LG G7 ThinQ. Rumor has it that the G7 will take design cues from Apple's iPhone X.

Read on to see what else is in store for LG's upcoming flagship.

About That Speaker: In advance of the May 2 launch event, LG is talking up the phone's audio features, which include a boombox speaker that could make the G7 10 times louder than your typical smartphone.

In advance of the May 2 launch event, LG is talking up the phone's audio features, which include a boombox speaker that could make the G7 10 times louder than your typical smartphone. Display Information: That's not all LG has announced.The company has also revealed details about the 6.1-inch LCD panel. Among the highlights are Super Bright Display technology, which will let the G7 hit a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, and a 19:9 aspect ratio with QHD+ resolution (3120 x 1440).

What does "ThinQ" stand for?

LG is staying true to its smartphone naming system, so the G6's successor will appropriately be called the G7. But LG is also bringing its ThinQ label to the phone, making its full name the LG G7 ThinQ. (That's pronounced "think," not "thin Q," despite the questionable capitalization.)

MORE: The 10 Best Phones Available

LG uses the ThinQ brand across a range of devices, specifically its line of SmartThinQ appliances, such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers. Those appliances are app-controlled and work with digital assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant.

The AI-powered camera on LG's V30S ThinQ (Credit:Tom's Guide)

In a statement, LG said it promises to deliver new AI features in the G7, including voice-activated tools and new camera features designed to make this flagship easier to use. The company says the LG G7 ThinQ will also work with other devices, including its own appliances and TVs.

In addition to confirming the name of its new phone via a statement, LG revealed when you can expect to see the G7 ThinQ. The company plans to take the wraps off the G7 ThinQ on May 2 at an event in New York. That's just a day away, and Tom's Guide will be on hand to report on all the details.



The announcement is light on details about the device, but it does allude to the G7's artificial-intelligence features. According to a translated version of the statement, the company will bring both the ThinQ branding and the AI features of the V30S ThinQ to the G7. (Announced at MWC, the LG V30S ThinQ is a variation of last year's LG V30, with AI-powered cameras added to the mix.)

(Image credit: TechRadar)

The actual release date of the LG G7 is not yet known, but we would imagine that it could launch later in May or early June.

Design

If you want to be surprised when LG takes the wraps off the G7 ThinQ on May 2, look away now. Because here's a good look at what the G7 is expected to look like from all angles, courtesy of Evan Blass's Twitter feed.

(Image credit: Evan Blass (@evleaks))

That leak follows on the heels of another promotional image  again, posted by Blass  that reportedly shows off the G7's new design.



(Image credit: Evan Blass (@evleaks))

Those leaked images are widely thought to be genuine, not just because of Blass's track record on phone leaks, but also because they match rumors surrounding LG's new phone, which is all but certain to take a cue from Apple's iPhone X and add a bezel-free display with a notch cutout for the front-facing camera and speaker. Not a fan of notches? LG will reportedly include a software feature to disguise the notch in an effort to appeal to both fans and haters of the look.

(Image credit: Software may let you hide the G7's notch. (Credit: TechRadar))

The G7 will look similar to the iPhone X, if leaked photos published on TechRadar prove accurate. The device will reportedly feature a 6.1-inch display, which is larger than the iPhone X's 5.8-inch panel.

According to renderings acquired by Android Headlines, the G7 will come in five colors: Aurora Black, Platinum Grey, a glossy Moroccan Blue, a matte Moroccan Blue and Raspberry Rose. The ultrathin bezels surrounding the display will be black.

Dual-lens AI camera

Like LG's G5 and G6, the G7 will sport a dual-lens camera. According to leaked specs obtained by Android Headlines, the G7 will feature a regular 16-megapixel lens and a secondary wide-angle 16-MP camera. A software-based portrait mode, which you can toggle on after taking a photo to blur the background and bring the subject into focus, will apply to both rear-facing photos and selfies.



LG is also putting artificial intelligence in the G7's camera. The phone's camera app will feature four enhanced filters that optimize the color, saturation and contrast depending on the scene you're shooting. According to Android Headlines, the camera will also detect the brightness outside and either adjust the exposure automatically or advise a user to tweak the settings.



The G7's camera smarts will extend to a "bright mode," which will identify when a room is dark and combine pixels to form what LG calls a "superpixel." According to the leaked specs published by Android Headlines, the G7 will shoot images that are four times brighter than the G6.



The G7 will also be able to shoot live photos similar to later-model iPhones. This feature captures the action both before and after you tap the shutter button.



Powerful speaker

LG is putting a powerful speaker in the G7. The company calls it a "boombox speaker" in leaked specs first obtained by Android Headlines and confirmed by Engadget. Essentially, the phone will be loud and heavy on the bass  twice the bass of other smartphones, LG says. Potentially, the G7 speakers will be 10 times louder than other phones.

LG's upcoming phone also has far-field voice recognition for detecting voice commands from 17 feet away, according to rumors.

Google Assistant button

LG is emphasizing artificial intelligence in its 2018 lineup, starting with the V30S ThinQ, which has a voice-activated assistant and a smart camera that can detect what the subject of the photo is. Those features are expected to carry over to the G7 ThinQ.

Leaked photos of the device obtained by TechRadar clearly show a button on the left that may be dedicated to the new assistant, similar to Samsung's Bixby button on its recent Galaxy phones; you can see the button on the latest leaks from Evan Blass, too. And Cnet has reported that the dedicated button will launch the Google Assistant, according to people familiar with the phone.



LG G7 ThinQ Specs

The G7 ThinQ is expected to take aim at Samsung's Galaxy S9 with competitive performance, matching the smaller S9 spec for spec: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (which is expected to be expandable with a microSD card) and a 3,000-mAh battery.

(Image credit: Snapdragon 845 (Credit: Tom's Guide))

Those solid internals might not impress buyers who want more power, as the OnePlus 6, slated to arrive before June, will feature up to 8GB of RAM, according to OnePlus. The Galaxy Note 9 and Google's Pixel 3 are also on the horizon for later this year, and both devices will presumably pack in cutting-edge components.

LG has confirmed details about the G7's screen. It'll be a 6.1-inch LCD panel (as opposed to OLED technology which the V30 uses), and a Super Bright Display feature has the phone maker promising a bright, vibrant display. How bright? Try 1,000 nits at peak brightness, which would easily top any smartphone we've tested. The display will feature multiple display modes for tweaking the color to your liking, and the display should consume 30 percent less power than the LG G6. There's a modest change to the aspect ratio at 19:9 for the G7, and the new phone will offer QHD+ resolution of 3120 x 1440.



Wireless charging

Leaked renderings of the G7 show a device with glass on both the front and the back, indicating that LG will support wireless charging.

Price

It's unclear whether LG's new phone will rival the Galaxy S9 or iPhone X with a price closer to $1,000 than LG's past G-series phones. The G6 was $729 at launch. Rumor has it that the G7 will cost more.
How to set up a VPN on any device

Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone... You name it, we've got the guide. Here, we'll run down how to set up a VPN on any device you own.
Consumer Reports does not like the new GMC Terrain. Actually, that might be an understatement of its own because the publication just laid the smackdown on the new Terrain, squashing the SUV in one of the most damning video reviews weve seen in a while. There was a lot said in the space of three minutes, and almost all of them were criticisms of the Terrain. It may only be an opinion of one man  in this case, Autos Editor Mike Quincy  but the beatdown isnt going to make the Terrain look any better in the eyes of consumers.

Yikes. Consumer Reports Autos Editor Mike Quincy didnt hold back in his assessment of the GMC Terrain. He starts off by calling the SUV dull when negotiating turns because of its vague steering and noticeable body weight. Not content with just one criticism, Quincy turned his attention to the SUVs interior, calling it low rent with lots of drab, hard plastic. He also took the rear seats to task for being hard and flat, before following that up by pointing out the inconvenience of the rising beltline and the minuscule third-row side windows.

As if those pointed remarks werent damning enough by themselves, Quincy also complained about the interior noise, all thanks to the wind noise and the groaning sound of what he described as an unrefined engine.

To be fair, Quincy did have a few positive things to say about the Terrain, most notably the layout of the cabin, the comfortable front seats, and the spacious cargo, particularly when the clunky rear seats are folded completely.

Unfortunately, even Quincys compliments werent enough for Consumer Reports to identify the GMC Terrain as a model thats worth your hard-earned money. The publication may not be the foremost of authorities as far as car reviews are concerned, but it does know what its talking about in this case. As appealing as the Terrain is, it feels like GMC couldve done a lot more with it that it did.

Most of the elements that wouldve made the Terrain a special model were left on the table, leaving us with a version that does leave a lot to be desired.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 GMC Terrain.

Read more GMC News.
The F1 license plate has had an interesting life. Its been around for 114 years where it was first registered to a 15-horsepower Panhard Levassor back in 1904. The Essex City Council owned the license plate until 2008, when, after 104 years, it was sold to Afzal Kahn of Kahn Design Ltd for a staggering 375,000, which converted to around $880,000 at that time. Kahn has owned the plate for the last ten years, but now it seems that hes ready to part with it, provided that someone is willing to meet his asking price of$20 million.

The F1 license plate was first registered to a 15-horsepower Panhard Levassor back in 1904

Has there ever been a vanity license plate that has grabbed headlines by the neck through the years? I suppose the 5 Abu Dhabi license plate had its run in the sun when it reportedly sold for $6.75 million in the Middle East back in 2007. The very next year, another Middle Eastern millionaire won the 1 Abu Dhabi license plate after bidding $14.75 million in an auction. But, neither of the two have carried the history that the UKs F1 license plate has.

Afzal Kahn has owned the F1 plate since buying it from the Essex City Council. Over the years, its been reported that hes had some incredible offers from other people who wanted to purchase the plates from him. Depending on what you believe, offers for the F1 plate reached as high as $10 million, a staggering amount that Kahn still refused because, in his mind, the math didnt add up to a suitable sum. All this for a license plate, folks.

Fast forward to 2018 and the vanity plate is now reportedly on sale for 14.4 million, taxes and fees included

Fast forward to 2018 and the vanity plate is now reportedly on sale for 14.4 million, taxes and fees included. That converts to $20.3 million, or the equivalent of buying seven Bugatti Chirons. If youre scratching your head why something as trivial as a vanity plate could fetch that kind of money, there is some context to it.

The F1 license plate is registered in the U.K., which means that, unlike in the U.S., citizens actually own their license plates and the contents that come with it as long as they pay the one-time and yearly fees attached to them. So if you have an interesting name, number, or message attached to it, that plate could be worth its weight in quid in the future. Knowing that gives us a clearer picture of why Khans F1  its short for Formula One  license plate costs so much.

Theres no word yet on whether someones going to bite the bullet and fork over that kind of money. Pray that it happens because itll only increase the aura surrounding the F1 plate. Who knows, in 10 years time, it could be worth nine figures.
While Volkswagen Recovers from the Diesel Emissions Scandal, Kia Bets on Diesel with New 48V Mild Hybrid System

Diesel has had its place but is it time for it to die yet?
The 2nd African Union Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration will be held at the African Union Commission (AUC) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 12-17 April 2018, with the Ministerial component taking place from 15-17 April 2018.

In recognition of the negative impact of corruption and Illicit Financial Flows on the development of African countries, the African Union has dedicated the year 2018 to the fight against corruption. Under the theme, Winning the Fight against Corruption: A sustainable path for Africas Transformation, AU Heads of State and Government are resolute in their willingness to fight corruption on the continent.

In the same spirit, this years STC will discuss the theme Mobilisation of domestic resources: fighting against corruption and Illicit Financial Flows. The meeting will be divided into three sections: (1) Independent Experts Meeting; (2) Meeting of Experts from the Ministries of Finance, Economic Planning and Integration; and (3) Ministerial and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

The Independent Experts Meeting (9-10 April) will provide a forum for independent experts from Africa and beyond to articulate challenges and propose solutions concerning three thematic areas: domestic resource mobilization, the fight against corruption and the fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs).

Theme and sub-themes

Since the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) in 2002, African leaders have emphasized the importance of mobilising domestic savings for financing the development of the continent. In recognition of the massive resources that would be required to fund the new agenda of the AU aimed at dealing with the socio-economic and political challenges facing the continent, the Heads of State and Government of the OAU, at their Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2001, requested the Secretariat to undertake studies on Alternative Sources of Financing the AU.

Several proposals were made on options to finance the Union, including a 0.2 percent levy on imports originating from outside the continent, which was adopted by Heads of State and Government in 2015. The levy is expected to collect substantial resources for the African Union, with the aim that the AU Member States will gradually cover 100 percent of the operational budget, 75 percent of the programme budget, and 25 percent of the peace and security operations by the year 2020.

The need for domestic resources mobilisation has become even more critical due to the increasing developmental requirements of the continent, including Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government adopted Agenda 2063, which outlined the continents aims for its socio-economic transformation over the succeeding 50 years. This document expresses many of the same aims as the SDGs, to which African countries also agreed in 2015.

As outlined in these two frameworks, one of the main methods that Africa has decided to use to finance its development is through increased mobilization and use of domestic resources. It is widely accepted that the realisation of the goals spelt out in the two development Agendas, will depend on the ability of the continent to mobilise the substantial financial resources required for their implementation.

Over the past two decades, African countries have experienced positive growth rates due to improved macroeconomic fundamentals and increased resilience to external shocks. The growth was driven by sound macroeconomic policy and improved public resource management overall. Corruption is threatening to erode the gains made in Africa over the years. In addition to the negative effects corruption has on African economies, it undermines good governance, distorts public policy and erodes development and economic growth.

Illicit financial flows, on the other hand, continuously drain the resources that are required for Africas development. It is estimated that Africa loses up to US$50 billion annually through illicit financial flows mainly through tax evasion, mispricing of trade of goods and services by multi-national companies. It is important for African countries to continue fighting against illicit financial flows through strengthening legal and regulatory regimes, fighting corruption, building capacity for contract negotiation, tax administration and identifying and returning the resources lost through illicit financial flows. In this regard, the recommendations of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows should be implemented.

The STC will discuss the theme under the following sub-themes:

Illicit financial flows, a hamper to the effectiveness of the AfCFTA; Corruption and illicit financial flows accentuating inequality and poverty; Mobilization of domestic resources in order to meet the needs of development and ensure the independence of the Continent; and Fight against money laundering, tax evasion, corruption and repatriation of stolen and illegally acquired assets.

This will be the 2nd STC on Finance and Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration solely organized by the African Union with the full support of its Member States. It will provide an opportunity to deliberate on items on the agenda and propose recommendations for approval by the African Union Summit in June/July 2018. The independent experts meeting will make proposals for consideration and deliberation by the Senior Officials meeting.

Background

The First STC was held in October 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme Growth, employment and inequality. The STC highlighted corruption as one of the setbacks to sustainable inclusive economic growth. The meeting noted that corruption discourages investors and increases inequalities. In this regard, efforts have to be directed toward considering the correct mix of policies, auditing national laws and enacting laws in line with the changing global context.

In addition, the meeting underscored the need to address Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). To achieve this, it was noted that there was need for improved governance and accountability for reducing the financial haemorrhage of illicit financial flows through the fight against corruption. Overall, the meeting concluded that financing Africas development requires a comprehensive approach that harnesses the potential of domestic resources mobilization.
There is a beautiful restaurant in Nsambya located next to the American embassy.

The rich and expatriate class frequents it. It even has a butcher shop that cuts beef according to use; steak, stew and the rest. Once you are rich, you get to know that not every piece of meat is good for a steak dinner! But dining at this place can be extremely disturbing.

Once you sit and look beyond the eyes of your date, you will not miss what is happening across the hill. The worst of poverty is seen in the Kabalagala/Kibuli hill/valley. This restaurant provides the vantage point for anybody to see how divided our country is.

Mud-and-wattle tin-roofed housing units where probably the guys who serve coffee at this restaurant reside dominate the hill and valley.

The filth and the poverty can make you choke on your sizzling ribs. Most people arrive at this restaurant in their SUVs and probably dont notice this. The majority of our people live in such conditions. The gulf in class on these two opposite hills probably is the reason our tax base is small.

There is a proposal to widen the tax base by taxing Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter users. These people are actually taxed when they buy airtime, which they turn into data. Taxing them again when they turn airtime into bundles of data will be double taxation.

Facebook and WhatsApp users are not only involved in lugambo or rumormongering. Platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp have helped many businesses grow, which has led to actual production. Social networking sites revolutionalised advertising, which is a key element in the growth of most enterprises.

The problem with Ugandas small tax base is somewhat because Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) finds it expensive to collect tax. They dont want to spend more money collecting taxes than they can actually collect and it makes business sense.

It is easier for URA to tax the guys at this beautiful restaurant at Nsambya hill than those across in the Kibuli/Kabalagala valley. The guys at Nsambya hill use Facebook and the guys in the valley probably dont.

There are about 2.6 million Facebook subscribers in Uganda, which is just five per cent of the countrys estimated 44 million population. So, taxing the five per cent and leaving out the 95 per cent wont do much magic.

The 95 per cent also dont see any need to pay taxes anyway because when they go to hospitals, there are no drugs. When they take their children to primary schools, they turn out after a few years worse than they were sent in  unable to read, write and, most importantly, think.

When they join university and graduate, they walk the streets for years without any job prospects. The politicians simply tell them to be innovative and create jobs.

Those who live in Kampala are usually pushed off the road by convoys that stretch a mile. Some of the vehicles in the convoys are carrying a single chair or a spare suit. And a monster truck that serves as a toilet is usually part of the convoy and another that is customized as a podium and lectern.

One day, leaders should disguise themselves, board a taxi and then send the convoy on that very road where the taxi is and hear what people say.

The most rewarding job today in Uganda is being a politician of the ruling party. It guarantees one a monster Land Cruiser V8, a mansion, and air tickets for their children to attend bridal showers and birthday parties. The majority of people see no reason to pay taxes. So, they do everything they can to ensure they dont pay or underpay.

If we want to widen the tax base, we must first ensure that people see how their taxes are being spent. What has made the Catholic Church the biggest brand in the world is not because they promise people to go to heaven when they die.

People see where their tax is used. They see functioning schools and hospitals in their communities. So, when they are told to build a church, they give more and volunteer labour.

That is why churches are the most beautiful thing in any community in Uganda. When the parishioners are asked to pay the tax, which is offertory every week and tithe, they pay it without question. It is high time the government borrowed that model.

In any community in urban areas today, even a simple thing like policing is done by individuals. Community leaders visit homes every Sunday collecting security fee, which is used to either build a community police post and/or pay fuel and allowances of police officers.

In most communities, people are asked to contribute to maintain roads and such. Community involvement isnt a bad thing. But people are doing police and government work because the taxes have been used for something else.

There are countless members of parliament, presidential advisors, resident district commissioners and their assistants and lots more such people than our income can support. Taxing Facebook and WhatsApp users wont solve our tax problems. It will actually make doing business more expensive.

There are very few institutions that work. And many public servants will not attend to you unless you pay them a bribe or know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who actually knows somebody. If we can fix those issues, you will have more people willing to pay taxes.

djjuuko@gmail.com

The writer is a media consultant and businessman.
Just days after appealing to have Shs 400 billion tax arrears owed by several government entities written off, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has impounded five vehicles belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) over unpaid tax.

The vehicles were impounded over tax arrears amounting to Shs 14.9 billion. URA public affairs manager Ian Rumanyika says the vehicles were impounded to compel UBC to clear arrears in value added tax (VAT), withholding tax, And Pay as You Earn (PAYE), which have accumulated over a period of nine years. He, however, hastens to add that negotiations are ongoing between the two government entities.

Aerial view of UBC offices

"UBC is already in discussion with URA, but the taxes have been over a period of time and some Memorandum of Understanding between the two have not been fulfilled," Rumanyika says.



UBC public relations officer Jane Kasumba equally says that says the management of UBC is working on a way forward. UBC is the public broadcaster of Uganda.

It was formed as a result of the "Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Act, 2004", which merged the operations of Uganda Television and Radio Uganda.



UBC operates several radio and television channels spread across Uganda. UBC has been struggling to attract funding, in 2016, government bailed UBC out with Shs 20 billion to revive the media empire, however in 2017, its staff went without salaries for over three months, forcing them to strike.



A UBC review committee headed by Dr Peter Mwesige, the executive director of the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) recommended a total overhaul of the broadcaster. The committee noted that UBC was mismanaged and underfunded among others.

UBC has started getting public confidence back following the appointment of Nada Anderson, a Serbian national who has lived in Uganda for the last 15 years.

Anderson came with immediate reforms including sanctioning balanced coverage of political events in the country. UBC has often been accused of giving little or no coverage at all to political activities deemed anti-government.

Early this year, UBC was ordered to pay former presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye Shs 80 million after the broadcaster failed to run his campaign adverts ahead of the 2011 general elections despite him paying over Shs 21 million.
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Since our skin is our body's largest organ, shouldn't the stuff we put on our face, lips, and eyes be made out of the purest ingredients, found only in nature? Unfortunately, not so much. But customer's demands for organic beauty have reached a pivotal point, and recent studies show that natural is finally outpacing chemical. Gregg Renfrew, founder of Beautycounter (a Santa Monica-based company committed to clean beauty), told Fast Company in 2017:

"The space for cleaner, safer, better beauty has grown and is only continuing to grow. In fact, natural and safer brands are outselling their traditional competitors by two to threefold."

Thanks to these market predictions and big brands also adding natural lines (see Target, Sephora, and CVS just to name a few), the range of toxic-free makeup has never been so bountiful. We've gathered some of the most innovative, entrepreneur-driven beauty brands out there for you to peruse the next time you're in need of a parabens and phthalates-free lipstick, eyeshadow, or blush.

1. Crawford Street Skin Care, Canada

10'000 Hours / Getty Images

Our friends to the north also have a bounty of botanical options. Founder Gaelyne Leslie began Crawford Street Skin Care (pictured above) in 2010 after a bad allergic reaction to her commercial brand of face moisturizer. Eight years later, Leslie still creates all her products in small batches in a laboratory on Crawford Street in Toronto, with her friends and family filling in as her "guinea pig" testers.

Check out: Herbes de Provence Cream Deodorant

2. Juice Beauty, California

Courtesy of Juice Beauty

This California-born brand has some big-time celebrity fans: Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Silverstone, and Kate Hudson, just to name a few. In fact, Paltrow picked Juice Beauty in 2016 to create Goops first private-label products, including an organic skincare line and makeup made with phyto-pigments. The brand more than lives up to its name  its products use nutrient-rich botanical juice instead of chemical fillers, and many of its ingredients wouldn't be out of place in your own kitchen (think aloe vera, grape juice, and apple juice).

Check out: GREEN APPLE Age Defy Moisturizer

3. Melvita, France

Courtesy of Melvita

Leave it to the French to be ahead of their time. Melvita was founded in 1983 by a real-life beekeeper and biologist in the Ardeche region of France, so you can bet that many of their products include a bit of honey. They were one of the first first brands to be granted the ECOCERT label, and both their packaging and factory are eco-friendly, too. Bonus: the lovely French actress Marillon Cotillard is also a fan.

Check out: Honey Lips Gloss Balm

4. Korres, Greece

Courtesy of Korres

Korres comes from the oldest homeopathic pharmacy in Athens. With ingredients like wild rose, basil, and pomegranate popping up in their products, it's no surprise that the company actually employs "plant-hunters" to look for new plants and study their beauty benefits. They've also established long-term partnerships with organic farmers, local communities, and agricultural unions to ensure the farm-to-beauty process remains transparent and clean.

Check out: Greek Yogurt Makeup Wipes

5. MarieNatie, Canada

Courtesy of MarieNatie

Another Canadian brand, MarieNatie, was started by a young woman named Marie in 2009. Frustrated that she had to choose between the stylish packaging of drugstore brands versus the crunchy hippie vibes of makeup found only in health food stores, Marie decided to combine both. Find her fun and feminine makeup in Ottawa, Toronto, and online stores.

Check out: Gluten-Free Lipstick

6. Inika, Australia

Courtesy of Inika

From Down Under comes Inika, a 100% vegan and certified organic beauty line. The name comes from the Sanskrit word for "small earth," and the company truly takes this to heart. Considered a pioneer in the organic beauty world, Inika has garnered more than 35 international awards in product innovation, and was reportedly the first vegan lipstick on the market. Consider them one of the OG's of the natural beauty movement.

Check out: Loose Mineral Foundation SPF 25

7. Tata Harper, Vermont

Courtesy of Tata Harper

Like many of the previous entrepreneurs, Harper created her brand after experiencing frustration with mainstream beauty products and its toxic ingredients. Unlike other green brands that focus on simplicity, Harper is an enthusiastic proponent of technology. Her Elixir Vitae Serum uses neuropeptide technology to relax wrinkles, while her website encourages you to look for the "High Performing Ingredients icon on your box and on our site to see just how many bioactive botanicals are working to make your skin beautiful."

Check out: Volumizing Lip and Cheek Tint

8. Green People, U.K.

Courtesy of Green People

In 1994, founder Charlotte Vhtz's daughter was suffering from skin allergies and eczema. Cut to twenty years later, and Green People is one of the biggest eco beauty brands in the UK, with products packed with up to 99% active natural and organic ingredients. Their lineup also includes skincare for men and organic baby wash and shampoo  of which the Duchess of Cambridge is reported to use on Princess Charlotte.

Check out: Special Edition Velvet Matte Lipstick in Damask Rose
An amazing movie restored and released by MOMA shows a city that's both the same and very different.

In 1911 the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern made a movie of a visit to New York City; the Museum of Modern Art has adjusted the speed and added a bit of a soundtrack and released it on Youtube. I do not live in New York but have spent a lot of time there, and recently have been writing about the conflicts between people who drive, bike, take transit and walk.

In many ways, New York looks much the same; the road patterns and many of the buildings survive. But there are many differences; there is not a single person of either sex in the movie who is not wearing a hat, and in most cases, they are walking wherever they want. The sidewalks are almost always wider and more comfortable, and they are always busy,

MOMA video/Video screen capture

This photo shows 264 Fifth Avenue, and the sidewalk appears as wide as two car lanes.

Google street view/via

Here it is today, and there are six car lanes.

MOMA video/Video screen capture

On the other hand, the area in front of the Flatiron building at Broadway and Fifth is all road, with some kind of pedestrian control posts and ropes, but everyone is still walking everywhere.

Google street view/via

Today, Broadway has been pedestrianized, there are bike lanes and plants, and in this case, one might say it has actually been improved.

MOMA video/Video screen capture

Madison Avenue looks like a lovely walking street back then, with wide sidewalks and stoops leading from what appear to be gracious homes and apartment buildings.

Google street view/via

Today, Madison is a car sewer, albeit with a few trees down here. But all those stairs into the buildings are gone, the street is widened and hardly attractive.

MOMA video/Video screen capture

We do see the beginning of the invasion of the automobile, as a wealthy family gets chauffeured around town. A lot of other people and vehicles defer to the much faster car. But it does share the road and let a delivery vehicle cut in front to turn.

MOMA video/Video screen capture

The overall impression one gets is that this is a city that was occupied by people walking, not driving. They were everywhere and they owned the place. They all seemed to dress up, and there are some amazing hats.

MOMA video/Video screen capture

It is hard to believe that even in New York, the streets were for people, not cars. Watch the whole remarkable video:
ONE of the big unanswered questions relating to the relationship between the publicly listed, majority State-owned, First Citizens (FCB) and the publicly listed Jamaican investment company, Barita Investments Ltd (BIL) is whether the T&T bank participated in the current BIL Additional Public Offering (APO) of new shares.
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His is not the typical rags-to-riches story but one of how a privileged birth opened doors leading to a successful life. From treating former tyrant Idi Amins mother to attending to President Milton Obote when he was shot in the mouth, Dr Martin Aliker has seen it all.

He has met almost every important person of his generation as he recounts in his recently released autobiography, The Bell is Ringing, writes Alon Mwesigwa.

Martin Aliker

His story starts in 1928 in the village of Awaranga, south-west of Gulu. He was born here to Lacito Oketch, a Rwot (chief), he describes as the most important person in the locality [who] was responsible for the collection of taxes.

Being the son of a chief, he was admitted into Kings College Budo a school started mainly to educate sons and daughters of royals.

Aliker, 90, writes that although Obote was bright, he did not have the family name that would qualify him to go to Budo. Obote went to Busoga College, Mwiri.

Aliker went on to study at Makerere University and then North Western University in the USA, where he graduated as a dentist in the mid-1950s. He returned to Uganda to set up the first private practice in the country.

He married Camille, an American, with whom they have four children: Julie, a teacher; Martin, an athlete; Philip, an economist and lawyer; and Paul Okello, a dentist.

This book reveals a man who has fulfilled his purpose in life, and also how Ugandan society works. In the book, Aliker says you learn how President Museveni works informally, allowing his friends go scot-free after committing heinous crimes.

In all the travels I made on behalf of the president, I carried a letter only once. It was addressed to the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. When I met President Museveni, after [my] appointment as a minister [of state for foreign affairs], he told me that I would report directly to him and not through the substantive minister.

CABINET

The Bell is Ringing reveals how ministers and senior officials grovel before Museveni. Aliker was minister of state for foreign affairs in 1996, and later minister of parliamentary affairs and presidential advisor.

[But] I did not enjoy cabinet, Aliker writes. When the president chaired the meeting, ministers behaved like primary school children wanting the class teacher to notice them.

I always sat next to John Nasasira, minister for works, who sat next to a very superstitious senior minister. This man always carried a good luck charm in his pocket. While the president was chairing the meeting, this man would have his hand in his pocket praying to his ancestors to let him keep his job as a minister although he was already old, he writes.

Aliker talks of how Museveni once referred to a female state minister who had raised her hand to speak as the lady with a beautiful smile.

Aliker says this angered the full minister, who was also a lady, who told her never to smile to the president again!

Aliker delves into Ugandas chaotic political past, recalling how Museveni and himself visited President Binaisa in 1980 at State House Entebbe.

Museveni was looking at the bullet holes in the ceiling. He was not interested at all and made no effort to hide his contempt for the president

SHERATON MESS

Aliker reveals the drama that surrounded the privatisation of Apollo hotel (Sheraton Kampala hotel) which was his biggest disappointment. He writes about how a local group had made an offer in 1998 which was accepted. Then Ethiopian firm, Midroc offered more and threatened to sue government.

The officials who handled the sale demanded $5 million from Midroc as key money but it paid $3m. The local group had also paid $2m in bribe.

Midroc officials came to Kampala and told the president what had happened.

When they [investors] met government people to negotiate, one government official took out his pistol and laid it on the table and said now lets talk, Aliker writes.

When the president was told about the incident, he got upset, but he kept his composure, Aliker writes. These errant individuals were not dismissed.

Aliker was also a go-between government and LRA rebels. One day he received a letter purportedly written by rebel leader Joseph Kony asking for medicines for gonorrhoea, cholera, and diarrhoea. He forwarded the letter to Museveni who ordered then army commander, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, to put together the drugs for LRA. Aliker drove them there.

When they took delivery of the medicines, they prayed for long life for President Museveni, he writes.

MUTESA

Aliker was very close to Sir Edward Mutesa, Kabaka of Buganda and the first post-independence ceremonial leader of Uganda. He writes that he was Mutesas dentist immediately after independence and how they were family friends.

I liked him personally but thought that he was, despite his charm, a fundamentally weak man who was in the grip of elderly, conservative and narrow-minded advisers at Mengo, Aliker writes.

ON THE BOARD

Aliker has served on boards of many companies, including Coca-Cola, Uganda Breweries, Stanbic bank, and Standard Chartered bank, among others.

What was my value to companies like Allied Breweries and Coca-Cola or Heritage? It was undoubtedly my ability to get access to governments at the highest level.

Take the case of Coca-Cola, which wanted a reduction in excise duties on its imported inputs. Their CEO in Uganda  a white South African  would have had no chance of seeing Museveni.

But when Carl Ware flew in, I could arrange a meeting with him, Aliker writes.

The book says little about his interaction with his home community in Acholi. He admits he has not lived there ever since he left for school in the USA in the 1950s.

amwesigwa@observer.ug
Next month (mid May) my boyfriend and I are traveling to Switzerland. We are flying into Zurich then traveling straight to Interlaken to stay for 4 nights. I have been trying to figure out the cheapest way for us to travel to Interlaken and then around as well as back to Zurich (our flight outbound is at 11:25 going to Prague, so we would need an early train as well). The Swiss pass seemed a little pricey since we would need 5 days of consecutive travel and the pass does 3,4, then 8.

Are there recommendations on prices and if the Swiss pass would be worth it while we are there?

Also any recommendations on things to do around Interlaken would be great. We are planning a day in Grindelwald while we are there too.

Edited: 3 years ago
#4 For some Jamaican visitors, Best beach means soft sand, no rocks along the shore, calm and warm water at shore line, swimmable.

That is what we need. We do not need water park, as our younger member is 15
No one can tell these days. Sydney had its hottest April day ever last Monday. I chose Easter rather than Christmas for my annual visit to relatives and now cannot wait to get home as one of the main reasons for emigrating from Australia was to escape the heat. However guess that will not worry you. I guess this late summer will end soon and the averages in post 2 will apply.
Forget the drive - you don't have time. A much better use of your time would be a two day, one night drive of the GOR then a flight to Sydney (stay Apollo Bay for the night, next morning, continue to 12A etc, then head back to Melb via the inland route) you could even drive as far as Geelong only, to save an hour of freeway driving, and fly to Sydney from Avalon Airport.

Sydney is a city that deserves four or five days minimum, Two days is seriously short changing all there is to do.

Time of year is important too - if you are coming in our wet season, you may want to reconsider Cairns.

Whe are you coming?

Cheers.
I apologize for my lack of thorough research at this point, but we have decided to book a trip this June to Costa Rica, and I would love any tips. I know I am last minute and am feeling pressure to make reservations. My son has been to the country on a student exchange, but the rest of the family has never been. We are a family of 4 - children are 12 and 14. Airfare is significantly cheaper into Liberia, so I am considering flying in, staying 3 nights in an Arenal hotel and then 4 nights at a boutique hotel at a beach that would make sense for flying out of Liberia. We would like to do the hanging bridges in Arenal (my son did this and it looked amazing), and perhaps one more activity in Arenal. He also spent a day touring/volunteering at an animal sanctuary (the one he went to was near San Jose), and we would love to have a similar experience at some point during our week. We have had friends stay at the Springs - any other suggestions for Arenal hotels? My son stayed at the Arenal Lodge when he was with his school group. In terms of beach towns, where should we look? I was considering a bungalow at Ocho Artisan Bungalows, but I've read negative reviews of the Tamarindo area. Priorities would be clean and safe and on a beach that the kids could enjoy. I'd love to be near a town. Not really interested in all-inclusive and American-type hotels. Also interested in activities for our beach days. Sorry for too many questions and too little knowledge at this point, but I'd appreciate ANY input. Most likely 6/23-30 but I haven't booked the flights yet. Hotels maybe in the $500ish/night (or preferably less) range?

Gracias!
As I started to apply for Vietnam e-visa I noticed that I have to choose place of exit. I have a flight from Da Nang to Cambodia, however I have a plane change in Ho Chi Minh therefore I'm confused which airport should I choose as "Exit through checkpoint". Thank you in advance for the help! :)

I'm flying with the same airlines there
We are travelling as a couple we have the chance to go to Vietnam for the first time, but are restricted to August.

The weather predictions are confusing and I am not sure if it is a really bad plan!!

We would love a holiday with variety. We love the idea of seeing the rice fields (perhaps a trek), having a long scenic and calm boat ride, perhaps taking a train (by day or night) to take in some scenery as we travel... as well as get a flavour of busy city night. We would also like the chance to relax by the beach.

I am busily reading guide books and posts on this forum but am unsure about the weather in August (can we go trekking in the north to see the rice fields.. or would flooding prevent this?), should we fly in to one city (Hanoi?) and fly out from another (HCM)?

We thought we would probably not stay in the high end hotels - and would like to experience something local - but perhaps would still like to treat ourselves to some special places and get some relaxing massages whenever possible.

We would really like to try different foods.

If anyone has any lovely suggestions or advice we would be so grateful.
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Parliament today failed to sit as both the speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah were a no show.



Oulanyah on Thursday last week adjourned the parliament sitting to today 2:00pm. Rule 19 (2) of the Rules of Procedure provides that the House shall sit on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. However, without any official communication from the clerk to parliament Jane Kibirige, today's sitting did not happen.

Speaker Rebecca is away in Dubai while her deputy Jacob Oulanyah is in USA Speaker Kadaga is attending the 8th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is bringing together countries engaging in trade with the Arab emirate with a major focus on foreign direct investments (FDIs).



At the same time, Oulanyah flew out of the country for different engagements in Missouri, United States, including giving a talk at Missouri Baptist University on creating an exchange programme.



The absence of the two speakers to preside over business in the afternoon session brought parliament business to a standstill.



By the time Oulanyah adjourned parliament sittings on Thursday last week, 16 issues were lined up as pending business to be on the Order Paper. Speaker Kadaga is attending the 8th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is bringing together countries engaging in trade with the Arab emirate with a major focus on foreign direct investments (FDIs).At the same time, Oulanyah flew out of the country for different engagements in Missouri, United States, including giving a talk at Missouri Baptist University on creating an exchange programme.The absence of the two speakers to preside over business in the afternoon session brought parliament business to a standstill.By the time Oulanyah adjourned parliament sittings on Thursday last week, 16 issues were lined up as pending business to be on the Order Paper.

These included the adoption of two reports from the committee on Defence and Internal Affairs on the Learners' Project under the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and on the oversight visit to the regional forensic analytical laboratory in Eastern Uganda.



Other pending business is the consideration of the National Bio-technology and Bio-safety Bill, 2012 as returned by President Yoweri Museveni, a motion for a resolution of parliament to inquire into allegations of sexual harassment in institutions of learning in Uganda.



The others are the presentation of the report of the committee on physical infrastructure on the inquiry into mandatory inspection of motor vehicles in Uganda, a motion for a resolution of parliament to review the provision of vehicles to political leaders, public and civil servants and the adoption of the report on the committee on presidential affairs on the management and operations of the city abattoir.
Help with 18 day Itinerary for October-November

Help with 18 day Itinerary for October-November

Hi All

I have studied a zillion itineraries online and I am getting more and more confused.

Please excuse me for bugging you all. Just would like to note that I like a relaxed/ not rushed trip.

SO this is what I have so far:

Arrive Narita 25 November

Stay in Tokyo 25-29th (possible day trip to Nikko)

29th Train to Takayama

Stay in Takayama 29th-1st November (side trip to Shirakawa go)

1st November Train to Kyoto

1- 5th November Kyoto with day trip to Nara

5th November train to Osaka

5th-8th Osaka

Here is the problem part:

Day trip to Hiroshima OR

Move to Hiroshima 7th November and then also visit Miyajima

8th November Hiroshima to Nagoya

Or Osaka to Nagoya

10th November Train back to Tokyo

12th Flight home

Please advise especially tail end of trip which is still vague in my mind.

Thanks to all.

We will buy JR pass for 14 days and activate on the day we leave Tokyo for Takayama/ on the day we visit Nikko??
Hi all,

I've input our probable itinerary into Japan Guide's calculator. It appears it will pay off to obtain a 7 day JR Pass, but I wanted to run it by the expert commentators here on this board first!

We will arrive at NRT Sat, June 30.We plan to use the limo bus to transport directly to our hotel in Shinjuku.

We will be in Tokyo 6 nights. Check out Friday, July 6.

We intend to do a day trip to Hakone on Monday, July 2 from Shinjuku.

That would be the day the JR Pass would be activated should we get it.

We'll be doing another day trip from Tokyo to Yokohama on Weds, July 4.

We will check out from Tokyo Friday, July 6 and travel to Hiroshima. We'll end up in Kyoto from Hiroshima on Monday, July 9.

Therefore:

Tokyo - Hakone

Hakone - Tokyo

Tokyo - Yokohama

Yokohama - Tokyo

Tokyo - Hiroshima and Miyajima

Hiroshima - Kyoto

We have an open jaw flight home from Osaka KIX. I didn't include the Kyoto to Osaka leg as we would have used up the 7 day JR Pass. We depart Osaka Saturday, July 14.

Do you concur a 7 day JR Pass with an open jaw itinerary such as this would pay off?
This is my thread to summarize my day-to-day experience of my trip

Day1:

Flight journey with singapore airlines was uneventful. Except for a few minor inconveniences, the travel with singapore airlines from Chennai to Tokyo Haneda airport went well.

At the arrival exit, we headed to an ATM to withdraw Yen. The transaction charge is fixed at 216 Yen. So whether you have withdrawn 10,000 yen or 50,000 yen the charge is 216 yen for both. 50,000 is the max per transaction that one can withdraw from the ATM. Then I purchased a sim card from telecom square for 5500 yen for 5GB data. The sales girl at the desk helped to guide me through the activation. I am surprised that i get only 3G and no 4G so far.

Got a limousine bus ticket to Asakusa for 2330 yen for 2 adults and 1 child. The bus journey to Asakusa view hotel took 1.15 hours and i wondered if perhaps taking the train would have been better despite our luggage. After we got down at Asakusa view hotel, i could not convince my mom to walk to richmond hotel. She said that her suitcase wheels will be ruined from wheeling and all sorts of excuses and put her foot down for a cab. I hailed a cab that dropped us at Richmond hotel. It was kind of the Asakusa view hotel concierge and the taxi driver to help putting the luggage into the car. The taxi took some time to reach the Richmond hotel and my mom kept telling me how right she was to take the cab as it seemed quite a distance and i kept arguing back that as per google maps it was only 300 meters away and a 4-min walk. The cab costed 730 Yen from Asakusa view hotel to Richmond hotel.

At the hotel I was very impressed by the thoughtful gifts and amneties we used so far like the pyjamas(including for kids), slippers(including for kids), many power outlets, handy phone , face mask, bath powder , face cleansers and other toileteries.

I was also very impressed that the vendors at the telecom square shop at the airport, bus ticket counter and the hotel reception greeted us with "Namaste". In all other countries i have been to, people greet me in English or in their native language , but never in my national language. This i thought was so kind of them.

One more thing i was very impressed was the toilets lol. I read that the japanese toilet system is complicated that you may break a toilet, so i was naturally anxious. But I used the toilet just fine, lol, and liked the automatic bidets. Japan is so clean everywhere we saw today. But i wonder why there are no dustbins anywhere in public spaces. Its amazing that despite no dustbins the city is spic and span. But can anyone give me an explanation why there are no dustbins outside?

At night we walked around Sensoji temple. We loved the lights and walking around at night. It was cold for us here, as from where we come from it is 35 degs with high humidity, so this is a welcome change for me. Sensoji was closed at night, but it was a nice experience strolling through the illuminated streets. We were amazed to see some uncommon items being sold , for instance items used at a dentist. We went crazy looking at so many items that we have never seen before in the stores that were remaining open later in the evening and in the don quijote.

My co-brother wanted to see cherry blossoms, but i told him not to have high hopes as we have arrived at the end of cherry blossom season. So he took lot of pics of the fake cherry blossoms around sensoji temple to show off to his friends just in case, as he does not want to admit to them that he did not see them, incase he does not see them during the trip.

We had the goldfish in kaminarimon i think - the shop was called ten-nen tayaki i think. It has 3 stuffings to choose from. We asked the staff which does she recommend and she said her favorite was the apple. So we chose to have the apple and the sweet potato stuffing. We loved it and we decided to have more of it in the days to come, as it was time for dinner. We had dinner at ippudo and i had the ippudo karaka which was ramen with pork broth and minced meat for 890 Yen. I loved the broth. We also had hakata dumplings which are fried dumplings with pork filling i think. Dipped in soy sauce this was too good. 5 dumplings were priced at 220 Yen.

Tomorrow we plan to head to Sensoji temple, Sumida park, Nakamise dori and Tokyo skytree.
Hello- I am planning a trip to Japan in October and am having a really hard time planning the best route. I want to visit Tokyo with a day trip to hakone/mount fuji, Kyoto with a day trip to Kobe and Osaka, and then to the benesse house in the art islands for one night, Hiroshima and miyajima. and to ryokan i was referred to in kanazawa in kagaonsen and then to see the snow monkeys which i believe is near nagano.

So my initial thought was:

fly into Tokyo for 5 nights, then to Kyoto and use the first day of the JR line pass for 3 nights with a day trip to kobe and a day trip to Osaka with Kyoto being my home base so that i don't have to switch hotels each night, then from Kyoto i would go to Uno and take the ferry to the benesse house in Naoshima for one night, then on to Hiroshima/miyojima, from there to kanzawa for one night then to nagano for one night, then back to Tokyo.

is this the best route to go?? would you recommend to stay in Hiroshima or miyojima? and

any advice on the best hotel/ryokan to see the snow monkeys bath in the hot springs? is nagano the correct place to stay to see them?

i really need some advice, thanks in advance!!
Read "Weather in CR: What you need to know": .

Dry season means it is probably going to rain less / less frequently, does not mean it never rains;. The weather sites might be showing rain, if there is some rain somewhere during the day in the area.

You can continue most activities in the rain, though zip lining and lightning do not go well together + animals like monkeys and sloths like to hide.

MA trip planning blog: .
To catch up with your safari schedule better drive direct and overnight in Arusha.

There are taxi at the airport just not sure if they will be on duty for the time you arrive.

Try to contact We used them and services were good too.

Good luck!
- Governor Kahiga vowed to support DP Ruto in 2022 for presidency and not Governor Mutua

- He had hosted Mutua in his County where some leaders urged the Machakos governor to vie in 2022

- Kahiga cleared any doubts saying Mutua's vist was not an endorsement

- Leaders from Central Kenya and the Rift Valley region have promised to support DP Ruto's ambitions

- Mutua has also made known his intention to run for the presidential seat in 2022

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga was forced to publicly announce his preferred candidate for the 2022 presidential race after he hosted his Machakos counterpart Alfred Mutua, who was endorsed for the seat by some leaders.

Kahiga took to his Facebook page to state that he supports Deputy President William Ruto for the top seat after he was allegedly given a dress-down by the DP.

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Mutua has declared interest in the seat after serving his mandatory two terms as Governor.

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga shakes hands with his Machakos counterpart Alfred Mutua. Photo: Mutahi Kahiga/Facebook

During the visit by Mutua, the two county bosses signed an inter-county governmental relationship agreement.

READ ALSO: Jamaa apeana mkewe kwa mwenzake kwa wiki moja baada ya kupoteza 'pata potea' ya soka

The mutual agreement is hereby meant to promote, support and encourage exchanges and cooperative activities between the two counties, Kahiga said.

This followed an earlier visit by Kahiga to Machakos on an exchange programme on development.

However, after the highly publicised event, Kahiga found himself in a tight corner after some leaders from the region urged Mutua to go for the presidency in 2022 adding that he had the regions support.

READ ALSO: Moses Wetang'ula is a useless Luhya broker - ODM hits back

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua and his host Mutahi Kahiga during his tour of Nyeri County. Photo: Mutahi Kahiga/Facebook

This endorsement seemed to contradict several declarations made by Central Kenya leaders that they would support Ruto after Uhuru retires in 2022.

Kahiga was elected on a Jubilee party ticket when he ran as the deputy to the late Wahome Gakuru in 2017.

Jubilee leaders, especially from Mt Kenya, have been placed on the spot over their support for Ruto with many having different opinions.

Governors Alfred Mutua and Mutahi Kahiga display an agreement between their respective counties on relations. Photo: Mutahi Kahiga/Facebook

READ ALSO: I am a recovering alcoholic - Uhuru Kenyatta's niece reveals

Its on this basis that Kahiga had to announce his preferred choice in which case, he picked Ruto.

I want to make it clear that the visit of my friend and counterpart Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua in Nyeri was not about Presidency. We are behind DP William Ruto as far as 2022 politics is concerned. In fact what Mt Kenya is searching for is the running mate, he said in a post seen by TUKO.co.ke

TUKO.co.ke understands the governor was allegedly categorically told on his face by Ruto to come clear on whom he was supporting for the top seat between him(DP) and Mutua.

This was during a closed door meeting which culminated in the DP touring several counties in Central Kenya.

Kenyan man spending millions to transform into a woman -on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko
Marriage has always been discussed in hush hush tone especially among Africans.

For some reason, most Kenyan men cannot bear the thought of spending the rest of their lives with their lovers.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO:16 extremely naughty things we all did while in primary school including nicknaming teachers

Maybe, they just can't stand being with just one woman forever while they could easily sample ladies from different walks of life.

Some men have stated they'd never want to wake up next to a nagging woman every day of their limited life.

READ ALSO:Kenyan women narrate worst things their lovers ever told them

Others claim women these days are not marriage material and could not make proper wives. Whatever that is.

Others stated most ladies are money-minded and are not capable of loving a man for who he is.

READ ALSO: Jamaa apeana mkewe kwa mwenzake kwa wiki moja baada ya kupoteza 'pata potea' ya soka

TUKO.co.ke asked Kenyans why men fear marriage and this is what they had to say:

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.

Source: Tuko
- Over 80 passengers were rescued when the bus they were traveling in was swept away by floods

- They were forced to escape using the driver's door after water blocked the main door

- Others on a pickup were also rescued after it was also washed away

- Kenha has also cautioned motorists to be careful while using the

Passengers traveling to Kakuma from Lodwa escaped death by a whisker on Monday, April 9, after the bus they were traveling in was swept away by flood waters.

The bus belonging to Eldoret express company had over sixty passengers on board when it was washed away at Kawalase in Turkana county.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Floods hit State House following heavy downpour

The bus belonging to Eldoret express company had over sixty passengers on board when it was washed away at Kawalase in Turkana county. Photo: NTV

READ ALSO: Horror as residents helplessly watch raging floods sweep away Prado and its occupants (video)

The passengers were forced to use the drivers door to escape the ordeal with the help of other motorist.

According to eyewitnesses, the bus driver was trying to cross the overrun bridge before it was swept away.

"We were forced to stay on the other side of the road to help them leave the bus because they could not use the door. The door was blocked by the water," said James Mwangi one of the witnesses.

Seven other people were rescued after the pickup they had boarded from Uganda was also washed away from the same bridge.

READ ALSO: Heavy rains pound Nairobi hours after Met warned Kenyans of upcoming flash floods

Seven other people were rescued after the pickup they had boarded from Uganda was also washed away from the same bridge.Photo: NTV

READ ALSO: Jamaa apeana mkewe kwa mwenzake kwa wiki moja baada ya kupoteza 'pata potea' ya soka

Transport between Kenya and South Sudan, was also paralyzed for more than 24-hours as two rivers burst their bank.

Meanwhile, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) has issued a warning to motorists and pedestrians of the over-topped bridge.

This is not the first time a bus from the same company has been trapped in flooded waters.

In October 21, 2017, passengers were stranded after their bus was washed away and overturned at Kalemng'orok bridge in Turkana

Heavy rains have been pounding several parts of the country, with the Kenya Meteorological Department warning Kenyans to brace for more rains.

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.

ALSO WATCH: Nairobi floods: Heavy rains rock Nairobi city (Kenya News) on TUKO tv

Source: Tuko
Is there any authority left who's not been approached in the ongoing Binani Cement-Dalmia Bharat consortium-UltraTech Cement drama? A day after news broke that Binani Industries had moved Supreme Court regarding UltraTech Cement's out-of-court offer for its subsidiary Binani Cements, Dalmia Bharat has reportedly sought the Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) intervention in the matter.

According to The Economic Times, Dalmia Bharat dashed off a letter to the CVC laying out the progression of events since February 27, when its subsidiary, Rajputana Properties, was declared the highest bidder for Binani Cements by the beleaguered company's Committee of Creditors (CoC). "The unsuccessful bidder, UltraTech Cement, sent mails to CoC members revising its offer upwards on March 8, 2018 and requested CoC to consider its revised offer despite being well aware that the bidding process did not allow submission of revised bids. Shockingly, two PSU banks (EXIM Bank and SBI Hong Kong) who are part of the CoC petitioned the NCLT seeking directions to CoC that negotiations also be done with the H2 bidder. These actions are in clear violation of CVC guidelines for closed bids," the letter said, mentioning two CVC circulars dating back to 2007 and 2010.

It added that apart from violating CVC guidelines and shaking public confidence in the bankruptcy code, the settlement between Binani and the lenders will also "send a wrong message to the international investing community, whose participation in resolving mounting NPAs of the banking sector is vitally important and in public interest". The New Delhi-based cement maker was reportedly referring to the participation of Bain Capital Credit in the consortium along with Piramal Enterprises.

Pointing out that the CoC's reported move to allow the promoters to seek an out-of-court settlement circumvents the dedicated insolvency process, Dalmia Bharat's letter sought the CVC's intervention to examine the matter and pass suitable guidelines in public interest. "The CVC will be taking its own action. Let the IBC be saved," Mahendra Singhi, group CEO - Cement at Dalmia Bharat told the daily.

Lenders of Binani Cement are meanwhile looking forward to April 13, when the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Binani Industries' petition. The latter has already deposited a sum of Rs 750 crore to show its commitment, along with a bank guarantee for the remaining amount of the total offer of Rs 7,266 crore.

To remind you, last month, UltraTech's board had agreed to issue a 'comfort letter' to provide the above-mentioned amount in return for 98.43 per cent stake in Binani Cement. "If they can take the company out of insolvency proceedings, we are happy to pay the same amount of money to buy the company and it has to be used to repay the debt. For that purpose they wanted a letter of comfort and we have given them a letter of comfort. I do not think that we have gone against IBC anyway," UltraTech Cement CFO Atul Daga was quoted saying earlier.

This offer is certainly more tempting to lenders since it is not only fatter than Dalmia Bharat's winning bid of around Rs 6,500 crore but also promises 100% payout to both unsecured and secured creditors. The daily added that Binani Cement's CoC on Saturday decided to conditionally back the deal between Binani Industries and UltraTech, subject to the Supreme Court's nod.

The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal also recently adjourned the hearing of the Binani case to April 16 in light of the hearing in the apex court.

While the battle for this stressed asset is intensifying by the day, the clock is ticking down to the 270-day deadline specified for bankruptcy resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Bank of Baroda had dragged Binani Cement to NCLT last July after it failed to repay a loan of over Rs 97 crore. It will be ironic if after all this litigation drama, the asset just ends up being liquidated.

(With PTI inputs)
- The deputy president is on a tour to Sudan aimed at boosting bilateral and economic relations with Kenya

- His tour involves visiting successful industries in the Arab nation considered more industrialised than Kenya

- Ruto toured Kenana sugar factory and could not hide his admiration of the technology used

- Kenyas sugar industry has been struggling in the recent past with biggest miller Mumias saved by the government from near collapse

Deputy President William Ruto toured Kenana sugar factory while on a three-day visit of Sudan aimed at boosting economic relations in agriculture and industrialisation.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, April 10, Ruto said he was impressed at the efficiency of the factory and at its ability to process 20,000 tonnes of cane a day.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

"Visited the Kenana Sugar company in Sudan that leverages on technology and large scale irrigation to produce, crush and process at least 20,000 tonnes of cane a day," said Ruto's tweet seen by TUKO.co.ke.

READ ALSO: William Ruto on 3-day tour to Sudan

He marveled at the company's business model that enabled it to utilise all its raw products down to the finest detail. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

He marveled at the company's business model that enabled it to utilise all its raw products down to the finest detail.

William Ruto handles technology used at Kenana sugar factory. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

READ ALSO: Baringo Senator officially declares 2022 presidential ambition, to face William Ruto

He marveled at the business model that enabled it to utilise all its raw products down to the finest detail. Photo: william Ruto/Twitter

"Its business model of diversification, deriving extra revenue on by-products, such as ethanol, animal feeds, molasses, electricity and reliance on latest innovation to drive expansion is impressive," the DP said.

Ruto conversing with sugar worker at Kenana. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

READ ALSO: Moses Wetang'ula useless Luhya broker - ODM hits back

The DP hopes to visit countries with dominant industries and pick up business models that would improve food security and derive extra revenue in Kenya. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

The DP hopes to visit countries with dominant industries and pick up business models that will help improve food security and derive extra revenue in Kenya.

READ ALSO: Do not provoke us to revisit Judiciary- Sabina Chege warns Maraga

Ruto during his tour of Kenana sugar company. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

"We will seek to employ these methods as part of efforts to achieve food security," Ruto said.

READ ALSO: Busia governor blasts Musalia, Wetangula for frustrating Uhuru-Raila unity deal

Ruto taking a tour of the sugar produce. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

Ruto's tour is in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four plan that places focus on ensuring food security in the country through enhancing development.

William Ruto being taken around the pfactory. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter

As TUKO.co.ke previously reported, Ruto is accompanied by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri, his Industrialization counterpart Adan Mohammed, chairman of the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee Adan Haji Ali and MP Malulu Injendi (Malava).

He met with the First Vice President Lt Gen Bakri Hassan Saleh and the National Assembly Speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar among other senior government officials.

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

Uhuru and Raila full speech at Harambee House - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko
It's our pre budget show where we bring you some of the most talked about items on the econo
The construction of the Kerch bridge by Russia destabilizes the situation in Mariupol and Berdiansk and causes tens of millions of hryvnias in loses to Ukraine.

"We are losing a lot of money because of the limited parameters of ships, which now cannot pass under the arches of the bridge. The estimates are modest so far  tens of millions of hryvnias  but I think that losses are much larger as we are losing jobs. Russia specifically fuels the difficult social situation in Mariupol and Berdiansk," Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelian said, RFE/RL reports.

According to Omelian, the Infrastructure Ministry and the Justice Ministry are preparing lawsuits against Russia over the illegal construction of the bridge to be filed to the international courts.

The construction of the bridge from Russia to Crimea across the Kerch Strait was started after Russia had annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his hope that the bridge would be ready by the summer of 2018.

ol
Ukraine and Germany are pleased with the growth rate of trade between the two countries.

Poroshenko said this during a joint briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I and Chancellor Merkel are pleased with the growth rate of bilateral trade. It has grown by more than 20 percent. Germany remains one of the confident leaders in investing in Ukraine," he stressed.

As noted, the agreements were reached on the early visit of a large German government delegation to a business forum promoting investment in Ukraine.

As reported, April 10, Poroshenko is currently on a visit to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel.

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Poland-Russia relations are complicated because of the Smolensk tragedy and the aggression of the Russian Federation in eastern Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said this in an interview with the PAP on the eve of the Smolensk tragedy anniversary, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"The relations [with Russia] are complicated. On the one hand, because of the Smolensk tragedy, the return of the plane wreckage... However, its not only about the Smolensk tragedy. It is also a matter of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the occupation of Crimea, the occupation of part of the Ukrainian territory," the Polish leader said.

Duda noted that he was trying to continue the policy of President Lech Kaczynski in the issue of relations with the eastern neighbors, the US, ensuring energy independence.

"President Kaczynski tried to create alliances so that we could cooperate well with our neighbors, with the Baltic countries and the countries in the south," Duda said.

Lech Kaczynski, his wife and numerous representatives of the Polish political and military elite and the public (a total of 96 people) were killed in a plane crash on April 10, 2010 near Smolensk, Russia, where they were going to participate in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off Indian Railways' first high-speed electric locomotive developed at the Electric Locomotive Factory, a collaboration between India and France, in Madhepura. The 12,000 horsepower high-speed train is the first Make-in-India project of this magnitude completed along with French rolling stock giant Alstom.



With this India will join the countries like Russia, China, Germany and Sweden, which have 12,000 horsepower and above electric locomotives. The most powerful electric engine in the Indian Railways was of 6,000 horsepower.



The Indian Railways had signed an Rs 20,000-crore agreement with Alstom for 800 high-speed locomotives in 2015. Under the contract over a period of 11 years, first five engines will be imported from France, while the rest 795 will be produced here in India.



Some highlights of the electric locomotive:



The train is first Make-in-India project completed by Alstom at Madhepura's Electric Locomotive Factory

Each double section locomotive will have a capacity of 6,000 tonnes

Due to its high speed of 120 km/hr, the locos are expected to decongest the saturated freight corridors.

The heavy haulage locomotives will help in transporting coal and iron ore

The new locomotive will bring down the operating costs for the Railways as it is 100% electrified. It will also cut down greenhouse gas emissions

The Madhepura facility will manufacture about 35 locos in 2019-20 and 60 in 2020-21. Another 100 locos will be produced the following year.

The locomotive is equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors based propulsion technology, which will help it survive the tough Indian climate.



Earlier in the day, PM Modi also addressed the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha. A year ago, the Bihar government had kicked off a year-long celebration programme.

The Prime Minister lauded the cleanliness ambassadors from across the country as part of the "Satyagrah se Swachhagrah" campaign.

"In the last one week, more than 8,50,000 toilets have been constructed in Bihar. This is a great achievement. I congratulate the people, the 'Swachhagrahis' and the State Govt for this," Modi said at the event.

Besides, Modi also inaugurated schemes worth Rs 2,500 crore, this include three sewerage networks, one sewerage treatment plant in Patna, which are part of Centre's Namami Gange scheme. The other projects are a lake beautification project in Motihari and a water supply project in Bettiah.

Talking about the projects, he said: "Villages built along the river Ganga are being freed from open defecation on priority. Waste management schemes are being implemented in villages near Ganga. Soon, the Ganga coast will be completely open defecation free."
Ukraine's foreign minister has been invited to a meeting of G7 foreign ministers for the first time, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has said.

According to the diplomat, for the first time in history Ukraine will be present at a full-fledged, planned event of the G7 countries, Ukrainian Internet newspaper Yevropeiska Pravda reports.

"The time has come for serious, strategic decisions on Ukraine, Russia and how to turn the world towards peace and international order. We are glad that Ukraine will be able to join this difficult but critically necessary conversation, and we look forward to making a valuable contribution to future joint decisions," Shevchenko said.

The ambassador confirmed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin had received from his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland an invitation to the meeting, which will begin in Toronto April 22.

Shevchenko stressed that Ukraine was grateful to Canada as the country chairing the G7 for this initiative. "We see in this invitation the common will of all our friends in the Group of Seven," the diplomat said.

According to him, Ukraine hopes that this conversation will be continued at the G7 summit, which will take place in the Canadian region of Charlevoix in June.

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The first Norway-Ukraine friendship group has been established in the history of Ukrainian-Norwegian relations at the initiative of the Norwegian lawmakers. The group is chaired by Olemic Thommessen, the former president of the Storting.

This is reported by the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of Norway.

"Ukraine welcomes the initiative of the Norwegian parliamentarians to establish the Norway-Ukraine friendship group in Norway's Storting (Parliament), which will become another important manifestation of Norway's solidarity with our state and another confirmation of strengthening of the Ukrainian-Norwegian partnership," said Ukraine's Ambassador to Norway Vyacheslav Yatsiuk during a meeting with President of the Storting Tone Wilhelmsen Tren.

Yatsiuk expressed gratitude for the consistent Norways support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In this context, particular attention was paid to the importance of strengthening international solidarity for the liberation of Ukrainian political prisoners from Russia and temporarily occupied Crimea.

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Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) will consider in the next few days draft decisions on the introduction of sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a joint briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"A few days ago, I instructed the Security Service of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Security and Defense Council, as well as the secretary of the council, to prepare respective draft decisions that will be submitted to a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in the next few days. Sanctions will be imposed," Poroshenko said, when asked whether Ukraine will impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs after a similar decision by the United States.

According to the president, the sanctions "will be harmonized as much as possible with the decision of the U.S. government."

"The sanctions will undoubtedly involve Mr. Deripaska and other oligarchs who today are key participants in Russian processes, including on active work in Crimea and in supplies to the Russian Armed Forces, and, of course, Ukraine's reaction will be very quick and decisive," Poroshenko said.

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Ukraine continues to insist on deploying of a full-scale UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas with the right to disarm the illegal armed groups.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this during a briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We hope to implement the proposals put forward jointly by France, Germany, Ukraine and the United States regarding the draft decision of the United Nations Security Council on a peacekeeping mission. This mission should not just accompany the OSCE monitors, it should be comprehensive and full-scale, having the right to disarm the illegal armed formations, protect people living in the occupied territories, draw nearer the security conditions appropriate for the start of the political process of local elections," the President said.

However, such a format of the peacekeeping mission is not yet supported by Russia, Poroshenko noted.

"Unfortunately, we do not yet have support from Russia. However, we do not lose hope that our persistent work will lead to a positive result," Poroshenko said.

As reported, April 10, Poroshenko is currently on a visit to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier have discussed the need to preserve and strengthen sanctions against Russia.

Ukrainian presidential press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko wrote this in his Twitter account.

"The presidents of Ukraine and Germany discussed the need to preserve and strengthen sanctions against Russia," he wrote.

The press service of the Ukrainian president also reported that Poroshenko and Steinmeier had discussed prospects for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Donbas.

Poroshenko expressed confidence that the deployment of a full-fledged UN peacekeeping force in the occupied part of Donbas would contribute to stabilization in the region and can provide an effective transition from the regime of constant Russian provocations to peaceful settlement.

Steinmeier, in turn, expressed support for international efforts to find a peaceful settlement in Donbas, primarily in the context of the importance of deploying an international UN force.

In addition, the leaders discussed German support for Ukraine's progress towards reforms, in particular in the areas of decentralization, medicine, and the fight against corruption, the report says.

The sides also emphasized the importance of using gas transportation capacities in Ukraine, the press service said.

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Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentyn Reznichenko has said that UAH 157 million from the state budget will be transferred to the regions united territorial communities for development projects in 2018.

"This year, Dnipropetrovsk region will receive from the state budget one of the largest infrastructure subventions in Ukraine - UAH 157 million," Reznichenko said.

Ha added that communities have two months to submit project applications to the Regional Development Ministry and six months for the realization of initiatives.

Funds will be used to improve the quality of the provision of administrative services, street repairs, the creation of administrative service centers, the reconstruction of social facilities, the introduction of energy technologies, and the purchase of vehicles, Reznichenko said.

Also, this year, united territorial communities may direct subsidies for the major repairs of municipal objects and roads.

Last year, the government allocated UAH 135 million for the united territorial communities in Dnipropetrovsk region. Over the past three years, the regions united territorial communities have implemented almost 1,000 development projects

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Savchenko is now remanded in custody until May 20.

The Ukrainian police are conducting a search of the flat of Ukrainian MP Nadiia Savchenko, who is suspected of plotting terrorist attacks and seizing state power.

"Nadia's apartment is being searched as part of the investigation. Her lawyer Dmytro Bugay is present there. He is noting down his remarks," Savchenko's lawyer Oleh Solovei told the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.

Read alsoChief prosecutor: Probe into Savchenko case will last two or three months

As UNIAN reported, the Verkhovna Rada on March 22 green-lighted the arrest of Member of Parliament Nadiia Savchenko, a former Ukrainian pilot released from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange.

Ukraine's prosecutors charged Savchenko with plotting a coup and an act of terror in Ukraine, following an elaborate sting operation by SBU Security Service agents, who initially targeted former hostage swap negotiator Volodymyr Ruban. The latter is believed to have conspired with Savchenko.

On March 23, a Kyiv district court ruled that Savchenko be remanded in custody for 59 days without bail.

Savchenko is suspected of 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.

On March 29, the Kyiv City Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the first instance court to keep Savchenko behind bars for a period of 59 days until May 20.
The German Chancellor said the issue was not about Russian gas and whether it flows through Ukraine or through the Baltic, but about potential losses for Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a new Russian natural-gas pipeline is impossible if it leaves Ukraine empty-handed, shifting her rhetoric on a project criticized by President Donald Trump.

Merkel said political considerations must play a role on Nord Stream 2, which would double an existing pipelines capacity to almost 30% of European Union demand. In the past, she has portrayed Nord Stream primarily as a business venture driven by private investors, according to Bloomberg.

I made it very clear that a project such as Nord Stream 2 is in our view not possible without clarity on how Ukrainian transit will proceed, Merkel said Tuesday in Berlin alongside Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. This isnt only about an economic project. There are political factors to be considered.

Merkel said the issue was not about Russian gas and whether it flows through Ukraine or through the Baltic, but about potential losses for Ukraine.

Nord Stream 2, opposed by countries such as Poland and the Baltic states for increasing EU reliance on Russian gas, won German construction approval in March. Trump said last week that the pipeline means Germany will be paying billions of dollars to Russia and thats not right.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev said that, besides the growing danger of a military conflict, Ukraine would also bear significant economic costs by losing the annual fees that Russia pays to pump gas through Ukraine. Kobolyev put the figure at more than $3 billion (EUR 2.4 billion), which he said would naturally be a substantial amount for Ukraine's economy.
The Head of State underlined the importance of immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied Ukrainian territory and implementation of Minsk agreements, including support for the peacekeeping operation in Donbas.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during his Germany visit emphasized that Russia is involved in the chemical attack in Syria and continues its aggression against Ukraine in Donbas, at the same time constantly rejecting its wrongdoings.

This has been lasting for four years already. And it is called 'they are not there', Petro Poroshenko said during a briefing following the meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

From the very first minute of the Russian aggression, Russia has strongly rejected the fact that the Russian armed forces are engaged in the aggression against the state of Ukraine, engaged in the chemical attack in Syria, took part or were somehow related to the poisoning in Salisbury, Petro Poroshenko said.

Slogan they are not there is no longer accepted in the world, Petro Poroshenko noted.

Read alsoPoroshenko states "certain progress" on Donbas peacekeepersHe reported that 23 Russian officers had been imprisoned in Ukraine. This is the evidence of Russian presence. Of course, we expect a more civilized response from Russia: recognition of accusations, coordination and cooperation to prevent such things in the future, the president said.

The Head of State underlined the importance of immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied Ukrainian territory and implementation of Minsk agreements, including support for the peacekeeping operation in Donbas.

In turn, the Chancellor of Germany commented on the developments in Syria and the use of chemical weapons against civilians: I think chemical weapons were definitely used there.

Read alsoUkraine diplomat: West signals it has had enough of Russian aggressionYesterday we emphasized that we strongly condemn their use. It is unacceptable that after many international discussions chemical weapons are used there again and again, she said.
Girkin insists the cessation of active military operations against Ukraine in 2014 was "Russia's big mistake."

Former "Defense Minister" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic ("DPR") Igor Girkin, nom de guerre Strelkov, has drawn three possible scenarios of developments for the self-proclaimed republics in Russian-occupied Donbas.

"The republics cannot exist on their own for a long time. There are three scenarios. Either they will have to be taken over by Russia, i.e. formally taken under protection. Or the Novorossia project will be implemented when a completely new, friendly, but independent state appears. There is a third option: Ukraine will win with U.S. support... If the Russian Federation, God forbid, closes the border, then the 'DPR' and 'LPR' ["Luhansk People's Republic"] will cease to exist in a few days," the Donbas news portal DonPress quoted Girkin as saying.

Read also"DPR", "LPR" may vanish within a few months if border sealed  expert

At the same time, Girkin called the cessation of active military operations against Ukraine in 2014 "Russia's big mistake."

"In fact, there is no Novorossia today, since in 2014, under the pressure of the West, it was decided to stop the offensive in the Ukrainian direction. This was a wrong act. It brought nothing but foreign policy defeat. It did not safeguarded us from sanctions... We need to go as far as to Dnipro at least, to take control of the entire territory where mainly the Russian population lives."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the war in Donbas "leaves a strong impression" on him as "there are all 'our people' there."
The blockchain is the invisible technology that is radically transforming the future of the world economy and gaining traction in the capital markets industries. Big corporations are racing to build blockchain platforms. The technology will disrupt the future of digital transformation across industries and businesses. The blockchain is a digitized, distributed, decentralized, and incorruptible public ledger of all digital assets and economic transactions that are recorded in chronological order within a worldwide network called peer-to-peer (P2P) of distributed 'nodes' or computers.

In a nutshell, the key advantages of a blockchain are authentication, transparency, and auditing which eliminates the existence of the intermediaries. Major financial institutions and tech giants are carrying out blockchain technology driven innovations. It has been adopted by several industries, including the banking industry and financial firms. That's because blockchain has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive data in an environment that is anonymous, secure, permanent, and easily accessible. This system simplifies the expensive, paper-heavy and logistically complicated financial operations such as cross-border transfer, remittances, shareholder management, securities trading, and ownership exchange.

In India, the state of Andhra Pradesh is the flag bearer of blockchain technology. Andhra Pradesh aims to be seen as the global hub for innovations in fintech. Vizag, which is fast emerging as the fintech capital of India, has attracted $900 million in investments, creating 5,500 jobs. In 2016, the AP government launched its ambitious 'Fintech Valley Vizag' initiative with the aim of building a world-class fintech ecosystem. The project brought together the government, academia, entrepreneurs, and investors to host emerging technologies like blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber security, and cloud computing.

In fact, Andhra Pradesh has become the first Indian state to adopt blockchain for governance. It has signed a MoU with Covalent Fund to create 'Velugu Core,' pioneering India focused blockchain stack under the 'Fintech Valley Vizag.' The Velugu Core will make the government data digitally and freely available through open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which can be used by developers for building apps. This will transform the way the state's economy functions in the future.

AP Government has set-up a Blockchain University with an initial investment of up to $10 million for the pilot program and is focussed on creating world-class sustainable blockchain ecosystem with "the largest, open and cryptographically secure ledger of information on a blockchain protocol designed in compliance with the Indian regulatory framework." AP also uses blockchain to manage land records, protect the state's digital transactions to prevent fraud, and streamline vehicle registrations.

The launch of the Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Use Case Repository Program and Fintech Valley accelerator program has set the tone for a high-potential fintech ecosystem in Vizag. The BFSI use case repository has already collated more than 100 use cases in collaboration with leading banks, NBFCs, insurance firms and capital market companies around the problem areas in the industry. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally advocated the blockchain technology and has emphasized the need for its 'rapid adaption.'

Vizag's success in blockchain and fintech will act as a benchmark and serve as a template for other cities in India to replicate. However, in my opinion, I believe that the blockchain technology would work wonders if it was regulated. There should be industry standards. The government and the financial services industry should develop its industry-specific blockchain which is authorized and approved by the industry bodies nationally. Well-defined FSI and government-related standards, policies, legal and regulatory frameworks are required. Only then will a secured and trusted industry specific shared blockchain network develop. This industry-specific blockchain technology solution will stop many companies and consortium from developing their independent blockchain platforms.

Rajashree Rao is an Industry Thought Leader on Next-Gen Transformation Technologies
Haley said Russia was to blame for blocking a U.N. resolution pushing for a cease-fire in Syria's bloody civil war.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told the Security Council on Monday that Russia's hands "are all covered in the blood of Syrian children" following Saturday's poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, a suburb east of Damascus.

"The monster who was responsible for these attacks has no conscience," Haley said at an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the most recent chemical attack in Syria, believed to be perpetrated by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, POLITICO wrote.

"We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction," Haley added. "Russia could stop this senseless slaughter if it wanted, but it stands with the Assad regime and supports without any hesitation."

Haley also accused Russia of outfitting Syrian troops with the military hardware Assad's forces use to attack civilians, and squashing attempts by the Security Council last year to punish the government for a similar sarin gas attack in the town of Khan Shaykhun in northwest Syria that left about 100 dead in April 2017.

Read alsoAt least 70 killed in suspected chemical attack in Syria's Douma  media

Haley also said Russia was to blame for blocking a U.N. resolution pushing for a cease-fire in Syria's bloody civil war, as well as a mechanism to investigate chemical weapons attacks.

"Pictures of dead children mean little to governments like Russia who expend their own resources to prop up Assad," Haley said. "And this council, which saw these pictures last year, has failed to act. Because Russia has stood in its way every single time."

At Monday's emergency meeting, Haley demanded unrestricted humanitarian access to aid survivors of the most recent gas attack, and urged the council to "re-establish a truly professional and impartial mechanism" for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

"What we're dealing with today is not about a spat between the United States and Russia," she said. "Russia's obstructionism will not continue to hold us hostage when we're confronted with an attack like this one. The United States is determined to see the monster who dropped chemical weapons on the Syrian people held to account."

President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran "are responsible for backing Animal Assad" and would pay a "Big price" for their complicity in the "mindless" attack.

The president reiterated that hard-line approach to potential Russian involvement ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon," Trump told reporters. "It's going to be very tough, very tough. Everybody's going to pay a price."
Her 66-year-old father remains in hospital but his condition is "improving rapidly."

Yulia Skripal, the poisoned daughter of Russian ex-spy Sergei, has been discharged from hospital.

The 33-year-old was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital on Monday and taken to a secure location, the BBC reported.

Her 66-year-old father remains in hospital but his condition is "improving rapidly."

Read alsoNerve agent attack: Hopes raised Skripals could assist police investigation  Sky News

The pair were taken to hospital on March 4 after being exposed to the toxic nerve agent Novichok.

The UK government says Russia was behind the poisoning, but Moscow has denied any involvement and accused the British of inventing a "fake story."

Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia was "culpable" for the poisoning.

Samples of the nerve agent have been tested by the Defence Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Centre at Porton Down in Wiltshire, in an attempt to verify its source.

Its head said the precise source of the nerve agent had not been verified, but it was likely to have been deployed by a "state actor."
For over ten years, Unilever has helped pioneer last-mile distribution models. For example, through our Shakti programme in India, we train local women as rural sales agents. Today, Project Shakti has over 72,000 micro-entrepreneurs supported by 48,000 Shaktimaans (typically the husbands or other male family members of Shakti Ammas who sell products by bicycle in surrounding villages).

We have variations of the programme in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Egypt. In Pakistan, we took the concept to a new level, training hundreds of village women as beauticians. These Guddi Bajis (good sisters) provide beauty services from home and sell our products to neighbours.

Through developing and implementing these programmes, we have learned a great deal about what works well and what doesnt. Theres no silver bullet and one size certainly doesnt fit all. But we have come up with a framework that draws on our extensive insights and expertise, and that of our external partners.

Along with BoP Innovation Centre, we created ASPIRE (PDF | 452KB), which we use as a guide to help us make quicker, better choices in applying innovative solutions and investments to scale up inclusive distribution models. Now we are sharing it so the efforts of others are more successful and sustainable.

As Gerald Kuehr, Unilevers Chief Customer Officer, says: Through our Sustainable Living Plan, we have committed to improve the wellbeing of over a billion people, and include millions more in our value chain. Establishing innovative distribution networks will play a vital role in realising those ambitions.

This aim of enhancing livelihoods and driving economic growth also sits at the heart of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We are sharing our knowledge and expertise, so we can all achieve these quicker. Collective action is the most powerful tool we have to drive positive change.
The Punjab government has started crop (takaful) insurance scheme to provide financial stability to the farmers.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The Punjab government has started crop (takaful) insurance scheme to provide financial stability to the farmers. A spokesman of the Punjab Agriculture department said on Tuesday that in first of this scheme during Kharif 2018, insurance of crops would be done in Sheikhupura, Sahiwal, Lodhran and Rahim Yar Khan and in this phase the insurance would be applicable on crops of cotton and paddy.

Under this scheme the 100 percent subsidy would be given on the premium of the insurance to the farmers having five acres of land while growers having land from 5 acres to 25 acres would be given a subsidy of 50 percent, he added.

Spokesman further said that in second phase insurance would be applicable on sugar cane, wheat, orchids and vegetables. He further said that during Rabi 2018 the insurance scheme would be started in remaining districts phase wise and to ensure transparency in this regard online system would also be introduced.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pakistan has good potential to enhance exports to USA and Europe by developing good brands and business community should focus on branding of products to promote business activities and improve exports.

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018) : Pakistan has good potential to enhance exports to USA and Europe by developing good brands and business community should focus on branding of products to promote business activities and improve exports.

This was said by Muhammad Siddique from Atlanta, Georgia USA, a Global Social Media Authority, Mass Publicity Influencer, and Entrepreneurial Philanthropist as well as host of Instant Publicity Interviews while holding an interactive session with local business community on "Secrets to Grow Business" at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Muhammad Siddique said that many Pakistani products including IT & software have the potential to get good market share in Western and European markets and stressed that business community should develop brand stories as it was vital to develop good brand stories.

Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in his welcome address said that Pakistan was witnessing youth bulge and promoting entrepreneurship in youth would put the country on the path of sustainable economic growth.

He stressed that government should offer some good incentives in the coming budget for entrepreneurship promotion in the country. He said government should also provide loans on easy terms to the youth for business startups as it would help in promoting business activities and reducing unemployment.

Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Vice President ICCI thanked Muhammad Siddiqui, Entrepreneurial Philanthropist from Atlanta, Georgia, USA for coming to ICCI and giving a detailed lecture on the secrets to grow business to the local business community. They hoped that his useful tips would help the businessmen in better growth of their business ventures.
The 24 percent increase in exports that is highest in four years is the result of duty drawback scheme under PM Package as well as the exchange rate adjustment, export friendly policies of the government and renewed efforts towards seeking better market access by the Ministry of Commerce.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The 24 percent increase in exports that is highest in four years is the result of duty drawback scheme under PM Package as well as the exchange rate adjustment, export friendly policies of the government and renewed efforts towards seeking better market access by the Ministry of Commerce.

It was stated by the Federal Minister for Commerce & Textile, Muhammad Pervaiz Malik in a briefing given to him by the ministry officials on current Trade Statistics, a press release said on Tuesday.

The minister expressed satisfaction over the soaring trend in exports and said that the government will take all necessary measures for the facilitation of the exporters and will resolve all the problems faced in consultation with them.

Muhammad Pervaiz Malik said that the initiatives by the government to provide Duty drawback as well as the exchange rate adjustments have contributed positively to the growth.

"Improved market access especially in the European market owing to the successful review of GSP Plus facility also played an important role", he added.

The highest year-on-year growth in a month was reached in March 2018, when the exports for the month reached USD 2,230 million, higher by 24% when compared with March 2017 and 17% when compared with February 2018.

On the other hand, imports growth remained subdued at only 5% as compared to March 2017, which has also been one of the lowest growth in imports in the past many months. Muhammad Pervaiz Malik hoped that the increase in exports will continue in future as we are ready to give more and more incentives to the exporters on one hand and also working on exploring new markets for diversification in foreign trade.

"We are looking forward to start PTA dialogue leading to FTA with countries including Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and Philippines", the minister for commerce added.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Miftah Ismail here on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review proposals for revival of film industry in the country.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Miftah Ismail here on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review proposals for revival of film industry in the country.

According to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry, the Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage, Marriyum Aurangzeb briefed the meeting about various steps envisaged for betterment of the film industry and also outlined financial requirements for the same.

In her remarks the Minster said that it was a high time that the important medium of film was accorded its due importance and fully utilized to project the true cultural identity and soft image of the country, particularly at the international level.

Besides, projection of the country's vast cultural wealth, the medium of film, like many other countries could also serve as a contributor to the national economy, the Minister emphasized. She also highlighted establishment of a film financing fund, easing out of tax regime on film production, facilitation in establishment of production studios as key steps that could help in revival of the realm of film making and take it at the height of glory that it once enjoyed in the golden era of 60s .

Adviser Miftah Ismail on the occasion said that undoubtedly film was a an effective medium for the projection of national heritage. He appreciated the steps and initiatives by the Ministry of Information for re-emergence of the film industry and assured of all possible support in the matter.

Besides, promotion of film industry would also provide greater opportunities to our artists to show their true merit, he said. He added that Pakistani artists had earned great name for the country abroad and they deserved good opportunities to excel at home also.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage attended the meeting.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday emphasized the need to enhance bilateral political and business contacts between Pakistan and Austria.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday emphasized the need to enhance bilateral political and business contacts between Pakistan and Austria.

The Prime Minister expressed these views during a meeting with Federal Chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz held in China's Hainan province on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia. Prime Minister Abbasi felicitated Sebastian Kurz on assuming the office of Chancellor and invited him to visit Pakistan, a press release issued by the PM's Media Wing here said.

He stated that Austria was a key EU member, and an important development partner.Regional situation was also discussed during the meeting. The prime minister also apprised the chancellor about the atrocities inflicted by Indian forces on the innocent people of Indian Occupied Kashmir and repeated violations of the Line of Control.

The Austrian Chancellor commended Pakistan's efforts for fighting terrorism.
A group of members of Academics Staff Association (ASA) headed by its President Dr Bashir Ahmed called on International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) President, Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh and showed satisfaction over his leadership.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :A group of members of Academics Staff Association (ASA) headed by its President Dr Bashir Ahmed called on International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) President, Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh and showed satisfaction over his leadership.

ASA delegation also included General Secretary Saeed Badshah and Information Secretary Dr Arshad Malik, a news release said on Tuesday. The delegation also apprised the President about the issues of teaching community upon which IIUI President directed the relevant authorities to solve those on priority basis.

Dr Al-Draiweesh said on the occasion that progress of the university must be top priority, while promotion of research must be attribute of the teaching fraternity.
Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq Tuesday said Pakistani nation has shown great resolve to reduce polio cases and by ensuring high quality national and sub-national campaigns in April and May, it will help give the virus a final push out of the country.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq Tuesday said Pakistani nation has shown great resolve to reduce polio cases and by ensuring high quality national and sub-national campaigns in April and May, it will help give the virus a final push out of the country.

She said this during her surprise visit to suburbs of Islamabad. The Senator paid a surprise visit to various localities in Islamabad including Tarlai and temporary settlements of nomads. She was accompanied by National Coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Dr Rana Safdar and other senior officers of the health ministry, ICT and CDA.

Noting that the polio drive in the capital is critical, the Senator said that Prime Minister has constituted a special task force to specifically monitor the campaign in twin cities and report back to him on daily basis to ensure maximum coverage during this and all the upcoming campaigns.

Though there has been no case reported from the twin cities for over two years but virus has been found in the environmental samples of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi drainage thus raising the concerns amongst officials and communities.

The Senator said that she would be personally monitoring the campaign in the city during every round. She also took notice of gaps in the provision of routine immunization services against nine deadly diseases of children in the area and issued directions to ensure that every child is immunized.

Talking to the parents and communities during her visit, Senator urged all segments of the society and especially the parents to facilitate the front line workers (Sehat Muhafiz) in this noble cause.

Several community elders welcomed the Senator and thanked the government for bringing the country this close to complete eradication of polio. "Our Sehat Muhafiz have brought us so close to polio eradication that we cannot afford to relax hence I and leadership of EOC have come out to support our valiant teams for getting rid of this disease completely," said Senator Ayesha.

The second last polio campaign of the current low transmission season has commenced from Monday across all provinces and areas of the country except Bajour agency of FATA starting later. A total of 37.71 million under children under five years of age will be vaccinated including 19.38 million in Punjab, 8.85 million in Sindh, 5.73 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2.46 million in Balochistan, 1 million in FATA, 0.7 million in AJK, 0.238 million in GB and 0.33 million children in Islamabad.

It is a three day campaign plus one day catch up elsewhere and 5 days plus 2 days catch up in core reservoir areas. During this campaign, Vitamin-A supplement will also be administered to around 35 million children aged between 6-59 months along with OPV aimed at boosting immunity against diseases including measles.

A total of 260,000 personnel will strive to achieve set targets across the country including 24,661 area in charges, 7,977 UC medical officers, 190,573 mobile, 10,235 fixed and 12,148 transit team members.

The current polio epidemiology in the country is best ever observed with case decline from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 to 20 in 2016 and 8 in 2017. In the current year, only one polio case has so far been reported from district Dukki, Balochistan.

The Senator also inspected the children playing in the streets to see whether their fingers had been marked after they were vaccinated. The Senator talked to polio teams and checked their tally sheets.

She also advised polio teams to pay attention to children who may be visiting relatives since there is a possibility that such children are missed in the drive. She further directed that each house, including makeshift shanties, nomads and travelling families with under five children should be administered polio drops and properly marked with permanent markers to ensure each household is covered.
IndiGo, India's most profitable airline, was the first one to come out and say it was not interested. "We do not believe we have the capability to take on the task of successfully turning around all of Air India's airline operations," Aditya Ghosh, President of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo's parent company) had stated in a release sent by the company on April 5, just a week after the government made public the terms and conditions for bidders who were interested in buying the public sector airline.

Ghosh, in the same statement, had also said that IndiGo was primarily interested only in Air India's international operations and Air India Express."

Since then, Jet Airways has also come out and said that it is not interested in taking over Air India. Swiss Aviation Consulting, which was rumoured to be interested, has also come out and said that it is not in the race.

In terms of the other Indian airlines, none of them have the net assets required or the werewithal to take over Air India operations by themselves - they would all need to come in with partners if they wanted to. Vistara, SpiceJet and GoAir could come in with financial partners, but the government's list of conditions for the sale makes Air India a bit of a bad buy for a value seeking buyer.

Consider first what terms the government wants to sell for. It is ready to sell 76 per cent of the airline, which includes 100 per cent of Air India Express and 50 per cent of Air India SATS. The government also wants the buyer to take on about two-thirds of the debt and liabilities to the tune of Rs 33,392 crore, and give a guarantee that none of the permanent employees are sacked for one year. (Post that the new owner can work out a voluntary retirement package (VRS) for employees).

What will the bidder get in return? It gets the operations of Air India, including 100 per cent of Air India Express and 50 per cent of Air India SATS. It also gets the fleet of planes, and the slots and other flying rights that Air India (and Air India Express) has, in India and abroad. It does not get the non-core assets - that is, the lands, buildings, paintings etc that Air India owns currently.

For any bidder, the most value in Air India lies in its flight slots (take off, landing, hangers), both in India and in its international operations, and its bilaterals. Its market share (though it is far from its glory days) is also not too bad - 12 per cent domestic, and 17 per cent in the India-International flights. The fleet is a bit of a mish-mash - a mix of narrow bodies and wide bodies, both Airbus and Boeing, and a mix of new and old planes. And the people too are a mix. It has some good and experienced staff, but it also has a bad people to aircraft ratio compared to its peers, and also a lot of mediocre and bad staff and adamant unions. Its operational efficiency is not great, and the government has to pump in Rs 4,000 crore or more a year just to keep it up and running.

The problem is that the government expects the bidder to pay for both the good and the bad. And also take over a huge debt burden. For domestic airlines like SpiceJet, Vistara or Go Air, only the slots are valuable and some parts of the fleet. Guaranteeing the airline staff jobs for a full year is probably not something any bidder is looking forward to. And the debt, compared to the assets, seems huge. Also, much like Indigo, most bidders would only be interested in specific parts of the Air India operations, not the entire bit. And that, perhaps, is what the government should realize. Allowing potential buyers to bid for different parts of Air India would probably get it more bids than trying to sell the whole lot together.
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The World Homeopathy Day 2018 was observed across the globe including Pakistan with the aim to explore more up-to-date treatments to cure the different kinds of diseases.

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018) : The World Homeopathy Day 2018 was observed across the globe including Pakistan with the aim to explore more up-to-date treatments to cure the different kinds of diseases.

A seminar procession was held at Murree homeopathic collage located in Ghouri Town Islamabad presided over former chairman of Pakistan Homeopathic Counsel professor Dr Mehmoodul Haq Abbasi. A large number of homeo doctors participated in the event.

Mehmoodul Haq Abbasi told the participants that Homeopathy is highly scientific, logical, safe, and effective method of healing the diseases as it offers long lasting and permanent cure, treating from its roots.

During the function, a resolution was passed by the participants doctors for enhancing the cheap treatment in the Pakistan. The resolution appealed the government to support Homeopathic system of treatment for boosting it in the country.

April 10 is the birthday of renowned scientist Dr Samuel Hahnemann who created and developed the system called homeopathy. It is also known as similia similibus curentor or "let like be cured by like".

The good aspect of the homeopathy treatment is that it is capable of curing a person completely and there are no side-effects from this mode of treatment." Homeopathy, or homeopathic medicine, is a holistic system of treatment that originated in the late eighteenth century.

The name homeopathy is derived from two Greek words that mean "like disease." The system is based on the idea that substances that produce symptoms of sickness in healthy people will have a curative effect when given in very dilute quantities to sick people who exhibit those same symptoms.

Homeopathic remedies or homeopathic medicine are believed to stimulate the body's own healing processes. People around the world require medicines at one time or the other. Some people use direct medicines like antibiotics and others opt for alternative therapies like homeopathy, ayurveda, etc.

Currently the alternative healthcare industry is approximately Rs 7,000 crore of which Homeopathy accounts for 14 percent of around Rs 630 crore. Homeopathy has also been witnessing 25 percent yearly growth from the past 5 years.

Homeopathy is the revolutionary, natural medical science. It is gentle and an effective system of medicine. The remedies are prepared from natural substances to precise standards and work by stimulating the body's own healing power.

Homoeopathy does not treat superficially by just driving away the symptoms but heals the patient from within. Undoubtedly, homoeopathy is the medicine of the future.
The Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has severely condemned some lawyers for trying to stop Crime Branch officials from filing the charge-sheet against the culprits involved in rape and murder eight-year-old girl,

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :|The Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has severely condemned some lawyers for trying to stop Crime Branch officials from filing the charge-sheet against the culprits involved in rape and murder eight-year-old girl, Aasifa Bano, in Kathua district of Jammu region.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a statement issued in Srinagar said, "What a shame! that some lawyers in Jammu prevented police from filing a charge-sheet in the heinous crime of rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl child." He asked how low one could stoop to defend his prejudices and biases.

"What's worse is that they are supposed to represent law and justice," the Mirwaiz added. The 8-year old girl, Aasifa, was abducted, raped and murdered by a gang of Hindu Special Police Officers (SPOs) of Indian police and a former bureaucrat in a temple in Hiranagar area of Kathua district in January.
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The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Islamabad Tuesday reserved its judgment in a petition of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan seeking acquittal from a case regarding torture on the then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Asmatullah Junejo by protesters during the 2014 sit-in in the Federal Capital.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Islamabad Tuesday reserved its judgment in a petition of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan seeking acquittal from a case regarding torture on the then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Asmatullah Junejo by protesters during the 2014 sit-in in the Federal Capital.

ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjamand reserved the judgment after Imran Khan's counsel and prosecution side completed their arguments and decided to announce it on April 25. During the course of proceedings, the prosecutor contended that Imran Khan was declared a proclaimed offender after completing all required legal formalities.

The application for acquittal was submitted before time, he added. He said the prosecution side had not yet submitted a complete challan in the case. More witnesses would be included in the final challan, he added.

He requested the court to grant more time to prepare the case against Imran Khan. However, Dr Babar Awan, counsel for the PTI chief, argued that no witness had nominated his client in their statements. Even even the victim police officer Asmatullah Junejo had not named Imran Khan, he added. After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court reserved its judgment.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Pakistan has good potential to enhance exports to USA and Europe by developing good brands and business community should focus on branding of products to promote business activities and improve exports.

This was said by Muhammad Siddique from Atlanta, Georgia USA, a Global Social Media Authority, Mass Publicity Influencer, and Entrepreneurial Philanthropist as well as host of Instant Publicity Interviews.

He was holding an interactive session with local business community on "Secrets to Grow Business" at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Muhammad Siddique said that many Pakistani products including IT & software have the potential to get good market share in Western and European markets and stressed that business community should develop brand stories as it was vital to develop good brand stories to get the attention of customers in the prevailing highly competitive business environment at local and international level.

He also provided many valuable tips to the participants for successful growth of businesses.

Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in his welcome address said that Pakistan was witnessing youth bulge and promoting entrepreneurship in youth would put the country on the path of sustainable economic growth.

He urged the government for offering some good incentives in the coming budget for entrepreneurship promotion in the country. He said government should also provide loans on easy terms to the youth for business startups as it would help in promoting business activities and reducing unemployment.

Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Vice President ICCI thanked Muhammad Siddiqui, Entrepreneurial Philanthropist from Atlanta, Georgia, USA for coming to ICCI and giving a detailed lecture on the secrets to grow business to the local business community. They hoped that his useful tips would help the businessmen in better growth of their business ventures.
The health and education secretaries of Balochistan faced the ire of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar as he resumed hearing a suo motu case on various issues of public interest today.

Quetta, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018) : The health and education secretaries of Balochistan faced the ire of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar as he resumed hearing a suo motu case on various issues of public interest today.

The bench, which is hearing the case at the Supreme Court's Quetta Registry, includes Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Mansoor Ali. As the hearing went under way today, Chief Justice Nisar expressed serious displeasure at provincial health secretary Saleh Nasir.

He berated the top health official of the province over the deplorable state of public hospitals as well as the salaries given to young doctors. Chief Justice Nisar warned Nasir of halting his salary until the province's doctors are paid their dues.

He also lamented that the province pays its doctors Rs24,000 a month whereas a driver of the apex court gets paid Rs35,000. Later, appearing before the bench, the education secretary informed the court that half of the schools in the province don't have water, adding that 11,000 toilets were constructed in the province's schools in the last three years.

The education secretary informed the court further that the government oversees 1,135 Primary schools, and admitted on the court's questioning that these institutes do not have all the required facilities.

During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that the provincial government has failed to provide governance. The education secretary responded further that a lack of funds restricts improvement in the sector and also blamed the teachers' union of politicising everything.

The chief justice then instructed him to submit a policy report in 15 days, observing that, "I used to think the situation is Sindh is dire but there is nothing here". INP/AK Nawaz asked me to frame Zardari in fake narcotics case: Ch Shujaat LAHORE, April 10 (INP): Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has alleged former prime minister Nawaz Sharif asked him to frame Asif Ali Zardari in a "fake narcotics case".

The shocking revelation has been mentioned in his book 'Sach To Hai' which was launched in Lahore today (Tuesday). The 328-page book with 20 chapters details Shujaat's brief stint as prime minister of Pakistan and his interactions with political leaders.

Stating that he refused to file the case against the former president, Chaudhry Shujaat wrote, "Zardari in 2011 said to me that he became president because of me." Chaudhry further wrote, "Before Nawaz was sworn in as prime minister for a second time in 1997, Mian Sharif visited me and promised to make Pervez Ellahi the chief minister of Punjab." However, when Nawaz came to power he appointed his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, on the post.

Continuing with his shocking revelations, the PML-Q leader alleged former prime minister Shaukat Aziz complained about then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry to Pervez Musharraf. "Then when Iftikhar Chaudhry was reinstated, I advised Musharraf to settle differences with him and he was ready to, however, their aides did not allow them to do so," he added.
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China will not threaten anyone else, attempt to overturn the existing international system, or seek spheres of influence, no matter how much progress it has made in development.

Beijing, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018) : China will not threaten anyone else, attempt to overturn the existing international system, or seek spheres of influence, no matter how much progress it has made in development.

The country will "stay as determined as ever to build world peace, contribute to global prosperity and uphold the international order," he said in his historical address at the opening ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, held in the southern island province of Hainan.

The address, covering wide-range of subjects of regional and international interest, also envisages missions the Chinese people need to undertake in the new era. "Each age and generation have their own challenges and missions.

China has come a long way, but it has to overcome new challenges on its way ahead," Xi said. According to Xi, the nation's missions in the new era are as follows: -- Continue to improve itself through reform; -- Take bold steps in innovation to boost development; -- Continue to increase openness and expand cooperation; -- Work together with the rest of the world and make greater contribution to humanity.

Xi called for people around the world to work together toward a community with a shared future for mankind and make Asia and the world peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, open and beautiful. "With the future in mind, we need to treat each other with respect and as equals," said Xi.

With the future in mind, Xi said, we also need to promote dialogue and share responsibility, engage in cooperation for win-win results, uphold inclusiveness and seek harmony without uniformity, as well as treat nature with respect and treasure our planet.

Xi said that the Belt and Road Initiative may be China's idea, but its opportunities and outcomes are going to benefit the world.

China has no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocs and imposes no business deals on others, the president said.

"It must be pointed out that as the BRI is a new initiative, it is perfectly natural for there to be different views in cooperation. As long as the parties embrace the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, we can surely enhance cooperation and resolve differences," he said.

"This way, we can make the BRI the broadest platform for international cooperation in keeping with the trend of economic globalization and to the greater benefit of all our peoples," Xi said. Xi said China's reform and opening up will definitely succeed and that a Cold War mentality, zero-sum thinking, and isolationism would hit walls.

Xi said that opening brings progress, while closure would lead to backwardness. Xi said that in a world aspiring for peace and development, the cold-war and zero-sum mentality look even more out of place.

"Putting oneself on a pedestal or trying to immune oneself from adverse developments will get nowhere," said Xi. Xi said humanity has a major choice to make between openness and isolation, and between progress and retrogression.

"We must dispel the clouds to see the sun, as we say in Chinese, so as to have a keen grasp of the law of history and the trend of the world," said Xi. Xi said we live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation as well as openness and connectivity.

"We also live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward reform and innovation, adding that those who reject them will be left behind and assigned to the dustbin of history," he added.
A condemned prisoner was executed in Central Jail Faisalabad on Tuesday. According to Prisons Department, Zahid Iqbal had murdered three persons Rehana

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) ::A condemned prisoner was executed in Central Jail Faisalabad on Tuesday. According to Prisons Department, Zahid Iqbal had murdered three persons Rehana, Anayat Ali and Haris over a minor dispute in 2005 and the session court had awarded him death sentence on three counts.

The apex court also upheld the decision of the trial court whereas the President also turned down his mercy appeal. After the rejection of mercy petition, death warrants were issued against the condemned prisoner Zahid Iqbal and the court fixed April 10 for implementation on his execution. Later, the body was handed over to his heirs after completing necessary formalities.
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A 39-member delegation of Karachi Chairmen Ittehad of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) called on Governor of Sindh Muhammad Zubair at the Governor's House here on Tuesday.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :A 39-member delegation of Karachi Chairmen Ittehad of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) called on Governor of Sindh Muhammad Zubair at the Governor's House here on Tuesday.

Representatives of MQM-Pakistan, PML-N, Awami National Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), and Jammat-e-Islami were among the members of the delegation, said a statement. The delegation appealed to the Governor that the projects be also included in the Karachi Development Package at union council level so as to provide facilities to the people at the grassroots level.

Talking to the delegation, the Sindh Governor said that all stakeholders should work jointly to develop the metropolis at par with the modern standard. He said that the elected representatives can play their significant role in further promotion and strengthening the trade and economic activities in the city.

He called upon the elected representatives of the local government to present their suggestions with regard to resolution to the problems of the masses and the Federal government will extend every possible support in this regard.
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International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) has launched Urdu news version on its website to facilitate the students. The President IIUI, Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh inaugurated the Urdu version here on Monday, a news release said.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Apr, 2018 ) :International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) has launched urdu news version on its website to facilitate the students. The President IIUI, Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh inaugurated the Urdu version here on Monday, a news release said.

The inauguration made the IIUI news portal trilingual including Arabic, English and Urdu. Speaking on the occasion Dr Al-Draiweesh said that Urdu version of news on varsity's website is made on the directives of President of Pakistan and IIUI Chancellor Mamnoon Hussain.

He vowed that such efforts for the promotion of Urdu language would continue. Dr Al-Draiweesh hailed PR and IT departments while saying that officials of both the departments have responded positive to the short time call of launch of Urdu version and made it possible.

He said this was example of the best skills and attributes of the officials of both departments. He urged that IIUI website be made compliant to the universal web accessibility standards for the students.

The inauguration ceremony was joined by Heads of IIUI's departments of Public Relations (Nasir Farid) and Information Technology (Shakeel Shah), While Muhammad Nauman Awan (Assistant Director, PR), Al-Hassan Haroon (Assistant Director PR) and Muhammad Usman (Assistant Director, IT) were also present on the occasion.
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ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU) of Indian occupied Kashmir has deplored that India has waged a war on the people of Kashmir, especially youth.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the KUSU in a statement issued in Srinagar said the occupation forces have surpassed the brutality, displayed by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians, who, like Kashmiris, are demanding an end to occupation.

It said: "Hundreds of our youngsters are killed, deliberately blinded, jailed, tortured, beaten and persecuted for their political beliefs and the desire for freedom, which is their birthright." It said at the same time, another aspect of this renewed war is political-psychological narrative operations against the youth of Kashmir.

This is not only undertaken directly by the occupation forces in Sadhbavana operations, but by the collaborator regime of the territory, it added.

It said, "They want to make us believe 'the system' can work 'better'; but forget to tell us this system is only and only based on crushing our bodies and minds so we stop demanding and fighting for our birth right of freedom.

They try to hide the fact that this system has never been, and can never be, anything else other than brutality, humiliation and oppression for Kashmiris." It reminded the collaborator sections that the youth of Kashmir had never been deceived by the strategies.

"And by now, we are also used to such attempts and even more aware of the multi facet aspects of the war being waged against the just and sacred cause of freedom of Kashmir," it said.
An Indigo passenger, a Bengaluru-based cardiologist was offloaded at the Lucknow airport after he complained about mosquitoes inside the aircraft. Indigo, however clarified that the passenger was asked to leave the flight for his unruly behaviour and that he had used "threatening language" that violated their safety protocols.

According to reports, Dr Saurabh Rai boarded flight 6E-541 at 6am on Monday. Rai soon complained to the crew about mosquitoes and asked them to do something about it. The cardiologist eventually got into a heated argument with the crew and they asked him to leave the plane.

Rai alleged that he was also manhandled by the crew. "They called me a terrorist and said that I was a threat to other passengers," he says in a video.

The Indigo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru was full of mosquitoes, when I raised objection, I was manhandled by the crew and offloaded from the aircraft, I was even threatened: Dr.Saurabh Rai,Passenger pic.twitter.com/00XKxuIAUP - ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

They held me by the collar and dragged me through the aisle, I heard crew saying 'if you have a problem with mosquitoes then why don't you leave India?': Dr.Saurabh Rai, Passenger who was offloaded from IndiGo flight in Lucknow after alleged altercation over mosquitoes in flight pic.twitter.com/oAQO6cTTAH - ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

The doctor also said that the crew members dragged him by the collar and asked him to leave India if he has a problem with mosquitoes.Indigo, however, said that Rai started using threatening language even before the crew could address his concerns. He also instigated other passengers to damage the aircraft, the airline said.

In a statement IndiGo said, "Mr Saurabh Rai, who was scheduled to fly this morning on 6E-541 from Lucknow to Bangalore, was offloaded on grounds of unruly behaviour. Prior to take-off, Mr Rai expressed concerns regarding mosquitoes on board. However, before the cabin crew on board could address his concerns, Mr Rai aggressively expressed his annoyance and started to use threatening language. As the matter escalated after the closure of the aircraft doors, Mr Rai attempted to instigate other passengers on board to damage the aircraft, and used words such as 'hijack'. Such actions are absolutely unacceptable, and there is zero tolerance for such threatening language on board an aircraft. Hence, keeping in mind safety protocols, the crew apprised the pilot-in-command, who decided to offload Mr Rai from the flight. Customer satisfaction is core to our business.''

A couple of months ago, Indigo had made headlines for manhandling a passenger at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport.
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National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore, took custody of accused Irfan Bashir, stockist in M/s MNM Motorcycles Private Limited Scam which is a commission based Private Company.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore, took custody of accused Irfan Bashir, stockist in M/s MNM Motorcycles Private Limited Scam which is a commission based Private Company.

According to NAB spokesman, the accused was allegedly involved in cheating and defrauding general public at large by luring them in the wake of providing motorbikes within 45 days after making an investment of Rs 25,000 only.

The grounds which caused his arrest, reveal that the accused Irfan Bashir was working as Stockist in Pakpattan area for MNM Motorcycle Scam. Owner of said scam accused Ahmed Sayal got registered his Multi-level Marketing (MLM) Firm with Securities Exchange Commissions of Pakistan (SECP) in 2017 and launched his business of Import and Export of spare parts, only whereas, later the accused in connivance with other co-accused launched a company named M/s Munafa Network Marketing (MNM) Pvt Company and began to receive hefty amounts in the wake of providing motorcycles after receiving Rs 25,000 cash for promising delivery of Bikes within 45 days.

Meanwhile, hundreds of offices were opened in different cities like Multan, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Sargodha, Layyah, Sahiwal, Jhang, Thatha, Pakpattan and Chichawatni etc. accordingly, where hundreds of agents were collecting billions of rupees from general public just for their own commission worth Rs 3000/- per bike or so.

Initially, the owners of M/s MNM Private Company distributed around 20,000 motorbikes only as confidence building move under objective to attract more investments and investors, too. By sniffing the deceitful act, SECP referred the case of treachery to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which later transferred the case to NAB Lahore in September 2017 by keeping in view the magnitude of embezzlement.

The NAB Lahore has, so far, arrested four accused involved in the scam including accused Irfan Bashir. The NAB investigation officials will seek 14 days Physical Remand of the accused Irfan bashir by producing him before an Accountability Court, tomorrow, in
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National Security Adviser (NSA) Lt. General (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua on Tuesday in a meeting reviewed the progress of reforms for mainstream of Madaris' students in educational system.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :National Security Adviser (NSA) Lt. General (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua on Tuesday in a meeting reviewed the progress of reforms for mainstream of Madaris' students in educational system.

Besides Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf and Minister for education Baligh ur Rehman, the meeting was attended by the prominent members of Itehad e Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman, Qari Muhammad Hanif Jalandhri, Muhammad Yasin Zafar, Maulana Abdul Malik, Maulana Niyaz Hussain Naqvi, Dr Syed Muhammad Naqvi, Dr Saeed Khan and the high officials from different departments of Education Ministry, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Federal board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), a news release said.

Nasser Janjua in the meeting gave a detailed presentation and sought their comments on different aspects of the road map suggested so far to enable the students of Madaris to get absorbed in the mainstream educational system of the country which will afford them all the opportunities to join any profession.

Matters pertaining to curriculum, equivalence, examination system, procedures involved in the process of mainstreaming and strategy for further upgradation of Madaris were discussed at length. ` Availing the opportunity, representative of madaris pointed out that the process of registration is very slow and stressed that the concerned provincial authorities should expedite the process.

Points of agreement and disagreement were discussed in detail. All appreciated the progress made so far and reiterated to continue to work together for provision of better opportunities to students of Madaris.
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:Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security Lt Gen (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua Monday reiterated Pakistan's firm resolve to continue moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris till wining right to self-determination.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Apr, 2018 ) :Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security Lt Gen (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua Monday reiterated Pakistan's firm resolve to continue moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris till wining right to self-determination.

Addressing a seminar on 'Human Rights Violations in Occupied Kashmir, time to act now,' he said the hearts of Pakistanis throbbed with their Kashmiri brethren, whose voice for their right to self-determination could be suppressed.

Pakistan was obliged to provide all kinds of support to Kashmiris, he added. He urged the international community to intervene for ensuring stability in the region. Pakistan wanted result-oriented dialogue with India on the issue of Kashmir as such disputes could not be resolved by using force.

The Kashmir dispute, he said, should be resolved in light of the United Nations resolutions. Peaceful settlement of the dispute could secure the world, he added.

Janjua said status quo was not the solution of long-standing dispute.

New generation had inherited their struggle, which could not be suppressed. "Kashmiris are our own blood, and we will help them in wining the right to self-determination," he added. He said the long-standing Kashmir dispute had virtually exposed the silence of international community as world powers, leading human right organisations turned blind eye to the atrocities of Indian forces in Kashmir.

The advisor reiterated that the unnoticed plight of Kashmiris showcased double-standards of world powers. Over 700,000 occupied forces humiliated, beat and desecrated the Kashmiris daily, he added.

He said Indian forces were involved in killing innocent Kashmiris unabated. Responding to a question, he said India violated ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) to detract the attention of its atrocities in the occupied valley.
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Directorate of Culture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa launched first ever online art gallery for virtual exhibition and promotion of diverse art heritage of the province.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Directorate of Culture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa launched first ever online art gallery for virtual exhibition and promotion of diverse art heritage of the province.

A ceremony in this regard was held here Tuesday in theater hall of Directorate of Culture. Renowned artist Madam Tayyaba was chief guest while Director Culture Ajmal Khan, Deputy Director Shahbaz Khan, renown poet Dr.

Abasyn Yousafazai, Fazal Sattar Durrani, Dr. Sher Ali, Jehanzeb Malik, Ali Sajid, students and faculty members from Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Hazara University, University of Peshawar, SBBWU and other institutions participated in the event.

Online Art Gallery is an initiative taken to give access and opportunity to all inhabitants of the province to register their art work and showcase it. Varieties of art works have been identified including paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, sketches etc.

that can be accommodated and listed in this art gallery. The ceremony was initiated by a launching animation prepared by Visual Art Specialist Abdul Majid Khan showcasing the rich and diverse art work of renowned artists of the province.

Visual Arts Specialist Ahsan Zeb highlighted the aspects of the online art gallery and introduced audience to the platform including registration and uploading art work. Speaking on the occasion, Abasyn Yousafzai appreciated the initiative of Directorate of Culture and expressed his views about important role of art through his poem "The Best Painting".

Dr. Sher Ali and Ali Sajid expressed their feelings about this initiative and commended the steps taken by Directorate of Culture for arts promotion. Principal of Pakhtunkhwa College of Arts, Fazal Satar Durrani, praised these initiatives of Directorate of Culture and hoped for inter provincial coordination for art promotion and exhibition.

Chief Guest Madam Tayaba articulated their views and appreciated the important strategies and policy frameworks adopted by Directorate of Culture for arts promotion and hoped for physical art gallery for the rich art work of the province.

Director Culture Ajmal Khan assured the participants that Directorate is taking every step for the promotion of art and its important role. In this regard, he said, that Directorate of Culture has already submitted detailed plan and proposal for building of physical art gallery in the province which will be materialized soon.

KP Online art gallery can be accessed from Directorate of Culture official website. Jehanzeb Malik and other speakers said that art plays an important role and has the potential to identify and express issues. They appreciated the Directorate of Culture, for working progressively for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage of the province.
The maiden Pakistan Navy-Turkish Navy Bilateral Exercise Turgutries, meaning, "Drawn sword of Islam" conducted in North Arabian Sea has culminated.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The maiden Pakistan Navy-Turkish Navy Bilateral Exercise Turgutries, meaning, "Drawn sword of islam" conducted in North Arabian Sea has culminated.

TCG Geliolu a frigate from Turkish Navy and PN Ships Saif, Aslat, Nasr, Quwwat, Azmat and Zarrar including fixed and rotary wing aircraft of Pakistan Naval Aviation participated in the exercise.

Fighters from PAF also took part in the Exercise. The main objective of the exercise was to enhance interoperability of two brotherly Navies. Exercise Turguties 201 covered a wide range of maritime operations encompassing Anti-Surface, Anti-Air and Anti-Submarine Warfare as well as Maneuvering and Communication exercises.

Counter piracy drills were also carried out in which boarding teams demonstrated practical boarding operations onboard a suspect vessel.

Exercise proved mutually rewarding to hone professional skills of participating personnel from both navies and learn from each others' experiences.

The Exercise was also witnessed by Tolga Ucake, Consul General of Republic of Turkey who was hosted onboard TCG Geliboul and PNS Aslat at sea. The Consul General of Turkey congratulated the PN and TN participants for successful conduct of first-ever Pakistan Navy-Turkish Navy Bilateral Exercise and hoped that the exercise will become a regular feature between both Navies in future.

The Exercise Turgutries -2018 is a testimony of the PN resolve to work towards regional peace and maintain close relations with all brotherly navies. The exercise was aimed at further booting and strengthening ties between Pakistan and Turkish Navies in times to come.
The prevalence of road accidents was discussed in a one-day seminar on 'Road Safety' organized by the National Highways and Motorways Police (NH&MP) Sukkur Region at Chandka Medical College (CMC) Larkana on Tuesday.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The prevalence of road accidents was discussed in a one-day seminar on 'Road Safety' organized by the National Highways and Motorways Police (NH&MP) Sukkur Region at Chandka Medical College (CMC) Larkana on Tuesday.

The purpose of the event was to create awareness among the masses about the compliance with basic safety rules to avoid accidents. The Seminar provided an excellent opportunity to learn about the road safety issues of Pakistan besides creating awareness among the public.

Addressing the participants, the speakers said that hundreds of people die every year in road accidents while many others injure resulting in permanent disabilities. The participants said that over speeding, careless attitude, underage driving, use of drugs while driving, fatigue, and lane violation are the major factors which result in fatal accidents.

DSP of NH&MP Sukkur Zone Syed Irshad Ali Shah said that they have always maintained the standard of road safety in Pakistan which is also acknowledged worldwide. He said that he is committed to maintaining the supremacy and enforcement of law on motorways.

Adding that road traffic crashes, should not be accepted as inevitable because they are, in fact, both predictable and preventable. He said that the probability of accidents can be reduced by different ways.

Earlier, CMC Principal Professor K. Das lauded the efforts of Addition IG of NH&MP Sindh and DIG Sukkur motorways police regarding road safety and the traffic discipline on national highways. The seminar was also attended by the teaching faculty and students of the CMC Larkana.
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Highlighting achievements of Bangladesh in socio-economic development during the last decade, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan Tarik Ahsan said here on Tuesday that Bangladesh got prominent position among the South Asia countries due to women empowerment, disaster management, primary healthcare, sanitation, primary education and economic growth rate.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Highlighting achievements of Bangladesh in socio-economic development during the last decade, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan Tarik Ahsan said here on Tuesday that Bangladesh got prominent position among the South Asia countries due to women empowerment, disaster management, Primary healthcare, sanitation, primary education and economic growth rate.

He said this while speaking in a discussion session on `Socio-Economic Development of Bangladesh: A People's March Forward' organized by Bangladesh High Commission, said a press release issued here.

The High Commissioner referred to the international recognition of Bangladesh's progress in terms of upgradation to UNDP's medium human development category, elevation to World Bank's lower medium income country classification and qualification for graduation into UNCDP's developing country status.

Dean of Social Sciences of Beacon House National University Dr.

Tariq Rehman and prominent human rights defender of Pakistan Tahira Abdullah took part in the discussion as panelists. Tahira Abdullah endorsed the data presented at the session about Bangladesh's remarkable social development from her first-hand experience of travelling in the countryside of Bangladesh.

While applauding stellar performance of Bangladesh in social development vis--vis other South Asian countries, she particularly commended the rare speed at which social indicators of Bangladesh are improving.

Both the panelists extended profound appreciation to the government of Bangladesh for the unprecedented humanitarian gesture in giving shelter to over a million forcibly displaced Rohingya people in Bangladesh.

The event was attended by educationists, representatives of think-tanks, members of cultural community, journalists, businesspersons, former diplomats, politicians, Bangladesh expatriates and officials of Bangladesh High Commission.
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The sanctity of the Constitution demands that we not only act upon it in letter and spirit and jealously safeguard it but also to punish those treasonous elements that have abrogated and subverted this foundational document of the state, the basic social contract between the state and citizen and the glue that binds its federating units.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :The sanctity of the Constitution demands that we not only act upon it in letter and spirit and jealously safeguard it but also to punish those treasonous elements that have abrogated and subverted this foundational document of the state, the basic social contract between the state and citizen and the glue that binds its federating units.

This has been stated by the former President Asif Ali Zardari in a message on the eve of the Constitution Day here on Tuesday April 10 when the unanimously adopted Constitution of Pakistan was passed by the National Assembly on this day in 1973, a press release said.

It is a national disgrace that a dictator abrogated the Constitution in 1977 later ridiculed it as 'a mere 15-page document' that he boasted could be torn at will, he said adding that "Tearing the Constitution is tearing the soul of the nation.

Ridiculing it is ridiculing the people". Those who tear and ridicule the Constitution are the traitors of the nation. Dictators and usurpers must be punished; they will be in the fullness of time, he added.

Asif Ali Zardari paid glowing tributes to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for "forging historic consensus among all provinces, political parties and shades of opinion" in making the Constitution. He also lauded Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as the icon of democracy and constitutionalism and countless political leaders and workers belonging to different political parties who rendered huge sacrifices in the cause of safeguarding democracy and the Constitution.
Two labourers were killed while cutting stones at hills in Sillanwali police limits. Police said on Tuesday that Ahmad and Muhammad Mushtaq of Chak 103/SB were cutting stone at the top of hills in Chak 126-SB, Block No.

SARGODHA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) ::Two labourers were killed while cutting stones at hills in Sillanwali police limits. Police said on Tuesday that Ahmad and Muhammad Mushtaq of Chak 103/SB were cutting stone at the top of hills in Chak 126-SB, Block No.

13 when a boulder fell upon them. As a result, both the labourers buried under the debris and died on the spot. Deputy Commissioner Liaqat Ali Chattah took notice of the incident and sought a report from the Mines Department about the Lease Holder. Police handed over the bodies to families after necessary medico-legal formalities.
With Donald Trump weighing strikes on Syria but Moscow warning of "grave repercussions" to any military action, an escalation seems increasingly likely even as analysts play down a direct clash between Russia and the US.

Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :With Donald Trump weighing strikes on Syria but Moscow warning of "grave repercussions" to any military action, an escalation seems increasingly likely even as analysts play down a direct clash between Russia and the US.

Washington has promised a "forceful" response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on Saturday that killed at least 40 people in Douma, the last rebel outpost in the Syrian capital. But the Syrian regime and its backers in Moscow have denied a chemical attack took place, with Russian officials insisting the claims are a pretext to justify further intervention by the West.

The Russian ministry of defence has previously said it will fire at any US craft that strikes government areas of Damascus, where Russian officials are also based. Boris Dolgov, an analyst at the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, however, told AFP the US was more likely to intervene via proxies.

He suggested an attack would come from armed opposition groups supported by the US, "Kurdish fighters or non-American special services". Alexey Malashenko, a specialist in the Syria conflict, said Washington and Moscow were more likely to remain engaged in a war of words.

"Moscow understands that a strike (against US forces) will bring about a response and it is not certain that Russia will emerge victorious from such a conflict," he told AFP. "Russia risks losing allies such as Turkey or even Assad.

There's only one thing for them to do -- stay still and puff out their cheeks." But Malashenko said those in power in Moscow could be "unpredictable". As early as mid-March, Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Syrian rebels were preparing "provocations" involving chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta, where Douma is located.

- 'Very, very dangerous' - In April 2017, Donald Trump ordered strikes on a military base in Syria in response to a gas attack blamed on the Syrian regime that killed more than 80 civilians. The strikes provoked no more than protest from Moscow.

This year at least five Russians working for a private security firm in Syria were killed and dozens more injured in American strikes, but again the incident did not draw a military response from Moscow.

The Russian and US armies exchange information on Syria under agreements aimed at avoiding collisions between their planes or the accidental deaths of soldiers in strikes. The battle for influence between Washington and Moscow is currently being played out in the UN, where both powers have proposed resolutions to investigate the alleged attack.

The rival proposals put the Security Council on course for a clash that could trigger vetoes of both measures. After US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley promised a response "either way", Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he feared Washington was looking for a military option.

Such a move would be "very, very dangerous" he said. Relations between Russia and the US have taken a nosedive in recent years over the Syria conflict as well as Moscow's annexation of Crimea, accusations of interference in the 2016 US election and most recently a spy poisoning in the UK.

President Vladimir Putin launched what appeared to be a new arms race when he unveiled a range of "invincible" new nuclear weapons at his state of the nation address in March. Russia first intervened in Syria in 2015, turning the tables in the multi-front civil war in favour of ally President Bashar al-Assad.
Shares of Axis Bank today rose as much as 4 per cent in morning trade on the bourses after its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma's tenure was shortened.

The Axis Bank board on Monday curtailed the fourth term of Sharma to seven months following an unusual request from her that she be relieved on December 2018, 29 months ahead of the scheduled term.

Following the announcement, shares of the company opened on a bullish note at Rs 523.10, then surged to a high of Rs 540, up 4.26 per cent from its previous closing price.

On NSE, the stock opened at Rs 523, then jumped to a high of Rs 540, a rise of 3.98 per cent from its last close.

The board's decision came amidst RBI raising questions over her re-appointment for the fourth term as MD and CEO of the third largest private sector lender in the wake of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs). Sharma, who would complete her third term on May 31, 2018, has been heading the bank since 2009.

The Axis Bank board accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from June 1 to December 31, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the bank said in a regulatory filing.
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Reports of new alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's Eastern Ghouta over the weekend have been condemned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who on Tuesday repeated his call for the Security Council to "find unity" on the issue and ensure accountability.

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Apr, 2018 ) :Reports of new alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's Eastern Ghouta over the weekend have been condemned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who on Tuesday repeated his call for the Security Council to "find unity" on the issue and ensure accountability.

In a statement, the UN chief expressed his outrage at reports that civilians in the last opposition-held area of Rural Damascus have continued to be targeted by toxic agents. The Secretary-General's call comes after UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council late Monday that at least 49 people had been killed, and hundreds were injured in an alleged chemical attack in Douma on Saturday evening.

Guterres condemned the incident as "abhorrent", " echoing a statement issued in March " amid what he called "persistent allegations" of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In both statements, the UN chief underlined his support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) " the body which investigates allegations of such attacks.

His latest statement also underlined his call for the Council to "redouble its efforts" to uphold norms against chemical weapons and agree on a mechanism that would ensure accountability. Meanwhile, in Geneva on Tuesday, UN humanitarian agencies expressed alarm at ongoing violence in several areas of Syria which has caused the mass displacement of civilians to spiral.

Asked by journalists about the alleged chemical attacks, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said they were not in a position to confirm anything.

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke confirmed that aid workers were in place in eight shelters for the displaced, but not in Douma, site of the alleged attack: "I'm not sure everyone understands that, we are not in Douma, Eastern Ghouta is still under siege.

Occasionally we are able to go in with a convoy and we leave again immediately. We are in place outside of Eastern Ghouta in those eight centres where we can provide some aid. We are not in Eastern Ghouta.

And for these, as you say, extremely serious allegations with very severe ramifications; political, military and otherwise, we need to be absolutely sure that what we say is correct." According to UN refugee agency, tens of thousands of people remain trapped in Douma and nearly a quarter of a million people need aid urgently in the wider Eastern Ghouta area.

More than 133,000 people have fled Eastern Ghouta in the past month and one-third of that number have been given shelter in eight centres in Rural Damascus. But these are "overcrowded and pose a serious health risk," Andrej Mahecic from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, adding that there and elsewhere in the war-torn country the situation is desperate." UNHCR's response involves providing essential aid, shelter support and protection services, including to 137,000 Syrians displaced from the Afrin region in the north.
At least 18 people were killed when a truck packed with labourers overturned on a winding highway in western India on Tuesday, police said

New Delhi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :At least 18 people were killed when a truck packed with labourers overturned on a winding highway in western India on Tuesday, police said.

The truck hit a roadside barrier outside Khandala, a hill resort and popular tourist destination 80 kilometres (50 miles) inland from Mumbai. "The truck was definitely speeding and flipped over two, three times and crashed into a highway barrier.

We have recovered 18 bodies so far," Padmakar Ghanwat, a Khandala police inspector, told AFP. Another 15 people were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The deadly crash came just a day after 30 people, including 27 children, were killed when a school bus plunged into a ravine in the Himalayan foothills.

India has some of the world's deadliest roads, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people each year. Most accidents are blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving. Commercial drivers are largely unregulated, meaning many work long hours through the night, raising the danger of them falling asleep at the wheel, campaigners say.
A Japanese man has been freed after being lured to Manila and kidnapped as part of a complex plot organised by a business partner he had fallen out with, the Philippines' police chief said Tuesday.

Manila, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :A Japanese man has been freed after being lured to Manila and kidnapped as part of a complex plot organised by a business partner he had fallen out with, the Philippines' police chief said Tuesday.

Philippine police rescued the 32-year-old victim on April 5 and arrested two Filipinos and a Japanese fugitive who had been holding him in a house outside the capital, national police chief Director-General Ronaldo Dela Rosa said.

The unnamed victim, a Tokyo resident, arrived in the Philippines in March with a Japanese business partner, senior police official Glenn Dumlao told reporters. "During the investigation we conducted, we found he was tricked by his friend.

They were business partners and allegedly, they had a rift in their business," he said, without elaborating on the men's ties. Shortly after arrival in Manila the business partner returned to Japan and the victim was met at his hotel by two Filipinos, who asked him to come with them.

The victim was initially reluctant, but agreed to accompany the men after being instructed to do so by the business partner.

The two Filipinos, along with a Japanese national took the victim to a house and held him while his family in Japan was contacted.

The Japanese embassy in Manila, acting on the request of the kidnapped man's family, sought the help of the local police who rescued the victim and arrested the suspects, Dela Rosa said. The Japanese suspect, who had his passport cancelled in 2015, is also facing fraud charges in Japan, police said.

Dumlao said he could not elaborate on any ransom demands as the negotiations were carried out with victim's family in Japan and it was Tokyo's policy not to divulge such details. The Japanese police were still looking for the victim's business partner, he added.

The Japanese embassy in Manila declined to comment on the matter. Kidnapping for ransom gangs are known to be active in the Philippines, sometimes targeting foreigners with the assistance of their countrymen.
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Hundreds of university students across Bangladesh blockaded roads on Tuesday in a third day of protests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs.

Dhaka, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Hundreds of university students across Bangladesh blockaded roads on Tuesday in a third day of protests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs.

Students took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere despite assurances from the government that it would review the controversial quota system. The mass protests roiling campuses across the country have been among the biggest faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

At Dhaka University -- where more than 100 were injured in clashes with police in recent days -- students vowed to stage sit-ins until the government reform the quota system. "We'll continue our agitation until the authorities accept our demands," said Rahat, one of the roughly 500 students camped out at the university's main square.

The protest was largely peaceful, with no repeat so far of the tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police to disperse crowds. But outside the camps, traffic was brought to a standstill as protesters blocked roads in the nation's capital.

The protests also spread to private campuses for the first time since the demonstrations erupted on Sunday, drawing hundreds to the streets. Demonstrators want the share of top government positions set aside for minority groups and the disabled significantly reduced.

They are also particularly irate that 30 percent of government positions are reserved for descendents of veterans from Bangladesh's independence war in 1971. The government promised to review the system on Tuesday, but that caused a rift among demonstrators, with some accepting the assurance and others resisting it.
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Kampala, April 9 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Uganda's Constitutional Court on Monday began hearing a challenge by opposition MPs to a law passed late last year that removed presidential age limits, clearing the way for Yoweri Museveni, 73, to run for a sixth term.

The controversial constitutional amendment scrapped the 75-year limit imposed on presidential candidates in the East African country, setting up Museveni, in power since 1986, for another bid in 2021.

"We believe the law was passed in error," Ibrahim Nganda, the opposition chief whip and one of the six MPs challenging the law, told AFP. The hearing is being held in the city of Mbale, the first time such a constitutional petition has been heard outside of the capital Kampala.

The opposition criticised the change of location, saying it was an attempt to play down the importance of the case.

But the spokesman for Uganda's judiciary, Solomon Muyita, said the court was sitting in Mbale because it was "deemed convenient".

Security has been increased around the court in Mbale and several roads have been closed. "It will take some days to hear the petition, the witnesses and make a ruling," Muyita said. The amendment was approved by the parliament, which is dominated by ruling party MPs, on December 20 and Museveni signed it into law on December 27.

It also reimposed a two-term limit on the presidency that was scrapped by ruling party MPs in 2005 allowing Museveni to run for a third, fourth and fifth term in elections widely criticised as being unfair. But the reimposed term limit would not come into effect until after the next election, allowing Museveni the possibility of running twice more.
Uganda signed an agreement with an international consortium of energy industry investors on Tuesday to build a long-delayed oil refinery, according to an official statement.

Kampala, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Uganda signed an agreement with an international consortium of energy industry investors on Tuesday to build a long-delayed oil refinery, according to an official statement.

The consortium -- a partnership of four Italian and Mauritian companies including Nuovo Pignone International owned by US-giant General Electric -- agreed to build and operate the refinery near Hoima on the shores of Lake Albert which seperates Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Longtime President Yoweri Museveni said the deal with the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium -- valued at between $3 billion and $4 billion -- would contribute to making Africa "a huge powerhouse in terms of business." Once complete the facility will eventually have the capacity to refine 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day -- much of which will be sent to the capital Kampala via pipeline.

Two previous attempts to finalise a refinery deal collapsed. Oil was discovered in the environmentally sensitive Albertine Graben in 2006, raising hopes of an economic boost in one of the world's poorest countries, but the exploration and extraction processes have been beset by long delays.

The government aim to have oil flowing by 2020 but many analysts view that as overly ambitious for a project aready tainted by murky payments for government officials. Of the 6.5 billion barrels of oil discovered below and around Lake Albert about 1.5 billion are easily recoverable.

The majority of the viscous crude will by-pass the planned refinery to be exported to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania via the world's longest heated pipeline.
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Untold thousands of men, women and children are being held in horrific conditions in Libya by armed groups who subject them to torture and other abuses, a UN report said Tuesday.

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :Untold thousands of men, women and children are being held in horrific conditions in Libya by armed groups who subject them to torture and other abuses, a UN report said Tuesday.

Fresh findings from the UN rights office and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) found that Libya was plagued by "widespread, prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention and endemic human rights abuses in custody." Libya descended into chaos following the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with dozens of armed factions filling the power vacuum.

Since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medical professionals, journalists and politicians, Tuesday's report said.

"This report lays bare not only the appalling abuses and violations experienced by Libyans deprived of their liberty, but the sheer horror and arbitrariness of such detentions," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

"These violations and abuses need to stop, and those responsible for such crimes should be held fully to account." The report however did not look at the widespread abusive detention of migrants in lawless Libya, which has long been a major transit hub for people from Africa and elsewhere trying to reach Europe.

- Burnt with cigarettes - According to the report, an estimated 6,500 people were languishing in official prisons overseen by Libya's Judicial Police, under the justice ministry, as of last October.

But it stressed there were no available statistics for facilities that fall under the ministries of interior and defence, nor for those run directly by armed groups. Such facilities "are notorious for endemic torture and other human rights violations or abuses," the report said.

It detailed how armed groups routinely hold people incommunicado and systematically subject them to torture, including beatings with metal bars, flogging on the soles of the feet, burning with cigarettes and the use of electric shock.

Women detainees are meanwhile at high risk of sexual abuse, the report warned, pointing out that "in some facilities, women detainees are forced to strip and are subjected to invasive cavity searches by male guards or under the gaze of male officials." It also pointed to allegations of deaths in custody, with the bodies of hundreds of people taken and held by armed groups found in the streets, hospitals and rubbish dumps, many bearing signs of torture or gunshot wounds.

The report called for the immediate release of all those detained arbitrarily in Libya, and urged the authorities to ensure that all of those lawfully detained be transferred to official prisons. It also called on the authorities to unequivocally condemn torture, ill-treatment and summary executions, and to ensure that any perpetrators of such crimes be held accountable.
A Vietnamese democracy activist was sentenced to 13 years in prison Tuesday for "attempting to overthrow the state", just days after six of his colleagues were also handed heavy jail terms in the one-party state

Hanoi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2018 ) :A Vietnamese democracy activist was sentenced to 13 years in prison Tuesday for "attempting to overthrow the state", just days after six of his colleagues were also handed heavy jail terms in the one-party state.

Communist authorities have been accused of vigorously targeting critics over the past two years since a hardline administration took charge. Amnesty International says at least 97 prisoners of conscience are behind bars, including pro-democracy and environmental activists, bloggers and rights lawyers.

Hanoi denies a coordinated crackdown. The latest to be jailed is Nguyen Van Tuc, a 53-year-old member of the outlawed Brotherhood for Democracy activist group which says it has about 80 permanent members nationwide.

He was accused under Article 79 of the penal code of trying to topple the government. "Tuc admitted he was a member of the Brotherhood for Democracy. He admitted he had been fighting for democracy, but denied his alleged attempt to overthrow the state," Tuc's lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan told AFP after a half-day trial in Thai Binh province east of Hanoi.

"The result of the trial was of course not what we wished," Tuan added.

Tuc was previously convicted for anti-state propaganda and sentenced to four years in prison after handing out political leaflets in 2008.

He has called for multi-party democracy and has been outspoken on maritime issues regarding Vietnam's claims in the disputed South China Sea. Tuc's daughter Nguyen Thi Mai told AFP her father looked weak at Tuesday's trial and insisted he was not guilty.

"My father said he did nothing wrong, he only fought for democracy and justice, he did not commit any crime. He said he was innocent and I believe him," Mai said, as her mother wept nearby. The verdict comes after six activists linked with Brotherhood for Democracy were sentenced last week at a high-profile trial held under heavy security in Hanoi.

The most prominent among them was lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who got 15 years in prison -- the harshest sentenced doled out to an activist in years -- while the remainder got between seven and 12 years.

The jail terms sparked outcry from the international community, including from the United States, the European Union, Britain and Germany, who issued harsh rebukes. Independent civil society organisations, political parties and media are all banned in Vietnam.
Brazil`s most popular ever ex-President is in custody, beginning a twelve year jail term for corruption convictions he strenuously denies, accusing political foes of sabotaging his bid as the front runner of competing in October`s Presidential Election.

By James Blears

Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva decided to go to familiar territory, at the Metal Workers Union in his home town of Sao Bernado de Campo and hold out for two days, before exiting the building, wading through a crowd of supporters, to reach Brazilian Federal Police, who took him into custody.

Earlier in the day, alongside his impeached successor Dilma Rousseff, Lula delivered an almost hour long impassioned speech. He said: "I`m not above the law. If I didn`t believe in it I wouldn`t have started a political party, but a revolution. I`m not afraid, I`m not running and I`ll prove my innocence."

He accuses his enemies of preventing him from competing in October`s Presidential Election, but vows he`ll be back.

Lula has been convicted of money laundering and accepting a luxury seaside apartment from engineering firm Odebrecht, now known as OAS. He denies all of the charges

President of Brazil from 2003-2011, Lula`s social programs are credited in lifting more than 20 million Brazilians out of dire poverty and changing a nation. The biggest name to be felled by the so called "Carwash Scandal," Lula is determined to go down politically fighting and re-arise. A survivor of throat cancer, Lula aged 72, confirms he`s now preparing for the biggest political battle of his life, in challenging a 19 year ban on running for office and getting out of jail.
Google is expanding its hardware portfolio in India with the launch of Google Home smart speakers. Of the three offerings in the international market, Google is launching two variants in India - Google Home and Google Home Mini.

Competing against the Echo range of smart speakers from Amazon, Google Home was announced during the Google I/O 2016 and the Google Home Mini in 2017. Google Home and Google Home Mini will be priced at Rs 9,999, and Rs 4,499, respectively. The device will be available for purchase online, exclusively on Flipkart, and in over 750 retail stores across the country including Reliance Digital, Croma, Bajaj Electronics, Vijay Sales, Sangeetha, and Poorvika.

Launch offers include a free JioFi router along with special offers on music subscriptions when purchased though Flipkart; a free JioFi router with 100GB of high-speed 4G data (worth Rs 2,499), and at select Philips Hue and Croma outlets you get a Philips Hue + Google Home Mini at a special bundled price when purchased at Reliance Digital or MyJio stores.

Also, ACT Fibernet retail customers subscribing to 12-month advance rental plans of 90MBPS and above, will receive a Google Home Mini. Lastly, users get 10 percent cashback when purchasing using HDFC Bank credit cards.

With the launch of the smart speakers in India, Google is promoting the campaign with the #MakeGoogleDoIt.

Google Home is a medium-sized smart speaker with a touch panel with LEDs on the top and a mute button at the back. By default, it comes in white and grey. Compatible with subscriptions from Netflix, Gaana, Saavn, and can be used to control Chromcast as well. Google Home will be available in Chalk. Coral will be coming soon.

With the launch of Google Home Mini last year, Google claims to have made Google Assistant more accessible at home. It has a sleek design with no corners or edges, and about the size of a donut. Its fabric enclosure is durable, yet transparent enough to let through both light and sound. Even this one has LEDs that light up to show the Assistant is listening. Even the Mini packs-in far-field microphones to hear a command even while playing music. Google Home Mini is available in two colours - Chalk and Charcoal.

Powered by Google Assistant, both the smart speakers wake up to 'Ok Google' or 'Hey Google'. The speakers can be set-up using Google Home app. When connected to a Wi-Fi network, the smart speaker can respond to voice commands such as fetch weather updates, traffic updates, directions, news, set-up an alarm, find the connected smartphone, play music and more.

Rishi Chandra, VP of Product Management and General Manager of Home Products, Google said; "We are delighted to bring our best-in-class Home products to India. These products have been customised to match the needs of the Indian consumer and you will see that Google Home is truly 'desi'. It understands Indian accents, and will respond to you with uniquely Indian contexts. Another unmatched feature of our product is that the Google Assistant can work across all your devices - giving you a personalised Assistant experience in its truest sense."

The Google Home competes against the Amazon Echo range launched in India late last year. The Google Home takes on the Amazon Echo priced at Rs 9,999. On the other hand, Google Home Mini gives competition to the Amazon Echo Dot priced at Rs 4,499. Amazon also has a third offering in the Indian market - Amazon Echo Plus. Amazon's Echo range is powered by company's own Alexa voice assistant, which has been customized to understand Indian accent and common phrases used in India.
Cambodian expatriates gathered in Australia last month have called for sanctions on the Hun Sen regime and a boycott of the upcoming general election if the opposition cannot participate.

Hong Lim, an organizer of the World Khmer Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, said the meeting was called to bring attention to the deteriorating political situation in Cambodia.

Lim, who is a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, said: We have to let the world know and pay attention to this issue. We want the international community to take the same position as they did for ten years during Vietnams occupation of Cambodia which installed Hun Sen to power.

We call for tough economic sanctions as they did to the Burmese junta until they agreed to let Aung San Suu Kyi take part in the government, said Lim.

The World Khmer Conference participants also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Kem Sokha, the former opposition leader, and other political prisoners, and called for free and fair elections.

The Cambodian government has intensified persecution of the opposition, civil society and independent media for nearly a year. The Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party in November last year after arresting Sokha on charges of conspiring with foreign countries to topple the government. The actions of the Cambodian government have been strongly condemned by the international community.

Cambodians came out in high numbers to the polls in the 2013 national elections and the 2017 commune council elections, which saw the opposition grow stronger as the main challenger to the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

Australias former foreign minister Gareth Evans, who was involved in the Paris Peace Agreement to end the conflict in Cambodia 26 years ago, told the audience that he admired the "courage" and "resilience" of the Cambodian people, and it was important that politicians keep their hopes up.

However, Evans did not believe the forthcoming election was going to be free and fair.

It will be a sham election, Evans told reporters later. We have to acknowledge that. How could it not be when the major [opposition] political party has been banned, the CNRP?

Mu Sochua, vice president of the CNRP, who attended the conference, agreed that the presence of the former opposition party was necessary, but did not specify the party's stance on calls for boycotting the election.

"In principle, we understand that more than 3 million people voted for a peaceful change, so without a CNRP presence, we see that the election is not free and fair, Sochua told VOA Khmer.

Cambodia is scheduled to hold national elections on July 29. Observers say that without the CNRP, the ruling CPP will easily win the election and extend Hun Sen's rule to almost 40 years.

We believe that its peoples freedom to go to vote or refuse ... to vote, said Suos Yara, CPP spokesman. Its democracy. But urging people not to go to vote is like pulling democracy backward.
Cambodias exiled former opposition leader Sam Rainsy has called for a boycott of the upcoming general election in July if the Cambodia National Rescue Party is not allowed to contest the vote.

The CNRP was dissolved in a Supreme Court ruling in November after its leaders were accused of plotting with foreign powers to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sens government.

"I call on all my Cambodian fellow compatriots who believe in democracy to boycott the 29 July 2018 elections if the CNRP is not allowed to participate. I also call on national and international observers to refrain from observing an electoral farce with a foregone conclusion," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Apparently, in response, the government-aligned National Election Committee warned of hefty fines and criminal proceedings for anyone preventing voters from casting a ballot or causing the electorate to misunderstand and lose faith in the election.

Hang Puthea, NEC spokesman, added that legal action would be considered if calls for an election boycott continued.

Sok Eysan, ruling Cambodian Peoples Party spokesman, said Rainsys appeal to voters was in vain, adding that turnout was expected at between 60 and 70 percent.

"No one is crazy to follow him, let him be crazy alone and wandering across the world all by himself. Cambodian people will not be crazy with him."

Sophal Ear, associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College, Los Angeles, said the calls for a boycott were not surprising given that the CNRP had been dissolved and could not compete in the election.

The only other option for Sam Rainsy and or Kem Sokha is to tell voters to cast their vote for either the Candlelight Party (formerly Sam Rainsy Party) or the Human Rights Party or a third party (Grassroots Development Party or whatnot), he said in an email.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday blessed the Cambodian people during a Khmer New Year ceremony, declaring his victory over the opposition party.

Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party in November, accusing its leaders, without evidence, of taking part in a conspiracy to overthrow him.

In a rambling 6-page letter published on April 3 by a local media outlet with close ties to the ruling party, Hun Sen wrote: Over the past year, although Cambodia faced all sorts of obstacles both inside and outside the country, the national defense foundation of the people, the security foundation, political stability, harmony; particularly, the trick of color revolution of the opposition that colluded with foreigners attempting to overthrow the legitimate government, was also successfully curbed by strict laws, and it was a year of serious failure for color revolution in Cambodia

As a result, Cambodian retains its peace, independence, and sovereignty as well as avoiding new devastation for the Cambodian people, who are actively participating with their daily standard of living, and the countrys development.

He added that the rise in the countrys gross domestic product per capita by some 37 percent between 2013 and 2017 and a decline in poverty rates from 53.5 percent in 2004 to 13.5 percent in 2014, was evidence of his regimes success.

However, Kate Gilmore of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that while there had been progress in some areas, human rights had continued to suffer under Hun Sen. Economic, social and cultural rights are indivisible from civil and political rights and, we urge the government to take action to reverse the recent serious deterioration in the status of political rights and fundamental freedom, she said.

Rhona Smith, the U.N. Special Rapporteur to Cambodia, has also been critical of the governments approach to human rights and democracy of late, saying in a statement in March, the government must do more to protect Cambodians freedoms ahead of Julys national election.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says the United States will respond to a suspected deadly chemical weapons attack in Douma, whether the U.N. Security Council finally takes action to protect the people of Syria or not. President Donald Trump is consulting with his national security team and says he will make a decision on whether or not to retaliate militarily within hours. VOA diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
After secret backchannel talks, the United States says it now has direct confirmation from North Korea that Leader Kim Jong-Un is willing to discuss denuclearization with U.S. President Donald Trump. But experts tell VOAs Korea Service that Pyongyangs definition of denuclearization may not be the same as Washingtons. VOAs Jesusemen Oni reports.
Officials in Afghanistan say cross-border shelling by Pakistan has killed at least one civilian in the eastern province of Kunar.

A provincial government spokesman told VOA Pakistani forces in the past 24 hours have fired hundreds of artillery shells on two Afghan border districts of Sarkano and Dangam.

Ghani Mosmim said the firing has also caused damage to civilian property.

"Routine fire on terrorists' hideouts right on [the Afghan] border ," a Pakistan military spokesman told VOA when asked for his reaction to Afghan allegations. He gave no further details.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry last week accused the neighboring country of launching airstrikes on parts of Dangam and causing huge financial damages.

Pakistan rejected the allegation as baseless, saying its security forces were conducting counterterrorism operations inside their own territory to deter Afghanistan-based militant groups from staging attacks across the border.

Islamabad maintains that anti-state militants sheltering in Afghan border areas are behind recent attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians.

Kabul has long accused Pakistan of harboring Afghan Taliban insurgents, charges Islamabad denies.

Tuesdays incident comes just days after Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi visited Afghanistan and met with Afghan leaders.

In a post-visit statement, Islamabad said both sides have agreed to commit to avoid territorial and aerial violations of each others territory.

The two countries also decided to avoid public blame game and use mutually agreed cooperation mechanisms to respond to bilateral issues of contention and concerns.
Apple on Monday said it had achieved its goal of powering all of the company's facilities with renewable energy, a milestone that includes all of its data centers, offices and retail stores in 43 countries.

The iPhone maker also said nine suppliers had recently committed to running their operations entirely on renewable energy sources like wind and solar, bringing to 23 the total number to make such a pledge.

Major U.S. corporations such as Apple, Wal-Mart and Alphabet have become some of the country's biggest buyers of renewable forms of energy, driving substantial growth in the wind and solar industries.

Alphabet's Google last year purchased enough renewable energy to cover all of its electricity consumption worldwide.

Costs for solar and wind are plunging thanks to technological advances and increased global production of panels and turbines, enabling companies seeking to green their images to buy clean power at competitive prices.

"We're not spending any more than we would have," Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives, said in an interview. "We're seeing the benefits of an increasingly competitive clean energy market."

Renewable energy projects that provide power to Apple facilities range from large wind farms in the United States to clusters of hundreds of rooftop solar systems in Japan and Singapore. The company has also urged utilities to procure renewable energy to help power Apple's operations.

Encouraging suppliers to follow suit in embracing 100 percent renewable energy is the next step for Apple. The suppliers that pledge to use more clean energy know they will have "a leg up" against competitors for Apple's business, Jackson said.

"We made it clear that, over time, this will become less of a wish list and more of a requirement," she said.
Attorney-client privilege is dead, President Donald Trump tweeted early Tuesday.

The outburst came a day after the FBI raided the New York office and hotel room of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

The FBI reportedly seized emails, tax documents and other records related to Cohens alleged payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them quiet about alleged sexual encounters with Trump.

The intrusion ignited not just the president's fury but also many of his supporters'.

Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham tweeted: If by raiding the office of @realDonaldTrumps attorney, the @fbi violated Trumps attorney-client privilege, this is about to get really ugly.

Like much of American law, the attorney-client privilege is rooted in English common law, according to Michael Frisch, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington.

Exceptions to rule

Without such a privilege," said the American Bar Association, "clients may not feel compelled to fully and openly communicate with their attorneys.

But the privilege is not absolute, Frisch said.

It has exceptions, and if the exceptions are met, evidence can be seized and admitted in a court, Frisch said.

One exception is the so-called crime-fraud special case.

Essentially, the privilege does not apply where the lawyer and the client are engaging in a crime or a fraud or the client is seeking assistance with respect to concealing a crime or a fraud, Frisch said.

Another circumstance under which a lawyer can be searched is when he or she is the target of a criminal investigation. Cohen is reportedly being investigated for wire fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance violations.

While still rare, searches of lawyers premises occur regularly enough that the Justice Department has created guidelines for them, Frisch noted.

The policy is stringent. Prosecutors are asked to use search warrants as a last resort and only after they have exhausted all other legal options of obtaining the information they want from an attorney's office.

In Cohen's case, it is not clear why prosecutors believed they could not obtain the records they needed for their investigation without executing a search warrant.

Unnecessary seizure'

Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, denounced the prosecutors' use of search warrants as "completely inappropriate and unnecessary and said they resulted in the seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients.

The U.S. Attorneys manual lays out guidelines for conducting such searches, from setting a high-level approval process to handling privileged communications inadvertently seized.

Before a search warrant application is submitted to a federal magistrate, a U.S. attorney or the head of the Justice Departments criminal division must sign off. In Cohens case, prosecutors reportedly obtained the approval of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Departments No. 2 official.

To minimize intrusion into privileged material, the search warrant must be drawn as specifically as possible. Agents responsible for conducting the search receive special instructions in order to ensure the prosecution is not tainted by any privileged material.

To further protect the process, a privilege team of agents and lawyers not directly involved in the investigation is set up to advise agents during the search and to mark communications that can't be touched.

If an assigned prosecutor or an assigned agent obtains privileged information and reviews it, however inadvertently, they can be excluded from the investigation or the entire team could be tainted by the exposure to the privileged information, said Eric Jaso, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the Spiro Harrison law firm in Short Hills, N.J.

Frisch said that Trumps contention that the attorney-client privilege is dead reflects an entirely unfair and inadequate understanding of what the privilege is.

It is not an absolute protection, he said.

Jaso said that while it is dangerous to speculate what evidence might have been presented in connection with the search warrant application, he understood Trumps venting.

I think the president is responding in a very human way, simply saying, 'Hey, this is my lawyer,' Jaso said. I dont think anybody among us would want government investigators poring through our own personal attorneys personal records without any good reason.
In war-torn Afghanistan, honey is regarded as a traditional cure-all but for one schoolgirl, the sticky commodity has also created sweet opportunities to work and own a business in a country where few women do so.

Three years ago, Frozan, now 19 years old, obtained a small loan, bought two beehives and learned about apiculture from Hand in Hand International, a non-governmental organization that focuses on poverty.

The bees collected nectar from flowers growing near her home in the Marmul district in the northern Balkh province. Their first harvest produced about 16kg (35lb) of honey, which enabled Frozan to pay back her loan and still have money left over.

She now has 12 beehives and last year collected 110kg of honey, which earned her 100,000 Afghanis ($1,450) in a country where GDP per capita is only about $600.

"The village I live in is a traditional village and women are not allowed to work outside," says Frozan, who goes by one name. "But when I started beekeeping I realized that it's an easy task. I told the people about beekeeping and then they accepted it."

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the lives and status of women in society have improved significantly. But traditions, insecurity and recently a decline in international donors, have slowed progress.

A Human Rights Watch report, quoting government officials, says 85 percent of the 3.5 million children who don't go to school are girls. Only 37 percent of adolescent girls are literate compared with 66 percent of adolescent boys.

Frozan is now in her final year of school and would like to study economics and grow her business, goals that may now be possible for her and her three siblings thanks to her income stream.

She says looking after tens of thousands of bees can easily be done between studies and household chores and her father, Ismail, who is a farmer like much of Marmul's population, supports his daughter's enterprise.

"It has been my dream to have a daughter who could find a job like this and make a future for herself," he says.

Every few weeks, Ismail takes the fresh honey to Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital, more than 50km away, where it's sold to shops and consumed mainly by local customers.

While industry data is scant, local media citing government officials say Afghanistan's honey production has risen in recent years, hitting 2,000 tons in 2015. Several varieties such as acacia, almond flower, and basil are now available.

However, infrastructure constraints mean most of this honey never leaves Afghanistan.
Colombia's peace deal with the former FARC rebels is at risk of failure after the arrest of a soon-to-be congressman from the now-political party on drug trafficking charges, the group said on Tuesday.

Seusis Hernandez, known by his nom de guerre Jesus Santrich, was indicted by U.S. grand jury for conspiring with three others to export 10 tons of cocaine, worth $320 million in streetvalue, to the United States, Colombia's attorney general said on Monday.

He will remain in Colombian custody until a U.S. request for extradition is formalized, the attorney general said.

Hernandez was a rebel negotiator for more than four years at peace talks between the government and the FARC, which kept its initials but renamed itself the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force when it became a political party.

The talks resulted in an accord that ended more than 52 years of fighting between the two sides and prompted more than 12,000 FARC fighters and sympathizers to hand in thousands ofweapons, in what the government says is an irreversible peace process.

"With the capture of our comrade Jesus Santrich the peace process finds itself at its most critical point and threatens to be a true failure," soon-to-be FARC Senator Ivan Marquez told journalists.

Marquez said Hernandez's arrest is a "set-up" and called for a meeting with the United Nations Colombia mission and the government.

"This is a farce that has been put together to trick Colombian and international opinions. Extradition would be a violation of the accords, the failure of the peace process," Marquez said.

Crimes committed by FARC members during the war are set to be adjudicated by a special tribunal, but those committed after demobilization are subject to regular judicial procedure, which includes the possibility of extradition. The government says Hernandez's alleged crimes took place after the deal was signed.

Hernandez had been set to take up one of 10 congressional seats guaranteed to the FARC through 2026 under the terms of the deal
Motorola is offering the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Plus at an event in Sao Paolo in Brazil. However, here in India, its predecessor has received a major cut in prices as a part of its 45th Anniversary in India. Motorola Moto G5s gets a price cut of Rs 5,000.

Moto G5s is selling at a discount of Rs 5000. The device that was priced at Rs 14,999 is now selling at Rs 9,999. According to Motorola, this discount is valid till April 11 and is being offered under the 45th Anniversary scheme. The device can be purchased from Amazon India's website.

Exactly 45 years ago, Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee made the first publicized hand held mobile phone call on prototype of Motorola DynaTAC on April 3, 1973 which originated in NYC and was made to Bell Labs in New Jersey.

In the April 19 event, the company might launch the Moto G6 line up in Brazil's Sao Paolo. Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus and Moto G6 Play is expected to launch in the event. The new Moto devices will give direct competition to the likes of Redmi Note 5, Redmi Note 5 Pro and even the recently launched Nokia 6 (2018).

The current offer on Moto G5s is only available till April 11 but the company is expected to bring the prices down permanently before the official launch of the device in India. There are no details regarding the new Moto devices but the Moto G6 Plus is expected to get an upgraded dual-lens camera setup to tackle the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The devices are expected to launch in the Indian market soon after it is unveiled in Brazil.
Colombian authorities arrested a former top rebel peace negotiator on a U.S. drug warrant Monday, delivering a major blow to the country's already teetering attempts to put a half century of political violence behind it.



Seuxis Hernandez, a blind rebel ideologue best known by his alias Jesus Santrich, was picked up at his residence in Bogota on charges that he conspired with three others to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the U.S. with a wholesale value of $15 million.



According to an Interpol notice, Santrich met with cocaine buyers at his residence on Nov. 2, 2017, a day after one of his co-conspirators delivered a 5-kilogram sample of the narcotic to them at a hotel lobby in Bogota. During the meeting and subsequent negotiations, he and his co-conspirators allegedly discussed plans for a 10-ton drug shipment to the U.S., boasting they had access to cocaine laboratories and U.S.-registered planes to produce and move the drugs inside Colombia, the world's largest producer of the illegal narcotic.



President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the arrest in a nationally televised address, saying that his "hand won't shake" in signing off on Santrich's extradition in order to safeguard the peace agreement's integrity.



Under terms of the accord aimed at ending Latin America's longest-running conflict, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their war crimes to special peace tribunals are to be spared jail time and extradition. But they aren't protected for crimes committed after the December 2016 signing.



"The construction of peace requires the absolute commitment and respect for the law and the accords," Santos said. "This is what the Colombian people demand. In this aspect, there can't be any room for tolerance or weakness."



Santrich's former comrades in arms accused the government of trying to sabotage the peace process.



"This is the worst moment that the peace process has gone through," said the former rebel leader known as Ivan Marquez, who served as chief negotiator during the peace talks. "The government has to act to prevent judicial set-ups like these from spinning out of control and generating a great deal of mistrust among all of the guerrillas."



But Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said a New York grand jury handed down an indictment after evaluating evidence, including videos and communications, that indicated Santrich and three other co-conspirators who were also arrested hatched a plan in the second half of 2017 to smuggle into the U.S. cocaine with a street value of $320 million.



The FARC's ties to Colombia's flourishing drug underworld have always been a sore spot for the rebels. The FARC long funded itself by leveling a "war tax" on cocaine moving through territory it dominated, and 50 members of its leadership structure  though not Santrich  were indicted in 2006 in the U.S. on charges of running the world's largest drug cartel.



But the FARC always denied direct involvement in the business itself and rebel peace negotiators in 2013 denounced drug trafficking as a "scourge" that has "contaminated" the international financial system and generated a global health crisis.



Santrich, 51, was one of the first rebels to bet on peace, traveling to Norway's capital in 2012 to kick of negotiations with Colombia's government and then participating in talks that continued the next four years in Cuba, where he earned a reputation as being a hardliner.



The son of two school teachers, Santrich joined a local youth communist group as a student and entered the guerrilla movement in his early 20s. He gradually rose through the rebel ranks to eventually join the central high command.



Since the signing of the peace accord, Santrich has lived in a two-story home in a working-class neighborhood of Bogota. Despite being blind, he said he spent much of his time painting, using tacks placed into a canvas to create an outline and guide his brush. His works hung on the walls of his living room, many of them depicting former guerrillas still being kept behind bars.



"Those who were detained betrayed the values and principles of the peace accords," Martinez said, but he offered assurances that the legal rights of other rebel fighters who remain true to democracy will be respected.

This story was written by the Associated Press.
Colombia has fired the head of a $500 million fund meant to finance post-conflict programs tied to the country's peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels, after donor countries complained of irregularities and possible corruption.

The decision came after the ambassadors of Norway, Sweden and Switzerland wrote a letter to the government expressing concern over a lack of transparency and spending delays for the money, meant to fund reintegration of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters, crop substitution and other programs.

The FARC and the government signed a peace deal in late 2016 to end 50 years of fighting. More than 220,000 people were killed during the country's civil war, in which the still-active rebel group the National Liberation Army and paramilitary gangs also fought.

"The government took the decision to remove Gloria Ospina from the executive direction of the Colombia in Peace Fund," Colombian Vice President Oscar Naranjo told journalists on Monday.

Ospina was not reachable for comment late on Monday.

Colombia's Finance Vice Minister Paula Acosta will join the fund's committee and evaluate where it can improve, Naranjo said, in a bid to accelerate the distribution of resources and comply with transparency standards.

Doubts about the distribution of the funds could put future international donations in question at a time when Colombia is grappling with low economic growth.

Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez told journalists last week that there was a network of public servants benefiting personally from resources which should be destined for post-conflict programs.

The fund is financed from Colombia's government budget, as well as donations from the United Nations, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

The Andean country has said it planned to invest more than $46 billion in post-conflict programs over the next 15 years, including the destruction of landmines, reintegration of more then 12,000 former FARC fighters and loyalists and rural development projects.
Authorities in Colombia have pledged to work with businesses, tourist agencies and advocacy groups in a bid to combat the sexual exploitation of children in the tourist hotspot of Cartagena.

At an anti-human trafficking event in the port city on Monday, the country's inspector general, Fernando Carrillo, said organized crime gangs were responsible for pimping and selling children into the sex trade, and to tourists in particular.

"It is no secret to anyone that cruise ship tourists, older men, they are offered children for the purpose of sexual exploitation," said Carrillo, who heads a judicial body that holds public servants to account.

"We must welcome tourists who come honestly to enjoy this city but we must repudiate the sexual predators of our children and adolescents," he said, describing them as "pirates of the 21st century."

Famous for its colonial walled ramparts, Cartagena is the country's top tourist destination, attracting millions of visitors each year.

But the 16th century city on the Caribbean coast is also notorious as a child sex tourism hotspot, and Carrillo said the authorities must do more to combat "a tsunami of impunity."

"There are too many laws and too few results," he said.

The parties agreed to collect reliable data about the issue, better coordinate efforts among the authorities, go after the profits made by criminal networks, and encourage citizens toreport the crime.

Mario Gonzalez, a state prosecutor focused on violence against children, said child sex exploitation was "an institutional shame."

"We're going to develop the largest operation in the history of Cartagena to dismantle those criminal (organizations) that are trampling over children and adolescents," Gonzalez said.

Adult prostitution is legal in Colombia, but paying to have sex with a child is a crime.

It is also illegal to force, deceive or coerce any adult or child into sexual exploitation - also known as human trafficking - and the crime carries a prison sentence of up to 37 years.

There are no government figures to show how many children in Cartagena are victims of sexual exploitation by tourists.

However, experts at the event said girls from the city's poor Afro-Colombian community, many of whom live in slums, do not go to school and come from abusive homes, are most at riskof being sexually exploited.
Painter Eddy Kamuanga Ilungas tiny, sweltering Kinshasa studio seems worlds away from his glittering, well-received foreign exhibitions.



The 25-year-old painter says he is inspired by his countrys vast cultural and mineral wealth  but also by the region's painful colonial history.

That message shines through in his captivating, dizzyingly bright paintings of figures garbed in bright Congolese and French textiles, their dark skin scarred by the signature markings of computer circuit boards, which are often made of Congolese-mined cobalt. Ilungas work has been exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the United States, as African art has grown increasingly more popular.



One of his pieces can fetch up to $30,000 in an international auction.

But that figure is far from his daily reality. He rents this space for $300 a month. His paints have to be imported from Germany. And, art industry experts say, while those seemingly high prices make him one of Congos most lucrative artists, his extraordinary work only fetches average prices by international standards.

African artists are regarded differently on the international art scene, he said. And I think its a struggle of many artists in Africa to get the same recognition.

Celebrated sculptor Freddy Tsimba notes that one problem is the lack of support at home. His captivating works of haunting human figures shaped of discarded items like bullet casings, keys and spoons are shown internationally, but get little notice inside Congo.

But theres no shortage of artwork and creativity in Congo  original pieces and antique crafts sell for a song at the bustling Kinshasa art market, but high-end art is rare, says local art promoter Fabrice Bashonga.

Congolese art is going very cheap in the international market, mainly because of the lack of consideration locally, he told VOA.



Artists coming home

Artist Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo has exhibited  and lived  around the world, gathering acclaim for his complex collages, which are reminiscent of the work of French painter Henri Matisse.



But he chose to return home, despite the challenges. He now works at a recently established incubator for young Congolese talent in Kinshasa.



We need to build the art scene and to make something since the people can buy artwork in Congo, he told VOA. And now, people are starting to buy, but its a big process, its a big challenge.



The studio also features a rare sight on the Congolese art landscape: Women artists. Dina Ekanga, who creates images by pounding nails into a board to make the shape of human figures, is one of two women among the 10 artists in residence here.



It is not easy at all, she said. Because the men they push you around a bit from all sides, and especially in the Congolese art scene, the market is rather difficult.

Younger artists trying to make a mark



And younger artists like painter Romario Lukau say they struggle to establish themselves on the scene. He is part of Collective Takeyi, a group of four young painters represented by Bashonga. Their works shimmer with color and vitality and sell for about $1,000 apiece.

For now, the group works from a modest house in a Kinshasa suburb, but they are dreaming big.

My biggest dream is that I would like for people to talk about Congolese art the way we talk about American art, the way we talk about German art, the way we talk about Belgian art, he said.
Mexico's top electoral court ordered Tuesday that a fifth candidate be added to the ballot for the July 1 presidential election.

Jaime "El Bronco" Rodriguez, an independent candidate often seen astride a horse in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, was kept off the ballot last month by the electoral institute for not collecting enough legitimate signatures. He had argued that the institute did not allow him to timely review and challenge all of the rejected names.

But the court ruled early Tuesday in a 4-3 vote that Rodriguez was not given a sufficient opportunity to contest signatures. It said he should be added immediately since the official campaign period began nearly two weeks ago.

Independent candidates were required to gather signatures from 866,000 people, or 1 percent of the electorate on a national level, from 17 of Mexico's 31 states, plus the capital district.

In a statement Tuesday, the court said Rodriguez had successfully challenged nearly 63,000 signatures that had been rejected by the electoral institute and was only about 16,000 names short, which could be found upon further review.

Rodriguez is the second independent candidate in the race, joining Margarita Zavala, a lawyer and former lawmaker and first lady. He won the governorship of Nuevo Leon as an independent in 2015.

Early Tuesday, he tweeted "God is great, thank you."

Zavala, in an interview with Radio Formula, said she disagreed with the court's decision and worried that applying the rules differently to some candidates would generate uncertainty in the electoral process. She has split from the National Action Party, which carried her husband Felipe Calderon to the presidency in 2006, to forge her own independent candidacy.

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Morena party remains the election front-runner.

It is not clear which candidate is most likely to lose votes to Rodriguez.
A military court has referred 36 defendants accused of taking part in deadly church bombings to Egypt's top religious authority for consideration of the death penalty, state television reported Tuesday.

The defendants are suspected of involvement in bombings that hit three Coptic churches  one at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral in December 2016 that killed at least 25, and two that hit churches in Alexandria and Tanta on the same day in April 2017 and killed more than 45 people.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for all three attacks.

Egypt requires that courts refer cases to the Grand Mufti for consideration of the death penalty ahead of a final verdict, although his decision is nonbinding.

The court is expected to issue a verdict May 15, and 11 of the 36 are being tried in absentia, a lawyer involved in the case told Reuters.

Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek said previously that some of the suspects held leadership positions in Islamic State and formed cells in Cairo and the southern province of Qena to carry out the church attacks.

Some of the defendants are also accused of carrying out an attack on a checkpoint in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen in 2017.

Egypt is facing a more than three-year-old insurgency led by Islamic State that intensified after Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a former general and now the president, led the military in overthrowing Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify publicly Tuesday before a group of U.S. senators after apologizing for the way his company handled data for millions of users.

He is due to appear before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, and on Wednesday will go before House lawmakers.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said users "deserve to know how their information is shared and secure," and that he wants to explore with Zuckerberg ways to balance safety with innovation.

Zuckerberg met privately with lawmakers in Washington on Monday and released written testimony saying the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and the data of its members from being misused.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said.Zuckerberg was called to testify after news broke last month that personal data of millions of Facebook users had been harvested without their knowledge by Cambridge Analytica, a British voter profiling company that U.S. President Donald Trumps campaign hired to target likely supporters in 2016.



WATCH: Video report on Facebook Data Breach



Cambridge Analytica connection



Prior to 2016, Facebook allowed a British researcher to create an app on Facebook on which about 200,000 users divulged personal information that was subsequently shared with Cambridge Analytica. The number of affected Facebook users multiplied exponentially because the app also collected data about friends, relatives and acquaintances of everyone who installed it.



Cambridge Analytica said it had data for 30 million of Facebooks 2.2 billion users.

On Capitol Hill, U.S. lawmakers signaled they want action, not just contrition, from social media executives.



If we dont rein in the misuse of social media, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, Bill Nelson of Florida, told reporters after meeting privately with Zuckerberg Monday.



Meanwhile, Facebook announced it is starting to notify tens of millions of users, most of them in the United States, whose personal data may have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

New cyber firewalls



The social media giant is also empowering all its users to shut off third-party access to their apps and is setting up cyber firewalls to ensure that users data is not unwittingly transmitted by others in their social network.



For years, Congress took a largely hands-off approach to regulating the internet. Some analysts believe that is about to change after the Facebook data breach, as well as a cascade of revelations about Russian cyber-meddling.



At this point in time, it's really up to Congress and the federal agencies to step up and take some responsibility for protecting privacy, for regulating Facebook as a commercial service which it clearly is, Marc Rotenberg, president of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, told VOA. Weve gone for many years in the United States believing that self-regulation could work  that Facebook and the other tech giants could police themselves, but I think very few people still believe that.
Facebook users in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, were especially exposed to recent data privacy breaches due to high user numbers and the popularity of an app at the core of the problem, analysts believe.

According to Facebook figures, the data of 1.175 million users in the Philippines may have been improperly shared with London-based voter profiling firm Cambridge Analytica. That estimate is the second highest, single-country total after the United States. Indonesia ranks third at around 1.1 million people exposed to data breaches. Vietnam was ninth with 427,000.

Filipinos had also enjoyed a personality quiz app that spread fast due to the sharing of results, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of social causes in Manila. The app is suspected as a source of Cambridge Analytica data.

In Vietnam, where the media outlet VnExpress International estimates 64 million of the countrys 92 million people use Facebook, younger people like the outlet to show off, technology specialists say. Indonesians use it to communicate for free across their 13,000 islands, some impoverished.

The Silicon Valley social media giant said that beginning April 9 it would add a News Feed link for users to see what information they have shared on which apps.

I think we are in a position to demand an explanation directly from the officials at Facebook considering that we are the second highest country in net exposure, Reyes said.

Why Southeast Asia?

Data from about 87 million users worldwide may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, Facebook says.

Southeast Asia faced exposure because a rise in the number of affordable mobile phones has expanded consumption of news on social media, said Athina Karatzogianni, associate professor in media, communication and sociology at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

Total smartphone shipments in emerging Southeast Asia came to about 100 million last year, according to the market research firm IDC.

In parts of the subcontinent, people rely on Facebook as an easy, free means to share news and images with family or friends across long distances, said Lam Nguyen, country manager with IDC.

App sharing in the Philippines

Filipinos worry that Cambridge Analyticas parent company crunched the results of the personality quiz app to grasp voter psychology for targeted advertising on behalf of political campaigns, Reyes said. It may have taken the Philippine 2016 election as a laboratory for the U.S. presidential race later that year, he said.

Cambridge Analytica says independent research contractor GSR licensed data from no more than 30 million users and that no information was used for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The organization took legal action against GSR.

The use of personal data in order to influence the outcome of elections is really a cause for concern, Reyes said.

The Philippine National Privacy Commission has required Facebook to give updates on controlling against any further risk, the commission said Friday. Any data leaked would have arisen from use of University of Cambridge academic psychologist Aleksandr Kogans personality quiz app, it said.

Facebook rage in Vietnam

In Vietnam, Facebook took off about 11 years ago along with emerging wealth, including access to other foreign goods and services.

A lot of people use Facebook to show off travel photos, said Phuong Hong, communications director with an app developer in Ho Chi Minh City. Such elaborate public posting exposes users to information harvesting, she said.

In Vietnam, people (are) more open and they dont as much realize the impact if they publish all their information on social channels, she said.

Just some highly well educated people who already know about the after effects will try to limit it by themselves, but most of young, from 14 to 25, and even older people 25 to 40, they just go to that site, create an account and just follow to what Facebook asks for to fill in the information, she added.

Facebook users in Vietnam may remember a breach four years ago that let phone numbers and e-mails find their way to marketers, Nguyen said.

When the (Cambridge Analytica) story came to light, I think a lot of Facebook users here in Vietnam were kind of like ah, OK, so now it comes to light, but we already know our personal data have been breached a couple of years ago already," he said.

Vietnams national defense and diplomatic officials met last week to discuss internet security with an eye toward Facebook, VnExpress International said.

Indonesia, Facebook discuss abuse

In Indonesia, the communications minister met the Indonesian Facebook public policy head April 5 to discuss any abuse of user data, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics said on its website.

The number of Indonesian Facebook users had reached 130 million in January, 6 percent of the world total.
A fossil finger bone dating back about 90,000 years that was unearthed in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert is pointing to what scientists are calling a new understanding of how our species came out of Africa en route to colonizing the world.

Researchers said on Monday the middle bone of an adult's middle finger found at site called Al Wusta is the oldest Homo sapiens fossil outside of Africa and the immediately adjacent eastern Mediterranean Levant region, as well as the first ancient human fossil from the Arabian peninsula.

While the Nefud Desert is now a veritable sea of sand, it was hospitable when this individual lived - a grasslands teeming with wildlife alongside a freshwater lake.

Our species first appeared in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago. Scientists previously thought Homo sapiens departed Africa in a single, rapid migration some 60,000 years ago, journeying along the coastlines and subsisting on marine resources, said anthropologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

This fossil of an intermediate phalanx bone, 1.2 inches (3.2 cm) long, suggests our species exited Africa far earlier.

"This supports a model not of a single rapid dispersal out of Africa 60,000 years ago, but a much more complicated scenario of migration. And this find, together with other finds in the last few years, suggests ... Homo sapiens is moving out of Africa multiple times during many windows of opportunity during the last 100,000 years or so," Petraglia said.

The discovery also shows these people were moving across the interior of the land, not coastlines, Petraglia added.

Numerous animal fossils were discovered, including hippos, wild cattle, antelopes and ostriches, University of Oxford archeologist Huw Groucutt said. Bite marks on fossilized bones indicated carnivores lived there, too.

Stone tools that hunter-gatherers used also were found.

"The big question now is what became of the ancestors of the population to which the Al Wusta human belonged," Groucutt said.

"We know that shortly after they lived, the rains failed and the area dried up. Did this population die out? Did it survive further south in Arabia, where even today there are mountainous areas with quite high rainfall and coastal regions which receive monsoonal rains?" Groucutt added. "Or did the drying environment mean that some of these people were 'pushed' further into Eurasia, as part of a worldwide colonization?"

The research was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

This story was written by Reuters.
Future Russian gas transit flows through Ukraine to Europe may be between 10 and 15 billion cubic metres per year, Alexei Miller, head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, said on Tuesday, which is a significant decline from current levels.

Miller issued his comments after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the planned new Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany could not go ahead without clarity on Ukraines role as a transit route for gas.

We have never raised an issue about abandoning the Ukrainian transit. However, the Russian resource base has been moving northward and there wont be the same resources in the central gas transportation corridor as it was in the past, Miller said in a statement.

Thats why a certain transit could still be in place, in the amount of 10-15 bcm per year, but the Ukrainian side has to explain the viability of the new transit contract, he said.

He did not give a time frame for when the transit could be 10-15 bcm a year.

Ukraine has been a key route for carrying Russian gas to Europe where it supplies around a third of gas needs, but Moscow and Kiev have clashed frequently over energy.

Last year, the transit amounted to more than 93 bcm, while Gazproms total exports to Europe and Turkey reached an all-time high of 194 bcm.

Last year, Ukraine earned around $3 billion in Russian gas transit fees.

Gazprom said last month it would terminate its gas contracts with Ukraine after it lost a court case, escalating a dispute which had left Ukraine struggling to stay warm and which the European Union said could threaten gas flows to Europe.

A Stockholm arbitration court ordered Gazprom in February to pay more than $2.5 billion to Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz - a ruling meant to conclude a long legal battle that has run alongside Ukraines broader political stand-off with Russia.

Gazprom wants to bypass Ukraine as an export route and plans to build two more undersea gas pipelines to Europe: TurkStream to Turkey and Nord Stream 2 to Germany.

Eastern European and Baltic states fear Nord Stream 2, planned to run through the Baltic Sea, could increase reliance on Russian gas and undermine Ukraines role as a gas transit route.

The plans for the pipelines were given new impetus after relations between Moscow and Kiev plunged as Russia-leaning president Viktor Yanukovich fled Ukraine in 2014 following street protests and a pro-Moscow revolt subsequently flared in eastern Ukraine.

The current deal between Russia and Ukraine on gas purchases and transit expires at the end of 2019 and Kiev has been worrying about losing its transfer fees for shipping the Russian gas westwards to Europe.
Hungary's Central European University, an international school embroiled in a conflict with the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said Monday it had signed an agreement with the City of Vienna to open a new satellite campus there.

CEU has found itself in the eye of a political storm since last year, when Hungary passed a law setting tougher conditions for the awarding of licenses to foreign universities.

Critics said the law would hurt academic freedom and was especially aimed at CEU, founded by Hungarian-born George Soros after the collapse of Communism and considered a bastion of independent scholarship in the region.

The new law stipulated that CEU must open a branch in its "home state" of New York alongside its campus in Budapest and secure a bilateral agreement of support from the U.S. government.

The university has since set up a U.S. site at Bard College in New York State.

Orban's ruling Fidesz party, which won Sunday's election with a landslide, vilified Soros in a fierce anti-immigrant election campaign that helped the 54-year-old premier win a third successive term in power.

CEU said last month it was in talks with Vienna about a memorandum of understanding that would enable it to open a satellite campus there, complementing its Budapest campus and its U.S. site.

"CEU has signed an MoU with the City of Vienna and looks forward to working with city representatives to open a satellite campus there. We consider Bard College in New York a first satellite campus and Vienna would be a second satellite campus," said CEU International Media Relations Manager Colleen Sharkey.

CEU is still waiting for its agreement with New York to be signed by the Hungarian government, prolonging a period of uncertainty over the Budapest operation.

"As we have said repeatedly, Budapest is our home and this is where we want to stay. We have no reason to believe that the Hungarian government would not sign the agreement ... but we are still waiting for the signature to bring the lexCEU issue to a close," Sharkey added. She said the Vienna campus would be functioning from the autumn of 2019.

The government has said it did not want to close down CEU and only wanted to ensure all universities are governed by the same rules.

Orban has been locked in a series of running battles with the EU, where Western states and the Brussels-based executive Commission decry what they see as his authoritarian leanings, the squeezing of the opposition and the free media.

The crackdown on CEU triggered mass protests in Budapest last year, and the European Commission took Hungary to court over the legislation targeting the university.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked it to rule on whether it has jurisdiction over the deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, a possible crime against humanity, according to a filing published on Monday.

A ruling affirming jurisdiction could pave the way for Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate the deportation of many thousands of Rohingya, though Myanmar is unlikely to cooperate.

"This is not an abstract question but a concrete one, affecting whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction ... to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute," Bensouda said in the filing.

The main reason for doubt over jurisdiction is that, while Bangladesh is a member of the court, Myanmar is not.

Bensouda argued that, given the cross-border nature of the crime of deportation, a ruling in favour of ICC jurisdiction would be in line with established legal principles.

But she acknowledged uncertainty around the definition of the crime of deportation and limits of the court's jurisdiction.

Her request is the first of its kind filed at the court. She asked the court to call a hearing to hear her arguments, as well as those of other interested parties.

The magistrate assigned to consider the request, Congolese judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, will have considerable leeway in determining how to proceed.

According to the United Nations, some 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled their homes into Bangladesh after militant attacks in August last year triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said constitutes ethnic cleansing.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects that charge, saying its forces have been waging a legitimate campaign against Rohingya who attacked government forces. Many in Myanmar regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
"The children feel lonely because their father is gone," says Hassiba, who is raising her seven children alone in a desert camp outside of Mosul. "Other children beat them, saying, 'Your father was a terrorist.'"

Her husband was an accused Islamic State fighter. He is either in jail or dead, but she doesn't know which. Abdul Kareem, her 12-year-old son, now provides the family's only income by transporting random items in his cart. On his best days, he makes about $2.

Abdul Kareem is among tens of thousands of Iraqi children whose fathers were accused militants, arrested or killed in Islamic State's losing battle. And while these children mourn, the rest of the world celebrates their loss.

"I tell them to be patient and leave it to God," Hassiba says. "I tell my children the other kids are lying about their father and not to fight."

Still, she says, she fears the children will grow up angry without community acceptance and education. "I would even educate my daughters if there was a school," she says. "I want my children to be educated to prevent any desire for revenge."

Hassiba says she does not know if her husband fought for IS, but she does know her children saw him only as a loving father.

"We worked together selling things from our cart," says Mubarak, 13, Hassiba's oldest child, who has battled an unknown mental illness since long before the days of IS. "Life was fun."

Protecting lives before minds

Hundreds of thousands of other children are also traumatized by war and extremism in Iraq, and authorities and aid organizations are struggling to rebuild schools and develop mental health programs for all of them. But special programs to treat children of IS fighters are almost non-existent.

In the camps, the constant scramble to provide enough food, protection and emergency health care for families still fleeing their homes are the most urgent issues, according to aid workers.

Many of the families are the wives and children of IS fighters, forced from their homes by neighbors, local leaders, or other IS victims angered by three years of brutal, extremist rule.

Providing care specific to the children of IS could do more harm than good as groups seek revenge on IS supporters  both real and perceived, says Ardalan Maroof, a camp manager for the International Organization for Migration in northern Iraq.

Special programs could bring unwanted attention, he adds, making outsiders see certain camps as "IS camps" rather than camps for displaced families.

Already, he says, there are constant threats.

"Armed groups can take them," he explains. "A thousand families recently asked for internal relocation inside the camp in less than a month."

Dreams to forget

On the other side of the camp, in a tent crowded with women and children, Bahija Idris says she tries to forget her husband, who was killed fighting for IS. But her son, 5-year-old Mustafa, cannot.

"He dreamt today his father left money under his pillow," she explains wistfully. "When he woke up, he was looking for the money."

WATCH: Children Find Healing at Mosul Amusement Park



Everyone in the tent is mourning fathers, husbands or brothers who joined IS and are now dead or in jail. Local leaders say their best hope for recovery is to forget.

"We have to forget things or we will all go crazy," says Hajjer, a teenage dressmaker who says the men in her family joined IS after they were all "tricked by religion."

"I nearly went crazy when I saw the picture of my dead brother," she adds. "Also, when they arrested my father."

Generation of trauma

Dozens of kilometers north of the camp, in eastern Mosul, teachers say even in the safest, most rebuilt former-IS areas, education and mental health treatment for children is lacking.

"The villages around the city have no water and electricity, so people are crowding into this area," explains Mothar Haitham, a high school Arabic teacher in Mohandiseen, an upscale neighborhood of stately homes and small businesses. "I have 73 students in my class."

There is a plan to address mental trauma, he adds, but it hasn't yet been implemented. At the moment, the Iraqi government and organizations like the U.N. Children's Agency, UNICEF, are still working to simply reopen many of the schools.

"While living in areas like Mosul, simple, playful activities were also curtailed and children were essentially robbed of their childhood," explains Laila Ali, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Iraq. "Once the offensive started, children and families fled the conflict under extremely traumatizing circumstances, often under intense bombardment, which further compounded their shock."

Neighbors in Mohandiseen see educating the children whose parents had nothing to do with IS as a priority, but they pause to consider the special needs of the children of IS.

"It only makes sense that they will grow up angry if they don't get help," says Mohammad, 28, standing outside a small butcher shop. "IS killed my brother. Do you think if I see an IS fighter I won't want to kill him?"
Italian President Sergio Mattarella will hold a second round of talks about the formation of a coalition government on April 12-13, his office said on Tuesday, with no indication that any breakthrough is at hand.

Mattarella has the power to name a prime minister, but elections on March 4 resulted in a hung parliament and a first round of consultations ended in stalemate last week.

Since then, the various political blocs seem to have drifted even further apart, firing daily barbs at each other and showing no sign of wanting to lay aside the rancor of the election campaign and work together on a joint project.

Financial markets have so far shown little alarm about the prospect of prolonged deadlock in Italy, one of the euro zone's most heavily indebted nations.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement emerged as the largest single party from last month's vote, while a rightist alliance, including the anti-migrant League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, won the biggest bloc of seats.

5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio has suggested forming a government with the League, but has refused to countenance any accord with Berlusconi, who has been convicted of tax fraud and is standing trial for bribing witnesses  a charge he denies.

The League unexpectedly overtook Forza Italia at the ballot box and its chief, Matteo Salvini, has assumed the mantle of leader of the conservative bloc. He has rejected the suggestion that he should split from his allies to hook up with 5-Star.

Looking to put on a display of unity, rightist leaders will see the president together on Thursday, rather than meeting him separately, as they did in the initial round of consultations.

However, Di Maio has not budged on his refusal even to talk with Forza Italia. There is "zero percent chance that 5-Star will go into government with Berlusconi and the center-right crowd", he said on Twitter on Monday.

"Di Maio, right now, interests me less than zero," the League's Salvini responded.

The third force in parliament, the center-left Democratic Party (PD), has reiterated that it has no intention of helping either side to form a government and plans to spend the coming parliamentary term in opposition after suffering a stinging defeat last month.

With coalition talks apparently going nowhere, political leaders have gone back on the campaign trail for regional elections later this month, suggesting they will wait for these to pass before considering the sort of painful compromises needed to form a government.

If Mattarella fails to overcome the impasse he would have to call new elections, almost certainly in the autumn, but a senior source in his office said he was determined to avoid this.

Italy has a long history of finding a way out of apparently intractable political stalemate and its shortest-lived parliament in the modern era lasted two years.
Catalonia's parliament made a second attempt Monday to put forward as the region's new leader a pro-independence politician awaiting trial on charges of rebellion, after a U.N. rights group said he should be allowed to run for office.

Lawmakers first selected Jordi Sanchez in March, but that bid was dropped as he was unable to attend the investiture ceremony, the government in Madrid having jailed him for helping orchestrate pro-independence protests last year.

The investiture that parliament's speaker announced for Friday  but which Spain's Supreme Court seems likely to block  would mark Catalonia's fourth attempt to choose a president since a loose alliance of secessionist groups won an election there in December.

Spain's central authorities called that vote having taken charge of the wealthy northeastern region in October, when it declared independence in an act that the courts said was illegal and that landed several members of the regional cabinet and civic leaders behind bars.

As well as Sanchez, Catalan lawmakers have since the ballot put forward former leader Carles Puigdemont and his ally Jordi Turull as potential presidents.

Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago after his administration's declaration of independence, withdrew his candidacy on March 1, and Turull fell short of majority support.

If a new leader is not named before the end of May, Catalonia will be forced to call another election.

Parliament speaker Roger Torrent said on Monday that Sanchez  the former head of pro-independence civic group Catalan National Assembly  was being nominated for a second time, following the message from the United Nations Human Rights Committee in support of his political rights.

"If the Supreme Court does not comply with the [U.N.] resolution it will be irreparably damaging to the political rights of Jordi Sanchez and the Spanish state will not be meeting its international obligations," Torrent said as he announced Friday's investiture.

In letters last month to Spanish authorities and Sanchez's lawyers, the U.N. committee requested the state take all steps to ensure he be allowed to exercise his right to stand for office, while noting it had reached no decision "on the substance of the matter under consideration."

The judge in the case against Sanchez appears unlikely to row back on a ban on him attending parliament, however, with Spain's Supreme Court having ruled he could not leave jail for March's investiture session.
Last October, Jason Aldean was in a Las Vegas hospital visiting some of the victims injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival a week earlier.

On that Sunday afternoon, the country star turned to his longtime manager, Clarence Spalding.



"He looked at me and said, 'This will be the hardest thing I ever do,'" Spalding recalled. "And it was."



Aldean, the reigning Academy of Country Music's entertainer of the year with a new album out this Friday, has built his career and reputation on his live shows that entertain tens of thousands every year. He had returned to meet face-to-face with those who had survived a terrible trauma during his performance at the festival, which had left him with lingering feelings of guilt.



In one room, a woman was still in a coma as he stood by her bed. Aldean recorded a message on her cell phone, promising to bring her to a show when she got better. Those moments in those hospital rooms were heavy with emotion, Spalding said.



"Jason would walk in and somebody who had been shot in the arm, leg, face or wherever would just start crying because it was such an emotional thing to see him," Spalding said.



Aldean was onstage when the gunman started shooting with high-powered weapons at the fans from hotel room window across the street from the outdoor Route 91 Harvest Festival. That night in October, 59 people were killed and hundreds more injured in what has become the nation's deadliest mass shooting in modern history.



The Macon, Georgia-born star has been singing about small-town, working class life since he started in Nashville two decades ago, and said he now feels a connection to the survivors of another recent shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.



"Unless anybody has witnessed anything like that or been a part of it, it's really hard for people to really understand where you're coming from on that stuff," Aldean said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "It's like the kids from the school in Florida, that shooting. I get it, man. I understand how they are feeling."



About 40 members of his band and crew, as well as his pregnant wife, Brittany, were all there at the festival. Spalding said two of their tour buses were shot, as well as their lighting board and stage. Aldean's bass player found a bullet fragment in his bass guitar.



The aftermath for Aldean has been complicated. He said he felt thankful that his family, crew and friends weren't injured, but also guilt for all the people who were there because they wanted to see him play. And then he felt anger and disbelief.



"You start doing that thing, like, 'Man, did that really happen? It seems so crazy,'"' Aldean said. "You just sit there and relive it a thousand times a day."

His recovery was helped by talking with his wife and his band and crew about what they experienced. And then he met those survivors.



"Going back to the hospital, going back to Vegas and seeing those people. Seeing some of the strength they were having. People laid up in the hospital and smiling and laughing and just being glad they were alive. That sort of stuff helped me to look at it in a different view," Aldean said. "Those people are here and pushing on."



Two months to the day after the shooting, Aldean's son, Memphis, was born and finally Aldean found some relief from the spiraling thoughts in his head.



"Really to me, he just gave me something else to focus on. Something else to think about on a daily basis," Aldean said.

And although other country musicians have spoken out about the need for gun control since the shooting, Aldean has avoided wading into the political debates about guns. "It's a no-win situation," Aldean said. "I think no matter what you say, whether you're for gun control or not, I mean, you're setting yourself up to be crucified in the public eye or in the media."



However, Aldean, who is a gun owner, said there are flaws in the nation's laws regarding gun ownership that need addressing.



"It's too easy to get guns, first and foremost," Aldean said. "When you can walk in somewhere and you can get one in 5 minutes, do a background check that takes 5 minutes, like how in-depth is that background check? Those are the issues I have. It's not necessarily the guns themselves or that I don't think people should have guns. I have a lot of them."



But his concern is that these tragedies are just used as fodder for the political arguments that have dominated any discussion about gun control.



"Nobody is looking at what the actual issue is and really how to come to an agreement and make a smart decision," Aldean said.



This Friday, Aldean is releasing his eighth studio album, "Rearview Town," which he had been working on all throughout last year in between touring. It features his bluesy new single, "You Make It Easy," which was co-written by Florida Georgia Line, as well as "Drowns the Whiskey," a duet with Miranda Lambert. Aldean said the title track appealed to him as a metaphor for his own life.



"'Rearview Town' just kind of says you're sort of putting some of the things that have kind of weighted you down and been on your shoulders," Aldean said. "You're putting that behind you and you're moving on and looking forward to everything in store."
U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday demanded better personal data protection at Facebook, whose CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, weathered heated questions from two Senate panels over data breaches affecting tens of millions of users of the mammoth social media platform.

"There was clearly a breach of consumer trust and a likely improper transfer of data," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican.

"If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy," the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, Bill Nelson of Florida, said. "If Facebook and other online companies will not or cannot stop the privacy invasions, then we are going to have to  we, the Congress."

Zuckerberg was called to testify after news emerged that the personal data of millions of Facebook users had been harvested without their knowledge by Cambridge Analytica, a British voter-profiling company that President Donald Trump's campaign hired to target likely supporters in 2016.

WATCH: Zuckerberg Takes Responsibility for Inadequately Protecting User Data

Zuckerberg repeatedly has apologized and promised to make amends, and did so again on Capitol Hill. The social media mogul spoke with pride about Facebook's ability to connect people for the common good, but he admitted the company had not been proactive in safeguarding its users from misuse of data or those sowing malign messages.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said. "I started Facebook, I run it. And I'm responsible for what happens here."

Earlier this week, Facebook began notifying 87 million users, most of them in the United States, whose personal data might have been mined by Cambridge Analytica.



Zuckerberg pledged that Facebook would scrutinize and, when necessary, block other firms from gaining access to the platform and empower its 2.2 billion users to wall off their apps from third parties.

Senators also sought assurances that Facebook and other social media platforms are blocking fake profiles originating in Russia that spread divisive messages to sow discord during and after the 2016 U.S. election.



We will be verifying the identity of any advertiser whos running a political ad, Zuckerberg said. And were also going to do that for [Facebook user] pages  that will make it significantly harder for Russian interference efforts or other inauthentic efforts to spread misinformation through the network.



Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy noted that misuse of Facebook extends far beyond the United States, saying that Facebook has been used to spread hate speech against Burmas Rohingya minority.



Recently U.N. investigators blamed Facebook for playing a role in inciting possible genocide in Myanmar, and there has been genocide there, Leahy said.



Were working on this, Zuckerberg responded. Were hiring dozens of more Burmese language content reviewers. Because hate speech is very language-specific, its hard to [detect] it without people who speak the local language, and we need to ramp up our effort there dramatically.



Until now, social media companies have been largely self-regulating. Several senators said Congress must consider steps to protect users of the platforms.



What do we tell our constituents, given whats happened here, why we should let you self-regulate? South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham asked.



My position is not that there should be no regulation, Zuckerberg said. I think the real question, as the internet becomes more important in peoples lives, is: What is the right regulation?



The Facebook CEO promised to submit proposals for regulating social media companies and work with lawmakers to craft legislation.



Facebook faces a backlash from some consumer groups. Members of #DeleteFacebook gathered outside Tuesdays hearing on Capitol Hill.



We knew that they had your data, but the extent of what is being breached is a concern for me. What do they know about my children and my grandchildren? said a woman who identified herself as Alison.



Zuckerberg is to testify before a House panel Wednesday.



Lawmakers pledged to hold separate hearings focusing on Cambridge Analytica in the near future.
The U.N. human rights office is calling for the release of thousands of people in Libya who are being held in unlawful detention by armed groups and subjected to torture and other abuse.

A report, published with the U.N. Support Mission in Libya, found that almost anyone in Libya is liable to be picked up and arbitrarily detained in one of the many prisons run by armed groups, including those affiliated with the state government. The report says thousands of men, women and children across Libya are unlawfully deprived of their liberty and subjected to appalling abuses and violations, including torture.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell says people are taken and unlawfully imprisoned based on their tribal or family links and perceived political persuasions.

"Since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medical professionals, journalists and politicians. Hostage-taking for prisoner exchanges or ransom is also common," Throssell said.

The report  focusing on people in detention between December 2015 and January 2018  found that some 6,500 people have been held in official state prisons; however, it says there are no available statistics on the thousands held in prisons run by armed groups. It says people detained in those places are most at risk of torture and other human rights violations or abuses.

The report says these people lack all protections because armed groups routinely deny them any contact with the outside world, causing suffering to family members who do not know the fate of their loved ones.

The U.N. human rights office is calling for the release of all those arbitrarily detained. It urges the Libyan authorities to publicly condemn torture, ill-treatment and summary executions of those unlawfully imprisoned. It adds that people guilty of crimes must be held accountable.

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 uprising in which longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and later killed.
Mexico said on Monday it will review all forms of cooperation with the United States, including efforts to combat powerful drug cartels, in a sign of mounting frustration over President Donald Trump's antagonistic attitude toward the country.

President Enrique Pena Nieto gave the order to his cabinet in a meeting on Sunday after a week of heightened bilateral tensions, during which he rebuked Trump for repeatedly stoking conflict and chafing against Mexico.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the review would cover all aspects of the relationship, ranging from border security and migration to trade and the fight against drug gangs.

Mexico has long been identified as the leading transshipment point for illicit drugs entering the U.S. market.

Noting that no decision had yet been made to suspend or reduce collaboration, Videgaray said the government had to act given the degree of public support that had been expressed in Mexico for Pena Nieto's tougher stance.

"The key thing here is that it's not just words. This stance needs to have practical consequences," said Videgaray, who as recently as February had said Mexico's relationship with the United States was closer than it had been with previous governments.

The review will last "a few weeks" and take place under the aegis of the foreign ministry, Videgaray said. After that, Pena Nieto would make decisions based on the "very public, notorious differences we have today with the United States," he said.

The White House referred a request for comment on the announcement to the State Department. There was no immediate response from the State Department.

The Mexican government's decision was backed by opposition lawmakers, who said it vindicated the Senate's call last week for the government to end cooperation on migration and security with the United States in response to Trump deploying the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Donald Trump has to understand that he must stop threatening, blackmailing and lying in the relationship if he wants Mexico to carry on cooperating on things that matter to him," said Laura Rojas, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the opposition National Action Party.

After Trump set out his National Guard plans, Pena Nieto chided him in unusually forthright terms, telling him not to take out his domestic policy "frustration" on Mexico.

The border plan took shape after Trump accused Mexico of doing next to "nothing" to stop illegal immigrants reaching the United States when news broke of a "caravan" of Central Americans organized by a human rights group moving north.

Trump again threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the caravan quickly began dispersing when Mexican authorities moved in to register the migrants.

Trump, who launched his election campaign in 2015 by calling Mexicans who come to the United States rapists, has caused profound anger in Mexico with his repeated broadsides on trade and migration, as well as his plans for a southern border wall.

The latest Trump spat comes as Mexico, the United States and Canada are at a crucial phase in talks to rework NAFTA. The Mexican government has long said the renegotiation should be couched within a review of the entire relationship.

Many Mexicans would like to see the government take a tougher line with the U.S. president. The Mexican public is far more united in its antipathy toward Trump than it is in support of its own leading politicians.

Mexico's next presidential election takes place on July 1, and the main candidates have all upbraided Trump for his digs against the country. The candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is in third place in most polls.

Pena Nieto, who cannot stand for re-election, has one of the lowest approval ratings of any modern Mexican president, but tends to benefit from taking a firm stand against Trump.

Despite heated public rhetoric, some senior Mexican officials say privately they believe Trump's Twitter attacks in the past week were more intended to fire up his voter base and attack his domestic opponents than hurt Mexico.

Videgaray said NAFTA talks would continue at the end of this week at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, which government officials responsible for the renegotiation are expected to attend.
Arizona is sending 225 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and Governor Doug Ducey said more troops would be deployed Tuesday.

"Border security is a top concern here. Two-thirds of our border already has a wall. If we want to fill in the other third with a wall, I would welcome that. I don't like how our border is wide open and unsecure, specifically in the Tucson [border city and county] sector. I also think we can use boots on the ground and technology," Ducey told reporters Monday.

Arizona joins Texas, which sent 250 Guard troops to the border Friday.

The other two border states, New Mexico and California, have not called up any guardsmen, although New Mexico's governor has indicated that the state will participate in the activation. California's governor has not said what his state will do.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis signed an order last week authorizing up to 4,000 National Guard troops to secure the border. The order provided Pentagon funding for the troops through September.

Mattis' directive also specified that Guard troops cannot participate in law enforcement and could be armed only when necessary for self-defense. A Defense Department memo said Guard members will not "interact with migrants or other persons detained" without Mattis' approval.

President Donald Trump has said that he wants the military to remain at the border until a wall is built. But in its recently passed budget, Congress approved funding for only a limited section of new wall and some repair work.

The National Guard are 435,000 reserve soldiers who can be called up by either the federal government or the states. Every state has its own National Guard, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Governors often send their guardsmen to deal with natural disasters or with civil unrest, such as rioting.

The U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to use the National Guard to "execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions."

The number of people apprehended while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border declined last year, but has been creeping up in 2018. Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced that more than 50,000 people were detained trying to cross in March. That is up from 16,500 in March of last year, but still not as high as apprehensions in March of 2013 and 2014.

Border apprehensions remain well below the numbers when former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the border in 2006 and 2010 respectively.
Brazil's government has been told that development projects, including hydropower dams, in protected areas can no longer go ahead without the prior approval of lawmakers.

Last week's ruling by the supreme court followed the use by the government in recent years of the controversial "provisional measure", a legal instrument that allowed the president to approve projects by reducing the size of protected areas.

Campaigners said the decision should ensure the country's forests and reserves, including the Amazon rainforest, were better protected.

"This decision puts an end to a spree of provisional measures in the name of environmental de-protection," said Mauricio Guetta, a lawyer at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), an advocacy group.

In recent years, the government has used the measure to open up protected areas for controversial projects, including building two of Brazil's largest hydropower dams - the Jirau and Santo Antonio - in the Amazon.

The use of the measure to shrink protected areas with immediate effect had brought "irreversible consequences, irreversible damage to the environment," Guetta told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The eight-judge bench ruled unanimously that using the provisional measure to reduce the size of protected areas for any reason was unconstitutional.



It followed a lawsuit in which the court heard the measure had been used in 2012 to allow trees in six protected areas of the Amazon to be felled to make way for five hydropower dams.

"The (provisional measure), later converted into law, reduced the level of environmental protection by deactivating due legislative process," supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes said in a statement.

The court said the ruling would not affect the five hydropower plants in question because the provisional measure had already been enacted in law, and some are operating.

Guetta said the ruling meant any changes to protected areas must be first approved by law, and local communities should be properly consulted about projects planned on their land.

"The government has been trying to reduce by more than 1 million hectares the area under conservation in the southern part of Amazonas state. Now this initiative is officially vetoed because of the supreme court's decision," he said.

Environmentalists say increasing swaths of land, including the Amazon forest, are being felled for grazing and cropland, and for development projects.

Deforestation in the Amazon fell in the August 2016 to July 2017 monitoring period for the first time in three years, although the 6,624 square kilometers (2,557 square miles) cleared of forest remains well above the low recorded in 2012 and targets for slowing climate change.
Chinas continued forced deportation of North Korean defectors, who face imprisonment or even death upon return to the repressive state, has received muted international criticism, as diplomatic efforts have intensified to negotiate a denuclearization deal with Pyongyang.

In the first three months of 2018, China apprehended at least 41 undocumented North Korean migrants, who crossed the Sino-Korean border trying to escape extreme poverty or political persecution under the authoritarian Kim Jong Un government, and more than 100 others between July 2016 and December 2017, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Continued crackdown

China classifies these North Korean escapees, or defectors as they are often called, as illegal economic migrants, and forcibly returns them to North Korea, despite knowing they may be tortured under interrogation, sent to live in harsh conditions in forced labor camps or even sentenced to death.

The Chinese crackdown on these defectors, which has intensified in recent years, could get worse as relations improve between Beijing and Pyongyang, following Kims recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

If relations between China and North Korea are good, North Korean authorities will be able to put pressure on the issue of North Korean defectors, said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and analyst with the World Institute of North Korean studies.

Kims expressed commitment to engage in denuclearization talks with South Korea and the U.S. has helped ease tensions in the China/North Korea alliance that had grown tense over Pyongyangs defiant nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

To encourage his allys increased cooperation on nuclear negotiations, Xi is likely to demonstrate greater solidarity on border security enforcement, with little regard for humanitarian concerns.

Hes using these defectors to say to Pyongyang that we are still your friend, we are committed to working with you, and we dont want these people either, said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

Robertson says Chinas forced deportation policy is in violation of a 1951 United Nations convention, which Beijing signed, recognizing the right of asylum for a people fleeing persecution.

North Korea increased the number of guards and security measures at the border in recent years to prevent defections that are viewed as a threat to the Kim governments tight control over the population.

While an estimated 100,000 undocumented North Koreans currently live in China, most near the border area, they are in constant fear of forced repatriation, say human rights activists.

Nuclear priority

Many other defectors attempt dangerous journeys through China to reach a third country like Thailand or Mongolia, where they can request asylum in South Korea.

Under South Korean law, defectors are eligible to become citizens, as they are considered part of the greater Korean Peninsula. Over 30,000 North Korean defectors have received asylum in the South.

However human rights activists are concerned the progressive government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in is taking a passive approach to supporting defectors and confronting human rights violations on North Korea, in an effort to improve inter-Korean relations and facilitate a nuclear deal with the U.S.

I had no confidence whatsoever that the South Korean government is going to push the human rights agenda with either China or North Korea at this point, said Robertson.

The Moon administration is currently preparing for an inter-Korean summit later this month where the two Koreas will discuss the nuclear issue and also possibly restarting reunions for families separated since the start of the Korean War.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a more vocal critic of North Korean human rights violations, and some defectors expect he will confront Kim on this issue when they meet for their summit, that is expected to take place in late May or early June.

Although North Korea will feel uncomfortable, I am confident that the US-North Korea summit will contribute significantly to the overall improvement of human rights in North Korea, said North Korean defector Ahn.

However other advocates have voiced concern that Trump may be using human rights criticisms as a negotiating tacit to reach a better deal to end the North Korean nuclear threat.

This story was written by VOAs Brian Padden in Seoul. Lee Yoon-jee contributed.
Iraq will take all the necessary measures to prevent cross-border attacks by Islamic State militants in Syria, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday.

Last year Iraqi warplanes carried out at least one strike on Islamic State targets inside Syria, in coordination with the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition and with the approval of the Syrian government.

Daesh are present in eastern Syria, at the Iraqi border. I will take all necessary measures if they threaten the security Iraq, Abadi told a news conference in Baghdad. He said he had communicated this position to U.S President Donald Trump on the telephone on Sunday.

He said he had asked the countrys military command to lay out all possible plans, as I am keen to protect Iraqi citizens from cross-border attacks.

An expert close to the Baghdad government told Reuters last week that Iraq may carry out special forces operations against Islamic State militants in Syria.

While troops could be dropped into Syria, the plan did not at this stage involve sending ground forces over the border, Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises several governments on Islamic State, including Iraqs, told Reuters.

Iraq has good relations with Iran and Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assads main backers in the seven-year Syrian civil war, while it also has strong support from the U.S.-led coalition.

Abadi declared victory over Islamic State within Iraq in December, although the militants have continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across the country.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces dislodged the militants from Mosul, their de facto capital in the north of the country, putting an end to the cross-border caliphate they declared in 2014.

Special forces from a number of countries already operate in Syria, including the United States, Russia and Iran. Turkey has also sent in ground forces to push Kurdish fighters away from its border.
Pope Francis is calling for ordinary Catholics to live holy lives in whatever they do, stressing that the "saints next door" are more pleasing to God than religious elites who insist on perfect adherence to rules and doctrine.



In a new document released Monday, Francis said defending the poor and migrants is "equally sacred" to defending the unborn  a not-so-veiled critique of the conservative right in the U.S. for whom opposition to abortion trumps the Gospel mandate to love and welcome the stranger.



And he warned that the vitriol that is sometimes spewed online  including by Catholic media  needs to stop since it violates God's commandment not to bear false witness, lie or "ruthlessly vilify others."



The document, "Rejoice and Be Glad," is the third apostolic exhortation of Francis' papacy, after the first two riled conservatives by condemning capitalism and suggesting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.



It was signed by Francis on March 19, the fifth anniversary of his pontificate, and perhaps fittingly reaffirmed the centrality to his papacy of the "Beatitudes," the eight biblical blessings extolling the meek, the poor and the merciful.

In the text, Francis said he had no intention of defining holiness or setting out the various ways to be made a saint. Rather, he said he wanted to re-propose the church's universal call to holiness that can be found next door, "the middle class of holiness" of a husband who loves his wife, a mother who patiently teaches her child, an employee who works with integrity.



"A saintliness that is not for just a few heroes, for exceptional people, but that represents the ordinary way to life, an ordinary existence," said Paola Bignardi, an Italian laywoman and member of the Catholic Action network who presented the document at a Vatican press conference.



Stressing that perfection isn't required, Francis listed as "enemies of holiness" those who claim a superior knowledge of laws and doctrine and force others to submit to their "myopic," absolutist interpretations. He said they reduce Jesus' teachings to a "cold and harsh logic" and a "self-centered and elitist complacency, bereft of true love."



He didn't name names, but the admonition appeared aimed at conservatives in his own church  including some Vatican-based cardinals  who have balked at his mercy-over-morals style and loose interpretations of church teaching, particularly on marriage and liturgy.



Francis said their "sinister ideology" finds expression in "an obsession with the law, an absorption with social and political advantages, a punctilious concern for the church's liturgy, doctrine and prestige."

Much of the conservative criticism of Francis has focused on his last apostolic exhortation, the 2016 "The Joy of Love," in which Francis opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.

Conservatives say the document has split the church, caused confusion and undermined church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.



Just last week, two conservative cardinals headlined a symposium in Rome that issued a declaration rejecting Francis' opening to divorcees and begging the pope to "confirm us in the faith."



Francis hasn't responded directly to four conservative cardinals who have demanded that he clarify his 2016 opening, but in the new document he noted that within the church "there legitimately coexist different ways of interpreting many aspects of doctrine and Christian life"  even if it leads to confusion.



Francis also criticized those who prioritize certain ideologies over basic Gospel teaching, listing, for example, those who focus on abortion over all other issues.



Defending the unborn, "needs to be clear, firm and passionate," he said.



"Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery and every form of rejection."



In a jab that seemed aimed in particular at anti-immigrant faithful in the U.S, Europe and beyond, he said some Catholics relegate care for migrants to a lesser issue compared to bioethical concerns.



"That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children," he wrote.



After Francis made headlines recently by seemingly denying the existence of hell, the new document strongly affirms the real and present danger of the devil who "poisons us with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy and vice."
High-tech radar units stretch along the quay of this tiny Yemeni port and underwater fortifications have been built to block attacks from unmanned boats packed with explosives.

Once a thriving coffee exporting hub, al-Mokha is now a heavily guarded forward naval base from which the United Arab Emirates monitors shipping lanes and the movements of the Houthis, their foes in a conflict that has sparked a humanitarian crisis in one of the world's poorest countries.

"They cannot get close to this port anymore, they will be under fire," said a UAE soldier loading an anti-aircraft gun onto a patrolling warship.

Winning and keeping control of Yemen's ports in the Red Sea, no matter how small, is of paramount importance to the UAE, a key partner in the Saudi-led coalition that has overseen the effort to wrest the coast from the Iran-aligned Houthis as part of a strategy to box them in around the capital, Sanaa.

Dotted along one of the most important trade routes for oil tankers heading from the Middle East to Europe, the ports  also vital entry points for Yemen's food imports and aid  are too strategic to lose.

Gulf government officials familiar with UAE and Saudi thinking said capturing the coast would block the Houthi supply lines and push them toward the negotiating table.

Maintaining that military presence would be a key condition for any political resolution of the conflict, they said.

"Saudi Arabia and UAE are very worried about Iran's influence, so they are seeking to keep some military presence on the Yemeni coasts even if the civil war ends," said a Yemeni official who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

A spokesman for the coalition did not respond to a Reuters' request for comment.

The coalition, which intervened in 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has not made major gains in Yemen since February 2017, when it seized al-Mokha. But the war shows no signs of abating.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have spent billions of dollars on the effort at a time when deficits caused by low oil prices have forced them to introduce austerity and cut spending.

Saudi Arabia's military spending hit record highs of 224 billion riyals ($59.73 billion) in 2017, according to finance ministry documents, against a budget of 191 billion. Military spending of 210 billion riyals has been approved for 2018.

The Houthis control Yemen's most populated areas, including Sanaa in the north and the main port of Hodeidah, and the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition control the rest.

The Houthis have launched a series of missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, over the last year and in late March fired a short-range ballistic missile toward a facility of Saudi oil company Aramco in Najran. Aramco said at the time its plants and facilities were not affected.

In the most recent incident, a Saudi oil tanker was attacked off Hodeidah on April 4. The Saudis blamed the Houthis but the Houthis said their target was a warship.

The latest attacks could complicate a new U.N. push to end the war. A special envoy is visiting the region this month.

At least 10,000 people have been killed and another 53,000 injured in the conflict, leaving thousands with disabilities that prevent them from physical work, according to the United Nations. Three million people were forced to flee their homes, including two million who remain displaced.

Millions are living with the threat of mass starvation and disease, including the world's worst cholera outbreak with more than 1 million suspected cases.

Strategic targets

The UAE trained, armed and paid the thousands of fighters from the southern provinces who captured the southern port of al-Mukalla from al-Qaeda militants and the port city of Aden from the Houthis. They also hold Hawlaf Port on the Socotra Island and the strategic Perim island.

They now want to take control of Hodeidah, which handles the bulk of Yemen's imports including fuel, medicine and aid, saying the Houthis are using the port to smuggle weapons from the Sunni coalition's arch-foe, Shi'ite Iran.

The Houthis, a predominantly Shi'ite community from the mountainous north, deny they are being helped by Iran.

"The Houthi strongholds are largely in more mountainous areas and  as history tells us  it is far easier to hold the Yemeni coasts than it is to take the center," said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

A coalition commander declined to comment on the advance on Hodeidah because he didn't want to talk about military strategy.

UAE-backed forces are approaching Hodeidah from the south, with the Gulf state supervising the advance from al-Mokha, some 75 km north of the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait that is the gate into the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.

The fighting has reached al-Jarahi district, some 100 km (60 miles) from Hodeidah, meaning the coalition has never been closer to the more densely populated coastal areas as it is now.

Another campaign has been launched from the north along the coastal border with Saudi Arabia in Hajja province to hem in the Houthis and cut off trading maritime routes.

Civilians, peace

On a recent visit to al-Mokha, a squad of young Yemeni fighters chewed the narcotic green leaf qat and took selfies in front of modern armored vehicles used by UAE troops.

Dead coral, left by massive waves, lay scattered across the empty quay.

The thin frames of the Yemeni and Sudanese troops manning towers and checkpoints barely filled their uniforms, a stark contrast to the Gulf Arabs in their crisp Marines-style outfits.

But their morale appeared to be good.

"We are the special forces," said one Yemeni fighter proudly.

Western countries have urged the coalition to protect civilians and find a quick end to the war. They also acknowledge Riyadh's argument that it needs to defend itself from Houthi cross-border strikes and limit the spread of Iranian influence.

"My major concern is that I have not heard anything that made me think that there has been sufficient steps taken to protect civilian lives should the fighting reach another densely populated area like Hodeidah," said Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker says he is donating money to another Tennessee Republican's campaign to succeed him.

News outlets report Corker tweeted his support Monday for U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn after the Tennessee Republican Party ended the primary over the weekend. Seven Senate candidates and one gubernatorial candidate were removed from the August ballot for lacking voting credentials to justify running as Republicans.

Blackburn thanked Corker in a statement and said her campaign will continue talks with people across Tennessee about getting the Senate to pass President Donald Trump's agenda.

Corker announced last year that he was retiring and wouldn't seek a third term.

The other senator from Tennessee, Republican Lamar Alexander, endorsed Blackburn last week. She is expected to run against former governor and former Nashville mayor Democrat Phil Bredesen in the November election.
Senator Tammy Duckworth has given birth to a baby girl, making her the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office.

The Illinois Democrat announced she delivered her second daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, on Monday. Her office says Duckworth is recovering well and asked for privacy.

Duckworth, a 50-year-old veteran who lost her legs in the Iraq War, is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while in Congress. Her first daughter, Abigail, was born in 2014.

Duckworth says Maile's middle name is in honor of Duckworth's husband's great aunt, Pearl Bowlsbey Johnson, who was an Army officer and nurse in World War II.

She says she's grateful to friends and family and "our wonderful medical teams for everything they've done to help us in our decades-long journey to complete our family."
Somalia and United Arab Emirates have exchanged barbs over the seizure of millions of dollars from a plane chartered by Emirati diplomats to transport the cash to Mogadishu.



The Somali government seized three bags containing $9.6 million on Sunday and says it only took the action after the UAE ambassador refused to let the bags containing the cash be scanned.



If a diplomatic bag is used to deliver illegal articles such as weapons, cash, then the bag is violable, says a senior government official speaking with VOA Somali on condition of anonymity.

But Tuesday, UAEs Foreign Ministry condemned the seizure of the money, which it says was for the support of the Somali army.

Serious breach



The statement alleged Somali security forces assaulted and held those on board the plane at gunpoint. The action is an illegal step that contradicts the established diplomatic norms, read the statement.



It said the move by the Somali government was a serious breach to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two countries in November 2014.



Meanwhile, the Somali government rejected the condemnation by UAE and says no breach of diplomatic protocol occurred.

The senior Somali official blamed UAE Ambassador to Mogadishu Mohammed Ahmed Othman Al Hammadi, who was at the airport to receive the money.



The Ambassador refused the bags to be examined with metal detectors, electronic scanning, or canine sniffing without opening or detaining the bag which was a simple solution to the problem, says the official.



Investigation underway

The official also dismissed UAE assertions that Somalia infringed on diplomatic protocol at Mogadishu airport during the seizure of the money.



Any use of the diplomatic bags for non-diplomatic purposes waives the privileges and immunities that are afforded by the Convention, says the official who was referring to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In the situation on April 8, the three bags were no longer inviolable and could be subjected to inspection.



Somalia also denied people on board the plane were held at gunpoint. We have the CCTV that proves nothing of that sort happened, says the Somali official.



Somalia also says the MoU UAE is referring to covered training of Somali military and expired in 2016.



Somali officials say the money is stored in the central bank of Somalia pending an investigation. Officials say the investigation will determine whether the money was brought in to destabilize the country.



Somalia and the UAE have been at odds since last year when the government of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo resisted pressure to cut ties with Qatar and took a neutral position on a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Last month, the Somali government rejected an agreement between the UAEs Dubai World, Somaliland, and Ethiopia over Berbera port, saying the deal violates the territorial integrity of Somalia.
Rapists in Somaliland face up to 20 years in jail after the breakaway conservative Islamic region passed its first law against rape in a drive to combat gender violence, a senior official said Monday.

The bill, which passed parliament's upper house Saturday, also criminalizes other forms of gender violence such as forced marriage, trafficking for sexual slavery and sexual harassment.

Ayan Mahamoud, Somaliland's representative in Britain, said the draft law had been awaiting parliamentary approval for years  and that President Musa Bihi Abdi's government, which was elected in November, saw curbing sex crimes as a priority.

"This really is a historic law for Somaliland. For the first time, potential rapists will be scared that they will be punished and end up in jail for years," Mahamoud told Reuters by phone from London.

"It also means that survivors can, at last, seek redressal and have access to justice, instead of being forced to marry their rapists to save the so-called family honor."

The bill was passed by the lower house in January.

Mahamoud said it was expected to be signed into law by Abdi in the coming weeks.

Until now rape was not defined as a crime in Somaliland, a self-declared republic in the Horn of Africa.

That meant perpetrators faced no penalty. Victims' families were instead paid off or the victim was forced to marry her rapist to avoid public shame.

Women's groups said they were encouraged that parliament's more conservative upper house, known as the House of Elders, had approved the bill with 35 out of 50 votes in favor.

"This bill provides both procedural provisions to support managing sexual offenses and substantive provisions on the punishments of the offenses," said a statement from Nagaad, a network of 46 women's organizations in Somaliland.

However, they stressed that the government would need to ensure people knew about the law, and that adequate resources be provided to ensure law enforcement agencies and the judiciary implemented and enforced it.

Somaliland, which has a population of about four million, declared independence from Somalia in 1991 following a bloody civil war, but is not internationally recognized as a country.

Somalia does not have legislation against sexual violence.

This story was written by Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has disparaged Latin American countries over immigration, narcotics and trade, heads to the region this week for a summit that diplomats say is likely to be awkward and tense.

Trump will arrive in the Peruvian capital, Lima, on Friday for the Summit of the Americas with an agenda of encouraging commercial ties and urging allies to take a hard line on Venezuela, according to U.S. officials who briefed reporters on the trip.

But the U.S. president's divisive rhetoric and fraught relationships with leaders such as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto make it unlikely he will make big strides toward his goals, experts said.

"He is going in profoundly unpopular in the region, and that obviously complicates the ability of leaders to work with him," said Mark Feierstein, who managed hemispheric issues for President Barack Obama's White House, and is now an adviser with the Albright Stonebridge Group.

The visit is stirring nostalgia for Obama, the Republican president's Democratic predecessor, a Peruvian diplomat said.

The diplomat added, however: "Nobody has lost any sleep over Trump," saying: "We all know how to smile and nod along, so we're not too worried."

Trump has complained about U.S. job losses to Mexico, threatened to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and began his presidential bid with a speech describing Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and drug dealers.

Trump has also taken aim at migration from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and other Latin American countries and threatened to cut off aid to Colombia and Peru over the drug trade.

As he prepares for his trip, which includes a stop in Colombia after the summit, Trump has ramped up his rhetoric on illegal immigration with a plan to send National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Unpopular in region

Mexico's Pena Nieto on Monday ordered a review of all cooperation with the United States, a sign of growing frustration with Trump. Many Mexicans want to see their government take a harder line.

After Trump's first year in office, only 16 percent of poll respondents in Latin America approved of Trump's performance, according to Gallup.

Sergio Montenegro, 40, who works at an insurance company in Lima, compared Trump with some populist leaders who gained power in Latin America in recent decades.

"Being loud, always at the center of attention, constant scandals ... that's been our reality for many years," Montalvo said. "The United States isn't respected as much now ... before, whatever Americans said seemed to be the right thing - the voice of reason. Now whatever they say is questioned."

Asked about how confrontational Trump might be at the summit and if there was discussion about countering his low regional popularity, a U.S. official on the briefing said: "He speaks what's on his mind. And I think he will speak to issues of shared values and shared goals within the region."

A source in the Brazilian government told Reuters on condition of anonymity that a positive agenda from Washington "is badly needed if the Trump administration wants to keep productive relations with the region."

At the summit, leaders will try to build consensus around cracking down on corruption in the region, a theme brought into focus last month by the resignation of Peru's former president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, over ties to a scandal involving Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht.

Venezuela

The White House also wants to turn up regional pressure on Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro - disinvited from the summit - who called an election for May that his opposition and Washington have cast as a sham. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled to Colombia and other neighboring countries to escape hunger and poverty.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio is set to meet with Trump on Wednesday before the trip to urge more humanitarian aid for Venezuelans, tougher financial and economic sanctions on Maduro, and to "lay the groundwork for an international cooperative effort to rebuild post-Maduro Venezuela after free, fair and open elections are held," an aide said.

Rubio, who is holding a hearing about the summit on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, also wants Trump to boost support in Cuba for democracy and human rights, the aide said.

The United States, a major buyer of Venezuelan oil, has weighed ramping up economic sanctions. A U.S. official told reporters last week that no decisions were imminent but could be made over the next several months.

At the summit, diplomats from countries critical of Maduro might formally condemn the election and discuss ways to help Venezuelan migrants, according to a source at Argentina's Foreign Ministry.

Such a statement would be "unprecedented," said Ana Rose Quintana, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"The statement would be the groundwork for additional sanctions later on," Quintana said.
A global chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it will send a team to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate a suspected poison gas attack that killed dozens of people last weekend near Damascus.



The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it would go to Douma after an appeal to do so.

"This has coincided with the request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma," OPCW said. "The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly."

The White House announced Tuesday President Donald Trump will cancel a planned trip to Latin America to "oversee the American response to Syria."



Trump said his administration will likely say "after the fact" how it decided to respond to the suspected chemical attack.



"It will be met, and it will be met forcefully," Trump said before meeting with senior military leaders late Monday.

He highlighted what he said was the power of the United States to stop atrocities like the attack Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ghouta that killed at least 40 people.

"We have a lot of options, militarily," he said, with out giving specifics.Last year, he ordered airstrikes on a Syrian airfield used to launch another chemical attack.



The U.S. has also requested that the U.N. Security Council vote Tuesday afternoon on a resolution calling for a new investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria. A resolution would need nine votes and no vetos by Russia, Britain, China or the U.S. to be approved.Russia says it does not agree with the U.S. draft.



Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is outraged by continued reports of chemical weapon attacks in Syria and called for a thorough, impartial investigation with the OPCW given full access to do its work.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said later Tuesday that Russia would submit a Security Council resolution proposing OPCW investigators be sent to probe the attack in Syria.



That followed comments from Moscow's envoy Vassily Nebenzia, who said Russian experts have already visited the site, collected soil samples, interviewed witnesses and medical personnel, and that no chemical weapons attack had taken place.



U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council on Monday that both Russia and Iran could stop the Syrian government's "murderous destruction," adding that Moscow's hands are "covered in the blood of Syrian children."



Britain says Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke to Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan by phone and the two "agreed that, based on current media reports and reports from those on the ground, this attack bore hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime."



French President Emmanuel Macron has also spoken by telephone with Trump several times to coordinate their response to Saturday's attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration will likely say "after the fact" how it decided to respond to a suspected chemical attack on the outskirts of Syria's capital.

"It will be met, and it will be met forcefully," Trump said before meeting with senior military leaders late Monday.

He highlighted what he said was the power of the United States to stop atrocities like the attack Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ghouta that killed at least 40 people.

"We have a lot of options, militarily," he said, without giving specifics. Last year, he ordered missile strikes on a Syrian airfield believed by the U.S. to have been used for the launch of another chemical attack.

Trump was critical of former president Barack Obama for what he said was a failing strategy of publicizing planned military maneuvers ahead of time.

Syria's denial



Syria has denied using chemical weapons throughout the conflict that began in 2011, including the most recent suspected chemical attack. Russia said there is no evidence Syria carried out such an attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday the United States has taken an unconstructive position and is refusing to face reality.

Trump said Monday, "We are getting some very good clarity," regarding who was responsible, a task that has been difficult throughout the Syrian war and the source of conflict among the many international players involved.

Assigning responsibility



Earlier he told his Cabinet at a White House meeting that the U.S. would figure out who was responsible for the attack, whether it was Syria, Russia, Iran or "all of them together."

Assigning responsibility was the domain of investigators from the Joint Investigative Mechanism between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was dissolved after Russia vetoed a renewal of its mandate in November. The United States put forward a new proposal Monday to Security Council members for a new attribution mechanism, but it was not immediately clear whether it would win the necessary Russian support.

U.N. diplomats said the United States was pushing for a vote on the resolution on Tuesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the council in a statement Tuesday to "redouble its efforts to agree upon a dedicated mechanism for accountability."

He said he is outraged by continued reports of chemical weapon attacks in Syria and called for a thorough, impartial investigation with the OPCW given full access to do its work.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said later Tuesday that Russia would submit a Security Council resolution proposing OPCW investigators be sent to probe the attack in Syria.

That followed comments from Moscow's envoy Vassily Nebenzia, who said Russian experts have already visited the site, collected soil samples, interviewed witnesses and medical personnel, and that no chemical weapons attack had taken place.

Murderous destruction

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council on Monday that both Russia and Iran could stop the Syrian government's "murderous destruction," adding that Moscow's hands are "covered in the blood of Syrian children."

Britain says Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke to Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan by phone and the two "agreed that, based on current media reports and reports from those on the ground, this attack bore hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime."

French President Emmanuel Macron has also spoken by telephone with Trump several times to coordinate their response to Saturday's attack.

Cecile Shea, a non-resident fellow in global security and diplomacy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, also said Syria is likely responsible, citing a lack of other forces capable of manufacturing and deploying such chemical weapons.

"But I think we really need to find out as quickly as we can what the hallmarks of this attack were, and I do believe that we will be able to figure out if it was an attack by the Assad regime," Shea told VOA. "And if it was, then that is an example of a nation violating a treaty that has been in force for 95 years, a general rule of law and just fundamental strictures of humanity. And then I think the president and our allies should take action together to punish whoever did this.

The United Nations refugee agency expressed alarm Tuesday at the continuing violence in Syria, particularly in eastern Ghouta, that is causing deaths and forcing people to leave their homes.

The UNHCR said of thousands of civilians remain trapped in eastern Ghouta after an estimated 133,000 left the enclave during the past four weeks.

The agency reiterated calls for all sides in the conflict to protect civilians and allow them to move freely.
The White House says President Donald Trump will no longer be traveling to Latin America later this week because he wants to "oversee the U.S. response to Syria."

President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled. At the Presidents request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world. press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The two day summit in Peru begins April 13.

President Trump has warned of a tough response against Syria after an alleged chemical weapons attack in rebel-held eastern Ghouta that killed at least 40 people on Saturday.

"We have a lot of options, militarily," he said Monday, without giving specifics.

When asked Tuesday by VOA White House Correspondent Steve Herman if he was disappointed that he would not be making the trip to South America, Trump replied, "I am. I would have loved to have gone."
U.S. President Donald Trump railed again Tuesday about FBI raids on his personal lawyer Michael Cohen's New York office and a hotel where he had been staying, calling them "a total witch hunt."

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents executed search warrants Monday and seized financial documents and other records possibly related to Trump's contacts with Cohen, who paid $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before Trump's 2016 election to keep her quiet about the 2006 one-night affair she claims to have had with Trump. Trump has said he had no knowledge of the payment.

WATCH: Michael Brown's video report

The U.S. leader said that with the raids, "Attorney-client privilege is dead," the U.S. legal principle under which most private conversations between lawyers and their clients cannot be used in court against them unless they were conspiring to commit a crime.

As news of the raids surfaced Monday, Trump called it "a real disgrace. Its an attack on our country, in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for."

He called the raids a "whole new level of unfairness," on top of the nearly yearlong criminal investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the election aimed at helping Trump win and whether Trump obstructed justice to thwart the probe.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday, "The president has been clear, he thinks this has gone too far." Sanders said Trump has the power to fire Mueller, but she gave no indication the president plans to oust him or other officials connected to the ongoing probe.

People with knowledge of the case told The Washington Post that Cohen is under investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.

CNN and the New York Times reported that investigators raiding Cohen's files were looking for records about the payment to Daniels, the porn star.

In addition, the news outlets reported investigators were looking for any documents related to a separate $150,000 payment three months ahead of the election to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says she had a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007, a purported relationship Trump has denied. The McDougal payment came from American Media, the parent company of a tabloid newspaper and whose chief executive is a friend of Trump's.

Cohen's attorney, Stephen Ryan, said the search was based in part on a referral from Mueller to federal prosecutors in New York, including U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who was appointed by Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in January.

"The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said in a statement. "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

Ryan added that Cohen has cooperated with investigators.

Michael Avenatti, the pornographic film star's attorney, said on Twitter, "A well-regarded Republican appointed US Atty obtaining valid search warrants, approved by a judge, that are then carried out by career, upstanding FBI agents doing their job to search for the truth is NOT A WITCH HUNT. Period." 

Although Mueller's probe is focused on Russian election interference, under law he would need approval from top Justice Department officials if he discovered something else during his investigation that he deemed worth pursuing.

Since Sessions recused himself from the Russian election probe, Deputy AttorneyGeneral Rod Rosenstein would have been the one to ask judges to approve the FBI raid on Cohen's office.
U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday applauded Qatar's efforts to stop funding terrorism, nearly a year after accusing the Persian Gulf country of funding extremism at a "high level."

Trump's remarks came as he met at the White House with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Since Trump's past criticism of Qatar, the country has engaged in an aggressive campaign to rebuild its reputation in the U.S. and prove it is a dependable ally.

"You've now become a very big advocate, and we appreciate it," Trump told the emir in the Oval Office. "A lot of countries were funding terrorism and we're stopping it. It's getting stopped and fast."

A year ago, Trump joined Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in adopting a hard line against Qatar, maintaining the country needed to weaken relations with Iran and stop funding terrorism.

Trump had initially advocated for an economic blockade on Qatar, but aides eventually convinced him to take a more moderate approach given the strategic importance of the Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha in U.S. Middle East operations.

The emir said, "We do not and we will not tolerate with people who fund terrorism. We've been cooperating with the United States of America to stop funding terrorism around the region."

The year-old regional crisis, marked by neighboring countries cutting air, sea and land links to Qatar, continues. Over the months, the Trump administration has pushed for a resolution to the crisis, especially after an early effort to mediate a resolution lost momentum.
U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration will likely say "after the fact" how it decided to respond to a suspected chemical attack on the outskirts of Syria's capital.

"It will be met, and it will be met forcefully," Trump said before meeting with senior military leaders late Monday.

He highlighted what he said was the power of the United States to stop atrocities like the attack Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ghouta that killed at least 40 people.

"We have a lot of options, militarily," he said, with out giving specifics. Last year, he ordered airstrikes on a Syrian airfield used to launch another chemical attack.

Trump was critical of former President Barack Obama for what he said was a failing strategy of publicizing planned military maneuvers ahead of time.

Syria has denied using chemical weapons throughout the conflict that began in 2011, including the most recent suspected chemical attack.

Russia said there is no evidence Syria carried out such an attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday the United States has taken an unconstructive position and is refusing to face reality.

Trump said Monday, "We are getting some very good clarity," regarding who was responsible, a task that has been difficult throughout the Syrian war and the source of conflict among the many international players involved.

Earlier he told his Cabinet at a White House meeting that the U.S. would figure out who was responsible for the attack, whether it was Syria, Russia, Iran or "all of them together."

Assigning responsibility was the domain of investigators from the Joint Investigative Mechanism between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was dissolved after Russia vetoed a renewal of its mandate in November. The United States put forward a new proposal Monday to Security Council members for a new attribution mechanism, but it was not immediately clear whether it would win the necessary Russian support.

U.N. diplomats said the United States was pushing for a vote on the resolution on Tuesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the council in a statement Tuesday to "redouble its efforts to agree upon a dedicated mechanism for accountability."

He said he is outraged by continued reports of chemical weapon attacks in Syria and called for a thorough, impartial investigation with the OPCW given full access to do its work.

"The norms against chemical weapons must be upheld," Guterres said.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council on Monday that both Russia and Iran could stop the Syrian government's "murderous destruction," adding that Moscow's hands are "covered in the blood of Syrian children."

WATCH: Haley on US reaction to Syria attack

New attribution mechanism

Britain says Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke to Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan by phone and the two "agreed that, based on current media reports and reports from those on the ground, this attack bore hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime."

French President Emmanuel Macron has also spoken by telephone with Trump several times to coordinate their response to Saturday's attack.

Cecile Shea, a non-resident fellow in global security and diplomacy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, also said Syria is likely responsible, citing a lack of other forces capable of manufacturing and deploying such chemical weapons.

"But I think we really need to find out as quickly as we can what the hallmarks of this attack were, and I do believe that we will be able to figure out if it was an attack by the Assad regime," Shea told VOA. "And if it was, then that is an example of a nation violating a treaty that has been in force for 95 years, a general rule of law and just fundamental strictures of humanity. And then I think the president and our allies should take action together to punish whoever did this.

The United Nations refugee agency expressed alarm Tuesday at the continuing violence in Syria, particularly in eastern Ghouta, that is causing deaths and forcing people to leave their homes.

The UNHCR said sends of thousands of civilians remain trapped in eastern Ghouta after an estimated 133,000 left the enclave during the past four weeks.

The agency reiterated calls for all sides in the conflict to protect civilians and allow them to move freely.

William Gallo at the White House, Jeff Seldin at the Pentagon and Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump's top Homeland Security adviser, abruptly resigned Tuesday, the latest in a long line of senior officials to leave the Trump administration.

No reason was given for his resignation, but it came a day after staunch conservative John Bolton took over as Trump's third national security adviser in the 15 months of his presidency. Both Bloomberg News and CNN reported that Bossert was quitting at Bolton's request.

The 43-year-old Bossert had served in Trump's White House since his inauguration, a key adviser to the president on cybersecurity, who also was a prominent official in handling the government's response last year to devastating hurricanes in Texas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bossert appeared often on television news talk shows to represent the Trump administration's view on terrorism threats. But he was passed over to become national security adviser in favor of Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, when Trump dismissed H.R. McMaster.

The president is grateful for Toms commitment to the safety and security of our great country." White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "Tom led the White Houses efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."

Since the start of the year, Trump has ousted his secretary of state, changed national security advisers, dismissed his veterans affairs secretary, named a new CIA director and watched as other key White House advisers departed, including his top lawyer handling Trump's response to the ongoing criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
As the United States consults with allies about a possible military response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, Russia said Wednesday that all parties involved should refrain from actions that could destabilize the fragile situation in the region.

Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has fought in support of his government in the conflict since 2015. The United States has backed rebel groups in Syria and blames Assad's forces for the attack in eastern Ghouta on Saturday that killed at least 40 people.

Both Syria and Russia have denied the allegations.

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned those responsible will pay a "big price," and he has spoken repeatedly with his British and French counterparts about a possible response to the attack.

"We are looking for a coordinated response, whatever that response might be," State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said a decision would be made "in the coming days," and that any airstrikes would target the Syrian government's chemical facilities.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop added her country's support Wednesday for any action that is "targeted, calibrated and proportionate."

In addition to blaming Syria, Trump has further blamed Assad's backers in Iran and Russia for the eastern Ghouta attack. A global chemical weapons watchdog on Tuesday said it will send a team to investigate the incident.

WATCH: US response to Syria

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that according to reports from its partners, 500 people who sought treatment Saturday showed signs and symptoms of toxic chemical exposure. The WHO expressed outrage at the suspected use of chemical weapons and demanded immediate access to the area to provide care.

At the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted plan that would have set up a commission to investigate and assign blame for the chemical weapons attack.

As the U.S. mulled its response, the White House said Trump canceled a trip to Latin America, which was to begin Friday, so that he could "oversee the American response to Syria." Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also called off domestic travel plans.

No details

White House officials refused to say whether the response included the possibility of prolonged U.S. military action in Syria or would amount to more than just a "one-off" airstrike.

"The president and his national security team thought it was best that he stay in the United States while all these developments are taking place," said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The U.S. is already deeply involved in the seven-year-old Syrian civil war. Over 2,000 U.S. troops are in Syria. A U.S.-led coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes there, mostly against Islamic State and other extremist rebels.

Almost exactly a year ago, the U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase in retaliation for another chemical weapons attack.

But too intense a response to the latest attack risks escalating the Syrian civil war and exacerbating military tensions between major world powers that all have proxies on the ground, according to analysts.

"There's no easy answer here," retired Admiral Michael Mullen told VOA contributor Greta van Susteren on Tuesday. "It's delicate, it's dangerous. I worry that it could expand fairly rapidly."

Trump has said he would like to pull U.S. troops from Syria, citing progress in fighting Islamic State. Many in the U.S. foreign policy community, including Mullen, disagree with such a withdrawal.

"The couple thousand troops that we have there are a stabilizing force," Mullen said. "I think [they] need to be there until it's very obvious that they shouldn't be there or that they don't need to be there anymore."

It's unclear what an expanded U.S. military campaign in Syria would look like, including what the targets would be or which U.S. allies would be involved.

Options appear few

But the U.S. appears incapable of substantially altering the direction of the conflict, said Andreas Krieg, a Middle East specialist at King's College London.

"Unlike 2013, the West no longer has the leverage to shape or determine outcomes in Syria's civil war," Krieg said. "Punitive air or missile strikes will have limited effect, and neither deter Assad nor deny his ability to use chemical weapons again."

Trump has for years warned of the dangers of the U.S. becoming too involved in Syria.

"What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict?" Trump said in a 2013 tweet. "[Former President Barack] Obama needs Congressional approval."

More recently, Trump has changed course. In a tweet this week, Trump said that if Obama had pursued more vigorous military action in Syria, "Animal Assad would have been history."

Daniel Davis, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who is now a senior fellow and military expert at the Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, said he thought Trump should follow his earlier inclination.

"This would profoundly worsen our situation here," Davis said. "We cannot take that kind of risk of escalating a contained civil war. We've also got the possibility of armed conflict with Russia, which isn't in our interest at all."

Russia has warned of "grave repercussions" if the U.S. strikes Assad.
Some National Guard members have started arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border with more expected as federal government officials continue to discuss what they'll do about illegal immigration.

The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he's called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

The only holdout border state was California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his state's National Guard will participate and has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy.

Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their state's Guard members and the U.S. government picks up the cost.

Brown's spokesman, Evan Westrup, said California officials still are reviewing Trump's troop request.

Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border, issuing a proclamation citing "the lawlessness that continues at our southern border.''

Trump administration officials have said that rising numbers of people being caught at the southern border, while in line with seasonal trends in recent years, require an immediate response.

Apprehensions are still well below their historical trends during the terms of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom also deployed the Guard to the border.

Caravans

In Mexico City, a caravan of Central American migrants that had been heading north stopped in the Mexican capital. The caravan had sparked furious criticism from Trump, followed days later by his National Guard border protection deployment plan. Organizers said they never intended to go to the U.S. border.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources'' to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive.

"I don't think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue,'' he said. "You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition that's coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here.''

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that he would add about 300 troops a week until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops.

Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said, adding he wanted to downplay speculation that "our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody that's coming across the border, because that is not their role.''

There is no end date for the deployment, Abbott said: "We may be in this for the long haul.''

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, offered to send members of his state's Guard as well. South Carolina sent troops to the border during Operation Jump Start, the border deployment ordered by Bush in 2006.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress. Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

Mexico's foreign relations secretary said his government is evaluating its cooperation with the United States.

Luis Videgaray said in a Monday interview with local media that he will give results of the analysis to President Enrique Pena Nieto in coming weeks.

The country's Senate passed a resolution last week saying Mexico should suspend cooperation with the U.S. on illegal immigration and drug trafficking in retaliation for Trump's move.

But Videgaray said "no decision has been taken to reduce or suspend any mechanism or cooperation.''

Joel Villarreal, the mayor of Rio Grande City in Texas, said he did not agree with what he characterized as ``the militarization of the border.''

"It's not good for business, to be frank with you,'' Villarreal said.
After a pair of crashes involving U.S. Navy ships in the Asia-Pacific killed more than a dozen people last year, the Navy's efforts to develop its leaders is receiving renewed attention.

Last week, the Navy inaugurated the College of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.

Seventeen sailors were killed last year in two collisions with commercial vessels involving guided-missile destroyers, the Fitzgerald in June off Japan and the John S. McCain in August as it approached Singapore.

The commanding officers of the Navy destroyers involved in the collisions face courts-martial and military criminal charges. Charges against them include dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide.

A series of Navy investigations found rising pressure to meet demands for more and more Navy operations, particularly in the Pacific Ocean, led those in command to rationalize declining standards that ranged from basic seamanship to operational safety.

Some observers, including lawmakers during a congressional hearing, have been critical of the Navy's handling of the incidents.

Navy officials acknowledge that the inauguration of the new college alone will not be enough and a change in culture will take time.

Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said the incidents in the Pacific reinforced the need for a closer look at leadership training, something officials say was in the works prior to the crashes.

"As we've come through the collisions, the investigations focused on the accountability and in some cases discipline; it has just become clear that you can't emphasize and focus on it too much," Richardson told a small group of reporters.

Rear Admiral Jeff Harley, president of the Naval War College, said that in a break from the past, the new college would teach leadership courses throughout the year.

"One [issue] that has perhaps not been given the attention that is required, [and] we're starting to understand that its required on a more continuous basis, is this idea of character competency,"  or leadership development, Harley said.

Another reason for increased focus on leadership is the expectation that the Navy will play a larger role in operations in the years ahead.

The U.S. military has put countering China and Russia at the center of a new strategy unveiled earlier this year.

"The Navy really kind of has unique and specific roles in making all that happen, not only from a security standpoint, but also sea lanes, keeping access to markets open," Richardson said.
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'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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Dolar USA Vs Euro

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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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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



Por culpa de Chavez



Cerveza Polar







Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar







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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!


Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak said Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He said the "profits are all based on the user's info, but the users get none of the profits back.''

Wozniak said he'd rather pay for Facebook.

"Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you,'' he said.

In an interview late Monday in Philadelphia with The Associated Press, Wozniak said he had been thinking for a while of deleting his account and made the move after several of his trusted friends deleted their Facebook accounts last week.

It's "a big hypocrisy not respecting my privacy when (Facebook CEO Mark) Zuckerberg buys all the houses around his and all the lots around his in Hawaii for his own privacy,'' Wozniak said. "He knows the value of it, but he's not looking after mine.''

A British data mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's Republican presidential campaign gathered personal information from 87 million Facebook users to try to influence elections. Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, has announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.

Zuckerberg has apologized, and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, has said she's sorry the company let so many people down.

Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company's ongoing data privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

Wozniak said he doesn't believe in the current system that Facebook can fix its privacy issues, saying he doesn't think Facebook is going to change its policies "for decades.''

Wozniak said Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, has systems and policies that in many cases allow people to choose whether to share certain data. He said he doesn't foresee Apple not allowing the Facebook app to be bought or downloaded on its phones but said he does not make those decisions for the company.
Thousands of displaced Yazidis in the Sinjar mountains in Northern Iraq are still suffering and afraid, almost four years after Islamic State attacked Yazidi villages.

"The situation of the Yazidis in Iraq is of great concern. It is an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe with still close to 400,000 internally displaced scattered throughout the provinces of northern Iraq," Lisa Miara, founder of Springs of Hope Foundation, told VOA.

Miara said three-and-a-half years after the Yazidi genocide, some villages are still unreachable and no major effort has been made to enable thousands of Yazidis to restore their lives and businesses.

Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority group of about 550,000 people, mostly reside in northern Iraq, in an area also populated by Kurds and Arabs.

In August 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Yazidi-populated Sinjar mountain, killing thousands of men and taking thousands of women and girls as sex slaves. Yazidis consider the attack one of 74 genocides in their history.

The massacre against Yazidis was one of the reasons the U.S.-led military operation, under the authority of President Barack Obama, targeted Islamic State in Iraq in August 2014, the first offensive action by the U.S. in Iraq since it withdrew ground troops in 2011.

"Targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death," Obama said at the time.

Humanitarian aid

Given the large-scale humanitarian demand among displaced Yazidis, a number of local and global organizations are pleading to remain focused on the plight of the Yazidis.

Saad Babir, communication manager at Yazda Organization, told VOA that basic needs such as electricity, water and education are lacking. In addition, more than 70 percent of houses have been destroyed, and many religious temples targeted by IS are in rubble.

Thousands of Yazidi women kidnapped by IS are still missing. After the defeat of IS in Iraq and Syria, Yazidis feel they have been marginalized and efforts to find the girls  missing since 2014  have receded.

"More than 3,000 women, men and children are still missing. Once IS was gone, no more attention is paid for the victims, no post-IS rehabilitation for the victims, and not just for Yazidis but everyone affected by ISIS," said Babir, using an acronym for the group.

Reconciliation

Babir said the atrocities committed by IS have created mistrust in the region between minorities and their communities in general.

USAID and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are working jointly on the recovery of minority groups.

"One thing we are doing is working to help restore some of the cultural diversity that has been a hallmark in Iraq," USAID's Mark Green, the United States' top foreign aid official, said at United States Institute of Peace last week.

"In northern Iraq, we have been helping Yazidis and Christian minorities to be able to return home, to feel secure enough to be able to re-establish their communities," Green said.
Yulia Skripal has been released from a British hospital after she and her father  former Russian spy Sergei Skripal  were poisoned last month.

Salisbury District Hospital director Christine Blanshard did not say when Yulia was released, but she reportedly was discharged on Monday. Authorities will not disclose her location.

"This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," Blanshard said.

Sergei Skripal remains hospitalized and is recovering. It is unclear when he can be released.

"Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment we've been providing. But equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery," Blanshard said.

In March, a police officer found the father and daughter collapsed on a bench outside a shopping mall in the southern British city of Salisbury.

The British government says Russian operatives poisoned the Skripals with a military-grade nerve agent that the government said was traced to Russia.

Russia denies it was involved in the incident, which led to the tit-for-tat expulsions of British and Russian diplomats and left many unanswered questions about the poisonings.

The police officer who discovered the Skripals was also hospitalized and later released.
Harare (AFP) - A committee of lawmakers in Zimbabwe is to summon former president Robert Mugabe to testify at a probe into lost revenue from diamond mining, a legislator said Tuesday.

The lawmakers plan to question Mugabe over his 2016 claim that the country had lost $15 billion (12.13 billion euros) in income from diamonds due to corruption and foreign exploitation.

Mugabe - whose own regime was accused of siphoning off diamond profits - was ousted last November after a military takeover that ushered his former deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to power.

"The committee resolved to call the former president to testify," Temba Mliswa, an independent lawmaker who chairs parliament's committee on mines and energy, told AFP.

"He was the president, and we want to know where he was getting the $15 billion figure (from)."

He said no date had yet been set to call Mugabe to testify.

It was unclear whether Mugabe, 94, who has not been seen in public since his ousting, could be forced to face a grilling from lawmakers.

Mugabe ruled the country for 38 years, exercising ruthless control over parliament, security forces and the country's mineral resources.

The committee has already summoned former ministers, ex-police chiefs and heads of several government department.

Mliswa said a report would be compiled when the investigation was complete.

Zimbabwe discovered alluvial diamonds in Chiadzwa, in the east of the country, over a decade ago, and rights groups have accused security forces of using brutal methods to control the scattered deposits.

Over 200 people were killed during operations to remove illegal panners from the area, rights groups say.

Amid allegations of massive looting, Zimbabwe allowed several diamond companies to mine the area - most of them as joint ventures between the government and Chinese firms.
Rome hosts exhibition Canaletto 1697-1768 at Palazzo Braschi.

Il Canal Grande con Santa Maria della Carita, Venezia. Pinacoteca del Lingotto Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino.

San Giorgio Maggiore: dal Bacino di San Marco, c. 1732-1733.  2018. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Tutti i diritti riservati / Scala, Firenze.

La Torre dellOrologio in Piazza San Marco, Venezia. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Photo: Melville McLean.

Capriccio con rovine 1723. Svizzera, Collezione privata.

Lincoronazione del Doge sulla Scala dei Giganti di Palazzo Ducale, Venezia 1763-1766. Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.

La Basilica di Massenzio, S. Francesca Romana e il Colosseo. Collezione privata, courtesy of Matteo Salamon.

Il Chelsea College, la Rotonda, casa Ranelagh e il Tamigi, Londra. La Habana (Cuba), Coleccion Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 92-289.

. The Italian master Canaletto is honoured with a major retrospective, the largest exhibition of Canaletto works ever held in Italy, at Rome's Museo di Roma at Palazzo Braschi. Canaletto 1697-1768 celebrates 250 years since the death of the Venetian painter who revolutionised landscape painting, raising the genre to the same importance as historical and figurative painting.More than two years in the planning, the show featuresand nine drawings by Canaletto, along with 16 archive documents on loan from some of the world's most important collections. Hailing the exhibition as without precedent, organisers emphasised the significance of having so many Canaletto works in one place, particularly considering that his most beautiful works are in the museums furthest away [from Italy].The exhibition includes several Canalettosuch as The Grand Canal from the north, towards the Rialto bridge, and The Grand Canal with S. Maria della Carita, exhibited together for the first time, along with the manuscripts detailing their commission.Born Giovanni Antonio Canal, the young Canaletto served his apprenticeship with his father and brother in Venice, painting opera stage sets. However, after a trip to Rome in his early 20s, Canaletto began concentrating on landscapes and ruin-rich, known as capricci.Best known today for his vedute of his native Venice, Canaletto depicted numerous scenes of Piazza S. Marco - from different angles and in different seasons - with many such examples on display at Palazzo Braschi. An additionalis his intricate pen and ink recording of the coronation of the Doge (1766), capturing the pageantry of the event in the finest of detail.Rome residents keen to see Canaletto's portrayal of the Eternal City in the 18th-century will not be disappointed. There are several scenes from the, including the Arch of Settimio Severo (1743) and the Basilica di Massenzio (1753-54), as well as a wildly overgrown Colosseum (1755). The mostRome work is arguably his 1755 depiction of the Campidoglio, complete with strolling nobility and clergy, and polished off with an ornate horse-drawn carriage at the bottom of the steps.Canaletto also spent a lucrative decade - during the middle-to-latter part of his career - working in England where his paintings of less sunny scenes ended up in the collection of King George III. Perhaps his most fascinating English work on display in Rome is Chelsea from Battersea Reach, painted in 1751 before being cut in two half a century later. Palazzo Braschi shows both paintings side by side, one on loan from Britain's National Trust, the other from Cuba's National Museum in Havana.This exhibition has plenty of centuries-old crowd-pleasers, alongside less well known paintings and sketches by the Venetian master. The show also underlines the growing importance of Palazzo Braschi which has hosted severalmajor exhibitions recently including Artemisia Gentileschi , Piranesi and Artisti all'Opera . Canaletto can certainly be added to this list of blockbuster shows.

Andy Devane

Cover image: Il ponte di Rialto da Nord, Venezia 1725. Torino, Pinacoteca del Lingotto Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.  Pinacoteca del Lingotto Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino.
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Remarks by Barry Gardiner, the shadow trade secretary, that the Good Friday agreement is a shibboleth that is being played up in the Brexit negotiations for economic rather than political reasons are quite shocking. It is almost as if Labour have decided that peace in Northern Ireland is expendable as long as they achieve their objective in supporting the Tories in securing a hard Brexit.As the Guardian reports , Gardiner was answering questions at a think-tank session in Brussels last month, when he suggested there was no reason to fear that a border with customs controls would lead to a return of paramilitary activity:He also said:The paper comments that these remarks, from one of Labours inner group of Brexit decision-makers, strike a markedly different tone to the partys existing policy. Jeremy Corbyn restated Labours opposition to the re-emergence of a hard border as a principle of the future relationship in a keynote speech in February. Do Gardiner's comments mark a shift in tone and substance since that speech?Once more I find myself agreeing with the sacked Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Owen Smith:Having just read in Tim Shipman's book on the Brexit referendum how Jeremy Corbyn's office effectively sabotaged the Remain Campaign, I am not surprised at the way that Labour are backing the Tories in securing a hard Brexit. What does astonish me however is the way key spokespeople now seem prepared to jettison hard won peace initiatives in pursuit of that aim.
Many of the demands laid out by students were clear and direct  the hiring of more counselors, the disarming of campus police officers, the immediate resignation of Howards embattled president. The results of the negotiations were murkier, with task forces created, reviews promised and indications that Howard would listen to student voices. It suggested that while the protest set the framework for change at Howard, that change might not happen right away.
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In Villadas case, the consulate told him, hed been disqualified by a short trip he took in 2000, at 17, to Mexico to attend his grandfathers funeral. The consulate said the problem was that he entered the country without inspection a second time. But Villada had already disclosed this trip to the government when he applied for that provisional waiver. Plus his lawyers argue that because an immigration official had looked at his school I.D. and waved him through, he didnt enter the country illegally according to recent case law.
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
President Trump canceled a trip to Latin America so he could oversee the U.S. response to Saturdays incident in the town of Douma, and he conferred on Syria in phone calls with the leaders of France and Britain. Trump said Monday that he would decide within 48 hours how best to respond, but the impending visit of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons may push the timetable further out.
























































The White Helmets, which claim to be an impartial NGO, saving civilians in war-torn Syria, have repeatedly been busted using false videos of their daily rescue operations. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has published several clips and pictures, showing the alleged aftermath of the chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. The volunteers have reported a widespread suffocation in the area, which led to 42 deaths; the footage, posted on Twitter, shows the alleged victims, including babies in diapers, breathing through oxygen masks











For more: pic.twitter.com/GBqXuOVeDv A statement about the Chemical attack on #Douma city in #EasternGhouta For more: https://t.co/LB5BmfqY2T 8  2018 . However, the rescuers appeared to be so focused on accusing President Bashar al-Assad of dropping a chemical bomb on Douma that they forgot to put on gas masks or protective suits themselves.

Meanwhile, the Russian Reconciliation Center has spoken with doctors in Douma, who reported that they had not received any patients with sign of chemical poisoning. Neither did the Syrian Red Crescent Society. The center also said that no traces of chemical agents were found in the area where the alleged attack had taken place, adding that videos spread by the "White Helmets" were fake, aimed at derailing the Syrian ceasefire. READ MORE: Russian Military Reports No Chemical Weapons Used in Vicinity of Syria's Douma





The videos were published after several media outlets reported, citing militant sources, that the Syrian government forces had launched a chemical attack on Douma, while Jaysh al-Islam claimed that the army had dropped a chemical bomb on the city. Both Syria and Russia have repeatedly warned of the forthcoming fabricated chemical attacks on Douma weeks prior to the alleged incident, saying that such disinformation campaigns are aimed at covering up terrorists and justifying military action. Responding to the claims, the Syrian government argued that such allegations were being made by terrorists to halt Syrian forces advances and insisted that Damascus did not need such measures to fight militants.

The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, has denied the allegations, insisting that several Western states and such NGOs as the infamous White Helmets have been carrying out a disinformation campaign to undermine the withdrawal of Jaysh al-Islam militants from the area. We strongly deny these claims and announce our readiness to send Russian experts in radiation, chemical and biological defense to Douma after its liberation from terrorists to gather evidence, which would prove that the allegations of the chemical weapons use were staged, said Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, commander of the reconciliation center.





Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stressed that Moscow sought for a just investigation into the incident, and reiterated that Russian military specialists did not find any traces of a chemical attack at site. He has also recalled that last year the White Helmets also worked without any protective clothes at the alleged site of a sarin gas attack.









































The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on security in the Middle East, in the wake of reports of an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma. The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, opened the meeting by describing the reports about the alleged chemical attack in Douma and the subsequent airstrike against the Syrian T-4 air base. He called for an independent investigation of the alleged chemical incident and urged restraint for all sides, in view of the airbase attack. Russia is deeply concerned by the fact that some capitals, Washington as well as London and Paris, which are blindly following their US allies, have engaged in a confrontational policy against Russia and Syria without any justification,The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said during the meeting. He went on to say that Moscow recently faced slander, hawkish rhetoric, sanctions, blackmail and even threats of force.

Western states are now threatening and slandering Russia with a ferocity that their governments did not take the liberty to unleash during the Cold War, Nebenzia added. Russia has been inexcusably threatened, he said. Nebenzia stressed that every time the Western powers interfere into other states affairs, they leave only chaos behind. Do you understand the dangerous threshold to which you are bringing the world? the Russian envoy asked. There is no doubt that the alleged chemical attack in Syrias Douma was staged, Nebenzia said, commenting on the developments in Eastern Ghouta. He then called for an impartial probe into the reported incident, which should begin with the presumption of innocence.





The UN chemical watchdog must visit Syria and investigate the allegations, Nebenzia said, calling on the Organization for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit Douma as early as Tuesday. Syrian and Russian troops would provide the inspectors with a safe passage to the area of the alleged chemical attack in Douma after they arrive to Damascus, he said. Nebenzia questioned the 'evidence' provided by the controversial White Helmets group. In particular, he said the scene of an alleged chemical strike was a fake, saying that it seemed unnatural that the bomb struck the roof of a building and then fell on a wooden bed without even damaging it.





































The US will act against the Syrian government with or without a UN blessing, US envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council, blaming Russian obstructionism for allowing the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond. We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. We are beyond appeals to conscience. We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done, Haley declared to the Security Council on Monday, accusing Russia of backing the monster [Bashar] Assad, who was murdering children with chemical weapons. The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered with the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. Weve tried that before, Haley said, adding that no civilized government would have anything to do with Assads murderous regime. Moscow has challenged claims, made by the Western-backed NGO White Helmets and Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) militants, that the Syrian government conducted a chemical attack against civilians in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Russias envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia called it fake news, noting that no traces of the alleged attack were found in the area after Syrian troops liberated it from the militants.









Haley, however, spoke of the attack as if it and the Syrian governments culpability were proven facts. If the UN refused to follow Washingtons lead and intervene in Syria due to Russias obstructionism, Haley said, the US will go it alone. History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond, she said. Earlier in the meeting, Nebenzia had warned the US and its allies of the possible grave consequences of unauthorized military action against Syria, where Russian troops have been legally deployed at the invitation of the countrys internationally recognized government.





What [the] military misadventures of the West bring about is well known, as shown by the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. Nobody has vested you with the power to act like the worlds policeman, or to act like the prosecutor, judge, and executioner either, he said. The US cited humanitarian concerns to launch NATO attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Libya in 2011. The latter began as the UN mandate to establish a no-fly zone and, within days, turned into a regime change operation. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq without UN authority, claiming the threat of Iraqi nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No such weapons were ever found.












BRIDGEPORT  When North End residents head for the third time Tuesday to the polls to vote in a City Council primary do-over, one of the candidates who fought for it  Robert Keeley  will not be around.

After twice successfully contesting the results of the prior two Democratic Party primaries in September and November, Keeley has left the campaign trail, left town, and left Connecticut  and will not be campaigning during Tuesdays third go round.

Keeleys running-mate Anne Pappas Phillips and a campaign worker, Nancy Bonilla, confirmed Monday that Keeley is away.

Bonilla said Keeley told her Thursday he was departing this weekend and returning later this week: This was a last minute thing. All he said was it had to do with family. If its a personal emergency, I understand.

Pappas Phillips said Keeley left her a voicemail that he was visiting colleges in Arizona, Nevada and California with his son, though she declined to share the recording. I feel like a locomotive ran me over, Pappas Phillips said of being abandoned.

Keeley, Pappas Phillips and Democratic Town Committee nominees Michael DeFilippo and Councilwoman Jeanette Herron have been vying for two council seats representing the North Ends 133rd District.

Keeley and Pappas Phillips after losing the initial September contest successfully took the close results  DeFilippo won, and Herron came in second when an absentee or mail-in ballot surfaced during a recount  to court, resulting in Novembers do-over.

Keeley and Pappas Phillips lost that second primary, appealed again, and, in so doing, revealed how Democratic Town Chairman Mario Testa, DeFilippo, who bartends at Testas restaurant, and Police Chief Armando Perez got too involved in collecting absentee ballots. So a third primary was ordered. The city appealed to the state Supreme Court and lost.

The Keeley-less Pappas Phillips, who has come in fourth place in the prior two primaries, said she will still greet voters Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Blackham and Madison schools: I believe in what Im doing. I dont cut and run. I dont quit.

Keeley could not be reached for comment Monday. Keeley has not applied for an absentee ballot, according to the Town Clerk.
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton on Monday joined at least four other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls in reaching an important cash-raising milestone prior to next months party convention.

The group of candidates, which includes Dave Walker, of Bridgeport; Mike Handler, of New Canaan; Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, and Steve Obsitnik, of Westport, have all apparently qualified for Connecticuts public-funding program.

With Tuesdays midnight deadline looming for filing first-quarter campaign-finance reports, more candidates in the crowded field could soon announce that they have raised the $250,000 minimum needed to obtain a $1.25-million public funding grant to wage a primary.

We were really done in late December, Boughton said on Monday. Its a huge relief. Its a heavy lift to get there. Now we can focus on talking with delegates.

Four years ago, Boughton had money-raising problems and aligned with Heather Somers of Groton  now a state senator  as a lieutenant governor running mate so they could pool their funds and qualify for the public funding, but Somers backed out and cast her lot with GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley. Boughton then teamed up with Lauretti, but withdrew from the race after Lauretti failed to collect enough petition signatures to qualify for the primary.

Boughton filed campaign contributions of $140,244, which increased to more than $265,000 when money earmarked for an exploratory committee was counted.

According to new reports filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Walker has raised $295,200, while Lauretti raised more than $277,000 months earlier and Handler reached the mark last month.

Obsitniks $193,482 filing total increased to $275,000 when money transferred from his exploratory committee was added.

As of Monday afternoon, other Republican hopefuls, including former Trumbull first selectman Tim Herbst, had not yet filed the important first-quarter reports.

Democratic numbers

On the Democratic side, Susan Bysiewicz, of Middletown, the former secretary of the state, said she collected $142,000 over the quarter, for a total of $290,000.

Jacey Wyatt, the states first transgender hopeful, reported a meager $1,117 raised, with $73.71 on hand at the end of the reporting period, March 31 for her Democratic candidacy.

Last week, Republican New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, who got into the race late, said she had raised over $100,000. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim last week claimed to have raised a half million dollars, but he is ineligible for the voluntary public-financing program because of his federal corruption conviction.

Another Democratic hopeful, Lee Whitnum of Greenwich, reported receiving $225 for her campaign.

Candidates in the state program, which is supported through abandoned property including unclaimed bank accounts of the deceased, can get up to $6.5 million for the general election.

The campaign totals help position candidates heading into next months GOP and Democratic conventions, where hopefuls will need 15 percent support from delegates to become eligible for the anticipated August primary.

Meanwhile, in the State Capitol on Monday, Oz Griebel, a former Republican running an independent campaign, said he will report raising $70,000.

We have been talking to a number of organizations in different parts of the country that have independent candidates running for offices and I think it just illustrates the frustration that many people, many people have with the current system, said Griebel who does not plan to participate in the public-financing program.
Home sales took a high dive in the first quarter of 2018 and the Winnipeg Realtors Association hopes its not a sign of things to come.

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This article was published 9/4/2018 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Home sales took a high dive in the first quarter of 2018 and the Winnipeg Realtors Association hopes its not a sign of things to come.

Sales were down eight per cent against the first three months of 2017 and four per cent against the 10-year average.

But figures were worse for the family dwellings that make up almost three-quarters of properties. Residential detached house sales plunged 11 per cent against last year, and seven per cent off the 10-year-average.

The real-estate association is taking a wait-and-see attitude  wait for the second quarter and see what it brings before panicking.

"Its really too early to say," said Chris Dudeck, president of the Realtors association. The second quarter is always the busiest period for sales, he said. "It was really houses in the more affordable price range that saw the biggest drop, homes in the $200,000-to-$300,000 range," said Dudeck.

However, Winnipegs figures looked downright rosy compared to some other parts of the country. In Regina, house sales were off by 30 per cent, and by 23 per cent in Calgary, he said.

Blame is being levelled at the federal governments new mortgage stress test. The stress test for insured mortgages (people with a down payment of less than 20 per cent) started in 2016, and for uninsured mortgages (a down payment of 20 per cent or higher) on Jan. 1, 2018.

"In November and December there was anticipation of the stress test coming. So if individuals or couples on the line may have accelerated their purchasing decision in 2017, and that may have pulled volumes for 2017 out of 2018," Dudeck said.

The stress test is a way of ensuring the borrower can survive a worst-case scenario on a mortgage. How much can the borrower afford given their current debt-to-income ratio, and could they make the monthly mortgage payments should the rates increase?

To qualify for a mortgage, homebuyers now have to be able to absorb the negotiated lending rate plus two per cent. Additionally, borrowers should not exceed a 44 per cent total debt ratio (TDS) and will be required to spend less than 32 per cent of their income on housing costs such as utilities, mortgage payments, and real estate taxes.

The tougher qualifying environment applies not only to first-time buyers but to existing homeowners, who instead of listing their property may decide to sit tight instead of trying to move up, the associations market report says.

Mortgage rates also have gone up. There has been a 0.75-per-cent bump in the mortgage rate since last year.

Another factor for the drop in home sales was the unseasonably cold weather in March. "Mother nature hasnt really co-operated. That affects peoples motivation and how they feel," Dudeck said.

Peter Squire, Winnipeg realtors market analyst, said people also should remember that 2016 and 2017 were two of the best years ever for house sales.

Across the city, sales in the north including Transcona slumped, as did the southeast in neighbourhoods like St. Vital, River Park South, Island Lakes and Sage Creek. However, southwest neighbourhoods such as Linden Woods and Whyte Ridge still did well. In Steinbach, sales were almost identical to those of a year ago.

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"The listings seem to be fine. Its been more an absence of buyers," Squire said.

Good market fundamentals still exist in terms of the economy and population growth so Squire is hopeful the downturn is short-term.

With family dwellings, the average sales price was higher, however, at $327,959 compared to $319,549, up nearly three per cent, and the average number of days to sell a listed home was 29 versus 27 in 2017.

Condominium sales fell 14 per cent in the first quarter, but they are only one per cent below the 10-year average. The average sales price of $240,740 was less than two per cent below the more active first quarter of 2017.

Dudeck cautioned its a small sample in the first quarter. An eight per cent drop amounts to only about 200 units. "If you look at the whole year, our industry averages about 13,000 sales. Those 200 are still a small percentage of the whole year," he said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Phoenix-based StandardAero just signed a mammoth 20-year deal with Rolls-Royce to do even more maintenance, repair and overhaul on a series of Rolls-Royce aircraft engines that StandardAero has already been working on for some time.

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Phoenix-based StandardAero just signed a mammoth 20-year deal with Rolls-Royce to do even more maintenance, repair and overhaul on a series of Rolls-Royce aircraft engines that StandardAero has already been working on for some time.

The deal is expected to be worth about US$15 billion over the 20-year life of the contract. Most of the additional work will be done at StandardAeros shops in Winnipeg, Texas (San Antonio), and Tennessee (Maryville).

Kyle Hultquist, a spokesman for StandardAero, said it is a very big deal for the company.

"Its huge. Its very good news for the company," Hultquist told the Free Press. "For Winnipeg it means more volume and hopefully continued strong growth."

Winnipegs StandardAero shop, with about 1,400 workers, is the largest in the companys network.

That network grew significantly when StandardAero acquired Vector Aerospace from Airbus in November of last year, adding about $600 million in revenue.

The company operates out of 12 buildings with about 665,000 square feet of space in Winnipeg.

The new deal designates StandardAero, one of the largest independent gas turbine engine maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) companies in the world, as the primary provider of MRO services on the Rolls-Royce AE 2100 and T56 engines.

Those engines are used primarily on C-130 Hercules transport planes by militaries around the world. The deal also includes some other engines that also are used primarily on military aircraft.

Hultquist said it is too early to say whether the Winnipeg operation will have enough manpower and space to accommodate the additional work. He said the new work will start coming on-stream at the end of this year and ramp up in 2019.

Bob Hastings  a member of the board of directors of Manitoba Aerospace Association and president and CEO of West Canitest R&D Inc., which is associated with GEs Aircraft Engine Testing, Research and Development Centre in Winnipeg  said it is a significant business development for StandardAero.

"StandardAeros overhaul product is second to none in terms of quality and cost," Hastings said. "In the past the amount of work (the company did on these specific Rolls-Royce engines) was controlled by their licensing agreement with Rolls-Royce. This is a really positive development for StandardAero and its customers."

The new work is work that Rolls-Royce had previously done in-house. Joel Reuter, a spokesman for Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis, Ind., said a decision was made last year to close its Rolls-Royce Engine Services operation in Oakland, Calif.

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"We announced to employees last fall that we would transition work out of that shop because of substantial factory cost pressures made the operation in Oakland unsustainable," Reuter said.

He said the lions share of the off-load work is going to StandardAero.

It is the third contract in the last little while that StandardAero has won with Rolls-Royce.

On top of that work and contract extensions, StandardAero completed four acquisitions 2017, including the acquisition of Vector Aerospace in November of last year.

StandardAeros 13 primary facilities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia operate in more than two million square feet. Worldwide employment is approximately 3,500 with annual revenue of US$1.7 billion.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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OTTAWA  Almost 14 years after the Canadian military decamped from Kapyong Barracks, the federal government is set to sign an agreement with Treaty 1 First Nations, marking the first public sign of progress in divesting the property in years.

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OTTAWA  Almost 14 years after the Canadian military decamped from Kapyong Barracks, the federal government is set to sign an agreement with Treaty 1 First Nations, marking the first public sign of progress in divesting the property in years.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjans office said hell be in Winnipeg on Wednesday to announce "the next milestone" for Kapyong. Treaty 1 First Nations are preparing a ceremony that morning.

Multiple sources told the Free Press both sides have reached a significant agreement, though its unclear what that means. It could be a formal document, or an announcement revealing how the former Canadian Forces site will be used.

Long Plain First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches, who speaks on behalf of the seven bands seeking control of Kapyong, said Ottawa will announce the event through a Tuesday news release.

"The Treaty 1 chiefs basically have a bit of a gag order on them on this file, until Wednesday. Everybodys agreed not to make any statements on it," Meeches said Monday.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, the sole Manitoban in the federal cabinet, is expected to be at the announcement. He wouldnt specify what the news was, but confirmed it was a major step for divesting the property.

"Its gonna happen very soon," Carr said Sunday, with a wide grin. "Really soon."

Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough, who oversees Canada Lands Co., will not be at the ceremony, which suggests the Crown corporation does not have a major role in the property, at least so far.

CLC oversees land owned by the federal government, and has redeveloped several military bases closed in the 1990s, often in lock-step with local First Nations but never as an urban reserve.

Meeches reiterated Monday Treaty 1s intentions have always been to create an urban reserve. Hes said that could include everything from educational institutions and museums to a gas bar or casino.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, who is involved in the creation of reserves, was invited to Wednesdays event but will be unable to attend.

It seems likely the announcement will be an incremental step in transferring the property, as Bennetts office would normally rearrange scheduling in order to have her attend the creation of a new reserve in a prime location. The announcement also comes shortly after the Free Press published a multi-story series on the lack on inaction on the Kapyong Barracks.

In June 2004, the second battalion of Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry decamped to CFB Shilo, east of Brandon, and the federal government tried transferring the land directly to Crown corporations.

Treaty 1 sued Ottawa in 2008, sparking a drawn-out court battle. Treaty 1 argued Ottawa failed to adequately consult the local First Nations over the land; judges in most of the hearings agreed with the them.

The former Harper government abandoned legal proceedings in fall 2015. Since then, Treaty 1 officials have met with federal officials roughly once a month.

Buildings on the Winnipeg site have sat largely untouched during the legal dispute, falling into a state of disrepair.

Kapyong sits in Carrs riding, as does neighbouring River Heights and Tuxedo. He has pushed to have the property out of Ottawas hands before the fall 2019 federal election. Thats also when the military expects demolition of various buildings at Kapyong to be complete. Its unclear how many buildings, if any, will be left standing.

In recent interviews, Meeches told the Free Press negotiators discussed the bases "purchase price" on Jan. 24, and theyd previously discussed how the land would be divided.

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Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowmans office said he hadnt received an invitation and wasnt aware a ceremony was being planned.

"Mayor Bowman remains committed to collaborating on economic development opportunities at Kapyong, and looks forward to hearing what further progress has been made at the federal level in this regard," wrote spokesman Jonathan Hildebrand, adding Bowman has touted the concept of Aboriginal economic-development zones.

The areas city councillor, Marty Morantz, was also unaware of the event.

"I would like to see the lands developed," he said. "Whether they are developed by Indigenous groups or the private sector, or a joint venture between them, such development will be positive for all Winnipeggers."

 with files from Aldo Santin

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen blames workers' lack of loyalty to the employer for job vacancy rates in Manitoba  which is 12 per cent in his government department alone.

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This article was published 9/4/2018 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen blames workers' lack of loyalty to the employer for job vacancy rates in Manitoba  which is 12 per cent in his government department alone.

During his recent ministerial estimates  a committee hearing into all and any aspects of a departmental budget  Pedersen responded to questions from New Democrat MLA Tom Lindsey, saying: "I'll try to explain this: there is no loyalty in the workforce anymore."

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen.

Lindsey was asking about the trade department having reduced staff by 14 per cent -- 58 full-time equivalents -- while also carrying a 12 per cent vacancy rate. Normally, the department's vacancy rate runs about eight per cent, Pedersen said.

The April 5 exchange was detailed in the Hansard Manitoba legislative record.

The minister told the hearing both the public and private sectors spend a lot of time trying to fill jobs they need filled to perform properly.

"It used to be there was a person would get a career and they would stay there for 30 years. You should know this, but I'll explain it anyway," Pedersen said. "Nowadays, my children's generation, who are in their 30s, they will have  the average career is five different careers. So people move, whether it's from the civil service, whether it's from private business, they move around.

"So government is no different than private industry on this. There is a vacancy rate... go talk to any business out there that's looking to recruit workers. They have a vacancy rate," the Tory minster said. "My staff is telling me that just yesterday they got notice of a person putting in notice to resign, totally unexpected. So that's what vacancy rates are all about.

"We will endeavour to reduce our overall vacancy rate from the current eight per cent and we will do our level best. We need those people in a department to keep the department working to achieve the goals that we have set for the department."

Lindsey responded: "Trust me, I would dearly love if people could have a career that they didn't have to continually move around. Unfortunately, that's not the world that any of us live in at the moment."

On Monday, Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union president Michelle Gawronsky questioned how Pedersen could talk about loyalty from workers whose jobs are getting cut and wages frozen by the provincial government.

"There was a time when a civil service job meant fair and competitive compensation and the potential to build a career. That is changing very quickly," Gawronsky said.

"Recruiting and retaining skilled staff is less of a problem for employers that value their staff, offer fair compensation, and support employees to do the job right"  Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union president Michelle Gawronsky

"Recruiting and retaining skilled staff is less of a problem for employers that value their staff, offer fair compensation, and support employees to do the job right," the labour leader said. "This government has chosen a different path: cutting jobs that leave too few workers to deliver services, freezing wages that make hiring and keeping workers a significant challenge, and criticizing the work of public employees to justify its agenda of cuts and privatization."

Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson split his response Monday.

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"I dont disagree with the minister's comment, but I dont think it is about loyalty. I think it has more to do with the number of opportunities that exist for people," Davidson said.

"In addition, there are very few industries that can provide an employee with job security for 30 years. This is one of the reasons that you see employers focus on greater work/life balance for employees and becoming an employer of choice in an effort to keep employees longer," he said. "This is probably an area where the private sector is much more proactive than the public sector."

Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard said he wouldn't comment on political discussions, but noted: "Without a doubt, talent attraction and retention is a key challenge for industry" his organization's members raise frequently.

"What we're seeing is a change from generation to generation," Remillard said. "It's experiential-focused  people want to have a CV (resume) that indicates a wide range of skills and experience that applies to any opportunity."

Remillard declined to talk about workers' loyalty, but said anyone with high skills in an in-demand sector doesn't have difficulty in finding a new job in Manitoba.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Northern Manitobans who fled wildfires in the Island Lake region last summer, only to see friends and family fall prey to meth dealers in evacuation shelters and hotels, walked into Winnipeg Monday to appeal to the province for help.

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This article was published 10/4/2018 (1268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Northern Manitobans who fled wildfires in the Island Lake region last summer, only to see friends and family fall prey to meth dealers in evacuation shelters and hotels, walked into Winnipeg Monday to appeal to the province for help.

"This drug, crystal meth, is killing our people," said 32-year-old mother Maureen Wood, as a couple dozen people from her home, St. Theresa Point First Nation, and its sister communities ended a 13-day trek.

Under bright spring skies and a warm sun, marchers carried banners and flags. Supporters in a dozen or more cars flanked them on Main Street.

One young man held an Indigenous staff in one hand and in his other hand, a Bible. As his grandmother settled into the front seat of a police cruiser to make the entrance into the city, he handed the Bible over for safekeeping. "This was my brothers Bible," Eliza Beardy said, holding the book close.

Nearly 6,000 people from northern Manitoba First Nations were evacuated to Winnipeg and Brandon last summer due to wildfires that threatened their communities.

According to Wood and others at the march Monday, once in shelters and hotels, the citys drug dealers moved among them.

"People were offered free drugs to try it and it got people hooked. All of us are affected by it. People are slowly killing themselves and getting in trouble with the law. Theyre losing their kids through (Child and Family Services). Its just terrible," Wood said.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Camille Munro (below left) hugs Quentin Harper as the walk travels down Main Street.

The StopMeth march destination was the Manitoba legislature, where Wood and others had a message for the government led by Premier Brian Pallister and Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen: send help to clean meth out of the northern communities.

"Drug-sniffing dogs at the airport, a treatment centre where our youth can go. I want to tell the health minister we need (that kind of) help in all of our communities," Wood said.

By late afternoon, theyd stopped at Thunderbird House on Main Street, with plans to resume the march Tuesday, joined by Island Lake leaders.

Liberal MLA Judy Klassen accompanied the group Monday.

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The MLA for Keewatinook and a member of the St. Theresa Point First Nation said she learned of the crisis during the 2017 wildfire. Mothers came to her with accounts about their children getting mysterious packages from strangers at the shelters and hotels where they were put up as evacuees, she said.

"They tried it, got addicted," Klassen said.

Klassen said she alerted police to step up patrols in an effort to stop the flow of drugs. And she got help from the Bear Clan street patrol and the local branch of the American Indian Movement.

"They came and patrolled those hotels and those shelters," Klassen said.

The march attracted attention Monday. One young woman posed for a selfie as the group passed her. "Ive been tracking where you guys are," she said in encouragement.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Manitoba has signed on to the federal Liberals ambitious national housing strategy, pledging a hefty financial boost that should see upgrades to Winnipeg public-housing units.

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This article was published 9/4/2018 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba has signed on to the federal Liberals ambitious national housing strategy, pledging a hefty financial boost that should see upgrades to Winnipeg public-housing units.

On Monday, provinces and territories pledged they would follow through with the cash Ottawa earmarked in a historic plan to get the federal government back into housing.

"It is actually the most significant financial commitment from the federal and provincial governments for housing, really in the last quarter-century," Manitoba Families Minister Scott Fielding said on the sidelines of a national meeting in Toronto.

In November, the Liberals unveiled an ambitious 10-year housing plan that includes about $40 billion in spending. The strategy rested on territorial, provincial and private-sector partners picking up about $8.6 billion in costs to go with new and previously promised federal spending.

With Mondays agreement in place, Manitoba will now negotiate a bilateral agreement that will spell out how much money the province will pony up, and what it will be used for.

"Its going to augment the work that weve already done with Manitobans, to find out what priorities we have in housing over the next coming years," said Fielding, who said the Tory government led by Premier Brian Pallister will then release its own long-term housing plan.

He said three programs outlined Monday will have Ottawa give "its just north of $300 million" to Manitoba housing needs. Its unclear if Manitoba will have to match all that money, or just a portion of it.

One of the three elements is a pot of money provinces can use for building and renovating existing housing stock.

The second is a portable shelter benefit, a new concept in many parts of North America but one that has existed in Manitoba for years. Rent Assist ties subsidies to a person and not the building they live in, allowing people to move for work or personal reasons without grappling to find a new public-housing complex.

The third part  likely the most notable for Winnipeg  is long-term funding for subsidized housing units, thousands of which were at risk of losing all federal funding due to expiring decades-old agreements. Fielding said funding accounts for roughly 23 per cent of Manitoba Housings revenues.

Federal Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said that was top of mind for his government.

"Manitoba, and Winnipeg in particular, do have a fair amount of social housing units that are in need of repair, and without federal leadership, the burden of repair and looking after these units would have been entirely borne by the province and by the city," he said in an interview.

Duclos defended the funding being back-loaded, largely kicking in after the fall 2019 election, saying it comes out fairly equally over each allocated year, while giving enough time to design large projects.

"We want to have an ability to support the leadership of provinces and territories over a long time," he told reporters.

Mondays framework will also set out goals and reporting requirements for all the spending. Conservative MP James Bezan said last fall hell be watching closely to see whether the large spending plan will help out his Interlake riding.

Mondays announcement came together by the early afternoon in Ottawa; that speed caught housing advocates off-guard.

Pedro Barata, co-chairman of the National Housing Collaborative, an umbrella group created to lobby the Liberals on the design of the housing strategy, said he was pleased to see the provinces agree to match federal spending.

"It puts real fuel in the tank, in moving this forward," Barata said.

Duclos said the agreement has been in the works since a June 2016 meeting in Victoria, but has gained momentum after Manitoba and other provinces "worked quite hard" to prioritize the issue.

Housing advocates are also watching for the Liberals Indigenous housing strategy.

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That will separately tackle issues such as housing crises on First Nations and in Metis settlements  issues disproportionately severe for northern Manitoba, according to 2016 census data.

The strategy also allocates money for urban Indigenous people and those without Indian status, both of whom are largely exempt from most federal programming.

Mondays agreement excludes Quebec, which has a separate agreement with Ottawa.

 with files from The Canadian Press

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The two Brians leading Manitoba and Winnipeg want to turn back the clock on democracy by eliminating election-campaign donation rebates.

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This article was published 10/4/2018 (1268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The two Brians leading Manitoba and Winnipeg want to turn back the clock on democracy by eliminating election-campaign donation rebates.

One of the first things Premier Brian Pallister did after being elected was remove the provision for per-vote rebates to political parties to help pay for elections. Publicly funded rebates to political parties, based on the amount of a political donation, still exist for Manitoba elections. Voters donating to a candidate still get a tax credit for political contributions based on the amount of the donation at both the federal and provincial level. It was the new per-vote rebate paid by the province of Manitoba to political parties that the Progressive Conservative government eliminated.

Now Mayor Brian Bowman, six months before the municipal election, has announced that he, too, would like to make similar changes to the rules for election finance.

He proposes to remove the provision that allows for up to 75 per cent rebate for the first $300 donated to candidates running in civic elections. This donation rebate is issued by the city of Winnipeg, not as an income-tax deduction, and it is the only civic-level rebate available for campaign donations.

Eliminating the rebate will discourage medium- and low-income citizens from donating to a candidate, and effectively rigs the election so only wealthy voters can easily contribute and influence elections. It also reduces the fundraising potential of those who would challenge an incumbent, giving the incumbent a distinct advantage.

The civic election rebate costs the city about $700,000, a small price for democracy. Donation rebates must not be eliminated under the guise of saving money to balance the city budget. To do so would turn back the clock to a time when only wealthy property owners could vote or run in elections.

In the early days of electoral democracy, the only people who could run for office and vote were men who owned property. Women were not allowed to own property; indeed, women were considered property. Indigenous peoples were also prohibited from voting or from being candidates. Enfranchising all citizens took decades of organizing, including a petition with 40,000 signatures, and a challenge to the Supreme Court for women to get the vote in 1916. It wasnt until 1960 that Indigenous women were given the right to vote in Manitoba elections. 1942 was the first Winnipeg civic election with "adult suffrage" for all citizens.

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Now most people see that "one person, one vote" is a principle of democracy, and right of citizenship. However, the ongoing under-representation of diverse women and men is, in part, due to the cost of running in an election. The spending for a successful councillors election in 2014 was about $30,000, and for mayor, more than $200,000. The current maximum donation contribution for a council candidate is $750, and for a mayoral candidate the limit is $1,500. Who has that kind of money to donate or campaign without a rebate program?

In the early 1970s, recognizing the unfairness in election finance, new rules were debated. In 1973, Israel Asper was quoted in the Free Press saying, "Elections should be publicly financed and financial decisions should not be part of a would-be candidates decision to run, and money should not play an influencing role in winning." Despite the advocacy of Asper and many others, it wasnt until 1990 that a city election finance policy was passed. The current civic election rebate rules were passed in 2010.

Democracy requires not just voting rights, but democratic election-finance rules, including rebates, that ensure diverse candidates have a fair chance to run on an equal basis. Election-rebate rules that ensure people with modest means can donate to political candidates are as essential to democracy as ensuring that everyone gets a vote. A greater number of smaller wards would also further democratize elections by reducing the cost of running.

The election-donation rebate policy paid through public funds is the only way there to ensure that elections, and therefore governments, are not controlled by big money. This is also why corporate and union donations have been eliminated and spending limits enforced. The rebate policy offers the possibility that most anyone can donate and participate more fully in elections, not just those with deep pockets.

The rules controlling election finance should not be changed by a sitting mayor and council who will benefit by those changes that protect their incumbency. Its 2018; lets not turn back the clock to 1916, when some women finally got the right to vote and when Winnipeg was a blatantly elitist, sexist, racist and classist city.

Marianne Cerilli a Winnipeg educator and community-development leader. She is a former MLA and mayoral candidate.
Since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tweeted last month that Canada is now officially a full member, it hasnt exactly made headlines.

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This article was published 10/4/2018 (1268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tweeted last month that Canada is now officially a full member, it hasnt exactly made headlines.

Yet this is ostensibly a prelude for trade talks with China in an increasingly protectionist global landscape. And admission wasnt cheap: Chinese sources say Ottawa committed more than a billion dollars to the Beijing-based bank.

But China-watchers are more fixated on the dramatic changes rolling out after the just-completed National Peoples Congress.

Among other moves, the annual Congress voted 2,970-to-0 to give President Xi Jinping a second five-year term and repealed a regulation barring him from seeking a third.

They also rubber-stamped the creation of a National Supervision Commission (NSC), empowered to detain people for months at secret locations without access to lawyers or due process.

This NSC ranks above even Chinas judiciary in the newly amended Constitution. Its establishment would certainly make Chinese Congress members pause before entering a symbolic protest vote against Xis Machiavellian restructuring of institutions to consolidate his own power.

Xi calls all the shots

After last month, any charade that state institutions are somehow independent from Chinas Communist Party (read: presidential) diktat is now abandoned. Whatever Xi says, goes.

He chairs six top-level "leading small groups" and numerous other committees and commissions, covering every major area of policy, and has taken direct command of Chinas security and intelligence apparatus. (The "authority" of Chinese State Council Premier Li Keqiang is so debased that there is little point in our prime minister meeting with him again.)

Xis closing address to Congress, intended to be heard around the world, was a rousing paean to the greatness of Chinas civilization across its dynastic history.

The inventions of paper and printing, dynamite and the compass were cited, as were Chinas contributions to literature and philosophy and the construction of the Great Wall. It all underscored the point that Xi will oversee the "great restoration of the Chinese nation" by 2050. The characters wei da  meaning "great"  were heard 35 times in the 38-minute speech.

Where does Canadas massive financial contribution to the AIIB fit in? Its in Xis promise that "China will continue to actively engage in reconstruction and transformation of the systems of global governance by contributing more Chinese wisdom, Chinese redesigns and Chinese strength."

This is part and parcel of Beijings massive One Belt One Road global infrastructure program, which China expects will lead to its development of the Canadian North and polar waters in years ahead.

China has already declared itself a "near-Arctic nation," regardless of the strictures of geography.

Most alarming for Canada was the news that the Communist Partys United Front Work Department, responsible for promoting Chinas influence around the world, will be restructured and beefed up. Xi characterizes the UFD as the Partys "magic weapon," and indeed, its activity in Western countries has increasingly been seen as a covert, coercive or corrupt tool for Chinas foreign interests.

Chinas 2015 hack of the U.S. governments Office of Personnel Management  exposing personal data of 21 million government employees or their spouses to Chinas sophisticated super-computers  was likely a glimpse of a Chinese social engineering behemoth intended to induce naive Canadians to take actions that serve Beijings purposes more than Canadas own sovereign interests.

Useful idiots

It uses up-to-the-minute cyber-technology to cultivate the equivalent of Lenins "useful idiots" in nations of strategic interest to China  nations like Canada.

Beneath all the win-win rhetoric, and sops to Canadian greed, the real goal is buttressing the rise to power of a new global order, where liberal democratic principles are eclipsed by Xi Jinpings determined, authoritarian passion to restore Chinas lost greatness.

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According to diplomatic lists maintained by Global Affairs Canada, the United States has 138 accredited foreign representatives at its embassy and consulates in Canada.

But China has 169.

As a onetime official in the Canadian embassy in Beijing, this begs some questions. Why does China need so many more people stationed in Canada than our much more predominant economic partner and closest ally?

And what are the Chinese diplomats doing here that the American diplomats arent?

Charles Burton is an associate professor of political science at Brock University.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
A community that has been persecuted abroad, faced genocide, and languished in refugee camps is beginning to build a future in Winnipeg.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/4/2018 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A community that has been persecuted abroad, faced genocide, and languished in refugee camps is beginning to build a future in Winnipeg.

Operation Ezra, a multi-faith coalition spearheaded by a number of local Jewish organizations privately sponsoring Yazidi refugees to come to Winnipeg, welcomed its 10th and final family, sponsored in 2017, to the city on March 29.

DANIELLE DA SILVA - SOU'WESTER From left: Meytal Lavy, office manager at Jewish Child and Family Services, Michel Aziza, volunteer organizer with Operation Ezra, and Nafiya Naso, settlement worker with Operation Ezra and Jewish Child and Family Services.

Shireen Khudida, an 83-year-old matriarch, arrived at the Richardson International Airport with her seven family members from Turkey where they were greeted by over a hundred members of Operation Ezra and the Yazidi community, followed by a long awaited embrace from her daughter Khokhe Murad and grandchildren who arrived just over a year ago.

"It was a much anticipated arrival because she hadnt seen her mother in a couple of years," said Michel Aziza, a volunteer organizer with Operation Ezra.

Operation Ezra was formed in March 2015 after Nafiya Naso, who came to Winnipeg as a refugee about 17 years ago, reached out to the Jewish community to raise awareness of the violence Yazidi people (a religious ethnic minority) were facing in the Mount Sinjar region of Iraq.

In August 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched an attack on the Yazidi community. According to Operation Ezra, an estimated 5,000 Yazidi people were killed, 50,000 displaced and thousands more remain hostages. In June 2016, the United Nations declared that the actions of ISIL constitutes a genocide against the Yazidi people.

Since March 2015, Operation Ezra has brought 55 people to Winnipeg and has raised nearly $600,000 to cover the costs of private sponsorship. The first family arrived in July 2016 and many of the 55 refugees have settled in the Grant Park and Earl Grey area.

According to Aziza, the Yazidi community is now looking to take the lead in the settlement and welcoming of new arrivals.

Some of the families that have been in Winnipeg for over a year have found work, speak some English, and are able to run errands either by public transportation or with their own vehicles and are offering their time to help make the transition to Canadian life smoother.

"Theres an immediate community support infrastructure thats ready for them," Aziza said. "Were starting to see a lot more involvement on their part in terms of helping the newer families settle.

"Theres such a community feeling now."

Fawaz Smoqy arrived in Winnipeg just under a year ago through the efforts of Operation Ezra. The 22-year-old is currently taking English courses through MITT and works part time at Fionn MacCools in Grant Park, and, after living in a refugee camp for three years, hopes to finish his high school diploma in Winnipeg.

"Its been a great year, Ive met a lot of really good people throughout the year," Smoqy said in Kurdish through an interpreter. "For me and my family we didnt feel like strangers into this new country. We feel like weve been here much longer than a year."

Between classes, hes also been volunteering his time to help orient government-sponsored Yazidi refugees to life in the city, teaching them about the bus system, translating, and taking them grocery shopping. He said the local Yazidi community is getting more organized and are supporting each other in many ways.

"Its for humanity," Smoqy said. "I was there too and I know what its like to not speak English and to not know how to take the bus. Its the right thing to do."

Unlike Operation Ezra sponsored refugees, many government-sponsored refugees rely on settlement agencies to help them start life in the city. According to Aziza, a number of government-sponsored Yazidis have reached out to Operation Ezra for additional support. The coalition is currently providing food and some financial assistance to about 25 families and is in conversation with the government about providing further settlement support.

"Were dropping off food not because it was our plan, but because they were asking for help," Aziza said.

Naso, who has been employed by Jewish Child and Family Services as a settlement worker for Operation Ezra, said while there is more work to be done, its incredible to see how the Yazidi community has rebounded in Manitoba.

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"I think about two years ago and how small it was and how fast it grew. When you think about it, we saved 55 lives. Really its incredible," she said.

"I see them almost every day and they just cant thank us enough," she added. "I tell them you dont have to thank anybody, just try to pay it forward whenever you can."

Over the coming months, Operation Ezra is planning to bring 20 more refugees to the city and will continue to provide support to government-sponsored families, while also raising funds to send aid to Iraq.

In some cases, Aziza says the refugees are putting what extra money theyve been able to earn back into the cause with the hope of bringing more Yazidis to the city.

"Operation Ezras objective was always to do as much as we could and then at some point in time, facilitate the coming together of the community, so they could start  just as the Jewish community did years ago  to provide support and get to the point where families themselves want to be involved in the settlement piece, and even the sponsorship of new families coming."

"I dont want to understate the impact the new families are having," Aziza said. "With their being able to participate and wanting to participate financially, we can do a lot more than we would otherwise."
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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.

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Quorum Health Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides hospital and outpatient healthcare services in the United States. Its hospital and outpatient healthcare services include general and acute care, emergency room, general and specialty surgery, critical care, internal medicine, diagnostic, obstetric, psychiatric, and rehabilitation services. Quorum Health Corporation offers its healthcare services through its hospitals and affiliated facilities, including urgent care centers, diagnostic and imaging centers, physician clinics, and surgery centers. The company, through its subsidiary, Quorum Health Resources, LLC, provides hospital management advisory, healthcare consulting, and group purchasing services to non-affiliated hospitals, as well as Web-based applications and software tools; and various education programs for healthcare leaders, professionals, and other medical staff. As of December 31, 2018, it owned or leased 27 hospitals with approximately 2,604 licensed beds. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

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Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides bandwidth infrastructure solutions for the communications industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company operates in six segments: Fiber Solutions, Transport, Enterprise Networks, Zayo Colocation (zColo), Allstream, and Other. The Fiber Solutions segment provides dark fiber, and fiber-to-the-tower and small cell mobile infrastructure services for carriers and other communication service providers, Internet service providers, wireless service providers, media and content companies, large enterprises, and other companies. The Transport segment offers lit bandwidth infrastructure solutions comprising wavelength, Ethernet, wholesale IP services, and SONET services through its metro, regional, and long-haul fiber networks for carriers, content providers, financial services companies, healthcare, government entities, education institutions, and other medium and large enterprises. The Enterprise Networks segment provides connectivity and telecommunications solutions comprising Internet, wide area networking products, managed products, and cloud based computing and storage offerings to medium and large enterprises. The Zayo Colocation (zColo) segment offers data center infrastructure solutions consisting of colocation space, and power and interconnection services to a range of enterprise, carrier, cloud, and content customers. The Allstream segment provides cloud VoIP and data solutions, such as voice offerings; and unified communications, as well as telecommunications services, including Ethernet, and IP/MPLS VPN solutions. The Other segment provides network and technical resources to customers in designing, acquiring, and maintaining their networks. Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

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Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
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.

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KB Financial Group, Inc. engages in providing financial services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Life Insurance, Investment and Securities business. The Corporate Banking business segment provides services such as loans, overdrafts, deposits, credit facilities and other foreign currency activities. The Retail Banking business segment offers services such as private customer current accounts, savings, deposits, consumer loans and mortgage loans. The Other Banking business segment provides services relating to banking business besides corporate banking and retail banking services. The Credit Card business segment offers services such as domestic as well as overseas credit and debit card operations. The Investment and Securities business segment provides services such as investment banking and brokerage. The Life Insurance business segment provides products such as life insurance and wealth management. The company was founded on September 29, 2008 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

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The district administration of Upper Bavaria has denied a candidate teacher a post as trainee because he was a member of the student and youth organisation of the Left Party up until the spring of 2017. Only following an interim injunction did the Bavarian administrative court allow 34-year-old Benedikt Glasl to continue his teacher training for the time being.

Despite the courts decision to allow Glasl to continue his training, his case raises serious issues. It makes clear that government agencies are prepared to take action against even the most harmless critics of capitalism, and that the German intelligence services, which have been severely discredited in light of their involvement in the activities of the far-right NSU terror gang, are regaining influence.

Glasl, who studied political science, social studies, German, history and sport for a teaching post, applied for a traineeship at a school a year ago, a prerequisite for becoming a teacher. He was assigned a job. But just before he could take up the post, which in Bavaria involves taking an oath as a civil servant, the administration declared that he could not be sworn in due to doubts about his loyalty to the constitution.

In a questionnaire, Glasl had acknowledged that he had been active during his studies in the Left Party movement and in the Social Democratic Student Union (SDS). He had protested, among other things, against military research at state universities and tuition fees.

The state administration forwarded its questionnaire to the local office of the state domestic intelligence service (known in Germany as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution), which took three months to review his case. In the meantime, Glasl was awarded an internship at his assigned school. He was able to continue his education, but received no salary and was not allowed to teach alone in front of a class.

Eventually, in January, Glasl attended a hearing held by the relevant administration director. Glasl denied that he had ever sought to transform existing society. In addition, he had been inactive for a long period before formally ending his membership of the two organizations. The administration of Upper Bavaria then advocated the appointment of Mr. Glasl at the earliest opportunity.

However, on February 12 Glasl received a letter stating the very opposite. The secret service had vetoed his appointment, although legally it is not able to do so. The Bavarian government adopted the argument put forward by the intelligence service in confidential letters, and now declared: Ultimately, there has been no credible, recognisable distancing from extreme left-wing views. At the end of the letter, the administration explicitly referred to the intelligence service: the relevant authority had convincingly expressed concerns for a second time.

Glasl lodged an expedited appeal against the decision with the administrative court, which ruled in his favour on March 9. This means he can continue his internship until the end of the school year.

In its interim order, the administrative court largely based its arguments on the Federal Constitutional Courts 1975  Radicals Decree, which denied employment in the public services to anti-constitutional forces. At that time the highest court in Germany had restricted a ban on employment from being imposed on a blanket basis, stipulating that every case be dealt with on an individual basis, which takes into account the personal impression given by the applicant.

The Bavarian administrative court justified its decision by arguing that the Basic Law guarantees every German the free choice of profession and equal access to public office. Teacher training is a state monopoly, even if the position itself does not qualify for status as a state official. As a result, Bavaria was obliged to provide Glasl with an equivalent, non-discriminatory preparatory post, if necessary as an employeeincluding a period of employment at a school.

In addition, there was no evidence that Glasl was seeking to turn students against the constitution. Finally, the state could not allow an applicant to undertake a traineeship for an extended period of time and then cancel it. Otherwise, the work done so far in training would be rendered largely worthless.

The radicals decree reactivated in the case of Glasl was first enacted by the first Social Democratic-led government in post-war West Germany. On January 28, 1972, Chancellor Willy Brandt (SPD) and the countrys state premiers adopted an agreement on Principles on the issue of anti-constitutional forces in public services at a conference on Internal Security Issues.

The aim of this state premiers decision was to rid the countrys public services of so-called enemies of the constitution. Under normal circumstances, recruitment authorities asked officials of the domestic intelligence service (Rule Inquiry) whether they had knowledge of the applicant. If this were the case, then the candidate had to comment on this in his or her interview; if they were unable to dispel the doubts, then their application for a post was usually rejected. The applicant had the possibility of appealing against the decision, but such procedures usually lasted for many years.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, a total of 454,000 security checks took place in federal and state governments from January 1, 1973, to June 30, 1975. Of these, 328 applicants were rejected. Altogether, from 1972 to 1991 about 3.5 million applicants for public service at a national and state level were examined following a Rule Inquiry by the employing authority or the intelligence services. In about 11,000 cases, trials of the persons concerned were held. A total of 1,250 people were not hired due to the ruling against them.

Around 260 existing civil servants or employees were dismissed during the same period. For the most part, teachers (around 80 percent) and university teachers (around 10 percent) were affected. There were also cases involving the judiciary, railways and post. Most of the rejections were made between 1973 and 1979, peaking in 1975. Despite the official claim that the radicals decree was directed equally against right-wing and left-wing extremists, those affected were almost exclusively members or supporters of leftist organisations.

A commission of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a specialist agency of the United Nations, came to the conclusion in February 1987 that the implementation of the decree banning persons from employment violated the ban against discrimination in employment and occupation. A judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on September 26, 1995, involving a teacher from Lower Saxony who had been dismissed because of her membership of the DKP (German Communist Party) in 1986, saw it as a violation of the right to expression and association guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The state of Bavaria has played a leading role when it comes to spying on and prosecuting those with leftist opinions. It was the last German state to end the use of the radicals decree and the only state to introduce a new procedure instead. On December 11, 1991, the state government issued a statement requiring the constitutional compliance in public service.

The new procedure required each candidate for public service employment in Bavaria to indicate on a questionnaire whether he or she is or was a member or supporter of one of a number of organisations listed as anti-constitutional. The list of more than 200 domestic and foreign groups and parties includes Germanys Left Party and its predecessor organisations. On the basis of this information, employers can make inquiries to the secret services, which could then lead to the rejection of the applicantin practice an alternative version of the Radicals Decree.

In fact, the current case goes even further. In 1995 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that such practices violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The Left Party is represented in most German state parliaments and in number of state governments. In addition, the Bavarian authorities granted the secret service a kind of veto right, capable of overriding its own judgements based on the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court.

The background to the events in Bavaria is growing social tensions and the consequent sharp shift to the right by the entire political establishment.

Last July, the Bavarian state parliament passed a new security law, which allows the police to indefinitely detain people in the event of imminent danger. The Bavarian premier at that time and current federal interior minister, Horst Seehofer, has unequivocally declared his intention of establishing a strong state throughout Germany based on the Bavarian model.

His proposals include internment camps for refugees and mass deportations, as well as effective video surveillance of all hotspots in Germany, resulting in the systematic surveillance of the entire population. In addition, Seehofer announced the recruitment of 7,500 new federal police and a zero tolerance policy.

Olaf Scholz (SPD), who as mayor of Hamburg bore political responsibility for the massive police violence against protesters at the last G20 summit and for an accompanying campaign against violent left-wing extremists, also has a key position in the new federal government as vice-chancellor and finance minister.
The right-wing Fidesz Party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban won Sundays parliamentary election in Hungary by a wide margin. Expectations that the Fidesz Party would lose support due to several corruption scandals and claims by pollsters that the mood in the country was shifting did not materialise.

With the voter turnout a relatively high 67 percent, Fidesz secured 91 of the 106 directly elected parliamentary seats. Only in Budapest did the opposition manage to win 12 of the 18 directly elected seats.

In the second vote, based on which the 93 remaining seats are distributed proportionally, Fidesz won 49 percent, outperforming its vote in 2014 by 4 percentage points and securing a further 42 seats. With 133 seats in the 199-seat parliament, Fidesz will have a two-thirds majority for the third time in a row.

Orban waged a far-right election campaign focused solely on the issue of immigration. He warned of the complete collapse of the Hungarian state and the Hungarian nation as a result of uncontrolled mass migration, which only he could prevent. He demonised the US-based Hungarian billionaire George Soros as well as the European Union and the United Nations. With barely concealed anti-Semitic undertones, Orban accused Soros of planning to rob the people of their Christian and national heritage by encouraging mass migration by Muslims to Europe.

Yet the number of refugees living in Hungary, just a few thousand, is extremely low. Hungary was a transit country in 2015 along the so-called Balkan route. But the border has since been hermetically sealed and most refugees have left the country.

Orbans ability to win the election is less an expression of his own strength than of the utter bankruptcy of the so-called opposition. None of the parties that stood in the election had any answers to the burning social issues facing the country, which is among the poorest in Europe. They represent sections of the middle class that see their own social rise hindered by Orban and his cronies. They either support the European Union, the driving force behind the policies of economic liberalisation and austerity, or seek to outflank Orban from the right, in some cases combining the two positions.

None of the parties challenged Orbans anti-refugee propaganda. A cross-party consensus exists that immigration from foreign cultures is undesirable. Orban even came under attack from the right because he has accepted some 3,000 refugees in recent years under existing refugee laws.

The biggest loser in the election was the social democratic MSZP, which lost 13.3 percentage points and finished with just 12.2 percent of the vote. The successor organisation to the Stalinist state party, it led the government from 1994 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2010. While in power it imposed right-wing liberal economic reforms.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, the last MSZP prime minister, made a multi-million-euro fortune from investment banking and stock market speculation. He was brought down in 2009 over a series of corruption scandals. He now has his own party, the Democratic Coalition (DK), which secured 5.5 percent of the vote.

The far-right Jobbik emerged as the largest opposition party, with 19.4 percent of the vote. In the past, it pursued an openly neo-fascist line and collaborated with right-wing militias. However, it has attempted in the recent period under leader Gabor Vona to present a more moderate face. Several of the most radical members were forced out of the presidium.

Vona retreated from his previous call for an exit from the EU and instead called for its reform, and he sent greetings to the Jewish community. None of this helped the party. Compared to the last election, it lost close to 1 percentage point.

The Green LMP was another party to surpass the 5 percent hurdle for parliamentary representation, with 6.9 percent of the vote. The LMP increased its vote by 5 percentage points.

Orbans election victory was welcomed by far-right parties across Europe. The first to congratulate him included Marine le Pen of Frances National Front and Geert Wilders from the Dutch Freedom Party. Le Pen boasted that Orbans big and decisive victory reflected opposition to the mass migration made possible by the EU and said nationalist deputies could hold the majority in the European Parliament following the European elections in May 2019.

The leadership of the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany proclaimed the result of the Hungarian election to be a good day for Europe. Jaroslav Kaczynski, the leader of the Polish government party PiS, personally supported Orban during the election campaign.

However, Orbans support comes not only from the far-right. Fidesz is a member of the European Peoples Party, which includes most of the continents Christian Democratic and conservative parties, including the German government parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU). The CSU has repeatedly invited Orban as a guest to its party congresses in Bavaria.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer, who as interior minister in the current German government is responsible for the police, border protection and refugee policy, warmly congratulated Orban. Seehofer said he was very happy about Orbans very clear election victory. The CSU would continue to maintain its partnership with Orban, he added.

He went on to state that he viewed the policy of arrogance and paternalism towards certain member states to be mistaken. This was obviously a reference to the EU Commission and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have pressed Hungary to accept its share of refugees.

Merkel and EU President Jean-Claude Juncker also congratulated Orban on his victory, if in more reserved terms.

Under conditions of deepening social tensions and the growth of the class struggle, the established parties across Europe are moving ever further to the right. The agitation against refugees is serving as a means to mobilise right-wing and fascist forces to be thrown against workers in struggle.
The Japanese military activated its first marine unit since end of World War II on Saturday at a base near Sasebo on the southwestern island of Kyushu. The 2,100-strong Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) has been trained by the US Marines Corp as part of the US-led military build-up in the region against China.

After the ceremony, some 1,500 ARDB troops staged a 20-minute public exercise to simulate the recapture of a remote island from invaders. Tomohiro Yamamoto, vice defence minister, said that defence of our islands had become a critical mandate, given the difficult security situation surrounding Japan.

Japans focus on island defence takes place amid the continuing tense standoff between China and Japan in the East China Sea over the uninhabited islets named as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Repeated close encounters involving Japanese and Chinese aircraft and vessels have taken place over the past six years near the islands, which are currently controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.

The Japanese government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stoked tensions with China in September 2012 by buying the islets from their private owner, or nationalising them. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who came to power in late 2012, further exacerbated the confrontation by declaring he would never negotiate over the sovereignty of the Senkakus.

In 2014, US President Barack Obama upped the ante by declaring that the US would back Japan militarily in the event of a war with China over the disputed islands.

The formation of the Marine brigade is part of the Abe governments remilitarisation of Japan and the refocusing of its armed forces away from countering Russia to the north towards island defence in the south. Japans southwestern islands, including Okinawa, which is home to major US military bases, are directly adjacent to the Chinese mainland.

The Japanese military also plans to put troops and long-range, surface-to-ship missiles on some of its southernmost islands. In 2016, it opened a radar station on Yonaguni-shima, from where it can monitor the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, some 150 kilometres to the north, as well as a vast sweep of ocean in the East China Sea.

The radar placement will work in tandem with missile batteries that are being installed on the island of Ishigaki. The Independent earlier this year reported that about 600 troops will be stationed on Ishigaki along with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. The anti-ship missiles are likely to have a range of around 150 kilometres, while the surface-to-air missiles may include Patriot batteries targeted against Chinese ballistic missiles.

Such installations are part of the Pentagons AirSea Battle strategy which envisages a massive air and missile attack on China from ships and bases off the Chinese mainland. Japan is part of the so-called first island chain that includes Taiwan and the Philippines, that could form a barrier in the event of war with China, preventing its war ships and submarines from entering the wider Pacific Ocean.

The new Marine brigade is not simply defensive in character but could be used during a Japanese war of aggression far from its shores. As well as Marines, the military is acquiring huge helicopter carriers, which could function as aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, Osprey tilt-rotor troop carriers and amphibious assault vehicles.

Activating the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) is another step towards establishing a military force similar to a US Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which is capable of operating far from its home base.

Grant Newsham, a former US Marine colonel who helped train the ARDB troops, told Reuters that Japan had already demonstrated the ability to put together an ad hoc MEU, but did not have a permanent unit. If Japan put its mind to it, within a year or year-and-a-half it could have a reasonable capability, he added.

The development of an offensive military capacity is a breach of Japans post World War II constitution, under which it renounced the right to wage war or to establish armed forces. Encouraged by Washington, successive Japanese governments have circumvented the constitution by claiming that its Self Defence Forces (SDF) are purely for self-defence.

Abe, however, openly breached the constitution by pushing through so-called collective self-defence legislation in 2015 that permits Japan to join in US-led wars of aggression. He is actively campaigning to refashion the constitution to remove all restraints on the use of the military to prosecute the economic and strategic interests of Japanese imperialism.

Since taking office, Abe has made concerted efforts to remilitarize Japan. Last December, the cabinet approved a record-high, draft defence budget of $US46 billion which will include the purchase of two Aegis Ashore anti-ballistic missile batteries and Japans first long-range cruise missiles that can be mounted on fighter jets.

While the Japanese defence budget is substantially less than the $177 billion spent by China on its armed forces, Japan can at present rely on its alliance with the United States, whose military spending dwarfs that of any other country. Moreover, Japan has a substantial high-tech industrial base that could be used to rapidly expand its military capabilities.

Amid growing geo-political tensions, fuelled in large measures by Washingtons aggressive policies around the world, Japan, along with Germany and other major powers, are rapidly building up military forces. In this highly tense situation, the danger is that a relatively minor incident in the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, on the Korean Peninsula, or at a flashpoint elsewhere in the globe could precipitate a catastrophic conflict.
Former Workers Party (PT) president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, was arrested on Saturday after handing himself in to Brazils Federal Police to serve a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering. Lulas prison order was issued less than 24 hours after the countrys supreme court (STF) rejected his plea for habeas corpus. The ruling allowed the 8th Panel of the 4th Appeals Circuit Court (TRF-4) to jail Lula while he appeals the criminal conviction.

The process leading up to Lulas jailing dates back to November 2015 when a former PT senator raised the ex-presidents involvement in a bribes-for-kickbacks scheme related to infrastructure contracts with the state-run oil giant Petrobras investigated by the Carwash (Lava-Jato) probe. The process highlights both the political bankruptcy of the PT during its almost 14 years in power and the rapid drive of the countrys ruling elite towards authoritarian forms of rule.

The conviction is based on charges that after leaving the presidency in 2010, Lula accepted a seaside penthouse in the resort city of Guaruja, 70km southeast of Sao Paulo, worth approximately $1 million, from the construction giant OAS, one of the companies involved in the Petrobras bribes-for-kickbacks scheme. The trial is not about Lulas oversight of a Brazilian capitalist economy rotted with corruption directed against the working class.

The evidence agianst Lula consists of little more than an OAS internal document containing nicknames related to the penthouse which OAS executives claim were used to refer to Lula and his late wife, Marisa Leticia. The documents purportedly show that the penthouse, still legally owned by OAS, was covertly reserved for Lula but that ownership was not officially transferred.

Significantly, both 13th district judge, Sergio Moro, and the three-judge panel in the TRF-4 declined to name any specific favor granted or promised by Lula to OAS, claiming instead that likelihood beyond a reasonable doubt of his rendered services could be inferred from the whole of his demonstrated relationships with the construction giant's owners.

Under a law Lula himself signed in 2010, the ex-president is now barred from running in the October presidential elections beause of his conviction by the appeals court. For almost two years, Lula has led in polls with 35 percent of support. Polls have also shown support for fascist reserve army captain Jair Bolsonaro, who polls at 20 percent, the same level as the expected abstention rate. The support for Lula and Bolsonaro reflects widespread disgust with every political party, including the PT.

The recent anticipation that Lulas habeas corpus petition could be granted unleashed a barrage of military threats on Tuesday, April 3, that undoubtedly made the Supreme Court feel it was voting at gunpoint in order to avoid a coup.

Brazils oldest daily, O Estado de Sao Paulo, which backed the 1964-1985 US-backed military dictatorship and is a longtime military mouthpiece, launch the first warning shot. It quoted reserve army general and former East Division commander Luiz Schroeder Lessa as saying that granting Lulas habeas corpus petition would mean there will be no alternative except for a military intervention and that the supreme court would be inducing violence by allowing him to appeal while free. Hours later, army commander Eduardo Villas Boas tweeted that the army shares the well-meaning citizens feelings against impunity [for Lula].

The order by Moro denying Lulas habeas petition, which the supreme court then affirmed, was written in a distinctive fascistic tone, justifying the early arrest on the grounds that the clarifying appeals allowed by law were a delaying pathology that should be wiped out of the legal world. The Brazilian edition of the Spanish El Pais found on April 6 that the attorney-generals office had sent the TRF-4 a secret request that the warrant be sped up in order to undermine [Lulas] felling of omnipotence. This would prevent Lula from manipulat[ing] the masses to obstruct the arrest.

After Moro granted Lula 24 hours to turn himself in on Thursday, Lula went to the headquarters of the metalworkers union of the so-called ABCD region southeast of the city of Sao Paulo, where the PT organized a demonstration with thousands of supporters who tried to block him from leaving to face arrest. Lulas defense lawyers then negotiated more time from prosecutors to avoid a bloody crackdown on the demonstration.

Lula finally turned himself in after a one-hour speech in which he made every effort to assure he was no threat to the interests of capitalism, by recalling the 1980s strikes which brought down the US-backed dictatorship and claiming to have always learned from workers how to proceed. In fact, Lulas government worked from its inception to stabilize capitalism in Brazil and advertise itself as an example of a bourgeois party of rule to the imperialist powers. The services Lula rendered to imperialism famously earned him the 2009 complimentary remarks by Barack Obama that he was the man and the most popular politician on earth.

The PT has been the preferred party of rule of the Brazilian bourgeoisie for almost 14 years, setting up the whole repressive apparatus that is presently turning against the PT. Lulas party even appointed five of the six Supreme Court Justices who voted against his habeas corpus petition.

Amid a drive to dictatorship and a military intervention in Rio de Janeiro, the PT is courting the military, blaming the press for misusing Villas Boass remarks and saying they are also against impunity like Villas Boas, with PTs candidate for governor in Rio, Celso Amorim, writing in a February 25 article in PTs mouthpiece CartaCapital that the right-wing president Michel Temer must be opposed because in the 1990s Brazil rejected this subject mentality for the role of the armed forces, by which they should fight crime and leave aside ambitious national projects such as the nuclear submarine and the supersonic fighter jets.
The motives of the driver responsible for the rampage in the northwest German city of Munster, which killed two people on Saturday, are still unclear. Even if the evidence points to personal motives, links to the extreme right-wing milieu cannot be excluded. In any case, the terrible act throws a spotlight on an increasingly brutalized society.

The police assume that the 48-year-old Jens R. drove a camper van into a group of people who were sitting in the outdoor area of a restaurant in the centre of Munster at 15:27. Two people were killed, a 51-year-old woman from the Luneburg district and a 65-year-old man from the Borken district. More than 20 other people were seriously injured. Four of them were still in mortal danger on Sunday. Seconds after the attack, the perpetrator shot himself.

According to the investigators, it was the action of an individual. Two people who, according to initial testimonies, jumped out of the vehicle shortly before the impact had turned out to be particularly loud passers-by, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. Also, it appears there is no indication of a connection to terrorist circles.

However, in the dead mans apartment in Munster, police found a lifelike model of an AK-47 (Kalashnikov) machine gun, a gas cylinder and a so-called Polenboller (explosive). In addition to this apartment, Jens R. had also rented a storage facility in Munster and two other apartments in the Saxony towns of Pirna and Heidenau, which were also searched by the police. The first, but already intense review has revealed no evidence of a political background, said a police spokesman.

The police have provided hardly any information about R. and his motives. However, numerous details about his life have come to public attention. The Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that R. had been a rather wealthy furniture designer who following great professional success then failed. After this, his situation further worsened. He had made serious accusations against neighbours, doctors and his parents.

In the apartment in Pirna, investigators found an 18-page text in which R. outlined his life story. In it, he reports serious problems with his parents, guilt complexes, a nervous breakdown and recurring mental breakdowns and early thoughts of suicide. He also described aggressive outbreaks and behavioural disorders. In 2014, for example, he smashed up his parents furniture with a hatchet.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung also reports on a suicide letter, which R. sent on March 29 to various acquaintances. Although there was no hint of a rampage, there was of suicide. According to newsweekly Der Spiegel, a neighbour forwarded the text to the police. The police had established the suicidal thoughts, but could not find R. Even the social psychiatric service of the city of Munster knew of R's mental health problems, because he had approached them earlier. Apparently, there had already been a previous suicide attempt and the police had probably already stated in previous charges against him that he had mental health problems.

Even if all this indicates that R. acted out of personal motives, a connection to the far-right milieu cannot be ruled out. According to Tagesspiegel, as early as Saturday, security experts had suggested that there could have been contact with right-wing extremists. On Sunday, it was reported that a right-wing extremist known to the authorities lives in the property in Pirna in which R. rented an apartment. The Saxony state criminal police are checking if there is a connection. The investigators in Munster are also investigating possible contacts with the city's neo-Nazi scene.

Even if there were no direct contacts with right-wing extremists, one can only understand a heinous act such as the rampage conducted by R. in connection with the brutalization of society. Personal motives, which were apparently abundant in R's life, can only lead to such a monstrous act under certain social conditions. And these have intensified extremely in recent years.

Almost every day, the witch-hunting of refugees takes on ever more aggressive forms. In the terrible machinery of deportation that has been set in motion with the support of all the establishment political parties, xenophobia has become the official policy. Now, the grand coalition government of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats has announced a massive stepping up of the powers of the state apparatus at home and Germanys military capacity abroad. The military budget is to be doubled. Already, German soldiers in Afghanistan and Syria are involved in serious war crimes. This brutalization is preparing the ground for heinous acts such as the mass shooting that took place in Munich in July 2016.

It is therefore all the more repellent when various politicians and media outlets use the killings in Munster to call for increased state powers and to agitate against refugees.

About an hour after the crime, the deputy parliamentary leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Beatrix von Storch claimed there was a relationship between the government's refugee policy and the rampage. She tweeted without comment the statement made by Chancellor Angela Merkel in the summer of 2015 in relation to the reception and integration of refugees: We can do it. Even when Jens R. was established as the prime suspect, Storch said he was mimicking Islamic terrorism and wrote, Islam will attack again.

Her party colleague and parliamentary deputy Norbert Kleinwachter tweeted in relation to the attack: When will this government understand that these deluded Islamists, these crazy time-bombs ... simply dont belong to Germany? In this way, he not only imputed an Islamist motivation behind the crime, but, like Storch, made not terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists but Islam as a whole responsible for terror.

Such brazen witch-hunting was not limited to just the AfD. In a commentary for Die Welt, Rainer Haubrich wrote on Sunday, Although it was soon established that Munster was not an Islamist attack, everyone knew that given the chance, it could have been one. From this, he draws the conclusion that Germany needs a new security law, like the state of emergency introduced in France following the Paris attacks, and which abrogates fundamental democratic rights. It is now well known that all the terrorists in France had close links with the secret services. The same applies to Anis Amri, whose attack on the Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 killed twelve people.
In one of the largest turnouts since the statewide strike by Oklahoma teachers began on April 2, thousands of educators and their supporters protested inside and outside the state capitol in Oklahoma City Monday, as the walkout by nearly 40,000 teachers began its second week.

The Tulsa World, which wrote that there was no end in sight for the strike, reported that the walkout had shut down school districts serving at least 500,000 of the states 700,000 public school students on Monday. Scores of districts, including Oklahoma City, have announced that schools will also be closed at least through Tuesday because of the walkout.

Despite efforts by the unions to wear down strikers by isolating their struggle and limiting it to impotent appeals to a hostile state legislature, teachers have remained resolute in their demand for a $10,000 pay increase and restoration of school funding to pre-2008 levels. The strike was launched after teachers rejected a last-minute deal, hailed as historic by the unions, that would have left the state still near the bottom in terms of teacher pay and per-pupil spending.

Thousands of teachers marched the 14 miles from the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond to the state capitol Monday, while a delegation of teachers from Tulsa continued their 110-mile trek to the capitol. Daisy, who teaches in Edmond, told the World Socialist Web Site, There were way more people than have ever been here since it started. We have to stand strong. We walked today with my colleagues, teachers and community members. There were more than 1,400 people who marched.

While the unions have promoted state Democrats as the champions of public education, the school crisis in Oklahoma, like the rest of the country, is the product of a bipartisan assault on public education by both big-business parties. School funding has been reduced by 30 percent over the past decade, even as Republican Governor Mary Fallin and her Democratic predecessor, Brad Henry, slashed taxes on the oil and gas industry and cut income and capital gains taxes for the richest state residents.

The battle in Oklahoma is part of a national and international rebellion of educators following the nine-day strike in West Virginia. Teachers in Kentucky organized sickouts last week and rallied at the state capitol in Frankfort and the eastern coal country town of Pikeville against deep attacks on their pensions and retiree health benefits. Nearly the entire student bodyabout 640 in totalwalked out of the Pike County Central High School to support their teachers. Governor Matt Bevin and the state legislature are slashing retiree benefits as they reduce taxes for corporations and the wealthy.

In Arizona, thousands of teachers protested in Phoenix and other cities to demand a 20 percent pay raise last week, even as the states governor, Doug Ducey, has refused to budge from a 1 percent pay offer.

This needs to go nationwide, Val, a physical education teacher in Oklahoma told the WSWS. When they cut retirement and hide it in a sewerage bill like in Kentucky, thats what there needs to bea nationwide strike.

Far from uniting teachers against the nationwide assault on public education, the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and their state affiliates have done everything to divide and weaken teachers. With demands for statewide strikes spreading from Kentucky, Arizona and South Carolina to Florida, Iowa and Texas, the unions have warned teachers that strikes are illegal and would lead to harsh consequences. The Kentucky Education Association denounced the continued calls for action that deprive students, parents and communities of the educational services we provide.

Trumps education secretary Betsy DeVos used remarkably similar terms to inveigh against striking Oklahoma teachers last week. We need to stay focused on whats right for kids, the billionaire heiress and unabashed enemy of public education told the Dallas Morning News. I hope that adults would keep adult disagreements and disputes in a separate place and serve the students that are there to be served.

The supposed concern for the children and disdain for teachers adult concerns about wages, class sizes, funding, etc. have been used by every administration to wage an unrelenting war against public education and teachers conditions. This includes the Clintons and their school choice agenda of the 1990s, George Bushs No Child Left Behind in the early 2000s, Obamas Race to the Top from 2009 to 2016, and finally Trumps Every Student Succeeds Act.

The Trump administrations budget, which was passed with Democratic support, included $400 million for charter school grants, a $58 million or 17 percent increase over the previous year.

The congressional overhaul of the tax code, the Detroit News reported, will also allow parents to use tax-deductible savings plans to help cover tuition at public, private and religious elementary and high schools. The Education Department recently approved Texass plan to use Title I funding for low-income children to create charter schools, instead of using the money only to improve existing schools. This would set a precedent for every state to divert more public money to for-profit charter businesses.

She is for school privatization, Val said of DeVos. They have never been in a public school before. Theyre fighting for the rich. The Oklahoma teacher also said the strike should be addressing itself to the issue of teachers medical and retirement costs. I know a teacher who was going to retire next year at 52, but if she does, she will have her daughter, son and her on her insurance, so she would only have $500 left a month to live on.

The unions are looking to cut some deal with the state Democrats and Republicans, involving some cosmetic gesture to increase funding in order to shut down the strike.

The unions insist the funding crisis must be resolved by working within the system on a state-by-state basis, which invariably means supporting increases in regressive taxes or cuts in other vital services to make up for trillions being squandered at every level of the government to fund bank bailouts, corporate tax cuts and endless wars for big business.

Relentless wage cutting and austerity to fuel ever-higher corporate profits is the consensus policy of both big-business parties. On Sunday, Washington Post business columnist Robert Samuelson said wages and funding were only the superficial causes of the teachers strikes. The deeper cause is that teachersand schoolsare competing with the elderly for scarce funds, he claimed before advocating cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

The teachers rebellion was initiated and has been driven by rank-and-file teachers, both unionized and nonunion, who have used social media to organize after years of betrayals by the unions. As Ed Allen, the leader of the Oklahoma City AFT, told National Public Radio last week, Never have I thought the union would be negotiating with legislators on the one side and teachers on the other. How do you negotiate with Facebook? he asked.

Val expressed the determination of rank-and-file teachers to continue the strike for their demands of wage and school funding increases. Were not going to accept it. Whether the union says no or yes, well still be out here.

If the teachers are to prevail, they must decisively break with the unions and build new organizationsrank-and-file committees elected in every school and communityto take the conduct of the struggle into their own hands. Any illusion that the unionswhich are thoroughly integrated into the structure of the government and corporate management, and fully support austeritycan be reformed and forced to fight, would doom this struggle to failure.

Rank-and-file committees should break through the isolation of this strike, and fight to unite all teachers and every section of the working class together in preparation for a general strike to defend public education and all the social rights of the working class.

This struggle has thrust teachers into a conflict not only with the Republican governor and state legislature but both big-business parties and the capitalist system, which subordinates every aspect to life to the ever-greater enrichment of a corporate and financial elite. That is why this is a political struggle, which necessitates the building of a mass political and socialist movement of the working class to take political power and allocate societys resources to meet human needs, not corporate profit.
In evaluating political tendencies, one must take into account not only what they say, but also what they do not say. If an organization responds to such significant geopolitical developments as the drive by US and European imperialism for war against Russia, or the imminent escalation of US intervention in Syria, by choosing to say nothing, this silence, as the old saying goes, denotes consent.

Such is the case with the press of the various organizations that comprise the pseudo-lefttendencies representing better-off layers of the upper middle class who mask their pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist politics with populist and radical-sounding phrases.

Four of the most prominent pseudo-left websitesJacobin magazine, which is closely connected to the Democratic Socialists of America; Socialist Worker, the online newspaper of the International Socialist Organization; the website of Socialist Alternative; and International Viewpoint, the magazine of the Pabloite, ex-Trotskyist United Secretariat, have written next to nothing about the growing danger of a major world war. What little they have written only underscores their support for American and world imperialism.

Jacobin has written nothing on the Skripal affairthat is, the effort of the UK and US to promote unsubstantiated charges that Russia was behind the alleged poisoning of the double agent Sergei Skripal, which have been used to justify war provocations against Russia. As the official narrative of the Skripal poisoning has broken down, the media and imperialist governments have shifted to the CIA-organized provocation over Syrias alleged use of chemical weapons to demand war.

As of April 9, the words Skripal, Russia, and Syria do not appear on the front page of Jacobin's website. Moreover, a search of Jacobinmag.com for skripal returns zero results. That is, for the last month, during which the media in the US and UK engaged in an unrelenting propaganda offensive, Jacobin wrote nothing.

Another topic about which Jacobin has written zero articles is the decision by the Ecuadorean government, acting at the behest of the imperialist powers, to cut off Internet access for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Its silence on imperialist war preparations is paralleled by its silence on the antidemocratic measures taken to suppress opposition.

Matters are no different if one turns to Socialist Worker. Again, a search for skripal returns zero results. The ISOs publication has produced only one article on foreign policy issues over the last two weeks, in keeping with that publications nationalist orientation.

International Viewpoint has also written nothing on the campaigns on Skripal or Assange. It did, however, publish a recent statement on Syria, denouncing the defeat of US-led proxy forces in Ghouta as a major defeat for those fighting racism and capitalist authoritarianism globally.

Socialist Alternative has written nothing on Julian Assange. It is, however, the only one of the four, as far as this author could tell, to publish an article on the Skripal affair. The statement, written by Socialist Alternatives affiliate in Britain, the Socialist Party, casts aspersions on the campaign to defend Jeremy Corbyn from attacks by the Tories and the Labour right for his mild criticisms of the international rush to judgment that Russia was responsible for the alleged attack.

However, the authors do their best to conceal the dangerous implications of the campaign over the Skripal poisoning, writing that the prospect of a world war is ruled out and that the ultimate outcome of the campaign will amount to merely trimming the fingernails of the oligarchs in London and Europe but little else.

Given the issues at stake, any genuinely progressive, let alone socialist, organization would subject the campaign for war against Russia and Syria to intensive criticism and analysis, in order to educate the working class and inure it against war propaganda.

Jacobin, Socialist Worker, etc., however, are not left-wing publications. They are right-wing, pro-imperialist and pro-capitalist. In the US, they function as political auxiliary organizations of the Democratic Party, which is spearheading the offensive against Russia, the campaign against Assange, and the drive to censor the Internet.

All these groups have long supported and agitated for confrontation with Russia. They are particularly incensed by what they see as Russias interference in US imperialisms proxy war in Syria, which they have falsely hailed as a revolution. They have agitated for a greater US presence in Syria, criticizing the Obama and Trump administrations for not providing their proxies with more heavy weaponry and air support.

In April 2017, when allegations of a chemical weapons attack were used to justify airstrikes against Syria by the Trump administration, the pseudo-left responded first with silence (during the propaganda campaign) and then, following the bombing, with statements promoting the lies of the imperialist powers as good coin and criticizing the Trump administration for not really seeking regime change. Socialist Workers Ashley Smith bemoaned that The U.S. only attacked the one base and didnt even blow up its runway and complained that it is hard to take Trumps humanitarian pretenses seriously because until recently Trump supported some kind of rapprochement with Assad and Russia.

These tendencies articulate the interests of a narrow layer of privileged upper-middle-class academics, professionals and trade union functionaries whose rising incomes over the past thirty years, even as the working class has seen its living standards collapse, have led it into direct support for American imperialism. Since the NATO bombing of the Balkans in the 1990s, the pseudo-left has supported a whole series of humanitarian imperialist interventions and imperialist-backed separatist and nationalist movements.

These layers are organically hostile to the emergence of a mass, antiwar and socialist movement within the working class that would threaten their inflated incomes and privileges. Within the framework of bourgeois politics, their function is to disorient and demobilize growing social opposition and prevent it from breaking free from the political stranglehold of the bourgeoisie.

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On April 4, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhanithe presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran, respectivelycame together in Ankara to discuss developments in Syria as well as the relations between the three countries.

According to the joint statement issued after the summit, The presidents rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism and expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria as well as the national security of neighbouring countries.

Erdogan, Putin and Rouhani also reaffirmed their determination to continue their cooperation in order to ultimately eliminate Daesh/ISIL, the Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al Qaeda or Daesh/ISIL.

The Ankara summit, the second between the three countries, was part of the so-called Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, bringing together different factions fighting in Syria. The first summit was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in November in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

The tripartite summit came amidst the US-British-led aggression against Russia over the poisoning of the former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and ongoing disputes within the ruling elites of the imperialist countries over the Syrian war and their attitude towards Russia and Iran.

With NATO and European Union states expelling Russian diplomats, Turkey, an important member of the alliance since 1952, refused to express solidarity with Britain and other NATO countries. On March 26, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag stated that Ankara will not take any actions against Moscow. Relations between Turkey and Russia are currently positive and good, he said. In this sense, Turkey is not planning on taking any decisions against Russia.

As for the attitude of the United States and other main NATO powers over the Syrian war, Ankara has long gone its own way in contradiction to its ostensible allies. In less than one and a half years, Ankara launched two successive military invasions against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the Pentagons main proxy force in Syria, in defiance of sharp criticisms from its NATO partners and with the consent of Moscow.

The Turkish government, which considers the existence of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria as a main threat to Turkeys territorial integrity, has repeatedly declared its aim of extending its military operations towards the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, the oil-rich northeastern part of Syria controlled by the PYD/YPG.

In a press conference after the Ankara summit, Erdogan reiterated Ankaras position, saying, We are ready to work together with our Russian and Iranian friends in order to turn Tal Rifaat, too, into a liveable place for our Syrian brothers and sisters. I would like to reiterate that we will not stop until we turn all areas under PYD/YPGs control into safe places, first and foremost Manbij. The Turkish president has more than once vowed that the Turkish army will continue its operations until clearing the area, which extends from the east of Euphrates to our border with northern Iraq.

At the time of the Ankara summit, conflicting statements were being issued from Washington over US policy in Syria--an indication of the continuing factional warfare in which President Donald Trump is being targeted by the Democrats, sections of his own party and the military for not taking a sufficiently anti-Russian stance. During a March 29 speech in Ohio, Trump had said that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now." In a National Security Council meeting that coincided with the tripartite summit, however, the White House announced that there was no change in US policy toward Syriaa declaration that anticipated the current escalation of hostilities by the Trump administration against Syria, Russia and Iran.

In a lead article published April 7 by the Daily Sabah, Turkeys main pro-government newspaper, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin, attempted an appraisal of the attitude of Washington. It is becoming increasingly clear in recent months that the US wants to stay in eastern Syria as a counterforce to Irana policy supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  Clearly, the issue is not about Daesh anymore, but about creating a new power balance in Syria and beyond. The fight against Daesh is a secondary goal now, and the US military has a problem finding justification to stay in Syria within US law, which allows the military to operate in foreign lands only to fight against terrorism, he wrote.

European powers have also been in search of a more active military policy in Syria to advance their imperialist interests in the Middle East. In recent weeks, there were several news reports in the media that not only the Pentagon but also London and Paris have deployed additional troops in Manbij, in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main proxy force of the Pentagon largely consisting of Kurdish nationalists. The escalation of British and French involvement in the Syrian war would only fan the flames of the Syrian conflict, while exacerbating the ongoing tensions within NATO, especially with Ankara, which has declared Manbij as its next military target.

It is the growing pressure of the imperialist drive to war in the Middle East as part of broader geostrategic aims against Russia, China and Iran that is forcing Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to leave aside, at least for now, their differences over the future of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. They do this under the cover of phrases such as being in agreement on the restoration of Syrias territorial integrity, prevention of bloody conflicts and reconstruction of the countrys future.

In view of the fact that Ankara is a fierce enemy of the Syrian regime, which is resolutely supported by Moscow and Tehran, one could hardly imagine a lasting cooperation between the three initiators of the Astana talks, unless either party changes its position over the Syrian war.

This, however, does not prevent Ankara, Moscow and Tehran from improving their relations in areas of trade, economy and even the military, as they feel under threat from the US-led imperialist coalition. While coming closer together to defend their own capitalist interests and existence, the ruling elites of Turkey, Russia and Iran are trying to make use of the growing inter-imperialist contradictions in their own ways as well.

Deeply frustrated with its Western allies because of their support for the Kurdish nationalists, which Ankara considers as terrorists, and by their involvement in the attempted coup of July 15, 2016, the Turkish government has significantly boosted its ties with Moscow. It has initiated the Astana talks with Russia and Iran, largely excluding its NATO partners, and bought the S-400 air defence system from Moscow, despite repeated warnings from the US and NATO. Moreover, Moscow and Ankara are now discussing additional projects in military technical cooperation.

Russian President Putin came with ministers and representatives of various Russian companies to Turkey, where the Russia-Turkey High-Level Cooperation Council held several ministerial meetings. Turkish and Russian ministers signed dozens of agreements on trade, tourism, investments and the funding of several projects, including the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and a bilateral gas pipeline project.

According to media reports, Russian and Turkish agencies also signed memorandums of cooperation in information technology, physical fitness and sports, social policy, and the rights of women, families and children.

The Turkish president has already expressed his hope that the Turkish-Russian trade volume will grow to $100 billion from $22 billion in 2017. Turkey imports around half of its gas and 30 percent of coal from Russia, and Moscow is Ankaras third biggest oil supplier. Russia is building Turkeys first nuclear power plant and will supply the fuel for it. On Friday, April 6, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak declared that Russia is able to complete the construction of Turkeys Akkuyu nuclear power plant even if it is unable to attract other investors.
An article published by the Conversation last month has underscored the extent to which Australian universities are integrated into a vast military build-up through a string of defence research initiatives and expanding ties with private military contractors.

The report, by University of Melbourne academics Tilman Ruff and Alex Edney-Browne, begins by noting that the federal Liberal-National governments 2016 Defence White Paper outlined an 81 percent increase in military spending over a decade, or around $495 billion.

Ruff and Edney-Browne also draw attention to a $3.8 billion allocation to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, a little-known government body, announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last February. The money is aimed at expanding arms exports with the stated goal of Australia becoming one of the worlds top 10 weapons dealers.

The unprecedented allocation of resources to the military follows substantial increases to the defence budget by the previous federal Labor governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. It is aimed at placing the country on a war footing, in line with Australias backing for Washingtons pivot to Asia, a major US military build-up in the Asia-Pacific in preparation for conflict with China.

In 2011, the Greens-backed Gillard Labor government, as part of its support for the US pivot, signed secret agreements that expanded basing arrangements and integrated the Australian military into the US war machine. The report in the Conversation makes clear that universities are a key component of this project, which has been deepened by successive governments.

In 2014, the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group), a wing of the Department of Defence, which researches and develops new military, surveillance and intelligence technologies, announced the formation of the Defence Science Partnerships (DSP) program.

Dr Alex Zelinsky, DST Groups chief defence scientist, declared that it would provide a uniform model for universities to engage with Defence on research projects and ensure a consistent approach to intellectual property and cost sharing.

Zelinsky made clear that the program was aimed at subordinating universities and academic research skills to the needs of the military. The programs strength lies in its potential to harness Australias world-class research and better align it to Defence priorities through increased collaboration and a greater sharing of resources and infrastructure, Zelinsky declared.

In 2015, Zelinsky forecast that DSP would grow into a $40m to $50m program per year, up from that years figure of $16 million. Currently, 32 universities are partners in the program. They range from the countrys prestigious sandstone universities, such as the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, to institutions with a large working-class student cohort, including the University of Newcastle and Western Sydney University, in New South Wales.

The activities of the DSP are opaque. In an article in the Australian in 2015, Zelinsky wrote that the next stage was to begin knitting together universities to work on specific challenges associated with the national science and research priorities. Zelinsky indicated that of particular interest to Defence is the cybersecurity priority.

The year after Zelinskys article appeared, the Department of Defence announced a $12 million outlay of funds to establish a purpose built cyber-security facility at the Australian National University in Canberra. The centre brings together students, academics and intelligence agents from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), in a collaboration focused on data analytics, performance computing and cyber security.

The ASD is Australias primary electronic eavesdropping agency. It works closely with the US National Security Agency, as part of the intelligence sharing Five Eyes network, which has been involved in spying on the private communications of hundreds of millions of people, illegally tapping foreign heads of state and conducting offensive cyber-warfare operations.

As part of the DSP, a number of universities, including ANU, offer scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate students to participate in defence research. The centre at the Australian National University makes clear that the aim is to harness their skills for the military and integrate them into the murky world of professional spies, military contractors and academics who collaborate with the military.

Ruff and Edney-Browne also point to direct ties between Australian universities and the US military. Last year, the Department of Defence joined with the US Department of Defence in establishing a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative.

The program, funded to the tune of $27 million, provides grants to universities for specific research projects, and facilitates collaboration in military research between US and Australian institutes. Ruff and Edney-Browne note that the grants are provided to universities for research on designated topics with potential for significant future defence capability. Like the DSP, the programs are shrouded in secrecy.

A key aspect of the militarisation of universities, outlined in the Conversation report, is their rapidly expanding ties to private military contractors.

Ruff and Edney-Browne point to the establishment last year of a new Lockheed Martin research centre at the University of Melbourne. Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor in the world, has the closest ties to the Pentagon, and has developed some of the most highly-coveted American war technology, including next generation fighter jets and drones that have been used to bomb Yemen, Iraq, Syria and other targets of US aggression.

According to a 2016 article in the Age, the centre, known as STELaR Lab, will focus on developing sophisticated computer software to help direct attacks on targets. LM Australia and New Zealand chief executive Raydon Gates said it would develop the ability in a conflict situation to analyse that data and then make the correct decision. Lockheed Martin stated that the lab will also focus on autonomous systems, robotics, command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. All of these technologies are critical to the preparation and waging of wars against militarily advanced adversaries.

In an indication of the bipartisan backing for the military build-up, STELaR Labs launch in August 2016 was attended by then Liberal-National Coalition Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, as well as Stephen Conroy, then Labors shadow minister for defence and Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews. The centre has received funding from the DST Group.

DST Group previously funded the establishment of the Defence Science Institute (DSI) at the University of Melbournes Parkville campus. Opened in 2010 with the backing of the federal Labor government of Kevin Rudd, the DSIs stated aim is to build defence science research networks.

The DSI also funds programs at other universities, including one at RMIT University in Melbourne examining unmanned aircraft systems that can fly and harvest their own energy in urban environments. Another, in partnership with the US Army, is aimed at developing artificial enzymes, which may decontaminate nerve agents  offering protection to war fighters and civilians in a range of chemical and biological threats. In other words, preparations for urban and chemical warfare.

The Conversation article notes that ties between the universities and military contractors are continuing to expand. In February, the University of Melbourne signed a memorandum of understanding with BAE Systems, a major British arms manufacturer, for the establishment of a manufacturing and innovation centre at Fishermans Bend. The centre is slated to supply the army with new AMV35 Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles.

In its announcement, BAE Systems made clear that it is seeking to integrate the university into its activities as closely as possible. It stated that the two organisations have agreed to consider opportunities to collaborate in relations to graduate placement, internships, research and development activities and sharing of facilities (real estate and tools and equipment).

The University of South Australia, Adelaide University and Flinders University are also part of a research network established by BAE Systems.

Significantly, last month, the company won a $1 billion federal government contract to upgrade the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). The systems operations are shrouded in secrecy, but it is known that it is used to surveil much of the Asia-Pacific region. BAE Systems stated that JORN, plays a vital role in supporting the Australian Defence Forces air and maritime operations, border surveillance, disaster relief and search and rescue operations.

An article in the Age in 2006 noted that JORN was a key link in a new anti-ballistic missile shield being developed by the United States. While such shields are invariably presented in defensive terms, they will undoubtedly play a central role in offensive military operations, including any US strike against North Korea or China.

The academics who authored the Conversation report note that the expanding ties between universities and military contractors potentially implicate the former in major crimes. BAE Systems third-largest customer is the despotic Saudi Arabian regime, to which it supplies aircraft used in the genocidal bombing campaign against Yemen.

Significantly, the report in the Conversation concludes by warning that the militarisation of the universities could pose a risk to academic freedom. It stated: As Australian research councils struggle and universities face a funding freeze, academics with limited funding options may be driven to seek military funding. This could undermine their control over the direction and use of their research. Academics may be less inclined to speak out against military funding if their department, colleagues, or PhD students rely on it.

University administrations have already cracked down on anti-war activities at campuses across the country.

In 2015, the University of Sydney banned a Socialist Equality Party meeting opposing the drive to war and the glorification of militarism on Anzac Day, the nationalist public holiday which celebrates the unsuccessful Australian, British and New Zealand invasion of Turkey in World War I. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality, the youth wing of the SEP, has faced repeated attempts to prevent it from forming affiliated student clubs by student union and university administrations at a number of campuses, including at the University of Melbourne.

The author also recommends:

Arms maker Lockheed Martin opens University of Melbourne research centre

[30 December 2016]
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This Week's Deals With Gold Include Call of Duty: WWII, Destroy All Humans! and DOOM
A 20-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged in the brutal slaying of his 14-year-old cousin, who died days after being stabbed more than 80 times and shot in the head, PEOPLE confirms.

A motive remains unclear.

Colin Haag III is facing a criminal homicide charge in connection with the death of cousin Autumn Bartle, according to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

Autumn died from her injuries on April 2, three days after her mother found her unconscious and bleeding on the living room floor of the familys home in Bristol Township. The girl was suffering from dozens of stab wounds and a gunshot to her left temple, authorities say.

Investigators believe Autumn was attacked in a bathroom in the home, leaving it covered in blood and handprints.

It was apparent that Autumn Bartle, with bloodied hands, had attempted to climb out of the window and escape, but was unsuccessful, states a probable cause affidavit in the cause, which was obtained by PEOPLE.

Haag, Autumns cousin, was living with her family at the time but wasnt home when Autumns body was discovered. He was arrested Wednesday in nearby Bensalem Township after his description was circulated statewide.

Police say ballistics evidence allegedly connects him to the crime, according to the probable cause affidavit. Whats more, authorities claim they recovered Autumns blood from a notebook in Haags backpack when he was taken into custody.

 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.

Autumn Bartle

At the time, Haag was allegedly found walking alongside a road in Bensalem with his bag and then tried to flee as officers started walking toward him, the affidavit states. He allegedly shot himself in the throat as authorities neared.

The defendant stated that he shot himself because he didnt want to go to jail, reads the affidavit.

Haag was treated for his gunshot wound and is being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

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He is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping, unlawful restraint of a minor, receiving stolen property, carrying a firearm without a license and possessing an instrument of crime.

Haag has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him and does not have an attorney of record who could comment on his behalf.

Colin Haag III

Asked about a suspected motive in the killing, Weintraub told reporters on Friday it was still under investigation, according to Philly.com.

We hope to have that answer, he said. Well continue to work on getting that answer. But sometimes, as we stand here in this case, you look into the face of a killer and you dont get answers. You see only darkness.

A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help financially support Autumns funeral. Her organs were donated by her family, Weintraub said.

Even in death, Autumn and her mom and her dad gave others the gift of life, he said. That was a very courageous decision.
BBC Studios has managed to sell Russian mob drama McMafia to Russia itself, despite objections from Russian authorities to the series when it aired in Britain and amid worsening relations between the two countries over the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, Variety has learned.

The series, which centers on a global crime ring run out of Russia, was broadcast on the BBC in the U.K. and AMC in the U.S., and will go out in Russia on the countrys free-TV channel Friday. Starring James Norton, who had a major role in the BBCs adaptation of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace, McMafia was also picked up internationally by Amazon for its streaming service.

When the show was originally broadcast in the U.K. earlier this year, the Russian embassy in London tweeted that the BBC was spreading cliches and depicting Britain as a playground for Russian gangsters. Since then, relations between the two countries have deteriorated badly as they clash over who is responsible for the poisoning last month of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in London. The British government accuses the Russian state of trying to assassinate Skripal on British soil with a lethal nerve agent.

McMafia, based on the nonfiction book by Misha Glenny, follows Alex Goodman (Norton), an English-raised son of Russian exiles with a mafia history. He has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of that criminal past, which comes back to haunt him and his girlfriend, Rebecca (Juliet Rylance).

The series was created created by Hossein Amini (Drive) and James Watkins, who directed the eight-part show. Cuba Pictures produced the series.

Russian channel Friday, which is also the home of BBC series Sherlock, has picked up the drama as part of a wider MipTV deal that also includes the BBC blue-chip factual titles Planet Earth II, and Blue Planet II.

Nikolay Kartozia, general director of Friday, said: Ive been a big fan of the BBC for almost 20 years. Their news, documentaries and dramas are all of the highest quality, so now it is a great honor that BBC Studios has selected Friday as a partner. It means that we are going the right way.

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Salim Mukaddam, BBC Studios general manager for Central and Eastern Europe, added: We hope this is the beginning of a long and successful partnership between Friday and BBC Studios.

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From Esquire

Now that the FBI has raided the house and office of longtime Trump lawyer and certified genius brain Michael Cohen, the President and his allies have moved to the battle stations. Trump has always called the Russia probe a "witch hunt," normally in all-caps. He has questioned why Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in the first place. But now, they must dial up the rhetoric to a new level-regardless of the facts, of course.

Trump suggested in a Tuesday morning tweet that the raid marked the death of attorney-client privilege, even though there is a well-known "crime-fraud exception." That takes effect when the attorney in question is suspected of participating in a criminal conspiracy. And then cometh Rand Paul, everyone's favorite neighbor, to announce it's not just Special Counsel Robert Muller. Now all special prosecutors are bad:

Incredible. @RandPaul argues Mueller's investigation is bad because it's too expansive, immediately gets called out for his hypocrisy by @BillHemmer.



"How did you feel about Ken Starr in the 90s?" Hemmer asks.



"You know, I may not have been as consistent back then," Paul says. pic.twitter.com/5D7MfBuDJd - Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2018

Credit to Fox News' Bill Hemmer, who immediately snapped back with a question about whether Paul had so many misgivings about Special Prosecutor Ken Starr. In the '90s, when Rand Paul was an ophthalmologist volunteering with this dad's Senate campaign, Starr investigated President Bill Clinton for anything and everything until he discovered the Monica Lewinsky affair and Clinton's accompanying lies.

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Paul couldn't quite squirm his way out of that question:

PAUL: You know, I may or may not have been as consistent back then, to tell you the truth.

Perhaps Paul, a bona fide trooper in the Benghazi brigade, could express a little more concern over the number of people in Trump's orbit being raided, receiving indictments, or pleading guilty. His suggestion that Mueller is going beyond his remit is likely wrong, as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein granted the special counsel broad authority to investigate the Russian question and many areas related.

But let's just say Mueller was bucking the constraints on his authority, isn't what he's found troubling to Paul?

Photo credit: Getty Images

Once upon a time, even members of Congress from the president's own party considered oversight of the executive branch part of their responsibility. During Watergate, Congressional Republicans helped spell Richard Nixon's downfall. The investigation ramped up after the Saturday Night Massacre, when the attorney general and his deputy resigned in protest before Nixon got the solicitor general-by then the acting AG-to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.

That may sound familiar. It looks more likely than ever that Trump will try to engineer the firing of Robert Mueller. To do so, he would have to persuade Rosenstein to fire the special counsel-or fire Rosenstein and find someone who will. (AG Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the probe, much to Trump's chagrin.) This would bear eerie similarities to the incident that spelled the end of the Nixon regime-but how would the Republican Party of today react in Congress?

We got one encouraging sign from Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who joined Fox Business to put the situation in no uncertain terms for the president:

.@ChuckGrassley on Fox Biz: "I have confidence in Mueller, the president ought to have confidence in Mueller, and I think it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller. The less the president says on this whole thing, the better off he would be." - Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 10, 2018

Would Grassley's colleagues join him in taking the necessary action if Trump does, indeed, defenestrate Mueller? Would Grassley even take action? After all, he followed that up with this:

Grassley adds that Mueller may be "coming to a dead end as far as the collusion of Trump with Russia in this election," but if Trump fires him, "the Democrats would have a good issue in this upcoming election." - Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 10, 2018

The problem is not that Democrats would have a good campaign issue. It's that the president would have struck a dangerous blow against the rule of law-namely, by declaring that he is above it simply because he is the president. (Does that sound familiar?) It would constitute a constitutional crisis and a threat to the republic as we know it. It's not bad politics, it's authoritarianism.

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Photo credit: Getty

From Esquire

The president doesn't believe in the concept of truth in the public discourse. Anything is true if enough people believe it. Apparently, his cabinet secretaries agree. We have a new frontrunner for America's Next Top Swampmonster in the form of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who apparently felt entitled to live like an oligarch on the taxpayer dime. One of his big excuses for that appears to be falling apart.

Set aside, for the moment, that Pruitt had a sweetheart deal to live at a Washington lobbyist's apartment for just $50 a night, for which he still fell behind on payments. Pruitt seemed determined to be the captain of this administration's Blue Angels, spending ungodly sums in taxpayer money on first-class and private flights. He's also already spent $3 million on security, including over $800,000 in just his first three months on the job:

EPA Chief Scott Pruitt's spending, by the numbers pic.twitter.com/yHpNEXkssP - Kasie DC (@KasieDC) April 9, 2018

His reason for the exclusive travel arrangements, and round-the-clock security detail comprised of at least 18 agents, was that he faces unprecedented danger for an EPA chief. Specifically, EPA spokespeople have repeatedly claimed that Pruitt receives a huge number of death threats. This has been shared widely by media outlets friendly to the administration:

EPA says 'unprecedented' number of death threats against Pruitt https://t.co/R12Wx8pBOy - Fox News (@FoxNews) April 8, 2018

It was also trumpeted in a presidential tweet this weekend that sought to defend Pruitt amid an avalanche of scandal:

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

Pruitt's arrangement was not "market rate" for its prime Capitol Hill location, perhaps because the lobbyist offering it represented energy interests with projects that needed-and received-EPA approval. The president did not even bother explaining why "travel expenses OK."



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But we're now learning that even the first excuse might not pass muster. If Pruitt is receiving a huge number of death threats, that would justify ramped up security. (Pruitt's contention this also justifies first-class travel at all times isn't so clear cut.) Except when BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to EPA asking for records of the threats, the agency could not produce a single one:

Houston, we have a problem. Buzzfeeds @JasonLeopold submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to EPA for records of any death threats against Pruitt and was told there were zero records. https://t.co/X5gg7rT1Dg - Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) April 8, 2018

This was backed by court records:

AP: A nationwide search of state and federal court records by the AP found no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt. - Margot Williams (@MargotWilliams) April 8, 2018

The administrator gets an "unprecedented" number of threats against his life, but the agency cannot produce confirmation of a single one? Are we to believe the organization does not keep records of death threats against the head of the organization, or that they simply won't supply them? And not a single person has been charged nationwide for making death threats to a cabinet secretary? Or is the more likely explanation, as things stand, that officials simply started saying there were a ton of threats to try to escape the spending scandals?

(Another report form E&E News suggests "threats against the agency have mounted over the past year, including against its administrator," but does not provide any examples of death threats against Pruitt. It seems unlikely that a credible threat was made against the head of a federal agency and no charges were filed.)

As a prominent conservative lawyer put it in a damning report in The New York Times last week, Pruitt "wanted to be treated like he was the president." That included the huge travel expenses, the large-scale security detail, the top-notch digs in the exclusive heart of Washignton, D.C. It even included Pruitt's demands to use lights and sirens on his government vehicle-like a presidential motorcade-to stop traffic on his way to swanky D.C. restaurants.

As a true Trumpist, Pruitt believes he is above the law and that the Treasury can be looted for whatever needs he has. Even more than that, though, he feels he can just say anything and get away with it. If Pruitt or his agency have records of the threats supposedly made against him, they must produce them immediately. Otherwise, it's not difficult to decide who's telling the truth.

Fabricating death threats to justify your lavish taxpayer-funded lifestyle might be a new low for this administration-until someone in Trump's orbit tries to match it.

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Either the driver or a chaperone yelled "duck" before a charter bus carrying mostly high school students struck an overpass in Long Island, New York, state police said today.

The top of the bus was sheared off from the impact of the crash, which injured dozens of students. The bus was carrying high school students and traveling eastbound on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview Sunday evening when it slammed into the overpass, police said.

Commercial vehicles such as buses are not allowed on New York state parkways because the bridges are so low in certain areas.

Two 17-year-old girls suffered serious injuries and are hospitalized in "stable" condition, police said.

They are expected to be discharged in 24 to 48 hours, the hospital said.

The various injuries ranged from broken bones to cuts and scrapes, New York State Police Maj. David Candelaria said.

Investigators look over a bus that was carrying teenage passengers after it hit an overpass on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, N.Y., Sunday, April 8, 2018. The charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip struck a bridge (The Associated Press)

Besides the two girls, five people suffered moderate injuries while the remainder were minor, police said in a news release.

"I think the entire incident could have been a whole lot worse," Dr. Joshua Kugler, South Nassau Communities Hospital director of emergency services, told ABC New York City station WABC.

The hospitals emergency room doctors expressed surprise that everyone survived the crash, authorities said.

"Fate has a lot to do with it," Kugler told WABC. "People, if they were standing on the bus at any particular time and someone became an airborne projectile, could have had a different outcome."

Forty-four people were aboard the bus: the driver, five adult chaperones and 38 students.

"Everybody was able to walk out except one, which we extricated," Lakeview Fire Department Chief Patrick McNeill said, according to WABC. "There was glass everywhere. The roof of the bus is down to the top of the seat covers."

The teens, all between ages 16 and 18, were returning from John F. Kennedy Airport after a trip to Europe and heading to meet their parents at a nearby mall when the accident happened, authorities said.

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A bus that was carrying teenage passengers sits on the side of the roadway after it hit an overpass on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, N.Y., Sunday, April 8, 2018. The charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip struck a (The Associated Press)

This was treated as a mass-casualty incident, Candelaria, the state police major, said at a news conference at the scene. I give credit the Nassau County police ambulance bureaus emergency services unit and the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department. They set up a mass-casualty treatment triage and probably saved lives.

Were very lucky. This could have been tragic," he added.

The bus was operated by New Jersey-based Journey Bus Lines and, in a statement, the company told WABC, said, "We're not making any comments at the moment. Our greatest concern is for is for the passengers and their families."

Police said the driver was unaware of the parkway system and the lower overpasses, adding there were no calls warning them about the presence of the bus on a road where it should not have been.

The driver was using a non-commercially issued GPS device and state police still need to verify the actual route through a forensic analysis of the device and passenger interviews.

The driver did have a commercial vehicle driver's license, police said.

"I don't think he had any awareness because if you look at the damage, it's a high-impact strike," Candelaria said.

The bridge is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, on the entire system, according to WABC.

Every on-ramp to the Southern State has a warning sign about the clearance restrictions, police said.

A bus that was carrying teenage passengers sits on the side of a highway after it hit an overpass on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, N.Y., Monday, April 9, 2018. The charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip struck a b (The Associated Press)

The New York State Police Department said Gaston had a blood-alcohol level of zero and a drug evaluation is still pending.

This was not a school-sanctioned field trip, WABC reported.

Many of the high school students in the area attend Huntington High School, according to the list of victims released by police.

"While injuries apparently ranged in severity, preliminary reports indicate that all have been treated and released, or remain under treatment, Huntington Union Free School District Superintendent James Polansky said in a statement to WABC. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all families involved. Student support staff remain on hand at Huntington High School for those in need.

The students traveled to Eastern Europe through Education First, a tour company that sells and coordinates travel tours for students and educators, the company confirmed in a statement regarding the bus crash.

"All of us are shocked and saddened by the serious bus accident that occurred on Southern State Parkway in New York last night; our thoughts are with those who were injured. The tour had just returned from Europe and was traveling on a chartered bus to an arranged pickup point at the time of the accident," a spokesman for Education First told ABC News. "We are doing everything we can to support the students, chaperones, and their families. We are also working with public safety officials as they conduct their investigation."

Education First also said it is conducting its own review.

The crash is under investigation by state police.

The crash does not meet the criteria for a response from the National Transportation Safety Board but the agency is monitoring the case.

ABC News' Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
As President Donald Trump gives a time frame for his decision on how he will respond to the Assad regimes latest alleged use of chemical weapons on its own people, lawmakers are urging Trump to act, but so far are divided on what he should actually do.

Several senators issued statements saying Trump should hold both Bashar al-Assad and his foreign backers accountable after an alleged attack over the weekend in the Damascus suburb of Douma, but did not detail the specific actions he should take.

The world must hold Assad and his enablers in Russia and Iran responsible for this, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said.

PHOTO: Marco Rubio talks about bipartisan legislation to create 'red flag' gun law during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, March 22, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"As the sparrow cannot fall without the Father, so too Assad cannot launch chemical attacks without Iran and Russia. All three should pay for their barbarism," the statement from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., read.

Others condemned the president for not laying out a more specific strategy on Syria earlier, saying his nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, should be prepared to explain it more fully when he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday during his confirmation hearing.

Pompeos predecessor, Rex Tillerson, gave a speech in January on Syria in which he suggested the U.S. would maintain an open-ended presence in Syria, but with few details on what it would look like or what the goals were.

During his upcoming hearing, I expect Secretary of State-nominee Pompeo to articulate an actual policy for Syria, the top Democrat on the committee, Bob Menendez, said in a statement.

PHOTO: Sen. Bob Menendez speaks during an event kicking off his campaign for re-election at Union City High School, March 28, 2018, in Union City, N.J. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Trump said he would make some major decisions on Syria within the next 24 to 48 hours. In late March he said the U.S. would be leaving the country entirely very soon, before walking those remarks back.

But several members of both parties criticized him for signaling a hasty withdrawal. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., delivered the harshest condemnation, saying Assad was emboldened by American inaction and urging Trump to respond as he did last April after a similar chemical weapons attack when he launched targeted airstrikes on the airfield where the attack was launched.

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Like several other senators, McCain applauded Trump for slamming Russia and Iran on Twitter after the attacks but said that should only be the first step.

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

President Trump was quick to call out Assad today, along with the Russian and Iranian governments, on Twitter. The question now is whether he will do anything about it, McCain said.

A few Democrats joined McCains call for more airstrikes against the Assad regime.

I thought that President Obama, when he set the red line and then they attacked with chemical weapons, that the U.S. should have taken action then, and I do so now as well, Sen. Bill Nelson, Fla., said, referring to President Barack Obamas 2012 pledge of action if Assad was confirmed to have used chemical weapons, which he never followed through on.

A core bipartisan group of senators has also long called for Congress to consider a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would specifically govern the United States involvement in Syria. The administration is still operating on a decade-plus-old AUMF passed in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., authored an AUMF last year specifically geared towards the fight against ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban. Kaine also responded after Trump approved airstrikes against pro-Assad forces in February of this year, urging more congressional oversight.

I am gravely concerned that the Trump Administration is purposefully stumbling into a broader conflict, without a vote of Congress or clear objectives, he said at the time.

After the weekends attack, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, reiterated that desire.

The use of chemical weapons absolutely requires a response from the United States, Lee said. "But if that response is going to include military force, the President of the United States should come to Congress and ask for authorization before military force is used."
Political leaders from the U.K. and abroad will not be attending Prince Harry and Meghan Markles upcoming wedding ceremony, Kensington Palace announced today.

The announcement puts to rest speculation that President Donald Trump could be among the 600 guests at Markle and Harrys May 19 wedding at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Everything you need to know about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is also among the leaders who will not be invited.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May pictured during the first working session of the G20 Nations Summit on July 7, 2017 in Hamburg. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

"It has been decided that an official list of political leaders - both UK and international - is not required for Prince Harrys and Ms. Markles wedding. Her Majestys Government was consulted on this decision which was taken by the Royal Household," Kensington Palace said in a statement.

PHOTO: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a visit to Catalyst Inc science park in Belfast where they met some of Northern Ireland's brightest young entrepreneurs, March 23, 2018 in Belfast. (Niall Carson/Getty Images)

Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama also wont be attending the wedding at Windsor Castle. It is unclear whether the Obamas had received an invitation to attend but declined to avoid a political distraction.

A source told ABC News, President and Mrs. Obama are not coming to the wedding but the couples look forward to seeing each other soon."

Harry, 33, has developed a bond with the Obamas, who were early supporters of the Invictus Games, the Paralympics-style sporting event he founded in 2016.

Harry traveled to Chicago, the Obamas hometown, in October for the Inaugural Summit of the Obama Foundation.

PHOTO: Former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama and Britain's Prince Harry attend the first Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, Oct. 31, 2017. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters)

Prince Harry and @michelleobama made a surprise visit to students at Hyde Park Academy in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/dMAuIzSYsZ  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 31, 2017

The month before that, Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at a wheelchair basketball match at the Invictus Games in Toronto.

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PHOTO: Barack Obama and Prince Harry attend the Basketball on day 7 of the Invictus Games Toronto 2017 at the Pan Am Sports Centre, Sept. 29, 2017, in Toronto. (Karwai Tang/Getty Images)

Harry's brother, Prince William, and his wife, Princess Kate, had a handful of British politicians in attendance at their wedding in 2011, including then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

Prince Harry is fifth in line to the throne, while William, 35, is second in line, behind the brothers' father, Prince Charles. Harry and Markle's wedding is not a state occasion, like it was when William and Kate were married in 2011 at Westminster Abbey.

It is also unclear if Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Trudeau -- who are personal friends of Harry and Markle and have known Markle for many years in Toronto -- may be invited to the wedding or reception. Kensington Palace declined to comment.

PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry and his fiancee actress Meghan Markle arrive to meet participants at the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village in Bath, England, April 6, 2018. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

Harry and Markle have invited 600 guests to their wedding ceremony and a lunchtime reception at St. George's Hall, Kensington Palace announced last month.

The invitations follow many years of Royal tradition and have been made by @BarnardWestwood. They feature the Three-Feathered Badge of the Prince of Wales printed in gold ink. pic.twitter.com/cd7LBmRJxO  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) March 22, 2018

In the evening, a smaller group of 200 of the couple's closest friends and family is being invited to a reception hosted by Prince Charles at Frogmore House.
At the 2015 Golden Globes, Tina Fey introduced George Clooney, that night receiving a lifetime achievement award, by detailing the achievements of his wife, Amal, instead. "Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a three-person U.N. commission...So tonight her husband is getting a lifetime-achievement award." That's a typical punchline for the power couple, one that underscores how Amal Clooney, as an internationally renowned humanitarian lawyer, brings infinitely more to the table than the usual "wife of" status would imply. With Amal, we're actually closing in on "husband of" territory, as Clooney's latest Vogue cover story reveals. When it comes to international human rights, free speech, protecting women and bringing abusers to justiceliterallyaround the world, Clooney is the star of the show. But in her conversation with Nathan Heller for Vogue, she proved her inclination to share the spotlight, opening up about her relationship with Yazidi refugee survivor and activist Nadia Murad, and the MeToo movement.

As a Yazidi, a member of the Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious minority group targeted by the Islamic State, Murad underwent unspeakable abuse, including rape, after ISIS raided her hometown of Kocho in 2014. She eventually escaped and began a new life in Germany, and has since dedicated herself to sharing the Yazidi's plight with the Western world. Clooney met Murad in 2016, and took it up on legal grounds, attempting to use the international justice system to help survivors. "Not many people stepped up to help as she did," Murad tells Vogue in the story. "I was surprised that someone like hera successful lawyer with a strong recordwould help us. Were a very small community." Clooney accompanied Murad to the floor of the U.N., where she delivered a fierce argument: "I am ashamed," Clooney railed, "as a supporter of the United Nations, that states are failing to prevent or even punish genocide because they find that their own interests get in the way.

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The U.N. Security Council eventually resolved to establish an investigative team to collect evidence about ISIS's actions in Iraq. "It tells victims that they may finally have their day in court," Clooney wrote in an opinion piece afterwards. She has continued to support Murad in her activist efforts, including writing the forward to Murads memoir, The Last Girl. But her work for the Yazidis is not the first time that Clooney has turned her focus on freedom of speech and justice for victims of abuses of power, or even specifically to the plight of women. In 2015, she signed on to represent Khadija Ismayilova, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who published evidence of corruption by Azerbaijans president. Ismayilova had been sentenced to prison on charges that, Clooney sought to show, were fabricated. In 2016, after Clooney submitted evidence to the European Court of Human Rights, Ismayilova was released.

Clooneys work puts the fight for respect, representation, and protection under the law demanded by the MeToo movement on a global scale, and is a reminder of both the things that many women share nearly universally, and the huge gulf between women with and without means around the world. "I think because of the brave women who have come forward to tell their stories, the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation, Clooney tells Vogue, "Were in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and thats where we need to be."

Clooney is co-authoring a book called The Right to a Fair Trial, which seeks to synthesize a full canon of international court literature to create a practical manual for lawyers and judges across the world. She's continuing her work at the U.N., to use that structure to improve the quality of life of the people most in need. The success of the Yazidi's and Nadia Murad's case was a test of "the whole international systemif the U.N. cant take meaningful action, something is really fundamentally wrong."

See Amal Clooneys Vogue Cover Shoot Photographed by Annie Leibovitz:

See Amal Clooneys Vogue Cover Photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Leading Lady Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

Law and Order Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

Amazing Amal Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

Court Dress Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

Fierce Defender Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

Through The Ashes Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018

In Bloom Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2018
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Town & Country

When Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in May of 2018, the groom gave his new bride a simple wedding band made with Welsh gold (as is royal tradition) as a symbol of their union.

Photo credit: Getty Images

While visiting Reprezent Radio in Brixton alongside Markle and Prince Harry, photographer Dominic Lipinski snapped a picture of the bride-to-be's left hand, showcasing the stunning piece of jewelry.

Photo credit: Getty Images

She also showed it off in Birmingham:

Photo credit: Getty Images

And while in Edinburgh:

Photo credit: Getty Images

Meghan's Engagement Ring



Before the happy couple announced their plans to wed, predictions suggested that Harry might propose with the Queen Mother's engagement ring, or perhaps her massive diamond-and-pearl ring, but Harry opted instead to create a custom piece.

Photo credit: Getty Images

At the photo call in November, we caught our first glimpse of the ring, which was designed by Prince Harry and custom made by court jewelers Cleave and Company using one diamond sourced from Botswana and two smaller stones from Princess Diana's collection.

Photo credit: Getty

"The ring is obviously yellow gold because that's [Markle's] favorite and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds either side are from my mother's jewelry collection, to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together," Harry said during the couple's first sit-down interview with the BBC.

"It's incredible," Markle said of Harry's gesture. "Everything about Harrys thoughtfulness and the inclusion of [Princess Dianas stones] and obviously not being able to meet his mom, its so important to me to know that shes a part of this with us."

"Its incredibly special to be able to have this [ring], which sort of links where you come form and Botswana, which is important to us. It's perfect," she told the BBC.

The redesign

Following the birth of baby Archie in May of 2019, Prince Harry gave Meghan a third ring, an eternity band, which he reportedly designed with jeweler Lorraine Schwartz. Schwartz also resized and reset Meghan's engagement ring.

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Meghan debuted her redesigned three-stone engagement ring at Trooping the Colour this year. It now features a thin micro-pave band, as opposed to the original solid yellow gold one.

See a comparison of the two rings here:

Photo credit: Almay / Getty

('You Might Also Like',)
New Details About The Missing Autistic Boy And Why His Father Was Just Arrested For Murder

The father of a missing 5-year-old Tennessee boy was arrested and charged with murder.

Joe Clyde Daniels, who is autistic and non-verbal, was reported missing April 4 by his father, Joseph Ray Daniels, which sparked a massive search for the child. He told the 911 dispatcher that Joe must have wandered off.

Joes father, 28, was arrested Saturday and charged with one count of criminal homicide, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reports.

"During the course of the investigation, it was determined the child's father, Joseph Daniels, intentionally killed his son in his residence and then hid his body," TBI Deputy Director Jason Locke said.

He has since allegedly admitted to beating his son to death, reports The Tennessean.

TBI

Joseph allegedly beat the 5-year-old in the head, upper body, and face until he died Wednesday. After Joe died, he loaded his body into the trunk of a car and disposed of the boys remains in a remote area, Joseph allegedly told police.

An endangered child alert was issued Wednesday, according to Fox 17.

RELATED: Heartbreaking New Details Revealed About The Murder Of 3-Year-Old Bella Edwards Who Was Violently Beaten To Death By Her Stepdad

The three-day-long search turned into a criminal investigation on Friday that led to the boys fathers arrest. Investigators have not revealed what prompted the search to become criminal.

The TBI led the search, accompanied by the Dickson County Sheriffs Office and many local volunteers.

Nicole Cederoth, 25, who had been a neighbor of the Daniels family for about a year, told The Tennessean that she was not surprised Joes father had murdered him.

I wanted to be wrong, she said. I wanted to so bad.

Although the search for the body of the boy with blonde hair and blue eyes continues, volunteers have been called off.

"Driving the roads, we've been out on foot ... doing everything we can ... to try and find this little boy," search volunteer Amanda Curtis told CNN. "We searched and searched, and unfortunately it comes up to a bad ending."

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RELATED: Sad New Details About The 6-Year-Old Boy Who Was Stabbed To Death  And Why His Family Is Mad About The Sentence Given To The Man Responsible

Dickson County Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe wanted to let everyone involved in the search for the missing boy know their help is appreciated.

I want to make sure everyone knows in Dickson County what a blessing weve had with the outpouring of volunteers and the community coming out and rallying around us, Bledsoe said. I know everyones hearts are breaking, just like ours, with the information weve received now.

UPDATE: The search continues for missing five-year-old Joe Clyde Daniels.



TBI currently has multiple Agents and Intelligence Analysts on the ground, supporting local search efforts. Our Command Post is on scene and we're also using our plane as an additional search tool. pic.twitter.com/7nqihhzm2L  TBI (@TBInvestigation) April 4, 2018

Police are looking into possible accomplices, including the boys mother.

People have reached out with concerns there may be others involved, Bledsoe said. I have confidence [TBI investigators] are looking at every avenue.

As this is an ongoing investigation, authorities cannot discuss specifics of the case.

We cant speak to specifics regarding witnesses, evidence, or potential additional charges at this time, TBI spokeswoman Susan Niland said.

Joe had been reported missing before but he had always been found, The Tennessean reports.

Joes siblings, 8 and 3, have been placed in the care of family members, a Department of Childrens Services spokesman said.

Joseph does not appear to have a criminal record. The father was held on a $1 million bond in the Dickson County jail.

He is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning.

RELATED: Awful New Details About The 9-Year-Old Girl Forced To Drink Toilet Water And Sleep In A Bathtub By A Tennessee Couple Who Claimed She Was Mentally Unstable

Keywords: crime, Missing Kids

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Ieshia Champs never could have imagined what she would achieve when she grew up, as she bounced around family homes, entered into the foster care system, and had her first child at age 19. But nearly 14 years and a total of five kids later, this mom is about to graduate from law school after a difficult journey  and she says her faith led her through it all.

Ieshia Champs stands at center with her children (left to right) Emani, 5, Kaleb, 8, Khassidy,11, Davien, 12, and David, 14. (Photo: Richard Holman Photography)

The 33-year-old, who is originally from Port Arthur, Texas, has been through a lot. However, from the looks of her beautiful family in her recent graduation photos, it seems like the more trying times might have been worth her consequent path. From leading her to Houston and to a church that provided her with guidance, as well as the people she would quickly call family, Champs is now seeing that her earlier struggles are coming full circle. And it all goes back to one Child Protective Services caseworker, Gail Covington, who picked her and her siblings up when Champs was just around 7 years old.

Ill never forget it, Champs tells Yahoo Lifestyle, of the moment Covington brought them to a home outside of the chaos that the little girl was used to. I cried so hard because I missed my familiar surroundings, even though they were horrible. And one day, I woke up in time for school. I actually had a bed to sleep in, and we had brand-new clothes on the floor. It was then that I realized my friends had no idea about this type of life.

What Champs explains as the drug-filled environment where she lived with her mom was the norm for everyone in their neighborhood. Once she had an idea of another type of lifestyle, she began to wonder what she could do about all of the people left behind without help. Her teachers introduced her to the idea of becoming an attorney and providing a service similar to what Covington provided Champs. However, she would eventually return to a toxic environment soon thereafter.

Being adopted by a maternal uncle, Champs says that she and her siblings eventually ended up back in an apartment with their mom  which ended up leading her down a bad path.

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We really didnt have much guidance, Champs explains. My sister ended up having her first baby at 14. I ended up dropping out of school my 10th or 11th grade year, and I ran across my kids father. We ended up having our first child, and then we had a second. And it just kept going.

It was when Champs had three children and a fourth on the way that her life began to change. Her sister enticed her to attend a service at the Ministers for Christ Christian Center in Houston, led by Bishop Richard and Louise Holman, who she now refers to as dad and mom. Champs recalls a service where Louise, who serves as a prophetess, called the mother of five up to the front of the church and offered up information about her future. Louise said that God wanted Champs to go back to school to get her GED, so she could eventually follow her dream of becoming a lawyer  a dream that Champs had never shared with Louise.

She told me that God would take care of me, Champs says of Louises encouragement. During that same year  it was 2009  I ended up having a house fire, I lost everything that I had. I got laid off from my job, the father to two of my children died of cancer while I was seven months pregnant, I literally tried to kill myself, and I ended up going back to get my GED.

Champs credits the inspiration and prayers from the Holmans for her getting an associates degree in paralegal studies at Houston Community College, and a bachelors degree at the University of Houston. Both degrees eventually brought her to the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, where shell be graduating in May. Although receiving her Juris Doctor degree was far from easy, she commends her five children for making it possible.

Giving her time to do both her work and rest, Champs says that her eldest son, who is now 14, has been amazing at taking the other four children  ranging in age from 5 to 12  to a quiet place in the house to do activities or eat a snack. In order to honor this commitment, she decided to include them all in her graduation photos, which were taken by Bishop Richard.

Ive been attending Ministers for Christ for about 10 years, and [Richard] is not just my bishop, Champs says. Hes a professional photographer, and he knows my story. So I wanted him to be very active in that.

Champss children pose proudly around her. (Photo: Richard Holman Photography)

Now, as the bishops photos circulate around the internet, Champss older children are beginning to understand what going viral means. However, Champs remains focused on what she wants to do with her doctorate once she passes the bar exam, which is to become a general attorney with a specialization in family law and juvenile law, and eventually become a judge.

I feel like with what Ive been through as a child and in my upbringing, I can probably help some of these juveniles who may feel like theres no hope for them, Champs explains. I want to be the one to fight for those children who are in these horrible living arrangements. To try to help them reconcile with the family, or if not, give them the same opportunity that I had.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

 This 22-year-old single mother says she couldnt have graduated without her 2-year-old daughter

 Single mom supports teenage daughter by being paid to date

 Lawyer baes celebrate graduation with LBD photo shoot: The epitome of black girl magic

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.




(Photo: Gap)

Kids are currently going crazy for tops embellished with sequins that reverse and switch up the graphic. And on a recent trip to the Gap, Sarah Tuttles son scoured the store in Seattle, Washington  in both the boys and girls sections  for a tee without cold-shoulder cutouts. When he came up empty, his mother tells Yahoo Lifestyle, There was a lot of, But why dont they have this!

Tuttle detailed her familys shopping experience in a series of tweets that went viral over the weekend:

They are a super cool entertaining distracting and delightful thing. Like those billboards that flip to a new add but more tactile and less irritating. And sparkly. who wouldn't want those things?  Sarah Tuttle (@niais) April 8, 2018

He staggered around the store ranting about the injustice. Although it *is* annoying I also pointed out his gender would probably survive to fight another day, AND HE SHOULD WRITE A LETTER ABOUT IT instead of complaining to me because honestly, give the kid a flippy sequin shirt.  Sarah Tuttle (@niais) April 8, 2018

But instead of letting her 10-year-old wallow in despair over the shopping fail, she inspired him to take action. We talked about if he was the only person who might have been affected by this, she recalls, noting that this led him to express interest in writing a letter to the San Francisco, Calif.-based company.

I had hoped for it to be a lesson in working to make the world a better place by speaking up, she shares.

In his email sent to the Gap customer service account, Zachary wrote,

Dear Gap, When I was shopping with my sister yesterday at the Gap outlet, I saw you had a bunch of really cool reversible sequin shirts. But they all had weird cuts that were clearly meant for girls. My favorite was the tiger, but it had cutout shoulders. I looked in the boys section and saw absolutely no reversible sequin shirts. Can you please make boys reversible sequin shirts? They are really fun to slip and make designs in, and they look sparkly and spectacular.

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However, in Tuttles opinion, the initial experience didnt exactly go as planned.

A customer service consultant named Patricia wrote back to Zachary,

Thank you for your email regarding the really cool sequin shirts. At this time, Gap.com doesnt offer this style in boy styles, however its a great idea! I am sure they would be very popular. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause. Customer comments like yours are essential to our business and I would like to thank you, and your Mom, again for reaching out. Feedback from our valued customers help provide us with a better perspective on how we might change and expand to meet your needs in the future.

Tuttle says her son was disappointed by the reply he received from the retailer, however neither she nor Zachary were surprised. Like, thats an email you write because you just have to get through a list. And it seems like an easy opportunity to have a moment of good customer service, rather than indifference, she says.

I know we all have a long list of why the gendered kids clothes sections are TOO MUCH. And look, we live in 2018. Since the answer to everything is INFINITE VARIETY  why is it with kids clothes the answer is  GENDER JAIL?  Sarah Tuttle (@niais) April 8, 2018

I thought one of the best parts (the only good part? A part that isn't the worst?) of capitalism is that companies make what people will buy except actually, companies just work to enforce the status quo? Ugh. WORST. So disappointing.  Sarah Tuttle (@niais) April 8, 2018

For Tuttle, who also has a young daughter, the problem is bigger than just her sons inability to get the latest and greatest shiny shirt. The idea that a clothing store needs to be separated by gender just seems tired, she says. I think for clothes, it is especially confining for boys, men, and folks who are non-binary.I know if a boy in [my four-year old daughters class] showed up in a princess dress, hed get a lot more grief than she does showing up in a superhero shirt [she got from the boys department].

But it seems like Zacharys letter  and Tuttles tweets  did help move the dial, at least when it comes to the fate of flippy sequin shirts.

A spokesperson for Gap tells Yahoo Lifestyle, Whats so exciting is that beginning this week, we will have a limited offering of boys flippy tees featuring an assortment of graphics and sequin treatments in select stores that helps complement every boys personal style. We are planning to get in touch with Zachary today and send along a package of these special tees. At Gap, we champion individuality and empower our customers to be their most authentic self.

And in the meantime, plenty of other stores are selling sequin shirts for boys like Zara, H&M, Mango, and more.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.




Dhaka (AFP) - Thousands of students across Bangladesh staged protests and sit-ins Monday after clashes at the country's top university left at least 100 people injured.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at Dhaka University students fighting what they complain are discriminatory quotas for government jobs in favour of special groups.

It was one of the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power, and the government agreed later on Monday to review the quota system.

Following the violence that erupted Sunday and continued into the early hours of Monday, classes at Dhaka University ground to a halt as thousands occupied the main square chanting "Reform, reform!"

Protests spread with students at state-run universities in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, Rangpur, Sylhet and Savar boycotting classes and staging sit-ins, police and media said.

At Jahangirnagar University in Savar, where more than 1,000 students demonstrated, protests turned violent with more than 30 injured in clashes with police.

Fifteen students remained in hospital for treatment, said Zahidur Rahmab, a spokesman for Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar.

The students are angry at the government's decision to set aside 56 percent of civil service jobs for the families of veterans from the 1971 war of independence and for disadvantaged minorities.

That leaves most university graduates to fight for only 44 percent of the jobs.

Dhaka University students said they would continue their fight.

"We won't leave the streets unless our demands are met. This is all about dignity. We are not afraid of bullets," said Abdullah Bhuiyan, a 22-year-old English student.

Another student, Saimon Rahman, said quotas meant young graduates missed out on government jobs: "We want a merit-based society. We want equal opportunities for all," he said.

Students burned furniture and set lengths of bamboo alight but no fresh clashes were reported after the overnight scuffles turned Dhaka University into a battleground.

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Hundreds of police patrolled key entry points to the campus.

- Cars set alight -

Organisers in Dhaka said they had been holding peaceful protests Sunday when police started firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and used batons and water cannon to clear a central square.

As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female students engaged in pitched battles with officers.

"More than 100 people were injured," police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP, adding they were treated in hospital but their condition was not serious.

Protesters threw rocks, vandalised the home of the Dhaka University vice-chancellor, torched two cars and ransacked the fine arts institute, said senior police officer Azimul Haque.

Fifteen people were detained, police said.

Hasina ordered the job quota system be reviewed after meeting with her cabinet Monday, said senior minister Obaidul Quader.

"The government does not have a rigid stance on this (issue)," Quader said.

Hasan Al Mamun, leader of the student group behind the demonstrations, told AFP they had postponed further protest action for the month in the wake of the government's decision.

He earlier said tens of thousands of students joined the protests nationwide Monday. Police declined to estimate the number.

Al Mamun said the quota for top-grade jobs should be reduced to 10 percent.

"These quotas are discriminatory. Due to the quota system, 56 percent of the jobs are set aside for five percent of the country's population. And 95 percent of the people can compete for the 44 percent," he said.

Students are particularly upset at the 30-percent quota set aside for descendants of veterans of the independence war.

Sheikh Hasina, whose father was the architect of the country's independence from Pakistan, has in the past rejected demands to slash the quotas.
Brenna Spencer is ending her college career on a somewhat dramatic note.

To celebrate her upcoming graduation from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the 22-year-old senior posed for a graduation photo shoot promoting two things she loves: President Trump, and guns.

The graduation photo has sparked a debate on social media. (Photo: Brenna Spencer/Twitter)

As ABC News reports, Spencer sparked controversy after she tweeted the photo, which shows her wearing a Women for Trump T-shirt  purchased, incidentally, at Trump Tower. A handgun is also tucked into the waistline of her skinny white jeans.

I dont take normal college graduation photos pic.twitter.com/eI1NvLFYHs  Brenna Spencer (@BrennaSpencer) April 7, 2018

Her tweet, which already has 70,000 likes, has raised eyebrows from commenters who disagree with her views.

Bad news, this looks ridiculous. Good news, Darwin's Law will probably kick in and you'll shoot a hole thru your reproductive organs rendering you incapable of passing your crazy DNA to another generation.  Margie in ATX (@Vino_Crochet) April 10, 2018

Whats hilarious is this privileged lil white girl thinks shes going to be a big hero one day! Unfortunately having A gun in her skinny jeans doesnt make her tough or brave. Shed pee her pants and and hide in an active shooter situation. Ugh gun culture is so repulsive.  OochKabooch (@OKabooch) April 10, 2018

Well your shirt pretty much tells me all i need to know about your I.Q. but several years from now you will look back at that one post that changed your life, and not for the better.  Billy Wiliams (@billy_wiliams2) April 10, 2018

Some gun-rights advocates also expressed concern, citing Spencers pose and lack of a holster.

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Im 100% pro-gun but brandishing a firearm for a photo shoot or showing it off to try and look cool is just stupid, one commenter argued. They are tools. Why brag about carrying a gun?

Because Im proud of my Second Amendment right and I want to empower other women! Spencer responded. Absolutely they are tools but I will always brag about being able to carry a gun to protect myself, my friends, and my family!

She explained that she was wearing a concealed-carry belly-band holster and just showing off the gun for the photo. Spencer also clarified that the picture was taken outside the Hunter Museum of Art, which prohibits guns, and that she didnt enter the building.

I am wearing a belly band, I pulled my gun out further so it could be seen better, for those of you who are so concerned.  Brenna Spencer (@BrennaSpencer) April 9, 2018

I did think that it would get a little attention, but not to this degree, the communications major, who claims to own several handguns, told ABC of the uproar. It was really, really surprising to see the amount of hate that I got.

But theres been plenty of support too.

Brenna Spencer is a true inspiration. Only if all the ladies understood what she is saying here. Physique wise men and women are different but a gun as a tool for self defense removes that inequality.#ProEquality #ProGuns https://t.co/MYB9Fx1UBO  Ashish (@Ak__Ashii) April 9, 2018

This is what REAL feminism looks like. Strong, smart, confident, and armed Well done Brenna. You are what @TPUSA is all about Keep fighting https://t.co/1gQIdEsW4C  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 9, 2018

I hope my conservative sons find a strong woman just like you! #2A #USA  djc (@DarDjc) April 8, 2018

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By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) - At 79, Thai businessman Boon Vasin's latest $500 million venture is a bet on a market he knows well - looking after Thailand's rapidly growing population of old people. Not only is Thailand ageing faster than its neighbors, but it is also becoming an increasingly popular retirement option for foreigners attracted by its agreeable climate, low living and health costs and culture of service. "We will look after them from their waking hours until they go to sleep," said Boon, chairman of the Thonburi Healthcare Group Pcl. "This group has big spending capacity." His Jin Wellbeing County is a 'medical city' for Thai and foreign retirees being built across more than two hectares (5 acres) on the outskirts of Bangkok. The first of nearly 500 housing units being sold in an initial phase are being marketed for nearly $130,000, plus additional fees of 7,000-8,000 baht ($224 - $385) a month for meals and services ranging from fitness sessions to excursions. Boon predicts care services will yield recurring profits of up to 240 million baht each year from the project, plus unit sales and medical services. Together with China, Thailand is aging much faster than its regional neighbors. By 2040 it is expected to have the highest share of elderly people of any developing country in East Asia, according to the World Bank. Thailand has 7.5 million people aged 65 and over, a figure projected to swell to 17 million by 2040 - more than a quarter of the expected population. That's partly due to improving medical care extending life expectancies, but also a fall in birth rates from an average of more than six children per woman in 1960 to 1.5 in 2015. In the past, generations of the same Thai family lived under the same roof and elderly were cared for by their offspring. But the changing population balance as well as a shift from the countryside to towns means that's increasingly impractical. Real estate developers are already tapping the market. A residential project worth $160 million by developer Magnolia Quality Development Corporation, which is scheduled to open in 2022, will include a wellness center offering elderly care services with specialists in areas such as dementia, said chief executive Visit Malaisirirat. All the homes in SC Asset Corporation Pcl's $350 million luxury brand are equipped with designs aimed at the elderly, the group's marketing head, Nattagit Sirirat, told Reuters. This includes shock absorbent floors and wheelchair access. "We worked with Siam Cement, which designed a shock absorbing compound to use in flooring," he said. The company was "closely studying retirement homes and communities" and was considering a partnership with a local private hospital operator to build a retirement community, he added, while declining to divulge predicted returns. A PLACE IN THE SUN For his care home, Boon is focusing on people with an income of over 100,000 baht a month - and not just Thais. The aim is to sell at least 20 percent of the project to foreigners, who are targeted along with locals in marketing materials. "We have Chinese and Japanese buyers who are interested," he said. Boon has partnered with a Chinese agent, Shanghai Losen Sale, to sell 90 units worth 671 million baht to Chinese customers. Thailand did not make the top ten list of International Living's 2018 index for the best places to retire for U.S. expats. Costa Rica was at number one and neighboring Malaysia at number five. International Living described Malaysia as "easy, English-speaking and First World." English is still not widely spoken in Thailand, particularly outside of the major cities. The state has tried to address this by promoting English as a second language. Many parts of Thailand away from the well-known expatriate enclaves also fall decidedly in the developing countries category. But it is becoming an increasing draw for retirees. The number of foreigners over 50 who have applied for retirement visas to stay in Thailand almost doubled to nearly 73,000 in 2017 from fewer than 40,000 in 2013, according to immigration bureau data. At the top of the list are Britons - and last year the government launched a campaign to specifically attract British pensioners once Britain leaves the European Union and closer destinations such as Spain become less attractive. Bryan Walker, 78, is one of those retirees attracted by Thailand's food and climate. "It's just so good," said Walker, a former humanitarian aid worker who is considering a number of retirement facilities in the north of Thailand. "I've lived and worked in so many countries. Here the cost of living is wonderful, the climate is superb, although it's a bit hot at times. But the range of food is like nothing I've ever experienced," Walker told Reuters. Peter Brown, owner of the Care Resort Chiang Mai, a care facility in the northern Thai city, set up his business after seeing his mother in a care home in Britain. "I found problems in how they do care. Basically, not enough nursing staff," he said. "I decided on a better way to do this." The resort began operation in 2012 and around half the guests are now from the United States, he said. An all-inclusive stay, not including medicine, costs around $1,500 a month. "A lot of Americans are not getting healthcare free," he said, emphasizing the importance of Thailand's service culture as a draw. "You can see it everyday in the way the staff interact with the elderly." (Additional reporting Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Wirat Buranakanokthanasan and Jorge Silva in CHIANG MAI. Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Dave Majumdar

Security,

You make the call.

Air Showdown: America's F-22 & F-35 Stealth Fighters vs. Russia's S-400 (Who Wins?)

For the Russians, solving the problem of targeting a low observable aircraft is something that they continue to work onbut it is doubtful the Moscow has resolved the issue. Russia's strong investment in layers of air defenses tells us that the Kremlin believes the primary threat to its ground forces comes from U.S. airpower. As such, defeating stealth technology is one of Moscows top priorities, Kofman notes, and the Kremlin has dedicated a lot of resources to that end.

Russian air defenses may appear formidable as part of Moscows increasingly sophisticated anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capability , but areas protected by these systems are far from impenetrable bubbles or 'Iron Domes as some analysts have called them.

While it is true that a layered and integrated air defense may effectively render large swaths of airspace too costlyin terms of men and materielto attack using conventional fourth generation warplanes such as the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, these systems have an Achilles Heel. Russian air defenses will still struggle to effectively engage fifth-generation stealth aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter .

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In terms of establishing viable air defenses against opponents with fifth generation aircraft, it's quite clear how Russia is trying to tackle the problem of stealth," said Mike Kofman, a research scientist specializing in Russian military affairs at CNA Corporation during an interview with The National Interest. Russia's advanced radar, variety of capable missiles and systems that try to integrate large amounts of data for a more potent air defense will increasingly segregate Western air forces into two benches. In a future where these systems have proliferated to China, Iran and other regional powers there will be those that can penetrate and survive against advanced air defenses in a high end fight, and those whose job it is to bomb ISIL or its successor.

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(Note: This first appeared in 2016.)

Kofman notes that advanced Russian-built air defenses like the S-300, S-400 and forthcoming S-500 family come with systems designed to detect and track the presence of low observable (LO) aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35. Thats just a function of physics, as I have noted before . The problem for Moscow is that while Russian early warning and acquisitions radars operating in the VHF, UHF, L and S bands can detect and even track a tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft, those systems dont deliver a weapons quality track. Russia has invested in low-band early warning radars, with some great variants out there, but can it use these to put a good picture together, and process it to develop a track against low-observation aircraft? Kofman asked rhetorically.

Physics dictate that a tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft must be optimized to defeat higher-frequency bands such the C, X and Ku bands, which are used by fire control radars to produce a high-resolution track. Industry, Air Force and Navy officials all agree that there is a step change in an LO aircrafts signature once the frequency wavelength exceeds a certain threshold and causes a resonant effectwhich generally occurs at the top part of the S-band.

Typically, that resonance effect occurs when a feature on an aircraftsuch as a tail-finis less than eight times the size of a particular frequency wavelength. Effectively, small stealth aircraft that do not have the size or weight allowances for two feet or more of radar absorbent material coatings on every surface are forced to make trades as to which frequency bands they are optimized for. That means that stealthy tactical fighters will show up on radars operating at a lower frequency bandssuch as parts of the S or L band or even lower frequencies. Larger stealth aircraft such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit or forthcoming B-21 dont have many of the airframe features that cause a resonance effectand are, as such, much more effective against low-frequency radars.

For the Russians, solving the problem of targeting a low observable aircraft is something that they continue to work onbut it is doubtful the Moscow has resolved the issue. Russia's strong investment in layers of air defenses tells us that the Kremlin believes the primary threat to its ground forces comes from U.S. airpower. As such, defeating stealth technology is one of Moscows top priorities, Kofman notes, and the Kremlin has dedicated a lot of resources to that end.

Russia has tried a number of different techniques to defeat stealth technology. Among those is trying to develop a tight integrated air defense network with multiple radars trying to look at the same aircraft from different directionsbut how effective those efforts have been is an open question. It's great being able to see an aircraft, or parts of it, but getting accuracy such that you can confidently get a missile near the target is the primary challenge, Kofman said.

While the Russiansand the Chinesehave not yet cracked the problem, it is clear that stealth is becoming much less of an advantage over time, though perhaps no less expensive an acquisition. Eventually, Moscow will find a solution to the stealth problem as the cyclical struggle between offense and defense continues ad infinitumits just a matter of time.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for the National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar .

Read full article
Asia Times

Security,

Should we be worried?

Aircraft Carrier Faceoff: American and Chinese Carriers Both in South China Sea

China has deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier with escorting warships near Hainan Island as the US Navys Theodore Roosevelt strike group enters the South China Sea, according to a Hong Kong press report.

Sing Tao Daily said Thursday that the Nimitz-class carrier Roosevelt and the other warships of Carrier Strike Group 9 have ended a port visit to Singapore and are now sailing in the South China Sea.

The Roosevelts strike group includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson, according to Singapores Straits Times.

The Chinese carrier group appears to be engaging in naval drills near Hainan. Hainan Province maritime officials have reportedly issued a temporary ban on travel in waters near the island, because of military maneuvers that are scheduled to take place from Thursday to Wednesday.

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UPI, in picking up the story, noted the Roosevelt is sailing within the nine-dash line that extends more than 1,200 miles from the Chinese mainland into the South China Sea. Beijing claims the waters as its own, while the US and other nations say the area is in international waters.

The US Carl Vinson carrier strike group conducted joint exercises with Japanese naval units in the Western Pacific last month and is now headed back to its home port in San Diego.

Satellite photos show that China conducted a large-scale naval exercise near Hainan Island at the end of March. The ships included the Liaoning and 40 other warships.

This first appeared in AsiaTimes here.

Read full article
Paris (AFP) - Algeria has given the Vatican its approval for the beatification in Oran of seven French Trappist monks killed by Islamic insurgents in 1996, the country's top diplomat said Tuesday.

"The beatification will take place in a few months, in the coming weeks, in Oran," Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel told France 24 television.

The Holy See declared in January that the monks were martyrs for their faith, along with 12 other clergy slain in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 during a bloody civil war, including Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran.

The move cleared the way for beatification, the first step toward a possible sainthood.

Asked if Pope Francis would attend the ceremony, Messahel replied: "We'll see, why not?"

On the night of March 26-27, 1996, the group of monks aged 42-82 were abducted from the Priory of Our Lady of Atlas in Tibhirine, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Algiers, by members of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA).

The Vatican said the monks were murdered "in odium fidei", or out of hatred for the faith.

The tragedy inspired a 2010 French film, "Des Hommes et des Dieux", (Of Gods and Men) starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. It won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival that year.
If youre among those lobbying for Melania Trump to land a Vogue cover, youre bound to be disappointed by the fashion magazines just-revealed new issue.

For anyone else, feel free to marvel at May cover star Amal Clooney, the esteemed international human rights lawyer who happens to be married to an actor named George Clooney.

Amal Clooney wears Alexander McQueen for her first Vogue cover. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

Theres no mention of her famous husband on the cover, however, which bills the brainy Brit as a lawyer, activist, mother of twins, [and] free-speech crusader.

Clooney, who wears a pink V-neck Alexander McQueen dress with a lace underlay and Cartier earrings for her Annie Leibovitz-shot cover, was photographed at home in Sonning, England. She lives with her Oscar-winning partner and twins Ella and Alexander, who will celebrate their first birthday this June.

Clooney relaxes at her home in England wearing an Oscar de la Renta sweater and Frame pants. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

In the Vogue piece, the 40-year-old lawyer, who is currently writing a book on international law in addition to teaching at Columbia, speaks extensively about her legal career and work with refugees. She also shares how doubt stifled her career ambitions.

I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didnt have enough confidence to try for something, she tells the magazine, almost didnt have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didnt know anyone else whod done it or other people made me question it.

Though her reputation now goes beyond legal circles, Clooney is quick to acknowledge that theres more to her personality.

I hate the idea that you somehow, as a human being, have to be put in a box, she says. Theres no reason why lawyers cant be fun  or actresses cant be serious.

The international human rights lawyer models a Johanna Ortiz dress. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

Take her flair for fashion, which her mother, journalist Baria Alamuddin, says was evident long before she became a Hollywood fixture.

She would come and grab a series of shoes and bags and whatever, Alamuddin says. Id say, What are you doing? Shed give me this legal argument that went on and on.

And then theres her marriage, which Clooney calls the most natural thing in the world.

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Of course she was beautiful, husband George says. But I also thought she was fascinating, and I thought she was brilliant. Her life was incredibly exciting  the clients she was taking on and the superhuman work that she was doing. I was taken with her from the moment I saw her.

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A group of 150 educators, mainly women, are walking from Tulsa to the state capitol to protest underfunding

Support for the striking Oklahoma teachers comes in all shapes and sizes. Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

On Sunday at the First Christian church of Chandler, some of the striking Oklahoma teachers went to a special service. The 150 teachers on the grueling march come from different faiths but they have developed a faith in each other.

I have bled on half of these women, said Madeline Jacobsen, a third-grade teacher at Bell elementary. Our feet are gross and you cant reach them at the end of the day so someone literally has to help you wrap them and get your feet good.

Many had never attempted anything so intense as a 110-mile march, in this case from Tulsa to the state capitol in Oklahoma City. But they were inspired to make a statement about the need to fund education properly.

I planned to walk five miles each day because I didnt think I could do it all, Jacobsen said. I have walked every single mile because I can do more with this group and this support than I can ever do alone.

The marchers are mostly women, and they have formed a tight bond. Every night, they have dinner together and go over pluses and deltas of the day. Deltas are obstacles they would like to overcome. There is give and take. The women talk through issues and figure out solutions to make everyone feel included.

Men wouldnt be able to do things like this, said 52-year-old Radonn Broeffle Musgrove, a 31-year teaching veteran. Women are able to work these sort of things out.

Broeffle Musgrove is one of only a few teachers on the march who participated in the last statewide strike in Oklahoma, back in 1990. She said she saw a big difference.

I think the #MeToo movement has even really propelled us forward, she said. Its so exciting.

The women are driven forward not only by others on the march. Many members of communities on the route have stood by the side of the road, cheering the marchers on and handing out snacks and water.

People have asked me, Why do you stay in Oklahoma? said 28-year-old Heather Cody, a single mother who was forced to move back in with her parents to make ends meet while teaching. This has proved why we have stayed in Oklahoma: the community has helped us. We just had two great meals at the First Christian church of Chandler and every town we walk through it has gotten better and better.

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Together, the women feel they are building momentum. On Friday, the state legislature passed two measures expected to help education funding. The main goal remains.

We arent gonna shut up, we arent done, this movement has gelled us together, Jacobsen said. We are ready to fight for our kids for the long haul. We have power together.
Education Secretary Betsy Devos rebuked striking Oklahoma teachers while speaking in Dallas last week, opining that they should return to the classroom and "serve the students that are there to be served." The teachers, who number in the tens of thousands, are protesting against funding cuts and teacher pay.

I think we need to stay focused on whats right for kids," DeVos said, according to The Dallas Morning News. "And I hope that adults would keep adult disagreements and disputes in a separate place, and serve the students that are there to be served.

As of Monday, students in several Oklahoma districts have been out of class for five days, with nary a resolution in sight. Although the protest started in an effort to boost teacher pay, it soon transformed into a more comprehensive strike that demanded more funding for school programs.

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Teachers in the state receive an average salary of $42,460 per year, among the lowest rates in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Educators are currently pushing for a 10 percent pay bump over three years, as well as a $5,000 pay hike for support staff over the same period.

DeVos isn't the only one coming out against the teachers. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican who signed a bill authorizing a $6,100 pay bump just before the strike, compared the educators to "teenagers" who wanted a new car. Republican state Representative Kevin McDugle said he'll hold voting on education measures until teachers return to the classroom.

"You're losing support of people who supported you all year long," McDugle said on Facebook live. "Now you're going to come here and act like this after you got a raise?

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"I'm not voting for another stinking measure when they're acting the way they're acting," McDugle continued. The state is a conservative stronghold, with more than 65.3 percent of voters casting a ballot for President Donald Trump in 2016.

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The massive teacher strike mirrors the successful one held in West Virginia in February, where teachers successfully pushed for a 5 percent pay hike. DeVos expressed similar sentiments then, as well. There have also been teacher walkouts in Kentucky and Airzona.

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DeVos, who has never been an educator, has repeatedly sparred with teachers since Congress approved her controversial nomination by a razor-thin margin in February 2017. The Michigan native has attempted to assuage fears that she is "public enemy No. 1," as some teachers unions have stated, although comments comparing education to "food trucks" and blundering crucial interviews hasn't helped her win over educators or their unions.

Throughout the criticism, the former Michigan Republican Party Chair has remained resolute.

"I am committed to transforming our education system into the best in the world," DeVos said upon receiving her nomination, vowing to "make American schools great again."

This article was first written by Newsweek

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(Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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WHY DONT I JUST FIRE MUELLER? President Donald Trump has floated the possibility of firing special counsel Robert Mueller following the FBI raid on his lawyer, Michael Cohen, stating the above in response to a reporters question. It turns out the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who executed the raid is a Trump appointee. Mueller is also reportedly investigating a Ukrainian payment to the Trump foundation. [HuffPost] [Tweet | Share on Facebook]

IF TRUMP BOMBS SYRIA, ITLL BE WITHOUT CONGRESS APPROVAL Trump is in a position where he can use the Iraq War-era authorization to bomb Syria, if he can make the case that Islamic State or al Qaeda targets are there. [HuffPost]

THE DEFICIT IS ONLY GETTING LARGER According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deficit will balloon to $804 billion in fiscal year 2018, in large part due to Republican tax cuts. [Reuters]

REPUBLICANS ARE GIVING UP HOUSE SEATS At a rate not seen since 1952. [HuffPost]

HERES WHAT TO DO IF FACEBOOK TELLS YOU YOUR DATA WAS COMPROMISED BY CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA Step by step. [HuffPost]

CONGRATS TO SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH Who yesterday became the first senator in office to give birth. [HuffPost]

WHATS BREWING

LOOKS LIKE PRINCE GEORGE AND PRINCESS CHARLOTTE WILL HAVE A NEW SIBLING ANY DAY NOW Bookies put the new name odds on Mary, Alice, Victoria, Albert, Arthur and Fred. [HuffPost]

UNPACKING WHY VETS DONT REACH OUT FOR MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT Turns out some veterans worry such services would mean theyd lose their guns. Heres what roots that fear. [HuffPost]

GRAND THEFT AUTO 5 IS MORE PROFITABLE THAN ANY BOOK OR FILM Charles Dickens is rolling over in his grave right now. [HuffPost]

CHARTING HOW DIFFERENT GENERATIONS WOULD SPEND $10,000 So much for millennials ruining everything when theyre just trying to pay down all that debt. [Digg]

Story continues

HERES A BUNCH OF PHOTOS OF US TINY HUMANS NEXT TO ENORMOUS MACHINES Talk about feeling small. [HuffPost]

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As Facebook continues to spend time under the microscope, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has become the latest tech titan to dissect the social networks flaws.

According to a report in USA Today, Woz has become the latest member of the #DeleteFacebook movement.

Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and  Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this, Wozniak wrote in an email to the newspaper. The profits are all based on the users info, but the users get none of the profits back.

Elon Musk took the plunge last month in the wake of revelations of a sizable data breach that resulted from an affiliation with research firm Cambridge Analytica. Initially, it was reported that personal information for 50 million Facebook users had been compromised  the number was then adjusted upward to 87 million. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is in Washington as the week begins, and will testify in Congress tomorrow about the data crisis.

Wozniak said hed rather pay for Facebook than have his personal information exploited for advertising. And he heaped praise on Apple for respecting peoples privacy.

Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you, Wozniak said. As they say, with Facebook, you are the product.

Current Apple CEO Tim Cook has also publicly criticized Facebook, prompting Zuckerberg to denounce Cooks comments as extremely glib.

While the data affair has been a brand crisis for Facebook in the U.S. and other parts of the world, the company has 2 billion global users and many observers see this as a blip. Although Facebook will likely face some form of regulatory restraint in the near term, the #DeleteFacebook crowd has not prevailed.

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote in a recent research note that the firm analyzed Facebooks traffic in March and did not find many users jumping ship. We believe that recent headlines around Facebooks data policies have not meaningfully impacted engagement on the platform, Thill concluded.

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Bogota (AFP) - The arrest of a former FARC negotiator on drug charges could damage the group's landmark peace deal with the Colombian government as it enters its "most critical point," a spokesman for the former rebel group warned on Tuesday.

"With the capture of our comrade Jesus Santrich, the peace process is now at its most critical point, faced by a genuine threat," Ivan Marquez said in a statement.

Santrich, who had been slated to take a seat in Colombia's Congress in July, was arrested on Monday in Bogota.

Colombian prosecutors said he was wanted for his alleged participation in the shipment of ten tons of cocaine to the United States, after the 2016 peace accord was signed.

President Juan Manuel Santos said Santrich could be extradited to the United States to face drug charges.

The FARC charged that his arrest was part of a plan "orchestrated by the US government with the help of Colombian prosecutors."

Santrich, who was a member of the FARC team of peace negotiators in Cuba, is a partially sighted 51-year-old, whose real name is Seusis Pausivas Hernandez.

US President Donald Trump was to have visited Colombia over the weekend, but cancelled his maiden trip to Latin America Tuesday to oversee the US response to an alleged gas attack in Syria.

"It's clear that we are facing another display of twisted US justice, as happened with Simon Trinidad," Marquez said, referring to another FARC leader who was extradited to the US in 2004 and jailed for 60 years.

Under the peace accord, repentant FARC fighters were required to confess their wartime crimes and pay reparations to victims to avoid jail. But they could still be arrested for any crimes they committed after the deal.

The landmark peace deal between the FARC and Santos's government was signed in November 2016, ending half century of conflict.

Since then, the FARC has disarmed and transformed itself into a political party, swapping its crossed-rifles emblem for a red rose. Ten of its members, including Santrich, were given seats in Congress.
Updated | President Donald Trump appeared Tuesday to enter attack mode against the special counsel investigating Russias interference in the 2016 election and the FBI that conducted a raid on his personal lawyers office yesterday.

Trump took to Twitter to state ominously that privilege between a client and his or her attorney was dead. The message came a day removed from the raid of the office of Michael Cohen, the presidents longtime personal lawyer and friend. Documents, business records and other materials were seized.

Attorney-client privilege is dead! the president tweeted, referring to an attorneys ability to legally keep information between themselves and clients under wraps.

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Trump followed up and repeated his attack on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation: A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!

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The tweets fell in line with Trumps initial reaction to the raid Monday during a White House meeting with reporters present. The search warrants were executed by the U.S. Southern District of New York, headed up by a U.S. attorney appointed by the attorney general in January, but the president instead appeared to accuse the FBI of breaking into the office.

So, I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and its a disgraceful situation, Trump said Monday. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time. Ive wanted to keep it down.

Calling Muellers probe a disgrace, Trump also claimed that with no evidence of collusion to be found, the special counsels investigation was looking for other charges.

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They only keep looking at us, Trump said. So they find no collusion, and then they go from there, and they say, Well, lets keep going, and they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning, and I think its a disgrace.

Trump was also heavily critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from any Russia investigation a year ago, as well as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May. The appointment came after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey.

Trumps tough choice of words for the heads of the Justice Department as well as the special counsel have also increased heavy speculation that the president could attempt to fire Mueller and end the investigation.

Updated: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the warrants use to raid Cohen's office were obtained by a federal judge the president had nominated. In fact, the warrants were executed by the U.S. Southern District of New York lead by an attorney appointed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Vanuatu and China on Tuesday denied a media report that Beijing wanted to establish a permanent military presence in the Pacific island nation. Australia's Fairfax Media, citing unnamed sources, earlier on Tuesday reported that preliminary discussions to locate a full military base on Vanuatu had been held. The prospect of a Chinese military outpost so close to Australia has been discussed at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington, Fairfax said. Vanuatu's foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, rejected the report, however. "No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," Regenvanu told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarization, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country." In Beijing, China's defense ministry said the Fairfax report "completely did not accord with the facts", while a foreign ministry spokesman described it as "fake news". Fairfax said Chinese naval ships would dock to be serviced, refueled and restocked at a Vanuatu port, with the agreement eventually leading to a full military base. "We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbors of ours," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Brisbane. Vanuatu, around 2,000 km (1,200 miles) east of northern Australia, was home to a key U.S. Navy base during World War Two that helped beat back the Japanese army as it advanced through the Pacific toward Australia. Any future naval or air base in Vanuatu would "give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the U.S. and its base on U.S. territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis," Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said in a report for the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney. China opened its first overseas military base in August 2017 in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Beijing describes it as a logistics facility. Djibouti's position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fueled worry in India that it would become another of China's "string of pearls" military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. China has also become increasingly active in the South Pacific, undertaking infrastructure projects and providing aid and funding to small, developing island nations. That has stoked fears that Australia's long-time influence there is being eroded. Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had earlier acknowledged heightened Chinese interest in the Pacific. "It is a fact that China is engaging in infrastructure investment activities around the world," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. "I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said. China has also faced criticism over its activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has been building artificial islands on reefs, some with ports and airstrips. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Sunday said there will be a "big price to pay" after what he called a "mindless CHEMICAL attack" in Syria, allegedly involving chlorine gas.

Trump also called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an "animal."

"President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay," Trump said in a pair of tweets which began with a discussion of the attack in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, where rescue workers alleged that regime loyalists had used chlorine gas.

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world," the president said.

At least 80 civilians have been killed since Friday after the regime launched fresh air raids on rebel-held areas of Eastern Ghouta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

Syrian state media and the regime's ally Russia denounced claims of chemical use as "fabrications."

"Open area immediately for medical help and verification," Trump said. "Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"

The latest alleged attack came a year after the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in northwestern Syria was hit by an air strike. A UN-commissioned report said many residents of the town suffered the symptoms of an attack from an illegal nerve agent and more than 80 of them died, convulsed in agony.

Trump responded to that strike three days later, when US warships in the Mediterranean fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase.

Assad denied ordering the attack and Russia has continued to give him diplomatic cover at the United Nations.

Trump on Sunday criticized his predecessor Barack Obama for not striking after warning that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a "red line."

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- Military action? -

"If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line in The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!" Trump said.

Separately, a White House security adviser on Sunday refused to rule out US military action after the latest alleged chemical strike.

"This is one of those issues on which every nation, all peoples, have all agreed, and have agreed since World War Two, is an unacceptable practice," White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told ABC's "This Week."

Asked whether there will be another US missile strike, Bossert replied: "I wouldn't take anything off the table."

And a prominent Republican senator warned Trump that a failure to act now could leave him in a weakened posture internationally.

"It's a defining moment in his presidency," Lindsey Graham said on ABC. "He has challenged Assad in the past not to use chemical weapons... If it becomes a tweet without meaning, then he has hurt himself in North Korea... (and will) look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran."

In a joint statement on Wednesday, one year after the Khan Sheikhun attack, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and the United States said those responsible should be held to account for "these abhorrent attacks in Syria."

The United States has more than 2,000 military personnel in eastern Syria as part of a coalition it leads, providing weapons, training and other support to forces fighting Islamic States jihadists in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

In late March, Trump said those US troops would be coming home "very soon."

On Sunday, Republican Senator Susan Collins told CNN that, in light of new allegations of a chemical strike, "I think the president is going to have to reconsider his plan for an early withdrawal."
Belfast (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton on Tuesday celebrated the "genius" of the Northern Ireland peace deal 20 years ago, as he joined key political figures in Belfast to mark the anniversary of the historic accord.

"The Good Friday Agreement is the work of genius that's applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy," Clinton said of the deal signed on April 10, 1998, marking the end to a conflict lasting three decades.

He was joined in Belfast by other political leaders at the time, including the then UK prime minister Tony Blair and his former Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern.

Clinton described the agreement as a "precious gift" and said those behind it "inspired the world".

"These people gave you a gift... People who lost loved ones and bore scars; the women's groups; everybody, they gave you a gift. Make the most of it," he said.

Despite the Good Friday Agreement putting an end to "The Troubles", in which more than 3,500 people were killed, there are concerns over the future of the British province.

The power-sharing executive established in Belfast as part of the accord broke down more than a year ago and the two sides remain divided over issues including the Irish language.

"The Good Friday Agreement couldn't solve all the issues," remarked Gerry Adams, former long-time leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein.

Britain's decision to leave the European Union has further called into question one of the key outcomes of the deal -- the dismantling of the border infrastructure between the British province and Ireland.

While Blair praised former foes for choosing "not to forget the past, but not let it decide the future," the ex-premier voiced his concerns over Brexit.

Imposing a hard border following the EU exit "would be a disaster for the Agreement and for the relationship between the Republic (of Ireland) and the UK, and therefore for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.
Sum was allegedly paid in 2006 to Andrea Constand to close a suit she had brought against the TV star alleging he had drugged and sexually molested her in 2004



Bill Cosby began his retrial on Monday at Montgomery county court of common pleas in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

Bill Cosby paid $3.4m to buy the silence of a young woman he had previously drugged and then sexually assaulted, a prosecutor alleged on Monday as the comedians retrial got under way in Pennsylvania in the first major courtroom drama of the #MeToo era.



Kevin Steele, the district attorney for Cosbys home county of Montgomery, revealed a secret that has remained hidden for the past 12 years  the amount of money that the TV star formerly known as Americas Dad was prepared to pay to keep his detractor quiet. The $3.4m was allegedly paid in 2006 to Andrea Constand, a Canadian massage therapist, to bring to a close a civil suit she had brought against him claiming he had persuaded her to take relaxant drugs before molesting her while she was unconscious.

The disclosure of the settlement amount came in Steeles opening statement to the jury in Montgomery county court of common pleas in Norristown, a small, run-down Pennsylvania community struggling from industrial decline. For the second time in 10 months the town has become inundated with media and protesters drawn to the trial of one of Americas most famous  and once beloved  comedians.

Before the trial proper began, the courthouse was momentarily engulfed in drama of another sort: a black female protester who ran towards the entrance of the building topless, with Womens Lives Matter scrawled in red paint across her chest. Nicolle Rochelle, 39, had appeared on several episodes of The Cosby Show when she was a teenager, but now was streaking in solidarity, she said, with the stars victims.

In his summary of the prosecution case that will now unfold, Steele said: This case is about a betrayal leading to a sexual assault of Andrea Constand, before describing the process in which Cosby allegedly drugged his guest before assaulting her.

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The defendant goes upstairs in his house in Cheltenham and then comes down and hes holding three blue pills. And when he does that he says these words about the pills: These are your friends. I have three friends for you to make you relax.

There is much riding on the outcome of the case for Cosby. He faces three charges of aggravated indecent assault relating to the alleged assault of Constand in 2004, and with each count carrying a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment, a guilty verdict could see the 80-year-old spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.

His first trial collapsed last June after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. But since then more than 50 women have come forward publicly to accuse him of sexual assault, many in strikingly similar terms involving him doping them with drugs.

The interim period between his initial trial and Mondays retrial has also seen the birth of the #MeToo movement that erupted on social media and exposed numerous cases of alleged sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, politics, the media and many other walks of life. How the Cosby case fares in Norristown could have powerful ramifications for other potential prosecutions across the nation.

Steele encouraged the jury to avoid falling into a he said, she said confusion by considering how similar Constands account of events was to other evidence that will be presented to the court in the course of the retrial. Other female witnesses would be called, he said, giving testimony that they were drugged and molested in very similar ways.

The prosecutor also pointed to testimony that Cosby himself gave under oath in 2006 in a deposition to lawyers in the civil suit with Constand. When this happened with Andrea Constand there was no mistake. When somebody is drugged, they do not have the ability to consent, he takes that away, the district attorney said.

Steele highlighted Cosbys comments in the deposition that he had given Constand one and a half pills to help her relax. The prosecutor also emphasized that the comic had himself admitted to digital penetration of Constand, while insisting that the sexual encounter was consensual.

Steele concluded: Andrea Constand did not consent to penetration. She will tell you that she did not say Yes. We all know thats the womans right.

Cosbys defense lawyer, Tom Mesereau, is set to deliver his opening remarks to the jury on Tuesday morning. The white-haired Hollywood attorney is soft-spoken, but has a formidable track record in pulling off legal surprises such as the 2005 acquittal of Michael Jackson on child-molestation charges.




John Bolton, President Donald Trump's new national security adviser, joins his first Cabinet meeting on Monday. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  John Bolton began his first day as President Donald Trumps third national security adviser ahead of schedule after a top aide to Boltons predecessor departed over the weekend in an apparent crackdown on suspected leakers.

National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton announced his exit for a lecturing and writing job at a small Christian college on Sunday, a day before Bolton started as head of the council.

Bolton insisted on the departure in a lunch meeting last week with Trumps previous national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, according to a Republican close to the White House. Other changes are likely to follow, the source said, with Bolton expected to purge staff in order to bring in others more loyal to him, as well as to carry out a top priority for Trump: ridding the NSC of those suspected of leaking information to the news media.

Anton, the source added, was the likeliest source of one of the most humiliating leaks for Trump in recent weeks: the disclosure to The Washington Post that Trump had specifically been warned, in all capital letters, DO NOT CONGRATULATE Vladimir Putin on securing another term as Russias president. That warning came prior to a phone call with the Russian leader following an election that was widely criticized as illegitimate. Trump congratulated him anyway.

Anton could not be reached for comment. Queries to his White House email address and phone number went unanswered.

The White House disputed the idea that Antons departure was a condition of Bolton taking the job or even that Bolton had wanted him gone by the time he began his job on Monday.

A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Antons resignation was based on a reasonable assumption that Bolton would want to bring in his own team at the NSC. Anton, the official said, had been looking for a new job for some months, starting about the time Trump began making clear that he was unhappy with McMaster.

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The official even more emphatically denied that Anton leaked the now-infamous DO NOT CONGRATULATE instruction, calling that allegation definitely not true.

Bolton, 69, is now the third national security adviser to serve under Trump since the president took office 15 months ago. The first, retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, left after a month because of his lies to federal investigators in the Russia probe. He has since pleaded guilty.

McMaster, who plans to retire from the Army this summer, lasted a year, but his traditional foreign policy views that included a hard line against Russian expansionism clashed with Trumps more Putin-friendly approach.

Bolton last served in government as United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush. A veteran of the State and Justice departments, Bolton became known for his readiness to undermine co-workers who disagreed with his interventionist foreign policy views. The animosity was such that fellow State Department officials testified against Bolton at his confirmation hearing for the ambassadorship. Bolton did not win Senate confirmation and took the job in a recess appointment.

Bolton had been considered for a Trump administration position during the transition, but ultimately did not join then. One of the reasons, reportedly, was that Trump did not like Boltons large, bushy mustache. But in the past year, Bolton has been among the loudest pro-Trump voices on Fox News, which Trump frequently watches and on which he bases many of his policy views.

Anton also worked in the George W. Bush administration, but later came to view some of Bushs foreign policy efforts  such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq  as misguided failures. He became an anonymous but vocal Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign, famously writing in one essay that supporting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was akin to playing Russian roulette with a semiautomatic, while supporting Trump offered the country at least a small chance of survival.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader - PA

Jeremy Corbyn has let the British people down over his response to the Salisbury spy attack, Sajid Javid has said.

Mr Javid, the Communities Secretary, took aim at the Labour leaders refusal to directly blame Moscow for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia as he said news of the former double agents recovery was an important moment for the investigation.

Mr Javids intervention came after Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, labelled Mr Corbyn the Kremlin's useful idiot.

Mr Skripals doctors said on Friday last week that he was improving rapidly and was no longer in a critical condition raising police hopes that he could provide clues about how and why he was targeted.

With both Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, recovering from exposure to a deadly Novichok nerve agent, attention has now turned to what could happen to the pair if and when they are discharged from hospital.

The Sunday Times reported they could be offered new identities and a life in America in a bid to protect them against another assassination attempt.

Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary Credit: Jeff Overs/PA

MI6 intelligence officials have reportedly had discussions with their CIA counterparts about such a move.

Meanwhile, British police are drawing up plans to guarantee the safety of the poisoning victims.

They may be placed under a witness protection programme that could involve moving them to a "safe house" and, in exceptional circumstances, they could be given round-the-clock armed police protection and even receive new identities.

The British Government has blamed Russia for the spy attack but Moscow has denied all accusations of wrongdoing with relations between the two nations increasingly strained.

Mr Corbyn has faced persistent criticism from his opponents over his repeated failure to explicitly blame Russia for the attack.

Mr Javid told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show: Theres no doubt when it comes up against this issue with Russia that were having, this very serious issue, that Jeremy Corbyn has let the British people down.

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Theres no question about that. But this is a much bigger issue than any one individual.

I mean lets look at the facts. Theres been an attempted assassination on British streets with an illegal chemical weapon that we know is manufactured in Russia. Thats what we know.

Moscow has appealed to Britain to issue visas to relatives to allow them to visit the Skripals in hospital.

But Mr Skripals niece, Viktoria, was refused the right to come amid fears the Kremlin was using her as a pawn.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

Meanwhile, Moscow has also demanded the right to see the pair but Mr Javid said it was up to the Skripals to decide if they wanted to meet with the Russian authorities.

Mr Javid said he wouldnt be surprised if the Skripals dont want to meet the Russian authorities.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson also criticised Mr Corbyn as he accused the Kremlin of peddling an "avalanche of lies and disinformation" following the attack.

He claimed the Labour leader was lending "false credibility" to propaganda from Moscow by refusing to say "unequivocally" that the Russian state was responsible for the Salisbury incident.

Mr Johnson said: There is only one thing that gives the Kremlin succour and lends false credibility to its propaganda onslaught. That is when politicians from the targeted countries join in.

"Sadly, I am driven to the conclusion that Jeremy Corbyn has joined this effort."

A Labour spokesman said: "Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly said the evidence points to Russia being responsible, directly or indirectly, and that the Russian authorities must be held to account on the basis of evidence.

Front Bench promotion - end of article
London (AFP) - A group of British eurosceptics announced plans on Tuesday for a "Museum of Brexit" that will trace the history of anti-EU politics in Britain, calling for the public to donate items.

Organisers said they hoped to receive objects such as campaign posters and street stalls, as well as personal photographs and diaries at collection centres dotted around Britain.

Gawain Towler, the project's secretary and a former spokesman for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), told AFP the museum would be for academics as well as the general public.

"There are a lot of institutes of European integration... The other side of the argument is well served in academia, whereas the side that won isn't," he said.

"Unless we start collecting, we're going to lose a lot of the archival evidence."

The museum itself would eventually be set up in "two or three years", he said, adding that establishing it in the English city of Lincoln was a possibility.

Britain, which joined the European Economic Community in 1973, is planning to leave the European Union on March 29 next year after voting for Brexit in a historic 2016 referendum.

The referendum was the culmination of decades of campaigning by eurosceptics, who rose to prominence in the 1990s when they undermined then prime minister John Major's government.

Towler said the planned museum was "not really going to be competing with Alton Towers" -- a popular theme park. But he hoped that schools would find it "a useful place to visit".

It would include material from pro-EU campaigns as examples of EU "propaganda" but the focus would be on euroscepticism, he said, and pro-EU campaigners would not be invited to take part.

"This is serious. This is our history. This is one of the seminal moments in British constitutional history," he said.

Details to make contributions can be found at museumofbrexit.uk.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Liberal government is under pressure to push through the expansion of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd's Trans Mountain pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific province of British Columbia.

But the company said it would scrap plans to nearly triple the Trans Mountain pipeline's capacity unless various legal challenges could be resolved by May 31. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's federal government approved the project.

Why has this issue arisen?

The minority left-leaning New Democratic government in British Columbia, citing the risks of a major spill, opposes the project. This year it proposed new rules to temporarily block increased shipments of crude while it examined oil spill preparedness and response.

British Columbia is also asking the provincial courts to rule on whether it has the power to control oil shipments on environmental grounds.

Who has jurisdiction over pipelines?

While the federal government has the authority to grant permits for major pipelines, the 10 provinces have wide-ranging powers over natural resource development. Ottawa says British Columbia does not have the right to block the pipeline.

The provinces guard their jurisdictions and federal governments tend to think carefully before picking fights, preferring instead to rely on negotiations.

What has the federal government done so far?

Ottawa has taken a cautious line, insisting the project will be built while urging British Columbia to back down. Trudeau has spoken separately to British Columbia premier John Horgan and his Alberta counterpart, Rachel Notley, who backs the expansion and is threatening sanctions against British Columbia unless it reconsiders.

What can Trudeau do now?

Trudeau, asked what the government would do, told reporters on Monday that Ottawa is examining a range of options but gave no further details.

A possible step is for Trudeau to convene a meeting between Horgan and Notley to thrash out a compromise that would allow Kinder Morgan to restart work. However, Horgan insists he will not change his mind.

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Warren Mabee, an environment and energy expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, said Trudeau was unlikely to be too forceful, especially given that he does not want to harm the prospects of federal Liberal legislators in a national election set for October 2019.

"It runs the risk of alienating voters in British Columbia and I don't think this government is prepared to do that," he said by phone.

What more could the government do, in theory at least?

Ian Blue, a lawyer with Gardiner Roberts and an expert in energy and constitutional law, said Ottawa could warn British Columbia that if it took further actions under provincial laws to block the pipeline, the federal government would step in and disallow those laws. This provision in the Canadian constitution has not been used since the 1940s.

In an extreme situation, using an article in the criminal code, the government could deploy the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and troops to maintain a barrier between protestors and construction workers.

Ottawa last took such a move in 1990 when it sent in troops and police to help quell an aboriginal protest near Montreal.

"These things never end well, that's the difficulty with them. The question is, how much do you want get the pipeline built and how much do you want to assert federal authority?" Blue said by phone.

What else could delay the project?

First Nations bands, environmental groups and local municipalities have launched a legal challenge against the project, saying Canada failed in its duty to consult them.

Hearings at the Federal Court of Appeal ended in October and there is no firm deadline for a judgment. A decision in a similar case involving an Enbridge pipeline project took about eight months. Whichever side loses would most likely appeal to the Supreme Court, a move that would cause lengthy delays.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Diane Craft)
Ottawa (AFP) - The former second in command of Canada's military briefly appeared in court Tuesday to face a charge that he leaked cabinet secrets related to navy shipbuilding plans.

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, 54, wearing his navy uniform and medals pinned to his blazer, did not enter a plea.

Instead, defense lawyer Marie Heinen pushed for an expedited process.

"I'm anxious to get to court, get this dealt with as quickly as possible and get back to serving the people of Canada," Norman said following the court appearance.

Norman, who was second in command of the military prior to being relieved of duty in January 2017, faces up to five years in prison, if convicted.

He was charged last month with breach of trust -- a criminal offense -- for what federal police said was having "illegally disclosed government information to unauthorized parties."

According to court documents, Norman provided sensitive government information to a local shipyard that had been selected by the previous Tory administration to provide the navy with an interim supply ship.

In emails obtained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Norman seemed worried that the project would be delayed over concerns raised by the shipyard's rivals about a lack of competition in awarding the contract.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals put the project on hold when they came to power in 2015, but eventually decided to proceed with it.

The MV Asterix was recently delivered to the navy to begin operations.

The trial is expected to start in 2019 just prior the next federal election.
Two weeks after a family of eight plunged off a California cliff in an SUV, investigators remain bewildered by how little they know about the Harts, who homeschooled their children and faced allegations of child abuse stretching back 10 years. Jennifer and Sarah Hart and three of their children  Markis, Jeremiah and Abigail  were killed in the crash, which authorities now suspect was intentional. Police believe the Harts three other children were also in the car, though their bodies have not been found.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who is in charge of the investigation, told TIME he is left with three vexing questions: Why did this happen? How did this happen? And what can we  and Im talking we as a government  do to prevent this from happening again?

Those are my three questions that I ask myself every day. And I do not know the answers to any of those three, he said.

Allman said he is concerned by a pattern of child abuse reports against the Harts  which he sees as a piece to the puzzle  and by the lack of skid marks at the site where their car went off the cliff. There were no suitcases or sleeping bags found in the vehicle or at the scene, no one in the car was wearing a seatbelt and no one appears to have known the Harts were leaving town.

There are more reasons to believe that this was intentional than there are to believe that this was an accident, Allman said.

Police are still searching for three of the Hart children  16-year-old Hannah, 15-year-old Sierra and 15-year-old Devonte  but Allman said he has no reason to believe they were not inside the vehicle at the time of the crash. On Saturday, a body was recovered near the site of the crash, but authorities have not yet confirmed the identity.

Meanwhile, child abuse allegations dating back to 2008 have created a troubling picture of the familys life. Neighbors and teachers in multiple states reported potential abuse, as the family moved from Minnesota to Oregon to Washington. One complaint came before the Harts formally adopted their last three children from Texas in 2009, and another complaint, which resulted in a misdemeanor domestic assault conviction, came before they pulled all six of their children out of public school in 2011 to pursue homeschooling.

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In September 2008, one of the Hart children, who was 6 at the time, told a teacher about being struck with a belt on the arm, according to a police report that did not identify the child by name. When interviewed by police, both parents said Jennifer Hart had hit the child with a belt. They also said the child had fallen down a set of stairs and was having food issues that included stealing other peoples food at school and eating out of garbage cans or off the floor.

Months later  in February 2009, according to CNN  the Harts finalized the adoption of Jeremiah, Sierra and Devonte.

In November 2010, an allegation of abuse surfaced again, when one of the Hart children told a teacher that she had owies on her tummy and her back, according to a police report. The girl said that her mom had put her in the bathtub and turned on cold water and then hit her with a closed fist because she had found a penny in her pocket. While the girl said Jennifer Hart had hit her, when interviewed, Sarah Hart said she had been the one to spank their daughter. By Sarahs own admission, she stated that the spanking got out of control and was not proper and was too much,' the police report stated.

Sarah Hart was charged with malicious punishment of a child, which was dismissed, and misdemeanor domestic assault. She was convicted of the latter charge on April 7, 2011 and sentenced to community service and a year of probation. Two days before the sentencing, all of the Hart children  in kindergarten through 7th grade  were pulled out of the public school system for homeschooling, according to district records.

In 2013, a family friend told Oregon child welfare officials that she had witnessed controlling emotional abuse and cruel punishment toward the children, but was later told by the Oregon Department of Human Services that there was not enough evidence to make a case.

My heart is completely broken, Alexandra Argyropoulos said in a statement to the Associated Press last week. The current system failed to protect these children from their abusers.

The familys neighbors in Woodland, Washington, Bruce and Dana DeKalb, told the Associated Press that last year, one of the Hart girls rang their doorbell in the middle of the night, saying we needed to protect her. She said that they were abusing her, Bruce DeKalb told the AP.

The couple called child services on March 23 after Devonte came to their house multiple times asking for food. No one answered the door when child services officials arrived at the Harts house on that day. By the next morning, the Harts had driven out of town. On March 26, their SUV was found at the bottom of the California cliff.

Norah West, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, said the agency had no contact with the Hart family prior to the visit on March 23. West said agencies in different states share information on a case-by-case basis. The lack of a national registry of child abuse reports and investigations can pose a challenge in identifying and stopping abuse as parents cross state lines.

I think social workers and child healthcare workers have some of the most difficult jobs in state government, and it comes with a number of challenges, West told TIME. We dont know about any potential abuse or neglect unless someone refers it to us.
China has warned it will use military action to thwart any attempts to support the sovereignty of Taiwan, especially through U.S. weapons sales to the self-ruled island nation.

The Chinese Ministry of Defense blasted the State Department's recent decision to grant U.S. firms the marketing license to sell Taiwan technology necessary for building submarines. The move came at a tense time for U.S.-Chinese relations as President Donald Trump slapped new tariffs on his economic rival, prompting Beijing to do the same. Both sides warned of a potential trade war.

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"China firmly opposes the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, this is clear-cut and consistent. Taiwan is a part of China. One-China principle serves as the political foundation for the China-U.S. ties," ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian said, according to the official China Military Online.

"Chinas military has the ability and determination to defeat all attempts to separate our country, and will adopt all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," he added.

ChinaNavyDestroyerFiring2

Wen Zidong/China Military Online

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As part of the One China Policy adopted by the U.S. in 1972, Washington only recognizes China's mainland government. A civil war saw Communist fighters force the Nationalist Kuomintang leadership into exile in Taiwan, which China claims to be part of its republic. Trump has challenged this notion and controversially accepted a congratulatory call from the Taiwanese president shortly after winning the November 2016 election.

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Trump has also approved arms sales to Taiwan and expanded relations. China has maintained its position that Taiwan was to be reunited with the mainland government, even if force was necessary. China and the U.S. have bolstered their military presence in the South China Sea, where Beijing has allegedly built militarized islands intended to enforce its maritime territorial claims.

China's Foreign Ministry urged the United States to avoid official contacts with Taiwan, end attempts to substantially improve relations and stop military contracts for arms sales "so that China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Straits will not be severely damaged," spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday during a regular press conference.

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The U.S. military has hardened its position over China's Pacific military buildup, but Trump has been especially vocal over his economic feud with China, the largest U.S. trading partner.

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Office of the U.S. Trade Representative/U.S. International Trade Commission/China Customs/Reuters

From the campaign trail to the White House, Trump has accused China of unfair trade practices and stealing jobs from the U.S. He raised steel and aluminum tariffs last month in a bid to target Chinese trade and has sought to implement up to $100 billion in additional tariffs. China has already struck back with tariffs of its own and has raised the issue to the World Trade Organization.

"China has been taking advantage of the United States for many years, really, if you look at it since the start of the World Trade Organization. And they have really done a number on this country," Trump said Monday during a Cabinet meeting.

"And I dont blame China. I blame the people running our country. I blame presidents, I blame representatives, I blame negotiators. We should have been able to do what they did. We didnt do it; they did. And its the most lopsided set of trade rules, regulations that anybody has ever seen," he added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Soldiers commemorate the 90th anniversary of the foundation of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) at Zhurihe military base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region - REUTERS

China on Tuesday was forced to deny it wants to establish a military base on the tiny Pacific island of Vanuatu, after reports piqued concern about Beijing's increasing influence in the region.

The facility, which would be China's second overseas base, would not only signal a new stage in Beijing's growing military ambition, but also alter the delicate balance of power in the South Pacific. Vanuatu is located about 1,200 miles from Australia.

However officials in Vanuatu angrily rejected they had spoken to Chinese officials about the facility, which was first reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. China's defence ministry later said the report "completely did not accord with the facts", while a foreign ministry spokesman described it as "fake news".

Australia and New Zealand both said they were monitoring developments.

The Herald said the base would be established over a number of years after Chinese ships had already used the island as a base for refuelling and servicing.

A Chinese military base in Vanuatu? If true, this would be a troubling turning point in Indo-Pacific security, with an emphasis on the Pacific. I will publish my own follow-up commentary soon https://t.co/xPAgmbQS6t  Rory Medcalf (@Rory_Medcalf) April 9, 2018

The report said: "The prospect of a Chinese military outpost so close to Australia has been discussed at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington."

Professor Rory Medcalf, the head of the national security college at the Australian National University, said the most "troubling implication" with a base in Vanuatu is that it "would give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the US and its base on US territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis".

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The base "would mark an accumulative and long-term failure of bipartisan Australian policy", he added.

The tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti with less than 1 million inhabitants, has become a military outpost for China Credit: Elias Messeret/ AP

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who visited the island last weekend with Prince Charles, said: "I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice".

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, said: "We of course keep a watching eye on activity within the Pacific."

China established its first naval base in the East African nation of Djibouti last year. Officials called the new facility a 'support base' and said it would have mainly logistical functions.

However observers see it as a key part of Beijings plans to expand its global reach through military might. Regional powers - particularly India - are suspicious of China's intentions with the base.

China's base in Djibouti was established after Beijing nurtured deep investment links with the tiny nation.

China has also been investing heavily in Vanuatu, a country of 270,000 people, and across the South Pacific region.

But Vanuatu Foreign Minister, Ralph Regenvanu, said: "No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort.

Prince Charles visited Vanuatu in April, where he was given a grass skirt to wear prior to receiving a chiefly title Credit: Reuters

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country," he told ABC radio.

Chinese experts also believe Beijing has no interest in setting up a military base in the remote location.

Wei Dongxu, an independent Beijing-based military expert, told The Telegraph: "I think China is seeking to improve local living standards and set up tourist possibilities with its construction work in Vanuatu. It is not trying to risk war with other countries."

Additional reporting by Christine Wei
Former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie advised President Donald Trump on Tuesday against firing special counsel Robert Mueller.

Christie appeared on ABCs Good Morning America in the wake of an FBI raid of the New York City office, home and hotel room of Trumps longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The raid on Monday came after Muellers team referred evidence to prosecutors that they then used obtain a warrant, according to The New York Times.

Trump quickly lashed out in anger over the FBI's investigation. He started a press conference at the White House Monday about a suspected chemical weapon attack in Syria by calling the raid a disgrace, and when asked about firing Mueller, he responded, Many people have said, You should fire him.

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Christie, however, did not recommend firing the special counsel.

Its a big problem, its a big problem, and Ive told him that, Christie told Good Morning America. You can't fire the special counsel. You just can't.

Christie also called the man running the case, Geoffrey Berman, the interim United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, a boy scout, who would do the right thing.

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Cohen has been in Trumps orbit for several years and is currently part of a contentious legal battle surrounding an alleged affair between Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels, who signed a nondisclosure agreement. The White House has denied the affair ever happened. Trump said he never knew about the agreement.

Daniels is suing to be released from the terms of the agreement, while Cohen and Trump are seeking at least $20 million in damages for alleged breaches to the contract. Danielss lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has said the bank that Cohen used to wire Daniels $130,000, First Republic Bank, filed a suspicious activity report about the payment. First Republic Bank refused to comment to Newsweek about the report. Newsweek has also filed a freedom of information act request with the Treasury Department for the alleged report.

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Cohen said he made the payment on his own and was not reimbursed.

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Alex Wong/GETTY

This article was first written by Newsweek

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George and Amal Clooney (Photo: Getty Images)

Its always a good day when Amal Clooney is in the news. Georges better half graces the cover of Vogue ahead of Mays Met ball (which she will co-chair) and in the issue, the human rights lawyer lets us inside the couples private world.

Here are seven of our favorite moments from Amals sit-down:

George and Amals meet-cute story is somewhat normal

The couple first met in 2013, when the lawyer went with a friend to the actors house on Lake Como in Italy. George and Amal hit it off (as friends), staying in touch over email. Apparently, Clooney sent her notes pretending to be his late dog Einstein, who claimed to be trapped in different places and in need of legal counsel.

Who could resist that charm? A few months into their friendship, it was clear there was something more between them.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world, Amal recalls. Before that experience, I always hoped there could be love that was overwhelming and didnt require any weighing or decision-making.

She continues, Its the one thing in life that I think is the biggest determinant of happiness, and its the thing you have the least control over. Are you going to meet this person? I was 35 when I met him. It wasnt obvious that it was going to happen for me. And I wasnt willing or excited about the idea of getting married or having a family in the absence of that.

George, who was in his 50s, had a similar feeling. He had been married once before to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. If you know anything about my crazy life, you know that Id pretty much committed to the idea of never marrying again, he tells Vogue. But I started dating Amal, and I immediately knew that something was very different.

It was when the couple went on a safari in Africa that Clooney knew he wanted to pop the question  thanks to some giraffes.

Some giraffes walked up to her, he explains. They just came out of the blue. I took a picture of her, and she was smiling. I said to my buddy Ben, You know, I think I should ask her to marry me. And Ben said, I think thats a good idea.

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Amal understands the life she chose by marrying George. We definitely do more things in our home to ensure privacy in a context where we cant otherwise get it, she explains. But that whole side  invasions of privacy and paparazzi, all of that  has happened because of something so happy and so important in my life.

Talk about a good perspective.

The Clooneys (somewhat) roughed it on their honeymoon

Although initial reports claimed the newlyweds jetted off for an uber-expensive vacation in the Seychelles after their wedding in Italy in 2014, that wasnt the case. The pair actually hid out in their newly purchased home in the United Kingdom, set on a tiny island in the Thames called Sonning Eye. They spent their honeymoon camping out in the unfurnished rooms. The home has since been furnished, and its the couples primary residence.

Amal Clooney covers Vogue. (Photo: Vogue)

About some of those furnishings

It sounds like George and Amal have a mix of normal and not normal decorations. In the only celebrities would have this category, the couple has framed shots of them shaking hands with President Barack Obama and meeting the Pope, but they level that out with lots of wedding pics and family photos. They have vintage books, coffee table books, a framed antique map of Berkshire, a ship in a bottle, and a gold monogram sculpture (G and A).

Then there are their cherished paintings  a lot are of Georges beloved cocker spaniel, Einstein (posing as a physics professor at a chalkboard), and the head of a giraffe (Amal apparently loves them). The Clooneys had insurance appraisers come by a while back and gave an estimate on their art.

They were like, Its barely worth getting a policy, Amal says, mimicking their disapproving voice. They were very judgmental.

They cant cleanse

This makes us feel so much better. In 2015, George and Amal attempted to go on a healthy-eating cleanse and it didnt go so well. It was hard to give up the glass of wine in the evening, but even harder to give up the espresso first thing in the morning, Amal explains. Were like, Arent we supposed to be feeling amazing? They pulled the plug on Day 11 of 21.

Amal Clooney in Vogue (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

George knows he married up

Amal already had a well-respected name and distinguished career as a London barrister in international human rights law when she met the actor. Her international law practice has not slowed down since she tied the knot with one of the worlds most famous actors.

Shes the professional, and Im the amateur, George acknowledges. He knows a thing or two about humanitarian work himself. I get to see someone at the absolute top of their game doing their job better than anybody Ive ever seen.

He adds, Of course she was beautiful, but I also thought she was fascinating, and I thought she was brilliant. Her life was incredibly exciting  the clients she was taking on and the superhuman work that she was doing. I was taken with her from the moment I saw her.

Geoffrey Robertson, a co-founder of the firm Doughty Street Chambers, where Amal works, says shes been a leading intellectual thinker on the concept of fairness  in a trial where you dont have a jury and where, sometimes, you dont have a defendant.  That set her apart even before she met George.

During the interview, Amal had Iraqi refugee and human rights activist Nadia Murad at her home. The 25-year-old Yazidi student is taking on ISIS, with Amals help.

Not many people stepped up to help as she did, Murad says of Amal. I was surprised that someone like her  a successful lawyer with a strong record  would help us. Were a very small community.

Much of Amals work also centers on the mistreatment of women, and shes a big supporter of the #MeToo movement. I think because of the brave women who have come forward to tell their stories, the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation, she exclaims. Were in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and thats where we need to be.

The twins resemble their parents

In June 2017, Amal gave birth to twins, Ella and Alexander, whom George refers to as the knuckleheads. Alexander looks exactly like George, according to the Vogue interviewer, while Ella looks more like her mother.

Amal says quality time is in the morning. Between six and eight in the morning we get to have them in our bed  I dont schedule any calls before eight, she says. When I was nursing, it was much more complicated, because there are two. I had all manner of weird cushions and pillows and machines.

George recently left their kids for the first time since their birth, and the separation has bothered him more than he had expected, according to Amal.

Amal Clooney in Vogue (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)

It can irk Amal when people talk more about her clothes than her work

Still, the lawyer is at peace with her love of fashion. It is possible to be brilliant and look good while trying to better the world, after all. I hate the idea that you somehow, as a human being, have to be put in a box, she says. Theres no reason why lawyers cant be fun  or actresses cant be serious.

Amal is a really fun lawyer. All my family, we are party animals, her mother told Vogue. Amal partied hard and worked hard.

That sounds like our kind of girl!

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Bogota (AFP) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that his forces have arrested a former peace negotiator for the FARC, the ex-rebel-group-turned-political-party, and that he could be extradited to the United States to face drug charges.

The suspect, identified as Jesus Santrich, was arrested on Monday in Colombia on drug trafficking charges, Santos said in a message issued by his government.

"If due process is fulfilled -- and if there is irrefutable evidence -- then there are grounds for extradition for crimes committed since the signing of the (peace) accord, and I will not stay my hand in authorizing that," Santos said.

The landmark peace deal between the FARC and Santos's government was signed in November 2016, putting an end to a half century of conflict.

Since then, the FARC has disarmed and transformed itself into a political party, swapping its crossed-rifles emblem for a red rose. Ten of its members were given allotted seats in Congress.

Some dissident members of the FARC are said to have turned to drug trafficking and other criminal endeavors.

Under the peace accord, repentant FARC fighters were required to confess their wartime crimes and pay reparations to victims to avoid jail. But they could still be arrested for any crimes they committed after the deal.
Prague (AFP) - Billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said Tuesday the country's president had asked him to talk to the Communists and the far-right SPD party as he keeps looking for a viable government.

Babis's populist ANO (YES) movement won a general election last October, securing 78 seats in the 200-member parliament by campaigning on an anti-corruption ticket, but he has so far failed to put together a majority administration.

Babis came up with a minority government of ANO members and unaffiliated experts, but failed to win a confidence vote in parliament in January and the cabinet resigned. It will, however, remain in office until a new team is named.

Potential political partners have turned their backs on Babis, a food, chemicals and media tycoon who is facing criminal charges for alleged EU subsidy fraud. He is also dogged by allegations that he served as a Communist secret police agent before the Iron Curtain fell in 1989.

After talks failed with the Social Democrats last week, Babis on Tuesday sought the guidance of President Milos Zeman, a veteran left-winger who is strongly pro-Russian, pro-Chinese and anti-Muslim.

"The president has recommended to continue talks with the Communists and the SPD," Babis told reporters, adding that ANO leaders would meet on Thursday to discuss further steps.

Babis is likely to turn to the SPD and the Communists, who have a combined 37 seats in parliament, for informal support rather than an official coalition.

ANO lawmakers appeared to be torn over the idea on Tuesday, with some rejecting any ties with the far-right SPD, known for its strong anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Independent political analyst Jiri Pehe told AFP that Babis would have to beware of "the trap of a minority ANO cabinet supported by the Communists and the SPD," citing Babis's business interests in western Europe.

"The SPD has a very poor reputation, western media label it as a neo-Nazi party and that would be devastating for Babis's reputation abroad. I think he will do his best to avoid this option," Pehe added.

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Slovak-born Babis is facing criminal charges over alleged 2007 EU subsidy fraud to the tune of two million euros ($2.5 million) linked to his sprawling Agrofert holding company.

He has flatly denied any wrongdoing, insisting the case is politically motivated.

Zeman, who was elected to a second five-year term in January, said he would meet Communist leader Vojtech Filip and SPD chief Tomio Okamura later this week.

He has two attempts to name a prime minister under the constitution, with the third going to the parliament speaker who is an ANO member.
Washington (AFP) - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg accepted personal responsibility Tuesday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an "arms race" against Russian disinformation during a high-stakes hearing with US lawmakers.

In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive answered questions for nearly five hours as he sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the network's two billion users.

Under mounting pressure over the hijacking of its user data by a British political consultant, Zuckerberg reiterated his apology for the historic breach, before being grilled over how Facebook collects and protects people's personal information.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said about the improper sharing of 87 million people's information by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here."

He added that Facebook fell short in protecting the platform, noting: "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

The 33-year-old CEO spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere.

"There are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other internet systems and other systems as well," he said.

"So this is an arms race. They're going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too."

Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the social network failed to do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation during the last US presidential race.

The Senate hearing, ahead of another appearance in the House on Wednesday, featured several tense and some friendly exchanges on Facebook's security, hate speech and other topics.

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Of the hundreds of questions he faced, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbin's pointed query about where he slept the previous evening.

"Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?" Durbin asked.

Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred.

"Um, uh, no," he said.

And "if you've messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you've messaged?" the Illinois Democrat persisted.

Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.

Perhaps more than any other senator during five hours of questioning, Durbin's everyman tactic put a finger on the crux of the issue surrounding Facebook's handling of its users' private data.

- Open to regulation -

Zuckerberg said he was open to regulation, but cautioned against complex rules that might impact emerging social media firms.

"I think the internet is becoming increasingly important in people's lives and I think we need to have a full conversation about what is the right regulation," he told the hearing.

"You need to be careful (a new regulatory policy) doesn't cement in the current companies that are winning."

Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is cooperating with the US special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 vote.

"Our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure in an open session I don't reveal something that's confidential," he said.

Zuckerberg said he had personally not been contacted, and that he was not specifically aware of any subpoena of Facebook data.

"I believe there may be (a subpoena), but I know we're working with them," he said.

Swapping his customary T-shirt for a business suit and tie, the Facebook chief appeared somber as he fielded tough questions over Cambridge Analytica's massive data breach.

"We've been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said in his prepared remarks.

But the show of contrition fell short for several lawmakers.

"We've seen the apology tours before," Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told Zuckerberg.

"And so, my reservation about your testimony today is that I don't see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road."

- Paid-for Facebook? -

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Congress before the hearing wearing Zuckerberg masks and #DeleteFacebook T-shirts.

Inside the jammed hearing room, activists from the Code Pink group wore oversized glasses with the words "STOP SPYING" written on the lenses, and waved signs that read "Stop corporate lying."

Testifying was a new step for Zuckerberg, who started Facebook as a Harvard dropout in 2004, and built it into the world's largest social media company worth more than $450 billion.

During questioning, Zuckerberg rejected the suggestion that the social media giant, with over two billion users worldwide, has exclusive control over its market.

"The average American uses eight different apps to communicate with their friends and stay in touch with people, ranging from texting apps to e-mail," he said.

Zuckerberg also said the company believed in an ad-supported business model, but appeared to leave open the possibility of a paid version.

"There will always be a version of Facebook that is free," Zuckerberg told the hearing.
By Idrees Ali

NEWPORT, R.I. (Reuters) - After a pair of crashes involving U.S. Navy ships in the Asia-Pacific killed more than a dozen people last year, the Navy's efforts to develop its leaders is receiving renewed attention.

Last week, the Navy inaugurated the College of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.

Seventeen sailors were killed last year in two collisions with commercial vessels involving guided-missile destroyers, the Fitzgerald in June off Japan and the John S. McCain in August as it approached Singapore.

The commanding officers of the Navy destroyers involved in the collisions face courts-martial and military criminal charges. Charges against them include dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide.

A series of Navy investigations found rising pressure to meet demands for more and more Navy operations, particularly in the Pacific Ocean, led those in command to rationalize declining standards that ranged from basic seamanship to operational safety.

Some observers, including lawmakers during a congressional hearing, have been critical of the Navy's handling of the incidents.

Navy officials acknowledge that the inauguration of the new college alone will not be enough and a change in culture will take time.

Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said the incidents in the Pacific reinforced the need for a closer look at leadership training, something officials say was in the works prior to the crashes.

"As we've come through the collisions, the investigations focused on the accountability and in some cases discipline; it has just become clear that you can't emphasize and focus on it too much," Richardson told a small group of reporters.

Rear Admiral Jeff Harley, president of the Naval War College, said that in a break from the past, the new college would teach leadership courses throughout the year.

"One (issue) that has perhaps not been given the attention that is required, (and) we're starting to understand that its required on a more continuous basis, is this idea of character competency," - or leadership development, Harley said.

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Another reason for increased focus on leadership is the expectation that the Navy will play a larger role in operations in the years ahead.

The U.S. military has put countering China and Russia at the center of a new strategy unveiled earlier this year.

"The Navy really kind of has unique and specific roles in making all that happen, not only from a security standpoint, but also sea lanes, keeping access to markets open," Richardson said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Dan Grebler)
President Donald Trump cites death threats to justify the $3 million round-the-clock security detail for Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, who cites his own security to justify lavish spending on first-class air travel.

But details about any threats to Pruitt are sparse. One supposed threat that was investigated was a postcard to Pruitt with the message: You ignorant fuck, according to EPA records. Authorities also investigated two protesters who interrupted a speech by Pruitt.

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

The EPA said there were zero records about death threats in reply to BuzzFeed investigative reporter Jason Leopolds request for all information.

The Washington Post sought records under the Freedom of Information Act late last year, asking for copies of all emails, letters, voicemails and other communication in which Administrator Pruitt was threatened with violence or which were otherwise considered to be threatening to the administrator. The EPAs answer, dated early December, was undetermined, with no records released.

Washington Post request to the EPA on any information about death threats against Scott Pruitt. (Photo: FOIA Record)

The Associated Press reported last week that its nationwide search of federal and state court records ... found no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt. The EPA did not respond to APs request Friday to provide details of any specific threats or arrests.

The EPA official in charge of investigating threats  assistant inspector general for investigations Patrick Sullivan  would not specify the number of threats that had been logged against Pruitt. But he said in a September interview with E&E News that there were more investigations into threats against Pruitt than for either of his two immediate predecessors.

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I can tell you theres more than three investigations, Sullivan said. Thats for sure.

Sullivan told CNN in November there were four to five times more threats against Pruitt than his immediate predecessor, but refused to elaborate.

The EPA requested that Pruitts security detail be beefed up soon after he took office. Some $3 million has now been spent on Pruitts 20-man round-the-clock protection. In addition, Pruitts aides often cite security to justify huge first-class airfare expenses.

The spending is part of a long series of ethical problems plaguing the EPA chief.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

(Photo: Getty)

Here are some alleged threats against Pruitt that were investigated, according to reports:

 The EPA inspector general in March 2017 investigated a postcard sent to the EPA that said: Get out while you still can, Scott, You ignorant fuck, and You are evil incarnite, according to a report obtained by E&E. EPA investigators discussed the message with the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force. But they couldnt identify the author and concluded the message lacked a clear threat.

 Another postcard included an implied threat that contained obscene language, Sullivan told E&E. It was not a direct threat. The U.S. attorneys office declined to prosecute, and the writer of the message apologized when contacted by federal officials, said Sullivan.

 Threatening tweets against Pruitt and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were investigated in April 2017. The writer told investigators he wrote the flippant comments while drinking and watching The Rachel Maddow Show, and had no intention of hurting anyone. He apologized, and a U.S. attorneys office declined to press charges.

 The EPA launched a criminal probe in April 2017 into two female protesters who interrupted a speech by Pruitt. Officials submitted information for misdemeanor charges, but no action was taken.

 The head of the EPAs Office of Criminal Enforcement told Politico in February that Pruitts safety was threatened when people yelled obscenities at him.

Sullivan said investigations had been launched into 40 threats against EPA personnel and facilities in 2017, according to E&E. He told NBC a month later the number was 70 investigations.

Three investigations were launched into threats against Pruitts predecessor, Gina McCarthy, but none against President Barack Obamas first EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, according to records. One letter to McCarthy threatened: We will hurt you and your family. Sullivan used a version of the same quote as an example of a threat to Pruitt in his interview with CNN.

Fox News reported Friday that Pruitt has received an unprecedented number of death threats.

According to EPAs assistant inspector general, Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and his family, Fox quoted EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox as saying. Wilcoxs statement included a list of several published reports about such incidents, Fox reported, without providing details.

Neither Wilcox nor other EPA representatives immediately responded to HuffPosts requests for threat details.

Also on HuffPost

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Theresa May - REUTERS

Theresa May is facing mounting pressure from senior Conservative MPs to support US-led airstrikes against the Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, and Nick Boles, a former minister, have both urged Mrs May to back the strikes without seeking parliamentary approval.

President Donald Trump promised on Monday that a "major decision" would be taken on Syria within the next two days, as a US navy destroyer appeared to be getting in position to attack.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with Mr Trump on Sunday, has indicated France's support for the US. Mrs May is due to speak with Mr Trump on Tuesday.

The senior Conservative MP and former soldier Tom Tugendhat has called for action to "degrade" Syria's chemical weapon resources, after the Syrian town of Douma was attacked with suspected chlorine gas on Saturday.

He said: Striking Syrias stockpiles of chemical weapons would degrade their ability to commit further war crimes and could be done together with allies. It would not require a vote in Parliament.

Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, has also thrown his weight behind an attack. He told the Evening Standard on Tuesday: In view of the enormity of what has been done, if there is a way of preventing its recurrence by the limited use of force that is one thing and I would be supportive.

Former minister Nick Boles said the Prime Minister had his "strong support" is she decides to join the US and France in taking action against President Assad.

Theresa May is due to chair a national security council meeting on Tuesday afternoon or on Wednesday.

It comes as President Trump - who last year ordered missile strikes on a Syrian airfield after seeing distressing images of civilians poisoned with sarin - looked poised to act again.

"Nothing is off the table," said Mr Trump, when asked whether he was considering military action.

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"We are making a decision with respect to what to do with the horrible attack on Syria," he said.

"It will be met, and it will be met forcefully. I wont say when, as I dont like talking about timing.

"Were going to make a decision tonight, or very shortly after, and youll be hearing the decision.

"We cant let atrocities happen. In our world, we cant let that happen, because of the power of the United States, the power of our country, when we can stop it."

Mr Trump's comments were followed by a warning from France early on Tuesday morning that it will retaliate against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if evidence emerges that it was behind the suspected chlorine gas attack.

After President Emmanuel Macron and Mr Trump spoke again last night, spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux told Europe 1 radio: "If the red line has been crossed, there will be a response," adding that intelligence "in theory confirms the use of chemical weapons."

Children from Eastern Ghouta are treated for symptoms from Saturday's suspected gas attack.

Mr Trump said on Monday night he was consulting with his military and national security advisers, but that he personally had little doubt that the attack was carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's regime, with the possible support of his allies.

"To me there's not much a doubt, but the generals will figure it out," he said.

"So we'll be looking at that barbaric act and studying what's going on. We're trying to get people in there. As you know, it's been surrounded.

"So it's very hard to get people in because not only has it been hit, it's been surrounded. And if they're innocent, why aren't they allowing people to go in and prove? Because as you know, they're claiming they didn't make the attack.

"So if it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon. So we're looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously."

President's options | What could military action in Syria look like?

Amid the tough talk in the White House, the US military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order. A navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was underway in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday after completing a port call at Larnaca, Cyprus.

A defiant Moscow said on Monday that it had examined patients affected and it did not find traces of chemicals. The UN-backed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is carrying out its own investigation, but is likely to take some time to report the findings.

Douma chemical attack

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, lashed out at Britain, the US and France, accusing them of slander, insults, hawkish rhetoric, and blackmail.

The tone of what is being done has gone beyond the threshold of what even happened in the Cold War, he said, repeating Kremlin accusations that the Eastern Ghouta attack was "fake news" being used in a bid to discredit Russia and to distract from the Skripal poisoning case.

He said the OPCW was welcome to visit, under Syrian and Russian protection.

The chemical attack, which doctors on the ground told the Telegraph they suspected to have been chlorine mixed with a nerve agent, left more than 40 dead. The images of children and babies left fronthing at the mouth has led to international outrage, but so far no direct response.

Syria war timeline

Mr Trump described the gas attack as "a barbarity" and said it was a crisis for humanity.

And Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that Mr Trump "is confident" that the Assad regime and its allies were to blame.

"He's been briefed by his national security team and being kept up to date constantly and regularly on the intelligence around that," she said.

She insisted that his wish for American troops to pull out of Syria did not affect his resolve to respond to the Eastern Ghouta attack.

"The president wants to bring our troops home after we complete the mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria. At the same time he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians," she said.

"Signalling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible."

She said Mr Trump hoped to coordinate the response with Britain and France.

"We certainly have a great relationship with both countries, and are continuing conversations with both the UK as well as France, and hope to work with all of our allies and partners in a response," she said.

John Bolton, his new national security adviser, was on Monday, in his first day in the job, holding a "principals" meeting to prepare options for the president in dealing with Syria.

Mr Bolton and Mike Pompeo, his nominee for secretary of state, are both critical of Iranian influence in the region, which foreign policy experts believe may have a significant impact on US action in Syria.

Ilan Berman, a former consultant to the CIA and Department of Defense, said: "It seems that the new foreign policy advisers are pushing for more involvement in terms of military presence on the ground.

"Certainly both Mr Bolton and Mr Pompeo are much more concerned with rolling back Iranian influence and the most visible example of Iranian influence today is their involvement in Syria.

"It's another action entirely to make a military strike against the Syrians when the Russians and Iranians are so closely involved - anything that Mr Trump does has the potential for fairly significant escalation depending on the targets hit.

"The thing that is least complicated is repeating something they did before - submarine strikes that don't come into Russian airspace or hit Russian troops."

The attack, which came days after an announcement that US troops would soon be withdrawing, will muddle Mr Trump's exit plan and threaten to draw America into a direct confrontation with Russia.

Syria what next

Relations between Moscow and Washington are the worst they have been under Mr Trump, who has in the last few months expanded sanctions and expelled scores of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy in Salisbury.

On Monday the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Syria.

Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said the US was prepared to respond unilaterally.

We are beyond appeals to conscience, she said.

We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done. History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria.

Either way, the United States will respond.

Syria chemical attack | Read more

She said that the Russian regime had its hands covered in the blood of Syrian children and accused Moscow of enabling the Assad regimes murderous destruction.

Only a monster targets civilians and then ensures that there are no ambulances to transfer the wounded, she said. No hospitals to save their lives. No doctors or medicine to ease their pain.

Karen Pierce, Britains ambassador to the UN, said that her Russian counterparts suggestion of sending in an OPCW team was worth pursuing, providing the team were guaranteed complete freedom to investigate.

She described the attack as an escalatory and a diabolical act, and accused Russia of attempting to muddy the waters.

Moscow, she said, seeks to turn the debate away from a discussion on chemical weapons into a dispute between east and west, turning itself into the victim.

Russias crocodile tears for the people of Eastern Ghouta has an easy answer. It is to join us, she said.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The evidence points to the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces against a besieged rebel-held town in Syria, the European Union said on Sunday, calling for an international response. "The evidence points towards yet another chemical attack by the regime," the EU said in a statement. "It is a matter of grave concern that chemical weapons continue to be used, especially on civilians. The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons and calls for an immediate response by the international community." The bloc called on the U.N. Security Council to re-establish its checks to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks and on Russia and Iran to use their influence with Assad to prevent further attacks. The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack in the town of Douma. (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Editing by Adrian Croft)
Luxembourg (AFP) - The EU's top court on Tuesday dealt another blow to US ridesharing giant Uber by backing the right of France and other member states to ban an illegal taxi service without notifying Brussels regulators.

The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of a French ban of the UberPop service that links amateur drivers with customers through a smartphone application, four months after taking a similar decision over a case in Spain.

The Silicon Valley firm has been left with its UberX service, which uses licensed professionals, in France and Spain as well as most other European Union countries.

In a conciliatory tone, Uber said it is "appropriate to regulate services such as Uber" and pledged to "continue the dialogue" with authorities in European cities where it has met fierce opposition from taxi drivers.

The Brussels-based European Court of Justice rejected the firm's contention that France should have notified the European Commission about legislation under which it faced criminal charges.

"Member States may prohibit and punish, as a matter of criminal law, the illegal exercise of transport activities in the context of the UberPop service, without notifying the Commission in advance of the draft legislation," the court ruled.

The Commission, the 28-nation EU executive, sets broader policy on the burgeoning digital economy and on other issues.

Uber France has argued that French authorities were required to notify Brussels about the criminal legislation under which a case was brought against it, claiming it was a technical regulation of an online service.

But the Luxembourg-based court of justice said the French case resembled one in December when it ruled that Uber was an ordinary transport company instead of an app and should be regulated as such.

"In the Court's view, the UberPop service offered in France is essentially identical to the service provided in Spain," the court of justice statement said.

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The Spanish case was brought by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, where belief runs high that Uber is a taxi company that should be subject to rules governing such vehicles.

Uber had fought criminal proceedings in several courts in France based on a 2014 French law before dropping in 2015 its UberPop service linking customers with non-professional drivers using their own vehicles.

- 'Unjustfied measures' -

A court in the northern French city of Lille then sought the opinion of the court of justice to determine if the French government had acted in line with EU law.

Uber, the biggest name in the growing gig economy, claims it is a mere service provider, connecting consumers with drivers in more than 600 cities.

Uber has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who say this allows it to dodge costly regulations such as training and licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles.

Recent protests were staged in capitals Athens and Brussels.

Uber appeared to take the ruling in its stride.

"As our new CEO (Dara Khosrowshahi) has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe," an Uber spokesperson told AFP.

Services by non-professional Uber drivers only continue in Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.

In contrast, the Brussels-based Computer and Communications Industry Association called the ruling a blow to the EU's efforts to promote innovation and build a cross-border digital economy.

The association's Jakob Kucharczyk regretted to see "the Commissions effective oversight powers" being curtailed by the court.

"The court has given member states more room to thwart the Digital Single Market through restrictive, disproportionate and unjustified measures at national level," Kucharczyk said in a statement.
By Greg Torode and Philip Wen HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - The islands of Vanuatu may appear as relative specks in the South Pacific Ocean, but for China's military strategists, they could provide a significant boost in Beijing's ability to project naval power. The prospect of a Chinese military base in the heart of the South Pacific, reported by Australia's Fairfax Media on Tuesday, will also complicate the strategic dominance of Western powers in an ocean area they have long effectively controlled, according to diplomats and experts monitoring developments. Fairfax Media reported China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence there, saying the possibility of such a facility has already alarmed high level officials in Canberra and Washington. Vanuatu's foreign minister denied there had been any such discussion of a Chinese military base in the country. China's defence ministry said the Fairfax report "completely did not accord with the facts" while a foreign ministry spokesman said the report was "fake news". Both Western and Asian military attaches say a broad network of bases and friendly ports will be vital if China is to meet its ambitions of becoming a blue water navy, mirroring the kind of established reach long enjoyed by the U.S. and its allies. While they help project power and influence during peace time, such facilities could also be vital in a conflict, they say. Even a localised conflict close to the Chinese mainland over the disputed East or South China Seas could involve maneuvers far from its shores, whether to protect command vessels or break blockades of commercial shipping, for example. While far from key shipping lanes and not as important as Indian Ocean ports, Vanuatu would put China close to the coast of Australia, a major U.S. ally, and give it a presence nearer the U.S. base of Guam beyond the Asian island chains that hem in Beijing. Graeme Smith, a Pacific Affairs expert at the Australian National University, said a Chinese base on Vanuatu would send a strong message to Australia, the United States and their allies. "It would be an incredibly aggressive signal to both the U.S. and Australia that 'We're here, get used to it'," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. Vanuatu was one of the first countries to recognise China's position in the South China Sea and remains the only Pacific nation to have done so. Smith noted that Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai had visited China twice since being elected in 2016 but had yet to visit Australia, "partly because of him not being given priority on the Australian side". "Are we giving enough love, to put it bluntly". "WAKE UP CALL" If China were to build a base in the South Pacific, it would be only the second after the recent establishment of a logistics facility in the international Indian Ocean port of Djibouti. China's lack of bases was exposed in 2014 when China's navy stretched its supply lines and logistics to deploy 18 ships to search for a missing Malaysian airliner across the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean. It was forced to seek replenishment in Australia's western Albany Port to keep the rest of the deployment operational - not an option it could rely on in wartime. Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said it was natural for a major military power to explore options to extend its defence capabilities. Ni, however, said he did not consider Vanuatu a natural choice for a military base given the great distance from China would make it difficult to provide operational support in waters it did not control. Zhang Baohui, a mainland security expert at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, said while China had a thirst for long-term bases and reliable ports, the Indian Ocean was a greater priority. "China has to right to seek bases as its expands its naval deployments, and it is has few options beyond smaller and poorer nations," he said. "I'm just not sure Vanuatu fully serves its needs." Vanuatu, a former British-French colony previously known as the New Hebrides, housed a large U.S. military base during World War Two aimed at helping stem the advance of the Japanese army through the Pacific towards Australia, 2,000 km (1,200 miles) to the west. New Zealand-based security scholar Marc Lanteigne said the Fairfax report, while unconfirmed, was "a wake up call" to Australia, New Zealand and the United States. "A Chinese base in Vanuatu would represent a significant strategic challenge to Australia and New Zealand in their backyard," said Lanteigne, a senior lecturer in security studies at Massey University in Auckland. Some analysts believe that Australia, France and New Zealand are likely to re-double diplomatic efforts in the region to ensure China's foothold is contained. A study by Australia's independent Lowy Institute think-tank last week urged greater efforts by Canberra to deepen its traditional ties in the Pacific, noting China's growing influence and the "increasing risk of geostrategic competition in the region." (Reporting by Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Philip Wen in Beijing; Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
By Warren Strobel and John Walcott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday raided the offices and home of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen, law enforcement sources said, in a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving close Trump associates. Cohen's lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said that U.S. prosecutors conducted a search that was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. Mueller is investigating whether members of Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia during the U.S. presidential election. Trump has called the probe a "witch hunt" and denied any collusion. The raid could increase legal pressure on the president, because it involves the records of his longtime attorney and indicates a second center of investigations in Manhattan, alongside Mueller's Washington-based probe. Cohen has been at the center of a controversy over a $130,000 payment he has admitted making shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said that she had sex once with Trump in 2006 and was paid to keep quiet about it. Trump reacted with unusually harsh language to news of the raid. "It's a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time," Trump said at the opening of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria. Asked whether he would fire Mueller, Trump said, "Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens." Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, but he could order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel's probe, to end it, or Trump could fire Rosenstein if he refuses. Under federal regulations, if Mueller comes across information that is not directly related to his Russia-focused investigation, he must confer with Rosenstein. Rosenstein could direct Mueller to either investigate the issue himself or refer it to another law enforcement authority. The raids were first reported by The New York Times. POSSIBLE BANK, TAX FRAUD "Today, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients," Ryan said in a statement. "I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller," Ryan said. Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violation in connection with the Stormy Daniels payment, and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to Trumps 2016 campaign, a second source familiar with the investigation said. Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters for a request for comment. A spokesman for Mueller had no comment. Cohen has said that he paid the $130,000 settlement money to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from his own pocket through a personal home equity loan. Trump, in comments to reporters on Air Force One last week, said that he did not know about the payment. According to a person familiar with the matter, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the New York offices of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs on the 23rd floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Cohen has an office. The agents went there about 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and worked for several hours, the person said. A source familiar with the investigation said the raid was conducted without prior warning. Federal agents also raided a room at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where Cohen has been staying while his apartment is being renovated, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed person. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office on Monday also sought any emails between former White House communications director Hope Hicks and Cohen about a false and misleading account that Trump helped prepare of a June 9, 2016, meeting between Trumps son Donald Trump, Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians who had promised "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the first source familiar with the investigation said. Such emails would not be covered by attorney-client privilege, this source said, because Cohen did not represent Hicks. Ryan, in his statement, called the search warrants executed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients," he said. Attorney-client privilege is intended to encourage open communications between lawyers and their clients, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice. But the privilege is not absolute, and there is an exception for communications made to further a crime. "The crime-fraud exception means the privilege does not apply to communications between the client and the attorney, if they are evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud, not just a past crime or fraud," said Christopher Slobogin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School specializing in criminal procedure and evidence. A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs said in a statement that its arrangement with Cohen is ending. "The firms arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement," the statement said. "We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation." Ryan said that Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscow's alleged efforts to influence the U.S. election. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Karen Freifeld, Makini Brice, Jonathan Stempel and Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will review all cooperation with the United States, the government said on Monday, in a sign of President Enrique Pena Nieto's increasing frustration with his counterpart Donald Trump's treatment of the country.

In a brief statement, the Mexican government said Pena Nieto instructed ministries at a cabinet meeting on Sunday to evaluate "mechanisms of cooperation" with the U.S. government.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Twitter the evaluation would take place in coordination with his ministry and covered all current cooperation.

The statement did not give details on the reasons for the order, but an official familiar with the matter said it should be seen as a signal to Trump of the government's frustration with his attitude toward Mexico.

Pena Nieto chided the Trump administration in unusually forthright terms on Thursday after the U.S. president said he would send National Guard troops to beef up the southern border.

The plan took shape after Trump accused Mexico of failing to stop a "caravan" of Central American migrants organised by a human rights group travelling toward the U.S. border. However, the caravan quickly began dispersing when Mexican authorities moved in to register the migrants.

Trump, who launched his election campaign in 2015 by calling Mexicans who come to the United States rapists, has caused profound anger in Mexico with his repeated broadsides on trade, migration and security.

Mexico, the United States and Canada are at a crucial phase in talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Mexican government has long said the renegotiation should be couched within a review of the entire relationship.

Many Mexicans would like to see the government take a tougher line with the U.S. president. The Mexican public is far more united in its antipathy toward Trump than it is in support of its own leading politicians.

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Mexico's next presidential election takes place on July 1 and the main candidates have all upbraided Trump for his digs against the country.

The candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is trailing third in most recent opinion polls.

Pena Nieto, who cannot stand for re-election, has one of the lowest approval ratings of any modern Mexican president, but he has tended to benefit from taking a stand against Trump.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
Even for a desert, the Nefud is nearly bone-dry. Only about an inch of water falls onto the red, sandy soil in northern Saudi Arabia over the course of a year.

But 85,000 years ago, hippos roamed the Nefud.

At that time, heavy, monsoonal downpours filled thousands of lakes in the region. Rivers and streams criss-crossed the land. Leaping gazelles and wild cattle munched on the grasslands.

And it appears that an early group of humans followed these African animals to this once-hospitable land.

SEE ALSO: It turns out Neanderthals painted art inside these European caves, not humans

Archaeologists spent a decade sifting through the sands in this now dry and grossly understudied region of the world.

Among a rich collection of primitive tools and animals bones found there, the researchers discovered a single bone from a modern human's middle finger. The 90,000-year-old specimen, an inch and quarter in length (3.2 centimeters), is now the oldest-known human fossil outside of Africa and The Levant (the biblical area around the eastern Mediterranean, which includes modern-day Israel and Jordan).

New research detailing that discovery, published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, alters our understanding of a seminal time in human history: when we left Africa and eventually spread out across the globe.

Researchers surveying the Al Wusta site where the middle finger bone was found.

Image: Klint Janulis

Near the team's dig site called Al Wusta, east of the Red Sea, the team had previously located many archaeologically-intriguing places filled with animal bones.

"One thing was always missing," Huw Groucutt, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford's Institute of Archaeology and lead author of the study, told reporters in a call last week.

"Ancient human fossils," he said.

Humans became a completely unique species around 200,000 years ago, in Africa. Eventually, we began to leave.

The widely-accepted theory of human expansion out of Africa held that there was a first major movement into The Levant some 130,000 years ago (but perhaps earlier). Here, we inhabited places like caves in present-day Israel. Later, some 60,000 years ago, there is thought to have been a second major human dispersal out of Africa.

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But with the discovery of this middle finger fossil, the study's authors argue that we probably moved out of Africa many times.

This single fossil puts us in Arabia around 85,000 years ago, some 20,000 years earlier than previously thought.

These remarkable journeys by foot, then, "were far more complicated than our textbooks tell us," Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and study co-author, told reporters last week.

The approximate location of the Al Wusta archaeological site.

Image: Google maps

"The argument is that Homo sapiens got to The Levant and stayed there for long periods of time and never moved geographically anywhere else," Petraglia said, referring the first major movement north. "And our findings shows that to be a false proposition."

"Homo sapiens made it far wider geographically than just being in The Levant itself."

The discovery will likely encourage more archaeologists to journey into the hyper-arid Nefud desert, and beyond.

"I think this is a cool discovery and it definitely suggests that we need to explore the Arabian peninsula much more for fossil humans and their ancestors," John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of WisconsinMadison, who was not involved in the study, said via email.

But while this middle finger bone certainly improves our understanding of early human history, anthropologists point out that it doesn't radically overhaul our past. We knew humans were migrating in this general time period  we just don't fully understand how or where.

"It is evolutionary  but not revolutionary," Ellen Miller, a biological anthropologist at Wake Forest University who was not part of the study, said in an interview. "It doesn't make us rewrite history, but it is another piece in the puzzle."

Hippo bones helped fill in the story

A major reason why the archaeologists traveled to the remote Nefud desert is because scientists had previously found a rich collection of dried-up lakes and animal bones there  notably from large fauna like hippos. And where there are hippos, there is plentiful vegetation and water.

"Its wet enough that you would think it would have a carrying capacity for hominids," said Trenton Holliday, chair of the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University who played no part in the research.

The Al Wusta archeological site. The dried0up lake, shown by the whiter sediments, can be seen in the background.

Image: Michael Petraglia

Additionally, having animal bones gave the researchers a significantly more confident idea about the time humans were inhabiting this once humid, lake-filled woodland.

The archaeologists could date the actual bone, the animal bones nearby (such as a hippopotamus tooth), and the soil the bones were found in to date the fossil.

"The ages all agree," said Groucutt.

How do we know it's a finger bone from a modern human?

Identifying a single finger bone as belonging to a modern human is not always a simple task, according to Holliday.

However, that doesn't mean it's impossible to figure it out.

Although our evolutionary hominid cousins, like Neanderthals, have similar hands, biological anthropologists can pick out a Homo sapiens' bone with near absolute certainty. Scientists can directly compare a bone like this to the fossils of other hominids, and see a distinct difference.

For example, Holliday noted that earlier hominids tend to have broader middle finger bones than humans.

"It's a modern human," said Holliday, adding that he could tell that it was a modern human from images of the bone and reading the measurements.

The bone, though around 85,000 years old, is nearly indistinguishable from that of a human alive in 2018.

"If you stuck it into a burial today, nobody would blink," Holliday said.

The study's authors are confident it's a middle finger bone but, it should be noted, they do concede that it may belong to another similar finger, like the index finger.

Six different views of the middle finger bone, including from atop and below.

Image: Ian Cartwright

The research team spent over a year scrutinizing this particular bone. The now-famous bone traveled the globe, going to Australia for dating analysis and being sent to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom before landing at its current resting spot, in Germany. At Cambridge, researchers used a technique called tomography to peer inside the bone, which involves using a large X-ray machine to scan its internal structure.

"These studies very strongly demonstrated that this finger bone belongs to a member of our species," said Oxford's Groucutt.

That said, it's still just one fossil.

Why weren't more human bones found?

"It is odd that we found only one fossil," said Groucutt. "But it's very rare for things to fossilize," he said, noting that anything dead has to be buried quickly. And even if that occurs, a whole host of things have to go right for a bone to be naturally preserved.

"The rest of the body must have just weathered away," he said.

But there certainly may be other modern human fossils lying around. Generally, the Arabian Peninsula hasn't been studied too well compared to other regions in the world.

"Really, there are large chunks of the world that are unexplored," said Petraglia. Arabia has few active archaeological sites like Al Wusta, "but places like Europe are absolutely crowded with dozens of teams that have been working for decades," he said.

"We have huge biases in our knowledge about what's going on in certain parts of the world," said Petraglia.

For this reason, today's highly-valued middle finger could very well be overshadowed by another, older bone, found somewhere else under the harsh Arabian sun. And with it, our understanding of early human history will again be altered.

"It's the earliest for now," said Holliday. "Until we find the next thing."
Paris (AFP) - Former French president Francois Hollande accuses his successor Emmanuel Macron of deepening inequality with his pro-business reforms, in the memoirs of his five years in power which go on sale Wednesday.

The 400-page book, "Lessons on Power", reflects on a tumultuous term in office marked by deadly jihadist attacks and policy u-turns, and throws numerous jabs at the 40-year-old centrist who replaced Hollande last year.

"My government reduced inequalities. This one is worsening them," writes the Socialist, who came into office in 2012.

Hollande also warned Macron in an interview Tuesday that he was bound to run into trouble with the breakneck pace of his reforms.

"My experience showed me that every time I was able to carry out a consultation and negotiate, I managed to get reforms through," Hollande told the Nouvel Obs newspaper.

"Every time I wanted to go too fast or too abruptly, I was misunderstood. Negotiation takes more time, but it produces more solid results."

His intervention comes as Macron faces three months of rolling train strikes in protest at his planned overhaul of state rail operator SNCF, while students are barricading numerous university faculties in anger at his education reforms.

- Betrayal -

"Every presidency is made up of continuities and breaks with the past. He prefers the latter," said Hollande.

Hollande said the biggest such break from his own policies came in the form of Macron's strategy of slashing wealth taxes to boost investment, which the government says is balanced with tax cuts for lower earners.

He further warned Macron of showing too much confidence, especially in foreign affairs where the young incumbent has sought to carve out an active role.

"Every president thinks his intelligence means he will be able to play with the forces that are at work," Hollande said.

"Talking to Vladimir Putin is necessary. But even the most subtle diplomacy quickly finds its limits, when it is not matched by a balance of powers."

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Hollande left power as the most unpopular president in French history, but opinion polls have repeatedly shown Macron plumbing even lower depths at the same point in his term.

Macron's approval rate currently sits at 55 percent, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll released Tuesday.

Hollande defended his record, which he said included "a cleaner, reinvigorated economy".

"I left Emmanuel Macron a France in a better situation than I found it in," he said.

In the book, he hints at a sense of betrayal after Macron -- his economy minister -- quit to form his own centrist movement.

"I have always allowed for political competition, but I think it must be done in the open and be honest," Hollande said.

"Let's just say that was not the case."
By John Irish and Marine Pennetier PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer. Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back arms support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are leading the coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to ease the crisis. Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a YouGov poll found. Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales. "Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, France has adopted a very specific process whereby all sales of military equipment are analyzed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations," Macron said at a news conference alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. France is the world's third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers. Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defense and economy ministries. Details of licenses are not public and, once approved, are rarely reviewed. Stressing concerns over the humanitarian situation, Macron said he would host a conference in the coming months to see what more could be done, although he backed the Saudi-led coalition's actions in Yemen. "France's position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and strong humanitarian demands on civilian populations," Macron said. A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed in France, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said. When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said his country was working to modernize its rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties, but said that in "military operations throughout history, whatever the country, there were mistakes." (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Michel Rose and Mark Potter)
Paris (AFP) - The Congolese government skirted requirements of the International Monetary Fund in 2003 through a financial fiddle created by French oil giant Total, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.

Total denied the report, saying in a statement that it "did not help the Republic of Congo escape the oversight of its international creditors."

Le Monde based its report on a deep dive into the trove of confidential documents published in 2016 and 2017 by the whistle-blowing International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that have become known as the "Panama Papers" and "Paradise Papers".

It said Total developed an "impenetrable offshore scheme" that enabled Congo in 2003 to sell an oil concession to Congolese firm Likouala, which Le Monde called a "front" for the Congolese government.

The arrangement allowed Brazzaville to spend cash at a time when the heavily indebted country was barred from going further into debt with oil projects, Le Monde said.

Likouala, created in September 2003, was "an empty shell without expenditures or revenues, without staff or a bank account in its name" and managed by Total, the report said.

The company, which ceased to exist in 2011, was owned by a "front company" called Montrow International Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, Le Monde said.

To buy the oil concession, Likouala borrowed $70 million (roughly 60 million euros at the exchange rate in late 2003) from French banking giant BNP Paribas.

Contacted by AFP, BNP Paribas said banking regulations prevented it from discussing the matter.

Total, for its part, said: "The Republic of Congo decided to monetise its interests in the Likouala field by ceding them to the Likouala SA company and asked Total for help setting up this transaction with the most reputable financial establishments."

Its statement added: "The IMF was kept informed of the operation by the authorities of the Republic of Congo, notably with a letter dated November 17 that attests to it."

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The online statement included a link to the letter, posted on the IMF website.

Total ceded the oilfield to Congo in 2003 under an accord aimed at normalising strained ties.

Congo's public debt represents 117 percent of its GDP, the IMF said last year.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Three Turkish nationals detained in Gabon over links to the Fethullah Gulen movement that Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup have been brought to Turkey, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, Erdogan vowed to continue to seek supporters of the U.S.-based cleric "no matter where they run." "Gabon has returned three important Gulenists to our country. No matter where they run or how much they run, we will go after them," he said. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, citing security sources, said the three suspects had been captured in an operation carried out by Turkish intelligence. It said the three were brought back to Turkey and handed over to authorities for questioning. The suspects, identified as Osman Ozpinar, Ibrahim Akbas and Adnan Demironal, were involved in the administration of schools run by Gulen's network, Anadolu said, adding that they were also users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the government says is used by the cleric's supporters. It said the three were detained by authorities in Gabon on March 23 and also faced charges of membership in an armed terrorist organization. Ankara blames Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, for orchestrating a failed coup in 2016 and has carried out a widespread crackdown on alleged supporters of the cleric's network. Gulen denies any involvement. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, the government's spokesman, said last week 80 people suspected of links to Gulen's network had been brought back to Turkey from 80 different countries. Last month, Kosovo authorities arrested six Turkish nationals linked to schools financed by Gulen's movement and extradited them to Turkey, prompting Kosovo's prime minister to dismiss his interior minister and secret service chief. Kosovo's parliament also voted to investigate the arrests. "We've gotten six Gulenists from Kosovo and three from Gabon. Let's see where the next ones come from," Erdogan said. Since the abortive putsch in July 2016, nearly 160,000 people have been detained and a similar number of civil servants sacked from their jobs, a United Nations report found last month. Ankara says the measures are necessary given the extent of the security threats it faces, including from Gulen's network, which it considers a terrorist group. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by David Dolan)
BERLIN (Reuters) - A debate over whether to ban Muslim girls under 14 from wearing headscarves in public, prompted by a similar proposal in Austria, has divided Germany's governing conservatives. Chancellor Angela Merkel, already struggling to paper over cracks in her month-old coalition cabinet, is unlikely to welcome a call for action from members of her own camp that exposes the country's uneasy attempts to integrate its 4 million Muslims. That process has taken on added complexity following the influx of over one million mostly Middle Eastern and North African migrants in 2015 and 2016, and sharp election gains for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Germany's parliament already passed a law last year preventing civil servants, judges and soldiers from wearing full-face veils at work. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a member of the Bavarian CSU conservative party, and Farm Minister Julia Kloeckner, from Merkel's more moderate Christian Democrats (CDU), said they now backed a headscarf ban for schoolgirls. Kloeckner argued it was needed to prevent children from growing up with "crude gender stereotypes". But other conservatives, including integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz, on Tuesday said such a ban would create constitutional problems and challenge parental rights. Seehofer, whose Bavarian CSU bled support to the AfD in the September national election, aims to woo back those voters before a regional Bavarian ballot in October, in part by taking a more hardline stance on security and immigration. He drew a firm rebuke from Merkel last month after saying Islam did not belong to Germany. Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Merkel's squabbling coalition, generally oppose a ban on headscarves. Ibrahim Yetim, the party's expert on integration, called it "half-baked" in comments to the German Catholic News Agency on Monday. Austria, where conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has forged a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), announced plans for a headscarf ban in primary schools and kindergartens on April 4 to combat what the government sees as a threat to Austrian mainstream culture. (Reporting by Charley-Kai John; Editing by Andrea Shalal and John Stonestreet)
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs (GS) is making a big push for Main Street to open savings accounts with them by toutings its significantly higher annual percentage yield.

On Wednesday, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the 149-year-old firms young online consumer lending and savings arm, is rolling out its first traditional advertising campaign for U.S. deposits.

The video ads depict typical bank savings accounts as storage facilities that dont generate meaningful returns for customers. The genesis of the idea came from a recent survey conducted by Marcus of more than 1,000 Americans that found that approximately 74% of respondents said it would be accurate to describe their bank as a place that stores their money, while only 22% said their bank is a place that makes them money.

Marcus By Goldman Sachs offers a 1.6% annual percentage yield for their savings accounts, which have no fee and no minimum balance. At 1.6%, the Goldman APY is considerably higher than the current national average of 0.07%. Its also higher than other large consumer banks where most households keep their money.

Marcus: By Goldman Sachs offers a significantly higher APY compared to other large banks.

Marcus rate is also higher than other online deposit competitors. Synchrony High Yield Savings, CIT Bank Premier High Yield Savings, and Barclays Online Savings offer a 1.55% rate, while Discover Bank and Barclays Online Savings offer a 1.5% APY, according to the latest data from NerdWallet.

In its survey, Marcus learned that 56% of Americans opened a savings account without looking at other options. Whats more, approximately 60% of those surveyed were unaware of their APY on their savings account, and 52% didnt know how much they made off interest in the last year.

One of the reasons Marcus can offer better rates is it doesnt have the major expenses associated with operating a consumer banking business, which includes brick-and-mortar bank branches and ATMs.

The consumer banking business is still relatively new for Goldman. Traditionally, Goldmans clients have included corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals. During the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman was required to convert from a broker-dealer to a bank holding company to gain access to the Federal Reserves discount window, a source of liquidity. In that time, there were internal discussions on how to grow the consumer side of the business. In 2016, the bank made the first move in that direction when Goldmans GS Bank acquired GE Capitals online deposit platform.

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During that time, Goldman also built out its online lending platform Marcus by Goldman Sachs as part of that effort. Marcus, which gives out personal loans up to $40,000 for credit-worthy borrowers, recently surpassed the $2 billion milestone for loans.

In December, the U.S. deposits integrated into the Marcus brand. Across lending and deposits, Marcus is now serving 500,000 customers. Marcus has about $20 billion in deposits and has given out $2.3 billion in loans as of December.

Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned Tuesday that there would be dire consequences for President Donald Trump if he decided to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

I think it would be suicide for the president to fire [Mueller], Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during an interview with CNN.

I think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be, he continued. I think that Mueller is a person of stature and respected, and I respect him. Just let the thing go forward.

"I think it would be suicide for the President to fire" special counsel Robert Mueller, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley says. "I think the less the President says about the whole thing, the better off he will be" https://t.co/dzzMXztSJf  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 10, 2018

Trump hinted Monday that hes considering axing Mueller as head of a federal probe into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election, hours after the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, Trumps personal lawyer.

Cohens lawyer told The New York Times that a search warrant had been issued after a referral from Mueller, but wasnt directly related to his investigation.

When asked by a reporter Monday why he doesnt fire Mueller, Trump danced around the question, stating that he would see what happens.

I think its a disgrace whats going on, Trump told reporters. Well see what happens, but I think its really a sad situation ... Many people have said you should fire him.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including Grassley, have repeatedly defended Muellers integrity and leadership in the Russia probe. At least four bills have been introduced in Congress that would prevent Trump from firing Mueller, but none of them has yet been taken up.

Its pretty clear to me everyone in the White House knows itd be the end of President Trumps presidency if he tried to fire Mr. Mueller, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who introduced one such bill last year, told ABC News in January.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday that he did not feel it was yet necessary to pass legislation protecting Mueller.

Its still my view that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job, McConnell said. I havent seen clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed. I dont think thats going to happen.

Jennifer Bendery contributed reporting.

This article has been updated with McConnells comments.

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Nairobi (AFP) - It was a handshake that drew a line under Kenya's bruising election, left many people bewildered and swung open the starting gate for the 2022 presidential race.

After months of insults during a deadly and divisive election, the two heirs of Kenya's most powerful political dynasties, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival Raila Odinga stood side by side, shook hands and pledged reconciliation.

Even in a country used to the political game of thrones, where betrayals are commonplace and bitter rivals forge alliances almost overnight, the gesture on March 9 stunned the nation.

"This is clearly Odinga's attempt to move on. Obviously Kenyatta would favour that as well," said Nic Cheeseman, a professor at Birmingham University in central England, of the mystery-shrouded rapprochement.

Kenya's presidential election in August plunged the country into turmoil, after Kenyatta's victory was annulled by the Supreme Court, citing flaws in the process, which ordered a re-run.

Kenyatta, 56, subsequently won an October re-run after Odinga, 73, boycotted the election which he said would not be free and fair.

Protests and political violence left at least 92 dead during the election period, mostly at the hands of police, according to rights groups.

The handshake, which came after Odinga held a mock swearing-in ceremony in January, has brought an end to the vitriolic attacks between the rivals.

But it has also shaken politicians, whose eyes are already fixed on the next presidential race, due in 2022.

The National Super Alliance (NASA), a powerful coalition of opposition rivals which formed ahead of the 2017 poll, has been thrown into disarray by Odinga's decision. His fellow leaders said it took place without consultation with them.

- Raila's risk -

However several questions loom over the deal struck between Odinga and Kenyatta.

No concrete details have been released about its goals -- in particular, whether the president agreed to any substantial reforms of the election process, civil society or halting attacks on the judiciary.

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"It's really only a Christmas present with nice paper and a ribbon, but we don't know what is inside," said Tom Wolf, chief analyst at the Ipsos polling institute.

"By throwing away all his hostility towards Uhuru and the Jubilee (ruling party) government, by shaking hands, Raila is taking a risk as to whether his followers, whether (ethnic) Luo or others, will go along with it."

Media speculation has been rife about possible benefits Odinga has secured for himself.

"If he is seen to have made a deal that helps him personally but doesn't do anything for the country, I think that will affect his legacy," said Cheeseman.

With the 2017 electoral saga behind Kenya, the unexpected reconciliation has seen headlines turn to the 2022 election, and politicians setting themselves up for the next battle -- including some of Odinga's NASA allies who are now vowing to go it alone.

While the 2017 poll was widely seen as Odinga's last, analysts say nothing can be ruled out.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all to have (Odinga's) name being discussed as a possible coalition partner for people come the next election," said Cheeseman.

- Opposition instability -

He said the opposition is now facing a period of great instability.

"People complain in the opposition about Raila... they say he doesn't have any ideas, he doesn't have the stamina. But the biggest challenge for the opposition is going to come when they replace Raila."

Cheeseman said that the veteran opposition leader had an ability to appeal to Kenyans across some ethnic lines -- in a country where community and politics are inseparable -- in a way that no other opposition politician has proven to do.

"The real risk for the opposition is that in the absence of Raila, these leaders go back to their own ethnic groups, they become smaller, they become more parochial, they become harder to build into an effective national alliance," he said.

A key player in the race for 2022 is vice president William Ruto, an ethnic Kalenjin who allied with Kenyatta -- a Kikuyu -- in 2013 despite historically tense relations between their communities.

In exchange for his community's support of Kenyatta, Ruto has been promised the Kikuyu will support him come 2022, a vow easily broken in Kenya's fickle political landscape.

Cheeseman said that while Kenyatta will be "quite careful not to betray Ruto", he might not be able to marshall his supporters to back the vice-president, which could see further political gymnastics in the coming years.

"Maybe we'll actually see Ruto on the opposition side. If the ruling party doesn't come through with a good deal for him to succeed Kenyatta, he's actually gonna be the opposition candidate."
A Holocaust survivor says the rise of the American far right under President Donald Trump feels like 1929 or 1930 Berlin as Nazis thrived, and things just go from bad to worse every day, according to a Newsweek story.

Stephen B. Jacobs, a New York-based architect who designed the Holocaust memorial in Buchenwald, Germany, spoke to the publication ahead of Thursdays Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Polish-born Jacobs, 79, has lived in America since a few years after being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945.

Though Jacobs was not yet alive in 1929 or 1930, the Nazi Partys second largest base of support at that time was in Berlin, after Munich. The partys Berlin branch was headed by Joseph Goebbels, who later served as minister of propaganda under Adolph Hitler and frequently referred to Jewish people as negative aspects who needed to be eradicated.

On the growth of the far-right movement and white nationalism in America, Jacobs said, Theres a real problem growing.

Things that couldnt be said five years ago, four years ago, three years ago  couldnt be said in public  are now normal discourse, he said. Its totally unacceptable.

(Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jacobs terms Trump an enabler of far-right rhetoric, citing his first-hand knowledge of the president.

Im involved with New York real estate, I know this man personally, he said. Trump is an enabler. Trump has no ideas. Trump is out for himself. Hes a sick, very disturbed individual.

(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images)

The septuagenarian also said he couldnt quite call Trump a fascist because youve got to know what fascism is and he doesnt believe the president has the mental power to even understand it.

We thought our country had changed. In fact, it didnt. We were operating on a misconception, Jacobs said.

People thought, My god, we elected a black president in the United States! Look how far weve come! We havent.

This story has been updated with context about Berlin, circa 1929-30.

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Persons walk through the holocaust memorial in Berlin, on a sunny but cold Monday March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa, Markus Heine)

Relatives of Holocaust victims lay flowers next to the names of concentration camps during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Photo shows the house where Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam and where she hid with her parents to escape from Nazis between June 1942 and August 4, 1944. (DESK/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman crouches next to candles lit to commemorate victims among cast iron shoes, a memorial of Holocaust victims on the bank of River Danube, in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Noemi Bruzak)

Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, visits the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili lays a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, June, 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

In this picture amde available Wednesday April 17, 2013 a man touches his forehead in front of the Victims' Memorial Wall during a ceremony in the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Tamas Kovacs)

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., center, and Holocaust survivors Inge Berg Katzenstein, right, and her husband, Werner Katzenstein, left, light a memorial candle during a Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama visits the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin on June 19, 2013. (JOERG CARSTENSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reflects for a moment after placing a wreath from the United States at the Yad Vashem memorial during Holocaust Remembrance Day in Jerusalem, Israel Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Richards, Pool)

A person climbs on a Holocaust memorial statue in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

In this picture made available Wednesday April 17, 2013, a woman lights a candle to commemorate victims among cast iron shoes, a memorial of Holocaust victims on the bank of River Danube, in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Noemi Bruzak)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel lights a candle as he toured the Hall of Remembrance at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, with President Barack Obama, Monday, April 23, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Budapest (AFP) - Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday that his resounding election win, challenged by the opposition, hows that voters want to stop US billionaire philanthropist George Soros interfering in the country.

However the largest opposition party has demanded that the National Elections Office investigate alleged irregularities in the conduct of Sunday's poll.

At a news conference with international media two days after cruising to his third straight term, Orban said his government had already drawn up a "Stop Soros" package of legislation.

"The reason we submitted this package before the elections is in order to allow the Hungarian voters to cast their vote knowing our intention on this," said Orban.

"This has happened and we believe we are mandated by this election to pass this law."

The election saw Orban's Fidesz party sweep the board with almost half the vote, giving it a two-thirds majority in parliament and a legislative free rein.

One of his main campaign promises was to stop the "globalist elite" led by Soros and Brussels undermining Europe's security and Christian culture through mass Muslim immigration.

Images of the Hungarian-born Soros, 87, were plastered on billboards and Orban depicted opposition figures running in the election as "Soros candidates".

Critics said these tactics recalled dark anti-Semitic propaganda of the past with Orban's talk of an "enemy" that is "not national but international" and "speculates with money".

Civil society groups funded by Soros, who donates extensively in the land of his birth, have long faced bothersome regulations, harassment from local authorities and online abuse and threats.

But the "Stop Soros" package promises to go much further, aping similar laws in Russia, slapping taxes on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations that "support" illegal immigration.

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Foreigners deemed to support asylum seekers could be stopped from entering Hungary, NGOs staff face being barred from approaching border areas and organisations will undergo "security tests".

Beyond the Soros legislation, Orban was vague on his political agenda.

"We won't be simply continuing the previous government but creating a new one. Significant changes can be expected," he said, without elaborating.

- Opposition daily closes -

Orban also dismissed with sarcasm sharp criticism about the election campaign by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"Thank you for your contribution, for giving a political opinion on the Hungarian election," he told the news conference.

The OSCE had said that "xenophobic rhetoric" and "media bias" in the campaign impaired voters' ability to make a "fully informed choice".

The public broadcaster's output "clearly favoured the ruling coalition", it said.

Also on Tuesday, the largest opposition party Jobbik asked election authorities to probe "systematic faults that lead to the suspicion of fraud", including what it called "questionable" turnout data, "creative accounting" of opposition votes and outages in the election software.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, head of the centre-left Democratic Coalition (DK) party, also said his party does not accept the election results.

Meanwhile one of Hungary's few remaining opposition daily newspapers, Magyar Nemzet, said Tuesday that its Wednesday edition will be its last, after 80 years in print, due to "financial reasons".

Magyar Nemzet is owned by Lajos Simicska, an oligarch and former treasurer of Fidesz.

Simicska fell out spectacularly with Orban in 2015 after which the paper adopted an anti-government stance.

In the run-up to the election it published a series of embarrassing scandals involving senior government officials.

A radio station Simicska owns will also stop broadcasting from Wednesday.

The number of independent media outlets has dwindled in recent years as business interests close to Orban have bought up TV stations and national and regional newspapers.

The country's leading opposition newspaper, Nepszabadsag, was closed suddenly in 2016.

Asked on Tuesday about the closure of Magyar Nemzet, Orban said: "Neither I nor the government gets involved in business issues."

- Juncker incoming -

Brussels has launched a barrage of legal action against Hungary over its crackdown on civil society groups and its refusal to take in migrants under an EU scheme.

Orban's victory was warmly welcomed by other EU-critical parties portraying themselves as anti-establishment that have made electoral advances.

Moderates offered more business-like congratulations, with Germany and France calling for cooperation and dialogue based on common EU values.

Orban said on Tuesday that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had phoned him to wish him well.

"I spoke to Jean-Claude Juncker who called an hour earlier. He congratulated me. I invited him for a quick visit to Hungary which will take place within the next two weeks."
The Hague (AFP) - The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has asked judges to rule whether she can open a probe into the mass deportations of the Rohingya people from Myanmar.

Hundreds of thousands of the stateless Muslim minority have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in recent months to escape a bloody military crackdown.

The violence has left a trail of torched villages in its wake, amid allegations of murder and rape at the hands of troops and vigilantes.

In an unprecedented move late Monday, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda contended that "consistent and credible reports ... indicate that since August 2017 more than 670,000 Rohingya, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh."

She asked judges to rule "whether the court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation".

Opening a preliminary probe into the Rohingya's plight is legally complicated for the tribunal as Myanmar is not a member of the ICC. Bangladesh is, however.

"This is not an abstract question, but a concrete one," Bensouda said in her filing to judges late Monday.

Set up in 2002 in The Hague, the ICC is the world's only permanent war crimes court and acts to prosecute the worst abuses including genocide in places where national tribunals are unwilling or unable to act.

Bensouda argued her office did have authority to investigate the situation, saying such a move "would be consistent with the legal framework" of the Rome Statute, which underpins the court's work as well as "well-established principles of criminal jurisdiction".

She likened deportation to "a cross-border shooting", arguing the crime "is not completed until the bullet (fired in one state) strikes and kills the victim (standing in another state)".

Bensouda asked the tribunal to set up a special chamber to examine and rule on her request, urging that it be dealt with in an "expeditious" manner.

The Myanmar army in the mainly Buddhist nation has denied any allegations, saying its campaign has been a legitimate response to Rohingya militant attacks on August 25 last year that killed about a dozen border guard police.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal in November but not one refugee has returned so far.
Indonesia's Lion Air is buying 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 airplanes in a deal valued at about $6.2 billion, the firms said Tuesday, as the carrier looks to cash in on a transport boom in the Southeast Asian nation.

The new single-aisle plane is the latest incarnation of Boeing's 737 MAX series, which can accommodate between 130 and 230 passengers and fly up to 3,850 nautical miles (7,130 kilometres), the companies said in a statement.

The order -- the largest to date for the MAX 10 -- was valued at $6.24 billion, although multi-plane deals tend to end up costing carriers less than list prices.

The firms said the newest plane, which is to be delivered from 2020, "will be the most fuel-efficient and profitable single-aisle jet in the aviation industry".

"We signed this deal because we're anticipating a growing numbers of passengers in the coming years and so we can increase the amount of our national and international flights," Lion's president director Edward Sirait told AFP.

The low-cost carrier, which started less than 20 years ago with just one plane, stunned the sector in 2013 when it announced two of the world's largest aircraft orders in a monster $46 billion deal.

At the time, Lion agreed to buy 234 medium-haul A320 jets worth some $23.8 billion from European aerospace giant Airbus, after a $22.4 billion deal for 230 Boeing planes.

Currently, the airline flies to nearly 80 mostly domestic destinations with international routes including Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Saudi Arabia.

Founded in 1999 by brothers Kusnan and Rusdi Kirana, Lion Air is the first private low-cost airline in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation that has struggled with a spotty air safety record.

Some carriers, including Lion and national carrier Garuda, have on occasion been placed on travel blacklists over their lax safety standards.

With some 260 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation with more than 17,000 islands and is home to Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

The country has a burgeoning middle class which is keen to abandon travel by bus, ferry and train and instead take to the skies for holidays and family visits
The FTSE index recently upgraded its classification of Saudi Arabia's market, enhancing its profile among international investors.

It gives markets a backdoor to play the country's reform story, even if there's no international listing for oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco.

Until recently, Saudi Arabia tantalized investors with a plan to float its mammoth oil and gas company's initial public offering on an international exchange  then left them deflated after it shelved the idea.

For now, Saudi Aramco will only be listed on the Tadawul, the country's domestic exchange. However, global investors have taken heart from a little noticed change from the FTSE global equity index series, a major market benchmark that in March classified Saudi Arabia's stock exchange as a "secondary emerging" market .

The FTSE's move  which officially makes Saudi Arabia's domestic market a benchmark available to global investors  coincided with an international charm offensive launched by the kingdom's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman . It also marked a significant milestone on the prince's quest to diversify Saudi Arabia's oil-reliant economy and gives investors a backdoor to park cash in the country.

"The FTSE inclusion means that Saudi has technically met the standards required for [emerging market] investors from a trading and operational perspective," said Asha Mehta, portfolio manager and head of emerging and frontier market strategy with Acadian Asset Management.

"This is a major development, given that Saudi's equity market was closed to foreign investors just a few years ago," Mehta said, adding that "the country's weight could be sizable potentially as large as Mexico or Russia."

Ahead of the Aramco floatation, the inclusion of Saudi Arabia in emerging market indexes was a development eagerly awaited by market watchers.

Given historical limits to accessing the market, the country has not been included in major benchmarks prior to the FTSE classification, so the move could represent a watershed for both Saudi Arabia and investors hungry for yield.

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"The FTSE upgrade is important and a key reflection of the improvements in the financial plumbing that Saudi Arabia has made in recent years, but the next step to attracting equity inflows is to prove the macro story and issuance," said Rachel Ziemba, an emerging market analyst and adjunct fellow at the Center for New American Security.

"Reducing restrictions to purchase is important, but so is the macro story: growth, liquidity, and future profits, as are the flows," she added.

MSCI, another closely watched developing market index, may also weigh changes to its composition in the coming months, analysts say. Should Saudi Arabia be included, it would represent another sign of international confidence in a market traditionally reserved for domestic capital.

Tadawul remains the only entity authorized in Saudi Arabia to act as the kingdom's securities exchange to list on and trade in securities. With a market capitalization $466 billion, Tadawul ranks 25th out of 68 of the largest members of the World Federation of Exchanges.

The potential of an Aramco float looms large, with Saudi Arabia set to grab 75 percent of the value traded, making it the most dominant market across the Gulf region.

Mideast observers are fairly certain an Aramco IPO will happen, but a delay could work in Saudi Arabia's favor, they say. With oil now ticking higher, it presents an opportunity for the country to balance its budget and help the kingdom push for a higher valuation for Aramco.

Still, for several reasons, some argue that Saudi Arabia has a long way to go to become a top destination for investor capital.

"While inclusion in the FTSE and MSCI indices would be positive for investor sentiment, we caution that [Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority] would need to consolidate these confidence gains to attract regional IPOs," said Raphaele Auberty, a country risk analyst with London-based BMI research.

While an international listing for Aramco hasn't been entirely ruled out, market watchers have their doubts. One of the biggest questions that had always swirled around a potential foreign listing was how compliant Saudi officials  and by extension Aramco  would be about Western standards of governance and disclosure.

"Since an IPO would also mean that Saudi Aramco would have to reveal a good deal of proprietary information about its operations and maintain transparency standards, there will be natural resistance to an IPO unless it is absolutely necessary," said Indranil Ghosh, CEO of Tiger Hill Capital.

"In order to list Saudi Aramco, the government will need to disclose  strategic information. Reluctance to do so could threaten the IPO," Auberty added, noting additional pressure from insufficient domestic liquidity and competition from other established regional exchanges like Dubai's.





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Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's defence minister on Tuesday accused a Palestinian journalist killed by the army during protests along the Gaza border of having been a member of the military wing of Islamist group Hamas.

The claim was immediately rejected by one of Yasser Murtaja's colleagues, who called the statement "ridiculous."

Separately the US State Department said Murtaja's company Ain Media had recently been granted USAID funding, though no technical assistance or equipment had yet been given.

Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists Murtaja was a "terrorist with a prior association with the military arm of Hamas," claiming he held a "rank similar to captain."

He said the journalist had been paid by Hamas since 2011 and had used a drone to collect information on Israeli forces along the border.

He did not produce evidence for the claims and did not say whether Murtaja had flown a drone during Friday's clashes, when he was shot.

Murtaja was wearing a press vest when he was hit a few hundred metres from the border during the protests, witnesses said.

The army has not said if he was deliberately targeted or hit by accident.

Murtaja was well known in the Gaza media scene.

With Ain Media he worked on documentaries published on Al Jazeera and with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Rushdi Al-Serraj, director at Ain Media and co-founder with Murtaja, said Lieberman's statements were "ridiculous comments that are not worth responding to."

"Yasser has been working for years in the press and making films for the United Nations, China and others," he told AFP.

"They killed a journalist and should confess it is a crime."

In a statement Hamas said they had video evidence that proved Murtaja was wearing a press vest and using a video camera, not a drone, when he was killed.

The statement did not respond to Lieberman's other allegations regarding Hamas links.

Murtaja's funeral was attended by Hamas's leader Ismail Haniya.

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He regularly attends funerals of those killed in conflict with Israel, even if they are not members of the movement.

Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians since March 30 in protests and clashes along the border with Gaza, which has been blockaded for a decade.

Israel has rejected calls from the European Union, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and other for an independent investigation into the deaths.

The army says its troops only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltrations, bids to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008 and says the blockade of Gaza is necessary to isolate the Islamist movement.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Two Israeli right-wing ministers on Tuesday defended soldiers after a video appearing to show them shoot a Palestinian and rejoice in it spread widely on social media and news sites.

The shooting appears to take place along the Gaza Strip border with Israel, with one of the voices in the video declaring in Hebrew: "Wow. What a video! Yes! That son of a bitch."

The Palestinian seems to be near the fence dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel, but does not appear to pose an immediate threat.

Israel's military said the incident "apparently" took place several months ago and that it was investigating.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan downplayed the actions of the presumed soldier and others in the video that began to spread widely on Monday night.

"We are going overboard with this video," said Erdan, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

"It doesn't show gunfire at everyone, but at a terrorist who approaches the barrier in an unauthorised zone coming from an area controlled by Hamas terrorists," he told public radio.

"I am convinced that everything is OK," he added, while also speaking of a "human reaction" by the soldiers confronted with a "tense situation."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party also justified the behaviour depicted in the video.

"Judging soldiers because they are not expressing themselves elegantly while they are defending our borders is not serious," Bennett told army radio.

It was not possible to determine whether the person shot in the video died. Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported that the video was recorded in December.

The video comes after mass protests along the Gaza border beginning on March 30 that have led to clashes in which Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others.

There have been no Israeli casualties.

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Israel has faced mounting criticism over its use of live fire, while the European Union and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for an independent investigation.

Israel says its forces only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltrations, attempts to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

It accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and with whom it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's military on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a widely shared video showing a soldier shoot a Palestinian on the Gaza border followed by rejoicing, actions that have added to scrutiny of the army's use of live fire.

The video comes at a highly sensitive time for Israel's military, which has faced mounting criticism over its use of live fire on the Gaza Strip border, where 31 Palestinians have been killed since late March as mass protests have led to clashes.

But the army alleged that the December 22 shooting in the video it said left the Palestinian with a leg wound followed rioting and warnings from troops.

Palestinians said it was proof that Gazans were being shot along the border fence while posing no threat to soldiers.

Israeli right-wing ministers meanwhile defended the actions of the soldiers in the video, which began to spread widely on Monday night.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the sniper deserved a medal -- but that the soldier who filmed it should be demoted.

The army said in a statement that "the video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours."

It alleged the warnings including firing into the air were ignored.

"A single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organising and leading this incident while he was a few metres from the fence," it said.

It said the video was recorded by a soldier not part of the unit that fired the shot and that action would be taken against him.

"As for the unauthorised filming of an operational event, the distribution of the filmed material and the statements made there, it should be noted that these do not suit the degree of restraint expected of (Israeli) soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly," it said.

- 'Time for world to see' -

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said the video showed what Palestinians have long alleged regarding soldiers' actions on the Gaza border, "but nobody has been listening".

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"The issue of sniper fire is not something new at all, but it is time for the world to see and to believe what we have been saying all along," Ashrawi told AFP.

In the video, voices can be heard discussing opening fire on Palestinians on the other side of the fence dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel.

A shooter then opens fire on one, knocking the person to the ground.

"Wow. What a video! Yes! That son of a bitch," one of the voices behind the camera says in Hebrew.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan downplayed the actions.

"We are going overboard with this video," said Erdan, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

"It doesn't show gunfire at everyone, but at a terrorist who approaches the barrier in an unauthorised zone coming from an area controlled by Hamas terrorists," he told public radio.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party also justified the soldiers' actions.

"Judging soldiers because they are not expressing themselves elegantly while they are defending our borders is not serious," Bennett told army radio.

Mass protests along the Gaza border beginning on March 30 have led to clashes in which Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others.

There have been no Israeli casualties.

Israel has faced criticism over its use of live fire, while the European Union and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for an independent investigation.

Israel says its forces only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltrations, bids to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

It accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and with whom it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers.

- Manslaughter case -

For Israelis and Palestinians, the video was a reminder of another one from March 2016 that showed an Israeli soldier shooting dead a prone Palestinian assailant.

It showed the 21-year-old Palestinian lying wounded on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian after stabbing and wounding a soldier, according to the army.

Some 11 minutes after the initial shooting, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria shot him in the head without any apparent provocation.

Azaria was convicted of manslaughter after a trial that highlighted deep Israeli divisions between those who denounce the shooting and others who say it was justified.

Top military brass strongly denounced Azaria's actions, but right-wing politicians, including Netanyahu, called for him to be pardoned.

Azaria was initially sentenced to 18 months in prison, but his sentence was later reduced to nine months.

Related Video: Israel Shoots and Kills Journalist at the Border

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel pledged disciplinary action on Tuesday over a soldier's leaked video showing an army sniper targeting a Palestinian across the Gaza border fence to profane praise from an onlooker, but deemed the shooting itself to have been exemplary. The 81-second clip surfaced on social media on Monday and led Israeli TV news, with one host calling it "disturbing". Its release followed a surge in Palestinian protests at the Gaza border in which 30 demonstrators have been killed by the army. In a statement summarizing a preliminary investigation, the military spokesman said the incident took place took place on Dec. 22, amid Palestinian unrest at U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The Palestinian who was shot was suspected of organizing a "riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours," the statement said. The sniper fired at him once, wounding him in the leg, after warnings shots and orders to disperse went unheeded, it said, adding that the video was taken by a soldier from another unit. "As for the unauthorized filming of an operational event, the distribution of the filmed material and the statements made there, it should be noted that these do not suit the degree of restraint expected of IDF (Israel Defence Force) soldiers and will be dealt with by commanders accordingly," the statement said. It was not clear how many soldiers might face disciplinary action, nor how harsh it might be. In the video, a voice can be heard saying, "Yes! Son of a bitch!" as the Palestinian, who appears to be standing motionless near the fence, is shot. Remarking on the video on Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters: "The Gaza sniper deserves a decoration, and the photographer a demerit." The Israeli military has stationed sharpshooters to enforce a no-go zone near the border and stop Palestinian attempts to breach the fence during a protest that has been called The Great March of Return. The demonstrations are expected to escalate ahead of the planned opening of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, coinciding with Israel's 70th anniversary celebrations. The protesters are reviving a long-standing demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to towns and villages from which families fled, or were driven out, when the state of Israel was created in 1948. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Richard Balmforth)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Labour Party said on Tuesday it had suspended relations with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain's Labour party, accusing him of sanctioning anti-Semitism and showing hostility towards Israeli policies. Corbyn, who unexpectedly became party head in 2015, is a supporter of Palestinian rights and a critic of Israel. He has repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic comments in the party and among groups he supports. "It is my responsibility to acknowledge the hostility you have shown to the Jewish community and the anti-Semitic statements and actions you have allowed as leader of the Labour party UK," Israeli Labour Party leader Avi Gabbay wrote in a letter to Corbyn, distributed to the media. Last month, British Jewish groups held a street protest outside parliament, accusing Corbyn of failing to tackle anti-Semitism in party ranks because of a far-left world view hostile to Jews. Corbyn has said he recognizes that anti-Semitism has surfaced within his party. He has apologized for the pain this has caused and pledged to redouble his efforts to stamp it out. "Jeremy has pledged to be a militant opponent of anti-Semitism," a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. "He has repeatedly emphasized the central role of the Jewish community in the Labour Party and the importance of ensuring it is a supportive and welcoming environment for all communities." Gabbay had said in his letter that Israel was reminded of the horrors of anti-Semitism in Europe as it approached Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day this week. "As such, I write to inform you of the temporary suspension of all formal relations between the Israel Labour party and the leader of the Labour Party UK," he said. Gabbay said Corbyn had shown "very public hatred" towards Israeli government policies, including those where the opposition and the ruling coalition are aligned. Israeli Labour is part of the "Zionist Union" faction in Israel's Knesset, which controls 24 of the legislature's 120 seats. (Writing by Ori Lewis; additional reporting by Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Larry King)
Approximately 66,000 children have been born via IVF in the UK - Science Photo Library RF

Scientists have warned against the risks of intensive IVF treatment as research suggests it increases the risk of heart disease in children.

The high stimulation method, where powerful drugs are used to stimulate egg production, is a commonly used practise in British fertility clinics.

But experts are now claiming there is growing evidence the treatment can result in offspring with higher blood pressure and thicker arteries than normal.

Those traits among babies raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes as adults.

The warnings will be presented this week at the International Society for Milder Approaches to Assisted Reproduction conference in London.

They are based on a study comparing 65 Swiss pre-school children who were born from fertility treatment to 57 who were conceived naturally.

It found that those in the former group tended to have generalised vascular dysfunction.

What if IVF doesnt work?

A second study analysing all UK births following fertility treatment showed slightly poorer health outcomes in offspring where more than 18 eggs were retrieved at once.

Dr Sherman Siber, an American IVF pioneer, told The Mail on Sunday: Hyper-stimulation is crazy because you end up getting a lot of poor-quality eggs.

The studies contribute to a growing body of evidence that harsh fertility regimes can be associated with poor health outcomes in children.

Approximately 66,000 Britons were conceived through IVF.
Tokyo (AFP) - Masazo Nonaka from Japan was recognised Tuesday as the world's oldest man at the ripe old age of 112, as his family revealed his secret: sweets and hot baths.

Nonaka, who was born on July 25, 1905 -- just months before Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity -- received a certificate from Guinness World Records at home on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

The supercentenarian lives with his family, which manages a hot springs inn.

"He needs a wheelchair to move but he is in good condition," said Yuko Nonaka, his granddaughter.

"He loves eating any kinds of sweets -- Japanese or western style," she told AFP.

"He reads newspapers everyday and often soaks in the hot springs."

He has seven brothers and one sister who live nearby in the town of Ashoro on Hokkaido.

He married Hatsuno in 1931 and the couple had five children, according to Guinness World Records.

Nonaka has officially taken the title after Francisco Nunez Olivera from Spain died in February aged 113, the organisation said.

Guinness World Records is currently investigating possible contenders for the title of oldest living person as no one has been recognised since Violet Brown from Jamaica died in July 2017, aged 117.

Japan, known for the longevity of its people, has been home to several oldest title holders, including Jiroemon Kimura, who died in June 2013 at the age of 116.

There are around 68,000 people aged 100 or older in the country, the government said last year.
(Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

WASHINGTON  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) says he has no regrets about his vote last year to confirm embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt.

The decision has been made. Its been good for West Virginia, as far as [he] helped my state, Manchin told HuffPost on Monday. I agree with some of his decisions. Weve had a good working relationship.

Still, Manchin said that his confirmation vote doesnt excuse anybody for not being accountable and held responsible for how they operate their office.

Manchin, who is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election this cycle, said he wanted to see the results of a White House investigation into Pruitts conduct before considering whether to join many others in his party and call for the EPA chief to step down.

While saying the question of whether Pruitt should step aside hasnt been brought to my attention, he added that I understand the White House is reviewing it now. So they should give us a report on it.

Manchin joined Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota as the only two Democratic senators voting for Pruitts confirmation, which passed on a 52-46 vote in February 2017.

Pruitt faces scrutiny over a number of potential ethical violations  including his use government-funded flights, unapproved raises for his top staff, and a $50-a-night sweetheart deal to rent a room in a luxury Capitol Hill townhouse linked to a fossil fuel industry lobbying firm.

A few Republican lawmakers have joined the chorus calling on Pruitt to resign. But most conservatives enthusiastically support the EPA administrator and view him as one of President Donald Trumps most effective cabinet members, citing his moves to roll a number of Obama administration environmental regulations.

Trump has defended his EPA head, tweeting last week that Pruitt was doing a great job.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has acknowledged the prospect of talks with the US, state media reported Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North but with no specific dates or venue set, there had been questions over Pyongyang's intention to participate.

On Monday, Kim discussed the "the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue" with party officials, the state KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym.

He delivered a report "on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula", including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has also agreed to meet Kim to discuss denuclearisation as soon as next month. The summit would be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.

But the North remained publicly silent for weeks after its leader's invitation to talks was first delivered to Trump by South Korean officials.

This fuelled concerns in Washington that Seoul had overstated the North's willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal, even as officials scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting.

Kim's remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a summit with Trump.

They follow media reports that North Korean officials have privately told their US counterparts Kim is ready to discuss denuclearisation.

Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in "May or early June".

"I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said.

- Diplomatic activity -

Story continues

At Pyongyang metro stations Tuesday, commuters crowded around newspaper stands displaying the pages of the Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the ruling Workers' Party, to read the news.

The paper filled its front page with KCNA's report, along with pictures of Kim chairing the politburo meeting.

Detailed coverage of Monday's meeting -- held two days before the annual session of North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament -- is unusual and could indicate Kim's desire to project an image of a functioning political system to the outside world, an analyst said.

"Kim Jong Un has been shifting from the military-dominated emergency system to a normal party-dominant system," said Professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies.

"North Korea is striving to improve ties with the South and the United States to end its status as a pariah country and establish itself as a normal state."

Pyongyang's frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of high tensions which saw the North carry out nuclear and missile tests, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.

Kim sent a high-profile delegation to the Winter Games in the South in February, before making his international debut last month with a visit to Beijing -- his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

The North's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after stopping in Beijing. He also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.

If the Kim-Trump summit does take place, many remain sceptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed.

It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings.

No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden reportedly under consideration to host the talks.

Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington's long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearisation -- a very high bar.

The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South.
By Allison Lampert and John Benny

MONTREAL/BENGALURU (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Monday said it was considering all its options on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, including a possible investment of public funds to ensure construction goes ahead, after Kinder Morgan Canada halted most work on the project and set a May 31 deadline to scrap the plan.

Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, when asked whether the federal government would invest in the C$7.4 billion ($5.8 billion) project, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "We are looking at all options -- thats on the table. Were not ruling anything out. We are doing an assessment of what might be necessary, working with the government of Alberta."

Carr's comments follow Alberta Premier Rachel Notley's pledge on Sunday that the oil-rich province was prepared to invest in the pipeline to ensure the project moves ahead.

Kinder Morgan Canada said on Sunday that it would scrap plans to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which extends from Alberta to British Columbia's coast, unless various legal and jurisdictional challenges could be resolved by May 31.

The project was approved by the federal government in 2016, but that approval is being challenged in court by First Nation groups and local municipalities, and British Columbia is eyeing whether it has jurisdiction to block increased oil shipments through its territory.

To go ahead, the company needs more certainty, said Kinder Morgan's Chief Executive Steve Kean in a conference call on Monday, which could mean "some kind of preemptive action" to make clear Canada's jurisdiction over the project.

If the project is ultimately canceled, then the company would evaluate any write-off in the second quarter, he added.

Shares of Kinder Morgan Canada, spun off by its U.S. parent to raise funds for the project a year ago, fell as much as 19 percent to their lowest since its listing. The shares pared some losses but still ended down 12.58 percent at C$16.12.

Story continues

The 1,147-kilometer (712 mile) pipeline is considered crucial to Canadian oil producers, who are desperate to access new overseas markets. Canada sends the majority of its energy products to the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, when asked by reporters on Monday in Montreal, reiterated that the pipeline would be built.

For a story on the Canada's options:

On Monday, Notley said she was still very hopeful a solution could be found, citing the risks of an imminent constitutional crisis.

CRUDE PRICES

Craig Wright, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada, said that not increasing pipeline capacity had the potential to knock C$10 billion ($7.9 billion) off wealth generation in Canada annually by adding to a sustained discount for the country's crude oil.

Canadian crude trades at a discount to the U.S. oil benchmark, with tight pipeline and rail capacity sending the Western Canadian Select differential sharply wider than normal earlier this year. It was trading at $16.25 on Monday, according to Shorcan Energy brokers.

The pipeline dispute spurred business lobby groups to ask the federal government to clear up the uncertainty.

"The Trans Mountain Expansion is in the national interest and if it fails to move forward, it will send a strong negative signal to investors at home and abroad that we, as a country, are not open for business," said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

(Additional reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Writing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Editing by Patrick Graham and Diane Craft)
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Canada <KML.TO> on Sunday suspended most work on a C$7.4 billion ($5.8 billion) oil pipeline expansion that has become the focus of protests, a move underscoring uncertainty over major energy projects in Canada.

Company Chairman Steve Kean said he would scrap plans to nearly triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which takes crude from Alberta's oil sands to a facility in the Pacific province of British Columbia, unless the various legal challenges could be resolved by May 31.

The announcement was a blow to the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which approved the project and says it is in the national interest.

The project - considered crucial for an oil industry hit by transportation bottlenecks - is fiercely opposed by British Columbia's left-leaning New Democratic government, many municipalities, some aboriginal groups, and environmental activists concerned about possible oil spills.

"We will be judicious in our use of shareholder funds. In keeping with that commitment, we have determined that in the current environment, we will not put KML shareholders at risk on the remaining project spend," Kean said in a statement.

The firm is currently carrying out preliminary work and has not started construction.

Many in the energy industry are concerned about whether any new pipelines can be built in Canada, which sits on the world's third largest proven reserves of crude and is the single largest exporter of energy to the United States.

Although the federal government has the power to approve major pipelines, the 10 provinces enjoy broad responsibility for resource development. That can result in deadlock when a province opposes a decision made by Ottawa.

"This is not good. I think the key point is it shows a lack of confidence in our political and regulatory system," said Tim Pickering, president of Auspice Capital in Calgary, Alberta.

Story continues

Last October, TransCanada Corp <TRP.TO> abandoned its C$15.7 billion Energy East pipeline from Alberta to the Atlantic Coast amid mounting regulatory hurdles.

The inability to get oil to ports for export means Canadian crude has been trading at a discount of up to $25 a barrel this year, costing Alberta's heavy oil producers C$30 million to C$40 million in revenue per day.

'THIS PIPELINE WILL BE BUILT'

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said in a statement that "with all our partners, we continue to consider all available options."

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said she was very optimistic the project would go ahead and repeated calls on Trudeau's government to do more to ensure it would be built.

"Alberta is prepared to be an investor in the pipeline.

If we take that step, we will be a significantly more determined investor - this pipeline will be built," she told reporters.

Trudeau visited the oil sands on Friday and reiterated the government's determination that the expansion go ahead.

British Columbia's government proposed environmental rules this year that were seen as a direct attack on the project.

It later edged back from a pledge to block increased shipments of crude oil through the province, which had sparked a trade war with Alberta.

"British Columbians expect their government to stand up for their interests and our coast, and to do everything we can to protect our land and waters, our coastal communities and our local economies," Premier John Horgan said in a statement.

Mike Hudema, climate campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said: "The writing is on the wall, and even Kinder Morgan can read it. Investors should note that the opposition to this project is strong, deep and gets bigger by the day."

(Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver and Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio and Peter Cooney)
(Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Canada <KML.TO> on Sunday suspended most work on a contentious C$7.4 billion ($5.80 billion) pipeline expansion project that has become the focus of protests and said it would decide by May 31 whether to press ahead.

The firm wants to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which takes crude from Alberta's oil sands to a facility in the Pacific province of British Columbia. It is currently carrying out preliminary work and has not yet started construction.

The project is considered crucial for Canada's oil industry, but is fiercely opposed by the British Columbia government, many municipalities, some Aboriginal groups, and environmental activists concerned about possible oil spills.

"We will be judicious in our use of shareholder funds. In keeping with that commitment, we have determined that in the current environment, we will not put KML shareholders at risk on the remaining project spend," Kinder Morgan Chairman Steve Kean said in a statement.

The announcement is a blow for the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which approved the project and says it is in the national interest.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said in a statement that "with all our partners, we continue to consider all available options". He did not give details.

($1 = 1.2767 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Julie Gordon in Vancouver and Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
By David Ljunggren (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Canada on Sunday suspended most work on a contentious C$7.4 billion ($5.8 billion) pipeline expansion that has become the focus of protests, and said it would decide by May 31 whether to continue. The announcement was a victory for the British Columbia government, local activists and environmental groups, and a blow to the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which approved the project and says it is in the national interest. Many in the industry are concerned about whether any new pipelines can be built in Canada at a time when existing capacity is stretched. Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which takes crude from Alberta's oil sands to a facility in the Pacific province of British Columbia. It is currently carrying out preliminary work and has not yet started construction. The project is considered crucial for Canada's oil industry, but is fiercely opposed by British Columbia's left-leaning New Democratic government, many municipalities, some Aboriginal groups, and environmental activists concerned about possible oil spills. "We will be judicious in our use of shareholder funds. In keeping with that commitment, we have determined that in the current environment, we will not put KML shareholders at risk on the remaining project spend," Kinder Morgan Chairman Steve Kean said in a statement. "If we cannot reach agreement by May 31, it is difficult to conceive of any scenario in which we would proceed with the project," he added. British Columbia government proposed a suite of new environmental rules this year that were seen as a direct attack on the project. It later edged back from a pledge to block increased shipments of crude oil through the Pacific Coast province, which had sparked a trade war with neighboring province Alberta. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley expressed optimism that the project would go ahead and repeated calls on Trudeau's government to do more to ensure it will be built. Notley, in remarks to reporters, also suggested that she might impose new sanctions against British Columbia. Canada Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said in a statement that "with all our partners, we continue to consider all available options". He did not give details. Trudeau visited the oil sands on Friday and reiterated the government's determination that the expansion go ahead. ($1 = 1.2767 Canadian dollars) (With additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver and Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
Laura Ingraham returned to Fox News Monday night, hosting her first episode of The Ingraham Angle since a feud with 17-year-old Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg cost her show some of its most prominent advisers.

Ingraham, a conservative commentator on the network, mocked Hoggs rejection from some colleges on Twitter last month, prompting the Marjory Stoneman Douglas student to publish a list of Ingrahams advertisers and pressuring them to drop support for her show. Nearly 20 companies did, including Bayer, Hulu, Johnson & Johnson, and Nestle.

Ingraham apologized and took a one week vacation, which she says was pre-planned, amid public backlash.

During the opening monologue of her return episode, Ingraham took aim at what she called bullies on the left who silence conservative voices, and condemning the FBIs raid of President Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohens office.

Im back. Tune in for a blistering Angle right now! @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/CylaSzCGfR  Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 10, 2018

Ingraham said harboring conservative opinions could get you fired, branded a hater, or, yes, you can get boycotted. She also tipped a new project on The Ingraham Angle.

Read more: How Parkland Teens Are Leading the Gun Control Conversation

The U.S. is now facing a crisis of free speech, Ingraham said, brought on by a desperate desire to stop debate by branding your opponent unacceptable and driving them from the public square.

As for Hogg, he may attend a University of California school after all, having been accepted to UC Irvine last week, according to TMZ.
A leaked Home Office paper suggests violent crime was in part down to a cut in police numbers (Rex)

The Home Secretary is facing calls to explain why a major report on violent crime fails to make a single reference to officer numbers.

The study, which is meant to be a 114-page blueprint to make Britains streets safe, includes detailed sections of a range of possible factors including the emergence of social media and changes in the drugs market.

But ministers have come under fire after it emerged the review contained no analysis of any impact from reductions in officer numbers.

The row comes hours after the Home Secretary faced embarrassment over a leaked Home Office letter suggesting cuts to police numbers have likely contributed to a rise in serious violent crime  directly contradicting Ms Rudds own comments on Sunday that there is no evidence to support such a claim.

Ms Rudd denies having seen the document, which was prepared by officials as part of preparations for the new strategy and says offenders may have been encouraged by the lack of police resources and fall in charge rates.

The leaked paper, entitled Serious Violence; Latest Evidence On The Drivers, said: Since 2012/3, weighted crime demand on the police has risen, largely due to growth in recorded sex offences.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd previously insisted that a decline in the number of officers could not be linked to a rise in violent crime (Rex)

At the same time officers numbers have fallen by 5% since 2014.

So resources dedicated to serious violence have come under pressure and charge rates have dropped. This may have encouraged offenders.

It was unlikely to be the factor that triggered the shift in serious violence, but may be an underlying driver that has allowed the rise to continue.

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Arguing it was a complex area which is not all about police numbers, Ms Rudd told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: You cannot arrest your way out of this.

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Following a speech to unveil the new strategy, Ms Rudd said the Government recognised officers had come under additional pressure following a rise in reporting of crime.

She said she had addressed this by ensuring forces have the resources when they need them.

Police officer cuts in full

She added: There are elements where police forces can do more to help themselves  theres efficiencies they can put in place, there is new equipment they can put in place.

The leaked document said that it was unlikely that lack of deterrence was the catalyst for the rise in serious violence and noted that forces with the biggest falls in police numbers are not seeing the biggest rises in serious violence.

Between 31 March 2010 and 2017, police officer strength fell in the 43 UK forces from 143,734 to 123,142.

Police officer strength fell in the 43 UK forces from 143,734 to 123,142 between 31 March 2010 and 2017 (PXHere)

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: The Governments own analysis seems to suggest that cuts to police officer numbers has had an effect in encouraging violent offences.

If true this blows apart the Tories repeated claims that their cuts have had no effect.

Cuts reduce police effectiveness and their ability to apprehend criminals. It also undermines the reassurance and deterrent effect that a police presence can have.

The Home Office said it would not comment on a leaked document but ministers have denied a link between police numbers and the rise in violent crime.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said cuts reduce police effectiveness and their ability to apprehend criminals (Rex)

Ms Rudd had used a Sunday Telegraph article to say: In the early Noughties, when serious violent crimes were at their highest, police numbers were rising. In 2008, when knife crime was far greater than the lows we saw in 2013-14, police numbers were close to the highest wed seen in decades.

So while I understand that police are facing emerging threats and new pressures  leading us to increase total investment in policing  the evidence does not bear out claims that resources are to blame for rising violence. 

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid maintained that position, telling BBCs Andrew Marr Show: For anyone to suggest that this is caused by police numbers, it is not backed up by the facts.

Policing Minister Nick Hurd acknowledged that the system was stretched but told the BBC it was categorically not the case that a reduction in numbers was behind the rise in violent crime.
(NEW DELHI)  At least 27 children were killed Monday when their school bus skidded off a mountain road into a gorge in the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said.

Three adults were also killed in the crash, Himachal Pradesh state transport minister Govind Singh Takur told the Press Trust of India news agency. At least a dozen people were taken to area hospitals.

Initial reports indicated that the bus driver was speeding and lost control at the edge of the gorge, with the bus crashing some 200 feet to the ground below, said police officer Sunil Kumar.

The accident occurred in the Kangra Valley, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of New Delhi.

Indias roads, particularly in the hills, have long been feared for their deep potholes, reckless drivers and, very often, a lack of guardrails. Fatal accidents are common.

I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet. My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones.

Rescuers were still digging through the wreckage after nightfall looking for more survivors, Kumar said.
A mortified mom thought her 9-year-old son was wearing a McDonalds T-shirt. Neither realized the shirt has a sexually suggestive image on it until after school. (Photo: Live-Tees.com)

A Texas mom was not lovin it when she realized that her son went to school in a salacious mock McDonalds T-shirt.

Shelly McCullar posted a photo and a video of her young son Anthony wearing what looks like a McDonalds shirt on social media. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this red-and-yellow tee is not at all advertising innocent burgers and fries. In place of the golden arches that symbolize McDonalds are a pair of womens legs bent and spread.

But McCullar had no idea. A friend recently gave them hand-me-downs, and she hadnt sifted through them yet when Anthony decided to debut one of the T-shirts. Just to clarify, I would never let my kid wear something like this, she promised in the Facebook post. Apparently, other parents can relate, as the post has 110,000 shares and 92,000 likes so far.

I am not a morning person, McCullar tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Two out of three of my kids are not morning people, my son being one of those two. So mornings are usually chaotic and rush  rush  rush.

Anthony was also getting over a bout of bronchitis, so now we have to add a breathing treatment to an already busy morning routine, she explains. So my focus is trying to get myself and three kids ready and out the door on time, not the details of the image on his choice of shirts.

Plus, McCullar says the 9-year-old can dress himself, so she doesnt really review his outfits before he walks out the door. The fact that he already has two shirts that look similar to this one (minus the ladys legs) didnt help. It was one of those [previously owned] shirts that I thought he had grabbed to put on, she says. And I didnt notice it as we were leaving because he had his jacket on.

The mom wasnt the only one who didnt notice the boys suggestive tee. In the video that McCullar posted of Anthony, he said, I thought it was, like, McDonalds. And, according to the kid, his teachers thought it was McDonalds too, which is why he made it through the day with T-shirt intact.

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He did not get in trouble, as I am hoping he wore his jacket most of the day, McCullar shares. His gym teacher must have noticed during PE, because Anthony later told me that she asked him to put his jacket back on. She didnt make a big deal about it or draw attention to it, so he was a little confused as to why she was asking him to put his jacket back on.

The friend who gave them the clothing also had no idea that the shirt had anything X-rated on it, as it was never his to begin with. He actually had been given the clothes by one of his family members for his boys, McCullar explains. After his sons picked out what they wanted, he asked if I would like to have what was left. And being a single mom, Im always thankful to receive hand-me-downs of good quality. But no, he was not aware of the shirt, and he has been very apologetic.

McCullar was only made aware of the mistake after school. After school Wednesday, my niece sent me a video while I was at work. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was. When I did, my heart started racing and I felt my face getting warm with embarrassment.

The mom made sure to go through the rest of the clothing as soon as she got home. I have gone through the clothes, she notes. Most of them are too big for my son to wear, so I have set most of them aside to pass on to my nephews if they want to go through them. Thank goodness there was nothing else inappropriate!

McCullar has a great attitude about the whole thing and can totally see the humor in it. Through my embarrassment, I did lmao!! she admitted on Facebook.

In fact, she might keep the tee as a memento. The shirt is hidden away in the top of my closet, she shares. I have not decided what I am going to do with it. I have been saving some of their shirts they have outgrown throughout the years to have T-shirt quilts made for them when they are older (much older), and I thought about including that shirt for his quilt.

That, or shell auction it off to one of the many (believe it or not) interested parties.

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Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - The imprisonment of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has given already chaotic Brazil another push down an ever more unpredictable future.

His arrest on Saturday took place against a backdrop of impassioned speeches, crying supporters, demonstrations and tear gas fired by riot police. It was not the picture of a country at ease with itself.

"The climate of polarization and radicalization... worries us all," warned Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann.

With six months to go before a presidential election, Lula's imprisonment for corruption has created ever deeper divisions.

He is the frontrunner, according to polls, yet is hated just as much as he loved, known alternately as "warrior of the Brazilian people" and simply "bandit." Some ask whether an election without such an outsized player can be considered fair.

"Brazil is going through a democratic crisis, a crisis that reveals that the political and judicial systems are exhausted and under huge tension," said Christophe Ventura, at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in France.

- Volatility -

Lula's almost certain exit from the election has sent the other candidates scrambling.

His own Workers' Party is in the lurch, since he is by far their most popular figure. He'll keep on being a candidate, even from behind bars -- and hoping to get out -- but it's clearly a risky strategy.

"The imprisonment of Lula symbolizes the end of an era," said Andre Cesar at Hold consultants.

Ventura argues that Lula's conviction for accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe from a huge construction company was not convincing enough to merit knocking the leftist out of the race.

"The country has been through some unstable and crazy times but this is unprecedented. Never in Brazil has a former president been imprisoned on such a controversial conviction," he said.

The Supreme Court could change a law in a vote this week that would effectively win Lula's release. If that happens it would signal "total uncertainty and volatility in Brazilian political life," Ventura said.

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Adding to the tension, the head of the army, General Eduardo Villas Boas, made a call last week that appeared to demand Lula's imprisonment -- a rare and, some say, disturbing intervention into politics by a top officer.

It comes at a time when the army is playing an ever higher profile role after President Michel Temer ordered the military to take over security in Rio de Janeiro, where police struggle to cope with violent crime.

- Corruption war -

A big driver of instability in Brazil is a four-year war on corruption known as operation "Car Wash."

The crusade has investigated or convicted scores of politicians, including Lula, and seen the filing of corruption charges against Temer, although for now he is protected by presidential immunity.

With 12.6 percent unemployment, "the combination of economic recession and quasi-pornographic exposure of corruption is explosive," Folha de S.Paulo newspaper said.

It's a mix that has seen a remarkable rise for Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing former army officer who praises the dictatorship of 1964-85 and whose platform is heavy on law-and-order.

Bolsonaro, who comes only second to Lula in polls, has also stirred up his base by capitalizing on widespread dislike of Lula.

Even imprisoned, the leftist icon continues to raise warring emotions. For some he is a political prisoner, while others see him as a showman who knows how to manipulate his followers and Brazil's institutions.

A recent campaign trip by Lula saw his buses attacked with eggs, stones and even gunshots.

An O Globo editorial blamed him: "with his rhetoric of hatred he creates the greater potential for attacks and violence."

As Ventura said, now "anything can happen."
Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday hosted Morocco's King Mohammed VI, yet to return home following heart surgery in Paris, for unscheduled talks notably on the Middle East, royal sources said.

Macron received the king just prior to welcoming visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Elysee Palace as part of the latter's ongoing official visit.

The French leader's talks with King Mohammed were not in his official diary.

According to a Moroccan official statement, Macron and the king "discussed at length the situation in the Middle East as well as regional and international issues," noting a "widespread convergence of views on the subject."

Monday had seen the Saudi heir hold a surprise meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well as Morocco's monarch.

Hariri tweeted a picture of the trio smiling and dressed casually accompanied by a caption of "no comment."

The meeting appeared designed to send a message of reconciliation after Hariri was allegedly pressured to resign by the Saudi royal during a trip to Riyadh last November, causing a crisis which Macron helped defuse.

"The three of them are friends and our countries are very much aligned so it made a lot of sense to do this," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told AFP.

King Mohammed had heart surgery in Paris on February 26 for an irregular heart beat but Moroccan sources said at the time he would soon resume "normal activities without any restriction."

Prior to appearing with Macron and the Saudi heir Mohammed's absence had sparked wild rumours on social media with some web posts suggesting the monarch, who succeeded his father Hassan II in 1999, had died.

Morocco's 360 website had in mid-March commented that the monarch, who regularly visits France, was in good form and spending "every waking hour" attending to matters of state.

Macron has met with the king several times, most recently at the One Planet Summit in Paris.
For all the risk facing Facebook when public hearings start on Tuesday, top aides on Capitol Hill worry that lawmakers could drive themselves into serious peril if they take detours into fringe theories or shaky political grievances. Yet that is precisely what many expect their bosses to do when the cameras go live.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made the rounds on Monday for private meetings with lawmakers ahead of Tuesday testimony before the a joint session of the Judiciary and Commerce committees, to be followed up by a turn in the House on Wednesday. The disclosures of massive data harvesting for political advantage put Facebook, a favorite platform for lawmakers, on its heels and in the hot seat.

Yet its the noise from the shadows that could drive headlines, top officials in both parties fret.

As idiosyncratic billionaire Zuckerberg tried to head off contentious confrontations before cameras  and perhaps save his own job as chairman and CEO of the social media giant  top political hands were quietly urging lawmakers to stay focused. These officials should not to heed their impulses that may drive the hearings into circus-caliber theatrics, they argued. There were few guarantees that lawmakers would control their impulses. After all, a video of a lawmaker aggressively scolding the Facebook chief would do very well on Facebook itself, and the activist base in both political camps tends to reward bravado over measured discourse.

That draw of drama  and the fundraising potential that follows  has top aides in both parties skittish. It is one of the few sentiments that has unified the professional staffs from both parties ahead of hearings that will be must-watch for activists, investors and the White House. There are very serious questions Facebook officials need to answer, especially as they pertain to what comes next for the social media leader, the extent to which its users data may be widely disseminated and the potential for Russia to, yet again, use that information to tailor political mayhem.

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Yet that could be relatively boring and non-partisan  novelties in this election year when the full House and a third of the Senate face voters. The face-to-face meeting with Zuckerberg could prove a valuable vent for years of pent-up political steam. And thats where leadership on both sides of the aisle and both ends of the Capitol find frayed nerves.

For Republicans, who control the House and the Senate, Silicon Valley and social media have long been seen as havens for liberals and elitists. GOP leadership worries that the questions may devolve into off-topic questions about algorithms that determine who sees what. The Republican National Committee, in the throes of the 2016 campaign, launched a petition arguing that Facebook Must Answer for Conservative Censorship. Conservative Peter Schweizer is ready to release a film, tentatively titled The Creepy Line, that targets the tech industry. (Schweizer partnered with then-Breitbart executive Steve Bannon on an earlier project, Clinton Cash, that planted seeds of doubt about her conduct and finances.)

Establishment-minded Republicans on the Hill have come to tolerate the cries of victimhood that have motivated scores of conservative voters to take action. Its a good tactic to recruit volunteers and low-dollar donors. But, many worry, that pandering has now taken on the aura of reality  and many members believe it, other lawmakers think they owe it to voters to remedy it and still more think it would be a good clip to include in an email solicitation. One top aide to Senate Republicans called this the tinfoil-hat road.

Others, especially the Trump apologists, worry that any serious inquiry into the roles tech companies played in 2016 would undercut the Presidents legitimacy. Even the suggestion that Trump didnt win the White House on his own merits draws rage from Trump. They correctly note that the intelligence agencies intentionally did not issue a verdict on if Russia meddling had any impact on the outcome of the 2016 race, and this remains one of the most sensitive topics for Trump personally.

On the opposite side, Democratic aides and advisers worry that lawmakers may detour into side queries that have nothing to do with preventing the social media giants from being used again to skew the election discussion. The last thing they want is a Hillary-would-have-won recrimination session. (Worse yet? The Bernie-would-have-won corollary that returns to the incorrect allegations that the Democratic National Committee rigged the election for Clinton. The DNC is still struggling to raise cash.)

Top Democrats also are mindful that any questions about Trumps legitimacy is precisely why Russia meddled in the election. Even after the voting ended  and months before it starts again for the 2018 elections  many Americans are uncertain in the cornerstones of the democratic process.

We cannot be the bitter ones playing the top of last inning, one senior Democrat says. We have to be playing the bottom of this one, and the next one, and the one after that.

At the Capitol, however, it is clear lawmakers have exhausted most of the their patience. A session last year, which included not just Facebook but also Google and Twitter, was a public flogging of the tech giants but yielded no tangible changes. Officials now know that session offered an incomplete accounting for just how powerful the internet giants have become.

Now, they want truth, contrition and perhaps action.

Aides from both parties expected the hearings to be brutal for Zuckerberg. After an hour-long meeting in the office of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a scrum of reporters chased Zuckerberg down the seventh-floor hallway trying to draw out a comment. Zuckerberg said nothing, but it offered a preview of what is making Capitol Hill officials nervous.

This place is going to be a zoo, one senior Hill official said. And it will, of course, be chronicled in real-time on the smartphones. How meta.
Are you ready for the saga of the Derek Jeter-owned Miami Marlins to get even more ridiculous? Because its about to.

According to the Miami Herald, the Marlins are trying to avoid going to court in Miami by claiming that their team should be considered a corporate citizen of the British Virgin Islands. The basis for this is a little convoluted. Marlins Teamco is a corporation that was formed by Jeter and Marlins majority owner Bruce Sherman specifically to buy the Marlins. One of the corporations that owns a minority stake in Marlins Teamco is based in the British Virgin Islands.

[Still not too late to join a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league]

The Marlins arent doing this to change their name to the British Virgin Island Marlins. This is all in response to a profit-sharing lawsuit that was filed earlier this year by Miami-Dade County. As part of a 2009 agreement, the Jeffrey Loria-owned Marlins agreed that if the team was sold within 10 years, the county would get 5 percent of the profits from that sale. The team, which was bought by Loria for $152 million, was sold in 2017 to the Jeter/Sherman majority group for $1.2 billion. Loria, however, claimed that he somehow lost $140 million from the sale, so neither he nor the Marlins owed the county any profits. The county obviously sued since thats insane, and both Loria and the Marlins (which includes their current ownership) are named in the suit.

Derek Jeter and the rest of the Marlins ownership are claiming the team has corporate citizenship in the British Virgin Islands. (AP Photo)

According to the Herald, the tactic of claiming international citizenship has been done specifically to avoid a Miami-Dade judge who has already ruled against Loria and the franchise in a preliminary hearing. By claiming international citizenship, the case would be stripped from that judge (and from county court altogether) and would instead be heard by a federal judge.

If this seems ridiculous or laughable (especially since the Marlins dont claim exemption from any other U.S. laws and the dispute is entirely located in Miami-Dade County), youre not the only one who thinks that. The lawyers for the county were less than impressed with the Marlins creative attempt to avoid going to court in Miami.

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Miami-Dade not buying effort by Derek Jeter lawyers to have the Miami Marlins declared a foreign citizen for the purposes of deciding where to hear a county lawsuit against the team and Jeffrey Loria. pic.twitter.com/vCS6frpU5Y  Doug Hanks (@doug_hanks) April 9, 2018

If the Marlins have gotten tired of trading away talented players, claiming British Virgin Islands citizenship is an exciting new way for them to alienate even more fans. Though that might not be possible, since only about 7,000 fans came to Mondays Marlins game.

     

Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher

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A mashup video made by Media Matters puts a spotlight on the hosts and guests on Fox News who advise President Donald Trump directly through the network.

The clip features people advising Trump to do things like ignore The New York Times, call Attorney General Jeff Sessions and not talk to special counsel Robert Mueller.

People on Fox News are directly advising Trump through the network pic.twitter.com/0vMxQXPwIz  Media Matters (@mmfa) April 9, 2018

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano seemingly makes the most appearances within the 2:37-minute clip, imploring Trump to do this and that. Napolitano was reportedly embroiled in controversy just last year for making entirely baseless claims about former President Barack Obama, saying that Obama asked British intelligence officials in 2016 to spy on Trump.

If you follow Trump on Twitter, then you know his affinity for tweeting about Fox News. He frequently responds to various things said about him on the network.

Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. "Spied on before nomination." The real story.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017

There was even a period in February when one-third of his 57 tweets in the week were reportedly inspired by Fox News or mentioned the cable channel directly.

While it is true that Fox News is the most-watched cable news network, Trumps Twitter following, a whopping 50 million people, far surpasses that of Fox News watchers, a problematic fact that raises red flags for many.

Particularly, it has caused concern among some White House aides. Many have been convinced that Trump puts more stock in what he sees on TV than in his own aides advice, so they regularly phone prominent commentators and news hosts to provide talking points on everything from tax policy to Syria in hopes of influencing Trump, according to a report by The Associated Press.

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This would mean that the advising you see and hear in the above video  well, the call might be coming from inside the house.

Also on HuffPost

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Anchor Asks Why A Muslim Would Write About Christianity

"You're a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" Fox's Lauren Green asked scholar and author Reza Aslan during a 2013 interview.



Face, meet palm.

'Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs'

Greg Gutfeld Has Thoughts On Fossil Fuel

"Isn't fossil fuels the ultimate renewable energy? It's renewed once. It used to be a dinosaur. Now it's fuel. How is that not renewable?"

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Invitations to the royal wedding have gone out  but there werent any addressed to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or 10 Downing Street.

Royal correspondents are reporting that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have opted to not invite political leaders to the royal wedding, which mean President Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May will be staying home on May 19. (Theyre still welcome to make a charitable donation for the wedding, of course.)

According to Richard Palmer, the royal correspondent for Britains Express newspaper, Kensington Palace has confirmed that welcoming world leaders to the nuptials was not required.

A KP spokesman says: It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK and international  is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.  Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) April 10, 2018

The decision was based on the fact that Prince Harry, who will be sixth in line of succession for the throne once his future niece or nephew is born this month, is unlikely to be king. The couple will instead invite guests with whom they have a personal relationship.

Essentially, its been decided that theres no need for official guests, as Prince Harry is not likely to be a future King. Everyone inside the chapel will know Harry and Meghan personally.  Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) April 10, 2018

That criteria also means that foreign royals arent guaranteed an invitation.

On foreign royalty attending Prince Harry and Meghans wedding, Im told it will depend if they are friends. Nobody will be invited because of the position they hold.  Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) April 10, 2018

So where does that leave Barack and Michelle Obama? Though Kensington Palaces statement didnt specifically name them, and Prince Harry is thought to have a tight friendship with the former president and first lady, sources close to the royals say the Obamas werent included on the guest list.

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Former president Barack Obama, shown here with Prince Harry last summer, reportedly wont be attending the royal wedding. (Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation )

Also big news: Barack and Michelle Obama will not be at Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding, a royal source has confirmed to @CNN  Kristin Donnelly (@kristindonnelly) April 10, 2018

That probably also means the rumor that Hillary Clinton would snag an invitation is unfounded. See, Trump? Every cloud

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Agents seize records and communication between Michael Cohen and president, prompting extraordinary scene at White House



Donald Trump declared an attack on our country in a true sense was under way after FBI agents conducted a raid on the office of his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday.

The raid was carried out after a referral from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, to New York-based federal prosecutors, a lawyer for Cohen said. It was not clear that the raid related to Muellers investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Yet in an extraordinary scene inside the White House late on Monday, Trump connected those dots and more, saying the raid represented part of an ongoing attack on him engineered, he said, by the most biased group of people with the biggest conflicts of interest Ive ever seen.

He called it an attack on our country in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for.

Unusually affronted by the move against a member of his inner circle, it seemed, Trump described the raid as an extension of a conspiracy against him that had started right after I won the nomination.



Its a disgraceful situation, its a total witch-hunt, Ive been saying it for a long time, Trump said. Muellers investigation so far has produced 19 indictments or guilty pleas.

Mondays raid led to the seizure of records including communications between Cohen and Trump, Cohens lawyer said in a statement.



Also seized were documents relating to a $130,000 payment Cohen has admitted making to the porn actor Stormy Daniels, according to the New York Times, which first reported the raid. Daniels is in a protracted legal battle with Trump to tell the story of their alleged relationship.

No, Im not, the president said in mid-December. But in fact Trump had ordered special counsel Robert Muellers firing in June 2017, just one month after Mueller was appointed, the New York Times reported. Trump backed down when the White House Counsel, Donald McGahn, refused to convey the order to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

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Trump-aligned voices on Capitol Hill and in the media, meanwhile, prominently including Fox News, continue to call for Muellers head, and attacks on Mueller from inside the White House have proliferated.

Agents also raided a home and hotel room used by Cohen, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, released a statement that said: Today the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients. He did not name Trump.

A message left on Monday afternoon at Ryans firm was not returned.

Trump said the raid on Cohen really is now in a whole new level of unfairness, but he did not respond directly to questions of whether he would seek to have Mueller dismissed.

I think its a disgrace whats going on, Trump said. Well see what happens  Many people have said you should fire him.

Michael Cohen. Donald Trump said the raid on his longtime lawyer was a whole new level of unfairness. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Muellers referral may indicate his teams inquiry uncovered evidence of potential crimes falling outside the focus of their investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Or the referral may have been made simply because the New York prosecutors were better positioned to carry out the raid, explained Neal Katyal, a supreme court lawyer who wrote the special counsel regulations, on Twitter.

The recommendation for prosecutors in Manhattan to handle the raid  as opposed to Mueller  was made by the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation, Bloomberg reported. Rosenstein has occasionally attracted Trumps ire for his handling of the investigation.

The president was following news coverage of the raid closely, CNN reported. Cohen is closer to Trumps inner circle than anyone previously to have such a sharp brush with prosecutors, although Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been interviewed by Muellers team, and Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, has been interviewed by congressional investigators.

Cohen said the payment to Daniels was facilitated by him personally and was not made on behalf of the Trump campaign. A watchdog group has brought a lawsuit alleging that the payment to Daniels was in fact an illegal campaign contribution.

The decision by the US attorneys office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, said Ryan in his statement. He said Cohen had cooperated fully with government prosecutors.

Prosecutors connected with Mueller have previously obtained email correspondence and other documents tied to Cohen, who has worked closely with Trump for more than a decade on particularly sensitive matters.

Those matters included Trumps alleged relationship with Daniels, in which a large payment was made on the eve of the 2016 election as she was preparing to go public with her story of an affair with Trump; and efforts to build a Trump tower in Moscow.

Cohen was interviewed privately in October 2017 by members of the House intelligence committee, which has since shuttered its investigation of the Russia affair.

The FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid of the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manaforts Virginia home in July 2017. Manafort has been charged with multiple crimes including money laundering and bank fraud, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted two short messages: Attorneyclient privilege is dead! and A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!
By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - A Myanmar government minister will visit Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh on Wednesday, officials said, a rare trip Dhaka hopes will help speed the return home of hundreds of thousands of the neighboring nation's Muslim minority. Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, will speak with some of the roughly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims the United Nations and aid groups say fled a military crackdown in their Buddhist-majority country since last August. "So many people of his country are here and it's their moral obligation to see their conditions," Mohammed Abul Kalam, Bangladesh's refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, told Reuters. "His country may want to show the global leaders that they are sincere to repatriate. Bangladesh expects to resolve the problem soonest, as it is a huge burden for this country, which we cannot bear." The Myanmar minister confirmed to Reuters last week that he was visiting Bangladesh. Kalam will accompany Win Myat Aye on the visit to the camps in Kutupalong, where many refugees live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that are unlikely to withstand heavy rains and storms brought by the monsoon season when it starts in June. A Bangladesh foreign ministry official said his country wanted to show the visiting minister the challenges it was facing in hosting the refugees in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar, bordering Myanmar. Win Myat Aye, the minister charged by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi with leading rehabilitation efforts in the country's Rakhine State that the Rohingya call home, is likely to meet Bangladesh's foreign minister on Thursday, said the official, who declined to be identified, citing government policy. Myanmar has said it has already verified several hundred Rohingya refugees for possible repatriation. The Rohingya exodus followed reported killings, burnings, looting and rape in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces. Myanmar, which considers most Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has denied the accusations. (Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Moscow (AFP) - North Korea's foreign minister held rare talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Tuesday, as Pyongyang moves to improve strained ties with its neighbours.

Ri Yong Ho's visit came ahead of planned nuclear summits between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States in the coming weeks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed Ri to Moscow on Tuesday morning, saying that "Russia is as inclined as ever to develop good neighbourly relations with North Korea".

His North Korean counterpart said he hoped for further "development of our relations" in comments translated into Russian.

After the meeting, Lavrov answered questions from journalists alone, saying the ministers "examined in some detail" the nuclear situation on the peninsula.

"The Russian side confirmed that we welcome gradual normalisation of the situation, an end to mutual threats and readiness for contact between the two Koreas as well as between North Korea and the US," Lavrov said.

He said that upcoming talks should aim at denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but stipulated that Pyongyang must also receive "cast-iron guarantees" of its security.

He added that he had accepted an invitation for a return visit to Pyongyang, without giving a date.

- 'Covering its back' -

Alexander Vorontsov, a specialist on the Koreas from Moscow's Oriental Studies Institute, said it was "particularly important (for Pyongyang) to enlist support, including from Russia, to cover its back" before further summits.

Ri visited Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a landmark trip to Beijing last month.

The most recent North Korean ministerial-level visit to Russia saw the external economic relations minister visit Vladivostok in September.

Kim was expected to attend 2015 celebrations in Moscow for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II but opted not to go at the last minute.

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The leader's secretive three-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March was his first trip abroad since gaining power from his late father in 2011. China is North Korea's main trading partner.

The visit was seen as a gesture of reconciliation after months of high tensions over the North's missile and nuclear programmes.

Kim is due to hold a summit with South Korea's Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, in only the third meeting of its kind.

A landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump is planned to follow -- although no specific dates or venue have been set.

The diplomatic thaw began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, to which Kim sent athletes, cheerleaders and his sister as an envoy.

The stunning detente with the US comes after North Korea last year fired multiple missiles and carried out its most powerful nuclear test.

Trump in turn hurled insults at Kim, calling him a "madman with nuclear weapons" and said that a military option against North Korea was "locked and loaded".

If the summits with Moon and Trump are a success, "it will be a turning point, a breakthrough," said analyst Vorontsov.

- 'Slave-like conditions' -

On Monday Ri met the head of Russia's security council, Nikolai Patrushev and on Thursday is set to meet the Kremlin's envoy to far eastern Russia, Yury Trutnev, Russian news agencies reported.

Moscow has backed United Nations Security Council resolutions over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

But Russia still has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border. Moscow also provides Pyongyang with some food aid, which Lavrov said Tuesday would continue.

North Korea currently has some 35,000 of its nationals working as labourers in far eastern Russia, particularly in timber felling, agriculture and construction.

Russia, however, is phasing out this programme in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution and began to send them home in February, although it refused to send them all at once and they are working out their contracts.
Dave Majumdar

Security, North America

In recent days, a Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet and a Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion helicopterboth from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)suffered from nonfatal mishaps.

The Navy Just Cancelled a Major Military Exercise for a Very Tragic Reason

The United States Navy has canceled Exercise Alligator Dagger in Djibouti after two crashes involving United States Marine Corps aircraft. In recent days, a Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet and a Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion helicopterboth from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)suffered from non-fatal mishaps.

U.S. air operations in Djibouti are on hold and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command has canceled the remainder of exercise Alligator Dagger in response to two separate aviation incidents in Djibouti on April 3, 2018, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement. Alligator Dagger is a routine, scheduled training event involving U.S. personnel and operations in the vicinity of Djibouti and Arta Beach Range. Both incidents are currently under a joint investigation, and we will provide more information when able. A safety stand-down has been initiated for all exercise participants.

The Pentagon says that canceling the exercise is a routine and prudent safety precaution. We and the Djiboutians reached an agreement to cease flight operations. Separately, the commander decided to cancel the rest of the exercise, Joint Staff director Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told reporters at the Pentagon on April 5.

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McKenzie did not have specific details available, but insisted that such cancellations are routine. It's not unusualand I've actually been a MEU commander in Djibouti and flown these airplanes there, McKenzie said. You want to step back, take a look and make sure, for reasons that have been amply brought out in the back-and-forth here, that you're not doing something wrong as your aircraft fly.

Story continues

McKenzie said that safety stand downs are the prerogative of the commander on the ground since he or she is responsible for the safety of their troops. That's just a reasonable precaution by the commander on the ground, to make sure that we're not doing something that we can fix, McKenzie said.

Mishaps are fact of life in the unforgiving business of aviationwhat can go wrong too often does go wrong. I'd say mishaps happen in military aviation any time you're flying complicated machines in situations where you've got less than total visibility and doing things that are difficult to do, McKenzie said. Mishaps are inevitably going to occur. We don't want any mishaps to occur. One mishap is too many. But I'm not prepared to say right now that this is some kind of crisis.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said that only forces directly involved in Alligator Dagger are impacted. Routine operations for other units assigned to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command are unaffected by this cancellation, and U.S. Naval personnel continue to conduct maritime security operations throughout the region, the Navy said.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday condemned the recent chemical attack in Syria, warning that the U.S. would take action while speaking at an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

At least 40 people were killed Saturday in an alleged chemical attack in Douma, according to medics and opposition leaders, who believe the attack was carried out by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government has denied the allegations.

During Mondays meeting, Haley accused Assad of targeting civilians and faulted Russia and Iran for enabling it.

Who does this? Only a monster does this, Haley said Monday. Only a monster targets civilians and then ensures that there are no ambulances to transfer the wounded, no hospitals to save their lives, no doctors or medicine to ease their pain. I could hold up pictures of all of this killing and suffering for the council to see. But what would be the point? The monster who is responsible for these attacks has no conscience.

One year ago, Trump said images of children dying because of chemical attacks in Syrian had moved him and led him to order missile strikes on a Syrian airbase.

On Monday, Haley accused Russia of supporting the attacks, saying Russias hands are covered in the blood of Syrian children. She urged the Security Council to take action.

What we are dealing with today is not about a spat between the United States and Russia, Haley said. This is about the inhumane use of chemical agents on innocent civilians. Each and every one of the nations in this council are on record opposing the use of chemical weapons. There can be no more rationalizations for our failure to act.

President Trump, who warned there would be a big price to pay for the chemical attack, said Monday that he would make a decision within 24 to 48 hours about how the U.S. will respond.

We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. We are beyond appeals to conscience. We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done, Haley said at the Security Council meeting. History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter or complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a party meeting on Monday where he analysed the future outcome of dialogue with the United States and development of inter-Korean relations ahead of a summit with South Korea on April 27, the North's state media said on Tuesday.

In North Korea's first mention of official dialogue with United States and the summit with Seoul, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) added that Kim Jong Un set "strategic and tactical issues" to be upheld by his powerful Workers' Party.

(Reporting by Christine Kim, editing by G Crosse)
By Amanda Ferguson and Conor Humphries BELFAST/DUBLIN (Reuters) - The leaders who brokered a peace deal for Northern Ireland in 1998 marked its 20th anniversary on Tuesday by warning that a hardening political divide and Britain's exit from the EU were creating new dangers for the region. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Irish and Northern Irish politicians in Belfast to mark the breakthrough on April 10, 1998 that called an end to 30 years of sectarian violence in which around 3,600 people died. But the collapse early last year of the power-sharing administration at the heart of that deal meant there was no devolved government to greet them - and little sign of the province's Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists resolving the differences that have again divided them. "We have to be very, very careful," said former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks that led to the agreement, when asked by Irish state broadcaster RTE if there was a danger of a return to violence. "Nothing in life is guaranteed." Northern Ireland was quickly transformed by the deal, with the Irish Republican Army, responsible for most of the killings, agreeing to give up its weapons and the British army dismantling its armed checkpoints and withdrawing. But while the outbreaks of violence have all but ended, the region's politics has become more polarised - leading in January 2017 to the collapse of devolved power-sharing for the first time in a decade. DIVISIVE The supporter base of Northern Ireland's liberal parties has shrunk, allowing the combined vote of the more divisive Democratic Unionist and Sinn Fein to grow from around 34 percent in 1998 to 56 percent at the last election in 2017. In recent months the rhetoric from both sides has hardened. "Compromise has to become a good thing, not a dirty word and voters have to stop punishing people who make those compromises and start rewarding them," said Clinton, whose role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is celebrated as one of the key legacies of his chequered presidency. "The only thing that would be calamitous would be to let the whole thing die," Clinton said. "To ...go back to hell instead of going into a future." The political tensions have been heightened by Britain's decision to leave the European Union, with some Irish nationalists highlighting the risk of next year's departure leading to the reinstatement of a hard border between the UK province and Ireland, inflaming nationalist opinion. "This Brexit thing can burn you bad if it's done wrong," Clinton told a crowd at Queen's University Belfast. Blair, who campaigned against Brexit, warned a hard border would be a disaster for the peace deal. British Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to do a deal with the region's largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, to prop up her government has fanned nationalist rhetoric. "The Tory government has actively encouraged the most negative, intransigent and sectarian elements of political unionism to attack and undermine the Good Friday Agreement," Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein leader who also helped negotiate the agreement, said in a speech on Tuesday. Some unionists pointed the finger instead at the Irish government, saying its suggestion that Northern Ireland might be governed by EU rather than British regulations - or that it might unite with the Republic of Ireland in the coming years - risked inciting pro-British militants. "I hope people realise that some of the things they are saying are dangerous," David Trimble, head of the Ulster Unionist Party, the largest pro-British party in Northern Ireland in 1998, told RTE. (Reporting by Amanda Ferguson and Conor Humphries; Editing by John Stonestreet and Hugh Lawson)
For the second time in a week, thieves took off with an ambulance in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The thief apparently took the vehicle for a joy ride on Sunday while paramedics were helping a patient. The ambulance was found crashed and empty a couple of miles away near McArthur Park, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement. Another ambulance was dispatched to help the marooned patient and paramedics.

On Tuesday, while paramedics were transporting a patient into the emergency room of California Hospital Medical Center downtown, a woman climbed into their ambulance and took off. Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol officers pursued her for 40 miles until she pulled over and was arrested.

Woman in Custody Following Stolen Ambulance Pursuit From Downtown L.A. to Chino Hills https://t.co/OHRWGFpC55 pic.twitter.com/pHiTmzkiwF  KTLA (@KTLA) April 3, 2018

And on Friday, a separate thief grabbed a police SUV as its occupants were off chasing another suspect. That car thief was later busted.

There appeared to be no connection among the thieves or the crimes.

Its not uncommon for emergency vehicles to be stolen. But police warn that they can be tricky to drive, and dangerous to drivers, other vehicles and pedestrians for that reason, The Lost Angeles Times reported.

They are very unusual vehicles in how they perform and how they need to be driven in order to be safe, Dia Gainor, director of the National Association of State EMS Officials, told the Times. They are an inherently dangerous vehicle driven by someone not prepared to handle it.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
By Hilary Russ and Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before the ink could dry on Florida Governor Rick Scott's signature last month, critics cried foul over the bill he signed into law to spend $400 million boosting security at schools across the state following February's Parkland mass shooting. School officials, local sheriffs and Democrats opposed different provisions, including one to provide $67 million to arm teachers. Educators, in particular, voiced concerns that the state will strip money from core education funding to pay for the new school resource officers and beefed up buildings. "We are a very lean state," said Florida state Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat who voted against the bill. "If we're spending money somewhere, we're taking it from somewhere else." In the wake of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people, at least 10 U.S. states have introduced measures to increase funding for hardening of school buildings and campuses, add resource officers and increase mental health services, according to Reuters' tally. Many of the proposals outlined the need for bulletproof windows, panic buttons and armored shelters to be installed in classrooms. Some legislation called for state police or sheriff's departments to provide officers to patrol public schools. Altogether, more than 100 legislative bills to address school safety, not all of which have funding components, have been introduced in 27 states since the Feb. 14 shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to data provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures. But states do not usually have extra money on hand or room to raise taxes. So to pay for the measures, states are mostly shifting money away from other projects, dipping into reserves or contemplating borrowing. "I would characterize these proposals and the bills that were passed, for example Florida and Wisconsin, as primarily shifting funding from other priorities," said Kathryn White, senior policy analyst at the National Association of State Budget Officers. Calls for more gun control and more safety measures have come during peak budget season for nearly all states, whose legislatures spend the spring in debates that shape the coming year's budget starting July 1. STATE BY STATE Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker called a special legislative session last month, when lawmakers agreed to create a $100 million school safety grant program. The money will come out of the state's general fund. But the spending, coupled with tax cuts and other pending legislation, will leave that fund with reserves of roughly $185 million - enough to run state government for less than four days in the event of a fiscal emergency, according to Jon Peacock, director of the think tank Wisconsin Budget Project. "That is far less of a cushion than a fiscally responsible state should set aside," Peacock said. Funding the safety measures also means that some economic development programs for rural counties did not get funded and a one-time sales tax holiday was scaled back, he said. In Maine, lawmakers are considering borrowing $20 million by issuing 10-year general obligation bonds to fund loans to school districts for security enhancements. New Jersey lawmakers are also looking to borrow. On March 26, state senators tacked an extra $250 million for school security onto an existing bill for $500 million of bonds to expand county vocational colleges. The legislature has not yet voted on the measure. Maryland, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana are also increasing - or trying to increase - funding for school security measures since Parkland. In Florida, the legislature passed safety spending while approving an increase of only $0.47 per pupil in funding used to cover teacher pay raises, school bus fuel and other operational expenses for education. "We see $400-plus million in school safety, which we absolutely applaud, but you can't do that at the expense of your core education program," Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said shortly before Scott signed the budget. Stoneman Douglas is among the schools Runcie, who also heads the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, oversees. To be sure, some state and local governments have been adding money for school safety measures for years, particularly after 20 children and six adults were killed in a shooting in Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Some critics, particularly Democrats, say measures that only beef up infrastructure or do not create recurring funds fall short of the mark. Dan Rossmiller, government relations director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said in a memo to lawmakers in March that individual districts also need money for prevention and intervention, including education services for expelled students and anti-bullying programs, and other purposes. "Funding for only 'hardening' school facilities, while welcome, is likely not going to be sufficient to address the full range of locally identified needs," he said. (Reporting by Hilary Russ and Laila Kearney; Editing by Daniel Bases and Chizu Nomiyama)
President Donald Trump said hell decide within two days on U.S. retaliation against Syria for a suspected chemical weapons attack by President Bashar al-Assads regime over the weekend, and suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin may share responsibility.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the U.S. cannot allow atrocities like that.

Trump launched a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian airbase after a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017, the first direct American attack on Assads regime since the conflict in Syria began in March 2011. Rescue workers and activists said dozens of civilians, including children, died in a chemical attack on Saturday amid a renewed assault by Assads government on a rebel stronghold near Damascus.

If its the Russians, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out, and well know the answers quite soon, Trump said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting Monday. Asked if Assads patron Putin shares responsibility for the attack, Trump answered: He may. If he does, its going to be very tough. Hell pay a price.

U.S. Assessment

We are meeting with our military and everybody else and we will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours, Trump said. He later said he expects the U.S. military to assess who was at fault for the attack within a day.

The White House National Security Councils principals committee held a meeting earlier in the morning to discuss the chemical weapons attack, a person familiar with the matter said.

Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted even higher early Monday with an airstrike by unknown warplanes against a Syrian air base. Russia blamed Israel for the raid; Israel hewed to its customary no-comment policy; and it wasnt immediately clear whether the facility had a link to the chemical weapons attack.

Trump wasnt scheduled to be at the NSC meeting Monday but his top national security aides planned to participate, including new National Security Adviser John Bolton, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Story continues

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he wouldnt rule out anything right now when asked by reporters Monday morning whether the U.S. was considering military actions against Syria including an airstrike.

Trump warned Sunday on Twitter of a big price to pay in response to reports of the attack, days after he said he wanted to quickly end the U.S. military presence in the war-torn Middle East country. Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed in a phone call Sunday to coordinate a strong, joint response to the suspected attack, according to a White House statement on the call.

While Trump has said he wants U.S. troops out of Syria very soon, he posted tweets condemning the attack and charging that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.

The U.S. was also among countries calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which was expected later Monday. The episode thrust the U.S. and Russia into a new confrontation, with Moscow warning against any military strike and Washington calling for an immediate international response.

Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK! Trump said on Twitter.

Syria Denies

Syrias official Sana news agency denied the reports, saying the rapidly advancing army doesnt need to use any chemical weapons as the media channels that support the terrorists are fabricating. It cited an official it didnt identify.

Sana also reported that there was an attack on a Syrian airbase early Monday. Russia said two Israeli planes attacked the Al Tiyas, or T-4, military base from Lebanese airspace before dawn. Three missiles hit their targets and five others were shot down by Syrian forces, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It isnt clear whether the attack was in response to the suspected chemical weapons use. The T-4 base is the same facility the Israeli military said Iran used on Feb. 10 to launch a drone that penetrated Israeli air space.

Russia, whose military backing of Assad helped turn the course of the war in his favor, denied that Syrian government forces deployed chemical weapons in Douma, according to the Tass news service, which cited Major General Yuri Yevtushenko. Russia plans to send specialists to analyze the scene once militants are expelled from the area, and said the data will refute claims of chemical use, Tass reported.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow warned that any foreign military strike against Syria over fabricated reports of chemical warfare may lead to the gravest consequences.
Asia Times

Security, Asia

How should Washington respond?

Report: China Has Installed Military Jamming Equipment in the South China Sea

The US military is saying that China has installed equipment on islands in the South China Sea capable of jamming communications and radar systems, according to a report on Monday.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development, also cited US intelligence sources as saying the equipment was deployed within the last several months.

While China has maintained that the construction of the islands is to ensure safety at sea, navigation assistance, search and rescue, fisheries protection and other nonmilitary functions, electronic-jamming equipment is only for military use, a US Defense Department official said.

The assertion is in line with US Pacific Command chief Admiral Harry Harris comments last month to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the infrastructure on the islands is intended solely to support advanced military capabilities that can deploy to the bases on short notice.

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The alleged military developments come as both the United States and China have been conducting military exercises in the region, though China played down the movements of its Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group in the region.

US officials described the exercise off of Hainan Island as the largest to date in the South China Sea conducted by China. But Chinese news media said the exercise was an attempt to address multiple flaws and deficiencies in the carrier, not show off its advanced capabilities.

Meanwhile, Americas Theodore Roosevelt Nimitz-class carrier strike group was said last week to be traveling to the center of the South China Sea along with warships from allies, following a port visit in Singapore.

This first appeared in AsiaTimes here.

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Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker says he is too busy to meet with Vice President Mike Pence when the latter arrives in Boston for a fundraiser Tuesdaya move which has been considered a snub by local GOP members.

Baker is set to miss Pence and a fundraiser to raise $500,000 for Trump Victorya political action committee run by the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee. He won't attend another for Minnesota Representative Erik Paulsen, which Pence is also expected to attend.

Baker told reporters that he will not be meeting with Pence because my calendar has other stuff on it Monday afternoon. I think I'm actually going to be in the South Coast, down in New Bedford, when hes here, Baker said. Baker is planning to attend a local Chamber of Commerce dinner instead, a spokesman told the Boston Herald.

Trending: Madeleine Albright Says Obama Should Have Enforced the Red Line in Syria

04_10_Pence

Leah Millis/Reuters

I'm not sending a message, Baker insisted. Throughout the 2016 election campaign Baker said he wouldnt vote for Trump, and after the November vote said it was the first time he didnt cast a ballot in a presidential election. Baker is running for reelection this year.

Pence will arrive in the afternoon at Bostons Logan International Airport, but he wont be met by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito either. She told NPR that she wasn't asked to attend and has other commitments tomorrow.

Some local senior party members have voiced their disapproval at the fact the states top Republicans will not be meeting Pence. I think thats absolutely a disgrace that hes snubbing the vice president, said Massachusetts Republican Assembly president Mary Lou Daxland to the Boston Herald. To me its just insulting.

Story continues

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If youre afraid to be seen with your vice president then join the other party, said former New Hampshire Republican Sen. Robert Smith, telling Baker to show some respect.

When asked about Baker's decision not to attend the fundraiser, a spokesperson for Pence told Newsweek: "On background the Governor was invited by the RNC but indicated he couldnt attend due to scheduling conflict."

On Twitter last week the Massachusetts Republican Party promoted the fact that Baker has sky-high approval ratings in the Democrat leaning state. Massachusetts voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election by a difference of more than 900,000 votes.

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Republican governors have been divided with the Trump administration and federal party members on issues such as Obamacare. But few have openly opposed the president.

Baker said Monday that he didnt know about Pences visit and that state officials always try to meet important federal officials who are visiting. The VP's office told Politico an invitation was extended to Baker's office.

Steve Aylward, who ran to become chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party in 2016, said it is horrible that Baker will not be meeting with Pence. Pence is a good man, he said, a good Republican.

Baker is up for reelection this year.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images (2), Dado Ruvic/Reuters.

As Facebook sends its promised updates this week, telling users whether or not they were one of the 87 million whose personal data may have been scraped by Cambridge Analytica to create and position online political advertising, Jody Podolsky wont even need to look. She is certain none of her information was sold because shes sure there was no information of hers out there to sell.

Of the two kinds of people in the world  those who embrace social media and those who shun it  she is of the group that has never really used platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Of the estimated 280 million Americans over the age of 13, 213 million are on Facebook, leaving the rest to call their friends one at a time when they get a new puppy, or send postcards from vacation rather than posting photos.

And now, as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress for two days about the data-mining operation, and the House Permanent Select Committee investigates whether Cambridge Analytica was working with the Kremlin, shunners like Podolsky are feeling vindicated.

I wouldnt say Im feeling smug, its more complicated than that, says Podolsky, an author, film producer and small business owner in Los Angeles. Facebook traded on our identities, our privacy, with impunity, for their own gain. That was their business model, to sell our very selves to advertisers. I know that is genius. Its even awesome. Its also terrifying that it is awesome.

The reasons non-users give for non-using are varied and nuanced. For Podolsky, its about the misappropriation of the concept of friendship. I think initially what caught my aversion was Facebooks co-option of the word friend, she says. I found it incrementally arrogant and intrusive to decide they could diminish the obligations and commitments of actual friendship. Thats where my personal antipathy started.

For Rachel Bamberger, it was about the substitution of a virtual experience for a real one. I try to find pleasure in real face time with my friends, or reading a book or listening to music, says the high school senior. I dont read books online because I love the smell of real books and the feel of actually turning the pages in my hand. You lose all the sensory parts when you spend all that time staring at a screen.

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For others, the core reason was the fear of loss of privacy. Im even hesitant to talk to you, said one office administrator in Florida who, nothing if not consistent, declined to be quoted by name. I definitely wouldnt want you to identify me in an article.

She recalls passing an old-fashioned phone booth as part of a display and having to explain its purpose to her young children. They asked, Whats it for? and I had to say Thered be a phone in there and you would close the door so you can talk, she recalls. It used to be that phone calls were presumed to be private. Now its blah, blah, blah, hysterectomy, blah, blah, blah, my yeast infection, blah, blah, blah.

Shes tried what she insists is the Facebook fad a few years ago when a group shed joined that met up for agility training for dogs began using the site for scheduling. I joined for my dog, and within half an hour of getting onto Facebook, a client who had sexually harassed me wanted to friend me, and right after him I got a request from a woman who I had worked with who I knew to be mentally ill. I just felt so exposed. I just closed my account, and, as a result, stopped attending agility training sessions.

I did lose out on that social interaction, she says, because I didnt want this other element.

Michael Gerstein, in turn, says he has stayed off social media because hes long feared something much like the Cambridge Analytica news of the past few weeks. Its the Wild West, he says, where people are grabbing all sorts of information about you and you dont know what they know or how they use it. He works in corporate finance in Manhattan, responsible for budgeting and forecasting, and was originally put off by the fact that Facebook has to be doing something like this because they have to make money, but I didnt understand exactly what that something is, and Im not comfortable with things I dont understand.

He has never used Twitter or Snapchat, he says. He does have a Facebook account, but I have never posted. I have replied to posts, but I couldnt even tell you how to post. The reason he even opened the account in the first place, he says, is because my wife wanted her profile to say she is married and it wont say that unless your spouse also has an account. (His wife was mistaken.) Still, the account exists, and he has 62 Facebook friends. Any one of those might have answered the 2014 Cambridge Analytica survey that the company then used to access the information of everyone in that users friend list. Which means he may in fact have been part of the data sweep. Even being careful doesnt protect you from being vulnerable, he says.

Ellen Fader, a Manhattan psychotherapist, believes she has been similarly victimized despite being careful. She joined LinkedIn in the the early days of the site and apparently clicked the wrong thing by mistake. As a result, It sent a blast email to my entire contact list, including everyones name and email listed publicly. These were clients in my therapy practice and now everyone on the list could see everyone else. I could have lost my license professionally. That was my worst fear about technology, and it came true.

All that is why she only used her fitness tracker for a very short while, she says. All she wanted to do was count her daily steps, but you have to sign all these agreements in order to participate with them, she says. It started her thinking: Someone out there is going to know my heart rate, my sleeping pattern, how many steps I take. Do I want all that data out there? Who knows what they are doing with your information? No, she says, she doesnt think anyone actually cares how much she walks, but she didnt think that anyone cared to sell Facebook friend lists to the Russians either.

Fader, who just turned 65  and who was filling out Medicare forms online when reached by phone at her Manhattan apartment  emphasizes that it is not because of her age that she is resistant to new technology. Theres the idea out there that older people dont know how to use this and thats why they stay away, she says, but in fact she has a website for her business and spends much of her day on the computer. It is not that she is incapable of understanding the new ways, she says, but because she understands them too completely.

In my mind, as a psychotherapist, the most important thing in this world is human connection, she says, and social media does foster a version of that, but its a version that has us relating to a device rather than a set of eyes thats gazing at you. If we fast forward, what are people going to be like 100 years from now? Will they remember how to relate in real life at all? I think the implications and the ramifications are enormous.

Sherry Hamby, a psychology professor at the University of the South who studies victimization of vulnerable communities in Appalachia, agrees that age is probably not the primary factor for those who shun social media, including some of the rural populations she studies. In her experience, few of the presumed reasons actually hold true. For instance, while it is assumed that individuals who live in Appalachia do not own the latest in technology because they cant afford it, her research has found that the deeper reason is a lot of skepticism about technology and a lot of consideration of the ways it changes life.

Her research paper titled Technology in Rural Appalachia: Cultural Strategies of Resistance and Navigation was one of dozens about Privacy at the Margins included in a special issue of the International Journal of Communication this month. Each of the papers was about a discrete population  from aboriginal communities in Australia to disadvantaged urban communities in India to college sophomores at big universities in urban areas  and each concludes that the decisions about technology use are driven by how users feel about the effect of a particular technology on their private, offline life.

Hambys research was conducted before the 2016 elections, so she does not know how her subjects feel about their choices to limit their social media use in light of the Cambridge Analytica controversy. She says she hopes to go back and find out.

Podolsky, for one, insists she does not take any pleasure in her prescience.

Do I feel smart? No, she says. Mark Zuckerberg is smart. Hes a genius. He created this interpersonal interplanetary connection and that is an outstanding accomplishment. Mine wasnt a prophecy, it was just me trying as a human being to resist the forces of the marketplace on my identity.

She may have succeeded in that she wont be getting a message from Facebook this week telling her whether she was in fact a victim of the latest of those forces, but she acknowledges she pays a price for opting out of a medium that reaches a third of the world.

Podolsky, who is currently writing a book, says that the first question publishers ask is, Whats your social media presence, how many clicks do you get?

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Madrid (AFP) - Brazil's former president Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday called for "international solidarity" with her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was jailed over the weekend on a corruption conviction.

Lula, 72, remains the leftist Workers' Party candidate for Brazil's October presidential election though his incarceration casts doubts on whether he can legally run for office.

He remains the comfortable favourite in voter surveys heading toward the October election.

"We need international solidarity," Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for allegedly falsifying public accounts, told a conference in Madrid.

She warned that "Brazilian democracy is at risk" because of the "parliamentary coup" which led to her impeachment and replacement as president by her conservative vice president Michel Temer.

Lula has so far received the support of the leftist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

While in Spain Rousseff met with leaders of the far-left party Podemos who have also expressed solidarity with Lula.

Rousseff, a 70-year-old former Marxist-guerrilla fighter of Bulgarian roots, reiterated that she believed Lula is innocent and that the Workers' Party would not drop him as its candidate for president.

"We don't have a Plan B. We maintain Lula's candidacy," she said, adding the party would fight in court to ensure he can stand in the election.

Lula is set to be declared ineligible in August after having his conviction upheld once again by an appeals court.

But he and his party are gambling that he could be released from prison before then and go on to contest the election.

Many in Brazil revere the former trade union leader for lifting tens of millions out of poverty during his 2003-2010 time in office. But many others see him as emblematic of the graft that plagues Brazilian politics.

He was found guilty last year of accepting a luxury seaside apartment from a construction group that picked up government public works contracts.

Brazil's Supreme Court is currently considering the laws that have put Lula behind bars while his lawyers are still pursuing appeals.

A vote by the court's justices could take place on Wednesday. If it goes ahead, Lula could be released -- for now -- or remain in his cell.
This article originally appeared on the History News Network.

The Wests Russia problem entered a new phase on March 4 with the attempted assassination-by-poison of the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in Salisbury, England. The botched killing touched off a diplomatic row and an astounding show of transatlantic unity, with nearly thirty countries expelling Russian agents in solidarity with Britain. Moscow has responded by denying involvement in the affair, announcing reciprocal expulsions, and closing other nations cultural institutions and consulates.

Talk of a new Cold War between Russia and the West may be exaggerated, but there is no denying the high level of East/West acrimony. Those who blame Russia for this state of affairs point to the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the ensuing armed conflict in Ukraine, intervention in the Syrian civil war, and meddling in the U.S. election. Meanwhile, Russias defenders claim that America seeks to isolate Russia, dominate its neighbors economically and politically, and pursue a new containment policy via NATO expansion and E.U. enlargement. Indeed, overt U.S. support to the post-Yanukovych Ukrainian government in 2014 arguably fit the longstanding American interest in coaxing states away from the Russian orbit. When the U.K. announced the expulsion of twenty-three Russian diplomats after the Skripal poisoning, the U.S. quickly followed suit by ejecting sixty Russian officers and closing the consulate in Seattle.

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Trump, Putin

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images

Yet although this latest episode looks like a throwback to the bad old days, extraterritorial assassinations have long been a part of Moscows modus operandi, and the spy-arrest-expulsion carousel is old hat. When the U.S. arrested C.I.A. officer Aldrich Ames in 1994 and F.B.I. agent Robert P. Hanssen in 2001 for selling secrets to the Russians, it also expelled Russian diplomats. There have been even more such tit-for-tat expulsions in the Obama-Trump era, including the December 2016 ejection of thirty-five Russians in response to Moscows election interference.

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2018 is not 1986

Dont expect the Skripal affair to foster anything as positive as the last diplomatic expulsions of the Cold War, which took place in 1986 following the arrest of a Soviet spy and an American journalist. Not only is the current East/West rivalry fundamentally different from the old one, but the U.S.-Soviet fracas of 1986 involved a reformist Soviet leadership desperate for a modus vivendi with the West. Moreover, the impasse was intertwined with two areas that were hallmarks of a different time: Russian reformers desire for arms reductions, and human rights activists desire for reforms in the Eastern Bloc. The episodes resolution on the cusp of the Reykjavik summit showed that the two sides were willing to cooperate in both of these areas.

1986 was a pivotal year in the still-dangerous Cold War. The tensions of the early 1980s had passed, but the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had little to show for the many years of arms control talks. They still aimed their massive nuclear arsenals at each other, and they fought each other by proxy in the armed struggles of Central America, Afghanistan, southern Africa, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Lebanon, and Iran/Iraq. On the other hand, human rights norms were gaining wider international acceptance, and a global democracy trend that had begun in southern Europe in the 1970s was sweeping through South America in the 80s. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and Ecuador had democratized, and many others would follow suit before the decades end.

Also promising was the burgeoning superpower detente overseen by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. These two leaders represented fundamentally different systems, but they were also unusually pragmatic. As Vladislav Zubok pointed out in his book Failed Empire, Gorbachev saw detente as a way to overcome his nations endemic economic weaknesses. The high oil prices of the 1970s had spurred a military spending spree, but by the mid-80s the Soviet economy was foundering on the shoals of low productivity and crashing oil prices. Gorbachev proposed a sweeping program of economic reforms (perestroika  restructuring) and liberation of the public sphere (glasnost  publicity, openness), and he was willing to make bold arms reduction proposals in the hope of reaping a peace dividend of reduced defense spending and new Western economic credits. One clear sign of this openness was the Soviets decision in February 1986 to release the refusenik political prisoner Anatoly Shcharansky and include him in a spy exchange. What seems clear, writes the scholar John Lamberton Harper, is that early 1986 represented a point of no return for Gorbachevs foreign policy.

Reagans approach to world affairs was also undergoing a profound change. In his first term (1981-1985), he oversaw a huge military buildup, and he generally defended Americas anticommunist partners while attacking the human rights records of communist governments. But in his second term (1985-1989), he proved far more willing to support democracy-promotion efforts while criticizing partner governments human rights abuses. When the U.S.-friendly dictators of Haiti and the Philippines fled their countries in February 1986, the administration quickly backed the new leaders. Reagan also lobbied hard to free high-profile dissidents like Shcharansky, Andrei Sakharov, and Yuri Orlov.

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Despite these new developments, several events in the spring and summer of 1986 threatened the thaw. Arms control talks stalled, due in part to American resumption of nuclear tests in Nevada. In March, the Soviets placed their forces on high alert when two American warships entered the Black Sea and sailed six miles from the Soviet coast. The following month, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against the Soviet client Libya after terrorists bombed a West Berlin disco. Less than two weeks later, the worst nuclear accident in history took place in Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR. And in June, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.S. had violated Nicaraguan sovereignty by supplying and funding contra rebels.

The Zakharov-Daniloff Affair

Later that year, a series of arrests and tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions further threatened the U.S.-Soviet detente. The saga began on August 23 with the FBIs arrest of Gennadi Zakharov, a member of the Soviet U.N. delegation who was caught buying technical information from an undercover agent. A week later, the Soviets retaliated by arresting the American journalist Nicholas Daniloff on trumped-up espionage charges, just as they had done in 1963 and 1978. When Zakharov gave his interrogators the names of three spies (according to a U.S. official, Zakharov sang like a tweetie bird while in custody), the U.S. expelled twenty-five members of the Soviet U.N. delegation.

Reagan personally assured Gorbachev that Daniloff was no spy, and Gorbachev replied by angrily decrying the massive hostile campaign against the Soviet Union. It is as if a pretext was deliberately sought to aggravate Soviet-American relations, he wrote. He then publicly rebuffed Reagan, calling Daniloff a spy caught red-handed and adding that the Americans had used the affair simply to reap a harvest of hatred toward us. Reagan was furious, writing in his diary that Gorbachev was arrogant and deliberately obtuse. Im mad as h--l. . . . The whole thing follows the pattern. We catch a spy as we have this time & the Soviets grab an Americanany American and frame him so they can then demand a trade of prisoners. In a speech to the U.N. on September 22, a defiant Reagan declared, A pall has been cast over our relations with the Soviet Union, but, he insisted, the facts were clear: Daniloff was a hostage and Zakharov a spy.

Both Gorbachev and Reagan saw hostile forces stymieing their efforts. For Reagan, it was the news media. The press is obsessed with the Daniloff affair, he wrote in his diary, & determined to paint all of us as caving into the Soviets. For Gorbachev, it was the conservative American defense establishment. As he told the Politburo, I am convinced . . . that in the U.S. governing circles they do not want to allow a relaxation of tensions, a slowing down of the arms race. This is most important for them now. . . . Not to let us increase the dynamism of our system. . . . This is what scares the Americans.

Because the Daniloff arrest had become the chief obstacle to a superpower summit, Secretary of State George Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze worked for weeks to resolve the issue. The journalists release was the Reagan administrations primary condition for continued talks, and they would not discharge Zakharov until the Soviets agreed to free some high-profile dissidents. The Soviets finally freed Daniloff at the end of September, and the Americans exchanged Zakharov for Yuri and Irina Orlov and two other dissidents. Upon Zakharovs release, they announced that a U.S.-Soviet summit would soon take place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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Reykjavik and Beyond

Reading the documentary record today, one is struck by just how much Gorbachev was willing to concede to reduce his nations defense burden and win economic concessions from the West. At the Reykjavik summit, he sought to sidestep troublesome issues like Afghanistan and human rights and instead make major arms reduction offers. Our goal is to prevent the next round of arms race, he instructed his advisers before the summit. If we do not do this, the threat to us will only grow. . . . We will be pulled into an arms race beyond our power, and we will lose this race, for we are presently at the limit of our capabilities. . . . The pressure on our economy will be inconceivable.

The Americans had lower expectations. Reagans advisers were cautious about Gorbachevs intentions, even to the point of predicting that Reagan and Shultz would have to smoke out the cagey Soviet leader. Shultz counseled Reagan that he should not expect any new agreements, but that the domestic political audience would want to see progress on arms control and human rights. Gorbachev must go home, wrote Shultz, with a clear sense that Moscows continuing insensitivity to the humanitarian dimension was hindering other breakthroughs.

As it turned out, the Reykjavik summit would be remembered for the way in which the two leaders snatched defeat from the jaws of victory over nuclear weapons and Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) missile defense system. In their final meeting, they came to a remarkable verbal agreement that each side would reduce, and eventually destroy, its nuclear arsenal. What went on between the two leaders seemed almost surreal to other participants, writes Zubok. In the view of American experts, Gorbachev made more concessions than they had received from the Soviet Union in twenty-five years. But the Soviet leaders condition was the abandonment of SDI, a suggestion that Reagan would not consider. He wanted language that would have killed SDI, wrote Reagan in his diary. The price was high but I wouldnt sell & thats how the day ended.

In the tense post-summit atmosphere, the Soviets expelled five American diplomats and ordered 260 Soviet-citizen employees of the U.S. embassy in Moscow to stop work, while the U.S. ejected fifty-five diplomats from the Soviet embassythe largest number ever expelled from the U.S. Things got worse for Reagan before they got better. Congress took control of Americas South Africa policy by passing a far-reaching sanctions package. In the November election, Democrats retook the Senate for the first time in six years. That same week, the press broke the story that the U.S. had sold arms to Iran and channeled funds to the Nicaraguan contras. Although Reagan was never directly linked to the Iran-contra decisions, his presidency was seriously weakened for nearly a year in 1986-87.

Meanwhile, many State Department Sovietologists did not believe that Gorbachev wanted to transcend the Cold War, and conservatives still feared the spread of communism in the global South. Some intelligence experts concluded that trading Zakharov for an innocent journalist had set a bad precedent and that the Soviets would simply repeat their gambit the next time around. And hawks in both nations feared that summit meetings were largely a ploy for the other side to demand concessions.

Despite these short-term misgivings, the long-term accomplishments of the Zakharov-Daniloff-Reykjavik period are undeniable. The Reagan administration put dissidents on the agenda, and the Soviets consented (with reservations) in order to achieve their economic and strategic goals. Moscow was beginning to accept such conditions as the cost of doing business with Washington. Many in Congress and the administration now believed that Gorbachev genuinely desired domestic liberalization and a fundamental reduction in East/West tensions.

Upon returning to Moscow, Gorbachev stated to his advisers, We need not fall into despair; Reykjavik led us to the most important stage of understanding of where we stand. Everybody saw that agreement is possible. In the ensuing months, the Soviets freed Andrei Sakharov, further liberalized emigration, and released most of their remaining political prisoners. The two sides also made great leaps in arms talks. As the arms negotiator Thomas Graham later reflected, Reykjavik was the watershed of arms control. At the breakthrough December 1987 Washington summit, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. As the first-ever agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals rather than merely limit weapon production, it was a key stepping-stone toward the landmark 1991 START I treaty. Moreover, the joint statement was the first to acknowledge human rights as a subject of bilateral concern.

The two sides had done the utmost to defuse tensions between the Zakharov-Daniloff affair and the Washington summit, and this new environment made possible the peaceful management of the Cold Wars end. Gorbachevs post-summit briefing to the Politburo spoke volumes about the momentous change in East/West perceptions:

In Washington we saw for the first time with our own eyes what great interest exists in everything that is happening here. . . . And the goodwill, even enthusiasm to a degree, with which prim Washington received us, was an indicator of the changes that have started taking place in the West. These changes evidence the beginning of the crumbling image of the enemy, and the beginning of the destruction of the Soviet military threat myth. That was momentous to us. And it was noticed throughout the world.

Dr. Joe Renouard teaches history and diplomacy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Nanjing, China. His latest book is Human Rights in American Foreign Policy: From the 1960s to the Soviet Collapse (Penn Press). His work has also appeared in The National Interest, The Diplomat, The Los Angeles Times, and American Diplomacy. He has taught at Emory University, Oxford College, Virginia Tech, Kennesaw State University, and The Citadel.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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The Russian military has reportedly gone on high alert in anticipation of a potential U.S. attack on the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Moscow ally accused of using chemical weapons in a seven-year civil war.

Leading Russian politicians and military officials reacted to President Donald Trump's promise Monday to respond "forcefully" within "the next 24 to 48 hours" to the Syrian military's alleged use of toxic gas earlier this week in rebel-held Douma, a suburb of Damascus.

Vladimir Shamanov, head of the lower parliamentary house's defense committee and a former airborne troops commander, said Russia had an obligation to protect its ally. Syria has denied the chemical weapons charges and has called for the U.S. to withdraw from the country.

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"The politics of double standards have hit rock bottom. And here the United Russia party conscientiously states that all political, diplomatic and military measures if necessary will be taken. No illegal action will remain unanswered," Shamanov said, according to the state-run Tass news agency.

"They should not pin their hopes on their naval task forces and their deceptions. We are a sovereign country, and we have allies and guarantors for those events taking place in Syria. We wont let the Americans hammer nails on someone elses anvil," he added.

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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump said Monday he "had a lot of options militarily" and would probably discuss a potential operation only "after the fact." Meanwhile, at least one U.S. guided missile destroyer was already near the Syrian coast on Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal, and a second, the USS Porter, could arrive sometime soon. U.S. Naval Forces Europe announced Tuesday that the USS Donald Cook had departed from nearby Cyprus, but did not say where it was headed.

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An Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the Donald Cook is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the same launched against a Syrian air base after reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack in rebel territory a year ago. An airstrike hit a Syrian air base in the central Homs province Sunday, but the Pentagon has denied responsibility for the attack, which killed Iranian and Syrian personnel. Russia, Iran, Syria and Lebanon have blamed the attack on Israel, which has declined to comment but has struck Syrian targets before.

Shamanov, who said local investigators found no trace of chemical weapons at the site of the reported attack, condemned Israel's unilateral airstrike. Russia has maintained a working relationship with Israel despite allying with Iran to help Assad overcome a 2011 uprising by insurgents and jihadis, including the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). It has also helped build up Syria's air defenses, which reportedly intercepted a number of missiles Monday and shot down an attacking Israeli jet in February. The Israeli incursion reportedly came in response to an Iranian drone crossing into Israeli airspace.

ABC News reported Tuesday that the Syrian military deployed missile defense systems near Assad's presidential palace in Damascus and that the U.S. destroyer was in striking distance of the country. Russian Beriev A-50 early-warning aircraft were deployed to the coast, according to Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency. The elite Black Sea Fleet has declared a state of alert, according to Al Jazeera.

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INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR/REUTERS

Last month, Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, warned that his armed forces would "target both the missiles and their delivery vehicles" if a U.S. strike endangered the lives of Russian personnel, who were present at a number of Syrian military installations.

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The U.S. and a number of allies initially supported the 2011 rebellion against Assad, but the Pentagon later focused on battling ISIS as the jihadis swallowed much of the Syrian opposition. As the militants lost territory nationwide in the years since, the multinational battle against them has taken a back seat to renewed tensions among local, regional and international forces, especially the U.S., Russia, Iran and Turkey. The Syrian government recognizes only Russia and Iran's military presence as legitimate.

Turkey, an ally of both the U.S. and Russia, launched a major incursion in January aimed at dislodging U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, many of whom have since fled the U.S.-led battle against ISIS to take on the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies. The offensive has brought the Kurds closer to Assad and was followed by clashes between pro-Syrian government forcesincluding Russian citizensand the mostly Arab remnants of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the east.

On Monday, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he "would not rule out anything" in terms of a U.S. military response in Syria. Last month, Mattis said that a sequel to the clashes between pro-Syrian government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces was avoided when U.S. military leaders contacted their Russian counterparts via a de-confliction line.

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U.S. Navy/Reuters

Asked if the de-confliction lines were being used to currently inform Russian military officials of any potential U.S. action, the U.S.-led coalition said it was speaking to Russia specifically about strike operations within the al-Tanf area, a southeastern desert outpost. It has been the setting for violence between U.S.-backed and pro-Syrian government forces in the past, and Russia has accused the U.S. of using the site to shield remaining ISIS fighters, a charge the Pentagon has dismissed.

"The de-confliction lines for air and ground operations are professional discussions that have successfully ensured continuous communication, preventing accidental targeting or needless escalation in tensions between Russian-backed Syrian regime forces and Coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and vetted opposition groups," the coalition told Newsweek in a statement.

As a potential crisis continued to develop, the White House said Trump would not attend the Summit of the Americas or make his debut Latin American tour and would instead "remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world." The statement said Vice President Mike Pence would go in his place.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Russia's top diplomat has warned that the situation in Syria was spiraling out of control after an unclaimed missile strike hit an air force base overnight in the central Homs province. Despite Moscow's warnings, President Donald Trump vowed to decide as early as Monday evening on whether or not to launch his own attack.

Not long after declaring his intention to soon withdraw troops from Syria, Trump said Monday he was considering a major escalation in response to reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on one of the final rebel-held pockets outside of the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Republican leader condemned the alleged use of toxic gas and confirmed that "nothing was off the table" in terms of retaliation.

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"If its Russia, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out and well know the answers quite soon. So were looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting. When asked later about Russian President Vladimir Putin's potential role, Trump said that "everybody's going to pay a pricehe will, everybody will."

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YOUSSEF KARWASHAN/AFP/Getty Images

While Trump said he would "be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours" or even "later today," his Russian counterpart dismissed Western "provocations and speculations" that the Syrian military was behind a chemical attack in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to a Kremlin statement. Top Russian political and military officials have previously warned that they may take retaliatory military action if the U.S. attacked Syria's armed forces, especially if it endangered Russian personnel.

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In another press conference Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov questioned Trump's intention to take his troops out of Syria and accused the U.S. of trying to prolong its stay in a country that has rejected the Pentagon's military presence. He also warned of the consequences of Sunday night's airstrikes, which Moscow has officially blamed on Israel.

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"The U.S. is taking steps...to establish a foothold there for a very long timeexperts agree on this," Lavrov said during a press conference, not yet confirming the Kremlin's suspicion that Israel was behind the attack on Syria's T-4 airbase, also know as Tiyas or Tayfour.

"Washington denied that these strikes were delivered by members of the coalition," Lavrov noted. "This once again shows that it is becoming too dangerous in Syria. Players emerged there whom no one had invited and who invited there themselves."

The strikes came shortly after Trump promised there would be a "big price...to pay" for the alleged chemical weapons attack in the besieged suburb of Douma, where Moscow has attempted to broker negotiations between the Syrian government and Islamist rebel group Jaysh al-Islam. Many local reports initially suggested that the missiles fired at T-4 air base came from U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, as they did in response to another alleged chemical weapons attack nearly exactly one year ago. The U.S. denied this.

Official sources, including those in Russia, Iran, Syria and Lebanon, have said Israeli jets shot the missiles after breaching Lebanese airspace.

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Israel has yet to comment on the accusations, but has occasionally struck suspected Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah positions in neighboring Syria throughout the country's seven-year civil war. Iranian officials were reportedly present at the T-4 airfield and Iran confirmed Monday that four of its military advisers were killed, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

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Institute for the Study of War/Reuters

Despite Russia's alliance with Iran, it has maintained a working relationship with Israel, but Moscow was quick to reveal that it believed Israel was behind the latest attack. Russia has also shored up Syria's air defenses, which reportedly intercepted a number of the incoming missiles Monday and shot down an attacking Israeli jet in February.

The U.S. has attempted to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad since offering covert support to the supporters of a 2011 uprising against the Baathist leader, but the Pentagon has since concentrated on battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as jihadi groups split and absorbed much of the Syrian opposition. In 2015, Russia intervened on Assad's behalf and the U.S. pursued anti-ISIS efforts by establishing a mostly Kurdish militia now partially aligned with Assad in a separate battle against Turkey and its formerly CIA-backed allies.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday that he "wouldn't rule anything out" when discussing the possibility of U.S. military action in Syria, according to the Associated Press.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian military said on Monday that two Israeli F-15 war planes had carried out strikes on a Syrian air base on Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported. Interfax cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying the Israeli war planes had carried out the strikes from Lebanese air space, and that Syrian air defense systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired. Asked about the Russian statement, an Israeli military spokesman said he had no immediate comment. Syrian state TV said on Monday the United States was suspected of striking an air base hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of a "big price to pay" as aid groups said dozens of people were killed by poison gas in a rebel-held town. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova in Moscow and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Moscow (AFP) - Russia's Gazprom said Tuesday it was possible that it could retain some transit via Ukraine after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this was essential for a planned Russian-German pipeline to go ahead.

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller was quoted by the state-owned energy giant as saying: "We never raised the question of stopping Ukraine transit".

He added that "a certain amount of transit could be maintained, from 10 to 15 billion cubic metres per year, but the Ukrainian side must prove the economic expediency of a new transit contract."

Miller said, however, that the location of Russia's potential gas resources was shifting to the north and "there simply won't be the same amount of resources" to go through the central pipeline.

Merkel said earlier Tuesday that plans for a controversial second underwater pipeline to bring gas from Russia could not go forward without Ukrainian involvement in overland transit.

"A Nord Stream 2 project without clarity about the Ukrainian transit role is not possible," Merkel said, after talks in Berlin with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
PARIS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia could take part in military action in Syria after a suspected chemical attack that killed at least 60 people in the eastern Ghouta region over the weekend, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday promised quick, forceful action in response to the attack, appearing to suggest a potential military response. "If our alliance with our partners requires it, we will be present," Prince Mohammed said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, wrapping up a three-day visit to Paris. Earlier, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir had told reporters that a number of countries were holding consultations on how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria and called for those responsible to be held accountable. "Our position is that those responsible have to be held accountable and brought to justice," he said. The attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people and hurt more than 1,000 at several sites in Douma, a town near the capital, Damascus, according to the Union of Medical Care Organizations. When asked whether Saudi Arabia could be part of such a response, Jubeir declined to comment. "I'm not going to get into speculation about what may nor may not take place but all I can say is that there are discussions with regards to the options that are available to deal with this matter," he said. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Riyadh (AFP) - Jean Paul Gaultier and Roberto Cavalli are in Saudi Arabia -- headlining the kingdom's first ever Arab Fashion Week, an event that opened Tuesday to equal parts excitement and controversy.

Two weeks later than initially planned, the Saudi Arabian edition of Arab Fashion Week joins designers from Europe and the Arab world over the course of four days -- including the kingdom's own Arwa Banawi, whose The Suitable Woman line is adored by fashionistas across the region, and Mashael Alrajhi, the eponymous gender-inclusive label of a rarely-seen Saudi sheikha.

Princess Noura Bint Faisal Al-Saud, honorary president of the Arab Fashion Council in Riyadh, joined designers, influencers, and industry insiders from Ukraine to Lebanon for the inaugural season of fashion week at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, the hotel now infamous as the holding place of hundreds of royals and businessmen arrested in a state-sponsored corruption crackdown.

"Fashion has always an interest of Saudi Arabia," Princess Noura told AFP at the event.

"It has not been something that wasn't on the table or in the picture," she added. "Our fashion council is trying to bring the fashion industry in Saudi Arabia to a whole new level, a whole new industry."

Listed as an international fashion week alongside Paris and Milan, Arab Fashion Week offers exclusively see-now-buy-now collections and pre-collections. Until this week, it had been hosted exclusively by Gulf fashion capital Dubai.

But unlike Dubai, the Riyadh shows are not open to cameras, and attendees remain women-only.

The ultraconservative kingdom has witnessed rapid policy change since the June appointment of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the king and heir to his throne.

As of this summer, women will be allowed to drive in the kingdom. The crown prince has also hinted that the abaya, the long loose robe worn by women from the neck down, may not be compulsory.

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"We are so excited today to be announcing a history and new era for the kingdom, and for the entire Arab world, which is Arab Fashion Week," said Jacob Abrian, CEO of the Arab Fashion Council.

A second edition of Saudi Arab Fashion Week is already scheduled for October.

Dubai will continue to host its own parallel Arab Fashion Week, with the sixth edition slotted for May 9-12.
Paris (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's crown prince wraps up his official visit to France Tuesday with a gala dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, as the young leaders seek to shore up cooperation despite lurking differences.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, previously dined with Macron at Paris's Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne.

Macron, 40, treads a diplomatic tightrope with the prince as he seeks to bolster his ties with the world's top oil exporter while also managing relations with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran.

Macron tweeted a picture of the pair at the Louvre looking at the 19th-century masterpiece Liberty Leading The People by revolutionary painter Eugene Delacroix, which shows Liberty as a bare-breasted woman.

"The discussions were friendly, which allowed the two men to establish a personal relationship," Macron's office said.

The two leaders will now work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said.

In a trip that appears focused on tourism, culture and the arts, the prince's delegation is set to host a forum Tuesday morning with multiple French business titans, which could trigger a host of memorandums of understanding.

The prince, widely known as MBS, is also expected to meet some French ministers, a source close to his delegation told AFP. He has so far met Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Pay.

Prince Mohammed's visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of his country, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

Saudi and French aides stressed before the trip that cultural ties, as well as new business opportunities, would be at the heart of two days of talks between government and private-sector figures from both countries.

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- Hollywood and Cannes -

The announcement that Saudi Arabia will make its first official appearance at France's Cannes film festival came after Prince Mohammed dined last week in Hollywood with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, along with film studio bosses and famed American actors including Morgan Freeman.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led it to be dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the UN.

Three out of four French people believe it is "unacceptable" for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll.

Ahead of the trip to France, Saudi officials suggested relations were strong between Macron and the crown prince, both young leaders with reformist agendas.

But the visit follows a period of underlying tensions.

Macron waded into a regional crisis last November when Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri tendered his resignation on live television from Riyadh, apparently under pressure from Prince Mohammed.

Macron invited Hariri to Paris for talks and he later rescinded his resignation, a development that analysts say exposed the limits of the prince's authority.

Macron has also announced plans to be the first French president to visit Iran since 1976, as he seeks to build relations with the two competing regional powers in the Middle East.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - The spokesman for a Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday that its military campaign in Yemen was not aimed at establishing a permanent presence along the country's West coast but at restoring its internationally recognized government. A Yemeni official had told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and its main ally the United Arab Emirates would likely seek to remain deployed along the country's Red Sea coast, where it is currently fighting an offensive against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. "Saudi Arabia and UAE are very worried about Iran's influence, so they are seeking to keep some military presence on the Yemeni coasts even if the civil war ends," said the official who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. In a response to a request for comment, the coalition denied the allegation. "The coalition is working by all means to restore Yemen's legitimacy so it can become stable and secure", spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement. "The Yemeni Republic will restore its role in protecting its lands and territorial waters, as well as contributing to the maintenance of regional and international security," he added. The kingdom and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 to roll back the Houthis after they had pushed the government into Saudi exile. Coalition and Yemeni forces have been making modest territorial gains in recent months against the group in an armed push moving northward from the Bab al-Mandab strait toward the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah. Yemen lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers, which pass near Yemen's shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe. (Reporting By Aziz El-Yaakoubi; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
PARIS (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco will sign eight deals worth $10 billion with French firms on Tuesday, the chief executive of the state-run oil giant said on Monday - the main contracts expected to be sealed during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to France.

The powerful young prince who is behind modernising reforms in Saudi Arabia is on a three-day trip at a time when relations between the two countries have become more complicated, including over how to address Iran's role in the region.

Amin Nasser told Saudi-run Al Arabiya TV on Monday that his company would finalise the accords on Tuesday. A Saudi-France economic forum is due to take place on Tuesday with an official signing ceremony in the afternoon.

Aramco and French oil major Total plan to sign an agreement to expand their joint venture refinery in Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on April 5.

Total declined to comment and Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The prince is not due to sign mega-contracts in France as he did in the United States and Britain in the past month. A French presidency statement said the two leaders would work on a strategic document that would lead to contracts by the year's end, when Macron travels to Saudi Arabia.

French officials dismiss suggestions that the lack of lucrative accords reflects a weakening in the relationship. They say a new "method" of working together does not depend on eye-catching new business.

TOURISM AND CULTURE

They will also formally agree on Tuesday to cooperate on a massive tourism project that showcases Saudi history, part of the prince's efforts to wean the country off a dependency on oil exports, open up its society and push social reform.

The two countries also said the Paris National Opera would help the kingdom develop a national orchestra.

Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Alawwad said the kingdom would officially participate for the first time in the Cannes Film Festival next month, with nine short films.

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Prince Mohammed on Monday pulled out of touring a mega-campus for tech startups in Paris, an official in the French prime minister's office said - a visit that was meant to highlight deepening Franco-Saudi technology ties.

Prince Mohammed, 32, and President Emmanuel Macron, 40, both paint themselves as champions of their nations' plugged-in younger generation.

The prince's decision to skip a visit to Station F, Europe's largest start-up incubator, founded by billionaire Xavier Neil, is likely to disappoint Macron, especially after the crown prince met technology titans in Silicon Valley last week.

France nurtured closer ties with the Sunni-ruled kingdom under president Francois Hollande, who was tough on Iran in nuclear negotiations and whose policies on conflicts across the Middle East broadly overlapped with Saudi positions.

However, Hollande's successor has sometimes viewed Prince Mohammeds uncompromising efforts to counter Irans growing regional influence as counter-productive, diplomats say.

"The president speaks to everyone, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Qatar...." the French presidency said in a statement after the two dined on Sunday night at the Louvre museum.

(Reporting by Marine Pennetier and John Irish; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
If U.S. President Donald Trump decides to take military action against the Syrian government in response to Saturdays chemical weapons attack outside of Damascus, he would almost certainly have to approve a wider operation than the limited strikes he ordered just over a year ago.

In order for the administration to actually inflict enough pain on the [Bashar al-]Assad government to send the signal that Trump wants, the U.S. would have to hit a wider package of targets, says Nicholas Heras, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. That would essentially cripple Assads military capabilities.

Given the ineffectiveness of previous one-off attacks, the U.S. military would also potentially need to engage in sustained airstrikes and publicly commit to targeting government facilities every time chemical weapons were used in the future.

Last years U.S. Tomahawk missile strike, carried out in response to a sarin gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, made headlines but did little to check the Syrian governments willingness or ability to carry out further assaults.

Although U.S. destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea fired 59 missiles at the air base from which the attack was launched, the strikes failed to inflict serious damage on the Syrian governments chemical weapons stockpiles or its military capabilities. Indeed, Syrian aircraft took off from the same air base just hours later.

And since then, Damascus has continued to deploy a variety of chemical weapons in its fight against opposition forces throughout the country. The Assad government has launched at least two other chlorine gas attacks since the Khan Sheikhoun incident, with little international response and no retaliation from Washington.

That history, plus Trumps new hawkish national security advisor, makes a bigger response more likely this time.

It would be very damaging to say theres a big price to pay and then do less than we did last time, one congressional aide says.

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According to Heras, Washington may decide to target government strongholds both in the west of the country as well as in the east.

It will be a bit of a balancing act, says Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and Yale University. There are going to be people in the U.S. military who will want to strike really hard.

Whether or not such a large-scale operation will lead the United States into a confrontation with Assads main patron, Russia, is less clear. The answer depends in part on the severity of the U.S. military action and whether or not the administration is willing to sustain strikes against Syria each time the [Assad] government uses a small amount of chlorine gas, Ford says.

Were pulling all of our plans off the shelf, but ultimately its the presidents decision. He has a lot of options he can take, and not all of them are military, Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon says.

U.S. naval ships  some of them armed with Tomahawk missiles  are at the ready in the region, with the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook having wrapped up a port visit in Cyprus earlier Monday.

Trumps deputies also are in discussions with the Britain and France over possible joint military action. Both European allies are members of the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, and France offered to take part in retaliatory strikes against the Syrian regime in 2013 before President Barack Obama decided against military action.

In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would launch strikes if he saw proof that chemical weapons had been used against civilians. Trump and Macron discussed the situation on Sunday and collectively vowed a strong, joint response, the White House said in a statement.

As White House and senior officials met Monday afternoon to review options, congressional aides said military action was likely within about 24 hours. My understanding is that the Trump team is going deep on this, Heras says. This is Trumps red line moment.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities will deport close to 600 illegal Afghan migrants in eastern Turkey back to Kabul this weekend, the interior ministry said on Saturday.





The Afghan migrants had crossed into Turkey through Iran due to ongoing terrorist activities and economic troubles in Afghanistan, the ministry said, and security forces had handed the migrants over to provincial immigration authorities.





It said deportation procedures had been completed for 591 migrants in the eastern province of Erzurum and that charter flights to Kabul would be arranged on Saturday and Sunday to send the migrants back.





Following the completion of deportation procedures for illegal migrants in our other provinces, deportations will speed up and continue in the coming days, the ministry said in a statement.





Rights groups have criticised Turkey for deporting migrants back to conflict-torn countries, including Afghanistan, saying it was putting their lives at risk.

This week the Hurriyet newspaper reported that several thousand Afghan migrants had crossed into Turkey in recent months and had walked for days from the border to reach Erzurum. - Read More




BANGKOK (Reuters) - Six migrant workers from Myanmar were killed when a double-decker bus they were traveling in crashed into a ditch in Thailand, the second fatal accident in as many weeks involving migrants. Up to 3 million people from poorer neighbor Myanmar work in Thailand, many in menial jobs, with their remittances home contributing 5 percent of gross domestic product, the World Bank estimates. Some rights groups say the migrant workers face harsh working conditions, and Thailand tightened rules for work permits last year. The bus was traveling late on Monday from the border town of Mae Sot to the province of Chachoengsao, a farming hub near Bangkok, the capital. "Six people died and 30 were injured," national police spokesman Kissana Phatanacharoen told Reuters, adding that the driver, who told police the brakes were not working, had been charged with causing death by reckless driving. Last month, a fire on board a bus in western Thailand killed 20 migrant workers. The accidents come amid preparations for the Songkran festival that ushers in the traditional Thai New Year. The festival, which can be a raucous affair, brings a spurt in the number of road deaths from careless driving, including drunk driving, which successive governments have targeted with vigorous road safety campaigns. Thailand's roads rank as the world's deadliest after Libya's, the World Health Organization says in its most recent study. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
The U.K. is right to punish and blame Russia for the poisoning of an exdouble agent on English soil, one of the Russian developers of the Soviet Union's chemical arms has said.

The ex-Russian military intelligence officer, Sergey Skripal, was poisoned alongside his daughter last month by a substance that they are thought to have been exposed to in their home in Salisbury, England. British investigators have quickly pointed the finger at Russia, identifying the chemical used as a member of the family known as novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Russian government has denied orchestrating the poisoning and deflected the accusations to other countries it says are able to produce the military-grade substance.

Related: Guinea pigs and cat of poisoned spy Skripal are dead

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In denying complicity, Russias Ambassador to the U.K. Alexander Yakovenko said last week that Russia had never produced the so-called novichok, and it was "a creation of some other countries and some scientists."

04_09_Skripal

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

One of the Russians who worked on the Soviet chemical weapons program from the 1970s until the 1990s, Vladimir Uglev has confidently declared that what incapacitated Skripal was the substance he developed in 1975, ranked as part of the novichok family.

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I have no doubt that it was precisely A-234 which was used! Uglev told the Financial Times in comments sent via email from his retirement home on the Black Sea coast. The chemist warned, however, that determining with absolute certainty where the substance had been produced was not possible. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is expected to finalize its analysis of the matter this week.

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Russia has pointed to the fact that the British allegations lacked certainty about the compounds origin as a reason to criticize an international wave of sanctions that have hit its diplomats in Europe and the U.S. as punishment for the poisoning. The U.K., U.S. and over 20 partnering countries kicked out more than 100 Russian diplomats as a punitive move following Skripal's poisoning. Uglev said he supported Londons actions, adding that definitive, chemical proof in these matters was unlikely. Instead, he criticized what he believed to be the tactics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his administration and his allies in the security services.

As a Russian citizen, I do not accept the great-power chauvinism fanned by the regime of Kremlin-Lubyanka thieves and killers, and therefore fully understand and support the policy of the British government towards Russia, Uglev said. Putin once headed the federal security services at their headquarters in Lubyanka Square, before moving into politics. At the same time, as a professional chemist, I perfectly understand that we will not get 100 percent proof of the guilt of the Kremlin-Lubyanka killers, neither from the English specialists, nor from the experts of the OPCW, Uglev added.

Skripal is apparently on the mend after a month in recovery, according to hospital officials in Salisbury, who confirmed last week that the ex-spy is no longer in critical condition.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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(Photo: Getty Images)

Equal Pay Day is more than a hashtagits a movement. Conceptualized by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996, the day was initially created as an awareness event, meant to symbolize how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. But with heightened awareness about how much mens salaries outpace womens (thanks, Internet), #EqualPayDay has gone from a spotlight on inequality to a rallying cry for change.

Its change thats long overdue.

Based on current research from the Institute for Womens Policy Research (IWPR), women earn less than men in nearly every industry, even when doing equivalent work. This wage gap, as its come to be known, manifests as women bringing home (on average) 78.3 cents for every dollar that a white man (the highest paid individuals) makes. The number gets even worse when divided up by race. While white women earn roughly 83 centers for every dollar a white man makes, black women take in just 66 cents for every dollar, and hispanic women only 60.

When IWPR released these numbers in 2014, they estimated that the earliest the wage gape would be closed was 2059. Its this number that inspired executives at activewear brand Lululemon to take action. That troubled us, Celeste Burgoyne, Lululemons Executive Vice President for the Americas told MAKERS (for whom she serves as a board member). We value women in an extreme way.

So last March, in an email to staff, Burgoyne and other leaders at the company pledged to close the pay gap at their own company, within a year. Now, in celebration of #EqualPayDay, Burgoyne has announced that equity has in fact been reached. As of April 2, 100 percent of the 14,000 employees at Lululemon are paid equally for equal work, no matter their gender.

At lululemon, we stand for pay equity. Read more about our journey to close the gender pay gap with @MAKERSwomen: https://t.co/ll1IubtztL #Equalpayday  lululemon (@lululemon) April 10, 2018

Lululemon, while commendable, isnt the first to achieve pay equality. In the last few years, multiple companies have come forward to say theyve achieved pay parity. In support of more companies following their lead, heres a breakdown of how they did itand what they had to say afterwards.

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Salesforce

Salesforce, a cloud computing company that helps companies streamline their workflow, has regularly been voted one of the best companies to work for. So its no wonder that the San Francisco-based company was one of the first to take the lead on this issue. In 2015, the companys CEO Mark Bernioff called for a review of the salaries of all 16,000 of his employees. When he found a major wage gap between men and women, he spent $3 million to close it. Speaking at the World Economic Forum last year, Bernioff urged his peers to follow suit. Every CEO needs to look at if theyre paying men and woman the same, he said. That is something that every single CEO can do today,

Apple

Another group that tackled this problem head on was Apple. In August 2016, the company announced that it had closed the wage gap, both among women and people of color. Under a section titled Pay equity is the right thing to do, the company highlights its efforts. Weve achieved pay equity in every country where we operate when you factor in similar roles, markets and performance, the statement reads. Women earn one dollar for every dollar male employees earn. And underrepresented minorities earn one dollar for every dollar white employees earn. On top of closing the gap, the company said it examines the compensation employees earn yearly, and makes adjustments to ensure equity is maintained.

Adobe

In 2017, Adobe joined its tech neighbors Apple and Intel (which, after careful analysis, found it didnt have a wage gap), by announcing that its pay disparity had been closed. With women making 99 percent for every dollar men were making, the computer software company didnt have far to go. But closing that gap was still notable, especially given the companies reach. We were already close to pay parity in the U.S. through our strong people practices, and now we are proud to have achieved and documented this last step of full parity, Donna Morris, Adobes executive vice president of Customer & Employee Experience said in a statement. It means a lot to our U.S. employees, and were excited to extend that same commitment to our global employee base in the upcoming year.

Starbucks

We believe in equal pay for equal work.

Weve achieved 100% pay equity in the US.

Were committed to making this true globally. #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/DUZYjwvoaV  Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) April 10, 2018

On March 21, during its annual meeting with shareholders, coffee behemoth Starbucks announced that it had reached pay equality for its more than 200,000 employees nationwide. In a statement on the companys website, executive vice president and chief partner officer Lucy Helm said the company will continue to fight for pay equity among its partner companies as well. This milestone is the result of years of work and commitment, and we believe it is important, as a company of our scale, to help bring more attention to this critical issue, Helm said. Starbucks has consistently outperformed our industry in terms of pay equity, but it is incumbent upon us to do more.

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Giada De Laurentiis stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to share her recipe for spaghetti with chianti and fava beans. And if that already sounds like something Hannibal Lecter might enjoy, just wait until you see what Colbert added to it.

The interview started a little bumpy, with De Laurentiis critiquing Colbert on his pronunciation of Italian words. After one exchange, Colbert chugged an entire bottle of chianti, which may or may not have caused his later mishap.

Colbert was given the task of hand-grating parmigiano cheese for the meal. He told De Laurentiis that he had been a waiter at a fancy Italian restaurant in Chicago for five years, which is why hes so good at grating cheese.

While telling the story, Colbert nicked his finger on the cheese grater. De Laurentiis offered Colbert a towel and then suggested he dip his finger into a pot of hot chianti.

The hot wine made the cut sting even more, which led to lots of laughs from the audience. Colbert ultimately resolved the issue by downing another glass of wine.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 on CBS.

Watch Dr. Evil dish on his time at the White House:





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Khartoum (AFP) - Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir Tuesday ordered the release of political detainees, weeks after massive arrests in a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Security agents arrested hundreds of opposition leaders, activists, protesters in January in an attempt to curb demonstrations over rising food prices, including bread.

"President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday issued a decree to release all political detainees held across the country," the official SUNA news agency reported, quoting the decree.

The SUNA report did not specify how many prisoners would be set free or whether they would include detainees held before the crackdown began.

"The decision aims to promote peace and harmony among all political parties in order to create a positive environment for achieving national goals," SUNA said.

The January arrests came after sporadic protests erupted in the capital Khartoum and towns across the country after the price of bread more than doubled.

Some activists were later freed but many still remain in detention, including top opposition leaders Khaled Omar of the Sudanese Congress Party and Mokhtar al-Khatib, head of the Sudanese Communist Party.

Bashir's order comes just days after the chief of Sudan's powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Salah Abdallah Mohammed Salih, held a meeting with opposition activists over the issue of detainees.

During the meeting, Salih, widely known as Salih Ghosh, had agreed to release detainees, according to the opposition Communist Party.

The United States and European embassies in Sudan have called for the release of all detainees, with Washington's mission in Khartoum saying that many are being held in "inhumane conditions".

Sudanese authorities had cracked down on protesters in a bid to prevent a repeat of deadly unrest that followed an earlier round of subsidy cuts in 2013.

At that time dozens of people were killed when security forces crushed demonstrations, rights groups say.
President Trump renewed speculation about the fate of the Russia investigation after the FBI raided the office of his personal attorney on Monday, saying in response to a question about firing special counsel Robert Mueller, Well see.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox Business Tuesday that if Trump did, it would be suicide.

I have confidence in Mueller. The president ought to have confidence in Mueller, Grassley said. I think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he would be.

Trump sounded off about Mueller before a meeting of military officials at the White House on Monday night after learning that the FBI had raided the office and hotel of his personal lawyer Michael Cohen. The New York Times reported that federal agents were looking for information related to Cohens hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, as well as possible payments to other women by Cohen or the National Enquirer.

So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and its a disgraceful situation, Trump began. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time.

Its an attack on our country, in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for, Trump continued, saying the raids represent a whole new level of unfairness.

On CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., dismissed the idea that the special counsel is on a witch hunt.

I dont see any reason to fire Mr. Mueller, Graham said. I know the presidents frustrated. Hes told me over and over he did nothing to collude with the Russians. He thinks this thing is running, you know, outside the boundaries here. But at the end of the day, Mueller needs to continue to do his job without political interference, and I think most members of Congress view it that way.

But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., accused Mueller of abusing his authority with the raids on Cohen.

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Going after someones personal attorney is a great overstep, I think, in the authority of the prosecutor, Paul said on Fox News. The presidents right: Its a witch hunt.

Paul was asked if he felt the same way about Ken Starr, the former Whitewater independent counsel, investigating President Bill Clintons relationship with Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s. You know, I may not have been as consistent back then, Paul replied.

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, a close friend of Trump, said on Monday night that Mueller is now a man that has to be brought under control.

I would fire the SOB in three seconds if it were me, Dobbs added.

At the White House, Trump was asked by reporters why he doesnt just fire Mueller.

Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens. But I think its really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, You should fire him, Trump said. So well see what happens. I think its disgraceful, and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

The president could take steps to remove the special counsel, but he would need the cooperation of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. Its believed that Rosenstein, who reportedly threatened to quit because of the way the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey was handled, would not back such a move.

The special counsel is not an unguided missile, Rosenstein told USA Today last month. I dont believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel.

On CNN Monday night, former Trump adviser Steve Cortes said Trump ought to clean house.

The president needs to fire Jeff Sessions, Cortes said. He needs to fire Rosenstein. He needs to fire Mueller. This is a sham investigation. This is his own Justice Department trying to usurp the power of the presidency.

Any attempt to remove Rod Rosenstein will create the exact same constitutional crisis as if he fired special counsel Mueller, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. Dont do it. Do not go down this path. For the sake of our country, we plead with you.

Appearing on CNN Tuesday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said that if Trump were to move in the direction of removing Mueller, certainly wed be looking at some sort of constitutional crisis.

On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders have resisted calls from Democrats to pass legislation that would protect the special counsel, saying there is no need to do so.

Mueller should be allowed to finish his job, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. I havent seen a clear indication yet that we need to pass something to keep him from being removed because I dont think thats going to happen.

Our Republican colleagues say [the] President wont fire Mueller, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tweeted on Tuesday. If they arent going to pass legislation to protect investigation, then they must tell us what theyre going to do if he does.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Older, white voters with college degrees helped Donald Trump secure a seat in the Oval Office. Lately, however, the same voters who contributed to the business mogul's victory in 2016 are turning toward the Democratic Party, new polling data shows.

White people over 60 with college degrees now favor Democrats over Republicans for congressional seats by a narrow 2-point margin, according to polling data released Monday by Reuters and Ipsos. While the lead is slim, it's 12 points removed from the same time period in 2016, when there was a 10-point lead for the conservative party.

Taken over the first three months of 2018, the shift is "one of the largest" the poll has measured over the last two years, according to Reuters. Even more damning for the Republican Party, older, white voters make up the voting majority in crucial upcoming races, including those in California and New Jersey.

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Congressional Republicans up for re-election in 2018 will likely lose their seats if the swing continues, meaning key agenda items from the Trump administration may fail to secure congressional approval. The poll, which included 65,000 respondents nationwide, can be accessed in full here.

During the 2016 election, about 58 percent of white voters cast a ballot for Trump according to the Pew Research Center. Since then, with the exception of a few outliers, polls have repeatedly shown that support for the president and the Republican Party at large is waning. In December, a Gallup survey found that party affiliation among Republicans dipped 5 percent.

Of course, whether the decline in favorable polling data translates to a dip in actual votes remains to be seen. After all, polling can get it wrong and has in the past.

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There are many documented problems with polling, but a more recent addition is advancements in technology. As a result, people are less likely to answer polling requests, experts say.

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"The problem is simple but daunting," said polling master Nate Silver on his website FiveThirtyEight. "The foundation of opinion research has historically been the ability to draw a random sample of the population. Thats become much harder to do.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Russia has doubled down on its defense of its ally Syria, dismissing the alleged chemical attack in Douma, eastern Ghouta, as fake.

Footage of the apparent aftermath of the attack in the formerly rebel-held town on Saturday has shocked western governments, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to describe Syria's president as "Animal Assad." Clips posted online by rescue workers show the apparently lifeless bodies of Syrians, including children, foaming at the mouth. Dozens died in the attack, according to aid workers.

Russian forces have fought alongside Bashar al-Assads troops since 2015 on the side of the regime, whose brutal rule triggered an armed revolt seven years ago that has led to todays civil war.

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Russia has called into question the validity of evidence of a chemical attack, disputing that an attack even happened. Speaking as both the U.S. and France threatened retaliation to the chemical attack on Monday, Moscows envoy to the United Nations accused rebels of staging the incident and the West of using it for their own ends, state news agency Itar-Tass reported.

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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Saturdays fake [story] from Douma aims partly at diverting the attention of the public from the vaudeville around the Skripal case, Russias Ambassador to the U.N. Vasily Nebenzya said. The diplomat referred to another recent political scandal, which has convinced western allies that Russia is responsible for the poisoning of a former double agent in its ranks. After becoming critically ill near his home in the south of England last month, ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal is still in hospital and U.K. investigators have determined that he was poisoned with a Soviet-developed nerve agent.



Speaking at the U.N. Security Council, Nebenzya warned the U.S., U.K. and France that they are treating Russia and Syria confrontationally without considering the consequences.

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A wide arsenal of methods is being used: slander, insult, hawkish rhetoric, Nebenzya said. Through the appropriate channels, we have already raised it with the American side that the forceful actions under false pretexts against Syria, where Russian servicemen are located at the request of the legitimate government of this country, can lead to the most serious of consequences."

This article was first written by Newsweek

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The international community has condemned the poison gas attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma on April 7 which killed more than 40 people.

President Donald Trumps promise to respond with force has raised the specter of direct confrontation between Washington and Moscow, with Russia warning against any U.S. military action.

While countries and the United Nations weigh up what to do next, Newsweek looks at the key questions surrounding the conflict in Syria, now entering its eighth year.

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White Helmets/Handout via REUTERS

How did the conflict begin?

When Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in January 2011 to protest against harassment by local officials, he lit a powder keg that became the Arab Spring. By April that year, the uprising had reached Syria, whose 22 million people had been living for 11 years under ruler Bashar al-Assad since the death of his strongman father, Hafez.

Following the lead of peaceful protests in Tunisia and Egypt, Syrians took to the streets to challenge the country's dictatorship. Syrian government security forces responded with brutality. The Syrian Army fired on demonstrators and government forces were deployed around the country. The security crackdown by Assads forces morphed into an armed rebellion, that was fuelled by competing interests and sucked in regional allies.

Who is fighting whom?

This is where it gets complicated. While conventional warfare might see two sides pitted against each other, Syria's conflict fought along ethnic and sectarian lines, helped by proxy actors with their own agendas.

Assad's regime hails from the minority Alawite sect, a branch of Shiism, and the forces of Bashar al-Assad have regional support from Shiite powers, including Iran and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

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The Syrian opposition includes the Free Syrian Army (FSA), backed by the United States. But also Tahrir al-Sham, formed from the remnants of the Nusra Front, which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, another Islamist group. Until last year, one of the main military actors in Syria was the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), which was driven out of Raqqa in 2017 but still retains a presence in Syria.

Also thrown into the mix is Ahrar al-Sham, made up of militants who want to see the end of Assad but want a hardline Islamic government to replace him. They fight Assads forces and ISIS, which is useful for the FSA, but they also fight Tahrir al-Sham.

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Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/ via REUTERS/

Didnt Syria give up its chemical weapons?

The poison gas attack last week cast peoples minds back to August 2013 when the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack in Ghouta near Damascus.

It was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq war and so the Obama administration agreed with Russia that Assads arms be removed peacefully.

In January 2016, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced the destruction of all of Syrias chemical weapons.

But those words have come back to haunt the organization and the international community with the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation saying it was likely that the Syrian regime either lied about their chemical weapons or created new stockpiles.

Why is Russia being blamed?

Russia has had strong ties with Syria going back to the Soviet era. Moscow supported Syrian independence in 1946 and established a naval base in Tartus in 1971. Russia also has considerable investment with Damascus with plans to build grain mills, pump gas and explore for oil.

The overthrow of Russias ally, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011 was an affront to Moscow, which saw it as violating international law and requiring the Kremlin to seek other means to maintain its influence in the Middle East.

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Putin said in January that Russian forces used 215 new types of advanced weapons systems in Syria, which included long-range air and sea-based systems like the Kalibr missile and X-101 missiles.

With little doubt that Assad would not have been able to stay in power without Moscows help, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that after the most recent chemical attack, Russias hands are covered in the blood of Syrian children.

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REUTERS/Carlos Barria

How will Donald Trump respond?

The U.S. president is nothing if not impulsive, and reports suggest his visceral response to images of gasping children was similar to the one that followed the chemical attack in April 2017. That incident prompted him to order 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to be fire at Al Sharyat airfield in western Syria.

This time round, Trump seems prime to respond with force, saying We cannot allow atrocities like that, adding that nothings off the table.

Haley has said that there is liaison with French president Emmanuel Macron about what to do next, which brings us on to the final question...

How will the rest of the international community respond?

The moral equation for countries of how to punish those responsible for a chemical weapons attack includes ensuring maintaining leverage with Washington and influence in the region.

The Times reported British government concerns that the U.K. could be sidelined and lose influence in Washington to France if it did not join Trump in a retaliatory strike against Damascus. Britain is said to be preparing Tomahawk missiles while the French president is egging on Trump to act against Assad.

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REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Options for the U.K. could include a Royal Navy attack submarine armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles or Royal Air Force fast jets that can fire Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

However British prime minister Theresa May said there needed to be more evidence that Damascus was responsible and the UK will want to be seen to uphold international law.

And ties between the West and Russia, already at a historic low after the diplomatic fallout from the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning, could slump even further, after Russian U.N ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the incident in Douma was staged and that any military action in response could have "grave repercussions."

This article was first written by Newsweek

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This article originally appeared on Atlantic Council.

Syria presents newly minted US National Security Advisor John Bolton with his first foreign policy crisis.

On April 9, hours after US President Donald J. Trump vowed Bashar al-Assads regime will pay a big price for an alleged chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb, unidentified jets were reported flying over Lebanon and the Syrian news agency said that a missile attack on an air base in central Syria had been thwarted. The Pentagon denied US jets were involved.

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John-bolton

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for the strikes. Israeli officials have declined to comment.

Israel knows its way around Syrian airspace. In March of 2018, Israel publicly acknowledged for the first time that its fighter jets destroyed a clandestine nuclear facility in Syria eleven years ago, which, if completed, would have made Syria the first Arab nuclear state.

Bolton plunged into his new role after his predecessor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, stepped down on April 6. He was part of US President Donald J. Trumps national security team that huddled over the weekend to determine options on how to respond to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria. April 9 is Bolton's first official day on the job.

On April 7, Assads military reportedly used chemical weapons in an attack in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. More than three dozen people are believed to have died in the attack.

While blame for the attack has not been officially determined, Trumps tweets on the morning of April 8 suggest that he appeared to believe that this was a chemical weapons attack carried out by the Assad regime.

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Trump will find Bolton to be supportive of his views.

Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, is widely known for his hawkish views on foreign policy, especially on Iran and North Korea.

In a Twitter post on February 7, Bolton wrote: It should surprise no one that the Syrian government continues to develop new chemical weapons. The Assad regime has a record of killing its own people and the international community hasnt done enough to deter this continuing behavior.

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In his own April 8 tweets, Trump wrote: President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. This was the first time since his election that Trump has criticized the Russian leader by name on Twitter.

R. Nicholas Burns, an Atlantic Council board member who served as undersecretary of state for political affairs in the George W. Bush administration, wrote in a tweet that Trumps first strong criticism of the Russian president was noteworthy.

The attack in Douma occurred days after Trump indicated that he wanted to pull US troops out of Syria.

President Trump may well want out of Syria, sooner rather than later. But, like his predecessor, he has drawn a chemical weapons red line. And he probably knows what his predecessor learned the hard way: what happens in Syria does not stay in Syria, Frederic C. Hof, a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, wrote in the New Atlanticist.

If the reports of deadly chemical usage are accurate, Bashar al-Assad has taken the measure of Donald Trump and has decided he can do what he wants, when he wants, where he wants, and with whatever he wants to whomever he wants, Hof said. There is no doubt that the US Department of Defense, reacting to the commander-in-chief's strong words, has prepared contingency targets for just this sort of circumstance. What must not be left in doubt is the willingness of the United States to match its words with deeds.

In the past, Trump has followed through on his strong rhetoric on Syria.

A year ago, on April 7, 2017, the US president ordered missile strikes on Syria following a chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in the western Idlib province. That attack killed more than seventy people. Many of the victims were children. The Assad regime denied responsibility.

Trump, who at one time opposed bombing Syria, said he ordered the strike because it was in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.

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Fifty-nine Tomahawk Cruise missiles struck Al Shayrat air base, the Pentagon said. The missiles targeted Syrian fighter jets, hardened aircraft shelters, radar equipment, ammunition bunkers, sites for storing fuel, and air-defense systems.

The US intelligence community had made the assessment that chemical weapons were stored at Al Shayrat air base and that aircraft from the base conducted the April 4 chemical weapons attack.

Trumps red line was established when he actually struck the regime for its chemical weapons attack about a year ago, said Faysal Itani, a resident senior fellow in the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The implication was that if Assad used chemical weapons again, hed be hit again.

Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, had famously said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a red line for him, which, if crossed by the Assad regime, would result in a strong US response.

Obama was subsequently criticized for failing to respond militarily after the Syrian regime carried out a chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, an area outside Damascus, in 2013. One of the reasons the former US president was reluctant to act was that he wanted to first get the US Congress on board.

If nothing happens, Assad will obviously conclude that Trump is as vacuous as Obama when it comes to enforcing threats," said Itani.

"But if the United States does hit regime targets in a very limited manner, that would not necessarily change the regimes future behavior anyway, he added.

Itani pointed out that the United States very limited response to the chemical weapons attack in 2017 did not convince [Assad] not to use chemical weaponsinstead it showed him the cost of doing so was manageable.

The price [for Assad] would have to be big indeed to change that, he added.

Following the attack in Ghouta, the Obama administration struck a deal under which Syrias chemical weapons were dismantled and shipped out of the country. However, the deal did not cover chlorine gas, which has been used by the regime in several attacks with deadly results.

There was another catch. Assad did not declare all his chemical weapons.

In his January 5, 2017, exit memo then US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote: Removing these weapons from Syria ensured that they could not be usedby the Asad regime or by terrorist groups like ISILbut unfortunately other undeclared chemical weapons continue to be used ruthlessly on the Syrian people.

This appears to have been the case in Douma on April 7.

The most important reality here is the military one: Assad needs to take the Damascus suburbs at a minimum cost of (regime) life. One way to break the will of a well-entrenched, stubborn enemy like Jaish al Islam is to use chemical weapons, said Itani.

Assad has never stopped using chlorine as a weapon anyway, and never paid any price for doing so, said Itani. The larger subtext is of course US policy incoherence and the US presidents consistently signaling his disinterest in the Syrian conflict and eagerness to disengage from it.

Ashish Kumar Sen is deputy director of communications, editorial, at the Atlantic Council. Follow him on Twitter @AshishSen.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Ms Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist, and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in Syria in 2012 - AFP

The Syrian government celebrated after they targeted and killed veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin, a former Syrian intelligence officer has claimed.

Ms Colvin, an American journalist working for the Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by rockets fired at a house they were staying at in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs, western Syria, in 2012.

British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian interpreter Wael al-Omar were all wounded in the same attack.

The claims were made by the officer in newly released court documents filed as part of a wrongful death suit by Ms Colvin's family.

The former intelligence officer, code named Ulysses, provided a detailed account of how Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime sought to capture or kill journalists and activists in Homs, a centre of the pro-democratic revolution that erupted across the country in 2011.

Photographer Remi Ochlik was also killed in the strike. Credit: AP

The defector claimed that when Ms Colvin's death was confirmed, Syrian Maj. Gen. Rafiq Shahadah exclaimed: "Marie Colvin was a dog and now she's dead. Let the Americans help her now."

His account appears to be corroborated by Syrian government documents filed as evidence in the case, which suggest the regime targeted her to silence her reporting on its atrocities.

The defector claimed that as an intelligence officer, he reviewed intelligence and surveillance reports from around the country during 2011 and 2012 and was privy to open and secure communications. He currently lives legally in Europe because he fears he is wanted by Syrian intelligence officials.

The lawsuit alleges that Syrian forces tracked Western journalists' movements and located their media centre so they could be captured or killed.

President Bashar al-Assads government claimed after the attack that they had not known who was in the house, or that any of the journalists were in the country as they had entered illegally.

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Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, speaks with Syrian troops during his visit to the front line in Damascus. Credit: Syrian official news agency SANA

However, the lawsuit alleges that Ms Colvin was in fact being tracked from neighbouring Lebanon after Syrian officials received information that she and Mr Conroy were planning to smuggle into the war-torn country.

She was reporting on the Syrian government's bombing of residential areas when she was killed by a rocket attack on a media centre.

The pair entered Homs through an underground water tunnel and toured a field hospital and a cellar called the "widow's basement" where mostly women and children sought shelter from the bombs.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, speaks with Marie Colvin during a service at St. Bride's Church in London. Credit: Getty

As part of her reporting, Ms Colvin gave live interviews to the BBC and CNN. Syrian forces were "shelling with impunity and a merciless disregard for the civilians who simply cannot escape," she said.

The highest levels of the Syrian government, including President Assad's brother, were behind the plan to track the journalist once she entered Syria, the lawsuit claims, using a mobile satellite interception device that could tap broadcast signals and locate their origin as well as an informant on the ground.

As part of his testimony, the defector identified eight Syrian officials, including Mr Assad's brother Maher, who he claims were involved in the attack on the media center.

Marie Colvin at St Bride's Church in London in 2012. Credit: Getty

"The actual maliciousness that the Syrian regime had against Western reporters and their Syrian counterparts and sources is on display through multiple witnesses and multiple documents," said Scott Gilmore, the lawyer acting on behalf of Ms Colvin's family.

Her sister Cathleen is seeking an undetermined amount for the emotional pain of losing her sister, compensatory damages for her three children, who are beneficiaries of Ms Colvin's estate, and punitive damages against the Syrian government.

So far, the Syrian government has not filed any response to the lawsuit.

At least 100 journalists, most of them Syrian, have been killed in the country since the conflict began in 2011.

Ms Colvins killing came early on in the Syrian civil war, when, as the lawsuit claims, President Assad's regime was trying to silence local and international media "as part of its effort to crush political opposition".

A veteran foreign correspondent, Ms Colvin had years of experience reporting in war zones. She covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, East Timor and Sri Lanka where she lost the sight in her left eye in a blast. The black patch she wore over her eye became her trademark.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government said it would start negotiations on Sunday with the rebel group Jaish al-Islam, hours after dozens of people were reportedly killed in a suspected chemical attack on the enclave the group controls outside Damascus. There was no immediate comment from Jaish al-Islam, which said the government carried out the chemical attack in the town of Douma. At least 49 people were killed, according to a medical relief organisation and Douma's civil defence rescue service. Damascus has denied mounting any such attack and said the rebels in Douma, who are massively outgunned and completely encircled, were collapsing and spreading false news. "Jaish al-Islam terrorists have requested negotiations with the Syrian state, which will start the talks within two hours from now (local time)," state TV cited an official source as saying on Sunday morning. The U.S. State Department said reports of mass casualties from the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma were "horrifying" and would, if confirmed, "demand an immediate response by the international community". In a joint statement, the Syrian American Medical Society, the relief organisation, and Douma's civil defence service said medical centres had received more than 500 cases of people suffering breathing difficulties in Douma on Saturday evening, frothing from the mouth and smelling of chlorine. One of the victims was dead on arrival, and six died later, it said. Civil defence volunteers reported more than 42 cases of people dead at their homes showing the same symptoms, it said. Reuters could not verify the reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people had died of suffocation but could not say if chemical weapons had been used. President Bashar al-Assad has won back control of nearly all of eastern Ghouta in a Russian-backed military campaign that began in February, leaving just Douma in rebel hands. After a lull of a few days, government forces began bombarding Douma again on Friday. The offensive in Ghouta has been one of the deadliest of the seven-year-long war, killing more than 1,600 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Reporting by Dahlia Nehme; editing by Tom Perry, Larry King)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of buses arrived in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Tuesday carrying Syrian insurgents who had agreed to surrender the town they controlled near Damascus after it was hit in a suspected chemical attack, a monitoring group said. Their evacuation, along with their families, came as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet later on Tuesday to discuss a suspected poison gas attack on Douma over the weekend. Rebels blamed the government, which denies any involvement, and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to take swift action. The U.N. chemical weapons watchdog has started an investigation. The Syrian government's main ally, Russia, says the reports of the chemical attack are bogus. Hundreds more people began to leave Douma on Tuesday and the pro-government Watan newspaper said about 40,000 militants and their families were due to leave in all, as the U.N. refugee agency voiced alarm at "spiralling new displacement". The deal restores President Bashar al-Assad's control over the entire eastern Ghouta - formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus. Sixty-seven buses carrying hundreds of fighters, along with family members and other civilians who did not wish to come back under Assad's rule, reached opposition areas near Aleppo on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. RIA news agency quoted Russia's Defence Ministry as saying 3,600 militants and their families had left Douma over the past 24 hours. As part of the surrender deal, the Jaish al-Islam group that controlled the town released scores of people it had been holding. The deal took effect on Sunday, hours after medical aid groups reported the suspected chemical attack, saying it had killed dozens of people in Douma. ASSAD'S VICTORY The government and its allies had been attacking the densely populated eastern Ghouta for seven weeks. Thousands of fighters from other rebel groups, accompanied by tens of thousands of civilians, have already left for northwestern Syria after deals surrendering the Ghouta's other major towns. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said around 130,000 people had fled eastern Ghouta over the past four weeks. "Our particular concern is the situation in Douma ... where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing. The recapture of eastern Ghouta represents Assad's biggest battlefield victory since late 2016, when he took back Aleppo, and underlines his unassailable position in the war. Western countries have said Assad's assault on eastern Ghouta was a violation of a Security Council resolution calling for a complete ceasefire across Syria. Damascus and Moscow said the groups controlling the area were not covered by the truce, and the offensive was needed to end the control of Islamist insurgents over the area's large civilian population and to stop mortar attacks on the capital. The United Nations is not party to the Douma surrender deal, in which the evacuees are going to an area around Jarablus and al-Bab in northern Syria controlled by Turkish-backed rebels. Large numbers of people have also crossed into government-held territory rather than leaving along with rebels. Some 45,000 displaced people are staying in eight collective shelters near Damascus, the UNHCR said, while roughly the same number have left the shelters after a screening process. Medical teams at the shelters have reported skin disease and respiratory problems among children, said a spokesman for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF. (Reporting By Angus McDowall in Beirut, Jack Stubbs in Moscow and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Tom Perry/Kevin Liffey)
Footage of a Texas teenager who stole a church bus and drove it down a highway in a wild chase last month has been released.

The incident was part of a new episode of the A&E show "Live PD," which airs Friday and Saturdays on the network. The country watched this weekends episode in awe as the teen was seen taking off with the church bus.

The camera crew was on a nighttime ride with deputies from Fort Bend County, Texas, when they came upon the out-of-control bus.

The bus didnt have any lights on and was refusing to stop.

"The officer and our crew initially thought that there were kids inside that bus," ABC News' chief legal analyst, Dan Abrams, who also hosts "Live PD," told Inside Edition.

During the hot pursuit, the deputies suddenly realize it was a 15-year-old behind the wheel.

Luckily, no passengers were aboard the bus, but it was still a dangerous situation for the camera crew tailing the vehicle.

"I think the police here were being very careful in the way that they followed this bus. There were multiple vehicles there. They werent trying to use any kind of crazy maneuver," he said.

The bus crossed a lane and struck a barrier before going into oncoming traffic. It made a stop only after it rammed a sheriffs cruiser.

Deputies with guns drawn rushed the vehicle and the kid was placed in handcuffs in the March 23 incident.

The juvenile was, however, charged with "evading and aggravated assault on a peace officer for ramming the patrol unit."

Pastor Jose Arteaga of Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Comunidad De Amor, where the bus had been stolen, refused to press charges against the teenager.

The pastor says he too was a wild child in his younger years and knows firsthand the power of forgiveness.

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Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Texas), who is mounting a longshot bid against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in this falls midterm election, says hes already seen enough evidence to support the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The answer is yes, ORourke told a Texas radio host Monday, when asked whether he saw enough evidence to impeach Trump. Because I want to be straight with you. Ive seen an attempt, no matter how ham-handed, to collude with a foreign government in our national election. Ive seen an effort to obstruct justice in the investigation of what happened in the 2016 election.

But the Democratic congressman, who has shattered state fundraising records in his campaign to oust the conservative incumbent, quickly added that the opening of impeachment proceedings against the president ought to wait for the conclusion of the Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Impeachment as I understand it is tantamount to an indictment, ORourke said. It says that this should be decided by the Senate. As a prospective senator, we must await all the facts, all the truth, all the information forthcoming from the Bob Mueller investigation. The most important thing to me is to safeguard the independence and the integrity of the Mueller investigation.

ORourke also said that enough Republicans must be on board with impeachment.

Impeachment doesnt make any sense right now, until you have reached the point that the facts are so compelling that a Republican colleague, it may be [Texas GOP Rep.] Jodey Arrington, it may be someone else, is able to come before their constituents and explain how they voted to impeach the president of their own party, he said. We are not there yet. So Im going to stay focused on the issues that we can make a difference on right now. And well leave this until we get the conclusion of that investigation.

While few Democrats have gone so far as to call for Trumps impeachment, Republican leaders have begun warning that Trump could face immediate impeachment proceedings if they lose the House in November, according to The New York Times. The tactic is reportedly meant to galvanize complacent GOP voters ahead of what is shaping up to be an extremely tough cycle.

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David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, urged Democrats NOT commit to impeachment unless & until theres a demonstrable case for one.

Dems should NOT commit to impeachment unless & until theres a demonstrable case for one.

It is not just a matter of politics. Its a matter of principle.

If we normaiize impeachment as a political tool, it will be another hammer blow to our democracy.https://t.co/vTcaDfknlC  David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) April 8, 2018

This story has been updated to include more quotes from ORourkes interview.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.


Model Leyna Bloom knows the power of the people (on the internet), which is why shes taking to social media in an attempt to make Victorias Secret more inclusive.

Trying to be the 1st Trans model of color walk a # VictoriaSecret Fashion show. # transisbeautiful # LeynaBloom, Bloom tweeted Monday, along with two portfolio-style photos. Her request has gotten more than 8,000 retweets and nearly 30,000 likes.

Trying to be the 1st Trans model of color walk a #VictoriaSecret Fashion show. #transisbeautiful #LeynaBloom pic.twitter.com/xkLW5W9YqO  Leyna Bloom (@leynabloom) April 9, 2018

In a previous tweet, she called out the lack of diversity in Victorias Secrets casting. All these women of color in the VS fashion show thats amazing right. But they still have way more white girls. Its like every time they added a woman of color they added another white girl, she said. Next year they need to cast trans and curve models all colors not just Caucasians.

All these women of color in the VS fashion show that's amazing right. But they still have way more white girls. It's like every time they added a woman of color they added another white girl. Next year they need to cast trans and curve models all colors not just Caucasians.  Leyna Bloom (@leynabloom) November 21, 2017

Many weighed in on the post, with a majority of commenters urging the lingerie company to consider hiring Bloom. Well if they dont, its @VictoriasSecret loss, wrote one fan. i have seen an angel today, wrote another.

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Bloom threw her hat in the ring because shes always wanted to work with the company. Its always been a dream for me, like so many others, not just trans  POC, all women, and some men even, she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. This is a platform that glorifies femininity. I always felt in my most natural state I am heavenly. For my trans sisters, regardless of color, this will be a moment for us all.

Models, led by transgender model Leyna Bloom, walk the runway for the Chromat Spring/Summer 2018 show during New York Fashion Week. (Getty Images)

Bloom has been modeling professionally since 2014, including walking in runway shows for Chromat and the Blonds. Last year, she made history as the first trans person of color featured in Vogue India. Work has been steady. Theres definitely been a gamble with other bigger brands to take on a trans model of color, she admits. I dont know why its so hard for them to want to give us a shot. Then again, nothing happens overnight.

However, she believes that if she is given the opportunity to be a Victorias Secret Angel, the brand will have the power to set the tone, and that would be the biggest leap up to date. Can you imagine what that would do for our world?

She adds, We all have unique stories; we are just different, and we have every right to be. We just want to be represented, and maybe they will want to represent us too.

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When the United States hit Russian oligarchs and senior political officials with new sanctions on Friday, the move had a pretty swift effect on at least one of its targets.

Oleg Deripaska described the sanctions on him and companies associated with him as groundless, ridiculous and absurd. However, on Monday his aluminum-producing giant, Rusal, lost half its value.

Rusals shares dropped 50.4% on Hong Kongs Hang Seng index today. In Moscow, Rusals stock lost a third of its value in Monday morning trading. Also on the Moscow Exchange, Nornickelthe nickel and palladium operation in which Deripaska holds a quarter stakelost 16% of its value before recovering slightly.

Meanwhile, EN+the Deripaska-controlled holding company that co-owns Rusalwas down around 22% on the London Stock Exchange on Monday morning. And Glencore glncy , the commodity trading and mining giant that also happens to be a big shareholder in Rusal, and its biggest customer, lost more than 3% on the LSE.

Last weeks sanctions forbid U.S. entities from doing business with the people and firms on the list.

Deripaskas inclusion was a big deal. The billionaire has very close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he notoriously employed political consultant Paul Manafortnow at the center of the U.S. probe into Russian election interferencefor years.

The list also included Kirill Shamalov, Putins son-in-law (although Bloomberg reported earlier this year that he and Katerina Tikhonova, Putins youngest daughter, had split.)
SheKnows

Donald Trump had more than his share of infidelity allegations while he was in the White House. For some people in that position, they might be on their best behavior, knowing that America was watching their every move. But for Donald, he reportedly doubled down on his bad behavior by trying to get the attention []
Washington (AFP) - The White House insisted Tuesday that Donald Trump has the power to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, stoking fears that the president may try to kill an investigation inching ever-closer to the Oval Office.

After months of denying Mueller's removal is under consideration, the change in tone came as Trump reacted furiously to an FBI raid of his private lawyer's offices on Monday.

Special counsel Mueller was appointed in May to investigate Russian efforts to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor.

Over the last year, he has increasingly dug into evidence of alleged money laundering, fraud and obstruction of justice inside Trump's inner circle.

Four Trump aides -- including his 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort and former national security advisor Michael Flynn -- have already been indicted or pleaded guilty.

Now, Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen -- who holds secrets about many of the president's personal and financial dealings -- is in the crosshairs.

"We have been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of the possibility to remove Mueller.

"I think that the president has been clear that he thinks that this has gone too far."

Trump hunkered down at the White House, canceling a first trip to Latin America that was due to start Friday and stewing on a move that could throw America into a constitutional crisis.

At the same time, Trump faced a momentous decision about whether to carry out military strikes in Syria.

- 'TOTAL WITCH HUNT' -

Trump has pledged to decide by the end of Tuesday how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, blamed on the Syrian regime and its allies.

But while much of his national security team debated whether strikes would be effective in deterring future chemical attacks, and how to limit the risk of escalation, Trump met his lawyers Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb to discuss the Cohen raid.

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His anger showed no signs of abating.

"A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" the president blasted on Twitter amid news that FBI agents had seized documents pertaining to his dealings with Cohen. "Attorneyclient privilege is dead!"

In a phone call with CNN, Cohen admitted the raid was "upsetting to say the least."

Asked if he was worried, Cohen said: "I would be lying to you if I told that I am not. Do I need this in my life? No. Do I want to be involved in this? No."

On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers urged Trump to allow Mueller to do his work.

Democrats wanted to go one step further and pass legislation protecting the Republican former FBI director.

"If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don't," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.

"The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue."

Trump's fellow Republicans said that would not be necessary, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley stating it would be "suicide" for the president to fire Mueller.

The raid on Cohen's offices came amid allegations he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the election to keep a tryst with Trump quiet.

After months of silence, Trump last week offered a flat "no" when asked if he knew about the payment.

Another option that would allow Trump to contain Mueller would be dismissing deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, a move he is also considering, CNN reported, citing multiple sources close to discussions.

The firing would be premised on Rosenstein having overreached his remit. Some of Trump's legal advisers believe him conflicted, since he is both a potential witness in the Russia investigation and wrote the memo that justified firing former FBI Director James Comey, CNN said.

- Plans dashed -

Trump's decision to scrap his trip to Colombia and Peru surprised even some White House staff.

"The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," Sanders said.

Trump had already cut the visit short -- from five days, to three and, finally, to none.

The combative US president had been expected in Peru for the Summit of the Americas, where he was likely to face protests and awkward meetings with leaders who have bristled at his repeated portrayal of Latino immigrants as rapists and thugs.

Vice President Mike Pence will represent the United States in Lima instead, his aide Jarrod Agen said, adding that he would also meet Venezuelan dissidents.

Trump is still expected to travel to his Mar-a-Lago holiday home in Florida on Monday, where a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will go ahead.
President Donald Trump has once again lambasted the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and chastised Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the probe.

Trump appeared to directly float the idea of firing special counsel Robert Mueller at the start of his military leadership meeting on Monday, calling the special counsels investigation a disgrace and defending his firing of former FBI Director James Comey as the right thing to do.

Why dont I just fire Mueller? Trump asked in response to a reporters question. Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens, but I think its really a sad situation ... Many people have said you should fire him. Again, they found nothing, and in finding nothing, thats a big statement.

Trump responds to question "Why don't I just fire Mueller"



"Many people have said you should fire him... we'll see what happens, I think this is disgraceful and so do a lot of other people, this is a pure and simple witch hunt" pic.twitter.com/llJrXhig42  TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) April 9, 2018

Trumps comments came shortly after the FBI reportedly raided the office and hotel room of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday afternoon. Agents seized documents relating to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star, as well as emails, tax records and business documents, according to The New York Times.

Cohens attorney told the outlet a search warrant was issued after a referral from Mueller, but wasnt directly related to his investigation.

The decision by the U.S. Attorneys Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, the lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told NBC in a statement. It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.

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The president responded with fury after the raid, calling Muellers investigation a total witch hunt and a disgraceful situation in Mondays meeting.

On Tuesday morning, he resumed fuming on Twitter.

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

Attorneyclient privilege is dead!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

Trump also slammed Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation last year.

The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this ... he certainly should have let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have put a different attorney general in, the president said Monday. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country.

Trump has repeatedly stated he wouldnt have appointed Sessions if had known he wouldnt oversee the Russia investigation and has routinely said the action directly led Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a stark warning to Trump in a series of tweets late Monday.

If [the president] is thinking of using the FBI raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: dont, Schumer wrote. Mueller, a Republican, has uncovered a deep & detailed pattern of Russian interference in our elections that led to indictments & guilty pleas. It also led to the Trump admin itself leveling sanctions against Russian individuals, proof that its not a so-called witch-hunt.

The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue.  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2018

This article has been updated to include Trumps tweets Tuesday morning.

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President Donald Trumps company appealed to Panama's president to intervene after its hotel business management team was evicted from a luxury hotel in the country.

Related: Trump's Name Should Be Stripped From Panama Hotel, Its Owners Say

Britton & Iglesias, the firm representing the Trump Organization, on March 22 sent a letter, obtained by The Associated Press Monday, to Panamas President Juan Carlos Varela stating that they URGENTLY request your influence in relation to a commercial dispute involving Trump Hotel aired before Panamas judiciary.

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The move has struck further alarm bells with ethics experts already concerned by conflicts of interest within the Trump administration.

This could be the clearest example weve seen of a conflict of interest stemming from the presidents role as head of state in connection with other countries and his business interests, Danielle Brian, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, told the AP.

The hotels majority owner Orestes Fintiklis attempted to get rid of Trumps management team in February and the courts agreed on March 5 despite the Trump Organizations efforts to boost security. Trumps name was removed from the waterfront property the same day and has been renamed The Bahia Grand Panama.

Don't miss: Trump Approves $300 Million Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System Sale To Qatar

In their letter to Varela, lawyers argued that judicial officials violated a bilateral treaty by denying the management team. Five days later, on March 27, an arbitrator based in the U.S. concluded that Trumps management team should not have been booted while the dispute continued, but that he would not put the team back in the hotel.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Monday.

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Panamas foreign secretary Isabel de Saint Malo told The Associated Press that the letter urges Panamas executive branch to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch.

Most popular: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Publicly Speaks of Trump Summit for the First Time

I dont believe the executive branch has a position to take while the issue is in the judicial process, she said.

In court documents filed in Florida, Fintiklis claimed that the Trump Organization mismanaged the hotel and caused expenses to bloat as well as occupancy to collapse.

The Trump Organizations gross incompetence and deficient sales organization stands in the way of [the] owner making any profit on its investment, all the while lining the [Trump Organizations] pockets, Fintiklis argued in the filing obtained by ABC News.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
President Trump continued to fume on Twitter early Tuesday about the FBI raid on the office and hotel of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, after federal agents reportedly seized information related to Cohens hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The FBI raids were carried out on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the Trump campaigns contacts with Russia.

Attorney-client privilege is dead! Trump declared in one tweet, echoing Cohens own pushback against the record seizures.

George Conway  a lawyer and husband to Trump aide Kellyanne Conway  pointed out that the law allows for search warrants to be issued when an attorney is a subject of an investigation. According to the Washington Post, Cohen is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.

Trump also returned to his oft-used phrase to describe Muellers probe.

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

Cohen recently admitted to facilitating a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. At the time, Daniels accepted the money in exchange for not going public with her claim of having sex with Trump in 2006. Cohen insists the payment was legal and that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign, though some legal experts say the payment may have violated campaign finance law.

But Trump appears staunchly in the corner of Cohen, one of his closest allies. Before a meeting of military officials at the White House early Monday evening, Trump addressed the raids without being prompted by reporters  launching into a five-minute monologue condemning them.

So, I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and its a disgraceful situation, Trump began. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time.

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Here we are talking about Syria and were talking about a lot of serious things, the president continued. Were the greatest fighting force ever. And I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now  and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started. And its a disgrace. Its frankly a real disgrace. Its an attack on our country, in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for.

Trump added: When I saw this and when I heard it  I heard it like you did  I said, that is really now on a whole new level of unfairness.

At a meeting with military leaders, President Trump pauses while speaking about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation and the FBI raid on Michael Cohens office. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Mueller was appointed special counsel 11 months ago after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been overseeing the investigation. At the time, Trump declared it the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

At the White House on Monday, Trump was asked by reporters why he doesnt just fire Mueller. The president could take steps to remove the special counsel, but would need the backing of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. Its believed that Rosenstein, who reportedly threatened to quit because of the way the Comey dismissal was handled, would not back such a move.

Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens. But I think its really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, You should fire him, Trump said. So well see what happens. I think its disgraceful, and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told CNN on Tuesday that it would be suicide for Trump to fire Mueller.

I think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be, Grassley added. And I think Mueller is a person of stature and respected and I respect him.

Read more from Yahoo News:

(Cover photo credit: Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, Evan Vucci/AP, Seth Wenig/AP)
Trump on raid of Michael Cohen: "It's an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for." pic.twitter.com/6aKs0A5Y3k  Axios (@axios) April 9, 2018

President Donald Trump responded to reports that the FBI raided the office of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday afternoon.

So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and its a disgraceful situation, he said at the start of a military leadership meeting. Its a total witch-hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time.

Multiple outlets reported on Monday that investigators were searching Cohens office and his room at a Loews Regency Hotel, both in New York City. Among the documents the agents were reportedly examining were records related to a payment the attorney made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen acknowledged in February that he paid Clifford $130,000 in 2016, though he did not offer an explanation for the payment. The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Clifford had an affair with Trump in 2006, and that Cohen paid the actress just before the 2016 election in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement and to refrain from speaking publicly about the matter.

Cohen has maintained that Trump was unaware of the arrangement.

The White House has denied the affair. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he never knew about Cohens payment, which has drawn scrutiny over the possibility that it could have violated campaign finance laws.

Reports surfaced in March that special counsel Robert Mueller was examining documents pertaining to incidents involving Cohen. Stephen Ryan, Cohens lawyer, confirmed to the Times on Monday that the search warrant for the FBI raid stemmed from a referral by Mueller, though it reportedly was not directly related to the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference.

Trump has repeatedly called Muellers Russia probe a hoax and a witch hunt, leading to speculation over whether the president would consider firing the special counsel or otherwise halting the investigation.

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On Monday, the president again blasted Muellers investigation as a disgrace and called the FBI raid of Cohens office a whole new level of unfairness.

When asked at a military leadership meeting whether he would fire Mueller, Trump responded: Well see what happens ... Many people have said you should fire him.

On Tuesday morning, Trump resumed his Twitter attacks, blasting the investigation as A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!! and claiming attorneyclient privilege is dead!

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

Attorneyclient privilege is dead!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

This article has been updated with Trumps comments on Monday about Mueller and his tweets on Tuesday morning.

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By Michelle Price and Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that China would take down its trade barriers and that the two countries would reach a deal on intellectual property. On Thursday, Trump directed U.S. trade officials to identify tariffs on another $100 billion of Chinese imports, upping the ante in an already high-stakes trade confrontation between the worlds two largest economies. The further tariffs were being considered in light of Chinas unfair retaliation against earlier U.S. trade actions, which included a proposed $50 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods, Trump said in a White House statement on Thursday. In his tweet on Sunday, Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would always be friends despite the dispute, adding: "China will take down its trade barriers because it is the right thing to do. Taxes will become reciprocal and a deal will be made on intellectual property. Great future for both countries!" On Tuesday, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) had proposed 25 percent tariffs on more than 1,300 Chinese industrial and other products from flat-panel televisions to electronic components. China shot back 11 hours later with a list of proposed duties on $50 billion of American imports, including soybeans, aircraft, cars, beef and chemicals. The President did not provide a reason for the statement or say whether China had indicated it planned to drop its tariffs. . (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Michelle Price; Editing by Susan Fenton and James Dalgleish)
President Donald Trumps recent announcement that the United States would be getting out of Syria very soon stunned the policy community. Almost immediately, the op-ed pages, Twitter, and talking heads bellowed that the Trump administration had no Middle East strategy. But this wasnt entirely accurate. Trumps declaration about withdrawing from Syria was an abrupt policy shift. It was also perfectly consistent with the Middle East strategy he laid out in his presidential campaign.

Trumps smarter critics always charged, however, that his strategy wasnt non-existent, but essentially incoherent  and theyre now being proven right. During his campaign, Trump didnt just claim hed withdraw from the Middle East  he promised that American credibility overseas would never waver. Given last weekends chemical attack in Syria, Trumps promises have been revealed to be contradictory.

And therein lies the problem of making policy based on politics. At its core, Trumps new withdrawal policy cedes ground to foreign powers that want to alter the regional political order to the United States disadvantage. Those countries include Iran, Russia, and Turkey  from which Trumps overall strategy seems cribbed. To the extent that Trumps approach to the region is about his domestic politics, and not a strategy to secure his own countrys interests, he is walking in the shoes of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

One might be tempted to think Trumps strategy marks a continuation of former President Obamas Middle East strategy. Thats true, to a point. Despite their differences in intellect, comportment, and decency, its clear the two men share similar views about the previous almost two decades of U.S.-Middle East policy. Obamas first run for office was predicated in part on a searing critique of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which he rightly regarded as a strategic folly because it expended huge amounts of resources unnecessarily, destabilized the region, jeopardized American interests, and overall sapped the strength of the United States. It was the Iraq misadventure that convinced Obama that intervening directly in Syria amounted to the stupid shit he vowed to avoid when he took the oath of office. After all, he had campaigned on getting the United States out of a war in the Middle East, and he was not getting into another one.

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Trump, for his part, channeled certain aspects of Obamas thinking throughout his campaign. At a rally in October 2016, Trump declared, The people opposing us are the same people  and think of this  whove wasted $6 trillion on wars in the Middle East  we could have rebuilt our country twice  that have produced only more terrorism, more death, and more suffering  imagine if that money had been spent at home.

Obama, however, spent the final year of his administration working against his own instincts, pursuing a strategy in Iraq and Syria that hewed close to the pre-9/11 bipartisan consensus on the region. Thats because the case in favor of that consensus could not be ignored. The threat the Islamic State posed to Iraq, the Middle East, U.S. interests in the region, and Europe, as well as potentially to the American homeland itself, required him to commit the United States to a fight he previously sought to avoid. (Its safe to say he came to regret his JV team comment about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis forces.) Obama had also hoped that after the December 2011 withdrawal of all American combat forces, Iraq would be governable and somewhat stable. The Islamic States takeover of Mosul and other parts of Iraq (in addition to large parts of Syria) proved Obama incorrect.

Trump has now disowned the bipartisan policy he inherited in favor of the retrenchment that both he and Obama instinctually prefer. Trump has preemptively declared mission accomplished, delivering a blow in the process to Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and everyone in the United States concerned about the consolidation of Iranian and Russian influence in the Middle East. Even if the United States responds militarily to the Bashar al-Assad regimes reported chemical attack on Douma, Trump seems unlikely to reverse his reversal and keep American forces in Syria. During last Fridays White House press conference, Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated that President Trump wants to get out of Syria and make those responsible for the deaths in Douma pay for their actions.

What explains Trumps abrupt change in policy at this moment? Part of the explanation may have to do with changes going on within the White House, especially with the departure of national security advisor H.R. McMaster, whose views on the Middle East were well within the range of the traditional U.S. approach to the region and who harbors a renewed wariness of Russian power. Yet this doesnt make a lot of sense since McMasters replacement is former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, a conservative hawk who is very tough on Tehran and equally suspicious of Moscow.

It seems, rather, that when it comes to Syria policy, Trump thinks about the conflict like Obama but crafts policy like Erdogan. Not in the details, of course; Erdogan took in millions of Syrian refugees and had wanted to be the junior partner in an American-led effort at regime change before he settled on bleeding Assad through support for his opponents, including al Qaeda affiliates. When that didnt work, Erdogan apparently dropped the effort to topple the Syrian president even as he works with anti-Assad proxies to destroy a Syrian Kurdish statelet in the making along Turkeys southern border  a policy that will end up helping the government in Damascus.

Where Trump seems like his Turkish counterpart is the way in which his domestic political calculations are driving abrasive and abrupt shifts in foreign policy, regardless of anything other than poll numbers. Erdogan is certainly an authoritarian, but he is also not quite the dictator (yet) that he has often been portrayed as; he is a shrewd and successful politician whose policies are designed to thrill his large and dynamic constituency and outrage his equally large number of opponents.

Erdogan knows that he faces a political arena that poses risks to him and his Justice and Development Party even as he has sought to mitigate them by hollowing out or manipulating Turkeys political institutions. To complete his transformative vision of Turkish society, he needs to win a presidential election scheduled in 2019 and at the same time secure a majority in the Grand National Assembly. The Turkish intervention in Syria, which began last January and is intended to destroy the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), is part of that effort, because it helps Erdogan co-opt the hardcore nationalist right and undermine his political competition, the Kurdish-based Peoples Democratic Party, which he has repeatedly suggested is linked to the YPGs progenitor, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The military intervention is risky, but Turkish politics has become so polarized that even if the operation starts to go badly and Turkish casualties mount, Erdogan would likely still benefit politically.

Like Erdogan, who needs Justice and Development to remain the dominant party, Trump wants to hold on to Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in November 2018, and is already looking toward his re-election bid in 2020. His poll numbers are historically bad, while he has taken steps to undermine the economic well-being of farmers who voted for him, tanked the stock market, outraged a core constituency of Tea Partyers by signing a tax cut that added significantly to the deficit, and struck a budget deal that did not include funding for the centerpiece of his presidency  a wall on the southern border. In an interview with Frank Bruni of the New York Times, previously devoted supporter and conservative commentator Ann Coulter declared war on the president because there has been no progress on what has become known simply as the wall.

What does this have to do with Syria? Well, everything actually. Trump is going back to his 2016 campaign as he stares down the barrel of the midterm elections. He has ramped up a trade war with China, declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program dead, and ordered the deployment of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out caravans of migrants. In the midst of all this, he has also announced the coming withdrawal of American forces from Syria. All of this warms the hearts of many of the presidents constituents and, when considering the complicated vortex of violence that is the Syrian civil war, no doubt many Americans who do not necessarily support the Trump agenda.

Trumps turnaround on Syria is a perfect case of an American politician doing what is in his best political interests, but with significant costs for the United States. To leave Syria is to make it easier for Iran to reinforce its influence in that country and the region, further elevate Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Middle East, and diminish the United States. This is a problem because while Americans are  for pretty good reasons  sick of the Middle East, Washington still has interests there, which, if anyone is wondering, are still oil, Israel, and ensuring that no country dominates the region. There is also counterterrorism and nonproliferation, but in important ways they are derivative of the other three. There is some clamoring on both the left and right for the United States to redefine its interests in the Middle East, but these calls are long on exhortation and short on an actual plan or strategy.

Right now, the concerns that have long shaped American interests in the Middle East will continue to do so, but no one seems willing to defend them  least of all the president of the United States, who has made the Middle East an extension of the domestic political calculations. It may be hard to accept, but if the United States wants to protect those three core interests, staying in Syria should be part of the American strategy. That does not seem likely, though. No wonder no one there cares much anymore about what Washington says or does.
By Michelle Nichols and Ellen Francis UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia and the United States tangled on Tuesday at the United Nations over the use of chemical weapons in Syria as Washington and its allies considered whether to strike at President Bashar al-Assad's forces over a suspected poison gas attack last weekend. Moscow and Washington halted attempts by each other in the U.N. Security Council to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, which is in the throes of a seven-year-old civil war. U.S. President Donald Trump and Western allies are discussing possible military action to punish Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces. Trump on Tuesday canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump had on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established. On the diplomatic front, the United Nations Security Council failed to approve three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Russia vetoed a U.S. text, while two Russian-drafted resolutions failed to get a minimum nine votes to pass. Moscow opposes any Western strike on its close ally Assad and has vetoed Security Council action on Syria 12 times since the conflict started. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that adopting the U.S.-drafted resolution was the least that member nations could do. "History will record that, on this day, Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people," Haley said, referring to Assad. At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday's suspected chemical weapons attack on the town of Douma, according to a Syrian relief group. Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas. RUSSIA ACCUSES Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Washington's decision to put forward its resolution could be a prelude to a Western strike on Syria. "I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that youre currently developing for Syria," he said after the council failed to approve a third draft resolution on chemical weapons attacks in Syria. International chemical weapons experts are expected to go to Douma to investigate the suspected poison gas attack. France and Britain discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the Douma attack. Both stressed that the culprit still needed to be confirmed. The Douma incident has thrust Syria's conflict back to the forefront of the international stage, pitting Washington and Moscow against each other once again. Trump said that he would make a decision about how to respond within a few days, adding that the United States had "a lot of options militarily" on Syria. Assad's government and Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus. Any U.S. strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defense systems. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean. A key issue being considered by U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and war planners is the effectiveness of Syrian air defenses and the extent to which Russia is helping to organize, and ultimately, direct Syrian air defense operations, according to two U.S. government sources. Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base. U.S. military action similar to last year's would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad's way since 2015 with massive aid from Iran and Russia. There was little expectation that members of Congress would object if Trump launched an attack on Syria, despite some calls for lawmakers to exert their power to authorize military action. Most members of Congress  Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans - praised Trump after the strike last year. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government's allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government's chemical facilities. CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROBE The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team. "The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly," it said in a statement. The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used but will not assign blame. The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move by the two countries that was apparently aimed at averting any U.S.-led action. "Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions," Syria's state news agency SANA said. A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by Washington and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said. In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country's northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces. Their evacuation restored Assad's control over eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo. Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran - Assad's other main ally - threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, meanwhile, said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail. A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday. The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside U.S. ships as part of France's military contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. Despite the international revulsion over chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents in Syria is only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Ellen Francis and Tom Perry in Beirut, Jack Stubbs and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, Beirut, Steve Holland, Idrees Ali, Mark Hosenball and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; writing by Alistair Bell; editing by Will Dunham, G Crosse and Cynthia Osterman)
By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - An aid worker was killed in South Sudan when gunmen shot at his agency vehicle, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Armed men fired at the vehicle marked with logos of the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid as it traveled on a road near the town of Bentiu on Saturday and one of the workers died, the United Nations said. "I strongly condemn the targeting of aid workers and demand that those responsible for these acts be brought to justice," Alain Noudehou, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan said in a statement. Nearly 100 relief workers have been killed in South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011 and spiraled into civil war two years later. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war initially fought between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against rebels under former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer. Violence has spread throughout the country and now involves most of the nation's ethnic groups. The United Nations did not say which armed force carried out Saturday's attack. Staff from another aid group, CARE International, were robbed at gunpoint while traveling in the vicinity on the same day, according to the statement. Both rebels and the government forces stand accused of targeting humanitarian workers and sometimes deliberately blocking access to relief and hijacking food and other aid. Noudehou called for the release of seven other aid workers detained by rebels since March 25 when they were detained in the Central Equatorial region, near the Uganda border. The staff from a local aid group, the South Sudan Health Association, were detained as they were delivering supplies to health centers serving thousands of people, the U.N. said. Lam Paul Gabriel, a spokesman for rebel group SPLA-IO, said the group had detained the workers because some of them were government spies. "We are willing to release them (aid workers) but not all of them, those found to be (government) agents will be detained." (Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tammy Duckworth on Monday became the first member of the U.S. Senate to give birth while in office, welcoming her second daughter, named Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, her office announced. Duckworth, who turned 50 on March 12, is a former Army National Guard helicopter pilot who lost both legs when she was shot down in Iraq in 2004. Only 10 women have ever given birth while serving in the U.S. Congress. Duckworth was already among them, after having her first daughter, Abigail, in 2014 when serving in the House of Representatives. A Democrat, Duckworth was elected to the Senate in November 2016. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Tom Brown)
Unexplained weight loss has long been associated with cancer - This content is subject to copyright.

Weight loss in patients over the age of 60 should be urgently investigated, with one in seven cases among men likely to mean cancer, a major study has found.

The research by Oxford University found that losing weight is the key symptom of the disease, linked to at least 10 types of cancer.

Experts called on GPs to refer patients with unexplained weight loss for urgent tests, in a bid to speed up diagnosis.

Britains survival rates are lagging behind may comparative countries, with the UK falling in the bottom half of international league tables for seven major forms of the disease.

Unexplained weight loss has long been associated with cancer.

But Tuesdays research, involving more than 11 million patients, is the first major study to quantify the association.

Overall it found that among those over 60, men with unintended weight loss had a 14.2 per cent risk of cancer, with a 6.7 per cent risk found among women of the same age.

Experts said the higher rate among men was found because weight loss was closely linked to prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men.

The facts | Prostate cancer

Lead author Dr Brian Nicholson, of the University of Oxford, said GPs needed to be able to refer patients to centres which could check for several cancers at once, in order to make the right diagnosis quickly.

Last week health officials announced plans to test such an approach in 10 parts of the country.

Dr Nicholson said: Streamlined services that allow GPs to investigate non-specific symptoms like weight loss are vitally important and urgently needed if we are to catch cancer earlier and save lives.

He said more research was needed to establish the amount of weight loss which constituted grounds for concern.

Our research indicates that coordinated investigation across multiple body sites could help to speed up cancer diagnosis in patients with weight loss, he said.

We now need to continue our research to understand the most appropriate combination of tests and to give guidance on how much weight loss GPs and patients should worry about.

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Weve always known that unplanned weight loss may represent cancer

Professor Willie Hamilton, study co-author

Leading GPs said patient access to tests for cancer was among the lowest in Europe

A team led by the Universities of Oxford and Exeter examined 25 studies, involving 11.5 million patients.

Their study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and published in the British Journal of General Practice, found that unintended weight loss was the second highest risk factor for colorectal, lung, pancreatic and renal cancers.

The only symptoms found to be more common were those linked to specific cancers, such as rectal bleeding, for bowel cancer, and jaundice for pancreatic disease.

Co-author Professor Willie Hamilton, from the University of Exeter, said: Weve always known that unplanned weight loss may represent cancer. This study pulls together all the published evidence and demonstrates beyond doubt that it is important in efforts to save lives from cancer.

Everything you need to know about prostate cancer but were too afraid to Google

Dr Richard Roope, clinical lead for cancer at the Royal College of GPs, said: "Currently there are no clinical guidelines to support GPs and their teams in how to respond to or investigate patients who present with weight loss, without other symptoms, in the cancer setting.

"These important findings present strong evidence of the correlation between significant unexplained weight loss and many cancers, and should certainly be taken on board as clinical guidelines for GPs and healthcare professionals are updated and developed.

"We agree with the researchers' recommendations that GPs need better access to diagnostic tools in the community across the UK so that we can appropriately refer patients to either rule out or confirm a diagnosis of cancer, as currently our access is among the lowest in Europe."

A spokesperson for NHS England said: Rapid and accurate diagnosis is vital for all cancers. Patients are now being tested sooner with investment in greater diagnostic capacity including in one-stop cancer diagnostic services across the country.

"These new one-stop-shops represent a real step change in the way people with unclear symptoms such as unexplained weight loss, appetite loss or abdominal pain are identified, diagnosed and treated.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
The US has launched a scathing attack on Russias role in propping up the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad with the countrys ambassador to the United Nations saying Washington will respond to a suspected chemical attack in Syria, regardless of whether the UN acts or not.

As Russia claimed first there was no evidence of a chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma and then said the US had helped anti-Syria militants stage the incident which killed potentially dozens, the UN ambassador Nikki Haley, said the US was ready to act alone if necessary.

We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done, Ms Haley told an emergency session of the UN Security Council. History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond.

This is a very serious situation on the ground in Syria.



If the Security Council is not careful, the use of #chemicalweapons will be seen as routine fighting in war and thats very dangerous for everybody on the Council including the Russians.#UNSC  Karen Pierce (@KarenPierceUN) April 9, 2018

Her words came after president Donald Trump said that nothing is off the table when asked ahead of a cabinet meeting whether US military action was a possibility and that a decision would be swift.

He also took aim at Russia, Syrias closest ally: We cannot allow atrocities like that. Cannot allow it, Mr Trump said. If its Russia, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out and well know the answers quite soon.

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Pressed on Russias role in the suspected chemical weapons attack, Mr Trump said Russian president Vladimir Putin may bear responsibility.

He may. And if he does, its gonna be very tough. Very tough, Mr Trump said of the US response. Everybodys gonna pay a price. He will and everybody will.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council that the US would face grave repercussions if it carries out an attack against Syrian government forces over the suspected chemical attack.

Almost precisely a year ago, Ms Haley appeared before the council and held up photographs of victims of a confirmed chemical weapons attack, allegedly carried out by the Syrian government, in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. This time, she said, she saw little value in producing photographic evidence as it would have no impact.

Who does this? Only a monster does this. Only a monster targets civilians, and then ensures that there are no ambulances to transfer the wounded, she said. Whats the point of trying to shame such people Pictures of dead children mean nothing to countries like Russia.

Ms Haley spoke hours after a Syrian military airfield, known as T4, located close to the city of Homs, was struck in an attack that reportedly killed up to 14 people. The US and France both denied carrying out the strike. Many reports state the surgical strike was carried out by Israel, although the country has refused to comment.

Critics of the US and UK have accused them of double standards in the Middle East, having sold weapons to Saudi Arabia, who are involved in a bombing campaign in Yemen, while condemning Russia for its support of Mr Assad as part of a civil war that has been raging since 2011.

Mr Trump said the US would probably by the end of today, on how the US will respond to the alleged chemical attack. He said: We are studying that situation extremely closely. We are meeting with our military and everybody else and well be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours.

A year ago, in what was one of his first actions as Commander-in-Chief, Mr Trump responded to the deaths at Khan Sheikhoun by ordering the firing of 59 cruise missiles at Syrian targets.

Mr Trump was to meet with senior national security aides late in the evening to discuss options, with Monday being the first day on the job for his new national security adviser, John Bolton, who has previously advocated military action against Syria.

For its part, Russia warned the US of grave repercussions if it carried out attack against Syrian government forces.

There was no chemical weapons attack, Mr Nebenzia said on Monday.

Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the US that armed forces under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed  could lead to grave repercussions.

Mr Nebenzia also said investigators with the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should fly to Syria as early as Tuesday to look into accusations about the attack, offering them protection from Syrian authorities and Russian troops.

The Syrian authorities and Russian troops will provide conditions to travel to the areas of the alleged incident for them to familiarise themselves with the situation, he said. Separately, the OPCW said it opened an investigation to determine what exactly had happened in Douma.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, in separate remarks at the Pentagon, also suggested Moscow bore some blame. He criticised Russia for what he suggested was its failure to ensure the elimination of Syrias chemical weapons arsenal under terms of a 2013 agreement.

Earlier, the British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia must be held to account alongside Syria if Mr Assads government was found to be responsible for the attack.

At a press conference during a visit to Denmark, she said: If they are found to be responsible, the regime and its backers, including Russia, must be held to account.

Ms May said the attack in Douma was part of a troubling wider pattern of acts of aggression and abuse of international convention over chemical weapons and that Russias repeated use of its veto at the UN has enabled international rules on chemical weapons attacks to be broken and investigations hampered. This must stop, she said.

Mr Nebenzia had raised the issue of the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury at the UN to try and claim that those in the West were engaging in misinformation. Earlier, Ms May also spoke about the poisoning  which the UK has blamed on Moscow  saying that Russia had shown similar recklessness last month with the use of chemical weapons.

Asked if the UK would join any US-led military action in Syria, Ms May said: What we are currently doing is working urgently with our allies to assess what has happened here.

This has been an absolutely barbaric attack that has taken place, she added.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the allegations of the chemical attack in Douma were false and a provocation. Mr Lavrov also said the strike on a Syrian air base in Homs in the wake of the suspected chemical attack was a dangerous development, and he blamed Israel for the strike by unidentified war planes.
A cluster of earthquakes hit Oklahoma over the past few days, unsettling thousands of the state's residents.

As of 11 a.m. ET Monday the U.S. Geological Survey says that 2,274 people reported feeling a 4.3 magnitude quake Sunday night. There have been at least 16 noticeable earthquakes (above 2.5 in magnitude) observed by the Geologic Survey since Friday, April 6.

While nerve-rattling, the quakes are normal for the area  at least since 2009. That's when the problematic quakes began, Jeremy Boak, Director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, said in an interview.

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"It's not out of the ordinary," said Boak. "In the frame of whats been going on, its normal."

Oklahoma's dramatic rise in quakes has been stoked by oil and gas extraction activity in the region.

There have been 8 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 2.5 to 4.6 between Perry and Covington in northern Oklahoma in the past 24 hours. The latest, having a preliminary magnitude of 4.6, occurred at 7:16 CDT this morning. #okquake https://t.co/JwfpIrHgSb pic.twitter.com/UbqUwya6jX  USGS in Oklahoma (@USGS_Oklahoma) April 7, 2018

This quake activity  associated with the "fracking revolution" that has also propelled historically high U.S. oil exports  comes in two forms.

The first is fracking itself, an oil extraction process more formally known as "hydraulic fracking." Broadly, this means injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and a small percentage of chemicals into a deeply-drilled hole. This breaks apart rocks to release oil deposits, sometimes creating earthquakes.

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But most Oklahoma quakes aren't caused by fracking itself, but by a secondary process called "wastewater injection." After water is used to fracture apart rocks thousands of feet below, it comes back up as "wastewater," and is usually injected back into the ground nearby (the mixture has to go somewhere). Water is extremely heavy, so, this can put pressure on deep-lying faults. And if enough pressure is applied to these cracks in the Earth's crust, they'll rupture and move, causing sizeable quakes.

While a U.S. Geologic Survey spokesperson said it's too early to officially confirm the cause of the northwestern Oklahoma earthquake burst, Boak said it's almost certainly due to wastewater injection. That's the common cause of quakes in this part of northwestern Oklahoma, and generally, has been the prevailing story for years.

Earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher measured in Oklahoma as of July 2017.

Image: U.S. Geologic survey

But, overall, earthquakes have been on the decline in Oklahoma since the especially rattling years of 2014, 2015, and 2016.

The year 2015 saw nearly 900 quakes of 3.0 or higher in Oklahoma (around 2.5 or above is noticeable to most people). For perspective, before 2009, Oklahoma usually recorded one or two quakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher each year. By 2015, earthquake activity peaked for a time at around 4 and a half quakes each day, Boak previously said.

But this year, Boak expects around 200 noticeable quakes to occur in Oklahoma. This recent cluster of quakes, then, is "part of the continuing pattern which in general is declining," he said.

There are two major reasons for the decline, said Boak. One is the falling price of oil. This means that oil and gas extraction isn't quite as lucrative as it once was a few years ago (it's a famously boom and bust industry). Accordingly, there's a bit less fracking activity.

Oklahoma resident Lisa Griggs believes cracks in her home have been caused by Oklahoma's manmade earthquakes.

Image: The Washington Post/Getty Images

The second reason is mandatory state requirements that oil and gas companies find ways to reduce quaking. The rattled citizens of Oklahoma made quite clear to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the gas industry, that the quakes must stop  or at least be limited.

"We needed to shut this down and it actually appears to have worked," said Boak.

Oil and gas companies accomplish this reduction in a variety of ways, which includes stopping wastewater injections when seismic activity begins.

As for Boak, he has still yet to feel one of Oklahoma's big quakes  even though he studies them. He's too far south of most the activity, in the quieter confines of Norman, Oklahoma.

"Ive never had the privilege of feeling one of the Oklahoma earthquakes," he said.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Barisan Nasional ruling coalition may be able to shrug off a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal, disenchantment about the increased costs of living, and a challenge from former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, to win the nations general election on May 9. Here are eight reasons why: DOESN'T NEED TO WIN THE POPULAR VOTE Najibs coalition failed to win the popular vote at the last election in 2013  it received 47.3 percent support - but because of the first-past-the-post parliamentary system and the way electoral boundaries are drawn it still managed to easily win a majority of the seats in parliament. SHIFTING OF ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES In late March, parliament agreed to redraw parliamentary and state boundaries amid accusations of gerrymandering from the opposition. The redrawing  effective in this election - exacerbates a system that favors Najibs party, the United Malay National Organisation (UNMO), as it has more support in rural areas than the big cities. The 30 percent of Malaysias population that lives in rural areas controls more than half the seats in parliament. OPPOSITION WARINESS OF MAHATHIR The opposition is struggling to present a united front. Mahathir, 92, has helped create some cohesion in the Pakatan Harapan opposition alliance as its chairman, but there are many in the opposition who are suspicious of him because of his attacks on independent institutions when he was the nations leader between 1981 and 2003. Also possibly Najibs most formidable opponent, former deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim is currently serving a five-year prison sentence on a sodomy conviction that has been attacked by human rights groups as politically motivated. Anwar had been the leading figure in the opposition in the 2008 and 2013 elections. He has joined Mahathir in forming a new opposition coalition but his imprisonment robs it of a crucial leader and election campaigner. Anwar is expected to be released from jail soon after the election. HARDLINE ISLAMISTS COULD SPLIT OPPOSITION VOTE The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which was previously part of the opposition coalition, has now split off on its own and will be standing in more seats in this election. That means the opposition vote will be split giving Najib a better chance of coming out on top. GOVERNMENT PASSES "FAKE NEWS" LAW Last week the Najib government passed a draconian fake news law, which could be used to attack the opposition during the election campaign. It defines fake news very broadly 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 maximum sentence under the law is a fine of 500,000 ringgit ($129,300) and/or a six-year prison sentence. The ruling coalition had already effectively cowed any independent local media through the use of a broad set of laws, such as the colonial era Sedition Act. BUOYANT ECONOMY Malaysia's economy has been growing robustly. In its recently released annual report, the nations central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, forecast the economy will grow at a 5.5-6 percent rate in 2018, up from 5-5.5 percent the government had forecast in its annual budget in October last year. Malaysia has enjoyed an export boom, while public spending on infrastructure gave an extra fillip to gross domestic product which was up 5.9 percent in 2017 - its best in three years. PATRONAGE AND MONEY Najibs UMNO operates an affirmative action policy for the majority ethnic-Malays that gives them government contracts, cheap housing, guaranteed university admissions and preferential stock shares in return for their allegiance. Only last week, he promised to provide salary hikes for Malaysias civil servants, a key part of his support base. ELECTION PROMISES The ruling coalition has made a raft of election promises to appeal to its traditional base of supporters, including raising the minimum wage, and increased cash benefits targeting rural ethnic Malays. He also promised to erase the debts of Malay farmers related to a state plantation company, and to create 3 million new jobs. (Reporting by Joseph Sipalan and Praveen Menon; Editing by Martin Howell)
YouTube should be investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged child privacy violations and should be fined penalties in the tens of billions of dollars if found guilty, a coalition of rights groups has said.

A legal complaint filed Monday by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), and 21 other organizations alleged that the Google-owned video platform broke American law by siphoning off the personal data from nearly 25 million children living in the U.S and using the metrics to engage in very sophisticated digital marketing techniques.

The collective alleged that despite Googles claim that YouTube is for users over the age of 13, research suggests it is one of the most popular websites for children between the ages of 6 to 12. They believe the main site should be sanctioned under the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which is designed to stop platforms from gaining access to kids' personal data without parental consent.

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YouTube

REUTERS/Beawiharta

Application of these factors warrants civil penalties totaling tens of billions of dollars, the complaint stated. Googles violations are particularly egregious. Google had actual knowledge of both the large number of child-directed channels on YouTube and the large numbers of children using YouTube.

The FTC filing referenced channels including ChuChuTV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songswhich has 16 million subscribersand LittleBabyBumwhich has 14.6 million subscribersas two channels known to produce content specifically targeted at children. It said that advertisers are paying a premium to place their material in YouTubes Parenting and Family section.

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At present, the privacy groupsalongside the Institute for Public Representationnoted that advertisers can target children by using keywords such as kid, child, toddler, baby and toy. Furthermore, they said the website had admitted to being aware of its massive child userbase by launching YouTube Kids in 2015.

YouTube has also faced recent controversy after it emerged that children were exposed to videos on the platform that looked like popular cartoons but which contained disturbing and distressing content. The platform, which boasts more than one billion users, will investigate the claims.

Regarding the legal complaint accusing YouTube of violating privacy laws, a spokesperson told Newsweek: While we havent received the complaint, protecting kids and families has always been a top priority for us. We will read the complaint thoroughly and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve.

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Because YouTube is not for children, weve invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.

But James Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense, one of the organizations named in the complaint, said YouTube was not doing enough to protect children's privacy. "Kids have been watching videos on YouTube for years, something the company has known, and profited off of, by targeting content and ads at children under 13, he said.

It is time for Google to be completely transparent with all the facts and institute fundamentally responsible new policies moving forward to protect the privacy of kids.

We fully expect Google to work closely with advocates and reach out to parents with information about parental controls, content, and collection practices on YouTube so parents can make informed choices about what content they allow their kids to access and how to protect their privacy, Steyer added

Josh Golin, executive director of the CCFC, added: For years, Google has abdicated its responsibility to kids and families by disingenuously claiming YouTubea site rife with popular cartoons, nursery rhymes, and toy adsis not for children under thirteen. Google profits immensely by delivering ads to kids and must comply with COPPA. Its time for the FTC to hold Google accountable.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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President Trump on April 9 said the raid by FBI agents of the office of Michael Cohen, his personal attorney, is a disgraceful situation. (The Washington Post)
A special undertaking by textile manufacturers, rappelling experts and the IDF's satellite unit concluded last week with the unfurling of a giant Israeli flag atop the roof of the President's Residence in Jerusalem, ahead of Israel's 70th Independence Day next week.

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The huge 1,500 square meter flag, was placed on the residence's rooften meters highusing a crane and can be seen from outer space by a satellite. It weighs 270 kilograms and was manufactured in the northern region's Krayot over ten working days.

The Israeli flag atop the President's Residence (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth)

Director-General of the President's Residence Harel Tubi, who presided over the flag operation, said last week, "We sought to create this unique flag, visible by satellite from space, as an expression of the pride and joy of this special time, Israel's 70th, which has filled us with Israeli pride over 70 years of creation and activities in all areas."

David Ben Gurion's face on the airport's air traffic control tower (Photo: Kobi Ben Navi)

Ben Gurion's image screened on eponymous airport's ATC

The visage of Israel's first prime minister David Ben Gurion, in whose name the country's major airport was named, will be screened on its air traffic control tower in the coming weeks as part of the Independence Day festivities.

The tower, which is 100 meters high, has also been lit up in blue-white and will be visible from nearby communities and the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

The image is visible in all nearby communities as well as from Highway 1 (Photo: Kobi Ben Navi)

The gesture, orchestrated by the Israel Airports Authority, will be joined by a similar projection on the walls of Terminal 3 and on the Ilan Ramon memorial coordination tower, near the airport's parking plazas.

Videos presentations to be screened on walls of TLV buildings

A special event taking place in Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard April 18-19 titled "We hereby declarehistory comes to life" will present video mapping displays screened on the walls of dozens of buildings, which organizers said will "tell the story of the State of Israel in a way that has not been told or seen up to now."

A promotional video for the video exhibits

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Festivities will take place on the initiative of the Jerusalem and Heritage Ministry, in conjunction with the World Zionist Organization, the Zionist Council and the Tel Aviv municipality.

Organizers promised that, "On Independence Day's eve and after the holiday, Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard will go back in time, transforming into a historic, nostalgic complex presenting the State of Israel in its infancy.

"The unique event will allow the general public to experience the state as it existed in its early years and years forward, using spectacular 3D video mapping installations on a scale never before seen in Israel, as well as a nostalgic fair, folk dancing and more, they said.

Some of the presentations will include the Declaration of Independence being screened in Rothschild 16, on the walls of Independence Hall, to be read by a variety of Israelis from all walks of life and using motifs from old posters.

The spontaneous displays of joy breaking out immediately following the declaration will be shown on Rothschild 4, alongside actual mass folk dancing groups. Rothschild 19, meanwhile, will screen a clip paying homage to the different waves of Aliyah, tracing their routes to Israel.

One of the Tel Aviv displays (Photo on display: Zoltan Kluger, GPO)

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The famed vote on independence in the United Nations General Assembly will be shown on Rothschild 20, transforming the building to a gigantic radio from which the historic vote's voices and images will emanate. Rothschild 29, meanwhile will show display that's all about Tel Aviv itself, and its White City.

The face to face buildings of Rothschild 7 and 8 will show Israel then and today: the past, present and changes in the interim. In addition, a graphic display on stylized backgrounds and Israeli flags will be shown on several other structures. These short clips will be screened every three minutes, with virtual Israeli flags unfurled on the buildings when they conclude.

Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Ze'ev Elkin promised that visitors on Israel's birthday to the coastal city would be sure to enjoy the exhibits and displays. "Anyone coming (to Tel Aviv) on Independence Day and immediately thereafter will enjoy this experience of light, color, history and nostalgia," he said.

"Anyone attempting to convince us we live in a post-Zionist era and that Tel Aviv and Zionism no longer connect, Tel Aviv as well as the Israeli public will provide a crushing response: Zionism is alive and well in the first Hebrew city. Non-stop Zionism in Israel's non-stop city," Elkin concluded.
The family of Avera Mengistu has been sitting in its protest tent opposite the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem for nine days as of Monday, but not a single member of government has come forward to speak to them.

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There are no more than 20 people at the protest tent at any given moment, with most attendees being Ethiopian, while only five MKs arrived to show their support.

"Government representatives have told us in the past, 'Sit quietly so as not to tamper with efforts to release Avera,' and we believed it. Today we no longer believe, and will no longer sit quietly," Mengistu's brother Ilan said.





Avera Mengistu's parents at their protest encampment outside the PM's Residence (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The wall surrounding the premier's residence is emblazoned with the number 1308, reminiscent of the number of days Mengistu has been in Hamas captivity. Ayaline Mengistu, Avera's father, said, "I won't move until the prime minister comes out to speak to us. (Benjamin) Netanyahu isn't making public Avera's cry, so how can my son return?"

The tent's meager attendance and the fact most attendees are themselveslike MengistuEthiopian, speaks volumes. The family has made an effort to preserve respectability and stateliness, but social activists who have joined them are irate.

Avera Mengistu has been in Hamas captivity for more than 1,300 days

"The protest has a color," activist Bat-El Bidgilin said. "He's not Gilad Shalit and he's not 'The child of us all.' Shalit's protest led to people changing their profile pictures and to class starting with talks about him."

"Avera, meanwhile, has been forgotten because the government is dormant. It's like this is exclusively a struggle of the Ethiopian community, but this is an Israeli citizen we're talking about here," she accused.

Another activist, Mazal Balai, who also participates in the encampment, added her opinion. "Like Shalit, (IDF casualties whose bodies are held by Hamas) Hadar (Goldin) and (Oron) Shaul are also in the public discourse, but Avera isn'tand it's because of his skin color. While Netanyahu is partying, there are parents camping outside his house who for three and a half years have not smiled," she lamented.

Avera's brother Ilan said Avera was being forgotten

Mengistu's brother eventually conceded his family's struggle to release the captive has not reached the Israeli general public. "The family has done so much to bring all Israelis together in this fight, but its most prominent figures are still from the (Ethiopian) community," he said.

"We have seen the difference politicians can make in the past, but unfortunately Avera's story is not a familiar one, and they won't be able to reap political rewards for dealing with it, and in the meantime, he is being forgotten in captivity," Ilan Mengistu lamented.
Israeli defense technology company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has said its $1 billion deal with Poland was not adversely affected by the political spat between the two countries over a recently passed contentious law barring ascribing culpability to Poland for the Holocaust.

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"The deal with Poland is progressing, we are happy that our interceptor (missiles) was chosen  by the Poles," said Rafael CEO Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yoav Har-Even.

An illustration of the SkyCeptor system in action (Photo: Raytheon)

The deal will see Poland purchasing eight Patriot missile defense systems from US defense contractor Raytheon, worth up to $7.6 billion, along with interceptor missiles from Israel's David Sling system, worth approximately $1 billion.

If cemented, it will be the one of the biggest deals in the Rafael's history. Poland, meanwhile, will become the first export client of David Sling's interceptor missile.

Poland demanded the Israeli interceptor missile, which was developed with Raytheon and is marketed in the world under the name "SkyCeptor," because of its better performance compared to the American Patriot interceptor and its considerably lower price, which stands at only 10 percent of the price of the American counterpart$450,000 compared to $4.5 million.

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki (L) and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Photos: Reuters, Emil Salman)

With the approval of the Israeli Defense Ministry and the American Department of Defense, Raytheon agreed to another Polish demand to have the missiles manufactured on its soil.

The weapons deal was left in limbo after Poland passed legislation earlier this year penalizing suggestions of any complicity by Poland in the Nazi Holocaust on its soil during World War II, provoking an uproar in Israel and creating a rift between the two states, which remains still largely unresolved.
We've recently come very close to elections. In backrooms, behind locked doors, far-reaching deals were debated. Beneath the glare of fluorescent lights, political strategists and high-tech professionals discussed ways to use big data to manipulate newsfeeds; ways to utilize bots and fake accounts. Business executives urged politicians to influence the primary source of information for many Israelis: Facebook and its many branches.

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There would be a cost, it would be expensive, but it would be worth it. Just look what happened with Brexit. Look how well it worked out for Trump. Israel is a small country. It could be done so quickly that nobody would notice. It's worth it, and it would be pulled off without leaving a trace. How could anyone step away from the chance to convince the majority of Israelis that their way is the right way?

In focus groups held in Darkenu over the past two years, we have noticed an alarming rise in the number of Israelis who report indifference to news outlets, preferring instead to rely on social media. Over 5 million Israelis use Facebook regularly, and a recent DIGIT poll surveying news in the digital age showed that 25 percent of Israelis under the age of 35 reported consuming news only through social media. For them, if it doesn't come up in their newsfeeds, it's not important.

File photo (Photo: Shutterstock)

What this means is that for many of these young people, unless a story is liked or shared by someone they know, they're not reading it. Millions of Israelis are exposed to partial, pre-processed information, coming from an allegedly trustworthy source: their friends. But what counts as a friend these days? Someone whose request you approved, whose updates you've grown used to as you scroll through your feed. It's a disturbing truth, but many Israelis today are easy targets for digital manipulation.

This reality means that political strategists face a great many temptations. With a decent budget at their disposal, they can, almost invisibly, utilize a variety of sophisticated tools to hijack and distort voters' newsfeeds. Propaganda is specifically tailored to fit to the target audience's lifestyle and psychological profile.

Taking advantage of legitimate tools, they can fill newsfeeds with doctored, false information presented as facts. They can spread lies through hundreds of fake accounts, lies which travel even more widely because real users have accepted friend requests from the fake ones. Slowly voters come to believe that the lies are truth. Fake news as a methodology, orchestrated for a purpose, served up to a willing and captivated audience.

Lately, report emerged of suspicions of misuse of data in the recent Italian elections, evidence of similar tactics that have been used by Russia. On Twitter, 25,000 users generated over half a million posts framing immigration policy in ways associated with the Italian extreme right. Most of the information those users shared originated on Russian news websites.

This all relates back to the recent reports in the Guardian on the ways Cambridge Analytica misused improperly-obtained information belonging to 50 million Americansinformation used to tilt the election towards Trump. The company also intervened in the Brexit referendum. This is not a random effort, but a calculated disruption of the flow of information users consume.

As it stands, current election laws cannot prevent such phenomena from happening right here in Israel. Following the reports, Facebook has blocked the companys activity across its platforms, but can we really believe this was an isolated incident?

Politicians and political consultants cannot just sit by and wait for Facebook or any other social media network to say they've solved the problem. They should stand up, now, and raise their voices as one, making clear that this interference will not be tolerated. If we aspire to a meaningful and healthy democracy, we need informed voters. Those who believe in Israel's democracy cannot remain quiet. We need youall of youto pledge loudly, in your own voice, that you will not partake in the spread of fake news and engage with fake users. Promise us, the citizens of the nation you serve, that you won't seek to manipulate people's feeds with bots and slander presented under the guise of legitimate news outlets. Not every means of achieving victory is kosher. The internet gives us immense power; lets not allow it to corrupt our country.

The author is VP of Strategy at Darkenu.
Holocaust Memorial Day will begin Wednesday at 8pm at the Warsaw Ghetto Square in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, with the day's events collectively titled, "Holocaust survivors shape memory and build a state", interweaving with Israel's upcoming 70th Independence Day.

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President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the ceremony inaugurating the day or remembrance, with six Holocaust survivors set to light torches to commemorate the the six million Jews murdered in the Nazi extermination program.

The first survivor participating in the ceremony is Miriam Lapid, born in 1933 in Deventer, the Netherlands, and the youngest child in her family.

After the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Miriam was forced to wear a yellow badge and was expelled from school. At the same time, the Germans confiscated Jewish homes, but when they arrived at Miriam's family home, they refrained from entering the home after seeing a message hung on the door saying that she was ill.

Miriam Lapid (Photo: Yitzhak Harari)

In April 1943, the family was taken to the concentration area of Jews in Amsterdam, and in June its sons were deported to the Westerbork concentration camp. Only the eldest brother, who was in the Dutch underground, survived the deportation.



Lapid's father, Hermann, received an office job in Westerbork, thus obtaining a forged immigration permit for the family to come to Palestine, then under the British Mandate, and the family was able to be included in a list of prisoners to participate in a prisoner swap.

The family was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in January of 1944 and incarcerated in a sub-camp whose denizens were to participate in the prisoner swap. Hermann Lapid perished in February, 1945.

On April 9, prisoners were marched towards a train station. Lapid's mother Batya had typhoid and could not walk, and Miriam's siblings were forced to carry her on their backs.

Miriam and her family boarded the train, and for the next two weeks it drove and stopped intermittently, with stops being used to bury those who had perished during the journey. On April 23, the train's passengers were freed by the Red Army on the outskirts of the village of Trobitz in east Germany.

Months later, the family returned to the Netherlands, where Miriam joined a Zionist youth movement and later became a counselor and the movement's secretary. Miriam visited Jerusalem in 1950 as part of her role in the youth movement, studied Hebrew and became acquainted with the nascent country.

She made Aliyah in 1953, met her future husband Aki in the country and then joined the Tzora kibbutz in central Israel with him. She has been the manager of the kibbutz's secretariat since 1960.

Miriam and Aki had six children, who gave them 14 grandchildren. One of their sons, Ran, was an Israel Air Force helicopter pilot and El Al captain, and was killed in a plane crash in 2009.

When Ran was asked to ferry the German chancellor when he visited Israel, he said he would only do it if his mother approved, which she did, saying, "There's nothing greater for my son, an Israeli Air Force pilot, than to fly the German chancellor. That is my victory," she exclaimed.

Shmuel Bugler (Photo: Yosef Ben David)

The second survivor to light a torch is Shmuel Bogler, born in the Hungarian village of Bodrogkeresztur in 1929 and the youngest of ten children. His father, Mordechai, was a trader and Shmuel worked in the family business.

Mordechai was arrested in 1941 following an anti-Semitic plot and was incarcerated for 18 months. Three of Shmuel's brothers were recruited to the labor service (Jewish men conscripted to forced labor during the wared), and one of them was murdered in Buchenwald a short time later, with the other two surviving in Soviet captivity.

Bogler and his family were sent to a ghetto in Satoraljaujhely, Hungary, following the German army's invasion of the country in March, 1944. From the Hungarian ghetto, the family was sent to Auschwitz in Poland.

While both of Shmuel's parents and three of his cousins were killed in the death camp's gas chambers, he and his brother were sent to a nearby labor camp.

On January 31, 1945, Bogler and his brother were among the thousands of Jews forced by the Germans to march west. The two made it to Buchenwald, and were released shortly thereafter by the approaching American army.

Shmuel joined the religious-Zionist Bnei Akiva youth movement and transferred to Vienna, from where he continued to a displaced persons' camp in Germany and then went to Italy.

He boarded an olim (immigrant) ship in May, 1947, but it was stopped midway by the British, who directed its passengers to Cyprus. After four months in detention, Bogler came to Israel in October, 1947.

He joined the Palmach's religious division and fought for the defense of Gush Etzion, where he was captured by the Arab Legion in May of 1948. He was released after almost a year in the prisoner of war camp, and joined the Israel Police.

He went on to become an officer with the force, and to hold various senior positions including deputy commander of the police's southern district.

Today, he volunteers at Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations department and translates testimonies of other survivors from Hungarian to Hebrew. He also recounts his own life story on a near daily basis to a wide variety of audiences.

Shmuel and his wife Shoshanna have two children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Thea Friedman (Photo: Yitzhak Harari)

Dr. Thea Friedman will be the third Holocaust survivor honored this year. Born in Chernivtsi, Romania, in 1924 as an only child, Thea and her aunt escaped the area when it was overrun by German and Romanian troops, but later returned to her home village.

The family was expelled to the Mohyliv-Podilskyi ghetto in 1941, with Thea's father sent to carry out forced labor while she held various clerical jobs for 150 grams of bread a day.

Friedman escaped the ghetto in December, 1942, and crossed the frozen Dniester en route to returning home. She attempted to find shelter in the homes of relatives and acquaintances but was turned down.

She finally found shelter in a couple's home but was caught in a surprise search. Having failed in her attempts to commit suicide, Friedman remained in custody and was sentenced to deportation to Transnistria in July, but was released thanks to a bribe paid by the local Jewish community.

She arrived in Bucharest near the end of 1943, where she met her future husband Yosef Friedman, who was incarcerated there as well. She was released in July of 1944, and Romania surrendered to the Soviet Red Army a month thereafter.

She married Yosef in 1950 and began working as a physician. Repeated requests to be allowed to come to Israel were denied, but in 1958after eight years of being refused Aliyahthe Friedman couple and their son came to Israel.

Thea then worked as an ophthalmologist in northern Israel while she studied Hebrew in ulpan. Her family then moved to Ramat Gan, where she continued her practice and was later appointed head of an HMO (health maintenance organization)'s ophthalmology department.

Thea and Yosef, who has since passed away, have one sona doctor like both his parentsand five grandchildren.

Raul Teitelbaum (Photo: Yitzhak Harari)

Israel-Raul Teitelbaum, the fourth survivor participating, was born in Prizren, Kosovo, in 1931, also only child. When the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in April, 1941, his fathera doctorwas conscripted as a medical officer, and returned home when his country surrendered.

Teitelbaum's father was arrested, however, during the Italian occupation regime and sent to an Albanian detention center, where he was tasked with the camp's infirmary. The Teitelbaum family's apartment was appropriated by the Italian army, meanwhile, with Raul and his mother being thrown onto the street. They were taken in by friends, and Raul joined the Yugoslav underground.

When Italy surrounded in September of 1943, Albanian partisans liberated the camp in which Raul's father was detained and the family joined their ranks.

A German onslaught forced the partisans to retreat and the Teitelbaum family to seek shelter with some villages, before finally being forced to return to Prizren. Raul, 12 at the time, rejoined the city's resistance, disseminated flyers and participated in acts disrupting the German army's forces.

The Teitelbaum family was arrested in May of 1944 and sent to the Sajmiste concentration camp, from where they were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 9, 1945.

Days before the camp's liberation, the family and other prisoners boarded a train and were released by the Red Army on April 23. Raul contracted typhoid, however, and his father passed away in a Soviet hospital three days after the camp's liberation.

Raul and his mother came to Israel in 1949, where he joined the IDF and served as an officer in the Artillery Corps. He was discharged with the rank of major and later became a journalist, publishing hundreds of articles and investigative pieces on the Holocaust and the people who survived it, as well as about Israel's emerging economy and society.

Teitelbaum served on a court in an anti-trust tribunal and head of the Journalists' Association's ethics committee. Raul has been a prominent activist of the Holocaust survivors' umbrella organizationthe Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivorssince its founding in 1987.

He is also one of the people who drafted the "survivors' manifesto", which calls for education on humanist values, democracy, human rights and tolerance and seeks to fight racism and totalitarian ideologies.

His books and research work were used by the state investigative committee on the rights of Holocaust survivors, which recommended to change Israel's official attitude towards those who survived and has transformed the lives of many of them who were in dire financial straits.

Raul and his wife, who has passed away, have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Dov Goldstein (Photo: Yossi ben David)

The fifth survivor is Issachar Dov Goldstein, born in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1929the third of five siblings. His father, Moshe-Shraga, was the local community's rabbi.

The family was persecuted by the anti-Semitic Slovak regime even before the German occupation of the country in the summer of 1944. Dov was a junior activist in a Jewish movement, where he learned of the fate of Jews in Poland.

His mother gave birth to another son, Eliezer, in the fall of 1944 and was taken prisoner by Germansalong with her daughter and infant sonshortly after. They were sent to Auschwitz and murdered.

Dov and his father, meanwhile, hid in a nook Dov built beforehand, but were eventually discovered by the Germans. They were taken to the Sered concentration camp, and were also sent to Auschwitz the following week.

Dov's father was murdered in the camp's gas chambers not long after their arrival, while Dov himself was sent to one of the Buchenwald's sub-camps.

Throughout his time in the camps, Dov did his best to adhere to his Jewish faith. During the fesitval of Passover in 1945, for instance, a Jewish prisoner obtained some flour and took it to the shared dormitory, where prisoners were able to bake a single matzah over a can where a small fire was litenabling each prisoner to eat a small portion, upholding the holiday's basic tenets.

With the American army approaching, Dov and his friends were forced to take a death march and arrived in Buchenwald proper. Two days later, the camp was liberated by the US forces. Dov contracted typhus fever, however, and was hospitalized in an American hospital opened in the camp.

After he recovered, he returned to Bratislava where he discovered that his home had been entirely robbed and ransacked, with nothing left save his Jewish holy scriptures.

Dov joined an underground movement of Jews seeking to come to Israel and arrived in Italy with a group of Bnei Akiva activists. He boarded a ship to the country in August of 1946, but it too was stopped by British forces.

He was incarcerated for seven months at a Cyprus internment camp and then spent a month in a similar camp in Atlit after he was released from the first one. After his release, he settled in the agricultural village of Birya in northern Israel and fought in the War of Independence, later to become one of the founders of the Ein Tzurim kibbutz.

Dov founded a Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Be'er Sheva and taught Talmud there for years, while also serving as a tour guide for students and tourists nationwide. In the nineties, he was the community rabbi and shochet (a person who performs the Jewish slaughter of animals for food) of the Jewish community of Kosice, Slovakia.

Dov, like Shmuel Bogler, also recounts his travails during the war to teenagers and accompanies groups of students to Poland.

He and his wife, Shulamit, have three children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.





Abba Naor (Photo: Shlomo Hazan)

The last survivor is Abba Naor, born in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1928 to a traditional family of five people. Two months after the German invasion in August, 1941, the Kaunas ghetto was created and the Naor family was sent there.

During their stay in the camp, Abba would steal into the city proper in search of food while his eldest brother, Chaim, was caught and murdered while on the same errand.

Abba and his family survived several German culls of the Jewish population and he instructed his brother to practice hiding in a brick ovensaving his life during a roundup of children in March, 1944.

In July of the same year, however, the Naor family was transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp, where they were separated. The father was taken to a Dachau sub-camp to be a forced laborer, whereas the youngest sibling and mother were sent to Auschwitz.

"As soon as I saw my mother and brother marching towards the train," Abba recounted, "I realized I can bid them farewell forever."

Abba was employed in construction, digging and driving a diesel locomotive in the Dachau camp. When Germans sought a volunteer in early 1945 to work digging underground bunkers in the Kaufering concentration camp, Abba volunteeredbelieving his father was taken there and hoping to rejoin him. His father was not there.

Prisoners were sent on a death march in April 24 and Abba marched without food or water, in the rain and snow, feeding on weeds from the roadside. On May 2, when marchers awoke they found their German captors gone. A short time later, American troops announced they were freed.

Abba arrived at a displaced persons' camp in Munich and located his father several months later, and the two went to Poland. In odz Abba joined a Jewish group and boarded a ship headed for Palestine alone in 1946. The ship was again seized by the British and he was sent to Cyprus, where he trained others in self defense and taught them Hebrew.

Abba finally came to Israel in 1947, where he fought in the War of Independence. He went on to work for Israel's counter-terrorism unit, the Shin Bet, and also worked at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and the Mossad. During 1984-1985, he participated in Operation Moses, as part of which 5,000 Ethiopian Jews were taken from Sudanese refugee camps to Israel using Israeli Navy ships and Israeli aircrafts.

Naor later managed a Jewish retirement community in Hanover and lectures in German schools about his experiences in the Holocaust, while also participating in ceremonies held in the Bavaria region that relate to either Dachau specifically or the Holocaust in general.

Abba and his wife Leah, who has since passed away, have two children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The Bnei Brak municipality has decided to move its Independence Day ceremony this year from a square adjacent to city hall to a local state religious (non-Haredi) school.

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Residents say they heard about the decision from school administrators who told them it was part of a trend to downplay state events, ensuring they were low-key and removed from the public sphere.

For years, hundreds of children from kindergartens and schools have come to the municipality square for this important ceremony. The municipality used to decorate the place with Israeli flags, and construct a stage. It was a respectable event that became a tradition," Yaakov Vider, the head of the Haredi faction in the Likud party, told Ynet.

Previous Independence Day celebration in municipal square (Photo: Esther Horn)

"The ceremony also has symbolic significance, because it is important that it is held in a public place under the auspices of the municipality," said Vider. He explained that parents of children who study in municipal kindergartens and schools feel that the move is the result of political considerations ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.

"I intend to fight so that the ceremony will return to the municipal square. I am a Haredi, and I don't think it is justified to move it to a closed venue. This move is puzzling. I really hope the mayor did not make this decision because of pressure from extremist elements . The number of people at the ceremony is irrelevant," he said.

According to her, the move stems from "Mere petty politics. The (non-Haredi) religious and secular populations have indeed shrunk, but this should not prevent the city's children in public and state religious schools from participating in a ceremony at a public place. It is a civics lesson of the highest order, and it is unfortunate that the mayor wants to thwart it."

Harel Cohen, whose son also goes to a state religious school, was upset by the decision. The municipality of Bnei Brak systematically excludes the Zionist and Zionist religious sectors, both secretly and openly. As a resident from childhood, I feel this in every aspect, as do my children. I am not surprised by this move, and it is very sad for me that the people of Israel are not particularly united at this time.

Avraham Tenenbaum, the municipal secretary and spokesman, said the decision was the result of decreasing participation over the years. Every year in the municipal square, there are fewer and fewer children attending from kindergartens and schools, so the place is almost empty and it turns into a shameful ceremony. We wanted to hold a more dignified ceremony than in the past, so it was decided to move it.

Regarding the parents' claim that the move stems from political considerations before the elections, Tenenbaum said: "There are some politicos who want to make politics out of it, but the mayor has no such intentions.




Guwahati: Assams well known Dispur Hospital has conducted a free lipid profile test series for the journalist-members of Guwahati Press Club today (April 09), where blood samples of 20 participants were collected. The series will continue for four more days (till Friday) at the press club premises and every day (12 noon to 1 pm) blood samples of 20 persons will be collected.





Mentionable is that the lipid profile (lipid panel) tests include various types of blood screenings to measure the level of cholesterol and triglycerides. The tests can identify certain genetic diseases and determine approximate risks for cardiovascular disease, certain forms of pancreatitis and other related diseases.




WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump is threatening an imminent military strike against Syria, vowing to respond "forcefully" to Saturday's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians and warning that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility will "pay a price."

As he began a Monday evening meeting with military leaders at the White House, Trump promised to "make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter." He said: "We have a lot of options militarily, and we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact."

The White House sharply rejected any suggestion that Trump's own words about pulling US troops out of Syria had opened the door for the attack, which killed more than 40 people, including children.

Trump, asked at midday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility for the weekend attack, responded: "He may, yeah, he may. And if he does it's going to be very tough, very tough." He added: "Everybody's gonna pay a price. He will. Everybody will."
UNITED NATIONS - The United States plans to call for a UN Security Council vote on Tuesday on a proposal for a new inquiry into responsibility for use of chemical weapons in Syria after reports of a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town, diplomats said.

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After President Donald Trump warned on Monday that there would be a "big price to pay" for the suspected attack over the weekend, the United States circulated to the 15-member council a revised draft resolution to establish an international inquiry, which it initially suggested on March 1.

If the US text, which was seen by Reuters, is put to a vote, diplomats said it would likely be vetoed by Syrian ally Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to pass.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley (Photo: AFP)

The council met publicly on Monday over the latest suspected chemical weapons attack. In closed-door discussions that followed, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said she planned to put the draft resolution to a vote on Tuesday, said diplomats, who requested anonymity.

At the public meeting, Haley said, "The world must see justice done," adding that the United States would respond to the chemical weapons attack in Syria regardless of whether the Security Council acted or not.

History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria, she noted. Either way, the United States will respond.

Haley at the UN Security Council meeting (: )

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The US is determined to "see that the monster who dropped chemical weapons on the Syrian people is held to account," Haley went on to say.

"This is basically a diplomatic set-up," said Richard Gowan, the UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"Russia will inevitably veto the US resolution criticizing Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes," he said. "A breakdown at the UN will also make it easier for France to justify strikes."

Washington bombed a Syrian government air base last year over a toxic gas attack.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari (Photo: AFP)

A Syria medical relief group said that at least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured at several sites in the attack on Douma on Saturday. Russia and Syria said there was no evidence that a gas attack had taken place.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France and Britain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a "confrontational policy against Russia and Syria."

He told the council, "A broad arsenal of methods is being leveragedslander, insults, hawkish rhetoric, blackmail, sanctions and threatsto use force against a sovereign state.

"Russia is being unpardonably threatened. The tone with which this is being done has gone beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the Cold War."

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya (Photo: EPA)

Nebenzia said Moscow had told the US that it would not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk and called a US military option "very, very dangerous," not only for Syria itself but for the world.

"Armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions," Nebenzia said.

He urged inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agency to fly to Syria's capital Tuesday and visit the site in a nearby rebel-held town. He denied any attack occurred, telling the Security Council that experts from Russia's military radiological, biological and chemical unit went to the site and found no chemical substances on the ground, no dead, and no poisoned people in hospitals.

"The staged nature of this action is something of which we have no doubt," he said.

A previous joint inquiry of the United Nations and the OPCW had found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an April 2017 attack and has also several times used chlorine as a weapon. It blamed Islamic State militants for mustard gas use.

That inquiry ended in November after Russia blocked for the third time in a month attempts by the UN Security Council to renew its mandate for another year. Moscow slammed the joint UN and OPCW inquiry as flawed.

Russia proposed its own draft resolution in January to create a new investigation.

In response to Haley's push for a vote on Tuesday, Nebenzia told the council behind closed doors that he, too, could put his draft to a vote.
Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that Moscow has warned the United States of "grave repercussions" if it carries out an attack against Syrian government forces over reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack.
Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a condemnation Monday night to the alleged poison gas attack in Douma , noting that despite the fact Syrian President Bashar Assad has committed to getting rid of his chemical arsenal, he continues using the weapons he has before as well as developing new capabilities.

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"The Syrian regime continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity in using these outlawed weapons," the ministry said in a statement. "The latest attack joins a long series of similar attacks using chemical weapons perpetrated by the regime since Assad undertook to disarm from such weapons. The attack shows clearly that Syria continues to possess lethal chemical weapons capabilities and even to manufacture new ones."

"In so doing Syria is grossly violating its obligations and the decisions of the international community in this matter," the ministry charged further.

Assad visits Syrian troops in eastern Ghouta (Photo: AFP)

The United States is weighing a multinational military response to the suspected attack, according to US officials, as experts listed several key facilities that could be viable targets.

US President Donald Trump promised forceful action on Monday, saying a decision would be made soon.

American officials who spoke to Reuters did not disclose any plans, but acknowledged military options were being developed. The White House, Pentagon and State Department declined to comment on specific options or whether military action was likely.

Experts on Syrias war cited France and perhaps even Britain and Middle East allies as potential partners in any US military operation, which would aim to discourage future chemical weapons use in Syrias brutal civil war. President Emmanuel Macron warned in February that France would strike Syria if it broke treaties prohibiting chemical weapons. France has more than a dozen warplanes in the Middle East and could look to strike from the sea.

Children treated after alleged chemical attack in Douma

British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce told reporters that Britain would prefer to start with a proper investigation but that all options were on the table and London was in close contact with its US and French allies.

US intelligence officials said they believed a chemical attack did take place but that Washington was still gathering information. Trump said he was getting clarity about who precisely was responsible for the attack, but did not elaborate.

Experts speculated that the retaliatory strikes, should they happen, would likely focus on facilities linked to past reports of Syrian chemical weapons attacks.

They cited potential strikes against bases including Dumayr air base, which is home to Syrian Mi-8 helicopters and has been linked in social media to the strike in Douma.

One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was unaware of any decision to go ahead with a strike, but said any plans for a possible attack could focus on targets associated with Syrias chemical weapons program while seeking to avoid anything that could spread poisonous fallout in civilian areas.

Children treated after alleged chemical attack in Douma

A more provocative strike could target Humaymim Airfield in northwest Syria, which was singled out by the White House in a March 4 statement that identified it as the starting point for bombing missions by Russian military aircraft in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta.

It depends on how serious they are, said Hassan Hassan, a senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Russian threats

The United States fired missiles at the Shayrat air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town.

The United States warned Russia prior to the strikes themselves, seeking to avoid killing Russian forces. The base quickly resumed flights and the strikes did little long-term damage to Syrias broader military campaign, thanks largely to robust Iranian and Russian support.

In recent weeks, however, Trump, along with his top advisers, have stressed Russias complicity in Assads actions. Trump on Sunday specifically criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for backing Assad, whom he called an animal.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that Moscow had warned the United States of grave repercussions if it carried out an attack against Syrian government forces.
This is what happens to a country with two loversa brawny but unfaithful one from Moscow, and a hot but unstable one from Washington: It ends up all alone, in the Middle Eastern dark.

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Today, the State of Israel has no world power it can rely on and trust when it comes to the Iranian expansion in the region. It is left with no other choice but to launch independent military operations to curb the Iranian foothold in Syria, hoping that this military activity wont deteriorate to all-out war.

Theres a reason why IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot told Yedioth Ahronoth in a special Passover interview that the chance he would lead the army to war this year was higher than in the first three years of his term.

US President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The lovers' betrayal (Photos: Reuters, MCT)

One of the ways to curb an escalation after military activity is to keep it secret and to avoid taking responsibility. The problem is that our two lovers, each for his own reasons, wanted to tell the guys what their girlfriend had done that night.

The Russians couldnt resist and rushed to issue a very unusual statement in the morning about two Israeli F-15 planes that had flown over Lebanon and carried out a strike from 3:25am to 3:53am, firing eight cruise missiles at the Syrian air forces T-4 (Tiyas) airbase, which is located about 100 kilometers north of Damascus, near Homs. The Americans resisted the urge a bit longer, until Monday afternoon, when the NBC network quoted senior American officials as saying that Israel had informed the United States about the strike beforehand.

The lovers betrayal is already taking its toll: The Iranians couldnt hide it, and on Monday evening Iranian television presented the pictures of four Iranian nationals who the Iranians say were killed in the Israeli attack. This is a statement, perhaps even a threat.

If the strike was indeed carried out by Israel, it wasnt just a military move but a diplomatic defiance of both Russia and the US: You cant ignore Israel while devising different plans concerning Syria's fate. If you fail to consider our interests, well destroy any arrangement you make.

The conference held in Ankara on April 4, which focused on dividing Syria into zones of influence between Turkey, Iran and Russia, apparently ended with real results, way beyond the public statements that were issued after the meeting. Israel is mainly concerned about the achievements scored by the Iranians, who likely received permission to continue their military, economic and diplomatic presence in Syria and influence the Syrian regime. The Russians sold us out in this conference.

Three days later, in a phone call described by the Americans as tense, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump not to withdraw from Syria and to work to remove Iran from the Syrian arena, but Trump gave him the cold shoulder. The US president has already decided to end any involvement in Syria, and the only reason the move is being postponed for now is due to pressure from the American security establishment, mainly the Pentagon.

Trump wants to call it a day in Syria and slightly warm up his relations with the Russians in a bid to reach achievements in the North Korean arena and on the nuclear disarmament issue. An American abandonment of the Kurds will also be welcomed by Turkey, which the American administration still views as an important ally.

The T-4 airbase. As far as Israel is concerned, this place cannot exist as it is today

As far as Israel is concerned, pulling the American army out of Syria isnt just a license for the Iranians to do as they please in the war-torn country, but also a loss of military abilities. The Americans have invested a lot of intelligence in Syria. Moreover, a US withdrawal from the Kurdish area in eastern Syria opens the door to an Iranian takeover of Syria's major energy resources and the passways of Iranian equipment into Syria and Lebanon. Our great friend in Washington is getting us in deep trouble in Syria.

The T-4 airbase has become both an Iranian military-logistic center, from where Iranian equipment is transported to Lebanon and Syria, and an Iranian operational base for aerial and other activities. As far as Israel is concerned, this place cannot exist as it is today, in spite of the Syrian and Russian presence there. If the Russians and Americans fail to understand the message that was allegedly conveyed in the latest strike, the level of military activity will likely increase in a way that would provoke the Iranians and the Syrians, which may spoil the reconciliation process the Russians are trying to create in Syria.

By the way, if the strike was indeed carried out by the Israel Air Force, it seems the army has drawn conclusions from the previous attack on T-4 on February 10, as the planes managed to escape the Syrian antiaircraft defense system.

Symbolically, the day of the strike was also the first day in office of the new national security advisor of the United States, John BoltonIrans greatest enemy in the American administration. This guarantees full backing for Israel in targeting Iranian interests, as much as it wants and wherever it wants.

Later Monday, the Russians somewhat came to their senses and tempered their tone. President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, announced that Putin had no contact with the Israeli leadership and that the dialogue was being held on the regular channels. The radical comments attributed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov against the strike didnt mention Israels name. The Russians still value their relationship with Israel, which is preventing misunderstandings in Syria's skies and basically preventing a military flare-up in the region. If the attack was indeed carried out by Israel, it was a reminder to the Russians: We have an interest in Syria too and we plan to forcefully protect it.
LONDON  Seven Iranian military personnel were killed in Sunday's air strike on a Syrian air base, Tasnim news agency said, almost double the number originally reported.

Syria's government and its ally Iran have accused Israel of carrying out the attack on the Tiyas, or T-4, air base near Homs - something that Israel has not confirmed or denied. The bodies of the Iranians, described as military advisers, had been flown back to Iran and funerals would take place later on Tuesday, Tasnim said. Earlier Iranian media reports said four personnel were killed.

The attack took place hours after US President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay" following the reports of a poison gas attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma. Syria's government has denied any involvement in that attack.

"It seems the US government is looking for an excuse for military intervention," Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said has he arrived in Brazil early on Tuesday, according to state media.
Two Holocaust survivors and a Polish anti-Nazi resistance fighter have filed a lawsuit against the publisher of books praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a civil case that the plaintiffs' lawyers said on Monday is the first of its kind in Poland.

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The lawsuit, filed on Friday in a Warsaw court under Articles 23 and 24 of the civil code, alleges that the Katmar publications violate the plaintiffs' rights, including their dignity as persons who suffered under the Nazi German regime in occupied Poland.

One of the plaintiffs fought the Nazis in the doomed 1944 Warsaw Uprising while the two Holocaust survivors were both saved from the Warsaw Ghetto as children. Their family members were killed by the Nazis.

Jewish children in the Lodz Ghetto during World War II (Photo: EPA)

The lawsuit against Katmar, a publisher based in the Baltic port city of Gdansk, focuses on pro-Nazi propaganda books by Belgian Nazi collaborator and SS officer Leon Degrelle entitled "The Age of Hitler 1," "The Age of Hitler 2" and "Hitler the Democrat."

The plaintiffs argue that the Katmar publications authored by Degrelle can be regarded as pro-Nazi propaganda rather than a historical record because they do not contain a forward that would contextualize their content.

Degrelle led Belgium's far-right Rex Party before the war, and then became a Nazi SS officer decorated by Hitler.

"The promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in Poland, and in theory prosecutable in the criminal courts, but in practice public prosecutors fail to act effectively in the majority of cases," Wojciech Kozlowski, a lawyer with global solicitors Dentons, told AFP.

Contacted by AFP, Katmar representative Andrzej Ryba flatly denied having any far-right sympathies or wrongdoing, insisting that the books offer insight into the Nazi mentality and are therefore of historic interest.

The books were "not to glorify Hitler, but to show the true face of the Germanstheir attitude to Hitler, which Degrelle exemplifies," Ryba told AFP via email.

He also said that he made his condemnation of Nazi ideology clear in a publisher's note.

The plaintiffs, who are all in their eighties and have declined to reveal their identities, want Katmar to stop selling and distributing Degrelle's work, to publish apologies in the Polish press and to pay 40,000 zlotys (9,500 euros, $11,700) to charity.

"The motivation behind my involvement in this case is to protect historical truth about Nazi crimes and to pass this truth on to the young generations of Poles," one of the plaintiffs said in a press release.
The Thai police announced Monday the arrest of several Israeli criminals, wanted in the Southeast Asian country and elsewhere for suspicion of weapons and extortion offenses.

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Among those arrested is Haifa career criminal Ori Levy, shown in the video circulated by the Thai police firing 12 rounds from a handgun on a Ko Samui beach.

Footage of the Israelis' antics at the beach

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Levy resides in Thailand and is considered a crony of crime family head Yaniv (Nivi) Zaguri, who had been extradited to Israel mere months ago and charged with masterminding the hit on state's witness Tal Kurkus as well as ordering a similar hit on prosecution witness Elisha Sabah.

The two Israelis in court

Another Israeli detained is Shalom Fima, also known as "Iko." According to deputy commander of the Ko Samui tourist police force, Fima was previously wanted by Israel for threats and managed a travel agency named Iko Tours.

Fima has been residing in Thailand for 17 years, but his permit to stay in the kingdom has now been rescinded, as per local reports.

Levy and Fima were present at the Ko Samui press conference, both in handcuffs, flanked by police officers. The former claimed in his defense that the gun fired was a BB gun, but police rejected his claim, saying it was a real weapon.

Local police further maintained that Levy was filmed firing both a jellyfish and into the air. The Thai police also claimed the two Israelis were wanted for extorting money under duress from a third Israeli in Ko Samui.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem confirmed that the two had been arrested, but provided no further comment.
The state's representatives are to present the High Court of Justice with the status of talks with a third countrysaid to be Ugandaregarding receipts of African asylum seekers to be expelled from Israel.

According to estimates, the state will maintain the agreement with Ugandawhich allows to deport asylum seekers without their consentis still in force, despite the Ugandan government's public statements to the contrary.
Seven Iranian military personnel were killed in Sunday's air strike on a Syrian air base, the private Tasnim news agency said, almost double the number originally reported.

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Syria's government and its ally Iran have accused Israel of carrying out the attack on the Tiyas, or T-4, air base near Homssomething that Israel has not confirmed or denied. The bodies of the Iranians, described as military advisers, had been flown back to Iran and funerals would take place later on Tuesday, Tasnim said. Earlier Iranian media reports said four personnel were killed.

The T-4 airbase in Homs

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed in the raid, some with foreign nationalities.

The semi-official Fars news agency named four Iranian "military advisers" it was were killed, with one of them Mehdi Dehqan Yazdeli, reported to be a member of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, a division that operates drones.

The attack took place hours after US President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay" following the reports of a poison gas attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma. Syria's government has denied any involvement in that attack.

"It seems the US government is looking for an excuse for military intervention," Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said has he arrived in Brazil early on Tuesday, according to state media.

"Iran's stance on chemical weapons is clear and we condemn any use of them against any target," Zarif added.

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's most powerful military force, have been fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad for several years. More than 1,000 Iranians have been killed in Syria's civil war, including senior members of the Guards.




WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal agents on Monday raided the office of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, seizing records on topics including a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels.





A furious Trump, who in the last month has escalated his attacks on Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, said from the White House that it was a "disgrace" that the FBI "broke into" his lawyer's office. He called Mueller's investigation "an attack on our country," prompting new speculation that he might seek the removal of the Justice Department's special counsel.





The raid was done by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and was based in part on a referral from Mueller, said Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan.





"The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said in a statement. "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients."





The raid creates a new legal headache for Trump as he and his attorneys weigh whether to agree to an interview with Mueller's team, which in addition to investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign is also examining whether the president's actions constitute obstruction of justice.





The law enforcement action will almost certainly amplify the public scrutiny on the payment to Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump in 2006. The payment was made just days before the 2016 presidential election, and Trump told reporters last week that he did not know about it.





To obtain a warrant, prosecutors and agents must convince a judge they have probable cause of criminal activity and that they believe they'll find evidence of wrongdoing in a search. A warrant requires multiple levels of approval within the Justice Department, and agency guidelines impose additional hurdles when the target of a search is an attorney.





Authorities working with Mueller chose a similar tactic last summer when they raided the Virginia home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was subsequently indicted.





In this case, though, Mueller opted to refer the matter to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Besides Cohen's office, agents also searched a hotel room where he's been staying while his home is under renovation.





Under Justice Department regulations, Mueller must consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when his investigators uncover new evidence that may fall outside his original mandate. Rosenstein then will determine whether to allow Mueller to proceed or to assign the matter to another U.S. attorney or another part of the Justice Department.





A spokesman for Mueller's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the U.S. attorney's office also had no comment. The New York Times first reported Monday's raid.





Ryan did not elaborate on the documents that were taken from Cohen's office but said he has cooperated with investigators, including meeting last fall with lawmakers looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.





Cohen has more recently attracted attention for his acknowledgment that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket just days before the 2016 presidential election. 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.





Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission have said the payment appears to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC, urging it to investigate.





There have been few signs that Mueller was interested in investigating the payment, though. One Mueller witness, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, recently connected the special counsel with the payment, saying in an interview on MSNBC last month that prosecutors had asked him about it.





Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and he didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair.




The Lod District Court sentenced Alla Abu Shnab, 21, of the West Bank to three years in prison Monday.

Abu Shnab was initially charged with preparation to commit a terror-related murder and entering Israel illegally after being arrested in Netanya carrying a knife in 2017.

The decision was reached as part of a plea bargain, due to evidential difficulties surfacing after the indictment, following which he was convicted of the lesser charge of preparation for terrorism.

The difficulties arising and coming to the State Attorney's Office attention created doubt whether he intended to harm civilians and raised the possibility he wished to be arrested.
More than two and a half years after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement on a system aimed at avoiding misunderstandings in Syria's skies, the Russians were the ones to reveal Monday that the Israel Air Force had allegedly launched a missile attack on the T-4 airbase in the Homs area.

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Since September 2015, Russia and Israel have been trying to coordinate the military activities concerning Syria in a bid to avoid a direct conflict. In a meeting held at the time between Netanyahu and Putin, in the presence of the IDF chief of staff and the Military Intelligence Directorate head, the Israeli prime minister said: We must consider the other possibility of handling things after they happen, to understand the importance. Putin told Netanyahu at the time that he understood his concerns.

Putin and Netanyahu in January (Photo: AFP)

The coordination system began when the Russians entered Syria, and Netanyahu made the issue his top priority in his many meetings with Putin. In the past, Israel would inform Russia about its activities in real time. This time, however, Putins spokesman said there had been no contact between Israel and Russia before the night strike in Syria. The Americans, on the other hand, were informed about it beforehand, at least according to American sources quoted by the NBC network.

The system doesnt include approvals for a certain activity by either side, and updates on sorties in the overlapping areas are usually given shortly before the activity to prevent misunderstandings between the sides that could lead to a lethal outcome, like the downing of a Russian warplane by the Turkish army. A similar system is applied in the marine area, in light of the close encounters between Israeli and Russian warships at sea, in international water, on an almost weekly basis.

We received no warning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified after the attack on the airbase where the Iranian forces likely stored their drone arsenal. CNN wrote, That would be incredibly unusual, since maintaining good relations with Russia is key if Israel wants to keep operating in Syria.

According to official reports, at least 14 people were killed in the strike, including four Iranian military advisors.

The T-4 airbase in Syria

The strike prompted an unusual and harsh response from Russia, which basically serves as the Assad regimes military patron in Syria. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was a dangerous development, and Peskov added: This raised concerns that Russian forces had been hurt in the base. We informed Israel of our stance.

The Russians were also the ones who claimed that the strike was carried out by two Israeli warplanes. Russia further stated that the Russian defense systems intercepted five of eight missiles fired from Lebanons airspace.

The cooperation system has started showing signs of tension in recent months. CNN reported that in February, when Russia moved its new Sukhoi Su-57stealth fighter jets to Syria, a Russian politician appeared to refer to Israel when he said that the fighter jets presence was sending a political message "to aircraft from neighboring states which periodically fly into Syrian airspace uninvited.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has briefed top ruling party officials on his vision for the future direction of dialogue with the United States and his upcoming summit with South Korea's president, the North's official media reported Tuesday.

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Kim gave his "profound analysis and appraisal" of the prospects for North Korea-US dialogue at a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling party's Central Committee, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The meeting was held on Monday.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un (Photo: AFP, EPA)

Though the report did not explicitly mention plans for the summit with Trump, it was the most concrete suggestion to date that Pyongyang is preparing for what would be the first-ever summit between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president.

Kim Jong Un (Photo: Reuters)

Kim Jong Un as well as high ranking officials from the North have been engaging other countries in a flurry of diplomacy in recent weeks with the North Korean leader making a surprise visit to China last month, talking with President Xi Jinping.

That was the first time Kim has left the North since assuming power in 2011 and was also his first meeting with another head of state.

North Korea's parliament, called the Supreme People's Assembly, is scheduled to convene Wednesday.

Kim Jong Un and South Korean officials (Photo: Reuters)

KCNA said Kim outlined in detail his analysis on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and mentioned the North-South summit, which will be held on the south side of the DMZ on April 27.

He then discussed the "prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue and set forth the strategic and tactical issues" to be maintained by the party.

US and North Korean officials have held secret contacts recently in which Pyongyang directly confirmed its willingness to hold the unprecedented summit.

Any meeting between Kim and Trump would come after the two Koreas hold their first summit in more than a decade later this month.

Trump said Monday their meeting might be in late May or even in June. The location has yet to be announced.

"We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June and I think there'll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we'll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea," Trump told reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting.

"They've said so. We've said so," Trump said. "Hopefully, it'll be a relationship that's much different than it's been for many, many years."

Trump's vision (Photo: Reuters)

Trump expressed hope that a deal to get Pyongyang to denuclearize might be made. Administration officials say the North has communicated that Kim is ready to discuss his nuclear weapons program.

Questions remain about what conditions Kim might tack on to any denuclearization agreement.

Wednesday's parliament meeting could provide further clues as to what approach Kim might intend to take for the negotiation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has reportedly summoned Israel's Ambassador to Moscow Gary Koren for consultation following the attack on the T-4 airbase in Syria , the Arabic-language Sputnik news website reported on Tuesday.

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The Israeli Embassy in Moscow declined comment, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem said "We have ongoing conversations with the Russians all the time, and the ambassador will indeed meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov today."

Ambassador Gary Koren presenting his credentials to Russian President Putin (Photo: Israel's Embassy in Russia)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed in the raid, some with foreign nationalities.

Russia, the US, Syria and Iran have all accused Israel of carrying out the attack on the Tiyas, or T-4, air base near Homssomething that Israel has not confirmed or denied. At least four Iranian "military advisers" were killed in the attack, with the private Tasnim news agency reporting seven dead.

The attack led to an unusually harsh response from Moscow, an ally of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Monday that the air strike "was a dangerous development ," while Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said the attack was "a cause for concern for us."
The Haifa military tribunal approved a plea bargain agreement between the Military Advocate General and two Shayetet 13 soldiers tasked with administrative duties, initially charged with the rape of a soldier in a southern region base.

The charge of rape was stricken as part of the plea deal, with the soldiers admitting to a lesser charge of joint indecent assault of the soldier they sexually abused.

The two were sentenced to eight a nine months in prison, which they have already served since the affair began.
Offering a more detailed account Tuesday of its inquiry into a video of a sniper shooting a Palestinian while soldiers cheered on in the background, the IDF said that the incident "took place in the afternoon hours of Friday, December 22, 2017, during violent riots in the vicinity of Kissufim.

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"The video showed only a small portion of (the forces') handling of a protracted violent riot, which included stone throwing and attempts to sabotage the fence, and which lasted some two hours."

Footage of the incident

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The army's statement continued, "Multiple measures were taken to disperse rioters throughout, including using public address to order them to stop, deploying crowd control measures and firing into the air.

The Palestinian hit by the IDF sniper

"Once these steps proved inefficient, a single bullet was fired at one of the suspects of organizing and spearheading the protest while he was meters away from the fence. As a result, he was struck in the leg and subsequently wounded.

"The video was not filmed from the exact position from which the fire emanated, and was shot by a soldier who is not an organic part of the force that fired. After completion of the full operational inquiry by the relevant chain of command, its findings will be submitted, as is the norm, for inspection by the Military Advocate General.

"Regarding the unauthorized filming of an operations, the dissemination of said materials and expressions contained therein, it should be noted these actions and statements are not congruent with the spirit and degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers."

Soldiers involved with the video, in which some servicemen were heard enthusiastically lauding the sniper whose shot took down a Palestinian several months ago in the Gaza Strip, have been questioned by their commanders since the video was made public Monday and have provided an initial account.

Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett commented in a Ynet studio interview Tuesday on the footage, saying, "I prefer a whooping soldier to a grieving father."

Education Minister Bennett said he preferred a 'whooping soldier to a grieving father' (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

The Bayit Yehudi chief said regarding the video, most likely taken three months ago, that, "First of all, I'm throwing my support behind the IDF's soldiers. I will not be dragged into a festival of denunciations when people don't know what went on, when it happened and what the circumstances were."

"Since when do we judge soldiers by the elegance of their speech? I prefer a whooping soldier to a grieving father," he stated.

The minister continued, "You can hear jubilant calls of 'Yes' in the air force's headquarters after a successful mission, even if enemy soldiers were killed. Because they succeeded in their mission.

"We send IDF soldiers to defend our borders from the thousands of terrorists who want to come in and slaughter us, and we mustn't get lost in the bigger picture. Right now, I'm placing my trust with commanders. They will carry out an inquiry, and I won't have that soldier judged in the media's court."

Responding to being asked whether the video could nonetheless still damage Israel, Bennett said, "It needs to be examined and understood. I still have not gotten a sense of who the figure was and what he was trying to do. Whether he held an explosive charge or not.

"I'm not judging soldiers for their table manners, but want them to safeguard us, and would prefer offensive-minded soldiers preventing terrorists from entering Israel over soldiers too scared to act for fear of being trialed in court."

Public Security Minister Erdan said outrage at the incident would have been better served directed at Syria (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said during a Ynet studio interview Tuesday, "On a general level, I believe in IDF soldiers' purity of arms and ethics, and my policy is therefore to always afford them support, certainly to soldiers on the field."

"I think we have forgotten that the situation is one in which that if someone crosses the fence, with a run of a minute or two they'll already be in the Israeli communities around Gaza. I refuse to be taken aback by partial footage. If you're insisting on drawing conclusions, by the way, this shooting seems to have been highly focused," Erdan said.

On the expressions of jubilation heard in the video, Erdan said, "I think this discourse is hypocritical. I don't think you can judge soldiers who are risking their lives and are under a great deal of stress, several meters away from Hamas terrorists, and it's really not serious to judge these responses when we're sitting in some room watching partial videos."

"If people are truly appalled, they should direct their energies towards being appalled by what's been going on in Syria and exert pressure on the United States and Western states to act militarily and raise this issue publicly," the minister advised.

'Palestinians stayed in forbidden area'

An officer who served in one of the Gaza Division's field units over the past year and has attained knowledge of the complex operational realities engendered by border protests told Ynet, "The entire picture is still unclear, and the conduct of the soldier shooting the video and the response from his comrade should be separated from the conduct of the unit itself."

"Before shooting at the feet of a main instigator (of riots), he must be warned by either PA announcement or by firing into the air. That may have been done but was not shown in the video," he added.

"A central instigator," he continued, "does not necessarily have to be armed or trying to cut or climb over the fence. A central instigator is the riot's driving force, leading the other protesters towards the fence and not heeding our forces' warnings."

"Even in the 90 second video, you can see the post's commander exercised judgment on the field and gave a reasonable authorization to fire. It can also be seen that the force aimed at the lower portion of the Palestinian's footsince directions are to shoot at the ankle rather than the knee to prevent a fatal outcome. Palestinians have undoubtedly been within the zone of the perimeter, the strip of land where they are not allowed to be in," he explained.

Defense Minister Lieberman commented on the incident as well, saying heightened tensions may cause such incidents to occur (Photo: Effi Sharir)

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman echoed the officer's comments Tuesday, saying, "The sniper deserves promotion, whereas the cameraman deserves demotion. There has to be a clear equation. IDF is the world's most moral army, but when you're on the frontlines and under considerable stress, sometimes aggressions are let loose. That's understandable. At the end of the day, the army, snipers and soldiersthey're the best of us, and the IDF is the most moral army."

An initial inquiry into the matter by the IDF Tuesday morning showed the forcewhich ambushed a group of Palestinians protestersstayed relatively far from the border fence, at a distance of several dozen meters, but still well within effective range for a precise hit.

Other forces were active in the vicinity as well, however, and it remains possible the Palestinian was hit by fire from one of the other soldiers.

The soldier who filmed the incidentthereby sparking the controversy in the first placewas questioned by his commanders as well and army officials' estimates said he will be punished at least for breaking strict orders to never film during operational activity.

To achieve that end, the army has forbidden soldiers operating on the Gaza frontier over the past few weeks to bring their cellular phones with them when they carry out operations against rioters.

The IDF has yet to announce whether a Criminal Investigation Division (CID) inquiry into the matter will be launched. The General Staff's inquiry apparatus, which began operating his week, is expected to preventat least for the time beingthe opening of any CID investigations regarding the incidents taking place opposite the Gaza border recently.

Only after the General Staff's review is completed and on the basis of its findings will it be determined whether any criminal action is warranted.

The incident took place months before the 'Great March of Return' (Photo: EPA)

IDF: Incident to be questioned thoroughly

Since the aforementioned incident took place before Hamas's "March of Return" campaign, and may be excluded from the General Staff's review and be examined more rapidly by CID.

The army's rules of engagement are determined by the Operations Directorate, but may be made harsher depending on the specific sector in which forces operate, or tailored to the specifications of current intelligence warnings or developing threats.

The video, which was filmed through the lenses of a rifle's sights or binoculars, shows several Palestinians close to the border fence.

A commander is heard instructing the sniper, telling him "When he comes out, you get him. Do you have a bullet in the barrel? Are you on him?" After the sniper responds in the affirmative, the commander tells him "Go."

The sniper tells the commander that he cannot shoot, because the barbed-wire near the fence was in the way.

Several moments later, the commander speaks again, this time telling the sniper to hold fire after he spots a child.

Later two snipers are heard discussing who was on which Palestinian, following which a single shot is heard and one Palestinian is seen falling to the ground, with dozens of others immediately converging on him.

"Wow, what a video! YES! Son of a b****," one of the soldiers is heard exclaiming. Another is heard commenting that "Someone was hit in the head."

An initial analysis of the footage a soldier not firing but present nearby was filming using a telescopic lens.

The IDF said the clip might have been filmed months ago.

In an initial tweeted statement, the IDF said, "With regard to the video of the soldiers at the Gaza Strip border  it was probably an event that occurred a number of months ago. The event will be investigated and examined thoroughly."
Israel is escalating the diplomatic conflict with Russia and publicly standing by the United States concerning the chemical weapons used by Syrian President Bashar Assad against his own citizens.

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Jerusalems aggressive approach is reflected in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry shortly before 11 pm Monday, in which Israel ruled unequivocally that Assad and his regime had used chemical weapons against civilians on Sunday.

The delayed Israeli response is based on the results of a thorough examination by the Military Intelligence Directorate. The examinations findings revealed in an unequivocal manner that chemical warfare agentslikely nerve gaswere indeed used in the city of Douma in addition to chlorine, which usually isnt lethal.

Netanyahu and Putin in January (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Furthermore, the Military Intelligence Directorate findings point to an ongoing production and development of chemical weapons by Syria, despite Russias 2013 commitment not to allow the Assad regime to produce and use chemical weapons.

The Foreign Ministry statement is aimed at supporting US President Donald Trump, who is accusing Russia together with French President Emmanuel Macron of protecting and backing Assad as he uses chemical weapons against his citizens. The Israeli statement provides an intelligence confirmation of the fact that Assad is using chemical weapons, which has been strongly denied by the Kremlin.

Children hurt in the chemical attack in Syria

There is another reason for the Israeli statement: It was a diplomatic Israeli response to the Kremlins public condemnation of Israel not only over the alleged strike it carried out against Iranian forces in Syria, but also over its "indiscriminate use of force against the civilian population in Gaza, a statement made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the same day of the strike. Russia had failed to address the events in Gaza until Monday, and its unusual statement was likely aimed at diverting the international attention from Assad's use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Both Israel and Russia uninterested in war

Russias diplomatic backing and protection of Assad has infuriated political and security circles in Israel, as it may be interpreted by the Syrian regime as a general legitimization to use chemical weaponspossibly against Israel too. Israel is therefore prepared for a direct diplomatic conflict with Russia over this issue, which it sees as a serious imminent threat.

As far as Israeli security and political officials are concerned, Russian legitimization to use chemical weapons by one of Israels enemies is an almost existential threat which Israel must prevent.

Bomb containing chlorine which was reportedly used against civilians in Douma

Naturally, this raises the explosive potential of the northern arena in the near future, but it will likely prompt Israel and Russia to maintain their military coordination system. This system was established to prevent clashes between the Russian forces in Syria and the Israel Air Force following an error. These days, in light of the explosive situation in the region, proper military coordination is highly important to prevent an escalation to war, which both Russia and Israel are uninterested in at the moment.

As for Iran, Israel took the gloves off a long time ago and is waging a low-scale military battle against the expansion and entrenchment of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their Shiite militias in Syria.

Wests credibility put to the test

It remains unclear whether President Trump will make good on his threats against the Assad regime over its use of chemical weapons. The Israeli Foreign Ministry statement, which is based on intelligence sources with globally-recognized credibility, essentially pushes the American president to take action in Syria. Now, the White House can no longer say it has no findings providing clear proof that Assad attacked his citizens with chemical weapons on Sunday.

Children treated after alleged chemical attack in Douma

The credibility of the United States, France and the West in general is being put to the test. In fact, in light of the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons under Russias diplomatic auspices, the free and democratic world has reached the point in which it must draw a red line against the Russians uninhibited conduct.

History shows that if the US, Britain and France had drawn a red line against Adolf Hitler when he intervened in the Spanish Civil War, crossed the Rhine and annexed Sudetenland in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, World War II could have been avoided.

The analogy is clear: Putin is acting in an unrestrained manner in Ukraine and in Syria, and in regards to the development of weapons, and he is doing so in a way redolent of the Fuhrers conduct at the time. In Syria, he must be faced with a clear physical walland even fire if neededa wall which will stop the axis states: Russia, Iran and Syria, as well as Turkey to a certain extent.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman barred the entry of 110 Palestinians who were invited to participate in an Israeli-Palestinian conference in Tel Aviv during the eve of Israel's Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism.

"I will not lend a hand to the desecration of our Memorial Day," Lieberman said, stressing the Palestinians were not invited for "a memorial ceremony, but a demonstration in bad taste and insensitivity that harms the bereaved families that are dear to us."
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of all political prisoners held in the country, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The decision came in response to the calls from political parties and groups participating in the country's ongoing national dialogue to grant detainees the opportunity to engage in the country's political process, SUNA reported.

The news agency did not specify how many political prisoners the decision would affect or the names of any of those set to be released.
The High Court of Justice (HCJ) discussed Tuesday a petition filed by human rights organizations for the release of over 200 illegal African migrants detained in Saharonim detention facility.

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The state, which is against releasing the migrants at least until after the conclusion of negotiations with a third country, said to be Uganda, insists that their deportation to the east African country is still on the cards.

However, as the state representative Shosh Shmueli told the judges that a special envoy dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the third country is continuing efforts to persuade it to take in the detained migrants, Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut responded bluntly, So there is no agreement.

The state representative also admitted during the discussions that Israel was in contact with the UN regarding a deal aimed at resolving the migrant crisis before Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted it, suspended it and then scrapped it all together within twenty-four hours, noting that the HCJ had not been informed.

The judges responded by harshly criticising the state for failing to inform it, but afterwards acceded to a request by removing observers and petitioners from the room and continuing the discussions.

Before their removal, in response to the petition, the state emphasized that continued contacts were in place via the special envoy to an African state in order to deport those detained in the facility.

Attorney Barak Cohen, who represents the petitioners, decried during the discussions the decision to keep the detainees in a state of limbo, adding that the humanitarian issues was being forgotten.

There is uncertainty regarding who the agreement is referring to. We are not dealing here with merchandise, but with human beings, he said.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The state says on Sunday there is an agreement, on Monday it says there is no agreement, on Tuesday it says there is a new agreement, on the evening of the same day it says the agreement is suspended and at night the agreement is canceled, Cohen continued.

A few days later there is an agreement with another state. Sometimes the conduct harms human dignity.

Hayut asked Shmueli if there was, as of now, an agreement. Agreements were signed with two countries a number of years ago and updates to the agreement were signed, she responded.

During the discussions, another justice decried the indefinite detentions. You are holding people in detention. So what should they be told? That there is a high probability that they will be absorbed?, asked Justice Meltzer, in reference to a request last week by the state that more time be granted to make a decision on the matter due to the fact that there is a high probability that Uganda would accept the migrants.

In other words, if you put people on a plane will they not be taken in because there is no agreement?, Hayut asked.

Meltzer pointed out that the foreign minister of that country said there is no deal to accept the people by force, so how is there a high probability? This is a noveltyto detain people only if there is a high probability of deporting them. Freedom is the alternative.

The petition was filed to the HCJ by social activists last week. At the end of the week, the state told the HCJ that the special envoy was still in Uganda and that that there is a high probability that a "third country" will accept illegal African migrants deported by Israel, just days after a diplomatic debacle with the UN on the issue.

Given the development, the state asked that more time be granted nefore a final decision was made. However, the temporary injunction prohibiting the detainees deportation remains valid as long as the state does not make a final decision.

A group of 58 African migrants released from the detention facility last Wednesday who had been awaiting deportation before the collapse of an international deal to send them to Rwanda, said that they intend to return straight to Tel Aviv and search for work there, despite being instructed by authorities not to.
Kathmandu,Nepal : The government has appointed Inespector General of Police (IGP) of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force amid a differences between the major government allies CPN UML and the CPN Maoist Center.

An emergency cabinet meeting called on tuesday evening appointed DIG Sravendra Khanal as IGP of Nepal Police. Similarly Sailendra Khanal has been appointed as the IGP of the Armed Police Force.

The UML and the Maosist center had been differing over the issue of appointment of IGPs. A cabinet meeting held earlier on Tuesday was ended inconclusively due to the differences among the government allies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein have agreed that the Israeli premier will both participate in the torch-lighting ceremony marking Israel's 70th Independence Day, and will light a torch on behalf of all past and current Israeli governments, the Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday.

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As part of the compromise that put an end to a political spat between the two, with Edelstein threatening to boycott the ceremony if Netanyahu delivers a speech, it was also agreed that the latter would not address those in attendance.

Furthermore, Netanyahu ordered Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev to convene the Knesset Symbols and Ceremonies Committee before the Independence Day ceremony to cement an agreement between him and Edelstein, whereby an incumbent prime minister will attend the ceremony once a decade.

PM Netanyahu (L) and Speaker Edelstein (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem, Amir Salman)

The compromise comes on the heels of the acrimonious public feud between Regev and Edelstein after the minister promoted an initiative that would have seen the premier attend the ceremony and deliver a speech, along with President Reuven Rivlin.

Regev, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, claimed last month that according to the suggestion by the Knesset Symbols and Ceremonies Committee, it would only be appropriate to let the prime minister speak at the event once every ten years.

"The idea that Netanyahu will speak (at the ceremony) came from both me and him," Regev made clear on Army Radio on Sunday morning.

In response to Regev's proposal, Edelstein distributed a letter Thursday to all 120 Knesset members, which was obtained by Ynet, in which he explained why its adoption would result in his absence.

"There is no doubt in my mind that if its national character is erased, the fire will come out of the torches and stoke the disagreements between us. We cannot lend a hand to this," he wrote.

In the event that Edelstein had refused to attend the ceremony, all other members of the Knesset would have also been absent.

Culture and Sport Minister Regev (Photo: Yoav Dudkovitz)

In a video statement published Tuesday, Edelstein professed to regret how murky public discourse became over the affair, but stressed he is sure the agreement reached with the premier will be accepted by the majority of the Israeli public.

Edelstein confirmed he, as well as all other members of the Knesset, will attend the event.

Edelstein's office stated Sunday that "the agreement was reached with mutual respect and a sincere desire to end the dispute over Israel's 70th anniversary celebrations."

"According to the understandings reached, the prime minister will deliver a torch on behalf of the Israeli governments and say a few words of blessing as it is lit," Edelstein's office confirmed.

Regev commented that she is glad "personal considerations have been removed from the agenda and logic has prevailed," adding that Netanyahu's participation in the torch-lighting "adds honor to the ceremony, to the state and to society."

Israel's 69th Independence Day ceremony in Netanya (Photo: Ido Erez)

Meanwhile, Ambassador Ruth Kahanov was chosen earlier that day to light a torch at the ceremony on behalf of the Center for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in place of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Kahanov previously served as Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Asia and the Pacific and as Israel's Ambassador to Japan.

Today she is a special envoy to regional organizations in Asia and the Pacific.

Kahanov was supposed to light the torch alongside Hernandez, who pulled out of participating in the ceremony due to the fierce objections raised by senior Israeli officials to his arrival.
Israel's Labor party said on Tuesday it had suspended relations with British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of sanctioning anti-Semitism and showing hatred towards Israeli policies.

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"It is my responsibility to acknowledge the hostility you have shown to the Jewish community and the anti-Semitic statements and actions you have allowed as leader of the Labour party UK," Israeli Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay wrote in a letter to Corbyn, distributed to the media.

Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: Reuters)

Corbyn, the British opposition leader who unexpectedly became party head in 2015, is a supporter of Palestinian rights and a vocal critic of Israel, has repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic comments in the party and among groups he supports.

Last month, British Jewish groups held a street protest outside parliament against Corbyn, accusing him of failing to tackle anti-Semitism in party ranks because of a far-left world view hostile to Jews.

"As Israel approaches Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day this week, we are reminded of the horrors of anti-Semitism in Europe and our commitment to combating anti-Semitism of all forms and in all places," Gabbay's letter said.

Avi Gabbay (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"As such, I write to inform you of the temporary suspension of all formal relations between the Israel Labor party and the leader of the Labour Party UK."

Gabbay said Corbyn had shown "very public hatred" towards Israeli government policies including those where the opposition and the ruling coalition are aligned.

Israeli Labor is part of the "Zionist Union" faction in Israel's Knesset that controls 24 of the legislature's 120 seats.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says atrocities in Syria must be met with a "strong, united and determined response" from the international community.

Philippe spoke Tuesday in France's lower house of parliament about Saturday night's apparent chemical attack in the rebel bastion of Douma.

He says: "The regime's allies have a strong responsibility in this massacre." He said international law has been violated "one more time" in Syria.

Philippe didn't mention the possibility of military intervention in the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump have talked twice in two days to discuss Syria's issues.
The High Court of Justice (HCJ) ruled on Tuesday evening that all illegal African migrants, currently being detained in the Saharonim detention facility in southern Israel, must be released within five days in the absence of approval by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit of an agreement with a third country which will accept the deportees.

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As part of the discussions that got underway earlier following the filing of a petition by human rights organizations, the judges reprimanded the state representatives urging that the migrants remain in detention for failing to update them on the recent collapse of an agreement with Rwanda, which was said to have been a first third country prepared to take in the migrants.

(Photo: Roee Idan)

If by April 15 at 12pm the attorney general has not approved the updated deal with the second third country and accepts the arrangements for its implementation, all detainees in Saharonim detention facility who refused to go to this country and are being held there due to this refusal will be released on the same day, the court decision read.

The reason for this ruling is that in the absence of an agreement ... there is no longer cause to continue holding them in custody, it added.

In their ruling, the judges left an opening for the submission of new appeals by rights groups in the event that Mandelblit to sanction the deal.

To remove any doubt, we emphasize that at this time, we are not expressing any position regarding the validity or legality of such an agreement," it noted.

(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The judges believed it was appropriate, they continued in their statement, to note that the respondents and their representatives (the state) could have been expected to inform us at the time of the previous hearing of the petitions ... the fact that a few weeks earlier the respondents discovered that there had been considerable difficulties regarding the arrangement with the first 'third country' (Rwanda) and that initial contacts had been initiated with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees."

On Wednesday, the coalition is expected to examine several possibilities to resolve the issue of the thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese illegal migrants in Israel, who the Israeli government says are economic migrants but rights groups say are asylum seekers fleeing persecution.

One option has was initiated by Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, according to which the Knesset will determine a ruling clause that will prevent the HCJ from disqualifying the Infiltrators Law

Senior politicians say that a decision has not yet been reached on the matter, which will be discussed further in Wednesdays meeting.

(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

In the event that Netanyahu moves ahead with the initiative, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has already stated his intention to support it. Its first obstacle however, is expected to be laid by Mandelblit.

Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett was also quick to throw his weight behind Yarivs initiative. I praise the prime minister for responsiveness  to pass the Infiltrators Bill . I expect it to be promoted extremely quickly, the education minister said.

Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) announced recently their intention to sponsor a redrafting of a migrant deportation bill, this time including a notwithstanding clause that will effectively bar the HCJ from striking the law down.

During Tuesday's discussions, the state representative Shosh Shmueli told the judges that a special envoy dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the third country is continuing efforts to persuade it to take in the detained migrants, Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut responded bluntly, So there is no agreement.

The state representative also admitted during the discussions that Israel was in contact with the UN regarding a deal aimed at resolving the migrant crisis before Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted it, suspended it and then scrapped it all together within twenty-four hours, noting that the HCJ had not been informed.
A Palestinian from the Tulkarem Governorate in the West Bank who was recruited by Israeli security services in the 1990s and forced to flee to Israel after his cover was compromised, has lived in Tel Aviv for more than two decadesnow with his young sonwithout a permanent residency permit and without a legal course to earn a living.

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"I love this country but feel like it abandoned me," said the agent, identified as "A.", tearfully in a conversation with Ynet while appealing to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri for a permanent residency permit that will allow him to earn a living.

A., in his 40s, was recruited in 1996 by an Israeli agent. He said that for several years he endangered his life to help Israel locate and arrest wanted persons in the West Bank.

A. (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"In one of our activities, after we finished capturing a wanted person, my agent told me that I had to flee urgently because I was exposed," he recounted. "I came to Tel Aviv and did not ask the state for anything. My operator would meet with me every few weeks and give me a Talkman card (a prepaid Israeli SIM Card) so that I could talk to him on the phone and some money in cash."

Later he returned to work again for the security services and was asked to recruit agents in east Jerusalem, but at some point his "employment" was terminated.

Last year, A. was almost expelled back to the Palestinian Authority after his Civil Administration permits expired. At the last minute, however, it was decided to extend his stay until the end of 2018, by virtue of family unification with his son from his ex-wife, who has Israeli citizenship.

According to A., all his requests to the Ministry of the Interior to receive legal status fell on deaf ears, and he says that he was told by the ministry that it was impossible to give him a residency permit based on the documents he submitted to them.

He claims that all his attempts to obtain clarification on this from the relevant officials at the Interior Ministry were met with evasive responses.

Interior Minister Deri (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"I hope that Minister Deri or someone else will help me because I'm sick of this life," he pleaded. "I have to take care of my kid, but I'm stuck. I can't rent an apartment, start a business or work because I do not have an Israeli ID card. I cannot go back to the (Palestinian) territories because I am under threatthere is a bounty from Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on my head.

"I love this country and know that here none of my enemies will hurt me, but on the other hand they don't allow me to live here. I pray that the relevant parties understand that an injustice has been done and correct it before Independence Day."

The Population and Immigration Authority said in response that "the status of collaborators is solely based on the recommendation of the (Israeli) security services," noting there was no such recommendation for him and stressing that if he feels his life is in danger, he should "contact the relevant authorities."

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories contradicted A.'s claims, saying that "on December 24, 2017, a request from him for a permit to stay in Israel was received. The application was examined with the relevant authorities and approved on the same day, so the above mentioned may stay in Israel."
The United States on Tuesday welcomed a push by some EU states to impose new sanctions on Iran and warned firms considering doing business with the Islamic Republic that they could be funding militant groups and regional instability.

US President Donald Trump has set European allies a May 12 deadline to revamp an international deal agreed with Tehran in 2015 that lifted international sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Speaking in London at the start of a tour of European signatories to that deal, Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said sanctions were an important part of a comprehensive effort to counter Iran's "malign activity" in the region.

"We understand that the EU, it's been reported in the press, is considering new Iran-related sanctions. This is a good and important step that we support," she told reporters before meetings with British officials.
Facebook announced that the personal details of some 47,000 Israelis may have leaked to British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

According to the company's announcement, only 28 Israelis installed the application through which the information was leaked to the company, but it is possible that information of up to 47,014 of Facebook users was compromised.
Saudi Arabia could take part in military action in Syria after a suspected chemical attack that killed at least 60 people in the eastern Ghouta region over the weekend, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump on Monday promised quick, forceful action in response to the attack, appearing to suggest a potential military response.

"If our alliance with our partners requires it, we will be present," Prince Mohammed said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, wrapping up a three-day visit to Paris.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his company is "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller in his probe into Russian interference.

Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using US aliases and politicking on US soil. Some of the Russian ads were on Facebook.

Zuckerberg says he has not been personally interviewed and said he is not aware if the company has been subpoenaed.
The UN Security Council has rejected a Russian resolution that would have created a new expert body to determine responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

The resolution needed at least nine "yes" votes in the 15-member council for approval, but only six countries voted in favor. Seven council members, including the US, Britain and France, voted against the proposal and two abstained.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the draft resolution was not impartial or independent since it would allow Russia to veto investigators and staff for the new bodyand to block its findings.

She accused Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, of repeatedly shielding President Bashar Assad instead of working for Security Council unity.
Kathmandu, Nepal: Though the CPN UM and the CPN Maoist Center are vowing to merge the two parties into a new one, the differences of the two parties seem to have widened o ranges of issues including on the nonissues.





The two leftist parties seem to have bickering not only on the issues related to the unifications of the parties but also indulging on the petty interests of transforming and appointment of the government employees.





The recent one difference over the issue of running the government is centered on the issue of transforming of the secretaries and appointment of Inspector General of Police (IGPs) of the Nepal police and Nepal Armed Police.





A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Tuesday ended inclusively after ministers from the CPN UML and the CPN Maoist Center clashed over the issue of appointment of IGPs. The consensus efforts made earlier among the top leaders had also indeed inclusively due to the differences.





The cabinet meeting called at the Prime Ministers Official residence, Baluwatar with the agendas to hold talks on the appointment of IGPs as IGP of Nepal police Prakash Aryal and all the AIGs of and IGP Singha Bahadur Shrestha of Armed Police Force are going to retire from their posts following the completion of 30-year service period from Wednesday.





Though the Prime Minister Oli had been claiming to transform and appointment of the the government employees will be made without indulging on the partisan interests, the UML has been exerting pressure to appoint DIG Pushkar Karki in the post of IGP of the Nepal Police. However, the CPN Maoist Center has stand in favor of DIG Sarvendra Khanal.





As per the police rule, not only the Karki and Khanal but also all the 12 DIGs namely Ramesh Kharel, Pawan Kharel, Bhog Bahadur Thapa, Puskal Regmi, Uttam Kumar Karki, Chandra Ranjeet, Manoj Neupane, Gyan Bikram Shaha, Chabi Lal Joshi, Thule Rai, Sharad Chand, Dhiru Basnet, Puspa and Suresh Bikram Shaha are eligible in the post. Among the Karki and Khanal, Rajendra Kharels name is also coming in the forefront due to his performance.




News

Washington, DC - The Vice President is honored to represent the United States at the 8th Summit of the Americas at President Trumps request. He looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger U.S. economy and working with our close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions.

Last year, the Vice President traveled to the region to meet with the presidents of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Panama to increase the pressure against the Maduro regime and negotiate better trade deals that benefit American workers. While there, the Vice President met with a number of Venezuelan dissidents. Vice President Pence also hosted the Northern Triangle Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America as well. Next month, the Vice President will continue to advance U.S. policies and commitment to the region when he travels to Brazil.
STAND UP FOR SCIENCE. STAND UP FOR RATIONAL THOUGHT. STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT TO THINK.

India has been witnessing attacks on scientific and rational thought in recent times, as well as massive cuts in government spending on education and research. Apart from slashing down resources for research, the current regime has actively been promoting unscientific ideas with ministers publicly denying the theory of evolution, promoting mythology instead of facts, and ministries officially funding pseudoscientific ideas. The government has also been aggressively attacking dissenting voices and rationalists.

A similar pattern is being seen across the world. In the wake of these attacks, an International March for Science is being organised in numerous countries, with India being an enthusiastic participant.

To voice our discontent with this governments hardline stance against science, the Delhi organising committee of the March for Science calls all individuals and students, teachers, activists, political groups and bodies to join the protest.

Date: 14th April, 2018

Time: 3:30 PM

Route: Mandi House to Parliament Street

Join us and stand up for your right to think and question

o o o

Full Text of Charter of Demands

March for Science 2018 a India

Last year, an international March for Science was organized in the wake of widespread attacks on science and science institutions in numerous countries. In the US President Trump proclaimed climate change a hoax and banned use of the term in official documents and websites. He also slashed funding for science and environmental agencies and research. Other countries have also been witnessing cuts in government funding for science research and education. The call for a Global March for Science in 2017 therefore received overwhelming support across the world, with marches being organized in more than 600 centres worldwide. In protest against the attack on science and science institutions in India, last year the Indian scientific community had organised a March for Science on 9th August.

Since these attacks on science and scientific institutions still continue, an international call has been issued to March for Science again this year on 14th April 2018. The All India Peoples Science Network has resolved to join this Global March for Science.

The AIPSN sees a pattern in the attacks on science and reason across the world. US President Trumpas denial of climate science, and the current Indian central government Ministersa rejection of evolution and other scientific advances, are examples of anti-science and obscurantist outlook being fostered by parties in power. Such obscurantism and attacks on reason in India have also fostered a climate of hate and violence, culminating in the assassination of rationalists.

AIPSN believes that the scientific community, and all people believing in science and reason, must unitedly resist such attacks. The AIPSN calls on all right thinking people to also oppose the attacks on scientific and educational institutions, not just on funding cuts, but also on their democratic functioning.

April 14th, the date of the Global March, is also Ambedkar Jayanti. The AIPSN calls on the scientific community to fight all forms of discrimination in the work place, particularly caste and gender discrimination. A Rohit Vemula should not again be denied his dream of reaching the stars due to the "fatal accident of his birth".

Promoting Obscurantism and Attacking Rationalists

The current governing and affiliated forces, including Ministers and other political leaders, are promoting obscurantist beliefs and pseudo-science, and citing myths as history, claiming fictional achievements as ancient, uniquely Indian science, including at the Indian Science Congresses. The numerous genuine scientific achievements by ancient Indian thinkers and technical practitioners are left out in this narrative as is also the history of sharing of knowledge a both inward and outward a with other cultures as part of the universal heritage of science. What is also left out in this obscurantist narrative is the exclusions of alowera castes of the people, who were actively involved in the development of crafts, technologies and productive forces.

School textbooks are being rewritten and so-called aresearcha to aprovea pseudo-scientific claims are being officially funded and conducted under the aegis of government research institutions. Such forces even attack scientists, historians and other academics, who question pseudo-science and pseudo-history, labelling them as pro-Western or anti-national.

This anti-science and anti-rational atmosphere whipped up by the obscurantist and extremist forces with official support has generated a climate of violence resulting in the murders of rationalists and independent thinkers and activists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M.Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. All this not only undermines the Constitutional obligation to promote a scientific temper but also serves to suppress critical thinking in schools, colleges/universities and in society at large, severely undermining the advancement of India in the contemporary world.

Attack on Scientific Institutions and Denial of Resources

Budgetary support from the Central Government for research in and use of S&T has continued its declining trend in India since the advent of the neo-liberal economic policy paradigm. The latest budget of 2018 continues this trend. The allocation for S&T now remains at around 0.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP), stagnant for over a decade, compared to well over 2% of GDP in China with a double-digit annual GDP growth.

Today, publicly funded R&D organizations in India are compelled to raise resources from private industry and foreign agencies. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) network of 40 laboratories, has been forced to accept the so-called Dehradun Declaration to move towards self-financing by earning 50% of its budget from the market rather than government funding. Consequently, with the Indian corporate sector content with importing technologies or being junior partners of foreign collaborators, and highly reluctant to spend on R&D despite a plethora of incentives, publicly funded laboratories have been restricted to salary budgets leaving little for equipment, field experiments and materials. The same condition prevails in Institutes of national importance such as IITs, IISERs etc. The social sciences have suffered equally.

The same neoliberal policies are reflected in school education, with the central and various governments cutting down on primary and secondary education, and promoting private schools. This paves the way for reserving quality education only for the rich and the elite.

Autonomy of S&T institutions and institutions of higher learning are being steadily and seriously eroded. The scientific community is receiving recommendations from obscurantist and backward-looking organizations for appointments of affiliated individuals as Directors and Vice-chancellors whose academic credentials are dubious. There is an Emergency-like atmosphere on University campuses, with academic and intellectual freedoms being severely curtailed, while independent thinking, articulation of views on societal issues, and diverse cultural practices not deemed to be in conformity with a particular, supposedly majoritarian, perspective being throttled.

India needs to invest far more in science and technology research, as well as in its capabilities and human resources in these areas of knowledge and skills, so as to promote its development. The more India falls behind now, the more difficult it will be to catch up and prevent this country becoming subservient to others. Such advancement in S&T is impossible without combating obscurantism and blind belief in received wisdom whether from religious or traditional cultural roots, or without cultivating critical thinking among the Indian people, from school through higher education and in the wider society. March for Science 2018 a India stands for these demands and pledges to strive for their fulfilment. In the knowledge age, advancement in science, technology and innovation will be crucial determinants of economic growth, societal progress and self-reliant development.

AIPSN has resolved that it will join hands with all organisations willing to participate on the Global March for Science, and hold joint rallies in various cities/towns in the country. It also appeals to the scientific community, progressive organisations and all right thinking people to join such rallies on

14th April 2018.

Demands:
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLES MOVEMENTS

National Office: 6/6, Jangpura B, New Delhi a 110 014

Phone:011 24374535 | 9971058735

E-mail:napmindia at gmail.com | Web:www.napm-india.org

NAPM condemns the high-handedness of UCIL and Andhra Authorities

Detention and prevention of activists from participating in public meeting on auranium mining impactsa at Kadapa, Unlawful and Undemocratic

UCIL-BARC must come clean on its operations and ensure that all its activities are subject to strict environmental and legal regulations

10th April, 2018: National Alliance of Peopleas Movements strongly condemns the high-handedness of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), a Govt. of India undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy (headed by the Prime Minister) and the Andhra Pradesh police in misbehaving with activists of Human Rights Forum and NAPM and denying them access to the venue of a public meet yesterday in Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh by unlawfully detaining them for a couple of hours.

The team that was arbitrarily detained on their way to the UCIL (where the meeting was called) and taken to Vemula police station included septuagenarian Dr. Babu Rao; eminent scientist and environmentalist (HRF-NAPM), Adv. Jayasree Kakumani of Human Rights Forum and Rajesh Serupally, NAPM. It was only after intense protest by the activists and villagers and an immediate letter by EAS Sarma, Former Secretary, Govt. of India to the Collector, Kadapa and Mr. Nripendra Misra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, that Dr. Babu Rao was allowed to participate in meeting with nuclear scientists and officials from UCIL and BARC. However, the other activists were kept in unlawful detention and released only late into the night at around 9 pm. All of them were made to sign papers stating that they would not indulge in such anti-social activities that disturb peace, which they did, under protest signatures. Media entry to the meeting site as also restricted. Interestingly, this aawareness meetinga, had to be held at a neutral place but was called for within the UCIL premises itself.

In response to the series of complaints and protests by the villagers and some intervention, at peopleas behest, by Mr. Y.S Avinash Reddy, the YSR-CP MP representing Kadapa constituency in the Parliament, the UCIL authorities consented to ameeta the villagers to acreate awarenessa and address their queries and demands. Since much of the terminology used by UCIL is generally technical, the villagers approached activists associated with HRF, NAPM and other peopleas groups to attend the meeting on 9th April, along with them, to have a more effective interaction with the officers of UCIL & Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in a better way. Thus, to deny access to public-spirited persons who came to participate in the meeting, at the invite and request of villagers is totally undemocratic and brazenly disempowering. If the UCIL can take the aid of BARCas scientists, so can the villagers take assistance of independent scientists and activists. To deny people this right is arbitrary and unacceptable.

It may be noted that the Tummalapalle mine in Kadapa district is estimated to hold one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, catering to fuel requirements of nuclear power plants. While the UCIL obtained clearance from the Centre in 2006, mine operations began around 2012. Not surprisingly, locals state that land acquisition for the plant was done in a coercive manner and public hearings before the environmental clearance witnessed protests and police action against villagers.

Over the past couple of years, the villagers of Mabbuchintilapalli, KK Kotala, Bhumayagaripalli and Kanumalavaripalem, residing barely 6 kms away from the mine and processing plant at Tummalapalle, have been repeatedly protesting against UCIL, complaining of plummeting underground water levels, due to relentless pumping and drastic increase in sodium and uranium, leading to air, soil, ground and surface water contamination. Reportedly, this pollution has been happening due to poor lining for the tailing pond, causing seepage. The cumulative impacts of the plant operations in the form of damage to agriculture and standing crop, water, health of local population (skin allergies, ulcers and kidney problems) and livestock (illnesses ad pre-mature deaths), alleged negligence by contractor and plant authorities is a saga of continuing anguish and anger. Apparently, quite a few villagers have had to avacatea their houses, due to these impacts. There is widespread fear in the region of the long-terms implications of radiation, making the place another aJadugudaa.

We have learnt that water samples collected by local farmers from their tube wells and tested at the labs of Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), an autonomous scientific body under the Govt. of India, produced results indicating significant increase in uranium and sodium levels, much higher than the permissible and standard level. Besides, in December 2016, researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Anantapur, analysed samples of water and soil and noted increased levels of barium, arsenic, cobalt, chromium, copper, molybdenum, lead, vanadium and yttrium, which could impact crop productivity and local environment. This study was also published in the International Journal of Advanced Research. It is now well-established that heavy metals, if consumed in large quantities, may lead to severe health issues, including cancers, respiratory and kidney complications.

Instead of addressing all these concerns, the UCIL recently issued an advertisement in newspapers claiming that a afew individuals and NGOs are spreading wrong information against the organizationa , in a way indicating that all is not well with its operations. Clearly, such a public announcement, detention and denial of access to civil society activists, is more a measure to discredit and muzzle voices that are raising uncomfortable and important questions, in public interest.

UCILas operations in Kadapa, is yet another classic case of weak post-clearance monitoring by the authorities, especially the Pollution Control Board (PCB) and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF & CC). NAPM demands that the UCIL must ensure full disclosure of all necessary information in the public domain and in a manner discernable to the local population. It must immediately comply with all conditions stipulated at the time of project clearance including payment of full and fair compensation for all forms of losses and impacts incurred by the local population due to UCIL operations. PCB and MoEF must undertake an immediate visit, comprehensive assessment and rigorous monitoring of the present status of environmental compliance (or lack of it) and conduct a post-clearance public audit and hearing. These monitoring authorities should also be ready to issue and impose orders of cessation of operations, if violations are found.

National Alliance of Peopleas Movements (NAPM)
Oregon Cannabis Commission's First-Ever Product Integrity Meeting April 16

Keep up with changes in Oregon's program with this OMMP News update.







(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The first monthly public meeting of the Oregon Cannabis Commission's Product Integrity Subcommittee will meet on April 16th in Portland. A public comment period will be held at the end of the meeting; whereby, comments will be limited to three minutes.

The Oregon Cannabis Commission was established in the 2017 legislative session though HB 2198. The commission consists of the state public health officer or the public health officers designee and an eight-member panel appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.

The commission is tasked with determining a possible framework for future governance of the Oregon Medical Marijuana program, steps to address research on cannabis in areas of public health policy and public safety policy, agronomic and horticultural best practices, and medical and pharmacopoeia best practices.

Along with this, they advise the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission with respect to the statutes governing medical and retail cannabis.

To attend the Oregon Cannabis Commission's Product Integrity Subcommittee meeting, go to the Portland State Office Building, Conference Room 1A (on the main floor of the building), 800 NE Oregon Street, Portland, on April 16th at 11:30 a.m.

Also, the Cannabis Commission's Training Subcommittee meets April 20 in Portland. This is the first monthly public meeting.

The agenda will include review of subcommittee description and directives, and review of its communications and schedule; discussion of priority focus areas and discussion of special interest groups and other resource needs.

The Training Subcommittee meeting is April 20th, from 9-11 a.m. Time will be allotted at the end of the meeting for public comments, which are limited to three minutes.

More OMMP News

A Rules Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for April 17, 2018 at 2:00 pm. Please see the "Rulemaking" section on the Rules and Statutes page for more information.

Temporary Administrative Rules for designating a Grow Site Administrator for the Cannabis Tracking System are effective from March 16, 2018 to September 11, 2018. Visit the Rules page and read Information Bulletin 2018-03 (pdf) for details.

Information Bulletin 2018-02 (pdf) explains tracking and reporting requirements for growers.

New rules effective January 1, 2018: See Information Bulletin 2017-11 (pdf) for a summary of the rule changes, or visit the Rules page for the full rule text with changes marked.

Patients can now apply or renew online.

As a result of Senate Bill 1057, changes are coming that affect registered medical processors, dispensaries and certain growers.

Visit the OMMP Cannabis Tracking System webpage to review the requirements regarding who will be required to use CTS and who will be required to continue using the Oregon Medical Marijuana Online System (OMMOS) for monthly reporting.

_________________________________________
Ella Edwards, 7, left, and Shay Edwards, 5, hope for donations for a special edition of Day of Hope at Skyway and Highway 135 during 2017 Day of Hope to benefit Mission Hope Cancer Center.
Education Reporter

Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe.
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e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.





FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.



FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy



FRL - Free and reduced lunch.



FTE - Full Time Equivalent



FY - Fiscal Year



Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).



HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation



HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law



IA - Instructional Assistant



IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.



IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education



IEP - Individual Educational Plan, a federal requirement for students with disabilities (special education)



JSCEE - John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (see headquarters)



MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.



MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8





NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration



OSPI - Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction



PCP - Planning, Conference and Preparation



PD - Professional Development

PG & E - Professional Growth and Evaluation, the teacher (and principal) evaluation procedure



RIF - Reduction in Force



RttT - Race to the Top, see Arne Duncan



RIT - Rasch Unit - scoring used in MAP testing

RTI - Response to Intervention, the old name for MTSS



SBE - State Board of Education (or BOE)



SEA - Seattle Education Association (Seattle Teachers' union)



SEAC - Special Education Advisory Committee



SIT - School Intervention Team

STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math



STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.



TIF - Teacher Incentive Fund



WASL - Washington Assessment of Student Learning (former state test)



WSF - Weighted Student Formula, the old method of determining school funding



WSS - Weighted Staffing Standards, the current method of determining school funding



MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support- No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration- Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction- Planning, Conference and Preparation- Professional Development - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.- Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy- Free and reduced lunch.- Full Time Equivalent- Fiscal YearHighly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).- High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation- Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law- Instructional Assistant- International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education- Individual Educational Plan, a federal requirement for students with disabilities (special education)- John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (see headquarters)- Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.- Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

Note: not a complete list. Here's a link to the district's list. - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.- Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program- Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.- Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.- Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.- Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).- Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.- Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.- Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.- Career and Technical Education (formerly Voc Ed)- Essential Academic Learning Requirement- Everyday Math, the board-adopted instructional materials for elementary math- English Language Learners- End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduation
The Ministry of Education and the Lions Club South have reached an impasse over the topics for the 2013 Secondary Schools Public Speaking Competition. If it were up to you to come up with ONE of the topics, what would it be?

Social Share

Fri Oct 11, 2013

Cutey Butcher:

I would ask them something on the economy  the state of the economy. As a businessman is like the worst time I ever feel in this time. People who used to by a $20 card buying $3 or $5; everybody crying and say things bad they canat spend more than that.

Basil Bashment DaSilva (online):

Why we should leave politics to the politicians

Patris Trimmingham:

Are the people the government, or is the government the people? Majority rules, or minority rules? We need to have some thinkers, we are not thinking and while there may not be anything wrong with the government, we need some thinkers.

Marlon Stevenson (online):

How can we resolve the derelicts of our colonial past for a more progressive future?

Hassan Williams:

I will definitely choose a topic for them to give their perspective on the education revolution. Let them say what they think  they are the elements within the system and I want to hear what they think. People planning the thing for them, so I want to hear what they think. From a studentas perspective how effective they think it is.

Go to www.facebook.com/Searchlight1 to read more responses or to have your say
Carimedix donates medical supplies to MCMH

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THE MILTON Cato Memorial Hospital is the recipient of an assortment of medical supplies made possible through a donation by Carimedix Medical Supplies Ltd ,along with its parent company Caribix Ltd and friends in the USA. Some of the items donated include face mask, isolation gowns, large cotton rolls, nebulizers and oxygen masks, a release states. The items were handed over by Neeka Isaacs, stores clerk at Carimedix.

Andrew Williams, Deputy Hospital Administrator at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital received the donation and expressed gratitude for the kind gesture by Carimedix noting that the supplies will go a long way in assisting staff to deliver quality health care to patients. He added that the donations came at a time when they are most needed given the fact that the country is trying to battle the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic and deal with the effects of the recent explosive volcanic eruptions.

Carimedix also donated more than 100 food packages and cases of bottled water to persons who were affected by eruptions.

Isaacs said the management of Carimedix along with its parent company Caribix and friends in the USA, will be donating more to the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines within the next few months.
Directors of St Vincent Co-operative Bank Ltd benefit from 3-day training course

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With the increased emphasis on Corporate Governance by Supervisors and Regulators, directors of the St Vincent Co-operative Bank Limited recently participated in a three-day training course on corporate governance.

The training course was facilitated by Dr Chris Bart and Ms Lisa Charles of the Caribbean Governance Training Institute.

Dr Bart opined that there is a dire need to raise the standards of governance and practices of organisations throughout the Caribbean.

The Institute has trained the Executives of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Cabinet of the Government of St Lucia and over 900 directors in the region.

The course ran from Monday November 25 to Wednesday November 27 and covered a range of topics including the Principles of Governance; Roles, Responsibilities, Accountabilities and Culture; The Essentials of Financial Oversight; Developing Strategic Thinking vs Strategic Planning; Risk Management and Good Boards need Good Directors.

The participants were Samuel Goodluck, Marcus Ballantyne, Zhinga Horne-Edwards, Maxim James, Suzanne Joachim, Heather Sardine, Matthew Ferrari, Julie Lewis and Albert Porter, who all sat and passed the qualifying examination. They have earned the right to use the internationally recognized designation Chartered Director (C.Dir).
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
 Big Third Circuit panel ruling asserts age of retirement should be central to applying Eighth Amendment limits on long juvenile sentences | Main | Federal district judge finds Michigan's elimination of good-time credit in Miller fix unconstitutional 

The New York Times has this new extended article on the private prison industry as it operates in the states under the headline "Escapes, Riots and Beatings. But States Cant Seem to Ditch Private Prisons." Here are excerpts:

In Arizona in 2015, a riot broke out in a private prison where previously three inmates had escaped and murdered a vacationing couple. After order was restored, the state revoked the contract of Management & Training Corporation and hired another private prison firm, the GEO Group.

Three years earlier, the GEO Group had surrendered its contract to run a Mississippi prison after a federal judge ruled that the inmates had not been protected from gang violence. The replacement: Management & Training Corporation.

The staying power of the two companies shows how private prisons maintain their hold on the nations criminal justice system despite large-scale failures. The field is dominated by a handful of companies who have swallowed the competition and entrenched their positions through aggressive lawyering, intricate financial arrangements and in some cases, according to lawsuits by the Mississippi attorney general, bribery and kickbacks....

Private prison companies can be found at every level of government, housing 9 percent of the nations prisoners. They emerged in the 1980s, when the number of inmates was quickly outstripping capacity, and they have an outsize influence in certain states, including Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi and New Mexico.

Despite hundreds of lawsuits, findings that private prisons save taxpayers little to no money, and evidence of repeated constitutional violations, the number of privately housed inmates has risen faster since 2000 than the overall number of prisoners. In 2016, the number rose by about 1.5 percent, according to Justice Department figures....

Even states that have sworn off private prisons, or tried to cut back on their use, have found it difficult to extricate themselves. After the prisoners escaped in Arizona, the state tried to reduce the number of inmates held in that prison. But MTC claimed the state was violating its contract, which guaranteed a certain number of beds would be filled. Arizona had to pay the company $3 million. MTC still operates a facility in the state.

States that use private prisons can find themselves limited to a few big players. The largest are GEO Group, based in Florida; CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), based in Tennessee; and MTC, based in Utah. Two of the past four directors of the Federal Bureau of Prisons were later hired by CoreCivic.... The companies employ a variety of strategies, including hiring former corrections officials in high-level positions and giving what are sometimes enormous campaign contributions. GEO Group and CoreCivic gave close to half a million dollars to support Mr. Trumps candidacy and inauguration. After he was elected, their stock prices soared.

Industry officials say they provide cost-effective ways to house inmates, and that they continue to expand into rehabilitation programs as more states seek alternatives to prison. CoreCivic says about 10,000 people in its facilities have obtained high school equivalency diplomas in the past five years, reflecting the companys efforts to improve the ability of inmates to re-enter society. But some lawmakers say the claims of cost savings and other benefits do not check out. There is no convincing argument of why we should have private prisons, said Mike Fasano, a former Republican state senator from Pasco County, Fla., who voted against a 2012 measure to privatize much of Floridas prison system....

Much of the industrys power, critics say, is linked to campaign donations. GEO Group and CoreCivic have given nearly $9 million over the past fifteen years to state candidates and parties across the United States, with the overwhelming majority to Republicans, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The two companies have also spent between $3 million and $4 million annually on lobbying, according to data from the institute and from the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Steve Owen, a CoreCivic spokesman, said the magnitude of lobbying and campaign contributions was not unusual for an industry of its size.

The industry also promises savings. But such claims have been disputed, partly because many contracts allow the private prisons to cherry-pick the healthiest inmates while leaving those who need more care to publicly run facilities, making private prisons appear to be cheaper to run, critics say. The Justice Departments inspector general concluded in 2016 that it could not accurately compare costs, partly because of the different nature of the inmate populations and programs offered in those facilities.

The department ordered a phasing-out of private facilities that year, saying they compare poorly with government prisons and citing a lack of substantial cost savings. One month after Mr. Trumps inauguration, the department rescinded the decision....

In some communities, private prisons have become such large taxpayers and employers that backers have forecast economic doom in arguing against their closing. Perhaps no town is now as dependent as Eloy, Ariz., where four private prisons pay $2 million of the towns $12.5 million annual operating budget, according to the city manager, Harvey Krauss.
The move comes after a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and senior officials from the government of New Zealand in July of last year during Hues official working visit to the country.



The information will be announced today in Ha Noi, and is expected to boost bilateral co-operation opportunities in the fruit growing sector, reports baodautu.vn.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments plant protection department, Viet Nam currently grows three varieties of rambutan. These are java, Thai and nhan rambutans. Nhan rambutans are smaller than other varieties and are considered to have the best taste among rambutan varieties.

The fruit is mainly grown in the southern provinces, with a total area of more than 50,000 ha dedicated to rambutan growing, supplying roughly 300,000 tonnes of the fruit per year.

A report from the Vietnam Commerce Office in New Zealand showed that the annual exports of rambutans from Viet Nam are modest. The countrys turnover from fresh fruit exports have not been stable, and have much untapped potential.

New Zealand only allows imports of goods that pass the countrys risk analysis, their health standards are also among the strictest in the world. The number of items considered annually for import by the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) are relatively limited in comparison to other countries.

Currently, Viet Nam exports just two fresh fruit items to New Zealand: mango and dragon fruit. Vietnamese rambutans passed the countrys import risk assessment in 2014.

The new "passport" for Vietnamese rambutan to New Zealand will contribute to the increased export turnover of vegetables and fruits from Viet Nam in the coming years. In 2017 the countrys turnover from exporting fruits and vegetables reached over $3.5 billion, up by 40 per cent from previous years. In the first quarter of this year, the countrys exports of fruit and vegetables valued $950 million, a 35.6 per cent increase from the same period last year.

Vietnamese rambutan has been exported to the US, Canada, and the EU, as well as the Middle East, Africa, China and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.

According to international regulations on imports of fresh fruit, rambutans must meet strict criteria before being considered by importers. Currently, each country has its own criteria for imported fruit, so businesses must comply with the quarantine standards of the importing country.  VNS
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on April 10, 2018

2018/04/10

Q: Today, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in which he talked about major measures China will take to expand opening-up. How will these new measures impact the development of the region and the whole world?

A: As China's reform and opening-up enters its 40th year in 2018, President Xi Jinping made a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference. He reviewed the remarkable achievements China has made in the past 40 years of the glorious journey on the path of reform and opening-up. He summarized the ingredients for the success of such a journey and highlighted the important contributions China's reform and opening-up efforts have made to the world over the past 40 years.

Chinese leaders made the historic decision 40 years ago to carry out reform and opening-up which changed the course of China's future. Our efforts to implement that decision have contributed enormously to world rejuvenation and prosperity. China has grown stronger and forged win-win cooperation with other countries amid reform and opening-up. As President Xi Jinping pointed out in his speech, reform and opening-up, China's second revolution so to speak, has not only deeply changed the country but also profoundly influenced the whole world.

Opening-up, as China's basic state policy, has driven forward reform and development. We have said many times that China's door to the outside world will only open wider. President Xi Jinping in his speech this morning announced a series of important new measures to expand opening-up, promising to ease market access, improve investment environment, enhance IPR protection, and take the initiative to expand imports. Such announcements, closely followed by the international community, received warm responses from the audience and wide approval from the international community.

Today's world is seeing a resurgence of unilateralism and protectionism. The multilateral trading regime is faced with challenges, and the economic globalization is mired in difficulties. Under such circumstances, China is holding high the banner of trade and investment liberalization, striving to build an open world economy, and calling on all countries to commit to win-win cooperation. With the announcement of these major measures for greater opening-up, China is taking concrete actions to support and propel the development of international trade and world economy.

President Xi Jinping's words has sent a clear message to the world that China's development offers opportunities to the world. We would like to share these opportunities with others and sincerely wish that other countries could catch a ride on China's fast train of development.

Q: What is your response to reports by Australian media saying that China is building a military base in Vanuatu? Do you think that Australia should worry about the large strategic infrastructure projects that China assists in the Southern Pacific region?

A: In one word, fake news.

You may have noted that the Vanuatuan Foreign Minister already made clarification in an interview with the media today.

Q: According to reports, on Monday, a Taiwanese navy flotilla docked in Nicaragua. What is China's comment?

A: There is only one China in the world, and this is the universal consensus among the international community. Adhering to the one-China principle is the trend of the world today. We believe all countries around the globe will accept this consensus and embrace the trend.

Q: According to reports, another chemical weapon attack in Eastern Ghouta, Syria has caused casualties of civilians. Facing possible escalation of tension, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency session in response. The United States said it would make major decisions on Syria within the next 24 to 48 hours, and a military operation cannot be ruled out. What's your comment?

A: We have stated China's position on the issue of chemical weapons many times. We firmly oppose the use of chemical weapons under whatever circumstances and for whatever purposes by any country, organization or individual. As to suspected use of chemical weapons, China maintains that a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation based on scientific investigative method and solid evidence shall be carried out to reach a conclusion that can stand the test of time and fact. Yet before that, parties should not make a prejudgment and jump to an arbitrary conclusion.

The Syrian issue now stands at a crucial crossroad. Political settlement is the only viable way out and military means will lead to nowhere. China always stays committed to peacefully resolving disputes, opposes the wanton use of or threat of use of force in international relations and advocates acting in accordance with the UN Charter. China is willing to work with parties in support of the mediation by the UN to ease the tension in Syria and promote the political settlement of the Syrian issue at an early date.

The Foreign Ministry and the People's Government of Henan Province will hold a promotion event here at 3:30 pm on April 13 (Friday) under the theme of "China in the New Era: Global Partnership, Wonderful Henan". State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will deliver a speech. Party Secretary Wang Guosheng and Governor Chen Runer of Henan Province will also address the event. Representatives of foreign diplomats in China are invited to make remarks and interact with the audience.

Henan is one of the most populous provinces in China with agriculture a pillar of its economy. It occupies an important place both in China's transportation network and in China's long history of civilization. At present, Henan is actively implementing the important strategic plans of the 19th CPC National Congress and leveraging its unique advantages to build a modern economic structure, step up opening-up, and participate fully in the Belt and Road Initiative. All these efforts will help build Henan into a new platform in the new era for inland provinces to open to the outside world. We believe that through this promotion event, you will see a colorful Henan with history meeting modernity. We look forward to your attendance at and coverage of this event.

The regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry will be adjourned on that day. You may still reach the Office of the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson by phone or fax.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Congratulates President Julius Maada Bio

2018/04/09

On April 9, 2018, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Geng Shuang Congratulated President Julius Maada Bio on his election as the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Press Conference.

He said, "The Chinese side congratulates Mr. Julius Maada Bio on his election as Sierra Leonean president. China and Sierra Leone enjoy profound friendship and fruitful outcomes of cooperation in various fields, and we are good old friends who stick by each other through weal and woe. China stands ready to work with Sierra Leone to move forward the comprehensive strategic partnership and bring more benefits to the two peoples."
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.
Update: The four suspects have surrendered to the Miami Beach Police Department through an attorney. A spokesperson for the department said We anticipate felony charges for each of them.

The four men are Juan C. Lopez, 21; Luis M. Alonso, 20; Adonis Diaz, 21; and Pablo Reinaldo Romo, 21.

A gay couple were called faggots and then attacked outside the 6th Street public bathroom in Lummus Park on Sunday night in Miami Beach.

SFGN spoke to the gay couple, who described a violent attack by four males as they were on their way home from the festivities of Miami Beach Gay Pride.

Police are now searching for the suspects. The attack was caught on camera and video footage clearly shows the faces of the four males.

This was my first time going to gay parade, noted Rene Chalarca, 32.

At some point during the attack a third person attempted to intervene and assist the victims. This person was also beaten. All three victims went to the hospital.

We were walking and holding hands and needed to use the bathroom, Dmitry Logunov explained. So the two of them stopped at public restroom as they headed home for the evening.

As Logunov, 32, walked out of the restroom he was called a faggot in Spanish, punched, and then beaten unconscious. His boyfriend, Chalarca, quickly intervened, but three more men jumped in and began to attack him as well.

Chalarcas memory is blurry after that but remembers attempting to chase the men as they fled the scene.

While the crime itself was horrific enough for them, what happened afterwards further traumatized the gay couple.

Once the police arrived both men urged the officers to go after their assailants, whom they could still see in the distance, but were told: We wont chase them, they are far.

But then it got worse.

At one point a female officer told Logunov to stop the drama, shut the fuck up. Another officer repeated that to him a few minutes later. One of the officers also told him to put ice on your face at home and youll be alright.

This is a terrible crime, as such, we are dedicating our full efforts to capturing the attackers. The Miami Beach Police Department prides itself on its inclusion of everyone, a spokesperson for the Miami Beach Police Department said. If anyone feels mistreated by any of our officers, they are encouraged to contact MBPDs Internal Affairs unit so that any complaint can be addressed immediately.

Miami Beach City Commissioner Michael Gongora also weighed in saying I am disturbed by this and have sent to the Police Chief for investigation. Being Miami Beachs first and only openly gay commissioner its important to me that our community be safe and treated well - especially during Gay Pride.

Later after an ambulance arrived the paramedics treated the couple at the scene and also told them theyd be OK and to just go home, put ice on their faces, or they could pay $800 and go to the hospital.

The paramedics, though, were wrong.

Later the couple decided to go to the hospital on their own, where it was discovered Chalarca had a broken tear duct and was told to try not to cry or get emotional. He may need surgery.

Besides that, both were pretty shaken up and suffered from cuts and bruises. Parts of their faces were also very swollen.

On Monday the two men sought help from The Hub at the LGBT Visitor Center on Miami Beach where officials connected them with gay friendly officers at the MBPD.

They were very nice and helpful, Logunov said. Then we met with the detective, who leads our case, and he was nice and professional as well. Todays experience with the police was much better.

If anyone has information contact Miami Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-0471-TIPS.
Ernest Hemingway and Key West may be synonymous, but Hemingway only lived here for about 10 years. Key West was the place that Tennessee Williams called home.

 Michael Gieda, Key West Art & Historical Society

An exhibit memorializing iconic playwright Tennessee Williams, who called Key West home from the late 1940s until his death in 1983, expanded this winter to become the Tennessee Williams Museum under new dual leadership.

The museum evolved from the popular Tennessee Williams Key West Exhibit following its merger with the Key West Art & Historical Society, and can be found at the playwrights beloved cottage at 513 Truman Ave.

Williams lived in Key West as an openly gay man with his partner Frank Merlo, and had a pivotal influence on the islands literary culture. The award-winning playwright penned classics including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Part of the story of the museum is the story of Dennis Beaver, said Michael Gieda, executive director of the Key West Art & Historical Society.

Beaver, the founder and curator, first met Williams on a visit to Key West in 1978. Beaver returned to New York, sold his business and promptly moved to the island, where he opened a guesthouse.

According to Beaver, the exhibit features the largest permanent collection of Williams memorabilia currently on display for the public.

Highlights include personal photographs of Williams at home with Merlo and friends, first-edition plays and books, a typewriter used by Williams while he lived in Key West, an artist-crafted model of his island home and even the original steps from the film adaptation of Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which was filmed in Key West.

I am delighted that the literary legacy of Tennessee Williams, outed as gay by the press early in his career, will flourish under the stewardship of the Key West Art & Historical Society whose goal is to keep Key West history alive and accessible to the public, said Beaver, who also founded the annual multiweek Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration.

Because Tennessee was here so long and he wrote at least part of every major work here, its important that we, as locals, understand this important history, Beaver said.

Visitors to the new museum can take entertaining and informative self-guided tours as well as prearranged curator-led tours showcasing Williams history and legacy. Expanded elements include larger viewing and display areas for the extensive artifact collection and a gift shop.

Long passionate about preserving Williams legacy, Beaver remains as guest curator and consultant for the museum. He also intends to acquire and encourage donations of additional artifacts for the collection.

Fortunately, I dont have to work, I just give tours. The visitors keep me on my toes, and I cant make a mistake because theyll catch me, he said with a chuckle.

Because so many longtime residents also knew Williams, stories abound. Beaver is always careful to document the colorful accounts.

People tell me stories and I have to relay that they are just that. There is so much information out there, he said.

In addition to the Tennessee Williams Museum, the Key West Art & Historical Society operates the Fort East Martello Museum, Key West Lighthouse & Keepers Quarters and the Custom House Museum, which contains a display of Williams original paintings.

The Tennessee Williams Museum, 513 Truman Ave. in Key West, is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. For more information, go to KWAHS.org.
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.




Life has no facet more certain than the simple passing of time. The seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, and decades roll on inexorably, unabated by the whims and fathoms of man. And yet we mark the days by our achievementswhat is history, if not the archiving of time through a human lens?

Five years ago today (less a single sunset) Sprudge Media Network brought the world its first glimpse of the Modbar, the revolutionary undercounter espresso technology built by what was then an unknown little coffee tech start-up out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Principle investors at launch included Marco Beverage Systems of Dublin, Ireland and La Marzocco, the international espresso machine brand headquartered in Florence, Italy and Seattle, Washington.

In the years since our original story ran the relationship between Modbar and La Marzocco has deepened, and that takes us to today, with the launch of the brand new Modbar Espresso AV. Through years of collaborative R&D, and drawing from La Marzocco's previous work crafting the Linea PB and Linea Mini, this new Modbar is coming with some big ideas attached.

It's a reset of the velocity of making coffee, says La Marzocco Product Manager Scott Guglielmino. That's a pretty big claim, but he should know; in collaboration with Modbar, Guglielmino has helped head up an international R&D team responsible for dramatically rethinking Modbar's tech, while maintaining its style, identity, and manufacturing base in the American Midwest. It's the direction I think espresso machines should go, he adds, and it's really all I want to do: to make insanely good espresso machines that people can't wait to wake up to and get to work on.

The new Modbar Espresso AV features La Marzocco boiler design, integrated scales for volumetric precision, PID temperature control, and a host of new little details sure to delight those who work on espresso machines every day, not least of which being temperature stability modeled on the Linea PB, whose overall identity as a workhorse in the La Marzocco lineup served as a major inspiration for this new Modbar. Other updates include an easily programmed interface, auto-backflush and rinse, an updated positioning of the machine's power, water, and drain hookups, and a removable group cap that makes for easy tinkering.

Its a simplification, says Guglielmino. Simplifying the interaction between barista and customer, simplifying the experience of making coffee, and simplifying technical needs, all while making it look beautiful. It really nails, philosophically, what a brilliant simple reliable espresso machine can be.

And beautiful looking it certainly is. The machine's chrome taps are available with built-in digital display and customizable wooden tap handles. The single group unit features a unique Add-a-Tap system that allows you to start with one group, then add another without replacing your original unitperfect for a small cafe with an eye on growth, or, you know, a stylish wine bar that wouldn't mind the ability to serve a nice espresso or three during happy hour. Below counter, glowing red buttons on the new Modbar AV gleam in a direct visual reference to the Linea PBa subtle nod, visible only to the operator, a bit of assurance, perhaps, to this new Modbar's pedigree.

But as always with an undercounter machine, the beauty is really in how the machine becomes incorporated into the wider world. The freedom of placement and design possibilities presented by undercounter espresso technology is still just in its nascency. The implied possibility for mise en place in cafe, bar, and restaurant settings still feels brand new, five years in. As more of these style machines are installed around the world, we continue to marvel at where they fit into the schemes and plans of cafe designers and architects.

This is a ground-up rethink of the Modbar, says Modbar Marketing Manager Lena Prickett. Five years after our launch, the industry has never been more focused on customer orientation, reliability, and offering a consistent workflow. That's what these teams have achieved with Modbar AV: it's not Modbar 2.0, it's a brand new machine.

There are a couple more aspects of this new machine that border on the metaphysical, echoing the magic and wonder evoked by Modbar's mesmeric Instagram campaign around the new release, created by La Marzocco Vice President of Marketing & Consumer Strategy Scott Callendar. One is the new Drip Prediction technology, a software that maps the flow rate of each shot and can accurately predict the future flow rate, allowing the machine to auto-magically stop your shot to hit a programmed target. Another aspect is the new Modbar AV's approach to temperature stability, modeled on the Linea PB but capable of delivering to a unit separated from taps by a short length of tube.

We are thrilled at La Marzocco to launch the new Modbar AV, the exciting result of the collaboration and innovation between Modbar and La Marzocco, says LM General Manager Andrew Daday. This machine pushes forward the benefits that can be realized with an undercounter espresso solution.

It's a sentiment echoed by Lena Prickett of Modbar, who in the course of researching this story spoke eloquently and passionately on behalf of the smaller Midwestern brand. I think it speaks to La Marzocco's longstanding commitment to innovationyou know, Modbar is a small company in NE Indiana that some might have seen as a competitor, but La Marzocco saw it as an opportunity to further the art of espresso design.

That's a really cool part of the story, she continued. It is extremely meaningful for LM as a larger company, a global company, to be able to support a company like Modbar so that it can stay in Fort Wayne making these beautiful machines, testing each one, assembling each one, and continuing the great tradition of manufacturing in northeast Indiana.

And now we see what happens next. As with any new espresso machinebut perhaps especially so when it comes to undercounter espresso techit's what happens out in the wild with this equipment that truly matters most. The design and conceptual possibilities first presented by Modbartiny Modbar, the little coffee start-up that could, pride of Fort Waynehave been made new again for 2018 in the form of the Modbar Espresso AV, coming soon to a stylish cafe near you.

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

All images courtesy Modbar.

Sprudge Media Network is proudly partnered with Modbar and La Marzocco.
Deputy Julianna arrived in the stable of owners Larry and Le Anna Muckenhirn in October 2008, and the then-three-year-old female trotter made an immediate impression.

Ill never forget the day she got off the truck, Larry said. I just fell in love with her. She was wonderful.

Deputy Julianna had a brief but successful career for the Muckenhirns, but upon retirement made a lasting impression on the couples involvement in harness racing. She became the Muckenhirns first broodmare and produced five foals before passing away last year.

She had the heart, she had the desire, she had the ability, Larry said about the mare, who won 15 of 42 career races and swept the 2008 Expresson Series for the Muckenhirns. She had such a good background that we decided to take a chance and start breeding her.

Her two most recent foals, Beabobs Bear and Beabobs Boss, are sons of Swan For All  Indianas top money-winning trotting sire  and have brought the promise of keeping Deputy Juliannas memory alive. They are the Muckenhirns only racehorses at this time.

Beabobs Bear, a three-year-old, was limited to four starts in 2017 because of surgery to remove a bone chip, but won twice and is staked to events for Indiana-bred trotters. Beabobs Boss is a two-year-old preparing for his career debut.

This is our last shot, Le Anna said.

Beabobs Bear will make his 2018 debut on Wednesday (April 11) in the first round of the Cardinal Series at Hoosier Park. The gelding is the 2-1 favourite on the morning line and will start from Post 9 for driver Trace Tetrick and trainer Tom T. Tetrick. Post time for the first race is 6:30 p.m. (EDT) and the Cardinal has been programmed as Race 10 on the 10-dash docket.

The second round of the series will take place on April 18 and the final will head postward on April 25.

We cant wait until Wednesday night, Larry said. Were just hoping he has a good race. Were not worried about him winning, we just want him to behave out there. Hes still learning. Hes only got four races in him, but hes got the ability thats for sure.

Added Le Anna, with a laugh, The trainer told us Bear is very spoiled. Hes just a beautiful horse. He got a late start last year so we didnt stake him. We didnt want to push him. But this year weve got him in three or four series and then the (Indiana) stakes.

Larry and Le Anna, who live in Anderson, Ind., near Hoosier Park, bought their first racehorse in the early 2000s and enjoyed their greatest success with trotter Blowlowsanta. The gelding competed at the top levels in Indiana and finished his career with $340,404 in purses.

We still own Blowlowsanta, Larry said. Hes the one horse that we said my wife could get attached to.

Chimed in Le Anna, And that didnt work real well.

Blowlowsantas success helped the Muckenhirns build a training centre, Pace Setter Farm, on 58 acres near Hoosier Park. The facility, now owned by their son Chad Gooding and managed by Le Annas sister Amy, is home to 140 stalls and five-eighths-mile track. Gooding is on the Indiana Standardbred Association Board of Directors.

The Muckenhirns horses are named to honour Larrys parents, Bea and Bob.

My parents, who lived in Michigan, were very supportive of us, Larry said. They were elderly and could never make it here to see the first barn and the track being built, but they really enjoyed our enthusiasm and our risk-taking in the horse industry. So we decided to name all our horses using the first name Bea and Bob.

The Muckenhirns, who are both retired from administrative roles in the food services department for the Anderson schools, enjoy going to the training centre and watching their horses.

And, of course, they enjoy seeing them in one other location.

I particularly like the winners circle, Le Anna said.

(USTA)
In the midst of a light dusting of snow, Parkhill Nonstop popped out of the pocket in the lane and roared away from the competition en route to capturing the final harness race ever contested at Woodbine Racetrack.

Mondays 10-race card marked the end of a 25-year celebration of standardbred racing at the Rexdale, Ont. oval  an oval that witnessed a long list of pacing and trotting superstars strut their stuff over the oval.

Parkhill Nonstop enjoyed a two-hole trip in his $18,000 assignment with co-owner/trainer Pat Hudon at the helm. He tipped his charge out late and used a :28.4 closing panel to seal the deal by 5-1/4 lengths over Bred For Greatness. The time for the mile was 1:57.

Earlier on the card it was Big Rich stepping to a 1:53 triumph in the featured $34,000 Preferred Trot for the team of driver Louis Philippe Roy and trainer Richard Moreau.

The six-year-old son of Donato Hanover-Kidman Hall rolled to the lead from Post 6 and carved out fractions of :27, :55.4 and 1:23.4 before kicking home in :29.1 to win by 1-1/2 lengths over stablemate B Yoyo in 1:53. Cue Hall came on late to finish third.

It was a career-best clocking for the gelding, who is owned by 9099 3833 Quebec Inc and Frank Spagnolo. It was the third win of the year from nine tries and the 21st lifetime tally for the career winner of $436,728.

Harness racing will now head to Woodbine, Mohawk Park on a full-time basis beginning this Thursday evening. Post time for the first race is set for 7:30 p.m.



Horsepeople gather outside the Woodbine paddock for a farewell photo Horsepeople gather outside the Woodbine paddock for a farewell photo

To view results for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Results  Woodbine Racetrack.
The Standardbred industry in Nova Scotia has received a shot in the arm, as it has been announced that live racing at Northside Downs will be remaining right where it is for a good amount of time.

According to an article by the Cape Breton Post, the Cape Breton Federation of Agriculture has signed a 10-year contract with Harness Racing Cape Breton that will see live harness racing continue at Northside Downs for the next 10 years.

Weve been negotiating with them over the winter to try and get a deal that was good for both sides and we finally agreed on it, Harness Racing Cape Breton spokesman Harold LeBlanc has said.

As the Cape Breton Post article explains, the track at North Sydneys Cape Breton County Exhibition grounds first started hosting live racing back in 1898. A regular schedule of live racing returned to Northside Downs in 2007 following the closure of Tartan Downs in Sydney in 2005. The Northside oval had been a training track for many years  dating back to the 1950s  and prior to that had hosted live racing.

July 2018 will mark the 120th anniversary of the first ever races at Northside. The track is scheduled to host 30 live race cards this season.

We have a good horse population, and we always get good crowds for the racing, and we also run the simulcasts and were doing [well] there, so things are looking up, LeBlanc added.

(With files from the Cape Breton Post)
The countdown to the 2018 Pepsi North America Cup is on, with Trot Magazine profiling the horses predicted to be the top contenders for Canadian harness racing's richest prize.

At 20-1, Hitman Hill comes in at #8 in Trot Magazine's 2018 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.

Owned by Tom Hill of Hamilton, Ont. and Northfork Racing Stable, Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Hitman Hill was nearly flawless as a freshman with six wins in seven starts and $146,533 in earnings. Trot Insider caught up with trainer Chris Oakes for an update on the speedy son of American Ideal.

Where did he winter?

He went to North Carolina for three months then after that he came to the South Florida Trotting Center.

When did you start back with him?

He came in around the first of the year, somewhere in the middle of January.

Where are you at with him right now? (as of April 5)

We went around 2:10 the other day, so hes probably about a month away.

Have you noticed any changes from last year to this year?

Hes a little bigger and stronger, but he was already a kind of big, strong two-year-old; a good-looking horse. [Hes] a little more mature and has filled out nicely.

When will he qualify?

Early May, first week of May, hell qualify at Pocono. Hell qualify probably two times, then hes got a sires stakes at Vernon a week before the elimination, so Ill race him two qualifiers and maybe one time or two times at the most before we head to Canada.

What will his early schedule look like leading up to the Pepsi North America Cup?

I dont want to over race him; he went in 1:50 his second start lifetime at Vernon, so he told me he didnt need to work a lot. Hes just a natural; he can go fast. I want to have him lightly-raced going into [the North America Cup]. How he races at Vernon will determine whether he goes [to the North America Cup].

Obviously, Im expecting him to go...hes a really good horse. Hes only lost one time and thats because he was sick. We scoped him after the [New York Sires Stakes final] and he was full of mucous and pus. But he didnt have a temperature, so we decided to race him. The groom called and told me He never touched his breakfast the morning of, I was kind of suspicious and he didnt have a temperature, so we obviously cant scope him in the paddock before you race him so we decided to go with him and he was flat.

I just turned him out and quit with him after that, instead of going to the Breeders Crown. He was eligible, but I thought it was better to just shut him down cause I thought Hes a two-year-old, hes done enough at this point. He paid his purchase price back, so I figured just give him time, let him heal up and wed have a great three-year-old coming back next year.

What does his tentative schedule look like after the North America Cup?

Hes in everything. The only thing I didnt put him in was the Meadowlands Pace because I cant race there in a Meadowlands-sponsored race. But hes in all the other stuff -- Little Brown Jug, Breeders Crown, pretty much everything. Its not a bad thing...well have basically a two-or-three-week layover [after the Hempt]. Home for him is Pocono, thats where I have my own farm. Hell be home there and should have an easy time about it with no shipping. Its a long year; to do that [well] week in and week out at that level is completely brutal. Well have to give him a break some point in the year and there seems as good a time as any.

At what point last year did you think this horse was North America Cup material?

After his second start at Vernon when he went [1]:50. They were giving two seconds that night, two seconds were allowed. Brett Miller drove him and he was literally shaking in the winners circle saying This is some kind of horse. I kind of knew he was a nice horse...I figured hed pace probably in [1]:51, [1]:52 easy enough that night, but aw man, [he went 1]:50. And again, the track was terrible that night. [He] came first over and just annihilated them.

Then he went to Batavia after that and went in [1]:52 over that track, set a track record. Came home in :27 and never even pulled the plugs. He got a little hot at the end of the year; he started getting a little aggressive, because, when racing on all those half-mile tracks, youve got to be on or near the lead. And by the time the end of the year rolled around, he thought that was what he was supposed to do all the time. We tried to quiet him down and reprogram him...hes got an open bridle now. Hes just sitting last every training trip and pacing home real well, so the main thing is I want to keep him quiet, relaxed and teach him how to be a good horse.

What's his biggest asset/strength?

"I think hes got three lungs. He just doesnt get tired...he can go fast and go fast a long time. Nothing bothers him that way. He could go stupid quarters and, how another horse could curl up, he doesnt even think about it; no problems.

Where does the Pepsi North America Cup sit on the bucket list of races you'd like to win?

Its right up near the top; its got one heck of a trophy. Canadas a great place to race. Everybodys always treated me very well there. The people are good and I have a lot of friends up there. Its a nice race for sure to be in but its also a nice race to win.

Previous Profiles:

 Trot N.A. Cup Spring Book: #9

 Trot N.A. Cup Spring Book: #10
The Florida Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association conducted its annual meeting this past Saturday (April 7) and welcomed newly elected director Steve Oldford to the board.

Oldford, a longtime harness racing breeder, owner, trainer and amateur driver, joins Joe Pennacchio, who was re-elected as President; Christine Garrity and Dein Spriggs, who will serve as 1st and 2nd Vice-President, respectively; George Birkhold, re-elected Treasurer; Richard Dunmire, Secretary; and board members Laurie Poulin, Jay Sears, Jake Huff, Jim McDonald, Mickey McNichol, Dave Ingraham, Peter Blood and Jerry Glantz.

The FSBOA is in the first year of a three-year contract and sponsors the lucrative Florida stakes program, highlighted by the Sunshine Stakes, Florida Breeders Stake and Melvyn Aylor Memorial, among others, culminating with their annual $400,000 Super Night.

A highlight of this year's meeting was hosting State Representative Matt Caldwell, who has worked tirelessly over the years with FSBOA President Joe Pennacchio to keep harness racing alive and thriving in Florida. Caldwell was one of the key proponents in quashing the proposed de-coupling bill this year and is now seeking the office of Commissioner of Agriculture in his ongoing quest to protect harness racing in Florida.

Oldford took Caldwell for a ride in a sulky on Saturday and said that Caldwell was "awestruck" by the power of the Standardbred and assured that he will go to any lengths to "protect the well-being" of the sport in the Sunshine State.

(FSBOA)
New York City is at risk of a big earthquake that could level thousands of buildings as the city center is riddled with fault lines that could cause a significant earthquake.

The last 5.0 quake was in 1884 and they usually occur every 100 years, meaning NYC is overdue for the next destructive earthquake.

Map of fault lines in New York City. Big Apple is overdue for a large earthquake.

New York City is not thought of as a tremor hot spot, but the five boroughs are riddled with fault lines that could bring dozens of buildings down.

Because the city of 8.5 million people is so dense and littered with thousands of tall buildings, even a 5.0 magnitude earthquake nearby would cause such damage.

New York statistically gets a quake like that every 100 years and the last one was in 1884  making it well overdue for another.

The city also statistically gets a 6.0 about every 670 years, and a 7.0 about every 3,400 years, both of which would do massive damage.

Experts warn NYC could come down like a house of cards and would cause $39 billion damage and 30 million tons of rubble if a M5.0 earthquake struck along the 125th Street fault line. More than 6,000 older buildings would collapse in a bigger M7.0 quake.

The biggest fault line runs down 125th Street all the way from New Jersey to the East River running past Central Park and into Roosevelt Island.

The Dyckman Street Fault runs from Inwood over to Morris Heights in the Bronx with the Mosholu Parkway Fault farther north.

The long East River Fault runs down the western side of Central Park before turning at 32nd Street and heading to the East River.

They are complemented by dozens of others making up a brittle grid under the streets of Manhattan and the other boroughs.

The Ramapo Fault. Nearby bigger faults in other states could also have their own earthquakes that could radiate shocks into New York through its faults. The Ramapo Fault zone is a system of faults between the northern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont areas to the east. Spanning more than 185 miles (298 km) in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, it is perhaps the best known fault zone in the Mid-Atlantic region

Infrastructures and regions at risk

Nearby bigger faults in other states could also have their own earthquakes that could radiate shocks into New York through its faults.

The biggest danger is the thousands of older buildings not subject to stringent anti-earthquake codes from 1995 onwards.

Even a moderate quake would shake them enough to dislodge bricks and masonry, littering the streets and preventing emergency services from bringing help.

A 5.0 or higher could see many of those buildings come down like a house of cards, destroying homes and trapping people in the rubble.

The most susceptible areas are those built on sediment as opposed to harder bedrock that insulates against the shaking, according to the New York City Area Consortium for Earthquake Loss Mitigation.

Downtown Manhattan and parts of Midtown would be hit hardest, but upper Manhattan, especially Central Park, would be less affected.

New York City is not known for cataclysmic quake but they happen every 100 years seismologists say. Map by USGS via StrangeSounds

Also at risk are the massive cast iron tubes where trains frequently rush under the Hudson River to New Jersey, which could be badly damaged.

They were built well before earthquakes were considered in buildings, and no longer sit snugly against the earth around them.

A sudden tremor could cause disaster if a train was rattled around inside, or if the tunnel sprung a leak under the strain.

As New York is so big, mitigating the dangers and potential economic losses is very difficult and the full cost wont be known until an earthquake arrives.

NYC Earthquake History

New Yorks last earthquake was on October 27, 2001, on the 125th Street Fault, but didnt do any damage. The most recent M5.0 quake was in 1884 which opened the ground in Brooklyn, brought down chimneys and cracked walls. An earlier M5.2 in 1737 caused damage but the city was much less built up. About 6,000 unreinforced buildings would collapse if the city was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. New York has had 200 quakes since the arrival of Western settlers.

Always be prepared for the next Big One in your area!

Follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Share your thoughts in our DISCUSSION FORUMS. Please and thank you

[Strange Sounds, NY1, Daily Mail]
The first meeting between the two schools since 2013, was a classic with Loyola edging Mira Costa in the neighborhood rivalry, despite the schools not being located in the same city
David Tennants new true crime series, Des, will premiere in Australia on 15th September on the streaming service Stan. A 30 day free trial for the service is available. Find out more on their website here . The new three part drama, which David also executively produces, is based on Killing For Company, the biography of Nilsen written by Brian Masters which includes conversations with the killer who would go by the name of 'Des'. Told through the prism of three men  Dennis Nilsen, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay played by Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Temple) and biographer Brian Masters played by Jason Watkins (The Crown, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies)  the series will explore the personal and professional consequences of coming into contact with a man like Nilsen. Nilsen murdered boys and young men in his flat from 1978 to 1983. He was undetected for five years, and it was only when DCI Peter Jay was called to 23 Cranley Gardens on 9 February, 1983, to investig








You, Me And Him, the bittersweet UK romcom, is available On Demand and to purchase via iTunes in Canada from today.





Written and directed by Daisy Aitkens, the film is an exploration of relationships in the 21st Century and stars Lucy Punch, Faye Marsay and David Tennant.





You Me And Him

Lesbian couple Olivia and Alex (Lucy Punch and Faye Marsay), despite their age difference, are very much in love. But as the question of pregnancy rears its head and their neighbour John (David Tennant) befriends them, they both start making some truly disastrous decisions. The movie also stars Sarah Parish, Simon Bird, Sally Phillips and Nina Sosanya and was produced by Georgia Tennant for Bad Penny Productions.

You Me And Him is being distributed in Canada by Pacific Northwest Pictures.





The film is currently screening on TV in the USA on Showtime and is available the stream on demand. It will be released in selected cinemas in the UK from 12th April.





Watch a trailer below:




SAARC Statistical Organisations' meeting today

Heads of SAARC Statistical Organisations will hold its 9th meeting with the theme "Gender Statistics" at hotel La Meridian here from April 11-13.

Department of Statistics and Information Management Acting Secretary Sourendra Nath Chakraborty will join the inaugural function as the chief guest, said a press release.

Bangladesh is hosting the three-day meeting and delegates from SAARC member states except Afghanistan and other international organizations like Paris 21 and RSDA (Regional Strategy for Development of Statistics) will take part in the meeting.

The meeting will discuss SAARC Regional Statistical System Review, agriculture statistics, trade statistics, merchandise and services, project concepts and standard of health statistics.
ASI Taiful Islam of Dhanmondi thana was assaulted while he was going to office by the quota movement protesters in front of DU Raju Sculpture on Tuesday. His motor bike was also torched.
CU students protesters block shuttle train

Chattogram Bureau :



Student protesters have blocked the shuttle train at Chattogram University in support of the Dhaka University protests demanding reforms to the quotas for civil service jobs.

The protesters blocked the shuttle train at the city's Sholsahar Station around 10:30am yesterday .

Nearly 200 to 250 swarmed the station, most of them CU students. They successfully blocked the shuttle train, which was then 22km away from the station.

Two shuttle trains bound for CU had left the city's Botthali station at 7:30am and 8:30am, but few students had been on board.

The protesters continued occupying the Sholsahar Station platform until 1:30pm.

Though there was a police presence in the area, they did not clash with the protesters.

Chief protest convener Md Arju told bdnews24.com that the peaceful protesters stood in solidarity with the students at Dhaka University and warned that more intense protests would occur if their demands were not met.

Protesting students also boycotted class on Monday.

A protest march went to the university's Shaheed Minar and headed for the campus's Zero Point before being turned back by police.

CU Assistant Proctor Liton Mitra told bdnews24.com that they had heard of the obstruction to the shuttle train.

"We are taking steps," he said. "We will take the initiative to discuss the situation with students and reach a peaceful solution. Classes and exams are continuing according to the regular schedule."

But a previously scheduled Department of Bangla exam was cancelled due to the 'absence of students', he said.

Students from Chittagong's private Premier University also engaged in protests in support of the Dhaka University students yesterday.




Xi vows to further open China economy as US trade spat simmers

AFP, Beijing :

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Tuesday to lower car tariffs this year and take other steps to open the world's number two economy "wider and wider", addressing major complaints by the United States in a simmering trade row.

Xi's remarks follow weeks of tit-for-tat tariffs between Beijing and Washington and mutual threats of more levies on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products that have raised fears of a trade war that could lacerate the global economy.

While he did not directly mention US President Donald Trump's demands, Xi told an economic forum on the southern island of Hainan that Beijing "does not seek a trade surplus" and hopes to increase imports.

Promising a "new phase of opening up", he said China will "considerably lower" tariffs on cars and other products this year, take measures to liberalise automobile investment, and protect intellectual property-all areas that have been high on the list of demands by Washington.

"Economic globalisation is an irreversible trend of the time," Xi told the Boao Forum for Asia.

"The door of China's opening up will not close, it will only open wider and wider."

But he gave no details or an exact date for taking the measures.

The car tariffs were the target of a Trump tweet on Monday.

"When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 %. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%," Trump tweeted.

"Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE -- going on for years!"

Asia markets-hammered along with global equities by the trade row in recent weeks-rallied on the speech Tuesday.

"Asian markets are happy, US and European markets are likely to be happy too, but it's unlikely to generate the same optimism in Washington," said Christopher Balding, a Peking University economics professor.

"The tone was conciliatory but Washington is bargaining for action, not promises."

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, congratulated the Chinese leader on his commitment to openness in a speech to the forum.
Russia, US headed for clash at UN over Syria gas attacks probe

Russia has warned the US of \"grave repercussions\" if it carried out an attack against Syria

AFP, United Nations :

The UN Security Council weighed whether to hold a vote Tuesday on a US proposal to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting up a clash with Russia, which could decide to veto the measure, diplomats said.

The United States put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, even though Russia said it contained "some unacceptable elements."

Russia put forward its own proposal in January that has been rejected by Western powers who say it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory.

"The United States is pushing for a vote tomorrow," said a Security Council diplomat. "The US position was that they were negotiating in good faith, but the world is watching for the council to act."

Experts were meeting to discuss the draft resolutions, but no vote was formally requested by late Monday.

The US push for a new inquiry came amid heightened tensions over possible US military action in Syria, with Trump saying "major decisions" would be taken within 48 hours.

"From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following an emergency council meeting.

Trump-who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base after sarin was used in the town of Khan Sheikhun-warned after the latest accusations that there would be a "big price to pay."
News in brief

China defends South China Sea military buildup

AP, Beijing

China's military says it's entitled to strengthen its defenses on islands in the disputed South China Sea but says those measures aren't directed at any specific countries.

Defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang's statement Tuesday follows the U.S. Navy's deployment of three aircraft carriers to the strategically vital sea body, claimed largely by China.



Ex-spy's daughter released from British hospital

AP, London

A British health official said Tuesday that Yulia Skripal, who was targeted along with her father in a nerve agent attack in England, has been discharged from hospital.

"This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," said Dr. Christine Blanshard. She said she would not provide details about Skripal's condition out of concern for the patient's privacy.



N Korean FM calls for closer ties with Russia

Reuters, Moscow

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said on a visit to Moscow on Tuesday that the situation on the Korean Peninsula and events in international politics showed that his country and Russia needed to forge stronger ties.
Trump will meet N Korean leader in May or early June

President Donald Trump said he is planning to continue the unprecedented meeting, which he said would address North Korea\'s nuclear weapons.

Reuters, Washington :

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month or in early June and hoped the discussions would ultimately lead to an end of the North's nuclear weapons program.

"We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June and I think there'll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we'll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea," Trump told reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting.

"They've said so. We've said so," Trump said. "Hopefully, it'll be a relationship that's much different than it's been for many, many years."

Trump's comments came just a few hours before North Korea mentioned talks with the United States and South Korea for the first time, as the North's state media said Kim Jong Un chaired a party meeting on Monday in which he assessed future talks with Washington and his upcoming summit with South Korea on April 27.

"(Kim Jong Un) set forth the strategic and tactical issues to be maintained by the Workers' Party of Korea including the future policy of international relations and the orientation corresponding to them," the North's central news agency said on Tuesday.

Any meeting between Kim and Trump would come after the two Koreas hold their first summit in more than a decade later this month.

North Korea has told the United States it is prepared to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when Kimmeets Trump, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. and North Korean officials have held secret contacts recently in which Pyongyang directly confirmed its willingness to hold the unprecedented summit.

The communications, still at a preliminary stage, have involved State Department officials talking to North Korea, apparently through its United Nations mission, and intelligence officers from both sides using a separate back channel, the official said. Before that, Washington had relied mostly onSouth Korea's assurances of Kim's intentions.

Kim Jong Un as well as high ranking officials from the North have been engaging other countries in a flurry of diplomacy in recent weeks with the North Korean leader making a surprise visit to China last month, talking with President Xi Jinping. It was Kim's first known trip outside the North since he assumed power in late 2011.

A North Korean delegation led by Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is in Russia this week after a visit to Turkmenistan, the North's state media said separately on Tuesday.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev held talks on Monday with Ri about the options for dialogue between Pyongyang and Seoul, TASS news agency reported on Monday. Ri is also scheduled to speak with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday.
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No land is sweeter than home

Rafiqul Islam Sarker :

Most migrants to Europe, Australia and the United States from Rangpur in northern Bangladesh leave home at a young age and return when they have just passed middle age.

Intensely connected and immersed in family bonds and Bangladeshi cultural values, they tend to return to their birthplace despite obtaining citizenship from a second country. For them, going to these far-flung places is about working hard to save money. And in the end, they want to come back home.

Many are now well off and have enough funds to invest in business ventures in Rangpur and in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This IPS correspondent recently met two such returnees - Rakibuzzaman and Golam Sarwar Habib.

Both had migrated to Belgium in their youth and have now returned to Bangladesh in their middle age. Both of them enjoy dual citizenship of Bangladesh and Belgium.

The stories of Rakibuzzaman and Habib tell us that wherever migrants go, they are looking for better incomes mainly to look after their families back home. Many return with newly acquired skills and invest in the economies of their home countries. Their contributions to host and home countries are immense and help economies on both sides.

Rakibuzzaman, 54, of Senpara area in Rangpur city, 300 km north of the capital, now runs a large restaurant and a readymade garments shop in Dhap area of the city. Rakibuzzaman spoke to IPS about how he passed his days in anguish and agony in Belgium without his parents and relatives who he left behind in Bangladesh for more than twenty years.

The third of six siblings, Rakib was brought up in an extended family. His father was an inspector in the Bangladesh police force. He completed a Secondary School Certificate (equivalent to O levels) from Rangpur Zila School in 1982. From early childhood, he dreamt about going to a European country with a view to earning money.

"To go to a European country was not as difficult in the 1990s as it is nowadays," Rakib told IPS.

He left Bangladesh for Germany in 1986 with a visit visa and stayed there for one year. Then in 1987, he moved to Belgium and worked at a chemical factory in Ghent, a port city in the northwest, for almost four years.

"I found business to be more profitable than the job in Ghent and therefore opened up a shop in the city and ran the business profitably for about 17 years," said Rakib.

"There was hardly a day in Belgium that passed without recalling my sweet memories in Bangladesh," he said, adding, "We had no telephone connection with my home in Bangladesh and communication with my relatives in Bangladesh from Belgium was very expensive. I could talk to my mother over the phone only once a week."

Rakib's mother eagerly waited for him to call at the house of a neighbor every weekend.

"I felt the absence of my parents and relatives badly during my stay in Belgium," Rakib said, adding that he was always anxious to get some news on Bangladesh every day but Bangladeshi newspapers were not available in Belgium.

The Belgian government confirmed his citizenship after four years of living there. After getting his passport, he traveled to Bangladesh to meet his parents and relatives.

"I can't explain how I felt on the day I arrived in Bangladesh from Belgium in 1996. On arrival at Saidpur airport, I wished I could kiss its soil," said Rakib.

"I spent one month with my family and having me at home, my family's joy was endless. It was a festive period for one month. As soon as I left Bangladesh for Belgium, my parents and family members fell back into deep pathos. Departure from Bangladesh for me was painful too. Despite the pain I never lost sight of what I had as a life in Belgium."

Rakib could not bury his mother nor his father after their deaths within a span of ten years. In both cases, he arrived at his home in Rangpur city a week following their deaths. And in Bangladesh, like in many countries, those of Islamic faith must bury the departed within 24 hours. It is his greatest sadness in life that he could not be there to bury his parents and Rakib says he still haunted by guilt.

"My elder sister who was a lawyer in Rangpur court also died during my stay in Belgium," he said. "I could not attend her funeral in the country because I was heavily engaged in the business in Ghent in those days."

In 1998, he married Momotaz Zaman of Rangpur and managed to organize her travel to Belgium after three months. They now have two children, Sayeduzzaman Rayan and Raina. Though the children are citizens of Belgium, they have been brought up in Bangladesh.

"My son Rayan completed A-level with grade A in three subjects from North-West International School (English medium of instruction) under British Council in Rangpur this year and daughter, Raina is doing her O levels from the same institution," Rakib said.

Rayan is now looking for a university in Europe for graduate school.

Rakib said Belgium is one of the best countries in Europe, adding, "Although being citizens of Belgium, Rayan and Raina should not forget the culture and values of Bangladesh."

"My wish is that they should come back to Bangladesh after getting higher education from abroad. Because Bangladesh has progressed economically. If the government keeps the national growth at the same rate, the country will be upgraded to a rich country in the next 20 years. What we need now is good policies and good governance from the government side," Rakib concludes.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 500,000 people migrate from Bangladesh to work abroad each year. Migrant workers collectively contribute about 7 to 8 percent to the country's total GDP in the form of remittances, a significant contribution to the nation's growth and development.

An IOM study in 2016 found that on average, only 31 percent of those who leave the country obtain employment in skilled occupations. Most migrants lack training and very few have qualifications recognized by host nations.

IOM says Bangladesh's National Skills Development Policy 2011 addressed many of the problems faced by migrant workers by encouraging training institutes to be labour market responsive, assure quality training, provide standardized assessments and certification and to adopt a National Technical and Vocational Qualifications Framework with clear levels which translate into recognized qualifications in foreign countries.

Golam Sarwar Habib, 56, of Khalipara in Rangpur left Bangladesh in 1991 after graduating from university when he was 27. He went to Belgium directly.

"In the early years, for almost five years I used to do odd jobs," he said. "Later, I set up a shop at Ghent."

At 35, Habib married a Belgian woman and became a citizen of Belgium by dint of marriage. Habib chose not to disclose his wife and son's names to IPS.

"My wife and two sons often visit Bangladesh but do not stay here for more than two weeks at a stretch," he said.

Habib purchased a shopping mall named Jahaj Company Complex in 2007 in the middle of Rangpur City. There are 120 small shops in the three-storey mall. He leased the shops to some businessmen of Rangpur. In return, he gets a handsome amount of rental money.

Habib said, "The shopping mall is not a profitable concern compared with the investment. But I can be busy with the work here when I come to Bangladesh."

Habib spends six months in Bangladesh each year and six months in Belgium. He still runs his business in Ghent.

"The information technology has advanced so far that I can oversee my business in Belgium even from Bangladesh," he said.

Like Rakib, Habib says the well-being of his parents and relatives is very important. He said he is deeply saddened when he learns of deaths of his near and dear ones while he is not living in Bangladesh.

-IPS


Digital Security Act Bill placed in JS without amendments

DESPITE our repeated plea and penning about the issue - the much controversial Digital Security Bill-2018 was placed in the Parliament on Monday night by Telecom and ICT Minister. The proposed law was then sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry concerned for scrutinizing. The committee is expected to submit a report on the Bill in about four week's time.

Not surprisingly, the Bill is placed exactly a week after the Indian Prime Minister's order to withdraw of rules to punish journalists for distributing fake news in India. However, given the abundance of writings, analysis and risk factors provided by numerous scholars, law experts and journalists, in reality, there is hardly any point left of the controversial Bill which is in need of careful scrutiny. Even the growing concern of locally stationed diplomats was not taken into serious consideration.

Most importantly, the government on several occasions said Section 57 of the ICT Act would be removed that deals with defamation, hurting religious sentiments, causing deterioration of law and order and instigating against any person or organisation through publishing or transmitting any material in websites or in electronic form. They were not removed from the proposed Draft Law.

However, the ball to get the bill passed is now in the court of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, and we can only hope the standing committee to apply the best of its senses and logic to amend the controversial sections. In fact, the standing committee can also take helpful advice while scrutinising it by incorporating all stakeholders.

Our point is, we all agree that the law should be carefully framed so that privacy of critical and sensitive data is properly maintained without jeopardizing the freedom of expression. In justifying the draft DSA the new ICT Minister has reminded us that journalists have 'conditional freedom' and 'violating privacy is unacceptable' - two more obscure terms.

While there is little to dispute the fact that no freedom can be unrestrained, we should once more remind that such restraints should be clear, logical and proportionate, which the provisions of the DSA greatly deviate from, and urge the standing committee that the laws in proposed Act should be considered from a constitutional and international law standpoint, otherwise it would only get passed as a 'Digital Insecurity Act' to suppress freedom of speech in Bangladesh.






Section 32 to have subsection, if needed: Anisul

Mentioning that there is still a scope of discussion over the proposed Digital Security Act, Law Minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday said a subsection will be inserted into section 32, if needed.

"A subsection will be incorporated in section 32 of the act if it seems in discussions that the freedom of expression will be hampered," he said while talking to reporters after inaugurating a training course for district and session's judges and equivalent judicial officials at the Judicial Administration Training Institute in the city.

According to section 32 of the Digital Security Act, resorting to digital theft by capturing any confidential information of government and semi-government, autonomous and statuary bodies by using computer, computer network, digital network or any other electronic devices through illegal access is cognisable offence.

The minister said there will be an elaborate discussion on the proposed law at the parliamentary standing committee which is the right place for talks. "The scope of discussions has opened up with the placing of bill in Parliament," he said.

If it is deemed that the freedom of expression and freedom of speech are hampered, a subsection will surely be inserted, he said.

Earlier at a meet-the-press programme at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity on February 6, the minister said the section 32 of the proposed was not brought targeting journalists. "A sub-section will be included, if necessary, to protect journalists," he had said.

The Digital Security Bill, 2018, aiming to deal with cybercrimes, including hurting the religious sentiment, negative propaganda against the Liberation War and the Father of Nation, and illegal activities in e-transactions and spreading defamatory data, was placed in Parliament on Monday.
Construction violating laws

Special Correspondent :

A powerful quarter is allegedly erecting a Five-Star Hotel on Kalatoli beach in Cox's Bazar violating bylaws of local development authority and district administration's land lease agreement.

Among other things, in the process of erecting the hotel, the quarter reportedly violated the layout plan, Height Restriction Law and Environment Conservation Act.

The quarter influenced the people placed in powerful positions to run the illegal construction work of the hotel named, 'Radisson Blu Cox's Bazar.' Civil work of the nine-storied hotel has already been completed.

Construction of the hotel started on 19 February in 2015 on a large chunk of government khas land (2 acre), which was actually leased out to the Hotel Agrabad in November 2008 by the Cox's Bazar district administration slapping a number of conditions. The land was located within the Hotel Motel Zone in Cox's Bazar. In 2009, the Hotel Agrabad authorities sold a portion of the leased land to a controversial businessman based in Dhaka in a shady deal violating several conditions of the lease agreement.

"I joined Cox's Bazar district administration recently. The issue is yet to come to my knowledge, " Kamal Hossain, Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar District told The New Nation yesterday.

He, however, said the District Administration will launch an investigation into the matter and action will be taken if the lease agreement is found violated. Sources said although the hotel project is officially shown a venture of Chattagram based conglomerate Clewiston Group, a powerful syndicate comprising businessmen of Dhaka and Chattogram is sponsoring the hotel project from behind the scene.

"We came to know that the hotel is being erected violating construction proceedings laws. We asked the hotel authorities to submit the layout plan. They have already submitted it. Now we're verifying it. If any deviation of the plan is found we will take legal action," Lt Col. (Retd) Forkan Ahmed, Chairman of Cox's Bazar Development Authority (Cox'DA), told The New Nation yesterday.

He said the construction site of the hotel is situated in the restricted zone of the beach, which is a gross violation of the by laws of Cox'DA. The issue will be placed before the board of the Cox'DA for legal proceedings. CoxDA is responsible to control the unplanned development of any kind on the land and development projects in the tourism city.

When asked, Forkan Ahmed said, "Not only Radisson Blu, several hotels are also being developed without applying proper rules and regulations. As they have already taken full shape, how can we demolish them? It will be waste of money and damage of property.

It was also alleged that the hotel authorities started the construction work of the project prior to getting the 'site clearance certificate' from the Department of Environment.

"We issued the site clearance certificate for the hotel project on 11 January in 2016," Syful Asrab, Deputy Director of the Department of Environment (Cox's Bazar office) told The New Nation yesterday.

The construction work of the hotel began on 19 February in 2015 by Clewiston Foods and Accommodations Ltd.

Proshanta K. Halder, Chairman of the Company, denied his involvement in the hotel project, saying, "I am not involved in the project. But I personally know some of the sponsors."


UK hopeful of good, inclusive polls in BD

British High Commissioner in Dhaka Alison Blake on Tuesday said they hope to see a 'peaceful political process' that will lead to a good election-free, fair and participatory-at the end of the day.

"We hope it (polls) will be as participatory, inclusive as possible. We won't interfere in the internal political affairs of Bangladesh and so you won't find me speculating about the politics or election outcomes," she said.

The British High Commissioner made the remarks while addressing a DCAB talk at the Jatiya Press Club.

The Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) organised the programme under its flagship event 'DCAB talk'. DCAB President Rezaul Karim Lotus and General Secretary Mahfuz Mishu also spoke on the occasion. High Commissioner Blake said they believe strongly in 'inclusive and participatory, free and fair' elections. "When our foreign secretary Boris Johnson, MP, met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali during his visit to Bangladesh in February, he stressed the importance of free and fair elections, a free media and affording political space to the opposition," she said. Blake said the UK, as one Commonwealth partner to another, together with their international partners - The Commonwealth, EU and others - will continue to encourage a peaceful way forward, and encourage dialogue between all the political parties in Bangladesh. The British High Commissioner made it clear that political parties in Bangladesh do not need friends to mediate. "Bangladeshi people can find a way. I'm confident. They don't need friends to mediate. Way will be found." On Rohingya issue, she said the UK has been a leader in responding - in speed and scale - providing pound 59 million since August 25 to help meet urgent humanitarian needs.

"We've been working with Bangladesh. There's more we can do. We'll look at what we can do," said High Commissioner Blake who visited Rohingya camps trice. Describing the Rohingya crisis as very complex with set of issues, she said there is no 'quick and easy' solution.


Quota protesters reunite; vow to carry on movement

Overcoming the divisions, thousands of students of different colleges joined the quota reform movement for the 3rd consecutive day on Tuesday across the country. This photo was taken from in front of Dhaka University Library in the evening.



Overcoming its division and confusion over continuing the quota reform movement, Bangladesh General Students Rights Protection Council on Tuesday afternoon announced to go on with the agitation until a specific statement from the Prime Minister to this end is made.

Rashed Khan, joint convener of the platform, came up with the announcement at the foot of Raju Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus around 5:55pm. Well continue our movement until a specific statement from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is made, he said.

Speaking at a gathering in front of Raju Sculpture around 9pm, he said they continue their movement at all universities and colleges across the country from 10m to 7pm every day until their demand is met.

Rashed said they will boycott all classes and examinations.

On Monday, the council got split over continuing the movement demanding that the existing quota system in the public service be reformed.

Following a meeting with Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Council convener Hasan Al Mamun on Monday announced to postpone the movement until May 7.

However, a group of the platform refused to accept the decision and announced to continue the movement.

It started staging demonstrations on the DU campus on Tuesday morning demanding reforms of the quota system in a week.

The demonstrators also demanded a written apology from Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury for her Mondays comments in parliament that the protesters are children of Razakars.

On Tuesday evening, both the groups removed their differences and announced to continue to the movement until a specific assurance from the Prime Minister comes.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday said the government will reexamine the quota system after the national budget. Well reexamine the quota system after the budget, he said while addressing a meeting at the Finance Ministry.

Defending the quota system, he said quota must be there to advance the disadvantaged groups of society. But there might be rethinking about the percentage of quota for different groups, he added.

Meanwhile, Jahangirnagar University Vice-chancellor Dr Farzana Islam and many Dhaka University teachers expressed their solidarity with the demand of the students.

Speaking at a human chain arranged by Dhaka University Teachers Association, Chairman of Criminology department Ziaur Rahman said the DU VC and teachers are with the students demand.

The quota reform movement has got a new dimension with the students of different private universities and colleges joining it.

Also on Tuesday, students of public and private universities across the country, including the capital, staged demonstrations to press home their demand to get the quota system reformed.

At Dhaka University, several hundred students and jobseekers gathered at the foot of Raju Sculpture for the third consecutive day.

They were staging demonstrations till filing of this report around 7pm.

On the other hand, students of different private universities, including Daffodil International University, North South University and East West University, staged demonstrations expressing solidarity with the movement demanding reforms of the existing quota system in government jobs creating severe traffic congestions in several city streets.

Witnesses said the students of Daffodil International University took position opposite to Sobhanbagh mosque on Mirpur road around 11 am demanding the same.

The vehicular movement on the busy road was halted due to the agitation.

Later, the transport movement became normal around 4:30 pm as students withdrew their blockade following police intervention, said officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Police Station Gopal Gonesh Biswas.

Besides, hundreds of students of East West University, North South University and UITS staged demonstrations in the citys Merul Badda, Kuril Biswa Road and Jamuna Future Park areas on the issue, creating a long tailback from Rampura to Kuril Biswa Road since the morning.

Meanwhile, State University of Kalabagan and Ahsanullah University of Tejgaon Industrial areas also took part in agitation programme in front of their respective universities.

At Jahangirnagar University, students boycotted all the classes and examinations protesting police attack on the fellow students on Monday.

They also demanded punishment of the policemen who attacked the students during the demonstration demanding reform of the existing quota system in the civil service.

The agitating students brought out a protest procession in front of the central library on Tuesday at 9:30am.

They also declared Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury as persona non grata on the JU campus if she does not withdraw her comments made in the House. They also demanded an apology from her.

Meanwhile, JU Teachers Association in a press release condemned the police attack and demand immediate punishment of those involved in the attack.

Earlier on Monday, at least 60 students were injured as police swung into action to disperse university students and job-seekers staging demonstrations on Dhaka-Aricha highway.

Rajshahi University students for the third consecutive day on Tuesday continued demonstrations on the campus demanding reforms of the existing quota system in government jobs.

Several hundred protesters brought out a procession in front of the central library around 11:45am which paraded different roads.

Besides, the students of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (Ruet) brought out a rally on Dhaka-Natore highway to press for the demand.




Quota issue: Matia Chowdhury as a Bangladeshi can`t call our students children of Rajakars

Students agitating for reforms of the quota system on the government job continued as the standoff passed the third day yesterday at Dhaka University and other universities and educational institutions all over the country.



Private university students also joined the movement yesterday in the capital and other places while the student leaders steering the agitation said they would continue peaceful movement until the Prime Minister will make clear pledge to reform the system.



Meanwhile, comment by Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury that 99 percent of the students agitating for the quota system are children of Rajakars has drew sharp rebuttal from various quarters.



It comes as a big surprise to raise question who she is to call others Rajakars when her own identity and role as a freedom fighter is not clear and known to many. Mere going to India during the liberation war does not give one the right to call others Rajakars.



Elders of hundreds and thousands of students now agitating to scrap the quota system to establish their rights were also freedom fighters and outstanding heroes in many cases.



Instead of playing a role to meet the legitimate demands of the students, her comment only exposed her hatred to the vast majority of the country's population as she fear the quota movement may plummet her party's popularity in the election year. The government must be careful about the leftist agent provocateur from within.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith's comment yesterday also sounded equally negative when he said the quota issue may be discussed after the budget session, meaning not before August next.



It has added more misgiving instead of helping the situation as students believe the government is not ready to take the issue seriously.



It prompted the joint convener of the movement -- Bangladesh General Students' Rights Protection Forum - Rashed Khan to make the announcement at a briefing at Dhaka University that classes and examinations in all educational institutions will remain closed until the issue has been resolved.



Meanwhile, many wonder why TV stations are not telecasting the live news on the students' movement at the campuses and other places unlike the extensive coverage over the past two days.



Under the present quota system only 3 percent vested interest and elite groups enjoy 56 percent of the government job leaving hardly any reasonable access for recruitment of others on merit basis.



A volatile situation continues in the Dhaka University campus as police were crowding at entry points and attacked students who were holding their position at different locations on the campus.



Meanwhile, the attack on the residence of the varsity Vice Chancellor on midnight Monday has become a central issue as the government leaders and police are out to put blame on the agitating students for the attack.



But student leaders say they believe it is the act of a faction of BCL; which raided the residence in support of the government and ransacked it to foil the movement and turn the event to a different direction.



DMP police said they have been able to identify the students who had attacked the VC's residence, but student leaders say police are charging the students who were arrested earlier from the campus on past two days for attack on the VC's residence. They are blocking the release of their fellows in false ground.



A section of ruling party affiliated student organization BCL raided different residential halls on Tuesday night and was looking for leaders and common students who were playing vital role in the movement.



They were also visible on Monday in the campus equipped with sticks and fire arms and occasionally went on attacking the students to disperse the movement. Similar reports also flashed out from Rajshahi University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Kustia Islamic University and such other public universities.



Students charged the VC on Monday why police entered the varsity campus without permission and attacked and beaten students and arrested some of their colleagues.



Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday claimed they have withdrawn police from campus but their presence is noticeable around the campus.



Meanwhile, the announcement of Awami League general secretary and communication minister Obaidul Quader created misgiving among a section of students mainly comprising BCL leaders who tried to break unity and slow down the movement to make the situation easier for the government.



But Matia Chowdhury's comment that over 99 percent of the students joining the movement are offspring of Rajakars united all students again to fuel the movement.



Agitated students last evening burnt the effigy of Matia Chowdhury at TSC corner demanding apology. Obaidul Quader however said it is her personal opinion, the government has nothing with it.



Huge presence of female students was equally visible yesterday to give the movement new momentum. The movement leaders last evening announced that the agitation will continue everyday from 10am to 7pm taking into consideration the safety of female students from attack by ruling party goons. The quota movement in Bangladesh caught headlines in world media including FOX News, CNN and Aljazeera.








Quota Reform demand logical DUTA

DU Correspondent :

Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA) on Tuesday said, the students' movement for revising current quota system is logical and called upon the government to reform this system within May 7.

They demanded arrest of the culprits, who engineered the brutal attack on the vc's residence. They said this at a human chain programme at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla protesting Sunday's brutal attack on DU VC's residence.

Terming the attack as pre-meditated occurrence, speakers said, some unidentified persons, who were not associated with the quota reforming agitation vandalized the VC's residence with evil design.

Professor Sadeka Halim said, students have democratic rights to demand quota, reform as millions of educated students are jobless in the country right now. But we cannot support violence that will create unstable situation on the campus.

Professor Samad said, there are no relation between the quota reformation movement and the attack on DU VC and added a vested quarter is trying to foil this movement. He demanded exemplary punishment to the attackers and said they will prevent such activities in future.

President of DUTA Professor ASM Maqsud Kamal urged the government to reform the quota system within schedule time (May 7). He also said, "We will suggest some recommendations to government in this regard".

Bitterly denouncing the DU VC's residence attack, Professor Kamal said, a vested quarter is trying to mar the congenial atmosphere of DU in the name of quota reformation. He termed this attack as a political motivated incident."




Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 74F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 74F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
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.
Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh , 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s . Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket , an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process. Lead researcher for the Belfast Project , an oral history of the Troubles.
Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (ASBB), one of the pioneering sharia-compliant banks in the kingdom, has announced its newly elected board of directors under the chairmanship of Khaleefa Butti Bin Omair Almuhairi.



The announcement comes following the recent Annual General Ordinary Meeting held on March 22 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain.



The other board members are Shaikh Khalid bin Mustahail Al Mashani, Matar Mohamed Al Blooshi, Hussein Mohammed Al Meeza, Khalid Salem Al Halyan, Salman Saleh Al Mahmeed, Salim Abdullah Al Awadi, Zayed Ali Al Amin, Alhur Mohammed Al Suwaidi and Khalid Shehab Eddin Madi for the upcoming term from March 2018  March 2021.



Following the AGM, the board members unanimously elected Almuhairi as the chairman and Al Mashani as the vice-chairman.



Addressing the shareholders at the AGM, Almuhairi, said: "On behalf of the board of directors, I take this opportunity to extend our thanks and appreciation to the former Board of Directors led by Shaikha Hessa bint Khalifa Al Khalifa, on their strategic vision and efforts that supported the growth of the banks business and brand value."



"Going forward, our focus will continue to further grow our business by delivering a sustainable and profitable performance, along with building stronger client portfolios by providing our clients with a range of competitive, well-diversified and innovative sharia-compliant financial solutions through quality products and services," he stated.



"Also with our excellent capital position and strong liquidity, our growing performance will further consolidate towards ASBBs position as a stronger Islamic bank and with a robust financial position, allowing it to take advantage of new growth opportunities and creating genuine value for all our stakeholders," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Egypt Property Show (EPS), which is returning to Dubai with a three-day exhibition starting April 12 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, will host an open house investor summit on April 11 at JW Marriott Marquis.



Organised under the patronage of the Egyptian Prime Ministers Office, the event brings to the UAE numerous investment opportunities in Egypts real estate market.



With a vision to export the Egypts property estates to Egyptian expatriates and foreign investors, EPS will bring together an array of public and private property developers including Emaar, Sodic, Palm Hills, Hyde Park, MNHD and City Edge. The event is hosted by Al-Ahram Foundation in partnership with Spectrum Dubai.



In a statement, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said: Egypt is witnessing unprecedented changes on all levels. In fact, the government has been working incessantly on finding solutions to redress the economy and secure sustained development. This is why we have proposed many reforms and legislative measures- soon to be implemented- which are going to ease the acquisition of estates and attract more and more investors.



It is of utmost significance to find honourable partners who believe in the potential of the Egyptian property market, as much as we do. We have no doubt that the UAE will support our commitment towards strengthening Egypts economy as all market indicators seem promising. We trust that our fraternal and amicable relationship with the UAE will add to our development endeavours, he added.



The open house investor summit will be attended by two notable government delegations, including representatives from the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, as well as the Ministry for Investments and International Cooperation. Joining the ministerial delegation will be His Excellency Wael Gad, Ambassador of Egypt to the UAE.



The delegation will discuss important updates on major projects that are set to change the Egyptian economic and demographic landscape. On top of the list will be the new administrative capital and the New Al-Alamein City.



While the first project aimed at decongesting the old capital by shifting important public directorates, building new housing units and creating new job opportunities; the new Al-Alamein city is expected to transform the Mediterranean coastal line into an integrated city all year round, which will be primarily guaranteed by the building of new social houses, industrial area, universities and recreational facilities.



The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that Egypts economy is expected to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2018, especially after the implementation of the new investor-centric law. This will grant foreign investors equal treatment to nationals.  TradeArabia News Service
The Mena region has already witnessed merger & acquisition (M&A) deals of significant value in the insurance, medical, and education sectors, said Mergermarket, a leading provider of M&A data and intelligence.



The largest deal of the quarter was Totals investment into the Umm Shaif and Nasr fields and Lower Zakum off-shore concession for a combined $1.45 billion. Key deals were discussed today (April 9) at Mergermarkets Mena Mergers 2018 forum hosted at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai, which serves as a platform for the M&A, Private Equity, and Corporate Restructuring industries.



In line with global trends, pressure from shareholders seeking gaining market share pushed companies towards defensive consolidation through M&A. Domestic deals recorded 13 deals worth $2.5 billion, driven by the acquisition of a 53.37 per cent stake in Moroccan insurance firm Saham Finances for $1.05 billion by Sanlam and its general Insurance subsidiary, Santam, the highest quarterly value for the region on since Q1 2017($ 2.6 billion).



This trend was also particularly evident in the Medical sector. Two of the top ten deals targeted the Medical sector, both of which were conducted by UAE-based NMC Health Plc. The firm acquired a 49 per cent stake in Fakih IVF Group and a 70 per cent stake in CosmeSurge, for $205million and $177million respectively. There were also two significant deals in the Education sector, with Khazanah Nasional Berhads $130million investment into GEMS Education and KMR Holding Pedagogiques $54million into the Universite Internationale de Casablanca.



Ruth McKee Al Ghamdi, head of Mergermarket Mena, said: M&A in the healthcare sector in the region is being driven by increasing demands from populations with high numbers of lifestyle-related illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. Social and economic reforms in Saudi Arabia and technology disruption across all sectors are expected to contribute to the Mena deal making landscape in 2018.



This year, the Mena region has reached its highest Q1 deal value since 2001, as per Mergermarkets records, with $9.3billion invested in the region across 33 deals so far.



Omar Momany, head of the UAE Corporate & Commercial Practice at Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla, said: Middle East deal activity over the past few years have been very robust. Deal volumes in both 2016 and 2017 remained consistent despite a drop in deal value in 2017, with the UAE continuing as the most attractive market for inbound investment last year.

Baker McKenzie's Global Transactions Forecast with Oxford Economics predicted an uplift in M&A activity in 2018 globally and in the Middle East, and with the apprehension of 2017 easing and the underlying strategic drivers for investment remaining steady, we expect M&A levels in the Middle East to remain healthy throughout 2018 and to peak in 2019.



Anil Menon, Mena M&A Leader, EY, said: We expect a busy summer and an active M&A market in FY18. The primary drivers will be private equity players who are net sellers, sector consolidation plays, and regional family businesses who continue to reconfigure their business portfolios.



In 2017, the Mena region saw a decline of57.6 per cent in deal value, despite deal count maintaining a level that was consistent with the previous year. 2017 saw the announcement of a total of 126 deals worth approximately $16.0 billion, compared to 129 deals in 2016 at a total value of $37.8 billion.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector (TRA) recently received a delegation from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Bahrain and discussed latest strategies and cooperation in the telecommunications sector.



The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Bahrain was headed by Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa, Director of Finance, Information Technology and Human Resources.



The visit was aimed at reviewing the most prominent practices and strategies related to the management of regulatory and licensing affairs, finance, spectrum, human resources, and customer happiness, said a statement.



The agenda of the visit included a detailed presentation on the TRAs scope of work, which contained regulations governing and developing the telecommunications sector in the UAE, and the empowerment of government entities in the area of smart transformation (mTransformation), it said.



In addition, to a presentation on the mechanism for issuing Type Approval certificates and another about the system for handling customer complaints, the customer business centre, and the methodology and framework for developing government services, it added.



It also showcased some of the projects and initiatives by the TRA, development of TRAs call centre 80012, development and improvement of Customer Happiness Centres environment. The visiting delegation was briefed on the working mechanism of the Human Resources Section in terms of organisational structure, recruitment, training courses, and the performance and talent management system.



The Bahraini Telecommunications Regulatory Authority delegation included Amal Al Mannai, human resources manager; Al Anood Mohamed, acting director of Consumer Affairs; Eng Mohammad Al Kaabi; and from UAEs TRA Eng Mohammed Al Zarouni, director of policies and programs; Ahlam Abdulrahman Al Feel, director of corporate communications department; Dr Mohammed Ashour, director of Treasury Management Section; Mona Al Rais, leader of customer relationship management system; and Maryam bin Sulaiman, leader of the customer relationship management system, and Ahmed Al Shamsi, senior manager, Type Approval Section.



Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, director general, TRA, said: We cherish this long march of cooperation and experience sharing between the two entities, which embodies the strong relationship between the two fraternal countries.



The meeting was filled with ideas and topics of common interest in the field of communications and information, he said.



Such meetings gain their importance from global developments at technological levels, especially in the wake of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), artificial intelligence and digital government, and what they entail in the heavy reliance on Big Data, he added.



Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa, director of finance, information technology and human resources, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Bahrain, said: We are pleased to be present today with our brothers at UAEs TRA.



This visit is part of the ongoing efforts to support and develop bilateral relations between the two entities and to share experiences. All is part of our strategic plan to learn about best experiences and practices in the telecommunications sector at the regional level and to build on them in developing our approved work mechanisms, he said.



I would like to pay tribute to UAE's achievements in the telecommunications sector, where it has become prestigious and exemplary at the regional level and global competitiveness indicators. I emphasise that these achievements will have a positive impact on the reality of work in the Gulf telecom sector and on its elevation to new heights, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
The P&O Cruises Grand-class cruise ship Ventura recently completed a two-week docking at Damen Shiprepair Brest, in France.



Launched in 2008, this was the first visit of the 290 m, 116,000 DWT vessel to the yard, where it underwent a regular docking together with a range of maintenance works, said a statement.



Major features of the maintenance programme included the installation of two exhaust gas scrubbers, for which Damen Shiprepair Brest (DSBr) designed, manufactured and installed a sea chest, it added.



While the Ventura was in DSBrs Drydock number 3, at 420 m by 80 m the largest of DSBrs three dry docks, the hull was ultra-high-pressure water blasted and then, along with the superstructure, repainted. Additional works included maintenance of the propulsion systems and stabilisers, plus other minor repairs, it said.



As with all cruise ship dockings, completing the works within the scheduled period was absolutely critical with the Ventura due to depart Southampton on March 28, on a 12-day cruise to the Canary Islands, Spain, and Lisbon, Portugal.



The logistics were particularly challenging, with a wide range of subcontractors needing access to the vessel both inside and out, and hundreds of containers, trucks and garbage skips to be positioned around the dock and manoeuvred as necessary during the two-week period.



As always, meticulous planning and exact specification of all the different tasks to be undertaken took place in the months before her arrival. That, plus excellent organisation while she was in the yard, was the key to success. In the event, the Ventura departed DSBr on March 26, with all works completed and in top shape for her 3,574 passengers and 1,220 crew.



Patrick Renavot, managing director, Damen Shiprepair Brest, said: This is the first time that we have welcomed a vessel owned by Carnival (which operates the P&O Cruises brand).



We were delighted that the project was a success. All planned work was finished on time and the vessel returned to its busy schedule on schedule, he said.



As cruise ships expand in terms of both numbers and size, we hope to see our general activity in this sector grow. With two dry docks of 420-m and 338-m respectively plus a convenient and easily-accessed location for cruise ships entering and leaving the Atlantic, DSBr has much to offer owners and operators looking for yards capable of meeting their specific needs, he added.



In recent years, the yard has made substantial investments in its facilities including an enhanced black and grey water disposal capability and a new fire and cooling water supply system.



The yard also features ample owners storage, extensive laydown areas and spacious temporary workshops for subcontractors. There is even an adjacent container terminal. The yard has a constructive relationship with the local authorities and, with a culture at the yard based on maximising safety and cooperation, customers can rely on a committed, efficient service at every level, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) has achieved a major construction milestone with the successful completion of the reactor containment building (RCB) dome for Unit 4, the final unit of its Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant located in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi.



The Unit 4s reactor coolant loop (RCL) pipe welding, and the setting of key equipment have also been completed, said a statement from Enec.



The completion of Unit 4s dome structure signifies the majority completion of the main construction activities at the Barakah Plant.



This is a key milestone in the overall development of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program and the delivery of safe, clean and reliable electricity to the UAE grid.



The dome is the final structural component of the RCB, which now measures around 70 m in height. The RCB houses the nuclear reactor vessel (RV), steam generators and other major components. Built out of concrete and heavily reinforced steel, RCBs are ranked among the strongest structures in the world.



The successful and efficient completion of welding of the RCL, which plays a key role in transferring heat from the RV to the steam generators, is another key step towards the start of major testing for the systems of Unit 4.



On the milestone, CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi said: "These achievements highlight the significant progress being made in both the construction of Unit 4 as well as the journey towards the overall completion of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant."



Construction of the last unit of the plant started in 2015, and it continues to benefit from the lessons learned and experience gained by the teams responsible for the construction of the other three units, remarked Al Hammadi.



"With construction completion for Unit 4 currently standing at 67 per cent, the next phase for the unit will be to start the transition from construction to testing and commissioning," he added.



Al Hammadi pointed out that Enec was committed to delivering clean, safe and efficient electricity through peaceful nuclear energy to the UAE, in adherence to the highest international standards of quality and safety.



"These recent milestones are the result of the exceptional partnership between Enec and its prime contractor and joint venture partner, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), in combination with the dedication and expertise of our UAE Nationals and international experts," he added.



Enec said in addition to the completion of the RCB dome structure and RCL welding, a significant amount of major equipment setting has been safely and successfully completed at Barakah Unit 4.

Construction crews continue to ensure that the highest standards of nuclear quality are implemented for Unit 4, in the same way as for Units 1 to 3, stated the company.



The completion of the final dome structure and additional work on Unit 4 is indicative of the steady and continuous progress being made at the Barakah plant, which, with the achievement of these recent milestones, is more than 87 per cent complete.



Unit 4 alone is more than 67 per cent complete, while Units 3 and 2 are 81 per cent and 92 per cent respectively. The construction of the plants Unit 1 has been safely completed and is currently undergoing a comprehensive review in preparation for operations.-TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Aramco said it has signed an agreement with French energy major Total to build a giant petrochemical complex at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, at a total investment of $9 billion.



The complex will be integrated downstream of the Satorp refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco (62.5 per cent) and Total (37.5 per cent) in Jubail, in a move designed to fully exploit operational synergies.



This world-class refinery, whose capacity increased from 400,000-barrel-per-day at its start-up in 2014 to 440,000-barrel-per-day today, is recognised as being one of the most efficient in the world, said the Saudi oil giant Aramco in a statement.



Located next to the Satorp refinery in the same industrial area, the complex will comprise a world-size mixed-feed steam cracker (50 per cent ethane and refinery off-gas) with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.



Aramco said the duo is planning to start the front-end engineering and design (FEED) in the third quarter of 2018.



The Saudi company said the project will represent an investment of around $5 billion. The cracker will feed other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants representing an overall amount of $4 billion investment by third-party investors.



In total, $9 billion will be invested, creating 8,000 local direct and indirect jobs. The project will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of high value chemicals.



"The agreement deepens the exemplary relationship enjoyed by our two companies over many decades. It is one that has evolved from a standard buyer-seller arrangement to one imbued with common interests to further develop and diversify our businesses," remarked Aramco President and CEO Amin H Nasser at the signing ceremony held during the official visit of HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to Paris.



"Our joint venture Satorp is a remarkably successful model of industry partnership and we are keen to build on this success to further underpin Saudi Aramcos strategy to expand its capacity in the chemicals sector by 2030," stated Nasser.



Total's Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said the project illustrates the group's strategy of maximizing the integration of its large refining and petrochemical platforms and of expanding its petrochemical operations from low-cost feedstock, to take advantage of the fast growing Asian polymer market.



"Furthermore, this project will enable us to strengthen our ties with Saudi Aramco, with whom we successfully operate our biggest and most efficient refinery in the world," noted Pouyanne.



"Finally, it will contribute to the Vision 2030 of the kingdom by creating 8,000 jobs and bringing in new high-added-value technologies," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Tecno Mobile, premium mobile phone brand of Transsion Holdings, has unveiled new smartphone, the Camon CM, the first device in its Camon series to feature a frameless full-screen display.



The smartphone maker also inked a distribution deal with Jumbo Electronics, giving the regional retailer exclusive rights to market and sell Tecno smartphones in the UAE.



Tecnos cooperation with Jumbo Electronics is part of Tecnos strategy to consolidate its regional presence and both of them expect to get about 5 to 10 percent market share within the next two years, a statement said.



Stephen HA, Tecno Mobile general manager, highlighted the companys efforts to make revolutionary devices that will usher smartphone enthusiasts into an era of endless possibilities on the mobile phone and exceptional photography experiences.



The smartphone has been reinvented and OEMs globally are always on the lookout for the next big thing to talk about. At Tecno, we have pride in our ability to understand and meet and exceed our consumers needs, said Stephen.



The new Camon CM delivers a stylish full-screen display smartphone without bezels. This, according to Stephen, produces an immersive and an unparalleled experience when capturing and consuming videos and images, or even surfing the Internet.



The frameless device takes multi-tasking to another level by allowing users to split their screen (18:9 screen support single window 1:1 split-screen operating with only one step), enabling one to handle more than one task effortlessly while still being able to see more on either of the split windows.



The Camon CM also features a 2.5D corning third glass to protect and safeguard the device from cracks whilst delivering a smoother touch and better visual effects.



The Camon CM has a 13MP front sophisticated camera module that delivers exceptional HDR portrait with night shot algorithm that lifts weak light, reduces noise in a single frame, and captures clearer night shots. Users can adjust the super bright flash of the front camera by pressing the screen to introduce just the right amount of light required to produce a stunning photo.



Similarly, the rear camera dons the same camera rating and has a four-LED ring flash, which is optimized to deliver a balanced lighting before producing any shot.



In accordance to consumers preferences, we are gradually becoming camera-driven and this trend is evident in the camera-centric designs of our smartphones. Adopting our strategy of think globally, act locally, we are able to understand our consumers preferences and provide them with the necessary support to ensure they can express themselves wholeheartedly, Stephen added.



Tecno Camon CM will be available at all Jumbo Electronics outlets across the UAE three days after its launch and is set to retail at Dh599 ($163)-Dh699 ($190) including VAT.



The new smartphone will be available in three colours; city blue, midnight black, and champagne gold. - TradeArabia News Service
Best Western Hotels & Resorts announced its Asian development plans to key industry stakeholders and potential investors at the recent Hicap Update conference in Singapore.



As the sister event to the popular Hicap (Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific), Hicap Update is a mid-yearly forum that focuses on the latest developments in the regions hospitality industry, from finance and investment to architecture and interior design.



This years Hicap Update took place at the Pan Pacific Singapore on March 27-28, and Best Western proudly sponsored the conference for the second consecutive year.



Olivier Berrivin, Best Westerns managing director of International Operations  Asia, took to the stage on the opening morning of the conference to participate in a high-level panel discussion entitled The Industry Leaders Speak Out. Held in front of a large audience, this session allowed Olivier to discuss the major opportunities and challenges currently facing hoteliers in the Southeast Asia region, specifically with regards to investments, developments and partnerships.



Hicap and Hicap Update are undoubtedly the leading events of the year for hoteliers in Southeast Asia, drawing large numbers of highly influential leaders and decision-makers from across the industry, Olivier said. Best Western is delighted to be a sponsor of such a well-respected conference and we look forward to continuing our association with Hicap in future.



Best Western also used Hicap Update to reveal its latest Asian expansion plans  including its expanded selection of hotel brands. Having operated just three brands as recently as 2015, Best Western has undertaken a period of significant strategic growth and now offers a choice of 11 distinct global hotel concepts, including three so-called soft brands.



In Asia (Southeast Asia and Japan), Best Western now has no fewer than 30 new properties in the pipeline, covering five different brands: Best Western, Best Western Plus, Best Western Premier, Vib and BW Premier Collection by Best Western. Once open, these new hotels will increase Best Westerns current Asian portfolio by more than 50 per cent.



Thailand is a major area of expansion for the company, with 11 new hotels currently in the pipeline across the kingdom. Other key areas of development for Best Western Asia include Malaysia, where it currently has four hotels in the pipeline including a return to Kuala Lumpur; the Philippines, where Best Western sees significant potential in up-and-coming destinations; and Vietnam, which will welcome two exciting new Best Western properties in 2019.



This is an incredibly exciting time for Best Western, as we expand further across Asia with one of the industrys largest and most intuitive brand collections. From modern midscale and upscale hotels to cutting-edge millennial concepts, extended-stay options and soft brands covering three different market segments, Best Western has become a one-stop solution for hotel owners and developers across Asia, Olivier concluded. - TradeArabia News Service


Amit Biswas has been appointed as cluster director of sales and marketing for the hotels - Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria and Hyatt Place hotels in Dubai.



In his new role, Biswas will execute strategies to drive business performance, revenue, brand awareness in key markets and segments to support business goals and profitability for the three hotels.



I am very excited to be part of Hyatt and especially to lead sales & marketing teams of Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria and Hyatt Place hotels in Dubai. Ideally situated in the heritage area of the city, these hotels present a choice of two distinct brand experiences for guests travelling to Dubai for business or leisure. I look forward to applying my experience and set strategic direction across all sales and marketing functions to further enhance the position of these hotels, said Biswas.



Biswas began his hospitality career as part of the pre-opening team at the Ritz-Carlton, Doha in 2002. He subsequently joined Le Meridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre and Le Meridien Fairway, Dubai in 2003 and held several positions there including complex director of sales until 2017. Biswas has completed his education with Bachelors in Business Administration from Les Roches Hotel Management School, Switzerland.



Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria is a complex of a luxury five-star hotel and residences situated in the heritage heart of the city. It features 421 elegant guestrooms and suites with sea-view, a range of food and beverage outlets and exceptional banqueting facilities annually organising more than 150 weddings and 120 outside caterings. The Galleria Residence, which is a part of this complex, offers newly remodelled, chic apartments for comfortable long stays as well as short stays, with a wide-range of services and facilities.



Hyatt Place Dubai, Al Rigga and Hyatt Place Dubai, Baniyas Square both offer spacious 210 and 126 guestrooms respectively along with premium amenities. Situated in culturally rich and bustling neighbourhoods, these two stylishly designed properties offer endless options for travellers visiting Dubai. - TradeArabia News Service


By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

A fact-finding team of comprising of activists and journalists mainly belonging to human rights group United Against Hate (UAH) released its fact-finding report on recent Bihar riots on Monday in the lawns of Press Club of India, New Delhi. The team, which comprised of Nadeem Khan, Prashant Tandon, Hasnul Banna, Tarique Anwar, Sagrika Kissu, Mahtab Alam, Farrah Shakeb, visited Siwan, Gaya, Kaimur, Aurangabad, Samastipur, Munger, Nawada, Nalanda, Haiderganj and Rosera areas of Bihar after the engineered communal violence around Ram Navami this year.

As the press statement notes, the team spoke extensively to the people of these riot-affected places belonging to both the communities. We spoke to eye-witnesses and state officials in order to understand how the violence unfolded, said the statement.

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The UAH team has alleged that after speaking to people and visiting riot-affected places, it was very clear that this violence was not spontaneous but pre-planned and very carefully orchestrated by the BJP and Bajrang Dal hooligans.

There was a similar pattern of violence that was orchestrated in every place that we visited. In many places, preempting the violence, peace meetings were held that had set terms and conditions to the rallies next day to avoid violence. Even the police gave conditional permission to all the Rama Navami rallies and set their definite routes, claimed the fact-finding team.

But all these conditions and routes were violated on the next day. The rallies were forcefully taken to Muslim areas, where extremely derogatory communal songs were played and communally provocative slogans were raised. This was followed by large-scale violence, where particularly mosques and Muslim properties were targeted by the mob. At many places, they even destroyed properties and shops owned by Hindu community, said the statement.

The songs and slogans were distributed in CDs and pen drive a few days back which show the meticulous planning of the violence. The example of the songs played like Topi wala bhi sar jhuka ke Jai Shri Ram bolega, Ramlala hum aayenge mandir wahin manayenge, and Jo chuyega Hinduo ki hasti ko, jala dalenge har ki basti ko.

According to the report, one allegation that was common in the versions of both sides that the mob was carrying a large number of swords. The Principal Secretary (Home) Amir Subhani also confirmed the same. These sharp edge weapons were imported through courier from outside and distributed across the districts for free.

We were aware of swords being present at the processions in large numbers. Dont know exactly how many. It is hard to track sales online. Swords have never been seen before at the processions, he said. We are living in a volatile maybe even explosive situation.

The Bhagalpur timeline, according to the UAH fact-finding report, notes, Clashes broke out between the two communities on March 17 in Bhagalpur  the Silk City on the southern banks of the river Ganges  after workers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the RSS and the Bajrang Dal took out an unauthorised procession led by Union Minister Ashwini Choubeys son Arijit Shashwat to mark Vikram Samvat  a Hindu new year.

Furthermore, the procession, organised by the Bharatiya Navvarsh Jagran Samiti, passed through a 15 km route, which included at least half-a-dozen Muslim-majority areas. The clashes occurred in Medini Chowk  a Muslim concentrated area  under Nathnagar police station.

In Samastipur, one of the areas most affected by riots, A mob of hundreds of people with saffron headbands and swords were passing through the Gudri Bazaar area, chanting provocative slogans. A sleeper fell from a rooftop and hit one of them. I dont know whether it was thrown intentionally. Following the incident, violence erupted between the two communities in the presence of the police who acted as mute spectators. Somehow, both the groups were pacified and the procession moved away. Fearing a backlash, shutters were brought down in the entire market. The mob returned and looted the shops owned by Muslims before setting them on fire, recalled a local to the UAH team.

UAH has further alleged, In many places, police stayed as mute spectators while in others they were unable to control the mob.

BJP Cabinet minister Ashwini Kumar Choubes son Arijit Saraswat, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Singh and Congress MLA Anand Shankar Singhs involvement in riots were clear as per many eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence claimed the UAH report. The complicity of the police and the Nitish Kumars government in allowing the communal goons of RSS BJP and Bajrang dal to create the ruckus in the name of Ramnavami was absolutely clear.

The team has demanded the accountability of the public officials and elected representatives, who participated, instigated and encouraged the riots to be fixed and should be given an exemplary punishment.

It has also demanded the authorities to provide compensation for the victims at soonest possibility.

A judicial inquiry to look into the plan and programme of the organized violence is also one of the major demand raised by the UAH team.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

Jammu: On Saturday, April 7, nearly two dozen social, political and other organisations unanimously proposed Jammu Bandh on April 11 seeking fulfilment of several demands which include handing over the case of rape and murder of 8-year-old tribal girl to Central Bureau of Investigation. The other two demands being the revoke of a Tribal Department directive and deportation of Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees.

The demand comes in the backdrop of police arresting eight individuals including a juvenile, all from majority community for their involvement in the crime. The J&K Crime Branch has also submitted a charge sheet in court on Monday, April 9 against the seven accused in the crime under Sections 302, 376, 201 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code despite protest by the local bar association in Kathua.

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The Kathua bar association has suspended work till April 12 and have called for Kathua Bandh on April 11.

People of Jammu are feeling betrayed as they tried every political party but injustice and discrimination with them is increasing day by day so much so that now the people are fearing for their security and safety, the representatives of organisations who have called for April 11 shutdown said.

The Bar Association in Chenab region of Jammu division has distanced itself from the shutdown call and has reiterated that elements in Jammu Bar Association are trying to derail the process of providing justice to Kathua rape and murder victim.

Criticising the decision of Bar Association Jammu strike, former vice president Bar Association Doda, Shaib Aman Khan said that the drama of strike is only organised to save the culprits and derail the entire process of investigation and court trial into the incident.

He said that demanding CBI inquiry into the incident by some striking advocates of Jammu Bar Association is not supported by all lawyers of Jammu.

Only BJP and RSS backed lawyers are striking, he said.

He further said that the striking lawyers should demand speedy court trial into the incident instead of demanding CBI inquiry.

In normal cases, they say police always shields its people and when the police have worked honestly and arrested four of its own person then why are you seeking CBI probe? tribal activist Talib Hussain told TwoCircles.net.

He further said that RSS is trying to vitiate the peaceful environment in Jammu.

On Thursday, January 18, an eight-year-old tribal girl was found murdered and raped, a week after she went missing while doing household chores. The girl belonging to the nomadic Bakarwal community was found dead in Rasana village of Hiranagar, in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and the family has alleged that she was raped before the murder.
By Anubhuti Agnes Bara for TwoCircles.net

It leads to no good if institutions that grant titles, qualifications, and other prerequisites for life or a profession are permitted to call themselves seats of learning.

_Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. 1, 1913-1926, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1996.

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This piece might seem exceedingly hard-hitting, gloomy and murky. Nevertheless, this is the stark reality of the times we live in. Let me, at the outset, make it crystal clear that this is not an act of seeking attention, sympathy, playing victimhood or a callous attempt of mindless left-bashing. I, as a final semester PhD Adivasi student who has been politically active in several struggles and movements in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and beyond, rather seek to give a positive negation of things and put forth my opinion on a possible way forward for students movement within University spaces across the country through a case study of JNU. The latter has ostensibly been called the bastion of the progressive, more so left politics, for several decades now and often looked up to as a model University. It has witnessed remarkable struggles and movements, the fruits of which we are still reaping. Nonetheless, is it really a model University? Or for that matter, have we as the grand JNU community done enough on our part to that effect?

Do we even realise that our fights for social justice and campus democracy are lost battles? That its been two years since Najeebs enforced disappearance and he still awaits justice? That due to the UGC Gazette Notification dated May 2016, there has been a collective disappearance of the marginalised from JNU? That students were suspended and targeted for raising their voices against the draconian Notification? That the VC and his cronies sexually harassed a female student in the Committee Room of the Ad Block and got away with it because no one cared to speak about it? That the Administration Block still has those hideous grills? That Dalit Research Scholars, Muthukrishnan (Krish), and Ghanshyam Das, are not alive to tell their stories? That Krish, belonging to a humble Dalit family in Salem, Tamil Nadu, who struggled very hard to get through a PhD. course in the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, facing discrimination at various levels in the University, paid a heavy price for being a Dalit, who was compelled to hang himself early last year? That Ghanshyams mental health was seriously affected while being compelled to discontinue his PhD. at the Centre for Philosophy, JNU, and to living an ostracised life in dreadful conditions in a tree shack near the 24*7 Dhaba on Campus, with no one lending an ear to his problems?

It becomes very easy to speak against institutional murders when they happen miles away in other Universities, but what happens when they transpire within our Campus? We resort to dirty politics over dead bodies, so much so that we refuse to even acknowledge that Krish hanging himself was very much an institutional murder. Such issues remains sidelined due to filthy calculations and manipulations. The fact that Krish did not even feel the need to leave behind a suicide note since (perhaps) he knew nobody would ever understand, that he could not confide into his fellow batchmates of the Tamil community of his Centre, does not haunt us at all. This is what we as the grand JNU community have done. We want scapegoats like Krish, Rohith, and Najeeb to do and sustain our filthy politics and fulfil our own ulterior, selfish motives.

The term movement has become an oxymoron in JNU. My biggest fear is that the ongoing momentum will also die down akin to the other recent struggles over the years. Social justice and gender justice are two very loaded terms, which we as the JNU community, have failed to ensure at several junctures. We have killed reservations, social justice and consistently failed to address the questions of gender(s) in a streamlined manner. Still, before the elections, brownie points will be counted  100 meters barricade! Ad block reclaimed! Thousands of people! Najeeb! Lyngdoh! Surveillance! Fascism! JNUSU Constitution!

The so-called progressive forces including the Union, the Teachers Association and several organisations have slyly called-off those meaningful struggles and continue to do so. Noticeably, even the space(s) of so-called struggle is/are hegemonised by the dominant forces which claim to be progressive. For somebody like me coming from a marginalised background, who has time and again advocated for and participated in numerous offensives like the blockade and lockdowns, ultimately finds no space to voice ones opinion in the decision-making processes. These self-styled progressive claim (at least on paper) that their politics is for the liberation of the marginalised. Contrarily, these forces have solely spread hatred, characterised and reared by mistrust, brahminical arrogance and the growth of personality cults, which in my view can never be tolerated in progressive politics, to say the least. Their praxis reeks of the continuance and maintenance of the existing rotten hierarchical structures and their hegemony, manifesting in hallow rhetoric and visionless politics. Also, their social principles have not developed beyond the level of the liberal press. Moreover, they have been proactive catalysts in hastening the process of turning the University into a graveyard. There are countless instances that can be quoted here in this regard, but I will refrain from doing so since all of us are well-equipped to carefully introspect and reason on our own about it.

More importantly, these very forces are vociferously advocating the need to save JNU. Such myopic visionless articulation will lead us nowhere. The fact is that there is nothing to save in JNU. What we are witnessing is not an attack on the JNU community. Rather, it is an offensive on our right to (quality) education, which has been vulgarised under the current regime. Manifestations of this can easily be seen in all Universities countrywide. It is not as if JNU was an all-inclusive haven for gender justice and affordable education. Just because it is pinching and affecting us even more directly since we are now being maligned, threatened and beaten up for being a part of JNU, since our chairpersons have been removed, since we oppose compulsory attendance, we say save JNU and we are JNU? Undoubtedly, this VC is impossible and way ahead of S.K.Sopory (ex-VC), ruining everything, more so after 9th February 2016.

However, he has just been doing what was left undone by the previous VC. Why such selective amnesia? Why this hangover of the 9th February? Why do we keep forgetting that there is something known as dialectical and historical materialism? This perturbs me immensely!

While we are busy saving JNU and raising slogans of VC must resign, social justice/gender justice, we really need to stop and ask ourselves what it entails to study and struggle in a University like JNU. We often forget how Universities are not isolated spaces and that they operate within and reify the same structures of unequal (capitalist) production relations between various constituents of the University, namely, the students, teachers, staff, karamcharis and so on. Hitherto, the process of knowledge creation has in itself been hierarchical and reinforce the master-slave relationship, particularly that of supervisor-student liaison and the innumerable instances of discrimination, sexual harassment, denial of workers rights on Campus, to quote a few.

We hail Universities as centres of resistance against neoliberal assaults on education, as autonomous spaces, which have always striven for affordable, equitable education, prospects to learn and opening new vistas of knowledge. However, during the course of such struggles, we articulate in such a manner that ultimately helps in managing the crisis and status quo in the prevalent capitalist structure. This is not to say that these reforms, accomplished through the students struggles in Universities, are meaningless. Also, the new M.A. batch of students and other like-minded people in JNU have galvanised on their own for a lockdown of their Centres and Schools and are becoming politically conscious, and that this in itself, to quote a friend, is achievement. But achievement in itself is completely fragmented and derivative and should be seen with regard to totality. They do give us a breathing space, but will ultimately fail in the long run. History bears witness to this fact. Thus, we always need to remind ourselves that no reform of any kind can render this institution viable. We must thus combat reforms, in their effects and in their conception, not because they are dangerous, but because they are illusory. The crisis of the institution of the university goes beyond (as we will show) the realm of the university and involves the social and technical division of labour as a whole. And so, this crisis must come to a head. (Andre Gorz, Destroy the University, 1970.)

Why is it that we recurrently conform to the same old assembly-line trajectories and structures? Moreover, have we ever thought of the fact that no matter how many classes we take outside the given infrastructure, it will never democratise the unequal power relations that exist between the teachers and the students or make the social and gender differentiations fade away? For instance, in the ongoing lockdown of academic complexes (or similar mode of protests), when people experience inconvenience and by that logic want to attend classes within the school buildings, they seldom realise that it implies actually compliance of the very logic through which, the policy of compulsory attendance was foisted in the first place. Why is it that thousands of students turn up for a JNUTA/FEDCUTA/DUTA March and negligible numbers stay behind at the ongoing lockdown sites? This is not to deny the significance or importance of these marches, but the numbers are telling. Seemingly, we as students regard our teachers as irrefutable, infallible beings, whose teachings are akin to some supposed word of god, which cannot be questioned and doubted.

Thus, merely vouching for superficial reforms within the University would be equivalent to upholding the revisionist idea of Bernstein, whose catchphrase was the movement is everything, the ultimate aim is nothing. What then should be the aim? It becomes imperative for us to learn from our failures in the past and work for the destruction of this structurally unsafe house, which has already claimed many lives. (Toni Belly, Plan C Birmingham). We need to understand that as workers are alienated from their labour, the students are alienated from their knowledge and therefore recognize the University as a factory, where students are workers. Thus, the need of the hour is to work towards the dismantling, destruction and burning down the prevalent idea and structures of knowledge production and eventually the University. This has been the spirit of the students movement during the decades of the 1970s and several others world over. In the words of the Critical Theorist, Walter Benjamin, it only illustrates the magnitude of the task entailed in creating a community of learning, as opposed to a body of officials and academically qualified people, which would possibly lead us to grasp and appreciate, the original unity in the idea of knowledge.

Call me names for saying this, but I want this Jawaharlal Nehru University (and likewise every University) to be shut down sine die, dismantled, destroyed or burnt down for all the aforementioned reasons. This is not something impossible. While we register our solidarities with the students of the Central Universities of Orissa and Tamil Nadu in Koraput and Chennai, we need to persistently remind ourselves that their stiff resistance created such a crisis while questioning the status quo that the respective Universities were brought to a standstill. Until and unless the internal contradictions within University spaces, as discussed above at length in the case study of JNU, sharpen, and we rethink on ways and means to broaden the scope of our struggles and ideas to make it inclusive for all constituents of the University, no meaningful movement is possible. Let us work towards creating a new idea of a University, which is liberating for all such components. These are concerns not merely specific to JNU, but equally relevant for other University spaces and institutions as well.

If what I have emphatically argued for in this essay is still falling on deaf ears, then congratulations, we are so doomed! Congratulations to all you terrified workers out there, who are ever-ready for rote intellectual labour of bureaucracy, for furthering oppression rather than liberation! If this scenario persists for long then chances are that the Universities will only be left with heaps of dead bodies of the students, especially those from the marginalised backgrounds, who are being constantly targeted and victimized for raising their voices, discriminated against, denied scholarships and reservations, of the Karamcharis whose minimum wages are not ensured and labour rights rebuffed, of the sexually harassed women who face mental torture, character assassination, shaming of all sorts by their colleagues, classmates and so on! Mind you depression is very much political, as rightly pointed out by Bobby London, the co-host of On Resistance Radio on 90.7 FM KPFK and a Los Angeles based writer and journalist. Lot of us within Universities are contemplating and attempting suicide. Unfortunately, this is a non-issue for many across Campuses.Continue writing your beautiful term papers, dissertations and theses in sophisticated, flowery language on the rights of the marginalized, the oppressed and about their movements world over, about social alienation, humiliation, social justice, gender justice, equality and social transformation, dear well-read terrified workers! Viva la Revolucion!

Anubhuti Agnes Bara is PhD. student in the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, who works on Adivasi Resistances and State Responses in Central India during the colonial and post-colonial era.
By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Eight months after the arrest of the doctors and other staff of the BRD Medical College in relation to the death of about 300 infants in August last year, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has expressed solidarity with doctors arrested and demanded their early release from the prison.

The members of IMA held a press meet on Monday and expressed their concern over the health of the doctors which are behind the bars.

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IMA has also shown dissatisfaction over the treatment being given to the doctors inside the jail and has alleged conspiracy behind the administrative action. Dr. RP Shukla, the secretary at IMA, told media on Monday, After the alleged oxygen shortage scandal, which happened in August 2017, our friends-doctors Rajiv Mishra, Satish Kumar and Kafeel Ahmad Khan were put in jail with heavy sections imposed on them. We found nothing strange in it.

But now we have been receiving reports that they are being tortured, their bail applications are being denied and they are not being provided proper medical care. We smell a conspiracy behind it, added Dr. Shukla.

The IMA panelists raised the question that if the state government does not think that infants died because of the shortage of the oxygen, it must answer that why the doctors are still behind the bars. They said that the doctors  which have very limited authority  are being used as mere scapegoats to cover the real corruption which resulted in such events.

Dr. JP Jaiswal, the president at IMA, said, During the last eight months, the government has not tried to go into finding the root cause of the infants deaths. One can never stop such incidents from happening again without finding the actual reason lying behind.

The controversy was discovered last year when it was reported that encephalitis stricken infants were dying in Gorakhpur-based Baba Raghavdas Medical College due to the scarcity of the oxygen. A few days later, Siddharth Nath Singh, the health minister in UP government, refuted the oxygen shortage allegation and termed the deaths a natural process.

However, doctors, staff members as well as the head of the oxygen supplying firm were caught and put behind the bars. On Monday, the Supreme Court has granted bail to Manish Bhandari, whose firm was responsible for supplying oxygen to BRD medical college.

Dr. Shabista Khan, the wife of Dr. Kafeel Khan, was also present at the press meet on Monday. Dr. Khan said, My husband tried to save lives of the children in the hospital that night. He tried to manage oxygen from wherever he could but still, he has been made responsible for deaths.

I have met chief minister Yogi Adityanath for the release of my husband, but the administration is paying no heed, said Khan.

According to reports, the imprisoned doctors have reported health complications in the prison and according to sources, they are not being provided proper medical care.

Read more:

Gorakhpur tragedy: Corruption, private practice charges dropped against Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan

Infant deaths in Gorakhpur: Oxygen supplier of BRD medical college gets bail
[April 09, 2018] Eletropaulo Migrates Customer Service to Avaya Cloud

Eletropaulo, the largest electricity distribution company in terms of consumption and turnover in Latin America, will migrate its customer service platform to the Avaya (News - Alert) cloud solution. As part of the company's digital transformation plan, Eletropaulo has signed a five-year contract with Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE:AVYA), taking an important step towards optimizing and automating its customer service operations. The agreement between the companies includes the deployment of the Avaya Oceana as a Service in more than 800 locations. The goal is to update Eletropaulo's platform with applications that modernize and enhance service and help retain customers through intelligent customer service technologies. The migration to a cloud-based solution will take advantage of Eletropaulo's current infrastructure, including previous investments in Avaya solutions. According to Danusa Correa, Relationship Channel Manager of Eletropaulo, the electricity distribution company was seeking an omnichannel solution to help transform the customer relationship. "We were looking for solutions that would provide security and greater accessibility for customers using different channels. It was essential to guarantee the reliability of the information and relationship through which we could demonstrate knowledge of the client's journey, even in the case of a channel migration," she explained. "After an evaluation process that lasted several months and having been introduced to several solutions from different companies, we came to the conclusion that Avaya met our digitalization needs." According to Marcio Rodrigues, President of Avaya Brazil, the contract with Eletropaulo highlights the importance of investing in cloud solutions to deliver better customer experiences. "We are talking about a company that serves more than 18 million people. The migration of Eletropaulo to a cloud-based platform and offering technologies for multi-channel customer service, preserving the context of interactions, allows a more assertive and efficient relationship. Furthermore, the project takes advantage of the existing foundation, making clear that everything that Eletropaulo has already invested in Avaya solutions is being evolved to a new level for enhanced customer service experience." Through Avaya Oceana, customer service professionals have a complete interface with contextual analysis, which makes it possible to create a more accurate customer image and enable more personalized interactions. The solution also supports the use of Bots featuring integrated Artificial Intelligence technology, automation and analysis for all customer service channels including social media, and maintenance of the customer input and contextual information in the transition rom self-service to live agent-assisted customer service.



About Avaya Avaya is a global leader in digital communications software, services and devices for businesses of all sizes. Our open, intelligent and customizable solutions for contact centers and unified communications offer the flexibility of Cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments. Avaya shapes intelligent connections and creates seamless communication experiences for our customers, and their customers. Our professional planning, support and management services teams help optimize solutions, for highly reliable and efficient deployments. Avaya Holdings Corp. is traded on the NYSE under the ticker AVYA. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

About Eletropaulo As the largest electricity distribution company in terms of consumption and turnover in Latin America, Eletropaulo is connected to 18 million people, distributing power to 24 municipalities in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, including the capital. These cities occupy an area of 4,526 square kilometers (2812.33 miles) and represent 17% of Brazil's GDP. Currently, the power provider has more than 7 thousand employees. It has a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week customer service infrastructure, in order to bring energy with quality and safety to all customers. Information about Avaya for the press RMA Comunicacao Rafael Bueno (rafael.bueno@rmacomunicacao.com.br) - (11) 2244-5989 Cecilia Ferrarezzi (cecilia.ferrarezzi@rmacomunicacao.com.br) - (11) 2244-5967

Information about Eletropaulo for the press In Press Porter Novelli (News - Alert) Juliana Borre (juliana.borre@inpresspni.com.br) - (11) 2195-2477 Marina Camargo (marina.camargo@inpresspni.com.br) - (11) 2195-2211 Lucas Nogueira (lucas.nogueira@inpresspni.com.br) - (11) 2195-7374 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This document contains certain "forward-looking statements." All statements other than statements of historical fact are "forward-looking" statements for purposes of the U.S. federal and state securities laws. These statements may be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "our vision," "plan," "potential," "preliminary," "predict," "should," "will," or "would" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology and include, but are not limited to, expected feature releases, statements about future products, expected cash savings and statements about growth, exchange listing and improved operational metrics. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond its control. The factors are discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form 10 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Company's filings with the SEC (News - Alert) that are available at www.sec.gov. The Company cautions you that the list of important factors included in the Company's SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. In addition, in light of these risks and uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this report may not in fact occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. Source (News - Alert) : Avaya Newsroom View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409006370/en/

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Foreign Minister of Russia and Tajikistan, Sergey Lavrov and Sirodjidin Aslov, after the talks in Moscow, signed a cooperation programme between the foreign ministries of the two countries for 2018. The agreement on readmission remains to be agreed upon - the parties postponed it to a later date. Dushanbe links the signing of this document with three others, also concerning the migration sphere.

According to Sergey Lavrov, Moscow intends to improve legal protections for Tajik citizens in Russia. "We focused on our interaction in the migration sphere. Work is underway to improve legal protections for Tajik citizens in Russia," the Russian Foreign Minister said at a meeting with his Tajik counterpart.

In late February, Tajik Ambassador Imomuddin Sattorov told the Federation Council that three agreements with Russia on migration issues were being prepared in Dushanbe, without specifying the contents of these documents. But it became known that Dushanbe insists on signing with Moscow an agreement on social and pension provision of Tajik labor migrants, of whom there were about one million in Russia. "Moscow expresses readiness to take out insurance for labor migrants if the Tajik side takes the obligation to send healthy labor migrants to Russia. But there is a problem - it will not be difficult to confirm the necessary health status in Tajikistan on a formal level," political analyst Arkady Dubnov said in an interview with the author.

Director of the Center for Central Asian Studies and Afghanistan Studies at the Institute of International Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Andrei Kazantsev, believes that migration issues should be seriously worked out and addressed in the interests of both sides. "Not only formally, but also informally. Not everyone in Russia is satisfied with the existing conditions for Tajik migrants. There are serious nationalist forces that are not satisfied with the status of the visa-free travel regime between Russia and Tajikistan. Tajik migrants would like to have more favorable conditions, better working conditions, more loyal attitude of law enforcement agencies towards them. This is a wide range of issues," the expert noted. Answering the question of Vestnik Kavkaza of whether Tajikistan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) could change the migration situation, considering the fact that, speaking at the ADA University in Baku at the end of last year, Sergey Lavrov said that "the possibility of Tajikistan's joining the EEU is being considered," Andrei Kazantsev said: "Joining the EEU would not resolve the issues of labor migration. The formal conditions for the stay of Tajik citizens in Russia, the visa-free travel regime are close to those that would exist after Tajikistan joins the EEU. The main problem is informal. For example, Kyrgyzstan and Russia have a common labor market, but informally Kyrgyz labor migrants have not much better conditions in Russia than Tajik labor migrants. Therefore, this problem - the informal conditions of migrant workers' stay, law enforcement structures' and the host society's perception of them - could not be resolved with the mere fact of joining the EEU. But what good does that do? Strengthen economic ties. But Tajikistan does not really want it now. Because it has quite a strong relationship with China, and it would not want to lose it. In addition, it develops ties with the countries of the Persian Gulf, including in the labor migration sphere, and would not want to lose them as well. Therefore, Tajikistan wants to maintain freedom within its multi-vector policy."

Indeed, Dushanbe does not include Eurasian integration as its priority. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon says that this is a complex issue, which should be decided slowly. However, time moves on, and it seems that perhaps Rahmon is considering the issue of joining the EEU, but is not in a hurry. This is his right, of course, but the participants in the economic alliance have the right for greater certainty in this matter as well. In particular, the right to know how closely linked Rahmon's sloth-like pace is to China's position, whose impact on Dushanbe is increasing. However, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier, Russia will not force anyone to join the EEU.

As for Afghanistan, there is a complete coincidence of interests and views of Moscow and Dushanbe in this issue. In particular, Sergey Lavrov and Sirodjidin Aslov noted the unacceptable attempts by some powers outside the region to use the difficult situation in Afghanistan to achieve their self-serving goals. At a press conference following the talks, the Russian minister said that issues related to Afghanistan directly affects the security of Russia and Tajikistan. " In Afghanistan, primarily in its northern regions, the activity of ISIS is on the rise. Drug trafficking is not on the decline, but rather has reached record high volumes, which directly feeds terrorist and extremist activities," Lavrov said. "We also noted the unacceptable attempts by some powers outside the region to use the difficult situation in that country to achieve their self-serving goals and to promote their unilateral agenda which has nothing to do with the interests of the region."

"Russia and Tajikistan are interested in the most rapid and peaceful resolution of issues related to Afghanistan, moreover, their positions are close on the fact that regional players should play a key role in this decision. There was full identity of views between them that security threats from Afghanistan should not cross the Tajik-Afghan border. The role of such structures as the SCO, the CSTO and the 201st Russian Military Base in Tajikistan is crucial here," Andrei Kazantsev told Vestnik Kavkaza.

This position - the issues related to Afghanistan should be resolved by regional players - was reflected in the Tashkent Declaration adopted following the international conference on security in Afghanistan titled "Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Cooperation," which was held in Tashkent in late March. By the way, Sirodjidin Aslov noted in his address that Tajikistan could share its experience in establishing relations between the official authorities and the armed opposition.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will launch on Tuesday a new two-year plan for Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to a top FAO official. Anadolu Agency reports in its article UN body to start new plan for Syrian refugees in Turkey that the Syria Refugee Resilience Plan aims to improve food security, strengthen livelihoods and enhance the resilience of Syrian refugees and host communities.

The organization's director of Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, Dominique Burgeon, says that the focus for the next two years is on two main areas; food security and agriculture, and livelihoods. He said the program involves vocational programs which enables Syrian refugees to grow their own food and getting skills to be able to work in agricultural sector in Turkey. "The price of nutritious foods like fruit and vegetables fluctuates, and sometimes can be unaffordable. That is why the FAO is looking to agriculture for solutions," Burgeon said. He noted that funding of programs in 2017 and 2018 had been provided by a variety of sources such as The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Japan. "For our new program we are hoping to add more donors as well. The more funding we get, the more we can do," he said. Burgeon also said $95 million would be needed the for implementation of all programs in Turkey.

He said he would meet representatives of the Turkish government and international partners of FAO to present a plan during his visit to the country. He praised Turkey's hosting of 3.5 million Syrian refugees "without major disruption" as a huge achievement. "I congratulate the Turkish government and the Turkish people on the generous way theyve embraced Syrian refugees, and I congratulate them on the support that has been provided." He said the FAO would continue to work with the Turkish government to help refugees. "We had huge demand for all our programs, and every day more of the participants are finding work," Burgeon said.

He noted that 900 people -- of which 30 percent were Turkish and 45 percent were women -- benefited from a project in partnership with the Turkish government to find ways for refugees to acquire skills in the agriculture sector in southeastern part of Turkey last year. "We now want to expand this activity into other provinces, and to offer training in new topics," he said. Burgeon said the FAO also works on new projects with the private sector and chambers of agriculture in different provinces of Turkey. He mentioned a greenhouse that was being built in southern Osmaniye province for residents of Osmaniye Temporary Accommodation Centre, which he was expected to visit on Monday afternoon. "People living in the camp get food assistance, but it can lack variety. That is why we will provide training and materials so that people can grow their own vegetables in this greenhouse." FAOs short and medium-term strategy to address the Syria crisis is aligned with the government's strategy and policy and ongoing initiatives of partners, according to the organization. It works in close coordination with different stakeholders, especially Turkey's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, provincial breakdown of refugees and asylum-seekers in Turkey, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Directorate General of Migration Management, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of Family and Social Policies, UN agencies and humanitarian and development partners.
Gaining momentum recently and becoming more closely followed, Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious project that seeks to connect Asia and Europe with the purpose of increasing trade and generating considerable economic growth. One of its aims is gaining access to the European markets and involves significant investments in infrastructure. At the same time, it offers economic alternatives for countries that are willing to take part in this project.

As Eurasia Review writes in an article "What Does Chinas Growing Presence Mean For Eastern Europe And Caucasus?", moving ahead with the BRI also involves more attention towards Eastern Europe and Caucasus which represent an essential link between Asia and Europe. This means developing enhanced relations with the countries from these regions as well as an infusion of capital in the economies in question.

Moreover, no one can deny the geopolitical implications that this project also brings, even though it is branded solely as an economic super project. China moves ahead in building bilateral partnerships that make it more present in the European space and more importantly in the Russian backyard. It is interesting to observe that China is progressing largely unnoticed, using a strategy that is based on working with any country interested in its project, seeking not to get in dispute with any party, and maintaining a balanced approach to frozen conflicts.

Most of the Eastern European and Caucasus countries have good bilateral relations with China and welcome enhanced ties, especially in the light of more Chinese investments. China is also viewed as a new face to turn to. A few examples outline best Chinas quiet presence in the region. For instance, Republic of Moldova is in the process of negotiating a free trade agreement with China, Georgia (which, from a geographical perspective is an important link to reaching Europe) has already signed such an agreement with China and the Chinese companies are already involved in the Georgian economic environment.

Furthermore, China is also an important partner for Azerbaijan which has a paramount strategic location for the transit sector. In Ukraine, Chinese companies are very active with investments in port terminals, transport infrastructure, and with more projects underway that go hand in hand with enhancing the partnership between the two countries in a variety of fields.

China also shows readiness to strengthen relations with Romania and Bulgaria, the latter to host the Central and Eastern Europe  China 16+1 Summit in 2018. Central and Eastern Europe  China 16+1 is a framework for cooperation through which China reaffirmed its commitment to invest and its partners showed openness to upgrade ties.

The cultural and educational dimension must be mentioned as well with China developing educational partnerships and opening cultural centers such as the one in Sofia, inaugurated in November 2017. Each country is specifically important for China, either as a transit hub, emerging economy, or as a promising market. The aim is to cooperate over a multitude of fields enabling the development of a multilevel and multi-layered cooperation with partners, thus strengthening Chinas position in Eastern Europe and Caucasus.

It is yet unclear how these set of projects will be interconnected in the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative given the fact that they also depend on deepening political relations with a variety of states with different foreign policy aims. It is also unknown whether investments and deepened political relations will materialize according to the intentions announced.

At the same time, it is uncertain how China will use the political leverage gained through its initiative. A key question generated by the Chinese engagement is related to how other regional and global actors will react. In spite of these unknowns, the Chinese investments will continue to be very welcome in Eastern Europe and Caucasus especially because they are not conditional and have the potential to significantly contribute to the local and regional economic development.
One of the countries that traditionally observes elections in Azerbaijan Israel - didn't become an exception at this year's early presidential elections in the republic. Member of the Israeli observation mission, member of the Knesset, chairman of the Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian-speaking Compatriots in Israel, Leonid Litinetsky, discussed organizing electoral process in Azerbaijan and Israeli-Azerbaijani ties in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

- How do you assess preparations for presidential elections?

- We talked to officials, discussed overall situation with preparations for these elections, as well as development of relations between our countries. Our countries have very close cultural and economic ties, especially in the framework of our union of immigrants from Azerbaijan to Israel, created by Yosef Shagal. During the meeting I spoke about the fact that we pay great attention to diaspora, to Jews scattered around the world, that we try to preserve culture and language, because close connection between people living outside our homeland and their historical roots is very important for us. I saw similar situation in Azerbaijan, which pays great attention to contacts with its diaspora, and we planned many meetings to discuss this. We carry out constructive, great work. Our strong cultural and trade relations have been developing for many years, and the fact that our delegation is here to observe elections is a result of that.

Politicians, public figures, scientists, former ministers arrived from Israel, in other words, people who are very well informed about the elections process, people who know how they're done, who know what to look at during preparations. Today's "day of silence" will be very interesting for us, just like tomorrow's voting day, when we will see electoral process itself. Israel has great experience of holding elections. On average, elections take place every three years, but often there are early elections, and we know how to do it. I think we will be able to evalute organization of the voting process, preparations for these elections and their transparency. We will definetely speak to voters at the polling stations, this is our tradition. I always do this when I participate in such events as international observer, go incognito and try to find out what people think, how they live, who they came to vote for, try to learn about their mood. Members of our delegation will be at the polling stations today and tomorrow in different parts of Baku and Azerbaijan.

- What do you think about the current state of Jewish diaspora in Azerbaijan compared to other CIS countries?

- Overall, the state of Jewish diaspora in the post-Soviet space is pretty good. Compared to the Soviet period, all traditions and holidays of Jewish people are celebrated much more today. Today heads of states and mayors of cities participate in national holidays, which hasn't happened before. Now this happens in Kazan, Moscow, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan. Today we're going to see how Jews live in Azerbaijan, but I can already say that officials are very respectful towards traditions and to representatives of Jewish diaspora living here in general. Many Israelis and immigrants from Azerbaijan who live in Israel say that Azerbaijanis are respectful towards Jews. We also know that Jewish communities live pretty well financially, and it's very important for us.

- It's your first time in Azerbaijan. What do you enjoy the most?

- I'm familiar with Azerbaijan thanks to television: we watch Russian channels, follow traditional local festivals, and there are always Azerbaijanis who became stars of international and Russian pop music. I'm not even talking about the "Zhara" festival in Baku, which everyone knows. But it's very important to come to the country and see it with your own eyes. First of all, I was amazed by Azerbaijani architecture, it's a combination of modernism, Soviet classicism and national styly. Baku business centers, skyscrapers reminded me of Tel Aviv, where everything is getting bigger and bigger, just like in Manhattan. I was surprised by how clean the streets are - I always pay attention to how people treat trees and flowers, who green the city is. Azerbaijan has a unique style, and Azerbaijanis' hospitality is simply amazing. When you sit at a table with such people, it shows the entire inner world of Azerbaijani culture, all of its national traditions.
Azerbaijan has maintained and will continue to maintain strong political and economic ties with Russia in the current conditions of sanctions pressure from the West, chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament's Committee on legal policy and state building, Ali Huseynli, told the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.

"When several years ago the sanctions were imposed on Russia and some post-Soviet countries joined them, we not only refrained from supporting them, but, on the contrary, have started to deepen our economic relations with Russia, especially in agricultural supplies. It was our clear position with respect to unreasonable pressure on Russia," he noted in the first place.

Ali Huseynli described the Skripal case as a "provocative show." "I asked the Europeans about it, and even the UK's population does not believe that Skrypal was poisoned by Russians. We do not know for the benefit of whom it was done, but we do not perceive these accusations against Moscow as serious and well-founded. I want to emphasize that we feel any Russia's problem as our common pain. When children died in Kemerovo, Mikhail Zabelin and I went to lay flowers at the Russian embassy in Azerbaijan and saw there hundreds of people, including Azerbaijanis and Russians, which regard it as a tragedy as well. The same applies to politics, where the problems arising in Russia are perceived as our common, because we cooperate to achieve peace and security in the region," the Milli Majlis deputy drew attention.

"Everything that is done in the Caspian region serves peace for our peoples, and today we see a very interesting format of Russia-Turkey-Iran-Azerbaijan, which interact in different combinations on different issues. The ideological founder of this cooperation was Azerbaijan, since It is vitally important for us to stabilize the region. We fully understand that if we do not show solidarity in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East, terrorism will infiltrate Azerbaijan and Russia's North Caucasus. If there is any trouble - new sanctions, the expulsion of diplomats - we realize that this is the beginning of a new provocation, which, alas, involve post-Soviet countries now," Ali Huseynli pointed out.

"You can be sure that Azerbaijan supports Russia in any format, just like Russia supports Azerbaijan. And we are always ready to say about it. The Azerbaijani public does not take these Western shows seriously, our people have a clear understanding that this is all provocation. It is also important to note that hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis live in Russia and they are Russian patriots. In this sense, we are always interested in peace and stability in Russia, because supporting the Russian Federation, among other things, we support our fellow-Russians," the chairman of the parliament's Committee on legal policy and state building concluded.

Speaking about the upcoming early presidential elections, Ali Huseynli thanked Russia for its representative observation mission. "Such a large delegation speaks about the great interest of the Russian side in the events taking place in Azerbaijan. My colleagues and I observed the March presidential elections in Russia. The friendship of our two leaders - Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin - is a very important factor for the relations between our countries. Thank you for coming here, we are sure that you are comfortable in Azerbaijan, in a country that is friendly to Russians," he stressed.

The Milli Majlis deputy spoke about the interparliamentary contacts between Russia and Azerbaijan. "Our inter-parliamentary relations have always corresponded to the overall level of ties between the two countries. There are literate, respected politicians from both sides in our interparliamentary working group, and we should always support each other in complex political moments, as it was before. When there were unfair statements towards Russia in international organizations, not only the interparliamentary working group's members, but also our other parliamentarians have always supported Russia. We see the same attitude on the part of our Russian colleagues, we closely cooperate in international organizations, the PACE," he said.

At the end of the speech, the politician drew attention to the fact that the essence of the Russian-Azerbaijani relations is much deeper than the official level of strategic partnership. "A lot of countries are strategic partners, but the personal friendship of our presidents, the work of our governments and parliaments, help to deepen our ties thanks to the special political culture of our peoples. Our relations can be characterized as confidential. Of course, they will continue to develop after the elections," Ali Huseynli summed up.
Armenias new President Armen Sarkisyan, who took office yesterday, plans to visit Moscow in the near future.

"Naturally, I will be very interested in visiting Moscow as Armenias president in the near future. Armenian leaders traditionally pay their first official visits to Moscow. So far, no concrete date has been agreed," Sarkisyan noted.

He said that as Armenias president he saw it as his major task to strengthen strategic partnership with Russia, cement friendship between the two nations and encourage contacts between people.

"I would like to use this occasion to wish Vladimir Putin, who scored a landslide victory at the presidential elections in Russia, further big achievements in the development of the countrys economy, improvement of living standards in Russia and enhancement of its role on the global arena," TASS cited the president as saying.

Sarkissian who used to serve as Armenias Ambassador to the United Kingdom was elected by the parliament on March 2. Prior to the constitutional reform that followed the 2015 referendum, Armenian presidents were elected by direct and universal suffrage. When all constitutional amendments finally come into force, Armenia will complete its transition to a parliamentary form of government, with the prime minister exercising executive authority and the president performing mainly representative functions and being in charge of control over compliance with the constitution.
Turkey is not after seizing Syrian territories, the countrys Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said.

He also stressed that the presence of Turkey's Armed Forces in Syria is not the occupation, the Turkish media reported. The Deputy PP noted that it is aimed at ensuring the security of its borders and the fight against terrorism.

Bozdag said that Turkey understands that there are a number of problems in Syria that need only political solution.
Charge d'Affaires of Croatia in Azerbaijan Refik Sabanovic was received by head of the State Protocol Department of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Ambassador Parvin Mirzazade today.

Sabanovic presented a note from Croatias Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to Parvin Mirzazade with the news of the establishment of the Baku-headquartered Embassy of Croatia in Azerbaijan, APA reported.

Ambassador Parvin Mirzazade said that the opening of the Croatian embassy will give impetus to the further expansion and promotion of cooperation and friendship between the two countries.

Until now, Croatia's accredited embassy in Azerbaijan has been operating in a temporary office on a non-resident basis.
Russian General Staff Chief General Valery Gerasimov and NATOs Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Curtis Scaparrotti plan to meet before the end of April to discuss the prevention of military incidents amid rising tensions, a diplomatic source in Brussels said.

"Preparations for a meeting between General Gerasimov and General Scaparrotti are about to complete, the meeting is set to be held later in the month," the source said, adding that the focus will be on ways to prevent military incidents caused by a possible misunderstanding of military actions taken by Russia and NATO. "Such contacts are particularly important amid rising tensions," the source noted.

However, sources in NATOs Brussels headquarters and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons declined to confirm the time and agenda of the upcoming meeting, stressing that NATO sought to maintain military contacts with Russia.

"NATO and Russia maintain open military-to-military lines of communication, which are intended to promote predictability and transparency in our military activities. In that context, General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and First Deputy Minister of Defense, had a telephone conversation on March 21, 2018. The conversation demonstrates a clear mutual interest to maintain the military lines of communication, in line with NATO's policy of transparency and dialogue," TASS cited a NATO military official as saying.

The press service added that "any future interactions will be announced in due course."
New US sanctions imposed against some Russian companies have created uncertainty for all investors, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said.

"Market quotations are formed on the basis of expectations. Sanctions against the Russian companies, including systemically important companies, which have been imposed recently, create considerable uncertainty for all investors, for everybody who works on the financial market," Dvorkovich said.

"The uncertainly is evidently making investors act in a maximally conservative way. The local uncertainly is too high and the reaction is predictable indeed Now it is vital to minimize it by ensuring stable and smooth operations of companies that employ hundreds of thousands of people," PRIME cited him as saying.

The official added that the government is ready to take steps to stabilize the companies operations.

Dvorkovich also said that the share of the state in the countrys economy should be reduced by establishing new private firms.
Election of Armenia's Prime Minister will be held at the National Assembly special session on April 17, NA Chairman Ara Babloyan said.

"Since the President of the Republic of Armenia has assumed office and the government has submitted its resignation, according to Article 140 of the NA Rules of Procedure, I announce that the matter of election of the PM will be discussed on April 17 at 12:00 (11:00 MSK), at the NA special session to be convened by virtue of law," News.am cited Babloyan as saying.

On April 9, Armenia has completely passed to a parliamentary system of governance, according to which the prime minister will be the top official in the country.

Fourth President Armen Sarkisyan assumed office at the NA special session yesterday. The government resigned as well, and therefore the NA factions can nominate candidates for the new PM, and within seven days
The leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, called for the extension of a state of emergency in place in Turkey since July 2016.

"The extension of the state of emergency is of historic importance," Bahceli told his lawmakers in Ankara, saying the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which staged the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, still posed a threat through its "crypto members", or sleeper cells.

"FETO's crypto members are still active. The full disclosure and removal of the crypto members is an urgent need," Anadolu Agency cited Bahceli as saying.

He also rejected calls for the lifting of the state of emergency. "We cannot lift the state of emergency as the conditions are not back to normal. The threat is not yet over," the MHP leader said.
ang Thi Quyen, a butcher in a market in Kien Thuy Districts Minh Tan Commune has decided to cover her meat stall with a white and pink princess-style curtain that would normally be seen on an eight-year-old girls bed to protect the meat from insects.  Photo vtc.vn

A meat stall in a market in northern Hai Phong Citys suburban area has become famous in recent days for a unique food hygiene initiative.

ang Thi Quyen, a butcher in a market in Kien Thuy Districts Minh Tan Commune has decided to cover her meat stall with a white and pink princess-style curtain that would normally be seen on an eight-year-old girls bed to protect the meat from insects.

Those who want pork unveil the curtain to find the friendly butcher waiting inside with her meat.

Quyen said that she has been selling pork for 25 years. In the mornings, she opens the meat stall at the front gate of the commune, and moves it to Minh Tan market in the afternoon.

The hot weather in the past several days brought flies, mosquitoes to her meat stall, annoying both traders and customers.

Quyen said her sister joked about using the curtain when she saw her trying to use a mosquito racket to fight off the insects flying around her stall.

Quyen took the joke as advice, and it turned out to be rewarding advice.

The photo of Quyens meat stall with the white curtain has went viral on social media, with most commenters praising the idea and promising to come and buy pork.

One just has to hope she remembers not to put the blanket on her daughters bed, or shell forever be nicknamed Miss Piggy. VNS
HA NOI Hoa Phat Equipment and Accessories Co Ltd sold 3,000 tonnes of steel wire in the domestic and foreign markets  South Korea and Laos  in the first quarter of 2018.

The company is a subsidiary of Viet Nams leading steel maker, the Hoa Phat Group.

The product was certified by Standard Approval Centre No 1 to meet standards of Viet Nam, American Society for Testing and Materials, British Standards Institution of the United Kingdom and Japanese Industrial Standards.



With nine production lines drawing steel wire and one galvanising line for the first phase, the plants capacity is estimated to reach 40,000 tonnes annually.



The group targets a revenue of VN55 trillion (some US$2.42 billion) and an after-tax profit of VN8.05 trillion ($354.6 million) in 2018.



Its accumulated revenue in 2017 reached VN46.8 trillion, posting an increase of 38 per cent year-on-year. After-tax profit also hit a record high of VN8 trillion, surpassing the target by 33 per cent and increasing 21 per cent over the previous year.



The groups steel business played the key role, contributing to some 90 per cent of its total revenue and after-tax profit.



Last year, Hoa Phat exported some 200,000 tonnes of steel products. They included 161,000 tonnes of steel bars and rolled steel to the United States, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Cambodia.



With its positive business results, the group contributed VN5 trillion ($220 million) to the State budget in 2017, an increase of 40 per cent from 2016.  VNS
HA NOI  FiinPro Talk #6 Vietnamese Banking Stocks: Investment Opportunities and Risks will take place in HCM City on April 19.

The event will be attended by senior experts in the banking and financial industry and some 150 participants, including fund and asset managers, financial investors, banking executives and analysts. They will share their knowledge and insight on the important trends of Viet Nams banking industry and finance companies, macroeconomic or monetary policies affecting the banking system and the stock market in Viet Nam, as well as chances and threats when gaining exposure in banking stocks.

Key themes to be addressed during the event include the banking sector landscape; key growth drivers in 2018 and the near future; major policies and their implications for banking stocks and IPOs; key investment considerations in listed stocks and upcoming listings; and upside opportunities and risks in select banking stocks.

After going through the difficult period of 2008-12, the Vietnamese banking system has made a strong comeback since 2013, supported by a gradually improving economic environment and the recovery of the real estate market.

Over the last four years from 2013 to 2017, the credit outstanding balance has increased at an annual growth rate of 17.2 per cent, of which personal loans grew by 40.8 per cent annually, as calculated by StoxPlus. Consumer finance companies also experienced a strong growth in the loan book at an annual average of 66.5 per cent over the same period and are now considered "counterweights" to the traditional banking model.

These days, the banking industry is reaping impressive results. There used to be only nine listed banks with total market capitalisation of US$11.8 billion in 2013. Now, 15 banks are listed on the two stock exchanges, with total capitalisation of $40 billion, accounting for 21.5 per cent of total market capitalisation. The stock price of the banking sector increased by 73.2 per cent in 2017 and recently rose by 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, while the VN-Index rose by 48 per cent and 19.3 per cent, respectively.

By March 30, 2018, the banks stocks are trading at 3.2x its Book Value and 20.3x its trailing earnings. It also witnessed a number of M&A transactions between foreign partners and consumer finance companies.

In the coming months, market players and the investor community are looking forward to a series of listings from banks and consumer finance companies, including Techcombank (TCB), Tien Phong Bank (TPBank), Oriental Commercial Bank (OCB) and FE Credit. Some of them have just seen soaring share prices on the OTC market.  VNS
HA NOI  Japanese investment fund CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) has just announced the venture in to Luxstay.

Luxstay is a homestay platform headquartered in Singapore that operates mainly in Southeast Asia, including in the Vietnamese market.

The details of the deal were not disclosed, but CAV representatives said the investment was seven digits.

The Tri thuc tre online newspaper quoted Luxstay Vietnamese co-founder and CEO Steven Nguyen as saying that Luxstay set a target for the series A round this year, hoping to receive about US$10-20 million in investment.

Previously, Luxstay announced investments from three investment funds including Genesis Ventures (Japan), Y1 Ventures and Founders Capital (Singapore).

Luxstay also received investment from ESP Capital, a local investment fund established by Vietnamese start-ups, which was also active in recent deals with Homedy, Canvas, Wefit, Jamja and Cooky.

CAV is one of the most active venture capital funds in the US, as well as in eight Asian countries, including Viet Nam.

CAV has invested in more than 20 projects in the field of internet and technology in Viet Nam.

Most of CAVs investment projects have achieved positive growth; of these, many have become big names in the market including Foody, Vatgia, and Tiki, and also Topica, Nhaccuatui, VNG, Vexere and Vicare .  VNS
BA RIA-VUNG TAU  Cargill yesterday opened an 80,000 metric tonne warehouse for grains and oilseed at the Saigon International Terminals Vietnam (SITV) port in Phu My town, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, to meet the growing demand for grains primarily from the food and animal feed sectors.

Equipped with world-class equipment, the US$10 million facility meets safety, security and quality requirements and enables customers to receive agricultural products faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively, the company said.

This is Cargills first such facility in the south. It has another 50,000-tonne facility at Cai Lan Port in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

Viet Nam is a key market for Cargill and this new storage facility strengthens our ability to supply high-quality feed grains and animal feed products to our customers, Alan Willits, head of Cargills grain and oilseed business in Asia Pacific, said.

This investment is part of our strategy to expand our business to meet the growing demand for feed grains and animal feed, driven by increased meat consumption amongst Vietnamese consumers.

In the past three years the volume of grains and oilseed handled by the company in Viet Nam has grown four-fold from 400,000 metric tonnes to 1.75 million tonnes.

By 2020 it expects this to increase to more than 3 million tonnes, making it one of the largest importers, marketers and distributors of grains in Viet Nam.

Alongside the investment in the storage facility, Cargill will also become the first company in Viet Nam to offer customers a digital platform that will provide real-time information including the warehouse stock position, shipment status, product orders and contract status updates.

The digital solution will be launched in June 2018.

Cargill, which came to the country in 1995, is a leading animal nutrition company that produces premix and compound feed. It also deals in food and beverage ingredients, grain, oilseed and metals.  VNS
HCM CITY  Global workspace provider Regus has launched its conference centre in the Deutsches Haus building on Le Duan Street in HCM Citys central business district area.

Situated on the second floor of the Deutsches Haus centre, it can host up to 200 guests and is equipped with modern technology.

Viet Nam is currently one of the fastest growing MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) hubs in Southeast Asia, having invested significantly in infrastructure in recent years to position itself as Asias next Tiger Economy.

According to statistics from McKinsey consulting group, last year 17 per cent of visitors to HCM City came for business purposes, higher than the regional average of 14-15 per cent.

The company began operations in Viet Nam in 1998 and now boasts eight business centres spread across HCM City, Ha Noi and a Nang.

Regus solutions enable businesses to minimise their second largest cost of doing business - the expenses associated with leasing, equipping and staffing an office.

The Deutsches Haus centre is the first Regus facility in Viet Nam to offer conference centre solutions.

Regus office, co-working and meeting spaces are spread over 3,000 locations in over 100 countries and serve 1.5 million members every month.  VNS
BINH PHUOC  The grant of geographical indication (GI) certificate to Binh Phuoc Provinces speciality cashew by the National Office of Intellectual Property has been a strong boost to efforts to create a national brand for the product.

According to Nguyen Van Loi, secretary of the Binh Phuoc Party Committee, cashew has been cultivated in the province for more than 40 years and has become a poverty eradicator by enriching locals, especially ethnic groups living in mountainous areas like the Stieng and Khmer.

Getting the GI certificate would be of great benefit to local cashew products, he said, pointing out it would help build a brand for the nut and enhance export of products to markets that demand clear origin.

The geographical indication encompasses raw cashew, kernels, and roasted and salted nuts.

The raw cashew nut grown in Binh Phuoc is firm and dense, 14.5-18mm thick, and has a marketable kernel that is at least 30 per cent of its weight. Each nut weighs 5-6 grammes, meaning a kilogramme has less than 200 nuts.

Roasted and salted cashew nuts are of two types -- with and without the inner skin -- but without salt in the middle. The fat and carbohydrate content are at least 43 per cent and 23 per cent. The high fat and carbohydrate rates contribute to the nuts sweet, fatty taste.

The cashew grown here is unique thanks to the provinces geographical features which are suitable for growing the crop and the accumulated experience of locals in planting, caring for and harvesting it.

The province, dubbed the countrys cashew capital, now has more than 134,000ha under the nut and produces around 150,000 tonnes annually.

It has 200 companies and 400 small businesses specialising in cashew processing.

The province has 75,000 households, mostly ethnic minority, whose main income comes from cashew.

The Government plans to make Binh Phuoc the countrys main cashew-growing area by expanding the area under the crop to 200,000ha by 2020 and building a national brand for the nut.

The province exports cashew products to 25 countries and territories.VNS
Viet Nam are set to begin exporting rambutans to New Zealand after years of trade negotiations between the two countries. Photo gocom.vn

HA NOI  Viet Nam are set to begin exporting rambutans to New Zealand after seven years of trade negotiations between the two countries.

The move comes after a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue and senior officials from the government of New Zealand in July of last year during Hues official working visit to the country.

The information will be announced today in Ha Noi, and is expected to boost bilateral co-operation opportunities in the fruit growing sector, reports baodautu.vn.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments plant protection department, Viet Nam currently grows three varieties of rambutan. These are java, Thai and nhan rambutans. Nhan rambutans are smaller than other varieties and are considered to have the best taste among rambutan varieties.

The fruit is mainly grown in the southern provinces, with a total area of more than 50,000 ha dedicated to rambutan growing, supplying roughly 300,000 tonnes of the fruit per year.

A report from the Vietnam Commerce Office in New Zealand showed that the annual exports of rambutans from Viet Nam are modest. The countrys turnover from fresh fruit exports have not been stable, and have much untapped potential.

New Zealand only allows imports of goods that pass the countrys risk analysis, their health standards are also among the strictest in the world. The number of items considered annually for import by the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) are relatively limited in comparison to other countries.

Currently, Viet Nam exports just two fresh fruit items to New Zealand: mango and dragon fruit. Vietnamese rambutans passed the countrys import risk assessment in 2014.

The new "passport" for Vietnamese rambutan to New Zealand will contribute to the increased export turnover of vegetables and fruits from Viet Nam in the coming years. In 2017 the countrys turnover from exporting fruits and vegetables reached over $3.5 billion, up by 40 per cent from previous years. In the first quarter of this year, the countrys exports of fruit and vegetables valued $950 million, a 35.6 per cent increase from the same period last year.

Vietnamese rambutan has been exported to the US, Canada, and the EU, as well as the Middle East, Africa, China and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.

According to international regulations on imports of fresh fruit, rambutans must meet strict criteria before being considered by importers. Currently, each country has its own criteria for imported fruit, so businesses must comply with the quarantine standards of the importing country.  VNS
BA RIA  VUNG TAU  The Vung Tau Province Peoples Committee is working with the non-profit Startup Viet Nam Foundation (SVF) to support new business and boost economic growth in the province.

During a conference on startups attended by officials and businesses late last week, the two parties signed an agreement to promote financial aid and other investment channels, and to enhance networking between investors and customers.

The Peoples Committee and SVF plan to devote resources to counselling and managerial training programmes, and build a network of investors to aid startups.

Nguyen Thanh Long, deputy chairman of the committee, said the province was already seeing numerous ambitious and innovative start-ups.

He asked departments, organisations and businesses to keep track of startup needs and assist them as much as possible.

Startup support policies are part of the provinces plan to develop an innovative startup community that uses the provinces indigenous ingredients (Made in Ba Ria  Vung Tau products) and demonstrates their quality to other regions in Viet Nam.

Some companies in the province have become famous for promoting Made in Ba Ria  Vung Tau ingredients, such as Forny Ltd, a Vung Tau company that produces honey and turmeric powder whose products are now sold at pharmacies all over Viet Nam.

The company was among the first in the province to produce turmeric powder after conducting lengthy research on technologies, material purchases and production chains.

The company Amazon Food Ltd is also well known for producing cocoa products that use only ingredients from Ba Ria  Vung Tau, which has contributed to their reputation in Viet Nam as well as Japan.  VNS
Domestic sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa Joint Stock Company has announced it will buy back more than 83.5 million shares as treasury stocks. Photo vietnambiz.vn

HA NOI  Domestic sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa Joint Stock Company has announced it will buy back more than 83.5 million shares as treasury stocks.

The company will buy the shares through order-matching transactions between April 18 and May 17.

It will buy those shares based on the firms share price levels but the price levels will not exceed VN30,000 (US$1.33) per share.

The company is not holding any treasury shares, the HCM Stock Exchange said in a statement. The targeted buyback shares are equal to 15 per cent of the companys total outstanding shares on the stock market.

Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa JSC is trading more than 557 million shares on the HCM Stock Exchange with code SBT.

Its shares closed flat on Monday at VN18,050 per share, up a total of 5.5 per cent from its three-month low of VN17,100 per share hit on March 29.

SBT shares have fallen sharply by 56.6 per cent from their record high of VN41,650 per share on August 2, 2017 and by nearly 26 per cent from the six-month high of VN24,350 per share made on January 11, 2018.

SBT and other sugar producers have underperformed on the stock market since the beginning of the year as they have suffered from trade agreement threats and the sharp decline of sugar prices.

The price of sugar was down nearly 0.1 per cent on Monday to trade at 12.33 US cents a pound ($27.2 cents a kilogramme), data on Bloomberg showed.

The sugar price has almost lost a fifth of its one-year high price of 15.33 cents a pound hit on January 2. Due to a surplus on the global market, last month was volatile as it peaked at 12.93 cents a pound on March 12.

Domestic producers will have to compete with sugar imports from other producers in the ASEAN region, especially after the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) took effect on January 1, 2018, allowing sugar imports in Viet Nam to be taxed only 5 per cent.

Other sugar stocks that have also witnessed a downtrend included Lam Son Sugar JSC (LSS), Son La Sugar JSC (SLS) and Kon Tum Sugar JSC (KTS).  VNS
Participants join a photo session at the 23rd meeting of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) Wireless Group (AWG-23) in a Nang yesterday.  VNS Photo Cong Thanh

A NANG  Viet Nam actively participated in forums and meetings of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) Wireless Group, and contributed possible recommendations on a harmonised frequency band plan for the 700 MHz band.

Director General of the Authority of Radio Frequency Management of Viet Nam (ARFM), oan Quang Hoan told Viet Nam News at the 23rd meeting of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) Wireless Group (AWG-23) in a Nang yesterday.

He said Viet Nam had joined the AWG early to propose initiatives among member countries in the Asia-Pacific region in planning frequency for new technology applications.

Hoan said AWGs frequency plans and recommendations over past years had been widely used not just in the local region, but on a global platform as well.

For example, APTs plan for the 700 MHz band, which was used for television technology, was then applied to broadband radio among European and African countries, Hoan said, adding that Viet Nam also joined the AWG in promoting the plan.

Viet Nam even took a role in researching radio frequency at AWG forums and discussions, and the country also hosted a series of key meetings of ATP with the participation of many representatives from regional countries.

Deputy minister of information and communications, Pham Hong Hai, said the outputs of AWG have effectively assisted APT members in using the radio frequency spectrum and deploying wireless networks.

Hai said the AWG recommendation on a harmonised frequency band plan for the 700 MHz band has been adopted by a huge number of countries in all regions of the world.

The demand of mobile communication can be seen through the continuing development of telecommunication and mobile internet infrastructure. The wireless applications and technologies such as ITS, wireless power transmission, railway radio communication system, and unmanned aircraft are emerging as well. It all requires policy makers to prepare relevant policies, and allocate additional spectrum resources and operators to prepare for this development, Hai said in the opening ceremony.

He also highly appreciated the key contribution of AWG to the growth of radio communications by developing the best practices and recommendations for the use of spectrum and harmonizing mobile broadband and emerging technologies.

Only by working together can we successfully promote the development and harmonization of wireless systems.

Secretary General of ATP, Areewan Haorangsi said the AWG-23 focus on assisting APT members to improve spectrum management practices to mitigate digital infrastructure constraint relating to the use of spectrum.

At the 14th Session of the General Assembly of the APT (GA-14) held in November last year, the Strategic Plan of the APT for of 2018-2020 was adopted which emphasises five strategic pillars and identifies a number of strategic actions to be implemented by all APT work programmes, Areewan Haorangsi said.

The new strategic plan of the APT has given a lot of emphasis on developing the digital infrastructure and harnessing the benefits of new technologies. The Strategic Plan focuses on increasing broadband penetration particularly reaching to the underserved and unserved population to ensure affordability and quality of service with improved speed and coverage, she said.

The secretary general added that the strategic plan has also given directions to APT to continue its effort to foster the development and adoption of the latest telecommunication technologies.

She stressed that AWG has always been active in developing numerous tangible outcomes in order to implement the previous Strategic Plans of APT.

Chairman of APT, Kohei Satoh said he hoped the AWG-23 would gain results during the five-day discussions among members.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, deputy manager of spectrum policy and planning office, under the ARFM, said Viet Nam will offer some initiatives and recommendations at the AWG-23 including smart traffic, and broadband use for new applications in mobile phones, internet and wireless routers.

Tuan said Viet Nam has benefited from positive co-operation among members of ATP and AWG as the country has witnessed booming internet use over the past decade.

Discussions and working sessions in frequency management, spectrum arrangement, additional spectrums available for 4G and many other emerging wireless technologies among ATP members will continue till April 13th. VNS
HA NOI  A campaign that promotes maintaining a sustainable lifestyle in urban environments was launched in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Titled #7 Day Challenge, it encourages participants to practise ways of eating, moving and living without causing damage to the environment over the course of a week.

The campaign aims to raise awareness on lifestyle choices and the impact of these choices on the environment.

It is run by the United Nations in Viet Nam in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden in Viet Nam and the Live & Learn environmental education organisation.

Each participant of the campaign chooses one or more sustainable actions to maintain over the seven-day period, such as eating homegrown vegetables, using bicycles instead of motorbikes or switching off lights when not using them.

Participants are encouraged to take photos of their efforts, upload them to their personal social media profile and use the hashtag #7DayChallengeVN so that the campaigns organisers can document their progress.

The campaign is divided into three periods: April 10-17, April 17-24 and April 24-30, 2018.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Kamal Malhotra, UN Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam, said the actions by the campaigns participants would help contribute to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially to four of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, and responsible consumption and production.

These goals sound ambitious, but if we  the 7 billion people on this planet  can eat, move and live sustainably, we will be creating the changes that will contribute to the achievement of these goals, he said.

It was necessary to have these sustainable efforts developed in Viet Nam since Ha Nois average level of air pollution in 2017 was four times in excess of the acceptable level of the World Health Organisation, and Viet Nam was among the five countries that contribute to 50 per cent of the plastic in the worlds oceans, he said.

o Van Nguyet, director of Live & Learn in Viet Nam, said she hoped the challenge would not end after seven days but would help participants develop new good habits.

I hope this is an experience that will leave participants concerned and worried [about environmental pollution], she said. Big changes will happen when they are able to turn their concerns into action.

Pham Khanh Phuong, a student from the Experimental Secondary School in Ha Noi, who learned about the challenge through her school, said "it is an interesting initiative that is good for the environment".

I will bike to school and refrain from littering in the next seven days, she said.  VNS
Mother-of-pearl porridge is among the specialties of Ha Noi

By Ha Nguyen

Nearly every Hanoian knows about the chao trai, or mother-of-pearl rice porridge, shop on the capitals Tran Xuan Soan Street. The porridge has been delighting locals with its rich and aromatic flavour for decades.

Owner Le Minh Hang set up the shop more than 30 years ago. She learned the traditional job from her grandmother.

Chao trai is although easy to cook, she said, but very few people know how to cook it well because doing so demands choosing fresh and fatty clams and quality rice.

Hang said her parents raised clams in her native village in Thuong Tin District, about 30km from Ha Noi centre, to supply her and her five sisters, who also sell the porridge.

The process of cleaning and frying the clam is also important. My grandmother taught me that we have to carefully watch the boiled clam to prevent it from becoming too tough. The clam should be fried with dried onions and then poured into a bowl over the rice porridge, said Hang, noting that she often serves extra to customers who want more claim meat.

Abundant: A big bowl of fried clams to be eaten with rice porridge.

When Hang sits at her post in the chao trai shop, shes surrounded by a big basket of pieces of quay (youtiao) or bread sticks, fresh onions cut into pieces, rau ram (fragrant knotweed or laksa leaves), fried onions and fried clam, ready for customers.

Each bowl of chao trai costs about VN30,000double that of many others in the city. We cook the meal in the traditional way and our porridge is of high quality because its made with organic clams raised by my family.

Despite the price, Hangs chao trai is a best-seller in the capital city.

To cook tasty porridge for legions of devoted customers, Hang has to wake up early every morning. I only hire a few assistants to help me serve my customers. Ive worked very hard year round every day over the last 30 years, except the three days of Tet each year. Winter is my busiest season because diners, including foreign tourists, enjoy warming up over a bowl of the signature dish.

Great combination: Quay (youtiao)is much tastier when eaten with chao trai.

Nguyen Thi Hanh, 45, a regular porridge customer, told me that she has been addicted to Hangs chao trai since she was a girl. Although my house is rather far from the shop I still come to eat the porridge every morning. If I dont, I crave it very much.

Hanh said the shop is always crowded, so she often has to stand in a long queue.

Eating the porridge with the breadsticks in winter is much more enjoyable because it helps to warm up the body and it makes me feel healthy as I begin a new working day.

Health effects of chao trai

Scientists affirm Hanhs sense that the dish is good for health. Herbalist Nguyen Huong from the National Hospital of Traditional Medicines said clam is rich in protein, calcium, phosphate and a number of vitamins such as B1, B2, Niacin, C and zinc.

According to traditional medicine practices, the clam meat helps to cool down heat inside the body and reduce hypertension, liver inflammation and childrens night sweats, Huong said.

Those people facing regular high cholesterol and headaches should eat chao trai with wood ears and fragrant mushroom. And the food is also very good for patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and diabetes, he said.

Capital delight: Chao trai is among the specialties of Ha Noi. Photos monngonhanoi.com

A young mother named Trieu Thu Huong in Ha Nois Hai Ba Trung District said her 6-year-old boy has recovered from night sweats, which made him damp all day and night, particularly in summer. He looked pale and weak.

My son had faced the ailment since he was a little boy. Although Ive heard about the remedy for a long time, my son was still too small to eat clams until last year. Then, every day I went to buy the porridge at Hangs shop and sometimes I tried to cook the food at home and persuaded him to eat the food for almost six months. Finally, my efforts paid off, and my sons night sweats reduced significantly, Huong said.  VNS
HCM CITY  Fashion designer Nguyen Cong Tri will present his latest collection at the four-day Viet Nam International Fashion Spring-Summer Week 2018 (VIFWS 2018) in HCM City on April 19.

Tri, a graduate of the HCM City University of Architectures industrial arts faculty, is a member of the Asian Couture Federation (ACF). He participated in Tokyo Fashion Week 2016 and 2017.

He has also taken part in leading fashion events at home and abroad, including Viet Nam Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, Origin Passion and Belief Fair in Vicenza, Italy.

He has also performed as a judge in Vietnamese versions of international TV reality shows like Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance.

His shops have about 60 designs, mostly elegant and eye-catching pieces in high-quality silk, cotton and wool, as well as accessories. He designs a new collection every season.

Tri has a staff of more than 50, including sellers and seamstresses who work for his two shops in districts 1 and 3.

At the four-day event VIFWS 2018, Tri will join 30 other foreign and Vietnamese fashion designers and brandname labels.

Featured designers include Ha Linh Thu of Ha Noi, Phuong My of HCM City, Amis Ananda of Singapore, Idan Laros, Hili Ari and Dana Cohen of Israel, and Weill of France. Maison Gattinoni, a luxury fashion brand from Italy, will also be featured.

The VIFWS 2018 will include more than 100 items to be worn by dozens of fashion models from Ha Noi and HCM City.

New collections by Vietnamese brandnames such as Phoenix-V and CANIFA will also be highlighted.

Organised by Multimedia JSC, a leading agency for modeling and TV reality show production, the event this year is expected to help develop the local industry. Forums and talks on fashion and design will also be held.

The event is expected to attract 30,000 visitors. It will begin at 8pm on April 19 at the Nguyen Du Gymnasium on 116 Nguyen Du Street in District 1. VNS
HA NOI  A traditional Vietnamese long dress contest will be organised in Prague, Czech Republic, in mid June.

The event will be hosted by the Union of Vietnamese People in Europe and the Viet Nam Culture and Arts Association in the Czech Republic, as well as the Vietnamese Womens Association in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Germany.

The contestants will participate in three rounds: party dresses, ao dai (traditional Vietnamese long dresses) and reformed ao dai. The organisers will award eight main prizes and 12 additional prizes.

The event will be considered a playground for Vietnamese women in Europe and a chance to promote the beauty of ao dai among the European people.  VNS
THAI BINH  A man has been jailed for 13 years for attempting to overthrow the government.

The Peoples Court of northern Thai Binh Province sentenced Nguyen Van Tuc for attempting to overthrow the peoples administration under Clause 1, Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code at the first-instance trial today.

The 54-year-old man, a resident in Thai Binhs ong Hung District, will also be under probation for five years after he completes the prison term.

According to the indictment by the provincial Peoples Procuracy, Nguyen Van Tuc has been recruited by foreign and domestic reactionary elements to join several organisations, for example, ang dan chu 21 (Democratic party 21), Hoi dan oan (Association for victims of injustice), Nhom dan chu (Democratic group), and Khoi 8406 (Bloc 8406) since 2006. Tuc also received financial support and spiritual encouragement to become a leader responsible for recruiting members.

In December 2007, Tuc took part in demonstrations in Ha Noi, then wrote and published stories containing wrong information on the internet. In 2008, he and some others distributed anti-State propaganda leaflets in Hai Phong and Hai Duong.

Tuc was taken into custody by the police on September 10, 2008 and prosecuted on the charge of conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Later, the Supreme Peoples Court in Ha Noi sentenced Tuc to four years in prison and another three years under probation.

After his release, he returned to his hometown to serve the three-years probation in 2012.

But he did not abide by the sentence and continued his anti-government activities by joining Viet Tan, a terrorist organisation, assuming the role as a member of the "anti-corruption advisory committee".

In February 2014, Tuc took part in the Hoi anh em dan chu (Brotherhood for Democracy) which was a reactionary organisation involving in illegal activities aiming to eliminate the leadership of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and overthrow the peoples administration. In this organisation, Tuc used to serve as deputy chief of the representative committee in northern Viet Nam and first vice president.

At the trial today, the court said Tucs acts directly threatened national security.  VNS
HCM CITY  Ninety per cent of high-rise buildings in Viet Nam have failed to integrate energy efficiency into their design and operations, causing enormous wastage, especially with the number of such buildings growing by 67 per cent a year.

According to a recent study, Viet Nams five biggest cities have 1,500 high-rise buildings with an area of over 2,500sq.m each, while the energy consumption by high-rise building accounts for 3540 per cent of the countrys total.

Vietnamese cities are facing serious pollution due to transportation, construction and daily activities, Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper quoted Kazuhiro Matsushita, general director of Panasonic Viet Nam, as saying.

Use of environment-friendly technologies in high-rise buildings is an urgent need to reduce pollution.

Nguyen Cong Thinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Constructions Science, Technology and Environment Department, said: Industry and construction use the most energy. The more the economy develops, the greater the demand for energy.

But it would not be possible to keep providing energy indefinitely, he warned.

The urgent task now is calling for better and effective use of energy. Along with energy efficiency during production, energy saving in high-rise buildings like offices, shopping malls, hotels will help reduce the pressure on the power grid.

Experts said besides using better technologies, high-rise buildings should be designed based on natural conditions to get light and fresh air, and all equipment that are not being used should be turned off.

An official from the HCM City Department of Science and Technology said most recent high-rise buildings have not been designed based on Vietnamese conditions, pointing out for example that many of them have glass facades and lack windows that can open to take in fresh air.

Applying Vietnamese standard QCVN 09:2013/BXD with windows that can open and heatproof materials will help cut energy consumption by 1436 per cent, Thinh said.

The Ministry of Construction encourages high-rise buildings to incorporate green technologies in their design.  VNS
HA NOI  The Viet Nam Administration of Forestry (VAF) has urged localities nationwide to take drastic measures to prevent and control forest fires, given the hot and dry weather in the country.

Several localities were issued the highest level of alert, according to the VAF. Forest fires have been recorded in a number of localities such as Binh Thuan, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Lai Chau, ien Bien and Hai Phong.

A huge forest fire suddenly occurred in the Ta Cu Mountain Nature Reserve in south central Binh Thuan Province on Saturday evening. More than 30ha of forests were completely destroyed before the flames were extinguished at around 4am on Sunday.

More than 100 local people and rescuers attended the scene to actively participate in forest fire prevention and control the blaze; however, they suffered difficulties accessing the site due to powerful sustainable winds.

In an urgent message sent to localities on Sunday, the VAF asked authorities at the grassroot levels to promote communication works on firefighting among the residents, while keeping forces ready round the clock to combat fires.

Roles must be assigned to members of all-level steering boards of the national target programme on sustainable forestry development to enhance inspections. Meanwhile, military and police forces were ordered to stand ready to offer assistance in case of fires.

Forest ranger teams should work with peoples committees to direct and examine efforts to prevent forest fires, while forest owners are responsible for upgrading the firefighting facilities.

Localities must monitor forest fire warnings on the forest protection departments website: kiemlam.org.vn, and any forest fire should be reported to the forest protection department under the VAF at 098 666 8333.

Officers from Forest Ranger Division in Than Uyen District, northern province of Lai Chau help local residents make preparations to avoid the spread of forest fires.  VNA/VNS Photo Viet Hoang

The southernmost province of Ca Mau has reported that prolonged hot weather had exposed many areas in the locality to high risk of forest fire. The province has around 30,000ha out of the 43,000ha of cajuput forests that are at high risk of catching fire, according to Head of the provincial Forest Management Department Le Van Hai.

Meanwhile, water reserves and water resources from lakes and rivers have dried out due to hot weather, posing challenges to fire prevention and control, he said.

Local authorities have mobilised 500 people, including forest rangers and forest owners, to go on patrols and check forests round the clock, he said. The department has also co-ordinated with local authorities to organise campaigns to raise public awareness about forest fire prevention and control.

The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has seven areas that face fire risks  the U Minh Thuong National Park, Phu Quoc National Park, Phu Quoc protective forest, Hon atKien Ha protective forest, An BienAn Minh coastal protective forest, and a forest managed by the 422 Forestry Plantation Project.

The provincial Peoples Committee has issued orders to strengthen the fire prevention measures. Kien Giang has 86,450ha of zoned forests, accounting for 13.6 per cent of its total area, according to its forest protection sub-department.

It has spent more than VN10 billion (US$440,000) on preparations to prevent forest fires this year.

The dry season started from March in the Central Highlands and the southern provinces.

Annually, the northern and central provinces are often hit by some 12 hot spells. This year, it is forecast that fewer hot drives will occur, and they will only last for a few days. However, it is likely that a hot spell, as severe as that in 2017, will hit Viet Nam, according to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Centre.

In the 2017 summer season, Viet Nam was hit by 15 hot spells on a large scale. In some localities, the temperature was recorded upwards of 41 to 42 degrees centigrade.  VNS
NINH THUAN  Agriculture deputy minister Hoang Van Thang yesterday flew to Ninh Thuan Province following reports of sheep dying en masse from drought.

Bac Ai District, where sheep and the farmers were hit the hardest, was still in the process of determining the exact death toll, but there have been separate reports from residents that could total the number of sheep deaths in the hundreds.

Severe drought since March drained lakes and reservoirs, leaving cracked flat beds of clay and no grass. The sheep consequently died from thirst and starvation.

Pa No works for arguably the biggest sheep farm in Bac Ais ong Day Village which raised more than 1,000 sheep. His duty is to look after the animals, herding them dozens of kilometres through the dying forest to the neighbouring Ninh Son District where the Cai Phan Rang River flows by in hope of finding some water and grass for the flock.

Its just the beginning of the dry season but some hundred have died, he told the Nhan Dan (People) newspaper.

(It was) a shortage of water and food. There were times when four or five died on the same day. I darent tell the farm owner as every time he heard the sheep die, he was very sad.

A farm owner Nguyen Van Bay in the same village said that he used to have nearly 300 sheep, but now was left with just 130.

Many of Bays mother sheep died from exhaustion just days after birthing baby lambs due to a lack of water and food, he said, while the lamb would also starve to death without its mothers milk.

I dont know what to do now, he said. A female sheep used to cost between two to three million ong (US$80-130), but now is only VN600,000. Still no one is buying as there is no water and food to raise it.

According to Ninh Thuan authorities, nine out of 21 reservoirs across the province were seriously short of water. One had a completely dry bed while the other eight had less than 0.5 million cubic metres for the next six months of the dry season.

Deputy director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Phan Quang Thuu told Vietnam News Agency that authorities asked the irrigation agency to prioritise saving water for animals, while also recommending residents herd their flocks to lowlands for a better chance of finding clean water and grass.

Fears were spreading among residents that the historic drought in 2015 would repeat this year. The harshest drought in more than two decades caused a water shortage affecting more than 50,000 people, while 16,500ha of crops were abandoned and more than 1,300 farm animals died.  VNS
HA NOI Mobile subscribers may have their SIM cards deactivated if they fail to submit profile photos following a new regulation.

Decree 49, issued last year, stipulates that by April 24, 2018, all mobile subscriptions activated before April 24, 2017 have to be registered with accurate information of owners including name, identification number and a profile picture. If they fail to register, the providers will block incoming calls after 15 days and stop providing services in the next 15 days.

Viettel said that their only strategy for encouraging customers to comply with the regulation was providing sufficient information. Though the regulation requires companies to start the clock towards cutting off services on April 24, Viettel has not indicated when it will begin ending service for noncompliant customers, leaving the door open to extensions after April 24.

Meanwhile, other mobile carriers, Vinaphone and Mobifone, have not provided any further information on the issue.

Le Thi Kim, a Viettel customer in HCM City, told Thanh nien (Young people) newspaper that she was surprised to hear the information. She has subscribed for 12 years and signed up with all information indicated on her identification card.

Nguyen Van Trung, another subscriber, is in the same situation.

I have to go to a Viettel store to take a headshot as they may stop providing services if my personal information is not sufficient. Such a waste of time, he said.

Weighty responsibilities

By the end of March, there were 118.7 million mobile subscriptions in Viet Nam, according to the General Statistics Office. Its common for customers to lack profile photos as the decree was only issued last year.

Nguyen Ngoc Son, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Law under Ton uc Thang University, doubts the ability of mobile carriers to protect personal privacy for millions of subscribers. According to him, the policy has not received much approval from customers. At present, all personal information of a person is printed on their identification card. Therefore, police can provide the State management agencies with access to citizens information using a provided identification number.

It will be a real danger to users if a data breach happens as their information will be exposed. I wonder if mobile carriers responsibilities are clearly regulated and if customers can ask for compensations in case their information is leaked. Therefore, the responsibilities of stakeholders are also in need of regulating, he said.

Vo o Thang, a cyber security expert, emphasised that besides tightening the management on mobile subscriptions, policies to protect customers against information leaks needed to be adopted.

I do not know whether the regulation of customers headshot submission will create positive impacts, however, it will definitely push up the social cost, he said.

In November 2016, Ministry of Information and Communications asked mobile carriers to withdraw SIM cards which are activated before being sold and registered with information incompatible with users.

People usually buy this type of SIM cards to enjoy promotions for a short period of time.

According to the MIC, those SIM cards impose the threats of fake news, fraud or even terrorism as people with bad and wrong views can use them to spread bad and wrong information. VNS
PHU THO  The northern Phu Tho province Polices Investigation Security Agency has ordered legal proceedings against some people for their alleged involvement in a case of online gambling, announced the Ministry of Public Security on Monday.

This is part of the ministrys crackdown on using the internet to appropriate assets, organise gambling, gamble, illegally trade invoices and launder money in Phu Tho province and some other provinces and cities.

According to the decision, Chau Nguyen Anh and Pham Quang Minh will be prosecuted for organising gambling under Article 249 of the 1999 Penal Code and for illegally trading invoices under Article 203 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Anh is the CEO of VNPT ePAY, a leader in Viet Nam in providing electronic payment services, such as prepaid cards, SMS and online games banking, while Minh is the companys Sales Director.

The same criminal proceedings were also initiated against Le Anh Tuan, director of TNC Technology JSC. Tuan was born in 1983 and lives in Ha Nois Ha ong District. He has been banned from travelling outside of his residential area.

On Monday, the agency searched the workplaces of all the accused to collect documents, objects, equipment and electronic data related to the case.

The probe initially found that the money paid via legal and illegal payment gateways in the online gambling case exceeded VN9.58 trillion (some US$422 million), including more than VN9.29 trillion via pre-paid telecom cards and game cards, accounting for 97 per cent of the total money involved. Some VN5.6 trillion ($246.4 million) was paid in cash or sent via bank transfers.

In relation to this case, on March 11, the agency detained and started proceedings against Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former Major General and former director of the Ministry of Public Securitys police department for high-tech crimes, for organising the gamble.

Last Friday, Phan Van Vinh, former Lieutenant General and former Director General of the ministrys Police General Department was prosecuted on the charge of abusing position and power while performing duties.

The investigation agency has so far started legal proceedings against nearly 90 persons for their involvement in the case.

Further investigation is underway.  VNS
HCM CITY -- All high-speed composite ferries operating on the Bach ang  Can Gio - Vung Tau route will undergo inspection and vessel verification following a ferry accident on April 8, according to the owner of the Greenlines ferry service.

A high-speed Greenlines DP C3 ferry, which began operating in April 2016, sank near the Tac Suat Wharf in Can Gio District on April 8. All high-speed ferry services were suspended after the ferry accident.

Tran Song Hai, director of the Greenlines DP company, said the possible cause was a gearbox failure in the ferrys engine, causing water to flow into the cabin.

Hai said that all high-speed composite ferries would be inspected before resuming operation...

The Greenlines high-speed ferries DP C4 and DP C5 have also suspended service. All of the high-speed ferries are new vessels that are periodically maintained, he said.

Tran Quang Lam, the deputy director of the citys Department of Transport, said the Greenlines DP Company had promptly dealt with the accident and avoided an oil spill incident. Forty-two passengers aboard were able to safely disembark.

The ferry that sank on Sunday morning was lifted out of the sea on the afternoon of the same day for further investigation.

The accident occurred around 8:30am on Sunday as the ferry was travelling from Vung Tau to Tac Suat terminal in HCM Citys Can Gio District.

The captain discovered that the gearbox was malfunctioning when the ferry was about 300 metres from the terminal.

After the crew noticed that water was quickly flowing into the cabin, the captain and crew immediately docked the ferry at the Tac Suat terminal and evacuated all 42 passengers safely.

The company contacted the local centre for search and rescue, as well as the sea police force, to salvage the ferry.

The 42 passengers were transferred to another high-speed ferry to continue their trip to HCM City. .VNS.
IDLIB  A huge blast killed at least 13 civilians in Syrias northwestern militant-held city of Idlib on Monday, a monitor said, as an AFP reporter said it wrecked a multi-storey building.

The explosion of unknown origin also wounded 80 others, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The group, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information, said the death toll was likely to rise as several of the wounded were in serious condition and many others were trapped under the rubble.

The death toll rose to 13 civilians from an initial tally of 11 after the bodies of two more were retrieved from the debris, the Observatory said. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw a bulldozer in the dark near the collapsed multi-storey building, as rescue workers searched for victims using lamps.

Idlib city is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group led by Syrias former al-Qaeda affiliate. Held by an array of militants and rebels, the surrounding province of the same name is the last in Syria largely beyond government control.  AFP
By The Associated Press Apr. 09, 2018 | 11:05 AM | FRANKFORT, KY

Kentucky's Republican governor has vetoed the state's two-year operating budget and a corresponding tax increase .Bevin signed the vetoes Monday afternoon a few hours after announcing his intention in a news conference.Bevin's veto message says the spending plan is not balanced because it would spend roughly $50 million more than the state is projected to collect in revenue from the new taxes. He also criticized lawmakers for agreeing to spend $600 million more than he initially proposed. He said the plan ignores fiscal reality.Republican lawmakers said Bevin is misguided. They asked to meet with him before he signed the veto. It's unclear if that happened.Lawmakers could override Bevin's vetoes on Friday.

Reaction to the Governor's veto has been mixed:The Kentucky Education Association (KEA) said they are "profoundly disappointed," and the veto is "one more example of his blatant disrespect for Kentuckys public employees." While agreeing with Bevin that the bills aren't perfect, the KEA maintains that Bevin should sign both bills and then begin working with both parties in discussions "aimed at finding new solutions to the revenue challenges facing the Commonwealth."The National Federation of Independent Businesses released a statement from their Kentucky office praising the veto. NFIB State Director Tom Underwood said the bill "included a devastating sales tax on services. That service tax would make it more expensive for small businesses to operate in Kentucky." The NFIB encouraged legislators to let the veto stand, and "find solutions that would strengthen Kentuckys economy for our entrepreneurs."Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Rocky Adkins and Senate Democratic Leader Ray Jones said, These vetoes confirm the House and Senate Democrats concerns that the budget and revenue plan are wrong for Kentucky and irresponsible." They also urged the Governor to veto Senate Bill 151, the sewage/pension bill, saying, "When decisions are made behind closed doors and legislation is not transparently vetted, these are the unintended consequences that result.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said, "Kentucky needs tax reform, but it should not come at the expense of small businesses and hardworking Kentuckians." In a press release, Grimes said she met with small business owners who expressed concern about how the bill will impact them and their customers. She urged the General Assembly to go back to the drawing board and present a plan that does not disadvantage small businesses and most hardworking Kentuckians.
SS Rajamoulis magnum opus, Baahubali The Conclusion, released last year on April 28 and went on to become the all-time highest grossing movie in India. Baahubali 2 has grossed over Rs 1,650 crore across the globe. On December 29 last year, Baahubali 2 released in Japan and the response has been quite emphatic.

On Sunday, Baahubali 2 completed its 100-day journey in the Land of the Rising Sun. The film has grossed over $1.3 million in Japan. However, more than the box-office collections, its the love and adulation the film has been receiving from the Japanese audiences since day one that makes Baahubali 2s Japan release more memorable. The film is gearing up for a grand release in China very soon.









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Bharath Ane Nenu is one film which everyone is waiting for quite eagerly. The film is up for a release on the 20th of this month and the latest we hear is that it is releasing in close to 40 locations in Australia.

This makes the film the biggest ever Telugu release in the country. There is a superb craze for this film all over the world and special premieres are being held in a grand way on the 9th of this month.

Back home, the film is also gearing up for a massive release and Mahesh will soon start the promotions of the film on a grand note. Koratala Shiva directs this film which has Kiara Advani as the female lead. DSP scores music.









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Apr 10, 2018 | By David

Weve reported before on NASAs exciting CubeSat initiative, which sees groups of students participating in the launching of miniature cube satellites into outer space. Teams from universities and educational institutions all over the U.S. have been included in this initiative, and the next satellites are scheduled for launch in early 2019. Recently, NASA announced 11 more research groups that will be part of the ninth round of the program, including two groups from Cornell University. The Cornell students made use of 3D printing technology in their projects, which they have named PAN (Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation) and Alpha.

(All images, source: Cornell CubeSat)

The NASA CubeSats are nano-satellites, and the smallest ones are supposed to measure about four inches on each side and weigh less than three pounds. This basic dimension is referred to as U, and other, larger CubeSats are measured according to it. Cornells 3D printed project, PAN, is 2x ''3U''s. They are designed to autonomously rendez-vous and dock in low-Earth orbit. The function of the PAN mission is to demonstrate the potential of the technology and to lower the barrier of entry to complex space missions, encouraging other small research labs with limited funding to have a go. The teams satellites will also be participating in the Lunar Derby competition, with a potential prize purse of $5 million.

The CubeSats will be launched from NASAs newest rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is due to send an unmanned Orion spacecraft into deep space in 2019. More CubeSats are planned for launch in 2020 and 2021. The CubeSat Launch Initiative, which started back in 2014, has so far selected 158 nano-satellites from 39 states, and launched 59 separate missions. Other selections in this ninth round include projects from UC Davis and MIT, as well as the first-ever selections from Puerto Rico and the University of Kansas.

Cornells student group refers to itself as the Cislunar Explorers, and is headed by Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. ''We are thrilled and really grateful, and even more, I think its important for NASA to be inspiring the nation with these opportunities'', he said. ''In many respects, it levels the playing field, democratizes access to space. This is NASA saying, 'You, too, can participate in space exploration'.''

3D printing technology enabled the team to put together a satellite propulsion system for much cheaper than would otherwise have been possible. According to Stewart Aslan, the project lead of PAN, ''Other small satellite altitude control systems with similar capabilities to ours generally cost close to $100,000 or more. We have driven that cost down to $2,500 for our mission.''

The team's satellite is made up of a number of commercially available hardware parts, as well as 3D printed components. A successful launch of PANs CubeSat in early 2019 could potentially be groundbreaking in terms of future implications for 3D printed satellite parts.

As for the Alpha team, their project also made use of a newly developed sail. The 1m x 1m light-sail is designed to work with the microsatellite so it will automatically unfold while in space. A light-sail is an extremely thin layer of Kapton, a very thermally stable film, that can be pushed through space by the radiation pressure generated by electromagnetic radiation. The light sail developed by the Alpha team will also contain four chip-satellites or ChipSats on each corner of the sail, which are an even smaller type of satellite than CubeSats.

According to project lead Liam Crotty, "Our chip-satellites allow for [localized] sensing of a very large region of space, since they can be distributed over a wide area. Furthermore, they are so cheap that they can be used more recklessly This is a new paradigm in space exploration."

The work is far from over, however, with much more testing and modifications required before the launch in just under a years time. The PAN team is focusing primarily on preparing their CubeSat for a variety of launch conditions. Every component must be tested over and over in many different situations to make sure that no matter what happens after launch, the spacecraft will function as intended, Aslan said.

As for the Alpha team, their main challenge is powering the crucial communications systems for their tiny satellites. ''We simply dont have much room for solar cells, so its hard to generate much power'', says project lead Liam Crotty. ''As a result, our radio transmissions are very weak and it takes a lot of processing power on the part of the receiver to hear the signal'' said Crotty. ''The team is working on technologies for improving the data rate by doing more sophisticated signal processing in the receiver stations.''

Posted in 3D Printing Application

Source: Cornell Sun

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Jason Daley in Smithsonian Magazine:

No matter how you feel about them, cockroaches are something special. Cut a few legs off a nymph, and they grow back. Leave a few cookie crumbs in the carpet, and the critters seem to instantly zero in on them. Expose them to fecal material, bacteria and other pathogens, homemade antibiotics will keep them healthy. On top of it all, they can eat just about anything, live in brutal conditions and laugh in the face of the toughest insecticides.

So what gives them these seeming superpowers? As Maggie Fox at NBC News reports, a new study suggests the answer is in their genes. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai sequenced the genome of the American cockroach, Periplaneta Americana, revealing a Swiss army knife-like set of genes that makes the insects uber adaptable.

It turns out that cockroaches have a massive genome; of the insects yet studied, the cockroach is second only to the locust. The genes of the American cockroachwhich isnt really American: it was likely transported to the Americas from Africa as early as 1625is more closely related to termites than to the German cockroach, another major house pest that had its genome sequenced earlier this year. Thats not surprising, since termites turn out to be eusocial cockroaches and were moved into the same order as roaches earlier this year.

GenomeWeb reports that 60 percent of the cockroachs genome contains repetitive elements. But it also includes 21,336 protein-encoding genes, 95 percent of which actually produce proteins. Many of those genes give cockroaches the tools to survive in urban environments.

More here.
Heidi Ledford in Nature:

A landmark cancer drug approved last year seemed to herald a long-anticipated change in the treatment of some tumours: with medicines selected on the basis of molecular markers, rather than the tissue in which the cancer first took root. But clinicians and researchers are struggling to put that theory into practice. Although the drug itself works well in a variety of tumour types, some of the tests used to identify the molecular markers, it turns out, do not. On 15 April at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois, researchers and representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will discuss how best to tackle the situation. If you get a false negative result, youre not going to give that patient the therapy, which is terrible, says Zsofia Stadler, an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Thats why theres such a debate. The drug in question, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), works by firing up the bodys immune responses against tumours. First approved by the FDA in 2014 to treat melanoma, it has since been given the go-ahead to treat a handful of other cancers, including lung cancer. But last year, researchers reported that patients whose tumours had a disabled DNA-repair system also responded to the drug, regardless of where the tumour originated1. Damaged DNA can yield mutant proteins, which the immune system could target as potential invaders. Scientists think this increases the chances that immune cells unleashed by pembrolizumab will find and attack the tumour.

Mixed results

In May 2017, the FDA allowed pharmaceutical giant Merck of Kenilworth, New Jersey, to market pembrolizumab to people with advanced-stage cancer who had any solid tumour with that particular DNA-repair defect. This is absolutely a breakthrough approval, says Razelle Kurzrock, an oncologist at the University of California, San Diego. We have seen some dramatic responses in our patients. But the three kinds of tests commonly used to look for the DNA damage that arises from that defect can produce conflicting results, says Heather Hampel, a genetic counsellor at Ohio State University in Columbus. One relies on PCR, a process that amplifies specific regions of the genome; a second looks for certain proteins; and a third relies on DNA sequencing. Which is the best? Is any positive on any test sufficient? Hampel says. Does that mean you should try them all? No one wants to miss a patient who might benefit from pembrolizumab.

More here.
Stephanie Russell-Kraft in The New Republic:

When Marc Lepine murdered 14 women at Montreals Ecole Polytechnique in 1989, he claimed that he was fighting feminism. When Anders Breivik murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, he was in large part motivated by his hatred of feminism, which he considered a poison and threat to the future of European men. And when Elliot Rodger killed six people in Isla Vista, California, in 2014, he said he did it to punish young women for rejecting him and sleeping with other men instead.

These massacres were painted as the acts of lone mad men, but they have a clear common thread: a desire to dominate women and a conviction that society oppresses men in favor of women. Those misogynistic beliefs, so depressingly familiar and widespread, have hardened into a more distinct force in recent years, and have been fueled by the election of Donald Trump and the resurrection of white supremacist groups in American political life.

In February, the Southern Poverty Law Center added two male supremacist websites to its list of hate groups, for the first time categorizing male supremacy as an explicit ideology of hate. The ideology of male supremacy, according to the SPLC, represents all women as genetically inferior, manipulative, and stupid beings who exist primarily for their reproductive and sexual functions. Gender-essentializing male supremacists rely on cherry-picked science and anthropology to bolster their claims that men are inherently dominant. Not only do women owe men sex, they believe, but men are entitled to take it from them.

More here.
The 79th CMEF will attract hundred thousands of visitors and over thousands of exhibitors will display their excellent or latest products on the spot. This time, Airwheel will take this opportunity to let more visitor know its smart electric wheelchairs.

Have interest and click the website to consult:

http://lr.zoosnet.net/LR/Chatpre.aspx?id=LEF97767077&lng=en

The China International Medicinal Equipment Fair (CMEF) widely covers 15,000 products such as medical imaging, IVD, electronics, optics, first aid, rehabilitation nursing, medical IT and outsourcing services, and it serves the entire value chain of medical devices from the source to the end in a direct and all-round way. It is the first time for Airwheel mars rover to attend the CMEF, mainly because it has launched several smart power chairs for the weak and for those who lack sufficient mobility, strength, or dexterity in legs.

The 79th CMEF will start on Apr. 11 and last to 14, 2018 and it locates National Exhibition and Convention Center (No.333 Songze Avenue, Shanghai). Available in various sizes, styles, and models, Airwheels intelligent personal transportation devices are engineered to match the needs of the modern consumer. This time, Airwheel will bring its latest achievements for visitors to test it, like the electric wheelchairs. Welcome to say hello to us at booth 4B10, Hall 4.1.

Airwheel smart wheelchair is symbolic of Airwheel new technology. Airwheel H8 is famous for its convenience with the large storage box. H3S is featuring automatic folding system, App remote control and retractable mini table and more. A6S and A6T are self-balancing chairs with joystick controller and handlebar respectively. A6S requires two ways to control, one is pushing the joystick controller to turn left or right, the other is leaning forward or backward to go forward or backward. A6T has no joystick controller, but it installs a handlebar. Hence, it has similar riding ways like S3, changing the gravity center.

It is important to mention that, H3S Electric Wheelchair has installed a visual tracking camera that allow it to follow users, with the maximum speed 3.5km. The joystick controller not only makes the ride much easier, but also allows riders to change the following mode and riding mode. Learn more from at booth 4B10, Hall 4.1 at CEMF from Apr. 11 to 14, 2018.



Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/IprK1ZGYv0k

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According to the report, the global defoamers market was around 4100-kilo tons in 2015. The global defoamers market revenue accounted for approximately USD 2.8 Billion in 2015 and is expected to reach approximately USD 3.6 Billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of around 4.3% between 2016 and 2021.

Zion Market Research has published a new report titled Defoamers Market (Water Based, Silicone Based, Oil Based, and Others) Paper & Pulp, Paints & Coatings, Water Treatment, Food & Beverages, and Other End-user: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021. According to the report, the global defoamers market was around 4100-kilo tons in 2015. The global defoamers market revenue accounted for approximately USD 2.8 Billion in 2015 and is expected to reach approximately USD 3.6 Billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of around 4.3% between 2016 and 2021.

Defoamers help to reduce and hinder the formation of foam in industrial process liquids. Foam is a substance which is formed as a result of trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. Foam blocks the transfer of oxygen from air and hampers the flow of liquid. Thus, the formation of foam affects many industrial processes. Defoamers are insoluble in the foaming medium and have surface active properties. An essential feature of a defoamer product is a low viscosity and a facility to spread rapidly on foamy surfaces. Thus, the defoamer is used in multiple end-user industries where the formation of foam possesses the significant threat.

Request Free Sample copy of Research Report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/defoamers-market

Increasing demand from paper & pulp industry especially in Asia Pacific region is expected to drive the demand for the defoamers market during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing demand for food & beverages and paints & coatings end-user industries are some others factors driving the growth of global defoamers market. However, stringent regulations on VOC containing defoamers, and concerns regarding the health problems that they cause may curb the defoamers market in the near future. Nonetheless, growing demand for defoamers in Asia Pacific region is expected to open new avenues for the market over the years.

A silicone-based defoamer is one of the major types of defoamer used globally accounting for more than one-third of the global defoamers market share. While water-based defoamers are expected to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period. Paper & pulp industry dominated the global defoamers market share in 2015. Wastewater treatment is expected to be a second largest end-user industry for global defoamers market.

Browse the full Defoamers Market (Water Based, Silicone Based, Oil Based, and Others) Paper & Pulp, Paints & Coatings, Water Treatment, Food & Beverages, and Other End-user: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021 report at https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/defoamers-market

Asia-Pacific was the largest consumer of defoamers in 2015. Asia Pacific region accounted for more than 30% share of global defoamers market. China, India, and Japan were the major consumers of defoamers in Asia-Pacific in 2015. The Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest regional market for defoamers growth of various end-user industries, due to large consumption base, and lenient governmental regulations. Countries such as China, India, and Japan are predominantly contributing for the growth of defoamers in this region.

Europe followed Asia Pacific in terms of demand for defoamers globally. However, strict regulations concerned with use of VOC containing defoamers are impeding market growth in this region. Moreover, sluggish growth of paper & pulp industry in this region is expected to hamper the growth of defoamers market in this region.

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North America is expected to witness moderate growth. Saturation of market is expected to hamper growth rate in this region, however, technological advancements in coming years are expected to counter-attack the slow growth of the market in coming years. Latin America is expected to witness noticeable growth. Demand for defoamers in Brazil and Argentina is estimated to rise at a faster rate. The emergence of paper and pulp industry in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile is expected to boost the defoamers market in Latin America in coming years. While the defoamers market in the Middle East & Africa is estimated to expand at a slow growth rate.

Key players operating in the defoamers market include Wacker Chemie AG, Bluestar Silicones, Elementis plc, Clariant, KCC Basildon, BASF SE, Dow Corning Corporation, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Ashland, Inc., Kemira Oyj, and Evonik Industries AG among others.

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This report segments the global defoamers market as follows:

Global Defoamers Market: Product Segment Analysis

Water Based

Silicone Based

Oil Based

Others

Global Defoamers Market: End-user Segment Analysis

Paper & Pulp

Paints & Coatings

Water Treatment

Food & Beverages

Others

Global Defoamers Market: Regional Segment Analysis

North America The U.S.

Europe UK France Germany

Asia Pacific China Japan India

Latin America Brazil

The Middle East and Africa

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Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting-edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

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Joint Venture and Royalty Update

Perth, April 10, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Intermin Resources Limited ( ASX:IRC ) ("Intermin" or the "Company") provides the following joint venture (JV) update from Intermin's 100% owned JV project areas in Western Australia and Queensland (see Figures 1 and 2 in link below). In total, the JV project areas cover over 2,000km2 of prospective tenure and hosts mineralisation including gold, vanadium, molybdenum, copper, nickel, Platinum Group Elements (PGEs) and zinc. Joint venture partners can earn up to 65% - 75% after satisfying expenditure commitments of over A$20 million through to 2021 (see Note 1, 2 below).HIGHLIGHTS- Joint ventures in place covering 100% owned tenure in Western Australia and Queensland in multiple commodities including gold, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel, copper, cobalt, PGE's and zinc (see Note 1 below)- Eastern Goldfields ( ASX:EGS ) commences exploration drilling as part of the Menzies - Goongarrie Gold JV with results expected in the September Quarter 2018- Evolution Mining ( ASX:EVN ) withdraws from the Binduli Gold JV with 100% ownership reverting to Intermin and drilling commencing in the current June Quarter 2018- Mithril Resources ( ASX:MTH ) continues exploration at the Nanadie Well JV with current focus on copper at Nanadie Well and Stark, zinc at Sandman and gold at Kombi- Saracen Mineral Holdings ( ASX:SAR ) preparing to commence drilling at the Lehman's Gold JV with Intermin retaining a 10% free carried interest to a decision to mine- Intermin holds a A$0.50/t gold royalty over Norton Gold Fields Janet Ivy gold mine with expected cash inflow in 2018 of A$600,000 - A$700,000 (see Note 2 below)- AXF Vanadium Pty Ltd formally commits to expend the second stage expenditure on the Richmond vanadium JV of A$5 million by March 2021- Metallurgical testwork underway in China with initial results on Richmond vanadium ore pre-concentration expected in the current June Quarter 2018- Intermin retains an interest in all projects on satisfaction of earn-in terms providing shareholders with leverage to multi commodities across several regionsCommenting on the joint venture activity, Intermin Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:"Intermin's strategy of entering into joint ventures with well-credentialed partners for its non-core projects allows it to focus on its strategy of building a mid-tier gold business in the West Australian goldfields while giving shareholders exposure to active programs across a range of commodities.""The earn-in JVs enable the Company to focus on resource growth, new gold discoveries and building a sustainable gold production profile without the distraction or cost associated with the management and development of JV project areas.""We will continue to work with our JV partners on creating value in the coming years and participating in the successful commercial development as these projects advance."OverviewRichmond vanadium project JV (AXF Resources) (see Note 3 below)Intermin owns 100% in five Mineral Exploration Permits (EPM25163, EPM25164, EPM25258, EPM26425 and EPM26426) covering 481 Blocks near Richmond and 100% of the metal rights to Global Oil Shale Plc's Julia Creek (Burwood) MDL 522 (see Figure 3 in link below). The current Mineral Resource for Richmond is 2,579Mt grading 0.32% V2O5 at a 0.29% cut-off grade (see Note 3 below).As announced to the ASX on 19 September 2017, Intermin completed a formal Joint Venture agreement with AXF over the Richmond project. AXF brings considerable technical expertise to the project and has extensive business relationships throughout Southeast Asia.Details of the agreement between the parties include:- An earn-in Joint Venture whereby AXF can earn 25% of the project area by spending A$1m within a one year period and maintaining the project in good standing- AXF to solely contribute to further expenditure of A$5m on the projects to earn a further 50% over a three year period, inclusive of the completion of a Feasibility Study on part or all of the project area- During the sole funding period, AXF will manage the exploration program and tenure with direction from the JV committee comprising representatives from both parties- Upon AXF satisfying the earn-in terms, each party will contribute to ongoing expenditure in accordance with its respective percentagesAXF has now formally committed to the stage 2 expenditure commitment of A$5m over three years to March 2021 inclusive of a Feasibility Study on commercial production. Metallurgical testwork is underway at two leading Chinese research institutes to assess optimal pre-concentration steps and downstream processing options. Initial results on pre-concentration of the ore are expected in the current June Quarter. Infill drilling of the high grade Lilyvale prospect is planned for the September Quarter 2018 with the aim of upgrading the Resource to the Measured and Indicated Categories. Initial discussions will also commence with potential offtake partners and local, state and national stakeholders.Binduli project JV (Evolution Mining) (see Note 4 below)In April 2015, Intermin and its 100% owned subsidiary Black Mountain Gold Limited ("BMG") entered into a farm-in and JV agreement with La Mancha Australia Pty Ltd which was subsequently acquired by Evolution Mining Limited ( ASX:EVN ) ("Evolution") (refer Evolution ASX announcement dated 20 April 2015). Under the terms of the agreement, Evolution had the right to earn up to 70% of the Binduli Gold Project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia by spending $4.6m over five years.Evolution has completed a 3,597m aircore program to the south of the Teal project area and a 4,006m reverse circulation program in the Coot, Crake and Honey Eater prospect areas. The results from the December program have not yet been announced by Evolution, however they were only recently presented to Intermin in late March. Some minor mineralisation was discovered with several drill holes recording low tenor, but anomalous mineralisation.On 14 March 2018, Evolution provided notice of its intention to withdraw from the joint venture. As such, the project area now reverts back to Intermin on a 100% basis. Intermin will now review all the latest information and commence drilling in the current June Quarter 2018 with an initial 5,000m program planned at Coot, Crake, Darter and Honey Eater (see Figure 4 in link below).Menzies - Goongarrie JV (Eastern Goldfields) (see Note 5 below)Intermin executed a binding Heads of Agreement ("HoA") with Eastern Goldfields Limited ( ASX:EGS ) ("EGS") to form a JV covering Intermin's projects in the Menzies and Goongarrie region (see Figure 5 in link below) which was formalised in June 2017.Details of the Agreement between the parties include:- An earn in JV whereby EGS can earn 25% of the project areas by spending A$2m within a two year period and a further 25% by spending A$2m over the following two year period- EGS to solely contribute to further expenditure of $1.5m on the projects inclusive of a Bankable Feasibility Study to support a mill installation in the Mt Ida / Menzies region to earn a further 15%- During the sole funding period, EGS will manage the exploration program and tenure with direction from the JV committee comprising representatives from both parties- Upon EGS satisfying the earn in terms, each party will contribute to ongoing expenditure in accordance with their respective percentagesExploration drilling has now commenced in the Menzies region with EGS mobilising a multi-purpose rig for diamond tail drilling at the Lady Irene prospect and the historic Yunndaga mine. Drilling results from both programs are expected in the September Quarter 2018.Nanadie Well JV (Mithril Resources) (see Note 4 below)In December 2013, Intermin entered into a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Mithril Resources ( ASX:MTH ) covering the Intermin's projects in the Murchison mineral field south east of Meekatharra (see Figure 6 in link below).A number of revisions to the Agreement have been approved by both parties and include:- An earn in JV whereby Mithril can earn 60% by spending A$2m by December 2019 and maintaining the project in good standing- Mithril to solely contribute to further expenditure of $2m on the projects to earn a further 15% over a two year period- During the sole funding period, Mithril will manage the exploration program and tenure- Upon Mithril satisfying the earn in terms, each party will contribute to ongoing expenditure in accordance with their respective percentagesGiven the prospectivity for multiple commodities in the region, Mithril is now focussed on further exploration work at the Nanadie Well Copper Deposit and the adjacent Stark Copper Nickel Prospect. Mithril is currently reviewing both localities with a view to potentially carrying out further drilling in June or September 2018 Quarters.Lehmans JV (Saracen Mineral Holdings) (see Note 4 below)The Lehmans Gold JV covers over 20km of strike of the Yandal greenstone belt immediately adjacent to the Thunderbox Gold Mine owned by Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited ( ASX:SAR ) ("Saracen"). The project is located approximately 45km south of Leinster in Western Australia and the tenements currently consist of 14 Mining Leases and two Prospecting Licences (see Figure 1 in link below).Intermin retains a 10% interest and is free carried to a decision to mine.Saracen has recently completed a small pre-feasibility drill program on the Lehmans Gold JV and is planning further exploration drilling in the project area in the June and September Quarters 2018.Janet Ivy gold royalty (Norton Gold Fields) (see Note 6 below)Intermin owns a $0.50/t mining royalty that relates to ore mined and treated from Mining Lease M26/446 located approximately 10km west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia (see Figure 1 in link below). The Company entered into a Deed for the sale of M26/446 in 2001 and it is now owned by Norton Gold Fields Ltd ("NGF") which was delisted from the ASX on 1 July 2015.As part of the sale, Intermin was prepaid $1,380,000 of the royalty as part of the acquisition cost, equivalent to a mining and treatment tonnage of 2.76Mt. Mining has been conducted on a semi-continuous basis at the Janet Ivy deposit which is the largest of known deposits on M26/466 since 2009.Mill factored reconciliation at the end of December 2017 was 2,904,394t treated at the Paddington mill of which 144,394t was subject to mining royalty payments of A$72,000 which have been received.Ore treated from the tenement at the Paddington mill in the March Quarter was 425,000t and is subject to royalty payments of $212,500. Intermin anticipates further royalty payments on a quarterly basis for material scheduled by NGF to be treated.To view details on published JORC Compliant Resource and Reserve Estimates including a Competent Persons Statement for Table 1 (see link below), refer to NGF's Resource and Reserve Update December 2014 (NGF- ASX announcement dated 3 February 2015). The most recent JORC Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for the Janet Ivy Deposit was released to the ASX by Norton while the entity was listed on 3 February 2015 (see Table 1 in link below).Notes:1 As announced to the ASX on 30 January 20182 See Forward Looking and Cautionary statement on Pages 3 and 43 As announced to the ASX on 20 March 20184 As announced to the ASX on 30 January 20185 As announced to the ASX on 30 January 2018 and by EGS on 27 March 20186 As announced to the ASX on 30 January 2018, see also Forward Looking Statements on Page 9To view tables and figures, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.


New high-grade Cobalt, Copper and Gold

Perth, April 10, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emmerson Resources Limited ("Emmerson") ( ASX:ERM ) ( OTCMKTS:EMMRF ) is pleased to announce that a series of spectacular assay results has been returned from the Jasper Hills Project, located within the Northern Corridor of Emmerson's 100% owned Tennant Creek Project.- Spectacular results returned from Jasper Hills, located within the Northern Corridor at Tennant Creek:- NSDH101: 28m at 5.83g/t gold, 0.17% cobalt and 8.52% copper (from 108 to 136m) and includes:o 19m at 0.56g/t gold, 0.47% cobalt and 11.4% copper ando 2m at 50.1g/t gold and 10.5% copper- NSDD100: 11m at 0.22g/t gold, 0.18% cobalt and 2.56% copper (from 117 to 128m) and includes:o 3m at 0.34g/t gold, 0.55% cobalt and 5.80% copper ando 1m at 0.48g/t gold, 1.07% cobalt and 5.71% copper- NSDH547: 23m at 0.14% cobalt and 7.04% copper (from 95 to 118m) and includes:o 4m at 0.37% cobalt and 10.2% copper and 1.35g/t gold- NSDH488: 14m at 6.72g/t gold, 0.28% cobalt and 2.17% copper (from 284 to 298m) and includes:o 5m at 16.6g/t goldo 2m at 1.32% cobalt and 2% copper- NSDD110: 15m at 7g/t gold (from 295 to 310m) and includes:o 6m at 14.9g/t gold- Mineral Resource Estimate for Jasper Hills to be completed in the current June quarter- New exploration program for targets within the Northern Corridor are close to being finalisedEmmerson's Managing Director, Mr Rob Bills commented: "The proposed restructure of the Tennant Creek Mineral Field JV with Evolution Mining has enabled Emmerson to focus on the generation of new targets within the 2,600km2 project area to be retained by Emmerson subject to shareholder approval.Our first area of priority is the highly prospective yet underexplored Northern Corridor region. This area hosts our high-grade Edna Beryl gold mine and has excellent potential for further deposits of gold, copper and now at Jasper Hills, the addition of high grade cobalt.While the Jasper Hills project was discovered back in the 1930's, it received little attention at the time due to a combination of the cobalt price and focus on the nearby North Star gold mine. Emmerson's initial program has consisted of locating the historic drill core, relogging and assaying ahead of an independent assessment of the mineral resource consistent with the JORC code.Although early days, the indicative cobalt grades at Jasper Hills compare favourably with other Australian projects of CleanTeQ (~0.1% Co), Australian Mines (~0.11% Co), Metals X (~0.08% Co), Barra Resources (~0.13% Co). Whilst these projects have associated metals, Jasper Hills is unique given the combined metal grades (copper, gold and cobalt) which provide potential for very high value ores.Emmerson has considerable experience in the exploration for this style of mineralisation, with discoveries at Edna Beryl, Mauretania and Goanna -that share many common attributes of high-grades of gold, copper and now cobalt, associated with oxidised, hematite ironstones. We believe the Northern Corridor has excellent potential for further discoveries and will be announcing a major exploration program over this area shortly.Jasper Hills Project (see figure 1 in link below)Drill core from most of the previous diamond holes (drilled between 1975 and 1997) has been located as part of Emmerson's ongoing target generation activities over the Northern Corridor. This diamond core is in excellent condition, with key intervals resubmitted for assay utilising standards under the JORC Code (2012). The resultant assays accord well with the historic results and detailed geological information, providing a high integrity database for ongoing studies (see tables 1,2 3 and figure 2 in link below).The Jasper Hills mineralisation is hosted in brecciated hematite ironstones surrounded by intensely chloritized sediments of the Warramunga Group. The ironstones are enveloped by silicified carbonates, quartz and jasper, similar in most respects to Edna Beryl and within the district, encompass high-grade gold exploration targets (North Star Deeps Gold, Jasper Hill Gold), high-grade copper exploration targets (Katherine Star, Northern Star and Hermitage) and high-grade copper-cobalt exploration targets (Jasper Hills) (see figure 3 in link below).Mineralisation at Jasper Hills is typically associated with the footwall or core of the ironstones and in the oxide zone, some 50m below the surface, consists of malachite and lessor azurite. The transition zone includes these plus bornite, chalcocite and native copper, extending down some 200m below the surface to encompass the sulphide zone of mainly chalcopyrite. The high-grade cobalt zone transgresses the copper and consists of mainly cobaltite in association with chalcopyrite and digenite (see figure 4 in link below). Interestingly, historic metallurgical testing of these ores in the 1990's produced a high-grade copper and cobalt concentrate, with a 20kg sample grading 3.6% copper and 0.16% cobalt (1990 Optimet Laboratories).The ironstones of the Northern Corridor are hematite dominant and up until now, have been challenging to discover. Emmerson's success in discovery for these styles of deposits (for example Edna Beryl, Mauretania and Goanna) comes from systematic, science-based exploration utilising the application of new exploration models combined with modern geophysical detection technologies (see figure 5 in link below).About Tennant Creek and Emmerson ResourcesThe Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF) is one of Australia's highest-grade gold and copper fields producing over 5.5 Mozs of gold and 470,000 tonnes of copper from deposits including Warrego, White Devil, Orlando, Gecko, Chariot and Golden Forty. These high-grade deposits are highly valuable exploration targets and to date discoveries include high grade gold at Edna Beryl and Mauretania, plus copper-gold at Goanna and Monitor. These are the first discoveries in the TCMF for over a decade.Emmerson announced the first gold pour from the high-grade Edna Beryl gold mine in December 2017. This mine is being operated under a Tribute Agreement with specialist small miner, the Edna Beryl Mining Company.In addition, Emmerson recently commenced exploration on new gold-copper projects in NSW, identified (with our strategic alliance partner Kenex Limited) from the application of 2D and 3D predictive targeting models - aimed at increasing the probability of discovery. The highly prospective Macquarie Arc in NSW hosts >80Mozs gold and >13Mt copper with these resources heavily weighted to areas of outcrop or limited cover. Emmerson's five exploration projects contain many attributes of the known deposits within the Macquarie Arc but remain under explored due to historical impediments, including overlying cover (plus farm lands) and a lack of exploration focus. Kadungle is a JV with Aurelia Metals covering 43km2 adjacent to Emmerson's Fifield project.On the 19th of February 2018, Emmerson notified the ASX that it had reached and executed an agreement with previous JV partner, Evolution Mining pertaining to the Tennant Creek Mineral Field JV. Under the proposed restructure, Emmerson retains 100% ownership of 2,600km2 or 94% of the previous JV area that includes all the gold projects and 100% of the revenue from the small mines. In return Evolution takes 100% of the copper dominant projects of Orlando, Gecko and Goanna. This agreement needs approval by Emmerson shareholders at a proposed meeting of shareholders expected to be held in May 2018.Emmerson is led by a board and management group of experienced Australian mining executives including former MIM and WMC mining executive Andrew McIlwain as non-executive chairman, and former senior BHP Billiton and WMC executive Rob Bills as Managing Director and CEO.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Emmerson Resources Limited

Emmerson Resources Limited (ASX:ERM) (FRA:42E) recently commenced exploration on new gold-copper projects in NSW, identified (with our strategic alliance partner Kenex Limited) from the application of 2D and 3D predictive targeting models  aimed at increasing the probability of discovery. The highly prospective Macquarie Arc in NSW hosts >80Mozs gold and >13Mt copper with these resources heavily weighted to areas of outcrop or limited cover. Emmerson's five exploration projects contain many attributes of the known deposits within the Macquarie Arc but remain under explored due to historical impediments, including an overlying cover (plus farmlands) and a lack of exploration focus. Kadungle is a JV with Aurelia Metals covering 43km2 adjacent to Emmerson's Fifield project.

In addition, Emmerson is exploring the Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF), one of Australia's highest-grade gold and copper fields producing over 5.5 Mozs of gold and 470,000 tonnes of copper from deposits including Warrego, White Devil, Orlando, Gecko, Chariot and Golden Forty. These high-grade deposits are highly valuable exploration targets, and to date discoveries include high-grade gold at Edna Beryl and Mauretania, plus copper-gold at Goanna and Monitor. These are the first discoveries in the TCMF for over a decade.
There was more at stake in Hungary's election Sunday than the domestic politics of a diminutive Central European state.

The anticipated landslide victory of strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party has national populists across Europe uncorking champagne bottles.

France's far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, cheered the result as a rejection of the inversion of values and mass immigration promoted by the EU.

Germany's like-minded Alternative for Germany (AfD) tweeted its congratulations to Orban, saying that this was a bad day for the EU, but a good day for Europe.

They believe that Orban's triumph, his third since 2010, will blow wind into their sails at a time when insurgent nationalists are vying for power in every EU country. And they'll have an opportunity to prove it in EU parliament elections next year.

Indeed, Orban's Hungary is a model for Europe's hardline rightists, one much more relevant than non-EU countries such as Vladimir Putin's Russia or Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey -- although their systems share much with Orban's.

Far-right parties such as Le Pen's National Front, the AfD, Poland's ruling Law and Justice party and Italy's League, among many others, seek to emulate Orban. They view the strongman as Europe's most accomplished progenitor of the type of illiberal democracy to which they aspire.

More unnerving, conservatives too -- the kind that, in post-war Europe, had functioned as a firewall between the far right and liberal democracy -- borrow from Orban's playbook.

Germany's Christian Social Union (CSU), for example, a governing coalition partner and sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, invites Orban to its congresses and lauds his crass anti-immigration and hardnosed security policies, as does Austria's conservative Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, also a Christian Democrat. Forza Italia's leader Silvio Berlusconi calls Orban a friend.

In their eyes, his commanding victories are testimony that Europe's citizenry desire nativist, law-and-order societies. And Orban's extended rule underscores not only that their triumph via the ballot box is plausible, but that they too can fabricate a nationally minded, de-facto single-party states in the EU -- and not just as a one-off, but for the long term.

Today's Hungary brandishes all of the essentials of rightists' authoritarian nation state, the type that proliferated in Europe between the world wars, and indeed fanned the flames that culminated in World War II. It's the kind of state that the EU was meant to sideline.

Orban is a classic no-nonsense strongman, just the kind of muscular leader that rightists from the Balkans to Scandinavia believe best serve proud, decisive nations.

Like Orban, they aspire to rule without hesitation or undue concern for the painstaking procedures of parliamentary governance. Orban's fans admire the way he waged war on Hungary's constitution to defang the court system and rewrite laws to empower his office and favor his party.

His defiance of the EU and Europe's heaviest-hitting politicos -- especially on migration -- illustrate an unwavering will to rule that, in the eyes of extremists, distinguishes the uncompromising nationalist from submissive liberals, those who voluntarily hand over hard-won national power to foreign authorities.

In Orban-era Hungary, everything revolves around the principle of the ethnically-determined nation: from family and media policy to foreign policy, it's Hungary and Hungarians first.

All of Europe's far rightists pay homage to the idea of a folkish, seamless nation that supposedly binds their countrymen regardless of class and other differences.

Hungary's goal should be ethnic homogeneity, says Orban, not western Europe's false multiculturalism that extols diversity at the expense of natives. According to Orban, Hungary belongs to the Christian, white, Magyar nation, which implicitly turns the likes of national minorities, Roma and Jews into second-class citizens.

The nation does, however, include 5 million diaspora Hungarians around the world, about one million of whom have become Hungarian citizens since a 2010 Fidesz law made it possible. They voted in Hungarian elections this year and overwhelmingly supported Fidesz.

In the election campaign, Orban drove home the far right's xenophobic, anti-immigration pledges about protecting natives from an onslaught of dangerous and impure outsiders, especially Muslims. Hungary's adamant refusal to accept immigrants or refugees is popular in Hungary, where these election results show that the government bombast, echoed in the state-loyal media, finds resonance. It's not surprising since it has dominated the airwaves for eight years and opposition voices in the media are so marginal that they are almost irrelevant.

Orban's vision of a Europe of Fatherlands, as he calls it, is exactly what the far rightists have been calling for over decades: a conglomeration of loosely bound independent, security-minded, ethnically homogeneous countries in a zero-sum EU.

The adulation of his peers has obviously swollen Orban's ego. He even sees himself as leader of something greater than Hungary, calling for a global alliance against migration, and speaks on behalf of "Europe" and the West. "Christianity is Europe's last hope," he told supporters along the banks of the Danube on February 18.

Perhaps even more impressive, in the eyes of say Marine Le Pen, is that a bloc of European fatherland proponents has converged in the highest offices of Central Europe. Austria's Freedom Party, which governs together with conservatives, praises just such an EU, as does Poland's governing Law and Justice Party and the Czech Republic's president, Milos Zeman.

In Croatia and Slovakia, major parties are also on board.

A large part of Orban's appeal beyond Hungary's borders is that he gets away with it. Hungary remains a EU member in good standing, even if it's been rapped on the knuckles a few times. Fidesz remains in the European People's Party in the EU, which includes Germany's Christian Democrats and several dozen other reputable conservative parties.

In light of the way Fidesz has reorganized Hungary's courts, media, and electoral system, Orban's victory probably won't be his last.

This the ultimate objective of every one of Europe's illiberal democrats.
The Louisiana Senate has approved a provision that would allow students to carry bulletproof backpacks on school grounds.

The provision is not actually a new law, but rather an amendment to an existing one that prohibited the use or possession of body armor in school zones and firearm-free zones.

Senate Bill 178 makes an exception for "a student wearing, carrying or possession a backpack on school property or a school bus that has bullet-resistant metal or other material intended to provide protection from weapons or bodily injury."

The legislation was sponsored by Mike Walsworth, a Republican state senator from West Monroe. "If it saves one child, that's all I would care about," Walsworth told the Times-Picayune. "I'm hoping that this backpack never has to be used."

CNN has reached out to Walsworth for comment.

Prompted by Parkland

Walsworth also said the proposal was in direct response to the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February.

Since the shooting, legislators have discussed a spectrum of solutions for school violence. Some have proposed change through gun control legislation, and others have suggested dealing with more immediate provisions, like arming school staff, amping up school security, and providing children with tools like the bulletproof backpacks in question.

When students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school returned to school after the shooting, they did so with increased security and clear backpacks in tow.

Cost is a concern

One of the concerns opponents of the Louisiana provision have is the price of such a tool. Bulletproof backpacks and ballistic panels can cost more than $200, making them an unrealistic option for many families.

Earlier this month, a Louisiana House committee voted down a bill that would allow teachers and school administrators to be armed on school grounds.

Senate Bill 178 will now move to the House for approval.
CAE has signed a service level agreement with the Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD) to support the creation and establishment of the Oman Aviation Academy.



Courtesy CAE



Under terms of the service level agreement, CAE will provide operating services to the Oman Aviation Academy, which will leverage CAE's established international standards for aviation training. CAE will support the Oman Aviation Academy by providing key elements required for world-class ab initio pilot training, including curriculum and courseware as well as safety management and quality control systems. In addition, flight instructors who will teach at the Oman Aviation Academy will be trained by CAE.



The Oman Aviation Academy, based at Sohar International Airport, will be a CAE Authorised Training Centre, and will train and supply pilots for both the civil and military sectors in Oman and the surrounding region.



"The Oman Aviation Academy will play an important role in supplying highly-skilled pilots across both our civil and military aviation sectors, as well as helping to develop the Sultanate's national economy through the expansion of our local aviation industry," said Dr. Dhafir Awadh Al Shanfari, Chief Executive Officer of the Omani Authority for Partnership for Development. "CAE is a globally recognised leader in aviation training and the ideal partner in helping the Oman Aviation Academy locally develop trained pilots to meet our growing needs."



"With over 70 years of training innovation, CAE has a well-earned reputation for helping its airline, business aviation and military customers create professional and highly-skilled pilots," said Ian Bell, CAE's Vice President and General Manager, Middle East/Asia-Pacific. "We are proud to partner with our customers such as the Oman Aviation Academy to establish pilot training programs that will help address the growing demand for pilots across all aviation sectors."
LATAM Cargo has added new B767 freighter services from South America to Brussels and Madrid in order to meet growing demand and avoid congestion at European airports.

The airline said that following the launch of the new services it will offer calls at four European airport destinations instead of two previously (Schiphol and Frankfurt).

It added that it is considering expanding its European operations in the future.

The decision came in response to the regions growing demand as well as the need to provide alternatives to avoid the rising congestion levels at European airports, the airline said.

It selected Brussels because of its ability to absorb growing pharma traffic and its CEIV certification.

The company also plans to carry other kinds of merchandise on its two weekly flights from Viracopos to the European airport.

Local reports suggest the two calls at Brussels moved over from Schiphol because of congestion at the Netherlands hub.

Meanwhile, the Madrid market has seen an increase in the transportation of traditional industrial products, as well as other services like parcel delivery, e-commerce and textiles, all of which require expanded capacity and just-in-time logistics.

The Madrid service will also operate twice per week with calls in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile.

Guido Henke, senior commercial director  Europe, said: Our strategy in Europe seeks to strengthen our network and position us as the leader in airfreight service to South America.

We are very optimistic about our new direct freight routes from Brussels and Madrid. And our customers enthusiastic response has led us to consider the possibility of increasing our current schedule.

Claudio Torres, international commercial director  South America, added: By expanding our network we are in a position to offer more and better alternatives to our customers.

This is particularly important for the South American market, where we export fresh, temperature-sensitive products that require shorter transportation periods.

LATAM Cargo offers six daily cargo departures onboard its passenger fleet from various European cities in addition to its freighter operation.

The airline recently sold two of its B777F aircraft to Atlas Air. However, in May next year, it will recover a LATAM Cargo B767 freighter that had been leased to another operator and has three B767 converted freighters on order to be delivered in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

By the time the last aircraft is delivered, its freighter fleet will stand at 12 B767Fs.

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Strikes by unions in France and Germany are set to disrupt air cargo operations today, with Air France and Lufthansa cancelling hundreds of flights.

In Germany, the Verdi trade union has called for a strike over pay at Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Bremen airports.

In France, pilot, cabin and ground crew have planned three two-day stoppages over the next two weeks with the first taking place today.

Lufthansa said that it would have to cancel 800 out of the 1,600 scheduled flights, including 58 long-haul flights. Flight operations are scheduled to resume normal services tomorrow.

Bettina Volkens, member of the executive board for human resources and legal affairs, Deutsche Lufthansa said: "It is completely unacceptable for the union to impose this conflict on uninvolved passengers.

"Lufthansa is not a part of this collective bargaining conflict, but unfortunately our customers and our company are being affected by the consequences of this dispute.

Politicians and legislators must define clear rules for strikes and industrial actions. We regret that the travel plans of so many customers are being affected by this Verdi strike and we are working on minimising the impact as much as possible."

Air France said that it expected the strike action to affect around 25% of its flights, with 35% of long-haul flights hit, 27% of medium-haul flights from Paris Paris Charles de Gaulle and 20% of its short-haul flights from Paris Orly and French provinces.

It added that its flight schedule for tomorrow, as the strikes in France are set to continue into Wednesday, will be published later today.

Both companies told their customers to check online for updated schedules.

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Melissa McCarthy's new movie, "Life of the Party," will have its world premiere in Auburn, thanks to students from Auburn University.

They won a social media contest that brings a screening of the comedy to a theater in their town, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.

The date of the screening hasn't been announced -- the movie opens nationwide on May 11 -- and it's unclear if McCarthy and other cast members will attend the premiere in Alabama.

But Auburn University definitely aced the contest, which required participants to post a photo on social media showing school spirit and using the hashtag #LifeOfThePartyPremiere.

Twenty-five colleges were chosen as finalists, including Auburn. They had to compete for points and votes on social media, via posts that included the movie premiere hashtag and a personalized hashtag. Auburn's was "LOTPAuburn." (See the full rules of the contest here.)

The winner was announced on a promotional website linked to the movie, along with 24 runners-up. Those schools, which ranged from Syracuse University to the University of Florida, will get advance screenings of the movie after the Auburn premiere.

McCarthy also touted Auburn's win on social media.

In the movie, McCarthy plays a stay-at-home mom who gets dumped by her hubby and goes back to college, looking for a fresh start. She ends up at the same school her daughter attends and starts to let loose in some unexpected ways.

McCarthy's husband, Ben Falcone, directed the movie, and the two co-wrote and produced it. The cast includes Maya Rudolph, Gillian Jacobs, Julie Bowen, Matt Walsh, Molly Gordon, Stephen Root and more.
Sen. Doug Jones, the Alabama Democrat who unexpectedly prevailed in one of the country's most Republican states, has a book coming out next year.

St. Martin's Press told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Jones' "Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights" is scheduled for January. Before his upset win last year, Jones was known for successfully prosecuting two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 bombing that killed four black girls. He will write of his time as a U.S. attorney and of his Senate race against Republican Roy Moore to succeed Jeff Sessions, who is now the U.S. attorney general.

Jones wrote "Bending Toward Justice" with Greg Truman. Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg contributed a foreword.
Jeff Hitchcock

By Jeff Hitchcock, is founder and president of Children with Diabetes, one of the most established and well-trafficked online diabetes communities, and a member of the Doctor-Patient Rights Project; and Stewart Perry, the past national chairman of the board of the American Diabetes Association, and the parent of a child with diabetes

Children with diabetes face a lifetime of challenges. However, if insurers continue to exclude more and more diabetes-related medications and supplies from coverage, children with diabetes and their families could be saddled with a lifetime of exorbitant out-of-pocket costs as well.

The rate of diabetes has steadily increased in Alabama. Nearly 15 percent of Alabamans have been diagnosed with the disease, making Alabama's rate of diabetes the 2nd highest among all states.

The growing incidence of diabetes may be one reason pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)--the private companies health plans hire to oversee their prescription drug benefits--consistently exclude diabetes-related medications and supplies from coverage, more than any other treatment category, according to a study by the Doctor-Patient Rights Project. The group analyzed the increasing use of formulary exclusion lists, the catalogues PBMs issue laying out the medicines they will no longer cover.

Stewart Perry

In the last four years, the number of diabetes-related medications or supplies excluded from coverage by the nation's two largest PBMs (CVS and Express Scripts) has increased by almost 80 percent, the only treatment category where the PBMs consistently increased the number of excluded medicines every year. Diabetes-related treatments now account for one out of every five medicines excluded from coverage by these PBMs.

PBMs employ formulary exclusion lists to compel patients to use less expensive treatment choices, falsely assuming that every patient with diabetes will respond the same way to every treatment choice. They are a form of forced, non-medical switching designed to save the insurer from having to pay for treatments chosen by the patient and physician.

DPRP documented that many patients asked to switch to a new medication choose to pay out-of-pocket for the treatment their doctor originally prescribed, rather than switch to the insurer's preferred drug. In effect, formulary exclusions simply transfer more of the cost of prescribed treatments to patients and their families.

Studies show that patients forced to shoulder more of the expense of their medications are more likely to try to make the prescriptions for their original medication last longer by splitting pills or skipping doses of insulin.

People with diabetes who do not experience immediate symptoms from not following proper treatment protocols may wrongly conclude that the medicine remains just as effective, or that they need less of it. This is especially true of low-income and minority patients, who are already more likely to develop diabetes and to experience diabetes-related organ failure.

Every parent wants the best for their child, including the medicine the doctor believes will best care for their child's diabetes. Insurers that refuse to cover certain prescribed diabetes treatments thinking that parents will simply switch to the insurer's cheaper alternative may be gravely mistaken. Forced non-medical switching may simply increase out-of-pocket expenses for parents and, as a result, increase the lifetime treatment costs for their children with diabetes.

Forced non-medical switching may even backfire as a cost-saving strategy for insurers. When patients fail to adhere to proper medication protocols, they make treatment less and less effective. Reduced adherence, in fact, accounts for up to 10 percent of hospitalizations, 25 percent of nursing home admissions and as many as 125,000 premature deaths annually, according to a study in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy. As a result, it contributes an extra $100 billion to $289 billion in medical expenses each year, at least some of which fall to insurers to pay.

Insurers that target diabetes-related medications and supplies for exclusion are being short-sighted. When they fully cover prescribed treatments, insurers permit parents to start their children on the most effective medications and to use them appropriately. As a result, they experience improved clinical outcomes and fewer lifetime medical costs. The cost savings generated by letting doctors drive treatment decisions more than compensates for the higher pharmaceutical costs.
Violins have a voice, and when played in concert, "they can tell stories," said Israeli violin-maker Amnon Weinstein.

Weinstein, founder of Violins of Hope, has restored about 70 violins that once belonged to Jewish musicians during the Holocaust.

"We are restoring them to a very high quality," said Weinstein, who traveled from his home in Tel Aviv to Birmingham this week for a series of Violins of Hope concerts and events. "I'm giving a name to people who are nameless now."

Many of the violins were played in orchestras at concentration camps.

"You are touching an open wound," Weinstein said in an interview this week with AL.com. "The stories of the Holocaust are going out, opening like an ocean."

Birmingham will host Violins of Hope in a series of concerts, including Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and concluding Saturday with a concert at 7 p.m. by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra at the Alys Stephens Center.

The Germans used the orchestras to lull prisoners into a false sense of security, often having them play to greet arriving prisoners, and to play music as prisoners walked to their deaths in gas chambers.

"For that moment, they were not in the camp, they were in Carnegie Hall," Weinstein said.

For others, the music inspired them to endure until the camps were liberated by Allied Forces.

Even in the worst moments of history, music could soothe. "It could bring hope," Weinstein said. "If there not hope, they could not go on. With the music, they knew hope will come tomorrow."

Weinstein's family moved from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Israel in 1936. His father, Moshe, knew many of the top Jewish musicians in Europe before they were sent to concentration camps.

"My father was a violinist and violin-maker," Weinstein said. "Many of them knew my father before the war. He was well-known."

Accomplished musicians who were prisoners in the death camps were sometimes kept alive to play in the orchestras. For some, their violins saved their lives. "It was very important they let people know, this violin saved their lives," Weinstein said.

"For many of the survivors who came to Israel, our house was a first stop," Weinstein said. "They knew my father. It was the first chance for them to sleep in a regular bed and have a regular meal. My mother would sometimes find pieces of bread under the pillow, which is something they did in the camps."

Weinstein, now 78, was born in 1939. He recalled that as a child, many Jewish violinists brought his father violins that were made in Germany.

"They would say, 'If you are not going to buy it, I will destroy it,'" Weinstein said. "He bought everything, knowing he could not sell it. Nobody was touching German instruments. But he could not stand to see violins destroyed."

Although the idea of hearing professional musicians such as the Alabama Symphony Orchestra play violins that were used in the Holocaust may seem morbid, it's a remembrance, and a voice for the dead, Weinstein said.

He lost more than 400 extended family members who were killed in the Holocaust. "One thing we need to do is say, 'Never again,' you cannot discriminate against people because of religion, color, beliefs, you cannot target a man so that it seems okay to take a gun and kill him," Weinstein said.

The beauty of the music will tell that story, Weinstein said.

"That's most important," he said. "Music is something so big, that's giving you power to live another day, one day more."
Alabama Auditor Jim Zeigler has requested an audit of both Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin and the office he helms.

Zeigler called on Chief Examiner Ron Jones to "perform a financial audit of the Etowah County Sheriff, Todd Entrekin, as well as the Etowah County Sheriff's office" in a letter dated March 20 but only recently obtained by AL.com.

Zeigler said he made the decision to call for the financial probe after receiving "complaints" from Alabama residents who were upset about the fact that Entrekin personally kept more than $750,000 allocated to feed prisoners in Etowah County's jail over the past three years.

Zeigler sent the letter seven days after AL.com published a story exposing the amount of inmate-feeding funds Entrekin had pocketed and the fact that he and his wife bought a $740,000 beach house in September.

"I had gotten several inquiries, complaints from citizens in Etowah County about this," Zeigler said via telephone Monday. "It's an audit to the extent that the sheriff is personally liable for the food money and there may be other things, I'm not certain - anything that the sheriff is personally responsible for."

Zeigler said that it is beyond the scope of his office to carry out an audit of a county sheriff's office, so he wrote the letter to urge Jones to launch the audit himself.

Jones and Entrekin did not respond to requests for comment.

The letter also called on Jones to play a role in redirecting a specific Etowah County sales tax revenue stream from the sheriff's office to "the organizations it was taken from and originally intended for."

The request concerns a one-cent sales tax that generates hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the sheriff's office. In 2015, the Etowah County state legislative delegation approved a bill that reallocated the funds to the office from the range of entities including schools, rescue squads, and the county commission that had previously received it.

Zeigler letter by Connor Sheets on Scribd
The Birmingham City Council reauthorized a one-cent sales tax that generates about $32 million to the general fund each year.

The tax first went into effect in 2008 to pay for a domed stadium, education, transit improvements and other projects. While the domed stadium didn't come to fruition, the city has come to rely on the extra funds to pay to help fund the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority and Birmingham City Councils and infrastructure improvements.

Councilor Lashunda Scales said the one-cent sales tax isn't being used for what it was passed for. She said the city needs to wean itself off these types of taxes.

The council passed an ordinance 4-to-1 on Tuesday reauthorizing the one-cent sales tax, which was set to expire at the end of the year. Scales voted against it.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the funds collected from the tax are needed to meet the city's immediate needs.

The city has increased its funding to transit from $1 million to over $10 million a year over the last 10 years, he said. The city also has increased funding for education, he said, but not to the levels he would like to see.

"Without that one-cent sales tax, I doubt any of our general fund money ... would be able to go towards education," he said.

Woodfin asked the council to give him time to find more funds for education.

The council has yet to see a proposed budget for next fiscal year.

Council President Valerie Abbott said the city has to keep the tax. "Taking $32 million from our budget would absolutely devastate us and all the things our constituents are asking for we would not be giving," she said.

Abbott said the city needs funds to be putting money towards infrastructure, which is the No 1 complaint she hears in her office.

Councilor Hunter Williams said it wouldn't be fair to sunset the tax and expect the mayor to be able to run the city without another bond issue. He asked Woodfin to pledge to eliminate some of the inefficiencies in city government.

In January, the city contracted with Crowe Horwath LLP and PGV Advisors to conduct a performance assessment of city operations. The results of that assessment haven't been released yet.
The former Trussville fire chief was arrested and booked into the county jail Monday night on six charges.

Russell Ledbetter, former chief of the Trussville Fire Department, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Monday just before 9 p.m. He was charged with two counts of auto theft and sale, three ethics law violations, and one overweight vehicle violation, booking records show. The offenses were committed in March and August 2014, records state.

Ledbetter was released from jail on bond about an hour after his arrest.

In 2016, the city of Trussville planned to ask the Alabama Attorney General's Office to investigate possible financial misappropriations in the volunteer fire department. The City Council placed Ledbetter and Fire Marshal Steve Reasonover on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, but Ledbetter resigned later that year.

Reasonover was allowed to come back to work after explaining that he never violated any ethics laws or did anything wrong, his attorney, Lance Bell, said Tuesday.

City officials did not comment on the extent of the possible financial irregularities, and it was unclear if the AG's Office would investigate the case.

Trussville has a paid, full-time fire department; its volunteer department disbanded shortly after Ledbetter's resignation. Ledbetter served as fire chief of the full-time department since 1998.

Updated at 12:05 p.m. April 10 with comment from Reasonover attorney Lance Bell
The trial for one of the teens accused of killing a Hoover veteran in 2016 continued Tuesday.

Ahmad Johnson, 19, is charged with murder and nine counts of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle in a string of incidents that happened in early January 2016, and ended with the shooting of Mike Gilotti on Jan. 5, 2016.

Gilotti, an Iraqi war veteran and father of two, was shot to death outside of his Lake Cyrus home early that morning, as he was heading to the gym.

Four men were charged in the incident--Charleston Wells, Johnson, De'Ron Lucas, and another teen who has been granted youthful offender status in the case. Wells was tried last year, but was acquitted on the murder charge. He was found guilty on nine counts of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle.

Wells also was tried in the Birmingham division of Jefferson County for one count of attempted murder, stemming from an incident in Fultondale one day before Gilotti was shot. In that case, the 18-year-old was convicted of reckless endangerment, a lesser charge. Wells also has a pending rape case in the Bessemer division.

Johnson is the second to face trial in the slaying. His trial began last week in Jefferson County Bessemer Division Circuit Judge David Carpenter's courtroom, and there was testimony of people whose cars were broken into during that time span and law enforcement officials who worked on the case.

Tuesday, a Jefferson County sheriff's detective who specializes in cell phone analysis and electronic investigations took the stand to explain the way police tracked the group's whereabouts on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5. He said there are two ways for phone locations to be tracked--through the phone itself, or through cell phone records. The last retrievable call from Johnson's phone happened at 4:04 a.m. on Jan. 5, which the deputy said was made in the McCalla area. After that time, he said the phone was either powered off, no calls were made, or the location services were turned off.

Following his testimony, one of Johnson's teenage co-defendants in the killing took the stand. His name is not being used because he has been granted youthful offender status in the case.

The teen said he hung out with Johnson, Wells, Lucas, and several other teenagers who were in the group "M-Tre," which means "Money Making Mafia." The group would often go out at night and break into cars across Bessemer, Birmingham, and the surrounding areas, and often steal cars for their own transportation.

He also said some of the group members were rappers, and their M-Tre nicknames were primarily used for Facebook.

He said the night before Gilotti was killed, he and four other members of the gang went to Tuscaloosa and McCalla, breaking into cars and stealing whatever they deemed valuable that was inside. The group did not break windows of the cars they burglarized; the teen said everyone in the car would walk the streets and flip door handles until they found one that was unlocked, and then they would steal from inside. One member always stayed in the car to drive behind the teens who were stealing.

The night of Jan. 4, the teen said, the group was breaking into cars and stole a truck from Tuscaloosa. They went back to Bessemer and dropped off one of the boys at home, and then rode in the stolen truck to Hoover to continue burglarizing cars. The teen said he fell asleep in the car, but he was in Lake Cyrus when he woke up.

The teen said he, Wells, and Johnson got out of the truck and walked the neighborhood flipping door handles. The truck, driven by Lucas, was just behind them, when they saw Gilotti.

The teen said the group was alerted to Gilotti, who was about two houses in front of them, when the 33-year-old man popped his trunk. The M'Tre members got back in the truck and were going to leave the area, when Lucas said he didn't know how to get back to the main road. Wells suggested they ask Gilotti for directions, so he and Johnson got out of the vehicle and approached Gilotti.

Next, the teen said he heard Wells ask Gilotti for directions, and Gilotti told Wells how to get out of the neighborhood. Wells acted like he couldn't hear and leaned into Gilotti, the teen said, and then "upped his gun" and pointed it at the veteran.

Gilotti ran towards the side of his home, and the teen said Wells fired once and struck Gilotti. He said Johnson was standing behind Wells with his gun "upped," but did not fire.

The boys ran back to the truck and got inside, and the group drove off. When they had to drive past the Gilotti house after turning around, the teen said he saw Gilotti laying in the doorway of his home with the door opened. The group drove back to the Bessemer area, and each went their separate ways.

The teen said he didn't know before Gilotti's shooting that either Wells or Johnson had a gun that night. Wells had a .40 caliber, and Johnson had a 9 mm, he said. The teen acknowledged his fingerprints were on the 9mm, because the group had passed it around a different night when Johnson stole it from one of the cars he broke into.

The teen was arrested in March of that year, and admitted to not immediately being truthful to Hoover police. He has been in jail since his arrest.

Under cross examination, the teen said he told Hoover investigators that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in jail when confessing his involvement in the incident. The maximum sentence for a youthful offender in the case is three years in jail.

The prosecution is led by Assistant District Attorneys Bill North and Lane Tolbert; Johnson is represented by Bret and Erica Gray.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham will have a shortage of 3,500 parking spaces in five years if it doesn't look at its transit system differently, a recent study found.

The urban campus, with little open space to grow, is now attempting to do just that.

UAB has unveiled a five-year plan for improvements to its transportation and parking network as the student population continues to grow.

The university saw record student enrollment last fall of 20,902. The fall 2017 semester was also the first time the university encouraged all its incoming freshmen to live on campus and 80 percent did so.

"We're excited about the growth of our campus, the projected growth of our campus, and this plan allows us to continue to not just grow but actually improve our on-campus transportation system," said James Fowler, director of planning design and construction. "And it helps us continue to move away from being a commuter campus and makes us a part of an urban, vibrant community."

Through a two-year study the university learned that students and employees are excited about UAB moving away from being a commuter campus, he said.

That is going to take a continued investment in other options, including growing the transit system and investing in bicycle infrastructure, Fowler said.

The five-year plan includes managing demand for and improving parking, enhancing transit services and encouraging pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

No freshman parking

As part of this plan, UAB is looking over the next five years to possibly prohibit freshmen from bringing a vehicle on campus. Fowler said this move could save about 700 parking spaces and encourage students to stay on campus.

"We are definitely trying to adjust the culture away from being a commuter campus, so this plan does help reinforce that, he said.

To aid this effort, the university is continuing to invest in its transit system including the Blazer Express buses and partnering with the city to build bicycle lanes, enhanced crosswalks and making on-street parking easier.

Improvements to the Blazer Express transit system will include the number and length of routes, efficiency and reliability.

According to UAB, changes in parking lot assignments and transit routes were made in early 2017 to save time for employees who park in Express Lots or perimeter lots.

These transit enhancements are designed to encourage students to use express parking lots on the outskirts of campus rather than waste time looking for parking in the core of campus, Fowler said.

Parking decks

UAB is studying the feasibility of building two parking decks: one for students and one in the medical district, Fowler said.

The first parking deck will contain about 1,100 parking spaces for students and will be located at the corner of 12th Street South and 11th Avenue. This could replace an approximate 200-space surface parking lot.

Another parking deck could be built near Kirklin Clinic at the corner of 5th Avenue South and Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard.

In two years, UAB will then evaluate whether there is a need to build two additional parking decks.

Parking decks are necessary as well as the campus continues to grow, add new facilities, and reduce surface parking lots in the core of campus.

Stephen Foster, vice president of Five Points South Neighborhood Association, said a student parking deck in the area of 11th Avenue South is amazing news for the neighborhood.

"If you drive around UAB around 11th, 14th and Collum streets, you start to see a number of cars parking on the streets," he said, adding that many residents can't park in front of their homes now because students are parking there.

A parking deck is "going to drastically" reduce that occurrence, Foster said.

Fowler said UAB is interested in working with the city of Birmingham to create an on-street parking permitting system to further address this issue.

City Council President Valerie Abbott is leading the effort at the city. She said council staff is researching best practices in other cities.

Foster said the neighborhood is also partnering with UAB to come up with new ideas to deal with parking issues. One idea is having UAB police ticket students parking on residential streets and requiring students to pay off their tickets in order to graduate.

Partnership with Birmingham

UAB has applied for a grant with the city of Birmingham to build bike lanes on 13th Street from 10th Avenue South to 1st Avenue South.

Fowler said this project will connect UAB with Regions Field and Railroad Park in downtown Birmingham.

This year bike lanes will also open along 10 blocks of 10th Avenue South.

Other improvements

UAB is implementing a three-year plan to convert all decks to LED lighting, which is brighter, more environmentally sound and offers greater security, Parking and Transportation Services Director Andre Davis.

Bicycle lockers have been installed to provide protection from theft, vandalism and inclement weather.

Three electric car-charging stations were installed in 2017 and more will open this spring in select employee lots.

UAB has promoted employee participation in CommuteSmart, which rewards those who carpool, walk, bike or travel by bus.

Car-sharing program ZipCar launched

BlazeRide, a van service for employees with limited mobility, has also launched

UAB updated its policy last year to permit employees or students who work in non-patient care buildings to park their bicycles in private offices.

To help pay for campus-wide transportation improvements, Fowler said UAB plans to raise the price of student and employee parking permits, which hasn't happened in a number of years.

Student parking permits haven't gone up in price since 2012, according to the university. Employee parking permits haven't gone up in 10 years.
The Huntsville police officer who died following a recent head-on crash was involved in a separate wreck less than an hour earlier, according to records obtained by AL.com.

Huntsville police officer Keith Earle died after spending two weeks in the hospital following a wreck.

Officer Keith Earle, a 25-year veteran of the Huntsville police force, died after two weeks in the hospital, the department announced on Monday. The police department is asking for prayers for Earle's family. The family said through the police department that they aren't making public comments for now.

Earle was taken to the hospital after a wreck that happened on Pulaski Pike the morning of March 26. He was 46.

Authorities haven't said what may have caused the wrecks. According to crash reports, officials didn't learn about one of the wrecks until after the second already came under investigation.

Earle was heading north on Pulaski Pike when his vehicle collided head-on with a 2008 Chevy HHR on March 26 at 9:38 a.m., a crash report says. Earle was driving his patrol vehicle, a 2017 Ford Explorer.

For an undetermined reason, Unit 1 (the officer's vehicle) veered to the left into the southbound lanes," a Huntsville policeman wrote in a crash report. "Unit 2 (the Chevy) braked and swerved to the right before colliding head-on with Unit 1 at the intersection of Grizzard Road."

Huntsville police Officer Keith Earle collided head-on with another driver March 26. Earle died after being in the hospital for two weeks.

Both Earle and the other driver, 37-year-old Huntsville man Aundra Jennings, were trapped in their vehicles, the crash report says. They were taken by ambulance to Huntsville Hospital. Jennings told AL.com he's been released from the hospital. He said he's better, but still in pain.

Both vehicles sustained major, disabling damage, the crash report says.

Less than an hour earlier, at 8:54 a.m., Earle was involved in a separate wreck on Jordan Lane near the intersection of University Drive, another crash report says.

Earle's patrol vehicle rear-ended a 2015 Toyota Camry that was driven by 31-year-old Jonathan Baker, of Huntsville, records show. Both vehicles were headed south on Jordan. The Camry was stopped in the turning lane to turn onto a private drive, the crash report says.

"This is a delayed report that was documented the day afterwards," a policeman wrote. The report says the investigating officer didn't notice any visible damage to the Camry in a photo he saw. No injuries are listed as a result of that crash. The report doesn't make clear how officials learned about the crash, but Baker told AL.com he reported it the next day. Baker declined further comment.

Both crash reports list Earle's patrol SUV as the primary contributing vehicle. The reports also make clear that investigators -- who were continuing to probe in incidents -- didn't at the time know why these crashes happened.

Jennings said he has no idea why Earle veered into oncoming traffic.

"It was just like he jumped the median and hit me," Jennings said. "I tried to get out of his way -- dodge him -- but it was like he was speeding with no blinker, no lights and sirens."

Huntsville police Chief Mark McMurray declined comment.

"We are attempting to get answers to many questions that we all have," a police department news release says. "We will be respecting the family's wishes during this time so please be patient as we know everyone has questions surrounding these circumstances."
Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released Tuesday, show Alabama's scores in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math remain unchanged from 2015, the last time the tests were given.

Scores at the national level were flat, too, except in eighth-grade reading, where scores increased. Scores in Alabama were significantly lower than the national average in all four areas tested.

And though Alabama's students are not dead last in the ranking of the states, student test results are still in the bottom rung among all states, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense schools.

The NAEP, also called the Nation's Report Card, is considered the gold standard of tests because it has been consistently testing students using the same criteria for many years. There is no way to teach to the test and as such, no way to game results.

Former state superintendent Michael Sentance rang the NAEP alarm bell in 2016, pointing to Alabama's low ranking in the country as a clear indicator that Alabama needed urgent improvement in math, reading and science.

At that time, Alabama was ranked 52nd for fourth-grade math results.

Former Gov. Robert Bentley was referring to that ranking on NAEP scores when he famously said, "Our education system in this state sucks," to an audience of county managers in Montgomery in November 2016.

The bottom line is Alabama's students have never done well on the NAEP, and these results show they're about where they've been for the last 10 years.

National Center for Education Statistics Assistant Commissioner Peggy Carr, who oversees NAEP testing, said results are best used as a look across many years.

Because states set school funding levels, decide how those funds are distributed, and set standards for learning, state-level officials are best positioned to examine why scores increased or decreased, Carr said.

Though Alabama's scores are flat, when examined over the long haul, improvement can be seen at both grade levels.

Here's a look at Alabama's fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores over time, compared with the national average for public schools.

In 1998, 2011, and 2013, Alabama's fourth-grade reading scores statistically reached the national average but were significantly lower than the national public school scores in all other years. Many gave credit for the rise in scores in 2011 to the Alabama Reading Initiative, or ARI. The program lost impact over the years, as the recession strained state coffers and money meant for the program was reallocated and ultimately cut from the program.

Alabama lawmakers increased funding for ARI for next year, hoping to reinvigorate the program by requiring a focus on the early grades.

Alabama's math scores have improved through the years but have never reached the national average and have always been significantly lower than national public school averages.

Because scale scores can be difficult to relate to real-world learning, NAEP also sets three achievement levels: basic, proficient, and advanced. Proficiency is the desirable level, but in recent years, researchers have pushed back, saying cut scores for proficiency are too high.

The bar is set at an aspirational level, based on what students should know and be able to do, according to Carr.

The official explanation of achievement levels on the NAEP website acknowledges that "proficient" does not mean grade-level and shouldn't be considered as such.

Looking at NAEP results that way, while Alabama still lands at the bottom of the pack, there are other states struggling to reach proficiency alongside Alabama.

The following maps were created by the National Center for Education Statistics. The shading shows states the percentages of students at or above proficiency in relation to the national average. There is one map for each set of scores.

The purpose of having all states take the NAEP, beginning in 2003, was to confirm achievement levels on state assessments in math and reading at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels. Prior to 2003, participation in the NAEP was voluntary.

Through the years, wide gaps emerged between the percentage of students reaching proficiency on a state's standardized test and the percentage of students reaching proficiency on the NAEP.

That gap became known as the "honesty gap," implying a state with a large gap may hold low expectations for students in setting the proficiency bar too low.

Before Alabama adopted the ACT Aspire for use in the 2013-2014 school year, a national organization called out states like Alabama where wide gaps exist. Alabama was praised as a "top truth-teller" the following year because ACT Aspire proficiency levels were closer to NAEP proficiency levels.

Alabama dropped the ACT Aspire in 2017 and is currently searching for another state assessment.

The NAEP was administered from January through March 2017. Students took the tests on tablets for the first time in 2017, and that has some questioning whether that switch could have had an impact on scores. Louisiana Superintendent John White has been vocal about his belief that the transition likely did impact scores. NCES Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr told reporters during a press call this week that officials there accounted for the switch through statistical methods. Some researchers are waiting to weigh in.

NAEP testing began in 1969. The test is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Education.

NAEP differs from other tests in a number of ways, including its status as a low-stakes test, meaning no consequences are attached to levels of performance on the NAEP.

Rather than have all students take the test, NAEP uses a statistically valid sample of about 200,000 students in each of the fourth and eighth grades. are tested across the country every two years in math and reading.

Students in those same grades are also tested in science at regular intervals, and the 2015 results, released in 2016, showed Alabama students at or near the bottom of the pack.

Tests are given to twelfth-grade students, and are also given in other subject areas, including writing, the arts, civics, geography, economics, U.S. history, and technology and engineering literacy. State-level results are not made available for those subjects nor at the twelfth-grade level.

NAEP results are broken down by race, ethnicity, poverty level, disability status, and English Language Learner status. Look for further analysis as those numbers become available.
A Florida teen accused of threatening a school shooting is now jailed in Alabama on a felony charge of making a terrorist threat.

Florida teen Anthony Kessler is now jailed in Alabama on a terrorist threat charge.

Anthony Kessler, a 19-year-old from Lehigh Acres, Florida, was arrested in Fort Myers nearly two weeks ago. He was held by Florida law enforcement until he was booked into the DeKalb County Jail in northeast Alabama on Monday, records show.

Kessler is accused of threatening a shooting at Fort Payne High School, police have said. Fort Payne Police Chief Randy Bynum has said Kessler made the threat March 5, claiming the shooting would happen the following day.

The case was investigated by Fort Payne detectives and the FBI.

Kessler was taken into custody at a restaurant in Fort Myers on March 28. He was captured by FBI agents and Lee County, Florida law enforcement.

Lehigh Acres, Florida is more than 700 miles from Fort Payne, Alabama. Police haven't said why they believe Kessler made the threat.

Kessler is held in the DeKalb County Jail without bail set.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is being honored for its work to educate the public about civil rights and bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community with the 2017 FBI Director's Community Leadership Award.

President and CEO of BCRI Andrea Taylor will represent the institute during an award presentation in Washington D.C. April 20.

"We are honored to receive this award from the FBI," stated Taylor, "Strong relationships with local and federal law enforcement are crucial to our community and we are grateful for the FBI's partnership in this endeavor."

FBI officials recognized BCRI for it's work to teach the public about civil and human rights through facilitating an atmosphere of dialogue and understanding, exploring the past and working to build a better future.

The institute has partnered with the Birmingham FBI office for a conference on civil rights and law enforcement for more than a decade. Officials say the conference is focused on bridging the gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

"BCRI truly embodies the meaning of this award," FBI Special Agency in Charge Johnnie Sharp said. "It's a privilege to be able to recognize BCRI for their partnership, their work in championing civil rights, and for working side by side with the FBI to connect law enforcement and the community."

The BCRI celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
Gov. Kay Ivey, speaking to reporters today on the one-year anniversary of her taking office, again declined to commit to a debate with her opponents before the June 5 primary.

Ivey took questions from reporters after speaking at a luncheon of the Alabama Women's Commission in Montgomery.

Ivey's campaign has said she cannot participate in an April 18 debate organized by Reckon for AL.com. Ivey is also not taking part in a debate set for Thursday night in Birmingham.

Asked today if she expected to participate in any debates before the primary, Ivey said she was not certain.

"I can't tell you that for sure because my job is to govern and to tend to the business of state," Ivey said. "Other campaigns, they can run their campaign like they need to and I'll run mine. But our schedule can't be set on the media or other's campaigns' wishes. I've got to meet the needs of the people and we're trying our very best to do that and will continue. "

Ivey became governor on April 10, 2017, when Robert Bentley resigned amid impeachment hearings and after a year-long scandal over allegations of an extramarital affair with a top adviser. Ivey was in her second term as lieutenant governor at the time.

For the first few months of her administration she said her goal was "steadying the ship of state." She announced in September she would run for a full term and her campaign has raised more than $3 million, far more than any of her opponents.

"This has been a fast, fast year," Ivey said. "In many ways, it seems like it has just flown by. But at the same time, it's a good feeling to know that Alabama is working again. People are gainfully employed able to provide for themselves and their families. People are doing much better and the morale is higher and the state has some direction now. "

Asked what has been most challenging about her first year on the job, Ivey said "the huge demand on my time."

"Every minute seems to be filled with media interviews or y'all want answers to questions or working with constituents and departments, etc. So, you don't have much time just to read a funny novel anymore."

Ivey's Republican opponents have committed to participating in Thursday night's GOP debate, to be hosted and aired by WVTM TV in Birmingham at 7 p.m. They are Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, evangelist Scott Dawson of Birmingham and state Sen. Bill Hightower of Mobile.

WVTM is also carrying a debate between Democratic candidates Sue Bell Cobb, James Fields and Walt Maddox at 9 p.m. tonight, April 11.

Raycom TV stations, The Birmingham Business Journal and WBHM 90.3 FM are hosting a forum for governor candidates Thursday, April 12 at 7 a.m.

Battle, Dawson and Hightower are also committed to the Reckon by AL.com debate on April 18.

Ivey's campaign told Reckon by AL.com that the governor would not be available for April 18 or any date in April. The campaign said they would offer dates in May and June but have not so far after multiple requests.

There will be on open lectern for Ivey at the GOP debate if she decides to attend.

This story was corrected at 10:04 a.m. on April 11 to correct information about this week's debate.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under fire for the worst privacy debacle in his company's history, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away often-aggressive questioning Tuesday from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the U.S. election.

During some five hours of Senate questioning, Zuckerberg apologized several times for Facebook failures, disclosed that his company was "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users' private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump's campaign.

Seemingly unimpressed, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Zuckerberg's company had a 14-year history of apologizing for "ill-advised decisions" related to user privacy. "How is today's apology different?" Thune asked.

"We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company," Zuckerberg conceded, and Facebook must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in "good and healthy" ways.

The controversy has brought a flood of bad publicity and sent the company's stock value plunging, but Zuckerberg seemed to achieve a measure of success in countering that: Facebook shares surged 4.5 percent for the day, the biggest gain in two years.

In all, he skated largely unharmed through his first day of congressional testimony. He'll face House questioners Wednesday.

The 33-year-old founder of the world's best-known social media giant appeared in a suit and tie, a departure from the T-shirt he's famous for wearing in public as well as in private. Even so, his youth cast a sharp contrast with his often-elderly, gray-haired Senate inquisitors. And the enormous complexity of the social network he created at times defeated the attempts of legislators to hammer him on Facebook's specific failures and how to fix them.

The stakes are high for both Zuckerberg and his company. Facebook has been reeling from its worst-ever privacy failure following revelations last month that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Trump's 2016 campaign, improperly scooped up data on some 87 million users. Zuckerberg has been on an apology tour for most of the past two weeks, culminating in his congressional appearance Tuesday.

Although shaky at times, Zuckerberg seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed. An iconic figure as a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the way people around the world relate to each other, he made a point of repeatedly referring back to the Harvard dorm room where he said Facebook was brought to life.

At times, he showed plenty of steel. After a round of aggressive questioning about Facebook's alleged political bias from Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, Zuckerberg grinned and almost chuckled. "That was pretty good," he said of the exchange with Cruz.

For the most part, his careful but generally straightforward answers, steeped in the sometimes arcane details of Facebook's underlying functions, often deflected aggressive questioning. When the going got tough, Zuckerberg was able to fall back on: "Our team should follow up with you on that, Senator."

As a result, he found it relatively easy to return to familiar talking points: Facebook made mistakes, he and his executives are very sorry, and they're working very hard to correct the problems and safeguard the users' data.

As for the federal Russia probe that has occupied much of Washington's attention for months, he said he had not been interviewed by special counsel Mueller's team, but "I know we're working with them." He offered no details, citing a concern about confidentiality rules of the investigation.

Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and politicking on U.S. soil. A number of the Russian ads were on Facebook.

Much of the effort was aimed at denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and thereby helping Republican Trump, or simply encouraging divisiveness and undercutting faith in the U.S. system.

Zuckerberg said Facebook had been led to believe Cambridge Analytica had deleted the user data it had harvested and that had been "clearly a mistake." He said Facebook had considered the data collection "a closed case" and had not alerted the Federal Trade Commission. He assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.

Separately, the company began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that "one of your friends" used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life." The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg is trying to both restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated.

Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida said he believes Zuckerberg was taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."

Republicans have yet to get behind any legislation, but that could change.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Zuckerberg if he would be willing to work with lawmakers to examine what "regulations you think are necessary in your industry."

Absolutely, Zuckerberg responded, saying later in an exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that "I'm not the type of person who thinks that all regulation is bad."

Ahead of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said, "This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action."

At the hearing, Zuckerberg said: "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

He outlined steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 -- actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

--By Mary Clare Jalonick, Barbara Ortutay and David Hamilton, Associated Press. Associated Press writers Richard Lardner and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
The plan was to go home and pretend nothing happened. The shame would have kept her silent, but Alexis Barton chose to use her voice. She decided to speak out as a sexual assault survivor.

"I didn't believe rape happened to good girls from good families with good manners and good educations," Barton said. "What happened to me on Nov. 9, 2003 changed all that."

Barton said she was a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when she was raped in her car. She said she was at an off-campus party when she met up with a man she considered a friend. He was a smart, polite community servant, she said.

"I thought he was harmless," Barton said. "I had no indication he could present a danger."

Barton's case was never prosecuted, and she chose not to sue. But that didn't keep her from speaking out.

Barton told her story of surviving sexual assault at the National Crime Victims' Rights Week breakfast event in Huntsville on Tuesday. She was the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Survivor Award. The event was hosted by Crisis Services of North Alabama along with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama and the Madison County District Attorney's Office.

Barton is a Brewton, Alabama native. A marketing manager for the University of Alabama, she's also a freelance journalist living in Birmingham. Barton is a member of the Junior League of Birmingham and serves on the board of directors of One Place Metro Alabama Family Justice Center.

After her assault, Barton said, she told a friend who convinced her to report it to police. Within hours, Barton was being treated at the Crisis Center in Birmingham. At Tuesday's event, she thanked those who work in the victims services field.

"What they do matters," Barton told AL.com. "Jobs like theirs take very special people. They are ready to help you in a way that preserves your dignity. We never forget them."

#MeToo

Barton spoke out about her sexual assault long before the #MeToo Movement swept the world with stories about powerful men like Harvey Weinstein. But, back then it was taboo, she said. Today, survivors and victims are emboldened--telling their stories and letting the world know #TimesUp, she said.

What Barton hopes people realize through the movement -- a reckoning with sexual assault and rape culture -- is that not all victims are the same, but they deserve to be believed.

"Not all survivors look like me," she said. "This goes far beyond race, gender, sexual preference, political identity or sexual identity. It can happen to anyone. But, none of us deserves to be raped."

Emboldening victims

U.S. Attorney Jay Town and Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard also spoke at Tuesday's event. In interviews with AL.com, they praised the event as a celebration of those victims who become survivors.

It's because of resources like Crisis Services providing support and counseling that victims have the power to become survivors, Town said.

Broussard said the event was a reminder of the critical role victim service officers fill in the criminal justice system. Aside from counseling, health care and other critical needs, victims services workers also support victims as they navigate the legal system.

"This is a reminder of how essential victim services officers are," Broussard said. "There would be no way possible for prosecutors to meet those needs alone."

Town also spoke about the importance of successful prosecution in violent crimes cases.

"Victims of crime are encouraged to come forward when they see successful prosecution," Town said. "It emboldens them to come forward rather than thinking nothing is going to happen."

Recognizing those who serve

In addition to Barton being awarded the 2018 Distinguished Survivor title, victims advocates around north Alabama were recognized at the event:

2018 Victims' Advocate: Veleda Davis,

a victim advocate at the non-profit AshaKiran volunteer center in Madison County

2018 State Prosecutor: Angie Hamilton, an assistant district attorney in Lauderdale County

2018 Law Enforcement: ATF
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., was confirmed Tuesday as the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee - an influential post that plays a major role in allocating federal funding.

The announcement makes Shelby the first senator from Alabama to head the committee, which was formed in 1867.

"My colleagues have placed their trust in me to lead the Senate Appropriations Committee, and I am honored to serve our nation in this new capacity," Shelby said in a statement. "This is a remarkable opportunity. I look forward to working with [Democratic]Vice Chairman [Patrick] Leahy and the entire committee as we continue the practice of writing and approving bills that responsibly allocate funding for the activities and duties of the federal government."

Shelby will also chair the committee's Defense Subcommittee, which by far is responsible for the largest share of the federal budget.

"I am proud to take on a larger role, helping to secure funding to strengthen our military," the senator said. "With heightened global instability, as well as diverse and complex threats currently facing the United States, national security is of the utmost importance."

The retirement earlier this month of the committee's former chairman, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, paved the way for Shelby to ascend to the chairmanship. Shelby had his eye set on leading the committee when he ran for re-election in 2016.
Roy Moore has filed a counterclaim against Leigh Corfman, who has accused the former U.S. Senate candidate of making unwanted sexual advances and filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore in January.

Moore, in filings late Monday by his new attorney, also asked the Montgomery County court to stop all proceedings in the case pending a ruling by the Alabama Civil Court of Appeals made by Moore on a lower court's ruling.

Finally, Moore responded to Corfman's lawsuit by "strongly" denying "all accusations of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct." Those denials are consistent with Moore's previous denials since the allegations were first published by The Washington Post on Nov. 9, 2017.

The counterclaim described Corfman's lawsuit as "frivolous and groundless."

"This is and has been a political attempt to smear the good name and reputation of Judge Roy Moore, and we will not let this injustice continue," said Moore's new attorney, Melissa Isaak, in a statement Tuesday morning. "(Monday night), we filed claims for slander and defamation against Leigh Corfman, and claimed damages for attorney fees under the Alabama Litigation Accountability Act. We also continue to argue that this case should be tried in Etowah County, and wonder why Leigh Corfman has chosen to file this case in Montgomery and not Etowah County, where both she and Judge Moore reside and where her character and reputation are well known."

The issue of moving the case from Montgomery County to Etowah County is the basis for Moore's appeal to the higher court. The presiding judge in the case, Roman Ashley Shaul, denied Moore's motion to relocate the case to Etowah County.

Moore and Corfman are scheduled to be in court on Thursday in Montgomery for the first hearing of the lawsuit. If Shaul grants Moore's request to stay all proceedings until the appeals court renders its decision, that hearing would be postponed.

In the counterclaim, Moore alleges, "The statements made by Leigh Corfman were slanderous, libelous and were of such magnitude as to amount to defamation of Mr. Moore. No evidence other than the self-serving testimony of Leigh Corfman exists to support her contention that she was sexually abused or pursued romantically by Mr. Moore when she was fourteen years of age."

Neil Roman, an attorney for Corfman, issued a statement Tuesday to AL.com.

"Our client has been repeatedly called a liar--including in this court filing by Roy Moore," the statement said. "As we have said all along, Ms. Corfman's focus is on holding those who say that she lied accountable, and we look forward to the discovery process in our case against Mr. Moore and his campaign committee and defending our client in court."

In The Washington Post story in November, Corfman stated that in the winter of 1979, Moore took her to his rural Etowah County home, undressed her and touched her over her underwear and guided her hand to touch his penis. Corfman was 14 years old at the time and Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney.

The accusations upended the ongoing U.S. Senate campaign one month before the election and Democrat Doug Jones narrowly defeated Moore to win the seat vacated early in 2017 by Jeff Sessions, who became U.S. attorney general.

"Mr. Moore avers that but for Leigh Corfman making false and malicious statements to members of national and local media, his reputation would not have suffered irrevocable damage that affected the outcome of the Senate election in December 2017," the counterclaim said.

In Moore's counterclaim, Corfman is described as "a deeply troubled child whose behavior was so intolerable and uncontrollable, that her mother felt it necessary to transfer custody of her to her father when she was fourteen years of age."

Moore's counterclaim said that there is no evidence that the encounter with Corfman took place beyond her statements.

"The statements made by Leigh Corfman accused Roy Moore, in his capacity as Deputy District Attorney, of sexually abusing her when she was 14 years of age," the counterclaim said. "These statements were made despite no physical evidence of abuse, no documentary evidence of abuse, no corroborating police reports indicating that Leigh Corfman was abused, no corroborating court documents indicating Leigh Corfman was abused, and, in fact, no corroborating proof other than her allegation that she 'vaguely' told a friend."

The counterclaim also said that prior to The Post story, Corfman never had any direct or indirect contact as a child or an adult with Moore.

Corfman's made statements to The Post "that she knew to be false," the counterclaim said.

Updated today, April 10, 2018, at 11:23 a.m. with new information throughout.

Updated today, April 10, 2018, at 11:51 a.m. with statement from Corfman's attorney.

Roy Moore's response and counterclaim to Leigh Corfman lawsuit by pgattis7719 on Scribd
Consumers accustomed to signing for credit card purchases will soon see a change. Starting on April 14, Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover are doing away with the requirement that shoppers sign receipts for credit and debit sales. Some merchants may still require signatures but the credit card companies themselves are dropping the stipulation that shoppers provide their autograph.

Mastercard announced the change late last year, effective in April.

"While security remains paramount, we know that convenience is also a large part of what consumers want when they are shopping and paying. Removing the need for a signature is a change our merchant partners support," Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of MasterCard's U.S. market development division, wrote in a blog post. "The move will help merchants speed customers through checkout, provide more consistent experiences for every customer with every purchase and should decrease costs associated with safely storing signatures."

Kirkpatrick said research showed most people believed doing away with the signature requirement would speed up the check-out process.

Industry officials said the change in requirements is made possible due to improvements in card security - particularly chip-embedded cards. According to Visa, the company saw sharp declines in counterfeit credit card fraud after the launch of chip-embedded cards in 2015.

Visa said chip-enabled merchants have seen a 66 percent decline in frequency of counterfeit card fraud occurrences over the last two years, as well as a 58 percent decline in counterfeit fraud losses.
Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin's purchase of a $750,000 house in Orange Beach is an example of poor budgeting principles Alabama has had in place for generations, one GOP candidate for governor said Monday.

Bill Hightower, a state Senator from Mobile, said Entrekin was able to purchase the beach house "because of earmarking." He cited the sheriff's home purchase as an illustration for his vision of budget reform and banning "all earmarks." The pledge is included as an "Alabama First" initiative Hightower is touting on the campaign trail.

"The process of earmarks has bound our budget for decades, since 1940," Hightower told AL.com after delivering his remarks during a Mobile County GOP "meet and greet" event with 38 candidates inside a Presbyterian church.

Said Hightower "We've had a budget that is at least 90 percent earmarked. The Etowah County Sheriff had earmarking as well with monies that come from (prisoner meals) and he used that to build a second home. This is the kind of waste and fraud earmarking brings. No other state has a budget earmarked like we do."

Hightower's remarks were the first known public comments from a high-profile Republican candidate running for office this year on how sheriff's are utilizing meal money set aside to feed inmates. Republican Auditor Jim Zeigler, who is running for re-election, has called for an investigation into the sheriff's finances.

Entrekin, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing since AL.com published multiple reports last month detailing how he had been pocketing $250,000 in "excess" money for feeding the inmates at his jail for the past three years. An Alabama law, last updated in 1939, allows sheriffs to pocket excesses in public money they receive to feed inmates inside their jails.

"He took money from prisoners and repurposed it for a house and the law says it was OK," said Hightower. "Here, the thing, just because the law says it was OK doesn't mean it is right. That's why we need to make sure our ethics are solid in Alabama."

Hightower was joined in Mobile during the GOP event with Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and a representative with Scott Dawson's campaign. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, whose campaign has indicated will not attend upcoming debates, did not have a representative present.

Battle, who is in coastal Alabama on Tuesday touring oyster farms and shipbuilders, told the Mobile County GOP officials that he will "not embarrass" the state or Republicans.

He also emphasized how Huntsville has had "a great run" in bringing jobs under his leadership as mayor.

"We've put an emphasis on education, infrastructure and 24,000 jobs (added) over the last 10 years," Battle said. "Why is that important? That's my record. That's my skill set."

Aside from governor candidates, the GOP event drew a host of judicial hopefuls. Among them was Tom Parker, the conservative judge on the Alabama Supreme Court who is seeking the court's chief justice position.

Parker blamed billionaire investor George Soros and the Southern Poverty Law Center for attempting to undermine his campaign. He said the U.S. Supreme Court is only one conservative justice away from a majority, and that America is at a "pivotal point" of "regaining" itself.

"The courts are the battleground in our society," said Parker, who battles Lyn Stuart in the GOP primary. Stuart was not at the Mobile County GOP event. "We need judges who stand firm. I got that track record."

Other judicial hopefuls said they plan to be "fair" or "consistent" if elected to the respective benches they seek.

"When a judge considers all arguments, fairness and consistency takes care of itself," said Christy Olinger Edwards of Montgomery, who is seeking the GOP's nomination in the Court of Civil Appeals Place 1 race. "It's not what Christy Edwards thinks the law should be, it's about applying the laws as they are written fairly, consistently and clearly."

Michelle Thomason, a district judge in Baldwin County since 2006, is one of her opponents. She touted her record in developing a veterans court to assist military men and women who run afoul of the law.

"We give them rehabilitation and treatment instead of sending them to jail," she said.
When Gov. Robert Bentley resigned from office a year ago this week, his ugly departure left us with those same old questions.

What did he know?

And, when did he know it?

A revelation from the investigations that followed explained a lot: In 2013, his senior political advisor and love interest, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, had given orders to staff: Do not show the governor any negative news. Bentley had lived in a bubble, shielded from the truth.

It explained why, as lawmakers debated impeachment, Bentley whistled past the graveyard.

It explained why, as reporters dug through flight records and visitor logs, he insisted that no one in the public cared.

And for me, it explained Bentley's first, biggest blunder: Why after campaigning on a promise not to raise taxes, the governor tried to break that promise a week after his reelection.

And today, it explains why acting Gov. Kay Ivey should agree to debate her opponents, and if she refuses, why voters should send her home.

History stutters

In the last two years, a narrative has taken shape -- of a doting public that turned on the governor in 2016 after he went sex crazy and betrayed his wife.

In reality, Alabama soured on Bentley much earlier than that, in 2014 when he committed a much graver, unforgivable sin -- when he tried to raise our taxes.

Bentley had campaigned for reelection on a simple slogan: "More jobs. Less government. No new taxes."

What was apparent to everyone in government then -- but what Bentley refused to acknowledge -- was that Alabama had a gaping hole in its budget, somewhere between $150 million and $250 million.

But it was an election year, and Bentley pretended that hole didn't exist.

If the political process had worked, Bentley would have had to confront the truth before Election Day.

Instead, Bentley shuttled from one staged event to the next, not taking many questions from reporters, and in the general election, Bentley refused to debate his Democratic opponent, Parker Griffith.

The political chattering class said then, as they are saying about Ivey now, that Bentley would be a fool to debate. He was popular. Debating could only hurt him.

But herein lies the problem. While debating could only hurt Bentley, refusing to debate would only hurt Alabama.

As everyone predicted, Bentley breezed through the election. And a week after that election was over, he made a grim announcement. He had met with his advisors, he said, and guess what they told him? The state budget had a hole in it! And the only way to patch that hole, Bentley said, was to raise taxes.

And maybe he wasn't lying. Perhaps he believed he was telling the truth. But in the end, it didn't matter. Bentley's popularity burned up like a papier-mache parade float passing through a bonfire.

Would debates have helped? Maybe. Maybe not. But Alabama voters would have had an opportunity to see Bentley confront the truth before the election rather than after.

And history stutters

Now we have a governor who moves from one staged event to the next, with fewer and fewer Q & A's in between.

Now we have a governor whose press aides screen reporters questions before making her available to answer them.

Now we have a governor, who despite having been asked by my colleagues Anna Claire Vollers and John Archibald since February, can't find time to sit for an interview.

Now we have a governor -- someone who wasn't elected to the office she holds -- refusing to debate her opponents in the primary, much less the general election.

It's happening again, isn't it? This is our Alabama Groundhog Day.

In Alabama, history doesn't repeat itself. It stutters.

Already, I've had folks on Twitter asking me, "When has it ever been to an incumbent governor's advantage to debate?"

It's not to her advantage to debate. It's to voters' advantage. And if those two things conflict and she puts her needs first, that should tell voters what they need to know about her.

As we've seen before, not only are debates an opportunity for voters to learn about candidates, but they can give governors a chance to learn what their advisors might be hiding from them.

Debates are an opportunity for voters to learn what do you know.

Before someone has to ask, And when did you know it?

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.
Sofia Padron pinned a green ribbon to a cork board on Turlington Plaza Monday. She was thinking of her close friends who have struggled with mental illness.

A lot of people think you can just get over it, the 19-year-old UF English freshman said. Mental illness needs a healing process just like a physical injury does.

Students hung ribbons and learned about mental health resources during Gators Chomp the Stigma, the opening event the third-annual Mental Health Awareness Week, which began Monday and will continue through Friday, said Phat Huynh, the 20-year-old cabinet director. The Health Affairs Cabinet, a division of UF Student Governments executive branch, is hosting the weeks five events. The awareness week has a total budget of up to $2,000, which is funded through SG.

A lot of students are worried to talk about those issues because they may not be familiar with them, the UF applied physiology and kinesiology junior said.

Lynh Nguyen, an assistant director in the cabinet, said the week focuses on five different mental illnesses: depression, anxiety and panic disorder, substance abuse and addictive disorder, eating disorders and bipolar disorder.

Its definitely a hush-hush topic, the 21-year-old UF health sciences senior said. People are afraid to speak about it. For those who are too shy to come to our events, I would hope to give a flyer to a friend who can maybe help them open up.

At Tuesdays event Taking the First Step, organizations related to mental health, like the Counseling and Wellness Center, will show students some resources available to them, Huynh said.

On Wednesday, a panel  Totally Cool or Taboo?  will discuss a multicultural take on mental health. Organizations such as Hispanic Student Association and Asian American Student Union will be present, Huynh said. On Thursday, SG will hand out free refreshments and have a yoga instructor leading exercise on Plaza of the Americas.

The weeklong campaign will finish Friday, with the Health Affairs Cabinet passing out stress kits, Huynh said. The kits will include stress balls, candy and encouraging notes written by other students.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Reitz Union North Lawn - Taking the First Step where organizations related to mental health will talk about the resources they provide

Wednesday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Reitz Union Auditorium - Totally Cool or Taboo? is a mental health panel with a multicultural perspective.

Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Plaza of the Americas - Stress Free with SG will have free refreshments and a yoga instructor.

Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Turlington plaza - Continuing the Fight where stress kits will be handed out to students

Graffiti art touching on the topic of mental health adorns the walls of Norman Tunnel in November 2017.

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By enticing them with food, UF President Kent Fuchs convinced seven students to register to vote Monday.

Ive walked around and harassed students that hadnt registered, Fuchs said. I had an advantage, though. I had the cookie plate with me.

Fuchs encouraged students to register to vote and get civically involved by giving them sugar cookies. His efforts were part of an event held by the Bob Graham Center and the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections from 4 to 5 p.m. on the Reitz Union breezeway. A total of 15 students registered, said Shelby Taylor, the communications director for the Bob Graham Center.

Taylor said she hoped to reach about 200 students in some way  by having them register to vote, update their registration to vote in Alachua County or get more involved in the voting process.

About 80 percent of UF students are currently registered, Taylor said, but she wants to make that number closer to 100. Because of that, the center will hold more events including civic trivia and debate watch parties before National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 29, which is the last day to register to cast a ballot in November.

At about 4:30 p.m., Fuchs and Kim Barton, the Alachua County supervisor of elections who also participated in the event, walked into the Reitz Union food court.

Some students asked Fuchs for selfies.

Can I be in the picture too? Barton asked. Im somebody.

Barton said she was excited to tell students about online registration and encourage them to volunteer as poll workers.

Its important to us that students have an important voice with their vote, Barton said.

Claire Generato, a UF industrial engineering sophomore, said its nice Fuchs cares about the Student Body registering to vote because its an important process.

In the grand scheme of things, you think youre just one vote out of a million, but your opinion can really change things, the 20-year-old said.

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Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @Lewis__Robert.

From left: UF President Kent Fuchs assists Natalie Evelev, an 18-year-old UF biomedical engineering freshman, with registering to vote at the Voter Registration Drive with UF President Kent Fuchs and Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton outside the Reitz Union on Monday afternoon. Evelev said she wanted to register to vote.
A potential ban on Chinese steel imports by Taiwan could disrupt trade flows in Asia, with the stainless steel segment set to be hardest hit, market sources told Metal Bulletin this week.

The ban is necessary so that Taiwan can start negotiations with the United States to be exempted from the [countrys] Section 232 tariffs [on steel and aluminium imports], a Taiwanese trader said.



Several industry sources in Asia believe Taiwans ban - if it materializes - would apply to cargoes meant for domestic consumption in the island as well as those meant for processing before being subsequently exported to other destinations.



No official announcement has been published but several sources in Taiwan said government officials had reached out to them over the implementation of such a move.



Even if it is just a rumor, Taiwanese buyers will be very reluctant to place orders for products from China because its simply too risky [in case future shipments are prevented from entering Taiwan], a stainless steel mill source in China said.



If implemented, the ban is expected to disrupt Asian steel trade flows, especially for stainless steel since Taiwan is the biggest importer of these products from China, market participants said.



Big buyer

Taiwan received the largest share of Chinas total stainless exports last year, at 21%, or 786,700 tonnes, according to a US Department of Commerce report.



During the first two months of 2018, Taiwan accounted for 22% of stainless flats shipped from China.



China shipped a total of 1.63 million tonnes of finished steel to Taiwan last year, of which 780,236 tonnes were stainless flat steel, according to Chinese customs data.



Market participants in the Chinese mainland have expressed concern over the possibility of other export destinations, especially those in Asia, considering a similar move against Chinese steel.



Asian buyers procured 80% of all Chinese stainless flat steel exports in the first two months of this year.



The Taiwanese government is said to be looking to block China-origin flat products, especially hot-rolled coil, hot-rolled plate, cold-rolled coil - annealed and full hard, according to a trader based in the territory.



Local mills have been importing these Chinese products for coating and processing, before selling the value-added products to the US, the trader said.



The US saw its steel imports from Taiwan rise from 983,245 tonnes in 2016 to 1.12 million tonnes last year. Of last years total, 340,415 tonnes consisted of metallic-coated sheet and strip, 212,368 tonnes were hot-dipped galvanized sheet and strip, and 129,298 tonnes were oil country tubular goods.



The US also imported 133,807 tonnes of stainless steel from Taiwan last year, including 49,882 tonnes of cold-rolled stainless steel sheet, 33,875 tonnes of stainless steel pipe and tubing as well as 21,136 tonnes of cold-finished stainless steel bar.



Another producer source in south China said there was a possibility for stainless steel to be excluded from the potential ban because many Taiwanese mills rely on materials from their counterparts in the mainland.



One East Asian stainless steel buyer source said that Taiwan might decide to impose anti-dumping duties instead of a blanket ban.



Otherwise, if the measure is too extreme and protectionist, international authorities such as the World Trade Organization might become involved, he said.



Stumbling block

Traders in Taiwan anticipate a ban to have a significant impact on the territorys stainless steel segment.



About 70-80% of stainless steel imported to Taiwan is from China, a second trader on the island said.



Taiwanese stainless steel mills will likely face supply issues and be driven to import more materials from other countries, especially Indonesia, several sources said.



Tsingshan Group Holdings, one of Chinas largest stainless steel producer, started its Indonesian operations late last year. It has been producing hot-rolled stainless steel in the Southeast Asian country to export to the rest of Asia, Metal Bulletin understands.



Aside from Tsingshan Indonesia, Taiwanese buyers might have to look for alternative sources such as Europe and India, according to a trader in Southeast Asia who handles Chinese materials.



But buyers in Southeast Asian who procure value-added stainless steel from Taiwan might not accept the quality of products processed from non-Chinese materials, which could dampen Taiwans sales.



If Taiwanese mills cannot get stainless hot-rolled coil from [major Chinese producers], some of their customers who want products of better quality will purchase directly from China, the Southeast Asia-based trader said.



A ban will also worsen oversupply for the Chinese stainless steel sector and push prices down further, another trader in east China said.



However, some market participants think a ban on Chinese products would not have that great an effect on Taiwans stainless steel sector.



Taiwan has its own stainless steel producers too, so if they can produce more and export less, they might be able to meet domestic demand, a supplier source in China said.



The second Taiwan-based trader reckons that domestic mills have enough capacity to supply to local consumers, in addition to them importing from other countries, but stainless steel products will become more expensive in Taiwan.



The market will need some time to adjust, and its difficult to say how much Taiwans prices will rise, he said.



Metal Bulletins assessment of prices for benchmark 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil was $2,080-2,130 per tonne cif East Asian ports for the week ended April 4, down $10-50 per tonne week on week. As for stainless hot-rolled sheet, the price assessment for the same period was $2,040-2,140 per tonne cif, down $10-30 per tonne from a week earlier.



Carbon steel

On the other hand, a ban on Chinese steel imports in Taiwan will not have that big an impact on Chinas carbon steel segment, sources said.



Taiwan does not import large quantities of carbon steel from China, according to data from the territorys Ministry of Finance.



Last year, Taiwan imported 26,274 tonnes of alloyed flat-rolled steel under HS Code 7225 and 9,766 tonnes of non-alloyed flat-rolled steel under HS code 7208 from China. It also imported 12,143 tonnes of Chinese non-alloyed wire rod under HS code 7217. It did not import any rebar or rod in coils from China last year.



Taiwanese trade authorities are negotiating with their US counterparts to gain exemption from the proposed Section 232 tariffs of 25% on steel imports.



Taiwans Ministry of Economic Affairs said in late March that it was disappointed that the territory was not among a list of countries for which the tariffs are temporarily waived while talks for permanent exemptions take place.



The Taiwan government will communicate fully with the US and strive for exemptions. It will also assist the steel industry in submitting product exclusion applications and pay close attention to the ongoing case, the ministry said.



AMM Newsroom


The Director for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, the Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer, reviews A Church Observed: Being Anglican as Times Change, a new book by Andrew Norman.

How can we get to know, in the words of Bishop John Hind, the bewildering diversity of Anglicanism? One way is to visit as many Anglicans as possible across the world, and another is to read about the history of the Communion, such as in the recently published and magnificent five-volume Oxford History of Anglicanism. But for most people these are not realistic options.

Andrew Normans A Church Observed comes to the rescue. Using his own life and work within the Anglican Communion as a connecting thread, Norman describes a cross section of Anglican communities and churches, from his grandfather Fr Harry Nobbs ministry in Canada through to his own recent post as principal of Ridley Hall in Cambridge.

On the way we travel with him via Nobbs ministrys in the Western Isles of Scotland, Glasgow, Durham pit villages and Essex, then to Normans farming background in Sussex, school life at Ardingly College and undergraduate life at University College Oxford, then a gap year travelling in Nigeria with tense encounters with police and immigration officials, work in the business world, chaplaincy in Paris (on two occasions), some years at Lambeth Palace as Archbishop Rowans secretary for ecumenical and Anglican Communion affairs, and then the move to Ridley.

This varied journey becomes the hook on which Norman hangs the recent history of the Church of England and of wider Anglican life. The book skilfully summarises a wide range of developments including Reformation origins, Nineteenth century revivals, the failure of Church of England chaplaincy during the First World War, the rise of the ecumenical movement and evolving relationships with Rome, evangelistic missions in Oxford (with David Watson) and Huddersfield (with Michael Green), urban strife and the response of the C of E in the report Faith in the City, liturgical revisions and the arrival of Common Worship, important visits by Archbishop Roman to Polynesia and China and, looming increasingly large, sharp divisions over sexuality and bishops across the Communion, Lambeth 2008 and the ill-fated Anglican Communion Covenant.

With his move to Ridley comes description of the fresh expressions phenomenon and pioneer ministry in the C of E and its moves towards ordaining women to the episcopate under Archbishop Justin Welby. The story ends with the Primates in Canterbury in 2016 unanimously agreeing to walk together, however painful this is, and despite our differences, as a deep expression of our unity in the body of Christ.

The whole story is told in an engaging and informative way. The lightness of style should not obscure the scholarly basis of the book, which is well referenced with 30 pages of notes and 20 pages of bibliography (plus some appendices). Each chapter summaries its key findings in a few final paragraphs.

The penultimate chapter summarises what the main drivers of change in recent Anglicanism have been, and the final chapter presents Normans take on its abiding characteristics, the kind of circuitry required to generate vibrant Anglican activity across the world. The book is a triumph of synthesis. While it cannot be comprehensive (eg, there is not very much about ordinary middle of the road parishes), and while it inevitably presents a personal take on Anglicanism, it covers a breadth of Anglican national and global developments that is hard to find described elsewhere. It is also very accessible, with each element of the story introduced and explained without assuming prior knowledge.

How will Anglicanism fare in the years ahead? Reading the book certainly raises the question. It mentions the decline in attendances in the Church of England at several points alongside remarkable growth in many other parts of the world. Is, then, the C of E to become an increasingly congregational and marginal association, or will it retain a society-wide role? On the other hand, are growing churches in other parts of the world going to take on society-wide ministries or will they remain congregationally focussed?

Norman does not answer these questions but his book is very much a half full rather than half empty portrait of where it is at the moment, and so instils a sense of hope. Highly recommended.
Posted on: April 10, 2018 9:14 AM

Preparations are almost complete for the biennial meeting of leaders from 53 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, which will take place next week in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Lancaster House, the Commonwealths international headquarters. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is one of the worlds largest international summits, bringing together representatives from small and large nations across the globe. Representatives from a number of Anglican provinces within the Commonwealth will be taking part; and in a parallel event, the Archbishop of Canterbury will host a High-Level Roundtable on Freedom of Religion or Belief at Lambeth Palace, his official London residence.

The Commonwealth of Nations  originally called the British Commonwealth  is mainly made up of countries that used to be part of the British Empire. It is a voluntary association of 53 independent nations of equal status. Commonwealth countries are present in 26 Anglican provinces from the Americas to Oceania (see below).

Next weeks summit is expected to attract around 5,000 participants from government, business, and civil society under the theme Towards a Common Future. Ahead of the meetings, the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach at an eve-of-Summit evensong service at Westminster Abbey.

On Monday, three days of forums begin, covering youth, women, business and civil society  and a number of the participants are women and young people from the Anglican Communion. The formal summit business begins with a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign ministers on Wednesday before the heads of government assemble at Buckingham Palace for the formal opening on Thursday. On Friday, the leaders will head to Windsor Castle for a private retreat, where they will discuss collaboration on global and Commonwealth priorities and consider reform and renewal of the Commonwealth.

CHOGM 2018 promises to deliver transformational change for the people of the Commonwealth, Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said. The presidents and prime ministers and other high-level government representatives from one quarter of the countries of the world are assembling. Through consensus they will reach agreement on collective action, with the impact of their decisions likely to extend far beyond the boundaries of the Commonwealth.

Agreement among our culturally diverse and geographically widespread member countries to collaborate and innovate often provides the basis for broader progress regionally and internationally. Immediate impact combined with wider influence make the Commonwealth an unparalleled force for building understanding and cooperation towards realising global goals for social and political progress, inclusive prosperity, and sustainable development.

At their meeting next week, the leaders will consider a Commonwealth Blue Charter on ocean governance, a connectivity agenda for trade and investment, a declaration on cybercrime and revised Commonwealth guidelines on election observation in member countries.

The Womens Forum will explore the Commonwealths role in achieving gender equality in line with UN aspirations and the crucial role women have to play in politics, business and peace building; while the Youth Forum will bring 500 young people together to engage in planning, capacity-building and a general assembly where they will finalise their priorities on youth-led action in development.

The womens, youth and business forums will also meet together, to discuss ways in which their shared agendas can support each others aims.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby  who appointed a special representative to the Commonwealth, Flora Winfield, last October  has published a prayer for the Commonwealth (see below), and will take an active role in a number of CHOGM-related events. The Commonwealth summit can be a major step in educating, supporting and inspiring us in the UK, to be outward looking, part of a family, a Commonwealth with whom we trade, in material goods and cultural and moral good, the archbishop said.

The majority of the 39 provinces of the Anglican Communion are part of the Commonwealth, and we in the Church of England learn much from them to our mutual benefit.

Hosting the summit in London gives us the opportunity throughout the country to learn and celebrate the heritage of those in our communities whose family roots are in the countries of the commonwealth. They are a dynamic and integral part of who we are. We are a richer, diverse society through what they bring. Let us celebrate their gift of culture, faith and entrepreneurial spirit in our national life.

Next weeks meeting will be the second time that the UK has hosted a CHOGM summit. The first was in Edinburgh in 1997. The host country of the next CHOGM meeting, in 2020, will be decided at next weeks summit.

A Prayer for the Commonwealth

Almighty Father

Who has made us stewards of your glorious creation, and a wonderful family of diverse nations,

Grant to people everywhere, and especially to the peoples of the Commonwealth,

A spirit of reverence and responsibility for all that you have made,

A spirit of peace and reconciliation in the affairs of the world

And a spirit of justice and cooperation in the sharing of your bounty,

That all may flourish and give you glory.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.

Anglican Communion Provinces and their Commonwealth Countries

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia

Fiji

Kiribati

Nauru

New Zealand

Samoa

Tonga

Tuvalu

The Anglican Church of Australia

Australia

The Church of Bangladesh (United)

Bangladesh

The Anglican Church of Canada

Canada

Church of the Province of Central Africa

Botswana

Malawi

Zambia

The Church of England

Malta

United Kingdom

The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean

Mauritius

The Church of Ireland

United Kingdom

The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East

Cyprus

The Anglican Church of Kenya

Kenya

The Church of the Province of Melanesia

Solomon Islands

Vanuatu

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

Nigeria

Church of North India (United)

India

Church of Pakistan (United)

Pakistan

The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

LEglise Episcopal au Rwanda

Rwanda

The Scottish Episcopal Church

United Kingdom

The Church of the Province of South East Asia

Brunei Darussalam

Malaysia

Singapore

The Church of South India (United)

India

The Church of the Province of Southern Africa

Lesotho

Mozambique

Namibia

South Africa

Swaziland

The Anglican Church of Tanzania

United Republic of Tanzania

The Church of the Province of Uganda

Uganda

The Church in Wales

United Kingdom

The Church of the Province of West Africa

Cameroon

The Gambia

Ghana

Sierra Leone

The Church in the Province of the West Indies

Antigua and Barbuda

The Bahamas

Barbados

Belize

Dominica

Grenada

Guyana

Jamaica

Saint Lucia

St Kitts and Nevis

St Vincent and The Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

The Church of Ceylon (Extra Provincial)
Posted on: April 10, 2018 2:49 PM

Archbishop Ron Cutler has given his support to a campaign against the lifting of a moratorium on fracking in Nova Scotia. Bishop Ron added his weight to a letter signed by representatives of 40 different community groups who oppose any lifting on the ban. Fracking is the extraction of oil or gas from subterranean rocks, through the use of high pressure liquid to force open fissures. It is opposed by environmentalists because of the damage it can cause to the environment.

In January, Nova Scotias Premier Stephen McNeil had been quoted as saying that if communities decide that theyre going to give us social license for fracking to happen, wed be happy to join them.

Energy Minister Geoff MacLellan, for his part, said he was looking forward to the debate on fracking following the publication of an onshore petroleum atlas for the province that identified 4.3 trillion cubic feet of shale gas.

Both McNeil and MacLellan later said the moratorium was still in place.

We havent finalised the regulations for that fracking ban, MacLellan told the Truro Daily News. There is no suggestion whatsoever that the government is moving off of that position. We made the commitment that we would conduct the work around an onshore atlas (to show) where the resource potentially could be and what potential quantities there could be and that we would make that public to the private sector and all Nova Scotians.

The Archbishop explained his opposition to fracking during an interview on The Rick Howe Show on the News 95.7 radio station. Having read documents and material on both sides of the debate, he has concluded that there is no way you can pump millions of litres of water, with toxins in it, under high pressure underground, and then expect no consequences for that, he said. There are bound to be levels of pollution, both in ground water and ground-level air pollution and I think the risks are simply too great.

He said that the Churchs care for creation was linked to the Anglican Church of Canadas baptism vows, one of which is to strive to safeguard the integrity of Gods creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth, taken from the Anglican Communions fifth mark of mission. He said: I would hope that anybody who makes a baptismal vow could live by all of them.

And he defended the right of the Church to speak out on political matters. The church is involved in peoples lives, he said, or maybe I should say the people of the Church are the ones involved in aspects of everything that affects their daily life. Faith is not a separate component of peoples lives; it is woven through everything they do. . .

Sometimes we dont raise our voices in what might be seen as political arenas, but . . . this goes back to our whole concept of creation. We believe that God is involved in creation. As a Christian I believe that the world matters to God. The line of Scripture everyone knows is that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus into it. If God loves the world then Gods people ought to love the world too and do their utmost to  as the vow says  sustain it and renew it.
Posted on: April 10, 2018 10:14 AM

The Moderator of the united Church of South India, Bishop Thomas K Oommen, has accused the Indian government of being a danger to the very fabric of the country. In an open letter, Bishop Thomas accuses the government of adopting Hindutva supremacist ideology  an extreme form of Hindu nationalism; in a country whose constitution declares liberty, equality, and fraternity as its ideals; assures social, economic and political justice to the citizens of India; offers liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship; provides equality of status and opportunity to all the people; and strives to promote fraternity among all the citizens.

The Moderator began his letter by saying that the CSI, whose churches have 4.5 million members, pray every week for the President of the Indian Republic, the Prime Minister, the Governor of our State, the Chief Minister and all those who serve in the Government that we and all people may be governed with justice and honour.

He said: This shows how deeply this Church longs for a nation that is ruled in justice and peace. However, over the past few years, especially during the last four years, we are extremely alarmed at the way our nation is being ruled by Government at the Centre. As a citizen of India and as the head of an Indian Church, which belongs to a minority religion, with the majority of its members belonging to the minority communities, I hereby share the fear my people have under the rule of a Government that has become a nightmare to the poor and the minorities in India.

Indias founding parents had created a pluralistic nation who saw the states roles as being to protect and preserve the rights of all faiths, especially those of the religious minorities, he said. But today, for the central government there is a fundamentally different agenda that is in line with their notion of nation  Hindu rashtra.

Towards the fulfilment of this agenda, the government is in the process of changing the school textbooks, inserting dogmatic and pseudo-scientific religious content, banning films, books, festivals of minorities etc, which they claim to offend the Hindu nationalist sentiments. The demolishing of churches and mosques, vandalising of statues and persecution of people belonging to Christianity and Islam show the true face of BJP [the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi] that subscribe to the Hindutva Ideology.

While I consider Hindus as my own sisters and brothers, I believe Hindutva which is totally against the values of Hinduism is a danger to the age old religious fraternity that this nation upholds. The communalist and fascist ideology of Hindutva promoted by the ruling BJP, cast a shadow over the constitutional secularism, and the religious minorities live under threat.

The Church of South India demands that the Government at the centre ensures the democratic and secular fabric of India to be safeguarded.

In his letter, he says that activists, intellectuals and many others who voice against the corporate-fascist ideology are being silenced and even murdered, and adds: But I believe as a citizen of India and as a disciple of Christ, it is my role too to warn my fellow citizens against the fatal danger posed by the Hindutva forces in nexus with the corporate.

He finishes his letter with reference to the Salt March in April 1930, at the end of which, Mahatma Gandhi raised a lump of mud and salt and declared, With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire. Today . . . I urge you to unite, irrespective of your religion, caste, class, creed, colour, language and gender, and shake the foundations of this new empire being built by the corporate-fascists, so that our nation remains a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic.
(ANSA) - Rome, April 10 - A fresh earthquake rekindled fears Tuesday in central Italy where three tremors devastated villages across Lazio, Umbria and Marche in August and October 2016, killing 299 people.

No one was hurt Tuesday but there was further damage to structures already damaged in previous tremblers.

A 4.6 magnitude quake hit Muccia near Macerata, one of Marche's four provincial capitals, at 5.11 and was followed by at least three aftershocks measuring between three and four in magnitude.

No one was injured but a small belfry of a 17th-century church was felled in Muccia.

The quake "felled the small belfry of the 17th-century church of Santa Maria di Varano," Muccia Mayor Mario Baroni told reporters. He said checks were being made to see if there was any damage to the few houses still habitable in the village.

Of 920 inhabitants, 550 are in temporary post-quake accommodation, 120-30 people are in houses undamaged by previous quakes and the rest are in other personally organised accommodation or living with relatives, he said.

There was "no damage" to the emergency temporary post-quake homes known as SAEs, Baroni told ANSA.

"The SAE homes suffered no damage," Baroni said, adding that "there are no problems, at the most some objects fell down".

"We were very scared, but there was no damage". Other "significant damage" was reported at another village near Macerata, Pieve Torina, where schools will be closed today, the mayor said.

Four families were evacuated at Pieve Torina due to cracks and collapses in the structures, local sources said. There were also risks of structural instability, said Mayor Alessandro Gentilucci, who is coordinating the post-quake assessments being carried out by four teams of municipal experts and one fire brigade team. Some 20 people including some children have been evacuated, Gentilucci said.

The quake was felt as far away as Norcia and Perugia in Umbria.

Trenitalia stopped trains to check the Macerata-Civitanova line, then reopened it.

Civil Protection Chief Angelo Borrelli is travelling to Marche.

A 3.3 magnitude quake was also felt at 6:49 at Ocre near L'Aquila in Abruzzo where 309 people were killed in a major tremor nine years ago.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said it was "fairly likely" that the sequence of quakes will continue.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 10 - A fresh earthquake rekindled fears Tuesday in central Italy where three tremors devastated villages across Lazio, Umbria and Marche in August and October 2016, killing 299 people.

No one was hurt Tuesday but there was further damage to structures already damaged in previous tremblers.

A 4.6 magnitude quake hit Muccia near Macerata, one of Marche's four provincial capitals, at 5.11 and was followed by at least three aftershocks measuring between three and four in magnitude.

No one was injured but a small belfry of a 17th-century church was felled in Muccia.

The quake "felled the small belfry of the 17th-century church of Santa Maria di Varano," Muccia Mayor Mario Baroni told reporters. He said checks were being made to see if there was any damage to the few houses still habitable in the village.

Of 920 inhabitants, 550 are in temporary post-quake accommodation, 120-30 people are in houses undamaged by previous quakes and the rest are in other personally organised accommodation or living with relatives, he said.

There was "no damage" to the emergency temporary post-quake homes known as SAEs, Baroni told ANSA.

"The SAE homes suffered no damage," Baroni said, adding that "there are no problems, at the most some objects fell down".

"We were very scared, but there was no damage". Other "significant damage" was reported at another village near Macerata, Pieve Torina, where schools will be closed today, the mayor said.

Four families were evacuated at Pieve Torina due to cracks and collapses in the structures, local sources said. There were also risks of structural instability, said Mayor Alessandro Gentilucci, who is coordinating the post-quake assessments being carried out by four teams of municipal experts and one fire brigade team. Some 20 people including some children have been evacuated, Gentilucci said.

Some 20 more people have been left homeless at Pieve Torina, Reconstruction Commissioner Paola De Micheli said. "We are putting into the field all the necessary assistance for the population," De Micheli added.

She was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with local mayors, Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli and Marche Governor Luca Ceriscioli.

The quake was felt as far away as Norcia and Perugia in Umbria.

Trenitalia stopped trains to check the Macerata-Civitanova line, then reopened it.

Civil Protection Chief Angelo Borrelli is travelling to Marche.

A 3.3 magnitude quake was also felt at 6:49 at Ocre near L'Aquila in Abruzzo where 309 people were killed in a major tremor nine years ago.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said it was "fairly likely" that the sequence of quakes will continue.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 10 - A fresh earthquake rekindled fears Tuesday in central Italy where three tremors devastated villages across Lazio, Umbria and Marche in August and October 2016, killing 299 people.

No one was hurt Tuesday but there was further damage to structures already damaged in previous tremblers.

A 4.6 magnitude quake hit Muccia near Macerata, one of Marche's four provincial capitals, at 5.11 and was followed by at least three aftershocks measuring between three and four in magnitude.

No one was injured but a small belfry of a 17th-century church was felled in Muccia.

The quake "felled the small belfry of the 17th-century church of Santa Maria di Varano," Muccia Mayor Mario Baroni told reporters. He said checks were being made to see if there was any damage to the few houses still habitable in the village.

Of 920 inhabitants, 550 are in temporary post-quake accommodation, 120-30 people are in houses undamaged by previous quakes and the rest are in other personally organised accommodation or living with relatives, he said.

There was "no damage" to the emergency temporary post-quake homes known as SAEs, Baroni told ANSA.

"The SAE homes suffered no damage," Baroni said, adding that "there are no problems, at the most some objects fell down".

"We were very scared, but there was no damage". Other "significant damage" was reported at another village near Macerata, Pieve Torina, where schools will be closed today, the mayor said.

Four families were evacuated at Pieve Torina due to cracks and collapses in the structures, local sources said. There were also risks of structural instability, said Mayor Alessandro Gentilucci, who is coordinating the post-quake assessments being carried out by four teams of municipal experts and one fire brigade team. Some 20 people including some children have been evacuated, Gentilucci said.

Some 20 more people have been left homeless at Pieve Torina, Reconstruction Commissioner Paola De Micheli said. "We are putting into the field all the necessary assistance for the population," De Micheli added.

She was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with local mayors, Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli and Marche Governor Luca Ceriscioli.

Ceriscioli said "there is great worry and fear for the new quake" He said "this new episode is proof that the emergency is not over".

"For those who suffered damage today, we will give the same response as we did to the other victims," Ceriscioli said.

The quake was felt as far away as Norcia and Perugia in Umbria.

Trenitalia stopped trains to check the Macerata-Civitanova line, then reopened it.

Civil Protection Chief Angelo Borrelli is travelling to Marche.

A 3.3 magnitude quake was also felt at 6:49 at Ocre near L'Aquila in Abruzzo where 309 people were killed in a major tremor nine years ago.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said it was "fairly likely" that the sequence of quakes will continue.


ISTANBUL - The US Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook has left the port of Larnaca on Cyprus and is headed into Syrian territorial waters, said Turkish daily Hurriyet on Tuesday.

It said the US warship is about 100 km away from the Syrian port of Tartus, where there is a Russian military base. Some Russian jets flew over the destroyer 4 times at low altitude making disturbing maneuvers while approaching Syrian territorial waters.

The US military has not yet confirmed the ship's movements, which are taking place under high tension following the Syrian government's suspected chemical weapons attack Saturday on the rebel-held town of Douma.

Regarding the attack, US President Donald Trump said on Monday the US would "be making some major decisions in the next 24 to 48 hours."

In the meantime, Iran warned that the Israeli air strike against a Syrian air base in which seven Iranians were killed "will not go unanswered". So said a top Iranian official, Ali Akbar Velayati during a visit to Syria on Tuesday. Initially Farsnews spoke of four Iranian victims of Monday's strike, but the toll was revised upwards to seven on Tuesday. The victims have been transferred to Iran for the funeral rites, unofficial sources say.
Bank of Jordan nets $64 million in annual profits

(ANSAmed) - AMMAN, APRIL 10 - Bank of Jordan announced its annual profits for 2017 reached JD 46 million (USD 64 million), an increase o %13 compared the previous year, bank officials said today.



Total revenues reached about JD 127 million (USD 179) due to expansion in projects and improved investment climate, said bank officials.



The revenues have jumped by nine percent compared to the previous year, said Shaker Fakhouri, general manager of the Amman based bank, one of the three largest banks in the kingdom.



He said recent policies of the bank to focus on funding selected businesses have contributed to the positive results.



The financial sector has been struggling in Jordan due to departure of major investors to more tax friendly countries, but the government has said it will carry out measures to assure investors of bright future, particularly related to investment security and income tax.



Several MPs and activists have called on the government to increase income tax on financial institutions based on performance, but the government has said such measures could backfire and lead to further departure of investors from an already volatile market. (ANSAmed).




19 civilians killed in northwest Syria airstrikes - sources

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 10 - At least 19 civilians, including women and children, were killed in an overnight airstrike with conventional weapons by unidentified aircraft in Syria's northwestern Idlib region, in the area of Wadi Nassim, local civil protection and medical sources said Tuesday.



They said the victims belong to various families of displaced people in an area outside Syrian government control, which has been repeatedly bombed by Syrian fighter jets.



The information cannot be independently verified on the ground.(ANSAmed).




Fishermen and civil society in Tunisia against deaths at sea At Port of Zarzis, denounce restrictive EU visa policies

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, APRIL 10 - The Tunisian organisation Fishermen for Development and the Environment (APDE) and Watch the Med's Tunis Alarm Phone organised a protest at the Port of Zarzis, a Tunisian city near the Libyan border, to raise awareness on the tragedy of migrant deaths at sea.



Watch the Med was created in October 2014 by groups of activists and civil society representatives in Europe and North Africa, and consists of a self-organised direct phone line for refugees in difficulty in the Mediterranean Sea.



The associations rallied Tunisian civil society and issued a statement denouncing dissuasion policies, externalisation of borders, and the EU's criminalisation of NGOs working in search and rescue in the Mediterranean.



They said this criminalisation makes crossings increasingly more dangerous, and that the restrictive Schengen visa agreement hinders legal and safe migration.



The organisations called the system of European borders "murderous".



Alarm Phone activist Azza Falfoul said the demonstration is aimed at sending a message to governments to encourage them to propose solutions to young migrants.



Red Crescent representative Chems Eddine Marzouk called on the international community to break the wall of silence and propose adequate solutions for facing the continuous dangers at sea and ensuring improved safety for young people.



The town of Zarzis, which has a cemetery for unknown migrants, made news last August when fishermen and townspeople prevented the docking of the C-Star, the "Generation Identity" anti-migrant ship taking part in the Defend Europe campaign.



The fishermen took up the appeal by the "North African Collective Against the Racist Ship C-Star" and were prepared to block the arrival of the C-Star at sea with three boats, as well as to take action against the ship if it tried to approach.



The Tunisian National Guard and the Port Authority both said the C-Star did not request permission to dock.



The Zarzis fisherman's association APDE on Tuesday submitted its president, Chems Eddine Boursalli, as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.(ANSAmed).




Middle East Now film festival kicks off in Florence Films, music, shows, events on April 10-15

(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 10 - The Middle East Now film festival is kicking off in Florence Tuesday through Sunday with films on political and religious extremism, homosexuality, women's rights and gastronomy. The festival, which has reached its ninth edition, includes music events, theater plays, photo shows and 43 films that have received awards from the top international festivals, including 20 short films.



Thirty-one films will be screened for the first time in Italy. Six in Europe and one will debut. The movies are from Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, among others.



The ''Hashtag # Middleast'' is the theme of the 2018 edition of the festival, promoters said, representing a way to understand what it means to be connected in the Middle East, using social media to communicate, send messages and new ideas.



The event will open with the new film by Palestinian filmmaker, Annemarie Jacir, Wajib (2017) which debuted at the festival of Locarno, won prizes at top international festivals and received an Oscar nomination this year. It will be premiering at movie theaters in Italy on April 19.



The festival will be screening the director's Like Twenty Impossibles (2003), the first Palestinian short film running for an award in Cannes; Salt of this Sea (2008), the first feature film directed by a Palestinian filmmaker, chosen for the section Un Certain Regard of the Cannes festival.



Great attention will be devoted to Syria with films including the documentary Of Fathers and Sons (2017), which is debuting in Italy and won a jury prize at the Sundance Film festival, whose director Talal Derki will be at the festival. He portrayed Abu Osama, the Islamist radical leader of Al-Nusra, the Syrian arm of Al-Qaeda. Mr. Gay Syria (2017) by Turkish director Ayse Toprak, focuses on Husein, a barber in Istanbul who is divided between his conservative family and homosexuality, and Mahmoud, founder of the gay movement in Syria who lives as a refugee in Berlin. Both would like to participate in the competition Mr Gay World.



Also to be screened at the festival The Poetess by Stefanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff is dedicated to Saudi poetess and activist Hissa Hilal, who became famous worldwide thanks to the talent show ''Million's Poet'' and her poetry against radicalism and terrorism.



Soufra (2017) by Thomas Morgan, a movie produced by Susan Sarandonalso to be screened in Florence, talks about Palestinian refugee Mariam Shaar, who spent all her life at the refugee camp of Burl El Barajneh, a south of Beirut, Lebanon. (ANSAmed).




UNESCO to prevent violent extremism in Morocco Programme funded by Canada

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, APRIL 10 - UNESCO has launched a programme to prevent violent extremism in Morocco. "The project will be operational from April 24" with Canadian funding "aimed at creating autonomy amongst Jordanian, Libyan, Moroccan and Tunisian youth", director general Audrey Azoulay said on the sidelines of the UNESCO council meeting in Paris. Azoulay insisted on the importance of education and on the challenge of "integrating millions of young people into a knowledge society that is currently still very unequal and unfair, particularly for women". In this area the impact of digital development is "considerable", calling into question the issue of "cultural diversity and the spread of knowledge". "In the fileds of culture, sport and art there is plenty of room for dialogue, even when the situation is already highly compromised," Azoulay added. In addition, on May 22 UNESCO will publish a guide to the fight against antisemitism, developed in conjunction with the Office for democratic institutions and human rights of the Organisation for Security and cooperation in Europe. (ANSAmed).




Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace have partnered to develop and market lower-deck modules with passenger sleeping berths.

The modules, which would fit inside the aircrafts cargo compartments, offer new opportunities for additional services to passengers, improving their experience while enabling airlines to differentiate and add value for their commercial operations



The new passenger modules will be easily interchangeable with regular cargo containers during a typical turnaround if required. Moreover, the aircrafts cargo floor and cargo loading system will not be affected at all, as the passenger module will sit directly on it.



This approach to commercial air travel is a step change towards passenger comfort. We have already received very positive feedback from several airlines on our first mock-ups. We are pleased to partner with Zodiac Aerospace on this project which will introduce a new passenger experience and add value for airlines, said Geoff Pinner, Head of Airbus Cabin & Cargo Programme.



We are delighted to work with Airbus on this new and innovative project, which reaffirms our expertise in lower-deck solutions. An improved passenger experience is today a key element of differentiation for airlines, said Christophe Bernardini, Chief Executive Officer of Zodiac Aerospace Cabin Branch.



Airlines will initially be able to choose from a catalogue of certified solutions by 2020 on A330 for retrofit and line-fit markets. Offerability of sleeper compartments on the A350 XWB airliner is also being studied. The innovation builds on both Airbus and Zodiac Aerospaces experience in producing and integrating lower-deck crew-rest facilities.
UK-based FliteTrak has developed its award-winning iblox intelligent remote monitoring technology for its new ViatorComfort system.

The only working intelligent technology of its kind, ViatorComfort measures and maps pressure points on airline seat cushions.

Andrew Barnett, joint managing director, said: ViatorComfort will allow seating companies and airlines to deliver even greater comfort, especially on long-haul flights.

ViatorComfort can provide key data which our AI learning platform can interpret, delivering visual pressure mapping for seat design based upon live passenger use.

It also means that they can track seats and cushions for wear and tear, and ensure they can be replaced or repaired either individually or in batches to maximise efficiency for carriers and comfort for passengers.

The system, which is the only working technology of its kind, also logs data for analysis to allow manufacturers and carriers to improve their airline interiors and ergonomic designs.

ViatorComfort can also send data about seat use direct to a flight attendants tablet or onboard computer system to monitor individual seats in real time. Alerts can also be sent when cushions are wearing out or reach set levels.

It can be integrated into FliteTraks suite of Viator aviation products, ViatorAero and SpriteAero, which monitor movement, temperature, air quality, passenger movement, mobile phone activation and seat belt closure.

Systems can be incorporated into newbuild seats or retrofitted into existing cushions.
The Arabian Section of the Ninety Nines has announced the first Scholarship given to its member is Hanane Chaabna from Algeria.

The joint programme is between Airways Aviation and the Arabian Section of the Ninety Nines.



As part of our commitment to encourage future generations to join the growing field of Aviation, Airways Aviation Academy has become a lifetime sponsor for the Arabian Section of the Ninety Nines, said Alia Twal governor of the Arabian Section of the Ninety Nines.

Over the past five years, Airways has sponsored every annual gathering for the Arabian Ninety Nines, and provided discounts and scholarship to 30 females, some of which are flying a commercial aircraft.



Airways recently launched a joint scholarship program with the Arabian Ninety Nines that allows us to jointly screen, and sponsor, female student pilots. The first to benefit from this scholarship is Hanane Chaabna who is currently training at Airways in Oxford, UK. Hananes dream of becoming a pilot was almost cut short due to family circumstances, but she managed to apply for, and win, the first Airways/Ninety Nines Scholarship by showing her dedication and determination.



Twal added: Encouraging and support women is our goal from this joint agreement. We are working together with Airways Aviation to increase the number of women pilots and encouraging more women to choose aviation as a career. . With the support of Airways Aviation, I believe we will create difference.
Commercial pilots can now benefit from the noise cancellation technology that changed the whole communication scene for general aviation pilots following the launch of a new premium headset from Bose.



In an announcement simultaneously presented at Sun n Fun show in Florida and the Aircraft Interiors show at Hamburg, the American headquartered technology innovator unveiled the Bose ProFlight aviation headset featuring the active noise cancelling that is enjoyed with the A20 headset used by pilots of light aircraft and helicopters.

With more than 30 U.S. design and utility patents, ProFlight Headset features a lightweight and comfortable in-ear configuration, three user-selectable levels of active noise cancellation and a Tap Control for Talk Through communication function that allows pilots to hear anyone on the flight deck that is not connected to the intercom - without removing the headset or an earpiece. It is FAA TSO-C139a and EASA E/TSO-C139a certified, a requirement that is increasingly important for many airlines and corporate flight departments.

Weve spent over thirty years researching and developing active noise cancelling technology, said Matt Ruwe, senior product manager for Bose Aviation and Military headsets. The ProFlight Aviation Headset is the culmination of that experience and knowledge, and through the application of proprietary Bose technology, provides a real solution to many of the challenges pilots of crewed and turbine powered aircraft face.

Bose says the headsets are designed for the lower noise environments and unique needs of pilots who fly in airline flight decks and corporate jet aircraft.

With an on-head weight of only 139 grams (4.9 ounces), it combines a lightweight headband for stability with an ear bud configuration that rests lightly yet securely in the bowl of the ear, allowing the headset to be worn comfortably for hours at a time. It also has a 48-hour battery life.

The ProFlight delivers a combination of noise reduction, communications clarity and comfortable fit. But it also addresses some real and long standing problems professional pilots have had to deal with for years said Ruwe.

The headset will be available worldwide and sold in the U.S. for $995.95, although pricing may change for other regions. Initial customer deliveries will begin the last week of May, 2018.

ProFlight will be sold through the European Bose eCommerce websites and select authorized Bose Aviation dealers in the EMEA region.


Flydubai has launched its daily service to Krakow, becoming the first UAE carrier to offer direct flights from Dubai.

The inaugural flight from Terminal 2, Dubai International landed at John Paul II Krakow Airport on 08 April and was greeted by a water cannon salute. The inaugural flight was piloted by a Polish Captain and First Officer and onboard there were Polish cabin crew members.

Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations at Flydubai, said: As the first carrier to operate daily, direct flights from Dubai to Krakow we are excited about the opportunities that this new route will provide for trade and tourism between the UAE and Poland. This route will be served by the newest aircraft in our fleet, the Boeing 737 MAX 8, which offers our passengers an exceptional travel experience. Not only does this offer our passengers from Krakow connections to more than 200 destinations from Dubai we also know that passengers travelling to Krakow will be keen to explore this popular tourist destination.
Saudi Arabias leading low-cost carrier, Flynas, has signed an agreement with CFM International for the purchase of 160 LEAP-1A engines to power 80 Airbus A320neo aircraft, along with a long-term services agreement on a pay by-the-hour basis.



The ceremony was attended by chairman Ayed Al Jeaid and CEO Bander Al Mohanna of Flynas along with and Philippe Couteaux, executive vice president of sales and marketing for CFM parent company Safran Aircraft Engines.

Once finalized, the engine purchase commitment and the services agreement are valued at $6.3 billion at list price. The aircraft order was announced in January 2017 and the first deliveries of the LEAP-1A-powered-A320neo are scheduled to begin by the end of this year. Under the terms of the service agreement, CFM Services will guarantee maintenance cost on a dollar per flight hour basis.

We are extremely pleased to begin a new chapter in our relationship with CFM International, said Al Mohanna. We look forward to introducing the LEAP-1A engine into our fleet to allow us to further optimise our operational efficiency.

Flynas has been a CFM customer since it began operations in 2007 with leased CFM56-5B-powered A320ceo. The Saudi carrier currently operates a fleet of 28 aircraft.


Business jet operators flying to London from the Middle East will be facing restrictions for night arrivals during the UKs summer months  but one FBO will be operating to manage night flights.

London Southend Airports private jet facility, Stobart Jet Centre, will be the only FBO serving the London market, to be available to aircraft operators 24/7 when the restrictions come into force.

From 1st June to 30th September a combination of night flight embargoes and the exceeding of noise quotas has resulted in restrictions on movements between the hours of 23.00 and 0600 and 0700 being enforced at Stansted and Luton airports, making the recently refurbished Stobart Jet Centre the only FBO able to welcome private and business jets requiring easy access to London during that period.

Southend was voted Best London Airport 2017 by Which magazine for the fifth year running, is well below its nighttime noise quotas due to the consistently quiet profile the of the airports traffic.

Stephen Grimes, (pictured right) Stobart Jet Centre managing director said, We have invested heavily in making our facility the most comfortable and efficient to use for our VVIP passengers and it is already being recognised by operators as one of the easiest for access into London. With aircraft parking space for as many as 12 Boeing Business Jets (BBJs), the convenience of Southend Airport for central London is going to be enhanced further when we are the only FBO that can facilitate operators, with aircraft of all types, at night during the busy summer period.

Stobart Group unveiled expansion for the Jet Centre at the end of last year which included an uncongested ramp space adjacent to the FBO and hangar availability for the equivalent of six BBJs.

The Centre partners with Apollo Helicopters, for direct helicopter access to London from the FBO.


Oman Airs Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is the first to feature Rockwell Collins new Air Rest luxury business class seating solution for narrowbody aircraft. Initial deliveries for a total of 30 aircraft recently began and will continue through 2022.

The company said the seat brings the comfort and technology of Rockwell Collins widebody business class seat to narrowbody business seating.

Its enhanced cradle-style recline, featuring patented seat kinematics  along with latest generation video monitor integration, ample stowage and large bi-fold table  accommodate passengers for both working and relaxing during flight. In addition, Air Rests proprietary fixed living space feature allows passengers total control of their environment without the worry of other passengers intruding into their space.

This new seating solution is provided by Rockwell Collins Interior Systems business, which was created following the acquisition of B/E Aerospace in April of 2017. Air Rest joins the widely successful MiQ product in the narrowbody business class seating portfolio.

Air Rest brings a distinctly higher level of comfort and living space to narrowbody aircraft customers like Oman Air that have been seeking this type of solution, said Tom Plant, vice president and general manager, Aircraft Seating for Rockwell Collins.
Following its participation in Exercise Blue Shield in Sudan and Exercise Red Flag in the USA, the Royal Saudi Air Force undertook a further major training exercise, Faisal-11, in Egypt. Jon Lake reports.

In recent years, the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) has dramatically expanded the scope and extent of training with allied air forces, and has seen its capabilities and credibility grow almost exponentially as a result.

The RSAF certainly bears little resemblance to the pre Desert Storm force, which had limited operational capabilities and relied heavily on contractors and on personnel seconded from friendly nations air forces. Todays RSAF has gained extensive operational experience in Yemen and over Syria and Iraq, and has participated in, and led, a number of international coalition operations.

The latest Faisal exercise marked the 11th edition in a series of joint air force training exercises between the RSAF and the Egyptian Air Force. These have usually been held annually, though Faisal-10 took place at King Fahd Air Base in June 2013.

Intended to enhance and improve cooperation and ties between the air forces, the exercise involved Saudi F-15C/D and Egyptian F-16C/D fighters, and included live weapons firing.

The Saudi F-15Cs (and at least one two-seat F-15D) were drawn from the 2nd Squadron, part of the 7th Wing at King Faisal Air Base, Tabuk. The Egyptian F-16s are understood to have been drawn from the squadrons assigned to the 272nd TFB at Jiyanklis AB.

Egyptian Defence Minister, Sedqi Sobhi, and Air Force commander, Pilot Lieutenant General Younis Al-Sayed Al-Masri, greeted the participants during a formal welcome ceremony. General Al-Masri stressed that Egypts military forces were eager to bolster cooperation in joint exercises with what he called brotherly and friendly countries and emphasised the importance of such exercises in developing the combat abilities of the air force in order to equip it to better protect Egyptian national security. He stressed the vital importance of cooperation in countering terrorism and maintaining regional development and stability.

An official Egyptian Air Force spokesman said: The joint training aims to support the capabilities of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the coalition countries to form a common Arab defence force and to unify our plans and combat current regional challenges.

These thoughts were echoed by Major General Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Otaibi, the RSAF acting commander, who welcomed this opportunity for his force to demonstrate its preparedness and expertise and who expressed pride and satisfaction in what he called the stunning performance of all participants in the manoeuvres. He said that this reflected the professionalism and the strength of harmony of the two brotherly countries air forces.

Finally, he praised Egypts efforts to uproot terrorism and its role in maintaining regional stability and security.

Saudi-Egyptian relations have grown progressively closer since the removal of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian Armed Forces on July 3 2013, which gained the backing of most of the Gulf states.

Within days of toppling Morsi, Saudi Arabia pledged $5 billion in grants, deposits, and petroleum products to boost the ailing Egyptian economy.

Saudi Arabia congratulated President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi after his victory in the June 2014 presidential elections and called for a conference for donor brothers and friends of Egypt to help Egypt overcome its economic crisis.

Egyptian and Saudi aircraft have participated in air operations against Daesh in Syria, and the RSAF is believed to have provided unspecified assistance to Egypt in its own war against insurgents on the Libyan border and in the wider Sinai, fighting against the jihadi terrorist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

Since then, Egypt has supported Saudi Arabia in its military campaign in Yemen, which was intended to re-establish the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, and to strike a decisive blow against Houthi rebels and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Egypt has denied that any Egyptian troops have been involved on the ground, but has admitted the participation of naval units (deploying four warships to secure the Gulf of Aden), and there also seems to have been some Egyptian participation in the Saudi-led air campaign.

In fact, at least 800 Egyptian soldiers were deployed to Yemen initially, and the Egyptian Rapid Intervention Forces paratroops have also been involved.

The Egyptian Air Force is also believed to have played a significant part in air operations against Houthi targets, though in October 2016 it was reported that the Egyptian Air Force had withdrawn from the Saudi-led coalition of countries attacking Yemen after 12 months of operations.

While the 7th Wing at Tabuk deployed F-15C/D interceptors to Egypt, the RSAFs Typhoon force (part of the 2nd Wing at King Fahd Air Base at Taif) made its first Red Flag deployment. A reported total of 11 tranche 2 and tranche 3 Typhoons made the 9,000nm journey to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, to participate in Exercise Red Flag 17-4, between August 14 and 25.

Though the aircraft involved wore the markings of the Third, 10th and 80th Squadrons, the pilots were reportedly all drawn from the 10th Squadron (the 80th has yet to stand up).

An initial eight-ship formation of RSAF Typhoons left King Fahd AFB on August 1, supported by Airbus Military A330 MRTT tankers from the 24th Squadron, part of the 6th Wing at Prince Sultan Air Base, Al Kharj.

The RSAF Typhoons participated in both Red Flag and Green Flag exercises in the US, and flew swing-role missions by both day and night, flying against stationary and mobile targets and using electronic warfare to defeat a range of threats.

Major General Mohammed al-Otaibi, the RSAF commander, said these exercises had contributed to raising the combat readiness and morale of air and ground crews, and praising the support received from the government of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz. He said that the exercise had demonstrated that the RSAF was comparable to other worldwide air forces in terms of processing and keeping pace with the latest air force systems.

The deployment commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Khalid al-Yousef, proudly agreed, saying that Red Flag would maximise the RSAFs readiness for real air combat situations, enhancing survivability and operational effectiveness. He also suggested that the fact that the RSAF was the only Middle Eastern air force to participate in Red and Green flag exercises six times in a row represented proof that it was one of the best air forces in the Middle East and worldwide!

The Typhoons transited back to Saudi Arabia via Albacete Air Base in Spain, where there was some opportunity for Saudi and Spanish Typhoon pilots to compare notes. One Saudi Typhoon pilot was delighted to find that the RSAF was some steps ahead!

Both Typhoons and F-15s were involved in the first major international exercise for the RSAF in 2017.

The RSAF deployed four F-15C Eagles and four Eurofighter Typhoons, all drawn from the 2nd Wing at King Fahd Air Base, to Sudan for Exercise Blue Shield 1. The 12-day exercise, held at Merowe Air Base, about 300km north of Khartoum, saw the Saudi aircraft flying alongside Sudanese MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, Su-25 Frogfoot fighter-bombers and Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft.

The exercise followed Sudanese participation in the Saudi-led air operations against Houthi targets in Yemen, during which Sudanese Su-24 strike fighters have been deployed to Saudi air bases.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir said the exercise demonstrated the Sudanese military was playing a key role in improving Khartoums ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, and noted relations between Sudan and Saudi Arabia are progressing.


The Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (ECDI) has awarded a public contract to a consortium of the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster to launch a project entitled Automated systems on the battlefield, managed by the Centre for Applied Studies at the Estonian National Defence College (ENDC).



The Milrem THeMIS UGV equipped with the Threod Systems KX-4 LE Titan UAV an example of innovative technology made in Estonia (Credit: Business Wire)

The aim of the project is to assess how unmanned and automated systems could contribute to our combat power and how we can measure the impact of these new systems on combat power. To achieve this, we will run a number of field experiments and tests in collaboration with the 2nd Infantry Brigade units, said Lt. Col. Sten Allik, Chief of the Centre for Applied Studies at the ENDC.

In collaboration with the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster consortium, the project will test various unmanned ground and aerial platforms and the risks related to the exchanges of data, and will also seek solutions to make different systems interoperable.

Robotic solutions and smart battlefield systems are changing warfare across the world; their effective use gives a significant advantage over conventional weapons systems, explained Kuldar Vaarsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics.

According to Vaarsi, Estonia has a number of strong technology companies that offer solutions in a wide range of different sectors, such as cyber defence, electronic warfare, and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles.

We want to be a reliable partner in the development of Estonias defence capabilities and comprehensive smart battlefield systems, added Vaarsi.

This is the first R&D procurement by the Estonian Defence Forces aimed at field experiments. The procurement procedure for the lease of unmanned ground and areal vehicles and for data collection was carried out by the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (ECDI).

The consortium is based on the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster and includes the following members: Milrem AS, the leading partner, develops and manufactures robotic ground systems; Marduk Technologies OU is a developer of drone detection and anti-drone solutions; AS Telegrupp provides various communication solutions; Smart Defence Systems OU develops battlefield awareness and information management systems; OU ELI develops and manufactures UAV-s and training systems; GuardTime AS is the worlds largest industrial blockchain technology provider; OU Rantelons main area of business is the design and production of electronic warfare solutions; and Threod Systems OU specialises in developing, producing and operating unmanned aircraft systems and their subsystems.

The Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Enterprise Estonia (Project EU49327). The aim of the cluster is to become a centre of competence in research and development and export in the defence industry sector. The vision of the cluster is to create synergy through co-operation between national and international capital in order to strengthen the Estonian defence industry and its exports.
The company exports to around 27 countries, including Sri Lanka and Nepal.

HMSI plans to expand sales network to 6,000 touchpoints from 5,700 outlets last financial year.

New Delhi: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) plans to invest Rs 800 crore in the ongoing financial year to expand operations in the country. The company, which posted a growth of 22 per cent in 2017-18, aims to grow in double digits in 2018-19 as well.

"We will invest close to Rs 800 crore this financial year as we aim for double digit growth for the third consecutive year," HMSI President and CEO Minoru Kato told reporters here.

The investment would mainly go into improving efficiency at manufacturing plants, getting new tools and equipment for BS VI upgradation, and new product launches. During 2018-19, HMSI plans to expand sales network to 6,000 touchpoints from 5,700 outlets last financial year.

"We will enhance our presence, especially in rural areas," Kato said.

The company, which is already number one contributor to parent Honda's global two-wheeler business, also plans to launch a brand new model and 18 upgrades of existing products in 2018-19 , he added.

The two-wheeler major is also targeting to expand its best dealer network to 250 outlets in the financial year. The network stood at 200 touchpoints last year. It is also considering introducing a customer loyalty programme during the year.

On company's 2020 plans, Kato said the two- wheeler maker is set to upgrade to BS VI emission norms much before the deadline. HMSI has started upgrading its facilities for the same, he added.

He however said the entire two-wheeler industry might see volumes fall post 2020 due to significant price hike in BS VI compliant products.

"It (BS VI) will however open up various export markets for us," HMSI Senior VP sales and marketing YS Guleria said.

The company exports to around 27 countries, including Sri Lanka and Nepal. Overseas shipments contribute around 5 per cent of the company's current volumes.

When asked if the company is looking to introducing electric models in the country, Kato said, "we are evaluating but there is no concrete plan yet." In 2017-18, the company sold a total of 61 lakh units. The company's installed capacity across its four plants stands at 64 lakh units.
The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of France's ban of the UberPop service.

Uber France is facing criminal proceedings in a court in the northern French city of Lille for its UberPop service.

The EU's top court on Tuesday backed the right of member states like France to ban a service by ridesharing firm Uber without notifying Brussels, in a fresh setback to the US giant.

The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of France's ban of the UberPop service, which links amateur drivers with customers, comparing it to a December decision backing traditional taxi firms in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

"Member States may prohibit and punish, as a matter of criminal law, the illegal exercise of transport activities in the context of the UberPop service, without notifying the Commission in advance," the European Court of Justice ruled.

The European Commission is the 28-nation European Union executive, which tries to set digital and other policies across the bloc.

Uber France is facing criminal proceedings in a court in the northern French city of Lille for its UberPop service.

It argues that member states like France were required to notify the European Commission about the criminal legislation under which the case was brought because it concerned a technical regulation of an information society service.

But the court of justice said the French case resembled one it ruled on in December when it classified Uber as an ordinary transportation company instead of an app and should be regulated as such.

"In the Court's view, the UberPop service offered in France is essentially identical to the service provided in Spain," the court of justice statement said.

The case was brought by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, where belief runs high that Uber is a taxi company that should be subject to rules governing such vehicles.

Uber, the biggest name in the growing gig economy, claims it is a mere service provider, connecting consumers with drivers in more than 600 cities.

Uber has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who say this allows it to dodge costly regulations such as training and licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles.
Trump had predicted China lowering its trade barriers on Sunday.

Boao/Beijing: China stepped up its attacks on the Trump administration on Monday over billions of dollars worth of threatened tariffs, saying Washington is to blame for trade frictions and repeating it was impossible to negotiate under current circumstances.

The comments come after US President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted China would take down its trade barriers, and expressed optimism that both sides could resolve the issue through talks.

Chinese state researchers and media talked down the likely impact of US trade measures on the worlds second largest economy and described the Trump administrations posturing on trade as the product of an anxiety disorder.

Under the current circumstances, both sides even more cannot have talks on these issues, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

The US with one hand wields the threat of sanctions, and at the same time says they are willing to talk. Im not sure who the US is putting on this act for, Mr Geng said.

The trade frictions were entirely at the provocation of the US, he added.

Beijing did not want to fight a trade war, but was not afraid of one, vice commerce minister Qian Keming said at a forum.

The focus this week will be on the forum, with President Xi Jinping and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde delivering speeches on Tuesday.

The US move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of US intellectual property and forced technology transfers from US companies.

Beijing claims that Washington is the aggressor and is spurring global protectionism, though Chinas trading partners have complained for years that it abuses WTO rules and practices unfair industrial policies that lock foreign companies out of crucial sectors with the intent of creating domestic champions.
Xi made no direct mention of his American counterpart, Donald Trump, or the dispute.

Beijing: President Xi Jinping promised Tuesday to cut China's auto tariffs and improve intellectual property protection in possible concessions aimed at defusing a worsening dispute with Washington over trade and technology that investors worry could set back the global economic recovery.

Speaking at a business conference, Xi made no direct mention of his American counterpart, Donald Trump, or the dispute.

He promised progress on areas that are U.S. priorities including opening China's banking industry and boosting imports but didn't address key irritants for Washington such as a requirement for foreign companies to work through joint ventures that require them to give technology to potential local competitors.

Private sector analysts saw Xi's speech as an overture to help end the biggest trade dispute since World War II. It has fueled fears the global economic recovery might be set back if other governments are prompted to raise their own import barriers.

Xi tried to position China as a defender of free trade and cooperation, despite its status as the most-closed major economy, in response to Trump's "America first" calls for import restrictions and trade deals that are more favorable to the United States.

"China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider," said Xi at the Boao Forum for Asia on the southern island of Hainan.

Xi said Beijing will "significantly lower" tariffs on auto imports this year and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in the auto industry "as soon as possible."

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods worth $50 billion in response to complaints Beijing pressures foreign companies to hand over technology in violation of its World Trade Organisation market-opening commitments. Beijing fired back with its own $50 billion list of U.S. goods for possible retaliation.

The Chinese leader promised to encourage "normal technological exchange" and to "protect the lawful ownership rights of foreign enterprises."

"President Xi's speech could create a very good platform to launch U.S.-China dialogue at the WTO to find a deal on intellectual property rights," said economist Rajiv Biswas of IHS Markit in a report. "This would be a victory for the world trading system and an important step away from the abyss of rising global protectionism."

The dispute is likely to end "with a concession from China," said Larry Hu of Macquarie Group in a report. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, speaking at the Boao event, welcomed Xi's promises on finance, investment, intellectual property and auto imports.

"We look forward to seeing these strategies elaborated, implemented and bearing fruit," said Lee, according to a transcript issued by his office. Also Tuesday, China filed a WTO challenge against Trump's earlier tariff hike on steel and aluminum in a separate dispute.

Beijing, which has issued a $3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork and apples for possible retaliation, requested 60 days of consultations as a first step. If that fails, the Chinese government can ask for a ruling from a WTO panel of experts.

Chinese officials deny foreign companies are compelled to hand over technology, but business groups say joint venture and licensing rules make that unavoidable.

The United States filed a WTO complaint last month accusing Beijing of violating its trade pledges by imposing unfair contract terms and allowing companies to use foreign-owned technology after licensing periods expire.

Foreign companies complain Beijing is squeezing them out of promising parts of the state-dominated economy to promote the ruling Communist Party's plans to create Chinese global competitors in fields including robotics, electric cars and pharmaceuticals.

Xi gave no details on how those conditions might change, leaving it unclear whether that might mollify Washington. Easing rules that limit global automakers to owning no more than 50 percent of a joint venture with a Chinese partner might help to address Trump's complaints about technology as well as giving them more flexibility in their biggest global market.

Jake Parker, the vice president for China of the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents companies that deal with China, welcomed Xi's announcement but expressed hope for additional steps such as ending requirements for joint ventures and technology licensing.

"Ultimately, U.S. industry will be looking for implementation of long-stalled economic reforms, but actions to date have greatly undermined the optimism of the U.S. business community," Parker said in an email.

Xi repeated pledges to open China's finance industries to foreign investors but gave no additional details. Chinese regulators announced that intention in November, just after Trump ended a high-profile visit to Beijing, but gave no timeline or details.

Business groups welcomed the commitment but said breaking into China's state-dominated financial industries would be hard for new competitors and Beijing might impose restrictions that would make such an effort unprofitable.

The biggest beneficiaries of a cut in China's 25 percent tariff on most auto imports will be the small number of automakers such as electric car brand Tesla that have no factory in China. Other automakers such as General Motors and Volkswagen that assemble vehicles in China with local partners could offer additional models.

More broadly, Xi repeated official promises to expand imports and to narrow China's trade surplus, another irritant for Washington. China reported a global trade surplus of $423 billion last year - about two-thirds of that with the United States.

"China does not seek a trade surplus," said Xi to an audience of Chinese and foreign businesspeople. "We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve a greater balance of international payments."

The president promised to make faster progress toward joining the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement, which extends the WTO's free-trading principles to purchases by governments.

That can make a significant difference in developing countries, where the government often accounts for most sales of computer software, medical equipment and other high-value goods.

The bulk of Xi's 40-minute speech was devoted to China's vision for economic development and its global role following a ruling party congress in October that confirmed him as the most dominant Chinese leader since at least the 1980s.

Xi sounded a conciliatory note toward neighbors with which Beijing has territorial disputes, saying China wants to pursue peaceful cooperative development.

"We will not bully our neighbors," the president said.

"Cold war thinking and zero-sum games are increasingly obsolete," he said. "Arrogance or self-righteousness can only bump into walls at every turn."
Varun also spoke about his experience working with Shoojit Sircar, stardom, meaning of love and more.

Mumbai: Varun Dhawan will be seen pitied opposite a new female actor Banita Sandhu debuting on the Bollywood horizon with his latest to release flick October. The film is being directed by Soojit Sircar . Varun also feels jealous of Ayushmann Khurrana for he was cast in Vicky Donor, speaking about it, the Badlapur actor says, Yes, Aayushmann was brilliant in the film. However, I had debut with SOTY and the film did well at the B.O. But I always desired to work with Soojit Sircar and finally I have done a film with him titled October. This chance did nit come easily though.

Varun was surprised to note that director Soojit Sircar did not wish to promote his film October so very rigorously. On the promotional strategy for October, he says, Usually we promote a film for almost 15 to 25 days before the release of the film. However, Soojit sir wanted to promote the film merely for only five days. Which I found very strange. Undoubtedly, he then explained to me that if we promote rigorously I might give away the highlight of the film unknowingly.

Speaking about his experience working with Shoojit Sircar, the Judwaa 2 star says, Yes, really speaking I was very nervous before going on the shoot with him. Now he would always ask me not to act. I was shocked while handing over a water of glass he would ask me not to overdo it. My look at hi eyes needed to coincide while I was exchanging the glass. But it is then I understood what he was asking for. He always told me when people will watch this film they will then appreciate your powers of acting. While you know that you have been thoroughly natural. Shoojit wanted me to feel the lines and then deliver them without putting in any stress. Having worked with him I have calmed down a lot. Indisputably, I got to work with Shoojit only after I have done a few films. I always felt awe after watching his films One after the other all his films were not only successful but very different as well. Its indeed a privilege to be working with him I have learned so much.

While talking about his image on screen, Varun tells, My image is that of having done films filled with fun and frolic. People with whom I always interact know me as a happy go lucky type of an actor/person. I indeed do not wish to follow any one kind of an image. I always want to entertain the audiences. Though certain films of mine did well for masses while a few may have been liked by the elite crowd. But as an actor I certainly try to give a new side of mine to the audiences. I do choose character which needs to give a typical shock to my audiences presenting myself differently. Needless, to state I do not wish to get into any image at all.

The success is quite unpredictable, but Varun proved himself a bankable star in the industry. Speaking about being successful he says, Generally certain films are successful at Pan India level. Now look, my film, Badrinath was successful film and it was liked by all kind of audiences. While Badlapur when it appeared on television then one and all came to know about this film and thereafter they liked the film Initially, this film was even by mass audiences only. Everyone present on the sets right from the makeup man, driver spot boys and my driver who watched the shoot of October were really in awe of the scenes. So we are hoping the film is loved by all.

Adding about his fan following from the kids end he says, I am doing this film for the kids actuallyevery one of us may have tasted puppy love or whatever. This film represents a very typical style of love unlike todays times. Usually, I have given my young fans films which made them laugh and enjoy. This film will teach them a lesson. This is a film which everyone will carry with them not only after they leave the theatre but they will have it in mind for a few dayscontemplating over certain issues that they have witnessed through this film.

About the definition of love, Varun says, Generally, we as human beings witness changes in our life time  generation after generation. However, we never believe that love ki definition kabhi change ho sakti hai, But in todays fast paced life the meaning of love also has changed for all of us. With social media being so powerful  we send a smiley or a smooch picture to our loved ones. We have no time to give to our loved ones. So in this jet age owing to our professional commitments we are unable to give ample time to our loved ones then it may be your parents, friends or any of our special friends too.

While talking about the meaning of love, the Bollywood heartthrob said, After performing in this film October the meaning of love for me has changed. Usually, we take every relationship for granted .I am personally never at home sometimes I fly to Dubai or travel to different places owing to my shooting schedules. We all lose attractions towards our near and dear ones. But having done this film the meaning of love is totally changed for me. Its not money for me. Also tweets which gives us loads of likes all this makes us feel good..Now, I always question myself will we take money with us when we go for to heavenly abode??No! All the praises etc that allures us will also never go along with us. Thus, I do not want to ponder over things like...Did I give enough love to my near and dear ones? With this backdrop story etched from Shoojit Sircars love life I am also a changed person. Infact we all are aware of all these facts. But we all tend to forget about the importance of the actual meaning of love. We need to have a simple approach towards life.
MHA said district magistrates and superintendents of police will be personally held responsible for violence in their area of jurisdiction.

Bharat Bandh by various Dalit outfits on April 2 led to widespread violence across the country and a number of deaths. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday advised all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the Bharat Bandh called by some groups on Tuesday, reportedly against caste-based reservations in jobs and education, an official said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also said district magistrates and superintendents of police will be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The missive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of about a dozen people.

An MHA official said the ministry has issued an advisory to all states to take necessary precautionary measures in view of calls on social media for Bharat Bandh on April 10 by some groups.

The MHA has advised states to beef up security and make appropriate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident, including issue of prohibitory orders, if necessary, the official said.

The states have been asked to intensify patrolling in all sensitive locations so as to prevent any loss of life or damage to property.

The advisory stressed that district magistrates and superintendents of police be made personally responsible for ensuring that law and order situation remains firmly under control in the areas of their jurisdiction, the official said.

While the April 2 Bharat Bandh was called by groups opposing the alleged dilution of SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order, Tuesdays protest is being reportedly called by people opposed to caste-based reservations in jobs and education.
Intelligence sources said that 400 sq km area around the venue of the PMs scheduled programme, is being sanitised.

The bus carrying 30 jawans of DRG was blown up by Maoist insurgents near a bridge close to the forested village of Namaid in south Bastar district of Bijapur on Monday.

Bhopal: Two jawans of district reserve group (DRG) were killed and five others injured on Monday when Maoists triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeting a passenger bus in which they were travelling to Jangela in Chhattisgarhs south Bastar district of Bijapur where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit on April 14.

The bus carrying 30 jawans of DRG, a counterinsurgency wing of Chhattisgarh police comprising local tribal youths, was travelling from Kuturu, nearly 35 km from district headquarters town of Bijapur, to Jangla when it was blown up near a bridge close to the forested village of Namaid, police said.

Two jawans of DRG were killed and five others injured in the blast, director general of police (anti-Naxal operations), D.M. Awasthi said.

The front part of the bus got separated from its body under the impact of the explosion, police said.

Earlier in the morning, Maoists detonated two IED blasts at Chhinakodepal near Mahadev Ghat in the district targeting a search party comprising personnel of CRPFs 85th battalion.

The rebels then opened indiscriminate fire on the search party leading to a fierce gun battle that lasted nearly one hour.

Later, the ultras fled into the jungle. A jawan sustained minor injuries in the blast.

We dont foresee any threat to PMs scheduled programme to the area on April 14 in the wake of the incidents. Maoists have no presence in the area. Only a couple of Jan Militia (local villagers who sometimes function as foot soldiers of CPI (Maoist) ) had triggered the IED blasts and then fled the area, Chhattisgarh state intelligence bureau (SIB) superintendent of police (SP) D Ravishankar said.

Intelligence sources said around 400 sq km area around the venue of the PMs scheduled programme, is being sanitised. Around 4,000 jawans have been engaged in the operation.

A five-layer security network has been thrown around the venue of the PMs programme. Twelve IAS officers and an equal number of IPS officers have been camping in the area to oversee security arrangement for PMs scheduled visit, a senior police officer posted in Bastar told this newspaper.

Maoist pamphlets and banners opposing PMs scheduled visit to Jangela have been found near Mahadev Ghat in the district, police said.

The PM was scheduled to dedicate to the nation the Ayusman Bharat Yojana at Jangela, besides handing over houses built under PMs Awas Yojana to 100 beneficiaries there.

He was also scheduled to inaugurate the newly built airport at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh on the day.
Mr Singh had said he desired to play role of mentor in the party in the ensuing assembly elections in MP to dislodge BJP from power.

Bhopal: Veteran leader and former chief minister Digvijay Singh has offered to lead Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, due in November this year.

Talking to a section of media on the eve of closure of his six-month-long Narmada Parikrama (circumambulation), which ended at Barman Ghat in Narasinghpur district on Monday, Mr Singh had said he desired to play role of mentor in the party in the ensuing assembly elections in MP to dislodge BJP from power. Mr Singh also made it clear that he was not in the race for the post of chief minister.

I will not accept the post of chief minister, if Congress returned to power in MP in the ensuing assembly elections, even if offered by party high command, he added. He further said he was backing former Union minister Kamal Nath to be projected as a face of the party in the ensuing assembly elections in MP. He claimed that there were no differences in the party over declaration of chief ministerial candidate. Later, while talking to the media on the sidelines of closure of his spiritual journey on Monday, Mr Singh however said Congress president Rahul Gandhi would assign the role for him for the year-end assembly elections in the state.

I will act as a fevicol (the adhesive) to unite the party to oust BJP from power in the coming assembly elections, he had told a section of media.

Mr Singh ended his Narmada Parikrama, began on September 30 last year, amid chanting of shlokas and hymns by the priests and a large gathering of people including leaders of Congress and BJP. He has traversed on foot 3315 km on the bank of river Narmada, along with his wife Amrita Singh. Among the political leaders who hailed him for his feat at Barman Ghat included Mr Kamal Nath, Mr Suresh Pachouri, Kantilal Bhuria, Arun Yadav and Vivek Tankh (all Congress) and BJP MP Prallhad Patel, state minister Jalam Singh Patel and BJP MLA Sanjay Sharma.
A few hours later, there was a flutter at Rajghat over the entry of Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

New Delhi: The Congress was left red faced on Monday as its daylong symbolic fast to promote communal harmony and protest atrocities against dalits kept generating controversies instead of solemn chintan.

As leaders started arriving at Rajghat, a photograph of Congress leaders, including Delhi chief Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely, tucking into rather sumptuous chhole bhature started doing the rounds.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana, who tweeted the photograph of Congress leaders eating chole bhature at Chaina Ram Sweets in Chandni Chowk before sitting on their daylong fast, screamed double standards.

A few hours later, there was a flutter at Rajghat over the entry of Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Mr Maken was seen talking to Mr Tytler, who sat on the floor in front of the dais and left the venue soon after.
'How she had an overdose of it (benzodiazepine) will be investigated by the police,'a doctor from JJ hospital said.

Indrani Mukerjea, 46, was on Friday admitted to the state-run hospital where she was brought in a 'semi-conscious' condition from her prison cell at the Byculla Jail in south Mumbai. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, arrested for the alleged killing of her daughter Sheena Bora, had an overdose of anti-depressant drugs not prescribed to her, JJ Hospital in Mumbai said, quoting forensic lab reports.

Mukerjea, 46, was on Friday admitted to the state-run hospital where she was brought in a "semi-conscious" condition from her prison cell at the Byculla Jail in south Mumbai. After being admitted, she underwent a series of medical tests to ascertain the reason of her illness.

"The reports of her urine sample showed a significant increase in the level of benzodiazepine, a class of anti-depressants," a doctor from the JJ Hospital said, quoting reports of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina submitted on Monday night.

Also Read: Sheena Bora murder case: Indrani admitted to CCU in drowsy state

"The medicine prescribed to her is amitriptyline, which is an anti-depressant, but it certainly does not belong to the benzodiazepine class of drugs," he said.

"How she had an overdose of it (benzodiazepine) will be investigated by the police. Though doctors prescribe the medicine, it is always administered by the jail staff," he said.

Another doctor said that an overdose of amitriptyline, which was prescribed to Mukerjea, can be fatal. But, she had an overdose of another anti-depressant that was neither prescribed to her nor is fatal in case of overdose, he said.

JJ Hospital's medical superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase said that Mukerjea was now better and taking oral feed.

"She is much better today (Tuesday). She is communicating and taking oral feed. She is being treated for fever and pneumonia," he said.

The city-based Hinduja Hospital also submitted its report in this connection on Monday, and mentioned an 'overdose' but did not quantify it.

A doctor from the JJ Hospital said Mukerjea's urine samples were also sent to the Hinduja Hospital. The private hospital's report has also confirmed a significant presence of the anti-depressant drug benzodiazepine, the doctor said.

The doctors at Hinduja said the presence of a high amount of benzodiazepine in Mukerjea's samples implies that she consumed the anti-depressant drug in a large quantity, he said.

In October 2015, Mukerjea was taken to the JJ Hospital from the Byculla women's prison in an unconscious state due to suspected drug overdose.

If a patient is on an anti-depressant drug, the level of benzodiazepine in urine is about 200 in a normal case. However, in case of Mukerjea, its level in her urine sample was 2,088 at that time and it was mentioned in the report submitted by the Hinduja Hospital in 2015, a doctor of the JJ Hospital said.

The state prisons department had earlier ordered a detailed inquiry into the case of possible drug overdose by Mukerjea, the former co-founder of INX Media, who is facing trial in her daughter Sheena Bora killing case in which she is the prime accused. Bora was allegedly killed and her body disposed of in a forest in the adjoining Raigad district in April 2012, according to the police.

Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai were arrested for the crime. Rai later turned an approver (prosecution witness) in the case.
Calcutta HC asked all concerned parties to file their affidavits while scheduling the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim stay on the state poll panel's overnight withdrawal of its own order extending the last date from April 9 till April 10 for filing nominations by the candidates for the Panchayat elections. (Photo: File)

Kolkata: In a major blow to the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC), the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim stay on the state poll panel's overnight withdrawal of its own order extending the last date from April 9 till April 10 for filing nominations by the candidates for the Panchayat elections.

However the high court has directed the WBSEC to take a decision on extending the last date of filing nominations in question of whether the deadline would be extended or not. It asked all concerned parties to file their affidavits while scheduling the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

BJP leader Pratap Banerjee who filed the case at the high court said, "The high court issued an interim stay on the state poll panel's withdrawal of its order extending the last date of filing nominations. It directed the WBSEC to look into the grievances of those failing to file their nominations so that they can contest the polls." He added he would pray to the high court on Wednesday to extend the last date.

On the high court's order, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee however argued, "It is not shocking at all. The high court has not asked the WBSEC to extend the last date. Even though the stay was ordered, it is infructuous because the order came after 3 pm within which the nominations had to be filed."

Later, WBSEC chief Amarendra Kumar Singh held a meeting with the state poll panel's officials during which the possibility of extending the last date again was ruled out since the date of scrutiny of the candidates' nominations is scheduled on Wednesday, sources claimed.

The dramatic twist over the rural polls unfolded after the state BJP moved the high court and at the Supreme Court against the WBSEC's withdrawal of its own order in an unprecedented move in the morning citing "legal infirmities" within following two objections by the Mamata Banerjee government and the Trinamool as a ruling party.

After the process of filing of nominations was over by 3 pm on Monday, Singh at night issued the order extending the deadline till Tuesday from 11 am to 3 pm following the Supreme Court's direction to the state poll panel to "pass any appropriate order" so that those who failed to file their nominations could contest the polls.

Within 24 hours, Singh on Tuesday morning took a U-turn issuing a fresh notification recalling Monday's order in which, he stated, a special secretary of the state government and Banerjee pointed out the "legal infirmities." He noted, "...it appears that there was no specific direction by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India for extension of nomination date."

Lashing out at the Trinamool, the opposition parties claimed that Singh was forced to cancel its order under the ruling party's pressure. They also agitated outside the state poll panel's office. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged, "We had anticipated it because Singh took long time to issue the order. He had a good night-long treatment."

He added, "That is why he cancelled the order. It is a concern and funny also that he has not resigned so far. His predecessor resigned. I do not know if he would be able continue in his post till the polls are over. He was forced to withdraw the previous order. We learnt that the ministers taught him a lesson. Trinamool can stoop to any low."

CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty complained, "In the morning four Trinamool ministers met Singh at his residence on Iron Side Road in Ballygunge before the order was cancelled. Who asked them to visit him at home? What was their purpose? The four ministers threatened him."

He claimed, "The withdrawal of the order is the follow-up action after the chief minister expressed her anguish over the order at night. The state poll panel does not have its independence." Countering the opposition Banerjee said, "Had the state poll panel not withdrawn its order, it would have committed an offence."

He added, "In that case I would have levelled the contempt of court charge against it because the Supreme Court nowhere in its order spoke about the extension of last date for filing of nominations. That is why I sent a mail to the state poll panel at 11:46 pm on Monday against its order which was issued under an opposition leader's pressure."
Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah will hold day-long fast on April 12 over disruptions during Budget session of Parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will observe a day-long fast on Thursday April 12, over disruptions during Budget session of parliament. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will observe a day-long fast on Thursday April 12, over disruptions during Budget session of parliament.

BJP lawmakers from across the nation will join the fast in what is being seen as an attempt to turn the tables on the Congress, a day after it held a symbolic fast at Rajghat in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the opposition of doing divisive politics and announced that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament, for which he blamed the Congress.

At the BJP parliamentary meeting on April 6, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of doing divisive politics and announced that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament, for which he blamed the Congress.

With opposition parties targeting the government over Dalit protests, Modi said BJP MPs and other leaders will spend a night between April 14 and May 5 in over 20,844 villages with over 50 per cent population of scheduled castes and tribes to inform the masses about the Centre's various measures aimed at their welfare.
CBI is probing irregularities in awarding tenders to a private company to run hotels when Lalu Yadav was the railway minister in 2006.

Oposition parties in Bihar including the Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha accused the ruling NDA of using the central agencies to harass Lalu Yadav's family. (Photo: File)

Patna: The RJD launched a fresh round of attacks on the BJP on Tuesday after CBI questioned Lalu Yadavs wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav for almost four hours in connection with railway tender scam.

The opposition parties in Bihar including the Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) accused the ruling NDA of using the central agencies to harass the family.

According to HAM spokesperson Danish Rizwan, This is clearly an attempt by the ruling NDA to harass the family. The action was initiated against Tejashwi Yadav because he has been raising questions about the failures of the government.

The CBI is investigating irregularities in awarding tenders to a private company to run hotels when Lalu Yadav was the railway minister in 2006.

The CBI is also probing whether a three-acre plot worth Rs 32 crores was acquired by a private firm in lieu of the tender.

According to allegations, a large patch of land in Patna was transferred by hotelier Harsh Kocher as a favor to Lalu Yadav and family for helping him in acquiring two big hotels, one in Puri and another in Ranchi when he was the railway minister.

RJD leaders had earlier dubbed cases against Lalu Yadav and his family a part of a political conspiracy by the BJP. According to RJD Spokesperson Shakti Yadav, raids and repeated summon notices earlier were sent to harass the family out of vendetta politics.

He said, The CBI has not yet been able to file a charge sheet against Tejashwi Yadav who was also made accused in the case. The party feels that the BJP wants to disturb the entire family by conducting raids and questioning Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav. They have been using investigating agencies to harass us but we have people on our side.

However, sources said that refusal to appear before the investigating agency on several occasions by Rabri Devi earlier led to the questioning on Tuesday.
The PM is in Motihari also to kickstart India's 1st all-electric high-speed train as part of the first big Make-in-India initiative.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bihar on Tuesday morning to partake in the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha and to address the Satyagrah se Swachhagrah event. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Motihari (Bihar): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.

The Prime Minister was at Motihari in Bihar to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

Modi also laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 12,000 horsepower freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory.

The Prime Minister also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar.

The train will run bi-weekly - Tuesdays and Fridays - covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum.

The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.

Addressing the gathering of about 20,000 cleanliness ambassadors from different parts of the nation who have converged at Motihari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Rs 6,600 crore worth projects launched today will be a boon to Bihar and Champaran. Projects worth Rs 3,000 crore have been approved to prevent waste dumping in Ganga."

The Prime Minister lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi for the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the state. "Bihar was the only state where the scope of hygiene was less than 50 per cent. But after a week's Swachhagraha campaign, Bihar broke that barrier," Modi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Bihar is the state that transformed Mahatma Gandhi into 'Bapu'.

"Hundred years ago, people from across the country came to Champaran and worked under the leadership of Gandhi. Today, enthusiastic youngsters are working shoulder to shoulder with cleanliness workers," the Prime Minister added.

Congratulating the people of Bihar, 'Swachhagrahis' and the state government, the Prime Minister said, "In the last one week, more than 8,50,000 toilets have been constructed in Bihar. This is a great achievement."

(With inputs from PTI)
Seven IPL matches are scheduled to be held in Chennai between April 10 and May 20.

Seeking a draft scheme by May 3, the court said that the court will approve the draft after hearing views of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Central government for not sticking to the March 29 deadline for framing a scheme to implement the award for distribution of the Cauvery river waters and directed the government to come up with a draft scheme by May 3.

In an apparent reference to protests in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the delay in constitution of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB), a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, We will make sure that the court orders are implemented. You (counsel for Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) tell your competent authorities to ensure peace and not resort to violence in the states.

We dont want anything which will hamper implementation Please tell your people that when the matter is before us, they must cooperate. When the scheme comes into effect, it will become binding on the Centre and all states, the CJI added. The Supreme Courts tough talk came on the eve of a CSK-KKR IPL match in Chennai which is threatened to be jeopardised by pro-Tamil outfit agitating over the Cauvery issue.

A 4,000 strong posse of policemen has been deployed for security on Wednesday for the match amid intensified opposition to the IPL matches being held in Chennai. With Cauvery agitators threatening to hold protests at the match venue, flags, banners, firecrackers, bags, mobile phones and binoculars have been banned inside the stadium. Commandos and rapid action force (RAF) personnel are now part of the security for the match, police said.

Seven IPL matches are scheduled to be held in Chennai between April 10 and May 20.

In the Supreme Court, the bench, also comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, was critical of the fact that despite specific direction on the setting up of the water-sharing scheme within six weeks, the Centre has been unable to do so.

Seeking a draft scheme by May 3, the court said that the court will approve the draft after hearing views of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

When the scheme comes into effect, it will become binding on the Centre and all states, the CJI said.

Attorney-general K.K. Venugopals plea for a three months extension to implement the courts directions was declined.

There is no difficulty in setting up the Cauvery Management Board the difficulty is whether administrative member or a technical member should head it, the A-G said, asking the court to clarify whether the scheme has to be strictly in terms of the award by the Cauvery Water Tribunal.

The argument triggered a terse response from the CJI who asked why the Centre had not approached the court earlier if it had any confusion.

We dont know why you have not finalised it till date. You better frame it and submit it to us. Why didnt you come to us earlier if you had any confusion? asked the CJI.

Senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, Shekhar Naphade and G. Umapathy, said that people in the state were anguished over Karnataka not releasing the water.We have filed a contempt application for not implementing the directions, Mr Naphade said.

Senior counsel Shyam Divan and Mohan Katarki for Karnataka denied that Karnataka had deliberately flouted the tribunals award.
SP MLA and party spokesman Sunil Singh Sajan said that the UP government was now adding a saffron touch to even dalit ideologues, which was shameful.

The move invited sharp criticism from the Opposition, which questioned the timing of the order and alleged that it was taken on political considerations.

Lucknow: After adding Ramji to Dr B.R. Ambedkars name, the BJP has installed a statue of the dalit ideologue wearing a saffron coat in Badaun district, which has become a subject of controversy.

Reports said after a statue of Dr Ambedkar was vandalised on Friday night at Dugraiyya village, district officials promised to replace it. But the statue that arrived from Agra and was installed on Sunday, left many shocked as Ambedkars coat, usually painted blue or black, was a deep shade saffron.

SP MLA and party spokesman Sunil Singh Sajan said that the UP government was now adding a saffron touch to even dalit ideologues, which was shameful.

The government is busy indulging in the politics of colour. They are busy painting buildings, boundaries, parks and so on in saffron. Now they are exposed by changing the colour of the Ambedkar statue to saffron. This is not going to help them and people will know their intentions better now, he said.

It may be recalled that recently the Yogi Adityanath government had issued orders to change the name of social reformer and dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in all government documents and records.

The move invited sharp criticism from the Opposition, which questioned the timing of the order and alleged that it was taken on political considerations.
One of the major ways of enhancing food security in India is by simply controlling wastage.

India produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, and has at its disposal arable land that has the potential to produce food surplus for export. Yet, it is unable to feed millions of its people, especially women and children. India ranks 100th among 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017, where it has consistently ranked poorly. Indeed, the worlds zero-hunger goal appears to be slipping further into the future rather than getting ever closer. Despite the fact that every 12th Indian has to sleep on an empty stomach, the country wastes food worth a whopping Rs 58,000 crores in a year, about 7 per cent of its total food production. It is lost during harvest, or on the journey from farm to markets  in essence in production, processing, retailing and consumption. Lack of cooling facilities is the major reason for crops perishing after harvest.

As you trudge through the mire of any government-run food auction yard, or mandi, you will find piles of supposedly fresh produce lying everywhere, rotting in the sun and competing with mangy dogs and scampering mice for your attention. A lack of education on post-harvest practices often results in poor quality control and food being damaged during handling.

One of the major ways of enhancing food security in India is by simply controlling wastage. India is the second-largest producer of vegetables and fruits, but about 25-30 per cent of it is wasted due to inadequate logistical support, lack of refrigerated storage, supply chain bottlenecks, poor transport and underdeveloped marketing channels. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) puts this figure at around 40 per cent, worth around $8.3 billion.

Twenty-one million metric tonnes of wheat, which is almost equal to Australias annual production, rots each year due to improper storage. According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce, the country experiences a post-harvest loss of Rs 2 lakh crores annually. Less than 4 per cent of Indias fresh produce is transported by cold-chains, compared to more than 90 per cent in the UK. Better cold storage, improved infrastructure and education about food handling could help transform this situation.

The World Bank recently stated that nearly 60 per cent of the countrys food subsidies do not reach the poor; they are syphoned off by the middlemen. Reforming the faltering public distribution system which mainly supplies subsidised grain to the poor and modernising other areas, such as computerisation of outlets and satellite control over the movement of transport vehicles can go a long way in plugging the leakages.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) was set up in 1964 to offer impetus to price support systems, encourage nationwide distribution and maintain sufficient buffer of staples like wheat and rice but its performance has been woefully inadequate, in comparison to the needs of the country. Around 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) gets shaved off annually in the form of food waste. The FCI has neither a warehouse capacity nor the manpower to manage this humongous stockpile of foodgrains.

Every year, the government purchases millions of tonnes of grain from farmers to ensure that they get a good price for their produce, for numerous food subsidy programmes and to maintain an emergency buffer. The cruel truth, however, is that most of the produce is left out in the open, vulnerable to rain and attacks by rodents or stored in makeshift spaces, covered by tarpaulin sheets, thus increasing the chances of spoilage. Several countries are now using metal grain silos to guard against fungus attacks on the grain stock.

It is estimated that one million tonnes of onions vanish on their way from farms to markets, as do 2.2 million tonnes of tomatoes. Tomatoes get squished if they are packed into jute sacks. Overall, five million eggs crack or go bad due to lack of cold storage. Just three states of India  Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana  grow most of Indias grains and the food has to be transported to far-flung areas.

A study undertaken by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (2013) highlights that the underlying cause of post-harvest loss in the country is due to the lack of infrastructure for short-term storage, particularly at the farm level, as well as the lack of intermediate processing in the production catchments. If there are no proper roads linking fields to markets, farmers cannot easily sell their surplus produce, which may then spoil before it can be eaten. Improving road and rail capacity enables farmers to reach buyers and likewise, fertilisers and other agricultural inputs to reach farmers.

IIM (Kolkata) has uncovered that only 10 per cent of the perishable produce has access to cold storage facilities in India. These are mostly used for potatoes to meet Indias robust demand for chips. This, along with inappropriate supply chain management, has resulted in India becoming a significant contributor to food wastage both at pre and post-harvest levels. The study estimates that India needs storage facilities for another 370 million metric tonnes of perishable produce.

Added to the wastage of food, there is a depletion of precious resources involved in its production. According to the United Nations, India is estimated to use more than 230 cubic kilometre of fresh water annually, for producing food items that will be ultimately wasted. To put this into context, this amount of water is enough to provide drinking water to 100 million people every year. Besides this, nearly 300 million barrels of oil used in the process are also ultimately wasted.

Despite being the worlds largest banana producer, India holds just 0.3 per cent share of the global banana market. Production is fragmented compared to the large-scale commercial farms of its competitors, with small-hold farmers having little business or technical support.

The cost of delivering energy to remote, rural regions for running storage facilities is also quite steep and this means that even when storage facilities are built, they may not be able to function.

In recent years, numerous initiatives and interventions have been undertaken by the Indian government, and local and international actors to target food loss and wastage across the agricultural value chain. For instance, the Indian government is seeking to streamline and modernise agricultural value chains, through reformation of the PDS to reduce the waste and loss associated with the distribution and storage of foodgrains. The government is also extending support for the setting up of cold chain projects whereby 138 cold chain projects have been installed.

Studies have also indicated that on-farm interventions can also contribute towards reducing food losses and waste. For instance, a pilot study sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has revealed food loss reductions of around 60 per cent during field trials, testing low-cost storage techniques and handling practices. Another study, undertaken in Punjab, which focused on the harvesting of Kinnow (a citrus fruit), demonstrated how on-farm food losses decreased from 10 per cent to only 2 per cent when a combination of harvesting techniques was used.

India has developed some modern supply chains linked to food processing companies, such as Nestle, Pepsi, Unilever and Del Monte but these handle only a fraction of the countrys perishable food produce.

India needs to mobilise large-scale investments in cold storage methods, refrigerated transport and other modern logistics to modernise its food supply chain. Apart from this a strong will by the political class and an imaginative thinking on the part of the policy-makers is needed.

The writer is a well-known banker, author and Islamic researcher. He can be reached at moinqazi123@gmail.com
The 42-piece collection is inspired by graphic prints and pastel palette of muted greys, blues, and blacks.

London: While many think of doing their bit for the nature conservation, not many are able to hatch it.

However, there are a selected few who are able to keep their words and prove to the world that a little intention can start the chain. One such example is the sportswear giant, Adidas.

Adidas has launched a yoga wear collection which is made up from recycled ocean plastic. The new collection is the third range of products that are infused with recycled materials.

An estimated 80 percent of marine debris in the world's oceans is made up of plastic, according to The Independent.

The German brand collaborated with Parley for the Oceans, an environmental initiative, and Wanderlust, a yoga lifestyle brand to launch the entire range.

Collaborating with Wanderlust, a yoga lifestyle brand, and Parley for the Oceans, an environmental initiative, the German brand has launched an entire range infused with recycled materials.

The 42-piece collection is inspired by graphic prints and pastel palette of muted greys, blues, and blacks.

The collection features items such as crop tops, leggings, shorts, onesies, bomber jackets, gym bags, and trainers.
The couple has asked anyone who might wish to mark occasion consider making donation to charity, rather than sending wedding gift.

Seven charity organizations have been selected by the couple for their well wishers to send in their donations.

Washington DC: With only 39 days to go for the Royal Wedding, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have asked their well-wishers to donate to charity organisations instead of showering them with lavish gifts.

"Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit," read an official release published by Kensington Palace on April 9 .

The release stated further read, "The couple, have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to charity, rather than sending a wedding gift."

Seven charity organizations have been selected by the couple for their well wishers to send in their donations.

E! News reported that the chosen organisations include CHIVA (Children's HIV Association), Crisis, the Myna Mahila Foundation from Mumbai, Scotty's Little Soldiers, StreetGames, Surfers Against Sewage and The Wilderness Foundation UK.

"Prince Harry and Ms. Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen," the official release mentioned.

"The couples have chosen charities, which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women's empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces. Many of these are small charities and the couple is pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work."

The couple will tie the knot on May 19 in England's Windsor Castle.
Official sources say official list of political leaders, both UK and international, not required for Prince Harry and Markle's wedding.

The government source said the wedding venue, St George's Chapel in Windsor, was notably smaller than Westminster Abbey where Harry's older brother Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 surrounded by a number of heads of government. (Photo: AFP)

UK government sources have revealed that Theresa May has not been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

According to a royal source, who spoke to Reuters,guests to the wedding on 19 May will be people who have an existing direct relationship with one or both of the couple, a royal source told Reuters

An official spokesperson for Prince Harry said that it has been decided that an official list of political leaders - both UK and international - is not required for Prince Harry and Markle's wedding.

Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household, the source added.

The government source said the wedding venue, St George's Chapel in Windsor, was notably smaller than Westminster Abbey where Harry's older brother Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 surrounded by a number of heads of government.

The source said there had been no expectation from Downing Street that the prime minister would be invited.

Notably, US president Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama are also believed to have missed out on an invite to the coveted event.

Former PM Margaret Thatcher and opposition leaders Neil Kinnock, David Steel, David Owen attended Prince Andrew - who like Prince Harry was the second son - and Sarah Ferguson's wedding back back in 1986.

Invitations to Prince Harry and the Suits actor's wedding were distributed to 600 guests last month, with 200 close friends also invited to a private celebration at Frogmore House after the ceremony at St Georges Chapel.

Kensington Palace recently revealed the big day would include 250 members of the Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed the Armed Forces would provide ceremonial support.

More than 100,000 visitors from around the world are expected to flood into Windsor for the highly-anticipated wedding next month.
The two claimed that they were in a relationship for 5 yrs and wanted to get married but Devendra was disowned by his kin due to relation.

A couple has been arrested from west Delhi for allegedly impersonating executives of an authorised car dealer in the city and stealing vehicles on the pretext of car servicing. (Photo: PTI | Representational)

New Delhi: A couple has been arrested from west Delhi for allegedly impersonating executives of an authorised car dealer in the city and stealing vehicles on the pretext of car servicing, police said on Monday.

On March 6, Tilak Vihar police post received a complaint from Hardev Singh who alleged that he was contacted by a woman on phone claiming to be an executive of DD Motors, DCP (West) Vijay Kumar said.

She told him that his car's servicing was due. A man came to his house on March 4, and Singh handed him his car, Kumar said.

Later, when he tried calling back on the phone number used by the woman, it was switched off. When he contacted the authorised dealer, he learnt that no call was made to him for the servicing of his car.

A case was registered and probe launched during which technical surveillance and inputs led the police to Devendra, 24, and Bhawna, 22. They were arrested from Ring Road near Khayala drain on April 7 and the stolen car was also recovered, said the officer.

During interrogation, the two claimed that they were in a relationship for five years and wanted to get married but Devendra was disowned by his family due to the relationship, he said.

Bhawana had worked at the car dealer as a tele-caller earlier and she allegedly had the record of customers who used the pick and drop facility for car servicing. Devendra worked as a financial consultant at a private bank.

"They hatched a conspiracy to dupe people and abscond with their cars on the pretext of getting its servicing done," the officer said, they wanted to sell the vehicles in the grey market.

Further investigation in the case is on, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had turned down a proposal of Union railway minister Piyush Goyal to convert the station into the museum.

Mumbai: The Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS) on Monday claimed that the 28-day hunger strike by its members led to the saving of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) iconic building  a World Heritage site  from conversion into a museum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had turned down a proposal of Union railway minister Piyush Goyal to convert the station into the museum.

Speaking to The Asian Age, CRMS president R.P. Bhatanagar said that the scrapping of the proposal was the victory of the strike, which begun on March 8. The hunger strike was called-off on April 3 after a meeting with railway officials in New Delhi following their assurance to consider the demands.

The decision of Railway minister was arbitrary. We have been opposing the plan as the railway workers have an emotional attachment to this building. In fact, the railway would have been forced to spend `1,500 crore on a new general manager's office and the Central Railways headquarters, he said.

The CRMS members on Monday celebrated the victory with dance and distribution of sweets at CST. When asked about the scrapping of the conversion plan, Central Railway officials, however, said that there was no formal communication about the scrapping of the project. The Central Railway spokesperson declined to comment

From November last year, the CRMS began opposing the Railway ministers proposal to convert the World Heritage site into the museum. The CRMS is affiliated to the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR). The NFIR had sent a letter to the chairman of the Railway Board opposing the museum proposal on December 8. In addition, the CRMS also wrote a letter to the Railway authorities echoing the same sentiment.
The bus was on its way to Mumbai from Ahmedabad when it suffered a tyre burst and was brought to a halt by the driver.

Palghar: At least two persons died on the spot and three others were injured when a goods-laden container truck collided with a stationary luxury bus on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway near Palghar on Tuesday morning, police said.

The deceased included a 61-year-old woman, Madhuben Solanki, a resident of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, they said. The bus was on its way to Mumbai from Ahmedabad when it suffered a tyre burst and was brought to a halt by the driver. A goods-laden container truck coming from the opposite direction crashed into the bus at around about 7.30 am, police said.

The accident left two persons dead and three injured, who were admitted to local hospitals for treatment, police said. The bus driver, identified only as Rameshbhai (45), was the other deceased, they added.
It said this in affidavit during hearing of PIL.

Mumbai: A year after there were several instances of miscreants putting rods on tracks, including the one at Diva where an incoming train stopped in the nick of time to avoid collision with a 7-metre rail rod, the Railways says it found no technology to detect foreign objects on tracks, which could forewarn any danger.

The Central Railway (CR) in its affidavit to the Bombay high court has claimed that there is no technology in the world to warn of foreign objects on tracks.

The Railways submitted the affidavit during the hearing of public interest litigation in the HC by an activist Sameer Zaveri. In its affidavit the Railways submitted to the best of our knowledge, railways have not come across any technology which may detect foreign objects on tracks which is a casual statement and is unexpected, said Mr Zaveri.

He said that the Konkan railway had installed the Anti-Collision Devices (ACD), which works on the Global Positioning System (GPS) way back in 2011 to combat and avert mishaps that may occur due to landslides. Similarly, north-east railways also installed similar technology on its tracks as the tracks pass through hilly terrain. Both the systems have been effective as there have been very few accidents, said Mr Zaveri.

The ACD sensors installed at various locations on the railway tracks give the motorman warnings of any foreign object lying on the track in advance as a result of which he is able to take evasive steps. The sensors both on the tracks and in the motormans cabin are GPS enabled.

Referring to the claims in the affidavit, Mr Zaveri said, It seems that the railways have not bothered to undertake any study, locally or internationally and have simply submitted an affidavit. In light of their claim to the best of our knowledge, I have sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act asking to know which countries the railways have written to or consulted to know about the technology which may help.

The affidavit was filed in compliance of order of March 2017 seeking to know steps and measures they were taking. The court had also sought to know what steps railways has implemented to provide immediate medical help on the stations for persons injured in train accidents.
According to the railways, the tenders for the construction of boundary wall on different stretches were invited for a total length of 37km.

The boundary wall will be completed as expeditiously as possible. However, the CR did not mention where the walls are being constructed.

Mumbai: The Central Railway (CR) will build 37 kilometres of boundary walls along the tracks in its attempt to reduce deaths, an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court says.

The affidavit submitted in response to a petition of Sameer Zaveri, a railway safety activist, says a major reason for the high number of deaths on the tracks is local populations easy access to the tracks.

The affidavit states that there are several illegal hutments, which have been constructed near the railway tracks, and the occupants of these hutments are in a position to have easy access to the railway tracks. The only solution to the problem is to construct a boundary wall along the side of the tracks so that access is minimised. Most deaths on the tracks occur while people carelessly cross the tracks.

According to the railways, the tenders for the construction of boundary wall on different stretches were invited for a total length of 37km. A few tenders have been finalised and the contract has already been awarded. A few tenders were at advanced stage of finalisation. The boundary wall will be completed as expeditiously as possible. However, the CR did not mention where the walls are being constructed.

According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), more than 3,014 people lost their lives in 2017 on the western, central and harbour lines. Of these, 1,651 people had lost their lives while crossing tracks.

Sabotage Bid

On January 24 last year, a group of people kept a 400kg piece of rail track across the line near Diva station in an incident of alleged sabotage of suburban railway line. In April, the Thane city police arrested one Maula Makandar claiming that he promised Rs 2,000 to the accused for placing the obstacle. The five other accused were identified as Danish Shaikh, 26, Suraj Bhosale, 25, Mohammad Naseem Shaikh, 34, Nazir Sayyad, 24 and Jayesh Pare, 30.

The investigators claimed that they were drug addicts with a history of railway property theft. These accused were handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) for further investigation in the case as they had registered the case.

Sabotage Bid

On January 24 last year, a group of people kept a 400kg piece of rail track across the line near Diva station in an incident of alleged sabotage of suburban railway line. In April, the Thane city police arrested one Maula Makandar claiming that he promised Rs 2,000 to the accused for placing the obstacle. The five other accused were identified as Danish Shaikh, 26, Suraj Bhosale, 25, Mohammad Naseem Shaikh, 34, Nazir Sayyad, 24 and Jayesh Pare, 30.

The investigators claimed that they were drug addicts with a history of railway property theft. These accused were handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) for further investigation in the case as they had registered the case.
Hungerstrikes remain a powerful tool of political protest. It gives every citizen a powerful weapon to challenge even the mightiest power.

On Monday, April 9, the leaders and workers of the Indian National Congress, led by party president Rahul Gandhi, observed a day-long fast all over India to protest against the rising incidents of atrocities against dalits and minority communities. By doing so, he was invoking a connection with the Gandhian principles of fasting not merely as potent political tool against oppressors, but also as symbolism to spread the message of peace and communal harmony.

Fasting as a means of political protest is an age-old practice that was mastered by Mahatma Gandhi in his struggle for Indias freedom from colonial rule. In his own words  fasting is a potent weapon in the satyagraha armoury  something that he used with great effect, but sparingly. The Mahatmas fasts were not merely aimed at the British, he also undertook fasts as a penance when he felt that disruptive forces were going against the principles of satyagraha  the dual arsenal of truth and non-violence that shook the foundation of the mightiest colonial empire of the time, and which inspired many global leaders in later decades who too used the principles of satyagraha to fight against tyranny in their own homelands.

Other Indian freedom fighters too used hungerstrikes as a means of protest. While on trial, Jatin Das and Bhagat Singh undertook one of the longest fasts in history, for 116 days, in order to improve conditions in which prisoners were held in India. It ended with Das death from starvation in September 1929. The wave of public sympathy set off by his hungerstrike forced the British jailers to concede some demands for improving the living conditions of prisoners.

Fasting  or in the parlance of political protests, hungerstrikes  is a practice that dates back to millennia. According to Wikipedia: Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscadh or Cealachan. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorsteps of the home of the offender. Embedded in the culture of Ireland, this practice of hungerstrikes was practised by Irish republican prisoners in British jails and continued to be sporadically used till as late as 1981 by members of the Irish Republican Army.

In India, there is reference to fasting as a means of persuasion in the Ramayan. When Bhagwan Ram left for his 14 years of exile, Bharat tried to stop him by saying that he would go on a fast-unto-death unless Ram changed his mind. Ram had to dissuade Bharat by citing the Shastras, saying that only brahmins were entitled to undertake such fasts, and had to strike a bargain with Bharat by offering him his sandals as his symbol, on whose behalf Bharat would rule in Rams absence. In Kalhans Rajtarangini that chronicles the rulers of Kashmir in the 12th century, there are a lot of references to the use of hungerstrikes by brahmins against King Jayasimha because they felt that the ruler had allowed the kingdom to fall into ruin due to his weakness and inaction against corrupt officials.

Centuries later, the fast by Anna Hazare against institutional corruption had stirred the nations imagination, bringing the issue of corruption into the forefront of public discourse. Not limited by caste as fasting was no longer the prerogative of brahmins in modern, democratic India, thousands supported the protest that was to become the largest anti-corruption movement in post-Independent India, forcing the incumbent government to pass the Lokpal Bill. However, unless the motive behind the fast catches the public imagination, or is backed by huge popular support that is usually political in nature, even a prolonged or well-publicised fast also may not get the desired results. When Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao started to sink after 11 days of fasting, the Centre conceded the long-pending demand for a separate state of Telangana. But Irom Sharmila, who fasted for 16 years seeking repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958, had to end it in 2016 without achieving her desired goal. Nevertheless, she became an icononic figure (though later condemned by some people and organisations in her home state for giving up fasting), symbolising the struggle of a common citizen protesting peacefully against the mighty power of the State.

While Mahatma Gandhi became the most famous exponent of fasting as a tool of protest in the modern era, and he also gave it a touch of moral endorsement by linking it to satyagraha, there were others before and after him who have used it effectively. In Britain, a decade before Gandhi, Marion Wallace Dunlop, seeking the right to vote for women, went on fast in prison to assert her right to be treated as a political prisoner. Emmeline Pankhurst, a political activist and a leader of the British Suffragette movement, who fought for the right of women to vote and for equality, along with other colleagues in similar movements in different countries, often used hungerstrikes as a means of protest.

Hungerstrikes remain a powerful tool of political protest. It gives every citizen a powerful weapon to challenge even the mightiest power. However, for it to become really effective, it must be used sparingly. Mahatma Gandhi had warned that fasting cannot be undertaken by everyone. It must have strong ideological and moral conviction that must come from the depths of ones soul. The truth behind this statement was perhaps best underlined in the recent fast by Anna Hazare. The same Anna Hazare, who had ignited the nations imagination just a few years ago, became a tragic farce when he ended his latest fast within just four days, ostensibly satisfied by some vague promises by the Narendra Modi government to look into his demands. People must be aware of their own strengths and limitations, not just physical, but also ideological and moral, when they undertake a serious fast, lest in Kalhans words pronounced centuries ago, they become intoxicated with their own knavery.
The first residents could move in as early as 2022, CEO Dan Doctoroff said in an interview.

Sidewalk Labs has faced growing scrutiny over its plans to put sensors and cameras all over Quayside. (Representative Image)

Alphabet Incs urban innovation company Sidewalk Labs hopes to break ground on its first ever smart-city project in Toronto in 2020, and begin testing some of the proposed technologies this summer, its chief executive told Reuters.

This is the first time a timeline has been publicly disclosed for the project designed to increase land efficiency, cut costs and conserve energy in one of the worlds priciest housing markets as development struggles to catch up with a rapidly growing population.

Government-backed agency Waterfront Toronto in March 2017 requested proposals to develop a 12-acre (4.86 hectares) environmentally friendly mixed-use area that would add jobs and be affordable for all ages and income brackets. That was the first part of the planned revitalisation of about 800 acres of industrial wasteland to the east of the citys downtown on Lake Ontario.

Sidewalk Labs was chosen in October based on a proposal that included autonomous vehicles, a thermal grid that does not use fossil fuels, low-cost modular buildings with flexible uses, and robotic delivery and waste-management systems. The company settled on Toronto after searching for sites across North America, Europe and Australia to create a smart city.

A development plan is expected to be approved by the Sidewalk and Waterfront Toronto boards by the end of 2018, and the first residents could move in as early as 2022, CEO Dan Doctoroff said in an interview.

The timeline is subject to government approvals and other processes that Sidewalk expects to spend most of 2019 working through, Doctoroff said.

Quayside will be a prototype for a broader opportunity, Doctoroff said. What were trying to do, no one has really succeeded in doing. Thus far, Ive been thrilled with the way things have gone ... but Im not sanguine about the challenges.

Other smart city projects have largely failed because of budgets, the involvement of too many parties, and the use of public resources on development with no immediate benefits for the broader population.

Corporate access to personal information is a growing concern. Sidewalk Labs has faced growing scrutiny over its plans to put sensors and cameras all over Quayside.

Doctoroff said Sidewalk Labs would destroy non-essential information, only retain data that would improve the quality of life, and not sell them to advertisers. Third parties must adopt privacy policies developed for the plan, he added.

Most of the technology will be sourced from several other companies, Doctoroff said. Its possible we might invest in (some of) them to encourage them or potentially to fund some of those things, but that will be a smaller percentage.

Sidewalk has invested $50 million for testing and engagement this year. It will lease a new waterfront office in summer, where it will showcase some Quayside technologies, he said.

Sidewalk will have a better idea by year-end whether its partnership with Waterfront Toronto could extend to the broader eastern waterfront, he said.

Some technologies can be effective in Quaysides limited area, but others including mobility, energy and building systems need larger economies of scale to be effective, Doctoroff said. Sidewalk Labs has been approached by others to do similar projects elsewhere but is focused on Toronto for now, Doctoroff said. Weve got to get it right here.
A 1998 federal law prohibits internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents consent.

The toddler-oriented YouTube Kids app, launched in 2015, offers more parental controls but is not as widely used  and features a selection of the same videos and channels that kids can also find on the regular YouTube service.

The fine print of YouTubes terms of service has a warning that goes unheeded by millions of children who visit YouTube to watch cartoons, nursery rhymes, science experiments or videos of toys being unboxed.

If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service, the terms say. There are lots of other great web sites for you.

In a complaint filed Monday, child advocates and consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google for allegedly violating childrens online privacy and allowing ads to target them.

Google profits handsomely from selling advertising to kid-directed programs that it packages, said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the groups that drafted the complaint. They created a successful model monetizing kids data.

Television networks also run ads during cartoons and other programs aimed at kids.

The difference? YouTube does so with a lot of data collection. Its business model relies on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about its users so that it can gauge their interests and tailor advertising to them. But a 1998 federal law prohibits internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents consent.

The coalition accuses YouTube of violating that law and deliberately profiting off luring children into what Chester calls an ad-filled digital playground where commercials for toys, theme parks or sneakers can surface alongside kid-oriented videos.

YouTube said in an emailed statement that it will read the complaint thoroughly and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve. Because YouTube is not for children, weve invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.

That toddler-oriented YouTube Kids app, launched in 2015, offers more parental controls but is not as widely used  and features a selection of the same videos and channels that kids can also find on the regular YouTube service.

Although its not known if the FTC will take action, the complaint comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the tech industrys mining of personal data and after the FTC opened an investigation last month into Facebooks privacy practices.

For that reason, the FTC may be more reinvigorated and ready to take these issues seriously, said Josh Golin, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which drafted the complaint along with the Center for Digital Democracy and a Georgetown University law clinic. Several other groups have signed on, including Common Sense Media, which runs a popular website for families, and the advocacy division of Consumer Reports.

I think the day of reckoning has arrived, said US Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-authored the 1998 law and says he wants the FTC to look into the YouTube complaint. Americans want to know the answers as to whether or not the privacy of their children is being compromised in the online world.

FTC spokeswoman Juliana Gruenwald Henderson said the agency looks forward to reviewing the letter. She said the FTC already has brought more than two dozen cases for violations of the 1998 law. It has settled child privacy cases with Yelp, mobile advertising network inMobi and electronic toy-maker VTech.

None of those services are as popular for kids as YouTube, which has toddler-themed channels with names like ChuChuTV nursery rhymes, which as of last week counted more than 16 million subscribers and 13.4 billion views. It also has many channels that cater to preteens.

Kandi Parsons, a former FTC attorney who now advises companies on child-privacy compliance, said that because YouTube is a general-audience service, it could be hard to determine if parents are curating content for their kids to watch or letting them use it on their own. Parsons said the FTC so far hasnt gone after kid-directed channels within broader media websites, though that doesnt mean it wont.

Consumer advocates say Google knows what it is doing. They point to its Google Preferred program that allows advertisers on YouTube to pay extra to get their ads on the most popular videos. The program includes a Parenting & Family Lineup that has featured channels such as ChuChu TV, Foxs BabyTV and Seven Super Girls, whose topics include fluffy unicorn slime.

YouTube does block children who identify themselves as under 13 from posting video, by prohibiting them from creating an account to begin with, but an account isnt needed merely to watch.

Its laughable if Google execs claim that they think the parent is in charge of the online viewing behaviors of tens of millions of children, Chester said. Children are watching this content by themselves. Google is trying to look the other way.
A report says China lodged a strong protest with India, alleging 'transgression' by Indian troops in the Asaphila area along Arunachal.

Both the countries have Special Representative talks mechanism to resolve the boundary issue. (Photo: PTI/File)

Beijing: China on Monday asked India to respect the Line of Actual Control and refrain from "hyping up" the boundary issue and work with it to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry's remarks came in response to a report that China has lodged a strong protest with New Delhi, alleging "transgression" by the Indian troops in the strategically sensitive Asaphila area along Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian side has dismissed Beijing's complaint.

Read: China protests India's 'transgression' in Arunachal; New Delhi denies claim

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang skirted a direct response to the report and said, "I do not understand the specific state of affairs that you mentioned that happened recently on the Sino-Indian border".

"Prior to the resolution of the border issue, it is hoped that the Indian side abide by the agreement protocol, respect and obey the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and refrain from hyping up the issue and work with China to jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas," Geng said.

He, however, reiterated China's repeated stand that Beijing never recognised Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as part of southern Tibet.

"China's position on the Sino-Indian boundary issue is consistent and clear. The Chinese government has never acknowledged the so-called Arunachal Pradesh," he said.

"Both China and India are negotiating to resolve the boundary issue between the two countries and seek a fair and reasonable solution acceptable to both sides," he said.

Both the countries have Special Representative talks mechanism to resolve the boundary issue.

The two countries so far have held 20 rounds of talks to resolve the boundary dispute and worked out different mechanisms to keep peace along the 3,488 km-long LAC.

Asked about the recent visit of Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou to New Delhi on April 6 and reports of several Indian top ministers visiting China this month, Geng said, "China and India have sound momentum of exchanges and close cooperation. It is not strange to have such kind of cooperation."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit China in June to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao.
The minister will visit camps in Kutupalong where many refugees live in shacks that are unlikely to withstand heavy rains and storms.

Myanmar has said it has already verified several hundred Rohingya refugees for possible repatriation. (Photo: File)

Dhaka: A Myanmar government minister will visit Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh on Wednesday, officials said, a rare trip Dhaka hopes will help speed the return home of hundreds of thousands of the neighbouring nations Muslim minority.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, will speak with some of the roughly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims which the United Nations and aid groups say fled a military crackdown in their Buddhist-majority country since August 2017.

So many people of his country are here and its their moral obligation to see their conditions, Mohammed Abul Kalam, Bangladeshs refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said.

His country may want to show the global leaders that they are sincere to repatriate. Bangladesh expects to resolve the problem soon, as it is a huge burden for this country, which we cannot bear.

The Myanmar minister confirmed last week that he was visiting Bangladesh.

Kalam will accompany Win Myat Aye on the visit to the camps in Kutupalong, where many refugees live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that are unlikely to withstand heavy rains and storms brought by the monsoon season when it starts in June.

A Bangladesh foreign ministry official said his country wanted to show the visiting minister the challenges it was facing in hosting the refugees in the coastal district of Coxs Bazar, bordering Myanmar.

Win Myat Aye, the minister charged by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi with leading rehabilitation efforts in the countrys Rakhine State that the Rohingya call home, is likely to meet Bangladeshs foreign minister on Thursday, said the official, who declined to be identified, citing government policy.

Myanmar has said it has already verified several hundred Rohingya refugees for possible repatriation.

The Rohingya exodus followed reported killings, burnings, looting and rape in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces. Myanmar, which considers most Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has denied the accusations.
The proposal signals a new low in the 10-month-old feud between Qatar and a quartet of nations that includes Saudi Arabia.

Qatar is accused of sponsoring terrorism because of its support for Islamist opposition groups in the region and its warm relations with Iran. (Photo: AP)

Dubai: Saudi Arabia could consider a proposal to dig a maritime canal along the kingdom's border with Qatar, turning the peninsula-nation into an island and transforming its only land border into a military zone and nuclear waste site, state-linked Saudi newspapers reported on Monday.

The project has not been given official approval and faces many obstacles.

Still, the proposal signals a new low in the 10-month-old feud between Qatar and a quartet of nations that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.

The four accuse Qatar of sponsoring terrorism because of its support for Islamist opposition groups in the region and its warm relations with Iran.

Qatar denies the allegations and says the moves attempt to undermine its sovereignty.

Qatar's ruling emir, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met in Washington on Monday with US defence secretary Jim Mattis.

He is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's Sabq and al-Riyadh newspapers carried nearly identical reports on Monday saying that under the proposal, Saudi Arabia would transform part of its side of the border with Qatar into a military base and another area would become a dump site for waste from nuclear reactors the kingdom wants to build.

The UAE, meanwhile, would also build a nuclear waste site at the closest point near its border with Qatar.

An earlier report by Sabq newspaper ran with a headline saying the canal project would "turn Qatar into an island" and would take just 12 months to complete.

The so-called Salwa Marine Canal project would be funded by Saudi and Emirati investors and dug by Egyptian companies with experience in the Suez Canal.

Sabq reports the canal would span the entirety of the border with Qatar, creating waterfront coastline for resorts, private beaches and Gulf cruise liners.

The canal, estimated to cost 2.8 billion riyals ($750 million), would stretch 200 meters wide (656 feet) wide and up to 20 meters deep (66 feet).

Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, became the first high-ranking official to comment on the proposal.

In a string of tweets, he said the project is "proof of Qatar's failure to manage and solve its crisis".

Qatari government spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
by Shafique Khokhar

The march will touch various Pakistani cities and end in Hyderabad on 13 April. It is backed by Rwadari Tehreek and activists from various religions. In todays Pakistan, the values of the Father of the Nation Ali Jinnah have been betrayed. Change is not possible without the sincere contribution and efforts by all sides.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  The Rwadari Tehreek, an interfaith movement for tolerance, is leading a peace caravan to pursue the struggle of building a peaceful Pakistan. The event is at its fifth edition.

Participants with different religious and cultural backgrounds from every province left Lahore yesterday to promote non-violence, religious tolerance and communal harmony.

The caravan left from the Lahore Press Club and is set to cover several Pakistani cities, including Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Khiarpur Mirs, Moro as well as the Sachal Sarmast temple with the last stop, on 13 April, in Hyderabad, where the group will celebrate at the Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium.

The starting ceremony saw the presence of several Christian representatives and Muslim ulema, as well as activists from various civil society groups.

At the launch, Rwadari Tehreek president Samson Salamat and caravan organiser said we want to give a message to the people of Pakistan that they need to make some efforts to counter the deteriorating situation and adopt ways and means that can lead our nation towards a peaceful future. Peace is our future, not violence.

"Unfortunately, Salamat said, our society is not in harmony with the vision of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who had promised in his speech to the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947 that all citizens shall be treated equally without any discrimination on the basis of cast, colour or creed.

Today, contrary to the vision of the Founder of Pakistan, our beloved country is surrounded by controlled democracy, limitations on freedom of religion, expression, assembly and association with mob violence triggered by Blasphemy allegations that continue to claim lives and cause damage to the settlements and properties of those belonging to religious minority communities.

In addition to frequent terrorist acts, what worries and exacerbates the existing feeling of fear, "is the use of religion in politics and state affairs like the recent judgement by the Islamabad High Court that requires Pakistanis applying for a public sector job to declare their religion."

For Abdullah Malik, co-chairman of the group, "terrorist groups are a threat to the lives of all people". Saeeda Diep, president of the Institute for Peace and Secular Studies and the guest of honour at the event, stressed the fact that "efforts should be maximised as these are the need of the time

Finally, for Salamat, "Pakistan needs a quick overhauling to change path, which is not possible without the sincere contribution and efforts by all sides.

In his view, Strengthening democratic institutions, laws and values, improving governance, law and order, and the human rights situation should be a priority for every stakeholder. None of this will be possible without curbing intolerance, violent extremism and terrorism.
by Melani Manel Perera

The project was launched yesterday. At least 70 thousand poor fishermen and farmers will benefit from aid. India offers economic assistance for a total of 2.3 billion euros.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Bicycles, hoes and sewing machines: these are the support tools that the Indian government has donated to the poor fishermen and farmers' communities of Hambantota, in the southern part of Sri Lanka. In all, at least 70 thousand people will receive aid. For their part, the Colombo authorities thanked India for the great help shown to the populations in difficulty.

The delivery ceremony took place yesterday at the "Nonagama Cultural Center" in Ambalantota, in the district of Hambantota. High Commissioner of India Taranjit Singh Sandhu represented the Delhi government; for the Sri Lankan side Mahinda Amaraweera, minister of development of fish and aquatic resources. Together they launched a project to support farmers and fishermen living in the area.

The Ceylon Fisheries Harbors company will distribute the assets offered by India, worth 138 million Sri Lankan rupees [over 720 thousand euros]. In detail, the 70 thousand beneficiaries will receive 7 thousand bicycles, 1000 sewing machines and 60 thousand hoes to plow the fields. The goal of the project is to improve the income and living conditions of the population.

The plan is part of the development agreements of the bilateral partnership of the two neighboring countries. India's total commitment to Sri Lanka amounts to a total of about 2.9 billion US dollars [2.3 billion euros]. Of these, at least 545 million [more than 442 million euros] are allocated in the form of pure donations.

Speaking at the ceremony, High Commissioner Sandhu recalled the numerous projects with which India guarantees assistance. Then he added that his government "will continue to support Sri Lanka in any way and in all circumstances".
Mgr Thomas K. Oommen is the moderator of the Church of South India. With 4.5 million members, it is the second largest Christian denomination in the country. For him, the current government [. . .] follows the Hindutva supremacist ideology", and the federal administration is "pro-corporate and unkind to the poor".

Kottayam (AsiaNews)  Indias central government is a threat to the poor and minorities, this according to Mgr Thomas K. Oommen, moderator of the (Protestant) Church of South India.

The Anglican bishop wrote an open letter addressed to all citizens dated 6 April, anniversary of the Salt March, the non-violent demonstration led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 against the British colonial government.

According to Mgr Oommen, living in India in the last four years, since the Hindu nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party led by premier Narendra Modi took office, "has become a nightmare to the poor and the minorities in India".

He wants to share his fears "As an Indian Citizen and the head of the second largest Church in India, with more than 4.5 million members, most of them being Dalits, Adivasis, poor farmers and fisherfolks".

It is true and sad fact that the current government that follows the Hindutva supremacist ideology seems to have consciously discounted what is stated in the Preamble of our Indian Constitution that declares liberty, equality, and fraternity as its ideals and assures social, economic and political justice to the citizens of India. Hindutva promoters want to turn India into a Hindu state.

According to the bishop, the government has proven to be pro-corporate and unkind to the poor by waiving [. . .] loans of rich people and corporate [interests] while not waiving [. . .] the loans of the poor farmers, not giving Minimum Support Price (MSP) to them, not addressing the issues of economic distress, joblessness, price rise by forcefully implementing policies like 'demonetisation' and GST, the Goods and Service Tax. In fact, corruption and scams/scandals have become a hallmark of this government.

This is why "the Church of South India asks that the central government assure the democratic and secular fabric of India, which must be safeguarded, instead of promoting the Hindutva agenda by which it demolishes churches and mosques, vandalising religious statues and symbols , persecutes Christians and Muslims, modifies school books, inserts dogmatic and pseudo-scientific religious content, bans films, books and minority festivals, arguing that they offend Hindu nationalist sentiment".

lastly, The Church of South India not only stands in solidarity with the Dalits fighting for justice and equality and agitating against alleged dilution of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, but also condemns all atrocities against the Dalits, who suffer torture, rape and brutal murders by Hindutva extremist forces.
by Bernardo Cervellera

The new apostolic exhortation "on the call to holiness in todays world" is of a spiritual and confidential nature. It overcomes the barriers between heroism and daily life, consecrated and lay people, Catholics and other Christians. The beatitudes, going against the flow, a way to witness to faith in the modern world. Gnosticism and neo-Pelagianism present in the Church. Traditionalists and "bergogliani" progressives. The devil is not a myth, but someone who poisons us "with hatred, with sadness, with envy, with vices".

Rome (AsiaNews) - The new apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis presented today, "Gaudete et exsultate (GE)" is, as the subtitle explains, a "call to holiness in todays world". It is to be meditated upon as in the past it was done with the books "of perfection", the "Imitation of Christ", or the "Filotea" of St. Francis de Sales. Like these, GE has a slow and analytical, spiritual and confidential rhythm: very often the Pope writes addressing the reader ad you, as in a familiar and intimate dialogue.

At the same time, his very personal meditation leads beyond all boundaries: holiness is not only in the great models, but is for everyone in the simplicity of everyday life; not only for priests and nuns, but also for lay people and (especially) women; not only for the perfect, but also for sinners; not only for Catholics, but also for Orthodox and Protestants, and in some respects - as in the case of "seeking justice with hunger and thirst" (No. 79) - there is also the holiness of "anonymous Christians".

With this, the proposal is not for a watered down, secular, secularized sanctity that is good for everyone. On the contrary, those who do not want to live in mediocrity must be inflamed by the presence of God, receive the mission from Him and walk in the path that He traces in our lives (nn19-24).

And after having countered certain ideas such as the opposition between action and contemplation, silence and activity, Francis proposes the "every day" sanctity of the Beatitudes: poverty, meekness, crying, being peaceful, ... until persecution, which is martyrdom of blood, but also enduring ridicule (No. 91).

The proposal of the Beatitudes is genius: on the one hand it takes up the traditional teaching of the Church which was taught to catechumens in the past; on the other, they contrast most with contemporary mentality. Living the Beatitudes in the modern world means going against the desire to possess, to appear, to be indifferent towards others, for violence, or to oppress others.

One point on which the pontiff dwells is on the temptations of Gnosticism and neo-Pelagianism. This reflection echoes somewhat the document "Placuit Deo" of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But the Pope, rather than applying it to the contemporary mentality of the world, applies it within the Church (n.39), underlining that even among Catholics there is "Gnosticism", that is, an ideology that is content with analysis and words, without considering the "flesh" of the world and of the Church, which sees salvation in the rational and all-encompassing understanding of faith, to the point of making it "a monolithic body of doctrine... with no room for nuance" (No. 43). In this way, this temptation suffocates the mystery of God, which is always greater than our explanations, and is present in the world and in the Church beyond our measures.

The neo-Pelagianism, on the other hand, is the underlining of the human will as capable of achieving salvation (nn.47-segg). This "heresy" becomes without mercy for sinners, above all because it forgets that it is God's mercy to give holiness. In this "self-centred and elitist complacency" (No. 57), we forget the mission of "communicating the beauty and the joy of the Gospel and seeking out the lost among the immense crowds that thirst for Christ".

In these two heresies it is easy to see the temptations of the two opposing extremisms that are suffocating the Church: that of the traditionalists, of the ritualists, of the clear and distinct doctrine, and that of the "progressives" (who often pretend to be "bergogliani", manipulating the Popes words) who now become new inquisitors.

The pontiff often emphasizes that speeches, formulas, programs are always an attempt to draw near to the experience of faith. But the heart of faith is always (and only) charity towards God and neighbor (Nos 60-61).

His emphasis on the devil is also striking, seen not as "a myth", but as a presence that leads to the destruction of people and communities not though spectacular possessions, but by poisoning us (slowly) "with hatred, with sadness, with envy, with vices "(No. 161).

Faced with the sad witness of Christians without joy, lukewarm, slothful, worn-out, distracted, individualistic, the Pope hopes that " these pages will prove helpful by enabling the whole Church to devote herself anew to promoting the desire for holiness. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for Gods greater glory, and let us encourage one another in this effort. (No. 177).
The high point of the celebration, which lasted two days, was a solemn Jubilee Mass. The missionaries work of evangelisation began in 1868 in the village of LaikThoo. Their action touched distant and remote ethnic groups in the eastern regions. PIME contributed to the founding of the local Church with six dioceses: Taungngu, Kengtung, Lashio, Loikaw and Pekhon.

Taungngu (AsiaNews)  The participation of some 20,000 Catholics at the solemn celebration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Eastern Burma shows how much local ethnic groups remember and are devoted to the priests of the Milan-based institute.

The church in Taungngu, the first diocese founded by PIME missionaries, hosted the celebrations for the anniversary on 7 and 8 April.

Preparations for the event required time and a lot of work from all the dioceses in which the PIME missionaries served, since such occasions represent an important moment of coming together and unity for local Catholics and nurture a strong sense of belonging of locals with the Catholic community.

Sent by the Holy See to evangelise the region, the Institutes first missionaries (Fathers Tancredi Conti, Sebastiano Carbone and Rocco Tornatore) arrived in Toungoo on the Sittang River in 1867, led by the apostolic prefect Eugenio Biffi. Taungngu was the last city in the East under British rule.

Beyond the river lay a vast mountainous and forested area where ethnic groups lived warring among themselves, under indigenous rulers (saophas). These groups  Shan, Karen, Kayan  were despised by both the Burmese and the British because they were deemed savages.

PIMEs work of evangelisation began in 1868 in the village of LaikThoo, located in a valley in the mountains of Kayin State.

To mark the 150th anniversary, the Superior General of the Institute, Fr Ferruccio Brambillasca, and the Superior Delegate to Thailand and Myanmar, Fr Maurizio Arioldi, arrived in LaikThoo on last Saturday, in the morning (pictures).

They received a warm welcome from Mgr Isaac Danu, bishop of Taungngu, and Card Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon and Myanmars first cardinal. Seven other prelates came from every corner of the country. Thousands of believers also travelled for the occasion.

The delegation visited the village cemetery (pictured), where some of the early PIME missionaries rest, including bishops Tornatore and Vittorio Emanuele Sagrada.

The visitors blessed the graveyard followed by a memorial Mass for all the missionaries, attended by about 20,000 people with 200 priests and many nuns.

At the end of the service, a procession led the crowd to the parishs new Eucharistic chapel. Located about three kilometers down from the cemetery, it provides the faithful with a place to pray at any time, day or night.

This was followed by a meal, token of the local hospitality, and by festivities led by young people performing the traditional dances of the various ethnic groups with whom the missionaries worked. The latters achievements include writing down their languages and preserving their cultural heritage.

In the afternoon, the PIME delegation, Card Bo and the bishops attended the inauguration and blessing of a monument dedicated by the diocese to the missionaries of the Institute (pictures).

The next day, at 7.00 am, the solemn Jubilee Mass, the high and final point of the festivities (pictures), took place. The service, which lasted three and a half hours, was celebrated in Latin. Worshippers were particularly involved and composed, as they followed the Gregorian chants performed by the priests.

During the Mass, the Myanmar Church was also blessed by the ordination of four new priests.

Speaking to AsiaNews, a local missionary shared the emotions he experienced during the two-day festival. "It was a unique event, felt very much by the Catholic community.

The last PIME missionary, Fr Paolo Noe, died in 2007. It is striking that locals still remember those who brought the faith, dignity and pride. The devotion they still have for the Fathers and missionaries is still great. This anniversary is proof of that."

PIME played a crucial role in the emergence of the local Church. PIME missionaries founded six dioceses: Taunggyi (archdiocese), Toungoo, Kengtung, Lashio, Loikaw and Pekhon.

The Institutes presence in the country was shaped by some of the most critical pages of its history, such as the expulsion in 1966 of all foreign religious who had arrived in the country before independence in 1948, and the seizure of Church properties.

At that time 29 missionaries chose to stay, and remained until their death, including Fr Clemente Vismara, who was beatified in 2011. He was later raised to the honour of the altars like Fr Paolo Manna and Fr Mario Vergara.

For his part, Fr Vergara was one of five PIME martyrs killed in Burma between 1950 and 1953. He was beatified in 2014 with Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, the first native martyr of the Church of Myanmar.

Meanwhile, the process of beatification of Brother Felice Tantardini is currently underway.
The participants are young students and workers. The girls wore the traditional "hanbok", while the males a gray suit. Songs in honor of the late leader, but also for Kim Jong-un. Pyongyangs diplomatic ferment continues.

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Thousands of North Koreans gathered in the capital yesterday to dance in memory of the late leader Kim Jong-il, father of Kim Jong-un, 25 years after his appointment as President of the National Defense Commission.

Thousands of men in grey suits and women traditional "hanbok" dresses - a high-waisted dress in various colours - waited for the ceremony master's green light to begin the festivities. The participants moved in harmony in concentric circles, clapping their hands in unison to commemorate the leader who died in 2011. Among the songs, also some in praise of Kim Jong-un, who succeeded at the helm of the country. For the official Kcna news agency, the participants "danced with honour and pride" for their leader.

The demonstrations were held around the Workers' Party central monuments, the train station and more than 1,000 people were in front of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium. Those taking part were above all university students and workers.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un remains at the center of the international press, ahead of the upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States and in the midst of a diplomatic ferment that led North Korean Foreign Minister, Ri Yong-ho, to Moscow yesterday.

During a meeting with party officials, Kim mentioned for the first time the dialogues between Pyongyang and Washington, while not naming the American president Donald Trump. "I think there will be great respect on both sides and, if all goes well, there will be an agreement to denuclearise," he said, adding to hope for the future of the two countries a relationship that is "very different from what is it has been for many, many years ".
In the presence of world leaders and economists, the Chinese president promises "a new phase of opening up" with greater liberalization of the Chinese economy, easing restrictions on foreign companies, reducing taxes, more attractive environment for investments. Greater defense of intellectual property; the new Silk Road without "geopolitical calculations". Scholars and experts fear that everything will remain the same: it is just propaganda.

Boao (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Today, President Xi Jinping opened proceedings at the Boao Forum (Hainan) with a series of promises on how China wants to open up its market more and more. He re-proposes his country as a leading defender of globalization, against the backdrop of a duties war with the US, accused of being protectionist.

The meeting in Boao, held annually since 2002, is considered "the Asian Davos " and gathers politicians and economists from all over the world. This year, attendees include Prime Minister Lee Hsein-loong of Singapore, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Prime Minister of Holland Mark Rutte, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. Guests also included the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde.

Xi promised "a new phase of openings" with greater liberalization of the Chinese economy, facilities for foreign companies, reduced tariffs, a more attractive environment for investments.

In particular, he promised that it would reform its motor industry to allow foreign car makers to have wholly owned factories in China, exceeding the obligation to form joint ventures with Chinese companies. He also suggested a reduction in taxes on imported vehicles. Just yesterday, Donald Trump pointed out that Chinese cars in the US are taxed at 2.5%, while US cars in China are taxed for 25%.

Xi also promised to improve the protection of intellectual property, just as the US and Europe complain of theft and forced transfer of technology.

Promising an ever-increasing openness, Xi said that China "has every intention of translating these reforms into reality sooner rather than later."

Defending the 40 years of economic reforms and the desire to share its development with other countries, Xi also cited the Belt and Road Initiative, the new Silk Road, and insisted that with this gigantic project, China "no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocks, and imposes no business deals on others".

He concluded his speech inviting all nations to come together to "dedicate ourselves to openness and win-win outcomes  to achieve a better tomorrow for Asia and the world".

His address, laden with promises which observers and academics will now have to be mateched, was met with a standing ovation. Some remember that Xi promised the same things in his speech in Davos almost a year ago. Others fear, as in the past, that after having said many things, everything will remain the same.

Christopher Balding, associate professor at the HSBC Business School in Shenzhen, comments bitterly to the SCMP: "[Xi] wants to say that China is very open, ready for investments, but at the same time he is basically going to say that we are not going to change anything or do anything different for the US. If you look at a lot of these speeches over time they are pretty much the same". And he concludes: "It wont surprise anyone if [people leave] saying that China is more open, but that is clearly just the effect of the propaganda".
By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University

NASAs Earth Observatory

Our planet has had a few close encounters with asteroids of late.

Asteroid 2018 CC came within about 184,000km of Earth on February 6 this year. A few days later asteroid 2018 CB came within 64,000km, which is less than one-fifth the distance of Earth to the Moon.

Animation showing how asteroid 2018 CB passed closely by Earth on February 9. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Thankfully, both asteroids were relatively small (estimated between 15m and 40m). Neither posed a risk to Earth (this time), but Earth has not been so lucky in the past.





Read more:

Ancient asteroid impacts yield evidence for the nature of the early Earth





Research in Australia and other countries indicates that, in the distant geological past, asteroids as large as Eros (about 34.4km long and 11.2km wide) have impacted Earth. These have triggered major changes in the structure and evolution of the crust and mantle, as Ive written about before.









NASA





The impact of asteroids on the Australian continent and marine shelves is examined more closely in my new book, Asteroid impacts, crustal evolution and mineral systems, with special reference to Australia, co-authored by Franco Pirajno.

In the firing line

The terrestrial planets of the inner solar system  Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury  are all affected by asteroids deflected from the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, and by comets falling off the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune.









NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington





Many of these impact craters are clearly seen on Mars and Mercury as well as on our Moon. Venus too has its craters, but its thick atmosphere obscures these.

When Earth is viewed from space, it displays little or no cratering despite also being located in the trajectory of these asteroids and comets.









NASA





But this impression is apparent rather than real. Many of the impact scars are covered or masked due to the dynamic nature of Earth and the oceans that extend over some two-thirds of the planets surface. The masking processes include the accretion and subduction of tectonic plates as well as intensive erosion processes.

It was not until about 1981 that the scientific community began to recognise the significance of extraterrestrial impacts for the mass extinction of species about 66 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs and many other groups.

The American scientists Louis and Walter Alvarez and their colleagues had unearthed a telltale iridium-rich sedimentary layer around the 66 million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at Gubbio, Italy. The element iridium, typically enriched in asteroids, is a signature within sediments for material from a meteorite impact.

The discovery re-established the idea that catastrophes shaped much of Earths history, a theory originally promoted by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier.

Impacts on the Earth

Beyond forming craters, the impact of large asteroids on Earth resulted in the formation of structural domes due to elastic rebound of the crust. Examples include the Vredefort dome in South Africa and the buried Woodleigh dome under and east of Shark Bay in Western Australia.

The impacts also caused major seismic activity and faulting, large tsunami events, ejection of masses of particles and dust, and  as mentioned earlier  in some instances the mass extinction of species due to rapid environmental changes.

The asteroid impact record on Earth is thus to a large extent concealed and the subject of an extensive search using structural, geophysical, geochemical and other methods.

Since many impact records are covered by the oceans or were eroded, old stable parts of the Earth crust, named cratons, are the best places to look. This is where the scars of ancient asteroid impacts are preserved and can be found, including craters and their deep-seated roots and rebound dome structures.

Australian impacts

The criteria applied for recognition of asteroid impact structures and meteorite craters allowed the identification of at least 38 confirmed impact structures on the Australian continent and surrounding continental shelf.

There are an additional 43 examples of exposed and buried circular ring and dome features, many of which are of possible or probable impact origin.









Google Earth/Andrew Glikson, Author provided





Examples of exposed confirmed impact structures include Gosses Bluff in the southern Northern Territory, Shoemaker in central Western Australia, and Acraman and Lawn Hill in northwestern Queensland.

A Google Earth image of the central ring of the Gosses Bluff impact structure, central Australia, Northern Territory. It is 14km in diameter and was formed around 142 million years ago.

A Google Earth image of the Shoemaker impact structure, Nabberu Basin, in Western Australia. It is 30km in diameter and was likely formed around 1,630 million years ago.

A Google Earth image of the centre of the Acraman impact structure in southern South Australia. It is 90km in diameter and was formed around 590 million years ago.

A Google Earth image of the centre of the Lawn Hill impact structure in northwestern Queensland. It is is 18km in diameter and was formed more than 515 million years ago.

The impact record of Australia thus includes exposed impact structures, buried impact structures, meteorite craters and geophysical ring anomalies of unproven origin.

Examples of large geophysical multi-ring features  total magnetic intensity anomalies, circular gravity anomalies and seismic domes  include probable buried twin impact structures in the Warburton Basin in northeast South Australia, a confirmed buried impact structure at Woodleigh in WA, and confirmed buried impact structures at Tookoonooka and Talundilly in the Eromanga Basin in southwest Queensland.









Saygin and Kennett 2010/Andrew Glikson, Author provided





Fallout of asteroid impacts

Structures and craters caused by asteroid impacts are not the only thing we find. In the Australian landscape there are also the rock fragments and melt drops derived from clouds ejected from the impact craters.

The melt drops, condensed from impact-ejected vapour, are termed microkrystites. These are recognised by their radiating quench (cooling) textures and abundance of platinum group element anomalies.









Bruce Simonson, Author provided





In at least one instance the evidence suggests that an impact by a cluster of large asteroids resulted in an abrupt transformation of crustal structure on the Pilbara, northwestern Australia, as well as the Barberton greenstone belt in South Africa, from a granite/greenstone system to semi-continental crustal environment.





Read more:

World's largest asteroid impact site could be right here in Australia





Between 3.26 and 3.24 billion years ago these impacts caused a sharp tectonic uplift and magmatic activity, leading to to an onset of semi-continental crustal conditions.

Thus, far from being free from impacts, the Australian landscape has been shaped many times over millions and billions of years by asteroids falling to Earth.

As studies of Australian impact structure and impact ejecta progress, the critical role of asteroid impacts in the early evolution of the Earth and in the development of the Australian continent are becoming clearer.

Andrew Glikson is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. The article is related to the publication of his new book Asteroid impacts, crustal evolution and mineral systems, with special reference to Australia.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Hi! I have my fiance in australia at the moment, and we will be marrying in a few weeks time then lodging a partner visa at the end of May before she is due to return home.I would like some information about what applications we need to do, when i checked on immi under family visas, there are 3 application options, Sponsorship(820/801), Stage 1(820/801) and Stage 2(801).Which apps do i need to do, do i do the sponsorship app first, or the Stage 1 app first, or do i need to do both at the same time?I have been told there has been changes in regards to the sponsorship app in recent times, and that i may have to do that first and get it approved before i can do the stage 1 app, is this true?I have found some information here about the changes---"Department of Immigration are once again changing conditions of the Partner Migration process. These changes will mean that from the 1st of July 2017, applicants must endure a similar sponsorship approval process as 457 Visa applicants, requiring ALL sponsors to provide a detailed immigration history, character record and attain police clearance certificates, before applications can be lodged. This will allow the Department to refuse sponsorships based on a criminal history or failure to comply with certain undertakings, in the future.This will impact applicants looking at lodging Partner visa applications onshore, particularly onshore subclass 820/801 Visa cases, where a visa will soon expire and timing is critical.The Department advises that they intend to process sponsorship applications 'within 3 weeks' unless there are sponsorship or character issues of concern. However, given the current extended processing delays by the Department, processing may take more time than the Department envisages."And-"The government would like to implement a two-step process where the sponsor needs to be approved before the partner lodges an application.Nilesh Nandan, special counsel with My Visa Australia, a national immigration practice, is worried that this might cause some problems."It's going to delay the ability for somebody to lodge a valid application because it needs to overcome that first threshold of getting a sponsor approved to be able to sponsor."But he says that an assessment of the sponsor could also be good news for the partner, who would be made fully aware of the past criminal conduct of the sponsor."--I just need some clear instructions on the order and process that i need to do these applications in.Also how does the $7k payment system work if i need to do both sponsorship and stage 1 apps?Thanks.
Hi Guys,



Firstly, i was going to submit this in the existing thread, but before i discovered this forum, i googled a question and cam e across this site so i created a new thread because it nay help someone else also find this forum if they google search a similar question.



We applied for my wifes 820/801 visa 13.5 months ago and still have not heard anything back. The only thing weve had within that time is a bridging visa grant notice. We got the initial bridging visa notice when initially applied for the 820/801 visa and then about 4 months after that we applied for a bridging visa B to allow us to travel overseas, but aside from those 2 grant notices we have had no contact. We have no case officer, so I dont even know who to contact. Ive been recommended to send in proof of our relationship over the past 18 months in the form of photos even though it wasn't requested yet and even if I did, who would I even send that too?



Would you have any suggestions?

Ps- The most frustrating thing is that i work next door to the department of immigration but i can't even go over there because they don't have a front desk
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Hillsborough County's Tax Collector plans to meet with state lawmakers within the next few weeks to discuss the amount of money his office sends to the Capitol every year.

Large portion of funds from driver's license fees, vehicle registration fees go to Capitol

Tax collector Doug Belden wants more of those funds to stay in county

Funds needed to raise teacher salaries, complete roadway projects, according to Belden

Doug Belden wants the lions share of the money generated from drivers license fees and vehicle registration costs to remain in the county.



We desperately need to increase the pay for teachers, said Belden. We have a school system with broken HVAC units, which is inexcusable, and road projects, sidewalks in poor areas of Hillsborough County.



Belden estimates his office sent more than $50 million to Tallahassee because of a 2010 state law that puts tax collector's offices in charge of issuing and processing driver's licenses and state identification.



Each new license costs the driver $54, but the tax office only collects $6.25 -- the rest goes to Tallahassee. Belden calls the law an unfunded mandate that puts an unnecessary strain on his office and his staff.



From my standpoint, if I ask you, vis-a-vis the state asks me, to provide a service, I should be able to get the funds necessary to provide that service, he said.



A spokesman for Gov. Scott did not respond to a request for comment.
St. Petersburg police on Tuesday said they've arrested a man dubbed the "man bun creeper," who they say used his cellphone to look up the skirts of unsuspecting women at a local grocery store.

Brian Augustus Haseloff, 35, arrested



Incident occurred at Publix grocery store on Roosevelt Boulevard

Police released video Monday afternoon

Brian Augustus Haseloff, 35, has been charged with video voyeruism, the Police Department said in a news release.



Police released surveillance video of the incidents. They said it happened at the Publix on Roosevelt Boulevard in the Gateway area on April 3 around noon.

The video shows what appears to be a man looking for a snack in the checkout line with his cell phone in one hand.

However, police said the man was actually using his cellphone to record and look under the skirts of unsuspecting women.

Help #stpetepd ID this Manbun Creeper. Noonish on 4/3 at Roosevelt Publix he used his cell to record up the skirts of 2 women. One noticed & the other was unsuspecting. If you know him or recognize yourself as the woman in the black dress text SPPD & your tip to #Tip411. 893-7780 pic.twitter.com/J7BF2ZXL1i  St. Pete Police (@StPetePD) April 9, 2018

Female shoppers at that Publix reacted strongly to the video.

You just hear more and more about those stories. Its just very disturbing, said shopper Rachel Thompson. It makes me feel as being a female scared, threatened, just going to the grocery store you have a predator basically out there looking for you.

Jessica Legrand said this made her think of how she can be more aware of her surroundings from now on.

It makes me feel extremely uncomfortable," she said. "I mean, you dont expect that to happen when you go to a grocery store let alone, anywhere."

Investigators said theres at least one other woman he tried to use his cell phone to record under her dress in Publix last week. This time the video shows it happened down one of the isles of the grocery store.

One woman reported noticed what the 'creeper' was doing. Investigators said they want to talk to the other woman wearing the black dress in the video, who they said was unsuspecting. On Tuesday, police said they had identified the woman.


Six months after Hurricane Maria, a growing number of areas of Puerto Rico are doing better.

Guayama was near Hurricane Maria's Puerto Rico landfall

People in city, nearby towns still live without reliable electricity

Guayama Convention Center serves as a busy FEMA center



But in the southeast part of the island, just a couple of towns over from Hurricane Maria's entry point, the story is much different.

In Guayama, near where Maria began its destructive path across Puerto Rico, power insulators lay on the ground as horses run free nearby. A helicopter hoists metal as it helps with line repairs.

Nearby, the Guayama Convention Center, still with blown-out windows, has been turned into a busy Federal Emergency Management Agency center.

No FEMA representatives wanted to speak on camera. But Eduardo Cintron, the mayor of Guayama, tells us that more needs to be done.

Este es el area norte de Guayama," he says. "So no power here, and no power here..." we confirm with him.

On a multicolored map, Cintron shows us three of the worst affected areas, still without electricity more than six months after the hurricane.

#PUERTORICO 6 MONTHS LATER: Drone footage over Guayama, near where #HurricaneMaria made landfall, shows roofs still tarped, and debris littering the land.@ybruzual traveled to the island, where the mayor described life in his town: https://t.co/OukO8ncQB4 pic.twitter.com/6ilDyv1z7Z  Spectrum News 13 (@MyNews13) April 10, 2018

The mayor continues to look at a map and call out the names of towns still without power, "Machete, Interamericana..."

It was hot inside the FEMA center. Cintron says he has begged for cooler conditions inside, only to be denied.

In Spanish, he says that "there is no A/C. I have asked FEMA, so their staff could be comfortable, the people coming here to seek help would be comfortable, poor people coming here, fanning themselves," he said. "I don't know how FEMA works."

The mayor's staff and city personnel are also here because city hall suffered roof damage.

Traffic lights, like those in many other parts of the island, are still out.

Cintron said he doesn't know when they'll be fixed.
For Immediate Release, April 10, 2018 Contact: William Snape, (202) 536-9351, bsnape@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Seeks Public Records on Trump Administration's Approval of California Water-mining Project WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Department of the Interior today for failing to provide public records on Deputy Secretary David Bernhardts communications and schedules. These records could shed light on the Trump administrations abrupt decision to allow an enormous California groundwater-mining scheme, Cadiz, Inc., to move forward without environmental review. Todays lawsuit also seeks the communications and schedules of Todd Willens, assistant deputy secretary, who is believed to oversee endangered species, water management and energy under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Willens previously worked for Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), two of the most anti-endangered species members of Congress.



If Trumps Interior Department had nothing to hide on the Cadiz water-mining scheme, it would quickly turn over these public records, said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center. We need to know whether Zinke and his aides are holding secret meetings with political allies willing to destroy public lands and wildlife for short-term profits. The Center has filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests over the past year for information about the Cadiz project, as well as for the schedules and communications of Bernhardt and Willens. Neither the Interior Department nor the Bureau of Land Management has complied with the requests. Zinke has turned the Department of the Interior into the Department of Special Interests, said Snape. The public has every right to know who his top lieutenants are meeting with, especially when it comes to policies that will have disastrous consequences for our public lands and climate. Late last year the Trump administration reversed two Obama-era decisions and paved the way for the Cadiz project, which would pump 16 billion gallons of water a year from the fragile desert aquifer. Water would be sent through a 43-mile pipeline across Mojave Trails National Monument to feed sprawling new developments in Southern California. Zinke is the subject of many travel and scheduling controversies, including vacation jaunts abroad with a paid security detail, corporate-funded trips and events, and $139,000 office doors at Interiors D.C. headquarters.
Mainly Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province & Ringing Trips to Bahrain




NEW DELHI (PTI): The Defence Ministry on Monday signed a contract with a defence firm for procurement of 1.86 lakh bullet proof jackets for the Army at a cost of Rs 639 crore.



In a statement, the Ministry said the contract was finalised after "successful" field evaluation trials.



The contract has been bagged by indigenous defence manufacturer SMPP Pvt Ltd.



"A major contract through capital procurement route, for procurement of 1,86,138 Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJs) has been signed," it said.



It said the new BPJs will provide "360 degree protection" to the soldier in combat, including from hard "steel core" bullets.



"These bulletproof jackets will have 'boron carbide ceramic' which is the lightest material for ballistic protection. This makes SMPP BPJs the best of the class and will be able to provide ballistic protection at the lowest possible weight," Chairman and Managing Director of SMPP S C Kansal said.



The company said the size of the contract is Rs 639 crore.



The Defence Ministry said the new BPJs will boost the confidence of soldiers.



It said the indigenously developed BPJs will give new impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative of the government and provide confidence that Indian industry is capable of fulfilling the requirements of the armed forces.






NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked India's defence attaches abroad to play a proactive role in promoting the country as a major manufacturer of military platforms.



The defence attaches posted in 44 countries are in India to attend the four-day-long Defence Expo beginning Wednesday at Thiruvidanthai near Chennai.



Defence Ministry officials said Sitharaman, in the first such engagement, asked the defence attaches to work towards deepening defence cooperation with the countries where they are posted.



India has Resident Defence Attaches (DAs) in 44 countries, who are accredited to a total of 95 countries.



"The Defence Minister outlined India's interest in building stronger military-to-military cooperation, training and capacity building as well as cooperation in defence industry and technology with our partners," the ministry said in a statement.



It said she encouraged the DAs to play a more pro-active role in this process, highlighting India's views and positions on the evolving regional and global security scenario as well as its rapid economic and military advancements.



Talking about ongoing efforts to expand defence manufacturing in India, she also stressed the need for DAs to engage effectively with all stakeholders in the defence sector.



A number of top defence ministry officials as well as representatives of the defence industry attended the conference on Monday.



Senior officials of Ministry of External Affairs will address the DAs on Tueday, officials said.


BUCKS COUNTY >> Now that grape picking and processing season is inching to an end for the six family-owned wineries of the Bucks County Wine Trail, the wineries are offering a chance for guests to come celebrate and taste the fresh-pressed fruits of their labor. The Bucks County Wine Trail will hold its annual Harvest Celebration on the weekend of...
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The move triggered a price crash in bitcoin. As all of this was unfolding, Anthony Pompliano, general partner at Morgan Creek Capital Blockchain in the Silicon Valley, took to Twitter and said he would fly down to India and meet the prime minister, RBI governor or even the president, if someone set up a meeting, and explain to them the negative effects of the RBI ...

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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Shopping is a long series of decisions; not necessarily right or wrong decisions, just decisions. As we roam through shops, our brain unceasingly processes incoming stimuli, compares this information with past experiences, makes a decision and finally translates it into muscle movement.

Outwardly, we pick an item and add it to our shopping cart. Whether in the supermarket or at the mall, we have to choose at every turn, for or against garments in all shapes and colours, between laundry detergents in different price ranges and shower gels in many fragrances. However, whether we ...
The current disturbed political situation in Tamil Nadu is taking a toll on the start up ecosystem and angel investments from within the state, as in many other sectors, according to experts.

Angel investments in Tamil Nadu has come down and some of the start ups have moved out of the city. While the political uncertainty may not have a direct impact on the start ups or the investments, the lack of proper steps to provide a conducive ecosystem is lacking in the state, while the neighbouring states are keen on this, said investor community. "The sentiment has been down in ...
The company is in touch with around 110 companies in India for local supplies of the product and working on testing with many of them, said senior officials from the company. The procurement process for the VSHORAD missile system has been pending for almost ten years now and the company utilised the time to source new suppliers, fine-tune its off-set arrangements, and scout ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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The damaged statue of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, which was rebuilt and painted saffron in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district, has been on Tuesday re-painted blue. The statue has been re-painted blue by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Leader Himendra Gautam.

The Ambedkar statue that was vandalised in Badaun's Dugraiyya village on April 8 was rebuilt with saffron colour painted on it on April 9.

It had been rebuilt in presence of the district police officers.

In the past, we have seen from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office to various other spots being painted saffron, the colour has become a defining feature of the state.

The state has been draped in this colour hue ever since the Yogi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government came into the power.

#WATCH: BSP leader Himendra Gautam, who repainted BR Ambedkar's statue from saffron to blue in Badaun, evades ANI reporter's question 'When the villagers had no objection to the colour of the statue, why was it re-painted to blue? You had earlier said Gautam Buddha wore saffron.' pic.twitter.com/CSHsjmC4cQ  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018
Members of Sikh groups on Tuesday staged a protest near the Congress headquarters here demanding the removal of and from the party for their alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Police stopped the protesters from reaching the All India Congress Committee headquarters on Akbar Road here.

The protesters raised slogans and scaled barricades, even as police tried to push them back.

"We are demanding Congress president to remove and from the party for their role in anti-Sikh riots," said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee and a BJP MLA.

Congress should now clear its stand over Kumar and Tytler, who are accused in the anti-Sikh riots and were present at the party's hunger strike at Rajghat yesterday, Sirsa said.
Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the controversy around the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission was needless one and there was no inherent bias against states that have made progress in population control. A needless controversy is sought to be created that the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission are loaded against any particular region of the country.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Jaitley said in a statement on Facebook. The FMs statement comes on a day when the finance ministers of ...
Xiaopeng Motors, the Chinese car startup thats backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Foxconn Technology Group, plans to raise more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) this year in a bid to take on rivals in the worlds biggest market for electric vehicles. The company plans to start pre-sales of its first model, the G3 crossover, by the end of this month, founder He Xiaopeng said in an interview at the Boao Forum in China.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Airbus has shelved advanced studies aimed at improving its A320neo jet family, designed in part to fend off a mid-market plane that Boeing hopes to build, two people familiar with the matter said. The surprise decision to back away from the proposed "A320neo-plus" and "A321neo-plus," which would lengthen and modernise both models, comes as Airbus continues to face problems in increasing output for the current versions. "The ramp-up is not going as well as hoped," a person with knowledge of the supply chain said. Another said Airbus had declared ...
Cryptocurrency miners are moving in to Norway and Sweden to take advantage of cheap hydro-electric energy and low temperatures to power and cool their servers. Iceland has been Europe's most popular location for miners of digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. But at 6.5 euro cents and 7.1 cents per kilowatt hours, respectively, commercial power prices in Sweden and Norway are cheaper than Icelands 8 cents and far below the European average of 11 cents. The interest is good news for Sweden's Vattenfall and Norway's Statkraft, the dominant ...
Yulia Skripal, daughter of a former Russian spy, who along with her father was poisoned with a nerve agent in the UK last month, has been discharged from the hospital, officials said today, an incident that sparked a major diplomatic spat with Moscow.

Yulia 33, and her father Sergei Skripal, 66, were found collapsed on a bench in the south-western English city of Salisbury on March 4 in what British authorities have said was an attempted murder by the Russian state.

She has left the Salisbury District Hospital, where she and her father had been recovering since March 4, and moved to a secured undisclosed country-side home in the UK, officials said.

Sergei is also on the path to recovery, they said.

There were initially fears that the Skripals would not recover, but last week hospital and police officials said they were both improving.

"This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," a senior hospital official said.

According to the hospital's deputy chief executive Christine Blanshard, the recovery of Sergei was more slower than Yulia, but "we hope he too will be able to leave the hospital in due course".

The father and daughter are expected to suffer some long-term consequences as a result of coming in contact with the toxic substance.

In a tweet, the Russian Embassy congratulated Yulia on her recovery but said: "We need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will."



Western allies backed Britain had pointed the finger of blame for the attempted murder of the Skripals on the Russian regime but Moscow strongly denied any involvement and accused London of inventing a "fake story".

The incident has triggered a furious row, with more than 20 countries around the world expelling more than 150 Russian diplomats. In response, Moscow has launched its own expulsions.

British Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated this week that Moscow is "culpable" for attack.

Police investigations have concluded that the pair first came into contact with the Novichok nerve agent at their home in Salisbury, south-west England.

Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was among the first to attend the scene, was also treated in hospital after being exposed to the nerve agent but has since been discharged.

The Skripal's pet cat and two guinea pigs were also killed as a result of the attack.

Investigators have identified 131 people who had potentially been in contact with the toxic nerve agent, and up to 500 others who had visited the pub or the restaurant linked with the Skripals movement on March 4.

They were told to wash their clothes and possessions. Sergei is a retired military intelligence officer who was convicted of passing the identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to the UK's MI6 Secret Intelligence Service.

He was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006, but was released in 2010 as part of an exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI.

Yulia had travelled from Russia to visit her father the day before the pair were poisoned on March 4.

Over the weekend, it emerged that the UK's intelligence officials are in talks with the CIA over the possible repatriation of the Skripals to the US or another friendly country for their safety. The duo is likely to be offered new identities under a witness protection programme.

For Britain to help the pair, a senior police officer is expected to issue the Skripals with a so-called Osman warning, a formal notification that intelligence suggests there is a real and immediate threat to life.

They could then be placed under a witness protection programme on the basis that the pair hold key evidence about a possible motive for the attack.
President Donald Trump threatened an imminent military strike against Syria today, vowing to respond "forcefully" to Saturday's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians and warning that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility will "pay a price."



As he began an evening meeting with military leaders at the White House, Trump promised to "make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter."



He said, "We have a lot of options militarily, and we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact."The White House sharply rejected any suggestion that Trump's own words about pulling US troops out of Syria had opened the door for the attack, which killed more than 40 people, including children.

Trump, asked at midday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility for the weekend attack, responded, "He may, yeah, he may. And if he does it's going to be very tough, very tough." He added, "Everybody's gonna pay a price. He will. Everybody will."



Then, during the meeting with top military leaders, he said the weekend assault "will be met and it will be met forcefully."



Those at the meeting included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford.

Amid the tough talk at the White House, the US military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order.

A Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was underway in the eastern Mediterranean after completing a port call in Cyprus.

The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.

The Russian military, which has a presence in Syria as a key Assad ally, said its officers had visited the weekend site in a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital, and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Washington of deliberately stoking tensions by threatening Russia in a tone "beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the Cold War."



Trump said there was little question that Syria was responsible for the apparent weekend attack, although the government of President Bashar Assad denied it. "To me there's not much of a doubt, but the generals will figure it out," Trump said.

Emphatic in his condemnation of the apparent gas attack, Trump noted graphic pictures of the dead and sickened, calling the assault "heinous," ''atrocious," ''horrible" and "barbaric."



Fielding questions at the White House, Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders said it would be "outrageous" to say that Trump's recent announcement that he intends to remove all US forces from Syria in the coming months had emboldened Assad.

"I think that it is outrageous to say that the president of the United States green-lit something as atrocious as the actions that have taken place over the last several days," she said.

Mattis, in separate remarks at the Pentagon, also suggested Moscow bore some blame. He criticized Russia for what he suggested was its failure to ensure the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal under terms of a 2013 agreement.

Trump said no action was "off the table" and also conferred with Vice President Mike Pence and his new national security adviser, John Bolton. Today was the first day on the job for Bolton, who has previously advocated military action against Syria.

Trump said, "If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out." The United States, meanwhile, urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution that would condemn the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria "in the strongest terms" and establish a new body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, was circulated ahead of an emergency Security Council meeting.

An American official said the US was discussing with allies whether they would participate in a retaliatory strike.

If Trump decides to proceed quickly, the most likely partner would be France rather than Britain, because of concerns about obtaining permission from Parliament, said the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the planning publicly and requested anonymity.

Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan spoke by phone yesterday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Sullivan and Johnson agreed that based on reports in the media and from the ground, "this attack bore hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime," the British foreign office said.

The White House deliberations came as Russia and the Syrian military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack on a major air base in central Syria, saying Israeli fighter jets launched missiles from Lebanon's air space. A group that monitors Syria's civil war said the airstrikes killed 14 people, including Iranians active in Syria.

Syria's state news agency SANA initially said that attack on the T4 air base was likely "an American aggression," but Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood quickly denied the United States was behind the strike and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead.

As US officials consider whether and how to respond, they are looking at what type of chemical agent might have been used.

When Trump ordered airstrikes last year after a chemical weapons attack, it was a response to the use of sarin gas, which is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria has signed.

An attack with chlorine, which can be used as a weapon but is not outright banned by the treaty, could raise precedent issues, as there have been numerous recent allegations of chlorine attacks in Syria that have drawn no response from the Trump administration.
A militant has been killed and three others have been wounded in an explosion triggered by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan's Paktia province.

The incident took place when a group of insurgents were considering planting an IED on a roadside in Zazai district, reported Khaama Press, citing, the Afghan Military, as saying.

The killed militant has been identified as Mohammad Wali.

Three improvised explosive devices have been discovered and defused in Paktia and Wardak provinces of the war-torn country.

The anti-government armed militant groups often use explosive materials for the roadside bombings to target the government staff and security personnel.

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Jet Airways on Tuesday became the latest Indian airline to distance itself from Air India disinvestment process.

"We welcome the government move to privatise Air India. It is a bold step. However, considering the terms of offer in the information memorandum and based on our review, we are not participating in the process," Jet Airways CEO and CFO, Amit Agarwal said.

Earlier, IndiGo had opted out from the divestiture process of Air India stating that it was not interested in taking over its domestic operations.

IndiGo was the first airline that had officially expressed an interest to buy the carrier when the government had mooted the plan last year.

Starting the disinvestment process, the government has released detailed preliminary information memorandum, detailing plans to offload up to 76 per cent stake in Air India and transfer the management control to private players.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) is May 14 and intimation to the qualified interest bidders would be made on May 28.

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Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu on Tuesday demanded more power for state governments, asserting that 80 percent of the development needs to be done by states.

"Without asking any state governments, the government of India arbitrarily decided Terms of Reference which is against law of the land. We've to see that more power is given to states. 80 percent of development will be done by states and only 20 percent by the centre," Ramakrishnudu said here in a meeting with the finance ministers from four southern states.

Hosted by Kerala, the meeting had officials from Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, and Karnataka.

The finance ministers met to discuss their concerns over the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission.

The 15th Finance Commission, which was set-up in November 2017, recognised population as an important criteria for distribution of taxes.

The body had said that it will use data from the 2011 census while making recommendations for the five-year period, which begins in 2020.

However, the southern states, want the recommendations to be based on the 1971 census data.

The southern states have raised concerns over the population-based formula for tax sharing between the Centre and states.

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Prohibitory orders have been imposed in various parts of the country in view of another Bharat Bandh, which has been called by some groups to protest against caste-based reservation.

The section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits assembly of five or more people in an area where it has been imposed, has been imposed in Rajasthan's Jaipur and Bharatpur, Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal and Uttarakhand's Nainital.

In Bharatpur, section 144 has been imposed until April 15 and the Internet services will also remain suspended until 9 am today.

The district administration has put a complete ban on processions and dharna and has warned that "strict action" will be taken against the lawbreakers.

A nation-wide shutdown has been called by some outfits today against the caste-based reservation in jobs and education today.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an advisory to all states asking them to make necessary arrangements and issue prohibitory orders, if necessary.

During the previous nation-wide strike on April 2, protests across the country turned violent after agitators resorted to stone pelting, damaging public properties and blocking rail and road traffic movements. Violent protests were reported from various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Gujarat, and Punjab, and in all over 10 people died in the violence.

The April 2 Bharat Bandh was called to protest against the Supreme Court's ruling on the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The Dalit bodies claim that March 20 order diluted the Act, which seeks protection of marginalised communities against discrimination and atrocities.

A review petition has been filed in the apex court in this regard.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) here has arrested a central school principal for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs one lakh.

The CBI arrested the principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Ashok Nagar area after a person filed a complaint against him, stating that the accused was demanding money for the admission of his son in the school.

Following the complaint, the investigative agency had chalked out a plan to nab the principal red handed.

Raids were also conducted at the residence of the accused which led to the recovery of certain documents and keys of three lockers.

A case under section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, has been registered against the accused.

The accused was later produced before the Principal Special Judge for CBI Cases, Chennai and remanded to judicial custody up to April 24.

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Three Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) workers were detained for hurling shoes inside the Chepauk stadium, Chennai, during an ongoing Indian Premier League between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) here on Tuesday.

NTK, a Tamil nationalist party in the state, which among other protesters, is demanding a boycott of the IPL matches in Chennai until the Cauvery water issues is solved.

The political parties in the state have been protesting against the Centre's negligence in the formation of Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

Earlier in the day IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla also met Union Home Secretary Rajeev Gauba and demanded enhanced security arrangements during the matches in Chennai.

It is to be noted that IPL has returned to Chepauk stadium after two years where the home franchise Chennai Super Kings are taking on Kolkata Knight Riders in the fifth match of the 2018 fixture.

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China is cracking down on Uyghurs fighters seeking to establish themselves in Central Asia after fleeing from war-ravaged Iraq and Syria.

It is also trying to prevent the Uyghur Diaspora from being overtly vocal in the long-term.

According to a report published by International Policy Digest (IPD), Beijing has approached several countries including France, Australia, the United States, Egypt, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand to detain Uyghurs or deport them back to China.

Another step that China is taking, according to the IPD report, is to prevent suspect Uyghur fighters from regrouping in the Wakhan Corridor, a 76-kilometre long narrow strip located along the Afghan-China border.

It is being estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 Uyghur fighters from different walks of life were in Iraq and Syria not too long ago, and are reportedly now heading back to Xinjiang Province in China and other parts of Central Asia and Afghanistan.

An Uyghur fighter was quoted as saying recently that they were in Syria to get trained in the use of weapons and then go back to China.

A recent report published by the Institute for the Study of War, has said Afghanistan is emerging again as "a safe haven for terrorist plots", and people living in the Wakhan Corridor have claimed to have seen joint Chinese-Afghan military patrols being undertaken in the area, seemingly to counter a possible Uyghur threat.

It is also being reported that those Uyghurs returning from Australia, Egypt and the United States to avoid repercussions for their families have also been arrested. Other Uyghurs are reported to have disappeared.

In Xinjiang Province, Uyghurs have been reportedly forced into re-education camps without a formal process as part of the rollout of the world's most intrusive and repressive public surveillance system, the IPD report states.

The surveillance system consists of cameras installed on streets equipped with facial recognition software and a DNA database that will include all residents in the province ultimately.

The database categorises the Uyghurs as "safe" or "unsafe." Also, identification readers have been reportedly installed at bus stops, train stations and shopping malls to bar the entry of those deemed unsafe.

Chinese authorities have added 'interest in travel abroad' as one of the reasons for detaining "unsafe" Uyghurs and sending them to re-education camps.

China's campaign to curb the emergence of effective Uyghur diaspora is seen as a measure not to allow them to follow the example of Tibetans residing abroad, who along with the Dalai Lama, have created a vocal opposition-in-exile.

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Leaders from 53 countries will gather in London for the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from April 16 to 20.

The week-long summit is expected to attract around 5,000 participants from government, business, and civil society under the theme 'Towards a Common Future'.

The meetings will begin in London from April 16 with three days of forums covering youth, women, business and civil society, and culminate with the official retreat for leaders at Windsor Castle on April 20.

At the retreat, heads meet privately to discuss collaboration on global and Commonwealth priorities. They will also consider reform and renewal of the Commonwealth.

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said, "CHOGM 2018 promises to deliver transformational change for the people of the Commonwealth. The presidents and prime ministers and other high-level government representatives from one-quarter of the countries of the are assembling. Through consensus, they will reach agreement on collective action, with the impact of their decisions likely to extend far beyond the boundaries of the Commonwealth."

"Agreement among our culturally diverse and geographically widespread member countries to collaborate and innovate often provides the basis for broader progress regionally and internationally. Immediate impact combined with wider influence make the Commonwealth an unparalleled force for building understanding and cooperation towards realising global goals for social and political progress, inclusive prosperity, and sustainable development," she added.

The themes under consideration by leaders at CHOGM 2018 are - A Commonwealth Blue Charter on ocean governance, a Commonwealth connectivity agenda for trade and investment, a declaration on cybercrime, revised Commonwealth guidelines on election observation in member countries

The Women's, Youth and People's Forums will run concurrently at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, situated opposite the UK Houses of Parliament. The participants will include Commonwealth leaders, government ministers, and members of the British royal family, senior UN figures, business leaders, civil society activists and literary figures.

The Women's Forum will explore the Commonwealth's role in achieving gender equality in line with UN aspirations and the crucial role women have to play in politics, business and peace building.

The Youth Forum will bring 500 young people together to engage in planning, capacity-building and a General Assembly where they will finalise their priorities on a youth-led action in development. These priorities will be presented to heads of government and implemented by the Commonwealth Youth Council and youth-led organisations across the Commonwealth.

The People's Forum, a joint venture between the Commonwealth Foundation and the UK government, is the single largest gathering of civil society representatives in the Commonwealth and is aimed at discussing key issues facing Commonwealth people. This year's forum will address the theme Inclusive Governance: The Challenge for a Contemporary Commonwealth.

The Business Forum takes place at Guildhall in the City of London. It is a unique platform for dialogue, bringing together business and government leaders from across the Commonwealth.

Organised by the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, in partnership with the City of London, the Forum will discuss a range of issues affecting businesses across the Commonwealth and develop ideas for promoting inclusive economic growth.

April 17 will mark the first time all four forums meet together in plenary.

The opportunity will generate discussion around shared themes and stimulate collaboration between the Commonwealth's main partners. Later, leaders and ministers will attend a Small States Ministerial Meeting.

The Commonwealth has long been an advocate for its 31 small states, which face unique challenges related to climate change and external economic shocks. The issues under discussion are resilience, climate change and disaster risk management.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group which assesses countries at risk of breaching fundamental political values will also meet on April 17.

On April 18, foreign ministers will review the leaders' agenda and receive outcomes from the four forums for consideration by heads, who will meet delegates at a joint forum breakfast on April 19.

The formal opening of CHOGM will take place at Buckingham Palace on the same day, after which leaders will convene for their first executive session.

On April 20, the Commonwealth Games Federation will host a breakfast for heads of government. The summit concludes later that day when leaders will issue their communique and a leaders' statement after their retreat.

It is the second time the UK has hosted CHOGM. The first was in Edinburgh in 1997.

CHOGM takes place every two years in different Commonwealth countries. The next host country will be decided at the summit next week.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Founder of Isha Foundation Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on Tuesday inaugurated a three-day long 'Happy Cities Summit 2018' at a private convention center at Mangalagiri town in Amaravati.

Around 1,000 delegates from India and abroad will take part in the Summit.

"We have decided to make Amaravati as a blue-green city on top as a 'happy city'. Happiness is the index of people's satisfaction. Cities like, Singapore, Bhutan may be small countries, but the happiest ones. So I want Amaravati to be the happiest city in India," Naidu said while addressing the gathering.

"This is first of its kind program in India. I thank Jaggi Vasudev for his presence. We have agreements with Singapore, Malaysia, UK, Bhutan and Finland for better development and growth," Naidu added.

Further speaking on his vision for Andhra Pradesh, Naidu's vision is to make the state happiest one in India.

"Decade ago, there were talks of development which began with smart cities after that most lovable cities and now it's time for happiness. Play, work, create wealth, go for innovations are the new mantra that we are striving for," Chief Minister stated.

"We are constructing Amaravati as a people's capital. A balanced blend of welfare and development can make us happy. Technologies are available for develop secretariat. Our vision is to make AP the happiest state," Naidu asserted.

The inaugural plenary was kicked off with the speeches of Khoo Teng Chye, executive director, center for livable cities, Singapore; Jukka Holappa, commercial counsellor, embassy of Finland; Tikaram Kafley, mayor of Gelephu town, Bhutan and Samuel Adamson, head of Urban Prosperity Fund for India, UK.

Later Dr Cherukuri Sridhar, commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) demonstrated a presentation detailing the construction of Amaravati as a happy city.

He explained how Amaravati is being built as an eco-friendly, blue-green and happy city.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that he sees the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the most visible part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is a sign of strong bilateral relations between Islamabad and Beijing.

In an exclusive interview with Chinese journalist Zou Yue of China Global Television Network (CGTN), Abbasi said, "CPEC has benefitted Pakistan a lot. It is the visible part of BRI, as a part to push towards the West. It has improved connectivity. We are building 17,000 multi-lane motorways. We are building Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It is a positive move by both Pakistan and China."

He added that the Gwadar Port in Balochistan was operational and would provide access to Central Asia by sea, thereby enhancing connectivity.

Expressing concern on the fall of Pakistani rupee, Abbasi said, "The rupee needs to find its real value. There should be a correction in the value of rupee. We are in a growth phase."

He further said that Pakistan's economy has achieved 5 percent growth in the last two years and hoped that the economy would grow at 6 percent this year.

Talking about the recent decision by Pakistan's central bank to allow Chinese Yuan to be used for trade and investment activities, Abbasi added, "Pakistan's adoption of Yuan as the reserve currency would be very beneficial for bilateral trade. There was pressure on the US dollar reserve. It is a positive step for both Pakistan and China. It will help Yuan to become an international currency."

He said Islamabad shares extremely strong relations with Beijing, adding that both sides were being benefitted.

Abbasi is currently on a three-day visit to China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Summit.

He is also expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrier Lam and Chairman of Alibaba, Jack Ma.

Abbasi is accompanied by Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and Federal Minister for Power Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari among others.

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A criminal with a bounty of Rs 25,000 on his head has been arrested after he received a bullet injury in an encounter with the police here on Monday.

Two criminals accompanying him, however, have managed to escape, the police said.

A police personnel was also injured in this encounter.

A car and an illegal weapon were recovered from the spot.

Both the injured were admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

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Indian pugilists continued to display a rich vein of form at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as on Day 6 they assured five more medals for the country after booking their place in the semi-finals of their respective weight category on Tuesday.

After boxers Amit Panghal and Naman Tanwar advanced into the last four of their respective weight category, Hussamuddin Mohammed, Satish Kumar and Manoj Kumar also defeated their opponents to secure three more medals for India.

Hussamuddin Mohammed defeated Zambia's Everisto Mulenga 5-0 in the quarter-finals of the men's 56 kg category.

The Indian won the bout with decisions of 30-26, 30-26, 30-26, 30-25, and 30-26 from the five judges.

In another quarter-final clash, Veteran boxer Manoj Kumar outplayed Australia's Terry Nickolas 4-1 in the 69 kg category. Kumar defeated the Australian 29-28, 27-30, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 in a five round bout.

Satish Kumar, the last boxer in fray, beat Nigel Paul of Trinidad and Tobago 4-1 in men's heavyweight (91kg) category.

Kumar defeated Paul 29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 28-29, 29-28.

India are now standing at the third spot with 21 medals, including 11 gold, four silver and six bronze medals.

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Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister K. E. Krishnamurthy on Monday appealed the voters of Karnataka not to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming state Assembly elections.

Addressing the media, Krishnamurthy said that the Telugu voters in Karnataka should remember the betrayal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Andhra Pradesh by rejecting Special Category Status(SCS).

"Telugu people should remember how Prime Minister Modi cheated them. Telugu speaking population in Karnataka shouldn't vote for BJP during upcoming assembly elections," he added.

The BJP and its Andhra ally TDP have been sharing a sour relationship following the announcement of the Union Budget 2018-19, over the issue of granting 'Special Category' Status to Andhra Pradesh.

Karnataka will go to polls on May 12 to elect its representatives for the 225-member assembly. The results will be out on May 15.

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The daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal's daughter Yulia has been recovered and discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, authorities said on Tuesday.

She has been taken to a 'secure location', Sky News reported.

Christine Blanshard, the deputy chief executive and medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, said in a statement,"Both Ms Skripal, 33, and her father, 66, have been responding well to treatment in the five weeks they have been in the hospital."

The 33-year-old daughter said in her statement last week that she was getting "stronger" day after day.

Yulia's cousin, Viktoria Skripal said, "I think Britain will insist that she (Yulia) claims asylum. I'm feeling pleased that she's well enough to be released from the hospital. So far my feelings are unclear because I have not seen her and nobody has seen her, we've just had information."

Last month, Viktoria was denied a UK visa by authorities to visit her cousin and uncle in Salisbury.

According to the British government, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter were exposed to a military-grade nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4.

The poisoning of the Skripals prompted nearly 30 countries to expel more than 150 Russian diplomats in solidarity with the UK after it blamed Russia for plotting the attack.

Russia retaliated by expelling diplomats from other countries and closing down the US consulate in St. Petersburg.

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GIFAS, the French Aerospace Industries Association, a driving force behind French-Indian cooperation, will head a major industrial mission to India from 16 to 19 April 2018.

This mission is an exceptional opportunity for the Indian and French aerospace industries to meet and explore common fields of win-win cooperation.

Drawing on the very constructive state visit to India of French President Emmanuel Macron in March 2018, this mission will support the commitment of French industries to the "Make in India" policy, will accelerate the development of the industrial eco-system in India in the field of defence and aerospace, will support the growth of civil aviation in the country, and will contribute to the emergence of a private industry in the field of space.

Eric Trappier, the Chairman of GIFAS and Chairman of CIDEF (Council of French Defence Industries), has enlisted 60 French aerospace industrial companies for this outward mission to further French-Indian cooperation efforts.

The delegation will make stops in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, where meetings are organised to bring together the sectors' companies from both countries.

The major aviation and space players representing both civilian and defence interests will be present - Airbus, Ariane Group, Dassault Aviation, MBDA, Safran and Thales - not to mention 54 subcontractors, suppliers, SMEs and equipment manufacturers.

Cooperation in the areas of aeronautics and space that started in the Fifties is organised and well established.

It has been strengthened by a strategic partnership that was brokered twenty years ago between the two countries.

The Chairman of GIFAS, Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, will lead this important mission to India.

In advance of the occasion, he stated, "GIFAS is impatient to start this visit. It will prove that French industry is partnering with all the stakeholders in India and looking at a long term involvement, fully in the spirit of the "Make in India" initiative. We are glad to contribute to strengthening the strategic partnership between India and France".

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President Ram Nath Kovind said on Tuesday that that India will become a superpower if the economy continues to grow at the current pace.

"India is the fastest growing economy in the world. If Indian economy continues to grow in the same way we will certainly become a superpower," said the President while addressing the Indian community in Lusaka.

President Kovind, who is on a three-nation state visit to the African countries-Equatorial Guinea, Swaziland and Zambia from April 7 to 12, earlier on Tuesday arrived along with First Lady Savita Kovind.

Zambia, the current stop of the President's Africa tour, is one of the oldest democracies with an uninterrupted and peaceful transition of power. The country has a multi-party democracy since 1991.

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A passenger of an IndiGo flight, from Lucknow to Bangalore, was deboarded for his unruly behaviour, as per the budget airline.

In a statement on Monday, it said, "An IndiGo passenger, Saurabh Rai who was scheduled to fly this morning on 6E-541 from Lucknow to Bangalore, was offloaded on grounds of unruly behavior. Prior to take-off, Rai, expressed concerns regarding mosquitos on board. However, before the cabin crew on board could address his concerns, Rai aggressively expressed his annoyance and started to use threatening language."

"As the matter escalated after the closure of the aircraft doors, Rai attempted to instigate other passengers on board to damage the aircraft, and used words such as 'hijack'. Such actions are absolutely unacceptable, and there is zero tolerance for such threatening language on board an aircraft. Hence, keeping in mind applicable safety protocols, the crew apprised the pilot-in-command, who decided to offload Rai from the flight," the statement read.

While the airline blamed Rai for the incident, he claimed that the flight was full of mosquitoes and said that he was manhandled by the crew and was offloaded from the aircraft.

He said, "The Indigo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru was full of mosquitoes, when I raised objection, I was manhandled by the crew and offloaded from the aircraft, I was even threatened."

In a statement released by them, IndiGo said that their primary concern is the safety and security of the passengers and the colleagues.

The airline stated, "Customer satisfaction is core to our business. However, the safety and security of our passengers as well as colleagues is of primary concern. Therefore, any untoward conduct of this nature is of serious concern to us, and as a responsible corporate citizen we will take all necessary action to address this violation."

"Further, we would like to mention here that the Green Tribunal (NGT) has prohibited disinfectant fumigation in aircraft while passengers are onboard. This order is currently being challenged by IndiGo before the NGT and the same is pending for adjudication," they added.

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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant (CA) S Bhaskararaman, on a plea filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the bail granted to him by Delhi's Patiala House Court, in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

The next date of hearing is August 16.

Bhaskararaman was arrested from a hotel in Delhi on February 16 and was later sent to judicial custody. He was granted anticipatory bail on April 4.

On February 28, Karti Chidambaram was arrested at the Chennai airport on his return from the UK, for his alleged role in facilitating FIPB clearance for INX Media Ltd and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

Karti allegedly took service charges for getting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

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In the fourth match of Indian Premier League, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) comfortably defeated Rajasthan Royals with 9 wickets to spare, here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday.

Shikhar Dhawan led the SRH to victory with his unbeaten 77, which included 13 fours and 1 six. He was well supported by skipper Kane Williamson, who also remained not out on 36.

Chasing a low target of 126, the SRH did not get a desired start as Wriddhiman Saha was dismissed by Jaydev Unadkat in the second over. However, Dhawan made his intentions clear from the get go.

To stop Dhawan's juggernaut, RR's captain Ajinkya Rahane used seven different bowlers, but to no avail the southpaw and the New Zealander chased the target in 15.5 overs with 25 balls to spare.

Earlier, a disciplined bowling by the SRH limited the RR to 125/9 in their 20 overs. Siddarth Kaul stood out with his stellar performance -2/17 in his four overs.

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Breaking his silence on the proposed United States-North Korea summit, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has highlighted the likelihood of a proposed summit with US President Donald Trump.

During a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday, Kim made a "profound analysis and appraisal" of bilateral relations between North and South Korea and the proposed talks with Trump, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North Korean leader also discussed on the current situation of the Korean Peninsula and the upcoming inter-Korean summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, that is scheduled to be held on April 27.

According to the KCNA report, it read in English, "He made a profound analysis and appraisal of the orientation of the development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)-US dialogue."

A South Korean ministry official, although welcomed Kim's move, he was surprised with the issues being discussed during the WPK meeting.

"It is quite rare that North Korea mentioned details about the inter-Korean summit and future dialogue with the US. North Korea seemed to attach meaning to the holding of the WPK meeting by reporting it."

During the meetings, Kim and his officials discuss on major national policies.

When Kim made a surprise visit to Beijing last month, he stressed that the issue of denuclearisation rests on Seoul and Washington D.C's "progressive and synchronous" measures.

Trump on Monday announced that the meeting with Kim will likely take place in May or early June and said the summit will be an "exciting thing for the world".

The announcement came a day after Trump's administration revealed that North Korea confirmed that it was willing to discuss denuclearisation with them.

The issue of denuclearisation is likely to be discussed during the inter-Korean summit and Kim-Trump summit respectively.

The upcoming summits with South Korea and the US come after years of tensions over North Korea's persistent nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

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The recently concluded entrepreneurship summit in the serene hill district of Ukhrul created a platform for the youth to pitch their ideas to potential investors and in turn showcase their products for business expansion.

The entrepreneurship summit aimed towards for a sustainable livelihood.

The 'Made in Ukhrul', Entrepreneurship Conclave cum Trade Fair under the theme 'Sustainable Ukhrul 2030', showcased glimpses of art and craft and locally produced products by emerging local entrepreneurs.

Even though such an initiative is new, the level of enthusiasm and positive vibes of the people is worth mentioning.

People across the hill district thronged the Bakshi Ground Indoor Stadium at Hungpung town in the district and marveled at the locally produced products exhibited in the event.

Hill Wild which conducted the event, created a market for building contacts for start-ups with the buyers from outside the state.

"My partner and me, when we started off as entrepreneurs we faced a lot of problems and challenges along the way. So, we thought it would be better to have an event where entrepreneurs facing the same challenges could be connected," said CEO and Co-Founder, Hill Wild, Leiyolan Vashum.

With only 26 exhibitors featuring during the first edition, the second edition saw a whopping 92 entrepreneurs cum exhibitors displaying out-of-the-box products ranging from organic food items to clothing and home decor products in the two-day event.

The summit also laid an emphasis to promote organic products as many entrepreneurs showed an interest for venturing into the food business.

One of the major attractions at the event was the introduction of the pilot project on sanitary pad manufacturing undertaken by the Highlander Holdings Pvt. Ltd.

"The problem with making deals with other entities from outside state is that we are quite nascent when it comes to GST registration and enterprise registration. So to encourage, we have put up a stall for the Autonomous District Council. They issue licenses for enterprises as well, so it is one of the initiatives that we have undertaken," added Leiyolan.

The event not only created a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their products but also gave them a rare opportunity to interact with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country as their speakers at the conclave.

"I do this beading work since young, so it's a hobby turned business and all the materials are import from Delhi. So it is hard to sustain here but still I am trying my best and expand my business into other countries, "said Angel Khamrang, an entrepreneur.

Karma Bhutia, founder and chief executive of online handicrafts retailer iShippo, Satabdee Borah, CEO of GNRC Hospital Sixmile and Totalstart Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Developer Chairman Dr. Suryanil Ghosh and various other interacted with indigenous entrepreneurs and brainstormed on various challenges, scopes and success on entrepreneurship.

Moreover, the event also introduced a pitching competition for the exhibitors to help them expand their business. And among the many participants, Pamchui Shimray of Ceepee Handlooms emerged as the winner of Rs. 1 lakh.

Founded by Leiyolan Vashum and Zeinorin Stephen Angkang, Hill Wild is a community based movement focusing on economic sustainability. The emerging duo are successful chocolatiers who use exotic pumpkin seeds in their products.

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Militarism and militancy are not going to ensure a better future for Pakistan, said former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani on Tuesday.

Talking exclusively to ANI, the former Pakistani diplomat talked about Pakistani military's intervention in politics, terrorism, Pashtun uprising and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Maintaining that Pakistani military is not trained to intervene in the country's politics, Haqqani said military interventions in Pakistani have resulted in political chaos.

"Military interventions going back to 1958 have only brought war, destruction, or political chaos in the country. Pakistani people will start loving their military when it stops interfering and intervening in If public opinion in Pakistan becomes so critical of the military's role in that the military realizes that its interventions are not acceptable to the people then the military's behaviour will also have to change," Haqqani said.

The Pakistani military has historically been interfering in the country's politics and has dethroned democratically elected governments many times.

Talking about jihadi elements getting safe havens in Pakistan, the former diplomat said, "As far as militants and jihadi outfits are concerned, they have already brought Pakistan on the brink of global sanctions. I think it is time to get rid of militancy without any conditions and Pakistani people can demand of their government action against militants."

Haqqani said it is high time that Pakistan corrects its pro-terror image in the

"Terrorism has become an issue that is now not only hurting India, Pakistan relations but also US-Pakistan relations. Many other countries are also becoming negative in their approach to Pakistan. So, Pakistan will have to change that perception around the world," Haqqani said.

He also said that Pakistan also needs to take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) co-founder and Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JUD) Hafiz Saeed as people like him do not bring pride to Pakistan.

"When somebody (Hafiz Saeed) has been declared a terrorist by the global community then all countries should act against such a person and Pakistan also needs to take steps that will redeem it in the eyes of the International opinion should not be flouted in the manner it has been by Pakistan in relation to Hafiz Saeed," Haqqani said.

Replying a question about Saeed's foray into politics, Haqqani hoped that Saeed does not make it to Parliament in Pakistan and said efforts to "mainstream a terrorist" is going to be problematic for Pakistan in terms of its relations with several countries of the

He said Saeed's political face 'the Milli Muslim League' has been recognized by the US as another name for the LeT.

"As far as the Milli Muslim League is concerned, the United States has just recognized it as another name for Lashkar-e-Taiba. One can keep changing the name many times but unless you change your actions, changing names will not change reality."

Expressing his views about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Haqqani said China's investment in Pakistan is strategic so Islamabad should be alert as to not become indebted to China.

"China considers Pakistan as its strategic instrument for keeping in check India's ambitions in Asia. It also considers Pakistan as a secondary deterrent. Therefore, China's investment in Pakistan is strategic. That said, China does have a very capitalistic outlook right now. And, once they have invested heavily in, they will not go back without having their pound of flesh as they did in Sri Lanka in the case of Hambantota port," Haqqani said.

He added that Pakistan will get benefit out of the CPEC if it has a strong economic base.

"If Pakistan ends up becoming highly indebted to China, without creating jobs for its own people, then the CPEC will end up becoming a liability rather than an asset."

Talking about Pashtun movement in Pakistan, the former Pakistani diplomat said Pashtuns are not foreign agents as being alleged by the government but people who have been deprived of their just rights.

"Pashtuns have acted totally spontaneously and without any serious political organisation and that basically shows how a young Pakistani population is quite disgruntled with the situation they face. Pashtun Tahafuz Movement leaders are being termed as traitors and foreign agents. They are not foreign agents but they are people facing injustice and standing up for their rights," Haqqani said.

He also said that there will be many movements like Pashtun Tahafuz across Pakistan because Pakistani state has ignored too many people within the country to pursue objectives that have nothing to do with providing education, healthcare and justice to the poorest of poor.

Haqqani, who has written a book titled 'Reimagining Pakistan', said Pakistan should actually become a pragmatic state instead of an ideological nation that it has been trying to become from the last 70 years.

He said priorities of Pakistani people are being ignored due to religion-based ideology.

"The problem with having a religion based ideology and an ideology that envisages the country's largest neighbour (India) as the permanent enemy is that peoples' priorities get ignored," Haqqani said.

The diplomat turned author said instead of being obsessed with religion and with India as enemy, Pakistan should look after its own people as the nation with world's sixth largest has its economy on the 42nd number in the world.

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The Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government seeking its reply in custodial death of the father of a rape victim in Unnao.

The Commission has issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police seeking a detailed report in the matter, including action taken against the delinquent police officials, who refused to register an FIR.

It also asked DGP's explanation for not communicating the custodial death to the Commission within 24 hours.

"All the reports, including health screening report of the deceased at the time of his admission in the jail and medical treatment provided by the jail authorities, are to be sent. They have been given four weeks to respond," the NHRC said in a statement.

It has also directed the Chief Secretary of the state to look into the matter personally and ensure that the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment and humiliation by the opponents who appear to be resourceful persons of the locality.

The father of rape victim, who levelled rape allegation against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar died in judicial custody on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Lucknow Additional Director General Police (ADG) Law and Order Anand Kumar informed that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the case.

On Sunday, the rape victim, along with her family members, tried to commit suicide in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow alleging that she was raped by BJP leader and his fellow accomplices.

Later, the victim's father was taken into police custody from the location. However, he was admitted to a hospital on Sunday night after complaining of abdominal pain and vomiting and subsequently passed away in the early hours of Monday.

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NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajeev Kumar on Tuesday said that focus of development projects in the northeast region will be based on the concept of Highways, Inland Waterways, Railways and Airways (HIRA) as spelled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the first meeting of the 'NITI Forum for North East' held here, Kumar said that emphasis will be made on education, health and skill development in the region.

He added that horticulture, tourism, food processing, use of bamboo and 'Made in North-East' will be developed through five mission mode projects in a time-bound manner.

The meeting, organised by the NITI Aayog, Ministry of DoNER and the North Eastern Council (NEC), was co-chaired by the Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, Rajeev Kumar and the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Jitendra Singh.

Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb, Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma, Deputy Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Chowna Mein also participated in the day-long deliberations.

Further, senior ministers, chief secretaries and senior officers of the central ministries and state governments were also present.

Jitendra Singh said that there has been a significant 21 percent rise in fund utilisation in the north-east region during the last three years.

"The government has focused on development in a region which more or less remained out of the mainstream for the last seven decades since Independence. There has been a significant 21 percent rise in fund utilisation in the north-east during the last three years. The central government has now committed full 100 percent funding for development projects in the north east region, as against 90-10 ratio earlier, with the state governments funding 10 percent of the total cost," Singh said.

Nagaland Chief Minister Rio pointed out that Kohima is the only state capital in the north-east which does not have an airport.

He said that the state government has acquired land for this purpose and at least one small airstrip at Kohima should be constructed for providing air connectivity to Nagaland under the Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme.

Meanwhile, Meghalaya Chief Minister Sangma said that development is the solution for all socio-economic problems in the region and through infrastructure and connectivity, many development problems can be solved.

He said that the National Games - 2022 will be held in Meghalaya, which will coincide with the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence.

Sangma added that economic challenges of the north-east can be met by removing the physical and economic barriers.

Chief Minister of Tripura Deb thanked the Prime Minister for giving Tripura an opportunity to host this prestigious event.

He said that the state bordering with Bangladesh from three sides imports more than Rs. 300 crores annually from Bangladesh but exports a meager Rs. 4.6 crores.

Deb said that certain provisions prohibit export of rubber from Tripura, but the same is routed through West Bengal.

He asserted that Tripura has immense potential in fisheries as the state has the world's best climate suitable for aquaculture, but this has not been exploited.

Representatives of all eight member states of the north-east gave their valuable suggestions on 'Moving towards a prosperous North East Region', the theme for today's meeting.

Secretary, DoNER, Naveen Verma and Secretary, NEC, Ram Muivah explained the status of different development projects in the region.

The 'NITI Forum for North East' was constituted in February 2018 with an aim to ensure sustainable economic growth of the north eastern region of the country and periodically review the development status in the area.

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Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi on Tuesday praised the leadership of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar for the success of the weeklong Swachhagraha Campaign in the state.

Addressing around 20,000 Swachhagrahis or the Ambassadors of Cleanliness in Motihari, on the concluding centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha, the Prime Minister said, "Under the leadership of Nitish Ji and Sushil ji, the work that Bihar has done in the past few days has boosted everyone's morale. Bihar was the only state where the scope of hygiene was less than 50 percent, but I have been told that after this week's Swachhagraha campaign, Bihar broke that barrier."

At the event named 'Satyagraha to Swachhagraha', the Prime Minister also awarded ten Swachhagrahis, who performed outstandingly in their villages, and congratulated the people, the 'Swachhagrahis' and the Bihar Government for construction of more than 8,50,000 toilets in the state in the last one week.

Swachhagrahis are the 'foot soldiers' and motivators to implement the Community Approaches to Sanitation (CAS) at the village level.

"A hundred years ago, people from all over Champaran had worked street-to-street, headed by Gandhi. A hundred years later, people from different parts of the country came here with the same sentiments and worked with enthusiastic youngsters, and Swachhagrahis," he added.

Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagrah over a century ago, on April 10, 1917 against the Britishers to fight for the rights of farmers who were forced to undertake indigo cultivation.

Prime Minister Modi further said that the Centre and state government were working in tandem for Bihar's development, "Whether it is the Swachhta mission, the fight against black money, or the development of facilities related to the general public, the central government is shoulder-to-shoulder with Nitish Ji and his team. For the development of Bihar, the Centre and state government's schemes and strategies complement each other."

He also unveiled several development projects such as the inauguration of Motijheel Project, Bettiah Nagar Parishad water supply scheme under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), four sewerage projects aimed at creating a sewage-treatment capacity of 60 million litres daily for Patna,under Namami Gange, doubling of Railway lines between Muzaffarpur and Sagauli, and Sagauli and Valmikinagar and flagging off of first 12000 HP Freight Electric Locomotive and Champaran Humsafar Express with many more other projects.

On the occasion, the PM also took a shot at the Opposition, "The Government is now completing its every mission and resolution with the help from the public, but some people are not able to accept the change, they can't digest that the poor are being empowered. They think that if the poor get strong, they will not be able to lie and mislead them. That is why, from the streets to the Parliament, they are creating hurdles in government's work. This government is working to join the masses, while on the other hand, some enemies are working to divide them.

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Two out of five miscreants were arrested on Monday for opening fire at villagers using a stolen vehicle of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office bearer in Rajasthan's Baran district on Monday.

"Five miscreants allegedly open fire on villagers. Two have been arrested. We have seized their weapons. Further investigation is underway," said SHO, Baran Sadar Police station, Ashish Bhargav.

The car which was used by the miscreants has a BJP number plate.

Currently, further investigation is underway.

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Amid threats of suspending Twenty20 League in Chennai over the Cauvery water dispute, Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla on Tuesday met Union Home Secretary Rajeev Gauba and demanded enhanced security arrangements during the IPL matches in Chennai.

With Tamil Nadu's Cauvery river water sharing row with Karnataka intensifying, there were speculations that a few IPL matches of the present season might be shifted to Kerala.

"Today I meet with the home security and discussed the security concerns with him. He spoke to the director general of police and given instructions for security to the spectators and players to avoid any untoward incident," Shukla told ANI.

The IPL chairman added that the plan is to conduct all matches in Chennai and it is on the police to handle protests.

He said, "We are trying that those matches should take place in Chennai itself. There is no plan to move the matches to other states. Tamil Nadu government has assured that full-fledged security will be provided during the matches."

"If there will be any issue than the Tamil Nadu government will have to look for a plan B," Shukla added.

Earlier, actor turned politician Rajinikanth had called for a boycott of the IPL in light of the Cauvery row stating that the cash-rich league will divert public attention from the raging dispute.

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Mert & MarcusTaylor Swift has inspired fans to do extreme things, like travel great distances to attend her concerts, or spend tons of money on merch. But one man has raised the bar quite a bit: He told police that in order to impress Taylor, he robbed a bank.

Bruce Rowley, a 26-year-old Connecticut man, was arrested last week after robbing a bank in Derby, CT and then driving to Taylor's home in Rhode Island and throwing some of the money over the fence. On his way back to Connecticut, the Rhode Island State Police spotted his car and a police chase ensued. Rowley was arrested over the border by Connecticut State Police.

According to the incident report, as Rowley was being driven to the police department, he spontaneously offered that he'd planned on donating some of the stolen money to the Ansonia, CT PD.

He then added that he had a "crush" on Taylor, and wanted to impress her, so he robbed the bank. That's when he explained that he'd driven to Rhode Island in order to throw the money over her fence.

And, as if Taylor doesn't have enough troubles with obsessed fans, on Tuesday, a man was charged with trying to climb the wall of her property in Los Angeles, despite numerous warnings by security officers.

The man, 23-year-old Justin Lilly, was charged with a misdemeanor account of trespassing and refusing to leave private property. If convicted, he could face six months in jail.

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Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity has accepted late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's apology and has even invited him on his show for a 'serious discussion'.

Hannity responded to Kimmel's apology to United States First Lady Melania Trump for mocking her on his show.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said, "On the surface, to be honest, it feels more like a forced Disney corporate apology directed more towards the LBGTQ community rather than about Kimmel's comments about the first lady."

"I think every person should accept apologies, and that's what I'm going to do here," Hannity said. "This was never about Hannity vs. Jimmy Kimmel, here's why: The level of vitriol against President Trump and his family is really sickening. Attacking the first lady for her accent is just one small example, but it's a line in the sand for me. Those cheap shots need to end."

The 56-year-old then invited Kimmel to come on his show, where he promised there would be "no name-calling." He also said that if Kimmel decided to reignite the feud that he would "punch back even harder."

On Sunday, Kimmel had issued a statement on Twitter, saying that his exchanges with Hannity were fun but that he had realised that "the level of vitriol from all sides (mine and me included) does nothing good for anyone and, in fact, is harmful to our country."

In an episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!,' the late-night host had joked about Melania Trump's Slovenian accent, which apparently didn't go down too well with Hannity.

What followed was a war of words on their respective shows as well as on Twitter.

On Saturday, Hannity had tweeted that he was not going to stop until Kimmel apologised to the First Lady.

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The traders in Gilgit-Baltistan are immensely troubled with Chinese policies that debar them from doing business on equal grounds.

Ever since the border trade agreement was signed between China and Pakistan in 1985, the markets of Gilgit-Baltistan are flooded with Chinese products.

Many traders complain that they are repatriated from the China border under the suspicion that their products could contain vulnerable goods.

Mubshir Hassan, a trader from Gilgit-Baltistan said, "Whenever we take our item for China, they do not let us pass (the China border check post), they contrive issues, like alleging the presence of some medical (chemical weapon or disease) or bring up some other issues with our products and send us back. Whichever items come from there, every kid of Pakistan and Gilgit Baltistan knows about it them."

He added, "When Chinese come here, the Pakistan government facilitates them, they can take houses on rent or buy them but we are not treated alike in China."

The Government of Pakistan offers best facilities to Chinese traders who come to Gilgit-Baltistan for one-sided business.

But for traders from Gilgit-Baltistan, it is no less than a nightmare. Budging under huge loans taken from banks in Pakistan, the traders are dismayed with China's embargo on their products.

Hidayat Ali, another businessman from Gilgit-Baltistan said, "According to border trade agreement (China- Pakistan) signed in 1985, some items should be sent there and some items should be imported here. But what is actually happening is, they have imposed a ban on our products. Our exports are banned. The traders of Gilgit-Baltistan are running pillar to post (to export their products) and we have taken loans from various banks, we are not able to pay it back."

The highways, built under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, serve just the interest of China, plying a chain of trucks to Gilgit-Baltistan.

Touted as a 'game changer', the multi-billion dollar CPEC project has given a boost to Chinese market, leaving traders in Gilgit-Baltistan on edge.

"I have already told traders that Awami Action Committee will support them and when we will take on streets we will have only one option that we will give a clear message to Government of China and Government of Pakistan that trade, friendship and business should take place at equal level. The (number) of products imported here should be the same exported from here", said Sultan Raes, President of Awami Action Committee

Awami Action Committee and traders of Gilgit-Baltistan have issued an ultimatum to Pakistan and China governments, demanding an early resolution to the monopolistic trade between the two countries.

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The UK Government and UK defence companies are seeking to deepen and broaden their strategic defence equipment partnerships with India at DEFEXPO 2018.

The UK's attendance at DEFEXPO 2018 will focus on creating a genuine "two-way street" of defence equipment collaboration, investment and technology transfer.

The UK is keen to share its knowledge and experience on developing innovative and cost-effective defence equipment capabilities as the Indian armed forces continue to modernise.

Guto Bebb MP, the UK Minister for Defence Procurement, is leading the UK delegation accompanied by the British High Commissioner to India, the UK Deputy Chief of Defence Staff and the Regional Director for India at the UK Department of International Trade's Defence and Security Organisation (DSO).

The minister will be accompanied by some 20 UK companies who are keen to forge mutually beneficial industrial partnerships and joint ventures with Indian companies.

Bebb said, "The UK and India have much to offer one another in defence: including research, development, collaboration and training. We want to work in partnership with India to build on our shared mutual knowledge, security and prosperity.

We have a range of world-class capabilities across the air, land, maritime, cyber and space domain and we are encouraging UK and Indian companies to innovate, develop and sustain long-term industrial partnerships to meet our shared requirements and to launch new products and capabilities into the global marketplace."

All media are invited to visit the UK companies in Hall 5 Stand, 5.2.

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The West Bengal Election Commission extended the last date for filing nominations until Tuesday for panchayat elections.

Earlier the last date to file nomination for the same was April 9.

This decision was made after violence marred the filling of nominations for panchayat polls in the state.

On April 6, over 25 political party workers were injured after a clash erupted between workers of Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jalpaiguri district over the filing of nomination for the upcoming panchayat polls.

Many vehicles were vandalised during the clash. Reportedly, a BJP party office was also burnt by TMC workers.

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Amidst reports of a suspected chemical attack in Syria's Douma, which claimed over 40 civilian lives, United Nations (UN) Security Council held an emergency meeting in connection with the same, on Monday.

According to RT, the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, during the meeting, mentioned that his nation was "deeply disturbed" by the fact that some countries, including the US, UK and France, have without any justification adopted an adversarial stance towards Russia and Syria.

He went on to say that Moscow recently faced "slander, hawkish rhetoric, sanctions, blackmail and even threats of force."

Slamming the Western countries for a display of animosity that their countries "did not take the liberty" to unleash even during the Cold War, he said Russia has been "inexcusably threatened."

Claiming beyond doubt that the suspected chemical attack in Syria was orchestrated, he urged the UN to impartially probe into the reported incident.

Questioning the evidence provided by the aide group The White Helmets, he deemed the scene of the alleged chemical strike to be fraudulent, wondering how a bomb that struck the roof of a building fell on a wooden bed without even damaging it.

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Future Supply Chain Solutions advanced 3.26% to Rs 689.80 at 10:31 IST on BSE after Reserve Bank of India allowed raising FPI limit in the company to 49% from 24%.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 92.57 points, or 0.27% to 33,881.11.

On the BSE, 2454 shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 952 shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 711.95 and a low of Rs 680 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 750 on 15 January 2018. The stock hit a record low of Rs 639 on 9 March 2018.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 40.06 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The Reserve Bank of India after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018 notified that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) investment limit under portfolio investment scheme in Future Supply Chain Solutions has increased from 24% to 49% of its paid up capital.

Shares of Future Supply Chain Solutions settled at Rs 685.80 on the BSE, a premium of 3.28% over the initial public offer price of Rs 664 on its debut on the stock exchanges on 18 December 2017.

Future Supply Chain Solutions reported 36.88% rise in net profit to Rs 16.22 crore on 34.4% rise in total income to Rs 196.50 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

Future Supply Chain Solutions is one of the largest third-party logistics service providers in India. The company's services include automated and IT-enabled warehousing, distribution and other logistics solutions to a wide range of customers which includes retail, fashion and apparel, automotive and engineering, food and beverage, fast-moving consumer goods, e-commerce, healthcare, electronics and technology, home and furniture and ATMs.

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Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2018, an increase of 6.2 percent from 2017, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

"Although global IT spending is forecast to grow 6.2 percent this year, the declining U. S. dollar has caused currency tailwinds, which are the main reason for this strong growth," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "This is the highest annual growth rate that Gartner has forecast since 2007 and would be a sign of a new cycle of IT growth. However, spending on IT around the world is growing at expected levels and is in line with expected global economic growth. Through 2018 and 2019, the U. S. dollar is expected to trend stronger while enduring tremendous volatility due to the uncertain political environment, the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation and the potential for trade wars."

Enterprise software spending is forecast to experience the highest growth in 2018 with an 11.1 percent increase. Barring unexpected disruption, the software industry is expected to continue capitalizing on the evolution of digital business. Application software spending is expected to continue to rise through 2019, and infrastructure software will also continue to grow, bolstered by modernization initiatives.

Even with a strong end to 2017, worldwide spending on data center systems is forecast to grow 3.7 percent in 2018, down from 6.3 percent growth in 2017. The longer-term outlook continues to have challenges, particularly for the storage segment. The strength at the end of 2017 was primarily driven by the component shortage for memory components, and prices have increased at a greater rate than previously expected. Whereas previously, component shortages were expected to ease into 2018, the shortages are now expected to continue throughout the year with the supply not expected to ease until the end of the year.

Worldwide spending for devices PCs, tablets and mobile phones is forecast to grow in 2018, reaching $706 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent from 2017. "The device market continues to see dual dynamics.

Some users are holding back from buying, and those that are buying are doing so, on average, at higher price points," said Mr. Lovelock. "As a result, end-user spending will increase faster than units through 2022. However, total end-user spending and unit shipments are expected to be lower compared with previous forecasts, as demand for ultramobile premium devices, ultramobile utility devices and basic phones is expected to be slow."

More detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry will be provided in the complimentary webinar "IT Spending Forecast Q1 2018: The Digital Storm - Will You Sink or Surf?" at 11 a.m. ET on April 10, 2018, and on demand. During the webinar, Gartner analysts will discuss the full IT spending forecast and details on which IT markets are poised to take advantage of the digital storm.

Gartner's IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.

The Gartner quarterly IT spending forecast delivers a unique perspective on IT spending across the hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications segments. These reports help Gartner clients understand market opportunities and challenges. The most recent IT spending forecast research is available at Gartner Worldwide Spending Forecast. This quarterly IT Spending Forecast page includes links to the latest IT spending reports, webinars, blog posts and press releases.

Mr. Lovelock will provide further analysis on the key drivers of the IT market at the Gartner Tech Growth & Innovation Summit taking place from April 30 through May 2, 2018 in San Diego, CA. The Summit is the premier conference for technology vendors to learn about the latest trends and tools, innovation predictions, positioning and thought leadership.

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HDFC has increased its retail prime lending rate (RPLR), on which its adjustable rate home loans (ARHL) is benchmarked, by 20 basis points, with effect from 1 April 2018. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018.

Wipro announced after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018, that its fourth-quarter revenue and profitability would be hit by the insolvency proceedings of one of its telecom clients in India. The company said it has been working with the Insolvency Resolution Professional to discuss the potential outcome of its client's insolvency petition.

It is estimated that this development will have an impact on both revenue and profitability. The company is likely to see an impact on profitability at the net income level in the range of 65-75 basis points of the consolidated revenues for the quarter ended 31 March 2018, Wipro said in a statement. The impact of this client insolvency petition will reflect in the financial results of the company for the quarter and year ended 31 March 2018.

Though Wipro did not name the telecom client, it said that it had initially signed a deal with the client in 2008 and had renewed the contract in 2013. Wipro added that the client had filed its insolvency petition on 28 February 2018.

The Reserve Bank of India notified that the Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) investment limit under Portfolio Investment Scheme in Future Supply Chain Solutions has increased from 24% to 49% of its paid up capital.

Max Financial Services said that the Board considered various fund raising proposals and approved submission of such proposals received from KKR Capital Markets India, Standard Chartered Bank and TPG Global LLC & other co-investors (together the Investors) to pursue the acquisition opportunity by Max Life. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018.

Gravita India said that the company has started commercial production of PPCP Granules from its plant situated at Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018.

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India will be a 5 trillion dollar economy, it is only a matter of time according to Mr Suresh Prabhu, Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation.

Commenting on the present situation in the global economy, Mr Prabhu commented that with the recent measures taken by countries affecting global trade, we might be living in a new normal. According to him, post the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in recent times, people are questioning globalization and different definitions of globalization are emerging. India must face the challenge and convert it to an opportunity said Mr Prabhu. He believes India must take the lead and take advantage of globalization.

After the inconclusive conclusion of the 11th WTO Ministerial, he said that the global community appreciated the effort by India in organizing the Mini Ministerial. Touching upon India and Africa, he said India is also working with African countries to develop an agreement where both parties reap benefit from initial offers and can subsequently deepen trading relationships. India is working out a strategy and is actively working with other countries both multilaterally and bilaterally said Mr Prabhu. Turning to Standards, Mr Prabhu underlined the importance of Standards and said that the Commerce Ministry is working on developing standards for all products.

Trade, Mr Prabhu said, can only happen once products are manufactured. India must produce and increase the scale of the production to increase its share in the global economy he said. He believes that in India, services will be exported more than merchandise goods. The service sector according to Mr Prabhu will also create jobs.

To this end, the Government has allocated 5,000 crs toward 12 champion service sectors. However, for India to be a 5 trillion dollar economy, manufacturing must also increase. He asked Industry to share with the Ministry what regulatory issues are affecting industries. He also said that inputs are being solicited from start-ups as existing laws were not made with Start Ups in Mind.

He also added that the Commerce Ministry is working on bettering Ease of Doing Business at the district level. Turning to the tax-GDP ratio, an increase in the ratio will lead to a decline in tax rates and the Government will have more resources to spend.

Turning to Aviation, there exists an opportunity for growth in air cargo and given the increasing demand for aviation in this country, there exists an opportunity for the growth of aerospace manufacturing in the country according to Mr Suresh Prabhu.

Ms Shobana Kamineni, President, CII in her remarks mentioned that the new industrial policy is to be unveiled shortly. There are new ways emerging on how business is being done in India. New and Emerging areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 will be part of the policy she said. In her remarks she also stressed that India needs to be part of Global Value Chains (GVCs) and the global world to become a 5 trillion dollar economy. She also mentioned that we must strive to see small industry grow to medium industry and medium industry to large. In her remarks Ms Kamineni also said that Industry wants to be a partner to make India a 5 trillion dollar economy.

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Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 22 points at the opening bell on positive Asian cues.

Overseas, Asian shares rose as Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly discussed plans to further open up the Chinese economy during a Tuesday address. Xi's address, from the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual summit, comes amid escalating trade tensions between China and the US take turns announcing punitive trade measures against each other. Jinping reportedly said China's reform and opening up will definitely succeed and that a Cold War mentality, zero-sum thinking, and isolationism would hit walls.

US stocks pared intraday gains in the final minutes of trading, closing with modest gains on Monday following news reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the office of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer. Earlier, all the main indexes were trading sharply higher, as comments from Trump and administration officials alleviated fears about rising trade hostilities between the US and China.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1300.93 crore yesterday, 9 April 2018, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 359.35 crore yesterday, 9 April 2018, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news, Wipro announced after market hours yesterday, 9 April 2018, that its fourth-quarter revenue and profitability would be hit by the insolvency proceedings of one of its telecom clients in India. The company said it has been working with the Insolvency Resolution Professional to discuss the potential outcome of its client's insolvency petition.

It is estimated that this development will have an impact on both revenue and profitability. The company is likely to see an impact on profitability at the net income level in the range of 65-75 basis points of the consolidated revenues for the quarter ended 31 March 2018, Wipro said in a statement.

Though Wipro did not name the telecom client, it said that it had initially signed a deal with the client in 2008 and had renewed the contract in 2013. Wipro added that the client had filed its insolvency petition on 28 February 2018.

Key benchmark indices logged modest gains as global stocks rose on hopes that a full blown trade war between the United States and China could be averted. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 161.57 points or 0.48% to settle at 33,788.54. The Nifty 50 index rose 47.75 points or 0.46% to settle at 10,379.35.

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At least 15 militants and two soldiers were killed in clashes between the two sides in Afghanistan's Herat province, a local official said on Tuesday.

"The clashes occurred after Taliban militants stormed security checkpoints with guns and rockets in remote Chishti Sharif district late on Monday... Eight others were injured," Jilani Farhad, spokesman for provincial government, told Xinhua news agency.

Earlier on Tuesday, Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said the security forces waged 15 cleanup operations and 56 special operations in 11 provinces over the past 24 hours.

The Afghan Air Force conducted 43 supportive flights and eight airstrikes against militants while the Army's bomb disposal teams found and destroyed 68 rounds of landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in different provinces over the period, the Ministry said.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the provision of Aadhaar Act that seeks to validate the data collected from 2009 to 2016 when the statute was enacted was "badly drafted" and it could not be read to mean waiving of fundamental rights of the people.

The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra told Attorney General K.K. Venugopal that the supposed deemed consent for parting with biometric data can't be stretched to mean waiving of fundamental rights to privacy of the people.

Other judges on the constitution bench are Justice A.K. Sikri, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan.

The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, that was enacted in 2016 seeks to validate the collection of biometric and demographic Adata of the people from 2009 till law came into existence in 2016 on the strength of administrative instructions.

Section 59 says: "Anything done or any action taken by the Central Government under the Resolution of the Government of India, Planning Commission bearing notification number A-43011/02/2009-Admin. I, dated the 28th January, 2009, or by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology under the Cabinet Secretariat Notification bearing notification number S.O. 2492(E), dated the 12th September, 2015, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have been validly done or taken under this Act."

Unimpressed by the argument advanced by the Attorney General, Chief Justice Misra said: "You have said that it was voluntary and with minimal invasion. We can't hold that the fundamental rights can be waived or compromised" by stretching the deemed consent to that extent.

The court's observation as Venugopal sought to defend the data collected from 2009 to 2016 on the strength of administrative orders and without obtaining the consent of the people on the collection and storage of their biometric and demographic data.

The Attorney General said that people gave their biometric data voluntarily and at that point of time, it did not violate the privacy as right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

Defending the insertion of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act that mandates the linking of PAN number with Aadhaar, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the said provision advanced the "legitimate interest of the State, it did not suffer from any lack of proportionality and was not arbitrary".

He said that the provision was introduced to eliminate the duplicate PANs from the system, which he said were being used for illegal transactions.

Mehta asserted that by linking Aadhaar with PAN helped in curbing the tax evasion, prevention, accumulation and circulation of black money and money laundering including preventing terror financing - which he described as legitimate state interest.

The top court's nine judge constitution bench had on August 24, 2017 while holding that right to privacy was fundamental, which is a intrinsic and core feature of life and personal liberty, had said that yet state can for legitimate reasons such as protecting national security, preventing and investigating crime could collect and store data about people.

"Apart from national security, the state may have justifiable reasons for the collection and storage of data", the majority judgment by Justice Chandrachud had said: "In a social welfare state, the government embarks upon programmes which provide benefits to impoverished and marginalised sections of society."

He had however calling for a robust data protection regime, which "requires a careful and sensitive balance between individual interests and legitimate concerns of the state".

The constitution bench is hearing a batch of petitions by former Karnataka High Court Judge K.S. Puttuswamy, Magsaysay awardee Shanta Sinha, feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon, social activist Aruna Roy, Nikhil De, Nachiket Udupa and others challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the touchstone of the fundamental right to privacy.

Mehta will continue with his arguments on Wednesday.

--IANS

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader P. Chidambaram, for the second time in a fortnight for allegedly receiving kickbacks for getting FIPB clearance in the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 when his father was the Finance Minister.

An ED official said the junior Chidambaram was questioned at the Directorate's headquarters here.

Earlier, the agency questioned Karti Chidambaram for over five hours on April 10.

The ED has so far found that Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Ltd, promoted by Karti and A. Palaniappan -- a nephew of Chidambaram -- was allegedly paid $200,000 by the Maxis Group in the guise of software consultancy fee.

The ED is probing the financial irregularities committed as per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the case, which is also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Both agencies are trying to find out how Karti allegedly managed to get a clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the Aircel-Maxis deal.

The ED in September last year had also attached Rs 1.16-crore assets of Karti in connection with the case.

According to the CBI charge sheet submitted in the special court, Mauritius-based Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Maxis, had sought approval for an investment of $800 million in Aircel.

Though it was the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was competent to grant the approval, it was cleared by then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on his own and the amount for FIPB clearance was wrongly projected to conceal the facts.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy has alleged that Chidambram had tweaked the FIPB norms for clearing the deal in 2006.

Seeking a probe into the role of Chidambaram in alleged violation of the FIPB norms for approving the deal, Swamy has referred to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)'s 2015 report, which points to two alleged illegalities.

According to Swamy, the CAG cited the illegality of FIPB approving Maxis' acquisition of 93.3 per cent stake in Aircel Tele Ventures Ltd through its wholly-owned subsidiary, the GCSHL, well in excess of the then ceiling of 74 per cent investment by a foreign entity.

The second illegality, Swamy has said, was that since the foreign investment in Aircel was more than Rs 600 crore, it should have gone to the CCEA for approval, but it was instead cleared by the FIPB.

Karti is also an accused in the INX Media Case where he has been charged with receiving irregular FIPB clearance for investments up to Rs 305 crore.

--IANS

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Actress Amber Heard, who won $7 million in her divorce settlement from actor Johnny Depp, has donated a part of it to charity.

The Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) confirmed that Heard did donate part of her divorce settlement to the charity after promising that she would following her split from Depp in 2016, reports people.com.

Heard, 31, had promised that she would split the amount between two charities, American Civil Liberties Union, and CHLA.

CHLA have published a report for 2017 which listed "Ms. Amber Heard" on its "Honor Roll of Donors", which indicated she had donated an undisclosed amount within the bracket of $1 million to $5 million.

Heard and Depp released a joint statement after reaching their divorce settlement in August 2016, before their divorce was officially finalised in January 2017. It was stated that time that Heard would be making the charitable donation.

--IANS

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West Bengal's opposition parties on Tuesday accused the State Election Commission of "acting like a puppet" in the hands of the ruling Trinamool Congress and moved court after it recalled its order extending the last date for filing nominations for Panchayat polls.

Hours after extending the last date for filing of nominations by a day, the SEC on Tuesday morning recalled its order citing legal issues.

"On perusal of all the papers, the Commission hereby recalls the said order and therefore rescinds the order dated April 9, 2018," said the fresh order issued by State Election Commissioner A.K. Singh.

Protesting agaimst the decision, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership moved the Calcutta High Court and said it has stayed the new order and asked it to take care of the grievances and complaints lodged by individuals as well as by the political parties regarding filing of nominations for the rural polls next month.

"The learned court has given an interim stay on the order issued by State Election Commission on April 10 (Tuesday)...The court has also directed the EC to take care of the grievances of individuals and parties regarding filing of nominations for the Panchayat polls.," BJP state General Secretary Pratap Banerjee said outside the court.

"According to the High Court's order, we would send a letter to the SEC with an appeal that those of our activists who were stopped from filing their papers by Trinamool goons should be given a chance to file their nomination and exercise their democratic rights," he added.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) workers held a protest outside the SEC office against its directive to withdraw the extended deadline for filing nominations and alleged it was crumbling under the pressure of the state government and Trinamool.

"This is an unprecedented situation. The SEC is not able to take any decision on its own. It is acting like a puppet in the hands of Bengal government and the ruling party. We condemn this. We are holding a demonstration here but our party would also move to court against the EC's order," said CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty.

However, Trinamool MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee claimed that the High Court's order has gone in favour of the state government as the court has not given any direction to EC to extend the date of nominations.

"The court has not extended the date of nomination which the opposition parties were demanding. The SEC issued an order on April 9 but as the time is over it has become infructuous. The court has asked the SEC to take the final call. However, the SEC has already said before court that tomorrow is the day for scrutiny of nomination forms, so the routine cannot be changed," said Banerjee, who was himself present during Tuesday's hearing.

West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday night extended the deadline for filing of nominations for the coming Pahchhayat elections by a day, up to 3 p.m. on Tuesday stating the decision was taken following complaints and deputations that many intending candidates could not file their nomination papers as they and their proposers were "obstructed" or prevented from submitting their papers.

--IANS

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Over a dozen of people were injured on Tuesday in a violent clash in Bihar during the "Bharat Bandh" called by various groups to protest against reservation policies, police said.

Supporters, mostly upper castes youths, blocked roads and forcibly enforced the nationwide shutdown in Ara town, Bhojpur district.

"More than a dozen people were injured in the violent clash between supporters of the Bharat Bandh and a pro-reservation group comprising OBCs and Dalits," a district police official said.

Additional security have been deployed in Ara.

According to reports reaching here, hundreds of youths opposing reservation to SC/ST and OBCs and supporting Bharat Bandh, have blocked roads at several places, halted trains and forcibly closed markets in Patna, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Muzafffarpur, Bhojpur, Sheikhpura and Darbhanga districts.

The clash comes a day after the Union Home Ministry issued an advisory to all states to take precautionary measures in view of calls on social media for the "Bharat Bandh" by various anti-reservation groups to protest clashes during the April 2 SC/ST shutdown.

The Bharat Bandh on April 2 by Dalit groups against the alleged dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order had led to violence and arson in many parts of the country which claimed several lives and left hundreds of civilians and policemen injured.

--IANS

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An Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA's brother was arrested on Tuesday over charges of beating a gang rape victim's father to death in police custody, an official said.

A special team of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Atul Singh, the brother of Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kuldeep Singh Senger from Unnao who has has been accused by the teenaged girl of gang rape and threats to her family.

The arrest was made in Kanpur based on the orders of the Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh, the official ADDED.

The deceased Pappu Singh was being forced to withdraw the case against the MLA. Upon refusing, he was picked up by the police late Sunday night and was allegedly roughed up by Atul Singh and his aides in custody.

Pappu Singh was rushed to the district hospital with 18 wounds and gashes, abdominal pain and vomiting. He died soon thereafter.

The incident triggered a political storm and public outrage in the state, forcing the police to suspended six officials, including a station house officer (SHO) and five constables.

A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the district administration.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also asked Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow) Rajeev Krishna to investigate the matter and has promised stern action against all perpetrators.

He also on Monday that no one, however mighty they may be, will be spared in this case.

--IANS

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Indian boxer Amit Panghal entered the semi-finals of the men's light flyweight (49 kilogram) category at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Tuesday.

Amit defeated Aqeel Ahmed of Scotland 4:1 in the quarter-finals.

Amit has now ensured a medal for India as those in the last fourth stage are assured of a place on the podium.

Despite the final verdict, it was by no means an easy victory for Amit.

The opening round was evenly matched with both boxers maintaining a high tempo. Amit found it difficult to penetrate Aqueel's defence and land blows to the head.

Amit did better in the second round, changing his tactics by landing more body shots and attacking his opponent's defence from different angles.

The Indian dominated the third round, putting Aqeel under pressure with his superior hand speed and feet movements.

--IANS

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Indian boxers Amit Panghal and Naman Tanwar entered the semi-finals of their respective weight categories at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Tuesday.

Amit defeated Aqeel Ahmed of Scotland 4:1 in the quarter-finals of the men's light flyweight (49 kilogram) category.

Naman meanwhile outclassed Samoa's Frank Masoe by a unanimous 5:0 verdict in the heavyweight (91kg) division.

Both boxers have ensured medals for India as those in the last fourth stages are assured of a place on the podium.

Despite the final verdict, it was by no means an easy victory for Amit.

The opening round was evenly matched with both boxers maintaining a high tempo. Amit found it difficult to penetrate Aqueel's defence and land blows to the head.

Amit did better in the second round, changing his tactics by landing more body shots and attacking his opponent's defence from different angles.

The Indian dominated the third round, putting Aqeel under pressure with his superior hand speed and feet movements.

Later in the day, Naman had a much easier day in office against Masoe.

The 19-year-old Indian used his superior height, power and hand speed to pepper his oppoinent with a constant barrage of punches.

The Samoan managed to land very few punches as Naman used his excellent reflexes to good effect.

The Indian dominated all the three rounds and it came as no surprise when all the five judges voted in his favour at the end.

--IANS

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Ahead of India's premier defence trade event to be held in Chennai later this week, Britain on Tuesday said it seeks a "two-way street" defence cooperation with India.

"The UK government and UK defence companies are seeking to deepen and broaden their strategic defence equipment partnerships with India at DefExpo 2018," the British High Commission here said citing a statement issued by the country's Department for International Trade.

"The UK's attendance at DefExpo 2018 will focus on creating a genuine 'two-way street' of defence equipment collaboration, investment and technology transfer," it said.

The 10th edition of defence manufacturing exhibition DefExpo will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 12.

DefExpo 2018 -- being held around 35 km off Chennai -- would be spread over 290,000 square feet area and also have a live demonstration area.

According to Defence Production Secretary Ajay Kumar, there are 154 foreign companies participating in the DefExpo this year.

According to the British High Commission statement, Britain is keen to share its knowledge and experience on developing innovative and cost-effective defence equipment capabilities as the Indian armed forces continue to modernize.

It stated that Britain's Minister for Defence Procurement Guto Bebb will be leading the country's delegation at the expo, accompanied by the British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith, and the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff and the Regional Director for India at the Department of International Trade's Defence and Security Organisation.

Bebb will be accompanied by some 20 British companies who are keen to forge mutually beneficial industrial partnerships and joint ventures with Indian companies.

"The UK and India have much to offer one another in defence: including research, development, collaboration and training," Bebb said in the statement.

"We want to work in partnership with India to build on our shared mutual knowledge, security and prosperity.

"We have a range of world-class capabilities across the air, land, maritime, cyber and space domain and we are encouraging UK and Indian companies to innovate, develop and sustain long-term industrial partnerships to meet our shared requirements and to launch new products and capabilities into the global marketplace."

The India-Britain relationship was elevated to that of a Strategic Partnership in 2004, which was further strengthened by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Britain in 2015.

Modi will again travel to Britain next week during which he will participate in a bilateral summit with his British counterpart Theresa May and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Cooperation in the defence sector is an important pillar of cooperation between India and Britain.

Joint exercises and wide ranging exchanges between the three defence services of the two countries are conducted regularly.

The last army joint exercise 'Ajeya Warrior' was held in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in December last year.

--IANS

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The CBI on Tuesday questioned former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi here in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the 2006 IRCTC hotels maintenance contract case.

Rabri Devi, the wife of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, was questioned at her residence here. The case pertains to the time Lalu Prasad was Railway Minister.

In October last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had questioned Lalu Prasad and his younger son Tejashwi Yadav, a former Deputy Chief Minister, in the case at its Delhi headquarters.

The CBI on July 5 filed a corruption case against Rabri Devi, Lalu Prasad, and Tejashwi Yadav for alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006 to a private firm.

The contracts were given to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar -- both named in the CBI FIR as accused -- in lieu of bribe in the form of a three-acre commercial plot at a prime location in Bihar's Patna district, the CBI said.

A preliminary CBI inquiry allegedly found that the said land was sold by the Kochhars to Delight Marketing Company and payment was arranged through Ahluwalia Contractors and its promoter Bikramjeet Singh Ahluwalia, another accused in the case.

Delight Marketing, which bought the property from the Kochhars, was later taken over by Rabri Devi and Tejashwi, the CBI has alleged.

Sarla Gupta, wife of RJD chief's close associate Prem Chand Gupta and a director of Delight Marketing, is a co-accused in the case, apart from then IRCTC Managing Director P.K. Goel.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the money laundering aspect in the case and regarding which it had on July 27 registered a separate case following the CBI FIR.

The ED is probing Lalu Prasad and others for alleged transfer of money through shell companies.

--IANS

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A group of medical colleges here have launched a "Centre for Climate Change and Health" to address the immediate and long term impacts of climate change on people's health, especially the poor and vulnerable in society, it was announced on Tuesday.

The centre will work in collaboration with the National Environmental Engineering Institute, Nagpur, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, the Indian Institute of Public Health, Ahmedabad and the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.

It will create awareness among medical students and faculty, offer specialized courses on climate change and health, post-graduate scholarships and post-doctorate fellowships in the field.

"When narration of planetary menace due to climate change is getting engulfed in continental politics and technicalities of temperature and sea-level rise, the life-threatening diseases that are intensifying in their frequency and intensity are already taking the toll," said Rajendra Shende, the Mentor of the new Centre and Chairman of TERRE Policy Centre.

He said the direct damage to health is estimated by World Health Organisation to be between $2-4 billion per annum by 2030.

Besides, there would be impact on social, environmental and economic costs due to damage to health which would be much more and affect the GDP growth of each nation, warned Shende, a former Director of UNEP.

"Costs to the countries with weak health infrastructure - mostly in developing countries - will weaken them further unless assistance is given to prepare them for the response," he added.

The launch coincided with the 70th World Health Day celebrated last week and other prominent speakers who addressed a panel discussion on 'Impacts of Climate Change and Public Health' organized by Maharashtra Institute of Technology-World Peace Institute, included (a recorded message by) WHO Director (Public Health and Environment) Maria Neira and IITM's Gufran Beig,

The Centre will deploy smart technologies like IoT, Big Data analytics and robotics for a1cademics and and field research on health and would be part of the Smart Campus Cloud Network, of TERRE Policy Centre.

--IANS

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Indian para swimmer Vaishnavi Vinod Jagtap finished sixth in the final of women's S8 50 metre Freestyle at the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Tuesday.

Vaishnavi clocked a timing of 42.03 seconds to finish sixth out of seven swimmers in the final at the Optus Aquatic Centre here.

Australia's Lakeisha Patterson won the final, registering 30.14 seconds while Silver went to Morgan Bird of Canada with a timing of 32.03. Canada's Abigail Tripp settled for bronze, clocking 32.49.

Earlier, Vaishnavi managed to enter the final with a time of 41.63 seconds. The Indian was 10.22 seconds adrift of Australia's Lakeisha Patterson, who topped the Heat, registering 31.41 seconds.

--IANS

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Sub-Saharan African region could be the next epicentre of the space-tracing government installations, private businesses and ordinary citizens thanks to weak deterrent measures, says a report launched in Nairobi on Tuesday.

The 2017 Africa cyber security report compiled by a Nairobi-based consulting firm, Serianu, disclosed that the continent lost an estimated $3.5 billion last year as a result of increase in sophisticated cyber crimes, reports Xinhua.

Experts said the report, which covered 700 public and private institutions in ten African countries, confirmed that the soaring cyber attacks in the continent posed new threats to its security, economic growth and stability.

"The threat of cyber attacks has gained foothold in Africa yet Governments and private sectors are yet to invest in adequate defenses to curb their spread," William Makatiani, CEO of Serianu, was quoted as saying.

"Securing data should accordingly be a priority for public and private institutions in the light of rapidly evolving threats to cyberspace," he added.

Serianu and a consortium of telecommunication giants, academic institutions and think tanks conducted the survey which revealed that cyber attacks were more pronounced in banks, government agencies and mid-sized enterprises across Africa.

The survey noted that cyber crimes had also escalated in African cities where Internet connections are higher.

Makatiani regretted that digital infrastructure owned by households has not been spared the threat of mustard attacks therefore the need to invest in strong defenses.

"Securing homes and individual devices is now a paramount issue. Households must now introduce as part of their annual budgets, a cyber security component," said Makatiani.

African small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that provide bulk of employment to the youth and are substantially relying on the Internet to include transactions are grappling with cyber attacks of huge magnitude.

Makatiani noted that these these SMEs lack the financial and technical capacity to deal with cyber threats.

--IANS

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Ransomware has become the most prevalent type of malicious software -- found in 39 per cent of malware-related cases -- as cybercriminals are now targeting HR departments to obtain personal data for the filing of fraudulent tax returns, a new report said on Tuesday.

According to US wireless communications service provider Verizon's 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), ransomware attacks have doubled since 2017 and now target business critical systems rather than just desktops.

"Pretexting has increased over five times since 2017, with 170 incidents analysed this year (compared to just 61 incidents in 2017). Eighty-eight of these incidents specifically targeted HR staff to obtain personal data for the filing of fraudulent tax returns," the report, now in its 11th edition, said.

Pretexting is defined as the practice of presenting oneself as someone else in order to obtain private information.

"HR departments across multiple verticals are being targeted in a bid to extract employees' wage and tax data, so criminals can commit tax fraud and divert tax rebates," the report added.

The ransomeware attacks are moving into critical systems which encrypt file servers or databases, inflicting more damage and commanding bigger ransom requests.

"Businesses find it difficult to keep abreast of the threat landscape, and continue to put themselves at risk by not adopting dynamic and proactive security strategies," said George Fischer, President of Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

Employees are still falling victim to social attacks.

Financial pretexting and phishing represent 98 per cent of social incidents and 93 per cent of all breaches investigated - with email continuing to be the main entry point (96 per cent of cases).

"Companies are nearly three times more likely to get breached by social attacks than via actual vulnerabilities, emphasising the need for ongoing employee cybersecurity education," the report emphasised.

The 11th edition of the report included data from 67 contributing organisations, with analysis on over 53,000 incidents and 2,216 breaches from 65 countries.

While, on average, 78 per cent of people did not fail a phishing test last year, 4 per cent of people did for any given phishing campaign.

"A cybercriminal only needs one victim to get access into an organisation," the report said.

"One breach can have multiple attackers and we found the following: 72 per cent of attacks were perpetrated by outsiders, 27 per cent involved internal actors, 2 per cent involved partners and 2 per cent feature multiple partners," it added.

"Ransomware remains a significant threat for companies of all sizes," said Bryan Sartin, Executive Director, Security Professional Services, Verizon.

Companies need to continue to invest in employee education about cybercrime and the detrimental effect a breach can have on brand, reputation and the bottom line, he added.

--IANS

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The Delhi factory in which four persons, including two 17-year-olds, were killed when a fire engulfed the four-storey building here on Monday did not have required licence from the local body, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) privy to the case told IANS that the charred shoe making unit did not possess the requisite 'factory licence' from the civic body.

"The unit was situated in a residential area and we give licences only to units in industrial areas," a senior official of the factory licensing department of the NDMC told IANS. "A report was also submitted yesterday (Monday) to higher officials stating that the unit did not have a licence."

The shoe factory was located in Raj Park area of Sultanpuri in west Delhi, a densely populated residential area, with narrow lanes and most of adjacent buildings sharing common walls.

About half a dozen residents told IANS that many factories were run from multi-storey buildings in the locality.

About five buildings in the short lane in which the charred factory was located remained locked from outside on Monday, of which at least one was a jeans making unit, according to neighbours.

NDMC Commissioner Madhup Vyas also told IANS that the NDMC did not issue licences for factories to operate in residential areas. However, when asked whether the charred factory had a licence, he said they were looking into whether the area would fall under the Mangolpuri Industrial Area.

Meanwhile, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Rohini Nagendra Tripathi said they had a provision to give Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families of adult victims and Rs 1 lakh to families of victims who were minors.

"We are waiting for the police report to come to give the compensations," he said.

The autopsy of all the four workers was done on Tuesday at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and it revealed that the workers died due to suffocation, Deputy Commissioner of Police M.N. Tiwari said.

The bodies were later handed over to the families.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed states to ensure that there was no opposition to the release of "Nanak Shah Fakir", a film on the first Sikh guru, set to release in India and abroad on Friday.

Directing state governments to ensure law and order, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the freedom of expression of an artiste can't be curtailed by a group of private people.

Issuing notice to all concerned, the court, as an interim measure, directed the states to see to it that "wherever the film is released, the law and order is maintained and no one shall be allowed to create any kind of disturbance".

"It is the duty of the state to facilitate the enjoyment of right which has the sanction of law."

Film producer Harinder Singh Sikka approached the top court against an order by the Akal Takht - the highest temporal seat of Sikh religion and whose decisions are generally accepted by the community - calling for a ban on the film as it had hurt religious sentiments of the Sikh community.

Chief Justice Misra said: "Once the CBFC grants the certificate, there can't be any kind of impediment for the exhibition of the film. It is well settled that once CBFC grants a certificate, it is final."

Noting that the producer carried out "certain excisions and modifications" suggested by the the Central Board for Fil Certification (CBFC), the court said: "Once the certificate is granted (by CBFC), unless it is nullified or modified by a superior authority, the producer has every right to exhibit the film in movie halls.

"We don't see how a committee or a private individual can create disturbance in the release of a film."

The court was apparently referring to a committee set up by the Akal Takht. Akal Takht had decided to set up a Sikh Censor Board and said the filmmakers will be required to seek its approval before starting a movie project in which Sikh religion or Sikhs were to be portrayed or highlighted in any manner.

"If such activities are encouraged, the same has the potentiality to bring in anarchy and cripple the right of freedom of speech and expression.

"In any case, such bodies, groups or individuals cannot assume the position as if they are the authorities to grant certificate or unless they feel that the movie is to be released, it should not see the light of the day. The thought, the least said, is unacceptable," the court said.

Senior counsel R.S. Suri, who appeared for film producer Sikka, said the film was completed in 2015.

--IANS

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Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal who was poisoned, has been discharged from the hospital, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Yulia, 33, was discharged from the Salisbury District Hospital on Monday and taken to a secure location.

However, her 66-year-old father is in the hospital but his condition was "improving rapidly".

Yulia and Skripal were taken to the hospital on March 4 after being exposed to the toxic nerve agent Novichok.

The UK government said Russia was behind the poisoning, but Moscow has denied any involvement and accused the British of inventing a "fake story".

--IANS

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Formula One team Ferrari have announced that their mechanic, who was injured by Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen while changing his car's tires during the Bahrain Grand Prix, successfully underwent surgery.

Francesco Cigarini's broken left tibia and fibula were operated on hours after Raikkonen accidently ran over him during a pit stop, and he has now started his rehabilitation process, reports Efe.

"Thanks everybody for the thousands of messages you sent to Francesco. He had a surgery last night and he is ok. He is now recovering with the best assistance," Ferrari tweeted.

Cigarini, too, expressed his gratitude to the team's fans for their support after the accident, adding that the surgery went well.

"Surgery ok. I have to thank all the people worried for me. Nothing else, just big thanks," Cigarini posted on Instagram.

--IANS

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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday demanded the reframing of the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission which, he said, was necessary to save the federal structure of the Indian Union.

The Finance Commission -- which delves into the financial relations between the Centre and states -- should be guided more by its constitutional mandate than arbitrary terms of reference, Vijayan said in his inaugural address at the one-day workshop here.

The workshop was called by state Finance Minister Thomas Issac for his counterparts from southern states to express resentment against the Centre and to have a detailed review and critique of the terms of reference of the Finance Commission.

Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu and Telengana were conspicuous by their absence at the event.

"... (there is) a conspicuous bias in-built in the terms of reference of the new commission. It is widely feared that these terms framed by the Centre will prevent the panel from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility," Vijayan added.

The Chief Minister said all states should appeal to the central government to reframe the terms of reference.

"The reframing of the terms of reference is imperative to strengthen the federal structure of the country and to reinforce its unity and integrity," said Vijayan, a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader from Kerala.

Vijayan said the commission role assumes significance, given the fact that the Centre is given near monopoly over the right to mobilise resources.

"We are all aware that the terms of reference have created apprehension about the principles of fairness and equity in the distribution of national resources for development. The unity of India can be preserved only if there is real fairness and equity in devolution of financial powers and resources to the states by the Centre," the Chief Minister added.

Vijayan expressed reservation over the Financial Commission proposal for "measurable performance-based-incentives" which he claimed was an attack on the federal structure of the Indian state.

"Such terms of reference, we fear, might end up altering the commission's status from a constitutional authority entrusted with devolution of national fiscal resources to an administrative mechanism for fiscal administration and monitoring," added Vijayan.

--IANS

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An Assocham-PwC joint paper on Tuesday said a framework should be established to effectively curb cyber incidents and reduce the time taken in responding to them.

The paper highlighted the need for seamless flow of information between state intelligence agencies, central intelligence agency, various government departments and ministries in the country.

It also recommended that the government, industry and security vendors should come together on a common platform to formulate and implement policies and procedures for cyber security.

The joint paper was prepared by industry lobby Assocham and consulting firm PwC based on post-event recommendations for Assocham's 10th annual summit on cyber and network security submitted to the government.

The paper said the Union government must set up a central security operations centre (SOC) with advanced analytical capabilities to enable continuous and real-time monitoring of all information technology (IT) assets, interconnected networks and operational environments.

"The SOC should develop a fusion centre to integrate information available from other commercial sources as well to have a better assessment of evolving global threats," said the paper.

"The government should consider active participation in international cyber security conventions and treaties, which provide measures to combat cybercrime and gather electronic evidence from service providers," it added.

With a view to establish programmes to promote research and development (R&D) in the field of cyber security, the paper suggested the government to introduce tax incentives, subsidies and investment funds, and also set aside a budget for every cyber security-information and communication technology (ICT) project on the lines of Singapore which was ranked on top in cyber security index released by the UN in June 2017.

The Assocham-PwC paper said the government should carry out due diligence and accordingly prescribe baseline cyber security parameters for relevant systems to be deployed in the government ecosystem as well as for critical information infrastructure protection.

"The emphasis should be on building capabilities and capacities for application, equipment and infrastructure testing through deployment life cycle to detect and mitigate any vulnerabilities and backdoors in the product/technology," it added.

Highlighting the need for the government to focus on promoting cyber security as a skill set among individuals, the paper said that government should include cyber security-related skills in the job descriptions of government employees by working in close co-ordination with Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

It added that including cyber security in educational programmes and promoting it as a mainstream profession would help the sector attract right talent.

The paper further said that the government should also grant security clearances and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to third parties and vendors working for critical establishments.

The Assocham-PwC joint paper also said that the government should define a national cyber security awareness programme -- identifying the target audience and defining mechanism to disseminate cyber awareness material effectively -- and introduce cyber security courses at all levels of education such as undergraduate school and panchayat levels.

--IANS

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Taking on Amazon's Alexa-powered smart speakers, on Tuesday unveiled its voice-activated the 'Home' and 'Home Mini' speakers in India that can help people with their commute, play favourite songs and videos, plan daily schedule and lots more.

Powered by Google's artificial intelligence-based Assistant, the 'Home' and 'Home Mini' are priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,499, respectively. The speakers will go on sale via Flipkart and at over 750 retail stores

"These products have been customised to match the needs of the Indian consumer and you will see that 'Home' is truly 'desi'. These understand Indian accents and will respond with uniquely Indian contexts," said Rishi Chandra, Vice President of Product Management and General Manager of Home Products,

While the Home Mini got two colour variants -- chalk and charcoal --, the Google Home would be available only in chalk colour and the coral colour variant would be added later.

Home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart has partnered with Google to offer the Home and Home Mini speakers with free JioFi router, along with special offers on music subscriptions.

"When buying a Google Home at Reliance Digital or MyJio stores, you get a free JioFi router with 100GB of high-speed 4G data (worth Rs 2,499),", said the company in a statement.

In terms of design and features, the top surface of the speakers has LEDs that light up when Google Home recognises "OK Google" voice command.

Google Home features dual microphones, which utilise neural beam forming technology to enable accurate far-field voice recognition.

Google has simulated hundreds of thousands of noisy environments and applied Machine Learning (ML) to recognise patterns that allow it to filter and separate speech from noise.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Chartered Accountant of Congress leader P. Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram on an Enforcement Directorate plea seeking cancellation of his bail in the INX media money laundering case.

The court has listed the matter for hearing on August 16.

The Enforcement Directorate has challenged the trial court order which granted bail to co-accused S. Bhaskaraman on March 13. He was arrested on February 16 on charges of money laundering.

The agency alleged that Karti Chidambaram took money to facilitate a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the Finance Minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.

--IANS

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Residents in Kuwait who hang out laundry on their balconies will be fined up to 300 Kuwaiti dinars (about $1,000) under a new campaign.

The campaign was prompted by concerns over hygiene and visual pollution as several cities and regions in Gulf countries were pushing for strict regulations in this regard, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Gulf News.

The campaign in Kuwait has been going on for years, dating back to a ministerial decision issued in 2008, said Zaid Al Enezi, head of the campaign team.

So far, 12 apartments had been warned that they would have to pay fines if they continued drying their clothes in balconies, he said.

Hefty fines are not rare in the country. In August 2017, a Kuwaiti man was told by police that he might have to pay 10,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($33,300) for throwing an empty can on the beach.

Bahrain introduced a similar ban in 2017 after some residents complained that the sight of underwear and lingerie outside was "provocative, disrespectful and embarrassing".

--IANS

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Enhancing on strengthening ties with Swaziland in the field of health and agriculture, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday said that India is keen on sharing technologies and institutional models that can help reduce costs of production in the southern African country.

"We are keen to share our expertise and experience with Swaziland and indeed with all of the African continent. Our approach has been to create local capacities, to move hand in hand, in solidarity and in partnership with our African brothers and sisters," he said in his address to the Swaziland Parliament.

The President is on a three nation tour - Equatorial Guinea, Swaziland and Zambia. He arrived in Swaziland on April 9 and Zambia is the final leg of his tour.

The President also announced that India will offer one million dollar to the Swaziland National Disaster Management Agency to battle the El Nino phenomenon. He also announced opening of an Indian Embassy in the country.

India and Swaziland also signed two agreements - on health cooperation and on visa waivers for those travelling on official and diplomatic passports.

--IANS

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India on Tuesday signed an MoU with South Korea on mutual recognition of certificates of competency of seafarers, an official statement said here.

The agreement was signed by Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and his Korean counterpart Kim Young-choon at a ceremony in Busan, a large port city in South Korea.

It paves way to the two governments to mutually recognise the certificates of maritime education and training, competency, endorsements and medical fitness of seafarers issued by each other, the Shipping Ministry statement said.

"Korea is a large ship owning nation. As of now, Korean entities own more than 500 foreign going ships, and need seafarers to work on their fleet. India has around 1,54,349 seafarers. The agreement will open up employment opportunities for Indian seafarers on Korean ships," it said.

On the occasion, Gadkari, who is on a four-day visit to Korea since Monday, said the agreement will benefit both countries.

On the second day of his official visit, Gadkari held bilateral meeting with the South Korean Oceans Minister Kim Young-choon.

He also visited Busan Port and attended India-Korea Maritime Cooperation Forum.

Gadkari's visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral cooperation between the two countries in shipping, ports, inland waterways, highways, river interlinking and infrastructure sectors.

--IANS

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As part of New Delhi's continued enhancement of ties with southeast Asia under the Act East Policy, India and Vietnam on Tuesday reviewed their entire gamut of bilateral ties, including maritime security and counter-terrorism cooperation, during 10th Foreign Office Consultations and 7th Strategic Dialogue.

According to a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry, during the talks held on Monday, the two sides held deliberations on the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including political and security, trade and investment, pharmaceuticals, energy, agriculture, connectivity, lines of credit and other capacity building projects in Vietnam and people-to-people ties.

While the Indian side was led by Preeti Saran, Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs, the Vietnamese side was headed by Dang Dinh Quy, the country's Vice Foreign Minister.

Vietnam will be handing over its role as the country coordinator for India with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc to Thailand in the middle of this year.

"During the Strategic Dialogue, both sides exchanged views on issues of mutual interest at regional and multilateral levels, including cooperation at UN and other international organisations," the statement said.

"Both sides also discussed maritime security, counter-terrorism cooperation, developments in their respective regions etc."

The statement also said that the Vietnamese side reaffirmed its support for India's candidature for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council.

With Vietnam being an important regional partner in southeast Asia, India and it closely cooperate in various regional forums such as Asean, East Asia Summit, Mekong Ganga Cooperation, Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), besides the UN and WTO.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Vietnam in 2016, the bilateral relationship was elevated from a Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Defence cooperation has emerged as a significant pillar of this partnership and Indian ships regularly make friendly port calls to Vietnam.

India is also an important development aid partner of Vietnam and has extended several lines of credit on concessional terms and conditions since 1976.

Vietnamese nationals are among the largest recipients of scholarships under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme.

Following Tuesday's talks, Vice Foreign Minister Quy called on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here.

The two leaders discussed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam and the plan of action to further expand this relationship, according to a tweet posted by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

These talks come after the visit of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang to India last month.

At the Republic Day celebrations this year, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was among the leaders of the 10 Asean member states to attend collectively as chief guests.

--IANS

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The common Indian citizens will get a chance to visit the Indian Naval ships on April 13 and April 15 at Chennai Port during the DefExpo India, an official release said on Tuesday.

The ships will be open for the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Chennai Port Trust. The interested visitors will have to assemble at the Island Exhibition Ground from where shuttle bus services will be run by the Indian Navy to take the visitors to the ships iand back.

The entry to the ships will be subject to strict security checks and children aged below five years won't be allowed. The visitors will be required to carry original valid identity proofs along with a photocopy for deposit as part of security checks, the release said.

"Hand baggage, camera, water bottles, umbrellas, sticks etc. are not permitted and photography is prohibited," it said.

--IANS

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Budget carrier IndiGo deplaned a passenger from a flight in Lucknow after he complained about mosquitoes in the aircraft. Reacting with alacrity to the incident, the government on Tuesday ordered a probe into the matter.

The passenger, identified as Saurabh Rai -- a "reputed doctor" from Lucknow who works for the Narayan Hospital in Bengaluru -- was deplaned on Monday at the Chowdhary Charan Singh International Airport, Amausi in Lucknow, after he complained to the IndiGo staff about mosquitoes in the plane.

Rai, a resident of Indira Nagar in Lucknow, also alleged that he was held by the "collar" by the flight staff and pulled out of the plane after he complained.

He alleged that not only did the air crew get physical with him, they also told him that mosquitoes are everywhere in India and if he had so much of a problem with them, he should leave the country and settle abroad.

According to Rai, he had a 6:05 a.m. flight to Bengaluru from Lucknow and that there were many mosquitoes hovering around his seat (22C) and some kids on the plane were also crying after being bitten by them.

Many co-passengers, he claimed, also complained of the mosquito menace after which he told a flight attendant Sonali that she should spray something to ward them off.

"I was told that she will apprise her seniors about the plaint but nothing happened and the plane doors were about to be closed when I raised the matter again only to face half a dozen security staff of the airlines who literally threw me and my cabin luggage out of the aircraft," he alleged.

He also said that the video he shot of the mosquitoes on his mobile phone was also forcibly deleted by the airlines staff.

Rai said he had three surgeries lined up in the day at Bengaluru and hence he took a 12:30 p.m. flight later.

IndiGo, however, said in a statement that the passenger had misbehaved with the crew members and threatened to damage the aircraft. "We have zero tolerance for such behaviour," the airline said.

After the incident was reported in the social media, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu took cognisance of the matter and ordered a probe on Tuesday.

"I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by IndiGo at Lucknow Airport," Prabhu tweeted.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Budget carrier IndiGo deplaned a passenger from a flight in Lucknow after he complained about mosquitoes in the aircraft. Reacting to the incident, the government on Tuesday ordered a probe into the matter.

IndiGo, however, said in a statement that the passenger had misbehaved with the crew members and threatened to damage the aircraft. "We have zero tolerance for such behaviour," the airline said.

The passenger, identified as Saurabh Rai -- a "reputed doctor" from Lucknow who works for the Narayan Hospital in Bengaluru -- was deplaned on Monday at the Chowdhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, after he complained to the IndiGo staff about mosquitoes in the plane.

Rai, a resident of Indira Nagar in Lucknow, also alleged that he was held by the "collar" by the flight staff and pulled out of the plane after he complained.

He alleged that not only did the air crew get physical with him, they also told him that mosquitoes are everywhere in India and if he had so much of a problem with them, he should leave the country and settle abroad.

According to Rai, he had a 6.05 a.m. flight to Bengaluru from Lucknow and that there were many mosquitoes hovering around his seat (22C) and some kids on the plane were also crying after being bitten by them.

Many co-passengers, he claimed, also complained of the mosquito menace after which he told a flight attendant Sonali that she should spray something to ward them off.

"I was told that she will apprise her seniors about the plaint but nothing happened and the plane doors were about to be closed when I raised the matter again only to face half a dozen security staff of the airlines who literally threw me and my cabin luggage out of the aircraft," he alleged.

He also said that the video he shot of the mosquitoes on his mobile phone was also forcibly deleted by the airlines staff.

Rai said he had three surgeries lined up in the day at Bengaluru and hence he took a 12.30 p.m. flight later.

As per IndiGo's statement, the airline took necessary actions to ensure safety and security of passengers.

The airline said that the aircraft was sprayed with an approved insecticide twice and that the situation was explained to Rai, who "started aggressively" demanding that the aircraft be sprayed again, even if it meant deplaning the passengers and delaying the flight.

"In the presence of CISF, the IndiGo security staff explained the situation to Dr. Rai. In the meantime, some of the other passengers started complaining about him being on-board since they felt that he had already delayed the aircraft and behaved in an inappropriate manner," the statement said.

"In this background of his belligerent behaviour and on the concerns raised by other passengers, a decision was taken to deplane Dr.Rai from the aircraft to ensure the safe conduct of the flight."

After the incident was reported in the social media, Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu took cognisance of the matter and ordered a probe on Tuesday.

"I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by IndiGo at Lucknow Airport," Prabhu tweeted.

--IANS

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Is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath -- in power for just over a year -- fast losing his lustre?

Many here feel so.

A litany of complaints about his public conduct, his behaviour with colleagues as well as common people is fast eroding the aura he had built up as the five-time Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur who was catapulted to the Chief Minister's office of a socially diverse and politically volatile state of 220 million people.

Last week, 24-year-old Ayush Bansal shocked many when he broke down in front of media in Gorakhpur and disclosed how the monk-turned-Chief Minister mocked him during a "junta darbaar" where he had gone to complain about a land-grab case in which independent legislator from Nautanwa, Amanmani Tripathi, was involved.

He also accused the Chief Minister of calling him "awaraa" (wayward) and pushing him while throwing his file in the air. "Maharaj ji angrily snapped at me and said my work will never be done and that I should get out of his sight," Bansal told IANS.

While officials got down to damage control and said the matter was being looked into, the fact that Adityanath behaved in a manner unbecoming of a Chief Minister was neither contradicted by officials nor denied by the ruling party.

Barely had the din over this episode died down when two MPs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) complained of similar behaviour. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP MP from Robertsganj Chhote Lal Kharwar, accused Adityanath of "scolding him and asking him to get out". The MP said he was deeply pained at the behavior of the Chief Minister as he tried to draw his attention to issues faced by the party faithful.

"Never did the local administration listen to my plaints and when I went to meet the Chief Minister twice over many issues, 'unhone mujhe daantkar bhaga diya' (he scolded me and chased me away)," the lawmaker said in his letter.

The BJP leader has also shot off a letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, seeking help. Lal also says that definite proof of wrong-doing and corruption presented by him went unheard and unaddressed.

What is surprising is that all this happened to a man who is the state president of the BJP's SC/ST Morcha.

While Modi is learnt to have assured Lal of action, there are other similar murmurs about Adityanath's rough behaviour. Etawah MP Ashok Dohre has also written to Modi accusing the state police of lodging fake cases against SCs and STs during the Bharat Bandh. When asked why he did not petition the Chief Minister, Dohre said he considered Modi his leader, and thus petitioned him.

Alarmed by the sudden "unease" among the party's lawmakers, Amit Shah summoned Yogi to New Delhi over the weekend and is learnt to have asked him to mend his ways. Adityanth also met Modi. Interestingly, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who party insiders admit doesn't see eye to eye with Yogi, was also called to Delhi at the same time.

Ironically, till not long ago, the 45-year-old Chief Minister was being venerated by the party faithful as a man next only to Modi. Insiders, however, now admit that not only has Adityanath failed to show his "pakad" (hold) on the party, but is also "awkwardly arrogant in his public conduct", and not very able in his administration.

"He may be a busy man, so have been his predecessors... he remains inaccessible and uses foul and unacceptable language at times," conceded a senior minister who did not wish to be named. Though stopping short of calling the Chief Minister arrogant, he suggested that "Yogi-ji is better advised to be more courteous and improve his time management".

A senior party functionary too noted "the changing ways of Maharaj-ji", though he felt "mood swings and the tongue-lashings could be because he has to handle a big state like Uttar Pradesh".

A senior bureaucrat also alleged that the Chief Minister often "goes off the handle" and could be very acerbic in his dealing with officials.

The Chief Minister's loyalists, however, point out that he does not like people to hang around him and wants officials to deliver fast and work within the system that has been set up. When there is any breach, he loses his temper, a close aide told IANS.

His failure to deliver on his promise to get all pot-holed roads fixed by a given deadline last year; the rollback -- under pressure -- in privatisation of the power sector in five cities; the poor showing in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-polls and reports that he and his deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya, don't get along well have already rung alarm bells in the establishment, sources said.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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Rome, April 11 (IANS/AKI) South Korea's foreign trade agency has launched a year-long Italian fashion show here with support from the Italian Embassy and Italy's Economic Development Ministry, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Viva Italia men's fashion show, taking place through April 2019 at the upscale Galleria Department Store owned by the Hanwha Group, is the first event of this kind to be organised in Seoul and aims to showcase a wide selection of the most successful Italian brands in the world, the ministry said.

The fashion and luxury sector is the major driver of trade ties between Italy and South Korea. Together with furnishings, the sector makes up over 30 percent of Italian exports to the Asian country.

--IANS/AKI

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Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday yet again declined the government's invitation to a meeting of the Lokpal selection committee as "special invitee", terming it "misleading".

Pointing out that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayukt Act for a "special invitee", Kharge in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there was no sense in attending the meeting without rights of participation or voting.

"An invitation as a special invitee without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure is only to mislead the nation and the people, rather than sincerely seeking the participation an opinion of the opposition," Kharge wrote.

"The people of our nation should know that the government has wasted four precious years in the fight against corruption by not amending the Lokpal Act to include the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee under Section 4 (1) of the said Act."

Under the present Lokpal Act, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha has to be a member of the Lokpal selection committee. However, in the present Lok Sabha, there is technically no Leader of Opposition as no opposition party has the required 10 per cent of the total seats.

The Congress, with 48 MPs, is the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

Kharge pointed out that the Select Committee of Parliament has already cleared the amendment of Lokpal Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party, but the Modi government has not yet moved the amendment to "exclude the opinion of the opposition from the selection process of the Lokpal".

He termed the meeting of selection committee "merely a perfunctory gesture to assuage the letter of the Supreme court's direction".

This is the second letter Kharge wrote to the Prime Minister on this topic. The first one was written on February 28.

Kharge rued that not only did his earlier letter "go unacknowledged but also the serious concerns that were raised in that letter continue to go unaddressed as seen by the issuing of the latest office memorandum from Department of Personnel and Training".

"If the government is, indeed, serious about ensuring that the Lokpal is appointed with the sanctity it deserves, I would once again suggest that the government bring in the necessary amendment by way of an ordinance to include the voice of the opposition in this process.

"Under these circumstances, I must once again respectfully decline the invite as 'special invitee' to prevent any dilution of the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act, 2013," Kahrge said.

--IANS

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An FIR was registered against lawyers who tried to block the presentation of a chargesheet in a court in Jammu and Kashmir in the rape and murder of a minor girl, police said on Tuesday.

"The FIR has been lodged into the incident wherein some lawyers tried to obstruct the presenting of the chargesheet by the Crime Branch in the court of a Chief Judicial Magistrate at Kathua on Monday. Action under law will be taken against those found involved in the incident," Director General of Police S.P. Vaid told IANS on telephone.

The chargesheet against seven accused was finally filed in the court after police intervened to control the lawyers' protest.

An eight-year-old girl was abducted, raped and murdered in Rasana village in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district in January.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who criticized the lawyers who tried to prevent the filing of the chargesheet, welcomed the registration of the FIR.

"Good. Lawyers who have no respect for law deserve to have the full weight of the law books crash down on them," the National Conference leader tweeted.

--IANS

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Manoj Bajpayee-starrer "Gali Guleiyan", which has had a good run at foreign festivals, is set to be screened at more galas, including prestigious ones like Busan International Film Festival and Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The actor is excited.

"There is a lot one hopes for as an actor, sometimes a film gives that to you, sometimes it doesn't! 'Gali Guleiyan' is a film that I am reluctant to let go of. For long, I have held it close to my heart. Now seeing the audience's response has made it more special not just for me but for everyone involved in the film," said Manoj.

"Kudos to our director Dipesh Jain for the clarity that he brought with him and to the entire team for giving it their very best. While looking forward to yet another round of international film festival screenings, I'm most excited for its release in India and worldwide in May," he added.

"Gali Guleiyan" will be screened at the opening night on Wednesday at IFFLA, besides being played at Atlanta Film Festival. It is also in competition at the 42nd Cleveland International Film Festival, apart from being set for a screening at the Chicago International Film Festival.

The film will release in theatres on May 18 worldwide.

"Gali Guleiyan" is a Hindi psychological drama about a man trapped within the walls and alleys of old Delhi and his own mind. He attempts to break free to find a human connection.

The film also features Ranvir Shorey, Neeraj Kabi and Shahana Goswami and debutant child actor Om Singh.

"It's a story very close to our heart and takes you into the depths of human mind and emotions. In many ways it is an ode to my growing up years in the alleys of Old Delhi- to my personal fears and a feeling of entrapment that I had experienced as a child," said the director.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Tueesday to attend the concluding ceremony of the Champaran Satyagraha's of centenary celebrations in Motihari.

Modi was recieved by Bihar Governor Saatyapal Malik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and several senior BJP leaders.

Accordding to police officials, Modi reached Patna in an Indian Air Force aircraft and will go to Motihari by a helicopter.

The Prime Minister is slated to address 20,000 'Swachhagrahis' (cleanliness ambassadors).

He will also lay the foundation stone for four sewerage projects.

The theme of the centenary celebrations is "Satyagrah se Swachhagrah".

Mahatma Gandhi launched the Champaran Satyagrah on April 10, 1917, against the British to fight for rights of farmers who were forced to undertake indigo cultivation.

Swachhagrahis are the 'foot soldiers' and motivators to implement the Community Approaches to Sanitation at the village level.

--IANS

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The All India Mahila Congress on Tuesday demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must immediately sack Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath "for dereliction of duty" in the case of custodial death of alleged rape victim's father.

It also demanded immediate action against all those who were responsible for the alleged rape and death of the victim's father in police custody.

Stating that 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' has turned into a mockery in Uttar Pradesh, AIMC President Sushmita Dev said that its "a disgrace that such acts of violence against women are rampant" in the state.

"The state gave the first woman Prime Minister and Chief Minister has now been totally turned into a 'lawless' state with no security or justice for women.

"The last six months track record of violence against women is enough for the Chief Minister to resign as he as lost all moral and ethical grounds to rule," she said in a statement.

"'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' has turned into a mockery in the Prime Minister's own state. It is shameful to see that right from the students of Benaras Hindu University to women on the streets are becoming victims of abuse of power by authorities.

"All India Mahila Congress demands immediate action against all those who are responsible for the rape and death in police custody," she added.

--IANS

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In an unusual action, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on April 12 to protest against the washout of the second part of Parliament's budget session due to continious disruptions, which the BJP blamed on the Congress.

While BJP President Amit Shah will observe a hunger strike in Hubli in Karnataka, party MPs will fast in their constituencies.

"The Prime Minister will observe a fast even while engaged in his official duty and official engagements," BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narsimha Rao told IANS.

Modi's decision, which may be the first time a Prime Minister is observing a fast, will be part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's day-long hunger strike that day to protest against the disruption of Parliament by the opposition.

The opposition Congress termed the fast by the Prime Minister as a "farce" and said he should apologise over the way his party had "denigrated and disrespected" parliament.

"They have disrespected and denigrated the highest temple of democracy. So Prime Minister should publicly say that he is sorry that is why he is holding this fast on April 12 to tender this apology to various sections of India's population," Congress Communications incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.

Earlier on Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi led the party's day-long fast at the Rajghat in Delhi over alleged increasing atrocities on Dalits, adivasis, and minorities and dubbed the Modi government as "anti-Dalit" while vowing to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The fast in Delhi was marked by controversies as 1984 anti-Sikh riots accused Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were asked to leave the Rajghat before Rahul Gandhi's arrival. Also, a picture showing some Delhi Congress leaders eating "chole bhature" at a restaurant before the protest -- also held at district headquarters by party leaders across the country to promote harmony in society -- went viral on social media.

The controversies gave the Bharatiya Janata Party an opportunity to attack the Congress, saying the main opposition party was a "danga master" (master of riots) and Tytler and Sajjan leaving the stage was its "acceptance of guilt".

On the concluding day of the budget session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar had blamed the Congress for the disruptions and announced that the ruling BJP MPs will sit on day-long fasts in their respective constituencies on April 12 to protest the washout of the second half of the budget session.

Protesting against the disruptions, the BJP had earlier announced that the National Democratic Alliance MPs would forego salaries along with allowances for 23 days due to the washout of the second half of the budget session.

The budget session of Parliament started on January 29 and went into a break on February 9. The two houses met for the second half of the session on March 5, which concluded on Friday.

While the first half of the session -- January 31 to February 9 -- recorded 134 per cent productivity in the Lok Sabha and 96 per cent in the Rajya Sabha, in the second-half, from March 5 to April 6, the lower house recorded just four per cent productivity and the upper house eight per cent.

--IANS

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Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports on the mysterious death of a rape victim's father in police custody in Unnao, the NHRC on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a detailed report.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said the allegations, if true, raise serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim's family.

The Commission has issued notice to the state's Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, calling for a detailed report in the matter, including action taken against the delinquent police officials, who refused to register an FIR.

It also expects from the DGP, an explanation for not communicating the custodial death to the Commission within 24 hours.

"All the reports, including health screening report of the deceased at the time of his admission in the jail and medical treatment provided by the jail authorities, are to be sent. They have been given four weeks to respond," the NHRC said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Uttar Pradesh Police set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into a girl's accusations that she had been gang-raped by BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar and others and the subsequent death of her father in police custody.

The girl's father was being forced to withdraw the case against Sengar. Upon his refusal, he was picked up by police late on Sunday and was allegedly roughed up by Atul Singh and his aides while in custody.

Taken to the hospital with 18 wounds and gashes, abdominal pain and vomiting, he died soon after.

The incident triggered a political storm and public outrage in the state.

--IANS

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Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to treatment in the US for advanced pancreatic cancer and will return from abroad by next month, BJP General Secretary Sadanand Shet Tanavade said on Tuesday.

"He is responding well to treatment and is likely to be in Goa by May," Tanavade said on the sidelines of a media interaction at the state BJP headquarters here.

Parrikar is admitted in a New York hospital.

He was hospitalised earlier at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital -- and then at Goa Medical College here -- after he complained of stomach pain on February 15. The Chief Minister was subsequently diagnosed for advanced pancreatic cancer.

The Chief Minister's Office has maintained that Parrikar is suffering from "mild pancreatitis".

--IANS

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Pope Francis has rebuked narrow-minded Catholics and warned the world about the devil in a new document about modern holiness unveiled by the Vatican, the media reported.

In the 100-page booklet titled "Rejoice and Be Glad; On the Call to Holiness in Today's World" issued on Monday, Francis also encourages Catholics to reach for holiness in daily life, urging the faithful to become "the saint next door", reports CNN.

In a pointed rebuke to Catholic anti-abortion activists who focus on the issue to the exclusion of all others, Francis says that helping the poor and immigrants is as important as taking a stance against abortion.

"Some Catholics consider it (the situation of migrants) a secondary issue compared to the 'grave' bioethical questions," he writes.

To do so, the Pope says, is like "a politician looking for votes".

"Our defence of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate," the Pope writes.

"Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged..."

Pope Francis has previously criticised those who he claimed are "obsessed" with the issues of abortion and homosexuality, reports CNN.

Last week, he made waves in an interview with Italian journalist and founder of the left-wing daily La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, in which he allegedly claimed that hell did not exist.

While Francis does not address the question of hell in his new document, he makes clear that he believes the devil exists and is at work in our world.

"We should not think of the devil as a myth," Francis writes, claiming that the devil is "a personal being who assails us".

--IANS

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The prime accused in the murder of a former radio jockey was arrested on Tuesday at the Trivandrum International Airport here, police said

Alibhai, a resident in Alappuzha district, was arrested upon his arrival from Qatar earlier in the day.

On March 27, the victim Rajesh was in his studio after performing at a local show near his village when a group of men burst in and hacked him to death.

A few days after the murder, Alibhai flew to Qatar.

The police had issued a notice to the Qatar Police who first arrested Alibhai deported him back to Kerala.

The total number of arrests in are four people including Alibhai and the police were now closing down on the remaining two.

--IANS

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The trailer of "Raazi", Meghna Gulzars eagerly awaited follow-up to "Talvar", is so stunningly persuasive that my first though was, what took you so long?

This true-life story of a valorous Indian Muslim girl who risked her life by marrying a Pakistani and moving to the neighbouring country to spy for her own, is a story that was waiting to be told. Wonder why it took so long? Perhaps a spineless apolitical generation of Indian filmmakers were afraid to tell a story that raises questions of nationality and patriotic pride.

And then there is Meghna Gulzar. What took her so long to blossom as a filmmaker? After two false starts, "Filhaal" and "Just Married", she erupted into a newly-forged self expression with "Talvar".

Now in "Raazi", which opens in May, Meghna's telling of the story of Sehmat, the unsung hero who crossed the border in 1971, seems so structurally apt and urgent, it's like a perfectly ripened fruit waiting to be plucked. Perhaps this particular political peach was waiting to be plucked only when Meghna collaborated with Alia Bhatt.

The trailer proves Alia takes to the role as she does every time.

Seeing the trailer, it wouldn't be wrong to say, Alia is to Meghna Gulzar what Tabu was to Meghna's father in "Maachis" and "Hu Tu Tu".

Alia seems born to play Sehmat. And Vicky Kaushal as her Pakistani husband is to Alia what Sanjeev Kumar was to Suchitra Sen in Gulzar'S "Aandhi". It's not easy to make an impact where the woman has an author-backed role.

And when the female 'hero' is Alia, boy, you are in for trouble. She dazzles in the trailer, as she moves with feline agility from innocent Indian girl to devious bride, plotting training to get information for our country. My heart leapt to my mouth as Alia's Sehmat crossed the border, this time in a very geo-political sense.

The trailer shows the director recreating the 1971 period without straining for effect. This is a highly inflammable subject, filled with grandiloquent drama and flamboyant fury.

But Meghna Gulzar takes the gentle route. The structuring is elegant and the emotions seem reined-in.

Welcome home, Alia. What was it like spending time with Sehmat across the border? We will soon know.

--IANS

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a veiled dig at the Narendra Modi government while congratulating IAS officers and Athar Amir-ul-Shafi on their wedding.

"Congratulations and Athar Amir-ul-Shafi, IAS toppers, batch of 2015, on your wedding! May your love grow from strength to strength and may you be an inspiration to all Indians in this age of growing intolerance and communal hatred. God bless you," Gandhi said in a tweet.

He attached a news report with his tweet that carried a photograph of the newlyweds, who have been allocated the Rajasthan cadre of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

The couple's marriage was solemnised in Pahalgam in south Kashmir on Saturday.

Gandhi has been accusing the BJP and its ideological patron RSS of promoting intolerance in India. He targeted the BJP during Congress's protest fast on Monday saying that "BJP's ideology is to divide the country, crush the Dalits, tribals, minorities".

Gandhi had also said that the party will always fight against BJP's ideology and defeat it in the 2019 general elections.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday cleared a sum of Rs 18,124.85 crore towards Cash Credit Limit (CCL) for Punjab for the purchase of wheat in the ongoing Rabi marketing season.

"With this, the bulk of the total CCL of Rs 21,179.60 crore sought by the state government for the purchase of 130 lakh tonnes of wheat in this season has been released," a Punjab government spokesperson said here on Tuesday.

Wheat procurement officially started on April 1. Bulk of the wheat produce is likely to arrive in the state's grain markets after April 13 (Baisakhi).

The RBI clearance followed persistent personal efforts of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the spokesperson said.

"The release of the CCL would facilitate the state government in making timely payments to the farmers against the purchases made from them in the current season, which started on April 1 and will culminate on May 31," the spokesperson added.

The Central government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat at Rs 1,735 per quintal, hiking it by Rs.110 from last year's Rs 1,625 per quintal.

The two-month long procurement season will end on May 31.

As many as 1,835 mandis have been notified for the smooth procurement of wheat, the spokesperson said.

Agrarian state Punjab, known as the 'Green Revolution' state, contributes nearly 50 percent food grains (wheat and rice) to the national kitty despite having just 1.54 percent of the country's geographical area.

--IANS

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The latest US sanctions on Russia are in "flagrant breach of everything," the Kremlin said on Monday, adding Moscow would take certain measures to retaliate while mitigating the impact on the Russian business circle.

The sanctions are "outrageous from the standpoint of legality and of violating everything and all," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying.

"The Kremlin, of course, monitors very closely the processes in the market... The government is doing everything necessary to minimize the negative impact (of the sanctions)," Peskov said.

He added that the Russian government is coordinating activity with the cabinet in analysing the situation, reports Xinhua.

The US Department of Treasury announced last Friday that it had imposed new sanctions on 38 Russian individuals and entities, including seven business leaders and 17 senior government officials.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia reserved the right to respond, "including within existing trade agreements and procedures."

Medvedev also asked the government to work out proposals on providing support to companies affected by the sanctions, including those in the metals, energy and defense sectors, as well as efficient measures in response to the US move.

The Russian stock indices MOEX and RTS plummeted on Monday as a result of the new sanctions, according to exchange data.

--IANS

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Russia summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday, a day after the Kremlin condemned the alleged Israeli attack on a Syrian airbase, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

The Ministry confirmed in a statement that Israel's Ambassador Gary Koren was summoned for a conversation with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Ministry played down the move, saying that "routine talks with the Russians were being held regularly".

Earlier on Monday, Russia's military said that two Israeli F-15 fighter jets struck the T-4 military airbase in Homs, Syria. The attack killed at least 14 people.

Israel did not officially comment on the attack. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that they will "attack whoever threatened it".

Israel and Russia have held routine coordination talks since Moscow started to send forces to fight along Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Army in the war-torn country.

--IANS

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Russia and Syria have invited a probe into the alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma after US President Donald Trump threatened that there would be a "big price to pay".

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia denied that chemical weapons had been used in Douma and said Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide facilities for experts from the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the attack area.

According to the reports, the chemical attack on Saturday killed at least 49 people and injured 500 others, Thomas Markram, the deputy to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the Council.

During a bitter clash at the Council, US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley said that the hands of the Russian "regime" were "covered in the blood of Syrian children" and warned that Washington would respond to the attacks even if the Council would not.

On Monday night, Trump met defence officials along with his newly appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton after warning that that there would he would decide within 48 hours on a military response to the "barbaric" act.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon," he told reporters earlier on Monday.

Haley said those responsible for the attacks were "monsters", adding: "We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction."

With tensions between Russia and the West rising to Cold War levels, Nebenzia told the West: "We are not begging to be friends with you."

He objected to Haley referring to his government as a "regime" and warned that he would raise a point of order the next time she did that - a move that could disrupt Council meetings, a frequent happening during the height of the Cold War.

He said the "hawkish rhetoric" in the Council and threats to use force had gone beyond what had prevailed during the Cold War.

Britain's Permanent Representative Karen Pierce said the situation today was worse than that during the Cold War because then there was no such flagrant disregard of the universal prohibition against chemical weapons.

Nebenzia alleged that the anti-government forces had chemical weapons and could stage an attack.

But France's Permanent Representative Francois Delattre countered that only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability to developing the chemical and said that there was no doubt about who carried out the attacks.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: "While the UN is not in a position to verify these reports, the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation."

Guterres's Speical Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Council via a video link from Geneva that the terrorist group Jaish al-Islam that was in control of Douma had asked for UN intervention, but the Syrian government did not respond to it.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to provide the details of various funds created for environment protection and how it intends to utilise the funds worth nearly Rs one lakh crore.

An advocate, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said on a rough estimate, there was about Rs one lakh crore lying with the Central government and states in various funds created after the top court's orders.

Taking into note the advocate's submissions, a bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta asked the Ministry to make a compilation of total amount in various funds.

"Considering the huge amount, we expect the Ministry Secretary to take up the matter with due sincerity," the bench added.

The court also asked the Delhi government to inform it of the plans it has for utilisation of Rs 1,301 crore it has received under Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) upto March 26.

The apex court had earlier imposed ECC on commercial vehicles entering Delhi in addition to the toll tax.

The bench also asked the Central Pollution Control Board to apprise it about Rs 70.5 crore collected and lying with it under the cess levied on vehicles having engine capacity of more than 2,000 cc.

The bench slammed the Central government and states for not being able to utilise the funds and diverting it for other purpose.

It noted that around 10 to 12 funds were created after the apex court orders on environmental matters. "It is very clear that the amount was used for other purposes..."

Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Ministry, asked the bench to tell the Central government as to where and how these funds should be used and where it cannot be used.

The court replied: "This money can't go for any other government project."

"How far you want the court to go? We trusted the executive but they say they will do whatever they want. First, we have to catch them that you have diverted the money and betrayed the trust. Are we policemen or investigating officers? We are not talking about a small amount... It is very, very frustrating."

The court pulled up the Odisha government after taking into note the affidavit filed by the Chief Secretary that the money was being used for construction of roads, renovation of bus stands and science laboratory in colleges.

"This money is to be utilised for the benefit of the people. It is not for repairing roads or bus stands and installing streetlights. Construction of road is part of your job, governance. You can't do it from people's fund. This money is for benefit of people and not for benefit of the government," the bench told the counsel appearing for Odisha.

The court sought presence of Odisha's Chief Secretary before it on May 9, the next date of hearing, and asked the state to file affidavit with more details.

It also slammed Meghalaya for keeping the funds meant for welfare of the people only in the bank and asked the state's Chief Secretary to remain present before it.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M.C. Mehta relating to issues of air pollution in the Delhi-National Capital Region.

--IANS

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The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into a girl's accusations that she had been gang raped by a BJP legislator and others and the subsequent death of her father in police custody, officials said.

Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Anand Kumar told IANS that the SIT, which will be headed by the SP, Crime, of Lucknow, will look "into the entire gamut of allegations... from the beginning of the issue in June last year (which is when the 18-year-old first complained of rape by Unnao MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger)".

Informed sources said that hugely embarrassed by the developments, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rolled out a damage control action plan which included ordering the SIT probe, arrest of the BJP legislator's brother and a parallel magisterial inquiry.

Police has suspended six of its personnel, including station house officer of Makhi and five constables, and arrested Senger's brother Atul Singh and four of his aides -- Baua, Vineet, Shailu and Sonu.

Atul Singh was arrested on Tuesday over charges of beating the girl's father to death in police custody, an official said.

The arrest was made in Kanpur based on the orders of Director General of Police O.P. Singh, the official added.

The girl's father was being forced to withdraw the case against the MLA. Upon his refusal, he was picked up by police late on Sunday and was allegedly roughed up by Atul Singh and his aides while in custody.

He was taken to the district hospital with 18 wounds and gashes, abdominal pain and vomiting. He died soon after.

The incident triggered a political storm and public outrage in the state. A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the district administration.

Adityanath has also asked Additional Director General of Police Rajeev Krishna to investigate the matter and has promised stern action against all perpetrators. He said no one, however mighty, will be spared.

--IANS

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The daylong meeting of ministers from Kerala, Karanataka and Andhra Pradesh besides Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Tuesday decided to prepare a joint memorandum to be submitted to the President and others for reframing of the 15th Finance Commission's terms of reference.

The meeting was called by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac for his counterparts from southern states to have a detailed review and critique of the terms of reference.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu and other top officials attended, while representatives from Telengana and Tamil Nadu were absent.

"At today's meeting we have decided to prepare a joint memorandum of the manner in which the Finance Commission should go about things and should take into confidence the states.

"We have entrusted (the state-owned) Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation to prepare the draft and by end of this month or early next month, we would meet again to finalise the memorandum and in that meeting to be held in Visakhapatnam, we will invite state governments of other non-BJP ruled states also. After which it would be send to the President and others," Issac told media after the meeting.

The states would even explore taking legal steps also, he added.

The day long workshop was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who also demanded the reframing of the terms of reference, which, he said, was necessary to save the federal structure of the Indian Union.

--IANS

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Enhancing telecom and broadband penetration, simplifying licensing and regulations, efficient spectrum management, uniform telecom infrastructure and Right of Way (RoW) policies, lowering of existing levies and taxes are some of the key things recommended by the telecom industry for the upcoming New Telecom Policy 2018.

"With all this, however, increasing telecom network security, while minimising compliance and cost burden and ensuring privacy of citizens while enabling Digital Revolution in the country, is paramount. If the "digital India" dream is to be realised, telecommunications as a sector and technology democratisation as a tenet, cannot and should not be ignored," said Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators' Association of India.

"At this time, the industry is in a downward spiral. Cumulative debts amounting to Rs 4.6 lakh crore on revenues of under Rs 1.8 lakh crore are forcing the industry to question the long-term prospects and viability of the sector," he said here on Tuesday.

"Creating an enabling environment for technologies considered science fiction, just a few years ago - AI, AR, IoT, Smart city, smart homes, 5G so on and so forth. It will focus on simplifying the regulatory frameworks to aid in quality connectivity-for-all and easing the turf for ease of doing business, make way for foreign investments and strengthen the existing infrastructure." Mathews added.

The sector is seeking resolution of a number of issues, including a single unified licence across the country where every service provider offering the same service must adhere to the same rules - One Nation One License for services and making available funds for communication infrastructure projects, on the same lines as that for road and rail networks.

Huge investments of over Rs 2-3 lakh crores over the next couple of years would be required for a fully connected and an empowered Digital India.

"To achieve this goal, urgent support of the government and the private sector is necessary to improve the already deteriorating financial health of the sector," he added.

--IANS

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In one of the biggest crackdown on gold smugglers in recent years, the Customs department arrested three persons with nearly 9.5 kg of smuggled gold here, a senior official said on Tuesday.

According to the official, all three smugglers hail from Uttar Pradesh and had been staying in a city hotel in Kolkata's Zakaria street.

"Our senior officers were trailing a gang for some months. Acting on a tip, they raided a hotel in Kolkata's Zakaria Street and arrested three persons. Around 9.5 kg of gold bars have been seized from them," Partha Roy Chowdhury, the Commissioner of Kolkata Customs (Prevention), told reporters here.

"This is our biggest catch in recent times. Apart from Swiss gold, Australian gold was also found in the consignment. This is a new trend," he said.

The gold was smuggled into north-eastern India through Myanmar. From there it was brought to Kolkata, the official said.

--IANS

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Tropical cyclone Keni, which has upgraded to a category 3 storm, was approached the island nation of Fiji on Tuesday and authorities have warned the public to make preparations for it.

Keni is expected to be closest to the island state from midday and the weather office is expecting the storm to pass south of Nadi, the third largest city of Fiji, before making landfall over the southern island of Kadavu, reports Xinhua news agency.

The centre of the cyclone, which is currently located 200 km west of Nadi, is travelling in an East South East direction at 20 km per hourand is expected to continue on this track for now.

Close to its centre, Keni is expected to have average winds up to 130 km per hour with momentary gusts to 185 km per hour.

Weather forecasters said that the whole of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island, Southern Mamanucas and Kadavu will get destructive winds, which can go up to 209 km per hour while storm surges can go as high as 3.5 metres.

This means that people should expect destructive winds in a number of areas, very heavy sea and river flooding.

The effects of a category 3 cyclone are extensive structural damage to houses, infrastructure, power poles and lines, large trees are expected to fall and low lying escape routes will be cut off.

The Fijian government has urged people to prepare a three-day family disaster kit, strengthen their homes, be ready for power cuts and evacuate if necessary.

It is the second cyclone to hit Fiji in just over a week after tropical cyclone Josie caused six deaths over Easter.

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump will not attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru this week, the White House said on Tuesday, citing a need to remain in the country to monitor the US response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Vice President Pence will travel to the gathering instead. "The President will remain in the US to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

The trip, set to begin on Friday, would have been Trump's first visit to Latin America since taking office, the Washington Post reported.

Trump vowed on Monday that the US would take swift action in retaliation for the suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria on Saturday, amid hurried diplomacy that signalled allied military strikes may be imminent.

The Trump administration, backed by France and Britain, began making a circumstantial case that Syria and its Russian and Iranian partners bore direct responsibility for the deaths of over 50 people in the opposition-held town of Douma, outside Damascus.

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump spoke over phone on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Syria, as the possibility of US military actions against Syria was looming large.

Both leaders condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his "disregard for human life," Xinhua cited the White House statement as saying.

Trump and May also agreed "not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue," according to the statement.

Trump has been mulling response to the alleged "chemical attack" that occurred in Syria on Saturday.

On Monday evening, Trump said that the US is "going to make a decision tonight or shortly sinces" on the Syria incident.

"We're making decisions as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus. And it will be met. And it will be met forcefully," he said.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria claimed that the Syrian government forces used chlorine gas on Saturday in an attack in Douma, a rebel-held area near the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, saying the rebels' claims were "premeditated pretexts," according to the country's state-run news agency SANA.

--IANS

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Turkey will establish a camp in the eastern province of Igdir for migrants flooding in from the border with Iran, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday.

The recent influx of Afghans to Turkey through Iranian border is not a problem about Iran but Afghanistan itself due to the country's operations against Taliban, Yildirim told journalists, Xinhua cited local NTV broadcaster as saying.

"Afghanistan has begun to implement a comprehensive and resolute policy on ending terrorism. They are doing a lot of operations. This triggers migration," Yildirim stated.

"They are not very selective. But we are sending back those who are involved in terrorism. We are taking measures to make the lives better of those who do not go back," he added.

A total of 146,000 refugees entered from Turkey's eastern borders in one year and 50,000 of them are Afghans.

Almost 20,000 unregistered Afghan migrants have arrived in eastern Turkey over the border with Iran in the past three months, according to the latest figures from the General Directorate of Security.

A total of 17,847 illegal Afghan migrants have been captured by Turkish security forces since the beginning of 2018 until March 29.

Turkey deported 227 Afghan migrants on March 28 from eastern Erzurum province to Kabul. Some 600 others will be deported back to Kabul, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The Afghan migrants had crossed into Turkey through Iran due to "ongoing terrorist activities and economic trouble" in Afghanistan, the ministry said.

--IANS

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Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha was on Tuesday attacked by "miscreants" near Hajipur in Bihar while on his way to Motihari to take part in a programme to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Kushwaha, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource and Development and the President of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), which is part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, blamed the "miscreants who believe in feudalism" for the attack.

"Today (Tuesday) I was going to Motihari to take part in Prime Minister's programme. Some people with feudal emblematic and those opposed to the social equality blocked the road in Loma village of Hajipur. When I tried to persuade them, they manhandled me and used derogatory words against Dalits and the backward community," he said in a series of tweets.

The incident happened during the "Bharat Bandh" called by various groups to protest against caste-based reservation policy. Kushwaha could not take part in the Prime Minister's event -- National Convention of Swachhagrahis -- in Motihari.

Later, he headed towards his native village in Vaishali district.

Kushwaha had joined other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies in asking the government to file a review plea in the Supreme Court against its order allegedly diluting a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals.

In a letter to Modi, he said the order would make it difficult for people from these communities to get justice and added that it had caused a lot of anger and discontent among them.

Meanwhile, the RLSP condemned the attack on its leader.

"We condemn the attack on Kushwahaji in strongest words. The RLSP has been founded on the ideals of socialism and equality. We have always stood in the favour of affirmative action and will continue to do so. The people of Bihar know this very well," RLSP spokesperson Madhaw Anand said in a statement.

He said the attack was carried out by those who believe in feudalism and "Manuvad".

"Such acts of cowardice will never deter us from our path of social and political equality for every Indian," he added.

--IANS

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Top US and Chinese CEOs, government leaders and experts will meet in New York City on Thursday to discuss the changing business relations between the two largest economies in the world.

China Institute 2018 Executive Summit, "US-China Business in the New World Order," to be held on April 12 at the Harvard Club of New York City, will examine challenges in both countries and explore opportunities for American and Chinese businesses to work together, reports Xinhua. "The conference takes place at a time of great uncertainty," said China Institute President James Heimowitz in a press release.

"It's increasingly important to find practical ways in which businesses can flourish and work together, underpinning the world's most important bilateral relationship."

The one-day event features speakers, including US Under Secretary of Commerce Gilbert B. Kaplan, on the state of manufacturing in the US; Henry M. Paulson, Jr., former Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of the Paulson Institute, on how the US and China can tackle global challenges together; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and former IMF chief John Lipsky on adapting to the New World Order.

The summit will convene three panel discussions: Chinese Investments in the US: Opportunities and Challenges on Both Sides; From Green to Gold: Finding Opportunity in China's Sustainable Future and From Artificial Intelligence to Education and Bio Tech: The Next Big China Opportunities.

China Institute is partnering with the US National Governors Association and China-US Exchange Foundation for this conference.

Founded in 1926, China Institute is the oldest bicultural, non-profit organisation in America to focus exclusively on China.

--IANS

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Iran said on Tuesday that the US is not the sole owner of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal to make decisions on it.

"The nuclear agreement belongs to the international community and to the countries which are involved in the agreement," said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, reported Xinhua.

"The JCPOA (or the nuclear deal) was an important deal in which Russia was involved as a major party," he said, adding that "it belongs to Iran, Russia and other members of P5+1."

On January 12, the White House announced that US President Donald Trump was seeking from the European countries an overhaul of the landmark deal in the next 120 days, or he would pull his country out of the multilateral pact.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned against probable pullout of US from the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, saying that "If the deal collapses, they will surely regret it."

Rouhani reiterated that Iran would not be the first to walk away from the deal.

The JCPOA is an international agreement reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France plus Germany).

Based on the agreement, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear activities to a considerable degree in return for the lift of international sanctions.

--IANS

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Global software major Wipro's Chief Strategy Officer Rishad Premji has been appointed the new Nasscom Chairman for 2018-19, said the Indian IT industry's apex body on Tuesday.

"Rishad Premji, the member of Board of Wipro, succeeds Raman Roy as the Chairman for 2018-19," said the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) in the statement.

Rishad, 40, is the son of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji.

Keshav Murugesh, the Group CEO of the Mumbai-based global business process management company WNS Global Services, has been appointed the new Vice Chairman for the period.

Murugesh, 54, had earlier headed the Nasscom's Business Process Management Council.

On the other hand, Rishad, who joined Wipro in 2007, had earlier worked with the American management consultancy firm Bain & Company in London and with the financial services arm of American multinational General Electric, GE Capital.

With a Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, he was recognised as a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum in 2014.

Rishad's experience will help lead the industry during a time of "change and opportunity", Nasscom's President Debjani Ghosh said.

Together, Rishad, Murugesh and Ghosh will work towards re-aligning and re-calibrating the country's technology industry, the statement said.

"The team will continue to work towards skilling and re-skilling of talent, along with free movement of talent across countries, dispelling the myths about immigration and foraying into new markets and geographies," it added.

--IANS

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has done the right thing by not extending the tenure of the Axis Bank CEO on account of the considerable increase in the non-performing assets (NPAs) in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and under-reporting them. Meanwhile, ICICI Bank is under a cloud on account of the CBI investigation into the loan to Videocon and the Videocon-NuPower relationship.

The stock prices of ICICI Bank have fallen sharply, and rating company Fitch has expressed concerns about the impact of the investigations on the banks reputation. Some board members have sought a meeting with the top ...
The Congress on Monday termed the fast proposed to be undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday against Parliament's disruption as a "farce" and said he should instead apologise over his party's disrespect to the House.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the "farce of a fast by the Modi government and BJP" on the April 12 should really be fast to seek an apology over a range of issues including the banking frauds, leak of CBSE paper and dilution of SC/ST Act.

"They have disrespected and denigrated the highest temple of democracy. So, the Prime Minister should publicly say he is sorry and that's why he is holding this fast to tender an apology to various sections of India's population," Surjewala said.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies were responsible for the disruption of Parliament during the second half of the Budget session.

The Congress said BJP leaders should hold fasts also to seek apology from youths "whose future was jeopardised by the CBSE paper leak as also the SSC scam".

"The Modi government should hold fast to apologise to this country for the 13 banking scams wherein people like 'Chhota Modi', that is, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, ran away with over Rs 610 billion of public money looted from banks."

Surjewala said the government should hold a fast to apologise "for not disclosing the actual contours" of the Rafale fighter jet deal and claimed that security had been compromised.

Both the opposition and the government have blamed one another for Parliament's disruption.
A newly discovered cliff carvings of Buddha in eastern Tibet may offer a glimpse into the Buddhist art and local history from 1,200 years ago, according to experts.

The discoveries, dating back to the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom era, were found in Acur township in Chagyab County of the Qamdo City, the regional cultural relics protection research institute said.

The era of Tubo Kingdom is said to be the most powerful period in Tibet's history which has made contributions to the Tibetan culture and the Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan leader Songtsan Gambo brought together more than 10 separate tribes during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) of China, an event commonly seen as marking the establishment of the Tubo Kingdom, making his capital in present-day Lhasa.

The relics of the Buddha figure carvings were first found by construction workers who were mining for stones in a valley.

The carvings are inscribed on cliffs that stretch some 10 metres in total, the state-run Xinhua agency reported today.

Experts believe that the carvings were created in the 9th century, based on their style. They are located at a transportation junction between the north and the south.

The discoveries will not only contribute to the study of art and culture, but also ancient transportation, the report said, adding that construction on the section has been stopped and the relics are under the protection of authorities.

There are over 5,000 statues in cliff carvings, in various styles and from different periods, of Buddha and Bodhisattvas or the protector of Buddhist Dharma have been found in Tibet. The most famous one being in the Chakpori mountain. The earliest statue dates back to the 7th century.

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An eight-year-old girl was burnt alive after being raped in Pakistan's Punjab province, a brutal incident which triggered protests in the province.

A large number of people of Chichawatni, Sahiwal district, some 200-km from Lahore, held a demonstration and blocked the main G.T Road for several hours to lodge their protest against the brutal incident.

On the assurance of police that claimed to have arrested a suspect the protesters dispersed.

According to police, the grade-II student of the government girls high school Chichawatni went missing on Sunday after she left home to buy some sweets from a grocery shop. When she did not return after a while, her family members and neighbours held a search.

They found her in a deserted street in an unconscious state with burns all over her body. Initially she was shifted to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Chichawatni from where she was brought to Lahore's Jinnah Hospital.

"She succumbed to her burns today as doctors could not save her life despite efforts," Jinnah Hospital spokesman Dr Abdul Jabbar said.

He said the girl had received more than 70 per cent burns.

Police official concerned Atif Ikram told reporters that police had arrested a suspect who is being interrogated. He said it was suspected that the girl was set on fire after being raped.

However, autopsy report would confirm it, he said, adding that an FIR has been registered against the suspected person(s).

There has been an upsurge in rape incidents especially in Punjab province this year. The murder of seven-year-old girl in Kasur district of Punjab earlier this year had shocked the whole nation.

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At least nine pilgrims were killed when their vehicle collided with a truck on Karnal-Meerut highway in Shamli district today, the police said.

Circle Officer Rajesh Tiwari said the victims were returning from a trip to Vaishno Devi.

He said seven persons died on the spot, while the remaining two lost their lives during treatment.

The deceased have been identified as Premvati (58), Sangita (28), Honey (3), Nidhi (30), Jaykishan (40), Neetu (27), Savitri (30), Jayram (38) and Jaidev (26)--all belonging to Meerut, the officer said.

Three other persons are undergoing treatment at a hospital here, he added.

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Scientists have used artificial intelligence tools to train an AI 'brain' to search for gravitational wave signals.

Gravitational waves, ripples in space-time caused by massive astronomical events, were first hypothesised by Albert Einstein in 1915.

It took another century before the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in the US first picked up the very faint signals from the collision of binary black holes.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK investigated whether deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, could help make the process of detection of gravitational waves more computationally efficient.

They used a process known as supervised deep learning to build an AI capable of correctly picking out gravitational wave signals buried in noise from thousands of simulated datasets which they created.

Currently, gravitational wave signals are picked from the background noise of the detectors using a technique known as matched filtering, which measures the outputs from the detectors against a bank of template waveforms.

Signals which match the shape of a template waveform are then examined more closely to determine whether they represent a genuine gravitational wave detection.

However, the process requires a great deal of computing power, said astrophysicist Christopher Messenger, who led the study published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

"Deep learning algorithms involve stacked arrays of processing units, which we call neurons, which act as filters for the input data," said Hunter Gabbard from the University of Glasgow.

"What makes this process faster and more efficient than matched-filtering is that the training set is where all the computationally intensive activity occurs.

"Once the deep learning algorithm learns what to look for in a signal, it has the potential to be orders of magnitude faster than other methods," said Gabbard.

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A group of Air India employees on Tuesday held a lunch-hour meeting at the airline's Kalina office to protest against the sale of the carrier to private players.

During the half-an-hour protest meet, the union - Joint forum for Air India unions-guild-associations against privatisation - functionaries made the staffers aware of the "perils" of privatisation and its consequential impact on the employees jobs, one of the member of the forum said.

This was the first action by the Air India forum againt government's privatsation move following the civil aviation ministry seeking expression of interest (EoI) from potential bidders for a 76 per cent stake sale in the loss-making carrier as well as divestment of two of its subsidiaries.

"Nine trade unions participated in our protest meeting during the lunch hour. The privatisation is in no way going to safeguard the employees interest. And for this reason we are totally opposed to it," the member said.

"With such meetings, the various unions are trying to create an awareness among the employees about the impending job losses," he added.

Air Corporation Employees Union, All India Service Engineers' Association, Air India Employees Union, Aviation Industry Employee Guild, Air India Aircraft Engineers' Association, All India Aircraft Engineers' Association, Air India Engineers Association and United Air India Officers Association and Aviation Industry Employees Guild are the part of the forum.

Together, these unions represent over than 10,000 Air India employees.

The civil aviation ministry has sought EoIs from potential bidders for a 76-per cent stake sale in loss-making Air India as well as divestment of Air India Express and AI-SATS.

On March 28, the ministry came out with the preliminary information memorandum on Air India's strategic disinvestment.

As per the memorandum, the government plans to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control.

The proposed transaction would involve Air India, its low-cost arm Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd, which is an equal joint venture between the national airline and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

Eight of these unions had earlier also in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the possibility of retrenchment of workforce in case of privatisation, citing job losses in the aftermath of the previous NDA government's decision to sell two Centaur Hotels properties in Mumbai.

"The private lobby is talking about Rs 300 billion bailout package to Air India for over 10-year period as a waste of tax payers money and has sought its privatisation. But the same people are keeping quite on the default of over Rs 8 trillion of government-owned banks by the private corporate/ only," the member alleged.

The debt-ridden national carrier is staying afloat on little over Rs 300 billion bailout package extended by the previous UPA regime.

"Moreover, the government is selling the airline at a time when its making operating profit and is on the way to financial and operational improvement. That way, is it not trying to socialise the losses and privatise the profit? " the member asked.

Air India has been "consistently improving" its overall performance and more than doubled its operating profit to Rs 2.98 billion in 2016-17 financial year, junior minister for civil aviation Jayant Sinha had informed Parliament earlier this year.
All "secular but Hindutva" parties will come together to counter the "pseudo- secular" opposition, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said, as he indicated that the BJP and its bickering ally Shiv Sena will fight the 2019 polls together.

"The Shiv Sena may be a party led by Uddhav Thackeray, but it is run on the ethos of late Balasaheb Thackeray. Looking at the current situation, I can say that all secular, but Hindutva parties will come together to counter the pseudo-secular opposition parties," he said.

"This was Balasaheb's thinking as well," Fadnavis said, speaking at the 'Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year 2018' awards here.

Lokmat Group chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda was also present at the event.

Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha member and executive editor of its mouthpiece 'Saamana', interviewed Fadnavis.

Raut asked Fadnavis how did he know the Sena's future plans when he can't even predict what was the RSS's next move.

"The Shiv Sena is a political party and hence it is easy to predict what will it do in future. The RSS does not have any political compulsions. Their programmes are fixed at times a year in advance and they execute them as per their schedule," Fadnavis said.

When Raut asked why Bal Thackeray's Hindutva ideology was forgotten by the BJP in 2014 when it snapped the ties with the Sena, Fadnavis blamed the estranged ally for being adamant for just four more seats.

"We had offered you 147 seats, but you were adamant on 151. Had you accepted our offer, the Sena would have got more seats than the BJP (in ensuing Assembly polls), and either Uddhav-ji or you would have become the CM," Fadnavis retorted.

He denied that Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP chief Amit Shah hold the "remote control" of the Maharashtra government.

"He (Modi) has asked us not to take populist measures. He says don't take populist measures and don't make announcements that cannot be implemented," said Fadnavis.

The chief minister also appealed to all political parties to introspect whether they were glorifying criminals by inducting them. People, too, should decide if such criminals should be elected, he said.

He denied that he has failed as the state's Home Minister, and said not the crime rate but the conviction rate is important.

"In the last three years, we have taken the rate of conviction to 32 per cent from 8 per cent. That is my achievement.... (late NCP leader and former home minister) R R Patil had once told me that the CM must keep the home portfolio with himself, because most of the decisions of the Home department are given the final nod by the CM," Fadnavis said.

On a question on former Congress leader Narayan Rane, Fadnavis said the Sena -- Rane's former party -- should introspect why the BJP had to take him in. "(We joined hands with him) Because you are giving us step-motherly treatment," he quipped.

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Amid rift among the top brass of the Punjab Police, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has called a meeting of all the state director general of police (DGPs) and additional director general of police (ADGPs) tomorrow here.

The chief minister's meeting with the top officials of the police assumes significance in the wake of some serious allegations levelled by a senior IPS officer against two DGPs in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 6.

"A meeting of all the DGPs and ADGPs has been called by the chief minister here tomorrow," a senior official said here today.

Singh may take up several important issues with the senior officials of police, though the agenda of the meeting was not disclosed.

The meeting will be attended by Director General of Police Suresh Arora (chief of police force), DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta and DGP (HRD) Siddharth Chattopadhyaya.

Chattopadhyaya, in an application before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had accused Arora and Gupta of trying to drag him in a suicide case of the son of a former president of a century-old charitable-cum-educational body Chief Khalsa Dewan.

Chattopadhyaya had also accused the two DGP rank officers of "targeting" him in order to "disable" him from conducting inquiry to look into the complicity of SSP Moga Raj Jit Singh and a dismissed Inspector in a drug trafficking case.

The DGP (HRD) is leading a special investigation team constituted by the high court to investigate the role of SSP Moga and a dismissed police inspector in the case.

Amarinder Singh had taken a serious note of the alleged dissension among the top brass of the Punjab Police, saying he would not tolerate any indiscipline in the force.

The CM had also discussed the issue with state's Home Secretary NS Kalsi and DGP Suresh Arora. He had directed them to examine the matter and suggest suitable action, as necessary to resolve the same.

Amarinder Singh had said that any grievance by any member of the police force, including those against colleagues, should be routed through the well-established administrative procedures and channels laid down for the purpose.

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Amber Heard, who promised to donate to American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) in 2016, has donated over USD 1 million to the charity from Johnny Depp divorce settlement.

On the CHLA's Imagine 2017 Annual Report, posted on the hospital's website, "Ms. Amber Heard" made the list of "Honor Roll of Donors."



According to the report, Heard donated between USD 1 million to about USD 5 million from the time period of July 2016 to June 2017.

"We are honoured to acknowledge our extraordinary donors for their generosity during fiscal year 2017. On behalf of all the children and families whose lives you have impacted, and everyone at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, we offer our sincere thanks," the report stated.

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The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi has signed an MoU with the Harvard Medical School to exchange and promote best practices and research in Critical Care, Pain medicine and Anesthesiology.

The areas of cooperation under the MOU include identifying opportunities for joint research and an active exchange programme for faculty and students from both the institutions, a release from the Amrita hospital said today.

A three-member team from Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) visited the Amrita Hospital to sign the MoU.

The team members were Dr Daniel S Talmor, Chief, Dept of Anesthesia, Pain Medicine & Critical Care at BIDMC; Dr Peter J. Panzica, Vice Chief, Dept of Anaesthesia at BIDMC; and Dr Satya Krishna Ramachandran, Associate Professor of Anaesthesiology at BIDMC.

While signing the MOU, Dr Prem Nair, Medical Director, Amrita Hospital, said the collaboration between the two institutions would benefit medical education and research in India.

It would bring immense benefits in the areas of clinical care, basic science, public health, and multidisciplinary research, he said.

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Scientists have discovered a fossilised finger bone of an early modern human in Saudi Arabia, dating back to about 90,000 years, that may rewrite the history of our ancestors' migration out of Africa.

Published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the discovery from the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia is the oldest directly dated Homo sapiens fossil outside of Africa and the Levant.

It indicates that early dispersals into Eurasia were more expansive than previously thought.

"This discovery for the first time conclusively shows that early members of our species colonised an expansive region of southwest Asia and were not just restricted to the Levant," said Huw Groucutt from the University of Oxford in the UK.

"The ability of these early people to widely colonise this region casts doubt on long held views that early dispersals out of Africa were localised and unsuccessful," said Groucutt.

Previously it was thought that early dispersals into Eurasia were unsuccessful and remained restricted to the Mediterranean forests of the Levant, on the doorstep of Africa.

The finding from the Al Wusta site shows that there were both multiple dispersals out of Africa, and these spread further than previously known.

"The Arabian Peninsula has long been considered to be far from the main stage of human evolution," said Michael Petraglia, a professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

"This discovery firmly puts Arabia on the map as a key region for understanding our origins and expansion to the rest of the world," said Petraglia, who led the project.

Numerous fossils were discovered at the site of Al Wusta, an ancient fresh-water lake located in what is now the hyper-arid Nefud Desert.

Among these finds was a well preserved and small fossil, just 3.2 centimetre long, which was immediately recognised as a human finger bone.

The bone was scanned in three dimensions and its shape compared to various other finger bones, both of recent Homo sapiens individuals and bones from other species of primates and other forms of early humans, such as Neanderthals.

The results conclusively showed that the finger bone, the first ancient human fossil found in Arabia, belonged to our own species, researchers said.

Using a technique called uranium series dating, a laser was used to make microscopic holes in the fossil and measure the ratio between tiny traces of radioactive elements, they said.

These ratios revealed that the fossil was 88,000 years old. Other dates obtained from associated animals fossils and sediments converged to a date of about 90,000 years ago.

Further environmental analyses also revealed the site to have been a freshwater lake in an ancient grassland far removed from today's deserts.

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A nationwide anti-quota bandh call on Tuesday received mixed reactions with shops remaining closed in some parts of states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan amidst heavy security arrangements, while internet services were restricted in a few sensitive areas.

Reports from Bihar showed attempts to block trains, while some schools suspended their bus services in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (MP), which was the worst hit during the April 2 nationwide bandh called by Dalit groups with at least eight people being killed in violent protests.

Officials in MP said the call for Tuesday's bandh was given on social media and no organisation had come forward so far to claim responsibility for it.

The police chiefs and collectors of districts across the state have been asked to take prompt action if any nuisance is created, officials in Jaipur said.In Rajasthan, which was also hit badly during the Dalit-convened bandh, the state government has issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and blocked mobile internet services in the state capital as precautionary measure.

Yesterday, the union Home Ministry had issued advisory to all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the against caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said the districts magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs) would be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The directive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of at least 11 persons.

The situation in the state (Rajasthan) is peaceful, ADG (Law and Order) NRK Reddy told PTI in Jaipur.

He said that companies of paramilitary forces including BSF and CRPF have also been deployed at sensitive areas of different districts in the state.

Markets in the walled city area of Jaipur as well as in the areas such as Bajaj nagar, Barkat Nagar and nearby places were not open today.

However, no demonstration or rally has taken place and the situation is quite peaceful. Private schools were closed and transport vehicles are plying normally.

The authorities in Bhopal have announced daytime curfew in Morena and Bhind, besides enforcing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incidents.

"We are monitoring the situation. There has been no impact of the alleged bandh so far. The state police is also keeping a watch on the social media," Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told reporters.

The internet services too have been blocked in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering, officials said.

Bhopal range Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary had said yesterday that the social media messages were being monitored.

He had warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked under the Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for disobedience to order promulgated by public servant.

In Uttar Pradesh, life remained by and large normal and officials said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon.

Today's anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against "dilution" of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, entailing massive violence in different parts of the country and leading to the death of nine people.





(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A nationwide anti-quota bandh call, given largely through social media, turned out to be a damp squib today with virtually no impact on the ground amid heavy security arrangements.

Shops remained closed in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for a few hours and internet services were restricted in sensitive areas to check "rumour-mongering", but normal life remained largely unaffected, officials said.

Reports from Bihar showed attempts to block trains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Bihar today for centenary celebrations of the 'Champaran Satyagraha', slammed the opposition for putting hurdles "from the Parliament to the streets" in the government's development work, in an apparent reference to the April 2 violent protests, for which the BJP has blamed opposition parties.

Today's bandh call was made as a counter to the nationwide protest by various Dalit groups last week, which had turned violent in several states with at least 11 persons losing their lives, including eight in Madhya Pradesh.

While schools remained open in Bhopal, some of them suspended their bus services. Officials in Madhya Pradesh said that the bandh call was given on social media and no organisation had come forward so far to claim responsibility for it.

In Rajasthan, which was also hit badly during the Dalit-convened bandh, the state government had issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC ) and blocked mobile internet services in the state capital as a precautionary measure.

The police chiefs and collectors of districts across the state were asked to take prompt action if any nuisance is created, officials in Jaipur said.

Yesterday, the Union Home Ministry had issued an advisory to all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the Bharat Bandh against caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said that districts magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs) would be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The directive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of at least 11 persons.

The situation in the state (Rajasthan) is peaceful, ADG (Law and Order) NRK Reddy told PTI in Jaipur.

He said that companies of paramilitary forces including BSF and CRPF were deployed at sensitive areas of different districts in the state.

However, no demonstration or rally took place and transport vehicles plied normally, though some private schools were closed.

Daytime curfew was imposed in Morena and Bhind, from where casualties were reported during the Dalit bandh. Besides, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC were in place in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incidents.

"There has been no impact of the alleged bandh so far. The state police is also keeping a watch on the social media," Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told reporters.

The internet services too have been blocked in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering, officials said.

They warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked for disobedience to order promulgated by public servant.

In Uttar Pradesh, life by and large remained normal and officials said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon.

Today's anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against "dilution" of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court.

In Gujarat, the bandh evoked tepid response with most establishments and markets staying open in major cities and towns, an official said.

Though messages in support of the bandh call did the rounds on social media platforms over the last few days, the response to the stir was lukewarm, officials said.

Barring Idar and Khedbrahma towns in north Gujarat, where markets remained shut during the day in support of the bandh, the state remained unaffected, they said.

Khedbrahma MLA Ashwin Kotwal claimed shopkeepers joined the bandh out of fear.

"I was told shopkeepers decided to join the bandh in panic, as some people circulated messages warning them of consequences if the locals did not support the protest," the Congress legislator claimed.

According to the state police control room, there was no report of any trouble or violent protest anywhere in the state during the day.

There was mixed response in Punjab and Haryana with shops and commercial establishments remaining shut in some parts and protesters taking out marches in some areas.

Tight security arrangements were made by the Punjab police to avert any untoward incident.

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More than 100 people were taken into custody from various parts of the state after clashes broke out between the supporters of the 'Bharat Bandh' and pro-reservation groups, officials said.

A nationwide 'bandh' was called today by several groups, who are opposed to the caste-based reservations in education and jobs, largely through social media.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Mithilesh Kumar said Lakho outpost in-charge Balmukund and a reporter of a local newspaper were among those injured in the violence.

Normal life was hit in parts of Bihar, with 'bandh' supporters squatting on railway tracks near Ara, Bihiya and Koilwar stations to stop train services.

Of the 100 people detained, 70 were from Ara, the district headquarters town of Bhojpur, an official said.

A few 'bandh' supporters alleged that police opened fire in Anandpuri and Shivganj localities, but Deputy Superintendent of Police Mithilesh Kumar did not confirm the incident.

Around 20 people were arrested in Gaya, where the 'bandh' supporters allegedly indulged in aggressive slogan-shouting and stone-pelting.

The police resorted to lathicharge and fired gunshots in the air to quell the mobs in the region.

Life was thrown out of gear in Begusarai, where the anti-quota activists blocked National Highways 28 and 31 for several hours in the morning.

In Vaishali, the bandh supporters waylaid the cavalcade of Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha and misbehaved with him for his pro-reservation stance, official sources said.

"No FIR was lodged by the ministers or his staff. But we will register a case based on the inputs we receive from video footages," Vaishali Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar said.

The general secretary of RSLP, Madhaw Anand, issued a statement, condemning the attack on Kushwaha.

"It was carried out by those who believe in feudalism and Manuvaad. Such cowardly acts will never deter us from fighting for social and political equality," he said.

The activists also forced shopkeepers to down shutters at Chhata Chowk, Mithanpura, Ahiyapur and Bhagwanpur areas of Muzaffarpur district.

A conflict broke out between two groups of students at the RDS College in the district, where a senior professor was seriously injured as he tried to pacify the agitated youth.

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A joint team of Assam and Mizoram governments have decided that encroached border forest land between the two states will be freed, Conservator of Forest, Silchar, Binay Gupta, said today.

The decision was taken at a meeting at Dholai in Cachar district of Assam yesterday.

The verification of illegal structures constructed within the 509 sq km Inner Line Reserved Forest would commence from April 12, a senior home department official of the Mizoram government said in Aizawl.

A joint team comprising officials of the two state governments, and representatives of civil societies of both the states would launch the verification and eviction drive.

The meeting decided that the verification would start from Zophai near Bairabi along the districts of Kolasib in Mizoram and of Hailakandi in Assam, the flash point of the border tension since March 8, the official said.

The areas will be from Kachurtol in Cachar district to Jesai in Mizoram, Dholchora, Dolaikhal and Lailapur along the inter-state border, Gupta said.

The joint verification team was constituted after a meeting between Mizoram and Assam officials at Zophai on March 28 under the chairmanship of Ministry of Home Affair's Joint Secretary Satyendra Garg.

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A missing youth from Assam is suspected to have joined militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir after his photo in which he was seen holding an automatic rifle surfaced that prompted his mother to say government should shoot him dead.

After the photo went viral in the social media, the Assam Police today said it has started a probe into the matter and is trying to find out if the youth identified as Qamer Uzzaman has joined the terrorist organisation.

In the photo, Qamer, who hails from Jamunamukh in Nagaon district, is seen holding an automatic rifle. A caption of the photo appeared to suggest that he is a member of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The caption says, "Org: Hizbul Mujahideen; Name: Qamer Uzzaman; S/O Ibrahim Zaman; R/O: Assam India; Code: Dr Hurairah; Qul: MA English."



Director General of Police Mukesh Sahay said Assam Police is in touch with its Jammu and Kashmir counterpart.

Special DGP Special Branch Pallav Bhattacharyya said it was difficult to confirm whether Qamer has joined the underground group and that the state police has taken up the matter with J and K Police for a detailed investigation.

Qamer's mother recognised the youth in the photo as of her missing son and said the government should shoot him dead for being a traitor.

"Yes, he is my son Qamer. If he has joined the militant organisation, the government should shoot him dead as he is an enemy of the country. His body should be fed to animals. I don't need such a son. Such a person should not be living," she told reporters at her home.

A mother of five, she claimed Qamer had left home saying he was going to Kashmir to start a business and has maintained no contact with the family for the past 10 months.

Qamer's wife and three-year old son were with him till he returned to drop them 10 months ago at Jamunamukh where he was constructing a house, his brother Mufidul said.

"I now don't consider him as my brother. He should be killed as he is a traitor. We won't allow even his body to be brought inside our house," Mufidul said.

He said Qamer had studied up to class 10 and is not an MA as claimed in the photo.

The family had also gone to Jammu and Kashmir last year to file a police report that he was missing, Mufidul said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah took to twitter to take note of the incident.

"An MA in English & reportedly has come all the way from Assam to become a militant in Kashmir. A few days ago my security people had told me about his presence around Srinagar," he said.

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A high-level Australian union official was suspended today amid claims he was involved in a fake "Black Lives Matter" Facebook page that raked in thousands of dollars in donations.

Broadcaster CNN reported that the fake page had almost 700,000 followers -- more than twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page -- before it was suspended.

It allegedly ran fundraising campaigns earning more than USD 100,000, purportedly for Black Lives Matters causes in the United States.

CNN claimed that some of the money was transferred to Australian bank accounts, raising new questions about the integrity of Facebook's platform and the content hosted there.

A senior Australia's National Union of Workers figure -- who is white -- was linked to the fake page and other black rights websites by the broadcaster.

The union, which represents workers across various industries, said two people had been suspended.

"The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report and has suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation," National Secretary Tim Kennedy said in a statement.

"The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNN's story." Black Lives Matter is an activist organisation set up in the US to campaign against violence and racism against black people.

A co-founder of the movement, Patrisse Cullors, tweeted that she had complained to Facebook and Twitter about numerous fake accounts.

"These fake BLM accounts and fake BLM people literally stealing money off of Black Death is so stomach churning I can't even begin to explain," she said.

"We told fb over and over again to shut that shit down. And it wouldn't. Glad it's down now." The revelations come with Facebook -- used by two billion people -- under huge pressure globally for massive lapses in protecting personal data.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was testifying this week before the US Congress to explain how user privacy was compromised at the world's biggest social network and how he intends to fix it.

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The Income Tax department today conducted searches at various premises of Vadodara-based company Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL) and its promoters, who are accused of cheating various banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

The searches were being carried out at 17 different places in and around Vadodara city, including at the corporate office of DPIL in Vadodara city, a senior Income Tax (I-T) officer said.

DPIL and its promoters are already on the radar of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly cheating various banks.

"Taking a lead from these central agencies, that had conducted multiple searches recently, the Income Tax department also conducted searches at 17 different locations of the company and its promoters today," an official said on the condition of anonymity.

"The searches are still on at the residential premises, offices and factories of DPIL," he said.

DPIL, which manufactures electric cables and equipment, is promoted by S N Bhatnagar and his sons Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar, who were also the executives of the firm.

"Our main aim is to see whether the company has maintained its accounts or not and whether there was any evasion of tax by way of financial irregularities," the official said.

Yesterday, the ED had conducted multiple searches in connection with a money laundering case against DPIL for allegedly cheating various banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

The CBI had conducted searches in the case last week.

It is alleged that DPIL, through its management, had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) since 2008, leaving behind an outstanding debit of Rs 2,654.40 crore as on June 29, 2016, the CBI said.

The loan amount of Rs 2,654 crore, it said, was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.

According to the CBI, the company had been allegedly submitting false stock statements to the lead bank by treating receivables more than 180 days (non-current asset) as less than 180 days (current asset) to get more drawing power in their cash credit accounts.

The CBI alleged that DPIL extensively utilised cash credit limits for obtaining a large number of letters of credits, and many of them could not be honoured by the company and were thus "forced charged" on the credit limit.

The Bank of India's exposure to the company is Rs 670.51 crore, the Bank of Baroda's exposure is Rs 348.99 crore and that of the ICICI Bank is Rs 279.46 crore, the CBI FIR said.

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In a U-turn, the West Bengal State Election Commission today withdrew the extended deadline for filing nominations for next month's panchayat elections even as the opposition parties alleged that it buckled under pressure from the ruling Trinamool Congress.

State Election Commissioner A K Singh cancelled the poll panel's order yesterday which had extended the deadline for filing nominations by a day till today, sources in the commission said.

Opposition parties -- the BJP, the CPI (M) and the Congress -- alleged that the SEC was forced by the TMC to cancel its order extending the deadline.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear tomorrow a plea of the BJP against the SEC decision to recall its order.

The West Bengal unit of the BJP moved the apex court hours after the state poll panel recalled its yesterday's decision.

The Calcutta High Court also passed an interim stay on the SEC's order.

State BJP leader Pratap Bandopadhyay moved the high court challenging the cancellation.

Justice Subrata Talukdar heard the petitioner and his opponent in his chamber, following resistance by lawyers in view of the ongoing ceasework.

Emerging from the judge's chamber, petitioner Bandopadhyay said the court has passed an interim injunction on SEC's cancellation of its yesterday's order and said the matter would be heard again on April 23.

All parties involved in the matter have been asked to file affidavits stating their position on the matter.

Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the party, said though the court has passed a stay on the order, it has refused to interfere with the election process.

The new notification issued by the SEC said, "It appears that there was no specific direction by the Supreme Court of India for extension of the nomination date. Therefore on perusal of all the papers and considering all the points, the Commission hereby recalls the said order and therefore rescinds the (previous) order."



Though the last day for filing nominations for the rural polls slated for May 1, 3 and 5 was till yesterday, the SEC had extended it till 3 pm today on complaints that the opposition candidates had been prevented from filing papers.

According to the new notification, the SEC received two letters, one from the special secretary of the state government and another from the Trinamool Congress, citing legal infirmities in the previous order of the Commission.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the SEC was "forced" by the TMC to withdraw its previous order.

"I have doubt whether the SEC can continue till next month's panchayat elections. Earlier, a State Election Commissioner had to resign," he said, adding that the BJP is ready for the panchayat polls.

He was referring to the resignation of S R Upadhyay who had quit before counting of votes in 2015 after a violence marred civic poll in the state.

CPI (M) leader in the state assembly Sujan Chakrabarty alleged that the SEC has "no freedom and the state ministers have put pressure on it".

Left workers staged demonstration in front of the SEC office here protesting against the withdrawal of the order extending the deadline. They shouted slogans against SEC and the TMC government.

Criticising the SEC, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury wondered whether the commission has any authority.

Denying the charges, TMC leader and MP Kalyan Banerjee said opposition party leaders had put pressure on the SEC to give the "illegal order" extending the deadline.

"Somersault under pressure of ruling party and the ministers? Their victory bike rally to greet the Commissioner shall not succeed to throttle the voice of the people's protest," CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra tweeted.

Later in the afternoon, BJP Mahila Morcha state president Locket Chatterjee led a protest outside the SEC officer with brooms and mops and alleged that the SEC has turned into a back office of the TMC.

A huge police contingent had cordoned off the area since early morning.

Several BJP and CPI(M) activists were detained when they tried to break the police cordons during the protest rally.

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A local court here today rejected the bail pleas of 12 accused in connection with the violence during the 'Bharat Bandh' on April 2.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Ankur Sharma rejected the bail pleas saying that there was no chance of bail in the case.

According to prosecutor AK Sager, bail plea of four accused had already been rejected earlier by the court in connection with the violence during the Dalit agitation on April 2.

Police have registered 43 cases and arrested more than 90 people in the case.

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The resolution professionals (RP) of Bhushan Steel today rejected the arguments of employees of the debt ridden firm before NCLT that Tata Steel, which has been selected as highest bidder, was not eligible to bid under the provisions of IBC Code.

Counsel appearing for RP contended before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that Section 29 (A) of the IBC Code does not apply on Tata Steel.

"Section 29 (A) applies only to the living citizen and individual and not to a corporate entity," submitted senior advocate Ravi Kadam appearing for RP of BSL.

The employees of Bhushan Steel have contended before the NCLT that Tata Steel's bid was in violation of Section 29A of the IBC Code.

Section 29A (d) of IBC mandates that a person convicted for any offence punishable with imprisonment for two years or more ineligible from submitting a resolution plan.

Tata Steel UK, a foreign subsidiary of Tata Steel, was fined 1.4m over violation of health and safety norms by an English Court in February 2018.

They also rejected the claims of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) for being treated as a secured financial creditor saying that it had earlier filed affidavit saying it has no secured interests in Bhushan Steel.

NCLT would continue its hearing tomorrow.

Yesterday, L&T had termed the resolution plan of Bhushan Steel Ltd as "discriminatory" and "arbitrary" saying its Rs 900 crore outstanding has not been given due priority by CoC.

Tata steel has emerged as the highest bidder for Bhushan Steel with offer of Rs 35,200 crore in cash along with 12.27 per cent of equity.

As on February 1, 2018, Bhushan Steel had a total debt of Rs 57,160 crore.

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Tense moments prevailed in Varappuzha area near here today after BJP workers blocked traffic on the Ernakulam-Guruvayur highway to protest the alleged death of a 26-year old man in police custody.

Sreejith, who was taken into custody in connection with the death of a person last week, died in a private hospital last evening.

His relatives alleged that he died due to torture.

Scores of BJP workers blocked the road throwing traffic out of gear after the party called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Varappuzha Panchayat, protesting the death of Sreejith, who they claimed was a party worker.

The BJP workers said they would continue their agitation till Sreejith's family gets justice.

Visuals aired by Malayalam television channels showed BJP workers allegedly preventing vehicles from moving forward.

During the protest, the party workers allegedly manhandled a person who approached them seeking a safe passage for his vehicle carrying his child to hospital.

Local leaders of the BJP, however, rejected allegations of violence during the protest.

Congress workers also took out a march to Varappuzha police station, protesting the incident. North Paravur MLA V D Satheesan inaugurated the march.

Sreejith's body has been sent for postmortem at Government Medical College, Alappuzha.

Police have rejected the allegation of torture, saying Sreejith was suspected to have suffered injuries during a clash allegedly before he was taken into custody.

Meanwhile, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behera said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the incidents that led to Sreejith's death.

Stepping up its stand against police, acting chairman of the Kerala State Human Rights Commission, P Mohanadas, said the policemen involved in the incident should be removed from service.

Mohandas had visited Sreejith yesterday, who had been put on ventilator after an emergency surgery.

A Commission release, quoting hospital authorities, had said Sreejith suffered 'grievous internal wounds in his stomach' and was brought to Aster Medicity hospital.

Sreejith's wife yesterday informed the Commission that she was witness to the 'torture' after policemen in civvies took him into custody from their residence at Varappuzha.

Some persons, including Sreejith, were taken into custody in connection with the death of a 55-year old man, who was found hanging in his house after a group of miscreants attacked his house on Friday last.

Meanwhile, a medical report from the hospital, where he was treated said Sreejith was admitted through the emergency department with history of blunt abdominal injury.

He was in septesaemic shock and was resuscitated in the emergency department and was taken up for emergency surgery.

During the next two days in the ICU, the patient progressively deteriorated and was on very high dose of drugs to support his blood pressures.

"At around 5.30 pm yesterday evening he had a cardiac arrest.. The team tried to revive him for almost one hour and then gave up," it said.

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Screenwriter Christina Hodson has replaced Joss Whedon for DC's "Batgirl" movie.

"Batgirl" will portray the life of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon, who doubles as one of Batman's sidekicks named Batgirl.

This will mark Hodson's return to the DC Extended Universe after writing for The WB series "Birds of Prey," reported Variety.

Whedon left the comic book movie in February, citing story issues. After his departure, author Roxane Gay volunteered to write the script and seemed to ignite interest from DC Comics.

Hodson has also been tapped to write the script for "Bumblebee," the upcoming "Transformers"spin-off starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena.

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Opposition Congress and INLD have stepped up their attack on the BJP government in Haryana over the alleged cash-for-job scam issue, with both the parties demanding dissolving the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and an in-depth probe into the matter.

The flying squad of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had on April 5 unearthed the alleged cash-for-job racket involving employees of the HSSC and other departments and "brokers".

They would take money from aspirants for selection in government jobs, an official spokesperson had said.

Terming it the "biggest ever" scam in the history of Haryana, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala asked, "If the chief minister's claims of transparency and accountability are genuine, why is he running shy of disbanding the staff selection commission and ordering an inquiry by two sitting judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court?"



"Multiple layers of the sinister jobs recruitment and bribery scams are yet to be unveiled, and the real culprits and kingpins are escaping the clutches of law," the MLA from Kaithal said in a statement.

"In case a fair investigation is conducted, the big fish in the government would definitely be exposed," he claimed.

Surjewala also said if Khattar does not order a judicial probe immediately, "it would be apparent that he is trying to protect the accused".

"In such an eventuality, he would have no moral right to continue as the chief minister and will have to resign forthwith," he said.

Addressing a press conference here, the Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala, demanded that the HSSC should be "dissolved immediately" and an investigation into the cash-for-job scam be handed over to the CBI.

The INLD leader said that he had recently brought to everyone's notice that all was not well within the HSSC, "but this was down-played by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the Vidhan Sabha".

"But with the new developments the Chief Minister will have to answer many questions as it is apparent that the cash-for-job scam has a very wide network in the State... therefore, only an in-depth CBI inquiry can get to the bottom of this racket," he said.

Chautala also accused the BJP government of diverting the attention of the people from the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue by raising the question of utilising water from rivers flowing into Pakistan.

He said the real issue was completion of the construction of SYL canal.

"The INLD and the people of Haryana will not be diverted from the real issue and will make every effort to bring Haryana's share of river water to the state. The Jail Bharo' agitation beginning from May 1 is a step in this direction," Chautala said.

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Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi was today questioned by the CBI in Patna in a case of alleged corruption in handing over IRCTC hotels management to a private firm when her husband and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister, officials said here.

The CBI officials made it clear that only Rabri Devi was questioned at her residence in Patna rejecting the claims by RJD leaders that her son Tejashwi Yadav was also quizzed.

"Only Rabri Devi was questioned today. We have already questioned Tejashwi Yadav in connection with the case," an official said here.

They said that a team of officials questioned Rabri Devi on the issues pertaining to change in ownership of Delight Marketing Company owned by Sarla Gupta, to Lara Projects owned by Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi.

It is alleged that after the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing Company changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014. By this time, Prasad had resigned as railway minister.

Meanwhile, RJD leaders attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, alleging that it was a malicious exercise and wondered if it was a coincidence that their leader had been questioned by the CBI when the prime minister was visiting the state.

"Let Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar remember that the more they will try to repress us, the stronger will we emerge," RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary said.

The entire exercise smacks of malice as Prasad is in jail and is keeping poor health because of which he has been admitted to the AIIMS at New Delhi, RJD MLA Shakti Singh Yadav told reporters.

Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav's marriage is also on the cards, he said, adding, "It is not a mere coincidence that the development has taken place on a day when Narendra Modi is on a tour of Bihar."



Another party MLA Ejya Yadav said Tejashwi Yadav has challenged the CBI and the ED to come up with a charge sheet if they have any proof against him or his family in the case.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company, Delight Marketing Company.

An FIR lodged in this connection alleged that the RJD leader had abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars.

The CBI registered the case against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, and Sarla Gupta, wife of former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel, Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

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The Delhi Police has filed charge sheet against an Indian Air Force officer, arrested in February for alleged espionage.

The charge sheet was filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Shehrawat here against Group Captain Arun Marwah, who was booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for allegedly leaking classified documents to a woman through WhatsApp.

The court has put up the final report for taking cognisance on April 24.

As per the complaint filed against Marwah by the Air Force, he was caught by the counter-intelligence wing after he was found carrying a high-end phone at the headquarters which are banned there.

Punishment under the Official Secrets Act entails a jail term of up to seven years.

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The global chemical watchdog said today it will soon deploy a team to the site of an alleged toxic attack in Syria, as the regime in Damascus was on high alert after Western threats of a forceful response.

Warnings from US President Donald Trump there would be a "big price to pay" for the alleged attack have raised the spectre of an American strike on Syria, setting up a potential confrontation with regime backer Russia.

Moscow, which has troops on the ground in Syria, has already warned that US military action would be "very, very dangerous".

After threatening a decision within days, Trump on Tuesday abruptly cancelled his first trip to Latin America in order to oversee Syria developments.

Potentially looking to head off Western military strikes, Syria's foreign ministry said it had invited the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the site of the alleged attack.

"Syria is ready to provide all necessary assistance to the mission," it said.

Several hours after the invitation, the OPCW said it will "shortly" deploy a fact-finding team to the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma to probe the alleged poison gas attack.

In anticipation for a potential strike, Syria's military forces across the country were also simultaneously mobilising, according to a war monitor.

"At midnight, the army command put all military positions on alert, including airports and all bases, for a period of 72 hours," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.

The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on sources across Syria, said units were preparing themselves for rapid deployment.

Even residents of Damascus were bracing themselves.

"I have lived through seven American presidents, but Trump is the craziest and his administration is unbalanced," said Abu Fadi, a retired resident.

"I think his threats are to be feared, and we should take them seriously." In 2017, Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base after a sarin attack the UN later pinned on President Bashar al-Assad.

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President Donald Trump has blamed the "poor" American leadership of the past which "allowed" China to take advantage of the United States.

Updating his Cabinet colleagues on trade negotiations, Trump yesterday said the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) deal, currently being renegotiated with Canada and Mexico, was a horrible one.

"China has been taking advantage of the US for many years; really, if you look at it, since the start of the World Trade Organization. And they have really done a number on this country," Trump said during the meeting at the White House.

"And I don't blame China. I blame the people running our country. I blame presidents. I blame representatives. I blame negotiators. We should have been able to do what they did. We didn't do it; they did. And it's the most lopsided set of trade rules, regulations that anybody's ever seen," he said.

Despite the growing fears about a potential trade war between the US and China, triggered by Trump's warning of tariffs on an additional USD 100 billion worth of Chinese imports, the US president claimed to be on good terms with Xi Jinping.

"I think we will maintain that relationship. I'm very good friends with President Xi. I have great respect for President Xi. And as you know, I spent two days in China, the president spent two days with us at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and they were four great days," he said.

Trump said the US was strongly renegotiating NAFTA and was close to a "right deal".

"We will see what happens. But the US is strongly renegotiating NAFTA. We're fairly close on NAFTA. And if we don't make the right deal, we will terminate NAFTA, and we will make the right deal after that. But we have a chance to make a deal on NAFTA," he said.

Trump said the US had similar "bad deals" with South Korea and the EU.

"If you look at the European Union, they have tremendous barriers -- trade barriers. We essentially have bad deals with everyone," he said.

"Were close to finishing a deal with South Korea, which was a horrible deal. It was going to give us 200,000 jobs. Well, that didn't exactly happen. It gave them 200,000 jobs," he said, adding that the US had made a "tremendous progress" in that respect.

Noting that the North Korea and South Korea situation complicated it, Trump said the deal that the US was going to have with South Korea was going to be "a very fair deal".

"We want a fair deal, and we don't have fair deals," he said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters yesterday that Trump has worked with his team to determine how best to respond to China's attack on American farmers.

"The president has asked the Department of Agriculture to protect farmers, and will present a plan on the specifics of that shortly," said Sanders.

In an op-ed in Financial Times, Trump's Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, Peter Navarro, said the Trump wanted a global trading system free of the imbalances and unfair practices that now hold growth back, not just in the US but around the world.

Navarro said Trump had given China "every opportunity" to end its unfair trade practices, "which" has only grown".

The US trade deficit in goods with China has grew from USD 347 billion in 2016 to USD 375 billion.

While the trade deficit balloons, China continues to steal US intellectual property and force American companies operating there to surrender their leading edge technologies in exchange for access to the Chinese market," Navarro said.

Navarro alleged that China's reaction to Trump's "legitimate" defence of the American homeland had been "a Great Wall of denial" despite incontrovertible evidence of Beijing's "illicit and protectionist" behaviour.

"Instead, China is attacking American farmers with the threat of retaliatory tariffs in the apparent hope of rattling a key component of the coalition that put Mr Trump in office," said Navarro.

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The CBI today withdrew from the Delhi High Court the pleas seeking cancellation of bail granted to former chief of Indian Air Force SP Tyagi and two other accused in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper scam.

Justice Anu Malhotra allowed the CBI to withdraw the petitions for cancellation of bail on the grounds that a charge sheet has been filed in the trial court in the case.

The petitions are dismissed as withdrawn, the court said, but granted liberty to the agency to take appropriate steps in future for cancellation of bail of the accused, if needed.

The CBI had moved the pleas seeking cancellation of bail of accused lawyer Gautam Khaitan, SP Tyagi and his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi in the Augusta Westland Chopper matter.

Advocate Pramod Dubey, who was appearing for Khaitan, said they had no objection to the move.

While the former IAF chief was granted bail by a Dehi court on December 26, 2016, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were given relief on January 4, 2017 in connection with the case.

The three are accused in the case which relates to procurement of 12 VVIP choppers from UK-based firm during the UPA-2 regime. The deal was later cancelled.

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The Congress on Tuesday once again boycotted the meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee with its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge saying that he was invited by the government as a 'special invitee' with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the opposition in the selection process.

Kharge shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi declining the offer to attend the meeting and alleged that his government has not accorded priority and importance to the issue and its "double standards" stood exposed.

"Inviting the leader of single largest opposition party as a 'Special Invitee' is done with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the opposition from the selection process of Lokpal," he said in his letter.

The Congress leader said the government is aware that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act for a 'special invitee' without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure and it has been done only to "mislead" the nation and the people, rather than sincerely seeking the participation and opinion of the opposition.

"Therefore, to participate in this charade while your government runs roughshod over the intent and spirit of the Lokpal Act would amount to dereliction of my constitutional duty," he said.

Kharge said the people of the nation should know that the government has wasted four precious years in the fight against corruption by not amending the Lokpal Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee under the said Act.

"This would have established the bona fides of the government in fighting corruption before the people," he said.

"The process of appointing the Lokpal under such circumstances would be vitiated if the voice of the opposition is not included.

"If the government is, indeed, serious about ensuring that the Lokpal is appointed with the sanctity it deserves, I would once again suggest that the government bring in the necessary amendment by way of an ordinance to include the voice of the opposition in this process.

"Under these circumstances, I must once again respectfully decline the invite as 'special invitee' to prevent any dilution of the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act, 2013," Kharge said in his letter to the prime minister.

Kharge said the government's "double standards in this matter stand exposed" as a similar amendment was made to Delhi Special Police Establishment Act in 2014, where leader of the single largest opposition party was made a member of the Selection Committee for the appointment of director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"It is apparent that the appointment of the Lokpal has not been accorded the same degree of importance or priority by your government," he said.

The Congress leader told the prime minister that he would be aware that the amendment bills to the Lokayukta Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the selection committee were moved and even approved by the select committee. "Yet till date your government has never bothered to lis the same for debate or voting," he said.

"It is clear that the current exercise is merely perfunctory gesture to assuage the letter of the Supreme Court's direction," he said.

Kharge had earlier on March 1 written a similar letter to the prime minister while boycotting the earlier meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee as a special invitee'.

Kharge had said that a special invitee invitation is a concerted effort to exclude the voice of the opposition in Lokpal selection.

As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, only the leader of the opposition (LOP) in Lok Sabha is a member of the Selection Committee and since Kharge does not have that status, he is not a part of the panel. A party should have at least 55 seats or 10 per cent of the strength of Lok Sabha for its leader to get the LOP status.
The Congress today demanded the immediate sacking of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, alleging that his family has business interests in companies that are in default.

It demanded a judicial investigation by a sitting Supreme Court judge to see if there was conflict of interest.

Congress leader Pawan Khera said at a press conference that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of probity, he is silent on Goyal's family investments, which "have not been made public" by him despite holding a public position.

He alleged that Goyal's wife owned a company that started with Rs one lakh capital and has made profits to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore in 10 years, which was akin to the "Jay Shah model" of investment where the company's turnover grew multiple times during the Modi Government.

"The truth is that position of Piyush Goyal stands compromised leaving it untenable for him to continue as a Union Cabinet Minister. He should be forthwith sacked and a judicial investigation be ordered through a sitting Supreme Court Judge," he told reporters..

The Congress leader alleged that layers of common corporate ownership, unprecedented rise in profits and earnings and similar pattern of other companies owned by another business family, now referred to NCLT for disputes resolution/haircut of loans as also commonality of interest with Piyush Goyal and family are being revealed.

Khera also gave details of web of 11 companies, including Shirdi Industries, in which Goyal and his wife" have been directors and have business interests" and demanded a thorough probe to look into the allegations.

In a statement issued by the BJP last week after similar allegations were levelled against him with regard to Shirdi industries, Goyal had asserted that there has been "absolutely no wrongdoing or irregularity" on his part as he gave out details of the transactions, being used by the Congress to target him.

He had termed the entire issue as another episode of the Congress' "spit and run?" politics to divert attention from main issues relating to the common man.

The "malicious statement" by the Congress party is factually misleading and makes incorrect conclusions with false and defamatory statements and it is full of factual inaccuracies, mix up of dates and allude to events with no relevance his brief association with Shirdi Industries Ltd, he had said



Khera today asked why the prime minister and the finance minister were "completely mum on the entire issue".

"When will you talk about cleanliness in your cabinet.

"Why has Shri Piyush Goyal not explained the nature of business relationship and common business interests in the 11 companies named," he asked, alleging that whenever Piyush Goyal or his family resigned as directors of these companies, they have been replaced by the same set of people.

The Congress leader hit out at the prime minister, saying while he talks of transparency and was giving lectures on cleanliness, "this is the reality of the prime minister's 'swachh bharat' and 'swachh cabinet''.

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The BJP today complained to the state poll panel's chief that the police were acting like the ruling Congress' "puppet," harassing and implicating its party workers in criminal cases in the run up to the May 12 assembly polls.

In its memorandum to Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar, the saffron party also complained of 'rigid and arbitrary" interpretation of the Model Code by poll panel's officials and said it was creating problems for them.

A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ananthkumar and party general secretary P Muralidhar Rao met CEC and submitted the party's memorandum to him.

Accusing police of harassing BJP workers and its others sympathisers, the memorandum said false cases were being lodged against them.

"The Police Department is acting as a puppet of the ruling Congress party, arresting several right wing activists. No action has been taken against the biased officials," it said.

The BJP petition also referred to the implementation of the election code of conduct with "rigid and arbitrary interpretation."



It said the "Mushti Dhaanya" programme (collecting of fistful of food grains from farmers household), aimed at showing solidarity with farmers in distress, covering all 224 assembly constituencies, was to conclude with sharing food with them at Yeddyurappa's residence.

The government officials, however, restricted the party leaders from holding the event.

The programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally recently.

"The programe had begun much before the announcement of elections. However, the Election Commission officials, under the guise of Model Code of Conduct, are restricting farmers from reaching the house of Yeddyurappa.

"It is beyond our imagination why the EC is creating obstructions to the smooth conduct of the in-house programme," the memorandum said.

It also alleged that officials were preventing party workers from holding bike rally, though BJP is a cadre-based party having a large base of workers who voluntarily want to participate in the programmes.

The party sources said the CEO assured the leaders that he would look into their grievances.

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A special CBI court today rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by the owners of Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL), which is accused of cheating banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

The plea filed by the promoter of the company Suresh Bhatnagar and his sons and directors Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar was rejected by special CBI court judge N G Dave.

The accused had sought anticipatory bail after the CBI registered a criminal case against DPIL, alleging that through its management, the company had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks since 2008, leaving behind an outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as on June 29, 2016.

DPIL manufactures electric cables and equipment.

The hearing in the case concluded last Saturday.

The accused had told the court that the banks, from which they allegedly took loans and defaulted, had not filed a case, adding that the CBI was acting on the basis of oral information.

They also said that the CBI does not have the authority to file an FIR on its own.

The central investigative agency had opposed the plea saying the offence was of serious nature and related to a "heinous crime of systematic corruption".

It had said that the accused, if let out on bail, could tamper with evidence, influence witnesses and flee from justice.

The CBI also alleged that the company and its directors managed to get term loans and credit facilities despite the fact that they were named in the Reserve Bank of India's defaulters list and the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation's caution list at the time of the initial sanction of credit limits by the consortium.

The probe agency had alleged that the firm, with active connivance of officials from various banks, managed to get enhanced credit facilities.

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A criminal, who had been evading arrest since 2010 in a dacoity-cum-murder case and two robbery cases in the city, has been nabbed by the police.

Accused Babu Khan (38), a native of Bihar, was arrested by a Crime Branch team from Ashok Nagar yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Joy Tirkey said.

A country-made pistol and three live cartridges were seized from the possession of the accused, the officer said, adding that the police had announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for any information leading to his arrest.

Khan was allegedly involved in a dacoity in Kirti Nagar in August, 2004. During the dacoity, Khan and four of his associates had shot dead a businessman, who resisted their attempt, the DCP said.

In February 2010, Khan's gang had allegedly robbed a man in a DTC bus, near Mandir Marg. The gang was also allegedly involved in robbing a businessman of diamonds under the Deen Bandhu Gupta Road police station limits in December, 2010, the officer added.

While his associates were arrested by the police, Khan had gone underground and was untraced after 2010.

During interrogation, Khan revealed that he had been in hiding in his village in Bihar, where he had opened a garment shop, the DCP said.

The accused also told the police that he had returned to Delhi to revive his gang, he added.

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A debt-ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region today by consuming a poisonous chemical, apparently due to crop-loss, police said.

Shankar Chayare (50), the farmer, belonged to Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, from where a number of farmer suicides had been reported in the past.

Chayare allegedly consumed a poisonous chemical and died while he was being taken to Yavatmal city for treatment, the police said.

The loss of cotton crop due to a pest attack is suspected to be the prime reason behind the farmer taking the extreme step, the police said.

A police official said a purported suicide note was also recovered.

"The police have seized a purported suicide note. It mentions the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and holds him responsible (for the suicide), but we are yet to verify its authenticity and the actual cause of the death," Yavatmal Superintendent of Police (SP) Raj Kumar told PTI.

He said the post-mortem report was awaited, following which the authenticity of the purported suicide note would be verified.

"Chayare had taken a loan of Rs 90,000 from a local credit cooperative society and borrowed Rs 3 lakh from a private money lender. He was a resident of Rajurwadi village under the Ghatanji police station limits in Yavatmal district," the SP said.

In Yavatmal district, the suicide of a distressed farmer was, for the first time, officially registered on March 19, 1986. Several farmer leaders in Maharashtra had observed a token fast on March 19 this year to draw the government's attention to the problem of agricultural distress.

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Denouncing the suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria, US President Donald Trump has promised a decision on it within 48 hours.

Trump told his cabinet colleagues that "atrocious and horrible" attacks like these could not be allowed to happen.

"We are studying that situation extremely closely. We are meeting with our military and everybody else. And we will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours," Trump said yesterday.

"We are very concerned, when a thing like that can happen. This is about humanity. Were talking about humanity, and it cant be allowed to happen," he said.

Later in the evening, he held a meeting on Syria with his top military and national security officials.

"Here we are talking about Syria and we're talking about a lot of serious things We are here to discuss Syria tonight.We're the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world," he said.

According to reports, toxic gas was allegedly used on April 7 in Syria's rebel-held town of Douma, killing at least 40 people.

Trump also spoke over phone with French President Emmanuel Macron to continue their coordination on responding to Syria's apparent use of chemical weapons on the attack, the White House said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called upon the Syrian regime and Russia to open the area to international medical assistance and international monitoring.

"The chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime against innocent civilians is horrifying.The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilised world," Sanders said during her daily conference yesterday.

She alleged that such actions were consistent with Assad's "established pattern of chemical weapons use".

"His forces are already responsible for previous chemical weapons attacks and other actions targeting civilians," she said.

Sanders also criticised Russia and Iran for "supporting" the Syrian regime in such acts.

"The president has noted that Russia and Iran also bear responsibility for these acts, since they would not be possible without their material support.It is also now clear that Russia has betrayed its obligations to guarantee the end of the Syrian regimes chemical weapons program," she said.

"We call on all members of the international community to share any information related to this attack and to hold the perpetrators and their sponsors accountable," she said.

Sanders said Trump wanted to bring troops home after completing the mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria.

"At the same time, he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians. Signaling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible," she said in response to a question.

The US, she asserted, was not conducting airstrikes in Syria.

"But I can't go beyond that at this point in time," she said.

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The Delhi Assembly today adopted a resolution directing the government to formulate "strict guidelines" for municipal corporations for executing works under MLA Local Area Development (LAD) funds in the national capital.

The resolution, moved by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Saurabh Bharadwaj, stated that there have been numerous complaints of legislators that MCDs "intentionally" delay the work under MLA LAD funds.

"This House directs the GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) to formulate strict guidelines for the execution of works under MLA LAD funds. The request for estimate of any work should not take more than 21 working days for any executing agency to provide estimate of work to the respective MLA and if there is any other proposal for the same work by other entities, the MLA must be informed in 7 days," it stated.

While tabling the resolution in the Delhi Assembly whose Budget Session concluded today, Bharadwaj said the request and process of allocation of funds to an executing agency should not take more than 14 working days.

"The request/process of preparing NIT (Notice Inviting Tender) and inviting tender should not take more than 30 days of receipt of funds.

"The award of work after opening of bids should not take more than 14 days after finalization of bids," it stated, adding that the execution of work after the award of work should not take more than 90 days.

Meanwhile, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel referred the matter of a Hindi daily to the Privileges Committee of the House following the complaint of Bharadwaj regarding alleged "misleading reporting" of the Assembly proceedings.

The Budget Session of the Delhi Assembly had begun on March 16. It was initially scheduled to be concluded on March 28, but the session had to be extended by four times.

The session saw the Aam Aadmi Party legislators attacking bureaucrats for allegedly refusing to provide answers to questions asked by MLAs on reserved subjects such as law & order, police and services among others.

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A military court in Egypt today sentenced 36 people to death for their role in several deadly church bombings, their lawyers said.

A string of bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta between 2016 and 2017 killed at least 80 people. The bombings were claimed by the Islamic State group.

According to defence lawyers, a total of 48 people appeared before the military court accused of playing a role in the attacks. Egypt's Coptic minority makes up around 10 percent of its 96-million-strong population, and they have been targeted on numerous occasions by IS.

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The Delhi High Court today directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the civic bodies to ensure proper street-lighting in the national capital on a plea alleging that the LED lights on public roads and streets of south Delhi were not functioning.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar disposed of the petition after the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) informed it that according to a joint inspection by the civic bodies, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), the manufacturer of the lights, the BSES and the petitioners, 97 per cent of the street lights were functioning.

"During the pendency of the matter, a joint inspection stands conducted. Parties have participated. Respondent 5 (SDMC) has submitted that 97 per cent of the lights were functional. Nodal officers from the Delhi government to look into the functioning of street lights and hold regular meeting with the petitioners. Ensure that proper street lights are provided. The petition is disposed of," the bench said.

The petition was filed by south Delhi residents Manjeet Singh Chugh and Ravi Gopal Krishnan, alleging that the LED lights on the public roads and streets of south Delhi were either not working or not being maintained or replaced.

During the hearing, the petitioners had sought a third-party investigation into the condition of the nearly two lakh street lights.

"The street lights are improper. The illumination is inadequate and there is no proper earthing," the petitioners had told the court.

They had also pointed out that several crimes were committed on the Delhi roads as they continued to be dark.

"There are electric poles and lights but they never work or are very dim. If they are properly maintained, many crimes can be averted," the petition had said, adding that vast stretches of the roads remained dark, despite crores of rupees being spent on LED lighting.

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The FBI today raided the offices of President Donald Trump's private lawyer Michael Cohen and seized several documents, including information related to the $1,30,000 payment to a porn film actress who alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Reacting sharply to the raid, Trump blasted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, describing the search as a "disgrace" and "an attack on our country."



The FBI raided the offices of Cohen in New York and seized business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including the payment to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Cohen, who has been Trump's confidant for years, had made the $130,000 payoff to the actress ahead of the 2016 election, which she claims was meant to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. The White House has denied her allegations.

The search warrant was very broad in terms of items sought, the CNN said quoting sources. The documents seized included bank records and information related to the actress.

Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, said in a statement that the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York had executed "a series of search warrants" including at his office, and "seized the privileged communications" between Cohen and his clients.

Ryan's statement called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary," and said federal prosecutors had told him it stemmed partially from a referral by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

"The decision by the US attorney's office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients," he said.

Strongly denouncing the move as a "witch hunt", Trump, said, "I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys -- a good man. And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down. We've given, I believe, over a million pages' worth of documents to the Special Counsel."



Trump, addressing reporters at the White House during a meeting with his military leaders, said "this witch hunt has constantly been going on for over 12 months and actually, much more than that".

"You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started. And it's a disgrace. It's, frankly, a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for, he said.

Describing this as a "whole new level of unfairness", Trump said this is now getting "ridiculous".

"They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia. The reason they found it is there was no collusion at all. No collusion. This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen," he said.

He alleged that the opposition Democrats and some from his own Republican party, are not looking at the Hillary Clinton the "horrible things" that she did and all of the crimes that were committed.

"They're not looking at all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about, I can tell you, from the Republican side, and I think even the independent side. They only keep looking at us, he said.

"They find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, Well, let's keep going. And they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning. I think it's a disgrace. So we'll be talking about it more. But this is the most conflicted group of people I've ever seen," Trump said.
The first high-power electric locomotive was today rolled out from the railway factory here, over 10 years after the project was approved.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 12,000-horsepower freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory, a joint venture between the Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, remotely from Bihar's Matihari.

He also flagged off the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi, and laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of railway tracks in Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar (109.7 km) sections.

The prime minister was in Motihari to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He said the Madhepura factory was important for two reasons. "Firstly, this is a glowing example of 'Make in India' and second, this factory is becoming a medium of generating employment in this area," he said.

The Madhepura rail factory was approved in 2007, but the work had been pending for eight years, he said.

"Three years before, the NDA government at the Centre started working on it and now the first phase is ready," he said.

The loco factory has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.

The prime minister flagged off the Champaran Humsafar Express commemorating the centenary of the Champaran Satyagraha. The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly - Tuesdays and Fridays -- covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

"I am getting this opportunity to start a new train on the occasion of 100 years of the Champaran Satyagraha. This train has been specially named Champaran Humsafar Express. Complete with modern amenities, this train will make travelling between Bihar and Delhi extremely easy and comfortable," he said.

The track-doubling project will have huge impact on local movement and cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore.

The project will ensure higher speeds, reduce delays, enhance safety by allowing more time for block maintenance and provide additional capacity for future increase in traffic, officials said.

It will also decongest the entire route from Gorakhpur to Muzaffarpur. The project is also expected to generate about 50.47 lakh man-days direct employment during construction of the line.

The doubling will also boost sugar, jute, forest-based and other industries and extended market to their products. The faster connectivity for the people of the area to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi will also enhance trade and commerce with Nepal as well.

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E-commerce major Flipkart is betting big on IoT-powered devices like wearables and smart home solutions and is working with large Indian and global brands to expand these niche categories.

"Home automation category is at a nascent stage in India. For the category to scale up, we need big brands... We are working with brands across these niche categories to bring them to customers in the country, Flipkart Head of Private Labels and Electronics Adarsh Menon told PTI.

The company has partnered tech giant Google to exclusively sell online the latter's 'Home' and 'Home Mini' voice-activated speakers.

"We will work with Google to see how Flipkart's services can be integrated with Google Home. These are work in progress," he said.

He said the wearables category (fitness bands and smart watches) has been growing at a strong pace for Flipkart and it expects to sell 2.5 million such units in the ongoing fiscal.

"Fundamentally, online share of wearables in India, is a whopping 80 per cent and Flipkart commands almost 50 per cent share of this market...We plan to sell around 2.5 million units of wearables between April 2018 to March 2019," Menon said.

The e-commerce major, however, does not plan to launch any wearable as of now under its 'Billion' brand and instead would sell and showcase IoT products from various brands till the market is of a larger scale.

"There is traction in other smart product categories also, like smart lighting, smart surveillance products and smart locks. We expect these to also grow well in the coming days," he said adding that the company is working on bringing new products and brands for the customers.

The executive said there is a need to educate customers about the use cases of many of these smart products, which it is working on.

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Foreign currencies with a face value of Rs 22.48 lakh was today seized from a Dubai-bound passenger at the international airport here.

The currencies included US dollars, UAE dirhams and Saudi riyals, a customs release said.

The Dubai-bound passenger tried to smuggle the currencies by concealing them in his shoes and hand luggage, it said adding the man was arrested and later released on bail.

In another incident, 244 cartons of cigarettes worth Rs 2.44 lakh were seized from nine people, the release said.

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Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, arrested for the alleged killing of her daughter Sheena Bora, had an overdose of anti-depressant drugs not prescribed to her, J J Hospital here said, quoting forensic lab reports.

Mukerjea, 46, was on Friday admitted to the state-run hospital where she was brought in a "semi-conscious" condition from her prison cell at the Byculla Jail in south Mumbai.

After being admitted, she underwent a series of medical tests to ascertain the reason of her illness.

"The reports of her urine sample showed a significant increase in the level of benzodiazepine, a class of anti-depressants," a doctor from the J J Hospital said, quoting reports of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina submitted last night.

"The medicine prescribed to her is amitriptyline, which is an anti-depressant, but it certainly does not belong to the benzodiazepine class of drugs," he said.

"How she had an overdose of it (benzodiazepine) will be investigated by the police. Though doctors prescribe the medicine, it is always administered by the jail staff," he said.

Another doctor said that an overdose of amitriptyline, which was prescribed to Mukerjea, can be fatal. But, she had an overdose of another anti-depressant that was neither prescribed to her nor is fatal in case of overdose, he said.

J J Hospital's medical superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase said that Mukerjea was now better and taking oral feed.

"She is much better today. She is communicating and taking oral feed. She is being treated for fever and pneumonia," he said.

The city-based Hinduja Hospital also submitted its report in this connection yesterday, and mentioned an 'overdose' but did not quantify it.

A doctor from the J J Hospital said Mukerjea's urine samples were also sent to the Hinduja Hospital.

The private hospital's report has also confirmed a significant presence of the anti-depressant drug benzodiazepine, the doctor said.

The doctors at Hinduja said the presence of a high amount of benzodiazepine in Mukerjea's samples implies that she consumed the anti-depressant drug in a large quantity, he said.

In October 2015, Mukerjea was taken to the J J Hospital from the Byculla women's prison in an unconscious state due to suspected drug overdose.

If a patient is on an anti-depressant drug, the level of benzodiazepine in urine is about 200 in a normal case. However, in case of Mukerjea, its level in her urine sample was 2,088 at that time and it was mentioned in the report submitted by the Hinduja Hospital in 2015, a doctor of the J J Hospital said.

The state prisons department had earlier ordered a detailed inquiry into the case of possible drug overdose by Mukerjea, the former co-founder of INX Media, who is facing trial in her daughter Sheena Bora killing case in which she is the prime accused.

Bora was allegedly killed and her body disposed of in a forest in the adjoining Raigad district in April 2012, according to the police.

Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai were arrested for the crime. Rai later turned an approver (prosecution witness) in the case.

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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia joined French President Emmanuel Macron in expressing concerns today over the worsening conflicts in Yemen, Iran and especially Syria.

Macron said France would decide in coming days on "a strong and joint response" with the United States and Britain to the suspected use of a poison gas that Syrian activists and rescues said killed 40 people near Damascus.

Prince Mohammed, wrapping up his first official visit to France, said during a joint conference with the French leader that Saudi Arabia would support a military operation in Syria.

"If required by our alliance with our partners, we will be there," he said, according to the French translation of his remarks spoken in Arabic.

Macron also announced that France would co-organise with Saudi Arabia a conference on humanitarian aid for Yemen, where a civil war has been fought since 2015. Saudi Arabia leads a foreign coalition backing the Yemeni president who was forced out of office as the war broke out.

Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of targeting civilians with airstrikes. Yemeni rebels have launched ballistic missiles at the kingdom.

"We will not tolerate ballistic missiles activities that threaten Saudi Arabia," Macron said. "Yet we are attached to the respect of international law and especially humanitarian law in Yemen." A lawyer representing a Yemeni human rights group filed a lawsuit Tuesday in France accusing Mohammed of complicity in torture.

He and Macron stated their conflicting views over the Iran nuclear deal, which both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. strongly criticize.

If Iran builds a nuclear bomb, "we will be in an extremely dangerous situation," the crown prince said.

Macron insisted there was no better option than enforcing the nuclear deal, but also pushed for post-2025 proposals to ensure the security of the region.

Macron, 40, France's youngest leader since Napoleon, and the 32-year-old Saudi prince who goes by MSB, met privately earlier today to discuss defense, security and economic issues.

They signed a cooperation agreement on research and tourism at the Mada'in Saleh archaeological site in northwest Saudi Arabia. Macron plans to visit the kingdom, which will be represented at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time next month, at the end of the year.

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Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot today received a threat on social media that whosoever attacked his residence would be rewarded Rs 10 lakh.

The threat came in response to a tweet by the senior Congress leader yesterday in view of the 'Bharat Bandh' call given by some groups opposed to caste-based reservations.

I appeal people not to pay heed to rumours. Violence has no place in democracy, he had said on Twitter.

In reply to his tweet, one user @vishal19pandey wrote:Whosoever will attack Ashok Gehlots residence will be rewarded Rs 10 lakh.

A complaint pertaining to the matter was lodged with the Jaipur commissionerate, police said.

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Taiwan's policy to engage with India has nothing to do with geopolitical considerations and will not be affected by China's view, chief of Taiwan's main trade promotion body said here today as he pushed for more bilateral investment and cultural exchanges.

Taiwan is a sensitive issue for China, which claims the cash-rich island as its territory and a part of "one China".

James Huang, Chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said, "India is important to us in terms of trade and investment. We didn't pay enough attention to India in the past."



Asked if Taiwan's growing affinity towards India will irk China, he said, "I can't dictate what Beijing wants to say or how they (China) see things in this part of the world."



India has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The de facto Indian mission in Taipei is the India-Taipei Association and the Taiwanese maintain the Taipei Economic Cultural Centre in New Delhi.

Beijing opposes any official contact between Taiwan and other countries and has warned India in the past to strictly follow the "one-China" policy.

"The process to engage with India has nothing to do with geopolitics in the region," Huang said.

"We don't want to get involved in any geopolitical dispute in this area. Trade, investment and cultural exchanges is our purpose," Huang, the former foreign minister, told Indian mediapersons in the Taiwanese capital.

He said whatever Taiwan does, Beijing may look at it from a political perspective.

"...but I want to emphasise that our policy to engage with India has nothing to do with geopolitical considerations," he said when asked about the "uneasy" relations China shares with India and Taiwan.

"Beijing may have negative comments about certain statements made by a Taiwanese minister in our Parliament or with our educational policy. About the content in our textbooks. Beijing will say it is political and is a move intended to separate Taiwan from China," Huang, 59, said.

He said there was a strong desire in Taiwan to talk to the Indian government on a possible Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries for a close economic partnership. In 2014, India had indicated its interest to enter into the FTA with Taiwan, he added.

"Some Taiwanese companies will be investing in India to manufacture things like LCD screens and personal computers," Huang, former director of Taiwan's new Southbound Policy, said.

The policy seeks to promote ties with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Australia and New Zealand.

Besides IT, petrochemicals and food processing are key areas in which India and Taiwan can cooperate with each other, Huang said.

"We are holding a Taiwan Expo in New Delhi for the first time next month. On April 17, a new TAITRA office will open in India's national capital. India is a rapidly growing economy with a population of 1.3 billion people and its economic growth is even faster than China and ASEAN members. The market is worth exploring further," Huang said.

The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan, which was around USD 5 billion in 2016, rose to USD 6.3 billion in 2017 and is expected to rise by 10 to 15 per cent this year, Huang said.

"Taiwan is ready to collaborate with India in enhancing electronic manufacturing capability," he said.

"We are considering developing industrial parks in India as part of 'Make in India initiative'. We are also ready to start a petrochemical park in India," he said.

Taiwan has developed good solutions for smart cities, he said, adding "Taiwan is the best partner for India in the smart city business."



Taiwan is looking forward to collaborate with India in electric vehicle sector, Huang said. "India is planning to phase out combustion engines by 2030 and moving to electric vehicles. We have an entire ecosystem in this business and can help India," he added.

"The Modi government's 'Digital India' initiative is a huge opportunity for Taiwanese companies," Huang said.

On the risks of escalating protectionism and a damaging trade conflict between the US and China, Huang said, "You can't shift the entire supply chain system from Asia to the US. It is not possible."



China's hostility towards Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party was elected Taiwan's president in 2016. China fears Tsai wants to push for formal independence, though she says she wants to maintain the status quo and is committed to peace.

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The government is exploring ways to enhance the role of the elite counter-terror force NSG in the wake of the "serious challenge" posed by newly-devised terror techniques such as mowing down civilians using large vehicles and lone wolf attacks,Home Minister Rajnath Singh said here today.

He asked special forces such as the National Security Guard (NSG) to prepare themselves to tackle threats in the backdrop of these new emerging threats.

Singh was in Telangana on a day-long tour to inaugurate a 200-acre complex of the special composite group (SCG)number 28 of the NSG in the Ranga Reddy district of the state. The camp is about 33-km from state capital Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International airport.

Addressing the officers of the commando force and those from the state police, the minister said the terrorist minds keep on devising and adopting "new tactics" to unleash death and mayhem.

"We have seen across the globe, like in New York, London, Spain and Stockholm, that a large vehicle is used by terror elements to mow down people. Also, the do it yourself or lone wolf attacks are being carried out by them to perpetrate terror," he said.

"The terrorists are adopting cruel and barbaric techniques like I mentioned. This is a serious challenge and special forces like the NSG should prepare themselves to tackle these emerging threats," Singh said.

The home minister said social media has made "easy" the contact and coordination between terror groups.

He said the central government is thinking and planning as to how the NSG's role could be "enlarged" vis-a-vis the new security challenges faced by the country, as the black cats commando force can play a "big role" in operations such as those where terrorists take a human shield and enter civilian premises.

While the minister did not elaborate on the future role for the NSG, official sources confirmed that the government is working on a proposal to use it during counter-terror operations in the Kashmir Valley.

Singh lauded the security forces for ensuring that no big terror incident has taken place in the hinterland, except in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The morale of the terrorists is down but they are always looking for chances. Hence, you should continuously keep evolving and enhancing your tactics," the top boss of the internal security establishment said.

Terrorism, the home minister said, is a threat to entire mankind and it is posing new challenges globally.

The NSG should enhance its technical and tactical capabilities in this context, Singh said.

"Post the 26/11 (2008 Mumbai terror attacks), every agency needs to work round-the-clock and be vigilant to ensure that peace is not breached," he said.

The minister said there was speculation, post the Mumbai attacks and establishment of the NSG regional hubs, that the elite forces core competence will go down, but that has not happened.

"I am sure the core competence of the NSG will enhance in the future, with the creation of full infrastructure at these hubs like the one here and those in Kolkata and Gandhinagar," he said.

The NSG hub inaugurated today by the minister is tasked with tackling a terrorist attack or a hostage crisis-like situation in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

The hub was shifted from Begumpet to this town in the Ranga Reddy district few years back and the facility has infrastructure to house about 600 commandos and also to train them.

The construction of the regional hub complex by the Central Public Works Department commenced in 2013 and the total project cost was Rs 157.84 crore.

The force has also stationed a small counter-terror and counter-hijack task force of commands at the Hyderabad airport.

During the event, NSG director General (DG) Sudeep Lakhtakia said the force is continuously enhancing its techniques, tactics and strategies to render its special task.

The NSG was raised in 1984 as a federal force against terror incidents and apart from these operations, it also provides proximate security to cover a dozen Z+ category of VVIPs.

Post the Mumbai attacks, regional hubs were created for the force so that its response time during such incidents would be as short as possible.

The five NSG hubs are located at Hyderabad (Ibrahimpatnam), Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Gandhinagar which house fully equipped commandos to undertake operations any time.

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The Haryana government has made a provision of Rs 10 crore to support students studying in colleges and universities for launching their own start-ups, Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said today.

Addressing the students after inaugurating the start-up Incubator-cum-Center of Excellence at Government Post-Graduate College in Panchkula, near here, he said this was the first-of-its kind centre set up in the state.

"It is an important step towards realisation of vision of Digital India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The youth does not lack talent, it has to be recognized appropriately," he added.

The Centre would promote entrepreneurship at all levels among the aspiring youth of the state, he said.

Spread over an area of 3,000 square feet, the centre would primarily cater to four government colleges of Panchkula district namely, Government Postgraduate College, Sector-1, Government Post Graduate Women's College, Sector-14, Government College, Barwala and Government College, Kalka, and the students would be able to give wings to their ideas.

He also spoke about starting a money bank for new entrepreneurs of the state, which would provide interest-free financial assistance along with bus service for girl students who travel in remote areas.

He urged the youth to come forward with start-up ideas and make a career for themselves.

On this occasion, Sharma also launched 'Shiksha Setu', a mobile application, a new web portal and PATANG (Passport Assistance to aspiring Young Graduates) initiative of the Higher Department.

He applauded the Department of Higher for taking up new initiatives to upgrade the quality of higher education. With the launch of mobile app 'Shiksha Setu' and new web portal, the students studying in colleges and universities would now be able to deposit their fees and get scholarships online.

This Mobile Application and portal would make available detailed information on students, teachers and other staff online and would also help in evaluation of students and the performance of teachers.

Under PATANG initiative, students of colleges would be able to get their passports made on college campus.

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In a controversial move, school students in Haryana have been asked to fill in a 100-pointer admission form giving details like whether their parents are engaged in any "unclean occupation" or suffering from genetic disorders, prompting the opposition to hit out at the Khattar government.

The school students above primary classes have also been asked to mention their along with their parents' Aadhaar numbers, parents' occupation and educational qualification in the admission form.

The form also seeks to know "whether parents of students are engaged in unclean occupation, whether they are income tax payees, their religion and caste details, genetic disorder, if any, besides students' bank details".

Commenting on the development, the opposition Congress said the BJP-led state government was indulging in "racial and religious profiling".

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala in a series of tweets said, "Khattar Govt issues a 100 point Students Admission Form. It is really a Surveillance of Parents/Students Form.

"Khattar Govt does it again. Students labelled as 'untouchables' & their parents occupation as 'unclean'. Height of insanity is the kind of pvt info of parents being sought. Calling vocation of parents unclean is absurd," he said.

"Govt, taking a cue from NaMo App, issues a 100 pointer student admission form. Since when has Aadhaar become mandatory for school admission?," he said in another tweet.

Surjewala demanded that the state department withdraw the order and tender an apology to the parents.
The Madras High Court today adjourned to April 13, a petition filed by the ED seeking to vacate the stay on the summons issued to Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Saradha chit fund scam case.

When the petition by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) came up, Justice S M Subramaniam posted the matter to April 13.

On September 7, 2016, the ED had issued summons to Nalini Chidambaram for receivingRs 1 crore as fee from promoters of theSaradha Group.

Challenging the summons, Nalini had approached the high court.

Nalini had submitted that as per Section 160 of teh CrPC, a woman could not be summoned by police and inquiry has to be conducted in her house.

Pointing out that the CBI had already filed a charge sheet in the Saradha chit fund scam probe before a court in West Bengal, the petitioner had said her name did not figure in it either as an accused or witness and yet she was summoned by the ED.

The matter pertains to the legal fee allegedly paid to Nalini by the Saradha group over a television channel purchase deal.

A sum of Rs 1 crore was paid to Nalini for her appearances in the court and company law board by Saradha group chairman, Sudipto Sen.

It was part of a clause in an agreement between Sen and former Union Minister Matang Sinh's wife Manoranjana, who was Nalini's client, over a television channel purchase deal, a senior counsel who had appeared for Nalini, had told PTI.

Nalini's counsel had further said her fees was declared in the tax returns and the transactions happened before the Saradha scam case.

The high court had on September 21, 2016 stayed the summons issued by the ED.

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The Madras High Court has observed that the law of the nation must respect injured soldiers.

A division bench of Justices S Vimala and S Ramathilagam made the observation while enhancing the compensation to Havildar Mohan Kumar from Rs 4.57 Lakh to Rs 73 lakh.

Mohan Kumar (34), working at the frontier, was seriously injured in an accident during a visit to his native Tiruppathur in 2007.

The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal awarded Rs. 4.57 lakh compensation to Kumar and his wife in 2012.

The soldier's family challenged the order in the high court.

The bench observed that it was not in dispute that the claimant was totally paralysed and immobile.

"It is clear that the claimant would not be in a position to earn any more in his life. Not only the claimant who has suffered the loss, equally so his family," it said.

The bench said the tribunal ought to have considered all aspects in proper perspective while quantifying the compensation towards loss of earning capacity.

"Therefore, it is incumbent on this court to see to it that the compensation granted is consciously just and reasonable and not for mere word sake to be termed as just and reasonable," it said.

The bench then fixed the compensation at Rs 73 lakh and directed the New India Assurance Co Ltd in Tiruppathur to remit it to the credit of the claim petition within six weeks.

It also observed that it was high time necessary training was imparted to judicial officers regarding proper use of the 'multiplier' method.

The bench directed the registry to mark a copy of the order to the director, Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, Chennai, for necessary follow up action.

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Pained by the incidents of medical staff, including doctors, being assaulted by patients and their attendants, the Delhi High Court today said such acts cannot be countenanced and asked a private body to evaluate health care quality in AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital and LNJP Hospital as the Centre was "not placing" the correct picture before it.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said that even though the central government has claimed there are enough doctors, "it cannot be denied that insufficiency of medical staff is one of the major causes of discontent among patients and their attendants".

It observed that patients needed attendants as the nurses were not doing their jobs and said if CCTV cameras are installed, the correct position would be evident.

The court said that since the central government was not placing the correct position before it, it was imperative to have an independent audit of the facilities along with recommendations of an ideal health care situation.

It asked the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), a body under the Quality Council of India (QCI), to conduct a detailed evaluation of the three hospitals-- All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital and Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, within two weeks and to inform the court about the available infrastructure and manpower, their inadequacy and steps necessary for improvement of health services.

The bench asked NABH, represented by advocate Vikas Chopra, to inform it about the doctor-patient ratio, adequacy of facilities for doctors and measures in place for their safety and security.

The court said it was open to NABH to decide which all specialities it will evaluate and directed the Centre and the Delhi government to pay the organisation Rs two lakh per hospital, coming to a total of Rs six lakh, as interim payment for the assessment, after NABH said that the evaluation work is conducted by qualified experts and would cost a total of Rs 10 lakh.

With the direction, the bench listed the matter for further hearing on April 25.

NABH is a constituent board of QCI and was set up to establish and operate an accreditation programme for health care organizations.

QCI, set up as a public private partnership, is an independent body that works towards assuring quality standards across all spheres of economic and social activities.

The bench had earlier decided to look into the aspects of health care quality and working conditions of medical professionals in hospitals in Delhi while hearing a PIL initiated by it after perusing a report on the rise in violent attacks on doctors.

The court, through the plea, has been issuing periodic directions for ensuring safety and security of doctors and other medical staff.

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The Orissa High Court today asked the administration of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri to open by April 16 the prayer hall for devotees which has been out of bounds for over two years.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Vineet Saran summoned an officer of the temple administration to the court hall to give the order of opening the 'Jagamohan'.

"Open the Jagamohan to the devotees, positively by April 16, or else stringent legal actions will be initiated against the temple administration," the court told ritual administrator Pradeep Kumar Dash.

Earlier, Dash, in an affidavit, had urged the court to grant time till August 1 to the administration to open the prayer hall on account of the Rath Yatra in the last week of July.

Taking strong exceptions to the affidavit, the bench ordered its counsel to ensure that Dash appears in the court in person.

It was after Advocate General Surya Prakash Mishra assured the court of the timely compliance of its order, the bench decided to fix April 16 as the deadline for opening the prayer hall.

The bench also asked the temple administration to file an affidavit in the court on April 19, stating the procedures followed for complying with its orders.

The Jagamohan was closed for public in January 2016 on account of a repair work being undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The ASI had informed the high court on March 16 that the work in the hall is complete and it could be made accessible to the devotees.

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Telecom equipment maker HFCL today said that it has received advance purchase order worth Rs 579 crore from state-run firm BSNL for building 2G network in Assam.

"... the company has received an advance purchase order worth Rs 579 crore approximately from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ..for survey, planning, supply, intsallation, testing, commissioning..maintenance for five years of 2G GSM BSS network," Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd said in a BSE filing.

The company will deploy the network through mircowave radio and VSAT backhaul in uncovered villages of Karbi Anglong and Dima Haso dsitricts of Assam.

"The network will include 924 BTS (base station) sites and cater to 1,313 villages," the filing said.

The order is part of Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the north-eastern region, approved by Cabinet in 2014, to provide 2G mobile coverage in 8,621 uncovered villages and areas along with national highways in the North-East with an outlay of Rs 5,336.18 crore.

Bharti Airtel has also been entrusted to set up over 2004 mobile towers to connect about 2,128 villages in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, parts of Assam and national highways in north-eastern States. Besides, BSNL has been assigned to install 2,817 mobile towers to provide coverage in 4,119 uncovered villages in the region.

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Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) plans to invest Rs 8 billion in the ongoing financial year to expand operations in the country.

The company, which posted a growth of 22 per cent in 2017-18, aims to grow in double digits in 2018-19 as well.

"We will invest close to Rs 8 billion this financial year as we aim for double-digit growth for the third consecutive year," HMSI President and CEO Minoru Kato told reporters here.

The investment would mainly go into improving efficiency at manufacturing plants, getting new tools and equipment for BS VI upgradation, and new product launches.

During 2018-19, HMSI plans to expand sales network to 6,000 touchpoints from 5,700 outlets last financial year.

"We will enhance our presence, especially in rural areas," Kato said.

The company, which is already number one contributor to parent Honda's global two-wheeler business, also plans to launch a brand new model and 18 upgrades of existing products in 2018-19 , he added.

The two-wheeler major is also targeting to expand its best dealer network to 250 outlets in the financial year. The network stood at 200 touchpoints last year.

It is also considering introducing a customer loyalty programme during the year.

On company's 2020 plans, Kato said the two-wheeler maker is set to upgrade to BS VI emission norms much before the deadline.

HMSI has started upgrading its facilities for the same, he added.

He, however, said the entire two-wheeler industry might see volumes fall post-2020 due to significant price hike in BS VI compliant products.

"It (BS VI) will, however, open up various export markets for us," HMSI Senior VP sales and marketing Y S Guleria said.

The company exports to around 27 countries, including Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Overseas shipments contribute around 5 per cent of the company's current volumes.

When asked if the company is looking to introducing electric models in the country, Kato said, "we are evaluating but there is no concrete plan yet."



In 2017-18, the company sold a total of 6.1 million units.

The company's installed capacity across its four plants stands at 6.4 million units.

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Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is mulling its fifth manufacturing facility after 2020, to cater to expected spurt in demand for its products.

The company, which is already the top contributor to parent Honda's global two-wheeler business, currently has four manufacturing plants in the country with an installed capacity of 64 lakh units per annum.

"We expect two-wheeler sales of the entire industry to dip post 2020 as product prices would increase (due to implementation of BS-VI emission norms), but after it stabilises, the industry is expected to grow," HMSI President and CEO Minoru Kato told reporters here.

Till 2020, the company would manage demand from the current facilities by increasing efficiencies, he added.

"But after 2020, we can add production capacity," Kato said.

When asked if it means that the company would set up a new plant, he said, "Possibly. But it is still under consideration."



Kato further said HMSI, which has aspirations to become the top two-wheeler maker in India, ahead of Hero MotoCorp, would prefer to have more production capacity.

"It is the responsibility of the global headquarter to allocate capacity...we would like to raise our hand (for more capacity)," he said.

Enhanced capacity would also help in meeting HMSI's ambitions of becoming an export hub, the potential for which would increase after implementation of the BSVI emission norms as the company would be able to cater to more overseas markets, Kato said.

He, however, declined to comment on the timeline as well as location of the expected HMSI facility.

At present, HMSI has four manufacturing plants -- Manesar (Haryana), Tapukara (Rajasthan), Narsapura (Karnataka) and Vithalapur (Guajarat).

When asked about company's ambition to become the top two-wheeler maker in the country, Kato said, "We want to become number one as early as possible, but still there is lot of gap between us and the leader."



In 2017-18, HMSI's sold 57,75,287 units of two-wheelers in the domestic market, while Hero MotoCorp sold 73,82,718 units.

Last year, Honda Motor Company chief officer - regional operations (Asia and Oceania), Shinji Aoyama, had said that he expects HMSI to be number one two-wheeler maker in the country by 2020.

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DMK working president M K Stalin today appealed to the people to hoist black flags atop their houses on April 12 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Tamil Nadu.

Stalin made this appeal while addressing a meet on the Cauvery issue at Kottur, about 35 km from here.

He asked how could Modi visit Tamil Nadu after "betraying the State on the Cauvery issue."



Modi is scheduled to formally inaugurate the Defence Expo 2018 at Thiruvidanthai, about 40 km from Chennai, on that day.

The DMK leader said the day of Modi's visit is a day of 'grief' (dukkha naal) for the State in view of the Centre's 'betrayal.'



He said people should not only hoist black flags in their houses but also wear black clothes and badges as a mark of opposition and protest.

Stalin had said his party would show black flags to Modi as a mark of protest over the Cauvery issue.

The DMK leader, who is here on his fourth day of Cauvery Rights Retrieval Yatra, alleged that despite a clear Supreme Court verdict, the Centre did not come forward to set up the Cauvery Management Board.

He said opposition parties would submit a memorandum to Governor Banwarilal Purohit on April 13 asking him to urge the Centre to set up the CMB immediately.

Stalin said the parties would tell Purohit that "we do not have faith in Chief Minister K Palaniswami and there is no use in believing the State government."



Hitting out at the AIADMK regime on the Cauvery issue, he demanded the government's resignation.

Palaniswami was toeing Prime Minister Narendra's line for fear of "losing the chair," Stalin said.

Stalin began his Cauvery yatra on April 7 from Mukkombu near Tiruchirappalli and is covering the Cauvery basin region of Tamil Nadu.

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West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today expressed hope that the 141-year-old Calcutta Boys' School will help in the making of a resurgent and vibrant Bengal.

Tripathi, who unveiled the plaque of the new state-of-the-art block, the 'Commemoration Building, of the premier heritage educational institution, said it will continue to withstand the vagaries of time and be a part of a new Bengal.

"Being an amalgamation of collective wisdom, the institution is a place for excellence in and co-curricular activities and holds a position among the top institutions in the country," the Governor said in his address.

Tripathi said the new block will give a tremendous boost to the ongoing restoration and renovation drive of the school, founded by Rev James Mills Thoburn in 1877.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar, who was also part of the inauguration of the new unit, said the acronym of The Calcutta Boys' School (CBS) stands for Character, Brain and Sports.

He said such institutions espouse an egalitarian concept where every child is equal.

Stressing on the need to impart basic values among children, Akbar, an alumni of the school, said, "Schools build up characters, which define how we behave with fellow human beings."



Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, while recalling his presence at the foundation laying ceremony of the block in 2012, said the West Bengal government's 'Kanyashree' project has reached out to the poor and helped in the uplift of the girl child.

Chief Executive of the Council for ISC Examination, New Delhi, Gerry Arathoon said among the 2,300 ICSE-affiliated schools in the country, the Calcutta Boys' School provided one of the best infrastructures for students and teachers.

Principal and Secretary of the School, Raja Mcgee said from the 2019-20 academic year, a new humanities stream will be introduced for the 10+2 class, where students will be introduced to different humanities subjects.

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Himachal PradeshChief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today met the children, who were injured in the school bus accident near Nurpur in Kangra district, and wished them speedy recovery.

Thirty people, including 27 children, were killed in the accident which saw a school bus plunged into a deep gorge near village Gurchal on the Nurpur-Chamba highway yesterday.

"I have directed the doctors to provide best treatment to the children, and if needed they should be referred to another hospital. The government would bear all the expenses. Thakur said, who visited both, the Nurpur civil hospital (Kangra) and Amandeep civil hospital (Punjab), where the injured were undergoing treatment.

The chief minister also lauded the bravery of Ranveer, a 10-year-old boy, who allegedly despite being himself injured reached the road site and informed people about the accident.

Thakur, who earlier expressed his deepest condolences to the bereaved family of the accident victims during the wreath laying ceremony, said the government would soon constitute a committee that would give its suggestions to avoid such incidents in future.

The state government has ordered a magisterial probe into the accident and announced an immediate relief of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased.

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The Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet against an Indian Air Force officer, accusing him of leaking sensitive documents to Pakistan's ISI.

The final report is understood to have alleged that Group Captain Arun Marwah, arrested in February, had leaked classified documents to a woman through internet messenger WhatsApp.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Shehrawat has decided to take cognisance of the final report on April 24. Punishment under the OSA entails a jail term of up to seven years.

The charge sheet has been filed under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Official Secrets Act (OSA), the court sources said.

Marwah, currently in judicial custody, had befriended her through Facebook in December last year, the agency said.

The agency said that the investigation was still on and it was probing whether Marwah was part of a larger espionage ring.

It has also said it may file a supplementary charge sheet in the case.

As per the complaint filed against Marwah by the Air Force, he was caught by the counter-intelligence wing after he was found carrying a high-end phone at the headquarters which are banned there.

Marwah was handed over to the Special Cell of Delhi police after being interrogated for nearly 10 days by the counter-intelligence wing of the IAF.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today hailed the "special partnership" between India and Russia, saying it has resulted in laying the foundations of India's industrialisation.

She was speaking at the inauguration of a photo exhibition organised here to celebrate the Centenary Anniversary of India's first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Gandhi said her family's ties with Russia dates back to 1927 when Indira Gandhi's grandfather Motilal Nehru, father Jawaharlal Nehru and mother Kamala first visited Moscow.

"It was this journey that inspired Nehru to write his very first book, 'Soviet Russia: Some Random Sketches and Impressions'," she said.

"Indira Gandhi herself made her first trip to Russia in 1953. Her letters to her father tell him how excited and deeply moved she was by Moscow and her people," Gandhi added.

India and Russia shared a special partnership that has resulted in laying the foundations of India's industrialisation which are still very visible, she said.

"These include steel plants, oil refineries, engineering complexes, power stations and fertilizer factories. The Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai that is now globally renowned was started with Russian assistance. Indira Gandhi took the Indo-Soviet link to a new level altogether, giving it solid strategic content as well," she said.

Commending Russia's support to India during the Bangladesh's War of Independence, Gandhi said Moscow "stood like a rock" with India during New Delhi's moment of "grave crisis".

"There was a genuine warmth and a rare chemistry between Indira Gandhi and the Russian leaders," she said.

Gandhi said the exhibition on Indira Gandhi tells the story of a courageous, compelling and charismatic leader who left an indelible imprint not only on her own country, not only on the India-USSR relationship but on the world stage as well.

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India and China today held the fifth round of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Dialogue here, a key platform to discuss international security and disarmament issues amid Beijing's continued efforts to block New Delhi's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

China has been blocking India's entry into the elite nuclear club in the last two years on the ground that it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) even though majority of the 48-member group supported New Delhi's case.

Pakistan, China's all weather ally, too has applied for NSG membership in 2016.

During today's talks, the two sides exchanged views on various topics of mutual interest, including developments related to disarmament and non-proliferation at multilateral forums, nuclear issues, role of science and technology in the context of international security and disarmament as well as outer space, the Indian Embassy here said in a statement.

"Both sides underlined the importance of the bilateral dialogue as an important mechanism between the two countries for consultations on important issues," it said, but made no reference to India's NSG membership issue.

China has called for a two-step approach which states that NSG members first need to arrive at a set of principles for the admission of non-NPT states into the NSG and then move forward discussions of specific cases.

Last December, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media here that China's position on India's entry into the NSG remained "unchanged".

For its part, India has been taking up the issue with China at different levels including during the meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

NSG membership along with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Beijing blocking moves to list Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar as terrorist by UN became major stumbling blocks in India-China relations.

Today's talks were held amid new optimism on both sides to improve their ties after last year's 73-day standoff at Dokalam.

Reports say a number of top Indian officials and ministers, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are expected to visit China this month.

Modi too is scheduled to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to be held in Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

The Indian delegation at today's talks was led by Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) in the Ministry of External Affairs while the Chinese side was led by Wang Qun, Director General of Department of Arms Control at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

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India today donated USD 1 million to support Swaziland's national disaster management agency and expressed commitment to developmental partnership to create local capacities in the country and across Africa.

The commitment came as President Ram Nath Kovind addressed Swaziland's parliament, becoming the first visiting Head of the State to do so.

The president said India was committed "to developmental partnership and India's approach is to create local capacities in Swaziland and across Africa.

Kovind arrived in Swaziland yesterday on the second leg of his three-nation tour which also included Equatorial Guinea and Zambia.

"To support the Swaziland National Disaster Management Agency, we have decided to donate USD 1 million as well as food grains... We invite Swaziland to join the International Solar Alliance as a partner country," the president said.

He said India was ready to help the country on issues of public health.

"India is the main source of affordable generic drugs including anti-retroviral drugs for fighting HIV. Swaziland has made remarkable progress in slowing the spread of HIV," he said.

India will establish a Centre of Agricultural Excellence in Swaziland for sharing its experience in the sector, Kovind said.

"I had the honour to inaugurate the IT Centre built with Indian assistance. We must also guard against cyber threats. India has offered to help in the construction of a Disaster Recovery Site for providing data backup at Swaziland's National Data Centre," he said.

India is keen to share its expertise and experience with Swaziland and with the whole of the African continent, Kovind added.

"The Kingdom is a member of many regional economic groupings. I see good potential for Indian investors to leverage these advantages, and use Swaziland as a regional hub for manufacturing and services," he said.

India also announced concessional finance for constructing a new parliament building in Swaziland.

However, no details of the concessional finance were provided.

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India and Egypt today held talks on providing new opportunities for investments in IT, education and health, and discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral ties.

The talks were held between India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan on the sidelines of celebration the an India Day held in the coastal city of Alexandria.

"We met the Governor in the morning and thanked him for the support provided to Indian investments and to Indians in Alexandria as well as to Indian cultural activities, especially the International Yoga Day," Bhattacharyya said.

"We discussed new opportunities for investments in IT, education and health. I briefed him on establishment of infrastructure projects, to which he responded very favourably, noting priority in transport and public utilities," he said.

The film festival was opened with the popular Indian film 'Om Shanti Om' starring Shah Rukh Khan. An exhibition on Gandhi is also being organized.

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Senior officials of India and Peru will hold next round of negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) in the South American nation this week to boost two-way commerce between the countries.

"Officials from commerce ministry are there in Peru for the second round of negotiations for the pact," a government official said.

In an FTA, two countries significantly reduce or eliminate duties on most of the goods traded between them besides relaxing norms and rules to promote trade in services and increase bilateral investments.

With growing uncertainties in its traditional markets, including the US and Europe, India is looking to enhance its engagements with regions like Africa, South America and Central Asia.

Exporters body Federation of India Export Organisations (FIEO) said that Peru holds huge potential for exports.

"The FTA would help boost our exports. India should look at South American market aggressively as Peru is also a member of MERCOSUR (a six Country trade bloc with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as its members)," FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said.

He said that India should also look at increasing investments in these regions.

Peru ranked third amongst export destinations for India in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region during 2015-16.

The bilateral trade between the nations increased to USD 1.77 billion in 2016-17 from USD 1.52 billion in the previous fiscal.

Among the top ten commodities of India's export to Peru are motor vehicle, cars, products of iron and steel, cotton yarn and fabrics. While the imports include bulk minerals and ores, gold, fertilisers crude and zinc.

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India's capacity to dispose solid waste in a scientific manner will be increased in the near future, a Union minister said here today.

"Currently, 25 per cent of the solid waste is disposed in a scientific manner, while the rest 75 per cent is disposed in a traditional way," Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said.

"According to an estimate, Indian cities generate 1.7 lakh tonnes of solid waste on a daily basis," he added.

Puri was speaking at the inaugural session of 8th Regional 3 R (reduce, recycle and reuse) Forum meet in Asia and the Pacific.

He said the possibility of taking Japan's assistance for the scientific disposal of solid waste will be considered.

"I know that in Tokyo, solid waste is disposed in a very systematic manner. I will encourage my ministry officials to explore the possibilities of taking the help of Japanese government or private companies there for the disposal of solid waste," Puri said.

He expressed confidence that India would be in a position to completely dispose solid waste in a scientific manner in the years to come.

The minister praised the residents of Indore for making it the cleanest city in India as per the 'Swachh Sarvekshan- 2017'.

"New York is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But if I have to name some of the cleanest cities in terms of public participation, I won't choose New York as people of that city are too busy," Puri said.

According to him, the results of Swachh Bharat Sarvekshan - 2018 would be out in a month or so.

For the Swachh Bharat contest, 73 and 434 cities were chosen in 2016 and 2017 respectively. But this time, 4,000 cities are a part of it, Puri said.

The minister said that in order to achieve the goal of cleanliness, change in people's behaviour and construction of toilets were necessary.

He said India will lay emphasis on turning solid waste into manure and for generation of bio-gas.

"India is aware of the challenges in achieving cleanliness. The country would play a significant role in achieving sustainable development goals (SDG)," he said.

The event was attended by Japan's Minister of Tadahiko Ito and presided over by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, an MP from Indore.

Around 300 representatives of 45 Asian countries are taking part in the three-day conference jointly hosted by Indian Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, Japanese Ministry, Division for Sustainable Development and different wings of UN.

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Dang Dinh Quy, the Vice Foreign Minister of Vietnam, today met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and held discussions on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and on ways to further boost ties.

"Vice Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy of Vietnam called on EAM @sushmaswaraj today. They discussed comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam and the plan of action to further expand our relationship," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

After a decade of being strategic partners, India and Vietnam formally upgraded their relationship status to "comprehensive strategic partnership" in 2016.

Defence and trade are important components of the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

There have been two high-level visits to India from the Vietnamese side earlier this year.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was one of the chief guests for the Republic Day Parade this year, while President Tran Dai Quang also paid a visit to India last month.

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A doctor has accused IndiGo staff of manhandling and de-boarding him from a Lucknow-Bengaluru flight after he complained of mosquitoes onboard.

Saurabh Rai, a cardiologist, told PTI that he would take "legal recourse" soon against the airline as well as lodge a complaint with the civil aviation ministry, aviation regulator DGCA and Prime Minister's Office.

The airline claimed however that Rai was offloaded at Lucknow for unruly behaviour. It alleged that he even attempted to instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft.

This is at least the second incident in six months of an untoward incident involving IndiGo staff. Last November, a video had surfaced of the airline staff allegedly manhandling a passenger on the tarmac in the national capital.

Recalling the incident, which happened on Monday, Rai said that as the cabin was full of mosquitoes, he repeatedly asked the airline staff if something can be done to remove them but the requests were not entertained.

After the aircraft door was shut, he asked whether the crew members can arrange some mosquito repellent but there was no response. After a few minutes, airline personnel rushed towards his seat and caught him by his collar before dragging him to the ramp, Rai claimed.

"After that they deboarded me... then they told me that I can fly only if I tender an apology," he said over telephone, adding that in the process the flight was also delayed.

According to him, the plane took off without him as he refused to tender an apology as demanded by the airline.

Rai said he was forced to buy a new ticket and also to delete all photographs from his phone that were taken inside the aircraft.

"They manhandled me as well... It is a question of my dignity. I am going to write to the civil aviation minister, Prime Minister's Office and DGCA. I will also take legal recourse soon," he said.

Rai claimed that IndiGo staff also said that mosquitoes are all over India, let alone Lucknow, "so will you leave the country?".

In response to IndiGo's claim of unruly behaviour, Rai said if that was the case then why was he allowed to travel in another IndiGo flight and that no police complaint was lodged.

However, IndiGo did not issue a statement to repeated queries seeking comments about the incident.

Responding to queries on Twitter, the airline said that Rai was offloaded from 6E541 for unruly behaviour.

"Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitoes on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language including the word 'hijack'. He also attempted to instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft," the airline said in a tweet.

Keeping in mind safety protocols, as well as the passenger's unruly behaviour, the pilot-in-command decided to offload Rai, the airline said.

"At IndiGo, there is no compromise on matters of safety and security. Further, we would like to mention here that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has prohibited disinfectant fumigation in aircraft while passengers are onboard," it noted.

About the airline's allegations, Rai said, "if they allege that I shouted hijack and indulged in unruly behaviour, then why did not they search me or my baggage. Why did they allow me to travel on another (IndiGo) flight instead of filing a police complaint?".

Rai also posted a video narrating about the incident on the social media.

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INS Tarangini, a sail training ship of the Indian Navy, today departed from Kochi on a seven-month long voyage to Europe.

The ship was ceremonially flagged-off by Vice Admiral AR Karve,Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command from the Naval Base here, a defence release said.

'Sailing through different Oceans and Uniting Nations' is the voyage's theme.

The ship, commanded by Cdr Rahul Mehta, will visit 15 ports in 13 countries, covering a distance of more than 15,000 nautical miles.

Nine officers, 40 sailors and 150 cadets will be taking part in the voyage, the release said.

"Up to 30 foreign trainees are expected to embark the ship during various legs," it said.

The ship will be participating in the culmination ceremony of the Biscay Tall Ship race at Bordeaux, France and also take part in a 'Tall Ship race' starting from Sunderland, United Kingdom, the release said.

INS Tarangini, Indian navy's first sail training ship (STS), was built in the Goa Shipyard and commissioned on November 11 1997.

It is the only commissioned ship of the Indian Navy to have circumnavigated the globe, the feat achieved in 2003-04, the release said.

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International condemnation grew over a suspected poison gas attack in a rebel-held town near Damascus said to have been carried out by the Syrian government, while Syria and its main ally, Russia, blamed Israel for airstrikes on a Syrian air base that reportedly killed 14 people, including four Iranians.

The timing of the airstrikes in central Homs province, hours after President Donald Trump said there would be "a big price to pay" for the chemical weapons attack, raised questions about whether Israel was acting alone or as a proxy for the United States.

Israel did not comment on today's missile strike. The Jewish State typically does not comment on its airstrikes in Syria, which have been numerous in Syria's civil war.

The fast-paced developments threatened to further hike tensions between the US and Russia, which has in the past warned against any US military action against President Bashar Assad's government.

Iran, a key ally of Assad, condemned the airstrikes, which it said killed four Iranians, including a colonel and a member of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace force.

Opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday night's chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, blaming Assad's forces. The attack killed entire families in their homes and underground shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

The Syrian government strongly denied it carried out a chemical weapons attack and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has opened an investigation. In a statement, it said a fact-finding mission was gathering information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, urged inspectors from the watchdog agency to fly to Syria's capital today and visit the site in a nearby rebel-held town.

He denied any attack occurred, telling the UN Security Council that experts from Russia's military radiological, biological and chemical unit went to the site and found no chemical substances on the ground, no dead, and no poisoned people in hospitals.

Trump today condemned the "heinous attack" in Syria and said later at a Cabinet meeting that he would "forcefully" respond.

"Nothing is off the table," Trump warned.

He said that after conferring with his military advisers, he would soon decide on how to respond, and against whom. "If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," Trump said.

Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added: "Everybody's going to pay a price he will, everybody will."



British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assad's government and its backers, including Russia, "must be held to account" if it is found to have been responsible for the suspected poison gas attack.

"Yes, this is about the actions, the brutal actions by Assad and his regime. But it also is about the backers of the regime, and of course Russia is one of those backers. ... And they need to look very carefully at the position they have taken," she said.

The European Union also laid the blame squarely on Assad's government.

The UN Security Council was holding an emergency meeting today to discuss the chemical attack.

It was the second such airstrike this year on the Syrian air base, known as T4, where Iranian fighters are believed to be stationed. Israel hit the base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that violated Israeli airspace took off from it.

Russia's Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the base yesterday, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base.

Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about reports of the airstrikes.

Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli fighter pilot and ex-head of Israeli military intelligence, stopped short of saying Israel was responsible for the airstrike. But he suggested that the chemical attack had crossed a red line and prompted Israel to take action to send a message to Syria and arch-enemy Iran.

"The Iranians are determined to base themselves in Syria," he told the Army Radio station. "Israel is determined not to let them do that. And there is a strategic collision that perhaps tonight may have come together because of the chemical issue."



Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

The base, which was used as a launching pad for attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed nearby, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by U.S. missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack.

Syria's state agency SANA initially said the attack on the T4 air base was likely "an American aggression," but the Pentagon denied involvement, and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead. SANA said the missile attack resulted in a number of casualties, but provided no specific figures.

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Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said today his country would not accept Iranian entrenchment in Syria after missile strikes on a Syrian regime air base blamed on Israel.

"We will not allow Iranian entrenchment in Syria no matter the price to pay," he told journalists. "We have no other option.

Allowing Iran to strengthen itself in Syria is like accepting that the Iranians strangle us." Lieberman did not confirm Israel carried out Monday's deadly strikes, which Syria and Russia blamed on Israel.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to its enemy Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that is backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

It has also repeatedly warned it will not accept its arch-foe Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

Yesterday, Israel accused Syria of "crimes against humanity" over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town, saying Assad's regime was responsible.

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Panun Kashmir, a representative body of migrant Kashmiri Pandits, today said the government and political class has failed to deport Rohingyas from here.

The organisation termed the stay of the Rohingyas in the state as a threat to the security and law and order situation.

"The issue of Rohingya immigrants in Jammu is developing into a very serious threat to the security and law & order situation in the state and Jammu province in particular," Panun Kashmir president Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo told reporters here today.

He said, "it is surprising to note that despite warnings over the last one year in this connection, the government and the political class has failed to take the issue seriously and deport them from Jammu".

Chrungoo said, "We cannot absolve the role of those politicians who were responsible for their stay in the Jammu city and its suburbs over the last fifteen years".

He said their comforts here are being taken care of by the political class and some NGOs and their detection and deportation is contested and also given a communal colour.

Hitting out at former chief minister Farooq Abdullah for raking up greater autonomy, Chrungoo said, "Once again, the protagonists have started talking about autonomy in the J&K state.

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A journalist with an English daily was allegedly assaulted by two persons in a case of road rage in the early hours here, police said today.

Bramhashankar Tripathi, a journalist with Lokmat Times and secretary of the Press Club Of Nagpur, told police that a car coming from the wrong side dashed his two-wheeler on Katol Road when he was returning home around 1 am.

As he fell, Saurabh Thakur (27) and Sanket Kuhite (26) got out of the car and allegedly roughed him up.

After Tripathi lodged a complaint, a case was registered under sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC, said an officer of the Sadar police station here.

Thakur and Kuhite were arrested and later released on bail.

Tripathi claimed that the accused attacked him without any provocation.

The Nagpur Union of Working Journalists, of which Tripathi is the president, strongly condemned the incident.

Police Commissioner K Venkatesham assured an NUWJ delegation that appropriate action will taken against the accused.

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Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti was today questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Aircel Maxis alleged money laundering case, officials said here.

Karti was questioned for the first time by the ED in connection with the case which is related to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by his father.

It is suspected by the ED that an alleged payment of Rs 26 lakh was made by Aircel Televentures Limited to ASCPL, the firm allegedly linked to Karti, within a few days of the FIPB approval, they claimed.

The agency said it is investigating "the circumstances of said FIPB approval granted by the then finance minister (Chidambaram)".

The agency said FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March, 2006 by Chidambaram even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

"In the instant case, the approval for FDI of 800 million USD (over Rs 3,500 crore) was sought. Hence, CCEA was competent to grant approval. However, approval was not obtained from CCEA," it alleged.

The agency said its probe revealed that the case of the said FDI was "wrongly projected as an investment of Rs 180 crore so that it need not be sent to the CCEA to avoid a detailed scrutiny".

The agency has also claimed that a firm promoted by Karti and senior Chidambaram's nephew A Palaniappan-- CMSPL--received a sum of about USD 0.2 million from the Maxis group allegedly for procuring a legal compliance software.

It said probe revealed that the "software was designed only for use in India and hence was of no use to a Malaysian company."



The ED said further probe to "identify" other proceeds of crime as well as indirect benefits derived from them is "continuing" in this case.

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Violence in the Kashmir Valley shows no signs of abating and is, in fact, being stoked by "talk of revenge" and "unrestrained public statements" from various actors, a citizen's group said in a statement today.

The Concerned Citizens Group, including former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and former National Commission for Minorities chairperson Wajahat Habibullah, expressed deep anguish over the escalation in violence and said the solution to the present crisis lies in political dialogue.

"We note with deep anguish the recent escalation in violence in Kashmir. This has led to avoidable loss of civilian lives as well as that of security force personnel. What is worse is that the violence shows no signs of abating. In fact, it is being stoked further by unrestrained public statements by various actors and the talk of revenge," the group said.

The statement was also signed by author Rajmohan Gandhi, former Delhi High Court chief justice A P Shah, former special secretary in the cabinet secretariat Vappala Balachandran, former air vice marshal Kapil Kak, former secretary in the ministry of external affairs K C Singh, senior journalist Bharat Bhushan and Sushobha Barve of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation.

It was evident that despite being aware of the futility of picking up arms, an increasing number of desperate youngsters are joining the ranks of militants.

"At this critical juncture, when an entire generation of young Kashmiris finds itself at a cross-roads, we would like to urge everyone concerned to step back from the conflict," they said.

While picking up arms by militants is bound to attract the use of force against them by the state, intensifying the confrontation can only worsen the situation, they said in the statement, "Escalating Violence in Jammu and Kashmir".

"The solution to the present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir lies in dialogue at the appropriate political level. Only by winning the hearts and minds of the people can their faith in the political process be restored," the group said.

As many as 60 incidents of terrorist violence have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir from January till mid-March this year, killing 15 security personnel and 17 terrorists, according to data provided to Parliament.

Last week, an officer of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was badly injured in a stone-pelting incident in Srinagar.

Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh recently opposed any dialogue with separatists who "stay silent when innocent people are killed and give a call for strike when terrorists are eliminated".

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The Congress and CPI(M) condemned the protest by some lawyers who attempted to prevent the police from filing charge sheet in the Kathua rape-and-murder case, while the NC demanded shifting the trial out of Kathua.

The parties alleged that yesterday's incident was part of a well-thought-out conspiracy to polarise communities in the state by giving a criminal act a communal colour.

Lashing out at the lawyers for the incident, Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief G A Mir described it as "politically motivated, obnoxious and a conspiracy to achieve something out of this heinous crime for those hindering the process of justice".

Yesterday, a senior police official had said the crime branch has filed a charge sheet against seven of the eight accused in the case, even as the Kathua bar association claimed the officials were compelled to leave the court premises without filing the charge sheet amid protest by local lawyers.

The Kathua bar association was demanding CBI probe into the case.

"The act of hindering the justice process amounts to endorsement of heinous crimes. This is unfortunate and brings a bad name to their profession," Mir said.

CPI(M) State Secretary Ghulam Nabi Malik said some vested interests were trying to derive political mileage out of a brutal and inhuman act.

"It is a shameful act and against the human values on part of these lawyers and their political masters, who instead of helping the victim's family to get justice, behaved like hooligans," he said.

The CPI(M) leader said the gruesome rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl from the Bakherwal community, reminds us of the challenges confronting our society.

"A criminal is a criminal irrespective of his caste, colour and creed and must be dealt according to law. By evoking emotions and giving communal colour to rape-and-murder case, fringe elements are committing a heinous crime against humanity," he said.

Today, the police filed a separate charge sheet against another accused, who was earlier said to be a juvenile. They have also filed an FIR against lawyers for protesting and attempting to prevent the crime branch officials carrying out their duty.

"The government must take stern action against the accused without showing any leniency to them," Malik said.

National Conference General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar told reporters in Srinagar that it is unheard of in the history of the country that white-collar professionals come out in support of those accused of a heinous crime.

"It is a part of a deep-rooted and well-thought-out conspiracy to polarise and communalise the state along religious and regional lines. We will be watching the situation and thwart any such designs," he said.

"We demand the case be shifted out of Kathua to any other place where the trial can be held without any interference," Sagar said, adding a fast-track court should be set up to ensure speedy justice to the victim.

Demanding strict action against those involved yesterday's protest by lawyers, he lashed out at those who have called for a Jammu bandh tomorrow, and urged the people of Jammu to defeat the nefarious designs of fringe elements.

The body of the girl, from the Bakherwal community, was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.

On January 23, the government had handed over the case to the crime branch of the state police which formed a Special Investigation Team and arrested eight people including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destruction of evidence.

Among the accused, former revenue official and the alleged conspirator, Sanji Ram (60), surrendered before the crime branch on March 20 after his son, Vishal, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh.

According to a senior crime branch officer, following a medical examination on March 7, the accused who was thought to be a juvenile, was found to be 19 years old.

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The killing of two Shiv Sena leaders in Ahmednagar over the weekend seems to be a fallout of political rivalry, Maharashtra Director General of Police Satish Mathur today said.

He maintained there was no political pressure on the police with regard to probing the case and asserted no mercy will be shown to those involved in the gruesome crime.

Sena leaders Sanjay Kotkar (35) and Vasant Thube (40) were shot dead on Saturday in Kedgaon, Ahmednagar, by two motorcycle-borne assailants.

The shooting in the Western Maharashtra district took place hours after the result of a civic bypoll was announced.

Police have arrested Ahmednagar NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap and three others, including a suspected shooter, in connection with the crime. After the twin murders, a mob vandalised the office of the Ahmednagar superintendent of police (SP).

"This (shooting) seems to be (an outcome of) political rivalry. Serious action has been taken. Those concerned have been arrested. We will not show any 'daya-maya' (mercy) in dealing with this issue," he told reporters here.

"We were informed that all off a sudden a mob of 2,000 came to the (SP) office (and vandalised it). The situation is now peaceful and under control," Mathur said.

The DGP was responding to questions on the Ahmednagar shooting and related incidents.

"There is no question of political pressure in investigating the crime," he said in response to a query.

In a separate context, Mathur said taking action against big criminals will help increase public confidence in the police.

"If you control crime, automatically public will come forward (to help the police). If you teach a lesson to big criminals, ordinary citizens will have more faith in the police," he said.

Mathur said social media has changed the way people communicate.

"Medium of dissemination of information has changed. Social media has become fashionable. Even husband and wife interact on social media. Citizens are busy on social media and seldom come to police," he said.

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President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) ministers today boycotted a Cabinet meeting, days after they voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Senior ministers Sajith Premadasa and Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said none of the SLFP ministers were present at the Cabinet meeting this morning.

The SLFP ministers' move came after the party's central committee meeting last night held under Sirisena's chair.

It was decided that the six ministers who had voted in favour of the no-confidence motion against the prime minister should stay away from the Cabinet until a decision is made on the SLFP's continuation as part of the unity government with Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).

"We wanted to leave the government but we can't decide until the party decides on it," said Anura Yapa, the Disaster Management Minister.

Yapa was one of those who voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Yapa added that a firm decision on SLFP's future in the government would be made soon.

Wickremesinghe early this month comfortably defeated the no-trust motion moved by the Joint Opposition against him.

Wickremesinghe, who leads the national unity government in alliance with President Sirisena's SLFP, received 122 votes against the motion while 76 favoured the motion to oust him.

The UNP has been demanding the sacking of the six SLFP ministers to which Sirisena has not responded favourably. It is Sirisena who wields powers to appoint and sack ministers.

"When they challenged the prime minister, they have no moral ground to remain in the Cabinet," said Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, the Minister of Education.

Sirisena has denied any role in the no-confidence motion against Wickremesinghe but he had demanded the premier's resignation after the unity government's parties lost the local council elections to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka People's Front in February.

The Rajapaksa faction, who are opposed to both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, is pressing for a snap parliamentary polls.

"Now, the romance is lost. It is time for the divorce," said Rajapaksa's son Namal, an opposition legislator, commenting on differences between the ruling alliance partners.

Sirisena in 2015 quit the then Rajapaksa government to join hands with Wickremesinghe, the then main opposition leader, to defeat Rajapaksa in the presidential election ending his 10-year rule.

Wickremesinghe was recently replaced as law and order minister after clashes erupted in the Kandy district.

The president has also removed key institutions, including the Central Bank, from the control of Wickremesinghe.

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Hospitality chain Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts on Tuesday said it has won the management contract to operate the Mahatma Mandir convention and exhibition centre and a luxury hotel in Gandhinagar.

The company also said that it will soon take a decision on the possible divestment of its Chennai hotel.

Mahatma Mandir Convention and Exhibition Centre and the 300-room hotel 'The Leela Gandhinagar' are located in close proximity to the Dandi Kutir and well-connected to Ahmedabad.

The hotel will open in January 2019, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts Chairman and MD Vivek Nair told reporters.

When asked if the company was planning to divest its Chennai property, Nair said, "We will take a decision on Chennai property shortly."



Going forward the company will mainly follow asset light and management contract model, he added.

The agreements are signed with Gandhinagar Railway and Urban Development Corporation (GARUD), a special purpose vehicle formed by the Government of Gujarat with the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd, Nair said.

The contract is to manage the Mahatama Mandir and the hotel for 20 years, he added.

"The company is also planning to expand its hotel portfolio in India and abroad. The upcoming hotels will be in Jaipur, Agra, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in India and in Vietnam, Abu Dhabi and Dubai overseas," Nair said.

The addition of Mahatma Mandir and The Leela Gandhinagar to the company's MICE portfolio reinforces its plans to expand further into the international conferences and events space, and underscores its asset light growth strategy, he added.

With this signing, The Leela has expanded its hotel portfolio to ten properties across India.
The anti-quota bandh today evoked little response in Madhya Pradesh and largely passed off peacefully.

Today's call for nationwide shutdown was widely seen a retaliation to the 'Bharat Bandh' called by several Dalit groups on April 2 which left left eight people, including six members of the scheduled caste community, dead in Madhya Pradesh.

"The bandh passed off peacefully in the entire state. At Sidhi, some people tried to take out a protest march but they were dispersed after the police lobbed tear gas shells," Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Makrand Deouskar told PTI.

Heavy police force was deployed in sensitive areas across the state to prevent a rerun of the April 2 violence.

Schools and education institutes, government offices, petrol pumps remained open almost in the entire state. At a few places, the markets remained shut for a while.

Normal life was affected for better part of the day in Morena and Bhind districts as curfew remained in force there. It was clamped in the two districts following the killing of five people there on April 2.

Four men were killed in Bhind, one in Morena and three in Gwalior on April 2.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC were enforced in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incident.

Internet services remained suspended in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering, a police officer said.

The state had witnessed widespread violence during the 'Bharat Bandh' on April 2 called by Dalit outfits protesting against the "dilution" of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

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Global consultant Louis Berger today said it has along with its consortium partners DB Engineering and Hill International bagged the contract for the Wadala to Kasarvadavli Metro 4 corridor here.

Louis Berger as part of a DB-led consortium was awarded a project management and construction management services contract, including design review, for the 32.32-km corridor from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

"This latest win highlights our commitment and contribution to India's strategic growth. Our team of experts is well equipped to meet the challenges of this new and next-generation transportation infrastructure project," company's president for international business Jim Bach said in a statement issued here.

The Rs 15,549-crore Metro 4 line will be an elevated corridor with 32 stations, connecting Wadala in central Mumbai to Kasarvadavali. It is expected to reduce travel time between Wadala and Kasarvadavali by 50-75 per cent.

As part of the consortium, Louis Berger will prepare, package and finalise tender documents for system contracts.

The scope of work also includes verification and approval of all civil and system contract design submissions, rolling stock, supervision of all construction activities, certification of vendor sources and inspection of vendor products and services, among others.

Louis Berger has more than 20 years of experience working in India across many sectors, including bridges and tunnels, highways and roads, rail and transit, aviation and smart cities.

The company has supported infrastructure development of many large transit system expansion in the country, including Mumbai Metro lines 1 and 3, the monorail and the Hyderabad Metro.

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The Maharashtra government has submitted a report to the Union Health Ministry, seeking addition of 18 medical tools or equipments in the Drug Price Control Orders (DPCO), an official said here.

The Union government last year capped the prices of cardiac stents.

The list submitted by the state includes catheters, orthopaedic implants, stents, intraocular cataract lenses, disposable syringes, IV fluid sets and urine bags among other things, said an official of the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Union Health Ministry has approved the recommendations in principle, the official said.

FDA minister Girish Bapat claimed that Union Health Minister too is supportive of the proposal.

"We have been in contact with Union health minister J P Nadda. He is positive about the need to control the prices of these 18 medical equipments," Bapat said.

"Some experts in the medical field have raised objections (to the plan), but controlling prices for patients is the primary goal of our government," he said.

Health activist Dr Arun Gadre, who is a member of the Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare, welcomed the step.

"It was a good start to cap the prices of cardiac stents. Same rule and bar should be applicable to other medical apparatuses and the government should demonstrate its will to control the prices of such apparatuses and equipment," he said.

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Malaysians will go to the polls on May 9 for a general election where scandal-hit Prime Minister Najib Razak's long-ruling coalition faces one of its toughest ever challenges from veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, authorities announced today.

"Voting day is on May 9," election commission chairman Mohamad Hashim Abdullah told a press conference.

Polling day will be on a Wednesday, an unusual move as national elections in Malaysia are usually held at a weekend. There will be an 11-day campaign period before polling day.

The announcement came after parliament was dissolved at the weekend, setting the stage for one of the sternest ever tests of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition during its six decades in power.

The government's popularity has been sliding in recent years and its problems have been worsened by a scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB, but Najib is still tipped to win due to BN's firm grip on power.

He is under pressure from allies in his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main coalition party, to score an emphatic victory after the government lost the popular vote for the first time at the last election in 2013.

Victory is however less certain due to the comeback of Mahathir, 92, who is the opposition prime ministerial candidate. He came out of retirement and turned on his former protege Najib over the 1MDB scandal.

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A 20-year-old powerloom worker was arrested from Bihar by Thane Police for allegedly abducting and brutally killing a four-year-old girl from Bhiwandi in 2014, police said today.

A senior police officer said the accused, identified as Abed Mohammad Ajmir Shaikh, allegedly killed the girl after her father demanded Rs 1500 he had lent to Shaikh.

The girl went missing from near her house in Bhiwandi in Thane district on April 1, 2014.

Her highly-decomposed and mutilated body was recovered from bushes near her house after three days.

The deceased was identified by her parents on the basis of the clothes she was wearing last, police said.

The accused was traced to Marona in Supaul district of Bihar recently, following which he was arrested.

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In a suspected case of honour killing, a 26-year-old man was shot dead by his brother-in-law in north east Delhi, following which the accused was arrested from Ghaziabad, the police said today.

Additional DCP (north east Delhi) RP Meena said the incident was reported around 2 pm on Saturday.

Atif was shot in the head allegedly by his brother-in-law Akram at Meet Nagar. The victim was rushed to GTB hospital where he died during treatment, the officer said.

Akram (20) was arrested yesterday from Dabur Talab at Loni in Ghaziabad, and a country-made pistol allegedly used in the crime was seized from him, Meena said.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that his younger sister had married Atif against the will of his family, the police officer said, adding, "Akram along with his father Rahisuddin hatched a plan to eliminate Atif."



"He invited his sister and Atif to settle the issue and carried a loaded pistol there. When Atif and his wife reached at the designated place for the meeting, after some brief talks, Akram shot Atif and fled from the spot," Meena said.

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Actor-filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar says Salman Khan is happy that he is hosting the Marathi version of "Bigg Boss".

After its popularity in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Bangla and Telugu-speaking markets, reality show "Bigg Boss" in set to have a Marathi version now with Manjrekar as its host.

Salman hosts the Hindi version.

"When I signed the contract, I told Salman I am doing 'Bigg Boss' in Marathi. He was more than happy and is hopeful I will enjoy doing it. The only thing he told me is to be understanding with the contestants," Manjrekar told PTI.

Manjrekar and Salman have worked in a number of films together like "Wanted", "Dabangg", "Ready" and "Jai Ho", among others.

The 59-year-old actor says he would love to have the "Sultan" star on his version of "Bigg Boss".

"I told the team since 'Race 3' (which features Salman) is releasing in June, we should call him to promote the film. It will be a great thing for the show, it will get a boost."



The show will have 15 celebrity contestants as house guests who will live under surveillance for 100 days.

"I feel honoured to be in the same shoes as Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Sudeep and Kamal Hasan (who have hosted different versions of the show).

"But I will do the show in my own way. We all have different styles so do I," he says.

"There is no script and I just have to react to what they (contestants) are saying or to the given situation, it is the greatest workshop for any actor. I know it is going to be a big task."



The show will go on air from April 15 on Colors Marathi channel.

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Top scientists and academicians of Bengal will join the rest of the country in organizing 'March for Science' rally here on April 14 to promote scientific temper among people.

The Kolkata Organizing committee and the Breakthrough Science Society, two non-government organisations, will host the second edition of the rally in the city.

On April 22 last year, more than a million scientists, technologists, teachers and students took part in the rally in over 600 cities across the world.

"The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity," a statement from the organisers said here today.

The signatories to the statement included former vice chancellor of Calcutta University Asutosh Ghosh, former professor of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Bikash K Chakrabarti, faculty member of Indian Institute of Science and Research Soumitro Banerjee and Jadavpur University professor Samaresh Bhattacharya.

"We unite as a diverse, non-partisan group to call for science that upholds the common good..." the statement said, adding that the march will begin from Ramlila Park, in Moulali, and end at Esplanade.

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The CBI has told the Delhi High Court that a controversial photograph of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Najma Heptulla, published in a book on the country's first education minister, has been morphed, but the identity of the person responsible for it is yet to be ascertained.

The submission of the central probe agency is contrary to its earlier stand that there was not sufficient evidence to substantiate the claim that the photo was morphed.

However, it has recently told a bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher that its investigation has revealed that "the subject photograph has been morphed".

"...but what has not come through clearly in the investigation is as to who is responsible for morphing the photograph," the court noted and said that this aspect would be examined on the next date of hearing.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also told the court that on the next date of hearing, it would place before it the statement of the printer of the book, along with two case diaries.

In a status report filed in the court in December 2014, the CBI had said, "The allegation of photo-morphing was enquired into during the preliminary enquiry (PE)...During the course of the enquiry, witnesses were examined and documents were collected.

"However, after the enquiry, the CBI was of the view that the allegation of photo-morphing could not be substantiated as there was no sufficient incriminating admissible evidence for the prosecution."



The court was hearing a plea filed by Azad's grandnephew, Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who has alleged that the morphing was done at the instance of Heptulla, presently the Governor of Manipur, when she was heading the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

The controversial photograph, showing Azad sitting with Heptulla after the latter's graduation, was published in an ICCR publication, titled "Journey of a Legend, on the life of India's first Education Minister".

The publication was later withdrawn by the ICCR.

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Ahead of the Press Council of India (PCI) meeting tomorrow, eight prominent media bodies have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to defer the meet of the "truncated" council, alleging that the PCI chairman has adopted "arbitrary" procedure to reconstitute it.

In a letter to the Prime Minister yesterday, they alleged that the procedure adopted for reconstitution of the 13th PCI was "arbitrary" and said if not reversed, it would "gravely" impact media freedom and access to information critical to democracy.

"The reconstitution...undertaken by Chairman Justice (retd) C K Prasad has overlooked precedent and adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates. His action has cast serious doubts over the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI, mandated to preserve and protect the freedom of the press," they said in the letter.

The letter was signed by representatives of Indian Newspaper Society (INS), Indian Journalists Union (IJU), All India Newspaper Editors Conference (AINEC), Working Cameramen Association (WNCA), National Union of Journalists (India) (NUJ (I)), Hindi Samachar Patra Sammelan, All India Small and Medium Newspapers Federation and Press Association.

It said the PCI chairman has called a meeting of the reconstituted Press Council on April 11 with only eight members --five MPs and three official nominees --out of 28 members, leaving out representatives of the print media organisations whose names were yet to be notified.

Maintaining that the PCI reconstitution was still underway, the media bodies said holding a meeting of such a "truncated PCI was unfair" and goes against the spirit of the Press Council Act.

"We request you to immediately intervene, as you did on the 'fake news' order, to have the meeting deferred till the full council is reconstituted and restore the credibility and sanctity of the PCI. This will go a long way in protecting and preserving the freedom of the Press, vital to democracy," the letter said.

The PCI had yesterday refuted allegations that its chairman had adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates from the selection process while reconstituting the panel, saying the names were drawn from those submitted by the notified associations.

In the letter, the media bodies also urged Modi to instruct the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to include representatives of journalist unions/associations who have been kept out of the recently-reconstituted Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) despite submitting required documents to the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

Last month, the I&B Ministry had announced that it has reconstituted the CPAC, making it leaner from a 22-member to an eight-member body.

Media bodies alleged that keeping out representatives of journalists unions/associations was a clear violation of the guidelines.

"The reconstituted CPAC with hand-picked journalists and organisations, ignoring the claims of representatives organisations, gives the distinct impression that it is meant to curtail access to sources of information and amounts to veiled censorship," they said in the letter.

In a press release, the organisations also rubbished the claim of the PCI chairman that selection of names from the panels were done according to the law, and reiterated their charge that the chairman kept out organisations such as Editors Guild of India and National Union of Journalists (I) on narrow interpretation of the rules and the Act.

They said the PCI statement "cleverly blamed the Associations of compromising the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI to evade responsibility of the chairman for the sorry state of affairs".

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Meghalaya Home Minister James K Sangma today informed the Assembly that Assam government has been urged to allow completion of electrification works in two villages in the disputed inter-state border area.

The chief secretary of Meghalaya has on March 29 requested his Assam counterpart to instruct the Assam police to allow completion of electrification works at Mawdiangsnam and Umyiap villages in Langpih area of West Khasi Hills district, Sangma said.

"A positive response is expected from the Assam government soon which will ensure a safe and secure atmosphere for the labourers to resume the works," he said in reply to a Zero Hour notice raised by K S Marbaniang.

Assam police had stopped the electrification work under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana on February 25, the minister said.

The West Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner on March 16 ordered for resumption of the work but the Assam police of Kamrup district stopped it again, he said.

The deputy commissioners of West Khasi Hills had taken up the matter with his Kamrup district counterpart on March 22 and the Meghalaya chief secretary with his Assam counterpart on March 29, James said.

Earlier, the construction of an Assam police outpost in the disputed Block II Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya has been stopped after the district deputy commissioner and the Meghalaya chief secretary requested their Assam counterparts to stop the work, the Assembly was informed on April 5.

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The Mizoram government has issued a warning after a number of pigs have died during the past one month in some isolated places in the state, officials said today.

Though the cause of the death of several pigs and piglets were yet to be determined, the state did not rule out the outbreak of either the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) or the classical swine fever, an official of the state animal husbandry and veterinary department told PTI.

He said that both diseases had stayed permanently in the state since no culling were conducted during the past outbreaks.

The PRRS disease resulted in the death of more than 3,000 pigs and piglets in 2013 and more than 5,000 pigs and piglets in 2016.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated the Nitish Kumar government of Bihar for leading the Swachh Bharat mission in India.

"I am proud of the fact that Bihar has shown its leadership abilities in this journey from Satyagraha to Swachhgraha," Modi said while addressing around 20,000 'swachhagrahis' (volunteers of cleanliness movement) at the concluding ceremony of the Champaran Satyagraha centenary celebrations.

The Bihar government had in April 2017 launched year-long celebrations to mark the centenary of Champaran Satyagraha movement of Mahatma Gandhi.

Eleven projects worth over Rs 3,000 crore have been sanctioned in Bihar to stop the flow of dirty and untreated water from homes and factories to the Ganga, the PMO Twitter handle quoted Modi as saying.

"In the past one week, over 8.5 lakh toilets have been constructed in Bihar and that is not an easy task to do. I congratulate Nitish Kumar government and all 'swachhagrahis' for their effort," Modi explained.

The development word undertaken in Bihar under Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi's leadership has boosted the morale of the people, the PM said.

"I salute the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi present inside every individual. Those who say that history does not repeat itself, should come here and take a look at the mass movement," he added.

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The Congress today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement to observe a day-long fast on Thursday to protest the washout of the Budget Session of Parliament was a "farce", adding that the PM should instead apologise to the youth, Dalits and other sections of the society, who were allegedly let down by his government.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala also said the BJP-led central government should be blamed for the Parliament washout, despite enjoying an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

"This is a farce of a fast by the Modi government. The BJP should apologise to the nation and hold a fast for disrupting Parliament for over 250 hours. The Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a majority, functioned for only one per cent of its time and the Rajya Sabha functioned for six per cent of its time," he told reporters here.

Surjewala also alleged that the government had "disrespected" and "degenerated" Parliament.

Holding the government responsible for the CBSE papers leak and the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Congress spokesperson said the prime minister should "hold a fast to apologise to the country for the 13 banking scams, where people like chhota Modi that is Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi ran away with over Rs 61,000 crore".

He added that the BJP should also apologise to the country for not revealing the details of the Rafale deal and thereby, compromising on issues of national security.

The Congress' reaction came after the BJP announced that the prime minister would observe a day-long fast on Thursday, along with the party MPs, to protest the recent washout of the Budget Session of Parliament, while party chief Amit Shah would hold a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka on the same day.

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North Korea's foreign minister held rare talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow today, as Pyongyang moves to improve strained ties with its neighbours.

Ri Yong Ho's visit came ahead of planned nuclear summits between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States in the coming weeks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed Ri to Moscow today, saying that "Russia is as inclined as ever to develop good neighbourly relations with North Korea".

His North Korean counterpart said he hoped for further "development of our relations" in comments translated into Russian.

After the meeting, Lavrov answered questions from journalists alone, saying the ministers "examined in some detail" the nuclear situation on the peninsula.

"The Russian side confirmed that we welcome gradual normalisation of the situation, an end to mutual threats and readiness for contact between the two Koreas as well as between North Korea and the US," Lavrov said.

He said that upcoming talks should aim at denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but stipulated that Pyongyang must also receive "cast-iron guarantees" of its security.

He added that he had accepted an invitation for a return visit to Pyongyang, without giving a date.

Alexander Vorontsov, a specialist on the Koreas from Moscow's Oriental Studies Institute, said it was "particularly important (for Pyongyang) to enlist support, including from Russia, to cover its back" before further summits.

Ri visited Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a landmark trip to Beijing last month.

The most recent North Korean ministerial-level visit to Russia saw the external economic relations minister visit Vladivostok in September.

Kim was expected to attend 2015 celebrations in Moscow for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II but opted not to go at the last minute.

The leader's secretive three-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March was his first trip abroad since gaining power from his late father in 2011. China is North Korea's main trading partner.

The visit was seen as a gesture of reconciliation after months of high tensions over the North's missile and nuclear programmes.

Kim is due to hold a summit with South Korea's Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, in only the third meeting of its kind.

A landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump is planned to follow -- although no specific dates or venue have been set.

The diplomatic thaw began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, to which Kim sent athletes, cheerleaders and his sister as an envoy.

The stunning detente with the US comes after North Korea last year fired multiple missiles and carried out its most powerful nuclear test.

Trump in turn hurled insults at Kim, calling him a "madman with nuclear weapons" and said that a military option against North Korea was "locked and loaded".

If the summits with Moon and Trump are a success, "it will be a turning point, a breakthrough," said analyst Vorontsov.

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Pakistan is set to put a senior US diplomat on the Exit Control List after he was involved in a fatal road accident that killed a motorcyclist here, media reports said.

A fast-moving Land Cruiser, driven by Col Joseph Emanuel Hall, the defence and air attache at the US embassy, jumped the red light and hit a motorcycle carrying two men at a traffic signal near Islamabad's Daman-e-Koh area on Saturday.

One of them died and the other was injured.

The capital police sent a letter to the Ministry of Interior, asking to include Hall's name in the Exit Control List (ECL). The ministry has started the process, Dawn reported.

If a person is put on ECL, he/she cannot travel abroad.

Inspector General of Police Sultan Azam Temuri said that a written request was sent to the ministry yesterday seeking the name of the American diplomat on the ECL.

The capital police informed the ministry that the diplomat was booked on criminal charges, including murder by mistake or rash or negligent driving. The presence of the diplomat is necessary for investigation.

CCTV camera footage showed that the diplomat had jumped the red signal. Although the diplomat was not detained because of his diplomatic immunity, the police are now proceeding to get his local driving licence revoked.

The director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also confirmed that arrangements were made to prevent the diplomat from leaving the country, Temuri stated.

Another letter was sent to the FIA to place the US diplomat's name on its Watch List.

"So far the US diplomat has not left the country," the sources in the immigration department were quoted as saying.

Subdivisional Police Officer Secretariat ASP Zohaib Nasarullah Ranjha said that the US diplomat had made an attempt to travel abroad on a Middle East-bound Qatar Airway. He reached the airport at 4am on Sunday but left from there after seeing officials of the capital police there, he added.

Investigating officer of the case, Inspector Arshad Ali, said the investigation of the case was being finalised.

The investigators have so far collected statements of eyewitnesses, the injured victim and the accused, he added.

The police are waiting for the medico-legal report of the deceased and the injured to finalise the investigation and challan, the officer said.

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Panasonic is aiming to have around 30 per cent market share in Rs 1.5 lakh and above camera market, as the firm is targeting new age photographers and videographers along with youtubers, said a top official.

The Japanese consumer electronic maker, as per its strategy, would focus on providing high end 4K video recording features along with still images through its range of mirror-less cameras and further strengthen its product portfolio in the segment, he added.

"Our vision for 2020 is to have 30 per cent market share in Rs 1.5 lakh segment and above," said Panasonic India Product Head-Digital Imaging, Gaurav Ghavri.

The company has 17 per cent share in the Rs 1.5 lakh and above segment currently.

He further said presently Panasonic "in consolidation have 4 to 5 per cent of the total segment because this also includes the entry level mass products, which we do not cater".

The DSLR market is estimated to be around Rs 2,200 crore in India and is still largely dominated by two other Japanese maker - Nikkon and Canon.

"Lumix GH 5 has been a breakthrough model for us, which has made our entry into the professional segment. People has accepted us here as a manufacture of good cameras. We are a professional company, when it comes to camera market," Ghavri added.

The company, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary of its mirror-less series Lumix G, today introduced two new models - G7 and G85 to strengthen its portfolio in the segment.

"Our strength has been video and that is where we want to focus on. There is lot of monetisation happening at YouTube. People want to create good content and people understand that mobile video can not suit their requirements," he said.

G7 priced at Rs 53,900 will target the amateur photo enthusiasts, while G85 prices at Rs 72,900.

As part of its marketing strategy, Panasonic will add more 4K experience zones in its network to woo potential customers besides associating with photo schools.

"That's a different channel which we are creating. We would expand it to most of the metro. We would have even these experience zones in the small emerging markets in a shop-in-shop concept," he said.

Presently, Europe is the leading market for Panasonic in the segment, and in some countries such as Germany and Spain, it is leading player in the mirror-less interchangeable lens segment.

Panasonic has commenced its operations here in 1972 and had a turnover of Rs 9,600 crore in FY 2016-17.

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West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose today accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of terrorising opposition candidates contesting the next month's panchayat polls and said, the Left parties might go for a general strike, if such a situation persists.

Alleging that the State Election Commission is acting like a puppet in the hands of the ruling TMC, Bose said, the Left Front led by the CPI(M) will carry out an indefinite sit-in outside the SEC office from tomorrow.

"The TMC is terrorising our candidates and is asking them to withdraw their nominations. The SEC is just a mute spectator and is acting as a puppet in the hands of the ruling TMC," he alleged.

"We will go for an indefinite demonstration. It will continue except April 14 and April 15. Tomorrow we have convened a meeting of the Left parties to decide whether to go for a general strike in case the situation does not improve," he said.

Taking a U-turn, the West Bengal State Election Commission today withdrew the extended deadline for filing of nominations for the panchayat elections slated for May 1, 3 and 5.

The opposition parties alleged that it buckled under pressure from the ruling Trinamool Congress.

State Election Commissioner A K Singh cancelled the poll panel's order of yesterday which had extended the deadline for filing nominations by a day till today, sources in the commission said.

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A Parliamentary panel on Tuesday met RBI Governor Urjit Patel, top public sector bankers and government officials to discuss about mounting bad loans and ways to resolve the problem.

Several bankers apprised the Committee on Subordinate Legislation of Rajya Sabha about different aspects of non-performing assets and the efforts being made to tackle the menace, sources said.

According to the sources, the bankers told the panel that the 'one-day' default provision for NPA classification as per the latest RBI circular was too harsh and that it should be made more practical.

The circular was issued on February 12 amid rising concerns over bad loans in the banking system.

The bankers also informed the panel, headed by senior Congress leader T Subbarami Reddy, that the 180-day resolution plan for NPAs under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is "too less", sources said.

Top officials of about 16 public sector banks attended the meeting, which lasted for over three hours.

Many bank officials were of the view that the emphasis should be on restructuring the stressed assets and that referring cases for resolution under the IBC should be the last option, sources said.

Before meeting the bank officials, the panel met Patel, RBI Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar and Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas to understand the nature of the problems affecting the banking sector.

After the meeting, Reddy said that a view among several bankers was that moving the Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) should be the "last resort".

Cases can be taken up for resolution under the IBC only after approval from the NCLT.

Reddy also said that the RBI has promised to look into the suggestions made during the meeting.

When asked whether the recent scam at the Punjab Bank too came up for discussion, Reddy replied in the negative.

Top officials of Punjab Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, and IDBI Bank were among those who attended the meeting.

Gross NPAs of state-owned banks had crossed Rs 7.77 trillion at the end of December 2017, according to official data.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on Thursday with BJP MPs to protest the recent washout of the Budget session of Parliament, while party chief Amit Shah will hold a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka on the same day.

While observing fast, Modi will not disturb his daily official routine of meeting people and officials, and clearing files, sources in the know said.

Addressing BJP MPs on Friday, Modi had accused the Opposition, particularly the Congress, of practising divisive politics and said that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament.

The Congress had tried to preempt the BJP event by announcing that the party members would observe a fast on April 9 to promote communal harmony in the country.

All BJP MPs will also observe fast on April 12 in their respective constituencies.

Shah will hold a 'dharna' (sit-in) in poll-bound Karnataka's Hubli.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on Thursday along with BJP MPs to protest the recent washout of the Budget session of Parliament, while party chief Amit Shah will hold a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka on the same day.

While observing fast, Modi will not disturb his daily official routine of meeting people and officials, and clearing files, sources in the know said today.

Addressing BJP MPs on Friday, Modi had accused the Opposition, particularly the Congress, of practising divisive and said that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament.

The Congress had tried to preempt the BJP event by announcing that its members would observe a fast on April 9 to promote communal harmony in the country.

All BJP MPs will also observe fast on April 12 in their respective constituencies.

Shah will hold a 'dharna' (sit-in) in poll-bound Karnataka's Hubli.

The party will also observe the birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule, a social reformer from backward caste, on April 11 as Samta Divas (equality day).

On this day, Modi will address the MPs and interact with some of them, the sources said.

They also added that as directed by prime minister, the BJP MPs will also organise events to mark the birth anniversary of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar on April 14.

The BJP and its top brass have been underlining the party's commitment to the welfare of Dalits and works of the Modi government while highlighting Ambedkar's legacy at a time when opposition parties have accused the ruling party of being anti-Dalit.

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Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment in the USA for a pancreatic ailment, is likely to return next month, a state BJP leader said today.

The chief minister flew to the USA in the first week of March after he was advised advanced medical treatment by the doctors at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai.

Sadanand Tanavade, the state BJP general secretary, said Parrikar's condition was improving.

"The chief minister's condition is improving and he is responding well to treatment. He is likely to come back to Goa next month," Tanavade said at a press conference here.

Parrikar, who complained of stomach pain on February 14, was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai the next day.

He was discharged on February 22 and presented Budget in the Goa Assembly on the same day upon return.

Later, he was again admitted to Lilavati Hospital on March 5, from where he was taken to the US.

A cabinet advisory committee, consisting of senior ministers, has been authorised to take decisions in his absence.

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Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today blamed the opposition parties in Bihar for the recent communal flare ups witnessed in various parts of the state and claimed there was a conspiracy to defame the Nitish Kumar government in the state and the BJP.

"A smear campaign is on against the BJP. Why did not riots take place in Bihar between 2005 and 2013 when Nitish Kumar ran the government with the BJP? Why communal tensions erupted only after he severed ties with the RJD and the Congress? There is clearly a conspiracy by the opposition parties," Paswan said.

"Bihar has never known what communalism is. It is the land of Jayaprakash Narayan. If anybody alleges that (BJP leader and deputy chief minister) Sushil Kumar Modi is communal, nobody is going to believe him," Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party is an NDA constituent, said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were present at a function on Swachh Bharat Mission where Paswan was delivering his address here in East Champaran district.

In his speech, Kumar spoke on Swachh Bharat Mission and Mahatma Gandhi's emphasis on the virtue of cleanliness.

"We intend to make the new generation aware of Gandhi's thoughts. Even if a small percentage of our youths become familiar with Gandhi, it will go a long way in ridding our society of violence," he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Union minister Uma Bharati showered praise on the Prime Minister, saying Modi transformed Gujarat while he was the chief minister of the state.

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Punjab government today decided not to intervene on the issue of the controversial movie 'Nanak Shah Fakir' in the wake of the film-makers' reported decision not to release the movie in the state.

Any decision to ban the movie had become unnecessary in view of the film-makers' "decision" against releasing it in Punjab, chief minister Amarinder Singh said in a statement here.

The statement further said the makers of the film, in their petition before the Supreme Court, had clearly stated that "looking at the sensitivity of the issue and the public sentiment involved", they had decided "not to release the film in the state of Punjab for the time being."



Taking cognizance of this submission, the chief minister said no action was required on part of the state government at present.

The government would review the situation and take an appropriate decision if the same becomes necessary in the future, he said, adding that any attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in the state would be dealt with an iron hand.

Amarinder said he had also taken note of the Akal Takht's ban on the film.

The highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, Akali Takht, had yesterday decided to impose a complete ban on the movie amid protests by several Sikh organisations, who had objected to the portrayal of Guru Nanak, saying any depiction of a Sikh Guru or his family members in living form was against the tenets of the Sikh religion.

Projecting the Guru and his family as human beings was offensive to the principles of Sikhism, they said.

However, the Supreme Court today criticised the apex religious body of the Sikhs, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), for imposing restrictions on the film and cleared the decks for its nationwide release on April 13.

The chief minister was of the view that while authors, film-makers etc., had the creative freedom of expression, such freedom could not be allowed to violate the religious sensitivities of any community, the statement said.

At the same time, he appealed to the protesting Sikh organisations not to resort to violence or cause any damage to life and property to express their resentment against the movie.

In 2015 also, the producers of the film had decided to withdraw the movie from cinema halls across the country and other parts of the world after protests from religious Sikh groups.

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A plea was moved in the Supreme Court today seeking a CBI probe into the gangrape of a minor girl in Uttar Pradesh allegedly by a BJP MLA and his associates and the death of her father in police custody yesterday.

The petition filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma alleged that the rape victim's father was tortured and killed in police custody at the behest of the "ruling party".

Sharma, in his PIL, has sought a direction to the CBI for probe and prosecution under various provisions of IPC against the alleged kidnapping and rape of a minor girl in July last year "by the BJP MLA and his companion and custodial death of her father via torture" on April 9.

Alleging that the complaint had not mentioned the name of the legislator "under political pressure" and the state police would not carry out "fair investigation under compulsion", it said in these circumstances, the matter should be handed over to the CBI for an independent investigation.

The petition also alleged that according to the statement of the victim, the sitting BJP MLA from Bangarmau constituency in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, was the main accused of her rape in July last year and the custodial death of her father after her protest against the legislator.

It said that the legislator's men had also attacked her father on April 3 and were continuously harassing them.

The plea said that on April 8, the victim, accompanied by four women of her family, had staged a protest against police inaction against the MLA and attempted self-immolation outside the residence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

It said the district hospital of Unnao had issued a statement that the victim's father had died on April 9.

The PIL also sought compensation as provided in the Nirbhaya gang rape case and protection to the rape victim.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.

The prime minister was here to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 1200 hp freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory. He also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly Tuesdays and Fridays -- covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.

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The Maharashtra government today gave its approval for setting up a separate police commissionerate for the Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial township, located on the outskirts of Pune city.

The approval was given by the state cabinet at its meeting here.

At present, the Pimpri-Chinchwad township comes under the jurisdiction of the Pune police commissionerate.

There was a long pending demand for a separate police commissionerate for the township due to its rapid urbanisation and rising crime in the area.

In the recently concluded budget session of the state Legislature, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced that separate commissionerates would be set up for Pimpri-Chinchwad, Mira-Bhayander township (in Thane district) and Kolhapur.

Some areas that are at present under the jurisdiction of the Pune city police and the rural police may be included in the new commissionerate for Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Along with Pimpri-Chinchwad, the proposed separate commissionerate is likely to cover the areas of Chakan, Dehu Road and Talegaon-Dabhade, which are currently under the jurisdiction of the Pune rural police.

An official in the Chief Minister's Office said 2,633 new posts will be created for the setting up of the new commissionerate.

In other decisions, the Cabinet decided that MahaGenco, the power generation company of the state government, will be a partner with Chhattisgarh Rail Corporation Ltd and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to set up the Katghora-Dongargad railway route.

The Cabinet also decided to request Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to re-promulgate the ordinance pertaining to the direct election of sarpanchs and the amendment of the Hyderabad Atiyat Inquiries Act, since both the Bills were not passed in the budget session.

The Cabinet also approved revival of the Sriram Krishna Godavari Lift Irrigation scheme to provide irigation facilities to the drought-affected areas in Vaijapur taluka of Aurangabad district in the Marathwada region.

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A 5-foot-tall saffron statue of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, freshly installed after a previous one was damaged, was repainted blue today morning amid questions over the colour choice in Kuwargaav village in this western Uttar Pradesh district.

According to officials, a nearly three feet tall statue of Ambedkar was damaged Friday night by some anti-social elements after which it was replaced by a new one, saffron in colour.

However, it was re-painted blue this morning, an official said.

Sub Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) Parasnath Maurya said, "The previous statue of Babasaheb, shortlisted by a committee of the police and district administration, was barely three feet high. Later, a saffron statue was selected. The cost of this statue was Rs 22,000 and it was paid by the committee."



Asked about the saffron hue, the SDM said, "The committee members had brought blue paint along, but the statue was installed before giving it a blue coat. Today, the statue has been repainted in blue."



However, the incident, reminiscent of an earlier episode where the state Haj Committee office boundary wall was painted saffron and then repainted white, prompted opposition parties to take pot-shots at the ruling BJP, which has often been accused of 'saffronisation'.

"It was the BJP people who had forced Babasaheb to leave Hinduism and embrace Buddhism and today these people are enacting a drama of adopting Babasaheb. Till today, Babasaheb's statue used to be either blue or white, but these people gave a saffron colour to the statue and made an effort to damage the dignity of Babasaheb. The disciples of Babasaheb are feeling angry," Samajwadi Party leader and Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav said.

BSP district chief Hemendra Gautam explained the first priority was to install the statue. "Our first priority was to install the statue, so we did not bother about the colour," he said adding a request that the administration should paint it a blue since it had been installed.

"When Babasaheb embraced Buddhism his dress was of saffron colour. The colour of rising Sun is also saffron," Gautam said.

However, others like Kalicharan, the head of Ambedkar Suraksha Samiti, were not ready to accept the saffron colour.

It was on Kalicharan's complaint that a case was registered against a person for allegedly damaging Ambedkar's statue, police spokesperson said. A constable was also suspended in this regard, the spokesperson said. On April 7, the statue at Ambedkar park in Kuwargaav was found damaged.

Superintendent of Police Kamal Kishore said the police had covered the vandalised statue with cloth and initiated a probe into the incident.

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The brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl has polarised the normally peaceful town of Jammu, with the local Bar Association calling for a bandh against what it termed the "targeting of minority Dogras" while the state police lodged a case today against lawyers who allegedly tried to prevent it from filing a charge sheet against the accused.

The high-profile case has even divided the state's polity, with at least two BJP ministers in the Mehbooba Mufti government questioning the role of the police.

The victim, who belonged to the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community, had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua, 90 kms from here, on January 10.

A week later, her body was found in the same area, and medical examination pointed towards sexual assault.

During initial investigations, police arrested a juvenile. Later the case was transferred to Jammu and Kashmir police's crime branch with clear instructions from Director General of Police S P Vaid to catch the culprits, no matter how high and mighty.

Two Special Police Officers (SPOs) -- Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Kumar -- and later, another five persons, including former revenue official and the alleged conspirator, Sanji Ram (60), who surrendered before the special investigation team, were among those arrested.

The crime branch team, which submitted a set of two charge sheets, faced a tough time when local lawyers allegedly tried to prevent them from filing the documents before the court yesterday.

Today, the police filed an FIR against a group of lawyers. "An FIR has been lodged against a group of lawyers who held protests and tried to prevent the crime branch officials from performing their duty," a senior police official told PTI.

He said that the lawyers had not been yet identified.

The Jammu Bar Association, on the other hand, alleged that minority Dogras of Jammu and Kashmir in Hiranagar were being "targeted" in the probe by the crime branch and called for a 'Jammu Bandh' tomorrow.

Political parties also traded charges over the handling of the case and the issue acquired a communal hue due to the alleged association of the accused with a right-wing group.

It was found during investigations that a group 'Hindu Ekta Manch', which was spread heading an agitation against state police's probe, had also been opposing settlement of Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes in Kathua, an official said.

The matter escalated, when two BJP ministers in the ruling coalition -- Industries and Commerce Minister Chander Parkash Ganga and Forest Minister Lal Singh hit out at the police for arresting "one or the other person at will".

We too want that the real accused are punished...We have heard you. We will not allow this jungle raj, under which they (police) are picking up people at will, to continue. What kind of investigation are they doing? Forest Minister Lal Singh said questioning why the probe was not being handed over to the CBI.

The 'Hindu Ekta Manch', from which the BJP has distanced itself, had also taken out a rally holding a tricolour to press for their demands.

The incident and use of national flag had a evoked sharp reaction from Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who had tweeted: "Appalled by the marches and protests in defence of the recently apprehended rapist in Kathua. Also horrified by their use of our national flag in these demonstrations, this is nothing short of desecration. The accused has been arrested and the law will follow its course.

Opposition National Conference's Jammu Province chief Davinder Singh Rana, an MLA, regretted that some political parties were trying to give a communal colour to a crime which was a "slur on humanity".

"We have already demanded that the case should be shifted out of Kathua and a fast track court set up for a speedy trial," Rana said.

The presence of BJP leaders and ministers at gatherings of supporters of the accused as well as agitations by lawyers has evoked sharp reactions with Congress and CPI(M) condemning the protest by some lawyers who attempted to prevent the police from filing a charge sheet.

Lashing out at the lawyers for the incident, Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief G A Mir described it as "politically motivated, obnoxious and a conspiracy to achieve something out of this heinous crime for those hindering the process of justice".

CPI(M) State Secretary Ghulam Nabi Malik said vested interests were trying to derive political mileage out of a brutal and inhuman act.

National Conference General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar told reporters in Srinagar that it was unheard of in the history of the country that white-collar professionals come out in support of those accused of a heinous crime.

"It is a part of a deep-rooted and well-thought-out conspiracy to polarise and communalise the state along religious and regional lines. We will be watching the situation and thwart any such designs," he said.

The court has fixed the next date of hearing on April 16 when the case will be committed to Sessions Court for beginning of the trial.

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Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are foolproof and have brought in "revolutionary changes" in the poll process, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat said today.

Rawat's statement comes amid an ongoing debate over the use of EVMs with some political parties questioning the reliability of the device and suggesting a return to the old ballot paper system.

The CEC said India's EVM technology has been praised by countries such as Australia.

"EVMs were successful in bringing revolutionary changes in the election process. They are foolproof," Rawat said, adding that the use of EVMs prevented booth capturing.

The poll panel chief was talking to reporters here after the launch of "Mediawala", a website.

"Recently, when I went to Australia to take part in an election conference, people there expressed unhappiness with the ballot system.

"They asked us, how we managed to announce poll results in a single day and wanted to see EVMs. You get results soon and even Australia praised it," he said.

The EVMs eliminate the possibility of bogus voting, the retired IAS officer said.

"It takes 20 seconds for a machine to record a vote. If you want to poll 1,000 votes then you require at least five hours to do so. Therefore it is not possible for anyone to do bogus voting. It deals with electoral malpractice such as booth capturing in an effective way," the CEC said.

Highlighting the benefits of EVMs, Rawat said they required minimal human interface and did not need power connections to operate.

Moreover, under the earlier system, ballot papers of a large number of voters were invalidated because of various reasons, the CEC maintained.

"There were crores of voters in the country, who did not know how to vote under the older system. This used to tarnish the image of people, but EVMs prevent this," he said.

"It is a foolproof system and if we discard it for the old one, it will not be easy to conduct polls. It rules out human errors as it is a machine," he said.

Rawat added that monitoring of sensitive booths through web-cameras helped in preventing bogus voting.

The CEC said those criticising EVMs were doing so for their own interests.

When people lose elections, they blame their defeat on EVMs, but when they win they don't do so, he added.

On the issue of conducting simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, he said this could be done if necessary amendments were made to the Constitution and there were enough EVMs.

Other factors such as logistical support and availability of security forces also had to be considered, Rawat said, adding that simultaneous polls would drastically reduce electoral expenses.

"The government had sought the Election Commission's opinion in 2015 on holding elections to the Lok Sabha and legislative Assemblies together.

"We had sent a detailed reply to the government, telling them that the new system would require amendments in the relevant paragraphs of the Constitution and certain sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951," Rawat said.

Joint elections would reduce poll expenses by up to 70 per cent, the CEC maintained.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently urged NDA constituents to start a debate on the need for "One Nation, One Election".

To a question, he said the EC has installed software to weed out duplicate names from the electoral rolls.

Asked if it was possible to delay the coming Assembly polls and conduct them along with the Lok Sabha elections, as was being talked about in political circles, Rawat said, "It can't be done in the present circumstances."



To a query on whether this could be done by imposing President's rule in the states, he said, "It's not possible under the present Constitution".

Madhya Pradesh is one of the states going to the polls by the year-end.

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The Congress-led Punjab government has decided to rope in banks and other financial institutions to provide soft loans to youth for launching startups, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said today.

Addressing a two-day convention and exhibition on Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovation, organised by the Industries Department in collaboration with PHD Chamber, the chief minister stressed the need to motivate youth to shift towards self-employment under the government's startup programme.

Amarinder, while underlining the need for a mindset change among the youth, urged the PHD Chamber to become a knowledge partner with the government for programmes aimed at inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst youngsters.

"Startups not only facilitate gainful self-employment for individual youth but also help provide jobs to other youngsters," he pointed out.

Referring to the success of his government's flagship Ghar Ghar Rozgar' programme, under which he said over 1.62 lakh jobs had been provided jobs so far, the chief minister reiterated his commitment to ensuring ample job opportunities for the unemployed youth of the state.

He cited the example of the IT hub being developed at Mohali to enable the IT sector to emerge as a major employment source for the state's talented and intelligent youngsters.

On the occasion, the chief minister also handed over an administrative sanction of Rs 25 lakh to Principal Sangeeta Handa for the upgradation of infrastructure at the Government Mohindra College, established in 1876 by the then Maharaja Patiala Mohinder Singh.

In his address, Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra said that his department would soon organise a job fest to provide jobs in various medical and para-medical fields.

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Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today extended support to the demand of Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP from Nizamabad, K Kavitha for setting up a National Turmeric Board for the benefit of farmers.

"Kavithaji has taken a big initiative for National Turmeric Board.. I have written a letter to the Prime Minister (in support)," Baba Ramdev told reporters at Nizamabad.

He said he would take part in any agitation held in New Delhi in support of the demand for constitution of the board.

"It (board) is necessary for (ensuring) justice to farmers," Ramdev said.

Favouring stoppage of the import of turmeric, he said the Centre should consider its export.

Kavitha, who was present on the occasion, said the demand for setting up the Turmeric Board has been pending for the last 30 years.

She urged Ramdev's Patanjali group to do whatever possible for the benefit of farmers.

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Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary DAMEPL, which pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line, today agreed in the Delhi High Court not to enforce the Rs 5,164 crore arbitration award in its favour till the pendency of the DMRC appeal.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), on its part, said it will take over the liability of Rs 1,617 crore debt owed to banks by the private company.

The assurances from DMRC and Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL) were made before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar which listed the matter for day-to-day hearing from July 25.

Taking the assurances on record in its interim order, the court also said that if DMRC's appeal is dismissed, it would be burdened with the liability of the Rs 2,501 crore that DAMEPL had borrowed from promoters and other financial institutions to infuse in the Airport Express line project.

The court was hearing DMRC's appeal against a March 6 order of a single judge upholding the May 2017 arbitral award in favour of DAMEPL.

DMRC has also challenged the single judge's direction to deposit within four weeks 75 per cent of the award amount in an escrow account maintained with the banks which had loaned money to the Rinfra subsidiary.

The bench said the issues that need to be decided in the instant case were whether DAMEPL abandoned the project, as claimed by DMRC, and how much of the debt owed to the banks is to be paid by the public sector undertaking (PSU).

Under the agreement between the two, if the contract was terminated due to DAMEPL's fault, then DMRC would have to pay 80 per cent of the debt, while if it was the metro's fault, then the PSU would have to pay 100 per cent of the debt and 130 per cent of the equity.

DMRC, represented by Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha, told the court that it will take over servicing of the debt that DAMEPL owed to the banks.

The submission came following the court's query yesterday whether the DMRC was willing to pay or take over the Rs 1,617 crore owed by DAMEPL to 11 banks -- Axis Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Andhra Bank, Central Bank of India, Dena Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, IIFC UK and Canara Bank London.

DAMEPL, represented by senior advocates P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, told the court today that the debt owed to the banks alone, with interest till April 9, came to Rs 3,325 crore and DMRC should at the least pay 80 per cent -- Rs 2,660 crore -- of that.

DMRC, on the other hand, said that after DAMEPL abandoned the project, under the substitution agreement, it had to run the Airport Express line as a receiver and the only alternative it had was to shut down the operations.

The court had yesterday said that according to the agreement between the two, DMRC cannot shy away from paying minimum 80 per cent of the debt owed by DAMEPL to the banks.

In its plea, DMRC has contended that there was a "patent illegality" in the arbitral decision as it did not consider that the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) had certified the line as viable for operations.

It said it has been running the airport line since June 2013 when DAMEPL had "abandoned" the project despite repairs of structural defects in November 2012.

The arbitral tribunal in its award had accepted DAMEPL's claim that the running of operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would run.

DAMEPL, on the other hand, has claimed that the CMRS certificate was granted with the conditions that the trains have to be run at reduced speeds and frequency, which would make the operations commercially unviable for it.

The Rinfra subsidiary has already moved a plea for execution of the award and also seeking attachment of DMRC's bank accounts for not depositing 75 per cent of the amount within the given time.

On March 23, the high court had directed DMRC to settle the immediate amounts that DAMEPL owes the banks for the airport metro project, so that its accounts are not termed non-performing assets (NPAs).

Pursuant to the court's direction, DMRC had deposited Rs 306 crore.

The concession agreement between the two was signed on August 25, 2008. Under the agreement, DMRC was to carry out the civil works, excluding at the depot, and the balance, including the project system works, were to be executed by DAMEPL.

The Airport Express line was commissioned on February 23, 2011 after an investment of over Rs 2,885 crore, funded by the DAMEPL's promoters' fund, banks and financial institutions.

DAMEPL had told the single judge that it had terminated the concession agreement as DMRC had not cured certain defects in the Airport Express line within 90 days of a notice issued by it. It had also said the agreement had come to effect from January 1, 2013 and the project was handed over to DMRC on June 30, 2013.

Till the handing over of the project, DAMEPL had operated the line as a deemed agent of DMRC, it had said.

The arbitration was entered into in August, 2013 after efforts to amicably resolve the issue did not yield any result.

DAMEPL is a joint venture of Rinfra and a Spanish construction company -- Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles -- with a shareholding of 95 and five per cent respectively.

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A 45-year-old man, who set himself on fire on Sunday as he was allegedly disturbed over caste-based protests in the country, died at a hospital in New Delhi last night.

Raghuveer Sharan Gupta, a chemist shop owner and a worker of RSS, had poured petrol on his body and set himself on fire in city's Vaishali Nagar area.

Gupta died at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi last night, DCP West (Jaipur) Ashok Gupta said.

In a statement to the police, Gupta allegedly said that there were tensions within his family and that he was also upset over the caste-based divide and protests in the society.

Initially admitted to the SMS Hospital with 80 per cent burn injuries, the family members of Gupta took him to a hospital in New Delhi for his treatment.

Gupta was upset with caste-based violence in the country. He was also upset over Bharat bandh rumour for April 10, the RSS said in a release.

A number of Dalit organizations held strike across India on April 2 to protest against alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act.

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Russia rejected a new US proposal at the United Nations today to set up an investigation to identify the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

The United States put forward a draft resolution to the Security Council following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people.

The US push for a new inquiry came amid heightened tensions over possible US military action in Syria, with President Donald Trump saying that "major decisions" would be taken within 48 hours.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the US-drafted measure "contains some unacceptable elements, which make it worse" than a previous US proposal put forward in March.

"From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," he told reporters following an emergency council meeting.

Trump -- who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base after sarin was used in the town of Khan Sheikhun -- warned after the latest accusations that there would be a "big price to pay."



Rescuers and medics in Douma say more than 40 people died after a "poisonous chlorine gas attack" late Saturday in the last rebel-held pocket of Eastern Ghouta.

At the council meeting, Nebenzia warned that a US military strike against Syria could have "grave repercussions" and stressed that the use of chlorine or sarin had not been confirmed in the attack.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the council to take action, but warned that the United States was ready to respond.

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley said.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria," she added.

"Either way, the United States will respond."



The Russian ambassador said Moscow had told the United States that it would not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk.

"Armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions," Nebenzia said.

Moscow and Damascus have fiercely denied that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

It was unclear when the proposed US measure would come up for a vote at the council.

A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted and no vetoes from the five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

"The US resolution is pretty obviously a bait for the Russians, who will have no choice but to veto it," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert from the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"That will give the US and possibly France an excuse for military action," said Gowan.

"All sides know what is going on, and the Russians have actually been predicting US military action over Ghouta for some time. We just have to hope that Moscow will not overreact when the strikes come."



The renewed US push to establish the United Nations Independent Mechanism of Investigation comes after Russia killed off a previous UN-led probe in November by vetoing the renewal of its mandate.

Under the current draft resolution, UNIMI would be established for one year and work with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify perpetrators of the chemical attacks.

The council would ask UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to outline within 30 days the operation of the panel "based on the principles of impartiality, independence and professionalism," according to the draft text obtained by AFP.

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A 55-year-old Russian national, who was here to take part in the DefExpo 2018, died today after he went for a swim in the sea at Mamallapuram, about 55-km from here, police said.

Igor Makarov, part of a Russian delegation, went for the swim along with two of his colleagues, they said.

He was reported missing in the waters and a life-guard brought him ashore, police said.

The Russian was then taken to a hospital on the East Coast Road, where he was declared brought dead, a local police official told PTI.

On the cause of death, the official said it may be due to drowning but could not be confirmed immediately.

The body has been sent for post-mortem, the official said.

An official at the Russian Consulate General here confirmed the death of their national.

Makarov and his colleagues had checked in at a resort in Mamallapuram on April 8, police said.

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Russian whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny, who died while jogging near London aged 44 in 2012, was "fearful for his life", his lawyer at the time told a court today.

The lawyer, Dmitry Lipkin, spoke via video-link from Moscow at the Old Bailey court in London where an inquest is examining whether Perepilichny died of natural causes or was poisoned.

"We had information... that he did not come to Russia because he was fearful for his life," Lipkin told the court.

"He was threatened. He left Russia but who he was threatened by, I don't know," he said.

Perepilichny, a wealthy businessman, had been helping investment firm Hermitage Capital Management investigate a money-laundering operation when he was found dead near his home in Weybridge, outside London.

Two years after his death, his life insurance company ordered tests that detected a toxin from a Chinese plant called Gelsemium, which can trigger cardiac arrest, in his stomach.

The case has come under increased scrutiny following last month's nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

Britain has blamed Russia for the attack -- a charge vehemently denied by Moscow.

Following the Skripal poisoning, MPs have called on the government to re-examine 14 unexplained deaths on British soil in recent years, including that of Perepilichny, a Russian oligarch and a British spy found in a bag.

Lipkin said he had been working with Perepilichny on some debts that he owed in Russia.

"Alexander asked us to deal with a few matters, mostly those matters were concerning his debts," Lipkin said.

Asked if any of the debts were to organised crime figures, Lipkin replied: "I'm not aware of that".

The inquest is expected to last four days, with a verdict not expected immediately.

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Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today dubbed the recent disruptions in the House a "sad commentary" on the functioning of India's parliamentary democracy and said matters of public importance could not be discussed because of the "collective failure" of the lawmakers.

Addressing the Rajya Sabha Day Celebration here, the Vice President lamented the repeated disruptions in the House during the second part of the Budget Session and said Parliament is for addressing people's concerns.

"It was a win-win situation, but we made it a lose-lose situation. It is time to wake up and look at the way forward," he said.

"The whole country is watching our collective failure in disparagement and it certainly does not augur well for our parliamentary democracy," he said.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman expressed his "anguish and agony" over the issue of disruptions in the House and said that the recently concluded second part of the Budget Session witnessed continued disruptions despite his earnest appeals to the lawmakers.

"What happened earlier was a sad commentary on the functioning of our parliamentary democracy," he said.

"Only words will not do, deeds must follow. We must make positive contribution and make our country strong, stable and prosperous," Naidu said.

The Rajya Sabha Day is observed on April 3 every year as the Upper House was constituted for the first time on this date in 1952. However, the function to mark the occasion was held today.

Naidu is the first Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman to attend the Rajya Sabha Day Celebration function, a statement from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.

The Vice President said in the last six decades, men and women of prodigious talent and caliber adorned the benches of Rajya Sabha and contributed significantly towards realising the vision of the founding fathers of the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution, after a lot of deliberations in the Constituent Assembly, agreed to provide a bicameral legislature with Rajya Sabha as the Upper House.

He said the Rajya Sabha, over the years, has established a credible legacy of performance and justified its existence as a second chamber of the parliamentary democracy.

"However, our work is far from complete," he said.

As the presiding officer, Naidu said despite his assurance to accommodate the concerns of all parties, members preferred to engage in disruptions.

He said it was not a question of which party or which member, "but a question of our collective failure to transact important business and deliberate on matters of urgent public importance which has attracted public criticism".

Appreciating the work of Rajya Sabha secretariat staff, he said the effective functioning of a legislature depends largely on the support and service it gets from its secretariat.

He lauded the efforts of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for organising various competitions involving children of the employees to mark the Rajya Sabha Day Celebrations and congratulated all the young winners.

Rajya Sabha Secretary-General Desh Deepak Verma delivered the welcome address on the occasion.

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Saudi Arabia has announced that it will be participating in the Cannes Film Festival.

A total of nine short films by young local filmmakers will be screened at the Short Film Corner during the festival on May 14 and 15, reported Variety.

Saudi Film Council, which was recently launched by the country's General Culture Authority (GCA) after the lifting of 35-year-old ban on the films, will also set up a pavilion in order to enable the guests to participate in roundtable discussions with Saudi industry representatives and to understand the Kingdom's industry ambitions through its various initiatives and programmes.

"The kingdom looks forward to its debut presence at the festival, celebrating and supporting the diversity of talent and opportunities within the Saudi film industry," , Saudi culture minister and chairman of GCA's board Awwad Alawwad said in the statement.

"Saudi Arabia is embarking on the development of a sustainable and dynamic industry that supports and encourages all stages of a film cycle and offers an incredible range of locations for the world's filmmakers to discover," he added.

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The SBI has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

India's largest state-owned bank, which celebrated the new subsidiary with a special event in London yesterday, becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.

SBI said that the ringfencing and subsidiarisation of the retail franchise SBI UK, the bank's largest overseas operation, offers UK customers "stability and reassurance" amidst continuing uncertainty around the UK's decision to leave the European Union (EU).

"We are extremely proud of how far the bank has come from the first time it opened its doors to UK residents in 1921," said Sanjiv Chadha, Regional Head of

"The launch of our UK subsidiary shows our commitment to operate in the UK market. Many primarily see the UK as the gateway to Europe and are fazed by the impact of Brexit. Our calculus is different. We see London as the ideal launch pad for a global presence and have full faith that, despite Brexit, London will remain the premier international financial centre," he said.

The UK subsidiary of the SBI has been launched with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) wants foreign to establish UK subsidiaries to protect depositors in the UK from uncertainties in foreign markets. It is aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial crisis, by ensuring that have enough capital to support their business.

The costly move has caused an industry uproar, leading many existing foreign-owned bank branches to reassess their presence in the UK.

However, says it has chosen to view the restructuring as an endorsement for London as a financial capital of the world, despite uncertainty triggered by the Brexit.

Charles Bowman, Lord Mayor of the City of London, said: "The move is a reflection of the continued strength of UK-India ties, particularly in financial and professional services. I look forward to further building on our 100-year relationship with India's largest bank."



SBI UK, as the largest Indian bank in the UK, said it is confident that London will continue to remain the pre-eminent financial capital for institutions seeking a "gateway to a global presence".

The new subsidiary, which came into effect on April 1, means that all retail branches of SBI in the UK will fall under a new UK-incorporated banking entity instead of their previous status as overseas branches of the Indian entity.

"The UK market is one of tremendous interest and promise to us and that is unchanged regardless of Brexit. London is the best place for us to base our international business in, we find the regulatory climate proportionate and supportive," Chadha said.

SBI operates seven branches in London and five each in Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Coventry all cities with a large concentration of Indian diaspora population.

The bank says that while the Indian-origin customer base will remain at the heart of its operations, it will use its expansion to cater to the wider UK market as a competitive local bank.


Come tomorrow and ten tribal students from Maharashtra will embark on a challenging journey to scale the world's highest peak -- Mount Everest.

The students, who are in the age group of 17-21 years, are all packed to leave for Kathmandu and start the expedition to live their mountainous dream.

These students belong to different ashram schools (residential schools for tribal children) in Chandrapur district in Vidarbha region and the expedition is a part of "Mission Shaurya" undertaken by the Tribal Development Ministry of Maharashtra, an official statement said.

The exercise is being carried out by the Integrated Tribal Welfare Project and the Chandrapur district administration.

The ten students, identified as Manisha Dhurve, Pramesh Aale, Umakant Madvi, Akash Madvi, Akash Atram, Shubham Pendor, Kavidas Katmode, Vikas Soyam, Indu Kannake and Chayya Atram, come from ashram schools in Borda, Devda and Jeevti -- all remote tribal blocks in Chandrapur.

The preparation for the project began in July 2017 with preliminary screening of 60 students from the ashram schools. Of them, 45 students were sent to Wardha for the foundation training, the statement said.

"After various tests, 25 students were selected and sent to Bhongir, Hyderabad for primary rock climbing course. After the five-day course, 18 of the students were sent for further basic mountaineering course at Darjeeling in November 2017.

"Thereafter, of the 18 shortlisted students, 13 were selected for the 12-day winter mountaineering course at Leh, Ladakh in January this year, where they were given training in acclimatising with the climate at Mount Everest. Of them, 10 were finally selected for expedition," the statement added.

During the expedition, the students will be accompanied by a support staff, a manager, 15 sherpas and one expert doctor, it said.

Praising the students, the state's Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara said that tribals have inborn determination, persistence, strength and that generations after generations have carried themselves forward in adverse conditions.

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Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi today urged the schools in the state to create an "intellectually imbued" society for students.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of silver jubilee celebrations of Maharishi Vidya Mandir (MVM) Senior Secondary School here, the Governor said, "I feel the main purpose of is to produce good, productive and conscientious citizens. I urge upon the teachers to use their noble vocation to churn out good and conscientious citizens."



Referring to Aristotle, who once said that a civilised society is one where good people become good citizens, Mukhi every generation is expected to make the society better for its children.

"Today's students are very likely to become leaders in their chosen walks of life tomorrow," he said.

Appreciating the contribution of MVM, the governor said the school, in the past 25 years, supported its students by providing them equal opportunities and challenges.

Mukhi congratulated the faculty members on this occasion and said, "Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping the minds of students in their formative years."



The governor also lauded the founder of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for promoting transcendental meditation among young people.

"Transcendental meditation is a scientifically proved technique, which when practiced, helps an individual to realise his/her full potential," he added.

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Actor Diego Boneta is in talks to play a pivotal role in the upcoming reboot of "Terminator".

Boneta's role is not clear as details are being kept under wraps, but he is said to be playing a human in the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Tim Miller is directing the latest human versus machine story, with James Cameron producing with Skydance.

Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger are returning to the fold, while "Blade Runner 2049" actor Mackenzie Davis is one of the new additions to the sci-fi action project.

Hamilton and Schwarzenegger are reprising their iconic roles, while Davis is playing a soldier-assassin from the future.

The reboot is scheduled to release on November 22, 2019.

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Shiv Sena activists today ransacked the cabin of a toll plaza near Shinde village on Nashik-Pune highway demanding closure of the facility, police said.

The protesters, led by MLAs Rajabhau Waje and Yogesh Gholap, placed burning tyres on road, resulting in traffic snarls on the busy highway.

Residents of Shinde village also participated in the sit-in agitation, said a Nashikroad police station official.

Gholap claimed that Sena leaders spoke with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari who has assured them of taking a decision on the demand to close down the toll plaza within a week.

The agitation was withdrawn following the Union minister's assurance, he said.

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Seven naxals, including a woman, were arrested from three different places in insurgency-hit Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh, police said today.

The cadres were apprehended yesterday during the search operations by separate joint teams of security forces, Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla told PTI.

The personnel belonging to Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) and district force were involved in these operations, he said.

While three naxals identified as Jaitram Kashyap (30), Mandiram (35) and Manaji Katlami (26) were arrested from Irpanar village forest, two others - Budhram Wadde (40) and Sonaru alias Gadge Wadde (45) were held from Gumiyabeda-Kotnar forest, he said.

Besides, two more rebels identified as Laluram Usendi (50) and Jhankai Katlam (19) were arrested from Orchha police station area, he said.

They were active as members of janmilitia and janatana sarkar squad of Maoists and allegedly tasked with arranging meetings of naxals, conducting recce for them, damaging public property, putting up pamphlets, posters and banners and planting explosives to harm the security forces, he added.

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The National Green Tribunal today asked Shahdara MLA Ram Niwas Goel to assist the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) officials in identifying a suitable site for shifting an existing 'dhalao' (garbage dump) near a school.

A bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra Rathore asked the AAP leader to participate in the process and make serious efforts to find out a solution to the problem.

The tribunal's order came on a letter written by Goel to the NGT against the increasing number of auto workshops in Jhilmil Colony in East Delhi resulting in enormous traffic congestion and air pollution in the area.

The AAP MLA had also sought shifting of the 'dhalao' located near Babu Ram school in Shahdara as heaps of garbage had accumulated at the dumping site posing a threat to the health of residents in the area.

"Heard the counsel for the parties. In respect of the question for dumping of garbage and a place for 'dhalao', counsel for EDMC along with officer present in court have informed us that an exercise with regard to change of place of 'dhalao' would be done so that the grievance that garbage being dumped near the school does not remain.

"However, in this exercise, we expect the public representative (local MLA) to also participate and make serious efforts to find out the solution to the aforesaid problem. Counsel for EDMC shall intimate the public representative, as and when a meeting in this regard is called for," the bench said.

The order came after advocate Balendu Shekhar, appearing for EDMC, said shifting of the existing dhalao was a complicated process and the corporation faces massive resistance from the local people at the time of building the dumps.

The lawyer suggested to the bench that being the local MLA, Goel's participation will help to arrive at a consensus solution.

During the hearing, advocate Kush Sharma, appearing for the Delhi Development Authority, told the NGT that in entire EDMC jurisdiction, they have no piece of land for shifting the entire auto workshop which is operation at the site for last several decades.

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In an unsavoury incident, a couple of miscreants were on Tuesday detained by the police for hurling a shoe at Ravindra Jadeja during an IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.

The incident happened in the eighth over of the KKR innings. The unidentified protestors hurled shoes at Jadeja, who was stationed at long-on. The footwear missed the player fell near the boundary rope as Du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi were taking a stroll.

The match was preceded by massive protests from various groups and activists due to Cauvery water dispute prompting IPL governing council chairman Rajeev Shukla to seek government intervention.

The two persons detained by the police for their involvement are allegedly a part of actor-director Seeman's Naam pro-Tamil outfit Tamizhar.

Naam Tamizhar leader and film personality Seeman, film-maker Bharathirajaa and scores of activists were taken into custody by the police, who had a tough time managing an ever-increasing number of protesters.

Hundreds of activists of outfits like TVK, Naam Tamizhar and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), besides some Muslim groups blocked roads at the arterial Anna Salai and TTK Salai, hugely affecting traffic movement, police said.
Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has charted a plan to promote micro enterprises in 115 aspirational districts across the country to contribute in their development.

The bank has tied up with Common Service Centre (CSC) to meet this objective, Sidbi Chairman and Managing Director Mohammad Mustafa told PTI.

"SIDBI has decided to focus on 115 aspirational districts to run micro enterprises promotion programme (MEPP), which will be run with the help of CSC," he said.

The 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' programme which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 5 this year, aims to bring about socio-developmental changes in these backward districts which have been chosen from all states of the country.

District magistrates of these areas have been made prabhari' officers, who will implement the parameters under the programme. They will be assisted in this task by additional secretaries of central ministries in the national capital.

The objective of the MEPP is to promote potential rural entrepreneurs by hand-holding them and also facilitate financial tie-up with the formal banking sector.

Since its launch, the programme has promoted about 41,500 enterprises and has generated employment opportunities for about 1.07 lakh persons mainly belonging to underprivileged section of the society.

Last month, Sidbi signed a memorandum of understanding with CSC e-governance Services (CSCeGS) to take Udyami Mitra portal to the unserved and the underserved MSMEs.

The 'udyamimitra.in' portal helps improve accessibility of credit for the MSMEs. It allows entrepreneurs to apply for a loan without physically visiting bank branches.

CSCeGS is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) which acts as connect point for various digitally aligned services to villages in the country.

CSCs, one of the crucial enablers of the Digital India programme, are the access points for delivery of various e-governance and business services to citizens in rural and remote areas of the country.

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Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharamantoday urged the management graduates to contribute in the area of public administrationinstead of thinking only about getting jobs.

"...Look at bringing in reforms, bringing in modernised ways of administration and doing a lot of work so that India as a country is better governed.

"Look at services that reach people (and) not just to MNCs (multinational companies), may be Indian-origin MNCs require your service but public administration also requires help from the people like you," she said while addressing the 7th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Raipur, in Sejbahar here.

Sitharaman said, "I would think it is important for you to not just think in terms of getting jobs only but to look at what you can contribute to the society as individuals, as entrepreneurs and as administrators".

"I think you should think out-of-box (and) not just rush to (get) jobs...think about new work," she added.

Sitharaman cited prevalence of "a lot of conflicting ideologies".

"In these challenging times, where there is a churn at global level, there are a lot of conflicting ideologies," she said.

Sitharaman cited how a socialist country like China is opening up its economy while the US and European countries are becoming more and more protectionist.

She also appealed to the students to keep themselves updated about the latest technology and skills.

Many public sector institutions in India in need of better management techniques wanted to optimally use the resources they have, she said.

"Today many of them (public sector institutions) suffer from having excessive overheads, and as a result, they are not even competitive. So you people who are graduating from this premiere institute ready yourself not just to get into MNCs which have well-made systems of governance, but also get into public policy, public service and government service and suggest how to make efficient administration,better management of resources, (ways to) make them competitive," she said.

Sitharaman said, "You have a big challenge before you and immense opportunities which were not existed before".

Management students should also do something to become entrepreneurs, she added.

Speaking on the occasion, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh appealed to the students to be fearless.

As many as 147 post graduate students of the 2016-18 batch, 49 PG students from the 2015-17 batch, 10 PG students from the 2016-18 batch of working executives, and 8 students of the management fellow programme were awarded degrees on the occasion.

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Kamla Devi, mother of rifleman Rinku Ram who went missing while patrolling along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh in 2009, finally won her battle of more than seven years as the Defence Ministry approved special family pension and ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to her.

Devi had approached the armed forces tribunal at Chandigarh seeking pension of her son but was told that it would be released only after his body was found, said officials.

In November, 2009, Rinku Ram of JAK Rifles had fallen into a raging river while patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along China border in Arunachal Pradesh. His body was never found.

"It is hereby informed that Special Family Pension for Smt Kamla Devi has been granted with effect from 19/11/2009. Ex-gratia lump sump of Rs 10 lakh has also been sanctioned to Smt Kamla Devi," Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted.

She said the case was brought to her notice on April 1.

Kamla Devi had approached the Armed Forces Tribunal to get her son's pension, but was told that it would be released only after the body was found.

Earlier in the day, the Defence Ministry had issued a press release on grant of pension to Devi but later it was withdrawn. Official sources said it was withdrawn as it contained some factual errors.

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Some National Guard members have started arriving at the US-Mexico border with more expected as federal government officials seek ways to curtail illegal immigration.

The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico yesterday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he's called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

The only holdout border state was California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his state's National Guard will participate and has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy.

Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their state's Guard members and the US government picks up the cost.

Brown's spokesman, Evan Westrup, said California officials still are reviewing Trump's troop request.

Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border, issuing a proclamation citing "the lawlessness that continues at our southern border."



Trump administration officials have said that rising numbers of people being caught at the southern border, while in line with seasonal trends in recent years, require an immediate response.

Apprehensions are still well below their historical trends during the terms of former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom also deployed the Guard to the border.

In Mexico City, a caravan of Central American migrants that had been heading north stopped in the Mexican capital. The caravan had sparked furious criticism from Trump, followed days later by his National Guard border protection deployment plan. Organizers said they never intended to go to the US border.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources" to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive.

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Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the US Congress and accepts responsibility over the Cambridge Analytica scandal for "not doing enough" to protect its users' personal data being misused.

In a testimony released yesterday on the eve of his first Congressional appearance, Zuckerberg accepts responsibility for the social network's failure to protect private data of its 87 million users and prevent manipulation of the platform.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by a House of Representatives panel.

"I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."



"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg, 33, who is facing the worst crisis of business, will testify before senators later today and a House panel tomorrow amid a firestorm over the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users by the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

In prepared remarks released by a congressional panel, Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform, used by two billion people, could be abused and manipulated.

Yesterday, he met Senator Bill Nelson and other lawmakers.

"I just met one-on-one with Zuckerberg and in no uncertain terms reminded him that Facebook has a responsibility to its users to protect our personal data. Facebook failed us," Nelson said.

"Not only did they fail to safeguard the personal information of millions of users, they concealed it from us and this is not the first time the company mishandled user information. Only now are they coming clean and informing those who have had their information compromised and telling us they are going to make things right," he said.

Last week, Zuckerberg admitted making a "huge mistake" as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a figure higher than the previous estimate of 50 million.

Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004, once again admitted the lapses and asked for another chance to lead the company.

Embroiled in a massive data breach following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook had said data on about 87 million people - mostly in the US - may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Nelson said he has asked the Congressional leadership to to haul Cambridge Analytica in to answer questions at a separate hearing.

"The bottom line here is: if Facebook can't fix its privacy problems, then how can Americans trust them to be caretakers of their sensitive information?" he asked.

In his written remarks, Zuckerberg said it's not enough to just connect people.

"We have to make sure those connections are positive. It's not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren't using it to hurt people or spread misinformation. It's not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they've given it to are protecting it too," he said.

"Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I'm committed to getting it right," the Facebook CEO said.

Zuckerberg said his top priority has always been his social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together. "Advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I'm running Facebook," he said.

"I started Facebook when I was in college. We've come a long way since then. We now serve more than 2 billion people around the world, and every day, people use our services to stay connected with the people that matter to them most. I believe deeply in what we're doing. And when we address these challenges, I know we'll look back and view helping people connect and giving more people a voice as a positive force in the world," Zuckerberg said.

The White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the administration is looking forward to his testimony.

Zeynep Tufekci from University of North Carolina apprehended that the testimony just turns into congressional spectacle, that lawmakers yell at Zuckerberg. "And Mark Zuckerberg apologises. It will feel cathartic, but that's not the problem. This isn't about personalities," he told PBS

"And Facebook keeps saying it's an idealistic company. It's a giant company with half-a-trillion dollars in market capitalisation. It's about not about idealism. It's about protecting our data. It's about protecting our public sphere," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the US Congress and taken personal responsibility over the Cambridge Analytica scandal for "not doing enough" to protect Facebook's 87 million users' private data from being misused and manipulated.

In a testimony released yesterday on the eve of his first congressional appearance, Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the social network's failure to protect private data of its users and prevent manipulation of the platform.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by a House of Representatives panel.

"I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."



"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg, 33, who is facing the worst crisis of business, will testify before senators later today and a House panel tomorrow amid a firestorm over the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users by the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

In prepared remarks released by a congressional panel, Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform, used by two billion people, could be abused and manipulated.

Yesterday, he met Senator Bill Nelson and other lawmakers.

"I just met one-on-one with Zuckerberg and in no uncertain terms reminded him that Facebook has a responsibility to its users to protect our personal data. Facebook failed us," Nelson said.

"Not only did they fail to safeguard the personal information of millions of users, they concealed it from us and this is not the first time the company mishandled user information. Only now are they coming clean and informing those who have had their information compromised and telling us they are going to make things right," he said.

Last week, Zuckerberg admitted making a "huge mistake" as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a figure higher than the previous estimate of 50 million.

Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004, once again admitted the lapses and asked for another chance to lead the company.

Embroiled in a massive data breach following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook had said data on about 87 million people - mostly in the US - may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Nelson said he has asked the Congressional leadership to to haul Cambridge Analytica in to answer questions at a separate hearing.

"The bottom line here is: if Facebook can't fix its privacy problems, then how can Americans trust them to be caretakers of their sensitive information?" he asked.

In his written remarks, Zuckerberg said it's not enough to just connect people.

"We have to make sure those connections are positive. It's not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren't using it to hurt people or spread misinformation. It's not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they've given it to are protecting it too," he said.

"Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I'm committed to getting it right," the Facebook CEO said.

Zuckerberg said his top priority has always been his social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together. "Advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I'm running Facebook," he said.

"I started Facebook when I was in college. We've come a long way since then. We now serve more than 2 billion people around the world, and every day, people use our services to stay connected with the people that matter to them most. I believe deeply in what we're doing. And when we address these challenges, I know we'll look back and view helping people connect and giving more people a voice as a positive force in the world," Zuckerberg said.

Yesterday, Facebook also began notifying the 87 million people whose data may have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica by posting a notification that they would see when they logged into the social network, The New York Times reported.

In addition, all Facebook users will see a new feature highlighting which apps they use and which information they have shared with those apps.

The White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the Trump administration is looking forward to his testimony.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three southern states today demanded reframing the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission for devolution of funds to states, alleging it was biased and in contradiction to principles of Federalism enshrined in the Constitution.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rejected the charge of bias against the southern states, asserting there was no inherent bias or mandate in the ToRs which can be construed as discriminatory against the states which made good progress in population control.

Jaitley also said a "needless controversy" is sought to be created that the ToRs are loaded against any particular region of the country. "Nothing could be further from truth", he said in a Facebook post.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the finance ministers of southern states that stare at the prospect of drastic cuts in Central transfers in the wake of the ToR met here to discuss the challenges ahead, alleging it was biased against some of the progressive states.

At the conclave, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh as well as the Congress-ruled union territory of Puducherry while opposing the ToR said it was in contradiction to the principles of Federalism enshrined in the Constitution and also would result in revenue loss to the performing states.

Among other things, they also strongly opposed the ToR recommendation to use the 2011 census to calculate population for allocation of union tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by the previous Finance Commissions.

AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu and TRS-ruled Telangana opted out of the conference, hosted by Kerala to discuss issues of common concern with respect to the 15th Finance Commission.

Briefing reporters on the deliberations, Kerala Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac said a similar conference would be held at Visakhapatnam either in April end or May first week to finalise a memorandum seeking changes in the ToR.

"We will see that Tamil Nadu and Telangana along with more states like West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab and Delhi attend that conference," Isaac said.

On the outcome of the meet, he said the states, which participated, came together on several issues.

The ministers were of the view that there was an attempt to reduce the Centre's share to states through the 15th Finance Commission, he said. "If this is allowed to succeed, states would become a glorified muncipalities".

Inaugurating the conclave, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the heated debates that followed appointment of the Commission was unprecedented because of the 'conspicuous bias' in-built in the ToR of the new commission.

It was widely feared that the ToR framed by the Central Government would prevent the Finance Commission from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility, he said.

"Therefore, it is only proper for all of us to appeal to the Union Government to reframe the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission," Vijayan added.

Vijayan said introduction of GST in the country has resulted in erosion of fiscal autonomy of the states.

"We are all aware that the terms of reference of the 15th FinanceCommission has created apprehension about principles of fairness and equity in the distribution of national resources for development," the CPI-M veteran said.

Attacking the BJP-led NDA government, he said the ToR was unprecedented in asking the Commission to consider proposing performance-based incentives beyond those relating to fiscal responsibility, population and devolution to local bodies.

"This reflects the viewpoint and ideological inclinations of the Centralgovernment and are attempts to micro-manage the the fiscal domain of states'," he said.

Backing the southern states, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in a tweet said the ToR was "seriously flawed" and would adversely affect the better-performing states. Earlier, he had said the Centre has "lit a fire" and that it should be doused before the southern "flames scorch the federation".

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the TDP-ruled state was against ToR "unilaterally" stipulated by the Centre without consulting the states demanded it be reframed after discussions.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the conference would be an "eye opener" for the union government.

The best performing states are punished and worst performing ones are rewarded, he said, and sought to know how developed states could carry out works if funds were not given to them.

He took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he talks about co-operative federalism at all meetings, 'but what was actually happening is dictatorship".

"We have to revolt against the Union Government for our rights".

Representing Karnataka, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said his state fully supports the views of other states.

Karnataka was of the opinion that all progressive states, including perhaps all the southern states, have been 'disincentivised' by means of the ToR, he said.

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Calling for speeding up of its ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Chinese President Xi Jinping today told Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that the ties between the two countries should be a pillar for regional peace and stability.

In his meeting with Abbasi on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia in the southern Chinese city of Boao, Xi called for efforts from both sides to advance the construction of CPEC and ensure the sound planning and implementation of cooperation projects involving infrastructure construction, such as the Gwadar Port, as well as energy and industrial parks.

The controversial USD 50 billion CPEC connects China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar Port. India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The ties between China and Pakistan should become a model for good-neighbourly relationship and international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi told Abbasi, who was one of the guests at the Forum.

"The China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership has made outstanding progress since I visited Pakistan in 2015," Xi said.

The international and regional situation is undergoing profound and complex changes, which makes it more important for the two countries to consolidate the all-weather friendship and deepen strategic cooperation, state-run Xinhua agency quoted him as saying.

China is willing to make joint efforts with Pakistan to push bilateral ties to a higher level and build a more closely-knitted community with a shared future between the two countries, Xi said.

What China wants to see is stable development and prosperity in Pakistan, Xi said.

China firmly supports Pakistan in its efforts to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate rights and interests. China opposes interference from any country in Pakistan's internal affairs, and firmly supports Pakistan in maintaining its national unity and the fight against terrorism, he said.

On his part, Abbasi said China and Pakistan are "iron friends" who always support each other on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.

Hailing CPEC's important role in the development of both countries and the region, he expressed Pakistan's willingness to promote bilateral cooperation in finance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and human resources.

After their meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.

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The Madras High Court today dismissed the bail plea of the Managing Director of Subhiksha Trading Services Limited in cases relating to offences, including cheating depositors of Rs 150 crore.

The bail application was filed by R Subramanian.

Justice A D Jagadish Chandira said the petitioner is alleged to have been involved in offenses of money laundering to the tune of Rs 700 crore.

A case was also registered by the CBI in 2013 and the economic offences wing, Chennai, against the firm for having cheated depositors of Rs 150 crore and also with regard to loans availed by petitioner from various Consortium of Bankers.

However, the petitioner has not disclosed details on how and in what manner the funds have been utilised, the judge said.

"It is the case where the petitioner has been charged for the grave economic offences for having laundered amounts to the tune of more than Rs 700 crore and the investigation is at the initial and crucial stage," the judge said.

Dismissing the bail plea, the judge said if the bail is granted to the petitioner at this stage, "it will be prejudicial to the respondent".

Based on a complaint by the Zonal Head of Bank of Baroda, (Tamil Nadu and Kerala), the CBI and Bank Securities and Fraud, Bangalore, registered a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating, among others, against the petitioner.

The case was also registered against K P Vairavan, the then AGM and Branch Head, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Financial Services Branch, Chennai and Subhiksha Trading Services Limited.

The petitioner was arrested in February 27 this year.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today took up with her Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze the issue of Indian students being denied entry into that country despite having valid visas.

Janelidze assured me that he would look into the matter personally and resolve it, Swaraj said in a tweet.

@SushmaSwaraj Why Georgian Government denying entry for Indian students in Georgia even after having valid D3 visa. Deported Students and their parents want to meet you. Please suggest the time and place where we can meet to discuss the issue. #SOS, said a tweet by one Prashant Kamlakar.

Responding to the tweet, the external affairs minister said that she was aware of the issue and the Indian Embassy had taken up the matter.

I have spoken to His Excellency Mr Mikheil Janelidze, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. He assured me that he will look into this matter personally and resolve this, Swaraj said in a late evening tweet.

Reacting to another tweet on a missing Indian family in the US, the Union minister said she has asked for a report in the incident from the Indian Consular General in San Francisco. The family was on a road trip from San Francisco to Portland.

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French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said today that allies of the Syrian regime bore "particular responsibility" for a recent suspected chemical attack that has sparked international outrage.

"The use of these weapons is not neutral, it says things about the regime and our reaction to the use of these weapons will say things about who we are," Philippe told parliament.

"It reveals the capacity and the will to use weapons which are outlawed by international law," he said.

"The allies of the regime bear a particular responsibility in this massacre," he said of alleged use of toxic gas against the rebel-held enclave of Douma on Saturday, which first responders said killed more than 40 people.

"There can be no credible diplomacy if such atrocities are not met with a strong, united and resolute response from the international community," Philippe said.

Russia and Iran, the main backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in more than seven years of civil war, have dismissed the claims, with Tehran calling them a "conspiracy".

Syria's government has invited the global chemical arms watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to visit Douma, state media said.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would propose a "transparent and honest investigation" of the claims, involving the OPCW, at a UN Security Council meeting today.

Moscow had previously denounced the claims as "fabrications", with its UN envoy warning Monday that the possibility of military action was "very, very dangerous".

France has repeatedly warned that evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria is a "red line" that would prompt French strikes on Syrian government forces.

French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the attack with US President Donald Trump on Monday night, with Trump later warning that "we have a lot of options militarily and we'll be letting you know pretty soon.

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French police battled today to evict anti-airport protesters and the creators of an alternative anti-capitalist settlement in western France during a second day of clashes.

Some 2,500 officers raided the decade-old camp at Notre-Dame-des-Landes yesterday, destroying makeshift buildings topped with corrugated iron, a giant tent, a watchtower, and a sheep shed and cheese-making area.

The assault in a wooded area near the city of Nantes has seen dozens of rounds of tear gas fired, as well as stun grenades, while the occupants and demonstrators have responded by throwing petrol bombs and rocks at the security forces.

The activists have used tractors and burning barricades of tyres, wooden pallets, hay bales and electricity poles in an effort to keep the police at bay. Two policemen suffered minor injuries on Tuesday, a security source told AFP, while around six demonstrators were hurt.

Activists opposed to the building of an airport began squatting on the farmland in 2008 and have since built up a community they bill as a model of sustainable farming and political debate.

In January, the government scrapped plans for the airport and told the protesters to clear out by spring.

The government has said the main aim of the operation is to retake control of a key road that runs through the area that has been blocked for five years.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump are among the world leaders who have not been invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next month.

Kensington Palace said that in a departure from usual protocol, no "official list of political leaders" will be compiled for the royal wedding on May 19 at Windsor Castle.

Instead, 1,200 members of the public who are perceived by the couple to have made an impact within their community have been invited alongside guests with a close relationship to the couple.

"It has been decided that an official list of political leaders both UK and international is not required for Prince Harry and Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household," said a spokesperson for Prince Harry, the fifth in line to the British throne.

It has also been confirmed that former US President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, who are friends of Harry, have also been left out of the guest list.

The decision was reportedly made based on the size of the wedding venue, St George's Chapel, and the fact Prince Harry is much further down the line of accession.

The guest list for the wedding of Prince William, second in line to the throne, and Kate Middleton in 2011 included foreign royals, Commonwealth governors-general, ambassadors, senior religious figures and many politicians from around the world.

The royal couple had already announced plans to invite members of the public and some of those who have already received their invitation in the post include a 12-year-old girl injured in the terrorist attack during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May last year.

Amelia Thompson had damaged her vocal chords from screaming in horror in the aftermath of the suicide bombing.

Prince Harry, 33, and Meghan Markle, 36, are set for a very different kind of royal wedding, having announced on Monday that guests should consider donations to their chosen charities in place of showering them with wedding gifts.

Among their chosen charities is Myna Mahila Foundation, an organisation that works with women in Mumbai's slums to provide them with employment opportunities.

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Amid protests demanding closure of the Sterlite unit in Tuticorin district, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board today said it has rejected its application seeking renewal of consent to operate the plant.

TNPC Board norms were not "properly fulfilled," by Sterlite, TNPCB chairman Mohammed Nazimuddin said in an official release.

In view of this, the Board has rejected the Vedanta's copper making unit Sterlite's application seeking renewal of consent to operate its existing plant, it said.

The consent to operate accorded previously by the Board ended on March 31, 2018.

The development comes after about a two month long protest by local people including students against Sterlite alleging pollution and resultant serious health hazards to the people.

In a filing to BSE today, Vedanta said its application has been rejected for want of more clarifications adding it was evaluating further course of action.

"Please take note that the company had applied for renewal of consent to operate (CTO) for its existing smelter plant at Thoothukudi. The application has been rejected for want of more clarifications. The company is evaluating further course of action," it said.

On March 27, the company had said as part of regular maintenance programme, its smelting operations at Thoothukudi (also known as Tuticorin) had undergone maintenance shutdown for approximately 15 days,



The company said today the "scheduled maintenance activities were supposed to be for a period of approximately 15 days from the said date (March 27, 2018)."



It is now likely to be extended given the above development, the release said.

"The company shall update further developments from time to time," it added.

Residents of A Kumarareddiapuram village in Tuticorn district have been on a protest mode against the Sterlite plant for the last two months.

The protest was against both Sterlite's expansion plan and its existing unit which found support from political parties including the main opposition DMK and a slew of pro-Tamil outfits.

On April 1, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan had expressed solidarity with the protest against Sterlite.

"The expansion (of Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta) should not at all be allowed...if possible it will be good to close down this (existing) unit," he had said.

Recently, the state government had also said it was examining complaints of residents against the unit. '



Actor Rajinikanth had recently said the government was not responding to protests by locals.

A leading copper producer, Sterlite Copper represents the copper unit of Vedanta Limited which operates a 400,000 Tonnes Per Annum plant in Tuticorin.

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TNPCC President S Thirunavukkarasar today hit out at BJP State President Tamilisai Soundarajan for her remarks that those blaming the Centre on Cauvery issue should ask top Congress leaders to make efforts to resolve it.

It was an attempt to divert the attention of the people of the state from the raging issue, he told reporters here.

Reacting to a message about Rahul Gandhi's stand on Cauvery issue doing rounds on Whatsapp, Thirunavukkarasar said neither did the Congress president speak in favour of Karnataka nor against Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery issue and blamed the social media for spreading such

To a query on Karnataka's opposition to the formation of Cauvery Management Board, he said there was no justification for blaming that state at this stage.

He also expressed confidence that all party workers will cooperate by hoisting black flags atop their houses and wear black clothes in protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Chennai on April 12, in line with the decision taken by all parties.

On holding IPL matches in Chennai, the senior Congress leader said those who wish to express their solidarity with the farmers and those protesting over Cauvery issue can boycott it.

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Three non-BJP ruled southern states and Union Territory Puducherry today came out against the Terms of Reference stipulated by the Centre in the 15th Finance Commission for devolution of funds to states.

At a conclave of finance ministers of southern states here, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry opined that ToR was in contradiction to the principles of Federalism enshrined in the Constitution and also would result in revenue loss to performing states.

Among other things, they also strongly opposed the ToR recommendation to use the 2011 census to calculate population for allocation of union tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by previous Finance Commissions.

However, AIADMK ruled Tamil Nadu and TRS ruled Telangana opted out of the conference, hosted by Kerala to discuss issues of common concern with respect to the 15th Finance Commission.

Inaugurating the conference, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the heated debates that followed appointment of the Commission was unprecedented because of the 'conspicuous bias' in-built in the ToR of the new commission.

It was widely feared that the ToR framed by the Central Government would prevent the Finance Commission from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility, he said.

"Therefore, it is only proper for all of us to appeal to the Union Government to reframe the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission," Vijayan added.

Vijayan said introduction of GST in the country has resulted in erosion of fiscal autonomy of the states.

"We are all aware that the terms of reference of the 15th FinanceCommission has created apprehension about principles of fairness and equity in the distribution of national resources for development," the chief minister said.

Attacking the BJP-led NDA government, he said ToR was unprecedented in asking the Commission to consider proposing performance-based incentives beyond those relating to fiscal responsibility, population and devolution to local bodies.

"This reflects the viewpoint and ideological inclinations of the Centralgovernment and are attempts to micro-manage the the fiscal domain of states'," he said.

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said they were not blaming the Finance Commission or its composition.

They were against ToR 'unilaterally' stipulated by the Centre without consulting states, he said, and demanded that it be reframed after discussions.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the conference would be an 'eye opener' for the union government.

Best performing states are punished and worst performing ones are rewarded, he said, and sought to know how developed states could carry out works if funds were not given to them.

Narayanasamy also came down on the recommendation to do away with Central funds for 'populous schemes' of states.

He took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he talks about co-operative federalism at all meetings, 'but what was actually happening is dictatorship".

"They want to impose (various things) on states in the name of the Constitution, but actually infringe on the powers of the states," he added.

On GST, he said there was a 30 per cent decline in revenue of the Union Territory after implementation of new tax regime, though it had been repeatedly said GST would be very beneficial to consumer states like Kerala and Puducherry.

"We have to revolt against the Union Government for our rights. It is high time that the Government of India changes the ToR and includes Puducherry also in the ToR," Narayanasamy said.

Representing Karnataka, agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said his state fully supports views of other states.

Karnataka was of the opinion that all progressive states, including perhaps all the southern states, have been 'disincentivised' by means of the ToR, he said.

State Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac in his opening remarks said it was estimated that Kerala was bound to lose around Rs 80,000 crore due the present ToR.

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President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama will not attend the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19 as the couple have decided not to invite world leaders in their official capacities, US media reported today.

Harry, 33, fifth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, an American actress and humanitarian, are set to get married on May 19.

The royal couple have decided not to invite world leaders and political figures in their official capacities, Kensington Palace said.

CNN reported that a White House official confirmed that Trump and first lady Melania were not invited; neither was British Prime Minister Theresa May, Downing Street said.

A royal source said Barack and Michelle Obama, who are close to the couple, will not be at the wedding, the report said.

"It has been decided that an official list of political leaders -- both UK and international -- is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding," a Kensington Palace spokesman said.

"Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household."



Unlike the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, this royal wedding is not an official state occasion and is regarded as a private ceremony, so there is no onus on the couple to invite political leaders.

CNN said that some world leaders may be invited on the basis of their personal relationships with Harry and Meghan.

The ceremony, which will take place in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, is being held in a much smaller venue than Westminster Abbey, where Harry's older brother, Prince William, married Kate Middleton.

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The White House today abruptly announced the cancellation of US President Donald Trump's first trip to Latin America, scheduled for later this week, saying he wants to "oversee the American response to Syria."



The announcement comes as the Republican president weighs military strikes in the war-wracked country -- and shortly after the FBI raided the offices of Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Peru in Trump's stead for the Summit of the Americas, press secretary Sarah Sanders announced.

"President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled," Sanders said in a statement.

Trump "will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," she said, adding that Pence would also make the planned stop in Colombia.

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US President Donald Trump has canceled plans to travel to South America to oversee the US' response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, the White House today said.

Trump had been due to attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima and travel to Colombia.

Vice-president Mike Pence will make the trip in his place. It would have been Trump's first visit to Latin America as president, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Last week, bombs reportedly filled with toxic chemicals were dropped on Douma area in Syria's Eastern Ghouta region, killing dozens of women and children.

The US has strongly opposed the chemical attack and accused Iran and Russia of backing the Syrian government that is being held responsible for carrying out the attack.

Pence will be embarking on the trip to South America on behalf of Trump who has stayed back to oversee America's response to Syria, Sanders said.

"Pence looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger US economy and working with our close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions," his spokesperson Jarrod Agen said.

Last year, Pence traveled to the region to meet with the presidents of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Panama to increase the pressure against the Maduro regime and negotiate better trade deals that benefit American workers.

"While there, the Vice President met with a number of Venezuelan dissidents. Vice President Pence also hosted the Northern Triangle Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America as well. Next month, the Vice President will continue to advance US policies and commitment to the region when he travels to Brazil," Agen said.

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US President Donald Trump has discussed with his two key allies French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May the action plan on Syria where a chemical attack killed dozens of women and children.

Trump, who on Twitter warned that the authoritarian Syrian regime would have to pay a price for this, told reporters that a decision on the action plan which would be revealed in the next 24-48 hours.

The US President has also cancelled his trip to Latin America to attend the Summit of the Americas, with the White House citing the developments in Syria as a key reason for this.

A day earlier, he spoke to Marcon over phone.

On Tuesday, he also reached out to May.

"Both leaders condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's vicious disregard for human life. The President and Prime Minister agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue," the White House said in a readout of the call.

After the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Trump has been under increasing pressure from lawmaker to take action.

"Assad must face consequences for the horrific atrocities he's committed against the Syrian people. But President Trump needs to finally lay out a Syria strategy and come to Congress for approval if he wants to initiate military action," Senator Tim Kaine, a Democratic leader said.

"He's a president, not a king, and Congress needs to quit giving him a blank check to wage war against anyone, anywhere. If he strikes Syria without our approval, what will stop him from bombing North Korea or Iran?" Kaine said.

According to The Washington Post, options include the sort of largely symbolic airstrike Trump ordered a year ago in response to a similar chemical attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or a wider and riskier assault.

The New York Times editorial board said that Trump should know by now that tough talk without a coherent strategy or follow-through is dangerous.

"If the Syrian regime's guilt is determined, the United States should impose tough new sanctions, like a freeze on financial assets, as well," the daily said.

"If military action is considered, Congress which has long avoided its constitutional war-making responsibilities needs to approve it. If a Russian veto prevents Security Council action, then Trump needs to work with our allies, through NATO or otherwise," The New York Times said.

More than 80 people were killed in a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in north-western Syria on April 4.

Hundreds suffered symptoms consistent with reaction to a nerve agent after what the opposition and Western powers said was a Syrian government airstrikes on the area.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the incident was fabricated, while his ally Russia said an air strike hit a rebel depot full of chemical munitions.

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President Donald Trump is welcoming the ruling emir of Qatar to the White House.

Trump greeted Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani today.

Trump once accused the tiny gas-rich nation of funding terrorism at a "high level."



The leaders are set to hold a meeting and working lunch that the White House said would focus on strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

America's allies in the Persian Gulf are feuding with Qatar. When the dispute began 10 months ago, Trump sided with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighbors who accused Qatar of spreading extremism, fomenting regional unrest and allowing funds to flow to terror groups. Qatar denies all those charges.

Trump hasn't repeated that charge recently and Qatar has since taken steps to address U.S. concerns.

President Donald Trump is hosting the ruling emir of Qatar, the tiny gas-rich nation he once accused of funding terrorism.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will be at the White House on Tuesday. White House officials say they'll discuss strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

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Two African nationals, allegedly involved in an online fraud were arrested here today, police said.

A press release from the cyber crime wing of police said the accused Prince Kanyinda from Congo and Marwan Abdul Kareem from Sudan had allegedly hacked e-mails and sent phishing mails seeking money.

Based on a complaint from one Chandra Sekhar, the duo was held.

The complainant said his e-mail ID was hacked and mails were sent to his clients asking them to deposit money in banks.

The victim said one of his clients had deposited Rs 50,000 in the hackers' bank account through a nationalised bank.

Further, the hackers had created a dummy e-mail, he added.

During investigation, the police seized many bank passbooks, ATM cards and mobilephones, among others, from the two Africans.

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A local court here held two accused guilty in the killing of former MP Liyakat Ali Khan's nephew and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

Additional District Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar Ray also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on accused Ramesh and Inderpal after holding them guilty under section 302 of the IPC last evening.

According to government lawyer Mohd Anjum Khan, Haroon, nephew of former Member of Parliament Liyakat Ali Khan, was stabbed to death over a land dispute on November 27, 2002.

Police had registered a case of murder against four accused -- Ramesh, Inderpal, Shafat and Suresh -- in this connection. Suresh and Shafat died during the pendency of the case.

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UN chief Antonio Guterres has lauded China's international leadership as well as its "consistent and constructive" advocacy for a diplomatic solution to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The Secretary-General met President Xi Jinping and congratulated Xi on his recent re-election and expressed appreciation for his support to the work of the UN, Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters yesterday.

Guterres commended China's "consistent and constructive" advocacy for a diplomatic solution to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

"He underlined the commitment of the United Nations system to assist in supporting a process of sincere dialogue, leading to sustainable peace and denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula," Dujarric said.

Last month, North Korea's reclusive dictator Kim Jong-un made a secret trip to Beijing to seek president Xi's backing while pledging support for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Guterres told Xi that the UN continues to count on China's leadership and commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through international cooperation under the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.

The OBOR initiative, a pet project of Xi, aims to link the economic circles in East Asia and Europe, connecting China - on land and over water - to partners in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The initiative, known as the revival of the ancient Silk Road trading route, is expected link Asian markets with economic groups in Europe.

With nearly three billion people inhabiting areas covered by the proposed economic belt, it represents the biggest market in the world with unparallelled potential.

Guterres also met with Member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Yang Jiechi, State Counsellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi and Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang.

The Secretary-General visited the China Peacekeeping Police Training Center, where he paid tribute to the more than 2,400 Chinese peacekeepers around the world.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in China and urged the world body to play its part in stopping "Indian atrocities" in Kashmir and accused New Delhi of "unprovoked ceasefire violations", which he warned can dangerously escalate the situation along the LoC.

According to an official statement from the Pakistan Prime Minister's Office, Abbasi met Guterres on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia being held in the southern Chinese city of Boao.

Abbasi expressed "grave concern" at the "deteriorating situation" in Kashmir, the statement said.

He informed the Secretary General about the use of pellet guns by Indian forces, it said.

"Pakistan seeks a just and peaceful resolution of the dispute, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people," Abbasi said.

He called upon UN to play its part in stopping "Indian atrocities" on Kashmiris, the statement said.

Abbasi also told Guterres about the "deliberate and unprovoked ceasefire violations" by India along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary, resulting in the death of civilians, the statement said.

"The situation can escalate dangerously if the Indian side does not put a stop to repeated violations," he warned.

Briefing UN Secretary General on Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts, he stated that his goverment follows a 'zero tolerance' policy towards terrorism and extremism and has achieved "significant success".

The UN Secretary General acknowledged Pakistan's efforts towards counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance to the Afghan refugees and the UN peacekeeping operations, the statemtent said.

He maintained that he had been advocating the need for a serious dialogue on the Kashmir issue, the Pakistan PMO statement said.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and other senior officials were also present during the meeting.

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The NHRC has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state police chief seeking a detailed report on the death of the father of an alleged gangrape victim in judicial custody in Unnao, and has asked the authorities to ensure "the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment".

"The incident was reported to have happened a day after the alleged rape victim tried to immolate herself near the chief minister's residence accusing BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides of gangrape," the NHRC said today.

The National Human Rights Commission observed that the allegations, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim family.

It has issued notice to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Uttar Pradesh, seeking a detailed report, including action taken against the "delinquent police officials", who refused to register an FIR.

"The NHRC also expects from the DGP, an explanation for not communicating the custodial death to the commission within 24 hours. All the reports, including health screening report of the deceased at the time of his admission in the jail and medical treatment provided by the jail authorities, are to be sent," the rights panel said in a statement.

They have been given four weeks to respond, it said.

The commission said it has also directed the chief secretary to "look into the matter personally and ensure that the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment and humiliation by the opponents who appear to be resourceful persons of the locality".

"He (chief secretary) is also directed to monitor and expedite the magisterial inquiry which is underway," it added.

The man, aged around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail on April 8 night and died during treatment yesterday, an officials said. He was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act, they added.

Significantly, a case had been registered against four persons a few days ago on a complaint by the wife of the deceased that he was beaten up.

Under fire, Chief Minister Adityanath has sought a report into the custodial death.

The Unnao SP yesterday said six policemen, including SHO, Makhi, Ashok Kumar Singh, an outpost in charge and four beat constables had been suspended.

UP Director General of Police O P Singh said a Lucknow Police team had been constituted to probe the entire matter.

The recent immolation bid by the woman was foiled by the police. She had alleged that the Unnao police had not registered a case against the BJP MLA despite her complaint and no action was taken, police said.

Sengar represents the Bangermau constituency in Unnao district, and has denied the charge. He also demanded a high-level inquiry and sought action against those guilty.

"After medical examination, the woman's father was sent to prison," the NHRC said.

According to media reports, on April 8, in the evening, he complained of stomach ache and the next day he died in the hospital at around 3.30 am, the NHRC said.

"According to media reports, the doctors, who examined the deceased after he spent two days in police custody, noted 19 injury marks. The report also states that he was taken to hospital only when his condition deteriorated," the rights panel alleged.

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The police today arrested Atul Singh, brother of a BJP MLA, in connection with the gangrape of an 18-year-old woman and the custodial death of her father in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, as an SIT was formed to probe the incident.

A plea was also moved in the Supreme Court for a CBI probe in the matter.

"The Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Additional Director General (ADG) of Police (Lucknow zone) will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident," ADG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told a press conference here.

A home department spokesman said a case had been registered against Atul Singh under various IPC sections including 302 (murder).

The victim has alleged that she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers, and blamed the lawmaker for her father's death.

The BJP MLA, however, has rejected the charges as a "conspiracy" by his opponents.

Kumar said nobody has been given a clean chit in the case so far.

"The Superintendent of Police (crime branch) will be a member of the SIT, which will look into various aspects of the case, and accordingly take action against those found guilty," he said, adding a woman police officer of DSP rank will also be part of the investigative team.

To a question on the possibility of those close to the lawmaker influencing the case, the ADG said, "The SIT will establish all that...As you know the SHO of the police station and five other policemen have been suspended on grounds of dereliction of duty and mala fide considerations. The entire issue will be reconstructed and whoever is culpable and had tried to shield any person will be taken to task."



Kumar also clarified that the death of the victim's father did not take place in police custody.

"Whatever incident of beating up the deceased took place, it happened in the village. The police in fact admitted him to the hospital immediately. But, whether there has been impartial and proper investigation, all these facts will be probed by the SIT, which will holistically probe the entire issue and the guilty will be booked," he assured.

The victim's father died in custody in Unnao yesterday, prompting the woman to charge that he was killed inside the district jail at the behest of the BJP MLA.

Commenting on the death of the victim's father, Chief medical officer of Unnao, S P Chaudhary, said, "The death may have been caused by shock and septicemia due to peritonitis (inflammation of the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen)".

"How colon perforation happened and where it happened is a matter of judicial inquiry," he said.

A police spokesperson here said a crime branch team arrested the BJP MLA's brother Atul Singh on the directions of the state police chief.

Earlier, four persons -- Sonu, Baua, Vinit and Shailu --were arrested for allegedly beating up the woman's father.

The victim's father was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act after he was allegedly beaten up by the MLA's brother.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state police chief seeking a detailed report on the incident and asked the authorities to ensure the aggrieved family was not subjected to further harassment.

"Notices have been issued to chief secretary and the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, calling for a detailed report in the matter, including action taken against the delinquent police officials, who refused to register an FIR," the rights body said.

The Commission observed that the allegations, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim's family.

"The incident was reported to have happened a day after the alleged rape victim tried to immolate herself near the chief minister's residence, accusing BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides of gangrape," the NHRC said and directed that the magisterial inquiry in the matter be expedited.

As the incident sparked outrage, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought a report into the custodial death.

State minister Siddhartnath Singh said law will take its own course in the case.

"Two things will have to be seen -- when the case was before the magistrate, the rape victim had not taken any name. And now when some names have been mentioned, action has been taken and arrests have been made. An SIT has also been constituted," he said.

Meanwhile, opposition Samajwadi Party workers today staged a demonstration in Hazratganj area in the heart of the state capital demanding immediate arrest of the BJP MLA.

A five-member women's fact-finding team has been constituted by the party to visit Unnao, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

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The United States approved a deal to sell Qatar USD 300 million in guided missiles today, on the eve of President Donald Trump's White House meeting with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Gulf emirate is a long-standing American military ally and host to the largest US air base in the Middle East, but ties have been clouded by a crisis with its Arab neighbors.

Led by US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Qatar's regional rivals launched a diplomatic and trade blockade last year, and Trump initially appeared to take Riyadh's side.

Saudi and Emirati officials have accused Thani's government of cozying up to Iran and funding Islamist extremist groups. Qatar denies this and Washington wants to mediate a truce.

The emir met US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis yesterday and is due to meet Trump today. His visit comes after Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman conducted a successful three-week US visit.

As a warmup to the visit, the State Department approved the sale of 5,000 Advance Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) to Qatar, including 5,000 high explosive warheads.

"Qatar is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Persian Gulf region," the agency said.

"Our mutual defense interests anchor our relationship and the Qatar Emiri Air Force plays a predominant role in Qatar's defense."



During the Saudi prince's visit, the US government confirmed more than two billion dollars in arms sales to the kingdom.

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The US today refrained from either conforming or denying reports emanating from Pakistan that Washington has restricted the movement of Pakistani diplomats beyond a radius of 25 miles.

"We have no comment on this," a State Department spokesperson told PTI when asked about the being reported by a channel in Pakistan.

According to Bol News which is part of the Dawn News Group, from May 1, Pakistani diplomats will be restricted to within 25 miles radius of its embassy in Washington DC. Special permission will be required from the Department of State for any travel beyond this restriction.

Notably, the US diplomats in Pakistan face several travel restrictions.

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The US and Russia have clashed at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the chemical weapons attacks against civilians in Syria, with Washington saying the Russian regime's hands are all covered in the blood of Syrian children and Moscow calling reports of the attack fake

In an emergency meeting following claims of chemical weapons attacks against civilians in Douma, Syria, both Security Council members and officials briefing them voiced grave concern that the use of such weapons risked being normalized and could contribute to rapidly escalating tensions between world Powers for the first time since the end of the cold war.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said she could hold up pictures of all of the killing and suffering for the Security Council to see, "but what would be the point? The monster who was responsible for these attacks has no conscience, not even to even be shocked by pictures of dead children.

"The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered in the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. We've tried that before, she said. We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction.

Haley said Russia's obstructionism will not continue to hold us hostage when we are confronted with an attack like this one.

The United States is determined to see that the monster who dropped chemical weapons on the Syrian people held to account, she said.

Haley warned that the US will respond and that important decisions are being weighed upon.

Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said that it was hardly surprising that, in the absence of an investigation, the burden of responsibility was being pinned on Russia and Iran.

We need to get to the bottom of this, he said but in an honest and objective way that did not prejudge the outcome.

He stressed that the use of sarin or chlorine in Douma had not been confirmed and invited those who would speak against him to proceed from the premise that no chemical attack had taken place.

He said the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) experts should immediately fly to Damascus where Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide the conditions for them to go to the scene and familiarize themselves with the situation, as called for by the President of the United States and other Western leaders.

He went on to say that air strikes yesterday on an airfield in Homs Province was deeply troubling, and that "fake from Douma was aimed at drawing attention away from the case of the British spy Sergei Skripal.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed deep concern over renewed violence in Douma, particularly the alarming allegations that chemical weapons may have been used against civilians.

A statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Secretary-General called on all parties to cease fighting and restore the calm that had been in place and adhere fully to Security Council resolution 2401, adopted in February and which called for a ceasefire across Syria.

While the UN is not in a position to verify these reports, his spokesperson said the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation.

He reiterates there is no military solution to the conflict, Dujarric added.

Through his spokesperson, Guterres explained that over the last 36 hours, he has received reports indicating sustained airstrikes and shelling on Douma that have killed civilians, destroyed infrastructure and damaged health facilities.

There has also been shelling on Damascus city, reportedly killing civilians.

It is critical that civilians be protected, Dujarric said.

The Secretary-General calls on all sides to ensure respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, including humanitarian access across Syria to all people in need, as per relevant Security Council resolutions, he added.

Since March 11, some 25,000 people have reportedly left East Ghouta, seeking shelter in the rural Damascus villages of Dweir, Adra and Herjelleh.

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Pakistan has initiated the process to put a senior US diplomat, involved in a fatal road accident that killed a biker, on the Exit Control List.

A fast-moving Land Cruiser, driven by Col Joseph Emanuel Hall, the defence and air attache at the US embassy, jumped the red light and hit a motorcycle carrying two men at a traffic signal near Islamabad's Daman-e-Koh area on Saturday.

One of them died and the other was injured.

The capital police sent a letter to the Ministry of Interior, asking to include Hall's name in the Exit Control List (ECL). The ministry has started the process, Dawn reported.

Inspector General of Police Sultan Azam Temuri said that a written request was sent to the ministry yesterday seeking the name of the American diplomat on the ECL.

The capital police informed the ministry that the diplomat was booked on criminal charges, including murder by mistake or rash or negligent driving. The presence of the diplomat is necessary for investigation.

CCTV camera footage showed that the diplomat had jumped the red signal. Although the diplomat was not detained because of his diplomatic immunity, the police are now proceeding to get his local driving licence revoked.

The director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also confirmed that arrangements were made to prevent the diplomat from leaving the country, Temuri stated.

Another letter was sent to the FIA to place the US diplomat's name on its Watch List.

"So far the US diplomat has not left the country," the sources in the immigration department were quoted as saying.

Subdivisional Police Officer Secretariat ASP Zohaib Nasarullah Ranjha said that the US diplomat had made an attempt to travel abroad on a Middle East-bound Qatar Airway. He reached the airport at 4am on Sunday but left from there after seeing officials of the capital police there, he added.

Investigating officer of the case, Inspector Arshad Ali, said the investigation of the case was being finalised.

The investigators have so far collected statements of eyewitnesses, the injured victim and the accused, he added.

The police are waiting for the medico-legal report of the deceased and the injured to finalise the investigation and challan, the officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The global chemical weapons watchdog said today it will "shortly" deploy a fact-finding team to the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma to probe an alleged poison gas attack.

Both Syria and its ally Russia have called on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate after first responders said more than 40 people died in the suspected chemical arms attack on Douma on Saturday.

"The OPCW technical secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment," the OPCW said in a statement.

"The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly," it added, saying the OPCW's director general Ahmet Uzumcu wants the team "to establish facts surrounding these allegations."



The OPCW has maintained a presence in Syria since it first set up its fact-finding mission in 2014 following repeated allegations of chemical weapons use.

But the deployment to Douma will be the first time an OPCW team has moved outside Damascus since early 2014, when their convoy was attacked en route to Kafr Zita.

The lead vehicle hit a home-made roadside bomb, and as the team was being rescued they were ambushed and two people were briefly detained.

One person was slightly injured, but the attack left the organisation, mainly made up of scientists and technical experts, badly shaken.

The Russian embassy in The Hague said Tuesday it had passed along a proposal to the OPCW from Moscow "to immediately launch the investigation."



"The Russian Federation is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance" to ensure the mission's success as well as its "safety and security," it told the OPCW.

"Any delay of such inspection will play on the side of those seeking to use rumours about the incident as a 'Casus Belli' (justification for military action) for their irresponsible actions in Syria thus pursuing their geopolitical interests," the embassy added.

US President Donald Trump has stepped up his warnings about possible US military action after the suspected weekend attack.

of the OPCW mission to Douma also came as the UN Security Council was due to vote later Tuesday on rival US and Russian draft resolutions in response to the alleged attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"We are being befooled by the executive", was how a "frustrated" said today while ruing the fact that around Rs one trillion worth of funds meant to protect the environment and benefit the people, was being diverted for other purposes.

Severely criticising the government, the apex court observed that it had "trusted" the executive, but the authorities do not work. And when the court says something, it is said that there is "judicial overreach and activism".

A bench, comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, made it clear that this huge amount of money, collected under various funds created on the apex court's orders for protection of environment, was to be used only for environmental purposes and benefit of the people.

"It is very clear that the amount was used for purposes, other than what it was entrusted. How far you want the court to go? We trusted the executive but they say they will do whatever they want," the bench said.

"First, we have to catch them that you have diverted the money and betrayed the trust. Are we policemen or investigating officers? We are not talking about a small amount," the bench said, adding, "It is very, very frustrating".

It said around Rs 117 billion was there in the Compensatory Afforestation Funds Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which was created under the top court's order, and the total amount lying in all such funds would come to around Rs one lakh crore.

However, one of the lawyers told the court that around Rs 110 bn from CAMPA was already spent and the total amount in it would be around Rs 50,000 crore.

"What we are supposed to do? You people do not work. It is completely beyond imagination," the bench observed, adding, "when we say, it is said there is judicial overreach and judicial activism. We are being befooled by the executive".

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), said the court should tell the Union of India as to where and how these funds should be used and where it cannot be used.

"It (money) cannot be used for civic or municipal purposes," he said.

The bench noted that there was around Rs 900 bn to Rs one tr money which was lying with the Centre and the states under various heads consequent to the court orders and directed the secretary of MoEF&CC to make a compilation of all the funds, amounts lying in it as on March 31 this year.

"Secretary of the MoEF&CC is further directed to give us some indication as to how amount of Rs one lakh crore is intended to be utilised and areas where it should not be utilised," the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing on May 9.

The issue of usage of these funds for other purposes cropped up when the apex court perused an affidavit filed by the chief secretary of Odisha and observed that the money was being used for construction of roads, renovation of bus stands and science laboratory in colleges.

"This money is meant for the benefit of the people. It is to be utilised for that only and not as a part of your governance," the court told the counsel representing Odisha.

"It is part of your job as a state. Construction of roads and installing streetlight is your job as a state. People's funds cannot be used for it. Your total expenditure for social cause is not even five per cent," the bench said, adding, "we cannot permit you to do this. This money is for benefit of people and not for benefit of the government".

An advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said the money collected under these funds were to be used for welfare of tribals in Odisha.

The court allowed the request of Odisha's counsel for three weeks time to file further details and asked its chief secretary to remain present before it on the next date of hearing.

The bench also perused the affidavit filed by Meghalaya and pulled up the state for keeping the funds meant for welfare of the people only in the bank.

It also took exception to the fact that Meghalaya's affidavit did not even clearly mention how much amount collected under these funds was lying in the banks and observed, "it is too much".

"This is turning out to be a joke," the bench said and termed it a "very badly drafted" affidavit.

It granted four weeks to Meghalaya to file a better affidavit and asked the chief secretary of the state to remain present before it on the next date of hearing.

The court was also informed that Rs 1,301 crore amount has been collected in Delhi under the Environment Compensation Charge (ECC), which the apex court had earlier imposed on commercial vehicles entering Delhi in addition to the toll tax, and another Rs 70.5 crore was collected and lying with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the cent cess levied on the vehicles having engine capacity of more than 2,000 cc.

The bench asked the Delhi government and MoEF&CC to apprise it as to how this money would be utilised.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta who had raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi- Capital Region (NCR).
The White House says President Donald Trump thinks he can fire special counsel Robert Mueller, but isn't taking that step now.

That's according to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said Tuesday that Trump "certainly believes that he has the power" to fire Mueller.

Sanders says Trump believes that Mueller's probe has "gone too far" after federal agents raided the offices of the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday. Acting with a search warrant, the raid was carried out at least in part based on a referral from Mueller's team to a federal prosecutor in New York.

Under Justice Department regulations, only Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation, can fire Mueller.

The No 2 Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, says he's confident President Donald Trump won't fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

Cornyn told reporters today, "I don't believe that's going to happen." The GOP whip says lawmakers are letting the White House know that firing Mueller "would be a mistake" as Trump fumes over the FBI raid of his personal attorney's home and office.

Cornyn says he expects Mueller will be able to finish his probe of Russian interference into the 2016 election, and that his dismissal would have consequences "that not even the president can anticipate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 50-year-old woman was shot injured at her residence by three unidentified men allegedly over a property dispute at Hridaypur village here, police said today.

The bike-borne miscreants reached Anjani Patel's house under Sarnath police station limits. They called out the woman and started hitting her from the butt of their country-made gun, the police said.

On seeing her mother being beaten by the men, Patel's daughter Sunita began shouting for help and the miscreants then opened fire on them, the police said.

A bullet hit Patel's neck and the miscreants dropped their .32 bore gun and cartridges near the house and fled the spot.

Patel was rushed to BHU's Trauma Centre, where she was undergoing treatment and her health condition was critical, they said.

In primary investigation, the incident emerged to be a fallout of a land dispute, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese President Xi Jinping today pledged to lower auto import tariffs, protect the intellectual property of foreign companies and further open the world's second largest economy, apparently addressing the concerns of US President Donald Trump as the two countries edged towards an all-out trade war.

In his keynote address at the Boao Forum for Asia after he began his second five-year term last month with prospects of continuing in power for life, Xi said, "China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider."



Without mentioning Trump's concern over the huge trade deficit, Xi said China does not seek trade surplus and have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account.

Trump has been demanding China to cut down USD 375 billion trade deficit by USD 100 billion in about a month.

He promised that China will take measures to liberalise automobile investment, significantly lower the import tariffs on cars and protect intellectual property, indirectly addressing major complaints by the US amid the trade row.

In a veiled attack on Trump for the escalation of trade conflict between the two countries, Xi said that a zero-sum game will "get nowhere".

"Putting oneself on a pedestal or trying to immune oneself from adverse developments will get nowhere," Xi said at the meeting at southern Chinese city of Boao.

Xi said, "humanity has a major choice to make between openness and isolation, and between progress and retrogression."



"We must dispel the clouds to see the sun, as we say in Chinese, so as to have a keen grasp of the law of history and the trend of the world," Xi said.

"We live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation as well as openness and connectivity," he said in his address telecast live all over the country.

"We also live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward reform and innovation, adding that those who reject them will be left behind and assigned to the dustbin of history," he said at the meeting attended by over 2,000 heads of state, governments and business leaders and global think-tanks.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde are attending this year's forum.

"We will take the initiative to expand imports," Xi said, emphasising that China will work hard to import more products that are competitive and needed by the Chinese people.

China will also seek faster progress toward joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, he said.

He invited all countries to participate in the major import expo being held by China at Shanghai in November this year.

"It is not just another expo in an ordinary sense, but a major policy initiative and commitment taken of our own accord to open up the Chinese market," he said.

He expressed hope that developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on "normal and reasonable" trade of high-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China.

The world's top two economies had edged towards an all-out trade war after Trump administration last week published a list of about 1,300 Chinese exports worth USD 50 billion that could be hit by US tariffs because of Beijing's alleged theft of intellectual property and technology.

China in a retaliatory measure, decided to impose additional tariff of 25 per cent on 106 products under 14 categories worth USD 50 billion.

China has already slapped tariffs on 128 US products, including wine and pork, totalling to USD 3 billion in retaliation to Trump's move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Xi today promised to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), a major demand by Trump as China is accused of stealing the technology of international investors in the country.

"IPR protection is the centrepiece of the system for improving property rights protection, and it would provide the biggest boost to enhancing the competitiveness of the Chinese economy," Xi said.

"Stronger IPR protection is the requirement of foreign enterprises, and even more so of Chinese enterprises," he said.

"We encourage normal technological exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and protect the lawful IPR owned by foreign enterprises in China," he said.

Striking a nationalistic tone, Xi heaped praise on Chinese people for transforming the country into world's second largest economy after US.

"Today, the Chinese people can say with great pride that reform and opening-up, China's second revolution if you like, has not only profoundly changed the country but also greatly influenced the whole world," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of people with serious Yoga-related injuries are on the rise, according to an Australian study that warns people to practice yogic poses with caution.

Researchers from Central Queensland University in Australia analysed all yoga injuries presented at emergency departments between 2009 and 2016 in Victoria.

They found that Yoga-related injuries that were serious enough to land people in local emergency department rose by almost 80 per cent during that time and ranged mainly from knee injuries, shoulder dislocations to head and neck injuries.

The enormous increase in yoga injuries could not be explained by a rise in participation rates, which were only 5.5 per cent in the same period, researchers said.

"I think people know the correct technique, but they might be pushing themselves too early, especially if you look into the influencers on social media," said Betul Sekendiz of Central Queensland University.

"There is a high focus on pictures to attract likes, so people may be pushing themselves without enough preparation or warm up to get into those poses just for the sake of a picture," Sekendiz, was as saying by 'ABC News'.

"I think on social media, the most frequent pose we see females performing is the headstand,'' he said.

The study found 66 recorded cases of yoga injuries and almost 10 per cent of those injuries were serious enough for the person to be admitted to hospital for further treatment.

Most of these occur among women aged between 20 and 39, researchers said.

"I am not saying we should stop doing yoga, but we need to look into what's going wrong here," Sekendiz said.

People need to be careful when practising any type of fitness activity, especially yoga, and to ensure their surroundings were clear of furniture or equipment, he said.

The study has not yet been published, but has been presented at a number of conferences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Guardians of the Galaxy" star Zoe Saldana has blasted out at her peers in Hollywood for looking down on Marvel films.

The actor, who plays Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), says she is disappointed with the negative attitude industry insiders have towards superhero movies.

"I've been in rooms with people in this industry who are great at what they do, but they're absolutely elitist and they look down at movies like the Marvel films or actors like myself. They think we're selling out in some way.

"Every time they speak I feel so disappointed in them, because whenever you see pictures of people in this industry who donate their time to children in need, it's these actors that live in the world that you feel is selling out," Saldana told Net-A-Porter.

The 39-year-old actor believes the responsibility of playing a superhero is often overlooked.

"That actor takes time out of their life and sits down with that five-year-old and says, 'I see you, I hear you, and you matter,'. Those elitists should be a little more cognizant about what playing a superhero means to a young child. Because you're not just dissing me, you're dissing what that child considers important in their world," she said.

Saldana said she is proud of her decision to join superhero movies as they inspire younger generations.

"I feel so proud to be living in space, to be playing green and blue aliens, to inspire, primarily, the younger generations. I remember what it was like to be young and to feel completely excluded out of the mainstream conversation of life because I was just little and unimportant and 'other' ," she said.

Saldana will next be seen playing Gamora in the upcoming "Avengers: Infinity War".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will apologize for his company's role in a data privacy scandal and foreign interference in the 2016 elections when he appears before Congress this week, saying the social network "didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility," according to prepared remarks released today.

Zuckerberg will appear before lawmakers today and tomorrow to try to restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulation that some lawmakers have floated.

His company is under fire in the worst privacy crisis in its history after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

In the testimony released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and foreign interference in the 2016 elections on his platform.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he says in the remarks. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."



Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees today and before the House panel tomorrow. Yesterday, he met privately with the leaders of the Senate committees.

After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced and the company confirmed that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users' data.

In the remarks, Zuckerberg said his company has a responsibility to make sure what happened with Cambridge Analytica doesn't happen again.

Zuckerberg is also expected to be asked about Russia's use of US social media during the 2016 elections a subject of several congressional investigations and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference.

In the statement, Zuckerberg addresses Russian election interference and acknowledges, as he has in the past, that the company was too slow to respond and that it's "working hard to get better."



The company has said that as many as 146 million people may have received information from a Russian agency that's accused of orchestrating much of the cyber meddling in the election.

"We will continue working with the government to understand the full extent of Russian interference, and we will do our part not only to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, but also to give everyone a voice and to be a force for good in democracy everywhere," Zuckerberg continues.

In the testimony, Zuckerberg acknowledges that the questioning will likely be critical.

"We face a number of important issues around privacy, safety, and democracy, and you will rightfully have some hard questions for me to answer," Zuckerberg says.

The prepared remarks do not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry something he has done several times already Zuckerberg outlines the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information.

He also says the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 something that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Zuckerberg met yesterday with Florida Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce panel. Nelson said afterward that Zuckerberg was "forthright and honest to the degree he could" be in the private, one-on-one meeting.

Nelson said he believes Zuckerberg is taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."



Democrats like Nelson have argued that federal laws might be necessary to ensure user privacy. Republicans so far have shown little appetite for such regulation, but that could change if there are future privacy scandals or Democrats gain control of Congress in this November's elections.

"I think he understands that regulation could be right around the corner," Nelson said.

Zuckerberg was also scheduled to meet with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., ahead of today's hearing.

Separately, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post yesterday that the company is establishing an independent election research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy.

He said the commission will work with foundations across the U.S. to set up a committee of academic experts who will come up with research topics and select independent researchers to study them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Dominique PattonBEIJING (Reuters) - China's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday it expects soybean supplies to be "basically normal" in the short-term after Beijing proposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports, but it will monitor the impact for the rest of the year. In its first official comment on the issue, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs acknowledged in its monthly crop report that the domestic market is "highly concerned" about the escalating trade friction with the United States. It also noted that South America is China's main supplier during the first part of the ...
Online search giant Google has filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal against an order from India's competition watchdog that found it guilty of "search bias" and abuse of its dominant position, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters. In February, the Competition Commission of India imposed a 1.36 billion rupees ($20.95 million) fine on Google, saying it was abusing its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets, in the latest regulatory setback for the world's most popular internet search engine. Google, ...
(Reuters) - Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's financial technology business Ant Financial plans to raise $9 billion in latest round of funding, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.The latest funding round could value Ant Financial at close to $150 billion, making it by far the world's largest unicorn, according to the report. Ant Financial and Alibaba were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated ...
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service on Monday revised the outlook for Brazil's sovereign rating from negative to stable, in a vote of confidence that the winner of this year's elections will deliver an unpopular agenda of cuts to government spending.In a statement, Moody's analysts said faster-than-expected economic growth was also likely to support austerity efforts, which have failed to bring the government's debt metrics to levels consistent with similar-rated peers."Moody's expects the incoming administration to resume efforts to approve further reforms that will ...
(Reuters) - Vedanta Resources said on Tuesday its application to renew operations at a copper smelting plant in Thootukudi in Tamil Nadu was rejected.The rejection comes amid almost daily protests by the people of Thootukudi against Vedanta's plans to increase the capacity of the smelter, one of India's largest, to 800,000 tonnes per year.Vedanta said the application was rejected for want of more clarifications and that it was evaluating further course of action.The company said the scheduled maintenance activity, supposed to be for about 15 days from March 27, is now likely to be ...
Volkswagen's supervisory board is set to name VW brand chief Herbert Diess as the group's new chief executive, replacing Matthias Mueller, two people familiar with the matter said. Volkswagen said earlier it could replace Mueller as part of a broader overhaul of its management structure to boost efficiency.
There has been a big push by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor recently to raise the bar on suicide prevention and awareness. Some of the data in Utah has the governors office and lawmakers concerned about some of the trends being seen.

There are many resources out there, but according to Nick Cornwell from the Cache Valley Chapter of NAMI (which stands for National Alliance for Mental Illness) many times sufferers and families of those suffering do not know what is out there to help.

What NAMI offers are peer education programs. These programs are taught by volunteers who have been trained either at the state levelI was trained by a national representative who came here to Utah, said Cornwell.

On KVNUs For the People program on Monday, Cornwell said the programs they offer right now include Family to Family, which is 12 weeks long. Its designed for family members who have someone with a diagnosed brain disorder. Among the other programs is Peer to Peer, a 10 week course taught by individuals who have a biological brain disorder. Plus there is ongoing family support.

He said many people dont want to seek help because of the stigma involved with mental illness or brain disorders. Cornwell said he was encouraged though when Lt Governor Spencer Cox spoke about problems he encountered as a teenager being bullied and he said for a time he considered suicide.

Cornwell says the message that NAMI wants to promote is Dont be ashamed . He said its very important for families and parents to understand that they can reach out for help. For more information: www.namicachevalley.org or call (435)787-4165.
| BY Ricki Green |

Ad Stars is recruiting top junior creatives to compete in the 2018 New Stars competition, which is open to anyone with less than three years industry experience, or who is aged under 30.

The New Stars Competition is an opportunity for young creatives to travel to South Korea and learn about the craft of advertising from leading executives, while experiencing the technology and trends driving North Asias advertising market. The program runs over five nights from 21st to 25th August in the beachside city of Busan, which is one of Asias most vibrant creative hubs, home to the Busan International Film Festival.

After taking part in a series of challenging workshops and seminars, competitors will be given a 30-hour creative challenge to put their skills to the test. Each project will be judged by Ad Stars elite panel of judges, and the five best teams will have the chance to collect Gold, Silver or Bronze trophies at the 2018 Ad Stars Awards. On top of having their work celebrated on a global stage, the team that wins Gold will win complimentary tickets to Ad Stars 2019.

Says Hwan Jin Choi, chair of the Ad Stars Executive Committee: The New Stars competition is moving from strength to strength. Last year we welcomed 35 teams, up from 26 teams the previous year, and every year we are blown away by the ambitions of our young competitors. They are passionate about our industry and they dream of changing the world through advertising. If you are interested in developing your advertising skills and making lifelong global connections, I encourage you to register.

The 2018 New Stars competition will run prior to Ad Stars 2018, a three-day festival that is held at Bexco (Busan Exhibition & Convention Center) from 23rd to 25th August. The New Stars registration fee is 1,000,000 KRW per person, which covers accommodation, meals, and tickets to Ad Stars 2018.
| BY Ricki Green |

This week, Australia Post launched a new integrated campaign championing small businesses across Australia. The campaign, developed by Y&R Melbourne, will run across out of home, radio and digital.

The campaign showcases four small business stories, each of which currently use Australia Posts services to help with logistics and presentation of packaged products.

Says Rebecca Burrows, general manager of business, Australia Post: Australia Post has been building infrastructure to help businesses connect, trade and grow for over 200 years. This campaign creatively signals that this movement continues, by bolstering our small business offering through new products, services and partnerships that are relevant and valuable for Australian small business to be successful.

Says Matt Farrugia, managing partner, Y&R Melbourne: Small businesses are the backbone of Australias economy. From employment, through to supporting the rise of entrepreneurs in Australia. Australia Post is in the perfect position to leverage its technology and infrastructure to help small businesses thrive.

Client: Australia Post

General Manager of Small Business: Rebecca Burrows

Head of Small Business Marketing: Chantelle Lane

Businesses:

Caravana: Jackie Jennings

United Make: Mond Qu

Magpie Goose: Maggie McGovern

Archie Rose: Dave Withers

Creative Agency: Y&R Melbourne

Chief Creative Officer: Paul Nagy

Executive Creative Director: Jake Barrow

Senior Art Director: Kieran Moroney

Senior Copywriter: Katie Britton

Planning Director: Michael Hyde

Account Director: David Gallo

Senior Producer: Zoe Rixon

Photography: Hell Studios

Photographer: Tom Franks

Production Company: Nice Bike

Director: Adam Ciancio

Producer: Tanya Stankovic
| BY Ricki Green |

Young Aussie director Cloudy Rhodes is the newest talent to In The Thickets roster.

What Rhodes brings to filmmaking is not simply fresh blood and a unique pair of eyes, but emotionally intuitive creativity and skilful narrative sensibility.

Rhodes worked with international fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Billabong and Adidas. Having been sought out by major publications including iD, Vogue, Contributor Paris, Monster Children, Oyster, Yen, Elle and Russh.

Her breakthrough short Lo Loves You, lovingly and intelligently renders coastal Australia as an intimate setting for the raw intensity of young, queer romance. The film was featured on I.D.

Also a photographer she exhibits her work in various galleries.

Rhodes will continue to innovate her signature style in the world of advertising and music videos.

To view Cloudys work, please click here.
| BY Ricki Green |

Director/writer Riley Blakeway has joined AIRBAGs roster.

Blakeway grew up bi-nationally, jumping between Sydney and California. He began making films at age 12, armed with a VHS camcorder and a desire to capture his friends and the surfing and skateboarding communities that surrounded him throughout his teenage years. This would eventually lead to work documenting those subcultures around the world, and the chance to create branded content with some of the worlds best athletes. In his early 20s, Blakeway began focusing on music videos, narratives and commercial content, and was soon called upon by clients such as Nike, Corona, Levis, Samsung and Diplo/Major Lazer.

His films have been shown at festivals around the world, including Ciclope, The Vimeo Awards, SXSW, Raindance and the New Orleans Film Festival. Blakeways work has been shared by The New York Times, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Pitchfork, NPR and The Los Angeles Times to name just a few.

Over the past five years, Blakeways films have garnered multiple film festival awards, eight Vimeo staff picks and millions of online views. In 2017 his music video for LA rock band Cherry Glazerr gained viral success as well as picking up a UKMVA nom for Best Alternative Newcomer.

Says Alex Tizzard, executive producer, AIRBAG Sydney: Were all really excited to have Riley join us. A hugely talented young director whose work shows great aesthetic and raw storytelling.
| BY Ricki Green |

Sweetshop has announced a management restructure of its global team with the core aim of creating more opportunities for its international roster of directors, allowing their content to operate across new multiple platforms and multi-outlet streams.

Paul Prince, formerly CEO, moves into the position of chairman working closely with Sharlene George as global executive producer. The two founding partners will concentrate on new strategies and partnerships to expand content opportunities for its roster.

Says Prince: These keys partnerships will allow us to develop beyond our core business of commercial advertising, taking us to a whole new level and opening new doors for our directors. I believe nows the time to take this leap and investing in our people and ourselves is how well create more opportunities.

Meanwhile, Wilf Sweetland (pictured) has been promoted to the role of chief executive officer overseeing Sweetshops core operations in the US, UK & Europe, Greater China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Says Prince: Wilf is a real challenger and has a hunger and passion for the Sweetshop. He has truly become a recognised driving force. We could not be more excited for him and his expanded leadership role.

Sweetland, who joined Sweetshop in 2011 as executive producer and managing director of Australia, went on to become managing partner. Having spent time working in the local, US and European markets, he has a global perspective of advertising production. As the market continues to question traditional production methodology, that experience will be all important when it comes to Sweetshops continuing ability to deliver world-class craft to a global market.

Says Sweetland: I am honoured to have been asked to lead this amazing company. The opportunities in front of us  to be able to further support our directors, while serving our global agencies and clients in these changing times  are incredibly exciting. I would like to thank the founding partners of Sweetshop Paul, Sharlene and Melanie for entrusting me to lead us into the next stage of our evolution.
| BY Ricki Green |

A blog written by Pat Langton, creative director of Magnum Opus Partners, Melbourne

Deep in the last Millennium when I started out as a junior creative, the idea of an original idea was drilled into me from day dot. I remember coming up with ideas and thinking, No, ditch that, thats been done before!

Now, the concept of holding out every time for an original idea is simply, bloody stupid. Yet we as an industry are obsessed with original ideas. Just look at the comments of our industry news and youll see endless dismissive remarks like done before, not original and so on.

OK. Ideas are what make the world go round, that and advertising (joking, not joking).

And love it or hate it two of the biggest companies in the world, Google and Facebook make

most of their money off advertising.

Both companies were born from great ideas, for sure, a minimalist search engine and a place where we can connect with friends all over the world. But were they truly original? Most de nitely not. Search engines that didnt actually work very well begat Google, which did. MySpace begat facebook. In fact sometimes the best ideas are those that have been evolved ideas, not original ideas.

Take a look back in history  ideas are what have moved us forward, from the lightbulb to cars, these are things that have completely changed the way we live. But they are often derivations of what has gone before. Utterly original ideas are actually as rare as hens teeth.

Lets look at other industries and compare. Science for example is made up of intellectual heroes building on someones idea. They take previous studies and build on them. Expand on them. Build something fresh from whats gone before.

The music industry endlessly samples from generations past. Recording artists take something they love and build on it. Especially hip hop; look at some of the great tracks of the last decade  most are samples from old soul music, reworked and brought up to day.

So when you consider two completely different industries with two people on two ends of the genius scale; Einstein or say Jay-z and how they built on ideas and made them better, you start to question whats actually original?

Theres a great quote from Banksy. Good artists borrow, great artists steal. He happened to steal that quote from Steve Jobs, who happened to steal the quote from Pablo Picasso, but you get our point. Or Phillip Adams, a very original ad guy and now doyen of late night brainfood radio.

Be smart: steal the good stuff. Wot he said, right there.

Nothing is truly original. Everything that we do, hear, smell and watch is a product of the ideas that we produce from life experience. Everything comes from something, including the myriad creative inputs we all have. So why is it that in advertising that theres this arrogant perception that everything that we produce has to be original?

In advertising theres no such thing as creative without strategy but if were truly about getting results for our clients then why cant we adapt strategies that have been used and worked in the past?

OK, how we execute these strategies should be different, but its more about taking what people have done in the past and building on it. Not ripping it off but making it your own or making it better. After all, the greatest artists in world history studied at the feet of masters and then tried to emulate them, and then to enhance them. But graphic artists and art directors arent supposed to do that too? Come on.

Good work needs to be celebrated, wherever they came from. We need to stop pretending that were all geniuses and start focusing on whats important, which is emphatically making money for our clients. We need to get our heads out of our arses and strive to make things better, and not necessarily obsess about being utterly original.

So is originality bad? Of course not. Just that its not as important as results. If you can be utterly original AND effective, well bully for you. But businesses adopt ideas from other businesses all the time. Those that work for those business arent allowed to? Who made that rule into a Commandment?
| BY Lynchy |

Universal McCann (UM), Society and Ensemble Worldwide had a good showing at the Malaysian Digital Associations (MDA) all-new d Awards.

UM came out tops with a gold for Best Use of Mobile with Unifi, TM, and two silvers  one for Best Use of Data with KFC, and another for Best Integrated campaign for work on Team Malaysia with TM. UM was also presented with the award for Digital Impact of the Year.

Amit Sutha, Managing Director of Universal McCann and Ensemble Worldwide (pictured) said, These wins and being named digital agency of the year for Malaysia is a big deal for UM. Interestingly for me, this win is reflective of the evolution in the media advertising industry and how weve changed from being experts in ad placements to helping brands navigate the world of technology, data and digital.

Society received a gold for Best Use of Data, and a silver for Best Use of Social Media, both for work on KFC. Stanley Clement, Managing Director of Society commented, This has been a year of achievement for team KFC, and we look forward to continuing this wave through the quality of work that we deliver. Due credit also has to be given to our clients who are extremely supportive, and we couldnt have done this without them.

Ensemble pulled in a silver for Best Integrated Media, and bronze for Best Use of Video, both for the campaign on Refreshing Journeys at Shell Select. Amit commented, Ensemble is a relatively new creative agency with a pretty disruptive philosophy around advertising innovation. Shell was one of our earliest clients and we are all in debt to the brand for showing faith in us even before we had any real market validation. Winning on the work done for Shell is always super special.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 12:21AM

Rose and Joy Broadbent a.k.a. The Broadbent Sisters has some of their art featured on Live Case designs for the Pixel 2. Google describes the limited-edition collection to be bound in mysticism with hints of natural elements, which is considered the style of the Toronto-based artists. There will be 12 designs available online at The Google Store and will retail for $50 each. These come with matching wallpapers. The Broadbent Sisters join the likes of Mimi Wade, Petra Cortright, and Baron Von Fancy as Google Live Case designers.
news, act-politics

The Barr government will introduce legislation to track the prescription of drugs across Canberra when the ACT's parliament sits this week. A real-time prescription drug monitoring scheme was one of two recommendations made after a coronial inquiry into the death of 21-year-old Canberra man Paul Fennessy. Mr Fennessy, whose fatal overdose of prescription drugs in January 2010 was the subject of The Canberra Times' podcast Losing Paul, was an experienced doctor-shopper. In the three years before his death, Mr Fennessy had obtained and filled more than 150 prescriptions from 18 doctors across Canberra. A post mortem showed not one of the seven drugs present in his body was illegal, but rather a toxic combination of opioids, anti-psychotics and anti-depressants. In the wake of the coroner's recommendations, the ACT government set aside $739,000 for a scheme and promised it would be operational by March 2019. Mr Fennessy's mother Ann Finlay welcomed progress in establishing the prescription-monitoring system, but reiterated calls for it to be accompanied by greater resources to support people battling mental health problems and drug and alcohol addictions. It's unclear what substances would be covered by the scheme, but a spokeswoman for ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said it was a key part of the governments strategy to minimise harm from controlled medicines like oxycodone. "The misuse and abuse of prescription medicines in Australia is of growing national concern and has significant health, social and economic consequences for patients, families and the wider community," she said. The scheme will not be mandatory, and the spokeswoman said the use of the system was to help health professionals "make safe and appropriate clinical decisions, not to impose additional regulations and penalties". The software they will use is called DORA, and the spokeswoman pointed to its success in Tasmania, where a voluntary scheme has been in place since 2011. "In Tasmania, the use of DORA has been linked to a reduction of opioid-related deaths, from 33 deaths in 2007, to 15 deaths in 2013," she said. Ms Fitzharris will also attend COAG later this week, where it is understood a national prescription-monitoring scheme will be discussed. Victoria has also committed $29.5 million to building a centralised tracking system that can provide up-to-the-minute information on the prescription histories of patients. On Wednesday, Labor backbencher Suzanne Orr will call on the government to set up a larger scale "virtual power plant" in the ACT. The ACT is already carrying out what is likely the largest trial of a virtual power plant made from residential solar battery systems in Australia, involving about 400 Canberra homes. While former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and and Elon Musk's Tesla had planned to create the worlds largest virtual power plant, with 50,000 home solar systems backed by Tesla batteries, newly elected premier Steven Marshall has been tight-lipped on the future of the project. Across the chamber, Canberra Liberals transport spokeswoman Candice Burch will call on the government to improve bus punctuality, with ACTION buses only meeting benchmarks in two of 90 weeks since mid-2016. School buses have also been arriving after the bell, or departing before classes have finished, Ms Burch said. The Liberals' gaming and racing spokesman Mark Parton will move that the Assembly condemn the ACT government's receipt of greyhound racing revenue through Tabcorp, despite banning the sport in Canberra. The ACT has pocketed $1.053 million from the Tabcorp licence this financial year, 22 per cent of which comes from greyhound racing, according to Mr Parton. Greens crossbencher Caroline Le Couteur will also table her finalised legislation to enshrine a positive definition of consent in the Crimes Act.

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news, crime

The ACT's Chief Magistrate said on Tuesday that the addition of an eighth full time magistrate to the court will not be enough to improve timely access to justice. Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said the modelling that had been done suggested the court needed more than eight and at least nine magistrates if it wanted a "slight increase" in efficiency. The ACT government announced on Monday ahead of its 2018 budget that it would give the court $3.1 million over the next four years for an extra magistrate. Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said that the new magistrate would increase access to justice and timeliness in the courts system. But Ms Walker said that because she was already using two special magistrates "probably significantly in excess of a whole magistrate", the addition of an eighth magistrate would maintain the "status quo". She said that situation was not ideal because special magistrates were not tenured and were instead appointed only for certain lengths of time at the discretion of the government. Ms Walker said that when the justice system was understaffed, one of the biggest problems, particularly given the fullness of Canberra's prison, was that people spend more time in custody on remand. Delays in the justice system also meant people waited unreasonably long times for a hearing. She said not only is a person entitled to have their matter dealt with quickly, but sometimes when those on remand in Canberra are eventually dealt with, they spend no further time in custody, having either served the jail term or are not sentenced to full time imprisonment. Ms Walker said she understood the allocation of government resources was a balancing act. "I'm not going to advocate for extra judicial resources over extra psychiatric units, for example, because obviously that need is huge. But what I would say is, have a look at what the delays in justice are costing, and it's not just about people feeling good and feeling happy," she said. She said she would like to see more research done on the known costs associated with people being kept in custody, and whether that was influenced by the lack of judicial resources. Ms Walker said the court had made changes to improve efficiency, including sitting for longer hours and "overlisting" matters, to account for matters that do not proceed, but even with those changes, "we still haven't been able to significantly reduce those times to hearing, and also for sentence too". With the addition of an eighth magistrate, one option the chief magistrate was considering was to dedicate one of the judicial staff to coronial work part-time. The ACT Coroner's Court - staffed by magistrates who are also coroners but often forced to prioritise their work as the former - has long struggled with delays. But Ms Walker said it would still be difficult with a dedicated coroner to meet the demand for that work as well as the work of a magistrate and the appointment of an eighth magistrate was unlikely to relieve the burden on the coronial system. Ms Walker said she appreciated the government's early announcement, which meant the new magistrate could be appointed as soon as the money became available. "That's where perhaps I feel a little ungrateful," Ms Walker said. "I appreciate this is an important commitment, I'm just saying that realistically, it's not quite enough."

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news, act-politics

The consortium behind plans to conduct Australia's first legal pill-testing trial at Groovin the Moo in Canberra says it has offered the promoter legal indemnity if they are allowed to test drugs at the festival. Cattleyard Promotions are yet to agree to the drug-checking pilot despite the Canberra leg of the festival taking place on April 29. The ACT government, ACT Policing and the University of Canberra have given their support to the trial, but the promoters are the "final piece of the puzzle", Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said. We are doing everything we can to ensure pill testing goes ahead at Groovin the Moo. The ACT government is being proactive and working with stakeholders to address any questions or concerns so we can see this happen, and I hope we have a final outcome soon," Ms Fitzharris told Fairfax Media. A letter from Ms Fitzharris to Cattleyard last month revealed the promoter's support for the trial was "contingent" on a number of demands being met. A spokeswoman for Cattleyard said they needed clarification on who was legally liable for the trial. "As pill testing has never been trialled before in Australia, the decision to implement it is not solely ours, as there are multiple stakeholders involved in undertaking the exercise," she said. "Some of the complexities that we are working through involve clarification around patron protection and legal ramifications for those who participate. We are also working through guidelines relating to insurances and liability." However Dr David Caldicott from the consortium said they had offered a legal waiver to Cattleyard on any issue related to pill-testing. "That's been on the table since February," Dr Caldicott. However, Dr Caldicott said the promoter wanted blanket indemnity. "We may as well be asked to cover an electrical fault on stage," Dr Caldicott said. "We have no control over anything else at the festival. We do think it's reasonable to take on liability as far as the pill testing is concerned, no problem, but to extend beyond that strikes me as something of a grab." On the issue of patron protection, Dr Caldicott said it had been made clear to Cattleyard on a number of occasions festivalgoers who presented to the health tent for pill-testing would not be targeted by police. However, patrons breaking the law in other situations, such as "coming in with a suitcase of heroin and setting up shop on the corner of the stage" or entering the health tent with "explosives strapped to their chest threatening someone" would be targeted by police, Dr Caldicott said. "Blanket indemnity would cover that rubbish situation," he said. Ms Fitzharris told Triple J's Hack program on Monday ACT Policing could protect the community "without chasing people who are going into a health tent". "In that health tent they might be sitting down for a bottle of water, or they might have stubbed their toe, or they might undertake pill testing," Ms Fitzharris said. "Theres no reason for the police to go into the health tent for any other reason than if they felt particularly at the request of those operating the health tent, that there was a community safety risk." She said the territory government would remain in discussions with the promoter about the trial "until the very last moment".

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news, act-politics

If the redistribution of the ACTs federal electorates goes ahead largely as has been proposed by the Australian Electoral Commission last week, most voters in Canberra won't be seeing the names they are used to on their ballot paper. And the ACT Greens are gearing up to take advantage of the lack of an incumbent representative in the redistributed seat of Canberra, with the party claiming it can turn the seat into a Labor-Greens race, similar to those that have been run in the inner suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney. Gai Brodtmann, who is the current Labor member for Canberra, has said she will run in the southern-most seat in the ACT. In the proposed resdistribution, this would be the seat of Bean. The Greens' confidence is based on the 2013 campaign by former GetUp! director Simon Sheikh for the Senate, the last time an ACT campaign had "national attention" - which according to ACT Greens co-convenor Emma Davidson doesn't just refer to funding, but the amount of focus and personnel it gets from the federal Greens head office. Mr Sheikh won 27.8 per cent of the vote in booths within the proposed new electorate of Canberra, behind Labor on 31.4 per cent and the Liberals on 28.5 per cent (minor parties made up 12.5 per cent of the vote). The party believes that if this result were replicated at the next federal election in the lower house, the Greens could snatch the seat from Labor. In 2013 Labor experienced a swing against the party nationally as it lost government to the Coalition, while this weekend's Ipsos poll has Labor ahead of the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis. The votes cast for the lower house in booths at the 2016 election in the new electorate are less hopeful numbers for the Greens, where their own analysis showed the party winning just 21.1 per cent of the vote, behind Labor on 42.5 per cent and the Liberal party on 30.7 per cent. While the party is looking to successes in Brisbane, in Newtown in New South Wales, Lidia Thorpe in Northcote in Victoria and Adam Bandt in Melbourne, the campaign won't be a carbon copy of others around the country. "It's different for each campaign and just because something has worked in one place doesn't mean you can just transplant that entire campign into the ACT and it will work here because Canberra is very different in some ways to other cities around Australia," Ms Davidson said. "In terms of the media that we consume, the conversations that people have, we've got people here who are very engaged in public policy issues. So we look at what we can learn from every other campaign but it doesn't mean we just repeat the same thing here, it needs to be done in the right way for Canberra." Possible Labor candidates are keeping their cards close to their chests as they wait on the High Court to decide the future of Labor senator Katy Gallagher. There's speculation that if Senator Gallagher is found to be ineligible to continue as senator due to dual British citizenship, she will run for the new lower house seat at the next election. Complicating the process further are Labor's affirmative action principles, which divide the number of seats equally between men and women, making it likely that the new seat would be contested by a man if Senator Gallagher stayed in the Senate. If Senator Gallagher loses her Senate seat and is replaced by David Smith, who was second on Labor's ticket, the new lower house seat would be most likely contested by a woman. If Senator Gallagher doesn't run, it could be a large field of Labor identities running in a preselection battle to represent the party in the electorate. Chief Minister Andrew Barr ruled himself out of the running last year and it is understood that no Labor members of the ACT Legislative Assembly will attempt to make the jump to Capital Hill, but many staffers are considering their options. Jacob Ingram, community liaison officer for Mr Barr, is understood to be considering a tilt, as is marriage equality campaigner, and staffer to Andrew Leigh, Jacob White. Gai Brodtmann's chief of staff Victoria Robertson is named as a top contender by a senior Labor source. St Vincent de Paul Society chief executive John Falzon has also been reported as likely to seek the backing of the Labor Left for the seat. Economic advisor to federal opposition leader Bill Shorten Thomas McMahon has also been mentioned, as has staffer to Yvette Berry Josh Ceramidas. Former candidates Taimus Werner-Gibbings, Angie Drake and Kim Fischer are also named in speculation, along with Kel Watt, greyhound racing lobbyist. The preselection process won't start in earnest until Senator Gallagher's High Court outcome is known, and the Australian Electoral Commission determines the final boundaries for the next election, which is expected to be in June.

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It takes off like a helicopter but flies like a jet, and you could soon be commuting to work in it. That's the ambitious vision of start-up company AMSL Aero, which visited Canberra on Tuesday to demonstrate a 1:5 scale prototype of its electric, pilotless Verti-plane. AMSL Aero co-founder Andrew Moore said the two-seater plane would take off and land vertically on the tops of buildings, travelling horizontally in between at 300 kilometres per hour - about twice as fast as a helicopter. He hoped to have the first units operational within five years, and said the idea was to provide a service similar to a flying taxi. "We think they'll be around $300,000 per unit, but we're not intending to sell them to the average person," Mr Moore said. "What we're looking to do is provide a service. Effectively, you would use it like a rideshare or taxi." While a five-minute trip in a regular taxi would only take you down the road, Mr Moore said a five-minute Verti-plane flight could replace the hour-long commute from Yass to Canberra. People would also be able to travel between the capital and the ski fields, or coastal destinations like Batemans Bay, in less than half an hour. "We aim to change the way people move, and the way people live," he said. "We also need to do something about carbon emissions with transport and right now, without other mechanisms, people arent moving as fast as they need to away from internal combustion engines. "[The Verti-plane] is all electric and emissions-free." Mr Moore said the vertical take-off and landing market was on track to overtake the global helicopter market, now worth AU$35 billion, by 2032, and that his company's technology was leading the way. Telstra is backing AMSL Aero's bid to design and manufacture the Verti-plane in Australia, providing $75,000 in funding through its muru-D start-up accelerator program. Mr Moore said the next step was to build a full-size prototype inside 12 months, which he estimated would cost $2.5 million. To get the first planes on the market, he believed he would need up to $30 million. AMSL Aero is already in discussions with groups of investors, as well as the Australian Army, about funding. Lieutenant Colonel Keirin Joyce said unmanned aircraft were game-changers in combat scenarios, and the Australian Army could use Verti-planes in combat resupply missions. "We do those at the moment with a $30 million helicopter, with six people on board," he said. "Why would we want to put such a valuable asset, with six valuable humans, in harms way if we could do it with an unmanned, robotic platform that doesnt put any more soldiers at risk? "Thats why were really interested in capabilities like this." Lieutenant Colonel Joyce said the Army could work with AMSL Aero to provide funding through the Defence Innovation Hub, so that the Verti-plane was built in a way that made it useful to the Army. If the company's proposal was accepted, it could receive millions of dollars in Defence funding, he said. Telstra chief technology officer Hakan Eriksson said with the introduction of 5G technology, the telco would be able to support the command and control of autonomous vehicles like the Verti-plane, ensuring they could operate safely. "A drone is just like a flying mobile phone, and a mobile phone has an identity and connectivity," he said. "Who is better at running mobile phones flying in the air than an operator like Telstra? "If you look at the sweet spot combining driverless cars, drones, the Internet of Things and 5G, this is a very natural thing to bring into the mix."

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Last year, as the government prepared another round of welfare crackdowns, Minister Michaelia Cash said she expects that those who can work should work and our welfare system should be there as a genuine safety net, not as something that people can choose to fund their lifestyle. The subtext was clear  those who need help are a drain on the rest of us. This rhetoric is familiar, but it is wrong. It is the wealthiest Australians who enjoy the most support. Research commissioned by Anglicare Australia shows that each year, a staggering $68 billion is spent keeping the wealthiest households wealthy. That is greater than the cost of Newstart, disability support, the age pension, or any other single welfare group. The Cost of Privilege report, prepared by Per Capita, models four household types to show how these concessions and tax breaks work. One of the couples we modelled, Tim and Michelle, own their own home. They have two children in private schools, top health insurance, and two investment properties. Michelle doesnt work, and Tim runs a small business. Each year, Tim and Michelle get $99,708 in concessions from the taxpayer, or $1917 per week. That is well over twice as much as a couple with two children on Newstart, and nearly three times as much as a family with one parent on the Disability Support Pension. Tim and Michelle do this by getting concessions on their superannuation, negatively gearing their investment properties to minimise their taxable income, and getting tax breaks for private schools and private health insurance. They also get generous Capital Gains Tax exemptions. Each year, thousands of Australia's wealthiest households profit from these loopholes and subsidies. Our report finds that tax exemptions on private healthcare and education for the wealthiest 20 per cent cost more than $3 billion a year. Superannuation concessions to them cost over $20 billion a year, and their Capital Gains Tax exemptions cost an astonishing $40 billion a year. Compare that to the annual cost of Newstart, which comes in at just under $11 billion a year. Importantly, nothing that Tim and Michelle are doing is wrong or illegal. This is not a broken system. It is a system working exactly the way it was designed to work, supporting the wealthiest at the expense of the rest of us. These numbers tell us that something has gone badly wrong. The eighties were the decade of trickle-down economics, where taxes were cut for the richest with the promise that everyone else would soon feel the benefits. But now its worse  were in an era of trickle-up economics where subsidies, tax breaks and concessions for the richest are paid for by everyone else. At the same time as some people are enjoying generous support because of their wealth, those who have the least are being targeted. Parliament has just passed a set of welfare crackdowns that will include a demerit system for Centrelink recipients, expanding the cashless welfare trial, penalising job seekers who miss appointments, and forcing people to run down their bank account before they can seek help. Other changes mean that personal crises, like relationship breakdown or a family death, cant be considered when people have problems completing their paperwork. And to top it off, hundreds of millions of dollars is being cut from social security. All of this shows us an uncomfortable truth. We have become a country that cuts from the poorest to give to the richest  a fact borne out by the governments obsession with corporate tax cuts. Some parts of the media have taken issue with the report, but they have missed the point. Anglicare Australia has never said that we should abolish all concessions and subsidies. We are simply making the point that if we can afford to forego such staggering amounts of money to support the very wealthiest people, then we can afford to support those doing it tough too. If we want to tackle inequality in Australia, the answer is simple. First, we need to end the trickle-up economics by winding back some tax breaks to the very wealthiest people. Next, we need to lift income support. The OECD has already warned that our income support payments are far too low. They are being outstripped every year by the cost of living. And finally, we need to stop demonising people who need help. Cutting from the poorest must stop. It is well past time that we end the trickle-up economics, and build a tax system that works for everyone. Kasy Chambers is the executive director of Anglicare Australia.

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news, latest-news

When Centrelink dropped its KPIs in relation to prosecuting welfare fraud, the agency actually got better at targeting complex cases of fraud, new research shows. In 2009-10, the serious non-compliance unit at Centrelink prosecuted 3461 cases of welfare fraud, and in 2016-17 the number was just 1278. Lecturer at the University of Wollongong Dr Scarlet Wilcock has found that although a number of factors contributed to the huge drop, the most significant was that the Department of Human Services dropped the key performance indicator that mandated how many investigations must be referred on for prosecution. "Its no doubt that theres more than one factor, its a multiplicity of factors here and to say it's just one thing is incorrect," Dr Wilcock said, pointing to two High Court cases in 2011 and 2013 that found an omission of information to Centrelink did not count as fraud and a new requirement for how much evidence was required for referring a case for prosecution. "My research indicates the most significant factor was the KPI. So once the KPI was removed in 2011 that was the most significant factor in the number of cases that were prosecuted." Dr Wilcock's research involved interviewing Centrelink employees in the Serious Non-Compliance Unit, who told her that a former attitude of "prosecute, prosecute, prosecute" gave way to a more strategic approach targeting more complex cases of fraud. "In one year the team, at that time they were called fraud investigation team, was required to refer 5000 cases for potential prosecutions to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions," Dr Wilcock said. "That drove this culture where anything and everything was considered for prosecutions. All it needed to have was over $5000 in debt and be easy, so it created a perverse incentive to focus on the most easy, low-hanging fruit cases, and some of them are questionable of whether they actually involve fraud, many of those were investigations that were never pursued. "Not only were they focusing on these low complexity cases, they were actually abandoning serious cases because they took so long and couldnt help them get the numbers they needed to fill their quantitative targets. So serious cases of fraud, some involving more than $30,000 and clear intent, were just met with an administrative response or abandoned altogether," Dr Wilcock said. Now that the quantitative targets have been dropped, and that more intelligence-based policing is involved, Dr Wilcock said there is a more "thoughtful" strategy involved. "My evidence, my interviews with serious non compliance officers suggested that it wasnt just more strategic but it was more thoughtful, there was actually considerations of the costs of prosecutions. Not only economic costs of prosecution because it is very expensive to prosecute a case of fraud, but also looking at the merits of the case ... and actually looking at what impact prosecuting a fraud case would have on the individual, their family, the community, before proceeding." Dr Wilcock said this is a positive change, but acknowledged that it was at odds with the robodebt strategy rolled out at the end of 2016, which automatically generated debts for Centrelink recipients after matching with tax office data. "I think this was a sustained reform that was based on evidence that was very much informed by the report from the Australian National Audit Office, it was informed by a very clear and thoughtful model of intelligence-led policing," Dr Wilcock said. "Some of these other reforms in my mind have been rather knee-jerk and not as well thought through so we do see a different set of contexts, different rhetoric surrounding these other factors." Dr Wilcock said there were opportunities for Centrelink to implement the same theory when valuing quantative targets "even in this context, which is all robodebt and getting tough".

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Photo: TJWatt.com

Strong winds are headed for the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Environment Canada issued a wind warning for the region on Monday.

A rapidly intensifying low offshore will approach North Vancouver Island Tuesday morning and then move to lie near Haida Gwaii early in the evening, reads the statement.

Very strong southeast winds up to 80 km/h will develop on Tuesday morning and will increase to 90 km/h north of Tofino.

High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break, reads the statement.

Wind warning are issued when there is significant risk of damage.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Softwood lumber exports from British Columbia to the United States plunged 20 per cent in March from a year ago, the federal government said, amid railway transportation problems.

Global Affairs Canada said in its monthly report that the country's largest lumber-producing province exported 514.4 million board feet to the United States last month, down from 644.7 million board feet a year ago.

"Output from the B.C. Interior remains depressed due to shipping constraints," Hamir Patel of CIBC World Markets wrote in a report.

First-quarter shipments from the B.C. Interior, which account for more than 90 per cent of B.C.'s lumber exports, were 18 per cent weaker than a year ago, largely due to transportation issues. B.C. Coastal shipments were 36 per cent lower.

Total Canadian shipments in the first three months were down 17.4 per cent, but up two per cent from February to March.

Shipments from Quebec  Canada's second-largest forestry producing region  were down 16.6 per cent in the first quarter and Ontario was 8.6 per cent lower. Alberta was down 28 per cent while the Maritimes were nearly five per cent higher.

Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway say western Canadian routes were more affected by cold winter weather and unexpected volume increases that slowed traffic.

Paul Quinn of RBC Capital Markets said transportation shortages were at the forefront of a recent Montreal wood convention.

"Canadian railway and trucking officials in attendance pledged that improvements were expected soon, but ... two weeks since the convention most traders report that rail service in Western Canada remains poor," he wrote in a report.

Shipments from B.C. have represented 47 per cent of U.S. imports from Canada so far in 2018, below the 48 per cent in 2017 and the 10-year average of 54 per cent. Patel said nearly 60 per cent of B.C. export volumes went to the U.S. in February, down from 68.4 per cent in January.

B.C. exports to China have been decreasing annually since 2013 and are running 22 per cent lower for the year after falling 27 per cent in February. Shipments to Japan are up marginally.

The slide in export volumes comes as western SPF (spruce, pine, fir) lumber prices ended last week at near record highs of US$540 per thousand board feet. The price of lumber has surged to cover the softwood lumber duties applied by the United States government.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The president of the University of British Columbia opened the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre on Monday with an apology to survivors for the school's role in perpetuating a harmful system.

Santa Ono said universities bear part of the responsibility for the history because they trained many of the policy makers who administered the schools and tacitly accepted the silence surrounding them.

Ono said failing to confront a heinous piece of history, even if the university didn't cause it, would mean becoming complicit in the ongoing harm.

"That is why, today, on behalf of the UBC community, I apologize to you who were so affected by that system, for our participation in a system that has oppressed you, excluded you and that, through intention or inaction, continues to cause offence," he said in a statement.

Ono said few Canadians are aware of the history of the residential school system or its lasting harmful effects. That ignorance is no accident, he added.

"Expressions of Aboriginal culture were banned by Canadian law from 1885 to 1951, and only recently has significant attention been given to Aboriginal history, experience, and perspectives in school curricula at any education level," he said.

The dialogue centre that was officially opened is intended to educate the public about the devastating impact of the residential school system.

Cindy Tom-Lindley, a former resident school student and executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivor Society, said in a release that teaching and learning about Canada's past is the responsibility of all, not just First Nations.

"It is my hope that people take advantage of this centre and education themselves so that we can all have a better understanding and help create a brighter future for generations to come."

First Nations Summit Grand Chief Edward John said the centre will be an important reminder for Canadians, and a valuable path to reconciliation for residential school survivors.

Ono said nearly every Indigenous family in Canada has been affected by the schools, and the effects on communities continue to this day.

"Those who survived often left feeling distraught, alienated and angry," he said. "With no or limited experience of family life, and no means to address the trauma they had experienced, many transmitted the abuse they had endured to later generations."

The two-storey centre was funded by $5.5 million in donations.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A B.C. Supreme Court judge says the Crown should consider laying criminal contempt of court charges against Green party Leader Elizabeth May and dozens of other demonstrators alleged to have violated a pipeline court injunction.

May, New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, and others arrested last month were originally charged with civil contempt of court over allegations that they protested within five metres of two Trans Mountain sites in Burnaby.

But Justice Kenneth Affleck says there's no doubt in his mind that the alleged actions of the protesters amount to criminal contempt, and the matter should be taken over by B.C.'s attorney general.

Affleck says the trials, which should be expedited, aren't determining the merit of the pipeline project but focus solely on whether the court order was breached.

A spokesman for the B.C. Prosecution Service said it had a representative in court to address any proceedings and it would not have any further comment because the case is before the court.

The judge released the group on a promise to appear in court next week.

May declined comment after the hearing.
Photo: BC Gov't

Premier John Horgan showed no signs Monday of backing down on the battle over the Kinder Morgan pipeline, rejecting widespread claims his government's challenge of the $7.4-billion project is hurting the economy and tearing apart the country.

His tone ran from calm to exasperated during a 30-minute question period in the legislature where the Opposition Liberals accused his government of hurting investor confidence, ignoring the rule of law and picking an unwinnable fight with Alberta and the federal government.

"One investment project does not an economy make," said Horgan, adding B.C. has the lowest jobless rate in Canada and a solid credit rating.

Kinder Morgan announced Sunday it was stopping all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, saying opposition from the B.C. government puts the project at risk. It has set a deadline of May 31 for talks with various stakeholders to reach an agreement that could allow the project to proceed.

"All of a sudden when the shareholders in Texas issue a press release there's a constitutional crisis," Horgan said.

The government announced in February that it will ask the court to decided if it has the right to protect its environment by restricting diluted bitumen in the Trans Mountain pipeline. The decisions to refer the matter to the courts prompted Alberta to suspend a ban on wine imports from B.C.

"What we're talking about here is the province of B.C. going to court to assert our jurisdiction and protect the interests of British Columbians," Horgan told the legislature. "We said in an election campaign a year ago this is what we would do."

He said B.C. is in court to defend its coast and its interests from a project that will triple bitumen shipments from Alberta to Burnaby and increase tanker traffic seven-fold in B.C. waters.

Horgan said he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on Sunday and told both leaders to build more oil refineries instead of pipelines.

"That would be leadership," he said.

Notley said Monday she told Horgan in a telephone call that B.C.'s opposition to the pipeline threatens the rule of law in Canada and she made it clear her province will retaliate.

Notley said she will introduce legislation this week to give Alberta the power to reduce oil flows to B.C., which could send gas prices in the province soaring.

Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said Horgan's reckless pipeline battle ignores the law, creates uncertainty and tears at the fabric of the nation.

"The premier stands alone in his opinions," he told the legislature. "Is this burgeoning fiasco his definition of success?"

Wilkinson urged Horgan to meet with the prime minister to resolve the dispute and ensure certainty for the federally-approved project.

Greg D'Avignon, president of the B.C. Business Council, said the government's decision to prolong the process threatens the credibility of the country's regulatory and project approval systems.

British Columbia's Chamber of Commerce said the implications of the decision by Kinder Morgan are "seismic," and if this project can't be built it will show the world that government approvals count for nothing.
Photo: CTV Vancouver

CTV News Vancouver has parted ways with co-anchors Tamara Taggart and Mike Killeen, part of a top-to-tail refresh of the stations local newscasts.

On behalf of all of us here at CTV News Vancouver, a most sincere thanks to Mike and Tamara for keeping Vancouverites informed about their city each and every day, said news director Les Staff.

Mike and Tamara are consummate professionals, and we wish them the very best on whats to come.

The refresh to the newscasts will also include a new set, updated on-set technology and new digital products.

A podcast called BTS With CTV News Vancouver from veteran reporter Penny Daflos was launched Monday.

This month well debut a variety of new broadcast and digital elements that we think viewers will connect with, Staff added.

Taggart and Killeen have been the face of CTV Vancouver since 2011, when they replaced Pamela Martin and Bill Good.
Photo: CTV

A strata guest suite at a suburban Victoria townhouse complex is alleged to have been used for prostitution.

A Station Villa townhouse owner booked the common-property suite throughout 2016, according to a complaint lodged with the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

Residents "did some investigation which indicated his guest was a sex worker who was actively using the guest suite to solicit and carry on her trade," the tribunal wrote in its decision, siding with the strata council.

The council backed up its claim with photographs, advertisements and web listings.

None of the allegations has been proven in court, however.

The owner argued the complaints relied on hearsay, and he wasn't aware of his guest's "commercial activities."

The tribunal ruled the owner should lose the right to use the common suite for one year.

 with files from CTV Vancouver Island
Photo: The Canadian Press Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018.

After privately assuring senators that his company will do better, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is undergoing a two-day congressional inquisition that will be very public  and possibly pivotal for the massive social networking company he created.

Zuckerberg visited with senators in closed-door meetings Monday, previewing the public apology he plans to give Congress on Tuesday after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

He's apologized many times already, to users and the public, but it is the first time in his career that he has gone before Congress. Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday and before a House panel on Wednesday.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg will not only try to restore public trust in his company but also stave off federal regulation that some lawmakers have floated. In prepared testimony released Monday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and Russian social media interference in the 2016 elections.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he says in the remarks. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced  and the company confirmed  that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users' data. In the remarks, Zuckerberg said his company has a responsibility to make sure what happened with Cambridge Analytica doesn't happen again.

Zuckerberg is also expected to be asked about Russia's use of U.S. social media during the 2016 elections  a subject of several congressional investigations and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference.

In the statement, Zuckerberg addresses Russian election interference and acknowledges, as he has in the past, that the company was too slow to respond and that it's "working hard to get better." The company has said that as many as 146 million people may have received information from a Russian agency that's accused of orchestrating much of the cyber meddling in the election.

"We will continue working with the government to understand the full extent of Russian interference, and we will do our part not only to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, but also to give everyone a voice and to be a force for good in democracy everywhere," Zuckerberg continues.

In the testimony, Zuckerberg acknowledges that the questioning will likely be hostile.

"We face a number of important issues around privacy, safety, and democracy, and you will rightfully have some hard questions for me to answer," Zuckerberg says.
Photo: The Canadian Press Masazou Nonaka eats a cake after receiving the certificate from Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living man at age 112 years and 259 days during a ceremony in Ashoro on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.

Masazo Nonaka has enjoyed soaking in northern Japan's hot springs for many years  probably longer than most people.

The supercentenarian, whose family has run a hot springs inn for four generations, was certified Tuesday as the world's oldest living man, at age 112 years, 259 days.

Nonaka received the certificate from Guinness World Records in a ceremony at his home in Ashoro, on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, and celebrated with a big cake decorated with berries.

Born on July 25, 1905, Nonaka grew up in a large family and succeeded his parents running the inn. The 105-year-old inn is now run by his granddaughter Yuko. He regularly soaks in the springs and also enjoys eating sweets, especially cakes.

Nonaka, wearing a knit cap and a kimono-style jacket, flashed a smile and posed for a group photo with his family, making a victory sign with his right hand.

He dug into the cake with a spoon after it was cut, and said, "Delicious," according to NHK public television.

"Thank you," he said.

His family members say Nonaka still moves about by himself in a wheelchair.

He reads a newspaper after breakfast every morning, and loves to watch sumo wrestling and samurai dramas on TV. But his favourite pastime is soaking in the hot springs and relaxing.

Nonaka has outlived all seven of his siblings, as well as his wife and two of their five children.

He is one of about 67,800 centenarians in Japan, the fastest-aging country in the world, with the highest average life expectancy  80.98 for men and 87.14 for women, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Guinness says Nonaka replaced Francisco Olivera of Spain, who died earlier this year at age 113, as the world's oldest man.

A 117-year-old Japanese woman, Nabi Tajima, who is currently the oldest living person in Japan, is expected to be certified as the world's oldest person, replacing Violet Moss-Brown of Jamaica, who died in September at age 117.
Photo: The Canadian Press Pipeline protester Kat Roivas at Kinder Morgan access gate in Burnaby.

Protesters who have loudly voiced their opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion are taking credit for Kinder Morgan Canada's decision to pause work on the controversial project.

"Every day the protests continue, it gets harder and harder to imagine (the pipeline) going ahead," said Karen Mahon, campaigns director with the environmental group Stand.Earth.

Kinder Morgan announced Sunday that it had suspended all non-essential activities and related spending on the pipeline's expansion project.

It followed another demonstration at a work site in Burnaby, B.C., Saturday, where Indigenous leaders, environmentalists and others have gathered in recent weeks to show their opposition to the $7.4 billion project.

The timing was no accident, said Chief Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

"Opposition continues to grow as people learn of the devastating effects this pipeline expansion would have," Wilson said in a statement. "This should be a warning to all investors: you must respect Indigenous title and rights, or your projects have no certainty."

Ottawa approved Trans Mountain's expansion in 2016 and the former B.C. Liberal government gave its approval in 2017, but protesters have said the project violates First Nations rights and would increase the risk of oil spills off B.C.'s coast.

Demonstrations began shortly after plans for the expansion were announced and have gained momentum since, said Mike Hudema, a campaigner with Greenpeace Canada.

"When they saw Kinder Morgan beginning to start construction, they saw the immediacy and the need to act. And that's what people did," he said.

Public resistance is likely what swayed the most prominent opponent of the project, the NDP government, said Cam Fenton with climate justice group 350.org.

"I think the continuously growing and escalating protests from day one played no small role in helping to make sure that the B.C. government, once it was elected this past year, came out in opposition to it," he said.

Kinder Morgan has said its decision to suspend the project is based on the provincial government's opposition.

Demonstrations and civil disobedience have shown just how far people are willing to go to stop the project from being built, Fenton said.
Photo: Contributed

If you're heading to the Kootenay's today, be advised there is a potential sailing wait this week due to low water levels.

The alert is in effect all week between April 7th at 2:50 p.m. through to Friday, April 13 at 8:10 a.m. Due to low water in the West Arm of Kootenay Lake, the MV Balfour ferry will remain in service operating on the winter schedule. Vehicle capacity is reduced to 28 vehicles.

The Kootenay Lake ferry runs across Kootenay Lake, 35 kilometres east of Nelson on Highway 3A, between Balfour and Kootenay Bay, 70 kilometres from Creston on Highway 3A.
Photo: File photo

A pastor in Chilliwack is facing child pornography charges.

Johannes Vermeer first appeared in court on March 29 on two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of accessing child pornography, stemming from incidents in May 2010 and March 2015.

The 58 year old was pastor of a Chilliwack church, but no longer works there.

Vermeer next appears in court on April 17. He is currently out of custody on bail.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Thinkstock.com

The B.C. government is moving to upgrade employment legislation covering five specific work absences ranging from pregnancy leave to time off for parents of a missing or deceased child.

New Democrat Labour Minister Harry Bains has introduced the changes to the Employment Standards Act in the legislature.

A news release from the Labour Ministry says the amendments support workers by extending compassion to families facing tragic circumstances.

The changes include an option for longer leave for mothers before the birth of their child, extended, unpaid parental leave for new parents, and up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave for parents dealing with a crime-related disappearance of a child.

Parents grieving the death of a child could receive up to 104 weeks of unpaid leave without concern about job loss, while compassionate care leave will more than triple from eight to 27 weeks for employees caring for a terminally ill family member.

If the changes are approved, the ministry says B.C.'s employment standards for the specific work absences will be at least as good, if not better, than those offered by other provinces and territories.

"(The amendments) will not erase the pain experienced during a personal or family crisis, but can help ease the worry and stress over job security," Bains says in the release.

Mitzi Dean, Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity, says she is proud the New Democrat government recognizes no one should have to fear for their job while caring for a loved one.

The Ministry of Labour says it is looking to make broader amendments to the Employment Standards Act, considering recommendations from the B.C. Law Institute's ongoing review of the act and from organizations like the B.C. Employment Standards Coalition.
Photo: Contributed

Sheriffs in Washington state may have new information linked to the 30-year-old murders of two B.C. residents.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office has called a news conference for Wednesday in Everett, Wash., to discuss the murders of 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook, both from the Victoria-area.

Families of the victims are also expected to attend as investigators unveil what the sheriff's office describes as new suspect information produced from a groundbreaking method of analyzing DNA.

The process, called DNA phenotyping, can be used to predict the physical appearance of the person, including eye, skin and hair colour, facial features and ancestry.

No arrests have ever been made in the murders of Cook and Van Cuylenborg, who were high school sweethearts when they vanished on a trip to the Seattle area in late 1987.

Their bodies were found just a few weeks later in separate locations in Washington state. Cook had been strangled while Van Cuylenborg had been sexually assaulted and shot.
Photo: Facebook Police have charged Alexis Kasey Nicole Neill, 25, and Kyle James Wall, 27, with one count of robbery.

Police are warning people to take precautions when meeting someone in person they met online after a knifepoint robbery in Chilliwack.

Chilliwack police said two people are facing charges after being arrested for an alleged online dating robbery.

The charges stem from a call received by the Chilliwack RCMP on April 5, about 4:30 p.m. to report a person had been robbed at knife point while visiting an apartment in the 9400 block of Cook Street, said Cpl. Mike Rail.

Officers arrived at the address, where their investigation led them to evidence linking an online dating site and a pair of individuals to the robbery. The suspects were quickly located and taken into custody by police.

Alexis Kasey Nicole Neill, 25, and Kyle James Wall, 27 each face one charge of robbery.

RCMP caution that everyone you meet online may not be who they represent themselves to be. Use discretion when going out on those first dates, said Rail.

Police urge people to follow these online dating tips:
Photo: Suck It Up Environmental City and contractors worked for four days to blast mud and debris from the city's stormwater pipes in the the Columbia Street and Carmi areas

The City of Penticton says storm sewers in the Columbia Street area should be flowing again this afternoon, after four days of work to clear mud and silt from them.

Heavy rains triggered a mudslide in the Upper Carmi area Saturday, bringing a wave of sand, silt and mud through culverts under Carmi Road and into the citys storm drain system.

Just about a metre in diameter, Public work manager Len Robson described the storm pipes, and they are full to the top.

The clog resulted in water backing up and flooding the basements of multiple homes.

Robson said they have been using flush trucks to clear out the debris, which was centred on a 90 degree turn at Columbia Street.

Our storm system can handle the water, it just cant handle all the debris with it.

Robson said the city is looking at ways to redirect water from the hills outside city limits to more traditional drainage courses to prevent the situation in the future.
First Tennessee Bank and Capital Bank, members of the First Horizon National Corp. family of companies, Tuesday announced a five-year, $3.95 billion community benefit plan to increase access to financial resources within low- to moderate-income communities in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

The plan includes mortgage and small business lending, community development lending and investments, philanthropy, and spending with minority-owned suppliers and marketing firms. It also includes innovative methods to increase the convenience and physical access to financial services in low- to moderate-income communities.

Our company is dedicated to supporting the success of underserved individuals and strengthening communities across our footprint, said Bryan Jordan, chairman and CEO of First Horizon National Corp. We believe our new $4 billion investment will take our longstanding community commitment to the next level by spurring growth and sustainable economic development.

The community benefits plan, which is an agreement with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and its community-based members across the Southeast, will run from 2018-2022.

First Tennessee Bank and Capital Bank have been actively engaged in meaningful conversations with our members to ensure that they are well positioned to meet the needs of underserved communities, said NCRC president and CEO John Taylor. We very much appreciate the strong collaboration demonstrated by the executive leadership of First Tennessee and Capital Bank.

The plan includes the following priorities and targets:

Increasing home ownership: Fund $515 million in home purchase and rehabilitation mortgage lending to low- to moderate-income individuals and communities and to people of color and communities.

Building small business: Fund $1.9 billion in small business lending to businesses in low- to moderate-income areas and businesses with less than $1 million in gross annual revenue.

Fostering community development: Fund $1.5 billion in community development and multi-family lending and investments.

Strengthening communities: Fund $40 million in grants and philanthropy, including supporting workforce development, small business, housing counseling, Community Development Corporations, Community Development Financial Institutions, and funding financial literacy and education programs for youth, adults, and small business entrepreneurs.

Supporting supplier diversity: Devote 3 to 6 percent of the banks supplier spending to minority-owned businesses.

Partnering with minority-owned marketing firms: Earmark a portion of the banks marketing budget to minority-owned firms.

Regional and national leaders applaud the agreement:

First Tennessee and Capital Bank in good faith have developed a community benefits plan that is meaningful and impactful," said Peter Skillern, executive director, Reinvestment Partners. "Reinvestment Partners looks forward to working with the bank as a leader in North Carolina."

Considering the very significant needs of this region and the First Tennessee and Capital Bank markets, this agreement and the investments in it are a great down payment on meeting those needs, Irvin Henderson, chairman, National Trust Community Investment Corporation.

HEED looks forward to working with First Tennessee on creating neighborhoods of choice and a just economy in their Mississippi markets, Charles Harris, executive director, Housing Education & Economic Development.

The Memphis Housing Authority is excited to support the First Tennessee Community Benefit Plan," said Marcia Lewis, executive director, Memphis Housing Authority. "The populations we serve in Memphis are by definition low-income households who have not always had the ability to benefit from a true banking relationship. The Memphis Housing Authority feels this plan will provide them access to services that will build their self-sufficiency, independence from government assistance and improve their future.

SMASH is pleased to see that First Tennessee and Capital Bank have agreed to a CBA that will strengthen investment in low-income communities of color," said Adrian Madriz, project lead, SMASH Inc. "We look forward to working with them to make sure that this capital is used for equitable development, not gentrification."

The Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida was very pleased to participate in this process with NCRC, First Tennessee and Capital Bank," said Cornell Crews, Jr., executive director, Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida. "We look forward to working together to continue improving our community.

I'm delighted about the commitments made by First Tennessee Bank and Capital Bank," said Glyndola Massenburg-Beasley, president Durham Regional Financial Center. "Incremental progress that addresses the divide between business community reinvestment and consumer needs is essential for the recovery of all economies. Durham Regional Financial Center looks forward to the social and economic benefits made available to our residents, businesses and minority institutions in Durham and surrounding counties.

Chattanooga Organized for Action is delighted to see these concrete steps and partnership agreed to by First Tennessee," said Michael Gilliland, Board chair, Chattanooga Organized for Action, Inc. "This is the first Community Benefits Agreement that applies to the Chattanooga area, and we hope it becomes a model of development and investment as our city grows. NCRCs expertise has been invaluable, and theyve helped grassroots organizations like ours learn how to be included in the process of community reinvestment.

First Tennessee Bank has been our staunch supporter for many years to provide financial dignity and empowerment to all people," said John Hope Bryant, CEO and founder, Operation HOPE. "For example, through the banks partnership with Operation HOPE, it has set up HOPE Inside locations in bank branches, and senior executives have donated their time to work with us side-by-side. CEO Bryan Jordan has become a member of our executive board of directors, vice president Steve Swain is a member of our advisory board of directors, and senior vice president, David Fehrenbacher has joined our Midwestern board of directors. Now, with this nearly $4 billion commitment to helping the underserved, First Tennessee continues to pave the way for more people to achieve their financial goals.
The Tennessee Highway Safety Office and the Tennessee Highway Patrol joined local law enforcement for Tennessees third statewide bus tour to crack down on distracted driving from Monday, April 2 to Thursday, April 4.Last year, the THP provided two large black and tan buses marked with THP logos to help promote awareness for the initiative. This year, the focus shifted toward the effectiveness of enforcement efforts, which meant utilizing additional passenger vehicles capable of traveling more efficiently on the highways.These vehicles were provided by the THP, Knoxville Police Department and Memphis Police Department.We received overwhelming support from law enforcement across the state, said THSO Director Vic Donoho. This proves there is no limit to the number of lives we can save, when we all work together.Officers representing various agencies riding the passenger vehicles communicated with ground units after observing traffic violations to initiate the execution of enforcement action. Depending on available resources, enforcement lasted between two to eight hours each day.Many sheriffs offices and police departments adopted the bus tour concept and made it their own, said Director Donoho. They worked among themselves to execute enforcement independently within their jurisdictions during the week of the bus tour. This included agencies in Montgomery County, Rutherford County and Sumner County. We are extremely grateful for everyones hard work and participation.In October 2017, Tennessees second bus tour yielded 905 total traffic citations statewide. During the third bus tour, officers issued a total of 1,816 citations statewide.
Tennessee saw 6,708 single-family home closings in March 2018, down 3.4 percent from a year earlier, while the median home price rose steadily and the number of homes available continued to tighten, according to data compiled by Tennessee Realtors.

Home sales dipped from 6,949 closings to 6,708, the median price grew 11.5 percent ($203,000 to $225,000), and available inventory was down almost a fourth at 24.6 percent (23,400 to 17,648).

Condominium sales were flat, dropping -0.1 percent (622 closings to 613), the median condo price rose 9.4 percent ($178,245 to $194,999), and condo inventory fell 25.6 percent (1,556 to 1,157) over March 2017.

For the first quarter of 2018, home sales were relatively flat, slipping 1.2 percent (16,833 to 16,624), while the median price rose 10.5 percent ($195,900 to $216,550). Condo closings fell 6.6 percent, and the median condo price rose 5.7 percent ($175,000 to $185,000) from March to March.

The tables below summarize Tennessees March 2018 housing market in sales, price and inventory, followed by 1Q 2018 sales and price results:

SALES March 2017 March 2018 Change Single-Family 6,949 6,708 -3.4% Condominium 622 613 -0.1%

MEDIAN PRICE March 2017 March 2018 Change Single-Family $203,000 $225,000 +10.8% Condominium $178,245 $194,999 +9.4%

INVENTORY March 2017 March 2018 Change Single-Family 23,400 17,648 -24.6% Condominium 1,556 1,157 -25.6%

First-quarter results:

SALES 1Q 2017 1Q 2018 Change Single-Family 16,833 16,624 -1.2% Condominium 1,531 1,429 -6.6%
Echoes of the Past Audio Article 10 Years Ago Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011  Bethlehem Lutheran Church will host a wellness screening event. . . CHS girls soccer team beats LaPorte 5-0 and clinches a share of the DAC title. Scoring goals are Rosie Biehl (2), Hannah Kollar (2), and Sam...

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...
A woman walks past a dockless bike parked outside of the Commerce Department in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin / AP)
Jewel-Osco, the Chicago area's largest traditional grocery chain, hires more than 1,200 people a month for its 187 stores, Jewel executives said Tuesday, and is planning 17 remodelings this year, as it ramps up its own delivery service. Such investments come amid looming online shopping threats from Amazon and Walmart, the latter of which announced Tuesday that it would offer online delivery to 40 percent of U.S. homes in the weeks to come.
The law already appears to be influencing some product rollouts. Nest, a maker of smart thermostats and doorbells, sells a doorbell with a camera that can recognize visitors by their faces. However, Nest, owned by Google parent Alphabet, does not offer that feature in Illinois because of the biometrics law. Google's Arts & Culture app rolled out a new feature late last year that matched users' uploaded selfies with portraits or faces depicted in works of art, but it's not available in Illinois, likely due to the state's biometric law.
The lawsuit seeks to revoke Major Energy's authorization to operate as an alternative retail electric supplier in Illinois and rescind all existing contracts with consumers in the state. It is also seeking restitution for customers and civil penalties of up $50,000 per deceptive act, with an additional $50,000 for each act committed with intent to defraud.
Rappin said the project is "gathering steam again" thanks to the new law. He is meeting this week with lenders, the contractor and the seller, with whom he entered into a $9 million purchase agreement.
While door-to-door salesmen frequently lure customers with lower rates than those offered by regulated gas companies, unregulated alternative suppliers often have variable rates that can shoot up soon after the deal is signed, Chilsen said. And while the regulated utilities are charging rates of between 30 and 38 cents a therm this month  the lowest November prices since 2001  some alternative suppliers are charging close to triple that, CUB data show.
He offered some possible rules boards might consider appropriate for their associations: Operators must provide the association with identification, including make and model, of their drones. Operators must provide proof of registration, which the FAA requires of both recreational and commercial flyers. Commercial operators must show proof of their remote pilot certification, another FAA requirement. All operators must agree to comply with applicable FAA regulations. They must agree to be responsible for any damage caused by their drones.
"When people think of Taco Bell, they may think only of fast food and entry level positions. But there's always the opportunity for advancement," said long-time employee Allison Fijut, as she lined up pamphlets on her table. "I started here years ago when I was in high school  and now I'm operations manager for one of the franchise companies."
One of the many questions answered on the Zanies website FAQ page is whether any of the locations host an open-mic night. Though there is some information about a showcase at the Rosemont location, "No" is the short, blunt answer. As a comedian, the only way you get onto the stage at the original Zanies  the comedy club on Wells Street that's been continuously running in the same spot for the fourth longest of any stand-up club in the country and the only one offering national headliners every night of the week  is either by becoming a headliner or opening for one.
Several others on social media, including CNN host W. Kamau Bell, referred to the scene as a "toothless response" to accusations of stereotyping. Bell declared this the moment that "The Simpsons" effectively died and saw the choice to put the "don't have a cow" sentiment in the mouth of Lisa - the Simpson who's so often the progressive champion of the marginalized outsider - as the ultimate absurdity. (Bell noted that he is friends with Kondabolu.)
Among her children is Limber Jimmy, a young mixed-race boy whom V has adopted, his nickname deriving from his double-jointed wrists. They are separated after V's capture in 1865, and the novel begins in 1906, when a teacher named James Blake tracks down the elderly V in a Saratoga Springs health spa. He convinces V that he was Limber Jimmy. "I keep trying to remember that journey," he tells her, "but all I come up with are those brief flashes. I'm not sure whether they're real or if I'm inventing them." Over a stretch of six Sundays, James returns to visit V. His questions and V's memories combine, both of them coming to understand their separate experiences with increasing accuracy, nuance and insight.
The story of Chamberlain's effort to forestall war is so well-worn, it's lost its edges for many, but Harris' story snaps the prime minister's motivations into place. Chamberlain is a wily negotiator, working hard to outflank Hitler. If words could bind a criminal, Chamberlain's desperate machinations would have changed history. But the prime minister disregarded Hitler's essence; Paul von Hartmann, temporarily assigned to Hitler's staff, has information he hopes will change Chamberlain's course. His only hope of passing it along is a former Oxford friend, Hugh Legat, a low-ranking member of Chamberlain's staff. Harris, who wrote "Fatherland" and the Cicero Trilogy, is a master of layering detail for tightly plotted, immersive fiction. His two young schemers are positioned to provide an intimate view of the political and defense calculations on both sides of the channel, while on the streets of London, workers scurry with sandbags and shovels to prepare for the worst  the only efforts that, in the end, really mattered.
"Many of our hospitals around the state have worked diligently on a voluntary basis to increase the number of SANE nurses on their staff," he said. "We understand the importance of this issue and look forward to being a good partner with the state as we move forward."
Schwimmer emceed the program with humor and charm, speaking about the creation of Lookingglass Theatre, which he co-founded in 1988 with eight fellow Northwestern University students. "The comparison to theater being our religion is not too far off. To us, the theater is a sacred space, like going to church or temple, except without the guilt. The stories are more plausible too," he said.
"I started thinking about something that's personal to us," said Jiwani. "We like to sail on Lake Michigan, so I pitched that to Jeff (Knurek), the one who does the drawings. I came up with us being on a sailboat, with our dog Benji as well, with me going down on one knee with the ring in hand."
Shared accommodations aren't unusual in Europe and other parts of the world, which have long had a robust hostel network aimed at frugal travelers. A classier spin on that trend appears to be catching on closer to home, with hip-and-happening properties offering big price breaks to strangers willing to sleep within a few feet of one another. (It's worth noting that locals aren't allowed to stay in these dorm-style shared rooms; they're meant for out-of-town travelers.)
Orange- and purple-hued muck often can be seen leaching from the banks of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River as it meanders past a shuttered Dynegy coal plant near Oakwood, about 25 miles east of Urbana. The pollution problems led the nonprofit group American Rivers to list the stream as one of America's most endangered rivers, adding another voice to local and national efforts intended to pressure Dynegy's new owners to clean up the site.
Scally said the party was a "social media advertised" event that had upward of 100 people. Many fled the scene dropping various items, including cellphones. The captain urged attendees to talk to police about what happened.
But federal prosecutors say CeaseFire was just a front for Sanchez, who went back to a life of crime as a leader of the Two-Six gang after serving 24 years in prison for the murder of a gang rival. As part of a federal investigation into the gang's activities, undercover wiretaps caught Sanchez ordering the jailhouse beating of a gang member who'd gotten out of line, making personnel decisions in the group's hierarchy, agreeing to provide guns to underlings for use on the streets and talking about the shooting of a Two-Six member as punishment for an earlier incident, according to court documents.
In asking Lee for a four-year sentence that was above the recommended sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said Sanchez was captured on wiretaps ordering the jailhouse beating of a gang member who'd gotten out of line, making personnel decisions in the gang's hierarchy, agreeing to provide guns to underlings for use on the streets and talking about the shooting of a Two-Six member as punishment for an earlier incident.
The man was identified as Stephen S. Ohr, of the same block where he was shot, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead at 1:34 a.m.
Edward Robinson was driving a gray Pontiac sedan about 12:20 p.m. Monday in the northbound lanes of the Bishop Ford Freeway when he began to change from the middle lane to the right lane. That's when the driver of a black GMC SUV that had been behind the Pontiac rear-ended ite Pontiac , police said.
Researchers at Columbia University in New York have been studying the Twitter behavior of more than 200 gang members in Chicago in an attempt to answer some of those questions. While the work is not yet finished, researchers say they already have found at least one important trend in the tweets  the aggressive posts that draw so much attention are often preceded by something more like a cry for help or an expression of loss or grief.
When she went to the counter, Morales sat in a booth across from the other girl and asked her how old she was. The girl said she was 15, and Morales made lewd remarks about her body, prosecutors said. When the first girl returned, Morales asked her how old she was. When she said 15, he made lewd remarks about her body too, prosecutors said.
The 32-year-old woman was arguing with an 18-year-old woman in a home in the 4100 block of West End Avenue around 4:20 a.m. when the younger woman pulled a knife and stabbed the older woman in the face, neck and chest.
"Does the speaker and the Democrat power structure want to give the governor the ability to go around the state of Illinois and say that we've delivered on a number of projects that have been long overdue, the ribbon-cutting ceremonies and what not? I don't think the Democrats want to give the governor that luxury," Durkin said on WGN AM-720.
The Grassroots Collaborative wants to know more about the city and state tax breaks Amazon would get to build its so-called HQ2 here and seeks assurances about living wages and other community benefits. The group's executive director, Amisha Patel, said organizations in 19 other locations that remain in contention for the massive project also are joining in with lists of demands.
"My colleagues are hearing from moms that were not politically active before, and from young people who are just registering to vote for the first time," Harmon said. "I can tell that a lot of my suburban colleagues are getting nervous in their shoes, and it's an opportunity for them to tell the people who send them to Springfield that they hear them and are ready to do the right thing."
"Look, taking on an incumbent mayor who has capacity to raise unlimited amounts of money, and in the third largest city in the country, given the number of crises we have, is a very serious matter," Lightfoot said. "And I'm hearing from lots of folks across the city, and frankly, across the country, who are very encouraging. But this is a decision that has to be made by me and my family, because we're going to be putting ourselves out there and asking citizens of Chicago to take us seriously."
But his former comrades in arms have vehemently rejected the accusation, saying Santrich's arrest on drug conspiracy charges was the result of a plot hatched during Attorney General Jeff Sessions' visit to Colombia in December and is intended to cover up for the failure of the war on drugs to stanch cocaine production that has skyrocketed since the singing of the peace deal in 2016. The FARC didn't provide any evidence to back up the claim.
Murtaja's Gaza-based company had also recently been screened in accord with strict U.S. government requirements as part of an application for assistance from USAID, said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with protocol. The grant had been approved, the official said, raising questions about how an affiliation with Hamas' military wing would not have been flagged if Murtaja was known to Israeli intelligence.
Trump suggested Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence. Officials suggested such evidence was lacking, or at least not yet at hand. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which U.S. intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of Sarin gas. Trump responded by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.
One guard member was armed with an M4 rifle and used binoculars to peer across the river. Pickup trucks with guard members inside circled the town square along with border patrol vehicles. Mexican children who had attended school on the U.S. side of the border showed their passports and paid a toll to cross a bridge over the river and walk home to the Mexican community of Ciudad Miguel Aleman.
The struggle pits GOP pragmatists looking for a win against Hensarling's broader ambitions. Democrats who backed the measure billed it as a way to improve the rules put in place after the financial crisis. But for Hensarling, the measure marks a last chance to cut into a bill he has spent the second half of his 16-year congressional career fighting  and he has so far been unwilling to sign off on the Senate bill unless it includes a list of around 30 bipartisan House bills he wants to add. Hensarling's close ally House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) shares the chairman's conservative economic ideology and has thus far deferred to him, hoping he can find a deal.
And that's before we even get to Facebook. Now, I have zero interest in kicking a good company when it's down, so let me start out by saying that users who are howling about their (anonymized) data falling into the wrong hands may not have spent much time perusing Facebook's terms of service. The challenge for the privacy-conscious user isn't third parties; the challenge is Facebook itself, which exists not to connect you with friends but to package data about your online activities and use it to sell targeted advertising. Happily, the company has recently translated the list of what it admittedly collects about its users from legalese into something approaching English, and anybody with an account (all 2 billion-plus of us) should take a gander at the remarkable result.
Homewood life offers them practical conveniences too. One of these is less time in the car  an idea that flips the old paradigm on its head. Homewood may be far from downtown, the comic implies, but you'll spend less time traveling. A Chicago couple is lamenting having to fight traffic, look for parking and "haul the groceries  down the block  and up three flights of stairs." We see them driving with drawn expressions  toddler in the back seat  arguing about who forgot the avocados and kombucha. Another couple celebrates the fact that getting to the city  presumably for work  takes only 30 minutes via Metra Electric, "an eco-friendly option."
The students' hearts are in the right place. In a better world, mental health should be as commonly discussed as the flu season. Mental health illness should be addressed with the same forthright courage we now afford cancer. In a better world, we would not talk about mental health only after crises. Until then, the harsh reality is that the system worked as designed.
What this bump reminds us is how well the oil and gasoline markets have functioned in recent years. It's hard to remember that in 2008, the price of crude went above $140 a barrel  and a Goldman Sachs industry analyst predicted it would reach $200, which translates into $6-a-gallon gasoline. His forecast was wrong, because it failed to account for how lucrative returns would drive oil companies to devise new ways to extract the stuff  or the demand-suppressing Great Recession, which those high oil prices may have helped to cause.
With each unhinged attack, Trump hinders the progress of his presidency by damaging his credibility and stealing focus from his political objectives. Consider the time and energy he burns railing at enemies and imagine what he might accomplish if he were more disciplined. In an alternate presidency, Trump holds nuclear talks with North Korea, strikes a more favorable trade relationship with China and pursues a dozen other accomplishments. True, Trump may gain some slight negotiating leverage from his good cop/crazy cop routine, but the destruction caused by his petulance and impulsiveness is also real. His threats of a trade war riled markets, while his battle with Mueller could bring down his presidency.
The impact of Sessions' position is being felt at a time when another police shooting of an unarmed black man has been making national headlines. Stephon Clark, 22, was struck eight times by police in Sacramento, Calif. An autopsy report showed that most of those shots were to Clark's back, which conflicts with the police account that he posed a threat to officers. The police said they thought he had a gun, but only a cellphone was found near his body.
However, since 1973, when most abortions were made legal, Oberman identified 413 instances of women prosecuted in "cases of fetal demise," in which they allegedly violated pregnancy-related laws that have remained on the books. "The common thread in these cases is that they almost always involve women who acted on their own rather than with the help of an abortion provider," Oberman writes.
Before she went to Nashville to follow her country dreams, Margo Price lived in northern Illinois town Aledo. For over a decade, Price spent her time playing in numerous bands across Nashville before wowing the music landscape with her 2016 debut album "Midwest Farmer's Daughter." Regarded as one of country music's best voices in years and likened to the veterans of the genre, Price returned with a follow-up titled "All American Made" this past October. $25. 7 p.m., 17+. Ticket: thaliahallchicago.com
5 Briar Lane, Glencoe: $5,400,000 | Listed: Aug. 13, 2021



This nine-bedroom home has eight full bathrooms, two half baths and an original hand-carved wooden staircase. The dining room, living room and office open off of the foyer, which features original woodwork and stained glass. The kitchen, which offers views and access to the pool, has terra-cotta flooring, a butlers pantry and space for an eating table. The family room has wooden beams, a stone fireplace and multiple lounging spaces. Eight of the bedrooms are on the second floor, and a primary bedroom suite with original stained glass windows is on the first floor. An attached coach house offers two additional bedrooms, a kitchen and two bathrooms. The backyard is equipped with a patio, a pool and spa and a tennis court.



Agent: Carol Gooze, @properties, 847-909-5585; Linda Rosenbloom, @properties, 847-564-0433



*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.



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The council will vote on a revision to the original plan, and on the final plan itself, for a 1.23 acre site that will be in a commercial area along the west side of Kirk Road. The revision is for a one-lane drive-through that would be the fourth in that commercial row.
Based on their investigation, police said an armed suspect standing near the intersection was seen shooting at an occupied vehicle and getting into a white SUV parked east of the intersection. Police said the SUV took off eastbound, while the vehicle the gunman shot at drove away westbound on Seventh Avenue. No description was available for that vehicle.
The district has increased random security-wanding of students, which is not necessarily a direct response to the Parkland shooting but might help put at ease any students and staff feeling unsettled about security since then, Jackson has said. The district has also been having more "intentional" conversations surrounding school security with officials in other districts and with the Aurora Police Department.
During the pilot program, Tyler Technologies' system delivered accurate arrival times, Neubauer said, while other systems that used Google Maps yielded arrival estimates that were inaccurate by three to five minutes. Google does not incorporate certain routing information, such as the time to pick up students on the right side of the bus at each stop, he said.
Naperville Development Partnership has worked with Nokia over the past few years on the possibility of selling the portion for residential use, said Christine Jeffries, the organization's president. Were if built for warehouse use instead, as allowed under the current zoning, the development likely would produce more truck traffic and not brought many jobs to the city.
United By Faith Lutheran Church: 3240 W. 98th St.  The Spaghetti Dinner to benefit ECLA World Hunger will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 14. Spaghetti, salad, bread, beverages and dessert will be served. Take out service will be available. A bake sale will be held in the Narthex. Donations are $8 for adults, $4 for children ages seven to 12 and free for ages six and younger. The maximum family donation for four or more people is $20. Tickets will be available at the door. For tickets in advance or information, call 708-422-6301 or contact ubfelca@sbcglobal.net.
Because village officials failed to certify the public question to the county on time, it was printed on a separate piece of paper and did not appear on the regular ballot on Election Day. As a result, votes were subjected to a tedious hand count that was still being finalized this week.
Firefighting efforts were affected by "hoarder type conditions" in the home, and the presence of stored material presented safety concerns such as the potential collapse of the home's first floor, according to the department. Firefighters were withdrawn from the home and went back inside once the fire was under control, according to the release.
The Schaumburg resident said the trains he has built are "about 98 percent standard Lego components," and while some of the trains are built from kits, he custom-built others, including a Metra train featuring the bilevel or double-decker cars.
Not all of the poems are new. Some come back to the group in new iterations after initial criticism, according to Berman. He said after he hears what members of the group have to say about his work he may make revisions, sometimes more than once.
According to Bat. Chief Richard Carter, the fire was partially out before firefighters arrived on the scene, and was put out quickly when firefighters arrived. Just one unit of the 27-unit building was affected by the blaze. Residents in the other units will be allowed to return, he said.
The two were living with her father on Raymond Street, but it was a rocky relationship. The day before the shooting and in a fit of rage, Cliff Hazelwood stabbed his wife in the leg  with the same knife he was holding when he was later shot, she said. She wrapped up her wound and made him leave the house.
"Natural Shocks" falls on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting. The performance is intended to both remember the shooting victims and show solidarity with the students who be marching again for gun law reform on the same day, a theater news release said.
Smith called the infusion of cash a welcome change, but it's not money the board will not spend immediately. Instead, there will be "at least one, if not more than one meeting" to get residents' feedback on how the funding should be spent, she said.
"What happened was that a strong bond of trust and friendship developed between the two organizations," Stelter said. "In going back and forth, both sides agreed that we all want the same thing. We want safe communities and we want the treatment of everybody to be fair and just."
He had hoped he might get to be an extra at Kramer's, but instead he and the assistant manager, Dick DeVries, were too busy helping and answering the crew's questions, such as where the closest electric outlet is or how to turn off certain lights or the coolers so microphones would not pick up the sound of their motors.
The exchange club needed a new fundraiser  and with food trucks becoming more popular, it decided to have a food truck festival in Lake County, Petera said. "People like the variety of being able to visit one location and try several different food trucks, and to be able to follow them in the future," she said.
At the April 2 council meeting, aldermen unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming the council's opposition to the third track proposed to stretch roughly three miles from near the city's west side station on the south to Route 176 close to Rondout on the north. The third track allows trains to move off to the side of the currently existing two sets of tracks, letting faster trains pass by at times of heavy traffic.
Illinois is one 14 states in the country that never ratified the amendment, which reads: "Equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. This Amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."
Smolinski noted that coming from a large school district with more than 30 schools in Chicago's western suburbs to a one-school district in Niles "will definitely be a shift. But I am so looking forward to working in a small setting with a close school community," she said in the release.
"From the very beginning of this process the Harwood Heights mayor and Village Board and our local schools (Union Ridge and Ridgewood) have been completely supportive of our needs," he said. "The mayor and Village Board have allowed us to budget for training, which is crucial in this process. Union Ridge and Ridgewood High School have allowed us to use their facilities to conduct the training."
The biggest challenge faced by shopping centers in Northbrook is parking because the majority have 70 percent of the parking in front of the businesses and 30 percent of parking spaces are behind the businesses, Poupard said. On the west side of the village, a forest preserve and the large amount of retail businesses in nearby Wheeling could potentially have an impact on a retail business owner's decision to open near that area of Northbrook, he said.
Fridman said that as a child, Outa lived as an orphan on the streets of Nairobi and that due to support from an American couple was able to attend college in the United States. He went on to serve in Parliament for 10 years, before more recently being elected as a member of the Senate.
"I know with this grant you will do wonderful things," Galvan said at the Tuesday morning meeting of the housing authority's board of commissioners, where he said the effort to help residents of public housing become self-sufficient and move into private housing was at the heart of HUD Secretary Ben Carson's agenda.
"I'm shaving because I think all the kids that have cancer should get to feel what it's like with hair, and to know that everyone is beautiful with or without hair," Alycia said.
"Everything is so hush-hush about mental illness and drugs," she said, explaining that this often prevents families from grieving properly if a loved one has died. "And drug addiction is a disease of the brain. It's something we as a society have to come to grips with. Until we start identifying it as a disease of the brain, we're not doing any justice to the people who are afflicted by it."
"I personally have had two police officers from other respected agencies contact me asking about how soon we would be taking applications," Christian said, adding they were aware of the progress the department and town officials had made to solve the salary disparity and "want to be part of the new era of public safety in Chesterton."
"It is a challenge, but I think it's important to make sure we have a strong voice down there," said Hatcher, an attorney who is director of a tax clinic at the Valparaiso University School of Law. "I think there's an opportunity to work across the aisle to give the perspective of one of the few urban communities in the state."
Board president Ingrid Schwarz Wolf said the delay in approving his contract came down to the need to address teacher and administrator contracts first. Hendrix's contract had been under negotiations since November, she said.
"More recent court-compelled discovery productions have only confirmed Snyder's suspicion that 'the government's left hand had no idea what its right hand was doing,'" Bennett said in the motion. "Most notably, communications that were deemed by the government's taint team to be privileged  and thereafter supposedly 'quarantined' from the trial team  are among the documents it now admits it has freely accessed and used for two years."
Once I was at the grocery store and Ray was walking up and down the frozen food aisle, gaping into people's shopping carts. The store managers were standing at the end of the aisle desperately trying to remember his name. I reminded them, and they said, "Oh that's right  Ray. We'll call the police, they know him and will come pick him up."
I'm wondering how much thought went into the city's new recycle container program. They are considerably larger than 75-to-80 percent of the residents need. Most of us don't have room in our garages for such large containers, nor will we fill them with a week's recycles. So, if we don't put them out every week, we will have a smelly container in our garage. Also, we've been advised that we will be charged $60 for a replacement if a thief steals the container. In other words, we will be assessed $60 for someone else being a thief. I don't think so! Enforcement of that program will simply cause most residents to discard their recyclables in the garbage rather than buy a new container. This is exactly what we should not want to happen.
DuPage County Judge Joseph Bugos set bail Monday at $150,000 for 18-year-old Gerardo Flores of Chicago. The other three defendants, who are under 18 and also from Chicago, appeared Tuesday in juvenile court where Bugos ordered them detained. The three will appear again in court at separate hearings over the next two weeks. Flores will appear in court May 7.
"So many times people will come in and say, 'Oh my God, there's no parking,' or they say they would come in more often, but there's no place to park," Hofstetter said. "If you take away that many spaces, you might as well put a gun to my head."
Pueblo remains in large, rural CO-3 in final redistricting map

The final Colorado redistricting map keeps Pueblo County in a rural 3rd Congressional District and could be approved by the Colorado Supreme Court by Nov. 1.
By Melissa Cyrill

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at the Boao Forum for Asia today, in a much-anticipated speech on Chinas economic plans amid increasing trade tensions with the US.

Xi made clear that China stood for open global markets and the lowering of tariff barriers despite growing protectionism among its Western peers.

While US President Donald Trump appears intent on triggering a trade war with little to lose, Xi adopted a more cautious and consistent approach.

RELATED: The 2018 Two Sessions Meetings: Economic Growth, Reform Targets Set

Speaking at the Forum, dubbed as the Asian Davos, Xi assured foreign investors that China will remain open for business, irrespective of geopolitical headwinds.

In line with this, he addressed the governments intent to strengthen Chinas intellectual property rights protections and raise the foreign ownership limit in the automobile, shipbuilding, and aircraft sectors.

Despite being old pledges, Xi hinted that China would permit foreign automakers to establish wholly-owned factories and will reduce tariffs on auto imports  foreign players currently enter the industry by way of joint ventures. The tariff reductions could extend to other imports as well, which is part of a wider campaign to stimulate domestic consumption.

In other remarks, Xi referenced the opening up of Chinas financial market: overseas investors will soon be able to hold a majority stake  up to 51 percent  of any joint ventures in the securities, fund management, and futures industries. Again, this echoes a reform announced last November, although Xi called for it to be expedited.

In fact, the Forum mostly endorsed past commitments rather than introducing anything new. Observers widely expected Xi to tout the Free Trade Port plan and pilot reforms in Hainan province, but these subjects were barely touched upon.

Yet, Xis tone has been interesting  his speech made sure to address key American concerns and puts the onus back on Trump. Xi doesnt face any of the domestic pressures looming in front of Trump  a midterm Congressional election this year and pandering to a vocal agricultural and industrial vote base.

Business Intelligence from Dezan Shira & Associates

On Chinas approach to the so called trade war, market watchers may not hedge bets any time soon  China is known to propose liberalization, only to very gradually implement it or not at all.

Meanwhile, the American position will remain directed by domestic concerns  elections, creation of jobs, trade imbalance, and the growing budget deficit.

What is noteworthy, however, is the abundant confidence displayed by China on the global stage  despite the vague and conciliatory approach, Xis speech at the Boao Forum showcases Chinas strategic understanding of international politics and willingness to lead diplomatically.
Zhu Guizhou was fascinated by the pristine landscapes and wildlife heritage during his maiden visit to Kenya accompanied by more than 20 Chinese artists and university scholars.

The Secretary General of Afro Sino Cultural Exchange Association told Xinhua on the sidelines of Chinese artists' exhibition held in Nairobi on Monday that his Kenyan tour strengthened his affinity to the country's people and its natural wonders.

Zhu led a group of Chinese visual artists on an extensive visit to Kenya that commenced late March and included stops at an elephant orphanage in the capital Nairobi, a world famous wildlife sanctuary, and participation in charity events.

The Chinese artists also visited rural villages to mingle with indigenous communities and learn about their cultures.

Zhu confessed his admiration to diverse and rich Kenyan cultures as well as the country's enduring natural beauty during the tour.

"My visit to Kenya was a watershed moment and I feel privileged to have a personal interaction with the people and learn about their way of life," said Zhu, adding that culture could be a viable vehicle for promoting friendship between the Kenyan and Chinese people.

Chinese artists and university scholars drawn from different parts of the Asian giant visited Kenya against a backdrop of ongoing efforts to promote cultural diplomacy between the two countries.

Zhu stressed that regular people-to-people interactions are key to demolishing stereotypes and myths that often undermine harmonious coexistence.

"We are one people and should deepen friendship irrespective of our cultural differences. During my visit to Kenya, I learnt there is so much we share in common and should therefore promote unity in diversity," Zhu told Xinhua.

He led the delegation of visiting Chinese artists on March 29 tour to an elephant orphanage in Nairobi where they pledged solidarity with global campaign to save the giant land mammal.

The artists also donated learning materials to a public school in Nairobi, vowing to enhance interactions among Kenyan and Chinese youths.

An exhibition by Chinese artists staged at the University of Nairobi on Monday was the culmination of the cultural tour that sought to improve their understanding of the Kenyan people, their cultures and natural wealth.

Lin Shengyang, an arts teacher, said his first visit to Kenya was an epoch moment that strengthened his attachment to the country's diverse communities and landscapes.

"What I can say is that our visit opened our eyes to Kenyan beauty, hospitality and rich natural heritage. Local communities were very friendly and we enjoyed sightseeing in the countryside," said Lin.

He vowed to become a goodwill ambassador for the thriving Sino-Kenyan cultural ties.

The Chinese artists' exhibition that was a climax of their Kenyan tour helped showcase landmarks such as the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that have become enduring symbol of ties between Nairobi and Beijing.

Other portraits at the one-day exhibition captured Kenya's scenic attractions and indigenous customs.

Jiang Zuqing, an arts scholar and nature lover, vowed to popularize Kenya's rich culture, wildlife and pristine environment to her peers back home.

"I was impressed by Kenyans' way of life and was convinced we can share the best aspects of our two cultures to strengthen friendship. Kenya is a country of wonders and I will always treasure memories of my first visit to the country," said Jiang.

Senior Kenyan officials said that regular exchange visits by artists and joint exhibitions are key to cementing friendship and trust between Kenya and China.

Kiprop Lagat, Director of culture in the ministry of sports, culture and arts, said that Sino-Kenyan cooperation in performing and visual arts, museums and archives has enhanced cultural diplomacy between the two countries.

"We continue to support cultural exchanges with China as a means to build bridges and strengthen bonds of friendship," said Kiprop, adding that China has provided support to help Kenya build a vibrant creative industry.

Frank Asira, the Chairman of Afro Sino Cultural Exchange Association, said the maiden visit to Kenya by Chinese artists marked a new beginning in the quest for friendship and peaceful coexistence among people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

"When artists from China and Kenya sit down together to draw and paint, our friendship grows. Reciprocal visits by these artists are needed to strengthen our ties," Asira said.
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The China-Kenya partnership in culture and transfer of agricultural technologies is bearing positive results that include enhanced friendship and food security, directors of the Confucius Institute at Egerton University told Xinhua during a recent interview.

Joshua Ogweno, the Kenyan director of the Confucius Institute, said blending of Chinese language, culture and arts curriculum with transfer of expertise in modern farming has benefitted research institutions and local communities.

"There is huge enthusiasm among Kenyan students to learn Chinese as a foreign language. On agricultural technologies transfer, we are doing better and have trained over 300 farmers who appreciated it due to increased production," said Ogweno.

The Confucius Institute at Egerton University, which has a long-standing partnership with Nanjing Agricultural University, was established in 2012 with the aim of becoming a center of excellence in teaching of mandarin and knowledge transfer in food production.

Currently, the institute has enrolled more than 2,000 students who study Chinese language at the certificate level and plans are afoot to upgrade the course to post graduate levels upon recruitment of additional teaching staff.

Ogweno said the Confucius Institute at one of Kenya's oldest Universities located in Nakuru County has extended Chinese language training curriculum to primary and high school students.

"We have several teaching centers tailor made for young learners in primary and secondary schools. Our students participate in bridge competition and cultural exchange programs," said Ogweno.

He revealed that 15 to 20 students from the Institute are dispatched to China annually to experience the country's rich culture.

Ogweno hailed the agricultural exchange program that has revolutionized food production in the country through adoption of modern technologies.

He singled out greenhouse farming, collaborative research on drought resistant crops and irrigation technologies for their potential to end perennial hunger and malnutrition in Kenya.

Ogweno said the Confucius Institute at Egerton University aims to become a regional center of excellence on transfer and adoption of Chinese agricultural technologies.

Egerton is among Kenya's four major public universities whose fully-fledged Confucius Institutes have elevated the teaching of Chinese language, arts and culture to new levels.

Li Yuan, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute, said it has been at the forefront in cementing China-Kenya cultural and agricultural cooperation to achieve mutual benefits.

"The Confucius Institute not only emphasizes the spread of Chinese culture, but keeps its own agriculture characteristics," said Li, adding that high-level events held at the institute have exposed Chinese culture to Kenyans.

According to Li, the Confucius Institute last year held and participated in 36 cultural events that included the Spring Festival Gala and agricultural civilization summer camp.

"A series of Chinese corners focusing on traditional Chinese clothes, tea culture, paper cutting and Peking Opera have been held," said Li.

The Confucius Institute has already signed a pact with Nanjing Agricultural University to promote vocational training in modern farming methods.

Li said the partnership will enhance skills upgrade among agriculture professionals in Kenya and Sub-Saharan African region.

He noted that skills development, knowledge sharing, research and innovations will revolutionize farming and rural development in the region.




China's stance of resolutely opposing the United States selling weapons to Taiwan has been always clear and consistent, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense said at a press conference Monday.

"Taiwan is a part of China. The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relationship," Wu Qian, the spokesperson, said in response to a journalist's question about the U.S. Department of State's approval of a marketing license for selling military submarine technology to Taiwan.

China urges the U.S. to abide by the one-China principle and the principles of the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, and stop all forms of military contact with Taiwan including arms sales, Wu said.

"The Chinese military has the ability and is determined to defeat any attempt to split the motherland, and it will take all necessary measures to defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," Wu said.
Local netizens paid respect to two Chinese UN peacekeepers killed in the violence of conflict-hit South Sudan by flooding a documentary about the pair with digital flowers, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two peacekeepers, Li Lei, 22, and Yang Shupeng, 33, died after their armored vehicle was struck by a mortar shell while guarding a refugee camp near a UN compound for displaced people on July 10, 2016.

When a documentary scene about the pair's fellow peacekeepers not being able to buy fresh flowers to place on the coffins screened, an unexpected thing happened: Chinese netizens flooded the screen with countless digital flowers in real time, a feature on Chinese online videos known as "bullet screen."

The peacekeepers tried their best to buy flowers but failed, as fighting between two army factions in South Sudan was still ongoing.

This gesture from netizens touched many, with numerous media outlets reporting on the flood of digital flowers. Other netizens sent flowers in the comment section as well.

One remarked, "What kind netizens! They are expressing their respect to the heroes and their love to the country in their own unique way." Another said, "Hail to the heroes! And thanks to everyone for heart-warming digital flowers."




Mercedes Benz says its analysis contradicts the claim by one of its car's owners that cruise control failure was to blame for him blowing through toll gate on a National Highway in China in March, reports the Beijing News.

Mercedes says its analysis of the man's vehicle shows both its cruise control and braking system were operating normally on the evening of March 14, 2018.

Surveillance video provided by Henan traffic police shows an apparent out-of-control car blowing through a toll gate on a highway running from Henan to Shaanxi at an estimated speed of 120km/h.

The driver, surnamed Xue, claims the cruise control and breaks on his Mercedes Benz C200L did not respond.

Mercedes Benz notes there are several redundancies built into its vehicles various systems, suggesting the failure of two or more systems at any one time would be highly unlikely.

The driver, only identified by his surname Xue, has so far declined to comment on the analysis by Mercedes Benz.




With tensions rising between Beijing and Washington, China is seeking to use its ties with Russia and the EU to counter American unilateralism. [Photo/Xinhua]





In 2016, I was asked if I foresaw China seeking allies in the future. I said yes, China, like any other great power, commensurate to its economic might and geopolitical interests, would come to a point when it could have to look for geopolitical and economic allies. There is a simple distinction to be made here. Looking to build up alliances doesn't mean pacts or treaties of the type chartered prior to the First World War. However, the world is unfortunately re-entering a phase of great power rivalry, which means there will be tactical alignments between different power centers based on the issues of the day.

Recently, there have been alignment formations commensurate with the changing geopolitics and economics. The first is an alignment between Russia and China. China's defense minister, Gen. Wei Fenghe, on his trip to Moscow was quoted by state news agency Tass saying, "I am visiting Russia as a new defense minister of China to show the world a high level of development of our bilateral relations and firm determination of our armed forces to strengthen strategic cooperation," adding: "The Chinese side has come to show Americans the close ties between the armed forces of China and Russia ... We've come to support you." This is a remarkable statement in light of the complications in the Middle East. Opposition to liberal interventionism, which has elsewhere been voiced by many major powers and a significant amount of the Western population as well, was reflected in this alignment.

Even more importantly, Beijing and Brussels are pondering opportunities to align against a trade confrontation with the United States. China on Friday asked the EU to take a joint stand against U.S. protectionism. "China and the EU ... should take a clear stance against protectionism, jointly preserve the rules-based multilateral trade order, and keep the global economy on a sound and sustainable track," Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese mission to the EU, was quoted saying by AFP, adding: "This is a joint responsibility of China and the EU. We must act together to make that happen."

The EU itself faces a protracted trade war with the U.S. In some ways, American officials are open to negotiating with China. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to claim that his friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping is going to be continued, a hint at a compromise. American officials also didn't fathom Beijing's response and are now reportedly looking for more negotiations and compromises.

The EU, however, suffers from a disadvantage compared to China. China is a single entity, and Chinese comparative advantage over the U.S. and EU is high. The EU, on the other hand, is divided, and the countries which make up the European Union each have their own economic interests to keep in mind.

The EU is naturally reticent in taking sides between China and the U.S., even though smart people in the bloc are perfectly aware that it is inevitable at some point in time. The EU responded by saying how free and fair trade is the key to a prosperous world. But the more significant statement came later, when the EU said it is planning to mediate between China and the U.S. in a trade dispute by supporting a multilateral and rules-based trade system. The European Commission's Jyrki Katainen and Valdis Dombrovskis jointly said that the EU would try to stabilize the current situation" and keep blowback under control.

Ultimately, however, this is not a long-term solution, and it will sooner or later be clear what the trend lines are. If the EU and the U.S. double down on their own trade differences, then there will be a compromise between Beijing and Washington. Brussels will then be in the American crosshairs. If, however, the compromise between China and the U.S. fails, it will be up for Chinese policymakers to look for solid support and alliances.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.




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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday called on China and Japan to work to help bilateral ties return to the track of healthy development.



Li made the remarks in a meeting with Yohei Kono, president of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade (JAPIT), and a business delegation led by Kono at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Li said China-Japan relations have maintained a momentum of improvement at present with positive interactions, yet challenges remain.

"The two sides need to cherish sound momentum and have foresight and focus when handling bilateral ties so as to create a favorable environment for high-level exchanges and help bilateral ties return to the track of healthy development," he said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

Li called on Japan to work with China and meet each other halfway, follow the principles of the four political documents between China and Japan, uphold the spirit of taking history as a mirror and facing up to the future, take into account the benefits and well-beings of both peoples and promote bilateral ties to improve and move in the right direction.

On the issue of trade, Li said China advocates multilateralism, supports maintaining the multilateral trading system and promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

China will continue its reform and the door of opening-up will open wider, he said.

He encouraged Japanese enterprises to invest in China.

Kono, who is former speaker of the Japanese House of Representatives, said this year is of great significance as it marks the 40th anniversary of both the signing of Japan-China Treaty of Peace and Friendship and China's reform and opening-up policy.

The Japanese business community welcomes the continuous improvement of Japan-China relations, stands ready to make contribution to bilateral friendship, and looks forward to Premier Li's official visit to Japan and attendance of a new round of Japan-China-Republic of Korea (ROK) leaders' meeting, he said.
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Smoke rises after the Syrian army's shelling targeted the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Syria, on April 7, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said the United State will make "major decisions" over the reported chemical weapon attack in Syria soon, and warns "tough" consequence for Russian President Vladimir for the incident.

Trump said in a cabinet meeting that the attack was "heinous", "atrocious", "barbaric" and "horrible," noting "we'll be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours."

"As bad as the news is around the world, you just don't see those images," he said. "We are studying that situation extremely closely ...we're looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously."

Speaking of his earlier claim to get the U.S. troops out of Syria soon, Trump said "we'll be making that decision very quickly, probably by the end of today."

He said that "nothing's off the table," referring to the possible U.S. military action against Syria.

In the unusual rhetoric against Russia, Trump added that Putin "may" bear responsibility for the Syrian incident.

"If he does, it's going to be very tough. Very tough," he said. "Everybody's going to pay a price. He will, everybody will."

He also hinted that Syria, Iran and Russia are behind the attack.

"They're saying they're not. But, to me, there's not much of a doubt. But the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours," said Trump.

Earlier on Monday, U.S. defense chief James Mattis said Washington has not ruled out launching airstrikes against Damascus.

"The first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all chemical weapons, and so working with our allies and partners from NATO to Qatar and elsewhere we are going to address this issue," Mattis said.

U.S. media reported that National Security Council principals are holding a "small group" meeting to discuss Syria on Monday, led by John Bolton on his first official day as White House national security adviser.

U.S. bilateral relations with Russia have deteriorated recently due to the U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats and sanctions of Russian business leaders and high-ranking officials. The incident in Syria was expected to be a new flashpoint between the two nations.

Trump on Sunday condemned Syria, Russia and Iran for what he called the "SICK" attack, threatening "big price to pay." The unexpected rhetoric has sparked concerns over the prospect of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Syria that Trump has reiterated recently.

Also on Sunday, Trump spoke over phone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, agreeing on a "strong, joint response" to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

The two leaders also "agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response," according to the statement released by the White House.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria have claimed that Syrian forces used chlorine gas in the attack on Saturday against Douma, in the rebel-held area near Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations have been planned beforehand to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma. The Syrian government has denied the allegations and called it fake news.

Earlier on Monday, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it was investigating the incident and has made a preliminary analysis of the reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Sunday refuted reports purporting that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons in Douma district, a besieged enclave near capital Damascus, calling the allegation "fabrication" and "provocation."

Speaking at the UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said that China firmly opposes the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances, adding that his country is "greatly concerned by the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria."

All parties should continue to insist that the Security Council and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should be the main channels for addressing the use of chemical weapons, said the Chinese envoy.

Wu expressed the hope that the Syrian government would continue to cooperate with OPCW on the resolution of the initial declaration and properly resolve the outstanding issues.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday discussed by phone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about latest developments in Syria and bilateral relations.

Erdogan expressed concerns about the attacks in Douma and Eastern Ghouta, and emphasized the importance of preventing civilian casualties and working together to deliver humanitarian aid, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted a presidential source as saying.

The two leaders also talked about bilateral relations, expressing satisfaction of the Syria issues tripartite summit, which was held in Ankara last Wednesday with participation of Iranian side.

The phone talk came amid an international wrangling about the allegations of the chemical weapons' use by the Syrian army in the attack on the rebels in the Douma district in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside.

The pro-rebel Ghouta Media Center has claimed that nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas have been used in Syrian army's recent offensive in Douma, which has caused civilians to suffocate and choke.

The Syrian government has denied its possession of chemical weapons, saying such allegations were fabricated.

Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack and called on all the parties who have influence on the Syrian regime to fulfill their responsibilities in order to immediately stop such brutal attacks.
China Aviation Daily | Apr. 09, 2018

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) emphasized its strong support for the construction of a new international airport for Mexico City that was launched in 2014 to replace Benito Juarez International Airport.

"The current airport is bursting at the seams. It serves 47 million passengers, almost 50% over its design capacity of 32 million. A new airport is vital to enable Mexico City to benefit more fully from its ideal geographic position linking North America and Latin America," said Peter Cerda, IATA's Regional Vice President for the Americas.

Aviation already makes an enormous contribution to Mexico's economy, supporting 1 million jobs and 2.9% of GDP, including the economic contribution of foreign tourists arriving by air. But lack of infrastructure capacity at its capital city is degrading the country's ability to capture an even larger share of the benefits of aviation connectivity, regionally and globally, according to a new IATA study.

The study shows that for a country of its size, Mexico underperforms in terms of its integration with the global air transport network. This means that aviation is not fully delivering the benefits that it could with sufficient infrastructure. In this regard, Mexico trails countries with much smaller home markets, including Panama, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

The IATA study also identifies the cost of missed opportunities if infrastructure development does not keep pace with demand for aviation connectivity. If the new airport is not built, it could mean 20 million fewer passengers per year by 2035. This translates into a negative impact of up to $20 billion in future GDP contribution and up to 200,000 fewer jobs in Mexico supported by aviation in 2035.

"With its enormous local population, strong attractions for business and tourism, and geographic advantages, Mexico City has the ability to play a much bigger role on the world stage. But for that to happen, aviation infrastructure needs to be adequate and affordable, which is why it is absolutely vital that the new Mexico City Airport is built as planned," said Cerda.

Contributed by IATA




BANGKOK - Business is booming for Siri Seatea's traditional dress shop in Bangkok.

"Out of the 30 years I've been running this shop, this is the peak for us," 53-year-old Siri said as she stitched a Thai sarong for a client.

History fever is gripping Thailand and a growing number of Thais are wearing traditional dress, a phenomenon encouraged by the government and the palace, and fueled by a popular television soap opera.
China's push to upgrade its industrial structure and further open up its market - ensuring free and inclusive global trade and sharing the benefits with other countries - will attract more investment from the Netherlands in the long term.

The funding will mainly be made in the chemical, agricultural and manufacturing sectors, according to leading businesspeople and academics.

The opportunities come from China's ongoing reforms to build a new economic focus in the country. It has set goals to improve the market and policy environment for foreign direct investment, leading to "higher quality" foreign capital.

"Biomedicines, new materials, high-end equipment, and science and technology services will be the hot areas for businesses from the Netherlands to invest in China in the next stage, as the Asian country experiences a diversification of its innovative economic structure and an acceleration of industrial upgrading," said Sun Fuquan, a researcher at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

Following the acquisition of Rainbow Biotechnology Co Ltd (China) in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region last November, Royal DSM, the Dutch life and materials sciences company, will launch a new DSM innovation center in Tongxiang, Zhejiang province in East China this year.

"DSM is on the journey from 'good to great' - a key initiative of which was to experiment with a governance model that differs from what multinational companies generally employ," said Gong Xiangwei, president of DSM Hydrocolloids.

Gong said the innovation center will strengthen DSM's innovation capabilities, enhance its intimacy with customers and further improve work efficiency.

Another Dutch company on the move in China is AkzoNobel, a multinational that manufactures paints and performance coatings and produces specialty chemicals for both industry and consumers worldwide.

The company expects its business growth in the Chinese market to "maintain the current momentum" in the future.

China is one of the company's most important markets, as it accounts for approximately 12 percent of its total revenue each year, said Lin Liangqi, president of AkzoNobel China.

"We are benefiting from China's economic growth," Lin said. "We have been growing at double-digit rates in the past decade," he added, without providing a specific figure.

Xia Youfu, executive director of the strategy center for China's Open Economy and International Technology Cooperation at the University of International Business and Economics, said traditional and other fast-growing industries would continue to remain attractive fields of investment for the Netherlands.

Dutch and Chinese representatives celebrate the first anniversary of a freight train route from Chengdu to the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands on Sept 22, 2017.Provided To China Daily

(China Daily 04/10/2018 page7)
As Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen is visiting China, Vienna-based Raiffeisen Bank International AG said it hopes for the complete success of this state visit with many fruitful results, benefiting the further development of both countries.

The Austrian president's visit, accompanied by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and several ministers, will lead to a further deepening of the Sino-Austrian relationship and create many opportunities between the two countries, the company said.

During the state visit, large Chinese telecom corporation Huawei Technologies and a large Chinese policy bank will sign financing cooperation agreements with RBI in relation to business in Central and Eastern Europe and to further deepen their relationship, an RBI source said.

"With consolidated profit of 1.1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) - more than double the previous year's - 2017 was a very good year for RBI," said Helmut Breit, the bank's senior managing director and a member of the Austrian delegation to China. "There was also a positive trend in our rating development, with a Moody's long-term rating of A3."

Moody's provides credit ratings in nine-levels ranging from Aaa, the highest credit quality and lowest credit risk, to C. Level A is the third-highest in the Moody's rating system.

"Chinese corporations investing in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe can certainly trust RBI for granting the best services, especially in the fields of leasing finance, cash management and trade financing, as well as mergers and acquisitions advisory and financing.

"With the support of the RBI Beijing team, we established financing for or account relationships with subsidiaries of about 50 Chinese groups in our home market Austria and CEE," Breit said.

"Our network units in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Serbia financed several large investment projects by leading Chinese groups, and they are looking forward to growing further in that region under the Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

RBI has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 2005. Its balance sheet total was 135 billion euros at the end of 2017. The bank said it regards Austria, where it is a leading corporation and investment bank, as well as CEE as its home market.

Just recently billed as the "Best Bank in Central and Eastern Europe" for the 12th time in 15 years by Global Finance magazine, RBI maintains 14 subsidiary banks in CEE, with 2,400 outlets in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Additionally, RBI Group comprises numerous other financial service providers, for instance in leasing, asset management or M&A.

With its dedicated staff of nearly 50,000 bankers, RBI caters for around 16.5 million customers in the areas of corporate business, small and medium-sized enterprises and private individuals, as well as financial institutions and sovereigns.

RBI established a branch in Beijing in 1999 as the first and only bank in Austria with an operational presence in China, thereby enhancing Chinese enterprises' access to CEE through its extensive network and expertise in the local market.

RBI facilitates investments in high-tech areas and also finances production capacity investments in mass consumer areas.

The company enables large Chinese enterprises to participate in infrastructure construction projects - such as harbors, airports, all kinds of interchanges, traffic hubs, the creation of bonded areas and development zones, designing and building of railroads and highways - by means of introducing suitable projects, financing, or offering M&A services, including post-acquisition finance.

RBI, almost like no other bank, offers refinancing in local currencies in the CEE area, the company said.

During last year's Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, RBI entered into strategic cooperation agreements with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Sino CEE Fund and the China Development Bank.

For more information, please visit: www.rbinternational.com

(China Daily 04/10/2018 page12)
Naima* came to the United States from the Middle East with her family in the early 1990s. Though she was too young to remember most of the details, she distinctly remembers people from a local church welcoming her family of eight and helping them to get settled. Looking back on her early days in the US, Naima remembers that people from the church  would bring us Christmas presents and all kinds of stuff. I have no idea how they connected with my family. I was not even five years old at the time.  [But] I remember them helping us with bills.

After high school, Naima enrolled at the local community college, where she met Daniel, a fellow student. He became a good friend, listened to her struggles, and was always willing to talk about Jesus. At one point, he gave her a Bible and began reading to her out of the Book of John. Challenged by his faith, she brought him a Quran and urged him to read it as well because she was convinced it was the truththough she didnt know much, if anything, about it. Evening study sessions often gave way to questions each had concerning the others Scripture. Some of the questions were pointed, the answers unsettling.

Naima and Daniel lost track of each other, but a few months later, Naima ended up in the hospital as a result of a drug overdose. There she met a janitor and a hospital transporter who, by their kindness and words of encouragement, demonstrated to Naima the love of Christ. After nearly two weeks, Naima was released from the hospital and reconnected with Daniel. She was excited to tell him all that she had learned and of the kindness of the Christians she met while in the hospital. When Daniel invited her to church, she gladly accepted.

The words of the Bible and the compassion of the Christians she met were nudging Naima toward the Christian faith while eroding her confidence in Islam. But it took the healing of her niece from an illness, in response to Naimas own prayer, to convince her that the Christian faith was true. Once that was settled, Naima began attending a local church and, after several months, confirmed her faith in Christ in baptism.

Naimas story is touching, but is it unique? Do she and others who have turned from Islam to faith in Christ have anything in common? If we listen to their stories, is it possible to see a pattern? Recent research conducted in Western Europe and North America indicates that it is indeed possible.

The Word of God and the Community of Faith

For my PhD dissertation, I conducted research in 20122013 on the conversion to Christianity of Muslim immigrants in France. In 20152016, I was co-leader of a team that conducted similar research on the conversion of Muslim immigrants to the United States and Canada, in partnership with the TIM Center of the Tyndale College and Seminary in Toronto. Our work was published in 2017 as Fruitful Practices in Ministry to the North American Muslim Diaspora: A Mixed-Methods Study.

The studies, which made use of both qualitative (interview) and quantitative (survey) methods, sought to identify the observed causes for conversion, especially as noted by Muslim converts themselves. Each study identified the same top three factors leading to conversion of Muslims in Western Europe and North America: access to the Bible, relationship with a Christian friend, and experience with a local evangelical church, as noted in the table below:

Factors Associated with Muslim Conversion

Factor North America France Experience with Local Evangelical Church 76% 70% Christian Friend 76% 53% Bible 82% 34%

The fact that the Bible shows up as significant in both sets of data should not surprise us. The apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. The writer of Hebrews asserts that the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (4:12). As evangelicals who hold a high regard for the biblical text and its transformative power, we would expect this outcome.

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For Said, a student from the Middle East, the impact of the Bible was unforgettable.

After a year of [pretending to agree with the words and practices of Christianity that I saw in my host family] I started to doubt myself. Maybe they were right? Maybe their religion was the right one. So I decided to actually read the Bible. I started in Genesis. The stories were so good. They resonated with me. They were all so familiar. Reading it was like being pulled into a powerful story; it was almost like watching a film; it was so moving and powerful. These were so much like the things I had heard all my life at home and from my dad. Then after eight months, I got to the [New Testament]. I started reading and Jesus words amazed me. He said things like pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you. Who could this man be! No one ever talked like this. I could not put the book down.

The Christian friend as a significant factor in conversion also makes sense. God is a relational being who has orchestrated the conversion process to be one of human agency carried along by divine initiative and effect. Though as evangelicals we would agree that our efforts alone do not save, we are equally aware that God has ordained both the means and the ends with regard to salvation. And the means, at least in part, includes relationship between those who follow Christ, who have the opportunity to show the love of Christ and explain the good news, and those not yet converted. It is in the context of these believer/non-believer relationships that truth is explored and a lived-out faith is observed.

Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:1820 that all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Though God may use all manner of the miraculous to bring someone to saving faith, his normal means involves relational witness.

Ahmad, a former Muslim from Albania, described the impact of a Christian friend like this:

[I]t almost seemed like the more I wanted Christian people to get away from me, the more they surrounded me and they came from different places I just couldnt get away from them. And how I came to this church is I have a dear brother  and hes what I used to call the most annoying Christian that Ive ever known. But  he was the one that kept inviting me to church and invited me to this and that.  He was one that I watched closely and there were some things that he did that attracted me [to the Christian faith].

Compelled by the Church

Beyond the Bible and the influence of a Christian friend, what might surprise us is the role of the local church. Testimonies of more than 70 Muslim converts revealed that in addition to the Bible and a Christian friend, experience with a local evangelical church was highly influential in their conversion journey. This is surprising for several reasons. First, Islamic theology discourages its followers from entering churches or otherwise participating in church-related activities. Second, given the social, cultural, and religious differences that exist between Muslim immigrants and members of Western evangelical churches, one might think that initial contact with a local church would reveal and highlight differences, especially socially and culturally, that could impede conversion, not enable it. And finally, though Protestant evangelicals have developed significantly in their understanding of other cultures, the interview data reveal that in the typical encounter with a local church, Muslims did not perceive intentional efforts being made to accommodate them.

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Yet despite all this, something in the life of the Christian community is so compelling that it overrides many Muslims objections and disapproval.

Saida, a single woman from Iraq, found the church a special place full of special people.

And when I came to the church, I found the peoplethey are just full of joy.  And from the way they were dealing with each other, they were so nice.  I became also full of joy. And I listened to the songs.  It was so beautiful. So I was really astonished. And through the pastor I came to know the words of the gospel. And his words came straight to my heart. And the words Ive heard made me  fall in love with Christ more and more. And I was so much attracted to Christ. And I wanted to become [a] Christian like them.

Much more could be mined from these conversion stories. Perhaps the most significant factor is the religious context of the West, in which many types of religions are allowed to exist and compete for members. Social scientists refer to this context as religious pluralism. Those who live in places that embrace religious pluralism (as in Western Europe and North America) are free to pursue, adopt, and express their religious beliefs or to opt out from religion altogether.

A New Context for Faith

In his book Understanding Religious Conversion, Lewis Rambo says that this religious pluralism plays a significant role in conversion for Muslims in three ways. One is that it provides religious options. Despite an individuals interest in adopting a new faith, if other options are not available, the choice is, in effect, non-existent. It also provides for the forming of new relationships and the freedom to move away from (and perhaps sever) previously existing relationships with friends or family members aligned with the former faith. This means the convert will face fewer social consequences. And finally, it provides new faith content to explore and the opportunity to compare the new faith with the old one (in this case, Islam).

In short, Muslim migration to the West provides an unparalleled context for the exploration and experience of religious options by the Muslim immigrant, which are in many, if not most, cases denied in Muslim-majority countries. This should cause us to take a fresh look at the current state of global migration, which, in many cases, includes Muslims attempting to move to the West.

Even a casual reading of the Bible reveals that both the Old and New Testaments relate story after story of migration, from Adam and Eve to Abraham and Moses to the nation of Israel and, ultimately, to Jesus and his own family. The story of the Bible is the story of people on the move. To understand the Bible, we need to understand what the Bible has to say about migration.

What we see in the biblical record is that God is ultimately behind the movement of people. His intent is that all of creation be redeemed. He has ordained both the means and the ends to that redemptive plan. Paul, in his Mars Hill discourse, argued that from one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:2627). Pauls words suggest that global migration in any generation is not just about politics or economics. It just might be the result of a divine initiative.

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Given the current global context of migration, the church in the West finds itself in a unique place in history to help Muslim immigrants who come to our shores as refugees, students, vacationers, or workers. We offer the stranger the hope of the gospel by doing what Jesus commanded: loving him or her (Matt. 25:3638). In so doing, many will be saved.

*Names have been changed for security reasons.

Richard Kronk, PhD, is the author of several books on the topic of Muslim conversion and is currently professor of global ministries at Toccoa Falls College, in Toccoa Falls, Georgia.
In this age of the blockbuster superhero movie, audiences have come to expect the heros origin story. Why does he wear that cape? Where did she learn to fight like that? Why do they hide behind those secret identities?

Many recent superhero movies shuffle through the origin narrative as quickly as possible. Every so often, though, films will invest the time necessary to transform their protagonists from one-dimensional archetypes into flesh-and-blood human beings.

Most biographies of Martin Luther King Jr. have focused on King the civil rights icon, spotlighting his role from the Montgomery bus boycott onward. In The Seminarian, Patrick Parr instead gives us an extended look at the formative years of the preachers postgraduate education at Crozer Theological Seminary near Chester, Pennsylvania, then a small, liberal-minded school of fewer than 100 students (less than a quarter of whom were black).

Parr is a wonderful guide through this pivotal season of Kings intellectual development, spiritual formation, and youthful angst. We feel the young seminarians anxiety as he arrives at a predominantly white school, we witness his encounters with the Norths less flamboyant but equally treacherous brand of racism, and we experience the heartbreak of his short-lived romance with a white student.

From the vantage point of a Northern city, the Atlanta-born King began to reflect on the racial injustices of the Deep South and the cleansing potential of a liberal religious activism. This was Kings first extended time in the majority-white world, and he felt obligated not to perpetuate stereotypes associated with Southern Negroes. Consequently, he worked hard to prove to his white professors and classmates ...

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In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new.
CFI Stands with Scott Lloyd to Protect Refugees

Contact: Lisa Jones, 800-323-2273

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christian Freedom International (CFI) has launched a petition supporting Scott Lloyd for protecting refugee girls from being exploited by political activists.

CFI aids and advocates for persecuted Christians in repressive countries. Christians make up a significant number of refugees and can face discrimination and manipulation even after fleeing their country. Christian groups helping refugees here have also faced discrimination.

Scott Lloyd is the director of the Office of Resettled Refugees. ORR has custody of "unaccompanied minor" refugees in the U.S. who are without parents, and are vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. Activist lawyers are exploiting these teen refugees to promote a larger political agenda that is contrary to the religious beliefs of many refugees. The lawyers have unleashed a campaign against Scott Lloyd to prevent him, and other Christians, from helping these refugees.

The lawyers have been criticized for misrepresenting the refugees and misleading justice officials. One teenage refugee gave a handwritten statement to a judge saying the attorney who claimed to represent her in a lawsuit against the U.S. government had forced her to sign the documents. She did not want an abortion, as the lawsuit claimed, and she did not want that lawyer as her attorney. The ACLU, which uses lawsuits to force social change, has filed several cases to force the government to provide abortions.

In another case, activist attorneys were criticized for misleading the Justice Department when, hours before her case was to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, a refugee girl was taken for a secret abortion.

The ORR provides grants to non-profits to house and care for refugees. The Obama administration restricted grants only to groups that facilitate abortions. That left Christian groups ineligible for grants; a way of discriminating against faith-based groups and isolating refugees from Christians.

Scott Lloyd was appointed by the Trump administration, and has taken an interest in protecting refugees from people who would use them for political purposes. Previously he assisted Christians who were persecuted by ISIS, investigating horrific abuses against Christians and other religious minorities.
Robert Mueller's FBI Manufactured Madisonville Terrorism

The Affidavit is Perjured

ATHENS, Tenn., April 9, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III submits this exclusive report in The Post & Email. He confidently lays out unequivocal proof of Robert Mueller's manufactured terrorism, the first proven federally-staged terrorism episode in our nation's history.

This demand must be echoed throughout the greatest nation on God's green earth to hold Mueller, his FBI toadies and their "law enforcement partners" to their criminal consequences and responsibilities resulting from their high treason.

The Post & Email holds and for years has aggressively reported on FBI Director Robert Mueller's quisling, Mark A. Van Balen, who uttered a perjured 26 April 2010 affidavit naming Navy veteran Darren Huff and Naval Academy graduate Walter Fitzpatrick. During part of this time the feds held Darren Huff unlawfully imprisoned, a direct outcome of Van Balen's bogus federal court filing.

For the most part our reports were ignored. I was taken down and unlawfully imprisoned while attempting to formally advance solid reports of Mueller's treason, and effect Mr. Huff's release, to federal and state grand juries.

Now that we know that issuing false affidavits under oath is FBI standard operating procedure, given newly-revealed information of the FBI's 21 October 2016 perjured affidavit used to obtain an illegal surveillance warrant targeting Naval Academy graduate Carter Page (in Comey's FBI), severe scrutiny is applied once more to Van Balen's fraud (in Mueller's FBI).

Complete narratives describing Mueller's FBI "Madisonville Hoax" manufactured, street-theater terrorism are ubiquitous. Our focus today is only on what happened on Tuesday, 20 April 2010.

Because we've outed Mueller and Van Balen for their lies under oath, the gentle reader is given license to ignore any and all government representations injurious to ordinary citizens who were on the scene.

Readers can ignore anything coming out of Darren Huff's October 2011 federal trial. Without the Mueller/Van Balen perjured affidavit, Mr. Huff's prosecution was impossible.

Focus your attention on the following:

Darren Huff was under unrelenting state and federal police surveillance from the time he left Georgia early in the morning on 20 April 2010 until the time he returned home that night.

The feds all but had a geo-synchronous satellite assigned to Darren Huff the entire day.

Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers lit Darren Huff up and pulled him over in a felony stop 12.3 miles away from Donna's Old Town Cafe.

The troopers asked Darren to surrender weapons he was carrying legally.

Darren refused.

Darren locked his handgun up in the metal storage box in the bed of his truck, then drove the rest of the way into Madisonville.

Darren arrived at Donna's Old Town Cafe about twenty minutes later, stopped, got out of his truck, went inside the restaurant and there interacted with others waiting for my preliminary hearing to conclude. Darren was inside, or loitering outside the eatery throughout the duration of his time in Madisonville, leaving from the cafe to journey home to Georgia.

Independent news reports of the day's events on 20 April were broadcast later that evening (WBIR television) or published in newspapers on 21 and 22 April 2010.

One published report was consistent with each of the others , and the public eye- and ear-witness narrative described a massive law enforcement presence surrounding peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

Pictures captured from the day could as well have been taken at a family picnic gathering, this one taken of the group standing in front of the R. Beecher Witt courthouse:

Incidentally, Darren Huff is not found in the photo above. Darren never made it to the courthouse; he was having coffee and biscuits with other folks at Donna's Cafe two-tenths of a mile distant.

But six days later, on 26 April 2010, Robert Mueller's sycophant Van Balen, completely ignoring published reports and available eye- and ear-witness statements, filed a sworn affidavit with federal Judge C. Clifford Shirley that while under suffocating law enforcement surveillance, Darren Huff drove away from the highway patrol felony stop, was allowed to retake possession of a gun (rearm), then, possessed of criminal intent, was allowed unfettered to advance on the R. Beecher Witt Judicial Building (the courthouse) to join with at least twelve other men armed with guns standing in front of the courthouse, similarly infected with criminal intent.

The group Van Balen describes in his perjured statement is populated by ghosts. Later, Mueller's FBI doubled down on Van Balen's untrue utterance in a " Gotcha " podcast produced after Darren's federal trial and conviction on one federal count.

Real people, who really were at the courthouse, are seen in the "family picnic" photo above.

Now please consider what sort of police reaction there would have been in the event Darren had at some later time, having once secured his weapons in the metal storage box, and while under unrelenting observation, actually made his way to the R. Beecher Witt Judicial Building, somehow rearmed, and then joined together with other armed men at the trailer-park courthouse.

At the courthouse where women and young children were present standing around the group of armed "extreme militiamen" Van Balen said were there.

It would have been as if Darren had weed-whacked himself into a nest of hornets.

Heavily geared-up, armed law enforcement authorities would have been all over Darren and every other man Van Balen said was at the courthouse, assembled with Darren, armed, ready to carry out an assault.

Airborne units would have been circling directly above. Police cars everywhere with their light show.

Those men assessed as armed hostiles would have been aggressively confronted, disarmed and most certainly detained (handcuffed), and maybe eventually arrested.

Snipers in nearby windows and on roofs would have drawn beads on this group of armed civilians, holding them tightly and continuously in their crosshairs until such a moment police would have declared the armed civilians neutralized and the area cleared and safe.

Police would have surrounded the women and children and determined them hostile or non-hostile. In the event they were determined non-hostile, the police would have removed them from the area with the speed of heat.

The courthouse would have gone into lockdown and later evacuated under heavy police presence.

And all of this with television and newspaper reporters on scene, with cameras.

Please think hard on what would have gone down in the event Darren had showed up at the courthouse packin' heat after he was disarmed near I-75, to join with a dozen more men at the courthouse, packin' heat.

Think hard because this is what Van Balen said did happen.

The press would still be going nuts with this.

Mueller and Van Balen lied. The affidavit is perjured.

Mueller's manufactured terrorism is proven.

Here endth the lesson.
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"We look forward to working with President Vizcarra . We will continue advancing our bilateral relationship with Peru. We have shared values of democracy, security, and mutually-beneficial trade. We both respect human rights," the U.S. government official expressed in a telephonic press briefing.





In this sense, he praised the "kind of contrast you see in Peru" compared to Venezuela , adding the Inca country "is adhering to its Constitution during this (presidential) transition , and that reflects the strength as a resilient democracy."





As is known, Peru's capital city of Lima will host the Summit of the Americas later this week. Within this framework, the official addressed the coming regional event set to unite 34 nations of the hemisphere





"The United States is an enduring partner for countries of the Western Hemisphere and through this Summit we hope to strengthen and expand the bonds of friendship and partnership, making our hemisphere and our countries together more secure, more prosperous, and more democratic," Hook said.





Therefore, he noted the "Trump administration has demonstrated in the past year its commitment to the Western Hemisphere through regular bilateral meetings with regional leaders," recalling Vice-President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson had paid visits to the region in 2017 and earlier in 2018, respectively.





"And now we have the President's attendance at the Summit , which is another demonstration of the United States' commitment to the region. This is the President's first trip to Latin America as President, and he has been regularly engaged with his regional counterparts."





On this occasion, Mr. Trump will be joined by acting Secretary of State John Sullivan and very likely by other members of his administration, including cabinet members.





The Summit 's theme will be " Democratic Governance against Corruption ," which he deemed as very important to the United States, since improving democratic governance and tackling corruption is one of the most urgent challenges regional countries face.





Venezuela





The U.S. government also addressed the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.





"It's important to underscore that we are witnessing the total destruction of a once-prosperous nation-State, and this tragic situation requires strong U.S. leadership and regional result," Hook expressed.





"We are pleased that the Summit is going to provide an opportunity for leaders to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela," he added.





The official also noted the U.S. government had used diplomacy to catalyze regional leaders and the EU towards action, and that it had also endorsed individual and financial actions on the regime.





In this sense, the U.S. Head of State is expected to discuss the current situation "and he will urge regional leaders to come together and join increased response to the humanitarian crisis."





"I want to make very clear that U.S.-individual and U.S.-financial sanctions on Venezuela do not impede or delay food, medicine or other humanitarian supplies from reaching Venezuela. This is a man-made crisis. It is a dictator-made crisis. This is not a natural disaster," he pointed out.




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El titular del Consejo de Ministros, Cesar Villanueva, participo en un ritual de pago a la tierra. Foto: ANDINA/ Jhony Laurente
According to the Head of State, the gathering will take place at the request of the Bolivian leader.

"I've received a phone call from Bolivia's President Evo Morales one of the most enthusiastic participants of this Summit of the Americas  who even asked for a bilateral meeting (...)," Vizcarra told reporters.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man the FBI says was part of a drug ring that involved a part-time Linndale police officer and her sister was brought to Cleveland to face federal charges.

Fabian Mihaj, 37, is charged by federal complaint with conspiracy with possess with intent to distribute MDMA and marijuana. Federal prosecutors say Mihaj, who once lived in Parma, worked with Rocky River sisters Jonida and Denisa Alicka and a drug dealer near Detroit to bring large amounts of club drugs to the Cleveland area from Canada.

Mihaj was arrested in Canada in 2016. He was brought to Cleveland and made his initial appearance last week. He agreed to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service while his case is pending.

Marcus Sidoti, Mihaj's attorney, said he did not yet know enough about the case to comment.

A criminal complaint says Mihaj once lived in Parma and dated Jonida Alicka, who worked as a reserve police officer in Linndale before her arrest in 2016. He was also partners with Rinald Turhani, a Michigan trucking company owner whom authorities said was the leader of the organization.

Mihaj pleaded guilty to a federal marijuana offense in New York in 2013. He moved to Parma following his release from prison and absconded from federal probation in 2015, according to the complaint.

He tried to work in construction upon his release but said he could not make enough money in that line of work. He soon worked with Turhani to move five to 10 pounds of high-grade marijuana every two weeks between Michigan and Cleveland so he could make enough money to get back on his feet, the complaint says.

His plan was to make a lot of money and sneak over the Canadian border, as many of his family members and loved ones, including his child and the child's mother, live in Toronto. He crossed into Canada in March 2015, fearing that he was under investigation by police and would get deported to his native Albania, authorities say.

Once in Canada, he used contacts in Toronto to continue the group's drug trafficking, helping Turhani smuggle marijuana and MDMA in to the U.S from Canada, prosecutors say.

Mihaj is the fifth person charged in federal court in this case. Four others have pleaded guilty.

Jonida Alicka, 30, is serving a 41-month prison sentence. Denisa Alicka, 28, is at the same prison, serving 46 months.

Turhani, 39, is serving a nine-year sentence, while truck driver Leka Konini is serving 41 months.

Prosecutors said the Alicka sisters would routinely travel to other states to transport drugs.

With the money they made selling drugs, the sisters lived a lavish lifestyle, which included an upscale apartment on Center Ridge Road, plastic surgery, expensive trips to Miami and Los Angeles and luxury sedans.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Council has eliminated one of two opportunities for the public to speak at meetings.

Council voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the Rules of Council relating to public comment.

The original rule provided an opportunity at the beginning of each meeting for public comment relating to agenda items and at the end of the meeting for public comment on any county issue.

Council amended the rule to eliminate the comment period at the end of the meeting. Commenters now will be limited to three minutes to speak about county business at the beginning of each Council meeting.

The change allows all members of the public to speak about whatever they want at the beginning of the agenda, Trevor McAleer, legislative budget advisor to council, said before the meeting.

Several people, who attend nearly all meetings, have spoken at both opportunities, often referencing an agenda item then discussing unrelated issues.

Council also amended the rule regarding decorum at council meetings.

The sentences in italic have been added:

Speakers and members of the public shall conduct themselves in a civil and respectful manner. Any applause, outburst, or demonstration during any Council or committee meeting shall be permitted only when respectful toward all persons present and not disruptive of the proceedings at the meeting. Remarks made during public comment may not contain obscenity, commercial advertising or defamation. Comments from members of the public shall be directed towards Council as a whole, and not towards any individual member(s) or towards the County Executive.

"This resolution amends council rules to assure the body can maintain decorum and to ensure that time set aside to comment is not abused," Council President Dan Brady said at the meeting.

He said members of the public who speak are usually polite but council will not tolerate degrading comments or personal attacks.

No one spoke at the beginning of the meeting on the changes.

In other business Council:

1. Approved a request by Executive Armond Budish's administration to spend $515,000 to hire RSM US LLP, an audit, tax and consulting firm, to provide oversight of the $25 million Enterprise Resource Planning project that will connect all computer systems and information technology.

The firm will work from April 17 through Dec. 31, 2019. "The goal of this project is to provide validation that the various phases of the ERP project are well planned, tested and implemented," the resolution states.

The consultant will work with a consultant hired by Council to oversee the project, which has seen delays.

2. Agreed to extend by two years a $2.5 million economic development redevelopment and modernization loan awarded in 2016 to the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization toward the preservation of the historic Variety Theater and renovation of the complex along Lorain Avenue from West 110th Street to West 123rd Street.

The project has experienced delays and council wanted to ensure the funds were still available.

3. Awarded a $1.93 million contract to the YMCA to operate and manage the Norma Herr Women's Shelter on Payne Avenue from May through December.

Norma Herr has been managed since 2004 by Frontline Services, a nonprofit which describes itself as a "behavioral health" agency. Frontline's contract was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2017, but had been extended until April 30 to give the YWCA time to hire and train staff.

4. Approved a 20-year ground lease agreement with Pace Aviation Inc., which is expected to spend about $3 million to build an airplane hangar at the county airport in Highland Heights.

The county expects to receive about $25,000 a year from fees charged to the company for pumping their own fuel and $15,475 a year for the lease. The lease includes a 10-year extension. At the end of the lease, the 62,00-square-foot hangar will become the property of the county.

5. Referred a new employee travel policy to the April 24 Council agenda because minor changes are needed. The policy includes giving council members a say on whether to reimburse employees for educational expenses.

The new travel policy will replace one that was last revised in 2007, when the county was overseen by three elected commissioners and elected department heads. At the time, each department also had its own rules, procedures and expense forms, according to the state auditor's office.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The administrator hired 22 months ago to oversee implementation of a $25 million system to connect all Cuyahoga County computers and information systems has been transferred.

Cindy Nappi will continue to earn $140,462 a year as director of human resource information systems for the county. She was transferred last month from the Department of Information Technology to the Department of Human Resources.

"She is in a more focused job to get the HR modules in the system up and running," county spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said Monday.

The new position had been in the budget, but had not been filled when Nappi was transferred. Madigan said it has not been determined whether Nappi's previous position in IT will be filled.

County Council members have voiced concerns about the progress and costs of the much delayed ERP project and the ability of County Executive Armond Budish's administrators to implement the system. Council recently voted to spend $264,000 to hire a consultant to oversee the project for the next two years.

Nappi was hired in June 2016, at $135,000 a year, as administrator of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, a new position. She was previously director of IT enterprise administrative systems at the Cleveland Clinic.

Two administrators who were hired in June 2017 to work for Nappi are paid $115,000 a year.

As the ERP administrator, Nappi reported to Chief Technology Officer Scot Rourke. Earlier this month, Budish placed Rourke and Emily McNeeley, IT's general counsel and director of special initiatives, on unpaid leave in response to public corruption investigators naming the two in subpoenas.

Budish asked Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy and Chief Economic Growth and Opportunity Officer Matt Carroll, who served on an administrative committee overseeing the project, to assume Rourke's role as the system is implemented.

Today, Council is expected to approve a request by the Budish administration to spend $515,000 for its own consultant. Kennedy recently told council that the consultant should have been hired years ago, before the project began.

Kennedy told a council committee on April 2 that $4 million had been budgeted for a consultant to ensure the system proceeded without problems.

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.

Progress was interrupted after Rourke and McNeeley were named in subpoenas from public-corruption investigators. Among other things, investigators are looking at records and contracts involving Westlake-based Hyland Software.

The Budish administration is now proposing to hire RSM US LLP, an audit, tax and consulting firm, to work from April 17 through Dec. 31, 2019. "The goal of this project is to provide validation that the various phases of the ERP project are well planned, tested and implemented," the resolution states.

The consultants hired by the administration and County Council will share information and provide regular status reports to council and Budish's appointed committee, Kennedy said.

Two small county departments, sanitary dispatch and the print shop, are the first to go online under the new system.

"This system is one of the largest and most complex technology projects the county has ever undertaken," Budish said in a statement on Monday. "The completion of this first wave is already starting to improve our efficiency and effectiveness."

Public works sanitary dispatchers will now be able to enter work orders in real time directly into an application that tracks work requested. The new technology also allows dispatchers to view maps of streets and sewer lines.

The print shop can now track printing jobs requested by county departments, accurately record time spent on those printing functions, and clearly account for paper, binding, and related costs.

But the larger Fiscal, Budget and Procurement departments, which were supposed to go online June 7, are now delayed to Sept. 3. Kennedy has said. And others may be altered in the future.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In 2009, Clevelander Steve Belkin started a travel company that pits pairs of travelers to Europe in a series of competitive events, from rock climbing to dancing to chocolate-making. He dubbed his concept Competitours, which to date has attracted hundreds of adventure-seeking vacationers on these cross-continent contests.

Local writer and photographer Laura Watilo Blake joined Belkin and his group in 2015. "Tripped Up," Blake's directorial debut, makes its world premiere tonight in Cleveland. Belkin's mother, Fran Belkin - a long-time supporter of the Cleveland International Film Festival - is executive producer. She's also one of the Competitours contestants featured in the film.

The movie's focus is Steve Belkin, 54, a self-described "travel hacker" and serial accumulator of frequent flyer miles, who also owns an awards booking site. It's a bit off the main storyline, but Belkin's humorous tale of once being mistaken for a drug trafficker in the early 2000s because of his mileage shenanigans is worth the diversion.

After a slow start, the movie picks up when the competition begins. It follows 18 travelers, who start and end their trip in the Netherlands and travel to four countries in between. While they travel, they compete: in fencing, gelato-making, mountain coastering and hedge-maze escaping, amassing points for both style and speed.

The most fun is had when something goes wrong - the bus doesn't arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany, for example, so the travelers end up taking taxis to Maastricht instead, and then struggle to pay the $1,500 bill. "One of the cabbies was threatening to call the cops," recalled one traveler. "This was the only moment during the race that I saw Steve was vulnerable," said another.

Earlier, a scene shows travelers helping a nervous companion as she fails to complete the rock-climbing challenge in the Swiss Alps.

The ending reveals the winners - but also the emotional connections that have developed between the travelers. Brief bios of the participants, shown after the credits, would have been better earlier on, to help viewers build those same relationships.

By the end, though, the fun and adventure are contagious. "All of a sudden it was over," said one traveler, "and you didn't want it to end."

REVIEW

Tripped Up



What: A documentary about a European travel competition by Cleveland director Laura Watilo Blake. (2018/United States). 78 minutes.



When: 7:20 tonight (stand-by only), 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Cleveland International Film Festival, Tower City Cinemas.

Grade: B
CLEVELAND, Ohio - It's not exactly a warm welcome when Norwegian photojournalist Roos (Rifka Lodeizen) pays a visit to her mother Louise's (Elsie de Brauw) remote house in the snowy hinterlands. Past arguments and tensions loom over the reunion -as does a dark secret Roos is hiding. Mother and daughter dance around the tensions, with Louise especially preferring to let things lie.

Roos meanwhile, is after closure - and catharsis. As she attempts to bond with her 13-year-old half-brother and reconnect with an old flame, it seems she may find it. But the one she wants to connect with most, her mother, is as cold as the ice-covered land. Can Roos break through? What is it so urgent she do so soon? Lodeizen is stunning as the driven woman in this quiet, yet powerful family drama. Cinematographer Melle van Essen perfectly captures the alternately welcoming beauty and foreboding danger of the frozen landscape - a reflection of tensions within the home, and Roos and Louise.

REVIEW



Disappearance



What: Directed by Boudewijn Koole (2017/Netherlands, Norway) 92 minutes.



When: 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, 11:20 a.m. Wednesday in the Cleveland International Film Festival at Tower City Cinemas.



Grade: B+
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A couple of days before Monday night's City Council meeting, Councilman Robert DeJohn encouraged residents via his Facebook account to attend the meeting.

DeJohn warned residents that Mayor Anthony DiCicco would put in the city's general fund the $5.2 million that would result from a successful passage of a 0.5 percent income tax increase in November.

Once in the general fund, DeJohn stated, the new money could be used at the discretion of DiCicco and Finance Director Robert Tribby.

When the meeting took place, however, it was DeJohn who was not present. Councilwoman Gayle Teresi read a letter from DeJohn stating that he had a work assignment that prevented him from attending.

DiCicco, however, did not shy away from the subject of DeJohn's call to residents for action.

During the "mayor's comments" portion at the start of Monday's meeting, DiCicco said he was aware of DeJohn's Facebook writings. DiCicco called what DeJohn wrote "misinformation."

"It is unfortunate (DeJohn) is not here this evening to discuss this face to face, but that time will come," DiCicco said. "Mr. DeJohn has chosen to misinform the residents as to the tax hike scope, purpose and impact. But here is the truth."

DiCicco said that the administration and council are considering putting on the November ballot, as has previously been discussed, a 0.5 percent income tax increase and a 100 percent tax credit for residents who work outside Mayfield Heights. The city currently offers a 50 percent tax credit.

The combination of the income tax and tax credit increases, DiCicco said, "would mean that 72 percent of our residents would see no increase in their taxes, or would see a tax decrease."

DiCicco said that the more than $5 million annually that could result -- if voters approve the changes -- would be used to "fund our very ambitious 10-year road program that calls for more than doubling our typical annual expenditure to try and bring our streets up to an acceptable condition.

"Some of our streets have not seen any major repairs for many years. It is long overdue and we have a plan to address this."

DiCicco said the money would also be used to repair and upgrade the city's swimming pool, built in the 1950s.

In his message to residents, DeJohn stated that he wants the money to go into an infrastructure fund for repair of streets and for a new pool. DeJohn does not want the money to go into the general fund, where it could possibly be used for other things, such as paying salaries.

After Monday's meeting, DiCicco said that, while he wants the money to go toward the same objectives as DeJohn, he believes earmarking the money for specific needs could later come back to harm the city.

"If we were to run out of money for some reason, we couldn't spend that (new) money on anything but roads," DiCicco said. "If we needed it, we'd have to go back to the voters to ask permission to use it for some other emergency."

DiCicco added that, while he has the authority to spend up to $20,000 without council's approval, council would have to vote to allow him to spend any more than that from the general fund.

General fund money would not be spent, he said, "as the finance director or I see fit."

DeJohn also wrote about what he said is the mayor's desire to hire Melamed Communications to inform residents as to why the income tax and tax credit increases are necessary.

Melamed is seeking a $48,700 contract for four months of service.

"Mayor DiCicco did not request other proposals or bids," DeJohn wrote in his Facebook letter. "My question is why not? It might be because Melamed ran Mayor DiCicco's re-election campaign in 2017 for a total of $10,000.

"Perception is that this is a payback," DeJohn wrote.

Again, DiCicco termed DeJohn's comments about Melamed "misinformation."

"I originally contacted Mr. (Alan) Melamed on advice from another mayor who used him for the same purpose," DiCicco stated in his mayor's comments. "I recommended his company to council, as his record and expertise speak for themselves. He has seen success in four other communities with similar initiatives.

"The Melamed proposal was brought to council during a council Committee-of-the-Whole meeting six months before I hired him to run my campaign (when council initially discussed a tax increase). There were no qualms about using his company then.

"Mr. DeJohn's suggestion of some kind of payback or favor is a disgusting attempt to impugn my reputation and integrity, nothing more," DiCicco said.

When reached by phone on Tuesday, DeJohn said of the mayor's comments, "Where did I distort facts?

"Melamed should have gone out for bids," DeJohn said, "but it didn't. I would have got three bids. It does appear the mayor wants to use (Melamed) because he used them for his campaign. And, the mayor left out that when (Melamed) came before council last year, council voted against hiring them.

"I am an open and transparent councilman. It's my responsibility. They (DiCicco and council members who oppose DeJohn) don't like me bringing these things to light. I use Facebook regularly to keep residents informed.

"If anyone doesn't believe what I'm saying, just watch the way the votes go," DeJohn said.

DeJohn said he favors the income tax and tax credit increases, as long as the money derived goes strictly into a fund for roads, infrastructure and parks.

DiCicco said council will need to pass legislation allowing the income tax and tax credit increases to go on the November ballot by late June in order to make the early August filing deadline with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

A couple of residents did attend the council meeting to speak about the tax matters.

"The fact that (the potential tax increase money) may go into the general fund is a major concern to me," said resident Tim Bernatchez. "Five million dollars is way too much to put into the general fund."

And, Bernatchez added, "I don't think the city should be spending money to sell me on a tax."

Said Belrose Road resident Holly Caswell, "I think $5 million being put in the general fund is a concern to residents."

DiCicco said that if Melamed is to be hired, it needs to be done soon in order to allow the firm enough time to educate voters about the income tax and tax credit increases the city will likely seek.

Work at Golden Gate

DiCicco said that work will begin before April ends at Golden Gate Plaza shopping center as preparation begins for the construction of Chick-fil-A at the front of the lot, along Mayfield Road.

The first phase of work will have the eastbound Mayfield Road curb lane and the west Golden Gate drive blocked off so that utilities can be connected and paving work can begin.

The west drive will be closed for a few weeks, so traffic will be diverted to the east drive. When the west drive is completed, it will be re-opened and the east drive will be closed.

The work at Golden Gate is expected to be finished by June 11. Construction on Chick-fil-A should begin shortly after that.
So, Trump woke up last week and decided it would be good for America to start a trade war with China. Really? No one else in North America thinks this is a good idea. Well, there might be one person, Congressman Bob Gibbs in Ohio's seventh congressional district. The congressman backs Trump and all his crazy ideas. As a retired hog farmer he should be condemning these trade actions. Don't hold your breath. Vote instead.

Robert Jaeckin,

North Ridgeville
Aviva Voglestein's letter (Anti-Semitism in Disguise, April 4) is very unfair. The writer condemns CWRU professor Ted Steinberg as "anti-Semitic" for criticizing Israel when Israel violates the human rights of Palestinians.



It is not anti-Semitic, it is free speech, to criticize the Israeli government when it does wrong. The renowned, international jurist, Richard Goldstone, condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza in 2009 as "war crimes," for example.



Peter Beinart, a nationally respected political commentator from New York University, believes that Israel's occupation of Palestine is a danger to its democracy. In his book, "The Crisis of Zionism," Beinart warns that Israel is "failing," and that "American Jews are helping it fail."



Before retiring, I taught for 30 years in Beachwood with a majority Jewish student body, and I admired the dedication to learning of my students there, including many Israeli students. In the 1960s I taught in Beirut, Lebanon, where I developed the same respect for Arabs and Palestinians.



Thanks go to the Plain Dealer for publishing both sides of this difficult debate. But it will be better if advocates for Israel like Voglestein stick to their logical talking

points and avoid the ad hominem attacks.

Thomas Kim Hill,

Parma Heights
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Councilman-at-large Jason Russell, in voting for passage of an anti-discrimination ordinance on Monday, said, "This could be the most impactful thing I do in my lifetime."

Ward 1 Councilwoman Ruth Gray said the ordinance needed to be passed in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings.

And Mayor Georgine Welo, who brought the matter before City Council last year -- and who didn't get a vote on the issue -- urged its passage, telling council members, "I ask you, love thy neighbor."

The anti-discrimination ordinance that was unanimously approved meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Those who backed its passage were overjoyed when the final vote was taken.

However, a significant part of the audience, which filled every council chamber seat, felt the ordinance works against their religious freedoms and came out to speak against it.

Since it was introduced last June, council has discussed the ordinance several times, making modifications each time. Each discussion was carried out in the presence of a large gathering.

The legislation forbids the denial of rights based upon sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The legislation also protects ethnic groups, couples involved in a same-sex marriage, recipients of public assistance, former military personnel and others who may be judged on public appearance when seeking employment, public accommodations or housing.

Ohio is one of 22 states that does not provide for such protections. In Ohio, it is still legally possible to be fired for being gay.

In passing the ordinance, South Euclid joins Cleveland, Akron, East Cleveland, Olmsted Falls and Cleveland Heights as Northeast Ohio communities with such a law. It becomes the 21st city in Ohio to pass an anti-discrimination law.

In the process of moving the ordinance along, the city enlisted the help of the non-profit organization Equality Ohio, which has successfully worked with the other five local cities in passing similar legislation.

"I'm excited and proud to have been part of this," Gwen Stembridge, Equality Ohio's Northeast Ohio coordinator, said just after council's vote. "We advocate for legal and living equality. The unanimous vote of council showed that we did our job of educating well."

The ordinance, as it did in past discussions, divided those in attendance along ideological lines and religious beliefs. One speaker announced himself as transgender, others as gay, and still others as supporters of rights for the LGBTQ community.

Meanwhile, some audience members expressed concern that the ordinance would hinder their rights as Christians.

Luke Macik, who heads South Euclid's classical Catholic education school The Lyceum, has been outspoken against the ordinance.

"It's about right and wrong," Macik said at the meeting. Macik believes that the ordinance forces Christians to bend in their beliefs.

"I happen to believe that marriage is sacred," he said of one example of his beliefs. "What I see here tonight is shameful."

Macik is concerned about what the law might mean when he makes choices as to who to hire at The Lyceum, 1545 S. Green Road.

The ordinance calls for the formation of a Civil Rights Review Board consisting of the mayor or her designee, a council member and three residents. If someone believes that they have been discriminated against, they can file a complaint with the board.

The board will have the authority to order the taking of remedial action. The board can also use the services of a hearing officer to gather facts and report findings to the board.

Remedial actions can involve directing the offending party to cease and desist from activities that violate the law, offering affirmative steps that can be taken, assessing civil penalties, and having the law director recommend that the state revoke or suspend a license.

If the person filing the complaint is found to have made a false or improper complaint, he or she can be made to pay the defendant's court costs.

The Rev. Dave Ireland, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, also at 1545 S. Green Road, objected to the ordinance.

"I've been a proud member of the community for the past 13 years," Ireland said to council and the audience, "up until now."

"While you are taking action not to discriminate against one community, you are discriminating against my community," he said.

Ireland told council members that, throughout the process, they have acted as "puppets" for Equality Ohio.

After the meeting, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland lawyer Kevin Burke said there is concern within the diocese about several aspects of the ordinance.

The ordinance protects religious entities in allowing them to hire individuals they feel are qualified for ministerial positions, but the law does not carry such protection for the hiring of teachers when a school may want someone with a like religious background.

Stembridge said that Christian entities are still protected in all hiring matters. She said language, such as that forbidding someone in a same-sex marriage from being hired by a religious institution, can legally be written into a contract before a hire is made.

As an example of his concern in the area of public accommodation, Burke said he does not know if a building, such as a Catholic church hall, must, under the new ordinance, be rented to those who do not abide by shared religious beliefs.

Burke said he expects to take no legal action against South Euclid, unless the Catholic church becomes involved in a case where it feels its rights have been violated.

"We plan to continue to talk about the ordinance with the city of South Euclid," Burke said. "First and foremost, the Catholic Church is not in opposition to protecting people against unjust discrimination."

For some, passage of the ordinance is something that should have happened long ago.

"It's about time," Rainbow Road's Frank Andorka said when addressing council before the vote. "Our friends in the LGBTQ community have been waiting a long time for this. It's time to pass this."

"I speak as a Christian," said the Rev. Kristine Eggert, "as a follower of Jesus. Jesus did welcome every single person he came into contact with. He sought out people from every walk of life."

Eggert then urged council to pass the ordinance for the good of all.

Similarly, Councilwoman Gray said: "I love Jesus, and Jesus Christ loves all people. The law is in place to protect us all, not just those I think should be protected."

Stembridge said that of all the communities with which she has worked to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance, South Euclid's process saw the greatest amount of opposition from the religious community.

Council Clerk and Community Services Director Keith Benjamin worked behind the scenes in seeing the ordinance through to passage. Benjamin also addressed council, stating that, because of his Jewish heritage, he has been fired from a job.

"Equal value for every life is what this is all about," Benjamin said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Council on Monday OK'd legislation aimed at using outreach programs and fines to reduce the number of false alarm calls for police and fire from businesses.

The legislation clears the way for the hiring of a consultant that will crunch data on false alarms in hopes of finding ways to reduce the number of calls emergency personnel get sent to. The city gets about 30,000 alarm calls a year. About 97 percent of those end up being false alarms, according to the city.

Businesses that continue to have false alarm calls could face fines starting at $130 with their third call, said Dedrick Stevens, commissioner for the Division of Assessments and Licenses. Stevens spoke Monday afternoon before council's Finance Committee.

The city has had an ordinance on the books for years that allowed it to fine businesses for too many false alarm calls. But that ordinance has never been vigorously enforced.

It was not intended as an effort to generate fines for the city, Finance Director Sharon Dumas said in an interview. Rather, the goal was to try to find what was causing false alarm calls to reduce the number that police and fire are forced to respond to.

But the city didn't have the technical expertise to handle that work, Stevens told the Finance Committee.

Council's vote Monday changed that ordinance to allow the hiring of a consultant to help. The city intends to hire PM AM Corp., a Texas-based company that specializes in analyzing this kind of data.

The company will analyze the alarm data, design an outreach program to try to find out why business alarm systems are going off and eventually would issue fines. Stevens said it likely will be at least September before any fines are issued.

The fines are intended to cover the cost to the city of having police and fire personnel respond to false alarms, Stevens said. He estimated the city could recoup more than $400,000 a year in expenses from the program.

Councilman Joe Jones expressed concern that the city was setting up a system that effectively double-taxed businesses for adding security systems.

"You're taxing them for police services that they are not getting," Jones said during the Finance Committee meeting. "And then, after they get an alarm system and they get a false alarm, you're taxing them again on the back end [with a fine]."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland city councilman has asked for an increase in police presence after a fast food restaurant in the North Shore Collinwood neighborhood was robbed by "thugs" at gunpoint last weekend.

Mike Polensek

Councilman Mike Polensek, who represents Collinwood and a portion of Glenville neighborhoods, said in a letter to Director of Public Safety Michael McGrath and Police Chief Calvin Williams that Sunday's robbery is a part of a rash of recent crimes that have made the streets "less safe today than at any time in my tenure at City Hall."

"The question I ask you and the Administration is, how am I to keep merchants and businesses and the economy going in our community?" he wrote in the emailed statement. "Just look at the number of vacancies and vacant buildings. Who wants to do business in an area where guns are stuck in your face repeatedly and your own employees are afraid to come to work for fear of harm? I can assure you, not many."

Polensek said that residents and business owners have armed themselves with guns due to the robberies.

Messages left for city officials seeking comment Tuesday afternoon were not immediately returned.

Cleveland police were searching for two men who robbed a KFC at gunpoint on Sunday just before 11 a.m.

The men walked into fast food restaurant in the 17000 block of Lakeshore Boulevard wearing hoodies. Both men jumped over the counter and forced three employees into the cooler, according to a police report.

One of them men pushed a fourth employee and threatened to shoot her if she didn't give up her cellphone. The man threw some of the employees' cellphones into the fryer.

The second man forced the restaurant's general manager to the back office, where he emptied the safe, the report said. The men drove away from the scene in a royal blue GMC SUV.

Investigators did not say how much money the men got away with or if they remained at large.

"Gentlemen, I don't have to tell you how many robberies have taken place at this establishment in my community along with countless others along Lakeshore Boulevard," Polensek wrote. "The MO is the same; gun packing thugs threatening to do bodily harm, threatening employees and stealing whatever they can."

He added store employees were unable to open Monday and the employees have not returned to work.

"I don't know about you gentlemen, but I refuse to live like this and I refuse to accept this as a way of life. We deserve better in Ward 8 and throughout the 5th District," Polensek added. "You promised us increased Police patrols and coverage and yet, my residents and businesses aren't seeing it. It is one thing to get to the crime scene after the fact and it is another thing to stop crime from happening in the first place."

Polenesk has been vocal about violence in the community in the past. He called for a "state of emergency" after a priest was robbed at gun point for four eggs he gathered from a chicken coop behind St. Mary of the Assumption.

Four teens were charged in that incident.

"When it gets to the point where a priest, walking peacefully on church grounds, becomes a shooting target, it's time to declare a state of emergency," Polensek said at the time.

The councilman penned a letter to Judge Shannon Gallagher's decision not to grant a prosecutor's request in January to raise the bonds of two men charged in a gas station shooting in broad daylight.

Polensek referred to the men in the letter as "dirtbags," "gun packing predators" and "thugs."

"I cannot believe, after personally being on the scene right after this 'OK Corral shootout,' that you would order such a low bond as to allow these characters back on the street to continue their mayhem throughout the northeast side of the city," Polensek wrote to Gallagher. "Judge, they weren't arrested for shoplifting or petty theft."

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
Gregory Watts

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man is accused of beating a woman to death last month during a break-in at a home in the city's North Broadway neighborhood.

Gregory Watts, 57, is charged with aggravated murder in the death of 31-year-old Tasha Kushner. He is not in custody.

Kushner was found dead about 2 p.m. March 6 inside a house on Morton Avenue between Broadway Avenue and East 65th Street, police said.

Court records say that Watts killed her after he forced his way into the home.

Police have not released a possible motive in Kushner's death.

A resident of the home told investigators that he returned to the house that day to find Kushner covered in blood on the floor, with a stick nearby, police dispatch logs say. Paramedics said she suffered massive trauma to her face, records say.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said Kushner died of blunt force trauma.

Watts has several felony drug convictions in Cuyahoga County dating back to 1993. He was sentenced to 36 months probation in a 2003 robbery case, and pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking in 2013, records show.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.
UPDATE: Cleveland police said Jamarcus Johnson was found by a relative at 8:40 p.m. and was returned home.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police were searching for a missing boy Monday evening.

Jamarcus Johnson, 11, was reported missing from his Soika Avenue home in the city's Buckeye-Shaker Square neighborhood, police said.

Jamarcus was last seen about 4 p.m. wearing a green and blue jacket, navy blue pants and grey shoes. He was last seen walking on Soika Avenue in the area of Luke Easter Park.

No additional details were provided by authorities.

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.
WHITMORE LAKE, Michigan -- A man driving the wrong way on a highway caused a crash Sunday involving multiple vehicles, killing two women from Cuyahoga County, according to reports.

Police say Debbie Pinson, 51, of Broadview Heights, and Cathy Kretzschmer, 56, of Olmsted Township, were killed in the crash on U.S. 23, about 35 miles west of Detroit, the Associated Press reports.

Both were passengers in a Ford Fusion driven by Daniel Edit, the boyfriend of Pinson and brother of Kretzschmer, according to mlive.com. Edit was in stable condition in a Michigan hospital.

Michigan State Police tell WXYZ Channel 7 that Edit's vehicle was hit by a Chevrolet Bolt driven by Edwin Brown, 74. Brown was driving the wrong way on the four-lane divided highway, police say.

Brown was hospitalized in serious by stable condition, mlive.com reports.

Four vehicles were involved in the crash and four people were hospitalized, reports say.

Police say it's unknown why Brown was driving the wrong way on the highway. The crash remains under investigation.

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - High water levels in the Great Lakes have helped spare dozens of harbors from the need for expensive dredging projects this year. But that situation is bound to change, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warned Tuesday.

The ports at the greatest risk are shallow draft recreational harbors that handle little or no commercial cargo, but are vital to fishing and pleasure boaters, Army Corps officials said.

Typically, recreational harbors assume a lower priority among the dredging and maintenance projects at busy Great Lakes commercial ports, said Marie Strum, the Army Corps' Great Lakes Navigation Team leader.

The Rocky River and Vermilion harbors are Northeast Ohio's only shallow draft recreational harbors. Neither has been dredged by the Army Corps since 2004 due to a lack of federal money, although Vermilion Harbor was dredged in 2013 with non-federal funds.

The Army Corps has requested $920,000 to dredge Rocky River Harbor and $880,000 to dredge Vermilion Harbor this year, but the funds are not contained in the latest federal budget, according to an Army Corps spokesman.

Under average Lake Erie water levels, Rocky River Harbor requires dredging every three to four years, and Vermilion Harbor should be dredged every two to three years, the Army Corps said. The recent high water levels have allowed the harbors to avoid unsafe navigation conditions and negative economic impacts on charter fishing boats and the recreational boating community.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An East Cleveland man is accused of fatally shooting a 46-year-old transgender woman while collecting a drug debt, according to police.

Gary Sanders, 36, is charged with aggravated murder in the Feb. 24 fatal shooting of Phylicia Mitchell.

Sanders is not in police custody and a warrant was issued Tuesday for his arrest.

Mitchell, the first transgender person killed in Cleveland since 2016, was shot in the chest outside home on West 112th Street near Detroit Avenue in the city's Edgewater neighborhood.

Sanders went to the home to collect a drug debt and the two argued about stolen drugs and money, according to court records.

The argument turned into a fight over Sanders' gun, court records say. The gun fired and a bullet hit Mitchell in the chest, killing her, according to court records.

Officers found her dead on the living room floor with one arm slumped on the couch, police reports say. Neighbors reported to investigators that the home is a known drug house, according to police reports.

Mitchell was a trained hairstylist who battled drug addiction for most of her life, Mitchell's longtime partner, Shane Mitchell said. He said the two had been partners for decades and they had what he called "mock wedding" in 2017, when Phylicia Mitchell legally changed her name to take his last name.

The couple had separated about two weeks prior to the slaying after an argument about her drug use, Shane Mitchell said.

Sanders has been convicted in 17 felony cases since 2002, including six times for drug trafficking and seven times for drug possession. Other convictions include domestic violence, obstructing justice and receiving stolen property.

He was most recently convicted in 2015 for selling heroin and crack cocaine in Lakewood. He was sentenced sentenced to 18 months in prison after he violated the terms of his probation.

Sanders was acquitted in a 2004 bench trial on an attempted murder charge in connection with a shooting during an attempted robbery in downtown Cleveland.

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
WADSWORTH, Ohio -- Investigators found a missing 98-year-old woman dead in her Wadsworth home.

Margaret M. Douglas was found dead Monday night in a "hidden location" in her home, police said in a news release. The Wadsworth Police Department did not release any additional details.

Investigators did not say how she died. Her body was taken to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy, police said.

Wadsworth police officers did not find any evidence of foul play during an initial search of Douglas' home. Investigators found her body when they searched the home a second time, police said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted in processing the scene.

An out-of-town relative reported Douglas missing on Monday morning. Douglas' friends had not heard from her since April 3, police said.

Investigators learned Douglas was last seen at home on Thursday.

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An off-duty Avon police officer tried to look up a waitress' skirt at the Jack Cleveland Casino and sucker-punched a security guard, according to Cleveland police.

Officer James Cline, 30, is on paid administrative leave from the police department amid an internal investigation. He also faces a criminal misdemeanor charge of drunken disorderly conduct.

Cline pleaded not guilty Monday to the criminal charge and a trial is set for April 24. Attempts to reach Cline were unsuccessful, and no attorney is listed for him in court records.

Cleveland police did not release information about the arrest until Tuesday.

Cline was at the downtown Cleveland casino and was drunk, according to police reports. He was on the second floor of the casino about 10:30 p.m. when a security guard saw him bend down in order to look up a waitress' skirt, according to police.

The security guard walked up to Cline, who was at the bar, and told him he was being kicked out of the casino. Cline grabbed a glass of beer and took a swig, police reports say.

The guard grabbed the glass and Cline spit the beer into the security guard's mouth, police said. The guard grabbed Cline and walked him to the elevators and Cline "violently, and apparently with no reason" attacked the security guard as the two stepped onto the elevator, police reports say.

He punched the guard several times and a fight ensued, according to police.

Another security guard eventually helped force Cline to the ground, police reports say. The guards held him down until an off-duty Cleveland police officer working security at the casino arrested Cline.

The 27-year-old security guard suffered facial swelling from the punches and refused medical treatment at the scene, police reports say.

The off-duty Cleveland officer watched surveillance video of the incident, which confirmed the guard's account of the altercation, police reports say. The waitress told police that she did not want to pursue charges against Cline.

The Cleveland police officer noted in his report that he would ask prosecutors to file an assault charge. Prosecutors, however, only filed a minor misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge against Cline.

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A priest at a Catholic high school in southwest Ohio was fired after he inadvertently sent a text to a student soliciting sex, according to reports.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters says it's unlikely the priest will face criminal charges, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

But officials at St. Xavier High School fired the priest eight days after they were made aware of the text in February, according to WLWT Channel 5.

Investigators would not specify what was in the text.

WLWT reports the student's parents did not want to pursue charges against the priest, saying the incident was "blown out of proportion."

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Council on Monday urged the Ohio General Assembly to adopt "red flag" laws that allow police or family members to seek to have guns confiscated from individuals dangerous to themselves or others.

The resolution, adopted 17-0, was pushed by Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin. All other members signed on as sponsors. While the legislation encourages the state to act, it is non-binding.

Griffin said that while other broader gun-control issues may be debated over time, this measure seemed like a focused step that could reduce incidents of violence and suicide.

The resolution urges the General Assembly to make changes to state law so that police or family members could present evidence to a court and ask a judge to issue a "gun violence restraining order" or "extreme protection order" based on someone's troubling behavior.

Once issued, law enforcement would be allowed to confiscate the guns from the person. That would help open the door for intervention from mental-health advocates and other social services.

Griffin's resolution cites similar laws in California, Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon and Washington. Eighteen other states and the District of Columbia have proposed similar laws.

The resolution noted specifically that in Connecticut research over a five-year period showed the law was credited with preventing a gun suicide for every 10 to 20 seizures.

During a meeting Monday afternoon of council's Finance Committee, Griffin noted that the issue appears to have bi-partisan support in Ohio.

In early March, the idea was one of six that Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, said he hoped the General Assembly would consider.

Kasich announced his recommendations after working with an eight-member gun policy group he formed last November. He expects the group will discuss other measures such as raising the minimum age to buy a firearm.

"No one is interested in some slippery slope and trying to grab everybody's guns," Kasich said at a news conference March 1.

Ohio Sens. Joe Schiavoni and Sandra Williams, both Democrats, introduced their own "red flag" proposal March 21.

Schiavoni, who's also running for governor, said court-issued, extreme-risk protection orders are a "common sense" step that legislators can take to reduce gun violence.

"We're not trying to take away anybody's rights; we're trying to make sure that we keep people safe," Schiavoni said then.

That proposal would allow family members and law enforcement to petition a court to remove firearms if the gun owner is in "imminent danger" of hurting themselves or others. The judge could initially order removal for 14 days, until a hearing on the merits is held. The judge could then issue an order removing the firearms for up to one year.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 20-year-old man was wounded in the buttocks Monday in a shooting in the Forest Hills neighborhood, police say.

The shooting was in a residential area near the intersection of Paxton Road and Barrington Avenue, just east of Eddy Road.

The victim was taken to University Hospitals in unknown condition. There were no reports of other injuries.

Police did not say if there is a motive for the shooting or if there are any suspects.

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Early voting begins today in Cuyahoga County, with the primary election May 8.

On the ballot is an issue to redo how Ohio draws its congressional districts, as well as a tax renewal for Cuyahoga County health and human services.

Shaker Heights Public Library is also asking for a tax increase that would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $66.70 a year to pay for current operating expenses. Residents and city officials have long debated whether to keep the library independent or merge it with the county system.

See the full issue list here.

Three schools and two cities are asking for property tax or income tax increases.

SCHOOLS

Beachwood

Beachwood schools are asking for a total of 8.7 mills to to construct a new elementary school.

Bryden and Hilltop Elementary schools would become one school under the new plan. Both former school buildings would be demolished. The Hilltop site would become a park, and Bryden would become a residential area.

Beachwood residents will vote on a $39 million bond, which would cost 2.8 mills. That comes out to $98 for the owner of a $100,000 home. It would also approve a property tax increase of 5.9 mills, for a cost of $206.50 annually for the owner of a $100,000 home.

The total cost of the ballot issue would be $304.50 annually for the owner of a $100,000 home. ____________________________________________________________________

Brecksville-Broadview Heights

After passing a 5.99-mill tax increase last year, Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools is asking for 2.2 mills more to pay for a new elementary school.

Combining elementary schools would address decreasing enrollment and would replace four existing schools. The tax would be first due in 2019.

It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $77 annually.

____________________________________________________________________

Parma

Parma City Schools are again seeking a tax increase to keep the school district afloat.

Officials intended to put a tax increase on the November ballot, but missed the deadline. A 5.9-mill tax increase failed last spring.

The school district is in a state of fiscal caution, with a predicted deficit of $9 million for fiscal year 2020. The money would help balance the budget and prevent more cuts to school programs and services.

This time, voters will decide on a 7.4-mill tax increase. That would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $259.

____________________________________________________________________

Solon

The Solon school district is asking voters to approve a phased-in 8.5-mill levy, which would amount to $298 a year for $100,000 of home value.

School officials say that the net effect of the increase would be only 6.9 mills. The first incremental increase of 1.6 mills would go into effect at the same time as a 1.6-mills decrease due to a debt already retired by the board this year.

The district said it needs more money because of the phase-out of local tax reimbursements. The last time the district was on the ballot for an operating levy was 2010.

Read more here.

The levy would be collected at a rate of 1.6 mills in the first year, and then up to 8.5 mills permanently thereafter.

____________________________________________________________________

CITIES

Brooklyn Heights

The city of Brooklyn Heights wants to raise the income tax a half percent to a total of 2.5 percent.

This will put Brooklyn Heights at the income tax rate of cities such as Cuyahoga Heights and Cleveland and above Cleveland Heights and Westlake.

Brooklyn Heights currently has a tax credit of 100 percent, up to its current rate of 2 percent. The ballot language doesn't clarify whether this tax credit limit would raise.

____________________________________________________________________

North Olmsted

North Olmsted wants to offer more recreational opportunities to its residents and is asking for 3.6 mills, first due in 2019, to do it.

This would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $126 annually.

The money would pay for:
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- An "Operation: Protect Our Children" plan from 2012 will enter its next phase with the city's pursuit of school resource officers (SROs) for schools specifically located in Middleburg Heights.

As part of his School Security Initiative six years ago, Mayor Gary Starr received a report on safety and security at multiple Middleburg schools, City Hall and the community center.

At Monday's Safety Committee meeting, he explained the planned next steps, which include passage of an ordinance to establish SROs whose responsibility would be to protect students and staff inside Big Creek Elementary School, the Academy of St. Bartholomew, Berea-Midpark Junior High School and Polaris Career Center.

"I've identified many sources of funding for our own school resource officers, and there is (grant) money available," Starr told committee members.

The SROs would act as "enforcement officers, teachers and counselors," he said. The ordinance indicates that they would be engaged in "fostering positive relationships with youth and developing strategies to solve problems affecting youth."

"(SROs) do much more than provide protection," said interim Safety Director John Ligato. "They interact with the students. Students can confide in them."

"You want the kids to be comfortable enough to say something to them," added Police Chief Ed Tomba. "That's what it's all about."

Starr said he plans to meet with school district administrators and police department staff. A more extensive search for grants also will begin.

"We just need to make sure we design this program around the needs of the individual schools," Starr said. "Sitting down and customizing it to their schools would be a very important step."

Safety Committee members expressed support for the mayor's proposal. The ordinance was slated for possible passage Tuesday evening during the City Council meeting.
NEW YORK -- The FBI on Monday raided the office of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, according to Cohen's lawyer, who called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." The search does not appear to be directly related to Mueller's investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

"Today the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients," said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. "I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller."

Cohen plays a role in aspects of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also recently said he paid $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who said she had an affair with Trump. Clifford is known as Stormy Daniels.

Ryan said Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian election meddling.

The payments to Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.

The seized records include communications between Trump and Cohen, which would likely require a special team of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio political world remains in upheaval following reports tying House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger to an FBI inquiry, prompting a flurry of rumors and questions about the impact on an election year.

State lawmakers close to Rosenberger attending committee hearings at the Statehouse Tuesday morning were tight-lipped. But State Rep. Kirk Schuring, the number-two Republican in the House, said Rosenberger will discuss the matter at a House GOP caucus meeting Tuesday night.

"I think he'll give us an honest update on where the inquiry is at this point in time," Schuring told reporters in Columbus. "And from that point, I don't know what else will be discussed. But it will be an open and honest discussion with our caucus."

Meanwhile, Leslie Gaines, a South Carolina lobbyist who traveled to London with Rosenberger and others in August, in a Tuesday phone interview declined to say whether the FBI had questioned her about the trip. The London trip was organized by GOPAC, a conservative advocacy group, and has been the subject of Ohio news reports about the FBI inquiry.

"I think there's maybe a bit of a witch hunt on this trip," Gaines said in the interview. "Everything that I know of was extremely above board. It was run through a great organization in GOPAC. They do meetings throughout the year in different places and invite emerging speakers and leaders. It's always an educational event."

State Rep. Nathan Manning, a Lorain County Republican who traveled to London as Rosenberger's guest, also declined to say whether he'd been interviewed by the FBI.

Gaines described the London trip as noncontroversial. Her partner, lobbyist Steve Dimon, who also took the trip, could not be reached for comment. In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Dimon, when asked if the FBI had questioned him about the London trip, said: "You should ask the FBI."

Gaines said the trip consisted of educational meetings, including meeting with members of Parliament. The trip wasn't any different from other trips abroad with other legislative organizations, she said.

"I don't know why this trip is so important," Gaines said.

Rosenberger, who is from Clarksville, told the Dayton Daily News on Friday he hired a criminal defense attorney because the FBI was asking questions about him. While the FBI asking questions doesn't necessarily mean a full-scale investigation, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported the FBI is actively investigating Rosenberger's spending and travel.

The FBI has not confirmed or denied whether there is an investigation.

Those revelations - and the wide speculation in Columbus circles - have left many unsure about what the inquiry into Rosenberger could mean legally and politically over the next few months. Already facing an uphill battle in the November midterms, Republicans will now have to grip with a leader who has the cloud of the Department of Justice overhead.

The situation also has injected uncertainty into the behind-the-scenes contest between State Rep. Ryan Smith and State Rep. Larry Householder to replace Rosenberger as the top House Republican. Rosenberger is term-limited and will leave office at the end of the year.

Republicans have faced scandal before heading into midterm contests with dire results. The Coingate scandal in 2006 - in which Republican Party fundraiser Thomas Noe misappropriated millions of state dollars - led to sweeping defeats.

At the time, Republicans held all chambers of government. While Republicans retained both chambers, Democrat Ted Strickland, then a U.S. congressman, easily won the gubernatorial election.

Rep. Sarah LaTourette, who serves in GOP leadership as assistant majority floor leader, said Tuesday that Rosenberger had not talked much about the FBI or his hiring of an attorney.

"I honestly don't know enough to know if I should be concerned or not," she said. "I can tell you that Speaker Rosenberger is a very good man."

Schuring said the questions surrounding Rosenberger will not interfere with the House doing its business.

"We can't let that happen -- we won't let that happen. We have to stay focused on our legislative agenda," Schuring said. "We're here to represent the people of Ohio. We're going to do good things for them. We're not going to allow this to sidetrack us."

Gov. John Kasich, talking to reporters Tuesday, said he was praying for Rosenberger.

"I don't really know all that is involved in this," Kasich said. "But I am really, really hopeful that by the time everything is done -- I don't even know what the details are -- he will emerge as somebody that didn't do anything wrong. That's what I hope. We'll see where it ends up."

Capitol Letter reporters Laura Hancock and Jeremy Pelzer and cleveland.com reporter Jackie Borchardt contributed to this report.
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- After taking the oath as the city's interim mayor on Monday, an "honored, grateful and humbled" David Weiss took a moment to count his blessings and thank the community.

"I've been blessed throughout my life with many great things," Weiss told the crowd of roughly 150 friends, neighbors, colleagues and family members assembled at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center.

"But the last few months have been more like a dream come true," he added, citing his nearly 30 years in Shaker, including laying some of the early groundwork for the Van Aken District while serving on City Council in the late 1990s.

Among those in attendance were Earl Leiken, who stepped down midway through his third term as Shaker's mayor at the end of March to take over as chief of staff for Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who was also on hand.

"Two months ago, Mayor Earl Leiken surprised us when he announced he was stepping down -- wonderful news for the county, but a big loss for us," Acting Mayor Anne Williams noted.

Williams was wrapping up a nine-day stint at the helm between Leiken's departure and Weiss' appointment.

Prior to that, council received seven timely applications that led to five interviews.

Interim Shaker Heights Mayor David Weiss meets with well-wishers after being sworn in at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Building on April 9.

Weiss believes the last time there was a vacancy in the mayor's office was in the early 1970s.

He thanked council for moving professionally and efficiently.

"You really didn't have a lot of precedent on this -- it's not something in your normal playbook," he told council, adding that he has some "big shoes" to fill, having worked in other capacities with several of his predecessors.

To Leiken, Weiss quipped that "we don't know whether to thank you or to blame you."

Williams added that with Weiss, "the timing is very fortunate, in terms of being very well-suited to help usher in the Van Aken development."

With the Van Aken grand opening coming later this year, council was scheduled to take a walking tour of the "new downtown" on Tuesday (April 10), which Weiss also noted had a "dream-come-true" quality to it.

In addition to serving about 12 years on the Shaker Heights Planning Commission, Weiss also was on City Council from 1996 to 1999, when the "transformational" development project was gaining steam.

"That was when we approved the Strategic Investment Plan, and while there was still a lot of planning to do, we had tremendous community involvement even at that stage," Weiss said. "This is kind of like coming home for me."

He commended RMS Development Corp. for its roughly $100 million investment in the Van Aken project, but added that "it's more than just dollars -- it's the faith they have in this community."

"We haven't had an opportunity like this in decades, and it may be our most exciting and significant development ever -- it has that kind of potential," Weiss said.

Another factor that figured heavily into Weiss' appointment involved his plans to run in the November General Election for the last year on Leiken's term, along with a new and subsequent four-year term commencing in 2020 (November 2019 general election.)

Weiss also mentioned redevelopment initiatives in the Moreland neighborhood, all pointing to "an incredibly bright future -- although not without challenge, primarily fiscal."

He added that Shaker's residents provide the fabric of a community that brings people in from other areas.

"I am already thrilled with the next chapter of my life and the future of Shaker Heights," Weiss said.

An attorney, Weiss most recently served as executive vice president and general counsel for DDR Corp., a real estate investment company.

As mayor, Weiss will continue to serve on the City Planning Commission, although a new member will have to be appointed to take his previous seat.

Monday's swearing-in was followed up with catering from an outer Van Aken District mainstay, J. Pistone Market & Gathering Place.

All city meetings are being held in the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Building while the elevator in City Hall undergoes renovations.




Remarks were made by Rosario Diaz Garavito, founder of Millennials Movement an organization that promotes youth meetings in Peru prior to the 8th Summit of the Americas . The results of such meetings will be presented at the 5th Young Americas Forum.





"We need to articulate procedures. This is an electoral year and, fortunately, a summit process is taking place in Peru. Plus, it is important to channel youth's demands and aspirations so that they can be satisfied locally," she told Andina news agency.





The Arequipa-born lawyer said they expect to present the demands to numerous national decision-makers interested in changing their communities. "We need authorities to start making youth-oriented decisions."





The issues to be discussed at the 5th Young Americas Forum will be the ones Heads of State and Government will address at the Summit: " Democratic Governance against Corruption " and its three thematic pillars: (i) democratic governance and corruption; (ii) corruption and sustainable development; plus (iii) cooperation aspects, international institutionalism, and public-private partnerships.





"National and local meetings have been held in 14 regions across the country, with the participation of more than 800 young people. The Peru summit has held more preparatory youth meetings than in previous editions, and there was a broad diversity of them," she said.





According to Diaz, a youthful approach should be a constant feature in processes of political change, as it brings "a constant transition perspective with a multidimensional approach."





(END) KGR/RRC/RMB

Young Peruvian people attending the 5th Young Americas Forum expect their proposals concerning fight against corruption, employment growth, and education reform, among others, will be reviewed and discussed under the national agenda, considering this is an electoral year.Published: 4/10/2018
Russia plays a key role in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, new President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian said in an interview to TASS.

April 10, 2018, 10:55 Armenian President highlights Russias key role in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:Eventually, all regional conflicts find their settlement, they are quite surmountable. History has seen conflicts no less cruel and dramatic, the President said.

For more than 25 years talks on the conflict settlement have been held in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group, on the basis of the settlement principles and elements suggested by the co-chairs - Russia, the US and France. Russia plays a key role in the process of the Karabakh settlement as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, the Armenian President noted.

President Sarkissian recalled that a three-party ceasefire in Karabakh was achieved 23 years ago exactly due to Russias mediation. We highly value these mediatory efforts in the search for a peaceful political solution to the problem, the President added. It is obvious that political will to achieve peace and accord is necessary for the settlement of the problem. Armenia, for its part, is doing everything it can to achieve peace and expects the same moves from the Azerbaijani side, the Armenian leader said.
A cruel crime was committed in Maragha. It was based on the policy of occupying Artsakh without Armenians and ethnic cleansing.

April 10, 2018, 11:09 Maragha pogroms were result of ethnic cleansing, Davit Babayan

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:Speaking about massacres carried out by Azerbaijani armed forces in Maragha on April 10, 1992, Artsakh republic Presidential Spokesperson, Davit Babayan, told Artsakhpress about the aforementioned.

Taking into account impunity factor, we see how Azerbaijan becomes more xenophobic and fascist. International community should condemn the crime committed in Maragha. Not condemning it creates a new ground for the repetition of such crimes in different countries of the world. Recognition of this slaughter by the international community is one of our important and priority issues, Davit Babayan added.

To remind, on April 10, 1992 Maragha was attacked by the Azerbaijani forces. As the result of the attack 43 peaceful residents were tortured to death.
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Global Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market: Type of Condition (Endometrioid Carcinoma, Serous Adenocarcinoma, Adenosquamous Carcinoma, Carcinomasarcoma), Type of Test (Hysteroscopy, Endometrial Biopsy, Dilation and Curettage, Ultrasound, CT Scan, MRI), End user (Diagnostic Centers, Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers) and Geography  Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2013-2017 and Forecast 2018-2024

Global Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market was valued at US $ XX Mn and expected to grow at XX% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over 2018 to 2024.

Market Outline: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Endometrial Cancer is a most common form of uterine cancer as the endometrium is part of uterus. Endometrial cancer often called as uterine cancer. It is the most commonly diagnosed gynecologic cancer. Endometrial cancer forms when cells in inner lining of uterus (endometrium) begin to grow out of control.

Market Dynamics: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Increase in the prevalence and incidence of endometrial cancer propels the growth of the endometrial cancer diagnostics market globally. As per the stats of American Cancer Society, in 2012, about 47,130 new cases of endometrial cases were diagnosed and 8010 women died because of it. Furthermore increase in awareness regarding uterine diseases, availability of various treatment options and early diagnostic options drives the growth of endometrial cancer diagnostics market globally. Moreover increase in healthcare expenditure, technological advancements and developments and advanced healthcare services also propels the market growth of endometrial cancer diagnostics globally. However, low accuracy rate in the results of diagnostic tests, high cost associated with the tests and treatments, adverse effects and lack of awareness about innovative technologies may hinder the growth of endometrial cancer diagnostics market globally.

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Market Scope: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market is segmented based on the type of condition, type of test, end user and geographical regions

Based on the type of condition, the market is segmented into the following:

 Endometrioid Carcinoma

 Serous Adenocarcinoma

 Adenosquamous Carcinoma

 Carcinomasarcoma

Based on the type of test, the market is segmented into the following:

 Hysteroscopy

 Endometrial Biopsy

 Dilation and Curettage

 Ultrasound

 CT Scan

 MRI

Based on the end user, the market is segmented into the following:

 Diagnostic Centers

 Hospitals

 Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Based on the geographical regions, the market is segmented into the following:

 North America

 Europe

 Asia Pacific

 Latin America

 The Middle East and Africa

Market Summary: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Unlike breast and prostate cancer where screening tests are available to the general population endometrial cancer is most commonly diagnosed at endometrial biopsy in symptomatic patients. No generally applicable screening test is available. Among all test types hysteroscopy is most commonly recommended uterine cancer diagnostic test. According to American Cancer Society, in 2017, about 61380 new cases of uterine cancer were diagnosed and around 10,000 were dead. According to WHO, developed regions such as North America and Europe registers greater incidence rate for endometrial cancer due to lifestyle changes adopted by women.

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Regional Analysis: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Geographically, global Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market and Europe Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market is growing due to increase in the prevalence of endometrial cancer cases, high healthcare expenditure, well established healthcare infrastructure. Asia Pacific Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market has a lucrative growth, which is attributed to increase health awareness about female hygiene due to rapid economic growth in the region. Latin America Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market and Middle East and Africa Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market driven by growing healthcare expenditure, rise in awareness among the people, growing economy of emerging countries.

Competition Assessment: Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics Market

Some of the players in the global Endometrial Cancer Diagnostics market include:

 Abbott Laboratories (U.S)

 Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S)

 Merck & Co., Inc. (U.S)

 Becton, Dickinson & Co. (U.S)

 Siemens Healthcare Inc. (Germany)

 Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland)

 GlaxoSmithKline Plc., etc. (UK)

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Key Features of the Report:

 The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2024)

 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 the socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the market

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Vertellus has obtained an INCI listing for its ZeMac Solutions products, designed for use in cosmetics and personal care applications. ZeMac Solutions are water-based solutions of the company's ZeMac copolymer technology, engineered for use as high molecular weight surfactants and as size regulators in the microencapsulation of fragrances, specialty inks, pigments and phase-change materials (PCMs).

After tests by an independent laboratory resulted in no evident skin irritation, the results, along with other documents, were approved by the Personal Care Products Council. ZeMac Solutions are now identified with the INCI name: Water (aqua) (and) Ammonium Ethylene/MA Copolymer. This INCI listing opens opportunities for new applications of ZeMac Solutions in cosmetics and, more broadly, the personal care market.

Vertellus will showcase ZeMac during the 21st Microencapsulation Industrial Convention, to be held May 21-24, 2018, in Montreal; during the convention, global development manager for plastics Ashok Adur, Ph.D., will present a paper on Use of ZeMac E400-based Solutions for Size Regulation of Microcapsules.

The unique chemistry of the ZeMac copolymer technology and the high molecular weight of ZeMac E400 enables a polyionic effect," said Adur. "This makes it possible for microencapsulation formulators to obtain precise control of particle size distribution of these capsules, which is critical for applications in specialty inks and for permeation control in fragrances.

"Another benefit in many shell systems, such as melamine-formaldehyde, is [this material's] tougher shell, which allows formulators to down-gauge the shell. This enables higher payload of the encapsulant for higher efficiency in applications like phase-change materials, resulting in lower net cost.

Vertellus Personal Care will be located at booth P141 at in-cosmetics Global, held April 17-19, 2018 in Amsterdam; the team will also be at NYSCC Suppliers Day, May 15-16, 2018 in New York City.
Armenia hopes that the EU will soon provide the action program of launching the visa liberalization, deputy FM Karen Nazaryan said during parliamentary debates on ratifying the CEPA with the EU in response to a question from opposition Yelk faction.

April 10, 2018, 12:04 Armenia hopeful to receive visa liberalization program from EU soon

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:This program represents a reforms process. The Armenian side didnt wait for the discussion of the elements of this action program and has already started several legislative changes which will be part of this program, he said.

He said that Armenia has already began implementing actions which are preconditions for launching dialogue over visa liberalization. The Deputy FM said he hopes that it will deserve a worthy assessment from the EU.
The European Union will increase financial assistance for Armenia for ensuring the effective implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), deputy foreign minister Karen Nazaryan said during parliamentary debates on ratifying CEPA.

April 10, 2018, 12:29 European Union to increase financial assistance for Armenia

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:Armenia will be provided the planned volume of EU assistance for 2017-2020, which will be approximately 170-175 million Euros, he said.

The deputy FM added that the EU has already approved the document on providing the aid.
It was like Golgotha Baroness Caroline Cox said after witnessing the atrocities committed by the Azeri armed forces in Maragha on 10 April 1992.

April 10, 2018, 16:04 Today marks 26th anniversary of Maragha massacre

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:April 10 marks the 26th anniversary of the Armenian massacres in the Artsakh village of Maragha by the Azerbaijani authorities.

On April 10, 1992, after a 3-hour artillery preparation, the subunits of the Azerbaijani regular army invaded the peaceful village of Maragha from the Azerbaijani Mir-Bashir (currently Tartar). The attack was not dictated by military necessity. Over 100 people became victims of the aggression  mainly women, children, and old people. Civilians were killed by the most cruel ways: they were partitioned, burnt alive, beheaded, thrown under tanks, or cut with axes. About 50 people were taken hostages, including 9 children. While in captivity, many Maragha residents were tortured, humiliated, and were a subject to an inhuman treatment. Many of them were later exchanged, but the fate of many is still unknown. In about two weeks, on April 22-23, Maraghawas again attacked, people, who had returned to the site of fire, had to leave the native town forever.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Larisa Alaverdyan, Head of the Foundation against Violation of Law NGO, stressed the Maragha massacre had one essential difference from the genocidal actions committed by Azerbaijan in Baku, Sumgait, Gandzak and in over 300 other settlements in Artsakh  they were planned and committed by newly independent Azerbaijan, Panorama.am reported.

Maragha was a big village with a population up to 5,000 people. According to Alaverdyan, who is also Armenias ex-ombudsman, it was a very developed and rich village, which did not see military operations, but the resident villagers were involved in the operations in the neighbouring communities, like in Talish or Mataghis, feeling the imminent threat to themselves.

Before the Azerbaijani attack against the village in April 1992, almost all the inhabitants of Maragha had been evacuated; only some 110 people  mostly women, children, and elderly  did not manage to flee the village due to some objective reasons.

Azerbaijanis clearly noticed it, understanding that young women having sick and helpless kids could have remained in the village, and planned it [the massacres]. This was a genocidal plan targeting the civilians, Alaverdyan said.

She added the Foundation against Violation of Law NGO was the first one to document the events upon receiving the news on the atrocities from Artsakh on April 10, with the Russian and foreign radio stations reporting on the incident on April 11.

It was not accidental that Baroness Caroline Cox visited the village after two-three days. The people in Maragha were massacred since they were Armenians, helpless without any chance of resistance; the slaughter was planned in this context, she stressed.

In 1996 the Foundation against Violation of Law NGO managed to prepare a comprehensive reference on the events in Maragha and presented it to the Artsakh authorities, who submitted the document to the UN Commission on Human Rights and other international organizations for several times.

Unfortunately it was not followed by any developments by the state or some kind of response. We kept on looking for people who were taken hostages, she said, stressing the people of the village were killed by most brutal ways. People were sawed off, with the eye witnesses of the atrocities going mad afterwards, she added.

Alaverdyan noted the fate of 19 hostages still remain unknown.

This was committed by modern Azerbaijan, which at least bears the responsibility to tell us what happened to those people. We once again made a decision to prepare a package of legal documents to submit them to international organizations, she added, calling on the state structures and business community representatives to organize those works, stressing the need to involve experienced foreign experts in drawing up the documents.
Bisalloy and the challenge

There is a debate about the Bisalloy campaign. Bisalloy is a Wollongong company that has a contract with the Israeli arms producer Rafael to provide reinforced steel for the Israeli army armoured vehicles, using funding from the federal governments recently announced $3.8 billion to promote the arms trade.

Peace and Palestinian support groups are horrified by this but concerns have been raised, suggesting we should pull back on the campaign aimed at having the contract cancelled.

People in Wollongong and beyond are aware that the local economy is fragile, especially now BHP has left town and many coal mines may soon close. They know jobs and more jobs are desperately needed.

The argument goes that the campaign against Bisalloy could cost jobs and will therefore be deeply unpopular with the community and unionists. Let the issue die, the thinking goes, and we will concentrate on another way to bring the issue of Palestinian oppression and Israeli violence against them to the fore.

We must reject this type of thinking because in the end it would force us to abandon principle and to be silent or to compromise in the face of injustice and inequality.

Wollongong

Federal and state governments have the power to direct funds to subsidise industry in Wollongong. They could have made a rule that all government projects use Wollongong steel. They did not. Instead the NSW government had their new trains made in South Korea.

Wollongongs economic development has been neglected but when activists campaign for the cancellation of a project worth a small $900,000, there are shrill cries that they are threatening jobs? This is a nonsense.

That same $900,000 invested in steel for civilian projects would create more jobs. A recent US study found that domestic spending outpaces military spending in job creation by 21% (for wind energy)

Jobs at stake at Bisalloy?

In 2017 Bisalloy had a revenue of $40 million. The military steel contract with Rafael is worth $900,000 (less than a $1 million).This is such a tiny fraction of its overall workload that it is doubtful the company would put on extra workers to deal with the contract or force workers off the job if the contract were cancelled. In practical terms the risk to jobs is more fear than reality, fear encouraged by those without morality or principle but with a devouring drive for profits.

Companies like Bisalloy do not exist to make jobs for workers. They are profit driven companies that value their shareholders and their profits above all else.

Bisalloy has a subsidiary in Thailand and no one can tell us that if they saw an opportunity to ditch the Wollongong section and use cheap labour in Thailand, they would leap at the chance.

The chairman of Bisalloy, Phillip Cave AM, is the owner of a hedge fund with a large investment in this company. He is the man who took over the Dick Smith stores, which went broke with the loss of many jobs.

Jobs are not the priority of Bisalloy or its chairman. Any loss of jobs at Bisalloy would not be because of pro-Palestinian activists.

Is there work that cant be done?

Is there never to be any discussion about the end uses of goods produced by the great skill of our workers? Should we just accept whatever is put before the workers and people of Wollongong? Are there any limits?

Should we agree that Wollongong needs jobs so jobs that make the metalwork for IS fighters to mount large calibre machine guns on the back of utilities are OK?

Is making metal canisters to hold nerve gas so people can be assassinated OK?

Would you make flame throwers so the Myanmar Government can more easily burn Rohinga villages?

There have been cases where workers refused to cooperate, where they courageously drew the line.

The pre-war Menzies government was selling scrap and pig iron to Japan, which was engaged in a war against the people of Manchuria (China) and was expected to soon be at war with Australia.

The workers refused to load a ship because the iron would come back in the form of bullets. People are proud of the workers who refused to load the Dalfram in 1938.

The Bisalloy steel is intended for the Israeli army, an army that kills Palestinian children. In 2016 the Israeli military killed 16 children. In 2017 they killed 5 children and kept around 3,000 in prison.

In 2018 there has been the case of Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old girl who slapped an Israeli soldier with her open hand for firing a rubber bullet into the face of her 13-year-old cousin. He suffered severe concussion, jaw broken in three places and his eye socket damaged. He will be disfigured for life. Ahed has been jailed for eight months while the Israeli soldier is free.

Surely this is the limit to what Australian workers are prepared to create?

Imposing sanctions

It is time to impose on Israel the same sort of citizen sanctions that were imposed on the South African government during its apartheid period. These sanctions were and are important and effective. In the case of Israel, they are known as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

BDS is vilified and condemned by business people, many politicians, the Jewish lobby and more but we must not wilt in the face of these attacks. BDS is an effective non-violent method to bring about change in the circumstances of the Palestinian people.

We should embrace it along with workers and people of the Illawarra. In years to come this campaign will become just as much the stuff of legend as the Dalfram is.
Free the Refugees  Palm Sunday Rally Perth

In the 1970s and 1980s Palm Sunday Rallies were used by the peace and anti-war movement to protest against war and for peace in the world. The last great peace rallies held in Perth focused on the lies of Weapons of Mass Destruction which built the edifice for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The majority of asylum seekers around the world are the outcome of conflicts such as Iraq, in which Australia is participating in service to big power USA.

Over 1,000 people from all walks of life rallied for refugees on Palm Sunday last month in front of St Georges Anglican Cathedral in the centre of Perth  church groups, unionists, NGOs who work with refugees, students and political parties. Bipartisanship on refugees means the ALP was not attending as a political organisation. Also notable by their absence was the corporate media, which ensures the invisibility of refugees and their branding as the other, to be scapegoated and despised.

One of the first speakers was Mehdi, a former refugee from Iran and one of the original incarcerated prisoners of the camp on Nauru Island set up by the Labor government of Julia Gillard. Mehdi is a political blogger now. He spoke of his own time as a refugee in a camp on Nauru and what life is like there now.

The next speaker was Dr Carmen Lawrence, former ALP premier of WA who opened her speech by acknowledging Australia was presiding over the politics of cruelty. This was contrasted by the contradiction demonstrated by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton when he announced his government would consider granting temporary protection visas to white South African farmers who were suffering violence and harassment by black South Africans.

The government of South Africa rebuffed Peter Dutton, saying that the violence was also being wrought on black South Africans. This was on top of the Australian government rebuffing the government of New Zealand over their offer to take refugees from Australias detention camps to be processed in NZ.

Lawrence also noted the Australian government had, in the past year, also commenced cutting off welfare payments to Nauruan refugees who had come to Australia to seek medical attention. These actions were costly in human as well as financial terms. The Australian government, when it acts in this way, also contradicts UN Human Rights covenants on Refugees of which it is a signatory.

Today, concluded Lawrence, The refugees are being ground down in body and soul from the Australian governments refugee policy. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton himself said after a refugee self-immolated, that they do this in order to come to Australia.

The rally proceeded to march through the two pedestrian malls of the city to take their message of compassion and humanity to the Sunday shoppers. On the whole their message was well received.

The Communist Party of Australia condemns the policy of the federal government of offshore detention and processing of refugees, which scars refugees who are already suffering trauma as a consequence of the treatment in their country of origin which caused them to leave in the first place.

The CPA calls on the policy of mandatory offshore detention to be scrapped and for all refugee processing to be carried out onshore in Australia and preferably in the community so they can have access to badly needed services.
An unnecessary crisis

Public housing in peril  Part 1

Under the Victorian governments Public Housing Renewal Program, 70% or more of public land is to be sold to private developers for redevelopment (= private profit). All the public housing properties will be demolished. There will be a slight increase (10%) in so-called social housing, built to replace the public housing, but these dwellings will be smaller and mainly 1 or 2 bedroom units  so the actual capacity to house people in need is likely to be reduced.

Furthermore, it is doubtful whether this will be true public housing or the privatised version of community housing (aka social housing), which is either owned or managed by separate businesses with their own policies and procedures. Essentially this represents a gross privatisation of what are presently 100% public assets.

For more than one year, thousands of public housing tenants have been living under the threat of loss of their dwellings. Similar schemes are apparently also being implemented in other states.

Besides the fundamental problems behind this plan, there appears to be some associated misjudgments and unwarranted assumptions. The most obvious basic problem is the policy that the government itself does not need to solve the public housing crisis of insufficiency and dilapidation.

One error of judgment is that the problems of public housing can be solved by private enterprise. If the privately owned real estate industry is so good at meeting the needs of the disadvantaged, why do we have such a housing crisis now? In Victoria, free kicks have been provided to land acquirers and real estate speculators for the past 180 years.

Now we have a housing shortage that is arguably as bad as it has ever been. Proof of this is the unacceptable number of people who have been on the public housing waiting list for more than a decade, out of a current total of 35,000 people on public housing waiting lists.

The plain truth is that the private rental real estate market is devoted to profit  profit that is not to be made in sufficient amounts from the poor and needy. So, the plan is to obtain cheap public land, demolish the existing housing stock, and rebuild with units that can be sold for profit. The problems are twofold: firstly, that cheap land is already inhabited by public housing residents; secondly, those public housing tenants will not be able to supply the necessary profit  so to satisfy social needs the redevelopers must be compelled to accommodate the displaced public housing tenants. This presents an irreconcilable conflict of interest.

The redevelopers have obviously lobbied the Victorian government successfully, as the conditions of their permits are favourable to their profiteering incentives. They only need to provide a percentage of their total redevelopments to social housing, not necessarily even public housing.

Across Melbourne there are nine freestanding public housing estates that are planned for redevelopment: in Ascot Vale, Brighton, Brunswick West. North Melbourne, Heidelberg West, Hawthorn, Northcote, Clifton Hill and Prahran. There are also two areas of low-rise public housing attached to high rises in Flemington and Prahran that are also targeted, making a total of 11.

Behind closed doors

The damning ratio of the outcomes planned for these estates is that only 188 new social housing dwellings will be built compared with a massive 4,521 private units.

It appears that the decisions leading to this crisis have been made behind closed doors and in the absence of meaningful consultation with the people who will be affected. Associated assumptions are that it is acceptable to disrupt the lives of those public housing tenants and that private developers will provide the necessary properties to accommodate the displaced residents. This seems like a pointless exercise: evict the tenants, knock down their homes, allow the buyers to build new residences and rehouse the tenants. It is not that simple. Of course the devil is in the detail and not all of the evicted residents will be able to return. Bad luck for those who miss out.

In order to implement this flawed policy, the language has been twisted and euphemised. As stated, the system has been split up under the umbrella term social housing. In addition to public housing there is a new category called community housing, which is not necessarily publicly owned. Only public housing is both owned and managed by the government. This enables a change (= increase) in the scale of rent levels chargeable. With rental charges proportional to income under public housing, tenants only pay 25% of their income  but under these new classifications, rents increase to 30% or more.

Another loss is the public housing flexible rebated rents that rise and fall depending on changes in circumstances, a protection which ensures that low-income earners are securely housed. This protection is likely to be withdrawn from tenants in community housing.

The term social housing enables dependent tenants to be further marginalised and to become another source of profit for the corporatised, non-profit/charitable sector to venture into the housing market. This is an innovative development. Another innovation is the refusal to admit that current residents will be evicted; the official term is relocated. Regardless of the terminology, when those tenants cannot be told where they are then to be housed, it looks remarkably like eviction.

Market pressure

It is hard to escape the conclusion that the crisis facing the capitalist system has resulted in terminal desperation. In an already crowded city this system cannot continue to generate its expected profit levels if it must pay the increasingly exorbitant real estate prices that it has caused. This system is functioning so well that its opportunities now arise in alienating public lands (currently serving socially worthwhile purposes) so that private enterprise can profit from the exploitation of poor, marginalised and vulnerable people.

It seems to be an increasingly cruel and rapacious system, desperately casting around for novel ways to exploit diminishing untapped economic potential  regardless of the social costs of its efforts. The casualties of this system will be the abandoned residents of the currently existing public housing estates, displaced to make way for the gentrification of those neighbourhoods.

If some of them are lucky enough to have employment now, how will they be affected if they are relocated to great distances from their current residences? What if these changes result in their commuting costs exceeding the monetary benefits of their employment? How will they manage childcare and the schooling of their children, not to mention whatever social and family networks they may have? What choices will they have in the destinations of their relocation?

The proposed scheme gives the tenants a choice of preferred relocation areas, but if there is nothing available in those areas, they may be made to relocate anywhere or they will have to enter the private real estate rental market. Those relocated will pay the same rent as for their current premises. This sounds remarkably like public subsidies for the private rental market, if private rents are to be capped at public housing levels. Is it believable that in an understocked market, private landlords will rent their properties at a loss to displaced public housing tenants?

However, implicit in the governments printed advice is the recognition that not all the affected tenants will return to their present sites; and those permanently relocated will have their rents capped at current rates for the first six months only. What then?

One of the benefits of public housing was security of tenure, and this is of vital importance for those whose circumstances cannot afford the cost and inconvenience of moving house.

Rental competition

The competition for rental properties is intense. Stories abound of people with comfortable salaries spending large amounts of time in vain searches. Below them on the economic scale are students and the underemployed; their choices are more limited and they find it even more difficult to find rental accommodation, and all tenants now have little security of tenure on their temporary homes. Regularly being moved on is a way of life for them. Those closer to the bottom of the ladder of opportunity have even less hope.

Their only possibilities lie in public housing, for which the waiting lists are long, and of which there is soon to be much less available. In this situation of a housing shortage, where/how is the government going to find the means of accommodating several thousand further displaced tenants?

Complicating this difficult situation is the sad reality that not one item of public housing stock has been added to the state-owned inventory in the last two decades. We are about to pay the heavy price of the outsourcing of government responsibilities so recklessly and foolishly implemented by the vandalistic Kennett and his gangster administration in the 1990s. So now the long queues for inadequate public housing are to be further lengthened by those unfortunately relocated so that their existing publicly owned homes can be demolished. It is hard to identify any sanity in this scheme.

Next week  Excluding the vulnerable

The Beacon
Israels violence against Palestinian women

Crucial to Israeli colonialism is an attempt at the destruction of Palestinian society. This is part of a bid to secure demographic majority over non-Jewish people across all of historic Palestine and maximal control over the territory and its resources. Pursuing these goals necessarily involves hindering Palestinians ability to raise their next generation and to sustain, educate and care for themselves and each other.

The institutionalised destruction of Palestinian womens lives has thus been an essential feature of the Israeli project. And as the world celebrated International Womens Day, and in a time of the #MeToo movement, it is important to remember how Israel has systematically carried out violence against Palestinian women, undercut their healthcare, and undermined their socio-economic conditions.

In this regard, Israeli settler-colonialism can be seen as intrinsically anti-feminist and a form of gendered violence.

Routine violence

Israeli violence against Palestinian women is routine. The United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur on violence against women notes that the establishments and expansion of settlements has been accompanied by an increase in settlers violence against Palestinians, including women and girls.

The Womens Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, a Palestinian organisation, gathered statements from women who describe being scared to leave their houses alone after experiences of [attacks by Israeli settlers] during both day and night.

The group also collected testimony from 100 Palestinian women living in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and found that when Israeli governments illegally settle Israelis in East Jerusalem and Palestinians protest, women frequently report an increase in Israeli police brutality including night time raids on family homes and the arrest of young men and minors.

Palestinian women who have been detained report being subject to torture or ill treatment or both, as noted by the UN special rapporteur: Beatings, insults, threats and sexual harassment were reported to be common practices as well as intrusive body searches, which often occur before and after court hearings or during the night as punitive measures.

Israeli violence against Palestinian women is also frequently fatal and on a large scale. During Israels December 2008-January 2009 offensive against Gaza, 110 Palestinian women were killed. During Israels summer 2014 assault on the territory, Israel massacred 230 women.

Targeting healthcare

Base violence is just one of the weapons being deployed against Palestinian women. Targeting Palestinians access to healthcare and reducing its quality, both in Israel and in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, is another.

The UNs Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued a recent report finding that Palestinian women and girls residing in Israel continue to register poor health outcomes, particularly infant and maternal mortality.

The rate of infant mortality among Palestinian citizens of Israel is 6.4 per 1,000 live births, almost three times higher than it is among Jewish Israelis. Last month Israels high court took steps likely to worsen this problem by rejecting a petition demanding the re-opening of a mother-infant health clinic serving some 1,500 people in two Palestinian communities in Israel.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, meanwhile, has outlined a variety of mechanisms through which Israel undermines Palestinian healthcare in the West Bank and Gaza.

These include Israeli control of the Palestinian Authoritys budget, including its health budget, and limiting the free movement of patients, medical personnel, ambulances and medications between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as within the West Bank.

Such practices contribute to Palestinian women having worse health outcomes than their Israeli counterparts. Maternal mortality in the West Bank and Gaza is four times higher than in Israel. Life expectancy of Israeli women is on average 10 years longer than it is for Palestinian women.

Moreover, Palestinian women in the West Bank live under the omnipresent threat of having their homes demolished or of being evicted. This, according to the UNs special rapporteur, has a severe psychological impact on women, causing anxiety and leading to depression.

Israeli military forces regularly carry out night raids in the West Bank. The special rapporteur describes these as psychological violence against Palestinian women, to the extent that they experience severe sleeping disorders, severe stress issues and depression.

Unbearable burden

Meanwhile, at the checkpoints Israel has established throughout the West Bank, Israeli soldiers have blocked pregnant Palestinian women on their way to hospital to give birth.

In Gaza, health care is inadequate because of the Israeli blockade. Patients in need are at the mercy of the Israeli military to grant them a permit for travel, which is often delayed or denied.

In 2016, for instance, the Womens Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling reports that 1,726 such permits were denied and 8,242 were delayed so long that they did not receive a response in time for their medical appointments.

These restrictions are arbitrary, according to the centre, and target seriously ill women who pose no threat [to Israel] ... For women  mothers, wives and daughters  the burden these restrictions place on them and their families is unbearable.

Israels large-scale military assaults on Gaza have further undermined womens health there.

According to UNESCOs Commission on the Status of Women, Israels 2014 attack left healthcare centres damaged, without sufficient medical equipment and supplies, and healthcare providers unable to properly meet the needs of women and girls requiring sexual and reproductive health services.

During the Israeli attack, UNESCO reports, more than 45,000 pregnant Palestinian women were deprived of access to basic reproductive health services, and approximately 5,000 of them gave birth in extremely poor conditions.

Destroying potential

Similar problems exist with Palestinian womens education and employment.

The UNs Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has expressed its concern about the systemic discrimination experienced by national minorities living in Israel, specifically Palestinian women and girls. The committee notes that Palestinian women and girls have unequal access to education  as do their ultra-Orthodox Jewish counterparts  which leads to higher dropout rates and poor outcomes in higher education.

According to the scholar Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud, Israeli state policies toward Palestinian women workers [living in Israel] have been central to their marginalisation in production and employment.

Daoud points out that the severe shortage of day care centres in Palestinian areas prevents Palestinian women from entering the labour market, noting that only 25 government-supported day care centres operate in Palestinian areas in Israel whereas 16,000 operate in Jewish areas.

In the West Bank, the violence, vandalism and property destruction that Israeli soldiers and settlers carry out overburdens women with increased responsibilities, including financial ones, for members of their family.

In a study of the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley, an area of the West Bank largely populated by Bedouin Palestinians, the rights group Al-Haq notes that Palestinian women are especially vulnerable to the impacts of Israels unlawful measures in the region, which have had direct adverse impacts on their standard of living and on the various roles and responsibilities they undertake.

For example, the organisation points out that in 2015 and 2016 Israel demolished 240 Palestinian houses, tents, animal sheds, stores and poultry farms in the Jordan Valley, displacing 647 Palestinians. These measures, Al-Haq says, resulted in devastating consequences for Palestinian women and deprived them of their right to an adequate standard of living.

Al-Haq adds that Israels discriminatory planning and zoning regime systematically denies Palestinian communities building permits so Palestinian women and their families in the Jordan Valley are forced to live with little to no privacy, in overcrowded, unsanitary and uninhabitable environments.

These poor living conditions affect the livelihoods of women and children and their access to basic services and facilities, including water and sanitation, healthcare and education.

Al-Haq interviewed women in al-Qilt al-Foqa, a community in the southern Jordan Valley, about the acts of violence Israeli settlers routinely commit, often under the protection of Israeli soldiers. The organisation states that women expressed anxiety about living in a constant state of psychological distress from fear of potential settler attacks on the community.

This anxiety, Al-Haq adds, stems from both experiencing and witnessing incidents of violence that in the past posed a serious threat to the lives of the women, children and other family members.

Physical and mental health

Al-Haq finds that the right of Palestinian women to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including to sexual and reproductive freedom, is severely undermined by Israeli practices in the Jordan Valley, including demolitions, denials of road constructions, and restrictions on access to healthcare services and facilities.

In Gaza, UNESCO reports, food insecurity among women-headed households is 51 percent while in the male-headed households in which most women live, it stands at 58 percent.

UNESCO attributes this problem to Israels closure of the Strip. The report notes that food insecurity worsened after Israels summer 2014 assault because it increased the number of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, made it harder for the population to access their livelihoods, and increased unemployment rates. UNESCO says that it expects this situation to contribute to a deterioration of the nutritional status of women and children.

As the primary caregivers in Gaza, women are faced with acute challenges in coping with the large number of families with members killed or injured, the long-term impact of damaged infrastructure and reduced services, UNESCO states.

Systematic and deliberate

Israels oppression of and violence against Palestinian women is pervasive and occurs at every level of their lives. It can only be seen as systematic.

The Womens Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling describes the Palestinian women of Jerusalem as a community deliberately and systematically placed under enormous physical and psychological pressure by the prevailing authority with an apparent intention of making not only day-to-day life unbearable, but destroying any hope in a brighter future.

The World Health Organisation finds that Israels measures as an occupying power are designed to expel [Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip] and prevent them from reaching their agricultural land and property. This has a devastating effect on the health of inhabitants, particularly women (and especially women who are pregnant), children and the aged.

Israels settler-colonial policies undermine Palestinian womens abilities to live full, secure lives, and to contribute to building communities capable of flourishing in the present and in future generations.

One way to support the global emancipation of women is to support the struggle for Palestinian liberation.

The Electronic Intifada
Along class lines

This is the first in a series of occasional articles

Australian Communists & WW2

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the government of Australia was in the hands of Menzies, Fadden and Spender. Anti-working class and pro-fascist, they had been pursuing a policy of appeasement towards the Japanese militarists and were eager for an accommodation to be reached with the Nazis so that the war could be turned against the Soviet Union.

Following the lead of the of the Daladier government in France, Menzies and company utilised the war to suppress the communists at home. The Crimes Act, passed considerably earlier by the Bruce government, was invoked to try to make communist work impossible.

Individuals were prosecuted, as was the organisation Friends of the Soviet Union as a forerunner to banning the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) itself.

These attacks were beaten back as the party fought against the policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany and against the policy of switching the war. Its members defended the Soviet Union against the campaign of slanders which went on day after day even before the war.

Leading mass struggles

Above all else, the communist party applied itself in this period to leading the mass political and economic struggles of the workers for democratic rights and against the burden of the war being foisted on to the workers.

The boosting of profits by speed ups and the breaking down of working conditions in the interests of the war effort was opposed and under party leadership, there were strikes of miners, metalworkers and others.

Illegal organisation

On June 15, 1940, the Menzies government declared the Communist Party to be an illegal organisation under the National Security Regulations. However, despite police raids, arrests of members and confiscation of property (especially books), the party continued to function and communist activity actually increased.

Anti-fascist war

During the time, the character of the war had been changing, assuming more and more  in the countries invaded and occupied by Germany  the aspect of an anti-fascist war of liberation.

This process came to its pinnacle with the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, for the Soviet Unions only aim in the war that followed was liberation.

The CPA now called for the fullest support for what had become a just war of liberation. However, Australia was still saddled with the reactionary Menzies/Fadden crew. The change in the character of the war created the conditions for their removal.

Call for Labor government

A letter signed by 15 trade union leaders, all communists, was sent to the Labor party leader, John Curtin, on September 17, 1941. It spoke of the need to replace the then federal government with a Labor government.

The letter called for trade union representation on boards controlling war production, called for lifting the ban on the CPA, establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR and, most significantly, promised that the CPA would use its influence to secure continuity of production and avoidance of industrial disputes.

This unity proposal was a very powerful incentive to the Curtin leadership of the Australian Labor Party which was reluctant to move against Menzies and Fadden.

After the Labor Party won an overwhelming victory in New South Wales, for which the communists could take much of the credit, Curtin was prepared to act. At long last a federal Labor government came into existence.

The Communist, Partys policy now was for national unity around the Curtin government and for the maximum strengthening of the war effort. The party gave the lead for the avoidance of strikes as much as possible, against absenteeism and for a worker-based labour discipline.

Sabotage

In the struggle for production, the CPA had to fight strenuously against the right-wing of the ALP and the trade unions who set out to sabotage the policy of boosting production.

Union leaders who had spent years advocating arbitration and the ways of class peace suddenly became ultra-militant and fomented strikes, sowing confusion and helping the reactionaries.

The Trotskyists also rejected the partys line of Everything for the War Effort and organised disruptive stoppages, often around workers legitimate grievances. Employers often provoked strikes in order to undermine the Curtin government.

Increased production

The Communist Party organisations on the job waged a hard and bitter fight in order to implement the policy of ensuring increased production.

The changed character of the war and the advent of the Curtin government created favourable conditions for the campaign to lift the ban on the CPA. Nevertheless, it took more than a year of mass mobilisation and pressure before the Labor government agreed and lifted the ban.

From the moment of the German invasion of the USSR, the Communist Party campaigned strenuously for the opening of a second front in Europe to shorten the war.

After Japans launching of their Pacific war, the CPA also campaigned for the British to release the jailed Indian Congress leaders and to create a Provisional Indian National Government (including the communists) which could bring India into the war against Japan by way of Burma and linking up with all the Chinese armies fighting for liberation from the Japanese. British imperialism found this proposal somewhat alarming.

Armed forces

Besides mobilising the workers for the war effort and launching the campaign for increased production, the Communist Party recruited directly for the armed forces. Over 4,000 communists served in the armed forces during the course of the war. Many lost their lives.

The party waged several campaigns around questions affecting the conditions under which the troops lived, worked and fought. Considerable support was developed among service men and women. The party issued a program  A Plan For The Fighting Man  in July 1944.

Growth

During the Second World War, the Communist Party of Australia enjoyed a period of spectacular growth. Membership in 1940 was just over 4,000. By May 1942, despite illegality, it reached 7,200. In December 1942, it was 16,000 and it reached approximately 25,000 by the end of the war.

This phenomenal growth was the direct result of the political line followed by the party. Its consistent defence of the Soviet Union had been proven correct, its consistent struggle against the reactionaries and for democratic rights was self-evidently correct.

Australian interests

Above all, the partys policy of everything for the war effort  restraining strikes while protecting workers interests, maintaining stability, boosting production  was identified with Australias national interest.

The Communist Party was identified by the Australian people with the struggle against German and Japanese aggression, with the struggle against fascism and with the defence of Australias independence which was threatened by Japanese invasion.
Russia is carefully looking into a response to the most recent round of US sanctions, yet hasty decisions are out of the question, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, TASS reported.

April 10, 2018, 17:35 Moscow biding its time to respond to Washingtons latest sanctions

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:"We are still analyzing the situation. Let's not forget that, the situation is not simple at all, but our own interests should be prioritized here," the Kremlin spokesman stressed.

According to him, "right now, only few days have passed since the [US] sanctions [against Russia] were announced, so it would be ill-timed to make any hasty decisions."




Culture & Life

Thoughts on the fall of the wall

The war against fascist Germany came to an end when the Red Army stormed Berlin, captured Hitlers bunker and wiped out the seat of Nazism. Shortly afterwards, the victorious Soviet leadership allowed their Anglo-US allies in the anti-fascist alliance to enter the city that the Soviet army had captured at such cost.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of agents were stranded on the wrong side of the new border  the hastily erected wall.

Like Vienna, the German capital was to be divided into four zones of occupation (Soviet, British, US and French), as were both Austria and Germany. This had been agreed at the Yalta conference of the Big Three (Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt), whose decisions in no way envisaged the permanent partition of Germany.

Nor did the boardrooms of Wall Street and the City, Londons financial and banking centre: their goal was to push the beastly Bolsheviks back from the Elbe all the way to Moscow and beyond  hopefully into oblivion!

The four-power occupation of Berlin and Vienna was not allowed to operate successfully. The denazification process was made inoperable in the three Western zones of Germany.

The operation of the Berlin underground by the authorities in the Eastern (Soviet) sector was sabotaged whenever the trains ran through the western parts of the city, culminating in the planting of a bomb on a train. The underground had to be restricted to the east.

The currency in the western zones was arbitrarily changed, effectively creating two Germanys. Even the status of Berlin as the capital of Germany under four-power occupation was unilaterally changed, with the Berlin airlift attempting to force the de-facto recognition of the western part of the city as an official outpost of the western part of the country.

The division of Germany was brought about by the West, as the means of securing German capitalism from Bolshevik collectivisation, and to allow Germany to be rearmed, reunited and relaunched against the Bolshevik scourge in the East. Unfortunately, it did not go according to plan.

Throughout the 1950s the West poured money into Western Germany, to re-establish the great German corporations that US and British capital had maintained strong links with right through the War, and to simultaneously score propaganda points off the capital-deficient East.

In the east of Germany, education, the judiciary, the landed estates, the factories, all had been denazified. All the former supporters of Hitler and co who lost their positions or their property looked for the chance to go to the west.

It wasnt hard to find, for although the border was closed (and mined on the Western side), in Berlin it was wide open. Over 70 Western intelligence services had stations in west Berlin. It was a gateway to all of Eastern Europe.

The Western powers had irrevocably divided the country by formally establishing the Federal Republic of Germany out of the three western zones and installing the pro-Nazi Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor.

The anti-fascists of the largely rural eastern zone then founded the German Democratic Republic, which the West of course refused even to recognise.

For a decade, the attempts of the new GDR government to industrialise and rebuild the economy of the eastern region were systematically frustrated by massive, well-orchestrated sabotage from the West, by way of west Berlin.

If the GDR government announced plans to develop ship-building or chemical industries, specialists in those industries would soon receive letters, notes under doors, visits from friends, offering extremely well-paid positions in the West, complete with large flat and flash car.

Times were tough and many took these offers, as they were meant to.

They simply crossed over into west Berlin and went to the addresses theyd been given and that was that. A well-organised brain-drain was bleeding the GDRs economy through an open wound called the border with west Berlin.

The decision to close the open border between East and West Berlin was made at 4pm on August 12, 1961. It was put into effect without any announcement, at midnight the following Sunday.

The West was caught flat-footed. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of agents were stranded on the wrong side of the new border  the hastily erected wall.

The black-marketeering in East Berlin, using Western currency that had been encouraged by certain Western agencies, came to a shuddering stop.

From the day the Wall was erected the economy of the GDR never looked back. It developed steadily to become the tenth leading industrialised country in the world.

In comparison, from the day the Wall came down, the economy of eastern Germany went down the drain. Its people lost their industries, their agriculture, their jobs, their public housing, free health care, union holidays, free education, government funded arts and culture.

The people who glibly rejoiced in the fall of the wall on November 9, 1989, in the ending of the partitioning of Germany, should remember who divided Germany in the first place, and should spare a thought for the working people of eastern Germany, the victims of the fall of the wall.
Lindsay Diaz came home one day to find that her life was ruined by the kookiest of mishaps. Her house had been completely demolished by Billy L. Nabors Demolition, whose slogan is "We could wreck the world -- Jesus saves," which is the demolition man's version of "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out." When confronted, the company insisted that they had been contracted to tear down 7601 Cousteau Drive. The only problem was that Diaz's address was 7601 Calypso Drive, which for Google Maps somehow counted as "close enough."

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A spokesperson for Google admitted, "Both addresses were shown as being in the same location on Google Maps," adding that "the issue was fixed as soon as it was brought to our attention." Thank goodness they corrected that glitch after the demolition. That solves everything! At least now the pizza delivery guy won't get lost when he's bringing an order to the pile of rubble.

Afterwards, the demolition company issued this heartfelt statement to a very angry Diaz: "It's not a big deal." Sure, who among us has not accidentally unleashed a brigade of steel machines to rip apart a woman's life, then looked over, saw the street sign, and went "Whoopsie daisy"? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone at the glass house, Ms. Diaz. Well, she doesn't have a house anymore, so she can throw all the stones she likes.
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By Winnie Gaturu

Michaela was born in 1995, a time when there was a civil war in Sierra Leone, her home country. By the time she reached the age of three, her father was killed and her mother passed away soon after due to malnutrition. As if things couldnt get any worse, Michaelas uncle abandoned her at an orphanage because she had vitiligo. It was believed that vitiligo was a curse of the devil. As a result, even the women who took care of the children at the orphanage continuously taunted her and called her the devils child. All this happened when Michaela was only four years old. Her stay at the orphanage was short-lived since it was destroyed during a bomb attack. Michaela, together with others, fled to a refugee camp. This is where she got hold of the magazine with the ballerina.

Michaelas life took a turn for the better when Elaine and Charles DePrince adopted her and took her with them to their home in the United States. They noticed her love for ballet and enrolled her to a ballet class at the age of five. With their support, she worked hard to develop her skills, attending the Rock School for Dance education located in Philadelphia and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. In 2011, she was one of the stars featured in the film First Position, which followed six young dancers vying for a place in an elite ballet school or company. She also performed on Dancing with the Stars.

First Position: Meet Michaela DePrince

In 2013, Michaela DePrince and her mother, Elaine DePrince, wrote a memoir about her life, Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. It is Michaelas hope that shell inspire children, especially children of color, and let them know that they can achieve their dreams despite the challenges theyll face along the way. In the film, First Position, Michaelas mom recalls how she was often told by parents that black girls cant become ballerinas. As a matter of fact, Michaela was denied the chance to perform as Marie in The Nutcracker when she was eight years old, reason being, Americas not ready for a black ballerina. In addition, a year later, the teacher blatantly told her mother that it wasnt worth it to invest money in a black dancer. Despite all the stereotypes and racism, Michaela has still successfully made a name for herself in the ballet world.

Currently, she is part of the Dutch National Ballet where she works as a professional ballerina. Apart from dancing, she also loves reaching out to disadvantaged young people with whom she shares her message of hope, hard work and perseverance. Her aim is to encourage them to actively strive to achieve their dreams. Find out more about Michaela on her website or follow her via Instagram!

What do you think about Michaela DePrince? Had you ever heard of her?
You have sought advice on the options available for dealing with the possible outcomes of the referendum on independence planned for Bougainville on 15 June 2019. There are a number of significant policy considerations for the government, irrespective of the outcome, which are discussed below.

ADELAIDE - The recent article by William Nakin MP about Bougainvilles forthcoming referendum on its political future made me wonder just what sort of advice may have been given to Peter ONeill about what he should or should not say on such a sensitive issue. With this in mind, I used some of my rusty bureaucratic skills to write an imaginary briefing note on the subject to Mr ONeill. It is, I think, a useful device for making explicit some of the complications involved that neither Mr ONeill nor Mr Nakin seemed willing to articulate. Perhaps this may stimulate some of our PNG colleagues to consider the problems that will arise irrespective of the outcome of the referendum in June next year - CO

Background

Bougainville has been inhabited for at least 33,000 years. Its people speak languages belonging to three language families whose origins are unknown and presumably ancient, together with languages of the Austronesian family, which arrived from western areas with migrants of the more recent Lapita culture about three millennia ago. Bougainvilleans have developed an identity distinct from other ethnicities in Papua New Guinea.

Germany established control over Bougainville and Buka, Choiseul, Shortland and the Treasury islands in 1885, as part of European colonization in the Pacific. The British Empire established a protectorate in 1893 for the southern Solomon Islands, expanding it to include the eastern islands in 1899. In 1900, Germany transferred all of its claims in the Solomons, other than Bougainville and Buka Island, to Great Britain. Britain in return withdrew from Western Samoa.

During World War I, Australian forces occupied Bougainville together with the rest of German New Guinea. In 1920, after the war and the defeat of Germany, the League of Nations placed the territory (including Bougainville) under Australian mandate.

Bougainville is rich in copper and gold. The mining of these minerals has been the subject of considerable social tension over the last fifty years. Local people have made two attempts at secession in reaction to mining exploitation and related issues.

This resulted in nearly a decade of conflict as a result of which it is estimated that up to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died with many more displaced. The bulk of the province's infrastructure was also destroyed. While a peace process brokered by New Zealand was implemented, many of the underlying issues that contributed to the conflict remain largely unresolved and the process of rebuilding continues.

There is a legacy of bitterness directed towards the rest of Papua New Guinea which derives from the activities of the PNG Defence Force during the conflict as well as from historical cultural factors.

It is important to note that the conflict in Bougainville had multiple causes. However, that said, secessionist thinking in Bougainville appears mostly based upon a separate ethnic identity from the rest of Papua New Guinea. Also, unlike most other provinces of PNG, it does not share a land boundary with any other province. Consequently, separatist sentiment is reinforced by the physical separation from the PNG mainland.

Bougainvillean identity is more strongly associated with the Solomon Islands than any part of PNG. Directly prior to Papua New Guinean gaining independence, Bougainville pursued the possibility of a political union with the former British Protectorate of the Solomon Islands. This is a unique element of Bougainville's identity which remains extant.

The Bougainville Peace Agreement. to which the PNG government is a signatory, commits to a referendum on Bougainville's political future. The PNG government is not obliged to accept any particular outcome under the terms of the agreement with the Autonomous Government of Bougainville (ABG) established as part of the peace process.

Discussion

The planned referendum will, irrespective of its outcome, generate many challenges for both PNG and the ABG.

In the event that the referendum results in a strong vote for independence, the PNG government will be confronted with tremendous pressure from Bougainville and, very possibly, from other countries with an interest in the region, to honour the implicit promise in the peace agreement that an unequivocal vote for secession will secure the PNG governments consent and support.

Failure to grant independence in these circumstances will be seen a gross breach of trust on Bougainville and elsewhere and it may very well incite a renewed attempt to achieve independence by force. In this context, it should be noted that the PNGDF was previously unable to effectively suppress or overcome the activities of the comparatively small and poorly armed guerrilla force, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army.

It also is instructive that during World War II the Japanese army, with hugely greater resources, was unable to locate or eradicate the handful of Australian coast watchers who operated on the island with the active support of the local people.

A foreseeable problem of serious concern will be how other ethnic groups in PNG may react to any decision to support independence for Bougainville. There are many potential fracture points within the social fabric of PNG that could conceivably be exploited to promote secessionist sentiments.

For the ABG, a vote for independence will oblige it to negotiate a transition strategy during which it will be confronted with the logical consequences of independence, which will include a progressive reduction in funding from the PNG government.

It also can be anticipated that current PNG public service staff will wish to be withdrawn from Bougainville, although there may be some compensating return by Bougainvilleans currently posted on the PNG mainland.

As an independent entity, Bougainville will very likely be unable to sustain the already comparatively modest level of government services that it already receives from PNG. It has no significant industrial or mining industries and its agricultural sector is predominantly based upon subsistence farming. In short, it will be left in a penurious state unless the PNG government or some other entity provides it with funding to supplement its meager internal resources.

It is entirely possible that Bougainville will once again seek to merge with the Solomon Islands which itself is struggling with severe economic and internal governance problems. It has been the subject of a major intervention through the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) led by Australia and New Zealand which has included PNG participation.

An independent Bougainville may well require or even seek a similar intervention to RAMSI if the ABG is unable to reconcile the serious actual and potential inter-communal tensions that already exist on the island, notably in relation to the prospective reopening of the Panguna mine. This is a prospect that would not be relished by the Australian and New Zealand governments in particular, although they would probably reluctantly assent to such a proposal.

If the referendum produces only a bare majority of support for independence, then both the PNG government and the ABG will be confronted with extremely difficult decisions about the islands future. The absence of solid majority support for independence will potentially incite inter-communal strife as those who want independence may, once again, opt to force the issue by violence and intimidation.

Such an outcome is probably the worst of all possible scenarios because it leaves both the PNG government and ABG with the problem of how to legitimize whatever solution they may be able to negotiate for the future.

The same may well be the case if the majority of votes cast are for remaining part of PNG (although this seems improbable) because a sizeable minority of Bougainvilleans may well find this result so unacceptable that they will actively work to undermine efforts to create a new and viable long term relationship between the PNG government and the ABG or its successor.

In summary, there a very many uncertainties involved with the referendum and any outcome, even if decisive, will bring with it the necessity to enter into complex and difficult negotiations with the ABG.

Recommendation

Having regard to the many difficulties and unknown factors that still surround this very complex issue it is impossible to provide even general advice on how the government should proceed.

As things stand, the most sensible position appears to be to press on with the planned referendum while giving no private or public commitment to any particular course of action until the results are known. Once this occurs, it should be possible to provide advice on the specific issues and problems that arise.

Iama Pengian

Secretary

Department of the Prime Minister

11 April 2018
SYRACUSE  One by one, stakeholders from central New York advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies explained to U.S. Rep. John Katko how they struggle to keep up with the number of human trafficking cases.

Katko, R-Camillus, held a roundtable discussion Tuesday at McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center in Syracuse to learn more about what role the federal government can play in assisting organizations and police combat human trafficking. He was joined by U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat.

A common theme among those who participated in the meeting was that more resources are needed, whether it's funding to support ongoing efforts or to hire personnel, such as case managers or forensic interviewers. At one point, Katko asked the attendees to raise their hand if they have a hard time keeping up with the volume of human trafficking cases.

Many of the individuals at the table raised their hands.

"For every one case manager advocate that we have, a case load of 20 is a high case load when it comes to human trafficking because the amount of time that you have to put in," said Colleen Merced, acting executive director of the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center. She added that funding for positions is important.
The Auburn YMCA-WEIU is one of seven central New York nonprofits to receive Community Health Awards from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.

The YMCA will receive up to $4,000 to fund a structured, 12-week strength training and aerobic exercise program to help people with diabetes meet the American Diabetes Association's recommendations for activity. The goal of the program will be to lower its participants' need for medication, and to prevent the possibility of future complications.
The new head of the Army has warned his subordinates they wont get promoted unless they demonstrate their commitment to diversity.

Officers and NCOs have been told in no uncertain terms that their priority is to increase the inclusiveness of their units.

General Sir Nick Carter, who takes over in June, is threatening to reprimand anyone who fails to embrace colleagues of different faiths, genders and sexual orientation.

General Sir Nick Carter, who takes over in June, is threatening to reprimand anyone who fails to embrace colleagues of different faiths, genders and sexual orientation

Its part of an initiative called The Compulsory Objectives Scheme, which is designed to attract more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and ethic minority recruits.

Commanders will be expected to produce annual reports rating each individual soldiers efforts to boost inclusion and diversity.

Sergeants and corporals, in particular, will be expected to make their barracks more caring and understanding, otherwise they can forget about promotion.

Never mind The Long And The Short And The Tall. The 21st-century Army is determined to cast its net even wider.

Bless em all, bless em all,

The gay and the trans and halal,

Bless all the drag queens

And soon-to-be-mums,

Bless all the lesbians

And their cross-dressing sons . . .

OK, so youd expect me to mock. Someones got to do it. Admittedly, the sentiment behind encouraging as many recruits from different backgrounds to join Her Majestys Armed Forces is admirable.

Marking subalterns and NCOs on their commitment to diversity, though, is a bridge too far. It can only ever be subjective, a matter of interpretation. And it shouldnt be the basis for refusing someone promotion

But this goes way beyond making the Army a more comfortable environment for minorities. It is just the latest example of the lengths to which the diversity zealots will go to punish anyone who doesnt conform to their political dogma.

The military has strict rules against bullying. All service personnel, regardless of their background, should be treated with equal respect.

Marking subalterns and NCOs on their commitment to diversity, though, is a bridge too far. It can only ever be subjective, a matter of interpretation. And it shouldnt be the basis for refusing someone promotion.

Soldiers should be judged on their character, courage and abilities, not on their ethnic heritage, religious persuasion or sexual proclivities. Or their political and moral beliefs, either.

As one infantry officer put it: We dont give a stuff whether someone is gay or straight, black or white, Muslim, Christian or atheist, so long as they can do the job. Precisely.

Ive never had a problem with gays in the military. Its what people do on the battlefield which matters, not what they get up to under their duvets. The same goes for heterosexual relationships. Provided sex doesnt get in the way of military discipline, who cares?

Operational effectiveness and maintaining morale are all-important. Sometimes, however, the demands of the diversity lobby can conflict with the smooth running of our fighting forces.

For instance, there is no obvious reason why women shouldnt serve on Royal Navy ships and submarines. But when the first female sailors put to sea a few years ago, naval wives protested at the dockside.

As the ex-U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in 2015: The job of the military is to kill people and break things. I cant see how paying for transgender surgery for soldiers makes America a safer place.

They were worried that despite strict non-fraternisation rules, human nature would always prevail. Boys would be boys and girls would be girls.

And so it has proven. The Navy admitted this week that it has had to airlift 17 pregnant women sailors off ships since 2012, at a cost of more than 7,500. The women were serving on a variety of vessels, including four of our six guided-missile destroyers.

Given that we still havent got any planes to fly from our two expensive new aircraft carriers, perhaps we should turn them into floating maternity wards.

Those Navy wives saw this coming a nautical mile off, like an Exocet. Yet their concerns were disregarded.

Similarly, any Army NCO who in future raises a quizzical eyebrow about the wisdom of letting women share male barracks, or self-styled trans-men who define as women being allowed to use female shower blocks, will be treated as a heretic and find himself back in Civvy Street in double-quick time.

Thats the real problem. If the Compulsory Objectives Scheme is anything to go by, the Army is losing sight of first principles.

It exists primarily to defend the realm, not to promote diversity. Its a fighting machine, not a branch of Haringey social services. As the ex-U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in 2015: The job of the military is to kill people and break things. I cant see how paying for transgender surgery for soldiers makes America a safer place.

At the time, I wrote here that if hed said that in Britain, hed have been arrested for hate crime. Thats certainly the way things are going.

Celebrating diversity now trumps everything else when it comes to our public services and institutions. After capturing central and local government, the law and the police, it was inevitable that the Guardianistas would go after the Armed Forces.

The military is already hamstrung by ambulance-chasing yuman rites spiv law firms. Now its trying to recruit minorities, who may not even want to join the Army in the first place.

Thats fine as an aspiration, but not when it has to be enforced by the threat of ruining the career prospects of any dedicated officer or NCO deemed insufficiently enthusiastic about our new state religion, Diversity.

Still, it might lead to the rehabilitation of the TV comedy It Aint Half Hot, Mum, about an Army concert party, which is rarely repeated because it is considered homophobic and racist.

Maybe it was just ahead of its time, with cross-dressing Gunner Gloria Beaumont, and constant references to homosexuality.

Although its brilliant creators David Croft and Jimmy Perry are no longer with us, perhaps an enlightened modern scriptwriter could administer a few tweaks, which could bring it bang up to date. The Indian punkah-wallah could be promoted to the platoons equalities officer. Gloria could be the Armys first transgender captain.

One of the lines to which many critics objected in the original was when Battery Sergeant-Major Shut-Up Williams, played by Windsor Davies, told his troops: Never in my life have I seen such a display of blatant poofery.

Add in the footnote Well done! and you could argue that hes celebrating diversity. Give that man a well-earned promotion!

Amber targets the Teddy Boys

The sound you hear from the direction of the Home Office is that of a stable door slamming shut. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has just discovered that theres a major link between drugs and violent crime.

Naturally, Look Back In Amber is promising a crackdown. It comes after Londons murder rate overtook that of New York.

She says lack of police patrols and fewer people being charged may have encouraged offenders to commit crimes. Well, knock me dahn wiv a fevver, Clever Trevor.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has just discovered that theres a major link between drugs and violent crime

Rudd refuses to correlate rising crime with falling police numbers. For once, shes right. Its not lack of resources, its warped police priorities. Then, typically for a politician, she goes on to promise more laws. For instance, a 1959 law against flick-knives is being updated. So expect to see hundreds of ageing Teddy Boys getting their collars felt in the coming months.

And she plans to tighten legislation to stop gun clubs using rapid-fire weapons. So yet again, law-abiding gun owners will suffer, just as they did after Dunblane. But gangsters will still have easy access to illegal firearms.

All this because she needs to be seen to be doing something.

But we dont need more laws. What we need is for the police to do their job and enforce those we already have.

In yesterdays Mail, Stephen Glover wondered: Has Tony Blair lost his marbles? Reader Roger Jones writes to say that in the accompanying photograph, he was struck by just how much our former prime minister looks like Rowley Birkin QC, from The Fast Show.

In yesterdays Mail, Stephen Glover wondered: Has Tony Blair lost his marbles? Reader Roger Jones writes to say that in the accompanying photograph, he was struck by just how much our former prime minister looks like Rowley Birkin QC, from The Fast Show

Birkin, like Blair, was a retired barrister, whiling away his dotage telling increasingly unintelligible stories about his glory days. At least Birkin admitted he was very, very drunk.

Whats Blairs excuse?

Apparently, the current wave of street gang violence is being fuelled by a new strain of rap music called Drill. Never heard of it.

I dont think Ken Bruce has ever played Drill on Radio 2.

I would have noticed.

One of Drills stars is a rapper called M-Trap 0, who was jailed in February for a random murder in South London. Where do they get these names from? M-Trap 0 sounds like a bottle of drain cleaner.
Auburn will receive $50,000 from the state to put toward the operations costs of the $10 million Equal Rights Cultural Heritage Center, Mayor Michael Quill announced Tuesday.

According to a press release from the city, state Sen. Pamela Helming, R-Canandaigua, secured the money for the city in the recently adopted state budget.

"We would like to thank Senator Helming for her partnership on this project," Quill said in a statement. "For the past year and a half the senator has been working diligently to advocate at the state level for this and many projects of interest to the city of Auburn. We are confident this project will drive tourism business for Auburn, Cayuga County and the Central/Finger Lakes Region and thanks to the senators support we are certain to have success."
Of all the great monuments to the optimism, aspiration and social mobility of the Sixties, the Open University stands tallest.

Since it opened for business in 1969, the University of the Air as it was originally known, has educated more than two million students, including hundreds of thousands who missed out on university the first time around.

Some were held back by their backgrounds; others were let down by their schools; still others were plain unlucky, or just never thought they stood a chance of getting a degree.

Of all the great monuments to the optimism, aspiration and social mobility of the Sixties, the Open University stands tallest

For almost half a century, then, the OU has deserved its reputation as the University of the Second Chance. And in a society where politicians love to proclaim the values of hard work and aspiration, you might think that its star would never have been higher.

Tragically, however, as the Mail revealed yesterday, the OU finds itself engulfed in the greatest crisis in its history, its very existence threatened by financial mismanagement, bureaucratic cant, academic stridency and plain, old-fashioned incompetence.

Opportunity

And precisely when the OU could have become one of the worlds greatest educational institutions, tapping the enormous international appetite for British education and the potential to deliver it online, an unholy menagerie of administrators and academics is allowing its potential to dribble into the sand. So what on earth has gone wrong?

Well, first, a bit of history. The Open University was the brainchild of the social reformer Michael Young, who convinced Labours Harold Wilson that, through TV and radio state-sponsored correspondence courses, a brand new university would provide an opportunity for those, who, have not been able to take advantage of higher education.

The Blair government announced a target of 50 per cent of youngsters going into higher education, and tuition fees began to rise to pay for it. In 2012, the Coalition raised tuition fees to 9,000 a year (now capped at 9,250)

As prime minister from 1964, Wilson made the OU his pet project, defended it from the doubters and was on hand for its first academic meeting in July 1969. And for the next two decades, his vision was triumphantly vindicated. The OU went from strength to strength  even as social mobility declined in the Eighties it remained a shining beacon of self-improvement.

Indeed, the OUs national reputation was such that on television it became a kind of shorthand for working-class aspiration  especially among women who had never even dreamed about careers outside the home. Sue Johnstons character in the Eighties soap opera Brookside, for example, studies at the OU, as well as Lesley Josephs character in Birds Of A Feather.

But then things started to go wrong. The Blair government announced a target of 50 per cent of youngsters going into higher education, and tuition fees began to rise to pay for it. In 2012, the Coalition raised tuition fees to 9,000 a year (now capped at 9,250).

And as central funding and part-time enrolment plummeted, the OU  which had previously charged fees in the hundreds  saw its numbers collapse, with recruitment falling from more than 242,000 to fewer than 174,000 students in just five years.

In came the former BBC executive Peter Horrocks, appointed vice-chancellor in 2015, to sort out the mess.

And as central funding and part-time enrolment plummeted, the OU  which had previously charged fees in the hundreds  saw its numbers collapse, with recruitment falling from more than 242,000 to fewer than 174,000 students in just five years

But his solution  cuts of some 100 million, the withdrawal of many modules, the virtual disappearance of face-to-face tuition and a greater emphasis on online courses  has provoked mutiny among the academics. They argue that the OU is in danger of dwindling into an internet correspondence course.

Yesterday, the issue was the subject of fierce debate during an OU council meeting, at which Mr Horrockss adversaries  whipped up by the hysterical lecturers union  were demanding his head for daring to question the funding model.

The lecturers are furious that OU bureaucrats have spent some 2.5 million in fees to the City consultants KPMG to advise on initiating change. It would, critics say, have been much better invested in teaching. I agree with them.

To me, it is yet another example of the culture of pseudo-managerial jargon that is poisoning higher education, which has fallen under the sway of an overpaid and intellectually worthless caste of bureaucratic leeches.

The academics have a point, too, when they argue that moving the OU online and losing face-to-face teaching will dilute its unique appeal. If the OU becomes just another jumped-up correspondence course, it will die.

Shambles

Yet the academics  so stubborn and solipsistic  need to look in the mirror themselves. Mr Horrocks says the OU needs to save 100 million. Do the OUs various classicists, geographers and literary critics, who fancy themselves as financial experts too, expect us to believe he is just making this up?

I could fill every page of this newspaper discussing the appalling shambles in British higher education, from the ineptly presented introduction of tuition fees to the widespread corruption of intellectual standards and growing culture of Left-wing intolerance. But the OU is worth fighting for.

More than any other university in the land, it stands for something greater than itself: hard work and aspiration.

Its students are not pampered public schoolboys or cosseted members of the snowflake generation. Nor, by and large, are they posturing student-union radicals.

Some seven out of ten of them work. Even as they are holding down a job, looking after their families and paying the bills, they are also putting in about 21 hours a week on their studies. They do not roll out of nightclubs on their way to a lecture. They do not censor, hector, whine and whinge.

Perhaps this is part of the problem. Because the OUs beneficiaries are hard-working, grown-up people, often from humble backgrounds, they are not fashionable. It has been too easy for successive governments to ignore them, starving the OU of funds.

As a result, an institution that was once ahead of its time is in danger of being left behind. With the arrival of the internet in the Nineties, the OU could have taken the chance to be a leader in education.

Above all, though, it is time the Government stepped in to save a great but ailing institution. I appreciate that Theresa May cannot bail out every university. But as the University of the Second Chance, the OU is special

It could have embraced the new technology, combining it with its strengths in distance learning and face-to-face tuition, and turned itself into the Harvard of the air, perhaps.

Even now I think it is not too late. I would give Mr Horrocks a chance to drag the OU kicking and screaming into the digital age, but on the condition that he undertakes a radical cull of its managers who have wasted money. (As a former BBC man, he should be very familiar with the breed.)

And that may mean getting rid of some under-performing and hysterical academics, too.

Above all, though, it is time the Government stepped in to save a great but ailing institution. I appreciate that Theresa May cannot bail out every university. But as the University of the Second Chance, the OU is special.

Benefits

We will do everything we can, she said when she first walked into Downing Street, to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.

Isnt that precisely what the Open University is all about?

I know money is tight. But we are not talking about colossal sums, just the investment necessary to put Wilsons creation back on its feet. Indeed, since the Open University produces precisely the kind of hard-working people our country needs, the economy would surely see the benefits before too long.

Let me put it this way. Would you rather waste millions sending legions of Corbyn-crazed 19-year-olds to read Gender Studies at the University of Uxbridge? Or would you prefer to invest the money in helping mature, serious-minded adults study engineering or nursing at the Open University?

I know my answer. Over to you, Mrs May.
Kill a few enemy combatants from thousands of feet up in the air - that will show Bashar Al Assad (pictured) what sort of people we are, writes Simon Jenkins

The most difficult thing is sometimes to do nothing. Yesterday, so-called liberal interventionists were queuing up to demand that 'something be done' about the chlorine bombs dropped on the suburbs of Damascus. But what?

The only answer I get when I ask this is that we should drop a bomb or two, to send a message to Syria's murderous president Bashar Al Assad. We should show him there is a 'price to be paid', that we can 'stand up and be counted'.

Apparently, now we want to be seen standing alongside America's tub-thumping President Donald Trump and France's egotistical leader Emmanuel Macron, both with their own domestic reasons to be seen as tough.

Anarchy

Kill a few enemy combatants from thousands of feet up in the air  that will show Assad what sort of people we are. Big guys, concerned guys.

It is upsetting, watching those pictures of dying children on television. We want an eye for an eye.

This is virtue signalling of the most senseless sort. Leaders in the West grown used to bossing around the world cannot imagine that anything they do will cause more harm than good.

Yet the shambles Britain and its allies  under and since Tony Blair  have inflicted on Iraq and its neighbours after the 2003 invasion has brought little but death, destruction, anarchy and misery.

For the first time in two millennia, it has driven the Christians out of Iraq. It has forced millions to flee their homes  many to arrive on Europe's doorstep. It has seen some of the most ancient relics of human civilisation destroyed. And for what?

We have no control in the region, no leverage, not even an army of occupation.

Which is why no amount of belligerent rhetoric  or even a few aerial bombing raids  is going to stop the Syrian regime's victory after seven years of civil war. A war, remember, that has nothing to do with Britain or its allies. At the start, Western intelligence told the media that president Assad was about to fall. That was a disastrous misjudgment.

Now it must be obvious that every ounce of aid given by the West and Saudi Arabia since 2011 to the Syrian opposition  much of which has been made up of Islamist jihadi groups  has prolonged the agony of this conflict.

Half-hearted intervention is always the worst sort. The fact is that we were never going to beat Assad with powerful allies such as Russia and Iran supporting him militarily. We just want to feel good in ourselves.

Assad's use of chlorine against civilians at the weekend in rebel-held Douma  assuming it was him  was against international law.

Though any attempt to curb the horrors of battle is welcome, the ban on chemical weapons was always odd, to my mind, because it implied that some forms of killing were more acceptable than others.

Why nuclear bombs should be acceptable but chlorine gas should not is bizarre. Assad's sarin and ricin are beyond the pale. Yet the West's delayed-action cluster bombs (which scatter bomblets across a wide area) and white phosphorous (an incendiary and toxic chemical) are, or were until recently, seen as fine.

Inhumanity

The trouble is that chemical weapons are what poor armies tend to have, whereas 'our' side can kill more efficiently. Western television decorously never shows the body parts of our victims, blasted to pieces by high-explosive missiles.

Under a 2013 disarmament agreement with Syria, that country was a year later declared free of chemical weapons by international inspectors.

So much for inspectors. Last year, the resumed use of the weapons precipitated a 'shock and awe' response by Trump. This involved 59 American missiles raining down on the Syrian air base at Shayrat. It was described as being used 'to send a message'.

Message to whom? Regimes fighting for their existence do not care about liberal condemnation or the niceties of international treaties. Nor do their backers, in this case Russia and Iran.

Smokes rise after Assad Regime forces carried out airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta's Douma town in Damascus

The reality is that the inhumanity of war lies in any killing of non-combatants. The early Geneva conventions specifically forbade this, as they forbade the bombing of civilian rather than military targets.

Nobody obeys them now. Britain certainly does not. In Iraq and Syria, the West  and that includes Britain  has been shamelessly bombing civilian communities for the simple reason that determined enemies such as ISIS use them as shields and do not care how many people die in their cause.

Protestations that we scrupulously avoid civilians with our bombs are rubbish.

Last summer, a combat monitoring body called Airwars estimated that more than 8,000 civilians died in the fall of Mosul in northern Iraq, the last major city to be held by ISIS. Most of those people were killed by indiscriminate Iraqi, American and British bombs and shells that were fired at Islamists hiding among the population in tightly packed urban areas.

Even the Pentagon accepts it has killed hundreds of civilians in Iraq and Syria. As the British commander, Major-General Rupert Jones, said last year, civilian deaths are nowadays 'the price you pay' for fighting in cities. I am sure president Assad would agree.

Many will argue that 'our' side did its damnedest to avoid civilian deaths, while the Syrian army cares little who dies under its bombardments.

But can we really now ascend some moral high horse?

Shells, bombs and missiles in populated areas are by their nature indiscriminate weapons. We use them for the simple reason that we don't want to win desperately enough to commit ground troops. Civilians are killed so our soldiers are not. If we really wanted the Syrian civil war to stop, we would send in the British Army and fight house to house  but Parliament would throw a fit if the Prime Minister suggested that. Hundreds of our soldiers would die.

This week's discussion of how to react to the chemical attack has become a conversation between ourselves in the West. We don't really believe anything we do will provoke a change in behaviour on Assad's part.

No one really believes that what Theresa May says in Parliament, or even what she drops on Syria, will affect the outcome of the civil war. It is our self-image we care about, whether we can appear macho, or caring.

Horrific

We like to portray those who disagree with us as 'allowing' Assad to get away with it.

They are idly standing by, 'letting evil happen', when by implication they could somehow stop it. This is idiotic politics. Of course we should intervene where we can affect an outcome, as rightly we did in Kosovo in the Nineties.

Even now, we could go round the world and find equally horrific scenes of inhumanity, in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and in the Congo for a start.

Why are there no interventionists demanding British bombing raids there? Is it because those countries are further away? Is morality a matter of air miles?

The bloodletting in Syria has been a war for survival on both sides, but one that Assad is clearly winning. The kindest thing we can do is not impede that victory, because then more people will die as the fighting drags on.

Our moral duty is to relieve the suffering of war's victims in every way we can, and offer asylum to those who escape. Otherwise, leave well alone.

When this horror is over, then we can sit down and decide what damnation to call down on Assad's head. He deserves the worst. But right now, Western military intervention against him would be counter-productive.

We must kick the habit of trying to rule the lives of others, especially when we have no power to do so.
A BBC presenter was reduced to tears while visiting a Japanese factory which mass-produces sex toy robots - including petite dolls with 'kid-like' qualities.

Having travelled to Japan to learn more about the industry for the BBC Three documentary Sex Robots and Us, James Young visited a factory in an industrial suburb of Tokyo, where he was left shocked by the petite size of some of its ultra-realistic dolls.

The visibly disturbed presenter grew tearful as he grilled manufacturer Hiro Okawa about one particularly small doll, who told him the 'actual age setting' was left to customers' 'imagination'.

'There may be some kind of sentiment to petite, kid-like size,' the factory boss conceded

Afterwards the shaken presenter said the sight of such a 'young' doll was 'horrific'.

'I just had to get out of the there,' said the BBC Three presenter.

The dolls are normally distinguishable by their unrealistic oversized breasts and curvier figures, however, one child-like doll )pictured) left James in tears

There are no legal issues surrounding the ownership of a child-like sex doll in Japan, but Mr Okawa acknowledged the way it might be perceived, and said the specific model was not available outside of Japan.

James, a biological scientist who has a prosthetic arm and leg since suffering devastating injuries in a train accident six years ago, was also shown headless 'sexbots' with over-sized breasts being assembled by an engineer.

In addition to visiting the Japanese factory, James also spent time at a brothel in Barcelona where they had sex robots for hire.

Each doll could be rented at an hourly rate, and would be dressed according to clients' preferences.

Real women work alongside the sex dolls, but there are no rules surrounding the use of the inanimate objects - aside from clients being asked to refrain from putting them on the floor.

He discovers a dark side to sex dolls when he visits one factory in Tokyo that is making dolls made to measure certain customer specifications

Creator Hiro Okawa explained that his latest model could be perceived in a certain way and so leaves it to the customer to decide 'the age setting'

'Cyborg' presenter James Young travels the world to find out what is driving the sex robot industry

Mr Okawa acknowledges that his dolls can be 'kid-like' in size and that the model is not sold anywhere outside of Japan

Witnessing the darker side to the sex doll industry leaves James uncomfortable at the thought and he leaves the factory in tears

The sex doll industry has grown in popularity thanks to the extremely life-like figures. Pictured: The dolls at Okawa's factory

James also visited a sex robot brothel (not pictured) where customers can hire out the dolls

The owner of the brothel explained to James that his clientele benefits from sexual freedom

'The thing is for the doll it cant shout, it doesnt say "no you cant do that with me"' he said.

'Real girls here are human and if they dont want to do one thing with a client then they are not going to do that. Because they have a voice they can do that.'

Reflecting on the way sex dolls are mass produced ready to be 'used and abused' by customers, the presenter admitted his time exploring the industry had left him deflated.

While he was fascinated by the potential of artificial intelligence in some robots, he added: 'I felt pessimistic about what kind of messed up future we might be creating for ourselves.'

BBC Three's Sex Robots and Us is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now
A woman who endured a decade of physical abuse at the hands of her husband has opened up about his lenient plea deal that had him serving only 13 days in jail.

Silcon Valley engineer Neha Rastogi watched her story make national headlines last summer after her husband, former Silicon Valley CEO Abhishek Gattani, served less than two weeks behind bars as part of his domestic abuse plea deal  despite her recordings documenting his physical and verbal abuse.

While appearing on Megyn Kelly Today, Rastogi recounted how she started using her iPhone to record the abuse in 2016, but she admitted that she didn't intend on using them against her husband at the time.

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Survivor: Silcon Valley engineer Neha Rastogi opened up to Megyn Kelly about the abuse she endured at the hands of her husband, former Silicon Valley CEO Abhishek Gattani

Fear: The former Apple manager said the abuse had gotten so bad that she was preparing for her death; she had a will drawn up and looked into life insurance

Gattani can be heard berating her about her computer in one clip, and Rastogi said the thuds in the background are the sounds of him slapping her.

In another clip, he threatens her life, telling her: 'I would like to see you murdered. I actually imagine... I can now relate to doing that to you.'

Justice? Gattani served less than two weeks in jail for a decade of abuse

'When I started taping him and his behaviors I didn't have this plan,' Rastogi explained. 'I actually wanted to get him medical help.

'Whatever help he had sought until then, he was really dismissive of it, so I kind of knew he wouldn't go see a therapist.'

Rastogi said she thought she could take the recordings to her father-in-law, who is a doctor, or someone else to show them what he does. She wanted to know if he is suffering from a mental disease or this was just who he is.

The former manager at Apple said it wasn't until the day she knew she was going to walk out on him that it occurred to her that the recordings would be evidence.

Even when she went to the cops, Rastogi said she begged them not to arrest him at his work place because it would destroy his career.

Looking back: Rastogi (pictured as a child) was raised in a traditional Indian family and believed in arranged marriages

Happier times: Rastogi and Gattani (pictured) were 24 years old when they had a traditional Indian wedding in 2009

She admitted she didn't plan on using recordings against Gattani because she was still hoping to save him.

Rastogi and Gattani, both from India, had an arranged marriage when they were 24, and she admitted to Kelly: 'I didn't know what I was walking into.'

Months after their traditional Indian wedding in 2009, Rastogi said she and Gattani had gone to see a movie that ended up being sold out, and he kept getting angrier and angrier on the drive home.

'He slapped me and he pushed me; I fell down,' she recalled. 'He even kicked me in the belly, and I was in such utter complete shock.'

She ended up spending the night on the floor where her husband had beaten her, and he didn't even bother apologizing the next morning.

Kelly noted that millions of women would say that they would have gotten up and left if they were in that situation, but Rastogi stressed it 'doesn't work that way.'

Miserable future: 'I didn't know what I was walking into,' Rastogi admitted

Horror: Rastogi said he hit her just a few months into their marriage. She claimed that he pushed her over and kicked her because a movie they had planned on seeing was sold out

Hope: In 2013, Rastogi gave birth to her daughter, and she hoped that the abuse would stop

Rastogi said she was afraid of what her husband was capable of, and she was also worried about what her family would think. She hid the abuse from her family in hopes that she could fix her marriage because she didn't believe in divorce.

'Whatever little self-esteem you are left with, they literally take a hammer and a chisel and break you down  and not into a pulp but a powder,' she said of abusers like her husband.

In 2013, Rastogi gave birth to her daughter, and she hoped that the abuse would stop now that they were parents. However, six days after she was born, Rastogi was nursing and having trouble latching when Gattani told her she wasn't doing it right.

The frustrated mom hit back telling him, 'Then you do it,' and she said he hit her right in front of their daughter.

Their child was just three months old when a mail carrier witnessed him beating her and called the police, who arrested Gattani and took him to jail.

Shocking: Rastogi said Gattani hit her right in front of their daughter just six days after she had given birth

Strife: Their child was just three months old when a mail carrier witnessed him beating her and called the police, who arrested Gattani and took him to jail

Trapped: Rastogi was desperate to keep their family together, so she hired a lawyer to help him and had his charge reduced

Rastogi said he sounded so broken when he called her from jail that she bailed him out and hired an attorney to defend him. Although he was charged with felony assault, the charge was reduced at Rastogi's request.

'I wanted to keep the family together, and I really believed after how broken he sounded when he called from the jail to bail him out that things would be different,' she admitted. 'I wanted to believe that.'

However, despite being put on probation, Rastogi said the abuse picked back up shorting after his 52-week domestic violence class was finished.

Over the course of ten years, Rastogi said he has hit on her head, pulled her hair, pushed her, slapped her, and punched her.

Towards the end of her marriage, she feared for her life and was preparing for her her death. She had a will drawn up, and she started speaking to a life insurance agent.

Nothing helped: Rastogi said her husband continued to beat her shortly after he finished his 52-week domestic abuse classes

Evidence: Rastogi started recording the abuse in 2016 in hopes of getting Gattani help

'These abusers have a way to manipulate you,' she said of why she stayed for so long. 'They know just how far to throw you and then how to pull you back. People like me, I couldn't even imagine divorce.

'That word was in my vocabulary to be never used.'

She explained that she felt like she would be letting her parents down if she got a divorced, noting that abusers 'know which button to press and when.'

Rastogi credited her lawyer Michael Pascoe and his paralegal Karen Ewart for helping her escape her marriage.

'From the day they heard my story, they took me in as if I was a member of their family who was dying and had to be revived back to life, and they have never let me go since then,' she said.

Last June, Gattani was ordered to serve 30 days behind bars as part of his domestic violence plea deal. Due to time already served, Gattani spent only 13 days in prison.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Allison M. Danner ordered that Gattani must perform weekend community service for five months after his release from jail.

Support system: Rastogi credited her lawyer Michael Pascoe and his paralegal Karen Ewart for helping her escape her marriage

Help: 'They took me in as if I was a member of their family who was dying and had to be revived back to life, and they have never let me go since then,' she said

Making a difference: Rastogi and her family attended the Big Little Night event to benefit Futures Without Violence in September

He also had to avoid alcohol during his probation given it appeared to be a contributing factor in his violence towards his estranged wife.

Rastogi had begged the judge for a longer jail sentence, calling domestic violence 'truly terrorism' and saying that she had been victimized by the judicial system.

Gattani had faced two felony counts of domestic abuse but pleaded no contest earlier this year to a non-violent felony charge of being an accessory after the fact and a misdemeanor count of offensive touching.

That reduced the chances of Gattani facing deportation to his native India. Rastogi was told that it is policy in the governor's office in California to consider the immigration consequences of a criminal when sentencing.

'It's beyond my logic to understand why any reason of leniency would be allowed,' Rastogi said of the ruling.

Kelly reached out to the Santa Clara District Attorney's office about the public criticism of the plea deal ahead of the show.

'Ms. Rastogi is the victim of domestic violence. She and other victims deserve from us respect, advocacy, safety, and criminal accountability,' the office said in a statement.
A mother has threatened to shoot down a drone after her 'terrified' children felt it was watching them in their backyard.

Jodie Smither, from New Zealand, said her 11-year-old son and daughter, aged six, were outside on Thursday evening when she heard a buzzing noise.

She claimed the aerial device was hovering about a metre from their backyard where her children were playing, Otago Daily Times reported.

A mother has threatened to shoot down a drone after her 'terrified' children felt it was watching them in their backyard (stock image)

'We've got quite a private backyard and this has taken that privacy away,' she said.

As soon as the mother spotted the drone, which she said looked like a 'cream-coloured spider', it took off from the property.

Ms Smither said her daughter struggled to sleep that night after she believed 'it's an alien coming to get us'.

The mother said she's prepared to shoot the drone out of the sky with her air rifle or hurl objects at it if it returns to her home.

She claimed the aerial device was hovering about a metre from her backyard where her children were playing (stock image)

She has since lodged a complaint with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A CAA spokeswoman confirmed drones were illegal to fly over properties without the homeowner's permission.

'We are following up the incident,' the spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

'We're stepping up our public education campaigns to make more people more aware of the rules around drones, to keep everyone safe.'

She advised people against shooting down drones because it's a serious offence - and they could face up to three months in prison to a $3,000 fine.
It's often been said that if every woman felt confident in her own skin the beauty industry would cease to exist.

But given that's not the case, some women are opting to have injectibles, fillers and plastic surgery to enhance their natural assets and boost their self-esteem.

One person who has taken offence at the rise of such treatments is American-based poet Janne Robinson, who unleashed a vicious tirade on Facebook on the topic.

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One person who took offence at the rise of surgery users was American-based poet Janne Robinson (pictured), who unleashed a vicious tirade on Facebook on the topic

'Stop taking flesh from your a** and putting it in your face. Stop getting silicone sewn to your chest. I am sick of women looking the same,' she wrote

'Women, please stop injecting s*** into your lips,' she began.

'Stop taking flesh from your a** and putting it in your face. Stop getting silicone sewn to your chest. I am sick of women looking the same.

'I am sick of artificially inseminated manufactured blondes with t*** that aren't real, lips that aren't real and their eyebrows looking like they constantly drink 10 espressos a day.

'Let your body goddamn be.'

Janne, who has 55,000 followers on Facebook, regularly posts thoughtful opinion pieces on women's interest topics - but this is the first of its kind to go viral

Janne, who has 55,000 followers on Facebook, regularly posts thoughtful opinion pieces on women's interest topics - but this is the first of its kind to go viral.

'To the women who hopefully haven't altered themselves - who worry their breasts aren't a handful, or they are too boyish, or that their lips are too thin, or that they have wrinkles forming from laughing - you were sewn from the hands of the heavens, by she that is the creator, by all that is and all that should ever be,' she went on.

'I am so sick of seeing women that look the same. I am so sick of seeing manufactured, painted faces, with dyed hair in tiny dresses.

'You've been spoon fed the wrong kind of pretty since you opened your eyes, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry you ever thought you were anything but the perfection you entered this world as.

'I'm sorry you thought you'd be more worthy, more beautiful if you tucked and plucked and sucked and painted it all away,' she continued in the post

The blonde-haired author said she wished she could 'hover over the plastic surgeon's desk' and tell the women to 'get out of here'

'I'm sorry you thought you'd be more worthy, more beautiful if you tucked and plucked and sucked and painted it all away.

'I'm sorry we live in a world where you believe the most important thing you can be is pretty.

'It should be a crime to alter anything about our flesh - our meat bags are tired of being poked, prodded and stretched.

'Un-do! Undo! Un-f***ing-do!'

The blonde-haired author said she wished she could 'hover over the plastic surgeon's desk' and tell the women to 'get out of here'.

'Get into your soul - your soul is screaming that the only thing you need is your heart that beats and your spirit that cries and your feet that thuds to take over this earth.

A number of women have taken issue with the crusade for 'natural' beauty and posted scathing comments below the think piece

According to research by McCrindle , one in four Australian women have tried liposuction, a breast augmentation or a facelift (Janne Robinson pictured)

'Please, Jesus f***, stop sewing your a** to your face,' the rant finished.

A number of women have taken issue with the crusade for 'natural' beauty and posted scathing comments below the think piece.

'Oh and I'm currently waiting on plastic surgery for a breast reduction. My breasts cause me health issues. What's your opinion on that?' one commenter wrote.

'It's really easy for a conventionally attractive person to write something like this. I like you, Janne, but this is really misguided,' another added.

'It's really easy for a conventionally attractive person to write something like this. I like you, Janne, but this is really misguided,' another added

According to research by McCrindle, one in four Australian women have tried liposuction, a breast augmentation or a facelift.

There has also been a general rise in lip fillers and butt implants since celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian rose to prominence.

But there are no complete statistics for how many women have gone under the knife Down Under - a fact which may change as the trend continues to grow.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Janne for comment.
As the cost of living continues to rise, many families are on the lookout for ways to save money at the checkout when buying groceries.

However even the most determined bargain-hunter would struggle to feed a family on just $50 a week.

FEMAIL took up the challenge at the three big supermarket chains, trying to complete a weekly shop with just $50.

FEMAIL used a popular meal guide created by Queensland mother-of-two Jody Allen. Ms Allen, the founder of the blog, Stay at Home Mum, made headlines when she claimed to spend just $50 on groceries for her family of four.

On her weekly list is three litres of milk, two loaves of bread, broccoli, potatoes, flour, frozen vegetables, a dozen eggs, apples, three cans of crushed tomatoes, spaghetti, 500 grams mince meat, rice, sultanas, popping corn, apricot halves, chicken pieces, bacon, onions and oats.

There were some surprising results and disparities between the three supermarkets.

Here's what we found.

On her Jody Allen's list is three litres of milk, two loaves of bread, broccoli, potatoes, flour, frozen vegetables, a dozen eggs, apples, three cans of crushed tomatoes, spaghetti, 500 grams mince meat, rice, sultanas, popping corn, apricot halves, chicken pieces, bacon, onions and oats (pictured: Groceries from Coles)

Coles was slightly cheaper than Woolworths, but Aldi came in the best for value - and often you got more for your money at this supermarket (stock image)

The Woolworths total came in at $55.60 for all of this food (pictured) - at the supermarket, there was a wide variety of products available on the day

The Woolworths Shop * 1kg long grain rice - $1.40 * 375 grams sultanas - $2.60 * Bag of popping corn - $0.95 * 500 grams spaghetti - $0.65 * 1kg flour - $0.75 * Butter - $2.00 * 500 grams beef mince - $4.00 * 410 gram tin of apricots - $2.00 * 3 tins of crushed tomatoes - $3.00 * Bag of winter vegetables - $3.00 * 1kg chicken pieces - $3.81 * 750 grams bacon - $7.60 * 1kg potatoes - $3.77 * 1kg apples - $4.38 * 1kg onions - $2.72 * 12 eggs - $3.00 * Broccoli x 2 - $1.82 * White sandwich bread x 2 loaves - $2.00 * Three litres of milk - $3.00 * 1kg oats - $3.50 (or the equivalent to $3.15 per 900 grams) TOTAL - $55.95 - or $55.60 with weights taken into account. Advertisement

THE WOOLWORTHS EXPERIENCE

FEMAIL first visited Woolworths, with the aim of buying either home brand or the cheapest products available at each supermarket to match Jody's list.

The store had a wide variety of products available and plenty of options, so we had no difficulty in finding the right items.

The total at Woolworths for Jody's shopping list was $55.60.

The most expensive item from Woolworths was 750 grams of bacon at the deli. While Jody only spends $5.76 on her bacon, in Woolworths it cost $7.60.

Elsewhere, the Queensland mother-of-two's calculations were more or less the same as what the items cost at Woolworths.

However, while Jody pays $1.87 for her 900 grams of oats, FEMAIL paid $3.50 for 1kg, equivalent to $3.15 per 900 grams.

This was, in part, because there were no home brand oats available on the shelves on the day FEMAIL shopped.

Woolworths was also the only supermarket of the three where you were able to buy Jody's specified 'chicken pieces'.

At the other two, FEMAIL had to purchase chicken drumsticks instead.

'Our customers also tell us that choice is important to them," a Woolworths spokesperson told FEMAIL. "That's why we stock more than 20,000 products across our stores, including some of Australia's most loved brands, offering more choice than any other supermarket in Australia.

'Customers should regularly look out for Prices Dropped and Low Price Always around the store to ensure that they are getting the best quality offers.'

Jody shops around to get the best bargains (pictured: her shopping list), and claims it is possible for a family of four to live off $50 a week on groceries

While the total Aldi receipt showed $52.88, that included many bulk items. One a pound-for-pound basis, Aldi's groceries were by far the cheapest

THE ALDI EXPERIENCE

While Aldi does not have its own home brand per se, FEMAIL sought out the cheapest possible items to match Jody's shopping list.

The Aldi Shop * 2kg long grain rice - $2.79 (or the equivalent to $1.39 per 1kg) * 1kg sultanas - $3.99 (or the equivalent of $1.42 per 375 grams) * Bag of popping corn - $0.89 * 500 grams spaghetti - $0.65 * 1kg flour - $0.75 * Butter - $1.79 * 500 grams beef mince - $3.39 * 825 gram tin of apricots - $2.49 (or the equivalent of $1.20 per 400 grams) * 3 tins of crushed tomatoes - $1.80 * Bag of winter vegetables - $1.59 * 2kg chicken drumstick pieces - $5.99 (or the equivalent of $2.99 per 1kg) * 1kg bacon - $7.69 (or the equivalent of $5.76 per 750 grams) * 3kg potatoes - $3.49 (or the equivalent of $1.16 per kilogram) * 1kg apples - $1.70 * 1kg onions - $1.99 * 12 eggs - $2.79 * Broccoli x 2 - $2.60 * White sandwich bread x 2 loaves - $1.98 * Three litres of milk - $2.99 * 750 grams oats - $1.08 (or the equivalent to $1.26 per 900 grams) TOTAL - $52.88 - or $39.64 with weights taken into account and three eco-friendly bags at 0.15c each removed from total. Advertisement

Although Aldi does not have the same variety of products as the big supermarkets (Coles and Woolworths), it certainly provided value for money.

The total at Aldi was $52.88, but that includes many bulk items and, when broken down to the weights specified in Jody's list, the total price dropped sharply.

Jody listed 1kg of chicken pieces, there was no such product available on the day. The closest product at Aldi was a 2kg bag of chicken drumsticks for $5.99 - equivalent to $2.99 per kilo.

The same was the case for bacon, which was available in a 1kg packet, instead of 750 grams loose from the deli counter (Aldi does not have a deli).

The shopping experience showed there are great bargains at Aldi, provided you don't mind buying in bulk.

While a 410 gram can of apricots from Coles and Woolworths cost $2.00, at Aldi, if you paid $2.49, you would get a can double that size.

For sultanas, a one kilogram bag cost $3.99 or, pro rata, $1.42 for 375 grams. The Coles and Woolies' price for 375 grams was $2.60.

Aldi did not have crushed tomatoes on the day - so FEMAIL bought diced, which cost $0.60 per can and are generally cheaper than crushed tomatoes.

'We're not surprised to hear that the grocery shop at Aldi has come out on top for the best value,' a spokesperson from Aldi told Daily Mail Australia.

'While other supermarkets might offer temporary markdowns and promotional pricing, we allow customers to save time and money with the promise of permanently low prices everyday.

"We encourage grocery shoppers to head to their local Aldi, where they'll be pleasantly surprised by just how much they can save, any day of the week.'

While you may end up spending a little more in Aldi, you will also get a lot more food for your money, and it will save you valuable cash in the long term (pictured: the Aldi receipt)

There were plenty of bargains to be had in the aisles of Coles, where the shop came in at a grand total of $55.76 (pictured: the Coles shop)

THE COLES EXPERIENCE

The Coles Shop * 1kg long grain rice - $1.40 * 375 grams sultanas - $2.60 * Bag of popping corn - $0.95 * 500 grams spaghetti - $0.65 * 1kg flour - $0.75 * Butter - $1.40 * 500 grams beef mince - $4.00 * 410 gram tin of apricots - $2.00 * 3 tins of crushed tomatoes - $3.60 * Bag of winter vegetables - $3.00 * 1kg chicken drumstick pieces - $3.42 * 750 grams bacon - $8.72 * 1kg potatoes - $3.91 * 1kg apples - $3.59 * 1kg onions - $2.93 * 12 eggs - $3.00 * Broccoli x 2 - $3.54 * White sandwich bread x 2 loaves - $2.00 * Three litres of milk - $3.00 * 900 grams oats - $1.30 TOTAL - $55.76. Advertisement

At Coles, FEMAIL opted for home brand items where possible, at the weights taken from Jody's shopping list.

The cost of the Coles shop was $55.76 - putting it just in front of Woolworths for value and behind Aldi.

There were plenty of bargains to be had in the aisles of Coles.

Among them were the chicken drumsticks at $3.42 - $0.68 cents less than Jody's shop and $0.40 less than a similar product at Woolworths.

Rolled oats for $1.30 was also significantly less than Jody's price of $1.87.

At both Coles and Woolworths, FEMAIL could buy the crushed tomatoes as specified by Jody's shopping list.

If FEMAIL had purchased the diced tomatoes instead - as done at Aldi - it would have meant a saving of $1.20 on both the Coles and Woolworths total prices.

'Coles is committed to investing in value for customers and lowering the cost of shopping for Australian families,' a spokesperson from Coles told Daily Mail Australia.

'We have reduced the price on more than 4,000 products and by focusing on the products our customers buy most.

'Most of the items used in this basket comparison ... are Aldi bulk buys compared to products that are sold at other retailers by the kilo. Buying in bulk is generally cheaper at all retailers.'

Jody Allen's loaded baked potatoes INGREDIENTS 4 Large Potatoes Pictured: Jody Allen's loaded baked potatoes, made from her $50 shop 200g Cooked Broad Oak Farms Chicken Mince (or any leftover roast chicken you may have) 200g Cowbelle Cheese (Grated, optional) 1 tablespoon Beautifully Butterfully Butter 1/2 broccoli head, cut into pieces and cooked Stonemill Salt and Pepper METHOD 1. Clean your potatoes well (use potatoes of the same size, so they finish cooking at the same time) and prick them with a fork a few times. 2. Arrange in the slow cooker, rub with oil and sprinkle with salt. 3. Bake on LOW for six hours. 4. Once the potatoes have been cooked in the Slow Cooker, allow them to cool slightly. 5. Slice through the potato and remove half the flesh. Add the potato flesh to a bowl and mash with the butter. 6. Season well with the salt and pepper. Mix with the broccoli and 1 cup of leftover roast chicken and pile back on the potato. Top with cheese if you want and have it in your home already, and grill for five minutes or until the cheese is melted. Source: Stay At Home Mum Advertisement

Queensland mother-of-two Jody Allen (pictured) and creator of the blog, Stay at Home Mum, made headlines when she started spending just $50 on groceries for her family of four

JODY ALLEN'S STORY AND HER TIPS

Ms Allen was made redundant in 2009 while on maternity leave and pregnant with her second child.



She then started her website to share her money-saving experiences while her family lived on one wage.

Seven dinners to enjoy using these ingredients * Bacon and egg pie * Apricot chicken * Mince chow mein * Bacon and mixed vegetable risotto * Spaghetti Bolognese * Vegetable or potato frittata * Stuffed and baked potatoes Source: Stay At Home Mum Advertisement

'I panicked at the thought of living on just one income,' she recalled.

'To keep our home, my husband and I crunched the numbers and we found we had a mere $50 a week to spend on groceries.

'Fifty-dollars does not get you very far  certainly not shopping like I used to  so I had to rethink how we ate, how we shopped and what we cooked day to day.'

Ms Allen said to reduce the cost of groceries, families need to start making small cuts first.

'If you are going from say $250 per week to $50 per week in a single hit - it will be a recipe for disaster,' she said.

'So start small, and keep working at it by applying a brand new tip or tips every week.'

To curb spending, she advised buying supermarket generic brands for items and making ingredient switches that won't impact the taste of your food.

'Greek yoghurt is a great substitute for items like sour cream, mayonnaise, cream and milk,' she said.

'Rolled oats can be used instead of bread crumbs in smoothies (to make them more filling).'

It can be pricey to spend money at the supermarket, where shops can set back families $100 or more (stock image)

According to Ms Allen, when it comes to cooking with your limited supplies, it's a good idea to make every meal you cook go towards a second one.

'Say you have leftover spaghetti bolognese, you can have this on a baked potato topped with cheese and steamed vegetables the next night, or make them into spaghetti bolognese muffins ... or you can turn it into a pie,' she said.

'Leftovers can always be re-branded for later or even just as a hot lunch the next day.'

To read more from the Stay At Home Mum, please click here.
Face masks are all the rage, but it can be difficult to know which one you should reach for.

According to statistics from Google, 'masking' was the most searched-for skincare term earlier this year.

It's fair to say business is booming, with different skincare and beauty brands wheeling out their own versions of the humble face mask.

Unfortunately, picking the right face mask isn't easy, so FEMAIL spoke to Nikole Duong from The Body Shop Australia to break it down.

Face masks are all the rage, but it can be difficult to know which one you should reach for (pictured: Mimi Elashiry)

'A face mask is a treat for your skin. It's used in addition to your everyday skincare regimen and addresses any concerns that you need it to,' Nikole told FEMAIL.

'So before committing, it's important to know your skin type, the exact concerns that you may want to target and how you want your skin to look and feel afterwards.'

Nikole explained that you need a trusted skincare expert to help you navigate the complicated beauty world.

'This skincare expert should know your unique needs, advise you on the best solutions for your skin, the ingredients you may need more of and what you may need to pare back on,' she said.

Nikole explained that you need a trusted skincare expert to help you navigate the complicated beauty world

You want to look for face masks that are free from parabens, paraffins, silicone or mineral oils.

These ingredients can be known to impair the barrier of the skin or affect its ability to retain hydration.

Nikole revealed the kind of face mask you should be buying for your skin type.

OILY AND PROBLEMATIC SKIN

'Addressing overactive sebum production and potentially any break-outs caused by this is a priority with oily skin, so a clay mask that contains Tea Tree is perfect,' Nikole explained.

'Tea tree is renowned for its anti-bacterial properties to heal and clear any breakouts.'

The addition of Tea Tree also helps to leave your skin feeling fresh and cool and helps any problem areas without over-drying your face.

'Addressing overactive sebum production and potentially any break-outs caused by this is a priority with oily skin, so a clay mask that contains Tea Tree is perfect,' Nikole said (stock image)

COMBINATION SKIN

NIKOLE'S FACE MASK TIP Watch the time! Some masks can only stay on the skin for a short period of time, due to their ingredients, whilst than others can stay on for longer. They also may have benefits from being left on for longer. So make sure you have your timer on and rinse when you need to! Advertisement

'Here we may find slight excess sebum on the T-Zone, the forehead, nose and chin,' Nikole explained.

'It's important to not strip the cheeks of any hydration or use any ingredients that may overstimulate the cheeks, which may cause a reaction.'

You want to look for a mask that draws out any impurities and that contains a dose of antioxidants, leaving the skin feeling purified and glowing.

DRY SKIN

When it comes to dealing with dry skin, hydration is the most important step.

'Any overnight masks here would be the perfect solution. Pop it on, let it do the work whilst you sleep and you wake up with skin that's soft and nourished,' she said.

'If you're not a fan of leaving a mask on overnight, any masks that are "wet", so not dry like clay ones, are great to replenish your complexion.'

If you have combination skin you want to look for a mask that draws out any impurities and that contains a dose of antioxidants, leaving the skin feeling purified and glowing (stock image)

You want to look for face masks that are free from parabens, paraffins, silicone or mineral oils

MATURE SKIN

'A combination of anti-ageing ingredients and moisture are the key elements that would be important in a mask for mature skin,' Nikole said.

'Again, any masks loaded with hydration to plump the skin and ingredients assist in skin-cell regeneration is a must!'

SENSITIVE SKIN

Nikole said that sensitive skin is a little more complicated than other skin types.

'Here's where your skincare expert comes in handy,' she explained.

'Sensitive skin types absolutely need to be consulted on what their skin needs but also, what to avoid.'

Nikole said that sensitive skin is a little more complicated than other skin types

MULTI-MASKING

WHAT IS MULTI-MASKING? Multi-masking is when you apply more than one face mask to your skin. This is because not very many people have the same skin type all over their faces. Our T-zone tends to be oilier and more prone to blockages and spots, cheeks tend to need something hydrating and collagen boosting and the area around our eyes tends to me more delicate. Advertisement

Some may not believe that multi-masking is worth the time and energy it takes to apply a variety of masks to your face, but Nikole disagrees.

'Your skincare regimen is all about addressing your unique needs and multi-masking does this, all at the same time to reap in the benefits almost instantly,' she said.

'There's almost a "strategy" that goes on behind multi-masking.

'It's important to know your skin, its target areas and concerns and the results you want  those areas where blemishes need addressing, find a mask for it!'.
Lady Amelia Windsor and Lady Kitty Spencer led a line-up of glamorous guests at a D&G party in New York last night.

The British society beauties dazzled in show-stopping cocktail dresses as they stepped out to celebrate the Italian fashion house.

Lady Amelia, 22, and Lady Kitty, 27, have both modelled for the brand, gracing the catwalk and showcasing its designs on the pages of magazines.

The models both jetted over to New York to join the cream of the fashion world for an epic D&G runway show at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday night.

Sixties sequins: Lady Amelia Windsor, 22, was ready to party in a fun and flirty mini dress

Disco queen: Lady Kitty Spencer, 27, dazzled in a green fit-and-flare dress and gold heels

But last night it was a more casual affair, with both aristocrats opting for flirty frocks for the occasion.

Lady Amelia, dubbed 'the most beautiful royal' by Tatler, channelled her inner 60s siren in a red and silver sequin mini shift dress with bold rose applique.

She paired the thigh-skimming dress with a pair of knee-high black suede boots and completed the look with a heavily embellished black handbag by the designer.

Meanwhile Lady Kitty, who is the niece of Princess Diana, looked ready for the dance floor in a green fit-and-flare dress that accentuated her svelte frame.

Glittering bash: Lady Amelia, a D&G model, practised her pout on the way into the event

Laid-back lady: Amelia kept her signature loose blonde waves and pared back make-up

She added a pair of gold strappy sandals and a bold jewel-encrusted headpiece, covered in white and green gems.

Kitty jetted to the US last week for a Vogue photo shoot and continued her tour on Sunday night when she attended the show-stopping Spring 2018 Alta Moda Fashion Show on Sunday night.

Kitty wore a cream gown with a voluminous skirt and festooned with colourful sequins.

Crowning glory: Lady Kitty finished her look with a bold jewel-encrusted headpiece

Strike a pose: The model was on hand to celebrate the Italian fashion house on Monday night

Meanwhile Lady Amelia dazzled in a jewel-encrusted D&G corset, with elaborate matching head piece, and a flowing pleated skirt in white chiffon which offered a flash of thigh.

The fairytale look was finished with a pair of sparkling gold platform sandals and a clutch bag in cream satin.

Dakota Fanning, Jamie Foxx and Catherine Zeta Jones also descended on Manhattan for the show.

Last week, Kitty joined Sistine Stallone, 19, and Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, 21, taking over Time Square for a glamorous Vogue Brazil shoot.

Clutching a bright pink invite, Lady Amelia Windsor arrives at the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Mood Collection 2018 at New York's Metropolitan Opera House

The daughter of 9th Earl Charles Spencer, who is signed with Kate Moss's former modelling agency Storm, is regarded as one of the most eligible young women on London's social scene, having split from her property tycoon boyfriend at the start of the summer.

Meanwhile Lady Amelia is tipped to become one of the fashion industry's biggest stars.

All the signs of success are there. Lady Amelia has already walked for Dolce & Gabbana and appeared in a film for footwear designer Penelope Chilvers since signing to Storm Model Management, the British agency that discovered Kate Moss, in 2017.
A British celebrity photographer has suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash in Los Angeles.

Sarah Dunn was placed in a medically induced coma after she was struck by a car as she crossed the street near her home in the city last Tuesday.

Stars including Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy are among those who have donated to a fund set up by her husband Marcus Doyle to raise $1million to pay for her treatment and long-term care.

Writing on the Go Fund Me page Mr Doyle, a photographer, said his wife faces a 'long, difficult fight' and will need 'extensive specialized care to recover fully and return to making art'.

Sarah Dunn was placed in a medically induced coma after she was struck by a car as she crossed the street near her home in the city last Tuesday

Her husband Marcus Doyle set up a Go Fund Me page to raise $1million to pay for her recovery and long-term care. The post is accompanied by this harrowing image of a bruised Ms Dunn connected to machines in hospital

Ms Dunn, originally from London, has built a glittering career photographing A-listers including Keira Knightley, Tom Hanks and Daniel Radcliffe.

Her mother and brother have arrived from the UK to support her in her recovery.

Appealing for support, the Go Fund Me page reads: 'Sarah was struck by a speeding car on the afternoon of April 3rd 2018 as she crossed a street near her home in Los Angeles.

'While the impact spared most of her major organs, she suffered serious brain trauma called Diffuse Axonal Injury.

'It will likely take years to heal. We don't yet know what specific challenges she may face in coordination, perception, balance, and other aspects of brain function.

'However, it is clear is that she faces a long, difficult fight and will need extensive specialized care to recover fully and return to making art.'

Nicholas Hoult, left, and James McAvoy, right, are among those who have donated to the fund

Close friend Hoult, 28, who starred in TV series Skins before moving to Hollywood, shared an Instagram post appealing to followers to donate to the fund

The post is accompanied by a harrowing image of a bruised Ms Dunn connected to machines in hospital and a slideshow of images taken throughout her life.

Donations have been made in the names of James McAvoy and Melanie Griffith, as well as a number of prominent figures in the photography industry.

Close friend Hoult, 28, who starred in TV series Skins before moving to Hollywood, shared an Instagram post appealing to followers to donate to the fund.

Sharing a photo taken of him by Ms Dunn, he wrote: 'My close friend Sarah Dunn has been badly hurt by a car when she was crossing the street.

'Sarah is a brilliantly talented photographer, she took the above photo, along with so many other wonderful portraits.

Ms Dunn, originally from London, has built a glittering career photographing A-listers including Keira Knightley, Tom Hanks and Daniel Radcliffe. She recently took this stunning portrait of Sir David Attenborough

'She is a spark of fun, and warmth, and happiness who Ive been so lucky to work with and have as a friend for many years.

'A go fund me page has been set up to help aid in her recovery, please support by sharing or donating if you can, link in my bio.'

A separate post shared on Ms Dunn's Instagram account by friend and celebrity make-up artist Amy Oresman revealed she is 'holding her own and is fighting hard'.

It continued: 'She is very strong and she is not paralysed. She does have a very serious brain injury and will remain in critical care for quite sometime as she must be looked after very closely.

'Her doctors are very optimistic that she will recover but it will take time, patience and all of our love.'

Ms Oresman promised to update Ms Dunn's 9,800 followers on her recovery.

The fund has so far raised $11,581 (8,177).
Without question I am the last of a dying breed (letter writers). Being the world record holder (1,068) for letters to the editor, this quite probably will be my last letter. Michael Jordan gave his farewell address and since I am the Michael Jordan of letter writing its only right that I do the same. Twenty-eight years ago I wrote my first letter, after that I got the letter writing fever and couldnt stop.

Never did I think I would likely be inducted into the Letter Writers Hall of Fame. It takes a lot of dedication, perseverance, determination and motivation to write letters week after week but then again, after the first one, it became an addiction. But it was a good addiction giving my point of view on right and wrong (and Gods too.)

I tried all kinds of writing: creative writing, humorous writing, serious issue writing, political writing and religious writing. Early days of my writing I had three long letters in one week. Lately it publishes one letter in three weeks. I dont know why The Citizen is so uptight with their letter space (8 by 5 inches). I remember back in the day four pages of letters were published. It took over an hour to read them. Now it takes about two minutes and two seconds.
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A controversial women's-only office space planned for the UK, featuring breastfeeding rooms and a beauty parlour, is being investigated by a human rights commission.

Two American entrepreneurs are hoping to open a UK version of The Wing, a networking and social club in New York, with men not allowed to step inside as members or even guests.

It is understood that even delivery staff who are male will not be allowed across the threshold.

However across the pond, the organisation is currently under investigation by the Commission on Human Rights because of its strict gender policy.

All men are banished from the working space and will be knocked back if they apply for membership.

The Wing's founders, Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan, claim the 'no men' space helps to create a diverse, culturally-rich and positive environment

The Wing, located in NYC's Flatiron building. The controversial women's-only office space is now planned for the UK, featuring breastfeeding rooms and a beauty parlour - despite being investigated by a human rights commission

Membership starts from 150 a month ($215) and offers access to a breastfeeding room, bar and beauty parlour, alongside the traditional office space and events and networking sessions.

The Wing was founded in 2016 in New York as a private social club and co-working space for women and currently has four US offices, with a further two set to open.

Its website currently has a London branch listed as as 'coming soon.'

The founders, Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan, claim the 'no men' space helps to create a diverse, culturally-rich and positive environment.

They insist that they wanted to offer women a space to network without being overshadowed by men.

Female guests can relax on pastel-coloured sofas while firing off emails. Two American entrepreneurs are hoping to open a UK version of the networking and social club in New York, with men not allowed to step inside as members or even guests

A colourful corner of The Wing in NYC, which is the inspiration behind the new women's only members' club planned for London. It is not illegal to limit membership based on restrictive characteristics, but the move is set to ruffle feathers

Controversial: It is understood that even delivery staff who are male will not be allowed across the threshold. Across the pond, the organisation is currently under investigation by the Commission on Human Rights because of its strict gender policy

Going worldwide: The Wing was founded in 2016 in New York as a private social club and co-working space for women and currently has four US offices, with a further two set to open

Exclusive: Membership at The Wing starts from 150 a month ($215) and offers access to a breastfeeding room, bar and beauty parlour, alongside the traditional office space and events and networking sessions

Going worldwide: The Wing's website currently has a London branch listed as as 'coming soon.' Its female founders insist that they wanted to offer women a space to network without being overshadowed by men.

Defending women-only workspaces, Griselda Togobo said: 'We are for equality and are simply providing a service, meeting a need for women to connect and ultimately leverage their networks to level the playing field in the strive for equality in the workplace'

Griselda Togobo, the managing director of Forward Ladies defended women-only workspaces.

She said: 'The rise of the women's only work spaces and networks is in response to a need women have to work and connect with other women in safe and secure environments.

'These places provide an opportunity for women to share candidly and to gain support and perspective on the unique challenges women face in the business world.

'Women's only networks like Forward Ladies or women's only workspaces like The Wing are not anti-men.

'We are for equality and are simply providing a service, meeting a need for women to connect and ultimately leverage their networks to level the playing field in the strive for equality in the workplace.'

Speaking about female offices spaces like The Wing, Griselda added: 'The rise of the women's only work spaces and networks is in response to a need women have to work and connect with other women in safe and secure environments'

The Wing's founders, who are planning to bring their business idea to the UK. However the announcement has created debate, with some saying that supporters should be very careful of painting all men as predatory rapists

UK gender policy expert Rebecca Gill said: 'I think that there will be attempts if it came here to argue on single sex space, but I think that wouldn't be a problem under UK law.

'All women only spaces are a marvellous addition to working life and I think we should also be thinking about why women want them and what it is about mixed sex spaces that make women feel that they can't work as well.'

But the announcement has created debate, with some saying that supporters should be very careful of painting all men as 'predatory rapists'.

Men's rights campaigner Mike Buchanan, leader of Justice For Men and Boys (And The Women Who Love Them), said he had no problem with women-only spaces, as long as men were able to retain theirs.

But he said it becomes damaging if women began to paint a picture of offices with men somehow being dangerous and unsafe.

He said: 'I have a view on it that may be surprising, but I have no problem with it at all, and the reason is that I'm a big fan of men-only spaces.

'Men only organisations have almost invariably agreed to accept women. It's fine, as long as male-only spaces stay male-only.

Giving her take on The Wing (pictured), Griselda Togobo added: 'These places provide an opportunity for women to share candidly and to gain support and perspective on the unique challenges women face in the business world'

Controversial: Commenting on the club, one men's rights campaigner has said it becomes damaging if women began to paint a picture of offices with men somehow being dangerous and unsafe

Growing trend: The announcement follows the launch of London's first women-only private members' club, The AllBright, which opened in Fitzrovia last month

Seth Hoy, NYC Commission on Human Rights spokesperson: 'The NYC Commission on Human Rights has an open investigation into The Wing. The Commission works to ensure entities and businesses in NYC are in compliance with the City Human Rights Law'

Commenting on The Wing, one campaigner has said: 'Men only organisations have almost invariably agreed to accept women. It's fine, as long as male-only spaces stay male-only'

'I also think we need to be very careful about the language used around these spaces.'

The announcement follows the launch of London's first women-only private members' club, The AllBright, which opened in Fitzrovia last month.

Unlike The Wing, it is not intended as a workspace, but more of a social club where women can hold meetings, or attend events. Membership there costs 600 a year plus a 250 joining fee.

Seth Hoy, NYC Commission on Human Rights spokesperson: 'The NYC Commission on Human Rights has an open investigation into The Wing.

'The Commission works to ensure entities and businesses in NYC are in compliance with the City Human Rights Law.'
One shopper was left wishing she had tried on her new coat before ordering it online - as what she received wasn't what she was expecting.

Becky Latham, a student from the University of Manchester, revealed in a post on Twitter that she had received a huge puffer jacket that looked very different to the one she'd seen on the Urban Outfitters website

In a viral post that's been liked nearly 120,000 times, she tweeted a selfie in the coat to the trendy store, joking, 'it's exactly like I imagined'.

Becky Latham, a student from the University of Manchester, ordered a puffer jacket from the Urban Outfitters website that swamped her frame

The jacket was part of the brand's Urban Renewal Vintage range and is now sold out on their website.

It was on sale for 55 and is a much smaller fit on the model pictured online.

However, it swamped Becky's slim frame, and she shared a hilarious snap of the ill-fitting jacket on Twitter.

In a sarcastic tweet to the brand's account, she wrote: 'Thank you @UrbanOutfitters its exactly like I imagined x.'

In a sarcastic tweet to the brand's account, she said the puffer jacket wasn't like she imagined

Spot the difference: The 55 jacket was a much tighter fit on the model on the brand's website

Her post has since gone viral, with nearly 40,000 people retweeting it.

Many compared her to several hilarious moments in pop culture, including the moment when Violet Beauregarde swells up like a giant blueberry in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

She was also compared to the giant white robot Baymax from Disney's Big Hero 6.

Another person compared it to the moment at this year's BRIT Awards when host Jack Whitehall wore a huge black puffer jacket during a sketch.

The tweet has since gone viral, with hundreds of people comparing it to pop culture characters

MailOnline has contacted Urban Outfitters and is awaiting comment.

One person tweeted: 'Just imagine all the snacks you could sneak into the movies under that jacket.'

Are you keeping it? So funny. Dont try to drive a car, or walk the dog on a windy day!' another posted.

A third joked: 'Maybe you should try to buy the blue, cause the green one don't fit you, looks like HULK.'
A celebrity make-up artist has thanked his former client Meghan Markle for recommending the services of a 'truly gifted' psychic.

LA-based Spencer Barnes shared a snap of the royal bride-to-be on his Instagram, in which he expressed his gratitude to the former actress for putting him in touch with Richard Win, a 72-year-old intuitive he said has since become a 'powerful friend'.

Mr Barnes said the sought-after psychic - who generates business through word of mouth recommendations and is understood to charge $250 per hour - is the 'real deal'.

The make-up artist did not elaborate further on Meghan's connection to Win, but the fact she passed on his details raises the possibility that Prince Harry's fiancee has enlisted his services herself in the past.

Her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, is known to have sought spiritual guidance from psychics.

'Beautiful soul': Make-up artist Spencer Barnes said he'd approached the 'gifted' psychic on the advice of Meghan Markle

LA-based Spencer, who shared a snap of the actress-turned-royal-in-waiting on his Instagram, said psychic Richard Win was 'the real deal'

Mr Barnes, who shared a photo of Meghan in the make-up chair apparently taken at chic West LA cocktail bar and restaurant The Bungalow, has worked with a host of high profile clients including Heather Graham, Julianne Hough and Mischa Barton.

He said Mr Win had become a 'guiding light' who had helped him see an important project he had on the 'back burner' through to fruition, and that they now work together regularly in a 'developmental creative role'

He told Observer.com that the medium doesn't have an online presence because he values 'privacy', and instead new clients approach him on the recommendation of people he has already worked with.

'If you've never sat down for an hour or two with a truly gifted psychic - it only takes a few minutes to realise that Richard is the real deal, in service to the light,' Mr Barnes said on Instagram.

Prince Harry's mother Princess Diana, who died in 1997, had sessions with mediums including Derbyshire-based Rita Rogers.

London-based Simone Simmons, who became a close confidante and a member of the princess' inner circle, would also spend up to 10 hours at a time on the phone with Diana.

Princess Diana, the late mother of Meghan's husband-to-be, had sessions with Derbyshire medium Rita Rogers

Happy couple: Meghan, seen with Prince Harry in one of the couple's official engagement photographs, will officially become a member of Britain's royal family on May 19th

Thanking Meghan, who will exchange vows with Prince Harry on May 19 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, once again, Mr Barnes added his congratulations ahead of her impending wedding.

'We are all cheering you on as your magical, real-life fairytale story unfolds!' he wrote online.

Kensington Palace declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

The identities of some of the 1,200 members of the public who will join royals, dignitaries and stars at Meghan and Harry's Windsor wedding were made public today.

Among those to receive one of the most coveted invites of the decade are an Afghan war veteran, a survivor of the Manchester bombing, and a 14-year-old schoolboy who has been teaching his class-mates sign language.
Harry and Meghan's engagement photographer has revealed the loved-up couple made his job easy after he received a surprise request to take their official portraits.

Alexi Lubomirski, who was born in the UK and was a protege of Mario Testino, hadn't done an engagement shoot before taking on the prestigious commission from Harry and Meghan.

'It was one of the easiest, most joyful jobs because they were so deliciously in love,' he told E! News.

He added that there was no effort needed to capture the couple in a variety of romantic poses, after telling them to just be themselves while he took their pictures.

Alexi is also firm favorite with celebrities, and has shot cover stars such as Julianne Moore, Demi Moore, Angelina Jolie and Beyonce, but had not worked with either Meghan or Harry before.

'It was nutty. It was a very surreal end to the year because it came out of nowhere,' he recalled.

'I think one of Meghan's friends saw me on Instagram that I was in England during the announcement of the engagement and I was told later that this person said to her, "You should meet Alexi. He's great. You'd love him", and that was it.'

Harry and Meghan's engagement shoot photographer said the shoot was one of the easiest he's done as the couple were 'so deliciously in love'

Alexi Lubomirski revealed he was commissioned by Meghan after a friend of the bride-to-be recommended him shortly after their engagement announcement

Alexi also revealed that he and his wife have been invited to the royal wedding at Windsor Castle on 19th of May as guests.

But he confirmed that he has not been asked to be their official wedding photographer.

The star photographer boasts both royal blood and a philanthropic nature that no doubt impressed Harry and Meghan.

Alexi is a prince of the Polish House of Lubomirski, whose royal lineage stretches back 500 years on his fathers side and gives him the title: 'His Serene Highness'.

According to the photographer, his only direction to the happy couple was to be themselves during the shoot

He was born in England to a Peruvian/English mother and a Polish/French father and at the age of eight, he moved to Botswana with his mother and English stepfather.

Alexi was introduced to star photographer Mario Testino and joined him in Paris as his assistant for four years and has worked regularly for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar.

He has also published books including 'Princely advice for a happy life' - a tribute to his two sons - and 'diverse beauty' about models not usually used in fashion magazines and campaigns.

All proceeds from his books are donated to the charity Concern Worldwide - which fights world poverty - of which Alexi is an ambassador.
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Prince Charles laid a wreath at the Darwin war memorial on Tuesday during the final day of his Australia tour.

The future king, with service medals attached to his grey suit, stood for the Last Post before placing the wreath on the Cenotaph.

He then met soldiers and dignitaries before visiting the base of North-West Mobile Force, an infantry regiment of the Australian Army Reserve.

Paying his respects: Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, lays a wreath at the Cenotaph to commemorate Australian servicemen and women on April 10 in Darwin

Moving service: Prince Charles laid a wreath at the Darwin war memorial on Tuesday during the final day of his Australia tour

Dutiful: The future king, with service medals attached to his grey suit, stood for the Last Post before placing the wreath on the Cenotaph

Honour: Prince Charles steps back from the Cenotaph after laying his wreath on the final day of his Australian tour on Tuesday

G'day mate: Prince Charles greets people with a handshake during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Darwin

Serviceman: The prince wore his medals to the service. The royal served in both the navy and air force during his military career between 1971 and 1994

Greetings: The Prince of Wales, greets well-wishers and a baby named Charlie after the wreath-laying ceremony in Darwin

Sombre: Prince Charles looks down during a rendition of the Last Post before a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Darwin

There he spoke to soldiers who had worked with Prince Harry at the regiment during his four-week secondment with the Australian military in 2015.

He also visited the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre, which was set up after the 2002 Bali bombings to respond to health emergencies such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

'I can't tell you how impressed I am,' said the prince, as he was shown a 'pop-up' surgical theatre, as well as vital life-saving equipment that can easily be transported abroad.

Charles finished his tour with a reception at Darwin's Government House, and placed a message in a time capsule which will be opened in 30 years.

The royal served in both the navy and air force during his military career between 1971 and 1994.

Prince Charles talks to soldiers during a visit to NORFORCE to learn about the Australian Army's Regional Force Surveillance Unit at Larrakeyah Barracks in Darwin

The prince pointed to some equipment as he was given a tour by soldiers on Tuesday following the wreath-laying in Darwin

Prince Charles views displayed weapons during a visit to NORFORCE to learn about the Australian Army's Regional Force Surveillance Unit

Prince Charles wears a life vest before he boards a boat with members of NORFORCE as part of the final day of his tour

Left: Prince Charles tours Darwin Harbour on board a Regional Patrol Craft in Darwin. Right: Charles looks at displayed weapons

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales visits the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct after a wreath-laying ceremony in Darwin

The prince looked ready to board the boat in his green life vest which he wore over the top of his grey suit complete with sunglasses

Prince Charles looks at a telescopic sight as he visits the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct on April 10 in Darwin, Australia

It comes as opposition to a republic in Australia has risen to its highest level since 1999, according to a new poll.

A total of 41 per cent of 1,639 people asked over four days in April said they would be against scrapping the monarchy and becoming a republic, according to a survey conducted on behalf of The Australian newspaper.

This compares to 34 per cent 19 years ago and 38 per cent in August 2017.

In 1999 a referendum was held over whether the Queen and Governor-General should be replaced with a president, with 54.87 per cent voting against and 45.13 per cent in favour.

One the move: The future king looked suave in his grey suit complete with striped tie as he walked at the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct

The prince had time to meet a few families of servicemen and women at the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct on Tuesday

Time for a cuppa: The prince sweated through the searing 34C heat to earn his cup of tea at the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct

The prince held a few weapons and other pieces of military equipment as he visited the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct

Prince Charles views a display during a visit to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre in Darwin

The prince visited the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre, which was set up after the 2002 Bali bombings to respond to health emergencies such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks

Prince Charles views equipment from a deployment bag during a visit to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre

Charles finished his tour with a reception at Darwin's Government House, and placed a message in a time capsule which will be opened in 30 years

Prince Charles poses for the cameras next to a tree above a time capsule he put into the earth in Government House in Darwin

One Monday Prince Charles embraced a traditional Aboriginal welcome on the penultimate day of his Australian tour.

The royal was flanked by Indigenous people as he walked to his seat for the Welcome to Country Ceremony at Mt Nhulun in Gove in the Northern Territory.

He then chatted with Indigenous leaders as he enjoyed a demonstration of traditional dancing, looking suave in a beige suit and tie despite the searing 33C heat.

The future king later received a traditional healing blessing from a didgeridoo master who blew the instrument against his chest. Afterwards, Charles smiled and joked: 'I feel better already.'

Here comes Charles! The royal made a dramatic entrance flanked by Indigenous people before the Welcome to Country Ceremony at Mt Nhulun in Gove in the Northern Territory

Embracing the culture: The Prince of Wales (left) wore a mulka string, a feather stringed headband, when he took part in a traditional welcome ceremony during a visit to Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory

Wearing a feather headband and a stringed basket around his neck, Prince Charles embraced a traditional Aboriginal welcome on the penultimate day of his Australian tour

On a tour of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre in Gove, which showcases the work of the area's indigenous people, Charles took part in a Yidaki healing ceremony, where a didgeridoo was blown close to his chest

Wearing some snazzy sunglasses and brown shoes, the Prince of Wales held his basket as he enjoyed welcome ceremony

A Welcome to Country Ceremony is performed for Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, at Mt Nhulun in Gove, Arnhem Land, Australia

Passionate: One Indigenous man performs with gusto as part of a Welcome to Country Ceremony for Prince Charles today

Another of the passionate warriors performs for the prince with his face painted white matching the headdress

The Prince donned a feather string feather headband and and a Dilly Bag - a traditional basket - as he enjoyed the welcome

Prince Charles is presented with a traditional Mulka String (feather stringed headband) as well as a Dilly Bag (string basket) before taking part in the welcoming ceremony.

Prince Charles watches the traditional welcoming ceremony at Mount Nhulun on his weeklong tour of Australia

On a tour of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre in Gove, which showcases the work of the area's indigenous people, Charles took part in a Yidaki healing ceremony, where a didgeridoo was blown close to his chest.

World-renowned didgeridoo master Djalu Gurriwiwi performed the 30-second blessing.

Wearing some snazzy sunglasses and brown shoes, the Prince of Wales then spoke to people whose work was displayed at the centre and admired their intricate artwork.

At one point, Charles joked when a woman's phone rang just as he was about to shake her hand. 'Shall we see who it is?,' he quippped.

When Charles stepped off the plane before the welcome ceremony, he was handed a woomera - a traditional spear-throwing device - as he was greeted by aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu (left)

The future king smiled as he took the gift from the Aboriginal leader after he had stepped off the plane in Gove, NT

Welcome To Country: Dancers perform a traditional welcome ceremony at Mount Nhulun in Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory

Prince Charles visits Mount Nhulun with leaders of the Dhimurru and Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporations for a traditional welcoming ceremony

Dancing to welcome the future king: A traditional welcoming ceremony at Mount Nhulun in the Northern Territory

Charles is picture here before the welcome ceremony. Last Wednesday, he opened the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and has spent time in Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns and Vanuatu

The royal was presented with a feather-stringed headdress, called a Malka String, and a string basket known as a Bathi

Prince Charles arrives for the Welcome to Country Ceremony wearing a stringed basket around his neck and feather headband

Prince Charles admires aboriginal artwork during his visit to Mount Nhulun as locals explain its significance

Young Aboriginals wait for Prince Charles to treat him to traditional performances during his visit

When Charles stepped off the plane before the welcome ceremony, he was handed a woomera - a traditional spear-throwing device - as he was greeted by aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu.

The royal was presented with a feather-stringed headdress, called a Malka String, and a string basket known as a Bathi.

Charles remarked how it was the furthest north he had travelled in Australia before joining a procession and watching the singing and dancing of the Rirratjingu people atop sacred Nhulun Hill.

Prince Charles took part in the colourful welcome ceremony where he was presented with a feather-stringed headdress, called a Malka String, and a string basket known as a Bathi

Prince Charles shook hands with Djalu Gurriwiwi (right), a world-renowned didgeridoo master who performed the blessing, after which Charles smiled and said: 'I feel better already!'
She is not one to shy away from making a sartorial statement and today was no exception for Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.

The Dutch royal, 46, stepped out in a vibrant all-red ensemble as she paid a visit to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Maxima couldn't keep the smile from her face as she arrived to meet musicians at the concert hall.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands stepped out in a vibrant all-red ensemble as she paid a visit to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam

Maxima beamed as she met with musicians and orchestra officials at the concert hall

The Argentinian-born queen looked ready for spring in the structured scarlet knee-length dress which featured flattering asymmetric draping.

She showed off her playful side with a pair of textured chandelier earrings in the exact same shade.

Completing the monochrome look, Maxima teamed the dress with a red leather clutch bag and shoes.

The royal accessorised her flattering dress with a pair of playful earrings in the same shade

Maxima finished the look with a pair of red slingback heels with a white trim, pictured

Maxima is patron of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was founded in 1888.

During her visit to the venue, Maxima, the mother-of-three watched musicians in rehearsal and was given a tour of the auditorium.

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.

Maxima, who is patron of the orchestra, got up close to musicians as they rehearsed

The royal looked interested as she spoke to orchestra officials during the engagement

The queen listened intently as she was given a view of the stage from the audience seating

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.
The mother of chef Claudia Lawrence, who disappeared at the age of 35 nine years ago, has revealed how she's struck up a friendship with Kate McCann and 'longs' to meet her one day.

Joan Lawrence made a rare national television appearance on daytime show Loose Women to say that she'll never give up hope of finding her daughter and that new developments in forensics will eventually reveal where she is.

Claudia, 35, vanished on her way home from work at the University of York on March 18, 2009, sparking one of Britain's biggest missing person inquiries.

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Joan Lawrence, mother of Claudia Lawrence, who vanished nine years ago in York, made a rare appearance on national television to talk to the Loose Women presenters about the 'permanent sadness' she feels over her daughter's disappearance

Lawrence told the show that she had spoken to Kate McCann, mother of Madeleine, who vanished aged three from a Portugal apartment in 2007, in recent years but said their friendship was 'a private thing'

North Yorkshire police said last month that they would 'never give up' in the hunt for missing Claudia, who was last seen on her way to work on March 18th 2009

Claudia's mother said she 'longed to meet' Kate McCann after striking up a friendship on the phone over several years, something that she said had been a 'comfort' to her

North Yorkshire Police has vowed 'never to give up on Claudia' and will follow new leads if they arise.

Joan told the Loose Women panel including Nadia Sawalha, Andrea McClean, Janet Street Porter and Anna Richardson that she has a connection with Kate McCann and hopes to meet her one day.

Asked by Nadia Sawalha whether conversations over the years with Kate, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared at the age of three from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007, were a comfort, Joan said: 'Yes, we haven't met though. And I long to meet her but it's a private thing.'

She also revealed that she enjoys support from 'a tiny network' of other mothers whose children have been murdered or abducted.

Joan said: [There are] Lots of other mums in my situation, a little network. We give a huge amount of support to each other, although we're all in slightly different situations.'

Mrs Lawrence added that while she's hopeful that her daughter is still alive, she lives with the pain of not knowing Claudia's fate on a daily basis.

Chatting to hosts Andrea McClean, Anna Richardson and Janet Street Porter, Joan said she believed her daughter was still alive and had been abducted

Joan discussed her friendship with other mothers of children who'd been abducted or murdered and said the 'tiny network' was a huge support to her

Joan also said she thought her daughter might have been taken out of the country illegally

There's a permanent sadness. I'm a busy person, I live in a small area, a community and I have a tremendous support, there is a kindness it has brought out.

'But no matter what you're doing, there's a permanent sadness. When I go to church on a Sunday, I look at the beautiful stained-glass and I think [gesturing upwards], you know where she is.'

Those watching at home said it was 'heart-breaking' to hear of Joan's ongoing sadness.

One viewer, @sunflowerdeb16, wrote: 'I really hope that Claudia Lawrence's family get some asnwers soon - I really feel for her poor mum, it must be purgatory not knowing what happened to her.'

@itsaston1 added: 'The search for Claudia Lawrence is terribly sad, bless her poor Mother. I hope she is found one day.'

Detectives said last month that they believe they may soon have the DNA evidence to catch Claudia Lawrence's killer on the ninth anniversary since her disappearance.

Detectives believe they may now have the DNA evidence to catch Claudia Lawrence's killer on the ninth anniversary since her disappearance

They had scaled down their 1million investigation last year after a review of the case brought DNA on a cigarette from the chef's car into focus.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'The DNA profiling work has taken longer to process than originally anticipated, but it is due for completion and we will publicly confirm this when we are in a position to do so.

'The investigation remains in the reactive phase and is being maintained by the Cleveland and North Yorkshire Major Investigation Team.'

Claudia was last seen near her home in Melrosegate, in the Heworth area of York, on the afternoon of March 18.

She had returned from her work as a chef at the University of York's Goodricke College at the Roger Kirk Centre.

That evening she spoke to her parents by telephone and made plans with her mother to spend Mother's Day together.

Claudia, whose passport and bank cards were left at her home, later sent a text message to a friend which was sent 8.23pm.

Her last message on her phone was received from a bar worker in Cyprus at 9.12pm where investigators believe Claudia was offered a job on the island.

Claudia was reported missing to North Yorkshire Police after she failed to arrive at work for her early morning shift the following day.

Detectives later said they were treating her disappearance as a suspected murder.

Four men have been arrested in connection with Claudia's murder since the force's 300,000 creation of its Major Crime Unit (MCU) in 2013.

A 59-year-old man, named locally as Michael Snelling, was arrested by NYP at a house in Burnholme Grove on suspicion of Claudia's murder on May 13, 2014.

Snelling was bailed the following day and then re-bailed on June 12, 2014.

An unnamed local man in his 50s was also arrested and bailed following a further forensic search of the alleyway near Claudia's home.

Her father Peter said yesterday (pictured) 'more needs to be done' after it took him six years to get hold of his daughter's financial affairs

However, the Crown Prosecution Service abandoned proceedings against the four men who had been arrested on suspicion of murder, citing lack of evidence on March 8, 2016.

North Yorkshire Police later blamed a lack of co-operation from witnesses and their review into the case was scaled down in January 2017.

But the force has since released a statement on social media saying it will 'never give up on Claudia and her family' - and continue to investigate any new leads.

It read: 'Information is regularly received but we strongly suspect key and vital information is still being withheld that could provide a breakthrough.

'We all hope that those responsible for her disappearance and suspected murder are brought to justice.

'Our thoughts and continued support are with Claudia's loved ones at this poignant time.'

Police have made a number of appeals over the years including for details on this man - but despite four arrests no-one has ever been prosecuted for her murder

The force said last January the three-year probe had now moved to a 'reactive phase,' which would review any new and compelling information that came to light.

Her father Peter said yesterday 'more needs to be done' after it took him six years to get hold of his daughter's financial affairs.

Mr Lawrence, 72, says he has continued to push for government legislation to allow families of missing persons to take control of their assets.

Peter said that the family had 'suffered' for over 3,300 days since her disappearance on March 18, 2009.

He also said that it was 'distressing' that people were not coming forward to detectives with vital information.

Speaking outside Claudia's home in York, Peter said: 'Nine years ago today at the house across the road from us Claudia went missing.

'That is something like 3,300 days and everyday the family have been in pain by not knowing what happened to Claudia.

'It is an awful long time and so distressing that someone around here knows what happened to Claudia - but is not saying anything.

'It is something very difficult for the family to contemplate, but we have for nine years.

'The problem, as always, is that we do not know what happened to Claudia.

'I know that she didn't disappear of her own accord because she left her house here, without her handbag, jewellery, without her bank card, driving licence and everything else.

'Her best friend Jen knows Claudia would have not left the house without these items unless she was just going to work which she was due to do.'

Peter said families with missing persons were suffering because they can not gain guardianship over the person's affairs due to government legislation.

He said he was campaigning to help families in a similar situation without being to access their bank accounts and assets.
King Felipe was caught in between what has been labelled as a 'tense' exchange between his mother and wife last week.

However, the monarch brushed off the events of Easter Sunday as he and Queen Letizia stepped out for their first public engagement as a couple since the footage of disagreement emerged.

Letizia of Spain looked her elegant best in a mid-length pleated skirt printed with a chic floral design as she joined her husband for their engagement in Madrid.

Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI of Spain performed their first official engagement as a couple following her 'tense exchange' with mother in-law Queen Sofia

The 45-year-old embraced the slightly warmer temperature, doing away with a coat and slipping into a light sweater.

The Spanish royal was brave enough to opt for bare legs, showcasing perfectly polished pins in a pair of patent court shoes.

Meanwhile King Felipe, 50, looked dapper in a classic charcoal suit complete with a salmon pink tie.

The couple attended the La Caixa scholarship event in the Spanish capital on Tuesday.

Footage emerged showing Queen Letizia and Queen Sofia having a 'tense' exchange at the end of an Easter Mass service last Sunday

However. any family woes seemed far from Letizia's mind today as she attended La Caixa scholarship event in Madrid

The scholarship program is for postgraduate students from universities in North America or Asia and is located in Spain.

The couple made a short speech at the event and King Felipe could be seen turning to his wife for a prompt during his delivery.

It has been a busy week of engagements for the Spanish royals as they put on a united front following the furore over footage appearing to show Letizia in a stand-off with Queen Sofia, 79, at an Easter Sunday event.

Today is the first official engagement Felipe and Letizia have performed as a couple since the footage emerged.

The royal embraced the warmed weather, doing away with a coat and opting for a light spring jumper as she took to the stage to make a speech

At one point during the speeches Felipe appears to turn to his wife for a quick prompt and she seemed happy to oblige

On Sunday the Spanish royals looked the picture of happiness as Sofia, 79, held the hands of Leonor, 12, and young Sofia, 10, as they arrived at the La Moraleja Hospital yesterday.

Who's who in the royal family drama? King Juan Carlos: Reigned from 1975 until his abdication in 2014. Queen Sofia: The daughter of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover, she married Juan Carlos in 1962. King Felipe: The youngest child of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. He ascended the throne in 2014. Queen Letizia: A former journalist who married Felipe in 2004. Advertisement

And on Saturday, Letizia and Sofia had both flashed big smiles as they joined they visited father King Carlos in hospital again.

The former newsreader and her mother-in-law's close display outside the La Moraleja Hospital on Saturday is in contrast to their awkward stand-off while at Easter Mass last Sunday.

Letizia was also said to be 'hurt' following the furore over the footage, which emerged just over a week ago.

In the clip, Letizia is seen standing in front of mother-in-law Sofia, who appears to be posing for pictures with her granddaughters.

After a brief exchange, the Spanish queen seems to try to take the arm of her eldest daughter Leonor, who then shoves both her mother and grandmother's hands aside

Letizia had been trying to protect her daughters Leonor and Sofia from 'intrusive media' as they posed for pictures with their grandmother, according to a friend.

Letizia's former co-worker Imma Aguilar told Spanish programme El circulo that the mother-of-two had displayed a 'motherly reaction' and that she was 'very committed' to protecting her children.

Queen Letizia and mother-in-law Queen Sofia put on a united front as they posed for pictures after arriving to visit King Juan Carlos in hospital on Sunday

The Spanish royals looked the picture of happiness as they arrived at the La Moraleja Hospital in Madrid

Letizia and her mother-in-law Sofia made their first public appearance on Saturday together as they visited King Juan Carlos in hospital

The footage has made waves in the Spanish press, with newspapers branding the incident 'uncomfortable' and 'tense'.

After the video emerged, Marie Chantal of Greece, who is married to Crown Prince Pavlos - King Felipe's cousin - weighed in on the controversy, writing on Twitter: 'No grandmother deserves that type of treatment! Wow shes shown her true colours.'

Letizia's husband Felipe, who is the son of Juan Carlos and Sofia, took to the throne after his father's abdication in 2014.

During the video, Felipe is seen stepping in, while his 80-year-old father looked on nonplussed.

The Spanish royal palace has not commented on the incident.
As a committed healthy eater, mother-of-two, Rebecca Poole fully took on board the oft-trumpeted advice that breast is best and was determined to nurse her babies for as long as possible.

Sadly, that turned out to be rather more difficult than shed anticipated. Despite her best efforts, breastfeeding just didnt seem to work for her and baby, Lily, whos now three.

So she resorted to formula milk  a psychological trauma that proved so great Rebecca ended up on antidepressants.

As a committed healthy eater, mother-of-two, Rebecca Poole fully took on board the oft-trumpeted advice that breast is best and was determined to nurse her babies for as long as possible

After the birth of her second child, Theo, last February, when the same supply problems reared their head, Rebecca opted to do what she considered the next best thing: feed him another womans breast milk.

Incredible though it may seem to those who thought wet nursing was a practice from a bygone age, Rebecca, 33, is among a growing army of women receiving expressed breast milk from other mothers. Perhaps inevitably, these transactions occur over the internet.

I realise that many people, even some of my family and friends, find it weird that Im happy to feed my baby someone elses breast milk, admits Rebecca, who tutors personal trainers. But I think any mother who has been determined to exclusively breastfeed her child, and then found herself unable to do so, will understand.

So much is known about the benefits of nursing babies for as long as possible. The World Health Organisation recommends you do it for a year  as it boosts their immune systems and their brain power, and some studies have even suggested that human milk could help kill off cancerous cells.

Lauren Roberts, 34, who is on maternity leave from her job in education marketing, is using her second milk donor for five-month-old son, Leo

35-year-old Lauren feeding her baby boy named Leo after appealing for breast milk online

Not being able to produce enough for Lily was devastating. I would be in tears making up bottles of formula because I knew it wasnt as good for her, says Rebecca.

So when I realised that Theo, who was 10lb 3oz at birth, wasnt gaining weight, I tried everything to boost my supply, including taking a milk-enhancing medication, Domperidone, from my GP, before searching for someone willing to share hers with me.

Rebecca came across the Facebook page for an organisation called Human Milk 4 Human Babies UK, where she posted a request for a breast milk donor.

That same day, two mums living within an hour of her home in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, volunteered their services (the group operates on an entirely altruistic basis). After corresponding with both, Rebecca chose Sarah McHugh, whose child was two months younger than Theo and who lived in nearby Kidderminster. A few nights later Rebecca drove to Sarahs house, in what the two women said felt like an illicit exchange, to collect bags of her frozen breast milk.

Lauren's difficulties began on the post-natal ward when Leo, who weighed 8lb 2oz at birth, struggled to latch onto the breast

The day after getting home, worried that her son was struggling to feed, Lauren paid 120 for a breastfeeding counsellor to spend two hours with mum and baby

Of course, I had my reservations and was keen to meet Sarah in her home environment, says Rebecca. I wouldnt want to give my four-month-old baby milk that came from a dirty house, or from someone I couldnt trust to wash their hands, because Id worry it would put him at risk of infections.

But I was reassured the minute I pulled up outside. It was a beautiful, well-maintained house with a nice car on the driveway.

Also, I was lucky because Sarah told me that she donates to hospital neonatal wards, and she explained that she had been through their stringent screening process to ensure she didnt have any diseases and was trained in ensuring the milk was sterile.

Lauren said: 'I felt sad I couldnt produce enough for him on my own, but at the same time I was happy I could still give him breast milk, because its so much better for a babys development

Mums with healthy babies, such as Rebecca  who, as well as giving Theo Sarahs milk, is also breastfeeding as much as she can manage herself  cannot access these limited hospital supplies, reserved for premature and sick infants.

But because increasing numbers of women are determined to breastfeed their children at any cost, doctors and public health experts have grave concerns about the growing, unregulated, practice of milk sharing  and the risk of infection it poses to infants.

Dr Sarah Steele, a senior public health researcher at Jesus College, Cambridge, who has done extensive work in this area, warns: Would I feed my infant milk off the internet? Definitely not. How can you possibly know how safely it was expressed and stored?

Kirsty Wickings, 27, from York, who has altruistically donated milk to three infants, including premature twins whose mother had died in childbirth, says what she does is important

Despite having the best of intentions, you could be passing on HIV, hepatitis, syphilis or, if the mother hasnt washed her hands properly, a food-borne illness such as E.coli or salmonella which can, in worst-case scenarios, lead to death.

While working on her recent paper, Risks of the Unregulated Market in Human Breast Milk, Dr Steele bought breast milk online for testing, and also looked at the results of similar studies.

A fifth of the samples contained cytomegalovirus, an infection which can cause hearing and vision loss in babies, as well as brain damage.

Kirsty's son, Zak, was born last August with tongue tie, which made latching on difficult, so from the beginning, she expressed her milk to feed him from bottles.

Some also had traces of illicit drugs and BPAs, a chemical found in some plastics which is potentially harmful and therefore banned from use in baby bottles, cups and dummies. The majority were infected with bacteria resulting from poor storage and transportation.

As the milk, mostly bought online in the U.S. where there is a burgeoning trade, was sold by the ounce, some was also bulked out with cows milk, dangerous for babies under 12 months old.

Of course, there isnt the same financial incentive for anyone to do this when milk is being donated [in the case of Rebecca and Sarah] rather than sold, says Dr Steele. But even the most well-meaning of donors can unintentionally put a baby at risk. For example, many mums who express milk after going back to work do so in the loos.

Lauren now uses a combination of milk formula, her own breast milk and milk from Facebook donors (pictured) to feed her son

So, they touch a door handle on the way in and may inadvertently transfer germs on to the pump.

And even if blood tests during pregnancy were negative for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis, a mother is at risk of contracting these the moment she becomes sexually active again.

Lauren Roberts, 34, who is on maternity leave from her job in education marketing, is using her second milk donor for five-month-old son, Leo.

Her difficulties began on the post-natal ward when Leo, who weighed 8lb 2oz at birth, struggled to latch onto the breast. Lauren says there was not enough support from over-stretched midwives to get feeding properly established before she was discharged.

The day after getting home, worried that her son was struggling to feed, Lauren paid 120 for a breastfeeding counsellor to spend two hours with mum and baby.

Kirsty stopped expressing a couple of months ago and, with Zak still only five months old and all her stock gone, she is now appealing for milk donors online

However, he still struggled to latch on, so Lauren started supplementing with formula milk.

When Lauren confided in a friend about how sad she felt at having to give her baby powdered milk, she told her about the online sharing groups.

Lauren posted an appeal on Human Milk 4 Human Babies explaining that she had a four-week-old and was looking for mums with surplus milk local to her in West London.

A mum-of-three, who lived just around the corner and whose youngest is two months older than Leo  not ideal, as, according to Dr Steele, the make-up of a mothers breast milk changes as her baby ages, ensuring it is precisely what the child needs at that stage  offered to help, and Lauren went to meet her in a cafe.

We had a long chat and, although I didnt interrogate her, she told me shes a teacher, which reassured me that shes the sort of person to have childrens best interests at heart, rather than feed them anything that would put them at risk, says Lauren.

She also mentioned that shes a bit of a clean freak, so I knew she would handle her expressed milk hygienically.

I didnt worry she might have, or take, something that could harm my baby, because, as she was also feeding her son, it would have posed a risk to him, too.

The woman, a first-time donor who had been expressing for her own baby and ended up with more than she needed, dropped bags of frozen milk round later that day.

The first time I gave Leo another mothers milk did feel strange, admits Lauren. I felt sad I couldnt produce enough for him on my own, but at the same time I was happy I could still give him breast milk, because its so much better for a babys development.

Laurens own breast milk has now dried up and, after her first donor finished breastfeeding her own child, she has found a second supplier, a local woman whom she met at a coffee morning.

While Lauren has fully embraced milk sharing, her husband, Nick, a financial controller, thought it was weird at first. But I told him Id met both ladies and he said: If you feel its the best thing to do, then thats fine.

But the unregulated social media world of breast-milk sharing has led SNP MP Alison Thewliss, chair of the all- party parliamentary group for infant feeding, to call for a national breast milk bank for women such as Lauren and Rebecca, run in accordance with NICE guidelines, to supplement the 16 official outlets in hospitals across the UK and Ireland.

Kirsty, who runs an IT forensics company with partner Robert, 27, produced such vast quantities that she decided to offer the excess through social media

Its critical we get the message across that breast is best and improve the rates, says Dr Steele. Britain has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, with only 34 per cent of mothers still doing it at six months.

However, due to the research published, some mothers who struggle to feed then worry that formula will lead to their children being obese and having lower IQs than breastfed babies.

Taking that message too much to heart can lead to some extreme behaviour, such as getting breast milk online.

These mothers may argue that women have wet nursed for millennia, but thats different to getting milk from a stranger on Facebook, with the risk of it containing viruses that didnt exist a century ago.

But Kirsty Wickings, 27, from York, who has altruistically donated milk to three infants, including premature twins whose mother had died in childbirth, says what she does is important. Her son, Zak, was born last August with tongue tie, which made latching on difficult, so from the beginning, she expressed her milk to feed him from bottles.

Kirsty, who runs an IT forensics company with partner Robert, 27, produced such vast quantities that she decided to offer the excess through social media.

I felt so sad for the little twins who had lost their mother and it was lovely being able to help them in some way, says Kirsty.

Family friends would collect the milk and take it to the babies in the special-care unit.

Kirsty stopped expressing a couple of months ago and, with Zak still only five months old and all her stock gone, she is now appealing for milk donors online.

Robert was very supportive of me supplying milk, but he cant see the point in me looking for a donor for Zak, especially as the two who offered live too far away. But he wouldnt mind his son having another womans milk.

However, Dr Jens Foell, a GP who has also been involved in research into the online trade in breast milk, says that while sharing between sisters or close friends, for example, may be a good thing, women mustnt be driven to these desperate lengths because they believe theyre only a good mother if they can give their baby breast milk.

Dr Foell adds: Formula is a perfectly adequate alternative if feeding isnt possible.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's trendy lemon and elderflower royal wedding cake is likely to cost thousands of pounds.

But now Iceland has created a replica that looks almost identical to the cakes made by royal wedding baker Claire Ptak of east London's Violet Bakery that customers can buy for just 8.

The frozen food supermarket will launch a handmade two-tiered buttercream-covered sponge into stores from May 14 for one week - the week of Harry and Meghan's nuptials on May 19 at St George's Chapel, Windsor.

The frozen cake is decorated minimistically with pretty flowers just like the Violet Bakery's creations... so can you tell which cake is Iceland's and which have been made by the royal wedding baker?

Can you tell which is Iceland's and which is Violet Bakery's? The cake on the left is Iceland's frozen creation, designed as a replica of Harry and Meghan's royal wedding cake. The cake on the right is a wedding cake made by Claire Ptak of Violet Bakery, who has been chosen to make the cake on May 19

Iceland's royal lemon and elderflower cakes are limited edition and only a few will be on sale at each store.

Calafornia native Claire Ptak, who now lives in London, was chosen by Harry and Meghan to make the royal wedding cake last month.

Unlike the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who had an opulent eight-tiered fruit cake for their big day, Harry and former Suits actress Meghan have opted for a trendy lemon and elderflower creation that will be covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers.

While Claire is not a stickler for tradition, she is strident about using ethical, healthy ingredients. Her recipes often use wholegrain flours, less refined sugar and seasonal fruit.

The slices look almost identical but the cake on the left has been made by Violet Bakery, while the slice on the right has been made by Iceland

It's not yet clear what Harry and Meghan's wedding cake will look like but Iceland's head chef Neil Nugent, who designed the replica, has used his imagination to add touches that he believes will also be included in the royal couple's bake.

The Iceland creation has three layers of light lemon sponge filled with elderflower buttercream and Sicilian lemon curd.

It's finished with shimmered chocolate pearls.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor on May 19

Claire Ptak of Violet Bakery has been chosen to make the royal wedding cake. She keeps her designs simple and nearly always decorates them with fresh flowers

Claire Ptak, owner of Violet Bakery in Hackney, east London, has been chosen to make the cake for the wedding in May

Neil Nugent, head chef at Iceland, said: 'We want our customers to enjoy the royal wedding celebrations in style and what better way to do that than raising a glass of champagne to the newlyweds and having a slice of their actual wedding cake  well, kind of.

'The cake features everything the royal couple has asked for including a shimmery finish with chocolate pearls, light sponge and fragrant buttercream.

'I'd also recommend adding some wild flowers decorations to keep up the royal theme.'

Violet Bakery's cakes are almost all decorated with fresh flowers, so it's likely the royal wedding cake will feature them too.

Meghan is known to be a fan of peonies, which will be in bloom at the time of her Windsor wedding, and Claire has used peonies on her stylish wedding cakes in the past.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd (Changan Auto) delivered 269,040 vehicles in March, leaping 76.4% month on month, while still decreasing 16.4% year on year, according to the data the company released on April 9. Among that, Changan-branded vehicle sales reached 192,577 units, edging up 0.8% year on year, while soaring 94.2% month on month. For the first three months of the year, Changan Auto delivered a total of 658,348 vehicles with a year-on-year slump of 21.5%.

The SUV deliveries totaled 70,508 units in March and 205,741 in the first quarter. As to models, CS55 became the best seller among the companys all SUV models with 20,169 units delivered last month, jumping 23.5% over the previous month. The March deliveries of the compact SUV CS75 reached 15,278 units, slumping 33.2% compared with the same period of 2017. Some reports analyze that facing the fierce competition from other rivals with frequent upgrading, the CS75 is gradually losing its competitiveness since it hasnt been upgraded for a long time.

Similar to the CS75, the sales of the small-sized SUV CS35 only reached 11,935 units in March, sharply shrinking by 29.9% from a year earlier. Reportedly, the CS35 will be upgraded this year. Besides, the deliveries of CS95 posted a volume of 1,203 units in March which was still a languished performance.

In March, the sedan sales totaled 28,313 units. It is noteworthy that the sales of the EADO, whose second-generation model went on sale on March 27, rose 10.8% year on year to 12,993. In the first quarter of this year, the automaker achieved sedan sales volume of 57,436 units in total.

Changan Auto handed over a total of 11,531 MPVs in March, plunging 68.7% from the previous month. The Gasgoo Auto Research Institute noticed that under the pressure of the mid-to-large SUV's replaceable nature, the overall MPV performance in China last year was quite depressed as well.

With regard to JVs, Changan Ford suffered a year-on-year sales falloff of 46.3% year on year to 45,189 units last month. Meanwhile, its cumulative sales in the first quarter only posted 130,451 units, sharply reducing 35.0% year on year. Changan Mazda March sales and Q1 sales totaled 15,414 units and 46,099 units, slipping back 24.8% and 4.4% over the previous year respectively. Additionally, Jiangling Motors handed over 38,467 units in March, edging down 3.0% year on year and its cumulative sales in the first three months slumped 22.0% from a year ago with 76,456 units delivered.

Thanks to the continuous efforts on promoting new energy vehicle (NEV) strategy, Changan Auto had the NEV sales of 3,850 units with a year-on-year growth up to 33.0%. During the first three months, the automaker's NEV deliveries shot up 43.7% year on year to 9,545 units. The company is expected to launch all-new high-end brands at Auto China 2018 in April.
Fondue was a firm favourite of diners in the 1970s but fell out of fashion in later decades.

However now the retro alpine dish of melted cheese is trendy again after appearing on more and more restaurant menus - and it's all thanks to Brexit, according to an Oxford University psychologist.

Professor Charles Spence has suggested that the country's consideration of a Switzerland-style deal with the EU has led to fondue becoming popular again.

Cheese fondue was a popular party dish in the 1970s but fell out of fashion until recently

Figures have shown sales of retro fondue sets - the pots heated above a tabletop flame along with the distinctive long forks - have trebled at stores including John Lewis in the last couple of years.

The head of Oxford University's Crossmodal Research Laboratory said: 'One can't help feeling that at a time when the UK is figuring out if and how to separate from the rest of Europe, that this nostalgic food originates from a part of Europe that stands outside the European Union but is still connected with the rest of the EU in much the way that many Brits would hope to achieve.'

Switzerland is not an EU or a EEA member, but has bilateral treaties with the European Union.

It is in the single market, but has to accept free movement of people between Switzerland and the EU.

Fondue originates from Switzerland and a psychologist believes the revival of this party classic may be because of Brexit

The Financial Times reported earlier this year that a proposal to settle EU trade disputes with Switzerland could serve as a blueprint for Brexit.

However Theresa May has announced that Britain will leave the single market, which means Britain cannot follow a Swiss model for continuing relations with the EU wholesale.

The focus on Brexit over the last two years could have led to the rising popularity o fondue, which originates from Switzerland, according to Professor Spence, who made the claims in a report for the specialist publication, the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science.

He said: 'It may link to current concerns about global insecurity since the fondue can be considered as something of a nostalgic dish for some and a comfort food for many.

'The origins of the fondue in a country that lies just outside the EU but which manages to maintain good economic and political relations may also be relevant given current debate about how Brexit will play out.'

Professor Spence has also suggested that fondue has become trendy again thanks to nostalgic dishes, comfort food, sharing plates and unusual cutlery becoming trendy in recent years.

The special long forks used to dip bread into molten cheese or meat into bubbling oil are part of the attraction in an age where it has become trendy to use alternatives to usual cutlery and crockery.

Professor Spence, who has worked with top chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, said: 'Dipping chunkcs of bread into a pot of bubbling cheese and wine or the pieces of meat into bubbling hot oil is not, after all, exactly anyone's notion of healthy.

'Nor is fondue an especially photgenic dish either, so, again, off trend as far as the growth of more Instagrammable dishes is concerned. On the other hand, however, it does fit with the growing trend toward sharing plates.'

Fondue was invented by the Swiss to warm up cold winter nights, and became popular at 1970s dinner parties in Britain.
Radiation given off by state-of-the-art street lamps is wreaking havoc on the residents of Gateshead, according to local Mark Steele.

He said people living in the area are experiencing symptoms of insomnia, nose bleeds and several women have even endured the horror of stillbirths since the introduction of LED lamps that he believes emit 5G radiation.

In his circle alone, Mr Steele, 58, is aware of three women have lost their children since the lights were installed in September 2016, with one giving birth to a deformed child that survived just three hours.

Mr Steele, who was part of the IEEE, which claims to be 'the world's largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity', said: 'We are seeing babies dying in the womb as these transmitters are situated outside people's bedroom windows. It's a humanitarian crisis.'

Earlier this week Gateshead council put out a Facebook post encouraging people to ignore 'conspiracy theories' about the dangers of 5G radiation, adding 'there is no scientific basis or credible evidence for any of these scare stories'.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Gateshead Council dismissed concerns over the borough's street lights as 'entirely false conspiracy theories' with 'no scientific basis or credible evidence'

According to Professor Ulrich Warnke, from the University of Saarland, EMF radiation, which is given out by light transmitters, causes disruption to the body's nitrogen monoxide system, which keeps cells healthy and controls gene expression.

The European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM)  EMF working group notes such radiation has been linked to cancer, insomnia and mental-health disorders.

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom reportedly plans to launch 5G services, such as lamps and cell towers, throughout Britain by 2020. There are rumours Gateshead is taking part in a 'secret Government trial' by rolling out the technology in the borough before then.

Local resident Shirley Forster, 55, has endured nose bleeds since the lights were fitted in 2016

Debbie Chisholm, 55, (pictured in front of a light) also suffers sleepless nights

Shaun Drummond, 11, only started experiencing nose bleeds after the lights were installed

HOW CAN PREGNANT WOMEN REDUCE THEIR RADIATION EXPOSURE? A study released in December 2017 suggested radiation-emitting devices, such as Wi-Fi and mobile phones, increase pregnant women's risk of suffering a miscarriage by nearly 50 per cent. The researchers, from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, recommend expectant mothers reduce their exposure by: Keeping mobile phones away from their abdomens and not storing them in their pockets

Turning Wi-Fi off when it is not in use, particularly while sleeping

Keeping mobile phones on airplane mood when they are not in use

Talking on speakerphone when making calls and keeping them as brief as possible

Not using appliances that give off such radiation when in the car seeing as levels are already increased Advertisement

'Such miscarriages didn't occur before the lamps appeared'

Mr Steele said: 'We've got people bleeding from the nose in my locality.

'We've got people who can't sleep from neurological disorders.

'What about the poor women across Gatehead who are losing babies at nearly full term?

'What about the children who will develop cancer from this 5G roll out?'

'Microwave radiation increases miscarriages. These didn't occur before the lamps appeared.'

Mr Steele claims EMF's damaging effects are evident in the loss of wildlife from his local area.

While driving around Gateshead, which Mr Steele claims has more than 37,000 EMF-emitting lamps, he said: '[There are] no small birds in [the] surrounding trees.

'The sparrows have been annihilated; they've wiped out the flying insects.'

Gateshead Council denies 'completely false' claims

In a Facebook post, which has been shared more than 1,200 times, Gateshead Council announced yesterday: 'Street lights will not induce miscarriages in pregnant women, or cause insomnia, or nosebleeds, and they are not killing all the birds and insects.'

The post adds the borough is not taking part in 'secret Government trials' before 5G is rolled out nationwide.

It adds the council has been advised by Public Health England, which reviewed guidance issued by bodies including the World Health Organization, and confirmed the technology carries no health risks.

The post urges people share the statement with those 'badly frightened' by the claims and ends with 'the more people who understand that they are completely false, the better'.

Despite Gateshead council's claim that they are not using 5G, Mr Steele said: 'The transmitter operates at 868  870 MHz. That is a specific 5G spectrum.

'The increase in transmitters even if they did operate at 2G  3G, as the council have stated, would make them 5G'.

Does science support EMF's risks?

Previous studies have linked such radiation to 'internal stress', which may lead to genetic damage that can cause expectant mothers to miscarry.

Those exposed to the highest levels of EMF radiation are 48 per cent more likely to lose their baby than women exposed to the lowest amounts, according to a 2017 study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends MF radiation, to which everyone is exposed to to some extent, be studied for its effect on pregnancies.

The WHO classifies EMF as a 'possible human carcinogen' but does not consider electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) a condition. EHS is a claimed sensitivity to EMF, leading to headache, fatigue and stress.

Commenting on the matter, The Parliamentary Assembly from the Council of Europe, said: 'Waiting for high levels of scientific and clinical proof before taking action to prevent well-known risks can lead to very high health and economic costs, as was the case with asbestos, leaded petrol and tobacco.'

EMF radiation, which is given out by light transmitters (pictured), causes disruption to the body's nitrogen monoxide system, which keeps cells healthy and controls gene expression

What is being done about it?

Researchers from a network known as EMF Scientists, which includes doctors from the University of Columbia, are appealing to the UN to encourage the WHO to develop stricter EMF guidelines, while also educating the public on the risks.

In January 2015, the French parliament adopted a comprehensive law that protects the general public from excessive exposure to electromagnetic waves.

Among other things, the legislation has banned Wi-Fi in nurseries for children under three years old. It also requires primary schools teaching children under 11 to only turn Wi-Fi on when it is being used for specific lessons.

As of February 2016, 220 scientists from 42 countries have signed an international Appeal, directed to the UN and WHO, calling for protection from EMF exposure.

According to EUROPAEM, the only treatment for EMF-related illnesses is to eliminate or reduce the radiation source.
Losing weight could be a sign of cancer, researchers warn today.

They are urging GPs to be particularly attentive toward patients who arrive for appointments several pounds lighter.

A review by Oxford University has found that weight loss is directly linked to cancer including bowel, ovarian and prostate.

They want the NHS watchdog Nice to issue new guidelines for doctors urging them to be extra vigilant of weight loss.

Published in the British Journal of General Practice, it looked at 25 published studies on the link between weight loss and cancer.

Researchers are urging GPs to be particularly attentive toward patients who arrive for appointments several pounds lighter

They concluded that GPs may be overlooking weight loss as an early sign of cancer, partly because patients fail to mention it. The study also found that patients over 60 who had experienced unexpected weight loss were 3 per cent more likely to have one of ten types of cancer.

These include bowel, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic, throat, lung, kidney, bile duct, colorectal and blood cancer.

Dr Brian Nicholson, lead author and a GP in Oxford, wrote: It is possible that non-specialist doctors do not recognise weight loss as a potential symptom of cancer and omit investigation until other symptoms occur.

Dr Richard Roope, clinical lead for cancer at the Royal College of GPs, said: GPs will always be vigilant when presented with any symptom that could indicate cancer, including unexplained weight loss, while recognising that this could be a symptom of many other, more common conditions.

We agree with the researchers recommendations that GPs need better access to diagnostic tools so we can appropriately refer patients to either rule out or confirm a diagnosis of cancer.

Cancer survival rates in the UK are notoriously lower than other European countries and this has been linked to GPs missing early signs. But doctors point out that many of the initial symptoms are vague and normally caused by other, far less serious conditions.

They are also under pressure from NHS managers to slash the number of patients they refer to hospital for diagnostic tests to save money.
Alzheimer's researchers have proposed a radical change in the way the disease is defined, focusing on biological changes in the body rather than clinical symptoms such as memory loss and cognitive decline.

The new research framework, released on Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging, focuses on measurable changes in the brain that set Alzheimer's apart from other causes of dementia.

The move will provide scientists with a common language for describing Alzheimer's as distinct from dementia in research studies.

Crucially, it will also allow companies to test drugs in people before symptoms appear, offering a better chance of intervening before the disease has destroyed too many brain cells.

The new framework, released on Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association, focuses on measurable changes in the brain that set Alzheimer's apart from other causes of dementia

'Much of the general public views the terms dementia and Alzheimer's disease as interchangeable, but they are not,' said Dr Clifford Jack of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who helped craft the guidelines published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Under the proposed research framework, Alzheimer's would be characterized by three factors: evidence of two abnormal proteins associated with Alzheimer's - beta amyloid and tau - and evidence of neurodegeneration or nerve cell death, all of which can be seen through brain imaging or tests of cerebral spinal fluid.

It also incorporates measures of severity using biomarkers and a grading system for cognitive impairment.

The hope is that the new definition will help researchers pick better subjects on which to test new Alzheimer's treatments, which may help improve drug companies' search for treatments.

The proposed changes follow guidance announced earlier this year by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency to encourage the testing of new Alzheimer's medicines based on biomarkers, rather than on clinical symptoms.

So far, experimental Alzheimer's drugs have had a dismal track record, with more than 100 failures, including most recently a treatment from Merck, while Pfizer said in January it was quitting the field.

Most of these drugs have focused on removing beta amyloid from the brain. Recent imaging studies have shown that about 30 percent of the people who have taken part in clinical trials for Alzheimer's drugs did not have beta amyloid in their brains.

Jack said the new framework puts Alzheimer's more in line with other diseases, such as hypertension or diabetes, and it will allow researchers to study interventions that interfere with the underlying changes that lead to Alzheimer's dementia.
A gene strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease has been neutralised in human brain cells for the first time.

Scientists have 'turned off' a protein associated with the apoE4 gene, which damages nerve cells, leading to dementia.

The researchers hope the finding could pave the way for a treatment that halts the disease but add therapies that are successful in the laboratory or on animals often fail in patients.

Having one copy of the apoE4 gene doubles a person's risk of Alzheimer's, while two copies increases an individual's risk by 12 times. Around one in four people carry apoE4.

Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 5.5 million people in the US.

The 'Alzheimer's gene' has been neutralised in human brain cells for the first time (stock)

IS THERE A PILL FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE? A breakthrough Alzheimer's drug edges scientists one step closer to a cure, new research suggested in November 2017. Taken twice a day, a tablet, known as LMTX, significantly improves dementia sufferers' brain injuries to the extent their MRI scans resemble those of healthy people after just nine months, a study found. Lead author Professor Gordon Wilcock from the University of Oxford told MailOnline: 'I haven't seen such brain injury recovery before after a drug treatment.' LMTX, which is under investigation, also significantly improves patients' abilities to carry out everyday tasks such as bathing and dressing themselves, while also boosting their capabilities to correctly name objects and remember the date, the research adds. The drug contains a chemical that dissolves protein 'tangles' in the brain that clump together to form plaques in the region associated with memory, according to its manufacturer TauRx Pharmaceuticals. Dissolving these tangles and preventing the formation of new plaques may slow or even halt memory loss in dementia sufferers, the pharma company adds. The researchers, from the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen, analysed 800 Alzheimer's patients across 12 countries. The study's participants received either 100mg or 4mg LMTX tablets twice a day for 18 months. They were tested on their ability to name objects, follow commands such as 'make a fist', recall items from a list of 10 and identify their name, the time and date. Their ability to eat without help, use a telephone, wash and dress themselves, and control their bowel and bladder was also assessed. MRI scans monitored the participants' brain injury. Advertisement

Turning off gene could halt Alzheimer's

The researchers, from the biomedical research organisation Gladstones Institutes in San Francisco, analysed nerve cells donated by Alzheimer's patients with two copies of apoE4.

These cells were compared against those that did not produce the gene.

Results suggest the presence of apoE4 causes brain damage, which could be avoided by neutralising the gene.

The compound that turns off the protein behind apoE4 has only been tested on cells in the laboratory to date, with researchers working to improve the substance so it can be tested on patients.

Lead author Yadong Huang, said: 'Drug development for Alzheimer's disease has been largely a disappointment over the last 10 years.

'Many drugs work, beautifully in a mouse model, but so far they've all failed in clinical trials.

'One concern within the field has been how poorly these mouse models really mimic human disease.'

The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Alzheimer's will be as manageable as HIV within 10 years

This comes after award-winning scientists predicted Alzheimer's will be as manageable as HIV within 10 years.

Future dementia treatments will be taken before the condition develops to prevent symptoms rather than attempting to reverse them, according to Professor Michel Goedert, who was involved in discovering the importance of protein plaques in Alzheimer's onset.

Professor Goedert, from the University of Cambridge, added: 'Alzheimer's will become something like HIV.

'It's still there but it has been contained or whittled down by drug treatments.

'It will disappear as a major problem from society.'

Professor Goedert believes drugs under investigation for Alzheimer's often fail due to them being taken too late into the disease's progression.

His colleague Professor Bart De Strooper of University College London, with whom he shares the four-million euro Brain Prize money, added: 'The mistakes we have made is the trials is that treatment has been given too late.

'It's like popping a statin to stop a heart attack.

'But when we first started we knew almost nothing about Alzhiemer's and now we understand a huge amount.

'In 10 years we will have a completely different picture.'

The scientists have been credited for changing the way doctors approach Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders.
A builder was left with a gaping hole in his face because of cancer - which he was told was just an infected wisdom tooth.

Victor Heath, 60, sought advice from his dentist for swelling and pain in his cheek, but his signs of cancer were allegedly overlooked.

He explained how his cheek started weeping and a tumour burst through his face and left a hole the size of a 2p coin after being diagnosed months later.

A 14-hour long operation the next day saw the mass removed by surgeons - but Mr Heath, from Pinner, Middlesex, was left with a 6cm hole.

Specialists were forced to remove part of his jaw and replace it with bone and skin from his leg, leaving the father-of-three with scars.

Now, four years after the oversight by his dentist, Mr Heath is pursuing legal action after being left traumatised about his disfigurement.

Mr Heath said: 'I am devastated about what happened to me and I am very upset by the facial disfigurement I have been left with.

Victor Heath, 60, was horrified when his cheek started weeping and a tumour burst through his face and left a hole the size of a 2p coin

'It upsets me to think it was almost three months before it happened that I first went to my dentist in lots of pain and with a lot of swelling.

'It has knocked my confidence significantly because people stare at me and ask me what happened when they see me.'

He added: 'If I do go out to a restaurant I make sure I am sat somewhere in a corner against a wall so that not many people can see me. I dont think theyll want to see it.

'My lower left lip is permanently numb as is the skin on my cheek. I feel as though I am dribbling which agitates me.

'That the tumour progressed so rapidly makes me feel that every day made a difference and that therefore if the delay was for nearly a month, my entire outcome could have been radically improved.

'I am grateful that there has been no tumour recurrence and that my life has been saved, but I am an entirely different person as a result of the scarring.'

As part of the surgery to remove the cancer, Mr Heath had to have part of his jaw removed and replaced with bone and skin from his leg.

Mr Heath remained in hospital for three weeks and had six weeks of radiotherapy and two courses of chemotherapy to become cancer free.

A 14-hour long operation the next day saw the mass removed by surgeons - but Mr Heath, from Pinner, Middlesex, was left with a 6cm hole

Specialists were forced to remove part of his jaw and replace it with bone and skin from his leg, leaving the father-of-three with scars

He claims he visited his dentist three months before with pain and inflammation in his mouth and was told he had an infection due to an embedded wisdom tooth.

Mr Heath claims the dentist who allegedly missed the cancer was Dr Roham Barez, who practised at Ruislip Dental Care in 2014.

Medical negligence lawyers have alleged Dr Barez' failure to identify the tumour caused delays in Mr Heath's referral to specialists.

Hudgell Solicitors, the London-based firm representing him, claim this denied him the chance to remove it earlier - before it caused disfigurement.

Mr Heath revealed he visited Dr Barez on January 31 having suffered constant pain and swelling up to three weeks.

His dentist noted he had a very large swelling in the gum, which he concluded was due to a deeply embedded wisdom tooth causing inflammation.

Mr Heath said: 'I was told by the dentist that he did not carry out compound wisdom tooth removals.'

Instead, he was referred to Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge for the procedure and was placed on antibiotics.

But Mr Heath began to worry as he had searched his symptoms on the internet and found several pages suggesting it could be cancer.

Now, four years after the oversight by his dentist, Mr Heath is pursuing legal action after being left traumatised about his disfigurement

Mr Heath said: 'I am devastated about what happened to me and I am very upset by the facial disfigurement I have been left with'

He continued: 'It was for that reason I chased up the referral and was told it hadnt been sent as they didnt have my NHS number.

'It seemed strange, but as my doctors were nearby I went there and got it straight away. I was concerned about the delay and wanted it chasing up.'

After receiving the referral, staff at Hillingdon Hospital made a routine appointment for Mr Heath on March 13.

A consultant from the hospital's oral surgery unit requested an urgent biopsy, which was carried out four days later.

Mr Heath was then informed on March 21 that his swelling was a cancerous tumour.

Doctors revealed that it was stage four cancer when he visited the hospital again on April 2 to plan treatment.

Mr Heath was booked in for surgery on April 14 at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood.

However, he said that in the days leading up to his scheduled operation the growth became more painful and bigger every day.

Mr Heath said: 'Over the period of a week the pain in my lower left mouth became much worse every day and what had been a pimple at the start grew larger each day.

'It suddenly grew at a rapid rate and to my absolute horror that the tumour erupted through the surface of my left cheek at the same site where the pimple had been. It was absolutely horrific.

'The hole was about the size of a 2p coin, and I understand it was about a third of the size of the actual tumour. It was weeping really badly.

'My wife was very worried and although we knew I was to be admitted the following day for surgery, she contacted the hospital who advised that we apply a bandage held together with a plaster.'

After being cancer free for almost four years, Mr Heath is now hoping lessons will be learned as part of legal action against the dentist.

He added: 'Its a massive relief to be in the clear. I owe it to the specialists at Mount Veron Hospital as they saved my life, they were incredible.

As part of the surgery to remove the cancer, Mr Heath had to have part of his jaw removed and replaced with bone and skin from his leg'

After receiving the referral, staff at Hillingdon Hospital made a routine appointment for Mr Heath on March 13. A consultant from the hospital's oral surgery unit requested an urgent biopsy, which was carried out four days later

'However, when I think about what has happened, I feel angry that the dentist didnt even consider it could have been something serious.

'I was able to come away from that appointment and look it up and come up with the right diagnosis, so why couldnt he?

'It was when I was seeing specialists that people made comments like "I cant believe he missed this" and others made comments about how it could have been life-threatening that I decided to take legal advice. I want lessons to be learned.

Jodi Newton, a specialist in handling medical negligence legal claims at Hudgell Solicitors, said: 'Given the pain Mr Heath had been suffering and the substantial swelling in his mouth, it would be expected that a dentist would ensure he was checked for something more sinister.

'This should have resulted in an urgent referral to see specialists to identify the correct diagnosis which would trigger treatment he so desperately needed as quickly as possible.

'Had Mr Heath been sent as potential cancer referral there is every likelihood that the cancerous tumour, which transpired to be an aggressive tumour, would have been discovered almost a month earlier than it eventually was.

'This has had a dramatic impact on Mr Heaths life and we will be looking to recover damages to reflect his pain and suffering.

'Living with the scarring has had a major impact on his life and confidence, and could have been avoided with the appropriate medical care from his dentist.'

When approached for comment by agency reporters, Dr Barez said: 'While I do not agree with the brief facts set out, I am limited in what I can say due to my professional duty to protect the confidentiality of my patients.

'I always strive to deliver the best possible care to all of my patients, and refer to the appropriate specialists as required.'
A 22-year-old cancer victim has died months after she was urged to abort her baby to boost her chances of survival.

Charlotte Smith, from North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 11 weeks pregnant.

But doctors warned giving birth posed a danger to her life and they advised her to terminate her pregnancy.

Mrs Smith, then 21, decided to go ahead with the abortion and began grueling bouts of chemotherapy that same day.

She died yesterday morning from an infection that led to sepsis, following her tireless battle with the form of cancer that strikes around 800 people each year in the UK.

Charlotte Smith, from North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 11 weeks pregnant

Her story came to light after The Daily Mirror reported her story in August, as she called for routine blood tests on the NHS.

Mrs Smith relentlessly campaigned for them as she said her cancer was only spotted because of the ones she had in pregnancy.

Tributes flood in

Tributes have today flooded in for Mrs Smith, as grieving friends described her as an 'amazing woman' and 'so inspirational'.

Mrs Smith's death was revealed on Facebook by her close friend Jordanna, who wrote: 'Well, I never thought id ever in a million years be having to write this.'

Her heartbreaking post continued: 'A lot of you may have seen Charlotte's post about her going into hospital this morning.

'She is my best friend and has been for many years, she has sadly passed away, she had an infection and couldn't fight it.

'I've been to see her little face, she is at peace now, I'm with her mum and her husband we are all trying to stay strong.'

Jordanna, who made Mrs Smith's Facebook account public in the wake of her death, added: 'She was a little fighter but couldn't fight much more.'

But doctors warned giving birth posed a danger to her life and they advised her to terminate her pregnancy - which she did

Mrs Smith, then 21, decided to go ahead with the abortion and began grueling bouts of chemotherapy that same day

Abbie McMahon, who met Mrs Smith through Facebook, described her as 'one of the loveliest girls ever'.

Adding that she was 'so inspirational, Miss McMahon wrote: 'Found out last night about this gorgeous girl and I'm still just in complete shock.

'She was so kind-hearted and positive even after everything she went through. She will be remembered for being such an amazing woman, and will be very missed.'

'Hurting so bad'

Emma Devlin, a friend of Mrs Smith, posted six photos alongside a poignant post that revealed she was 'hurting so bad right now'.

In her gut-wrenching message, she asked: 'What do you do when you lose your best friend? The one who was always there?'

She continued: 'I have no words, this is one of my biggest losses and I am breaking right now... You were the strongest girl I've ever met in my life.'

Aimee Spilsbury, another friend of Mrs Smith, wrote: 'Literally cannot put into words how speechless I still am, how God took away this beautiful girl so soon.'

She died yesterday morning, following her tireless battle with the form of cancer that strikes around 800 people each year in the UK

Abbie McMahon, who met Mrs Smith through Facebook, described her as 'one of the loveliest girls ever'

Aimee Spilsbury, another friend of Mrs Smith, wrote: 'Literally cannot put into words how speechless I still am, how God took away this beautiful girl so soon'

When was she diagnosed?

Mrs Smith told The Mirror in August how her pregnancy came as a shock and was initially free of any medical issues.

However, after just a matter of weeks she began to feel ill, suffering from back pain, bouts of vomiting and tiredness.

She put it down to 'the pregnancy' - until a routine blood test after 10 weeks found an abnormality and doctors became concerned.

Mrs Smith was given the diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia the next day and a treatment plan was drawn up.

She told the newspaper at the time: 'The only thing I was bothered about was the baby. But it was either my life or the child's, and I didn't want to die.'

Agreeing to an abortion

Mrs Smith agreed to have a termination, as part of a request by medics, with the promise of having an ultrasound to see her baby first.

A first round of chemotherapy, which began immediately, proved unsuccessful and the second round led to her being admitted to intensive care.

She was given a bone marrow transplant, a common form of treatment, when her brother was found to be a match.

Her friend Jordanna wrote on Facebook: 'Her immune system was low so she got an infection.' She added that this led to sepsis and she 'deteriorated fast'.

Mrs Smith's petition has so far amassed nearly 6,700 signatures. The issue has to considered for a debate in Parliament at 100,000 backers.

Anyone willing to sign it can do so here.

Mrs Smith agreed to have a termination, as part of a request by medics, with the promise of having an ultrasound to see her baby first
Parents who exercise may boost the intelligence of future generations, new research suggests.

Active mice are more likely to have offspring that show improved abilities to learn compared to rodents whose movement is restricted, a German study found today.

Such offspring also have better communication between cells in the regions of their brains responsible for taking on new information, the research adds, which is known as the hippocampus.

Exercise is thought to boost mice's intelligence by altering DNA in their fathers' sperm, according to the researchers.

Previous findings suggest being active improves people's memories, productivity and decision-making skills by boosting oxygen levels to their brains.

Parents who exercise may boost the intelligence of future generations, study suggests (stock)

DOES EXERCISE PREVENT DEMENTIA? Aerobic exercise such as walking and running may halt dementia by preventing the brain from shrinking, research suggested in November 2017. Being active several times a week maintains the size of the region of the brain associated with memory, a study found. Known as the hippocampus, this region is often one of the first to deteriorate in Alzheimer's patients. Lead author Joseph Firth from the Western Sydney University, said: 'When you exercise you produce a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which may help to prevent age-related decline by reducing the deterioration of the brain. 'In other words, exercise can be seen as a maintenance programme for the brain.' The scientists, from the universities of Western Sydney and Manchester, analysed 14 studies with a total of 737 participants. The participants were aged between 24 and 76, with an average age of 66. They were made up of healthy individuals, Alzheimer's patients and people with mental health problems, such as depression and schizophrenia. Scans of the participants' brains were investigated before and after completing exercise, such as walking or treadmill running. The exercise programmes lasted between three months and two years, with participants completing two to five sessions a week. Advertisement

Exercise 'results in a cognitive advantage for offspring'

The researchers found sections of DNA, known as miRNA212 and miRNA132, may be responsible for improved learning in rodents' offspring.

These DNA sections accumulate in mice's brains after exercise.

Previous research suggests these stimulate the production of junctions between nerve cells, which allow messages to be transferred and may boost learning.

Study author Professor Andre Fischer, from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, said: 'Presumably, [miRNA212 and miRNA132] modify brain development in a very subtle manner improving the connection of neurons.

'This results in a cognitive advantage for the offspring.'

The researchers plan to investigate whether miRNA212 and miRNA132 accumulate in human sperm after exercise.

The findings were published in the journal Cell Reports.

Dancing makes people more intelligent

This comes after TV doctor Michael Mosley claimed last February dancing makes people more intelligent.

A single salsa class boosts people's understanding of new information by eight per cent, focus by 13 per cent and memories by 18 per cent, according to a study broadcast on the BBC's The Truth About Getting Fit.

Lead author Professor Michael Duncan, from Coventry University, who has never seen such a response from any other kind of exercise, believes salsa is particularly challenging for the brain to process.

The Cuban style of dance forces people to learn and remember new steps to different patterns of music while staying in time with the beat, which means they cannot lose their concentration, according to Professor Duncan.

Although many use their hectic lifestyles as an excuse not to exercise, Dr Mosley argues dancing appears to make people more focused and therefore could help them become more productive with the time they have.
People who get easily agitated by a family argument or flat tire have a much higher risk of developing chronic diseases years later, new research has found.

A study of more than 1,000 people found those who dwelled for more than 24 hours on mundane stressors had much weaker immune systems and more heart problems 10 years down the line.

By contrast, those who could 'let it go' did not experience significant health changes over the decade-long study.

The findings, published today in the journal Psychological Science, provide some of the clearest evidence to date that negative emotions can impact physical health.

More importantly, the researchers at the University of California, Irvine said, the study hammers home that everyday upsets can be just as damaging to our minds and bodies as major traumatic events like divorce or death.

A study of more than 1,000 people found those who dwelled for more than 24 hours on mundane stressors had much weaker immune systems and more heart problems 10 years down the line

'Our research shows negative emotions that linger after even minor, daily stressors have important implications for our long term physical health,' said Kate Leger, a graduate teaching assistant at UC Irvine.

'When most people think of the types of stressors that impact health, they think of the big things, major life events that severely impact their lives, such as the death of a loved one or getting divorced.

'But accumulating findings suggest it is not just the big events, but minor, everyday stressors that can impact our health as well.'

Leger and her team analyzed 1,155 people in the Midlife in the United States Survey, a nationally representative study of adults.

In the survey, the participants answered questions about the daily stressors they had experienced across eight consecutive days - and the effect they had on them.

Each day they reported how much of the time over the previous 24 hours they had felt a variety of emotions, such as being lonely, afraid, irritable and angry.

The subsequent part of the study took place a decade later, when they completed surveys that assessed their chronic illnesses and functional limitations.

All together, Leger found a simple flat tire, bad grade or argument has an effect on an individual's health when the bad feeling it generates spills over into the following day.

Critically, this revealed a link between lingering bad feelings in response to a stressor and a greater number of health problems.

These included chronic illnesses, functional impairments and difficulties with everyday tasks.

The associations remained regardless of individuals' gender, education and health at the outset.

And they held even after the researchers took their same day emotional responses and average number of stressors into account.

Leger said: 'This means health outcomes don't just reflect how people react to daily stressors, or the number of stressors they are exposed to.

'There is something unique about how negative they feel the next day that has important consequences for physical health.'

The researchers suggest the phenomenon could play out through activation of stress-related systems or through health behaviors - two potential mechanisms that offer avenues for future research.

Leger added: 'Stress is common in our everyday lives. It happens at work, it happens at school, it happens at home and in our relationships.

'Our research shows the strategy to 'just let it go' could be beneficial to our long term physical health.'
As lawsuits pile in from distraught patients, Michigan-based provider Custom Biogenic Systems (file image) is hitting back at University Hospitals in suburban Cleveland, which blamed the tanks for the blunder

The supplier of the disgraced Ohio fertility clinic's storage tank says its equipment didn't malfunction or cause the loss of more than 4,000 eggs and embryos.

As lawsuits pile in from distraught patients, Michigan-based provider Custom Biogenic Systems is hitting back at University Hospitals in suburban Cleveland, which blamed the tanks for the blunder.

Both the hospital and the manufacturer agree on the root cause - an alarm system had been turned off when the storage tank's temperature began to rise - but they disagree on how the alarm was deactivated.

The hospital group says the tanks were malfunctioning for weeks, passively pushing the blame on the machine.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Michigan-based tank manufacturer said an initial investigation found human error is to blame for the failure in March.

A statement from Custom Biogenic Systems says it gave the clinic instructions how to deal with preventative maintenance at the time, insisting the company had nothing to do with the remote alarm system that had been turned off.

University Hospitals has ruled out inappropriate access to the tank area, and did not identify anyone as complicit. However, investigations into the malfunction suggest a person was actively involved in affecting the tank.

Around 1,000 families have received letters from the hospital informing them that they too lost their eggs.

At first, it started with 600, but that number was bumped up three weeks later when it emerged 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos - not 2,000 - were damaged.

Now patients, some of whom had their eggs stored for years if not decades, are seeking millions of dollars in damages.

In a bizarre turn of events that officials are calling a tragic coincidence, the same issue occurred at San Francisco's Pacific Fertility Center in the same week, damaging 400 embryos.

At least two families have already come forward with lawsuits against UH - Amber and Elliott Ash, of the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, and an unidentified couple from Pennsylvania.

Lawyers for the couples who went to the Ohio clinic are seeking class action status, which would require approval from a judge.

The Ashes said they stored two embryos at a University Hospitals fertility clinic in suburban Cleveland after Elliott's cancer diagnosis in 2003. They said they were told over the weekend that their embryos are no longer viable.

'It's heartbreaking, just heartbreaking,' Amber Ash told WEWS-TV. 'The medical community calls it tissue. I like to think of it as my children.'

The couple has a two-year-old son conceived through in-vitro fertilization and hoped to bring him a genetic sibling.

'With this lawsuit, we will get answers and stop this from happening again,' said Mark DiCello, an attorney for the Ashes.

The Pennsylvania couple was beginning to set up a time last week for transferring a frozen embryo to the woman's womb when they later were told something went wrong, attorneys said.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Baidu Inc and Great Wall Motor signed a strategic memorandum of cooperation on April 9 to extend collaboration in four major areas, intelligent-connected vehicle (ICV), autonomous driving, travelling sharing and big data. Both parties will make use of their advantageous resources to jointly promote relevant technical R&D and applications in ICV and autonomous driving fields.

Actually, it is not the first-time cooperation between Great Wall Motor and Baidu. As early as 2016, the automaker and the China's Internet giant had joined hands to co-develop high-definition map (HD map) positioning technology and has made some industry-leading technology achievements.

According to the memorandum, Great Wall Motor will build an ICV demonstration zone in Xushui District, Baoding (the city where Great Wall Motor headquarters in). The Internet company will help the automaker and Baoding government formulate laws and regulations on public road tests for autonomous vehicles.

Besides, Great Wall Motor and Baidu will jointly build an open application platform that integrates software and hardware of automotive-grade autonomous driving systems to achieve the connection between Great Wall Motor's self-driving system i-Pilot and Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving platform.

Additionally, two participants will explore revolutionary approaches in future travelling area and provide users with safe, convenient and efficient travelling experience based on Great Wall Motor's electric vehicle platform.

What's more, two companies will establish a big data platform with functions of data collection, storage and analysis to build an all-new natural language interaction in-vehicle system.

Reportedly, the sample vehicle equipped with i-Pilot 1.0 self-driving system has been tested on roads for over 500 thousand kilometers. Moreover, Great Wall Motor plans to install the i-Pilot 1.0 system in WEY-branded vehicles in 2020 to realize the L3 autonomous driving operation (according to SAE autonomous driving classification standards).
Another man has died and 37 more have been hospitalized with severe bleeding after using synthetic marijuana in Illinois, updated reports say.

There have been 107 cases reported as of Monday afternoon including three deaths, and that number has risen rapidly since the new symptom that includes bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose as well as intense bruising was first reported in early March.

The Illinois Poison Center's director confirmed to Daily Mail Online that many of the people have tested positive for a toxic ingredient in rat poison which stops the blood's clotting mechanism that is in place to repair damaged vessels to stop blood from leaking out.

Illinois officials have urged the public not to use synthetic marijuana, known as 'fake weed', 'K2' and 'spice', because it is impossible to know what chemicals are in it and now it will affect you.

The outbreak is expected to continue as state officials struggle to locate where the contaminated products are coming from, warning that they are likely available across the state.

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The number of people hospitalized with severe bleeding has more than tripled in the week since Illinois health officials first warned of the new side effect of synthetic marijuana

'Each day weve seen the number of cases rise,' Illinois Department of Public Health director Nirav Shah said in an update released Monday.

'Synthetic cannabinoids are unsafe. They are not regulated and people dont know what chemicals may be in them, like rat poison.

'While efforts are underway to get the contaminated drugs out of circulation, its possible they could re-emerge. We urge people not to use synthetic cannabinoids, now or ever.'

The death of man in his 40s from central Illinois was the third to be reported, following the deaths of two men in their 20s last week.

One of those men was a 22-year-old from Peoria who was hospitalized with internal bleeding and admitted to using K2.

What is synthetic cannabis? Synthetic marijuana contains man-made chemicals that act on the same cell receptors in the brain as THC does in natural marijuana. Manufacturers first started to sell synthetic pot in the early 2000s, marketing them as 'safe' alternatives to marijuana that do not show up on drug tests. They consist of a mix of plant material - herbs or spices, hence the name - that have been sprayed with chemicals to mimic the effects of marijuana and other cannabinoids. But often, the chemicals have drastically different and dangerous effects. Spice and K2 can cause seizures, nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure and erratic and even violent behavior. Advertisement

This is the first time that severe bleeding has been associated with the drugs known as cannabinoids, a mix of hundreds of chemicals that act on the same brain cell receptors as the active ingredient in marijuana.

Along with bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, other symptoms have included coughing up blood, blood in the urine and bleeding gums.

Dr Michael Wahl, medical director of the Illinois Poison Center, told Daily Mail Online that the samples that have come back from the lab have tested positive for brodifacoum, a toxic substance used in rat poison.

Brodifacoum is a long-acting anticoagulant that affects levels of vitamin K in the blood which is necessary for clotting.

In healthy people, the body's clotting mechanism is in place to repair damage to blood vessel walls and minimize the amount or blood that leaves the injured vessel.

Anticoagulants such as brodifacoum work against that mechanism and thus can cause severe internal bleeding throughout the body.

'People constantly have injuries and tears that clot off and heal, we never even notice them,' Dr Wahl said.

'The inability to clot allows these minor injuries to continue bleeding.'

'Some patients are high and will have trauma that can lead to severe bleeding. Some may have predisposing conditions such as an ulcer or history of rectal bleeding.'

Dr Wahl said the patients are currently being treated with a specific type of vitamin K that activates clotting factors in the blood and stops the bleeding.

The IDPH has warned that anyone experiencing bleeding or bruising after using synthetic cannabis should seek treatment right away.

Nine people have tested positive for brodifacoum, a toxic substance found in rodent poison

The IDPH has said synthetic pot manufacturers could be tweaking the recipe for these products to get around a statewide ban and allow them to be sold legally.

'Our investigation is ongoing, but individuals report using many different product names,' IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold told Daily Mail Online.

'Because these products are not regulated, its difficult to know the chemical make-up, source and distribution.'

K2 used by one of the people hospitalized was traced back to a convenience store in Lawndale called King Mini Mart, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A undercover officer went to the store on April 1 to buy the K2 and arrested two Jamil Abdelrahman Jad Allah, 44, and Adil Khan Mohammed, 44.

That evening the owner of the store, Fouad Masoud, 48, was arrested while leaving his home with a bag containing $280,000.

Police reportedly found 3,000 grams of brodifacoum-laced K2 labeled as 'Purple Giant' in Masoud's home and 2,000 grams behind the store.

The three men each face up to 20 years in prison. The store owner is being held without bail.

Three men were arrested at a convenience store in Lawndale, Illinois, where police found nearly 2,000 grams of K2 laced with rat poison

The health effects of using synthetic cannabinoids can be unpredictable, dangerous and possibly life-threatening because it's difficult to know what's in them or how a person will be react to them.

Synthetic pot has been known to create a 'zombie-like' psychotic effect with extreme anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations.

Previous studies have linked the drugs to symptoms including seizures, vomiting, chest pain, cardiac problems, kidney damage and brain damage.

Since 2015 hundreds of people across the US have overdosed and been hospitalized after smoking too much or bad batches of synthetic cannabis.

K2 was long sold in corner stores, wrapped in bright packaging and bearing a 'not for human consumption' stamp.

Government agencies are finally beginning to crack down on the unregulated substance.
A company has created headphones that can clear wax out of a person's ears in 35 seconds, replacing harmful cotton swabs and costly visits to the doctor.

Seattle-based start-up SafKan developed a device that can clean both ears simultaneously in under a minute by injecting a mixture of hydrogen peroxide into the ear to loosen up wax before suctioning it out.

Millions of Americans experience excess or impacted ear wax that can cause pain, hearing loss, balance problems and other health problems.

Trying to remove that ear wax with Q-tips can cause even more damage to the ear's delicate skin and potentially lead to a ruptured ear drum.

SafKan's CEO claims that not only does this new technology make ear-cleaning more pleasant for users, it could also save significant time and money for physicians.

A Seattle-based start-up has developed headphones that both ears in just 35 seconds by injecting a mixture of warm water and hydrogen peroxide to loosen wax and suctioning it out

Ear wax is a sticky yellow substance that is produced in the ear canal in order to block dust, dirt, bacteria and other foreign objects from entering the body.

One in 10 children, one in 20 adults and one in three geriatric patients have excess or impacted ear wax, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology.

Physicians in the US perform more than 12 million earwax removal procedures every year by squirting water into the ear canal with a blunt syringe.

The procedure has been around since 1821 and isn't very precise, efficient or convenient.

After years of visiting his doctor to have impacted ear wax removed, Aadil Diwan came up with the idea for OtoSet and brought his brother Sihal on to run the business.

'Excess/impacted earwax is a very common problem affecting hundreds of millions of people around the world, and still ear care has seen very little innovation in almost two hundred years,' SafKan CEO Sihal Diwan told Daily Mail Online.

'Physicians and providers are actually losing money every single time they do one of these procedures, right now. And it's simply because of labor costs.

'Our OtoSet will help physicians treat even more patients, and at the same time reduce labor costs and unnecessary referrals to specialists.

'This saves health systems time and money on a very common procedure.'

In a press release Dr Gary Kato, a family care physician in Washington, said: 'The SafKan team has developed a brilliant concept and design for managing a condition we commonly see in the office setting.

'As an educator of Primary Care Physicians, I can envision physicians of the future using SafKan's device as an essential tool in patient care.'

Ear wax is produced in the ear canal to block dust, dirt and bacteria from entering the body

Aadil Diwan, left, came up with the idea for the device after years of visiting his doctor to have impacted wax removed. He brought his brother Sihal, right, on as the CEO

SafKan recently raised $1 million to help launch the headset at US hospitals, beginning four on the West Coast: University of Washington Medicine, Stanford Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, and Providence Saint Johns Health Center.

They will be sold with disposable tips and outflow containers. Pricing has yet to be determined but Diwan claims it will significantly cut costs for physicians and specialists.

A version to be sold directly to consumers is also being developed, Diwan said.

The hope is that offering a consumer version will decrease use of cotton swabs, which have been found to damage or irritate the very delicate skin of the ear canal, introduce sickness-causing bacteria or even puncture a person's ear drum.

Despite protective qualities, people have long seen ear wax as an unsightly nuisance.

Many people use cotton swabs to clean out the wax, ignoring warnings on the packaging that say: 'Do not insert swab into ear canal.'

A 2014 study by the University of Michigan found that thousands of adults find themselves in the ER each year because of cotton swab incidents.

Dr Peter Svider, an otolaryngologist and lead researcher on the study said that cotton swabs are not designed in a way that makes them a good tool for removing wax.
Many readers feel intimidated into switching their analogue gas and electricity meters for digital versions

Today, Money Mail launches a campaign to stop energy firms bullying customers into having a smart meter fitted in their homes.

We have been inundated with letters, emails and calls from readers who have felt pressured and intimidated into switching their analogue gas and electricity meters for digital versions.

The new devices  which show how much power and gas you're using minute by minute and send that data to your supplier  are entirely optional and many people have legitimate reasons for rejecting them.

For example, nearly all the meters so far installed are ones that lose their smart functions if you switch providers.

Understandably, many readers want to wait until the devices are capable of working with any supplier before they make the swap.

Others have privacy concerns about how energy suppliers plan to use their data  especially after the Facebook scandal  while some are worried about the safety of an electronic device being linked to their gas supply.

The Government has stated nobody is under any obligation to have a smart meter fitted. Yet our postbag is bulging with evidence that firms routinely lead homeowners to believe they have no choice in the matter, and that they must 'upgrade' immediately.

The bullying tactics include:

Charging people more unless they accept a smart meter;

Setting up installation appointments for customers who haven't requested them;

Reneging on pledges to stop contacting customers who feel harassed;

Giving people the impression they will face charges if they don't accept a free meter;

Bribing customers with 50 Amazon vouchers.

Today, we reveal the reasons firms are using these dirty tricks  and lay out our key demands, which should put an end to them once and for all.

Crucially, all the major energy suppliers  British Gas, E.ON, SSE, ScottishPower, npower and EDF Energy  are under enormous pressure to install 50 million smart meters in UK homes and businesses by the end of 2020. But with two-and-a-half years to go, they can so far tick off only 11 million.

Smart meters show how much power and gas you're using minute by minute and send that data to your supplier

That means firms must fit 24 smart meters every minute between now and the deadline. If they fail to meet the target, power firms face swingeing fines equal to 10 per cent of their worldwide sales. In the worst cases, the penalties could exceed 7 billion.

Suppliers have been ordered by the Government to take 'all reasonable steps' to ensure every home has a smart meter fitted by the end of 2020.

But firms say they have been issued no guidance on what 'all reasonable steps' means in practice. As a result, the Big Six privately admit they push the boundaries as far as they can.

'The threat of such a huge fine is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over us,' says a source at one major supplier. 'When we've asked what 'all reasonable steps' means, the answer has been: 'We'll tell you if you've done enough after the deadline.'

'We're taking the view that the only way to prove we've done enough  and avoid the fine  is to have meters actually installed in homes rather than just asking customers if they want one.'

Money Mail's Stop The Smart Meter Bullying campaign calls on the Government to relax its targets for the roll-out.

Ministers could either push back the 2020 deadline or reduce the number of homes in which they need to fit meters. For example, they could say suppliers must install them in only 80 per cent of homes and businesses by this time.

Privately, energy firms say this would reduce the need for bullying tactics as they could more carefully target the customers who they think would be interested.

Money Mail revealed in February that suppliers estimated the cost of fitting the meters across the country had ballooned from 11 billion to more than 20 billion.

This cost goes on customers' bills so could wipe out the benefits from the energy savings they were promised they would make from seeing up-to-date usage figures and receiving accurate monthly charges.

Money Mail understands some firms are concerned that if they are forced to install smart meters too quickly, the fitters they employ could start to cut corners. If the technology is installed poorly, it could put families at risk of fires or an explosion.

The second part of Money Mail's campaign calls on the energy regulator to set out clear rules on what is and what is not an acceptable way to advertise the devices to customers.

Companies should have to state clearly  in large print on letters, emails, texts and during phone calls  that installing a smart meter is optional and that customers have the right to say no.

Ofgem must also prevent companies setting up installation appointments for customers who have not requested them.

The watchdog should ban firms from reserving their best energy prices for customers who have smart meters and should crack down on the use of incentives to persuade people to sign up.

'Smart meters help customers save money,' says Energy Minister Claire Perry. 'That is why we are we committed to ensuring that all consumers are offered the chance to upgrade by the end of 2020.

'Suppliers must treat customers fairly in how they communicate with them and we expect regulator Ofgem to ensure they do.'

An Energy UK spokesman says: 'Companies have trialled different approaches and we're working with suppliers on good-practice principles for the smart meter roll-out.'

A spokesman for Ofgem says: 'It is not compulsory to have a smart meter installed  consumers have a right to decline them and suppliers must not mislead consumers.'

Supplier booked a fitting without my permission  I was furious: Kathy, 65, is one of thousands hounded by energy firms that won't take no for an answer

By: SARA SMYTH

Almost seven months have passed since Money Mail first reported on energy suppliers bullying customers into getting smart meters  and readers say the intimidation tactics are only getting dirtier.

Every week, we receive dozens of complaints from customers who've been bombarded with calls, texts and letters that make it seem like they must get the new technology fitted immediately.

Some have discovered that this is not true and have written back to their suppliers, pleading for the junk mail to stop. Yet the barrage rarely ceases.

Angry: Kathy Relf struggled to contain her outrage when Npower emailed her saying an appointment had been booked for a smart meter to be fitted when she hadn't asked for one

Anne Dagen, from Stanwick, Northamptonshire, says she's hit by a wave of anger each time a letter arrives from her supplier, E.on.

The letters she and other customers have received are some of the most aggressive Money Mail has seen.

Some state, in bold, red lettering, that 'your meters are being phased out' and 'we need to change your meter'.

Readers say they were left with the impression that the changeover was a foregone conclusion  even though they have the right to refuse.

In July last year, Anne was receiving roughly one of these types of letters every month. She complained about being harassed and was offered a derisory 10 compensation.

Foregone conclusion? Replica of a letter sent out by Eon suggesting that old models of meters are being phased out

E.on promised that her complaint would be logged on her account and Anne would not hear about an installation for the 'foreseeable future'.

But, just six months later, the letters started arriving again. In January, E.on wrote saying Anne needed to upgrade to the new equipment.

Then, in March, an email arrived saying: 'You recently told us you were interested in being one of the first to have a brand new smart meter.'

Anne says she never told E.on anything of the sort. 'It's so frustrating that the whole cycle has begun again,' she says. 'It's as if they've wiped my records and are ignoring the fact I have made two official complaints.'

Anne refused the 10 compensation, saying it in no way reflects the annoyance she has been caused.

A spokesman for E.on apologised for not removing Anne from its mailing list when she asked.

Last October, E.on promised to tone down the language it uses when it contacts customers about smart meters, after Money Mail reported the firm to Ofgem.

At the time, its correspondences said: 'It's a legal requirement and we want to keep you safe. When we replace it, we're going to give you a free self-reading meter.'

However, the evidence shows that the firm has continued with its bullish tactics.

We have seen letters dated February 2018 that state: 'Your electricity meter is an old model that we need to replace with our free self-reading smart meter. We need to install smart meters in our customer's homes as part of a nationwide upgrade programme.'

John, 78, from Hertfordshire, received one of these letters from E.on last September.

He wrote an impassioned reply, telling E.on to stop pestering him  but was then contacted four times in one month. Last month, he received two letters and two phone calls from the firm.

An E.on spokesman apologised and the firm has now removed John from its mailing list.

Money Mail has heard several accounts of companies leading customers to believe that they could be charged for smart meter installations if they don't agree to one now.

One customer, who does not want to be named, says: 'It's presented like a ticking time bomb. It certainly sounds like you will end up with one, whether you want it or not.'

This customer is with Utility Warehouse, but the firm says it has no record of ever giving customers any information that would suggest they have to pay for a smart meter.

All suppliers have slightly different ways of trying to convince their customers to sign up.

First Utility has offered 50 Amazon vouchers to customers who agree to have a smart meter fitted within the next month.

Scottish Power has sent emails asking customers: 'Did you know your current gas and electricity meters are being phased out and replaced with smart meters?'

SSE writes to customers with traditional meters that are 'nearing the end of their lifespan'. It then offers smart meters as replacements. EDF letters say: 'Important  book your smart meter change now'.

Last year, we caught firms booking smart meter installation appointments for customers  even though they hadn't requested one.

The evidence you've sent to our postbag shows this practice is continuing  at an alarming rate.

Kathy Relf, 65, struggled to contain her outrage when Npower emailed her saying an appointment had been booked for a smart meter to be fitted when she hadn't asked for one and does not want a new meter.

The email, seen by Money Mail, states: 'Your new smart meters are coming. Confirm your Npower smart meter appointment.'

The retired radio producer was told she had an appointment in two weeks' time.

The email continues: 'We'd like to come and fit your smart meters but can only guarantee we'll be able to fit them if you confirm this date or choose a new one within the next five days.'

Kathy cancelled the appointment and asked for no further communication from Npower about dual fuel smart meters.

She says: 'I'd never heard of being given an appointment that I hadn't asked for.

'It's a bit rich because when you do want something sorted, it's almost impossible to get an appointment with Npower.'

A spokesman for Npower says that offering appointments in this way is in line with the Smart Metering Installation Code of Practice.

In January, the Mail reported that energy giants had been accused of flouting trading laws by pressuring homeowners into getting smart meters.

Some firms were making it sound like a legal requirement to replace your meter.

Trading Standards chiefs told power firms giving customers this impression breached consumer law.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute wrote to Energy UK, which represents big suppliers, to raise concerns about the way that firms are marketing the meters.

Yet Money Mail readers say their suppliers, under huge pressure to keep rolling out smart meters, are still using hard-sell ploys.

George McClure, 70, will lose 144 a year if he doesn't sign up for a smart meter with his current provider. The retired headmaster and his wife Maureen, also 70, have paid 90 a month for dual fuel with First Utility for the past five years.

Money Mail readers say their suppliers, under huge pressure to keep rolling out smart meters, are still using hard-sell ploys

They were told their current tariff will change to 98 if they renew next month.

But this deal is only valid if a smart meter is installed. Without a smart meter, the best deal the couple can get is 110 a month.

George doesn't want one, but also doesn't want to overspend on his energy.

He says: 'It's an underhand way to force my hand, but I refuse to have a device in my home that undermines my privacy.'

A spokesman for First Utility says the firm makes clear when a customer signs up that the tariff they're offered is dependent on having a smart meter installed within six months.

Saverio D'Amico, 67, says he felt tricked into accepting a smart meter after he was sent a seemingly innocuous letter claiming his analogue electricity meter had reached the end of its lifespan.

The retired engineer from Peterborough followed the letter's instructions to telephone E.on to arrange a like-for-like replacement. Instead, he was greeted by a smart meter adviser who thanked him for requesting the new technology.

Saverio says: 'I felt duped  like they'd used mind tricks to reel me in. I was a bit flustered throughout the phone call and the adviser just kept talking over me. So, in the end, I accepted it and had the meter installed.'

Saverio was unaware that sticking with an analogue meter was an option for him.

A spokesman for E.on says that Saverio didn't contact the firm to say he didn't want a smart meter. It said it was in the process of updating its letters and emails to make it clearer that smart meters are not compulsory.

The spokeman adds: 'We're obliged to contact our customers about upgrading their smart meters as part of our commitment to Ofgem.' A spokesman for Energy UK says: 'The energy industry has installed more than 11 million smart meters in the UK.

'Customers have reported high levels of satisfaction overall for both the smart meter itself (80 per cent) and the installation visit (89 per cent).

'Energy companies are working hard to enable as many people as possible to experience the benefits that smart meters bring and to ensure the rollout is carried out safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.

'Suppliers remain committed to meeting the Government's deadline of ensuring all households and businesses are offered a smart meter by 2020.'

s.smyth@dailymail.co.uk

How I fought the bullies and won 50

By: GUY ADAMS

Smart move: Feature writer Guy Adams took on First Utility and won 50

Last autumn, a new type of junk mail began to appear among the pizza menus and charity begging letters on the doormat of my West London flat.

Sent in official-looking envelopes, they came from my gas and electricity supplier, First Utility. Each instructed me to 'upgrade to a smart meter' in order to 'get your gas and electricity bills under control'.

As far as I'm concerned, my gas and electricity bills are already 'under control'.

And I've no desire to take a day off so workmen can fit a vaguely Orwellian device that will almost certainly become useless when I switch supplier.

The letters were consigned swiftly to the bin. Various similar emails met the same fate, too.

Nevertheless, the marketing blitz continued.

One day in mid-October, things took an more intrusive turn, when lunch was interrupted by the ping of a text message. It was 'just a friendly reminder from First Utility to call our partner Siemens (on an 0345 number) to arrange your smart meter installation'.

Irritated by this increasingly high-pressure campaign, I wrote to the energy company, formally asking it to stop contacting me about smart meters. A simple request, one might think. But it was not to be.

In response, First Utility claimed that it would take me off its own 'smart meter mailing list'.

Yet, somewhat bizarrely, it added that this wouldn't actually prevent new text messages from arriving.

These had, apparently, been sent by Siemens, a German technology firm it had hired, as a sub-contractor, to install the devices.

To prevent this other firm from continuing to bother me, I was blithely advised to 'contact them directly'.

There are several problems with this response  not least that I'd no contractual relationship with Siemens and no memory of agreeing to have my personal phone number shared with it, or anyone else.

I therefore asked First Utility to explain why it had passed it on and when, if ever, I'd consented.

Its response? A boilerplate message claiming it had been handed out as part of a 'government led initiative to let every household know about smart meters by 2020'.

Since this was obviously false (the Government has not instructed utility firms to give our personal data to third parties), I did what every consumer messed around by an energy company ought to do at the earliest opportunity and declared that I wished to 'raise a formal complaint'.

There followed one of the more Kafka-esque experiences of my adult life, in which a succession of the firm's 'case handlers' sent a variety of evasive emails, claiming their 'processes' are 'in line with the Data Protection Act'.

Awkwardly, for them at least, the marketing wing of First Utility wasn't listening.

As a result, the firm continued, despite my repeated requests, to send out regular, pushy messages, pestering me to accept a smart meter.

During the month that followed my original complaint, I received three more unsolicited emails (several containing very basic grammatical errors), one letter and, on November 21, yet another irritating text message.

By Christmas, following several apologies, along with an attempt by First Utility to declare my complaint 'closed', I gave the firm a week to sort its act out, before I escalated things to Ofgem and the Information Commissioner.

Amazingly, they telephoned me within a few days, offering 50 compensation and promising (correctly, this time) that the hectoring would finally stop.

I went away a little richer and a lot more certain that energy giants are the opposite of smart.
Recruitment company Robert Walters enjoyed first quarter success with a 17 per cent increase in recruitment fee revenue.

Europe saw an impressive growth rate of 32 per cent with the biggest growth countries, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands each growing over 35%.

In the UK there was significant growth outside of the capital with Manchester, Milton Keynes and St Albans being hailed as standout stars.

Robert Walters enjoyed a 17 per cent increase in recruitment fee revenue

UK Q1 fee income was up 6 per cent at 25.2 million with the economy continuing to shrug off fears of a Brexit-induced hiring freeze.

Such results tally with data released from the Office for National Statistics showing a job surge of 168,000 in the quarter to January.

Employment now stands at a record 32.2 million

The expensive London housing market was cited as one of the reasons for the regions playing host to such impressive job growth as recent university graduates rebel against the previously well beaten path to the big smoke, opting instead for the chance to get on the housing ladder earlier.

Further afield, fee income for Asia Pacific was up 11% at 32.6 million for the first three months of the year.
The UK's 'big six' accounting companies will face more scrutiny from the financial watchdog after the sector was rocked by criticism following a string of auditing failures.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it will enhance its monitoring of firms in efforts to avoid instability in the financial sector and 'systemic deficiencies' in the sector's biggest players BDO, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC and Grant Thornton.

It will focus on 'critical areas' including evidence of auditing quality, risk management and controls, financial soundness, values and behaviours as well as leadership and governance, it said in a statement published on Tuesday.

The latest measures come a day after the FRC said it was implementing recommendations for tougher sanctions for auditors, accountants and actuaries

The move comes after mounting criticism of the FRC regarding its oversight of the accounting profession following the collapse of construction firm Carillion, with MPs accusing firms of 'feasting on the carcass' of the outsourcer by collecting more than 70million in the decade before its demise.

The watchdog has already started work on some monitoring of risk reporting, IT security and contingency planning and said it will publish individual reports on the audit quality of each firm in June.

The FRC's Melanie McLaren said: 'The work of the big six audit firms is core to the integrity and transparency of UK capital markets and so it is vital that the FRC introduces a new approach to monitoring their stability and performance by focusing on aspects of their businesses that are critical to the provision of high-quality audit.'

'We will discuss with firms how well candidates for key leadership and governance roles such as independent non-executives, heads of audit and ethics partners meet our expectations in terms of experience, skills and attributes.'

'Where we do not have specific powers in this regard we will look for the firms' co-operation.'

Business Secretary Greg Clark last month called for the FRC to be subjected to an independent review.

The latest measures come a day after the FRC said it was implementing recommendations for tougher sanctions for auditors, accountants and actuaries.

Business Secretary Greg Clark (pictured) last month called for the FRC to be subjected to an independent review

It includes excluding people from the profession for a minimum of 10 years for dishonesty, greater use by the FRC of non-financial penalties and the imposition of sanctions that 'reflect the level of co-operation by respondents'.

The most stringent change is an increase in fines to '10million or more for seriously poor audit work by a Big Four firm'.

While McLaren continues to serve in her role as executive director of audit and actuarial regulation, she is one of two board members to have stepped down at the end of March, alongside Paul George.

The FRC said it was part of efforts to diversify its board.

'The FRC has been actively reviewing the board composition to ensure its membership reflects the wider public interest stakeholders we are responsible to as well as investors, business and those we regulate,' the watchdog said.

'Hence recently we appointed Julia Unwin and Jenny Watson, who bring more diverse experience and backgrounds to the board.

'While Melanie McLaren and Paul George have relinquished their board posts they still play key roles in the executive management of the FRC running the operating divisions under their leadership.'
Officer John Flinn, 27, was caught on camera slapping a handcuffed girl, 13

A New Jersey police officer who was captured on body cameras hitting a handcuffed teenage girl has been suspended and charged with assault.

Officer John Flinn, of the Gloucester Township police department, was sent to investigate a reported disturbance on March 8 when he encountered the 13-year-old girl.

Camden County prosecutors said the juvenile complied with police instructions and allowed Flinn to handcuff her.

Sill, they say the officer 'struck her twice on the side of the face, causing her to cry out in pain'.

The shocking moment was captured on the body cameras of the responding officers. The footage shows Flinn pushing the girl's head and putting one of his knees on her back after he slaps her.

Flinn is heard saying 'stop resisting,' as they girl replies: 'I'm not'.

The Gloucester Township has been suspended and charged with simple assault

Police Chief Harry Earle said on Saturday a supervisor immediately realized Flinn's actions had to be investigated after seeing the footage.

Earle passed on the case to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, which then brought simple assault cases against Flinn on Friday.

In a letter to Gloucester residents Earle said: 'Our community members should rest assured that this incident was uncovered internally through our own checks and balances system and was not the result of a civilian complaint.'

Flinn, 27, who has been on the force since 2015, was suspended.

No criminal charges were filed against the juvenile, who was medically evaluated at a hospital after the incident.

Authorities say Flinn's supervisor saw the footage and knew the incident had to be reviewed
Melons contaminated with deadly listeriosis bacteria were exported to at least nine countries from Australia, where an outbreak has killed seven people and caused one miscarriage, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The rockmelons, or cantaloupes, were sent to Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and may also have gone to the Seychelles, a WHO statement said.

Between January 17 and April 6, Australia reported 19 confirmed and one probable case of listeriosis, all of whom were hospitalised. Seven died.

Rockmelons contaminated with listeriosis bacteria were exported from Australia to at least nine countries, the World Health Organization said on Monday (stock image)

The Listeria monocytogenes bacterium has a potentially long incubation period, usually one or two weeks but possibly up to 90 days, so more cases may be reported, the WHO said.

'Cases in the affected countries may still be identified,' it said.

The Australian melon producer, which the WHO did not name, recalled the fruit on Feb. 27.

On March 2, Australian authorities discovered the firm's melons had been exported, and they sent detailed notifications through the International Food Safety Authorities Network to the countries concerned.

'It is believed that the cause of the outbreak was a combination of environmental conditions and weather contaminating the surface of the fruit, with low levels of the bacteria persisting after the washing process,' the WHO said.

'The grower continues to work closely with the relevant authorities and has returned to supply rockmelons (during the week starting 2 April) after testing cleared the property.'

Rombola Family Farms (pictured), in the New South Wales Riverina, started selling fruit again last week after it was linked to the food poisoning deaths of six people

Listeriosis can come in a mild form that causes diarrhoea and fever in healthy people within a few days.

But it also has a severe form that can cause septicemia and meningitis among more high-risk people, such as pregnant women, infants, old people, and people having treatment for cancer, AIDS or organ transplants.

The severe form has a 20-30 percent mortality rate.

As well as unwashed fruit, high risk foods include dairy products made of unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses, deli meat products, ice creams, raw seafood, crustaceans and shellfish.

A separate listeriosis outbreak in South Africa killed at least 180 people earlier this year, sparking a class-action lawsuit against South African food producer Tiger Brands.
Los Angeles prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against writer and director James Toback in five sexual abuse investigations.

The Oscar-nominated writer-director has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, including Hollywood stars such as Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore.

In total he has been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 400 women.

Documents released Monday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said the statute of limitations in all of the cases had expired. None of the women in those five cases are named, but they reported sexual abuse spanning 30 years - from 1978 to 2008.

The 73-year-old, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing 1991's 'Bugsy,' has vehemently denied all allegations.

Los Angeles prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against writer and director James Toback in five sexual abuse investigations. Toback is pictured in a 2014 file photo

The Oscar-nominated writer-director has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, including Hollywood stars such as Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore

In the 1978 case, the woman told police that Toback had pushed her against the wall and asked her to have sex with him after a dinner. When she refused, he drove her home and she said he exposed himself in the car.

In one of two accusations dating to 2008, the woman said that after a dinner date she thought she was going to a movie screening with Toback and ended up alone with him in an empty house.

She told investigators that he asked her to masturbate in front of him and she complied out of fear.

He then told her to sit in the chair by the door where he'd been sitting.

'The suspect knelt down in front of her, placed his hand on the armrests and rubbed his penis on her bare leg until he ejaculated,' the documents say.

Nearly identical allegations are made in another case from 2008.

In that investigation, prosecutors say the accuser did not show up to be interviewed, and hasn't responded to attempts to reach her.

A prosecutor said that while the statute of limitations appears to have expired in this case too, it would be re-evaluated if the woman is interviewed later.

Documents released Monday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said the statute of limitations in all of the cases had expired. None of the women in those five cases are named, but they reported sexual abuse spanning 30 years - from 1978 to 2008

Information for an attorney or representative who could provide comment for Toback was not immediately available.

The allegations against Toback became public in October, part of the wide wave that came after stories of Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct rocked Hollywood and sparked the #MeToo movement.

While dozens of men were accused of misbehavior, Toback, while not as well-known as many of them, stood out for the sheer number of women who said he had sexually assaulted or harassed them.

The Los Angeles Times reported that 38 women alleged sexual misconduct from Toback, and in the wake of that story nearly 400 more women came forward.

Blair said Toback asked her to perform a monologue naked, propositioned her for sex, and said he would not let her leave until he 'had release.' She is pictured April 6

They included actresses Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams.

Blair said Toback asked her to perform a monologue naked, propositioned her for sex, and said he would not let her leave until he 'had release.'

Blair said he then simulated sexual intercourse on her leg.

'I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil,' Blair told Vanity Fair.

'His energy was so sinister.'

But while lawsuits and firings have been plentiful, criminal consequences have been slow in coming for powerful men ensnared in the #MeToo movement, though many more, including Weinstein, remain under criminal investigation.

While never becoming a major player in Hollywood, Toback managed to have a moderately successful career in film that has lasted more than 40 years.

Movies he wrote and directed include Harvey Keitel's 'Fingers,' the loosely autobiographical 'The Pick-up Artist,' which starred Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald, and 'Two Girls and a Guy,' also with Downey Jr. and Heather Graham.

Many of his accusers said he touted his friendship with Downey in trying to show his importance as he pressured them for sex.
Marsha Gay Reynolds, 33, has been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine

A former JetBlue flight attendant now has some serious baggage.

Marsha Gay Reynolds ran from security in March 2016 after ditching 60 pounds of cocaine at Los Angeles International Airport.

The 33-year-old has been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.

A judge Monday said her cooperation with prosecutors aided his decision to sentence Reynolds to time already served in custody.

Normally the charges carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 10-years.

She is likely to be released in the next few days and will then spend three years on supervised release, according to City News Service.

The Transportation Security Administration says Reynolds was selected for a random security screening at LAX.

Moments later, authorities said, Reynolds dropped her carry-on luggage, kicked off her heels, fled down an upward-moving escalator and out of the terminal.

Reynolds ran from security in March 2016 after ditching 60 pounds of cocaine at Los Angeles International Airport. A judge Monday said her cooperation with prosecutors aided his decision to sentence Reynolds to time already served in custody

A TSA officer said he didn't pursue her because their primary concern was her abandoned luggage.

Inside Reynolds' bags cops said TSA agents found clothes, Trojan Magnum condoms and more than 68 pounds of cocaine wrapped in green saran wrap labeled 'BIG Ranch' - which was estimated to be worth roughly $3million.

She surrendered in New York days later.

Normally the charges carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 10-years. Pictured are the drugs that were found in her bag - which were estimated to be worth roughly $3million

The Transportation Security Administration says Reynolds was selected for a random security screening at LAX. Moments later, authorities said, Reynolds dropped her carry-on luggage, kicked off her heels, fled down an upward-moving escalator and out of the terminal. Her mother is pictured leaving court in Brooklyn, New York in March 2016

The former Jamaican beauty queen and New York University track athlete was studying to be a nurse while working for JetBlue, her former attorney said.

She was a runner-up in the Miss Jamaica World 2008 pageant, which sends the country's representatives to Miss World contests.

In court Reynolds acknowledged earning thousands of dollars to help smuggle drugs and money through airport security at LAX and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York by using her 'known crew member' status to breeze past security and then transfer the contraband to a co-conspirator.

Airline employees with the clearance can bypass typical screening, even during personal travel in the US but can be randomly searched.
Stephen Jacobs, 79, has lived in the U.S. since shortly after being freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in 1945

A Holocaust survivor says the rise of president Donald Trump is reminiscent of the years that led to the Nazi takeover of Germany.

Stephen Jacobs, 79, told Newsweek there's a 'real problem growing' in the U.S, where he has lived since shortly after being freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.

The renowned architect said the current climate in the U.S. feels like '1929 or 1930 Berlin', when economic, political and social resentments were brewing, eventually leading to the brutal, right-wing rule of Adolf Hitler, who got to power by promising Germans to bring their country back to its its pre-World-War-I glory.

Jacobs said he's noticed a shift in public discourse, and worries about the fact that people now feel free to say things that 'couldn't be said five years ago.'

The Holocause survivor says he seems alarming similarities between Trump's America and the climate that lead to World War II (Jacobs is pictured as a child during the war)

'We thought our country had changed. In fact, it didn't. We were operating on a misconception.

'My god, we elected a black president in the United States! Look how far we've come!' We haven't.'

And the New Yorker says his opinion is based on personal experience not only about fascism but about Trump himself, because as an architect based in New York City he's personally come across the now-president.

Hitler came to power in 1933, after campaigning for years on the idea that Germany should be brought back to its pre-World-War-I glory (pictured in 1930)

'He's a sick, very disturbed individual.

'I couldn't say that Trump is a fascist because you've got to know what fascism is. And I don't think he has the mental power to even understand it,' he said.

Jacobs, who designed the Holocaust memorial at Buchenwald, thinks Trump is an 'enabler' of the far-right and white nationalists who he says have become emboldened by his rise in politics.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, extremist organizations such as armed militias and supremacist groups have risen four percent since 2016. Within white supremacist movements, neo-Nazi groups saw the greatest growth, going from 99 to 121 in 2017.

Jacobs was separated from his mother, aunts and grandmother in 1944 when he, his older brother and father were sent to Buchenwald from a labor camp in Poland.

Jacobs, who designed the Holocaust memorial at Buchenwald, thinks Trump is an 'enabler' of the far-right and white nationalists (pictured is a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville)

He and his family managed to stay alive at the concentration camp until they were liberated by the U.S. Third Army.

Now, he thinks it's time for Americans, particularly for those with power in Washington D.C., to fight fascism once again.

'Fascism could have been won in Spain. It could've been stopped. But appeasement of fascism is what led to everything.'

Other Holocaust survivors have echoed Jacobs' sentiment and drawn parallels between America today and Nazi Germany.

Sonia K wrote a piece for CNN where she says: 'Some might dismiss the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the actions of unhinged or fringe individuals. Others might believe President Trump's comments equating neo-Nazi and anti-fascist protesters are merely reflective of his often exaggerated speech.

'However, Holocaust survivors know all too well that what starts as a protest or an offhand comment can turn into something far worse.

'I'm scared -- not for myself, but for my children, my grandchildren, and all children.'
President Trump again lashed out at his Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the heels of his personal attorney Michael Cohen's office and home being raided by the FBI.

'The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself, or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a, put a different attorney general in,' the president said late Monday afternoon. 'So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But you'll figure that out.'

The president also brought up Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who Bloomberg reported had signed off on the Cohen raid after being approached by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, noting how Rosenstein had agreed that Trump should fire ex-FBI Director James Comey, which prompted Rosenstien's appointment of Mueller.

President Trump slammed his Attorney General Jeff Sessions (left) after his personal attorney Michael Cohen's office and home were raided by the FBI, which was signed off on by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (right)

Fury: Trump called the raid ordered by federal prosecutors on his personal attorney Michael Cohen's hotel room and offices 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

'I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens,' Trump uttered when asked why he doesn't fire Mueller, before starting in on Rosenstein.

'Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing that's a big statement because you know the person who is in charge of the investigation, you know all about that,' Trump said, suggesting the Russia probe has come up empty-handed.

'Deputy Rod Rosenstein he wrote the letter very critical of Comey,' the president pointed out, suggesting they should be in line. Trump, again, argued that he was right to fire Comey in the first place.

'But it turns out [Rosenstein] also signed the FISA warrant,' referring to the warrant used to spy on the president's campaign associate Carter Page. 'Rod Rosenstein who's in charge also signed the FISA warrant and he also wrote the letter that fired Comey and he was right about that. He was absolutely right about that.'

FBI agents swooped in on the offices of longtime Donald Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen Monday  seizing a trove of documents related to the porn star Stormy Daniels case and communications between the attorney and the president, in a dramatic escalation of Mueller's special counsel probe.

Agents got a warrant based on a 'referral' from Mueller, Cohen's lawyer claimed, according to a report in the New York Times, only days after Trump had denied having anything to do with paying the porn star.

Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, he raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Michael's Cohen's Manhattan office  a reference to search warrants executed that swept up a trove of documents related to the $130,000 payment to porn star Daniels as well as communications between Trump and his lawyer.

Fighting talk: Trump had been meeting senior military leaders and members of his national security team - including (right) his new national security advisor John Bolton - when he launched his angry tirade against the Mueller raid

Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, had his hotel room and office both raided by the FBI acting on the instructions of the attorney general

Raided: Michael Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, close to Trump Tower, and had FBI agents raid his room there on Monday morning.

He called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, although Mueller himself is a Republican.

Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Lowes Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.

On Monday evening, the president continued to tout Mueller's failure to charge Trump or anyone on his team of colluding with the Russians, even as the probe continues to bring in members of his inner circle on other matters.

'They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia,' said Trump, seated in front of national security advisor John Bolton, experiencing his first day on the job.

Trump's remarks then meandered into territory explored by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee and the early days of the Russia investigation.

They also dwelled on Rosenstein  a pivotal figure who's removal might be necessary in order to engineer Mueller's ouster.

A DOJ Inspector General is probing FBI conduct in the Clinton and Russia probes. Republicans on the panel have complained about a surveillance warrant that authorities got on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page over his Russia contacts.

Continuing to go after Rosenstein, Trump said: 'But it turns out he also signed the FISA warrant -- Rod Rosenstein who's in charge also signed the FISA warrant and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James, Comey and he was right about that. He was absolutely right about that.'

'This is a pure and simple witch hunt,' Trump said.

Trump repeatedly sought to cast the probe as a hindrance to his ability to conduct his office, complaining that he was trying to plan to counter a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

And he called on Justice Department investigators to focus on crimes on the other side  meaning Democrats and the Hillary Clinton camp.

So I just heard they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, Trump began using terminology associated with a crime.

It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down. I've given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel, he said.

They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things ... and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started, Trump continued.

'When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness, he said.

"This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I have ever seen. Democrats -- all. Either Democrats or a couple of Republicans who worked for President Obama, he vented.

They're not looking at the other side -- Hillary Clinton... all of the crimes that were committed, all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about from the Republican side and the independent side. They only keep looking at us, Trump went on.

The raid appears most likely to be related to Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels days before the election - but the FBI, Mueller, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York all declined to comment on the purpose.

The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.

'Today the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Cohen's attorney Stephen Ryan.

'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.

'The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'

In a bizarre twist, Irish UFC star Conor McGregor had been staying at the Loews hotel after being charged with felony criminal mischief and a string of other crimes after he attacked a bus carrying other UFC stars with a dolly at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn last week.

Daniels' lawyer Avenatti tweeted: 'An enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC's shoulders IMO. If he does not hold up, this could end very very badly for DJT and others.'

His client had just announced that she would pose nude for Penthouse and be interviewed on her account of sex with Trump in much more explicit terms than she had spoken during her 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper.

Mueller is overseeing the probe of contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.

CNN reported that President Trump had watched TV broadcasts of the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney  and that he knew about the raid before the news came out.

Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she got $130,000 and agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with a man.

It all goes back to this: Daniels claims she and Trump had an affair in 2006. She took a $130,000 payment from Cohen in return for signing a gag order just before the election. That appears to now be at the center of a federal probe

Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office

Cohen says he made the payment with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge. Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC shortly before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC.

Daniels claims she had a sexual affair with Trump, who did not sign the agreement, although a pseudonym for him was left blank on the final agreement.

She has spoken about the alleged affair on CBS '60 Minutes' notwithstanding the agreement that her lawyer says is void.

Cohen says he paid the money out of his topic to help Trump. He says he made it out of his own personal funds.

Ryan claimed agents seized 'protected attorney client communications,' the Associated Press reported, without further explanation.

The raid comes just days after Trump made his first comments on the porn star aboard Air Force One Thursday  and denied any advance knowledge of the payment that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.

Asked if he knew about the payment, the president said 'No.'

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'

The, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing for relief from a non-disclosure agreement that her lawyer claims is null and invalid.

Bloomberg reported that Mueller brought the information to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Russia probe and who decided that it should be handled by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District.

Mueller's general area deals with Russia-related matters. Under a memo partially revealed in a Mueller court filing, he is to go to Rosenstein's office for matters that fall outside his jurisdiction.

Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has been keeping the story in the news, now claiming he has a forensic sketch of a man who threatened her to keep quiet in 2011.

Avenatti said Cohen: 'has been placed in the crosshairs by Mr. Trump. He has been set up to take the fall.'

He also filed court papers Sunday to try to force Trump to answer questions about the agreement.

He is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25

The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, performs at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018 in Pompano Beach, Florida

Michael Avenatti on CNN April 9, 2018

Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo on Sunday of Daniels with Lois Gibson, who he referred to as 'the foremost forensic artist in the world'

'We're going to be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward asking that the public come forward,' Avenatti said on CNN. 'We are very close to identifying this individual.'

He predicted that identifying the man his client says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot will ' tighten the noose, if you will.'

It's unclear how Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, could remember facial features of the man seven years later. But Avenatti hinted that the result will point to the president or his inner circle.

The threat 'could only have come from one of three places,' he said confidently.

'My client, which means she threatened herself, which makes no sense; In Touch magazine, which makes no sense because why would they threaten my client relating to the publication of an interview in their own magazine?; or someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization.'

Daniels said in a Los Angeles court filing she always thought Trump was a party to the deal.

'Such an agreement would not have made sense for many reasons,' she said in the filing.

'It was my understanding that Donald Trump was a party to the Settlement Agreement and that he was going to sign both documents,' Daniels said.

Her lawyer is trying to establish a basis for questioning Trump about the deal, even though he is not a signatory.

Beyond his attorney's statement, it is not clear what the overall objective of the search was.

Cohen appears in the infamous Steele Dossier of unverified information about President Trump and ties between his associates and Russia.

He is suing Buzzfeed for publishing the document.

Even if Stormy Documents got scooped up, it is possible warrants were seeking information of another variety.

Cohen was in contact for the Trump Organization with Russian-American businessman Felix Sater in 2015 about a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.

In a noter to Cohen reported by the New York Times, Sater wrote: 'Lets make this happen and build a Trump Moscow. And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce & business are much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say thats a great lifetime goal for us to go after.'

'Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,' Sater wrote.

Mueller is probing an array of contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

Trump has said repeatedly there was 'no collusion.'

The White House declined to comment on the raid when asked about it.

Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission arguing that the payments to Daniels constitute a possible violation of campaign finance laws.

Paul Ryan of Common Cause told USA Today: 'I'm happy to see the DOJ is doing its job. Donald Trump said he knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels. The FBI will now quickly get to the bottom of whether Trump lied to the American people when he said no knowledge about Michael Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels,' he said.

Cohen also hand-delivered a so-called peace plan for Russia and Ukraine that would have lifted sanctions on Russia to fired national security advisor Michael Flynn, according to a Times report on the February delivery of a sealed plan.

Cohen delivered it a week before Flynn resigned.

The raid on Trump's longtime consigliere and latest twist in the Russia probe comes as Trump called out Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter by name for the first time following a suspected chemical weapons attack by the pro-Russia regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Syrian rebel territory.

The White House kicked out 60 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and leveled new sanctions on Russian entities.

The raid immediately raised issues of attorney-client privilege. Cohen was the president's personal lawyer during the presidential campaign, which means their communications are assumed to be beyond the reach of law enforcement and the courts.

A critical loophole exists, however: the 'crime-fraud exception.' That allows prosecutors to use privileged material if it shows a client intended to further or cover up a crime.

Because of the usually sacrosanct nature of attorney-client communications, the FBI will likely use a 'taint team' to keep prosecutors from seeing anything privileged that could later cause a criminal conviction to be voided.
The 46-year-old man alleged raped the woman, who was a virgin, in his bedroom

A Queensland man is accused of raping a co-worker's girlfriend after drugging the pair and allegedly bribing them to keep quiet.

The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the alleged victims, reportedly raped the woman, who was a virgin, twice at his home on the Gold Coast in January.

He is now charged with two counts of rape and is due to appear in court to request bail on Wednesday, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

A Queenslander is accused of raping a co-worker's girlfriend after drugging the pair and allegedly bribing them to keep quiet (stock image)

Police allege the man offered to pay the woman $100,000 to stay silent after he drugged her and her male partner, before dumping him in a park and returning home to rape her.

After the reported incident, which is claimed to have happened on January 20, the man allegedly told his colleague: 'Maybe I drink a lot and have sex with your girlfriend. I'm willing to work this out without telling the police.'

It is alleged the man put rohypnol in the couple's wine after they went to his house following dinner out in Surfers Paradise.

The man, who is in custody since his arrest in March, will also face one charge of administering a drug to commit rape.

The woman started to feel tired and he told her to lie down in his bed and then encouraged the boyfriend to take a drive, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The publication reports the man took the boyfriend to a park and ditched him there after falling asleep. He was found by a passer-by who took him to a police station where he appeared extremely dazed and confused.

Police claim the man had returned home to rape his colleague's girlfriend while she slept in the bed.

The man reportedly raped the woman, who was a virgin, twice at his home on the Gold Coast in January

Forensic investigators are taking samples of blood found on the bed sheets and comparing it to the woman's.

Neither said they recalled the incident until after they returned home and slept while the defendant claimed he had slept in the car that night.

The woman's partner later confronted the man, who attempted to bribe them with the money, but the couple reported the alleged incident to police the following day.
The former US secretary of state - whose husband Bill helped create the 1998 peace deal, which was signed 20 years ago today - said that reinstating a hard border would be an 'enormous setback'

Hillary Clinton has warned that the hand of history will be 'heavy and unforgiving' if Brexit is allowed to 'undermine' the Good Friday Agreement.

The former US secretary of state - whose husband Bill helped create the 1998 peace deal, which was signed 20 years ago today - said that reinstating a hard border would be an 'enormous setback' that could lead to a return to the 'bad old days'.

Britain and the EU are yet to find a solution to the question of whether there will be a hard border between the UK and Ireland after Brexit.

Progress is due by the summer and failure strike an agreement acceptable to Dublin could scupper hopes of any deal at the crucial October summit.

Writing in The Guardian, Mrs Clinton said: 'These are difficult times for Northern Ireland, and for our world.

'As the Brexit debate rages on, I continue to believe in the value of the European Union, and of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.

'But no matter the outcome of these discussions, we cannot allow Brexit to undermine the peace that people voted, fought and even died for.'

She also adapted a phrase from a speech by Tony Blair from 1998, stressing: 'If short-term interests take precedent over solving the long-term challenges that still exist in Northern Ireland, then it is clear that the hand of history will be both heavy and unforgiving.'

Today's anniversary celebrations in Belfast come amid renewed political stalemate over powersharing in the province.

The devolved assembly in Stormont has been on ice for more than a year after the Unionist DUP and Republican Sinn Fein fell out.

Westminster has been forced to step in to set a budget and could end up reinstating direct rule for the first time in more than a decade.

She also adapted a phrase from a speech by Tony Blair from 1998, stressing that 'the hand of history will be both heavy and unforgiving' if a solution is not found. Pictured: Mrs Clinton with her husband and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004

Former US president Bill Clinton, meanwhile, said it would be 'calamitous' if the Good Friday Agreement were to 'die'. Pictured: Clinton in Londonderry in 2001

It comes as Brexit Secretary David Davis said the Irish government had been influenced by Sinn Fein in its policy towards Britain's withdrawal from the EU

Speaking to a conference in London yesterday, he said: 'We had a change of government, south of the border, and with quite a strong influence from Sinn Fein, and that had an impact in terms of the approach.' Pictured: The Northern Ireland-Ireland border at Donegal

It comes as Brexit Secretary David Davis said the Irish government led by Leo Varadkar (pictured) had been influenced by Sinn Fein in its policy towards Britain's withdrawal from the EU

Mrs Clinton's warning comes as Brexit Secretary David Davis said the Irish government had been influenced by Sinn Fein in its policy towards Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

What is the timeline of the Northern Ireland Troubles and peace process? August 1969: British Government first send troops into Northern Ireland to restore order after three days of rioting in Catholic Londonderry 30 January 1972: On 'Bloody Sunday' 13 civilians are shot dead by the British Army during a civil rights march in Londonderry March 1972 The Stormont Government is dissolved and direct rule imposed by London 1970s: The IRA begin its bloody campaign of bombings and assassinations in Britain April 1981 Bobby Sands, a republicans on hunger strike in the Maze prison, is elected to Parliament. He dies a month later October 1984 An IRA bomb explodes at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Margaret Thatcher is staying during the Tory Party conference Early 1990s: Margaret Thatcher and then Sir John Major set up a secret back channel with the IRA to start peace talks. The communications was so secret most ministers did not know about it. April 1998 Tony Blair helps to broker the Good Friday Agreement, which is hailed as the end of the Troubles. It establishes the Northern Ireland Assembly with David Trimble as its first minister. 2000s: With some exceptions the peace process holds and republican and loyalist paramilitaries decommission their weapons May 2011 The Queen and Prince Philip make a state visit to Ireland, the first since the 1911 tour by George V. In a hugely symbolic moment, the Queen is pictured shaking hands with Martin McGuinness - a former IRA leader. Advertisement

He said the border impasse had become harder to resolve since Leo Varadkar became prime minister in June last year.

Speaking to a conference in London yesterday, he said: 'We had a change of government, south of the border, and with quite a strong influence from Sinn Fein, and that had an impact in terms of the approach.'

He also admitted he not 'foreseen' Ireland's hard stance on Brexit, adding: 'The simple truth is that on both sides of the border the politics changed with the change of taoiseach and with the disappearance of the Northern Ireland executive.

'That's quite important. It's slowed the process down slightly.'

Britain agreed to a 'backstop' solution in the draft divorce deal that would keep rules in Northern Ireland and Ireland aligned after Brexit if no deal is struck.

But the idea is hated by Brexiteers as it would likely mean all of Britain following EU rules after Brexit to avoid breaking the Union.

The Irish government rejects the charge it has hardened its position since the referendum result was announced in 2016.

A spokesman told the The Times': 'From the outset the Irish government has been clear that the UK's decision to leave the EU presents significant challenges to the Good Friday agreement as the foundation of the Northern Ireland peace process.

In other developments, five former Labour Northern Ireland secretaries also wrote to the paper to warn that a hard border could 'threaten the very existence' of the agreement.

Among them are Lord Mandelson, Lord Hain and Lord Reid of Cardowan.

They wrote: 'Imposing a hard border between north and south as a result of Brexit would disrupt this settlement, upset the political balances central to it and overturn the popular consent that endorsed it.'

Former US president Bill Clinton, meanwhile, said it would be 'calamitous' if the system created by the Good Friday Agreement were to 'die'.

He told an audience in Dublin: 'The most important thing is that the peace is held and nobody has questioned democracy.'

'You should celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement not for what happened but for what can happen,' he added.

Five former Labour Northern Ireland secretaries warn: Hard border could kill the peace deal Lord Mandelson (pictured) is among the former Labour Northern Ireland secretaries to warn about the border Sir, On the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, and as former Northern Ireland secretaries, we are concerned that the re-introduction of a hard border will lead to instability that could threaten the very existence of the agreement. The Good Friday agreement was founded on mutually reinforcing rights and obligations and cemented through referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. A balance was struck within the agreement between the continued union of Northern Ireland with Britain while a majority desire this and the facilitation of an all-island economy across Ireland, underpinned by membership of the EU. Imposing a hard border between north and south as a result of Brexit would disrupt this settlement, upset the political balances central to it and overturn the popular consent that endorsed it. Those who value the agreement and the peace it brought to Northern Ireland have a duty to speak up and make clear their opposition to the government's Brexit policy. They should insist that the option of continuing in the customs union and single market remains open. In the coming months the government's commitment to the Good Friday agreement will be tested. The government must put partisan interest aside and act in the interests of all by prioritising its commitment to peace in Northern Ireland above its desire to have Brexit at any cost. Written by Lord Mandelson, Lord Reid of Cardowan, Lord Murphy of Torfaen, Lord Hain and Shaun Woodward and sent to The Times on behalf of Open Britain Advertisement

He also recalled staying up into the small hours the night the deal was struck, getting only a couple of hours sleep as he conversed with his special representative in Belfast.

In yesterday's speech, the former President concluded: 'In his Nobel Prize speech Seamus Heaney also said of WB Yeats that his intent was to clear a space in the mind and the world for the miraculous.

'Twenty years ago tomorrow, 17 hours late, everybody impatient, some brave people cleared a space for the miraculous - you should fill it.'

Mr Clinton will visit Belfast today to receive the freedom of the city alongside his former special envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell.

Former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said Dublin could have to 'play hard ball' with Britain over Brexit.

Mr Ahern, who was one of the key figures behind the Good Friday Agreement, said Ireland should insist the UK stays closely aligned with the Republic after EU withdrawal.

Asked whether Ireland should take a tough stance in negotiations over cross-border trade and alignment, Mr Ahern told BBC2's Newsnight: 'I'm afraid the answer to that is we have to play hard ball.'

He added: 'Let's say customs union equals trade agreement. If that trade agreement is fairly close with what's presently there, I think - forget about Ireland for a minute - I think that would be good for the UK's economy.'

Mr Ahern, who said Brexit is a 'disaster for Ireland', insisted any return to a physical border would not be acceptable.

'There never will be a border. There is not going to be a physical border across Ireland because if you tried to put it there you wouldn't have to wait for terrorism to take it down, people would just physically pull it down - the ordinary people.'

Earlier this week, Mr Blair made his own warning about the impact of Brexit undermining the Good Friday Agreement.

He told the BBC: 'If what it does, is provide significant disruption to that idea at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement - that of the recognition of nationalist aspirations, if it disrupts that because the border becomes a hard border and you have some sort of border checks and freedom of movement becomes more difficult, then it's got the potential to cause tension.

'Now, that shouldn't ever justify or end up in violence, but it will give a different complexion to the nationalist aspirations.'
Brexit talks received a boost yesterday as both the Danish and Swedish prime ministers spoke of the need for a good trade deal with Britain.

At a joint press conference with Theresa May, Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he strongly supported an enhanced trade deal with the UK, and hoped to avoid too many changes in our relations.

Theresa May with Denmark's prime minister Lars Lokke during a press conference in 2016

Later Mrs May joined her opposite number in Sweden, Stefan Lofven, who said he expected trade talks to pick up pace and spoke of the need for a broad, deep and constructive relationship in the future.

Mr Lofven said: We should approach these talks with a positive and a practical mindset.

Clearly, and from our point of view, regrettably, the UK has decided to leave the European Union, and things cannot continue as before.

'Nevertheless, we continue as friends, as partners, and many joint challenges do remain.
'Bra Boy' founder Koby Abberton has admitted being at fault for a fire in his luxury Bali rental, but still claims he was justified to ask the public for $20,000 to help with the rebuild.

Abberton, a professional big wave surfer and original member of the gang from Sydney's Maroubra beach, came under fire after starting a GoFundMe to finance repairs to the property.

The 38-year-old, his wife Olya and their young son Makua narrowly escaped the fire, but were savagely trolled online by commenters who labelled the Abberton's 'lazy'.

Taking to Instagram to hit back at critics, Abberton admitted fault for a power surge caused by 'electricity in an old plug' which led to a fire - but the Bra Boy said he was determined to 'fix what he ruined'.

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Bra Boy founder Koby Abberton asked the public for $20,000 to renovate a Bali villa he is renting, after it was damaged by fire last week (pictured)

The 38-year-old assesses the damage inside his rental villa after the fire, which he admitted was his fault

Abberton rose to fame along with his brothers Sunny and Jai through the beachside gang, which took its name from their home of Maroubra, in Sydney's east.

In a video posted to social media at the weekend, Abberton told how his family had been forced to jump from the third-storey of their villa into a pool to escape the fire.

His pleas for help saw him quickly raise more than $10,000, but he was forced to hit back at criticism as to why he was paying for renovations to a house he doesn't own.

'I will fix what I ruined whether it's my villa or not. I don't run away,' Abberton wrote on Monday night.

'It's my fault I put electricity in an old plug. A power surge made it blow up but I was renting the house under contract.

'95 per cent of Indonesians don't have insurance so it's not me to run and not help the owners of my villa out, I ruined there livelihoods.

'You don't burn someone's villa down and run to the airport but judging some of your comments that's what you would rather me do.'

Abberton claims he, his wife Olya and their son Makua, two, narrowly escaped injury when fire broke out on the bottom floor of their lavish villa at 1.30am last Wednesday.

Abberton claims he, his wife Olya and their son Makua (all pictured), two, narrowly escaped by jumping from their roof into a pool after the fire broke out in the early hours of last Wednesday

Abberton posted several photos to Instagram showing the damage caused to his Bali rental

He and his wife Olya were close to finishing renovations of the villa they were renting in Bali

'We haven't got anything left': Abberton (left) asked for financial help after all he had done for others 'through the years'

In his original video a topless Abberton claimed he had done 'a lot for others through the years' and now he needed help in return.

Standing next to him in a tie dye singlet, his model wife Olya Nechiporenko told how they jumped off the roof of their mate's villa as Abberton held their son in his arms.

But after posting photos of the damage caused to their beachside villa social media, Abberton's GoFundMe attempt was slammed by numerous commenters as 'lazy'.

'Just wondering, no one has asked... "Why are you rebuilding someone else's house you don't own? Surely the owners have insurance?",' one commenter wrote.

'It doesn't make sense, usually tenants sign a lease and pay rent, thats it. It's all a bit strange.'

Abberton came under fire from some social media users after his plea for financial help

'He made a stupid mistake not being insured... now he wants the public to pay for it,' wrote one commenter

'Why are you rebuilding someone else's house you don't own,' one commenter asked

The big wave surfer (above, with wife Olya Nechiporenko) turned to Islam in recent years, a religion he calls 'beautiful and peaceful'

He and his Ukrainian model wife Olya Nechiporenko welcomed their first child Makua in 2015

'This is karma for many many indiscretions that were not mistakes,' another said.

'He is a bully, a criminal, a general scumbag who can afford much, much more than the average person, especially in Bali.

'His wife parades around with jewellery most cant afford yet they don't have money for a couch or fridge? Come on?'

Abberton and his wife Nechiporenko, a Ukrainian model, welcomed their son Makua, meaning 'Prince of the Sea', in July 2015.

He was previously in a relationship with model Tahyna Tozzi and gave surfing lessons to heiress Paris Hilton.

Abberton gave surfing lessons to hotel heiress Paris Hilton (pictured) at Malibu Beach

He also appeared in a Russell Crowe-narrated documentary on the Bra Boys along with his brothers Sunny and Jai, before moving to Bali

Abberton (second from left) pictured back at Maroubra beach with fellow members of the Bra Boys

Koby Abberton pictured surfing in the Billabong Pro at Teahupoo, Tahiti, in April 2007

After regularly finding himself in trouble with the law, the big wave surfer turned to Islam in recent years, a religion he called 'beautiful and peaceful'.

But earlier this year he failed to appear in a Sydney court to face multiple charges of hindering police, offensive conduct and not carrying a driver's licence.

In 2003, he was central to his brother Jai's charge of murdering standover man Tony Hines.

Jai was acquitted of murder, but Koby received a suspended nine month prison term after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice in relation to the case.
A four-year-old boy suffered serious cuts to his head when he jumped into a fan at his house in Mackay, Queensland.

Roman Duns was rushed to hospital with a large gash to his head, 4-5 inches long, after jumping off the top of his bed straight into the fan.

As he ran down the hallway holding his bleeding head, his sister screamed, 'Dad, dad, Roman jumped into the fan', the Daily Mercury reported.

A four-year-old boy suffered massive cuts to his head when he jumped into a fan at his house (stock photo)

Terrified father Harley Duns said his 'parenting instincts' kicked in as he ripped off his shirt and used it as a pressure bandage to stop the blood.

'When I first saw it and I saw the blood spurt out I had every parents worst fears run into my head. I could feel the blood hitting my hand under the shirt so I pressed harder.

'I am very shook up about what happened and was scared I was going to lose my little man.'

After applying first-aid and calling 000, neighbours helped out while they waited for an ambulance.

Roman stayed in hospital for eight hours while doctors and nurses operated on a head gash so large it reportedly reached all the way to his skull.

The fan was on a fast speed, causing the massive cut.

As he ran down the hallway holding his bleeding head, his sister screamed 'Dad, Dad, Roman jumped into the fan (stock image)

Mr Duns told Daily Mercury his son was extremely brave and showed a lot of courage after his initial tears.

He said he'd told his son many times not to jump off the top of the bed and risk hitting the fan.

'To all the kids that don't listen to their parents when they say not to do something it will hurt you, this was the result,' he said.

The incident was the second fan accident in one weekend to take place in the coastal city.
A close friend of a teenager who was tragically killed in a 4WD accident during a camping trip has paid an emotional tribute to his mate.

Oscar Valentin, 18, died on a private property at Cudgegong in New South Wales when the 4WD he was travelling in with his friends on the trip rolled down an embankment on Saturday.

The Elanora Heights teen was thrown from the passenger seat as the 4WD rolled and suffered serious injuries.

Close friend Sam Morris told Daily Mail Australia he was going to miss his friend who he spent almost every day of the school holidays with.

Elanora Heights teenager Oscar Valentin, 18, (pictured) was killed in a 4WD accident while camping with friends on a private property at Cudgegong when it rolled down an embankment

'I'll miss Oscar terribly. He was one of our closest mates. I'd see him almost every week but definitely every fortnight,' he said.

'Always sitting, laughing with his cheeky smile that was stapled into everyone's brain. I still think I'm going to bump into him again when next I go out.

'I'm going to miss him more and more as it sinks in.'

Mr Morris said Oscar, known to friends as OJ, was loved by all who knew him and even those who weren't as close.

'Oscar was widely regarded as one of the most purely kind and compassionate people within the Northern Beaches community,' he said.

The accident happened on private property near the Cudgegong camping area (pictured)

'I don't think there was a single person who had a problem with OJ.

'Everyone loved and appreciated him because he loved and appreciated everyone he met.'

He said Oscar was a truly close friend who meant a lot to everyone around him.

Mr Morris has spent time since Oscar's death remembering the happy times the they spent together.

'My favourite memories of OJ are from years ago when we would spend practically every weekend or every day of the holidays skating together,' he said.

'We were so young we were exploring and learning about the world around us together.'

'Oscar (left) was widely regarded as one of the most purely kind and compassionate people within the Northern Beaches community,' his close friend Sam Morris said

Oscar and his group of friends all bonded over their love of skateboarding.

'He was a staple of our skate crew. And he was so talented. The amount of improvement he'd make each week was phenomenal,' he said.

'Skating around Cammeray, Sydney city and Waterloo skate park is exactly what I think of when I remember OJ.

'Just watching him be free, laughing on his board with us, exploring the world.'

The accident happened about 8.30am and other occupants in the car frantically performed CPR on Oscar before paramedics arrived on the scene.

Six ambulances along with a NSW Ambulance helicopter raced to the scene where he was treated but later died.

Six ambulances along with a NSW Ambulance helicopter raced to the scene where he was treated but later died (stock image)

The other occupants of the 4WD were aged between 17 and 19 years and the driver suffered minor injuries.

Mr Morris wrote and recorded an Ode to his friend which he said nearly broke him, but music was his best way of expression in such a dark time.

'I just felt like Oscar deserved a song. Music plays a huge part in my life so it was my immediate response to the tragedy,' he said.

'Recording Oscar's laugh in the song practically broke me, I cried at the climax.

'I just thought he deserved a tribute that everyone could relate to and feel the spirit of Oscar's memory.'
The BBC is recruiting at least four heads of change who will take home salaries of up to 78,000 each plus benefits.

The positions have been advertised as recently as last month, despite the job title being widely ridiculed when it became public at the end of last year.

In December, the Corporation advertised for a head of change on a salary of 78,000. In the job description, the word change was used 77 times.

THE BBC is recruiting at least four heads of change who will take home salaries of up to 78,000 each plus benefits

Now, the Corporation will soon have at least four heads of change, according to The Times newspaper, hiring more people for the positions. Each worker will be responsible for bringing reform to a different department.

Last month, the Corporation put out an advert for a Head of Change, Culture & Progression Project.

The job description read: This is a real opportunity for us to change the way we think and the way we work.

It added: This person will ensure that there is a defined and agreed vision, with a clear picture of the future state that ensures women at every level have the opportunity to contribute to developing a set of proposals and targets to support and enable the BBC to be one of the best organisations in the world for women to work.

Radio 4 PM host Eddie Mair asked an expert in change management to explain the role

The latest round of recruitment comes after the job title was widely ridiculed  even by those within the BBC.

Radio 4 PM host Eddie Mair asked an expert in change management to explain the role.

If you become head of change, how do you know when to stop changing? he joked.

At the time, critics also compared the position to the head of values and director of better in BBC satirical comedy W1A.

The broadcaster has reduced the number of its job titles from 5,000 to around 600. It came after consultants said its job titles should reflect the roles its workers carry out.

Staff titles at the BBC have previously included a thematic research manager, a service management and release manager and an identity architect.

A BBC spokesman said: While the job title head of change might amuse some, its actually commonly used in businesses up and down the country as a simple internet search will reveal.
President Donald Trump hit back at the FBI's dramatic Monday raid on his longtime personal attorney hours after it happened with a blistering attack on the special counsel, federal investigators and his own attorney general.

FBI agents swooped in on the offices of longtime Donald Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen Monday  seizing a trove of documents related to the porn star Stormy Daniels case and communications between the attorney and the president, in a dramatic escalation of Robert Mueller's special counsel probe.

They took his phone, personal computer and bank records - and he is now being investigated for both possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations, the Washington Post reported.

Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, he raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

Here is every word of what he said as released in a White House transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys - a good man.

And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down.

We've given, I believe, over a million pages' worth of documents to the Special Counsel.

They continue to just go forward. And here we are talking about Syria and we're talking about a lot of serious things.

Fire and fury: Trump let loose as he hold a session with his top advisers on what to do in the aftermath of a point gas attack in Syria

Fighting talk: Trump had been meeting senior military leaders and members of his national security team - including (right) his new national security advisor John Bolton - when he launched his angry tirade against the Mueller raid

Target: He also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions  whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein (right) who is revealed to have okayed the raid after hearing from Mueller.

We're the greatest fighting force ever. And I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now - and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started.

And it's a disgrace. It's, frankly, a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for.

So when I saw this and when I heard it - I heard it like you did - I said, that is really now on a whole new level of unfairness.

So this has been going on - I saw one of the reporters, who is not necessarily a fan of mine, not necessarily very good to me.

He said, in effect, that this is ridiculous; this is now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.

The reason they found it is there was no collusion at all. No collusion. This is the most biased group of people.

These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen.

Democrats all - or just about all - either Democrats or a couple of Republicans that worked for President Obama, they're not looking at the other side; they're not looking at the Hillary Clinton - the horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that were committed.

They're not looking at all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about, I can tell you, from the Republican side, and I think even the independent side. They only keep looking at us.

So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, 'Well, let's keep going.'

Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, had his hotel room and office both raided by the FBI acting on the instructions of the attorney general

And they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning. And I think it's a disgrace.

So we'll be talking about it more. But this is the most conflicted group of people I've ever seen.

The Attorney General made a terrible mistake when he did this, and when he recused himself.

Or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a - put a different Attorney General in.

So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But you'll figure that out.

All I can say is, after looking for a long period of time - and even before the Special Counsel - because it really started just about from the time I won the nomination.

And you look at what took place and what happened, and it's a disgrace. It's a disgrace.

I've been President now for what seems like a lengthy period of time. We've done a fantastic job.

We've beaten ISIS. We have just about 100 percent of the caliphate or the land. Our economy is incredible.

The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise of this nonsense that's going on. It dropped a lot. It was up - way up, and then it dropped quite a bit at the end. A lot.

But that we have to go through that - we've had that hanging over us now from the very, very beginning.

And yet the other side, they don't even bother looking. And the other side is where there are crimes, and those crimes are obvious.

Lies, under oath, all over the place. Emails that are knocked out, that are acid-washed and deleted.

Nobody has ever seen - 33,000 emails are deleted after getting a subpoena for Congress, and nobody bothers looking at that. And many, many other things.

So I just think it's a disgrace that a thing like this can happen. With all of that being said, we are here to discuss Syria tonight.

We're the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world. These gentlemen and ladies are incredible people, incredible talent, and we're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus.

And it will be met, and it will be met forcefully. And when, I will not say, because I don't like talking about the timing.

But we are developing the greatest force that we've ever had. We had $700 billion just approved, which was the reason I went along with that budget because we had to fix our military.

General Mattis would tell you that above anybody. We had to fix our military. And right now, we're in a big process of doing that. Seven-hundred billion and then $716 billion next year.

So we're going to make a decision tonight, or very shortly thereafter. And you'll be hearing the decision.

But we can't let atrocities like we all witnessed - and you can see that and it's horrible - we can't let that happen. In our world, we can't let that happen, especially when we're able to - because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country - we're able to stop it.

I want to thank Ambassador John Bolton for joining us. I think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team.

He's highly respected by everybody in this room. And, John, I want to thank you very much. This is going to be a lot of work. Interesting day. He picked today as his first day.

So, Generals, I think he picked the right day. But certainly, you're going to find it very exciting. But you are going to do a fantastic job and I appreciate you joining.

Welcome to the White House: Trump broke aside briefly from his rant about the special counsel to single out John Bolton, his new national security advisor, for praise

It all goes back to this: Daniels claims she and Trump had an affair in 2006. She took a $130,000 payment from Cohen in return for signing a gag order just before the election. That appears to now be at the center of a federal probe

AMBASSADOR BOLTON: Thank you. It's an honor to be here.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you all very much.

Q Are you concerned about what the FBI might find, Mr. President? Do you have any concern?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not.

Q Why don't you just fire Mueller?

THE PRESIDENT: Why don't I just fire Mueller?

Q Yeah, just fire the guy.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens. But I think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened.

And many people have said, 'You should fire him.' Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that's a big statement.

If you know the person who's in charge of the investigation, you know about that. Deputy Rosenstein - Rod Rosenstein - he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey.

One of the things they said: 'I fired Comey.'

Well, I turned out to do the right thing, because if you look at all of the things that he's done and the lies, and you look at what's gone on at the FBI with the insurance policy and all of the things that happened - turned out I did the right thing.

But he signed - as you know, he also signed the FISA warrant. So Rod Rosenstein, who's in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey. And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.

So we'll see what happens. I think it's disgraceful, and so does a lot of - other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank all very much.

Q Any more clarity on who was responsible, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q Any more clarity on who was responsible for the chemical weapons attack?

THE PRESIDENT: We are getting clarity on that - who was responsible for the weapons attack. We are getting some very good clarity, actually. We have some pretty good answers.

Q What are your options?

THE PRESIDENT: We have a lot of options, militarily. And we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact.

Thank you all very much.
Millions of drivers do not know the sequence of traffic lights, a study suggests.

An online quiz asked motorists which signal follows a single amber light.

More than one in ten wrongly thought green came next, and 13 per cent mistakenly believed it would then turn to red and amber together.

Millions of drivers do not know the sequence of traffic lights, a study suggests

Less than three quarters correctly said it leads to a red light.

In another question, more than half had no idea cursing at a fellow motorist could result in a fine of 75 per cent of your weekly income.

And just half of drivers knew you could use your mobile phone at the wheel to call 999.

The quiz was created by car dealership firm Jardine Motors Group.

Only 2 per cent of the 1,558 drivers who took part got all 12 questions correct.
The nanny attempting to plead insanity for the brutal slaughter of two children in 2012 may have admitted today that she wasn't crazy after all.

Yoselyn Ortega's trial saw a video Monday of her unequivocal denials to hearing voice instructions from Satan to murder the two young children on October 25, 2012, the New York Daily News reported.

In the weeks after the double murder, as she lay shackled to her hospital bed recovering from her self-inflicted wounds, Ortega told her therapist that the devil made her stab to death six-year-old Lulu and two-year-old Leo Krim and then stab herself in the neck.

Her defense has since used that statement to argue that a psychotic break left her not accountable for the brutal murders.

Scroll down for video

Yoselyn Ortega's trial saw a video Monday of her unequivocal denials to hearing voice instructions from Satan to murder the two young children on October 25, 2012, the New York Daily News reported

Ortega stabbed Lucia (right) and Leo Krim (left), ages six and two, to death in October 2012

In the weeks after the double murder, as she lay shackled to her hospital bed recovering from her self-inflicted wounds, Ortega told her therapist that the devil made murder the children and hurt herself. Gruesome photos released with the trial show Ortega in the hospital after slashing her own throat (pictured)

'Do you remember [Satan] at all talking to you? Taking control of your body? Had you ever thought the devil was doing this to you?' psychologist Ali Khadivi asked in the 2016 interview. She replied no, and Khadivi said she was not experiencing a psychotic break of any kind. He is pictured at the courthouse Monday

But now that defense tactic might have to be thrown out.

'Do you remember [Satan] at all talking to you? Taking control of your body? Had you ever thought the devil was doing this to you?' psychologist Ali Khadivi asked in the 2016 interview.

'No,' Ortega responded, sounding both coherent and firm.

'Starting September until the time of the incident did you ever hear voices telling you to kill yourself or kill children?' Khadivi also asked.

'No, I don't remember,' she responded.

The 55-year-old looked confused at some of the questions posed - as if she wasn't sure why Khadivi was asking about evil influences, the Daily News noted.

She answered Khadivi's questions through a Spanish interpreter.

Footage of the interview was shown Monday to jurors at Ortega's first-degree murder trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.

It was shown as part of Khadivi's testimony. He was one of the DA's first witnesses in the case rebutting the insanity claims.

Khadivi on Monday said Ortega was 'experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression' when she attacked the two children and then plunged a knife into her own neck in the family's Upper West Side apartment.

'I believe she was not experiencing symptoms of psychosis nor was she experiencing any dissociative episode,' he added.

Ortega worked part time for the Krim family, aiding stay-at-home mom Marina Krim (right) with the couple's then-three kids - Lucia, Leo and Nessie. After Lucia and Leo's murders, the couple went on to have two more boys

Shocking photos emerged showing the killer nanny Ortega lying in a pool of blood after she murdered two children in her care and slit her own throat

In the footage she also claimed not to remember anything about the incident prosecutors say she committed.

When Khadivi asked her what she thinks happened that day, she answers: 'This is what I ask myself.'

The entire interview lasted for nine-and-a-half hours.

After the interview Khadivi said he thought it was likely Ortega faked psychotic symptoms after she was arrested.

Karen Rosenbaum (center, leaving court in March) testified that Ortega had told her she believed she was possessed by the devil when she killed the kids in her care

Defense doctors said previously that Ortega's reports about the crimes and about seeing the devil and hearing his commands, and about hearing other voices, lead them to believe she was too mentally ill to be held accountable for murdering the children.

'I felt like the devil was possessing me, wanting me to be his,' Ortega's psychiatrist Karen Rosenbaum testified in March that Ortega had told her, according to the New York Post. 'That the devil wanted me for himself.'

Ortega had also told her therapist, before the killings, that she felt the devil was 'starting to overtake her (and) it was significantly worse.

The possession was 'getting stronger in the week prior' to the murders, the nanny had told Rosenbaum.

'When the devil overtakes her, she has no choice in the matter,' the psychiatrist had noted.

No matter what Ortega will likely spend the rest of her life locked up - but if she is convicted she could face life in prison, and if her defense is accepted she will face spending the rest of her life in a psychiatric facility.
Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch have hit back at Aboriginal protesters hijacking their Commonwealth Games coverage.

A group of about 40 protesters set up behind the show's set on the beach at the Gold Coast, waving flags, holding signs reading 'Always was, always will be Aboriginal land' and chanting 'Sam Armytage, we are still waiting on an apology' and 'shame on Scumrise'.

During an ad break, Koch turned to the group and rebutted their claims, telling them to 'do your homework', news.com.au reported.

Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch have hit back at Aboriginal protesters hijacking their Commonwealth Games coverage

A group of about 40 protesters set up behind the show's set on the beach at the Gold Coast, waving flags and holding signs

During an ad break, Koch turned to the group and rebutted their claims, telling them to 'do your homework'

Armytage also sniped at rival's Channel Nine when their crews arrived to cover the protest.

'Big clap for Channel Nine, it's the only way they can get some ratings on TV,' she said.

Channel Seven's Sunrise has been the target of Aboriginal protests since they aired a segment discussing adoption of at-risk Indigenous children by white families.

Protesters showed up to the show's studios in the aftermath of the broadcast, forcing them to cover up their Martin Place backdrop.

Armytage and co-host Koch addressed the protest just after 8am.

'We support anyone being able to project and get their view. Happy to have them here, and to express their view, but we have to be a bit careful with language and aggression,' Koch said.

'We have to be very careful with some of the language going to air. I do want to point out that the original segment that sparked this was that children are at risk, not about land rights... just keep that in mind,' Armytage said.

Armytage also sniped at rival's Channel Nine when their crews arrived to cover the protest

A protester could be heard telling others to wait until the show was on air and out of an ad break before chanting

A protester could be heard telling others to wait until the show was on air and out of an ad break before chanting, saying: 'When they count down to go on the air that's when we're going to get loud'.

Armytage smiled and winked at a girl who addressed her from the crowd, prompting others to yell 'Samantha are you scared of us?'.

Some in the group were reportedly criticising Armytage for what she was wearing.

A Queensland Police spokesman said they respect the rights of people protesting lawfully and peacefully.

Channel Seven's Sunrise has been the target of Aboriginal protests since they aired a segment discussing adoption of at-risk Indigenous children by white families
Palm oil is to be removed from all own-label food sold by Iceland amid concerns over its impact on wildlife.

The oil is used in a huge number of products on supermarket shelves ranging from bread to soap.

However, the demand has led to the destruction of tropical rainforests across south-east Asia.

An endangered orangutan in Indonesia. Millions of acres of forests in the country have been burned to make way for palm oil plantations

The remnants of a rainforest in Indonesia which was burned to the ground after a wildfire

Millions of acres of forests across Indonesia have been burned to make way for plantations producing palm oil.

Orangutan populations have been particularly devastated by the resulting habitat destruction.

Iceland has now vowed to remove all palm oil from its own-brand food by the end of 2018.

Some 130 products will have been reformulated by the end of the year.

Managing director Richard Walker said: Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying no to palm oil.

Having recently been to Indonesia and seen the environmental devastation caused by expanding palm oil production first hand, I feel passionately about ... raising awareness of this issue.
Ernest Shackleton, one of the greatest explorers of his day

When Ernest Shackletons ship Endurance succumbed to the Antarctic pack ice on November 21, 1915, he and his crew began one of the most gruelling survival attempts in history.

Since the explorer led his 27 men to safety more than a century ago, there has been no sign of the ship.

But now, in an echo of the golden age of exploration, the race is on to the Antarctic once more  as two rival expeditions hunt for the lost vessel.

A British-led team from Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, along with universities in South Africa and New Zealand, plans to launch autonomous underwater vehicles almost two miles under the ice.

The multi-million pound expedition will set out in January 2019 in research ship SA Agulhas II, The Times reported.

At least three previous plans to find the wreck have failed, but those behind the expedition  armed with co-ordinates taken by the Endurances captain Frank Worsley as the ship sunk  believe the unmanned submarines could finally mean success.

However, they face some competition from US shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who has been studying Endurance for more than 15 years in preparation for an expedition of his own.

A British-led team from Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University will set out in January 2019 in research ship SA Agulhas II (pictured) in search of Shackleton's ship

Lost to the ice: Endurance trapped in frozen ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Ernest Shackleton on board Endurance in London before leaving on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Endurance rides through large blocks of pressure ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

He believes the Agulhas II is not powerful enough to penetrate the thick ice the Endurance yielded to.

His concerns were echoed by the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019s chief scientist, Julian Dowdeswell, who admitted there was a chance their ship would not be powerful enough.

The explorers granddaughter Alexandra is supporting Professor Dowdeswells expedition but is also a friend of Mr Mearns, 59.

Ernest Shackleton stands on top of freezing blocks of ice wearing large furry gloves

Endurance leans to one side during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in the early 1900s

She said she would be delighted if the wreck were found but added: Im not sure how I would feel about having her touched.

Shackleton and his crew spent weeks on the ice, eventually using lifeboats to reach Elephant Island. He and five others sailed for South Georgia for help.

The last of the crew were not rescued until August 1916.
An Australian artist living in Iceland has been jailed for biting her French husband's tongue in half after he tried to kiss her.

Nara Walker, 27, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, was sentenced to 12 months behind bars, suspended for nine months, for biting off the 2.5cm chunk of tongue in November last year.

Mrs Walker married the Frenchman in London and the couple moved to Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 2016.

An Australian artist (pictured) living in Iceland has been jailed for biting her French husband's tongue in half after he tried to kiss her

Mrs Walker (pictured) married the Frenchman in London and the couple moved to Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 2016

The pair had been at their apartment with another woman and an American man when the evening turned violent, The Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

Mrs Walker told the Reykjavik District Court her husband prevented her from leaving pushed the American man down the stairs.

The court heard he then pinned her arms to her sides and tried to kiss her before she bit a 2.5cm chunk out of his tongue, a wound requiring 30 stitches.

She told the court she was a victim of 'years of domestic violence', and had been drugged and sexually assaulted by the Frenchman.

Nara Walker (pictured), 28, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, was sentenced to 12 months behind bars, suspended for nine months, for biting off the 2.5cm chunk of tongue in November last year

After her arrest - which saw her locked up and questioned for 15 hours - Mrs Walker lodged a domestic violence complaint.

Despite the tongue being surgically reattached it has been 'severely shortened' and will have a life-long impact on Mrs Walker's husband's speech.

The case was covered in Icelandic newspapers Morgunbladid and DV, and Mrs Walker told the latter publication the couple had a violent relationship.

'I wish he had allowed me to leave the house that night. I often get nightmares at night and see his face as I remember that night,' she told DV.

Mrs Walker, who was forced to pay her husband $15,788 in damages, said he did not intend to injure her husband, and is planning to appeal the sentence.

The court also heard Mrs Walker pulled the hair and bit the fingers of the other woman present that night, and that woman was taken to hospital with Mrs Walker's husband.
A university has evicted six international students found living in the 24-hour campus library.

The students, at Charles Sturt University at Port Macquarie, were apparently travelling from Sydney to Port Macquarie during the week and staying in the library at night.

A Nepalese student told ABC News that when he had first moved to the city to study at the CSU he stayed in a backpackers.

The courtyard of Charles Sturt University at Port Macquarie (pictured) where six international students were found living in the campus library

Another student said that even though she had family in the coastal city, located about four hours north of Sydney, she still had trouble finding a place to live.

'We had applied for so many places, and we got rejected because we are students and it's a high-risk factor for the agents, so getting our own place is quite hard,' she said

Students from abroad struggling to find places to live and staying on campus is becoming a growing problem with the influx of international student to Australian universities.

Public relations officer with the Council of International Students Australia Arjun Mathilakath Madathil told ABC that students living at university facilities was a common occurrence.

'Some students stay at hostels or AirBnbs when they first get here, but once that is done, they become homeless and they feel safer to stay on campus, or in a campus library,' he said.

The students were offered a range of accommodation options according to the university, but are now living with friends when they are in Port Macquarie to study during the week.
Five park rangers and a driver have been killed in an attack at Congo's Virunga National Park.

The park, which is home to critically endangered mountain gorillas, confirmed the ambush in a statement. It said a sixth ranger was wounded in the ambush on Monday.

While there was no immediately claim of responsibility, suspicion immediately fell on militia groups that are active in and around the famed wildlife park.

Five park rangers and a driver have been killed in an attack in Congo's Virunga National Park on Monday. File image used

The Unesco World Heritage site is home to about a quarter of the remaining mountain gorillas in the wild.

The gorillas are poaching targets and their habitat is being destroyed by deforestation in part to supply charcoal.

The park is also home to eastern lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, okapis, lions, elephants and hippos.

But it is located in DR Congo's North Kivu province, where armed groups are fighting for control of territorial and natural resources, and poaching is a major threat.

The park's director, Emmanuel de Merode, a Belgian national, was himself wounded in a road ambush between the park and Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in May 2014.

On April 2, a park ranger died in an attack by armed men. He was guarding the site of a hydroelectric plant that is under construction.
Aterraka Scotland, 27, was arrested Thursday and taken to King County Jail after being accused of killing her wife

A woman has been arrested for allegedly killing her wife and calling it a mistake, despite initially saying she didn't know what had happened to her.

Aterraka Scotland, 27, was arrested Thursday and taken to King County Jail after being accused of second-degree murder and her bail was set at $1 million.

Her wife Tiffany Scotland, 26, was found dead in her apartment in Redmond, Washington Tuesday night after their concerned roommate called the police.

According to police reports Aterraka first denied knowing what had happened to her wife, however she then claimed the death was a 'mistake.'

She said her and Tiffany had been wrestling when she fell and hit her head. She later told police she found out Tiffany had been cheating on her and following that revelation she put her in a choke hold.

Her wife Tiffany Scotland, 26, was found dead in her apartment in Redmond, Washington Tuesday night after their concerned roommate called the police (pictured here)

Aterraka changed her story several times and also told police she panicked when she couldn't find a pulse and called two friends to help her.

The married couple were renting a room from a man who said he called 911 after he checked their room and found what appeared to be a body wrapped up in carpet, the New York Post reported.

Apparently her body, which was rolled up in a carpet, was lying on a plastic garbage bag.

Redmond police said they found Tiffany with cuts on her neck and stab wounds in her abdomen and chest.

The King County Medical Examiner confirmed she died of asphyxia due to strangulation. Detectives also said Tiffany had been deceased for several days.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un mentioned future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported on Tuesday.

This marks his first public acknowledgement of dialogue with Washington, ahead of a planned but yet unscheduled summit with President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark meeting with the nuclear-armed leader, which would mark first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, but no specific dates or venue have been set.

This has left questions mounting over the country's actual intent to participate.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un mentioned future talks with the US at a party meeting, marking his first public acknowledgement of dialogue with Washington, ahead of a planned but yet unscheduled summit with President Donald Trump

At the meeting of party officials on Monday, Kim discussed the 'development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue,' the official KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym, which stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

He delivered a report 'on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula,' including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said.

In a growing rapprochement (which is an international relations term form 'an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations') on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearization as soon as next month.

But the North had remained publicly silent since its leader's invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean officials last month.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit as soon as next month, but Pyongyang has never officially confirmed its offer of denuclearization talks

As officials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North's willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

Kim's remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a 'summit' with Trump.

Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said on Monday he planned to meet Kim in 'May or early June.'

'I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking,' Trump said.

'Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years.'

North Korea's recent surge in diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fire multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.

Since sending a high-profile delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing, his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

The North's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.

Ri also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the 'development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue'

If the summit does take place, many remain skeptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed.

It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings.

No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple reports.

Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington's long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see 'complete, verifiable, and irreversible' denuclearize, which is a very high bar from North Korea's perspective.

The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington, which is an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president agreeing to.
Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi has described Muslim halal certifiers as 'cockroaches' who are running an extortion racket on the nation's food suppliers.

The 48-year-old Liberal Party defector has stepped up his campaign to regulate the industry as more than 500 workers at Sydney's Red Lea Chickens are without work, following the company's decision last year to stop serving pork-based bacon.

The Adelaide-based senator has accused the Islamic halal certification industry, which charges food producers fees to declare their goods contain no pork or alcohol, of lacking transparency.

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Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi has described Muslim halal certifiers as 'cockroaches' who are running an extortion racket on the nation's food suppliers

He compared them unfavourably with Jewish kosher certifiers, claiming Muslim halal businesses were evasive with a Senate inquiry he was part of in 2016.

'The halal certifiers, they ran like cockroaches under the fridge when the light comes on,' he told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones on Monday.

Senator Bernardi, who plans to introduce a new private member's bill in May to regulate the industry, said the Senate inquiry had failed to even identify 'who the domestic certifiers were'.

The senator has stepped up his campaign to regulate the industry as more than 500 workers at Sydney's Red Lea Chickens are without work, after it took pork-based bacon off the menu

He told Alan Jones (pictured) the Islamic halal certification industry, which charges food producers fees to declare their goods contain no pork or alcohol, lacked transparency

'There's no transparency, there's no accountability and the only conclusion I could draw is that the domestic halal certification is a racket and a scam,' he said.

Senator Bernardi criticised the halal industry for charging businesses a fee to fund Islamic activities, like schools and mosques.

'It's an extortion basically on companies to say, "Unless you pay us a fee ... we're going to claim you're racist, we're going to tell the Islamic community that you're a bad bunch of people to go business with",' he claimed.

However, Halal Certification Authority president Mohamed Elmouelhy has argued halal certification had helped Australian businesses gain export contracts in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, where halal certification will be compulsory on food from October 2019.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils receives a halal certification fee from Vegemite's parent company Bega and funds the Malek Fahd Islamic Schools in Sydney's west

In October, Red Lea sent out a letter to its franchisees and wholesalers telling them pork products would be taken off the production line

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils receives a halal certification fee from Vegemite's parent company Bega and has used its cash reserves to fund the Malek Fahd Islamic Schools in Sydney's west.

In October, Red Lea sent out a letter to its franchisees and wholesalers telling them pork products would be taken off the production line.

This heralded an end to bacon-wrapped chicken mignon and bacon twists, with bacon-flavoured chicken used instead of cured pork.

Its workers received notices at Easter informing them the company had been placed into receivership.

Senator Bernardi's Australian Conservatives has recruited Halal Choices founder Kirralie Smith, a northern New South Wales farmer, who has been campaigning for transparency in the halal certification industry.
Just as FBI agents were raiding his offices, Michael Cohen was trying to strike down Stormy Daniels' defamation suit.

Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime attorney, is claiming Daniels' suit is 'completely without merit' and alleges throughout new court documents that she is a liar.

Daniels filed the suit after Cohen admitted to paying the porn star $130,000 after she claimed to have a one-night stand with the future president.

'Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr Trump,' Cohen told the press.

Just as FBI agents were raiding his offices, Michael Cohen was trying to strike down Stormy Daniels' defamation suit - claiming it was 'completely without merit'

Daniels is arguing that the statement implies she was lying about having an affair with Trump.

But Cohen is now arguing that Daniels 'either lied or is lying now' after she denied having a relationship with Trump in 2011 and 2018.

The lawsuit notes that Daniels called the rumors of an affair with Trump 'bulls***t' on E! in 2011, and denied them again in two statements released in January 2018.

Daniels has previously claimed that a man threatened her to 'leave Trump alone' in 2011 after she sold her story to InTouch Magazine for $15,000.

'A guy walked up on me and said to me, "Leave Trump alone. Forget the story"', Daniels revealed during her 60 Minutes interview last month.

'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"'.

Daniels has also claimed that she released the 2018 statements after she was forced by Cohen 'through intimidation and coercive tactics' to sign a settlement agreement, which came with the $130,000 pay-off.

Daniels filed the suit after Cohen admitted to paying the porn star $130,000 after she claimed to have a one-night stand with the future president

Cohen is now arguing that Daniels 'either lied or is lying now' after she denied having a relationship with Trump in 2011 and 2018. She is pictured here on 60 Minutes last month

Cohen claims Daniels repeatedly denied having any kind of intimate relationship with Trump and then 'later changed her story'.

'[Daniels] either lied or is lying now,' court papers read.

'Even if Mr Cohen's statement did insinuate that [Daniels] is a liar, she has admitted that she lied, and thus any such implication by Mr Cohen would be entirely true.'

'[Daniels] has repeatedly lied to the world about whether or not she had an intimate relationship with Mr Trump. She cannot possibly complain that others, whether Mr Cohen or news reporters, or others, call into question her credibility.'

Cohen also notes that Daniels did not suffer 'special damages' from the statement, as she has boasted her pay has 'quadrupled' because of her allegations against Trump.

The attorney is also claiming the statement was within his First Amendment rights and that they relate to matters of public interest.

Cohen is seeking that the defamation claim be struck from the lawsuit and that he be awarded his attorney fees and costs 'in defending this meritless claim'.

Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with Trump.

Cohen claims Daniels repeatedly denied have any kind of intimate relationship with Trump and then 'later changed her story'

Michael Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, close to Trump Tower, and had FBI agents raid his room there on Monday morning

But Cohen has plenty else to worry about after the FBI's dramatic raid on Monday.

FBI agents seized a trove of documents related to Daniels' case and communications between the attorney and the president, in a dramatic escalation of Robert Mueller's special counsel probe.

Agents got a warrant based on a 'referral' from Mueller, according to a report in the New York Times, only days after Trump had denied having anything to do with paying the porn star.

They took Cohen's phone, personal computer and bank records - and he is now being investigated for both possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations, the Washington Post reported.

Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, Trump raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Cohen's Manhattan office, despite the fact that the search warrants were perfectly legal.

Trump called the raid ordered by federal prosecutors on Cohen's hotel room and offices 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'

Cohen's offices are in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is also home to many of NBC's most high-profile shows including The Today Show, Nightly News and Saturday Night Live

Trump called Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, despite the fact that Mueller himself is a Republican.

Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.

The raid appears most likely to be related to Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels days before the election - but the FBI, Mueller, the Department of Justice and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York all declined to comment on the purpose.

Bloomberg reported that Mueller had gone to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees his probe, with information which Rosenstein decided to refer to the Manhattan US attorney.

The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.

'Today the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Stephen Ryan.

'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.

'The decision by the US Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'

CNN reported that President Trump had watched TV broadcasts of the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney  and that he knew about the raid before the news came out.

Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office

Cohen says he made the payment with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge. Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC just weeks before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC.

Daniels claims she had a sexual affair with Trump, who did not sign the agreement, although a pseudonym for him was left blank on the final agreement.

The agreement used pseudonyms  David Dennison for Trump and Peggy Peterson for Daniels.

The raid comes just days after Trump made his first comments on the porn star aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

Trump denied any advance knowledge of the payment that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.

Asked if he knew about the payment, the president said 'No.'

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'

Then, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'

Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with Trump

Daniels said in a Los Angeles court filing she always thought Trump was a party to the deal.

He (Trump) 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.' Daniels on the night she 'had sex' with Trump in 2006

'Such an agreement would not have made sense for many reasons,' she said in the filing.

'It was my understanding that Donald Trump was a party to the Settlement Agreement and that he was going to sign both documents,' Daniels said.

Her lawyer is trying to establish a basis for questioning Trump about the deal, even though he is not a signatory.

The White House declined to comment on the raid when asked about it.

Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission arguing that the payments to Daniels constitute a possible violation of campaign finance laws.

Paul Ryan of Common Cause told USA Today: 'I'm happy to see the DOJ is doing its job. Donald Trump said he knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels. The FBI will now quickly get to the bottom of whether Trump lied to the American people when he said no knowledge about Michael Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels,' he said.

SECRET DEALS AND $130,000 IN HUSH MONEY: HOW STORMY DANIELS' CLAIMS OF SEX WITH DONALD TRUMP TURNED INTO A FULL-SCALE FBI RAID July 2006: Porn star Stormy Daniels says she meets now President Donald Trump at a Nevada golf tournament. They have an alleged sexual encounter. 2011: Daniels gives an interview about her tryst with Trump to In Touch Weekly. In 2018 she tells 60 Minutes that she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas over the telling of her story, and so the interview never ran. October 2016: In the weeks before voters head to the polls, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen uses a Delaware-based LLC to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, in exchange for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter. May 17, 2017: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller to take over the Russia probe on the heels of President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. January 12, 2018: The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that Cohen paid the $130,000 to Daniels, weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election. February 13, 2018: Cohen publicly admits to paying the $130,000, but says he did so with his own personal money, and was reimbursed by the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization. In referencing the payment, Daniels' attorney says the NDA is breached. March 6, 2018: The Washington Post reported that Mueller requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Cohen. Additionally, Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump in California Superior Court claiming that the NDA never went into effect because Trump never signed it. March 16, 2018: Lawyers for both Cohen and Trump attempt to get the Daniels' lawsuit moved from state to federal court. This marked the first time lawyers for Trump are actively involved in legal action over the Daniels' matter. March 28, 2018: The 60 Minutes' interview with Daniels airs. She details spanking Trump with a magazine with his face on the cover and having sex with him once. April 5, 2018: For the first time, Trump speaks about the $130,000 payment telling reporters on board Air Force One that he had no knowledge of it at the time. 'You'll have to ask Michael,' the president responded when asked why Cohen made the payment April 9, 2018: The FBI raids the New York City offices of Cohen. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a referral from Mueller, the New York Times reported. CNN reported that documents related to the Daniels affair were swept up in the search. Advertisement
An Australian union official resigned from his role on Tuesday morning after he was accused of running a fake Facebook page titled Black Lives Matter.

National Union of Workers vice president Ian Mackay has been linked to the social media page, which has since been taken down by Facebook, according to a CNN investigation.

With almost 700,000 followers, the fake page had at least double the interest than official Black Lives Matter page, and raised more than US$100,000 through fundraisers.

Australian National Union of Workers vice president Ian Mackay resigned from his role on Tuesday morning after he was accused of running a fake Facebook page titled Black Lives Matter (pictured)

'The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report and has suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation,' NUW national secretary Tim Kennedy said on Tuesday.

'The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNN's story.'

Mackay has denied the allegations, telling CNN he 'bought the domain name only and sold it.'

'My domain name buying and selling is a personal hobby,' he told the publication.

With almost 700,000 followers, the fake page had at least double the interest than official Black Lives Matter page, and raised more than US$100,000 through fundraisers (pictured)

Black Lives Matter is an activist movement that campaigns against violence and racism.

Dozens of websites are registered to Mackay, including one titled blackpowerfist.com, according to CNN.

The fake Black Lives Page linked repeatedly to other websites registered to Mackay, the publication claimed.

A source told CNN a fundraising account was attached to an Australian IP address and another was linked to Mackay by name.
An evil paedophile raped and abused two young boys despite being deported from Canada for abusing his own stepson.

The 55-year-old was able to move to regional Western Australia where he groomed two 12-year-old boys, raped them and filmed the horrific attacks.

Relatives of the victims are outraged the man - who was jailed for just 11 years - was able to move to their community without being monitored.

An evil paedophile raped and abused two young boys despite being deported from overseas for abusing his own stepson (stock image)

Over 13,000 child exploitation images along with hundreds of videos were found during his arrest, which led to the exposure of a country-wide paedophile ring.

'We'll go to our graves disgusted that a known child sex offender - who'd previously been jailed for three-and-a-half years for raping his own son - was seemingly left to his own devices within our community,' the father of one victim said.

'He groomed everyone, our family, his church, work colleagues, the local media and obviously whoever he had to report to within the police force,' he told The West Australian.

'We are not blaming the local police as they are not allowed to know who they are. But we remain dumbfounded and outraged by a system that allowed this man the freedom to prowl our community and abuse our son.'

The 55-year-old was able to move to regional Western Australia where he groomed two 12-year-old boys, raped them and filmed the horrific attacks (stock image)

The vile abuse, perpetrated over a 14-month period, left the man's son traumatised and suicidal.

As well as videoing and photographing himself rape the boys, the sick predator also shaved the pubic hair of one victim and kept it in a clipseal bag.

In sentencing on Monday Judge Laurie Levy of Busselton District Court questioned how the man was able to return to Australia and not be supervised.

The Adelaide-born man was supposed to have been made known to authorities by the Australian National Child Offender Register.

A friend he asked to join the abuse was also sentenced on Monday, to just four years behind bars.
Charlie Rose was fired from CBS after multiple women came forward claiming he had made unwanted sexual advances

CBS bigwigs are allegedly trying to warn employees about violating nondisclosure agreements in an attempt to suppress an upcoming expose on accused serial sexual harasser Charlie Rose.

Rose's former bosses are afraid they will be accused of allowing the 76-year-old journalist's sexual misconduct to continue for decades by ignoring complaints from alleged victims, Page Six reported on Monday.

CBS News president David Rhodes, CBS This Morning executive producer Ryan Kadro, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager and former CBS This Morning executive producer Chris Licht are all preparing for a Washington Post investigative piece that has been in the works for months.

They are all allegedly trying to make sure they are not named in the piece by letting employees know that NDAs will be enforced.

It's a hypocritical move for the network, as Page Six points out, since just last month they aired an interview with adult actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital affair with president Donald Trump and was paid to sign an NDA.

(From top left to bottom right) CBS This Morning executive producer Ryan Kadro, CBS News president David Rhodes, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager and former CBS This Morning executive producer Chris Licht are allegedly all afraid they will be accused of allowing Rose's harassing to continue

At the start of interview, Anderson Cooper framed Daniels as brave for violating the NDA in the name of the truth, and risking having to pay a big monetary fine.

The disgraced former CBS host was fired from the network on November 21 after multiple women came forward claiming he had made unwanted sexual advances towards them in a Washington Post piece.

Rose was initially suspended from the network on November 20 when the Washington Post published the accounts of eight women who claim they were sexually harassed or assaulted by the journalist.

Megan Crydt (left) worked as a coordinator after graduating from Harvard, and said Rose grabbed her thigh during a car ride soon after she started. Kyle Godfrey-Ryan (right) claims Rose walked around naked in front of her at his home over a dozen times and said he fantasized about seeing her swim naked

After watching an S&M-themed film, Rose allegedly asked Sarah Gordon how it made her feel, but she said he at no point touched her

That was followed by additional allegations from five other women.

He joined CBS in 2012, hosting CBS This Morning and appearing on 60 Minutes while also occasionally guest hosting the CBS Evening News.

The multiple accusations brought to an end the storied career of one of the most acclaimed newsmen of his generation.

Among the made by the women are that Rose would grope their breasts, buttocks and genitals without their consent, make lewd telephone calls, and walk around naked in their presence without warning.

The women who have come forward with these claims about Rose were all between the ages of 21 and 37 at the time of the alleged misconduct and working for the legendary television host.

Hypocritical? Just last month CBS aired an interview with adult film actress Stormy Daniels who says she had an affair with president Trump and was paid to sign an NDA

The sexual harassment claims have brought to an end the career of one of the most acclaimed newsmen of his time. Rose is pictured with former co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King

Two former employees said that the young female assistants and producers Rose would constantly surround himself with were known as 'Charlie's Angels.'

In a lengthy statement in response to the expose, Rose did not deny all of the allegations being made by the women but said that he did not believe all of his accusers were 'accurate' in heir description of his offenses.

'It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed,' stated Rose.
Here is every word of what President Donald Trump said as released in a White House transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys - a good man.

And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down.

We've given, I believe, over a million pages' worth of documents to the Special Counsel.

They continue to just go forward. And here we are talking about Syria and we're talking about a lot of serious things.

We're the greatest fighting force ever. And I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now - and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started.

And it's a disgrace. It's, frankly, a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for.

So when I saw this and when I heard it - I heard it like you did - I said, that is really now on a whole new level of unfairness.

So this has been going on - I saw one of the reporters, who is not necessarily a fan of mine, not necessarily very good to me.

He said, in effect, that this is ridiculous; this is now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.

Fire and fury: Trump let loose as he hold a session with his top advisers on what to do in the aftermath of a point gas attack in Syria

The reason they found it is there was no collusion at all. No collusion. This is the most biased group of people.

These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen.

Democrats all - or just about all - either Democrats or a couple of Republicans that worked for President Obama, they're not looking at the other side; they're not looking at the Hillary Clinton - the horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that were committed.

They're not looking at all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about, I can tell you, from the Republican side, and I think even the independent side. They only keep looking at us.

So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, 'Well, let's keep going.'

And they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning. And I think it's a disgrace.

So we'll be talking about it more. But this is the most conflicted group of people I've ever seen.

The Attorney General made a terrible mistake when he did this, and when he recused himself.

Or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a - put a different Attorney General in.

So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But you'll figure that out.

All I can say is, after looking for a long period of time - and even before the Special Counsel - because it really started just about from the time I won the nomination.

And you look at what took place and what happened, and it's a disgrace. It's a disgrace.

I've been President now for what seems like a lengthy period of time. We've done a fantastic job.

We've beaten ISIS. We have just about 100 percent of the caliphate or the land. Our economy is incredible.

The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise of this nonsense that's going on. It dropped a lot. It was up - way up, and then it dropped quite a bit at the end. A lot.

But that we have to go through that - we've had that hanging over us now from the very, very beginning.

And yet the other side, they don't even bother looking. And the other side is where there are crimes, and those crimes are obvious.

Lies, under oath, all over the place. Emails that are knocked out, that are acid-washed and deleted.

Nobody has ever seen - 33,000 emails are deleted after getting a subpoena for Congress, and nobody bothers looking at that. And many, many other things.

So I just think it's a disgrace that a thing like this can happen. With all of that being said, we are here to discuss Syria tonight.

We're the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world. These gentlemen and ladies are incredible people, incredible talent, and we're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus.

And it will be met, and it will be met forcefully. And when, I will not say, because I don't like talking about the timing.

But we are developing the greatest force that we've ever had. We had $700 billion just approved, which was the reason I went along with that budget because we had to fix our military.

General Mattis would tell you that above anybody. We had to fix our military. And right now, we're in a big process of doing that. Seven-hundred billion and then $716 billion next year.

So we're going to make a decision tonight, or very shortly thereafter. And you'll be hearing the decision.

But we can't let atrocities like we all witnessed - and you can see that and it's horrible - we can't let that happen. In our world, we can't let that happen, especially when we're able to - because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country - we're able to stop it.

I want to thank Ambassador John Bolton for joining us. I think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team.

Welcome to the White House: Trump broke aside briefly from his rant about the special counsel to single out John Bolton, his new national security advisor, for praise

He's highly respected by everybody in this room. And, John, I want to thank you very much. This is going to be a lot of work. Interesting day. He picked today as his first day.

So, Generals, I think he picked the right day. But certainly, you're going to find it very exciting. But you are going to do a fantastic job and I appreciate you joining.

AMBASSADOR BOLTON: Thank you. It's an honor to be here.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you all very much.

Q Are you concerned about what the FBI might find, Mr. President? Do you have any concern?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not.

Q Why don't you just fire Mueller?

THE PRESIDENT: Why don't I just fire Mueller?

Q Yeah, just fire the guy.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens. But I think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened.

And many people have said, 'You should fire him.' Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that's a big statement.

If you know the person who's in charge of the investigation, you know about that. Deputy Rosenstein - Rod Rosenstein - he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey.

One of the things they said: 'I fired Comey.'

Well, I turned out to do the right thing, because if you look at all of the things that he's done and the lies, and you look at what's gone on at the FBI with the insurance policy and all of the things that happened - turned out I did the right thing.

But he signed - as you know, he also signed the FISA warrant. So Rod Rosenstein, who's in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey. And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.

So we'll see what happens. I think it's disgraceful, and so does a lot of - other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank all very much.

Q Any more clarity on who was responsible, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q Any more clarity on who was responsible for the chemical weapons attack?

THE PRESIDENT: We are getting clarity on that - who was responsible for the weapons attack. We are getting some very good clarity, actually. We have some pretty good answers.

Q What are your options?

THE PRESIDENT: We have a lot of options, militarily. And we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact.

Thank you all very much.
Pauline Hanson has renewed her calls to strip international students of the right to work in Australia because they are taking jobs and 'should be able to support themselves'.

'We do get a lot of money out of [student visas], but these people are supposed to be self-supporting when they come into Australia,' she told Sky News on Monday.

'They are given the opportunity to do twenty hours work a week and they can actually have unlimited work when they're not studying.

'That's wrong because that's impacting on other Australians getting jobs. Come here, do your studies. But work visas - no. They should be able to support themselves.'

Pauline Hanson has renewed her calls to strip international students the right to work in Australia

The outspoken One Nation Senator said international students 'should be able to support themselves' (stock image)

The outspoken One Nation Senator raised the issue in the Senate in October last year.

'The Senate agreed with me that it is a matter of urgency that we understand the number of jobs taken by international students,' she said.

'International students on temporary visas take lower-paid jobs that could be done by unemployed young Australians.

'Not only do they have rights to work in Australia, but we find that a lot of them stay on to work after they have done their degrees here in Australia.

'It is quite often that I might get into a taxi... and find they did their university degrees here and have gone on to actually become taxi drivers.

'The unemployed have no friends in the Labor Party, because this week Labor strongly defended the rights of international students to work here in Australia.'

Senator Hanson (pictured) raised the issue of Students visas in the Senate in October last year

Bijay Sapkota, president of the Council of International Students Australia, told SBS Senator Hanson was out of touch.

'A lot of industries in Australia rely on international students, tourism for one. Every year, parents of many students visit Australia. The hospitality industry is also heavily reliant on students,' he said.

'So, it's not just the $27 billion international education industry [that will suffer]. I see a significant lack of common sense on the part of Ms Hanson while projecting international students as some sort of burden.'
A former top leader of the disbanded Colombian rebel army FARC has been arrested on charges of trying to smuggle ten tons of cocaine - with a street value of 226million - into the U.S.

Seuxis Hernandez, a blind former peace negotiator for the FARC, reportedly met with buyers to organise a drugs shipment to the U.S. in the capital Bogota last November, but FARC leaders have condemned it as a set-up.

The arrest of 51-year-old Hernandez, best known by his alias Jesus Santrich, has rocked the already fragile peace process in Colombia.

Blow to peace: Seuxis Hernandez, best known under his alias Jesus Santrich, a former peace negotiator for the FARC guerilla, is accused of trying to smuggle ten tons of cocaine to the U.S.

It triggered an exchange of angry recriminations between conservative critics of the peace process and FARC supporters of the now-disbanded FARC.

More than 100 former rebels and FARC sympathizers gathered late Monday outside the heavily guarded prosecutors' bunker where the 51-year-old Hernandez was being held to demand his release.

Waving white flags emblazoned with the red rose symbol of the former rebels' political movement, some shouted 'freedom' and denounced what they called an act of judicial sabotage by the government and its U.S. backers.

Riot police flanked by a water cannon watched quietly, while inside Santrich was believed to have initiated a hunger strike to demand his release, according to his lawyer.

President Juan Manuel Santos defended the arrest on a U.S. warrant as necessary to maintain the credibility of the peace accord, which Colombians overwhelmingly consider too generous to rebels responsible for atrocities committed during five decades of bloody, armed conflict.

'My hand won't tremble to authorize the extradition,' Santos said in a nationally televised address in which he tried to reassure demobilized fighters that they have nothing to fear as long as they uphold their commitments under the 2016 peace accord.

Protest: Supporters of former FARC rebel Jesus Santrich hold FARC flag outside the Attorney General Office where he is being held in Bogota, Colombia

'This is what the Colombian people demand. In this aspect, there can't be any room for tolerance or weakness.'

Santrich, who joined the guerrilla movement in his 20s and gradually rose into its central command structure, was one of the first rebel leaders to bet on peace.

He went to Norway in 2012 to begin negotiations with Colombia's government and then participated in talks that continued the next four years in Cuba, where he earned a reputation as being a hard-line ideologue.

He was picked up Monday at a Bogota residence on charges filed in a New York federal court alleging he conspired with three others to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the U.S. with a wholesale value of $15 million (10.6 million), or a street value of $320 million (226millon).

According to an Interpol notice, Santrich met with cocaine buyers at his residence last November, a day after one of his co-conspirators delivered a 5-kilogram sample of the narcotic to them at a hotel lobby in Bogota.

During the meeting and subsequent negotiations, he and his co-conspirators allegedly discussed plans for a ten-ton drug shipment to the U.S., boasting they had access to cocaine laboratories and U.S.-registered planes to produce and transport the drugs inside Colombia, the world's largest producer of the illegal narcotic.

Even before details of the arrest were known, FARC leaders condemned it as a set-up that would undermine almost 7,000 demobilized rebel fighters' trust in the peace process.

'This is the worst moment that the peace process has gone through,' said the former rebel leader known as Ivan Marquez, who served as chief negotiator during the peace talks.

Loyal supporters: More than 100 former rebels and FARC sympathizers gathered late Monday outside the Attorney General Office

The arrest comes less than a week before President Donald Trump is set to visit Bogota for conversations with Santos in which U.S. claims that Colombia's longstanding support for the drug war flagged during peace talks is expected to feature prominently.

U.S. authorities have doubted the sincerity of the FARC leadership's commitment to abandoning the drug trade as it enters politics, and last year named 21 suspected drug traffickers wanted for extradition who somehow managed to end up on a list of former fighters and their sympathizers entitled to benefits under the peace treaty.

Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their war crimes to special peace tribunals are to be spared jail time and extradition. But they aren't protected for crimes committed after the December 2016 signing.

'The senior leadership never cut ties to the cocaine production that earned them billions of dollars as an insurgence,' said Douglas Farrah, a senior visiting fellow at the National Defense University who has testified to the U.S. Congress on the FARC's criminal ties.

'Like addicts they just can't quit the business,' he added.

The FARC long funded their insurgency by leveling a 'war tax' on cocaine moving through territory the rebels dominated.

Fifty members of its leadership structure - though not Santrich - were indicted in 2006 in the U.S. on charges of running the world's largest drug cartel.

But the rebels always denied direct involvement in the business itself and rebel peace negotiators in 2013 denounced drug trafficking as a 'scourge' that has 'contaminated' the international financial system and generated a global health crisis.
Wallabies star Israel Folau has refused to apologise for comments about gay people, but admits he was 'disrespectful'.

Folau, a devout Christian, has been under fire for social media comments saying gay people would go to 'hell unless they repent of their sins and turn to God'.

In a Tuesday meeting with Rugby Australia (RA) bosses, Folau said his comments could have been made differently, but insisted on maintaining his religious beliefs.

Israel Folau (pictured with wife Maria Folau) met with Australian rugby bosses on Tuesday

The Wallabies star wrote on Instagram that God's plan for gay people was 'hell... unless they repent of their sins and turn to God'. He also protested against same sex marriage

RA's Raelene Castle and New South Wales Rugby's Andrew Hore made a statement after the meeting, Wide World of Sports reported.

'Where we've got to is Israels presented his situation to us  and we're proud of the fact he's a strong believer and stands up for what he believes in,' said Castle.

'Israel acknowledged he could have put a more positive spin on his message. He understands hes caused some grief in this. He's a very religious man.

'He wants to see everyone live in a positive world but needs to make sure he's respectful.'

Castle and Hore were unable to confirm whether Folau had promised to avoid making similar comments on social media in the future.

Folau's comments left Rugby Australia in a tough situation as major sponsors prepare to walk away if he continues to post in such a matter.

But the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, told The Australian it was a matter of free speech, and Folau should be allowed to have an individual view.

'Israel Folau should be free to hold and express traditional, biblical views on marriage and sexuality without being penalised, just as other players have spoken out with their differing views,' he said.

The rugby player was unfazed by brutal criticism from fans of the team and sponsors ahead of the meeting with Rugby Australia about his behaviour.

A devout Christian, Folau posted to Twitter late on Sunday the Matthew 5 verse stating, 'blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Folau shared a bible verse from Matthew 5 which discusses the great reward in heaven for those persecuted for their beliefs (pictured) to his Twitter account on Sunday

Folau, a devout Christian, met with Rugby Australia on Tuesday to discuss his use of social media - but the rugby star did not compromise on his strong beliefs

'Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.'

Anglican minister Peter Kurti, who heads up the religious and civil society program for the Centre for Independent Studies, told The Australian while he personally did not share Folau's views, he should not be stopped from expressing them due to corporate pressure.

'At what point does corporate sponsorship become social engineering?' Mr Kurti said.

'Tolerance is about not putting up with things you like  it's about putting up with what you don't like.'

On Sunday, Folau shared a bible verse about the great prizes in heaven for the persecuted to his Twitter account

RA boss Castle and the NSW Waratahs chief Andrew Hore arranged the meeting with Folau over his use of social media to proclaim his position on same sex marriage and homosexuality - a position in direct contrast to that of major corporate sponsor Qantas.

Castle last week said RA were treating the matter seriously.

'Israel's comment reflects his personal religious beliefs, however it does not represent the view of Rugby Australia or NSW Rugby,' she said in a statement.

'We are aligned in our view that rugby is a game for all, regardless of sexuality, race, religion or gender, which is clearly articulated in rugby's inclusion policy.

'We understand that Israel's comment has upset a number of people and we will discuss the matter with him as soon as possible.'

Off contract at the end of the year, three-times John Eales Medallist Folau appears to have contravened RA's inclusion policy

RA went into the meeting hoping Folau could be persuaded not to continue expressing such a controversial stance publicly.

Folau expressed his support for the 'No' campaign during same-sex marriage plebiscite voting, while Rugby Australia was one of a number of sporting bodies to back the successful bid for equality.

Off contract at the end of the year, three-times John Eales Medallist Folau has seemingly contravened RA's inclusion policy.

'There is no place for homophobia or any form of discrimination in our game and our actions and words both on and off the field must reflect this,' the policy states.
Facebook has been accused of helping suppress dissenting voices in Communist ruled Vietnam, in an open letter signed by dozens of human rights groups.

The letter says Facebook's system of automatically pulling content if enough people complain, could 'silence activists and citizen journalists', and demands answers from Mark Zuckerberg.

Despite sweeping economic reform in Vietnam, and increasing openness toward social change, including LGBT-rights, the ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism.

A letter signed by human rights groups said Facebook's system of automatically pulling content if enough people complain, could 'silence activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam'

Vietnam last year unveiled a 10,000-strong military cyber warfare unit, named Force 47, to counter 'wrong' views on the internet.

The open letter to Zuckerberg called Force 47 'state-sponsored trolls' and accused them of exploiting Facebook's community policies and disseminating fake news about the activists.

Vietnam's government said Facebook has committed to work with it to prevent content that violates the country's laws from appearing on its platform and will also remove fake accounts and fake content about senior government officials.

The activists said the frequency of takedowns had risen and Facebook's has been unhelpful in restoring accounts and content, after its Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert met with Vietnamese Information Minister Truong Minh Tuan in 2017.

Vietnamese human rights activist, La Viet Dung, shows the open letter signed by himself sent to Facebook Inc.'s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, in Hanoi, Vietnam

Facebook said at the time of the meeting it would set up a separate channel to directly coordinate with the communication and information ministry on reports of illegal content.

'We appreciate Facebook's efforts in addressing safety and misinformation concerns online in Vietnam and around the world,' the activists said.

'Yet it would appear that after this high profile agreement to coordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of account suspension and content takedown has only grown more acute.'

Earlier this month, Vietnamese human rights lawyer and activist Nguyen Van Dai was jailed for 15 years on the charge he 'aimed at overthrowing the people's administration'. Another five activists were jailed for seven to 12 years.

Their sentences prompted responses by representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the European Delegations among other rights groups.

But Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said 'there is no such thing as people being arrested for freely expressing opinion' in Vietnam.

Facebook had not immediately response to a request for comment on the letter to Zuckerberg. Vietnam's ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately responded.
Houston police have released a Snapchat video of a man shooting a semi-automatic weapon from the backseat of a moving car.

The video posted to the popular image-sharing app shows a man holding a red plastic cup and smoking before he fires multiple shots into the street.

The man, who has the username 'DabDaddyDono', wrote 'Gang gang who want smoke?' on the video.

Wanted: Houston police are searching for this man who they say fired a semi-automatic weapon from the backseat of a moving car

'The exact location of the shooting has not been determined at this time and it is believed to have occurred the last week of March or first week of April,' police said in a statement.

However, police believe the incident took place in northwest Houston as the suspect tagged his location on a picture posted shortly before the shooting video.

They hope releasing the video to the public will help them catch the man.

It appears police got a hold of several of the suspect's posts, as they have also released a photo of him posing with his friends from the same night.

It is not the first time Houston police are on the hunt for a Snapchat shooter.

Last year a couple was arrested after a video showing them taking a joy ride while firing the pistols was posted on the app by one of the suspects.

Sierra Tarbutton, 27, pleaded guilty to and was sentenced to five years in jail, as reported by Click 2 Houston. Her partner Michael Cuellar, 29, is now serving a six-year sentence for harassing a police officer after he was put on probation in 2016.

If you know anything about the suspect please contact police Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

The video posted to the popular image-sharing app shows a man holding a red plastic cup and smoking before he fires multiple shots into the street
A man has been left horrified after he claims he found a redback spider in his broccoli that he purchased from Coles.

The customer shared his added ingredient to the supermarket chain's public Facebook page, something hesaid he doesn't normally do but felt 'unhappy' with Coles' response.

He uploaded a photo of his broccoli, still inside the bag, purchased from in Brisbane.

A man has been left horrified after he claims he found a redback spider in his broccoli purchased from Coles

A small spider with a red stripe down it's back can be see sitting at the bottom of the vegetables' head.

He explained that he had bought the product and found the deadly spider as he was about to make dinner.

The Brisbane man explained he sprayed the redback to keep it from escaping.

He wrote: 'I then called your [store] immediately to let them know, so they could check their fresh food produce to make sure there are no others around, they thanked me for letting them know and hung up before I could ask for some more broccoli as I no longer had any I could eat.'

The man, disappointed at his lack of compensation, said he then privately messaged Coles for a replacement.

He said he feels as though he shouldn't have to ask multiple times for a replacement.

He wrote: 'I'm pretty easy going, I'm not kicking up a stink - but I feel like my matter wasn't taken very seriously, otherwise it would have been resolved by now.

A man took to social media to complain about the fact that he hasn't been compensated for what happened as he sprayed bug spray in the bag to stop the spider from escaping

Coles has reached out to the man to attempt to resolve the matter

'I feel like I did the right thing by you by calling up your store immediately and letting them know, I feel like you are yet to do the right thing by me.'

Someone from Coles responded to the post thanking him for getting in touch and apologising for his experience.

A Coles spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Coles takes the quality of all our products seriously. We have contacted the customer and will follow up with our supplier to investigate the matter.'

The broccoli in question was purchased four weeks ago.
Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch were taken aback when Aboriginal activists interrupted a beach-side television broadcast from the Gold Coast on Tuesday morning.

The rowdy protest followed similar displays of anger outside the Sunrise studio in Martin Place in the heart of Sydney last month.

A panel discussion in mid-March triggered the first demonstration, during which Sunrise was slammed for hiding the protesters from viewers with a blank backdrop.

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The Stolen Generations were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, as recently as the 1970s. Pictured: A 1934 newspaper clipping advertising children for adoption

The first Aboriginal Act was passed in Western Australia in 1905, and the Chief Protector became the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under the age of 16. Pictured: Aboriginal school children at Mornington Island, Queensland about 1950

Similar laws were soon passed in other states and territories, including the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act in 1909, and in 1911 the South Australia Aborigines Act and the Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance. Pictured: Children at a compound in the Northern Territory in 1919

From the time the first act was passed until 1970, between one in ten and one in three Indigenous children were removed from their families or communities. Pictured: Children from the Methodist Overseas Mission riding on the back of a truck on January 1, 1954

Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch were taken aback when Aboriginal activists interrupted a beach-side television broadcast from the Gold Coast on Tuesday morning

During the controversial segment panellists discussed the adoption of Aboriginal children, reminding viewers of the tragedy of the Stolen Generations.

Incensed by a panel lacking Indigenous participants and featuring controversial comments by Armytage and guests, and unsatisfied by Sunrise's response to their criticism and initial protests, activists decided to travel to the Gold Coast.

The Stolen Generations were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, as recently as the 1970s.

The first Aboriginal Act was passed in Western Australia in 1905, and the Chief Protector became the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under the age of 16.

Similar laws were soon passed in other states and territories, including the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act in 1909, and in 1911 the South Australia Aborigines Act and the Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance.

From the time the first act was passed until 1970, between one in ten and one in three Indigenous children were removed from their families or communities.

In 1937 a Commonwealth/State 'native welfare' conference made assimilation the national policy.

'The destiny of the natives of aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in ultimate absorption ... with a view to their taking their place in the white community on an equal footing with the whites,' the policy stated.

By 1967 a referendum was held to amend the Australian constitution, establishing laws for Aboriginal people who were also included in the census for the first time.

Two years later, all states had repealed legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children for 'protection'.

In 1937 a Commonwealth/State 'native welfare' conference made assimilation the national policy. Pictured: Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory in 1937

By 1967 a referendum was held to amend the Australian constitution, establishing laws for Aboriginal people who were also included in the census for the first time. Pictured: Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory in 1927

In 1975 parliament introduced the Racial Discrimination Act, making discrimination based on race unlawful regardless of state or territory legislation.

Eight years later the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle is established, ensuring indigenous children are placed with indigenous families when adoption is necessary.

By 1997 the parliaments and governments of Victoria, Tasmania, ACT, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia all issued public apologies to the Stolen Generations.

A report titled Bringing Them Home tabled in Parliament recommended that then-Prime Minister John Howard apologise to the Stolen Generations but he chose not to.

The first Sorry Day was held on May 26, 1998, remember and commemorating the mistreatment of the country's Aboriginal people.

In 1975 parliament introduced the Racial Discrimination Act, making discrimination based on race unlawful regardless of state or territory legislation. Pictured: A group of children with the Church Missionary Society in the Northern Territory in 1926

A memorial to the Stolen Generations was unveiled in 2004, and in 2006 a Stolen Generations compensation scheme was set up in Tasmania.

On February 13, 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a public apology to the Stolen Generations.

'We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history,' he said.

'The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

'For the pain, suffering, and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for the families left behind, we say sorry.

'We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.'
Michael Cohen could be facing up to 30 years in prison following the FBI raids on his office, home, and hotel room on Monday, it has been revealed.

Investigators reportedly seized evidence that was related to bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

This indicates that Cohen is being investigated for using a home equity line to borrow the $130,000 he paid porn star Stormy Daniels, according to Politico.

FBI agents seized a trove of documents related to Daniels' case and communications between the attorney and the president, in a dramatic escalation of Robert Mueller's special counsel probe.

Longtime Trump lawer Michael Cohen could face up to 30 years in prison if it is found he used a a home equity line to borrow the $130,000 he paid porn star Stormy Daniels

Investigators reportedly seized evidence that was related to bank fraud and campaign finance violations from his home and office on Monday. Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue (pictured), close to Trump Tower

Agents got a warrant based on a 'referral' from Mueller, according to a report in the New York Times, only days after Trump had denied having anything to do with paying the porn star.

They took Cohen's phone, personal computer and bank records.

Cohen has claimed he paid Daniels with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge.

Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC called Essential Solutions just weeks before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC.

The LLC was set up on October 17, 2016, the same day that Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez was reportedly trying to sell the porn star's story to the media.

Cohen's offices are in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is also home to many of NBC's most high-profile shows including The Today Show, Nightly News and Saturday Night Live

FBI agents seized a trove of documents related to Daniels' case and communications between the attorney and the president

Some 10 days later, Essential Solutions paid Daniels $130,000 after she signed an agreement not to talk about Trump.

The agreement used pseudonyms  David Dennison for Trump and Peggy Peterson for Daniels.

If Cohen did in fact lie to obtain credit from a 'federally insured financial institution', he could be charged with a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

And if the payment is found to be an 'in-kind contribution' to Trump's campaign, as it came just days before the election, Cohen could be facing a second felony.

Violating campaign contribution limits is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.

Bank records have revealed Cohen set up a Delaware LLC called Essential Solutions just weeks before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC

Bloomberg reported that Mueller had gone to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees his probe, with information which Rosenstein decided to refer to the Manhattan US attorney.

The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.

'Today the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Stephen Ryan.

'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.

'The decision by the US Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'

Trump called the raid ordered by federal prosecutors on Cohen's hotel room and offices 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'

CNN reported that President Trump had watched TV broadcasts of the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney  and that he knew about the raid before the news came out.

And Trump was clearly rattled as he addressed the raid before a meeting on Syria.

Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack, Trump raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Cohen's Manhattan office, although the search warrants were perfectly legal.

Trump also called Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, despite the fact that Mueller himself is a Republican.

Trump has denied any advance knowledge of the payment to Daniels that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.

Asked if he knew about the payment last week, the president said 'No.'

When a reporter then asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'

Then, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'
Australia is set to shiver through the weekend just days after people hit the beach to get through record-breaking hot weather.

Sydney experienced its hottest April day ever on Monday - but a cool change set to sweep across the country from Thursday will mark the end of the warm weather.

Dave Taylor, a Queensland-based weather expert, says the cool change will mark the beginning of the coldest winter in decades - and the start of a 'mini ice age' which will last for seven years.

Australia is set to shiver through the weekend just days after people hit the beach to get through record-setting hot weather

'People need to make the most of the warm weather this week because the temperature will drop over the weekend,' he said

Fun in the sun: Revellers at Bondi beach enjoy the warm autumn weather with ball games

Commuters battle the rain amid reports that the warm weather will soon come to an end

'People need to make the most of the warm weather this week because the temperature will drop over the weekend.

'It won't get super cold but will go back to average autumn temperatures,' he said.

'We will start seeing those freezing temperatures in six weeks,' he said.

Mr Taylor also predicts 5cm of snow for Tasmania by Tuesday.

'I predicted summer would go for an extre six weeks and I was on-point,' he said.

Weatherzone and the Bureau of Meteorology are both still predicting warm temperatures through the weekend.

Earlier this year Mr Taylor said Australia is set for a freezing winter with snow in parts of Queensland where it has never fallen before.

A visitor explores as snow blankets Falls Creek ski resort, north of Melbourne

Australia is set for a 'very cold winter' with snow in places where it has never been recorded before, according to weatherman Dave Taylor - who thinks snow will fall in the towns above

A weather map showing a burst of cold air (blue) running up from the Southern Ocean

He says every winter from now until 2025 'will be colder than the last'.

'A reduction in sun spots is the cause of the cold snap, and predicts the freezing winters will end with a severe weather event  likely widespread flooding - that will be worse than Australia has ever experienced'.

THE WEEKEND FORECAST IN YOUR CITY SYDNEY Friday- Max, 30, Min, 22 Saturday- Max, 30, Min, 22 Sunday- Max, 25, Min, 15 BRISBANE Friday- Max, 28, Min, 18 Saturday- Max, 29, Min, 18 Sunday- Max, 30, Min, 20 CANBERRA Friday- Max, 29, Min, 15 Saturday- Max, 22, Min, 14 Sunday- Max, 18, Min, 6 PERTH Friday- Max, 24, Min, 12 Saturday- Max, 25, Min, 12 Sunday- Max, 27, Min, 13 DARWIN Friday- Max, 33, Min, 25 Saturday- Max 33, Min, 26 Sunday- Max 34, Min, 25 MELBOURNE Friday- Max, 24, Min, 13 Saturday- Max, 19, Min, 15 Sunday- Max, 19, Min, 11 ADELAIDE Friday- Max, 24, Min, 12 Saturday- Max, 20, Min, 12 Sunday- Max, 22, Min, 13 HOBART Friday- Max, 21, Min, 11 Saturday- Max, 19, Min, 12 Sunday- Max 19, Min, 10 Source: Weatherzone Advertisement

Taylor, 47, has been studying the weather since he was 10 years old  after a severe storm almost destroyed the caravan he was living in with his family.

'I was there alone when the storm hit, and I thought I was going to die.'

He now runs two weather pages on social media, and has accurately predicted extreme weather conditions over the past decade, including the recent flooding in Far North Queensland.

A reduction in sun spots is the cause of the frigid weather, according to Taylor, who says the period of freezing winters will end with a severe weather event

'It will be like the floods you see in America or India,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'The flooding will be so bad that towns will be swallowed up as he water pours through the streets.'

'It will be like the floods you see in America or India,' he told Daily Mail Australia. '

The flooding will be so bad that towns will be swallowed up as water pours through the streets.

'The longer the sun spot activity is down the worse the weather event when it picks back up.'

'The longer the sun spot activity is down the worse the weather event when it picks back up.'

'Sunspot activity is falling and we have seen the affect it has happened on winter in the northern hemisphere,' he said

Taylor thinks there will be snow in places across Australia where it has never been recorded  including as far north as Eungella  west of Mackay, Queensland

'Sunspot activity is falling and we have seen the impact on this winter in the northern hemisphere,' he said.

'It snowed in places it never has in the USA, and snowed in places it hasn't for in a long time.

'There have been freezing deaths in Europe, Scotland struggled and waves turned to sluggish ice in Russia.

'England was so cold they were running out of gas which is the main source of heating and there were even reports of snow in the Sahara Desert.'

Taylor thinks there will be snow in places across Australia where it has never been recorded  including as far north as Eungella  west of Mackay, Queensland.

Map show the lowest July temperatures ever recorded for major cities, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, Taylor believes it could be up to three degrees colder this year

The weatherman says the hot and humid summer experienced across the country is another indicator of the cold winter to come.

'I think Brisbane will experience a winter like Sydney, Sydney will feel like Melbourne and Melbourne will feel like Tasmania,' he said.

And he thinks the minimum temperatures in each major city will be 3C colder than they have in recent years.

'We will have a lot more big Antarctic blows reaching toward Australia  they will be a lot more powerful than in recent years,' he said.

He thinks it will be a good snow season in NSW and Victoria  with the coldest weather likely to fall in June and July.

He says the period of freezing winters will end with a severe weather event  likely severe and widespread flooding  'worse than Australia has ever experienced'

'Sun spots activity is linked to our El Nino and La Nina Seasons,' he said.

'For example the lower number of sun spots then more than likely we fall into a La Nino, the more active than when we look at El Nino.'

Taylor believes it will snow in Tasmania over the weekend - despite his expectations of a longer summer.

The Bureau of Meteorology will release its 'outlook for winter in late May'.

'Science shows further ahead we forecast the less accurate those forecasts are,' a BOM spokesperson said.

Taylor runs the Brisbane Weather and East Coast Weather Facebook pages.
This is the terrifying moment a school bus drives across a rail crossing - missing a freight train by a mere two seconds.

The driver of the 2,000-tonne locomotive watched on helplessly as the bus crossed the track in the northern Hobart suburb of Brighton on Monday morning, during the busy school-run hour.

TasRail described the bus driver's failure to give way to the freight train as 'seriously stupid and reckless'.

This is the terrifying moment a school bus drives across a rail crossing - missing a freight train by a mere seconds

While the bus was empty, the state-government owned freight rail company said the train driver was fearful of a catastrophe.

'Two seconds later, a 2000-tonne train could have ploughed into the bus,' TasRail told its social media followers on Monday.

'A very traumatic moment for our locomotive driver who was unable to determine whether the bus was full of students or had already completed school drop off.'

TasRail communications manager Sarah Hirst said the train driver had blown the horn to warn the bus driver to stop.

While the bus was empty, the state-government owned freight rail company said the train driver of the locomotive (similar to the one pictured) was fearful of a catastrophe

TasRail described the bus driver's failure to give way to the freight train as 'seriously stupid and reckless'.

Ms Hirst said she was disgusted to see this sort of driver behaviour despite education campaigns on level crossing safety.

'We have investigated this matter and we do believe that the children had just been dropped off at school so the bus was empty at the time,' she told the ABC.

'It is a huge relief but it could have gone either way being 8:30am on a Monday morning.'

TasRail is considering referring the matter to police.

TasRail communications manager Sarah Hirst said the train driver had blown the horn to warn the bus driver to stop

Ms Hirst said she was disgusted to see this sort of driver behaviour despite education campaigns onlevel crossing safety
This is the shocking moment a drunk driver crashes through the window of a 7-Eleven store just missing a shopper near the entrance as glass goes flying.

On surveillance footage, captured from inside the convenience shop on Lowell Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Julia Cruz is seen chatting with a clerk before driver Juan Tavares Mora, 31, slams into the store Sunday morning.

Without moving much, Mora just misses Cruz - who is seen standing in the same spot and casually flipping her hair after the shocking incident.

This is the shocking moment a drunk driver crashes into a 7-Eleven store in Lawrence, Massachusetts

Cruz, who is standing near the entrance, is seen looking behind her as the driver speeds into the shop

While Cruz appears calm and collected, afterward she found out that her friend, who was also in the store, was seriously injured. The woman is currently in the hospital.

Cruz was heard sobbing while speaking about the horrific incident to WHDH.

'I was panicking. That could have been me too,' Cruz said in the interview.

'It happened so fast and it was crazy... something I don't want to ever experience again,' she added.

Mora was slapped with a drunk driving charge, which he pleaded not guilty to.

'It happened so fast and it was crazy... something I don't want to ever experience again,' Cruz said

The driver just misses Cruz during the crash. Cruz's friend, however, was seriously injured from the crash
Unlimited data is now available on a brand new sim-only plan from Optus despite one huge catch.

The Optus Unleashed tariff is now available across Australia with selected existing customers able to apply to hook up to the new plan.

The $60-a-month contract is not available for everyone and the connection speed is severely limited to just 1.5mbps - around 30 times slower than regular 4G.

The Optus Unleashed plan has unlimited data on a brand new sim-only deal but only for selected customers

It might not be fast enough for video or music streaming making the whole point of providing unlimited data irrelevant, one analyst has warned.

The original roll-out of the Unleashed plan was called off after just 24 hours in March.

The initial unlimited data sim is $60 with customers able to add a second for another $50-a-month and a third for a further $40-a-month.

But experts have warned streaming speeds might not be what some customers are expecting and questioned the point of unlimited data.

Harrison Astbury, from Canstar Blue, told NewsCorp: 'This speed is barely enough to stream standard definition Netflix.

It might not be fast enough for video or music streaming on apps like Netflix or Spotify as questions are raised about the point of unlimited data plans

'So if you were used to high definition picture quality and you're used to downloading by mobile, you might be disappointed.'

'It kind of defeats the purpose,' Joseph Hanlon, from the price comparison website WhistleOut, added.

'If you can't use your phone plan for data-heavy activities, what's the point of unlimited data?'

Optus remained silent around the criticism of the download speeds when asked by Daily Mail Australia.

Asked how customers are chosen to take advantage of the new plan, a spokesman said: 'Optus regularly tailors promotions to its customers to best suit their usage needs.

Optus remained silent around the criticism of the download speeds when asked by Daily Mail Australia

'The Optus Unleashed offer is a limited offer that Optus has invited select customers to participate in.'

Small print on the company's website even warns peak usage - mostly in the evenings - could become even slower for 'heavy data users' as they are 'deprioritised'.

It is claimed the move is to assess how much data mobile networks can cope with at the same time.

But Mr Hanlon advised customers they would be better off choosing 'a standard Optus plan'.


Queensland has seen more than 36 people struck down by influenza every day since the start of the year, threatening to eclipse last year's rampant outbreak, according to official statistics.

In 2017, more than 56,000 cases of influenza were diagnosed in Queensland, making it one of the state's worst seasons on record, with 2,961 cases alone between January 1 and April 1.

But statistics show that this year, 3,242 people have already been laid low by the bug, almost 300 more than this time last year, making it the busiest start to a year since 2008.

In 2017, more than 56,000 cases of influenza were diagnosed in Queensland, making it one of the state's worst seasons on record

Statistics show that this year, 3,242 people have already been laid low by the bug, almost 300 more than this time last year

Health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Brisbane doctor Deb Mills warned delaying getting the vaccine was 'a bit like Russian roulette'.

'Basically you can't tell when the flu is going to hit,' she told the Courier-Mail.

Queensland Health insists it is trying to prevent another upsurge similar to last season and was pumping in more than $2.3 million to help communities.

'The number of year-to-date cases of influenza in 2018 is higher than previous years, but it is too early to tell if this flu season will be worse than previous years,' a spokesman said.

'Our message remains the same: get vaccinated every year because it is the best way of protecting yourself against the flu.

'Although getting vaccinated is the most effective way of avoiding the flu, we should not ignore basic practices such as proper hand washing, covering a cough with a tissue or our arm and staying home when we're sick.'

Queensland's chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, has previously said it's especially important all children over six months old be vaccinated this season and at the right time, from the end of April.
This is the little baby boy left with a fractured skull after he was allegedly bashed by the man caring for him on Saturday night.

Furious relatives of the little boy have shared a heartbreaking picture of the child's injuries after he was found bloodied and bruised at a unit in Sydney's south-west.

Neighbours reportedly heard the mother's screams after she returned home and found her injured son.

This is the little baby boy left with a fractured skull after he was allegedly bashed by the man caring for him on Saturday night

A photograph of the child on his hospital bed showed his face covered with purple splotches.

He suffered two burst ear drums and broken ribs. He may have a dislocated spine and had 'distinctive bite marks' on his shoulder, police said in court documents.

The boy was taken to Westmead Children's Hospital in a serious condition.

A 20-year-old man has been charged with four counts of cause grievous bodily harm to person with intent and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The man was refused bail.

The 18-month-old boy is fighting for his life in hospital after he suffered critical head injuries

Detectives from State Crime Command's Child Abuse Squad and other officers are investigating.

It's understood the boy was born premature at just 27 weeks.

A hospital spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia it was unable to provide an update on the child's condition due to a lack of parental consent.

The baby suffered a fractured skull, bruising and cuts, two burst ear drums and a possible dislocated spine
A 'brilliant' Russian design engineer at a top-secret defence plant took revenge on two work colleagues by using a notorious toxic poison - thallium - to harm them.

His act left his intended targets almost untouched but caused dozens of unintended victims with women reporting their hair falling out and chronic sickness in incidents the Russian authorities initially sought to cover-up.

Talented Vladislav Shulga, 37, known as an 'engineer sent by God', was passed over for promotion at the plant in Taganrog, south west Russia, so he spiked the drinking water of his boss with thallium - used in Soviet times and known as Saddam Hussein's 'poison of choice'.

The boss escaped almost unharmed but his deputy is virtually paralysed from the horrific act.

Russian design engineer Vladislav Shulga took revenge on two work colleagues at a top secret defence plant by using a notorious toxic poison - thallium - to harm them

His act left his intended targets almost untouched but caused dozens of unintended victim. Pictured is one of his victims, Viktoria Lebedenko

Women reported their hair falling out and others suffered chronic sickness in incidents the Russian authorities initially sought to cover-up. Pictured is one of the victims, Inna Aleynikova

The defence plant poisoning in Taganrog remained hidden for months amid a succession of official denials. One of the victims is pictured in a wheelchair

Two months later Shulga used thallium again after fleeing the scene when his car was involved in a crash with a lawyer at his defence plant in Taganrog.

The lawyer Sagil Makhmudov, 25, reported him to police and Shulga tried the same trick, aiming to maim him in revenge.

Thallium - which can be radioactive - was initially suspected in the 2006 London poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a leading Vladimir Putin enemy - before it was understood he had been killed by polonium 210.

The defence plant poisoning in Taganrog remained hidden for months amid a succession of official denials.

It was finally disclosed around the same time as ex-GRU spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Britain with novichok, a Russian chemical weapon.

One woman called Inna Aleinikova (pictured) in the legal department showed on a video how she was going bald after succumbing to the horrific poisoning

Talented Vladislav Shulga, 37, known as an 'engineer sent by God', was passed over for promotion, so he spiked the the drinking water of his boss with thallium - used in Soviet times and known as Saddam Hussein's 'poison of choice'

Desperate employees at the defence plant, Beriev Aircraft Scientific and Technical Complex, went public last month to force the authorities to take their concerns seriously that they were victims of thallium - and find the poisoner. One of the victims is pictured in hospital

Two months later Shulga (pictured) used thallium again after fleeing the scene when his car was involved in a crash with a lawyer at his defence plant in Taganrog

Desperate employees at the defence plant, Beriev Aircraft Scientific and Technical Complex, went public last month to force the authorities to take their concerns seriously that they were victims of thallium - and find the poisoner.

One woman called Inna Aleinikova in the legal department showed on a video how she was going bald after succumbing to the horrific poisoning.

'This is my hair - all that's now left now,' she said. 'It is as if your body has lost all its skin - you can't touch it.'

Aircraft designer Konstantin Kolesnikov - deputy to Shulga's boss - became ill in November, and was diagnosed thallium in his blood some 150 times too high.

In hospital after heart failure and acute stomach pains, he suffered clinical death but was reanimated by medics. He cannot walk, and has lost his eyesight and hair.

Local doctors and officials denied thallium poisoning even after independent checks proved 30 people suffered from Shulga's attacks. Shulga took an antidote for thallium - and continued working normally.

After police investigated the poisonings, he finally confessed, and faces up to five years in jail at his upcoming trial.

'I saw that my colleagues poisoned two months earlier did not die, and are still alive,' he said.

'So I made a smaller dose and added thallium to the water in the legal department.'

Economist Ksenia Sergus said she woke feeling severe pains when she breathed in. These spread to her back and bottom

Some workers suspect Shulga (pictured) put poison in the air conditoning as well as the water

The lawyer Sagil Makhmudov (pictured), 25, reported him to police and Shulga tried the same trick, aiming to maim him in revenge

His aim was that the lawyer 'would get poisoned' but in fact he missed his target again - hurting others who are suffering long term sickness. Makhmudov refused to comment on the attack.

But some of those poisoned still doubt they have been told the entire truth.

'In our department people who sat near one particular wall are bald,' she said.

'Those who sat by the window - all have their hair.'

Some suspect Shulga put poison in the air conditoning as well as the water.

Doctors were confused by the poisoning and initially diagnosed gastritis or rotavirus - or told staff they were healthy.

Thallium in isotope form can be radioactive but it is not clear is this was the case here.

It has been used as a murder weapon in several countries because it was seen as hard to trace. It has also been a favourite of fiction authors including Agatha Christie.

Workers are 'angry that their symptoms have not been properly checked and the authorities want to cover up and deny the thallium poisoning', said one local report.

Economist Ksenia Sergus said she woke feeling severe pains when she breathed in. These spread to her back and bottom.

Another victim, Viktoria Lebedenko, a married mother-of-one, had similar symptoms. Others suffered nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
A man has lost a $2 million negligence case against an engineering company because a judge ruled farting on an employee did not constitute harassment.

Justice Rita Zammit dismissed claims made by David Hingst, a contract administrator from Melbourne, who accused his supervisor, Greg Short, of bullying.

Mr Hingst alleged Mr Short, from Construction Engineering Australia, would regularly 'lift his bum and fart' on or at him, which he found 'humiliating and disgusting'.

Mr Short denied purposely passing wind towards his colleague, admitting he felt 'embarrassed' he may have accidentally done it 'once or twice'.

A judge has thrown out a $2million case where a contract administrator accused his supervisor of workplace harassment by consistently farting on and at him (stock photo used)

Former colleague, Philip Hamilton, recalled his boss's frequent flatulence while in the presence of Mr Hingst from mid-2008 to 2009, but labeled it 'typical banter or mucking around'.

He said cultural differences were to blame for the offence taken by Mr Hingst, who was of German descent.

'Us Australians are sort of brought up you sort of accept it or think oh it's just  that's what happens,' Mr Hamilton told the Victorian Supreme Court.

The court heard Mr Hingst became increasingly unhappy about Mr Short's flatulence and would protest by saying things like 'you're not serious?'.

On one occasion, Mr Hingst purchased a can of deodorant and sprayed it at Mr Short, in an event he said prompted laughter from the other men in the offfice.

Mr Hingst also refused to share a lift with Mr Short, calling him 'Mr Stinky' when questioned over his reasoning.

Justice Zammit dismissed claims by Hingst, a contract administrator from Melbourne, who accused his supervisor, Greg Short, of the ongoing unsolicited passing of wind (stock photo)

He then claimed Mr Short proceeded to call him an 'idiot'.

After the 18-day trial, which involved more than a dozen witnesses, Justice Zammit ruled Mr Short's flatulence was 'an offence that has its origins in cultural difference'.

She said being the recipient of unsolicited farting was unlikely to have intimidated or caused distress to the amount Mr Hingst had claimed.

'(Mr Hingst) was able to spray Mr Short with deodorant and give him the nickname 'Mr Stinky'.

'Indeed, on (his) own evidence, had he not lost his job and been abused over the telephone, the flatulence would 'never have been a big issue',' Justice Zammit said.

She concluded Mr Hingst's domestic stress and dismissal was likely what caused his psychiatric injuries, and not the bullying he accused Mr Short of.

Mr Hingst alleged Mr Short, from Construction Engineering Australia, would regularly 'lift his bum and fart' on or at him, which he found 'humiliating and disgusting'

'It is in a sense tragic that the plaintiff's redundancy appears to lie at the heart of his problems,' she said.

Mr Hingst claimed he developed psychiatric and physical injuries as a result of ongoing harrassment from Mr Short, including fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome.

He believed he was entitled to receive $1,805,138 for damages he incurred as a result.

The judge also threw out claims Mr Hingst, who represented himself at trial, was unlawfully dismissed from his employment with the company.

'The plaintiff's unfair dismissal claim is without merit for the simple reason that it was a genuine redundancy and the deed of release was lawfully executed,' a court report stated.
An Australian paedophile who fled the country 22 years ago is lying in a coma in a Brazilian hospital after being hit by a car during a night out at Copacabana Beach.

Authorities are considering whether he could be extradited for breaching his parole in the Northern Territory.

Christopher John Gott, 63, is also wanted for questioning over an assault at a Melbourne primary school.

Christopher John Gott, who fled Australia in 1996 after being paroled for child sex offences, is lying in a coma in a Brazilian hospital after being hit by a car (pictured) during a night out

The former school teacher left the NT in 1996 after being convicted of child sex crimes in Darwin, News Ltd has reported.

He left the NT as part of his parole conditions and was expected to arrive in Victoria by bus. However at a stop in Adelaide, he fled and never made it to Victoria.

Twenty-two years on, the fugitive has been critically injured in a car crash in Rio de Janeiro in January.

He is reportedly in a coma and unlikely to survive.

Victoria Police has confirmed Gott is wanted for questioning over an indecent assault at a Fitzroy Primary school in Melbourne in 1983.

'A 63-year-old former Fitzroy man is wanted by Yarra Crime Investigation Unit,' it confirmed in a statement.

Gott's 22-year run from police came to an end on on January 18 after the driver of a black Hyundai mowed down the 63-year-old and 16 others at Copacabana Beach (pictured)

Gott was reportedly in Brazil on a fake passport and had been working at an international school for almost two decades.

NT Police said they had recently become aware of an incident involving Gott in Brazil and were already investigating him for breaching his parole.

'Since the incident in Brazil, we have engaged with international authorities to explore the possibility of an extradition,' an NT Police spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday.

'Given his current medical condition, we will continue to monitor the situation, with a view of taking action if possible in the future.'

An AFP spokesman said it was working with Brazilian authorities to assist in identifying a victim of a car accident in Brazil.

Gott, who worked as a teacher in Darwin and Melbourne before fleeing the country in 1996, was mowed down by a black Hyundai on January 18 after the driver suffered a seizure and lost control, according to The Australian.

The 63-year-old, who was one of 17 people injured in the collision, suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to Miguel Couto Hospital.

A passport found on Gott identified him as Daniel Marcos Philips, a 68-year-old Australian, but authorities later deemed it was a fake.

They did discover, however, Gott had used the alias to teach at an international school in Rio for almost 20 years, according to the publication.

His identity eluded authorities for days following the accident until they took a copy of his fingerprint and sent it to Australian officials.

The test matched Gott, putting an end to his more than two decade long run from the police.

Gott is not expected to survive his injuries and would likely live in a vegetative state if he was to ever wake up from the coma (pictured is the crash scene)

Gott worked as a high-school teacher in Melbourne in the 1980s before moving to Darwin in the early 90s, according to The Australian.

He was jailed for six years in Darwin in 1994 for 17 child sex offences, but was released on parole after two years.

The 63-year-old disappeared after taking a bus to Adelaide.

He initially told police he was going to live with his parents in Melbourne, but they told officers they had disowned the convicted paedophile.

Gott is not expected to survive his injuries and would likely live in a vegetative state if he was to ever wake up from the coma, according to The Australian.

Brazilian police are investigating Gott's role at the international school in Rio.
Arriva bus driver Greg Emmerson denies causing death by careless driving in the death of grandmother Beatrice Meager, 86,

An elderly bus passenger died after the driver braked so hard that she was thrown from her seat and into a metal pole in front of her, a court heard on Monday.

Grandmother Beatrice Meager, 86, then fell to the floor and suffered several fractured ribs in the incident in September of 2016 and died the following month.

She was one of two female passengers thrown from their seats on the single decker Arriva bus after driver Greg Emmerson braked sharply to avoid colliding with a van in front of him.

It is alleged Emmerson, who also hit his head with the force of his braking, failed to react in time to the vehicle which was indicating to turn right off the A225 Hawley Road, near Dartford in Kent.

The court heard it took five to seven seconds before the 26-year-old started to brake.

Prosecutor Martin Yale said although the driver avoided colliding with the van, he had to brake so hard that he threw the pensioner from her seat, into the metal pole in front of her, and then onto the floor.

'In doing so, she sustained injuries from which she later died,' Mr Yale added. 'Initially she didn't seem to be as seriously injured as she was.

'She was helped up from the floor by another passenger and by Mr Emmerson, who had quickly come to assist.

'However, she had in fact sustained fractures to her left ribs which led to breathing difficulties, infection and other complications from which she died.'

Emmerson had braked sharply to avoid hitting a car. Mrs Meager was thrown from her seat and into a pole, fracturing ribs in the accident in September 2016. She died the following month. Pictured: File photo of an Arriva bus

Mrs Meager was travelling on the 414 bus to her home in Sutton at Honeat on September 19, 2016, and died in hospital 15 days later.

Emmerson, of Freeman Road, Gravesend, Kent, denies causing death by careless driving.

At the start of his trial Monday, Mr Yale told the jury of eight men and four women: 'It is the Crown's case that on the day in question he failed to react to a van in front of him, which was braking to turn right.

'By the time he began to brake at least five to seven seconds after that van began indicating to turn, although he was able to avoid a collision with the van, he had to brake so hard that he threw 86-year-old Beatrice Meager from her seat into a metal pole in front of her and onto the floor.'

The prosecutor told the jury it would have to decide whether Emmerson's driving fell below the standard of a competent and careful driver.

'It is the Crown's case that had Mr Emmerson been driving with due care and attention he would have reacted much sooner to the van turning right,' said Mr Yale.

'Had he reacted sooner he would not have had to brake so harshly and brought his bus to a halt without throwing anyone from their seats.

'You may decide that he was driving without adequate due care and attention and that inadequate due care and attention caused the death of Mrs Meager.'

Although the bus did not collide with the van, such was the 'rapid nature' of his braking that a BMW following behind made 'slight contact' with the rear of the single decker, said Mr Yale.

Although the bus did not collide with the van, such was the 'rapid nature' of his braking that a BMW following behind made 'slight contact' with the rear of the single decker'

But Mrs Meager was already on the bus floor by the time this collision occurred.

Mr Yale said Emmerson's view of the van and its indicators was 'clear and unobstructed'.

Published research also suggests that reaction time by a driver once aware of braking ahead was between three-quarters and two seconds, the court was told.

Buses are also exempt from seatbelt regulations.

The fatal incident occurred just after 1.30pm on a dry, warm and sunny day.

CCTV on the bus captured the van indicating and the time delay before Emmerson began braking.

He later claimed to police at the scene that having looked in his rear mirror and then checked for waiting passengers at a bus stop, he looked back at the road ahead to see the van had 'slammed its brakes on'.

Emmerson said he took evasive action by applying his brakes 'as hard as he could', the court heard.

'He said that in the moments before the incident he checked his nearside mirror to see if there was any traffic behind him,' said Mr Yale.

'When he looked back ahead he saw the van driver brake sharply. He (Emmerson) braked harshly and stopped and banged his head.

'He was then aware of being hit by the car behind, looked in his internal mirror and saw two passengers on the floor.

'He said he knew the 414 route very well and was one of his favourite routes, he was not in a hurry and was running to time.'

Emmerson also told police he was travelling at a safe distance behind the van, was not distracted by his passengers or communication on his two-way radio.

He also told police that he was not aware of the van indicating until his company had shown him the CCTV.

The second female passenger thrown from her seat was also taken to hospital but the court was not told whether she was injured.
A nine-year-old boy's love for flying and a heartwarming note landed him the upgrade of a lifetime on his next flight.

Jasper Francis, from Melbourne, wrote to Jetstar asking how much he needed to save from his pocket money to get a seat in business class on the new Dreamliner.

He told the airline he had already saved $85 towards the upgrade when he goes on holiday with his family to Thailand in June.

A nine-year-old boy's love for flying and a heartwarming note landed him the upgrade of a lifetime on his next flight. Pictured: The moment Jasper was told about the free upgrade

His note read: 'My name is Jasper Francis and I am nine years old and live an hour outside of Melbourne.'

'I was just wondering whether kids are allowed to fly business class by themself (sic)?

'I am saving my pocket money to get an upgrade on our flight: MEL-BKK on your Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

'So far I have saved $85, how much more do I need to save? Yours sincerely, Jasper.'

The budding pilot's letter took off when it arrived with the company.

He was invited for a behind-the-scenes tour around the Boeing 787 aircraft - his favourite plane.

Sitting in the captain's seat in the cockpit of the plane, Jasper was presented with a free upgrade by first officer Owen North.

He smiled and said: 'This is my dream come true.'

Jasper told the airline he had already saved $85 towards the upgrade when he goes on holiday with his family to Thailand in June. He is pictured in the cockpit

Twenty members of staff donated their $50 Christmas vouchers to pay for the business-class seats.

Jasper is too young to sit in business class on his own so will be joined by his father Glyn when they head to Bangkok.

The schoolboy, who wants to become a pilot one day, told Channel Nine's Today show about his love for aviation: 'It's just like I'm on top of everything and looking at the beautiful views down below.'

He said of the Dreamliner: 'I just think it's wonderful and it's the future plane of the skies.'


Disturbed 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright went on a 56-hour killing spree in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, in 1988

A twisted killer who was desperate to be the next Jack the Ripper never gained the notoriety of his hero despite carrying out three of the most brutal murders in British history, a new documentary revealed today.

Disturbed 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright went on a 56-hour killing spree in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, in 1988 after getting the sack and believing he was the child of an incestuous couple.

First he killed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas who he brutalised using an axe and a sledgehammer before locking his body in a shed on August 26.

Hours later he donned a devil mask before disemboweling his neighbour Raymond Ford - who was also stabbed 500 times - so he could hang his entrails around the room 'like bunting'.

He then turned on wheelchair bound neighbour Marcus Law who he stabbed more than 70 times. He sliced open his stomach and speared him with a crutch.

Arkwright also tore out his eyes and stuffed cigarettes in the sockets, up his nostrils and in his ears so he would look like a 'birthday cake'.

But despite the brutality of his murders he never gained the infamy he had hoped for, a new documentary on the Crime and Investigations channel

Arkwright donned this devil mask before disemboweling his neighbour Raymond Ford (pictured) - who was also stabbed 500 times - so he could hang his entrails around the room 'like bunting'

The killer spent 30 minutes murdering Mr Ford having taken off all his clothes (pictured)

Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, who worked on the When Life Means Life show, told Sun Online: 'This was a grotesque and macabre spree - one of the most gruesome cases I have ever seen.

'But it wasn't well-known, which was a good thing as Arkwright wanted notoriety, which he never got.

'He idolised Jack the Ripper and spent time in the library pouring over books about him because he was a figure of power and horror. It's clear he enjoyed the theatre of his killings and wanted to be this figure of mystery and power like Jack'.

Arkwright was arrested after he murdered three people, including his elderly grandfather, a two-day killing spree.

He flipped after being sacked from his job at a scrapyard because he kept failing to turn up for work.

The killer, who had been in and out of care as a child, wrongly believed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas was actually his father, so went to kill him.

Mr Puidokas was working on his allotment in Ruskin Drive, Mexborough and was stabbed in the neck on his shed before because hacked up with an axe and beaten around the head with a sledgehammer.

He locked the door before heading to the pub to get drunk.

At 3am on August 27 1988 he broke into the home of neighbour Raymond Ford, a former teacher he had fallen out with.

He killed neighbour Marcus Law, who was in a wheelchair after a motorcycle accident and the pair had fallen out over a packet of cigarettes.

Mr Law was severely paralysed and was completely powerless to prevent his stomach being cut open

His crutch was shoved into his stomach during the brutal murder - his third

Wearing just pants and a Prince of Darkness devil-mask he woke his victim before stabbing him 250 times.

His bowels were hung around the room and nearly all his organs were removed, much like Jack the Ripper had done.

A hardened Yorkshire police officer later said the killings were 'the most brutal act of slaughter I have ever seen. It is all the more chilling when you realise he must have spent at least half an hour inflicting these terrible wounds'.

The following day he killed neighbour Marcus Law, who was in a wheelchair after a motorcycle accident and the pair had fallen out over a packet of cigarettes.

He was stabbed 70 times and had his stomach cut open and cigarettes shoved into parts of his body.

First he killed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas. He is also believed to have killed his grandfather's housekeeper Elsa Konradaite, but he was never prosecuted

Mr Puidokas was brutalised using an axe and a sledgehammer and his body locked in his allotment shed (pictured)

The following day Mr Law's mother popped around to check on him and found her son brutally murdered.

Police, who had questioned Arkwright over a burglary in the area, arrested him for the three murders.

In 1989, at Sheffield Crown Court, he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.

A year later he was given a whole life sentence by the Home Secretary, becoming the youngest person in Britain to be given one in legal history.

But he is still relatively unknown despite the killings and he has never spoken about why he carried out the murders.

When Life Means Life airs tonight on the Crime and Investigations channel.
The Saudi Royal Family is being sued for cash used to make 'personalised porn films' for one of its most distinguished princes.

They are said to have been produced in Paris for the late Prince Saud Al-Faisal who, as well as being the world's longest ever serving foreign minister, is said to have bought 'made-to-order' erotica starring his mistress.

The lawsuit claims Prince Saud regularly used to send instructions about what he wanted to see in the films to the Atyla concierge company in the French capital.

Accusations: The late Prince Saud Al-Faisal allegedly ordered porn films to be made starring his mistress, but did not pay the bill before his death in 2015, according to a lawsuit

The films were reportedly shot in Prince Saud's luxury family apartment close to the Arc de Triomphe, as well as in hotel rooms.

Atyla says the bills were never paid by Prince Saud, who died in 2015, aged 75, and the company has launched proceedings in Nanterre, the Paris suburb.

Court papers show that the company wants the equivalent of 78,000 in 'unpaid invoices' that should have been settled by a company managing property owned by Prince Saud.

While the sum is itself small in relation to the Royal Family's colossal fortune, payment will effectively prove that the Paris flat was used as a base to make the X-rated movies.

It is now officially part-owned by Prince Saud's surviving children, who dispute that their father would be involved in such seedy activity, and refuse to pay the alleged debt.

Allegations: The Saudi royal family are now being sued by the company which claims to have made the porn film for Prince Saud

According to court evidence, the otherwise unidentified Moroccan mistress is said to have been left a Paris flat and cash in Prince Saud's will.

Lawyers for the management company of the Avenue Bugeaud property meanwhile insist that 'no services were ordered' from Atyla, least of all pornographic film shoots.

The case, which will be heard in September unless there is an out-of-court settlement, comes after France issued an international arrest warrant for Saudi Princess Hassa Bin Salman following claims that she ordered a bodyguard to'beat up and kill' a painter and decorator in Paris.

Princess Hassa, 43, pleaded diplomatic immunity against prosecution and then fled the city in 2016 after allegedly telling her armed employee: 'You have to kill this dog, he doesn't deserve to live.'

The Princess's brother, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is currently on a three-day visit to France, where he is being hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.

Last month, the Prince also visited London, where he was a guest of theQueen and Prime Minister Theresa May.

Saud Al-Faisal, a Princeton University graduate who spoke seven languages, served as Saudi Arabia's foreign minister from 1975 until 2015 - a world record.

He was married to his cousin Jawhara bint Abdullah bin Abdul-Rahman and had three sons and three daughters while becoming a hugely influential figure on the world stage.

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris has refused to comment on either of the ongoing legal cases.
Mother-of-two Joanne Barham, pictured outside court, stole 520 from her friend Joanne Brady's late husband's life insurance money

A mother of two betrayed a grieving widow she befriended by stealing from her late husband's life insurance money.

Joanne Barham, 36, had been helped out financially by Joanne Brady when she got into difficulties with her rent on her council house.

But when the victim went on holiday to Egypt, Barham, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, acquired Mrs Brady's bank details and then used them to steal more than 500 from the insurance payout.

It is thought she then spent the cash on household bills.

Mrs Brady only discovered the money had vanished when she returned to the UK.

She challenged Barham on the missing money but was told she had no involvement and police were called. Barham later claimed she was 'too embarassed' to tell Mrs Brady she had taken the cash as she was thousands of pounds in debt.

But in a statement Mrs Brady said: 'I'm just devastated at being treated like this by someone I called a friend. I feel I'm no longer a good judge of character after the way she used me when I was at my most vulnerable.

'This incident has made her lose trust and does not want to get close to anyone. This money came from my late husband's life insurance policy.'

At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Barham admitted fraud by false representation but escaped with a three months jail sentence suspended for a year. She was also ordered to pay 520 compensation.

The court heard the pair had met whilst their children were at school together but became close shortly after the death of Mrs Brady's husband in 2012.

Mrs Brady had been helping Barham out with her rent, but when Mrs Brady went on holiday to Egypt, Barham took her bank details and spent 520

When the victim was given the life insurance money she agreed to help out Barham who had borrowed thousands of pounds and claimed she could not afford to pay her bills.

Prosecuting, Robert Smith said: 'The complainant formed a close relationship with the defendant. She had been on holiday to Egypt and when she came back to review her bank statements she noticed that 520 was missing.

'In a victim statement, Mrs Brady said she had been left devastated after being treated like this by someone she called a friend. She feels she is no longer a good judge of character after the defendant used her when she was most vulnerable.

'This incident has made her lose trust and does not want to get close to anyone. The money taken was from her husband's insurance payout. The defendant has no previous convictions but a caution for dishonesty.'

In mitigation defence lawyer Miss Helen Longworth said: 'She does intend to pay the money back and she has already made some efforts to start a repayment plan. She has two cautions but her character is effectively good.

'This was a close personal relationship where the defendant seized an opportunity - it was not a sophisticated operation. The complainant is a robust woman able to manage her own finances and she was supported by a good group of friends.

'The defendant is not able to complete unpaid work due to an diagnosed shoulder injury but she does have a part-time job and enjoys working. She is a woman of very limited means and only works 15 hours a week on minimum wage and has two children aged 15 and eight.

'She has become more reserved over the past few years with this hanging over her head. Over the past few weeks whilst waiting for sentence she has not slept at the thought of having to leave her children.'

Mrs Brady said of Barham, pictured: I'm just devastated at being treated like this by someone I called a friend. I feel I'm no longer a good judge of character after the way she used me when I was at my most vulnerable'

Sentencing Judge Bernadette Baxter told Barham: 'A few years ago you befriended a woman by the name of Joanne Brady.

'You knew she had been widowed and had received insurance money. You knew because she helped you as a friend when you were in financial difficulty paying your rent.

'When she went out of the country to Egypt you abused that trust by giving yourself her bank details and you used the money you knew she had to pay your rent.

'You said you didn't tell her because you were embarrassed, but you didn't tell her because you thought you could get away with it.

'When she challenged you about it you lied until you had nowhere else to go.. This is against a background of you and your partner borrowing several thousands of pounds and making no attempts to pay it back.

'This was a gross breach of trust - you built up a friendship with someone you knew to be vulnerable and trusting and you breached that trust by committing this offence.

'You work on a part-time basis but I bet if you wanted to work harder you could but you choose not to. But for these reasons I have reduced the sentence. Some say you richly deserve immediate imprisonment but even though you don't deserve a chance, your children do.'
Israel Ogunsola, 18, was found by officers fatally wounded in Hackney last week

A murder suspect is still on the run after an 18-year-old was stabbed to death in an 'ongoing gang dispute', it emerged today.

It came as a 17-year-old boy accused of knifing Israel Ogunsola was remanded in custody today following the stabbing in Hackney, East London, on April 4 at 8pm.

Scotland Yard believe a second suspect involved in Mr Ogunsola's death last week is still at large, said to be a 'young black male wearing dark clothing'.

Six people were killed from stabbings and shootings in just four days last week, taking the capital's homicide death toll to 55 since the start of 2018.

The sudden rise in knife and gun-related killings prompted London Mayor Sadiq Khan to back the use of 'targeted stop-and-search' in the capital.

An air ambulance was scrambled as medics battled to save Mr Ogunsola's life, but he died 25 minutes after officers were flagged down by a motorist.

An off-duty paramedic also assisted in trying to save his life but he was pronounced dead at 8.24pm, with a post-mortem examination at Poplar Mortuary later giving his cause of death as stab wounds.

Scotland Yard believe a second suspect involved in the death of Mr Ogunsola is still at large

A man (left), saying he was the victim's brother, looks at flowers near the scene last Thursday

Flowers at the scene in Hackney following the stabbing of the teenager who later died

Mr Ogunsola is believed to have been friends on Facebook with Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, who was shot dead by a gunman on Easter Monday.

The Haringay Sixth Form pupil from Tottenham, who worked as a mentor for young children, was caught in a hail of fire by the shooter while standing with friends.

Police charged the youth accused of Mr Ogunsola's murder last week and he appeared at the Old Bailey today.

He spoke only to confirm his name as he appeared from HMP Feltham in West London wearing a grey, prison-issue jumper.

Mr Ogunsola is believed to have been friends on Facebook with Tanesha Melbourne-Blake (pictured), who was shot dead by a gunman on Easter Monday in Tottenham, North London

A police officer stands outside a tent as investigations continue into the Hackney killing

Investigators look at a bicycle on the pavement following the attack in Hackney last week

The 17-year-old has also been charged with possession of an offensive weapon said to have been used in the killing when Mr Ogunsola was on his bike.

Joel Smith, prosecuting, said the killing arose from an 'ongoing gang dispute'.

Judge Sarah Munro QC set a trial date of October 1 and remanded the 17-year-old into youth custody ahead of a plea, trial and preparation hearing on August 27.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Considine said: 'Whilst we have one male appearing in court charged with Israel's murder, another remains at large.

Investigators carry bags of evidence away from the scene on Thursday morning in East London

A bicycle lies on the road and pavement in Hackney last Wednesday night after the stabbing
Katie Price (left, today) will check into The Priory rehab clinic after today admitting drink driving while disqualified after crashing her BMW following an all-night alcohol and drugs bender - before telling police: 'I took drugs, I should not be driving, I admit it all.' The mother-of-five was said to have been up through the night drinking and taking cocaine before leaving her Sussex property at 5am yesterday to pick up some more. The 43-year-old model pleaded guilty this afternoon at Crawley Magistrates' Court to three charges of drink driving, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance - one day after family and friends rallied round her following her arrest. Price, from Horsham, West Sussex, who is banned from driving, flipped her car on a country road at 6.20am yesterday near West Grinstead, which is close to her home. After being rescued by a local residents, Price was arrested on suspicion of driving while above the legal limit for alcohol and drugs - and tested positive for cocaine. The model told police: 'I was just going to my friend's house. I know I shouldn't. I've been banned four times. I took drugs. I should not be driving. I admit it all.' Price could still face jail when she is sentenced in December, but she will check into the Priory before then. The model has no driving licence after being disqualified for two years in October 2019 - and has been banned from the roads six times in total. The three charges were using a motor vehicle on a public place without third party insurance; driving while unfit to drive through drink; and driving while disqualified. She was taken to hospital but is not thought to have been badly injured. A charge of drug-driving was dropped by prosecutors in light of her guilty drink-driving plea.
Fugitive British paedophile Leslie Charles Russon, 52, was jailed in the UK for seven years in 1993 after being convicted of molesting three teenager boys

A fugitive British paedophile who fled to the Philippines for almost three years has been deported.

Leslie Charles Russon, 52, was jailed in the UK for seven years in 1993 after being convicted of molesting three teenage boys.

After being released, the registered sex offender flew regularly to South East Asia in between days when he was required to to report to police.

But in September 2015 he failed to return and set up a life on the run.

Following a police man hunt for 'posing a risk to children', Russon was arrested in February in San Fernando city, Cebu province, by operatives from the Filipino fugitive search unit (FSU).

The head of the Bureau of Immigration said: 'We will deport him for posing a risk to Filipino children whom he might victimize while he continues to remain in the country.

'The UK's National Crime Agency officials have sought Russon's deportation, and warned that the latter had no intention of returning to the UK.

'His continued presence here poses a risk to children.'

FSU boss Bobby Raquepo said: 'A Bitish court convicted and sentenced Russon to seven years in prison in 1993 for molesting three boys who were under 16 years of age.

'The suspect frequently traveled back and forth to the Philippines after serving his sentence.

'When he is in the UK he would register and report his presence to the authorities but he would travel back to the Philippines afterwards.'
Sarah Southern, 42, pictured outside court, had ignored a previous court ruling ordering her to muzzle her Staffordshire Bull Terriers when the vicious animals pounced on a pup

A beauty therapist has avoided jail after her two dogs launched a savage attack on a puppy before its owner broke his own hand trying to fend them off.

Sarah Southern, 42, had ignored a previous court ruling ordering her to muzzle her Staffordshire Bull Terriers when the vicious animals pounced on Anthony Gabbott's German Alsatian puppy, Dougie, during a stroll in the village of Plumley, near Knutsford.

Four month old Dougie was dragged several feet away from its master and savaged severely on the side of its face, leaving it with muscle and flesh torn from its head.

The animal also suffered fractured ribs during the incident.

Mr Gabbott, 56, a certified financial planner for a wealth management firm and chairman of Plumley with Toft and Bexton parish council in Cheshire suffered broken bones in his right hand as he repeatedly punched one of the terriers and bit its ear in a bid to drive it away.

He was said to be 'very upset and shaken up' after the incident on June 9 2017 on a country lane and he went to hospital while vets carried out almost 2,000 worth of surgery to save Dougie.

Four month old Dougie was dragged several feet away from its master and savaged severely on the side of its face, leaving it with muscle and flesh torn from its head (pictured)

Mother-of-two Southern who runs her own mobile beauty salon left the scene without giving her name but was traced after Mr Gabbott's daughter posted an appeal on Facebook.

Inquiries revealed Southern had ignored a court ruling passed just two months earlier ordering her to keep her dogs Bear and Carly on a lead and muzzled in public following a previous incident in which another man was bitten.

Prosecutors believe she had deliberately taken them for a walk 10 miles from her home in Winsford, Cheshire in the hope the animals would not be recognised.

Mother-of-two Southern who runs her own mobile beauty salon left the scene without giving her name but was traced after Mr Gabbott's daughter posted an appeal on Facebook

At Chester Crown Court, Southern admitted owning a dog dangerously out of control causing injury and was sentenced to 12 months jail suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to pay the vets bills of 1,828 plus 750 compensation to Mr Gabbott and was banned from keeping dogs for life.

The two terriers had faced being destroyed but both will be spared under the terms of a 'Contingency Destruction Order' which gives dog owners two months to ensure their animals are micro-chipped, neutered and insured.

They must also be muzzled and on a lead in public and be registered to the owner's address. It is believed Southern has transferred ownership of the terriers to a friend.

The court heard Southern had been before a court in April 2017 after the dogs mauled another man in an unrelated attack.

Mr Gabbott, 56, a certified financial planner for a wealth management firm and chairman of Plumley with Toft and Bexton parish council in Cheshire suffered broken bones in his right hand as he repeatedly punched one of the terriers and bit its ear in a bid to drive it away

Prosecuting, Carl Scholz said: 'She was made subject to an order meaning the dogs had to be kept on a lead or muzzled.

'But two months later, she was exercising the dogs off the lead without a muzzle along a public footpath in Plumley. She was taking the dogs from an area away from her home and without muzzling or putting on lead.

'She was quite clearly determined to ignore the conditions imposed but didn't want neighbours recognising her.

'Mr Gabbot was walking his German Shepherd puppy. He had let his dog off the lead and noticed the presence of a woman towards whom the puppy ran.

'He ran after his dog and apologised and the woman said: 'It's all right, this one is fine.' But she then pointed to another Staffordshire Bull Terrier which was standing on the other side of the footbridge and she said: 'That one can be a bit grumpy.'

At Chester Crown Court, Southern admitted owning a dog dangerously out of control causing injury and was sentenced to 12 months jail suspended for two years

'Mr Gabbott then decided to put his own puppy on a lead but whilst he was doing that the dog Bear bit the puppy in the right side of its face with sufficient force it took the dog four metres away. Dougie was then pinned to the ground whilst being savaged.

'The defendant did shout at this point: 'Get it off,' but she made no steps to remove the dog.

'Mr Gabbott found himself punching the dog four or five times to the head yet was unable to get the dog to let the puppy go.

'He bent over to the side of the dogs face in order to bite into the dogs ear in the hope it would stop but the situation became worse because the second dog, Carly came forward and took part in savaging Dougie.

She was also ordered to pay the vets bills of 1,828 plus 750 compensation to Mr Gabbott and was banned from keeping dogs for life

'Bear was to release its bite and when it did so the second dog lost interest. Mr Gabbott was clearly upset and he talks of sitting there holding his dog and phoning his wife and asking her to get there as quick as possible.. He was to ask the woman for her details but she indicated that she came from Wilmslow.

'He became conscious that he was experiencing pain in his right hand and it was swelling. Whilst his wife and daughter took the puppy to the vet he went straight to hospital. The dog had sustained a broken cheek and ribs. Muscle and flesh had been torn from his head and he suffered multiple lacerations.

'Mr Gabbott learnt his attempts meant that in punching the dog he fractured two bones from his right hand. The defendant was traced because of neighbours who recognised a plea put on Facebook by the man's daughter. She was interviewed by police and answered no comment. She has made no efforts to offer the victim any compensation.'

South was also ordered to complete 250 hours unpaid work and pay 500 costs. In mitigation her lawyer James Coutts said: 'This is not a case where she has not demonstrated remorse. She had not been able to go behind the courts back and seek out the complainant - but her partner did though try and reach him to offer compensation.

'She is terrified of the prospect of a custodial sentence. One of the dogs has a very sentimental link to her due to her late brother. This perhaps gives an insight into the flawed thought process that was going through her mind - her judgement was clearly clouded.

But the judge Mr Recorder Simon Parrington told Southern: 'You took your dogs out for a walk in public in contravention of an order and they savaged another dog and a member of the public received injury. You knew the terms of the previous order but failed to abide by them.

'I am sure you didn't go out with the intention of another dog being savaged but you what did lacked common sense. Those who keep dogs must accept responsibility - especially for those dogs which cause risk of harm to others.'
Bill Clinton hailed the Good Friday Agreement as a work of 'genius' as he and Tony Blair insisted nothing must derail the peace process ahead of Brexit.

The former US President and British Prime Minister warned that the UK's departure from the EU could harm hard-won peace if it saw a return to an Irish hard border.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair accepted defeat over the EU referendum as he called for Britain and Ireland to 'overcome the challenge' presented by Brexit.

Mr Blair also took a swipe at politicians who have cast doubt over whether the agreement can and should survive after Brexit, and demand that Theresa May do more to bring back powersharing to Northern Ireland.

Both joined former Irish PM Bertie Ahern in Belfast to mark the anniversary and talk about their experiences of peace.

Bill Clinton (pictured in Belfast with Tony Blair today) said the Good Friday Agreement still holds up 20 years later as a significant peace deal

The architects of the Good Friday Agreement met in Belfast today to mark 20 years since the peace agreement was signed. (Pictured, L to R Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, and Gerry Adams)

Theresa May (pictured in London yesterday) must give the Northern Ireland peace process her 'full focus' to end the current impasse, Tony Blair warned today

Gerry Adams today spoke at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. He said he has confidence that powersharing will get up and running in Northern Ireland again

Mr Clinton told an audience in Belfast today: 'In the wake of all this tribalism going on all over the world today, all this identity politics, all this deeply psychological belief that there has been so much economic change and social dislocation and rearranging the deck chairs in society's hierarchies that people are puling back...

What is the timeline of peace in Northern Ireland? Here is a timeline of events in the years before and after the Good Friday Agreement. 1988 Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and his main nationalist rival, SDLP leader John Hume, begin secret peace talks 1991 Martin McGuinness, a senior figure in the IRA, starts secret peace talks with MI6 1993 October - Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds UK Prime Minister John Major produce the Downing Street declaration setting out their peace vision 1994 August 31 - The IRA announced a ceasefire with loyalist paramilitaries following suit. 1995 May 10 - First official meeting in 23 years between Sinn Fein and a British Government minister. 1997 May - Tony Blair gives a speech in Belfast, warning republicans: 'The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train.' July 20 - The IRA reinstates its ceasefire to enable Sinn Fein to take part in talks 1998 April 10 - The Good Friday Agreement is signed and is endorsed a month later in a referendum 2007 Sinn Fein endorses the police in Northern Ireland, and elections for Stormont are held May 8 - The DUP's Rev Ian Paisley becomes First Minister and Sin Fein's Martin McGuinness is appointed Deputy First Minister The pair's surprisingly warm relationship leads to them being referred to as the Chuckle Brothers. 2010 The Saville Report exonerates the civilians who were killed on Bloody Sunday leading to a formal apology from then Prime Minister David Cameron to the families. 2019 Prosecutors announce whether to brig charges against the 17 surviving Paras who fired shots that day. If found guilty the former soldiers, the oldest of whom is 77, could face life jail terms. Advertisement

'The Good Friday Agreement is a work of genius that is applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy.

'Because is called for real democracy - majority rule minority rights, individual rights, the rule of law, the end of violence, shared political decision making, shared economic benefits...'

He added: 'In a world today where there are people aggressively trying to destroy the very idea of popular democracy, it embodied everything that I believe works best.'

In a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump, he also said that the Good Friday Agreement harked back to a time when the US 'came to the help of other people'.

He added, to laughter in the room, 'now we may need you to hep us'.

Speaking on the same stage at Queen Mary University in Belfast, Mr Blair also spoke out for the Good Friday Agreement - and hit out at politicians who have cast doubt over its future after Brexit.

He said:'The Good Friday Agreement, for all its faults, is something that was worth doing and is worth keeping.'

The former leaders were speaking out on the anniversary of the peace deal but also as powersharing in Northern Ireland has been thrown into crisis.

The current powersharing dispute in Northern Ireland is over the future of the Irish language in Northern Ireland and Mr Blair admitted it was a 'symbol' that could be hard to pass.

But Mr Blair told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'Everything is a symbol.

'The most important thing for the Government to realise is that this is something that will require from time to time the full focus of the Government, including the full focus of the Prime Minister herself.'

And Mr Adams said he is confident the current deadlock in Northern Ireland can be broken.

He said: 'The institutions will be back in place. The Good Friday Agreement remains the accord which is going to guide politics on this island and arrangements on this island and relationships on this island into the foreseeable future.

'I think the future is very bright. There is always an ebb in a process. There is always and ebb and a flow. We are in an ebb, it is temporary.'

Theresa May (pictured in Sweden yesterday) has been criticised for not spending enough time personally tackling the current breakdown in Stormont devolution

Mrs May has been criticised for not spending enough time trying to break the current deadlock, leaving it to her Northern Ireland Secretary.

She made one visit to Stormont earlier this year raising hopes of a deal but the trip ended in humiliation as talks broke up without agreement and her DUP allies said she had effectively obstructed the process.

Mr Blair paid tribute to the parties in Northern Ireland for the historic agreement 20 years ago.

He described the agreement as Republicans giving up their armed struggle in return for the right to make their nationalist arguments in a democratic arena.

And he insisted that despite the current political breakdown the agreement remained a precious victory for peace.

Mr Blair condemned Labour's shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner for branding the agreement a 'shibboleth' that was being used in the Brexit talks for economic rather than political reasons.

He said: 'I don't know how anyone can say that.

'It's the only basis by which we can have peace.'

As commemorations to mark 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement take place today, Mrs Clinton has warned that the hand of history will be 'heavy and unforgiving' if Brexit is allowed to 'undermine' the Good Friday Agreement.

The former US secretary of state - whose husband Bill helped create the 1998 peace deal, which was signed 20 years ago today - said that reinstating a hard border would be an 'enormous setback' that could lead to a return to the 'bad old days'.

The former US secretary of state - whose husband Bill helped create the 1998 peace deal, which was signed 20 years ago today - said that reinstating a hard border would be an 'enormous setback'

Britain and the EU are yet to find a solution to the question of whether there will be a hard border between the UK and Ireland after Brexit.

Progress is due by the summer and failure strike an agreement acceptable to Dublin could scupper hopes of any deal at the crucial October summit.

Writing in The Guardian, Mrs Clinton said: 'These are difficult times for Northern Ireland, and for our world.

'As the Brexit debate rages on, I continue to believe in the value of the European Union, and of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.

'But no matter the outcome of these discussions, we cannot allow Brexit to undermine the peace that people voted, fought and even died for.'

She also adapted a phrase from a speech by Tony Blair from 1998, stressing: 'If short-term interests take precedent over solving the long-term challenges that still exist in Northern Ireland, then it is clear that the hand of history will be both heavy and unforgiving.'

Mr Blair condemned Labour's shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner for branding the agreement a 'shibboleth' that was being used in the Brexit talks for economic rather than political reasons
Xi Jinping has promised to cut China's auto tariffs and improve intellectual property protection in concessions aimed at defusing a worsening trade dispute with Washington.

Speaking at a business conference, the Chinese president made no direct mention of his American counterpart, Donald Trump, or the dispute.

But he promised progress on areas that are US priorities including opening China's banking industry and boosting imports.

Xi Jinping delivering his speech during the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia in which he promised to cut auto import tariffs

Trump predicted on Sunday that China would take down its trade barriers, expressing optimism despite escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Xi tried to position China as a defender of free trade and cooperation, despite its status as the most-closed major economy, in response to Mr Trump's 'America first' calls for import restrictions and trade deals that are more favourable to the United States.

'China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider. We will take the initiative to expand imports,' Xi said at the Boao Forum for Asia on the southern island of Hainan.

He said Beijing will 'significantly lower' tariffs on vehicle imports this year and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in the car industry 'as soon as possible'.

'China does not seek trade surplus - we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account,' he said in his keynote speech.

China charges total duties of 25 per cent on most imported cars - a 10 per cent customs tariff plus a 15 percent auto tax.

Donald Trump had predicted China would lower tariffs on imports

Since December 2016, Beijing also has charged an additional 10 percent on 'super-luxury' vehicles priced above $200,000.

The Chinese leader also promised to encourage 'normal technological exchange' and to 'protect the lawful ownership rights of foreign enterprises'.

He added that 'in today's world, the trend of peace and cooperation is moving forward' while what he called the 'Cold War mentality' was 'outdated'.

Xi did not, however, address key irritants for Washington such as a requirement for foreign companies to work through joint ventures that require them to give technology to potential local competitors.

The two countries have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars' worth of tariffs in recent days and Chinese officials have said this is not the time for negotiations.

But Trump administration officials have stressed that the tariffs are not yet in place and the dispute could be resolved through talks.

Private sector analysts saw Mr Xi's speech as an overture to help end the biggest global trade dispute since the Second World War.

'President Xi's speech could create a very good platform to launch US-China dialogue at the WTO to find a deal on intellectual property rights that will address US concerns,' said Rajiv Biswas of IHS Markit.

'This would be a victory for the world trading system and an important step away from the abyss of rising global protectionism.'

Mr Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods worth $50 billion (35 billion) in response to complaints that Beijing pressures foreign companies to hand over technology in violation of its World Trade Organisation market-opening commitments.

Beijing fired back with its own $50 billion list of US goods for possible retaliation.
The American ambassador to NATO has said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is guilty of genocide in the aftermath of the chemical attack on Douma.

Kay Hutchison said the Assad regime had committed the grave crime as Britain and France earlier today led growing calls for action against Syria.

In an interview with Sky News, she called on Russia 'to do something' since the country is 'propping up Assad'.

She added: 'They should do something to stop this kind of genocide. We would call upon them to do that but I think a military response is appropriate.'

When asked by Sky's Alistair Bunkall if she would describe the Douma attack as 'genocide', she replied: 'I think killing your own people with chemical weapons, yes.'

Russia tonight vetoed a US resolution to create a new body to determine who was responsible for the attack, the 12th time it has used its veto power at the UN to block action targeting its Syrian ally.

A rival measure put forward by Russia failed to garner enough votes for adoption.

Meanwhile France, under President Emmanuel Macron, warned it would retaliate against the Syrian regime if evidence emerged that the 'red line' of chemical weapons had been crossed in rebel-held Douma.

Britain and France led growing international momentum for action against Syria today following Bashar al-Assad's poison gas attack that left dozens dead. Children were among those caught up in the atrocity (pictured)

US President Donald Trump (pictured) vowed to respond quickly and forcefully to the atrocity that killed at least 40 and left men, woman and children gasping for air in scenes that sparked international outrage

France, under Emmanuel Macron (left), warned it would retaliate against the Syrian regime if evidence emerged that the 'red line' of chemical weapons had been crossed in rebel-held Douma. Prime Minister Theresa May (right) described the attack as 'barbaric'

The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in any such attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured today with the director of the Kurchatov nuclear and scientific research institute Mikhail Kovalchuk in Moscow

Russia said it was planning to propose its own 'transparent and honest' probe at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday. Putin (right) is pictured today during a visit to the Kurchatov nuclear and scientific research institute in Moscow

Britain has also ramped up the pressure on tyrant Assad as Prime Minister Theresa May described the attack as 'barbaric'.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia was holding the Syrian people to ransom by failing to back the UN resolution.

Twelve council members voted in favour, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting no, and China abstained. A Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to pass.

'Hugely disappointing that Russia vetoed the proposal at the UN for an independent investigation into Syrian chemical attacks,' Johnson said on Twitter.

'Russia is holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting a regime responsible for at least four heinous chemical attacks against its people.'

UK ambassador to the UN Karen Pierce said it was a 'sad day for the Security Council' and 'for the people of Douma'.

Ms Pierce told the Security Council: 'By vetoing, Russia has crossed the line in the international order and worse, if possible, history is repeating itself one year on from Khan Shaykhun.'

US Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia, under Vladimir Putin (pictured today in Moscow) of having 'the blood of Syrian children' on its hands

She said Russia would 'rather cross the WMD line than risk sanctions of its ally Syria', and that instead the UN was being 'asked to believe that the Russian version of this latest attack should be the one that the Security Council believes'.

Ms Pierce added: 'Russia's credibility as a member of the Council is now in question. We will not stand idly by and watch Russia continue to undermine global norms which have ensured all our security, including Russia's, for decades.'

It comes after US President Donald Trump vowed to respond quickly and forcefully to the atrocity that killed at least 60, according to aid agencies, and left men, woman and children gasping for air in scenes that sparked international outrage.

President Trump and his French counterpart have already agreed to coordinate a 'strong, joint response' after talks by telephone.

Mrs May, who spoke to President Macron on Tuesday morning, sidestepped questions about whether Britain would be involved in military action during a visit to Cambridge.

The three leaders have held separate phone calls to discuss their response to the reports Bashar Assad used the banned weapons on his own people - killing dozens.

The world is waiting to hear what their response will be as the US President is expected to order air strikes on Syria in retaliation.

The high-level talks come after Tony Blair called for the PM to take military action a against Syria without holding a vote of MPs in Parliament.

But Commons defence committee chairman Julian Lewis told MailOnline there should be a vote before strikes.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: 'They agreed that reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were utterly reprehensible and if confirmed, represented further evidence of the Assad regime's appalling cruelty against its own people and total disregard for its legal obligations not to use these weapons.

'They agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

'They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.'

In Damascus, government forces were on high alert in anticipation of a potential Western military strike, according to a war monitor.

'At midnight, the army command put all military positions on alert, including airports and all bases, for a period of 72 hours,' the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday.

Units were reinforcing positions and preparing themselves for rapid deployment, but troops had not been transferred or withdrawn, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources in Syria for its information.

Syrian regime forces have categorically denied accusations of using toxic gas including sarin and chlorine in the country's brutal seven-year war.

On Monday, Syria's UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari accused Western powers of staging such attacks to justify military action against Damascus.

Jaafari said Washington, Paris, and others were falsely accusing his government of chemical use 'in order to pave the way for an attack on Syria like the US and Britain's criminal aggression against Iraq in 2003.'

Russia's ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said: 'From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous.'

First responders in Douma say more than 40 people died on Saturday after the suspected poison gas attack, which left people wheezing, with discoloured skin, and foaming at the mouth.

Volunteers give aid to children at a hospital following a chemical attack in rebel-held Douma on Saturday

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who has been blamed for the chemical attack near Damascus

Moscow, which has backed the Syrian regime's assault on Eastern Ghouta, has said its own investigators already entered Douma and found no trace of chemical use. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured, right, today

The US has called for the UN to set up a probe to identify who carried out the alleged gas attack, but Russia could veto if a vote takes place on Tuesday. Putin is pictured today

Douma has faced weeks of regime bombardment and is cut off by the regime, making it extremely difficult for journalists to independently verify the claims.

Reaching sources inside the town is complicated by their patchy access to lines of communication.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday the UN's chemical weapons watchdog should be granted unfettered access to investigate the reports.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons 'should be granted full access, without any restrictions or impediments to perform its activities,' he said.

The OPCW already says it is investigating but that so far only a 'preliminary analysis' had taken place.

Russia said it was planning to propose its own 'transparent and honest' probe at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

How Britain could wound Assad: The different weapons and methods which could be employed against the Syrian dictator

Syria invites chemical weapons watchdog to Douma The Syrian government has invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send a team to investigate allegations of a chemical attack. The suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people, with more than 1,000 injured at several sites in Douma, a town near the capital, Damascus, according to a Syrian aid organization. The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in any such attack. 'Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,' state news agency SANA said, quoting an official source in the Foreign Ministry. On Monday, Russia and Syria both offered during the U.N. Security Council meeting to take OPCW investigators to Douma. In Tuesday's statement, the government said it was ready to offer all assistance needed for the mission to fulfil its task. It also called on the mission to operate 'in a full transparent manner and to rely on solid and credible evidence,' the statement cited by state media added. Advertisement

It said the OPCW's experts could be involved, and that Syrian troops would ensure their safety.

Moscow, which has backed the Syrian regime's assault on Eastern Ghouta, has said its own investigators already entered Douma and found no trace of chemical use.

'Fabrications and false stories are being used to find some pretext for the use of military force,' deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.

Russia's UN ambassador on Monday warned that the use of military force against Syria could have 'grave repercussions.'

The Russian defence ministry dismissed footage of attack victims as 'yet another fake,' following Moscow's practice of suggesting that rebels are staging attacks to discredit President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which Russia supports militarily.

The US has called for the UN to set up a probe to identify who carried out the alleged gas attack, but Russia could veto if a vote takes place on Tuesday.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the 'world must see justice done', while Trump warned the perpetrators there would be a 'big price to pay.'

She said that America 'is determined to see that the monster who dropped chemical weapons on the Syrian people held to account.'

Nikki Haley told an emergency Monday meeting of the Security Council that Trump is weighing 'important decisions.'

President Trump hit out at Russia and Iran over the countries' support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

She says: 'We are on the edge of a dangerous precipice.'

Haley didn't identify the 'monster' but her sharp words appeared aimed at Syrian President Bashar Assad.

She said the Security Council must either discharge its duty 'or demonstrate its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond.'

Haley hit out at Russia and Iran for 'enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction.' She also accused Russia of having 'the blood of Syrian children' on its hands.

This morning, China warned against military action with foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang insisting his country was 'opposed to the wanton use of force or threat of force'.

Before a 'comprehensive, impartial and objective investigation' had been conducted into the incident, no party should 'prejudge the results and come to conclusions randomly,' he said.

'Military means will lead us nowhere.'

China depends on the Middle East for its oil supplies but has long taken a back seat in the region's disputes, only recently beginning to expand its role, hosting high-level delegations from both the Syrian government and the opposition.

Video has emerged (pictured) on Twitter apparently showing missiles flying over Lebanon heading in the direction of Syria

Last night, Tehran accused Israel of 'flagrant' aggression in Syria over the air strike, with the Islamic Republic condemning 'strongly the aggression and the air strike by the Zionist regime'. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is pictured on Monday

It consistently says the crisis needs a 'political solution' but has numerous times vetoed UN Security Council measures aimed at addressing the conflict - including an investigation of war crimes in the country.

Trump on Monday met both his cabinet and top generals, saying the US had 'a lot of options militarily' and would decide in the coming days.

In April last year, Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base after a sarin attack the UN later pinned on Assad.

Israel, too, has bombed Syrian military positions, with Damascus and Moscow accusing it of a raid against an airbase in central Syria early Monday.

They said Israel had targeted the T-4 base before dawn with F-15s from Lebanese airspace.

The Observatory said 14 fighters were killed, including Syrian army officers and members of Iranian forces.

Syria and Russia has blamed Israel for the strike on the T-4 military base (pictured) in Homs province, but the country has refused to comment on its possible involvement

Missile strikes on a Syrian air base have left 14 dead hours after Donald Trump warned 'animal' dictator Bashar al-Assad there would be a 'big price to pay' for a horrifying chemical attack that killed dozens of children

Israel has not commented on the strike but did slam the alleged chemical attack on Douma as a 'crime against humanity.'

Iran said seven of its military advisers had been killed and hit out at 'flagrant Zionist aggression'.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those behind the attacks would 'pay a heavy price,' after rebel-backer Ankara had said it suspected Assad was responsible.

Douma is the last rebel-controlled area in Ghouta, the opposition's former stronghold on the edges of Damascus.

Syria's regime has captured most of Ghouta since February 18 with a ferocious military assault and two negotiated rebel withdrawals.

A third deal was reached for Douma just hours after the reported chemical attack, and a 65-bus convoy of rebels and civilians was evacuated from the town overnight.

Syria's conflict erupted with anti-Assad protests in 2011 but has since evolved into a complex war that has killed 350,000 people.

Late Monday, 31 people including many children died in a blast in the opposition-held city of Idlib, the Observatory said.
A pair of teenage girls have been charged with allegedly stealing a chihuahua from a pet shop.

Police reclaimed the missing pooch, named Sable, and arrested the two thieves on the streets of Toowoomba, Queensland on Tuesday.

And, much to the girls' disapproval, the media were there to capture the moment they were escorted away.

Scroll down for video

A chihuahua by the name of Sable has been retrieved by police after it was allegedly stolen from a pet store in Toowoomba, Queensland

Two teenage girls were charged with the alleged theft of the small dog, with police escorting them them into police cars in front of the media

'Look what they do,' one of the girls can be heard exclaiming as she points into the camera.

'I don't even know how that's a job,' she says as she climbs into the back of the police car, before adding that 'My mum's gonna sue you!'

The owner of the Pets Galore shop said Sable would never have been found if it weren't for the assistance of total strangers who helped to track him down, 7 News reports.
Theresa May has joined with Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump to say the international community must respond to uphold the ban on chemical weapons in the wake of the Syria attack.

The three leaders have held separate phone calls to discuss their response to the reports Bashar Assad used the banned weapons on his own people - killing dozens.

The world is waiting to hear what their response will be as the US President is expected to order air strikes on Syria in retaliation.

The high-level talks come after Tony Blair called for the PM to take military action a against Syria without holding a vote of MPs in Parliament.

But Commons defence committee chairman Julian Lewis told MailOnline there should be a vote before strikes.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: 'They agreed that reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were utterly reprehensible and if confirmed, represented further evidence of the Assad regime's appalling cruelty against its own people and total disregard for its legal obligations not to use these weapons.

'They agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

Theresa May (pictured today at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge) has spoken to Emmanuel Macron and will have a call with Donald Trump later as the allies plot retaliation against Syria

The PM held talks with Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump on the phone today amid growing speculation that a Western coalition is being put together to strike back at Assad for the chemical attack

'They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.'

Mrs May confirmed today on a visit to Cambridgeshire that Britain was working with allies and partners to establish exactly what happened in Douma on Saturday.

Momentum is building behind Western retaliation for the chemical weapon strike.

Does May need to call a Commons vote on striking Syria? Theresa May was constitutionally entitled to order British forces into action in Syria without a Commons vote. The Prime Minister has the power to deploy troops under the Royal Prerogative. There are no hard and fast rules obliging the government to involve rank-and-file MPs in the decision. But a vote on prolonged deployment of UK forces would be almost impossible to avoid. Commons divisions have been held on almost all military action by British forces since the Iraq War in 2003, establishing what many see as a firm convention. Advertisement

The PM today condemned the 'barbaric' attack and warned those responsible would be held to account.

Downing Street has said questions of military action remain hypothetical but all options are on the table if Syrian culpability is proven.

The National Security Council meeting this afternoon came after Mr Tony Blair backed Western military action against the Syrian regime over chemical attacks on civilians.

The former PM urged Mrs May to be 'supportive' of strikes expected to be launched by Mr Trump in the coming days and said she did not need a Commons vote on strikes.

If Mrs May does decide she wants to join coalition action she will have to decide whether to ask MPs for permission to send UK forces into action. She swerved questions on calling a vote by MPs.

Speaking in Cambridge today, Mrs May said: 'This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

'Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

'If this is the responsibility of Assad's regime in Syria then it's yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people that they show.

Britain has a variety of military options it could bring to any action against President Assad's regime in Syria

Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think it is important, provided that our advice about the source of the attack is the same as that of US, that we would support US action.

'Meaning if the US are taking action we should be prepared to be alongside them.'

Mr Blair said it was possible to draw a distinction between air strikes and deploying troops in terms of whether to call a Commons vote.

He said: 'I think in circumstances where the action presumably would be a form of air action rather than ground force action, I don't think strictly it's necessary.

'I think this is something that she can consider.'

He added: 'I think if the Americans are prepared to act and are going to act fast, I think ourselves, probably the French government will be in the same position, should be supportive.

'It's important that when chemical weapons are used in this way and the international community has taken a firm position against it that you have to enforce it.'

Mr Lewis told MailOnline there should be a vote before strikes. He said: 'When our country comes under attack then the Government may have to act first and seek Parliament's approval afterwards.

Tony Blair (pictured in London today) today backed Western military action against the Syrian regime over chemical attacks on civilians

'When we are contemplating military intervention in other people's conflicts, Parliament ought to be consulted first.'

But there are splits within the Conservative party's ranks as Tory MP and Army veteran Johnny Mercer today called on Mrs May to order strikes without a vote.

Writing in the Sun, he said: 'We elect a government and we elect a Prime Minister to make these decisions. They have all the facts, all the high-level security briefing, assimilate all the evidence then act in the national interest. That's what they get paid for.

'Going through Parliament is a cop-out on that responsibility.

The US is expected to repeat missile strikes (pictured during last year's attack) on Syria

'And then we act. Anyone involved in the decision-making process of using chemical weapons in Syria must be targeted. They cannot be allowed to rest easy.'

Votes have been held on almost all military action by British forces since the Iraq War in 2003.

Forces were deployed to support the French in Mali in 2013 without a vote and David Cameron ordered a drone strike on ISIS in Syria in 2015 without giving MPs advance notice.

But MPs voted against military action against the Assad regime in 2013, meaning Mrs May will be under acute pressure to call a vote to join any strikes.

David Cameron called the 2013 vote believing he had the support of Ed Miliband - but the Labour leader changed his mind and led his MPs into the No lobby, along with 30 Tories. Mr Cameron lost the vote by 13.

Mr Trump has warned he will respond to the attack within hours and talks have been held between Britain, France and America on exactly what action to take.

A meeting of the UN Security Council descended into farce last night as the Russian government supported its ally in Syria.

Mr Blair said Western Governments had to act in response to the attack, thought to have killed dozens of civilians including children.

This image released early Sunday, April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following an alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, Syria

He warned: 'When you intervene it is extremely difficult but when you don't intervene it is also difficult.'

In other developments, Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague said he had 'little doubt' that if he was still in office he would recommend military action in Syria.

Lord Hague, who was foreign secretary when then prime minister David Cameron lost a Commons vote he wanted to back action in Syria, said the aftermath of the defeat left the UK 'enfeebled spectators of one of the most destructive conflagrations of our time'.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Hague said: 'We were left with only words, and compared to other nations financing armies or sending forces, words count for very little.

Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague said he had 'little doubt' that if he was still in office he would recommend military action in Syria.

'We should have learnt from the fiasco of 2013 that abdication of the responsibility and right to act doesn't make war go away.'

Russia has warned that US military action in Syria in the wake of an apparent poison gas attack could cause 'grave repercussions'.

Moscow's ambassador to the UN made the comments after US president Donald Trump said on Monday he would decide on a response to the 'heinous attack' on Douma within 24 to 48 hours.

In heated exchanges at the UN Security Council, US ambassador Nikki Hayes accused Russia of having 'the blood of Syrian children' on its hands.

Following remarks by Mr Trump that 'nothing's off the table' as he meets with military advisers to decide America's response, Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria 'could lead to grave repercussions'.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as 'fake news' as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Ms Haley urged the UN to take action, but stressed whether it acts or not 'either way, the United States will respond'.

She added: 'Meetings are ongoing. Important decisions are being weighed, even as we speak.'
Chuck Schumer has warned President Trump against firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller after the FBI raided his lawyer's office and home on Monday.

The Democratic Senate Minority Leader tweeted that Mueller's investigation is 'vital to the health of our democracy' and 'must be allowed to continue'.

Schumer spoke out after Trump lambasted the FBI and Mueller in particular following Monday's raid, calling him 'conflicted' and 'biased'.

Chuck Schumer took to Twitter on Monday night as he warned Donald Trump against firing FBI Special Counsel Robert Muller

Schumer spoke out after Trump attacked the FBI and Mueller, calling him 'conflicted' and 'biased', following the raid on his attorney

Schumer said: 'If Donald Trump is thinking of using the FBI raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don't.

'Mueller, a Republican, has uncovered a deep & detailed pattern of Russian interference in our elections that led to indictments & guilty pleas.

'It also led to the Trump administration itself leveling sanctions against Russian individuals, proof that it's not a so-called "witch-hunt."

'The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue.'

Agents are believed to be looking into a $130,000 payment that attorney Michael Cohen allegedly made just before the election to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels claims the money was given to her in order to keep her affair with Trump, which happened while he was married to Melania, a secret.

If investigators find Cohen made the payment in order to help Trump win the election, he could be found in breach of campaign finance law.

Agents are also believed to be looking into how Cohen obtained the money and whether he committed financial fraud in the process.

FBI agents raided Michael Cohen's office and home on Monday in what is believed to be an investigation into an alleged $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels

Investigators are believed to be looking into whether Cohen (offices pictured) committed financial fraud in obtaining the money or broke campaign finance laws with how it was used

Hours after the raid, Trump raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Cohen's Manhattan office, although the search warrants were perfectly legal.

The president also called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, although Mueller himself is a Republican.

Trump also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions  whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is revealed to have permitted the raid after hearing from Mueller.

'He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,' said Trump, revising a longtime anger at the situation.
Dutch bureaucrats are pulling the plug on the country's first 'singing' road that was designed to slow down speeding motorists.

Grooves etched into the asphalt of the N357 road at the village of Jelsum belted out the national anthem of the Friesland region when hit at over 60 kilometres per hour.

'You are now approaching a singing road,' read the signs on the approach to the sleepy village.

Grooves etched into the asphalt of the N357 road at the village of Jelsum (pictured, file photo) belted out the national anthem of the Friesland region when hit at over 60 kilometres per hour

But while drivers were reminded to take their foot off the accelerator when they hit the musical grooves too fast, locals say they were driven nuts by hearing the tune repeatedly throughout the day and night.

'It was intended as a funny campaign,' said Gerrit Hofstra, spokesman for the province of Friesland.

'And it also ensures road safety. That way motorists would have no problem taking their foot off the gas.'

'You have to like the Frisian anthem a lot to endure listening to it all day and night,' said annoyed residents to Dutch television reporters.

'That's mental torture,' claimed one woman.

'No one expected these side effects,' added spokesman Hofstra. The 'singing road' will therefore be silenced later this week.
This is the moment a mother who was allegedly seven times over the alcohol limit drove on the wrong side of the road before smashing into a parked car with three children in the backseat.

The 37-year-old woman was driving a Toyota Landcruiser in Bonnet Bay, Sydney in the wrong lane before she smashed into a parked car about 8am on Monday.

The car then crossed back to the correct side of the road and mounted the curb before coming to a halt.

Witnesses saw the woman (pictured), who cannot be identified for legal reasons, crawling out as three children, aged three, seven and nine, exited the vehicle

Witnesses saw the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, crawling out of the car as three children, aged three, seven and nine, exited the vehicle.

CCTV footage shows the car on the wrong side of the road before the horror smash.

Tracey Bonfante, whose car was hit, told 9News she heard 'an almighty crash,' adding: 'I didn't immediately know it was my car which was hit.'

'The lady just sat there emotionless like she was waiting for traffic. When she did get out of the car, she walked around the back and fell in the gutter. She was walking kind of strange.

'At least she hit my car and not kids because where she ended up is actually a bus stop. The kids had just been picked up by the bus. It's really upsetting.'

Traffic and Highway Patrol Chief Inspector Phil Brooks said the crash was an example of highly irresponsible behaviour.

'The driver returned a reading that's double the high-range limit on our roads putting herself and other road users at great risk,' he said.

'The penalties in this situation are certainly significant. She'll have to face the courts in coming weeks.'

The Toyota (pictured) crossed back to the correct side of the road and mounted the kerb before the woman was seen crawling out

The 37-year-old woman (pictured) was driving a Toyota Landcruiser in Bonnet Bay, Sydney in the wrong lane before she smashed into a parked car about 8am on Monday

Police arrived on the scene and gave the woman a breath test, which she allegedly failed before being arrested.

She was retested at a nearby police station where she allegedly returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.367.

She was charged with high range drink driving and had her licence suspended.

'This woman has endangered not only her own life, and the lives of other road users, but also the lives of her own three children with this incredibly irresponsible act,' NSW Police Inspector Steve Worthington said.

The woman was granted conditional bail and is expected before Sutherland local court on May 3.

Family and Community Services have been notified about the incident.
A Melbourne woman's exotic party lifestyle of drugs and alcohol was funded with the money she scammed from selfless victims, a court has heard.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Hanna Dickenson faked cancer and told her parents and other victims she desperately needed hundreds of thousands of dollars for overseas treatment.

The heartless scammer, who was jailed Tuesday, claimed she had leiomyosarcoma and couldn't be treated at hospitals in Melbourne.

The 24-year-old (pictured) faked cancer and told her parents she desperately needed hundreds of thousands of dollars for overseas treatment, a court heard

The heartless scammer, who was today jailed (pictured Tuesday), claimed she had leiomyosarcoma and couldn't be treated at hospitals in Melbourne

Tugging on the heart strings, the then 19-year-old told her parents, who live near Mildura in country Victoria, she would die within months if she didn't receive treatment.

The Melbourne court heard it was her family who went to seek financial help from the community, including their neighbours.

In a year, $41,770 was scammed from selfless people, including their neighbours who used $20,000 from their mortgage to help the fraudster, A Current Affair reported.

After the neighbours spotted the Melbourne property manager partying and drinking alcohol, they took matters into their own hands.

'I started looking into it, doing my homework. I spent a fair bit of time and sussing things out, and yeah, 100 per cent scammed. So that's when I took it to the police,' Rachel Cue told the program.

The court heard one of the now 24-year-old's victims, who was a family friend and had just finished receiving cancer treatment, gave the con woman $10,000 in 2013.

The Cue family (pictured) said they were scammed out of $20,000 to help the fraudster

The woman was 19 when the fraud began, where one of her victims, who was a family friend and had just finished receiving cancer treatment, gave the con woman $10,000

Dickenson, who claims she was bullied at school, was jailed on Tuesday for three months after pleading guilty to seven charges of obtaining property by deception for conduct,The Age reported.

'These are people who worked hard and dug into their own pockets ... I think it's despicable,' magistrate David Starvaggi said.

The Melbourne Court reportedly heard the woman told authorities she was suicidal and used drugs and alcohol to cope but had since gained a job and got her life on track.

The 24-year-old was ordered to be put on a 12-month community correction after time in prison where she will have to do 150 hours of unpaid community work as well as drug and mental-health treatment.

There are reports Dickenson will appeal the sentence.


Masazo Nonaka from Ashoro, Japan, was born all the way back in July 25, 1905

A 112-year-old person from Japan has been recognised as the world's oldest living man.

Masazo Nonaka from Japan was given the title on Tuesday after the previous holder, Francisco Nunez Olivera from Spain, passed away in February at the age of 113.

Far from being a health fanatic, however, Mr Nonaka's family revealed he has a rather surprising secret to his longevity.

The supercentenarian puts his resilience down to a love of sweets and hot baths.

Mr. Nonaka, from Ashoro, Japan, was born on July 25, 1905 - just months before Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity.

Mr Nonaka looked overjoyed as he celebrated his title by eating an enormous birthday cake

The supercentenarian's family own and run a 105-year-old inn containing its own hot baths

Ashoro, Japan is known for its hot springs with tourists coming from all over the world to bathe

He currently lives with his family, who own and manages a 105-year-old hot springs inn.

"He needs a wheelchair to move but he is in good condition," said Yuko Nonaka, his granddaughter.

"He loves eating any kinds of sweets - Japanese or western style," she told AFP.

"He reads newspapers everyday and often soaks in the hot springs."

Mr Nonaka has seven brothers and one sister who live nearby in the town of Ashoro on Hokkaido.

He married Hatsuno in 1931 and the couple had five children, according to Guinness World Records.

According to his granddaughter Yuno, he grew up in a large family and succeeded his parents running the inn. He regularly soaks in the springs and also enjoys eating sweets, especially cakes.

Mr Nonaka, wearing a knit cap and a kimono-style jacket, flashed a smile and posed for a group photo with his family, making a victory sign with his right hand.

He dug into the cake after it was cut and served, and said, "Delicious," NHK public television reported.

Mr Nonaka put his extreme longevity down to a penchant for hot baths and eating sweets

Japan has been home to several of the world's oldest people thanks to a healthy national diet

Nonaka has outlived all seven of his siblings, as well as his wife and two of their five children.

Guinness World Records is currently investigating possible contenders for the title of oldest living person as no one has been recognised since Violet Brown from Jamaica died in July 2017, aged 117.

Japan, known for the longevity of its people, has been home to several oldest title holders, including Jiroemon Kimura, who died in June 2013 at the age of 116.

There are around 68,000 people aged 100 or older in the country, the government said last year.
The 'Brexit Museum' is the brainchild of a small number of people closely connected to Ukip and the wider leave campaign

Plans to open a 'Brexit Museum' featuring memorabilia, speeches and cuttings from Britain's 45 year journey to leaving the European Union have been announced.

Lincoln has been mooted as the potential location for the museum because of its Eurosceptic links, although no firm decisions have been made yet.

It is hoped the collection - which will be called the 'Museum of Sovereignty' - will serve as an academic resource to educate future generations as to the reasons why Britain quit the EU.

It will look at the popular movement and focus on both the individuals and groups that drove and shaped the debate.

Gawain Towler, a former Ukip spokesman who is secretary of the project, told MailOnline: 'It will look at the last 40 years of Britain being part of the EU, not simply the last two.

'Sooner or later we will be out [of the EU] but there's a recognition that the academic research is on other side of the argument. That's not good for comprehension and understanding.

'In 40 years time people will think "everyone we know was on the other side, as was the academic research, so how did this happen?"

'Unless we start collecting material now we won't be able to educate people - especially the first 15 years or so where there are no digital records. It's of massive historical importance.'

He added: 'People are interested in history and interested as to why this happened. You would hope that those on the other side of the argument would also be interested as to why they got it so badly wrong and why they lost the support of the country.

'Some people may laugh but those are the ones who are still trying to pretend Brexit hasn't happened. Unless they try to understand why, they will never learn.'

Mr Towler said: 'We've got people from the right and left involved. Nigel Farage is supportive. He has 15 years of Ukip in his garage. I haven't got anything specific from him yet. Maybe an ashtray and an empty pint glass.

'It will be an American presidential library style thing.'

Nick Clegg suggested the Brexit bus that promised 350m a week for the NHS should be 'parked in the forecourt' of the museum

Nick Clegg, former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister, said he had a couple of ideas for the museum.

He told the Financial Times: 'The Brexit bus should be parked in the forecourt,' referring to the campaign bus that promised 350m a week for the NHS.

'Then you could have a blank canvas in the entrance hall to represent their Brexit manifesto.'

Responding to that, Mr Towler told MailOnline: 'I would say to Nick Clegg...don't you think it's important to see why you lost?'

Former UKIP leader and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage is reportedly a supporter of the project

Lincoln has been suggested as the preferred location for the museum but nothing has been fixed yet.

'Why not Lincoln?' Mr Towler said. 'It's been a strong area historically in kicking against the EU and thinking that Britain should be independent.'

Mr Towler said he and Lee Rotherham, a veteran Eurosceptic who is chairing the campaign, were not yet seeking donations for the museum.

'It's going to be a long, slow business', said Mr Rotherham. 'It's too early to move on to the legacy side of Brexit now, but unless we start the process now, some of the material will potentially be gone.'

It is hoped the Brexit Museum that will feature memorabilia will open within three years

The first task was to start gathering up old speeches, mugs, ties and posters before they were consigned to the rubbish bin.

Collection centres will be organised across the country where items can be dropped off. A digital archive is also planned.

They are also asking politicians to donate items such as 'a draft speech from the Maastricht debate'.

Asked if the 'Brexit Museum' would contain materials from the Remain campaign, Mr Towler said: 'There will be some, but they're not part of the organisation.'

It is hoped the museum will open within around three years.

Its website said a pause before launching the centre is needed to allow 'time for the country to heal politically'.
An inventor hopes to make millions from the sex dolls that he says saved his marriage.

Robotics expert Dr Sergi Santos and his wife Maritsa Kissamitaki, from Catalonia, Spain, created 'Samantha'  an artificial intelligence-driven doll that he says can enjoy sex.

Dr Santos. who studied nanotechnology in Leeds, says the robot rescued his relationship as his desires were met even when his wife, who he has been with for 16 years, wasn't in the mood for sex.

Samantha has three sexual personas, including shy and raging nymphomaniac, which Dr Santos says has helped him when his sex drive has been higher than his wife's.

Robotics expert Dr Sergi Santos and his wife created 'Samantha'  an artificial intelligence-driven doll that he says can enjoy sex

Maritsa Kissamitaki, from Catalonia, Spain, says she doesn't have a problem with her husband using the dolls

'A man wants to feel in general that the woman is desperate to have sex with him,' Dr Santos told Barcroft TV.

'And if a man feels like the woman will not enjoy it fully, most men do not like sex.'

He claims that couples with incompatible libidos are more likely to divorce.

'So if I have the doll, I'll not divorce because of sex  in my case, I think that's good enough.'

The couple now run their business, Synthea Amatus, together  where a range of doll are priced from around 2,000 up to 5,000

Dr Santos, who is an electric engineer by day, says it was his wife's idea to implant his artificial intelligence network into a doll

Samantha has three sexual personas, including shy and raging nymphomaniac

Dr Santos, who is an electric engineer by day, says it was his wife's idea to implant his artificial intelligence network into a doll.

'We started researching it and found out  before anyone was making the robots  that wives were buying them for their husbands because they understand the kind of need that their husbands have, and how this could benefit their relationship,' Ms Kissamitaki said.

The couple now run their business, Synthea Amatus, together  where a range of doll are priced from around 2,000 up to 5,000.

Over time, they made improvements - adding in-built vibrations that make the dolls sensitive and reactive to touch.

They believe Samantha will be 'capable of enjoying sex' and will remember previous conversations  even going to sleep.

And although Ms Kissmitaki doesn't have a problem with her husband using the dolls, he says he would feel jealous if she slept with a male doll.

Nevertheless, he is planning to build a male sex robot.

The couple now run their business, Synthea Amatus, together  where a range of doll are priced from around 2,000 up to 5,000

One of the couple's sex robots sits wearing headphones and a scarf in Catalonia, Spain

Dr Santos says the robot rescued his relationship as his desires were met even when his wife wasn't in the mood for sex. Pictured, a skeletal model in a wig

Dr Santos claims that couples with incompatible libidos are more likely to divorce. Pictured, parts for the company's sex robots

They believe Samantha will be 'capable of enjoying sex' and will remember previous conversations  even going to sleep

There are two front-runners vying to be the first firm to release a sex robot.

Rival firm RealDoll has a model called 'Harmony' which will blink, talk and smile.

Meanwhile, an expert has predicted that high-tech sex robots will be owned by hundreds of people in the UK within a year.

The machines will have facial expressions and the ability to move their heads and hold conversations with their owners.

While they might be popular with single people, Dr Kate Devlin, from Goldsmiths, University of London, thinks they may be bought by couples as well.

Dr Devlin gave a talk on the future of human sexuality at Edinburgh International Science Festival on Saturday.

Speaking before the event, she said: 'These robots will be bought by people who have a fetish but also by people who have a relationship but their partner is not willing or able to have sex with them.

A number of Synthea Amatus' sex robots in various positions and states of development

And although Ms Kissmitaki doesn't have a problem with her husband using the dolls, he says he would feel jealous if she slept with a male doll

'They will also be popular with single people seeking companionship. A manufacturer has described having a sex doll as like having a pet and the companionship is a very important part of it.

'These robots are something to talk to, as well as a sex toy of sorts.'

The robots will remember facts about their owners such as names and birthdays. Dr Devlin, a computing expert, said: 'The first sex robots will be quite rudimentary.

'They will have an AI [artificial intelligence] 'personality' and the ability to chat with you. The race is on to produce them first and they are coming soon.'

The robots are being designed to interact with people  making them different from sex dolls that are already available.

Dr Devlin believes they will be purchasable online within a year, and predicts they could be bought by hundreds of people.
A Chinese national has had his stay in Australia end before it could begin after child exploitation material was found in his possession at Melbourne Airport.

The 22-year-old arrived on a flight from Guangzhou on Monday and was chosen by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers for a baggage and phone examination.

He was found in possession of two mobile devices containing child exploitation material.

Australian Border Force stopped a Chinese national for a baggage and phone examination and found two mobile devices containing child exploitation material

The passenger was taken into detention following the cancellation of his student visa and has been deported from Australia.

ABF Acting Regional Commander Victoria Craig Palmer said the offensive material has no place in Australian society.

'Anyone engaging in this behaviour should expect to be caught and to forfeit their right to be in Australia,' Acting Regional Commander Palmer said in a statement.

'The ABF is committed to detecting and investigating anyone involved in importing this abhorrent material.'

The man has had his student visa and has been deported from Australia

It comes after a fortnight after ABF officers charged a 46-year-old Indian national with various offences, including people smuggling, after he allegedly facilitated the travel of a fake media contingent to attend the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Nine individuals arrived at Brisbane Airport on March 28 holding temporary activity visas, claiming to be accredited media representatives.

When questioned by ABF officers, eight were found to have fraudulent foreign media credentials.

Australian Federal Police arrested and charged the ninth person, who faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.
A Mexican woman has been arrested for the murder of a heavily pregnant 23-year-old who had her unborn child cut from her womb - the second such killing in just a few days in the country.

Brianda Padron Cano is alleged to have lured Jenny Judith Seba Velasco into a taxi with the promise of free baby clothes.

Miss Seba Velasco was nine months pregnant, and her baby survived her brutal murder in Alvarado, Veracruz.

Killer and victim: Brianda Padron Cano, left, is alleged murdered nine-months-pregnant Jenny Judith Seba Velasco, 23, right, and cut her unborn baby from her womb in Alvarado, Mexico

Local media reports suggest Cano approached Miss Seba Velasco while she was waiting for a bus near a health clinic in Alvarado, and her body was later found on a ranch three miles away.

After Miss Seba Velasco's murder, Cano appeared at her parents' home clutching the baby, but fled when they asked her about where the baby had come from.

The couple said their daughter had faked pregnancy in the past and was mentally disabled.

After the baby was found at Cano's home Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security offered a reward of up to 1 million pesos (38,565) for information leading to her capture.

But her parents voluntarily gave her up after she returned to their house and Cano is now being held on suspicion of kidnapping and murder.

Miracle: Miss Seba Velasco's baby survived the mother's brutal murder

Horrific: Cano reportedly tricked Miss Seba Velasco to get into a taxi with the promise of free baby clothes, and instead she murdered her and stole her unborn child

Caught: Cano, who is said to be mentally ill, was caught when she brought the baby (bottom right) home to her parents and they asked her where it had come from

The child has been under state protection and is said to be in good health. Miss Seba Velasco's family have reportedly requested to have custody of it.

The case is eerily similar to another murder of a mother-to-be some 300miles north along the Mexican coast.

Jessica Gabriela, 20, was murdered and her unborn fetus 'cut from her womb' by a woman who is then alleged to have taken the baby's corpse to hospital claiming she'd had a miscarriage

For months leading up to the killing, Cynthia Fatima had pretended to be pregnant by posting pictures on Facebook of herself in maternity wear with an apparent 'baby bump' alongside husband Omar Enrique.

On the morning of March 27 she lured Miss Gabriela to the home she shared with her husband in Tampico, Mexico.

Just like in the killing of Miss Seba Velasco, she did so with the promise of free baby clothes, state prosecutors allege.

In gruesome details presented at a court hearing earlier this month, it was claimed eight months pregnant Miss Gabriela was asphyxiated as soon as she arrived and her unborn fetus cut from her womb with a kitchen knife while she may still have been alive.

The baby died during or shortly after the brutal attack  but Fatima continued the sick charade.

Prosecutors say she then took the infant's corpse to the city's Carlos Canseco Hospital and told staff she had suffered a miscarriage.

First victim: Jessica Gabriela, 20, was murdered and her unborn fetus 'cut from her womb'

All fake: Murder suspects Cynthia Fatima and her husband Omar Enrique appear to be posing at a baby shower

They did not believe her and called police, but let Fatima leave the premises with the tiny body.

The fake mum is then alleged to have buried the fetus in a local cemetery in a continuation of the vile ruse.

Two days after the killing Fatima even posted a generic image of two baby's feet on Facebook with the caption: 'There is happiness in heaven because another angel arrived. But I miss you because you left a great void in my life.'

Not long after she again changed her profile picture to an image of a new born baby lying face down with the words: 'I never imagined I'd be so close to an angel until I saw my baby born in heaven.'

State police later arrested both Fatima and her husband, though the former has claimed she acted alone.

Officers found Miss Gabriela's body in a plastic bag beneath a bed at the couple's home in the Nuevo Progreso neighborhood of Tampico, a port city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

According to an autopsy she bled to death from a stab wound to her abdomen.

Killers: The couple had allegedly pretended to be pregnant or suffered a miscarriage, and are accused of having murdered Jessica Gabriela, 20,

A judge has ruled Fatima and Enrique must remain in preventative custody for four months while the full circumstances of the crime are investigated.

A third similar case took place earlier this month, when eight-month-pregnant Alba Lizbeth, 24, was found naked and with several stab wounds to her body, on a ranch in the municipality of Nacajuca, Tabasco state.

The woman's four-year-old son was found wandering nearby with his clothes spattered with blood, reports the Associated Press.

However, unlike the murders of Miss Seba Velasco and Miss Gabriela, there is no suggestion the killer aimed to extract the victim's unborn child, as there were 'no cuts or wounds in her abdomen.'

Authorities said the case is being investigated as femicide  the murder of a woman because of her gender.

Prosecutors said the investigation is focusing on a motor-rickshaw driver who may have picked up the woman and her son.

Mexico's first ever female independent presidential candidate called for a moment of silence last Thursday to protest the recent killings of three pregnant women.

At a campaign rally Margarita Zavala said the 'heart-wrenching stories of three pregnant women' needed to be heard.

Zavala continued by saying that, 'we cannot become accustomed to accepting this much violence.'

Such murders have occurred before in Mexico but not with such frequency.
A professional dog walker and animal expert may lose the use of both arms after being savagely mauled by her own bulldog.

Emma Taylor, 29, was walking in secluded woodland when American bulldog Maya turned on her.

The mother-of-one screamed for help but there was no answer so she 'played dead' while dialling 999 with her free hand, according to a close friend.

Police arrived carrying shields and managed to wrestle Maya away before bundling her into the back of a van.

Professional dog walker Emma Taylor, pictured, could face losing the use of her arms after being mauled by her own American bulldog

She was initially treated in intensive care and doctors fear she could lose mobility in both arms or even lose her right arm completely.

Maya was spayed just two weeks before the incident which is said to have changed her behaviour.

Miss Taylor is a trained zoologist and an animal behaviourist who helped Edinburgh Zoo with their famous giant pandas project.

The horror incident took place on Easter Monday just after 12.30pm as she walked a group of dogs by the canal near Beardmore Street, Clydebank, Scotland.

Maya was fostered by the experienced pet owner just six weeks ago and was on a lead when the attack happened, according to friends.

Miss Taylor was rushed into emergency surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and her partner Steven Burton is said to be distraught.

The couple have a toddler son and live in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire.

A source close to the family said: 'The dog was going to kill Emma - if it was a child they would have been dead. Maya seemed to be going in for the kill.

'Emma lay on the ground and played dead and managed to reach for her phone with her left hand to call for help.

'She is an animal behaviourist, she knows about dogs. Maya had been spayed about two weeks before and her behaviour just changed.

'They never had any problems with her before. Emma took her in as she fosters dogs, but Maya got on really well with their other dog, Caspar and so they decided to keep her.

'Maya was always so docile before.'

Miss Taylor, who runs a dog-walking service School of Walk, has been moved out of the ICU at and into a high dependency unit.

A source added: 'Surgeons have had to operate on her right arm.

'Doctors have said she is going to lose some of the function in her left arm as well.

'She must have been trying to fight Maya off. Obviously they are devastated because they loved Maya.

Miss Taylor, pictured, played dead on the ground until police arrived and wrestled the dog away

'Emma and Steven have been together for years, they've got a house and a mortgage and a lot of responsibilities.

'We are waiting to hear what the prognosis will be but Emma is such a lovely woman, she's like a tiny ball of energy. So many people love her.'

Mr Burton confirmed the attack but said he did not want to discuss it further.

Speaking at their home on Monday, he said: 'At the moment I don't want to speak to anybody about it.

'I spoke to the Mrs about it and we are not speaking to anybody just now.'

Friends said the dog had been put down after the attack, but police refused to confirm this.

A Police Scotland spokesperson today said: 'Police enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding an attack on a woman by her dog in Dumbarton about 12.35 pm on Monday 2 April 2018.

'The woman was taken by ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where she is being treated for serious injuries to her arm.'

To donate to her fundraising campaign, click here.
A 36-year-old woman has been charged after allegedly starting a house fire that saw two police officers placed into an induced coma on Tuesday morning.

Two junior officers raced into a townhouse in Camperdown about 2.40am on Tuesday after a fire broke out in a bin on the veranda.

Constable Oliver Rietbergen, 27, and probationary Constable Claudia Vaccaro were able to wake the 34-year-old male occupant and evacuate him from the home.

But because of their proximity to the fire, the two constables were taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for smoke inhalation and placed into induced comas.

Two junior police officers were induced into comas in hospital after rescuing a man from a burning house in Sydney

The officers have since woken from their comas, but remain under sedation

The officers were on duty in the area when they saw fire on the veranda of the Church Street home in Camperdown, and rushed over to evacuate the premises

Both Mr Rietbergen and Ms Vaccaro have since woken from their coma, but remain under sedation.

Ms Vaccaro, 23, is 'doing well but still recovering', her sister wrote on Facebook.

'Thanks for your messages, we appreciate it. She is a true hero.'

The two junior officers, who are attached to Leichhardt Area Command, have less than two years policing experience between them.

New South Wales Police Metropolitan Regional Commander Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, said the cause of the fire is believed to be suspicious and praised the officers for their 'selfless actions'.

Ms Vaccaro's sister told Facebook friends the police officer is a 'true hero' and recovering well

Speaking outside Sydney Police Station on Tuesday afternoon, he told reporters: 'They assessed there was an imminent risk to the occupants.

'The two officers rapidly knocked on the doors and windows to raise attention. Whilst doing so they suffered smoke inhalation due to their proximity to that fire.

'They were incubated as a precautionary measure and are expected to make a full recovery.

New South Wales Police Metropolitan Regional Commander Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton praised the officers for their 'selfless actions'

Police believe the fire started in a bin on the veranda, and the officers were hospitalised for smoke inhalation because of their proximity to the blaze as they woke the 34-year-old male occupant

'The selfless actions of the two officers is an example of police putting themselves in danger while on duty.

'They've saved someone's life because if they hadn't driven across it the fire could have well and truly engulfed the house.'

A woman arrived at Newtown Police Station about 4pm on Tuesday and was arrested.

She was charged with destroying property in company, entering a building or land to commit an indictable offence, larceny, damaging property by fire, and three counts of destroying or damaging property.

She will appear at Newtown Local Court on Wednesday.
A schoolgirl who survived the Manchester bombing has been handed a pair of Royal Wedding tickets - but rather than taking her mother as her guest she wants to invite a woman who lost her granddaughter in the attack.

Kind-hearted Amelia Thompson, 12, said she was 'speechless' to be asked to attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Windsor Castle wedding later this month as one of 1,200 members of the public invited as reward for community work.

She has asked her family friend Sharon Campbell to go as her plus-one after Mrs Campbell lost granddaughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy in the suicide bombing.

Alongside the pair at the wedding of the year will be hundreds of other ordinary Britons, including an Afghan war veteran, disabled and homeless charity workers and school teachers.

Manchester Arena bombing survivor Amelia Thompson, 12, pictured left at the Ariana Grande concert before the attack and right present day, will also be at the major event and said she was 'speechless' when she heard the news

The lucky group were nominated by the nine regional Lord Lieutenant offices after Harry and Meghan asked for those picked to come from a broad range of backgrounds and ages, including young people who have shown strong leadership, and those who have served their communities.

Kensington Palace announced the group would be among the crowds allowed into the grounds of Windsor Castle to share in the atmosphere of the May 19 wedding at St George's Chapel.

Afghanistan veteran Philip Gillespie, pictured, who lost a leg to a bomb in 2010, is one of the 1,200 members of the public invited to the Royal Wedding thanks to his work supporting the ABF The Soldiers' Charity

Schoolboy Reuben Litherland, 14, has been invited for teaching his classmates sign language after he was born deaf

Jorja Furze, left and right, 12, was born without a left leg and has gone on to work an ambassador for amputee charity Steel Bones despite her young age

Former homeless teenager Kai Fletcher, 18, pictured, is going to the wedding after turning his life around and now works with a charity to help rough sleepers

The couple received the invite to Harry and Meghan's wedding for their involvement in a Carlisle arts charity and said they were brushing up on their etiquette. Pictured left and right are the Royal couple posing for engagement photos

Among those chosen are Philip Gillespie, 30, of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, who was a former section commander in the Royal Irish Regiment.

The solider lost his right leg in 2010 aged just 22 four months into his third tour of Afghanistan when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED), needing three operations at Camp Bastion before he was airlifted to hospital in the UK for further treatment.

Since then he has dedicated his life to charity, raising cash and awareness for ABG The Soldiers' Charity and has recently competed in team trials for rowing, swimming and archery at the next Invictus Games, set up by Prince Harry.

Mr Gillespie said it is 'a wee bit surreal' to think he will be there next month with his girlfriend Kirsty Crawford.

'It's a massive privilege, it will be a huge spectacle,' he added.

He added he was looking forward to a busy few months with the Invictus trial results, the wedding and then a royal garden party following his BEM award last year.

He said he had not told many people yet but expected his friends' reaction to be muted, compared to the feedback his girlfriend was getting.

'I think Kirsty has got more of a reaction, I think it (a wedding) is more of a girl thing,' he laughed.

Miss Thompson said she was 'speechless' when she saw the message saying she was going to the wedding.

Manchester terror attack survivor is invited to wedding Amelia Thompson survived the Manchester terror attack and will attend the wedding with family friend Sharon Goodman, whose 15-year-old daughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy was killed in the bombing A 12-year-old girl left traumatised when she was caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing has decided to take the grandmother of a teenager who died in the terror attack with her to the royal wedding. Amelia Thompson said she was 'speechless' when she found out she was being invited to Harry and Meghan's marriage next month. A year ago, she was among the crowds when the bomb went off in the foyer at Manchester Arena and suffered trauma as well as damaged vocal cords from screaming at the horror of what she was witnessing. Since the attack, Amelia and her family have met others affected by the bombing through fundraising efforts, including a photo shoot. The teenager said she asked her mother, Lisa Newton, whether she would forfeit her chance of going to the wedding in favour of their friend Sharon Goodman, whose 15-year-old granddaughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy was killed in the attack. Now they say they are hoping another ticket might become available so another friend Harriet Taylor can go too. Advertisement

The 12-year-old from Dronfield Woodhouse, near Sheffield, has spent a year recovering from the trauma she suffered after she witnessed the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Now she has decided to give her other ticket to Sharon Goodman, whose 15-year-old granddaughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy died in the attack.

The youngster said: 'I was speechless. I could not respond I was so excited,' and she is now looking forward to buying a dress.

Jorja Furze, 12, has also been chosen for her work as ambassador for the Steel Bones charity which works with the amputee community.

Jorja is an amputee from birth, having lost her left leg, but has overcome adversity to help others in similar situations.

She has also set up an anxiety group for new students at her school in Ely, Wales, to help them cope with the adjustment to higher education.

Teenager Kai Fletcher, who found himself homeless at 15, has also been invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding.

Kai had a difficult childhood growing up in a household troubled by alcohol and domestic violence, and later found himself homeless.

After turning to Bath-based charity Southside for help, the 18-year-old now works for the organisation as a young advocate team leader having turned his life around.

'It was a bit surprising. I am looking forward to going, really excited,' he said.

Mr Fletcher, who lives in Bath, said he would be taking his sister Louise with him to the wedding at Windsor Castle next month.

He said he had met the Duchess of Cornwall when she visited the Southside project in Bath last year with the Lord Lieutenant of Somerset Annie Maw.

'The Duchess was really lovely and I quite liked her. She really listened to what you had to say, which was nice,' he said.

'I am giving back to Southside what they have given to me, which was a new opportunity.'

Mother-of-three Pamela Anomneze said she felt 'excited and overwhelmed' to be one of the chosen guests after she was recognised for her work with social enterprise Studio 306 Collective, which helps those with mental health problems.

Primary school teacher David Gregory, pictured, 28, of Northumberland, has been invited for his work with pupils on practical projects to help his community in Blyth, including environmental endeavours

Tessa Hince, left, and Hayley Ash, right, are going to the wedding for their efforts founding a Christmas lunch in Banbury and Shipston-on-Stour, bringing together people who might be lonely or on their own during the festive period

Invitations to the wedding, pictured, went out last month. They feature American ink written on English card and were made by Barnard & Westwood, which has held a Royal Warrant for Printing & Bookbinding by Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen since 1985

Mr Gillespie has also recently competed in trials for the next Invictus Games in swimming, rowing and archery, pictured

She said: 'I got an email informing me, and I thought it was an April Fool's prank.'

The mother-of-three described the honour as 'truly unbelievable', saying the engaged pair are the 'world's most beautiful couple'.

The 52-year-old, from Haringey, London, will take her 15-year-old son Jude Anomneze-Collins as her plus one, after he made a heartfelt plea to attend alongside her.

Former homeless teen who turned life around nets wedding invite Kai, pictured, grew up in a household troubled by alcohol and domestic violence but is now helping others through similar difficulties A teenager who found himself homeless at 15 has been invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. Kai Fletcher had a difficult childhood growing up in a household troubled by alcohol and domestic violence, and later found himself homeless. After turning to Bath-based charity Southside for help, the 18-year-old now works for the organisation as a young advocate team leader having turned his life around. 'It was a bit surprising. I am looking forward to going, really excited,' he said. Mr Fletcher, who lives in Bath, said he would be taking his sister Louise with him to the wedding at Windsor Castle next month. He said he had met the Duchess of Cornwall when she visited the Southside project in Bath last year with the Lord Lieutenant of Somerset Annie Maw. 'The Duchess was really lovely and I quite liked her. She really listened to what you had to say, which was nice,' he said. 'I am giving back to Southside what they have given to me, which was a new opportunity.' Advertisement

'He used to watch Suits. When I came home and informed him of the invite he was down on his knees begging to go. He said 'Oh mum, just to get a glimpse of Meghan Markle!'

She said she may wear a colourful outfit traditional to her native Nigeria, but will leave the decision up to her colleagues.

'I want to think about what to wear and seek advice from my team. I want the Collective collectively to advise me,' she said.

Fourteen-year-old Reuben Litherland's school support worker in Derby did not believe him at first when he informed her he would be among the congregation at the wedding, his mother said.

The Saint Benedict Catholic Academy pupil, who is deaf and has set up a lunchtime sign language club at school, is still coming to terms with the news, she said.

His mother Jacinta Litherland, who will attend the wedding with her son, said: 'He is very excited, and probably a bit bewildered. It's just not quite sunk in.'

She said she was 'very proud' of her son's achievements, which include campaigning for deaf friendly cinema screenings, at such a young age.

'He is raising awareness of the difficulties and struggles that deaf children face, and he's doing it very well,' she said.

The pair will miss Ms Litherland's brother's birthday as it clashes with the wedding.

'He will understand - but he will have something to say about it,' she joked.

Volunteer social enterprise worker Amy Wright is 'very excited' at her invitation to the royal wedding but views it as an accolade for the whole team she works with.

The 26-year-old is chair of the board of directors for The Usual Place cafe in Dumfries, which provides employability and training opportunities for young adults with additional support needs.

She has been invited to share Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding day on May 19 along with Heather Hall, chief executive of The Usual Place.

They were nominated by the Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries and were delighted to be invited to the wedding day.

Ms Wright, from Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, said: 'It was a major surprise to the whole Usual Place team that we got this invitation.

Pamela Anomneze, 52, pictured, is going to the wedding in recognition of her work with a social enterprise that helps people with mental health issues

Rosie Ginday, 34, pictured, founded Miss Macaroon, a social enterprise that provides training and job opportunities for disadvantaged young people, earning her an invite to the wedding

Amy Wright, 26, pictured, was given an invitation for setting up the Usual Place Cafe, another social enterprise that supports young people aged 16-25 with special needs

Harry and Meghan, pictured, have invited 1,200 members of the public to their nuptials

'I didn't realise there were going to be public guests at the Royal Wedding and I feel as part of this team very proud at being picked.

'I think it's amazing for the whole team at The Usual Place but also for Dumfriesshire.'

Charity worker Zoe Arundell (centre) has met Harry and Meghan before

She added: 'I'm very much looking forward to going. I do try to keep up with what the younger royals are doing because there's not that much age difference between us.

'I think it's quite amazing that Prince Harry and Meghan have invited a large number of the public to their wedding.'

Zoe Arundell will be lucky enough to see the couple for a second time, having met them during a recent visit to Cardiff Castle.

The 20-year-old from Penygraig in Wales described that as 'a very happy day' and said Harry told her she was 'definitely a role model' for her work with the Valley Kids charity which helps disadvantaged children and families.

She will take as her guest her 62-year-old grandmother Pat Churches, who she said 'loves the royals'.

Ms Arundell said she was relieved to see she had no plans that weekend, but quickly added: 'I think if I did have any plans they would be changed straight away!'

Entrepreneur Rosie Ginday, 34, who set up the social enterprise and baking business Miss Macaroon in Birmingham in 2011, said she was 'delighted' to get an invitation, after impressing Harry and Meghan with some of her trainees' macaroons during their visit to the city in March.

Her sweet treats organisation reinvests profits into developing disadvantaged young people's potential, training them as chefs, and offering them real world experience.

...but Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Theresa May WON'T be there! President Obama and his wife, Michelle, will not be guests at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next month - and nor will President Donald Trump. The couple have decided not to invite any political leaders both from the UK and abroad, which means that even British Prime Minister Theresa May isn't on the list. Sources say that as Prince Harry is not a direct heir to the throne there is no need to have such a formal guest list. Prince Harry interviews former US President Barack Obama as part of his guest editorship of BBC Radio 4's Today programme in December Prince Harry with the First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to the White House in 2013 In additional, St George's Chapel, where the couple will wed on May 19, is much smaller than Westminster Abbey, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge tied the knot. 'Only 600 guests are going to be invited and if the couple had to invite a long list of VIPs and dignitaries, it would take up a huge chunk of the available seats,' said a source. A Kensington Palace Spokesman said: 'It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK and international - is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding. 'Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.' In January royal biographer, Duncan Larcombe, predicted that the Obamas would not get an invite to avoid upsetting diplomatic ties with the US. Donald Trump, pictured, is also not invited to the wedding with the President yet to make an official visit to the UK Prime Minister Theresa May is also off the list after the couple decided against inviting political leaders Reports suggested that the Foreign Office was nervous about upsetting current president Donald Trump, who has still not visited the UK in an official capacity or met the Queen. Additionally, the royal family is supposed to remain neutral and above politics and no foreign heads of state were invited to Kate and William's wedding in 2011. 'There were religious leaders, members of the royal family, and commonwealth countries that were invited, 'he told townandcountry.com. 'I suspect that will be the same blueprint that Meghan and Harry will use. 'It's all very carefully orchestrated to make sure that there's no political overtones.' Advertisement

The qualified pastry chef and former English teacher said: 'Harry and Meghan came to Millennium Point (Birmingham), and got to taste our macaroons which was really fun.

'They were both so passionate about meeting all the young girls there and took a real interest.

'They're accessible as well, and it's great to have a younger generation of royals showing they do care and they are invested in what young people can do.'

Ms Ginday's organisation has worked with care-leavers, the homeless, lone single parents and those with mental health problems, introducing them to working life, at the firm's ship and bakery, and even giving some the chance to work at Michelin star restaurant Purnell's.

Another wedding guest was Rashid Bhayat, 38, who founded and runs Coventry's Positive Youth Foundation, which offers youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds opportunities in areas like music and sports.

He described his wedding invitation as 'a glowing testament' to work of the youth organisation's volunteer trustees and staff who give up days, evenings and weekends, providing and running activities.

In January, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited and saw their work first-hand.

Speaking of his invite, he said: 'I feel honoured to go and represent - it's not for me, but for all the people who have driven and keep driving the organisation forward.'

He added: 'I will be using the opportunity to raise the profile of our young people's work and the value of reinvesting in our youth.'

Tessa Hince, who lives near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and Hayley Ash, of Shipston-on-Stour, both 32, received invites after running the successful Shipston Christmas Community Lunch, since 2016.

Catherine Cooke, right, and daughter Julie-Ann Coll, of Northern Ireland, were both invited for their charity work, with Ms Cooke co-ordinating a women's charity while Ms Coll runs a support group that helps children cope with child bereavement

The couple will have a carriage procession around Windsor like that at the wedding of Prince Edward and his bride Sophie, now Countess of Wessex, in 1999 (pictured). Some 2,600 members of the public will be allowed into the grounds to watch

The community event brings together people who might otherwise be isolated at Christmas, drawing its funds and produce from public donations.

Both had already got invitations to the Queen's garden party on May 15, and joked they now needed to find different outfits for the wedding.

Ms Hince, who is taking along her best friend, said she was 'absolutely speechless' and 'so excited'.

Who will be in Windsor Castle's grounds on Harry and Meghan's wedding day? A Kensington Palace announcement at the beginning of March stated that the 2,600 people invited into the castle's ground on Harry and Meghan's wedding day will include:  1,200 members of the public from around the United Kingdom, nominated by nine regional Lord Lieutenant offices. The statement said: 'The couple have asked that the people chosen are from a broad range of backgrounds and ages, including young people who have shown strong leadership, and those who have served their communities.'  200 people from a range of charities and organisations which Prince Harry and Meghan support.  100 pupils from two local schools: The Royal School, Great Park, Windsor and St George's School, Windsor Castle.  610 Windsor Castle community members, including residents of Windsor Castle and members of the St George's Chapel community.  530 Members of The Royal Households and Crown Estate. Advertisement

'It's giving some coverage to this great cause,' she added.

Miss Ash, who is taking her mother as a guest, said: 'It's crazy - it all feels like a bit of a whirlwind.'

Adam Hughes and Kimberly Watkin, who met at Haywood Academy, in Staffordshire, were stunned when the invite bearing the Royal crest dropped through the letterbox.

Now they are busy choosing their most regal outfits and brushing up on their manners.

Mr Hughes, aged 23, from Hanley, said: 'Kimberley was just going about her day about three weeks ago when she had a mysterious call telling her to keep an eye on the post and to make sure she was free on May 19.

'While we are both royalists we hadn't kept up so didn't realise what was happening.

'A few days letter a Harry Potter-style letter came with a Royal crest that said we had been invited to the wedding because of our strength within the local community.

'I was a bit sceptical at first because we didn't know who it was that called. I did not think it was true but once the letter arrived Kimberley took a picture and sent it to me - I was totally shocked.

'It was an incredibly proud moment and we are now feeling a bit anxious and have to find out what to wear and learn all of the etiquette.'

The couple have been told to arrive at Windsor Castle for 8.30am where they will be with the other guests until the Royal couple arrive.

They will then get to watch the ceremony live streamed into the castle grounds.

They were chosen due to their community involvement in a charity called Carlisle Undercroft that aims to open a community arts venue under Carlisle Railway Station in Cumbria.

Miss Watkin, 23, started the charity after moving from Burslem to Carlisle when she was a student.

She added: 'It was amazing to receive the letter. I had to read it a couple of times but I did not believe it. I was absolutely shocked.

'It was just a letter to begin with so we are still waiting for the proper invite but I wondered 'why me?'.

'But we have done so much work with the Carlisle Undercroft that someone decided to nominate us to go to the wedding. I am still in shock.

Adam Hughes and Kimberly Watkin, pictured, are among the 1,200 members of the public to receive an invite to the Royal Wedding in May

'It is going to be great but I have absolutely no clue what to wear. I have never been to Windsor Castle before and it will be nice to go with Adam because we don't always get to do much together.'

Some 600 guests will attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding service at St George's Chapel before they all make their way to a lunchtime reception at St George's Hall, which is being given by the Queen.

Later that evening, 200 guests are invited to the private reception at Frogmore House given by The Prince of Wales.

The invitation stipulates a strict dress code with men asked to don military uniform - likely to be worn by Harry, a former solder who is now Captain General of Royal Marines - or a morning coat and lounge hat, with women asked to wear a day dress and hat.

The invitations have been produced by company Barnard & Westwood, which has held a Royal Warrant for Printing & Bookbinding by Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen since 1985.

Using American ink on English card, the invites - on thick white card gilded along the edge - feature printed italic writing and are issued under Charles's name and bear his heraldic feathers embossed in gold at the top.

Each invitation was printed by Lottie Small, who recently completed her apprenticeship, on a machine from the 1930s that she affectionately nicknamed 'Maude'.

The invitations are similar to the ones sent out for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding in 2011 - although these were in a different font and were issued with the Queen's royal cypher.

They featured the words 'The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by the Queen to invite....'

The invitations read: 'His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT requests the pleasure of the company of....... at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May, 2018 at 12 Noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.'

The Royal wedding takes place on May 19.
Generation Facebook report higher rates of loneliness as they can have fewer ties to their community and feel poorer, new figures today reveal.

Younger adults aged 16 to 24 report feeling more lonely than any other age group, numbers released by the Office for National Statistics today show.

While renters report higher rates of isolation than those who own their own home and have a mortgage the figures reveal.

Experts at the ONS said that people who have fewer ties to their local neighbourhood were more likely to feel lonely more often.

And so do Britons who have little trust of others in their local area reported feeling lonely more often.

Rachel Reeves, a Labour MP and co hair of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, s told Mail Online: 'Jo Cox was right when she said: young or old, loneliness does not discriminate.

'We know lack of roots in a community as well as financial insecurity can lead to loneliness, even if you are busy and on the surface doing well.

'It is saddening, but not surprising, to see these figures.'

Generation rent report higher rates of loneliness as they can have fewer ties to their community and feel poorer, new figures today reveal.

She added: 'In our work the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness highlighted community led projects which can help people find a sense of belonging and build trust in communities.

'Supporting these projects should be at the forefront of the Government's strategy to tackle loneliness, and as the figures show we have to remember that loneliness cannot be seen in isolation from wider public policy.'

Failing to match the achievements of our parents is as distressing as divorce Failing to match the academic achievements of your parents can be as distressing for men as a divorce, a study suggests. Researchers divided educational attainment into three categories  the top level equated to a degree, the middle to A-levels and the bottom to GCSEs or lower. The levels reached by parents and their children were then compared to their feelings of being depressed, lonely or sad. The Oxford University researchers found that when men beat their parents' in education they were happier. But when they lost they were more distressed. This was comparable to the gap between those who were divorced and those who were not divorced, the researchers said. Women did not appear to be affected by failing to keep up with their parents. The survey analysed results from more than 50,000 people in Britain and 27 other European countries. Advertisement

The figures also show that women report higher rates of loneliness than men, while those who are single or widowed also report higher rates of isolation.

The findings come as the issue of how to tackle loneliness has risen up the political agenda.

Theresa May appointed the UK's first ever minister for loneliness, Tracey Crouch, in January.

Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: 'While loneliness has traditionally been associated with older people, today's figures show it is also a problem for younger age groups too.

'That's not a surprise given that four in ten millennials rent privately at the age of 30, with no security of tenure and little incentive to forge strong connections with their local area.

'We often worry about the economic impact of renting on families, but we shouldn't ignore these wider social effects too.

'This is further evidence that improving conditions for the record number of people living in privately rented accommodation is key if the government truly wants to tackle the intergenerational housing crisis.'

Overall 5 per cent of people in England report feeling lonely 'often' or 'always', according to the figures.

But this doubles to 10 per cent for those aged 16 to 24.

Meanwhile, just 4 percent of home owners say hey feel lonely often or always, according to today's figures.

But this soars to 10 per cent for renters, the numbers show.

The ONS report, out today, states: 'Renters were significantly more likely to report loneliness 'often/always' and 'some of the time' than those who own their home.

'People who own their home were significantly more likely to report 'hardly ever' or 'never' experiencing loneliness.

Theresa May appointed the UK's first ever minister for loneliness, Tracey Crouch (pictured) in January.

'Homeowner households tend to have greater financial wealth and average annual household income is greater for those in owner occupied homes than those in rented homes.

'It may not be housing tenure in itself that is associated with how often people feel lonely but financial security.'

It also said that those who feel less of a sense of belonging to their neighbourhoods tend to also be more lonely.

Statisticians said they have identified 13 main factors which can fuel loneliness - including whether you are single, have disability or illness, how often you see your friends and where you live.
Michael Mitchell, 19, and his 12-year-old brother were arrested after police said Mitchell was walking down the street with a loaded handgun and his brother was carrying an AR-15

Philadelphia police say they have arrested a 12-year-old boy who was walking down a street with a loaded AR-15 rifle.

Authorities said the boy, who has not been named, was arrested on Saturday at about 6.30pm, alongside a 19-year-old identified as Michael Mitchell, who was said to be carrying a loaded M&P Shield handgun at the time.

On Monday, police posted a picture of arresting officer Krzyszpof Wrzesinski holding the AR-15 and handgun allegedly taken off the two boys Saturday night.

Wrzesinski said that he was responding to a 911 report of a person with a gun when he saw two boys, who matched the caller's descriptions.

The 12-year-old 'reached for the AR for the automatic weapon. That's when I yelled for him to stop,' Wrzesinski told FOX 29.

He said that he then arrested the two boys and took control of both the AR-15 assault weapon and loaded handgun, without needing to resort to discharging his own weapon.

Philadelphia police officer Krzyszpof Wrzesinski (pictured) arrested Mitchell and his younger brother after responding to a 911 call about a person with a gun. Wrzesinski is pictured holding the AR-15 and M&P Shield the 12-year-old and Mitchell were allegedly respectively carrying

Neighbors told police that the incident started when Mitchell, who lives on the block where he was arrested, had gone across the street from his home to confront his neighbor about something while carrying the loaded handgun.

Mitchell then allegedly told the 12-year-old boy, who is said to live in the same location as Mitchell, to go and retrieve the AR-15 from his home.

The 12-year-old boy then allegedly pointed the gun at the neighbor.

Authorities said that Mitchell had legally purchased the AR-15, but that the handgun  which was also legally purchased  belonged to his mother and was taken from her locked gun safe.

According to police, Mitchell's mother came forward immediately to report that Mitchell did not have permission to take her gun.

The 12-year-old boy is Mitchell's younger brother and neither had a criminal record prior to the incident, NBC 10 reported.

The incident took place on this Philadelphia street, when Mitchell went across the street from his home to confront his neighbor about something

Mitchell appears to have been in the Navy JROTC and Army JROTC when younger. Authorities said that Mitchell had legally purchased the AR-15, but the handgun was his mom's

A woman, who answered the door where Mitchell and the boy are said to live, told WPVI that it was 'a lie' that the 12-year-old was caught holding the assault weapon.

'The 12 year old did not have the AR-15 in his hand. He was not caught with it,' she said.

Mitchell was charged with a third-degree felony for violating the Uniform Firearms Act. He was also charged with five misdemeanors, including criminal conspiracy, terroristic threats, corruption of a minor and reckless endangerment of another person.

No charges have been announced for the 12 year old.

Philadelphia police urged parents to ensure that weapons are secured.

'Something simple that shouldve probably been a fist fight is now turned to guns and that obviously concerns all of us,' Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Dennis Rosenbaum told NBC 10.

According to his Facebook page, Mitchell was in the Navy JROTC before transferring to Army JROTC and claims hunting and a marksmanship medal as among his professional skills.
A restaurant worker has gone on trial accused of killing his co-worker while raping her before stuffing her body into a suitcase and dumping it behind it a hotel.

Joshua Palmer, 34, admits killing 21-year-old Shauna Haynes in his room at the Chadwick Hotel in San Diego in April 2016 before filming himself abusing her body.

However, his lawyer argued on Monday that he is not guilty of first-degree murder because he killed Haynes in a crime of passion after watching her have sex with another man in their one-bed room.

Joshua Palmer, 34 (left), admits killing 21-year-old Shauna Haynes at a San Diego hotel where they were living in 2016 and then filming himself sexually abusing the body

Attorney Katie Belisle also told a court that Palmer is not guilty of rape because he had consensual sex with Haynes before killing her, and that she was dead before the abuse occurred, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

He is charged with murder during a rape and murder during sodomy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Jurors heard that Palmer and Haynes had met while working at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Diego and that he had fallen in love with her.

Despite living in a one-bedroom hotel room, Haynes decided to move in with Palmer but refused to have sex with him, which left him 'frustrated', the court heard.

Then, on April 5, Palmer went out for drinks with a woman called Chelsea Shea, whom he had met several weeks previously, Fox 5 San Diego reports.

He brought her back to the hotel room and intended to have sex with her, but was unable to get aroused, the jury was told.

Some time after that, Haynes arrived home with a man named Anthony Kern and the pair began having sex before Shea left Palmer in order to join in.

During the threesome Haynes is alleged to have said of Palmer 'he can't get it up', which Belisle said left him 'humiliated, heartbroken and hopeless'.

Palmer's lawyers say he is not guilty of first-degree murder because the killing was not premeditated, and he is not guilty of rape because she was dead before he abused her

The court heard that Palmer, who was 'in love' with Haynes, had watched her saving sex with another man in their one-bed hotel room shortly before he killed her

At one point Palmer text Haynes telling her 'I can't watch you have sex with another man', before ordering Shea and Kern to leave.

The pair asked Haynes if she wanted to come with them, but she told them she wanted to stay with Palmer, ABC 10 said.

What happened next will form the basis of court arguments, but all sides accept that at some point Palmer strangled Haynes to death.

'After she was dead, [Palmer] videotaped himself playing with [Haynes] in unimaginable ways on his cell phone,' Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle said in his opening statement.

The following day, Palmer stuffed Haynes' remains into a carry-on suitcase and dumped it by trash cans outside the hotel, before it was discovered by a maintenance worker.

Later the same day he called police to say he had been involved in a foursome with his girlfriend the previous night, and that she had left naked and wrapped in a sheet.

After the killing, Palmer stuffed Haynes' body into a suitcase which he dumped alongside trash cans outside the back of the hotel (pictured)

Palmer told dispatchers that she suffered from bipolar disorder and that he was worried about her. He was arrested two days later.

Dr. Kimi Verilhac, the pathologist who examined Haynes' body, told the court on Monday that Palmer's semen had been found on Haynes' body, along with semen from other men.

Haynes also had bruises on her hands, arms and legs which were consistent with defensive injuries, she said

There were also anal tears which could have been caused by blunt force trauma, though Verilhac admitted under cross-examination that it could also have been caused by consensual intercourse.

Belisle argued that it was not clear where Haynes' injuries had come from, and said she could have had sex with Palmer willingly before being killed.

'No matter how angry or disgusted you are with his actions, you have to decide the circumstances surrounding Shauna's death and when the sex happened,' Belisle told the jury.

Prosecutors say Palmer raped and killed Haynes with 'malice, premeditation and deliberation.'

The trial continues.
You just need to flash a smile in China to pay for groceries now thanks to a new selfie service payment system.

This video shows British photographer Dan Wolfe try out the 'smile to pay service' in a grocery shop in Guangzhou, China, where he was on holiday.

WeChat, the Chinese messaging and social media app has come up with a payment process that doesn't require you to use a smartphone or bank card.

A 3D camera located at the point-of-sale scans the customers face to verify their identity, while there is a phone number verification option for additional security.

'So apparently this shop uses facial recognition technology to take payment from your WeChat account,' Wolfe says in the footage.

He then picks up some snacks from around the small grocery store and puts the system to the test.

He brings his goods to the counter and places them on a scale at the cashier's point and without putting a hand into his pocket, the facial recognition scans his face on the screen in front of him.

Pioneering software: The footage shows British photographer Dan Wolfe try out the 'smile to pay service' in a grocery shop in Guangzhou, China

Way to pay! Wolfe is directed to look straight at the camera and give a thumbs up. The company claims that their application can match faces to their database with 95% accuracy.

He is directed by the cashier to give the screen a thumbs up, and when he does his payment gets approved.

He then turns to the camera and says: 'You just put your thumb up and it takes the payment and then you're done.'

The software requires you to sign up to WeChat and link it to your credit or debit cards in the wallet section of the popular app.

When users upload their photos to the system, it integrates facial biometric data and tracks up to 83 different key points on the face from various angles at the same time.

For extra security, customers are given the option to type in their phone number.

Success! The payment goes through without the Briton having to use a smartphone or bank card.

The company claims that their application can match faces to their database with 95% accuracy.

The technology has been tested with users having payments processed while wearing heavy make-up or disguises.

The pioneering software means that stores can now run completely staff free and stay open 24 hours a day, with transactions taking only 0.3 seconds to be processed and have an accuracy of 95 per cent.
A Sydney aged-care employee who assaulted a vulnerable dementia patient was caught when a concerned co-worker put a camera in the victim's room.

Dana Maree Gray faced Burwood Local Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of common assault against a female resident of the North Epping home where Gray worked in 2017.

According to an agreed statement of facts tendered in court, footage of the attack at The Poplars shows Gray undressing the 85-year-old woman aggressively, slapping her repeatedly and swinging at her face twice with a rubbish bag.

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Dana Maree Gray outside Burwood Local Court on Tuesday. She has pleaded guilty to one count of common assault against a female resident

Ms Gray, now 59, had worked in the dementia unit at The Poplars for more than three years at the time of the assault

As Gray puts a nightgown on the woman, she uses it to pull at her neck before grabbing her hair and dragging her head from left to right.

The patient - who was physically and mentally impaired and entirely dependent on full-time care - sobbed, screamed and was in clear distress during the incident, the facts reveal.

Afterwards, Gray left her bed in such a high position that she couldn't access it to sit or lie down 'for a number of hours'.

The facts say Gray, now 59, had worked in the dementia unit at The Poplars for more than three years at the time of the assault.

The footage was recorded by a male employee who worked with her and feared for the safety of residents.

According to the facts, he'd shared his concerns with another co-worker and they decided to collect evidence before making a formal complaint.

The man used a GoPro linked to his phone to record the assault - activating the camera as Gray walked towards the victim's room.

Gray's case on Tuesday was adjourned until May with her lawyer indicating he would apply for it to be dealt with under section 32 of the Mental Health Act.

The section allows a magistrate to dismiss charges, either conditionally or unconditionally, for people with mental health disorders and intellectual disability.
A seven-month-old baby has been savaged to death by his family's Staffordshire-cross dog.

The infant received huge bite wounds on his head at his home in Bad Koenig near Frankfurt.

His 23-year-old father raced him to hospital where he died hours after the Monday evening attack.

The child is the third person to die following a dangerous dog attack in Germany in the past few days.

A seven-month-old baby has been savaged to death by his family's Staffordshire-cross dog. Forensic experts are pictured leaving the scene in Bad Koenig today

The dog left huge bite wounds on the infant's head at his home in Bad Koenig near Frankfurt (file picture)

On April 3 a Staffordshire dog called Chico killed a wheelchair-bound woman and her son at their flat in Hanover.

The bodies of the woman, 52, and her son, 27, were found in their home by the young man's sister.

The sister alerted police after peering through a window of the flat to see her brother dead on a sofa. She told them to beware of the 'fighting dog' inside.

The dog was caught in a noose before officers entered the apartment to find the victims with their throats ripped out. Media reports spoke of a 'bloodbath' in the flat.

In recent years Germany significantly tightened laws governing ownership of dangerous dogs following a number of fatal attacks on children.

Both the father and the mother, 28, of the baby killed on Monday are now under sedation for shock.

On April 3 a Staffordshire dog called Chico (pictured) killed a wheelchair-bound woman and her son at their flat in Hanover

The bodies of the 52-year-old woman and her 27-year-old son were discovered by the woman's daughter, who had gone to their flat in Hanover, Germany, after failing to reach them

Emergency: Police and firefighters on the crime scene after the daughter reported the incident

The dog was taken to a local shelter where it was described as 'very aggressive.'

Shelter director Anja Bernd said: 'The police brought him to us. He is in a cage and muzzled. He is a little calmer.'

Police have opened a criminal probe into what happened.

Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers are classified as fighting breeds by many authorities and are part of the 'pit bull' group of breeds.

In Lower Saxony, dog owners need a certain dog handler's licence to acquire a new animal, a measure introduced to reduce attacks by pit bull-type animals.

Before getting a dog, owners must first pass a theoretical exam and then a practical test during the first year of the ownership.
An Australian runner will be competing in the finals a long way from the deadly war zone where he grew up.

Joseph Deng qualified for the Commonwealth Games Men's 800m Final on Tuesday after scraping 0.01 off his personal best.

'It was a good race ... I gave it my all, that's all you can ask for,' Deng told 7 News after the race.

Joseph Deng will be competing in finals a long way from the deadly war zone where he grew up

The Australian runner (second from right) qualified for the Commonwealth Games Men's 800m Final Tuesday after scraping 0.01 off his personal best

The teenager (far right) fled a Kenyan refugee camp with his South Sudanese mother and sister when he was six-years-old and lived with his uncle in Toowoomba, Queensland

However, a decade ago the 19-year-old's life was far from the glory of the running tracks.

The teenager fled a Kenyan refugee camp with his South Sudanese mother and sister when he was six-years-old.

Deng, who doesn't know his father, moved with his family to live with his uncle in Toowoomba, Queensland, where he then went on to study at Ipswich Grammar.

The Australian runner, who said he wouldn't want to represent any other country, has been training in Melbourne for the race on the global stage.

'If I didn't go to Ipswich Grammar I don't think I'll be running. I was very honoured to get a scholarship,' he told news.com.au.

'It's a great feeling for me to run for Australia, just wearing the colours and doing my best.

'I've been here basically all my life - I wouldn't represent any other country.'

The talented athlete will be representing the nation at the 800m final Thursday night on the Gold Coast.

'It's a great feeling for me to run for Australia, just wearing the colours and doing my best,' he said
Russia has started jamming US military drones operating over Syria seriously affecting America's military operations, it has been revealed.

The jamming began days before a chlorine gas attack attributed to the Assad regime killed 40 people including dozens of children - and US officials speculate that the electronic countermeasures were deployed by President Vladimir Putin in anticipation of a revenge attack by the US.

The development, first reported by NBC news, will stoke fears that the conflict in Syria is turning into a rapidly growing proxy war with Russia, Iran and the Assad regime on one side and the US and its Western allies on the other.

President Trump is widely expected to launch revenge attacks on the Assad regime in the coming days, supported by Britain and France. It would follow Israel's initial strike on one of Assad's biggest airfields on Monday.

But the jamming could seriously interfere with America's ability to strike and experts have also speculated that Russian air defence systems could shoot down US cruise missiles.

The aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman is due to depart from the US for the Arabian Gulf on Wednesday and could play a key role in any future operations.

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Russia has been jamming US military drones operating over Syria  seriously affecting America's military operations, it has been revealed. Pictured, an MQ-1 Predator Drone with Hellfire Missiles

Experts have also speculated that Putin's air defence systems could shoot down US cruise missiles in Syria

Deployment: A fighter jet takes off from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the China Sea TODAY (pictured). That aircraft carrier has just left the Arabian Gulf but the USS Harry Truman is due to arrive on station this week

President Trump is widely expected to launch revenge attacks on the Assad regime in the coming days, supported by Britain and France. The aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman is due to depart for the Arabian Gulf on Wednesday and could play a key role in operations.

Four US officials say the Russian military began jamming some smaller drones several weeks ago after a spate of suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians in eastern Ghouta, NBC News reports.

The officials say the Russian military had been concerned that the US would retaliate by jamming the GPS systems of drones in the area.

US analysts first caught Russia jamming drones in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after the invasion of Crimea, according to Dr Todd Humphreys, the director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin.

He told NBC that jamming  in other words, blocking  a drone from receiving a signal from a GPS satellite can be done fairly easily.

But Dr Humphreys warned that jamming could have a significant impact on American drones and cause them to malfunction or possibly crash.

Although the Defense Department has not confirmed if jamming is causing drones to crash, one official confirmed to NBC that it is having an impact on operations in Syria.

It comes after the horrific images from the alleged gas attack in eastern Ghouta sparked global alarm.

The Syrian government denies carrying out the chemical attack, calling the claims a fabrication.

But human rights groups and UN officials say the tactic amounts to forced displacement, a war crime.

On Monday, President Donald Trump said he will decide on military action in Syria within hours, as Washington readied its response to a 'heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons.'

The US commander-in-chief - who last year ordered missile strikes on a Syrian airfield after seeing gruesome images of civilians poisoned with sarin - looked poised to act again.

'It was an atrocious attack, it was horrible, you don't see things like that -- as bad as the news is round the world -- you just don't see those images,' Trump said.

'We are very concerned that a thing like that can happen. This is about humanity, we are talking about humanity, it can't be allowed to happen.'

'We are studying that situation extremely closely, we are meeting with our military and everybody else and we are making some major decisions over the next 24-48 hours,' he told reporters and his cabinet.

The revelation comes after the horrific images of Syrian children from the alleged gas attack in eastern Ghouta sparked global alarm

Trump, who has long courted better relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, indicated that whoever is responsible for killing at least 48 people with what is alleged to be a chemical weapon will pay a 'big price.'

'If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon,' Trump said.

Syria and its ally Russia have repeatedly denied any use of chemical weapons.

'As you know they are claiming they didn't make the attack,' Trump said, making it clear he had was skeptical. 'To me there is not much of a doubt, but the generals will figure it out.'

Putin sent troops into Syria in 2015 to protect its most strategically important military base in the Middle East and defend and prop up the teetering regime of Bashar al Assad -- a long-time ally.

'Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world,' Trump wrote earlier.

'President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.'

'Open area immediately for medical help and verification,' he ordered. 'Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!' he wrote.

Trump also used the opportunity to criticize his predecessor.

'If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In the Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago!' Trump tweeted. 'Animal Assad would have been history!'

Trump was referring to Obama's statement  which the former president later backed away from  that if he saw 'a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized' that would be a 'red line' that would change the equation in Syria. Obama had threatened military action if this was the case.

Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he suspected Assad's regime was to blame and warned Russia not to interfere with an investigation.

He warned the international community it 'must respond' to the latest chemical weapons outrage in Syria. Johnson, who has backed military action after earlier atrocities, said the attack in Douma was 'deeply disturbing'.

Four US officials say the Russian military began jamming some smaller drones several weeks ago after a spate of suspected chemical weapons attacks on children in Eastern Ghouta (pictured)

First revenge attack: Israeli missiles hit a Syrian air base and left 14 dead hours after Donald Trump warned 'animal' dictator Bashar al-Assad there would be a 'big price to pay' for a horrifying chemical attack that killed dozens of children

Israel was the first to hit back after the gas attack, bombing the T-4 military base in Homs province a 'very dangerous development'.

Syria invites chemical weapons watchdog to Douma The Syrian government has invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send a team to investigate allegations of a chemical attack. The suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people, with more than 1,000 injured at several sites in Douma, a town near the capital, Damascus, according to a Syrian aid organization. The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in any such attack. 'Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,' state news agency SANA said, quoting an official source in the Foreign Ministry. On Monday, Russia and Syria both offered during the U.N. Security Council meeting to take OPCW investigators to Douma. In Tuesday's statement, the government said it was ready to offer all assistance needed for the mission to fulfil its task. It also called on the mission to operate 'in a full transparent manner and to rely on solid and credible evidence,' the statement cited by state media added. Advertisement

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country's conflict, said 14 fighters had been killed in the strike, including Iranian forces allied to the country's regime.

Forces from Russia and Iran, as well as fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, are known to have a presence at the base, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

No Russian specialists present in Syria were injured in the attack, Moscow's defence ministry said.

Israel has previously accused Damascus of allowing Iran to set up a complex at the base to supply arms to its ally, Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah.

Monday's statements were unusual for Russia, which has generally been reticent about Israeli strikes in Syria even as it tries to shore up President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Russia and Israel set up a hotline in 2015 to prevent accidental clashes between their forces in Syria, and diplomatic sources on both sides say Moscow is willing to turn a blind eye to Israeli actions as long as they do not destabilise Damascus.

UN Secretary General on Tuesday called for international investigators to have unfettered access after an alleged chemical attack in Syria.

Rescuers and medics in the town of Douma say more than 40 people died after the alleged poison gas attack in the last rebel-held pocket of the one-time opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.

'Any confirmed use of chemical weapons, by any party to the conflict and under any circumstances, is abhorrent and a clear violation of international law,' Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

'The seriousness of the recent allegations requires a thorough investigation using impartial, independent and professional expertise,' he said.

President Donald Trump (pictured on Monday being briefed by his top military advisors) was poised to decide on possible military action against the Syrian regime

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad (pictured) has been blamed for the chemical attack near Damascus

Guterres reaffirmed his full support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and its fact-finding mission which 'should be granted full access, without any restrictions or impediments to perform its activities,' Guterres added.

President Donald Trump was poised on Tuesday to decide on possible military action against the Syrian regime, after vowing to respond 'forcefully' to the latest alleged chemical atrocity in the country's civil war despite strong warnings from Russia.

Russia, a major Syrian ally, said Tuesday it will propose a UN resolution to investigate the alleged attack.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Moscow made the proposal after Russia rejected a similar move from the United States.

The rival proposals from Moscow and Washington put the Security Council on course for a clash that could trigger vetoes of both measures.

Lavrov said Russia would propose a 'transparent and honest' investigation with the involvement of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at the Security Council on Tuesday.

Russian-backed Syrian regime forces could ensure the safety of OPCW experts if they were to travel to the scene, he added, criticising previous investigations for having been conducted from a distance.

How Britain could wound Assad: The different weapons and methods which could be employed against the Syrian dictator

A Russian proposal at the start of the year was rejected by Western powers, who said it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory.

'If, under the pretext of a lack of security guarantees, those who employ anti-Russian arguments to pursue their Russophobic aims do not allow experts to come, then it will be a verdict on their true plans and show that they have no interest in establishing the truth,' Lavrov said.

Washington put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action.

Moscow has insisted there is no evidence for a chemical attack.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, but Russia said it contained 'some unacceptable elements.'

A Security Council diplomat earlier said the US was pushing for a vote on the resolution by Tuesday, but no vote had been formally requested by late Monday.
Denis Ryan (pictured), who was forced out of a job in the 1970s for investigating a priest accused of molesting children, is now struggling to get by

A former Victorian police officer who was forced out of his job for trying to charge a priest with child molestation in the early 1970's is struggling to get by.

Denis Ryan, now 86, was pushed out of the police force for his tireless efforts to prosecute John Day, the local priest in Mildura where he lived, ABC reported.

Day had sexually abused multiple children in the country town throughout the 1970s, but Mr Ryan was told to stop investigating by senior officers when he tried to bring the priest's crimes to their attention.

The dedicated officer did not receive an apology until 2016, and he has only received $70,000 in compensation for the years of work he lost as a result, The Australian reported.

Now an elderly man, Mr Ryan remains in Mildura, living in a rented apartment and has never been able to access the police pension - despite 20 years of service.

Instead he lives off a meagre age pension, which friends say is not an acceptable outcome for a man who fought tirelessly for victims of sexual abuse.

Mr Ryan is not able to get the police pension, despite working for Victoria Police for 20 years, and lives a meagre existence on the age pension

Senior members of the community recently wrote to the Premier to request Mr Ryan be able to access police benefits, and the force's Chief Commissioner, Graham Ashton, went to visit the former officer soon after.

However no compensation was offered, with Mr Ryan claiming Ashton 'avoided the question' when asked.

Long time friend Vernon Knight, who was one of 30 community members who wrote to Premier Daniel Andrews said the treatment Mr Ryan has received was a 'f***ing disgrace'.

'He was crucified for doing his job and he was penalised for attempting to blow the whistle on the abuse that was occurring,' he said.

Stefano de Pieri, another friend of Mr Ryan's, said the request for the man's pension was not so much about the money as it was the principle.

'This is about legitimising him, giving him back some dignity,' he said.

Victoria Police apologised to Mr Ryan in 2016, and he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2018 for his tireless work for the victims of local priest John Day

While Mr Ryan was investigating Day, more senior officers - who at the time would often try to protect priests from criminal charges - told him to shut it down

Mr de Pieri called on Victoria Police to make a 'significant allocation' to Mr Ryan which would allow him to live out his remaining days comfortably.

'The man has suffered a lot and has suffered enough,' he said.

Mr Ryan was presented with the Order of Australia medal in January this year after being put forward by victim's groups in Ballarat and Mildura.

He told The Australian he still thought about Day's victims, and how many he could have saved had his investigation not been quashed.

'They have suffered so much. How many people would have been spared the trauma of sexual abuse had Day been prosecuted in 1972?

'By my count, hundreds. It need not have happened.'
Murdered Ellie Butler's grandfather has slammed the authorities who failed his 'beautiful' granddaughter but a coroner today said they were not to blame.

Ben Butler is serving 23 years for beating Ellie to death in October 2013, 11 months after she was returned to his care at the family's south London home.

Dame Linda Dobbs was asked to consider if social workers and other agencies had failed in their duty to protect her.

But concluding a 30-minute ruling at South London Coroner's Court, Dame Linda said: 'On the evidence I am unable to conclude that any acts or omissions by the relevant agencies possibly or probably contributed to the death of Ellie'.

Following the inquest Ellie's grandfather Neal Gray said he was disappointed agencies that 'in my view failed my dear granddaughter Ellie have not had to account for the role they played.'

He told Sky News: 'I blame Justice Hogg for her death [his wife] and Ellie's death. [After the ruling] I looked her in the eye and I pointed my finger at her and I said Justice Hogg, I hope you and all your professionals...I said I hope you all have a conscience because one day, you may have blood on your hands.

'I know the parents killed Ellie and I blame services for children for Ellie's death and perhaps bringing my wife's death forwards as well.

'I've lost a beautiful granddaughter, I've lost a beautiful wife.'

Ellie Butler was 'unlawfully killed' by her murderer father Ben, a coroner ruled today

Ellie went to live with her grandparents after Butler was convicted of shaking her when she was a baby. But the conviction was quashed in the Court of Appeal and Ellie was returned to Butler and her mother Jennie Gray, 38, (pictured) in November 2012

Last month her grandfather described the 'heartbreaking' day she was sent back to live with her father, who murdered her 11 months later, accusing social workers of 'failing in their duty to the girl.

Mr Gray vowed her death 'cannot have been in vain' as he described her killer as a 'brutal maniac' after the youngster was told she was going for a 'sleepover' at her parents when she was taken away.

The six-year-old girl was beaten to death by her father at their family home in Sutton, in October 2013.

She had been placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after Butler was accused of shaking her.

Neal Gray (pictured outside Croydon Coroners Court in south London) accused social workers of failing in their duty to protect his granddaughter

Ellie was returned to live with her birth parents in November 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the Family Division of the High Court.

But Mr Gray said Ellie looked like an 'orphan' with dirty hair and a bruise on her face when he saw her for the last time, two days before her death.

He said Ellie's mother Jennie Gray was 'just as culpable' in her death in his evidence at South London Coroner's Court.

'She stood by and watched that brutal maniac inflict unimaginable injuries to her children and she defended him without question or remorse,' he added in a statement.

'The true horrifying extent of the torture endured by Ellie came out as the criminal trial unfolded. I was aghast.

'The simple fact is that she was placed at fatal risk by being returned to her parents. Her death had been avoidable.

'The circumstances surrounding it must be avoided so that lessons may be learned and other children protected in the future. Her death cannot have been in vain.'

Reacting to the ruling, Ellie's grandfather Neal Gray said he was disappointed the agencies 'have not had to account for the role they played'

Butler vehemently denied he killed Ellie and told Croydon Coroner's Court that he will be appealing against his conviction for murder

Mr Gray described the day she was taken away from him and his wife Linda in a statement read to South London Coroners Court.

He dabbed his eyes as his evidence was read and asked to leave the hearing for a few minutes to compose himself.

'The day Ellie left us was simply heartbreaking. She had no idea what was going on,' he said.

'She had been told she was having a sleepover at her mum and dads.

'We told Ellie that we loved her and would see her tomorrow when she came home - but she never did.

The killer father of Ellie Butler used his daughter's inquest to protest his innocence today and said: 'This is far from over'.

Butler, 38, is serving life with a minimum of 23 years for beating his six-year-old daughter to death.

In 2016 a jury refused to believe he hadn't killed Ellie but today he told Croydon Coroner's Court that he will be appealing against his conviction for murder.

Speaking from prison via video link he said: 'I didn't cause Ellie to die, I didn't cause any injury to Ellie at all. I believe I have got some proof and this is far from over, that's the message to you all - this is far from over'.

Butler was involved in a toxic relationship with Ellie's mother Jennie Gray, 38, and he admitted sending her threatening text messages, the inquest heard.

Counsel for the inquest Adam Wiseman QC read some of the texts out: 'Now you will die, v, v angry' and, 'I will maim you b***h'.

In his statement read out to the inquest today Butler said: I should have been more honest with Services for Children.

'I did fun things for the children and spoiled them. At the time I did not understand, I was focusing on what we had fought for six years.

'I was erratic. The problem was Jenny being in hospital. The local authority, the police, and the doctor all said that Ellie was fine.

'The children needed both of us. We texted each other from different to avoid arguing in front of the children.'

Appearing via video link from prison, Butler then told the Coroner, Dame Linda Dobbs of his regret for the abusive texts he sent to Gray.

He said: 'I realise what I said was absolutely horrendous. I am ashamed and I regret saying them. I should have left so we could heal more.

'My behaviour in regard to Jenny was unacceptable - but to say because you are being abusive to your partner therefore you are being abusive to your children is totally wrong - they are two different things.
A Vermont man accused of killing his millionaire grandfather and drowning his mother to collect inheritance money has put his sprawling farmhouse on the market.

The three-story 1850 property, covering 6,207-square-feet, is being sold for more than double what Nathan Carman paid for it four years ago.

It is being sold because Carman is 'digging deep' to pay lawyers' bills as he defends himself against the accusations, bostonherald.com reported.

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The four-bedroom farmhouse near Vernon has been described as 'a shell with a lot of potential'

Nathan Carman is accused of killing both his grandfather and mother by three aunts who have filed a lawsuit to block him from inheriting a portion of the family's $44million fortune

Nathan Carman, 24, was recently in probate court today after his three aunts filed a lawsuit asking a judge to block him from inheriting a portion of the family's $44million fortune

Carman, 24, was a suspect in his grandfather John Chakalos' death and three years later, Carman went on a fishing trip with his mother Linda Carman, 54, who disappeared when the boat sank. But he has never been criminally charged

Carman, 24, was a suspect in his grandfather John Chakalos' death after the wealthy 87-year-old real estate developer was shot and killed in his Vermont home in 2013.

However a prosecutor at the time rejected a warrant for his arrest pending more information.

Three years later, Carman went on a fishing trip with his mother Linda Carman, 54, who disappeared when the boat sank off the coast of Rhode Island.

His three aunts subsequently filed a 'slayer action' lawsuit asking a judge to block him from inheriting a portion of the family's $44million fortune.

Nathan was a suspect in his grandfather John Chakalos' death after the wealthy 87-year-old real estate developer (right) was shot and killed in his Vermont home in 2013

Three years later, Carman (right) went on a fishing trip with his mother Linda Carman (left), who disappeared when the boat sank off the coast of Rhode Island

While he was the last known person to see both Chakalos and his mother before their deaths, Nathan has denied any wrongdoing, saying he loved both relatives.

Representing himself earlier this month, Carman told the court: 'It's not so much the money or my freedom as it is my reputation ... and I'm concerned about protecting my future,' Boston 25 reported.

He also claims that his aunts had more motive than he did to kill his grandfather.

'I will say that 2 of the petitioners had substantial motive,' he said. He previously labeled his aunts as 'greedy' and 'driven by malice to make the vexatious, false, and insupportable allegations.'

The aunts' lawyer Daniel Small hit back, saying any attempt to shift the focus to his aunts was 'completely outrageous', the Boston Globe reported.

'Nathan refused to take a lie detector,' Small said. 'Everyone else in that family agreed. Nathan refused to cooperate with the police. Everyone else agreed.'

'Nathan wants the blood money,' Small said. 'The family does not.'

The judge expressed concern about the autistic 24-year-old representing himself in such a serious case, and Carman informed him he was planning to sell his home to finance an attorney.

Carman said he was also seeking to have the death of his grandfather and his mother heard in two separate cases.

'My grandfather's death is an event that occurred in December of 2013 and petitioners are asking about modifications that I made to my boat in 2016. Are we trying two murder cases here or one?' he asked.

'Do we not first need to figure out whether or not my mother is dead? What's the manner of death?' Carman continued.

'Having two separate cases is what I've been pushing for.'

However, he was tight lipped when his aunts' lawyer began asking him about what happened to a gun that has been missing since his grandfather's 2013 shooting death.

Carman said he was pleading the 5th Amendment when asked by attorney Dan Small about the guns he owned - including a Sig Sauer rifle that used .308 caliber bullets  the same bullets used in his grandfather's shooting.

A billboard offered a $250,000 reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest in Chakalos' death. He and his wife were well known for their Christmas lights display

Carman is seen with his grandmother shortly before she died. Three years after his grandfather died, his mother was presumed dead after their fishing boat went under

The pair were in this boat when it sank off the coast of Rhode Island. Nathan was found lost at sea a week later

Police investigating Chakalos' death in 2013 say Carman never told them he owned the Sig Sauer rifle.

When they searched his Middletown apartment, they only recovered a shotgun and a pellet rifle.

Small is now demanding Carman hands over any records of his purchase of the Sig Sauer rifle, along with shooting range memberships, and locations, arguing that documentation is not covered by the Fifth Amendment.

Carman argued he did not have the the documentation they are asking for any more, saying he didn't file taxes that year because he was a teen without an income.

Nathan Carman, accused by family members of killing his millionaire grandfather and possibly his mother in an attempt to collect inheritance money, arrives in district court, Tuesday, in Concord, New Hampshire

Carman represented himself after firing his attorneys earlier this year - It has been alleged that Chakalos' death and Linda's disappearance 'all point to Nathan as the prime suspect'

Attorney Dan Small, who represents Carman's aunts, speaks to reporters at district court, Tuesday

No criminal charges have been brought against Nathan but his aunts Valerie Santilli, Elaine Chakalos, and Charlene Gallagher filed a 'slayer action' in New Hampshire, asking a court to find him responsible for killing Chakalos.

Small said previously that the details and evidence in Chakalos' death and in Linda's disappearance 'all point to Nathan as the prime suspect.'

'Yet he now stands to inherit millions of dollars from their estates,' Small said in a statement.

Small said if the sisters win the lawsuit, 'they pledge to use those funds exclusively to pay for expenses incurred relating to the investigation into the death of their father and disappearance of their sister, and any remaining funds will go to charity.'

The farmhouse up for sale sits on more than an acre of land and boasts a barn, rooftop deck and private water well. It was listed March 20 for $149,000.

Neither Carman nor the real estate agent handling the sale could be reached for comment Monday.

The house is currently 'a shell with a lot of potential,' said Vermont Realtor Jim Bellville, who sold Carman the house in 2014 for $70,000.

'He's a smart kid. When he bought it, it was a pretty tired four-bedroom house. He has done a huge amount of work on it. His vision for it, well, it would have been amazing. It's unfortunate he didn't get to finish it. It was going to be a nice, single-family home.'

Bellville said Carman credited many of his design ideas to the nursing homes his late grandfather John Chakalos developed.

Chakalos, 87, was shot to death in December 2013 in his Windsor, Conn., home. His homicide remains unsolved.

'He was very adamant that it (the farmhouse) was a big nod to the innovations his grandfather had,' Bellville said.

Chakalos, a Second World War veteran, was shot dead just weeks after Carman's grandmother died of cancer.

Carman previously told the Hartford Courant: 'He loved me very dearly,' he added. 'I was like a son to him; he was like a father to me.'

In September 2016, Linda was on a fishing trip with her son, when the boat sank, according to Nathan.

Nathan, right, disembarks at the US Coast Guard station in Boston in 2016

He was rescued at sea a week later, and t he search for Linda was called off after the Coast Guard said there was no chance of her still being alive.

In a recording of the phone call Carman made to the Coast Guard after he was rescued by a freighter, he said he heard a 'funny noise' in the engine compartment of his boat and then saw water pouring in before he lost sight of his mother.

While Nathan said he patched some holes on the 31-foot-long boat with marine putty before the trip, he insisted the boat was seaworthy.

But insurance companies claimed in court that 'incomplete, improper, and faulty repairs' were made the day before the boat sank.

Carman told ABC's '20/20' last year that he's misunderstood and an easy target for police because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum. A few of its hallmarks are awkward social and communication skills.

He was diagnosed with Asperger's, a high-functioning variation of autism spectrum disorder, when he was a child, New York Magazine reported.

Those who knew him at high school said he was very socially awkward and that he had the social aptitude of a child.

Nathan Carman, 24 was rescued after a week at sea, however his mother Linda Carman (pictured) was never discovered

His classmates from high school said that during Halloween in 2009 a parent of a trick-or-treater called police because Nathan had been handing out Ziploc bags filled with fish guts to people.

They said he had a strange obsession with the Second Amendment and believed 'U.S. citizens should be allowed to buy any form of weapons, including rocket launchers, automatic weapons, grenades.'

His classmates also said Nathan was a six-foot giant loner who was teased and taunted. Apparently this made him very hostile towards students and faculty members. 'He was very insistent that he was right, and that was it,' a former classmate said.

'He would knock stuff over or whatever off the desk. The teacher would try to go out and talk to him, but there was no reasoning with Nathan,' they continued.

Although he was close to his mother growing up their relationship became strained when he was a teenager. He apparently threw a tray of cookies at a wall after his mother burnt them. 'Soon enough he's going to slit your throat while you're sleeping,' her boyfriend at the time said.
President Trump lauded China's Xi Jinping on Tuesday after the Chinese leader offered the U.S. concessions on trade.

'Very thankful for President Xi of Chinas kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!' Trump tweeted.

But China also filed a complaint today against the United States at the World Trade Organization in its latest jab at the U.S over Donald Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the U.S. was 'encouraged by President Xi's words' in the speech that Trump referred to.

'At the same time we want to see concrete actions,' she stated.

China on Tuesday filed a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization, deepening a riff that stems from Donald Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs. This after China's Xi Jinping offered concessions on auto and intellectual property tariffs

Earlier on Tuesday, Beijing asked for 60 days of consultation with the U.S. that, if unsuccessful in resolving the dispute, could serve a precursor to a request for a formal ruling from a commission of WTO experts.

The complaint over Trump's 25 percent tax on steel and 10 percent penalty on aluminum is separate from the country's battle with the U.S. over tariffs on Chinese goods that Trump says could rise as high as $160 billion.

Those tariffs are meant to offset the United States' gaping trade deficit with China and address alleged intellectual property violations.

China submitted a complaint to WTO linked to those tariffs last Thursday. It will make its way through an identical process.

In a speech on Tuesday that preceded an announcement on the new WTO action, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered concessions on auto tariffs and intellectual property protections in a move aimed at diffusing the worsening trade dispute with Washington.

Speaking at a business conference, the Chinese president made no direct mention of his American counterpart, Donald Trump, or the argument.

But he promised progress on areas that are U.S. priorities such as the opening of China's banking industry and boosting imports.

Trump predicted on Sunday that China would take down its trade barriers, expressing optimism it would 'do the right thing' despite the escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Xi then tried to position China as a defender of free trade and cooperation in his Tuesday speech in spite of his country's status as the most-closed major economy.

His speech was a rebuttal of Trump's 'America First' motto and his push for import restrictions and trade deals that are more favorable to the United States.

'China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider. We will take the initiative to expand imports,' Xi said at the Boao Forum for Asia on the southern island of Hainan.

He said Beijing will 'significantly lower' tariffs on vehicle imports this year and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in the car industry 'as soon as possible.'

'China does not seek trade surplus. We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account,' he said in his keynote speech.

China charges total duties of 25 percent on most imported cars - a 10 percent customs tariff plus a 15 percent auto tax.

Since December 2016, Beijing also has charged an additional 10 percent on 'super-luxury' vehicles priced above $200,000.

Donald Trump had predicted China would lower tariffs on imports saying it was the 'right thing to do' in a cryptic tweet on Sunday

The Chinese leader also promised to encourage 'normal technological exchange' and to 'protect the lawful ownership rights of foreign enterprises'.

He added that 'in today's world, the trend of peace and cooperation is moving forward' while the 'Cold War mentality' is 'outdated'.

Xi did not, however, address key irritants for Washington such as a requirement for foreign companies to work through joint ventures that require them to give technology to potential local competitors.

The two countries have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars' worth of tariffs in recent days over the matter and Chinese officials have said this is not the time for negotiations.

But Trump administration officials have stressed that the tariffs are not yet in place and the dispute could be resolved through talks.

Private sector analysts saw Xi's speech as an overture to help end the biggest global trade dispute since the Second World War.

'President Xi's speech could create a very good platform to launch US-China dialogue at the WTO to find a deal on intellectual property rights that will address US concerns,' said Rajiv Biswas of IHS Markit.

'This would be a victory for the world trading system and an important step away from the abyss of rising global protectionism.'

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods worth $60 billion in response to complaints that Beijing pressures foreign companies to hand over technology in violation of its World Trade Organization market-opening commitments.

Beijing fired back with its own list of US goods for possible retaliation.

Trump then upped his threat by $100 billion as he challenged China to back down.

Beijing has issued a $3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork and apples for possible retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs.

Chinese officials deny foreign companies are compelled to hand over technology, but business groups say joint venture and licensing rules make that unavoidable. The United States filed a WTO complaint last month accusing Beijing of violating its trade pledges by imposing unfair contract terms and allowing companies to use foreign-owned technology after licensing periods expire.

Foreign companies complain Beijing is squeezing them out of promising parts of the state-dominated economy to promote the ruling Communist Party's plans to create Chinese global competitors in fields including robotics, electric cars and pharmaceuticals.

Xi gave no details on how those conditions might change, leaving it unclear whether that might mollify Washington.

Easing rules that limit global automakers to owning no more than 50 percent of a joint venture with a Chinese partner might help to address Trump's complaints about technology as well as giving them more flexibility in their biggest global market.

The biggest beneficiaries of a cut in China's 25 percent tariff on most auto imports will be the small number of automakers such as electric car brand Tesla that have no factory in China. Other automakers such as General Motors and Volkswagen that assemble vehicles in China with local partners could offer additional models.
Donald Trump is cancelling a planned trip to Latin America so that he can 'oversee the American response' to the Syrian chemical weapons attack, the White House says.

Trump will send his vice president, Mike Pence, to the Summit of the Americas in Peru, instead, a statement on Tuesday morning said.

The White House statement followed a string of tweets from Trump in which he fumed about an FBI raid on his personal attorney Michael Cohen's home, calling it a 'TOTAL WITCH HUNT' in one.

Donald Trump is cancelling a planned trip to Latin America so that he can 'oversee the American response' to the Syrian chemical weapons attack, the White House says

The White House statement followed a string of tweets from Trump in which he fumed about an FBI raid on his personal attorney Michael Cohen's home, calling it a 'TOTAL WITCH HUNT' in one

A meeting with military leaders the evening before was almost completely overtaken by Trump's livid response to the raid, which he called a break in during remarks that were open to the press.

Syria played second fiddle as Trump railed against the Justice Department for acting on allegations against Cohen.

Cohen admittedly paid off a porn actress who says she had an affair with Trump a decade prior to his election. The longtime attorney to the former real estate magnet and reality television show host says he used personal funds for a $130,000 check to woman, Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.

Syria played second fiddle as Trump railed against the Justice Department for acting on allegations against Michael Cohen on Monday

Trump signaled at the press avail that he is plotting a military strike in Syria to punish dictator Bashar al-Assad for the reported gas attack. When U.S. action would come is something he would not reveal, although he committed to making a decision in the next 24-48 hours.

This morning, the White House suddenly announced that Trump would no longer make an appearance at the U.S.-founded Summit of the Americas this week in Lima, where he was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with regional leaders and deliver a plenary speech.

'President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled,' the statement read. 'At the Presidents request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.'

The schedule change gives Trump an excuse not to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The foreign leader told Trump in a speech last week to quit blaming Mexico for the United States' illegal immigration issues after Trump authorized a National Guard deployment to their shared border.

An image grab taken from a video released by the Syrian Civil Defense in Douma shows an unidentified volunteer holding an oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following a reported chemical attack on the rebel-held town on April 8, 2018

Pena Nieto and Trump have previously sparred over Mexico's refusal to pay for the U.S. president's desired border wall. The rift has kept the two men from holding talks at the White House -- a nicety that Trump has offered to a score of other U.S. allies.

Trump is now claiming he will exact payment from Mexico for his barrier through the North American Free Trade Agreement. At Trump's behest, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are in the process of reworking the trilateral trade deal.

Aside from a meeting with Pena Nieto, Trump will lose out on an opportunity by not attending the summit to confront Central American leaders about the number of migrants that are making their way to the United States through Mexico.

The administration characterized the influx as a crisis last week that required the urgent deployment of the National Guard to the United States' southern border.

Enraged by reports on a caravan of Honduran migrants making the trek from Central America to the U.S., Trump threatened to cut off aid to their home country and others like it.

In a preview of the summit last week, senior administration officials were unable to say which heads of state Trump would meet with in Peru, only that they would be major regional leaders, suggesting a face-to-face with Pena Nieto was in the works.

But the summit otherwise provides a once-in-every three years opportunity for the U.S. to interface with all of Latin America. A major agenda item this year was to be the promotion of democracy and good governance in response to Nicolas Maduro's power grab in Venezuela.

Countering Chinese influence in the region was also at the top of the United States' list. Trump was supposed to promote the U.S. as the preferred economic partner.

A statement from the vice president's office on Tuesday morning said he would pick up where Trump left off, pushing policy at the summit to 'hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable' in a not-so-subtle snub to Maduro, who was disinvited from the conference.

The statement went on to refer to Maduro by name, as the VP's office reminded that Pence had already been to region last year to put pressure on the regime and support Trump in his quest to negotiate better trade deals for the United States.

Trump last year withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the Obama administration and 11 Pacific Rim nations, including Peru, had pursued.

As Trump announced steel and aluminum import tariffs last month on all but a few countries outside of the EU, the United States' original partners signed TPP, anyway.

Canada and Mexico are also signatories to that trade agreement. So was Chile, another member of the Summit of the Americas.
A college senior from Tennessee has been receiving backlash on social media for flaunting her pro-Trump, pro-gun conservative views.

Brenna Spencer, a 22-year-old student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, posted graduation photos of herself on Twitter.

In one picture, she is seen standing against the backdrop of a bridge in Chattanooga wearing a red 'WOMEN FOR TRUMP' t-shirt.

Spencer pulls up the bottom of the t-shirt to reveal a bare midriff. Tucked into her white jeans is a pistol.

A college senior from Tennessee has been receiving backlash on social media for flaunting her pro-Trump, pro-gun conservative views. Brenna Spencer, a 22-year-old student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, posted graduation photos of herself on Twitter

Spencer is seen above in a t-shirt that reads: 'Proud member of the basket of deplorables.' The phrase 'basket of deplorables' is what Hillary Clinton once said to refer to supporters of Trump

Spencer (left) is due to graduate from UTC in May. She will have earned a degree in communications and minored in political science

'I don't take normal college graduation photos,' Spencer wrote in the caption of the photo on her Twitter account.

The provocative photo, which was first posted to Twitter on Saturday, generated more than 67,000 likes, more than 16,000 comments, and almost 8,500 retweets.

Some commenters on Twitter were unhappy over what they perceived as Spencer's flouting of gun laws.

'I'm 100% pro gun but brandishing a firearm for a photo shoot or showing it off to try and look cool is just stupid. They are tools. Why brag about carrying a gun?' tweeted one Twitter user.

Spencer replied: 'Because I'm proud of my second amendment right and I want to empower other women!

'Absolutely they are tools but I will always brag about being able to carry a gun to protect myself, my friends and my family!'

Others reacted more harshly, using unprintable language to describe her views and her looks.

'It was really, really surprising to see the amount of hate that I got,' Spencer said

She also works as a field representative for Turning Point, a conservative non-profit group

Spencer also said she has received positive messages even from those who disagree with her but respect her right to express her opinion

Spencer said she was surprised at the response.

'I did think that it would get a little attention but not to this degree,' she told ABC News.

'It was really, really surprising to see the amount of hate that I got.'

Spencer also said she has received positive messages even from those who disagree with her but respect her right to express her opinion.

She says she tries to avoid reading people's reactions.

'I try to stay off the comments, to be honest,' she said.

'I just know that I got a lot of hate.'

Tennessee is a relatively conservative state whose gun laws are considered 'gun friendly.'

In 2014, the state Senate passed a bill allowing Tennesseans to openly carry guns without a state-issued permit.

Residents, however, are still required to undergo background checks and training in order to carry concealed firearms.

Tennessee also does not require residents to obtain a permit before buying a gun.

One Twitter user alerted police, saying that the area where the photograph was taken, Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, bans concealed carry.

'[Chattanooga Police Department,] would you like to give us your two cents?' tweeted a woman named Victoria Silva.

Spencer (left) is seen with a friend posing in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago

Spencer is seen in the above photo posing with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren (right)

'Per the thread, this young female is taking a photo w/ a firearm, in an area w/ a posted 'no-weapons' policy.

'This showboating behavior is irresponsible, reckless, & potentially dangerous.'

Spencer, however, told ABC that the photo was taken just outside of the museum.

If she were to enter the museum, she would have had to go through security.

'I know the Tennessee state gun codes,' Spencer said.

Spencer is due to graduate from UTC in May. She will have earned a degree in communications and minored in political science.

She also works as a field representative for Turning Point, a conservative non-profit group.

Spencer's photo on Twitter has already been satirized

Cullen Crawford, a writer for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, tweeted a mock-up photo of himself posing for his own 'graduation' photo. It shows Crawford taking a selfie as he holds a dog whose hind legs are wedged in his pants

Spencer said she owns several guns.

'I carry everywhere that I'm allowed to carry,' she said.

UTC does not permit gun owners to carry weapons on campus.

Spencer's photo on Twitter has already been satirized.

Cullen Crawford, a writer for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, tweeted a mock-up photo of himself posing for his own 'graduation' photo.

It shows Crawford taking a selfie as he holds a dog whose hind legs are wedged in his pants.
President Donald Trump is considering firing of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein  and made moves to fire special counsel Robert Mueller late last year following reports of a subpoena of his financial records.

The president lashed out privately about Rosenstein, who he blames for approving the warrant application that allowed FBI officials to raid Cohen's office, home and hotel room.

CNN reported Trump is considering firing Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller probe thanks to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's recusal. The report called Rosenstein Trump's most likely target, although firing Sessions is also a possibility. It cited people familiar with the discussions.

Advisors believe Rosenstein crossed a 'red line' by signing off on the Cohen raid  an action that reportedly included targeting documents relating to a porn star and a former Playboy model who each got payoffs and have claim they had affairs with Trump and signed nondisclosure agreements.

At two different periods Trump was prepared to make moves against Mueller, the New York Times reported.

Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, had his hotel room and office both raided by the FBI acting on the instructions of the deputy attorney general. He was exclusively photographed by DailyMail.com entering the Loews Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where his room was raided

In December, Trump was angered by reports of subpoenas of his financial records at Deutsche Bank. Initial media reports that the subpoenas were focused on him were walked back, and the president cooled.

Trump's own lawyers were later to learn that the subpoena related to a different federal inquiry into family finances of his son in law Jared Kushner, according to the account. After media clarifications, Trump dropped his push to get rid of Mueller.

Trump also tried to get rid of Mueller back in June, when White House counsel Don McGahn reportedly threatened to quit over it and the president backed off.

The White House said Tuesday Trump believes the FBI should never have raided his attorney's office on Monday in a hunt for documents about hush money paid to women who say they bedded the married president in the past.

Behind closed doors, President Trump (left) is fuming over Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's (right) decision to sign off on a warrant of Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room

'I think that the president has been clear that he thinks this that has gone too far,' press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters during an afternoon briefing.

'The president has voiced his frustration about the situation,' she added.

Porn star Stormy Daniels is cooperating with prosecutors, NBC reported.

Trump vented Monday evening, saying a 'witch hunt' had been 'going on for over 12 months now  and actually ... you could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started.'

He called the evolving criminal probe 'a real disgrace' and 'an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for.'

'This is the president you're going to see more of from here on out: unvarnished, untethered,' one White House inside told Axios, as the Washington Post reported that Trump 'stewed' over Rosenstein's role in the raid, 'at times raising his voice.'

During these outbursts, Trump fumed that he wished Rosenstein was not in the job, and that no one was making prosecutors follow the rules, a Trump adviser told the Post.

The New York Times later reported that it was indeed Rosenstein who signed off on asking a judge for the no-knock warrant.

Trump also contemplated firing Rosenstein, sources told the Times, as the newspaper described the episode as being 'deeply upsetting' to White House staff, officials at the Justice Department and lawmakers from both political parties.

On Tuesday, CNN reported Democratic senators were huddling and discussing what steps to take if Trump decided to show Rosenstein the door.

In public, Trump didn't go that far, as he first brought up Rosenstein in the context of his controversial decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, pointing out to reporters that Rosenstein supported Comey's firing too.

'Deputy Rosenstein  Rod Rosenstein  he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey,' Trump pointed out.

Trump then pointed out that Rosenstein had 'signed the FISA warrant,' referring to the warrant used to spy on the president's campaign associate Carter Page.

'So Rod Rosenstein, who's in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey,' Trump said. 'And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.'

'So we'll see what happens,' the president added in a meeting with military advisers that was supposed to be about the strategy going forward in Syria after a reported chemical weapons attack.

'I think it's disgraceful, and so does a lot of people,' Trump said of the Cohen raid.

Trump circled back and again blamed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who stepped away from all Russian-related matters because he had worked on Trump's presidential campaign.

'The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this, and when he recused himself,' Trump said. 'Or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a  put a different attorney general in.'

'So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for our country,' Trump continued. 'But you'll figure that out.'

The FBI's warrant to raid President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen's spaces included documents related to hush money payments given to Stormy Daniels (left) and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal (right)

The FBI agents were looking for records about payments to two women who had alleged affairs with President Trump  porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playmate Karen McDougal.

Sources told the New York Times that investigators were interested in the role the publisher of the National Enquirer played in silencing McDougal with a $150,000 payment made by the parent company of the tabloid, American Media Inc.

Cohen, a longtime fixer for the president, has already said publicly that he paid $130,000 in hush money to Daniels in exchange for her signature on a non-disclosure agreement just weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006, while McDougal alleged that she and the then-businessman had a year-long affair.

The raids on Cohen's office, home and hotel room have rocked Washington and infuriated President Trump, who has lashed out at a number of top officials, including the special counsel, federal investigators and his own attorney general.

FBI agents swooped in on the offices of Cohen on Monday  seizing a trove of documents  and whisked off the lawyer's phone, personal computer and bank records.

Cohen is now being investigated for both possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

This indicates that Cohen is being investigated for using a home equity line to borrow the $130,000 he paid porn star Stormy Daniels, according to Politico

If Cohen did in fact lie to obtain credit from a 'federally insured financial institution', he could be charged with a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

And if the payment is found to be an 'in-kind contribution' to Trump's campaign, as it came just days before the election, Cohen could be facing a second felony.

Violating campaign contribution limits is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, Trump raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Cohen's Manhattan office, although the search warrants were perfectly legal.

Trump had been meeting senior military leaders and members of his national security team - including (right) his new national security advisor John Bolton - when he launched his angry tirade against the Mueller raid

Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, close to Trump Tower, and had FBI agents raid his room there on Monday morning

Cohen's offices are in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is also home to many of NBC's most high-profile shows including The Today Show, Nightly News and Saturday Night Live

The president also called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, although Mueller himself is a Republican.

Trump also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions  whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is revealed to have permitted the raid after hearing from Mueller.

'They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things ... and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started Trump after raid on his attorney

'He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,' said Trump, revising a longtime anger at the situation.

His admission that he would have replaced Sessions to head off the recusal could figure in Mueller's ongoing effort to establish obstruction of justice.

Trump continued to tout Mueller's failure to charge Trump or anyone on his team of colluding with the Russians, even as the probe continues to bring in members of his inner circle on other matters.

'They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia,' said Trump, seated in front of national security adviser John Bolton, experiencing his first day on the job.

Trump's remarks then meandered into territory explored by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee and the early days of the Russia investigation.

They also dwelled on Rosenstein  a pivotal figure whose removal might be necessary in order to engineer Mueller's ouster.

Continuing to go after Rosenstein, Trump said: 'But it turns out he also signed the FISA warrant - Rod Rosenstein who's in charge also signed the FISA warrant and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey and he was right about that. He was absolutely right about that.'

'This is a pure and simple witch hunt,' Trump said.

Those close to Trump said that Cohen's looming troubles has struck the president far harder than those of former campaign aides Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.

One person went so far to say that Cohen was 'the closest person to Trump that I have ever met who is not family', they told CNN.

Trump decided on his own to directly address the FBI raid during the Syria meeting.

It all goes back to this: Daniels claims she and Trump had an affair in 2006. She took a $130,000 payment from Cohen in return for signing a gag order just before the election. That appears to now be at the center of a federal probe

'You can see how angry he is,' one White House official said.

Trump also repeatedly sought to cast the probe as a hindrance to his ability to conduct his office, complaining that he was trying to plan to counter a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

And he called on Justice Department investigators to focus on 'crimes' on the 'other side'  meaning Democrats and the Hillary Clinton camp.

'It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down. I've given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel,' he said.

'They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things...and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started.'

'When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness.'

Trump even blamed investigators allowed a raid on his attorney's office for spoiling what could have been an up day on the stock market.

'The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise you know of this nonsense that was going on. It dropped a lot,' Trump complained.

'It was up - it was way up. It dropped quite a bit at the end. That we have to go through that. We've had that hanging over us from the very, very beginning. And yet the other side they're not even looking.'

'And the other side is where there are crimes and those crimes are obvious - lies under oath all over the place, emails that are knocked out, that are acid washed and deleted, 33,000 emails were deleted after getting a subpoena from Congress. And nobody bothers looking at that,' Trump ranted.

Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office

The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.

'Today the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Stephen Ryan.

'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.

'The decision by the US Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'

Mueller is overseeing the probe of contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.

Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with Trump.

Cohen says he made the payment with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge.

Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC called Essential Solutions just weeks before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC.

The LLC was set up on October 17, 2016, the same day that Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez was reportedly trying to sell the porn star's story to the media.

Some 10 days later, Essential Solutions paid Daniels $130,000 after she signed an agreement not to talk about Trump.

The agreement used pseudonyms  David Dennison for Trump and Peggy Peterson for Daniels.

Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.

The raid comes just days after Trump made his first comments on the porn star aboard Air Force One Thursday  and denied any advance knowledge of the payment that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.

Asked if he knew about the payment, the president said 'No.'

The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, performs at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018 in Pompano Beach, Florida

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'

Then, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing for relief from a non-disclosure agreement that her lawyer claims is null and invalid.

Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has been keeping the story in the news, now claiming he has a forensic sketch of a man who threatened her to keep quiet in 2011.

Avenatti said Cohen 'has been placed in the crosshairs by Mr Trump. He has been set up to take the fall.'

He also filed court papers Sunday to try to force Trump to answer questions about the agreement.

Avenatti is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and Cohen about the payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo on Sunday of Stormy Daniels with Lois Gibson, who he referred to as 'the foremost forensic artist in the world'

'We're going to be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward asking that the public come forward,' Avenatti told CNN on Monday. 'We are very close to identifying this individual.'

He predicted that identifying the man his client says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot will ' tighten the noose, if you will.'

The threat 'could only have come from one of three places,' he said confidently.

'My client, which means she threatened herself, which makes no sense; In Touch magazine, which makes no sense because why would they threaten my client relating to the publication of an interview in their own magazine?; or someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization.'

He (Trump) 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.' Daniels on the night she 'had sex' with Trump in 2006

Daniels said in a Los Angeles court filing she always thought Trump was a party to the deal.

'Such an agreement would not have made sense for many reasons,' she said in the filing.

'It was my understanding that Donald Trump was a party to the Settlement Agreement and that he was going to sign both documents,' Daniels said.

Her lawyer is trying to establish a basis for questioning Trump about the deal, even though he is not a signatory.

Beyond Cohen's attorney's statement, it is not clear what the overall objective of the search was.

Cohen appears in the infamous Steele Dossier of unverified information about President Trump and ties between his associates and Russia.

He is suing Buzzfeed for publishing the document.

Even if Stormy Documents got scooped up, it is possible warrants were seeking information of another variety.

Cohen was in contact for the Trump Organization with Russian-American businessman Felix Sater in 2015 about a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.

SECRET DEALS AND $130,000 IN HUSH MONEY: HOW STORMY DANIELS' CLAIMS OF SEX WITH DONALD TRUMP TURNED INTO A FULL-SCALE FBI RAID July 2006: Porn star Stormy Daniels says she meets now President Donald Trump at a Nevada golf tournament. They have an alleged sexual encounter. 2011: Daniels gives an interview about her tryst with Trump to In Touch Weekly. In 2018 she tells 60 Minutes that she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas over the telling of her story, and so the interview never ran. October 2016: In the weeks before voters head to the polls, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen uses a Delaware-based LLC to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, in exchange for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter. May 17, 2017: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller to take over the Russia probe on the heels of President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. January 12, 2018: The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that Cohen paid the $130,000 to Daniels, weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election. February 13, 2018: Cohen publicly admits to paying the $130,000, but says he did so with his own personal money, and was reimbursed by the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization. In referencing the payment, Daniels' attorney says the NDA is breached. March 6, 2018: The Washington Post reported that Mueller requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Cohen. Additionally, Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump in California Superior Court claiming that the NDA never went into effect because Trump never signed it. March 16, 2018: Lawyers for both Cohen and Trump attempt to get the Daniels' lawsuit moved from state to federal court. This marked the first time lawyers for Trump are actively involved in legal action over the Daniels' matter. March 28, 2018: The 60 Minutes' interview with Daniels airs. She details spanking Trump with a magazine with his face on the cover and having sex with him once. April 5, 2018: For the first time, Trump speaks about the $130,000 payment telling reporters on board Air Force One that he had no knowledge of it at the time. 'You'll have to ask Michael,' the president responded when asked why Cohen made the payment April 9, 2018: The FBI raids the New York City offices of Cohen. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a referral from Mueller, the New York Times reported. CNN reported that documents related to the Daniels affair were swept up in the search. Advertisement

In a note to Cohen reported by the New York Times, Sater wrote: 'Lets make this happen and build a Trump Moscow. And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce & business are much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say that's a great lifetime goal for us to go after.'

'Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,' Sater wrote.

Mueller is probing an array of contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

Trump has said repeatedly there was 'no collusion.'

The White House declined to comment on the raid when asked about it.

Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission arguing that the payments to Daniels constitute a possible violation of campaign finance laws.

Paul Ryan of Common Cause told USA Today: 'I'm happy to see the DOJ is doing its job. Donald Trump said he knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels. The FBI will now quickly get to the bottom of whether Trump lied to the American people when he said no knowledge about Michael Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels,' he said.

Cohen also hand-delivered a so-called peace plan for Russia and Ukraine that would have lifted sanctions on Russia to fired national security advisor Michael Flynn, according to a Times report on the February delivery of a sealed plan.

Cohen delivered it a week before Flynn resigned.

The raid on Trump's longtime consigliere and latest twist in the Russia probe comes as Trump called out Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter by name for the first time following a suspected chemical weapons attack by the pro-Russia regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Syrian rebel territory.

The White House kicked out 60 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and leveled new sanctions on Russian entities.

The raid immediately raised issues of attorney-client privilege. Cohen was the president's personal lawyer during the presidential campaign, which means their communications are assumed to be beyond the reach of law enforcement and the courts.

A critical loophole exists, however: the 'crime-fraud exception.' That allows prosecutors to use privileged material if it shows a client intended to further or cover up a crime.

Because of the usually sacrosanct nature of attorney-client communications, the FBI will likely use a 'taint team' to keep prosecutors from seeing anything privileged that could later cause a criminal conviction to be voided.
The US attorney who was appointed by President Donald Trump and believed to have requested a search warrant for the office and home of Michael Cohen recused himself from the case prior to Monday's raid.

Cohen, the longtime lawyer for President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.

ABC News is reporting now that Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, had recused himself prior to the raid.

It was also revealed at the same time that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, personally signed off on the investigation.

Rosenstein also signed off on Berman's decision to recuse himself from the investigation.

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Man in the middle: Geoffrey S. Berman (center), the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Russia probe

Berman, the acting attorney for the district, is a supporter of President Trump who donated $5400 to his campaign and is a partner with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig.

He was appointed to his post in January, nine months after Preet Bharara was fired from his post after refusing to resign.

Berman had previously served as the assistant US attorney for the same district between 1990 to 1994 under presidents Bush and Clinton.

He was also reportedly interviewed by President Trump personally before being appointed to his current post.

He is married to a fellow lawyer, Joanne Karen Schwartz, with whom he tied the knot back in 1994, when he left his post as assistant US attorney.

The couple has two sons, 22-year-old Jeremy and 19-year-old Matthew, and splits their time between an apartment in New York City and a $2million home in Princeton, New Jersey.

Friends of Berman said earlier this year that he would likely keep politics out of a prosecutor's office that has long prided itself on independence from Washington.

'He's not about politics. He's about doing the right thing and the law,' said Mary Jo White, who led the office from 1993 to 2002 and was later chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission under Democratic President Barack Obama.

Berman, 58, was appointed as the interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York on January 3, a post that gives him oversight of more than 220 federal prosecutors who often take the lead battling wrongdoing on Wall Street and international terrorism.

His status in the job is unsettled. The president hasn't formally submitted his name to the Senate for confirmation for the permanent position.

Prior to his inauguration Trump also had met with his predecessor, Bharara, who thought he'd won assurances he'd be kept in the job only to be swept aside in a purge of all prosecutors appointed by Obama, a Democrat.

Several former prosecutors who worked with Berman said he had an apolitical nature.

White said she remembered him as 'one of the stars' of the office and someone who would always 'stay on the high road and try to do the right thing and be very independent.'

Lorin Reisner, who was chief of the criminal division under Bharara and is now in private practice, said Berman 'really cares about the history and the heritage of the office,' long nicknamed the 'Sovereign District of New York' for its independence from Washington.

'Knowing Geoff the way I know Geoff, I have no question about this independence and his commitment to carry out his responsibilities apolitically and completely on the merits,' he said.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Berman studied at the University of Pennsylvania and got his law degree at Stanford before becoming a clerk to Judge Leonard Garth in the 3rd U.S. District Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

From 1987 to 1990 he worked for the independent counsel who investigated the administration of President Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair.

William Treanor, Dean of Georgetown Law School and the associate counsel for the Iran-Contra probe, said he was impressed by the rare Republican working on the investigation.

'Geoff is very low key. He doesn't take himself too seriously but he takes his work seriously,' said Treanor.

'He's not a: "Look at me! Look at me!" type of person.'

Buddy system: Berman was appointed by President Trump, donated $5400 to his campaign and was a law partner at the same firm as Rudy Giuliani (above with President Trump)

Treanor said Berman was 'somebody very committed to getting the law right and deciding on questions of what's legal and illegal in a fair and apolitical way.'

Colleagues said Berman would not be a peacock in a prosecutor's office that has had more than its share of big personalities and media darlings during the last few decades, including Giuliani, Bharara and ex-FBI head James Comey.

'He's not what you would call flamboyant,' said Bob Fiske, another former Manhattan U.S. attorney.

'But I think he'll be a good leader.'

Berman's approach to his work also won praise from Rich Appel, who was sworn in as an assistant U.S. attorney the same day as Berman only to give up law three years later to write for The Simpsons.

Appel, whose extensive TV credits include executive producer on Family Guy, identifies himself as a progressive Democrat and doubts he would often vote the same as Berman. But he called him a great choice for the job.

'Here's someone who was completely in charge. There's like seven left arms and nine right arms in an investigation and you have to keep track of them all, and Geoff did,' said Appel.

'One of the only times I recall him leaving the office early was to go to a mixer. And I think it was the mixer where he met his wife. Wasn't a lot of wasted time. Even with that, he was efficient.'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke about Berman as well after appointing him in January, saying in a statement: 'Geoffrey Berman brings three decades of invaluable experience to the role of Interim United States Attorney. He was part of the prosecution team charged with investigating the Iran-Contra matter and served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.

'As Interim U.S. Attorney for this same district, he will lead an incredible team of attorneys and investigators and help provide New Yorkers with safety, security, and peace of mind. I am pleased to appoint him to this important role.'
Newly unsealed federal documents reveal the suspected Austin bomber used a PVC tube with a metal pipe inside surrounded with shrapnel in his attacks that killed two people and seriously injured four others.

Investigators identified Mark Conditt as the suspect by pairing identical components found in the six bombs with surveillance footage of him buying this material, according to an affidavit used to support his arrest warrant.

Officials also said on Monday they do not believe the victims of the bombings were linked and are yet to say whether they have established any motive for Conditt's terror spree.

Investigators identified Mark Conditt (left in an undated photo) by matching the components in his bombs, it was announced at a news conference on Monday, where U.S. Attorney John Bash (right) also said his victims were not linked

FBI agents and alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives police at the scene of an explosion on March 12, which injured one person

Over three weeks, starting on March 2, six package bombs were left at people's doorsteps in Austin, concealed along a walking path, or sent via FedEx, in seemingly random attacks.

Two African-American males, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed, and a Hispanic woman and two white men were injured when they picked up or opened the packages, or stumbled over a tripwire.

On February 27, four days before the first bombing, 23-year-old Conditt used his credit card to buy five battery holders with snap connectors from a Fry's Electronics store in the Texas state capital.

All the bombs used the same battery holders that Conditt purchased, according to the affidavit. He also bought nails for shrapnel at the Home Depot but purchased the batteries online.

Fred Milanowski released the now-defunct affidavit for Conditt's arrest at the conference on Monday which revealed all of his bombs consisted of a PVC tube with a metal pipe inside surrounded by shrapnel

Surveillance footage was also located showing a man who looked like Conditt visiting a Home Depot to buy a 'Drive Like Your Kids Live Here' sign.

Investigators believe a similar sign was used in fourth explosion on March 18, which injured two people using a tripwire. A witness told officers they left their house and returned to see the sign, which they had not noticed before.

On March 18, the suspect also bought a six-pack of work gloves matching the ones seen in a video taken from a Sunset Valley FedEx Office store showing him sending two of the package bombs while wearing a wig and a hat.

A store worker who was later interviewed by federal investigators said he saw Conditt drive off in a red truck, which was similar to the Ford Ranger which he was known to use.

One of the packages exploded at a FedEx facility in Schertz on March 20. The other was found at a FexEx site in Brodie Lane, where an x-ray revealed the same battery holders Conditt bought on February 27.

The bomb itself was shown to consist of a PVC tube with a metal pipe inside surrounded by shrapnel, in common with the other devices.

The document still redacts details about some of the witnesses who were interviewed and the exact trigger Conditt used, which was designed to go off when the flap of the package was opened.

The suspect also bought a six-pack of work gloves matching the ones seen in a video taken from a Sunset Valley FedEx Office store showing him sending two of the package bombs while wearing a wig and a hat (pictured on March 18)

Conditt, an unemployed man from the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, died on March 21 after blowing himself up as police ran towards his vehicle, which is pictured being towed away from the scene a day later

Conditt, an unemployed man from the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, died on March 21 after blowing himself up as police ran towards his vehicle.

In a video confession found on his cellphone, Conditt detailed how he made seven bombs. Five exploded, one was recovered before it went off and a seventh he detonated that killed him.

John Bash, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, announced on Monday that although investigators were still ongoing he did not believe the victims were linked.

'The investigation into motive and intent is ongoing. I have not seen information so far to believe that there is a common link between the victims,' he told a news conference.

At this point, authorities do not intend to release the confession, voicing worry it could inspire others.

Investigators work by the side of a road in Travers County, Texas, on March 19 where a day earlier a bomb went off injuring two people

FBI agents collect evidence at a FedEx Office facility following an explosion at a nearby sorting center in Sunset Valley on March 20

Law enforcement officials search for evidence at the location where Conditt blew himself up on March 21

'The subject in the audio confessions says a number of statements that concern us. We just dont want that to live forever on the internet,' said Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of Houston Field Division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

'From the review of past criminals, we are very concerned, and the last thing we want is this to inspire somebody else,' said FBI special agent Christopher Combs, who has been in charge of the federal agency's response.

Authorities on Monday also dropped a federal charge against the deceased bomber, involving receiving, possessing and transferring a destructive device, according to a criminal complaint.

Conditt pictured in a 2010 student ID photo released by Austin Community College

'Multiple other individuals were investigated for potential links to these destructive devices.

'None of those persons were deemed likely to be involved,' a redacted arrest affidavit released on Monday said.

Two roommates of Conditt were questioned and released from custody.

US Attorney John Bash said investigators were looking through Conditt's 'voluminous computer records' for additional clues.

'The investigation continues. We're looking at his intent, his motivations,' Bash told the news conference.

The Austin American-Statesman reported in March that Conditt described himself on the confession recording as a 'psychopath' who had been disturbed since childhood.

'I wish I were sorry but I am not,' Conditt said, according to the newspaper.

The college dropout was also part of a Christian survivalist group called Righteous Invasion of Truth RIOT) that would discuss weapons and dangerous chemicals.
A 22-year-old woman who claims she was raped by an MIT student in her dorm room in 2015 pleaded with a judge on Monday to spare her alleged attacker jail in a courtroom twist which left the judge 'baffled'.

The victim, who has not been named, appeared in court in Massachusetts to address Judge Janet Sanders and her alleged attacker Samson Donick.

She pleaded for the judge to allow Donick, also 22, to accept a deal which would spare him jail and involve community service and probation.

Crucially, the deal would also stop her having to testify before a jury and relive the alleged attack.

Currently, Donick faces at least 10 years imprisonment if convicted of aggravated rape, breaking and entering at night with the intent to commit a felony, burglary, and indecent assault and battery.

He pleaded not guilty in 2016 and his lawyers said he was 'looking forward' to the trial.

On Monday, the alleged victim tearfully tried to stop it from going ahead.

'I have replayed it in my head every day since this happened.,' she said.

Samson Donick, 22, may be spared jail despite allegedly raping a female stranger in her dorm room because the victim herself has begged a judge to let him accept a plea deal . Donick is pictured during a recent hearing in Massachusetts

'My wishes are to resolve this. Its been a very, very hard time, not just for myself, but my family,' the woman, who is an aspiring nurse, said with a trembling voice on Monday.

'Im a young 22-year-old. So is the defendant. And I believe everyone deserves second chances in life.

'What he did to me will never, ever be OK, but I believe this life is short and that the opportunity to make up for it in different ways going forward is important to me'.

Donick was in the courtroom at the time. According to prosecutors, he broke into the victim's dorm room while she was sleeping in October 2015 and raped her.

I have replayed it in my head every day since it happened... what we did to me will never, ever be OK, but I believe the opportunity to make up for it in different ways going forward is important

During the attack, he allegedly ignored her as she begged him to stop and called her 'baby'.

He is also alleged to have asked if she 'wants some more'.

Donick, by the judge's admission, comes from a wealthy California family who paid his $10,000 cash bail in 2016 after he was arrested.

He had denied one count of aggravated rape and one count of assault but was prepared to go to trial to defend himself until Monday when prosecutors, under the insistence of the alleged victim, cobbled together a plea deal.

If Sanders accepts it, Donick will plead guilty to one charge of indecent assault and battery.

He may have to register as a sex offender in California.

As part of his punishment, Judge Sanders said she wanted him to describe in explicit detail how he attacked the girl in 2015 if she allows him to accept.

The victim said she also wanted him to publicly apologize to her.

Judge Janet Sanders is pictured in June 2017. She was stunned by the proposed plea deal on Monday and said it left her 'baffled'

Donick and two other men had been signed into the woman's dorm building by other students at 2am on October 18.

According to the indictment against him, they spent 30 minutes going to at least 10 different dorm rooms to find a specific female student who they knew.

While they looked for her, Donick entered the alleged victim's dorm room and began assaulting her.

She woke up during the alleged attack and screamed, prompting him to flee.

The victim did not immediately report it to police but instead told friends and other students reported to campus authorities that male students had entered their dorm rooms while they slept on the night in question.

According to the victim, the court process has been detrimental to her recovery as a survivor of sexual assault

It triggered a security alert.

Boston University police then reviewed surveillance footage taken from the dorm building and saw Donick and the other men on it.

They then looked at the sign-in book which he'd used before the alleged incident. The victim also gave a description of him which matched his appearance.

On Monday, prosecutors said they were reluctant to put forward the plea deal but that they had the victim's interests at heart.

'The victim has expressed a strong preference not to testify.

'Without that testimony, we would not prevail at trial. Its asking too much of a jury,' District Attorney Jake Wark said.

'According to the victim, the assault itself and the pendency of this case have affected her physically and emotionally. She also indicates that the court process has been detrimental to her recovery as a survivor of sexual assault.

'The victim has informed the Commonwealth that a plea in which the defendant acknowledges his conduct and accepts responsibility for it are far preferable to her than a trial in this case,' he added.

The victim (not pictured) was asleep in her Boston University dorm room on October 18 when, at 2.30am, Donick allegedly broke into her room and began attacking her

On Monday, Judge Sanders was stunned by the proposed deal.

'This has really, truly been sprung on me. I'm just baffled,' she said.

She was reluctant to accept it because of the severity of the alleged charges, she said.

Donick was described by the judge as a 'privileged person from MIT'. His family in California paid his $10,000 cash bail on 2016

'What he did, if he did it, was incredibly serious,' she said.

She also signaled her intention to punish Donick, a privileged white man, in the same way she would anyone else.

'I can see whats in front of my eyes. I see a young defendant with no criminal record and with family support. I also see a defendant who is quite privileged and has money.

'A privileged person from (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) should be treated just like the inner-city black person with no privilege at all,' she said.

Judge Sanders is expected to make a decision on whether or not to accept the plea deal on Tuesday.

Donick's lawyer said he was hopeful he would not have to sign the sexual offenders register in California.

In 2016, after his arraignment, his lawyer said he was confident he would be acquitted at trial.

'We're sure that he's going to be found not guilty, because the American system is to have a jury trial, and that's what he's looking forward to,' Norman Zalkind said.

He added there were 'serious problems with proof' in the case but has not ever put forward what those are.

Donick was thrown out of MIT after his arraignment and has been banned from Massachusetts.


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A woman has been charged after an elderly woman believed to be her neighbour was allegedly strangled with an electrical cord in North Queensland.

Police were called a unit block in Patrick Street in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale on Tuesday afternoon following a physical altercation between two women.

'During the incident, a 73-year-old woman was assaulted with a length of electrical cord prior to a nearby witness intervening,' a Queensland Police statement said.

Emergency services were called to a unit complex in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale following reports of a serious assault of an elderly woman

'The two woman are known to each other. The 73-year-old woman was transported to Townsville Hospital with minor facial injuries.

'A 21-year-old woman is assisting police with their inquiries.'

A Queensland Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday night that the 21-year-old woman has since been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.

She was refused bail and will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning.

Police are investigating initial reports the elderly woman was strangled with the cord and whether she was in a wheelchair.

'We believe she's got some facial injuries there was a small amount of blood at the scene,' Townsville Police duty officer acting Senior Sergeant Greg Frederickson told the Townsville Bulletin.

'We believe she may have been confined to a wheelchair (though) we are not exactly sure why at this stage. There may be some evidence to that fact (that she was strangled) but at this stage we are still trying to piece together what has occurred.'

The woman, 73, was taken to Townville Hospital with minor facial injuries

The alleged incident is understood to be a dispute between two neighbours.

'We want everyone getting along in their different living arrangements,' Sen-Sgt Frederickson told the publication.

'While people have disagreements it is sad when things get physical.'

The investigation by detectives continues.
Scottish woman Sarah Louise McGill, 28, was arrested and charged with lewd or lascivious battery after she allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old boy in an Orlando, Florida hotel last week

A Scottish woman has been arrested in Florida after she was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy in a hotel room for $480.

The 14-year-old made contact with a woman named Sophia Belle when he was searching online for prostitutes last week.

Police later identified that woman from her United Kingdom passport as 28-year-old Sarah Louise McGill and she was arrested on Saturday.

According to her social media profiles, McGill is a professional clinical hypnotherapist and runs her own business in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The victim told police he had reached McGill on Quora.com, according to her arrest report.

McGill and the boy allegedly started texting each other before they arranged to meet at in a Marriott hotel room in Orlando.

The victim told police McGill had met him on the first floor of the hotel near the elevator before taking him up to her room.

According to her social media profiles, McGill is a professional clinical hypnotherapist and runs her own business in Edinburgh, Scotland

The victim told police he had reached McGill (pictured above) on Quora.com, according to her arrest report

McGill was released from Orange County Jail on Monday but was ordered to turn over her UK passport to ensure she remains in Florida

After they had sex, the victim said he paid McGill $480 in mixed denominations of $50's and $20's for her services and left the room.

Police said after speaking with the boy and his father, authorities went to the same hotel room and found McGill there with another man.

They allegedly found condom wrappers, cash and unused condoms inside a safe in her room.

Both the victim and McGill were interviewed by detectives at Orlando Police Department.

McGill was then arrested and charged with lewd or lascivious battery.

She was bonded from Orange County Jail on Monday but was ordered not to have any contact with the victim or engage in any online activity.

McGill was also ordered to turn over her UK passport to ensure she remains in Florida.

The 14-year-old boy told police he made contact with McGill while searching for prostitutes online. He said they met in a Marriott hotel room in Orlando to have sex and he paid her $480
Two huge dinosaur skeletons are up for auction in Paris this week, marketed as hip interior design objects - for those with big enough living rooms.

The 'smaller' of the two, the remains of an allosaurus, is 12.5 feet long and is expected to fetch up to 567,000 ($804,000).

The diplodocus - despite being 39 feet long from nose to tail - has a guide price of 392,000 to 436,000 ($557,000 to $618,000).

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Two for one? The skeletons of an allosaurus and a diplodocus are up for auction in Paris this week, marketed as hip interior design objects

Both skeletons are being put under the hammer at Paris-based auction house Binoche et Giquello on Wednesday.

Dinosaur bones are increasingly gracing collectors' cabinets, with another huge skeleton, that of a theropod, expected to fetch up to 1.3million ($1.84 million) when it goes up for auction in June.

'The fossil market is no longer just for scientists,' Iacopo Briano of the Binoche et Giquello acution house said.

'Dinosaurs have become cool, trendy - real objects of decoration, like paintings,' Briano added, citing Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage as fans of such outsize prehistoric ornaments.

Flatpack dinosaur: The diplodocus, which measures 39 feet long from nose to tail, is being assembled in the auction house

Cut-price for size: Despite being the bigger of the two, the diplodocus is slightly cheaper with a guide price of 392,000 to 436,000

Lil one: The allosaurus is 12.5 feet long and is expected to fetch up to 567,000

Cage, however, did hand back the rare skull of a tyrannosaurus bataar, a close cousin of T. rex, that he bought in 2007 after it was found to have been stolen and illegally taken out of Mongolia.

'For the last two or three years the Chinese have become interested in palaeontology and have been looking for big specimens of dinosaurs found on their soil, for their museums or even for individuals,' Mr Briano said.

The new buyers are now bidding against multinational corporations as well as ultra-rich Europeans and Americans, the 'traditional' buyers of dinosaur skeletons, Mr Briano added.

In 1997, McDonald's and Walt Disney were among donors stumping up $8.36 million (5.9 million) to buy Sue - the most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever found - for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

'Millions of people come to see it, it's incredible publicity for companies,' said Eric Mickeler, a natural history expert for the Aguttes auction house.

Palaeontologists acknowledge that many fossils that go on the block are of limited scientific interest, but important specimens do go up for auction and can, as in Sue's case, be bought through acts of patronage.

Both the dinosaurs are from the Jurassic age, making them 161-145 million years old

Dinosaur bones are increasingly gracing collectors' cabinets, according to the auction house

Not for everybody: Around five dinosaurs are put up for auction around the world every year

The market remains small and 'isn't for everybody', Mr Mickeler said.

Only around five dinosaurs are put up for auction around the world every year.

The allosaurus which goes on sale Wednesday, among 87 lots of natural artefacts, is smaller than the diplodocus but will still fetch more at auction.

Carnivores like the allosaurus often fetch more than herbivores as 'people like the teeth,' Mr Mickeler said.

The price also goes up if the skeleton shows traces of a fight or an incurable illness, as well as if it is considered rare, has a high percentage of verified bones, or a particularly impressive skull.

Piece of the puzzle: Two experts put together the allosaurus piece-by-piece

Open wide: A scientific consultant checks the teeth of the allosaurus

'We recently sold a very beautiful piece to a Venetian family, they have a magnificent big room in which the dinosaur is perfectly at ease,' Mr Briano said.

But Ronan Allain, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris, denounced 'completely nonsensical' prices.

'It's the luxury world, it's not for people like us,' he said.

'We could decide to buy it pre-emptively, but for the theropod, for example, that would mean shelling out more than a million,' he said.
The Good Friday Agreements 20th anniversary was marked in April 2018 with a conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland that saw former US President Bill Clinton, ex UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in attendance.

Hillary Clinton, who helped to create the peace deal with her husband Bill in 1998, has also warned that if Brexit is allowed to undermine what is also referred to as the Belfast Agreement and a hard border is put in place in Ireland, it could mean a return to the bad old days.

These are difficult times for Northern Ireland, and for our world. As the Brexit debate rages on, I continue to believe in the value of the European Union, and of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace. But no matter the outcome of these discussions, we cannot allow Brexit to undermine the peace that people voted, fought and even died for.

Hillary Clinton pictured with her husband and the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004

She went on to adapt part of a 1998 speech by Tony Blair to say: If short-term interests take precedent over solving the long-term challenges that still exist in Northern Ireland, then it is clear that the hand of history will be both heavy and unforgiving.

These comments in The Guardian come after Brexit secretary David Davis said the Irish government had been influenced by Sinn Fein in Britain's withdrawal from the EU and revealed that the border impasse had become harder to resolve since Leo Varadkar became Prime Minister.

The Good Friday Agreement was agreed upon after 30 years of violence and the 20th anniversary of the deal will be marked with talks chaired by former US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland George Mitchell. But what is the Belfast Agreement?

What is the Good Friday Agreement?

The Good Friday Agreement helped to end 30 years of sectarian conflict, that were also known as 'The Troubles'. This conflict began when Northern Ireland separated from the rest of Ireland in the 1920s and away from British rule.

Northern Ireland was then divided in two groups, the Unionists or the Loyalists, who wanted to remain a part of the UK and the Nationalists or the Republicans, who preferred the independence.

Catholics protested after being discriminated against in the predominantly Protestant north and from the 1970s, violence erupted between armed groups on both sides. British troops were sent to the area, but came up against the largest of the Republican groups, the Irish Republican Army, or the IRA.

The IRA bombed areas of Britain and Northern Ireland and Loyalists in groups like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) were also responsible for many deaths. In 1972, the situation became markedly more serious as the IRA began targeting police officers and British army soldiers on the street.

Davis: The border impasse has become harder to resolve since Leo Varadkar became Irish PM

14 people were killed by British troops during a peaceful protest led by the Catholics and Republicans in Derry and in a day that became known as Bloody Sunday, dampening hope that Northern Ireland would ever be peaceful again.

However, in the 1990s, the IRA announced a ceasefire and after two years of discussions and 30 years of the Troubles, the Good Friday agreement was signed.

A new government was formed with power being shared between the Unionists and the Nationalists in a group called the Northern Ireland Assembly. Every house in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was sent a copy of the agreement before the referendum was held in May 1998.

The two countries voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Assembly took their seats in December. However, those who were against the peace, continued violence and in 2002, the Assembly was suspended and the UK government had to take over decision-making.

In 2007, power was returned and the British army ended its operations in Northern Ireland, but ten years later, the deal collapsed and has yet to be restored.

When was the Belfast Agreement signed?

The Belfast Agreement was signed on Friday, April 10, 1998 at 5:30pm and on the day the deal was reached, US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland George Mitchell stated: I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached an agreement.

Who signed the Good Friday Agreement?

The Good Friday Agreement was signed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, SDLP leader John Hume, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein member Martin McGuinness and Labour Party politician Marjorie 'Mo' Mowlam.

David Davis said the Irish government had been influenced by Sinn Fein in its Brexit policy

Why did the DUP oppose the Belfast Agreement?

Despite the GFA deal gaining widespread support across Ireland, Ian Paisleys DUP was the only major party to oppose it, believing it would scupper a union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

However, distrust between parties caused problems when the agreement was first put in place, but Tony Blair managed to win over Ian Paisley. Issues also arose in 2017 when Martin McGuinness resigned as Sinn Fein deputy first minister after accusing the DUP of arrogance while handling an energy scheme.

The DUPs Arlene Foster resigned and the Assembly collapsed, with McGuinness dying later in March 2017. Despite offers of help from Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the DUP and Sinn Fein remain at loggerheads.

Speaking in Belfast on April 10 2018, former DUP leader Peter Robinson said that he was right to oppose the Belfast Agreement.

Most people when they talk about the Belfast Agreement are talking about a wider process - it seems to have taken on some of the events that took place almost four years before it and every agreement that happened afterwards.

So if we are talking about a process that has at its heart compromise, partnership, people working together to make progress, then I think the whole community should support that. The specifics of the Belfast Agreement itself, clearly I opposed - I think I was right in opposing it.

Does the Tory-DUP alliance affect the Good Friday Agreement?

Despite the UK government remaining impartial when dealing with the unionists and the nationalists, a direct alliance with the DUP would change this.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams warned that a Tory-DUP alliance would lead to a 'coalition of chaos' and could put the GFA at risk.

Alongside this, when writing for The Guardian, Jonathan Powell, the chief negotiator at the Belfast Agreement talks, said that the partnership was 'a terrible mistake with lasting consequences' that 'would risk undermining 20 years of hard work'.

Will Brexit be affected by the Belfast Agreement?

Brexit secretary David Davis's comments about the Irish government being influenced by Sinn Fein in Britain's withdrawal from the EU could present some issues if a hard border is proposed.

While Britain, Ireland and the EU have all stated that they want to avoid a hard border, many believe this is not possible with Theresa May's promise of a frictionless border while also leaving the EU customs border.

While the DUP oppose a united Ireland as an alternative to remaining in the EU, Sinn Fein are touting it and officials fear that a return to before the Good Friday Agreement could occur, according to The Guardian.

Former US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland George Mitchell warned that direct rule and a hard border could lead to a return of the violence seen from the 1970s on BBC's Today programme.

George Mitchell said that a hard border would result in 'stereotyping resuming, demonisation resuming and people turn inward', and a lack of power-sharing could lead to 'regressive forces' becoming violent again.

Leaders should see this as a 'dangerous signal...and act before there is a regression,' he added.
This is the shocking moment morality vigilantes attacked a terrified woman for 'walking in public with a Muslim man' in India.

The victim can be heard screaming as men surround her and launch their attack in broad daylight on a street in Golapara, north-eastern India.

As she cried out in pain, one of the thugs appeared to kick her in the groin and another pulled her around by her hair as she tried to phone for help.

Others used their fists and feet in the sustained attack which left the 22-year-old clutching her face and sobbing.

Footage captures the shocking moment morality vigilantes attacked a terrified woman for 'walking in public with a Muslim man' in India

The victim can be heard screaming as men surround her and launch their attack in broad daylight on a street in Golapara, north-eastern India. As she cried out in pain, one of the thugs appeared to kick her in the groin and another pulled her around by her hair as she tried to phone for help

The attack began when the woman - a member of the local Garo community - was stopped for walking with a Muslim man.

While much of the footage focuses on her ordeal, one clip shows a mob surrounding the man she was with and punching and kicking him until he cowered on the ground in fear.

Local police say they believe the pair were attacked because the mob thought they were in a relationship.

Officials say 12 men have been arrested on allegations of illegal moral policing.

Regional police chief Amitabha Sinha told local media: 'We have registered a case. Twelve persons have been detained and we are trying to zero in on the main accused.'

Others used their fists and feet in the sustained attack which left the 22-year-old clutching her face and sobbing

While much of the footage focuses on her ordeal, one clip shows a mob surrounding the man she was with and punching and kicking him until he cowered on the ground in fear

Sinha said the woman was engaged to be married and she was going to a medical centre with the man when the angry mob spotted her.

The attackers then challenged the pair over her appearance in public with another man.

The attack has sparked anger among women's rights groups and social media users in India.

Activist Jaynie Sangma said: 'See the gruesome way she was beaten. It is clear from the video that people were slapping her, kicking her in full public view and no one came forward to (help) her.'
Animal activists are planning to display billboards in two Texas border towns calling for the deportation of Donald Trump Jr.

The boards, which will be paid for by PETA, feature text reading 'deport callous cheating opportunists now' alongside a picture of Trump Jr on a hunting trip.

Echoing President Trump's previous words on deporting illegal immigrants, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it was time to get rid of 'this Undesirable'.

PETA will pay for billboards in two Texas border towns demanding that Donald Trump Jr be deported, featuring a picture of him holding an elephant hunting trophy

Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, hit out at 'undesirable' Trump Jr for traveling abroad to kill animals because of his 'male insecurity'

Newkirk told Huffington Post: 'While people are fleeing to the U.S. to escape violence, overprivileged, callous, cheating louts like Donald Trump Jr. are flying overseas to gun down living, feeling beings just for fun.'

She also called Trump Jr a 'bad hombre', in another echo of his father's words.

In the advert, the President's eldest son is shown holding up a severed elephant tail which he collected from an animal he shot while hunting in Africa in 2012.

Defending his behavior at the time, Trump Jr said he had never tried to hide the fact that he hunts big game along with younger brother Eric.

As well as killing an elephant, the brothers also shot crocodile, kudu, civet, leopard and waterbuck on the same trip.

Trump Jr and brother Eric have been pictured on safari in Zimbabwe in 2011 where they shot a range of large game, including waterbuck

Confronted with the images in 2012, Trump Jr said he had never tried to hide the fact that he is a hunter and supports the practice

Last year the Trump administration lifted a ban on importing elephant trophies collected from animals shot in Zimbabwe and and Zambia, saying that money paid to hunt the animals would help with their conservation.

Following public outcry Trump decided to reverse the decision, describing the sport as a 'horror show' and saying he did not agree that it would help the species.

But in March this year the administration quietly overturned that ruling, saying it would allow trophies to be imported on a 'case-by-case basis'.

In June, the Fish and Wildlife Service also removed longstanding protections for grizzly bears near Yellowstone National Park, potentially allowing them to be hunted.

The department also quietly began issuing permits in October allowing African lions killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia to be imported.
White House national security advisor Tom Bossert became the latest top aide to bail on the Trump administration, as it was confirmed he will be leaving his position.

His departure comes on just the second day on the job for hawkish new national security advisor John Bolton, who is making moves to install his own team in the White House security apparatus.

Friday was fired national security advisor H.R. McMaster's last day on the job.

Bolton, the former UN ambassador who carved out hawkish positions on Iran and North Korea as a presidential candidate, is expected to bring in a cadre of people loyal to him and President Trump.

OUT: Homeland Security advisor Thomas Bossert is leaving the Trump administration, after new national security advisor John Bolton came in

Bossert left at the urging of Bolton, Bloomberg News reported.

Bossert took steps to publicly promote the administration's agenda including Trump's new plan to send troops to the border,

'The President is grateful for Toms commitment to the safety and security of our great country, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

'Tom led the White Houses efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well,' she added.

On Sunday, NSC spokesman Michael Anton announced his resignation, an indication that Bolton is implementing staff changes.

Late last week, Trump announced a plan to send guard troops to the border but top officials didn't reveal the number, the cost, or the plan of action.

Bossert defended the plan on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday.

GOOD TIME FOR AN INTERNATIONAL VACATION: Homeland Security Adviser to President Donald Trump, Tom Bossert, here briefing reporters on a cyber attack, is leaving the Trump administration

EMPOWERED: President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with national security adviser John Bolton in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018, at the start of a meeting with military leaders

Bossert's departure came on security advisor John Bolton's second day on the job

'Weve got a leaking boat on our border, and were all quibbling with how much waters in the boat.  What were doing is taking action now at the appropriate time instead of waiting as others have in the past,' he said.

Bossert has served since the administration's onset, advising the president on cybersecurity and helping develop the administration's response to hurricanes which ravaged the Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico.

The administration sometimes put him forward to address reporters or field media interviews to sell controversial policies on immigration.

The staff shuffling comes as President Trump adjust to key departures  the loss of previous National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and longtime press aid Hope Hicks.

National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton announced his resignation Sunday, a day before his head was reportedly on the chopping block

RECOVERY FROM THE STORM: President Donald Trump meets with Governor Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico in the Oval Office at the White House on October 19, 2017 in Washington, D.C. The two were joined by Vice President Mike Pence (2nd R) and Tom Bossert, Homeland Security Advisor (R). Trump and Rossello spoke about the continuing recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria

The president himself has announced sudden policy changes, saying the U.S. would soon pull out troops from Syria, announcing a plan to send thousand of national guard troops to the southern border, and hinting at the possibility of a response to a a believed chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Just six weeks ago, he penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal making the legal case for the right to a first strike on North Korea.
Israel's Labour party has cut ties with Jeremy Corbyn as they blasted him for being 'hostile' to the Jewish community.

Its leader Avi Gabbay accused Mr Corbyn of allowing anti-Semitism among his supporters.

The dramatic move comes after Mr Corbyn's leadership of labour has been thrown into crisis by repeated anti-Semitism scandals.

Mr Gabbay wrote to the UK Labour leader saying: 'It is my responsibility to acknowledge the hostility you have shown to the Jewish community and the anti-Semitic statements and actions you have allowed as leader of the Labour party UK.'

It comes after Mr Corbyn has faced protests and widespread criticism for turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism among his supporters.

Avi Gabbay, leader of Israel's Labour Party accused Jeremy Corbyn of allowing anti-Semitism among his supporters

Film star Maureen Lipman joined hundreds of furious protesters outside Labour HQ, at the weekend where she said that 'Corbyn made me a Tory'.

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

The Jewish actress said she was attending 'as a disenfranchised socialist' and she could never return to the party with an 'anti-Semite at its head'.

Some 250 demonstrators gathered in Westminster today to criticise the Labour leader's approach to tackling anti-Semitism in the party.

The protest was called after the Board of Deputies took the unprecedented step of organising a demonstration outside Parliament a fortnight before in a protest at Mr Corbyn's inaction.

Several moderate Labour MPs attended the demonstration - but they were inundated with hate mail and threatened with deselection by Corbynistas who accused them of trying to smear the leader.

Mr Corbyn has promised to step up efforts to tackle anti-Semitism among his supporters as he scrambles to try to stem criticism.

And he is due to meet with Jewish leaders in the coming weeks where they are expected to demand that ken Livingstone is expelled from the party.

The former London Mayor and long time Corbyn ally is currently suspended after saying that Hitler supported Zionism.

But Labour was hit y a fresh anti-Semitism scandal yesterday after it emerged one of the party's minorities officers posted images comparing Israel to the Nazis.

Dorian Bartley, an officer with Labour's Gipsy Hill branch in south London, also shared posts which accuse the Government of pedaling anti-Russian news.

And he shared a post defending the mural which sparked the recent protests against Mr Corbyn - contradicting the Labour leader who admitted it was.

He also shared images attacking leading Labour moderates including Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn of coming to Theresa May's aid against Mr Corbyn.

Labour sources said Mr Bartley has been suspended from the party yesterday.

In one Facebook message Mr Bartley shared an image of Adolf Hitler doing the Nazi salute with the words 'we are the master race' alongside an image of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
A former member of the Trump team made an appearance at the New York City hotel where Michael Cohen is staying on Tuesday.

Corey Lewandowski was photographed stopping by the Loews Regency Hotel, with the one-time campaign manager for Trump smiling as he left following what looked to be a breakfast meeting.

He was seen sitting alone at a table before being joined by a man, at which point hotel staff shut the blinds.

His visit came one day after the FBI raided the room where Cohen was staying at the hotel.

It is also coincidentally the same hotel where embattled MMA fighter Conor McGregor is staying while in New York City.

Familiar face: Corey Lewandowski had breakfast at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City on Tuesday morning (above)

Friend: The one-time campaign manager for Trump smiled as he left following what looked to be a breakfast meeting

No one around: He was seated alone for some time and then joined by another man before the staff closed the blinds

The US attorney who was appointed by President Donald Trump and believed to have requested a search warrant for the office and home of Cohen recused himself from the case prior to Monday's raid.

Cohen, the longtime lawyer for President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.

ABC News is reporting now that Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, had stepped down from his role prior to the raid.

It was also revealed at the same time that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, personally signed off on the investigation.

Rosenstein also signed off on Berman's decision to recuse himself from the investigation.

Berman, the acting attorney for the district, is a supporter of President Trump who donated $5400 to his campaign and is a partner with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig.

He was appointed to his post in January, nine months after Preet Bharara was fired from his post after refusing to resign.

Berman had previously served as the assistant US attorney for the same district between 1990 to 1994 under presidents Bush and Clinton.
The authorities are reconsidering after it emerged they didn't remove the animal

Campaigners have launched a viral petition to save the dog from being put down

Members of the public in Germany have launched an online petition to stop Chico the dog from being put down after he mauled his disabled owner and her son to death last week.

The owners, named by authorities as Lezime K, 52, and her son Liridon, 27, were found dead on the floor of their Hanover home after Chico attacked them last Tuesday.

But authorities have been forced to reconsider whether to put the dog down after more than 250,000 signed a petition to let him live.

The campaign on Change.org called for the animal to be allowed to live because of the city authorities' failure to remove him from his owners - despite being a powerful dog, trained to fight.

Udo Moller, a Hanover city spokesman, said: An expert appraisal, had it been carried out, would have led to the the owner being banned from keeping this animal.

A viral campaign on Change.org has led German authorities to reconsider their decision

Chico, pictured in a cage after being caught by firefighters attending the scene of the mauling

The bodies of wheelchair-bound Lezime and Liridon were discovered by Lezime's daughter, who had gone to their flat after failing to reach them.

When she arrived at the flat, she saw her brother's maimed corpse through a window and called police.

Local police said firefighters had to be called to catch the dog - a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross - before they were able to enter the flat.

An autopsy later revealed they had both died from loss of blood.

Moller said authorities were investigating the possibility of placing the animal in a secure facility for dogs with behavioural difficulties.

We are looking into whether such a facility would be able to ensure the dog was no longer a danger for the public, he said.

According to local media, Lezine bought herself the dog after her husband went to prison for attacking her with an axe - an incident which left her needing to use a wheelchair.

She reportedly chose to get the animal to protect her son and herself.

Lezime and Liridon's home in Hanover, Germany where the pair were attacked by Chico

Emergency: Police and firefighters on the crime scene after the daughter reported the incident

But back In 2011, a social worker arranged for the womans son, then 20, who had learning difficulties, to take the dog to a trainer after recognising that the family was unable to cope with its 'permanent aggression'.

The social worker said in a report at the time that she was convinced the dog 'had been trained to be a fighting machine'.

On the dog trainers advice, the veterinary inspection office was due to have ruled on whether the dog would be allowed to stay with the family.

After the owner failed to present the animal to authorities, however, there appears to have been no follow-up.

Scores of people have demonstrated outside the veterinary inspection office in Hanover, appealing to it not to put Chico down.

The dog home Tierheim Hannover, where Chico has been kept in a cage since its capture, has reportedly received hundreds of requests from people willing to give it a new home.

On Monday, another Staffordshire-cross dog mauled a seven-month-old baby to death in its home in Bad Koenig, near Frankfurt.

The infant received huge bite wounds on his head, and despite his 23-year-old father rushing him to hospital, he died a few hours after the attack.

The dog home where Chico was sent has received hundreds of letters from protesters
And foreign companies have begun to sell more cars in Japan, with few complaints about Japans trade policies. The number of imports of U.S. vehicles in Japan shrank 15 percent between 2013 and 2016, to 19,933, while imports from the European Union grew five percent in that time period, to 251,115, according to Urata. Brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW saw sales grew 60 percent and 23 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2016.
A Russian whistleblower who may have have been poisoned refused to meet lawyers in his homeland because he was fearful for his life, an inquest heard today .

Alexander Perepilichnyy collapsed and died suddenly while jogging near his 3m St Georges Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, on November 10, 2012.

He had been assisting a specialist investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management, expose a 150million Russian money laundering operation at the time of his death.

His inquest heard that at the time of his death, he was being pursued for cash by a Russian company owned by Dmitry Kovtun, one of the men accused of murdering former FSB operative Alexander Litvinenko with a cup of tea laced with polonium.

Alexander Perepilichnyy, pictured, was found dead near his 3 million home on St George's Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, on November 10, 2012

On the day he died, Mr Perepilichnyy had been out jogging around his country estate, pictured

Perepilichnyys life insurance firm Legal and General (L&G) have suggested the 44-year-old may have been spiked with a deadly vegetable planted in his sorrel soup on the day he collapsed.

Buzzfeed also reported claims that the multi-millionaire businessman was likely assassinated on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Staff who discovered Perepilichnyys body in his high-security estate saw nothing suspicious about his death, and paramedics said it looked like a textbook cardiac arrest.

The long running inquest resumed at the Old Bailey today with the Recorder of London, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC hearing fresh evidence ahead of a ruling on whether or not he was poisoned.

Lawyer Dimitry Lipkin, who met Perepilichny in 2010, told the inquest: Alexander asked us to deal with a few matters on his behalf, mostly those matters were concerning his debts and he approached us as a physical person, privately.

There were four or five bases to that, and all these matters had a very complicated destiny. And when I say destiny I mean proceedings destiny as court proceedings destiny, so they were very complicated.

The court heard Richat Ismagilov, Perepilichnys brother in law, was granted the lawyer power of attorney, meaning he could act on Perepilichnys behalf without taking instruction.

Mr Lipkin said he was first briefed by Perepilichnyy in Autumn 2010, following coversations over Skype and telephone, before meeting personally in a restaurant in Regent Street accompanied by his partner Oleg Ruchka.

Peter Skelton QC, for the coroner, asked why he didnt fly to Russia, and the lawyer said: He didnt want to fly to Russia.

When asked why, Mr Lipkin added: We had information which was used in proceedings that he didnt come to Russia because he was fearful for his life.

The barrister asked: Was the threat from a person or an organisation?

Mr Lipkin replied: I do not have any concrete information about this but I know one fact, that he did not take any action in this matter.

As far as I am aware he did not try to open any criminal matters and he did not contact law enforcement authorities.

The inquest heard claims that Mr Perepilichnyy's debts had been purchased by a Russian company founded by Dmitry Kovtun, who is accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko

When asked how he knew that, Mr Lipkin told the court it was because he did not do it through us.

As far as you are aware, did Mr Perepilichnyy ever tell Mr Ruchka about the threats to his safety? Mr Skelton asked.

After Mr Lipkin said he had done, in the same way he discussed it with me, Mr Skelton continued: Since Mr Perepilichnyy died, have you spoken with Mr Ruchka about Mr Perepilichnyys death?

The Russian replied: Only in the format that has already been covered in the newspapers.

Mr Skelton inquired as to whether his partner is aware of any information about who may have threatened or killed Mr Perepilichnyy.

As far as I am aware, no, Mr Likpin said.

When asked whether the threat was to his personal safety, or his finances he explained they were only instructed for limited civil matters and were not his strategic lawyers.

The inquest heard that Perepilichnyy only mentioned the threats in the very early stages and did not bring them up again.

To be clear, are you aware of anyone from Russia who has ever threatened Mr Perepilichnyy? asked Mr Skelton.

Are you aware of any organised criminals who may have threatened Mr Perepilichnyy?

Mr Lipkin answered No to both questions before Mr Skelton asked: Did Mr Perepilichnyy ever speak of his connection with an alleged fraud involving Hermitage Capital Management?

The Russian said he was aware of it through media reports as the firm handled other matters concerning the company.

He could not be sure when they first knew of their clients involvement in it but confirmed it was before he died.

The inquest heard that the firm retained some of Perepilichnyys associates and relatives after his death but none of them offered any insight or opinion as to the cause.

So, even though there was this speculation in the national media, certainly here in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, that Mr Perepilichnyy may have been murdered, none of his relatives or associates expressed any view as to whether that is or is not true? asked Mr Skelton.

No, confirmed the lawyer.

After telling the court he could not offer any opinions on Mr Ruchkas behalf, he added: He was threatened and he left Russia.

But who he was threatened by, I do not know.

The inquest heard Mr Perepilichnyy was being chased for money by a company owned by Dmitry Kovtun, who is accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, pictured

Mr Skelton asked whether his partner thought Perepilichnyy was threatened in connection with the Hermitage fraud.

All of this is just allegations, Mr Lipkin responded, I do not have any facts.

The inquest also heard that a company founded by a man accused by British authorities of murdering former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko claimed Perepilichnyy had owed him money.

The firm, Dzhirsa LLC bought Perepilichnys debts and tried to enforce them through the courts, but Hermitage Capital Management proved that it was not his signature on company documents.

Mr Skelton asked Mr Lipkin if he had heard of and link between Dmitry Kovtun and Dzhirsa LLC.

He said:I have heard that surname somewhere but I dont remember whether there was any connection.

The coroner explained that Kovtun was found by a UK High Court judge to have murdered Alexander Litvinenko.

Lipkin explained he had heard of Kovtun because it was quite a big case.

Dzhirsa was founded by Kovtun, a former military intelligence officer suspected of spiking Litvinenkos tea with polonium.

Mr Skelton asked: Were you aware to a connection between Mr Kovtun and Dzhirsa LLC?

I dont remember such details, it is possible, said Lipkin.

Mr Skelton asked Lipkin: Is Dzhirsa the type of company that, if it doesnt succeed in court, may resort to a threat of physical violence?

I dont know, said Lipkin through the Russian interpreter.

Perepilichny was not present at the proceedings because he feared for his life, Lipkin told the Old Bailey, although the lawyer claims he was only told this verbally and has no hard evidence for this.

Mr Skelton said: I understand that but really you told the judge that Mr Perepilichny was outside Russia because he feared for his life, did she ask any questions about that?

Lipkin said: I dont remember those details.

Mr Skelton asked the Moscow-based lawyer: Leaving aside the Dzhirsa litigation, which we will come back to, were any of the debts that he was acting in respect of connected to persons or organisations with criminal associations?

After a brief pause of discussion with the interpreter, Lipkin said: He didnt want to fly to Russia, we had information which was used in preoceedings that he didnt come to Russia, he was fearful for his life.

Mr Skelton said: Are you aware of any threats to Mr Peripilichnys life outside this judgement?

Probably not, said Lipkin.

Mr Skelton asked: Are you aware of any information other than what you have read in the newspapers to suggest that Mr Perepilichnys life was in danger prior to his death?

Lipkin said: Just in general, I dont know anything specific.

Mr Skelton said: Do you have any other information that is relevant to Mr Perepilichnys death, yes or no?

No, said Lipkin, apart from what I have already said.

Mr Skelton asked: Do you have any other information as to motive, motive to kill Mr Perepilichny - yes or no?

Lipkin said that he did not.

Do you know anyone that might have any information to that effect, either that he was being threatened or that somebody was trying to kill him? asked Mr Skelton.

No, said Lipkin.

The inquest continues.
A band teacher in Texas accused of improper relationships with two of his students has arranged a plea bargain to avoid going to jail.

Timothy Edward Lyen was charged with two counts of having an inappropriate relationship with a student and one of online solicitation.

He has admitted to engaging in sexually charged relationships with the pair, both band members in the spring of 2016, click2houston.com reported.

Timothy Edward Lyen was charged with two counts of having an inappropriate relationship with a student and one of online solicitation

Lawyers for Lyen acknowledged what he did is wrong and acknowledged the pain he has caused the affected families

One of the students at the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District school in Fort bent County was 18 years old and the other was 15 years old.

According to the victims' families, Lyen sent texts containing nude pictures of himself soliciting sex from the two girls.

The father of the 15-year-old girl told the court Monday he discovered over 1,500 texts sent to his daughter in an eight-day period, which included photos of Lyen performing a sex act.

Lyen avoided potential prison time with the plea deal entered Monday.

In return for Lyen's plea of guilty to one of the charges, he will serve 10 years of probation, register as a sex offender and serve 300 hours of community service.

'Mr. Lyen acknowledges what he did is wrong. And acknowledges the pain he has caused these families. And as he seeks counseling he hopes they will, too,' defense attorney David W. Kiatta said.

But the victims' families are not in a forgiving mood, click2 reported, which was made abundantly clear to him as he was forced to listen to impact statements from one of the victims and three parents.

They described the victims as still depressed, anxious and undergoing therapy.

'I know you're not the slightest bit sorry for what you did. You're sorry you got caught,' one mother said.

If Lyen successfully completes his probation he will be rehabilitated into society. His criminal record will be wiped clean and he will no longer have to register as a sex offender.

Lyen is currently living in New Braunfels in Central Texas.
The lawyer of a fitness instructor suspected of murdering a Texas student, dismembering her body and burning the remains in 2016, has claimed that her client did not kill the woman but panicked after she died during sex.

Glynis McGinty, said during her opening statement on Monday that Jacqueline Vandagriff, 24, died while she and her client Charles Bryant, 31, had consensual 'kinky' sex.

Bryant faces a first-degree murder charge in the grisly death of Vandagriff whose scorched and mutilated body was discovered by firefighters in a plastic children's swimming pool on September 14, 2016.

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The lawyer of Charles Bryant (pictured in court Monday), who is suspected of murdering a Texas student and dismembering her body in 2016, has claimed her client panicked after the woman died during sex

Attorney Glynis McGinty (pictured), said during her opening statement on Monday that Jacqueline Vandagriff, 24, died while she and her client Bryant, 31, had consensual 'kinky' sex

Bryant faces a first-degree murder charge in the grisly death of Jacqueline Vandagriff (right), 24, whose scorched and mutilated body was discovered by firefighters in a plastic children's swimming pool in September 14, 2016

McGinty then claimed that after the pair had sex Bryant panicked and went to a Wal-Mart in Haslet near his home and bought a shovel with plans to bury Vandagriff, according to WFAA.

Bryant's attorney argued that her client is guilty of tampering with evidence, not murder.

Vandagriff was a junior at Texas Woman's University (TWU) in Denton, where she was majoring in nutrition.

Vandagriff was a junior at Texas Woman's University (TWU) in Denton, where she was majoring in nutrition

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Lucas Allen said in opening statements that 'Jackie had just started a new path at TWU.'

'It was a good path until an evil destructive figure, Charles Bryant, stepped into her path,' Allen said.

On the night Vandagriff was murdered, she reportedly met Bryant at a bar in Denton. Surveillance footage showed them together at two different bars the night before her body was found.

In December 2016, Bryant was indicted on a capital murder charge for allegedly killing Vandagriff using a zip tie, a knife or machete, 'and an unknown object'.

Court documents stated that a hacksaw that may have had hair on the blade was found at Bryant's home, along with a zip tie with traces of 'hair fibers' on it.

Vandagriff's body had been cut up and burned, and was in a plastic children's swimming pool when it was found.

A witness told police at the time that they saw a man standing over the fire before leaving, according to an arrest report.

Medical examiners identified the victim by her fingerprints. Four days later, Bryant was arrested near his home.

On the night Vandagriff was murdered, she reportedly met Bryant at a bar (pictured) in Denton

Surveillance footage showed them together at two different bars the night before her body was found

Police said security footage showed Vandagriff leaving Fry Street Public House (left) with Bryant, and later they were seen at Shots and Crafts bar (right) together around 11pm

During their investigation, authorities found a handgun, shotgun, .22-caliber rifle, as well as knives and other weapons, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Vandagriff's purse was located in a bin at Bryant's home, in addition to the other evidence, among them a possible bone fragment and fire pit remains, according to police.

Cellphone signals indicated the student's phone was near Bryant's home on the morning of September 14.

Vandagriff, from Frisco, Texas, was last seen alive on surveillance video leaving a bar with Bryant on the night of September 13.

Bryant was also caught on camera buying a shovel from a Walmart shortly before 5am.

Vandagriff's purse was located in a bin at Bryant's home, in addition to the other evidence, among them a possible bone fragment and fire pit remains, according to police. Cellphone signals indicated the student's phone was near Bryant's home on September 14

According to his Facebook page, Bryant had worked at Procore Fitness, and police said he also worked at the Urban Cowboy Saloon - a gay dance club.

Bryant was arrested twice in the weeks just before Vandagriff was killed, as a result of a series of incidents with his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend who filed a protective order against him.

He was arrested on August 25, 2016, for showing up at his ex's University of North Texas dorm room, and again on September 6 when he returned to her dorm and said he 'had something for her'.

In September 2017, police said they examined the contents of Bryant's phone and came upon 'images suspected to be child pornography'.

He was then hit with a child pornography charge.

Bryant was indicted on a single third-degree felony count of possession of photos and videos showing children in sexual situations.

He has remained in Tarrant County Jail on bail totaling $1.075million.

Bryant faces life in prison if convicted of first degree murder.
Haji Mohamed, 8, was struck by a bus on Monday afternoon as he was crossing a street near his home in Omaha, Nebraska

The mother of an eight-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a school bus that dropped him off moments earlier near his home has forgiven the driver.

In order to let him go free, you have to forgive, said Amina Khamis, 30.

It was an accident.

Her son, Haji Mohamed, 8, was struck by a bus on Monday afternoon as he was crossing a street near his home in Omaha, Nebraska.

Haji was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Hours after the tragedy, Khamis gathered dozens of friends and relatives on her front lawn  just 100 feet from where her son was struck by the bus.

She said she had accepted the fact that her son was gone.

It was written before he was born, Khamis said.

It was his time to go.

Khamis said that she forgives the driver, 33-year-old Ashleigh Avant, because her Muslim faith commands her to do so.

Haji was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had seven siblings

Amina Khamis, the boy's 30-year-old mother, said that she forgives the driver, 33-year-old Ashleigh Avant (above), because it was an accident

Surveillance video shows the moments just before Haji Mohamed was hit by the yellow school bus (seen above behind the white bus)

Surveillance footage captured from a nearby home shows Haji darting into the street just as the bus was driving along the route

Omaha police seal off the street where the accident took place and investigate

Authorities say that Avant is not a suspect as of Tuesday morning, though the investigation is ongoing.

Surveillance footage captured from a nearby home shows Haji darting into the street just as the bus was driving along the route, KETV reported.

Haji was a well-liked second-grader. He was so beloved that his teachers went to the Omaha hospital where he was pronounced dead on Monday.

He always smiles, his mother said. He never, ever stops smiling.

Haji was a well-liked second-grader. He was so beloved that his teachers went to the Omaha hospital where he was pronounced dead on Monday

Haji had seven siblings. He was born in the United States after his family fled violence in their homeland of Kenya.

Nobody is happy today, the boys uncle, Khamis Khamis, 35, said.

Nobody is feeling good.

At this time, Omaha Public Schools administrators, Student Transportation of America and OPS Student Transportation are cooperating with the Omaha Police Department as they investigate the incident, Omaha Public Schools said in a statement.

'Administrators are also supporting and working with the family of the student,' the statement said.

Video Courtesy KMTV:
Controversial Muslim commentator Yassmin Abdel Magied will return to the screens around the country with a new program within weeks.

Hijabistas! with Yassmin Abdel-Magied will air on ABC iView from May 1, and follows Ms Abdel-Magied through Australia's Islamic headwear fashion scene in six six-minute episodes.

'So excited to finally share the secret project from 2017,' the London based commentator posted on Instagram on Tuesday.

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Yassmin Abdel Magied gave Instagram followers a sneak preview of her new television program which will go to air on the ABC from May 1 'Here are two of the wonderful hijabis we featured on the show,' she posted

It will mark her comeback to air on the ABC a year after her news program was axed following nationwide backlash over her Anzac Day Facebook post

'It's a show I'm stoked to be the creator and presenter of, fully centering some of the amazing hijabi fashion scene in Australia.

'We talk to some legendary Muslim fashionistas, designers and academics, learn about the hijabi fashion scene in Australia and generally have an amazing time.

'The success of this project depends on the support and viewership we get though.'

The new show will mark her comeback to air on the national broadcaster a year after her news program Australia Wide was axed, following nationwide backlash over her Anzac Day Facebook post which read: Lest We Forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine ...).

Many of her social media followers welcomed the announcement.

'This is so awesome- I think it's great that a show like this has been made. Pretty sure I'm going to be inundated with questions about people wanting to watch from other countries,' one woman commented on Instagram.

News that Yassmin Abdel-Magied will be back on air on the ABC sparked a mixed response

But not everyone welcomed the news.

'Just heard that Yassmin Abdel Magied has a new show on the ABC. A betrayal. It seems like the only requirement for a show on the ABC is that you hate Australia,' NSW Liberals state executive member Alex Dore tweeted on Tuesday night.

Ms Abdel-Magied responded to his comments.

'When did I ever say I hate Australia,' she tweeted.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz urged the ABC to reconsider the program, arguing the hijab was an 'oppressive symbol'.

'While hundreds of thousands of women have bravely protested in the face of arrest and imprisonment ... to be freed from the oppression of the hijab, we have the ABC championing this oppressive symbol,' Senator Abetz told The Australian.

Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi called Ms Abdel-Magied an 'anti-Australian Islamic apologist' and said that the ABC needed to be reformed.

An ABC spokesman told The Australian the show was a 'light-hearted exploration' of hijabi fashion that was in keeping with ABC editorial policy.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz has urged the ABC to reconsider airing Hijabistas! with Yassmin Abdel-Magied
The mother of a five-year-old autistic boy has been arrested two days after her husband was charged with murdering their son after allegedly beating him to death and then claiming he had run away.

Joe Clyde Daniels was reported missing from his home in Dickson, Tennessee last Wednesday by his parents who had told a 911 dispatcher that the little boy must have unlocked the door and escaped.

His 28-year-old father, Joseph Ray Daniels, was charged on Saturday after he allegedly told police he had beaten Joe to death, put his body in the trunk of the car and then disposed of him in a 'remote area'.

As the investigation continued, police arrested Joe's mother, Krystal Nicole Daniels, 28, on Monday and charged her with one count of aggravated child neglect or endangerment.

She is being held in the Dickson County Jail on $1 million bond.

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Krystal Nicole Daniels, 28, (left) was arrested on Monday just days after her husband Joseph Ray Daniels (right) was charged with murdering their five-year-old autistic son Joe

Joe Clyde Daniels was reported missing from his home last Wednesday by his parents who had told a 911 dispatcher that the little boy must have unlocked the door and escaped

Court documents related to the father's arrest revealed on Monday that he allegedly struck Joe repeatedly with a closed fist on his body, upper torso, head and face until he was dead.

After disposing of Joe's body, Daniels then called 911 to report him missing and told the dispatcher the little boy must have just unlocked the door and escaped.

The child, who had autism and was nonverbal, was reported missing to authorities on Wednesday.

'My son has autism and we cannot find him,' Daniels told the dispatcher during a four-minute 911 call that authorities released on Sunday.

He told the dispatcher that his son was last seen 'last night' and suggested that the five-year-old 'must have just unlocked the door and got out.'

Daniels described his son as having a blonde hair and blue eyes but couldn't give an accurate description of the pajamas he was wearing when he supposedly disappeared.

'My wife would know better than I would on that,' Daniels said.

Following the 911 call, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an endangered child alert and multiple law enforcement agencies searched extensively for the missing boy near his home.

Both Joseph and Krystal are being held at Dickson County Jail on a $1 million bond each after they were arrested in connection with their son's death

Joe, who had autism and was nonverbal, was reported missing to authorities on Wednesday

Following a three-day search, authorities determined that Daniels had intentionally killed his son sometime between Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning at their home before hiding the boy's body.

Daniels is charged with one count of criminal homicide and he is being held in jail with his bail set at $1 million.

Police have still not found the boy's remains.

Residents have held multiple vigils for the little boy since news of his father's arrest.

'Though this news is profoundly disappointing, we are grateful for the volunteers who gave time and resources this week to help search for Joe Clyde,' the TBI tweeted after the father's arrest.

'That work will continue by law enforcement today, so we might provide a small degree of closure for his family and friends.'

Joe's parents had initially told police they discovered he was missing when they went to take him for school early on Wednesday.

They said they could normally find him within shouting distance of their home.

A tweet from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Joe was last seen 'wearing pajamas with a skeleton print' at the family's home.

Following a three-day search, authorities determined that Daniels had intentionally killed his son Joe (above) sometime between Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning
A heartwarming love story has reached a tragic end, as a man who met his wife in a hospital ward loses his lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis.

Matt and Kaila Maartenszboth first met as children in the wards of Princess Margaret Hospital in Western Australia - both of them suffering from the debilitating lung condition.

And when Matt died at home on Saturday March 31, aged 29, his wife Kaila was by his side.

Perth man Matt Maartensz, who battle cystic fibrosis since he was a baby, lost his life on Saturday March 31, aged 29

The Perth couple's story previously touched the hearts of countless Australians after they reached out to the public following a serious deterioration in Matt's health, Perth Now reports.

In December 2017, Matt's lung capacity had declined to the point where he required constant care - and when doctors suddenly told him that his condition was no longer treatable, a fundraiser was started to help support him and Kaila financially.

'Kaila means the world to me and I want to do everything I can to keep me in her world,' Matt told The West in February.

'I am not even 30. I don't want to leave yet.'

Matt and his wife Kaila - who also suffers from the debilitating lung condition - met in a hospital ward when they were young and married in 2015

But towards the end of 2017 Matt's health suddenly deteriorated, with doctors warning him that he could have just weeks or months to live

Even as doctors warned him that he could have just weeks or months to live, Matt nurtured a spark of optimism.

'I was told a lot as a kid I wouldn't make it to 16, I wouldn't make it to 21,' he said.

'I just wanted to prove everyone wrong.'

Less than four months since it began, the fundraiser - which was started by a friend of the couple - has accumulated more than $40,000.

Struggling with the sombre diagnosis, the couple reached out to the public for financial support - as Matt declared that 'Kaila means the world to me and I want to do everything I can to keep me in her world'

But an update recently posted to the web page reports the dire news.

'So sad to say that Matty lost his battle yesterday,' it reads.

'Everyone that met him was inspired by him and will miss him deeply.'

Kaila had taken to Instagram the day before to share a photo of her and Matt on their wedding day.

The day that Matt died, Kaila posted a photo of the pair on their wedding day to Instagram. 'I don't even have the words to express how much I loved you, how much I'll miss you and how heartbroken I am right now,' she wrote

'I don't even have the words to express how much I loved you, how much I'll miss you and how heartbroken I am right now,' she wrote.

'I will love you for ever my fierce dinosaur.'

The fundraiser is still active, now raising money to help Kaila fund Matt's funeral.

To donate, visit gofundme.com/matt-and-kaila-need-your-support
A desperate father has appealed for help after his wife gave birth three months prematurely while on holiday in Mexico and his insurance refused to cover it.

Jeremy Stewart, from California, told how he was on holiday with wife Maggie and three-year-old daughter Neri in Cancun ahead of the arrival of their second child.

But while on vacation Maggie contracted a uterus infection and was told she needed an emergency C-section or both she and the baby risked dying.

Jeremy Stewart, from California, has told how wife Maggie gave birth via emergency C-section while on holiday in Cancun after contracting a uterus infection

Jeremy and Maggie had been on holiday with three-year-old daughter Neri ahead of the new arrival, and had been told by doctors that it would be fine to travel

The surgery was a success, and both mother and baby - who has been named Poppy - are recovering, but the family must now face a huge medical bill and are appealing for money on GoFundMe.

Jeremy told KTLA that the family had sought medical advice before going away on his first ever trip abroad, and was told Maggie was fine to travel.

But on April 6 they were forced to make the life-or-death decision to have emergency surgery at a Mexican hospital that was not covered by their insurance.

'We really didn't know if we would be able to do this. This was miracle after miracle after miracle that happened,' Jeremy said.

The same day, baby Maggie was born weighing just 1lb 6oz, in critical condition and suffering from a hole in her heart.

Daughter Poppy was born on April 6 weighing just 1lb 6oz and with a hole in her heart

Following the C-section, Jeremy flew to a hospital in Miami alongside Poppy who had to be placed inside an incubator

On April 7, Jeremy flew in a specially equipped air ambulance with a medical team back to a hospital in Miami, where Poppy's care would be covered.

Meanwhile Maggie, still recovering from the infection, was forced to stay behind in Mexico with daughter Neri to receive further treatment.

In his latest Facebook update, Jeremy wrote: 'Poppy's done well through the night. Her vitals are good. She's undergoing many tests, scans and procedures.

'She's getting the very best of care here and has a round the clock team.

'We love you all and thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and wishes. Please keep them coming because they're working.'

According to the GoFundMe page, the parents have maxed out all of their credit cards to pay for treatment and have been forced to appeal to their families for cash.

The page has collected almost half of the $100,000 needed to pay the medical bills since being created on Sunday.

As Jeremy left for Miami, Maggie was forced to stay behind with Neri while she recovered from her infection, but is now healing
A Nebraska woman was charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing her romantic rival to death.

Authorities said that Melissa Camargo-Flores, 20, of Dakota City, Nebraska, fatally stabbed Kenia Alvarez-Flores, 24, multiple times in front of Alvarez-Flores' home in Sioux City, Iowa, on Sunday at about 8am.

A witness to the attack said they followed Camargo-Flores when she left the scene and gave police a description of the car she was driving, according to the Des Moines Register.

Melissa Camargo-Flores, 20, was charged with first-degree murder after police said she fatally stabbed alleged romantic rival Kenia Alvarez-Flores, 24, outside her home Sunday

Police were then able to find Camargo-Flores a mile away from Alvarez-Flores' home.

Inside, officers found bloody gloves and a bloody knife, according to court documents.

Alvarez-Flores was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead there.

Camargo-Flores was treated for what authorities believe was an accidental, self-inflicted stab wound to the leg, according to Radio Iowa.

When questioned by police, Camargo-Flores admitted that she waited outside Alvarez-Flores' home for 20 minutes, until Alvarez-Flores left for work, at which point Camargo-Flores confronted her and stabbed her, authorities said.

Camargo-Flores (left) claimed she was in a relationship with Alvarez-Flores' boyfriend. A GoFundMe page stated that Alvarez-Flores was engaged to her boyfriend of seven years

Police said Camargo-Flores admitted she waited outside Alvarez-Flores' home for 20 minutes, until she left for work, before attacking her

A GoFundMe campaign created to raise money for Alvarez-Flores' funeral costs said that she was engaged to her boyfriend of seven years, Lalo Perez (pictured with Alvarez-Flores)

The GoFundMe campaign appeared to have been started by Lalo's cousin, who made no mention of Camargo-Flores' claims that she was in a relationship with Lalo as well

Police said that the two women did not have familial ties and that Camargo-Flores had had 'multiple issues' in the past with Alvarez-Flores, according to the Sioux City Journal.

According to court records, Camargo-Flores told police that she was in a relationship with Alvarez-Flores' boyfriend.

Camargo-Flores is being held in jail with a bond set at $500,000.

A GoFundMe page created to help pay for her funeral costs stated that Alvarez-Flores was engaged to her boyfriend, identified as Lalo Perez, of seven years.

The campaign page, which was apparently created by Perez's brother, Jose Perez, noted that Alvarez-Flores 'was the most sweetest, kindest and caring person' who 'brought sunshine to anyone around that surrounded her.'

Alvarez-Flores and Lalo were described as 'each others best friends and soulmates to one another and happily engaged. Going strong for 7 years. They were the couple to admire and find aspirations from their true love.'

Jose did not make any reference to Camargo-Flores' alleged claim that she was in a relationship with Alvarez-Flores' boyfriend.

It has raised $7,690  more than its original $6,000 goal  in the 17 hours since the donation page went live.
Ten members of an ISIS-linked cell who planned to launch terror attacks in Barcelona have been jailed in Spain's National Court today.

Five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, calling themselves the 'Islamic Fraternity, Group for preaching jihad' were handed between eight and 12 years in jail.

The group, based in Terrassa, near Barcelona, had planned attacks against 'police, banks or Jewish institutions' and also expressed desires to join ISIS and film a jihadist execution video.

ISIS cell: Five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian were jailed for planning terror attacks on Barcelona. Pictured are police officers patrolling the city after last year's terror attack

The ten men were sentenced to jail in the National Court for 'belonging to a terrorist organisation', documents said.

The three leaders of the group were given 12 years in jail while the seven others got eight years.

In March 2015, the main leader of the cell, a Spaniard who had converted to Islam, proposed to kidnap and decapitate an 'infidel' whom he had already identified, film the killing and then broadcast the video online before fleeing to Syria.

He had previously proposed that the group 'commit an attack against the Catalan parliament, which no one had objected to,' according to the court ruling.

'He also justified decapitations and talked about making handmade bombs to commit attacks.'

An armed police officer stands on a street in Las Ramblas, Barcelona, in August, 2017

Police found documents calling for jihad at his home and books on European organisations such as the Basque separatist group ETA or Germany's far-left Red Army Faction, the ruling said.

Members of the cell had also gone on a recce in Barcelona, the Catalonian capital, where they took photos of the train station, a luxury seaside hotel, a shopping mall and a police station.

One member went to Syria in April 2014 and died in Fallujah in Iraq the following year.

Three others tried to follow in his footsteps at the end of 2014 but were detained at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

According to the interior ministry, close to a third of all arrests for 'jihadist terrorism' in Spain were made in Catalonia last year.
Ongoing Food Tour to Encompass 100 Miles of Oregon Coast

Published 04/09/2018 at 3:45 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff





(Tillamook, Oregon)  Think of it as an ongoing food festival on the north Oregon coast: one that never really ends, and one that goes for 100 miles. (Above

Technically, its an ongoing food tour called the North Coast Food Trail, one that stretches all over Tillamook County and includes over 60 businesses throughout the towns and villages that encompass this stretch of coastline. It all kicks off at Pelican Brewing in Tillamook on April 14 with a foodie event called Coastally Crafted.

Coastally Crafted is a beer and cheese tasting extravaganza, put together by Pelican Brewing and Tillamook Creamery, in conjunction with Visit Tillamook.

The North Coast Food Trail is the first of its kind in the state.

Its not just restaurants making up this tour for the tummy: a huge array of food-oriented firms will be featured. Youll find farms, farmers markets, breweries, wineries, distilleries, restaurants, cooking schools, guided tours and experiences, lodgings and retail stores. Participants will be denoted on a map, to be handed out at the event and available at participating businesses and online, as well as on the North Coast Food Trail website and through signage. One known participant is a small resort of vacation rentals called Sheltered Nook at Tillamook Bay. All of it to show the abundance of Oregons north coast.

Youll find them in Neskowin, Pacific City, Netarts, Tillamook, Bay City, Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi, Nehalem and Manzanita. Some of the tour reaches down to Lincoln City and Depoe Bay and all the way up to Cannon Beach, making that 100 miles of a coastal culinary scene.

This is the first food trail in Oregon covering multiple types of products and services connected to food, said Nan Devlin, tourism director of Visit Tillamook Coast. Were eager to spread the word regionally and nationally that this is a great addition to Oregons reputation for food and exploration.

Often, those of us in the Northwest return to the same places on the coast over and over again, without knowing what else is just a short drive away. We hope the North Coast Food Trail will help visitors find new restaurants to try, adventures to go on, and places to stay and shop.

There has long been praise for Portlands culinary scene and that of Oregons wine country, but the north Oregon coast is going through its own renaissance in food and agriculture. The area has welcomed a new generation of farmers, fishers, producers, harvesters, chefs and guide services who are drawn to the bountiful and beautiful natural environment.

The trail was made possible through funding from Travel Oregon and Visit Tillamook Coast, as well as the Lincoln City Visitor Bureau and the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Coastally Crafted is from noon to 4 p.m. on April 14 and will focus on beer and cheese pairings. Entry is $10, and includes a tote bag, taster glass and 10 tasting tokens for sampling beers. Children 12 and under get in for free. Participating breweries include Pelican Brewing, Werner Brewing, Public Coast Brewing and Depoe Bay Brewing. Participating creameries include Tillamook Creamery, Nestucca Bay Creamery, Briar Rose Creamery and Willamette Valley Cheese. Other vendors are Mercury Coast, Nehalem River Ranch, Nehalem Bay Winery, Salmonberry Saloon, Brickyard Farms and North Fork 53.

For more information on the North Coast Food Trail, visit www.northcoastfoodtrail.com. For more information on Coastally Crafted, visit www.pelicanbrewing.com/happenings.

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Saudi Arabia's crown prince is wrapping up his three-day visit to France with a gala dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris this evening.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old heir to the Islamic kingdom's throne, is also holding formal discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron tonight.

The president's wife, Brigitte, was spotted helping out with preparations for the bash while walking along the red carpet set up to welcome Prince Mohammed.

Saudi national company Aramco and French oil giant Total, meanwhile, have signed an agreement to build a giant petrochemical complex in Jubail in Saudi Arabia.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old heir to the Islamic kingdom's throne, stands with French President Emmanuel Macron outside the Elysee

The president's wife, Brigitte, was spotted helping out with preparations for the bash while walking along the red carpet set up to welcome Prince Mohammed

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris

After the dinner this evening - where the duo will discuss the war in Syria among other things - they will hold a joint news conference. Pictured: Brigitte tonight

The two leaders plan to work on a 'strategic document' involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said. Pictured: Brigitte on the red carpet

In total, $9 billion will be invested, creating 8,000 local jobs. The project will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of high value chemicals, the statement said.

The duo - who are also discussing the war in Syria - held a news conference together.

President Macron defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer.

'Between now and the summer a joint conference will be held on Yemen to clarify what is being done and what needs to be done,' Macron said at a news conference alongside Prince Mohammed.

When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said the coalition was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties in Yemen, but that mistakes were inevitable in conflicts

They are expected to discuss a future 'strategic partnership' to see new contracts signed during Macron's trip to Saudi Arabia at the end of the year.

French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Elysee Palace in Paris tonight

French President Emmanuel Macron greets Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following their press conference at the Elysee Palace

The kingdom revealed on Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes film festival next month for the first time, a further sign of Prince Mohammed's mission to modernise his country. Pictured: The prince arriving at the Elysee

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris

On Monday evening, the Saudi heir held a surprise meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well Moroccan King Mohammed VI, which was revealed in a tweet by Hariri showing the three leaders smiling and dressed casually.

'No comment,' read the caption.

It appeared designed to send a message of reconciliation after Hariri was allegedly pressured to resign by the Saudi royal during a trip to Riyadh last November, causing a crisis which Macron helped defuse.

'This period of ambiguity and confusion is now behind us thanks to the efforts from all sides and the personal implication of President Macron,' Moueen Merhebi, an MP in Hariri's party, told AFP in Beirut on Tuesday.

Macron's role in helping mediate in the Lebanese leadership crisis, which led Hariri to travel to Paris and then rescind his resignation, was seen by analysts as exposing the limits of Prince Mohammed's authority.

This sequence - as well as Macron's planned trip to Iran, Saudi Arabia's arch-regional rival - is thought to have come up during a first round of talks between Macron and his Saudi visitor on Sunday night.

The pair met for nearly three hours Sunday at the Louvre museum, where they visited an exhibition by 19th century painter Eugene Delacroix, creator of the famous 'Liberty Leading The People' painting.

On Monday evening, the Saudi heir held a surprise meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well Moroccan King Mohammed VI, which was revealed in a tweet by Hariri showing the three leaders smiling and dressed casually. Pictured: King Mohammed VI of Morocco with Macron

The two leaders plan to work on a 'strategic document' involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said. Pictured: Prince Mohammed's arrival tonight

The painting features a bare-breasted woman holding the French tricolour, an image that would be banned in Saudi Arabia for its nudity and its subversive political message.

Delacroix's work was inspired by the 1830 July Revolution that saw protestors overthrow the inept French royal king Charles X.

But the gallery tour and dinner at the Louvre also underscored one of main themes of the visit so far, namely deepening cultural ties that will see Saudi officials call on French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra.

'No comment': Lebanese Prime Minister poses for a smiling selfie with Saudi's Crown Prince and Morocco's King five months after he 'was held hostage in Riyadh' Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has appeared in a photograph with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - months after it was claimed he was held hostage in the kingdom. The duo appeared in a late-night selfie yesterday alongside Morocco's King Mohammed VI in Paris, reportedly at the King George V Hotel. It was accompanied by a caption with only two words: 'No comment'. The photograph appeared part of an attempt to dispel rumours that Hariri and Prince Mohammed have bad blood. The duo appeared in a late-night selfie yesterday alongside Morocco's King Mohammed VI in Paris, reportedly at the King George V Hotel. Hariri is left and Prince Mohammed right French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri as he arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris Last November, Hariri announced his shock resignation from Saudi Arabia but changing his mind. He blamed Hezbollah and Iran for the resignation speech, saying he feared for his life. But Lebanese politicians and officials said Hariri had been held hostage in Saudi Arabia, a claim denied by the prime minister. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, has invited Hariri to join him for talks and dinner Tuesday at the Elysee Palace with Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'Before the official diner, the three leaders will briefly discuss subjects linked to stability in the Middle East, the fight against terrorism, and economic and cultural cooperation,' the French statement said. Advertisement

The kingdom also revealed on Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes film festival next month for the first time, a further sign of Prince Mohammed's mission to modernise his country.

The two leaders plan to work on a 'strategic document' involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said.

Talks between the men on Tuesday are also expected to cover the war in Syria, where Macron and US President Donald Trump are threatening military action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad over alleged chemical weapons attacks.

The prince's delegation was also attending a forum on Tuesday with French business leaders, which is expected to lead to a host of agreements pledging future economic deals.

Brigitte Macron leaving the Elysee Palace in the rain yesterday

Meanwhile, a French lawyer has filed a lawsuit in a Paris court against Prince Mohammed, accusing him of complicity in torture in Yemen.

Joseph Breham, representing a Yemeni human rights group, is suing the crown prince for his leading role in the Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The criminal lawsuit claims that Bin Salman knowingly targeted civilians.

Breham told The Associated Press that French courts have 'universal jurisdiction' to investigate the case since the lawsuit was filed Monday while the crown prince was present on French soil.

But he acknowledged Bin Salman can't be arrested by French authorities due to his diplomatic immunity.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir called the lawsuit 'ridiculous.'

The Paris-filed legal complaint by Yemeni group Legal Center for Rights and Development will automatically trigger the opening of a formal judicial inquiry by a French investigating judge.

But the prosecutor's office will have the opportunity to challenge French courts' jurisdiction to the investigating magistrate who'll have the final say, the lawyer said.

'The complaint is anything but symbolic,' Breham insisted in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bin Salman, who was defense minister when Saudi Arabia launched the war in Yemen, allegedly provided the means and instructions for these crimes of torture to be committed, the lawyer said.

The pair met for nearly three hour ons Sunday at the Louvre museum, where they visited an exhibition by 19th century painter Eugene Delacroix, creator of the famous 'Liberty Leading The People' painting

The prince's visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of Saudi Arabia, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

After Paris, he will head to Madrid, before travelling home ahead of the next Arab League summit meeting, on April 15 in Riyadh.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners are also mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the UN to dub it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Three out of four French people believe it is 'unacceptable' for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll.
President Trump's handpicked deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, personally approved the FBI raid on his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room, the New York Times has learned.

In turn, Trump lashed out privately at Rosenstein, with the Washington Post reporting that he 'stewed' over the deputy attorney general's role in the raid  'at times raising his voice.'

'This is the president you're going to see more of from on out: unvarnished, untethered,' a White House insider said, according to Axios.

Behind closed doors, President Trump (left) is fuming over Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's (right) decision to sign off on a warrant of Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room

The president's personal attorney Michael Cohen is seen Tuesday entering the hotel where he's been staying, which was raided by the FBI on Monday, through a cafe entrance

During his Rosenstein-related outbursts, Trump fumed that he wished Rosenstein was not in the job, and that there was no one making the prosecutors follow the rules, a Trump adviser told the Post.

Trump also contemplated firing Rosenstein, sources told the Times, as the newspaper described the episode as being 'deeply upsetting' to White House staff, officials at the Justice Department and lawmakers from both political parties.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Democratic senators were huddling and discussing what steps to take if Trump decided to fire Rosenstein.

In public, Trump first brought up Rosenstein in the context of his controversial decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, pointing out to reporters that Rosenstein supported Comey's firing too.

'Deputy Rosenstein  Rod Rosenstein  he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey,' Trump pointed out.

Trump then pointed out that Rosenstein had 'signed the FISA warrant,' referring to the warrant used to spy on the president's campaign associate Carter Page.

'So Rod Rosenstein, who's in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey,' Trump said. 'And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.'

'So we'll see what happens,' the president added in a meeting with military advisers that was supposed to be about the strategy going forward in Syria after a reported chemical weapons attack.

'I think it's disgraceful, and so does a lot of people,' Trump said of the Cohen raid.

'This is a pure and simple witch hunt,' the president said of Mueller's Russia probe.

Trump circled back and again blamed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from all Russian-related matters because he had worked on Trump's presidential campaign.

'The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this, and when he recused himself,' Trump said. 'Or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a  put a different attorney general in.'

'So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for our country,' Trump continued. 'But you'll figure that out.'
A three-year-old boy was rushed to intensive care after he was placed on a hot stove by one of his parents.

The toddler, who is still in nappies and known to Child Safety officials, sustained horrific injuries in the incident last month.

Queensland police, who are believed to have regular contact with the Townsville parents of eight children, are investigating, the Courier Mail reports.

Child safety officers reportedly arranged a visit to the home before the injury.

A three-year-old boy was rushed to intensive care after he was placed on a hot stove by one of his parents. Stock photo

However, they left when they realised the family was not at home and left a note saying they would come back.

Then, on March 27, the child sustained burns and was taken to hospital and put in intensive care with a temporary colostomy bag.

It is not known if the incident was accidental or not, but according to the Courier Mail, the parents are thought to have systemic and severe neglect and domestic violence problems.

The incident comes as the Federal Government intends to put pressure on state child protection departments to agree to a new statement of principles.

The toddler, who is still in nappies and known to Child Safety officials, sustained horrific injuries in the incident last month. Stock photo

State and federal ministers will hold a meeting on the issues in June.

David Gillespie, the Federal Assistant Minister for Families and Children, said the case was 'very concerning and distressing.'

Asked if the child protection system was broken, he told the Courier Mail: 'That is not an unfair comment to make.'

Queensland Child Safety Minister di Farmer branded the case 'shocking' but did not answer questions about why the child hadn't been removed from his family.
A branch of the New York-based alleged sex cult accused of branding women has reportedly been trying to recruit new members within Brooklyn's hipster and art crowd.

Several artists and writers claim to have been invited by friends to an event last month in Williamsburg that actually turned out to be a secret recruitment drive for a branch of the Nxivm sect.

Those who were invited told Page Six that they were pitched a $10,000 curriculum called The Source, which was billed as being a life improvement program for creative types.

The person who organized the event in Williamsburg, which took place at a private home, is said to be current or former member of Nxivm.

'She's a nice girl, but now I'm kind of mad at her for trying to induct me into her sex cult,' one woman said of the female friend who invited her to the event.

The supposed recruitment drive in Brooklyn last month came after Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, 57, was charged with sex trafficking

The supposed recruitment drive took place soon after Nxivm founder and leader Keith Raniere, 57, was charged with sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy.

Raniere ran Nxivm as a self-help organization for years but later created a secret society within it called DOS, which former members have described as a 'sex cult'.

He fled 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.

Raniere was arrested in Mexico late last month at a $10,000-a-week luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta and extradited to Texas to face charges.

Smallville actress Allison Mack is said to be Raniere's right-hand woman at Nxivm, sources told DailyMail.com.

Mack was among a group of women caught on camera trying to chase down Mexican police officers after they arrested Raniere at the luxury villa where they all had been staying.

Nxivm claims to be a self-help organization that operates centers in US, Mexico, Canada and South America.

Raniere was arrested four months after he fled to Mexico when reports emerged that some women who joined a group in his organization had been branded (pictured above)

Raniere was arrested in Mexico late last month (pictured above) at a $10,000-a-week luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta and extradited to Texas to face charges

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.

Former female members have told investigators they were subjected to 'master-slave' conditions that involved physical punishments for disobeying orders.

'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 when Raniere was arrested.

The complaint said 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.

Smallville actress Allison Mack (above) is said to be Raniere's right-hand woman at Nxivm. She was among a group of women caught on camera trying to chase down Mexican police officers after they arrested Raniere

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.

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 is said to be Raniere's right-hand woman at Nxivm. They are pictured above together
Former Silicon Valley star TJ Miller has been arrested at an airport in New York City after he allegedly provided false information to federal agents regarding a bomb threat made last month.

The comedian was escorted out of LaGuardia Airport by Port Authority officers and FBI agents Monday night around 10pm.

Miller has been charged with 'intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train traveling to Connecticut', according to the US Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

His arrest stemmed from a criminal complaint that claimed Miller called a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey on March 18 and reported that he was on an Amtrak train with a female passenger who had 'a bomb in her bag'.

Miller was traveling from Washington, DC, to Penn Station in New York City when he allegedly made the call.

Former Silicon Valley star TJ Miller (pictured, center in white) has been arrested at an airport in New York City after he allegedly provided false information to federal agents regarding a bomb threat made last month

The comedian (right, in Canada over the weekend) was escorted out of LaGuardia Airport by Port Authority officers and FBI agents Monday night around 10pm

According to authorities, Miller said the woman 'kept checking her bag without taking anything out; kept asking the First Class attendant what the next stop was, and seemed to want to get off the train and leave her bag behind'.

At the time of the call, the dispatcher detected slurring in the comedian's voice and asked if he had consumed alcohol that day.

Miller reportedly replied that he had 'one glass of red wine'.

When the dispatcher asked Miller if he suffered from mental illness, Miller replied 'no, absolutely not. This is the first time I've ever made a call like this before. I am worried for everyone on that train. Someone has to check that lady out.'

Investigators stopped and searched the train in Connecticut, but found no evidence of any explosive device or materials.

Authorities later interviewed an attendant from the first class car where Miller had been sitting.

The attendant told investigators that Miller appeared intoxicated upon boarding in Washington, that he consumed multiple drinks on the train, and that he had been removed in New York owing to his intoxication.

The attendant also claimed that Miller had been involved in 'hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row from him in the first class car'.

The charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years. The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force, Connecticut State Police, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, Amtrak Police Department and Westport Police Department.

A request for comment to Miller's representative was not immediately returned.

Miller (pictured in February during a show) has been charged with 'intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train traveling to Connecticut', according to the US Attorney for the District of Connecticut

His arrest stemmed from a criminal complaint that claimed Miller called a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey on March 18 and reported that he was on an Amtrak train with a female passenger who had 'a bomb in her bag'. He's pictured during an episode of Silicon Valley

Miller was in Canada last week where he did multiple stand-up comedy shows from April 5-8 at Rick Bronson's - The Comic Strip in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Miller, who left the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley last year, was released from custody Tuesday morning after posting $100,000 bond.

Last month, the cast and creator of the series revealed that him leaving the show was a move that was very much a mutual decision.

'There had been stretches when, multiple show sources say, he looked to have things under control, and others when he'd show up seemingly under the influence, if he showed up at all,' creator Mike Judge told The Hollywood Reporter.

Miller was often late and would sometimes fall asleep on set according to sources, meaning that 'schedules would regularly have to be rejiggered' because of the actor.

Showrunner Alec Berg meanwhile compared the four remaining actors to the [NBA champion] Golden State Warriors, before adding: 'TJ wasn't LeBron.'

Miller responded at the time to that remark by stating: 'Oh, that's great. And it makes me like him more [because] he's so good at being an a**hole.'

He did not deny Judge's allegations but did push back on the idea that he was constantly under the influence while on the set.

'In real life, I'm not always high like [his character of the show] Erlich is,' Miller said at the time.

Last month, the cast and creator of the series revealed that him leaving the show was a move that was very much a mutual decision (current cast members Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, Thomas Middleditch and Martin Starr)

'And this will blow your readers' minds, but I'm not high when I work because it gets in the way of the comedy. I also am not a guy who's blackout drunk, bumping into things on set.'

He went on to blame his tardiness on the fact that he was performing stand-up sets until the early morning hours while still appearing on the show.

'So, the thing I have a problem with? It's pushing myself to do too much,' said Miller.

Judge revealed in March that Miller was not offered a full-time role in the final season either, with the show's producers instead saying he could appear in three episodes before his character would be written off the series.

Miller declined that offer and left after season four. Miller is also dealing with additional fallout after he was accused of multiple offenses by a former college classmate back in December.

He was accused of beating and sexually assaulting a woman in college, with the alleged victim telling The Daily Beast that he punched her in the face during sex and raped her with a beer bottle.

Miller was also accused of multiple offenses by a former college classmate in December. He's pictured with his wife and Kate Gorney

The comedian and his wife of three years, actress Kate Gorney, both firmly denied the woman's allegations at the time.

Miller's troubles then grew worse when transgender writer Danielle Solzman shared a transphobic and expletive-laden email that was sent to her by the comedian, who wrote: 'You're not a transgender, you're not a tra**y  your [sic] a f*****g a*****e daniel.'

He and Gorney did respond to the assault claim in a joint statement back in December.

'We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college, she attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations. She attempted to discredit both of our voices and use us against one another by trying to portray Kate to be a continuous abuse victim of T.J. (further efforts to hurt the two of us),' wrote the couple.

'She was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus 'I'm going to destroy them' & 'I'm going to ruin him.''

The statement then read: 'We are confident that a full consideration of accounts from and since that time will shed light and clarity on the true nature of not only this person's character, but also on the real facts of the matter.'

Miller's statement did not stop Comedy Central from cancelling his planned series The Gorburger Show and his podcast Cashing in With TJ Miller was removed from the Nerdist network.

He has appeared in the recently released Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One and his is set to appear in the Deadpool sequel. Miller also has a part in the highly anticipated Kristen Stewart film Underwater.

There are no other projects lined up for the actor at this time however, and so he has embarked on a stand-up tour.
The FBI agents who raided the president's personal lawyer Michael Cohen's spaces were looking for records about payments to two women who had alleged affairs with President Trump  porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playmate Karen McDougal.

Sources told the New York Times that investigators were interested in the role the publisher of the National Enquirer played in silencing McDougal with a $150,000 payment made by the parent company of the tabloid, American Media Inc.

Cohen, a longtime fixer for the president, has already said publicly that he paid $130,000 in hush money to Daniels in exchange for her signature on a non-disclosure agreement just weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election.

The FBI's warrant to raid President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen's spaces included documents related to hush money payments given to Stormy Daniels (left) and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal (right)

The president's personal attorney Michael Cohen is seen Tuesday entering the hotel where he's been staying, which was raided by the FBI on Monday, through a cafe entrance

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006, while McDougal alleged that she and the then-businessman had a year-long affair.

The raids on Cohen's office, home and hotel room have rocked Washington and infuriated President Trump, who has lashed out at a number of top officials, including the special counsel, federal investigators and his own attorney general.

FBI agents swooped in on the offices of Cohen on Monday  seizing a trove of documents  and whisked off the lawyer's phone, personal computer and bank records.

Cohen is likely being investigated for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

If Cohen did in fact lie to obtain credit from a 'federally insured financial institution', he could be charged with a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

And if the payment is found to be an 'in-kind contribution' to Trump's campaign, as it came just days before the election, Cohen could be facing a second felony.

Violating campaign contribution limits is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Additionally, the FBI warrant to raid Trump attorney Michael Cohen also was partly based on multi-million taxi portfolio Cohen owns with his wife, CNN reported.

According to a February report in The Real Deal Cohen owns a portfolio of at least 34 medallions.

Medallions, essentially permits to operate a New York taxi, have been valued at up to $1 million, although prices have plummeted in value because of Uber and other competitors.

He owns the medallions through 17 LLCs he set up. After a market value plunge, they sometimes fetch less than $200,000, putting Cohens investment at just a fifth of its peak value.

Cohen owns the medallions with his wife, Laura Cohen, who was born in Ukraine.

The New York Daily News reported in August that Cohen owed the state nearly $40,000 in taxes.

He co-owned a New York City fleet of taxis 15 years ago.

Hours after the raid at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, Trump raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.

He said agents 'broke into' Cohen's Manhattan office, although the search warrants were perfectly legal.

Trump had been meeting senior military leaders and members of his national security team - including (right) his new national security advisor John Bolton - when he launched his angry tirade against the Mueller raid

Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, close to Trump Tower, and had FBI agents raid his room there on Monday morning

Cohen's offices are in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is also home to many of NBC's most high-profile shows including The Today Show, Nightly News and Saturday Night Live

Trump also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions  whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein (right) who is revealed to have okayed the raid after hearing from Mueller

Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, had his hotel room and office both raided by the FBI acting on the instructions of the deputy attorney general

The president also called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'

'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, although Mueller himself is a Republican.

Trump also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions  whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who personally permitted the raid after hearing from Mueller, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

'They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things ... and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started Trump after raid on his attorney

'He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,' said Trump of Sessions, revising a longtime anger at the situation.

His admission that he would have replaced Sessions to head off the recusal could figure in Mueller's ongoing effort to establish obstruction of justice.

Trump continued to tout Mueller's failure to charge Trump or anyone on his team of colluding with the Russians, even as the probe continues to bring in members of his inner circle on other matters.

'They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia,' said Trump, seated in front of national security adviser John Bolton, experiencing his first day on the job.

Trump's remarks then meandered into territory explored by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee and the early days of the Russia investigation.

They also dwelled on Rosenstein  a pivotal figure whose removal might be necessary in order to engineer Mueller's ouster.

Continuing to go after Rosenstein, Trump said: 'But it turns out he also signed the FISA warrant - Rod Rosenstein who's in charge also signed the FISA warrant and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey and he was right about that. He was absolutely right about that.'

'This is a pure and simple witch hunt,' Trump said.

Behind closed doors, the revelation that Rosenstein had green-lit the Cohen raid, infuriated Trump, with the Washington Post reporting that he raised his voice and said openly that he wished the official wasn't on the job, and wasn't keeping prosecutors in line.

The New York Times reported that Trump was mulling firing Rosenstein over his role in the raid.

Those close to Trump said that Cohen's looming troubles has struck the president far harder than those of former campaign aides Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.

One person went so far to say that Cohen was 'the closest person to Trump that I have ever met who is not family', they told CNN.

Trump decided on his own to directly address the FBI raid during the Syria meeting.

It all goes back to this: Daniels claims she and Trump had an affair in 2006. She took a $130,000 payment from Cohen in return for signing a gag order just before the election. That appears to now be at the center of a federal probe

'You can see how angry he is,' one White House official said.

Trump also repeatedly sought to cast the probe as a hindrance to his ability to conduct his office, complaining that he was trying to plan to counter a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

And he called on Justice Department investigators to focus on 'crimes' on the 'other side'  meaning Democrats and the Hillary Clinton camp.

'It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down. I've given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel,' he said.

'They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things...and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started.'

'When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness.'

Trump even blamed investigators allowed a raid on his attorney's office for spoiling what could have been an up day on the stock market.

'The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise you know of this nonsense that was going on. It dropped a lot,' Trump complained.

'It was up - it was way up. It dropped quite a bit at the end. That we have to go through that. We've had that hanging over us from the very, very beginning. And yet the other side they're not even looking.'

'And the other side is where there are crimes and those crimes are obvious - lies under oath all over the place, emails that are knocked out, that are acid washed and deleted, 33,000 emails were deleted after getting a subpoena from Congress. And nobody bothers looking at that,' Trump ranted.

The raid appears most likely to be related to Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels days before the election - but the FBI, Mueller, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York all declined to comment on the purpose.

Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office

Bloomberg reported that Mueller had gone to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees his probe, with information which Rosenstein decided to refer to the Manhattan US attorney.

The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.

'Today the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Stephen Ryan.

'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.

'The decision by the US Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'

Mueller is overseeing the probe of contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.

CNN reported that President Trump had watched TV broadcasts of the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney  and that he knew about the raid before the news came out.

Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25

Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with Trump.

Cohen says he made the payment with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge.

Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC called Essential Solutions just weeks before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC.

The LLC was set up on October 17, 2016, the same day that Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez was reportedly trying to sell the porn star's story to the media.

Some 10 days later, Essential Solutions paid Daniels $130,000 after she signed an agreement not to talk about Trump.

The agreement used pseudonyms  David Dennison for Trump and Peggy Peterson for Daniels.

Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.

The raid comes just days after Trump made his first comments on the porn star aboard Air Force One Thursday  and denied any advance knowledge of the payment that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.

Asked if he knew about the payment, the president said 'No.'

The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, performs at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018 in Pompano Beach, Florida

Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'

Then, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing for relief from a non-disclosure agreement that her lawyer claims is null and invalid.

Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has been keeping the story in the news, now claiming he has a forensic sketch of a man who threatened her to keep quiet in 2011.

Avenatti said Cohen 'has been placed in the crosshairs by Mr Trump. He has been set up to take the fall.'

He also filed court papers Sunday to try to force Trump to answer questions about the agreement.

Avenatti is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and Cohen about the payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo on Sunday of Stormy Daniels with Lois Gibson, who he referred to as 'the foremost forensic artist in the world'

'We're going to be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward asking that the public come forward,' Avenatti told CNN on Monday. 'We are very close to identifying this individual.'

He predicted that identifying the man his client says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot will ' tighten the noose, if you will.'

The threat 'could only have come from one of three places,' he said confidently.

'My client, which means she threatened herself, which makes no sense; In Touch magazine, which makes no sense because why would they threaten my client relating to the publication of an interview in their own magazine?; or someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization.'

He (Trump) 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.' Daniels on the night she 'had sex' with Trump in 2006

Daniels said in a Los Angeles court filing she always thought Trump was a party to the deal.

'Such an agreement would not have made sense for many reasons,' she said in the filing.

'It was my understanding that Donald Trump was a party to the Settlement Agreement and that he was going to sign both documents,' Daniels said.

Her lawyer is trying to establish a basis for questioning Trump about the deal, even though he is not a signatory.

Cohen also appears in the infamous Steele Dossier of unverified information about President Trump and ties between his associates and Russia.

He is suing Buzzfeed for publishing the document.

Beyond warrants involving the Playmate and the porn star, it is possible investigators scooped up information of another variety.

Cohen was in contact for the Trump Organization with Russian-American businessman Felix Sater in 2015 about a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.

SECRET DEALS AND $130,000 IN HUSH MONEY: HOW STORMY DANIELS' CLAIMS OF SEX WITH DONALD TRUMP TURNED INTO A FULL-SCALE FBI RAID July 2006: Porn star Stormy Daniels says she meets now President Donald Trump at a Nevada golf tournament. They have an alleged sexual encounter. 2011: Daniels gives an interview about her tryst with Trump to In Touch Weekly. In 2018 she tells 60 Minutes that she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas over the telling of her story, and so the interview never ran. October 2016: In the weeks before voters head to the polls, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen uses a Delaware-based LLC to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, in exchange for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter. May 17, 2017: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller to take over the Russia probe on the heels of President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. January 12, 2018: The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that Cohen paid the $130,000 to Daniels, weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election. February 13, 2018: Cohen publicly admits to paying the $130,000, but says he did so with his own personal money, and was reimbursed by the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization. In referencing the payment, Daniels' attorney says the NDA is breached. March 6, 2018: The Washington Post reported that Mueller requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Cohen. Additionally, Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump in California Superior Court claiming that the NDA never went into effect because Trump never signed it. March 16, 2018: Lawyers for both Cohen and Trump attempt to get the Daniels' lawsuit moved from state to federal court. This marked the first time lawyers for Trump are actively involved in legal action over the Daniels' matter. March 28, 2018: The 60 Minutes' interview with Daniels airs. She details spanking Trump with a magazine with his face on the cover and having sex with him once. April 5, 2018: For the first time, Trump speaks about the $130,000 payment telling reporters on board Air Force One that he had no knowledge of it at the time. 'You'll have to ask Michael,' the president responded when asked why Cohen made the payment April 9, 2018: The FBI raids the New York City offices of Cohen. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a referral from Mueller, the New York Times reported. CNN reported that documents related to the Daniels affair were swept up in the search. Advertisement

In a note to Cohen reported by the New York Times, Sater wrote: 'Lets make this happen and build a Trump Moscow. And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce & business are much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say that's a great lifetime goal for us to go after.'

'Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,' Sater wrote.

Mueller is probing an array of contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

Trump has said repeatedly there was 'no collusion.'

The White House declined to comment on the raid when asked about it.

Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission arguing that the payments to Daniels constitute a possible violation of campaign finance laws.

Paul Ryan of Common Cause told USA Today: 'I'm happy to see the DOJ is doing its job. Donald Trump said he knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels. The FBI will now quickly get to the bottom of whether Trump lied to the American people when he said no knowledge about Michael Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels,' he said.

Cohen also hand-delivered a so-called peace plan for Russia and Ukraine that would have lifted sanctions on Russia to fired national security advisor Michael Flynn, according to a Times report on the February delivery of a sealed plan.

Cohen delivered it a week before Flynn resigned.

The raid on Trump's longtime consigliere and latest twist in the Russia probe comes as Trump called out Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter by name for the first time following a suspected chemical weapons attack by the pro-Russia regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Syrian rebel territory.

The White House kicked out 60 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and leveled new sanctions on Russian entities.

The raid immediately raised issues of attorney-client privilege. Cohen was the president's personal lawyer during the presidential campaign, which means their communications are assumed to be beyond the reach of law enforcement and the courts.

A critical loophole exists, however: the 'crime-fraud exception.' That allows prosecutors to use privileged material if it shows a client intended to further or cover up a crime.

Because of the usually sacrosanct nature of attorney-client communications, the FBI will likely use a 'taint team' to keep prosecutors from seeing anything privileged that could later cause a criminal conviction to be voided.
CCTV images have emerged of an man holding what appears to be a weapon minutes before he was shot dead by police at a petrol station.

The gunman was killed by a firearms officer at 4.45am yesterday on the forecourt of an Esso garage in Collier Row, Romford, east London.

Forensic teams were seen working at the scene of the shooting yesterday following the incident, which is now being investigated by the police watchdog.

The man was seen on CCTV walking while holding what appears to be a weapon, ten minutes before police shot him

Around 10 minutes before he was shot by police, the 41-year-old was seen on CCTV walking with what could be a sawn-off shotgun.

At around 2pm yesterday a body was carried away on a stretcher and into a waiting private ambulance.

Just an hour earlier police were sweeping a house roughly 50 yards from the shooting.

The incident comes amid a spate of shootings and stabbings that have rocked the capital in recent weeks, as police struggle to contain the surge in violence.

Yesterday afternoon a body was removed from the petrol station forecourt on a stretcher

The body was then loaded into the back of a private ambulance at just after 2pm yesterday

Two men in suits carried the body bag from the scene before it was driven away

In a statement, police said they were first called to a house at 3.50am to reports of a man claiming to be in possession of a weapon and 'making threats'

When they arrived at the house in Collier Row, the man had left, and was still armed, witnesses told police.

At 4.45am, just under an hour later, the man was then shot dead by officers at the Esso petrol station near Collier Row Road and Lodge Lane. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 5.17am.

Residents near to the petrol station described hearing two shots during the tense stand-off.

Officers in blue overalls were at the scene of the shooting on the petrol station forecourt

One image posted on Twitter showed the petrol station concourse yesterday morning where the man was shot dead

Officers erect a forensics tent at the Esso garage yesterday morning

A female police officer collects evidence on the station forecourt (left) and another takes notes at the scene

Resident Tracy Green, 39, who lives near the garage, said: 'I heard the gun shots - it was at about 4.45am.

'I just heard 'bang bang' and thought that sounded like gun shots - it was really close to here so it woke me up.

'I woke up then I saw all of it taped off here.

'That's when I read about what happened.'

Darren Buckley, 50, added: 'I was here at 5am because I thought it was a crash.

Scotland Yard said they were called to Collier Row, Romford at 3.50am to reports of a man with a gun

Roads around the petrol station were cordoned off as forensic teams worked at the scene of the shooting

Forensic officers at the scene of the shooting yesterday morning as the Metropolitan Police launched their investigation

The petrol station forecourt can be seen here taped off and under police guard

'I spoke to a copper but he was not giving anything away.

'There were armed response vehicles so it was obvious someone had been shot.

'There were four, they were in the garage and out here.

'It was all done, I was here about ten minutes after it happened so I didn't hear the shots.

'I just heard all the sirens. There was an ambulance parked here too.'

Forensic detectives could be seen sweeping the garage forecourt for clues yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, a man was arrested near the petrol station yesterday.

The cuffed man was dragged into the back of a police van just yards from the petrol station where the shooting happened. It is not known whether the arrest is linked to the probe.

The Metropolitan Police have now launched 56 murder investigations this year.

Figures revealed last week that London's murder rate had overtaken New York's for the first time ever.

At least 35 of those killed were stabbed to death in an epidemic of violent street crime which has led to a rise in the use of police stop and search powers.

A police cordon remains in place around the scene yesterday morning

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come under pressure to act and the Met Police chief Cressida Dick promised 'Al Capone' style tactics to crack down on the violence.

Yesterday a leaked Home Office paper revealed cuts to police numbers have 'likely contributed' to a rise in serious violent crime.

Police and crime figures in numbers 121,929 - The number of police officers in England and Wales as of September 30 last year, the lowest number since comparable records began more than two decades ago in 1996. 4.1% - The amount of police officers in the West Midlands fell by 4.1% between September 2016 and 2017. This is the force that saw the greatest fall. 43 - The number of police forces in England and Wales. 35 - The number of fatal stabbings that have occurred in London in 2018. 55 - Scotland Yard said it is currently investigating 55 suspected murders since the start of 2018, including the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in Sussex. 22 - The number of murder investigations launched by the Metropolitan Police in March this year, an all-time monthly high. Data shows two previous peaks in the past eight years - April 2010 when there were 16 murders, and June 2017 when there were 19. 6 - The number of suspected murders since the start of 2018 Scotland Yard is investigating in Hackney, more than in any other borough. 20,982 - The number of offences of possession of a knife or offensive weapon which led to a conviction or caution in England or Wales in 2017, the highest total for a calendar year since 2010. Advertisement

Road closures remain in place around the scene in Collier Row, and the Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed, the Met Police said in a statement.

A police spokesman added: 'At approximately 03:50hrs on Monday, 9 April police were called by a man making threats and claiming he was in possession of a firearm at an address in Collier Row.

'Firearms officers attended the location and were informed the man had left the address, armed with a firearm.

'At approximately 04:45hrs a man - believed to be aged in his 40s - was shot by police in the vicinity of Collier Row Road and Lodge Lane. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 05:17hrs.'

The incident has also been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

One onlooker wrote on Twitter: 'Body in concourse Collier Row petrol station.'

One resident said: 'We are waiting to hear what happened, it's at the top of my road and too close to home.'

Romford's Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell tweeted: 'Shocking incident in Collier Row today, just relieved that no member of the public has been harmed. Thank you to the Police for protecting our community.

'Crime in Havering is rising- Mayor Khan, you have a duty to allocate more resources to our borough!'

A spokesman for Independent Office for Police Conduct, said: 'We are investigating a fatal police shooting in Romford this morning.

'We were notified of the incident in Collier Row Road, Romford, by the MPS earlier this morning.

'We have deployed investigators to the scene and to police post-incident procedure to begin inquiries.'
There are seven hundred prisoners in British jails considered a risk because of their Islamist or far-right nationalist views.

The number, published for the first time since authorities launched a crackdown on radicalisation behind bars, was disclosed as the Government announced a second separation centre to house the 'most subversive' prisoners at HMP Full Sutton.

Ministers announced plans to set up three specialist facilities to isolate fanatics from the rest of the population last year.

Moves to establish the 'jails within jails' gathered pace after an official review warned that Islamist extremism was a growing problem in prisons in England and Wales.

The number, published for the first time since authorities launched a crackdown on radicalisation behind bars, was disclosed as the Government announced a second separation centre to house the 'most subversive' prisoners at HMP Full Sutton (pictured)

The first separation centre opened at HMP Frankland in Durham (pictured) in July. Michael Adebolajo and Osman Hussain are among the prison's inmates

The assessment found evidence of offenders advocating support for ISIS and 'charismatic' prisoners acting as 'self-styled emirs' to radicalise other inmates.

The first separation centre opened at HMP Frankland in Durham in July.

Announcing the opening of the facility at HMP Full Sutton, in East Yorkshire, the Ministry of Justice said: 'With 700 prisoners considered a risk due to their extremist views, and foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq hardened and dangerous, the Government is meeting the challenge of confronting and countering the spread of poisonous ideology within prisons.'

It is understood the 700 figure is an overall estimate of all inmates linked to any form of extremism, including Islamist or far-right ideologies.

The MoJ said there has been a 75 per cent increase in prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offences in the last three years.

At the end of December there were 224 individuals in custody in Britain after being charged with or convicted of terrorism-related crimes.

Of those, 192, or 86 per cent, were assessed as holding Islamist views, while 21, or just under a tenth, were identified as having extreme far-right sympathies.

Justice Secretary David Gauke said there had been a 75 per cent rise in terrorism-related offences over the last three years

Other prisoners held for non-terrorism offences but deemed to be an extremism risk were also counted in the 700 figure.

Justice Secretary David Gauke said: 'As a result of the Government's unprecedented action to protect the public from extremists, we have seen a 75 per cent rise in terrorism-related prisoners over the last three years.

'That means we need to do more than ever before to confront and counter the threat, including the spread of all forms of poisonous ideology within prisons - and we are meeting that challenge.

'With thousands of prison staff now trained to deal with extremism, an enhanced intelligence capability and separation centres for the most subversive prisoners, we are well equipped to deal with this threat.'

Inmates can be moved to the specialist units if they are linked to terror plotting or considered to pose a risk to national security.

Those seeking to influence others to commit terrorist crimes, or whose extremist views are undermining good order and security behind bars can also be taken out of the mainstream population.

The third centre will be in operation by the end of the year, the MoJ said. The three sites combined will hold up to 28 individuals.
Senator Tammy Duckworth has become the first United States senator to give birth while in office after the Illinois Democrat has welcomed a baby girl.

Tammy has named her second daughter Maile Pearl Bowlsbey after her husband Bryans great Aunt who was an Army officer and nurse during World War II.

She also revealed on Twitter that Senator Daniel Akaka, who passed away on April 6, 2018, had blessed her daughters name before he passed away.

The Senator first told the Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet that she was expecting and said that she had had multiple IVF cycles and a miscarriage while trying to conceive during her 2016 Senate run. But who is Tammy Duckworth?

Tammy Duckworth has become the first United States senator to give birth while in office

Who is Tammy Duckworth?

Born Ladda Tammy Duckworth in March 12, 1986 in Bangkok, Thailand, Tammy was the daughter of Lamai Sompornpairin and Franklin Duckworth, a US Army veteran who worked with the United Nations in Southeast Asia.

Tammys family settled in Hawaii and she attended the University of Hawaii where she studied political science. She went on to complete her Masters in international affairs at George Washington University and a PhD in Human Services at Capella University.

While completing her Masters degree, she joined the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1990 and became a commissioned officer two years later. She chose to fly helicopters, this being one of the only options open to women.

When Tammy was deployed to Iraq in 2004, she was in the process of working towards a PhD at Northern Illinois University. She lost her entire right leg and her left leg from below the knee and was the first American female double amputee from the Iraq War.

After losing her first Congressional campaign, Tammy was appointed as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and held that position in 2009. Here, she started a program helping those with post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries.

In 2012, she became the first disabled woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first to be born in Thailand. Four years later, she won the Illinois Senate seat and became the second Asian American to become a senator.

Who is Tammy Duckworths husband?

Tammy Duckworth is married to Bryan Bowlsbey and the couple have two daughters, Abigail who was born in 2014 and their new arrival, Maile.

When did Tammy Duckworth give birth?

Tammy Duckworth gave birth to her baby girl Maile on Monday, April 9, 2018.

On Twitter, she said: Bryan, Abigail and I couldnt be happier to welcome little Maile Pearl as the newest addition to our family and were deeply honored that our good friend Senator Akaka was able to bless her name for us - his help in naming both of our daughters means he will always be with us.

'Pearl Bowlsbey Johnson was Bryans great Aunt, an Army Officer & a nurse who served during the Second World War. He spent many summer months with her while growing up, we feel her presence still and are grateful for her service to our nation during the most challenging of times.'

Bryan, Abigail and I couldnt be happier to welcome little Maile Pearl as the newest addition to our family and were deeply honored that our good friend Senator Akaka was able to bless her name for ushis help in naming both of our daughters means he will always be with us. https://t.co/KXyNf65KxA  Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) April 9, 2018

Pearl Bowlsbey Johnson was Bryans great Aunt, an Army Officer & a nurse who served during the Second World War. He spent many summer months with her while growing up, we feel her presence still and are grateful for her service to our nation during the most challenging of times.  Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) April 9, 2018
A Russian warplane this weekend flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over frigate Aquitaine over the weekend and was fully-armed.

It also added that the Aquitaine could be used in strikes against the Assad regime.

The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanese shores alongside U.S. ships as part of France's contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq

The incident comes as tensions mount between Russia and Western nations following a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria on April 7. At least 60 people were killed in the attack, according to a Syrian relief agency.

France, the United States and their allies are considering a coordinated military response after accusing the Russia-backed Syrian government of being behind the attack. Damascus and Moscow have denied a chemical attack took place.

The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanese shores alongside U.S. ships as part of France's contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

'The flight took place several days ago,' a French naval source said, adding that France had contacted Russian authorities over the matter.

'Passes by military aircraft over warships are things that happen at sea. When it is deemed too close, the opposing party is notified,' the source said.

The Russian air force has already carried out such 'aggressive' flights over Western warships in the past.

In April 2016 two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea, so low they created wake in the water.

Phone calls to the Russian defence ministry in Moscow were not answered after business hours on Tuesday.
Former 'Homeland' heartthrob Damian Lewis is undergoing a major transformation to take on the role of obese, crack-smoking former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in the new thriller film 'Run This Town'.

Lewis, who weighs 190 pounds, revealed he is facing a vigorous alteration to turn into the late mayor who, at his heaviest, tipped the scales at 330 pounds.

In an interview with Kit Magazine, Lewis said he was being fitted for a prosthetic so he could bulk up his physique to play Ford.

Lewis said the process takes an entire afternoon and involves 'getting his face and head completely covered in silicon strips, breathing through a small hole near the nose'.

Former 'Homeland' star Damian Lewis (left) has been cast in the role of late former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (right) in the thriller film 'Run This Town'

Lewis (pictured) said the prosthetic process takes an entire afternoon and involves 'getting his face and head completely covered in silicon strips, breathing through a small hole'

Writer-director Rickey Tollman says he wants to create 'a sympathetic portrait' of Ford (pictured, right, November 2013) and his tumultuous time in office

According to its IMBD description, 'Run This Town', currently being produced Toronto, follows 'the inner workings of a city seen through the eyes of the interns and assistants that run it,' according to its IMDb description.

Although many of the details have not been revealed, what is known is that the film follows a reporter, played by Ben Platt, working to expose a politician - Ford - who is deep in scandal.

Meanwhile the politician's aides, played by Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud, try handle their boss and keep the story from getting out.

It is currently unknown if Lewis's character will be a real-life portrayal or a caricature because no role names have been released for any cast members.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the film will take place during Ford's tenure as mayor of Toronto, from 2010-2014 (Pictured, Ford, December 2013)

During his mayorship, Ford was famously seen on video smoking crack-cocaine from a glass pipe and was accused of sexual harassment.

Although many of the details have not been revealed, what is known is that the film follows a reporter, played by Ben Platt (pictured), working to expose a politician - Ford

However, The Hollywood Reporter did confirm that the film will take place during Ford's tenure as mayor of Toronto, from 2010-2014.

Writer-director Rickey Tollman says that Ford will be a minor character in the film but that he wants to create 'a sympathetic portrait' of Ford's turbulent political career,a according to CBC.

During his mayorship, Ford was famously captured on video smoking crack-cocaine from a glass pipe and was accused of sexual harassment.

He died in 2016 from lipsarcoma, a rare form of cancer that arises in fat cells in deep soft tissue, at age 46.

Ford denied the existence of the video of him smoking crack-cocaine for months until Toronto police confirmed to the public that the video was real

The casting news was not well received by real-life reporter Robyn Doolittle who exposed Ford's scandal. She took to Twitter to slam the decision of casting a man

In response, Ben Platt tweeted that he has the 'utmost respect' for the hard-hitting reporter

The casting news was not well received by real-life reporter Robyn Doolittle who exposed Ford's scandal. She took to Twitter to slam the decision of casting a male and not a female in the lead role of the journalist.

She wrote on Tuesday: 'I'm glad they're rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated Rob Ford. Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it? Ammaright?'

In response, Ben Platt tweeted: 'I have the utmost respect for your accomplishments- I play a totally fictionalized character, an entitled, incapable entry-level reporter (my boss is played by Jennifer Ehle) at a fictional competing newspaper. The film alludes to the successful reporting from the Toronto Star.'
Stormy Daniels' attorney has delayed revealing a forensic sketch showing a man who allegedly threatened the porn star to 'leave Trump alone' in 2011 after the President's personal lawyer had his office raided by the FBI.

Michael Avenatti had said on Monday he would publish the impression of the 'thug' and offer a reward for information about his identity, but reversed the decision a day later after Michael Cohen apparently became the focus of a criminal investigation.

He tweeted: 'Due to the FBI raids of Mr. Cohens office/home and a subsequent request we received this morning to delay the release of the forensic sketch of the thug that threatened Ms. Clifford to leave Trump alone, we will not be releasing the sketch or reward details today. Timing TBD.'

Stormy Daniels' attorney had said on Monday he would publish a sketch of the 'thug' and offer a reward for information about his identity, but tweeted on Tuesday morning (pic) to say he had reversed the decision due to the FBI raid on Michael Cohen's office

Daniels (left) has claimed she had been threatened by a man who warned her off going public with an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. The President is pictured on Air Force One denying knowledge of a 'hush money' payment to the porn star

In her March 25 interview with '60 Minutes', Daniels claimed she had been threatened by a man who warned her off going public with an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006.

The 39-year-old said the man approached her outside a fitness class and said: 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,' and then looked at her daughter and said, 'It would be a shame is something happened to her mom'.

On Saturday, Avenatti wrote a tweet saying he had a 'major announcement' about the man's identity before telling CNN two days later this was in the form of a composite sketch by forensic artist Lois Gibson showing the suspect.

'We're going to be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward asking that the public come forward,' Michael Avenatti said. 'We are very close to identifying this individual.'

He planned to release this on Tuesday alongside an offer of a 'significant' reward for information on the man's identity.

But his plans changed after Cohen's office, home and hotel room were raided on Monday night by FBI agents, who seized records that are related to several topics, including payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Trump and Daniels are seen together in a photo taken in 2006, when they are said to have been having an affair

President Trump replied furiously to the news, lashing out at his own Justice Department in tweet, which read: 'Attorneyclient privilege is dead! A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!'

It's unclear how Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, could remember facial features of the man seven years later. But Avenatti, who has demonstrated his Trump-like showmanship in recent weeks, hinted that the result will point to the president or his inner circle.

The threat 'could only have come from one of three places,' he said confidently.

'My client, which means she threatened herself, which makes no sense; In Touch magazine, which makes no sense because why would they threaten my client relating to the publication of an interview in their own magazine?; or someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization.'

'We think it's clear where it came from,' said Avenatti.

He predicted that identifying the man his client says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot will ' tighten the noose, if you will.'

On Saturday, Avenatti wrote a tweet saying he had a 'major announcement' about the man's identity before telling CNN two days later this was in the form of a composite sketch by forensic artist Lois Gibson showing the suspect

Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo on Sunday of Daniels with Lois Gibson, who he referred to as 'the foremost forensic artist in the world'

Michael Avenatti on Saturday told people to expect a 'major announcement' about the man who allegedly threatened Daniels not to speak about her relationship with President Trump

Daniels and Avenatti are fighting to have a nondisclosure agreement preventing the porn star from discussing her relationship with Trump overturned.

They have also renewed their effort to get the president to answer questions about their alleged trysts under oath.

Avenatti filed the motion Sunday in federal court in Los Angeles.

He is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen.

He also said he didn't know why his longtime lawyer had made the payment and didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money.

'You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael,' he said Thursday aboard Air Force One while returning from West Virginia for an event on the new tax overhaul law.

Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti (pictured) filed the motion in federal court in Los Angeles to get the president to answer his questions under oath

On March 22, three days before the '60 Minutes' interview, Avenatti tweeted a photo of a CD with the caption if "a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is this worth?????'

The outspoken lawyer (right) was in the news again on Thursday when he wishes a news anchor 'Merry Christmas' while expressing his delight at the President's decision to deny he knew about a hush money payment made to Daniels

Until then, Trump had avoided questions on Daniels, though the White House has consistently said Trump denies a relationship.

Cohen has held that he made the payment out of his own pocket, without involvement from the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign.

Cohen did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Sunday.

Avenatti filed a similar motion over a week ago, which a judge deemed premature.

He refiled after Trump asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in the case.

Trump and Cohen filed papers last week asking a judge to rule that the case must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. Avenatti opposes private arbitration.

In the filing, Avenatti says he wants to question Trump and Cohen for 'no more than two hours.'

He says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the settlement agreement and if he 'truly did not know about the $130,000 payment.'

He also asks if Trump was involved in any effort to 'silence' Daniels.

Daniels said in a recent interview with CBS' '60 Minutes' (pictured) that she was threatened by an unidentified man to keep quiet about the affair

Daniels said in a recent interview with CBS' '60 Minutes' that she was threatened by an unidentified man to keep quiet about the affair.

That interview prompted a lawyer for Cohen to demand that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting Cohen was involved in her intimidation.

Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.

If this legal move is successful, this would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and other women.

The outspoken lawyer was in the news again on Thursday when he wishes a news anchor 'Merry Christmas' while expressing his delight at the President's decision to deny he knew about a hush money payment made to Daniels.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Trump responded 'No' to a question about whether he had known that his lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, and insisted he had no knowledge of where the money came from.
Amal Clooney's mother has revealed that doctors initially told her to abort her pregnancy due to a placenta condition but she ignored their advice after having dreams of her future daughter's face.

Baria Alamuddin, a well known political journalist, opened up on her 'difficult' pregnancy with Amal in an interview with Vogue for a lengthy profile piece on her daughter.

'My pregnancy with Amal was a rather difficult one,' Baria said, adding that she spent two months in hospital with placenta previa.

Amal Clooney's mother Baria Alamuddin (above in October 2017) revealed that doctors initially told her to abort her pregnancy due to a placenta condition but she ignored their advice

'At some point I was told that I should lose the baby. I said no.

'I kept on having these dreams in which I would see her face and how she was going to look.'

Baria said Amal - who now has two children of her own with George Clooney - was born 'exactly' as she saw her in her dreams.

Amal, who was born in Beirut, is Baria's second daughter with her husband Ramzi Alamuddin.

They named her Amal, which means 'Hope' in Arabic, given she was born during a pause in Lebanon's civil war.

Alamuddin, a well known political journalist, opened up on her 'difficult' pregnancy with Amal in an interview with Vogue for a length profile piece on her daughter Amal

Baria said Amal - who now has two children of her own with George Clooney (pictured above in September 2017) - was born 'exactly' as she saw her in her dreams

The Alamuddins were always travelling around given Baria's job as a journalist and Ramzi's career as vice president of the Universal Federation of Travel Agents' Association, which consults with the United Nations.

When Amal was young the family moved to London where she excelled at school.

Amal herself said: 'I wanted to do well academically. But it was equally important to do things in an effortless manner.'

Her mother added: 'All my family, we are party animals. Amal partied hard and worked hard.'

She also said that Amal always strove to be both serious and chic. Baria said her daughter would often raid her closet.

Amal, who was born in Beirut, is Baria's second daughter with her husband Ramzi Alamuddin

Sweet: Amal said their 10-month-old twins Ella and Alexander have already said their first words and climb in bed with the couple between six and 8am

'She would come and grab a series of shoes and bags and whatever,' Baria said.

Intriguing: Read the full interview in the May issue of US Vogue

'I'd say, 'What are you doing?' She'd give me this legal argument that went on and on.'

Speaking of her own children - 10-month-old twins Ella and Alexander - Amal said they have already said their first words and climb into bed with the couple between 6am and 8am.

She said coyly: 'We've had some 'Mamas' and 'Dadas.' George was very careful to ensure that 'Mama' was the first word.'

Amal noted that their routine is easier now than when they were first born as the bed was full of 'weird cushions and pillows and machines,' at that time.

The interviewer noted that George made a FaceTime call to Amal during the chat where he asked after the 'knuckleheads' (the twins).

'This is the first time since their birth that he's been away, and the separation has nagged at him more than he'd expected,' Amal said.
Retired therapeutic doctor Ariel Lant, 81, who was accused of molesting ten patients as young as 14 between 1979 and 1994, allegedly asking them for sperm samples has been cleared at Southwark Crown Court

A retired therapeutic doctor who was accused of molesting ten patients as young as 14 after allegedly asking them for sperm samples has been cleared.

Ariel Lant, 81, accused of indecently assaulting four men and six teenagers while treating them at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, between 1978 and 1994.

The professor of therapeutics branded the allegations 'ridiculous' and a 'conspiracy against him.'

Lant insisted he was never in the same room when patients provided semen samples and jurors today acquitted him of 11 counts of indecent assault.

The jury of six men and six women took more than seven and a half hours to acquit him.

Judge Christopher Hehir said: 'These are difficult cases to try, both for the defence and the prosecution.'

Jurors were told Lant had his patients to strip down to their underwear while he ran his fingers over their groin and genitals.

Patients claimed they were subjected to 'prolonged' examinations by Lant who would hold their testicles and offer to help them masturbate under the guise of taking sperm samples.

The allegations came to light in 2014, when a man said he had been abused as a child between 1977 and 1981. A second complaint was then made to police.

When the Metropolitan police made inquiries to the General Medical Council, three other patients of Lant had made separate complaints of indecent assault, in 1995, 1996 and 1998.

During the investigation another five complainants came forward, which prosecutors say was as a result of increased press attention around historical sex abuse.

Lant insisted he was never in the same room when patients provided semen samples and jurors today acquitted him of 11 counts of indecent assault

Southwark Crown Court heard evidence from 11 former patients during the month-long trial. Their ages ranged from 14 to 38 at the time of the alleged assaults.

Giving evidence, Lant said examining his patient's genitals was part of his 'holistic approach' that he had taught to 'many hundreds of medical students.'

'I would take two fingers and run them along the shaft, as you would with any other organ,' Lant said.

Lant maintained throughout the trial that as a practitioner concerned with hormones and glands, he was carrying out the correct medical examinations.

Defending his practice he said: 'There's no rubbing involved. There's touching. The misconception is equating a touch with a rub. You don't rub, you touch.'

Lant said he sent gifts to many of his patients and did not see it as a particular problem and that they had been 'dramatic' when they gave evidence that he would pull down their underwear.

Lamenting the trial the doctor said: 'Life has taught me that lots of people sometimes the more you do for people the more they punch you. That's just a comment but I have learned that sadly.'

Lant, of Curzon Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex, denied and was cleared of 11 counts of indecent assault.

He was joined by friends as he left court following his acquittal
The designer of a water slide which decapitated a 10-year-old boy in 2016 appeared in court on Monday to plead not guilty to his murder.

Designer John Schooley, 70, is one of three people charged over the 2016 death of Caleb Schwab.

He designed the Veruckt slide at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kansas, on which Caleb, the son of Congressman Scott Schwab, died while riding with his family.

Schooley was arrested last week after arriving back in the US from China where he had been conducting business.

He was extradited to Kansas from Texas and now remains in jail on a $500,000 bond.

John Schooley is pictured in court in Kansas on Monday where he pleaded not guilty to second degree murder over the death of a boy who was decapitated on a slide he designed in 2016

Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Congressman Scott Schwab, was decapitated when his raft became airborne and he collided with metal bars which were supporting safety nets

The designer denies knowing that the slide was dangerous and ignoring red flags about its safety.

The indictment against him alleges he had neither the skill nor expertise to design the slide and that he and waterpark owner Jeffrey Henry rushed into it in order to create the tallest waterslide in the world.

The slide, which was closed after Caleb's death, began 168ft above ground. Riders were put in rafts and strapped in with velcro.

After an initial, dramatic drop, the slide had a second hump of around 50ft.

It was there where Caleb, whose raft had become airborne, flew directly into metal bars that supported netting.

Two women in his raft suffered serious injuries as a result of the collision. His body was discovered at the end of the ride, once the raft had reached an entry pool.

The criminal investigation into his death has taken years. On March 21, a grand jury finally returned an indictment against Schooley, Henry and former park operations manager Tyler Miles.

The indictment was unsealed on Monday.

The Veruckt slide started at 168ft above ground. After a first initial descent, it shooted rafts up with a second hill with pressurised water. It was at the top of the second incline where Caleb collided with the bars. His body was found in the pool at the end of the ride. Others in the raft suffered injuries including a broken jaw

The ride was enclosed by safety netting which was held up with metal bars. The view from the top is pictured

Schooley, 70, denied the charges on Monday. Prosecutors say he had no expertise or skill in designing water slides and that he and others involved in the project rushed it

Schooley (left) and Jeffrey Henry, one of the water park's owners, boasted about the slide in 2014 because it was the tallest in the world

It describes how Schooley and Henry built the slide using a 'spur of the moment' process to impress the Guiness Book of World Records.

They were tasked with arranging dynamic engineering before opening the slide to the public but, according to investigators, never did.

Dynamic engineering calculates the physics a passenger will experience along the ride path such as speed, weight, distance, velocity, momentum, gravitational force, centripetal force and friction.

'Investigators found nothing in Verruckt's project records indicating that dynamic engineering had been calculated,' the indictment reads.

At first, Caleb's death appeared to be a one off. However, as authorities investigated it, they discovered several other incidents of riders colliding with the metal bars and nets which had gone unreported.

The indictment claims Schooley and his co-defendants were aware the slide was not safe and that they deliberately tried to hide the fact from authorities.

He is alleged to have even said: 'If we actually knew how to do this, and it could be done that easily, it wouldn't be that spectacular.'

'Due to Henry and Schooley's lack of expertise and a desire to rush the timeline, they skipped fundamental steps in the design process.

'In place of mathematical and physics calculations, they rushed forward relying almost entirely on crude trial-and-error methods,' the indictment reads.

Henry made bail last week after being arrested in Kansas. Police were however called to investigate him allegedly threatening a woman in New Braunfels, Texas, not long afterwards.

Schooley will reappear in court at the end of April.

His lawyer asked for the bail to be dropped from $500,000 to $250,000, which the judge denied.

He, Schooley and Miles are expected to face trial together in September.

The Schwab family was awarded $20million in a civil lawsuit against the waterpark in 2017.
Ronald Anthony Burgos Aviles, 28, was being held without bond in the Webb County jail on two counts of capital murder

A supervisor for the U.S. Border Patrol killed a woman with whom he was romantically involved and her one-year-old child before calling 911 claiming to have discovered the bodies near a park along the border with Mexico, Texas authorities said Tuesday.

Ronald Anthony Burgos Aviles, 28, was being held without bond in the Webb County jail on two counts of capital murder. He was arrested by Laredo police, KGNS-TV reports.

Joe Baeza, police spokesman in the border city of Laredo, said Burgos Aviles was identified as a person of interest within an hour of the 911 call Monday, but Baeza declined to elaborate.

He said Grizelda Hernandez, 27, and her son, Dominick Alexander Hernandez, likely were killed Monday near Macnaboe Park park, which is adjacent to the Rio Grande and just south of the World Trade Bridge that carries traffic between the U.S. and Mexico.

Burgos Aviles and the woman were in a romantic relationship, Baeza said. The investigation will determine if Dominick was Burgos Aviles' child.

'This isn't over,' Baeza said. 'This investigation is just barely getting started.'

Grizelda Hernandez, 27, and her son, Dominick Alexander Hernandez, were killed Monday near Macnaboe Park, south of the World Trade Bridge at the border

Authorities declined to provide the manner of death for the two. Online jail records do not indicate an attorney for Burgos Aviles to answer the allegations.

Burgos Aviles was a nine-year veteran of the Border Patrol, Baeza said, and had been promoted last year.

Jason Owens, Border Patrol chief for the agency's Laredo sector, said at a news conference Tuesday that the deaths represent a 'horrific tragedy.'

Laredo Police arrested Burgos Aviles, who was a nine-year veteran of the Border Patrol

'The actions of this individual, if true, are both inexcusable and reprehensible,' Owens said. 'No one is more sickened than we are at the thought of someone wearing this uniform committing such a heinous act.'

Baeza said investigators are working to learn more about Burgos Aviles' relationship with Hernandez and many other aspects of the case, such as whether the suspect acted alone or had help.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said it's too early to determine if prosecutors will seek the death penalty, adding that the case 'is being given extreme priority.'
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Donald Trump flexed his military muscle Tuesday by tweeting an Oval Office image of 19 of his most senior military commanders, as a guided missile destroyer moved inside strike range of Syria.

The USS Donald Cook, loaded with 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, is now stationed in the eastern Mediterranean close to territory held by Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

And on Wednesday the USS Harry Truman, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier embarked with F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike planes, and escorted by four more guided-missile destroyers and a guided missile cruiser, will set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, for the Mediterranean.

That would put it in strike range of the Assad regime within days - significantly increasing the options open to Trump.

He used Twitter to boast of the military might at his disposal saying: 'Last night it was my great honor to host America's senior defense and military leaders for dinner at the White House.

'America's military is the GREATEST fighting force in the history of the world. They all have my pledge of unwavering commitment to our men and women in uniform!'

Tuesday morning, the White House suddenly announced that Trump would no longer make an appearance at the U.S.-founded Summit of the Americas this week in Lima, where he was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with regional leaders and deliver a plenary speech, citing Syria as the reason.

Military might: Trump tweeted a photograph showing him parading his top military commanders and the defense secretary and deputy press secretary in the Oval Office as tensions over Syria mounted

TRUMP PARADES HIS GENERALS IN THE OVAL OFFICE 1. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, Commander, U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2. Army General Mark Milley, U.S. Army Chief of Staff 3. Marine Corps General Robert Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps 4. U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard 5. Navy Admiral Kurt W. Tidd, Commander, U.S. Southern Command 6. Army General Raymond A Thomas, Commander, US Special Operations Command 7. Marine Corps General Thomas D. Waldhauser, Commander, U.S. Africa Command 8. Air Force General Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 9. Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 10. Defense Secretary James Mattis 11. President Donald Trump 12. Vice President Mike Pence 13. Navy Admiral Michael Rodgers, Director of the National Security Agency 14. Navy Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations 15. Army General Joseph Votel, Commander, U.S. Central Command 16. Air Force General David Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff 17. Air Force General John E Hyten, Commander, US Strategic Command 18. Air Force General Joseph L. Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau 19. Air Force General Lori Robinson, Commander, Northern Command and NORAD 20. Patrick M. Shanahan, Deputy Secretary of Defense 21. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command 22. Air Force General Darren W McDew, Commander, U.S. Transportation Command 23. U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Karl Schultz, Commander, Atlantic Area Advertisement

The USS Harry Truman, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier embarked with F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike planes, and escorted by four more guided-missile destroyers and a guided missile cruiser, will set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, for the Mediterranean

In strike range: The USS Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer is now close to Syrian waters, and in missile range of Bashar Assad's regime

On its way: The USS Harry Truman, seen on a previous Mediterranean deployment, is setting sail Wednesday from Norfolk, Virginia, for the Mediterranean, meaning its F-18 and F/A-18s could be unleashed against Assad

Fire and fury: Trump has indicated he is considering a military strike - but Vladimir Putin's Russia has made clear that it would oppose such a move

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who has been blamed for the chemical attack near Damascus

Britain and France led growing international momentum for action against Syria today following Bashar al-Assad's poison gas attack that left dozens dead. Children were among those caught up in the atrocity (pictured)

Unleash the Hornets: An F/A-18 Hornet on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the South China sea this week shows some of the airpower at Trump's disposal

'President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled,' the statement read.

'At the Presidents request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.'

France and Britain also discussed with Trump how to respond to the incident. Both stressed that the culprit in the incident still needed to be confirmed.

Trump has the immediate option of the missiles on board the USS Donald Cook, the Washington Examiner reported.

It has at least 50 Tomahawk missiles embarked and is now close to Syria, having left Larnaka in Cyprus on Monday.

And the strike group Harry Truman, led by the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Harry Truman, is due to sail for the Mediterranean Wednesday.

The Navy says it can operate in the Mediterranean or the Gulf.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday's suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syrian relief group.

MIGHT OF THE HARRY TRUMAN STRIKE GROUP HEADS FOR SYRIA What's in the strike group setting sail from Norfolk Wednesday: USS Harry S. Truman, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, carrying: Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 11 'Red Rippers'; VFA-211 'Checkmates'; VFA-81 'Sunliners'; VFA-136 'Knighthawks'; Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 137 'Rooks'; Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 126 'Seahawks'; Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 72 'Proud Warriors'; Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 11 'Dragon Slayers'; Detachment from Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40 'Rawhides. The Truman is escorted by Guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy; Guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke; USS Bulkeley; USS Forrest Sherman; USS Farragut. For the first half of its deployment, the group will be joined by Sachsen-class German frigate FGS Hessen. Guided-missile destroyers USS Jason Dunham and USS The Sullivans will join the deployment at a later, still to be announced, date. Advertisement

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

The incident has thrust Syria's seven-year-old conflict back to the forefront of international concern and pitted Washington and Moscow against each other again.

Russia and the United States were also headed for a showdown at the United Nations over how to respond to the Douma attack. The Kremlin rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution put forward by the U.S. on Tuesday to probe the chemical weapons attack.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran, Assad's other main ally, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country's northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad's control over the eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

But the prospect of U.S. strikes on Syria prompted a senior Russian lawmaker to say that such a move could trigger a direct military clash between Russia and the United States.

Vladimir Shamanov, a retired general who heads the defense affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said in televised remarks Tuesday that a U.S. strike in Syria could hurt Russian servicemen and trigger Russian retaliation.

He said that Russia has 'the necessary means for that and the Americans and their allies know that quite well.'

Shamanov emphasized that a retaliatory Russian strike could target U.S. navy ships and aircraft. He added that the use of nuclear weapons is 'unlikely.'

Meanwhile the president's new national security adviser, John Bolton, was said to have urged President Donald Trump to skip his trip to South America this week because of the ongoing crisis in Syria. The White House called off the trip on Tuesday.

This reflects a view in the White House that deeper Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria have complicated calculations about a response to any U.S. military attack. That was according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Moscow has cautioned the U.S. not to launch a military attack.

But Trump signaled Monday that he was likely to launch another military strike against Syria after a weekend chemical attack timed to the anniversary of the U.S. assault last year on dictator Bashar al-Assad's army.

'It will be met, and it will be met forcefully, and when I will not say, because I don't like talking about timing,' Trump told reporters. 'We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed, and you can see that and it's horrible.'

Trump also warned the leaders of Syria, Iran and Russia there would be a 'big price to pay' for the gas attack that is said to have killed nearly 50 people. He also referred to Assad as an 'animal.'

At at Cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Trump again said, 'If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out.'

'Everybody's gonna pay a price,' he said, including Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. 'He will, everybody will.'

The U.S. president also suggested on Monday that his calculus on an immediate troop withdraw from Syria had changed. After saying prior to the attack that the 2,000 soldiers the U.S. has in Syria would be coming home 'very soon' and the problems there would become someone else's problem, Trump mused this week that America has a responsibility to act.

'In our world, we cant let that happen, especially when were able to  because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country  were able to stop it,' he said of the repeated chemical weapons attacks.

Trump's press secretary signaled Monday that the president is conflicted about America's involvement in the war-torn country.

'Look, the President wants to bring our troops home after we complete the mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria. At the same time, he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians,' she said.

It remained unclear on Tuesday if the gas attack had changed Trump's calculus on the timing of a troop withdrawal.

President Trump whacked Russia and Iran over the countries' support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

He also criticized President Obama for not taking Bashar al-Assad, as Obama had said a 'red line' for him would be if chemical weapons were used on the Syrian people

Russia has said there's no evidence that a chemical attack took place in the face of graphic images of civilians, some of whom were children, choking and foaming at the mouth. The country's Foreign Ministry called the episode a 'hoax.'

Syria has also denied allegations that it was behind the assault.

'They're saying they're not. But to me there's not much a doubt,' Trump told his Cabinet, 'but the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours.'

Trump said that 'nothing's off the table' when it comes to retaliation and he expects to make a decision 'very quickly' after consulting with his national security team.

'So we'll be looking at that barbaric act and studying what's going on,' he said.

In the Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was a 'heinous' attack that was 'atrocious' and 'barbaric' in nature.

'This is about humanity. We're talking about humanity, and it can't be allowed to happen,' he stated

The U.S. president said then that he would make a decision about Syria within 48 hours.

Sen. Lindsay Graham said Tuesday Assad should be classified as a war criminal, and Trump ought to obliterate his air force.

'The world is watching the president, Iran is watching the president, Russia is watching the president and North Korea's watching the president,' the GOP lawmaker who has Trump's ear said. 'This president has a chance to do exactly the opposite of Obama: send a strong signal that there's a new sheriff in town and America's back.'

Barack Obama infamously warned Assad that that the U.S. would intervene militarily if he crossed a 'red line' and unloaded his chemical weapons on civilians. He ultimately backed down from the threat and later cited the unresolved conflict in Syria as his greatest regret as he left office.

Trump now faces a similar decision, having warned Assad last year that the U.S. would not allow him to gas his own people unchecked.

On the anniversary of the United States' limited air strike for his last confirmed chemical weapons attack, Assad reportedly hit the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's Eastern Ghouta late Saturday.

An image grab taken from a video released by the Syrian Civil Defense in Douma shows an unidentified volunteer holding an oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following a reported chemical attack on the rebel-held town on April 8, 2018

A year ago, on April 7, the U.S. attacked Assa'd forces with targeted and limited missile strikes

In Europe, the American ambassador to NATO said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is guilty of genocide in the aftermath of the chemical attack on Douma.

Kay Bailey Hutchison said the Assad regime had committed the grave crime as Britain and France earlier today led growing calls for action against Syria.

In an interview with Sky News, she called on Russia 'to do something' since the country is 'propping up Assad'.

She added: 'They should do something to stop this kind of genocide. We would call upon them to do that but I think a military response is appropriate.'

When asked by Sky's Alistair Bunkall if she would describe the Douma attack as 'genocide', she replied: 'I think killing your own people with chemical weapons, yes.'

Meanwhile France, under President Emmanuel Macron, warned it would retaliate against the Syrian regime if evidence emerged that the 'red line' of chemical weapons had been crossed in rebel-held Douma.
The audio of a 911 call has revealed the moment a seven-year-old boy found his mother's body after she was shot dead alongside her brother in 2016.

Brenda Kenison and her brother, Danny Kenison, were both found dead in their Spokane, Washington, home in August 2016.

'Somebody killed my mommy,' Brenda's terrified son, Cooper, is heard telling a 911 dispatcher shortly after the Kenison siblings were gunned down.

The audio of a 911 call has revealed the moment seven-year-old, Cooper (pictured, with his mother), found the body of his mother, Brenda Kenison, and his uncle Danny Kenison after they were shot dead in 2016

'Somebody killed my mommy,' Brenda's terrified son, Cooper (pictured with Danny), is heard telling a 911 dispatcher shortly after the Kenison siblings were gunned down

Brenda had just strapped her seven-year-old son (pictured at the scene of the crime in 2016) into a car seat for the ride to school when a car pulled up behind hers and blocked the driveway, according to court documents

The dispatcher then asks the child for his address.

'Can you please come? Pleas come and call the cops and please come here,' the child tells the dispatcher.

She then tells Cooper that he needs to tell her where he is so that she can send help.

Delgado is currently being held in jail on $1million bond. His trial will begin in October

'I'm at uncle Danny's house,' Cooper, now nine, is heard saying.

Brenda had just strapped her seven-year-old son into a car seat for the ride to school when a car pulled up behind hers and blocked the driveway, according to court documents.

Her ex-boyfriend, Gilberto Delgado, then emerged from the car and started arguing with her.

Delgado, then chased her into the house where she was living with her brother after leaving Boise, Idaho, seeking a new life.

He allegedly used a .22-caliber handgun to shoot Brenda and her brother Danny to death before fleeing the scene.

Delgado was arrested in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in Blackfoot, Idaho, a day later.

Authorities said at the time that Cooper, who was unharmed, unbuckled himself from the car seat and went into the house  discovering the bodies.

The child then used his uncle's phone to call 911. He also identified Delgado as the suspect, the documents said.

Delgado, 46, was described as a violent felon who was released from an Idaho prison in October 2015, according to Idaho prison records.

He had Brenda's name tattooed on his forearm but she broke up with him in the spring of 2015 when she learned about his criminal past.

She then moved from Idaho to Washington to start a new life with her son.

Delgado, 46, was described as a violent felon who was released from an Idaho prison in October 2015, according to Idaho prison records. Delgado allegedly shot Danny (right) in the abdomen

Authorities said at the time that Cooper, who was unharmed, unbuckled himself from the car seat and went into the house (pictured) discovering the bodies

Watch the latest video at <a href="http://www.foxnews.com">foxnews.com</a>

Sheriff's deputies arrived at the home within minutes of the shootings and coaxed the scared boy out.

Danny died from a gunshot wound to his abdomen, a medical examiner reported.

His sister died from several gunshot wounds.

The boy was immediately reunited with his father, Lance Kolbet, in Pocatello, Idaho.

Kolbet told Fox News that he 'listened first hand from Cooper everything that happened. It's horrible, but we got him'.

Delgado is currently being held in jail on $1million bond. His trial in the double-murder is expected to begin in October.

The child then used his uncle's phone to call 911 at the scene (pictured). He also identified Delgado as the suspect
A House of Horrors victim who found joy by getting married three years after being rescued from her captor's home has revealed new details of her wedding.

Michelle Knight escaped from Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland, Ohio, in May 2013. She and two other women, along with one of their children, had been held there by Castro for years against their will.

Since being freed, Knight has written two books and tied the knot with husband Miguel, 39.

In a interview with Dr. Phil which will air later this month, she gave details of their wedding and relationship.

The pair met on Facebook, she said, and she got in touch first.

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Michelle Knight, who escaped from captivity in 2013, married her husband Miguel (above) in May 2016

The happy pair are pictured above donned in white in this snapshot from their big day. set to air on Dr. Phil on April 24. Knight wore a dress from David's Bridal. They went on honeymoon to Hawaii afterwards

Miguel, who she said likes his 'privacy', did not know at first whether or not she was who she said she was.

The pair got married in May 2016. For the big day, Knight wore a dress from David's Bridal.

After their wedding, they honeymooned in Hawaii, she said. Now, the couple enjoys cooking together and playing with their dogs at home.

Knight was kidnapped, now 36, was 21 when she was kidnapped by Castro in 2002. Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were also kidnapped.

The women spent nine years together in captivity, during which time Berry gave birth to a daughter.

Knight gave details of the wedding in an interview with Dr. Phil which will air later this month

They were dramatically freed in 2016 when Berry and her daughter escaped from Castro's basement and called police.

Castro was arrested and was sentenced to life imprisonment. A month later, he was found hanging in his prison cell after committing suicide.

At the start of her interview with Dr. Phil, Knight excitedly revealed how she had moved on since the 11-year ordeal.

'It's so good to see you... I got really good news for you,' a healthy-looking Knight beamed as she told Dr. Phil.

'Dr. Phil, I am married,' she confirmed, as the audience began cheering and clapping while being shown wedding photos of the couple onscreen.

Knight's best-selling book, 'Finding Me' was released in 2014. In it, she revealed the brutal physical, mental and emotional torture that Castro subjected her to, before his two other victims, Berry and DeJesus were brought into the home.

This photo provided by family members to the kidnapping victim shows a young Knight aged 21. She was taken in 2002

Amanda Marie Berry (L) and Georgina Lynn DeJesus (R) are pictured in this combination photograph in undated handout photos released by the FBI. Berry, was missing since April 2003, when she was 16, and DeJesus, was missing since April 2004, when she was 14

The victim recounted harrowing details about emotional punishment, in which Castro repeatedly told her: 'You're a person with no meaning.'

Knight, who had a troubled upbringing as a victim of sexual abuse, had been on her way to a foster care appointment on August 22, 2002. She was attempting to get her two-year-old son, Joey, back.

Knight had stopped to ask for directions at a local store, when she ran into Castro.

She knew his daughter Emily - who has since been jailed for trying to murder her own baby in a separate case - and trusted him to take her to a house she was looking for.

Instead, he took her to his him then asked if she wanted to come inside to get a puppy.

'We stepped into a bedroom and he said: ''The puppies are underneath the dresser."'

Ariel Castro held the women in the basement of his home in Cleveland. He killed himself in September 2013 after being sentenced to life behind bars

This is the home where the women were kept and from which Berry escaped with her daughter in 2013. It allowed her to raise the alarm. When police arrived, they found Knight and DeJesus in the basement

She added: 'I looked down to where he was pointing and then, suddenly - Slam! - he closed the door... The gentle guy who'd seemed so nice to me had turned into a madman. He pushed me to the ground.

'I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself for what might happen next. To this day I still cannot believe what did,' she wrote in her book.

Knight recalled being strung from wire in a bedroom where Castro returned two days later to rape her before dragging her down two flights of stairs and into the basement.

She said: 'What happened over the next three hours is still hard for me to think about. He didn't just rape me the way he had upstairs. He murdered my heart.'

Knight became pregnant five times during her years in captivity. She had been starved and beaten by Castro until she miscarried.

In April 2003, Castro abducted Amanda Berry and brought her into the house.

Knight, who refers to Castro as 'the dude' in her writing, recalled one night: 'Amanda's mother was on the news pleading for people to help find her daughter. The dude laughed. ''You see that? At least someone's looking for her. But who's looking for you? Not a soul. That's because you don't mean nothin' to nobody.'''

By April 2004, Castro kidnapped Gina DeJesus and brought her to the home. He allowed her to be kept in the same room as Knight. The two girls developed a bond and held hands while they were abused.

Castro later loosened their chains after Berry became pregnant and allowed her to keep the baby. The son of Knight, who miscarried her baby, was adopted while his mother was in captivity.

The three girls were eventually allowed to go into the kitchen and living room for a few hours on the weekends.

Berry took advantage of Castro leaving the inner front door unlocked and screamed through the storm door for help in May 2013. A neighbor heard her and phoned 911.

As police officers descended the stairs to their basement prison, Knight said she turned to Gina DeJesus to tell her: 'You won't believe this. We're free. We are going home.'


A California sheriff campaigning for re-election in a county with an unusually high rate of killings by police officers once said it was 'better financially' to shoot suspects dead rather than injure them.

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood was taking part in an interview about police use of force and the cost of litigation in 2006 when he asked, 'Which way do you think is better financially  to cripple them or kill them  for the county?'

'Kill them' someone offscreen says before Youngblood answers, 'Absolutely. Because if you cripple them you have to take care of them for life and that cost goes way up,' he said.

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood was taking part in an interview about police use of force and the cost of litigation in 2006 when he asked, 'Which way do you think is better financially  to cripple them or kill them  for the county?'

The embarrassing footage was published on Monday by the Kern County Detention Officers Association, which is supporting the election of Youngblood's rival and current deputy, Justin Fleeman.

Youngblood was discussing how a fatal police shooting would cost the force $3million in compensation to the family, making the comparison with a beating in a jailhouse witnessed by several officers.

He then went on to compare the costs of killing someone in a shooting against the cost of injuring them and having to pay long-term care fees.

Kern County had the highest rate of killings by police officers in the U.S. in 2015, when 13 people died compared to nine in the whole of New York City - which has 10 times as many residents, The Guardian reported.

'Kill them' someone offscreen says before Youngblood answers, 'Absolutely. Because if you cripple them you have to take care of them for life and that cost goes way up,' he said

The number of killings fell to five in 2016 and six in 2017. During 2017 up to November, NYPD shot nine people dead, according to the New York Daily News.

Youngblood defended the 'intent' of what he was trying to say, which was that the force would still face costs if a suspect was injured even if they were not shot dead.

Youngblood (pictured in an undated official photo) defended the 'intent' of what he was trying to say, which was that the force would still face costs if a suspect was injured even if they were not shot dead

'I stand by the intent of what I was trying to get across - that just because someone doesn't die doesn't mean we escape with less money or unharmed,' he told Eyewitness News.

'Do I wish I would've said it differently? Absolutely. When you listen to the verbiage, it doesn't sound good. But I think the people of this county know that's not what I mean.'

Kern Count Detention Officers Association said the footage of Youngblood was taken during an endorsement consideration interview.

It wrote on Facebook that Kern County 'desperately needed positive changes', before adding: ''KCDOA believes Kern County citizens deserve better.'

The union ultimately endorsed Youngblood in 2006 despite the footage, according to Eyewitness News reported.
Anchors on Fox 5 DC have come under fire after they called a Houston teenager who was accepted to 20 different colleges 'obnoxious'.

Anchor Holly Morris and contributor Sarah Fraser were having a discussion on April 3 about Michael Brown, the high school senior who was accepted into every school he applied to, including several top universities.

The two women criticized Brown for applying to so many universities, saying that he was depriving other hard-working students of spots at the schools.

Anchor Holly Morris (right) and contributor Sarah Fraser (left) of Fox 5 DC have come under fire after they called a Houston teenager who was accepted to 20 different colleges 'obnoxious'

The two women criticized Michael Brown for applying to so many universities, saying that he was depriving other hard-working students of spots at the schools

'It's a little ridiculous that this kid applied to 20 [colleges] taking away a spot and basically wait-listing another kid,' Fraser said.

Morris replied: 'It's a little obnoxious because you can only go to one. You can only take one full ride, and you are taking a spot from someone else who worked really hard.'

Seventeen-year-old Brown has a 4.68 GPA at Lamar High School was accepted into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt, receiving full-ride scholarships from them and every other school he applied to.

A NowThis video criticizing the piece - and cutting the anchors reaction with with Browns excitement upon learning of his acceptances - has been viewed more than 7.83 million times.

Seventeen-year-old Brown has a 4.68 GPA at Lamar High School was accepted into several top universities

Brown (right) is now choosing between Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt, receiving full-ride scholarships from them and every other school he applied to

Several viewers took to Twitter to criticize the pair for being condescending, inconsiderate and racist

Several viewers took to Twitter to criticize the pair for being condescending, inconsiderate and racist.

'White women criticize exceptional young man black who, because he is so smart and knows the odds hes up against in white America, casts the wide net his hard work deserved,' tweeted one user.

Another user wrote: 'This doesnt 'take a space or a scholarship' away from ANYONE. Yale isnt going to suddenly enroll only 1,499 freshmen or only give $4,950,000 in financial aid if this kid goes to Stanford instead. This is straight up, poorly coded, bigotry.'

Fraser has since apologized for her comments but Morris stood firm in her opinion of the matter

Fraser apologized for her comments on Saturday in a tweet and said had 'learned a lesson'.

'I dont feel that way. I have apologized to Michael and he accepted my apology. Michaels [sic] accomplishments arent up for debate. I have learned a valuable lesson,' she wrote.

However, Morris remained more defensive and said that race had nothing to do with her opinion on the matter.

'I also said he is an amazing young man. This is not a racial issue. I would have the exact same opinion if the boy was white,' she wrote on Wednesday,
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insisted Tuesday that Donald Trump has the legal authority to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, even though the Justice Department's own rules say otherwise.

The president 'certainly believes he has the power to do so,' Sanders told reporters.

She said she knows 'a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice, [who say] he has the power' to fire the special counsel.

'We've been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision.'

Sanders and Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah did not respond to an email after the briefing, asking for examples of legal experts who believe the president can unilaterally dismiss Mueller.

President Donald Trump (left) believes he has the power to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller (right) even though the Department of Justice's guidelines seem to disagree

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that Trump 'certainly believes he has the power' to send Mueller packing

The latest tensions were brought about when the FBI raided the home, hotel room and offices of Michael Cohen, who was Donald Trump's personal lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign

Republican and Democratic senators, meanwhile, are urging Trump to let the special counsel process run its course without any political bloodletting.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill that he doesn't believe Mueller will be removed.

'I think he will be allowed to finish the job. He should be allowed to finish the job he was assigned,' McConnell said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed that Mueller should be permitted to stay, and he demanded a legislative fix on Tuesday to tie Trump's hands.

'Let us take steps to protect the special counsel from political interference. We have several bipartisan bills designed to do just that. Majority Leader McConnell should bring them to the floor and let us debate them very soon,' Schumer said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Congress could help avoid a constitutional crisis by passing legislation that would put Mueller's employment out of Trump's reach

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he has seen no clear indication that Congress needs to step in, but believes Mueller should be allowed to finish his job

McConnell responded separately that he has seen no clear indication that Congress needs to step in.

The No. 2 Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, said letting Mueller go 'would be a mistake,' and 'I don't believe that's going to happen.'

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, another Republican, said in a Fox Business Network interview that it would be political 'suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller. The less the president said on this whole thing, the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be.'

Justice Department guidelines say only Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller last May, has the authority to fire him  and only for 'good cause' such as misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity or conflict of interest.

Rosenstein has repeatedly said that he has not seen any reason to dismiss Mueller.

After reports on Monday that the FBI had raided the offices of his attorney Michael Cohen, Trump was asked why he wouldn't just relieve Mueller of his duties.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is at present the only person legally empowered to fire Mueller, according to DOJ regulations

Schumer tweeted a warning to Trump on Monday night

'Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on,' the president replied, calling Mueller's investigation into any links between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia and possible obstruction of justice a witch hunt and saying: 'We'll see what happens.'

Trump's predicament  and his menu of options  reminds some historians of President Richard Nixon's infamous 'Saturday night massacre' in October 1973.

That's when he ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. Richardson refused Nixon's order and resigned.

Nixon then gave the same order to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who followed Richardson out the door on principle.

Solicitor General Robert Bork, next in line at the Justice Department at the time, finally followed Nixon's order and fired Cox.

The events proved a political disaster for Nixon. Another special prosecutor was appointed and the Watergate investigation continued, leading to the president's resignation the following year in the face of near-certain impeachment.

As Trump mulls Mueller's fate, parallels are being drawn with President Richard Nixon's (left) 'Saturday Night Massacre,' which saw Attorney General Elliot Richardson resign rather than obey his order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox

Trump could get around the problem in a different way by firing either Rosenstein or Attorney General Jeff Sessions  and then naming a replacement from among his Cabinet who would agree to send Mueller packing.

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which lays out general rules for temporarily filling vacant executive branch positions, could allow the president to replace a high-ranking DOJ official with someone who has already been confirmed by the Senate.

'That's probably the most politically savvy way to fire Mueller,' University of Iowa College of Law professor Andy Grewal told Reuters.

Anyone affected negatively by the actions of a newly appointed DOJ official could sue, arguing that the replacement was illetimate since it resulted form the president firing someone.

By that time, however, Mueller would be gone and the special counsel probe shuttered.
UFC star Paige VanZant has revealed she was gang-raped by students from her high school when she was just 14 and that the incident left her contemplating suicide.

The 24-year-old mixed martial arts fighter opened up on being sexually assaulted and bullied as a teenager in her new book Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life.

VanZant said on the night she was attacked she had been influenced to drink at the party by a group of boys from her school in Oregon.

She claims they later raped her but did not reveal if the boys ever faced charges.

UFC star Paige VanZant, 24, (above in January 2017) has opened up on being sexually assaulted and bullied as a teenager in Oregon, which left her contemplating suicide

VanZant said some of her classmates later found out and spread rumors that the sex was consensual instead of rape.

The fighter said she had been bullied prior to the rape but it became more severe after the rumors spread.

She was born Paige Sletten but changed her name after students started calling her 'Paige Slutton'. VanZant also came home from school one day to find condoms hanging from the trees around her house.

She told ABC News in an interview to promote her book that she would often run to the bathroom to eat lunch because she was too scared to eat in the cafeteria with other students.

VanZant said she felt completely isolated and considered attempting suicide.

The MMA fighter said she considered attempting suicide after being bullied and raped as a teen. She is pictured above in her latest bought in January with Australian Jessica-Rose Clark

The 24-year-old opened up on being sexually assaulted and bullied as a teenager in her new book Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life

'I didn't see any other way out,' she said.

'When you're in that position, when you're feeling that much pain, it's not that you want to die... you just don't want to be in pain anymore.

'I didn't have anywhere to run to, I didn't have anybody to turn to.'

VanZant said the events of that night changed her but mixed martial arts helped in her recovery.

'MMA fighting saved my life. It saved who I was as a person too,' she said.

She said she only recently told her parents of the assault because she feared she would disappoint them.

VanZant, who has won seven of her 11 professional fights, is still recovering from a hand injury she sustained in her last bout in January.

She won her first UFC fight at 20 years of age and went on to star in Dancing With The Stars.

VanZant, who has won seven of her 11 professional fights, is still recovering from a hand injury she sustained in her last bout in January
James Franco has been keeping a very low profile in the wake of multiple women coming forward to accuse the actor of sexual misconduct.

He has refused interviews, skipped the red carpet at award shows and avoided public events, all in an effort to not have to address the allegations being made against him by both his former paramours and co-stars.

That did not stop one person from voicing their opinion of the star earlier this week however, with an unknown individual vandalizing Franco's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by writing ' DOUCHE.'

This happened on the same day that the trailer for Franco's new film Future World was released, in which he plays a sex-crazed warlord on the hunt for a female clone.

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Disaster artist: James Franco's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized on Monday with the word 'DOUCHE' (above)

Time's up: The incident happened on the same day that the trailer was released for Future World, a film in which Franco stars as a sex-crazed warlord (above with co-star Suki Waterhouse)

Five women accused Franco of sexual misconduct in a Los Angeles Times expose that was released back in January.

Violet Paley had a consensual relationship with the actor, but claims that he once forced her into performing oral sex on her while they sat in his car.

The other four women were students at Studio 4, Franco's now-closed acting school, and claim the 39-year-old Oscar nominee asked women both on set and in class to perform topless or even completely nude.

One of those women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, claims that she was shooting a nude orgy scene with Franco and several other actresses on one of the actor's film projects when he took off the protective piece of plastic covering their genitals while simulating oral sex.

Franco, speaking through his lawyer, Michael Plonsker at the time, denied the allegations being made by all five women.

He did however call and apologize to both Tither-Kaplan and Paley according to the two women.

Franco also painted himself as a martyr for the case while appearing of Seth Meyers' NBC show, stating: 'There are stories that need to get out. There are people that need to be heard.

'I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much.

'And if I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.'

Tither-Kaplan, 26, said that landing a role in Franco's upcoming film The Long Home was a huge break for her after working with the actor at Studio 4.

While at Studio 4 she had enrolled in Francos Sex Scenes master class, and in one short video that she filmed for the class she appeared topless.

Me too: Franco, 39, was accused of sexual misconduct by five women in early January

That video was then uploaded to Vimeo without her knowledge she claims, and projecting an image she is not comfortable with while trying to move up in the industry.

And a still from the video ended up on at least one adult website according to Tither-Kaplan.

'Now, if you Google me, you can see me naked. Before Ive ever been on TV or before Ive ever had any real credits or before any of this - of course I regret that. I dont want that,' said the young woman.

Despite this, she was happy to take a role on The Long Home, which Franco is both directing and starring in alongside an eclectic cast of actors including Ashton Kutcher, Courtney Love, Robin Lord Taylor, Annaleigh Tipton, Josh Hutcherson and Oscar-winner Timothy Hutton.

While on set, Tither-Kaplan was asked if she would be willing to appear in a nude orgy scene, which she admittedly agreed to do because she saw her appearance in the film as a big break in her career.

Tither-Kaplan appeared with several other women in the scene, and they each wore nothing but a piece of plastic known as a genital guard.

She claims that when it came time for Franco to simulate oral sex on the actresses, he removed the guard and continued to act out the scene with no barrier between his mouth and the women's vaginas.

Her willingness to appear in the nude orgy shoot got Tither-Kaplan asked back to film another scene.

This time it was an unscripted bit that required her to be topless while wearing an animal skull and dancing around in a circle with other women.

One of the actresses declined to appear topless in the scene and was not asked back on set by Franco according to Tither-Kaplan.

'I got it in my head pretty quickly that, OK, you dont say no to this guy,' she said of Franco.

An actress who appeared alongside her in those two scenes confirmed Tither-Kaplan's account, while Franco's lawyer said the allegations about the protective guards are not accurate.'

The casting director on the film, Cynthia Huffman, also commented on the claims by saying she 'personally checked on all the actresses' during the shoot.'

'James is all about giving up and comers, actors and actresses and young filmmakers a break in this business,' said Huffman.

'I feel horrible that anyone was made to feel uncomfortable but we went to great lengths to make sure all the actresses in the nude scenes felt comfortable and safe.'
The gunman who shot one of Floyd Mayweather's bodyguards in the leg was reportedly targeting the retired boxer's entourage.

Gregory La Rosa, 37, who is a longtime member of Mayweather's TMT bodyguard crew, was shot in the leg during the 3am Monday morning attack outside the InterContinental hotel in Buckhead.

'Based off the actions by the shooter, we believe that he was familiar with the entourage or the group of vehicles that he targeted,' Atlanta police spokesman Donald Hannah told reporters Monday afternoon.

Hannah said authorities have yet to determine which person in the entourage the gunman was targeting.

The gunman who shot Floyd Mayweather's bodyguard, Gregory La Rosa (pictured), 37, in the leg was reportedly targeting the retired boxer's entourage, according to Atlanta police

La Rosa (left, with Mayweather in California), 37, who is a longtime member of Mayweather's TMT bodyguard crew, was shot in the leg during the 3am Monday morning attack

Atlanta police spokesman Donald Hannah said authorities have yet to determine which person in the entourage the gunman was targeting outside the InterContinental hotel (pictured) in Buckhead

Three vehicles in Mayweather's entourage were returning from the hotel from a nearby nightclub when another vehicle pulled up beside them at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Highland Drive, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The gunman fired several times at the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, striking the La Rosa in the leg.

Atlanta police said all three vehicles fled the scene and the victims told officers that the gunman's vehicle followed them for a distance.

'After losing the vehicle that was following them, the victim's vehicle drove to Grady Hospital where the victim was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg and is in stable condition,' police said.

La Rosa was released from the hospital around 5.30am Monday morning. La Rosa has been a member of Mayweathers personal security team since 2014.

Authorities said La Rosa was a passenger in the lead vehicle of Floyd's three-car entourage when the shooting occurred.

Police said they had just left a Waffle House after Mayweather hosted a party at Medusa nightclub.

'We do believe that Mr Mayweather was in one of the additional SUVs. He was not in the vehicle that received fire,' Atlanta police spokesman Hannah confirmed.

La Rosa (second from left) was released from the hospital around 5.30am Monday morning. La Rosa has been a member of Mayweathers personal security team since 2014

Mayweather posted his whereabouts on Instagram on Sunday. '**TONIGHT** ATLANTA... Me And The Money Team Will Be At Club Medusa. Come Party With Us,' he wrote in the caption of this flier. The flier has since been deleted from his account

Club Medusa (pictured) is a little over three miles from the InterContinental hotel where the shooting occurred

Mayweather, who posted his whereabouts on Instagram on Sunday, was not injured in the attack.

'**TONIGHT** ATLANTA... Me And The Money Team Will Be At Club Medusa. Come Party With Us,' he wrote.

That post has since been removed from the boxer's Instagram account.

Medusa is a little over three miles from the InterContinental hotel where the shooting occurred.

Mayweather also shared a photo Sunday with this caption: 'I don't know nothing about tomorrow but I'm living for today.'

Police are still investigating the shooting and as of Tuesday afternoon they still do not have a suspect in custody at this point.

The injured man is expected to be okay. His name has not been released.

Mayweather attended the junior middleweight bout between Nathaniel Gallimore and Julian Williams at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Saturday.

He then traveled to Atlanta for his event at Medusa.
Morgan Freeman's granddaughter pleaded, 'why are you doing this?' as her boyfriend stabbed her to death in the street in 2015, witnesses at his trial have claimed.

E'Dena Hines, 33, was stabbed 25 times in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan on August 16, 2015, at 2.50am.

Her boyfriend, rapper Lamar Davenport, 30, is accused of her murder and is currently standing trial for it.

On Tuesday, a witness told how she saw him straddling Hines on the street and stopped her from getting to her feet.

'They were arguing. She was on the floor, and he was on top of her, restraining her, stopping her from getting loose from his grip.

E'Dena Hines, the granddaughter of actor Morgan Freeman, was stabbed to death in August 2015. On Tuesday, her boyfriend, who is her accused killer, appeared in court in Manhattan to face trial for her murder. She is pictured with her grandfather at the 2005 Golden Globes

'He was trying to keep her down.  I proceeded to call the cops,' nursing student Cristina Aviles said, according to The New York Post which attended Tuesday's hearing.

'He was yelling things about releasing the devil out of her. And then he pulled out a knife, and then he proceeded to stab her multiple times,' she added.

Aviles said she watched 'in shock' as Davenport pulled out a knife.

'I dont know where it came from,' she said.

She described in harrowing detail how Hines tried to escape and 'flipped' from her back to her stomach as she was repeatedly wounded.

'There was multiple stabs. The back, and then on the front of her chest and her neck.

'She was on her stomach, and then she somehow flipped over, and he stabbed her on the chest.

'She was trying to get away from him by pushing him and kicking him,' she said.

She said Hines continued to move but not intentionally and that it looked like her body was 'jerking' in shock.

Lamar Davenport, Hines' rapper boyfriend, is alleged to have killed her. He is shown above in court on Tuesday. Davenport denies the killing

Crime scene Detective Philip Matthew was another witness. He is pictured leaving the court on Tuesday

When Hines died, Freeman released an emotional statement saying the world would 'never know her talent'

Davenport stopped plunging the knife into her, she said, once Hines was lying still.

The witness was the person who called 911. During that call, which was played by prosecutors, she screamed: 'Oh my God! Oh no! Shes on the floor!

'I cant believe Im watching this! This fking guy is stabbing her. This guy is crazy!'

Hines was the daughter of Freeman's first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, and was not related to the actor by blood.

He adopted her mother when he married Jeanette, however, and considered himself her father.

Davenport was a drug-addicted rapper at the time who had been unfaithful to her throughout their nine-year relationship

They had a close relationship and Hines went with him and her grandmother to several high profile film awards ceremonies.

She and Davenport had been living together in a $780,000 apartment that Freeman had bought for Hines.

During their nine-year relationship, he fathered children with other women and abused drugs.

At the time of E'Dena's death, it was claimed that he was high on cocaine on the night he stabbed her.

Davenport denies the killing. He was taken to a psychiatric facility immediately after her death but has been in custody ever since.
Spanish fashion house Balenciaga have pioneered this unusual shirt

Forking out 650 at a high end fashion label, you would expect a glamorous ensemble of only the finest quality.

But this bizarre shirt, made by Spanish fashion house Balenciaga, is made from 100 per cent polyethylene - the same plastic used to make carrier bags.

The neon green top, which the brand has called Plastic-Bin shirt, features the fashion houses name on the back and front in gold lettering.

A far cry from fine fabrics such as silk and cashmere, polyethylene is usually used to make plastic bags, bottles and even cling film.

It made its debut on the 2018 spring and summer catwalk in Paris and is now selling for 645 at Selfridges - where it is almost sold out.

To complete the outfit, the fashion house suggests it is teamed with a houndstooth pencil skirt and a pair of gold clip-on earrings.

Latex and plastic is all the rage in fashion circles. Fashion house Celine is selling a 423 plastic handbag, while the trend has also featured on the catwalk at Chanel - where thigh-high transparent boots pounded the runway.

Models carrying plastic bags also appeared at last months London fashion month - featuring in a show staged by Indian-born designer Ashish, while Burberry has designed a series of latex-like shopping bags for its catwalks last year.

It may seem a tricky trend to navigate, but experts at fashion magazine Marie Claire suggested willing women should make subtle nods to the trend without wearing it all-over.

The odd creation features the fashion houses name on the back and front in gold lettering

The bizarre shirt is made from 100 per cent polyethylene - the same plastic used to make carrier bags

It suggested: You might choose to accessorise a denim jumpsuit with some PVC boots or a clear handbag. Or give a tough edge to a feminine blouse by pairing it with vinyl trousers.

Or perhaps the perfect finishing touch to a sharp suit is a clear trench coat, which you can also layer over your favourite coat to give it an instant update.
A famed Harvard legal scholar is raising concerns about the Justice Department's ability to responsibly handle some documents seized Monday from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's offices.

Among the scooped-up papers, and lurking on phones and hard drives, is likely to be a cache of material that's covered by attorney-client privilege.

Prosecutors are not permitted access to those files, and the DOJ's standard practice is to set up a 'taint team'  a group of agents and lawyers not connected to the Cohen case or the special counsel probe into all things Russia  to decide what they can see.

But 'taint teams don't work,' Alan Dershowitz told DailyMail.com on Tuesday, because seizing the material in the first place was a violation of Cohen's constitutional rights  even if it's never used in court.

Dershowitz was at the White House on Tuesday afternoon in advance of a dinner appointment with the president, according to two officials.

Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that the Justice Department violated the rights of Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen when the FBI seized his files on Monday, because of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and guaranteeing the assistance of legal counsel

President Donald Trump invited Dershowitz to dinner on Tuesday at the White House, according to two sources there

Cohen is reportedly under investigation for allegedly making illegal campaign contributions to Trump in 2016 by giving the future president's former mistress hush money in order to help him win the White House, and for bank fraud related to his withdrawal of the payoff funds from his home equity line of credit

He said it's 'rare' for federal law enforcement to serve a no-knock search warrant on an attorney in a case as high-profile as the one now swirling around the White House.

But the investigative firewalls between FBI strike teams and prosecutors are 'not so uncommon,' UCLA Law School professor Harry Litman told DailyMail.com.

He said such teams are assembled 'several times a year' at the federal level, citing the 1993 civil rights trial of four Los Angeles police officers who were caught on camera physically attacking Rodney King, an African-American taxi driver.

UCLA Law School professor Harry Litman, no fan of Dershowitz, says 'taint teams' work well and there's 'absolutely no cheating' because the stakes are so high

Although the officers were acquitted in a California courtroom, the federal government won civil rights convictions against two of them.

But the Justice Department prosecutors in the second case weren't permitted to see anything related to the earlier criminal trial, Litman explained.

As a practical matter, he insisted, taint teams do their jobs well.

'I've experienced it,' he said 'There's absolutely no cheating, certainly at the federal level. The consequences are too severe.'

Litman called the Justice Department 'ultra-hyper-vigilant, even paranoid, about this precise issue.'

But for Dershowitz, who helped win a murder acquittal for O.J. Simpson and succeeded in overturning the attempted murder conviction of Claus von Bulow, the constitutional issues are more important than the DOJ's trustworthiness  and bigger than the presidency.

Dershowitz said Monday night in a Fox News Channel interview that it had been 'a very dangerous day today for lawyer-client relations.'

The concept of assembling a taint team, he said, revolves around the Fifth Amendment, which protects Americans from being forced to incriminate themselves.

So when the team sifts through Cohen's documents, hard drives and memory sticks, it will be searching for protected material that should be kept private.

But the Fourth Amendment prohibits 'unreasonable' searches and seizures by the government  a description that could apply to scooping up communications between a lawyer and his client, except in extreme circumstances.

And the Sixth Amendment guarantees Americans the right to 'the assistance of counsel' for courtroom defense, meaning no government can interfere with that relationship.

Dershowitz told DailyMail.com that 'if the government improperly seizes private or privileged material, the violation has already occurred, even if the government never uses them.'

'Remember who comprises the firewall and taint teams,' he explained, quoting in an email from what he said was a forthcoming column. It's 'other FBI agents, prosecutors and government officials who have no right under the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, even to see private or confidential materials, regardless whether it is ever used against a defendant.'

Ultimately, Dershowitz's beef may be with whichever federal judge green-lighted the DOJ's request for a search warrant covering the places where Cohen lives and works.

It's likely that the agency convinced the jurist that Cohen had documents showing evidence of a crime. But even so, the Harvard professor said, those documents could have been privately subpoenaed.

He compared Monday's document dragnet to government surveillance of a confession heard by a priest, a patient's discussion with her doctor, or a husband and wife talking about their sex life.

'The government simply has no right to this material,' he said.

Washington, D.C. criminal defense lawyer Barry Pollack told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it is 'extremely rare' for authorities to conduct searches in lawyers' offices.

Such a search warrant is a measure of last resort because of problems posed by the attorney-client privilege, according to the Justice Department's manual for federal prosecutors.

'Only if they have considered other means for obtaining the evidence they are seeking and have decided that other means are not going to be effective,' said Pollack, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

After prosecutors decided they needed a warrant, they still had to get authorization from the top federal prosecutor in New York or a high-ranking Justice Department official. Prosecutors also had to confer with the department's criminal division, according to the rules.

Still, Dershowitz said Monday night in a Fox News Channel interview that it had been 'a very dangerous day today for lawyer-client relations.'

'If this were Hillary Clinton [having her lawyer's office raided], the ACLU would be on every TV station in America jumping up and down,' he protested.

'The deafening silence of the ACLU and civil libertarians about the intrusion into the lawyer-client confidentiality is really appalling.'
Malcolm Turnbull has been caught on camera mangling the lyrics of John Farnham classic 'You're the Voice'.

The Prime Minister was at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre on Tuesday night to watch Australia's gold rush in the pool when the iconic song came on over the loudspeaker.

As the national swim team started belting out the anthem, Mr Turnbull was unable to join in, swaying from side to side with his lips barely moving.

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Malcolm Turnbull has been caught on camera mangling the lyrics of John Farnham classic 'You're the Voice' (pictured)

The Prime Minister (pictured) was at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre on Tuesday night to watch Australia's gold rush in the pool when the iconic song came on over the loudspeaker

The cringeworthy performance soon saw Mr Turnbull - fresh off 30 straight Newspoll losses - savaged on social media.

'Turnbull doesn't know the words to "You're the Voice". Newspoll loss no. 31,' wrote one Twitter user.

'Malcolm Turnbull not knowing the words to "You're The Voice" is a disgrace!' said another.

'Malcom Turnbull appears not to know the words to You're the Voice. Automatic deportation?' quipped someone else.

The cringeworthy performance soon saw Mr Turnbull - fresh off 30 straight Newspoll losses - savaged on social media (picture above)

The situation then deteriorated further for the prime minister when the stadium was drenching by heavy rain, forcing him to don a plastic poncho over his suit

The Prime Minister is no stranger to sporting embarrassments - he once said the Roosters were his favorite AFL team, and was unable to sing the Sydney Swans team song

The situation then deteriorated further for the prime minister when the stadium was drenching by heavy rain, forcing him to don a plastic poncho over his suit.

The lyrical blunder marked the second time the hit song has caused controversy at this year's Commonwealth Games.

Closed captions of the lyrics while the song was played during the opening ceremony read 'We rob someone's daughter. We rob someone's son'.

They were meant to say 'We're all someone's daughter. We're all someone's son,' and the blunder coincided with Aboriginal protests outside the venue.

The Prime Minister is no stranger to sporting embarrassments - he once said the Roosters were his favorite AFL team, and was unable to sing the Sydney Swans team song.

The lyrical blunder marked the second time the hit song has caused controversy at this year's Commonwealth Games
Four people, including a teenager, are dead in what Missouri police are calling a horrific murder-suicide.

Susan Gibson, 70, Cynthia Miller, 43, and Daniel Gibson, 17, were all killed with gunshot wounds to the head in their Branson West home.

Victor Gibson, 47, was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader.

Susan Gibson, 70, Cynthia Miller, 43, and Daniel Gibson, 17, were all killed with gunshot wounds to the head in their Branson West, Missouri home (pictured is the neighborhood). Authorities believe Victor Gibson, 47, killed them in a horrific murder-suicide

Gibson killed his mother, girlfriend, and son, according to police. A motive for the murders remains unknown.

The bodies were discovered by neighbor Rich Jarocki, who went to check on the home after a concerned relative of one of the victims called him on Tuesday.

A woman called Jarocki and said she hadn't heard from her sister since Saturday morning.

'She said she hadn't heard from her afterwards and kept calling there and calling there,' he told Branson Tri-Lake News.

'She said she sent text messages and she tried reaching the other members of the home and didn't get any response.'

Gibson killed his mother, girlfriend, and son, according to police. A motive for the murders remains unknown

Jarocki opened the home's storm door to peek inside and saw a man lying on the floor 'maybe 15ft from the front door'.

'He was barefoot and it appeared he had his pants and his shirt on and, it appeared from what I could see, he had his hands folded on his chest,' the neighbor recalled.

'So when I saw that, I pounded on the door some more and nobody came to the door. I got really upset and immediately called the Stone County Sheriff's Office.'

The family had moved to Missouri from California last summer, according to authorities.

The bodies were discovered by neighbor Rich Jarocki, who went to check on the home after a concerned relative of one of the victims called him on Tuesday

Jarocki said there were never any signs of 'fights or discord' in the home.

'They appeared happy, but they mostly kept to themselves,' he said.

Daniel Gibson was a senior at Reeds Spring High School, which said he was 'well liked by his teachers and classmates'.

'The entire school community is saddened by this tragic event,' officials said in a statement.

The investigation continues and autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday morning.

'It's just hard to get hold of all the thoughts, get your mind wrapped around it, that these four people are gone and gone in a horrible way,' Jarocki told KSPR.

'The shock of it is not knowing exactly what were the circumstances.'
Prince Charles appeared to be struggling in the scorching heat during a full day of engagements yesterday. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as temperatures hit 89.6F (32C) in Darwin  and his discomfort was probably not helped by his full grey suit

He had probably hoped for a warm welcome in Australia  but perhaps not this warm.

Prince Charles appeared to be struggling in the scorching heat during a full day of engagements yesterday.

Beads of sweat trickled down his face as temperatures hit 89.6F (32C) in Darwin  and his discomfort was probably not helped by his full grey suit.

But, with typical English stoicism, he kept his jacket resolutely buttoned and shirt firmly done up to the neck.

The sweltering temperature came on the last day of the princes week-long tour of the country.

After laying a wreath at Darwin Barracks, he visited Larrakeyah Barracks, where he slipped while crossing a bridge. Luckily, the royal appeared uninjured after his unscheduled trip. There were no cooling sea breezes at his next stop, the naval base HMAS Coonawarra, and the prince, 69, could be seen sweating profusely as he set sail on a short tour of Darwin Harbour.

But there was still no respite afterwards. After meeting with soldiers and their families he went onto the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre and attended a reception at Government House.

There, he placed a message in a time capsule and planted a tree  before finally leaving for the airport to fly back to the UK.

Though the prince may have found the weather trying, his enthusiasm for the Australian public was seemingly not affected.

The heir to the throne said he was really touched by the crowds who had come out to greet him across the country, as well as on a visit to the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.

It came as a poll conducted for newspaper The Australian found that support for the monarchy had reached an 19-year high.

A survey of more than 1,600 Australians found that while support for a republic remains at 50 per cent, support for the monarchy is now 41 per cent.

The sweltering temperature came on the last day of the princes week-long tour of the country

This is the double the proportion in February, when only 22 per cent said that they preferred the monarchy.

These are very encouraging figures, Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchists League, told the Daily Mail last night. We were quite a way behind a few months ago and now support has soared.

Mr Benwell said monarchists were now hoping that the imminent birth of a third child for the Duchess of Cambridge and the forthcoming marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will boost royal popularity further.

But, with typical English stoicism, he kept his jacket resolutely buttoned and shirt firmly done up to the neck

Its the highest figure in favour of the monarchy since a 1999 republic referendum, when almost 55 per cent of Australians voted to remain part of the constitutional monarchy. Just what direct influence the seven-day visit to Australia by Prince Charles  accompanied, for the first few days, by the Duchess of Cornwall  has had on the poll has not been defined.

However, Mr Benwell said the popularity of Prince Charles as he travelled through Queensland and the Northern Territory could not be ignored.

He added: For a man approaching his 70th birthday to have tackled all the tasks demanded of him is admirable. Hes done a marvellous job.
A North Carolina yoga instructor accused of sexual harassment by two female employees responded to the allegations in an Instagram post - wearing nothing but a towel and a smirk.

Two employees at Charlotte Yoga filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Charlotte office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that owner Kyle Conti inappropriately touched them and made crude comments at work.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the allegations date back to 2015.

Yoga teacher Kyle Conti responded to allegations he sexually assaulted two of his female colleagues by posting the above nearly-nude photo

Conti then asked his Instagram followers if he should wear a tie to a meeting with the accusers or skip the tie

Conti also snapped a photo inside his lawyer's office with the caption: 'Let's do this'

Hours before Conti was supposed to meet with his accusers at the EEOC office, he posted several selfies to his Instagram Story responding to the allegations.

In one photo Conti is seen standing in front of a bathroom mirror wearing just a towel.

'When your integrity is questioned & you get the opportunity today to look your accuser in the eyes you wake up at 4 am so excited for that moment...,' he captioned the picture.

In two more photos Conti is seen wearing a dark suit with and without a red tie.

'Tie? Or no tie?' he captioned the photos.

In a third Instagram post, Conti snapped a photo of the inside of his attorney's office, writing: 'Let's do this.'

Meg Maloney, a lawyer for the two women, told the Charlotte Observer that Conti was 'evasive, inaccurate and arrogant' during the meeting.

According to the outlet, the meeting was cut short when Maloney and her clients saw Conti's Instagram posts.

'It was too disturbing to continue after that,' Maloney said. 'I needed two bourbons that night. I just find this unbelievably offensive ... The amount of disrespect he showed these women after what he did.'

'He needs to know that we are taking this seriously even if he's not,' she added.

Conti is the owner of Charlotte Yoga. Two women said he inappropriately touched them and made crude comments while at work

Both accusers said they were fired when they complained about the harassment and a third woman quit

According to the complaints, Conti created a 'sexually hostile environment' at Charlotte Yoga for female staff members and students. The two women said they were fired within a week of each other after complaining, and a third woman quit.

Both accusers said their boss would inappropriately touch women and made crude comments, including bragging about who he had slept with.

'Kyle Conti acts as if he can do whatever he wants as the owner of Charlotte Yoga studios without any consequences,' one woman wrote in the complaint, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The woman went on to say that she attended a December class taught by Conti and he pressed his pelvis against her back 'aggressively' while she was a in downward dog pose despite her putting a sign on her yoga mat that she did not want assistance with the poses.

The woman also said Conti told her that he 'loves being able to put all my weight into you' while he groped her hips and butt. She said she was fired from the yoga studio in December 2016 after she had a lawyer send Conti a letter telling him to keep away from her and to stop making 'sexual comments or gestures'.

Another woman, who worked at the studio as an operations manager, said in the complaint that she feared being alone with Conti because of his 'constant barrage of sexual comments and hostile and aggressive manner'.

She alleged that during one incident Conti bragged about wanting to have sex with an underage employee once the girl became legal. The accuser also said Conti 'gave assists with more physical contact than necessary to attractive women (pressing his body fully into them) but not men'.

The EEOC complaint is often a procedural stepping stone to a lawsuit. Conti's lawyer John Brickley told the Sacramento Bee that his client 'vehemently denies the allegations'.

'If a lawsuit is filed, we will respond accordingly. But we are not going to engage in any debates through the media,' he said.
Mark Zuckerberg has claimed Americans 'have different sensibilities' to Europeans on data privacy as he testified to Congress over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The Facebook CEO is being quizzed by Senators after the private information of 87 million users of the social media website was shared with third parties.

During his testimony, Zuckerberg appeared to backtrack on a pledge to voluntarily increase privacy safeguards for American users.

It comes as the European Union prepares to implement strict new protection laws limiting what firms such as Facebook can do with personal data.

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Mark Zuckerberg has claimed Americans 'have different sensibilities' to Europeans on data privacy as he testified to Congress over the Cambridge Analytica scandal

The Facebook CEO is being quizzed by Senators after the private information of 87 million users of the social media website was shared with third parties

Asked if US users could expect increased protection in line with the impending EU laws, Zuckerberg said Americans 'have different sensibilities' to Europeans.

The comment suggests something of a U-turn for Facebook and its figurehead on the EU laws, which take effect on May 25.

Last Tuesday, Zuckerberg denied reports that it would 'stop short' of implementing the EU laws globally, adding that it was the company's intention to do so.

He said that Facebook intended 'to make the same controls and settings available everywhere, not just in Europe'.

Yesterday, he addressed lawmakers in a packed hearing room inside the Capitol Visitors Center in one of the year's most closely-watched hearings.

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face multiple lawsuits over alleged misuse of personal information with at least five law firms in the UK and US investigating claims for compensation.

During his testimony, Zuckerberg appeared to backtrack on a pledge to voluntarily increase privacy safeguards for American users

Members of the audience hold up signs and wear sunglasses that read 'Stop Spying' before CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a joint hearing

Speaking to the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees, the tech entrepreneur apologised that Facebook had not taken a 'broad enough view' of its responsibility for people's public information.

'It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here,' he said, in words from a prepared statement.

Mr Zuckerberg said its audit of third-party apps would highlight any misuse of personal information, and said the company would alert users instantly if it 'found anything suspicious'.

When asked why the company did not immediately alert the 87 million users whose data may have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica (CA) when first told about the 'improper' usage in 2015, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook considered it a 'closed case' after CA said it had deleted it.

LINING UP: People wait in line for a joint hearing with Mark Zuckerberg before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee

Last Tuesday, Zuckerberg denied reports that it would 'stop short' of implementing the EU laws globally, adding that it was the company's intention to do so

'In retrospect it was clearly a mistake to believe them,' he said.

CA insists it deleted the data harvested by Professor Aleksandr Kogan's personality quiz app as soon as it was informed it breached Facebook's terms of use.

On the subject of fake news, Mr Zuckerberg said 'one of my greatest regrets in running the company' was its slowness at uncovering and acting against disinformation campaigns by Russian trolls during the US election.

He said the Russian campaign of disinformation had been discovered 'right around the time' of the US presidential election, and said the company had developed 'new AI tools' to identify fake accounts responsible.

But he said: 'They are going to keep getting better at this and we need to invest in keeping on getting better at this too.'

After two-and-a-half hours of the hearings, Facebook shares were up around 4.5% on the start of the day, in an apparent signal of investors' view on Mr Zuckerberg's performance.
Here is a timeline of events in the years before and after the Good Friday Agreement.

1988

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and his main nationalist rival, SDLP leader John Hume, begin secret peace talks

1991

Martin McGuinness, a senior figure in the IRA, starts secret peace talks with MI6

1993

October - Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds UK Prime Minister John Major produce the Downing Street declaration setting out their peace vision

1994

August 31 - The IRA announced a ceasefire with loyalist paramilitaries following suit.

1995

May 10 - First official meeting in 23 years between Sinn Fein and a British Government minister.

1997

May - Tony Blair gives a speech in Belfast, warning republicans: 'The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train.'

July 20 - The IRA reinstates its ceasefire to enable Sinn Fein to take part in talks

1998

April 10 - The Good Friday Agreement is signed and is endorsed a month later in a referendum

2007

Sinn Fein endorses the police in Northern Ireland, and elections for Stormont are held

May 8 - The DUP's Rev Ian Paisley becomes First Minister and Sin Fein's Martin McGuinness is appointed Deputy First Minister

The pair's surprisingly warm relationship leads to them being referred to as the Chuckle Brothers.

2010

The Saville Report exonerates the civilians who were killed on Bloody Sunday leading to a formal apology from then Prime Minister David Cameron to the families.

2019

Prosecutors announce whether to brig charges against the 17 surviving Paras who fired shots that day. If found guilty the former soldiers, the oldest of whom is 77, could face life jail terms.
A controversial 3D-printed death machine designed to send people to the afterlife peacefully will be 'tested' by the public for the first time.

The 'Sarco' is the creation of 70-year-old Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, also known as 'Dr Death'.

When a button is pressed, the Sarco will fill with nitrogen, resulting in the person losing consciousness after one minute and dying after five minutes.

It will be unveiled at the Amsterdam Funeral Fair on Saturday, where attendees can get a glimpse into what it will be like to step in the Sarco using a virtual reality headset.

However, the plans have already been met with outrage with the machine being described as 'gruesome' and 'glamorising suicide'.

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A controversial 3D-printed death machine designed to send people to the afterlife peacefully will be 'tested' by the public for the first time. However, the plans have already been met with outrage with the machine being described as 'gruesome' and 'glamorising suicide'

The Sarco is a 3D-printable machine that kills people by hypoxia when oxygen levels are scarce.

A person who wants to use Nitschke's machine to commit suicide has to do an online test to show that they are sane and want to die of their own will.

They then receive a four-digit code that is valid for 24 hours. After entering the code into the machine, a special button can be pressed to begin the process.

A funeral fair spokesman said that visitors 'can undergo the entire experience with virtual reality glasses to see if this could be a preferred life ending for them.'

Through the virtual glasses, the visitors can choose a view of the Alps or the sea as their last moment.

They then press the suicide button, after which the sight with their virtual reality glasses will slowly turn black.

The 'Sarco' is the creation of 70-year-old Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, also known as 'Dr Death' (pictured)

Dr Nitschke developed the Sarco with engineer Alexander Bannick in the Netherlands, with the aim of making it available worldwide.

Rather than looking for a 'dignified' death, Dr Nitschke says it could a 'euphoric' experience.

'What if we dared to imagine that our last day on this planet might also be one of our most exciting?' he wrote in an in-depth feature for Huffington Post.

'It can be transported wherever one chooses', Dr Nitschke explains, for example facing the Rockies or looking out over the Pacific Ocean.

HOW DOES NITROGEN KILL AND WHAT WOULD YOU FEEL BEFORE DEATH? Nitrogen makes up roughly 78 per cent of 'normal' air. Oxygen, the gas essential for life, makes up around 20 per cent. If the oxygen percentage falls below ten per cent, it can be deadly. Nitrogen gas causes death through a process called 'nitrogen asphyxiation' via the odourless, colourless and tasteless gas. The gas is completely undetectable to human senses, and so in theory you're unlikely to feel a thing. But that has not stopped campaigners from arguing that its prospective use for capital punishment purposes is inhumane and must not be allowed. They argue that there is not sufficiently strong evidence to prove the safety and legality of the new process. Campaigners also say that many things can go wrong when the state seeks to terminate involuntarily the life of someone who wants to live, who will be struggling determinedly and trying not to breathe. Normally, when a person suffocates they will experience severe pain as carbon dioxide builds up in the bloodstream. Nitrogen gas does not cause this build up of CO2, so there should be no discomfort preceding death. To perform nitrogen asphyxiation as capital punishment, the condemned would be sealed in an airtight chamber pumped full of the gas. This would cause a painless death by lack of oxygen. People do die accidentally of nitrogen asphyxiation, and usually they never know what hit them. It may even be possible that death by nitrogen gas is mildly euphoric. For instance, deep-sea divers exposed to too much nitrogen develop a narcosis known as 'raptures of the deep,' which feels similar to being drunk. Advertisement

Dr Nitschke developed the Sarco (pictured) with engineer Alexander Bannick in the Netherlands, with the aim of making it available worldwide

'As I say in my workshops, 'You're only going to die once, so why not have the best?'', he said.

But the introduction of the death machine has been met with heavy criticism from politicians and social workers.

A spokesman for Dutch suicide prevention hotline 113 said: 'All of this seems completely unwanted to us.'

MP Kees an der Staaij of the Christian-conservative Reformed Political Party (SGP) said: 'It is gruesome.

'All of us together try to do everything to prevent suicide and then you find a suicide machine on the funeral fair like it is the most normal case in the world. Suicide is not a promotional offer and aiding with suicide is a criminal offence in the Netherlands.'

Dr Philip Nitschke is pictured in 1996 displaying his first ever 'death machine' in his home in Darwin, Australia. The machine was used by the first person in the world to die under voluntary euthanasia legislation

MP Carla Dik-Faber of the Christian Union: 'I find it bizarre and worrying that companies are promoting machines which lead to death at a fair.'

Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director at Care Not Killing Alliance told MailOnline Dr Nitschke's 'shameless promotion of suicide as an answer to life's problems puts the lives of vulnerable elderly, depressed and disabled people at grave risk'.

'He is on public record as promoting assisted suicide to anyone who wants it, 'including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, (and) the troubled teen' and runs seminars where he advises on the sourcing, supply and use of barbiturates, helium, nitrogen and other means to end one's life', he said.

'This runs the additional danger of glamorising suicide and promoting suicide contagion and breaches both national and international guidelines on suicide prevention', he said.

Dr Nitschke, who said he never plans to charge for the Sarco design, said that if it came to a point in his own life when he needed to consider euthanasia, he would chose to do it in the machine.

The doctor first got involved in euthanasia in 1995 when Australia passed a law allowing a doctor to end the life of a terminally ill patient at the patient's request

'I'm a bit attracted to the nature of the Sarco, and making it a symbolic event,' he said.

The doctor first got involved in euthanasia in 1995 when Australia passed a law allowing a doctor to end the life of a terminally ill patient at the patient's request.

He was one of the few in the medical profession who supported the new legislation and he performed his first assisted death in 1996. Australia repealed the law shortly afterwards, in 1997.

During the brief time it was legal in Australia, Dr Nitschke created his first death machine that he called 'the Deliverance.'

It was a laptop hooked up to an IV that allowed a patient to administer the deadly drugs after answering a few questions. He said that it allowed him to take a step back from the process, so the patient died surrounded by family, not doctors.

Since then, technology has moved on and he hopes that his Sarco design will offer a more 'elegant' solution.

If you or anyone you know is in need of confidential support, call the National Suicide Prevention Line in the US on 1-800-273-8255 or visit its website. In the UK, contact Samaritans on 116 123.
Facebook has launched a new tool that lets you check whether your data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

Starting today, Facebook's 2.2 billions users began to receive a notification on their newsfeed.

Titled 'Protecting Your Information,' it contains a link to let you see what apps you use and what information you have shared with them.

A separate tool lets you manually check whether you or your friends logged into the 'This Is Your Digital Life' quiz responsible for the data grab.

Around 87 million users who may have had their information shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a more detailed message explaining this, according to Facebook.

However, the whistleblower behind the revelations about the consultancy firm says the true number affected by the scandal could be far higher.

Facebook is still reeling from its worst privacy crisis in history, which saw Trump-affiliated company Cambridge Analytica use data mining to try and influence the US presidential election.

A class action lawsuit filed against the firm yesterday is now seeking compensation for the roughly 70 million US users who were affected as 'Facebook stood idly by' while Cambridge Analytica 'sucked down' their data.

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Titled 'Protecting Your Information,' the tool (pictured) contains a link to let you see what apps you use and what information you have shared with them. Users whose data may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica will see the message on the right

MailOnline reporter Joe Pinkstone has had personal information shared with Cambridge Analytica as one of his Facebook friends logged on to the app 'This Is Your Digital Life'

Facebook says most of the users caught up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal are in the US, with more than a million each in the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK.

US law firm Hagens Berman filed the class-action suit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on April 9 to represent the millions of Americans whose data were shared improperly.

Damages in this case include both the dissemination of personal information and the loss of its sales value.

It's not yet clear how much money the affected users could be compensated, though lawyers in the UK have estimated it could be upwards of 10,000-12,500 ($14,000-17,000) for some.

The amounts, however, will ultimately be determined at trial, Hagens Berman says.

Affected users are now being automatically presented with a notice that says: 'We have banned the website 'This Is Your Digital Life,' which one of your friends used Facebook to log into.

'We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica.'

For those not affected by the Cambridge Analytica incident the message reads: 'You can go to the Apps and Websites section of your settings anytime to see the apps and websites you've used Facebook to log into.'

A separate 'How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge Analytica?' tool will also resolve the question for you.

To manually access this tool, click the link here.

HOW TO CHECK IF YOUR DATA WAS SHARED WITH CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA All 2.2 billion Facebook users began to receive a notification automatically at the top their newsfeed after it was launched on Tuesday, April 10, a day later than expected. Titled 'Protecting Your Information,' it contains a link to let you see what apps you use and what information you have shared with them. Affected users are automatically presented with a notice that says: 'We have banned the website "This Is Your Digital Life," which one of your friends used Facebook to log into. 'We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica.' Users can then click on a 'See how you're affected' button to find out more as well as to remove permission for apps and websites you've logged into via Facebook to have access to your profile. For those not affected by the Cambridge Analytica incident the message reads: 'You can go to the Apps and Websites section of your settings anytime to see the apps and websites you've used Facebook to log into.' The 'Go to apps and websites' button will provide quick access to review and amend these permissions. A separate 'How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge Analytica?' tool will also resolve the question for you. To manually access this tool, click the link here. Users not believed to be affected will see the message 'Based on our available records, neither you nor your friends logged into "This Is Your Digital Life." 'As a result, it doesn't appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica by "This Is Your Digital Life".' Affected users will see a different message and they will be asked to to change their app settings, available here. This is something that is still advisable for the security conscious, removing permissions for apps you no longer need or don't recognise. Facebook is not notifying individual users of the identify of friends who may have used the 'This Is Your Digital Life' app. Advertisement

Friends that used the app 'This Is Your Digital Life' before it was removed in 2015 could have jeopardised the information of their friends to Cambridge Analytica

Journalist Andrew Nathanson was not impressed by the latest revelation. He said his data was shared 'because a friend used a trash app'

Users not believed to be affected will see the message 'Based on our available records, neither you nor your friends logged into 'This Is Your Digital Life.'

'As a result, it doesn't appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica by 'This Is Your Digital Life'.'

Affected users will see a different message and they will be asked to to change their app settings, available here.

This is something that is still advisable for the security conscious, removing permissions for apps you no longer need or don't recognise.

Facebook is not notifying individual users of the identify of friends who may have used the 'This Is Your Digital Life' app.

The tools came a day later than expected, with many criticising Facebook for a lack of communication.

In a written statement yesterday, Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer at Facebook said: 'Starting on Monday, April 9, we'll show people a link at the top of their News Feed so they can see what apps they use  and the information they have shared with those apps.

A separate 'How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge Analytica?' tool will also resolve the question for you. Affected users will see a different message to the one displayed and they will be asked to to change their app settings

After finding out personal information was shared without their consent, some users blamed certain types of friends

'People will also be able to remove apps that they no longer want. As part of this process we will also tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

'Overall, we believe these changes will better protect people's information while still enabling developers to create useful experiences. We know we have more work to do  and we'll keep you updated as we make more changes.'

The revelations may trigger a wave of lawsuits.

Last month, three users of the Facebook Messenger app sued Facebook, saying the social network violated their privacy by collecting logs of their phone calls and text messages, in the latest legal challenge facing the company.

The U.S. lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California seeks status as a class action on behalf of all affected users and asks for unspecified damages.

It's not clear yet if Facebook users in the US could claim similar compensation for having their data compromised as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

However, yesterday, dispute resolution lawyer Jonathan Compton said those affected in the UK could complain to the Information Commissioner's Office or make a claim through the civil courts on the grounds that losing their data had been 'distressing'.

WHAT IS THE LEGAL IMPACT OF THE CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SCANDAL? News that Trump-affiliated company Cambridge Analytica used data mined from Facebook user's to try and influence the US presidential election may trigger a wave of lawsuits, according to experts. Vanessa Barnett, a commercial lawyer and data protection expert at Keystone Law, believes it's 'very likely' we will see a slew of legal cases against the firms in the wake of the scandal. Speaking to MailOnline, she said: 'In the UK, users can take direct action for damages caused to them by a data breach  and that includes damages for distress. 'How that translates into a "pounds, shillings, pence" type number for each person would depend on the nature of the damage.' 'We have case law where the Home Office revealed personal data of asylum seekers, including potentially where they lived. Some of those individuals were awarded 12,500 ($14,000) in damages. 'It remains to be seen if the damage caused by the Cambridge Analytica scandal is comparable.' Ms Barnett says that a number of consumer rights focused groups are looking at the possibility of a class action lawsuit, a more regular feature of the US legal system than in the UK. A class action lawsuit filed against the firm in America is now seeking compensation for the roughly 70 million US users who were affected. Ms Barnett added: 'Years ago we just had Max Schrems vs Facebook, and he didnt do too bad, but now its much more in the public consciousness. 'If the mechanics to participate in a class action are easy, I can see many users joining in.' Advertisement

Mr Compton, a partner at DMH Stallard, said: 'The start point for any award might be between 10,000 and 12,500. This will vary of course if the personal information is comparatively trivial or very serious and damaging.'

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie last month revealed that the political firm had improperly collected the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent.

He previously estimated that more than 50 million people were compromised by a personality quiz that collected their data and that of their friends.

Mr Schroepfer last week upped this to around 87 million users.

And in an interview aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Mr Wylie revised this number saying that it could actually be larger than 87 million.

'I think that it could be higher, absolutely,' he said.

Wylie revealed last month that Cambridge Analytical had improperly collected the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent. In an interview aired Sunday, he revised this number saying that it could be larger than 87 million

WHO ARE THE DATA VAMPIRES MINING FOR INFO ON FACEBOOK? Facebooks latest scandal involving communications firm Cambridge Analytica has served as a startling wake-up call for many users on the countless companies mining our social data. Through a feature that meant apps could ask for permission not only to your data, but that of your Facebook friends as well, the firm was able to mine the information of million of users. And, only 270,000 had given them permission to do so. In 2014, Facebook changed its rules so that apps could no longer obtain data about a persons friends unless those users had also authorized the app. Still, Cambridge Analytica is far from the only firm to have access to Facebook users data. By connecting your Facebook profile to a third-party app, youre typically also granting that app permission to access your data. You can check which apps your Facebook account is sharing data with by clicking here. To view the apps you've given permission to (as shown above), go to Settings > Apps That includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, networks, username and user ID. These apps can also access your friends list, and any other public data. Once the outside parties have access to your data, they can then use it to track different types of activity. Many popular apps such as Instagram, Spotify, Airbnb, and Tinder can be connected to your Facebook account. Just weeks ago, for example, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe bragged that the company stores 'an enormous amount of information' about users, and even tracks where they go after the movies. MoviePass is also among the many apps that can be connected to your Facebook. And, it doesnt stop there. Facebook users are waking up to just how much of their private information they have accidentally handed over to third-party apps. Social media users are sharing their shock at discovering thousands of software plugins have been gathering their data Taking Facebook quizzes from third-party services, or doing image generators (such as the ever-popular What Would Your Baby Look Like, or What Would You Look Like As The Opposite Sex), also often gives outside firms access to your data. While these are usually preceded by a pop-up asking permission to access certain parts of your profile, many users have taken to clicking through without thoroughly reading what theyve just agreed to. Some users are now expressing their horror upon realizing theyve granted permission to hundreds of third-party apps. Other apps that have experienced viral popularity over the last few years, such as Facetune and Meitu, can access your Facebook data as well. Advertisement

The initial conservative estimate, Mr Wylie explained, was made based on evidence in his possession at the time, adding that The Guardian, who broke the story, published only what could be verified at the time.

Cambridge Analytica, run by former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon and billionaire campaign benefactor Robert Mercer, was hired by the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, is in full damage-control mode, with Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging he's made a 'huge mistake' in failing to take a broad enough view of what Facebook's responsibility is in the world.

Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before Congress today and Wednesday in two-high profile public hearings.

Around 87 million users who may have had their information shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a more detailed message explaining this, according to Facebook. According to the firm, most of the affected users were in the United States, as shown in the graph above

Facebook app 'This is Your Digital Life' was a personality quiz created in 2014 by an academic researcher named Aleksander Kogan, who paid about 270,000 people to take it.

The app vacuumed up not just the data of the people who took it, but also - thanks to Facebook's loose restrictions - data from their friends, too, including details that they hadn't intended to share publicly.

Facebook later limited the data apps can access, but it was too late in this case.

Zuckerberg said Facebook came up with the 87 million figure by calculating the maximum number of friends that users could have had while Kogan's app was collecting data.

The company doesn't have logs going back that far, he said, so it can't know exactly how many people may have been affected.

HOW DOES FACEBOOK'S NEW BULK APP REMOVAL TOOL WORK? Facebook has added a new way to remove third-party apps from your profile in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The tool helps users to delete unwanted apps that may be storing their information. To access the feature, go to the Apps section in your Facebook settings. This is found by clicking on the downward-facing arrow in the upper right of the main desktop on a computer, or or on mobile by tapping on the three horizontal lines on the navigation bar and scrolling to the bottom. From here, you can view all third-party apps with access to information stored on your profile under the 'Logged in with Facebook' section. Tick the box next to any apps you'd rather delete and then select 'remove'. Confirm your choice by tapping 'remove' again in the resulting popup box. Within this box, Facebook gives you the option to also delete all posts, photos and videos on the platform posted for you by that app. Advertisement

Cambridge Analytica previously said in a statement that it had data for only 30 million people.

Zuckerberg took out full-page adverts in nine major US and British newspapers in late March 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.

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.

Facebook, based in Mountain View California, is in full damage-control mode, with Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging he's made a 'huge mistake' in failing to take a broad enough view of what Facebook's responsibility is in the world

'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 was formally signed off by the Facebook chief.

WHAT HAS FACEBOOK DONE TO ADDRESS PRIVACY CONCERNS? Facebook is giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months. The changes won't affect Facebook's privacy policies or the types of data it gathers about its users. But the company hopes its 2.2 billion users will have an easier time navigating its complex and often confusing privacy and security settings. Facebook is giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months. This image shows how the settings will appear before (left) and after (right) the redesign Facebook says it's trying to make the controls easier to find and to give users a simpler way to access and download the data it collects on them. The announcement follows revelations that Trump-affiliated consulting firm got data on millions of unsuspecting Facebook users. Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users. In a written statement, Erin Egan, vice president and chief privacy officer, policy, and Ashlie Beringer, vice president and deputy general counsel, said: 'Last week showed how much more work we need to do to enforce our policies and help people understand how Facebook works and the choices they have over their data. This image shows a redesign of Facebook's privacy tools. The changes won't affect Facebook's privacy policies or the types of data it gathers on users, but the company hopes users will have an easier time navigating its complex settings menus Among the changes, Facebook is making data settings and tools easier to find, is introducing a new privacy shortcuts menu, and is adding tools to find, download and delete your Facebook data 'Weve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed. 'Were taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy. 'Most of these updates have been in the works for some time, but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.' Among the changes, Facebook is making data settings and tools easier to find, is introducing a new privacy shortcuts menu, and is adding tools to find, download and delete your Facebook data. Advertisement

The Facebook data scandal deepened after users found the social network had harvested information including call logs and text messages.

Some users discovered the firm 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.

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.
Elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger teeth are among the body parts of endangered animals being sold on Facebook, a whistleblower group has claimed.

Sick wildlife traffickers are using the social network to advertise their illegal wares, according to a secret complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wildlife preservation advocates allege that Facebook's failure to stop illicit traders using its service violates the firm's responsibilities as a publicly traded company.

The advertisements have appeared on the group pages of a number of well-known American corporations, they say.

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Elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger teeth (pictured) are among the body parts of threatened animals being sold on Facebook, a whistleblower group has claimed. Sick wildlife traffickers are using the social network to advertise their illegal wares, according to a secret complaint

The complaint was initially filed in August on behalf of an undercover informant represented by the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), a non-profit legal advocacy group in Washington DC.

The identity of the informant, who recorded video of face-to-face meetings with wildlife traffickers set up over Facebook, has been kept confidential due to safety concerns.

The SEC declined to comment on whether the whistleblower complaint triggered an investigation of the company.

'Facebook is not an innocent bystander to these crimes,' said Stephen Kohn, executive director of the NWC.

'Facebook sold advertisements on the very pages the illegal ivory was being marketed.'

Facebook is one of 20 technology companies that last month joined the Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, which was organised by Google and the World Wildlife Fund.

Wildlife preservation advocates allege that Facebook's failure to stop illicit traders using its service violates the firm's responsibilities as a publicly traded company. The ads have appeared on the group pages of a number of well-known American corporations, they say

WHAT IS THE GLOBAL COALITION TO END WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING ONLINE? The worlds most endangered species are under threat from an unexpected source, the Internet, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Advances in technology and connectivity across the world, combined with rising buying power and demand for illegal wildlife products, have increased the ease of exchange from poacher to consumer. As a result, an unregulated online market allows criminals to sell illegally obtained wildlife products across the globe. Purchasing elephant ivory, tiger cubs, and pangolin scales is as easy as click, pay, ship, they say. To counter this, the worlds biggest e-commerce, technology, and social media companies have joined forces to shut down online marketplaces for wildlife traffickers. The Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online brings together companies from across the world in partnership with wildlife experts at WWF and Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, as well as the International Fund for Animal Welfare. This industry-wide approach aims to reduce wildlife trafficking online by 80 per cent by 2020. WWF and partners are collaborating with tech companies across continents, including eBay, Google, Microsoft and Tencent, to unite the industry and maximise impact for reducing wildlife trafficking online. Advertisement

Weeks after the March 7 announcement, an Associated Press reporter was able to see scores of internationally banned wildlife products for sale in public and private Facebook groups, most based in Southeast Asia.

Among the items available were belts made from what appeared to be the fur of Bengal tigers, a critically endangered species with only about 2,500 still living in the wild.

Also advertised were horns from black rhinos, a species heavily targeted by poachers with little more than 5,000 still roaming Africa.

Negotiations over price and delivery are often initiated by Facebook Messenger.

Instagram and WhatsApp, two social media platforms also owned by Facebook, are also sometimes used by traffickers.

Negotiations over price and delivery are often initiated by Facebook Messenger (message icon pictured). Instagram and WhatsApp, two social media platforms also owned by Facebook, are also sometimes used by traffickers (stock image)

CHILDREN ARE BEING SOLD CIGARETTES AND E-CIGS ON FACEBOOK Children can buy tobacco and e-cigarettes on Facebook, research has found. They can be purchased by clicking the 'shop now' buttons on pages sponsored by brands on the scandal-hit social networking site. This is despite a ban on selling tobacco on Facebook. The study comes amid a huge investigation into the site after it admitted to sharing data of up to 87 million users with political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. Children can buy tobacco and e-cigarettes on Facebook, research has found (pictured: an advert for cigarettes and tobacco on the social networking site) Stanford University researchers warned the unpaid 'organic' marketing towards tobacco products could get youngsters hooked on the killer items. Professor Robert Jackler, lead author, said: 'Clearly, there are a lot of policies with the laudable intent of keeping tobacco promotion and sales out of Facebook. 'These policies are voluntary, and they are a sign of Facebooks commitment to social responsibility. 'With some two billion users and an enormous volume of daily postings, Facebook has a daunting task of policing its content.' Government rules state that tobacco products must not be sold to anyone under the age of 18. Advertisement

The allegations tying Facebook to the illegal trafficking of wildlife are surfacing while the company is already scrambling to recover from a privacy scandal that has wiped out $79 billion (56 bn) in shareholder wealth during the past three weeks.

Facebook has yet to respond to requests for comment on the issue, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg today busy testifying to the US House of Representatives over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The crisis stems from revelations that the data-mining firm, connected to President Donald Trump's successful 2016 campaign, had exploited weaknesses in Facebook's privacy controls.

This allowed them to collect personal information from more than 87 million people without their consent.

Zuckerberg will try to reverse the backlash against the company when he opens two days of testimony in Congress.

His appearance will give lawmakers the opportunity to grill him about the Cambridge Analytica episode, as well as evidence that Russian agents manipulated Facebook's network to spread false information that may have swayed the 2016 election.

WHAT IS THE CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SCANDAL? Communications firm Cambridge Analytica has offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia. The company boasts it can 'find your voters and move them to action' through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioural psychologists. 'Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,' with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claims on its website. The company profited from a feature that meant apps could ask for permission to access your own data as well as the data of all your Facebook friends. The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix (pictured), after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump This meant the company was able to mine the information of 87 million Facebook users even though just 270,000 people gave them permission to do so. This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box. The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump. This information is said to have been used to help the Brexit campaign in the UK. Advertisement

The SEC complaint may trigger other lines of inquiry about how much of Facebook's annual revenue of $41 billion (30 bn) has been generated by ads running on pages featuring illegal activity, such as the sale of elephant ivory and tiger teeth.

Facebook hasn't disclosed that some of its revenue may be tied to illegal trafficking in wildlife in regulatory filings that are supposed to outline various risks and other threats that could crimp its profits or stock price.

Trafficking investigators say they have seen no drop off in the illegal products offered for sale on Facebook after prior public pledges by the company to crack down.

They are calling on federal security regulators to force Facebook to immediately freeze accounts being used by illegal traffickers and cooperate with international law enforcement to identify the individuals involved for prosecution.

'The amount of ivory being traded on Facebook is horrifying,' said Gretchen Peters, executive director of the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime, which has analyzed online groups where wildlife goods are being marketed.

'I have looked at thousands of posts containing ivory, and I am convinced that Facebook is literally facilitating the extinction of the elephant species.'
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An incredible optical illusion has taken social media by storm, thanks to blurry swirl of colours that seems to disappear if you stare at the image for long enough.

The mind-bending trick takes advantage of a gap in our perceptions caused by the way our eyes become desensitised to light from a static image over time.

By focusing on the centre of the illusion for a few seconds, our brains begin to ignore the content on the periphery of our vision, causing this information to slowly fade away.

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An incredible optical illusion has taken social media by storm, thanks to blurry swirl of colours that seems to disappear if you stare at the image for long enough. By focusing on the centre of this illusion, your brain should begin to ignore the content on the periphery of your vision, causing this information to slowly fade away. Drawing a dot in the centre can help

The illusion, shared on Reddit by user NightBreeze13, is the result of the Troxler Effect, or Troxler Fading.

It is named after Swiss physician and philosopher Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler, who lived from 1780 to 1866.

In 1804, he realised that by focusing your gaze intently on a specific object in your field of vision can make surrounding still images appear to slowly disappear or fade.

What they are replaced by depends on the background the object under focus is on, a process known as filling in.

The Troxler effect relies on involuntary movements of the eye, known as on saccades, which happen even when we fix our gaze on a focused point.

If we were able to suppress this process voluntarily, static scenes would begin to fade from view.

This is thanks to the way the light sensitive rods, cones and ganglion cells in the retina of the eye work.

The mind-bending trick takes advantage of a gap in our perceptions caused by the way our eyes become desensitised to light from a static image over time. For this Cheshire cat illusion, focus on the central black cross without straining your eyes. The colourful areas should slowly begin to fade, leaving the the cat's grin to fade last

When these photoreceptors receive constant stimulus by light, individual neurons in the brain become less sensitised to this stimulation.

As a result, they reduce the strength of the signal they send to the brain, causing the image to fade.

To stop this from happening, and ensure we can still see the image under focus, our eyes undergo rapid sudden movements called microsaccades.

This causes the light from an image to shift back and forth across our photoreceptor cells, causing a constant refreshing of the image.

The illusion is the result of the Troxler Effect, or Troxler Fading, named after Swiss physician and philosopher Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler who discovered it in 1804. In this illusion, focus on the red dot in the centre and surrounding the blue circle will seem to disappear

If the receptors are no longer stimulated, and the image is stabilised on the retina, it disappears completely, Daniel Kiper, a researcher at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University and ETH Zurich, told Invivo Magazine.

Neurons around the peripheral area of the retina require larger movements to be stimulated than those in the centre.

As we focus on centre of the image, our eye movements become smaller, so the receptors on the periphery are no longer stimulated enough to keep sending sight signals to the brain.

This produces the Troxler effect, with peripheral details fading from view.

The Troxler effect happens with any stationary stimulus, but it is more noticeable with low-contrast images which cause it to occur more rapidly.

In this example, the spots in the 'lilac chaser' illusion fade away after several seconds when the black cross is stared at long enough. This leaves a grey background and the cross. Some viewers may notice that the moving space has faded into a moving blue-green spot, possibly with a short trail following it
A series of earthquakes shook the US yesterday with several hitting worryingly close to the Ring of Fire, sparking fears a massive tremor could be on the way.

The most powerful of this latest cluster - which also shook Alaska and California - came in Perry, Oklahoma, where a 4.3 magnitude tremor struck.

This follows on from a flurry of earthquakes in California at the weekend, with experts warning residents to 'get those earthquake preparedness kits ready'.

Both California and Alaska are on the much-feared Ring of Fire - the most active fault-line in the world.

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The most powerful of this latest cluster came in Perry, Oklahoma, where a 4.3 magnitude tremor struck. Three earthquakes struck in California with others in Alaska, Nebraska, Texas

The latest earthquake struck in Perry on 9 April at 5:20am CST (12:20pm GMT) with tremors felt as far as 17 miles (27km) southwest.

In the last 24 hours three earthquakes struck in California with others felt in Alaska, Nebraska and Texas, writes the Express.

Since 6 April there have been at least 16 noticeable earthquakes in Oklahoma, according to the Geologic Survey.

There were 13 quakes over the weekend but no reports of injury or serious damage.

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the Channel Islands on Thursday and was the strongest in Southern California for several years.

Although it did not cause any major damage, the quake did cause minor landslides and earth movement on Santa Cruz Island.

'A 5.3 could be damaging if it was right under our feet,' John Vidale, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center told the LA Times.

'It's right on the edge of being an earthquake that could be dangerous. It's a reminder that we need to be ready in the future.'

The tremor occurred just before 12:30 PST (19:30 GMT) near Santa Cruz Island, 90 miles (145km) west of downtown Los Angeles.

Dr Vidale predicted there was a 1-in-20 chance the quake could lead to a larger one in the coming weeks.

The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted; '#Earthquake follow-up: There have been no reports of earthquake-related damage or injuries within the City of Los Angeles.

'Our region hasn't shook like that since 2014. This should serve as a steadfast reminder to act now, get those earthquake preparedness kits ready.'

The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted; '#Earthquake follow-up: There have been no reports of earthquake-related damage or injuries within the City of Los Angeles

WHAT IS EARTH'S 'RING OF FIRE'? Earth's so-called 'Ring of Fire' is a horseshoe-shaped geological disaster zone that is a hot bed for tectonic and volcanic activity. Roughly 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes occur in the belt, which is also home to more than 450 volcanoes. The seismic region stretches along the Pacific Ocean coastlines, where the Pacific Plate grinds against other plates that form the Earth's crust. It loops from New Zealand to Chile, passing through the coasts of Asia and the Americas on the way. In total, the loop makes up a 25,000-mile (40,000-kilometre) -long zone prone to frequent earthquakes and eruptions. The region is susceptible to disasters because it is home to a vast number of 'subduction zones', areas where tectonic plates overlap. Earthquakes are triggered when these plates scrape or slide underneath one another, and when that happens at sea it can spawn tsunamis. Advertisement

In February another flurry of earthquakes hit the Earth's Pacific plate, renewing fears a massive tremor is on the way after four disasters jolted the region in January.

Quakes have hit near Japan, Guam and Taiwan around the planet's so-called 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe-shaped zone that is a hotbed for tectonic and volcanic activity.

At the time, some suggested the frequency and proximity of the tremors are signs of a bigger earthquake to come.

However, experts claimed events around the Ring of Fire are rarely linked and that in most cases adjacent disasters are a coincidence.

Following from January's events, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake (pictured) struck Taiwan's east coast on February 6, killing 17 people and injuring at least 180. Some have suggested the frequency and proximity of the tremors are signs of a bigger earthquake to come

After a series of quakes hit the Ring of Fire in January, a 6.4 quake struck Taiwan's east coast on February 6, killing 17 people and injuring at least 180.

A series of tremors reaching magnitude 5.7, 5.6, 5.4 and 4.9 shook the US island territory of Guam in February.

And since February 11, three earthquakes have struck Japan: A 4.8 magnitude quake 103 kilometres from Hachijo, a 4.5 magnitude quake 55 kilometres from Nemuro, and a 4.5 magnitude earthquake 103 kilometres from Tokunoshima.

But scientists say such activity is normal for the Ring of Fire, adding that there is no chance of a 'domino effect' triggering a larger quake.

'The Pacific Rim is in a period of activity,' Toshiyasu Nagao, head of Tokyo-based Tokai University's Earthquake Prediction Research Centre, told Japan Times at the time.

'In terms of volcanic history, however, the current activity is still regarded as normal.'

Dr Janine Krippner, a volcanologist at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia, tweeted: 'It's not referred to as the 'ring of fire' because it sits there doing nothing ... it is normal to have so much activity.'

On January 22, Mount Mayon in the Philippines sent lava more than 600 metres into the air, and over 61,000 people were forced to evacuate from nearby villages as thick smoke descended from the mountain

At least four natural disasters jolted the Pacific Rim in January, including a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Kodiak, Alaska, which sparked a tsunami warning.

A 6.4 quake hit Indonesia the same week, and Mount Kusatsu-Shirane in Japan erupted, killing one and injuring 15.

The Indonesian island of Java was hit by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake on January 23, forcing thousands to evacuate

Also in January, Mount Mayon in the Philippines sent lava 600 metres (1,970 ft) into the air, forcing 61,000 people to evacuate from nearby villages as thick smoke descended from the mountain.

Some researchers, however, said that this string of events in January were not connected.

'There's not really likely to be any connection,' Professor Chris Elders, a geologist at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, told The New Daily.

'While they do indeed have the same origin - the Ring of Fire - these recent events are a coincidence.

'The region itself is a breeding ground for seismic activity.'

Roughly 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes occur in the Ring of Fire - a Pacific region home to three in four of the world's active volcanoes.

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck off Alaska's Kodiak Island early on Tuesday, January 23, prompting a tsunami warning for a large swath of the state's coast and sending some residents fleeing to higher ground. Pictured are residents in Kodiak, Alaska driving for higher ground

The ring loops from New Zealand to Chile, passing through the coasts of Asia and the Americas on the way.

The region is susceptible to disasters because it is home to a vast number of 'subduction zones', areas where tectonic plates overlap.

Following from January's events, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan's east coast on February 6, causing a hotel to collapse and injuring at least 180 people and killing 17.
Flying cars seem to be swiftly leaving the realm of science fiction and soaring into the world of reality.

In preparation for aerial commuting, a luxury high-rise property developer in Miami is making sure the owners of the space-age vehicles have a place to land.

His solution is to build a 'skyport' for flying vehicles on top of a 60-floor building, 700 feet (200 metres) above the ground.

Owners of flying cars will be able to land on top of the tower and fly down to their apartment or condo via a 'sky lobby' and a glass elevator.

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In preparation for aerial commuting, a luxury high-rise property developer in Miami is making sure the owners of the space-age vehicles have a place to land. Owners of flying cars will be able to land on top of the 60th floor (concept image)

The change is being made at luxury development Paramount Miami Worldcenter.

Developer Dan Kodsi has designed a skyscraper with a skyport for the flying cars of wealthy inhabitants of the future.

He had the idea after reading about Uber's plans to start a VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) ride-sharing network, set to begin in Dallas, Los Angeles and Dubai in the next two years.

Mr Kodsi expects flying cars to reach Miami in 10 to 15 years, writes The Real Deal.

Situated in downtown Miami overlooking the beach, the high-end real estate will have 5,000-square-foot (460 square metres) of skyport providing swift entry and exit for take-off and landing.

Although it is still being built, the tower is nearing completion, with construction currently on the 47th floor.

In downtown Miami and overlooking the beach, owners of the high-end real estate can use the 5,000-square-foot skyport on top of the 60-story, 530-unit tower. Despite a two-bedroom condo starting at $980,000 (690,000), the tower is 75 per cent pre-sold (concept image)

Despite a two-bedroom condo starting at $980,000 (690,000), the tower is 75 per cent pre-sold, according to Mr Kodsi, who is co-developing the project with Worldcenter developers Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani.

He says the building needs the lavish skyport in anticipation of the technology taking off in the near future.

The developers hope that by preempting demand they can give customers what they want, before they need it.

'Being a developer you want to see where the trends are heading and stay ahead of them,' he said.

'I really truly believe the skyport will be the future train station,' Mr Kodsi added.

'Why not buy in a building that has the potential to be in line where transportation is heading?'

Mr Kodsi and his team got the idea from Uber's VTOL programme.

Uber first announced its intention to work on a flying taxi service since 2016, when it published a lengthy white paper on 'Uber Elevate'.

It has since worked with Nasa to launch the UberAir project, with building set to start in the next two years in in Dallas, Los Angeles and Dubai.

According to Uber, an all-electric, 200mph (320kph) ride across the skies of LA will be price-competitive with an UberX trip of the same distance.

The ride-hailing company hopes UberAir will be well-established before the 2028 Olympic Games in the city.

In a previous statement, chief product officer at Uber, Jeff Holden, said: 'By the time the Olympics come, we believe Los Angeles residents will be making heavy use of UberAIR.

'Because UberAIR is all-electric from day one, it will have a net positive impact on the environment.'
The iOS 11.3 update breaks 700-plus ($700) iPhone 8 devices that have not had their screens repaired by Apple, sources suggest.

Screens repaired by a third-party do not have touchscreen functionality, rendering the whole device essentially useless.

Sources say it is the latest example of the company's battle against people going to independent repair shops to get their devices fixed.

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The iOS 11.3 update breaks 700-plus ($700) iPhone 8 devices that have not had their screens repaired by Apple, sources suggest (stock image)

Released at the end of March, the software update kills touch functionality on devices that worked fine before the update.

'This has caused my company over 2,000 re-shipments,' Aakshay Kripalani, chief executive of Georgia-based repair shop Injured Gadgets told Motherboard.

'Customers are annoyed and it seems like Apple is doing this to prevent customers from doing third-party repair.'

For many people, getting a device fixed by a third party is cheaper than getting it done with Apple.

The company charges 156.44 ($149) to repair the screen of an iPhone 6S, 7 or 8.

Every phone is powered by a small microchip which is causing the issue.

Sources suggest third-party screen suppliers have already worked out a way to fix the issue.

However, it means re-opening the phone and upgrading the chip.

It is not known if Apple will release a new software update to fix the screens.

'It's very easy to go down the rabbit hole of thinking that Apple is trying to make it JUST inconvenient enough to even consider third-party repair a reliable option,' said Kev Notton, founder of San Diego-based diagnosis tool RepairMapr.

'That terrifies me, because they're the manufacturer. Ultimately, they hold all the cards.'

MailOnline has contacted Apple for comment.

Released at the end of March, the software update kills touch functionality on devices that worked fine before the update. Pictured is an iPhone 8

This is not the only time the company has impaired functionality on certain devices.

Last year, a similar iOS update killed touch functionality on the iPhone 7 devices repaired by a third-party.

However, a week later the company resolved the issue.

In 2016 iPhone users around the world reported that their handsets had been rendered useless due to an 'Error 53' code.

It only appeared on handsets repaired by non-Apple engineers and effectively 'bricked' them, making them unusable.

Apple apologised and issued a fix for the broken handsets amid claims the move could have been be illegal and some customers were planning to launch a lawsuit to address their concerns.

At least one US law firm announced its intention to bring a class action against Apple on behalf of iPhone owners whose handsets were crippled.

'We apologise for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers', a spokesperson from the firm said.
The CDC has teamed up with researchers at the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology to come up with a new tool for combating syphilis: AI.

The duo is analyzing tweets and Google searches to predict where outbreaks of syphilis are likely to take place.

Two reports on the project have been published: one in the journal Epidemiology and another in Preventive Medicine.

Researchers from the CDC and the University of California collaborated to develop a way to predict syphilis outbreaks based on Google Trends and tweets (file photo)

Syphilis rates have been rising in the United States.

Researchers at CDC and UC turned to internet trends to determine when and where syphilis outbreaks will strike in the future.

They looked specifically at two outlets to make these predictions: Google Trends and Twitter.

The researchers mined twitter for posts that might link Twitter users to the sexually transmitted disease and used Google Trends to associate outbreaks with certain Google searches.

The studied previous syphilis outbreaks that took place from 2012 to 2014 for the research.

'Because people at risk for syphilis might seek sexual health and risk-related information on the internet, we investigated associations between internet state-level search query data and reported weekly cases,' the Epidemiology report explained.

The researchers developed a model that could analyze keyword predictors and accurately guess the number of syphilis cases that resulted from them.

'We used Google Trends search data from the prior week to predict cases of syphilis in the following weeks for each state. Further research could explore how search data could be integrated into public health monitoring systems,' the analysis said.

A report on the new research points out that social media is increasingly being used as a tool medical researchers can benefit from (file photo)

The Preventive Medicine report focused on the Twitter oriented research.

It said: 'New technologies, such as social media, might be used to anticipate and prevent the spread of disease. Because social media data collection is easy and inexpensive, integration of social media data into syphilis surveillance may be a cost-effective surveillance strategy, especially in low-resource regions.'

The analysis went on to explain that people are increasingly using social media in order to discuss health issues, including sexual behaviors that might put them at risk.

This sets social media platforms up as public health tools as well as resources medical researchers can benefit from.

SYPHILIS EXPLAINED: A BACTERIAL INFECTION MOST OFTEN CAUGHT THROUGH SEX Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is usually caught by having sex with an infected person. It spreads through close contact with an infected sore, which usually happens during vaginal, oral or anal sex. Infected pregnant women can pass the STI to their unborn babies, which can lead to miscarriages or stillbirths. Syphilis can also be spread by sharing needles with an infected person. Symptoms are not always obvious and may eventually disappear. These could include: Small, painless sores or ulcers on the penis, vagina, anus or around the mouth

Blotchy red rashes on the palms or soles of the feet

Small skin growths on women's vulvas or the anus

White patches in the mouth

Fatigue, headaches, joint pain, fever and swollen lymph nodes If untreated, syphilis can spread to the brain or elsewhere in the body and cause disabilities or death. Treatment is usually an antibiotic injection into the buttocks or a course of tablets. People can reduce their risk by using condoms during sex, a dental dam (plastic square) during oral sex and avoiding sharing sex toys. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The data analyzed for the Twitter portion of the new research was county-based rather than state-based.

'We collected 2012 and 2013 county-level primary and secondary and early latent syphilis cases reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, along with more than 8,500 geolocated tweets in the United States that were filtered to include sexual risk-related keywords, including colloquial terms for intercourse,' the analysis said.

Then the researchers assessed the association between syphilis case reports and 'syphilis-related tweets' and discovered a significant relationship between these Twitter posts and the number of cases recorded.

'The study shows that social media may be an additional tool to enhance syphilis prediction and surveillance,' the report said.
Alexanderplatz makes for an excellent base when visiting Berlin, whether on business or pleasure. Originally a cattle market and then the focal point of Berlins famed nightlife in the 1920s, it was part of East Berlin. Though it has been transformed since reunification, it retains some historic buildings amidst its modern additions. Its also a transport hub, which means it couldnt be easier to explore the rest of Berlin from your base here.

Park Inn Berlin Alexanderplatz offers the best panoramic view of the city

Park Inn Berlin Alexanderplatz

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Dominating the skyline alongside the neighbouring TV Tower, one of the largest hotels in the city stands right on the square. Its most famous for its base-flying  jumping from its roof terrace attached to a winch. If that doesnt appeal, enjoy a drink on the terrace accompanied by panoramic views which are also available from some of the quite sleek modern rooms. This four-star hotel also has three restaurants, a spa (with a sauna but no pool) and fitness facilities.

S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

Hotel de Rome is the perfect blend of comfort in a a prime location

Hotel de Rome

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For five-star luxury within a ten minute walk of Alexanderplatz, by far the best option is the iconic Hotel de Rome on Bebelplatz, close to both the Museum Island and the State Opera House. The Hotel de Rome gets its grandeur from its decor, attention to detail when it comes to service and facilities, and the building itself. This was once a bank headquarters, and the old vault has been transformed into a spectacular swimming pool and you can admire plenty of other period features reflecting the history of the building throughout.

U-Bahn: Hausvogteiplatz

Motel One Alexanderplatz is a chic design hotel in the heart of Berlin

Motel One Alexanderplatz

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One of a new breed of design-conscious budget hotels, Motel One combines well-priced and comfortable rooms with designer furniture from Italy and artworks from a local collective in the lounge, where you can enjoy good-value breakfasts and drinks. Alexanderplatz itself is right outside the front door. If this branch is booked, check out the sister hotel at Hackescher Markt five minutes walk from Alexanderplatz station.

S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

Citystay Hostel Berlin

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For those travelling on a budget, this well-established hostel in a historic building just across the street from the TV Tower and a short walk from Alexanderplatz itself offers comfortable dorms and private rooms. Theres a sociable bar on the ground floor, but the nightlife of Hackescher Markt is a short distance away, as are the landmark attractions of Museum Island and Unter den Linden.

S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

Staying true to its name, Lux 11 is the epitome of luxury

Lux 11

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In the heart of the trendy neighbourhood around Rosa-Luxemburg-Strae, five minutes walk from Alexanderplatz, these luxury apartments are the destination of choice for international musicians and DJs coming to the city. Extremely popular with locals, Prince restaurant and the Type Hype concept store and bar are places to see and be seen, but theres also an array of local nightlife on the doorstep.

S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

Relax and unwind where you know you're in good hands at the Radisson Blu Hotel

Radisson Blu Hotel

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There can be few better-located hotels in the city than the Radisson Blu on the banks of the River Spree, between Alexanderplatz and the Museum Island. This stylish modern hotel has a 24-hour gym and pool as well as an atrium lobby thats the best place for observing the marine life in the AquaDom, a spectacular cylindrical aquarium in the lobby  the largest of its type in the world.

S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

The stunning Hotel Amano will exceed your expectations

Hotel Amano

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Between Rosenthaler Platz and Alexanderplatz, this trendy design hotel is perfectly placed for exploring the designer boutiques and art galleries of Berlin-Mitte. The creative atmosphere that surrounds it is represented inside  each of the five floors has a different design. The ground-floor Amano Bar has an excellent reputation for its extensive cocktail menu.

U-Bahn: Rosenthaler Platz

Guaranteed a good night's rest at The Weinmeister after a day of exploring Berlin

The Weinmeister

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Another of the new breed of boutique hotels in Berlin-Mitte, this is the sister hotel of Lux 11 apartments (see above) and has the same focus on service and design both inside and out. All rooms have over-sized beds. The Weinmeister is about five minutes walk from Alexanderplatz, in a neighbourhood known for its restaurants, bars and concept design stores.

U-Bahn: Weinmeisterstrae
Advertisement

A family-of-five have ditched their conventional home for a nomadic travelling lifestyle aboard a converted school bus.

Denver and Vanessa Miller from Albuquerque, New Mexico, wanted to buy a camper van to travel in, but decided that an old school bus was their best option.

They splashed out $32,000 buying the vehicle and spent $45,000 and four months remodelling it into a home.

The $32,000 school bus that the Miller family bought and transformed into a home so they could travel around the US

Denver and Vanessa Miller from Albuquerque, New Mexico, with their children. They spent four months remodelling the bus into a place to live

The Millers have since clocked up around 15,000 miles after travelling through the Pacific northwest, southwest and Texas

The old yellow bus was completely stripped down and renovated and now boasts a sleek interior and bright white body.

And the family live on the converted bus with their three children London, five, Phoenix, three, and two-year-old Everest.

Mrs Miller, 32, explained: 'After a few years of being in a home, Denver and I were looking at purchasing a camper to travel in.

'While looking for one he said to me "what do you think about converting a school bus into a camper?"

The Millers spent $32,000 buying the school bus, which was originally yellow in colour and needed renovation work

The bus had to be totally stripped down to be renovated. Pictured is right is Mr Miller with one of his children before the seats were ripped out

It took the couple four months to completely strip the bus of the seats and complete the renovation

The bus pictured mid-renovation. Mrs Miller said she was unsure about living on the bus full-time but once she saw the potential, she was convinced

'The minute he said it, I said yes. It took some convincing for me to want to do it full-time, but once I saw the potential I was ready to start the new journey.

'Life on a bus with a family has overall been a great experience. We do have moments that are hard - winters can be a little tough with the shorter days.

'We know that it's a season so we push through and keep going. Travelling is a lot of fun. It's always nice to take the boys on new nomadic experiences.'

The old yellow bus now boasts a sleek bright white body instead of being bright yellow

The sleek kitchen area on the bus where Mr and Mrs Miller can cook family meals for themselves and their three children

The cosy living area on the bus. The family are current in Corrales, New Mexico, and hope to travel through the east coast, Alaska and Canada

Mrs Miller, who was eight months pregnant when they bought the bus, added: 'Our kids really only know the bus as their home'

The bedroom on the bus, where the family sleep. Mrs Miller said: 'Travelling is a lot of fun. It's always nice to take the boys on new nomadic experiences'

The Millers have since clocked up around 15,000 miles after travelling through the Pacific northwest, southwest and Texas.

The family are current in Corrales, New Mexico, and hope to travel to the east coast, Alaska and Canada.

Mrs Miller added: 'Our kids really only know the bus as their home.

'We ask our oldest all the time if he wants a house and he always says no. He loves the bus. I would say this experience has brought us closer, it's taught us a lot about patience.

Mr Miller relaxes in the living area of the bus while the three children play on the sofa

The couple's three children London, Phoenix and Everest, who only ever remember living life on the road on the bus

Mother-of-three Mrs Miller said: 'Life on a bus with a family has overall been a great experience. We do have moments that are hard - winters can be a little tough with the shorter days'

The family say that their oldest child always says that the bus is his home and he doesn't want to go back to living in a conventional house

The Miller children play with colouring books around the dining table, left, before all climbing into bed together with their father, right

'The only issues we had was parenting and remodelling at the same time. I was eight months pregnant when we got the bus. The build took about four months to do.

'I love that we've been able to share this lifestyle with others. When we first started this journey there were not many buses converted. We were some of the few that were documenting it.

'I often tell people when they say they love this life but are afraid; this lifestyle is attainable.

'There are so many resources out there and we are always willing to help in any way we can. That's a big part of being in this community we want to help others create their dream bus.'
UK air passengers flying from British airports may have even better rights to compensation for delays after Brexit compared to those in the EU, a new report has suggested.

Currently, passengers flying from hubs in the European Union are entitled to high payouts from airlines for delays and cancellations if they are due to factors not attributed to 'extraordinary circumstances'.

However, the EU may soon dramatically reduce the amount of compensation paid to delayed passengers and increasing the threshold for payouts in new proposals being discussed in Brussels.

A new report has suggested UK air passengers flying from British airports may have even better rights to compensation for delays after Brexit compared to those in the EU

Under these new proposals, payments for delays of under five hours for short flights could be halved and the time threshold for medium and long-haul flights increased to nine and 12 hours.

But a new report released by the UK government called Beyond the Horizon: The Future of UK Aviation states that there are no plans for the UK 'to fall below current standards of protection when we leave the EU'.

And as reported in the Independent earlier this week, if the EU plans to reduce compensation gets the go-ahead, passengers departing UK airports would have far stronger rights than those in Europe as the current regulations would still be in place.

The government report on the future of UK air travel also stated that airlines should make it clearer how delayed passengers can claim compensation.

The report said: 'The government wants to open a debate on how a compensation scheme should work in the interests of consumers.

'As part of this, the government will consider what means are available to increase claim rates, such as strengthening or clarifying the requirement for airlines to inform passengers affected by disruption that they might be entitled to compensation.'

WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR AIR PASSENGERS CLAIMING COMPENSATION FOR DELAYS? Under EU rules, airlines must pay compensation for cancelled or heavily delayed flights, but how much youre entitled to depends on the flight you booked and the amount of time youve been delayed by. The flight must have departed from an EU airport, operating by any airline, or it must be arriving into an EU airport and be operated by an EU airline. The 'EU airport' also includes the following countries - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It also needs to have been at least three hours late arriving at your destination to be eligible for compensation. The amounts available start from 250 (221) for flights of less than 1,500km long that are delayed by at least three hours and go up to 600 (532) for flights of more than 3,500km between an EU and non-EU airport, delayed by at least four hours. But airlines don't always have to pay out and can avoid doing so if the delay is caused by an extraordinary circumstance, such as bad weather or crew strikes. Under new proposals by Brussels, payments for delays of under five hours for short flights could be halved and the time threshold for medium and long-haul flights increased to nine and 12 hours. Advertisement

It has previously been suggested that this could be done by making on-board announcements telling passengers how to claim or automatically paying it.

And Emma Coulthurst, a resident travel expert at holiday price comparison site TravelSupermarket, said the UK government should use Brexit as an opportunity to step in and tighten passengers' rights.

She told MailOnline Travel: 'There is the chance for the UK government to step in and improve compensation rights for passengers after Brexit. It really is in the government's hands to do this.

'They've made it easier for train passengers to claim compensation in the UK. They need to do the same for airline passengers.

'UK travellers currently have good compensation rights under EU law for when a flight is cancelled or late due to the fault of the airline i.e. there was a technical fault or staffing issue or not having the aircraft in place. But actually claiming those rights can prove incredibly hard work.

'I lose count of the number of people who tell me how they are struggling to get the compensation which they believe they are entitled to out of airlines. Airlines will often drag their feet in the hope that you will give up and go away.

'They will try and claim that the compensation for a delay isn't applicable as the delay was due to an extraordinary circumstance which was out of their control.

'Sometimes this is true but sometimes it isn't and airlines will often take ages to come back to people once they've put in a claim.

'My concern is that too many people are understandably giving up and not getting the compensation that they are entitled to.

'It needs to be made much, much easier for holidaymakers to get the flight delay and cancellation compensation that they are entitled to.

'The government needs to step in and force airlines to make it clearer as to when customers are entitled to compensation and simpler to get it when it is due.

'The claim process needs to be simplified. Airlines should be forced to provide an easy and clear form on their website to fill in.'

Meanwhile Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the trade association Airlines UK, said it expects current rules to stay in place.

The government report on the future of UK air travel stated that airlines should make it clearer how delayed passengers can claim compensation

He said: 'We support consumers having the same level of protection as the UK leaves the EU, and expect the current rules on compensation for delays, cancellations and denied boarding to apply in the UK following Brexit.

'Just as they do today, airlines will continue to comply with all legal requirements, paying compensation quickly when it is due and making it easy for passengers to claim.'

The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) welcomed the report and said it is important the government has the right strategy when it comes to air travel.

An Abta spokesperson said: 'Every year millions of UK travellers take flights for leisure and business trips, so an aviation strategy that focuses on the needs of consumers, particularly disabled passengers and people with reduced mobility is very welcome.

'Many UK firms are reliant on air travel  including those operating in the tourist industry and companies that need to travel for business  so it's important that the UK has the right aviation infrastructure.'
He was let go from the show as part of a shocking series shakeup after he served as a professional dance partner for thirteen years.

But it seems that Strictly Come Dancing chiefs may now regret their decision to axe Brendan Cole, 41, from the show, as they can't find a male dancer who is tall enough to replace him, according to a new report.

The Kiwi pro stands at 6ft 1 and he would often be paired with tall female dancers like GMB star Charlotte Hawkins, but according to The Sun it's been a struggle to find someone else that fits the bill.

Strictly Come Dancing: Show chiefs are said to be struggling to find a dancer tall enough to replace axed pro Brendan Cole

A source from the show told The Sun: 'Bosses need a tall dancer to pair up with taller females like Charlotte Hawkins on the show but have been really struggling to find one.

'Many of the show's professionals may look tall and hunky on screen, but in reality they're often a lot shorter.

'Most ballroom dancers are naturally shorter than most average men so it's proving trickier than expected.

Tough: Brendan stands at 6ft 1 and would be paired with tall female dancers like Charlotte Hawkins (pictured), but it's been a struggle to find someone that fits the bill

They added: 'Producers are still sifting through the pile and hope they find the right candidate in time. They have a few people in mind.'

Brendan and newly-appointed judge Shirley Ballas were embroiled in a dispute during the 2017 series- with the pair enduring a particularly tense tiff on-air when Shirley criticised his partner Charlotte.

Sticking up for the newsreader, Brendan had blasted Shirley for 'under-marking' their routine, and their feud only intensified from then onwards.

Difficult process: A source from the show told The Sun 'Producers are still sifting through the pile and hope they find the right candidate in time.

Shirley later claimed that the professional dancer, who she used to teach, had 'hurt' her feelings, although she insisted she would accept his apology if he came to her.

It is believed that Shirley will be returning to the second series alongside the other three beloved judges - Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli.

When asked about being let go on ITV's Lorraine, Brendan said of the decision : 'It's hard to talk about. The BBC haven't renewed my contract.'

At loggerheads: Brendan and judge Shirley Ballas became embroiled in a tense tiff on-air when Shirley criticised his partner Charlotte Hawkins

He continued: 'They made an editorial decision to not have me back on the show. I'm in shock. I'm quite emotional.'

This news comes as show producers make plans to give the boot to several other dancers, including Chloe Hewitt who The Sun have reported is being axed from the upcoming series.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Strictly Come Dancing for comment.
She's fresh off the jet from her modeling duties in Paris.

And Kaia Gerber was read to enjoy some down time as she was spotted out for a family dinner in Malibu on Sunday night.

The 16-year-old It girl commanded attention in a black leather motorcycle jacket as she was joined by her brother Presley and father Rande Gerber at hot spot Nobu.

Stunner: Kaia Gerber, 16, was spotted out for a family dinner in Malibu on Sunday night

Daring to impress, the catwalk princess rocked the cool jacket as her tradmeark brunette tresses cascaded over her shoulders.

Her business entrepreneur father Rande cut a dapper figure in a black bomber jacket as fellow model Presley sported a dark ensemble as well.

Kaia returned to Paris to continue her modelling duties on Tuesday, after a brief respite in Miami, Florida, following her hectic start to 2018.

The young star walked in an incredible 22 shows across the New York, Paris, Milan and London Fashion Weeks during February and March.

Family affair: The It girl commanded attention in a black leather motorcycle jacket as she was joined by her brother Presley and father Rande Gerber at hot spot Nobu

As well as her catwalk appearances, Kaia has also just seen the release of her new campaign for designer Marc Jacobs' $102 fragrance Daisy Love - shot last year by Alasdair McLellan in her native Malibu.

According to WWD, Kaia is now preparing design her first-ever capsule collection with none other than Karl Lagerfeld, which will hit stores globally in September.

Her impressive achievements all come while she is just 16 years of age, and still working on her education.

Father knows best: Her business entrepreneur father Rande cut a dapper figure in a black bomber jacke

Discussing how she juggles life as a student and international model, Kaia told Harper's Bazaar in January: 'I usually use the afternoon to catch up on homework.

'I'm completing my diploma at Malibu High through an online program, and it's difficult to get much done during the week, as the Wi-Fi on planes is really annoying.

'My favourite class this year is AP Calculus because I just like math. It's definitely super hard to teach yourself derivatives, though!'
James Kennedy fired off insults at Kristen Doute on Vanderpump Rules on Monday's episode, shortly before Jax Taylor had a meltdown and was thrown out of Sur.

The reality show opened with an explosive argument between James and Kristen in Mexico after rumors had emerged that they'd hooked up while drunk.

Kristen tossed a drink on hostess Lala Kent and everyone was screaming.

Insult machine: James Kennedy hurled insults at his ex-girlfriend Kristen Doute as the rumor about them hooking up continued on Monday's episode of Vanderpump Rules

'White trash, you pathetic, stupid, little whore,' yelled James, a 26-year-old British DJ.

'She's a rats*** f***ing whore,' he continued.

'I don't know if Kristen enjoys the attention she gets from being the center of a total f***ing s*** storm but I can tell you that it's life sucking and a total waste of energy,' sighed Katie Maloney, a 31-year-old waitress/beauty blogger.

Lala had James's back.

Anger rising: Kristen's anger mounted to the point that she threw a drink at James

'I'll be damned if he goes down without me going down with him,' raged the 27-year-old hostess.

'This dumb b**** throws a f***ing drink on me,' she yelled.

James then sobbed on the phone to his girlfriend Raquel Leviss, a 23-year-old model.

Sticking together: James was supported by Lala Kent after the drink throwing incident

'I didn't hook up with Kristen,' he protested, despite being alone with her for 'two hours'.

'I have nothing to lie about,' he raged, calling the inquisition 'bullying' as the angry Brit then branded Kristen a 'psychopath'.

'I feel like she's going to come for me now,' he added nervously as Lala sucked on her baby bottle of warm milk and honey.

Baby bottle: Lala sucked from her baby bottle while talking to James

'I want one,' he told her.

'What the f*** did I do? Why is this my fault?' huffed Kristen, after Katie accused her of being 'immature'.

'I can't leave this bulls*** rumor in Mexico, I have to take it home with me,' grumbled the 35-year-old Sur reject.

Growing up: Katie Maloney thought that Kristen was being immature

James was also furious with Jax Taylor, for throwing fuel on the flames of the rumor.

'He looks like a stupid dog right now, that's why he's doing this,' James spat.

They later got into a feud at Sur.

'F*** you all, you lying sacks of s***,' bellowed Jax, who then flipped the bird at his boss, formidable British restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump.

Feuding again: James and Jax Taylor were back to feuding again

Murder plan: Stassi Schroeder said she caught her boyfriend with his ex in Mexico that she would start planning a murder for two years from now

'You're arrogant and you're obnoxious,' said Lisa sternly, before booting him out.

Jax then ripped off his microphone and stormed off.

Lisa was amused by the alleged hook up in Mexico.

Sent away: Lisa Vanderpump sent Jax away after he went nuts

'I think the only recipe Kristen Doute knows is the recipe for disaster,' smiled the 57-year-old.

In Mexico, Jax had attempted to find zen with his Reiki therapist Kelsey.

'I snap really easily,' he admitted, while Kelsey advised him to focus on 'the good stuff, like Nelson Mandela'.

Calming down: Jax calmed down in Mexico by calling his Reiki therapist Kelsey

Jax wasn't sure who Nelson Mandela was, but vaguely mused that he might be from the country of 'Africa'.

'He was in Oprah's book club, I do know that,' added the 38-year-old barman.

Kristen was forced to tell her boyfriend Brian Carter about the incident in Mexico.

Tough talk: Brian Carter was not happy to hear Kristen's story

'You would be so furious if I did what you just did,' he sighed, calling her 'stupid' for putting herself in that position.

'Your track record doesn't speak so highly of you,' added Brian, who had previously forgiven Kristen for hooking up with James just after they'd begun dating.

'There was no cheating going on,' she begged.

Tom Schwartz speculated about what went on, asking: 'Maybe just the tip?'

Good one: Tom Schwartz made a joke about the hooking up rumor

Scheana Marie, who had been divorced for just six days, was picking out baby names for her imaginary child with her then-boyfriend Rob Valletta.

'Most people would wait for the ink to dry on the divorce papers,' said Lisa.

Jax then confronted barman/model Adam Spott about trying to move in on his girlfriend, 29-years-old Brittany Cartwright.

Too soon: Lisa Vanderpump warned Scheana to pump the brakes on her relationship

'I guess that you have a crush on my girlfriend?' he asked.

'I have a home and family, I have dogs, this is not a candy cane relationship,' he announced, while getting angry at Scheana for orchestrating the meeting.

'I would never do anything anyway,' Brittany assured him.

Too much: Jax lost it as he believed people were lying about what they heard from James

But Jax confronted Scheana saying: 'The woman can't even keep a husband and she's going to tell me how to run my relationship?'

'This is like the 47 millionth time that Jax has f***ed up,' said Katie.

Vanderpump Rules continues next week on Bravo.
Her Instagram account is filled with glamorous selfies and behind-the-scenes photos from her various modelling campaigns.

But Elyse Knowles offered fans a rare glimpse of her makeup-free self on Monday, proudly revealing her naturally freckled complexion.

The 25-year-old beauty, who won The Block with her boyfriend Josh Barker last year, wrote in the caption: 'This is ME'.

'This is me': The Block star Elyse Knowles looked stunning in a rare makeup-free selfie (left) she posted to Instagram on Monday

Elyse tagged a hairstylist and makeup artist in the photo, hinting she was about to prepare for a photo shoot.

Fans soon praised her natural appearance, with one commenting: 'Wow you look so beautiful without any makeup on'.

Back in February, the Bras N Things model admitted she no longer overshares on social media.

Glam squad! Elyse tagged a hairstylist and makeup artist in the photo, hinting she was about to prepare for a photo shoot

In an interview with Stellar magazine, Elyse said: 'These days I don't need to showcase every element of my life.

'And I'm happy I'm at that stage, because I'm so sick of proving myself to everyone: proving you have to be this kind of person or you have to look like this or you have to be in a bikini in every shot.'

Elyse was a successful model with major campaigns on her resume when she appeared on The Block last year.

Multi-talented: Elyse was a successful model with major campaigns on her resume when she appeared on The Block last year with her long-term boyfriend Josh Barker (right)

Teaming up with her long-term boyfriend Josh Barker, the celebrity couple eventually won the competition.

The sold their renovated home in Elsternwick, Melbourne to comedian Dave Hughes for an eye-watering $3.067 million.

The funnyman, 47, later admitted he paid 'too much' for the property, which he now rents out.
It was the biggest blunder ever made on Bachelor In Paradise.

But Blake Colman has now revealed the REAL reason he accidentally called Laurina Fleure 'Lenora' during last week's Rose Ceremony.

The 30-year-old took to his YouTube channel last week to blame bad health for the now-infamous gaffe.

Whoops! Blake Colman has blamed bad health on the fact he called Laurina Fleure 'Lenora' during a disastrous Bachelor In Paradise rose ceremony last week

Blake claimed he was suffering from heatstroke and was at the point of passing out on the day of the Rose Ceremony.

'My sickness and my health were really bad,' he explained in the video.

'I had to get the medics to take a look at me... I was messed up. Like we had to stop filming because I was almost about to pass out, like faint.'

Less than impressed! While Laurina accepted Blake's rose despite the fact he called her the wrong name, it was the end of their burgeoning romance

Blake explained that he didn't even realise he had made the error until the cast and crew burst into laughter.

'You see my face when I say "Lenora", I'm just so zoned out,' he said.

While bad health is a commonly used as an excuse for awkward errors, Blake was backed up by his co-star Jake Ellis.

That's awkward! Blake claimed he was suffering from heatstroke and was at the point of passing out on the day of the rose ceremony

'To back Blake up, he was very crook at that Rose Ceremony,' Jake told News.com.au last week.

'He literally just got out of bed to walk in and give that rose. We all had a bit of a flu going around, and he was a bit delirious.'

And while Laurina accepted Blake's rose despite the fact he called her the wrong name, it was the end of their burgeoning romance.

On Tuesday's episode, Laurina got her revenge by choosing 'American Jared' at the Rose Ceremony, booting Blake from the show.
Al Pereira/Getty ImagesBack in January, Billy Squier played a trio of special concert events in the New York City area with acclaimed touring and session guitarist G.E. Smith. Now, the duo has lined up four more shows in various venues around the Northeastern U.S.

The concerts are scheduled for April 21 in Peekskill, New York; April 29 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania; May 1 in Annapolis, Maryland; and May 2 in Washington, D.C.

The shows, which are part of the Portraits series, feature Squier and Smith chatting as well as performing together.

Billy, of course, is best-known for such early-'80s hits as "The Stroke," "Rock Me Tonite" and "Everybody Wants You." G.E. was the longtime music director for Saturday Night Live, and played lead guitar for many years with Daryl Hall & John Oates. He's also been a member Bob Dylan's and Roger Waters' touring bands.

Here are the full details about Squier's upcoming shows with Smith:

4/21 -- Peekskill, NY, Paramount Hudson Valley

4/29 -- Ardmore, PA, Ardmore Music Hall

5/1 -- Annapolis, MD, Ram's Head On Stage

5/2 -- Washington, D.C., City Winery

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Marcella always had been fairly bonkers  given that it was about a detective in the Met who looked like Anna Friel, suffered from blackouts, and invariably personally connected to the culprit.

But the finale of Season Two was so ludicrously, fabulously, deranged it made series one and other gonzo, gory, crime dramas like Luther and Silent Witness look like documentaries or Dixon of Dock Green.

The child murderer at the heart of the story was seriously unhinged  an unstable, paranoid, fantasist who was: a law unto herself; a danger to kids (even her own); and incapable of remotely normal relationships in her personal or professional life.

Marcella always had been bonkers  given that it was about a detective in the Met who looked like Anna Friel, suffered from blackouts, and invariably personally connected to the culprit

But enough about Marcella The serial killer she had been pursuing was even worse. (I think.)

Mind you, for viewers who lived in London it was debatable which was more worrying: the idea there were people like serial killer Jane Colletti out there or that they were relying on detectives like DS Marcella Backland to hunt them down?

Poor Marcella was so nuts she should have been called Nutella.

She was the latest female heroine for whom the classic messy love life, unorthodox detection methods and drink problems were not enough and had to be mentally/psychologically troubled as well.

Marcella made Saga Noren from The Bridge look dull and Carrie Mathison completely on top of things.

Finale: The finale of Season Two was so ludicrously, fabulously, deranged it made series one and other gonzo, gory, crime dramas like Luther look like documentaries

Im not well ! she kept complaining as if her over-sized coat, clumpy trainers, and funny running style werent clues and left her looking like an over-grown teenager rather than a woman who could seriously be a police officer.

Apart from the blackouts and disastrous family life, some of the situations Marcella had got herself in during the series included:

*antagonising a sinister paedophile

*being responsible for the mans unborn baby dying

*and then leaving her son (Edward) alone at home to be terrorised by the aggrieved paedophile.

*she also blackmailed her ex-husbands new girlfriend and a colleague at the Met  Mark the tech geek.

Troubled: She was the latest female heroine for whom the classic messy love life, unorthodox detection methods and drink problems were not enough and had to be mentally/psychologically troubled as well

Even though she was a detective, Marcella had been totally unaware that Mark had been spying on her at home. She had also not even considered Jane Colletti as a suspect in the case of multiple child murders she was investigating  despite the fact that she knew her. (Collettis daughter not only went to the same school as Marcellas son, she was even the boys girlfriend. Edwards best friend Leo had also been one of Collettis victims.)

Even after Edward had been attacked by the paedophile Marcella left him to walk to and back school alone. It was just a matter of time before he became Collettis next potential victim  abducting him and taking him to the disused warehouse she used to perform her series of bizarre operations that involved lobotomies, implanting wooden symbols in the childrens stomachs, and ultimately death.

Marcella could have (inadvertently) killed Collettis own kid, Samantha, having had a blackout on the way to her mothers house in the country.

Where are we? Why are we here? DS Backland asked the girl coming round in the car, clearly having no clue about either.

It had only been a string of convenient coincidences then had led Marcella to Colletti and Edward in the first place.

Marcella had gone to interview Collettis brother Joel in hospital, walking into his room as he had his shirt off, allowing her to see that he had the same scar on his stomach as Collettis other victims. (Pretty handy, as Joels condition meant he couldnt have told her himself.)

Showdown: She had not even considered Jane Colletti as a suspect in the case of multiple child murders she was investigating

Colletti then left Edwards bag and phone (in a cupboard  turned on) for Marcella to find at her house, and then the hospital files of all the children she had killed on display (in the house in the country), along with the family wine boxes leading Marcella to Collettis macabre murder factory.

Here, Colletti had helpfully left her car parked outside, with drag marks indicating Edward was in danger, and the front door open enabling Marcella to get in to save him and wrestle her to the ground and eventually arrest her. All without back-up of course. Well she was a maverick.

As is traditional with psychos using ridiculous rituals, Colletti prepared everything painstakingly slowly to allow Marcella to arrive just as Colletii was about to whack a phenomenally long needle into Edwards belly and then begin excavating his eye which she had clamped open.

Their showdown was the mother of Mexican stand-offs  two mad mothers to be precise  with Marcella responding to Collettis needle and mallet by holding a Stanley knife to young Samantha Collettis neck.

Probably not police procedure but still

Tense: Their showdown was the mother of Mexican stand-offs  two mad mothers to be precise  with Marcella responding to Collettis needle by holding a knife to Samantha Collettis neck

You so much as touch him and I swear to God I will KILL her ! Marcella screamed.

You wouldnt do that ! Colletti smiled, confidently.

Oh no? Youre f**king with the wrong mother ! Backland promised.

We believed her if Colletti didnt. This was Marcella after all as she proved when she (carefully) cut Samanthas throat with the blade.

All this was deranged enough but it was here that things truly began to spiral out of control  for Marcella and her finale.

Even though this was the second time Edward had nearly been killed by a disturbed monster, Marcella left him recovering in hospital, lying to her daughter into the bargain.

Shes not going to see a doctor. Shes going back to work. Thats our mum, Edwards sister shrugged by his bedside.

Even her boss thought this was madness.

Marcella what are you doing here? You should be with Edward, Rav said.

I can be more use here, Marcella insisted, ticking off another cliche.

Case closed: She interrogated Colletti (another breach of protocol considering she had just nearly killed Marcellas son) and declared the case officially closed by wiping away her classic TV detectives map

She interrogated Colletti (another breach of protocol considering she had just nearly killed Marcellas son) and declared the case officially closed by wiping away her classic TV detectives map of incomprehensible connections and red herrings.

This left us none-the-wiser about subplots such as: how did Colletti kill Gail and dump her body in the river? How did she trick everyone into thinking her brother Joel had been scarred and paralysed/mute after a car crash? And had Mark been spying on Marcella because he suspected she was involved in the first series murder of Jasons lover or because he had a weakness for women that looked like Anna Friel?

Do you want a lift back to the hospital? asked Rav, hinting heavily.

No, Ive got to do something first, murmured Marcella.

This was a midnight appointment with her therapist/hypnotist whose dedication was certainly undeniable.

She duly transported Marcella back to the fateful day her baby had died  the trauma Marcella believed was the cause of her blackouts, her general anxiety, and occasional/frequent violent outbursts.

Unhappily for her, this was virtually the only thing Marcella had detected correctly all series.

Driven to distraction by the screaming baby, Marcella had held Juliet so tightly she had smothered her.

Edward had then seen her putting the lifeless body back on the bed.

Mother and sons traumas were thus both explained. Unfortunately.

I did that. I did that to my baby, she sobbed when the therapist brought her round.

Trauma: Her therapist later transported Marcella back to the fateful day her baby had died  the trauma Marcella believed was the cause of her blackouts

Marcella, whatever it is were going to fix it ! Rav assured her minutes later after she returned to the station and climbed on the roof, ready to jump.

Another cliche but unlikely given the circumstances

Marcella climbed down but then proceeded to brain Rav over the head with the lid of a toilet cistern, handcuff him to the floor of the Ladies, and then fake her own death in a fire. (Its a long story and one that was frankly hard to follow.)

She then hacked off her hair and gauged the inside of her mouth with the scissors, staggering into the streets of Euston seemingly convinced that her mullet and scarred cheek meant she was now unrecognisable - more like The Joker than Anna Friel.

The end? Marcella, whatever it is were going to fix it ! Rav assured her minutes later after she returned to the station and climbed on the roof, ready to jump

It didnt work though.

She was living on the streets among the homeless, hidden under a blanket, her face inside the hood of her parka when a man sat down and told her he worked for a sinister department who could use a dead police officer to go undercover. What do you say?

The camera zoomed in on Anna Friels wide, wild, eyes.

We knew even if he didnt that of course she was going to say yes if it meant another series of Marcella as demented as this one had been.
She is a single mom-of-two.

Charlize Theron had her hands full on Monday as she carried her daughter August, age three, while shopping in Los Angeles.

The 42-year-old actress donned a casual all-black ensemble for the outing.

Mom duty: Charlize Theron had her hands full on Monday as she carried her daughter August, age three, while shopping in Los Angeles

Charlize, the star of Atomic Blonde, looked like a total doting mom while running errands with her little one.

As the heat of the day set in, the actress shed her sweater to reveal a simple black tank top that she had paired with black leggings and sandals.

Her blonde hair was tied back into a messy ponytail as she hid behind a pair of large Rag & Bone sunglasses.

Monocromatic moment: The 42-year-old actress wore a casual all-black ensemble that included leggings, sandals, and Rag & Bone sunglasses

Theron is also the mom to five-year-old Jackson whom she adopted from South Africa back in 2012.

August was later adopted in 2015 from a U.S. agency.

She is currently raising her two kids alone.

Threes company: Theron is also the mom to five-year-old Jackson whom she adopted from South Africa back in 2012. August was later adopted in 2015 from a U.S. agency

The Italian Job star was last linked to actor Sean Penn whom she dated for two years before calling it quits in 2015.

'Once you have children, that's who you are. There's no way around that. That's who I am,' Theron told Howard Stern in an interview.

'Once I had my kids, the first two years you're so  you turn into such a mom. Your body almost switches off. I had no desire to date or anything.'

Charlize went on to admit that she's looking for a companion.

'I want to have a partner and have a monogamous long-term relationship, I really do,' she said.
She may be nursing heartbreak after splitting with 'husband' Telv Williams, but Sarah Roza sure showed him what he's missing on Monday night.

The busty redhead and Married At First Sight star was spotted enjoying a girls' night out in Melbourne with co-star Tracey Jewel.

Sarah flaunted her enviable curves in a emerald green and figure-hugging dress.

Scroll down for video

Showing Telv what he's missing! Married At First Sight star Sarah Roza flaunts her curves in a figure-hugging dress as she and Tracey Jewel enjoy a girls' night in Melbourne

The glamorous reality star completed her look with gold tassled earrings and carried a black handbag.

Sarah sported a fresh spray tan, and had her long locks out and over her shoulders, in loose tousled curls.

Tracey meanwhile, opted for a more casual look, wearing tight black jeans and a leather jacket.

She had her brunette locks out and over her shoulders, and wore natural-looking makeup.

Gossiping about MAFS? The pair were seen enjoying a glass of wine and appeared in deep conversation

Hugging it out! The pair then embraced as they said their goodbyes

The pair were seen enjoying a glass of wine, appearing deep in conversation before hugging each other goodbye.

It was reported this week by NW that Sarah is heading to Los Angeles to 'meet with producers' for another shot at reality TV stardom.

The 38-year-old has been given an opportunity she is 'perfect for' and apparently received the news while she was still in a relationship with Telv.

The magazine reported that Sarah received a timely call from 'her best friend and a Hollywood producer' while she was still 'trying to make things work' with Telv.

Moving on: It was reported this week by NW that Sarah is heading to Los Angeles to 'meet with producers' for another shot at reality TV stardom

Smitten: Meanwhile, Tracey is preparing to move to Melbourne with beau Sean Thomsen, who she met on MAFS

She was told they were casting for a U.S. reality show that she would be 'perfect for'.

Sarah is 'packing her bags' to meet with producers in Los Angeles later this month, NW claimed.

Meanwhile, Tracey is preparing to move to Melbourne with beau Sean Thomsen, who she met on MAFS.

Tracey - who was married to Dean Wells on the show - defended her decision this week to move to Melbourne with her man, leaving her eight-year-old daughter Grace in Perth.

After she was criticised by fans for leaving her daughter 'abandoned' in Perth, the 35-year-old told KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O: 'It's not a black and white situation.'

'I have a really unique arrangement with my daughter's Dad, and we share custody,' she explained.
She's busy promoting her new book Perfect Is Boring.

And following her Daily Show appearance on Monday night, Tyra Banks put on a show for the cameras as she sauntered to her car in a plunging mesh shirt and a body-hugging pencil skirt.

Earlier in the day, the 44-year-old model and TV personality also appeared on The View.

Model behavior: Following her Daily Show appearance on Monday night, Tyra Banks put on a show for the cameras in a plunging mesh shirt and a body-hugging pencil skirt

Tyra left Trevor Noah's studio in a pair of gold caged heels that accentuated her toned legs.

The America's Next Top Model host was giving off some major Jersey Shore vibes as she wore her hair in a high poofa Snooki signature.

Before hopping into her private car, she struck a sultry pose.

Tyra's tales: She's busy promoting her new book Perfect Is Boringa memoir

Eye catching: Tyra left Trevor Noah's studio in a pair of gold caged heels that accentuated her toned legs. Before hopping into her private car, she struck a sultry pose

A tell all: In her new memoir, Tyra opens up about the nose job she had done at a young age

Banks flashed a little cleavage for her appearance on The View.

The model wore a ribbed dress that flared just about the knee and had a cheeky cut-out at the neckline.

She paired the little black dress with towering suede booties.

'I had a Pinocchio nose: It just kept growing. Though instead of growing long, it continued to grow left and right in the area between my eyes. And that spot felt itchy all the time,' she wrote

In her new memoir, Tyra opens up about the nose job she had done early on in her career.

'I had a Pinocchio nose: It just kept growing. Though instead of growing long, it continued to grow left and right in the area between my eyes. And that spot felt itchy all the time,' she wrote.

'[My doctor] told me he could stop the itching and sculpt my nose with his philosophy  to preserve ethnic features. Did he keep his physical promise and did the itching stop? You nose it.'
Nasser Sultan shot to fame after tying to the knot with Gabrielle Bartlett on Married At First Sight.

But the 51-year-old's short-lived union wasn't what earned him headlines.

Rather, the sun-kissed star became known for his extravagant beauty routine and obsessive cleanliness, sparking questions about his sexuality.

Very metrosexual! Daily Mail Australia takes a look at the very metrosexual life of Nasser Sultan, the popular Married At First Sight groom who loves moisturising, cleaning and showing off his fit physique at the beach

Insisting he's '110% straight', Daily Mail Australia takes a look at the very metrosexual life of the age-defying Egyptian, as he stretches out his time in the spotlight with a beauty blog and a tell-all book on the horizon.

Nasser, who lives in Sydney's swanky suburb of Surry Hills, made his debut on MAFS back in February, where boasted about his youthful looks.

'For fifty years old, I'm pretty hot!' the pint-sized Adonis said, as a montage showed him flexing his biceps on the beach.

'For fifty years old, I'm pretty hot!' In his introductory segment on MAFS, The pint-sized Adonis said was seen flexing his biceps on the beach

Nasser startlingly revealed that the secret to his smooth complexion was moisturising for 45 minutes per day.

'I take care of myself, and I'm in touch with my feminine side,' he explained.

'My secret to looking young is to moisturise,' he continued, demonstrating his skincare routine for the cameras.

'I take care of myself, and I'm in touch with my feminine side': Nasser spends 45 minutes moisturising each and every day

Age-defying: Nasser became so well-known for his fastidious approach to grooming, that he has even started beauty blogging on his popular Instagram page

Nasser became so well-known for his fastidious approach to grooming, that he has even started beauty blogging on his popular Instagram page.

In a post shared last week, the hunk instructed men to 'get their hands out of their pants and get into the bathroom'.

He advised men to pluck their eyebrows, holding up a pair of tweezers and stating: 'If they're out of order, attend to them very quickly!'

He's plucking popular! In a beauty blog shared last week, Nasser advised men to pluck their eyebrows, holding up a pair of tweezers and stating: 'If they're out of order, attend to them very quickly!'

Nasser's approach to cleaning is just as high-maintenance, as his now 'ex-wife' Gabrielle found out during MAFS' home-stay week.

'My worry is this week Gab's gonna see what the real Nass is. And the real Nass is always cleaning, always cleaning,' he remarked, before his spouse arrived.

And, indeed, it wasn't long before the fitness instructor famously stripped down to his underwear and Ugg boots to obsessively clean his stylish Surry Hills apartment.

Mopping about: On MAFS, Nasser famously stripped down to his underwear and Ugg boots to obsessively clean his stylish Surry Hills apartment

Cleaning machine! His wife Gabrielle was less than impressed with his constant mopping and dusting, blasting Nasser at a later commitment ceremony.

His wife was less than impressed with his constant mopping and dusting, blasting Nasser at a later commitment ceremony.

In a lengthy tirade, Garbielle took aim at Nasser's cosmopolitan life stating: 'Ive had a snippet, and its not that rock n roll, babe'.

Given his good looks, it's been no surprise Nasser has been getting much attention since his relationship with Gabrielle ended.

Split: Nasser and Gabrielle both voted to end their short-lived union, with the hunky star now in high demand with a bikini clad blondes

He is a fixture on Sydney's Bondi Beach where he is seen cuddling up to a bevvy of bikini clad beauties.

And on Monday, NW published pictures showing Nasser enjoying a boozy lunch with a 'flamboyant' gentleman before they 'stumbled' back to Nasser's apartment.

However, Nasser has firmly shut down rumours he is gay, telling Kyle and Jackie O: 'I am 110 per cent not gay, I live in the gay community, trust me... If I was gay, I'd be a rock star! If I was gay I'd live the lifestyle of it... I'm 100 million per cent' straight.'
Anna Wintour never has an off-day when it comes to fashion.

The 68-year-old Vogue editor was snapped Monday evening in her native New York City, lending her presence to the International Center Of Photography's 2018 Infinity Awards.

The culture-maker with the famed brown bob and dark sunglasses wore a multicolored black jacket with swaths of orange, red, teal and seafoam green.

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Out and about: Anna Wintour, 68, was snapped Monday evening in her native New York City for the International Center Of Photography's 2018 Infinity Awards

The mother-of-two - to Bee Shaffer and son Charles Shaffer - wore a long print gown bursting with patterns and colors, with a purple base and chartreuse shapes. She rounded out the ensemble with off-white sandal heels.

The Conde Nast higher-up is gearing up for her biggest night of the year, the Met Gala, as the theme of next month's affair, slated for May 8, will be Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, according to Vogue.

The trio of Rihanna, Amal Clooney and Donatella Versace will host the proceedings, according to the publication.

Earlier this month, Page Six cited multiple sources in reporting that the style stalwart was slated to leave her post at the publication after 30 years after her daughter, Bee, weds her fiance Francesco Carrozzini this summer.

Chic: The veteran fashionista appeared at the event in a multi-colored print dress

Last hurrah? Wintour, in recent weeks, has been rumored to be leaving her post at Vogue later this year

Conde Nast spokesperson Joe Libonati said that the organization 'emphatically [denies] these rumors.'

As for Monday's event, the International Center Of Photography's Mark Lubell said the annual event presents 'a chance to highlight the significant talents of photographers, artists, and creative innovators.

'These extraordinary individuals are producing work that is not just documenting the world - but helping to create change,' Lubell said in a statement. 'We are excited to celebrate their vision and their impact.'

Notable winners on the evening included Bruce Davidson capturing the Lifetime Achievement award, Amber Bracken taking the honors for Documentary and Photojournalism, and Maurice Berger claiming the award for Critical Writing and Research.
Roxy Jacenko is already a best-selling author.

And now the entrepreneur has revealed she's set to release her fourth literary work, a non-fiction title, in December this year.

The 37-year-old told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, that the book is 'a no bulls**t guide to all things PR.'

'A no bulls**t guide to all things PR': Roxy Jacenko, 37, revealed to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that she's set to release her fourth literary work

'The book is a non-fiction, no bulls**t guide to all things PR, Social Media, Business and Building your Brand. It has been something I have wanted to do for a number of years,' Roxy told Daily Mail Australia.

'The book will be out in December and will be my first non-fiction book,' the mother-of-two confirmed.

Roxy's PR guide follows on from her three fiction titles, Strictly Confidential, The Rumour Mill and The Spotlight.

First look: Roxy also took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday, sharing a sneak peek of the manuscript

The savvy businesswoman took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday, offering her 214,000 followers a sneak peek at the manuscript.

A screenshot of a thick bundle of paper featured the text: 'Roxy's Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks.'

'The no-nonsense guide to all things PR, social media, business and building your brand.'

A memo handwritten by Roxy's mother Doreen also read: 'I think this one is a winner Well done Mum xoxo.'

In demand: The literary work to be published in December, follows on from Roxy's three fiction titles

It comes as no surprise that Roxy would share her tips and tricks on the industry, having hosted a series of seminars across the country.

Aptly titled 'In Conversation With', the talks saw the Sydney-based star share her practical advice on building your brand and integrating social media into the workplace.

Not only a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, Roxy is a doting mother to daughter Pixie, six, and son Hunter, three, with husband Oliver Curtis.

Pixie and Hunter are already Instagram sensations, boasting a combined following of 131,300.
He is known as the face of the biggest space film franchise of all time.

But on Monday, Mark Hamill and his wife Marilou York made a red carpet appearance for another space-themed adventure.

The 66-year-old actor attended the Netflix Lost In Space season one premiere at The Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, California.

To infinity: Mark Hamill and his wife Marilou York attended the Netflix Lost In Space season one premiere at The Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, California

Dressed in a powder blue shirt and black pants, the Jedi knight looked at home on the space-themed ceremonial carpet, which was black instead of the traditional red.

He wore a navy jacket with black leather sleeves and added a pair of matching boat shoes.

Mrs. Skywalker dazzled in an iridescent blue coat and formfitting black pants.

Their daughter Chelsea Hamill was also in attendance, and arrived in a black floral dress.

I am your father: Dressed in a powder blue shirt and black pants, the Jedi knight looked at home on the space-themed ceremonial carpet, which was black instead of the traditional red

The Hamill family weren't the only stars of the spaceport Monday night.

Bill Mumy, who played the original Will Robinson in the 1960s television show, snapped a photo with the Star Wars icon.

While the show's new Will Robinson, Maxwell Jenkins, also posed with Master Luke.

The final frontier: Bill Mumy, who played the original Will Robinson in the 1960s television show, snapped a photo with the Star Wars icon

New stars: The show's new Will Robinson, Maxwell Jenkins, also posed with Master Luke

The 2018 Netflix edition of Lost in Space is based on the 1965 series of the same name, and follows the adventures of the Robinson family of pioneering space colonists whose spaceship veers off-course.

In 1998, New Line Cinema made a film starring William Hurt, Heather Graham, Matt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman based on the television show.

The new version of the space-themed series is set to come to screen worldwide April 13.
Eva Longoria is expecting her first child this June.

But the actress, 43, already looked ready to pop as she made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

The former Desperate Housewives star draped her enormous baby bump in a figure-hugging red dress paired with a burnt orange duster.

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Mom-to-be: Eva Longoria is expecting her first child this June. But the actress, 43, already looked ready to pop as she made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show

Longoria, who is married to Mexican media mogul Jose Baston, 49, is due to give birth to a son.

She confided to Ellen that she still hasn't decided on a name for her child or even got a nursery together for him.

She did reveal, however, that her baby shower is set for the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo, because 'it's the only weekend that's available.'

Stylish star: The former Desperate Housewives star draped her enormous baby bump in a figure-hugging red dress paired with a burnt orange duster

Busy: Longoria, who is married to Jose Baston, 49, is due to give birth to a son. She confided to Ellen that she still hasn't decided on a name for her child or even got a nursery together for him

Eva and Jose and began dating in 2013 and got engaged in Dubai in December 2015.

The couple tied the knot in May 2016 at an elegant ceremony near Mexico City where they now reside.

Meanwhile, Eva will next be seen in the big screen remake of the comedy Overboard, due out on May 4.

She stars with Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez in the film based on the 1987 movie starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Glamorous couple: The actress and the Mexican media mogul tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in May 2016. The couple are pictured in France in May 2015
Mariska Hargitay produced the HBO documentary I Am Evidence.

The 54-year-old actress attended a special NYC screening of the film on Monday night alongside her supportive husband Peter Hermann.

She was also joined by Will And Grace's Debra Messing and Hollywood legend Glenn Close.

Date night: Mariska Hargitay produced the HBO documentary I Am Evidence. The 54-year-old actress attended a special NYC screening of the film on Monday night alongside her supportive husband Peter Hermann

Poster child: The Law And Order vet donned a studded leather pencil skirt and a I Am Evidence t-shirt. She paired her edgy ensemble with fishnet tights and floral print heels

Mariska and Peter dressed in all black for the occasion.

The Law And Order vet donned a studded leather pencil skirt and an I Am Evidence t-shirt.

She paired her edgy ensemble with fishnet tights and floral print heels.

Hard work pays off: Mariska spent years producing the HBO film that has already won four film festival awards

Sharing the truth: I Am Evidence follows the story of four rape victims whose rape kits were never tested. In an interview with the American Film Institute , Hargitay explained that she created the film to expose 'what is wrong with the system'

Support system: Will And Grace's Debra Messing was among many women in attendance

The documentary, which has already won four film festival awards, follows the story of four rape victims whose rape kits were never tested.

In an interview with the American Film Institute, Hargitay explained that she created the film to expose 'what is wrong with the system.'

'The rape kit backlog is the most shocking demonstration of how we regard these crimes,' Mariska is heard saying in the movie trailer.

The actress has testified in front of Congress several times as an advocate for sexual assault victims whose cases have never been solved.

Living legend: Glenn Close attended the special screening on Monday night
Davina Rankin copped massive backlash for her explosive 'cheating scandal' with Dean Wells during Married At First Sight.

And while the internet rallied in a hate frenzy, it appears fellow co-star Ashley Irvin has her back - for better or worse.

Taking to Instagram stories on Tuesday, the two were snapped spending the day together, dressed in active wear, with every intention of being 'healthy'.

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Healthy intentions: Married At First Sight's Ashley Irvin [L] hangs out with Davina Rankin [R] on Tuesday, as she ditches the gym for 'Ice cream, beers and a bad influence!'

'Just walking around South Bank with my baby! Brissy babes!' Ashley said while holding the camera toward herself and Davina as the two strolled Brisbane's famed park, wearing sunglasses and gym clothes.

In the following clip, the reality star uploaded a Boomerang of Davina pulling a silly face, while the two sit with full-to-the-brim customised yogurt, fruit and granola bowls.

And it appears their plans to hit the gym afterward quickly went out the door, as the following clip featured them swapping out exercise for beers and deep-fried food.

'I bloody love this girl': In the following clip, the reality face uploaded a Boomerang of Davina pulling a silly face, while the two sit with full-to-the-brim customised yogurt, fruit and granola bowls

Pointing the camera across an outside table at Brisbane's The Plough Inn pub, Ashley zooms across a table featuring hot chips, macaroni and cheese balls, Cold Rock ice cream and frosty beers.

'So we were going to work out, I swear,' Ashley said cheekily to camera.

Zooming in on Davina while the two laugh, Ashley added: 'Ice cream, beers and a bad influence!'

Fries over guys! Pointing the camera across an outside table at Brisbane's The Plough Inn pub, Ashley zooms across a table featuring hot chips, macaroni and cheese balls, Cold Rock ice cream and frosty beers

Beer and active wear! Zooming in on Davina while the two laugh, Ashley added: 'Ice cream, beers and a bad influence!'

Following their less-than-healthy lunch, the duo snapped themselves singing while driving in the car.

The much-loved blonde also took to Instagram to document their day with a sweet selfie.

Captioning the post, Ashley wrote: 'I swear we were going to work out. But beer and Mac and Cheese balls were just singing our names. Another productive day with my @davvyxx,' adding the hashtag 'singlelife'.

Brissy babes! The much-loved blonde also took to Instagram to document their day with a sweet selfie

On Tuesday, Ashley too took to Instagram to express her need to return to the gym.

In the video, the star said: 'I really don't want to work out, but then I remembered I kind of have a bit of a fat face going on lately because I eat too burgers and pizzas and so I have to get my fat a** to F45.'
She recently admitted she was 'totally in shock' after her son Silas had to be delivered via emergency C-section.

But Jessica Biel, 36, was all smiles on Monday as she attended the American Express Experience event in New York City.

Both the 7th Heaven star and actress Jamie Chung, 34 looked delighted as they frolicked with puppies at the launch event.

Lovely ladies: Both Jessica Biel, 36, and actress Jamie Chung, 34 looked in high spirits at the launch event

The wife of Justin Timberlake epitomized elegance in a gray jumpsuit that showcased the Stealth starlet's gorgeous gams.

On her feet the star of The Sinner wore a pair of simple heels.

Her wavy brunette tresses cascaded down the mother-of-one's shoulders, perfectly framing he suit's deep plunging neckline.

Puppy love: Jessica Biel, 36, was all smiles on Monday as she attended the American Express Experience event in New York City

Legs for days: The wife of Justin Timberlake epitomized elegance in a gray jumpsuit that showcased the Stealth starlet's gorgeous gams

Sucker Punch actress Chung meanwhile showed plenty of her flawless skin in a white dress with cut out sides.

Jamie wore her dark tresses pulled back in a low pony tail for the day.

The San Francisco native couldn't contain her laughter as she played with several of the puppies, provided for the event by rescue group North Shore Animal League.

1000 watt smile: Sucker Punch actress Chung meanwhile showed plenty of her flawless skin in a white dress with cut out sides

Fun day: The San Francisco native couldn't contain her laughter as she played with several of the puppies, provided for the event by rescue group North Shore Animal League

Well-heeled: On her feet the star of The Sinner wore a pair of simple heels

Biel recently opened up about her birth experience, revealing how she and her Can't Stop The Feeling hitmaker husband had every intention of giving birth to their son Silas, age two, at home.

But on April 8, 2015, Biel was unexpectedly rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-Section.

In a new book by celebrity nanny Connie Simpson, the Next actress opened up about how her plans for a 'serene, natural childbirth,' fell apart.

Good hair day: Jamie wore her dark tresses pulled back in a low pony tail for the day

'Our story with Nanny Connie started the day we brought our son home from the hospital,' she explained in a book excerpt. 'That may sound like a normal statement coming from new parents, except our birth plan was anything but normal.

'We had two midwives, one doula, one meditation birthing class, a ton of hippie baby books, and a lovely home in the Hollywood Hills that we had turned into a labor training facility that we called The Octagon. So, not exactly normal.'

After her C-Section, Jessica remembers arriving home 'exhausted, disillusioned, and totally in shock.'
She's the notoriously private Offspring star who rarely packs on the PDA with her husband, Vincent Fantauzzo.

But on Monday, Asher Keddie shared a virtual display of affection to her partner on their four-year wedding anniversary.

The 43-year-old Australian actress took to Instagram to post a loved-up tribute to her 'hot-blooded Irish Italian' man.

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'Thank you for your hot-blooded Irish Italian goodness': Asher Keddie (left) paid tribute on Instagram to husband Vincent Fantauzzo (right) to celebrate their four-year wedding anniversary

'Married this guy four years ago.. thank you for giving me these beautiful boys, and all your hot-blooded Irish Italian goodness. I love you,' Asher wrote about her artist husband.

She accompanied the heart-warming Instagram post - shared with her 19,900 Instagram followers - with a number of touching hashtags including, 'family forever' and 'lovers.'

Beautiful family: In 2015, the happily married couple welcomed their first child together, Valentino

'Lovers': Asher accompanied the heartwarming post with a number of touching hashtags including, 'family forever' and 'lovers'

Going strong! The high-profile couple wed in a secret ceremony on Turtle Island in Fiji in 2014

In 2014, the high-profile pair wed in a secret ceremony on Turtle Island in Fiji.

The following year, the happily married couple welcomed their first child together, Valentino.

Australian TV's golden girl is also a stepmother to Vincent's son Luca from a previous relationship.

Asher's touching tribute to her husband comes after the blonde actress revealed she hasn't been approached by Network Ten about a new season of Offspring.

Is Offspring officially over? Asher Keddie admitted to TV Week on Monday that she 'hasn't had a conversation about the show since last year' as its future looks increasingly bleak

'I haven't had a conversation about Offspring for so long, since we finished last year, and that's the truth,' the 43-year-old told TV Week on Monday.

The final episode of season seven aired on August 30 in 2017.

While it hasn't yet been confirmed if Offspring is returning for an eight season, it wouldn't be the first time the series has taken a hiatus.

End of an era? The 43-year-old, who portrays Nina Proudman, hinted to the magazine that Offspring may not be returning to the small screen

Following the fifth season in 2014, fans predicted that the series had reached its conclusion before the show ultimately made a comeback in 2016.

Although Offspring's future remains uncertain, Asher revealed she is still open to playing lead character Nina Proudman for another season.

'I guess if someone had the conversation, I would always say yes to a conversation,' she said.

False alarm? Following the fifth season in 2014, fans predicted that Offspring had reached its conclusion - however it ultimately made a comeback in 2016

But with a new season of Offspring looking increasingly unlikely, Asher admitted she has been lining up opportunities elsewhere.

'I've just moved forward, actually for the first time in my working life, making plans, I've never really done that,' she recently told TV Tonight.

'I want to be part of telling stories in a different way. Why do I have to be an actor for the rest of my life? Why not challenge myself to do that?'
Amanda Holden proved she can poke fun at herself when she shared a picture of herself fast asleep on a plane.

The 47-year-old revealed her husband had sneakily taken the picture when she was travelling home from her holiday, with the down to earth lady sitting in economy.

She captioned the image with a cry face emoji and the words: 'So my hilarious #husband takes pictures of me asleep on various #trips across the #world.

Hilarious: Amanda Holden shared this picture of herself asleep on a plane after her husband snapped it - poking fun at her three chins

Her usual style: Amanda is famed for her glamorous appearance but she's also able to poke fun at herself

'There are loads! Hes thinking of publishing a #coffee table book!

'#3chins @thepiersmorgan has fierce #competition #notpictureperfect #icansleepanywhere.'

The hilarious snap comes after the Britain's Got Talent judge has been enjoying a holiday in Marrakech with her husband Chris Hughes.

On Monday, Amanda took to Instagram to upload a snapshot of herself looking sensational in a flattering white swimsuit as she dipped her toes in a refreshing pool ahead of her vacation coming to an end.

The Britain's Got Talent judge, who has two daughters with her husband of 10 years, captioned the image: 'Last few #raysofsunshine #me #holiday #family #love.'

Sensational: Amanda also shared a shot of herself relaxing in a white swimsuit as she soaked up the last of the rays during her getaway to Morocco on Monday

In the shot, the TV personality is seen wearing a white sun visor and a pair of sunglasses as she thumbs through the pages of a book.

On Saturday, she shared a shot of herself wearing a skimpy white bikini as she cuddled up to her husband Chris.

Revealing the shot had been taken by her eldest daughter Lexi, 12, she captioned the image: 'Another #toughday by the #pool with #mylub #me #husband #familytime #happy #holiday [picture] by #Lexi #10 #15.'

Cute couple: The star's sensational frame was on full display as she slipped into a skimpy bikini for a sweet snap with her husband Chris Hughes on Saturday

In the image, Amanda showed off her ageless figure in a tiny white bikini top that highlighted her ample cleavage and toned stomach.

She cosied up to her husband, who lovingly wrapped an arm around his wife for the snap.

Amanda has been enjoying an Easter break at Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakesh Hotel in Morocco.

And the actress left little to the imagination on Thursday as she took to Instagram to share a photograph of herself in a daring black cut-out swimsuit while lounging next to a hot tub.

Sizzling: Amanda , 47, set pulses racing as she posed up a storm in a cutout swimsuit at Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakesh Hotel on Thursday

Relaxing: The actress left little to the imagination as she took to Instagram to share a photograph of herself in a daring black cut-out swimsuit while lounging next to a hot tub

The mother-of-two worked her best angles as she flaunted her enviable tanned figure and wore a pair of sunglasses for the picture.

Amanda sent her fans into meltdown with the sultry snap as they rushed to heap compliments on the television beauty.

One follower said: 'Wow Amanda you are so so so so stunning pretty gorgeous and beautiful xxxx,' followed by heart emojis.

A different account put: 'Looking beaut... you have the body of a 20 year old... go you.'

Another fan added: 'Wow stunning picture of you very beautiful Amanda.'

Britain's Got Talent: The TV personality is currently a judge on the hit ITV show, pictured with her glamorous co-star Alesha Dixon

Return: The new series kicks off on Saturday 14 April (Amanda pictured with her co-judges Simon Cowell, David Walliams and Alesha)

Amanda will no doubt be making the most of the relaxing vacation as gets set to return to television screens for the new series of Britain's Got Talent on Saturday 14 April.

When she is away from the showbiz circuit, Amanda is often seen making the most of her country lifestyle.

The ITV star lives at home with her dogs, her husband Chris and their two daughters, Lexie 12, and Hollie, six.

She married Chris, 44, in a romantic ceremony at Babington House, in Somerset in December 2008.
She escaped to The Bahamas with her sister Scout last month.

And it was back to reality for Tallulah Willis, 24, when she headed out for a low-key day out, in sunny Los Angeles, California on Monday.

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter put on a leggy display in her little denim shorts, which were frayed at the edges.

Leggy lady: Tallulah Willis put her phenomenal legs on parade in minuscule shorts on low-key day out, in Los Angeles, California on Monday

The golden-haired model went for an effortlessly casual vibe in a loosely-fitted white T-shirt and backless Freda Salvador mules.

Tallulah kept her eyes sheltered from the sun with huge tinted sunglasses and she tied her glossy locks into a half updo hairstyle.

Fresh from her sun-soaked getaway to The Bahamas last month, the Hollywood actor's daughter looked positively glowing in her summer gear.

Pout and about: The golden-haired model kept her look casual with a loosely-fitted white T-shirt and backless Freda Salvador mules

Tallulah has a close relationship with her two older sisters Scout, 29, and Rumer, 29. Their parents Demi and Bruce were married for 13 years from 1987 before they decided to part ways for good in 2000.

In late March, the famous offspring grabbed the attention of headlines once again when she went completely naked on Instagram.

Tallulah explained she is so open on social media because she had such a 'sheltered' childhood thanks to her 'protective' famous parents.

Cooling off in the Caribbean: The stunner put her phenomenal figure on display in her hot pink bikini during her Bahamas break with her sister Scout last month

She told NYLON in 2015: 'When we were growing up [there was an emphasis on] being hiddennot because we had anything to hide, but because my parents wanted to protect us.

'Now, I dont have a conscious thought process of like, Im putting something out there that is shocking or not shocking.

'I did this video one night and I was looking normal, and then I made this weird face, because I thought it was really funny.'
Clelia Theodorou entered TOWIE last month as Dan Edgar's new love interest - much to the chagrin of his former flame Amber Turner.

And with the 22nd series dominated by their love triangle, the plot thickened on Sunday night's episode when the hunky star ditched the new girl - who claims he slept with the blonde beauty just hours before - claims Amber denies.

Speaking to The Sun, Clelia insisted Amber had 'broken girl code' when she slept with Dan while they were dating, as she stated: 'She kept telling me shes a girls girl when actually sleeping with someone when you know theyre dating another girl.'

Furious: Clelia Theodorou entered TOWIE last month as Dan Edgar's new love interest - much to the chagrin of his former flame Amber Turner

Just last week, Dan's on-off romance with Amber came to a crashing close, after he decided to pursue Clelia, yet on Sunday he cast doubt on his decision to cut ties for good with the 24-year-old reality starlet.

Viewers watched the Lothario, 27, sensationally end his brief relationship with former glamour model Clelia, 23, telling her his head was 'distracted' because Amber had gone on a date with newcomer Dean Ralph.

He later told Clelia: 'Listen I'm going to be completely honest. Since the whole thing at Sugar Hut, my head is distracted with other things and its not really fair that we carry on the way things are going if my head's not with it.

After she pressed him, Dan replied: 'With Amber. I think maybe I just need to step back from it all and be on my own for a minute while I get my head straight with it.'

Not happy: Clelia was furious in Sunday night's episode when she was dumped by Dan

Out of line: And with the 22nd series dominated by their love triangle, the plot thickened on Sunday night's episode when the hunky star ditched the new girl - who claims he slept with the blonde beauty just hours before

Way back when: Speaking to The Sun , Clelia insisted Amber (pictured with Dan in September) had 'broken girl code' when she slept with Dan while they were dating, as she stated: 'She kept telling me shes a girls girl'

Clelia stormed off telling Dan he was welcome to start things up again with Amber, telling him she 'just didn't care anymore' before going up to her love rival and asking about their relationship - with Amber insisting there was nothing going on.

Despite Amber's claims, Clelia's explosive new interview heard her allege Amber was in fact still romantically involved with Dan while they dated.

She said: 'Amber knew full well him and I were seeing each other so the fact she went round his house and whether they definitely slept with each other or not  shes broken girl code.

'She kept telling me shes a girls girl when actually sleeping with someone when you know theyre dating another girl  well she knows exactly how it feels.

'Knew full well': She said: 'Amber knew full well him and I were seeing each other so the fact she went round his house and whether they definitely slept with each other or not  shes broken girl code'

Not cool: Just last week, Dan's on-off romance with Amber came to a crashing close, after he decided to pursue Clelia, yet on Sunday he cast doubt on his decision to cut ties for good with the 24-year-old reality starlet

'Its shocking that she would do that  she feels that if she had him once she can have him again, well she can just have him. He reassured me up until the very last day that nothing was going on between him and Amber.'

Amber hit back at Clelia's claims, as a representative for the star told MailOnline: 'Amber has this is 100 percent not true and a total lie , she has been upfront and honest and doesnt know why this girl is saying such things.'

Dan and Amber's romance has been turbulent since she first joined and ditched her boyfriend of four years - Jamie Reed - for the hunk before he allegedly cheated on her in Ireland with a mystery woman.

Despite parting ways with the Lothario, Amber recently admitted she still had feelings for Dan during a recent interview on This Morning.

Fuming: Dan and Amber's romance has been turbulent since she first joined and ditched her boyfriend of four years - Jamie Reed - for the hunk before he allegedly cheated on her in Ireland with a mystery woman

Not true! Despite parting ways with the Lothario, Amber recently admitted she still had feelings for Dan during a recent interview on This Morning

Speaking ahead of the new series' debut, she said: 'It's been over a year with us but I'm not going to say there aren't feelings there, but I can't do it anymore.'

When asked about the row between them at popular Essex haunt Sugar Hute, she said: 'I was having a conversation with one of the new girls and he came into the conversation and it just didn't go down well.

'Things have just got so toxic between us and I'm just so done with the situation,' before joking: "A cup fell out of my hand and it may have had liquid in it." You think a lot of it is played for dramatics but everything I've talked about is real life.'
They are often seen hitting London's party scene, as two former stars of E4's Made In Chelsea.

And Lottie Moss and Tina Stinnes showed no signs of stopping on Monday night, as they embarked on another glamorous night out in the capital.

The budding model, 20, nailed casual glamour in grungy ripped jeans and fishnet tights as she and Tina left their swanky dinner at Roka for a few drinks in Soho House.

Stepping out: Lottie Moss nailed casual glamour on Monday night as she enjoyed another night out in London

Ladies of luxury: The budding model, 20, was seen leaving a swanky dinner at Roka with Tina Stinnes (above), before the pair headed for a few drinks in Soho House

The half-sister of supermodel Kate certainly turned heads as she stepped out in heavily ripped black jeans, which she layered atop fishnet tights for a grungy touch.

Keeping casual for the swanky affair, the blonde added a chunky black jumper, adorned with a bright white star print all over.

She kept co-ordinated with sky-high black ankle boots and a fluffy cropped coat, and tied her look together with a sleek leather handbag, slung casually over her shoulder.

Eye-catching: The half-sister of supermodel Kate certainly turned heads as she stepped out in heavily ripped black jeans, which she layered atop fishnet tights for a grungy touch

All black everything: She kept co-ordinated with sky-high black ankle boots and a fluffy cropped coat, and tied her look together with a sleek leather handbag

Known for her trendy sense of style however, Lottie pulled half of her curls into a retro top knot, to draw attention to her striking features and glowing complexion as she headed out.

The model enjoyed her night out with Tina Stinnes, who opted for sports-luxe in smart black jogging bottoms, striped with white down the sides.

She paired the strides with a matching black and white striped jumper, but added a khaki bomber jacket and bright white trainers to break up the look's dark hue.

Sports-chic: The model enjoyed her night out with Tina Stinnes, who opted for sports-luxe in smart black jogging bottoms, striped with white down the sides

Casual: She paired the strides with a matching striped jumper, but added a khaki bomber jacket and bright white trainers as she headed out - puffing on a cigarette as she went

Lottie first secured the attention of model scouts at the tender age of 13 with her youthful beauty at her older half-sister's wedding to rocker ex-husband Jamie Hince.

She has since gone on to release her own PacSun collection, and made her catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week for Sonia Rykiel in 2015.

Lottie is following in the star-studded footsteps of her supermodel half-sister Kate, who has commanded numerous runways over the years, and has worked on her own eponymous range for Topshop since 2007.

Party animal: Lottie is often seen hitting London's party scene with the cast of Made In Chelsea

Meanwhile Tina rose to fame on Love Island in 2016, having made her first television appearance in Made In Chelsea.

However, she is no doubt now busy preparing for her best pal and former co-star Olivia Buckland's upcoming wedding, where she is acting as bridesmaid.

The pair formed a friendship on the ITV2 Mallorca-based series, where Olivia fell in love with husband-to-be Alex Bowen.
She is considering making the move to Australia permanently.

And Vicky Pattison made the most of her time Down Under when she enjoyed a lovely day out on her own, in Sydney on Monday.

The former Geordie Shore star, 30, flaunted her best assets in the sexy split of her floral dress which ascended to her thigh.

Leggy lady: Vicky Pattison displayed her amazing legs in flirty floral dress as she enjoyed a day out in Sydney, Australia on Monday

Reality star Vicky also showcased her remarkable figure thanks to the cinched waistline and plunging neckline of her sensational garment.

The British born beauty ensured she stood out from the crowd in her platform sandals, which elevated her height and matched her quirky tassel handbag.

With her beachy brunette waves tucked behind her ears, the I'm A Celeb 2015 winner highlighted her features with soft make-up.

As a regular on the showbiz circuit, it is no surprise Vicky has been keeping her 3,900,000 fans in the loop since her trip to Australia.

Pins on parade: Reality star Vicky also showcased her remarkable figure thanks to the cinched waistline and plunging neckline of her sensational garment

The former party-girl has been treating her loving followers to sun-soaked snaps from her break away.

However, Vicky expressed the one thing she doesn't like about the sun-soaked country on her Instagram. She confessed: 'The only thing I dont love about Oz... is the time difference!'

The reality star confirmed she was considering swapping London's bustling streets for the golden sands of Oz permanently when she appeared on Studio 10.

Moving on? The reality star confirmed she was considering swapping London's bustling streets for the golden sands of Oz permanently when she appeared on Studio 10

But the brunette was left red-faced when she was unable to tell the difference between former PM Tony Abbott and Greg Norman on the breakfast show.

She was given the impromptu 'citizenship test' after she asked presenters: 'Would you be up to adopting a little lost British girl?'

Despite finding her feet on the showbiz ladder thanks to her reality television career, Vicky admitted she is finally ready to shed her party girl image.

Awkward: But the brunette was left red-faced when she was unable to tell the difference between former PM Tony Abbott and Greg Norman on the breakfast show

The British socialite rose to stardom in 2011 on the MTV reality show Geordie Show, which she left in 2014.

Vicky told News Corps: 'I am making a conscious effort to make sure I am leaving certain reputations behind.

'Yes, it might be a chapter of my life that is over. Yes, some of my biggest regrets have come from that time in my life. But what an amazing opportunity.'
She's set tongues wagging as the woman who has won Brooklyn Beckham's heart following his shock split from Chloe Moretz.

And Lexi Wood will no doubt raise more eyebrows with a raunchy past interview that has resurfaced in light of her new romance.

Speaking to Galore in 2016, the Playboy model, 20, spoke candidly about her love life, while comparing herself to sex toys and revealing what she looks for in a man.

No holding back: Lexi Wood gave a raunchy past interview where she compared herself to sex toys in a chat that's resurfaced in light of her new romance with Brooklyn Beckham

In the chat, the Canadian beauty reasoned: 'Id probably be a sex swing because Im a little sexy and a lot of fun.'

And asked her opinions on sleeping with someone on the first date, she revealed: 'Not for myself, but Im all for ladies taking charge and getting what they want.'

Lexi also revealed what she would look for in a man, as when asked what she would remove from her life, she admitted: 'F***boys. Can you tell I need a nice boy in my life?'

Cute new couple: Lexi and Brooklyn's romance came to light last week when the pair were spotted kissing at a West Hollywood tattoo parlor

Lexi and Brooklyn's romance came to light last week when the pair were spotted kissing at a West Hollywood tattoo parlor.

The smooch signalled the end of his relationship with on/off girlfriend Chloe, 21, who he had not been seen with publicly since March 11.

It is not yet known how Brooklyn's parents feel about the split, as Victoria was a vocal advocate of Chloe's.

It's over: The smooch signalled the end of his relationship with on/off actress girlfriend Chloe Moretz, 21, who he had not been seen with publicly since March 11

The 43-year-old designer often liked and commented on the couple's social media posts, even uploading snaps of the young actress singing Spice Girl songs.

In one sweet snap, Victoria shared a snap of Chloe speaking in support of Hillary Clinton at the DNC, which she captioned: 'That's what I'm talking about!!! mGirl Power!!!! @chloegmoretz @hillaryclinton #ImWithHer us X VB'.

The respect was clearly mutual, with Chloe previously telling Hello magazine: 'Victoria is one of the most incredible, important, smart sophisticated businesswomen and mothers that I've met. Shes a real heart and a real beautiful person.'

Chatting away: Speaking to Galore in 2016, Playboy model Lexi, 20, spoke candidly about her love life, while comparing herself to sex toys and revealing what she looks for in a man

Chloe and Brooklyn first met at Paris Fashion Week in 2014, and were reported to have dated after they were pictured skating around LA and going to SoulCycle sessions together.

After a year of swirling speculation, things went quiet between the two and Brooklyn went on to date French model Sonia Ben Ammar in 2015.

Following some time apart, they set tongues wagging once again after Brooklyn posted an Instagram snap of them together in April 2016, months after they were spotted dinning in a London eatery in January of that year.

They continued to date in the summer of 2016 before the distance proved too much - with the actress based in LA and he in London - and split five months later.

However, the duo rekindled their romance in September 2017, when Brooklyn moved to the Big Apple to study photography at Parsons School of Design.
Rose McGowan beamed as she exited her New York hotel on Monday evening, shortly after her preliminary hearing for drug possession in Virginia was rescheduled.

The actress caught the eye in a vibrant orange bomber jacket while making her way across the sidewalk, where she was greeted by waiting fans.

Evidently in high spirits, Rose, 44, posed for selfies as she made her way past, her appearance all the more noticeable by virtue of her decision to wear a thick layer of glossy red lipstick.

Stepping out: Rose McGowan beamed as she exited her New York hotel on Monday evening, shortly after her preliminary hearing for drug possession was rescheduled by a Virginia judge

The actress completed her look with a plain black top, while gym leggings and white trainers rounded things off.

Covering her head with a black beanie, Rose offered a cheerful smile while making her way towards a waiting car.

The American star was stepping out after a hearing relating to her charge for on a drug possession was postponed until May 3.

Colourful: The actress caught the eye in a vibrant orange bomber jacket while making her way across the sidewalk, where she was greeted by waiting fans

Say cheese: Evidently in high spirits, Rose, 44, posed for selfies as she made her way past

The hearing was originally scheduled for late March, but was postponed after two prosecution witnesses were unable to get to court during a snowstorm, according to The Washington Post.

Rose's lawyers had been expected to argue for dismissal of the charges.

They have suggested the drugs may have been planted by agents hired by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to discredit her for making sex assault accusations against him.

Rose was charged with drug possession after authorities said cocaine was found in a wallet she left behind on a flight to Dulles International Airport in January 2017.

Low key: The actress completed her look with a plain black top, while gym leggings and white trainers rounded things off

Pleased to meet you: Covering her head with a black beanie, Rose offered a cheerful smile while making her way towards a waiting car

The New York Times recently published excerpts from her memoir Brave, in which she recounted the alleged assault she suffered at the hands of Weinstein at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.

In the book she claims she had an appointment with the producer on the day of the incident but arrived to learn her breakfast meeting had been moved to his hotel suite.

Once she got to the suite, she claims that Weinstein tore off her clothing, made her sit on the edge of the Jacuzzi in his suite and proceeded to perform oral sex on the actress while masturbating himself to completion.

Soon after this alleged assault, McGowan received a $100,000 settlement from the disgraced mogul.

Through his lawyers, Weinstein has strenuously denied the incident.
They've been busted more than once 'liking' each others' Instagram photos.

But this week, Married At First Sight's Telv Williams and The Bachelor's Zilda Williams went from double-taps to comments as they flirted up a storm on the social media site.

The pair's sweet exchange started when Zilda posted a busty selfie to celebrate her 35th birthday.

Married At First Like! MAFS star Telv Williams and The Bachelor's Zilda Williams have been flirting on social media again

'Happy birthday, enjoy those celebrations and family time,' commented Telv.

Zilda quickly responded: 'Thanks babe. The big 35!'

Telv, clearly stunned by learning Zilda's true age, then gushed: 'No way in the world you are 35!?!?! I dont believe you lol. You dont look a day over 25.'

You dont look a day over 25!' Telv complimented Zilda's appearance after she revealed that she was celebrating her 35th birthday

The Married At First Sight star has been open about the type of women he's into, and Zilda certainly fits the bill.

The Kiwi-born beauty, who first shot to fame as a men's mag centerfold, is famous for her voluptuous curves - specifically, her EE-cup assets.

Telv, who was 'married' to Sarah Roza on MAFS, repeatedly complimented her curves during his time on the show, making it clear that it was a big part of why he was so attracted to her.

'Well, I do like curves in a woman,' he admitted during an appearance on Today Extra with 'wife' Sarah, before adding: 'And I definitely got the curves, didnt I!'

Her breast assets! The Kiwi-born beauty, who first shot to fame as a men's mag centerfold, is famous for her voluptuous curves - specifically, her EE-cup assets

'Well, I do like curves in a woman!' Telv, who was 'married' to the voluptuous Sarah Roza, has admitted that he loves curves

In early March, the single dad was caught liking a number of Zilda's busty selfies on Instagram.

The pair are both currently single, with Sarah announcing her split from Telv last month, while Zilda followed shortly after by confirming her breakup with her much younger boyfriend Keith Frazer after almost a year together.

Unfortunately, Zilda recently moved back to New Zealand, while Telv currently lives between Perth and Melbourne.

Single and ready to mingle! While Zilda never received a rose from Sam Wood on The Bachelor, the bombshell could find love with Telv now that the pair are both officially single
She rang in her 40th birthday in style with a sun-soaked family holiday.

Yet Myleene Klass proved her spirits hadn't waned as she arrived back in London with boyfriend Simon Motson and her two daughters Hero and Ava on Tuesday.

Beaming broadly, the TV personality seemed in good spirits as she strolled through the airport terminal with her brood.

Jet set style: Myleene Klass proved her spirits hadn't waned as she arrived back in London with boyfriend Simon Motson and her two daughters Hero and Ava on Tuesday

Opting for a low-key look, the mother-of-two donned a loose-fitting black shirt teamed with matching joggers and white trainers.

The former Hear'Say star accessorised with a grey longline cardigan, whilst she concealed her glossy chestnut locks with a grey trilby hat.

Proving to be their mum's mini-mes, Ava, 10, and Hero, seven, looked adorable in sportswear as they headed home after their Easter in the sunshine.

Fun in the sun: Myleene rang in her 40th birthday in style with a sun-soaked family holiday where she showed off her phenomenal figure in an array of bikini instas

Meanwhile, ever the gentleman, Simon was seen taking care of all the luggage.

Myleene treated her fans to a host of bikini snaps from her holiday, no doubt keen to show off the results of her hard earned physique.

After undergoing a 18 month transformation with the help of personal trainer Louis Rennocks, the brunette beauty certainly achieved her goal of shaping up in time for her 40th birthday on Friday.

Back home: Beaming broadly, the TV personality seemed in good spirits as she strolled through the airport terminal with her brood

Low profile outing: Opting for a low-key look, the mother-of-two donned a loose-fitting black shirt teamed with matching joggers and white trainers

Low-key look: The former Hear'Say star accessorised with a grey longline cardigan, whilst she concealed her glossy chestnut locks with a grey trilby hat

Speaking to Fit & Well magazine recently, the former Hear'Say star revealed she is proud to have her 'best her abs ever' but says her new regime is not just about looking great.

'I'm getting to a point in my life, and the age, where I want to be around for my children,' she explained. 'My girls think I'm Wonder Woman, and I don't think that's going to last but I've got to keep up with them.'

Proving that you don't have to spend all day in the gym to make a change, the star revealed she simply works out in her living room three or four times a week.

Family fun: Proving to be their mum's mini-mes, Ava, 10, and Hero, seven, looked adorable in sportswear as they headed home after their Easter in the sunshine

Chivalrous: Meanwhile, ever the gentleman, Simon was seen taking care of all the luggage

'Getting up off the sofa is the biggest battle,' she admitted. 'You think, 'Tomorrow's fine!' and then you think, "No!" But once you're up, you're up.

'Afterwards, I feel really good. I think my attitude towards exercise has changed. Before, it was something I had to get out of the way. But now I see it as something that's incorporated in my life.

'I feel like I have better abs than I've ever had in my life. But I didn't want the workouts to be unachievable. I like having my curves too.'

Back to the daily grind: Myleene will no doubt be throwing herself back into work promoting her new fitness venture following her relaxing family holiday

Inspiring: Speaking about her new fitness venture, Myleene previously admitted she wanted empower women with her fitness secrets by releasing her workout DVD

Speaking about her new fitness venture, Myleene previously admitted she wanted empower women with her fitness secrets by releasing her workout DVD.

She told MailOnline: 'Im turning 40 in a month and couldn't be more proud of the body I have.

'Its given me two beautiful babies, its carried me through good times and tough times, and its allowed me to be a strong and successful woman.

'I filmed "MyBody" so that women would feel empowered, confident and capable of anything they set their mind to.'
She is indisputably the standout star of The Mummy Diaries.

And again Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd's three-year-old daughter Nelly is stealing scenes as Wednesday night's show will see the tot falling asleep at the dinner table during a luxurious dinner on their family trip to the Maldives.

Her adoring mum spoke to the camera as she explained that due to Nelly's hyperactive nature, it is imperative she naps before dinner - yet the particular evening caught on camera showed what happens when she fails to sleep.

Sleepy times: Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd's three-year-old daughter Nelly is stealing scenes as Wednesday night's Mummy Diaries will see the tot falling asleep at the dinner table during a luxurious dinner on their family trip to the Maldives

The Mummy Diaries returned to screens last month, with a new spin on the show after the show previously featured just Billie's sister Sam, her partner Paul and their son Paul Tony yet Billie is now prominently featured.

Each week, Nelly dominates viewer reaction, with fans calling for her to have her own show, and this week looks to be no different as their holiday is filmed.

Speaking to the camera, Billie revealed that on holiday it is essential that Nelly sleeps before dinner - yet the evening in question showed what happens without a nap.

She said: 'The thing is with Nelly is when she's on holiday, she's on the go constantly, she's swimming constantly so it's good for her to have a little nap before dinner. Tonight... she wouldn't nap before dinner and she's so tired.'

Oh no... Her adoring mum spoke to the camera as she explained that due to Nelly's hyperactive nature, it is imperative she naps before dinner - yet the particular evening caught on camera showed what happens when she fails to sleep

Snapping away: Each week, Nelly dominates viewer reaction, with fans calling for her to have her own show, and this week looks to be no different as their holiday is filmed

Got it in one! Nelly flitted between stressing out and then taking pictures of her mum and nan

As they dined with both Greg and Billie's mums, alongside baby Arthur, Nelly was seen throwing an almighty tantrum at the table as she screamed at her family.

Expertly knowing how to distract the tot, Billie and Greg's mum tried to stop her crying by saying: 'Can you take a photo of me and Nanna because you're the best.'

Nelly swiftly nabbed the camera and asked: 'Ok what flash?' - leaving her family in hysterics and dad Greg congratulating her on her expert skills.

Snapping away: As they dined with both Greg and Billie's mums, alongside baby Arthur, Nelly was seen throwing an almighty tantrum at the table as she screamed at her family

Telling them what's what! Nelly swiftly nabbed the camera and asked: 'Ok what flash?' - leaving her family in hysterics and dad Greg congratulating her on her expert skills

Standout star: Each week, Nelly dominates viewer reaction, with fans calling for her to have her own show, and this week looks to be no different as their holiday is filmed

Loved-up: The Billie and Greg love story goes back to 2011 when they met for the first time and Greg popped the question during a sunny holiday to the Maldives in 2014

Despite this, thing soon got all too much for the tot as her eyes started to droop and she slowly began to fall asleep, leading to a shocked Billie exclaiming: 'She looks like she's going to sleep in her chair!'

Last week's episode saw the Faiers-Shepherd clan preparing to take off on the trip, however the start of the journey was thwarted when they were 10 stone overweight in luggage - leading to a hefty fee from the airline.

Both parents were anxious about the lengthy flight, with Nelly telling the camera they were setting off to Mars, yet things seemed to have settled by this week.

Last month, Nelly sent fans wild again when she was seen to go skydiving at iFLY in Milton Keynes in a simulator before belting out tracks by Elton John.

Happy days: Last week's episode saw the Faiers-Shepherd clan preparing to take off on the trip, however the start of the journey was thwarted when they were 10 stone overweight in luggage - leading to a hefty fee from the airline

She's a superstar! Last month, Nelly sent fans wild again when she was seen to go skydiving at iFLY in Milton Keynes in a simulator before belting out tracks by Elton John

Adorable: Fans were sent wild as they saw Nelly carefully packing her bags for the holiday

During the hit show, fans were gushing over the tot on Twitter as they branded her a 'brave superstar' for her stint in the tube following her mum and dad and grandmother Sue's terrified windswept tries.

Since hitting screens, Nelly has been a hit among fans as she has been seen cracking up viewers - after calling her parents by their first names, refusing to sleep and throwing some spectacular tantrums.

The Billie and Greg love story goes back to 2011 when they met for the first time and Greg popped the question during a sunny holiday to the Maldives in 2014.
She's no stranger to flaunting her model features.

And Shanina Shaik left fans in awe of her flawless complexion on Monday after posting a sizzling selfie on Instagram.

The 27-year-old Melbourne-born supermodel posted a snap of her flawless complexion with her curled tresses in a tight topknot, as she continued her globetrotting after attending the amFAR gala in Hong Kong last month.

Amazing: Model Shanina Shaik, 27, left fans in awe of her flawless complexion on Monday as she took to Instagram to share a sizzling beach-side selfie

In the snap, Shanina defined her incredible cheekbones with a simple orange blush, along with matching eye-shadow and defined brows.

The Make Me A Supermodel star captioned the post: 'Colombian sun,' with many of her 1 million followers rushing to comment that she has never looked more stunning.

One wrote: 'Radiant and beautiful what more can I say,' while another added: 'Dreamy vibe such beautiful skin Shanina.'

Taking to her Instagram stories, Shanina also shared a gorgeous bare-faced snap as she relaxed in a shady spot, wearing just a nude strapless top as she let her dark hair hang loose.

They love her: The Melbourne-born models followers gushed at her amazing beauty, as she posted the snap in the blazing sunshine

Jaw-dropping: Shanina also took to her Instagram stories to share a gorgeous bare-faced snap, with her dark curled tresses hanging loosely over her face

Shanina has been once again trotting the globe as part of her model adventures, after recently revealing her emotional reaction to attending the 2018 American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) gala in Hong Kong last month.

Joining her supermodel pal Alessandra Ambrosio, Shanina told her fans how moved she was by a story of an eight-year-old orphan who lost his family to HIV.

'I was truly touched and bought to tears last night,' she captioned an image of white roses. 'An 8-year-old boy, who is living with HIV, lost his parents at a young age and only 3 years ago lost his younger brother.'

Candid: The Victoria's Secret star spoke openly about her experience attending the amFAR gala in Hong Kong with Alessandra Ambrosio last month

Emotional: Shanina admitted that she was 'brought to tears' after hearing a story of an orphan who lost his family to HIV

The Victoria's Secret star added: 'He is being punished by society for a virus he never asked for. Not being able to attend certain schools, sit in the cafeteria with the other kids and even just the modern day contact with people.

'Let's educate ourselves with the facts about AIDS and support all adults and children who are living with HIV.'

Making her arrival at the gala, Shanina was difficult to miss as she dazzled in a plunging sequinned gown with bow detailing, flaunting her endless pins under the frock's thigh-high split.
The British Soap Awards 2018 Longlist Nominations have been announced on Tuesday ahead of the star-studded ceremony later this year.

A whole host of stars across British soaps Coronation Street, EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and Doctors have been nominated for the glittering awards.

Following his ongoing harrowing rape storyline in the soap, it is of little wonder Coronation Street's Jack P Shepherd leads the Best Actor nominations.

British Soap Awards 2018 longlist announced: TV stars will battle it out as nominees were revealed on Tuesday (Jack P Shepherd pictured as David Platt)

The actor will go head to head against the likes of EastEnders' Steve McFadden and Danny Dyer as well as Emmerdale's Ryan Hawley and Emmerdale's Gary Lucy.

Jack's character David Platt attempted to self-harm in the rape ordeal takes its most horrific twist yet on the cobbles.

Meanwhile, his Coronation Street co-star Shayne Ward has also been nominated for his role as Aiden Connor ahead of his departure from the show.

Top woman: Coronation Street's Lucy Fallon led the envy-inducing nominations for the Best Actress category in the British Soap Awards

The nominations for EastEnders' Steve, Danny and Richard Blackwood naturally follow their involvement in the gripping botched Albert Square heist storyline.

Coronation Street's Lucy Fallon leads the envy-inducing nominations for the Best Actress category in the British Soap Awards.

Corrie fans will not be surprised by her nod after her outstanding performance as vulnerable Bethany Platt who fell victim to the paedophile ring.

Revealed: The nominations for EastEnders' Steve McFadden, Danny and Richard Blackwood naturally follow their involvement in the gripping botched Albert Square heist storyline

The grooming storyline was met with a mixed response from fans, some praising the soap for its sensitive handling while Of Com was flooded with complaints.

Corrie's Bhavna Limbachia is also up for Best Actress after her character's controversial lesbian storyline but her on-screen lover Faye Brookes missed out.

EastEnders' Lacey Turner could mark her on-screen siblings' return to Albert Square by taking home the Best Actress trophy for her portrayal of Stacey Slater.

Fans will vote for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best British Soap online while an expert panel will decide the rest of the categories.

Titles also up for grabs include Villain of the Year, Best Single Episode, Best Male Dramatic Performance, Best Female Dramatic Performance, Best Comedy Performance and Best Young Actor, the Scene of the Year, Best On-Screen Partnership, Best Newcomer and Best Storyline.
They were alleged to have had an almighty bust-up and unfollowed each other on social media.

And upon returning to the UK following a trip to Spain, James 'Arg' Argent was seen heading back to girlfriend Gemma Collins' house with her in Brentwood, Essex on Monday night after patching things up.

The pair wasted no time rekindling their romance, as they were seen arriving back from romantic dinner date and dispelling any rumours of a split.

Together: Upon returning to the UK following a trip to Spain, James 'Arg' Argent was seen heading back to Gemma Collins' house with her in Brentwood, Essex after patching things up

Despite their turbulent few days, the pair looked to be in high spirits as they were seen walking along in the dark.

The lovebirds both chose for a dark colour palette, with the blonde attempting to shield her face with her scarf while James opted for a pair of shorts.

James in particular looked to be in a very good mood as he executed a number of giggles while his other half walked ahead.

Besotted: The pair wasted no time rekindling their romance, as they were seen arriving back from romantic dinner date and dispelling any rumours of a split

Happy: Despite their turbulent few days, the pair looked to be in high spirits as they were seen walking along in the dark

Low-key: The lovebirds both opted for a dark colour palette, with the blonde attempting to shield her face with her scarf while James opted for a pair of shorts

Loving life: James in particular looked to be in a very good mood as he executed a number of giggles while his other half walked ahead

This comes after Arg touched down at Stansted airport in London after filming in Marbella with his close pal Ferne McCann and her baby daughter Sunday.

The affable star flashed a big grin as he strolled through Arrivals, preparing his romantic reunion with on/off love interest Gemma.

He was listening to music as he jumped out of a taxi and hammered on Gemma's door - following his revelation she had changed the locks.

Explosive: Gemma and James were alleged to have had an almighty bust-up and unfollowed each other on social media

All is well! However, it seems as though all it is forgiven given their nighttime cosy display

Banter: James appeared to be joking around as he lifted one leg

Making amends? Following his Spain trip, James headed straight to girlfriend Gemma's house to patch things up

Still together: The pair wasted no time rekindling their romance, heading out for a romantic dinner date and dispelling any rumours of a split

Homewards bound: This comes after Arg touched down at Stansted airport in London after filming in Marbella with his close pal Ferne McCann and her baby daughter Sunday

Delighted: The curry-loving star flashed a big grin as he strolled through Arrivals, preparing his romantic reunion with on/off love interest Gemma

In great spirits: He was listening to music as he pushed a trolley piled high with suitcases

The bubbly blonde didn't take long to forgive him, however, taking to social media to share some snaps from their loved-up evening meal.

Gemma posted a snap of the pair with heart filters over their eyes, as well as a video of Arg serenading her at the dinner table.

This comes after James told The Sun that things have been so heated between them that Gemma threw his smoked salmon out of the window and keeps changing the locks.

Clash: They were alleged to have had an almighty bust-up and unfollowed each other on social media

Taking a chance: However, Arg was keen to patch things up with his partner

Struggle: The TOWIE veteran was having trouble juggling all of his suitcases

Heavy lifting: Arg certainly didn't pack light for his trip to Marbella

Arg only recently committed to Gemma after being on and off for years, with the pair finally confessing they loved one another and posing for a romantic magazine shoot.

The TOWIE star said: 'She puts about six scrambled eggs on my plate and then a big, big, chunk of smoked salmon.

'I said, "Gem this is lovely, but f*** me, how much smoked salmon do you want to put on my plate?" She comes over to my plate, picks up the smoked salmon, opens the window and chucks it out  shes an absolute nutcase.

Letting him in: Arg revealed Gemma had changed the locks on him - so had to wait patiently for the blonde to open the door to him

Musical man: Gemma shared a video of Arg serenading her with his dulcet tones

'I love her to bits, but well have a row and shell go and get the locks changed. I dont think you realise how many times in the past few months shes given me keys and then got a locksmith round to change the locks.'

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for both Gemma and Arg for comment.

The news comes as a shock as Gemma has been on a serious weight loss mission in order to help her chances of conceiving.

False alarm: It was revealed that Gemma and Arg had unfollowed one another on social media after a series of huge bust-ups - despite finally committing to one another and trying for a baby

Fighting talk: James has accused Gemma of throwing his smoked salmon out of the window and changing the locks several times after giving him keys

Taking to Instagram, the TOWIE legend shared four separate posts to her 841K followers, documenting each step of her fitness session with a personal trainer.

At the time, the bubbly blonde admitted that she was the heaviest that she has ever been, while she was spurred on to lose weight amid fertility issues which include Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and a low egg count.

Last year, Gemma was given the devastating news on TOWIE that her egg count was low and that her weight would significantly hinder her chances of conceiving.
Fans were up in arms on Tuesday after Emmerdale star Amy Walsh failed to pick up a nomination at the forthcoming British Soap Awards  despite her characters latest storyline dominating the long-running show.

But the 31-year olds subsequent appearance on This Morning  where she was on hand to discuss troubled character Tracy Shankleys secret past as a prostitute  was overshadowed by inevitable comparisons to her older sister, former Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh, 36.

Chatting about her complex storyline with hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Amy bore a striking resemblance to Kimberley, who is five-years her senior.

Striking: Amy Walsh's appearance on This Morning  where she was on hand to discuss troubled character Tracy Shankleys secret past as a prostitute  was overshadowed by inevitable comparisons to her older sister, former Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh

'I feel for her, she's come from a hard life, a hard upbringing,' she said of married Tracy and her turbulent past, which reemerged after lecherous former client Phil tried to blackmail her into sex.

Despite refusing, Tracy's life was plunged into further turmoil after husband David discovered her former life as a sex worker, resulting in his fling with Leyla Harding and the subsequent collapse of their marriage.

But Amy said she was pleased the decision to highlight her character's past, adding: 'I'm glad they've revisited it. I didn't want them to forget her edge when she married (screen husband) David. She's got a coloured past.'

Close: Ex pop star Kimberley is five-years older than actress sister Amy

With her deep Bradford accent drawing further comparisons to former pop star Kimberley, the actress admitted she finds it "easy" to cry on demand.

'I love it, I thrive off it. You've got to work hard, you've got to do the prep work,' she explained.

'For me it's all about accessing those emotions. It's a bit like emotional recall, where you think about something that's happening in your own life, but you don't have to do that, if the storyline lends itself to you being moved by it anyway. I do find it quite easy.'

Opening up: Amy was on hand to discuss her complex Emmerdale storyline with This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford

Moved: 'I feel for her, she's come from a hard life, a hard upbringing,' she said of married Tracy and her turbulent past, which reemerged after lecherous former client Phil tried to blackmail her into sex

Let's talk: With her deep Bradford accent drawing further comparisons to former pop star Kimberley, the actress admitted she finds it "easy" to cry on demand

But fans were left fuming after the actress was overlooked for a Best Actress nomination at this year's Soap Awards, despite co-stars Emma Atkins, Natalie J Robb and Lucy Pargeter all being recognised.

'I'm bitter that Amy Walsh wasn't nominated for a bsa, shes deserves the recognition for this Phil storyline,' raged one.

While another carped: 'Amy Walsh get the recognition she deserves challenge.'

Another simply wrote: 'Amy Walsh was robbed.'

Elsewhere viewers were critical of Eamonn and Ruth's references to her famous sister, with one writing: 'Interviewers stop talking to Amy Walsh about Kimberley instead of herself and her talent.'

In her element: 'I love it, I thrive off it. You've got to work hard, you've got to do the prep work,' she explained

Tough times: Amy has won plaudits for her role as former prostitute Amy on Emmerdale

Not happy: But fans were left fuming after the actress was overlooked for a Best Actress nomination at this year's Soap Awards, as well as Eamonn and Ruth's repeated references to older sister Kimberley

Upbeat: The actress was in high spirits as she greeted onlookers after laving ITV studios later that day
She's rumoured to be planning a family with her comedian beau Andy Lee.

But model Rebecca Harding didn't look like she had babies on her mind when she attended the Longines Luncheon on the Gold Coast on Tuesday.

The stunning brunette was beaming as she flaunted her trim pins in an edgy coordinated ensemble of striped wrap skirt and cropped jacket.

Legs eleven! Bec Harding flaunted her incredibly bronzed trim pins while at a Longines luncheon at the Gold Coast on Tuesday

Striking a cross-legged pose behind a Logines backdrop, the former waitress cut a demure figure in the fashionable items.

Appearing bronzed, the socialite opted to wear her luscious chestnut brown locks loose and styled in waves for the event.

The statuesque beauty completing the look with a pair of tan, strappy heels and a glamorous watch.

Striking stripes! Bec channeled her inner cool girl in the black-and-white striped outfit, which she paired with tan-hued strappy heels

On Monday, it was reported that Rebecca and boyfriend Andy Lee are thinking of starting a family.

An insider told Woman's Day magazine that the genetically-blessed couple have 'decided to try for a baby.'

It comes after Andy and Rebecca were pictured in the magazine smiling from ear-to-ear as they travelled to a 'family gathering in Melbourne last week'.

Radiant! The model looked radiant in the wrap skirt and cropped jacket combo, opting to wear her brunette tresses out and slightly wavy

After the 36-year-old funnyman wrapped up his commercial radio gig last year, he revealed the pair are ready for a 'bit of work-life balance'.

'A bit of time off would be great. Last year we had a lot on our plate. We want to wrestle back a little bit of work-life balance,' Andy previously told TV Week.

Rebecca started dating the Hit Network personality in 2015 after she served Andy at a cafe in Melbourne.

Planning a family? On Monday, an 'insider' told Woman's Day magazine that Andy Lee (left) and Rebecca Harding (right) have 'decided to try for a baby'

In 2015, Andy recalled their first meeting on-air, telling listeners: 'She was a waitress. I caught her eye and I was attracted to her.

'Just the way she was treating other people, she had a lovely demeanour.'

After a short separation in 2016, the couple are now back together and, reportedly, stronger than ever.

So in love! 'Andy's such a family man and he and Bec are so in love, no one would be surprised if they were thinking about taking the next step,' claimed Woman's Day's source
Paul Hollywood, 52, hit the headlines when it emerged his relationship with 22-year-old barmaid girlfriend Summer Monteys-Fullam is getting serious.

And This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were discussing the heartbreak of watching your partner move on with someone new during a phone-in segment on Tuesday's installment of the show, inspired by Paul's new relationship.

The Great British Bake Off star and his wife Alexandra, who have a 16-year-old son, announced they were splitting after Paul was spotted on a secret date with the Kent barmaid last November, but had reportedly parted ways earlier that year.

Moving on: This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were discussing the heartbreak of watching your partner move on with someone new during a phone-in segment on Tuesday's installment of the show, inspired by Paul Hollywood's new relationship

Referencing the 30 year age gap between Paul and Summer, Eammon reassured his wife Ruth, 58, that he wouldn't chose a younger woman should they split.

He joked: 'My daughter would disown me! Nor indeed would i have any attraction to a 22-year-old woman.

'I like the older woman, the more mature woman', he added, patting Ruth's knee.

Eamonn then boasted he would be more likely to find love again than his wife.

New love: Paul Hollywood, 52, hit the headlines when it emerged his relationship with 22-year-old barmaid girlfriend Summer Monteys-Fullam is getting serious

He said: 'I would be able to move on and you wouldn't be able to attract anyone!'

Rolling her eyes, Ruth retorted, 'Oh please. Will anyone take him?', to which her husband replied, 'You would be sitting at home, twisted and bitter.'

Ruth replied, 'I would, I'd be your nightmare ex.'

According to The Sun, things are moving quickly for Paul and new love Summer with sources claiming they have 'moved into together', as the barmaid was allegedly spotted at his rented cottage with her personal possessions.

Not to worry! Referencing the 30 year age gap between Paul and Summer, Eammon reassured his wife Ruth, 58, that he wouldn't chose a younger woman should they split

He joked: 'My daughter would disown me! Nor indeed would i have any attraction to a 22-year-old woman'

An insider told the newspaper that the Kent native - who is 30 years Paul's junior - created the bizarre pet name shortly after they met: 'She had his number saved in her phone as Cake Cake which is her nickname for him.'

Speaking on Summer's warm emotions for Paul, the source detailed: 'Like millions of other women, Summer is in love with Pauls baby blue eyes.'

They continued: 'She says she loves how he makes her feel...everyone is watching to see how long it lasts.'

MailOnline has contacted Paul Hollywood's representatives for comment.

Ready, set, bake: As host of the Great British Bake Off, Paul is well-known for his love of cake

Falling for you: Summer has reportedly fallen for Paul's big blue eyes

These reports come after the pair took things to the next level as they enjoyed an idyllic holiday in Mauritius.

According to The Sun On Sunday, the TV favourite 'looked extremely happy' with his new love as they stayed at the 1,000 a night tropical resort.

Sources told the tabloid that Paul and Summer spent ten days together on their romantic beach trip, but were careful to avoid any attention from the public.

Summer recently praised the Cheshire native for turning her 'from a girl to a woman' in a gushing Instagram post.

Over: Paul split from his wife Alex (pictured here in January 2015) after 20 years of marriage, last November

The auburn beauty has since deleted her Instagram account, but didn't hold back in her praise of the TV star in the newly unearthed caption.

Paying tribute to 2017, she wrote: 'You have been amazing. You have been journey. You have been experience. You have taught me. You have shown me. You have made me.'

She continued by thanking the people in her life including Paul, writing: 'I can only thank the people that are close to me. Including my amazing boyfriend. You have turned me from a girl to a woman, and to a house woman. I love you so much!'

'This post is not for likes but the love of my life. I am truly a lucky girl and have the best things and people and animals around me, 2018.'
She's been hot and cold with Bachelor In Paradise suitor Jarrod Woodgate since day one on the Fijiian resort.

But after Keria Maguire told the vineyard manager to court other women, she appeared to get jealous of his attraction to a blonde newcomer on Tuesday.

Lounging by the pool, the 31-year-old claimed she was a better choice than Simone Ormesher and said Jarrod was 'downgrading'.

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'You're downgrading!' Bachelor In Paradise star Keira Maguire labels Jarrod Woodgate 'a hot mess' as he makes his move on blonde newcomer Simone Ormesher

'I'm not intimidated by her, because if you're gonna like her, I'm way better, anyway,' the blonde firecracker confidently stated.

Noticing Jarrod's wandering eye, Keira told the cameras: 'Simone arrives, and you can just see that Jarrod is beside himself. You're going off at me about Daniel, but as soon as another girl arrives, you can't even help yourself. It's just like so double standards.'

Jarrod had previously fought with Keira over her flirtatious exchanges with Canadian intruder Daniel Maguire, who has since left the show.

'I'm not intimidated by her': Noticing Jarrod's wandering eye, Keira told the cameras she didn't feel jealous of Jarrod's attraction to the Brit

Cheeky! Simone demanded in attention in her debut ensemble, which showcased her exposed thighs and derriere and cleavage

Jarrod told Keira he was interested in the bubbly Brit, as she reminded him of an ex-girlfriend.

Appearing stand-offish with Jarrod, she said: 'It's like you're downgrading. I don't feel jealous at all.'

'I'm just going, "Mm, very interesting." One minute you really like me, but the next thing that walks into the door, you're all over it like a hot mess.'

'You're all over it like a hot mess': Keira claimed Jarrod was hypocritical, after he slammed her for her flirtatious behavior with Canadian intruder Dan

Jarrod goes on a steamy date with Simone in an upcoming episode, with a previous trailer for the series showing the pair locking lips on the island.

It seems Jarrod has a 'type', with Simone, Keira and Paradise co-star Ali Oetjen all baring a resemblance to former Bachelorette Sophie Monk.

Jarrod was left heartbroken when he was rejected by the former Bardot star during last year's season of the dating show.

Simone previously appeared on Matty J's season of The Bachelor in 2017.
Married At First Sight's Patrick Miller has offered his condolences to fellow reality star Laurina Fleure following the loss of her brother.

On Tuesday, Laurina announced on Instagram that she 'lost [her] big brother' a month before filming on Bachelor In Paradise started.

Commenting on the 34-year-old's post, Patrick implied that he'd gone to school with both Michael and Laurina.

Reaching out: Married At First Sight's Patrick Miller offered his condolences to fellow reality star Laurina Fleure following the loss of her brother

Patrick wrote: 'Good on you Laurina for showing your true colours. RIP Michael - feels like only yesterday that we all used to be hanging out at school.'

He finished: 'Keep being strong!'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Patrick for comment.

Tragedy: Laurina announced on Instagram that she 'lost [her] big brother' a month before filming on Bachelor In Paradise started

Commenting on the 34-year-old's post, Patrick wrote: 'Good on you Laurina for showing your true colours'

Laurina announced her brother's passing on Tuesday night after footage of her throwing a tantrum over a date on Bachelor In Paradise aired.

'Tonight on Bachelor In Paradise you see a very emotional reaction from me,' she wrote.

'The truth behind that reaction was that I had lost my big brother a month before.'

Drama: Laurina announced her brother's passing on Tuesday night after footage of her throwing a tantrum over a date on Bachelor In Paradise aired

Breakdown: Laurina lashed out at a producer after being told that she had '10 minutes' to get ready for a date

The reality TV star explained that she thought she could 'run away' from the grief by going on the show, but that she was unable to push down her emotions.

'Pain is an emotion that needs to move through you, it craves expression and acknowledgement, and I couldnt push it down longer.

'I needed to go home and allow myself to grieve the loss of my beautiful brother,' she said.
She was propelled into the limelight as an 'IT' girl on the showbiz circuit in London back in her hey day in the Nineties.

And Tamara Beckwith looked red hot once again as she joined her shirtless husband Giorgio Veroni in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday.

The English socialite, 47, showcased her age-defying figure in a barely-there red two-piece as she baked under the rays of the scorching sunshine.

Feeling hot, hot, hot: Tamara Beckwith, 47, showed off her age-defying figure in VERY small bikini as she sizzled on Miami Beach on Monday

Tamara seductively toyed with her waist-length golden locks and she pulled her tresses into a bun with a velvet scrunchie.

The actress accessorised with a silver pendant to draw ensure all eyes are well and truly on her perky cleavage.

Giorgio went shirtless as he sported crimson swimming trunks on his beach outing with his ladylove and wife.

Check her out: Tamara seductively toyed with her waist-length golden locks and she pulled her tresses into a bun

They looked closer than ever as the lovers enjoyed some quality romantic time together without their kids.

The married lovebirds have been going strong since they tied the knot in a romantic ceremony, in Venice in August 2007.

Their daughter Violet Angiolina Rose was born two years later and the couple's first son Vero arrived in 2014.

Sizzling! Giorgio went shirtless as he sported crimson swimming trunks on his beach outing with his ladylove and wife

Tamara first became a mother at the tender age of 17 when she welcomed her now 31-year-old daughter Anouska into the world.

The former Jump contestant had Anouska from a previous relationship with her former flame William Gerhauser.

Tamara has juggled being an attentive mother to her three children with her busy television career.
He was set to make a guest appearance for the show's tenth season.

And the Masterchef Australia stars served some unusual dishes to His Royal Highness Prince Charles for his visit to the Network 10 show on Monday.

The remaining nine contestants were faced with the challenge of cooking an array of hors d'oeuvres for the Prince and 150 guests for a cocktail function at the Royal Flying Doctor Service Centre.

Delicious: His Royal Highness Prince Charles was served an array of dishes on Monday during his guest appearance on Masterchef Australia

The judges told the hopefuls that in light of his interest in the environment, The Prince was most keen to try dishes featuring indigenous ingredients.

This resulted in an array of eclectic dishes being served up, such as wallaby tartare with quandong chutney, cucumber, zuccini and green ants as well as kangaroo with Davidson plum jam.

Speaking after the reception, Masterchef host George Calombaris told The Daily Telegraph: 'To celebrate local ingredients and to see the contestants cook for him - it is a wonderful and surreal experience.

'Charles was really engaged. We (judges) talked to him about things that mean something to all of us - sustainability and reducing food waste.'

Exciting: Charles' guest appearance on the Network Ten show was announced on Monday, as he specifically requested an array of dishes featuring indigenous ingredients

The Prince's appearance on the show was first confirmed on Monday, with news that he would feature as part of a challenge for the nine remaining contestants on the show.

In a statement, judge Gary Mehigan said that having the opportunity to whip up dishes for the high-profile Royal was one not to be sniffed at.

'It is not only an enormous privilege and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cook for His Royal Highness's reception, but a challenge, too,' Gary said.

A royal feast: Masterchef hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan had Masterchef contestants cater the event for The Prince and 150 guests

Chuffed: 'It is not only an enormous privilege and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cook for His Royal Highness's reception, but a challenge, too,' Gary Mehigan said

He added that given Prince Charles' proclivity for sustainability, the challenge for the contestants would be making locally-sourced ingredients jump off the plate.

'The Prince Of Wales has always been an advocate for the environment and sustainability,' Gary said. 'He is well-known as a supporter of local producers and locally sourced produce.'

The celebrity chef added: 'with this in mind, the challenge for our contestants is to respect and reflect his philosophy and use native ingredients along with other locally-sourced ingredients.'

Good taste: 'The Prince Of Wales has always been an advocate for the environment and sustainability,' Gary added. 'He is well-known as a supporter of local producers and locally sourced produce'

The tenth season of MasterChef is shaping up to be one of the biggest yet with the likes of profanity enthusiast Gordon Ramsay and kitchen ingenue Nigella Lawson joining the Prince Of Wales as guest stars.

In a promo released by the network last week, judge Matt Preston took a not-so-subtle dig at rival My Kitchen Rules.

'Being a great home cook is one thing but being a MasterChef, that's something entirely different'.

Prince Charles' scenes on the show will air on Network Ten later this year.
Bachelor in Paradise's Laurina Fleure has spoken candidly about the tragic passing of her older brother Michael Shaun Fitzgerald following her shock departure from the reality show.

The 34-year-old took to Instagram on Tuesday night to explain that her emotional meltdown and exit from the Channel Ten series was due to her grief over her sibling's death.

And speaking to Mamamia the same night, Laurina revealed that her beloved brother had been a victim of suicide.

'I lost my brother to suicide a month before going on the show': Bachelor in Paradise's Laurina Fleure speaks candidly about the tragic loss of her older sibling Michael Shaun Fitzgerald

In a candid interview with the online publication, Laurina divulged that Michael, 36, had been battling depression and anxiety for several years before taking his own life in 2017.

Explaining her abrupt exit from Bachelor in Paradise, Laurina explained: 'I just needed to go home and grieve. I lost my brother to suicide a month before going on the show and at that point, I realised I really just needed to go.'

She added: 'I initially thought going on the show would be a good form of escapism; if I fell in love there, then maybe I wouldnt feel all the pain that I was suppressing

Laurina also said she tried to avoid focusing on her family tragedy while she was filming in Fiji.

'I didnt want it to make it about that, I was doing my best to not talk about it and be a dampener on anything. At the time I dont even think I was ready to talk about it, I was burying it,' she said, adding that she 'cracked it' when producers attempted to convince her to choose someone to take on a date.

Laurina admitted her reaction may have been over the top, but it was because grief was playing a part in how she handled the situation.

'I hadn't had a chance to grieve properly': Laurina Fleure (pictured) revealed the heartbreaking reason she had a meltdown on Bachelor in Paradise was because she was struggling to come to grips with her brother's death

Previously, Laurina spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Australia this week, explaining she quit the show after struggling to come to grips with the recent death of her brother Michael.

'The truth is, I'd actually lost my brother not long before going in to Paradise - he passed away,' Laurina said.

'I hadn't had a chance to grieve properly so that anxiety was actually a lot of emotional stuff going on under the surface because of that.'

The brunette beauty divulged that she thought taking part in the Fiji-based reality show would help her heal, but the emotional turmoil became too much to handle.

'I was hoping I would be able to escape into Paradise': The brunette beauty divulged to Daily Mail Australia that she thought taking part in the Fiji-based reality show would help her heal, but the emotional turmoil became too much to handle

'I was hoping I would be able to escape into Paradise but emotionally, I don't think I was really ready to open up. I had all that going on underneath the surface,' Laurina added.

Laurina also shared a touching tribute to her late sibling on Instagram after the episode aired on Tuesday night.

'Tonight on Bachelor in Paradise, you see a very emotional reaction from me,' she wrote alongside a photo of the pair.

'The truth behind that reaction was that I had lost my big brother a month before. I thought I could escape to Paradise and run away.. but.., Like love- pain - is an emotion that needs to move through you, it craves expression and acknowledgement, and I couldnt push it down longer.'

She also revealed the emotions were so overwhelming that she felt no choice to quit the show - becoming the first Bachelor in Paradise contestant to leave voluntarily.

'I needed to go home and allow myself to grieve the loss of my beautiful brother - Michael Shaun Fitzgerald - Thank you for having me Paradise you were a wonderful haven of love, friendship, light and laughter,' Laurina explained.

'I needed to go home and allow myself to grieve': Laurina also admitted she has quit Bachelor in Paradise

Laurina, who first found fame on Blake Garvey's season of The Bachelor, also admitted to Daily Mail Australia the anxiety she felt over her brother's death prevented her from opening up this time around, including to new love interest Blake Colman.

The pair enjoyed a flirty relationship early on, with the duo even indulging in a sensual mud scrub.

However, their fleeting romance fell apart when Blake infamously forgot Laurina's name at a Rose Ceremony and the strong-willed woman dumped him not long afterwards.

If you or someone you know needs help or someone to talk to, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

End of the road: The reality star said she felt anxious while on the show, which it made it hard to open up to the others (pictured: Laurina with former love interest Blake Colman)
Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance Nick Loeb has compared their embryo battle to the fight to end slavery.

The 45-year-old actress has been locked in a bitter lawsuit with the businessman since 2015 when he filed documents to protect, and bring to term, two female embryos, which they had created and planned to use with a surrogate during their relationship.

Nick, 42, has been blocked from bringing the embryos to term twice by the Modern Family beauty, but he's now filed a third lawsuit claiming the debate over the cells being product or people has happened 'only one other time in United States history from which any legal precedent may be reviewed - the pre-Civil War era.'

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Love lost: Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance Nick Loeb has compared their embryo battle to the fight to end slavery; seen in 2014

According to the documents obtained by The Blast, Nick then went on to give the full legal definition of slavery.

'Under these simple definitions, a human embryo, if believed to be a human being and alive, (which is our contention) would be considered a slave and the parents would be the owners of the slave, particularly in states where they are considered property,' he said.

But he didn't stop there as he also brought up the story of Solomon Northup, who was born a free man in New York and later abducted and sold into slavery.

He was eventually rescued near the Red River in Louisiana on a cotton plantation and his heartbreaking story was turned into the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave.

Lawsuit: The 45-year-old actress has been locked in a bitter lawsuit with the businessman since 2015 when he filed documents to protect, and bring to term, two female embryos, which they had created and planned to use with a surrogate during their relationship; seen in April

Battle: He also brought up the story of Solomon Northup, who was born a free man in New York and later abducted and sold into slavery; seen in 2012

'There was a question at the time as to whether New York had the jurisdiction to reach into Louisiana and retrieve Northup,' Nick explained. 'But the New York governor discussed it with Louisiana officials and they were allowed to retrieve him.

'There are also dozens of cases (called the Freedom Suits), where slaves themselves or their family members applied for freedom in slave states and won.

'The reference to slave cases is to demonstrate the jurisdictional and legal issues arising from this stark difference in how human beings are categorised. In modern day, frozen human embryo disputes and the question of how they are categorised (human being or property) has become more frequent.

'Since there is little or no legislation in most states on this issue, state courts are left to decide if embryos are human beings or property or something in between and what to do in cases of dispute.'

Film: Solomon Northup was rescued near the Red River in Louisiana on a cotton plantation and his heartbreaking story was turned into the Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave

Standing strong: Vergara has now blocked Nick twice from bringing the embryos to term; seen in April

Nick filed the lawsuit in Louisiana because officials there do consider embryos as human beings, whereas California - where they were created - calls them products.

Sofia argues that their suit, which was filed in January, has no connection to Louisiana and has pushed for it to be thrown out.

The judge is yet to make a decision on the matter.

Sofia and Nick - who split in 2014 after two years of dating - had signed a contract at the ART Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills when they created the embryos in 2013, which stated neither could use them without the consent of the other.

Sofia - who is now married to Joe Manganiello - was sued by the embryos in 2016, when a right-to-live lawsuit was filed on their behalf in Louisiana.
Real Housewives of Sydney star Lisa Oldfield has revealed she struggled with PTSD after a vicious sexual assault in the back of a taxi in 2016.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, the reality star was candid about how she had suffered from anxiety as a result of the trauma.

Crediting her appearance on jungle-based reality show I'm A Celebrity for helping her heal, she said: 'I was suffering from anxiety and didn't realise it'.

'I felt like a fraud': I'm A Celebrity star Lisa Oldfield has revealed her struggle with PTSD following a vicious sexual assault in 2016, which saw her admitted to Mosman Private Hospital

The newspaper claimed Lisa had been self-medicating with prescription drugs and alcohol following the attack.

In the interview Lisa admitted that it all became too much for her and she was admitted to Mosman Private Hospital in January at the behest of her parents and husband David.

'It was confronting when my family said I needed to go here (to rehab). I felt like a failure,' Lisa said.

'It was confronting when my family said I needed to go here (to rehab). I felt like a failure,': Lisa was candid about seeking treatment

Lisa confessed that she had felt like a 'fraud for the past two years'.

Telling details of the attack she suffered, Lisa said she fallen asleep in the back of a taxi and woken up to find the driver had stopped the car and was on top of her.

Speaking to the Wentworth Courier after the assault, Lisa said: 'He was groping my breasts, he had pulled the whole top of my dress down so my breasts were exposed.'

'He was ripping at me and it was so violent he tore my rotator cuff. I was covered in scratch and bite marks and bruises.'

'He was ripping at me': The mother of two detailed the horrific attack in an interview after it occurred

The mother-of-two credits her stint in rehab and her time in the South African jungle for helping her heal from the trauma of the ordeal.

She also said she didn't think she'd ever feel like the 'old Lisa' again, but that life is now good again.

Lisa, who shares two sons with co-founder of political party One Nation, David Oldfield, has been in the media spotlight for years.

More recently, she's found fame on reality shows The Real Housewives of Sydney and I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.
A furious Keira Maguire has launched into an epic rant against the editors of Bachelor In Paradise after seeing how she was portrayed on Tuesday night's episode.

The 31-year-old had an expletive-ridden meltdown on the episode after Grant Kemp spoke negatively about her to Jarrod Woodgate, but she claims key parts of the incident were left on the cutting-room floor.

'It made me look like I was overreacting about something,' she said on Instagram, before calling on the editor of the episode to be fired.

She's not happy! Keira Maguire lashed out at Bachelor In Paradise production and fellow cast member Grant Kemp on Tuesday night

The reality TV star also made several allegations about Grant, claiming that he verbally 'abused' her once the cameras weren't rolling.

'After the cocktail party, Grant pulled me aside when there were no cameras or anything, abused me, was swearing at me because I sent his friend home,' she said.

Keira may have been referring to Canadian Bachelor villain Daniel Maguire, who was sent home on Monday night's rose ceremony after both Keira and Laurina Fleure decided not to give him a rose.

'After the cocktail party, Grant pulled me aside when there were no cameras or anything, abused me, was swearing at me because I sent his friend home': The 31-year-old implied that Grant may have been upset that Keira didn't keep Daniel Maguire around (pictured)

The surgically-enhanced blonde then accused Grant of telling Jarrod Woodgate that she 'didn't like kissing him,' which she claims production didn't air.

'[It] really upset me because that's the thing that really annoyed me,' she continued.

'I'm just so upset that they didn't show what actually happened, I'm ropeable!'

She then said: 'Whoever edited that episode should be fired.'

When Daily Mail Australia reached out to Grant for comment, the American hunk didn't deny Keira's allegations.

'I'm just so upset that they didn't show what actually happened': The surgically-enhanced blonde accused Grant of telling Jarrod Woodgate that she 'didn't like kissing him,' which she claims production didn't air

'It made me look like I was overreacting about something,' ranted Keira, who was upset over how she was portrayed

'I think Keira's a sweet girl when it comes down to it, but I wasn't going to sit there and watch her mess with my friend Jarrod's emotions like that, so I called her out and she was caught,' he explained.

Grant added: 'So instead of being a stand up individual and admitting that, she played the victim role cos she had no other out.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.

'I called her out and she was caught,' said Grant when contacted by Daily Mail Australia. 'So instead of being a stand up individual and admitting that, she played the victim role cos she had no other out'

On Tuesday's episode of Paradise, Keira threatened to throw a drink at Grant and swore at him during an explosive confrontation.

'Grant's a complete f**kwit,' she said. 'I really wanna throw this drink in his face!'

'You f**ked with the wrong person!' she screamed, before calling the firefighter a 'f**king idiot.'

'Grant's a complete f**kwit!' On Tuesday's episode of Paradise, Keira threatened to throw a drink at Grant and swore at him during an explosive confrontation
Her latest film I Feel Pretty is set to hit theaters on April 20.

But Amy Schumer reminisced about her romantic honeymoon to Milan while appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday evening.

The 36-year-old actress admitted to having not one, but two honeymoons with her husband Chris Fischer- both adventures centered around food.

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Good times: Amy Schumer reminisced about her romantic honeymoon to Milan while appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday evening

'He's a chef, so he was cooking in Sonoma at Scribe Vineyards. So, I followed him there,' she said about their first trip. 'Then, he was cooking at a festival in Milan, and I heard that they invented pasta and wine.

'So, I've just been kind of following him around getting drunk.'

When Stephen mentioned that some people just 'don't do carbs', Amy jokingly looked stunned before calling in bandleader Jon Batiste for a hug.

Let's eat! The 36-year-old actress admitted to having not one, but two honeymoons with her husband Chris Fischer- both adventures centered around food

Never! When Stephen mentioned that some people just 'don't do carbs', Amy jokingly looked stunned before calling in bandleader Jon Batiste for a hug

Colbert went on to ask if Amy enjoyed carbs, to which she replied, 'very much so ... kind of almost every night.'

'You know actors that say "I love cheeseburgers", I'm what you look like if you have pasta and wine.'

Stephen jumped in with a quick, 'which is absolutely beautiful by the way' before Amy responded, 'I know; I'm blessed.'

'You know actors that say "I love cheeseburgers", I'm what you look like if you have pasta and wine,' Amy said

Talk about it: The Trainwreck starlet also made a quick stop at the SiriusXM studios on Tuesday to continue the promos for her new film

The Trainwreck starlet also made a quick stop at the SiriusXM studios on Tuesday to continue the promos for her new film.

Amy proved on trend as she was spotted arriving to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in New York City on Monday.

The comedian commanded attention in a black top and taupe skirt as she was joined by her husband Chris Fischer.

Welcome guest: Amy Schumer was spotted arriving to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in New York City on Monday

Impressive: Daring to impress, the Trainwreck star swathed her enviable figure in the classic tailored black coat over a simple yet elegant top

Daring to impress, the Snatched star swathed her enviable figure in the classic tailored black coat over a simple yet elegant top.

She gave a peek at her gorgeous gams as the light colored skirt cut just below the knee and a pair of string wrap heels completed the look.

Her trademark blonde tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders.

On Sunday Amy told Stellar Magazine the couple knew 'really quickly' they were right for each other, hitting back at critics of their whirlwind six-month courtship.

Hair story: Her trademark blonde tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders

Leggy lady: She gave a peek at her gorgeous gams as the light colored skirt cut just below the knee and a pair of string wrap heels completed the look

'I was never really interested in getting married,' the Trainwreck actress spilled.

'But then we met [in May] and I wanted to be partnered with this guy.'

It's been previously reported the couple started dating in January and were married in February, however, Amy has said they actually started dating in September.

The loved-up pair tied the knot in Malibu, California last month in an intimate ceremony attended by family and friends.

Command: The comedienne commanded attention in a black top and taupe skirt as she was joined by her husband Chris Fischer

Amy has been gearing up for the release of her latest movie, due out in theaters on April 20.

The comedy is about an insecure woman who thinks she's a supermodel after falling and hitting her head during a spinning session.

The movie also stars Busy Philipps and Aidy Bryan with surprise roles from Michelle Williams and Naomi Campbell.

Loved up: The loved-up pair tied the knot in Malibu, California last month in an intimate ceremony attended by family and friends
Gretchen Rossi turned heads while out in Los Angeles on Monday.

The 39-year-old former Real Housewives of Orange County star looked fabulous in a tight gold bandage dress for a dinner out at Craig's with a big group of her fellow Bravo stars.

The blonde beauty flashed her cleavage in the sexy number and teamed it with gold strappy heels and a nude handbag.

Hourglass: Gretchen Rossi turned heads in a gold bandage dress as she enjoyed dinner at Craig's on Monday with some of her fellow Bravo stars

Night out glam: The 39-year-old beauty flaunted her cleavage in the sexy number which she teamed with metallic heels and a nude handbag

Gretchen appeared to be the only one joined by her other half as Slade Smiley was spotted driving the couple home.

Rossi proposed to Slade in 2013 at the top of a building in downtown Los Angeles and the moment was shown on RHOC.

They have yet to announce a wedding date.

Rossi starred on the Orange County installment of the Bravo franchise from season four through season eight from 2008 to 2013 - and appeared as a guest in saeson 12 last year.

Date night: Gretchen appeared to be the only one joined by her other half as Slade Smiley was spotted driving the couple home

The reality star was seen exiting the restaurant along with with co-star Kelly Dodd, Jill Zarin from Real Housewives of New York and actress Heather McDonald and a male pal

Night out: Brandi Glanville was also pictured leaving Craig's and was with a mystery man

The reality star was seen exiting the restaurant along with with co-star Kelly Dodd, Jill Zarin from Real Housewives of New York and actress Heather McDonald.

Representing Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Brandi Glanville was spotted at the eatery along with some of her former co-stars including Lisa Rinna and Erika Jayne Girardi.

Brandi, 45, sported a black sequin top, tight jeans and black heels as she put on an affectionate display with her handsome friend.

The duo puckered up for cameras outside as they waited for their ride.

Brandi - who shares two children with ex Eddie Cibrian - is thought to be single currently after splitting from Donald Friese at the start of the year.

Just a coincidence? Brandi's former co-stars Lisa Rinna and Erika Jayne were also there with many of the Real Housewives crew

Evening chic: The 45-year-old star wore fitted jeans and a black sequin top for the outing

Stylish duo: Brandi was seen with a handsome pal in a fetching blue blazer

Meanwhile Lisa, 54, opted for dark hues and a studded leather jacket for the dinner outing.

The mother-of-two kissed Erika goodbye as the ladies parted ways outside the popular restaurant.

Erika wore black pants and a baggy T-shirt which she teamed with a white bomber jacket and heels.

Luann de Lesseps, 52, was pictured leaving with a pal and looked glam in a sparkly pink pencil dress with white ankle boots.

Brandi, who exited RHOBH after season 5, revealed last month that she will still say hello to some of her former castmates.

BFFs: Erika, 46, and Lisa, 54, kissed each other goodbye but weren't spotted with Brandi

Glitz and glam: Luann de Lesseps looked fabulous in a sparkly pink frock with white ankle boots as she posed with a pal

Perfect in pastel: Luann looked retro chic and accessorized with a Chanel beaded necklace and matching white handbag

She explained to Us Weekly: I talk to Kim [Richards] and occasionally I talk to Yolanda [Hadid],

'I see everyone because it's a small town. I run into Kyle [Richards], and we always say nice things like, "Hi. How are you?" Lisa Rinna, "Hi. How are you?" But I really love Dorit [Kemsley] and Erika [Girardi], and I think theyre the most exciting people on the show.'

Meanwhile, Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes, 50, was also seen arriving to Craig's with Magic Johnson's son EJ Johnson, 25.

Representing: Heather McDonald was spotted with Gretchen Rossi and Kelly Dodd from Real Housewives of Orange County
She's no stranger to London's nightlife scene and is often spotted at the capital's hottest haunts.

So it was no surprise that Lottie Moss mingled with a host of reality stars at Bluebird's launch party in White City, London on Tuesday.

The model, 20, showed off her sartorial flair in a chic monochrome outfit as she rubbed shoulders with the likes Georgia Toffolo and Tallia Storm at the swanky event.

Socialite: Lottie Moss mingled with a host of reality stars at Bluebird's launch party in White City, London on Tuesday

Glowing: Georgia Toffolo looked a vision of beauty as she slipped her petite frame into a tight black vest top and white joggers

Lottie slipped her incredible figure into a white Babaton bandeau and black blazer, which she teamed with black trousers and strappy sandals.

She styled her long blonde hair in a sleek straight look and added a pop of colour to her ensemble with red tassel earrings.

The younger sister of Kate Moss accentuated her striking features with deftly touches of make-up and finished off the look with a red Gucci shoulder bag.

Stylish: The model, 20, showed off her sartorial flair in a chic monochrome outfit as she rubbed shoulders with the likes Georgia Toffolo and Tallia Storm at the swanky event

Model prowess: Lottie looked typically chic in a white bandeau and black blazer, which she teamed with black trousers and strappy sandals

Touch of red: She styled her long blonde hair in a sleek straight look and added a pop of colour to her ensemble with red tassel earrings

Firm friends: Lottie, who is often seen in the company of a slew of Made In Chelsea stars having made firm friends with the cast, posed with the I'm A Celeb star inside the venue

Meanwhile, Georgia Toffolo looked a vision of beauty as she slipped her petite frame into a tight black vest top and white joggers.

The Made In Chelsea star, 23, opted for comfort in a pair of chic white trainers and amped up the glamour with a voluminous hairstyle and glowing make-up look.

Lottie, who is often seen in the company of a slew of Made In Chelsea stars having made firm friends with the cast, posed with the I'm A Celeb star inside the venue.

The socialite is known for previously dating Alex Mytton from the E4 reality series, but their on and off nine-month romance had come to an end last July.

Queens of TV: Georgia's pal Emily Blackwell rocked grey checked trousers and an off the shoulder top

Wild child: Not one to miss out on a party, Tallia Storm also attended the bash rocking a denim flared skirt and navy slogan Fendi t-shirt

90's inspired: She shrugged a leather jacket over her shoulders and added a boost to her leggy frame with a pair of black Louboutins

Time to party: Once inside the venue the songstess posed with Georgia and Made In Chelsea's Emily Blackwell

Not one to miss out on a party, Tallia Storm also attended the bash rocking a denim flared skirt and navy slogan Fendi t-shirt.

She shrugged a leather jacket over her shoulders and added a boost to her leggy frame with a pair of black Louboutins.

The 19-year-old Celebs Go Dating star seemed in high spirits posing up a storm next to a luxury vintage car before joining Georgia and Made In Chelsea's Emily Blackwell.

Working the camera: The 19-year-old Celebs Go Dating star seemed in high spirits posing up a storm next to a luxury vintage car

Dressed to impress: The star opted for a full face of make-up and styled her blonde tresses in a sleek ponytail

Double trouble: Tallia was pictured with her mother Tessa Hartmann CBE who was rocking gold Gucci heels

Power couple: Vic Reeves turned up with wife Nancy Sorrell, who looked every inch a pin-up in her red retro dress

All stars: (L-R) guest, guest, Lottie Moss, Valentine Sozbilir, guest, Emily Blackwell, George Lineker, Alik Alfus, Georgia Toffolo, guest and Tabitha Willett

Lottie has stepped out of her older sister's shadow in recent years, having first secured the attention of model scouts at the tender age of 13 with her youthful beauty at Kate's wedding to rocker ex-husband Jamie Hince.

She has since gone on to release her own PacSun collection, and made her catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week for Sonia Rykiel in 2015.

The blonde beauty is following in the star-studded footsteps of her supermodel half-sister Kate, who has commanded numerous runways over the years, and has worked on her own eponymous range for Topshop since 2007.

She's a natural: Lottie showed off her model prowess as she strutted down the street

Good times: Georgia flashed a smile as she left the launch party

Living the high life: Toff seemed in high spirits as she linked arms with her pal Emily after sipping on champagne

Something to tell us? Toff was pictured getting into a car with George Lineker at the end of the evening

Cosy: The pair sat very close to one another in the back of the car

Checking it out: Reformed party girl Meg Matthews also made an appearance at the opening of the new bar

Stairway to heaven: Made In Chelsea's Emily Blackwell and Sam Prince were also pictured close by to Toff

Well he was Made In Chelsea: Alik Alfus appeared in high spirits with a fellow guest
Bachelor In Paradise star Michael Turnbull has praised Laurina Fleure after she revealed she lost her brother to suicide in an emotional post on Tuesday night.

Michael took to his Instagram story to share a shot of the brunette beauty, calling her a 'brave' and an 'incredible woman.'

'What an incredible woman...so brave to go on the show after your loss,' Michael wrote.

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'So brave to go on the show after your loss': Bachelor In Paradise's Michael Turnbull praises co-star Laurina Fleure and calls her an 'incredible woman' after she revealed she lost her brother to suicide (Laurina is pictured with her late brother)

He added: 'Thoughts are with you.'

On Tuesday's episode of Bachelor In Paradise, Laurina sensationally refused to go on a date.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, the 34-year-old explained that she had been struggling to come to grips with the recent death of her brother Michael.

Reaching out: Pictured is Michael Turnbull

'The truth is, I'd actually lost my brother not long before going in to Paradise - he passed away,' Laurina explained.

'I hadn't had a chance to grieve properly so that anxiety was actually a lot of emotional stuff going on under the surface because of that.'

The brunette beauty divulged that she thought taking part in the Fiji-based reality show would help her heal, but the emotional turmoil became too much to handle.

Grieving: Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia this week, the 34-year-old explained that she had been struggling to come to grips with the recent death of her brother Michael

'I was hoping I would be able to escape into Paradise but emotionally, I don't think I was really ready to open up. I had all that going on underneath the surface,' Laurina added.

Laurina also shared a touching tribute to her late sibling on Instagram after the episode aired on Tuesday night.

'Tonight on Bachelor in Paradise, you see a very emotional reaction from me,' she wrote alongside a photo of the pair.

Tough: Laurina also shared a touching tribute to her late sibling on Instagram after the episode aired on Tuesday night

Quitting: She also revealed the emotions were so overwhelming that she felt no choice to quit the show - becoming the first Bachelor in Paradise contestant to leave voluntarily

'The truth behind that reaction was that I had lost my big brother a month before. I thought I could escape to Paradise and run away.. but.., Like love- pain - is an emotion that needs to move through you, it craves expression and acknowledgement, and I couldnt push it down longer.'

She also revealed the emotions were so overwhelming that she felt no choice to quit the show - becoming the first Bachelor in Paradise contestant to leave voluntarily.

'I needed to go home and allow myself to grieve the loss of my beautiful brother - Michael Shaun Fitzgerald - Thank you for having me Paradise you were a wonderful haven of love, friendship, light and laughter,' Laurina explained.

If you or someone you know needs help or someone to talk to, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
She's been busy looking for venues to host the launch of her latest book, This Goddess Means Business.

But among the whirlwind of publicity Tracey Jewel has managed to squeeze in time to head home.

The Married At First Sight Star revealed on Tuesday she was flying from Melbourne back to Perth, where her eight-year-old daughter Grace lives.

Family time! Tracey Jewel flies home to Perth after checking out venues for her Melbourne book launch after revealing she will commute across the country to spend time with daughter

The 34-year-old author shared a photo of her on board a Qantas flight, captioning the shot: 'Home bound.'

Earlier that day Tracey had been travelling around Melbourne, searching for venues for her book launch.

Tracey's trip to Melbourne also comes as she revealed plans to move to the city with Sean Thomsen in mid-2018.

Flying high! The 34-year-old author shared a photo of her on board a Qantas flight, captioning the shot: 'Home bound'

Keeping busy: Earlier that day Tracey had been travelling around Melbourne, searching for venues for her book launch

The reality TV star's announcement sparked controversy on social media, after Tracey confirmed to New Idea that her eight-year-old daughter Grace won't be moving with her.

'I'll travel to Perth regularly to see my daughter and she'll come here on school holidays,' Tracey told the publication.

Tracey defended her decision in a piece for news.com.au, insisting she isn't a 'bad mum' and currently sees her daughter at least 'at least one night a week and more in school holidays'.

New romance: Tracey's trip to Melbourne also comes as she revealed plans to move to the city with Sean Thomsen in mid-2018

'Grace is eight now, and shes happy with the arrangement': The brunette beauty explained that her daughter lived with her father and stepmother and other siblings

The brunette beauty explained that her daughter lived with her father and stepmother and other siblings.

'Grace is eight now, and shes happy with the arrangement,' Tracey wrote, adding that the youngster will have her own bedroom in Melbourne.

Tracey is now in a relationship with Sean, who was previously 'married' to Blair Rachael on MAFS.

Meanwhile Tracey enjoyed a rocky relationship with aspiring rapper Dean Wells, before dumping him during the vow renewal.
Brad Pitt is 'absolutely smitten by' Neri Oxman, the acclaimed architect and MIT professor who he's been linked with last fall, as 'their chemistry is off the charts.'

The 54-year-old actor and 42-year-old award-winning academic 'got romantically involved almost right away' after they initially crossed paths when he took in a presentation of 3D-printed chaise lounges she produced, a source told US.

The Oklahoma-born star and Oxman, who was born in Haifa, Israel appears to be Pitt's first major relationship since parting ways with Angelina Jolie in the fall of 2016.

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Strong start: Brad Pitt, 54, is 'absolutely smitten by' Neri Oxman, 42, (R), the architect and MIT professor who he's been linked with last autumn

And the Fight Club star has fought hard to avoid the unending media attention he endured in his previous relationship with the mother of his six kids - Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 11, and twins Knox and Vivienne, nine - Jolie.

'Hes been going to great length to make sure hes not spotted by prying eyes,' the source told the publication, noting that it hasn't kept them from enjoying the world in their newfound romance.

The Seven star and Oxman 'have traveled together internationally on several occasions,' including February's Design Indaba conference in South Africa, where Oxman delivered a speech, the source said. 'They are very much a couple,' said a source.

A separate source told the publication that Pitt's relationship with Oxman 'is solely a professional' one.

Out and about: Oxman was snapped in Italy last year for Milan Design Week with Luigi Luca (L)

Taking things slow: 'Their friendship has not turned into romance  as both are cautious and this is, again, more of a professional friendship' a source told Page Six of Pitt and Oxman's relationship

Pitt was snapped visiting the media lab where she works in a duo of posts from November 28, 2017 on Instagram. A previously unseen image of the star saw him posing with the academic in a group image - the second of him seen at the location.

The War Machine star was also snapped posing with six women when he visited Oxman at the educational institution, in a shot student Kathy Camenzind uploaded to her Instagram post with the caption: 'Oceans six? #whatjusthappened #bradpitt #medialab.' (Oxman, however, was not featured in the social media snap.)

In the shots, the Allied star wore an all-black ensemble of a hooded sweatshirt with pants and shoes, sporting a bit of stubble. He posed alongside Oxman in a shot that was subsequently removed from social media, according to People.

Group shot: Brad Pitt's relationship with acclaimed architect and MIT professor Neri Oxman seems to date back to last autumn, as the perennial A-lister, 54, was snapped visiting the media lab where Oxman works on November 28

Happy days: Brad also posed with other staff at the laboratory (Oxman not pictured)

Quick connection: 'Brad and Neri instantly hit it off because they share the same passion for architecture, design and art,' a source revealed

A colleague of Oxman described the academic architect as 'genius and gorgeous' to the magazine. Pitt was referred to Oxman to collaborate on an architectural project he was working on, Page Six reported last week.

'Brad and Neri instantly hit it off because they share the same passion for architecture, design and art,' a source told the outlet, 'This is best described as a professional friendship.'

The source added that the friendship hasn't blossomed into a romance just yet - but there is potential.

'Their friendship has not turned into romance  as both are cautious and this is, again, more of a professional friendship, but Brad is very interested in spending more time with Neri, she is fascinating,' the source said.

Talented: Oxman is also an artist with her works featured in collections at MoMA, Paris Centre Georges Pompidou, Viennas Museum of Applied Arts and Bostons Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Science. Pictured is her The Silk Pavilion installation

Acclaimed: Oxman was named in the list of 25 Most Stylish Bostonians in 2012 by The Boston Globe

Oxman is a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she founded and directs the Mediated Matter group. She was previously married to Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov.

The beautiful brunette is also an artist with her works featured in collections at MoMA, Pariss Centre Georges Pompidou, Viennas Museum of Applied Arts and Bostons Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Science.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston is said to be heartbroken again after reportedly being blindsided by news that ex-husband Brad, whom she was rumored to be getting back with following her recent separation, has a new girlfriend.

WHO IS NERI OXMAN? Who is the woman who finally helped Brad Pitt get over his ex Angelina Jolie? The matinee idol is said to be dating a brilliant and beautiful university professor named Neri Oxman. Oxman, an acclaimed MIT architect, appears to have a special blueprint for the emotional complexities of the enigmatic Hollywood star - at least enough working knowledge to capture his attention for the past six months. But until recently she was only known among elite academic and architectural circles before blazing a trail through social echelons normally reserved for only A-list stars. The 42-year-old American-Israeli has been romantically linked to Brad, 54, after they worked together on a project according to Page Six. Perfectly paired: Brad Pitt is said to have moved on from ex-wife Angelina Jolie with acclaimed MIT architect Neri Oxman Oxman, who is a leader at the MIT Media Lab, where she founded and directs the Mediated Matter group, was previously married to Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov. The beautiful brunette is also an artist with her works featured in collections at MoMA, Paris Centre Georges Pompidou, Viennas Museum of Applied Arts and Bostons Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Science. Her accolades are many as she was chosen as one of ICONs 'top most influential designers and architects to shape our future' and Esquires 'best and brightest' in 2009. In 2014, Oxman was even named to Carnegies Pride of America. Background: She was born and raised in Haifa, Israel, to architect parents She was born and raised in Haifa, Israel, to her parents Robert and Rivka Oxman, who are both architects themselves. She has previously said she spent her youth straddling the worlds presented to her by her grandmother and her cosmopolitan and artistic parents. Neri has said her grandmother's garden represented nature for her while her parent's architectural studio was a special space where she immersed herself in culture. She moved to Jerusalem to Hebrew University's Hadassah Medical School in 1997 but within two years she had shifted her focus from medicine to architecture which took her to Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. She later attended the London Architectural Association School of Architecture and graduated in 2004. One year later she was in Boston to earn her PhD at MIT and by 2010 she was already an associate professor at the world renowned institution. Oman's ex-husband is a Grammy Award winning composer from Argentina named Osvaldo Golijov. She currently runs her own program at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where her team 'conducts research at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, materials science and synthetic biology' according to the university's website. 'Oxman coined the term, and pioneered the research area, of Material Ecology, which considers computation, fabrication, and the material itself as inseparable dimensions of design,' the description reads. Educated: Oxman later attended the London Architectural Association School of Architecture and graduated in 2004. One year later she was in Boston to earn her PhD at MIT Advertisement

According to Hollywood Life, the 49-year-old actress and Brad reportedly began speaking again after she and Justin Theroux went public about their decision to end their marriage in February 2018.

An insider told Hollywood Life: 'Jen is crushed after hearing the rumors that Brad has been talking to a beautiful, Angelina Jolie lookalike, MIT professor. Jen had her hopes up of a possible reconciliation with Brad since she and her ex started talking again.

'When the both became recently single, Jen thought the timing couldn't be better, and she might have her fairy tale, happy ending with Brad after all. Jen never stopped loving him.'

Former flames: , Jennifer Aniston is said to be heartbroken again after reportedly being blindsided by news that ex-husband Brad has a new girlfriend

Star magazine previously reported that Jennifer and Brad 'have been secretly getting together for late-night hookups, and it's all because of George [Clooney].'

These reports come amid conflicting claims from other publications. After Jennifer and Justin's separation bombshell, some claimed that she and Brad hadn't spoken in years, while other said she leaned on him during her separation.

Jennifer, who is notoriously private about her love life, likely will not comment on the matter.

Split: Jennifer and Brad reportedly began speaking again after she and Justin Theroux went public about their decision to end their marriage in February 2018

Meanwhile Pitt heads up the Make It Right Foundation, which builds affordable, solar-powered homes and communities for people in need. The Troy star has been working with architects from all over the world to build homes in New Orleans - which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina - as well as neighborhoods in need in New Jersey and Kansas City, Missouri.

It comes as it was revealed that the Fight Club actor is expected to finalize his divorce from Angelina Jolie within weeks.

A new report, published last weekend, hints that proceedings are imminent, following news that both have moved on with new love interests.

'The terms of the divorce are now agreed,' a source informed The Sun on Sunday. 'They are being finalised by both legal teams, but will be filed within weeks.

'Its a huge turnaround from where the marriage ended, especially given the claims Angelina made against Brad, but they are now on pretty good terms.

'Both decided it was crucial for the children that they had a respectful relationship.'

Brad and Angelina are parents to Maddox, 16, Zahara, 13, Pax, 14, Shiloh, 11, and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

Angelina, 42, is rumored to be dating a 'handsome and older looking' real estate agent. The stars split in September 2016 after two years of marriage and a nine-year romance prior to that.
Roxy Jacenko is a savvy entrepreneur, having founded Sweaty Betty PR, Ministry Of Talent and Pixie's Bows.

And just last week, the 37-year-old launched her fourth business, Social Union, providing content marketing and social media creation for brands.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, the Sydney-based notable said of the venture: 'The aim is to be a one-stop shop for brands.'

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What can't she do?! PR queen Roxy Jacenko, 37, has launched her FOURTH business

Roxy told Daily Mail Australia: 'Content creation was just the next step in my career, the aim is to be a one-stop shop for brands.

'Since I started my first business, Sweaty Betty PR at 24, I have wanted to ensure that I remain relevant which would ensure continued growth of the company.

'The only way to do that is to ensure as a business we move with the times and offer clients solutions beyond just PR and Events.

Social Union sees Roxy team up with digital art director Morgan Reid, who previously worked for magazines Vogue and Delicious.

New venture: Social Union provides content marketing and social media creation for brands across the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries

The new venture for the mother-of-two will also focus on original content, as opposed to relying heavily on social media influencers.

Roxy continues to prove that there's nothing she can't do in business, having already founded three successful businesses: Sweaty Betty PR, Ministry Of Talent and Pixie's Bows.

The Sydney-based notable also manages children Pixie and Hunter's Instagram accounts, which have a combined following of 131,300.

In addition to this, Roxy has published three best-selling novels, based loosely on her life and is set to release her fourth non-fiction title in December.

The blonde beauty told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that the book is 'a no bulls**t guide to all things PR. It has been something I have wanted to do for a number of years.'

The businesswoman took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday, offering her 214,000 followers a sneak peek at the manuscript.

Brood: The Sydney-based notable also manages children Pixie and Hunter's Instagram accounts, which have a combined following of 131,300

A screenshot of a thick bundle of paper featured the text: 'Roxy's Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks.'

'The no-nonsense guide to all things PR, social media, business and building your brand.'

A memo handwritten by Roxy's mother Doreen also read: 'I think this one is a winner Well done Mum xoxo.'
Courteney Cox went out with various friends on Monday night, including Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and his wife Amanda Anka, and Ellen DeGeneres.

But when the 53-year-old actress was exiting Largo at the Coronet, she was holding hands with a mystery male friend after attending a private event.

Johnny McDaid, the Scream star's fiance, was not in attendance.

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A helping hand: Courteney Cox was seen exiting Largo at the Coronet holding hands with a friend after attending a private event

Wearing a white and grey striped t-shirt, Cox showed off her lithe legs in washed black jeans that were hemmed above the ankle.

The Ace Ventura: Pet Detective actress wore a pair of dark heels that accentuated her svelte figure.

Her wavy, medium-length dark locks fell naturally down her shoulder as she was snapped leaving the venue.

The hydrated star carried a bottle of water and a black leather purse as she stepped away from the event.

Kickin it: The 53-year-old actress went out with various friends on Monday night, including Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and his wife Amanda Anka, and Ellen DeGeneres

An unidentified friend dressed in a grey green jacket and blue jeans was snapped holding the actress' hand as they left they event.

Wearing a black sweater on top of a grey shirt underneath his coat, the man was seen embracing Cox at the top of the staircase.

Hug it out: Wearing a white and grey striped t-shirt, Cox showed off her lithe legs in washed black jeans that were hemmed above the ankle

Cox and McDaid began dating back in 2013, several months after her divorce from ex-husband David Arquette.

The couple were quickly engaged in June 2014, but briefly split in December 2015 which Cox described as 'so brutal'.

After spending time together over Easter in 2016, the couple rekindled their romance,

Recently, rumors of a summer wedding have been swirling, and according to Closer magazine, the couple will wed on June 15 - Cox's 54th birthday.

A source said: 'Theyve decided to have a small ceremony in Ireland at the local church near Johnnys childhood home followed by a big party back in LA at Courteney's Malibu home on the beach.'

Sitting this one out: Johnny McDaid, the Scream star's fiance, was not in attendance

Longterm beau: Cox and McDaid began dating back in 2013, several months after her divorce from ex-husband David Arquette




The Queensland government is considering a report that recommends raising the cost of water by nearly $40 a year in some parts of southeast Queensland.

The Queensland Competition Authority has given the state government two pricing models which would see the cost of bulk water standardised across council areas over the next few years.

Queensland Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynhyam said the government will now consider the report and its recommendations.

"The government is acutely aware of how cost of living pressures are impacting on Queensland households," Dr Lynham said.

He also encouraged pensioners to apply for the state government's $120 rebate on their water bills.

Under the first model put forward by the QCA residents in the Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Redlands City council areas would see sharp increases in their water bill, in particular Redlands which would see $38.08 more a year for the first two years of the increases, and $12 in 2020-21.

Under the second pricing option, the increases would be more gradual, but would still arrive at the same bulk water price of $3.122 per kilolitre by 2021.

The price rises have been slammed by the state's Liberal National Party opposition which claims Labor has mismanaged the water grid, leading to the need to pay off debt.
Victoria is on track to smash a heat record for April with four successive hot days due in the state's far northwest, as parts of the state brace for a severe fire danger rating.

A Victorian centre has never had more than two consecutive days above 35C in April, but that could be about to change, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte told AAP.

"We may get that at Mildura. Sunday was 35.5 C, (Monday) was 35.3C ... we could smash that with four days in a row," he said.

Mildura is expected to hit 38C on Tuesday and dip to 37C on Wednesday - just shy of Mildura's hottest April day in 1986 at 37.8C.

It comes as heat is building over Victoria with the temperature expected to be close to, if not more than, the April maximum temperature records in northwestern parts of the state on Tuesday and in parts of the state's northeast on Wednesday.

But with the heat comes a severe fire danger rating for the Mallee on Tuesday and the rating is expected to be extended across both the Mallee and Wimmera on Wednesday.
The election race is "very close" despite the coalition losing its 30th Newspoll in a row, Malcolm Turnbull says.

The latest Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday shows the coalition trails Labor 48-52 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

But the prime minister warned opinion polls have been a poor predictor of recent election results.

"It's all there to play for," Mr Turnbull told 2GB radio on Monday.

The coalition has narrowed the two-party vote margin by a point, but the 30th consecutive loss matches the mark Mr Turnbull used as a reason to topple Mr Abbott in September 2015.

Mr Turnbull said he regretted making the remark about 30 Newspolls, rather than focusing purely on the two key promises - to provide economic leadership and traditional cabinet government.

He says he has delivered both since taking the leadership and broken no promises made at the 2016 election.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who is visiting Western Australia, says he won't be focusing on polls or personalities, but rather jobs, schools, hospitals and the cost of living.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud wants company directors to face jail time and hefty fines if they fail to meet animal welfare standards for livestock exports.

Live exports are again under the microscope after shocking footage revealed sheep dying in their own excrement and struggling to breathe during a voyage to the Middle East last August.

Mr Littleproud has announced a review into the government's independent regulator and a new hotline for would-be whistleblowers.

While there's legislation before parliament to double penalties for companies which breach welfare standards, the minister would like to see harsher punishments.

"I'd personally like to see it go further to encompass company directors to be more personally responsible with greater fines and jail time," Mr Littleproud told ABC radio.

"If you want to change the culture it's got to happen from the top."

He said if company directors were prevented from hiding behind company structures and shelf companies, they would do more to ensure standards were met.

"No one should fear if they're doing the right thing but those that don't, they've got to know that we're going to be there to get them," the minister said.

Emanuel Exports - the company which operated the ship - will have to satisfy authorities it has made improvements before it is allowed to set sail on its next trip to the Middle East.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has raised concerns around air flow which have to be allayed before the ship can leave Fremantle.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has urged AGL to get "fair dinkum" with Australians by considering an offer from Alinta to buy the Liddell power station.

Mr Morrison raised concerns AGL was not acting in the national interest by refusing to sell the power station, which is expected to close in 2022.

"We want to see them seriously consider a private sector proposal for someone else to own that asset," he told ABC TV.

"If they are fair dinkum - and they have got to be fair dinkum - with the Australian people they should give it fair dinkum consideration."

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg dismissed calls from former prime minister Tony Abbott to nationalise the coal-fired power station in the NSW Hunter Valley.

"The party that Sir Robert Menzies founded was one of small government and pro-markets, not of nationalisation and the dead hand of socialism," Mr Frydenberg told ABC radio.

"The market can deliver better outcomes."

He said while the government's national energy guarantee will address reliability issues in the energy grid, keeping Liddell open would help soaring power costs.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants Liddell stay open until 2025, when Snowy Hydro 2.0 is online, to ensure there is no gap in power availability.

He is encouraging AGL to sell the power station to Alinta, in order to keep downward pressure on power prices.
Queensland has seen more than 36 people struck down by influenza every day since the start of the year, threatening to eclipse last year's rampant outbreak, according to official statistics.

In 2017, more than 56,000 cases of influenza were diagnosed in Queensland, making it one of the state's worst seasons on record, with 2961 cases alone between January 1 and April 1.

But statistics show that this year, 3242 people have already been laid low by the bug, almost 300 more than this time last year, making it the busiest start to a year since 2008.

Health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

And Brisbane doctor Deb Mills warned delaying getting the vaccine was "a bit like Russian roulette".

"Basically you can't tell when the flu is going to hit," she told the Courier-Mail.

Queensland Health insists it is trying to prevent another upsurge similar to last season and was pumping in more than $2.3 million to help communities.

"The number of year-to-date cases of influenza in 2018 is higher than previous years, but it is too early to tell if this flu season will be worse than previous years," a spokesman said.

"Our message remains the same: get vaccinated every year because it is the best way of protecting yourself against the flu.

"Although getting vaccinated is the most effective way of avoiding the flu, we should not ignore basic practices such as proper hand washing, covering a cough with a tissue or our arm and staying home when we're sick."

Queensland's chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, has previously said it's especially important all children over six months old be vaccinated this season and at the right time, from the end of April.
A man is behind bars following a "shocking" violent brawl outside a Sydney restaurant that's left another man fighting for his life.

The fight broke out at Campsie between a group of men about 9.30pm on Sunday, police said.

A 30-year-old Chinese man has since been charged with affray and refused bail.

He will face Burwood Local Court on Tuesday.

The victim remains in a critical condition in St George Hospital, a spokeswoman told AAP on Tuesday.

CCTV footage, aired by Network Ten, shows the 30-year-old victim fall to the ground before being struck repeatedly by other men.

NSW Police Inspector David McCloskey said the footage was "confronting" and attacking a person already on the ground was "cowardly".

"(It) shows a very violent and very vicious assault," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

"It's very lucky we're not talking about a fatality."
A Tasmanian man will face court accused of knocking a 90-year-old woman unconscious during a violent burglary in the state's north.

The 39-year-old man broke into a Launceston home on Monday afternoon, assaulting the elderly woman as well as a 66-year-old man in the backyard, police say.

The woman suffered serious facial injuries and was rushed to hospital.

The burglar fled and broke into another house nearby where he punched a constable several times after being found by police.

He'll face Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday facing charges including aggravated burglary and assault.
The federal opposition says cutbacks at the Australian Taxation Office have undermined the agency's ability to do its job properly.

A joint investigation by Fairfax and the ABC has found a series of errors and actions by the ATO which led to small business and individuals being financially crippled.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said ATO staff were being asked to do more with less and whistleblowers were to be commended for identifying "scandalous" problems.

"I have no doubt the cutbacks at the ATO have undermined the ability to do its job properly," Mr Shorten told reporters in Perth on Tuesday.

"This is an issue we'll investigate when we return to parliament."
Parents of Sydney school children have accused the NSW government of prioritising the $16.8 billion WestConnex road project over the health of their kids.

About 100 parents, students and activists gathered near Haberfield Public School on Tuesday morning to protest plans that would see two WestConnex construction sites on the school's doorstep.

One site would be used for tunnelling - with 140 heavy trucks attending daily - while a second would be used as a 150-space car park for workers.

Rachel Brittliff, who has a daughter at Haberfield Public School and a son in child care nearby, says existing construction already creates dust clouds that have sparked their asthma.

"We're already experiencing air pollution that's eight times the recommended amount," she told AAP on Tuesday.

"It shouldn't be a consideration. We should be looking after constituents and residents - not large corporations."

Premier Gladys Berejiklian insists the government wouldn't be proceeding with the project unless everything had been done to minimise the impact of construction.

"Nothing is more important than the health of children, nothing is more important than making sure communities feel safe at all times, and that includes during major construction," she told reporters in Sydney.

"We've already laid down our plans for (stage three) and they're pretty clear.

"But if there is anything else we can do to mitigate the impact on the community we're always open-minded about that."
A group of Australia's top scientists have written to the Northern Territory government urging for a permanent ban on fracking.

An independent report handed down last month cleared the way for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing of gas deposits to be lifted, but the group, which includes the Climate Council's Professor Will Steffen say the environmental impact would be unacceptable.

"Opening up huge new sources of fossil fuels like NT shale gas is completely incompatible with Australia's commitments under the Paris Agreement," Professor Steffen said on Tuesday.
Investigators are looking to extradite an Australian man from Brazil who is wanted for breaching parole in the Northern Territory and as well as questioning over an indecent assault at a Melbourne primary school.

NT police say they are exploring the possibility of extraditing 63-year-old Christopher John Gott, who was reportedly critically injured in a car crash in Brazil in January.

Victoria Police say Gott, formerly of Fitzroy, is also wanted for questioning over an indecent assault at a Fitzroy Primary school in 1983.
The cultural custodians for 53,000 Aboriginal people in northern Western Australia have challenged a fake indigenous art inquiry to broaden its scope to include laws protecting cultural traditions.

The Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre told a federal parliamentary inquiry in Broome on Tuesday current trademark and property rights were not compatible with indigenous laws of shared ownership.

"When you put that up against a legal concept in western terms, can you legitimately question ... that this belongs to you? This is the big dilemma," Wayne Barker, the centre's festival and cultural events co-ordinator told the committee.
An-after school carer has been stood down following allegations they bruised a child after pulling them roughly from a slide at a south-east Queensland centre.

Queensland Police confirmed they are investigating the incident that allegedly happened on March 13 at an Ipswich educational facility, where the after-hours care was being run by Camp Australia.

"Camp Australia immediately removed any personnel identified in the complaint at the service and launched an immediate investigation that is currently in progress," a Camp Australia spokesman told AAP on Tuesday.
West Australian scientists have confirmed little green men were not behind the mysterious, cigar-shaped object spotted in our solar system late last year.

Named Oumuamua, astronomers thought they were looking at a comet or asteroid when the University of Hawaii spotted it in October.

But they soon realised its orbit and long, cylindrical shape meant it was our first known visitor from interstellar space.

Exactly what it is is not known.

The find triggered speculation Oumuamua, which is loosely translated from the Hawaiian as 'a messenger that reaches out from the distant past,' could be an alien spacecraft.

Lead researcher Steven Tingay said the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in remote central WA was used to check for radio transmissions coming from the object between the frequencies of 72 and 102MHz, similar to the frequency range in which FM radio is broadcast.

The telescope is made up of thousands of antennas attached to hundreds of "tiles" that dot the Murchison region, one of the most radio quiet areas on the planet.

"We didn't set out to observe this object with the MWA but because we can see such a large fraction of the sky at once, when something like this happens, we're able to go back through the data and analyse it after the fact," Professor Tingay said.

Although they failed to find signs of intelligent life, the research team from Curtin University's International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research has helped expand the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) from distant stars to objects close to home.

If advanced civilisations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and use radio waves to communicate, Prof Tingay said.

But he said the possibility of such advanced alien life was extremely low.

Researchers speculate there are more than 46 million Oumuamua-like interstellar interlopers cross the solar system every year.

While too far away to study with current technology, future telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array are set to reveal more about these visitors.
Hawaiian John John Florence hopes the lessons learned from his early-season flops will help propel him to a third straight surfing world title.

Florence is languishing in 26th place in the world surf league rankings after the opening two events of the year.

He finished 25th at the Quicksilver Pro on the Gold Coast, and 13th at Bells Beach.

It's in stark contrast to last year, when Florence started his season with one win and two third-place finishes on the way to winning his second consecutive title.

Florence has the chance to turn around his fortunes at the Margaret River Pro, which begins on Wednesday.

The world title is decided by adding up each surfer's best nine results from the 11 main tour events, meaning the two worst results are written off.

Florence's two early bad results means he now has little wiggle room to falter again, but he isn't worrying one bit.

"Sometimes you have bad events, so you take away what you can from it and leave it behind, and move on to the next one," Florence said.

"I almost like it better having it happen early in the year, because you have so much time to make a comeback, rather than being at the end of the year and then needing a big result and then making a mistake that you could have learned from earlier.

"That's what I think of it - just learning from these mistakes.

"It could have happened at a more serious time. Instead, they've happened at a time when it's not too much of a problem."

Florence is the defending champion at the Margaret River Pro, leaving him with many fond memories of the Western Australia event.

"Last year was so much fun. We had some really good waves. It was pumping the whole time," he said.

"Margaret River has just kind of got that raw ocean feel to it. It's got so many different types of waves."

Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater has pulled out of the Margaret River Pro because of a nagging foot injury.

Australia's three-time world champion Mick Fanning also won't be there after retiring following his runner-up finish at Bells Beach.

Australian Julian Wilson and Brazil's Italo Ferreira lead the world title race after two events, with New South Welshman Owen Wright in equal fourth.
Australian Sally Fitzgibbons is as hungry as ever to snare a maiden world surf title, and she's confident she's on the right track.

Fitzgibbons has endured a series of near misses since joining the elite tour in 2009.

She finished second in the world title race in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and third in 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Last year, Fitzgibbons led the title race heading into the final event, only to fall to third overall after finishing 13th in the Maui Women's Pro in Hawaii - her equal worst result of the year.

The 27-year-old started this year with a third-placed finish on the Gold Coast, before following that up with a 13th-placing at Bells Beach.

Fitzgibbons will be aiming to turn her fortunes around at the Margaret River Pro, starting on Wednesday.

She has plenty of fond memories of the WA event after winning it for the first time last year.

Fitzgibbons would love to add another Margaret River Pro crown to her trophy cabinet.

But it is the world title that she is craving the most.

"That is my ultimate goal - to become the world champ," Fitzgibbons said.

"But I've got to keep evolving and keep learning.

"I feel like I'm a completely different surfer and stronger surfer than 10 years ago when I qualified. I know I'm on the right track.

"Each year I gain more knowledge and better surfing skills.

"Reflecting on last season, it was one of my most successful seasons to date.

"I just missed out at the end there on the big prize, but I learned from it. It didn't put a dent in my motivation to be here."

Australia's six-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore leads the world rankings following her win at Bells Beach.

Fitzgibbons said her win at last year's Margaret River Pro was a special moment.

"Every year you come here as a 'grom', you imagine getting your name on those steps here at Margs," she said.

"To join the honour roll there has been cool."
Canberra fullback Jack Wighton has been named in the Raiders' starting team for their round six NRL clash ahead of his appearance in court on Wednesday morning.

Wighton missed the Raiders' victory over Canterbury last Thursday after his partner gave birth to their second child, but he has been recalled for the clash with Parramatta at GIO Stadium.

The 25-year-old will face the ACT Magistrates Court on nine charges, including three counts of reckless or intentionally inflicting actual bodily harm, five of common assault, and urinating in a public place.
Sections of Queensland's M1 motorway will remain in gridlock while the state and federal governments fight over who will pay for upgrades.

The federal government wants the Queensland government to match its $1 billion promise to fix congestion on the M1 between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

State Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey says it's a good start, but argues other states are getting a better deal on public infrastructure spending.

Making the funding announcement in Logan on Tuesday, Mr Turnbull repeatedly described the funding as a "game changer" but refused to say whether the federal government would fund the full cost of the upgrades if an agreement couldn't be reached with Queensland.

"The last thing Queenslanders want us to do is get into an argument about who pays what," Mr Turnbull told reporters.

"Queensland has the resources, it has the responsibility. It is Queensland's road after all."

The Pacific Motorway is in fact a federal road, but the Commonwealth argues there is convention for national roads with heavy local traffic to be funded 50-50 with the state, instead of the usual 80-20 funding split.

Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher said Queensland should chip in a similar amount, and wants to see construction underway by 2020.

The announcement comes just days after the federal government pledged $150 million for upgrades to the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane and half of the $352 million needed to build the Rookwood Weir.

Both the federal and Labor state governments claimed credit for getting negotiations this far, after months of wrangling.

Mr Bailey said Mr Turnbull's latest offer was "a bit rich" given the Commonwealth had refused to allocate any money for the state government's $5.2 million cross river rail project, which is estimated to take around 18,500 cars off the M1.

"It's a bit rich for them to say 'No money for Cross River Rail', underfunding infrastructure and then after 30 consecutive negative Newspolls suddenly the money shakes out of the tree," he said.

"They won't work with Queensland. I'm happy to sit down and talk to them about it, they need to be flexible to roll this money out."

The state government has committed $660 million in upgrades to the M1 that are either complete or in the planning phase, according to its figures.

Construction on two other jointly-funded upgrades to the Gateway Motorway merge and on the M1 between Varsity Lakes and Mudgeeraba are due to start soon.

The funding announcement made by Mr Turnbull on Tuesday focuses on two key areas:

* Widening the motorway to six lanes between Varsity Lakes and Tugun and upgrading ramps.

* Widening the motorway to eight lanes between Eight Mile Plains and Daisy Hill while extending the busway to Springwood.
A 52-year-old man from Sydney's eastern suburbs is behind bars charged with sharing child pornography online using an alias.

Australian Federal Police executed search warrants at Stanmore and in Edgecliff, where the man lives, on Tuesday.

He was arrested and charged with transmitting child pornography and possessing child abuse material.

The man adopted an online persona to share the exploitative images, police allege.

He appeared in court later on Tuesday where he was refused bail.

He is expected to appear at Central Local Court on June 6.
Rising power prices are considered one of Australia's biggest challenges but they aren't always bad news - particularly if you're a solar energy company.

The Smart Energy Council - which encourages people to install solar panels and battery storage in their homes along with smart computers to run them - says skyrocketing costs have encouraged more and more people to adopt greener technology.

"It's all about economics," chief executive John Grimes told AAP at the council's annual expo in Sydney on Tuesday.

"For the first time, you're like the rat that can get out of the maze. You can set up your own system and you don't need to worry about that anymore."

Mr Grimes said about 100,000 properties across the country have installed smart systems since 2010 - about 35,000 of those coming in 2017 alone.

Redback Technologies - which offers combined solar, battery and intelligent computer systems - says sales reflect increased enthusiasm for the technology.

"The uptake is increasing month by month," the company's sales director Tim Latimer told AAP.

"Energy prices are the number one concern for most people that are looking into getting into solar and having battery storage on the house - that and disenfranchisement with the network."
A 36-year-old woman is facing a number of charges over a suspicious fire in Sydney that sent two police constables to hospital.

The officers were on patrol when they saw smoke coming out of a townhouse in Camperdown just before 2.30am on Tuesday.

The pair woke a man who was inside the home and escorted him to safety before they were overcome by the smoke.

The constables were placed in induced comas while being treated for smoke inhalation at a Sydney hospital. They are expected to be discharged from hospital on Wednesday.

The woman was arrested on Tuesday evening and charged with destroying property in company using fire among other offences. She was refused bail to appear at Newtown Local Court on Wednesday.
Total fire bans have been declared for northwest Victoria amid record-breaking autumn heat.

Temperatures are expected to reach into the mid-to-high 30s on Wednesday, alongside gusts of 40km/h, prompting total fire bans in the Mallee and Wimmera regions.

It comes after Mildura reached 39.2C on Tuesday afternoon, making it the state's hottest April day on record.

"The lingering record heat, plus the stronger winds tomorrow, mean the fire danger is once again elevated for the Mallee and Wimmera," Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte told AAP.

Melbourne is forecast to reach a top of 26C on Wednesday, Geelong 24C, Bendigo 34C, Ballarat 28C and Echuca 36C.

Cooler temperatures were expected across the state from Thursday, BoM said.
A federal inquiry into fake indigenous art will hear evidence from the Warmun Art Centre in Western Australia's north, home to more than 60 artists of the Gija people famed for their ochre-based paintings.

Within the Wamun Aboriginal Community of the East Kimberley region, the centre has displayed works by Lena Nyadbi, whose art was also shown in 2013 on the rooftop of the Musee du quai Branly in Paris.

The parliamentary committee was set up by Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion to look into the growth of bogus Aboriginal art flooding the market and robbing artists of their income.

Artists and representative bodies from across WA have called for laws to make it illegal to sell fake indigenous art and for the inquiry to recommend overhauling legislation around intellectual and trademark ownership.

The Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre told a hearing in Broome on Tuesday current rights were not compatible with indigenous laws of shared ownership.

More than 140 submissions have been made to the inquiry since August, with the WA-based hearings to continue on Wednesday and Thursday.
A former cabinet minister has called for live exports to be phased out, declaring "enough is enough" for the embattled industry.

NSW Liberal MP Sussan Ley has broken ranks with the government after shocking footage emerged showing sheep dying in horrific conditions on a ship to the Middle East in August last year.

"Time to pick a date by which all live sheep exports must end. We can work with industry and farmers to make this happen," the former health minister said on Twitter.

The industry is under pressure from animal welfare groups after 2400 sheep died in horrific conditions on the Emanuel Exports voyage.

Australia's Livestock Export Council has defended the majority of operators, saying exporters are largely adhering to world's best practice.

"Enough is enough with these ships of shame. Saying other countries would be worse is a lazy non-argument," Ms Ley said.

"Time for these monsters to face prosecution."

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has announced a veterinarian-led review into exporting livestock during the northern-hemisphere summer.

He's also commissioned an audit of his own department, but resisted calls for a ban on the trade in northern summer.

Mr Littleproud and Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon both support live exports, which they say are important for farmers' livelihoods.

But the government wants to see major cultural changes in the industry, with Mr Littleproud vowing to get tough on people responsible for cruelty.

"I don't give a rat's about a guy that's done the wrong thing because we'll nail him," he said.

The minister called on the exporters' council to "show us the colour of their eyes" in response to the footage which has revived calls from animal welfare groups for the industry to be shut down.
Two new drug and alcohol services will be launched under $1.9 million in funding from the Victorian government.

The Uniting Church's community services arm will start providing an overdose prevention program and treatment help for parents separated from their children by the courts from Wednesday.

"Parents with a history of (alcohol and other drugs) dependence who are trying to bring their family back together face some serious challenges," Uniting ReGen executive officer Laurence Alvis said in a statement.

"Many will have had to deal with issues such as social isolation, homelessness, mental health issues, family and domestic violence, childhood abuse and neglect and complex trauma.

"The family reunification service will provide parents with intensive, wraparound support to help them recover and strengthen their capacity to provide a safe environment for their children."

The overdose prevention program is aimed at those with opioid addiction and their families during the transition from residential rehabilitation or prison.

The new programs will be delivered across the Wimmera, Ballarat, the Grampians, Gippsland and the northwest of Melbourne, with funding first announced in the Victorian government's 2017-2018 state budget.
A 21-year-old woman has been charged with assault after she allegedly attacked another woman in Townsville.

The woman was said to have been involved in a fight with a 73-year-old woman on a street in Aitkinvale on Tuesday afternoon. The younger woman is then alleged to have hit the older one with a length of electrical cord before another person intervened.

The two women are known to each other. The 73-year-old was treated at hospital for minor facial injuries.

The 21-year-old has been charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and is due to appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
It's not every day the thought crosses your mind: "this wouldn't be a bad spot to die."

Yet here at Tomb Point in Alofi, a speck of a capital city on the diminutive South Pacific island country of Niue, it couldn't feel truer to me.

Tomb Point is indeed a cemetery - one of the world's most picturesque, far more so than the name suggests. A final resting place shaded by palm trees, with a dramatic view of the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Across the street, Alofi's town square is morgue-like, and is so most of the time. In a country of less than 2,000 at last count, opening hours are a mere serving suggestion.

The square's playground, by contrast, is full of life. Day after day, someone's chosen to make it a meeting spot, a fort to defend, or a colourful extension of childhood joy. Here, that's an achievement.

The island itself is essentially dead: a coral limestone brick sitting on an extinct volcano. There are no beaches, and vegetables are quite hard to grow in the scant topsoil (a word of advice to tourists: that small portion of thinly sliced veggies on your plate at dinnertime is a minor miracle, so eat it).

Niue's close diplomatic relationship with New Zealand means that most young people leave the country for those distant shores as soon as they're ready to study or join the workforce. The youth flight is a problem, and if left unchecked, may confine Niue to being the world's biggest graveyard a few generations from now.

The lifeline, as it so often is, is tourism. Niue's startling assortment of natural coral caves and grottoes are a big pull, as is the friendliness of its people. Quirky new ventures such as food festivals showcasing unique Niuean cuisine, heavy on the tropical fruit, fish and taro, and the bi-annual Niuekulele Festival, have also given things a boost.

A car drives by, the first in 20 minutes.

Death and the South Pacific have a thing going on. Be it front lawn graves in the Cook Islands, an island of skeletal headhunters in the Solomons, or the countless burials at sea; if you die in the region it's bound to be an eternity to remember.

When Captain James Cook first arrived here in 1774, the islanders had the good sense to tell him to sail on. Cook was unable to land after three attempts, and left "Savage Island" in a huff. Death's hand had been momentarily stayed.

A second car. It's nearly peak hour.

By 1901, the locals had changed their tune, and after fierce lobbying by Togia-pulu-toaki, the last king of Niue, the island was annexed by the British Empire.

The arrival of European explorers in this part of the world was accompanied by death undreamed of by its natives. Disease and the cruelty of power put more islanders beneath the Pacific's shores than ever before. It's only natural that the continent's customs and obsession with visualising death should have migrated as well.

Clusters of plots are a common sight in Niue, sitting like morbid bus stops in clearings along the island's coastal road. They're well maintained, and the wilderness surrounding them kept at a respectful distance by groundskeepers unseen during my visit.

Death doesn't discriminate. Here at Tomb Point, kings lie ashes-to-ashes with commoners. The Niuean royal family collapsed after the British arrived, and its final figureheads have remained here ever since. And on an island this tiny, space is at a premium, so regular folks were allowed to rest here too.

The very European visage of a graveyard does look somewhat out of place on a tropical island, and sure enough, nature has resisted the incongruous addition. One ancient headstone is split right down the centre, as if struck from on high by lightning...or a particularly weighty coconut.

The royal tombstones are suitably majestic, giant white statements that let you know that the inscribed names were big deals in their day. Recent headstones are more modestly sized, but the addition of photographs so popular in the islands add a haunting touch.

Nearby, a memorial tells the tale of Niue's involvement in the First World War. A list of 150 names were the island's bravest, sent to the Western Front in 1916 as part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. For most of the men, it was the first time they'd left their isolated home.

The campaign went about as disastrously as you could imagine. Unprepared for European disease, particularly the kind brewing in the trenches, 80 per cent of the group were hospitalised in three months.

The memorial's list of World War II fighters is much shorter.

These days, an island death is usually down to natural causes, especially in a place as allegedly crime-free as Niue. I'm told that the last crime of any note was when the island's sole prisoner was beaten to death by a police officer, who then took his place.

Tomb Point isn't all gloom and doom, however. Humpback whales, those Pollyannas of the deep, bring their newborn calves to play off the coast during late winter, while spinner dolphins spiral through the waves all year.

By late afternoon, the town centre has come alive. Hungry tourists, in town for the ukulele festival, have filled the square to roll the dice on one of the local restaurants. If they're lucky, the menu will feature uga. The island's resident coconut crabs are a delicacy, and a huge drawcard for out-of-towners. As it's always been, death for life.

The setting sun bathes Tomb Point and I in a gentle warmth, so welcome in such a cold place. A brilliant light shines over the grassy park and across the street to the town centre, now set to the gentle lilt of ukuleles.

Far below, the glassy Pacific crashes into the coral coast. It's a backdrop straight out of a Victorian novel, a lovers' leap.

Don't waste your time, doomed lovers. You can achieve immortality right here.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Niue is approximately three and a half hours from Auckland. Air New Zealand fly to Hannan International Airport on Tuesdays and Fridays only. Visit niueisland.com for more details.

STAYING THERE: Accommodation is comfortable, but limited. The Scenic Matavai Resort is the island's premium option. For more info visit scenichotelgroup.co.nz

The writer travelled as a guest of Niue Tourism.
Sudanese refugees coming from Chad are seen arriving at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in France in December 2017, as part of the first group from missions from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless People in Africa

More than 4,000 Chadian refugees who lived in two camps in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur have voluntarily returned to their country since December, the UN refugee agency said Monday.

About 4,000 Chadians remain in the state of Central Darfur, most of them having arrived in the area to flee hostilities in Chad between the government and opposition in 2006 and 2007.

Since December 2017, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has run a programme to assist the return of Chadian refugees to their country.

On Friday, more than 500 Chadians living in Camp Mukjar in Central Darfur were provided with return packages to Chad, raising the total to over 4,000.

With Chadian refugees having left Mukjar, which was set up in 2006, UNHCR now plans to close the facility.

"UNHCR and Commissioner of Refugees are now making the final arrangements to hand over the land and camp facilities to local authorities and the host community," UNHCR said in a statement.

The voluntary return of Chadian refugees began under a tripartite agreement signed in May 2017 by the governments of Sudan, Chad and the UNHCR as conditions in Chad improved, UNHCR said.

"We are very pleased to be able to work with the governments on both sides of the border to help refugees to return home in dignity and safety," said its chief in Sudan, Noriko Yoshida.

About 4,000 Chadian refugees remain in camp Um Shalaya, UN officials say, adding that every four days a convoy leaves carrying refugees who voluntarily decide to return home.
US President Donald Trump, speaking during a cabinet meeting at the White House, sounds an optimistic note on reaching a deal on NAFTA, the free trade accord with Mexico and Canada

President Donald Trump said Monday negotiators were "fairly close" to resolving their differences over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement but an outright US withdrawal was still possible.

Officials in Washington and Mexico City have played down expectations a deal could be unveiled later this week when representatives of the US, Canada and Mexico attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru.

"We've made tremendous progress. We're fairly close on NAFTA," Trump said at the White House.

"If we don't make the right deal, we'll terminate NAFTA and make the right deal after that."

Trump's repeated threats to exit NAFTA have unnerved US industry and members of his fellow Republican Party who say the 24-year-old trade pact has benefited American industry and agriculture.

But Trump rose to the White House on a tide of economic nationalism and has called NAFTA a "disaster" that has destroyed US jobs.

Canadian and Mexican officials have balked at American demands to raise US content requirements in auto-manufacturing, scrap a dispute resolution mechanism and put a five-year "sunset" clause on the trade agreement.

However, officials have sounded optimistic following recent talks, citing progress in reaching common ground.

"At this point, we don't anticipate substantive discussions on NAFTA at the summit," a White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity ahead of the summit, which kicks of Friday in Lima.

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo also said Monday the odds of reaching a deal by early May were high -- thus ruling out an agreement this week.

"There is a very high probability -- 80 percent," Guajardo told Mexican TV network Televisa.

- 'I wouldn't say that's nice' -

Trump on Monday also acknowledged the escalating US confrontation with major trading partners could have painful blowback for the US agricultural sector.

Farm groups have lobbied fiercely against the Trump's plans to impose tariffs on Chinese and European exports, saying retaliation by those countries could hurt US farm states the most.

Responding to US tariffs on aluminum and steel, China has put tariffs on US pork and other exports and has threatened to do likewise for US soybeans, a third of which are exported annually to the giant Asian market.

With Republicans facing strong headwinds ahead of November's congressional elections, analysts say disaffection in reliably conservative agricultural regions could jeopardize the Republican majority in Congress.

"If during the course of a negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me, I wouldn't say that's nice," Trump said at the White House.

"But I tell you, our farmers are great patriots," he added. "These are great patriots they understand that they're doing this for the country and we'll make it up to them and in the end."
Members of the Taiwanese navy line up in front of one of three Taiwanese Navy warships, docked at the Corinto port in Nicaragua

A Taiwanese navy flotilla docked in Nicaragua on Monday in a high-profile visit highlighting ties with Central America and the Caribbean that are shrinking as China presses countries in the region to drop diplomatic relations.

The three vessels -- described as being on a training mission -- powered into Corinto, a port town on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, in a visit "to strengthen the ties of friendship," Nicaraguan officials and Taiwanese diplomats said.

Some of the 800 crew members who disembarked put on a Taekwondo martial arts display after an inspection by Nicaraguan military brass.

The warships were Pan Shi, a modern and sleek Fast Combat Support Ship, Pan Chao, an older, US-designed frigate, and Kuen Wing, a more recent, French-made stealth frigate.

Crew members of three Taiwanese Navy warships docked at Corinto port in Nicaragua, give a Taekwondo performanc

They were to stay in port for three days, with the crew of officers, sailors and cadets participating with the Nicaraguan military in joint training activities, the Taiwanese embassy said.

It was the sixth time Taiwan has sent a "friendship flotilla" to Nicaragua.

After Nicaragua, Taiwan's navy ships were to go on to make stops in the Marshall Islands, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

Taiwan is gradually running out of ports of call as China -- which considers Taiwan a renegade province that will one day be brought back under Beijing's control -- presses countries to drop relations with Taipei.

Half the countries with which Taiwan has bilateral diplomatic relations are in Latin America and the Caribbean. And it is slowly losing ground there.

In June last year, Panama cut ties with Taiwan to open relations with China instead. Costa Rica did likewise in 2007.

- Assertive China -

Nicaraguan soldiers stand guard beside three Taiwanese Navy warships, docked at the Corinto port in Nicaragua

The parts of Latin America that still have ties with Taiwan are the Central American countries of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; the Caribbean states of Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Dominican Republic, and Santa Lucia; and the South American nation of Paraguay.

Across the region, China's increased investment and a more assertive foreign policy are being felt both economically and politically.

That trend has unsettled the United States, which views the Chinese interest as encroachment in a region that it once regarded as its backyard.

US President Donald Trump is to attend a summit of leaders across the Americas in Peru on Friday and Saturday.

White House officials said part of his focus would be on pushing back against "external economic aggression," taken to mean China's growing investment in the region.
Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit as soon as next month, but Pyongyang has never officially confirmed its offer of denuclearisation talks to the White House

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with US President Donald Trump.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim delivered a report "on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula", including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Kim "made a profound analysis and appraisal of the orientation of the development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue", it said, referring to the North by its official acronym.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit as soon as next month.

However Pyongyang has never officially confirmed its offer of denuclearisation talks to the White House, which was delivered by a South Korean envoy.

Kim's remarks on Monday did not specifically refer to a summit with Trump.

But following multiple reports of secret talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump told reporters Monday he planned to meet Kim in "May or early June".

"I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said.

"Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years."
A young Mexican helps a compatriot climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States

Mexico said Monday it is reviewing its cooperation with the United States over "blatant" tension with Donald Trump's administration following his decision to deploy the National Guard to the border.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has ordered all federal government departments to re-evaluate bilateral cooperation, his office said -- a review Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said was a direct response to recent tension.

Trump has stoked anger in Mexico by ordering thousands of National Guard troops to the border and attacking the Mexican government on Twitter over its supposed failure to stop an influx of drugs and undocumented migrants into the United States.

Videgaray said the areas under review would include the vital issues of trade and security, among them the two countries' extensive cooperation to fight international drug trafficking.

"Given the current climate and the very public and blatant differences we currently have with the government of the United States, President Enrique Pena Nieto will be making decisions," Videgaray told Mexican radio network Formula.

He said the president had not yet decided to suspend or reduce cooperation in any area. But he left the possibility open, with a veiled warning to Trump.

"We are entering an evaluation phase, and it must be an ongoing evaluation of the facts as they stand," he said.

"Trump's rhetoric and tone... do matter, they do affect the relationship, and we can't remain immobile forever."

The latest rise in US-Mexican tension began with days of angry tweets from Trump over a caravan of more than 1,000 Central American migrants crossing Mexico toward the United States.

A visibly offended Pena Nieto gave a national address Thursday after Trump announced his decision to deploy the National Guard to the border, warning his American counterpart that "threatening attitudes and a lack of respect" were out of line.

Mexico also summoned US Ambassador Roberta Jacobson over Trump's contested comment that women in the caravan were being "raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before." She is due to meet with Mexican officials Tuesday.

Trump also threatened to axe what he called Mexico's "cash cow," the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), over the caravan.

Last year, Washington triggered a renegotiation of that deal, which also includes Canada, after Trump called it a "disaster" for the United States.

Those negotiations are ongoing. Despite the spike in tension, Trump said a new deal was "fairly close," while Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said there was an 80 percent chance of reaching a preliminary agreement by the first week in May.

Relations between the two countries have been tense since Trump won election in 2016 with a campaign heavy on anti-Mexican rhetoric and promises to build a border wall.

Pena Nieto has twice canceled plans to visit Washington over Trump's insistence that Mexico pay for the wall.

- 'Toys, not guns' -

Some 20 busloads of migrants from the caravan meanwhile arrived in Mexico City.

Carrying their meager belongings in plastic bags, some 600 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua arrived at a shelter and then went to pray at the nearby shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint.

Organizers of the migrant caravan announced last week the group would no longer try to travel to the US border en masse.

The caravan -- a yearly event that activists say is mainly about raising awareness of the perils migrants face, not crossing the border -- will end its activities this week with a series of rallies and meetings in the Mexican capital.

Mexican authorities are granting the migrants temporary visas to either apply for refugee status in Mexico or leave the country -- whether for the United States or elsewhere.

Traveling with his wife and four children, his eyes red from exhaustion, 41-year-old migrant Ignacio Viatorio questioned Trump's troop deployment.

"No one here is armed. All we've got are toys," he said.

Arizona deployed its first 225 National Guard members to the Mexican border, joining Texas, which announced Friday it was moving 250 troops to the border along with aircraft, vehicles and equipment.

The Pentagon has ordered the deployment of up to 4,000 National Guard members to the border.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who travelled to Vanuatu last weekend with Britain's Prince Charles, said she was confident of Canberra's strong relationship with Port Vila

Vanuatu and China both insisted Tuesday there were no plans for Beijing to open a military base in the Pacific nation after a report suggesting the Asian giant was pushing the proposal sparked concern in Australia and New Zealand.

The Sydney Morning Herald said China had approached Vanuatu about the possibility, potentially upsetting the delicate strategic balance in the region.

China has been aggressively growing its military and expanding its footprint deeper into the Pacific, forging closer links by showering nations with development money.

The Herald, citing multiple sources, said Beijing's military ambition in Vanuatu would likely be realised incrementally, possibly beginning with an access agreement allowing Chinese naval ships to dock routinely for refuelling.

This arrangement could then be built on, it added, with intelligence and security figures in Australia, New Zealand and the United States becoming increasingly worried about China's growing influence.

But Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu angrily rebuffed the claim.

"No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," he told ABC radio.

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also shot down the speculation at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, calling it "fake news".

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who travelled to Vanuatu last weekend with Britain's Prince Charles, earlier said she was confident of Canberra's strong relationship with Port Vila.

"We have very good relations with Vanuatu and I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said.

- 'Keeping a watching eye' -

While China has been investing in infrastructure around the world, to date it has only established one overseas military base -- in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she could not comment on the validity of the Herald report.

"But what I can say is that we of course keep a watching eye on activity within the Pacific and that New Zealand is opposed to the militarisation of the Pacific generally," she said.

Australia's Lowy Institute estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16.

Earlier this year, Beijing lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a senior Australian minister called Chinese infrastructure projects in the region "white elephants".

During the spat, Australia's International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the Pacific was "full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains".

Beijing responded that it "fully respects the will of the Pacific islands' governments and their people" and that development aid "has brought real benefits to local people".

China has diplomatic relationships with eight Pacific island nations -- the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Six other Pacific countries recognise self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory.
Australian bowler Pat Cummins (L) celebrates the dismissal of South African batsman Temba Bavuma (not in picture) during the first day of the third Test cricket match between South Africa and Australia at Newlands cricket ground on March 22, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Fast bowler Pat Cummins was ruled out of the Indian Premier League Tuesday with a back issue and is in doubt for Australia's one-day tour of England.

Cummins has a long history of back issues and experienced soreness during the recent fourth and final Test against South Africa.

Australian team physiotherapist David Beakley said follow-up scans showed he had bone oedema in his vertebrae.

"It is important that Pat has time off bowling, to prevent the injury becoming more serious and consequently we have made the decision to rule Pat out of the IPL," he said.

Cummins was bought by the Mumbai Indians but missed the opening match of the IPL season.

The latest setback also puts him in doubt for Australia's five-match ODI series and a one-off T20 against England in June.

"Pat will now undergo a period of recovery and rehabilitation and we will look to re-scan him in a few weeks to assess the healing," said Beakley.

"Following this we will be in a better position to decide on Pat's return to play timeline, including participation in the limited-overs tour of the UK."

Cummins shone on the troubled tour of South Africa, capturing 22 wickets despite Australia losing the Test series 3-1.

He was widely praised as a potential future leader for his conduct during the series that was marred by a ball-tampering scandal that saw former skipper Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner sent home and banned for a year.
Is this the clinch that changed history? President Kenyatta, left, shakes hands with rival Raila Odinga on March 9

It was a handshake that drew a line under Kenya's bruising election, left many people bewildered and swung open the starting gate for the 2022 presidential race.

After months of insults during a deadly and divisive election, the two heirs of Kenya's most powerful political dynasties, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival Raila Odinga stood side by side, shook hands and pledged reconciliation.

Even in a country used to the political game of thrones, where betrayals are commonplace and bitter rivals forge alliances almost overnight, the gesture on March 9 stunned the nation.

"This is clearly Odinga's attempt to move on. Obviously Kenyatta would favour that as well," said Nic Cheeseman, a professor at Birmingham University in central England, of the mystery-shrouded rapprochement.

Kenya's presidential election in August plunged the country into turmoil, after Kenyatta's victory was annulled by the Supreme Court, citing flaws in the process, which ordered a re-run.

Kenyatta, 56, subsequently won an October re-run after Odinga, 73, boycotted the election which he said would not be free and fair.

Protests and political violence left at least 92 dead during the election period, mostly at the hands of police, according to rights groups.

The handshake, which came after Odinga held a mock swearing-in ceremony in January, has brought an end to the vitriolic attacks between the rivals.

But it has also shaken politicians, whose eyes are already fixed on the next presidential race, due in 2022.

The National Super Alliance (NASA), a powerful coalition of opposition rivals which formed ahead of the 2017 poll, has been thrown into disarray by Odinga's decision. His fellow leaders said it took place without consultation with them.

- Raila's risk -

However several questions loom over the deal struck between Odinga and Kenyatta.

No concrete details have been released about its goals -- in particular, whether the president agreed to any substantial reforms of the election process, civil society or halting attacks on the judiciary.

"It's really only a Christmas present with nice paper and a ribbon, but we don't know what is inside," said Tom Wolf, chief analyst at the Ipsos polling institute.

"By throwing away all his hostility towards Uhuru and the Jubilee (ruling party) government, by shaking hands, Raila is taking a risk as to whether his followers, whether (ethnic) Luo or others, will go along with it."

Raila Odinga Odinga held a mock swearing-in ceremony in January, but the handshake brought an end to the vitriolic attacks between the rivals

Media speculation has been rife about possible benefits Odinga has secured for himself.

"If he is seen to have made a deal that helps him personally but doesn't do anything for the country, I think that will affect his legacy," said Cheeseman.

With the 2017 electoral saga behind Kenya, the unexpected reconciliation has seen headlines turn to the 2022 election, and politicians setting themselves up for the next battle -- including some of Odinga's NASA allies who are now vowing to go it alone.

While the 2017 poll was widely seen as Odinga's last, analysts say nothing can be ruled out.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all to have (Odinga's) name being discussed as a possible coalition partner for people come the next election," said Cheeseman.

- Opposition instability -

He said the opposition is now facing a period of great instability.

"People complain in the opposition about Raila... they say he doesn't have any ideas, he doesn't have the stamina. But the biggest challenge for the opposition is going to come when they replace Raila."

Cheeseman said that the veteran opposition leader had an ability to appeal to Kenyans across some ethnic lines -- in a country where community and politics are inseparable -- in a way that no other opposition politician has proven to do.

Kenya was roiled for months by election instability -- scores of people were killed, most of them by police, according to rights monitor

"The real risk for the opposition is that in the absence of Raila, these leaders go back to their own ethnic groups, they become smaller, they become more parochial, they become harder to build into an effective national alliance," he said.

A key player in the race for 2022 is vice president William Ruto, an ethnic Kalenjin who allied with Kenyatta -- a Kikuyu -- in 2013 despite historically tense relations between their communities.

In exchange for his community's support of Kenyatta, Ruto has been promised the Kikuyu will support him come 2022, a vow easily broken in Kenya's fickle political landscape.

Cheeseman said that while Kenyatta will be "quite careful not to betray Ruto", he might not be able to marshall his supporters to back the vice-president, which could see further political gymnastics in the coming years.

"Maybe we'll actually see Ruto on the opposition side. If the ruling party doesn't come through with a good deal for him to succeed Kenyatta, he's actually gonna be the opposition candidate."
China's President Xi Jinping's speech comes a fears grow about a possible trade war with the United States

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Tuesday to lower car tariffs this year and take other steps to open the world's number two economy "wider and wider", addressing major complaints by the United States in a simmering trade row.

Xi's remarks follow weeks of tit-for-tat tariffs and mutual threats of more levies on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products between Beijing and Washington that have raised fears of a trade war that could lacerate the global economy.

While he did not directly mention US President Donald Trump's trade demands, Xi told an economic forum on the southern island of Hainan that Beijing "does not seek a trade surplus" and hopes to increase imports.

Xi also used the speech to address global security and development, saying that "Cold War mentality and zero-sum games are becoming increasingly obsolete and outdated."

Promising a "new phase of opening up", he said China will "considerably lower" tariffs on cars and other products this year, take measures to liberalise automobile investment, and protect intellectual property -- all areas that have been high on the list of demands by Washington.

"Economic globalisation is an irreversible trend of the time," Xi told the Boao Forum for Asia.

"The door of China's opening up will not close, it will only open wider and wider."

But he gave few details nor an exact date for implementing the measures, which were mostly recycled from previous pledges.

The car tariffs were the target of a Trump tweet Monday, saying China charges much higher levies than the United States: "Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE -- going on for years!"

Xi's speech buoyed world markets, with Asian stocks closing higher and European shares up at the opening after being hammered by the trade row in recent weeks.

"Asian markets are happy, US and European markets are likely to be happy too," said Christopher Balding, a Peking University economics professor.

"The tone was conciliatory but Washington is bargaining for action, not promises."

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, congratulated the Chinese leader on his commitment to openness.

The measures he laid out such as "removing caps, reducing barriers" were "very specific," she told the Boao Forum, which drew global leaders to Hainan this week.

- Musk requests help -

Beijing's restrictions on foreign ownership in the auto sector have forced foreign companies to partner with Chinese firms and share their technology.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric car giant Tesla asked for Trump's help on the issue this year, alluding to the troubles his firm has faced producing in China.

Xi said those restrictions would be liberalised, pledging "to quickly relax restrictions on foreign shareholding, especially the restrictions on foreign investment in the automobile industry".

The threatened tariff war was spurred by a US Trade Representative investigation into China's intellectual property practices, which alleged wide-scale theft and forced technology transfers.

Xi pledged specific measures to address concerns on IP protection.

"This year, we will reorganise the State Intellectual Property Office to strengthen law enforcement," he told the forum.

Pledges on autos and IP were accompanied by a promise to push through reforms in the financial services industry, which would open up to more foreign participation -- reforms first announced last year.

- On the brink -

But Chinese officials have promised many of the measures in the past with little action -- Washington says it has grown tired of China's unfulfilled pledges.

"This could provide Trump with an opportunity to back down from his tariff threats while claiming a victory of sorts," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, analyst at Capital Economics.

"In practice, however, there was little in Xi's speech that we haven't heard before and nothing that would address broader US concerns over China's trade practices."

Fed up, the United States has slapped tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium, followed by planned levies on $50 billion worth of goods from China over Washington IP theft allegations.

China retaliated by unveiling planned levies on $50 billion worth of major US exports, including soybeans, cars and aircraft.

Beijing has also requested dispute consultations at the World Trade Organization over US steel and aluminium tariffs.

Trump has also threatened to impose more tariffs on $100 billion worth of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to warn that it would punch back with great strength.

But Trump suggested on Sunday that he saw an end to the dispute, saying on Twitter that he will "always be friends" with Xi and that "China will take down its trade barriers because it is the right thing to do."

On Monday, however, China's foreign ministry warned that trade talks with the United States were "impossible" under current conditions.
Mexico's vaquita marina -- the world's smalest porpose -- has been virtually wiped out by totoaba fishing, because it gets stuck in the same kind of net

The dried fish parts don't look like much to the novice eye, but the totoaba swim bladders discreetly displayed in this shop in Guangzhou, China sell for up to $20,000.

Half a world away, off the coast of Mexico, poachers battling each other for this "cocaine of the sea" are using drug cartel-like tactics to get it -- pushing two species toward extinction and leaving ordinary fishermen fighting to survive.

The lucrative black market for totoaba swim bladders -- prized in Chinese traditional medicine for their purported healing and beautifying properties -- have turned the Gulf of California into a battleground, criss-crossed by armed poachers, Mexican navy vessels and environmental activists patrolling with pirate flags.

The casualties of this war include not only the critically endangered totoaba, but also the world's smallest porpoise, the vaquita marina -- of which just 30 remain, according to scientists -- and local fishermen caught in the middle.

Mexican authorities say the vaquita has been virtually wiped out by totoaba fishing, because it gets stuck in the same kind of net.

Known as the "panda of the sea" for the distinctive black circles around its eyes, the porpoise has become a cause celebre for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Dried swim bladders of the totoaba fish, which despite an international trade ban can still be found at a traditional medicine shop in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdoing province in China

Three years ago, the Mexican government declared a ban on fishing in a 1,300-square-kilometer (500-square-mile) area off the coast of San Felipe, a fishing community that depended on the industry for 70 percent of its economy.

"They want to make San Felipe a ghost town," said Omar Solis, a shrimper who bought a catamaran and is now trying to reinvent himself as a pleasure cruise operator for tourists.

Solis, 42, warns other ex-fishermen will likely end up as totoaba poachers.

"They're pushing us into it whether we want to or not. It means risking your life, but if you don't have any money, what else can you do?" he said.

- Cartel crosshairs -

Flying a black flag with a white skull, activists from the US environmental group Sea Shepherd patrol the waters off San Felipe night and day in a camouflaged ship, using sonar and radar to find poaching boats and their nets.

It can be a dangerous hunt: poachers have been known to open fire on Sea Shepherd drones, and the authorities say they are operating increasingly like Mexico's powerful and brutal drug cartels.

Activists from the US environmental group Sea Shepherd patrol the waters off San Felipe, in the Gulf of California, day and night in a camouflaged ship to find poaching boats and their nets

"They go to sea armed, and there are shootouts between rival groups," a Mexican marine deployed to the zone told AFP.

Since February, Sea Shepherd has carried armed soldiers and police aboard its ships, for the activists' protection.

Authorities say poachers filet the totoaba at sea, stash the swim bladders in hidden compartments and toss the bodies back into the water. Then they ship their haul in small quantities -- the same strategy used by drug cartels.

Mexican authorities have begun using the same tactics they use against cartels: tapping phones and following the money trail to pick apart the organization.

"It's highly likely" the poachers are funded by drug cartels, said Joel Gonzalez, an official with Mexico's prosecutor for environmental crimes.

Fishermen in San Felipe confirm as much.

"It's the same mafia, the same corrupt networks and the same trafficking routes" for drugs and totoaba, said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

- Silk-lined boxes -

In the faraway city of Guangzhou, in a shop on a busy street, a soft-spoken saleswoman shows an undercover AFP reporter her collection of dried totoaba swim bladders, fetched from a store room upstairs and carefully laid out on a wooden table.

The prices range from 20,000 yuan ($3,160) to 130,000 yuan ($20,500).

"We can give you a display case with a ribbon and gold silk setting," she says.

Totoaba is reputed to rejuvenate the skin and heal a host of ailments, from arthritis pain to discomfort during pregnancy.

But it has become so rare that most customers just display it in their homes, "because it is a prized item," the saleswoman says.

In all, her collection of eight dried totoaba pieces is worth $80,000.

- 'We have nothing' -

Back in San Felipe, the leader of the local fishermen, Sunshine Rodriguez, recently went on hunger strike for 10 days to protest the government's blanket ban on fish nets -- even though only one kind of net is responsible for killing the vaquita, according to the fishermen.

Manuel Galindo, an oceanographer with 37 years' experience, agrees: he says only the thick nets used to fish totoaba can kill the vaquita.

The real reason the porpoise is dying out, he says, is that too many dams have been built on the Colorado River, in the United States.

Known as the "panda of the sea" for the distinctive black circles around its eyes, the porpoise has become a cause celebre for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim

That has reduced the flow of water it deposits into the Gulf of California, increasing the salinity of the vaquita's waters, reducing the temperature and disrupting its food supply.

The vaquita is adapted to a very specific environment, and those conditions "don't exist anymore," says Galindo, a retired professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California.

San Felipe's fishermen are also struggling to survive in their new environment.

About 200 of them have abandoned the town and set up an improvised camp on a remote beach with no running water or electricity -- one of the only places they are now allowed to fish.

"We've had to flee all the way this place, where we're cold, where we have nothing," says Maria de la Paz Alcantar, 60, cooking lunch for the fishermen as two little girls play in the tangled nets on the sand.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, previously dined with Macron at Paris's Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne

Saudi Arabia's crown prince wraps up his official visit to France Tuesday with a gala dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, as the young leaders seek to shore up cooperation despite lurking differences.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, previously dined with Macron at Paris's Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne.

Macron, 40, treads a diplomatic tightrope with the prince as he seeks to bolster his ties with the world's top oil exporter while also managing relations with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran.

Macron tweeted a picture of the pair at the Louvre looking at the 19th-century masterpiece Liberty Leading The People by revolutionary painter Eugene Delacroix, which shows Liberty as a bare-breasted woman.

"The discussions were friendly, which allowed the two men to establish a personal relationship," Macron's office said.

The two leaders will now work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said.

In a trip that appears focused on tourism, culture and the arts, the prince's delegation is set to host a forum Tuesday morning with multiple French business titans, which could trigger a host of memorandums of understanding.

The prince, widely known as MBS, is also expected to meet some French ministers, a source close to his delegation told AFP. He has so far met Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Pay.

Prince Mohammed's visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of his country, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

Saudi and French aides stressed before the trip that cultural ties, as well as new business opportunities, would be at the heart of two days of talks between government and private-sector figures from both countries.

- Hollywood and Cannes -

The announcement that Saudi Arabia will make its first official appearance at France's Cannes film festival came after Prince Mohammed dined last week in Hollywood with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, along with film studio bosses and famed American actors including Morgan Freeman.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led it to be dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the UN.

Three out of four French people believe it is "unacceptable" for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll.

Ahead of the trip to France, Saudi officials suggested relations were strong between Macron and the crown prince, both young leaders with reformist agendas.

But the visit follows a period of underlying tensions.

Macron waded into a regional crisis last November when Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri tendered his resignation on live television from Riyadh, apparently under pressure from Prince Mohammed.

Macron invited Hariri to Paris for talks and he later rescinded his resignation, a development that analysts say exposed the limits of the prince's authority.

Macron has also announced plans to be the first French president to visit Iran since 1976, as he seeks to build relations with the two competing regional powers in the Middle East.

burs-ac/klm
Australia's Israel Folau runs with the ball -- the devout Christian has agreed "to think again" about his social media use after posting that gay people were destined to go to hell

Wallabies star Israel Folau agreed "to think about" the impact of his anti-gay comments on social media, but he did not commit to stop making them after a meeting with rugby bosses Tuesday.

No action was taken against the devout Christian after he was summoned to a meeting with Rugby Australia over a controversial post on Instagram last week.

Folau is Australia's highest profile player and caused uproar after replying to a question on what's "God's plan for gay people?" with "HELL.. Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God".

Rugby Australia has an inclusion policy to stop discrimination and homophobia in the sport and chief executive Raelene Castle said the two sides had open and honest talks.

"Israel has gone away to think about (his social media use), because for him he is proud of what he is and what he stands for, so he wants to make sure that we are not asking him to compromise those beliefs," she told reporters in Sydney.

"But at the same time very much we explained to him that this is challenging for us and... how can he find a way that makes sure that he is not disrespectful, but it doesn't compromise his own personal beliefs."

Castle said the meeting was just the first step in a conversation between Folau and the governing body, and dialogue would continue.

The 29-year-old's contract is up this year, and the sport's most marketable star has attracted interest from rival code rugby league.

The dynamic fullback played in Australia's National Rugby League from 2007-10, moved to Aussie Rules for two years before switching codes again, this time to union, by signing with the New South Wales Waratahs.

The governing body is balancing its desire to re-sign Folau with the demands of leading sponsors including national carrier Qantas.

Qantas's chief executive Alan Joyce, who is gay, has been an outspoken supporter for same-sex rights, and the airline has made clear to Rugby Australia that it is not happy with what Folau posted.

Castle said "Israel has acknowledged that maybe he could have put a positive spin on that same message and done it... in a more respectful way".

She added that Rugby Australia wanted him to remain in the sport, calling him a "great player" who "has been a really strong role model in the Pacific community".
Election commission chairman Mohamad Hashim Abdullah announced Malaysians will go to the polls on May 9, where scandal-hit Prime Minister Najib Razak's long-ruling coalition faces one of its toughest ever challenges

Malaysians will go to the polls next month, officials announced Tuesday, with the long-ruling and scandal-tainted ruling coalition facing one of its toughest ever challenges from veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power for six decades, has seen its popularity wane in recent years, a slide further compounded by a multi billion-dollar scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB.

Najib is still tipped to win due to BN's firm grip on Malaysia's weakened institutions, and what critics claim are efforts by the government to rig the election through gerrymandering and other forms of cheating.

But he faces a tough challenge from Mahathir, 92, who was Malaysian premier for over two decades but has come out of retirement to take on his former protege Najib at the head of the opposition.

The poll date announced by the election commission -- May 9 -- sparked fury among the opposition who claimed a weekday election was deliberately chosen to keep turnout low, favouring Najib.

It is the first time in almost 20 years that a Malaysian election has been set for a weekday.

"I am very, very angry," opposition candidate Maria Chin Abdullah told AFP. "This move by the election commission is obviously to ensure victory for the ruling party."

Najib is under pressure from allies in his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main coalition party, to score an emphatic victory after the government lost the popular vote in at the last election in 2013.

Voters had become increasingly disillusioned over recurring graft scandals, divisive racial politics in the multi-ethnic country, and the rising cost of living.

- Massive financial scandal -

The 1MDB scandal has only added to Najib's woes.

Billions of dollars were allegedly looted from the fund in an audacious campaign of fraud and money-laundering which is being investigated in several countries, and it is claimed that large sums ended up the personal bank accounts of Najib.

Najib, who has been prime minister since 2009, and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The 64-year-old has so far weathered the scandal by sacking critics in government and launching a crackdown that has seen opponents arrested on various charges.

His prospects at the election have been helped by a robust domestic economy while he has vowed to protect the country's Muslim majority, a key vote bank for BN.

As the polls approached, the government has taken steps critics say are desperate efforts to cling on to power -- the BN-dominated parliament voted to redraw constituency boundaries in a manner analysts say favours the ruling coalition.

MPs also voted in favour of a law banning "fake news" that could see offenders jailed for up to six years, which some fear could be used to crack down on dissent.

Victory is however less certain due to the comeback of Mahathir.

In a stunning volte-face, he was named the prime ministerial candidate in the opposition coalition Pact of Hope, which is filled with parties he crushed during his time in power.

Mahathir has long championed the Malay cause and the opposition hopes he can win over Muslim voters disillusioned with BN, to bolster their support base of urban voters and ethnic minorities, particularly the Chinese.

The government lost a two-thirds parliamentary majority, needed to amend the constitution, in the 222-seat parliament at the 2008 election and is hoping to win it back.
A co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Cullors, tweeted that she had complained to Facebook and Twitter about numerous fake accounts

A high-level Australian union official was suspended Tuesday amid claims he was involved in a fake "Black Lives Matter" Facebook page that raked in thousands of dollars in donations.

Broadcaster CNN reported that the fake page had almost 700,000 followers -- more than twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page -- before it was suspended.

It allegedly ran fundraising campaigns earning more than US$100,000, purportedly for Black Lives Matters causes in the United States.

CNN claimed that some of the money was transferred to Australian bank accounts, raising new questions about the integrity of Facebook's platform and the content hosted there.

A senior Australia's National Union of Workers figure -- who is white -- was linked to the fake page and other black rights websites by the broadcaster.

The union, which represents workers across various industries, said two people had been suspended.

"The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report and has suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation," National Secretary Tim Kennedy said in a statement.

"The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNN's story."

Black Lives Matter is an activist organisation set up in the United States to campaign against violence and racism against black people.

A co-founder of the movement, Patrisse Cullors, tweeted that she had complained to Facebook and Twitter about numerous fake accounts.

"These fake BLM accounts and fake BLM people literally stealing money off of Black Death is so stomach churning I can't even begin to explain," she said.

"We told fb over and over again to shut that shit down. And it wouldn't. Glad it's down now."

The revelations come with Facebook -- used by two billion people -- under huge pressure globally for massive lapses in protecting personal data.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was testifying this week before the US Congress to explain how user privacy was compromised at the world's biggest social network and how he intends to fix it.
Internet in Vietnam is classified as "not free", according to web watchdog Freedom House, the worst in Southeast Asia and second only to China in all of Asia

A group of 50 Vietnamese activists and rights organisations have written an open letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg suggesting his company may be colluding with communist authorities to scrub out online dissent.

Vietnam ranks among Facebook's top 10 users by numbers and the site is hugely popular among dissidents in a one-party state where independent media is banned and blog sites are routinely removed.

The letter to Zuckerberg comes amid deepening controversy at Facebook over privacy and security lapses after the revelation that British firm Cambridge Analytica -- which worked with Donald Trump's campaign -- hijacked data on millions of users.

The social media giant has also faced criticism in recent weeks for being slow to crackdown on posts inciting hatred or violence towards Muslims in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

But democracy activists in Vietnam say they face an opposite problem. The Vietnamese letter to Zuckerberg was signed by 50 organisations, activists and bloggers who said they have seen an uptick in "account suspensions and content takedown" since last year.

Vietnam's government said in April 2017 that Facebook agreed to remove "bad and malicious" content that violates local laws, including fake news and imposter accounts, but made no explicit mention of anti-regime material.

"It would appear that after this high-profile agreement to coordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of account suspension and content takedown has only grown more acute," said the letter published late Monday.

"We urge you to reconsider your company's aggressive practices that could silence human rights activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam," it added.

The group said that several Facebook posts were censored last week during a high-profile trial of six democracy activists who were handed heavy sentences for on charges of attempting to overthrow the state.

Facebook did not deny the allegation, saying in a statement that it has global policy to "remove or restrict access to content" that breaks local laws.

"We have a clear and consistent government request process, which is no different in Vietnam to the rest of the world," a Facebook spokeswoman told AFP by email Tuesday, adding that the firm remains committed to a set of 'Community Standards' that outline safe and respectful discourse.

Vietnamese officials did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

- Military cyber force -

Internet in the country is classified as "not free", according to web watchdog Freedom House, the worst in Southeast Asia and second only to China in all of Asia.

Political activist Le Van Son, who signed the letter, told AFP his Facebook page is frequently censored and was taken down temporarily last week after he posted in support of the activists on trial.

"My Facebook account reflects my critical opinions and enables my right to talk about democracy, press freedom and freedom of expression in Vietnam," said Son.

"I have never violated regulations by posting racy pictures, false information or humiliating others with curse words."

Vietnam announced last year a 10,000-strong military cyber force tasked with fighting "wrongful views" online.

Activists have said the online brigade, dubbed 'Force 47', has flooded their sites with pro-government commentary and harassment.

Unlike in China, Vietnam does not employ a Firewall to block major social media sites, although Facebook access is sometimes interrupted during protests in the country.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, previously dined with Macron at Paris's Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne

Saudi Arabia's crown prince and French President Emmanuel Macron hailed warming ties Tuesday and agreed on the need to curb Tehran's "expansionism" in the Middle East, but conceded differences over the key issue of the Iranian nuclear deal.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman also joined Macron in taking a tough line over the weekend's alleged chemical attack in Syria, as the de facto Saudi leader wrapped up a three-day visit to Paris with a gala dinner at the Elysee Palace.

The prince's first visit to France as heir to the Saudi throne, which saw companies ink draft agreements worth $18 billion (14.5 billion euros), sought to deepen relations between the young leaders despite underlying frictions.

"This relationship has been slightly on the back-burner over the past decade... either to pursue other relationships in the region or seeing Saudi Arabia exclusively as a customer for big contracts," Macron said alongside the 32-year-old prince at a press conference.

"France believes we must preserve the structure of the Iranian nuclear deal, but it must be complemented by the work that has been done on limiting Iran's ballistic activity and its regional expansionism," he added.

Macron, 40, has walked a diplomatic tightrope in talks with the reformist prince as he seeks to bolster ties with the world's top crude exporter, while also managing relations with the kingdom's arch-nemesis Iran.

As US President Donald Trump threatens to tear up a 2015 nuclear cooperation deal with Iran, Macron has sought to convince the Saudi prince that some agreement to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions is better than no deal at all.

"On the subject of Iran, we have different tactical views on the deal... but a coherent strategic vision," Macron said.

- Smiles and selfies -

The gala dinner also hosted Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who tweeted a cheerful selfie with Macron and Prince Mohammed.

Earlier on Monday, Hariri tweeted another selfie with the prince and Moroccan King Mohammed VI, showing the three leaders smiling and dressed casually. "No comment," read the caption.

The photo op appeared designed to send a message of reconciliation after Hariri was allegedly pressured to resign by the Saudi prince during a trip to Riyadh last November, causing a crisis which Macron helped defuse.

Macron's mediation, which led Hariri to travel to Paris and then rescind his resignation, was seen by analysts as exposing the limits of Prince Mohammed's authority.

"This period of ambiguity and confusion is now behind us thanks to the efforts from all sides and the personal implication of President Macron," Moueen Merhebi, an MP in Hariri's party, told AFP in Beirut.

Macron and Prince Mohammed met for nearly three hours Sunday at the Louvre museum, where they visited an exhibition of 19th century painter Eugene Delacroix, creator of the famous "Liberty Leading The People" painting.

The canvas features a bare-breasted woman holding the French tricolore, an image that would be banned in Saudi Arabia for its nudity and its subversive political message.

- Music and cinema -

The gallery tour underscored a central theme of the visit: deepening cultural ties that will see Saudi officials call on French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra.

The kingdom also revealed on Monday that it will enter short films at next month's Cannes film festival for the first time, a further sign of Prince Mohammed's modernising mission.

Macron took the crown prince on a tour of the Louvre museum

The two leaders plan to work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, the French leader's office said.

Talks between the men also covered Syria, where Macron and Trump are threatening military action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad over alleged chemical weapons attacks.

- Rights abuses -

Prince Mohammed visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of Saudi Arabia, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

After Paris, he will head to Madrid, before travelling home ahead of the next Arab League summit meeting, on April 15 in Riyadh.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners are also mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the UN to dub it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Macron said France will host a conference to boost humanitarian support for war-ravaged Yemen later this year.

burs-ac/kjl/spm
An Iranian woman walks past campaign posters in Tehran on May 11, 2017

Tehran's reformist mayor was replaced on Tuesday following claims he was threatened with arrest if he did not step down.

Mohammad Ali Najafi, who took power after reformists swept the council elections last May, said he was suffering from unspecified health problems that required extensive treatment.

But his allies say he was under pressure after accusing his conservative predecessors of corruption.

Morteza Alviri, a member of the council and a former mayor, said on Sunday that Najafi was summoned one night to the prosecutor's office.

"I'm informed he was summoned, not in a polite manner", Alviri said in a video posted on the reformist Khabaronline website.

He said Najafi was woken while in bed.

"I heard he was threatened with arrest," Alviri added.

Najafi had attracted criticism from hardliners last month after attending a show at City Hall for Iranian Women's Day in which schoolgirls performed a traditional dance.

Islamic law in Iran prohibits public dancing, and prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the show included "acts against public morality" and Islamic tradition.

Najafi resigned a few days later, citing health reasons he had not previously mentioned.

The council rejected his decision, prompting the prosecutor general to accuse them of playing "a political game" and calling on Najafi to submit a fresh resignation, which he did on Monday.

The second resignation was approved by the council on Tuesday, and he has been temporarily replaced by a deputy, Samiollah Hosseini Makarm.

Najafi's supporters strongly criticised the prosecutor's involvement, and asked why he was not instead focused on the corruption allegations revealed by the mayor.

Reformists displaced the conservatives for the first time in 14 years in last year's municipal elections.

In January, Najafi presented a report on the previous administration, run by former police chief and presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, saying large sums had been diverted from council contracts into officials' pockets.

The report said thousands were being kept on the payroll in non-existent jobs, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency, and an extra 13,000 added ahead of the election.

"Inside the municipality, there have been many serious financial violations, but no one has been invited to explain these violations," Alviri told Khabaronline.
Bangladeshi students are protesting for a reduction in quotas on governmetn jobs reserved for minorities

Hundreds of university students across Bangladesh blockaded roads on Tuesday in a third day of protests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs.

Students took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere despite assurances from the government that it would review the controversial quota system.

The mass protests roiling campuses across the country have been among the biggest faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

At Dhaka University -- where more than 100 were injured in clashes with police in recent days -- students vowed to stage sit-ins until the government reform the quota system.

"We'll continue our agitation until the authorities accept our demands," said Rahat, one of the roughly 500 students camped out at the university's main square.

The protest was largely peaceful, with no repeat so far of the tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police to disperse crowds.

But outside the camps, traffic was brought to a standstill as protesters blocked roads in the nation's capital.

The protests also spread to private campuses for the first time since the demonstrations erupted on Sunday, drawing hundreds to the streets.

Demonstrators want the share of top government positions set aside for minority groups and the disabled significantly reduced.

They are also particularly irate that 30 percent of government positions are reserved for descendents of veterans from Bangladesh's independence war in 1971.

The government promised to review the system on Tuesday, but that caused a rift among demonstrators, with some accepting the assurance and others resisting it.

A pro-government faction of the student movement had postponed its protest action but left-leaning groups pledged to keep up the fight.

Hasina -- whose father was the architect of the Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan -- has in the past rejected demands to slash the quotas.
A member of the Israeli forces walks behind a barbed wire fence on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on December 10, 2017

Two Israeli right-wing ministers on Tuesday defended soldiers after a video appearing to show them shoot a Palestinian and rejoice in it spread widely on social media and news sites.

The shooting appears to take place along the Gaza Strip border with Israel, with one of the voices in the video declaring in Hebrew: "Wow. What a video! Yes! That son of a bitch."

The Palestinian seems to be near the fence dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel, but does not appear to pose an immediate threat.

Israel's military said the incident "apparently" took place several months ago and that it was investigating.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan downplayed the actions of the presumed soldier and others in the video that began to spread widely on Monday night.

"We are going overboard with this video," said Erdan, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

"It doesn't show gunfire at everyone, but at a terrorist who approaches the barrier in an unauthorised zone coming from an area controlled by Hamas terrorists," he told public radio.

"I am convinced that everything is OK," he added, while also speaking of a "human reaction" by the soldiers confronted with a "tense situation."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party also justified the behaviour depicted in the video.

"Judging soldiers because they are not expressing themselves elegantly while they are defending our borders is not serious," Bennett told army radio.

It was not possible to determine whether the person shot in the video died. Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported that the video was recorded in December.

The video comes after mass protests along the Gaza border beginning on March 30 that have led to clashes in which Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others.

There have been no Israeli casualties.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over its use of live fire, while the European Union and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for an independent investigation.

Israel says its forces only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltrations, attempts to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

It accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and with whom it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers.
An image grab taken from a video released by the Syrian civil defence in Douma shows unidentified volunteers giving aid to children at a hospital following an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town on April 8, 2018

The Kremlin on Tuesday accused Washington of refusing to face up to reality over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria, for which Moscow insists there is no evidence.

"You see the unconstructive position that some countries including the US have taken. They are a priori refusing to face reality," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He added that "none of them is talking about the need for an unbiased investigation" and said that this limited the diplomatic options for Russia, but that it would continue "active work on the diplomatic front."

Peskov spoke after US President Donald Trump on Monday said the apparent chemical weapons attack would be "met forcefully" and indicated a decision on military action was hours away.

The Kremlin spokesman said that there was as yet no agreement on the date for a proposed meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Russia's UN ambassador on Monday warned that the use of military force against Syria could have "grave repercussions."

The Russian defence ministry dismissed footage of attack victims as "yet another fake," following Moscow's practice of suggesting that rebels are staging attacks to discredit President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which Russia supports militarily.

The defence ministry said its specialists visited hospitals in Douma, the largest town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, but found no evidence of a chemical attack.

Deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Tuesday said that "fabrications and false stories are being used to find some pretext for the use of military force," RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"We consider this absolutely unacceptable and extremely dangerous," Bogdanov said.
Five teachers and a doctor accused of being Gulenists were flown back to Turkey from Kosovo in March, sparking major outcry in Pristina

The Turkish spy agency has flown three suspected members of the movement blamed for the 2016 failed coup back to Turkey from the African state of Gabon in a covert operation, state media said Tuesday.

As part of a secret mission carried out by the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), the men were brought back to Turkey on a private plane from Libreville, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The suspects are accused of belonging to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says orchestrated the bloody July 15 coup bid two years ago, aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara calls his group the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) but Gulen insists he runs a purely peaceful movement and denies any link to the failed plot.

The latest MIT swoop comes on the heels of the controversial expulsion of six alleged Gulen group members from Kosovo in a similar operation.

Gulen's group had built up huge influence in Turkey but also abroad -- notably in Africa, the Balkans and Central Asia -- in particular through an education network.

In the Gabon operation, one of the suspects was a school principal in Libreville and an education coordinator of Gulen schools operating across Kenya.

The second suspect was also a school principal, while the third was director general of Gulen schools in Gabon and steered the group's money transfers from Europe to Africa, according to Anadolu.

The news agency reported some high-ranking Gulen movement members were detained on March 23 in a raid by the Gabon security forces.

But there was no immediate information on Libreville's role in the operation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) met his Gabonese counterpart Ali Bongo Ondimba (R) in 2015

Gabon is ruled by President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the son of Omar Bongo Ondimba who governed the oil-rich nation for more than 41 years until his death in 2009. Ali Bongo Ondimba held talks with Erdogan in Ankara in 2015.

In March, five teachers and a doctor, all Turkish nationals alleged to be Gulenists, were flown back to Turkey from Kosovo in a hugely contentious operation carried out by the Pristina interior ministry and MIT.

The operation sparked a crisis in Kosovo, with both the prime minister and president protesting that they were not informed.

The government said its intelligence agency had brought back from abroad a total of 80 suspected members of the Gulen movement, without elaborating further on the countries.

Erdogan has vowed to hunt down Gulenists inside and outside Turkey, saying on Monday: "We will never allow those vile people to walk freely."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a joint press conference with the leaders of Russia and Iran as part of a tripartite summit on Syria, in Ankara, on April 4, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday vowed those behind the killings of civilians in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta would pay a "heavy price", after an alleged chemical assault killed dozens.

"I curse those who carried out this massacre. Whoever has done this, the perpetrators will be brought to account and certainly pay a heavy price," Erdogan told a meeting of his party in parliament.

The Turkish foreign ministry at the weekend said there was a "strong suspicion" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime was responsible for the attack.

But Erdogan on Tuesday steered clear of criticising Assad, only noting his telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin who is the chief ally of the Damascus regime along with Iran.

"I spoke with Putin yesterday (Monday), talks will continue today and tomorrow," he said.

The Turkish leader on Monday expressed "concern" to Putin over the attacks in Eastern Ghouta, the Turkish presidency said.

Rescue workers said dozens of civilians had been killed in a chlorine gas attack on Douma -- claims denied by Assad's regime and its ally Russia.

Ankara and Moscow have been on the two opposing sides of the war in Syria but despite their differences, both countries have worked closely in recent months for a political solution in Syria.
A man stands outside the Qasr al-Farid (Lonely Castle) tomb at the Madain Saleh UNESCO World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia on April 1, 2018

Trudging up a caramel-hued cliff pocked with ancient tombs, guide Bandar al-Anazi gazed at the stunning view: a windswept desert landscape of pre-Islamic ruins at the centre of Saudi-Franco preservation efforts.

Al-Ula, an area rich in archaeological remnants, is seen as a jewel in the crown of future Saudi attractions as the austere kingdom prepares to issue tourist visas for the first time -- opening up one of the last frontiers of global tourism.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to sign a landmark agreement with Paris on Tuesday for the touristic and cultural development of the northwestern site, once a crossroads of ancient civilisations.

"All of Al-Ula is an open air museum," Anazi said during a media tour just days before Prince Mohammed's trip, revealing a patchwork of rock-cut tombs containing niches for burials.

"There is so much history here still waiting to be discovered."

The tombs, some containing pre-Islamic inscriptions and drawings such as hunting scenes, are a legacy of the Nabataean artistic tradition.

The chiseled rock art forms could help unravel the mysteries of millennia-old civilisations on the Arabian Peninsula.

A Saudi man walks near ancient tombs at the Al-Khoraiba archaeological site in Saudi Arabia on March 31, 2018

The area, roughly the size of Belgium, served as an important way station and bedouin watering hole on the trade route linking the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and India.

It is home to the kingdom's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Madain Saleh, built more than 2,000 years ago by the Nabataeans.

"Every day something new is being discovered," Jamie Quartermaine, an expert from the Britain-based Oxford Archaeology group, told AFP.

"The potential is endless. Look behind you," he said, pointing at ancient animal art depictions engraved on a rocky spur inside an Al-Ula hotel resort.

- 'Gift to the world' -

A helicopter tour of the area revealed a desert landscape that appeared like the top of a foamed latte, dotted with heritage sites and towering maze-like rock formations.

The desert of Al-Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia is dotted with heritage sites and towering maze-like rock formations

The Saudi-Franco partnership is in part aimed at preserving the site from further erosion and vandalism it has faced.

At one archeological site called Al-Khoraiba, Anazi pointed at a bereft cistern.

Photos taken by French explorers Jaussen and Savignac, who visited the area in the early 20th century, showed the same cistern once featured the statue of a deity.

The walled city of Al-Ula, with tightly packed mud-brick and stone houses that were inhabited until modern times, sits decaying under the scorching sun.

But before a preservation plan is launched in collaboration with France, all archaeological treasures need to be accounted for, said Amr al-Madani, head of the Royal Al-Ula Commission.

A massive two-year surveying programme began in March, which includes scanning via helicopters, satellites, drones and a remote sensing technology called Lidar, he told AFP.

"This is a significant undertaking incorporating all levels of survey from aerial survey down to ground checking," said Quartermaine.

A man stands at the entrance to a tomb at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia on March 31, 2018

A Franco-Saudi deal to develop Al-Ula calls for the creation of a dedicated agency modelled on the lines of the French museums agency, which spearheaded the establishment of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.

At least one large museum is planned to be built in Al-Ula.

Gerard Mestrallet, the former CEO of French electric utility company Engie, has been appointed special envoy of French President Emmanuel Macron for Al-Ula.

Al-Ula is expected to fully open up to global tourists within three to five years, launching the site as what Saudi officials describe as "a gift to the world".

- 'Pride in our past' -

Al-Ula is among a hidden trove of Saudi archaeological treasures.

Archaeologists last year used Google Maps to find hundreds of stone "gates" built from rock in a remote Saudi desert, which may date back as far as 7,000 years.

A man walks near ancient tombs at the Al-Khoraiba archaeological site in Saudi Arabia on March 31, 2018

They also discovered evidence of 46 lakes believed to have existed in Saudi Arabia's northern Nefud desert, which experts say has lent credence to the theory that the region swung between periods of desertification and a wetter climate.

Tourism is one of the centrepieces of the blueprint to prepare the biggest Arab economy for the post-oil era.

Al-Ula's hotel infrastructure is currently inadequate, with only two facilities with a capacity of 120 rooms.

But the project is about reviving the glory of Saudi Arabia's ancient past.

There is currently scant information in Saudi history textbooks about Al-Ula.

"This is about national pride in our own past," Anazi said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference in Moscow on April 10, 2018

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Moscow will propose a UN resolution to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, after Russia rejected a similar move from the United States.

The rival proposals from Moscow and Washington put the Security Council on course for a clash that could trigger vetoes of both measures.

Lavrov said Russia would propose a "transparent and honest" investigation with the involvement of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at the Security Council on Tuesday.

Russian-backed Syrian regime forces could ensure the safety of OPCW experts if they were to travel to the scene, he added, criticising previous investigations for having been conducted from a distance.

A Russian proposal at the start of the year was rejected by Western powers, who said it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory.

"If, under the pretext of a lack of security guarantees, those who employ anti-Russian arguments to pursue their Russophobic aims do not allow experts to come, then it will be a verdict on their true plans and show that they have no interest in establishing the truth," Lavrov said.

Washington put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action.

Moscow has insisted there is no evidence for a chemical attack.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, but Russia said it contained "some unacceptable elements."

A Security Council diplomat earlier said the US was pushing for a vote on the resolution by Tuesday, but no vote had been formally requested by late Monday.
The first Saturday of each month has been declard "national cleaning day" in Sierra Leone as part of efforts to reduce waste

Sierra Leone's new President Julius Maada Bio has announced that the first Saturday of each month will be "national cleaning day," as part of a campaign to improve hygiene and the work rate of civil servants.

The measures were announced by the president's office late Monday, two days after a rally in which Bio, a former general who was briefly in power in the 1990s, said he would be a stickler for "discipline".

"A National Cleaning Day is declared and scheduled for the first Saturday of each month, from 7:00 am to 12:00 noon," it said in a statement.

"The first National Cleaning Day scheduled by the ministry of health affairs is Saturday, 5th May."

Bio added that all civil servants and government ministers were expected to be at work from 8:30 am until 4:45 pm, and he and the vice president would carry out snap checks.

"Failure to report for work on time will lead to disciplinary action and potential summary dismissal," the statement said.

A monthly National Cleaning Day -- in which public areas are cleaned of rubbish, trees planted and walls repainted -- was brought in during the 1992-1996 junta led by Captain Valentine Strasser, who was overthrown by Bio, then his deputy.

The monthly cleanup was restored from time to time by following regimes.

In another move, Bio said businesses would be allowed to open on Sundays from this week. Sunday trading had been interrupted by the 2014-16 Ebola crisis.

A hawker in central Freetown, Ibrahim Sesay, told AFP he approved of National Cleaning Day and the return of Sunday training.

"Our greatest problem as people is laziness and lack of discipline and I hope our new president will enforce the laws for change of attitude," he said.

Bio took office last week after a tumultuous election campaign, ending a decade-long rule by the All People's Congress (APC).

He won 51.81 percent of the vote in the second-round runoff against the APC's champion, Samura Kamara.

One of the poorest countries on the planet, Sierra Leone wrestles with major problems of infrastructure, such as sewerage, roads and power.
Hurricane Irma caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and Florida

The cost of natural diasters hit a record $144 billion (117 billion euros) last year, a study from one of the world's top reinsurance firms, Swiss Re, said Tuesday.

A full $92 billion of those losses were caused by three hurricanes -- Harvey, Irma and Maria -- that battered the United States and the Caribbean, the report said.

The company's chief for catastrophes, Martin Bertogg, warned that insurers need to be prepared for more years that see multiple, severe hurricanes.

"This is important from a risk management perspective, as it will help insurers -- and, ultimately society -- be better prepared for similar magnitude events in the future," Bertogg said in a statement.

Swiss Re also described 2017 as "a record year for wildfires", with such blazes resulting in $14 billion worth of insurance losses, also a record.

The heaviest wildfire damage occurred in the United States and Canada, while Portugal also suffered "uncontrollable" forest fires caused by high temperatures and strong winds, the study said.

Multiple insurers reported severe financial losses linked to the string of significant natural disasters in 2017.

Overall, natural and man-made disasters triggered $337 billion in economic losses last year, double the 2016 mark, according to Swiss Re.

Experts say that the impact of weather disasters like hurricanes, storm surges, heatwaves and extreme rainfall is worsening, consistent with predictions about climate change.
Tens of thousands of people are holed up in the camp at Rann -- many live in tents or ramshackle dwellings

At least 14 people sustained burns in a fresh outbreak of fires at a camp housing tens of thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram jihadists in northeast Nigeria, according to an aid agency.

The outbreak comes just two weeks after a blaze at the camp, located at Rann, about 175 kilometres (108 miles) east of the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killed five people.

"There have been three separate fires reported," stated a memo seen by AFP from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) circulated among international aid agencies in Maiduguri.

The incidents, which occurred over a number of days, resulted in "reported 14 injuries (and) estimates that over 1,000 shelters have been burned," said the memo, which blamed flying embers from "cooking of food".

Kaka Ari, a civilian militia member assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram in the town said fires had ruined hundreds of tents. The camp shelters refugees as well as internally-displaced people.

"For three consecutive days we recorded fire outbreaks in different parts of the camp which destroyed more than a thousand," Ari said.

"People cook in the open and the breeze carries firewood splinters in all directions which end up at the tents and fire breaks out," Ari said.

Last month five people were killed and several others injured when a fire broke out in the camp while residents were making breakfast.

Rann, where nearly 80,000 people are living and supported with humanitarian assistance from international aid agencies, has been vulnerable to attacks from Boko Haram.

On March 1 heavily-armed Boko Haram fighters killed three aid workers and abducted a female nurse, prompting aid agencies to suspend their operations.

In January 2017, a botched Nigerian air strike intended to hit jihadist fighters killed at least 112 people in what the military said was a mistake and blamed on "the fog of war".
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Donald Trump used Twitter on Wednesday to warn that a missile attack on Syria is imminent, hours after the Kremlin vowed to shoot down any rockets fired at the Assad regime in retaliation for last week's poison gas atrocity in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

The president tweeted: 'Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!'

Trump followed up with a second Twitter blast, claiming America's rapport with Moscow has never been worse.

'Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War,' he tweeted. 'There is no reason for this.'

'Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?'

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, said the U.S. military was ready to provide Trump with military options but asked if he had seen enough evidence to blame Assad, Mattis said: 'We're still working on this.'

Interfax reported in the late morning that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov scoffed at Trump's online brushback pitch.

'We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy,' Peskov said. 'We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation.'

The Russian military had just announced a deployment of troops to Douma. Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces said military police would be there by Thursday to ensure 'security' of the town.

Poznikhir said 41,213 people, including 3,354 rebels and 8,642 members of their families, have left Douma with his military's assistance.

The US military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order this morning with a Navy destroyer  armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles  underway in the eastern Mediterranean

Twitter war: Trump, who signed an anti-sex trafficking bill in the Oval Office Wednesday, launched a fusillade against Russia and Syria earlier in the morning

Donald Trump today used Twitter to warn that a missile attack on Syria is imminent  hours after the Kremlin vowed to shoot down any rockets fired at the Assad regime in retaliation for last week's gas atrocity

The president declared Wednesday that the U.S.-Russia relationship has never been worse  not even during the Cold War

Trump, who had just threatened Moscow with a missile attack, blamed Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his election 'collusion' probe for 'bad blood' between the U.S. and the Kremlin

On station: The U.S. Navy released photographs of the USS Donald Cook departing Larnaca in Cyprus on Monday as it steamed towards missile range of Syria. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer has at least 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles embarked

The U.S. has maintained its threat of rocket attacks in response to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's sickening chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma on Saturday

Conspiracy theories: Russia has claimed their military experts have found no evidence of poisonous substances at the site of Assad's latest chemical attacks - and insist the atrocity was faked by rescue volunteers. Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Syrian President Bashar Assad(right) were both threatened by Trump on Twitter

The Russian military claimed Wednesday that samples taken from the site of the chemical attack in Douma did not contain any poisonous substances.

Russian ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said the attack was a 'staged event' faked by provocateurs working with the White Helmets, a rescue and aid first-responder group whose work was chronicled in an Oscar-winning documentary film.

Separately, Trump suggested Wednesday that Moscow doesn't want to be wrapped up in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, which has been scouring Washington and New York for evidence that the president's 2016 campaign colluded with the Kremlin to help him win.

'Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama,' Trump wrote, adding that there is 'No Collusion, so they go crazy!'

His threats came hours after Moscow's ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, said any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down by Russia and the launch sites targeted. In response to Trump's tweet, Russia's foreign ministry said 'smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not legal government.'

The Russian foreign ministry also claimed U.S. missiles would destroy 'all evidence' of a suspected chemical weapons attack.

Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added: 'Or is it the original idea to use the smart missiles to sweep the traces of the provocation under the rug?' so inspectors would have nothing to inspect.

Both the Syrian government and Russia deny the attack ever took place. The top adviser to Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday that Tehran would support Damascus against any foreign aggression.

The Syrian air defense system is understood to have been heavily damaged but Russia has a formidable S-400 system (pictured), which has been in place in Syria for more than a year

Military might: Russia has demonstrated the power of its S-400 defence systems in videos showing rockets being fired off

Donald Trump flexed his military muscle Tuesday by tweeting an Oval Office image of 19 of his most senior military commanders. The group is pictured above left to right, Army General Curtis Scaparrotti (1), Army General Mark Milley (2), Marine Corps General Robert Neller (3), U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Paul Zukunft (4), Navy Admiral Kurt W. Tidd (5), Army General Raymond A Thomas (6), Marine Corps General Thomas D. Waldhauser (7), Air Force General Paul Selva (8), Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford (9), Defense Secretary James Mattis (10), President Donald Trump (11), Vice President Mike Pence (12), Navy Admiral Michael Rodgers (13), Navy Admiral John Richardson (14), Army General Joseph Votel (15), Air Force General David Goldfein (16), Air Force General John E Hyten (17), Air Force General Joseph L. Lengyel (18), Air Force General Lori Robinson (19), Patrick M. Shanahan (20), Navy Admiral Harry Harris (21), Air Force General Darren W McDew (22), U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Karl Schultz (23)

Russia's government claims the 'White Helmets' first-responder group faked the chemical weapons attack; one of their volunteers is pictured here yelling toward ambulances during a search for survivors of an explosion in the Syrian city of Idleb on Tuesda

In strike range: The USS Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer is now close to Syrian waters, and in missile range of Bashar Assad's regime

Syria's foreign ministry claimed Wednesday that Trump's government is using 'lies and fabrication' as an excuse to launch an attack.

According to SANA, the state news agency, a ministry official said: 'We are not surprised by such a thoughtless escalation by a regime like the United States regime, which sponsored terrorism in Syria and still does.'

Trump's apparent decision to telegraph his military moves flies in the face of a pledge he made last year at Fort Myer, near Washington, D.C.

'America's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will,' he said August 21.

That mirrored complaints he tweeted more than five years ago when President Barack Obama was openly contemplating military action in Syria: 'For all of those fools that want to attack Syria, the U.S.has lost the vital element of surprise-so stupid-could be a disaster!'

'In war, the elememt [sic] of surprise is sooooo important,' Trump added then. 'What the hell is Obama doing.'

Defense Secretary James Mattis, too, has expressed a strong preference for surprise attacks over advance warnings, writing in the 2018 National Defense Strategy document that America's military should 'be strategically predictable, but operationally unpredictable.'

Wednesday morning saw a dramatic ratcheting of tensions in the Middle East where Russian forces are propping up dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and American forces are backing some of his opponents.

Britain, France and the U.S. continued to discuss possible strikes to punish Assad for the chemical attack on Saturday, in which 43 were killed and others left gasping for air and foaming at the mouth.

The U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order Wednesday morning with a Navy destroyer  armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles  en route in the eastern Mediterranean.

Amid rising tensions, Moscow's United Nations envoy Vasily Nebenzia had earlier pleaded with America not to strike and warned the U.S. it will 'bear responsibility' for any 'illegal military adventure' it carries out.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged restraint this morning, saying countries should avoid taking action that could further destabilize the war-torn country.

On Wednesday the pan-European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned aircraft to be careful when flying close to Syria. It said that air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles could be used within the next three days and there was a possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment.

'Due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles within the next 72 hours, and the possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment, due consideration needs to be taken when planning flight operations in the Eastern Mediterranean/Nicosia FIR area,' it said, referring to the designated airspace.

Aviation regulators in countries including the US, UK, France and Germany have previously issued warnings against airlines entering Syrian airspace leading most carriers to avoid the area.

The only commercial flights above Syria as of 9:15 p.m. Tuesday were being flown by Syrian Air and Lebanon's Middle East Airlines, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

This morning, the pan-European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned aircraft to be careful when flying close to Syria. It said that air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles could be used within the next three days and there was a possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment. Flight path monitoring websites showed that few if any aircraft were flying over the country this morning

Five hundred people poisoned in Syrian gas attack, WHO reveals Up to 500 people were poisoned in the Syrian gas outrage that killed 43 people including children, the World Health Organisation has revealed. WHO demanded 'immediate' access to the victims in rebel-held Douma as it revealed the total number of people who reported to hospital showing 'signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals'. The atrocity, blamed on Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad's forces, has sparked a global outcry with the US and its allies considering taking military action in response. Volunteers give aid to children at a hospital following the chemical attack in Douma While the WHO statement did not confirm outright that a chemical weapons attack had taken place, it said more than 70 people sheltering in basements have died with 43 of those deaths related to symptoms consistent with exposure to highly toxic chemicals. 'We should all be outraged at these horrific reports and images from Douma' where Saturday's attack took place, said Peter Salama, the UN agency's chief of emergency response. 'WHO demands immediate unhindered access to the area to provide care to those affected, to assess the health impacts, and to deliver a comprehensive public health response,' he added. Citing information previously released by local health organizations, WHO said that 'an estimated 500 patients presented to health facilities exhibiting signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals'. Up to 500 people were poisoned in the Syrian gas attack that killed 43 people including children, the World Health Organisation has revealed 'There were signs of severe irritation of mucous membranes, respiratory failure and disruption to central nervous systems of those exposed,' the statement added. The United States, Britain and France have argued the incident bears all the hallmarks of a strike ordered by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad has been blamed for previous attacks by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and UN-backed war crimes investigators. WHO has delivered medicine capable of treating certain types of chemical agents to clinics through a series of humanitarian convoys deployed across the country in recent years. UN officials have also accused Assad's troops of at times removing those treatments from humanitarian vehicles. Advertisement

Trump blasted his predecessor Barack Obama in 2003 for telegraphing his military moves in the Middle East  the same thing he appears to be doing this week.

The Eurocontrol statement included a broader area outside the airspace controlled by Damascus.

The Nicosia flight information region named in the Eurocontrol statement on Tuesday covers the island of Cyprus and surrounding waters, according to a map on the agency's website. The same map did not designate any specific territory as being the 'Eastern Mediterranean' region.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order this morning with a Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, getting underway in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday after completing a port call in Cyprus.

The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.

Also, the Navy said the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled deployment to Europe.

The U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order this morning and the Navy said the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled deployment to Europe

France, under Emmanuel Macron (left), warned it would retaliate against the Syrian regime if evidence emerged that the 'red line' of chemical weapons had been crossed in rebel-held Douma. Prime Minister Theresa May (right) described the attack as 'barbaric'

The Navy said the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier (file picture) and its strike group will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled deployment to Europe

Trump has warned there would be a 'big price to pay,' and Washington's UN ambassador Nikki Haley made it clear that the failure to secure a Security Council vote would not hold America and its allies back. Pictured: Sailors prepare F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets for take off during a routine training aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the South China sea on Tuesday

The strike group will be accompanied by a German frigate FGS Hessen, a state-of-the-art vessel specialising in air defense which officials say is the only type of warship in the Western world with three kinds of surface-to-air missiles.

Its radar has a detection range of more than 200 nautical miles for air targets.

In the face of intense world outrage, the United Nations Security Council failed to agree a global response to the chemical attack on Tuesday, after Washington and Moscow opposed each other's rival motions to set up an international investigation into poison gas use in the seven-year-old conflict.

Trump has made it clear he plans to make the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and perhaps his Russian and Iranian backers, pay for the latest alleged toxic gas atrocity in the war-wracked country.

But Russia has warned against action and this morning defense committee lawmaker Andrei Krasov said the Kremlin would treat a U.S. airstrike on Syria 'not just as an act of aggression but a war crime of the Western coalition.'

His comments followed those of senior Russian lawmaker and retired general Vladimir Shamanov, who said on Tuesday that a U.S. strike could hurt Russian servicemen and trigger Russian retaliation.

He said that Russia has 'the necessary means for that and the Americans and their allies know that quite well.'

Shamanov emphasized that a retaliatory Russian strike could target U.S. navy ships and aircraft. He added that the use of nuclear weapons is 'unlikely.'

According to rescue workers, on Saturday more than 40 people died in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma in an alleged chemical attack, which left victims struggling to breathe, foaming at the mouth and with discolored skin.

How Russia could use its fearsome S-400 defence system to shoot down missiles aimed at Syria A Russian ambassador has warned that Russia would shoot down incoming missiles and attack their launching platforms in the event of a strike on Syria. A similar warning has been issued in the past by the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces. The Syrian air defence system is understood to have been heavily damaged but Russia has a formidable S-400 system, which has been in place in Syria for more than a year. This poses a lethal threat to modern jets. Sources said it is likely any attack by the US, Britain and France would be carried out from a safe enough distance to avoid planes being shot down. The most advanced of Russia's terrifying S-400 systems is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and can also be used against ground objectives, according to Russian media. The most advanced of Russia's terrifying S-400 systems is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and can also be used against ground objectives, according to Russian media. In 2015, pictures emerged of the state-of-the-art missile systems' arrival to the battlefields of Syria The Syrian air defence system is understood to have been heavily damaged but Russia has a formidable S-400 system (pictured), which has been in place in Syria for more than a year It can engage targets at a distance of 250 miles and at an altitude of up to 19 miles. In January, it was reported that contracts for S-400 deliveries were inked with China and Turkey and that negotiations were also underway to sell the system to Saudi Arabia. Dmitri Trenin, the head of the Carnegie Moscow Centre and a former Soviet military officer, raised the terrifying prospect of a military clash between world superpowers. He said: 'The U.S. and Russia are now closer to a direct collision between their military forces than at any time since the cold war. 'The only question on my mind: will Russia hit back at the U.S. when it launches strikes against Damascus?' In recent weeks the Russian military has reportedly began jamming some smaller U.S. military drones operating in the skies over Syria. According to four U.S. officials speaking to NBC news, this has affected American military operations. The officials said the Russian military was concerned the U.S. military would retaliate for the attacks and began jamming the GPS systems of drones operating in the area. Last year Donald Trump ordered a Tomahawk missile strike (pictured) against the Syrian regime's al-Shayrat airbase following a chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of civilians The drones impacted so far were smaller surveillance aircraft, as opposed to the larger Predators and Reapers that often operate in combat environments and can be armed. Last year Donald Trump ordered a Tomahawk missile strike against the Syrian regime's al-Shayrat airbase following a chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of civilians. Russian forces did not shoot down the missile using its air defence systems stationed in the region. At that time the U.S. gave Russia advance warning of that attack through a de-confliction notice. But Russian military brass have signaled that their response could be different. In March, Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, said: 'In the case of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, the Russian military armed forces will take response measures against both the rockets, and the platforms from which they're fired.' By MailOnline reporter and Larisa Brown, Defence and Security Editor for the Daily Mail Advertisement

The WHO also condemned the suspected chemical weapons attack, in which it said an estimated 500 patients went to health facilities with 'signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals.'

'WHO demands immediate unhindered access to the area to provide care to those affected, to assess the health impacts, and to deliver a comprehensive public health response,' Peter Salama, WHO deputy director-general for emergency preparedness and response, said in a statement issued in Geneva.

U.N. aid agencies do not have access to most of the enclave of eastern Ghouta, including Douma, where the alleged attack occurred. The Syrian government has denied responsibility.

But the United States, Britain and France have argued the incident bears all the hallmarks of a strike ordered by the regime of Russia's ally Assad, which has been blamed for previous attacks by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Trump has warned there would be a 'big price to pay,' and Washington's UN ambassador Nikki Haley made it clear that the failure to secure a Security Council vote would not hold America and its allies back.

'Russia has trashed the credibility of the council,' she said. 'Whenever we propose anything meaningful on Syria, Russia vetoes it. It is a travesty.'

Haley dismissed the Russian draft as 'all about protecting the Assad regime' because of provisions that would have required the Security Council to endorse its findings -- in other words, giving Russia a veto over any attempt to apportion blame.

Volunteers spray a man with water at a makeshift hospital in Douma on April 7. International tensions are mounting over possible airstrikes in the wake of the sickening chemical attack

Russia, in turn, vetoed the US-backed motion, which would have re-established an international Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) to probe chemical strikes in Syria and to identify culprits.

Moscow's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Haley of seeking a vote to provide cover for a Western military strike on Assad, which now seems all the more likely.

'If you took the decision to carry out an illegal military adventure, and we do hope that you will come to your senses, well then you will have to bear responsibility for it,' he said.

Both Trump and his defense secretary Jim Mattis abruptly cancelled upcoming travel plans Tuesday, as the USS Donald Cook  a guided-missile destroyer  moved to within striking range of Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been coordinating closely with Washington, said he would decide on a response 'in the coming days.'

'Our decision will not target allies of the regime or attack anyone but rather attack the regime's chemical capabilities,' he said, insisting he did 'not want an escalation.'

As it looked to head off the threat of Western strikes, Syria said it had invited the OPCW to visit the site of the alleged attack in Douma, a settlement in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta that is falling to the regime after a long and bloody siege.

The OPCW said it would 'shortly' deploy a fact-finding team to Douma for an investigation, but U.S. officials said they were working from their own information and would not necessarily hold back.

Damascus also mobilized overnight Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said the army had 'put all military positions on alert, including airports and all bases, for a period of 72 hours.'

A source from a pro-regime unit told AFP Tuesday there were 'precautionary measures being taken by the Syrian army, especially the airports and military bases.'

Residents in the capital were also bracing for a potential response.

'I have lived through seven American presidents, but Trump is the craziest and his administration is unbalanced,' said Abu Fadi, 70.

'I think his threats are to be feared, and we should take them seriously.'

In 2017, Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a sarin attack the UN later pinned on Assad.

The United States, Britain and France have argued the incident bears all the hallmarks of a strike ordered by the regime of Russia's ally Assad, which has been blamed for previous attacks by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

Syria's government has denied accusations of using banned weapons such as chlorine or sarin throughout the country's civil war.

Douma has been heavily bombed by the regime and Russia making it extremely difficult for media, including AFP, to independently verify the claims.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday the OPCW should be granted unfettered access to investigate.

The OPCW does not have a mandate to establish who is responsible for attacks, and the joint OPCW-UN taskforce that once did was shut down by Russia last year after it blamed the Syria regime.

Damascus agreed to hand over its chemical arsenal in 2013, narrowly avoiding American and French air strikes in retaliation for a suspected sarin attack.

That incident, which killed hundreds, also took place in Eastern Ghouta.

Trump has threatened to respond 'forcefully' to the most recent allegations, saying the U.S. had 'a lot of options militarily' and would decide in the coming days.

The White House said that, in a telephone call, Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May 'agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.'
US President Donald Trump, shown attending a meeting with senior military leaders at the White House on Monday, will not go to Latin America later this week as planned

The White House insisted Tuesday that Donald Trump has the power to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, stoking fears that the president may try to kill an investigation inching ever-closer to the Oval Office.

After months of denying Mueller's removal is under consideration, the change in tone came as Trump reacted furiously to an FBI raid of his private lawyer's offices on Monday.

Special counsel Mueller was appointed in May to investigate Russian efforts to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor.

Over the last year, he has increasingly dug into evidence of alleged money laundering, fraud and obstruction of justice inside Trump's inner circle.

Four Trump aides -- including his 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort and former national security advisor Michael Flynn -- have already been indicted or pleaded guilty.

Now, Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen -- who holds secrets about many of the president's personal and financial dealings -- is in the crosshairs.

"We have been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of the possibility to remove Mueller.

"I think that the president has been clear that he thinks that this has gone too far."

Trump hunkered down at the White House, canceling a first trip to Latin America that was due to start Friday and stewing on a move that could throw America into a constitutional crisis.

At the same time, Trump faced a momentous decision about whether to carry out military strikes in Syria.

- 'TOTAL WITCH HUNT' -

Trump has pledged to decide by the end of Tuesday how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, blamed on the Syrian regime and its allies.

But while much of his national security team debated whether strikes would be effective in deterring future chemical attacks, and how to limit the risk of escalation, Trump met his lawyers Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb to discuss the Cohen raid.

Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in May to investigate Russian efforts to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor

His anger showed no signs of abating.

"A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" the president blasted on Twitter amid news that FBI agents had seized documents pertaining to his dealings with Cohen. "Attorney-client privilege is dead!"

In a phone call with CNN, Cohen admitted the raid was "upsetting to say the least."

Asked if he was worried, Cohen said: "I would be lying to you if I told that I am not. Do I need this in my life? No. Do I want to be involved in this? No."

On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers urged Trump to allow Mueller to do his work.

Democrats wanted to go one step further and pass legislation protecting the Republican former FBI director.

"If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don't," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.

The FBI raid on the offices of Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen come amid allegations that Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels (R) $130,000 shortly before the election to keep a tryst with Trump (L) quiet

"The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue."

Trump's fellow Republicans said that would not be necessary, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley stating it would be "suicide" for the president to fire Mueller.

The raid on Cohen's offices came amid allegations he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the election to keep a tryst with Trump quiet.

After months of silence, Trump last week offered a flat "no" when asked if he knew about the payment.

Another option that would allow Trump to contain Mueller would be dismissing deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, a move he is also considering, CNN reported, citing multiple sources close to discussions.

The firing would be premised on Rosenstein having overreached his remit. Some of Trump's legal advisers believe him conflicted, since he is both a potential witness in the Russia investigation and wrote the memo that justified firing former FBI Director James Comey, CNN said.

- Plans dashed -

Trump's decision to scrap his trip to Colombia and Peru surprised even some White House staff.

"The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," Sanders said.

Trump had already cut the visit short -- from five days, to three and, finally, to none.

The combative US president had been expected in Peru for the Summit of the Americas, where he was likely to face protests and awkward meetings with leaders who have bristled at his repeated portrayal of Latino immigrants as rapists and thugs.

Vice President Mike Pence will represent the United States in Lima instead, his aide Jarrod Agen said, adding that he would also meet Venezuelan dissidents.

Trump is still expected to travel to his Mar-a-Lago holiday home in Florida on Monday, where a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will go ahead.
The United Nations Security Council, shown here in session on Monday, could vote Tuesday on a US proposal to set up an inquiry on chemical weapons attacks in Syria

The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on rival US and Russian draft resolutions in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria, setting up a clash as the threat of US military action loomed large.

The council will meet at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) for a first vote on a US proposal to set up an inquiry to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but the measure is likely to face a veto from Russia, diplomats said.

Russia has also asked for a vote on a separate draft text presented in January that calls for an inquiry, but Western powers have already dismissed that measure as biased in favor of Damascus.

In a surprise move, Russia put forward a second draft resolution backing the deployment of investigators from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to Syria, according to the text seen by AFP.

Russia and Syria have called for the OPCW to send its experts to the rebel-held town of Douma, where toxic gas was allegedly used in an attack on Saturday that killed dozens.

Diplomats said allowing OPCW experts to carry out a fact-finding mission could be aimed at heading off Western military strikes.

The OPCW, however, does not have a mandate to identify those responsible for chemical attacks, a task that the United States wants to confer to its proposed panel.

- Threat of military action -

The US-Russia showdown at the Security Council comes amid warnings from President Donald Trump that there will be a "big price to pay" for the alleged attack in Douma.

During a stormy council meeting on Monday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley called for action to address chemical weapons use in Syria and warned that the United States was ready to respond, with or without the United Nations.

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley said.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria," she added.

"Either way, the United States will respond."

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia warned that US military action in Syria could lead to "grave repercussions."

"From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," Nebenzia said.

A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted in the 15-member council and no vetoes from the five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Russia has used its veto power 11 times at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally.

The United States is proposing to establish the new panel for one year to work with the OPCW to identify perpetrators, reviving the work of a previous panel that ended in November when Russia vetoed the renewal of its mandate.

That panel, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), had found that the Syrian air force had dropped sarin on the village of Khan Sheikhun in April of last year.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a US Senate hearing on data misuse by the social network

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg accepted personal responsibility Tuesday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an "arms race" against Russian disinformation during a high-stakes hearing with US lawmakers.

In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive answered questions for nearly five hours as he sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the network's two billion users.

Under mounting pressure over the hijacking of its user data by a British political consultant, Zuckerberg reiterated his apology for the historic breach, before being grilled over how Facebook collects and protects people's personal information.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said about the improper sharing of 87 million people's information by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here."

He added that Facebook fell short in protecting the platform, noting: "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

The 33-year-old CEO spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere.

"There are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other internet systems and other systems as well," he said.

"So this is an arms race. They're going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too."

Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the social network failed to do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation during the last US presidential race.

The Senate hearing, ahead of another appearance in the House on Wednesday, featured several tense and some friendly exchanges on Facebook's security, hate speech and other topics.

Of the hundreds of questions he faced, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbin's pointed query about where he slept the previous evening.

"Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?" Durbin asked.

Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred.

"Um, uh, no," he said.

And "if you've messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you've messaged?" the Illinois Democrat persisted.

Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.

Perhaps more than any other senator during five hours of questioning, Durbin's everyman tactic put a finger on the crux of the issue surrounding Facebook's handling of its users' private data.

- Open to regulation -

Zuckerberg sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social network

Zuckerberg said he was open to regulation, but cautioned against complex rules that might impact emerging social media firms.

"I think the internet is becoming increasingly important in people's lives and I think we need to have a full conversation about what is the right regulation," he told the hearing.

"You need to be careful (a new regulatory policy) doesn't cement in the current companies that are winning."

Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is cooperating with the US special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 vote.

"Our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure in an open session I don't reveal something that's confidential," he said.

Zuckerberg said he had personally not been contacted, and that he was not specifically aware of any subpoena of Facebook data.

"I believe there may be (a subpoena), but I know we're working with them," he said.

Swapping his customary T-shirt for a business suit and tie, the Facebook chief appeared somber as he fielded tough questions over Cambridge Analytica's massive data breach.

"We've been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said in his prepared remarks.

But the show of contrition fell short for several lawmakers.

"We've seen the apology tours before," Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told Zuckerberg.

"And so, my reservation about your testimony today is that I don't see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road."

- Paid-for Facebook? -

Cardboard cutouts of Zuckerberg stand outside the US Capitol, placed by advocacy group Avaaz to call attention to what it says are fake accounts still spreading disinformation on Facebook

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Congress before the hearing wearing Zuckerberg masks and #DeleteFacebook T-shirts.

Inside the jammed hearing room, activists from the Code Pink group wore oversized glasses with the words "STOP SPYING" written on the lenses, and waved signs that read "Stop corporate lying."

Testifying was a new step for Zuckerberg, who started Facebook as a Harvard dropout in 2004, and built it into the world's largest social media company worth more than $450 billion.

During questioning, Zuckerberg rejected the suggestion that the social media giant, with over two billion users worldwide, has exclusive control over its market.

"The average American uses eight different apps to communicate with their friends and stay in touch with people, ranging from texting apps to e-mail," he said.

Zuckerberg also said the company believed in an ad-supported business model, but appeared to leave open the possibility of a paid version.

"There will always be a version of Facebook that is free," Zuckerberg told the hearing.
Trump: not invited to royal wedding

US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May have not been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle, British media reported on Tuesday.

Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for Kensington Palace, the prince's official residence, said: "It has been decided that an official list of political leaders -- both UK and international -- is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding".

Then prime minister David Cameron was invited to the 2011 wedding of Harry's brother Prince William, who is second in line to the throne after their father Prince Charles.

Harry's place in the line of succession makes this wedding less politically significant and the couple have instead invited youth workers and military veterans to attend.

Harry is fifth in line to the throne and will soon find himself in sixth place after William's wife Kate gives birth as expected later this month.

Kensington Palace also said on Tuesday that 2,640 people would be invited on the day into the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the couple will be married in St George's Chapel on May 19.

Of those, 1,200 have been picked out by royal officials from around the country and the remainder will be members of the public, guests from charities associated with the couple.

Among the invitees is 30-year-old Philip Gillespie, a military veteran who lost his right leg in an explosion in Afghanistan and was a participant in the Invictus Games for wounded service personnel, which Harry founded.

Another is Rosie Ginday, 34, the founder of "Miss Macaroon", a charity that provides culinary training and employment opportunities for disadvantaged young people in Birmingham.

Twelve-year-old Amelia Thompson who was caught up in last year's Manchester Arena terror attack in which 23 people were killed and hundreds more injured, is also on the list.

The invitees will be able to watch the arrivals of the bride and groom and their wedding guests at the chapel and the carriage procession as it departs from the castle after the service.
Demonstrators treat Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja, who later died from his wounds, after he was shot by Israeli security forces during protests along the Gaza-Israel border on April 6, 2018

Israel's defence minister on Tuesday accused a Palestinian journalist killed by the army during protests along the Gaza border of having been a member of the military wing of Islamist group Hamas.

The claim was immediately rejected by one of Yasser Murtaja's colleagues, who called the statement "ridiculous."

Separately the US State Department said Murtaja's company Ain Media had recently been granted USAID funding, though no technical assistance or equipment had yet been given.

Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists Murtaja was a "terrorist with a prior association with the military arm of Hamas," claiming he held a "rank similar to captain."

He said the journalist had been paid by Hamas since 2011 and had used a drone to collect information on Israeli forces along the border.

He did not produce evidence for the claims and did not say whether Murtaja had flown a drone during Friday's clashes, when he was shot.

Murtaja was wearing a press vest when he was hit a few hundred metres from the border during the protests, witnesses said.

The army has not said if he was deliberately targeted or hit by accident.

Murtaja was well known in the Gaza media scene.

With Ain Media he worked on documentaries published on Al Jazeera and with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Rushdi Al-Serraj, director at Ain Media and co-founder with Murtaja, said Lieberman's statements were "ridiculous comments that are not worth responding to."

"Yasser has been working for years in the press and making films for the United Nations, China and others," he told AFP.

"They killed a journalist and should confess it is a crime."

In a statement Hamas said they had video evidence that proved Murtaja was wearing a press vest and using a video camera, not a drone, when he was killed.

The statement did not respond to Lieberman's other allegations regarding Hamas links.

Murtaja's funeral was attended by Hamas's leader Ismail Haniya.

He regularly attends funerals of those killed in conflict with Israel, even if they are not members of the movement.

Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians since March 30 in protests and clashes along the border with Gaza, which has been blockaded for a decade.

Israel has rejected calls from the European Union, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and other for an independent investigation into the deaths.

The army says its troops only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltrations, bids to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008 and says the blockade of Gaza is necessary to isolate the Islamist movement.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir delivers a speech to the members of the parliamentary body of the ruling National Congress Party on April 2, 2018 in the capital Khartoum

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir Tuesday ordered the release of political detainees, weeks after massive arrests in a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Security agents arrested hundreds of opposition leaders, activists, protesters in January in an attempt to curb demonstrations over rising food prices, including bread.

"President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday issued a decree to release all political detainees held across the country," the official SUNA news agency reported, quoting the decree.

The SUNA report did not specify how many prisoners would be set free or whether they would include detainees held before the crackdown began.

"The decision aims to promote peace and harmony among all political parties in order to create a positive environment for achieving national goals," SUNA said.

The January arrests came after sporadic protests erupted in the capital Khartoum and towns across the country after the price of bread more than doubled.

Some activists were later freed but many still remain in detention, including top opposition leaders Khaled Omar of the Sudanese Congress Party and Mokhtar al-Khatib, head of the Sudanese Communist Party.

Bashir's order comes just days after the chief of Sudan's powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Salah Abdallah Mohammed Salih, held a meeting with opposition activists over the issue of detainees.

During the meeting, Salih, widely known as Salih Ghosh, had agreed to release detainees, according to the opposition Communist Party.

The United States and European embassies in Sudan have called for the release of all detainees, with Washington's mission in Khartoum saying that many are being held in "inhumane conditions".

Sudanese authorities had cracked down on protesters in a bid to prevent a repeat of deadly unrest that followed an earlier round of subsidy cuts in 2013.

At that time dozens of people were killed when security forces crushed demonstrations, rights groups say.
Porn actress Stormy Daniels says that Michael Cohen's surreptitious payment aimed to keep her quiet about her earlier relationship with Trump

Donald Trump's pit bull. His fixer. His consigliere.

Michael Cohen, the scrappy New York attorney whose office was raided by the FBI Monday, is a lot more than the US president's private lawyer.

Outside of Trump's family, Cohen is perhaps the person closest to the real estate tycoon, making the seizure of his business and personal documents from two New York locations by federal agents a direct threat against the US leader.

Trump was outraged by the raid, in which agents apparently took documents normally protected by attorney-client privilege. Some reportedly involved Cohen's payment of $130,000 to a porn movie actress to keep her alleged affair with Trump a secret.

"It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch-hunt," Trump said late Monday.

The raid underscored Cohen's importance to Trump. For more than a decade, as executive vice president and special counsel at the Trump Organization, Cohen has been Trump's key business partner, top aide, and protector.

"If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn't like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit," Cohen told ABC News in an interview in 2011.

"If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished."

- Helped launch Trump's political career -

Donald Trump voiced outrage after FBI agents raided the offices of his longtime personal lawyer and loyal problem-fixer Michael Cohen

New York-born Cohen, 51, first connected with Trump when he bought a unit in a Trump condominium building in 2001. Over the years, while working in a law firm, he and his family bought more Trump-built units.

Michael Cohen "is a very smart person," Trump told the New York Post in 2007. "He has invested in my buildings because he likes to make money -- and he does."

Around that time Cohen joined the Trump Organization. By 2010, when Trump was mulling his first serious run for president, it was Cohen who set up a website "Should Trump Run?" to gauge public support and made contacts in the Republican Party.

"I've been admiring Donald Trump since I was in high school," he told ABC.

He prides himself on his loyalty to Trump, aggressively protecting his reputation.

"I'm the guy who protects the president and the family. I'm the guy who would take a bullet for the president," he told Vanity Fair.

In 2015, The Daily Beast reported, Cohen threatened a lawsuit and more over a coming story saying Trump's previous wife Ivana once accused her husband of raping her.

"You write a story that has Mr. Trump's name in it, with the word 'rape,' and I'm going to mess your life up... for as long as you're on this frickin' planet," Cohen told the reporters.

- Real estate, porn actress -

Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels, who lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to keep secret her alleged affair with President Donald Trump

Cohen's role in Trump Organization real estate deals involving Russians, and his handling of the case involving porn star Stormy Daniels are what have made him a focus of special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is probing links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Cohen was interviewed for hours behind closed doors by two Congressional committees on the Russia links last year, where he vehemently denied Trump or himself having any contacts with Russians during the election or knowledge of any collusion.

The Daniels case puts both Trump and Cohen in the prosecutor's harsh spotlight. Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and that just before the 2016 election Cohen secretly paid her $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure contract.

The contract said she would have to pay $1 million for each time she disclosed anything about her relationship with now-President Trump.

According to media reports, Mueller is investigating Cohen for possible bank and wire fraud and campaign finance law violations, which could arise from the payment.

Trump last week denied any knowledge of the payment. "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen," about it, he told reporters.
A general view of the road near the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing with Saudi Arabia on June 23, 2017

Saudi Arabia has plans to dig a canal the length of its border with Gulf rival Qatar, to turn the peninsula into an island and further isolate it, Saudi media have said.

"The project is to be funded entirely by Saudi and Emirati private sector investment -- under full Saudi authority," Sabq Online Newspaper reported on Monday.

The planned "Salwa Canal" is to be dug by Egyptian companies, benefiting from the "Egyptian experience" in widening the Suez Canal, it said.

The blueprint -- its details leaked in successive days in the Saudi press -- has yet to elicit an official denial from Riyadh.

It is the latest twist in the 10-month Gulf crisis, which has pitted Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain against Qatar.

Last June, Riyadh and its allies broke off relations with Doha, accusing it of fostering close links with Tehran and supporting Islamist extremists -- a charge Qatar denies.

The boycott includes the closure of the small Gulf state's only land border with Saudi Arabia.

"The canal project would appear to be an attempt to further tighten the blockade on Qatar and attempt to take trade away from the emirate," The New Arab, a Qatari-owned publication, said Sunday.

Sabq said the blueprint -- which it noted would be a boon for tourism, adding 60 kilometres (37 miles) to the Saudi coastline -- was awaiting a "green light" from authorities.

The canal would measure 15-20 metres (50-65 feet) deep and 200 metres (over 200 yards) wide, allowing for the passage of merchant ships, it said.

Saudi Al-Riyadh newspaper went further, claiming the project includes plans for a dump which would be filled with waste from nuclear reactors which the kingdom and the UAE plan on building.
Bill Hutchison, Theresa Cira and Bob Koch



Figure 1. Look for the Midwest Stink Bug Assistant screenshot to download the app. Look for the Midwest Stink Bug Assistant screenshot to download the app.



Figure 2. Sample pages for the Midwest Stink Bug Assistant. Sample pages for the Midwest Stink Bug Assistant.

A stink bug "look alike" page that helps users distinguish stink bugs from non-stink bugs

New artwork designed to assist users in finding the distinguishing features of stink bugs

High-quality, high resolution images of common stink bug species in the Midwest

The option to review and report another new invasive, recently found in Minnesota, the Bagrada Bug!

Additional resources for specific crop impacts and BMSB management are included

A free IOS and Android app has been developed by the University of Minnesota Extension IPM Program, in partnership with the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center and Purdue University (Fig. 1). The app can be downloaded here, for both Apple and Android platforms.The main focus of the app is to facilitate early detection and reporting of the invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB; Halyomorpha halys), but it also helps users identify native stink bug species common to the Midwest region. This free app, Midwest Stink Bug Assistant, will allow farmers, crop consultants, and the general public to become comfortable distinguishing stink bugs from other bugs and identifying common stink bugs.The app shows high-resolution, side-by-side comparisons of stink bug species to assist in identification. A key feature of this app allows users to easily report invasive stink bugs such as BMSB which is responsible for millions of dollars in crop losses in the Eastern and Pacific NW regions, and has a wide host range including: soybean, corn, sweet corn, apples, tomatoes, peppers and grapes.BMSB was first detected in in Minnesota in 2010. During the past two years, the pest has been found in apple orchards and soybean fields. To date, however, the highest populations have been limited to the seven-country metro area, with some bugs collected as far north as Duluth and Alexandria.If a suspected BMSB specimen is found, a photo can easily be uploaded by the user and a report generated through the apps "Report Invasive" feature. Once your bug has been reported, a stink bug expert will be contacted to verify the identification; if approved, the new specimen record will be sent to the national database ( EDDMapS ) for monitoring the spread of this pest.Other useful features of this app (Fig. 2) include:Support for the app was provided by the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plant & Pest Center (MITPPC) with funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), and the MN Extension IPM Program. Artwork, photographs, and text were developed by Drs. Theresa Cira, and Bill Hutchison, both with the UMN Extension IPM Program (E-IPM funding via USDA-NIFA), and Department of Entomology. IT support was provided by Eileen Luke and staff, at Purdue University Extension.For more information: Contact: Extension Entomologist, Bill Hutchison (hutch002@umn.edu)
A cruise missile blasts off from the USS Porter during last year's strike on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical attack

As global leaders pledged a strong reaction Tuesday to the latest suspected chemical attack in Syria, the countdown toward a military strike against President Bashar al-Assad's regime appeared to have begun.

Here is a look at some of the main military assets that could be involved in an offensive.

- United States -

When President Donald Trump last year ordered a strike against Assad following a deadly sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun, the US Navy launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean.

This year, the Porter and the Ross are both conducting operations in the Northern Atlantic, well out of range of a Syria strike.

In this March 21, 2016 US Navy hanout photo, the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) anchors out in Corfu, Greece, during a scheduled port visit

But the USS Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, left port at Larnaca, Cyprus on Monday and is within easy striking range of Syria.

Additionally, the USS New York is underway in the Mediterranean, though the amphibious transport ship is unlikely to be directly involved in a strike.

The Navy also has eight submarines currently deployed globally.

Their location is a tightly held secret, but if one is in the Mediterranean it could be used in a cruise missile strike.

The Tomahawks used last year targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems and radars at the Shayrat air base.

Currently, the US Navy has no aircraft carriers in the Med, though the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is due to leave Norfolk, Virginia on Wednesday as part of a regular deployment with the Navy's Sixth Fleet, which is headquartered in Naples, Italy.

In the event the Pentagon decides to use manned warplanes or drones, the US military has an intricate infrastructure in place in the region, where it has led an air war against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

- France -

If France joins a strike, it could launch its Rafale warplanes from French soil and use aerial refueling to get them to the target region.

This was the preferred course of action chosen by France's then president Francois Hollande in August 2013, after chemical attacks in Ghouta left more than 1,400 people dead.

But ultimately, Barack Obama famously declined to launch an operation in Syria, forcing Paris to stand down even though it had a half dozen Rafales ready at the Saint-Dizier air base in eastern France.

Another possibility is launching strikes from a multi-mission frigate equipped with cruise missiles. A French military official said France permanently has such a ship in the eastern Mediterranean.

- Britain -

Like France and the United States, Britain has established a heavy military presence in the Syrian region as it has supported the fight against IS.

As of 13 February 2018, Britain had conducted 1,700 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq and Syria.

Royal Air Force Akrotiri is a big base on Cyprus from where Britain launches many of its anti-IS raids in Syria.
Members of the Arizona National Guard listen to instructions on April 9, 2018, at the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix

Texas will send more than 1,000 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border, in response to President Donald Trump's call for the military deployment to the southern frontier, the state announced Tuesday.

An initial 250 Texas military personnel were sent to the border over the weekend. The Texas Military Department said the initial deployment was command and planning staff, along with support aircraft, vehicles and other equipment.

The department announced Tuesday it would activate 300 reserve troops this week, and each of the following weeks, for a total of more than 1,000 troops.

"The number of people coming across the border has increased more than 200 percent over this time last year," Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.

"The addition of National Guard on the border has proven to have a meaningful impact to reduce the flow of people and illegal activities coming across the border."

Texas already had approximately 100 troops at the border prior to Trump's request. They were first activated in 2014 and have been serving in an "observe and support" role, officials said.

The additional troops will be tasked with assisting border patrol agents by carrying out surveillance, communications, and other tasks.

The US Defense Department last week signed an order calling for as many as 4,000 National Guard personnel to assist at the southern border.

National Guard troops are normally commanded by governors.

The border state of Arizona has also responded to the federal request, deploying 225 members of its Guard on Monday.

The border fence is pictured at Anapra, New Mexico, near El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Saturday April 7th, days after US President Donald Trump had ordered US National Guard troops to the US-Mexico Border

The defense department said the troops would not carry out law enforcement activities without federal approval and would be armed for self-defense when necessary.

Trump has indicated he might keep troops at the border until his promised border wall is built.

The deployment has heightened tensions with Mexico, whose President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday ordered a review of its bi-lateral cooperation with the US.

The National Guard has previously been deployed to help patrol the southern border, including in 2010 under former president Barack Obama, and from 2006-2008 under George W. Bush.

Both deployments were limited to around a year.
President Donald Trump hosted Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in the Oval Office just one year after alleging his government funded terrorism at a "high level"

US President Donald Trump welcomed the Emir of Qatar to the White House Tuesday, barely one year after alleging his government funded terrorism at a "high level."

Drawing a line under a spat that called into question the future of a key US air base in the Gulf State, Trump hosted Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in the Oval Office.

"He's a friend of mine" Trump said effusively. "He's a great gentleman."

And a readout of the meeting issued later by the White House said "the leaders discussed joint efforts to finalize new commercial deals that would create more than 50,000 American jobs" in addition to discussing Syria and "Iranian and Russian malign influence" there.

It did not elaborate on the nature of the commercial ventures.

A year ago the picture was very different. Trump had followed the lead of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in taking a hard line against Qatar, saying the country needed to scale back ties with Iran and stop funding extremism.

Qatar's neighbors had also been infuriated by its willingness to host dissidents from across the Gulf and to allow broadcasts critical of them by Doha-based Al Jazeera.

Trump had initially supported an economic blockade on Qatar, but aides -- mindful of the pivotal role that the Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha plays in US Middle East operations -- have since convinced him to take a more moderate approach.

The Emir said Trump "has been very helpful in supporting us during this blockade," and thanked the American people for being "very supportive."

"We do not and we will not tolerate people who fund terrorism. We are cooperating with the United States of America to stop funding of terrorism around the region."

Trump praised Qatar's military purchases, saying they buy "a lot of equipment from us, a lot of military airplanes, missiles."

The pair also "discussed obstacles to restoring unity in the Gulf Cooperation Council," the statement added, a clear reference to the diplomatic feud between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.
Total denied the Le Monde report, saying in a statement that it "did not help the Republic of Congo escape the oversight of its international creditors"

The Congolese government skirted requirements of the International Monetary Fund in 2003 through a financial fiddle created by French oil giant Total, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.

Total denied the report, saying in a statement that it "did not help the Republic of Congo escape the oversight of its international creditors."

Le Monde based its report on a deep dive into the trove of confidential documents published in 2016 and 2017 by the whistle-blowing International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that have become known as the "Panama Papers" and "Paradise Papers".

It said Total developed an "impenetrable offshore scheme" that enabled Congo in 2003 to sell an oil concession to Congolese firm Likouala, which Le Monde called a "front" for the Congolese government.

The arrangement allowed Brazzaville to spend cash at a time when the heavily indebted country was barred from going further into debt with oil projects, Le Monde said.

Likouala, created in September 2003, was "an empty shell without expenditures or revenues, without staff or a bank account in its name" and managed by Total, the report said.

The company, which ceased to exist in 2011, was owned by a "front company" called Montrow International Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, Le Monde said.

To buy the oil concession, Likouala borrowed $70 million (roughly 60 million euros at the exchange rate in late 2003) from French banking giant BNP Paribas.

Contacted by AFP, BNP Paribas said banking regulations prevented it from discussing the matter.

Total, for its part, said: "The Republic of Congo decided to monetise its interests in the Likouala field by ceding them to the Likouala SA company and asked Total for help setting up this transaction with the most reputable financial establishments."

Its statement added: "The IMF was kept informed of the operation by the authorities of the Republic of Congo, notably with a letter dated November 17 that attests to it."

The online statement included a link to the letter, posted on the IMF website.

Total ceded the oilfield to Congo in 2003 under an accord aimed at normalising strained ties.

Congo's public debt represents 117 percent of its GDP, the IMF said last year.
An unidentified volunteer holds an oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma on April 7, 2018

Syria's regime has denied dropping toxic weapons on Eastern Ghouta, but analysts say they could have been used as a tactic to finally reconquer the last rebel enclave outside Damascus.

Rescuers and medics said Saturday's alleged toxic attack killed at least 40 people in the last opposition holdout of Douma and left hundreds with symptoms consistent with those of exposure to a chemical agent.

Global outrage has mounted and the United States has threatened to take punitive action, but it has not been possible to independently verify the reports.

Analysts say the regime might have chosen to carry out a chlorine attack to avoid any further heavy losses among its troops and to ensure rebel group Jaish al-Islam left Douma under terms set by Damascus.

"Rather than go deep into Douma and get bloodied badly, a chemical weapons attack was used to sow terror among the population from which Jaish al-Islam draws support," Syria analyst Nick Heras said.

"The tactic worked, and Assad will soon rule over Douma," said the analyst at the Center for New American Security.

President Bashar al-Assad has retaken control of almost all of Eastern Ghouta since mid-February, but until last week rebels in the final pocket of Douma determinedly refused to withdraw.

After the alleged chemical attack, the regime said a deal had been reached for Jaish al-Islam fighters to leave the bombed-out town.

- 'Fabrications' -

Retaking control of Eastern Ghouta would be a major victory for Assad in Syria's seven-year war, which has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions.

It would free up pro-government forces to expel opposition fighters from other parts of the country, including the northwestern province of Idlib and the southern area of Daraa, and make the capital Damascus secure.

"Assad needs every operation to be low casualties, or his army will not have the numbers to move on any other rebel controlled areas," Heras said.

The Damascus regime and key ally Russia have both rejected any use of toxic substances as "fabrications".

"The army, which has progressed rapidly and with determination, does not need to use any chemical substance," an official source told state news agency SANA after the reported attack.

Regime backer Iran has said that "with the Syrian army having the upper hand on the ground against the armed terrorists, it would not be rational for it to use chemical weapons".

On Tuesday, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it would soon deploy a team to Douma after Damascus said it was "ready to provide all necessary assistance to the mission".

Assad's regime has regained 95 percent of Eastern Ghouta through a combination of an aerial blitz, ground battles and Russia-brokered evacuation deals, a Britain-based monitor says.

More than 1,700 civilians have lost their lives since Russia-backed regime forces launched their blistering assault on February 18, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

Analyst Faysal Itani says regime forces might have chosen to use a chemical weapons in Douma as a "battlefield tactic" to secure "what to them is the most important geography of the war".

- 'World will move on' -

"They were faced with the prospect of a very ugly extended fight in this built-up area against a pretty tough and experienced enemy -- Jaish al-Islam -- or using chemical weapons," he said.

As a tactic, the second "works quite well in breaking morale and causing panic behind front lines", said the resident senior fellow at the US-based Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

Western countries may have repeatedly warned that evidence of Damascus using chemical weapons is a "red line" that will trigger fierce consequences, but Itani says their actions so far have been limited.

In April last year, US President Donald Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base after a previous toxic attack UN investigators later pinned on Assad's regime.

But that did little to dent Assad in the longer-term and there has been no international military response to a string of other alleged toxic attacks of which the regime has since been accused.

For any regime forces planning a gas attack, "their worst case calculation is that there will be another limited targeted US strike against something and then the world will move on", Itani said.

The actions so far of the United States and other Western countries have told Assad that "at the end of the day he's going to be allowed to retake the country and survive politically", he said.
US President Donald Trump welcomed China's President Xi Jinping conciliatory comments on trade, easing fears the two economies will careen towards a trade war

President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised the "kind words" from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and pledged "great progress" in the looming trade dispute between the world's largest economies.

Still, the White House also admonished China to take concrete action on US complaints about unfair trade practices.

Xi earlier Tuesday pledged to open Chinese markets and lower tariffs, remarks that helped global investors breathe a sigh of relief after weeks in which Beijing and Washington appeared on a collision course.

"Very thankful for President Xi of China's kind words on tarrifs [sic] and automobile barriers... also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers," Trump said on Twitter.

"We will make great progress together!" Trump predicted, hailing the speech in which Xi renewed a commitment to lower car import tariffs.

But following Trump's tweet the White House made clear it wants to see changes enacted in China.

"We're encouraged by the words but we want to see concrete steps and concrete action," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"We want to see more than just the rhetoric," she added, and until that happens the planned tariffs will enter into force.

The fresh sign of detente could further soothe fears that the tit-for-tat exchange of threats of new punitive tariffs on agricultural and manufactured goods could boil over into an all-out trade war, damaging the global economy.

Trump has signed off on duties on $50 billion of Chinese imports which are due to take effect later this year, and he threatened to retaliate with tariffs on another $100 billion in Chinese goods, after Beijing said it would target US agricultural goods among other items.

US officials have long accused China of forcing US companies to hand over technology, or stealing it outright, and of spurring massive industrial overcapacity, among other complaints.

- Xi 'underdelivers' -

White House officials in recent days offered mixed messages, suggesting in some cases the tariff threats were mostly a negotiating tactic, while demanding China reduce its trade surplus with the US.

In his address, Xi told an economic forum on the southern island of Hainan that China "does not seek a trade surplus."

Promising a "new phase of opening up," Xi said China would "considerably lower" tariffs on cars and other products this year, take measures to liberalize automobile investment, and protect intellectual property -- all areas that have been high on the list of demands by Washington.

"Economic globalization is an irreversible trend of the time," Xi told the Boao Forum for Asia. "The door of China's opening up will not close, it will only open wider and wider."

But analysts and veteran China watchers were less upbeat about Xi's remarks than Trump, pointing out that there was nothing new in the statement and the Chinese leader had previously promised reforms of the auto sector.

Evan Medeiros, former US National Security Council director for Asia, noted it was "not a new commitment and will not dramatically change the fortunes of US car companies."

"Xi's bland and generic commitments on IP protection fell short of what would have been a true gamechanger."

The Eurasia Group agreed the speech was "not a game-changer" and said it "underdelivers after all the hype from Beijing."

"Xi proposed actions which were previously promised and none address the reciprocity issues in US-China relations," Eurasia Group said in a briefing note.

But with Trump and his supporters happy to claim a victory for a browbeating strategy, the flurry of pronouncements could open the door to talks.

Earlier this week Larry Kudlow, Trump's top economic advisor, said limited interactions already had taken place but no serious discussions to avoid tariffs.
Activists rally during a protest to the mark the one year anniversary of the Trump administration's executive order banning travel into the United States from several Muslim majority countries on January 26, 2018 in New York

The United States announced Tuesday the lifting of its six-month ban on visitors and immigrants from Chad, saying the country had met key security requirements for vetting travelers.

"The president announced today that Chad has raised its security standards to meet important baseline US national security requirements," the Department of Homeland Security announced.

"Therefore, its nationals will again be able to receive visas for travel to the United States."

The travel restrictions will be officially terminated on April 13.

The central African country's government, which the US calls a "critical" partner in fighting terrorism, had expressed astonishment in September last year when the US unexpectedly added it to a list of five other mainly-Muslim countries under a travel ban.

Chad's foreign minister Cherif Mahamat Zene welcomed the news.

"Chad is pleased to be removed from the list of countries whose nationals are banned from entering the United States, and hopes to further strengthen the strategic partnership and cooperation between the two countries," he tweeted.

Critics say the ban -- first declared in January 2017 without Chad on the list -- targeted Muslim travelers, pointing to President Donald Trump's campaign promises to ban Muslims from coming to the United States.

After a series of court challenges, the Trump administration revised the ban in September, putting all the countries listed under a 180-day review.

The Department of Homeland Security has maintained that the ban focused on getting countries to improve information on their citizens and cooperation on travel databases, to meet US security standards.

US officials said Chad has addressed the deficiencies in vetting outward-bound travelers and cooperating with US security bodies.

They said it sets an example for other countries on the list, which include Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and North Korea.

The ban was applied in a limited way to officials from certain Venezuelan government agencies as well.

"We welcome the improved practices by the Chadian authorities, which demonstrate a clear off-ramp for countries placed on the travel restriction list. These improvements will improve security for the people of Chad and the United States," the State Department said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Republicans are standing by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt as he fends off a barrage of ethics troubles, a testament to their support for his agenda and reluctance to wade into a nasty confirmation fight over who might replace him.

While they flinch at repeated revelations about Pruitt's ethics and questionable spending on security and travel, Republicans say Pruitt has led administration efforts to ease federal regulations on manufacturing, mining and other industries.

Conservative groups also have weighed in on Pruitt's behalf, citing actions to roll back President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, block new restrictions on a range of U.S. waterways and relax fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks with auto industry leaders following a news conference at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, on his decision to scrap Obama administration fuel standards. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul tweeted that Pruitt "is likely the bravest and most conservative member" of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the EPA chief was being "bullied by the Obama groupies" in the news media and Congress.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, said Monday that Pruitt has accomplished key priorities as EPA head, mainly in reversing "punishing regulations" imposed under Obama. Barrasso said he saw the positive impact of Pruitt's actions late last month as he and Pruitt toured a Wyoming coal mine.

More than 100 conservatives, including the heads of the American Legislative Exchange Council and Conservative Action Project, along with former attorney general Edwin Meese III and former GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, sent a letter Friday hailing Pruitt.

"President Trump campaigned on reducing Washington's bureaucracy, and Administrator Pruitt has been instrumental to that effort," they wrote.

Pruitt's leadership has helped Trump keep his promises on a number of issues important to conservatives, including rollback of the Clean Power Plan, Obama's signature effort to address climate change by restricting emissions from coal-fired power plants, the group wrote.

Barrasso acknowledged that "certain questions have been raised about internal operations" at EPA and Pruitt's actions, but said he will wait for a White House review before reaching a judgment.

The conservative bid to rally around Pruitt came as three Republican senators criticized him and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for Pruitt to resign or be fired amid expanded ethics investigations of his spending and possible perks he's received.

"If you want to drain the swamp, Mr. President, get rid of Mr. Pruitt," Schumer said.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called Pruitt's behavior stupid and "juvenile" and urged him to "stop acting like a chucklehead, stop the unforced errors, stop leading with your chin."

"If you don't need to fly first class, don't," Kennedy said on CBS's "Face the Nation." ''Don't turn on the siren on your SUV just to watch people move over. You represent the president of the United States."

The Republican-led House Oversight committee confirmed Monday it has expanded its review of Pruitt's travel spending to address questions surrounding his bargain $50-a-night rental of a Capitol Hill condominium tied to a fossil fuels lobbyist. The Office of Government Ethics also has issued a letter to EPA demanding documents related to the condo rental.

The Associated Press reported Friday that the 20-member team tasked with providing day-and-night protection for Pruitt had racked up salary, overtime and travel expenses approaching $3 million.

Trump defended Pruitt in a tweet over the weekend, saying the EPA chief is "doing a great job." Trump called Pruitt's security spending "somewhat more" than his predecessor and said Pruitt had received death threats "because of his bold actions at EPA."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, called the $50-a-night condo rental troubling. "The bottom line, this doesn't look good," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the lone Republican to oppose Pruitt's confirmation, called him "the wrong person to head the EPA." She told CNN the "daily drip of accusations of excessive spending and ethical violations serve to further distract the agency from accomplishing its very important mission."

As Pruitt struggled to keep his job, another battle was brewing in the Senate, where Schumer vowed to oppose Trump's nomination of former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as the EPA's No. 2 official. If confirmed as deputy administrator, Wheeler would be in line to replace Pruitt on an acting basis.

Wheeler, a former Senate GOP staffer, has spent his career "working to undermine or lobby against environmental protections he may soon oversee," Schumer said, adding that Wheeler "fits the pattern in the Trump administration of nominating an industry lobbyist to lead the agencies who are supposed to be a watchdog over those very industries."

The Senate is likely to vote on Wheeler's nomination this week as Congress returns from a two-week recess.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency handling workplace harassment complaints has a huge backlog, with wait times for resolution often stretching for years.

And as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes on renewed significance in light of the growing #MeToo movement, lawyers worry that the increased caseload will lead to even longer delays.

Employment lawyers acknowledge that the cash-strapped agency is doing its best. But they also say the uptick of sexual harassment cases being brought to the EEOC could mean even longer waits - and suffering - for their clients.
PLEASANT HILL, Iowa (AP) - As she learned the basics of applying direct pressure, packing a wound with gauze and tying a tourniquet, sixth-grade math and social studies teacher Kari Stafford shook her head at the thought that this may now be an essential skill for her profession.

Stafford didn't like it, but with school shootings now a regular occurrence, she and her colleagues have reluctantly accepted that the attacks won't stop and that teachers must know how to keep the victims from bleeding to death.

"Learning to help and not just stand there is important," said Stafford, who joined about a dozen other educators at a medical training session at Southeast Polk High School, a sprawling 9-year-old campus surrounded by farmland in Pleasant Hill, just east of Des Moines.

In this March 28, 2018, photo, trauma care specialist Brian Feist and Dr. Richard Sidwell lead a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. Feist and Sidwell are among those helping educators learn skills in medical training through a nonprofit program, dubbed Stop the Bleed. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Over the past five years, about 125,000 teachers, counselors and administrators across the country have been trained in stemming blood loss as school officials have become resigned to the grim trend. The effort is rapidly expanding, and more schools are now stocking classrooms with supplies that would be familiar to any military medic: lightweight tourniquets, gauze coated with blood-clotting drugs and compression bandages.

Although schools are adding security and even arming teachers to deter attacks, new emphasis is being given to saving the wounded while counting down the minutes until help arrives.

The teacher triage idea was initially pushed by Dr. Lenworth Jacobs of Hartford, Connecticut, who operated on victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, in which 26 children and adults were killed.

He feared that Sandy Hook wouldn't be the last school shooting, and his assumption has been borne out again and again, with the Feb. 14 killing of 17 people at a Florida high school only the latest major incident.

"I've been a trauma surgeon for over 40 years and have seen a lot of gunshot wounds," he said, but an elementary school massacre is "entirely different. These are 6-year-olds with wounds from very high-powered weaponry, and it changes you."

Jacobs and other like-minded surgeons formed a group that expanded to include law enforcement and other first responders who developed strategies for helping victims survive.

In many school shootings, more victims could be saved if someone had at least slowed their bleeding.

"It takes a long time, longer than it takes to bleed to death, to clear the classroom, secure it and make sure there's not another shooter," he said. "The person who is going to save you is the person right beside you."

The initiative, dubbed Stop the Bleed, has spread quickly and training is now available in all 50 states.

Georgia has been a leader, spending more than $1 million to expand a test program and ship medical supplies to schools. Since last spring, the Georgia Trauma Commission, a state agency that works to improve emergency care, has coordinated the training of more than 18,000 educators.

Many teachers who might once have recoiled at becoming a battlefield medic have come around as school security measures have repeatedly failed to prevent shootings. In many cases, the shooters are students themselves who have ready access to the building. And lockdowns can add to the risk of death.

"If students are shot in a lockdown they can just bleed out. They'll die," said Dena Abston, executive director of the commission.

In Bend, Oregon, paramedic Nolan McGinnis leapt at the chance to train school personnel on how to treat victims. He was among the first paramedics to arrive at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, after a 2015 shooting that left 10 people dead.

"Especially with these school shootings, you never know if the shooter is going to give himself up or take his own life before we get there, or if it will be 15 minutes and we're still waiting to go onto the scene," McGinnis said.

The Bend trainers are also teaching high school students the techniques, and a group of students is raising money for bleeding control kits.

"A single person can't stop a shooting but one person can save multiple lives, and to have something like that on my conscience is a great feeling," said Sierra Sheeks, a Bend Senior High sophomore.

At the Iowa training, about a dozen teachers, aides and others gathered in an English classroom before the school day began for Southeast Polk's nearly 2,000 students. Although no shootings have occurred at the school, the now-normal drumbeat of reports about threats, rumors and lockdowns in every region keeps the danger in mind.

Trauma care specialist Brian Feist and surgeon Richard Sidwell used a foam limb to demonstrate proper techniques, then gave teachers a chance to practice packing wounds and cinching tourniquets.

Feist explained that direct pressure was more effective on especially young children and tourniquets best for multiple wounds. The ultratight straps on a tourniquet could be very painful, he warned.

"Your patient is going to be freaking out because it's really, really hurting," he said.

Teacher Denise Gulling noted that kids now accept that shootings could happen. They regularly have drills on when to lock doors and hide in their classroom. Now, "this gives me one more option for helping," she said.

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Follow Scott McFetridge on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/smcfetridge

In this March 28, 2018, photo, Dr. Richard Sidwell, right, talks with Mary Owens, center, and Samantha Wing during a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. A Connecticut doctor helped launch the effort, dubbed Stop the Bleed. The nonprofit program has spread to all 50 states, with more than 125,000 teachers, counselors and school administrators learning skills. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, Dr. Richard Sidwell, left, instructs Madonna Coates on wound packing during a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. A Connecticut doctor helped launch the effort, dubbed Stop the Bleed. The nonprofit program has spread to all 50 states, with more than 125,000 teachers, counselors and school administrators learning skills. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, Dr. Richard Sidwell, left, leads a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. A Connecticut doctor helped launch the effort, dubbed Stop the Bleed. The nonprofit program has spread to all 50 states, with more than 125,000 teachers, counselors and school administrators learning skills. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, Madonna Coates, center, listens during a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. Coates is one of over 125,000 teachers, counselors and school administrators in the U.S., learning skills such as applying direct pressure, packing wounds and applying tourniquets. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, Dr. Richard Sidwell leads a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. Sidwell is among those helping educators learn skills in medical training through a nonprofit program, dubbed Stop the Bleed. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, trauma care specialist Brian Feist leads a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. Feist is among those helping educators learn skills in medical training through a nonprofit program, dubbed Stop the Bleed. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this March 28, 2018, photo, a sign hangs on a wall in the classroom during a medical training session for teachers and staff at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump held nothing back Monday in slamming the raid on his personal attorney's office and the investigation into Russian election meddling.

The setting: The White House Cabinet Room. Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence beside him, was meeting with the nation's top military and intelligence officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and new national security adviser John Bolton, to discuss the U.S. response to a deadly chemical weapons attack near Damascus, Syria.

But first, as soon as reporters entered the room, Trump turned to the raid and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

President Donald Trump, right, sitting next to Vice President Mike Pence, left, speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018, at the start of a meeting with military leaders. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

A sampling of quotes:

___

"I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it's a disgraceful situation." - Trump, as soon as reporters entered the room.

___

"Here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things with the greatest fighting force ever, and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now, and actually much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination it started. And it's a disgrace. It's frankly a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for. ... That is really now in a whole new level of unfairness."

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"We'll see what happens." Trump - asked why he doesn't fire Mueller.

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"The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself or he certainly should have let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But you'll figure that out." - Trump on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation.

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"The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise you know of this nonsense that was going on. It dropped a lot. It was up - it was way up. It dropped quite a bit at the end." - Trump blaming the raid for the stock market decline Monday.

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"The other side is where there are crimes and those crimes are obvious - lies under oath all over the place, emails that are knocked out, that are acid washed and deleted, 33,000 emails were deleted after getting a subpoena from Congress. And nobody bothers looking at that." - Trump, referring to questions about his 2016 presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

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"No." - Trump, asked whether he has any concerns about what the FBI might find.

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"Interesting day. He picked today as his first day. So generals, I think he picked the right day." - Trump on Bolton's first day of work on Monday.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican soldiers have found 120 gallons (450 liters) of liquid methamphetamine in one of the fuel tanks of a truck in the state of Sinaloa.

The army said Monday that the soldiers were searching the truck at a highway checkpoint near the city of Mazatlan and became suspicious of the fuel tank, apparently because it didn't smell like diesel.

The truck had set out from Michoacan state and was headed north to Mazatlan. Michoacan is one of the largest meth-producing states in Mexico.

The truck and its driver were handed over to police.
NEW YORK (AP) - In the 135 days since the Trump administration took control of the nation's consumer watchdog agency, it has not recorded a single enforcement action against banks, credit card companies, debt collectors or any finance companies whatsoever.

That's likely no fluke: Mick Mulvaney, appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in late November, promised to shrink the bureau's mandate and take a much softer approach to enforcement, and records reviewed by The Associated Press indicate he has kept his word.

A review of a CFPB database obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information request shows that the bureau issued an average of two to four enforcement actions a month under former Director Richard Cordray, President Obama's appointee. But the database shows zero enforcement actions have been taken since Nov. 21, 2017, three days before Cordray resigned.

FILE - In this Nov. 27, 2017, file photo, Mick Mulvaney speaks during a news conference after his first day as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington. Mulvaney promised to shrink the bureau's mandate and take a much softer approach to enforcement, and records reviewed by The Associated Press indicate he has kept his word. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Before Mulvaney, the bureau used enforcement actions to extract billions of dollars in relief for consumers from financial companies and to stop companies from doing harm. Bank of America was ordered to return $727 million to consumers for deceptive credit card practices in 2015 - the largest award in the bureau's history - but the CFPB has issued dozens of smaller actions to get relief for student borrowers, victims of debt collection companies and bank customers.

In the roughly seven years it has been in existence, the bureau has returned $3.97 billion in cash back to American consumers through enforcement actions and an additional $7.93 billion in other types of relief, such as lower loan balances or debt relief, based on the CFPB's records. The bureau estimates roughly one of every 10 Americans has received some sort of reimbursement or relief due to the bureau's enforcement work since it was created.

Despite that direct relief to consumers, Republicans - including Mulvaney when he was representing South Carolina in Congress - accused the bureau of overreach. Mulvaney once called the bureau a "sick, sad joke" of an agency.

Bureau watchers on both sides of the issue say that they don't believe enforcement actions have stopped entirely, and supervision and investigations at the agency are still ongoing. In a statement, the CFPB said the slowdown is tied to a new administration taking over the bureau, adding that "it is our job to enforce the law, and we take it very seriously."

"Assessing the legal risks of all pending enforcement actions is a critical part of the transition process and standard procedure for new leadership at enforcement agencies such as the Bureau. That review continues alongside the agency's ongoing law enforcement work," the statement said.

While consumer advocates expected fewer enforcement actions under a more business-friendly Trump administration, the fact that the database indicates they have stopped entirely raises concern that consumers have been left vulnerable. There were some periods under the Obama administration where bureau enforcement actions slowed, but those appear largely tied to the fact the agency was just getting underway. This is the longest stretch without enforcement actions in the CFPB's history.

"Enforcement is very important," said Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center, a consumer advocacy organization and a critic of Mulvaney. "If a company violates the law, it needs to be held accountable and called out instead of being quietly admonished through supervision."

The bureau effectively has two main avenues it can use to check wrongdoing at banks and other financial companies.

One is supervision, which is typically confidential and more routine. The CFPB has full-time inspectors inside most of the nation's largest banks who, when they see something that may not be illegal but still raises concerns, can speak privately with bank management. If an issue is more substantial, like a potential breach of consumer protection laws, the bureau can begin an investigation that can culminate in an enforcement order, which is basically a court order directing a company to stop illegal behavior and often carries a fine.

"Enforcement is one of the most important parts of CFPB, because of the signals it is able to send to markets," Saunders said.

Whether or not enforcement has been slowed by the change in management, Mulvaney repeatedly has said he wants to significantly curtail the bureau's operations, and the slowing of enforcement would be part of that.

"I made it clear that the Bureau will continue to execute the law, but will no longer go beyond its statutory mandate," Mulvaney said in his semi-annual report to Congress. His report also called for Congress to pass laws further curtailing the bureau's authority.

Mulvaney will appear in front of Congress on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss that report, and enforcement is expected to come up in questioning.

"My sense is things are moving forward in some way, but much more slowly than what was the historic pace of enforcement work," said Joanna Pearl, legal director at the recently created Public Rights Project, who was chief of staff of the CFPB's Office of Enforcement until January.

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AP Data Journalist Larry Fenn contributed to this report from New York.
LONDON (AP) - The spy saga that set off international tumult last month took a positive turn Tuesday as Yulia Skripal was released from a British hospital more than a month after she and her father were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.

"This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone," Salisbury District Hospital medical director Christine Blanshard said after the 33-year-old Skripal was discharged and taken to a secure location.

Blanshard would not provide details about Yulia Skripal's condition for reasons of patient privacy. Sergei Skripal, 66, the apparent target of the March 4 attack, is recovering more slowly than his daughter but continues to improve, she said.

FILE - This is a file image of the daughter of former Russian Spy Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal taken from Yulia Skipal's Facebook account on Tuesday March 6, 2018. British health officials say the daughter of a Russian ex-spy has responded well to treatment and is no longer in critical condition after a nerve-agent attack, it was reported on Thursday, March 29, 2018. (Yulia Skripal/Facebook via AP, File)

No date has been set for his discharge, the doctor said.

"Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment we've been providing. But equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery," she said.

The father and daughter were found unconscious on a bench and remained in critical condition for several weeks. Their poisoning has revived Cold War tensions between Russia and the West.

The British government is likely to keep details about Yulia Skripal's location secret, given the sensitivity of the case. It accuses Russia of carrying out the attack, which Moscow vehemently denies.

If she is well enough, she is likely to be extensively questioned by British security officials and police about her recollection of events leading up to her poisoning.

The Russian Embassy in London tweeted its congratulations to Yulia Skripal, but said pointedly that Russia needs "urgent proof" that "what is being done to her is done on her own free will."

The embassy accused British authorities of "concealing important evidence and blocking an impartial and independent investigation" by isolating the woman.

It reaffirmed its request for consular access to her. She is a Russian citizen.

It is not clear where the Skripals will live if they recover enough to resume normal activities. British officials may feel Sergei Skripal would not be safe to live openly in England any longer.

Bob Ayers, a security analyst who used to work with the CIA, said it is possible the Skripals would be given new identities in Britain or the United States under a program like those used to protect witnesses in high-profile criminal trials.

They could also choose to live in the open under the assumption that Russia would not attack a second time, he said.

"They may not want to go into hiding," Ayers said. "Now that the assassination attempt has been uncovered, the odds are pretty good the Russians won't take another run at them. They'll be under surveillance, the cops will put cameras up, they'll keep good track of the Skripals."

He said he would not expect Yulia Skripal to return to Russia despite her Russian nationality.

In a later tweet, the Russian Embassy said any attempt to settle her in another country would be regarded as "abduction."

British police say the lethal nerve agent Novichok was placed on the door handle of Sergei Skripal's house in Salisbury, an English city 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London.

The nerve agent also sickened Nick Bailey, a police detective who came to their aid. He was the first of the three to be released from the hospital.

Yulia Skripal arrived in England from Moscow the day before the attack to spend Easter with her father

Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain.

He was imprisoned in Russia and eventually settled in England after a 2010 "spy swap."

He was living under his own name in Salisbury, apparently believing he would be safe because there was no known history of Russia attacking former spies who had been part of exchanges.

The British government maintains the Skripals were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent that could only have been made in Russia. Russia has denied the allegation.

The incident has led to a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from countries aligned with Britain. Russia in turn retaliated by expelling diplomats from countries that sided with Britain.

There are still many unanswered questions about the brazen attack.

If Britain is correct that the Russian government is to blame, it is not clear why Sergei Skripal was poisoned now, some eight years after his swap.

Some analysts believe Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to send a message to others who had betrayed Russia that they are not safe anywhere in the world. Others believe Sergei Skripal might have been involved in some private business that made Russian officials uneasy.

British officials have also not revealed how the Novichok was brought into Britain.
MOSCOW (AP) - The ruble plunged for the second day in a row on Tuesday following fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia.

The Russian currency hit lows against the dollar and euro last seen in 2016, while the government trailed as-yet unspecified support measures for sanction-hit companies.

The sanctions introduced Friday against numerous Russian businessmen, officials and companies have caused sharp share price drops for sanctioned companies - most notably aluminum producer Rusal - but also the wider stock market, particularly banks which may be exposed to the sanctioned firms. Forbes magazine's Russian edition estimated that Russian billionaires lost a total of $12 billion on Monday alone.

People walk past an exchange office screen showing the currency exchange rates, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. The ruble has plunged for the second day in a row following fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said planned government support for sanctions-hit companies will focus on stabilizing them to avoid job losses, rather than propping up share prices.

"The main thing right now is to minimize uncertainty while securing stable functioning of the companies, where hundreds of thousands of people work," he told an economic forum in Moscow. "If necessary we will ensure the preservation of stable functioning ... Share prices are a secondary thing in this case."

He didn't provide details of how the measures could work.

The head of the Central Bank of Russia said she didn't view Russia's economy as financially unstable.

"In our view, there are no such risks now and certainly no need to take systemic measures, but we will keep track of the situation," Elvira Nabiullina said.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin attributes the "strong negative trends" on the Russian stock market in part to an "emotional reaction" to the sanctions, rather than more fundamental issues.

The ruble fell sharply in morning trading to go above 63 to the dollar for the first time since December 2016, but later recovered to 62.5 as of mid-afternoon. The euro briefly went over 78 rubles for the first time since early 2016, when historically low oil prices were hurting the Russian economy.

On the Moscow exchange, the main MOEX index was up almost 4 percent by late afternoon after taking a heavy hit Monday, though the dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.7 percent.

Rusal shares have dropped by more than half since the sanctions were announced, and the company has warned it may technically default.

On Tuesday, the chief executive of commodities giant Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg, left the board of Rusal, Glencore said.

Glencore also said it "will not proceed ... at this time" with a planned deal to swap its 8.75 percent stake in Rusal for a stake in billionaire Oleg Deripaska's holding company EN+ Group.

Glencore, which purchases large quantities of aluminum from Rusal, added it is "still evaluating the position under its contracts with Rusal, but notes that these contracts are not financially material to Glencore."

Despite the turbulence at some of Russia's biggest-name companies, there may be little wider impact on the Russian economy and growth rates because Russia has already adapted to previous rounds of international sanctions, said Oleg Kouzmin, the Moscow-based chief economist for Russia and ex-Soviet states at Renaissance Capital.

"Despite the significant reaction on the Russian financial markets, the impact on the Russian economy from the recent sanctions is likely to be much more muted than it was before," he told The Associated Press. The first U.S. and European sanctions on Russian individuals and companies were imposed in 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"First, the economy has already deleveraged in a few years under sanctions. Second, the current Russian economic policy toolkit is focused on ensuring stability. It's prepared the economy much better for any other external shocks which might arrive."

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against seven leading Russian businessmen, 17 officials and a dozen Russian companies.

Beside Deripaska, targets included Alexei Miller, the head of state natural gas giant Gazprom, and Andrey Kostin, the head of the state-controlled VTB Bank, which is Russia's second-largest.

There was also a place on the list for Kirill Shamalov, who is reportedly Putin's son-in-law, married to his daughter Katerina Tikhonova - although neither Putin nor the Kremlin has acknowledged that she is his daughter.

The sanctions freeze any assets that those targeted have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them. They were imposed following U.S. frustration with Russian policy in Syria and Ukraine, as well as alleged election interference.

Clearstream, which provides key infrastructure underpinning the financial markets, said Tuesday it would not process securities issued by those on the sanctions list.
GENEVA (AP) - China has filed a World Trade Organization complaint challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hike on imported steel and aluminum, the trade body said Tuesday.

The tariff spat is one element of a wide-ranging trade dispute between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping's government. Trump also has threatened to increase duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate conflict over technology policy.

China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute, according to the WTO. If that fails, the next step could be for Beijing to request a ruling from a panel of trade experts.

Chinese people walk through the capital city's popular shopping mall in Beijing, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. China's President Xi Jinping promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiraling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Beijing says Trump's decision to impose additional duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent aluminum violate international trade rules.

Steel and aluminum are among Chinese industries in which supply exceeds demand. China's trading partners complain its mills are exporting their surplus at improperly low prices, threatening jobs in the United States and Europe.

The United States buys little Chinese steel and aluminum following earlier tariff hikes meant to offset what Washington says are improper subsidies to producers. But economists said Beijing responded in order to show it would defend itself.

China's government issued a $3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork, apples and steel pipes on March 23 that it said might be targeted for retaliation if Trump fails to negotiate a settlement to the dispute over steel and aluminum charges.

A woman walks by a man sitting outside an American apparel store at a shopping mall in Beijing, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. China's President Xi Jinping promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiraling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China's President Xi Jinping prepares to deliver his opening speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao in south China's Hainan province, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Xi promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiraling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (Naohiko Hatta/Kyodo News via AP)

Shoppers exit a storefront advertising American apparel at the capital city's popular shopping mall in Beijing, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. President Xi Jinping promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiraling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
NEW YORK (AP) - An Afghanistan war veteran, former Missouri state official and rising star in the Democratic Party has a book deal.

Jason Kander's "Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage" is coming out Aug. 7, the book publisher Twelve told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Outside the Wire" will combine Kander's memories of serving overseas with his take on current politics. Twelve is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

Kander, who turns 37 next month, was Missouri's secretary of state from 2013-17 and has often been cited as a future presidential candidate. After narrowly failing to unseat incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt in 2016, he founded the anti-gerrymandering organization Let America Vote. He also hosts the podcast Majority 54.

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2016 file photo, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jason Kander waits to greet voters outside a polling place in St. Louis. Kander's "Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage" is coming out Aug. 7. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A court in northern Vietnam sentenced a dissident to 13 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government. He was the seventh activist to be jailed in the past week as Communist authorities step up a crackdown on dissent.

The official Vietnam News Agency said Nguyen Van Tuc, 54, was convicted of affiliating with an outlawed group named Brotherhood for Democracy in a half-day trial at the People's Court in Thai Binh province.

Tuc was also ordered to serve three years of house arrest after finishing his prison sentence.

Activist Nguyen Van Tuc, center, stands trial in Thai Binh, Vietnam, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Tuc was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the government. (The Duyen/ Vietnam News Agency via AP)

"The criminal acts committed by defendant Nguyen Van Tuc are particularly serious, directly impacting national security," VNA quoted the verdict as saying.

Court officials declined to comment.

VNA said Tuc joined the group in 2014 and served as its vice president. The group was a "reactionary organization that operated illegally aimed at attempting to abolish the leading role of the Communist Party of Vietnam and overthrow the people's administration," it said.

Tuc was previously sentenced in 2009 to four years in prison for distributing anti-government propaganda.

On Thursday, six members of the group, including its co-founder, prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, were sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison on the same charges.

Established in 2013, the group says its mission is to "fight to protect human rights recognized by the Vietnamese Constitution and international conventions" and "campaign to build a progressive, democratic, equal and civilized society in Vietnam." The group claimed nearly 80 members.

Despite sweeping economic reforms since the mid-1980s that opened up the country to foreign trade and investment and made it one of fastest-growing economies in the region, Communist-ruled Vietnam maintains tight controls on almost all aspects of society including the media and religion.

Separately, 47 members of Vietnamese civic groups, human rights defenders and independent media groups sent an open letter to Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg asking whether it is cooperating with the Vietnamese government in suppressing dissent.

The letter, released Tuesday, said Facebook has increasingly suspended the accounts of Vietnamese human rights activists and citizen journalists and removed their content. It said the company has been unhelpful in restoring the accounts, and that during the trial of activists on Thursday, "many accounts and pages of high-profile citizen journalists were prevented from posting."

"While we applaud Facebook's efforts to fight disinformation in open societies, your efforts are carried out with such a broad brush that it is hurting communities in closed and closing spaces, such as Vietnam," the letter said.

The signers said they were dismayed to learn that a Facebook executive had reportedly agreed to cooperate with the Vietnamese government in the monitoring and removal of content.

"It would appear that after this high-profile agreement to coordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of account suspension and content takedown has only grown more acute," the letter said.

Asked by The Associated Press for comment, Facebook said it is "committed to protecting the rights of the people who use Facebook, and to enabling people to express themselves freely and safely."

However, it said in an email, "There are also times when we may have to remove or restrict access to content because it violates a law in a particular country, even though it doesn't violate our Community Standards." It said it follows the same government request process for the removal of content in Vietnam as it does in the rest of the world.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The African nation of Gabon has arrested and handed over three men wanted in Turkey for ties to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday, vowing to press ahead with efforts to chase the cleric's followers abroad.

The three Turkish nationals, who were directors of schools linked to Gulen in Gabon, were arrested by authorities in Gabon's capital, Libreville, on March 23, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

They were returned to Turkey in an operation led by the Turkish intelligence agency, Anadolu reported Tuesday, citing unnamed security sources.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the members of his ruling Justice and Development Party, in Denizli, Turkey, Saturday, April 7, 2018. (Kayhan Ozer/Pool Photo via AP)

"Gabon has handed over three important members of (Gulen's organization)," Erdogan said during a speech to his ruling party's lawmakers in Ankara. "They can run to wherever they want; they'll run, we'll chase."

Turkey accuses Gulen of masterminding the coup attempt in July 2016 and has branded his movement a "terror organization." The cleric has denied involvement in the failed attempt.

Since the coup, Turkey has arrested more than 38,000 people for alleged links to Gulen and fired some 110,000 public servants. Many of those arrested or fired have proclaimed their innocence.

Last week, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said as many as 80 suspected Gulen supporters in 18 countries were "bundled up and returned" to Turkey in operations conducted by the intelligence agency.

Last month, Turkey secretly arranged the deportation from Kosovo of six Turkish men - five teachers and a doctor - accused of supporting the coup attempt. The move angered Kosovo's prime minister, who fired the country's interior minister and intelligence chief for not telling him about it, and drew sharp criticism from human rights groups.

Anadolu said the three who were arrested in Gabon used an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by Gulen's supporters to communicate secretly with each other. The three were wanted in Turkey for "membership in an armed terror organization," the agency said.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he has accepted any invitation to visit North Korea.

Lavrov said in televised comments on Tuesday after talks with his counterpart from North Korea, Ri Yong-ho, that he has agreed to visit Pyongyang. Lavrov said, however, that there was no word on a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Lavrov said that Russia welcomes Kim's plan to meet with the South Korean president and U.S. President Donald Trump as a step toward resolving the tensions around North Korea's nuclear program.

Kim visited Beijing last month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping - the first time Kim has left the North since assuming power in 2011. It was also his first meeting with another head of state.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Legal experts say Olympian Oscar Pistorius has finally run out of options to appeal his 13-year prison sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.

South Africa's highest court dismissed Pistorius' request to review the sentence on Monday, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the man who was once one of the world's most celebrated athletes.

"There is nothing they can do," said Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law expert at the University of Cape Town.

FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday, June 14, 2016, Oscar Pistorius leaves the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, after beginning sentencing for the murder of his girlfriend Reev Steenkamp. South Africa's highest court dismissed Pistorius' request to review the 13-year prison sentence on Monday, April 10, 2018, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the athlete. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled Pistorius' six-year sentence for the murder of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, who he shot four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine's Day in 2013.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, and the court called the initial six-year sentence "shockingly lenient."

The double-amputee runner, who is 31, claims he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

Pistorius was originally convicted of manslaughter, but that was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court. He has also tried and failed to appeal his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court.

"Oscar Pistorius has exhausted his legal avenues in terms of the criminal process," said Luvuyo Mfaku, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority.

Pistorius must serve at least half of his 13-year sentence before he can be considered for parole.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on the Bill Cosby sexual assault retrial (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

Bill Cosby's lawyers have worked to peel away the aww-shucks, country gal persona one of his accusers claims she had when she met him.

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2016, file photo, Heidi Thomas, a Denver woman who claims she was assaulted by Bill Cosby, heads to a hearing room after a news conference at the state Capitol in Denver. Cosby's retrial took a far more combative turn Tuesday, April 10, 2018, than the first go-round, as his lawyers launched a withering attack on his accuser and prosecutors put the first of a parade of women on the stand to portray Cosby as a sexual predator. Thomas, who was a 24-year-old-aspiring actress when she met Cosby in Reno, Nevada, testified the comedian knocked her out with a potent glass of wine and forced her to perform oral sex. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Colorado music teacher Heidi Thomas testified Tuesday at Cosby's sexual-assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia. Thomas was an aspiring actress when her agent set her up to meet Cosby for career advice in Reno, Nevada, in 1984. She says Cosby gave her a drink and forced her to perform oral sex as she faded in and out of consciousness.

Defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss hinted the woman who was crowned Miss Littleton, Colorado, in college was enamored with stardom and was mesmerized by the bright lights of Reno.

Testimony has ended for the day. Bliss will continue questioning Thomas on Wednesday. The defense is expected to probe inconsistencies in her account.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting another woman at his home in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual.

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6:45 p.m.

Testimony is finished for the day at Bill Cosby's suburban Philadelphia sexual-assault retrial.

The trial took a far more combative turn Tuesday than the first go-round. Cosby's lawyers launched a scathing attack on his accuser, and prosecutors put the first in a parade of women on the stand to portray the comedian as a sexual predator.

Colorado music teacher Heidi Thomas was an aspiring actress when her agent set her up to meet Cosby for career advice in 1984. She says Cosby gave her a drink and forced her to perform oral sex as she faded in and out of consciousness.

The defense is expected to probe inconsistencies in her account during cross-examination. The trial resumes Wednesday.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting another woman at his home in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual.

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5:50 p.m.

Jurors at Bill Cosby's suburban Philadelphia sexual-assault retrial are hearing from a Colorado music teacher who says the comedian knocked her out with a potent glass of wine and forced her to perform oral sex when she was an aspiring actress in 1984.

Heidi Thomas took the witness stand on Tuesday. She's the first of five additional accusers whom prosecutors plan to call as they make the case that Cosby has a history of drugging and assaulting women.

Thomas says she met Cosby in Reno, Nevada, after her agent arranged for him to give her acting tips. She says Cosby assaulted her after she took a sip of white wine he had given her.

Defense lawyers are cross-examining her.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting another woman in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual.

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12:55 p.m.

Prosecutors in the Bill Cosby retrial have called a sexual assault expert to help them blunt any skepticism about his accuser's behavior after she says he drugged and molested her in 2004.

Psychiatrist Barbara Ziv was the first witness to testify at Cosby's retrial Tuesday.

She told jurors that it's common for victims to be reluctant to go to police and normal for them to maintain contact with perpetrators.

Andrea Constand spoke with Cosby and saw him after the alleged assault at his suburban Philadelphia home, and waited more than a year before going to police with her allegations.

Cosby says his sexual encounter with Constand was consensual.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

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10:45 a.m.

Bill Cosby's lawyer has launched a fierce attack on the comedian's accuser, calling her a con artist who took advantage of Cosby's grief and loneliness over his son's murder to gain his trust before framing him for sexual assault.

Lawyer Tom Mesereau delivered a blistering opening statement Tuesday in Cosby's retrial.

He told jurors that accuser Andrea Constand wasn't attracted to Cosby, but was "madly in love" with his fame and money.

He says she "hit the jackpot" when he paid her $3.4 million to settle a civil lawsuit over allegations he drugged and molested her in 2004.

Prosecutors say it was Cosby who betrayed Constand's trust by giving her pills and then assaulting her.

Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

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8:30 a.m.

Comedian Bill Cosby has arrived for the second day of his sexual assault retrial amid heightened security.

Security was stepped up on Tuesday outside of the courthouse in suburban Philadelphia after a topless protester jumped over a barricade on Monday and ran toward Cosby.

Cosby was escorted into the courthouse by an attorney and his spokesman and surrounded by five sheriff's deputies.

Another row of barricades was also added to the walkway.

Monday's protester did not reach Cosby and he was unharmed. She was a member of a European feminist group known for staging topless protests and appeared as a child on "The Cosby Show."

Cosby lawyer is set to deliver his opening statement on Tuesday.

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1 a.m.

The defense in Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial is expected to use its opening statement to portray a hefty settlement paid to the woman he's charged with sexually assaulting as evidence of her greed.

Cosby lawyer Tom Mesereau is set to deliver his remarks on Tuesday.

Prosecutors opened the retrial on Monday in suburban Philadelphia with an answer to one of the case's biggest questions. But they failed to make clear why jurors should care that the comedian paid a $3.4 million settlement to accuser Andrea Constand.

Mesereau has indicated he intends to use the settlement to argue that Constand falsely accused Cosby in hopes of landing a big payoff.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby returns from lunch during his sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby, right, returns to the courtroom after a short break during the second day of his sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Cosby's lawyer launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedian's accuser Tuesday, branding her a con artist whose goal was "money, money and lots more money." (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)

District Attorney Kevin Steele, right, leaves the courtroom during a lunch break at the sexual assault retrial of actor and comedian Bill Cosby at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)

Lawyer for actor and comedian Bill Cosby, Tom Mesereau, arrives for Cosby's sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)

Judge Steven O'Neill walks back to the courtroom after a break in the sexual assault retrial of actor Bill Cosby at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby, right, arrives for his sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool)
BRANSON, Mo. (AP) - Authorities are investigating the deaths of four people at a southwest Missouri home as a murder-suicide.

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader says the four were found dead Monday afternoon at the home south of Branson West.

The sheriff says 70-year-old Susan Gibson; 43-year-old Cynthia Miller; and 17-year-old Daniel Gibson died of gunshot wounds. He says 47-year-old Victor Gibson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Rich Jarocki, who lives across the road, checked on his neighbors after a relative expressed concern that they weren't returning calls or text messages. Jarocki says no one came to the door and that when he looked through a window he saw someone lying on the floor.

He says the people killed had moved to Missouri about a year ago from California.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump plans to send Vice President Mike Pence to an upcoming summit in South America the president has decided to skip.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Tuesday that Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as planned. Pence will travel to the summit in his place, but will not go to Colombia.

Pence's deputy chief of staff, Jarrod Agen, said in a statement that Pence is "honored" to attend the summit, adding that last year he "traveled to the region to meet with the Presidents of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Panama to increase the pressure against the Maduro regime and negotiate better trade deals that benefit American workers."

Sanders said Trump has decided to stay in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world." This marks the first time an American president has not attended the summit, which was first held in 1994 and is scheduled to begin April 13.

The decision came after an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria. Trump has vowed to respond "forcefully," warning that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility will "pay a price."

White House officials said the decision to miss the summit was made Monday, adding that the raid of the office of Trump attorney Michael Cohen was not a factor in the decision. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, advocated that Trump stay in Washington in the aftermath of the attack, said one of the officials.
Would you take a trip without your cellphone?

A new tour company called Off the Grid is asking travelers to put cellphones away and not even use them for photos.

Off the Grid founder Zach Beattie says he wants the trips to be mindful, unplugged and "very social."

The first trip is to Lisbon in July, with others planned to Prague, Croatia and Barcelona.

The small group tours are seven to 10 days. Prices range from $1,500 to $1,650, including accommodations in hostels, some meals and ground transportation (but not airfare).

Itineraries emphasize experiences like surfing or dining with a local family rather than bucket-list sightseeing.

For emergencies, participants get a "dumb phone" without internet access.

Tour-goers can bring cameras, but professional photographers will also document the trips.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Scholars and navy representatives from nations with Arctic territory gathered at the U.S. Naval War College on Tuesday to discuss security and defense in the region.

The Newport Arctic Scholars Initiative convened in Newport, Rhode Island. The United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland sent representatives to the three-day event. Sweden also is participating.

Walter Berbrick, an associate professor at the war college, said he hopes Russia can participate, but it isn't currently because of strained relations with the U.S.

Berbrick said it is the first multinational, collaborative research forum focusing on Arctic security and defense. Other forums for Arctic nations focus on environmental conservation, sustainable development and safety issues, he said.

Each country is challenged by China's attempts to gain more influence in the Arctic, which has vast natural resources and could provide shorter trade routes between some nations, Berbrick said. The participants will collaborate during the next year on research about ensuring access and promoting security.

"No one person, no one navy or no one nation has all the knowledge and all the capability to fully anticipate and adapt to an opening Arctic," Berbrick said.

They'll present their findings to their respective navies in one year.

Valur Ingimundarson, a history professor at the University of Iceland, said it's a good venue to see how Arctic states are thinking about the growing presence of militaries in the Arctic. Johannes Nordby, a commander in the Royal Danish Navy who works at the Royal Danish Defence College, said he wants the group to address the question of China's role in the Arctic.

Berbrick, director of the college's Arctic Studies Group, organized the seminar with retired Rear Adm. Lars Saunes, former chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy.

Saunes said navies need more knowledge to guide national decision making and ensure a peaceful and prosperous developing of the region. He also said Russia's future participation will be crucial to the initiative's success, given its large physical presence in the Arctic.

All Arctic states share in the responsibility to take care of the Arctic in the future, Saunes said.

"What's happening in the Arctic has global consequences," he said. "The Arctic must not become another highway of war. I hope this work will create the conditions for an avenue of peace."
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - A baby sitter has been charged after a dog attacked and killed a 13-month-old girl in her care at her southeast Missouri home.

Erica Jordan, of Cape Girardeau, was charged last week with second-degree involuntary manslaughter in the death of Loxli Chavez. She's free on bond. Court records don't list an attorney to speak on behalf of the 33-year-old and she doesn't have a listed phone number.

The Southeast Missourian reports that a pit bull-mix belonging to Jordan's brother attacked Loxli March 9. Loxli died at a hospital.

Police Sgt. Darren Estes wrote in a probable cause statement that Jordan said the dog had also bitten her son but that she thought he had calmed down after being neutered. Police say the dog has been impounded and will be euthanized.

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Information from: Southeast Missourian, http://www.semissourian.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit with the ruling emir of Qatar (all times local):

12:15 p.m.

The ruling emir of Qatar is telling President Donald Trump his country stands firmly against terrorism.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, third from right, and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, second from left, participate in a bilateral meeting at the Pentagon, Monday, April 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is telling Trump "we do not tolerate people who support or fund terrorism." Trump once accused the tiny gas-rich nation of funding terrorism at a "high level."

Trump says in the Oval Office that "we're making sure that terrorism funding is stopped" in the region.

The emir is also thanking Trump for his role in trying to solve the crisis involving Qatar and America's allies in the Persian Gulf. He says Trump's role "is very vital to end the crisis in the region."

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12:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is welcoming the ruling emir of Qatar to the White House.

Trump greeted Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Tuesday. Trump once accused the tiny gas-rich nation of funding terrorism at a "high level."

The leaders are set to hold a meeting and working lunch that the White House said would focus on strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

America's allies in the Persian Gulf are feuding with Qatar. When the dispute began 10 months ago, Trump sided with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighbors who accused Qatar of spreading extremism, fomenting regional unrest and allowing funds to flow to terror groups. Qatar denies all those charges.

Trump hasn't repeated that charge recently and Qatar has since taken steps to address U.S. concerns.

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12:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is hosting the ruling emir of Qatar, the tiny gas-rich nation he once accused of funding terrorism.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will be at the White House on Tuesday. White House officials say they'll discuss strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

Last summer, Trump took the side of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries in their ongoing diplomatic crisis with Qatar. He said Qatar had historically supported terror groups at a "high level." Qatar denies that charge but has taken steps to address U.S. concerns.

In a phone call last week, Trump credited the emir with working to counter terror financing and extremism. The White House says they also discussed concerns about Iran and the need to resolve the Gulf crisis.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - An organization that advises the federal government on science and technical matters has dire news for Florida's citrus industry.

In a report released Tuesday morning, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says a single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in the future is unlikely. Greening has progressed from "an acute to a chronic disease throughout the state" and has caused Florida's industry a cumulative loss of $2.9 billion in grower revenues from 2007 to 2014.

According to the report, significant barriers to finding a solution still exist.

FILE - In a Dec. 11, 2013 file photo, a dead orange tree stands at the beginning of in a grove, in Plant City, Fla. In a report released Tuesday, April 10, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says a single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in the future is unlikely. Greening has progressed from "an acute to a chronic disease throughout the state" and has caused Florida's industry a cumulative loss of $2.9 billion in grower revenues from 2007 to 2014. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

"Among them the inability to culture the bacteria in the laboratory, the lack of advanced diagnostics for early disease detection, and the absence of standardized research methodology that would improve the comparability of results across studies," the report says.

Greening is spread by a tiny invasive bug called the Asian Citrus Psyllid, which carries bacteria that are left behind when the psyllid feeds on a citrus tree's leaves.

Andrew Meadows is spokesman for Florida's Florida Citrus Mutual, the marketing and lobbying arm for the state's citrus growers. He called the report frustrating, but he wasn't particularly surprised by the findings.

"We would love to have a silver bullet," he said. "But you have to adapt to what you have."

Meadows said that before Hurricane Irma in 2017, citrus growers had found ways to work around the disease, at least temporarily, and were expecting a rebound year. But the hurricane devastated the crop. Initial estimates pegged the year's crop yield at the lowest since 1942.

The image of Florida oranges is iconic around the world. Florida typically grows the most oranges in the U.S., and most are used for juice. In the 2016-2017 growing year, the value of the crop was $800 million.

Growers have been using a variety of stopgap measures to work around the disease, Meadows said. Nutritional supplements for the trees, psyllid control, and water quality are among the temporary solutions, as is planting with greening-tolerant rootstocks.

The psyllid isn't native to Florida but is believed to have arrived from someone who perhaps unknowingly brought a slip of a tree from Asia. The bug was first spotted in the state in 1998, and some think it then spread during hurricanes and storms. Greening was first spotted in 2005. There isn't a cure, and no country has ever successfully eradicated it.

Greening slowly kills a citrus tree. The infection reveals itself first with mottling of leaves, then stunting of shoots, gradual death of branches and eventually, small, deformed fruits with bitter juice.

The Citrus Research and Development Foundation, a $124 million state citrus-industry initiative, asked the Academies to review its research, and that's how the report came about.

The National Academies are private nonprofit institutions that were chartered to provide analysis and advice to the nation on science, technology and health.
LONDON (AP) - It will be friends and family, rather than politicians and world leaders, at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next month.

Kensington Palace says "it has been decided that an official list of political leaders - both U.K. and international - is not required" for the wedding.

That means U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May are not among 600 people invited to the May 19 ceremony at Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel.

Britain's Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle attend the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath in Bath, England, Friday, April 6, 2018. The Invictus Games is the only international sport event for wounded, injured and sick (WIS) servicemen and women, both serving and veteran. The Invictus Games Sydney 2018 will take place from 20-27th October and will see over 500 competitors from 18 nations compete in 11 adaptive sports. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The decision was reached after royal officials consulted with the British government to go over protocol and precedent.

A person with knowledge of the guest list who spoke on condition of anonymity says former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle also are not attending.

Many politicians and world leaders attended the much larger 2011 wedding of Harry's older brother, Prince William, and Kate Middleton. The rules of succession mean that, unlike William, Harry is unlikely to one day occupy the throne.

That gives him and Markle, an American actress, some leeway to make the wedding more of a personal and less of a state affair.

The Obamas have a warm personal relationship with Harry, which had led to speculation they would be at Windsor Castle for the wedding.

Officials, however, were likely concerned Trump would feel snubbed if he was left out while his predecessor attended.

It is not yet known how many representatives of Europe's other royal families will be invited or how many of Markle's friends and colleagues from Hollywood will make the trek.

Also Tuesday, Kensington Palace officials named some of the 1,200 members of the public who have been told they will be among the 2,640 people invited to the grounds of Windsor Castle for the big event.

That will give them an excellent vantage point to see the royals arrive at the chapel and to see Harry and Markle's carriage procession after the wedding ceremony.

The list includes Phillip Gillespie, a soldier from Northern Ireland who lost his right leg in a combat incident in Afghanistan, where Harry also served, and a number of people who have founded charities.

Also on the list is Amelia Thompson, 12, who was caught up in the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people last year. She's taking the grandmother of a 15-year-old who died in the attack as her guest.

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For complete royal wedding coverage, visit https://apnews.com/tag/Royalweddings
PARIS (AP) - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia joined French President Emmanuel Macron in expressing concerns Tuesday over the worsening conflicts in Yemen, Iran and especially Syria.

Macron said France would decide in coming days on "a strong and joint response" with the United States and Britain to the suspected use of a poison gas that Syrian activists and rescues said killed 40 people near Damascus.

Prince Mohammed, wrapping up his first official visit to France, said during a joint news conference with the French leader that Saudi Arabia would support a military operation in Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attend a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (Yoan Valat/Pool via AP)

"If required by our alliance with our partners, we will be there," he said, according to the French translation of his remarks spoken in Arabic.

Macron also announced that France would co-organize with Saudi Arabia a conference on humanitarian aid for Yemen, where a civil war has been fought since 2015. Saudi Arabia leads a foreign coalition backing the Yemeni president who was forced out of office as the war broke out.

Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of targeting civilians with airstrikes. Yemeni rebels have launched ballistic missiles at the kingdom.

"We will not tolerate ballistic missiles activities that threaten Saudi Arabia," Macron said. "Yet we are attached to the respect of international law and especially humanitarian law in Yemen."

A lawyer representing a Yemeni human rights group filed a lawsuit Tuesday in France accusing Mohammed of complicity in torture.

He and Macron stated their conflicting views over the Iran nuclear deal, which both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. strongly criticize.

If Iran builds a nuclear bomb, "we will be in an extremely dangerous situation," the crown prince said.

Macron insisted there was no better option than enforcing the nuclear deal, but also pushed for post-2025 proposals to ensure the security of the region.

Macron, 40, France's youngest leader since Napoleon, and the 32-year-old Saudi prince who goes by MBS, met privately earlier Tuesday to discuss defense, security and economic issues.

They signed a cooperation agreement on research and tourism at the Mada'in Saleh archaeological site in northwest Saudi Arabia. Macron plans to visit the kingdom, which will be represented at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time next month, at the end of the year.

Saudi national company Aramco and French oil giant Total announced a deal Tuesday to build a petrochemical complex in Jubail in Saudi Arabia. In total, $9 billion will be invested, the companies said.

Macron hosted a gala send-off dinner for the crown prince at the presidential Elysee palace. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was in Paris, attended.

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Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Philippe Sotto contributed to this report.

This photo released Monday, April 9, 2018 on the official twitter page of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, shows Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, left, takes a selfie with French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, in the King George V Hotel, in Paris, France. (The official twitter page of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attend a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (Yoan Valat/Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attend a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (Yoan Valat/Pool via AP)

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attends a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (Yoan Valat/Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, greets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri before a dinner with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. France is tapping into the business of culture to develop agreements with Saudi Arabia and profit from the heir to the throne's goal of modernizing the conservative kingdom. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, poses with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, center, greets Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, poses with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Macron meets with Prince Mohammed in Paris to bolster economic ties and strengthen cooperation on security and defense between the two countries. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, greets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri before a dinner with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. France is tapping into the business of culture to develop agreements with Saudi Arabia and profit from the heir to the throne's goal of modernizing the conservative kingdom. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A Twitter handle associated with a man who's in jail on accusations that he made a hoax emergency call that led to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man in Kansas was used to again threaten to swat someone after authorities say some inmates were able to gain access to the internet.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Monday that a software upgrade to an inmate kiosk improperly let inmates get onto the internet for "less than a few hours." The problem apparently also occurred at other jails across the country.

The Sheriff's Office launched its investigation into the breach after The Wichita Eagle noticed a series of tweets posted on Barriss' account Friday.

A tweet from Barris' @GoredTutor36 handle at 9:05 a.m. Friday said: "How am I on the Internet if I'm in jail? Oh, because I'm an eGod, that's how." A follow-up tweet posted 19 minutes later said: "All right, now who was talking (expletive)," and went on to add that the person "is about to get swatted."

Four tweets were posted from Barriss' account during that time, including one saying "Y'all should see how much swag I got in here."

Barriss has a history of making such hoax emergency calls, which are sometimes called "swatting."

His defense attorney, Bradley Sylvester, did not immediately return a phone message left at his office.

The 25-year-old California man is in jail in Wichita awaiting trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, giving a false alarm and interference with a law enforcement officer. Barriss is accused of calling police from Los Angeles on Dec. 28 with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping at a home in Wichita.

When police responded to the address, an officer fatally shot 28-year-old Andrew Finch after he opened his door. Police have said Finch moved a hand toward his waistband and an officer, fearing he was reaching for a gun, fired a single shot and killed him.

Inmates can use jail kiosks to check account balances to buy commissary items and to send and receive electronic messages, but those kiosks are not supposed to have internet access.

"As soon as the path was identified it was closed and the affected kiosk was upgraded with the proper digital security features," the Sheriff's Office said.
MIAMI (AP) - Hundreds of students have walked out of their Miami high school to protest gun violence after four current or former classmates were shot off campus.

The students chanted "no justice, no peace" Tuesday and carried "enough is enough" signs outside Northwestern Senior High School.

They staged the protest after the weekend shooting deaths of 17-year-old Kimson Green, a 10th-grader who was about to become a member of the National Honor Society, and 18-year-old Rickey Dixon, a former Northwestern student. Two other current or former classmates were wounded.

Students from Northwestern march into the Liberty Square neighborhood of Miami Monday, April 9, 2018 where four young men were shot Sunday afternoon. The students were part of a lunchtime walk out to protest against the gun violence in their neighborhood. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald via AP)

The shooting happened Sunday at an apartment complex in the Liberty City neighborhood, which is plagued by gun violence.

No arrests have been made.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's defense minister said Tuesday that a well-known Gaza journalist who was killed by Israeli gunfire over the weekend was a member of Hamas, an allegation denied by the Islamic militant group and the journalist's family.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman provided no evidence to back up the claim.

Yasser Murtaja died from a gunshot wound while filming a mass demonstration near the fence with Israel on Friday in an area engulfed in thick black smoke from Palestinians setting tires on fire.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian cameraman who was shot and killed, Friday by Israeli troops while covering a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, April 7, 2018. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

Hamas has called for Palestinians to amass at the border as part of a weekslong campaign of protests against a decade-old Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the territory. It also has suggested that it may attempt a mass border breach.

Israel is closely guarding the fence and has warned it will not tolerate attempts to breach it. Twenty-six protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded since the protests began March 30. Israel says it has only fired at "instigators" trying to carry out attacks.

Murtaja was shot while carrying a video camera and wearing a flak jacket marked with the word "press."

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Lieberman said that Murtaja was a "terrorist" who had been on the Hamas payroll since 2011. He said Murtaja had used a drone to collect intelligence on Israeli forces along the border.

"This is a member of the military arm of Hamas who holds a rank parallel to that of captain, who was active in Hamas for many years," Lieberman said. "Once again we see how Hamas uses the media, ambulances and patients, including cancer patients who are sent to hospitals in Israel," to carry out "terrorist missions."

Lieberman provided no evidence to support his allegations. Israel's military said it is still investigating and was not able to confirm Lieberman's claims.

Murtaja, 30, was the co-founder of Ain Media, a local TV production company that has done projects, including aerial drone filming, for foreign media clients such as the BBC and Al-Jazeera English.

The State Department said Tuesday that the media production company had recently received an $11,700 grant from the U.S. government. Ain Media became a USAID program beneficiary last month under a program that supports private sector development. The State Department said the grant was still in its early stages, and no equipment or technical assistance has been provided.

It said the grant was vetted according to strict U.S. government requirements of USAID-funded assistance.

Murtaja had been hired to begin work for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major international aid organization. The group released footage showing what it described as his "last work." He died two days before he was to start his new job.

The footage, taken at a protest a week earlier, shows several aerial shots of tires being set on fire near the border fence, wounded protesters being rushed to medical tents as well as other shots, apparently taken from the ground, of an Israeli tank and Israeli troops off in the distance.

The NRC's secretary-general, Jan Egeland, called Murtaja's death "heartbreaking," and has called for accountability for "the shooting of an innocent civilian."

In Gaza, Murtaja's brother, Mutasem, angrily denied Lieberman's claims.

"He spreads lies to get himself out of the impasse," he said. "Yasser was filming the protests with simple cameras to show they are peaceful."

At the funeral Saturday, Murtaja's body was draped in a Palestinian flag with his flak jacket reading "press" placed upon it as it was carried through the streets of Gaza.

Hamas' leader, Ismail Haniyeh, attended the funeral in a sign of respect. But no gunmen were visible at the ceremony, as is common when members of militant groups are buried.

Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, has called for the protests to continue until May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding, when Palestinians commemorate their displacement during the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

Hamas hopes the protests can create pressure to break a border blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when Hamas took over Gaza, without the militant group being forced to disarm.

Israel has accused Hamas of using the recent protests as a cover for carrying out attacks and trying to infiltrate Israel. It has said some of those at the border tried to damage the fence, planted explosives or hurled fire bombs. The army says it uses live fire as a last resort, and only on attackers.

Also Tuesday, Israel released the results of an investigation into video footage in which soldiers are heard cheering as a sniper shoots a Palestinian along the border.

The army said the video was not from the recent unrest, and was taken in December when protesters allegedly tried to damage the border fence.

The video, apparently taken from a sniper position, appears to show a soldier shooting a Palestinian near the fence. Other soldiers are heard cursing the man and then cheering when he falls.

The military said the man was a main instigator in the clashes and was shot in the leg and wounded after ignoring warning shots and calls to halt.

The statement said the footage was not filmed by the Israeli sharpshooter but by a soldier from a different unit.

It condemned the filming of the incident and the statements the soldiers made. It said the troops' behavior does not reflect the army's values and they will be dealt with "accordingly," without elaborating.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian cameraman who was shot and killed, Friday by Israeli troops while covering a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, April 7, 2018. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian cameraman who was shot and killed, Friday by Israeli troops while covering a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, April 7, 2018. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI raid on the office and hotel room of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer provoked visceral rage from the president and a burst of misstatements. Here's a look at his remarks:

TRUMP: "So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it's a disgraceful situation." - Comments at a meeting with military advisers Monday.

THE FACTS: It was not a break-in. The FBI executed a search warrant obtained from a judge in conducting the raid and seizing records on a variety of matters, among them a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels by Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen. The application for the warrant was approved high in the Justice Department.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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TRUMP: "They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia." - referring to the Mueller investigation.

THE FACTS: There has been no such finding. It's true that evidence of collusion has not emerged to date in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign's relationship with Russian figures. But the investigation continues and Mueller does not disclose what his probe has found except when filing charges. Although Trump focused his fury on the Mueller probe, Monday's raid was overseen by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, not the special counsel. Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said the raid was based in part on a referral from Mueller, however.

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TRUMP: "Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that's a big statement." - Referring to the Mueller investigation.

THE FACTS: They found something.

So far, four Trump associates have been charged in Mueller's investigation, of whom three have pleaded guilty to lying to the authorities. Among them are Michael Flynn, former White House national security adviser, and Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide. Overall, 19 people, including 13 Russians, have been charged.

Mueller is known to consider Trump a subject of his criminal investigation at this point. Being a subject in an investigation - instead of a target- suggests Mueller may not be currently preparing a criminal prosecution of the president but considers him more pivotal than a mere witness would be.

To get a warrant, agents and prosecutors must establish for a judge that there's probable cause of criminal activity and that a search of a property is likely to turn up evidence of that.

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TRUMP: "The stock market dropped a lot today as soon as they heard the noise of, you know, this nonsense that's going on. It dropped a lot. It was up - way up - and then it dropped quite a bit at the end, a lot." - Comments from the Monday meeting, after markets closed.

THE FACTS: His read on the market appears to overstate the impact the raid had on stocks. And while the market did give up most of the gains it had made earlier in the day, at the close it was up marginally from a day earlier.

The trade dispute with China has been primarily driving market developments in recent days.

On Monday, the Dow was up 440 points at about 2 p.m., after the president suggested the two countries could resolve their dispute, then started falling off. The market got worse when news of the raid was reported later in the afternoon, as investors fretted about the prospects for a constitutional crisis, but most of the damage preceded that development. It ended the day up 46 points.

On Tuesday, more news about the raid jolted the market, the Dow gave up a big chunk of its morning gains, but those losses were restored over the next hour. That's been a pattern with recent political developments - short-term ups and downs that take second place to overarching questions about economic growth and corporate earnings.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Christopher Rugaber in Washington and Marley Jay in New York contributed to this report.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is ready to hit the campaign trail with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.

Warren will encourage early voting for Cordray at stops in Cincinnati and Columbus on Friday, his campaign told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A darling of the left and a favorite punching bag of Republican President Donald Trump and the right, Warren created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where Cordray served as a director until jumping into the governor's race late last year.

FILE - In this July 17, 2013, file photo, Richard Cordray, right, the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, talks with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, following a statement by President Barack Obama in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Warren is coming to Ohio to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cordray. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Her appearances come as Cordray faces a tightening primary race against former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Kucinich, initially viewed as a long shot, got a boost for the strong gun control positions he advocated after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, including calling for a statewide ban on assault-style weapons after the massacre that left 17 dead and has repeatedly called out Cordray for his past high marks from the National Rifle Association.

Two other main Democratic candidates and two Republicans are seeking nominations in the May 8 primaries to succeed Republican Gov. John Kasich, who is term-limited.

Warren is expected to highlight Cordray's blueprint for fighting the opioid crisis during a Cincinnati stop at a substance abuse treatment facility.

Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, has proposed a series of steps to address the deadly scourge caused by prescription painkillers and heroin, including protecting Medicaid expansion and boosting support for law enforcement and local treatment options.

Warren also plans to tout Cordray's time as federal consumer watchdog, when he was often criticized for being too aggressive by banks and Congressional Republicans. They plan an afternoon stop in Columbus that will focus on Cordray's work at the bureau that they'll say benefited college students, the campaign said, including actions against for-profit colleges and unscrupulous student lenders.

Rules the agency put in place under Cordray affect nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage.

A review of a CFPB database obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information request shows that the bureau issued an average of two to four enforcement actions a month under Cordray. But the database shows zero enforcement actions have been taken since Nov. 21, 2017, three days before Cordray resigned.

The banking industry has accused the bureau of overreaching in its regulation of consumer financial activities.

Mick Mulvaney, appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in late November by Trump, promised to shrink the bureau's mandate and take a much softer approach to enforcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) - New documents reveal that special counsel Robert Mueller may be trying to use his investigation of Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to probe deeper into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Mueller has been seeking information from Manafort about foreign political donations and the meeting between top Trump campaign officials and Russian operatives in Trump Tower. The new details were included in a heavily redacted search warrant application in a motion by Manafort's lawyer to try to suppress evidence taken in the July 2017 raid of Manafort's Virginia home.

The warrant is further evidence that investigators are not limiting their case against Manafort to payments he received as part of his work for the pro-Russian Party of Regions in Ukraine and are searching for other threads that go directly to the Trump campaign.

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo, Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington. New documents reveal that Special Counsel Robert Mueller may be trying to use his investigation of Manafort to probe deeper into the Trump campaign. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

A federal agent specializing in computers and data recovery wrote that they were searching for records showing work Manafort and his longtime lieutenant, Rick Gates, did on behalf of foreign governments, officials and others. Agents working for Mueller also sought documents regarding the attendees of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, as well as Aras Agalarov, a Russian real-estate magnate close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his son, Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov.

Manafort was one of three top Trump advisers who met with Russians trying to end economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs. Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-and-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting in June 2016 with representatives of the Agalarovs. Trump Jr. took the meeting despite it being described in emails as being part of a Russian government effort to aid his father's Republican campaign.

A spokesman for the special counsel's office did not immediately return a request for comment. A Manafort spokesman declined to comment Tuesday, noting the gag order in place.

Manafort is alleged to have hidden payments from former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his political party. Gates agreed in February to plead guilty as part of a deal that has him now helping Mueller's team.

Manafort's legal team has been fighting to dismiss the criminal case against Manafort and has also filed a lawsuit as part of an attempt to block any future charges against him stemming from his work in Ukraine.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson is accusing his GOP opponent Leah Vukmir of focusing too much on trying to win the state party endorsement next month, a charge Vukmir on Tuesday called insulting to the conservative activists who will vote next month on who to back.

The sparring came on the same day that Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin reported raising $3.7 million in the first three months of the year - more than three-times as much as Nicholson. Baldwin had $7.8 million cash on hand at the end of March compared with $800,000 for Vukmir, who has yet to report.

Vukmir, a state senator who's been in the Legislature since 2003, and Nicholson, a Delafield businessman, face each other in the Aug. 14 primary for a chance to take on Baldwin in November. Delegates at the state Republican Party convention on May 12 will vote on which of them to endorse ahead of the Aug. 14 primary.

They must win 60 percent of the delegates' vote to win the endorsement, which makes party staff, field offices, voter contact information, money and other resources available. Vukmir has been aggressively courting Republican delegates to try and win the endorsement, a move that Nicholson said has hurt her campaign's ability to raise money or prepare for taking on Baldwin in a race that's already attracted more spending by outside groups than any other in the country.

Baldwin has already run three television ads, while outside groups have been pouring money into the race to run ads attacking her or endorse Nicholson or Vukmir.

Outside groups have already spent nearly $3.1 million against Baldwin and $4.8 million in support of Nicholson, with another $909,000 for Vukmir, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Just over $1 million has been spent for Baldwin by outside groups. More than twice as much has been spent against Baldwin by outside groups than any other senator, according to the center.

Nicholson, who was leader of the College Democrats when he was in college in 2000, has been trying to introduce himself to Republican voters in the state while also running as an outsider candidate in contrast to Vukmir. Nicholson's memo criticized "party insiders and establishment figures" for supporting Vukmir and not recognizing how attractive Nicholson is as a candidate.

"They fail to understand that primary and general election voters view Kevin's status as an outsider, former Democrat and not having served over fifteen years in the state legislature as incredibly attractive," the memo said.

But Vukmir, speaking to reporters after an appearance at a Wisconsin Health News forum, called his memo insulting.

"It shows that my primary opponent really doesn't understand Wisconsin," she said. "Republicans in our state are not establishment Republicans, we're activist Republicans, and the gains that we have achieved under the leadership of Scott Walker could never have been done without the help of grass roots."

The leader of Wisconsin Next PAC, a group supporting Vukmir, noted that Nicholson was a former Democrat and was now "attacking the hardest working grassroots activists in the country."

"Wisconsin Republicans know a phony when they see one, and Nicholson's smears are just another red flag," said Stephan Thompson, who previously worked as a campaign manager for Walker.

Walker has not endorsed in the primary, but his wife, Tonette, backs Vukmir and their son, Alex, works for her.

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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday recommended that railroad companies install video and audio recording devices in their locomotive cabs to monitor the activities of crew members and ensure safe operations.

The board during a meeting in Washington, D.C., also recommended that federal railroad regulators find ways to prevent collisions like one in eastern New Mexico in 2015 in which an engineer was killed and a crew member was seriously injured.

Investigators say the two crew members had only seconds to apply their emergency brakes and decide whether to ride out the crash or jump as their Southwestern Railroad train headed toward a parked train on a siding near Roswell.

They jumped and the trains collided, causing about $2 million in damage.

The wreck reignited concerns about manual switches, which federal safety officials described as a known high-risk hazard for the railroad industry.

Investigators and members of the board all pointed to previous crashes that stemmed from similar problems, including a 2005 derailment in South Carolina that killed nine people and displaced thousands of residents due to the release of chlorine from a ruptured tanker car.

Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said the recommendations are aimed at developing devices or techniques to eliminate the possibility of railroad employees failing to perform critical tasks such as aligning switches or ensuring train cars are in the clear.

He also said installing recording devices might deter the violation of safety rules by crew members as they're headed down the tracks.

"A train is not an employee's private retreat. It's an enormous machine that can injure or kill. It can damage property and it can damage the environment," he said. "And given the stakes, image and audio recorders belong in this setting."

"In transportation, compliance with the rules is a matter of public safety and not public choice," he said before adjourning the meeting.

The Association of American Railroads, a policy and research organization that works with the industry, did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the latest recommendations.

This is not the first time the board has recommended recording devices or the use of technology to address the problem of misaligned track.

The federal safety board also raised concerns Tuesday about drug use among railroad employees as a toxicology test determined the engineer of the moving train tested positive for marijuana and the conductor tested positive for oxycodone.

While it was unclear whether the conductor had a prescription for the medication, investigators say the engineer had liked smoked marijuana between five hours and 30 minutes before the crash.

Investigators did say there was no sign of impairment by the crew given their behavior and response before the collision. They indicated the crew acted appropriately and likely didn't have much time to react to the parked train as they had been told the switch was in the proper position.

Aside from the lack of an adequate warning system, investigators determined human error contributed to the cause of the collision since the crew member of the parked train failed to reset the switch.

Bob Beaton with the safety board's railroad investigation office described the process of manually aligning a switch as a routine task that's often done without supervision.

The problem of missing a step in any well-practiced process isn't specific to the railroad industry but rather human nature, he said.

"We are not machines. We do not operate error free 100 percent of the time despite our best intensions," Beaton said.

Data presented at the meeting showed human-caused accidents have accounted for 37 percent of the events reported to the Federal Railroad Administration between 2008 and 2017. Switch alignments accounted for 13 percent of those.
OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Just days before thousands are expected to arrive for Black Spring Break on the Mississippi coast, the Jackson County NAACP has issued an "advisory" warning of a "hostile environment" in Ocean Springs.

The NAACP, along with the Mississippi Rising Coalition, have been at odds with Ocean Springs Mayor Shea Dobson and the board of aldermen after the board adopted a resolution requiring the Mississippi state flag be flown at municipal properties.

Representatives of both groups have been regularly attending aldermen meetings to speak out on the issue, held a march in December through downtown Ocean Springs, and, most recently, filed a lawsuit against the City claiming, among other things, that the City is in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act by creating a hostile environment for blacks and other minorities.

In the advisory, written by longtime Jackson County NAACP President Curley Clark, the NAACP says it is "putting the community on alert for signs of outright racism and discrimination.

"The Ocean Springs that we once knew and loved has been transformed into a cold, uncaring breeding ground for far-right racists," Clark wrote. "Black People be warned. Brown People be warned. LGBT People be warned. Jewish faith Brethren be warned. Everyone who are not regarded as "Anglo White" should be concerned.

Clark also wrote that the NAACP is "pleased to see that many of our white Brothers and Sisters in Ocean Springs are in lock-step agreement with us in our fight for justice."

"The Mayor and Board have emboldened those forces that spew hate and white supremacy," Clark wrote. "This administration has shown it unconcern for the cries of compassion and mutual respect. But the NAACP is putting them on notice. THEY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!"

In addition to Clark's advisory, Biloxi NAACP President James Crowell has also spoken out on the flag issue as it relates to Black Spring Break, although he didn't single out Ocean Springs.

"I personally, as NAACP president, would wish that we would not come down here at all because we should not be spending all this money with people who don't want to change that flag and change the perception of Mississippi," Crowell told WLOX.

When contacted, Dobson said he was aware of the "advisory," but had no comment.

In the advisory, Clark suggested Ocean Springs insistence on flying the Mississippi flag could cause a safety issue for residents.

"The longer that the racist state flag is flown over Ocean Springs, the greater the safety risks become for ALL minority groups," he wrote. "It only takes one sick or weak-minded domestic terrorist to turn Ocean Springs into the next Charlottesville, Virginia, or the next Parkland, Florida, or the next Austin, Texas.

"So let us remain committed to our love for one another and concern for the unification of this community."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agents were treading on sensitive, but not new, legal ground when they raided the office of President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and seized records about a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, among other topics.

Such raids are unusual because of attorney-client privilege: protections for discussions between a client and his lawyer. Trump tweeted Tuesday that the raid demonstrates that "attorney-client privilege is dead!"

But the privilege is not absolute. It does not apply to every conversation between lawyers and their clients, and it can't be invoked when the discussion was part of an effort to commit a crime.

Attorney-client privilege has existed for hundreds of years and is meant to "encourage full and frank communication," the Supreme Court has said.

It's based on the idea that a lawyer must have a complete picture of a situation to provide sound legal advice. The legal system does this by telling people that "what you say is just between you and your counsel," said Barry Pollack, a criminal defense lawyer in Washington.

For that reason, Pollack said, it is "extremely rare" for authorities to conduct searches in lawyers' offices.

Given the importance of attorney-client privilege, authorities have to clear a higher hurdle than normal before even seeking a search warrant like the one for Cohen's office.

A search warrant for a lawyer's office is a measure of last resort because of problems posed by the attorney-client privilege, according to the Justice Department's manual for federal prosecutors. "Only if they have considered other means for obtaining the evidence they are seeking and have decided that other means are not going to be effective," said Pollack, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

After prosecutors decided they needed a warrant, they still had to get authorization from the top federal prosecutor in New York or a high-ranking Justice Department official. Prosecutors also had to confer with the department's criminal division, according to the rules.

Once they jumped through all the legal hoops at the Justice Department, the prosecutors had to persuade a judge to authorize the search by showing they had probable cause of criminal activity and would likely find evidence of wrongdoing in a search.

The rules also say that lawyers who are not otherwise involved in the case had to be brought in to review what was collected to "ensure privileged materials are not improperly viewed, seized or retained during the course of the search." Any documents protected by attorney-client privilege have to be returned to Cohen.

How might attorney-client privilege affect evidence related to the payment to Daniels, who claims she had sex with Trump?

Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and he has said he was unaware of any payment to her. If he did not know Cohen was paying her, "then it seems that Trump could not have had an attorney-client relationship with Cohen regarding the Daniels payment in the first instance," Paul Rosenzweig, a former official in President George W. Bush's administration, wrote on the Lawfare blog.

If Trump did know about the payment, it is possible documents about it might be protected from prosecutors, Rosenzweig wrote. But if "Trump sought Cohen's legal advice regarding the Daniels affair for an illegal purpose (e.g. to avoid Federal election campaign laws or to conceal the true source of the funds with which she was paid or to threaten her)," then the material wouldn't be protected, Rosenzweig said.

The Supreme Court has spoken to this possibility as well.

"A client who consults an attorney for advice that will serve him in the commission of a fraud will have no help from the law," Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote for the Supreme Court in 1933.
WESLACO, Texas (AP) - The Latest on the deployment of National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border under a plan formed by President Donald Trump to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking (all times local):

4:05 p.m.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says sending National Guard members to the border "has proven to have a meaningful impact" on immigration and crime.

National Guard troops guard the border in Roma, Texas, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. The deployment of National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request was underway Tuesday with a gradual ramp-up of troops under orders to help curb the flow of illegal immigration. (Veronica G. Cardenas via AP)

The Republican on Tuesday reiterated plans to put more than 1,000 National Guard members into action.

That comes after President Donald Trump said last week he wants 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members stationed along the entire 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico Border.

Trump says the Guard is needed to combat what he has called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

Texas had already kept a presence of about 100 Guard members on the border for several years.

The number of migrants apprehended at the southwest border plunged at the start of Trump's presidency but have started to rise in line with historical trends.

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2:25 p.m.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will head to New Mexico for an update on President Donald Trump's proposed border wall.

Her trip announced Tuesday comes as National Guard members continue arriving on the border under orders from Trump.

Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico have committed at least 1,600 Guard members so far.

Nielsen is scheduled to visit new border wall construction efforts near the small town of Santa Teresa on Thursday.

Officials say the 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch in a sprawling desert separating the U.S. from Mexico will be at least 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress.

The Texas National Guard said Tuesday that another 300 service members are reporting for duty this week.

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9:45 a.m.

Some National Guard members have started arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border with more expected as federal government officials seek ways to curtail illegal immigration.

The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he's called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

The only holdout border state was California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his state's National Guard will participate and has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy.

Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their state's Guard members and the U.S. government picks up the cost.

Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, front right, meets with Arizona National Guard soldiers prior to their deployment to the Mexico border at the Papago Park Military Reservation on Monday, April 9, 2018, in Phoenix. Ducey told the group of soldiers preparing to deploy from the Phoenix military base that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources" to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

National Guard troops guard the border in Roma, Texas, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. The deployment of National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request was underway Tuesday with a gradual ramp-up of troops under orders to help curb the flow of illegal immigration. (Veronica G. Cardenas via AP)

Children from Anapra, Mexico, climb a section of the new border wall recently built near Santa Teresa, N.M., Monday, April 9, 2018. The head of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes part of West Texas and all of New Mexico said Monday he met with leaders of the New Mexico National Guard to begin discussions about what will be required and their capabilities. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)

This section of the border wall that was recently built near the Mexican town of Anapra shows the new type of 'bollard' wall that be built near Santa Teresa, N.M., Monday, April 9, 2018. The head of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes part of West Texas and all of New Mexico said Monday he met with leaders of the New Mexico National Guard to begin discussions about what will be required and their capabilities. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)

Aaron Hull, chief patrol agent of the U. S. Customs and Border Protection's El Paso Sector, speaks where construction on a new segment of the border wall will be built, near Santa Teresa, N.M., Monday, April 9, 2018. Hull says the troops could help with air support, surveillance and repairs of infrastructure along the border so that Border Patrol agents have more time to enforce immigration law. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)

This Jan. 18, 2018 photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows an existing vehicle barrier near the Santa Teresa, N.M., port of entry. A new wall being constructed along a 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico as part of President Donald Trump's fight against drug trafficking and illegal immigration is being advertised as a "very serious structure" made of metal and concrete. Officials gathered Monday, April 9, 2018 to mark the groundbreaking of the $73 million project at Santa Teresa. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)

This Jan. 18, 2018 photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows as existing wire mesh fence and a vehicle barrier near the Santa Teresa, N.M., port of entry. A new wall being constructed along a 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico as part of President Donald Trump's fight against drug trafficking and illegal immigration is being advertised as a "very serious structure" made of metal and concrete. Officials gathered Monday, April 9, 2018 to mark the groundbreaking of the $73 million project at Santa Teresa. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)

This April 6, 2018 photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a new type of bollard wall that will replace existing wire mesh and vehicle barriers near the Santa Teresa, N.M., port of entry. The new wall being constructed along a 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico as part of President Donald Trump's fight against drug trafficking and illegal immigration is being advertised as a "very serious structure" made of metal and concrete. Officials gathered Monday, April 9, 2018 to mark the groundbreaking of the $73 million project at Santa Teresa. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)
LIMA, Peru (AP) - President Donald Trump's cancellation of his first visit to Latin America was met with a shrug Tuesday from regional counterparts, many of whom dreaded shaking hands with the American leader as he pushes forward with plans to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and renegotiate trade deals.

Trump canceled his plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in Washington to manage the U.S. response to an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria. Instead, Vice President Mike Pence will lead the U.S. delegation to the Summit of the Americas that kicks off Friday in Lima, Peru, with leaders from around the hemisphere, including a soon-to-step down Raul Castro from Cuba.

The decision marks the first time a U.S. president has not attended the summit, which President Bill Clinton started in 1994 as a way to assert American trade influence in the region. A stop in Colombia - long Washington's staunchest ally in the region - was scrapped altogether.

President Donald Trump, right, sitting next to Vice President Mike Pence, left, speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018, at the start of a meeting with military leaders. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The region seemed to be taking the decision in stride, reflecting some of the unease generated by Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and growing economic self-confidence in a region long resentful of Washington's dominance.

The summit's host, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra, played down Trump's cancellation, saying he was disappointed but adding that Pence's substitution was a sign the U.S. takes the meetings seriously. Argentina President Mauricio Macri, a longtime business acquaintance of Trump, didn't comment on the decision at a joint news conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

"The truth is, given the level of discourse on trade, immigrants and intervention coming from this administration, not paying much attention to the region may be welcome by a number of governments as they search for their own alternatives," said Christopher Sabatini, executive director of Global Americans, a group promoting better engagement in the region. "The question though is what it means for U.S. leadership, not just now but over the long term."

Even some Republicans expressed frustration.

"I am disappointed that the president won't make it to Lima," Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said at a hearing to discuss the summit. "It's rather symbolic of the broader challenge we face in the region for the better part of the decade. Every time we say we want to focus on the Western Hemisphere, something emerges in the Middle East or somewhere else that distracts our attention."

Like Trump, Pence is expected to use the summit to push for a stronger response to what the U.S. considers the rise of dictatorship in Venezuela. With the White House's support, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been barred from the meeting over his plans to hold a presidential election that the opposition is boycotting and many foreign governments consider a sham.

Maduro, who had been vowing to attend the summit anyway, celebrated Trump's cancellation, calling it further proof that the U.S. still views Latin America as Washington's backyard.

"Donald Trump said he isn't going to Lima because he said he doesn't have time," Maduro told supporters at a rally in Caracas.

The Trump administration is considering imposing an oil embargo on the OPEC nation, while Panama recently became the first Latin American nation to pursue sanctions of its own by blacklisting dozens of Venezuelan officials from doing business in the Central American country. Several other governments are contemplating similar moves.

But despite a shared commitment to getting tough on Venezuela, most leaders weren't looking forward to welcoming Trump, Sabatini said.

A regional survey by respected Chilean pollster Latinobarometro said Latin Americans last year viewed Trump even more unfavorable than they did George W. Bush or Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the year of his death. Whereas President Barack Obama had an average rating of 7 out of 10 after his first year in office, Trump ended his with less than half that rating.

Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, strained relationships with leaders like Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto and the rolling back of the Obama administration's opening to Cuba have all hurt U.S. outreach at a time China, Russia and other nations are gaining influence, U.S. diplomats across the region quietly acknowledge. The decision to deploy U.S. troops on the border with Mexico and accusations that Central American migrants were carrying out rape have also aggravated feelings.

Meanwhile, recent comments by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson vindicating the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, coupled with Trump's threat of a military solution to Venezuela's crisis, have spread fears of a return to U.S. unilateralism.

While Trump has vowed to scrap NAFTA and pull out of trade agreements as part of his America First policy, most of the region has been moving in the opposite direction. Three major nations - Mexico, Chile and Peru - have all signed up for the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump has scuttled, while China's decision to slap tariffs on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for U.S. trade measures stands to benefit major farm producers like Argentina and Brazil.

"In some sense, all of the fuss that he has been raising on trade operates to Latin America's advantage," said Albert Fishlow, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state. "The region is trying to separate itself from the U.S. as much as possible."

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Associated Press writer Franklin Briceno reported this story in Lima and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Bogota, Colombia. AP writers Christine Armario in Bogota and Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) - With federal agents digging into his personal affairs, Donald Trump drove his West Wing into deeper tumult Tuesday, canceling a South American trip to consider a military strike in Syria and bidding farewell to another top aide amid a continual staffing shakeup.

Trump, still fuming after agents on Monday raided the office of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has privately pondered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and publicly mused about firing special counsel Robert Mueller. The raid, in which agents seized records on topics including a $130,000 payment to a porn actress who alleges she had sex with Trump in 2006, comes as the president weighs imminent military action in Syria and ahead of what was supposed to be his first trip to Latin America this weekend.

Trump had been telling confidants for weeks that he was not eager to make the three-day trip, which had already been shortened from original plans, according to two people who have discussed it with him in recent weeks but were not authorized to disclose the private conversations. His decision not to travel was publicly tied to the need to monitor the situation in Syria, but privately Trump said he didn't want to be away from the White House amid developments in the China trade dispute and in the Mueller investigation.

President Donald Trump listens as he meets with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A year ago, the president ordered a round of airstrikes while hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago.

Trump also expressed confidence in the loyalty displayed by Cohen, his longtime personal and professional fixer, who ascended to one of the most powerful roles at the Trump Organization not filled by a family member. Cohen has steadfastly denied wrongdoing in his payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and has publicly defended Trump, but he has confided in associates that he is fearful of being a fall guy, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

After the raid, Trump was the most irate his advisers had seen him in weeks, according to five people familiar with the president's views but not authorized to discuss them publicly. Trump tweeted Tuesday that "Attorney-client privilege is dead!" Nervous White House aides expressed new fears about the president's unpredictability in the face of the Cohen raid, which he viewed as an assault on a longtime defender and a sign that Mueller's probe into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was "going too far."

Cohen has said he took out a personal line of credit on his home to pay Daniels days before the 2016 election without Trump's knowledge. The raid was overseen by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and based in part on a referral from Mueller.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made clear that White House officials have explored Trump's authority to fire Mueller.

"He certainly believes that he has the power to do so," she said at Tuesday's press briefing.

Under Justice Department regulations, only Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation, can fire Mueller.

Trump spent Monday evening calling associates to vent and gauge their reaction to the news. He bitterly complained that the raids were meant to ruin Cohen's life and expressed frustration that it was another front from which to attack his presidency, according to a person familiar with the conversations but not permitted to discuss them publicly.

Trump also revived his broadsides on Rosenstein and, in particular, Rosenstein's boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he belittled to confidants for recusing himself from the investigation and, in turn, delivering him to Mueller.

The White House insisted Trump was focused on the response to Syria following the country's apparent use of chemical weapons on civilians over the weekend, killing more than 40 people. A military strike would mark Trump's second retaliatory strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad's government at a time when Trump is seeking to reduce the U.S. footprint in Syria.

The discussions come as Trump's newest national security adviser, John Bolton, stepped into the job this week. He encouraged Trump to skip the trip to South America to manage the Syria strategy.

Bolton, a seasoned bureaucratic operator, has been expected to put his stamp on the National Security Council staff. NSC spokesman Michael Anton resigned over the weekend, with two people familiar with the situation saying Anton resigned after learning he would be fired. Trump's homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, exited Tuesday. Bossert had overseen the administration's response to the 2017 hurricane season and was credited by his colleagues for leading the administration's efforts to bolster cybersecurity resiliency across government and private industry.

Asked if Bolton forced Bossert out, Sanders said: "I'm not going to get into specific details about the ongoings of personnel, but I can tell you that he resigned. The president feels he's done a great job and wishes him the best."

The mood at the NSC this week was described as grim, with aides fearful over Bolton's plans. More senior-level departures are expected in the coming weeks, said two people familiar with the dynamic but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Trump's administration has set records for turnover in his 15 months in office at all levels, with Bossert marking at least the 13th official who held the rank of assistant to the president at the start of the administration to depart.

There is growing concern in Trump's orbit that the turmoil will only continue following the release next week of former FBI director James Comey's book, which promises to reveal new details about his conversations with the president and the Russia probe. An administration official said the White House would largely defer to outside surrogates to push back on Comey, but there was concern as to how the director's interviews could rile up the president.

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Lemire reported from New York City.

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Body camera footage released Tuesday of the fatal police shooting of a black man in Virginia shows him ignoring police commands and then turning quickly toward officers before they fire shots.

Juan Jones, 25, was fatally shot by police officers early Sunday in the small city of Danville, near the Virginia line with North Carolina.

Virginia State Police are leading the investigation, but the Danville police department said it was releasing the footage Tuesday in an effort to dispel "misinformation and rumor" about the shooting that has sparked protests.

Marcher Michelle Trent speaks during a protest on the steps of the Danville Municipal Building in Danville, Va., Monday, April 9, 2018. Protesters have rallied outside the municipal building in southern Virginia after the fatal shooting of a man police say had turned on officers in "a threatening manner." (Trevor Metcalfe/The Register & Bee via AP)

Police said in an initial statement that Jones fled from officers responding to a reported domestic assault. They followed him into a wooded area, where police said he refused commands to show his hands and "suddenly turned on the officers in a threatening manner," leading to the shooting.

The approximately eight-minute video shows Jones in a car, ignoring commands to get out. He backs the car away.

Later, it shows the car pulling into a brush-filled area. Jones gets out and doesn't comply with commands to show his hands, the video shows.

One officer is seen deploying a stun gun, which police said wasn't effective. Jones quickly turns around toward police while lifting his arms, and shots are fired.

Sarah Lipscomb, Jones' aunt, said she was among the family members who met with police to watch the video before it was released to the media. She told The Associated Press she does not believe the shooting was justified.

"They did not have to shoot him," Lipscomb said, adding that her nephew was unarmed.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Tuesday that no weapon was recovered at the scene.

Jones' shooting has prompted protests in Danville, a city of about 40,000. Scores of people rallied Monday, and a smaller crowd had gathered outside the police department Tuesday evening.

Police Chief Scott Booth urged the community not to rush to conclusions about what happened.

"Let justice happen," he said Tuesday at a news conference in which he confirmed he had met with Jones' family to share the video.

The department has said the officers involved, who have been put on administrative duty, will be identified later this week. Their races have not been released.

According to the local newspaper, the Danville Register & Bee , Jones' shooting was the second fatal police shooting in the city so far this year. It came two days after the local prosecutor announced he would not seek charges against the officer who fatally shot a man after a standoff Jan. 7.
PHOENIX (AP) - Prosecutors say the founders of the online classified advertising site Backpage.com should have to post bail, wear electronic monitors and detail their financial holdings if they want to be released from jail while facing dozens of counts of money laundering and facilitating prostitution.

Michael Lacey and James Larson have been jailed since their arrests last week in what authorities said was a scheme to knowingly publish ads for sexual services and use foreign banks to hide revenues.

Five employees of the site also were arrested, but Lacey and Larkin are the only ones in jail.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department shows Michael Lacey. Prosecutors say the founders of the online classified advertising site Backpage.com, Lacey and James Larson, should have to post bail, wear electronic monitors and detail their financial holdings if they want to be released from jail on dozens of charges of money laundering and facilitating prostitution. (Sacramento County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)

A hearing is scheduled Wednesday for lawyers to argue over whether Lacey should be released from jail. A similar hearing is set Thursday for Larkin.

The indictment alleged Backpage.com ignored warnings to stop running advertisements promoting prostitution, sometimes involving children, because the lucrative enterprise brought in a half-billion dollars since its inception in 2004.

Lacey, Larkin and three Backpage.com employees have pleaded not guilty. Two others have yet to enter pleas.

Prosecutors say the prospect of Lacey and Larkin, who are in their late 60s, spending the rest of their lives in prison creates an incentive for them to flee from authorities. Both men have access to money in foreign bank accounts that would aid them in escaping prosecution, authorities say.

"These factors suggest that Lacey could easily flee the country and use the wealth he has stashed overseas to live out the remainder of his life, in a lavish style, as a fugitive," prosecutors said in a court filing, echoing a similar statement they made about Larkin.

Prosecutors say Lacey transferred more than $16 million to foreign bank accounts in a bid to thwart any efforts by the government to seize the money. His attorneys say Lacey made no attempts to hide the trust that holds the money.

Lawyers for Lacey and Larkin say their clients aren't at risk of fleeing and don't pose a danger the community.

They say Lacey and Larkin, who already face a separate money laundering case brought by state prosecutors in California, haven't been convicted of any crimes and have complied with all their bail conditions in California.

Their lawyers say Lacey and Larkin sold their interest in Backpage.com in 2015, though prosecutors contend the pair retained some control over the site.

Paul Cambria Jr., one of Lacey's attorneys, said in court records that the case will not likely lead to convictions. "The government's case is so weak that it provides no incentive for Mr. Lacey to flee," Cambria said.

Prosecutors were seeking only a "sizeable" bail amount for Larkin, but they are asking for a seven- or eight-figure bond for Lacey. They also want to bar both men from engaging in any financial transactions without the approval of the court and government.

Lacey has asked to be released without posting a bond, while Larkin has proposed a $250,000 bond.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://bit.ly/2GGWEPO.
Film-maker James Toback potentially broke laws in four sexual abuse investigations but will not face charges because the allegations fall outside Californias statute of limitations, a prosecutor has ruled.

Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office released documents on Monday that detailed investigations against Toback, who has reportedly been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 400 women.

Hollywood stars Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore are among those to make public allegations against Toback, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing 1991s Bugsy and has made denials.

Toback has denied allegations (Matt Crossick/PA)

A deputy district attorney reviewed five claims made by unidentified women against Toback, spanning between 1978 and 2008.

They include claims he exposed himself to a woman during a drive after she declined his request for sex when he pushed her against a wall in the earliest case.

One claims she accompanied him to what was believed to be a private movie screening in 2008 where she complied out of fear at a request to masturbate.

@GlennWhipp 1 - #JamesToback approached me in the 80's on Columbus Ave with the same language - wanted me to audition, come to his apt.  Julianne Moore (@_juliannemoore) October 24, 2017

The suspect knelt down in front of her, placed his hand on the armrests and rubbed his penis on her bare leg until he ejaculated, the document adds.

A separate accuser made a similar claim that he masturbated while clothed, this time it was said to have occurred in the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1993.

The prosecutor said in all the cases the statute of limitations had ended and in four of them he potentially violated laws.

Rachel McAdams accused him of sexual misconduct (Isabel Infantes/PA)

The remaining accuser spoke to law enforcement officers but did not attend an interview. The prosecutor said the case would be reviewed if she comes forward again.

The cases were investigated by police in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, the district attorneys office spokesman said.

Allegations against Toback emerged in the Me Too movement ignited by the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Weinstein apologised for his past behaviour but denied all allegations of non-consensual sex after around 100 women accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

The Los Angeles Times first detailed accusations of sexual harassment against Toback from 38 women. But a further 400 came forward with fresh claims in the days that followed, the paper reported.

The Press Association has been unable to contact Toback, 73, but he denied claims to Rolling Stone magazine and The Los Angeles Times.
A retired high court judge is due to give her ruling in the inquest into the death of six-year-old Ellie Butler, who was murdered by her father.

Ben Butler beat six-year-old Ellie to death at their family home in Sutton, south London, in October 2013.

The two-week inquest examined whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regards to Ellies murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

It was not examining a family court ruling which returned the schoolgirl to the hands of her abusive father.

Ben Butler and Jennie Gray, who were jailed for their part in the death of their daughter Ellie Butler (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Ellie had been placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after Butler was accused of shaking her.

She was returned to live with her birth parents in November 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the Family Division of the High Court.

Butler is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years after he was convicted of murder by a jury at the Old Bailey in June 2016.

Ellies mother Jennie Gray was convicted of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to 42 months imprisonment.

During the inquest Butler, giving evidence via prison video link, denied killing Ellie, saying he did not accept the verdict of the jury at his trial.

He said: I didnt cause Ellie to die, I didnt cause any injury to Ellie at all.

He was berated by the coroner at one stage after accusing the process of being corrupt.

Neither he nor Gray had representation after being refused legal aid.

Ellies grandfather Neal Gray described the day his granddaughter was taken from his care as heartbreaking and said social workers failed in their duty to her.

Social worker Steven Atherton also gave evidence, saying: We were part of a system that failed this little girl.

Dame Linda Dobbs, a retired high court judge, is due to announce her determination at South London Coroners Court on Tuesday.
Former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said Dublin could have to play hard ball with Britain over Brexit.

Mr Ahern, who was one of the key figures behind the Good Friday Agreement, said Ireland should insist the UK stays closely aligned with the Republic after EU withdrawal.

Asked whether Ireland should take a tough stance in negotiations over cross-border trade and alignment, Mr Ahern told BBC2s Newsnight: Im afraid the answer to that is we have to play hard ball.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Brexit is a `disaster for Ireland (Brian Lawless/PA)

He added: Lets say customs union equals trade agreement. If that trade agreement is fairly close with whats presently there, I think  forget about Ireland for a minute  I think that would be good for the UKs economy.

Mr Ahern, who said Brexit is a disaster for Ireland, insisted any return to a physical border would not be acceptable.

There never will be a border. There is not going to be a physical border across Ireland because if you tried to put it there you wouldnt have to wait for terrorism to take it down, people would just physically pull it down  the ordinary people.

The former Irish leader said it was not the right time for a border poll on Northern Irelands status.

He said: To have a border poll, and even though I was the one who put it into the Good Friday Agreement, to have it in circumstances where there is not sustainability and there is not workability of the whole institution, would be the wrong time to do it.

The only time a border poll is worth having, when a sizeable number, whatever it is, it will never be huge, but a sizeable number of unionists and loyalists believe that they can join and share with republicans and nationalists in a new Ireland.

The comments came as five former secretaries of state for Northern Ireland marked the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement by warning against a hard border.

In a joint letter to The Times, organised by the pro-Europe group Open Britain, Lord Mandelson, Lord Reid, Lord Hain, Lord Murphy and Shaun Woodward said: We are concerned that the re-introduction of a hard border will lead to instability that could threaten the very existence of the agreement.

Those who value the agreement and the peace it brought to Northern Ireland have a duty to speak up and make clear their opposition to the Governments Brexit policy. They should insist that the option of continuing in the customs union and single market remains open.

Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner was accused by Owen Smith, Labours former shadow Northern Ireland spokesman, of being reckless for reportedly suggesting the border issue and Good Friday Agreement had been played up.

Mr Gardiner is said to have described the Good Friday Agreement as a shibboleth, a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated, at an event in Brussels in March.

We must also recognise there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement, he said.

That is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure there is no tariff and no external border there.

Mr Gardiner appeared to dispute that he had made the remarks, posting a copy of a speech he made at a seminar in Brussels on Twitter.
Groundhog Days 25th anniversary has been celebrated with an event hosted by the Oscars organisers.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brought together producer Trevor Albert, cinematographer John Bailey and actor Stephen Tobolowsky for a screening and discussion of the comedy in Los Angeles on Monday.

Kim Miller, the animal wrangler who helped train 20 groundhogs for the 1993 film, was also there to explain that star Bill Murray was bitten during the car-chase scene where he holds the rodent at the wheel.

Bill Murray starred in the film (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Asked how the comedy actor got on with the animals, she said: He didnt.

In my defence, it was not my fault, and I will say in the 40-somewhat years Ive been doing animal wrangling Ive only had one person ever bit by anything and it happened to be Bill Murray, she said.

Late director Harold Ramis, who was celebrated at the event by his wife Erica, previously said that Murray hung around to be bitten for a second time.

Bailey, the films cinematographer and president of the academy, said the film has been interpreted as a metaphor for Buddhist rebirth, purgatory, Judaism, psychoanalysis and the resurrection of Christ.

I think I can speak for everyone on the films crew that we had no idea we were creating such a momentous, social, cultural meme, he said.

Screenwriter Danny Rubin, who was also present, may have had a different idea but the rest of the crew thought they were making a pretty straight ahead romantic comedy, added Bailey, who was recently cleared by an academy investigation into a claim of harassment.

Rubin and Ramis shared a Bafta award for best original screenplay with the film.
MOSS POINT, Miss. -- Just after 5 p.m. on Monday, capital murder suspect James Ward turned himself in to police, according to Chief Brandon Ashley.

Ward, 24, is one of two men charged with the shooting death of Kellie Remmone Guy, whose body was found behind the former Ed Mayo Junior High School in the Kreole community on Jan. 18.

25-year-old Kendrick Donta Williams was arrested in Pascagoula at the Mississippi Department of Corrections Probation and Parole office. Ward is being held in the Jackson County Adult Detention Center.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Moss Point Police Department at 228-475-1711. You may also contact Crime Stoppers at 800-787-5898, or visit the Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers website at mscoastcrimestoppers.com.
Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned along with her former double agent father Sergei in Salisbury last month, has been discharged from hospital.

The 33-year-old Russian national had spent more than a month in hospital after coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

She is reported to have been released on Monday and taken to a secure location.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire town on March 4.

A police officer at a cordon near the Maltings in Salisbury where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after they were attacked with a nerve agent (Jonathan Brady/PA)

On Friday, doctors at Salisbury District Hospital said Mr Skripal, 66, was responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition.

But the Foreign Office has said the pair are likely go have ongoing medical needs.

Moscow has denied being responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals but the incident has plunged diplomatic relations between Russia and the West into the deep freeze.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used a Sunday Times article to accuse Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of lending false credibility to Moscow by not blaming the Russian state unequivocally over the incident.

Mr Johnson said the Kremlin had released a torrent of absurdity following the attack.
Forty-three days after Scotland savaged England at Murrayfield to win rugby unions Calcutta Cup, revenge of sorts was served amid the arguably more exotic climes of the Coolangatta Beachfront at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Englands Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf succeeded where Dylan Hartley and over 300kg of brawny front-row had failed, dispatching their rivals in straight sets to book their place in the beach volleyball semi-finals.

Even a few spots of rain arrived, mingling with the roasting sunshine to contribute a distinctly back home feel.

But there was no nationalistic chest-beating nor supporters swinging from the net after Englands relatively routine 21-14 21-17 win over Robin Brodzski and Seain Cook.

Jake Sheaf helped England into the beach volleyball last four (Mike Egerton/PA)

British beach volleyball is still so nascent in its development that the fates of its teams are almost inevitably intertwined: Gregory and Sheaf were both ushers at Brodzskis wedding, while Gregory and Cook are former Great Britain team-mates.

Its a sad thing that we had to play each other so early in the competition, said the 6ft 8ins Gregory. Weve trained and even lived together in the past. It felt like an English tour event almost, just with a slightly bigger crowd.

English beach volleyball benefits from a purpose-built facility in Bournemouth, which Sheaf described as bigger and slightly more luxurious than the barn commandeered by their counterparts when inclement weather ended their training programme on Edinburghs Portobello beach.

The facility allows us to train all year round, but now we need to use it in the right way and develop a programme which gets the juniors coming through and gets beach volleyball booming.

Were trying to do everything we can on and off court to develop the sport. Hopefully this event and our results will inspire some more people to get involved, and then it is up to us to provide them with a pathway.

Englands sporting rivalry with the south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu is less defined, but it will matter little on the streets of its capital Port Vila.

One day after Friana Kwevira won the nations first Commonwealth Games medal with a bronze in the womens javelin, Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu combined to sink England womens pair Jess Grimson and Victoria Palmer in a three-set thriller.

Pata, watched by her seven-month old son Tommy in what was an increasingly pro-Vanuatu arena, said: It feels great to beat England. We were inspired by winning our first medal yesterday, and now we are determined to go on and win our own.

Next time, the underdogs from Vanuatu are less likely to have the crowd on their side, as they face the overwhelming favourites Australia for a place in the gold medal match.
Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned along with her double agent father Sergei last month, will continue to receive medical treatment after she was deemed well enough to be discharged from hospital, the doctor in charge of their care has said.

The 33-year-old Russian national had spent more than a month in hospital after coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

She is reported to have been released on Monday and taken to a secure location, while her father remains in hospital after making good progress.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire town on March 4.

Announcing an update on the Skripals conditions, Salisbury District Hospital medical director Dr Christine Blanshard said: Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment weve been providing. But, equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery.

Military vehicles at Salisbury District Hospital where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were treated after the attack (Henry Vaughan/PA)

I want to take this opportunity to wish Yulia well. This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone.

She said Ms Skripal has asked for privacy following her release from hospital.

Dr Blanshard said Mr Skripals health had also improved.

During a short address to reporters outside the hospital, she said: Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.

The Maltings in Salisbury where Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on a bench after they were attacked with a nerve agent (PA Wire)

Dr Blanshard paid tribute to hospital staff who worked during the enormously testing recent weeks.

They have pulled together, not just to deliver outstanding care to the individuals caught up in these terrible events, but to all our patients as they do day in, day out.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to the nerve agent, was discharged from the hospital on March 22.

We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

Ms Skripals release from hospital was met with another broadside from the Russian Embassy, which has repeatedly criticised the handling of the investigation into the attack.

In a statement, a spokesman said: We congratulate Yulia on her recovery.

Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov previously said it was outrageous that Britain had failed to provide consular access to Ms Skripal as news of her improving condition was announced earlier this month.

.@RussiaUN envoy Nebenzia: the purpose of Ghouta gas attack farce is, among other things, to distract from the obvious Skripal case failure London got irreparably stuck in and confused. pic.twitter.com/qD3RYk0QsU  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

The Russian Embassy in London also issued a series of what it termed questions without answer about the Skripal case  including whether the UK had ever produced the Novichok nerve agent believed to have been used in the Salisbury poisoning.

Britain has said that Russian state involvement is the only plausible explanation for the attack, and has led a worldwide reaction involving the expulsion of more than 100 diplomats.

But Mr Lavrov accused Western countries of playing childrens games.
US wealth manager and investment banking firm Raymond James is understood to have discussed a potential move of its London brokerage business to Frankfurt in response to Brexit.

Raymond James spoke with regulators and local financial industry representatives in Frankfurt about proposals to relocate at least part of the unit, though it was unclear whether any move would involve shifting staff from London or other offices, according to Press Association sources close to the discussions.

The decision would be likely to require additional staff in Frankfurt, which could be in the double digits, as the office currently only offers investment banking services and employs around 10 people.

Raymond James denied the claims, but declined to comment further.

German regulator Bafin said it was not able to comment on individual cases due to legal confidentiality requirements.

Financial services are being watched closely over their post-Brexit contingency plans (PA)

Senior Raymond James management have flagged expansion of the Frankfurt office since it first opened last summer.

Melville Mummert, head of Raymond James European investment bank, reportedly said the company was looking at adding additional consulting services such as debt advice at the site.

However, no mention was made of a brokerage relocation.

The company also offers investment banking and equity sales in Germany through its Munich and Dusseldorf offices respectively.

London offers the widest range of services across its European operations, according to its website  providing investment banking and equity research as well as fixed income and equity sales  and is the only regional office to offer both fixed income and equity trading.

Raymond James first started serving institutional clients in Europe after opening its Paris office in 1987, which was followed by a new office in London in 1990, where it started serving private clients in 2001.

Its European operations as a whole are now staffed by around 115 employees, according to its website, with additional offices in Paris, Warsaw and Brussels, as well as Vaduz, Liechtenstein and Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland.

If the brokerage relocation is followed through, it would make Raymond James the latest financial services firm to ramp up its German operations since the Brexit vote.

The London skyline as seen from Tower 42 (PA)

A raft of US, Asian and European banks have committed to growing their Frankfurt footprint in order to safeguard their EU business after Britain leaves the bloc.

Hubertus Vath, managing director of City lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance, said foreign interest keeps rolling in despite negotiators having struck a Brexit transition deal that is expected to extend access for financial services until December 2020.

Frankfurt keeps building its lead as a destination of choice post-Brexit, he said.

Even though we noted a slowdown in movements after the transition has been announced, we believe it was too little too late.

Goldman Sachs  which employs 6,500 UK staff  is set to at least double its Frankfurt workforce to 400 through a mixture of relocations and local recruitment and has also signed a lease on a yet-to-be built skyscraper that can house up to 800 employees with options to take up additional space.

JP Morgan, which has 16,000 staff in the UK, will ramp up operations at a number of its EU sites with plans to move up to 1,000 London front and back office roles across its offices.

American peer Morgan Stanley is understood to have plans to relocate 200 of its 6,000 UK staff to Frankfurt, while Citigroup notified its bankers that it may need to create 150 roles at its Frankfurt offices as well as those in Amsterdam, Dublin, Luxembourg, Madrid and Paris.

A raft of Asian banks including Nomura, Daiwa, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Mizuho Securities are also on track to expand their operations in the German financial hub.
A UK-based Russian whistleblower refused to return to his home country to deal with his debts because he was fearful for his life, his lawyer has said.

Wealthy businessman Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, collapsed and died while out jogging near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012.

An inquest has been examining whether he died of natural causes or was poisoned, and if so, who had a motive for his murder.

Family handout photo of Alexander Perepilichnyy (PA)

He had been helping specialist investment firm Hermitage Capital Management uncover a 230 million US dollar (150 million) Russian money-laundering operation at the time of his death.

Mr Perepilichnyy was involved in complex legal action over his debts in Russia, according to his lawyer, Dimitry Lipkin.

Giving evidence to the hearing at the Old Bailey via video-link from Moscow, Mr Lipkin said he met his client in 2010 and flew to London for a meeting in a restaurant in Regent Street in November that year.

He said: Alexander asked us to deal with a few matters, mostly those matters were concerning his debts, and he approached us as a physical person privately.

All these matters had a very complicated destiny which is why we had power of attorney for me and my partner.

Asked if the debts were owed by or to Mr Perepilichnyy, Mr Lipkin said: As far as I can say mainly those when he had debt to somebody.

The lawyer, whose firm also represented Hermitage Foundation, was put in touch with Mr Perepilichnyy through his brother-in-law.

Mr Lipkin said he communicated with him via Skype and phone but flew to London ahead of imminent civil hearings.

Peter Skelton, counsel for the coroner, asked his translator: Were any of the debts he was acting in respect of connected with persons or organisations with criminal associations?

Mr Lipkin replied: Im not aware of that.

We had information that was used in proceedings that he did not come to Russia because he was fearful for his life.

Asked what he was afraid of, he said: Unfortunately it has been a long time. I do not have it in my memory.

Mr Skelton asked: If a client says to you they cannot come to Russia, would you ordinarily question that and ask why? Was the threat from a person or an organisation?

Mr Lipkin said: I do not have any concrete information about this, but I know he did not take any action in this matter. As far as Im aware he did not try to open any criminal matters and did not contact any authorities. He did not do it through us.

He added that he was unaware of threats from either the Russian government or organised criminals.

The lawyer said he only found out about Mr Perepilichnyys alleged connection to the Hermitage fraud through open sources before his death.

Mr Skelton asked: Were you aware that Mr Perepilichnyy had spoken to Swiss authorities about a money-laundering operation in respect of the fraud?

Mr Lipkin replied: We did not act in this matter.

He told the court that he continued to act for Mr Perepilichnyys relatives after his death.

Mr Skelton said: So, even though there has been speculation in the national media in the UK and elsewhere that Mr Perepilichnyy may have been murdered, none of his relatives or associates have ever expressed a view as to whether that is or is not true?

Mr Lipkin replied: No. We were not his strategic lawyers, we were just dealing with episodes that concern his debts.

The witness went on: He was threatened. He left Russia but who he was threatened by, I dont know.

Mr Skelton asked: Is it possible he could have been threatened in relation to the Hermitage fraud?

Mr Lipkin said they were just allegations.
Olympian Oscar Pistorius has finally run out of options to appeal against his 13-year prison sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, legal experts have said.

South Africas highest court dismissed Pistoriuss request to review the prison sentence on Monday, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the man who was once one of the worlds most celebrated athletes.

There is nothing they can do, said Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law expert at the University of Cape Town.

Oscar Pistorius was jailed for 13 years (PA)

Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled Pistoriuss six-year sentence for the murder of Ms Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model who he shot four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentines Day 2013.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, and the court called the initial six-year sentence shockingly lenient.

The double-amputee runner, who is 31, claims he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

Pistorius was originally convicted of manslaughter, which was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court.

He has also tried and failed to appeal against his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court.

Oscar Pistorius has exhausted his legal avenues in terms of the criminal process, said Luvuyo Mfaku, from the National Prosecuting Authority.

Pistorius must serve at least half of his 13-year sentence before he can be considered for parole.
A shadow cabinet minister has described a key Labour Brexit policy as bollocks, according to reports.

Barry Gardiner dismissed the partys demands for the exact same benefits afforded by membership of the single market after Britain leaves the European Union.

The shadow international trade secretary has already had to issue an apology over controversial comments he made during the same event in Brussels about the Irish border row.

Barry Gardiner, shadow secretary of state for International Trade (Danny Lawson/PA)

In the latest remarks to emerge, Mr Gardiner was discussing the six tests Labour has set for the Brexit deal.

In a recording obtained by the BBC, he reportedly said: Well lets just take one test  the exact same benefits. Bollocks.

Always has been bollocks and it remains it.

We know very well that we cannot have the exact same benefits and actually it would have made sense  because it was the Tories that said they were going to secure the exact same benefits  and our position should have been to say they have said they are going to secure the exact same benefits and we are going to hold them to that standard.

Mr Gardiner apologised on Tuesday morning after a recording of a question and answer session at a think tank event in March emerged where he suggested the Good Friday Agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland is outdated.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later issued a statement saying the accord must be cherished.

Mr Gardiner had been criticised by a Labour former Northern Ireland Secretary after a recording of the comments emerged.

The Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.



My full statement here: https://t.co/9XCLTqOltB  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 10, 2018

Lord Hain told the Press Association the shadow international trade secretary was unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible.

Labour former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith said the remarks were reckless.

Former prime minister Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I dont know how anyone can say that.

Its the only basis upon which youre going to have peace.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.

The row comes on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Gardiner was heard in a recording suggesting the Brexit row over the border issue and the accord had been played up and he described the deal as a shibboleth, a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated.

Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 10, 2018

In the recording, obtained by The Red Roar website, he was heard saying: We must also recognise there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement.

That is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure there is no tariff and no external border there.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Gardiner said: Labour is completely committed to the agreement and opposed to any return of a hard border between north and south.

We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.

I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point  in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of pass word or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Mr Corbyn said the Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.

He added: There must be no return to a hard border between north and south, and no return to the horrors of the Troubles. All of us on both sides of the Irish Sea have a responsibility to maintain hope for the future.

The history of Ireland is a great teacher of oppression and brutality, imagination and poetry. For Irish communities everywhere  including in my own constituency  the Good Friday Agreement will always embody their hopes for peace and justice. We must cherish and learn from it for the future.
The Russian Embassy in London has accused British authorities of the abduction of Yulia Skripal and her former double agent father Sergei after she was released from hospital.

The Russian nationals were poisoned with a nerve agent thought to have been ordered by Moscow more than a month ago, leaving the pair seriously ill at Salisbury District Hospital.

Yulias release by medics was confirmed on Tuesday morning, with her fathers health said to be improving  despite grave fears he would not survive coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

Ms Skripal, 33, is believed to have been released to a secure location amid a continued diplomatic fall-out between the two countries. The embassy remains perturbed by a refusal from UK authorities to grant Ms Skripals cousin Viktoria a visa to visit her family.

In a series of statements, posted on social media following Ms Skripals release from hospital, the Russian Embassy said: Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation.

Ms Skripals release from hospital was met with a similar broadside from the embassy, which has repeatedly criticised the handling of the investigation into the attack.

We are genuinely happy for Yulia Skripal and wish her a further recovery and rehabilitation. We pay tribute to the professionalism of NHS staff. At the same time, media reports that Yulia has left hospital for a secure location cause concern. Read: https://t.co/HLuV8SgXj1 pic.twitter.com/IqisXZlyGv  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

In a statement, a spokesman said: We congratulate Yulia on her recovery.

Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

Announcing an update on the Skripals conditions, Salisbury District Hospital medical director Dr Christine Blanshard said: Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment weve been providing. But, equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery.

Military vehicles at Salisbury District Hospital where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were treated after the attack (Henry Vaughan/PA)

I want to take this opportunity to wish Yulia well. This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone.

She said Ms Skripal has asked for privacy following her release from hospital.

Dr Blanshard said Mr Skripals health had also improved.

During a short address to reporters outside the hospital, she said: Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.

The Maltings in Salisbury where Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on a bench after they were attacked with a nerve agent (PA Wire)

Dr Blanshard paid tribute to hospital staff who worked during the enormously testing recent weeks.

They have pulled together, not just to deliver outstanding care to the individuals caught up in these terrible events, but to all our patients as they do day in, day out.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to the nerve agent, was discharged from the hospital on March 22.

We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

Asked for her reaction to news that Ms Skripal has been released from hospital, Theresa May said: Well obviously I welcome the fact that Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital and I wish her the best for her continuing recovery and Id like to say a huge thank you to all the staff at the hospital in Salisbury who have looked after her and her father so well.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov previously said it was outrageous that Britain had failed to provide consular access to Ms Skripal as news of her improving condition was announced earlier this month.

.@RussiaUN envoy Nebenzia: the purpose of Ghouta gas attack farce is, among other things, to distract from the obvious Skripal case failure London got irreparably stuck in and confused. pic.twitter.com/qD3RYk0QsU  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

The Russian Embassy in London also issued a series of what it termed questions without answer about the Skripal case  including whether the UK had ever produced the Novichok nerve agent believed to have been used in the Salisbury poisoning.

Britain has said that Russian state involvement is the only plausible explanation for the attack, and has led a worldwide reaction involving the expulsion of more than 100 diplomats.

But Mr Lavrov accused Western countries of playing childrens games.
The body of a burglar stabbed to death during a bungled raid on a pensioners home has been released back to his family by a coroner.

Henry Vincent, 37, entered the property of 78-year-old Richard Osborn-Brooks with an accomplice in the early hours of April 4.

Police believe he forced the elderly homeowner into his kitchen armed with a screwdriver, where a struggle ensued and the intruder suffered a stab wound.

He fled the property on South Park Crescent in Hither Green, south-east London, at around 12.45am, and collapsed on neighbouring Further Green Road.

An inquest opening at Southwark Coroners Court heard that Vincent, from Lime Road in Swanley, Kent, was jobless and single at the time. He died at University Hospital Lewisham.

Coroners officer Joanne Bull told assistant coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe that the body had been identified by his sister.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding of the Metropolitan Police told the court: The facts are that on Wednesday April 4, two males including Henry Vincent entered a residential address at about 12.40am whilst committing a burglary.

During this burglary the male resident stabbed Henry Vincent, that ultimately led to his death.

Police are still hunting Billy Jeeves (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Asked by Ms Ormond-Walshe if anyone had been charged by police over the killing, he replied: No, maam.

Several female relatives of Vincent were in court on Tuesday afternoon.

The coroner told them: I know you are having a dreadful time, I am releasing the body to you.

Mr Osborn-Brooks was initially arrested on suspicion of murder, but was told by police he would face no further action.

Scotland Yard officers are still hunting 28-year-old Billy Jeeves, who is wanted on suspicion of aggravated burglary in connection with the incident.
Theresa May will speak to Donald Trump and lead a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the suspected chemical attack in Syria.

The United States is looking to the UK and France for support as it finalises its response to the assault on the rebel-held town of Douma.

President Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have already agreed to coordinate a strong, joint response after talks by telephone.

Mrs May, who spoke to President Macron on Tuesday morning, sidestepped questions about whether Britain would be involved in military action during a visit to Cambridge.

She said: This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

If this is the responsibility of Assads regime in Syria then its yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people that they show.

I spoke this morning to President (Emmanuel) Macron, I will be speaking later today with President (Donald) Trump and the National Security Council meets regularly, and Ill be chairing a meeting of the National Security Council later today, and well be working with our allies as I say, crucially, to make an assessment of what has happened on the ground.

The National Security Council brings together relevant intelligence and defence chiefs and Cabinet ministers for top level briefings.

President Trump has said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be met forcefully and held talks with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night.

Mr Trump did not give a time frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because we are able to stop it.

The presidents comments came after Moscows ambassador to the UN warned of the potential consequences to Western intervention in Syria.

Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria could lead to grave repercussions during heated exchanges at the UN Security Council.

Mr Trump conducts the meeting with senior military chiefs (AP)

US ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia of having the blood of Syrian children on its hands after Mr Trump said that nothings off the table in dealing with the alleged outrage.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as fake news as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the attack, which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Theresa May describes the suspected poison gas attack in Syria as reprehensible during a press conference in Copenhagen pic.twitter.com/bbNGAjRqSU  Harriet Line (@HarriLine) April 9, 2018

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assads regime if there is fresh incontrovertible evidence he has used chemical weapons against his own people.

Mr Johnson discussed the situation with acting US secretary of state John Sullivan twice on Monday.

The US State Department said Mr Johnson and his Washington counterpart had discussed potential further steps the US and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners.

The attack in Douma occurred late on Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.

A #WhiteHelmet expresses his grief with a heart and message of love and solidarity reading #Douma In My heart in the wake of the heinous chemical massacre on Douma. #Assad_Bombing_Douma_Chemical pic.twitter.com/HPxfDOGzGK  The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 8, 2018

Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.

Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths.

Reports suggested more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centres with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, and burning sensations in the eyes.

The attack comes almost exactly a year after a chemical atrocity in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

That attack prompted the US to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian military airport on Monday that reportedly killed at least 14 people.
PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- The suspect sought by police following a shooting in a St. Martin parking lot Sunday is now in custody, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said Tuesday morning.

Johnny Lee Levy, 29, was arrested without incident Monday night after investigators received a tip Levy was outside his residence at 16017 Abeline St. in Biloxi.

Levy is charged with aggravated assault using a deadly weapon.

The victim, Kevin Otts of Ocean Springs, and his cousin met a 15-year-old male in the parking lot of the Magnuson Hotel on north Washington Avenue Sunday. Otts and his cousin left the parking lot, but returned a short time later, when an argument ensued between Otts and the 15-year-old juvenile.

When Otts and his cousin left the hotel parking lot for a second time, the 15-year-old met with Johnny Lee Levy, who was in his car in the same parking lot. The juvenile advised Levy he had been robbed by Otts.

The juvenile got into Levy's car and they located Otts in the parking lot of Smokey's Discount Tobacco shop in St. Martin. Ezell said Levy drove up parallel to Otts' car, pulled out a gun and shot Otts once in the chest.

Otts managed to drive himself to the nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market parking lot, where he called 911. He was transported to Ocean Springs Hospital and later airlifted to Oschner's Hospital in New Orleans, where he was listed Tuesday in critical condition.

Levy took the 15-year-old back to the hotel following the shooting.

Levy is in the Jackson County Adult Detention Center. He made his initial appearance in Jackson County Court Tuesday, where bond was set at $100,000. The 15-year-old juvenile is in the custody of the Jackson County Youth Court, charged with the transfer of a controlled substance, marijuana.
The underwear firm set up by Baroness Mone of Mayfair is winding up in the UK after 22 years in the bra business.

Ultimo was set up by Michelle Mone and her husband in 1996 and the lingerie brand, whose models have included Penny Lancaster and Rachel Hunter, went from strength to strength.

It achieved international success after actress Julia Roberts reportedly wore an Ultimo bra in the hit film Erin Brockovich, and Ms Mone became a Tory Peer in 2015 - at roughly the same time as she sold her interest in the company and exited as a director.

Michelle Mone modelling Ultimo underwear (Ultimo/Press Association Images)

Sri-Lankan based MAS Holdings acquired a majority shareholding in parent company Ultimo Brands International Ltd and now the firm has announced that following an extensive review of the business, the operation in the UK will cease trading.

Staff at the Ultimo headquarters in East Kilbride were informed, with a formal redundancy consultation now underway with the 11 employees there.

Retail partners and suppliers have also been told of the decision.

An Ultimo spokesman said: 'The last few years have been extremely challenging for Ultimo, driven by increasing competition in the market and more cautious consumer spending due to the uncertainty surrounding the UK economy over the last 18 months.

'Having reviewed the business' performance over the last three years as well as future prospects and considering the retail environment within which the business is operating, the board has, with regret, decided to cease operations of the Ultimo business in the UK.'

The spokesman added the company 'would like to thank all staff, customers and suppliers for their commitment, support and loyalty to the Ultimo brand over the years'.

Ultimo's UK operations will be wound up at the end of June, with the company pledging to honour financial commitments with suppliers and partners.

Its website will continue trading until April 15, with Ultimo products still available while stocks last.

Since selling up Ultimo, Baroness Mone has become involved in the relaunch of fin-tech firm VE Global as well as launching Bitcoin venture Equi.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not invited US President Donald Trump to their wedding, but instead have chosen guests they know, it is understood.

Former US leader Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are also missing from the guest list but the prince and his fiancee are said to be looking forward to seeing them soon, possibly during an official overseas trip once they are married.

Harry and his bride-to-be have picked 600 guests they have a direct relationship with to watch them exchange their wedding vows on May 19 at Windsor Castles St Georges Chapel.

By contrast the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges 2011 wedding had leading figures from national life and foreign heads of state or their representatives at the Westminster Abbey ceremony.

But despite Harry and Meghans royal nuptials being an important national occasion, the prince is not in the immediate line of succession, unlike his brother William.

The nature of the guests, likely to be friends, work colleagues and good acquaintances of the couple, and the smaller venue, reflects Harrys position.

Members of the public from around the UK have this week learned that they will be amongst the 2,640 people at Windsor Castle for Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle's wedding. pic.twitter.com/cjAHVEF4gu  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 10, 2018

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK and international  is not required for Prince Harry and Ms Markles wedding.

Her Majestys Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the Royal Household.

The palace earlier named some of the members of the public chosen to join the crowds in the grounds of Windsor Castle on the couples wedding day.

Invited guests include a mother who uses the arts to help people with mental health issues and a schoolgirl who was caught up in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing last year.
The grandfather of murdered Ellie Butler said he is disappointed that social services and other agencies involved in the six-year-olds care have not faced criticism after an inquest into her death.

Retired high court judge Dame Linda Dobbs concluded, after a two-week inquest which comes five years after the girl was killed by her father, that the organisations could not be said to have possibly or probably contributed to her death.

Ellie was unlawfully killed, having suffered fatal head injuries inflicted by her father, the inquest at South London Corners formally ruled on Tuesday.

The child was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her.

She was returned to the care of Butler, and her mother, in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court.

Ellie was battered to death at the family home by Butler in Sutton, south London in October the following year.

Ellie Butlers parents Ben Butler and Jennie Gray (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Butler was convicted of her murder in June 2016 after a trial at the Old Bailey and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.

Ellies mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month term after being found guilty of child cruelty after the Old Bailey trial.

She had admitted perverting the course of justice.

Ellies grandfather Neal Gray, speaking after attending court for the ruling in Croydon, became emotional as he described how any input to authorities from him or his late wife Linda during Ellies short life was ignored.

He said: I am grateful that Dame Linda Dobbs has scrutinised this case, but disappointed that the agencies that, in my view, failed my dear granddaughter Ellie have not had to account for the role they played.

He added: Ellie was let down by fundamental failings in the system. It is essential that lessons are learned so that no other child suffers like she did.

He welcomed the news that a Prevent Future Deaths (PFD) report would be made on the case, saying he hoped it will make concrete conclusions and provide clear directions about how childcare agencies must work together, even when faced with hostile and evasive parents.

Mr Gray said he hoped those in Parliament and in the family courts would sit up and take notice of the PFD conclusion, as he described what happened to his granddaughter as a very bad miscarriage of justice.

He said Butler and Ellies mother Jennie Gray had been too readily believed by authorities, adding that had they not been his granddaughter would still be alive today.

Coroner Dame Linda said any failings would be addressed in the PFD report but added on the evidence I am unable to conclude that any acts or omissions by the relevant agencies possibly or probably contributed to the death of Ellie.

The decision that the inquest would cover only the period after the court decision to return Ellie to her parents was a missed opportunity, Mr Gray said.

He said this could have been a time to reconsider and analyse the childcare law process and ensure that they are fit for purpose.

Following her ruling Dame Linda stressed that those worried about court judgments should feel able to raise those concerns.

She said: Lawyers are only advisers, they are not decision-makers. That responsibility lies with the agencies themselves.

She added that anyone with concerns as to the ramifications of any court order or any court judgment should raise them.

Mr Gray said he will continue to fight for justice for his granddaughter, saying:

I will consult with my legal team and this process is not yet over.

He said he could not comment on what form any further action may take.

Christine Davies, independent chairwoman of the Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), said she welcomed the ruling and thoroughness of the inquest.

She said: Over the past two years, the main agencies in Sutton responsible for childrens welfare have worked hard to learn the lessons from Ellies death and put in place measures to ensure, as far as possible, such a tragedy never occurs again.

A spokeswoman for Services for Children said: The death of Ellie Butler is truly tragic. We remain deeply saddened and devastated by her ordeal, and our thoughts and sympathies are with her grandfather.

The inquest looked at the relationships between authorities and agencies and we hope this will help to ensure that the most efficient system possible is in place to protect children in future.

We will continue to be dedicated to supporting parents, families and professionals in caring for children.

An NSPCC spokeswoman said: The circumstances surrounding Ellie Butlers death are truly harrowing. Her young life was brutally cut short by her own father, a man who should have loved and protected her from harm but who was ultimately responsible for her murder.

The levels of violence and abuse in this case may be exceptional but they are by no means unique. It is therefore vital that all agencies involved in Ellies case and in child protection across the UK work to ensure the history of this appalling case is not repeated elsewhere.
A Russian whistleblower won a legal battle against a firm led by the prime suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning a month before he died, an inquest heard.

Wealthy businessman Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, collapsed while out jogging near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012.

An inquest at the Old Bailey has been examining whether he died of natural causes or was poisoned, and if so, who had a motive for his murder.

Alexander Perepilichnyy (PA)

Giving evidence, lawyer Dimitry Lipkin said he represented Mr Perepilichnyy in a series of civil debt cases from late 2010.

Speaking via a video link from Moscow, Mr Lipkin said he had flown to London to meet him in November 2010 because the businessman feared for his life in his home country.

Peter Skelton, counsel for the coroner, asked if any of the alleged debts he was being pursued over were connected with persons or organisations with criminal associations.

Mr Lipkin said he did not know of any, adding: We had information that was used in proceedings that he did not come to Russia because he was fearful for his life.

The court heard how some of the cases involved a company, referred to in documents as Jsa LLC or Jirsa LLC, which allegedly take on debt for recovery.

According to an interview with a newspaper in 2012, Litvinenko murder suspect Dmitry Kovtun said he was invited by friends to become a director of Jsa because he enjoyed a certain reputation.

But Mr Lipkin said he was not familiar with the Litvinenko case and could not remember a connection with Jsa.

He told how he successfully argued Mr Perepilichnyys signature was forged on financial documents and won all the cases, including one appealed against by Jsa in October 2012.

Mr Skelton asked: Is Jsa the type of company that if it does not succeed in court may resort to physical violence?

Mr Lipkin said: I do not know. We won that case.

Mr Skelton went on: Do you know anyone who might have information to the effect either that he was being threatened or somebody might have wanted to kill him?

The witness denied it in Russian, saying: Nyet.

On Jsa, Bob Moxon Browne QC, for Legal and General Assurance, said: We know they had a reputation in Russia for acquiring money from people who did not want to pay it.

It was not necessary for you to do research, Mr Lipkin, because Mr Kovtun was very well known in Russia in 2011 and 2012.

And you knew because it was a matter of notoriety in Russia that Mr Kovtun had fallen ill as a result of exposure to polonium and had been given a medal by Mr Putin.

Mr Moxon Browne told the inquest that Mr Perepilichnyy had been sued over sums amounting to three million US dollars and 3 million.

Referring to Jsas final unsuccessful appeal, he said: Do you agree, within one month of this judgment, which went against Jsa, Mr Perepilichnyy was dead?

Coroner Nicholas Hilliard QC said: I think we know the answer to that.

The court has heard how Mr Perepilichnny had been helping specialist investment firm Hermitage Capital Management uncover a 230 million US dollar (150 million) Russian money-laundering operation at the time of his death.

Mr Lipkin confirmed he had also represented Hermitage in their case and said it was possible he was introduced to Mr Perepilichnyy by them.

But he denied a conflict of interests and said he did not act for Mr Perepilichnyy when he spoke to Swiss authorities about it.

He told the court he had no idea who might have been threatening Mr Perepilichnyy, or if it had anything to do with Hermitage.

He said he was aware of the concept of Reiderstvo, where a criminal group use litigation as a way of intimidating or threatening people.

John Beggs QC, for the family, questioned the witness about his ongoing association with Bill Browder and his Hermitage group.

Mr Lipkin confirmed he had represented Hermitage between 2008 and 2012, had met Mr Browder a number of times in London, and continued to be paid an insignificant sum to monitor for the firm.

Mr Perepilichnyys brother-in-law and business partner Rishat Ismagilov disputed there were any suspicious circumstances or links with Russian organised crime.

In a letter read to the court, he said: I strongly believe if he had been in fear of his life it would have been impossible for him to keep it from me.

He started planning to settle in the UK many years ago.

There were no death threats.

He never used a personal bodyguard. Had he felt insecure Im certain I would have become aware of it.

He denied there was any connection to the Magnitsky affair and called Mr Browder a liar, convicted criminal and CIA spy.

He said his brother-in-law had been keen to find a new family home and had not been specifically focused on Hermitage.

Before his death, he had lost weight through dieting and jogging.

Mr Ismagilov refused to be involved in the inquest but expressed his bewilderment, saying he had a moral duty to the deceased.

Mr Perepilichnyys various business, financial and real estate interests were listed with one firm, being said to have a turnover of 150 million US dollars a year.

Mr Ismagilov said his brother-in-law had complained that Mr Browder set me up by implicating him in money laundering.

Professor Monique Simmonds, from Kew, said DNA tests had still failed to identify material in Mr Perepilichnyys stomach contents.

Mr Moxon Browne said: The net result of your evidence is your search of the DNA was not very successful.

Six years after Mr Perepilichnyys death that vegetation recovered from his body, nobody knows what it is.
The Good Friday Agreement was the work of genius and a precious gift, former US President Bill Clinton has said.

Speaking at a major conference in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the historic 1998 peace accord, he urged the people of Northern Ireland to inspire the world again.

He said: The Good Friday Agreement is the work of genius thats applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy.

Because it called for a real democracy, majority rule, minority rights, individual rights, the rule of law, the end of violence, shared political decision-making, shared econpmic benefits, shared special relations, maintained the relationship with the United Kingdom, expanded the relationship with the Irish Republic and then let the future take its course.

Mr Clinton, who was later given the Freedom of Belfast, shared an hour-long panel discussion with former UK prime minister Tony Blair and Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern  among the architects of the historic agreement  at an event at Queens University Belfast.

He told an audience that included current political leaders, dignitaries and schoolchildren not to underestimate the work done by people of different persuasions.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton played key roles in the Good Friday Agreement (Brian Lawless/PA)

These people gave you a gift, he said. People who lost loved ones and bore scars; the womens groups; everybody, they gave you a gift. Make the most of it. It is a precious gift.

In the process, remind the world that democracy is better than dictatorship. Remember you inspired the world 20 years ago, you can do it all over again because the rest of the world continues to do foolish things. You do smart things.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair described Brexit as a profound mistake and warned of challenging consequences.

He said: Let me make it clear, we are going to overcome that challenge and we should overcome it because preserving this agreement is really, really important.

But those people who are either disdainful of the challenge or dismissive, this is going to require real focus and hard work because we cannot return to a hard border between north and south, it would be a disaster for the agreement and for the relationship between the Republic and the UK, and therefore for the people of Northern Ireland.

The chairman of the 1998 talks, US envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell, former Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell, ex-Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and former Ulster Unionist leader Lord David Trimble were also present at the event in Whitla Hall.

Tony Blair: The Good Friday Agreement would have never happened unless those involved had been prepared to put all their political self-interest aside and say what is right for the people and what will make their futures better. https://t.co/DfO9dtAOsa #GFA20 pic.twitter.com/UPMuhAAaty  Tony Blair Institute (@InstituteGC) April 10, 2018

The Good Friday Agreement largely ended the 30-year conflict which claimed more than 3,000 lives. It was codified by the British and Irish governments with the agreement of most of the major Stormont parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionists.

The accord included the early release of about 500 paramilitary prisoners within two years even though IRA arms had not yet been destroyed.

Prisoner releases almost torpedoed the agreement in the final frantic hours before it was signed on April 10 1998  Good Friday.

The deal also covered the re-establishment of devolved powersharing at Stormont and establishment of cross-border political bodies with the Republic, and led to a root-and-branch reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Paramilitaries undertook to destroy weapons and the IRA did so in 2005.

It enshrined the principle of consent  that Northern Irelands constitutional position as part of the UK would only change if a majority in the region voted for it  while at the same time offering provisions that legitimised nationalist aspirations to strive for a united Ireland.

Remind the world that democracy is greater than dictatorships. You can do smart things. Save the peace and inspire the world. @BillClinton #GFA20 pic.twitter.com/EDL0tSr77A  Queen's University Belfast  (@QUBelfast) April 10, 2018

The agreement won the overwhelming support of a majority following referendums in both parts of the island and served as a blueprint for how to solve conflict around the world.

Twenty years later a ministerial executive at Stormont has not sat for more than a year in a dispute over the status of the Irish language, gay rights and dealing with the legacy of the past.

Senator Mitchell recalled to the packed auditorium how Mr Clinton had played a pivotal role during the negotiations, fielding 3am phonecalls.

Mr Clinton added: By creating that space for the identity, and the interest and value of all the people involved in a framework which protected democracy and let future demographic, political and economic changes take Northern Ireland wherever it would go, it was a work of genius.

In a world today where there are people who are aggressively trying to destroy the very idea of popular democracy, it embodied everything that I believe works best.

Do not underestimate the value of the fact that this was done by people from different parties, of different persuasions and not one damn time in the whole process did anyone ever suggest that democracy itself should be abandoned; that the results of elections should not be respected, that some peoples votes should be denied, discredited or that facts were not facts.
One of those who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement has said he is sad and angry at the state of politics in Northern Ireland.

In a stinging attack, former SDLP deputy first minister Seamus Mallon, who helped broker the 1998 peace accord, claimed the two biggest parties at Stormont had created political silos, debasing the process and almost Balkanising the country.

He said: Am I sad? Yes. Am I angry? Yes, very angry.

Especially when I watch television sitting in my house, just me and the dog, and I watch the hypocrisies which are unbelievable and the untruths which are believable.

Politics has been debased and diminished by these two political silos which have almost Balkanised the Northern Ireland that I live in.

It is the future we should be looking at.

He expressed confidence that Northern Irelands future was bright despite the current political impasse.

The institutions will be back in place, he said.

The Good Friday Agreement remains the accord which is going to guide politics on this island and arrangements on this island and relationships on this island into the foreseeable future.

I think the future is very bright. There is always an ebb in a process. There is always an ebb and a flow.

We are in an ebb, it is temporary.

Meanwhile, speaking ahead of the event, former DUP first minister Peter Robinson, who initially opposed the Agreement, said Brexit had the potential to cause considerable disruption to politics.

He said: We have to deal with it in a way that causes as little disruption to our political process and it has the capacity to cause considerable disruption.

I just trust the politicians of the day, and I am talking principally of the Prime Minister, are capable of negotiating an outcome that resolves some of these issues without some of us having to start putting up flags in order to show how British or how Irish we are in Northern Ireland.

I think it is possible to do it.
A husband who killed his wife with a hammer in Dubai is appealing for his 10-year jail sentence to be reduced, the victims family has said.

British newspaper editor Francis Matthew was found guilty in the Emirate of killing his 62-year-old wife Jane Matthew on July 4 last year.

Matthew initially told police that robbers had broken into their villa and killed his wife of 30 years, but during a later interrogation he allegedly said there had been an argument over money.

Jane Matthew was killed by her husband Francis (Family handout/PA)

He was reportedly convicted of assault leading to death, and not of murder, following representations by his lawyer.

The family of Jane Matthew said in a statement that they were very upset that her husband was appealing against the sentence, and that women should be deeply worried by the case.

They want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict in a bid for a harsher sentence.

Matthew, who is the former editor of the English-language Gulf News, and who had lived in east London with his wife before emigrating to Dubai, was sentenced in March.

He had allegedly told police officers that his wife had grown angry with him because they were in debt and needed to move, and his temper rose when his wife called him a loser and told him you should provide financially.

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.

In a statement, the victims family said: Janes family is very upset that Francis Matthew has appealed to further reduce his sentence after he killed Jane with a hammer.

We want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict.

Women, in particular, should be deeply worried.

This verdict says that, just by having a common domestic argument with her husband, Jane was responsible for provoking her own death.

The courts finding is also deeply unfair to Jane because, while Matthew has apparently had his defence of provocation considered by the court, he has at the same time benefited from having ensured Jane couldnt defend herself against his claims.

They said they were concerned that Matthews sentence should not be reduced further.

The statement continued: The court also seems to be saying that Janes death was unintentional.

But of all the items that Matthew could have picked up during the alleged argument, he chose a hammer.

By his own description, he collected the hammer in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors of the house to the bedroom.

Why would he do that?

It is also not believable that Matthew, who is over six feet tall, did not think he would kill Jane if he gave her two very hard blows to the face with the hammer.
Roma secured a dramatic 3-0 victory over Barcelona at the Stadio Olimpico to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate result.

Trailing 4-1 after the first leg, Roma went ahead on the night after six minutes as Edin Dzeko latched on to Daniele de Rossis long-range pass before poking the ball beyond Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

De Rossi doubled their lead from the penalty spot after Dzeko had been brought down in the box early in the second half and Kostas Manolas headed in late on to clinch Romas spot in the final four.

Roma beat Barcelona 3-0 on Tuesday to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Barcelona were on the front foot in the opening exchanges, with Sergi Roberto and Lionel Messi both having chances in the first four minutes.

But it was Roma who broke the deadlock after six minutes when De Rossis pin-point pass was met in the box by Dzeko, who got the ball under his spell with a brilliant first touch before prodding past Ter Stegen from six yards.

Barca had an opportunity to hit back less than two minutes later after Juan Jesus tripped the on-rushing Messi 25 yards from goal but the Argentina forward missed the target with the subsequent free-kick.

Roma had a spring in their step and were attacking in numbers as they looked for a quickfire second.

Patrik Schick headed Aleksandar Kolarovs corner well wide in the 14th minute before Radja Nainggolan shot wide from range as a vociferous home crowd urged their team forward.

Dzeko cleared the bar with his long-range effort in the 25th minute, while it took a well-timed challenge from Gerard Pique to prevent Kolarov from getting a shot away in the box a minute later.

Barcelona looked rattled as Roma pressed with high intensity and threw everything at them when in possession.

Schick nodded Alessandro Florenzis searching cross wide from the middle of the area in the 28th minute, while Ter Stegen was forced to tip over Dzekos close-range header eight minutes later.

The visitors won another free-kick from shooting range in the 38th minute as Luis Suarez was brought down but once again Messi could not find the target from 25 yards.

Roma began the second half as they had finished the first  in complete control  and were awarded a penalty in the 56th minute when Pique fouled Dzeko in the area.

Captain De Rossi rifled the ball beyond Ter Stegen to double Romas advantage and the home side were not finished there.

Ter Stegen was called into action once again in the 68th minute to keep Nainggolan at bay before Messi sent his 20-yard shot straight at Alisson six minutes later.

And after substitute Stephan El Shaarawy had been denied by a last-ditch save by Ter Stegen at the back post in the 79th minute, Manolas nodded Cengiz Unders cross past the German to make it 4-4 on aggregate with eight minutes left to play.

Barcelona threw the kitchen sink at Roma late on but with Messi and Ousmane Dembele unable to convert their chances, Roma held on to complete their unlikely comeback win.
Oscar-winner Jordan Peele celebrated Tracy Morgan as a legend and an influence as the 30 Rock actor was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Morgan, a former Saturday Night Live comedian who created The Last O.G. series with Peele, was given the honour in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Peele, the Get Out director who won an Academy Award for the films screenplay, was joined by Martin Lawrence to honour Morgan at the ceremony.

This man right here is a legend, hes going down in history and he is officially a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Peele said.

Lawrence, Morgan and Peele (Chris Pizzello/AP)

Peele said it was very surreal meeting Morgan for the first time about two years ago because he had idolised him on the Def Comedy Jam show.

He opened my mind, he blew my world up. This man comes on stage and hes an undeniable force of nature, Peele added.

Morgan was in a buoyant mood (Chris Pizzello/AP)

The ceremony came less than four years after Morgan was left in a coma after a crash that killed a friend when a lorry ploughed into their car.

He thanked his wife and family for giving him the strength to survive and Tina Fey for translating his crazy, sometimes tragic life into funny and moving stories that earned him an Emmy nomination with 30 Rock.

Morgan also thanked Martin Lawrence for giving him an early shot in Hollywood and told how he could never anticipate getting this honour as he grew up on a housing estate in New York.

As a poor kid growing up in the projects of Brooklyn I never dreamed I would have a star on the Walk of Fame. But now Im here I have to tell you I feel pretty comfortable, Morgan said.

Ill tell you why: because the smell of weed and stench of stale urine is just like being in the projects, man.

Morgan with his star (Chris Pizzello/AP)

The 49-year-old would later plant his lips on the fresh paving slab of his Hollywood star.

Lawrence told the crowds lining Hollywood Boulevard to cheer on the 2,633rd star ceremony of Morgans talent.

Tracy is just a genuine talent thats very, very funny, hilarious and you just love to watch him make you laugh all the time, the Big Mommas House actor said.
Record labels in the UK have seen their fastest rate of trade income growth since Britpop ruled the charts, new figures show.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI)s annual yearbook, All About The Music 2018, reveals UK record company trade income rising by 10.6% in 2017 to stand at 839.4 million  a return to pre-2010 levels.

The increase is driven by a a 45% leap in streaming subscriptions as the likes of Spotify continue to attract customers as well as the ongoing vinyl revival which is now a fifth of the size of the CD market.

Ed Sheeran (Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

It is the fastest rate increase since 1995 when Blur, Oasis and Pulp were exciting fans and comes off the back of a boom in success of British artists.

The rate could have been even faster, the BPI argued, if the so-called value gap was closed.

The value gap refers to the distortion that allows user-upload platforms to pay lower royalties than competing digital services.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor warned of a long way for the industry to recover fully and called on the government to ensure British musicians can tour freely once Brexit is complete.

The popularity of established artists such as Ed Sheeran, Little Mix and Sam Smith combined with breakthrough stars Stormzy, Dua Lipa and RagnBone Man boosted the revenues which are generated via sales, and streams of music and sync.

Stormzy (Joel Ryan/PA)

Revenues from streaming grew by 41% and the format now makes up nearly half of the industrys turnover, with subscription the channel that added the most to the overall increase rising to 346.9 million.

Big sellers Sheerans Divide, RagNBone Mans Human and Michael Ball and Alfie Boes second collaboration, Together Again, all helped the CD market.

Mr Taylor said: While these are reasons for optimism, music still has a long way to go to recover fully and achieve long-term sustainable growth.

In particular, government action is needed to remedy the continuing value gap, so that all digital platforms pay fairly for their use of music, and with the transition period following Brexit now agreed, it is vital that British musicians can tour freely in the EU once we leave.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/us-cars-japan/544991/

TOKYO, JapanThe last time Shujiro Urata wanted to buy a new car in Japan, his phone happened to ring. It was the local Toyota dealer on the phone, asking him if he was thinking about buying a new car. When he replied in the affirmative, the dealer and a coworker showed up at Uratas doorstep an hour later with two demo cars, which Urata and his wife test-drove around the neighborhood. The Uratas decided to buy a car from the dealer. The dealer also handles their car insurance, coming to their home whenever the insurance contract needed to be renewed. The Uratas bring in their car to the dealer every few weeks for a free car wash, where they hang out and talk to the employees, who have become their friends, about dog breeds and family birthdays. The rapport may sound unusual to Americans, who are about as happy to voluntarily go to a car dealer as they are to get teeth pulled, but the relationship between customer and car dealer is a common one in Japan. It may sound like a lot, but Japanese customers are used to this kind of service, Urata, who is also an economics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, told me. It is a kind of custom that American dealers arent used to.

This hospitality has helped Japanese automakers stay dominant in the Japanese market. Japanese brands account for about 90 percent of the domestic auto market in Japan, according to the Japanese Automobile Dealers Association. In the United States, by contrast, domestic brands have a much smaller share of the market. The Big ThreeGeneral Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chryslermake up 45 percent of the market, while Japanese brands make up 39 percent, according toauto-sales data from The Wall Street Journal. The dynamic contributes in part to the trade imbalance between the United States and Japan. The U.S. trade deficit with Japan last year was $68.9 billion, and a large share of that surplus$52.6 billioncame from vehicles and from automotive parts, according to the Department of Commerce. This has long bothered politicians including President Trump, who this week is traveling to Japan and other parts of Asia, where one of his goals will be to emphasize the importance of fair and reciprocal economic ties, according to the White House. Earlier this year, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the U.S., Trump said that the Japanese make it impossible to sell cars in Japan. This is also the line being touted by American carmakers, which accuse Japan of protectionist policies in its automobile market. The American Automotive Policy Council says that historical practices like requiring lengthy car inspections of foreign-made vehicles and prohibiting existing car dealers from selling foreign cars have prevented foreign companies from gaining a large market share.

But protectionism is not the full explanation for why Japanese people dont buy foreign cars. There are no import tariffs on cars, for example, while the U.S. and European Union impose 2.5 percent and 10 percent tariffs. And while Japanese cars are right-hand-drive, requiring manufacturing modifications before American cars can be sold there, this is no different from many other markets where foreign cars are prevalent. Instead, the problem is in large part that American car dealers have been hesitant to invest in the kind of dealer network that consumers like Shujiro Urata have come to expect. The way Japanese consumers buy cars is very different, Deborah Elms, the executive director of the Asian Trade Center, told me. Yet the Americans have not invested in a dealer network to break into the market. Indeed, Ford pulled out of Japan, where it had sold only 5,000 cars annually, last year. General Motors only has 28 dealerships in Japan, and sold about 1,000 cars there in 2016. Ford did not respond to requests for comment on this story. A General Motors spokeswoman told me that the company sold about 1,000 vehicles in Japan last year. It recently made a strategic decision to target niche segments, she said, and offer Japanese drivers left-hand-drive American vehicles including the Cadillac ATS. Japanese customers also expect to receive services like free maintenance from their dealers after they buy their cars, Urata said. When their cars need a checkup, the dealer comes and picks them up, does work on them, and then returns them. American dealers dont offer such services. Developing this network is expensive, and maintaining it is expensive, and thats one reason U.S. car makers decided to withdraw, he told me. RELATED STORY Can Anything Stop Rural Decline? I talked to a Japanese man named Hideo Ohashi, who has only bought Toyotas in Japan. He has considered buying a Mercedes-Benz, he told me, but he worried that it would be too expensive and lengthy to get new parts if his vehicle breaks down. A friend of Ohashis has a European car and it takes weeks to get parts from the maker, Ohashi said. Whats more, Toyota has a broad maintenance network, so its easy to get his car fixed if there are problems. Ohashi has know his Toyota dealer for 10 years, he told me, and they contact him at least once a quarter. We have a person there who has taken care of our family for a long time, he said. It would seemingly be worth it for U.S. companies to spend the money to invest in a similar dealership network in Japan. The Japanese auto market is the third-largest in the world, behind the U.S. and China. And the Japanese economy is currently booming, meaning consumers have extra spending money for cars, especially luxury ones.

Of course, there are some historical reasons that made it initially hard for U.S. automakers to sell cars in Japan. U.S. companies set up shop in Japan in the first half of the 20th century, allowing Japanese carmakers to learn their technology. But during World War II, U.S. firms were banished from Japan and were not allowed to return. After World War II, Japan did protect its auto market, and its domestic brands grew and competed with each other, becoming very efficient. By the time Japan opened its market in the 1970s, Japanese people were accustomed to buying domestic cars. But this alone should not have been enough to maintain Japans dominance in its domestic car market. U.S. companies have made inroads in countries like China that have more restrictive trade policies than Japan, in shorter amounts of timeGeneral Motors now sells more cars in China than it does in the U.S., for example.(Although the market for cars in China is larger than it is in the U.S.) Japanese companies increased their presence in the U.S. market for decades, even after the U.S. asked Japan to impose voluntary export restraints, limiting its export of cars to the U.S., in 1981. (Those restraints led Japan to open up manufacturing facilities in the United States.) And foreign companies have begun to sell more cars in Japan, with few complaints about Japans trade policies. The number of imports of U.S. vehicles in Japan shrank 15 percent between 2013 and 2016, to 19,933, while imports from the European Union grew five percent in that time period, to 251,115, according to Urata. Brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW saw sales grew 60 percent and 23 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2016.
The UK has deployed a third navy warship to the Asia-Pacific as diplomatic tensions with North Korea continue to rise.

HMS Albion will join HMS Sutherland and will help enforce UN sanctions against North Korea, as well as take part in joint training and exercises with regional allies.

The Ministry of Defence previously announced that HMS Argyll would also be deployed, arriving in the region later in the year to take part in an exercise with Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore.

HMS Albion during its visit to Muscat, Oman.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: Our Armed Forces are at the forefront of Global Britain, and the deployment of HMS Albion, Sutherland and Argyll demonstrates our unwavering commitment to our international responsibilities and to maintaining peace, security and prosperity in the region.

Until North Korea matches its words with concrete actions, the UK will continue working closely with partners and allies to keep up pressure and strictly enforce existing sanctions, ensuring not only regional security but that of the UK as well.

HMS Albion, alongside HMS Sutherland, will monitor prohibited sea trading by North Korea, which the Government believes provides a major source of funding for its illegal nuclear programme.

The deployment will mean the Royal Navy will have a vessel in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time since 2013, maintaining an almost constant presence there this year.

A UN Security Council resolution bans ship-to-ship transfers of goods destined for the North Korean capital Pyeongchang, but some vessels have broken the sanction.

In October last year, a Hong Kong-registered ship was seized by South Korea after it was suspected of transferring 600 tonnes of oil to a North Korean ship.

US president Donald Trump tweeted his disappointment at the incident, which he pinned on China.

In February, the US Treasury Department cited 50 ships for evading US and international sanctions against North Korea.

Mr Trump told reporters in the White House that if North Korea did not comply with the sanctions, that a phase two might be the next step.

Phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very unfortunate for the world, he said.
There are two siblings  an Akka and Malli  in the thick of politics whose family interests would remain unaffected, they say, no matter which party is in power for they represent the two main political parties.



The Malli, a purohita of a previous regime, lost his seat in a district located in an area where a kingdom once flourished. However, he is in active politics.



The Akka too in active politics, sporting a different political colour, successfully contested the recent mini-polls on the Pohottuwa list.



Politics of this Akka- Malli duo has become a good joke for the people in their area who say that whichever the party that comes to power, it would be invariably either Akkas or Mallis and their family fortunes would remain intact!
The Petroleum Resources Development Ministry yesterday said that Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had to incur an additional loss of Rs. 380 million a day since fuel prices are not being increased.

Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe said the loss has increased manifold now as CPC sheds sold more fuel now after the Lanka IOC increased fuel prices recently.

He said it was not feasible to run the corporation due to the losses accumulating daily since 2015. He said the matter was brought to the notice of the Finance Ministry several times and he hoped the Finance Ministry would find a solution to this crisis soon.

Meanwhile, the sale of Diesel in CPC sheds has increased from 4500 metric tonnes 5500 MT and Petrol from 2500 MT to 3000 MT daily after Lanka IOC increased fuel prices recently. (Mahinda Nissanka)
Some tourists including a Dutch male and two other women tourists were reported to have been brutally assaulted in Mirissa on Sunday morning when they resisted attempts to sexually assault the women.

The group had gone to a Surf Bar and Restaurant on the Mirissa beach where the assault had occurred. According to eyewitnesses, the group had been enjoying dinner and drinks at the Surf Bar and Restaurant on Saturday night when waiters at the restaurant had attempted to sexually harass the women.

They tried to dance near us and groped us from time to time during the night one the females said. The females had, however, resisted the advances and stayed together with the group. The attempts to sexually assault the females had gone on during the night from time to time.

The night started fun until more and more local guys began to inappropriately touch the girls in our group and also other tourist girls at the bar. We complained about this to the guys working at the bar, but they laughed at us and continued to laugh every time a local guy harassed a girl. After a while, we decided to leave until things escalated between local guys and a group of tourists Raffie Van Maren a 19-year-old Dutch national told Daily Mirror.

Maren says he attempted to inform the management throughout the night of the harassment to no avail,

Visitors to Mirissa said that the behaviour of the employees is a common occurrence. The waiters are youth from the area colloquially referred to  Beach boys.

The escalation of the incident to the assault had occurred after one of the locals had attempted to rub his penis on a females shoulder whilst they were seated.

When I saw this I told the guy that this was unacceptable, and the girl, in shock, stood up and got really angry with him. Things started to escalate and while this was going on, we decided to get out of there as soon as possible. We walked towards the exit of the beach when we saw local guys running towards us. One guy we were with got punched to the ground and was repeatedly kicked and punched by 5 or 6 guys at the same time, all of these guys had been in the Surf Bar and Restaurant before Maren said.

Thereafter a group of around eight to 10 locals had mercilessly assaulted Maren and two other females from Briton.

One guy we were with got punched to the ground and was repeatedly kicked and punched by 5 or 6 guys at the same time, all of these guys had been in the Surf Bar and Restaurant before. One local started running towards me but before I knew I was on the ground getting punched and kicked at by eight guys at the same time. I was screaming and shouting but they did not care and kept going for at least ten minutes. My forehead was busted open as well as my right ear and my right arm he said.

A female victim who was assaulted detailing the incident said that she and her friend were punched by the group after which 4 men had attempted to take her to bed.

One man pushed my friend (names withheld due to safety reasons), pulled her hair back and punched her in the back of the head. In the commotion I lost our group including my friend, I walked further down the beach to try and find them and a group of four men approached me and told me to come with them one of them was insisting that he would "stay in my bed tonight" she said. The victim and her friend had thereafter been assaulted again by the group.

 A man from the previous group of attackers came running towards us shouting " repeatedly and tried to punch my friend. He then pushed me forcefully to the ground and began kicking me, the victim said.

Tourist around the area told Daily Mirror that attempts to sexually assault women are rampant in the area and assaults such as this occur from time to time.

 These are tourists and they dont want to go through the entire ordeal of the legal process in Sri Lanka. They are here for a short time and therefore the incidents often go unreported an owner of one of the properties in Mirissa told Daily Mirror.

However, the two victims have lodged complaints with the Tourist Police via electronic mail.

Earlier a British National Khuran Shaikhy was murdered in 2011 and his girlfriend was raped by locals creating international media attention on the safety of tourists in Sri Lanka.
Bloodshed became a common occurrence with the 30-year ethnic conflict that ravaged the island. However, eight years after the war has ceased, the local gun culture still exists. Since January 2018, Sri Lanka has experienced the heat of the underworld with several incidents being reported in Colombo and the greater Colombo areas. Shootings among rival factions to gain territorial monopoly over narcotics and businesses such as sand mining is now common in the country.

As much as dealing with weapons has become a lucrative business, the 30-year conflict too has contributed to this influx of weapons used in the underworld. The Special Task Force, affiliated to the Police, has taken an upper hand in controlling this menace and so far has been successful in taking several noted criminals into custody and for further questioning.

Hence, the Daily Mirror spoke to a few individuals of varied expertise in an attempt to shed light on factors that have contributed to this menace and certain penal provisions described in the Firearms Ordinance.

A country flooded with arms

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Major General Udaya Perera, ex-Director Operations of the Sri Lanka Army and the ex-Security Forces Commander in Kilinochchi and Jaffna said that this situation is common in any country that has faced turmoil like Sri Lanka. We were a country that was challenged by a hybrid terrorist organization. They collected huge amounts of money to buy war-like equipment; from these small arms were the majority and they were able to buy them from around the world and from corrupt Government officers of other countries. They also captured arms from the Sri Lankan and Indian military. So they had a large arms capturing system,said Perera.

Secondly when we were fighting the war, the Government of Sri Lanka in good faith gave some arms to border villages, he continued. During the war we saw a large number of illegal weapons in the country; in fact every weapon used by the LTTE was illegal. Naturally the country was flooded with small arms of various types. Even before the LTTE era, such as during the JVP riots, they also had locally manufactured weapons etc.

So these weapons were freely available and I dont think anybody has a record of this. We were fighting with a non-state actor who wasnt adhering to universally accepted rules and regulations, so there were no registers. Therefore the guns were freely available and even today there may be arms catchers who may have hidden their weapons under rooftops, ceilings, water tanks and other places. The weapon business is a lucrative one and due to economic reasons people are tempted to sell weapons and get some extra money. With this environment it is a natural phenomenon and handling this situation is an issue, he stressed.

Securitisation as a solution

According to Maj. Gen. Perera the country should have a short, medium and a long-term plan to handle this situation. Sri Lanka is a country where we have all the agencies in place, he said. The issue is how to bring these agencies together through a coordinated effort. We did that beautifully to defeat terrorism and when an issue of this nature emerges its a threat to national security. Generally there is a concept known as securitisation; similarly to how we securitized the entire country, agencies and line ministries to defeat terrorism, during a conflict like this it is important to securitize the issue as well as the agencies. As for a short term plan we have to give incentives, which we have done a couple of times so that these guns can be surrendered and people can come out and give information.

But all the weapons cannot be taken through this approach. Therefore there has to be a medium term plan where you bring in all the agencies on a coordinated fashion. Here, the intelligence agencies have a huge role to play. They should be strengthened to obtain information regarding these types of weapons because it is a security threat. Then other agencies such as line ministries, military and the Police should be brought in to fight this menace. In a country like this the society too should be linked to this process. We are hugely influenced by the clergy of Sri Lanka, irrespective of religion. They work in groups and they too should be linked because theres a morality factor associated,he said.

Role of academics and think tanks

In the case of US theres a huge difference, he further added. In the US the weapons are legalized and when they start killing innocent civilians, the society comes together as one and they are vociferously involved in anti-gun culture activity. But in Sri Lanka the society would not come forward because they dont target innocent people here. The targets are rival factions and the society is evasive, silent and turns a blind eye to such incidents. The Government has to be effective and get the society involved. But in this situation, violence shouldnt be seen in the governing sector. The long-term solution in terms of securitization is the role that has to be played by think tanks and academics. In the West, think tanks such as the Institute for National Security Studies and universities are encouraged to do research. Up to now I have not seen any research being done on this sector.

Therefore research needs to be done on how we could control this situation and the Government too has to be involved in this research. Here, we also need to get the non-state actor involved because its registers are not with us and therefore we need to do a proper assessment and see how many weapons were actually there in Sri Lanka. Each weapon which was there with the non-state actor is an illegal one and we also have to see how many weapons the Government had distributed in good faith in order to safeguard the lives of the people. Generally we believe that there are around 850 million weapons in the possession of people in this world. Out of that about 600 million weapons are possessed by civilians. These numbers are increasing daily and in our country too there has to be a fair number due to the conflict, he underscored.

Threat to the economy

If this issue isnt resolved, it would remain as it is. The economy also has a role in national security, said a concerned Perera. When we talk about security it isnt only about the military, the Police and the judiciary. The economy, environmental, communication and societal sectors too have an active role to play in terms of national security. If the economy is stable, the rate of crime will drop. We are a small country and need to have a system of identification for every citizen. Security could be tightened to such a level, so that every citizen should be responsible and the intelligence services should be able to monitor all citizens without any hindrance and without disturbing their privacy.

Security is very important for a country to develop. If banks are being robbed and people are killed on the street then investors would desist from investing in the country. When theres a conflict with a non-state actor, nothing is recorded and this is done on purpose. Other sectors revolve around security and it should be encouraged at an academic level as well. Think tanks should also do research on the subject. This is why I said that the Government should securitise the issue. In good governance you need to have a coordinated effort between agencies and these agencies should know what each other is doing. This is usually done in other countries by the National Security Council and its secretariat, he added.

In his concluding remarks, Maj. Gen. Perera said that Sri Lanka is not a banana state. It has all the agencies in place. If we didnt have that coordination we may not have defeated the LTTE. Our intelligence and other agencies should be strengthened to such a level that they should be motivated to have innovative and coordinated action. Bureaucrats should be professional and they should be decision-makers. This is not a difficult task in Sri Lanka. If the military community is made vulnerable there are extremist elements that would be there to grab and take them to their side. Therefore the Government should always keep the military with it and this is how the larger military community should be managed,he explained.

All people killed in recent shootings were noted criminals: STF

In his comments to the Daily Mirror, a senior official attached to the Special Task Force said that so far 19 incidents have been reported. The last shooting took place in Maligawatte and we have been able to solve four cases already. Suspects seem to be evading arrest and we have organized our teams to do mobile day and night patrolling in Colombo and the greater Colombo area. During our search operations we have been able to take in more than 16 noted criminals for questioning and have also recovered several weapons and narcotics including heroin. After March 27 we havent seen any incidents, but we are continuing our operations, the official said.

He further said that one significant highlight in these incidents was that all those who were killed were noted criminals. They all have had criminal records and most incidents are shootings between rival factions. They try to kill the other in businesses such as sand mining and gain territorial monopoly. This is the same in narcotics. The weapons used were those that were robbed and although there were 19 incidents only two to three weapons have been moved around. Search operations are currently underway and the STF is fighting to eradicate the fear of crime in the city, the official further said.

An insight into the Firearms Ordinance

Presidents Counsel Tirantha Walaliyadde, who has appeared for cases involving Soththi Upali, Chinthaka Amarasinghe, Dhammika Amarasinghe and currently representing the person who is alleged to have shot Dhammika Amarasinghe inside the Magistrates Court Complex, explained certain deterrent penal provisions covering the illegal possession and the use of firearms in the Firearms Ordinance. The possession of an unlicensed gun entails a five-year jail term for a first offence and/or fine; for the second offence the penalty is ten to twenty years in jail. The possession of a repeater shotgun or an automatic gun provides a mandatory life sentence. The possession of a gal kattas entails a five thousand rupee fine and a second and subsequent offence, to ten years in jail and or/ rupees ten thousand fine. All these provisions also cover having custody of such a weapon as distinct from possession. Custody means control and not necessarily immediate possession.

Speaking further Walaliyadde said that the use of a gun to commit offenses set out in Schedule C and D entails a life sentences and fines or fifteen years and fine respectively. Therefore, anyone who keeps a gun in his premises or possession on behalf of another runs the risk of prosecution for possession. The burden of proving that the gun is licensed is on the person who is charged for possessing a weapon. This is so with other activities requiring licenses. In cases where life sentences are prescribed bail can only be granted by the High Court under exceptional circumstances.

A Peace Officer includes any police officer and any Grama Niladhari appointed to perform police duties. Any peace officer, Grama Niladhari, or any revenue or judicial officer, or any other Government officer authorized in writing by a Superintendent of Police may arrest without a warrant any person possessing, carrying, or using an unlicensed gun. Any SSP or other officer authorized by him in writing or any Grama Niladhari or peace officer may enter and search all premises of any person suspected of possessing, making, selling, or repairing guns without a license. This includes any vessel, boat or conveyance. In a nutshell any person entitled to or authorized can search any person suspected of possessing unlicensed guns, or enter and search any premises or vehicle suspected to contain unlicensed guns and take the guns into custody and arrest without warrant any person connected thereto, he said.

According to Walaliyadde, the assembling of any parts to form a gun comes under manufacturing of guns. The importation, manufacture, possession, repair, sale, transfer of a gun can only be done by virtue of a license issued by the Defence Secretary. If not, the culprit is guilty of an offence and is liable to the respective penalties and punishments as prescribed in the Act. Proof of license is on the person charged. The guns concerned in any offence under the Firearms Act are liable to confiscation subject to the owners claim of bona fides if the offence is committed by someone else. The sale of cartridges is also prohibited unless the purchaser produces a valid gun license, he said.

The above contents are simplified explanations of the Firearms Act and its practical aspects as relevant to the present day crime trend and are not meant to be quoted in any court of law. However, this article does not cover the entirety of the Act. In his concluding remarks, Walaliyadde said,

As another matter of comment, it is my considered view that the only way to curb and deter this spate of underworld violence presently scorching the country is to reactivate the death sentence following a review of the conviction by the Supreme Court, where contract killings are concerned.
Do those who got their marching orders from the UNP some years ago, and thus are no longer members of the party have any right to hold protests or marches, to try to get rid of a Leader who has been duly elected to the position by his party?

If the protest was as it was said to be, a peaceful one, why the need to carry guns and long cinnamon poles? The excuse for the poles was that they were to be used as flagpoles, but apparently there were no flags found with them.

The organizer seems to specialize in marches if nothing else as I think this is the third one he has tried to do. We have seen in our political history, what has happened to people who tried to run too fast and tried to oust elected leaders.

Using guns, it appears, seems to run in the genes of some, when we recall some past protests and those who were caught by camera carrying and threatening people with guns.

After a lot of boasting and arrogant talk this group got only around 0.1% of the vote at the recent Local Government Elections.

One cannot fool all the people all the time! That too, is a lesson of history.

No right-thinking citizen with a love for the country will indulge in this kind of behaviour. I fail to comprehend why this march was allowed to proceed after the guns and poles were found

Provoking people, inciting people is part of rabble rousing, which can cause violence and make it spread. Our country can hardly afford this kind of loss to the economy, which causes instability, a lack of investment and hinders tourism.

No right-thinking citizen with a love for the country will indulge in this kind of behaviour. I fail to comprehend why this march was allowed to proceed after the guns and poles were found.

What has the new Minister of Law and Order done about it? Had Field Marshall Fonseka been there, Im sure it would have been a different story!

As a Christian, I cannot understand how people take their hatred so far as to go on and on hurling slander at a person. There has to be something in their own lives, perhaps even stemming from an unhappy childhood to make them act like this. It can be a broken home, neglect or abuse, it is difficult for us who came from secure happy homes and a cosseted childhood to understand this.

Traumas of an unhappy childhood can I guess, cloud ones entire life.

I never watch television but I know that the majority of my friends switch off their TV sets when this kind of slander is used time and again against one man, who is respected and revered, both here and far beyond our shores.

People who act like this should turn the searchlight within and find out why hatred consumes so much of their time and thought, together with an extraordinary instinct for intrigue.

This attitude is bad and brittle leading to assertive opportunism.

Treachery of this sort usually erodes the foundation of trust, one who does this to one, can do the same thing to another and is rarely trusted by anyone.

What has the new Minister of Law and Order done about it? Had Field Marshall Fonseka been there, Im sure it would have been a different story!

While ambition and hunger remain not assuaged, the desire for violence and crime will remain and bring suffering and destruction in its wake.

People who indulge in this kind of irascible opinionated behaviour give the impression that society today.

Epitomizes the dishonest, self-seeking snatch and grab winner takes it all mentality, depriving the country of all ethical values.

Their lives have probably been strewn with broken dreams, failed relationships, disappointing outcomes and broken promises from childhood on, which they now take out by venting their anger on another.

There is, however, a God above and those who hurl abuse and organize protests against Ranil will be dealt with one day in the not too distant future.

Vengeance is mine said the Lord, I will repay. White vans would have dealt with them if they had dared to do this during the past regime.

People who act like this should turn the searchlight within and find out why hatred consumes so much of their time and thought, together with an extraordinary instinct for intrigue.

There is no other politician today, as mentioned by some Buddhist clergy on the electronic media recently, whose family has contributed so much to Buddhism and the country as Ranils ancestors.

These words of John Buchan seem apt to describe Ranil.

He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly but because he felt deeply. He loved his country. Austerely, self-respectingly, he had been used to hide his devotion under a mask of indifference and would never reveal them except in deeds. To him politics was still the greatest and most honourable adventure. Our roll of honour is long but it holds no nobler figure.
REUTERS, 09th APRIL, 2018- Donald Trump will regret it if he pulls out of the nuclear deal with Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday, warning the U.S. president that Tehrans response would be stronger than he thinks.



U.S. sanctions that were lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015 will resume unless Trump waives them again on May 12. Trump has effectively set that as a deadline for European powers to fix the terrible flaws of the deal.



The new U.S. president - who has big claims and many ups and downs in his words and actions - has been trying for 15 months to break the JCPOA ... but the structure of the JCPOA is so strong that it has not been shaken by such quakes, Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Destroyer JS Akebono arrived at the port of Hambantota on a goodwill visit yesterday. Sri Lanka Navy welcomed the ship in accordance with naval tradition upon her arrival.

Commander Southern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Kapila Samaraweera, Director Naval Operations, Commodore Sanjeewa Dias along with a group of officers attached to the Southern Naval Command, Coast Guard and Air Force made an inspection visit on-board Akebono and took part in a conference on Search and Rescue held aboard ship.

The Commanding Officer of the vessel, Commander Yuichi Haeno called on Commander Southern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Kapila Samaraweera and shared a couple of views on matters of professional interest as well. Mementoes were also exchanged to mark this occasion. JS Akebono is due to set sail for her next port of call today, on completion of her two-day visit.
The National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP) and several civil society movement organizations today handed over a petition to the Indian High Commission against the attempt to import Quadricycle-micro car, which has been banned in India, into the country.

NMCRP Chairman Ranjith Withanage pointed out that the government attempting to ban an Indian made vehicle that had been banned in India by misusing their power. The number of deaths and injuries as a result of road accidents involving non-roadworthy vehicles in Sri Lanka is already on the rise. The import of this type of vehicle therefore would exacerbate the problem and result in more deaths, he said.

Due to concerns over Quadricycles safety aspects, in 2015 the Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) delayed granting approval to import the Bajaj Qute RE60 quadricycle.

It was learned that the DMT is to add a new vehicle category for quadricycle after permitting the import of the vehicle.

Bajaj Qute, the motorised four-wheel quadricycle vehicle, weighs less than 450kg and is said to be 37% lighter than the smallest car presently existing in the domestic market with a light 216.6 cc engine. The maximum speed stipulated for the vehicle is said to be 70 kmph.

The launch of the vehicle in India had been halted for three years due to legal action by rival companies, despite the government approving the new category of vehicles and the company will be reaching out to its overseas markets to avoid incurring losses.

According to the Economic Times, three-wheeler giant Bajaj Auto will be exporting its Quadricycle vehicle to its traditional export destinations like Sri Lanka, Egypt and Nigeria. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
A missile strike on an air base in central Syria was carried out by Israeli warplanes early Monday and caused multiple casualties, according to the Syrian and Russian governments, amid fears of a wider confrontation between world powers.



Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the reports. The raid on the T-4 airfield in Homs province  believed also to be a base for Iranian and Iranian-allied militias  comes as tensions rise over possible U.S. military action in Syria in response to an alleged chemical strike near Damascus late Saturday.



Syrias ally, Russia, on Monday called the Israeli raid a dangerous development and said reports of a chemical attack near Damascus were also a provocation, Reuters reported. U.S. officials said Sunday that they were weighing options to strike Syrian government targets after at least 40 people were killed in the opposition-held town of Douma, roughly 10 miles from the Syrian capital. President Trump also said Sunday that there would be a big price to pay for the attack. Many of the victims suffocated, and the wounded showed signs of respiratory distress and foaming at the mouth, doctors and rescue workers in the area said.



The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the worlds chemical weapons watchdog, said Monday that it was investigating the possible use of chemical weapons in Douma.



A spokeswoman for the European Union blamed Syrias government for the attack. Russias Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday that Syrian doctors and other medical staff went to Douma to the site of the alleged attack but could not find evidence any chemical weapons were used.

WASHINGTON POST,

09th APRIL, 2018
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a tough assessment of what the results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress say about K-12 education nationwide. But she had glowing words for one state: school choice-friendly Florida , which the secretary once hailed as a model for the nation.

DeVos called the Sunshine State a bright spot in Tuesdays NAEP report . That report generally showed little progress in reading and math, and persistent achievement gaps between low-income and minority students and their peers.

The report card is in, and the results are clear: We can and we must do better for Americas students. Our nations reading and math scores continue to stagnate. More alarmingly, the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students is widening, despite billions in federal funding designated specifically to help close it, DeVos said. Florida, though, can claim significant improvement in 4th and 8th grade math and in 8th grade reading, the secretary said. And she noted that both low and higher performers progressed, a shift from the national trend of yawning achievement gaps.



Florida leaders, administrators, and, most importantly, teachers are to be commended for their continued efforts on behalf of students, DeVos said in a statement. Florida has been at the forefront of bold, comprehensive education reform for decades. From accountability, to literacy, to teacher certification and recognition, to providing parents more freedom to select the learning environment that best fits their students needs, Florida is rethinking education.

Florida was the only state to show significant improvement in math at both grade levels and IN 8th grade reading (No state improved in 4th grade reading.) But other states and NAEP participants found reasons to tout their progress.

Puerto Rico saw gains in math at grade 4, while schools run by the Department of Defense also saw reading improvements at 8th grade. In reading, no states improved at 4th grade, but nineCalifornia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Washingtonand the Defense Department schools improved at the 8th grade level.

DeVos was probably jazzed about the chance to highlight Florida, which she called a national standout on a radio interview last year.

I would point to Florida as being one that has had a variety of options for the longest period of time, DeVos told Frank Beckmann, a conservative radio talk show host on WJR, based in Michigan back in February of 2017.

The state has a robust public school program, charters, and vouchers for students in special education. It has also created a tax credit scholarship, which DeVos and company have been championing behind-the-scenes in Washington.

DeVos has visited at least 10 Florida schools since becoming secretary, according to Edweeks tracker . Thats more than any other state.

And a lot of DeVos team has Florida ties, including some folks who have been nominated for jobs by President Donald Trump but not yet confirmed by Congress. For instance, Frank Brogan, who has been tapped to be assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, served as a Florida district superintendent, state chief, and lieutenant governor.

Carlos Muniz, who has been nominated for general counsel at the department, was a deputy attorney general and chief of staff to Pam Bondi, Floridas attorney general. DeVos chief of staff, Josh Venable, was a top aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. DeVos herself served on the board of Bushs education-redesign nonprofit, the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

It hasnt been all smooth sailing between Florida and the Trump administration, though. The Sunshine State does not want to include a separate indicator for English-language proficiency in its plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act . Thats an ESSA must, the department has said.

And during a press conference on the NAEP results Tuesday, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart credited her states accountability system for the gains. She noted that the states accountability system specifically gauges progress for the lowest 25 percent of students in each school, regardless of their student group. That may have given Florida an advantage during a time when the nation saw a widening gap between the highest- and lowest-performing 25 percent of students, she seemed to imply. But the department has told Florida that system conflicts with ESSA .



Its not unusual for education secretaries to do a little fist-pumping when a state that they think is on the right track policywise outperforms the rest of the nation on NAEP. Arne Duncan, who headed the Education Department for most of President Barack Obamas administration, celebrated when Hawaii , Tennessee, and the District of Columbia made big gains on NAEP after snagging the Obama administrations signature Race to the Top grants.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reads a Dr. Seuss story to kindergarten students at Royal Palm Elementary School in Miami on April 7. --C.M. Guerrero/El Nuevo Herald via AP

Assistant Editor Sarah Sparks contributed to this post.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Thamankaduwa SLFP Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Premasiri Munasinghe and two others had been arrested for allegedly assaulting two Police Constables at the Saw Mill Junction in Kaduruwela last night.

The Police said the two constables attached to the Polonnaruwa Police Station, who were on patrol near the Saw Mill Junction had informed a driver of a cab, who had parked the cab on a zebra crossing, to move the vehicle.

The PS Chairman and two individuals who were inside the cab reportedly have disobeyed the Police order and had got off and assaulted the Constables.

The suspects had also snatched the weapons from the Constables.

The Constables, who were injured in the attack, were admitted to the Polonnaruwa Hospital.

The suspects were to be produced in the Polonnaruwa Magistrate's Court today.(Darshana Sanjeewa)
The CID last week took into custody the Commissioner of Prisons Department (Rehabilitation) Emil Ranjan Lamahewa and Police Anti Narcotics Bureau inspector Newamal Rangajeewa on suspicion over the alleged shooting incident within Welikada Prison which occurred on the 09th of November 2012. This is almost five years after the incident. The current revelation under Truthful Investigations is about this incident. This report is based on the findings of the CID which were submitted to courts and the matters containing in the report compiled by the three-member Committee appointed by the Ministry of Justice to probe into this incident.

It was 2012 and the date was 09th of November. The time was around 01.30 PM. 790 members of the Police Special Task Force, carrying fire arms entered Welikada Prison. At first the Prison officers, who were manning the gates, declined to allow them as entering a secured area carrying guns was not permitted. However following orders from high ups they were allowed inside the prison.

The STF officers together with the members of the Prison intelligence unit launched a search operation. After checking one of the wards they proceeded to search the Chapel ward. There were Prisoners in death row and those sentenced to twenty years inside this ward. The prisoners resented to this search by those carrying firearms. A heated argument arose which then led to an exchange of fisticuffs. Within minutes the STF directed a Tear Gas attack on the Chapel Ward, which angered the prisoners. Thereafter the STF left the prison.

The STF comes under the police and it is a para military outfit of the police. Even after the STF had left the situation did not return to normalcy. A group of prisoners, in the rush, had broken into the Armoury of the prison and removed some firearms.

After all these incidents 150 soldiers of the army entered the prison around 08.00 PM. Two Unicorn vehicles also entered the prison. According to the evidence submitted to the three-member committee the army personnel had been stationed in a prison ground since afternoon. Their operation too ended around 11.00 PM. Thereafter there was a reticence within the prison area. The bodies of several prisoners were found strewn within the prison grounds. The army had been seen checking some prisoners after commanding them to kneel.

The fire arms, alleged to have been removed by the prisoners after breaking into the armoury, were taken into custody by the army. They were then returned to Jailor Guard Nanayakkara, who was in charge of the armoury at the time of the robbery. The jailor accepted them noting down the serial numbers of these fire arms.

The list

According to the investigations by the CID and the report of the three-member committee, the next person who had entered the prison was a person in civvies, together with inspector Niyomal Rangajeewa attached to the Police Narcotics Bureau. One of them is said to have had a list of names. They had walked towards the place where some prisoners were continuing to kneel and called the names in the list. They were then separated and taken away.

It has been stated that the first to be taken away was Malan, followed by Kapila. Then came Manju Sris turn. The 26-year-old Harsha Manju Sri Manikeerthi had been serving as an insurance agent. It had been later reported that the suspect had visited the Kotte Temple in search of a sword. Police however did not find a sword in the suspects possession.

Thereafter they had been taken to the YO ward of the prison led by a prison officer. This ward had been secured with padlocks and witnesses had claimed that these padlocks were broken after shots were fired at them. Eight inmates, whose names appeared in the list, were then taken out. They were Kankanamlage Milinda Nilendra Pelpola, Nirmala Atapattu, Gundu Mama alias Vijaya Rohana, Chinthamani Mohottige Thushara Chandana alias Kalu Thushara, Ponna Kapila alias Andupulige Jothipala, Manju Sri alias Harsha Sri Mahakeerthi Perera, Mali Prasanna alias Raigamage Susantha Perera and Koda Amila alias Mallalage Malith Sameera Perera.

According to the identity card issued in 1997 by the Government Information Department Vijaya Rohana, who is among these eight individuals, had been serving Janahanda newspaper as a photo journalist. In a statement made by his mother it says, They tried to take revenge of my son over something that appeared in the newspaper when he was working for this publication. They took him into custody making fake charges of carrying drugs. A boy who resided behind my house was assaulted by the Narcotics bureau and killed. This case would be proved with my evidence, which I stated to courts. When I returned after giving evidence in courts, my son was killed in this manner. Earlier there were threats made to my son to stop me from giving evidence.

Koda Amila was another inmate who was killed. He had been taken into custody by the Narcotics Division over charges of trafficking in drugs. There is another case against him for behaving in an unruly manner while in Jail.

All these prisoners were languishing in jail over well-known public offences or convicted of drug related offences, while there were others who had fallen out with the prison authorities.

The scene of an enacted crime

Normalcy returned to the prison environs after the intervention by the army. This was after the operation conducted by the three individuals who visited the prison and singled out certain detainees. The remains of these detainees were found the next day strewn all over the prison ground. Firearms were also found close to these bodies. That was the scene of an enacted crime.

The firearms and other equipment discovered by the army were handed over to the officer in charge of weapons at the prison G.L.W. Nanayakkara by G.B.S. Tennekoon the Sergeant at the Panagoda Army Camp as per a written schedule. Nanayakkara had received these weapons following documentation with the consent of Sergeant Tennekoon. (A copy of that document is shown in the photograph)

They were 3 T 58s, 03 T56 Mark 11, 07 T 58 Magazines and 08 T 56 Magazines which were duly handed over to Nanayakkara. After several hours the then superintendent of the Magazine Prison had called over and requested for some firearms that were handed over by the Army. The officer-in-charge of weapons at the prisons had hesitated in releasing these weapons, but was reluctantly compelled to do so when the then Commissioner General of Prisons Kodippily instructed him to hand over the weapons.

By noon weapons were found near the bodies of the inmates that were killed and the weapons were found near the bodies of these dead prisoners. These weapons were identified as those that were handed back in this manner.

On the recommendation of the three member committee, the IGP took steps to hand over investigations to the CID. Proper investigations commenced and statements of a large number of persons were recorded. Following detailed probes on the series of events that took place inside Welikada Prison, Inspector Nyomal Rangajeewa of the Police Narcotics bureau was taken into custody on 28th March by the CID on suspicion of the alleged killing of eight prisoners, who had been identified and segregated before their deaths.

Following this move the then superintendent of the Magazine Prison Emil Ranjan Lama Hewa too was taken into custody at his official residence within the Prison premises. At the time of the arrest Emil Ranjan was serving as the Commissioner (Rehabilitation) of the Prisons Department.

No sooner the duo were arrested they sought a stay at the Colombo General Hospital stating that they were sick. They were allowed to do so by the CID. However after the Magistrate made a visit to the hospital and considered a report submitted to him, he ordered the suspects to be remanded.

The investigators are now on the look out to the arrest a senior officer who served the prisons department at the time these killings took place.

The Government is held responsible for the deaths of people who are under the custody of security services.

The message Prisoners are also human beings adorns the walls of Welikada Prison. But such sayings are of no use if those entrusted with the utmost duty of caring for the inmates act with such impunity to please their Godfathers.
Prison Departments Rehabilitation Commissioner and Magazine Prisons former Superintendent Emil Ranjan Lamahewage and Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Inspector Moses Rangajeewa Newamal are extolled as heroes by some groups in our society for their alleged involvement into the killing of 27 inmates in Welikada Prison on November 09 and 10, 2012. Certain groups justify the shooting, giving a reason that those who were killed were dangerous criminals and drug dealers.

Those who were killed were not innocent people. They deserved death because they were a menace to the society, they say. But, no one has a right to snatch another life. The 27 prisoners including those who were selected and shot at would not have died in vain, but they did. The furious manner in which the armed forces quelled the riot apparently indicated ferocity in the disposition of certain groups in our society towards prisoners.

Prisoners picked out and gunned down

IP Rangajeewa and former Prison Superintendent Emil Ranjan were arrested on March 28 and remanded till April 10. When the case was taken yesterday, they were further remanded till April 25. The CID investigations reports indicated that IP Rangajeewa and two others had entered Welikada Prison on the night of the incident, dressed in civil clothes, selected a group of prisoners and took them to another location.

According to the CID investigations, eight of the detainees taken had been shot dead, which is a crime according to Articles 102, 111, 113, 189, 198, 296 and 355 of Paragraph 32 of the Penal Code.

The eight prisoners who were gunned down were identified as Malindra Nilendra Palpola alias Malan, Nirmala Atapattu, Mohamed Wijaya Rohana alias Gundu Mama, Chinthamani Mohottige Thushara Chandana alias Kalu Thushara, Ponna Kapila alias Asarappulige Jothipala, Harsha Sri Manakeerthi Perera alias Manju Sri, Maali Susantha alias Raigamage Susantha Perera and Devamlamullage Malith Sameera Perera alias Konda Amila.

Out of the 27 prisoners nine died during the shooting carried out by the STF when they allegedly tried to escape from a three-wheeler (GH3423). Two more prisoners died in the shooting when they attempted to escape near a Prison Superitednets residence. The other 8 inmates died during the shootout between armed forces and the inmates, who were bearing weapons.

The CID investigations revealed, based on the evidence of witnesses, that a group of prisoners had been picked out and later shot on November 10th morning. This was after the Army had entered Welikada Prison later that night, brought the situation under control and left the scene.

Sudesh Nandimal Silva, who was in remand when the riot took place, speaking to the Daily Mirror said that he had also seen an officer in yellow t-shirt, whom he later got to know as IP Rangajeewa, having in his possession a pistol and a list and calling out certain prisoners by their names. Nandimal has testified before the CID.

Covering up the crime

Under the instructions of the then Prisons Commissioner General, the official photographer of Prisons Niraj Dushyantha Gunawardane had taken photographs of the dead prisoners and also captured the situation at the prison on November 10th morning. In those photographs, weapons were not seen near the bodies of prisoners Malan, Kapila and Manju Sri. However, a rifle was seen beside the bodies of the above mentioned prisoners in photographs which were taken later, the CID informed the court.

All the weapons seized from the prisoners by the Army were handed over by Sergeant Tennakoon to Jailer Nanayakkara on November 10th morning as it was noted down in the journal. CID officers had found four T56 rifles next to the bodies of the prisoners. They were among the firearms which were earlier handed over to Jailer Nanayakkara. The CID concluded that the four rifles had been brought back and placed next to the bodies of prisoners with the intention of framing an incident or covering up a crime.

All these findings by the CID were reported by the Daily Mirror in earlier articles using statements made by eyewitnesses, including prisoners and a jailer.

The firearms and other productions of the case have been sent to the Government Analysts Department for further study and a further report on the CID findings have been sent to the Attorney Generals Department, seeking advice.

Disputes with prisoners

It was also found that most of the inmates who had been picked out and shot were those who had filed Fundamental Rights cases and petitions before the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) against prison, narcotics and defence officials.

Emil threatened my son to withdraw complaint against him at Human Rights Commission

- Merlin

During an interview with the Daily Mirror, Jayasinghe Arachchige Merlin, the mother of Devalamullage Malith Sameera Perera aka Konda Amila, who died during the shooting, recalled the history associating her son and Former Prison Superintendent Emil Ranjan at Magazine Prison.

Malith was a convict of a drug related crime. He had been transferred to Welikada Prison several days prior to the shooting incident.

The bodies of brutally shot prisoners were laid in order when Merlin visited the hospital to identify the remain of her son. The face of Malith was almost unrecognizable due to wounds. For a moment she sat breathless and was hardly able to believe her eyes. Then she recovered her senses and voice. She started crying for her son.

My son earlier had had a verbal argument with Emil. Following the argument, Emil had summoned my son to his office and threatened to shoot him. Following this threat, I filed a complaint at the Human Rights Commission against him (Ranjan) over the death threat. Emil, who was infuriated, had punished and penalised my son over a confrontation that had taken place within the prison. My son had been threatened by Emil and told to withdraw the complaint against him at Human Rights Commission. But, he did not want the complaint to be withdrawn. This is merely a personal revenge, remarked Merlin.

Wijayas mother testified in a murder case against Rangajeewa

-Wijayas father

Wijaya Rohana aka Gundu Mama was just over 40 years old when he was killed whilst being in Weilkada Prison. In 1997 he was a Department of Information accredited photojournalist at the Janahanda Organization. Samsan Alwis, Wijayas father, spoke to the Daily Mirror, displaying his sons last remaining memento, Wijayas media identity card.

Alwis unfolded a devastating story about how his won was deliberately taken into custody. According to him, Wijaya was arrested over false charges in an attempt to influence Wijayas mother M. Siriyawathi, who had witnessed a crime allegedly committed by IP Rangajeewa.

We live on Magazine Road, Welikada. If my memory serves me right, it was before 2014, when my wife M. Sriyawathi had witnessed IP Rangajeewa beating and killing a user of drugs named Channa near our house. My wife was the only eyewitness to the incident and this put our family in hot water. My son had also published some photos of Rangajeewa in the newspaper and he was angry as a result. So, he had two reasons to take revenge on my son. They deliberately filed a charge against my son that had a connection with heroin. That is what they usually do if they want someone arrested, he said.

Siriyawathi, being informed of the riot through news broadcasts, had called the Prison at midnight on November 9. She had managed to speak to her son who told his mother that he was safe by that time. But, he was later dragged out of the cell and shot at.

IP Rangajeewa had visited Wijayas house during the memorial service a week after Wijayas death. Alwis claimed that Rangajeewa, accompanied by four others  probably policemen  were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the visit. Alwis said that his wife had been threatened. Alwis further said that alcohol must have given Rangajeewa a clumsy frame of mind because he had recounted Wijayas death, in Welikada.

Your son was a cheap and worthless chap. So, I dispatched him to the hell where he deserved, Rangajeewa had told Siriyawathi and Alwis on that day.

Meanwhile, the case relating to the alleged murder of Channa, where Siriyawathi was an eyewitness, is still proceeding in High Court.

However, the story did not end there. Siriyawathi was suffering from cancer. A depressed Siriyawathi took no notice of her disease until it grew throughout her body. In 2014, Siriyawathi, who had experienced severe body pains, was rushed to the hospital, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Samanthi. But, they could not reach the hospital.

While they were heading to the hospital, they bumped into IP Duminda Balasoriya of Walana Anti-Corruption Unit on the Magazine Road. He stopped them and and began questioning them.

I am the mother of Wijaya Rohana, who was killed in cold blood, by Rangajeewa. Leave us alone at least now, an irritated Siriyawathi, who was annoyed by the IPs behaviour, had told him, according to Alwis.

IP Balasoriya had then dialed Rangajeewas number. Alwis said that although Samanthi could not hear what Rangajeewa had told during the telephone conversation, she had heard Balasoriya replying What to do? I have to agree with you to do it although it is a sin. Those words had brought the phone conversation to an end. Siriyawathi, along with Samanthi, was brought to the police station.

The police allegedly put 550 mg of heroin for each individual as the charge against us. We were remanded on that day itself. We asked IP Balasoriya why he had no mercy for us and whether he had parents. He said his parents had died when he was a child, Samanthi recalled.

Alwis made every attempt to request bail for his wife. However, in early January, 2016, she was rushed to the hospital. After a one and a half month battle with cancer Siriyawathi passed away in February.

Alwis sought legal action against the injustice from The Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka. Proceedings of the case HRC/2926/14 which lasted for two years, ended with no further action being taken. When inquired into by the HRCSL, it said their recommendations had already been sent to the relevant authorities and now it is not their job to follow the recommendations given.

The Human Rights Commission attempts to cover up cases where the police and law agencies authorities are found to be the guilty party, alleged Alwis.

Complaint at HRCSL against Rangajeewa had to be withdrawn due to threats

- Nirmala Atapattus father

Nirmala Atapattu was another prisoner who was selected and gunned down. Nirmalas devastated father, Siripala Atapattu, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister last year narrating the ordeal his son had to experience. Earlier, Nirmalas family had also lodged a complaint with the Piliyandala Police Station and The Human Rights Commission, Sri Lanka against IP Rangajeewa. However, Nirmala had been repeatedly threatened by Rangajeewa, forcing him to withdraw the complaint at HRCSL. As a result of the demand, Nirmalas father had decided to withdraw the complaint considering the safety of his sons life.

Nirmala, a father of one, was a barber and a driver by profession. On June 24, 2009, Nirmala had finished his work early and returned home as he had developed an illness. Several policemen led by IP Rangajeewa and attired in civvies had entered Nirmalas house in Madapatha around 11 pm on June 25, 2009. He was asleep at that time. When inquired into, the policemen had said that they had come to arrest him for the use and sale of narcotics. Nirmala firmly had denied these allegations. Siripala said that his son had been brutally assaulted inside his house.

Claiming that they had received a tip-off stating that my son was involved in drug business, they raided our house. But, they did not find any illegal stuff. They even threw chili powder in my sons face. They beat my son so badly that he vomited. Then, he was stripped. Following this ordeal which lasted for two hours, they took my son to the police station, Siripala said.

The rest of Nirmalas story is much like what happened to Wijaya Rohana. Nirmala had phoned his wife and his father around 11 pm on November 9 to inform that he was safe. But, he was also in the list.

We made every possible attempt to save him when he was in remand. When the real culprits of the drug menace are roaming free, my innocent son had to die because of wrong information, the police had received. No matter how much we are compensated with, we lost our beloved son, our daughter-in-law lost her husband and the little kid lost his father, Siripala narrated.

They want me arrested to finish me off inside prison

- IP Rangajeewa

IP Rangajeewa filed a Fundamental Rights Petition in Supreme Court on March 20 this year, seeking an Interim Order directing the respondents including DIG Ravi Seneviratne of CID, IGP Pujith Jayasundara and the Attorney General not to arrest him until the final determination of the FR application is made. The court was also requested by IP Rangajeewa to declare that there was an imminent infringement of the fundamental rights of him guaranteed under Article 12 (1), 13 (1) and 13 (2) of the Constitution by the aforesaid respondents. In his petition, he has responded to the allegations levelled against him for his involvement in the shooting of inmates.

The search was jointly conducted by STF and Intelligence and Protection Unit of the Prison Headquarters for drugs and other illegal stuff on November 9, 2012. When they tried to search the Chapel Section in the prison, the prisoners have openly resisted, attacking the STF officers with stones. Within a few hours, this resistance had developed into a full scale prison riot. Later, the Army had to be called to rest control of the situation within the prison which was created by rioting prisoners. By the following morning, the Army had managed to quell the riot and bring the prison under control. This riot had resulted in the death of 27 prisoners.

The drug traffickers and their agents were making another attempt to get rid of me by getting me falsely implicated in the case of Welikada Prison Riot that had taken place on November 9, 2012. They alleged that I was involved in the killing of some of the prisoners in Welikada Prison on that day and wanted to get me arrested and remanded so that they would have an easy opportunity to finish me off within the prison.

When I visited the CID in November 2017, the officers attached to the Special Unit 1 of the CID informed me that several prisoners and a retired chief jailer who was on duty at Welikada Prison on the day of that incident had given statement in 2017 alleging that I was one of the persons who entered Welikada Prison in civilian dress in the early hours of the day, in question, and was instrument in identifying and picking up 8 prisoners who were later found to have been shot dead. I categorically denied the allegation made against me, stating that I had no involvement whatsoever in the events that took place within Welikada Prison in November 9 and 10, 2012.

Despite there being a serious threat to my life and my health likely to be jeopardized if I am arrested and remanded, proceedings are being instituted against me in the Magistrates Court, Colombo. Since this is being done on the basis of this new politically motivated investigation conducted at the insistence of NGO activists pursuing political agendas and having links with drug dealers, I made representations to the Attorney Generals Department through my Attorney-at-Law It is respectfully stated that any institution of proceedings against the petitioner on the basis of this politically motivated investigation, on complaints made with the blessing of large scale drug traffickers, would inevitably result in seriously affecting the credibility of the petitioner as a witness in over 50 narcotic cases pending in the High Courts, culminating in the discharge of all those drug traffickers.

I respectfully state that the said respondents have acted maliciously, capriciously, arbitrarily, unfairly unreasonably and unjustly, motivated by political and / or other extraneous considerations when they field the further report produced and marked P13 in the Magistrates Court of Colombo and moved for impounding my Passport.

Those who died might have been on the wrong side of the track, when the prison riots occurred. But, they too had a right to life. Punishment for those who are responsible has been slow in coming. The family members, whose loved ones died while serving their terms in prison, are waiting till the alleged mastermind of the shooting is brought to book.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a blog post released last week that the Obama administrations discipline guidance has caused unintended consequences in schools, even as she acknowledged the problem the guidance is trying to solve: that minority students are subject to more suspensions and expulsions than their white peers.

The department is mulling scrapping the guidance, or making major tweaks to it, as part of a broader Trump administration effort to slim down regulations. Although DeVos does not announce a decision one way or the other in the blog post, it gives the clearest indication yet of her thinking.

The department held two rounds of listening sessions last week , exploring the pros and cons of the civil rights guidance, which was released jointly with the Department of Justice in 2014. It informed schools that they could be found in violation of federal civil rights laws if they enforce intentionally discriminatory rules or if their policies lead to disproportionately higher rates of discipline for students in one racial group, even if those policies were written without discriminatory intent.

DeVos recapped stories from two supporters and three opponents of the guidance. For instance, she noted that a Massachusetts teacher came out against suspensions, arguing that being out of school would expose her students to an unsafe environment.

But she also cited educators negative experiences with the guidance. A teacher from New York told her that students threatened their peers and teachers, but werent disciplined, in part because of the need to cut down on suspensions. An educator from California said students were sent home informally to keep suspension rates low.

DeVos noted that many in the education community cheered this guidance as a positive step. But she added, Since the guidance was released, many educators, parents and students have raised concerns that schools have actually become less safe by restricting teachers and administrators ability to maintain order in their classrooms, DeVos wrote.

She also wrote, They claim that the guidance ignores the law and places statistics over students without addressing the behavior of individual students and how educators should respond and discipline students when necessary. They view the guidance as creating an unsafe environment that has harmed learning.

The department hasnt laid out a timeline for when it will decide whether to keep, scrap, or tweak the guidance.

Photo: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos leans over to listens to U.S. Department of Education staffer Bill Cordes as they wait to testify before a House Committee on Appropriation subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 20. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
A consortium of groups representing military veterans and branches of the armed forces have a message for Congress: Dont turn a popular federal education program into vouchers.

In an April 5 letter to lawmakers, the Military Coalition said converting Impact Aid, a line item in the U.S. Department of Educations budget designed to mitigate the impact of federal activities on school districts, into funding for education savings accounts would be financially devastating for many school districts, critically compromising the quality of the education they could provide to military children and their civilian classmates.

The coalition is pushing back on the Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act , which was introduced last month by Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. Banks bill would convert a small portion of Impact Aids $1.3 billion to ESAs, which families could use on private school tuition, tutoring, and other education coststhe exact amount of Impact Aid funding that would be directed to ESAs would depend on how many families choose to sign up for the accounts.

(Technically, education savings accounts are distinct from vouchers. Learn more about the difference between the two in this helpful explainer from our colleague Arianna Prothero .)

Banks cited a Military Times poll, which found that more than a third of families surveyed said they considered dissatisfaction with their childrens education a significant factor in deciding whether to continue in the armed forces. He said in a statement that, The flexibility in this legislation will allow military families the freedom to tailor their childrens education to best fit individual needs and maximize academic achievement.

And Tuesday, Heritages political action arm sent a letter signed by over 2,000 active and retired military service members expressing strong support for Banks bill .

But in its letter, the military coalition says that only a minority of military families would be eligible, and that the value of the ESA for the majority of those eligible would be $2,500. (Heritage says families would get up to $4,500 a year per child under Banks proposal.) In addition, the letter states that National Guard and Reserves families would not be eligible for an ESA under Banks bill.

It is counterproductive to defund Impact Aid, a successful program that has long enjoyed bipartisan support, in order to provide a benefit of questionable value to a minority of military students, the coalition stated.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has backed the idea of increasing school choice for military families , and the prominent Heritage Foundation supports Banks bill . Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has also backed school choice legislation covering military families. But its important to remember that the House lawmaker in charge of DeVos budget is very protective of Impact Aid.

During a budget hearing last month, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House appropriations committee that oversees Education Department spending, scolded DeVos for backing a cut to Impact Aid in the Trump administrations fiscal 2019 budget. Coles subcommittee also approved a fiscal 2018 budget bill that didnt include the two signature Trump administration programs that would have boosted private school choice. (The final funding bill Congress passed for fiscal 2018 also didnt include any money for those two programs.)

The letter was sent to to Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the House education committee chairwoman; Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the House committees top Democrat; Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the chairman of the House armed services committee; and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the House armed services committees top Democrat. Members of the Military Coalition include the Military Officers Association of America, the Military Order of the Purple Order, and the Military Chaplains Association of the USA.

Read the full letter from the Military Coalition below:

And read the Heritage-backed letter below:

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Across the board, struggling American students are falling behind, while top performers are rising higher on the test dubbed the Nations Report Card .

A nationally representative group of nearly 585,000 4th- and 8th-graders took the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2017, the first time the tests were administered digitally. The results, released Tuesday, show no change at all for 4th grade in either subject or for 8th graders in math since the tests were last given in 2015. Eighth graders on average made only a 1-point gain in reading, to 267 on the NAEPs 500-point scale.

That meager gain in reading was driven entirely by the top 25 percent of students. During the last decade, 8th grade reading was the only test in which the average score for both high and low performers rose. By contrast, in math, the percentage of students performing below basic (30 percent) and those performing at the advanced level (10 percent) both increased significantly since 2007. The same pattern emerged in 4th grade math and reading.

Those changes were all statistically significant, and they point to what NCES Associate Commissioner for Assessment Peggy Carr called a bifurcation of student performance. American students performance on international assessments such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and the Trends in International Math and Science Study show the same spreading gaps.

Thats disappointing and concerningnot that high achievers are going up, but that low-achieving students are declining, said Scott Norton, deputy executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. I think regardless of the reasons for that gap increase ... all of our members are concerned about that and want to look at it more closely.

Achievement gaps remained stubbornly wide for particular student groups, too. In grade 4 math, the average achievement fell by four scale points for students with disabilities, two points for urban students, and one point for students in poverty. No other grade or subject showed changes for individual student groups.

Over the past decade, the results for students with special needs have been grimmer. Students with disabilities nationwide had an average scale score of 214 out of 500 in 4th grade reading in 2017, right at the cutoff for NAEPs basic level of performance. Thats the lowest average performance for this group since 2003. At 8th grade, students with disabilities had an average score of 247, about the same as a decade ago, and down from a high of 250 in 2011. Similarly, 8th grade English-language learners have not improved significantly in reading since 2003.

Few Changes for States

The results are coming under intense scrutiny from states, both because of the change in testing format from paper and pencil to computers and because they are being released at a time when many states are transitioning to new assessment systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

"[NAEP] is our only really solid national trendline that we have nowadays, Norton said, so tracking that is very important.

Average scores for most states remained unchanged from 2015 in either grade or subject, and more states saw declines than improvements. Florida was the only state to improve on average in both 4th and 8th grade math and 8th grade reading from 2015.

Puerto Rico saw gains in math at grade 4, while schools run by the Department of Defense also saw reading improvements at 8th grade. In reading, no states improved at 4th grade, but nine statesCalifornia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Washingtonand the Defense Department schools improved at 8th grade.

Of the 27 large urban districts that also participated in a targeted NAEP study in 2017, none declined in reading, and a fewSan Diegos 4th graders and 8th graders in Albuquerque and Boston improved over their 2015 scores.

Looking more closely at the results indicates that instructional changes and professional learning support are paying off in some districts. However, more professional support is needed for teachers in order to see more broad-based benefits nationwide, said Matt Larson, the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in a statement on the results. We need to ensure that we are providing each and every student with access to high-quality mathematics curriculum, instruction, and expectations.

Digital Transition Causes Waves

About 80 percent of students in 2017 took the NAEP on digital devices, while 20 percent used traditional pencil-and-paper tests. The National Center for Education Statistics compared students answers to the same questions in digital and print tests both in 2017 and 2015 to link the two formats and account for so-called mode effects in the 2017 results.

State schools chiefs, including John White of Louisiana, voiced concern that states whose students had less experience taking computer-based tests would be at a disadvantage; Louisiana was among the states with the biggest declines in 4th grade math and reading. Both White and the Council of Chief State School Officers sent NCES requests for more information on states mode effects, and CCSSOs Norton said states are reviewing those data.

A technical analysis by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy found that states that had not previously used online testing with their students showed larger average declines between 2015 and 2017 in grade 4 reading and math and grade 8 reading than states that had used online testing before. The study estimated these differences could account for 15 percent of differences in test score changes for 4th grade reading, and 11 percent of changes in 4th grade math, though the report noted those findings were preliminary.

Both NCES Commissioner James Woodward and Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr said they were confident in the results, which had been adjusted for the national mode effect. Were going to learn a lot more about what students know and can donot just students answers, but how they arrived at those answersthrough the digital platform.

Other national and international tests have also seen differences in student performance when they moved from print to digital formats.

NCES has been studying the transition to digital testing for more than 15 years, according to Sean P. Jack Buckley, a former NCES commissioner and now senior vice president for research and evaluation at the American Institutes for Research. I know its something NCES agonized over. ... Its not overblown; its a real area of concern, he said, noting that the NAEPs writing assessment found the difference in students digital writing performance warranted starting a new trend line for the study.

Yet the Council of Chief State School Officers also noted that most states use computer-based assessments for their own tests, and students familiarity with digital devices in and outside of school has dramatically increased, even in the last five years. At some point paper and pencil become archaic, Buckley said. Theres an ability to test constructs [digitally] that are more relevant to what students are actually doing. Sometimes you just cant avoid the transition.
Posted Thursday, April 12, 2018 1:00 pm

Robert W. Wharton, 58, 1104 S.W. 271st Road, Chilhowee, was arrested March 21 on a warrant with a felony charge of possession of controlled substance; and charges of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and speeding.

Bond was set at $4,500.

Wesley A. Harrison, 26, 206 E. Lucas, Knob Noster, was arrested on a warrant with a felony charge of burglary.

Bond was set at $5,000.

Jesse S. Eckes, 47, 405 N. Main St., was arrested on a warrant with felony charges of two counts of stealing.

Bond was set at $5,000.

Douglas L. Austin, 26, Littleton, Colorado, was arrested on a warrant with a felony charge of fugitive from out

of state.

Bond was set at $10,000.

Megan N. Hamilton, 27, 1705 Sunset Drive, was arrested on a warrant with a felony charge of possession of controlled substance and a charge of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Bond was set at $5,000.

Michael T. Yazell, 18, Blairstown, was arrested on a warrant with a felony charge of resisting arrest/detention/stop by fleeing  creating a substantial risk of injury/death to any person after deputies attempted to conduct a traffic stop that turned into a traffic pursuit.

Bond was set at $5,000 with a court date of April 11.

Barton E. Gibson, 49, 873 S.E. 10, Knob Noster, was arrested March 24 on a warrant with a felony charge of sex offender physically present/loiter within 500 feet of park with playground/pool/ museum.

Bond was set at $20,000.

Deputies responded March 26 to the report of an abandoned vehicle and recovered it in the 200 block of Northwest 1051st Road, Centerview. The report states the vehicle was reported stolen from Independence.
Guest post by Alyson Klein

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a tough assessment of what the results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress say about K-12 education nationwide. But she had glowing words for one state: school choice-friendly Florida , which the secretary once hailed as a model for the nation.

DeVos called the Sunshine State a bright spot in Tuesdays NAEP report . That report generally showed little progress in reading and math, and persistent achievement gaps between low-income and minority students and their peers.

The report card is in, and the results are clear: We can and we must do better for Americas students. Our nations reading and math scores continue to stagnate. More alarmingly, the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students is widening, despite billions in federal funding designated specifically to help close it, DeVos said. Florida, though, can claim significant improvement in 4th and 8th grade math and in 8th grade reading, the secretary said. And she noted that both low and higher performers progressed, a shift from the national trend of yawning achievement gaps.



Florida leaders, administrators, and, most importantly, teachers are to be commended for their continued efforts on behalf of students, DeVos said in a statement. Florida has been at the forefront of bold, comprehensive education reform for decades. From accountability, to literacy, to teacher certification and recognition, to providing parents more freedom to select the learning environment that best fits their students needs, Florida is rethinking education.

Florida was the only state to show significant improvement in math at both grade levels and IN 8th grade reading (No state improved in 4th grade reading.) But other states and NAEP participants found reasons to tout their progress.

Puerto Rico saw gains in math at grade 4, while schools run by the Department of Defense also saw reading improvements at 8th grade. In reading, no states improved at 4th grade, but nineCalifornia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Washingtonand the Defense Department schools improved at the 8th grade level.

DeVos was probably jazzed about the chance to highlight Florida, which she called a national standout on a radio interview last year.

I would point to Florida as being one that has had a variety of options for the longest period of time, DeVos told Frank Beckmann, a conservative radio talk show host on WJR, based in Michigan back in February of 2017.

The state has a robust public school program, charters, and vouchers for students in special education. It has also created a tax credit scholarship, which DeVos and company have been championing behind-the-scenes in Washington.

DeVos has visited at least 10 Florida schools since becoming secretary, according to Edweeks tracker . Thats more than any other state.

And a lot of DeVos team has Florida ties, including some folks who have been nominated for jobs by President Donald Trump but not yet confirmed by Congress. For instance, Frank Brogan, who has been tapped to be assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, served as a Florida district superintendent, state chief, and lieutenant governor.

Carlos Muniz, who has been nominated for general counsel at the department, was a deputy attorney general and chief of staff to Pam Bondi, Floridas attorney general. DeVos chief of staff, Josh Venable, was a top aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. DeVos herself served on the board of Bushs education-redesign nonprofit, the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

It hasnt been all smooth sailing between Florida and the Trump administration, though. The Sunshine State does not want to include a separate indicator for English-language proficiency in its plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act . Thats an ESSA must, the department has said.

And during a press conference on the NAEP results Tuesday, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart credited her states accountability system for the gains. She noted that the states accountability system specifically gauges progress for the lowest 25 percent of students in each school, regardless of their student group. That may have given Florida an advantage during a time when the nation saw a widening gap between the highest- and lowest-performing 25 percent of students, she seemed to imply. But the department has told Florida that system conflicts with ESSA .



Its not unusual for education secretaries to do a little fist-pumping when a state that they think is on the right track policywise outperforms the rest of the nation on NAEP. Arne Duncan, who headed the Education Department for most of President Barack Obamas administration, celebrated when Hawaii , Tennessee, and the District of Columbia made big gains on NAEP after snagging the Obama administrations signature Race to the Top grants.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reads a Dr. Seuss story to kindergarten students at Royal Palm Elementary School in Miami on April 7. --C.M. Guerrero/El Nuevo Herald via AP

Assistant Editor Sarah Sparks contributed to this post.
Offering his support to YSR Congress Party leaders sitting in an indefinite hunger strike, rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav today said it was the present government's responsibility to fulfil the promise made by former prime minister Manmohan Singh to Andhra Pradesh.

Yadav, who visited the leaders protesting for the special category status (SCS) at the AP Bhavan here, said, "I believe in a democracy where, what is said, is done, and what is done, is said. Be it any government, the former PM has given a word in Parliament about the SCS and the present government has to implement.

"I was present in the Rajya Sabha when then PM Singh promised it. Even after four years, nothing has been done. The PM is the top institution in a democracy. The present PM should implement what his predecessor had promised," he said.

The rebel leader said he was also fighting a similar battle in Bihar for the rights of people.

"Our fight is also going on in Bihar despite some people joining the BJP," he said in an apparent reference to the JD(U) aligning with the saffron party.

Out of the five leaders sitting on the indefinite hunger strike since April 6, Y V Subba Reddy (57), Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy (73) and Varaprasad Rao Velagapalli (64) have been admitted to the RML hospital.

P V Midhun Reddy (40) and Y S Avinash Reddy (33) are continuing the protest.

Before Yadav, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI leader D Raja offered their support to the protesting leaders.
Saudi Arabia's crown prince wraps up his official visit to France today with a gala dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, as the young leaders seek to shore up cooperation despite lurking differences.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, previously dined with Macron at Paris's Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne.

Macron, 40, treads a diplomatic tightrope with the prince as he seeks to bolster his ties with the world's top oil exporter while also managing relations with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran.

Macron tweeted a picture of the pair at the Louvre looking at the 19th-century masterpiece Liberty Leading The People by revolutionary painter Eugene Delacroix, which shows Liberty as a bare-breasted woman.

"The discussions were friendly, which allowed the two men to establish a personal relationship," Macron's office said.

The two leaders will now work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said.

In a trip that appears focused on tourism, culture and the arts, the prince's delegation is set to host a forum Tuesday morning with multiple French business titans, which could trigger a host of memorandums of understanding.

The prince, widely known as MBS, is also expected to meet some French ministers, a source close to his delegation told AFP. He has so far met Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Pay.

Prince Mohammed's visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of his country, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

Saudi and French aides stressed before the trip that cultural ties, as well as new business opportunities, would be at the heart of two days of talks between government and private-sector figures from both countries.

The announcement that Saudi Arabia will make its first official appearance at France's Cannes film festival came after Prince Mohammed dined last week in Hollywood with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, along with film studio bosses and famed American actors including Morgan Freeman.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led it to be dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the UN.

Three out of four French people believe it is "unacceptable" for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll.

Ahead of the trip to France, Saudi officials suggested relations were strong between Macron and the crown prince, both young leaders with reformist agendas.

But the visit follows a period of underlying tensions.

Macron waded into a regional crisis last November when Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri tendered his resignation on live television from Riyadh, apparently under pressure from Prince Mohammed.

Macron invited Hariri to Paris for talks and he later rescinded his resignation, a development that analysts say exposed the limits of the prince's authority.

Macron has also announced plans to be the first French president to visit Iran since 1976, as he seeks to build relations with the two competing regional powers in the Middle East.
Police on Tuesday arrested Atul Singh, the brother of rape-accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger, in connection with the death of the victim's father in judicial custody, reportedly owing to torture, even as the Uttar Pradesh government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.



Anand Kumar, additional director general of police (law and order), told reporters here that the MLA had not been arrested as the victim had not named him in her written complaint.

Kumar, however, denied that the MLA from Bangarmau constituency in the neighbouring Unnao district, about 60 km from here, had been given a clean chit and said that the SIT would probe every aspect of the case and quiz everyone it deemed necessary.

Four people, all goons of the MLA, had been arrested by the police on Monday after the victim's father died under mysterious circumstances in the district hospital, where he was taken for treatment from jail.

The victim, also a resident of Bangarmau area, had claimed that the MLA, his brother and some other supporters had gang-raped her after she had approached the lawmaker for a job.

Though she had lodged a complaint with the police, the latter failed to take any action against the MLA, whose goons reportedly thrashed her father and got him arrested on trumped-up charges.

The victim had attempted self-immolation near Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's official residence on Sunday in protest against the failure of the police to act against the lawmaker but was prevented by some alert cops.

Six police personnel, including the Makhi station house officer, have been suspended on charges of laxity, police sources here said.

Opposition parties have demanded Adityanath's resignation on moral grounds.
The poll fever is yet to catch up in the Bombay-Karnataka region.



While the Congress is trying to retain its hold over the region, the BJP is making all efforts to conquer a maximum number of seats. The JD(S), which managed to win only one seat in the entire region in the 2013 elections, is leaving no stone unturned to increase its presence.

Of the total 51 Assembly segments, spread across Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Gadag, Haveri, Belagavi and Dharwad districts, the Congress won 34 seats in the previous elections, while the BJP won 16. The JD (S) had emerged victorious in the remaining one seat (Navalgund in Dharwad district).

Although the BJP claims that there is an anti-incumbency factor working against the ruling party in the region, the Congress is confident that people would vote in its favour, considering welfare schemes and irrigation projects implemented by the government. The JD(S) is looking forward to get more votes this year and claims that people are fed up of false promises made by both the BJP and the Congress.

Consecutive droughts and scarcity of drinking water are the two major problems people in the region have been facing for several years. Irrigation projects might have quenched the thirst of people in a few districts, but the problem still exists in many other parts.

Mahadayi issue, the lack of industrial growth, unemployment problem, failure to exploit immense tourism potentiality among other issues are likely to impact the polls. There are also region-specific problems like the linguistic issue and sugar growers' problem in Belagavi district.

The Veerashaiva-Lingayat religion issue is likely to have an impact on the poll prospects of political parties, especially in Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Gadag and Dharwad as political leaders and religious heads from these districts have been in the forefront of the movement.

This is for the first time that national leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, BJP president Amit Shah, and JD(S) state president H D Kumarswamy are frequently visiting the region, which is the stronghold of the Congress. The BJP and the JD(S) are trying their best to end the Congress' dominance over the region.

The election activities, however, are yet to gather pace as the ticket aspirants are waiting for their respective parties to announce candidates.
Jami Amo can relate to the grief and trauma students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are feeling after a mass shooting there in February. And she can also anticipate some difficult life experiences they will likely face as their grief and memories age with them.

Every time Amo meets a new person, there comes a point when they ask where she grew up, and she knows a difficult conversation is about to begin. Amo was a freshman at Columbine High School outside of Littleton, Colo., in 1999, when two students planted explosive devices there and shot and killed 12 students and a teacher.

A simple where are you from? conversation can quickly take her back to that day. Its something she wants students at Stoneman Douglas to be prepared for.

People say Oh, Im so sorry, and I never know what to say, Amo said. Why do people apologize? Its not their fault. Do they feel bad that we werent the only ones? That it didnt stop with us?

Amo is one of about 115 Columbine survivors whove signed up to be pen pals with Stoneman Douglas survivors. Organized through networks and Facebook groups for survivors of gun violence, the Columbine alums have also recruited a few of their former teachers to correspond with faculty of the Parkland, Fla., high school.

We want to show them not that theres a specific road map, but there is a way forward, Amo said.

There were school shootings before Columbine, and there have been many since, but its hard not to draw parallels between that attack and the one that happened in Parkland. Both were of a scale rarely seen in school attacksranking among the 15 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. historyand both happened at high schools, presenting unique challenges and visibility to survivors.

At Columbine, for example, 1999 seniors considered themselves a lost class, Amo said. They never returned to school after the April shooting, and spent time processing the event as they headed off to college and post-graduation life. Similarly, seniors in Parkland, where students returned to class two weeks after the shooting, are trying to balance grief and counseling appointments with college plans and year-end tests.

Shortly after the Stoneman Douglas shooting, which left 17 students and educators dead, Amo heard that students there had become active on social media, calling for changes to the nations gun laws. Now a mother of three and an advocate for gun restrictions, she re-activated her long dormant Twitter account and started reading their stories. Many of them seemed very familiar. Students spoke of struggling to sleep, pondered if they could have done anything differently that day, and shared detailed and horrific accounts of their experiences in the classrooms of the building 12, where the shooting took place.

Among the budding calls for activism came a request from a Stoneman Douglas student: Would any of his classmates be interested in becoming pen pals with Columbine survivors? Would that even be possible?

Amo replied quickly, offering her help. She remembered the piles of cards and letters that Columbine students received from well-meaning people around the world, but none meant as much to her as messages from people who could relate, including the survivors of some smaller shootings that happened in the years before Columbine. She was eager to offer that to students in Parkland. At the same time, another Columbine survivor began working with another Parkland student to coordinate a pen pal network. The school offered sign ups to interested students this week, and organizers are eager to see how many will participate.

Help Processing Grief and Trauma

Mental-health professionals say people process grief and trauma in a variety of ways. Some may be eager to discuss their experiences, some may be more reserved and hesitant. Most will take a while to move past the initial layers of shock and begin processing the deeper, underlying emotions, like the overarching loss of security they feel after experiencing violence.

Amo has been energized by the work of some of the more visible Parkland students, who helped organize national demonstrations about gun violence. But she recognizes that they are probably struggling in ways the public cant see. Are they sleepinig enough? Are they talking with someone about their feelings? And there are some 3,300 other Stoneman Douglas students, many of whom are quietly struggling with vivid and difficult memories. She hopes trading some emails with Columbine survivors will help those students process.

Some people are going to be more ready to talk than others, Amo said. Not everybody gets there so quickly. We know that the voices that youre hearing [in the media] arent the extent of the voices. We know that theres a lot going on behind the scenes that theyre not talking about.

Amo also has advice for students: Dont police your own grief. She was in the cafeteria at Columbine when the attack started. For a while, she questioned whether she deserved to feel the pain she did when she wasnt injured or in the library, where a majority of the shooting took place. But the gunman had planted a bomb in the cafeteria that day, and Amo would have surely died in the blast had it not malfunctioned.

Some Stoneman Douglas students may also be tempted to scrutinize their own pain or the pain of others, Amo said, and they should resist the temptation. No matter how close they were to the building that was hit or how many of the victims they knew, they all experienced something tramatic, she said.

I really caution people not to assign a value to a trauma, she said. A trauma is a trauma. Its not in hindsight how much trauma you were in, its what happened in that moment.

And she wants them to be aware of tough moments ahead that they might not be expecting, like the pain she feels every time she hears of another mass shooting. There was also the day she was volunteering at her sons school and watched his class perform a lockdown drill to prepare for the unlikely event of a school shooter. For the first time, her view of school violence shifted from that of a student who was directly affected to that of a parent who hopes her child never will be.

We know that the real challenge is a year from now, five years from now when people arent talking about it, Amo said of the Columbine survivors. We want to help them. We will always be 19 years ahead of them.

Top photo: Grieving students head to a library near Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, where students and faculty members were evacuated after two gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the school in Littleton, Colo. --Kevin Higley/AP-File

Bottom photo:Students embrace one another at a makeshift memorial for their slain classmates on a hilltop overlooking Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., on April 24, 1999. --Bebeto Matthews

Related reading about trauma, grief, and Parkland:

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
The BJP's decision to field its prominent Nayaka (Valmiki) community leader B Sriramulu from Molakalmuru constituency in Chitradurga district is a well-thought-out strategy to win maximum number of ST reserved constituencies in the state.



Sriramulu, who is currently party MP from Bellary (ST Reserved), used to earlier represent the Bellary Rural Assembly constituency - which is also ST reserved. But this time, the party chose to shift him to the Molakalmuru Assembly constituency as it is strategically located.

Molakalmuru abuts about six ST reserved segments in Chitradurga and Ballari districts. The BJP is of the view that Sriramulu's contest from Molakalmuru will have an impact on seven other ST reserved constituencies in the two districts - Challakere, Jagaluru, Sandur, Siruguppa, Kudligi, Kampli and Bellary Rural. There are a total of 15 ST reserved seats in the state.

Sriramulu, who is a close aide of the Ballari Reddy brothers, is a popular leader in both the districts, especially among the Nayaka community. He had rebelled against the BJP in 2011 along with B S Yeddyurappa after the mining scam broke out. He subsequently quit the party and won in a byelection as an Independent candidate from Bellary Rural with a thumping majority.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, S Thippeswamy had won from the Molakalmuru seat from the BSR Congress led by Sriramulu. The BJP and the then KJP led by B S Yeddyurappa had together managed to get just about 5,000 votes.

Reddy's clout

Sources in the BJP said former minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy is part of the party's strategy in fielding Sriramulu from Molakalmuru. Reddy, who has been barred from entering Ballari due to the mining scam, is currently camping in Molakalmuru. He has taken a big bungalow in Molakalmuru town on rent and is said to be overseeing the party's campaign in both Chitradurga and Ballari districts.

Janardhana Reddy's brother G Somashekara Reddy is likely to contest from Bellary City.

This apart, through its first list of 72 candidates, the BJP has sent out a clear message that it has not let down the leaders who have joined its fold from other parties. Of the 72 names, 12 had migrated from other parties in the past few months.

Prominent among them are Malikayya Guttedar (Afzalpur), P Rajiv (Kudachi), A S Patil 'Nadahalli' (Muddebihal), Basanagouda Patil Yatnal (Bijapur City), Mallikarjun Khuba (Basavakalyan), Manappa Vajjal (Lingsugur), Dr Shivaraj Patil (Raichur) and H R Gaviyappa (Vijayanagar (Hosapete). The move is aimed at wooing fence sittters of other parties.

Except K G Bopaiah (Virajpet), all the sitting MLAs have got the ticket.
A day after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi rode the Metro to travel in Bengaluru, BJP chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa on Monday trundled about in an autorickshaw to attract people's attention.



Yeddyurappa took an autorickshaw from his residence in Dollars Colony to reach Jasma Bhavan in Shivajinagar. Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha MP P C Mohan accompanied him. Yeddyurappa held an interaction with autorickshaw drivers here, as part of the party's voter-specific outreach programme ahead of the polls.

The state BJP chief promised that his party would build an exclusive residential colony for auto drivers if voted to power. He pointed out that there were 3.5 lakh auto drivers in the state and 1.5 lakh of them lived in Bengaluru alone. An autorickshaw welfare corporation would also be constituted, and medical insurance scheme extended to the drivers, he promised.

Yeddyurappa's next stop was Hosakote, where an interaction programme with dairy farmers had been lined up. Here, he assured to set up a cattle feed processing plant if the BJP came to power.
Voices of dissent emerged in the BJP across the state on Monday from aspirants who failed to make it to the first list of candidates for the May 12 Assembly polls.

The most vociferous revolt came from ex-BBMP councillor and spokesperson of the party city unit N R Ramesh, an aspirant to the Chickpet seat. The BJP has given the ticket to businessman Uday Garudachar here.

Ramesh went ballistic, holding former deputy chief minister R Ashoka directly responsible for denying him a ticket. He said Union Minister Ananth Kumar could also be behind the "conspiracy" against him.

"I have nurtured the constituency (Chickpet) for the last four years. I have worked relentlessly and exposed dozens of scams in the Congress regime. Yet, I have been neglected. A businessman (Garudachar) has been given the ticket. Our leaders must have received kickbacks," Ramesh said at a press conference.

His supporters held a protest in front of Ashoka's residence and also staged a rastha roko in Yediyur ward in Bengaluru.

A number of aspirants whose names did not figure in the list of 72 candidates are making a beeline to Bengaluru to meet state party leaders. Some are even planning to contest as rebels.

The BJP has given tickets to all sitting MLAs except in three segments- Molakalmuru, KGF And Virajpet. In Molakalmuru, Thippeswamy has been replaced by Sriramalu, in KGF, the party has given ticket to sitting MLA Y Ramakka's son Sampangi. Former Speaker K G Bopaiah's name does not figure in the first list as an internal survey indicated that he may not win the polls from Virajpet, party sources said.

Thippeswamy, who had defeated Congress candidate

N Y Gopalakrishna by a margin of over 7,000 votes on a BSRC ticket in the 2013 polls, is planning to contest as a rebel. He said he was in consultation with his supporters and would take a call in two days.

Former MLA Appu Pattanshetty has also lodged his dissent for giving the ticket from Bijapur City to Basangouda Patil Yatnal. Pattanshetty had opposed the induction of Yatnal into the BJP recently.

Protests and frictions were noticed in Vijayapura against A S Patil Nadahalli and at Afzalpur in Kalaburagi against Malikayya Guttedar, both of whom were inducted into the BJP a while ago. In Bailhongal in Belagavi, the decision to give the ticket to sitting MLA Vishwanath Patil instead of former MLA Jagadish Metgud has not gone well with the party local unit. Metgud, a two-term MLA is a party loyalist, they say, and should have been preferred over Patil, who won the 2013 polls on a KJP ticket.

In fact, the first list has 12 "migrants" including P Rajeev (Kudachi), Mallikarjun Khuba (Basavakalyan), Shivaraj Patil (Raichur), Manappa Vajjal (Lingsugur) among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.



The prime minister was here to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 1200 hp freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory. He also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly Tuesdays and Fridays -- covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.
GANGAVATHI: The BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday charged that the government in the state is dead.

"The government is dead. What about government officers? Are they dead, too?" he asked during his visit to a paddy field in Vidyanagar here.

"There is no water for the paddy crop due to mismanagement of water by officials at the Tungabhadra reservoir. Farmers have incurred loss of around Rs 500 crore," he said.

Later, he consumed prasad prepared out of rice received during Mushti Akki Abhiyana and began interaction with farmers at Chennabasava Kalyan Mantap.

He vowed to protect farmers interests if the BJP was voted to power.

He was wearing green shawl.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) charging that the officers in the state were targeting the BJP leaders and workers on the pretext of moral code of conduct.

A delegation led by Union minister Prakash Javadekar, the BJP's in-charge for Karnataka polls, met the election commissioner and filed the complaint.

Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar, P Muralidhar Rao, party's in charge of Karnataka affairs, former deputy chief minister R Ashoka and MP P C Mohan were part of the delegation.

According to the BJP, the officers in the state removed flags that had Om symbol tied atop houses of party workers hurting religious sentiments. The officers had directed the party workers to erase the BJP symbol on walls of houses.

The BJP's contention is that fixing the BJP symbol and flags on houses don't come under purview of moral code of conduct. Therefore, action should be taken against officials for trespassing their limits.
The CBI today questioned former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in connection with the alleged IRCTC hotel scam during the tenure of her husband Lalu Prasad as the railway minister, officials said.



The questioning by a CBI team started in Patna, they said.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.

The FIR alleged that the RJD leader abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of "high-value premium land" through the benami firm, Delight Marketing Company.

As a quid pro quo, he "dishonestly and fraudulently" awarded the contract to them for the two hotels, the FIR had alleged.

After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing Company also changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014. By this time, Lalu Prasad had resigned as railway minister.

The CBI registered the case against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, who was the deputy chief minister of Bihar until a few months ago, and Sarla Gupta, the wife of former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel, Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and then IRCTC managing director P K Goel, it alleged.




Two army personnel were killed in ceasefire violation by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday night.





A Defence spokesperson said the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 17.15 hours (5.15 pm) in Sunderbani sector along LoC.

The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, he said.





"Two soldiers, identified as rifleman Vinod Singh and rifleman Jaki Sharma, were grievously injured in the exchange of fire. They succumbed to their injuries," he said.

Singh (24) belonged to Danapur, Jaurian village in Akhnoor district and Sharma (30) belonged to Sanhail Hiranagar.





Pakistan has been violating ceasefire along the LoC and international border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir frequently.

Since the third week of January, 29 persons, including 15 security personnel and 14 civilians, have been killed in Pakistani ceasefire violations along the LoC and the IB in Jammu.

Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir informed Parliament last week that Pakistan has violated ceasefire along the LoC and the IB 633 times in just two months this year.

On March 18, in one of the worst ceasefire violations in recent years, five members of a family, including minors, were killed while two others were injured in Pakistani shelling in Balakote sector along the LoC in Poonch district.

In February, four army personnel, including a 22-year-old captain, were killed in Pakistani shelling along the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts.





With ceasefire violations from Pakistan on the rise, the Jammu and Kashmir government has constructed family-type bunkers along the LoC for the safety of border residents. As a pilot project, 102 such bunkers were completed recently in Rajouri district.





The Centre had earlier this year sanctioned the construction of 14,460 community and individual bunkers along the LoC and the IB for border residents facing Pakistani shelling in the state.

While 7,298 bunkers would be constructed along the LoC in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri, 7162 underground bunkers would be constructed along the IB in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts, officials said.
A 13-year-old Muslim girl's hijab was ripped off by a man who called her a "terrorist" and threatened her with a knife in an apparent hate crime attack in the US, police said.

The police are investigating the attack as a hate crime that happened last week in the US state of Virginia. They said they think she was targeted "because of her religious attire," the Washington Post reported.

While walking in the Woodbridge area on April 6, the police said, the girl was confronted by a stranger who swore at her and seized her arm.

According to police, she reported that he tried to place her arm behind her back, and then placed a small knife against her arms while calling her a terrorist.

They said the girl told them he removed her headscarf and placed a hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. When a motorist came by and saw what was happening, the attacker fled, police said.

The girl suffered minor injuries, police said. They said yesterday that they are continuing to investigate.

The incident comes amid a spike in hate crimes and assaults targeting hijab-wearing women across the US.
Ruling in the case of a California educational administrator, a federal appeals court has issued a landmark decision that prior salarywhether alone or in combination with other factorsmay not justify a difference in pay between male and female workers doing the same job.

The ruling under the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, was noteworthy for several reasons. One is that it was issued by an 11-member panel, which is what the 9th Circuit uses for its en banc proceedings rather than its full slate of 29 active-duty judges.

Secondly, the opinion was written by Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt, a liberal icon of the federal judiciary who died last week at age 87. The 9th Circuit explained in a footnote attached to the opinion that Prior to his death, Judge Reinhardt fully participated in this case and authored this opinion. The majority opinion and all concurrences were final, and voting was completed by the en banc court prior to his death. (Such an outcome would not occur in the U.S. Supreme Court, where the death of a justice invalidates any votes and opinions in pending cases.)

The April 9 decision came in the case of Aileen Rizo, a former middle school and high school mathematics teacher who was hired in 2009 by the Fresno County, Calif., Office of Education for the staff position of math consultant. Such offices provide a range of services to individual school districts, and the Fresno education offices math consultants help train classroom math teachers in new methods, among other duties, according to court papers.

The education office had a standard operating procedure of basing pay for new hires on their most recent prior salary, adding a small percentage, and placing the hire on the corresponding step of its salary schedule.

Rizo had been earning $52,000 as a math teacher in Arizona before accepting the Fresno County math consultants job at a salary of $62,133, which included a $600 stipend for her masters degree, court papers say.

During a lunch with her colleagues in 2012, Rizo learned that her male colleagues had been hired as math consultants at higher steps on the offices salary scale. Court papers say one man had been hired at $73,832, another man at $79,088, but also one woman at $76,414.

Rizo complained to her employer, which said that all salaries had been set in accordance with the standard operating procedure. The agency also said it reviewed all management hiring over a 25-year period and found that its policy had placed more women at higher compensation steps than men.

Rizo disputed the analysis, and she sued Fresno County Superintendent of Education Jim Yovino in his official capacity, under the Equal Pay Act and other laws.

The agency sought summary judgment on the argument that basing starting pay on a workers prior pay was a permissible defense under the Equal Pay Act. The statute permits male and female pay differentials for equal work under four exceptions: a seniority system, a merit-pay system, a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or because of a differential based on any other factor other than sex.

The education agency cited the fourth exception, arguing that it applies when an employees starting salary is based on her prior salary.

The 9th Circuit, in its decision in Rizo v. Yovino , ruled unanimously to revive Rizos case, but the 11 judges disagreed on their rationales.

Reinhardt wrote for six judges, constituting a majority of the panel, that the catchall exception to liability under the Equal Pay Act does not cover salary decisions based entirely on prior pay.

We conclude, unhesitatingly, that any other factor other than sex is limited to legitimate, job-related factors such as a prospective employees experience, educational background, ability, or prior job performance, Reinhardt wrote for the majority. It is inconceivable that Congress, in an act the primary purpose of which was to eliminate long-existing endemic sex- based wage disparities, would create an exception for basing new hires salaries on those very disparities.

Reinhardt said prior pay may bear a rough relationship to legitimate factors other than sex, such as training, education, ability, or experience, but the relationship is attenuated.

More important, it may well operate to perpetuate the wage disparities prohibited under the act, he said. Rather than use a second-rate surrogate that likely masks continuing inequities, the employer must instead point directly to the underlying factors for which prior salary is a rough proxy, at best, if it is to prove its wage differential is justified under the catchall exception.

Reinhardt noted that the 1963 statute, while having laudable aims, has not eliminated the disparities in pay between male and female workers across the U.S. economy.

If money talks, ... women are told they are not worth as much as men, the judge said. Allowing prior salary to justify a wage differential perpetuates this message, entrenching in salary systems an obvious means of discriminationthe very discrimination that the act was designed to prohibit and rectify.

The five other judges on the 9th Circuit panel wrote or joined three concurring opinions saying they would not go as far as the majority.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown, joined by one other judge, agreed with the majority that Rizos situation provided, as McKeown put it, " a textbook violation of the equal pay for equal work mantra of the Equal Pay Act. But she did not agree that employers may never use past pay as a factor in setting initial wages.

Using prior salary along with valid job-related factors such as education, past performance and training may provide a lawful benchmark for starting salary in appropriate cases, McKeown said. She noted that this was the position taken in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Rizos case.

Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, in another concurrence joined by one other judge, wrote that the majority failed to follow Supreme Court precedent and unnecessarily ignored the realities of business in holding that prior pay can never be considered in setting initial compensation.

And in an opinion concurring in the judgment, Judge Paul J. Watford wrote that in his view, past pay can constitute a factor other than sex under the Equal Pay Act, but only if an employees past pay is not itself a reflection of sex discrimination.
Online holiday marketplace TravelTriangle has raised Rs 78 crores in Series C round of funding led by Fundamentum, a growth-capital fund backed by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal.



This is the first investment by Fundamentum after it closely evaluated more than 50 companies. Fundamentum Partner Ashish Kumar will join the TravelTriangle board, a release said. The round also saw participation from SAIF Partners, Bessemer Ventures, RB Investments and a clutch of angel investors.

The funds to be utilised to strengthen technology, expand to new destinations and to increase brand visibility, a company release said.

Ashish Kumar, Partner, Fundamentum said, "Holidays is a very large and profitable market, and requires a team with product-first DNA who can take along multiple ecosystem players. Sankalp and the team have the right combination of technology expertise, business acumen and domain knowledge to win the holiday travel market. We are delighted to collaborate with TravelTriangle and look forward to the exciting next phase of growth."
Jet Airways today said it would not be participating in the Air India disinvestment process, becoming the second domestic airline after IndiGo to make such a decision in less than a week.

The ambitious strategic stake sale of loss-making Air India as well as its two subsidiaries seem to be hitting air pockets with the two potential bidders deciding to keep away citing the contours of the process.

Kicking off the disinvestment process, the government has come out with a detailed preliminary information memorandum, detailing plans to offload up to 76 per cent stake in Air India and transfer the management control to private players.

"We welcome the government move to privatise Air India. It is a bold step. However, considering the terms of the offer in the information memorandum and based on our review, we are not participating in the process," Jet Airways Deputy CEO & CFO Amit Agarwal told PTI in an e-mailed statement.

However, he did not divulge specific reason about the decision to not participate in the stake sale process.

Last month, sources had said that a consortium of Jet Airways, Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines was understood to have expressed interest in the disinvestment of Air India.

Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways' statement today comes less than a week after no-frills carrier IndiGo aborting plans to acquire Air India's international operations.

On April 5, IndiGo President and Whole Time Director Aditya Ghosh said that from day one, the airline has expressed its interest primarily in the acquisition of Air India's international operations and Air India Express.

"However, that option is not available under the government's current divestiture plans for Air India. Also, as we have communicated before, we do not believe that we have the capability to take on the task of acquiring and successfully turning around all of Air India's airline operations," he had said in a statement.

IndiGo was the first to evince interest in Air India disinvestment when the government had mooted the plan last year.

According to the memorandum, issued on March 28, the government would retain 24 per cent stake in the national carrier, the winning bidder would be required to stay invested in the airline for at least three years.

The proposed disinvestment would include profit-making Air India Express and joint venture AISATS. The latter is an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

The existing debt and liabilities of Air India and Air India Express as on March 31, 2017, would be re-allocated, as per the memorandum.

"It is expected that debt and liabilities, including net current liabilities of Rs 88,160 million, aggregating to Rs 3,33,920 million will remain with AI and AIXL (no change for AI-SATS except in the normal course of business). This number shall be further adjusted to account for material business developments post-March 31, 2017 for instance purchases/ delivery of aircraft etc.

"The balance debt shall be allocated to Air India Asset Holding Limited which is 100 per cent owned by the Government of India subject to receipt of requisite approvals from lenders and regulators, as applicable," the memorandum said. Contingent liabilities would remain with Air India and Air India Express.

Within the contingent liabilities, income tax, customs duty, as well as service tax and guarantee fee/ penal charges due to the government would continue to remain with Air India. There would be the "government commitment to make it good/ indemnify in case the liabilities are confirmed against Air India," the memorandum said.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) is May 14 and intimation to the qualified interest bidders would be made on May 28.

The national carrier is staying on taxpayers' money under the turnaround plan approved by the previous UPA government in 2012.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment in the USA for a pancreatic ailment, is likely to return next month, a state BJP leader said on Tuesday.

The chief minister flew to the USA in the first week of March after he was advised advanced medical treatment by the doctors at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai.

Sadanand Tanavade, the state BJP general secretary, said Parrikar's condition was improving.

"The chief minister's condition is improving and he is responding well to treatment. He is likely to come back to Goa next month," Tanavade said at a press conference here.

Parrikar, who complained of stomach pain on February 14, was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai the next day.

He was discharged on February 22 and presented the budget in the Goa Assembly on the same day, upon return.

Later, he was again admitted to Lilavati Hospital on March 5, from where he was taken to the US.

A cabinet advisory committee, consisting of senior ministers, has been authorised to take decisions in his absence.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that the family of a man, who died in police custody after he accused a BJP MLA of raping his daughter, is not harassed and humiliated by opponents who are "resourceful" persons.



Taking suo motu cognizance of media reports about the "mysterious" death of the father of a rape victim, the NHRC also found fault with the Uttar Pradesh Police for not informing it about custodial death, which is mandatory as per rules and regulation, and asked the director general of police (DGP) to explain why it was not done.

The NHRC sought a report from the state chief secretary and the DGP, including action taken against the delinquent police officers, who refused to register an FIR after the girl approached authorities.

The incident came to the limelight after the girl attempted to immolate herself near Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence last Sunday, saying that police was not taking action against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides whom she accused of raping her.

Her father Devender was arrested and died later while in custody with doctors finding 19 injury marks on his body.

In a statement, the NHRC said the victim claimed that it is only the MLA who has got her father killed since she was not willing to withdraw the case against him.

"The commission has also directed the chief secretary to look into the matter personally and ensure that the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment and humiliation by the opponents who appear to be resourceful persons of the locality. He is also directed to monitor and expedite the magisterial inquiry which is underway," the statement said.
Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Tuesday said the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission disincentivised all progressive states and curtailed the states' rights on matters like the implementation of welfare schemes.

Gowda was speaking at a conclave of finance ministers and secretaries of southern states and the union territory of Puducherry, hosted by the Kerala government here. On ToR guidelines recommending incentives to states for reducing their replacement level fertility rate to 2.1, the minister said the move would hit states which had already brought down their population growth rates. The guidelines take the 2011 population census as the basis for tax devolution, and not the 1971 census, setting off opposition in the south.

"The states that attain the 2.1 replacement fertility rate are set to be incentivised (as per the ToR). It means that all progressive states which already did the national duty to bring the population down over 30 years will lose out. They won't be eligible to receive the incentive either. It's a double whammy," he said.

Gowda, who represents Karnataka in the Goods and Services Tax Council, took objection to the proposed disincentives for states that undertake populist schemes. He said the ToR described "populist" in highly subjective terms. "Schemes ahead of their times could cause a misunderstanding that should not be used as a reason to disincentivise. When Karnataka launched the mid-day meal scheme in 2001-02, it was termed populist, but it later became a national flagship programme," he said.

The minister called for a model that links incentives to achievements and not central flagship programmes. He said states that already achieved set goals on their own should not be penalised for being ahead. "Progress should not be penalised, it should be rewarded," he said.

Gowda was ready to give "the benefit of the doubt" to the BJP-led Centre and said the present situation could be an unintended consequence, but called for amended ToR and consultations involving the affected states. "We need strong states which are growth engines. A stronger Karnataka means a stronger India," he said.

Ensuring a balance between equity and efficiency was a tough ask, but the Commission could still ensure that interests of all states were protected. "We don't have to create winners and losers when we can create a win-win situation for all," he said.
A professor from Patna University, who left his wife in 2004 for a live-in relationship with a student 30 years his junior, had earned himself the sobriquet 'love guru'. His wife continues to fight for her rights and maintenance.



She was on Tuesday told by the Supreme Court to redeem herself by coming out of the painful experience.

"People like you should show good leadership to the society that you have not gone on to suffer but fought back. You should not keep relations with such a husband, who does not care for you. We will protect your interests," a three-judge bench, presided over by justice Kurian Joseph, told Abha Choudhary, wife of Prof Matuk Nath Choudhary.

Matuk Nath, who teaches Hindi at Patna University, had openly accepted his love for the student. Abha, however, continued to suffer and fight for her maintenance allowance.

Hearing a plea filed by Matuk Nath against the Patna High Court's order to pay Rs 25,000 per month as interim maintenance, including Rs 15,000 under the Domestic Violence Act, to his wife, the bench, also comprising justices Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Navin Sinha, told the woman that her husband can drag the issue for another 10 years.

"Why should you suffer this ignominy? This fellow can drag the case for the next 10 years. The moment he retires, he would try to replace his relationship with you," the bench told Abha, who was present in court.

The woman sought time till next Tuesday to think over the court's suggestion.

Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, who appeared for Matuk Nath, submitted that the woman might be reluctant to part ways, as there is a stigma attached to divorce in places like Patna.

The court had earlier directed Matuk Nath to pay the wife arrears of Rs 10 lakh before it started considering his plea against the high court's order of September 21, 2017.
Updated

The Oklahoma teacher walkout will continue on Wednesday for the eighth school daybut an end might be in sight as teachers consider their next steps.

Still, teachers received a setback on Tuesday night when Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill that repeals a $5 tax on hotel and motel stays, which would have generated about $42 million in education funding. She also signed two billsa sales tax on Amazon vendors and a bill that allows casinos to have ball and dice table gamesthat will generate an estimated $40.5 million in education funding . In a tweet, Fallin said those bills will replace the revenue from the hotel/motel tax to help fund teacher pay raises and increased education funding.

The Oklahoma Education Association had called for her to veto the tax repealone of two demands OEA has made to end the walkout .

Gov. Fallin has spent years doing far too little for public education, so its no surprise that she took measures to further neglect students today, OEA President Alicia Priest said in a statement. The governor and lawmakers keep closing the door on revenue options when Oklahomans are asking for a better path forward.

OEAs other demand is for the legislature to find $50 million in additional revenue for education. One option would be eliminating the capital gains deduction, but the house has repeatedly voted down a motion to force a floor vote on the measure.

Another option would be wind tax-credit reform , which could generate about $70 million for schools. Lawmakers have been skeptical that this bill will pass the legislature.

The Bartlesville school districta large suburban school district outside of Tulsa whose leaders have been active in the walkout movementannounced it would reopen on Thursday . The walkout had forced the district to push back its last day of class and reschedule the ACT test date from April 3 to April 24. Students will begin state testing next week.

We are ready to be back in school, said Chuck McCauley, the superintendent. Our community has been steadfast in its support for its schools, and we look forward to continuing the momentum on behalf of our students.

The first step, he said, will be on Wednesday, as teacher-candidates file to run for state office. Local news reporters have said that many teachers plan to run , in what may be a repeat of the teacher caucus in 2016. That election season, more than 40 teachers filed to run . About five of those teachers won those races.

See a PBS NewHour video of Oklahoma teachers running for state legislature positions in 2016:







The states two largest districtsOklahoma City and Tulsaannounced they would be closed on Wednesday, but havent made any plans beyond that. Most of the states 500 districts are already back in school.

Still, the crowd at the state capitol hasnt dwindled, according to local reports . Some districts are open, but are sending contingents of teachers to the capitol each daythe Bartlesville district will do that as well.

The wave of teacher activism across the country is spurring more educators to run for office. In Kentucky, at least 40 educators have filed to run for officea number the former president of the Kentucky Education Association said was unprecedented.

This post was updated at 11 pm with news that Fallin signed the tax repeal.

Image: Teachers and supporters continue their walk circling the state Capitol as protests continue over school funding on April 10 in Oklahoma City. Sue Ogrocki/AP
Ahead of the Press Council of India (PCI) meeting on Wednesday, eight prominent media bodies have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to defer the meet of the "truncated" council, alleging that the PCI chairman has adopted "arbitrary" procedure to reconstitute it.

In a letter to the prime minister on Monday, they alleged that the procedure adopted for reconstitution of the 13th PCI was "arbitrary" and said that if not reversed, it would "gravely" impact media freedom and access to information critical to democracy.

"The reconstitution... undertaken by chairman Justice (retd) C K Prasad has overlooked precedent and adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates. His action has cast serious doubts over the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI, mandated to preserve and protect the freedom of the press," they said in the letter.

The letter was signed by representatives of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), Indian Journalists Union (IJU), All India Newspaper Editors Conference (AINEC), Working News Cameramen Association (WNCA), National Union of Journalists (India) (NUJ (I)), Hindi Samachar Patra Sammelan, All India Small and Medium Newspapers Federation and the Press Association.

It said the PCI chairman has called a meeting of the reconstituted Press Council on April 11 with only eight members - five MPs and three official nominees - out of 28 members, leaving out representatives of print media organisations whose names were yet to be notified.

Maintaining that the PCI reconstitution was still under way, the media bodies said holding a meeting of such a "truncated PCI was unfair" and goes against the spirit of the Press Council Act.

"We request you to immediately intervene, as you did on the 'fake news' order, to have the meeting deferred till the full council is reconstituted, and restore the credibility and sanctity of the PCI. This will go a long way in protecting and preserving the freedom of the press, vital to democracy," the letter said.

The PCI had on Monday refuted allegations that its chairman had adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates from the selection process while reconstituting the panel, saying the names were drawn from those submitted by notified associations.

In the letter, the media bodies also urged Modi to instruct the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to include representatives of journalist unions/associations who have been kept out of the recently-reconstituted Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) despite submitting required documents to the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

Last month, the I&B ministry had announced that it has reconstituted the CPAC, making it leaner from a 22-member to an eight-member body.

Media bodies said that keeping out representatives of journalists unions/associations was a clear violation of guidelines.

"The reconstituted CPAC with hand-picked journalists and organisations, ignoring the claims of representative organisations, gives the distinct impression that it is meant to curtail access to sources of information and amounts to veiled censorship," they said in the letter.

In a press release, the organisations also rubbished the claim of the PCI chairman that selection of names from the panels was done according to the law, and reiterated their charge that the chairman kept out organisations such as Editors Guild of India and National Union of Journalists (I) on narrow interpretation of the rules and the act.

They said the PCI statement "cleverly blamed the associations of compromising the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI to evade responsibility of the chairman for the sorry state of affairs".
The Congress is likely to announce its candidates for the May 12 elections on Saturday.

The Central Election Committee of the Congress is expected to meet on Friday to put its seal of approval on the list of candidates for all the 224 constituencies.

After two days of intense deliberations involving screening committee chairman Madhusudan Mistry, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara, Congress leaders said they do not apprehend much trouble in finalising the candidates. "We have done our homework well, it will be a list of consensus candidates," a senior Congress leader said.

While the chief minister left for Bengaluru on Tuesday evening after the two-day discussions, several state Congress leaders were still in the national capital for consultations with the screening committee. The committee is expected to continue its deliberations over the next two days and tie the loose ends before making its recommendations to the CEC. More than 1,000 aspirants had applied for the Congress tickets for the 224 seats.

Congress sources said the chief minister and the KPCC president were expected to have their say in the candidate selection process on the lines of Gujarat and Punjab.

Party leaders claimed that the ticket distribution would be balanced and inclusive, with candidates from minorities, Dalits and women getting adequate representation.

A senior Congress leader said the party would wait for the BJP to announce the names of all its candidates. The BJP has already announced its first list of 72 candidates and is expected to come out with the second list on Wednesday.
District-in-Charge Minister B Ramanath Rai said that the BJP has no issues to raise in Dakshina Kannada district. Hence, they are seeking votes on the basis of religion and caste.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, he expressed confidence about winning all the eight Assembly constituencies in Dakshina Kannada. After the BJP announced its first list of candidates, the dissatisfaction is visible among the leaders. "Many leaders in Dakshina Kannada are also in constant touch with the Congress and are likely to join the Congress after the lists are announced. There is no dissidence in the Congress."

"There is a Congress wave in Karnataka. The welfare programmes initiated by the Congress-led government in Karnataka will help the party to come back to power in the upcoming Assembly elections. We are not overconfident, but are instead active in the field. The BJP is engaged in stoking communal feelings as elections are nearing," Rai said.

Further, he said that people no longer need 'Mann ki baat' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress is engaged in listening to the people, he said.

Rai said that the atrocities on Dalits have increased after the BJP came to power in the country. People have lost faith in the banking system after the NDA introduced demonetisation and scams in banks.

The minister made a scathing attack on the NDA government for failing to check the rise in the price of petroleum products and also failed to get back the black money stashed in Swiss banks as promised during the Parliament election. Instead of waiving farmers' loans, the Centre has written off the loans borrowed by the industrialists and influential persons. In reply to a query on Congress wooing NRIs in Saudi Arabia, the minister said, "We went for a Congress programme. Kerala Pradesh Congress and other political parties in Kerala have their unit in Gulf."

On the EC declaring Bantwal and Mangaluru North constituencies as an expenditure-sensitive constituency, Rai refused to comment and added, "I have not done any act that would bring dishonour to the constituency."
Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli's three-day visit to India came at a critical juncture. India-Nepal relations are in serious trouble and Nepal's embrace of China is growing. Hopefully, Oli's talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have cleared the air and set in motion a reset of relations. During Oli's visit to Delhi, India agreed to build and provide financial support for a strategic railway line linking Kathmandu with Raxaul in Bihar. India has also promised to develop inland waterways to transport Nepali cargo to the sea. These infrastructure projects should provide landlocked Nepal with cost-effective movement of cargo to and through India to other countries via the sea. Already, India is constructing cross-border railway lines, including those linking Jayanagar with Janakpur and Jogbani with Biratnagar. These will deepen India-Nepal co-operation.

India perceives Oli to be 'pro-China'. This is not without reason. During his first stint as prime minister, he turned to China for fuel during the 2015 economic crisis and followed that up by signing 36 agreements with Beijing, including a transit trade agreement that envisages Nepal's use of Tianjin as a transit point for its trade with third countries. It was aimed at reducing Nepal's dependence on India. In effect, such moves by the Oli government have increased China's strategic influence in Kathmandu. India's concerns over China's growing grip over Nepal are understandable as was its concern over Oli's use of an anti-India plank during his campaign in the November 2017 general elections. Still, India will do well to do some introspection. After all, it was Delhi's imperious behaviour towards Nepal and its insensitivity to the Nepali people's suffering during the 2015 economic blockade that forced Nepal to turn to China for help. It also made India unpopular among the Nepali masses. Delhi has only itself to blame for China's rising profile in Nepal. Unlike India, China is seen as a benign and helpful country by the Nepali people.

Soon after assuming the reins in Kathmandu, Oli said he would reach out to other countries to increase his leverage with India. This is a strategy that every sovereign country would pursue. Instead of sulking over Oli's embrace of Beijing, India must match China's economic outreach to South Asia. Nepal has joined China's Belt and Road Initiative. What is stopping India from implementing a similar connectivity and development initiative? India has promised to build hydropower, road and rail projects in Nepal but unlike the Chinese railways, which are steaming rapidly towards the Nepali border, India's projects are moving ever so slowly. Geography has bestowed India with the advantage in Nepal, it should not be frittered away through wrong-headed diplomacy.
A purported list of 131 Congress candidates for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections sent leaders into a tizzy on Tuesday even as party's top brass continued its deliberations on finalising the contestants here.

As Congress Screening Committee headed by Madhusudhan Mistry was busy finalising the candidates for the forthcoming elections, a list of 131 names, including that of senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Chittapur and Ranjita, mother of AICC social media head Ramya, was sent to WhatsApp groups of mediapersons.

Hundreds of ticket aspirants who had gathered at the Congress' war room on Gurudwara Rakabganj Road here, started pleading with mediapersons to share the list and started dialing their leaders to share the news.

Though the list was not released on the official letter head of the Congress, it did carry the signature of Oscar Fernandes, a member of the Central Election Committee.

Madhu Yaskhi Goud, AICC secretary incharge Karnataka clarified at the venue that it was a fake list and Central Election Committee headed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi was yet to hold its meeting.

He alleged that it was the handiwork of the BJP IT Cell and the Congress will lodge a police complaint.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is trying hard to convince Congress leadership to allow him to contest from Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency in Mysuru district despite the high command's reluctance.

Siddaramaiah, who wants to filed his doctor-son Yathindra from Varuna segment in Mysuru district, feels his contesting from the neighbouring Chamundeshwari seat will help in successfully launching the political career of his son.

Siddaramaiah, who was here to attend the screening committee meeting for the past two days, is learnt to have informed the party leadership that his move to contest from Chamundeshwari would be beneficial.

However, the party leaders do not share Siddaramaiah's views and they fear that the Opposition, mainly the BJP and the JD(S), might enter into a tacit understanding and field a strong candidate in Chamundeshwari constituency with substantial Vokkaliga and Lingayat voters. In such a scenario, the chief minister will be tied down to the constituency and not be able to campaign in other parts of the state, leaders feel.

The party is banking on Siddaramaiah's popularity and wants him to campaign extensively in the state ahead of the May 12 Assembly elections.

A suggestion has been made to him to contest for Badami seat in Bagalkot district as the constituency has a large number of voters from the Kuruba community, to which Siddaramaiah belongs.

However, the chief minister is learnt to have told the leaders that it would send a wrong message among voters that the ''CM is running away from the home district fearing defeat.'' He also made it clear that he was keen on contesting from Chamundeshwari as he wants his son to win in Varuna.

Political greenhorn Yathindra may require full support of his father as the BJP is toying with the idea of fielding party state unit president B S Yeddyurappa's elder son B S Vijayendra from Varuna.

Siddaramaiah also told leaders about S M Krishna episode during 2004 Assembly elections, when the former chief minister shifted from his traditional Maddur constituency in Mandya district to Chamarajpet in Bengaluru considering it a safe seat and, how he got bad press and the Congress finally lost power.

The party leaders, however, are learnt to have decided to leave the decision on contesting from Chamundeshwari to Siddaramaiah.
The high court ordered interim stay on the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police investigation against Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of online portal 'Postcardnews', in connection with the case against him for publishing fake news to disturb the communal peace.

On Tuesday, Justice Aravind Kumar heard the petition filed by Hegde and ordered the stay on the lower court proceedings in criminal case numbers 778/2018 till the further orders and also stayed the investigation.

Justice Kumar further ordered notices to the CCB cybercrime police and complainant Gafar Baig in the case.

The advocate representing the petitioner submitted that the Congress government in the state was filling unnecessary cases against Hegde and he had not published fake news.

The CCB cybercrime cell arrested Hegde in Bengaluru on March 29 for posting a fake news post. In the video, Hegde claimed that a Jain muni was attacked by a Muslim youth near Nanjangud and people were unsafe in the Siddaramaiah dispensation. The post was shared more than 6,000 times.

While the police are also on the lookout for the portal's two news managers - Gaurav Pradhan and Deepak Shetty - who were also named in the complaint.

There are four cases filed against Hegde over publishing fake news.
The high court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Shashi Distilleries Pvt Ltd for the quashing of National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders on closing down industries that pollute Bellandur Lake.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) had served a notice on the company located near Hulimavu on April 17, 2017. The high court stayed cases related to Bellandur Lake before the NGT on June 16, 2017.

Meanwhile, the Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) moved the Supreme Court against the high court's order. The apex court vacated the stay on August 8, 2017.

On Tuesday, a division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice B M Shyam Prasad dismissed the petition by Shashi Distilleries as not maintainable after the NBF submitted a copy of the Supreme Court order.
As an ardent advocate for learning divorced from grades , the continuing growth of the practice in a variety of places gives me hope that perhaps assessment in education can be changed.

Since I started writing and blogging about assessment to document my own shift away from traditional grading practices, it has been an honor and pleasure to work with teachers around the world to do the same. It never ceases to amaze me how far my reach has gone and Im continually humbled by those brilliant educators and their students who share their stories of success after being inspired to change their practices after reading something I wrote or attending a presentation I share.

Most recently, a member of PLN, Andi Jackson, an eighth grade English teacher in California shared with me the following argument essay written by one of her students. It moved me so much, I asked both she and her student Sophia W., if they would mind if I shared it with my readers.

Below you will find Sophias essay. Educators, think about Sophias argument and see where you fall on the spectrum in terms of your beliefs about grading.

What do grades mean to you and what alternatives are there for assessing student learning?
In a significant step toward mobilising consensus against Terms of Reference (ToR) adopted for devolution of funds by the 15th Finance Commission, states opposing the terms will come together in Visakhapatnam for a conclave to take the debate forward.

Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac told reporters here after a conclave of finance ministers and secretaries of three non-BJP-ruled southern states and the Union Territory of Puducherry that the meeting was tentatively scheduled for the end of April or early May. "A draft memorandum will be discussed at the meeting and subsequently, presented to the President of India. A nation-wide campaign will be launched against the BJP government's attempts to disrupt the federal structure of the country," Isaac said. The finance minister said he was hopeful about representation of states including Delhi, Bengal, Punjab and Odisha at the conclave.

Tuesday's conclave - attended by Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu - is the first concerted move from the south to address concerns over the formula of tax devolution and allegedly discriminatory terms. Tamil Nadu and Telangana opted out of the meeting but efforts to take them on board for the Visakhapatnam conclave are on.

The conclave discussed six themes including use of population data of 2011 for the ToR, a move that adversely impacts performing states, GST and concerns over performance-based incentives linked to the Centre's flagship programmes. Isaac said the states were pushing for amendments to the ToR or inclusion of resolutions. In their present form, the ToR could reduce states to "glorified municipalities", he said. He said the issue was not political or pegged to a north-south divide and said BJP-ruled states with similar concerns were also welcome to join the movement.

Addressing reporters, Krishna Byre Gowda said Karnataka was for resolving issues and would prefer not to politicise them. Speaking at the inaugural session, Narayanasamy said the ToR were part of the Centre's systematic attempt to take away states' powers. "The Prime Minister says he believes in cooperative federalism but what's happening is dictatorship," he said. Ramakrishnudu questioned disincentives for states pursuing "populist" schemes.
A 35-year old PhD research student, identified as Atreyee Majumdar, a resident of Bellandur, has been missing since April 4.

Atreyee was staying with her parents at Kariyammana Agrahara. She left home at 9 am on April 4 with her passport and money. She was last seen at a hotel in Whitefield in the city.

"Atreyee was last seen in the hotel and we have collected the CCTV footage from the hotel and are investigating," the police said.

Atreyee is an alumnus of the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru.

Family and friends of Atreyee have shared her pictures on social media in an attempt to reach out to her. She was in Toronto, Canada pursuing her post-doctoral research.

The Marathalli police have registered a missing case and are investigating. When DH tried to speak to her relatives, they refused to comment.
French Naval Aviation Group Deploys to US



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Queen Bee Market, the popular urban-style handmade market, has partnered with the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank to host a food and fundraising drive at the bi-annual shopping event held at Del Mar Fairgrounds on Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21.

The San Diego Food Bank will have a booth at Queen Bee Market, where representatives from the local non-profit will collect monetary donations and non-perishable goods, such as canned tuna, canned chicken, canned fruit, peanut butter, beans, cereal and more. Queen Bee Market shoppers may also donate through the online virtual food drive, where people may select and pay for food items securely through the San Diego Food Banks website at bit.ly/2EBmv6x. Shoppers who donate five items, in-person or online, will receive a Queen Bee shopping card worth 10 percent off their purchase at the expo.

Described as Etsy comes to life, the market is feminine and fun, hosting more than 100 vendors who make their products by hand. Co-owners of Queen Bee Market, sisters and San Diego natives Kellie Dooley and Allison Gharst, meticulously selected the artisans who will be showcasing and selling an array of home decor, accessories, clothing, jewelry, vintage items, furniture and more. Attendees can also expect live demonstrations; make-and-take stations; and more.

Tickets to Queen Bee Market are priced at $3 per person and will be available for purchase at the door. Children 12 years old and younger and military with ID receive free entry. More information and the full list of participating vendors is available at TheQueenBeeMarket.com.
Welcome to the revolution.

When student leader and Parkland school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky shouted those words, he was addressing an estimated 800,000 people on March 24 in Washington, D.C., at the massive March for Our Lives gathering.

Ten days earlier, one month after the horrific slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students across America walked out of their classrooms March 14 for 17 minutes to honor the memory of the 17 murdered children and adults.

The walkout symbolized student outrage at the easy access to military assault weapons in this country and demonstrated their fierce determination to change our societys out-of-control gun-obsessed culture.

Schools in San Diego County participated as well.

The tribute at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego was particularly poignant. The students created a circle of 17 empty chairs with a rose placed on the seat and a photo of each of the dead attached to a chair.

Where were San Dieguito Union High School District students in all this? Students at the four comprehensive high schools actively participated in the protest but were hidden from view.

At Torrey Pines High School Principal Rob Coppo said this of the March 14 protest: I dont know the exact numbers, but it appeared to be roughly between 500-1000 students. Our Falcons went to the amphitheater in the middle of campus and they were silent for 17 minutes. They returned to class at the 17-minute mark. There was no program and no speeches.

Brett Killeen, principal of Canyon Crest Academy, said, We estimate that 800-1000 students walked down to the quad. A few students spoke and then encouraged those in attendance to meet 17 new people. They concluded with 17 seconds of silence and then returned to class.

Principal Bryan Marcus of La Costa Canyon High School said more than 1,000 students walked out and assembled on the stadium track that wraps around the field. There were no speeches. Instead, the students stood in complete silence for the entire 17 minutes, he said.

Adam Camacho, principal of San Dieguito Academy, did not respond.

Protected students

San Dieguito decided on a uniform approach that kept all student protestors on campus and away from public view. Even members of the press and news cameras were not allowed to showcase the student-led events.

The order by the district to confine students to on-campus protests was couched in school safety language that sounded more like scare tactics and the need to retain control over students, rather than sincere worry.

Our principals have met with student leaders and teachers to set guidelines and expectations for the demonstrations which will maintain peace and order while still supporting the rights of students to express their beliefs under their First Amendment rights, wrote SDUHSD Superintendent Eric Dill in a message to parents.

The claim that students needed to remain on campus out of fear for their safety was a way to control student activism, restrict First Amendment rights, and intimidate kids.

Authoritarian control of student action runs counter to the point of the protests and diminishes effectiveness. This approach was calculating and hypocritical, by allowing the district to claim it supports student rights while ensuring that corralled students dont cause any real trouble for the district.

You cant have a revolution unless youre seen and heard.

This is a massive youth-led revolt against gun violence in our society, and its those in charge of our institutions these young protesters are angry with.

San Dieguito likes to boast that it has the highest-scoring, most promising students in the county. So where were these would-be leaders of tomorrow during one of the countrys greatest social movements since the Vietnam War?

They were tucked away  protected  on a closed campus by administrative edict.

The district exercised its power with a shrewd rationalization that served to suppress the free speech rights of students to demonstrate in public.

As Emma Gonzalez said, We call BS.

Open campus

Student safety is a serious concern, but this was a poor time to use that flimsy excuse.

San Dieguito has dragged its feet on installing surveillance cameras, fencing and other protective measures to keep intruders from casually walking onto its schools.

Torrey Pines High School is probably the most open campus in the district, and parents have been clamoring for years for tighter security measures.

Within weeks of the Parkland shooting, dozens of threats directed at San Diego County high schools were received, two of which were aimed at Torrey Pines. Both individuals making the threats were identified and taken into custody.

About the flurry of school threats, the San Diego Union Tribune on Feb. 24 reported that, except for the one at Torrey Pines, police concluded that the threats were not credible and warranted no arrests

Yet Dill said on the news that despite the alleged threats, at no time were our students or school in danger.

Its nice to look back and make that statement, but clearly the police felt quite differently at the time. At Torrey Pines, the threat was credible enough to make an arrest and take a youth into custody.

Repeal Second Amendment

Following rules and obeying those in positions of power are what got us in this mess to begin with. Its time to challenge the rules and question authority figures when they seek to control movement and tell student activists what they can and cannot do.

In a remarkable New York Times op-ed piece published March 27, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect.

He suggests the movements leaders should think bigger, though, and work to repeal the Second Amendment.

Theres a saying that you cant make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Resisting the status quo has to happen if change is ever to come. I feel certain Justice Stevens would agree.

Theres another opportunity on April 20 for students and supporters of gun control to let their voices be heard and numbers be seen.

April 20 is the day 19 years ago when two teens opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others.

The April 20 national walkout to protest the lack of effective gun legislation is sponsored by the Network for Public Education and is called the National Day of Action Against Gun Violence in Schools.

Adults who have been frustrated for decades by NRA-fueled paranoia finally have hope that a new generation will save us from ourselves.

To local youth: Be the leaders the district and community say you have been raised to be. Vote out the politicians who take NRA money, for sure. But do more.

Be bold. Think big. Aim high. Let everyone hear you.

And be seen.

Opinion columnist and Sr. Education Writer Marsha Sutton can be reached at: suttonmarsha@gmail.com.
Linde ERDC shines a light on new material development

Linde Electronics, a member of The Linde Group, is one of the major global manufacturers of bulk and electronic specialty gases used during the manufacturing of semiconductors, displays, solar panels, LEDs and other electronics products.

Facing the severe challenges of advanced semiconductor process technology nodes in sub-micron grade of silicon chips manufacturing, the company established Linde Electronics research and development center (Linde ERDC) in 2016 to enhance its local capabilities and product portfolio to meet growing demands from industries. Linde ERDC, located at Taichung Harbor Related Industrial Park in Taiwan, is a two-floor building design with advanced gases analytic laboratories and a product development centre. This ERDC has been operating to provide analytic services of high-purity electronic gases in Asia Pacific regions and is also focusing on the development of new materials, packages and services. It has supported the launch of several joint development projects to test and make new materials in-house with the closed collaboration with customers and third-party suppliers for the purposes of reduced cost, process and development time.

During a recent interview, Linde Electronics' head of Electronics Technology and Innovation, Carl Jackson, pointed out that the global leading-edge pure-play semiconductor foundries have been in a tight race to lead process technology development and are migrating from 10 to 5 to even 3 nanometers in the coming years. It is becoming more critical for them to improve their electronic performance by integrating other materials when processes push the limits of silicon physics, especially considering the joint development of ultra-purity materials. Meeting this challenge is a key driving force for Linde ERDC working in tight cooperation close to customers.

Jackson observed that in the early 1990s period, some materials being supplied were in the of 99% purity range. Today, industries are requesting products of 7N grade, which means 99.99999% purity, with the possibility to move to even tighter product purity specifications in the next few years. For those ultra-high purity materials, it is very important for the customers such as for Taiwan first tier semiconductor and electronics manufacturers to request proper measurement of the materials when various chemical treatments purifies them through processes. This is why Linde ERDC plays an important role in advanced process development fields.

Another obvious benefit of Linde ERDC has been largely used by local customers: testing speed of the labs. Most Asia clients prefer to send the sample to a local analysis laboratory in order to obtain results faster. This is one of the the reasons why Linde Electronics continues to invest in local capabilities in Asia Pacific.

Linde Electronics' non-stop efforts to pursue material development excellence achieves the strengthening of corporate core competence successfully. These strategies also leverage the synergy to maximize customers' value and win the market. Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing service providers own the superior manufacturing capability and readily react instantly toward the rapidly changing market. Therefore, Linde ERDC partners with Taiwanese companies to form a competitive edge and to be successful in the market. Here is the Q&A with Carl Jackson.

Q: Linde ERDC was opened at the end of 2016. What has happened since then?

A: Well, the first thing to say is that overall Linde Electronics had a very positive year in 2017. We are continuing to invest significantly in this region both in our on-site business, but also in our electronics special gases capabilities, so the set-up of this facility looks to be well-timed to support this growth and is fully aligned with our "Local Partner, Global Expertise" strategy.

From the ERDC perspective, we have been very busy with one of our main activities here, which is the "fingerprinting" of materials. This means essentially processing materials through all our analysis systems to enable us to see a complete profile of the material quality, often looking much deeper than the standard specification. With this information, we are better positioned, for example, to ensure that our sub-suppliers' raw material meets our demanding operational requirements or that we are able to quickly support our customers should they need to fix or improve a particular process.

Another focus area that we continue to ramp is the development of new products, in collaboration with our customers. For a material supplier like Linde Electronics, the definition of a new product has a broad scope. We can be talking about a new molecule not conventionally used in IC manufacturing that is needed to enable a new process application. It could be an existing material that is required at a higher purity, it could be a new method or equipment to deliver materials to the customer process, or it could be a combination. We are working on examples of all of these new products here in Taiwan.

Q: How is having a local R&D team helping to bring value to customers in this region?

A: Our investment in this facility has been very well received by our customers, who have been very quick to see the additional service and support these physical capabilities can provide. However, enabling us to get the most value out of these capabilities is our local team, which is centered here and stretches out into China and Korea.

Clearly we have put a lot of emphasis on being close to our customers, which is essential when trying to coordinate the type of complex development projects that we manage. Sometimes technology does help and we can work effectively as a virtual team; however, for most projects, we need to be here, we need to be local to really understand what the customer needs and when, and we need to deliver on our commitments.

Working with our regional businesses has also benefited from our new capabilities here enabling the Improvement of supply chain reliability for certain existing products. We are working on several initiatives to help our regional business localize the production of electronic specialty gases or other value-added activities so that our customers have ready access to local supply of products rather than having to rely on the traditional long supply chains.

Q: Following the success here in Taiwan, do you plan to add more R&D centers in other countries in Asia?

A: Linde has a significant and long-established R&D presence already in China, for example, serving our related industry sectors such as Metals and Glass, Food and Additive Manufacturing. From an electronics perspective, we are well positioned in Taiwan to serve all customers in the east Asia region. It is possible in the future that we could expand our advanced analytical capabilities, however, for product development, you need a certain critical mass of highly specialized personnel, who operate most effectively when co-located so we will continue to build our development team here.

Q: What main challenges do you see looking forward?

A: Our customers' speed and scope of technological innovation is relentless. Keeping pace with this and ensuring we are working in the areas that bring most value will remain a challenge as no material supplier can effectively operate in all areas. As I mentioned earlier, we have been seeing more and more non-traditional materials on the customers' development planning roadmaps, which can present an analytical challenge for us. Also, these materials may be supplied as liquids or solids, so the delivery from the source to the tool also needs a significant amount of focus to bring to high-volume manufacturing readiness.

That said, we have a lot of experience successfully serving this market and are further encouraged by our experience during our first full year of operation here in Taiwan. We feel very well positioned to be able to work with our customers to solve these challenges in a way that also supports our continued growth and investment in this region.

Head of Linde T&I E, Carl Jackson

Inner view of Linde ERDC

Linde ERDC

DIGITIMES' editorial team was not involved in the creation or production of this content. Companies looking to contribute commercial news or press releases are welcome to contact us.
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For-profit colleges are still struggling

By MARIA DANILOVA and RICHARD LARDNER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON  The for-profit college industry is struggling under the weight of declining enrollment, stiff competition from traditional universities and an image battered by past misdeeds, even as the Trump administration tries to offer a helping hand.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has hired several industry insiders and frozen Obama-era regulations that would have increased protections for students. She has reduced loan forgiveness relief for some former students defrauded by their schools, meaning that the for-profit industry could be on the hook for less. And she is considering reinstating an ousted oversight agency for many for-profit colleges.

There is a serious attempt by this department to find that appropriate fair balance for both students and schools, Steve Gunderson, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, the industry lobbying group, said in an interview.

But Timothy Lutts, president of the Cabot Wealth Network in Salem, Massachusetts, sees an industry in decline. An improving economy has led to lagging enrollment as adult students return to the workplace instead of seeking a degree to burnish their resumes, he said. For-profit colleges now also compete with nonprofit schools that offer online degree programs without the stigma that still haunts money-making schools.

It was a great sector a decade ago, Lutts said. For for-profit schools, the tide is still going out.

Student enrollment at most four-year for-profit colleges fell in 2017 to just over 901,000, down nearly 69,000 from the year before, according to data compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. It's a downward trend that began in the fall of 2010.

The falling numbers have led to upheaval.

Adtalem Global Education in December unloaded DeVry University by transferring ownership of the struggling school at no cost to a small for-profit education company in California. The move came a year after DeVry agreed to a $100 million settlement to resolve a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging the school misled students through deceptive ads.

Corinthian Colleges collapsed in 2015 and ITT Technical Institute a year later.

Donald Trump's election as president had held the promise of heady times for the industry. After all, he was the founder of Trump University.

Among the DeVos hires are senior counselor Robert Eitel, who served as an attorney for Bridgepoint Education; Julian Schmoke, the top financial enforcement official, who once worked as an academic dean at DeVry; and Diane Auer Jones, who was hired as a senior policy adviser this month, used to lobby for Career Education Corporation, a major for-profit operator.

What we have here is essentially an embrace of that industry by the Trump administration, said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. If the concern is that a whole industry has been exploiting the situation, you wouldn't want any one from that industry being involved in any regulation, you would be skeptical.

Paul Peterson, a professor of education at Harvard University, said DeVos' hiring decisions were not unusual. Historically, U.S. administrations have tended to fill many positions with people outside the government sector in order to bring new energy and perspective, with Democrats traditionally relying most on lawyers and academics, while Republicans picking industry practitioners.

You don't want people running the government who don't know anything about the sector, Peterson said.

Education Department press secretary Liz Hill said individuals hired had long careers before and after their work in the for-profit sector. In addition to being highly qualified, they are carefully complying with all ethical requirements and have recused themselves when appropriate, Hill said in a statement.

She said DeVos was focused on expanding education options for students and that the schools' tax status was irrelevant to the quality of their education. The one question we should be asking is whether or not an education institution is serving students well, not how it filed paperwork with the IRS, Hill said.

But Erika Colon, a 35-year old mother of three in Boston, said the federal government should increase oversight and tighten controls of for-profit schools. Colon, 35, took out about $15,000 in loans to get a certificate as a medical administrative assistant at one of the Corinthian Colleges schools. She said she received a low-quality education, could not get a job and ended up retraining in a related field at a different school  only then getting hired by a hospital.

They are just giving students high hopes for nothing and just taking people's money, Colon said.

For-profits had experienced a boom over the past two decades, buoyed by federal student funding and the global financial crisis that left many Americans without jobs and eager to go back to school to gain new skills and credentials. Enrollment rose from around 230,000 in the early 1990s to a record 2 million in 2010.

The schools recruited aggressively, often targeting nontraditional students  usually older people who had jobs and could only study part time. Schools focused heavily on women and people of color. They also pursued veterans with their millions in GI Bill tuition assistance. A 2017 federal study found that veterans represent a larger share of students at for-profit colleges compared with other schools.

But after graduating, many students struggled to find promised jobs or to transfer credits to other schools, leading to massive student loan defaults. An Education Department watchdog said in a report last month that the sector continues to present itself as a high-risk area for the department.

With the future uncertain, a growing number of schools are seeking to abandon the for-profit world by converting to nonprofit status. These transformations, which require approvals from state and federal regulators, mean less oversight and relief from a law that bars for-profits from receiving more than 90 percent of their revenue through federal student aid programs.

After five straight years of losing revenue and students, Bridgepoint Education, the San Diego-based owner of two for-profit universities, announced last month that it intends to merge its schools into a single nonprofit called Ashford University. Bridgepoint will become what's known as an online program management company. These are the businesses that design, market and run the virtual programs that colleges offer to students. Pending the necessary approvals, Bridgepoint's first client would be Ashford University.

Nolan Sundrud, a Bridgepoint spokesman, attributed the overhaul to the rapidly evolving environment in which colleges and universities operate.

Consumers should be wary of these proposed conversions, according to Bob Shireman, a former Education Department official during President Barack Obama's first term and a frequent critic of for-profit colleges. Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive Washington think tank, published a report in 2015 that warned of covert nonprofits that are free of regulatory burdens but continue to operate as for-profit schools.

A group of Democratic senators has asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the conversions.




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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Puerto Rico's governor plans to invest $652 million to repair and maintain the U.S. territory's crumbling roads over the next three years.

Ricardo Rossello said Monday that an initial $80 million in local funds will target areas in critical condition, which represent up to 8 percent of all roads across the island. He said results will be noticeable in six months and repairs will involve more than 780 miles (1,260 kilometers) of roads.





. . .
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SEATTLE (AP)  The Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs say they will give almost $5 million in vouchers to public housing authorities in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state.

The 675 HUD veteran rental assistance vouchers went to 27 public housing authorities in four states.





. . .
Posted 4/10/18

The average person living in a developing country has to walk 6 km to his or her water source, which is often dirty and makes people sick. Globally, 1,000 children die every day because of health 
In recent years, disruptive forces have transformed how we think about entire industries. Spotify with music. Uber or Lyft with transport. Netflix with television programmes and films. Technology has changed the way that we think about things that we used to take for granted.

Slowly but surely the way in which we think about offices, and how we work, and productivity, has been changing too. We are now approaching a tipping point  and the results of this will transform the working experience for millions of people. For smart businesses, this is a revolution that will create competitive advantage, cut costs and help attract and retain talent.

In Australia, the shift towards flexible workspaces is already well underway. Since 2013, the number of new flexible working spaces has increased by an estimated 300% and demand continues to grow. It is predicted that by 2030, 30% of commercial office space will be classified as flexible.

What has got us to this point?

First, the rapid acceleration of technology has changed whats possible. Within two years, 80 per cent of the worlds population will own a smartphone. The cloud has grown exponentially. Put simply, its now increasingly easy for a person to plug in and work from anywhere.

Second, workers are aware of this  particularly those digital native millennials who have grown up with this technology and whose expectations are less shackled by what was possible before. They know they can work anywhere, and they know that throughout their careers they will be expected to work hard. This means that they appreciate flexibility. Why should they commute for two hours each day? They want to work for a business within which they can experience the benefits of a collaborative community, without wasting hours of their day.

Third, businesses are increasingly aware of this and they know that a smart strategy on flexible working can help them to secure the best talent. Thats an advantage in a wormpetitive world. But what businesses also increasingly understand are the financial and strategic advantages a flexible workspace strategy brings. A flexible workspace approach cuts real estate costs and allows businesses to concentrate on their core business, rather than being forced into also becoming a real estate business.

This allows large businesses to become nimble. A business can move people into a new market quickly and take them out again when required. They can their people close to their suppliers. They can do all of this without committing to long leases and expensive relocation costs.

With the right partner, this workspace revolution will bring benefits to smart businesses of all sizes  from start-ups to large, international businesses.

For start-ups the benefits are immediate. An entrepreneur wants to focus on growing their business, not spending time and money on real estate leases. But they cant compromise on those things that are expected of every professional business  best-in-class IT, security, telecommunications capabilities. Even as a fledgling business they want to have a base where they can bring potential customers and partners for meetings without letting down their brand. And, of course, a start-up with a handful of employees can only benefit from establishing their own professional community  a network with whom they can talk, brainstorm new ideas and forge new relationships. Flexible workspaces provide answers to all of the above.

The benefits to larger businesses are also now increasingly recognised  and in fact many of the worlds most innovative business success stories have a dedicated flexible workspace strategy. Of course, large corporations have a requirement for a large, dedicated HQ, but by complementing this with a flexible workspace partner they can drive real benefits to their business.

Employee wellbeing and personal satisfaction will increase, and in todays battle for top talent that means a huge amount. Fewer hours spent commuting, greater independence and flexibility means more productive workers.

In fact, employees are likely to become more creative  driving more innovations for your business. Why? Because one of the enemies of corporate innovation is groupthink. Having all of your people under one roof, having the same conversations with the same people day after day might be stifling the potential of them generating original ideas. Putting them into a collaborative space with like-minded businesses and people can help free up their thinking. Happy, more creative employees can only be good for a business.

Flexible working is effective at every level of a business. The right partner can deliver workspace solutions that allow creatives to work in a collaborative workspace, while also providing high-end, quieter serviced offices for the c-suite and even members club spaces for events and meetings.

A one-size fits all approach wouldnt work for any aspect of a successful large business. For too long, however, this is exactly the approach most businesses have taken for their offices. This has happened because most people didnt see any alternative. Just as a decade ago there was no alternative to CDs. Then Spotify came along.

The workspace revolution is coming. Smart businesses will start planning for it now.

About the author

Damien Sheehan is the ANZ Country Head with Regus. He has lived and worked across a number of continents including Oceania, North and South Asia, USA, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa markets. Damien graduated from the Helsinki School of Economics in Singapore and the SP Jain Centre of Management in Dubai.
Posted 4/10/18

Next week Dallas County will be officially certified as a Work Ready community, which would be one more tool to help attract businesses to the county. The purpose is to show that the county has 
The Spring Plant Sale at Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC), an annual tradition in Rome, will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

The sale will end at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and then Wednesday to Thursday, the sale will last from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.The last day of the sale will be a half-day on Friday, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Purchases may be made with cash or check.

The sale is a way for GNTC to contribute to the community that also gives Horticulture students real-world experience.

This is one of the best teaching tools that the program has, said David Warren, director of Horticulture at GNTC. Students wait on customers, learn about all the plants so they can answer questions, and also raise all the crops.

Items being sold include a large selection of annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, hanging baskets, blooming plants, and potted geraniums. The vegetables will include tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, and more.

Some of the plants were raised from cuttings, but pretty much all the edible plants such as peppers or tomatoes came from seeds, said Shannon Bryant of Lafayette.

The sale will take place at the greenhouses located across from GNTCs Floyd County Campus, next to the Woodlee Building. All proceeds from the plant sale will benefit the Horticulture program at GNTC.
The League of Women Voters of Tennessee will hold its spring council meeting in Chattanooga. League leaders from across the state will focus on the Keys to Democracy. Sessions will focus on voting issues, government transparency and the Leagues legislative agenda in the TN Legislature.Amanda Wintersieck, UC Foundation associate professor of political science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will share her research on best practices to get out the vote. There will also be a panel discussion about the local Leagues experience with the online voter registration in voter registration drives across the state.Linda Phillips, Shelby County administrator of elections will report on the status of Instant Runoff Voting for local elections in Memphis/Shelby County.Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, will provide an update on public records and open meetings issues in Tennessee. The League lobbyist, Stewart Clifton, will provide a briefing on the Leagues priority issues and the TN Legislature."Attendees will learn early League history through Linda Mines portrayal of Abby Crawford Milton, the Chattanooga suffrage leader who became the first president of the LWV of Tennessee. Linda Mines is the official historian for the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County," officials said.The meeting will be April 28-29 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Chattanooga. The meeting is open to the public. Registration details can be found at www.lwvtn.org
Filipinos travelling to Taiwan used to need to secure a Visa before going there, but since November 2017 the Visa was lifted for an experimental stage until July 2018.

This was one of the reasons I decided to visit Taiwan early this year before the free Visa expires. I also wanted to see cherry blossoms but I was a week too late because the blossoms are now in Japan oh well. I have been planning a trip with my high school best friends but none of them were able to join me because (life). And so I traveled alone again naturally (hahaha).

Anyway, I still had a great time during this solo trip. If you didnt know I used to travel solo during my birth month until blogging came and I got invited to a lot of group travels with fellow bloggers. Not that I am complaining. Having this solo trip this year was definitely refreshing.

A lot of friends and readers sent messages as soon as they learned I was in Taiwan. They asked for travel tips and things they need to know before they travel to Taiwan. So without any further ado here are some smart travel tips I want to share to everyone based on my personal experience.

Which airline to use:

I am an avid AirAsia flyer. Im an AirAsia BIG member. I get updated with seat sale so I get the best deals available. For low fares promo you can get a round-trip ticket to Taipei for as low as Php6,000!!!

All International Flights of AirAsia Philippines departs and arrives on NAIA Terminal 3 and for Taiwan arrivals and departure at Taouyan Airport Terminal 1 in Taipei.

Transportation from airport to city

In case your hotel or hostel does not have airport pickup shuttle or service. Dont fret. As soon as you land in Taouyan Airport Terminal 1 you can choose to ride the MRT or bus or taxi. The fastest to any destination is the MRT, if you have time for sightseeing you can take a bus. If you have a lot of cash for your trip you can use taxi. It all depends on your budget.

If you are heading to Taipei Main Station bus fare is NTD135 (exchange rate as of writing is 1.7 to our 1PHP) from Taouyan Terminal 1. The bus you need to ride going to Taipei Main Station is Bus #1819 this is also the same bus you will ride going back to the airport if taking a bus. The buses has a couple of stops so make sure to make enough time to spare. if you have time then this is good for sightseeing.

Foreign Exchange

I suggest you exchange your PHP to USD at the airport before you go to the immigration. Then exchange your USD to NTD so you get higher value money than exchange PHP to NTD right away since NTD is < PHP and USD is < than NTD. *NTD is New Taiwan Dollar, Php is Philippine Peso, USD is US Dollar.

In case you run out of NTD while in Taipei you can exhange currency at any Taipei banks or to the nearest Mall in your vicinity. The Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is the nearest mall in Taipei Main Station south side. Their customer service counter do currency exchange. It is located at the B2 level of the mall,use the elevator and dont forget to bring your passport.

What to wear when in Taiwan?

It was a mistake that I did not bring any jacket or pants during my visit. Taipei weather can be very erratic, it can be warm in the mid day, raining in the early morning, windy and cold at night. Make sure to bring jacket or wind breaker, hats, caps or beret or top with hoodie. If you plan to go hiking on the mountainous sites of Taipei you might need walking sticks.

Wear walking shoes or shoes meant to endure long walks. It is easier to walk around Taipei to get to one point to another and it is very safe too. Plus you need to walk a couple of minutes going to a bus stop or to the main bus station and to go around shopping and sigh seeing. I rarely saw anyone wear heels when I was there, most are on sneakers, walking shoes and flats. It was a mistake that I was wearing heeled boots when I arrived my feet got sore!

How to get by the language barrier.

If you dont speak Taiwanese and cant read Chinese characters pictures will be your best friend. Have photos of things you want and need. Most locals are not fluent in English and some words are pronounced differently by locals as you read them. I observed this in restaurants I go to and even at beauty stores. The counter personnel will give me a menu with photos so I can point which I want. At the beauty stores, non-English speaking staff would call on English speaking staff to talk to me or tell me that they have a buy-one-take-one promo for the stuff I bought!

At the night market, the stall sellers just show me her cash denominations to tell me how much I need to pay for her goods.

Where to Stay?

I am super glad that hostels are becoming a mainstream. Aside from being traveler friendly they are very affordable (actually cheap) . It is very cozy and intimate. If you are claustrophobic hostels wont work for you. If you have kids travelling with you hotel is a better choice.

Hostels on the other hand are backpackers, solo travelers or group of adults travelers. You get a chance to interact and meet fellow travelers (if you are a solo traveler who likes making new friends) . I stayed at Angels Hostel Ximen and paid NTD 1,200 for 4D/3N stay or a little over PHP2000 !

Hostels are great for those who have a jam-packed itinerary. Theyre perfect place just to sleep for a few hours, take a bath, use the toilet, and leave your things securely.

You can find one in Agoda.

Wi-Fi and Communication when Travelling to Taiwan

You can get your Taipei SIM card at the airport via Klook. You can get a card for the duration of your stay. Or get a Wi-Fi router.

Or skip getting this one because there are a lot of Wi-Fi hotspots in Taiwan and they are free. I never got to use the SIM card I bought because I forgot my phones SIMcard ejector. I did not have any problem with connectivity anyway. My hostel has free Wi-Fi, all the restaurants I went to have free Wi-Fi .Taipei Main Station has free Wi-Fi. The beauty stores has free Wi-Fi. Just about anywhere! I was so excited seeing how fast their internet speed is. Imagine how a 17 minute video is also a 17 minute upload on YouTube! In the Philippines that would take 17 hours!

Where to go for sightseeing, shopping, and food trip when Travelling toTaiwan?

To be continued on my next posts.

Meanwhile, CONTEST ALERT!

I will be giving away 3 Earthlingorgeous Mystery Boxes #EarthlingorgeousMysteryBox to 3 winners (one box each). I will be picking winners from my Instagram @earthlingorgeous, Facebook Earthlingorgeous Page and in this Travelling to Taiwan Essentials Part 1 blog post. Just make sure to be active in commenting, liking my Instagram and Facebook posts and/or sharing my vlog and blog post.

You may watch my #EarthinTaiwan vlogs Travelling to Taiwan on my YouTube channel.

Stay gorgeous everyone!

Read #EarthinTaiwan Part 2 here (click)

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The job of rehabilitating clients at Siskin Hospital just got easier with a new teaching module developed by a student intern, according to officials.

"For most of us, basic money management is a skill we take for granted. For the disabled, however, its one of a host of skills that have to be either re-learned or improved after a devastating illness or injury leaves them unable to work," officials said.

Fidela Mendiola, a UTC occupational therapy student, created Money & Me, a nine-week teaching plan complete with activities and handouts to help increase clients competency in personal finance. The program is the culmination of her 16-week experiential internship with Siskin Hospital, and can be utilized by Siskin Hospital staff in its ongoing service offerings.



Its a tough area to master, says Ms. Fidela, who will graduate in May with an occupational therapy doctorate, especially when youre working with clients who have varying degrees of executive function deficits.



Clients met in a group setting twice weekly with four follow-up sessions. Ms. Fidela says the group setting let clients know they were not alone; they could hear input and suggestions from others.



I structured the program on basic money management skills, and then built on skills acquirement, says Ms. Fidela. Gradually, clients began to develop their own personal financial goals.



They started to keep up with their expenses and saved their receipts, says Ms. Fidela. They learned to differentiate between desires and needs. So small steps at first.



One client later told her he had gone shopping and saw something he liked. Then, at that moment, he heard her in his head asking if it was something he needed or wanted.



As a student, you read the textbooks and case studies, but youre not a part of it, says Ms. Fidela. But when you are taking this journey with your clients, its really rewarding.



Ms. Fidela says she applied many of the principles she was learning in school to develop a program that was client-centered and occupation-based. While OTs regularly help their patients with activities of daily living (ADLs), money management may not readily come to mind as one of those activities. Ms. Fidela terms those Instrumental ADLs. Besides money management, this includes other cognitive strategies, such as communication skills and learning to construct a grocery list.



What I love the most from school is how holistic I learned OT is, says Ms. Fidela. To really help our clients/patients, we need to know their stories, and whats important to them. I get excited about how I, as a future clinician, will construct interventions to meet those goals.



This was the first time Siskin Hospital had a Vocational Services intern for a full semester, and Darlene Lentz, who directs the program, was thrilled with the opportunity to help educate a future OT in community re-entry programs. She acted as Ms. Fidelas supervisor, but Ms. Fidela says she was more like a mentor.



Even though the sessions are completed, our clients continue to use the money-management principles Fidela has taught them, says Ms. Lentz. OTs in these types of settings really get to know their patients.



"Programs like Siskin Hospitals Vocational Services are considered alternative therapy in the sense that they differ from the traditional occupational focus on ADLs. Alternative therapy can be utilized in public schools, mental health agencies, or community re-entry programs like Siskin Hospitals," officials said.



Fidela says the internship gave her the opportunity to apply what she learned in school about the therapeutic use of self. When she first heard about this concept in class, she wondered how she was supposed to mold herself to become an avenue of help to patients. What she learned was to just be herself.



At first I wanted to be really directive  this is what you should do, then you do this, and then this . . . . But that wasnt working out, says Ms. Fidela. Then I took a step back and realized I needed to get to know them, and help them to learn to trust me. And that helped me to develop the programs just-right challenge  not too easy or too hard.
Did nation-state hackers target computer networks of Iran by exploiting a flaw with Cisco routers?





Hackers have attacked networks in a number of countries including data centres in Iran where they left the image of a US flag on screens along with a warning: "Don't mess with our elections", the Iranian IT ministry said on Saturday.





The attack apparently affected 200,000 Cisco router switches across the world in a widespread attack, including 3,500 switches in our country, the Communication and Information Technology Ministry said in a statement carried by Irans official news agency IRNA.

The statement said the attack, which hit internet service providers and cut off web access for subscribers, was made possible by a vulnerability in routers from Cisco which had earlier issued a warning and provided a patch that some firms had failed to install over the Iranian new year holiday.





A blog published on Thursday by Nick Biasini, a threat researcher at Cisco's Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group, said: Cisco has recently become aware of specific advanced actors targeting Cisco switches by leveraging a protocol misuse issue in the Cisco Smart Install Client.





And there is a suspicion that these advanced actors could have been working for a nation-state.





Several incidents in multiple countries, including some specifically targeting critical infrastructure, have involved the misuse of the Smart Install protocol. Some of these attacks are believed to be associated with nation-state actors, such as those described in US CERTs recent alert. As a result, we are taking an active stance, and are urging customers, again, of the elevated risk and available remediation paths, read the blog further.





On Saturday evening, Cisco said those postings were a tool to help clients identify weaknesses and repel a cyber attack.





The Cisco Smart Install Client is a legacy utility designed to allow no-touch installation of new Cisco equipment, specifically Cisco switches. But it seems that hackers have found how to exploit this, as the Cisco Smart Install protocol can be abused to modify the TFTP server setting, exfiltrate configuration files via TFTP, modify the configuration file, replace the IOS image, and set up accounts, allowing for the execution of IOS commands.
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.
First let me say I agree 100 percent with the verdict. But at the same time I cant help think about how one tragic mistake can destroy two lives forever. Officer Galinger was doing his job and gave his life for our city. I don't know Ms. Hinds and have no connection to anyone involved in the case, but she appears to be a law-abiding citizen for her entire life who has never been ... (click for more)
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The works of UTCs Dana Moody are the focus this week of a Pop-Up exhibit in the Association of Visual Artists gallery on the North Shore.

Ms. Moody, professor and graduate program director in the Department of Interior Architecture and Design, traveled to Havana, Cuba, last summer to document efforts to restore the citys crumbling buildings and other architecture. Her photos from the trip have been turned in an exhibit titled Havana: Behind the Facade.

My first day in the city I was extremely overwhelmed by it, thousands and thousands of buildings that are in full decay, she recalled. If a building collapses, they either prop it up and go live in it or they go rob it of all its materials, so they can fix whats wrong in their own house.

The exhibit runs through Saturday. with a reception on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The AVA Galley is at 30 Frazier Ave.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Crime in Tennessee 2017 report shows the Bradley County Sheriffs Office exceeded its 2016 numbers of arrests and cases cleared.

All law enforcement agencies are mandated under Tennessee law to report crime statistics monthly to the TBI. This is done through the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System, also known as TIBRS.



This comprehensive system collects incident-level data on crimes, allowing the public and law enforcement agencies to have a thorough understanding of crimes impacting communities across the state.



The data, after being extensively audited, is extracted and compiled into an annual report.



The BCSOs percentage of cases cleared increased in 2017 from 65.15 percent to 65.45 percent.

Total arrests also increased from 3,412 to 3,470. One of the more significant increases was the success rate against drug offenses.

During 2016, the total number of drug-related offenses reported was 547 with 519 of those cases cleared and 419 recorded arrests.

In 2017, the number of reported drug-related offenses were 613 with 573 of those cases cleared and 431 recorded arrests.

The statistics on our successes in finding and prosecuting those who would destroy either themselves or the innocent by way of illegal drugs make me particularly proud of the work our department is doing, said Sheriff Eric Watson. Especially with the deadly scourge of opioids our community now faces on an hourly basis, our men and women are committed to not only removing them from Bradley County, but stopping them at our communitys borders.

The BCSO achieved an 85 percent clearance rate with cases in the category of Crimes Against Persons, which includes assault, rape, abduction, and murder charges.

Outside of having to defend ones self, there is no justification for any one to inflict harm, abuse or bullying on another, Sheriff Watson said. Solving these cases are accepted as a solemn responsibility for our officers and to those victims and their families. It is here where the need for justice is perhaps the greatest and we are sworn to ensure justice is done.

The BCSO also achieved a 91 percent cases cleared rate on crimes related to domestic violence.



These charges are the most sensitive and personal which our men and women must deal with, Watson said. These are the cases when even after the badge is taken off and laid down, the heart of an officer can remain broken. Domestic violence has become far to common in our society and we will persevere in our duty to ensure no one is ever a victim of these horrendous acts.

Sheriff Watson also noted the TBI report suggests the number of Crimes against Property have fallen over the past year.



Bradley County has more guarding eyes on it than ever before, the sheriff said. When you have more officers patrolling the roads and neighborhoods 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you add the hundreds of citizens who have stepped up and become members of neighborhood watches, thieves and burglars have less of a chance. The officers of the Bradley County Sheriffs Office and the citizens they serve are a winning combination in stopping crime.



I am so proud of this extraordinary team of true professionals that I have been able to place together in this department, Sheriff Watson said. Their passion and dedication place me in awe every single day I see them. It is to their credit, and the support of the public they serve, that this department has been able to continually achieve better numbers every year. We are committed to maintaining that course and are grateful to the citizens of Bradley County for trusting us to protect them from those that would do them harm.


Lufthansa is facing a crisis

Lufthansa has canceled more than 800 flights planned for Tuesday, as Germany braces for mass public sector strikes.

Germany's largest airline Lufthansa warned that more than more than 800 scheduled flights on Tuesday will be canceled, as airport staff prepares to go on strike as part of a nationwide public sector walkout. Strike will ground hundreds of flights at Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Bremen airports.

In a statement released on Monday, the airline said it had to cancel half of a total of 1,600 flights scheduled for Tuesday, affecting about 90,000 passengers.

Verdi, the trade union, said the strike at Frankfurt airport would run from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday and involve security staff, as well as workers who load and unload planes.

The trade union is demanding a six percent annual pay rise for around 2.3 million employees in various public sector roles across Germany.
Solo: A Star Wars Story just dropped a new trailer that's packed with interesting details hyping up the film just six weeks before its release.

Alden Ehrenreich takes on the role of the iconic Han Solo, but there's a slew of familiar and brand new characters that add a different flavor to this new film than previous Star Wars iterations. Here are eight of the biggest takeaways found in the latest teaser for the upcoming origin movie.

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25.

Chewbacca's Age Is Finally Revealed

"190 years old?" Solo asks, incredulous. "You look great!"

According to The Verge, this throwaway line is significant in setting the film Solo in the timeline of the Star Wars universe. Chewbacca was 180 years old in Revenge of the Sith, which in turn was 19 years before he and Han were introduced in A New Hope. This puts Solo around nine years before the original film.

Malla Might Make An Appearance

Not everyone knows that Chewbacca is actually married. His wife Malla made her on-screen debut in the 1978 musical Star Wars Holiday Special, but she hasn't been seen in the big screen since, according to The Wrap.

In the most recent trailer, Chewbacca is seen in a tender embrace with another Wookie. It's not confirmed to be Malla, but if it is, it means more of Chewbacca's family might be revealed in this upcoming Star Wars story.

Lando Calrissian Will Probably Steal The Show

Any character played by Donald Glover  a.k.a. Childish Gambino himself  will probably steal the spotlight and it's no different in the Star Wars universe. Especially since the character he's playing is extremely charismatic to begin with.

In the trailer Qi'ra calls Lando "the best smuggler around," but the fan-favorite can also match Han's charm pound for pound. Indeed, Glover is an instant standout in the trailer and it's easy to imagine him displaying the same supreme confidence and swag in the full-length film.

Paul Bettany's Dryden Vos Looks Like A Terrifying Villain

Paul Bettany plays Vision in the soon-to-be released Avengers: Infinity War, but he's a villain in this particular Disney movie.

The audience knows very little about this supposed gang leader character, but the trailer sets up his role as the main villain in the film. Dryden Vos wears black, wields a red saber-like weapon, and has a deeply scarred face  a combination that Star Wars villains typically have in common in the films.

Another Wacky Droid Is Introduced

There must be some kind of rule in Star Wars that requires the presence of a quirky sidekick droid in every single film. Since Han already has his trusty Wookie, the filmmakers decided that Lando gets to have the droid in Solo.

The newly introduced droid is named L3-37, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The Origins Of Han's DL-44

It's not just the Millennium Falcon that will be getting a proper introduction in Solo. When Han Solo first came on the scene in A New Hope, he's already been around the galaxy several times over with a trusty set of tools at his disposal  including his iconic pistol.

In one shot of the trailer, Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) tosses Han a DL-44. Long-time fans will recognize this pistol as it's the same one the charming hero uses throughout all the Star Wars movies, The Verge says.

Expect A Betrayal At One Point

"Let me give you some advice: expect that everyone will betray you and you will never be disappointed," Tobias tells Han in the trailer, implying that someone, sometime will betray the young smuggler.

It probably won't be Chewbacca, who ends up as Han's closest companion, but everyone else is fair game. Tobias, who looks to be the smuggler's mentor, is a possibility and so is Han's childhood friend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke).

Lando, who we know will be Han's "frenemy" at some point in Star Wars history, is also a good candidate for a potential betrayal.

Of course, this could just be very early foreshadowing on Han's eventual death at the hands of his son Ben or even just Lando's betrayal of him in the Empire Strikes Back.

This Han Solo Is As Innocent As He's Ever Been

"I've got a good feeling about this," Han says with a grin in the trailer, proving he's not the cynical smuggler fans know and love yet.

His exploits will eventually lead to his classic line that's been repeated over and over in the Star Wars universe, but for now, the young Han Solo is as green as the fans have ever seen him.
Amber Heard kept her promise about donating her Johnny Depp divorce settlement to charity. A financial report from one of the recipients listed the actress as one of its donors.

A Promise Kept

The website of Children's Hospital Los Angeles named "Ms. Amber Heard" on the "Honor Roll of Donors" list. According to the website, the actress donated the amount between $1 million and $5 million.

"We are honored to acknowledge our extraordinary donors for their generosity during fiscal year 2017. On behalf of all the children and families whose lives you have impacted, and everyone at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, we offer our sincere thanks," reads the message of gratitude from the hospital.

It can be assumed that the Justice League actress donated $3.5 million. After all, she promised to divide the $7 million divorce settlement between two charities: the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The donation will be divided equally between the ACLU, with a particular focus to stop violence against women, and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where I have worked as a volunteer for the past 10 years alongside organizations like the Art of Elysium," Heard announced in a statement.

Divorce Settlement

Heard announced her plan to donate the money to charity after her split from Depp in May 2016. As part of the deal, the Pirates of the Caribbean star donated $100,000 to each organization in his ex-wife's name, and Heard would donate the rest when she gets the rest of the divorce money.

"As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully, help those less able to defend themselves. As reported in the media, the amount received in the divorce was $7 million and $7 million is being donated. This is over and above any funds that I have given away in the past and will continue to give away in the future," Heard said in a statement issued after she and Depp signed on the divorce settlement in August 2016.

Depp and Heard released a joint statement about neither of them making false accusations for financial gain. They also revealed that neither party intended to hurt each other physically and emotionally. Heard also wished The Rum Diary actor the best in the future.
Bill Cosby paid Andrea Constand $3.38 million to end the sexual assault lawsuit she filed against him in 2005.

Cosby, Constand's Previous Settlement

It's the first time the 2006 settlement has been admitted in public. The state prosecutors divulged the details of the confidential agreement between the two parties during the opening statement of Cosby's criminal retrial last Monday, April 9.

According to New York Times, Cosby's lawyers agreed to reveal the confidential payment in court during the pretrial discussions. The actor's legal team is likely to highlight the woman's financial motive in filing sexual assault charges against Cosby.

Constand is accusing the television star of drugging and molesting her in his Philadelphia home in 2004.

Cosby has previously admitted giving her pills and having sexual intercourse with her, but he says the pills were just Benadryl to help her relax and the sexual encounter was consensual.

Witness Developments For The Retrial

One of the defense witnesses expected to take the stand is Marguerite Jackson, 56, who is an academic adviser at Temple University. Constand allegedly told her that she can make money by falsely accusing a prominent person of molestation.

During the first trial, Jackson was not allowed to testify, because Constand says she doesn't know her, but two former Temple University employees came forward to say that the two women do know each other.

Judge Steven T. O'Neill is also allowing the prosecuting team to bring five women to testify their similar experiences with Cosby to present a signature pattern. Former supermodel Janice Dickinson is one of the accusers expected to testify.

"You will have an understanding of a common plan, scheme or design of the defendant," Kevin R. Steele, Montgomery County district attorney, addresses the jurors during the retrial. "And when this happened with Andrea Constand, there was no mistake."

In the original trial, only one accuser apart from Constand was allowed to take the stand.

Cosby's first trial resulted in a hung jury.

Cosby's Former Costar Protests In The Nude

There were a number of protesters outside the courthouse for the retrial, but most notable is Nicolle Rochelle, an actress who appeared in The Cosby Show when she was just 12 year sold.

Rochelle, now 38, jumped forward as Cosby walked up the courthouse, topless and the names of the actor's accusers written on her bare upper body. Deputy officers tackled her to the ground, then arrested her for disorderly conduct.

"The main goal was to make Cosby uncomfortable because that is exactly what he has been doing for decades to women, and to show him that the body can be aggressive and empowered," Rochelle says, according to a report from USA Today.
Jimmy Kimmel is waving the white flag on his battle against Sean Hannity, which was witnessed by everyone for the past week.

Kimmel issued an apology on Sunday night after a tumultuous nasty exchange between him and Hannity transpired on cyberspace before the very eyes of the public. The late night show host started his sorry by encouraging those who send death threats to his family to think about their hideous actions.

Then, Kimmel apologized to the LGBTQ community who felt offended by his remarks, as well as to Hannity who took offense of his "harmless" reference to Melania Trump's accent. However, his closing note took a rather different tone.

"I am hopeful that Sean Hannity will learn from this too and continue his newly-found advocacy for women, immigrants and First Ladies and that he will triumph in his heroic battle against sexual harassment and perversion," Kimmel ended his statement.

Acceptance

Hannity accepted Kimmel's apology, but not before airing his thoughts on this. He said he felt the apology was intended more for the LGBTQ community and not for his words against Trump. However, he did agree with the 50-year-old comedian that it's high time to just move forward, and said he "assumes he's sincere."

Hannity then invited Kimmel to his show and promised that the conversation would be more mature. He said they would engage into a discussion about the president's policies. The political commentator was sure the host of the now-defunct The Man Show would end up agreeing with him by the end of the conversation.

What Went Before

For those who don't know, Kimmel joked on Trump's accent during his monologue, to which Hannity took offense. He took it to his show on Friday to lash out against the former, citing the attacks against the United States President, the first lady, and their children.

But that wasn't the last of it. Hannity then shifted his anger to a platform where anyone can read it. He slammed Kimmel and used #PervertKimmel, and even described him as an "ass clown" and "despicable disgrace."

Kimmel answered back by saying Hannity was the "ass clown circus." The latter then hit the former again when he called him a "pig, pervert, and racist."

Hannity's "acceptance" of Kimmel's apology was announced on Monday night. He ended it by taking a shot at media, which he described as "an extension of the Democratic party." He went on to remind Kimmel that he would not grow tired of defending and even threatened him that his team already compiled things that could destroy the talk show host.
Ben Affleck finds a permanent residence with girlfriend Lindsay Shookus and it's a home that keeps him close to his family  including ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

The former couple is keeping their relationship friendly for the sake of their kids. However, Affleck's recent step in securing a home nearby speaks volumes on just how good the relationship between the two really is.

While the award-winning director is about to officially shack up with Shookus, their new residence is deliberately less than a mile away from Garner's home. The purchase was first reported by X17 Online.

Ben Affleck's New Home

People reported that Affleck's potential $19.2 million mansion is a traditional style home in Los Angeles. This move makes sense as the former couple have been successfully co-parenting their three children Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 6.

The new house is certainly big enough to host the entire brood with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a gym, a home theater, a swimming pool, spa, outdoor BBQ, and a guest house among other features.

A source told E! News that the father of three already took his kids to the residence the past weekend so the trio could check out their new home. Affleck's SNL producer girlfriend also went there to see it.

"Everyone has a good relationship," another source adds about Garner and Affleck. "They are adults who are co-parenting."

Affleck will reportedly begin moving in when he completes shooting his next film Triple Frontier in Hawaii.

Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck Enjoy Good Relationship

While every divorce has the potential to turn as an ugly parting of ways, it hasn't happened for this particular pair of Hollywood A-listers. Affleck and Garner, who were married for 10 years, may have split up, but they are keeping their family together.

Just last Easter, Garner and their three kids flew to Hawaii to spend the holiday weekend with the actor during the production of Triple Frontier.

It's not the first time the family has all been together, however. The former couple has been spotted out and about with the children several times.

"Things are pretty good between them right now," a source close to Affleck said in a report from People. "They are happy to be together."

"He's in a great place, enjoying his work on the new film and being able to fly back to spend time with the family during downtime," the source adds.
Meghan Markle cant escape her past as an actress. The former Suits star is set to marry Prince Harry next month.

Meghan Markle Gets Physical

While Markle has hung up her life in Hollywood for good, one actor reminded fans of how far shes come. Christian Keyes opened up about a film, Dysfunctional Friends, that he and Markle starred in together back in 2012. He joked about a scene in which Markle had to smack him.

I was pimp slapped by the queen! said Keyes.

In the infamous scene, Markle was a photographer and Keyes described his character as a black Zoolander. In Markles defense, Keyes, who will star in BETs legal drama In Contempt, said she warned him that she could improve an extra smack. Keyes said he told Markle he didnt mind at all.

I knew she was going to put a little hand on it, added Keyes. She had some torque and rotation in the wrist.

He went on to say that Markle was fun with to work on set as the film was one of her first acting jobs.

Keyes said a friend sent him a clip of Markle smacking him just after it was announced that she was engaged to Prince Harry.

You know you got smacked by the future Queen, right? Keyes said his friend asked.

What Her Body Language With Harry Really Says

While she wont officially be the queen when she marries into the royal family, she will be titled the Princess of the United Kingdom. It might be safe to say Markle wont be as physical with her future husband, Prince Harry. A body language expert, Elizabeth Kuhnke, explained what the couple really communicates when it comes to their physical connection.

She pointed out that Markle often lets Prince Harry take the lead and looks to him for guidance. She added Markle is much more comfortable with Prince Harry compared to her first husband, Trevor Engelson. Markle filed for divorce from Engelson in 2013. They were married for two years.

Interestingly enough, Kuhnke said Markles body language with Prince Harry not only shows their attraction to one another but also reveals their sexual chemistry. Kuhnke said Engelsons smile was often forced while Markles body language with Prince Harry is more intimate.

She added that while Prince Harrys movements are typically on the strong side, they are also secure and sexual.

Kuhnke noted that Markle and Prince Harrys connection seems to be more genuine than her romance with Engelson.

Prince Harry and Markle will wed on May 19.

Be sure to keep up with Enstars for the latest news and updates.
Governor Bill Haslam on Tuesday named Dr. Shari Meghreblian as commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) effective May 1. Dr. Meghreblian has served as deputy commissioner for the department since 2011, overseeing TDECs environmental regulatory programs.

Shari has been instrumental in the success of various environmental programs during her time at TDEC, including ensuring statewide compliance with federal air quality standards for particle pollution and ozone for the first time in over two decades, Governor Haslam said. She is extremely knowledgeable and I look forward to having her lead the TDEC team.

I am truly humbled and honored to serve Tennesseans in this new role, Dr. Meghreblian said. I want to thank Governor Haslam for this opportunity and I look forward to continuing the positive momentum we have achieved over the past seven years.

Meghreblian has recently helped connect leaders from federal, state and local governments, industry, academia, environmental advocacy groups and public utilities as they work to develop a statewide plan addressing future water availability in Tennessee. The plan, TN H2O, will include an assessment of current water resources and recommendations to help ensure Tennessee has an abundance of water resources to support future economic growth.

A Kentucky native with roots in family farming, Dr. Meghreblian has been active in environmental and business advocacy across Tennessee for more than two decades. She was appointed by Governor Haslam in 2015 to serve on Tennessees Rural Development Task Force. In 2013, she was appointed by the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) to serve as the chair of its Federal Facilities Forum. She is also a board member of the West Tennessee River Basin Authority.

Dr. Meghreblian has more than 20 years of combined experience in private sector manufacturing and environmental management systems. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management and a masters degree in Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and a bachelor of science in Marketing/Economics from Western Kentucky University.
Written by ACM

*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- CoE's 2018 Rapporteur on the Topical, Ethically and Socio-Economically important, but also Controversial Issue of "UnAccompanied Refugee Children", seen from the particular but practically crucial viewpoint of Local/Regional Authorities, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, Strasbourg City's Head of European/International Relations, herself a landmark example of Succesfull Integration at the core of European Society, was awaited with special Interest for the way that she would deal with the most delicate aspects of that still "Hot" Issue of Nowadays.



This matter is, obviously, a very Serious and Delicate one, having Manifold and Complex Aspects, spreading, in fact, much Wider than People usually think at First Sight, from Socio-Cultural Human Rights, up to the Human Rights to an elementary Protection and Safety for All People involved, and it even includes, inevitably, certain key Geo-Political parameters, at least as far as it concerns the Exceptional and UnPrecedented "Tsunami" of more than 1,5 Million of People Suddenly send massively to Europe from Turkey just in a Few Months between August 2015 and February 2016, which has undeniably presented a big Challenge for all involved, including by being, in certain cases, Exploited by this or that Socio-Political Group of Interests for their own purposes, without always keeping a due regard to the real Human and Social Dimension, neither to the General Interest of Europe.



- "Most (European) States were Not Prepared for the Scale of the Influx, or the Scope of the Issues", Massively Exported mainly through Turkey "since 2015", Elmrini's Draft Recommendation, indeed, reminds.



So that, inevitably, it would be Unthinkable and/or Irresponsible to Claim to really Exhaust it in the too Short and Hasty Framework of a Press Article, among others, during an Exceptionaly Overloaded Day of this Spring 2018 Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE)...



Neither could, seriously, Resumed just in a Few Words, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini's almost 30 Pages Long Report, including a Resolution for Local/Regional Authorities, and a Recommendation to the PanEuropean CoE's 47 Member-Countries, particularly with the Deep and Dense, but always Concrete Way of her Writting style, invested in a so delicate and important, "CrossRoads" Issue, Followed by a CLRAE Plenary Debate, with the Participation also of CoE Secretary General, Thornbjorn Jagland's Representative on Migration and Refugees, Tomas Bosek, (See Infra).



- But her "Live" Replies, that she kindly accepted to give to certain Key "Eurofora"s Questions, just After the Experience of this CLRAE's Debate, earlier Today at the CoE in Strasbourg, Added to some relevant points of the above-mentioned Texts and/or Public Debates, can Help to at least Highlight some very Important, and probably Decisive Aspects of that overall Issue :

- CoE's Rapporteur, naturally Agreed, in Substance, with "Eurofora", that, probably, a Most Important Part of her 2018 Report is How to Help Succeed, Nowadays, a Good "Integration" of all those "Unaccompanied Refugee Children" inside the European Society.



- Elmrini's Draft Resolution clearly "Recognizes", from the outset, that "each State has a Sovereign Right, subject to its International Obligations, to Determine Whom to Admit in its Territory", but adds that, "although Response-Planning for Refugees usually falls under the remit of Central Government Authorities, in Line with National Asylum Law and Policies", nevertheless, "provision of Care, Accomodation and Education services to Refugees, usually falls, in Practice, to Local and Regional Authorities".



- Even if the questions of a basic Social Aid and Health Care are part of the Latter, it's, obviously, mainly through the Education aspect that Integration could be Achieved, in the Best possible way, for the foreseable Future.



>>> There, CoE's Rapporteur immediately Stressed to "Eurofora" that the Main thing are "Schools" for Refugee Children, which should be inside the "Mainstream", i.e. "Normal" Education System, (obviously in order Not to Provoke ant kind of "AppartHeid"-like situations in the National Education of CoE's Member Countries).



+ Added, also, to what CoE SG's Representative for Migrants/Refugees, Tomas Bocek, stressed during the relevant CoE's Debate, earlier Today, about the Need to Avoid, at any price, "Ghettos", (and, notoriously, the "Cultural Ghettos", who are generally considered as the most pernicious), this should, Logically, mean that Local/Regional Authorities should, normally, take Care in order to Prevent any Risk of Over-Concentration, (particularly of the Recent, "UnAccompanied Refugee Children", who are Mostly from Far Away Countries, withOut the Historic Knowledge of at least an elementary European Culture and Language, as the South-Western Mediterranean, mainly "Mahgreb" Countries, who Already have Long and Close Relations with the French and/or Italian, Spanish, etc, Contrary to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey or Iraq, etc).



Obviously, f.ex., if some let accumulate ..."21 out of 24 Pupils needing to be Integrated", just in One Classroom (sic !), as it's reportedly the case in some Schools at Vienna City's suburbs, (according to a Reportage by German mainstream Newspaper "Die Welt"), then, such a "Cultural Ghetto", UnBalanced situation, does Not Help any Children at all, (Not those of the Recent, 2015-2016 Mass Migrants, Neither those of the Pre-Existing Populations, many of whom are also Poor and "Fragile", since Both notoriously, need a Well-Balanced Immersion in the European Culture, and certainly Not a Separation from it).



=> And, it's at this, Crucial, point, that Elmrini also, Spontaneously, turned to Add, specifically, the Important matter of the Host Country's "Language" learning, on the occasion of her Reply to another "Eurofora" Question on the various, necessary "appropriate ... Learning Support Services, including Teaching Assistance", that CoE's Rapporteur Draft Resolution calls to provide, (Article 7,  e).



- During CoE's Debate, Elmrini naturally Accepted a Suggestion, made by a Member of the Turkish Delegation to the CLRAE, (which notoriously has several Migrants of its own inside Europe, even if Arabs naturally are, by far, the Most Numerous and Ancient Migrant People here), to "Consult Refugee Children themselves" about what they might wish, in these regards. Indeed, a Good Idea, as far as it can Help Avoid, f.ex., the "fragile" Refugee Children's eventual Infeodation and/or Manipulation by some so-called "NGO" "Intermediaries", who, in fact, are executing Policies Imposed by some Foreign Governments' Networks, (as, inter-alia, that related to Controversial "IDLIB"s Networks, in Fact Paid and Controlled by Ankara's Government, which Recently fuelled a Scandal about "Spying" Turkish and/or Other People living in Europe, that the German Medias denounced very strongly, triggering several Official and/or Popular Reactions).



- But, on the Contrary, CoE's Rapporteur did Not Say Anything, about anOther, Different, Request by a Turkish Representative, to Impose also a systematic and generalized Learning of the "Language of Origin" of the Children, as she had claimed. Obviously, because, for the fluently Speaking a Perfect French, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, (who is not only a French Citizen, but also a fully Socio-Culturally Integrated Lawyer, specialized in Intellectual Property Rights), for the Sake of any Migrant Children's Future, a Good and Efficient Learning of the Language of the Host European Country is, Naturally, the Best, and Necessary Tool for a Succesfull Integration.



- Indeed, significantly, "Language .. Support", and/or "Language Training", is one among the Few Key-Words to be, significantly, ...Repeated More than 3 Times inside Rafik-Elmrini's Draft Resolution and Recommendation...



----------------



+ In Addition, her draft Resolution already Dissuaded, from the outset, Against the Risk to "Create Parallel or Alternative Systems", and/or "a Divide between Host and Refugee Communities", which would "Slow down Integration efforts", while even "Cultural Barriers" may "leave Refugee Children at Greater Risk", as she Warns. - Particularly when "Changes in the ... Cultural profiles of those Arriving Since 2015", mainly through Turkey, "have Created" also "Other Challenges ... in Host Countries", as her Report observes. Therefore, Rafik-Elmrini is, indeed, "Aware ... that ... there Certainly are (also) Other, Significant Issues, which canNot all be Examined in This Report, in Detail", (since it "proposes to Focus on 3 essential Aspects" Only : "Protection, Care and Education", i.e. Leaving out, f.ex., the above-mentioned "Cultural" and/or Values' aspects, etc).

----------------------------------







- However, for Strasbourg Euro-Metropole's Director of European/International Affairs, who Hopes that Europe "will be ReVitalized by EU Citizens", particularly on the Basis of Human Rights and Democratic Values, etc., as Nawel Rafik-Elmrini has just Stressed, Yesterday Evening, at an Official Reception of the CLRAE in the Historic City Hall, DownTown, exactly there where CoE itself had been created on 1949 by European Political Leaders, at least an elementary Knowledge of, and Adherence to a basic set of Common History, Culture and Values, able to Help all People Live Together in some Social Cohesion, naturally, canNot lbe totally ignored.

-------------



Indeed, as even a convinced, old-time Socialist, from Scandinavian Countries, and CoE's former Senior Official, under f. British CoE Secretary General Terry Davis, has already told "Eurofora", f.ex., even in such a Traditionaly Refugee-Friendly Country as Sweden, some very particular characreristics of many among the Latest, Massive Waves of Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants hrough Turkey (Comp. Supra), if due Care is not taken with appropriate measures, risk to provoke UnPrecedented Problems, particularly because of certain "Cultural" Issues, (including, f.ex., a Heavy "Islamist" Agenda, never seen before, as he pointed out).

----------------------



- Thus, "Language and Job are Not Enough" for a Real "Integration" in European Society, soberly titled, indeed, in its Headline-News, mainstream German Newspaper "Die Welt" Nowadays. Instead, Reference was made to a so-called "New Concept of Integration", pointing, in particular, to that which was tested and proned f.ex. by the City of "Hohen NeuenDorf", which declares itself seriously "Committed" to a Succesful Integration of Migrants, including many UARC.



+ Their relevant Pamphlet contains a Series of Concrete Points, which includes, but does Not Stop Just to Housing, Health, Language and Education, as well as Job : It also Adds Developments about what it calls "Social Integration", "InterCultural Openness", etc., and speaks about things like : "Support to a Common System", "Commitment to the Common Good", and Other Points serving "to Bring People Together".



This Focuses mainly around a "Non-Negotiable Basic Consensus", including "Commitment to Human Rights", and to "Democracy", (as the German Constitution, the Article 1 of which points to "Human Dignity", as well as EU's Lisbon Treaty's "Charter of Fundamental Rights"), but also to the "Equal Co-Existence of Religions", "Equal Rights .. for All People, RegardLess of Religion, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation", etc., and Other Values, which, sometimes, constitute "a Big Challenge" (for Both Refugees and Local Populations)...



Given the Human, Intellectual and Social Personality of CLRAE's Rapporteur, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, it obviously looks Certain that she woN't Deny that at all.



But the Main point, Nowadays, is that this German Example stresses the "Immence Importance" of those Values "for a Successful Extremism Prevention", (Including Both "Right-Wing Extremism, and Extreme Left, as well as Islmist Extremism", as they say).



Because all Official UNHCR and Other Statistics, clearly show that, a Particular Characteristic of that Recent, 2015-2016 UnPrecedented "Tsunami" of more than 1,5 Millions of People of Massive Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants Suddenly Coming to Europe through Turkey, (Comp. Supra), is that a very Great Number, often a Clear Majority among them, are Not Young Children, but rather Teenagers Claiming to be between 15-17 Years Old, (if not even Much more Older: Comp. Infra)....

And, to be Honest, as well as Efficient in Real Practice, the undeniable Truth obviously is that, the European People have been Traumatized by a Series of Exceptional Incidents against EU Citizens, and mainly Horrible Terrorist Bloody Crimes, cowardly Targetting innocent Civilian People, several of which have been notoriously Committed by more or less ... Fake "UnAccompanied Refugee Children" (sic), who had Exploited Scandalous Loopholes of the System. It would be a Shame to Hide that Truth, and a service only to Terrorism and to Left or Right-wing potential Extremisms.



F.ex., shortly After more than 1.000 reported Brutal Mob Sexual Attacks against isolated young Girls and Women in Cologne at New Years' Eve towards 1.2016, (on which CoE's Parliamentary Assembly held an Extensive Public Debate : See ...),



among other "High-Profile" Mainstream Medias-Covered such recent Crimes, are also the Cases of Nearby Wurzburg (Baden-Wurttemberg) Brutal Aggressor from Afghanistan/Pakistan who hit a whole Family and a Neighbouring Woman with a Axe and Knife on 2016, pledging allegiance to ISIS. Later, on 2016 too, a Young Student, who served as Volunteer to Help Refugees (while her Father Worked at EU Commission in Brussels), Maria Landenburger, is Raped and Murdered at Nearby Freiburg (Baden-Wurttemberg) by anOther Afghan "UARC", who had Claimed to be 17 Years old, but, in Fact, was Aged ... 32, (as even his own Father Revealed, Later on, citting an IDC), and had Already been Condemned and Jailed for Brutaly Attacking and Throwing anOther Young Girl over a Cliff 8 Meters High, Earlier in Greece, who escaped seriously Wounded. On 2017, at London, an Iraqi "UARC" placed a Fire-Bomb to Explode inside the Tube Train, Attacking Dozens of packed People : The London Police had, Scandalously, Hidden to the Foster Family who hosted and cared for him, that he had been "Trained by ISIS too Kill", as he had confessed, and mainstream Medias revealed afterwards, (Etc)....



Often, Victims may be also (real) fragile Refugee Children : As, f.ex., that 10 Years Boy of a poor Family of European Refugees from Serbia, who was Raped by a much More Aged "UARC" just arrived through Turkey from Asia, in a Swimming Pool at Vienna (Austria), where the latter had been Led by a Socio-Cultural services' paid Agent, in order to "Amuse" himself. Similar Incidents, f.ex., of reported Attempts of Sexual Assaults against very Young Children of Refugee Families were cited also in Berlin (inside a Collective Faciility), added to 2 Rapes of Children by Older Refugees inside a "Hotspot" at a Greek Island facing Turkey, (etc). So, Protection is Needed for practically Everyone.



In real Practice, the Main Point, Notoriously is that, (as even Recent Official Reports from UNHCR and/or the Brittish Police, etc, attest), a too Great Number of Treacherous Young Men, pretending to be "Children", Abusively Infiltrate Europe's "UARC" System, (particularly Since that 2015-2016 UnPrecedented, Sudden "Tsunami" of 1,5 Million Massive Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants flowing to Europe through Turkey), in Attempts to Exploit the various Advantages normaly reserved to Real Refugee Children.



F.ex., that Issue was Discussed at a PanEuropean level in a "Side-Event", organized in Strasbourg during a previous CoE's Parliamentary Assembly's Plenary, and clearly Results also (among Many other Cases), Both from the 2017 and 2018 Published Official Reports of the UK Authorities on Migration and, particularly UARC, Statistics : According to them, almost ...a 2/3 Absolute super-Majority of such Suspected Cases proved, indeed, to be a Fraude, (with the concerned Individuals being, in Fact, Adults), representing, approximately, around 11% to 20% of the Total cases.



- Questioned by "Eurofora", on this point, CoE's 2018 Rapporteur, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini appeared Crystal-clear and Adamant :



- In cases of Doubt about the "Identification" of Unaccompanied Refugee Children (UARC) as such, concerning their Real Age, this should be Examined on he basis of "Scientific Criteria", she mainly stressed, in Reply.



- Indeed, her 2018 Report notes "the ...Need to Strengthen Age Asessment procedures", "conducted in a Scientific ...manner".



- Otherwise, i.e. if, in Practice, superficial Decisions might be taken only on "Facial" Impressions' grounds, (as it unfortunately might happen in some regions), then, .... it's not only Mediterranean and/or Asian-looking Youngsters, who become Mature-looking Earlier than others, but ... even Scandinavian Big Blonds, usually Taller than Southerners, who Migh Risk to be UnJustifiably Excluded from any Protection normally due to all Children, Elmrini characteristically Joked with "Eurofora", Smililng...



=> For that purpose, "EASO's Original Guidelines" (of 2013) should be "Supplemented and UpDated", inter alia, also, f.ex. by a "consistent application of Good Practices", she advises, pointing also at a 2016-2017 UNCHR Paper on "the Way Forward" in these matters, as well as to a relevant Report of CoE's Committee for the Rights of the Child, "based on a Survey and a Litterature Review", published on 9.2017.



>>> But, from these Texts, (except from some Interesting Methodological and/or Comparative Ideas), did Not emerge yet any Crystal-clear nor Fully-fledged "Common Standards" on "Age assessment" mechanisms yet, (that the UNHCR Paper prefers to be Developed at "EU Level"), which could be translated asap. in Legal Norms Europe-Wide.



*** However, as if EASO, (the "European Asylum Support Office" of the EU), had ..."Heard" Elmrini's above-mentioned Call, "Eurofora" found that, indeed, it has ... just Published a fully UpDated, 2nd Edition of its 2013 Book, precisely this very Month of March 2018 !



The New EASO 2018 "Guide" on Age assessment is naturally much Bigger Now, with more Extensive Information. Nevertheless, it seems that its Original Edition of 2013 may still present a Specific Interest, particularly in Certain Key Points, (f.ex. the Description of Medical Methods, the International Comparisons, etc).



=> That's why "Eurofora" Publishes here the Links to BOTH Editions of EASO on Age assessment, (BEFORE and AFTER the 2015/2016 Turkey's unprecedented "Tsunami"...), at :



https://www.easo.europa.eu/sites/default/files/public/EASO-Age-assessment-practice-in-Europe1.pdf



https://www.easo.europa.eu/sites/default/files/easo-practical-guide-on-age-assesment-v3-2018.pdf



As UNHCR a.o. observe, however, Children Rights need Age assessment not only in Asylum-related cases (i.e. for "Refugee" status : EASO's competence), but also for Various Other Reasons, (f.ex. Health, Social, Judicial Rights, etc). That's one reason more for which UNHCR has advised for a Wider EU-level tool on Legal Rules concerning All cases of Age assessment (Comp. Supra).



F.ex., inter alia, in the above-mentioned Maria Ladenbrger case at Nearby Freiburg, the Murderer, could have been Judged Either by a Special Court for Juveniles, or by an Ordinary Criminal Court for Adults :



- The Difference is Huge, since in the First Case he may be Released from Prison in only 10 Years, while, in the Second Case, he should Stay in Prison for Life, (as several German Medias noticed) !...

-----------------------



At any case, in Principle, All Methods of Age assessment should be carried out with due "Respect (for) the Child's Dignity", be "Child-Friendly", "Gender-Sensitive", and better "Avoid Invasive ... Procedures that Risk Violating the Child's Physical Integrity", Elmrini's Report adds.



----------------------------



+ AnOther Topical Danger around UnAcompanied Refugee Children are the "Risks" that they Might Face particularly IF they are "Placed in Institutional facilities", as it "has Long been Recognized by Child-Protection Professionals", Elmrini's Report Warns :



>>> Indeed, "Many States increasingly involve NGOs, and (even) the Private Sector, in Managing Reception Facilities, and this Raises ... Questions about the type of Staff, Training, ... Policies", etc., she Critically observes.



F.ex., Mainstream German Medias have already reported Cases of Refugees reportedly "Harassed" by some Groups who Exploit Complicities even with the "Security" Staff, (due, f.ex. to so-called "Religion links", etc), Risking to result, sometimes, even near to "Inhuman/Degrading Treatments", Discrimination, Humiliation, etc., of those who are a "Minority" inside such Buildings. (F.ex., according to "Die Welt", an Iraqi of Christian religion, was, reportedly Obliged, de Facto, to ...Return Back into Iraq, after having vainly Complained for repeated Harassment against his Family, by a Majority Group exploiting Complicities with the Private "Guards", etc)...



+ Moreover, "there is" also "some Evidence that Reception Facilities", at least "in some Countries, have been Targetted by Criminal Networks", f.ex. "involved in Human Trafficking", while, in Addition, "a High Rate of UnAccompanied Children are Gone MISSING from Reception Facilities", Elmrini's Report observes, (noting, f.ex., the Fact that "in Italy", about "28.000 Children" Absconed from Reception facilities, only on 2016, and this was repeated on 2017...



+ In this regard, "Eurofora" also observed, recently, that COE's Officials of the "Lanzarote" Convention for the Fight Against Sexual Exploitation and/or Abuse of Children, during a Collective "Press point", had, indeed, Discussed with some interested Collegues the actual Risk for various "Predators" to Infiltrate f.ex. some NGOs used by the Public Authorities in certain Collective Buildings or Camps for Mass Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants, incuding Many UnProtected Children.



=> That's why, "it is Vital", for "Child Protection Agencies", to exert an efficient "OverSight" "in relation to all Institutions in this area, including Migration Centers", and/or to "Develop New, Family-Based Facilities, in Local Communities, or Support Fostering, or Other Alternativ Care arrangements, within Refugee Communities", "where Local Authorities can and should take a Lead", Elmrini's Report suggests.



-----------------------------------------





=> Last, but Not Least, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini's Draft Resolution for Local/Regional Authorities, was finally Adopted by CLRAE's Plenary with a Very Wide Majority of 78 Votes for, Against Only 4, and 2 Abstentions. Similary for her Draft Recommendation to CoE's 47 Member States, which was Adopted by 75 Votes, Against Only 5, and 1 Abstention.



Astonishingly, for such a Topical, Multifacet, Delicate and Complex, even partly Controversial Issue, which Concerns many Millions of People spread accrsss Most European Countries, it was a genuine Surprize for "Eurofora" to find out that there was ....Not Any Amendment at all, which might have Attempted to Change at least one or another part of her Drafts, (Apparently indicating that a Realistic and Good Balance of Interests, as well as, eventually, several Deals and Compromises, had been already Agreed, Beforehand, probably in Committee level and/or otherwise, in Addition to a quite Well-Balanced Formulation of Most Observations and/or Proposals.



In Comparison, it was Both Surprizing and Amusing to Note the Strannge Fact that, on the Contrary, an adjacent Report, about a Routine Inspection on "Local Democracy in.... SAN MARINO" alone (among More than 6 Similar Countries' Reports during this CLRAE Plenary), on the Contrary, Faced at least ... 2 comprehensive Amendments !...





(../..)





--------------------------





***





("DraftNews", as already Send to "Eurofora" Subscribers/Donors earlier. A more accurate, full Final Version, might be published asap).
Joint Eurojust/Europol press release

A group of EU and non-EU nationals, known to be active since 2016, are suspected of having committed the crimes of migrant smuggling and participation in an organised crime group (OCG). Eleven suspects, including the main leaders of the group, were placed under preventive measures in Romania and Austria in a joint action that began on Friday 6 April and continued through today. Nineteen premises were searched in Romania and 5 premises and an automobile were searched in Austria, and documents, mobile telephones and cash were seized during the joint action days, coordinated by Eurojust and Europol.

The OCG initiated and orchestrated numerous illegal transports of migrants originating from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq. Charging a fee ranging from EUR 1 500 to 7 000 per person, they have been smuggling people through Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary, who sought asylum mainly in Austria and Germany, but also in Italy and France. In 2017 alone, the OCG was responsible for six large-scale transports of migrants from Romania to Austria that were intercepted by the national law enforcement authorities. More than 180 migrants were smuggled in 2017 by this OCG.

The OCG had a three-level structure. The first level, composed of OCG members located in Romania and several other countries, was acting directly under the leaders, and was specialised in the fraudulent entry of migrants into Romania, their accommodation, and their transfer to the Romanian frontier, from where they crossed the border on trucks or were guided on foot to other EU Member States. The second level consisted of OCG members tasked with the transport of migrants, the cross-border transfer of smaller migrant groups, and the recruitment of additional smugglers. The truck drivers represented the third level of the OCG's organisation.

Today's operation by the Romanian Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism and the Public Prosecutor's Office of Graz was supported by Eurojust, which facilitated the setting up and financing of operational activities of a joint investigation team (JIT) between Romania, Austria and Slovenia.

To determine the best possible strategy for bringing the OCG to justice, judicial and law enforcement officials of six countries attended two coordination meetings at Eurojust. As a result, Eurojust was requested to set up a coordination centre, allowing for the real-time exchange of information and large-scale multilateral actions required. Cooperation with Europol and with the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC), as well as the detection of the suspect's movements within the European Union via the Schengen Information System, further contributed to the positive outcome.

For interviews and further information, please contact:

EUROJUST

E-mail: media@eurojust.europa.eu

For all Eurojust press releases, please see www.eurojust.europa.eu (Press centre)

EUROPOL

E-mail: press@europol.europa.eu
This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?
Emerging leaders in the field of construction have formed a new platform for younger industry professionals called BLOC, Building Leaders of Chattanooga. The initiative was conceived by members of the Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee to create a broad network for younger professionals who are building Chattanooga  contractors, sub-contractors, architects, engineers, planners, developers, designers, and others.

As Chattanooga continues to grow, younger leaders should be tapped into the initiatives and leadership that are shaping the future of the region, said BLOC Chairman Will Tutton of Southeast Painters. We see this as an important opportunity for social and learning opportunities for collaboration and engagement with other professionals that are coming up in the ranks, and to share our voice with those at the helm of growth strategies for the region.

Each month, the group will host a BLOC Party that will include tours, happy hours, discussions with community leaders, workshops and more. The first event was a social mixer at Feed Restaurant & Tavern held on March 28 with more than 60 professionals in attendance from architecture, engineering, design, and construction.

Participants in BLOC do not have to be a member of AGC. We want any professional who is a part of building in Chattanooga to feel welcome to join in the group, said Mr. Tutton.

The next BLOC Party will take place at the Waterhouse Pavilion at Miller Plaza on April 25 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. with special guest speaker, Kim White, president and CEO of River City Company. Registration is required for complimentary admission. To learn more about membership and events, visit https://www.agcetn.org/BLOC/.
As far as I know, it's the employers who are obligated to withhold taxes when the new system kicks in (not until next January). They'll then withhold taxes in the same way that they "withhold" all the social insurances - just deducting the amount from the net they pay out and then remitting to the tax people monthly or quarterly like the other payments. Take a look at what the Fisc has on the subject: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/prelevement-a-la-source Cheers,Bev
taking my 4 yr old to see hillsong on tour in usa. I try to lead him to positive things to go along with my imperfections. He will remember it now and in the future the decisions will be up to him. I can only start him on the path.
m225318440 said: Well we actually chose it because both of us really hate cities and prefer the rural life. Its really the same where we live in Alaska so I guess we have grown accustomed to that simple lifestyle.

As far as her having family, she has some family in bohol but most of her relatives live in CDO mindanao and she wasnt comfortable with me living there what with the unrest. Bohol seemed like a nice in-between place where we could be on a ferry to Cagayan de oro relatively easy. Click to expand...

I chose the province (La Union) many years ago for the rural life at a time when owning a vehicle was virtually impossible unless one paid cash. Over the years now with installments now available it seems like everyone has a vehicle. Most roads in the mountains that used to be dirt roads are now concreted. It was recently announced that SM City, SM Center, Robinsons will build here. How quickly rural changes.Part of my southern Islands Motorcycle trip was to see if there were greener pastures. We decided to stay where we are.You may want to inquire if Duterte's Build Build Build effects Ubay since it is the North Port City linking Southern Leyte.Good for you if you bought titled land already because i'm certain land prices will increase there like they are everywhere else. The new TRAIN Tax law is also causing prices to quickly increase.I'll send you a PM to a link where you can see whats going on in Ubay.
The Chair of the Canada-West Swine Health Intelligence Network (CWSHIN) and Executive Director of Alberta Pork, Darcy Fitzgerald, is pleased to announce that Dr. Jette Christensen, DVM, PhD, has accepted the position of manager for the organization, taking over the helm from Dr. Chris Byra, who is retiring at the end of April.

On behalf of the CWSHIN board and the western Canadian hog sector, Fitzgerald expressed his gratitude to Dr. Byra for his pioneering role in launching CWSHIN. Dr. Byra has been key in helping CWSHIN make significant progress toward our goals for swine health and disease surveillance in Western Canada, Fitzgerald said. We thank him for his commitment and contribution, and wish him all the best in his retirement.

Dr. Christensen is a veterinary epidemiologist with more than 30 years experience in all phases of national animal health monitoring, surveillance and disease control programs in Denmark and Canada. She brings with her extensive skills in swine practice and epidemiological surveillance, along with a thorough understanding of the role of animal health in international trade. I look forward to continuing Dr. Byras extensive work at CWSHIN, and providing veterinarians and hog farmers with readily useful and valid information on the health of their swine herds, said Dr. Christensen.

Dr. Glen Duizer, Animal Health Surveillance Veterinarian with Manitobas Chief Veterinary Office, noted that surveillance is all about communications. CWSHINs team approach to swine health and disease surveillance in Western Canada, drawing together local and regional information and flowing it into the larger national framework, is excellent, he said. It was a pleasure working with Dr. Byra and we look forward to continued collaboration with Dr. Christensen.

Source : Alberta Pork
The dairy sector contributes $24 billion to the Canadian economy through sales by farmers and food processors, including over $80 million in farm cash receipts from Prince Edward Island. Dairy processors help ensure Canadian families continue to benefit from high-quality products, creating good, well-paying jobs for Canadians.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay today announced federal investments of up to $5.4 million for Amalgamated Dairies Ltd (ADL) to modernize its Summerside operation, helping the cooperative to reduce production costs, increase the volume of milk it buys from dairy producers and introduce new products in response to market demand. This investment will also enable ADL to increase storage capacity for both specialty cheese products and packaging supplies.

The bulk of this investment comes from AAFCs Dairy Processing Investment Fund ($4.4 million) and the rest from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, ACOAs Business Development Program.

Minister MacAulay was speaking to ADLs annual general meeting currently in progress in Summerside.

Source : Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
From Syngenta Canada

Guelph, Ontario, Canada - Syngenta Canada Inc. announced today the retirement of Jay Bradshaw as President and Territory Head for Canada, and the appointment of Trevor Heck as his successor. Bradshaws retirement takes effect at the end of May, with Heck assuming his roles effective June 1, 2018.



Jay Bradshaw leaves Syngenta as a highly respected leader in Canadian agriculture, who has headed the organizations Canadian operations for almost 17 years. His career spans some 36 years, starting as a sales representative based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the early 1980s, and including progressively more senior roles with two other companies, prior to joining Syngenta Canada in October 2001.



Over the course of his career, Bradshaw has served Canadian agriculture through his participation on numerous boards, organizations and initiatives, including as a founding director of Cleanfarms, founding director of Cereals Canada, and on the Rural Ontario Institute, Ontario 4-H Foundation, and CropLife Canada. In 2009, he was named Agri-Marketer of the Year and, in 2013, received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his significant contributions to agriculture in Canada.



I have had the good fortune to be part of what I believe is the most dynamic and one of the critically most important sectors of our economy and country, Bradshaw said. The growing recognition of the importance and contributions of agriculture generally and plant production agriculture specifically, to address some of our most pressing challenges and realize some of our biggest opportunities is something I am proud to have been associated with over the course of my career.



Trevor Heck, began his career with a Syngenta legacy company in 1992 as a Sales Representative based in Provost, Alberta. From there, he assumed various other roles in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, followed by assignments in Australia and the United Kingdom. Heck returned to Canada in 2003, and had successive roles as District Sales Manager and Head of Key Accounts in Western Canada. Since 2011, Heck has served as the Head of Marketing with the Syngenta Canada organization.

The team at Syngenta Canada is focused on providing crop protection and seeds innovations in support of Canadian farmers across the countrys major crops, including wheat, barley, canola, corn, potatoes, pulses, soybeans, and specialty crops, Heck said. In this new role, I look forward to continuing and advancing this work in collaboration with farmers and the broader agricultural sector to support the sectors growth and competitiveness and help realize Canadas full potential as a leader in agricultural innovation.

Source : syngenta
Thinking Media- Learning Blade was named to the University of Floridas 2018 Gator100 during a ceremony at UFs J. Wayne Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.

Sponsored by the UF Alumni Association, in partnership with the UF Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center, the Gator100 recognizes the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned or led by UF alumni. Ernst & Young calculated each companys compound annual growth rate over the past three years to generate the ranking.

Thinking Media was selected due to the growth of its 4th product: Learning Blade, an online program with a game-based format intended to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM subjects. The program allows students to choose among a wide variety of activities based on societal problems, exposing students to more than 100 different STEM careers and technologies. Learning Blade was developed by Chattanooga entrepreneurs and UF Chemical Engineering alumni Sheila and Dr. Dane Boyington, and it is currently being used in over 3,000 schools nationwide, including statewide in Tennessee and Arkansas.

Shelia Boyington said she and Dane developed the program to meet a need, as many students across the state are graduating high school not prepared for the increasing number of well-paying STEM jobs. "Learning Blade was designed to expose students to STEM career opportunities that they have not be aware of," she said, adding that interesting kids in STEM fields at a young age is one of the best ways to strengthen our nations workforce.

Dr. Dane and Sheila Boyington, founders of Thinking Media, met at the University of Florida in Honors Chemistry class and have been married for over 34 years and running their company for over 22 years. One might say they had chemistry!

The Gator100 honors UF alumni from across the university who are founding and growing amazing companies around the country, said Kent Fuchs, president of the University of Florida. Its an incredible affirmation of the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of the Gator Nation.

To qualify for the Gator100, companies must have been in business for five years or more as of Oct. 1, 2017, and have had verifiable annual revenues of $250,000 or more in 2014. Additionally, a UF alumnus or alumna must have met one of the following three leadership criteria:

1. Owned 50 percent or more of the company from Jan. 1, 2014, through Oct. 1, 2017; or

2. Served as companys chief executive from Jan. 1, 2014, through Oct. 1, 2017; or

3. Founded the company and been active as a member of the most senior management team from Jan. 1, 2014, through Oct. 1, 2017.

.
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The Canadian Government has announced that it will be moving forward, albeit slowly, with a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) system.

Perhaps it is the cold, lingering winter north of the border, but observers and concerned stakeholders continue to be frustrated with the very slow and opaque process and pace of this policy and legislative development. The recent announcement from the Government of Canada came on March 27, 2018, in a Backgrounder under the heading Remediation Agreements and orders to Address Corporate Crime.

The Canadian version of DPAs will be known as the Remediation Agreement Regime (RAR). The federal governments long awaited move towards DPAs have several specific but not unique features.

First, a RAR would be a voluntary agreement between a prosecutor and an organization accused of committing a criminal offence. A corporation cannot be force into. RARs would set out an end date and would need to be presented to a judge for review and approval.

Second, before approving the remediation agreement, the judge would need to be satisfied of the following:

1. The agreement is in the public interest; and

2. The terms of the agreement are fair, reasonable and proportionate.

Third, when these criteria are met, the judge would issue a judicial order approving the RAR. While an agreement is in force, any criminal prosecution for conduct that is covered by the agreement would be suspended. If the accused organization complied with terms and conditions set out in the RAR, the prosecutor would apply to a judge for an order of successful completion when the agreement expires.

The legislation is proposed to have the following terms and conditions: the corporation has accepted responsibility for, and stop, their alleged wrongdoing; it has agreed to pay a financial penalty; it has been disgorged of any benefit gained from the wrongdoing; it has enhanced its compliance measures; and has made restitution to any victims, including overseas victims, as deemed appropriate in the circumstances.

Fourth, the criminal charges would then be stayed in Court at the request of the prosecutor, and no criminal trial or conviction would follow. The stated purposes of the RAR include the following:

a. To denounce an organizations wrongdoing and the harms that such wrongdoing has caused to victims or to the community;

b. To hold the organization accountable for the wrongdoing;

c. To require the organization to put measures in place to correct the problem and prevent similar problems in the future;

d. To reduce harm that a criminal conviction of an organization could have for employees, shareholders and other third parties who did not take part in the offence; and

e. To help repair harm done to victims or to the community, including through reparations and restitution.

Fifth, however, if the accused did not comply with all of the RAR, the criminal charges would be revived and the accused could be prosecuted and potentially convicted. In other words, all bets are off and the corporation will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Sixth and finally, the RAR program will come into effect 90 days after the Budge Implementation Act, is passed into law and given Royal Assent (yes, the Queens representative still have to approval all Government of Canadas new laws. Strangely, the RAR legislation is already being considered by Parliament as part of the Budget approval process, internally and without public hearings.

We anticipate do a further post once Canadas long, slow move towards a credible DPA regime becomes law.

This proposal will not likely take place until other priorities, including the legalization of recreation cannabis, takes place in the Great White North.

____
Pablo Ibar had been arrested in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and charged in a brutal home invasion robbery.

But hes sitting in an interrogation room in front of a detective from miles north in Broward County being questioned about a much more serious crime.

Detective Paul Manzella is investigating the brutal home invasion and triple murder that happened three weeks earlier in Miramar, Florida  the Caseys Nickelodeon Murders that left Butch Casey, Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers dead.

A photograph made from a surveillance video from Butchs house showed the face of one of the Miramar killers. Manzella thinks it looks like Pablo Ibar.

Detective Manzella showed Ibar the image from the security camera and asked Where did I get this photo of you, Pablo?

Ibar looked at it for a moment, then laid his head down on the table, Manzella later said in an interview on MSNBC.

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Zeroing in on Ibar

The home invasion in Miami-Dade County was brutal. Three men had burst into a home, demanding money and terrorizing the residents.

One of the intruders threatened a pregnant womans unborn baby. They shot and killed the family dog.

A man hiding in a bathroom was able to call 9-1-1, and the three suspects fled into the neighborhood when police arrived.

But they were eventually captured. Ibar and two other men, Alex Hernandez and Alberto Rincon, were arrested.

When Detective Manzella from Miramar, Florida, finished questioning Ibar, he began collecting evidence  starting with bloody shoe prints found in Butch Caseys home.

Detective Manzella collected the shoes worn by Ibar and the other two men in custody in Miami-Dade, hoping for a match.

He also took Polaroid photos of the three to bring to an eyewitness who saw two men leaving the crime scene in Butch Caseys Mercedes on the morning of the murders.

The witness was Gary Foy, Caseys neighbor. Foy was shown photo lineups of the men arrested in Miami.

He narrowed the lineup down to Ibar, but detectives arranged a live photo lineup to be certain. Foy immediately identified Pablo Ibar as the man he saw riding in the passenger seat of Caseys car.

Crime-scene evidence

With a positive identification in hand, detectives pressed the investigation further.

Test results came back from the shoes worn by the Miami-Dade home invasion suspects. The shoes worn by Alberto Rincon matched a bloody print left on Caseys floor.

Rincon told police he borrowed the shoes from Pablo Ibar.

Then they examined a t-shirt that was found outside the front door of Butch Caseys home that the killers fled through.

Caseys blood was on the shirt, but no other forensic evidence. There was something, however.

A logo on the t-shirt belonged to a company called Consolidated Electric Supply. That company had a business relationship with the employer of Pablo Ibars mother.

Lee Street

Detectives began digging into Pablo Ibars circle of friends. They questioned one of Ibars former roommates, John Klimeczko, who blew the case wide open.

First, Klimeczko positively identified Ibar as the face captured on the Casey security camera.

Then he looked at the second man in the video  he was wearing a ballcap and sunglasses to conceal his identity. But Klimeczko told investigators the second man was Seth Penalver.

Klimeczko also gave police more information about the flop house where he had once lived with Pablo Ibar and Alex Hernandez.

The house was on Lee Street in Hollywood, Florida, and became a focus of the investigation.

Klimeczko verified to police that the residents of the house often exchanged clothing if they fit  which police thought gave credibility to Albero Rincons claim that he had borrowed Ibars shoes, the ones that matched the bloody footprint in the Casey house.

And he said that on the morning of the murders he saw Ibar and Penalver come home acting real funny and stuff. He said he saw them take a Tech 9 machine gun from under a bed and leave the house with it.

Then later, he said, Ibar and Penalver returned in a new, dark-colored car.

Seth Penalver

When Klimeczko identified the second man in the video as Seth Penalver, he incorrectly called him Seth Pentlover. He even spelled it out. That mistake would haunt the prosecution of Penalver years later.

But detectives figured out the error and announced that Penalver was a person of interest in the Caseys Nickelodeon Murders.

The story was splashed across newspapers and television news shows  pressuring Penalver to turn himself in on Aug. 5, 1994.

Penalvers girlfriend, Melissa Monroe, told police the man in the Casey security video looked like Panalver. She also told them that she and her friends ran into Panalver and Pablo Ibar at Caseys Nickelodeon on the same fateful night that Butch Casey met Marie Rogers and Sharon Anderson, hours before their murders.

The first trial

Investigators believed they put together a solid case, and presented it to a grand jury.

They had the surveillance video. They had what seemed like a parade of witnesses that identified Ibar and Penalver on the video tape and placed them both at Caseys Nickelodeon hours before the murders.

They had a witness who saw the two with the same kind of machine gun used in the killings. They had Caseys neighbor identifying Ibar in the passenger seat of Caseys own car, leaving the scene of the crime.

On Aug. 31, 1994, Pablo Ibar and Seth Penalver were indicted on charges of first-degree murder.

But at trial, the case started to unravel.

There was no physical evidence  no fingerprints, no DNA to link Ibar or Penalver to the crime.

Many of the witnesses started to change their stories. Others were discredited. Klimeczko even claimed he had no memory of his statements to police, even though he acknowledged the recordings were his voice.

And the Miami-Dade home invasion that was so similar to the deadly invasion of Butch Caseys home? Jurors never even heard about it out of fear by the prosecution that it could be used against them during an appeal.

The trial lasted nine months as defense lawyers worked to exploit weaknesses in the prosecutions case.

The jury deliberated for more than 25 hours, struggling to reach a verdict. They couldnt.

On January 25, 1998, three years and six months after the Caseys Nickelodeon Murders, the trial of Pablo Ibar and Seth Penelver ended with a hung jury.

But that was just the start of the decades-long legal drama.
Naomi Campbell says her recent trip to Africa has made her years of modelling "worth it".

Naomi Campbell

The 47-year-old British supermodel recently visited Lagos - Nigeria's largest city - to attend Africa's premier fashion showcase Arise Fashion Week where she walked the runway and interacted with up-and-coming designers using their culture and environments to inspire their work.

Naomi admitted the "overwhelming" happiness reminded her why she became a model in the first place.

Speaking to Vogue.com, she reflected: "I left with my heart full of so much happiness; I didn't want to leave. I haven't felt that love in a long time, and it made me realise that, all the 32 years I've been in this business, they've been worth it."

Naomi also attended BBK Africa's Homecoming, a music festival which showcased African artists such as her boyfriend Skepta, Wiz Kid and J Hus, and the brunette beauty - whose mother is from Jamaica - returned feeling inspired by the country's enthusiasm.

She said: "The energy was amazing, from the moment I landed, I had the most incredible time: the people were wonderful, gracious, kind, accommodating... I received so much love that it felt almost overwhelming."

And Naomi wants more people to experience the vibrant African culture and has called for the Conde Naste publication house to introduce an African edition of the popular fashion magazine.

She gushed: "I'm gonna wear [all those designers] now that I'm home; I felt so comfortable, so easy, so relaxed. I feel like Africa, as a continent, is on the tip of explosion. It's the next destination, and it needs a broader platform. I am going to help them get it. It's more than overdue. There needs to be an African Vogue. It's time."
Diego Boneta has been added to the cast of the new 'Terminator' movie.

Diego Boneta

The 27-year-old star - who previously appeared in 'Scream Queens' and 'Rock of Ages' - has secured a key role in the return of the money-spinning franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Diego is set to appear alongside Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are returning to the movie series, while 'Blade Runner 2049' actress Mackenzie Davis is also already attached to the project.

As yet, it's not entirely clear what role Diego will play in the new movie, although it is known that he'll be playing a human.

The much-anticipated return of 'Terminator' is being directed by 'Deadpool' filmmaker Tim Miller, while Hollywood legend James Cameron is set to be involved with the franchise for the first time since 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' in 1991.

Meanwhile, Arnold recently revealed that the new 'Terminator' movie is going to be a return to the storytelling of the 1984 original.

The 70-year-old actor starred in the original movie as the titular character - a T-800 killer cyborg - and said fans of the sci-fi franchise can expect a return to the stripped down story of the cult classic.

He said: "I think James Cameron and Tim Miller came up with a concept where they can continue on with the T-800 but make a whole new movie.

"What they are doing now with this one is basically to just take a few very basic characters, like Linda Hamilton's character and my character, and dismiss everything else. Just move away from all these rules of the timeline and other characters."
Joss Whedon has been replaced by Christina Hodson on the 'Batgirl' script.

Joss Whedon

The 'Bumblebee: The Movie' scribe is set to use her talents to pen the screenplay for the hotly-anticipated motion picture after the 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' director recently confirmed he had departed the movie because he "really didn't have a story".

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. are moving ahead with the film after eyeing Hodson to write the script following her work on the 'Transformers' spin-off.

The script is expected to feature Barbra Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon.

Hodson previously wrote 2017 thriller 'Unforgettable', which featured Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl.

Whedon announced in February he was departing the project, and thanked DC president Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. Picture Group president Toby Emmerich for their help.

He said in a statement: "Batgirl is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realise I really didn't have a story.

"I'm grateful to Geoff and Toby and everyone who was so welcoming when I arrived, and so understanding when I ... uh, is there a sexier word for 'failed'? (sic)"

Whedon co-wrote DC Comics superhero motion picture 'Justice League', which dropped in November 2017, but it was panned by critics, sparking speculation late last year that he could leave 'Batgirl'.

Such talk was dismissed at the time and he was said to be busily working on the script.

It's not yet known who will take on the titular role of Batgirl, who was played by Alicia Silverstone in 1997 motion picture 'Batman & Robin'.
Chance the Rapper has been working with "a lot" of people on new music.

Chance the Rapper

The 24-year-old rapper - whose real name is Chancelor Jonathan Bennett - refuses to say whether he's working on a new album, but says he has plenty of songs set for release featuring the likes of Young Thug and Childish Gambino (Donald Glover).

Speaking on Beats 1 on Monday (09.04.18), he said: "I never really have like a big, drawn-out plan for how sh*t was gonna go.

"I'm more in like a collaborative frame of mind.

"So I've been talking to this artist Francis and the Lights, we working on something. Me and Thug been, you know, making songs forever, we got so many songs, so we've been talking about dropping something together.

"Same with Donald Glover, Childish Gambino ... I got a lot of people, I've just been making songs."

Chance hasn't released any new content since 2016's 'Coloring Book', but he previously teased his collaborations with Childish Gambino.

Asked about whether he's been working with Donald, he said: "We perpetuated that rumour for a long time without recording anything. We did link up in Atlanta and record some tracks and... they're amazing."

And it's not just the 'Redbone' hitmaker Chance has been working with recently, as he's also teased that he may feature on some of Kanye West's new songs this year.

Asked whether he had any part in 'All Day' hitmaker's new music, Chance said at an event held at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art: "Uhhh... I guess!"

Kanye, 40 - who has four-year-old daughter North, two-year-old son Saint and two-month-old daughter Chicago with Kim Kardashian West - suffered a torrid year in 2016, with the rap star having to cancel part of his 'Life of Pablo Tour' after he was committed to a hospital with symptoms of hallucinations and paranoia.

However, he's back to work and most recently was reported to have been working Drake.
Arlene Phillips is shocked that the BBC are launching another talent dance show.

Arlene Phillips

The 74-year-old choreographer can't believe the broadcaster is planning to go ahead with 'The Greatest Dancer' - a new series where auditionees will show off ballet, ballroom and street skills in the hope of impressing the judges - next year because she thinks the public are "over talent shows now" as they're all too similar.

Arlene said: "Are we over talent and dance shows now? I think they have got to be bloody different to really make an impact. I say turn it all upside down."

However, although she's not keen on another dance show hitting the small screen, Arlene has said she'd jump at the chance to reclaim her seat on the judging panel of 'Strictly Come Dancing' after she was axed and replaced by Alesha Dixon in 2009.

Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, she said: "I would go back to judging on TV if I was asked. I like opening my mouth and telling people what I think."

Arlene isn't the first person to slam the BBC's new show as it's believed Michael McIntyre is furious with Simon Cowell because he thinks the format is too similar to a segment - The Unexpected Star - on his series 'Michael McIntyre's Big Show'.

A source said recently: "It's all very embarrassing.

"Michael knows Simon well because he was a judge on 'Britain's Got Talent' but now they're at loggerheads over this. Michael was not happy. The similarities between The Unexpected Star and 'The Greatest Dancer' are simply uncanny.

"Michael might think Simon's show is a copy but in fact this surprise stunt is not new to telly and has been used in various shows over the years."

'The Greatest Dancer' will see performers show off their talents to a panel of people, while the real judges - Cheryl and Ashley Banjo - will be watching on from backstage.

The judges will then be given the chance to hit a button if they like the act.

A BBC spokesperson has confirmed 'The Greatest Dancer' is still scheduled to go ahead next year but they're yet to confirm the format following the successful pilot.

The broadcaster said in a statement: "'The Greatest Dancer' will go ahead but the format has yet to be confirmed.

"The pilot show contained a surprise element but it is a format that's in development."
The local chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society invites the public to join them for the spring state meeting April 20-22 in Chattanooga's Southside.

Novice and experienced birders of all ages are welcome, officials said.

A Friday evening reception will be held at the pavilion of The Crash Pad boutique hostel off Main Street, as will a Sunday afternoon compilation of bird sightings.

A Saturday evening banquet will feature keynote speaker Dr. J. Christopher Haney of Terra Mar Applied Sciences.

A variety of field trips on Saturday and Sunday mornings will showcase local birding hotspots such as Lookout Mountain and Reflection Riding.

Details and registration can be found at www.tnbirds.org or by calling 423-316-5647.
Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-Category
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Family of Pharmacies announced it is taking several steps as part of a comprehensive commitment to help communities combat the nationwide opioid epidemic. Kroger said it currently stocks naloxone, an opioid overdose-reversing drug, in its 2,300 pharmacies across 35 states and the District of Columbia with more than 1,900 of those locations dispensing naloxone without a prescription - making it easier for families, friends, caregivers and at-risk individuals to have the drug on hand if it is needed to save a life. The U.S. Surgeon General urges more Americans to carry the lifesaving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 2.1 million people in the U.S. struggle with an opioid-use disorder and rates of opioid overdose deaths are rapidly increasing. Kroger today also announced plans to host drug take-back events at store locations across the country on April 28, in partnership with Cardinal Health and coinciding with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Kroger is also partnering with EVERFI and Generation Rx to support drug prevention programs for high school students in certain markets. 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.
The Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (ECDI) has awarded a public contract to a consortium of the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster to launch a project entitled 'Automated systems on the battlefield', managed by the Centre for Applied Studies at the Estonian National Defence College (ENDC).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005762/en/

The THeMIS UGV by Milrem Robotics equipped with the KX-4 LE Titan UAV by Threod Systems is one example of innovative technology made in Estonia. (Photo: Business Wire)

"The aim of the project is to assess how unmanned and automated systems could contribute to our combat power and how we can measure the impact of these new systems on combat power. To achieve this, we will run a number of field experiments and tests in collaboration with the 2nd Infantry Brigade units," said Lt. Col. Sten Allik, Chief of the Centre for Applied Studies at the ENDC.

In collaboration with the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster consortium, the project will test various unmanned ground and aerial platforms and the risks related to the exchanges of data, and will also seek solutions to make different systems interoperable.

"Robotic solutions and smart battlefield systems are changing warfare across the world; their effective use gives a significant advantage over conventional weapons systems," explained Kuldar Vaarsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics.

According to Vaarsi, Estonia has a number of strong technology companies that offer solutions in a wide range of different sectors, such as cyber defence, electronic warfare, and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles.

"We want to be a reliable partner in the development of Estonia's defence capabilities and comprehensive smart battlefield systems," added Vaarsi.

This is the first R&D procurement by the Estonian Defence Forces aimed at field experiments. The procurement procedure for the lease of unmanned ground and areal vehicles and for data collection was carried out by the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (ECDI).

The consortium is based on the Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster and includes the following members: Milrem AS, the leading partner, develops and manufactures robotic ground systems; Marduk Technologies OU is a developer of drone detection and anti-drone solutions; AS Telegrupp provides various communication solutions; Smart Defence Systems OU develops battlefield awareness and information management systems; OU ELI develops and manufactures UAV-s and training systems; GuardTime AS is the world's largest industrial blockchain technology provider; OU Rantelon's main area of business is the design and production of electronic warfare solutions; and Threod Systems OU specialises in developing, producing and operating unmanned aircraft systems and their subsystems.

The Estonian Defence and Security Industry Innovation Cluster is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Enterprise Estonia (Project EU49327). The aim of the cluster is to become a centre of competence in research and development and export in the defence industry sector. The vision of the cluster is to create synergy through co-operation between national and international capital in order to strengthen the Estonian defence industry and its exports. More information is available at https://defence.ee/about/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005762/en/

Contacts:

Milrem Robotics

Gert Hankewitz

Export Director

+372 56644416

Gert.hankewitz@milrem.com
DGAP-Ad-hoc: Airbus SE / Key word(s): Share Buyback Airbus SE: Airbus discloses share buyback transactions 3-6 April 2018 09-Apr-2018 / 18:00 CET/CEST Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. *Ad-hoc release, 9 April 2018* *Airbus discloses share buyback transactions 3-6 April 2018* Airbus SE reports the following share buyback transactions from 3 April 2018 to 6 April 2018 under Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse ("EU Market Abuse Regulation"). The transactions are part of the share buyback programme that started on 28 February 2018 for the sole purpose of covering Airbus' long-term incentive plan in shares. The repurchased shares will be redistributed to the beneficiaries of long-term incentive plans according to the relevant plan rules. The share buyback programme is expected to be completed by 2 May 2018. The share buyback is undertaken pursuant to the general authority conferred on the Airbus SE Board of Directors by the 13th resolution to repurchase up to 10% of Airbus SE's issued share capital by the Annual General Meeting of shareholders of Airbus SE on 12 April 2017. Aggregate presentation (per day and market) Issuer's Issuer's identifying Transaction Identifying Total Daily Market name code date code of daily weighte (MIC financial volum d code) instrument e (in average numbe purchas r of e price share of s) shares Airbus MINO79WLOO247M1IL051 2018.04.03 NL0000235190 23,26 92.7433 XPAR SE 0 Airbus MINO79WLOO247M1IL051 2018.04.04 NL0000235190 24,90 92.9194 XPAR SE 0 Airbus MINO79WLOO247M1IL051 2018.04.05 NL0000235190 19,40 94.4969 XPAR SE 0 Airbus MINO79WLOO247M1IL051 2018.04.06 NL0000235190 19,40 94.4244 XPAR SE 0 TOTAL 86,96 93.5600 0 Detailed reporting of share buyback transactions is available on the Airbus website at: http://www.airbus.com/investors/share-price-and-information.htmlchapter-02 [1] This update on share buybacks contains inside information within the meaning of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. About Airbus Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2017 it generated reported revenues of EUR 67 billion - or EUR 59 billion restated for IFRS 15 - and employed a workforce of around 129,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners from 100 to more than 600 seats. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as one of the world's leading space companies. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide. Contacts for the media Martin Aguera +49 (0) 175 227 4369 martin.aguera@airbus.com Rod Stone +33 (0) 6 3052 1993 rod.stone@airbus.com 09-Apr-2018 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Language: English Company: Airbus SE P.O. Box 32008 2303 DA Leiden Netherlands Phone: 00 800 00 02 2002 Fax: +49 (0)89 607 - 26481 Internet: www.airbusgroup.com ISIN: NL0000235190 WKN: 938914 Indices: MDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange End of Announcement DGAP News Service 672501 09-Apr-2018 CET/CEST 1: http://public-cockpit.eqs.com/cgi-bin/fncls.ssp?fn=redirect&url=0ec3a0ce4309dd237d42740502d62d9c&application_id=672501&site_id=vwd&application_name=news

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 09, 2018 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)




Corporate Communications Division Mazda Motor Corporation, Japan +81-3-3508-5056 [Tokyo] +81-82-282-5253 [Hiroshima] mailto: media@mazda.co.jp

HIROSHIMA, Japan, Apr 10, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Mazda Motor Corporation will show the CX-8 three-row crossover SUV at the 2018 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China 2018),(1) which will be open to the public from April 29 through May 4. Other new-generation vehicles to be displayed include the Mazda MX-5 RF, Mazda CX-5 and Mazda6.(2)http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_Mazda410CX8.jpgCX-8 three-row crossover SUV (exhibition model)The CX-8 is the flagship model of Mazda's SUV lineup in Japan. The three-row crossover SUV offers a new alternative for customers who don't want to compromise on driving performance or styling in a multi-passenger vehicle. Since the car's December launch in Japan, orders have exceeded 20,000 units. The model is especially popular with customers in their 30s and 40s. Large SUVs are in great demand in China, the world's biggest market for automobiles, and exhibiting the CX-8 there will allow Mazda to introduce the car to customers in China and other nations.In line with its "Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030" vision for technology development, Mazda aims to use the fundamental appeal of the automobile - driving pleasure - to inspire people, enrich society and help bring about a beautiful earth. By offering an experience of car ownership that celebrates driving, the company hopes to enrich lives and build a strong bond with customers.(1) A press preview is scheduled for April 25 and 26; an industry preview will be held April 27 and 28.(2) Called Mazda6 Atenza in the Chinese marketAbout MazdaMazda Motor Corporation (TSE: 7261) started manufacturing tools in 1929 and soon branched out into production of trucks for commercial use. In the early 1960s, Mazda launched its first passenger car models and began developing rotary engines. Still headquartered in Hiroshima in western Japan, Mazda today ranks as one of Japan's leading automakers, and exports cars to the United States and Europe for over 30 years. For more information, please visit www.mazda.comSource: MazdaContact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Cycas Hospitality, one of the largest branded extended-stay hotel operators in the UK, is continuing its international rollout by signing its inaugural deal in France, which will see it manage the first dual-branded Hyatt property in Europe.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005682/en/

Cycas has signed a lease agreement to operate the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels, which are both on one site, close to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. Cycas currently operates Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport.

The 21,631 sq m, five-storey building is located in Paris Nord 2 business park at 241 rue de la Belle Etoile in Roissy. It will have a total of 430 rooms 309 at Hyatt Place and 121 at the Hyatt House extended-stay hotel with the hotels sharing conference, extensive all-day dining/bar facilities, a gym and a large swimming pool; a rare amenity in this location.

Hyatt House will be the first extended-stay hotel around Charles de Gaulle airport and follows a detailed feasibility study by Cycas showing that there is a strong market for extended-stay hotels at major airports; Hyatt has also experienced success with similar locations in the US.

As well as appealing to international guests, the hotel location will attract corporate demand from the local major commercial and industrial hubs around Charles de Gaulle airport and the A1 corridor, which links Paris with Lille and the north of France.

Developed by Kaufman Broad, the hotels are set to open in the second half of 2020.

Asli Kutlucan, Partner at Cycas Hospitality, said: "We are proud to continue our relationship with Hyatt through this agreement, which sees us managing the Hyatt House extended-stay brand for the first time. This is a major milestone in our international rollout plans, taking advantage of the growing and widely untapped market for the extended-stay concept in Europe to bridge the gap between hotels and home.

"With further deals in our pipeline in France and Germany, our next key focus, we are making steady progress towards our target of having more than 10,000 guest rooms open and operating by 2022. These are exciting times and we look forward to announcing further news soon."

Felicity Black-Roberts, Vice President Development, Europe and North Africa at Hyatt Hotels, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Cycas Hospitality on our first dual-branded project in Europe. We are confident that Cycas's extensive experience of successfully managing double-decker hotels will help us take full advantage of the many opportunities that this prime airport location offers for corporate as well as leisure travellers."

David Laurent, Senior Vice-President Commercial Property and Major Urban Projects of Kaufman Broad, said: "This realisation demonstrates our expertise in hotel residences and proves our ability to respond to the hotel residence industry's demand. It also shows the capacity of Kaufman Broad to develop several complex projects and meet the expectations of the population density and the new customs of the city."

The deal is Cycas's first following a major investment from Huakee Group, the Thai family office and a major hotel owner and operator in Southeast Asia. With this backing, Cycas is rapidly growing its operations in Europe, including opening its first dual-branded hotel in Amsterdam at the beginning of the year under Marriott's Moxy and Residence Inn brands.

Notes to Editors

About Cycas Hospitality

Founded in 2008, Cycas Hospitality is a hotel management company which specialises in extended-stay properties. Its spacious hotel apartments combine the flexibility of home with classic hotel services.

With a total of 2,782 suites and rooms open or under development across 18 hotels, 11 of these are open and three will open in summer 2018. These are in key city centre locations across the UK (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle) and include Cycas' first properties in mainland Europe (Amsterdam, Paris).

Following recent investment from the family-owned Huakee Group, Cycas intends to grow its portfolio to more than 10,000 guest rooms in the next five years.

Having pioneered the branded extended-stay hotel concept in Europe, Cycas is London's leading operator in this field and a partner of choice for major global hotel franchise brands plus international investors. In Europe, Cycas is the largest extended-stay operator for IHG's Staybridge Suites brand and Marriott's Residence Inn, and helped develop the dual-branded hotel concept in the region for each company.

The heart of Cycas' first-class guest experience is a dedicated Culture Team who ensure each property operates with Cycas' signature 'positively outrageous service' and the philosophy that "our job is not over until we get a smile".

Cycas delivers a combination of expertise in hotel operations, property development and asset management. Its overarching goal is to become one of the best hospitality employers in the market, making its hotels the best places to work as well as stay.

To find out more visit www.cycashospitality.com or connect with us via LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 14 premier brands.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company's portfolio included more than 700 properties in more than 50 countries across six continents. The Company's purpose to care for people so they can be their best informs its business decisions and growth strategy and is intended to attract and retain top colleagues, build relationships with guests and create value for shareholders.

The Company's subsidiaries develop, own, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels, resorts, branded residences, vacation ownership properties, and fitness and spa locations, including under the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva , Hyatt Zilara , Hyatt Residence Club and exhale brand names.

and brand names. For more information about Hyatt Hotels Corporation, please visit www.hyatt.com.

About Kaufman Broad

Kaufman Broad has been designing, building, and selling single-family homes in communities, apartments, and offices on behalf of third parties for 50 years.

Kaufman Broad is one of the leading French Property Development Construction companies due to the combination of its size and profitability, and the strength of its brand.

For more information: realestate.kaufmanbroad.fr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005682/en/

Contacts:

Redleaf Communications

Emma Kane Henry Columbine Rishi Banerjee

020 3757 6890

cycas@redleafpr.com

or

Cycas Hospitality

Suzanne Seyghal

+44 (0)7967 978 911

suzanne@cycashospitality.com

Twitter: @CycasHotels
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - UBM (UBMJF.PK, UBM.L) and Informa (INFMF.PK, INF.L) reported that regulatory clearances have now been received from China's Ministry of Commerce, the German Federal Cartel Office and The Turkish Competition Authority, in relation to Informa's recommended offer for UBM. Engagement with the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK is underway. The companies remain confident of completion of the deal by the end of the second quarter of 2018. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Next-Generation UPLC Platform Designed to Keep Pace with Evolving Laboratory Requirements for Chromatographic Performance

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) announced today the introduction of the ACQUITY UPLC PLUS Series, three new ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC (UPLC) Systems that build off of the success of Waters' industry-leading ACQUITY UPLC separations platform. By embracing a philosophy of continuous product improvement, along with customer feedback, Waters designed the new ACQUITY UPLC H-Class PLUS, H-Class PLUS Bio, and I-Class PLUS Systems for unparalleled flexibility, performance and ease-of-use. From applications as complex as peptide mapping to routine product release testing, ACQUITY UPLC is helping thousands of academic, pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industry laboratories meet their research, development and quality control objectives. ACQUITY UPLC PLUS Systems are making their industry debut at the Analytica Conference, April 10 13, in Munich, Germany.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005189/en/

Waters ACQUITY UPLC PLUS Series ultra performance liquid chromatographs deliver new performance benchmarks for chromatographic separations in the scientific laboratory. (Photo: Business Wire)

"When introduced in 2004, the ACQUITY UPLC System transformed laboratory science by bringing dramatic business and scientific benefits to the analytical process. And it was met with overwhelming customer acclaim considering it had been 30 years since liquid chromatography saw such dramatic performance improvements," said Eric Grumbach, Director of Product Marketing, Chromatography Systems. "At Waters, innovation is about more than just performance. It's about listening to the customer and continuously pushing our LC technology forward to find faster, simpler, and better ways to support the work that they do."

The ACQUITY UPLC H-Class PLUS and H-Class PLUS Bio Systems are quaternary UPLC systems designed for high-resolution, high-sensitivity separations of complex samples with the flexibility and robustness to run all modes of chromatography ion exchange, size exclusion, hydrophilic interaction, hydrophobic interaction, and reversed phase independent of the type or size chromatographic column particle the method specifies. These systems are especially well-suited as an inlet to mass spectrometry, for streamlined method development, and for routine analysis laboratories running HPLC, UHPLC or UPLC analytical methods.

The ACQUITY UPLC I-Class PLUS System is a binary UPLC system designed to generate ultra-efficient, narrow peaks and to improve the sensitivity of optical detection or mass spectrometry. With industry-leading, ultra-low dispersion and delay volumes, it is an ideal system for laboratories seeking the highest chromatographic resolution and productivity possible in a UPLC system.

The ACQUITY UPLC H-Class PLUS, H-Class PLUS Bio, and I-Class PLUS replace the Waters ACQUITY UPLC H-Class, ACQUITY UPLC H-Class Bio and ACQUITY UPLC I-Class Systems in Waters product line. The foundational enhancements made to the ACQUITY UPLC PLUS Series will not affect the analytical results for well-established, validated LC methods developed with the ACQUITY UPLC H-Class, H-Class Bio and I-Class Systems. For laboratories that wish to extend the lifecycle of their investment in previously-installed systems, Waters is offering ACQUITY UPLC PLUS Series Usability and Performance Enhancement Kits.

For more information: www.waters.com/plus

About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)

Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT), the world's leading specialty measurement company, has pioneered chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis innovations serving the life, materials, and food sciences for nearly 60 years. With approximately 7,000 employees worldwide, Waters operates directly in 31 countries, including 15 manufacturing facilities, and with products available in more than 100 countries.

Waters, ACQUITY, UPLC, ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC, and UltraPerformance LC are trademarks of Waters Corporation.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005189/en/

Contacts:

Waters Corporation

Brian Murphy, 508-482-2614

Public Relations Manager

brian_j_murphy@waters.com
Global engineering group Cavotec has won a breakthrough order for its next-generation aircraft ground cooling systems. The order is a key part of a major modernisation project at Bahrain International Airport set to substantially increase passenger capacity. The project highlights Cavotec's leading role in the development of Pre-Conditioned Air (PCA) systems for the global aviation market. The scope of this turnkey project includes the design, engineering, installation, testing and commissioning of Cavotec Sub-Freezing Dual Blower DX Arctic PCA units, as well as delivery of in-ground pit systems that reduce the number of vehicles required to service aircraft. The order is valued at more than EUR 8 million. The modernisation programme incorporates the addition of a mix of contact gates and remote stands, the construction of new terminal buildings, and the redevelopment of existing facilities. This initial expansion phase is expected to increase annual passenger capacity from nine to 14 million. Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) first ordered Sub-Z PCA systems and pit systems in 2010. These units demonstrated their capacity to cool Code F wide-body aircraft in demanding ambient conditions. The technology became the preferred solution at a number of applications across the Middle East and beyond. "BAC has renewed its trust in Cavotec to cool aircraft quickly and efficiently. Cavotec revolutionised sub-freeze cooling of aircraft with the world's first such PCA systems at Bahrain back in 2010. This is the next step in the development of these systems," says Juergen Strommer, President Airports & Industry Division at Cavotec. Cavotec has led the development of aircraft cooling technologies, and ground support equipment more broadly, for many years. It has been instrumental in supporting the development of IATA AHM 997, (Sub-freezing PCA). Cavotec is also a strategic IATA partner https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=1sUD5I7TT3r3ZnDBmBgb5DDzHow01tyW0Ds7PeumuVsb52vJMvgDTEg38tSd8FoIr530SSMhvZMCYkrUf_r4A1uIfj8Y1eCn0GQMoehr9lN3k-19srwI2XgWwfnqFIgRHyNIyyzHlEN00bigVLlRnA== . There are currently several thousand Cavotec PCA units in operation worldwide -- in hot and cold climates -- in use with a wide variety of aircraft, enhancing passenger comfort, improving operational efficiency, and reducing environmental impact. With their long-standing presence in the region, Cavotec engineers have extensive experience of the engineering requirements typical of local -- and highly variable -- ambient conditions, including sandstorms, early morning humidity, and dry, hot air towards the middle of the day. Cavotec also provides a comprehensive range of aftersales services that support customers throughout systems' lifetime. In addition to PCA, Cavotec manufactures a full range of GSE including 400Hz power, wet services, (portable, blue water, and sewage), and fuelling systems -- much of which is installed in in-ground pits and tunnel systems that reduce the number of vehicles required to service aircraft. Learn more here https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=Jz22RaP0ohHbcI33tbv8wq8Flf7ya9Ph_9AASZdhb2HZf__qYcR-_oth_QMrmqB6_rcse-yWv7q83xjslMt90MOS7P7i6pXzywFeyqlt1Vk= . ENDS For further details please contact: Johan Hahnel Investor Relations Manager Telephone: +46 70 605 63 34 - Email: investor@cavotec.com https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=FJF-MVmmmMjU6mt32cu-uSGC5YCBn4i4BWis-MGbLR3c3BZXym9yGnkBceRvK8jVozy3_mU_Jd7P_Q1QbdZlKk5Ul5rau2w4d6c8F08oWp0= About Cavotec Cavotec is a leading engineering group that designs and manufactures automated connection and electrification systems for ports, airports and industrial applications worldwide. Cavotec innovative technologies ensure safe, efficient and sustainable operations. To find out more about Cavotec, visit our website at https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=iWxNYC6ehDpFMU_7ddsSqFUG0A3DM4fymtK7tpJULK7J_8WXc_x8brfJykcEgibKC6oGQyLavrNF_mPsYwPaCQ== cavotec.com. The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Cavotec SA under the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. This information was publicly communicated on 10 April 2018, 09:00 CEST.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 10, 2018 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Informa's proposed acquisition of UBM has received a number of regulatory approvals and the companies are confident they can complete the deal by the end of the second quarter of this year. The companies said on Tuesday that clearances have now been received from China's Ministry of Commerce, the German Federal Cartel Office and the Turkish Competition Authority. Meanwhile, engagement with the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK is underway. Informa struck a deal to buy UBM back in ...

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.
REPLY [MTA, STAR: REY] has strengthened its presence in the North American market with the investment in Valorem (www.valorem.com), a US-based company that specialises in Digital Strategy consulting and the implementation of Cloud, Analytics, and differentiated User Experiences.

Valorem, with more than 300 people distributed among the main offices in Kansas City, Seattle St. Louis and Kochi (India) is a leader in the cloud design and value-added Digital Strategy and execution services based on Microsoft's Cloud Offerings, with major international groups such as Boeing, Intel, Jeppesen, Microsoft and Red Bull among its customer portfolio.

The investment in Valorem further enhances Reply's international growth strategy, particularly in the United States where the Group already has offices in Chicago and Detroit.

Justin Jackson and Domnick Parretta, will take on the role of Partners at Reply and will focus their efforts on expanding Valorem and the Reply Group's presence in North America.

"Valorem", stated Mario Rizzante, Chairman of Reply "is characterised by a strong entrepreneurial drive and a constant focus on technological innovation. Together, we will create an optimal platform that will allow Reply to further develop its business presence in the United States, the leading global market for IT services".

Domnick Parretta, CEO of Valorem, commented "We are incredibly excited to join the Reply Network. Reply's clear focus on People, Customer Success, and Digital Innovation fit perfectly with our culture and mission at Valorem. We have an opportunity to deliver truly transformational value to our clients".

REPLY

Reply [MTA, STAR: REY] is specialised in the design and implementation of solutions based on digital media and new communication channels. Through its network of highly specialised companies, Reply partners with major European corporations in the telecoms and media; industry and services; banking and insurance; and public administration sectors to devise and develop business models built on the new paradigms of big data, cloud computing, digital media and the Internet of Things. Reply's services include: consulting, systems integration and digital services. www.reply.com

VALOREM

Valorem is a digital transformation firm focused on driving change with hyper-scale and agile delivery of unique digital business services, strategic business models and design-led user experiences. Through the expertise of our people and the power of Microsoft technologies, our innovative strategies and solutions securely and rapidly transform the way our clients do business.www.valorem.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005757/en/

Contacts:

Media

Reply

Fabio Zappelli

Phone +390117711594

f.zappelli@reply.com

or

IR

Reply

Riccardo Lodigiani

Phone +390117711594

r.lodigiani@reply.com

or

Michael Lueckenkoetter

Phone +49524150091017

m.lueckenkoetter@reply.com

or

Valorem

Allison Jensen

Phone +1 (816) 384-0395

ajensen@valorem.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - Rift Valley Resources Corp. (CSE: RVR) (the "Company") advises that, further to its news release of March 22, 2017, it has signed a revised Letter of Intent (LOI) with Vancouver, B.C. based Metrolink Solutions Inc., ("Metrolink") which replaces all previous LOIs.

The signed LOI sets out the indicative transaction terms with respect to the acquisition from Metrolink of the rights to manufacture, market, sell and distribute the mobile communications products and rapid deployment systems of QwikCom, Inc. in and to geographic areas of the United States of America, Gulf of Mexico and neighboring Atlantic islands and island countries.

QwikCom systems are rapidly-deployed, modular telecom platforms, which can be equipped to provide a wide range of standard or customized services. QwikCom, Inc. products provide telecom service and internet access in remote areas where telecommunications is non-existent or no longer functioning due to natural disasters.

Consideration for the "rights" subject to regulatory approval and the signing of a final definitive agreement, is payment of ten million (10,000,000) shares of the Company distributed proportionately to the shareholders of Metrolink and an ongoing 10% royalty from gross revenues payable to Metrolink. A finder's fee will be paid on the transaction.

QwikCom systems offers governments, companies, disaster first-responders and others requiring immediate or long-term solutions for remote telecom, communications restoration, CSR solutions and video surveillance.

Once deployed and operational, QwikCom traffic is backhauled to telecom POPs and Internet NAPs using "best available" routing (fiber, terrestrial and or satellite) to provide reliable low-cost connectivity from virtually anywhere in the world. In addition, QwikCom units can be interconnected to provide reliable coverage for telecom, internet access, video surveillance for border control, oil pipeline integrity or other security applications over a wide area.

The Company announces a private placement offering of common shares to raise proceeds of up to $750,000 at a price of $0.075 per share. Proceeds will be used for completion of the QwikCom transaction, building QwikCom systems and general working capital.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Craig Robson

CEO

Contact: Thomas Robertson at 604-682-7339

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.
jury chair Christopher Yu



Amanda Benfell PR Manager +44 20 7467 8125 amanda.benfell@warc.com

LONDON, Apr 10, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - The Effective Innovation shortlist is now released for the WARC Awards, a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness.21 campaigns have been shortlisted in the Effective Innovation category, which recognises innovative thinking that has transformed a business or disrupted category conventions to deliver tangible results. They are for a variety of categories, including automotive, travel, household goods, banking, media, foods and NGO's; and have ran in a wide range of markets - Australia, Denmark, Germany, India, Kenya, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.The shortlisted entries are:- Denmark vs. Trump - Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF) - UncleGrey - Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, United States- Hello in Elephant - David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - whiteGREY - Australia, Kenya, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States- Seek Deeper - Royal Caribbean International - MullenLowe US - United States- 7-Second Resumes - Grads of Life - 22squared - United States- Hearing Rescue - Thai Health Promotion Foundation - BBDO Bangkok - Thailand- Speed Limit Monk Statue - Thai Health Promotion Foundation - BBDO Bangkok - Thailand- Thai Dog House - Immortal Adoption - BBDO Bangkok - Thailand- So how about creating viral products instead? - Carvaan - The Womb - India- Bank in a Box - IDFC Bank - McCann Worldgroup - India- Odds - adidas - Taproot - India- La Futbolera - Sprint Latino - M8, Alma - United States- 100% Asian. 100% British - How a simple insight changed a radio station - BBC Asian Network - MullenLowe London - United Kingdom- Reinventing dynamic creative, for grilling season - Johnsonville Fresh Bratwurst - Compass Point Media - United States- Going live with gold! - Royal Mint - Manning Gottlieb OMD - United Kingdom- The Loneliness Index - Age UK - Manning Gottlieb OMD - United Kingdom- Dynamic Recruitment - The University of Sydney - The Monkeys - Australia- Lost Frequency - HearLife Clinic - FP7/DXB - United Arab Emirates- How 1,00,000 TV commercial viewers made snap decisions on their mobile for a holiday at Club Mahindra - Club Mahindra Holidays - Zapr Media Labs - India- One-Drop Bottle - Pril - TBWA\RAAD - United Arab Emirates- Camelpower - Nissan - TBWA\RAAD - United Arab Emirates- The Ultimate Data Machine - BMW - Cadreon, UM - United StatesTo see the shortlisted case studies in the Effective Innovation category, please view at www.warc.com/warcawards.prize.The WARC Awards are currently being judged by international senior figures from both brands and agencies. The Effective Innovation category is chaired by Christopher Yu, Vice President of Integrated Marketing Strategy, Innovation and Technology, U.S. Bank.The shortlisted papers in the Effective Content Strategy, Effective Social Strategy and Effective Use of Brand Purpose categories will be announced shortly.About Effective Innovation jury chairChristopher Yu, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Innovation and Technology, U.S. BankChristopher partners with teams across the company to define the digital and direct marketing roadmap for the enterprise, focusing on new opportunities to optimise customer experience and improve marketing results. Prior to U.S. Bank, Chris held marketing leadership roles at Publicis Groupe and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. He has a BA and Ph.D. from Yale and an MFA from the University of Virginia. Outside of the office, he likes to listen to old punk bands, binge-watch Nordic Noir series, and travel.About WARC- your global authority on advertising and media effectivenesswarc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence, insights and data from the world's leading brands. WARC helps clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise advertising effectiveness. WARC's clients include the world's largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, universities and advertisers.WARC runs four global and two regional case study competitions: WARC Awards, WARC Innovation Awards, WARC Media Awards, The Admap prize, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy and WARC Prize for MENA Strategy.Founded in 1985, WARC is privately owned and has offices in the UK, U.S. and Singapore.Source: WARCContact:Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
CultureIQ announced today it has reached an agreement to merge with CEB's Workforce Surveys Analytics (WS&A) division, which is being divested from Gartner. WS&A will be acquired from Gartner with the financial support of technology-focused private equity firm ParkerGale Capital.

"This is an exciting combination of two great companies. One with strong, modern technology and one with decades of expertise and intellectual property. WS&A is the recognized industry leader working with some of the largest companies in the world and we are excited to join forces," said CultureIQ CEO Greg Besner, who will be the CEO of the combined business.

CultureIQ was founded by Mr. Besner in 2013 as a software-as-a-service disrupter in the traditional employee culture and engagement survey industry. WS&A came together through Corporate Executive Board's acquisitions of Valtera and Genesee Surveys. ParkerGale, having used CultureIQ's products across its portfolio companies for several years, brought the idea of merging the companies earlier this year and financed the transaction along with CultureIQ's existing investors.

"We think this is exactly what the market is looking for a high tech and high touch approach to employee engagement," commented Devin Mathews, Partner at ParkerGale. "From our industry research, we know there is a huge market without a clear leader. Companies are updating the old ways of surveying employees for feedback and are now listening deeply to their employees using technology and fostering engagement through action plans built on decades of benchmarking and best practices. The combination of CultureIQ and WS&A creates the clear leader the industry has been seeking."

The new company will operate under the CultureIQ brand and will be the premiere provider of culture and engagement solutions for companies of all sizes. With strong talent, shared values, and a customer-focused approach, the focus will be to invest in areas of growth, while preserving the best of both organizations.

"Combining WS&A's nearly 50 years of deep expertise in the survey and talent analytics space with CultureIQ's innovative platform is an exciting proposition for our team and will allow us to bring even greater value to our clients," added Karen Barbera, Head of Delivery at WS&A.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year and is subject to customary closing conditions.

About CultureIQ

CultureIQ helps you leverage employee feedback to measure, understand, and strengthen your culture. Its flexible surveys, intuitive analytics and seasoned strategy team provide unprecedented insight into your organizational culture-plus guidance on where to focus to drive meaningful change. With CultureIQ, you can collect and understand the right data on an ongoing basis, pinpoint opportunities across employee demographic groups, and align your culture with your business strategy. For more information, visit www.cultureiq.com or follow us on Twitter at @CultureIQ.

About CEB Workforce Surveys Analytics (WS&A)

One of the leading providers of insights and analytics supporting corporate strategic planning and business outcomes via an enterprise-class, tech-enabled workforce survey and analytics platform. WS&A drives results for corporations globally by aligning employees' engagement with corporate strategy and enabling organizational change.

The business has developed significant IP including a compelling and robust set of benchmarks and the deepest best practices database in the industry. WS&A's team of I/O psychologists design and deliver workforce surveys to generate insights and actionable intelligence key to delivering on critical business outcomes to help organizations achieve competitive advantage.

About ParkerGale Capital

ParkerGale Capital is a small private equity fund based in Chicago that buys profitable, founder-owned technology companies and corporate carve-outs where the firm's operating resources can have a meaningful impact on the outcome. ParkerGale also hosts the private equity industry's only podcast, the PEFunCast on iTunes and Google Play. For more information, please visit www.parkergale.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005422/en/

Contacts:

CultureIQ

Jamie Nichol, 925-408-4033

jamie@cultureiq.com
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) today announced that CES Unveiled Paris will return to France on October 3, 2018 at a new location, the Paris Convention Center Portes de Versailles, co-locating with the Mondial Paris Motor Show. The event will have expanded conference programming and also host the CES Unveiled Paris Executive Forum.

"We embody the innovative spirit of tech through all of our events," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. "We have held our CES Unveiled event in France for five consecutive years and the country continues to impress with its entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for technology. Partnering with the Mondial Paris Motor Show is a natural step for us this year as we look to expand our reach to a more global and diversified audience."

CES Unveiled Paris is growing from a half-day event, and will now have a full day of programming through its partnership with Connecting Leaders Club, led by Valerie Hoffenberg. An executive forum for industry and government executives will be developed for thought leaders to gather and exchange fresh ideas on the future of consumer technology. CES Unveiled Paris will highlight 80 exhibits showing everything from Health and Fitness to Mobility and Automotive to Robotics and AI. The new full-day format will attract 1,000 technology executives, government leaders and media from across the region.

French companies exhibited at CES 2018 with a record of 338 total, 85 percent of which were startups in CES' flagship destination for startups, Eureka Park, making France the second largest country represented by tech startups, after the US. More, the automotive footprint at CES continues to grow, and is now larger than most of the stand-alone automotive events around the world, in 2018 hosting 11 auto manufacturers: BMW, FCA, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.

As an additional tie in, Gary Shapiro will be a keynote speaker at the pre-opening conference of the Mondial Paris Motor Show on October 1.

The CES Unveiled series showcases regional breakthroughs leading to CES 2019, January 8-11, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. For information on all CES Unveiled events in 2018, please visit CES.tech.

Produced by the Consumer Technology Association, Inside CES 2018 Trends and Takeaways provides a complete overview of the entirety of CES, including exclusive CTA research and trend analysis not available anywhere else. Ensure you understand the most important trends impacting the tech industry in the year ahead. Learn more andorder your copy today

About CES:

CES is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years-the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers. Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at CES.tech and on social.

About Consumer Technology Association:

Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is the trade association representing the $351 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, which supports more than 15 million U.S. jobs. More than 2,200 companies 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best known brands enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CTA also owns and produces CES the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CES on the Hill

April 16, Washington, DC

Digital Patriots Dinner

April 17, Washington, DC

CES Asia 2018 Register

June 13-15, Shanghai, China

CEO Summit

June 24-27, Barcelona, Spain

CES 2019

January 8-11, 2019

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005581/en/

Contacts:

Consumer Technology Association

Teresa Hsu, 703-907-5259

thsu@CTA.tech

www.CESAsia.com

or

Bernice Morquette, 703-907-7651

bmorquette@CTA.tech

www.CES.tech
Three Great Marijuana StocksA delay in Canada's proposed legalization of recreational marijuana has cast a shadow of doubt over the marijuana industry. Marijuana stocks banking on the legalization will likely stay in limbo until a final decision comes. But some of the best marijuana pharmaceutical stocks, which are much less reliant on the recreational market, may outperform in the long run.You see, medical marijuana is already legal in Canada. It has been for well over a decade and a half. To the south of Canada's border, more than half of U.S. states recognize it as legal. So, marijuana companies engaged in the medical or biotechnology field are certainly safer.

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.
Company to showcase cloud-based Smart CPQ, pricing solutions with artificial intelligence

PROS (NYSE: PRO), a cloud software company powering the shift to modern commerce, today announced plans to participate in Hannover Messe 2018, the world's leading exhibition for industrial technology. The international conference, held annually in Hannover, Germany, is scheduled for April 23-27. More than 200,000 attendees and 5,000 exhibitors that cover virtually every manufacturing discipline and trend are expected to attend. PROS works with many manufacturers around the world and will showcase its cloud-based solutions at Microsoft's booth in the Digital Factory fair.

At Hannover Messe, PROS plans to feature its SaaS-based Smart CPQ and pricing solutions built using Microsoft Azure. These intelligent platforms, embedded with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, are designed to help manufacturers configure, price and sell products with speed, precision and consistency across their direct, partner and eCommerce channels to deliver personalized buying experiences.

"Manufacturers in every corner of the world are undergoing strategic business transformations to accommodate customer expectations in the digital era," said PROS Chief Marketing Officer Celia Fleischaker. "Today's manufacturers must employ solutions that enable them to support the complexity of B2B selling models across both traditional and eCommerce channels. PROS solutions make it possible for manufacturers to accelerate sales and drive profitable growth as they pursue a path to digital transformation. We look forward to sharing our innovations with prospects and customers at Hannover Messe."

Caglayan Arkan, Microsoft General Manager for Worldwide Manufacturing and Resources Industry added: "Leadership in the digital era brings people and companies together, enabling organizations to optimize for growth, innovation and operational excellence. We see companies like PROS with solutions embedded with artificial intelligence and machine learning empowering their sales teams with faster response times and smarter outcomes that help drive growth."

To learn more, visit the PROS website or follow PROS on Twitter at @PROS_Inc.

About PROS

PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRO) is a cloud software company powering the shift to modern commerce by helping companies create personalized and frictionless buying experiences for their customers. Fueled by dynamic pricing science and machine learning, PROS solutions make it possible for companies to price, configure and sell their products and services in an omnichannel environment with speed, precision and consistency. Our customers, who are leaders in their markets, benefit from decades of data science expertise infused into our industry solutions. To learn more, visit pros.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the functionality and benefits of revenue, profit realization and modern commerce software to organizations generally as well as the functionality and benefits of PROS software products. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon PROS historical experience with revenue, profit realization and modern commerce software and its current expectations of the benefits of revenue, profit realization and modern commerce software for organizations that implement and utilize such software. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described herein include the addressability of an organization's revenue, profit realization and modern commerce software needs, the risks associated with PROS developing and enhancing products with the functionality necessary to deliver the stated results and the risks associated with the complex implementation and maintenance of revenue, profit realization and modern commerce software such as PROS software products. Additional information relating to the uncertainty affecting the PROS business is contained in PROS filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent PROS expectations as of the date of this press release. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and PROS disclaims any obligations to update or alter these forward-looking statements in the future whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005362/en/

Contacts:

PROS

Yvonne Donaldson, 713.335.5310

ydonaldson@pros.com


Infiniti Research, a global market intelligence solutions provider, has announced the completion of their new competitive intelligence study on the home care products industry. A reputed home care products company wanted to execute strategies that will help them in finding the variations in market dynamics.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005865/en/

How Infiniti Enabled a Renowned Home Care Products Manufacturer to Respond Flexibly to Varying Market Situations and Ensure Sustainable Growth (Graphic: Business Wire)

According to the competitive intelligence experts at Infiniti, "To attain a competitive edge in the home care products market space, it is advisable to adopt competitive intelligence solutions as it will aid in defining your future growth opportunities."

The global home care products sector, which is a part of the retail sector, is mainly growing due to the rise in purchasing power of consumers, developments in their disposable income, and a rise in global population. Many factors like increasing end-user expenditure and the high sales growth percentage of consumer goods are predicted to contribute to the growth of the home care products market. Additionally, the growing demand for eco-friendly products and the quick rate of technological innovations are driving the demand for home care products.

Request a free proposal to see how Infiniti Research's solutions can help you.

The competitive intelligence solution offered by Infiniti helped the client to find the growth opportunities in the home care products space. The insights offered were based on a detailed analysis of the competitors and market developments. The client was able to easily capitalize on the strengths as well as weaknesses of their peers.

This competitive intelligence solution provided benefits that helped the client to:

Understand the market plans and behavior of their competitors

Devise effective business strategies

To know more, ask an analyst

This competitive intelligence solution provided predictive insights on:

Responding effectively to the constant fluctuations in the market

Gathering information about its competitors, including the information about new product launches

To read more, request a free proposal

View the complete competitive intelligence study here:

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/casestudy/home-care-products-competitive-intelligence

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies.

With 15+ years of experience and offices across three continents, Infiniti Research has been instrumental in providing a complete range of competitive intelligence, strategy, and research services for over 550 companies across the globe.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005865/en/

Contacts:

Infiniti Research

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Consultant

US: +1 844 778 0600

UK: +44 203 893 3400

hello@infinitiresearch.com

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 04/10/18 -- Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: TBP)(OTCQB: TBPMF), a global leader in cannabinoid-based drug development and discovery, announced today that it has appointed Gregory Drohan to its board of directors effective April 10, 2018.

The company will nominate Mr. Drohan for election at Tetra's 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Chairman Andre Rancourt welcomes Mr. Drohan to the board and comments, "We are pleased to welcome Greg as a new Independent director to the Tetra board. His extensive experience as a senior executive and marketer in the consumer products space will bring tremendous vision and skills to the execution and development of the Tetra Bio-Pharma growth strategy."

"These are exciting times at Tetra and having Greg join us at this pivotal moment in the history of cannabis and its consumption is a tremendous win." said Guy Chamberland, Interim CEO and CSO of Tetra Bio-Pharma.

"I am excited to be joining the board of Tetra and to be involved with a leading company in an industry that is shaping the future of health care. I can't wait to put my experience to work alongside Guy and his team of professionals at Tetra," added Greg Drohan.

Gregory Drohan's committee appointments will be determined immediately following his election to the board at the 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

About Gregory Drohan

Until 2013, Greg Drohan was President of the board of Church and Dwight Canada Corp. While with Church and Dwight Canada, Drohan successfully merged the Church & Dwight and Carter-Horner businesses which lead to the doubling of sales revenue and achieved #1 market share on brands such as Trojans, Oxi Clean, First Response, Rub A535 and Arm & Hammer. Following his successful 40-year career in the consumer products sector Mr. Drohan has established a management consulting practice. His previous board experiences include President on the Board of Church and Dwight and director of the Ryerson University Alumni Relations Board. Drohan holds an MBA from York University and a BBM from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

About Tetra Bio-Pharma:

Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX VENTURE: TBP)(OTCQB: TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical leader in cannabinoid-based drug discovery and clinical development. Tetra is focusing on three core business pillars: clinical research, pharmaceutical promotion and retail commercialization of cannabinoid-based products.

More information at: www.tetrabiopharma.com

Source: Tetra Bio-Pharma

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

Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than 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 regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, GrowPros MMP Inc., to obtain a license for the production of medical marijuana; failure to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, the success of the Company's research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the timing of clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. While no definitive documentation has yet been signed by the parties and there is no certainty that such documentation will be signed The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.

Dr. Anne-Sophie Courtois, DVM

Vice President, Marketing & Communications

anne-sophie.courtois@tetrabiopharma.com

(514) 360-8040 Ext. 210



For media information, please contact:

Daniel Granger

Daniel.granger@acjcommunication.com

ACJ Communication

O: 1 514 840 7990

M: 1 514 232 1556




Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - Lara Exploration Ltd., (TSXV: LRA) ("Lara" or the "Company") is pleased to report that Minera Apumayo S.A.C. ("Apumayo") has completed 88 shallow drill holes on Lara's Grace Gold Project in Southern Peru, 34 of which intercepted anomalous gold mineralization (tabled below), associated with high sulphidation epithermal alteration and brecciation of andesitic volcanics.

Miles Thompson, President of Lara, commented that "While we would have focused exploration more on the areas of silica flooding and drilled deeper holes, results of the work by Apumayo are highly encouraging, outlining several areas of epithermal gold mineralization that warrant further drilling."

Drillhole Target From (m) To (m) Length (m) Gold g/t GRA-01 Zone 4 0 8 8 0.22 GRA-02 Zone 4 0 14 14 0.21 GRA-03 Zone 4 0 10 10 0.22 GRA-04 Zone 4 0 10 10 0.19 GRA-05 Zone 4 0 8 8 0.31 GRA-06 Zone 4 0 22 22 0.37 GRA-07 Zone 4 0 10 10 0.20 GRA-08 Zone 4 0 52 52 0.47 GRA-08A Zone 4 0 76 76 0.42 GRA-09 Zone 4 0 30 30 0.52 GRA-10 Zone 4 2 34 32 0.29 GRA-11 Zone 4 18 26 8 0.15 GRA-16 Zone 4 10 26 16 0.21 GRA-17A Zone 4 0 10 10 0.51 GRA-18 Zone 4 0 38 38 0.27 GRA-19 Zone 4 0 34 34 0.41 GRA-20 Zone 4 0 6 6 0.26 GRA-22 Zone 4 0 34 34 0.22 GRA-23 Zone 4 0 28 28 0.30 GRA-24 Zone 4 14 26 12 0.18 GRA-25 Zone 4 0 14 14 0.27 GRA-42 Zone 4 0 28 28 0.32 GRA-45 Zone 4 0 8 8 0.31

Zone 4 26 54 28 0.29 GRA-46 Zone 4 18 40 22 0.67

Zone 4 40 50 10 0.69 GRA-47 Zone 4 0 26 26 0.21 GRA-49 Zone 4 4 14 10 0.19

Zone 4 20 28 8 0.11

Zone 4 32 46 14 0.21 GRA-50 Teton 50 72 22 0.44

Teton 82 98 16 0.22 GRA-58 Teton 60 112 52 0.53 GRA-59 Teton 8 26 18 0.28 GRA-62 Teton 36 46 10 0.11 GRA-65 Teton 6 34 28 0.24 GRA-68 Teton 8 16 8 0.15 GRA-69 Ana Paula 10 32 22 0.17 GRA-72 Ana Paula 32 40 8 0.19

Apumayo's option to acquire the Grace property from Lara expired in December 2017 and despite a stated wish to extend, Apumayo has been unwilling to make financial commitments, still owes the property fees for 2017 and has not provided details of the work completed. Lara formally notified Apumayo of its default in March, requesting immediate payment of the 2017 property fees and copies of all the data related to the 2017 work program. While Lara is still open to further negotiations with Apumayo, it also intends to begin the search for a new partner for the project.

The Grace Project lies immediately to the north of Apumayo's open pit mines and mill (currently on care and maintenance), which have reportedly produced more than 150,000 troy ounces of gold from oxide material. The Grace project area covers Tertiary-age andesitic volcanics, cut by brecciated silica bodies and veins with wide quartz-alunite and granular silica halos, indicative of a well-preserved high-sulphidation epithermal system. Surface work by Lara and subsequently by Apumayo outlined various hydrothermal alteration zones, where rock chip samples have returned anomalous gold values.

Qualified Person

Apumayo has not provided Lara with the detailed data to back up its report of the work completed at the Grace Gold Project during the 2017 program and this news release is drawn from Apumayo's summary report, a copy of which was provided to Lara. While Lara has no reason to doubt the quality of the work by Apumayo, it has not been able to verify the results in the report which is disclosed in this news release.

Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has approved the technical disclosure in this news release.

About Lara

Lara is an exploration company following the Prospect Generator business model, which aims to minimize shareholder dilution and financial risk by generating prospects and then exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners. It currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects and deposits in Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Chile. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".

For further information on Lara Exploration Ltd. please consult our website www.laraexploration.com, or contact Chris MacIntyre, VP Corporate Development, at +1 416 703 0010.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

-30-


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Sempra Energy (SRE) announced several executive appointments as the company implements its leadership succession plan.



Last month, Debra Reed announced her plans to step down as Sempra Energy's chief executive officer and president May 1, and fully retire as chairman December 1. The company previously announced that Jeffrey Martin was appointed her successor as Sempra Energy's chief executive officer and Joseph Householder, her successor as Sempra Energy's president, both effective May 1. Martin currently is Sempra Energy's executive vice president and chief financial officer. Householder currently is Sempra Energy's corporate group president of infrastructure businesses.



Today, the company announced that Householder also has been appointed Sempra Energy's chief operating officer, effective May 1. Also, effective immediately, Dennis V. Arriola has been appointed Sempra Energy's chief strategy officer and executive vice president of external affairs and South America. Previously, Arriola was Sempra Energy's executive vice president of corporate strategy and external affairs, and now has added responsibility for oversight of the company's South American operations.



In addtion, Trevor Mihalik has been appointed Sempra Energy's executive vice president and chief financial officer and Peter R. Wall, the company's vice president, controller and chief accounting officer, both effective May 1.



Mihalik has more than 27 years of financial experience in the energy industry, with extensive knowledge of capital markets, financial reporting, accounting, treasury, market risk, credit risk and settlements, as well as contract administration and systems. He joined Sempra Energy in 2012 as controller and chief accounting officer and was promoted to senior vice president in 2013.



Previously, Mihalik was senior vice president of finance at a U.S. subsidiary of Iberdrola S.A.. Prior to that, he was vice president of finance for Chevron Natural Gas and also served as its vice president of finance and chief financial officer for a natural gas marketing, trading and storage joint venture. Mihalik spent the first nine years of his career working in Houston and London in the energy practice of PwC.



Wall, currently vice president and chief financial officer for Sempra Energy's domestic infrastructure businesses, will report to Mihalik, when they both assume their new roles May 1. Previously, Wall was vice president and chief financial officer for Sempra U.S. Gas & Power, a predecessor to Sempra Energy's renewable energy and natural gas businesses. He joined Sempra Energy as assistant controller in 2012 after a 14-year career with Ernst & Young LLP.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Coca-Cola European Partners plc ("CCEP") (NYSE: CCE) announced today the final results, as of 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on April 9, 2018 (the "Expiration Date"), of its previously announced (i) offers to exchange (the "Exchange Offers") any and all of the notes listed in the table below (the "Old Notes"), issued by its subsidiary, Coca-Cola European Partners US, LLC ("CCEP US") (as successor by merger to Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. (formerly named International CCE Inc.)), for notes newly issued by CCEP, also listed in the table below (the "New Notes"), and cash and (ii) solicitations of consent (the "Consent Solicitations"), on behalf of CCEP US, to amendments (the "Proposed Amendments") to the indenture governing the Old Notes that would eliminate many of the restrictive covenants applicable to the Old Notes.

The Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations were made exclusively pursuant to, and upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in, CCEP's Offering Memorandum and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated March 12, 2018 (the "Offering Memorandum") and the related Letter of Transmittal and Consent, dated March 12, 2018 (the "Letter of Transmittal"), as amended.

The following table sets forth the aggregate principal amount of each series of Old Notes that has been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Expiration Date and the aggregate principal amount of each series of New Notes expected to be issued in connection with the Exchange Offers:

Title of Series of Old Notes CUSIP Number of Old Notes Aggregate Principal Amount Outstanding Aggregate Principal Amount Tendered at or prior to the Early Participation Date Title of Series of New Notes Aggregate Principal Amount of New Notes to be Issued 3.500% Notes due 2020 459284 AB1 $525,000,000 $378,922,000 3.500% Notes due 2020 $378,922,000 3.250% Notes due 2021 19122T AE9 $250,000,000 $192,461,000 3.250% Notes due 2021 $192,461,000 4.500% Notes due 2021 19122T AB5 $300,000,000 $248,472,000 4.500% Notes due 2021 $248,472,000

The settlement date for the Old Notes validly tendered in the Exchange Offers at or before the Expiration Date and not validly withdrawn is expected to be April 12, 2018 (the "Settlement Date").

CCEP or one of its affiliates will also pay accrued and unpaid interest in cash on the Old Notes accepted in the Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations to, but not including, the Settlement Date.

As of the Expiration Date, CCEP, on behalf of CCEP US, received consents in excess of the Requisite Consents (as defined in the Offering Memorandum) pursuant to the Consent Solicitations. As a result, CCEP and CCEP US expect to execute a supplemental indenture to implement the Proposed Amendments before the Settlement Date.

All conditions to consummate the Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations as described in the Offering Memorandum are expected to be satisfied or waived, as applicable, on the Settlement Date.

The Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations were made pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), contained in Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act. CCEP has not filed and will not file a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to the offer of New Notes pursuant to the Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations. This press release is not an offer to exchange any Old Notes for New Notes, a solicitation of an offer to exchange any Old Notes for New Notes, a solicitation of consents with respect to the Old Notes, an offer to sell any New Notes or the solicitation of an offer to buy any New Notes. Tenders of Old Notes and delivery of related consents may only be made pursuant to the Offering Memorandum and related Letter of Transmittal.

This press release does not constitute an offer to purchase, sell or exchange, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, sell or exchange, a solicitation of consents with respect to, an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. No offer, solicitation, purchase, sale or exchange will be made in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, purchase, sale or exchange would be unlawful. The exchange offers and consent solicitations were made solely pursuant to the Offering Memorandum and related Letter of Transmittal and only to such persons and in such jurisdictions as are permitted under applicable law.

ABOUT CCEP

Coca-Cola European Partners plc (CCEP) is a leading consumer packaged goods company in Europe, producing, distributing and marketing an extensive range of non alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages and is the world's largest independent Coca-Cola bottler based on revenue. Coca-Cola European Partners serves a consumer population of over 300 million across Western Europe, including Andorra, Belgium, continental France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. The company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam, the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext London, and on the Spanish stock exchanges, and trades under the symbol CCE.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain statements, estimates or projections that constitute "forward-looking statements" concerning the financial condition, performance, results, strategy, and objectives of CCEP and the CCEP group of companies (the "Group"). Generally, the words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "plan," "seek," "may," "could," "would," "should," "might," "will," "forecast," "outlook," "guidance," "possible," "potential," "predict," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature.

Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from CCEP's and the Group's historical experience and present expectations or projections. As a result, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of CCEP's annual report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 15, 2018, including the statements under the following headings: Risks Relating to Changing Consumer Preferences and the Health Impact of Soft Drinks; Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Intervention; Risks Relating to Business Integration and Synergy Savings; Risks Relating to Cyber and Social Engineering Attacks; Risks Relating to the Market; Risks Relating to Economic and Political Conditions; Risks Relating to the Relationship with TCCC and Other Franchisors; Risks Relating to Product Quality and Other Risks. These risks and uncertainties also include the risks identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the Offering Memorandum.

Due to these risks and uncertainties, CCEP's or the Group's actual future results, dividend payments, and capital and leverage ratios and the results of the Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations may differ materially from the plans, goals, expectations, and guidance set out in CCEP's or the Group's forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties that may impact CCEP's or the Group's future financial condition and performance are identified in filings with the SEC which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov CCEP does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable rules, laws, and regulations. CCEP assumes no responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any forward-looking statements. Any or all of the forward-looking statements contained in this filing and in any other of CCEP's respective public statements may prove to be incorrect.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005768/en/

Contacts:

Coca-Cola European Partners plc

Investor Relations:

Thor Erickson, +1-678-260-3110

or

Media Relations:

Shanna Wendt, +44-7976-595-168
Program redesign enables partners to address and benefit from increased customer demand for data management solutions

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Veritas Technologies, a leader in multi-cloud data management, today debuted an enriched partner program focused on helping the channel drive growth and profitability. The new Veritas Partner Force program is designed to create higher earnings potential for more than 10,000 global partners who want to capitalize on Veritas' 360 data management portfolioand multi-cloud data management solutions.

The Veritas Partner Force program is dramatically simplified, making it much easier for partners to reap more benefits and rewards. Additionally, partners will have access to a plethora of educational offerings that will empower them to help customers solve some of their biggest data management challenges. The revamped program also offers expanded revenue opportunities to attract a new generation of worldwide resellers, service providers, system integrators and distributors.

"The channel continues to evolve as many of our partners are developing more of their own intellectual property and are focused on selling business solutions versus point-products," said Barbara Spicek, vice president, Global Channels and Alliances, Veritas. "Recognizing the changing needs of the channel, Veritas is increasing technical assets, deepening skills and enhancing opportunities to make it easier for our broad ecosystem of partners to help customers harness the power of their data on-premises and in multi-cloud environments."

Key new components of the Veritas Partner Force program include:

Increasing opportunities for existing partners with greater earnings potential

Veritas is focused on creating higher earnings potential for partners, including Veritas gold and platinum partners, by offering rewards for their technical skills and investment in Veritas solutions. Top performing partners are now eligible to receive special rebates by overachieving set quarterly growth targets. They can also benefit from increased deal registration rewards and pre-sales technical assistance via online chat or email, as well as access to the Veritas Partner Development Fund, that provides additional opportunities for growth.

Building new revenue streams for partners selling to commercial and mid-market accounts

Veritas is simplifying the partner experience to make it easier and more profitable for the channel to sell Veritas data management solutions to the commercial and mid-market segment. Partners selling to these accounts will have opportunities to receive increased compensation and technical assets, along with new e-learning and technical podcasts focused on this market. Additionally, new co-marketing assets will be available to create demand with commercial and mid-market accounts.

Expanding the company's Global Distribution Program to drive growth and innovation

Veritas is extending opportunities to its global distributors who perform important services on behalf of Veritas, including managing reseller relationships, providing technical support and partner enablement. The program is expanding to help drive mutual growth across new markets. Distributors worldwide can also receive joint marketing funds that reward volume business around data management and protection.

Boosting partner resources for a faster path to revenue and success

Veritas has made it much easier for partners to access sales resources that can help them learn about Veritas' latest technologies which can provide new opportunities to deliver the latest data management solutions in market. Partners will also find no-cost, online training modules on the PartnerNet portal focused on Veritas' 360 data management portfolio.

Partners can also choose from a variety of new accreditation courses and skills evaluations, based on their business practices. Online courses such as Veritas NetBackup Architecture, Challenges in Backup and Recovery, and Risk Mitigation and Compliance are offeredaspart of the redesign. New e-learning courses will be added regularly to address newly introduced Veritas offerings as well as customer challenges. The overall program simplification makes it easier and faster for partners to achieve tier advancement and receive additional benefits by meeting a combination of accreditation and revenue requirements.

"Today's announcement highlights Veritas' continued commitment to the channel and the company's drive towards innovation and customer satisfaction around managing and protecting data," said Ivan Verdier, Group Partner Management, Group Director, Computacenter. "The new Partner Force Program is simple and geared towards boosting success and profitability. Customers choose to work with Computacenter to help them unlock the full business value of information as part of their hybrid IT strategy, we are excited that this new program and our longstanding partnership with Veritas will help us better serve our customers."

About Veritas Technologies

Veritas Technologies empowers businesses of all sizes to discover the truth in information-their most important digital asset. Using the Veritas platform, customers can accelerate their digital transformation and solve pressing IT and business challenges including multi-cloud data management, data protection, storage optimization, compliance readiness and workload portability-with no cloud vendor lock-in. Eighty-six percent of Fortune 500 companies rely on Veritas today to reveal data insights that drive competitive advantage. Learn more atwww.veritas.comor follow us on Twitter at @veritastechllc.

Forward-looking Statements:Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change at the sole discretion of Veritas. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Veritas,may or may not be implemented, should not be considered firm commitments by Veritas,should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions, and may not be incorporated into any contract.

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LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

FN Media Group Presents USA News Group News Commentary

USA News Group - As the US federal government sorts out its view on the legality of cannabis from the state level to national level, several cannabis-related companies are plunging ahead with R&D, as the sector braces to employ more people than the US manufacturing sector by 2020-The market is already now brimming with new ways for cannabis consumers to deliver their medicine into the system.

Notable innovations are arising from a variety of companies from pharmaceuticals, to growers and even packaging specialists, in a group that includes AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: AXIM), Canopy Growth Inc. (TSX: WEED) (OTC: TWMJF), The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX.V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF), Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTC: KSHB), and Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc (CSE: LDS) (OTC: LDSYF).

By far the biggest news of the last few months in the sector was that of a partnership deal struck by the world's largest cannabis firm Canopy Growth Inc. (TSX: WEED) (OTC: TWMJF) with Constellation Brands, Inc.. The first major crossover between cannabis and beer was now in play, as Constellation brought with it the familiar brand Corona to the table.

However, drinking your cannabinoids (whether in a beer, tea, or juice) isn't the only novel way to deliver the medicine to the consumer.

Whether it be cannabis chewing gum from AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: AXIM), mist sprays from The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX.V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF), or dissolving strips from Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc (CSE: LDS) (OTC: LDSYF), there are plenty of options becoming available to a consumer base that's being spoiled with all types of new ways to enjoy the product.

NOVEL GIMMICKS APLENTY

While the most basic way to intake cannabinoids for a patient or recreational consumer is through the old-fashioned method of inhalation, there is still going to be resistance from newcomers who are dissuaded by the act of smoking, itself.

Thus, for a company looking to get its product into as many hands as possible, the introduction of safe, well-managed alternative options is a bonus in a market just about to blow up.

With the Canopy and Constellation deal, it couldn't get more mainstream than putting a cold beer into the consumer's hand. While there is still a long way to go before THC is placed in a commercial alcoholic beverage, the public can see an entry-point, possibly coming with a clear Corona bottle around it in the future.

However, it's the other ways that have been proposed, that might be even more interesting for consumers looking for fun and new methods to ingest their medicines.

While it doesn't actually produce any cannabis plants itself, Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB) is positioning itself as a leader of all cannabis-related packaging and accessories, including vape carts, glass products, and other handling accessories.

But it's the development of new methods of oral intake of cannabis that are turning heads.

AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AXIM) came out recently with a chewing gum called CanChew GumTM, which is the first of its kind in the world. With industrial hemp derived CBD, CanChew is legal in all 50 states of the USA.

The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX.V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF) has also tackled the edible dosage task, through its Decarb pills, and its peppermint medical cannabis sublingual mist, Elixir.

However, it appears that the perfect balance of dosage and efficacy has been delivered as a dissolving strip, called CannaStripsTM from Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc (CSE: LDS) (OTC: LDSYF).

SUB-LINGUAL, SUBLIME

Founded in 2010, Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc (CSE: LDS) (OTC: LDSYF) has been at the forefront of cannabinoid innovation since its inception.

The fruits of its research and development labours led to a breakthrough delivery method. Lifestyle Delivery Systems (LDS) came out with CannaStripsTM, a sub-lingual strip not unlike breath strips, that quickly dissolve under the tongue to deliver pure cannabis to the patient without the negative effects of smoking.

"Our technology centers around the delivery of the strip in the mouth," said Jim Pakulis, President of LDS in an interview with Inside Sources. "We have a patent pending for how the strip temporarily breaks down the mucal membrane and allows the active ingredients to dissolve and enter your bloodstream far quicker than anything we have found in medicinal marijuana."

The strips contain different dosages and cannabinoid calibrations, from just THC, to CBD, to CBD and melatonin (for sleep aid). The company's patent-pending delivery system technology is one of the fastest ways to deliver cannabis into the bloodstream, outside of inhalation. The user can feel the effects of CannaStripsTM in 90 seconds or less, depending on the dosage.

When LDS began looking to address the problem of consistent edible cannabis dosing, Pakulis described most of the products on the market were "glorified Fruit Roll Ups."

A year after initiating work, LDS researchers cracked the code to develop a product, guaranteed to deliver equal doses and distribution of the active ingredients-Even cutting CannaStrips down the middle divides the dose equally.

This kind of consistent dosing is incredibly rare in this industry, which for gives consumers peace of mind that they haven't had before with cannabis edibles.

"In our industry it is common that you don't know how much cannabis is in edibles. You don't know how much cannabis is in one brownie or a half a bite of cookie. With our strips you know the exact amount," said Pakulis.

By taking cannabis orally as an edible, both avoids the negative health effects associated with smoking and allows for more even ingestion of the active ingredients.

LDS targeted not only their innovative strip technology, as they themselves are growers of the cannabis plants they use for the necessary medicinal ingredients. It's one of the few fully vertically integrated medical cannabis companies in California.

With a $6 million facility in Adelanto, California, LDS has a head start on other companies looking to get started in the west coast state. Already equipped with extraction methods, and business relationships to meet their needs, the company is set up nicely for any future innovations that are to come down the pipeline.

INNOVATIVE COMPARABLES

AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AXIM)

AXIM is a biotechnology company, focusing on the treatment of pain, spasticity, anxiety, and other medical disorders with the application of cannabinoids based products. It also focuses on the research, development, and production of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, oral health, and cosmetic products, as well as procurement of genetically and nano-controlled active ingredients. AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in New York.

Canopy Growth Inc. (TSX: WEED) (OTC: TWMJF)

Owners of the Tweed brand of cannabis products, Canopy Growth is a multi-licensed, geographically diverse marijuana producer, described as "one of the world's - and Canada's first - premier exporters of marijuana" by the Financial Post in 2016. Canopy is the parent company of licensed cannabis producers, Tweed Inc., Tweed Farms Inc., Bedrocan Canada Inc., as well as newly acquired Mettrum Health Corp. Canopy currently has a combined growing platform of over 665,000 sq. ft. of production space. It was also the first federally regulated, publicly traded cannabis producer in North America, and the first billion-dollar cannabis corporation. Canopy Growth was founded in 2014, and is based in Smith Falls, Ontario.

Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB)

Kush Bottles, Inc. markets and sells packaging products and solutions in the United States. It offers pop top bottles; child resistant exit, paper exit, and foil barrier bags; tubes; cartridges and batteries; and polystyrene, polypropylene, or silicone-lined polystyrene containers to urban farmers, green house growers, and medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries. Kush Bottles, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.

The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX.V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF)

The Hydropothecary Corporation is an authorized licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis licensed by Health Canada under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (Canada). Hydropothecary creates award-winning innovative, easy to use and easy to understand products. With industry-leading cash cost per gram of $0.89, Hydropothecary is one of the lowest cost producers in the country. The first licensed producer in Quebec, the Company is headquartered in Quebec.

For a more in-depth look into Lifestyle Delivery Systems, Inc and to receive updates on the company you can view the company's website at: http://usanewsgroup.com/2018/01/19/seeking-the-next-big-winners-in-the-thriving-us-pot-market/

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Legal Disclaimer/Disclosure: This piece is an advertorial and has been paid for. This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment. No information in this Report should be construed as individualized investment advice. A licensed financial advisor should be consulted prior to making any investment decision. We make no guarantee, representation or warranty and accept no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those ofUSA News Group only and are subject to change without notice.USANews Group assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore, we assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information, provided within this Report.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expected to meet Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in May or early June.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018, at the start of a meeting with military leaders. [Photo: AP/Susan Walsh]

"We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June, and I think there will be great respect paid by both parties," he told a cabinet meeting, saying that he hoped the two sides would be able to make a deal on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump also said the U.S. side has been in touch with the DPRK.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). [File Photo: AP]

The White House host said "hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years ago," referring to the U.S. confrontation relations with the DPRK.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula has thawed in recent months. In March, Trump and Kim agreed to meet, but the exact timing and place of the high-profile gathering have not been announced yet.

Seoul and Pyongyang have agreed to hold a summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
The challenge calls for entrepreneurs and startups looking to innovate in the construction sector.

The call will be open for participants from all over the world, from April 10th to June 3rd

CEMEX Ventures (NYSE: CX) announced today the launch of the 2018 Construction Startup Competition, an initiative which aims to find startups looking to lead the transformation of the construction industry.

Under the slogan "Lead the disruption, join us," CEMEX Ventures, CEMEX's open innovation and venture capital unit, presents its second open call which will be open from April 10th to June 3rd, 2018. The challenge calls for entrepreneurs and startups to work in four areas: urban development, improvement of the connectivity of the actors in the construction value chain, development of new project funding sources, and new construction technologies.

Those interested in participating can apply through CEMEX Ventures' website. Once all entries have been evaluated, the finalists will be invited to Madrid, Spain on July 12, 2018 to present their projects to an expert jury.

The startup with the best pitch will be awarded 3,000.00 to fund its project. All finalists will also have the opportunity to access CEMEX Ventures' professional network, participate in project acceleration or incubation programs, and receive mentoring and funding.

IPSUM, a collaborative platform for coordination and management of construction projects which is based on Lean-BIM methodologies, won CEMEX Ventures' inaugural call in 2017. Following IPSUM's win, CEMEX Ventures continued to work with and advise IPSUM, including on the international expansion and optimization of the startup's business model, which it is currently undergoing. IPSUM recently closed its second round of fundraising, with CEMEX Ventures as one of the investors.

Launched in 2017, CEMEX Ventures, leverages CEMEX's knowledge of the business with new, leading-edge technologies and platforms, focusing on solving the main challenges in the construction ecosystem through sustainable solutions. CEMEX Ventures has created an open, collaborative platform to lead the construction industry's revolution engaging startups, entrepreneurs, universities and other stakeholders to tackle current challenges in the industry and shape tomorrow's value ecosystem.

To know more about CEMEX Venture's 2018 Construction Startup Competition open call, please visit: www.cemexventures.com/construction-startup-competition

For more information on CEMEX Ventures, please visit: www.cemexventures.com.

Follow CEMEX Ventures on:

Facebook: CEMEX Ventures

Twitter: @CEMEXVentures

Linkedin: CEMEX Ventures

CEMEX Ventures assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005503/en/

Contacts:

Media Relations CEMEX Ventures

Cristina Aparicio, +34 91 377 9248

aparicio.cristina@cemexventures.com

or

Media Relations CEMEX

Jorge Perez, +52(81) 8888-4334

mr@cemex.com
Vancouver British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - MAX RESOURCE CORP. (TSXV: MXR) (OTC Pink: MXROF) (FSE: M1D) ("MXR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. John Theobald has been appointed to the board of directors of the Company. Mr. Theobald's unique combination of capital markets and industry experience will be a great asset moving forward for the Company.

Mr. Theobald has over thirty-five years in the international mining industry and has been involved with exploration, business development, operations, investments and capital markets. He is President, CEO and Director of I-Minerals Inc. (TSXV) and served as a Director of High Peak Royalties Ltd. (ASX), CEO, COO and Director of London and TSX listed royalty company, Anglo Pacific Group PLC, and Chairman of First Coal Corporation, which was successfully sold to Xstrata PLC for C$147 million. From 1999 to 2008 he held a number of senior positions with Sibelco, a major industrial minerals group. Prior to that, Mr. Theobald held senior operational and business development roles in Africa, gaining significant experience in gold and base metals, including sedimentary copper. Mr. Theobald has a B.Sc. with Honours in Geology from the University of Nottingham (UK), is a Chartered Engineer with the UK Engineering Council, Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (UK) and Member of the Institute of Directors (UK).

Joseph Campbell has resigned as a director to facilitate the appointment of Mr. Theobold to the board. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Campbell for his contributions to the Company and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.

About Max Resource Corp.

Max Resource Corp., a Canadian-based exploration company, its focussed on acquiring advanced exploration projects which are located within the under-explored northern section of the richly endowed Andean Copper Belt of Colombia.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF MAX RESOURCE CORP.

"Brett Matich"

Brett Matich, CEO and President

Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com, or by contacting the Company directly at (604) 365 1522.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed as "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements pertaining to completion of the Acquisition and any approvals required in connection with the Acquisition. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include: changes in market conditions, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in the price of commodities (particularly copper), unanticipated changes in key management personnel and general social, economic or geo-political conditions. Mining exploration and development is an inherently risky business. Accordingly the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.
PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled,Almond Oil Market by Type, Application and Distribution Channel: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023, the global almond oil market was valued at $1,118 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $2,680 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13.2% from 2017 to 2023. The sweet almond oil segment dominated the market in 2016, with more than half share, in terms of revenue.

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Almond oil is extracted from kernels of Prunus Dulcis tree using cold-pressed method. Presence of various vitamins such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B, and vitamin A; minerals; proteins and omega fatty acids make this oil an all-purpose essential and carrier oil which is utilized in food preparation, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The demand of almond oil is on an increase across the globe due to its health benefits and high nutritional value.

Request Sample Report at:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/3087

Rise in demand of aromatherapy products and growth in use of almond oil in cosmetic formulations due to increase in preference for natural ingredients are the primary factors that drive the almond oil market across the globe. Almond oil is widely utilized in the production of face creams, body lotions, hair oils, and various other cosmetic products for moisturizing and cleansing. Rapid urbanization, growth in applications in pharmaceutical industry, and changes in lifestyle are other factors that supplement the market growth. However, high price of almond oil, especially bitter almond oil as it is extracted from exotic species hinder the market growth. Nevertheless, growth in demand for almond oil from emerging economies such as India and China and favorable government regulations, which encourage use of natural ingredients in cosmetic formulations provide great potential for market expansion.

Sweet almond oil accounted for more than half of the market, in terms of revenue, in 2016 as it is being widely utilized in pharmaceutical, skin care, and color-cosmetic industries owing to its healthy moisturization properties and natural stability. It can be utilized as reepithelization agent, excipient, and sebum restoring agent in cosmetic industry. Sweet almond oil is rich in fatty acids, which favor restoration of skin lipid balance and thus is utilized in various skin treatments.

For Purchase Enquiry:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/3087

Cosmetic segment holds the largest share, in terms of revenue, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5%. Use of almond oil is increasing in cosmetic formulations due to rise in preference of consumers toward organic and healthy ingredients. Favorable government regulations, which encourage the use of natural ingredients in these formulations also assist in supplementing the growth of the cosmetic segment.

Key Findings of the Almond Oil Market:

North America is expected to lead the market during the forecast period in terms of revenue, followed by Asia-Pacific .

is expected to lead the market during the forecast period in terms of revenue, followed by . Sweet almond oil market volume is projected to grow with a CAGR of 12.5%, in terms of volume during the forecast period.

The cosmetic segment is expected to show highest growth, registering a CAGR of 12.9% in terms of volume.

Turkey accounted for 6.58% share in the LAMEA almond oil market in 2016.

accounted for 6.58% share in the LAMEA almond oil market in 2016. Mexico is projected to grow at a fastest rate in the North America almond oil market, registering a CAGR of 13.8%.

is projected to grow at a fastest rate in the almond oil market, registering a CAGR of 13.8%. Germany accounts for 10.20% share in the Europe almond oil market in 2016.

North America and Asia-Pacific collectively contributed more than half of the share to the global almond oil market revenue in 2016. In the same year, Asia-Pacific was the fastest growing market owing to massive urbanization and growth in income of people.

The prominent market players are AOS Products Private Limited, Ashwin Fine Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Blue Diamond Growers, Inc., Caloy Quality Natural Oils, Eden Botanicals, Jiangxi Baicao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Xuesong Natural Medicinal Oil Co., Ltd., Liberty Vegetable Oil Company, Mountain Ocean, NOW Foods, and Proteco Oils.

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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EastGate to Receive Funding in Tranches Up to $5 million USD

WEST CALDWELL, NJ and TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 10, 2018 / EastGate Biotech Corp. (OTC PINK: ETBI), a pharmaceutical company that focuses on innovative technological developments specifically in insulin drug delivery for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, announced a definitive agreement with Genluiching Mining Corporation. As per the previously announced Memorandum of Understanding, Genluiching Mining will invest up to $5 million USD in tranches. The first tranche will be expected sometime in May.

The investment will be focused specifically on the development of the liquid insulin mouth rinse for the Philippines. Genluiching agrees to fund this development until regulatory approval and registration of the insulin mouth rinse is achieved in the Philippines. The funds will also be used for administrative and operations in relation to EastGate and the EastGate Philippines' office. Genluiching along with EastGate Biotech and EastGate Philippines will be participating in a Profit Sharing arrangement from the future proceeds of the liquid insulin mouth rinse.

"This is a major step forward for the development of the liquid insulin mouth rinse," said Anna Gluskin, CEO of EastGate Biotech. "We hope investors are pleased with this non-dilutive investment in our technology. Genluiching understands the business opportunity as well as the humanitarian benefit of our products. They are committed to seeing this project to fruition, which means costs of development are secondary in nature. This investment also validates the underlying value of our delivery platforms and puts us in a position where we can compete with larger pharmaceuticals with deep pockets to fund drug development. Most people don't realize it, but the world has been looking for oral insulin for over 90 years and the Genluiching investment allows us to finally breakthrough into new territory where so many other pharmaceuticals have failed."

Commenting on his recent business development trip, Strategic Advisor William Abajian said, "The Filipino people have embraced Eastgate and are completely on board with our vision to bring a cost-effective therapeutic to market. We appear to have the backing of key influencers excited about accelerating the drug development. I saw first-hand the scope and breadth of the diabetes epidemic throughout the country. This capital infusion represents only a fraction of what we have accomplished. When we expand our footprint globally and start making inroads into developed markets where big pharma dominates, only then will we be taken seriously. When this drug comes to market, we have a real shot to dramatically change the trajectory of this global pandemic through early disease management that delays the onset of costly complications which burden the healthcare system and take a toll on the people's quality of life."

About EastGate Biotech

EastGate Biotech focuses on innovative technological developments and produces and distributes innovative drug compounds and healthy nutraceuticals that are based on natural therapies absorbed by the body. We utilize advanced nanotechnologies and alternative delivery systems that take difficult to deliver compounds and deliver them using our nanotechnology platform which ultimately increases the bioavailability to the body. Using our methods of delivery provides healthy alternatives to conventional pharmaceuticals that all-too-often create dangerous side-effects and unexpected consequences for those trying to attain and maintain a healthy lifestyle. EastGate's wholly owned subsidiary Omni Surgery and Anti-Aging Centre are the first of many surgery centers to come under the Omni umbrella as we plan to roll up existing business under the Omni brand and expand our footprint globally.

About Genluiching Mining Corp.

Genluiching Mining Corporation is a mining and metal company based in Makati City, Philippines. The company led by CEO Jet Tupas, currently conducts mining operations in Asia.

Cautionary statement on forward-looking information

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained or incorporated by reference in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the provisions for "safe harbour" under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on expectations, estimates, and projections as of the date of this news release.

The words "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "indicate", "intend", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "focus", "guidance", "initiative", "model", "methodology", "outlook", "potential", "projected", "pursue", "strategy", "study", "targets", or "believes", or variations of or similar such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", or "should", "might", or "way forward", "will be taken", "will occur" or "will be achieved" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies. The risks, estimates, models, and assumptions contained or incorporated by reference in this release, include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by EastGate with the SEC, which should be considered together with any forward-looking statement. EastGate undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT:

Rose Perri

1-647-692-0652

Email: information@eastgatepharmaceuticals.com

Website: www.EastGateBiotech.com

SOURCE: EastGate Biotech Corp.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) said it now expects its first quarter total revenue per available seat mile or TRASM to be up about 3.0 to 4.0 percent year-over-year versus its previous guidance of up approximately 2.0 to 4.0 percent. It now expects its first quarter pre-tax margin excluding special items to be approximately 4.0 to 5.0 percent.



In addition, the company continues to expect to report full year 2018 earnings per diluted share excluding special items between $5.50 and $6.50. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $5.93 per share for fiscal year 2018. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



The company expects to pay an average of between $2.08 and $2.13 per gallon of consolidated jet fuel (including taxes) in the first quarter.



Consistent with previous guidance, consolidated CASM excluding fuel and special items is expected to be up approximately 2.0 percent in 2018. First quarter consolidated CASM excluding fuel and special items is expected to be up approximately 3.0 percent year-over-year due primarily to salary and benefit increases provided to team members (including the salary increases given to pilots and flight attendants, which became effective on April 26, 2017), higher revenue-related expenses, increased rent and landing fees, and higher depreciation and amortization resulting from increased capex.



The company continues to expect its 2019 and 2020 CASM excluding fuel, special items and new labor agreements to be up approximately 1.0 to 2.0 percent in each year.



Consistent with previous guidance, 2018 total system capacity is expected to be up 2.5 percent vs. 2017 on a schedule over schedule basis. Actual capacity growth will be slightly higher due to the year-over-year impact of the flight cancellations resulting from two consecutive hurricanes that hit Florida and the Caribbean in September 2017.



The company expects to spend $3.7 billion in capex in 2018, including $1.9 billion in aircraft and $1.8 billion in non-aircraft capex. The company now expects to spend $2.5 billion in aircraft and $1.8 billion in non-aircraft capex in 2019 and $1.7 billion in aircraft and $1.6 billion in non-aircraft capex in 2020. The company recently adjusted its new aircraft delivery schedule, which reduced aircraft capex from previous guidance for 2019 and 2020 with the assumption of sale-leaseback financing for the additional 787-8 aircraft.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has warned that his government is mulling several options for striking Syria in response to a suspected deadly chemical-weapons attack in Douma, which Washington blames on Damascus. The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied any responsibility. At a Cabinet meeting Monday, Trump said he will take a decision on how to respond to it within 48 hours. 'If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon. So we're looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously.' 'Atrocious and horrible' attacks like these could not be allowed to happen, Trump told his cabinet colleagues, referring to reports of a chlorine bomb allegedly dropped by Syrian warplanes on Douma on Saturday, which killed dozens. 'We have a lot of options militarily,' he told reporters after holding a meeting with his top military and national security officials later. The White House called upon the Syrian regime and Moscow to open the rebel-held town to international medical assistance and international monitoring. 'The chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime against innocent civilians is horrifying. The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilized world,' Sanders said during her routine briefing. Sanders said Trump wanted to withdraw U.S. troops after completing the mission to eradicate Islamic State in Syria. 'At the same time, he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians. Signaling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible,' she told reporters. 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.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - British energy giant BP Plc (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP) said Tuesday that it has committed to two new North Sea developments which are expected to produce 30,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak production. Alligin and Vorlich are satellite fields located near to existing infrastructure meaning they can be quickly developed through established offshore hubs. Alligin, a two-well development west of Shetland, will be tied back to BP's Glen Lyon floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Vorlich, also a two-well development in the central North Sea, will be tied back to the Ithaca Energy-operated FPF-1 floating production facility which lies at the centre of Ithaca's Greater Stella Area production hub. Both fields are expected to come on stream in 2020. BP today also confirmed that it has awarded a major contract for the Alligin development to Subsea 7, which will provide project management, engineering, procurement and construction services for the subsea pipelines. Subsea 7 will deliver the contract from its Aberdeen base with offshore activities expected to get under way in 2019. Meanwhile, BP has submitted its Environmental Statement for the Vorlich development to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is finalising its contracting strategy for the development. Alligin (BP 50% operator; Shell 50%) is a 20-million-barrel recoverable oil field in the Greater Schiehallion Area, located approximately 140 kilometres west of Shetland. Vorlich (BP 66% operator; Ithaca Energy 34%) will recover over 30-million-barrels of oil equivalent and is located approximately 241 kilometres east of Aberdeen. 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.
A cross between traditional way of Samurai with a techy twist

TOKYO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Incorporating the traditional Katana swordfight with a jet pack, Softbank introduces a creative breakthrough through its latest Smartphone Junior High School campaign. The video has reached over 11 million views over the last week locally in Japan.

As one of the technology lectures from the school-themed campaign, a video captured two samurai warriors hovering with a jet pack while crossing swords at each other. After rounds of intense dueling, one samurai was slain, and the fight ended in an old-fashioned, samurai finisher.

The mastermind behind this video game/anime-like duel was Shota Mori, an up and coming video director who contributes to many popular commercials and projects in Japan. Mori is also the content creator of the viral "quick draw iPhone system" video back in 2012.

Besides the "Jet Samurai", the campaign also collaborates with various artists, creators and musicians and appoints them as the lecturers of different lessons. Toshio Suzuki, an anime producer from Studio Ghibli, took the role as a lecturer and talks about his experience working along with the legendary anime master, Hayao Miyazaki.

Toshio Suzuki - The Talent of Memory Part1: https://youtu.be/xVDVo21Shtw

Toshio Suzuki - The Talent of Memory Part2: https://youtu.be/uYZWLYtBsfQ

About Softbank Smartphone Junior High School

The Softbank Smartphone Junior High School, (https://www.softbank.jp/mobile/special/sumaho-chugaku/) is Softbank's latest online content campaign to encourage students to learn from different fields outside of school. The concept is to create an interesting yet educational platform for young people on their own smartphone. The campaign is optimized for smartphones which most videos from this campaign are shot vertically for daily smartphone usage.

Contact:

Softbank Smartphone Junior High School PR office

Nahoko Shimizu

03-6821-5730

sumachu_pr@vectorinc.co.jp

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLAylZFSn9M

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664876/Toshio_Suzuki.jpg
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (MLC.L) said that Ms Jennifer Fox will be joining the company as Group Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors with effect from 19 June 2018. Most recently she served as President of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, where she was responsible for the luxury brand's global hotel portfolio, encompassing over 100 properties, including the Raffles and Swissotel brands outside of North America. Prior to joining Fairmont in 2011, Ms Fox held senior positions within InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG) over a period of ten years, including Chief Operating Officer for Europe and Senior Vice President overseeing global brand marketing for the InterContinental brand. She joined IHG from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, where she was the global brand manager for Sheraton after having spent over ten years in various operational roles with ITT Sheraton. 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.
Africa-focussed energy and resource company Kibo Mining confirmed on Tuesday that it has received commitments to raise 1.5m before expenses via a placing of 28,571,428 ordinary shares, at a placing price of 5.25p per share. The AIM-traded firm said the placing was arranged by its UK broker, SVS Securities, and Novum Securities. Novum was set to be appointed joint corporate broker with SVS on Tuesday, following completion of the placing. The board said the funds from the placing would go ...

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.
Following profit warnings in December and February, there was more bad news for Safestyle on Tuesday as the Health & Safety Executive slapped the double glazing group with an 850,000 fine relating to an incident in which one of its contractors suffered an injury. The company had already disclosed in its final results last month that there had been two incidents last year involving installations at height which led to injuries, and that it may be fined. While the investigation into one of the ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - Benchmark Botanics, Inc.(CSE: BBT) (OTC Pink: BHHKF) (FSE: BBW) ("Benchmark" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has, together with Benchmark's wholly-owned subsidiary, Potanicals Green Growers Inc. ("Potanicals"), entered into a binding letter agreement (the "Agreement") with 1139000 B.C. Ltd. ("1139") for the acquisition, ownership, and development of licensed cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes in up to approximately 4 acres of greenhouse operations to be located in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia (the "Property").

Pursuant to the Agreement, Benchmark will have the right to acquire from 1139 and existing shareholders of 1139, 51% or more of the Property through a joint venture with 1139 (the "Joint Venture"). Under the Joint Venture, for its initial 75% interest, 1139 shall purchase the Property for a purchase price of approximately CDN$6.2 million, and the Property will be held in trust by 1139 (the "Bare Trustee") as bare trustee for the Joint Venture; and Property includes climate controlled glass greenhouses with automated greenhouse operating systems to be used under the Joint Venture for licensed medical cannabis cultivation for sale through Potanicals' distribution channels. 1139 will also, at its own cost and expense under the Joint Venture, develop, renovate and upgrade the land and buildings of the Property (the "Upgrades") as necessary in order for Potanicals to extend its license from Health Canada for cultivation and production of medical cannabis under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR"). As consideration for its initial 25% interest in the Joint Venture, Potanicals will apply to Health Canada to extend its license (the "License Extension") from Health Canada under the ACMPR. Potanicals will be solely responsible for overseeing and coordinating all activities needed to obtain Health Canada's approval of the License Extension. Potanicals intends to supply tissue culture grown cannabis clone plants and will oversee and coordinate sales and distribution of medical cannabis product produced at the Property to strive for maximum sales and product prices to achieve the greatest net profits for the Joint Venture.

The initial Joint Venture interests will be owned 75% by 1139 and 25% by Potanicals, which 75% by 1139 shall vest upon acquisition of the Property held in the name of the Bare Trustee and 25% by Potanicals shall vest upon Health Canada's approval of the License Extension. Upon acquisition of the Property registered in the name of the Bare Trustee, 1139 will issue such number of common shares as is equal to 25% of its issued and outstanding common shares to Benchmark or its nominee Potanicals, which shares shall vest upon Health Canada's approval of the License Extension.

Once at least 80% of the approximate 4 acres of greenhouse growing facilities are operational, utilized for licensed growing of cannabis, Benchmark and/or its nominee will have the option to acquire an additional 26% of the issued and outstanding common shares of 1139 (to increase Benchmark's Joint Venture ownership to 51%) for a purchase price (the "Purchase Price") equal to 26% of the valuation of the Joint Venture as determined by a chartered valuator. The payment of the Purchase Price will be satisfied by exchange of common shares of Benchmark at the then applicable market price in exchange for the transfer of 26% of the issued and outstanding common shares of 1139 from existing shareholders of 1139 subject to compliance with the requirements of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "Exchange") and applicable securities laws.

Following Benchmark's or its nominees' acquisition of 51% of the issued and outstanding common shares of 1139, existing shareholders of 1139 will be entitled to sell and transfer up to 49% of their shareholdings in 1139 (the "Offered Interest") to an unrelated arm's length third party (the "Third Party Purchaser"), subject to a 90 day right of first refusal ("ROFR") in favour of Benchmark and the completion by the Third Party Purchaser of the purchase of the portion of the Offered interest not sold to Potanicals under the ROFR, within 60 days of the ROFR.

The Joint Venture is an arm's-length transaction. The principal and sole shareholder of 1139 is Mr. Min Wei of Richmond, British Columbia. Accordingly, the principal of the Bare Trustee will be Mr. Wei. The Joint Venture is subject to, among other things, acquisition of the Property registered in the name of the Bare Trustee by May 31, 2018. The terms of the agreement are intended to be superseded by a more comprehensive definitive joint venture agreement (the "Definitive Agreement"), which will contain the terms and conditions set out in the letter agreement and such other terms and conditions as are customary for transactions of the nature and magnitude contemplated therein.

In the event Potanicals is unable to obtain approval of Health Canada for the License Extension, Potanicals will be required to transfer its 25% interest in the Joint Venture together with all common shares of the 1139 to existing shareholders of 1139. In addition, within 60 days following notice of the sale of the Property to an arm's length third party (which sale shall be commenced within 30 days after the date of termination of the Agreement), Potanicals will be required to compensate 1139 for its costs and expenses incurred for the upgrades and the net losses of 1139 incurred from the sale of the Property relative to the cost paid by 1139 to acquire the Property (such costs and expenses and net losses are in aggregate, the "Losses"). 1139 has a duty to mitigate such losses, and the losses are subject to independent verification from Potanicals' auditors. Compensation for the losses may be satisfied by issuance to 1139 of common shares of Benchmark at the then applicable market price in accordance with the requirements of the Exchange and applicable securities laws.

About Benchmark

Benchmark is a publicly traded company based out of Vancouver, British Columbia positioned to provide financing, partnership opportunities and acquisition offers to licensed producers and ancillary businesses within the global cannabis industry. With the support of our global partners, we acquired our first subsidiary, Potanicals Green Growers Inc. in November 2017. Potanicals is an approved licensed producer of cannabis under the ACMPR that is currently cultivating within a 12,700 square foot production facility.

For more information about Benchmark, refer to the Form 2A Listing Statement available to the public under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and the CSE website.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

BENCHMARK BOTANICS INC.

/s/ "Ping (Johnson) Zhang"

Ping (Johnson) Zhang

Chief Executive Officer

For further information contact:

Investor Relations

(604) 773 - 0242

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. This news release includes forward-looking statements with respect to the business and future objectives of the Company. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including risks related to: (i) the facility and Potanicals' operations; (ii) adverse market conditions; (iii) the ability of the Company to complete financings in the future; (iv) dependence on suppliers and skilled labour; (v) government regulation and compliance with the ACMPR; (vi) managing and maintaining growth; (vii) unfavourable publicity or consumer perception litigation; (viii) competition; and (ix) the completion of the transactions contemplated in the Agreement and acquisition of the Property by Benchmark or its nominees. The Company is not currently producing medical marijuana. There is a risk that Potanicals' Producer's License will not be amended to permit the Company to sell medical marijuana produced at its facility and that the transactions contemplated in the Agreement may not be completed as planned or at all. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including the risk factors discussed in this news release and in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com and on the CSE website. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A video recently emerged showing thousands of sheep dying from heat stress onboard a export ship traveling to the Middle East from Australia. The Australian government said it will commence an investigation into the alleged horrific conditions aboard the vessel. The sheep died from heat stress on the MV Awassi Express, a ship used by Western Australia-based Emanuel Exports, during a voyage between Australia and Qatar. The New York Times reported that the video was taken in August 2017 and showed on Nine Network's 60 Minutes program. The video footage shows sheep struggling to breathe and dead animals being thrown overboard. Some of the animals died in their own feces, The Times' report said. David Littleproud, the agriculture minister, said he was 'shocked and gutted' by the footage and promised that those responsible would be punished, the Time reported. 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.
SEOUL, KOREA / ACCESSWIRE / April 10, 2018 / Mr. Hong, Dongho, Chairman, CEO, founder and principal shareholder of DSPONE, a successful and profitable technology venture company and holder of 11 major patents, announced today that after 10 years of cutting-edge research and development and technical know-how in Digital Signal Processing, it was planning to enter the lucrative and growing Vietnamese market. Mr. Hong said that DSP's main focus would be to market its anti-theft devices, electric charging stations and battery swapping technology in the burgeoning Vietnamese market for bicycles, electric motorcycles, and motorbikes, and scooters.

DSP One's first product deploying to the Vietnamese market will be E-Moto. E-Moto is an anti-theft protection device that sends the GPS signal to the owner's smartphone through any of 2G/3G/4G environments. This development resulted from the creation of DSP's unique Digital Signal Processing Board, which has been used for more than 10 years by major Korean companies, including SK Telecom and Korea Telecom.

There are approximately 50,000,000 bicycles in Vietnam, which is the world's 4th largest market following China, India, and Indonesia. With its total population is 90,000,000, Viet Nam has by far, the highest registration rate of these vehicles compared to any other country in the world. Vietnam is an extremely attractive market as the bicycle is a daily necessity and the #1 priority of most households. It also has the highest theft rate, where, in the last 2 years, a bicycle is stolen every 10 seconds. There are approximately 3,000,000 new registrations every year. DSP is confident that its E-Moto anti-theft device will find a large and receptive market.

DSP One has completed the field testing of comparability to Vietnam wireless network for the E-Moto with 200 bicycles at two of the largest Vietnam telecom companies, Viettel and Mobifone. Viettel had sold 300,000 Chinese bicycle tracking systems in 2016 but ceased these sales, due to complications of installation, low quality and the lack of an adequate platform DSP One believes that its E-Moto will be successful in servicing this now abandoned market segment.

DSP One substantially improved the E-Moto GPS tolerance within 2.5m, thus enabling it to track precise locations. DSPOne uses Data Optimization Technique for sending Location data and Event data. Therefore, monthly data usage is only 55MB which both minimizes network traffic load and applied low power digital wireless technique while maximizing battery life. DSP One provides not only the devices but also the total platform including APP, related server, and system, etc. to the Wireless Service Providers.

This proprietary technology, called Appropriate Tech (AT), was optimized to service markets with poor wireless network environments, while providing low-cost solutions for low economic environments, for example, $300 per month. AT was focused on the service platform so as to minimize both the wireless network load as well as considering the Vietnamese culture and user situations.

DSP One is entering the Vietnamese market with its strength of technology and products and history of satisfied customers In November 2016, DSP One attended the Smart City Road Show in Vietnam and executed an MOU with DINOSYS, a local company, to provide Electric Scooter and related products and services. Also, in 2017, a delegation from the Ministry of Transportation of Vietnam visited DSP One's facilities in Korea to discuss government policy regarding the Electric Bicycle.

DSP One was selected as one of the top 5 small-mid size companies and was invited to a Presidential Visit to Vietnam the past March which was attended by President Moon. Also, the Minister of Technology and Communication of Korea visited DSPOne's office in Hanoi and recognized the company as the leading small technology venture company. DSPOne is in the final negotiation stages with Viettel's top management to finalize its purchase of E-Moto products.

DSPOne also plans to launch its Electric Bicycle in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government announced its 2025 Vietnam Motorcycle Industry Development Plan and Vision and its policy to vigorously support the industry. Also, they will only allow Electric Motorcycles to enter Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City beginning in 2020. DSPOne will manufacture an Electric Motorcycle which it will export to Vietnam which has FTA with Korea. Eventually, DSPOne intends to build a Vietnamese plant to service the entire Southeast Asian market.

430,000,000 motorcycles are registered currently, and 130,000,000 motorcycles are expected to be sold in 2018 in 9 countries in Southeast Asia. The demand for Electric motorcycles is continuously increasing in this huge Southeast Asian motorcycle market, and DSPOne intends to rule this market with its E-Moto line of products and services.

Contact:

Mr. Hong, Dongho,

Chairman, CEO

dhhong@dspone.co.kr



SOURCE: DSPOne
PARIS, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Renault is teaming up with "Solo: A Star Wars Story" to provide a thrilling experience for its customers ahead of the launch of the film, released in UK cinemas on 24 May 2018.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/665267/Renault_KADJAR_interior_steering_panel.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/665268/Renault_KADJAR_exterior_in_Star_Wars_environment.jpg )

From April to July 2018, Renault is inviting everyone to 'take the alternative road' through a pan-European campaign - designed and produced in collaboration with Lucasfilm, Disney and Publicis Conseil. For the French car manufacturer, this is an unprecedented collaboration which will be live in 25 countries throughout Europe.

When Renault joins forces with "Solo: A Star Wars Story", it's natural to expect adventure. In the all-new movie featuring the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy, we'll find out how taking the alternative road led Han Solo to meet his mighty future co-pilot, Chewbacca. Now, thanks to the features of Renault KADJAR - 4x4 transmission, emergency breaking system and blind-spot alerts - Renault is offering its customers their chance to 'take an alternative road' too.

Live out your "Solo: A Star Wars Story" dream with Renault

From 9 April 2018, Renault is giving everyone the opportunity to be a part of Han and Lando's adventure in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" in selected dealerships*: Visitors will be invited to watch an exclusive scene from the upcoming film, seven weeks before its release. To add even more excitement, the preview is brought to life though virtual reality (VR) technology.

Are you ready to take the alternative road?

Renault has also partnered with Shazam to provide those on their commute a chance to taste the Renault and "Solo: A Star Wars Story" experience - at their bus stop. Taking part is simple: participants just have to use their Shazam app to scan the Renault and "Solo: A Star Wars Story" out of home advertising - then the adventure begins.

This activation launches a video where the user can explore the Renault KADJAR, observing each aspect of the vehicle as if it was just in front of their eyes via augmented reality. Users then click through to learn more about the features of the vehicle.

The augmented reality experience is just one part of the fully integrated campaign, which also includes a TV spot that stars Chewbacca. Renault also worked with leading visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, known for their work on the Star Wars films, to create the special effects in the TV spot.

In addition to the exclusive in-dealership and Shazam experiences, Renault is also running a national competition which will provide those who enter the chance to win a variety of goodies and "money can't buy" experiences. Consumers can enter the competition by visiting their nearest dealership.

Alongside the TV spot, press and out of home materials communicating to the general public, the majority of the assets developed will be published on digital platforms. The content has been developed with customer profiles at its heart, providing a tailored experience for each different audience.

Notes to editor:

Please find two images attached to this release which display the exterior and interior of the Renault KADJAR. Further high-resolution images and a video taken from the TV commercial starring Renault KADJAR with Chewbacca can be downloaded from this link here: https://we.tl/IEqeF8fJSz

*Available at dealerships in the following countries: UK; Ireland; Netherlands; Portugal; Switzerland; Austria; Poland; Czech Republic; Sweden; Denmark; Belgium
City Pantry, a London, UK-based food startup, secured 4m in funding.

The round was led by Octopus Investments with participation from Newable Private Investing and others.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to grow in London whilst also beginning expansion to new markets, targeting cities across the UK over the next 18 months.

Founded by Stuart Sunderland in 2013, City Pantry delivers food from local caterers and restaurants to local offices, covering events, meetings, and team meals.

It currently serves over 20,000 meals every week to over 500 clients, including Google, Amazon, PayPal, Slack, Spotify and Unilever.

FinSMEs

10/04/2018
Flyr, a Santa Monica, California-based social-TV advertisement startup, raised $6m in funding.

Backers included Renderfam Studios.

Officially launched in January 2018 by Hassan Uriostegui, Flyr is an adtech startup that aims to democratize production of TV-quality advertisement for iPhone and iPad users worldwide. The companys technology allows graphic designers and people with no knowledge to produce and customize TV-quality advertisements faster than video professionals.

The company has also signed a strategic partnership with Snapchat with the aim of powering their users with a specialized tool for creating high-quality advertisement content.

With more than 13,000 paid subscribers and one million user-generated projects, Flyr is now raising a Series A.

FinSMEs

10/04/2018
.           2021-2022 .,       .        ...
Taking place today is the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, US, focused on scaling food systems to ensure that everyone worldwide has access to sufficient... Read More
When University of Florida's president said on April Fool's Day that people cited for parking violations on campus over the past year could get amnesty by donating food, many thought it was a prank.

But on Friday, nearly 2,000 people learned it wasn't.

UF President W. Kent Fuchs said on Twitter that nearly 2,000 citations had been exchanged for 9,455 food donations.

The food - peanut butter, canned peaches and other canned items - will fill the shelves of the school's Field and Fork Pantry.
Los Angeles prosecutors said Monday that they will not bring criminal charges against writer and director James Toback in five sexual abuse investigations they have reviewed.

The Oscar-nominated writer-director has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women.

Documents released Monday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said the statute of limitations in all of the cases had expired.

The women, none of whom are identified in the documents, reported sexual abuse from Toback that spanned 30 years, from 1978 to 2008.

Toback, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing 1991's "Bugsy," has vehemently denied the allegations.

In the 1978 case, the woman told police that Toback had pushed her against the wall and asked her to have sex with him after a dinner. When she refused, he drove her home and she said he exposed himself in the car.

In one of two accusations dating to 2008, the woman said that after a dinner date she thought she was going to a movie screening with Toback and ended up alone with him in an empty house. She told investigators that he asked her to masturbate in front of him and she complied out of fear.

He then told her to sit in the chair by the door where he'd been sitting.

"The suspect knelt down in front of her, placed his hand on the armrests and rubbed his penis on her bare leg until he ejaculated," the documents say.

Nearly identical allegations are made in another case from 2008. In that investigation, prosecutors say the accuser did not show up to be interviewed, and hasn't responded to attempts to reach her. A prosecutor said that while the statute of limitations appears to have expired in this case too, it would be re-evaluated if the woman is interviewed later.

Information for an attorney or representative who could provide comment for Toback was not immediately available.

The allegations against Toback became public in October, part of the wide wave that came after stories of Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct rocked Hollywood and sparked the #MeToo movement.

While dozens of men were accused of misbehavior, Toback, while not as well-known as many of them, stood out for the sheer number of women who said he had sexually assaulted or harassed them.

The Los Angeles Times reported that 38 women alleged sexual misconduct from Toback, and in the wake of that story hundreds more came forward.

They included actresses Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams.

Blair said Toback asked her to perform a monologue naked, propositioned her for sex, and said he would not let her leave until he "had release." Blair said he then simulated sexual intercourse on her leg.

"I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil," Blair told Vanity Fair. "His energy was so sinister."

But while lawsuits and firings have been plentiful, criminal consequences have been slow in coming for powerful men ensnared in the #MeToo movement, though many more, including Weinstein, remain under criminal investigation.

While never becoming a major player in Hollywood, Toback, 73, managed to have a moderately successful career in film that has lasted more than 40 years.

Movies he wrote and directed include Harvey Keitel's "Fingers," the loosely autobiographical "The Pick-up Artist," which starred Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald, and "Two Girls and a Guy," also with Downey Jr. and Heather Graham.

Many of his accusers said he touted his friendship with Downey in trying to show his importance as he pressured them for sex.
Adult film star Nikki Benz filed a lawsuit Monday against pornography production company Brazzers, director Tony T. and porn star Ramon Nomar, alleging she was struck on the face, head and breasts hard enough to cause her [to] bleed while shooting an adult film in 2016.

Benz, 36, filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court Monday alleging battery, assault, sexual battery, gender violence and other counts, The Wrap reported.

The actress stated that the only things she was aware of before filming in December 2016 was that the shoot would be hardcore and what she would be wearing.

Benz alleged the films director, Tony T. slapped her face and breasts, saying Open your eyes b---- and Open your f---ing eyes, the suit stated.

DON KNOTTS DAUGHTER SAID SHE HAD TO LEAVE HIS DEATHBED TO LAUGH

He would film with one hand and choke Benz with the other hand. Nomar stomped on Benzs head. Between Tony T. and Nomar, Benz was hit, slapped choked and thrown on the ground and against the wall, the lawsuit read.

The suit also alleged Benz was beaten to the point of bleeding.

The porn star claimed she never gave Tony T. permission to touch her while filming and told him not to during the shoot.

Benz claimed when she was asked during the exit interview if she would work with Tony T. again she said the director forced her to say yes or she would not be paid.

JAMES TOBACKS 5 SEXUAL ASSAULT CASES DISMISSED BY COURT

Benz, an AVN [Adult Video News] Hall of Fame inductee, said she suffered pain, suffering, emotional distress, as well as past and future medical expenses and lost wages following the shoot.

Benz spoke out the same month of the shoot, TMZ reported. Following the allegations, Brazzers cut ties with the director. Tony T. has also filed a lawsuit against Benz, Brazzers and its parent company MindGeek for defamation.
Nicole "Nicky" Vargas, star of Oxygen's "Bad Girls Club," was arrested last week for performing oral sex while topless in a parking lot, police confirmed to Fox News.

Tod Goodyear, the Public Informations Officer of Brevard County Sheriff's Office, told Fox News that Vargas and her boyfriend, Colton Voegele, were arrested in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. for "unnatural and lascivious acts in public, battery, exposure of sexual organs and resisting without violence."

Vargas was a cast-member of "Bad Girls Club" Season 10 and was known for by her nickname "The Jersey Joker." She starred in only four episodes before deciding to leave after getting involved in physical fights with on-screen housemate and enemy, Valentia Anyanwu.

According to TMZ, multiple people witnessed Vargas and her boyfriend engaging in sex acts in the parking lot of an apartment complex prior to their arrest.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE NSFW VIDEO

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office told us that Vargas became violent and hit a witness once the witness told her and Voegele to leave the lot.

According to the police report, when the deputy sheriff arrived on the scene and announced his presence, Vargas "immediately took off running."



Once she was caught, the star resisted arrest and "actively kept pulling away" from the Sheriff. Vargas was then held down by her shoulders in order to secure arrest.

But the star wasn't in custody for long. On April 5, a day after her arrest, Vargas posted her $2,000 bail and was released from custody. Her boyfriend is reportedly still being held in the Brevard County Jail Complex on $1,500 bond, according to the Daily Mail.

Despite being released from custody, the former reality star is still facing charges for the crimes mentioned above.
Sinclair Broadcasting released a video on Tuesday that accuses CNNs Brian Stelter of dishonesty and hypocrisy for his recent attacks on the company amid controversy over Sinclair anchors being asked to read a scripted warning about fake news.

The video, Did CNN attack Sinclair for doing exactly what CNN has done for years?, is a slickly produced, four-minute montage that calls out Stelter for using rhetoric similar to what Sinclair has come under fire for giving its anchors.

Stelter, CNNs senior media correspondent, has devoted significant coverage to a minute-long script that Sinclair management asked its anchors to read in an effort to combat false and misleading news. Liberal website Deadspin did a mashup of many versions of the Sinclair bit, culminating in numerous anchors saying: This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

CNN and other news organizations have condemned the script, painting Sinclair as unobjectively pro-Donald Trump. Stelter even seemed to relish how a Sinclair producer in Nebraska resigned over the script.

However, many watchdogs noticed that the controversial Sinclair script sounded an awful lot like something Stelter would utter on CNN, where he is known to sing the praises of the journalism industry.

Sinclairs video points to a March 7 segment in which Stelter went after Sinclair, saying the videos echo President Trumps inflammatory rhetoric about fake news. The Sinclair video then asks, Does CNN really think a warning about fake news is Trump rhetoric?

The Sinclair response then shows a variety of clips revealing that Stelter has warned CNN viewers about fake news on a regular basis since 2016. Stelter is shown calling fake news a plague, warning viewers about websites designed to mislead people and even saying fake news can impact an election.

Sinclairs warning is similar, the video says before proving that CNN warned viewers fake news was bad for our democracy back in 2016. Sinclairs video shows that its anchors said pushing an agenda to control what people think is dangerous to our democracy in the script before text appears on screen.

Sinclair offers a similar warning: that some outlets republish fake stories without fact-checking, the video says. In 2016, CNN urged media colleagues to challenge fake news.

Stelter is then shown telling CNN viewers that everyone must fight fake news.

Sinclair agrees, but takes its commitment one step further, the video says. Fake news is a problem. Everyone knows it. Calling out Sinclair for calling out fake news is dishonest and reprehensible.

Sinclairs video then asks, Is it really news that fake news is a concern in 2018? Or is this an attack on Sinclair?

When reached for comment, Stelter provided Fox News with the following statement: There's a huge difference between my coverage and Sinclair's mandatory promos. No one tells me what to say. But these anchors were told exactly what to say. These promos became a story because Sinclair staffers spoke up and said they were uncomfortable. They said they'd never seen anything like this before.
When Don Knotts was on his deathbed, his daughter Karen needed to run out of the room so she could laugh.

The actor, best known for starring as bumbling, bug-eye Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, died in 2006 at age 81 from pulmonary and respiratory complications.

Karen is currently in the process of writing a memoir and is now performing a show about her childhood titled Tied Up In Knotts!

She told Closer Weekly Saturday that anyone who knew her father wouldnt be surprised by her shocking response.

Heres the thing about my dad, she explained. He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics.

"He was literally dying, but he did something or said something that caused my stepmother and me to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out. I thought to myself, I dont want to be standing there in front of this man, my dearly beloved father, whos dying, and laughing.'

But Karen does have one regret about one of her final moments with the celebrated comedian.

I was telling this story to Howard Storm, whos a director, and he said, You should have stayed and laughed out loud, she said. Thats what comedians live for! He was right; I should have just stood there and blasted out laughing.

Karen insisted that Knotts, who enjoyed a successful half-century acting career that included seven television shows and more than 25 films, along with five Emmy Awards just from The Andy Griffith Show alone, never lost his sense of humor despite his difficult childhood.

The magazine revealed Knotts was born in West Virginia to a mother who was 40 at the time and a father who suffered from both schizophrenia and alcoholism. Growing up, his father would reportedly hold a knife to Knotts neck and threaten him.

My dad was very burdened down by all these problems, said Karen. He had problems with his father and an older brother who tormented him because they were alcoholics.

"When his father passed, he was 13 years old. At that point, that burden  that huge burden  lifted off him, and he became old enough that he was able to get the other brother under control, so he was no longer terrorized at home.

Knotts eventually spent years in therapy but also found solace in entertaining. When he served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, he participated in a variety show that toured the Pacific.

He saw ventriloquism as a way for him to get out of his impoverished surroundings, said Karen.

And when he later took on the iconic role of Fife on The Andy Griffith Show in 1960, he happily immersed himself in the workload.

We didnt see him a lot, because he worked 10, 12 hours a day, said Karen. And when he was home, he was always holed up in his room working on his lines and stuff like that. At that time, we kids were pretty young, and he confided whatever he was feeling about working on the show to my mom.

"I remember watching and listening to him rehearse. He asked me to run lines. At the time, I already knew I wanted to act, so I would try to act it out and hed say, No, no, no. Just give me the lines straight, no inflection, nothing, otherwise you throw me off. I was just part of that process.

Knotts always had his children in mind. Karen recalled how she frequently visited the set and befriended Griffith.

He was very friendly to me; he was like an uncle, she explained. He had different sides. You could see that sometimes he would be intense, and other times very, very warm and endearing.

"One thing I will tell you, and one thing that is different from what has been written in books, was that Andy was never jealous of my dad. He was his biggest fan and mentor. Everything later he was in, he wanted to get my dad in, too He was in my dads corner.

The Andy Griffith Show aired from 1960 until 1968. And when Griffith pursued a new series titled Matlock in 1986, he was determined to have Knotts by his side.

Even when he was on Matlock, and my dad wasnt working at the time, he went to producers and said, I want Don Knotts on the show, claimed Karen. They said, No, this is a dramatic show, theres no part for a character comedian.

"He kept fighting and fighting, and then they put him on, but they didnt want to pay him much. Andy went to the mat and fought with them on that. They gave him not really what he should have gotten, but at least a decent salary.

Knotts appeared on Matlock from 1988 until 1992. The series came to an end in 1995.

But Knotts never forgot about his horrific past. Karen shared he spent years in therapy.

He was mercurial, she said. He had a lot of different kinds of moods. He fought a lot of depression and I helped him, or thought I did, because I could see how he had this endless loop of thought that would always lead to a downward spiral. I would try to break through that and was like Pollyanna, pointing out the positives.

Of course, I couldnt do much. I was a kid. He got a great psychiatrist named Duke Renniker. Duke was able to help him a lot. By the end, he had overcome everything that was down in his life. I felt really, really proud of him for all the work that he put into being a happy person. And the truth is, he loved people.

And despite getting older, Knotts was determined to pursue his passion to entertain. His last credited role was in 2006 for voicing a deputy bloodhound named Sniffer in Air Buddies.

He was also a very loving father, said Karen. He didnt like to go out and do things like you picture most fathers going out and doing  you know, outdoorsy stuff  because he was a very internal kind of person. He liked to tell stories and talk We talked about show business a lot. He was a showbiz person.
Prince William and his wife, Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, welcomed royal baby No. 3 on April 23  and Brits are thrilled to greet the bundle of joy.

"Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at [11:01 a.m.]," a tweet from Kensington Palace revealed. "The baby weighs 8lbs 7oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth."

The pair revealed their third pregnancy on Sept. 4, announcing the April 2018 due date about a month later, though they didn't specify the exact day doctors predicted.

Kensington Palace confirmed at the time Middleton was suffering from severe morning sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum. The 36-year-old was affected by the same condition during her pregnancies with both Prince George, now 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.

The Queen and members of both families are delighted with the news," Kensington Palace said in an October statement.

Middleton gave birth to a boy just weeks ahead of another royal occasion: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, an hour-long ceremony that will take place on May 19 at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England.

Here's what we know about the third royal baby.

What we know about the royal birth

Middleton gave birth in the private Lindo Wing of St. Marys Hospital in London.

"Parking Suspended" signs popped up along South Wharf Road outside of the hospital on April 9, announcing a suspension of parking through April 30, according to People.

The signs were similar to those that appeared roughly two weeks ahead of both George and Charlotte's births, in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

KATE MIDDLETON STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF APPRECIATING 'CHILDHOOD WHILE IT LASTS'

The Queen was the first to get a call about the safe arrival of George and Charlotte's little sister or brother.

The parents were then given hours to bond with their child before making their way home. As they exited St. Marys, the pair paused for pictures and wave to crowds of people gathered around the gates of the hospital before taking off in a nearby car.



Significant April date

The pair welcomed their third child on St. George's Day, the feast day of Saint George, a patron saint.

"While St. George never actually set foot in England during his lifetime, he was officially named the protector of the royal family and the patron saint of the country during the Middle Ages," PEOPLE explained in a post online.

What we know about the baby's name

The couple has stuck to tradition -- naming their children after past or present royals.

George Alexander Louis' first name was a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II's father and grandfather.

"Alexander is believed to have been picked by the couple to honor the Queen, whose middle name is Alexandra," People explained in a July 2013 post. "[The] name Louis 'is a nice tribute' to the Queens husband, Prince Philip, whose grandfather was Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg."

KATE MIDDLETON'S ROYAL FUTURE WITH PRINCE WILLIAM PREDICTED IN HER OWN HIGH SCHOOL PLAY

The name Charlotte Elizabeth Diana "pays tribute to Prince Charles, Kates great-grandmother Elizabeth, Her Majesty the Queen, and, most tellingly of all, Williams late mother, the Princess of Wales," according to Vanity Fair.

Their third child will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis Arthur Charles.

The couple say they named their son Louis  pronounced LOO-ee  after William's grandfather, Prince Charles, and the Duke's mentor-- Louis Mountbatten-- who was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.

The Palace has announced all of the details of Middleton's latest birth on its website and via Twitter, @KensingtonRoyal.

The new royal baby makes history

The third royal baby is fifth in line to Britain's royal throne, behind grandfather Prince Charles, father Prince William, big brother Prince George and big sister Princess Charlotte.

Charlotte just became the "first-ever member of the royal family that will not lose her spot in line to the throne if a male heir is born," Evening Standard reports, explaining that the Succession to the Crown Act passed in 2013 makes this possible.

Prince Harry moved down to sixth in line behind his nephew.
Several mainstream media outlets, including CNN and The Washington Post, have published misleading stories about Russian bots boosting conservative issues across social media, according to a detailed report by The Daily Caller.

The Alliance for Securing Democracys Hamilton 68 dashboard is a service that aims to display data about Russian propaganda efforts. It is often used by news organizations seeking to pin support for conservative media, conspiracy theories and right-leaning views on Russian bots, but the groups communications director, Bret Schafer, says most reporting on the dashboard is inherently inaccurate.

Bots are only a small portion of the network that we monitor yet most of the third party reporting on the dashboard continues to appear with some variation of the headline Russian bots are pushing X.  Hamilton 68 dashboard's Bret Schafer

Schafer told Daily Callers Peter Hasson that his group doesnt specifically track bots.

More specifically, bots are only a small portion of the network that we monitor, Schafer said. Weve tried to make this point clear in all our published reporting, yet most of the third-party reporting on the dashboard continues to appear with some variation of the headline Russian bots are pushing X.

Daily Caller found several examples of inaccurate reporting, including a Business Insider article originally headlined, Russian bots are rallying behind embattled Fox News host Laura Ingraham as advertisers dump her show. The inaccurate story resulted in a Washington Post story, citing Business Insider, headlined Russian bots are tweeting their support of embattled Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

The truth is that nobody has any idea if the social media accounts tweeting support for Ingraham were actually bots. Business Insider eventually corrected its story, but it had already been viewed by more than 100,000 people  most of whom, presumably, wont ever see the correction.

Hasson pointed out that sources used in the inaccurate articles were misrepresented, such as the Botcheck.me, another site used to track propaganda. Botchecks co-founder, Ash Bhat, admitted that there is no proof to show that the bots his site tracks are Russian  but that didnt stop Business Insider and the Post from using Russian bots in headlines.

There isnt any data that actually points to any specific location or group, Bhat told Daily Caller.

"Categorizing all bots as being [a] left or right issue is wrong and only further divides us."  Botchecks cofounder Ash Bhat

Bhat said that bots are on both sides of the aisle and they have a shared purpose, which is to divide America. "Categorizing all bots as being [a] left or right issue is wrong and only further divides us, he said.

CNN published a story after the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., claiming that Russian-linked bots were promoting pro-gun messages on Twitter. The story cited both Hamilton 68 dashboard and Botcheck but was misleading, according to Hasson.

First, the Hamilton 68 data doesnt support the claim that the Russian bots were pushing specifically pro-gun arguments, Hassan wrote. Second Botchecks data doesnt support the claim that Russian bots were only pushing pro-gun messaging after the shooting.

The New York Times has also cited the Hamilton 68 dashboard to claim that Russian bots sprang into action following the massacre in Parkland. Even reliably liberal BuzzFeed News is aware of the issue and published a piece headlined, Stop blaming Russian bots for everything.

BuzzFeed specifically pointed to the Times article, calling it total bulls--t, before noting that Hamilton 68 dashboard is the source nearly every time you see a story blaming Russian bots for something despite its own co-founder being skeptical.

Im not convinced on this bot thing, Hamilton 68 dashboard co-founder Clint Watts told BuzzFeed. They are not all in Russia We dont even think theyre all commanded in Russia.

Several other news organizations, including the Chicago Tribune and Axios have cited Hamilton 68 dashboard when blaming Russian bots for various social media campaigns. But it seems that many of the misleading articles could easily be avoided if content creators simply did a little digging.

Schafer told Daily Caller that the vast majority of the misinterpretations and misunderstandings of Hamilton 68 would be solved if those reporting on the dashboard would read our original methodology paper and follow-up paper.

It will be interesting to see if The Daily Callers report helps prevent mainstream news organizations from blaming Russian bots the next time a conservative message is being spread on Twitter.

CNN and The Washington Post did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The photographer behind Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's now famous engagement photos has revealed what it was like to shoot the royal couple.

Alexi Lubomirski, the man behind the intimate royal engagement photo shoot, admitted that he was selected for the coveted position via social media.

"It was nutty. It was a very surreal end to the year because it came out of nowhere," explained the photographer told E! News. "I think one of Meghan's friends saw me on Instagram that I was in England during the announcement of the engagement and I was told later that this person said to her, 'You should meet Alexi. He's great. You'd love him' and that was it."

The famed portrait and fashion photographer, who has shot celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Julia Roberts and Trya Banks, explained that the engagement shoot was the first time he had met the couple. But despite not knowing the two prior to the shoot, Lubomirski said working the Prince and his fiancee was anything but difficult.

"It was one of the easiest, most joyful jobs because they were so deliciously in love," the photographer revealed.

And the couple being over-the-moon-in-love worked for well for Lubomirski who said the only instruction he gave the couple was to "just be yourselves."

The British photographer and his wife, Giada, then spilled that the two had scored themselves invites to Markle and Harry's big day. And though the photographer was not asked to shoot the May 19 nuptials, Giada praised her husband for his now historic images.

"I was so incredibly proud of my husband," she gushed. " I couldn't think of anyone better than him because he's a romantic at heart."
The Obamas will not be attending the wedding of U.K.s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle on May 19 at Windsor Castle, Fox News has learned.

A source told Fox News Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama will not be going to the royal wedding, despite earlier speculation they were set to attend.

"The couples look forward to seeing each other soon," the source said.

People magazine reported Tuesday the decision may have been made to keep politics out of the royal wedding.

A rep for the palace explained, It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both U.K. and international  is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markles wedding. Her Majestys Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by The Royal Household.

People also claimed the guest list is being reserved for long-standing friends Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, have known for years.

Those in attendance will be people who one or both of the couple has an existing direct relationship with, a royal source told the mag.

When asked about the Obamas possible attendance on Dec. 27 on BBC Radio 4s Today program, Prince Harry replied: I dont know about that  we havent even put the invite or the guest list together. Who knows if hes going to be invited or not? I wouldnt want to ruin that surprise.

Prince Williams wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011 included world leaders and dignitaries in attendance, but a similar list of prominent guests is not required for Harry, who is fifth in line to the throne.

Insiders claimed St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle is smaller, in comparison to Williams grand Westminster Abbey, and will have around 600 guests.

Around 200 guests from charities linked with Harry and Markle are expected to attend, including WellChild for seriously ill children, as well as the Invictus Games for sick and injured veterans and serving military members.

Harry befriended Michelle Obama in recent years through their mutual work on behalf of veterans. Former President Barack Obama also supported Harrys Invictus Games in September 2017.

The soon-to-be royal couple have invited 2,640 people into the grounds of Windsor Castle. The majority of those invited, 1,200 to be exact, will be members of the public, nominated by local Lord Lieutenant offices.

The couple has asked that the people chosen are from a broad range of backgrounds and ages, including young people who have shown strong leadership, and those who have served their communities, the palace said in a statement.

When the engagement was announced in November 2017, the palace said the wedding will reflect [the couples] characters and personalities and be a moment of fun and joy.

After the ceremony, the married couple will undertake a carriage procession from St. Georges Chapel through Windsor Town and then return to Windsor Castle.

They hope this short journey will provide an opportunity for more people to come together around Windsor and to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day, said the palace.

Harrys father, Prince Charles, will hold a private reception later that evening for the newlyweds, with close friends and family members in attendance at an undisclosed location.
Katie Cassidy says she will never forget the time she (almost) hung out with Prince Harry!

ET caught up with the 31-year-old actress at the premiere of her latest film, "Cover Versions," in Los Angeles on Monday, where she told a story about randomly meeting the 33-year-old royal while vacationing in Miami with friends back in 2014.

"I was just there with some of my girlfriends, we had just finished shooting ["Arrow"], we were on vacation," Cassidy, who is the daughter of Sherry Williams and the late David Cassidy, explained to ET's Keltie Knight. "He had come with some of his friends ... one of his friends, I think, was getting married, so he was a part of the bachelor party. They were sorta on a bachelor weekend, and they were, like, 'Hey. You guys should come out with us.'"

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Asking Royal Wedding Guests for Charitable Donations in Lieu of Gifts

Cassidy says she was with two of her closest friends, who were both married, and although she's now happily engaged to Matthew Rodgers, she says she was single at the time. Prince Harry had just broken up with his ex-girlfriend, Cressida Bonas.

"[The bachelor party guys] were like, 'You guys should come out with us tonight.' I was like, 'Uh, no. With all due respect, Prince Harry, that's the last thing I'm gonna do -- be photographed," Cassidy continued. "Not that I have anything against him -- he's wonderful and lovely -- but, you know, I've also been 'on my own merit' type of girl ... not necessarily just the daughter of [David] or 'Harry's girl.' I have my own identity."

Despite turning down Prince Harry, who is marrying former "Suits" star Meghan Markle on May 19, Cassidy says he couldn't have been any kinder to her and her friends that weekend.

Royal Wedding Countdown: Meghan Markle Returns to Los Angeles as Her Father Brushes Up on British History!

"He's the most loveliest, kindest person, honestly," she gushed. "And also, the fact that my girlfriends and I were like, 'Thank you so much, but no thank you, we're not gonna party with you and your friends tonight' -- he was like, we saw him the next day at the pool and [he was] respect[ful]. Like, 'You guys are cool. OK, we get it.' And I was like, 'Sorry!'"

"Cover Versions" is available on digital on April 10, just over a month before Harry and Meghan say "I do" at St. George's Chapel. Obviously, we had to ask Cassidy if she'll be tuning in for what's sure to be the biggest event of the year.

"No," she joked. "But my mom is very into it. So, I'm sure I'll hear about it! Congratulations to them, that's awesome."

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Royal Wedding: The Complete Guide
T.J. Miller was arrested Monday night at New York Citys LaGuardia Airport after he allegedly made a false bomb threat on an Amtrak train in March, authorities said.

Miller, whose full name is Todd Joseph Miller, was released Tuesday on $100,000 bond after appearing before a judge, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut said in a news release. He was charged with intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train traveling to Connecticut.

The former "Silicon Valley" star is accused of calling police on March 18 while he was on an Amtrak train to report that a woman with brown hair and a scarf has a bomb in her bag. He said the train was traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York Citys Penn station.

Amtrak officials stopped the train in Westport, Conn., and bomb squad members searched the cars but found no evidence of explosive material onboard.

T.J. MILLER'S COMEDY CENTRAL SHOW CANCELED AMID SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

Investigators soon found inconsistencies with Millers story, including the fact that he was on a different Amtrak train. The 36-year-old comedian appeared intoxicated and drank several alcoholic drinks during the train ride, the complaint said.

When an investigator called Miller again -- who was already in New York -- the former Silicon Valley star described the woman again, but instead said she had red hair and was carrying a black bag carry-on suitcase with a handle. He claimed he drank "one glass of red wine" when asked if he was intoxicated.

He said she kept checking her bag without taking anything out; kept asking the First Class attendant what the next stop was, and seemed to want to get off the train and leave her bag behind, the complaint stated, according to the news release.

Officials investigated Millers actual train when it arrived at the Westport stop and an Amtrak attendant said Miller had hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row in the first class car. Officials interviewed the woman and found she wasnt carrying an explosive, as Miller described, and wasnt constantly checking her bag.

The complaint further alleges that Miller, motivated by a grudge against the ... female, called 911 to relay false information about a suspected bomb on the train, and continued to convey false information to investigators while the public safety response was ongoing, the statement read.

COMEDIAN T.J. MILLER DENIES ACCUSATIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, PUNCHING FEMALE COLLEGE CLASSMATE

The arrest comes months after sexual assault allegations were made against the comedian. An anonymous woman came forward and told The Daily Beast in December that she and Miller had a consensual relationship in college but recalled distinct moments of unwanted and violent encounters with the comedian. The accuser described the graphic details of the alleged assaults to The Daily Beast, including a time when Miller reportedly choked and punched her.

Miller and his wife, Kate Gorney, denied the allegations, saying the victim began again to circulate rumors online once [my and Kates] relationship became public.

Sadly she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again," the Millers wrote. It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims against real known predators.

Fox News Morgan Evans and Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
Sweets lovers in the Northeast are evidently going into panic mode now that the countrys oldest candy company, Necco, might be going out of business  and they're rushing to stock up on Necco Wafers, in particular, despite the product's relative unpopularity.

New England Confectionery Co., based in New England, announced last month that it might shut its plant in Revere, Mass., after 170 years in business. The company makes sweets such as Necco Wafers, Mary Janes, Clark Bars and Sweethearts, a candy that gained popularity thanks to Valentines Day.

However, out of all the candies that may be lost, fans are most upset over Necco Wafers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The candy  which the Journal described as chalky  is also known for its long shelf life, making it even more ideal for hoarding.

BEN & JERRYS GIVING OUT FREE ICE CREAM IN HONOR OF FREE CONE DAY

Joe Prince, the president of CandyFavorites.com., told the publication he's received hundreds of inquiries over the weekend about the candies and where people can buy them.

Theyre shocked and scared, Prince the Journal. Theyre not happy about it.

CandyStore.com also reported that it has received calls from people who wanted to buy the whole supply of Necco Wafers the day Neccos CEO Michael McGee announced he would shut the companys doors if Necco couldn't find a buyer.

Overall, CandyStore.com reported Necco Wafer sales increased 63 percent, a sign consumers are panicking.

Necco Wafers are now being sold for more than $30 a box on eBay and, as CandyStore.com reported, somebody even offered their car in exchange for some of the candies.

TACO BELL CUSTOMER OVERDOSES IN DRIVE-THRU, GETS REVIVED, THEN ARRESTED

McGee first informed Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo with news of the company's troubles, announcing in a March 6 memo that, unless the company could find a buyer, layoffs could begin by early May, the Boston Globe reported. As of 2011, the company employed about 500 workers.

The Necco Wafer has been produced since 1847, and enjoyed as far back as the Civil War. The Journal reported the candy has a complicated relationship with people who either love or despise the treat, with some telling the Journal that, when they gave out the wafers on Halloween, they were later visited by angry trick-or-treaters armed with eggs and toilet paper.
Dessert got dangerous at a Swiss restaurant, when 15 people were injured in a creme brulee torch explosion.

A small gas canister used to top the upscale desert exploded in the kitchen of Italian restaurant Les Tilleuls in Geneva, The Local Switzerland reports. Happening in the middle of lunch time rush, the blast was big enough to destroy the restaurant's kitchen as the windows shattered and a glass ceiling fell on top off a crowded outdoor terrace.

RESTAURANT PATRON BANNED FOR COMPLAINING TOO MUCH, ASKED TO 'KINDLY REFRAIN FROM VISITING' IN LETTER FROM OWNERS

According to the outlet, 15 people were injured in the April 7 blast, including two employees who were in the kitchen during the explosion and reportedly suffered burns. Eight were hospitalized, but none of the injuries were reported to be life-threatening.

"It appears to have been an accident. The volume of gas was quite small, but the blow-back effect was impressive, rescue services captain Frederic Jaques said, according to The Local.

DISNEYLAND LAUNCHES DOLE WHIP DONUT

Jacques added that Genevas forensic police are investigating the cause of the explosion, noting that accidents involving gas canisters were rare in a restaurant environment.

The next day, representatives for Les Tilleuls took to Facebook to apologize for the calamity, sharing photos and updates.

Following our experience of the day, we do not recommend that we use kitchen torches. As far as we are concerned, we will no longer use it in our kitchens, because there are enough techniques of preparation and cooking to pass through! they quipped.

The restaurant is scheduled to reopen its doors on April 11.

As noted by The Daily Meal, handling a torch to perfect the brittle caramel layer atop the custard of creme brulee is one of the reasons it is considered one of the most difficult desserts to make.

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A fast food employee has gone viral for helping a disabled young man eat his meal.

Laurinha Victoria recorded the man, described as a Giraffas -- a fast food chain in Brazil -- employee at the north mall food square in Salvador, Brazil, feeding a customer with a disability of the arms and leg, she said in a translation on Facebook.

FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS MAY BE HEALTHIER THAN FIVE-STAR RESTAURANTS

Today I was taken by emotion with tears in my eyes, seeing this scene at the north mall food square..., she wrote in her post, which has been viewed 11 million times.

Victoria wrote on Facebook that she was going to help the disabeled man, but the employee was already heading to his table to help him eat his food.

The woman was touched by the employees actions, calling the scene beautiful.

I came to him and said, what a beautiful gesture you are having.. God bless you, she said in the Facebook translation.

Those who viewed the video agree with her sentiments, and have shared over 527,000 mostly positive reactions.

Even in this cruel world, there will always be someone human with heart, congratulations to this special worker, one person commented, the Mirror reported.

"If all were more in solidarity with each other, this world would be much better, another Facebook user wrote.

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This is not the first act of employee kindness to go viral. Last month a Waffle House employee cut an elderly gentlemans ham for him after he said his hands dont work too good.

For her charitable act, the teenage fast food employee received an outpouring of praise and was awarded a $16,000 college scholarship.
The love of coffee is a powerful unifier  especially for one millennial couple who took their engagement photos at the Starbucks where they met.



Baristas Emily McMahan and Kale Bandy of Ohio recently celebrated their upcoming wedding with a portrait session at the coffee megachains Bowling Green location, a place seriously sentimental to the pair.

This Starbucks is special to us because it changed our lives. It was about a year prior to my moving there that I had gotten out of an emotionally draining relationship, the 23-year-old bride-to-be told The Daily Meal. Meeting Kale made me believe in love again.

We always say we know it was meant to be because a lot of things had to fall into place for us both to be at that Starbucks that summer, she further divulged. Kale got into a car accident that forced him to move back home and I didnt even know I was spending the summer there until two weeks before moving. Everything just fell into place perfectly for us to meet.

Kale would tell you it was love at first sight, but that wasnt the case for me. He pursued me for the entire summer while I resisted, McMahan said of her 24-year-old fiances initial attempts to woo her.

It wasnt until the last full day I was there that I realized that I had been falling in love with him all along, she said.

Spending most of her time busy in the back room doing dishes, the Kent State senior fondly recalls that Bandy was always making excuses to see her, brightening her days. Their first kiss even happened near the Starbucks.

One night after close, Kale walked me to my car. After a short conversation, Kale asked me permission to kiss me. It was our first kiss and it was magical. It meant so much to me that he asked me to kiss me, McMahan said.



Eleven months later, Bandy popped the question  shockingly, not over a cup of coffee. The couple told The Daily Meal that their love of music eclipses even their love for java, and McMahan said yes after an Oh Hellos concert.

On Feb. 2, 2019, McMahan and Bandy will say I do in front of 150 guests at a rustic-vintage themed wedding. McMahan says that though the bash wont be Starbucks themed, the bridal shower will honor the drink that brought the lovebirds together with a coffee bar and whole-bean party favors.

Starbucks did not immediately return Fox News request for comment.
A Minnesota boy with a rare genetic disorder needs the publics help to find his missing sidekick: Eeyore, the beloved, dispirited donkey from the classic series Winnie the Pooh.

Eeyore first went missing when 10-year-old William Ihle of Minneapolis was traveling with his family earlier this month. The boys spring break adventures included a trip to Tucson, Ariz., and then to Brownsville, Texas, to visit his maternal grandparents.

Williams younger sister noticed that Eeyore was nowhere to be found just after William, his two siblings, and his mother, Kari, boarded a flight from Dallas to Brownsville.

Justin, Williams father, who was not with the rest of his family on the trip to Texas, got a worried phone call from Kari shortly after.

I sprung into action, Justin, 41, told Fox News on Tuesday. He immediately made lost-and-found claims with multiple airlines, placing phone calls to the Transportation Security Information (TSA), and more  but to no avail.

When youre packing for three kids, its easy to think, I saw it at this date,' he said. Eeyore may have been lost on an American Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Dallas on April 4, Kari, 40, told Fox News.

It would be easy enough to buy William a new stuffed Eeyore. But the one thats missing has sentimental value thats keeping us up at night, Justin said. Thats because the toy has seen William through some tough times as hes battled tuberous sclerosis (TS), a genetic disorder that can affect the brain and cause seizures, developmental delay, intellectual disability and autism, according to TS Alliance.

Though the 10-year-old does have some cognitive delays, hes super brave and doesn't let TS define him at all, said Justin.

William first started to have seizures at just 2-and-a-half years old. At age 4, William had a lengthy surgery to remove the part of his brain that was causing the seizures.

"[While the surgery was successful], as a mom and a parent, you do everything you can to protect your kids. When he was going in for brain surgery, I didnt know if I was going to see him alive again," Kari said. "I couldnt go in [to the operating room] with him, but Eeyore could."

"I couldnt go in [to the operating room] with him, but Eeyore could."  Kari Ihle, William's mother

She added, [Eeyore] was the only things that comforted me in a time that was absolutely horrible. Thats why it has been so hard.

While the family doesnt have a lead on the donkeys whereabouts just yet, they have received an outpouring of support on social media. Many people have reached out to them and have offered to send a replacement to comfort William as the search for the original continues.

To give back, the family plans to donate any extra Eeyores to Childrens Minnesota, where William received many of his treatments for TS.

There are many more important things in this world than a stuffed an animal, but the outpouring of support has been amazing, Justin said. William is not totally down-and-out  hes a resilient kid  but we hope [Eeyore] comes back.
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Over the weekend, another suspected chemical attack was carried out in Syria killing dozens of innocent people. Horrifying images of young women and children shaking and suffocating to death while doctors desperately tried to save them were splashed across our television screens.

This attack, along with the recent bombings in Eastern Ghouta that killed an estimated 1,600 civilians since February of this year, are a heart-breaking reminder of the catastrophic human toll that has accumulated over the course of the war in Syria.

What started as a series of violent crackdowns on demonstrations in 2011-- by a diabolical dictator-- quickly ballooned into an all-out civil war. Since this disastrous conflict began, it is estimated that almost 500,000 people have been killed while 5.5 million people fled the country and are living as refugees.

Conflicts of this magnitude create fertile ground for jihadists to plant their seeds. In this kind of environment extremism is born, radicalism thrives, and terrorism spreads.

Today, Syria is not just a country set ablaze by internal divisions; it is an epicenter of war where many world powers are staring each other in the face. Russia, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United States, and several European countries are involved and all of them are searching for a different road to Damascus.

For a bloody battle that seems far from over, many are wondering what role the United States can play in helping facilitate a conclusion to this conflict. While limited, options remain available.

First, if it is confirmed that the Assad regime was behind the latest chemical attack, the United States, the U.K, France, and other allies need to work together and carry out a bold and swift response. The civilized world cannot allow these heinous attacks to go unanswered.

When President Obama drew his red line in the sand after a chemical attack in 2013, he chose to turn his back and walk away from it.

Instead of responding forcefully, he dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to negotiate a deal with Russia to remove Syrias chemical weapons stockpile. Based on the repeated use of chemical weapons to target and kill civilians, that deal has proven to be a colossal failure.

The Administration should put all options on the table including military strikes similar to the Tomahawk missiles that successfully struck several targets inside Syria last year following a Sarin gas attack that killed over 70 people. The use of weapons of mass destruction must never be tolerated.

This time, President Trump and his team should consider hitting a greater number of military installations to severely degrade Assads ability to launch these immoral and illegal attacks from the air. This would send a clear-cut message to the regime.

Second, Iran and Russia also have blood on their hands as they have been partners in carrying out these atrocities. They must not be left off the hook. Both countries need to be subject to additional economic and diplomatic penalties for propping up Assad, sponsoring terror, and supporting other destabilizing actions in the Middle East.

In the House of Representatives, I have already taken steps to squeeze the Iranian regime by introducing bipartisan legislation that sanctions government officials for hostage taking, corruption, and human rights abuses. I also introduced legislation that sanctions the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for its support for terrorism and for its ongoing ballistic missile development. If enacted into law, these actions could help force Iran to retract its tentacles of terror.

Finally, we must remain focused on destroying ISIS. Our chief objective in the region must be to make sure they are not able to re-acquire the land they once held. A previous premature withdrawal of American forces from Iraq allowed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to lead an army of savages to brutalize cities and kill tens of thousands of people.

The world was left in shock as we witnessed the gruesome executions carried out by ISIS. Some were burned alive and others, including Americans, were beheaded on camera.

Because the desire to kill is their guiding inspiration, we must make sure ISIS is not able to regain strength. Another early exit could breathe new life into the embers that remain lit before this bloodthirsty fire can be extinguished.

There are many factors that will contribute to this endeavor, but none are as powerful as the American military. We have crushed the caliphate. Now it is time to crush their spirit. Only when the Pentagon feels we have succeeded should we begin to withdraw our forces. At that time, Arab states, the UN, and other partners in the region will have to take on more responsibilities. We cannot continue to occupy foreign countries indefinitely.

For many decades, war in the Middle East and threats from terrorists have seemed all too common. There is no doubt that we are faced with very serious challenges. However, I believe that if we implement the steps I have outlined, we will strengthen the security of our homeland and make the world a safer and more peaceful place.
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The isolationist spirit  a reluctance to become involved in foreign entanglements  goes back in U.S. history to Thomas Paine and his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense and to George Washingtons 1796 Farewell Address.

In modern times, the isolationist spirit had a strong pull against U.S. involvement in WWI and WWII, but was eventually overcome, however reluctantly, by catastrophic events.

Whether he realizes it, or not, President Trump tapped into that spirit when he instructed military commanders to wrap up Americas role in Syria and to bring the troops home within months. One can almost hear the echo of Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., who said in reference to the U.S presence in Vietnam, Come home, America.

Osama bin Laden bet on Americas impatience with protracted wars in devising his terrorism strategy, but if one side is in it to win it and the other establishes a timetable, as President Obama did in Iraq, it isnt difficult to predict which side will be victorious.

Writing in the Washington Free Beacon, Aaron Kliegman lists five reasons why the U.S. should not leave Syria. President Trump should read and heed them.

First, writes Kliegman, ISIS remains in Syria and continues to pose a threat, even though its ambition for a caliphate has been temporarily thwarted. People who believe they have a religious mandate to keep fighting, believing their reward is Heaven should they die, will not be easily dissuaded by people they regard as occupiers and infidels.

Abandoning allies is not a good way to build trust and confidence among friends in the ongoing war against terror.

Kliegmans second reason for not abandoning Syria is rooted in the recent example cited above. When President Obama announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, disaster ensued. First, there was sectarian warfare between Sunni and Shia Muslims, followed by the regrouping of Al Qaeda in Iraq into Syria, which morphed into ISIS, requiring a stepped-up military presence ordered by President Trump.

Reason three: A premature withdrawal would undermine the presidents Iran policy, which includes abandoning the nuclear deal with Iran, possibly as soon as next month. It simply does not make sense, writes Kliegman, to leave the nuclear deal, impose more sanctions and target the regimes development and proliferation of missiles only to cede Syria to Iran.

Reason four: Washington would further lose its ability to influence events, ceding control to hostile authoritarians. While the Trump administration wants to pull out, the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey held a summit last week in Ankara on Syrias future. Without an American presence it isnt difficult to predict Syrias future. It will likely serve as a base for increased terrorism.

Reason five: The U.S. would again abandon the Kurds to a violent fate. The Kurds in Syria, notes Kliegman, have by far been Washingtons most effective partner in fighting ISIS on the ground. They have also faced fierce opposition from the Turkish government in Northern Iraq. Abandoning allies is not a good way to build trust and confidence among friends in the ongoing war against terror.

I would add a sixth reason: the recent chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians. A precipitous U.S. pullout would only encourage the Assad regime and their Russian supporters to continue this assault on international norms and treaties and opponents of the government.

The Middle East is a mess and has been for some time. No one-size policy fits all circumstances, but premature withdrawal is not a policy, at least not one that will lead to victory or at a minimum stability. Perhaps President Trump can get our allies to share more of the cost and burden. For certain, both cost and burden will be much greater if he follows in President Obamas footsteps and makes a decision that feels good at first, but in the end exacts a much higher price.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified at a joint hearing of two Senate committees Tuesday, making the case that both he and the company he founded are very sorry for failing to protect the privacy and private information of Facebooks 2 billion users.

So if youre a Facebook user, what does that apology mean for you? And how do you protect yourself from future data breaches? Read on to find out some practical steps you can take.

While Facebook is fun and has become woven into many of our lives  often helpfully and pleasurably  its important to remember it is also fundamentally a gigantic data farm. Facebook harvests every last bit of personal information about us, our families, friends, and colleagues  without any transparency as to how or by whom that information will eventually be deployed. The company then makes billions of dollars with that information.

Specifically, Congress is concerned with the Cambridge Analytica data breach that at current reckoning has affected 87 million Facebook users, and has called Zuckerberg to a double hot seat this week.

Zuckerberg faced questioning Tuesday at joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees. On Wednesday he will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

But theres a basic flaw in all the finger-pointing and handwringing over Facebook. Whether tech companies take responsibility or not  even if they have the will or the legislated mandate to do so  the question remains: do they have the actual capability to protect peoples data?

Unfortunately, the answer is that no, the tech companies do not.

The evidence over the past several years is pretty clear. Weve witnessed an almost continuous pattern of digital breaches and exploits exposing the identifiable personal information  from credit card accounts to Social Security numbers  of hundreds of millions of Americans.

The death knell for the resilience of private sector digital security may have been the 2016 revelation by Yahoo that hackers connected to a foreign state-sponsored group stole names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers from more than 1 billion accounts.

Our government is no better. The competency of some of our most sophisticated U.S. agencies and departments in this same realm was made equally clear in 2015, when hackers were able to steal the fingerprint records of 5.6 million government employees.

Today, catastrophic fails by companies and official institutions to safeguard the most sensitive and private information of people are no longer a surprise. They are weekly news.

If the current public and private sector stewards of our digital safety and privacy cant protect us, then who can be trusted to make decisions about who can see and access your personal information? The answer is clear: You can trust yourself.

The danger in our digital lives is that we dont usually know or have any real choice over what were sharing or with whom, or how long that data will live. In fact, the data will live forever.

We also dont know how our personally identifiable information will ultimately be used or abused. With the onslaught of long terms of use pop-ups incomprehensible to the average user, consent has become largely a sham.

Its increasingly difficult and not realistic to opt out of what has become a virtual home for so many of our basic transactions and relationships: our banking, our credit cards, our access to shopping and essential services, our links to our kids schools and our contact with our loved ones.

So we close our eyes and click accept and simply trust.

This ostrich-in-the-sand approach works fine until something really bad actually happens to you, such as identity theft, or the undermining of our democracy.

There are actions, though, we can all take to protect ourselves as users of Facebook, and in our digital lives. Here are just a few:

1. Go right now and check your Facebook privacy settings. Are they what you want?

2. Stop giving away your phone number to strangers  and that includes companies and social media platforms. A phone number can potentially open access to a treasure trove for data miners, hackers and other abusers of personal information.

3. Download your pictures from Facebook. If there comes a time when you decide you need to quickly self-deport from the platform, you dont want to lose all those memories.

4. Start to use different identities to log-in to Facebook and your other social media platforms. Lots of millennial already do this on Instagram. Its a thing, and its easy to do.

5. Facebook is addictive. Are you on it because youre engaged in meaningful activity, or because youre seeking that little dopamine hit when somebody hearts your selfie? If you feel you might have a problem, start to wean yourself. Try putting the icon on the second page of your smartphone screen, and turn off your notifications.

6. In the digital world, if something is free, it means your data is probably being harvested. If you can pay for a service that doesnt require your personal information as the trade, that might be preferable.

7. Stop taking those fun quizzes on social media platforms. They are mostly scams to steal your personal information. They not only impact you, but they can open access to all your friends. Plus, do you really need to know which Norse god you are?

This week in Washington, Mark Zuckerberg is unlikely to say is that the Internet isnt safe, and that its stewards cant be trusted.

In the end, we dont need hollow promises from tech titans that they care about privacy. And we dont need legislation attempting to require the impossible. We especially dont need to be told to opt out of a digital world that is an essential part of our culture, community and commerce.

What we do need is to be allowed to opt in  to take full ownership and management responsibility over our own information and online identities.

Hopefully, in the course of this weeks hearings  in questions from lawmakers and in Zuckerbergs answers  and in the weeks and months to follow, we can see private and public sector momentum to deliver back control over privacy and personal information to the individual.

That is where this control rightly and necessarily belongs.
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John Bolton, who began work Monday as President Trumps national security adviser, has repeatedly been hit with false accusation and demonized and attacked by the left  but shows no signs of changing his views to curry favor with those advocating a weak national security policy. Any fair assessment will show him to be a valuable addition to the Trump administration.

Bolton has shown repeatedly that can he act swiftly, decisively and wisely. One sign of this came Tuesday with the resignation of White House Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert.

A White House source told Fox News that Bosserts resignation was a result of Boltons cleaning house at the National Security Council. The source also said that Bolton may merge the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, which now function separately but share staff.

Vox has called Bolton one of the most radically hawkish voices in American foreign policy, and claimed Bolton would lead America into wars with North Korea and Iran  rogue regimes with nuclear weapons or weapons capabilities that in the eyes of the left are less dangerous to America than Bolton himself.



The far-far-left hero Ralph Nader has berated Bolton for having played an active role in the Bush/Cheney regimes criminal war of aggression that destroyed Iraq, and declared Bolton a clear and present danger to our country and world peace.



The New York Times lumped Bolton together with Secretary of State designee Mike Pompeo, arguing both were a danger because they have ties to individuals and groups promoting a worldview that regards Islam not so much as a religion, but as a political ideology that is infiltrating the United State and other countries with the goal of imposing Shariah law.

Bolton enjoys political combat, and is undoubtedly one of its most skilled warriors. But the left doesnt hate him for his skills, his knowledge, or even his views. They hate him because he is fearless in exposing their outrageous preference for the enemies of America.

This leftist hysteria is hyperbolic nonsense. John Bolton is not a warmonger. He believes, correctly, that a strong America is the best way to guarantee peace.

Bolton enjoys political combat, and is undoubtedly one of its most skilled warriors. But the left doesnt hate him for his skills, his knowledge, or even his views. They hate him because he is fearless in exposing their outrageous preference for the enemies of America.



Bolton understands that threats to America must be dealt with forcefully  not necessarily with military might, but with the full spectrum of statecraft. This is true in North Korea, which successive U.S. administrations have attempted unsuccessfully to bribe into submission, as well as in our dealings with the radical Islamic regime in Iran long coddled by Democrats from Jimmy Carter to John Kerry.

And its not just the left that hates Bolton. His appointment has also sent shivers down the milky spines of Deep State shadow warriors, who have sought to undermine every Republican president since Ronald Reagan by spreading rumors, leaking classified intelligence and even lying to the president himself.



The latest of these Deep State agents is Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA analyst who complained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week that Bolton dared to challenge him in 2002 over bogus intelligence the CIA was then promoting about Cubas biological weapons program.



Armstrong seems to believe that the Washington press corps is full of useful idiots, or bots who have no memories. Bolton challenged Armstrong at the time because Armstrong was peddling information that had been planted in the U.S. intelligence community by a convicted Cuban spy  a spy whose lies Armstrong apparently continues to peddle even today.



I discussed this in detail in my 2007 book, Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender.

Bolton is like the boy who shouts out as the emperor parades naked down the street that the emperor has no clothes! Its his penchant for truth-telling that the left and the shadow warriors fear the most.



A little-known entry on Boltons resume is the fact he was nominated in 2006 for the Noble Peace Prize by a former deputy prime minister of Sweden for having crafted something known as the Proliferation Security Initiative while he was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The initiative was a U.S.-led effort to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction on the high seas. (Full disclosure: I was jointly nominated with Bolton for the prize, for my work in exposing Irans nuclear weapons program).



Few people know about the Proliferation Security Initiative. Why? Because its a multilateral effort that has been a tremendous success, thanks to John Bolton.



President Trump finally has found a kindred spirit to help him sort through the lies the Deep State is continuing to feed him. Both the president and America will be well-served by National Security Adviser John Bolton.


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The far left will stop at nothing in their efforts to derail the presidency of Donald Trump. Still bitter about the outcome of 2016, the left claims much of their outrage toward the president is driven by his unpredictable personality, but ideological opposition to his administrations reform-minded agenda is the real root of their anger.

Nowhere is this more evident than the furor surrounding Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Trumps opponents have seized on a number of recent unflattering news stories involving Pruitt and his agency. While admittedly not the best public relations for Pruitt, his real sin is that he is one of Mr. Trumps most aggressive reformers, as the Wall Street Journal editorialized last week. President Trump expressed a similar sentiment over the weekend when he tweeted praise for his EPA chiefs bold actions and record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars.

Since taking office last year, Pruitt has boldly carried out the presidents campaign promises. In October, he moved to repeal Obamas Clean Power Plan regulations, ending the War On Coal and providing a shot in the arm for coal country that had been decimated.

Pruitt and Trump issued an executive order doing away with the Obama-era Waters Of The United States (WOTUS) that sought to impose new regulations on every miniscule body of water in this country. And Pruitt encouraged Trump to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an accord which the UN itself admitted last year was largely symbolic, but whose damage to American businesses would have been real.

Environmental protection remains a priority: under Pruitts leadership, $100 million dollars have been awarded to Flint, Michigan, to upgrade the drinking water and to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants  known as Superfunds  has been prioritized.

Pruitts scandals are exaggerated for political expediency: never mind that the Obama EPA spent just as much, if not more, than Pruitts team, according to a recent Fox News report. Or that Lisa Jackson, Obamas EPA chief, was caught using the email alias Richard Windsor to communicate with people outside the government. Or that one Obama-era EPA employee was caught downloading and watching pornography on the job. These issues prompted no outrage from Hill offices, and one questions if Congressional inquiry could possibly be politically motivated, or if left-wing outrage is a one-way street.

These millions of Americans who lost their jobs, their towns, and their livelihood voted to undo the EPAs destruction, and Scott Pruitt is doing just that.

The left also knows that opposing Trump and Pruitt will curry favor with Tom Steyer, the San Francisco billionaire taking a bigger and bigger role in the public policy debate. Already having pledged $30 million dollars of his vast fortune to help elect identically ideological environmentalists, Steyer has now embarked on a publicity stunt to impeach the president, spending millions on television and digital ads.

Lost amid all the noise is the extreme damage the previous EPA did to rural communities. My work takes me to small, energy-rich towns around the country. These are the places where America gets its power, where multiple generations of energy workers live and worship and raise their families. Places where the champions of the eco-left would not deign to visit. These towns survived dot.com bubbles and housing crashes because the majority had steady, good paying jobs in coal mines or oil fields.

These proud towns went from prosperity to poverty during eight years of EPA regulatory action as unemployment became rampant, and with it, myriad hardships: shuttered stores on main street, depleted education funds, increased opioid use. Families broke apart as moms and dads moved from their beloved hometowns looking for work. The very fabric of their communities  neighbors, schools, churches, little league, diners, town squares  destroyed in less than a decade.

The ideologues of the previous EPA believed they were punishing the fat cats as Obama liked to call rich people who didnt vote for him, or millionaires and billionaires in Bernie Sanders lexicon, or big oil according to the eco-left. But who they really punished were the forgotten men and women in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, New Mexico, Alaska, and Louisiana, among others. These millions of Americans who lost their jobs, their towns, and their livelihood voted to undo the EPAs destruction, and Scott Pruitt is doing just that. His punishment will be severe: the eco-left, in conjunction with their elected patrons in Congress and media allies, will persecute him relentlessly.

Our message to Administrator Pruitt: American energy workers who are going back to work thank you. The American economy thanks you. And please remember these wise words: if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
American Pastors Network Invites Church Leaders to Important Conference Call on Church Security

Contact: Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies, 610-584-1096, ext 102, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com; Emily Brunner, 610-584-1096, ext 100



PHILADELPHIA, April 10, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- The American Pastors Network (APN, www.americanpastorsnetwork.net) is inviting pastors, church leaders, members of the media and other ministry organizations to an important nationwide conference call titled "Top Reasons Why Church Security Should be a Priority."

WHO: American Pastors Network



WHAT: Church security conference call



WHERE: Free conference call line



WHEN: 9 a.m. ET Thursday, April 12



WHY: To equip church leaders to address important matters of church security



HOW: Click here to register

Our culture is in desperate need of Christ, and what better place to learn of Him than in the church? But it comes with many questions and concerns for those who have been affected by or heard about violence and shootings in churches. Even pastors are asking:

Why do churches need security?



Must I turn my church into an armed fortress?



How can we reach out to people and dispel their fear when they sit in my church?



What should a church security plan look like?



Who should a church security plan involve?



How do I organize a church security plan?

Church security consultants who have assisted churches in setting up a security plan and pastors whose churches have a security plan in place will be featured on the call, which will cover the entire range of church security. Opportunity will also be given for participants to ask their own questions.



The APN radio ministry, "Stand in the Gap Today," which airs on 425 stations nationwide, can be heard live online from noon to 1 p.m. EST at American Pastors Network.com at the orange "Listen Live" button on the right-hand side of the webpage; find a station here.



View the media page for APN here, which also details information about "Stand in the Gap." For more information on APN, visit www.AmericanPastorsNetwork.net, its Facebook page or follow APN's Twitter feed, @AmericanPastors. To form a state chapter of APN, contact amy@americanpastors.net.



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The state of California is appealing a court ruling that upheld President Donald Trumps authority to waive environmental reviews for his proposed border wall with Mexico.

The state told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it would seek to overturn a February ruling by Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge in San Diego. Reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act and dozens of other laws can significantly delay or even block wall construction.

Xavier Becerra, Californias Democratic attorney general and frequent Trump critic, says the state will argue that the waivers are an overreach of executive authority under the Constitution and that the presidents waiver authority under a 2005 law has expired.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, also appealed Monday, saying the judge wrong to decide the waiver authority was still in effect.
The Republican governors of three states along the U.S.-Mexico border pledged a total of 1,600 National Guard troops to the frontier Monday -- close to half the maximum number President Trump requested to help crack down on illegal immigration and smuggling.

Trump said last week he wants to send between 2,000 and 4,000 National Guard members to the border, issuing a proclamation citing "the lawlessness that continues at our southern border."

"My administration has no choice but to act," he wrote.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress. Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

The largest commitment comes from Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that he would add about 300 troops a week until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops.

Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said, adding he wanted to downplay speculation that "our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody that's coming across the border, because that is not their role."

There is no end date for the deployment, Abbott said: "We may be in this for the long haul."

In Arizona, the state National Guard announced it was boosting the number of troops it will send to the border to 338 from 225. In a statement, the Guard said the troops will help regular law enforcement stem "the flow of trafficked people, criminals, narcotics, weapons, and ammunition trafficked in the state."

Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base Monday that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources" to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive.

"I don't think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue," he said. "You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition that's coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here."

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, offered to send members of his state's Guard as well. South Carolina sent troops to the border during Operation Jump Start, the border deployment ordered by Bush in 2006.

The only holdout border state is California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his state's National Guard will participate. Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, told the Associated Press Monday that state officials are still reviewing Trump's troop request.

Brown has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy. Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their state's Guard members and the U.S. government picks up the cost.

Administration officials have said that rising numbers of people being caught at the southern border, while in line with seasonal trends in recent years, require an immediate response.

Apprehensions are still well below their historical trends during the terms of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom also deployed the Guard to the border.

In Mexico City, a caravan of Central American migrants that had been heading north stopped in the Mexican capital. The caravan had sparked furious criticism from Trump, followed days later by his National Guard border protection deployment plan. Organizers said they never intended to go to the U.S. border.

Fox News' Charlie Lapastora and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump reacted angrily Monday to news that federal agents had raided the office and home of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen -- calling the action "disgraceful" and describing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as "an attack on our country."

Before a White House meeting with top military advisers, Trump took several minutes to blast the raid and the Mueller probe.

"It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt," said Trump, who claimed that he had "given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel. They continue to just go forward ... and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the [2016 Republican] nomination it started."

Trump also accused Mueller's investigators of being "the most biased group of people [with] the biggest conflicts of interest" and said Attorney General Jeff Sessions "made a terrible mistake for the country" when he recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation last year.

A source close to the White House told Fox News' John Roberts that the raid showed that the Mueller investigation "is out of control" and was a "demonstration of bad faith" on the part of the special counsel.

"What in the name of God is Mueller doing?" the source told Roberts. "He wants to take down the President."

Cohen's attorney, Stephen Ryan, said Monday's raid was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and was based at least partly on a referral from Mueller.

"The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said in a statement. "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

A source close to the White House also agreed with Trump's take on the alleged bias of Mueller investigators, saying that "the hiring of all those Clinton people for Muellers team was not an accident. It was done to bring down the president."

SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER'S TEAM HAS ONLY ONE KNOWN REPUBLICAN

In February, Fox News reported that most of the 17 confirmed attorneys on Mueller's team were registered Democrats or made Democratic political donations.

A source close to the Trump legal team told Fox News' Catherine Herridge that the raid on Cohen was "aggressive" and designed to "squeeze the president." The source, who has knowledge of talks between Mueller and the president's legal team, added that the raid "puts a fork in" the prospect of Trump agreeing to be interviewed by the special counsel.

Still, the existence of a referral from Mueller's office to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney suggests that the matter isn't related to Russia.

Under Justice Department regulations, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when his investigators uncover new evidence that may fall outside his original mandate. Rosenstein then would determine whether to allow Mueller to proceed or to assign the matter to another U.S. attorney or another part of the Justice Department.

Cohen has more recently attracted attention for his acknowledgment that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket just days before the 2016 presidential election. 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.

Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission have said the payment appears to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC, urging it to investigate.

There have been few signs that Mueller was interested in investigating the payment, though. One Mueller witness, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, recently connected the special counsel with the payment, saying in an interview on MSNBC last month that prosecutors had asked him about it.

Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and he didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair.

"Why don't I just fire Mueller?" asked Trump, repeating a reporter's question to him Monday night. "Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens, but I think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened.

"And many people have said, 'You should fire him.'" Trump added. "... So we'll see what happens ... this is a pure and simple witch hunt."

Fox News' John Roberts, Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyers Need to Impeach campaign sent out guides to more than 5,100 Democratic candidates across the country just two weeks before the first of a dozen Democratic primary debates his group, NextGen America, is bankrolling.

While NextGen and Need to Impeach are separate entities, the timing indicates the California billionaire and political activist hopes ousting President Donald Trump before the end of his term will be a significant campaign issue in the 2018 midterms.

Toms impeachment campaign is run out of Need to Impeach, which is a separate entity, NextGen America spokeswoman Aleigha Cavalier told Fox News. The topics of the debate will be on issues that matter to young people  which can definitely include impeachment  but thats not the focus.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller hasnt presented findings yet on a long-running investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Nonetheless, the nine-page Steyer guide contends impeachment is good politics and says making this case can boost turnout among the Democratic base.

Nothing is preventing Democrats from promoting an agenda focused on building a fairer economy, improving the health care system and creating a more equal and just society  while also underscoring the need to impeach this president, says the guide, which refers to Trump as one of the gravest dangers our country has ever confronted.

The first of Steyer's Keeping Up With the Candidates debates will revolve around Pennsylvania's newly drawn 7th Congressional District; Democratic candidates are set to face off Thursday in Fegleys Brew Works in Allentown to benefit the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center. (Each NextGen-bankrolled debate will be in a venue that attracts younger voters and will raise money for local progressive causes, according to the organization.)

The May Pennsylvania primary involves the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Charlie Dent, with district lines redrawn in response to gerrymandering litigation. Pastor Greg Edwards, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and Allentown Solicitor Susan Wild are among the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.

Panicked Democrats know the vast majority of Americans disagree with Steyer, but its not stopping the billionaire from demanding that 5,171 candidates pledge their loyalty to his baseless effort, Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in a statement. Democrats also face the looming specter of Steyer-sponsored debates that will undoubtedly press candidates on impeachment.

Steyers group also plans to sponsor debates in Pennsylvanias redrawn 5th Congressional District, where the GOPs Rep. Pat Meehan is retiring; in Virginias 10th Congressional District, where Rep. Barbara Comstock is considered vulnerable and where part of Washington's suburbs are represented; and in Californias 39th District, where Republican Rep. Ed Royce is retiring.

Cavalier said NextGen doesnt yet have information for additional debates.

In commenting on the debates in a news release, Steyer didn't mention impeachment. As millions of young people enter the political debate, they deserve a chance to be represented by elected officials who will address their concerns, discuss their ideas, and take action on the issues that affect their lives, Steyer said in a statement.

In 2018, young voters will be critical in races across the country, and it is time progressive candidates pay attention to the youth vote.

Steyer spent $20 million promoting his Need to Impeach effort in TV spots last year. In December, 58 House Democrats voted to bring an impeachment resolution up for debate. The measure failed with opposition from Democratic leadership.

Steyers impeachment guide lays out multiple alleged Trump offenses. For instance, it reiterates familiar allegations that Trump and his campaign colluded with Moscow to win the 2016 election. It also asserts that the president obstructed justice in firing FBI Director James Comey, and that he has violated the emoluments clause to enrich his businesses.

The document further asserts as impeachable offenses that Trump advocated violence in his comments on the fatal riot in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, and that he abused his power in pardoning Joe Arpaio, the ex-sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., in a criminal contempt of court case arising from Arpaio's handling of illegal immigrants.

The Steyer guide further maintains that Trump has endangered U.S. peace and security with taunts aimed at North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un; that he has directed law enforcement to investigate political enemies; and that he has undermined press freedom by, among other things, calling journalists the enemy of the American people.

In Pennsylvania, the 7th Congressional District is a swing district, while the 5th Districtsis likely to lean Democratic, said Kyle Kopko, a political science professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

Tom Steyer is "making a strategic decision to tap the anti-Trump vote. But the Republicans could do the same thing for their base if this is a referendum on impeachment.  Kyle Kopko, political science professor

Kopko added that said there is a calculated risk for Democrats with invoking the specter of impeachment in 2018.

Steyer has gotten a lot of recognition, and he could view impeachment as a way of mobilizing Democratic voters in November, Kopko told Fox News. Hes making a strategic decision to tap the anti-Trump vote. But the Republicans could do the same thing for their base if this is a referendum on impeachment.
National Guard members have begun arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as requested last week by President Trump, but California's Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is still mum on whether his state will participate in the deployment.

California has frequently fought with the Trump administration over illegal immigration, with one San Diego lawmaker saying that it's now a "rogue state."

Meanwhile, the Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving the White House many of the troops it requested to fight what Trump has called a "crisis at our southern border."

But Gov. Brown has not announced whether troops from his state's National Guard will participate. Brown's spokesman, Evan Westrup, said only that California officials still are reviewing Trump's troop request.

Even as California officials remain silent, some commentators have said Trump's measure doesn't go far enough.

Donald Trump said he would control the border," retired Army Col. Douglas MacGregor told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

"Its time to put the military on the border," MacGregor said. "The National Guard is nice, but the National Guard is not experienced in this. The regular Army is."

Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their state's Guard members and the U.S. government picks up the cost.

MOST BORDER-STATE GOVERNORS BACK TRUMP'S NATIONAL GUARD PLAN

Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border, issuing a proclamation citing "the lawlessness that continues at our southern border."

"We may be in this for the long haul."  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources" to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive.

"I don't think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue," he said. "You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition that's coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that he would add about 300 troops a week until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops.

Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said, adding he wanted to downplay speculation that "our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody that's coming across the border, because that is not their role."

CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER SAYS BORDER IS INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS

There is no end date for the deployment, Abbott said: "We may be in this for the long haul."

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall. Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

Mexico's foreign relations secretary said his government is evaluating its cooperation with the United States.

The country's Senate passed a resolution last week saying Mexico should suspend cooperation with the U.S. on illegal immigration and drug trafficking in retaliation for Trump's move.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed Tuesday on Capitol Hill that his social-networking company is already doing a better job of protecting the personal information of its billions of users in the wake of a massive data grab. But his plans might not be enough for lawmakers, who warned regulations or mandatory changes might be the only answer.

Weve seen the apology tour before, Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Zuckerberg on his first day of congressional testimony.

The Connecticut Democrat pushed the Facebook co-founder and chief executive to agree to an opt-in bill that would require online companies like Google and social media groups such as Facebook to ask users whether their personal information could be sold and to alert them about data breaches.

Zuckerberg, a tech genius who in 2004 started Facebook from his Harvard dorm, is on Capitol Hill for two days of testimony, largely to answer questions about how Cambridge Analytica, a political data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, got its hands on the personal data of an estimated 87 million users, then used it to try to influence the White House race.

The 33-year-old Zuckerberg on Tuesday faced a bipartisan call for regulations amid a string of Facebook issues -- including fake news and hate-speech posts -- before a joint hearing of the Senates Judiciary and Commerce committees.

If were counting on Facebook to regulate itself, were going to fail, said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Im a Republican, I dont like regulating things unless you have to.

Graham lauded Facebook for helping its 2.2 billion monthly users keep in touch with family or make new friends. But he also raised concerns about the dark side of social media that could influence elections deceptively and banish users for their political views.

I dont think the industry itself is going to address that dark side, said Graham, one of about two dozen senators to grill Zuckerberg during Tuesdays joint session. I think youre going to have to get the government involved.

Zuckerberg pushed back on the idea of a privacy law for young Facebook users, drawing a sharp response from Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey.

I couldnt disagree with you more, the senator shot back.

Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy warned that Congress would propose a whole lot of bills over problems with Facebook and other social media sites. But its up to Zuckerberg to decide whether they get passed, based on what he does next, he said.

I think your user agreement sucks, Kennedy also said, in urging Zuckerberg to make it more helpful to users than to Facebook.

Zuckerberg told senators that the company reviewed every single app that might have had access to users data and has locked down the platform to stop developers from selling user information to companies like Cambridge Analytica.

We dont sell data at all, Zuckerberg said during the hearing that lasted for nearly five hours. Thats a wide misconception.

He told the senators that Facebook has done a better job of flagging misinformation since the 2016 elections, when Russians bought roughly $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook, pointing to recent elections in India, Brazil and Pakistan.

But its an arms race, Zuckerberg said. He also said the company was developing artificial intelligence to detect hate speech and that Facebook would have 20,000 employees by the end of the year working on security and content review, doubling that staff.

Zuckerberg, a billionaire, apologized for the company's mistakes.

I started Facebook. I run it. Im responsible for what happens here, he said.

Zuckerberg faced repeated questions about why he didnt immediately inform the millions of Facebook users that their data had been compromised when he learned in 2015 about the developer selling the information to Cambridge Analytica.

We thought the case was closed, Zuckerberg said. In retrospect, we made a mistake.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, started the meeting by saying: We're here because of what you described, Mr. Zuckerberg, as a breach of trust.

This is not likely to be an isolated incident. We want to hear more, without further delay, about what Facebook and other companies plan to do. We are listening. America is listening. Quite possibly, the world is listening.

Zuckerberg acknowledged during his long-awaited testimony that some of his employees have been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller in his Russia collusion probe but that he has not been interviewed.

He also said he was not aware of a subpoena related to the Mueller probe but acknowledged having heard about one.

Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department last year to look into accusations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The hearing Tuesday was standing room only, with visitors waiting in line for hours to get a seat in the room. Protesters holding up placards reading, "Stop Corporate Spying," were allowed to remain in the room, but police quickly confiscated their signs.

Zuckerberg spent Monday on Capitol Hill talking privately with key senators and apologizing behind the scenes.

Looking back, it's clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections, he said in an open letter posted on Facebook, minutes before meeting privately with the senators.

The House later posted Zuckerbergs prepared testimony, in which he said: We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Commerce committee said after talking one-on-one with Zuckerberg that he found him forthright and willing to turn things around where mistakes have been made.

But Nelson also sounded skeptical about whether Facebook was capable of fixing its own problems and protecting users. He said Zuckerberg was serious about the pressing issues because he understands that regulations are right around the corner.

Nelson said Zuckerberg told him: We were lied to (by Cambridge Analytica). And we should have caught that.

The hearings marked the first time that Zuckerberg has testified before Congress, after declining a request last fall.

His appearances before the committees also followed days of preparation with some of Washingtons most experienced hands at congressional testimony.

While the freewheeling tech industry is largely opposed to burdensome government regulations, Zuckerberg already had appeared open to at least some changes.

We know some members of Congress are exploring ways to increase transparency around political or issue advertising, and were happy to keep working with Congress on that, he said in his prepared House testimony. But we arent waiting for legislation to act.

Zuckerberg has been in full damage-control mode since the reports surfaced several weeks ago about Cambridge Analytica.

In his Facebook post on Monday, Zuckerberg also announced plans for new artificial intelligence tools that would take down thousands of fake accounts and verify every political advertiser, and for an independent election research commission. And he said preventing interference and misinformation in the 2018 midterm elections was among his top priorities.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees Tuesday to discuss the social media platform's policy on user privacy amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Cambridge Analytica is a political consulting firm that worked on then-candidate Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. The firm received a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, a billionaire Republican donor, to influence voters, The New York Times reported.

The firm allegedly used a personality quiz to gather data from users and their friends, including details they had not intended to share. They are also accused of using private information from at least 50 million Facebook users profiles to influence elections.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, long celebrated as a tech genius for building a platform embraced by 2.2 billion active users, is used to being in charge.

But for the next two days, the 33-year-old is likely to face the nations scorn as he endures a grueling Capitol Hill interrogation over why the social media giant allowed a data-mining company to get the personal information of at least 87 million users.

Starting Tuesday afternoon, Zuckerberg appears for nationally-televised questioning before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees.

On Wednesday, the showdown continues, as Zuckerberg is slated to appear for round two before the lawmakers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Ahead of the hearing, Zuckerberg posted on Facebook: "In an hour Im going to testify in front of the Senate about how Facebook needs to take a broader view of our responsibility -- not just to build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good."

Zuckerberg arrived Monday on Capitol Hill contrite and apologetic, amid the threat of new government regulations.

FACEBOOK'S ZUCKERBERG ISSUES MEA CULPA BEFORE CAPITOL HILL GRILLING

Looking back, it's clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections, Zuckerberg said in an open letter posted on Facebook on Monday minutes before he met privately with senators.

In his first meeting Monday, Zuckerberg entered and exited a one-hour talk with Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson without talking to reporters.

But Nelson, the top Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, which will hear Zuckerbergs testimony Tuesday, said the Facebook executive and cofounder was forthright and willing to turn things around where mistakes have been made.

Zuckerberg, who helped start Facebook in 2004 while at Harvard, has been in full damage-control mode since reports surfaced in recent weeks that Cambridge Analytica, a political data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, may have used ill-gotten user data to try to influence elections.

Nelson said Zuckerberg told him Monday in their one-on-one meeting: We were lied to (Cambridge Analytica.) And we should have caught that.

The senator also said he believes Zuckerberg was sincere and is taking the issue seriously because he understands that regulations are right around the corner.

Nelson expressed skepticism about whether Facebook could fix its own problem. But he didnt commit to regulations, suggesting instead that he wants to hear more from Zuckerberg and what special counsel Robert Mueller concludes about Russia meddling in the 2016 elections before making a decision about Facebook and the rest of the social media industry.

In prepared testimony for the House hearing, Zuckerberg will give a statement similar to the one on Facebook.

We were too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and were working hard to get better," he says. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech as well as developers and data privacy. We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here.

On Monday, Zuckerberg also met with Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary committee; California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat; and South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

In Zuckerbergs Facebook post, he also announced plans for new artificial intelligence tools that will take down thousands of fake accounts and verify every political advertiser and to establish an independent election research commission.

And he said that preventing interference and misinformation in the 2018 elections is among his top priorities.

Facebook is also set this week to tell its roughly 2.2 billion users which apps each is using and what information the apps might have shared.

On Sunday, Cubeyou, a second data analytics firm used by Facebook, was suspended by Facebook as an investigation unfolds.

Looking back, it's clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections"  Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

Beyond the issue of protecting Facebook users personal information, Zuckerberg also is expected to face questions on Capitol Hill about the extent to which Russia influenced the 2016 White House race, following revelations that Russian bought $100,000 worth of Facebook ads and whether conservative content on the site is being censored.

On Sunday, Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy also opened the door to regulating social media, in the wake of the personal-data scandal.

I don't want to hurt Facebook. I don't want to regulate them half to death, Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on CBS Face the Nation. But we have a problem.

When asked whether regulation is the answer, Kennedy said, It may be the case.

To be sure, Facebook is facing the worst privacy crisis in its roughly 14-year history.

The company, prior to Mondays announcement, had already announced several piecemeal technical changes to address privacy issues.

Perhaps the biggest questions Zuckerberg is expected to face on Capitol Hill are: Can Facebook protect its data and did the company fail to because of its business model? Or did other factors create an obstacle to change?

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, are back in President Trumps crosshairs in the wake of the FBIs raid of his personal lawyer's office on Monday.

Trump has reacted angrily to the raid of Michael Cohens midtown Manhattan office and hotel room, calling Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation an attack on our country.

He also laid into Sessions over his decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe -- something Trump has repeatedly hit him for over the last year.



"The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself or he certainly should have let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in, Trump said Monday after news of the raid broke. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country.



Trump also took aim at Sessions' deputy, referencing how Rosenstein also signed the FISA warrant that extended surveillance of Trump aide Carter Page. The president has repeatedly decried the efforts to obtain that surveillance warrant.

According to The New York Times, which first reported the raid, agents obtained documents related to several issues, including Cohen's payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed she had sex with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 by Cohen in the days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement.

The Times reported Tuesday that it was also Rosenstein who personally approved the FBIs decision to raid Cohens office -- a move likely to infuriate Trump.

The special counsels office declined to comment on the raids but directed Fox News to U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 28, Section 600.4 regarding additional jurisdiction.



If in the course of his or her investigation the Special Counsel concludes that additional jurisdiction beyond that specified in his or her original jurisdiction is necessary in order to fully investigate and resolve the matters assigned, or to investigate new matters that come to light in the court of his or her investigation, he or she shall consult with the Attorney General, who will determine whether to include the additional matters within the Special Counsels jurisdiction or assign them elsewhere.

Both Rosenstein and Sessions have been a target of Trumps ire before.

Sessions, in particular, has had a tumultous relationship with Trump.

Sessions was one of Trumps earliest supporters and shares Trumps hardline stance on a number of issues that motivates Trumps base -- such as illegal immigration and law and order.

At times, Trump and Sessions seem to be on good terms, especially when the attorney general is taking action againsnt illegal immigration.

Last month Sessions announced the DOJ was suing California over its sanctuary policies, claiming that it prevent federal immigration authorities from enforcing immigration law. Last week the DOJ announced it was taking a zero-tolerance policy for prosecution of those who attempted to cross into the U.S. illegally on the southern border.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES 'ZERO-TOLERANCE' POLICY ON ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS



But, while Sessions may be ideologically-aligned with Trump, it has not kept Trump from repeatedly attacking him publicly. Trump has said on numerous occasions that he would not have appointed Sessions if he knew he was going to recuse himself. But he has not ousted Sessions, like has other Cabinet officials.



Rosenstein, meanwhile, was personally appointed to the role by Trump, but Trump has also soured on him. In June of last year, he griped that he was "being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!"



Asked in February if he would fire Rosenstein over his involvement in the Page FISA warrant and if he still had confidence in him, Trump said: "You figure that one out."



But Rosenstein and Sessions appear to have joined forces against the onslaught of criticism from the president. In February they were photographed having dinner, alongside Solicitor General Noel Francisco, in what was widely seen as a sign of unity.



Fox News Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Federal prosecutors in New York are asking the Trump Organization to turn over documents related to the $130,000 payment made by President Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a revelation that comes a day after federal agents raided Cohens home and office.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that prosecutors from the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York requested records of the payment made to Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The $130,000 payment was in exchange for Daniels -- whose real name is Stephanie Clifford -- signing a nondisclosure agreement regarding her one-time alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006, Daniels has said.

Federal agents also sought records on ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who received $150,000 from the parent company of The National Enquirer, the Journal reported. McDougal also claims she had sexual relations with Trump while he was married to his wife, Melania Trump.

The warrant relating to Cohen also reportedly seeks information about his associates in the taxi industry. Cohen has been a longtime owner of taxi medallions, in addition to working as a top lawyer at the Trump Organization, the paper said.

We do not generally comment on such matters, but have and will continue to comply with inquiries from proper authorities, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in a statement to Fox News Tuesday.

Cohens attorney, Stephen Ryan, did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York declined Fox News' request for comment.

The FBI raided Cohens home, office, and hotel room Monday to seize a collection of documents related to the payment.

Today the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients, Ryan said in a statement on Monday following the raid. I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Trump lashed out Monday evening, and again Tuesday morning, calling Muellers investigation a total witch hunt and an attack on our country, in a true sense.

But in an off-camera interview with CNN Tuesday, Cohen said: "I am unhappy to have my personal residence and office raided. But I will tell you that members of the FBI that conducted the search and seizure were all extremely professional, courteous and respectful."

"I think it will be proven that everything I did was legal," added Cohen.

A spokesman for the special counsel referred Fox News to U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 28, Section 600.4 regarding additional jurisdiction.

If in the course of his or her investigation the Special Counsel concludes that additional jurisdiction beyond that specified in his or her original jurisdiction is necessary in order to fully investigate and resolve the matters assigned, or to investigate new matters that come to light in the court of his or her investigation, he or she shall consult with the Attorney General, who will determine whether to include the additional matters within the Special Counsels jurisdiction or assign them elsewhere, the code reads.

That elsewhere in this case is referring to the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York.

When asked whether Mueller passed the referral to Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and who approved a further investigation into Cohen, the Justice Department declined to comment. A spokesman for the Southern District of New York also declined to comment to Fox News.

The decision by the US Attorneys Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, Ryan told Fox News in a statement. It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.

Ryan added: These government tactics are also wrong because Mr. Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath.

Daniels, who initially denied a sexual relationship with the president, is now seeking depositions from both Trump and Cohen. If approved, Trump would be the first sitting president to be deposed since former President Bill Clinton during Ken Starr's special counsel investigation.

Late Tuesday, Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted that he and his client would "fully cooperate" with any investigation involving the $130,000 payment. He also praised Daniels' "courage and fortitude."

"It takes special people to withstand death threats, turmoil and personal attacks, all in the interest of a search for the truth," he wrote.

Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this report.
Mike Hill Pledges to Repeal Part of Florida's New Gun Laws Contact: Mariya Calkins, Campaign Manager, 850-357-1919



PENSACOLA, Fla., April 10, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Mike Hill, candidate for Florida House of Representatives district 1, announced his intention to repeal portions of FL SB 7026. Hill said of the bill that, "Florida recently passed restrictive gun laws that were enacted by emotional mob rule resulting from an intellectually dishonest debate. It was dishonest because it purports to prevent future murders through legislation, something that God Himself hasn't achieved. It was mob rule because our legislators refused to debate facts over emotions."



Hill said, "In 2017 there were 15 students killed by gunfire on public school grounds and Democrats used this to justify the theft of our constitutional rights in their legislative agendas." He then compared the deaths of students killed by firearms to other causes of death such as texting and driving, which claim the lives of 300 teens annually. He said that 3,500 teens die annually from vehicle related incidents and wondered if the Florida legislature would use those deaths to deny the tens-of-thousands of other teen drivers in our state from owning a vehicle until they are 21.



Hill stated, "There is one statistic which truly demonstrates the hypocrisy of this legislation: 128 people are killed annually by a school transportation vehicle. Will the New Democrat Party now call for bus-free zones?"



Mike Hill aims to repeal the higher age limit and three-day waiting rule just passed in SB 7026. He also voiced great concern over the wording of what constitutes a bump stock. The bill defines a bump stock as, "a conversion kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device used to alter the rate of fire of a firearm to mimic automatic weapon fire or which is used to increase the rate of fire to a faster rate than is possible for a person to fire such semiautomatic firearm unassisted by a kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device." Hill firmly believes this wording will be construed by an activist judge to mean that any OEM part replaced on a weapon that causes the firearm to fire faster or easier will be in violation of this new law.



In an effort to educate the citizens of Florida on the truth regarding the gun control debate, Mike Hill's campaign created a website dedicated to illustrating just how rare school shootings are, especially in comparison to the other causes of death among those aged 21 and under. Visit VoteMikeHill.com for a more detailed presentation of this very important issue.



Mike Hill is a former representative in the Florida House and decided to run the race again to help bring common sense balance back to Florida's legislative efforts.



Media Contacts: Mariya Calkins, Campaign Manager, (850) 357-1919



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A number of President Trumps top appointees have been battling allegations of misconduct, from petty to profound, creating a growing distraction for his administration.

Trump has lashed out at the coverage of Scott Pruitt, expressing support for the EPAs embattled administrator despite leaks that hes displeased by all the negative attention. Pruitt, who bombed in an interview last week with Foxs Ed Henry, is facing so many allegations that its hard for even journalists to keep track.

But the larger question is why a number of these officials keep stumbling into embarrassing or ethically questionable territory. There is clearly a temptation for newly arrived occupants of big-shot Washington jobs to throw their weight around, convinced that they deserve royal treatment.

Similar episodes have plagued previous administrations, along with more serious breaches that have in some cases led to prison terms.

People from the business world, who are accustomed to doing things their own way, often have little patience for federal rules and regulations. But Pruitt had been Oklahomas attorney general, and a state senator before that, so hes hardly a stranger to political norms.

Pruitt rented a $50-a-night condo room from the wife of an energy lobbyist, payable only when he stayed there, and was eventually evicted when the landlords changed the locks. He is alleged to have helped arrange unauthorized raises for two staffers despite objections from the White House, and there are new concerns about an apparently no-show job for a third staffer. Several top officials who objected to Pruitts management practices are alleged to have been transferred or demoted; one complained about a proposed $100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership).

(Thats not even counting Pruitts request to use a siren to get through D.C. traffic to his favorite restaurant, Le Diplomate, or the work that began on a $40,000 soundproof booth for his office.)

Tom Price, the HHS secretary fired by Trump, had been a Georgia congressman and knew his way around the Beltway. He lost his job after Politico disclosed he had taken dozens of private jets--at a cost of $400,000to an island resort, to an area where his son lives, and for a brief flight from Washington to Philadelphia.

Trump fired David Shulkin as VA secretary after an inspector general found serious problems with his $122,000 trip to Europe, which included air fare for his wife, and acceptance of free Wimbledon tickets. The report said Shulkin had spent half his time visiting castles and other tourist sites, and that an aide had altered an email to make Shulkins wife appear eligible for the $4,000 plane fare.

Shulkin is a doctor and former hospital executive, but he did serve as a VA undersecretary in the Obama administration, so he knew the agencys culture.

Ben Carson had zero government experience before Trump tapped him as HUD secretary. He took enormous flak for ordering a $31,000 dining room set for his office, which he initially blamed on his wife before admitting he had some input and canceling the order. The doctor said that running a federal department was more complicated than brain surgery.

Anyone whos run for county council should know that seeking these kinds of luxuries is asking for political trouble. The public may not focus much on the intricacies of policy, but a private jet, free tickets and costly custom-made furniture is easy to grasp and easier to resent. And its a tougher sell when they are Trump administration officials pushing for painful budget cuts in the services they oversee.

Whether Pruitt hangs on or not, these incidents should serve as a red flashing light to other officials thinking of pampering themselves at taxpayer expense.
The Justice Department raid on the home of top Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Monday is, one expert says, likely a telltale sign that Special Counsel Robert Mueller may have found significant evidence regarding a payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

This is an extremely important development. This is Watergate-level stuff, Ken White, a former federal prosecutor, said to Fox News. Searching an attorneys office  at least by the feds  is a rather extreme move that you usually only see with lawyers in the thick of criminal enterprises. Its quite unusual.

The raid creates a new legal headache for President Donald Trump as he and his attorneys weigh whether to consent to an interview with Mueller's team. Besides investigating potential ties between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, that team is looking at whether the president's actions constitute obstruction of justice.

This is an extremely important development. This is Watergate-level stuff.  Ken White, Former federal prosecutor

The law enforcement action will almost certainly amplify the public scrutiny on the payment to Daniels, who says she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump told reporters last week that he didn't know about the payment, made just days before the 2016 presidential election.

Search warrants are a fairly standard, though aggressive, law enforcement tool and are often sought in cases where authorities are concerned someone may be hiding or withholding evidence. To obtain one, agents must convince a judge they have probable cause of criminal activity and believe they'll find evidence of wrongdoing in a search. A warrant requires high-level approval within the Justice Department, and agency guidelines impose additional hurdles when the search target is an attorney.

Authorities working with Mueller chose a similar tactic last summer when they raided the home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was subsequently indicted on an array of financial, conspiracy and other charges.

In this case, Mueller opted to refer the matter to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Beyond Cohen's office, agents searched a hotel room where he's been staying while his home is under renovation.

White says it may be too soon to tell, but Cohen will likely be under two independent investigations.

I expect this investigation in the [U.S. Federal Courts] Southern District of New York will proceed independently of Muellers investigation, White says to Fox News. Federal investigations are slow  Muellers is much faster than typical -- so I wouldnt necessarily expect anything soon unless Cohen flips.

Cohen has more recently attracted attention for his acknowledgment that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen has said neither the Trump Organization nor the campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed.

Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) have said the payment appears to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC urging it to investigate.

There have been few signs that Mueller was interested in investigating the payment, though. One Mueller witness, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, recently connected the special counsel with the payment, saying in an interview on MSNBC last month that prosecutors had asked him about payments to women.

White said Mueller likely saw something in the evidence, which led him to pass it on to other authorities.

Its speculative at this point but it appears that Special Counsel Mueller reviewed evidence about payments to Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, determined they might possibly be a federal crime, determined they werent part of his brief and handed it to the U.S. attorneys, he said, adding that Mondays raid could have negative effects.

If a judge determines that investigators and prosecutors reviewed attorney-client communications and no exception applies, that will be extremely damaging to both Muellers investigation and SDNYs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders slammed American Urban Radios April Ryan during Tuesdays press briefing for asking if President Donald Trump has thought about stepping down.

Ryan, who is also a CNN contributor, asked, With all of this turmoil, particularly this last week, has the president at any time thought about stepping down before or now?

Sanders fired back, No, and I think thats an absolutely ridiculous question.

Ryan was presumably referring to reports that Trump has been especially upset since the FBI executed a search warrant on his lawyer Michael Cohen. She tried to defend her question, but Sanders quickly moved on to the next reporter.

Were moving on, Sanders said before Ryan claimed, Its not ridiculous.

Ryan has emerged as one of the most combative members of the media when it comes to dealing with members of the Trump administration. She famously sparred with former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who once asked her to report the facts instead of sticking to her agenda.

Social media quickly erupted with takes on Ryans question about Trump stepping down. Conservative pundit Wayne Dupree tweeted that Ryan picked the wrong person to ask a question like this!

Earlier in the day, Ryan tweeted, Oooh! Today today today!!!! What a newsy day!
A review of threats made against embattled Environmental Protection Secretary Scott Pruitt challenges claims his office made to justify spending millions of dollars on extra security and first-class travel, according to documents released Tuesday.

The confidential security assessments at the EPA show no evidence of specific, credible or physical threats against Pruitt despite claims that there was an unprecedented number of death threats made against him.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wrote in a letter Tuesday that they have reviewed security assessments describing that is 16 purported threats against Pruitt, which include public protests, criticism of Pruitt's policies and other activities protected by the First Amendment.

The letter from Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged the committee's Republican majority to begin oversight hearings into Pruitt's unusual security precautions.

Committee Chairman John Barrasso quickly rebuffed that request, saying no hearing on Pruitt's security procedures will be held. The Wyoming Republican lashed out at his Democratic colleagues, accusing Carper and Whitehouse of improperly disclosing "law enforcement sensitive information" without the approval of EPA or the Secret Service.

Pruitt has come under scrutiny over the past several weeks for questionable spending at the EPA. He defended his decision to take a $50 a day condo rental from the wife of a lobbyist. He also pushed back on allegations he helped facilitate big raises for two of his closest advisers after the White House refused to sign off on them. Hes also come under fire for reportedly spending $3 million on security, including overtime pay and round-the-clock armed officers hired to protect him.

Last week, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said last week there had been an "unprecedented" amount of death threats against Pruitt and his family. Wilcox doubled down on that assertion Tuesday, but did not immediately respond to a request from AP to release details of the specific incidents to which he was referring.

President Trump, meanwhile, has publicly supported Pruitt.

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump suggested Pruitt had been the victim of multiple death threats.

"While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA," Trump tweeted. "Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!"

The Democrats said they found no records describing specific, credible threats against Pruitt. An internal EPA document recounted such threat as attempts by protesters to disrupt a speech and a post card sent to Pruitt that said: "CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!!! We are watching you."

The Democrats also obtained a Feb. 14 assessment from EPA's Office of Homeland Security Intelligence that concluded "EPA Intelligence has not identified any specific, credible, direct threat to the EPA administrator."

The internal review said an earlier threat assessment by Pruitt's security team "does not employ sound analysis or articulate relevant `threat specific' information appropriate to draw any resource or level of threat conclusions regarding the protection posture for the administrator."

The AP reported that Pruitt's concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes. Pruitt's 20-member full-time detail is more than three times the size of his predecessor's part-time security contingent.

EPA's inspector general is currently auditing Pruitt's security spending -- one of at least five ongoing probes by the agency's watchdog into spending and ethics issues surrounding the administrator.

Shortly after arriving in Washington, Pruitt, 49, demoted the career staff member heading his security detail and replaced him with EPA Senior Special Agent Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company. Perrotta oversaw a rapid expansion of the EPA chief's security detail to accommodate guarding him day and night, even on family vacations and when Pruitt was home in Oklahoma.

Perrotta also signed off on new procedures that let Pruitt fly first-class on commercial airliners, with the security chief typically sitting next to him with other security staff farther back in the plane. Pruitt's premium status gave him and his security chief access to VIP airport lounges.

Pruitt has said his use of first-class airfare was initiated following unpleasant interactions with other travelers. In one incident, someone yelled profanity as he walked through the airport.

A nationwide search of state and federal court records by AP found no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with making violent threats against Pruitt.

In November, BuzzFeed News investigative reporter Jason Leopold filed a public records request with EPA for copies of government records about death threats to Pruitt. Leopold told AP this week that an EPA official who responded to his request told him verbally that after checks with the agency's general counsel and inspector general's office that no such records existed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump is scrapping plans to travel this week to a summit in South America because of the situation in Syria, the White House said Tuesday.

Trump had been scheduled to depart Friday for Peru before traveling to Colombia.

President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders said Vice President Mike Pence will travel in Trumps stead. Pence will only go to the Summit of the Americas in Peru, but will not go to Colombia.

The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world, she said.

The announcement follows Trump on Monday calling the suspected chemical attack in Syria over the weekend atrocious and saying the United States will make major decisions about its response over the next 24 to 48 hours.

TRUMP CALLS SYRIA CHEMICAL ATTACK ATROCIOUS

On Monday, the president said he isnt ruling out military action.

Nothing is off the table, Trump said.

Saturday's suspected poison gas attack took place in a rebel-held town near Damascus amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce. Syrian activists, rescuers and medics said the attack in Douma killed at least 40 people, with families found suffocated in their houses and shelters.

Over the weekend Trump threatened a "big price to pay" for the attack. The government of President Bashar Assad has denied using poison gas.

Meanwhile, a U.S. official on Monday confirmed to Fox News that Israel conducted an airstrike on a Bashar al-Assad air base in Syria on Sunday night. The airstrikes reportedly killed 14 people, including Iranians, at a military airport near the city of Homs.

Israel gave the United States advance notice, the official said.

Fox News John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump took to Twitter Tuesday to express his anger over the FBIs raid of the office of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, slamming the move as proof of a witch hunt and declaring that attorney-client privilege is dead!



According to The New York Times, which first reported the raid, agents obtained documents related to several issues, including Cohen's payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The Times reported that prosecutors obtained the search warrant for Cohen's Midtown Manhattan office and a Park Avenue hotel room after receiving a referral from FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- who is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Washington Post reported that Cohen is under investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.



Trump, who on Monday called Muellers investigation an attack on our country, sent out two rapid-fire tweets on Tuesday, expressing his anger at the development.

On Monday he floated firing Mueller, telling reporters that many people have recommended that this be done: Well see what may happen.

Cohens lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said that the raid was overseen by the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan.

FBI RAID TARGETS TRUMP ATTORNEY MICHAEL COHEN, UNDER SCRUTINY OVER STORMY DANIELS PAYMENTS

"The decision by the U.S. attorney's office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said in a statement. "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

A source close to Trump's legal team called the Cohen raid a big deal, designed to squeeze the president.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed she had a sexual encounter with the president in 2006 and was paid $130,000 by Cohen in the days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she has sought to invalidate.

Last week, Trump was asked by reporters if he knew about a payment to Daniels. No, Trump responded.

When asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said, You have to ask Michael Cohen -- Michael's my attorney.

Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) have said the payment appears to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC, urging it to investigate.



Fox News Brooke Singman, Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As part of his plan to curtail immigrants from illegally coming into the U.S. through the countrys southern border, President Trump has requested National Guard troops to be deployed to the area.

Trumps move is not totally unusual: both former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush also deployed the Guard to the border in 2010 and 2006, respectively.

Trump has said he wants to send between 2,000 and 4,000 National Guard troops to the southern border to crack down at the lawlessness that continues there.

Trumps order invoked a federal law called Title 32, under which governors retain command and control of Guard members from their states, with the federal government paying for the deployment.

Heres a look at how states have responded to the administrations request.

Arizona

Arizona sent about 338 Guard troops to the border, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, said on Twitter.

He praised the administrations request for troops to the border, saying its a public safety issue for Arizona.

Anything we can do to further bolster these efforts is good news for Arizona and for our national security, Ducey said.

According to an Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs release, the troops will provide air support, reconnaissance support, operational support, construction of the border infrastructure and logistical support.

California

California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, agreed to send about 400 Guard troops "to supplement the staffing of its ongoing program to combat transnational crime," he said in a letter to the heads of the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

He said the state already has about 250 personnel for that mission across the state, including 55 at the border.

THESE CITIES, COUNTIES HAVE BACKED THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S LAWSUIT AGAINST CALIFORNIA'S SANCTUARY POLICIES

But Brown's compliance with the request came with a caveat.

"But let's be crystal clear on the scope of this mission. This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life," Brown said. "And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws."

New Mexico

New Mexico is sending 80 troops to the border but 250 are expected to eventually serve, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

The safety of all New Mexicans is our first and foremost concern which is why our soldiers will participate in this operation, Larry Behrens, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, said in a statement, according to the newspaper.

Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told San Antonio radio station KTSA in April that he plans to send as many as 1,000 troops to the border, though he will start with 250.

TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION DEMANDS AND WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR 2018

Going forward, Texas will continue to implement robust border security efforts, and this partnership will help ensure we are doing everything we can to stem the flow of illegal immigration, Abbott said in a statement.

Abbott said the Guard will be armed but wanted to downplay any notion that would be misinformed that our National Guard are showing up with military bayonets, trying to take on anybody whos coming across the border because that is not their role, according to KTSA.

Missouri

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, has sent four Army National Guard soldiers and a UH-72 Lakota helicopter to the border to aid U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"Missourians are grateful to the President for recognizing the need to secure our borders," the governor's office stated. "We are proud that Missouri troops will play a support role in guarding against terrorism, protecting Americans from cartel violence, and enforcing our immigration laws."

Fox News' Nicole Darrah and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SpaceX's Mars spaceship apparently won't be a mere concept vehicle for much longer.

On Sunday night (April 8), SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted on Instagram a photo of "the main body tool" for the BFR spaceship. The company is building this craft to take people to the Red Planet and other destinations throughout the solar system.

This carbon-fiber-composite spaceship is going to be big, as the inclusion of an electric car  made by one of Musk's other companies, Tesla  in the photo shows. How big? According to the specs Musk laid out in a talk last September, it'll be 157.5 feet long by 30 feet wide (48 by 9 meters). [The BFR: SpaceX's Mars-Colonization Architecture in Images]

And that's just for the spaceship, which will likely accommodate 100 or more passengers at a time. The BFR will also incorporate a rocket, which will feature 31 Raptor engines and be capable of lofting 150 tons (136 metric tons) to low Earth orbit. The BFR rocket-spaceship combo will stand 348 feet (106 m) tall when stacked together, Musk has said, and both components will be fully reusable.

SpaceX has said it plans to use the BFR to help establish a million-person city on Mars, ideally in the next half-century or so. The first crewed Red Planet mission could come in the 2020s, according to Musk.

The new photo isn't the first hint of BFR progress that Musk has put out there. Last month, the billionaire entrepreneur said at the SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas, that construction of the first prototype BFR spaceship is underway. That vehicle could be ready for its first short test flights by the first half of 2019, he said.

SpaceX plans to build the BFR at a new facility in Long Beach, California, according to documents posted on the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners website. (The company makes its currently operational rockets and spaceships at its headquarters in Hawthorne, not far from Long Beach.)

BFR is short for "Big Falcon Rocket," or a less family-friendly variant. The spaceflight system will be extremely flexible, and SpaceX has said it plans to use the rocket for a variety of purposes, from planetary settlement to satellite launches to point-to-point transportation of people here on Earth. Indeed, Musk has said that the company aims to eventually phase out its other rockets and spacecraft and let BFR carry the load.

Originally published on Space.com.
A rare letter written onboard the RMS Titanic is going up for auction, detailing what life was like during the final days of the ill-fated ship.

The letter was written by Second Class passenger and survivor Kate Buss on April 10, 1912, after she left Southampton, England, according to auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

"Its a superb letter and it has been in the possession of the family since Miss Buss posted it on the Titanic," explained Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, in an email to Fox News.

Aldridge added that the letter is written over four sides in black ink.

The letter from Buss is addressed to Percy James and notes that she received James' letter while she was on board and she had "notified her mother and Mrs. Lingham."

"I've been quite alright  but now feel dead tired & more fit for bed than anything," Buss wrote in the letter. "Have to go to dinner-tea in half an hour."

SAILING TO DISASTER: RARE TITANIC PHOTOS UP FOR AUCTION

Buss' letter gives a further glimpse into life on the Titanic, which sank in the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of April 15, 1912, just five days after its maiden voyage started. There were approximately 2,224 people onboard the ship, 1,503 of whom perished, making it one of the most deadly shipwrecks in modern history.

"Mr. Peters spent about an hour on the vessel + they might easily have spent another without waste of time," Buss added. "The first class apartments are really magnificent & unless you had first seen them you would think the second class were the same."

Buss also writes that they had not yet reached Cherbourg, France, but the mail had cleared. "I think I'd best try & get some postcards of the vessel," she wrote.

She also wrote that the passenger she was sharing her stateroom with had not yet turned up and was advised to eat a good lunch by two clergymen opposite her at the table.

In the email to Fox News, Aldridge said the clergymen may have been one of Father Byles, Rev. Harper or Rev. Robert Bateman, as they "were all Second Class passengers so it's conceivable she could have been sat with one of them."

RARE TITANIC PHOTO UP FOR AUCTION, OFFERS GLIMPSE INTO DOOMED LINER'S FINAL DAYS

Father Byles perished on the Titanic, remaining on the ship, hearing confessions and giving absolution according to media reports. Revs. Harper and Bateman also perished, freezing to death in the icy cold water as the ship sank.

Buss concludes the letter that she "must clear & have a wash now" and that she will put the letter in the post in case she became sea sick the next day.

"Must clear & have a wash now," she wrote. "Will pop this in the post in case I'm sea sick tomorrow. PW brought a box of chocolates  shouldn't wonder if I'm like Jim Buss & get it the other way. Give my love to all enquirers  must go.

Much love Kate."

Buss was saved in lifeboat number 9 when the Carpathia picked her up. Buss was the last to be unloaded "due to her fear of heights," Aldridge added.

The letter has a pre-sale estimate of $28,341-$35,426 (20,000-25,000).

Buss died on July 12, 1972 aged 96.

This story has been updated to include information on Father Byles and Revs. Harper and Bateman.

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Human rights advocates demanded for Netflix to stop streaming "Amo," a TV series on the Philippines' controversial war on drugs directed by Brillante Mendoza.

The groups on Tuesday said, by streaming the action TV series, Netflix is glorifying the Duterte administration's drug war.

"We call on Netflix to stop giving an audience to a show that aims to justify extrajudicial killings. We call on Netflix to cancel Amo," it said in a statement.

The 13 signatories of the petition include groups such as Akbayan Youth, Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), and DAKILA organization.

"Amo," which premiered worldwide on Netflix on Monday, is set against the backdrop of the government's drug war. It tells the story of Joseph, a high school student and small-time "shabu" peddler who eventually finds himself entangled in the world of drugs.

A member of Akbayan Youth said Netlfix is giving the Cannes award-winning director a platform for his "skewed" view of the drug war.

Mendoza was earlier quoted in a report where he said drug war is necessary for the Philippines and other countries afflicted with drug problem.

"It's insensitive of Mendoza to dismiss the human rights violations, the lives lost, the trauma the families have to deal with, as simply necessary. Nothing would justify the killings that have been happening," Akbayan Youth's Justine Balane told CNN Philippines on Tuesday.

The government reported 4,075 personalities were killed in anti-drug operations since the start of the government's campaign in July 2016. But local and international human rights groups peg the drug war figures to be closer to more than 13,000 killings.

"Thousands of Filipinos have already lost loved ones to this murderous campaign. Airing 'Amo' will only bastardize their grief," the human rights advocates said.

Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phelim Kine earlier said the series "paints a ludicrous veneer of civility and lawfulness over what is nothing less than a murderous targeting of the poor."

Aside from the petition of the human rights groups, a change.org petition to cancel the show is gaining attention.

Luzviminda Siapo, mother of alleged extrajudicial victim 19-year-old Raymart Siapo, created the petition on April 8. It has received 5,700 online signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.

"I would like to ask you to cancel this show. War on drugs is not the solution. For me, killing is not right. Everyone deserves a chance to live and change his life," she wrote.

Siapo said her handicapped son was accused of selling marijuana. On March 29, he was abducted by men in ski masks, was reportedly asked to run, then shot twice in the head.

Balane said if Netflix does not cancel the show, human rights groups are looking into writing a formal petition.

"We hope Netflix reflects about the implication of screening this show. As the killings continue, they just gave a platform to a murderous dictator... If Netflix won't cancel 'Amo,' we might send a formal letter to Netflix, demanding accountability for being complicit in spreading Duterte's propaganda," he said.

Hours after "Amo" was made available on Netflix, Mendoza said Filipinos have to look beyond what the pictures show.

"At the end of the day, it is not about being controversial, but simply being truthful about the issues that surround us. We have to acknowledge that there are problems going on and face reality," he posted on his Twitter.

CNN Philippines has reached out to Mendoza's camp for further comment.
The Air Forces recently released Bomber Vector calls for wide range of new technologies for the fleet - to include newer stealth materials, faster computer processors, upgraded weapons and new sensors to ensure the force will still be able to launch attacks in more advanced, future high-threat scenarios spanning into the 2050s.

The new Air Force bomber fleet plan, released in conjunction with the services 2019 Budget request, also seeks a larger bomber fleet and maps a modernization and production trajectory for the introduction of the emerging B-21 Raider in the mid-2020s.

The Air Forces Bomber Vector established the overarching future planning guidance for the Air Force bomber force. The force must include both standoff and stand-in capabilities, hinging on use of stealth and other technologies, Maj. William Russell, Air Force official, told Warrior Maven in a written statement.

While the fleet size and force configuration details outlined in the vector have received much attention, a lesser discussed - but potentially more significant - element of the new plan centers on the integration of a new generation of bomber technologies intended to both inform the B-21 and launch a massive overhaul of the existing fleet of B-52, B-2 and B-1B bombers.

Click on Warrior Maven for more.
A fraudulent Black Lives Matter page on Facebook run by a white Australian man amassed 700,000 followers and $100,000 in donations before it was shut down by the tech company.

The real, verified Black Lives Matter page on Facebook has over 320,000 followers.

The unofficial page was reportedly being run by a man named Ian Mackay, a National Union of Workers official in Australia, and was administered by two anonymous profiles that had domains linking to Mackay, reports CNN.

FACEBOOK RECONSIDERS 'UNSAFE FOR COMMUNITY' TAG ON PRO-TRUMP DIAMOND AND SILK VIDEOS AFTER FOX & FRIENDS APPEARANCE

The network cited a source claiming that one of the accounts was tied to Mackay by name and an Australian bank account. All fundraising connected to the fake Facebook page, via PayPal and other sites, has also been suspended.

Activists involved with Black Lives Matter decried the fake account and said tech companies like Facebook have been slow to act on these incidents.

These fake BLM accounts and fake BLM people literally stealing money off of Black Death is so stomach churning I cant even begin to explain, Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said on Twitter. We told [Facebook] over and over again to shut that s--t down. And it wouldnt. Glad its down now.

A Facebook spokesperson told Fox News that they are looking into what happened with the fake page.

We investigated this situation as soon as it was brought to our attention, and disabled the Page admin for maintaining multiple profiles on the platform," a Facebook spokesperson told Fox News.

The incident comes as Facebook faces a host of problems: CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify today and tomorrow under oath and get grilled by lawmakers, continuing fallout from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the platform's issues with fake news and Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Cullors said that its unfortunate that people were scammed by the fake accounts and pages.

HOW MUCH MONEY DOES FACEBOOK MAKE OFF YOU? THE AMOUNT MAY BE SURPRISING

"We deal with the co-option of our work locally, nationally, and globally," the official Black Lives Matter Twitter account said. "It is important that platforms like @facebook and @Twitter do their due diligence so supporters arent misled and resources arent misappropriated."

DeRay McKesson, another well-known BLM activist, told the New York Post that the fast rise of the movement has left it vulnerable to such schemes.

Its important to remember the movement was organic and no organizations started the protests that spread across the country, McKesson said. The consequences of that is it hasnt been easy to think about authenticity in the digital space.

Mackay, who has been suspended by the Australian union pending an investigation, also reportedly registered dozens of other websitesmany of which were tied to black civil rights.
A former JetBlue flight attendant who ran from security after ditching 60 pounds of cocaine at Los Angeles International Airport has been sentenced to time served.

Marsha Gay Reynolds pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine. She was arrested in March 2016.

Citing her cooperation with prosecutors, a judge on Monday sentenced Reynolds to time she has already served in custody. City News Service reports she is likely to be released shortly. She'll spend three years on supervised release.

The Transportation Security Administration says Reynolds was selected for a random security screening at LAX.

Moments later, authorities said, Reynolds dropped her carry-on luggage, kicked off her heels, fled down an upward-moving escalator and out of the terminal. She surrendered in New York days later.
Travelers flying Alaska Airlines within the next few months might want to break out the measuring tape, as the carrier is officially shrinking the size requirements for carry-on luggage.

As of June 4, carry-on items must measure 22 by 14 by 9 inches, including wheels and handles, a drop from its current size of 24 by 17 by 10 inches.

A DRUNK TOURIST ACCIDENTALLY CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN WHILE TRYING TO FIND HIS HOTEL

Our current carry-on bag size is larger than most other international and domestic airlines allow. Were changing our bag size allowance to make sure that your carry-on bag will be accepted aboard all the flights within your itinerary, the Sea-Tac headquartered carriers website reads. This will help you avoid carry-on bag size conflicts and make connections with other airlines easier during your future trips.

Best of all, well be able to fit more carry-on bags into the overhead bins.

That's not all  the slimmed down carry-on size will also apply to Alaska Airlines partner carriers, Horizon and SkyWest.

Anxious air travelers need not fret, as one personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or laptop bag will be allowed on board.

JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO DITCHED 60 POUNDS OF COCAINE AT AIRPORT SENTENCED TO TIME SERVED

Bigger picture, Alaska Airlines new ruling is nothing out of the ordinary across the major carriers. In the wake of the International Air Transport Association's updated 2015 guidelines, American, Delta, JetBlue and United all rolled out maximum carry-on sizes of 22 by 14 by 9 inches, Travel + Leisure notes.

Alaska Airlines did not immediately return Fox News request for comment.

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Several inbound flights into Gatwick Airport in London had to be delayed  or diverted altogether  after two of the three air traffic controllers scheduled to work in the tower reportedly called out sick.

The shortage extended from Sunday into Monday, according to the Evening Standard, and resulted in the closure of the airports runway for over an hour on four separate occasions.

PLANE RUNS OVER RUNWAY WORKER'S FOOT AT GATWICK AIRPORT

According to regulations governing the shifts of air traffic controllers, employees are required to take two one-hour breaks per shift, meaning that the lone air traffic controller was not available to direct traffic between 1:40 a.m. and 3:20 a.m., and between 4:10 a.m. and 5:20 a.m., on both Sunday and Monday.

As a result, multiple flights Sunday were delayed and two others were diverted, while four were delayed on Monday.

We worked closely with air traffic controllers and airlines to minimize the impact to passengers. We apologize for the inconvenience caused, a spokesperson for the airport told the Standard.

The spokesperson also confirmed the issue was no longer impacting travel at the airport.

GREEN BAY PACKERS PLAYER ARRESTED FOR MAKING BOMB JOKE AT AIRPORT

Gatwick Airport was also in the news last month, after a plane reportedly ran over a worker on the tarmac and injured his leg.

The runway worker in the March incident was airlifted to a London hospital for treatment.
Nice try, Andrew Peppers.

Peppers, a 22-year-old from Bentbrook, Texas, was arrested on Friday after allegedly trying to rob a Dominos restaurant in Fort Worth while dressed as a Dominos employee, the Star-Telegram reports.

CHICK-FIL-A HELPS TEEN EMPLOYEE GET A PROM DATE

The details of Peppers scheme were not immediately clear; however, his plan fell apart when a Dominos manager instructed another employee to call police, who then told the cops that someone there was trying to rob the store.

MAN'S SILLY PIZZA-DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS GO VIRAL

Police arrived to find Peppers wearing a Dominos shirt and hat, KXAS reports.

According to a description provided by the employee who phoned police, Peppers was also wearing sunglasses and gloves, as well as a doctors mask over his face.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Peppers was charged with aggravated robbery and placed in Fort Worths Tarrant County Jail on Sunday. Hes being held on a $25,000 bond.
A family in Colorado is outraged after two men, who were accused of gang-raping a 13-year-old girl with their brothers and cousins, were only sentenced to probation.

Tommy Williams, 20, and Clarence Williams, 19, were each sentenced on Tuesday to a minimum of 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, with a maximum of life on probation, KKTV reported.

The men are two of six suspects accused of sexually assaulting the young teen in December 2016 inside of the Stonebrook Terrace apartment complex in Colorado Springs.

INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED GIRL, 15, SUSPENDED AFTER REPORTING GANG RAPE AT NYC SCHOOL, LAWSUIT SAYS

The victim's grandfather was shocked at the sentencing, telling the news station: "There was six of them and they gang-raped my granddaughter."

The group of suspects  some of whom are reportedly related as cousins or brothers and identified as Jacolby Williams, Tyron Williams, James Williams, and a juvenile, in addition to Tommy and Clarence  were with the girl on Dec. 19, according to The Gazette.

The victim told police she knew one of the men, and he invited her into the apartment to play video games. The 13-year-old said she went to the home with some female friends, but they left when she went to the bathroom.

Arrest records, KKTV reported, state that two of the men then pulled the teen from the bathroom and forced her into a bedroom where the other four suspects were waiting.

The victim's grandmother said at a sentencing in February that her granddaughter was passed around the group of men "like a hand on a clock" during the attack. She added in court Tuesday that the 13-year-old may never be able to have children.

In January 2017, Tyron Williams was also sentenced to 10 years to life of sex offender intense supervised probation. Before his sentencing, he apologized to the victim and her family, and reportedly said that "If I knew she was underage, it wouldn't have happened in the first place."

James Williams was sentenced in August 2016 to five years of probation, and the unidentified juvenile reportedly has an impending court date. Jacolby Williams' trial was scheduled for March 5; it's unclear what transpired.
On a remote stretch of border in New Mexico, the newest installment of President Donald Trumps border wall began construction Monday.

Its 18 feet high. The bollards are filled with concrete. You got rebar running up inside. It goes six feet underground and two feet of concrete on top of that, says El Paso Sector Chief Aaron Hull. A wall isnt designed to stop everybody. But you would have to be one of the more determined illegal aliens to scale it, get through it or dig under it.

The new bollard style wall is one of three going up this year along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Installation of this 20-mile section replaces a vehicle barrier in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

A similar two-mile project is under construction in Calexico, California, and a third is set to begin later this year in San Diego.

Hull says Santa Teresa has become the sectors most active crossing point for human and drug smuggling, making it a top priority nationally for a wall.

Its just too easy for them to cross in this area and disappear into the urban communities to the north, says Hull. The proximity of highways on both sides of the fence make it very attractive for criminals, smugglers and illegals to get in and out quickly. Thats why we need the wall: to deter, to stop illegal traffic.

The project, which is being paid for out of the operating budget of the Army Corp of Engineers, costs $73 million.

The presidents new budget appropriates $1.6 billion for border security, which is enough officials say for roughly 100 miles of additional fencing.

To stop Trump from calling the new infrastructure a wall, Congress stipulated the fence design cannot resemble any of the wall prototypes now on display in San Diego.

Eight prototypes of the border wall were completed in San Diego in October. The prototypes  four made of concrete and four of see-through steel  are about 30 feet high, much taller than existing barriers. Trump visited the prototypes, and has expressed preference for a see-through capability, heeding advice from senior Border Patrol officials.

We are misplacing our priorities if we think that a border wall is going to keep, for example, drugs and illegal activity from coming into the country, says Texas State Senator Jose Rodriguez, a critic and Democrat.

These are people for the most part who are seeking economic security for their families.

There are two problems at the border right now: those who want to be caught, Central Americans, and those who dont, Mexicans. In both cases, the Catholic Archdiocese says the U.S. should welcome, not stop, illegal immigrants fleeing poverty and persecution.

These people are not a threat to us. Now is the time to assert that the border should be a place of encounter, not of confrontation, said Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso. Were meeting them with military force. We think thats the wrong answer. Were really hoping and praying that this further militarization of the border doesnt lead to unnecessary violence and deaths.

As a candidate, Trump wanted to build a big, beautiful wall across the entire 2,000 mile border.

As president, he reduced that to 700 miles.

Currently, about one-third of the border is currently fenced  354 miles of pedestrian fence and 300 miles of vehicle barrier.

Under the $1.3 trillion omnibus, Homeland Security can afford about 100 miles of new fence.

However, under that spending bill, Congress banned the administration from modeling any new fence after the prototypes in San Diego for fear theyd be criticized for supporting Trumps wall.

However, the bollard style wall going up in Santa Teresa is very similar to those.

Fox News' Jennifer Girdon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The mother of the small-town Alabama woman who lived a double life as an exhibitionist said she believes her daughter's death was a result of her alcoholism.

Kathleen Dawn "Kat" West, 42, was found dead lying face down and partially naked across the street from her home in Shelby County on Jan. 13. Her husband, 44-year-old William Jeffrey West, pleaded not guilty on Monday in her death, for which he's charged.

NEW IMAGES OF DOUBLE-LIFE DEAD MOM 'KITTY KAT WEST' SHOW HER BUYING WHISKEY, ABSINTHE ON LAST NIGHT ALIVE

Kat West's mother tearfully said Monday that she believes her son-in-law, a veteran who worked with military police while in the service and was promoted to corporal with the police force at Birmingham-Southern College before his wife's death, is not guilty of killing her daughter.

"He didn't do this," Nancy Martin said, according to AL.com. "He's a good man. He loved her with all his heart."

She said she and her husband are caring for the couple's 13-year-old daughter, and that William West stayed with them for about four weeks during the investigation before his arrest.

The mother added that Kat West was an alcoholic with bi-polar disorder. Martin said she thinks her daughter died after falling  she "fell all the time"  and had the tendency to get drunk and jump on the trampoline, or would remove her clothes.

HUSBAND OF ALABAMA DOUBLE-LIFE MOM FOUND DEAD IS INNOCENT IN WIFE'S DEATH, LAWYER SAYS

William West's mother, Carolyn West, concurred that Kat West drank to get "rip-roaring drunk" and had been known to go outside naked and to fall.

Both mothers agreed that Kat West was most likely intoxicated when she died and suffered a fatal injury in the fall.

Prosecutors claim that Kat West was killed from getting hit with a Lucid Absinthe bottle. Kat and William West reportedly bought Lucid Absinthe and a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey some eight hours before Kat West's body was discovered.

A cellphone with a green bottle  the color of Lucid Abstinthe bottles  was found near the body, which prosecutors said showed evidence of Kat West's blood and William West's fingerprints. Witnesses reported the scene appeared to have been staged.

Carolyn West said that the night before Kat was found, her son "took her out to dinner, he had a couple of drinks. He went to bed and went to sleep. Kat kept drinking because Kat was an alcoholic."

Prosecutors did not reveal whether autopsy results showed the woman was intoxicated when she died.

Circuit Judge Bill Bostick refused a defense request to reduce West's $500,000 bond, ruling that he could be a flight risk and a danger to the community.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  Lena*, who studied in a prestigious university in Metro Manila, was an excellent student. Curious and driven, she performed well both in academics and extracurricular activities, and was successful in balancing the excitement of college life with its requisite pressures. College was where she experienced all-nighters for a research paper, participated in an initiation for admittance to a college org, won medals and awards for her work, and built a set of friends knit by common interests and future plans.

Lena was well-liked, optimistic, and confident but she sometimes went off the grid. During long breaks when she went back home to her province, she cut off all contact with friends, and would not be heard of until classes resumed.

These intermittent and unexplained silences persisted during four years of graduate school, and eventually found an explanation when, as a young professional, Lena simply stopped going to work.

For around two weeks, she stayed in bed, spent most days sleeping, barely ate, barely communicated with anyone, including her roommate, who began asking around for help.

Lena was eventually diagnosed with major depressive disorder and was directed to take medication. Her well-being improved, but aside from family and some close friends, no one else knew what she had gone through.

You get the feeling that theres a lack of foundation among students. Foundation in terms of resiliency, self-efficacy, grit, as we call it. You dont bounce back after a failure, says Gary Aguedo Faustino, director of guidance and counseling at Ateneos Loyola Schools. Thats how we see students now. They panic. They get very anxious and eventually they become depressed. Photo by JL JAVIER

When depression starts

The symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders are largely invisible. The medical consensus is that their root causes develop as early as 12 years old and below (the developmental stage in individuals), with majority of clinical symptoms present before the age of 14.

When you go to college or [youre] 18 and above, youre actually firefighting [mental health problems] already, says Gary Aguedo Faustino, director of guidance and counseling at Ateneos Loyola Schools. The battle is in basic [education]. If you remember your psychology, the formative years are 12 years old and under. Much of the serious concerns really evolve in parenting.

Since the firefighting is here, when its in [grade school], you hardly see it, or you probably notice a few but still it's contained in the home. Or its just a virus starting to multiply, and it rears its ugly head here [in college], Faustino adds.

Thus, while the formative years play a crucial role in shaping an individuals mental health, issues may only surface through a confluence of stressors appearing at a particular time: life-changing decisions, the influx of hormones, peer and familial pressure, the strain of first relationships, academic and societal expectations, and the onslaught of information through technology, among others. All of these frequently appear when one enters university.

Entering college poses an increased risk for developing mental health problems, says Ronald Del Castillo, a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of health policy and administration, psychology, and behavioral sciences at the University of the Philippines College of Public Health. You're going to have your first depressive episode, your first anxiety attack, around this age. And where are you? You're in the university.

For many of you, it's your first time away from home, being on your own, there's a lot of firsts: first relationship, first breakup  a lot of things compound your risks of developing problems, Del Castillo adds.

Unlike Faustino, however, Del Castillo does not necessarily think that what counselors and psychologists do in the university level is firefighting. If anyone has sufficient support, psychosocial support, whether therapy or medication, I think we're well positioned to contain the fire, if you will, he says.

Related to Filipino students mental health is how Filipinos have their own indigenous concepts of well-being, and how local culture has taken a backseat to Western perspectives when it comes to psychology.

What we dont know

Government data show that one out of five Filipino adults have a mental health disorder, but it is unclear how the numbers apply to high school and college students. There is a near absence of literature relating to incidents of depression and other mental health disorders in the Philippine context, more so with high school and college students.

For his part, Del Castillo is about to embark on the Diwa Mental Health Project: a UP-system-wide research on the mental health of students. Del Castillo, who was born in Iloilo but educated in the United States, went back to the Philippines through UPs Balik-Ph.D. program, which provided research grants for returning alumni with Ph.D.s and postdoctorate degrees, and who agree to teach and conduct research in the university. The Diwa Project is funded by the research grant.

When he started to teach three years ago, Del Castillo observed common mental health concerns  I wouldnt call them disorders, he says  among students in UP Manila. I'm the SRO [student relations officer], but they also know I'm a clinical psychologist. So they come to me for their concerns  academic, personal, or otherwise. And thats where I wanted to steer my research course, knowing that kind of data was not really available.

The Diwa survey is a prevalence survey, and aims to measure instances of depression, anxiety, somatization (physical complaints with psychiatric causes), alcohol use, suicide, and self-harm, among others.

I'm also interested in health care access, adds Del Castillo, so it's not enough to know how many people have symptoms of depression or anxiety. I want to know if the university knows about it; have you ever seen a psychologist, does your insurance cover it, those kinds of things.

Diwas research design is also meant to provide specific insight on each campus, which may hopefully be replicated in other universities. I want to encourage each of the campuses and the system in general: How can we better promote and support the mental health of students using this data? he asks. How can we better create programming and policies? How can we better support our teachers?

Erickson Maclid, a student relations officer and instructor at UPs Department of Family Life and Child Development, says that students need spaces to open up  spaces that may be provided by teachers who are ready to accommodate differences brought about by mental health concerns and disorders. Photo by JL JAVIER

What universities do

Notwithstanding the deficiency of specific data with which to inform policy, university guidance counselors are at the helm of multiple awareness programs to promote mental health and prevent disorders in universities. The usual approach combines traditional as well as clinical measures.

In Far Eastern University, director for guidance and counseling Sheila Marie Hocson says students are oriented in their first year on how to recognize symptoms of mental health issues, alongside discussions on sexual harassment, bullying, and HIV awareness, among others.

Hocson, who simultaneously chairs the Philippine Guidance and Counseling Association, also helped pioneer the Peer Organization of the Philippines, comprised of senior high school and college facilitators trained in basic counseling skills and knowledge of referral systems. They will stand as junior affiliates of guidance counselors, she says.

Also crucial is an accessible referral system cascaded throughout the whole university, says Hocson. Peers, facilitators, teachers, and administrators may refer a student to the office upon exhibition of the following signs: absenteeism, lack of energy, abusive behavior, sleepiness in class, lack of personal hygiene, low self-esteem, or poor academic performance.

Usually we have a mechanism that they can go here [to the office] for referral. They can also go online, theres a form, she says.

The student referred to the office undergoes a routine interview, assessments, observation, and standardized and clinical testing.

Pag na-recognize namin na may red signal siya, suicide for example with tendencies for depression, borderline, pinapatawag na namin usually yung mga significant people in their lives, says Hocson. This is in collaboration with our health service, so kami yung nag-re-refer sa psychiatrist. Procedural protocols follow.

Entering college poses an increased risk for developing mental health problems, says Ronald Del Castillo, a clinical psychologist and an associate professor at the UP College of Public Health. He is about to embark on the Diwa Mental Health Project: a UP-system-wide research on the mental health of students. Photo from the DIWA MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT/FACEBOOK

This approach recognizes a shift on the role of university guidance and counseling offices.

Were no longer probably basic education counselors of the young, monitoring the way you study, organize yourself, how youre coping with your education, says Faustino. In Ateneo, the shift included adding more psychologists to match the counselors in its roster. Were not discarding the traditional guidance counseling, says Faustino, but were putting in some resources to address the trend.

Formation programs are integrated at each university level, and includes psychology and mental awareness programs in the first year, and programs on grit, resilience, stress management, and time management in the succeeding years.

The programs on grit and resiliency respond to observations about how students are perceived to deal with problems today.

You get the feeling that theres a lack of foundation among students. Foundation in terms of resiliency, self-efficacy, grit, as we call it. You dont bounce back after a failure, says Faustino. Thats how we see students now. They panic. They get very anxious and eventually they become depressed.

Aside from a lack of strength of personalities, [theres] also lack of resiliency, Hocson agrees. Ang mga bata talaga ngayon, you have to teach them life skills.

As in FEU, when intervention is needed, a referral system is also in place in Ateneo. The office is also planning to form its own student arm to facilitate peer discussions.

The whole idea is to teach people how to listen properly and be able to respond in a non-judgmental, unconditional way, says Faustino. A university wellness policy is also in the works.

The assignment of student relations officers such as Del Castillo is also one way to bring student concerns within the knowledge of the university, whether such concerns are academic or not.

The initial complaints [of students] are stress and academic concerns, says Del Castillo. From my experience, that is what they present with, but there are other things thats on their mind. Trouble at home, history of trauma  there might be symptoms of anxiety and depression. They are very common for people in their age.

While the formative years play a crucial role in shaping an individuals mental health, issues may only surface through a confluence of stressors appearing at a particular time. All of these frequently appear when one enters university.

The situation outside Metro Manila

The measures mentioned are similarly deployed in many major universities outside Metro Manila. In Dumaguetes Silliman University, for example, the guidance counseling office provides, among others, peer outreach programs as well as consultation and referral services, where parents, faculty, staff and other professionals may confer with counselors on issues affecting mental health of students and other individuals.

In Cebus University of San Carlos, counseling and development centers provide mental health counseling on issues such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, substance-dependence, suicide, change adaptation, and relationships, while licensed psychometricians and counselors utilize standardized tests and non-psychometric instruments to assist students in their self-awareness and decision-making needs. Peer facilitator programs are also available.

Xavier University in Cagayan De Oro recently celebrated World Mental Health Day on October 2017, a campaign to raise awareness and actualize efforts in sustaining mental health. Trained counselors also conduct individual and group sessions for students special concerns, and peer counselors are trained to develop more sensitivity to peers concerns.

While not all programs are present in all universities (some may be hindered by the lack of licensed guidance counselors to service huge student populations, the lack of budget to conduct tests, the lack of available psychologists, and cultural influences), some schools have taken to novel ways to prevent and address mental health issues.

Ateneo, for example, has been exploring animal-assisted activities and therapy with Communitails, an idea Faustino got from the use of dogs in U.S. prisons for therapy.

[The] activity would be the dog would sit with a group of five students and they get to play with the dog for an hour, says Faustino. Animal-assisted therapy, on the other hand, are usually one-on-one sessions, which would depend on the therapists creativity.

I am hoping it will work against anxiety attacks, adds Faustino. There's an emergency, somebody goes into a panic attack, I bring the dog and my belief is that the student will pacify faster than with the counselor.

[The] activity would be the dog would sit with a group of five students and they get to play with the dog for an hour, says Faustino. Animal-assisted therapy, on the other hand, are usually one-on-one sessions, which would depend on the therapists creativity. Photo by JL JAVIER

Sikolohiyang Pilipino

Perhaps the most important thing when it comes to universities roles in promoting mental health is how their measures must be attuned to the needs of their intended beneficiaries: the students. And its not an easy task, considering the complicated cultural background of mental health in the Philippines.

When students are in the depressive state, its not easy for [them] to identify that [they] have those kinds of symptoms and needs, says Erickson Maclid, a student relations officer and instructor at UPs Department of Family Life and Child Development.

Most of the time, says Maclid, students need spaces to open up  spaces that may be provided by teachers who are ready to accommodate differences brought about by mental health concerns and disorders.

Since students also prioritize their academic responsibilities foremost, they may sometimes forego programs that may promote their mental health, despite the universitys best efforts. Because of this tendency, Maclid says the department is considering programs fit for the students schedules.

Also essentially related to Filipino students mental health is how Filipinos have their own indigenous concepts of well-being, and how local culture has taken a backseat to Western perspectives when it comes to psychology.

For example, theres a common misconception of the phrase bahala na, says Del Castillo, referring to pioneering psychologist Virgilio Enriquezs Sikolohiyang Pilipino. Bahala na, it tends to be in Fil-Am psychology, if someone is expressing concern about mental health being, its understood [in contemporary times] as a dismissive and negative phrase to say to someone. But if you look at early Sikolohiyang Pilipino, bahala na actually means something else. It means a sense of empowering myself, I can do this. Notice that this is a vast misunderstanding from how we understand it today.

You get the feeling that theres a lack of foundation among students. Foundation in terms of resiliency, self-efficacy, grit, as we call it. You dont bounce back after a failure. Thats how we see students now. They panic. They get very anxious and eventually they become depressed.

Even in Western culture, depression is very much culture-based, says Del Castillo. There are nine symptoms of depression, five of which you need to make criteria. Now think about this. Who decides nine and why five? A bunch of white people in a room who are mostly men.

Any effective measure to combat mental health issues must therefore be more community-based, sensitive to local cultural expressions, and focused on building conducive environments, whether in the family, at school, or in the office.

In those rare times you might fall into depression or anxiety, what is our system in place to ensure you are taken care of? The majority of students will not need clinical intervention, says Del Castillo. The majority of students need prevention-related efforts.

But while there can be a plethora of prevention and intervention-related efforts, a simple thing such as providing a dedicated student lounge, for example  as Del Castillo wishes for UP Manila  can do wonders.

Where do [the students] hang out? They just sit in the hallway. To me thats a big deal, because we demand a lot from them academically, they need some rest, obviously, he says. I dont think theres any magic to it.

***

*The name is changed to protect the respondents privacy
A Virginia woman accused of beheading her boyfriend allegedly shouted during her arrest that police officers "have to take me back and let me get my heads."

Roena Cheryl Mills, 41, of Rural Retreat, Virginia, was arrested last week in connection with the murder of 29-year-old Bo White, who was found dead inside of a residence in Lerona, West Virginia, WVSN-TV reported.

KANSAS WATER PARK CO-OWNER ARRESTED OVER 10-YEAR-OLD BOY'S DECAPITATION

Mills appeared at a competency hearing on Monday in which a judge ruled she needed further evaluation. A court-ordered mental evaluation is scheduled for Wednesday to determine if Mills can stand trial, according to the West Virginia MetroNews.

Law enforcement officials were called to an area on April 1 where they discovered Mills, who was covered in blood and had a pocket knife in her pants when she arrived at another residence, a criminal complaint stated.

The homeowners of that residence called authorities after they offered to give her a ride and she refused to leave the property.

The 41-year-old reportedly told deputies that she was cut after being thrown through a glass door, and gave authorities a false name. She was wearing a glove on her left hand, and a matching glove was found in White's bedroom. Both gloves were covered in blood.

Mills was allegedly "combative" during her arrest, according to WVSN, and when in the deputies' car, reportedly said: "You have to take me back and let me get my heads."

Later that day, officials responded to a call about a homicide, where they found a man, identified as White, decapitated inside of his house. Authorities reportedly found a body part of White's in a wooded area nearby.

SHOOTING ON 'ADULT-THEMED' PARTY BUS IN ILLINOIS KILLS 3; SUSPECT SOUGHT

Mercy County Prosecutor George Sitler said it's unclear how White died and didn't disclose a possible motive.

"We do not know if he was killed by the beheading or if he expired before that," Sitler said.

An autopsy is pending.

Mills has been charged with second-degree murder and, according to jail records, is being held at the Southern Regional Jail on a $210,000 cash only bond.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A 28-year-old Army National Guard member was struck and killed on I-95 Saturday while trying to corral her dog after it ran away following a crash, police said. The dog also died after being hit.

Katie Mason, of Stafford, drove off the road around 10 p.m. Saturday and ran into a guardrail before the dog escaped from the vehicle, police told FOX5 DC. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

Mason, who attended Virginia Commonwealth University, immediately chased after the dog -- but both she and the animal ended up getting hit by another driver, according to Virginia State Police. Mason and her dog, a pug named Stella, were pronounced dead at the scene.

"She was passionate about all creatures, big and small, specifically big cats (lions) and small dogs. She served in the Army National Guard and army reserves as a medic," her family said in a statement provided to FOX5 DC.

Mason's family is asking for any donations to be made in her name to the African Wildlife Foundation, the statement said.

"She would have loved to know she helped save just one lion," her family said.

A family friend who spoke to NBC Washington said Mason was "always kind, sweet and had a huge personality.

"It's so heartbreaking," the friend said.

The station reported Mason attended a wedding earlier in the day and was driving to Richmond that night to visit a friend.

Virginia State Police are still investigating the incident.
An award-winning FDNY paramedic was arrested after a woman accused him of trying to force her to perform a sex act and groping her while on the way to a hospital Sunday.

Karel Delgado, 36, a 10-year veteran with the FDNY and winner of the 2015 Pre-Hospital Save Award, faced the accusations after responding to a Sunday call from a Bronx woman who said she felt ill, NBC New York reported.

The woman says Delgado asked if he could examine her and she gave him consent. However, the woman said Delgado grabbed her private parts and took out his penis and touched her face with it, a police source told the New York Daily News. The woman told authorities about the alleged incident once they got to the hospital.

WOMANS ARMLESS, LEGLESS BODY FOUND IN NYC PARK

Delgados mother, Nancy, told NBC New York he would never, ever do that.

He called me this morning and said, Relax, everything will be OK. I would never do anything like that, she told NBC New York.

A neighbor told the Daily News the alleged behavior was uncharacteristic of Delgado, a father of two.

I dont believe it. Thats not him. I dont believe he would do something like that, the neighbor, who was not identified, told the Daily News. He has a little girl. Shes well taken care of. I hope its not a real accusation. Hes a nice guy. This is the first I hear of it.

NEW YORK PASTOR SAYS HIS CHURCH NOT A GUN-FREE ZONE

Delgado could face charges of sex act, sex abuse and forcible touching.

Delgado was suspended without pay pending an investigation, ABC 7 New York reported. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Welcome to Fox News First. Not signed up yet? Click here.

Developing now, Tuesday, April 10, 2018

An angry President Trump blasts Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation an 'attack on our country' and witch hunt' after federal agents raid the office and home of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen

The world awaits America's response to last weekend's suspected chemical attack in Syria as Trump says the U.S. would take action 'forcefully'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify Tuesday at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees, the first of two grillings on Capitol Hill this week

China's president promises to cut auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry as trade tension with the U.S. appears to take another turn

Sean Hannity responds to Jimmy Kimmel's apology over their recent Twitter war over first lady Melania Trump and President Trump, invites the late-night TV host to appear on 'Hannity'

THE LEAD STORY - 'A DISGRACEFUL SITUATION': President Trump reacted angrily to news that federal agents had raided the office and home of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, calling the action "disgraceful" and describing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as "an attack on our country." ... "It's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt," said Trump. The president also accused Mueller's investigators of being "the most biased group of people [with] the biggest conflicts of interest" and said Attorney General Jeff Sessions "made a terrible mistake for the country" when he recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. A source close to the White House told Fox News' John Roberts that the raid showed that the Mueller investigation "is out of control" and was a "demonstration of bad faith" on the part of the special counsel.

A 'FORCEFUL' RESPONSE FROM THE U.S. IS COMING: President Trump told reporters the U.S. would respond "forcefully" to this past weekend's suspected chemical attack in Syria, but declined to discuss when such a response would occur ... "We're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met and it will be met forcefully," the president said at the top of a meeting with top military leaders at the White House. "When, I will not say because I dont like talking about timing." The meeting's attendees included Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, new National Security Adviser John Bolton, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. Trump said the group was "going to make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter and you'll be hearing the decision."

FACE TIME ON THE HILL FOR ZUCKERBERG: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be grilled by lawmakers Tuesday about the privacy scandal that has rocked the social media giant ... Zuckerberg is set to testify at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees. He then testifies Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Appearing on Capitol Hill Monday ahead of his scheduled testimony, the Facebook co-founder appeared contrite and apologetic about allowing data-mining company Cambridge Analytica to get the personal information from at least 87 million users. Looking back, it's clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections, Zuckerberg said in an open letter posted on Facebook to its 2.2 billion users minutes before he met privately with senators.

CHINA EXTENDS TARIFF OLIVE BRANCH?: China's President Xi Jinping appeared to strike a conciliatory tone during a speech where he promised to cut China's auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry as tensions play out with Washington over tariffs ... Xi made no direct mention of the dispute with President Donald Trump but pledged to open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies. He warned against having a "Cold War" mentality, which he called outdated, according to Bloomberg.

HANNITY AND KIMMEL AGREE TO DISAGREE: Sean Hannity invited Jimmy Kimmel to come onto 'Hannity' and agreed it was time for them top 'move on" after their heated Twitter exchange over the ABC late-night TV host's mocking of first lady Melania Trump and lewd jokes about President Trump ... Hannity said that Kimmel's apology seemed sincere but also appeared to be geared more toward the gay community, which was offended by homosexual jokes about President Trump. He said the apology may have been a "forced Disney corporate apology," but "everyone should accept apologies."

Kimmels attack on Melania Trump is despicable and wouldnt be tolerated for any other immigrant

AS SEEN ON FOX NEWS

'BULLIES ON THE LEFT': "Their efforts are Stalinist. We will never relent and we will never give in." Laura Ingraham in her opening monologue on "The Ingraham Angle," blasting the silencing and demeaning of conservative voices in America. WATCH

ACLU'S SELECTIVE JUSTICE: "If this were Hillary Clinton [having her lawyer's office raided], the ACLU would be on every TV station in America jumping up and down. The deafening silence of the ACLU and civil libertarians about the intrusion into the lawyer-client confidentiality is really appalling."  Alan Dershowitz, on "Hannity," sounding off on federal agents' raid on the office of President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. WATCH

THE SWAMP

Ex-Attorney General Lynch: Clinton tarmac talk was about 'innocuous things.'

Missouri Gov. Greitens' ex-lover said illicit photo may have been 'a dream,' documents say.

U.S. Attorney John Lausch to oversee FISA warrant document release.

ACROSS THE NATION

Fugitive found dead after posting about murdering mom, friend on Facebook, police say.

Texas, Arizona, New Mexico pledge hundreds of National Guard troops | 200 Central American caravan migrants to seek asylum in US: report.

Outrage after two men sentenced to probation for gang-rape of 13-year-old girl.

Tennessee college senior defends posing for graduation picture with gun in her waistband.



MINDING YOUR BUSINESS

Americans face highest pump prices in years.

Austin, Texas named 2018 Best Place to Live in America' | Southwest makes worlds best airlines list

'Black Panther toy shortage said to be overblown after box office smash.

FOX NEWS OPINION

Cal Thomas: Six reasons Trump should not abandon Syria.

One year in, Trump's Gorsuch nomination may be his longest lasting legacy.

Lost amid all the 'noise' over Scott Pruitt is the very real damage Obama's EPA did to rural communities.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARED

Crazed rock groupie Katy Perry turning ABCs American Idol into personal dating show.

Carrie Underwood to make first public appearance since fall at ACM Awards.

Writer-director James Toback's five sexual assault cases dismissed by court.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?

Man on 'Wheel of Fortune' misses out on $7G after pronouncing 'Flamenco' as 'Flamingo.'

National Park Service abandons plan to increase entrance fees after public backlash.

'Hedgehog wars!' Cranky creatures caught on camera battling for 'food and females' after hibernation.

STAY TUNED

On Fox News:

Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Dr. Sebastian Gorka breaks down President Trump's options for a U.S. response in Syria; Judge Andrew Napolitano on the FBI's raid on the offices of President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen; Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows on new documents provided by the DOJ; Florida Gov. Rick Scott explains why he's running for Senate; Anna Kooiman introduces new baby Brooks.

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. ET: Sen. John Thune and Roger McNamee, former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, sizes up his first day of testimony on Capitol Hill.

On Fox Business:

Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Guests include: Sen. Chuck Grassley; Charles Plosser, former Philadelphia Fed president; Ed Goeas, former senior adviser to Wis. Gov. Scott Walker; John Loveland, Verizon global head of cyber security strategy.

Varney & Co., 9 a.m. Sens. John Thune and John Kennedy; Jonathan Pollet, founder of Red Tiger Security.

Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Noon ET: Terry Duffy, CME Group chairman and CEO; Robert Shiller, Yale professor of economics; Amb. Gary Locke, former ambassador to China.

On Fox News Radio:

The Fox News Rundown podcast: National Guard troops are making their way to the Southern border while President Trump continues his push for a border wall. Fox News' Eben Brown weighs in from McAllen, Texas, a frequent entry point for illegal crossings. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress for the first time on how the social media giant uses personal data from its users' accounts. Fox on Tech reporter Brett Larson previews the hearing. Plus, commentary by author and cultural critic Suzanne Venker.

Want the Fox News Rundown sent straight to your mobile device? Subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET: Allen West on President Trump's options in Syria and the latest on the Mueller investigation; Gen. Jack Keane on Syria; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on the National Guard sent to the U.S.-Mexico border; Jonathan Turley on the implications of federal agents raiding the home and office of President Trump's personal attorney.

#OnThisDay

1998: The Northern Ireland peace talks conclude as negotiators reach a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.

1947: Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchases the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

1925: The F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "The Great Gatsby" is first published by Scribner's of New York.

Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your day! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Wednesday morning.
Several girls were forced to leap from a balcony to escape raging flames after a fire erupted in a New Jersey building Monday.

The fire broke out around 7 p.m. in the building, which is located in Edgewater, just across the Hudson River from New York City.

Video taken by a bystander shows the group of girls screaming and then jumping from the balcony to escape the blaze, as flames roar just feet away from them.

Business owner Tony Nehmi told NJ.com he and Edgewater Police Officer Jimmy Dalton were able to help some of the girls down with ladders before they fell.

"It was one of the bravest things I've ever seen," Mayor Michael McPartland told NorthJersey.com.

No serious injuries were reported during the escape, but 10 to 15 people suffered minor injuries while fleeing, McPartland said.

TRUMP TOWER FIRE VICTIM WAS PROMINENT ART DEALER, FRIENDS WITH ANDY WARHOL

Nehmi told NJ.com he ran towards the building from his nearby business when he saw smoke, and he immediately saw two girls pounding on the windows on the second floor.

"I just wanted to get those two girls out, I never would have lived with myself if they got hurt," he said.

The fire was contained about two hours later, and is being investigated by authorities.

The building that caught fire houses multiple businesses including the dance studio and a hookah lounge.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Texas college student -- whose charred, dismembered body was found in a kiddie pool in 2016 -- died from consensual, kinky sex and wasn't murdered, a defense attorney argued Monday.

Charles Dean Bryant faces up to life in prison if convicted of the first-degree murder of Jacqueline Vandagriff, a 24-year-old Texas Womans University student. But Bryant's lawyer says the 31-year-old freaked out after Vandagriff died during sex, and, instead of calling police, he tried to dispose of her body in a park, FOX4 reported.

"He went to Walmart at 4 a.m. and bought a shovel and goes back to his house where he had left Jackie and tried to dig a hole but the earth was too hard, attorney Glynis McGinty said.

Prosecutors, however, allege the two met at a local bar near TWU before Bryant killed Vandagriff and set her dismembered body on fire in a wooded area.

The prosecution said it intends to show several surveillance videos showing Vandagriff and Bryant at a bar -- and then another one of Bryant buying a shovel and, later, gasoline in a plastic container by himself.

A police affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News revealed Vandagriffs cell phone was allegedly traced back to Bryants home and her purse was found in his trash.

Vandagriff, according to her Facebook page, was a licensed esthetician who worked as a waitress to pay for school after transferring to TWU to study nutrition.

Tragically an evil, destructive figure stepped in front of her on that path and ended all her hopes and dreams and ultimately her life, prosecutor Lucas Allan said.

Court records show Bryant had been arrested twice in early September 2016, just a week before his date with Vandagriff, for allegedly stalking his teenage ex-girlfriend who attended the University of North Texas. The teen told police she had seen a blue kiddie pool in his backyard.

Authorities have also charged Bryant with child pornography after police allegedly found images and videos on Bryant's phone depicting children engaging in sex acts.
The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit with the ruling emir of Qatar (all times local):

12:15 p.m.

The ruling emir of Qatar is telling President Donald Trump his country stands firmly against terrorism.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is telling Trump "we do not tolerate people who support or fund terrorism." Trump once accused the tiny gas-rich nation of funding terrorism at a "high level."

Trump says in the Oval Office that "we're making sure that terrorism funding is stopped" in the region.

The emir is also thanking Trump for his role in trying to solve the crisis involving Qatar and America's allies in the Persian Gulf. He says Trump's role "is very vital to end the crisis in the region."

___

12:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is welcoming the ruling emir of Qatar to the White House.

Trump greeted Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Tuesday. Trump once accused the tiny gas-rich nation of funding terrorism at a "high level."

The leaders are set to hold a meeting and working lunch that the White House said would focus on strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

America's allies in the Persian Gulf are feuding with Qatar. When the dispute began 10 months ago, Trump sided with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighbors who accused Qatar of spreading extremism, fomenting regional unrest and allowing funds to flow to terror groups. Qatar denies all those charges.

Trump hasn't repeated that charge recently and Qatar has since taken steps to address U.S. concerns.

___

12:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is hosting the ruling emir of Qatar, the tiny gas-rich nation he once accused of funding terrorism.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will be at the White House on Tuesday. White House officials say they'll discuss strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

Last summer, Trump took the side of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries in their ongoing diplomatic crisis with Qatar. He said Qatar had historically supported terror groups at a "high level." Qatar denies that charge but has taken steps to address U.S. concerns.

In a phone call last week, Trump credited the emir with working to counter terror financing and extremism. The White House says they also discussed concerns about Iran and the need to resolve the Gulf crisis.
A man who was released from a Mississippi mental hospital, where he was sent briefly for acting erratically and after cops found several weapons in his vehicle, is now behind bars -- because he asked for the guns back.

Steven Drew Montana argued that doctors had cleared him of any mental issues, so Pascagoula police, backed by a court order, handed over his seized firearms, an AK-47 and Glock pistol.

But Montana, 26, is now jailed -- without bond -- on federal charges of possessing weapons after being committed to a mental institution, the Sun Herald of Biloxi reported.

Montana's defense attorney, Melvin G. Cooper, said outrageous government" is responsible for the crime, not Montana, and Cooper has asked for the charges to be dismissed.

2 MEN SENTENCED TO PROBATION FOR GANG-RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, TRIGGERING BACKLASH

In court documents, Cooper questions whether Pascagoula Police Capt. Shannon Broom knew  or should have known  about Montanas commitment to a mental hospital when his guns were arranged to be released.

Pascagoula police haven't commented about the case.

According to the Sun Herald, Montana, then a welder at Ingalls Shipbuilding, showed up to the shipyard in February 2016 complaining to a security officer that people were stealing from the property.

An NCIS officer thought Montana was experiencing some mental issues, however, and his employee badge was taken away and he was told to leave the property.

But Montana came back, saying he was being followed and forced to take drugs.

Montana was taken to a hospital and the guns were reportedly found in his truck. Guns are prohibited at Ingalls, the states largest employer and builder of Navy warships.

Police seized the guns and a Chancery Court judge committed Montana to a state hospital in Purvis, where he spent 10 days in March 2017. He was released without any medication.

In December 2017, Montana went to police headquarters asking for his guns back and saying doctors had cleared him. Court documents reveal Broom believed Montana seemed OK and should be issued his guns with a municipal court order.

FLORIDA MOTORCYCLIST RAMMED, DRIVEN OFF ROAD BY 'MYSTERY DRIVER' DURING DISPUTE

Judge Michael Fondren issued that order, but signed it two days after Montana got the weapons back, the Sun Herald reported.

Montana reportedly returned to the police department Feb. 6, complaining he was being followed by Ingalls security and saying he knew who at the shipyard had allegedly committed a murder.

Broom then contacted Ingalls security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Federal authorities arrested Montana on Feb. 23 on the gun charges. His trial is set for May.
North Carolina authorities are desperately searching for a 15-year-old girl who may be "endangered" and is believed to have last been seen Monday with a man at a Walmart store.

The Guilford County Sheriff's Office said a female believed to be Amelia Hill was seen with an "unknown" man at a Walmart in Randleman, located about 20 miles south of Greensboro, between 9:45 and 10:30 a.m.

The two were seen on surveillance video walking together, and they left the store in a 4-door white Ford F-250 pick-up truck, according to the sheriff's office.

Hill was reported missing Saturday, and is described as a white female with dark hair who is 4 feet 11 inches and 90 pounds.

Capt. David Pruitt with the sheriffs office told the High Point Enterprise that Hill was seen walking down the street before she disappeared.

Pruitt told the newspaper he did not know if she had arranged to meet somebody or where the teen may be headed.

FATHER OF MISSING AUTISTIC 5-YEAR-OLD BOY CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL HOMICIDE

"Amelia is known to wear a black hoodie jacket," the sheriff's office said. "She was last known to be in the area of US Hwy 62 and I-85 on the night of April 7, 2018."

Anyone with information on Hill's location or the identity of the man in the surveillance photo is asked to contact the Guilford County Sheriff's Office at (336) 641-3355.
Florida deputies confiscated an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle from an Army veteran on Thursday, and the seizure was the first of its kind under the states new gun control law enacted following the Parkland school shooting.

Jerron Smith, 31, of Deerfield Beach, is the first person to be arrested for running afoul of the new law since it went on the books March 9, the Broward County Sheriffs Office said Monday.

A spokeswoman for the office said a SWAT team went to Smiths home Thursday and seized the AR-15 when he refused to surrender it voluntarily. The officers also seized a .22 caliber rifle he owned, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a bump stock and numerous other weapon-related items.

The new gun regulations signed into law raise the age in Florida to buy a rifle to 21 and establish a three-day waiting period on gun purchases. They also include language allowing school employees and teachers to be armed. Another provision allows law enforcement to apply for a "risk protection order" from a judge to seize the guns of the mentally ill and anyone deemed a danger to the community.

Broward deputies sought the order in Smiths case after he was arrested March 29 on an attempted murder charge for allegedly firing six shots into the back of a car being driving by his best friend, Jackon Lavon, 34.

Lavon was struck by shattered glass.

They just raided his house, found all his weapons, or whatever, (and) they just took it, Smiths neighbor Lorenzo Brown told WPLG-TV.

Brown said Smith was an Army veteran who was proud of his gun collection.

FLORIDA GOV. RICK SCOTT SIGNS GUN BILL FOLLOWING PARKLAND MASSACRE, IN BREAK WITH NRA ALLIES

He spent a lot of money for his weaponry, he said. Its crazy. You just got to live around here to know whats going on.

Smith had become angry after demanding Lavon return his cellphone and shot at him with a Glock semiautomatic pistol, the complaint said.

After his arrest, Smith was released on a $3,000 bond. Deputies also took the Glock and vouchered it as evidence.

In their petition for the risk protection order, the deputies told the judge that Smith had been arrested on aggravated assault charges in 2016 and 2017.

In the 2017 case Smith was accused of approaching a vehicle in his driveway and threatening to shoot the passenger, a woman. Prosecutors ultimately declined to pursue charges against Smith, WPLG reported.

In the 2016 case, Smith was accused of pulling a knife on a person and threatening him with it.

The disposition of that case was not known.

After Thursday's arrest for violating the risk protection order, Smith has been locked up in lieu of $100,000 bond. The violation is a misdemeanor.

"The newly signed law is clearly proving its worth to law enforcement and the public," Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Monday after the announcement of Smiths arrest. "We are thankful to have this valuable tool at our disposal to help keep deadly weapons out of the hands of individuals who demonstrate an obvious threat to themselves or others."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10) - The Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested a couple who allegedly amassed wealth worth nearly P1 billion through popular digital currency Bitcoin.

Arnel Ordonio, 27, and his wife Leonady, were presented before some 50 victims in Camp Crame on Tuesday, all demanding for the return of their money. The suspects were captured in an entrapment operation on April 4 in Vigan City,

Police said the couple lured people to to invest in the Ordonios' business, promising investors easy money, while riding on the popularity of Bitcoin.

Valued at USD$168 billion, Bitcoin has dominated headlines on investment. Bitcoin is a digital currency used as a payment system that works without a central bank or single administrator.

PNP described the scam as similar to the pyramid scheme, but with the use of electronic money.

Under the scheme, investors were promised of at least 30 percent profit in about half a month for a minimum bankrolled capital of P90 thousand. Some of the investments went as a high as P29 million.

Speaking from experience, PNP chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa urged the public to refrain from putting their money on questionable businesses, saying that "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."

"Alam ko 'yan, dahil biktima din ako nyan noon (I know that scam because of I was also a victim of it," said Dela Rose while bursting into laughter.

The PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed syndicated estafa charges against the couple before the Department of Justice. CIDG said they studying of raising the charges to economic sabotage.
A police officer shot and killed a man who was waving a pellet gun and threatening patrons inside a casino early Tuesday  the second fatal shooting by officers in Montana's largest city in less than 24 hours.

The 44-year-old man was being sought by police in the lead-up to his death. His ex-wife reported earlier that he showed up at her house, banged on her door and windows and told her he was going to rob a casino, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John said.

Less than an hour later, the man was seen entering Lucky Lil's casino just before 1:30 a.m. Two officers broke a window to enter the locked building, where Sgt. Bret Becker shot the man multiple times with an AR-15 assault rifle after the suspect refused to drop the gun and said he had taken hostages, St. John said.

It was unknown whether the man fired the pellet gun, which Becker had believed to be a firearm, St. John said.

The suspect's identity was not immediately made public pending notification of relatives. St. John said the man was "known to the police" but provided no further details. His ex-wife told police that he may have taken opiates prior to Tuesday's confrontation and St. John said toxicological tests on the man were planned.

Becker was placed on administrative leave with pay pending an internal investigation.

The shooting was the latest in a string of suspects killed by law enforcement in recent years as Billing struggles to contain a surge in violence that authorities say is driven by illegal drug use in the city of 110,000 people.

An Associated Press review has found that 12 people were shot and killed by law enforcement in Billings since 2012. In most cases, the victims were determined or suspected to be using methamphetamine prior to confrontations with police, according to toxicology reports and interviews with law enforcement officials.

On Monday morning, a 29-year-old man was shot and killed by a Billings police officer at a downtown apartment.

Officials said the man was waving a knife, threw knives at officers and was advancing on them when he was shot repeatedly. An earlier attempt to subdue the man with a stun gun failed.

St. John in comments to reporters defended his officers' handling of this week's police shootings.

In both cases, the victims acted erratically and did not respond to clear commands to drop their weapons, he said.

"You do not use less lethal options in a lethal scenario," St. John said.

The investigations of the shootings will later be reviewed by the county prosecutor and state Department of Justice, St. John said.

Each shooting also will be reviewed by a jury during a coroner's inquest later.

Inquests are public proceedings required under Montana law when someone is killed by or dies in the custody of authorities.

A citizen jury determines whether the officers acted appropriately, with the jury's recommendations submitted to a county prosecutor for a final decision on whether criminal charges are warranted.
A teenage boy who allegedly had sex with his 53-year-old married teacher told British police it was every (boys) fantasy, according to reports from her salacious trial.

Deborah Lowe was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the teen between April 2015 and June 2016 while he was enrolled at a high school in Greater Manchester. She was standing trial for one count of sexual activity with a child and five counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS BELOW

The boy told the court that flirting at school led to phone sex.

The boy said they had rough sex together, during which, he said, Lowe liked to be called a slut, according to The Mirror.

He said the mother of two liked to be bitten and have her hair pulled.

After he apparently blocked her on social media, Lowe later sent the boy a card of heartbreak, writing inside: Who else can I be a slut with?

The Mirror reported the card was found by his mother, and police were called.

Lowe, the head of the schools pastoral care, also told police they had sex, but the boy was then 17 and had left school.

She denied the charges against her, and since the encounters allegedly took place after he had left school, it was not considered an abuse of her position of trust, the newspaper reported.

The exact time the relationship began has been a central issue for the jury to decide, The Mirror reported.
A Tennessee college senior is sticking to her guns after posting a graduation photo in which she stares wistfully off-camera while lifting her "Women for Trump" T-shirt to expose a handgun in her waistband.

Despite receiving what she called a surprising "amount of hate" on social media, Brenna Spencer, 22, says she has no regrets.

I know the Tennessee state gun codes. ... I carry everywhere that Im allowed to carry," the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga student said in an interview.

On Twitter, where Spencer's profile states that "political correctness offends me," she posted the provocative photo with the caption "I dont take normal college graduation photos ..."

The post quickly went viral, with some complimenting the shoot and others calling it reckless.

One woman, Victoria Silva, alerted the police in an apparent attempt to have Spencer arrested.

"@ChattanoogaPD would you like to give us your two cents?" Silva tweeted. "Per the thread, this young female is taking a photo w/ a firearm, in an area w/ a posted no-weapons policy. This showboating behavior is irresponsible, reckless, & potentially dangerous."

The photo was reportedly taken outside the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, which bans firearms inside.

Others were supportive -- and offered some tips to the soon-to-be-grad.

"Good job supporting second amendment, but you should have a proper holster that holds the weapon securely and fully protects the trigger guard," a Twitter user wrote in response to the photo.

Spencer responded promptly: "I do! I have a belly band on its just not seen in the photo!"

Spencer, who is set to graduate with a communications degree, says she owns several guns and works for Turning Point, a conservative nonprofit.
A Washington woman who strangled her cheating wife last month, briefly assumed the woman's identity in a bid to fool cops and then tried to explain the death as the result of a "sleeper hold" while the pair were wrestling, officials said.

Ateerraka Scotland, 27, of Redmond, Wash., is accused of killing her wife, Tiffany Scotland, 26, in their apartment on March 29. Scotland was charged Monday in King County with second-degree murder and had bail set at $3 million.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Scotland told police she killed her wife after learning she was having an affair. She told police she and two others planned to dispose of the body at a later time and that she assumed the victims identity to make it seem as if she were still alive, prosecutors said.

CLEVELAND HOUSE OF HORRORS VICTIM, RAPED DAILY FOR 11 YEARS, NOW HAPPILY MARRIED

Between the time of the killing and her arrest, the defendant assumed the victims identity by using the victims phone and sending text messages as the victim, presumably in an attempt to show that the victim was still alive, the King County Prosecutors Office said.

Scotland told police after she confronted Tiffany regarding the affair, the two women wrestled and she put her wife in a sleeper hold until she became unresponsive.

The prosecutor's office said Scotland called her family after her arrest asking them to bail her out so she can leave the area, Q13 FOX.

After telling her mother that she killed Tiffany, the defendant states I want to hurry up and get out of here. Her mother responds, When you get out of there, you better leave town.' The defendant then states, 'I plan on it. I just want to have a fresh start somewhere,' authorities said.

FLORIDA MOTORCYCLIST RAMMED, DRIVEN OFF ROAD BY MYSTERY DRIVER DURING DISPUTE

Scotlands mother asked her daughter if the slaying was self-defense and the woman replied, Technically, yeah, but this is the one state theyre not going to take my side because of the way I look and the way I dress.

Records found Scotland was a suspect in a 2016 assault when she allegedly hit her male roommate in the head with a hammer, seriously injuring the man.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The organizers of Central American migrant caravan traveling through Mexico reportedly said Monday that at least 200 migrants will seek asylum in the U.S.

Rodrigo Abeja, a coordinator of a transnational organization called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said there are twice as many migrants than anticipated who will try to claim asylum in the U.S., Reuters reported.

The caravan stopped in Mexico City on Monday, where hundreds of migrants fleeing countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala stayed in the Basilica of Guadalupe-- a Catholica shrine-- amid the long journey to the Southern border.

The organizers said last week that the caravan of roughly 1,000 Central Americans has begun dispersing into smaller groups in the wake of President Donald Trumps criticism and the Mexican governments clampdown.

MIGRANT CARAVAN BEGINS TO SPLINTER, DISPERSE AFTER TRUMP RAISES ALARM

Now theyre separating these groups, Ellis Garcia of Pueblo Sin Fronteras told Reuters. I dont know whats the deal, we have no answers.

Trump lashed out last week, saying the caravan needs to be stopped before it gets there and threatened to end the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and to cut foreign aid to countries such as Honduras.

The Mexican government last Tuesday claimed that it began cracking down on the caravan.

Misael George, a Honduras citizen, said he was grateful for making it to Mexico City. He said that he would meet others who also hope to seek asylum in the U.S, according to Reuters.

He fled Honduras together with his three children and wife after his close relative was murdered by a gang and now believes the target is on their backs. He faces a tough chance to have his asylum application approved in the U.S., as he has no proof on paper about the incident.

Difficult, yes, he told the outlet. But not impossible.
The deaths of 2,400 sheep on an export ship has led the Australian government on Monday to vow an investigation into the alleged horrid conditions aboard the vessel after a video surfaced.

The New York Times reported that the video was taken in August 2017 and showed on Nine Network's 60 Minutes program. David Littleproud, the countrys minister of agriculture, told the paper that he was shocked and gutted by the video.

The program has aired whistleblower video footage that showed distressed sheep struggling to breathe and dead animals being thrown overboard. Some of the animals died in their own feces, The Times report said.

The sheep died from heat stress on the MV Awassi Express, a ship used by Western Australia-based Emanuel Exports, during a voyage between Australia and Qatar.

Australian Ethical Investment, a fund manager that specializes in environmental and socially responsible investments, told The Associated Press that the Emanuel Exports case is not the only instance of cruelty exposed in live exporting.

"We've got thriving export markets for our processed agricultural products already - we don't need to export live animals, Dr. Stuart Palmer, a member of the group, said on Monday.

Palmer said unless regulators are on live export vessels to ensure compliance with animal welfare laws, it is impossible to ensure that regulations are met.

He said the live export trade signals that Australia will sell anything to make money and this damaged Australia's reputation for selling high-quality, safe products and potentially jeopardized all export industries.

Farmers lobby group WAFarmers condemned the circumstances that led to the sheep deaths on the MV Awassi Express but said the export of live animals is critically important to Western Australia's farming industry.

WAFarmers livestock president David Slade said any farmer or grazer would be sickened by the MV Awassi Express footage, and there is strong industry support for ensuring that animal welfare standards are maintained.

Josh Wilson, a member of the countrys Labor Party, told The Times that there is no supervision on these death ships, and blamed the Liberal Party for the regulation.

I wouldnt be surprised if the only serious change the exporter has made since this incident is to ban all staff from having smartphones on board, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
A French national was charged Monday with raping a British woman last week on Koh Tao, known as Thailand's "death island" because it's a popular tourist spot that's been besieged by crime and murder in recent years.

Yohan Michael Tunka Buaga, 26, was arrested Sunday and charged Monday with rape. He is currently being held on Koh Samui, an island near Koh Tao, Reuters reported.

The 18-year-old woman, who was not identified, alleged Buaga drugged and raped her on Wednesday, Sky News reported.

ROMANIA DESTROYS CONTAMINATED POTATOES FROM EGYPT

The Sun reported the woman woke up wearing only a t-shirt after a night of drinking with Buaga and friends. Buaga reportedly denied raping the woman.

"The suspect has admitted to having sexual intercourse with the victim, but he said that it was consensual and not rape, Colonel Piyapong Boonkaew said. We are now investigating the case and waiting for forensic examination.

Buaga told authorities he's a French police officer and met the woman at a bar on the island, according to The Sun.

NEARLY 80 DEAD FROM BOOTLEG ALCOHOL TAINTED WITH INSECT REPELLENT, COUGH MEDICINE

Vacationing in Koh Tao has come under scrutiny for its safety in recent years following a spate of crimes. The spree has led to the nickname "death island."

British citizens Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were backpacking on the island before they were discovered dead on a beach in 2014. Police said Witheridge was raped before being bludgeoned to death. Miller was also bludgeoned to death. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, two migrant workers from Burma, were found guilty of killing the two Brits in 2015.

The crime tarnished Thailand's image as a holiday paradise, threatening its lucrative tourist industry.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
China's President Xi Jinping appeared to strike a conciliatory tone during a speech Tuesday where he promised to cut China's auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry as tensions play out with Washington over tariffs.

Xi made no direct mention of the dispute with President Donald Trump but pledged to open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies. He warned against having a "Cold War" mentality, which he called outdated, according to Bloomberg.

We will take the initiative to expand imports, Xi said during his keynote speech at the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia, China Plus News reported. "China does not seek trade surplus; we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," he said.

Xi said Beijing will "significantly lower" tariffs on auto imports this year and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in the auto industry as soon as possible.

China charges total duties of 25 percent on most imported cars -- a 10 percent customs tariff plus a 15 percent auto tax. Since December 2016, Beijing also has charged an additional 10 percent on "super-luxury" vehicles priced above $200,000.

The U.S. bought more than $500 billion in goods from China last year and now is planning or considering penalties on some $150 billion of those imports.

China has pledged to "counterattack with great strength" if Trump decides to follow through on his latest threat to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods -- after an earlier announcement that targeted $50 billion.

Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy for Mizuho Bank in Singapore, told Reuters, By and large it appears that the speech is more conciliatory than it is pugilistic with respect to how their approach to the U.S. is."

Xi tried to position China as a defender of free trade and cooperation in response to Trump's "America first" calls for import restrictions and an overhaul of trade deals to make them more favorable to the United States.

"China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider," said Xi at the forum on the southern island of Hainan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
British media report that Yulia Skripal, one of two Russians poisoned by nerve agent, has been released from the hospital.

BBC News said Tuesday the 33-year-old Skripal had been discharged from hospital and taken to a "secure" location on Monday.

Skripal was in critical condition after the March 4 nerve agent attack, apparently aimed at her father, Sergei Skripal.

He remains hospitalized but officials say he is improving rapidly.

Britain has accused the Russian government of masterminding the attack on the Skripals.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALNs) is not among the Judicial and Bar Council's (JBC) requirements for integrity.

"Remember that the integrity rules of the Judicial and Bar Council are clear - police clearance, NBI clearance, Ombudsman clearance, court clearance - those are the evidence of integrity and I submitted all of that," the Chief Justice said during the high court's session on the ouster petition against her.

"SALN is not at all mentioned ever in the JBC as an integrity document," she added.

The JBC recommends appointees to the Judiciary for the President's appointment.

According to Rule 4 of the Revised Rules of the JBC, or the integrity and probity provision, "The Council shall take every possible step to verify the applicant's record of and reputation for honesty, integrity, probity, incorruptibility, irreproachable conduct, and fidelity to sound moral and ethical standards."

Associate Justice Noel Tijam, however, said the JBC announced that applicants for the Chief Justice position must submit their SALNs.

JBC Executive Director Annaliza Ty-Capacite had earlier said Sereno's submission of three SALNs is already considered substantial compliance.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen backed Sereno, saying, "If our measure of integrity is only a piece of paper, then God help us!"

Sereno also said she has minutes from 11 JBC en banc sessions, where she said the council had numerous chances to remove her name from the shortlist but never did.

The quo warranto, a legal proceeding where an individual's right to hold office is challenged, was filed by the government's top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida. He wants the Supreme Court to void Sereno's appointment as chief justice over her alleged failure to file SALNs for 10 years, before she applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012.

Sereno, however, said the JBC required candidates to file all their past SALNs, and not just of the past decade.

When she was applying for the position, Sereno submitted her SALNs for 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro pointed out Sereno did not submit a single SALN in the 20 years she worked as a law professor at the University of the Philippines.

Sereno's legal counsel Alexander Poblador argued other candidates for the top judge positions also failed to submit all their past SALNs. Associate Justice Samuel Martires, however, said Poblador was committing a fallacy of tu quoque, or the appeal to hypocrisy.

Sereno clarifies issues with SALNs

One of the issues brought up by De Castro was that Sereno's 2010 SALN was dated 2006.

The Chief Justice said during the time, only the 2006 form was available online, so she printed it, filled it out, then faxed it to the JBC.

While she forgot to change the header of the document, Sereno said she indicated it was her 2010 SALN in the signature area.

Sereno also said retrieving other SALNs were "infeasible," because some date back as far as 15 years.

The Chief Justice also mentioned she has transferred residences numerous times, even living overseas for a time, leaving some of her documents behind.

She added JBC Chief of Office of Selection and Nomination Richard Pascual called her to submit the SALNs on a Friday, with a Monday deadline. Because there were no government offices during the weekend, she could only submit SALNs which are readily available to her.

De Castro, one of Sereno's harshest critics, called Sereno's explanations "excuses."
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is promising to consider the impact of a new Russian-German gas pipeline on Ukraine as plans progress.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline would pump Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. It is viewed suspiciously in some eastern European countries which fear losing transit revenue if Russian gas supplies no longer cross their territory once the pipeline is built.

Merkel said she listened carefully to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's concerns at a meeting Tuesday. She said Ukraine must retain a role in gas transit, adding: "A Nord Stream 2 project without having clarity about how things continue with the Ukrainian transit role is not possible."

She acknowledged that "it is not just a business project; of course political factors have to be taken into account."
Nearly 80 people in Indonesia are dead and 90 others have been hospitalized this month after drinking toxic bootleg liquor containing ingredients such as cough medicine and insect repellent, officials said.

Authorities said Tuesday that 45 people have died in three locations in the province of West Java, while another 31 people died earlier this month in the capital, Jakarta, and satellite cities.

The head of the state-run hospital in Cicalengka, Yani Sumpena, said doctors were overwhelmed with the influx of patients suffering from alcohol poisoning.

"Since April 6, there are 93 patients in our hospital while our capacity is very limited, only 19 beds," Sumpena told Indonesian TV. "So the rest we refer to the surrounding hospitals."

While drinking alcohol is discouraged, it is not illegal. Indonesia banned the sale of alcohol from tens of thousands of mini-marts and other small stores in 2015, however, high taxes on alcohol have spawned a black market for booze among the poor in the worlds most-populous Muslim nation.

Authorities said potentially lethal methanol can be a byproduct of bootleg distilling and the tainted alcohol is also sometimes mixed with soft drinks. In the recent spate of deaths, police said pure alcohol was sometimes combined with ingredients such as cough medicine and insect repellent.

All the patients come with shortness of breath, diminished consciousness and many whose vision is blurred, Amelia, a doctor at the state-run hospital in Cicalengka, told Indonesian TV.

Deaths from toxic alcohol are common in Indonesia but the latest cluster of fatalities, coming in a little more than a week, is dramatic, leading to speculation a single large distributor was responsible.

West Java police spokesman Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko said they have not found evidence to support the theory.

He said seven people suspected of mixing or selling the bootleg liquor have been arrested, while another person remains at large.

"We have not yet found any link among them," Andiko said. "Based on their confessions, they worked independently, each mixing the drinks in their own way such as using cough remedies, ointments and mosquito repellent."

In the Jakarta area, police have arrested at least four suspects.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Poland is marking the eighth anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski, the first lady and many other political and military leaders, the worst tragedy to befall the nation in decades.

The ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is the president's surviving twin brother, paid tribute to the 96 victims in a solemn ceremony Tuesday in Warsaw that began at 8.41 a.m., the exact time of the crash on April 10, 2010, near the Smolensk airport.

The victims' names were read out in an emotional ceremony held in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, once home to the late president.

Other ceremonies include the unveiling of a massive stone memorial to the victims in a central Warsaw square.
A senior Russian lawmaker says Moscow is willing to help arrange a visit this week for experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria.

Syrian opposition activists say 40 people died in Saturday night's chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion near Damascus. The opposition blamed President Bashar Assad's forces for the attack, accusations the government strongly denies.

Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defense committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that Russia is anxious for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to "finally start carrying out the functions it was created for."

Russia's offer comes as President Donald Trump is threatening an imminent military strike against Syria.
Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution at the United Nations Tuesday that would have condemned a suspected poison gas attack by the Syrian regime on a Damascus suburb.

The vote in the 15-member U.N. Security Council was 12 in favor, with Russia and Bolivia opposing and China abstaining. It was the 12th time Russia has vetoed a resolution concerning Syria and sixth veto related to chemical weapons.

The resolution would have also established a new body to determine responsibility for chemical weapons attacks during Syria's ongoing civil war. The Security Council voted down a rival Russian resolution moments later.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the U.S. "went the extra mile" to get Russian support for the resolution to ensure that the proposed investigative body would be impartial, independent and professional. By contrast, Haley said the Russian resolution would allow Moscow to veto investigators and staff for the new body -- and to block its findings.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of wanting the resolution to fail "to justify the use of force against Syria."

He added that the resolution was trying to recreate the old expert body, whose extension Moscow blocked in November. He called that body "a puppet in the hands of anti-Damascus forces."

Earlier Tuesday, the international chemical weapons watchdog said it was sending a fact-finding mission to the town of Douma, where the suspected chemical weapons attack took place, following a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers that appeared to be aimed at averting punitive Western military action.

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) would delay or prevent a U.S. strike in Syria. President Donald Trump has vowed to respond "forcefully" to Saturday's attack and warned that Russia -- or any other nation found to share responsibility -- will "pay a price."

The incident has sparked international outrage and ratcheted up tensions in the already volatile Mideast, raising the specter of possible imminent American retaliation amid Russia's warnings against any such action, and denials that any chemical weapons attack took place.

Adding to the tensions, Iran, a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, threatened to respond to an airstrike on a Syrian military base on Monday that the Syrian government, Russia and Iran have blamed on Israel.

Seven Iranians were among the estimated 14 people killed in the missile strike, and a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus said the attack "will not remain unanswered." Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iran's supreme leader, spoke upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.

The Syrian air base was struck by missiles a little more than 24 hours after the alleged chemical attack. Israel does not typically comment on its operations in Syria, and it is unclear whether the missile attack was linked to the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Iran is one of Assad's strongest backers and has sent thousands of troops and allied militiamen to support his forces.

Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds of people since the start of Syria's conflict, with the U.N. blaming four attacks on the Syrian government and a fifth on the Islamic State (ISIS) group.

The OPCW, in its statement, said its technical Secretariat has asked the Syrian government to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of a fact-finding mission. The group is the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, which has been signed by 192 member states.

Syria became a member in 2013 as part of a deal brokered by the U.S. and Russia after a chemical attack in eastern Ghouta killed hundreds of people. That attack was widely blamed on government forces, who denied responsibility.

Syrian opposition activists and paramedics said more than 40 people were killed in last weekend's suspected chemical attack and blamed the government. The Syrian government and its Russian backers strongly deny the allegations, and questioned whether a chemical weapons attack even took place.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he was outraged by the reported attack, and that the use of chemical weapons would be a violation of international law. He also reaffirmed his support for an OPCW investigation.

Fox News' Ben Evansky and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Yulia Skripal, who along with her father were left in critical condition after exposure to a rare nerve agent last month, was released from the hospital Tuesday and received a congratulatory tweet from the Russian Embassy in the U.K.

We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery, the tweet read. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.

The tweet comes amid tension between the U.K. and Moscow after British authorities blamed Russia for what they say was poisoning with a military-grade Soviet-developed nerve agent called Novichok. Russia has denied the allegations, which have led to major strains between countries.

Yulia Skripal, 33, and her father, Sergei Skripal, an ex-spy, were found unconscious on a bench March 4 in Salisbury and were hospitalized for weeks in critical condition. She regained consciousness about two weeks ago.

Britain, along with the United States and at least two dozen other U.K. allies, have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats. Russia has sent home the same number of those nations envoys.

Dr. Christine Blanshard, the medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, said last week that her 66-year-old father is responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition.

Scientists said the Skripals recovery was not unprecedented. Nerve agents work by blocking an enzyme in the body that lets nerves communicate with each other and with the bodys organs.

The Skripals long-term prognosis is uncertain, however.

Michelle Carlin, senior lecturer in forensic and analytical chemistry at Northumbria University, said there is limited knowledge about the long-term effects of Novichok poisoning, but neurological damage has been reported in other historic cases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he has accepted any invitation to visit North Korea.

Lavrov said in televised comments on Tuesday after talks with his counterpart from North Korea, Ri Yong-ho, that he has agreed to visit Pyongyang. Lavrov said, however, that there was no word on a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Lavrov said that Russia welcomes Kim's plan to meet with the South Korean president and U.S. President Donald Trump as a step toward resolving the tensions around North Korea's nuclear program.

Kim visited Beijing last month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping  the first time Kim has left the North since assuming power in 2011. It was also his first meeting with another head of state.
Images of tiny bodies foaming at the mouth and gasping for air following the suspected chemical attack in Douma, Syria, has brought back haunting memories for many across the border in Iraqi-Kurdistan.

Nearly 30 years ago, it was the Kurds who were the first victims of a horrific chemical bombardment by their own government  the Baath Party-led regime of Saddam Hussein.

What I saw last night was exactly what happened to us, said Luqman Abdulqadir, head of the Halabja Chemical Attack Victims Group and Deputy of the Halabja Memorial Monument. I felt what they felt, watching loved ones die, and knowing that those who survive will feel the pain until the day they do die.

Abdulqadir was a 20-year-old newlywed on March 16, 1988, spending the day with family when the unthinkable happened: A chemical attack that left his wife, two sisters, two brothers and mother gasping on the ground, unable to speak. And then they were gone.

We believed we would be the last victims of a chemical weapon. Back then, there was no technology and social media to raise our voice, Abdulqadir lamented. But now, it is still happening. The world knows and yet there is silence.

The Syrian bombardment over the weekend shook Halabja survivors, prompting a small group - including Abdulqadir - to gather Monday at the Halabja Monument and Peace Museum, a quiet place of reflection at the foothills of the Iranian mountainside, to express their solidarity.

They held signs and read a short but potent message xpressing that their pain has again been renewed, and that the use of such banned gasses cannot be tolerated. What happened in Syria makes us feel scared, like this could happen to us again, Abdulqadir told Fox News after the gathering. It is time for the U.S. to come in and take real action.

The chemical concoction believed to be used in Halabja - VX, sarin, tabun and mustard gas - also brought about the eerie side effect of some victims laughing uncontrollably, even as they took their last breaths.

At least 5,000 Kurds are believed to have perished in the attack, while tens of thousands more from the 80,000-person city continue to battle both visible and unseen scars from post-traumatic stress to birth defects to respiratory problems to sharply elevated cancer rates.

Life stops in a place where chemical weapons are dropped, said Abdulqadir. The trees are still dying here.

Hameda Hasan, 48, still suffers respiratory and hearing problems, and has had multiple surgeries in Europe on her singed skin. But its reliving the details of the attack that haunts the most.

When I heard about Syria, I felt like it happened to me again, she said. I felt my skin bubble. I felt the pain.

Hasan was 16 the day of the attack, and getting ready to sit for lunch on what was a bright and sunny day. But she said she knew something wasnt right, even before the attack. Iranian military forces had entered the city three days before  this was the waning days of a protracted Iran-Iraq war - and an uneasy calm had swept over the city. But the Iranian entry was Saddams pretext to launch an attack.

Warplanes suddenly appeared from the skies, directly striking Hasans family home. She said confusion ensued as strange smells permeated the air. A bird with broken wings flopped down, and their cow in the backyard started to cower, as its eyes streamed. They all started to violently vomit.

We got in a car and tried to run away to another neighborhood. There were bodies everywhere, every corner, Hasan continued. Cars has no choice but to just drive over the dead bodies. Then five new planes came.

The family made it to relative safety in Iran, but nine of her family members perished. Hasan herself remained unconscious for 15 days.

Fellow Halabja resident Gashaw Murad Mohammed, now 42, could not even bring herself to look at the images flooding the media from the attacks in Syria. She recalled hiding in the basement in the aftermath of the Halabja attack, before her father thrust her and her four younger brothers - ages eight, four, two and six months - into a neighbors car and promising they would be just behind. She remembers trying to cover her brothers noses, their eyes swelling and they struggled to breathe.

She remembers crossing over the Iranian border on foot with her baby brother strapped to her back. Weeks passed, and Mohammed waded through the sea of refugees looking for the rest of her family.

Finally a relative came and said to stop waiting for them. He said my parents were dead, my little sister was dead, that 21 persons from my family were all burned and dead, Mohammed recalled. I was just 12, and left alone to raise my little brothers.

Two brothers went on to become top physicians, while two others became prominent teachers. And although Mohammed herself had to leave school to bring up her siblings in the sixth grade, in 2011 she went back to finish her studies and earn a degree in computer science. It was her own seemingly small but deeply symbolic victory.

As for the search for justice for the survivors and victims of Halabja, an Iraqi Special Tribunal did not charge Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity in connection to the attacks. His cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, who commanded Iraqi forces in the country's north at that time and was infamously known as Chemical Ali, was tried and finally executed in 2010 or his role in organizing the massacre.

Today, down the road from a somber monument to the massacres lies a mass gravesite, where the names of the victims are etched across the thousands of headstones. There is no welcome sign, just one chilling reminder:

"Baath's Members are not allowed to enter."
Less than a day after President Trump threatened an imminent military strike against Syria, war monitors there say government forces and their allies are on alert and taking precautionary measures at military bases across the country amid fears of an attack by the United States.

Saturdays reported chemical weapons attack on civilians prompted international outrage, and led Trump to warn that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility will pay a price.

But the Russian military, which has a presence in Syria as a key Assad ally, said its officers had visited the weekend site in a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital, and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions.

TRUMP SUGGESTS RUSSIA MAY BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR SYRIA GAS ATTACK

The Sound and Picture Organization, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said on Tuesday that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near Iraqs border.

As he began an evening meeting with military leaders at the White House, Trump promised to "make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter." He said: "We have a lot of options militarily, and we'll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact."

WATCH: TRUMP PUTS 'ANIMAL ASSAD' ON NOTICE

Syrian opposition activists say 40 people died in Saturday nights chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion near Damascus. The opposition blamed President Bashar Assads forces for the attack, accusations the government strongly denies.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Washington of deliberately stoking international tensions by threatening Russia in a tone "beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the Cold War."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno figured in multiple heated exchanges with one of her harshest critics during the Supreme Court's ouster proceedings against her.

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro on Tuesday was the first to interpellate Sereno over her Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALNs).

The clash immediately began after Sereno took her oath.

"Did you religiously comply with the submission of the SALN as mandated by law?" De Castro asked Sereno.

The Chief Justice, however, responded with a question of her own.

"Can I have your assurance that should a quo warranto petition be filed against any of you on the ground that one or more SALNs are not on record, that you would also, under oath, declare before this Court, answer all questions regarding your SALNs?" Sereno said.

She then cited de Castro's submission of only 15 out of her 39 total SALNs since she started government service.

De Castro, along with acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio interrupted Sereno, urging her to answer the question instead.

Sereno continued with her remarks, saying it is the "due process and equal protection issue" she is raising.

The country's top judge later said, "I consistently filed my SALN as required by law."

Throughout her interpellation, de Castro brought up several issues on Sereno's SALNs, which caused more arguments between the two.

Sereno and de Castro were both candidates for the position of Chief Justice in 2012 to replace the impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The quo warranto, a legal proceeding where an individual's right to hold office is challenged, was filed by the government's top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida. He wants the Supreme Court to void Sereno's appointment as chief justice over her alleged failure to file SALNs for 10 years, before she applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012.

Sereno, however, said the Judicial and Bar Council required candidates to file all their past SALNs, and not just of the past decade.

Sereno submitted her SALNs for 2009, 2010, and 2011. De Castro pointed out Sereno did not submit a single SALN in the 20 years she worked as a law professor at the University of the Philippines.

De Castro in a November 2017 House hearing broke her silence on the rumored rivalry between her and Sereno. She denied having any bias against Sereno, adding that she does not let her emotions get in the way of her job as a magistrate.

Sereno had also sought de Castro's inhibition from the ouster proceedings, citing "personal interest" in the outcome of the petition. The Court, however, denied the motion for lack of merit.
The suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma over the weekend has once again highlighted the use of chemical weapons in Syria's seven-year civil war.

Chemical weapons have killed hundreds of people since the start of the conflict, with the U.N. blaming four attacks on the Syrian government and a fifth on the Islamic State group.

The latest attack killed at least 40 people and has been widely blamed on the Syrian government, which has denied responsibility. President Donald Trump has said there will be a "big price to pay" for President Bashar Assad's government and anyone else found to be responsible.

The Organization for the Proliferation of Chemical Weapons says it will send a fact-finding mission to investigate the latest attack, following an invitation from the Syrian government.

The following is a timeline of chemical weapons attacks in Syria:

March 2011: Protests erupt in the city of Daraa over security forces' detention of a group of boys accused of painting anti-government graffiti on the walls of their school. On March 15, a protest is held in Damascus' Old City. On March 18, security forces open fire on a protest in Daraa, killing four people in what activists regard as the first deaths of the uprising. Demonstrations spread, as does the crackdown by Assad's forces.

Aug. 18, 2011: President Barack Obama calls on Assad to resign and orders Syrian government assets frozen.

Aug. 20, 2012: Obama says the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would change his calculus on intervening in the civil war and have "enormous consequences."

March 19, 2013: The Syrian government and opposition trade accusations over a gas attack that killed some 26 people, including more than a dozen soldiers, in the town of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria. A U.N. investigation later finds that sarin nerve gas was used, but does not identify a culprit.

Aug. 21, 2013: Hundreds of people suffocate in rebel-held suburbs of the Syrian capital, with many suffering from convulsions, pinpoint pupils, and foaming at the mouth. U.N. investigators visit the sites and determine that ground-to-ground missiles loaded with sarin were fired on civilian areas while residents slept. The U.S. and others blame the Syrian government, the only party to the conflict known to have sarin gas.

Aug. 31, 2013: Obama says he will go to Congress for authorization to carry out punitive strikes against the Syrian government, but appears to lack the necessary support in the legislature.

Sept. 27, 2013: The U.N. Security Council orders Syria to account for and destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, following a surprise agreement between Washington and Moscow, averting U.S. strikes. The Security Council threatens to authorize the use of force in the event of non-compliance.

Oct. 14, 2013: Syria becomes a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, prohibiting it from producing, stockpiling or using chemical weapons.

June 23, 2014: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has removed the last of the Syrian government's chemical weapons. Syrian opposition officials maintain that the government's stocks were not fully accounted for, and that it retained supplies.

Aug. 7, 2015: The U.N. Security Council authorizes the OPCW and U.N. investigators to probe reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, as reports circulate of repeated chlorine gas attacks by government forces against civilians in opposition-held areas. Chlorine gas, though not as toxic as nerve agents, can be classified as a chemical weapon depending on its use.

Aug. 24, 2016: The joint OPCW-U.N. panel determines the Syrian government twice used helicopters to deploy chlorine gas against its opponents, in civilian areas in the northern Idlib province. A later report holds the government responsible for a third attack. The attacks occurred in 2014 and 2015. The panel also finds that the Islamic State group used mustard gas.

Feb. 28, 2017: Russia, a stalwart ally of the Syrian government, and China veto a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing sanctions against the Syrian government for chemical weapons use.

April 4, 2017: More than 90 people are killed in a suspected nerve gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held Idlib province. Victims show signs of suffocation, convulsions, foaming at the mouth and pupil constriction. Witnesses say the attack was carried out by either Russian or Syrian Sukhoi jets. Moscow and Damascus deny responsibility.

April 4, 2017: Trump says the "heinous" actions of Assad's government are the direct result of Obama administration's "weakness and irresolution."

April 5, 2017: Trump says Assad's government has "crossed a lot of lines" with the suspected chemical attack in Syria.

April 6, 2017: The U.S. fires cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for the Khan Sheikhoun attack, in the first direct American assault on the Syrian government.

Oct. 26, 2017: Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog blame the Syrian government for the attack on Khan Sheikhoun. The report supports the initial findings by the United States, France and Britain that a Syrian plane dropped a bomb with sarin on the town of Khan Sheikhoun.

April 7, 2018: Syrian activists, rescuers and medics say a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma near the capital has killed at least 40 people. The Syrian government and Russia reject the allegations, saying the purported evidence of a chemical weapons attack was fabricated.

April 9, 2018: Trump says he will decide on a U.S. response to the Douma attack "probably by the end of today."

April 10, 2018: Syria says it has invited the OPCW to send a fact-finding mission into the country, as government forces across Syria go on high alert in anticipation of a possible U.S. strike.
The European Union's top court has ruled that member states can ban taxi services like UberPop without prior notification to the Commission.

The ruling came after France banned the UberPop service, which allowed drivers without a taxi license to pick up passengers, in 2014 to avoid unfair competition. A court in the French city of Lille then asked the European Court of Justice whether French authorities should have notified the Commission before passing the law.

The court said in a statement Tuesday that member states "may prohibit and punish the illegal exercise of a transport activity such as UberPop without having to notify the Commission in advance of" any laws penalizing such services.

It's another blow for Uber after the ECJ ruled it should be regulated like a taxi company.
After another suspected chemical attack in Syria, President Trump promised the U.S. would respond forcefully but so far has not given specifics.

We're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met and it will be met forcefully, Trump said as he met with top military leaders at the White House, adding that we have a lot of options militarily.

He later warned that missiles "will be coming" at Syria, cautioning the Kremlin on social media against shooting them down. But he also added to speculation about an attack and its timing in a tweet, saying, "Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!"

The president canceled a planned trip to South America this week, instead choosing to stay in the U.S. to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world, according to press secretary Sarah Sanders.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied responsibility for the alleged attack.

Heres a look at some options Trump has in responding to the reported attack  and what experts say are the consequences of those actions.

Airstrikes  again

Trump ordered airstrikes in Syria in 2017 to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons, the president said at the time.

Luke Coffey, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said a quick response thats very punitive in nature is the best route for the Trump administration to take after the latest purported chemical attack  opposed to working for a regime change.

Theres no doubt that we have very smart people with high tech equipment who can figure out how the attack was carried out and who was in charge, Coffey told Fox News. Theres a whole chain that they could construct for targeting, and I think that needs to be done.

Speaking to Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Assad and his inner circle should be considered war criminals and legitimate military targets.

If you have the opportunity to take him out, you should. You should ground his air force, you should destroy his air force, Graham said.

But Trevor Thrall, a senior fellow at the more libertarian-leaning Cato Institutes Defense and Foreign Policy Department, said there arent any good options when it comes to responding to Syria, calling the use of chemical weapons a distraction.

Trump already sent bombs away for this once before, Thrall, also an associate professor at George Mason Universitys Schar School of Policy and Government, told Fox News. A few cruise missiles isnt going to do anything to change the course of the war in Syria or stop Assad.

The problem Trump has, now that hes punished Assad once for this, I think he might feel like he has to do something again to save face, Thrall continued, adding that he expects the administration to use "harsh, but not too serious of airstrikes again.

The problem with airstrikes, according to Thrall, include the possibility of accidentally causing causalities among innocent civilians and creating a future problem for the U.S.

The more the United States engages in Syria, the angrier certain Syrians are going to be at the United States, he said. To me, it seems like borrowing trouble.

Another issue is the congressional authorization of strikes, according to to Hina Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Unions National Security Project, who harshly criticized the Trump administration for lacking congressional approval in the 2017 air strikes.

No one disputes that Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians is illegal, immoral, and unacceptable, Shamsi wrote. But Assads illegality does not excuse illegality in response.

Finding partners

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the U.S. was discussing whether they would participate in a retaliatory strike. If Trump decides to proceed quickly, the most likely partner would be France, rather than Britain, because of concerns about obtaining permission from Parliament, said the official.

Coffey said its important for the international community to participate in a strike this time around, adding that it would fit into Trumps message of burden-sharing on the international stage.

It cant be the U.S. alone firing off 50 cruise missiles, Coffey said. Other countries who have similar capabilities should also participate.

He also added that a Middle Eastern country  such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates  could also join the coalition.

I think it would be worth the diplomatic legwork that it would require. It would send a very strong message if Arab countries participated, Coffey said.

When it comes to airstrikes, Thrall questioned why its the sole responsibility of the U.S. to retaliate to the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Why is it magically, uniquely [the United States job]? We dont live next to Syria, we didnt start the war, we are not Assads keeper, he said. Why, without any vote at the United Nations Security Council or without deliberation with allies, why should we take it on ourselves?

The U.S. had called on the Security Council to vote on a resolution that would condemn the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria in the strongest terms and establish a new body to determine responsibility for the chemical attacks.

Targeting Assad backers

Trump also said Monday that everybody involved in the alleged attack "is going to pay a price," including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If its Russia, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it, out and well know the answers quite soon, Trump told reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting.

Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Iran and Russia must not be left off the hook as both nations have blood on their hands as they have been partners in carrying out these atrocities in Syria.

Both countries need to be subject to additional economic and diplomatic penalties for propping up Assad, sponsoring terror, and supporting other destabilizing actions in the Middle East, McCaul, a Republican, wrote in an opinion column for Fox News.

Coffey said the U.S. could target Iranian enablers of Assad but doubted that Russia would be a target.

I dont think the U.S. wants to go to World War III over Syria, he said.

Thrall, too, expressed concern about the U.S. possibly going after other nations.

My deep concern is every time you do something that you think is limited inside a conflict zone like Syria, you end up getting more deeply engaged, he warned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is being grilled today about how the huge social media company will better prevent Russian influence and "fake news" from influencing U.S. elections.

But Russia isn't the only country that appears intent on influencing American voters through Facebook and other social media.

While Russia's government owns the popular channel "RT," geared toward reaching an American audience, Venezuela-based TeleSUR English operates in similar fashion and has nearly half a million followers.

And few know that it is funded by the leftist governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Uruguay.

TeleSUR English releases about seven videos a day, generally anti-capitalist or anti-Donald Trump propaganda.

The storyline is always the same: The big bad United States is to blame for all our problems, and we must unite to fight the evil capitalists, Fergus Hodgson, executive editor of Antigua Report, a Latin American business consulting agency, told FoxNews.com.

These videos are often shared among members of the American far left.

In one recent video -- it was viewed more than 1.2 million times and shared by more than 40,000 people -- the Venezuelan outlet declared that "philanthropy is a scam." It also accused billionaire Bill Gates and others of pouring money into Africa not to help the poor, but rather to "gain control" of smaller countries. It accused them of spreading capitalism -- "the cause of world problems."

In a sad twist, many Venezuelans are starving to death today because Venezuela refuses international aid.

Venezuela used to be the richest country in Latin America, and still has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but socialist policies that seized control of most of the economy have led to extreme poverty. Hundreds of children have died of starvation, with thousands sent to hospitals for malnutrition -- government-run hospitals that often lack food and basic medical supplies, even soap.

The average Venezuelan lost 24 pounds last year due to food shortages, surveys show, and more than a million refugees have already fled the country for neighboring Colombia and Brazil.

Though all that, Venezuela's government still finds the money to fund TeleSUR English videos to teach Americans about the evils of capitalism.

Whats in it for Venezuela? Hodgson says: They really care about foreign public opinion. These regimes try to form international alliances. ... If there were to be blanket opposition to Cuba and Venezuela around the world, they'd have problems.

Maintaining some international support is important for them partly because they need people to buy their oil, Hodgson said.

They still want to keep access to sell oil to the US. ... There are ways that other countries could really hurt them, he said.

The videos aim to convince people that the Western capitalist system isnt so much better  just as Russian propaganda is intended to sow discord and discontent with American institutions.

Many TeleSUR videos aim to achieve these effects. One, titled "List of Countries Where Capitalism Has Failed," has more than half a million views.

One bizarre TeleSUR English video, with 28,000 views, claimed "Trump is Killing Our Brains With Nazi-era Chemicals" by not imposing a new regulation on pesticides.



Another TeleSUR English video, this one from July 2017, discussed "Myths on Venezuela's Food Crisis" and showed fully stocked shelves. It admitted that "while there are shortages, these are a product of an 'economic war' " with capitalist countries.

Despite Venezuela's desperate economic straits, TeleSUR's English-language video output is increasing. In the last seven days it released 53 videos. That compares with 34 during the same week last year.

Individuals from all over the world share TeleSUR English's content, including people and groups on the American left. For example, the "Bernie Sanders Brigade," with 67,000 followers, shared a TeleSUR report on South Africa's plan to seize land from white farmers without compensation that claimed "the measure is not going to destabilize the country." The top comments on the

shared post support the seizure.

TeleSUR English also has a YouTube presence and 83,000 subscribers, but YouTube now includes a disclaimer below every video that "TeleSUR is funded in whole or in part by several Latin American governments." Facebook does not include such a disclaimer.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Tuesday.

Maxim Lott can be reached on Twitter at @maximlott.


Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  President Rodrigo Duterte said China stands with the Philippines in its flagship campaign against illegal drugs and terrorism.

"With China, we stand together in the war on criminality and illegal drug trade. We are shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism," Duterte told world leaders at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, China Tuesday.

The President also said that corruption, along with the illegal drug trade, is a "pernicious" and "rotten social disease" that hounds the Philippines.

But Duterte explained the Philippines has made headway in achieving peace and stability in the country.

"Make no mistake: There can be no progress without stability in Asia's lands and waters," he added.

The Duterte administration's drug war has been the subject of criticism of various local and international human rights groups.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has since ordered a review into alleged human rights violations linked to the drug war.

China has showed support for the Philippines' drug war due to its supposed positive effects to the country, and it also welcomed the Duterte administration's move to withdraw from the ICC.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang has also called on other nations to support Duterte's campaign.

READ: China supports PH withdrawal from ICC

Government data show there are at least 4,000 drug-related deaths in legitimate police operations, but rights groups believe the number to be as high as 13,000.

In June 2017, at the height of the Marawi siege, China donated thousands of weapons worth some 50 million yuan ($7.35 million) to help fight the Maute terrorists. Duterte said the move "highlights the dawn of a new era in Philippine-Chinese relations."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Former officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) were arrested Tuesday afternoon over a 50-million corruption scandal.

Former deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles were arrested at the Sandiganbayan, where they posted bail for the charges of graft, bribery, and violation of Presidential Decree no. 46, which makes it punishable for public officials and employees to receive gifts by reason of their government position.

As the former Immigration officials' bail was being processed, the anti-graft court's sixth division issued an arrest warrant against them for plunder, a non-bailable offense.

In some instances, a defendant may be granted temporary release if the court finds the evidence weak.

Argosino and Robles will be detained at the Quezon City jail annex in Camp Bagong Diwa.

The Sandiganbayan also ordered the arrest of Macau-based gaming tycoon Jack Lam for bribery, graft, and violation of PD no. 46. His supposed liaison, Wally Sombero, was issued an arrest warrant for plunder and other charges.

Argosino and Robles are accused of receiving 50 million in bribes from Lam in exchange for the release of more than 1,300 illegal Chinese workers who were arrested from Lam's casino in Clark, Pampanga in November 2016.

Sombero, then president of Asian Gaming Service Providers Association Inc., supposedly facilitated the deal.

Argosino and Robles in Senate hearings admitted to receiving money from Sombero, but they said they only took the money as evidence in an investigation they were conducting on Lam.

Sombero denied bribing the Immigration officials and instead accused them of extorting money from Lam.

CNN Philippines' Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  President Rodrigo Duterte witnessed the signing of several business agreements with Chinese firms wanting to invest $9.8 billion (508.6 billion) in the country.

The letters of intent (LOI) , according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, may generate as much as 10,800 jobs.

The LOIs were signed Tuesday covering agriculture, technology, pharmaceuticals, land development, and infrastructure among others.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Rowel Barba signed the LOIs on behalf of the country with representatives from the following companies:

Shanghai GeoHarbour Construction Group Ltd.

Jovo Group Co. Ltd. Guangdong

Zhongfa Group

Haocheng Group

China Green Agriculture Group

East-Cloud Biz Travel Ltd.

China National Heavy Machinery Corporation

Shanghai Shinehigh Biotechnology Ltd. Co. and Zheijiang Dongyang Jinxin Chemical Co. Ltd.

Sino BMG

In a speech after the signing, the President said he was happy about the signing of Memorandums of Understanding and LOIs and welcomed "the growing partnership between the Philippines and China."

"I hope for a more robust and healthy balance of trade in the coming years as the Philippines and China continue to enhance and increase trade links," he added.

Duterte also acknowledged the job opportunities that will come from Chinese investments as these will promote inclusive growth and encourage entrepreneurship among Filipinos.

The President was in China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan.

*US$1 = P51.89
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  The campaign team of President Rodrigo Duterte did not pay for the services of political data firm Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 elections, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Tuesday.

He said Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez did not have dealings with the controversial company involved in the massive Facebook data breach. Dominguez was then campaign treasurer.

"The Secretary of Finance, in his capacity as treasurer of the PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) campaign, assures that he did not pay anything to Cambridge Analytica nor did he transact with them," Roque said in a statement.

The South China Morning Post reported on April 4 the parent firm of Cambridge Analytica, Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), wrote on its website that it helped get an unnamed Philippine presidential candidate elected in 2016 by presenting him as a "strong, no-nonsense man of action" to appeal to the voters.

The SCL website page has been taken down, but the international news site was able to retrieve its archived versions.

The SCL web content read, "In the run up to national elections the incumbent client was widely perceived as both kind and honorable, qualities his campaign team thought were potentially election-winning. But SCL's research showed that many groups within the electorate were more likely to be swayed by qualities such as toughness and decisiveness. SCL used the cross-cutting issue of crime to rebrand the client as a strong, no-nonsense man of action, who would appeal to the true values of the voters."

Duterte is known for his tough stance against illegal drugs, corruption, and terrorist, among other issues. The clenched iron-fist hand gesture quickly became a symbol to show support for the President.

In a separate report, South China Morning Post also revealed that in May 2015 a board director of Strategic Communications Laboratories dined with men who will become key figures in Duterte's presidential campaign.

It said former Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix met with Jose Gabriel "Pompee" La Vina and Peter Tiu Lavina, who became Duterte's social media director and campaign spokesperson respectively during the 2016 national elections.

Cambridge Analytica is in hot water for its alleged improper harvesting of over 87 million Facebook data worldwide. In the Philippines, the personal data of 1.2 million Facebook users have been compromised, the National Privacy Commission said.

Related: PH privacy commission probes Facebook data breach

The controversial data firm also worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The New York Times reported Cambridge Analytica was working to develop techniques that could be used to influence voters.

Roque said the tough-talking Duterte was immensely supported  social media included  during his campaign.

"Support for the former Davao City Mayor was from all sectors and not just from Facebook or online; thus, the Duterte campaign did not have to purchase information," he said.

Related: Duterte, the social media president

The presidential spokesperson said the public should respect the win of Duterte  who won the election with over 16 million votes  instead of questioning his victory with unverified reports.

"We should respect the President's landslide victory, which was a result of the trust and confidence of the Filipino people, and not undermine it with unsubstantiated allegations," he said.

To shed more light on the data breach scandal, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the U.S. Senate at 2:15 p.m. ET on April 10 (Wednesday, 2:15 AM, PHT), and the House hearing at 10 a.m. ET on April 11 (Wednesday, 10 PM, PHT).
A Romney-cross Lleyn ewe successfully gave birth to sextuplets earlier this week on the Cotswold farm of Countryfile presenter Adam Henson.

Only one lamb needed assistance, with the other five lambing naturally, Mr Henson told Farmers Weekly.

The ewe was originally expected to have five after scanning but amazed the Cotswold Farm Park team when six healthy lambs were born.

Four is a lot, five is unusual and six is almost unheard of, Mr Henson said.

We are giving the ewe a lot of TLC at the moment, keeping her well fed and making sure the lambs are topped up with milk.

See also: Q&A: How to treat and prevent coccidiosis in lambs

Visitors to Mr Hensons Cotswold Farm Park at Kineton in Gloucestershire will be able to bottle-feed four of the lambs this spring.

The ewe was tupped by a Romney as part of the farms breeding programme, with ewes sold for breeding to other farms.

We find the Romneys are popular as breeding sheep, they are good mothers, good forage converters, easy lambing and they have good fleeces too, Mr Henson said.

The impressive six-lamb feat was achieved at the farm many moons ago, Mr Henson said.

I remember six from a Finn Dorset when I must have been about five years old.

Very rare

The probability of sextuplets varies across different breeds but is very low in Lleyns, according to Jo Conington, leader of sheep and goat genetics and genomics at Scotlands Rural College.

Some breeds have the Booroola fertility gene which gives rise to such very large litter sizes and variable lamb birthweights. However, to my knowledge, this has never been shown to be the case for the Lleyn breed.

Lleyns are noted for their prolificacy, mainly because for many decades, only ewes bearing twins or more could be registered with the society.
Corrections

Correction

An article on page A1 of Wednesdays edition should have said Tom Dickens represented five defendants in a civil-court proceeding involving members of the Galveston County GOP and James Reese Campbell represented three defendants. The article also misstated that the defendants were all members of a party steering committee. Some were members and some were not. The members voted on an amendment to the by-laws, not a resolution, as the story stated.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles is not leaving the Sandiganbayan jail anytime soon.

The anti-graft's first division on Tuesday denied for lack of merit her motion to be transferred from Camp Bagong Diwa to the custody of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Witness Protection Program (WPP).

Napoles was provisionally placed under the DOJ's WPP but the Sandiganbayan needed to approve her transfer to the department's custody since it handles her plunder and graft cases.

Napoles is accused of funneling P10 billion in lawmakers' funds to bogus non-government organizations.

Napoles also has cases in Sandiganbayan's third and fifth divisions which have yet to release their decision on her urgent motion for transfer which was filed March 15.

In a bid to justify her need for government protection, Napoles' camp in March also claimed that her jail cell was ransacked in October last year.

Her lawyer, Stephen David, earlier told CNN Philippines Napoles filed new affidavits on what she knows about the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2013.

David said Napoles will reveal new information on the scam, but denied she was the mastermind.
The Flying Mecha Chaos of aProject Nimbus: Code Miraia Launches Today in the US, and Tomorrow in Europe!





[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

April 10th, 2018, Phuket, Thailand: KISS Publishing Ltd., GameTomo and GameCrafterTeam are thrilled to announce that their high-flying mecha space shooter Project Nimbus: Code Mirai is now available in the US. EU players can also prepare for some high octane mecha action when Code Mirai launches in Europe tomorrow. Following an incredibly successful Japanese launch in November, the Project Nimbus team are delighted to bring Code Mirai to the West and the PS4 version is fully optimised to deliver an incredibly polished PS4 experience. PS4 players in the US and Europe are invited to enter the post-apocalyptic skies of Project Nimbus: Code Mirai and pilot a dazzling array of Battle Frames, colossal, planet shattering war machines armed to the teeth with laser swords, rail guns and LOTS of missiles. Mankind has evacuated to the skies after a great war destroyed the Earths surface, making it unable to support human life, and with resources scarce, humanity is again on the brink of another full-scale war. In Project Nimbus, players must battle a devastating army of enemy Battle Frames, duel with supersonic pilots, engage motherships and face off against giant world-ending weapons. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Project Nimbus launched onto Steam Early Access in 2014 and received a flurry of huge updates leading up to the official launch in September. After Project Nimbus entered Early Access it received 15 new exhilarating missions, devastating weapon variants for your Battle Frame, powerful new machine enemies and endless gameplay updates to streamline the Project Nimbus experience. The first two acts of Project Nimbus are now available in Project Nimbus: Code Mirai, completely redesigned to take full advantage of the power of the PS4. Were huge fans of the genre, so to have created a successful mecha game on PC and console is a dream come true for us. We couldnt be happier with the feedback weve had from the community so far, and the future for the franchise looks incredibly bright, said Pawee Pakamekanon, Project Leader at GameCrafterTeam. Project Nimbus: Code Mirai has already achieved phenomenal success in Japan and we know European and US players will love the high-octane mecha action of Code Mirai, said Darryl Still, Co-Founder and CEO of KISS Publishing Ltd. GameCrafterTeam are an incredibly talented studio and have been an absolute pleasure to work with. We cant wait to work together on their next project, watch this space! Watch the trailer for Project Nimbus: Code Mirai here and download the latest assets here. Project Nimbus: Code Mirai is now available via the US PlayStation Store for $24.99 and will be available for 19.99 from the UK store. Learn more about Project Nimbus: Code Mirai here To find out when the next two chapters of Project Nimbus: Code Mirai will be released follow Project Nimbus on Twitter and Facebook About GameCrafterTeam GameCrafterTeam is a small pioneering indie studio based in Phuket, Thailand. Mecha flying action shoot em up Project Nimbus is their first game to launch on Steam, and one of very few titles out of Thailand to do so. About KISS Publishing Ltd. Launched in 2012 by Peter King and Darryl Still, KISS Publishing Ltd. is made up of video games industry veterans from Atari, Sega, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Activision and Codemasters with more than 100 years combined experience in the industry and specialises in the publishing of independently developed games for digital download. KISS are the indie game experts having guided more titles through Steam Early Access and to a full release than any other publisher which is a testament to the quality of their games and the unrivalled support they offer developers. Since its inception the team has experienced consistent year on year growth and recently launched their first wholly owned IP. In 2017 KISS moved into console to meet the needs of their developers and celebrated their first title to break 2m in revenue. About GameTomo GameTomo is a team of dedicated indie developers and publishers located in Tokyo, Japan. GameTomo worked closely with GameCrafterTeam to bring Project Nimbus onto the PS4 in the form of Project Nimbus: Code Mirai, successfully released in Japan in November of 2017. Media Contact: Natalie Bahbout Swipe Right PR E: [email protected] T: +44 (0) 75577 72137 Natalie Bahbout Swipe Right PR Account Executive E: [email protected] T: +44 (0) 75577 72137
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10)  Five associate justices have rejected Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's petition for them to inhibit from hearing the case to oust her.

Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, and Teresita de Castro attended the Supreme Court's oral arguments on the quo warranto petition against Sereno Tuesday.

"All the motions for inhibition were denied for lack of merit," Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio said.

Sereno earlier sought the inhibition of her five colleagues from hearing the case, saying they all "manifested actual bias" against her.

These magistrates testified against Sereno before the impeachment hearings conducted by the House Committee on Justice.

Sereno's camp on Tuesday reiterated its call for the justices to inhibit.

"Kung may lima na hindi mag-iinhibit, mahihirapan po talaga na magkaroon ng fairness at justice (If the five justices won't inhibit, it would be hard to have fairness and justice)," Jojo Lacanilao, one of Sereno's spokespersons, told CNN Philippines' Balitaan.

The quo warranto, a legal proceeding where an individual's right to hold office is challenged, was filed by the government's top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida. He wants the Supreme Court to void Sereno's appointment as chief justice over her alleged failure to file Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) for 10 years, before she applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012.

The embattled chief justice, who has been on leave at the request of her colleagues, said the motions she filed in relation to her quo warranto case are "without prejudice" to her contention that the petition should be dismissed.

Sereno has said impeachment is the only way to remove a chief justice from office, asking lawmakers to "give me my day in the Senate impeachment court."

Alleged violations in her SALNs fom part of the articles of impeachment against Sereno.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday said this will be tackled and voted by the plenary when Congress resumes session on May 15. His statement comes after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the fast-tracking of the impeachment, calling Sereno her enemy.

Duterte earlier said he has no hand in efforts to oust Sereno either through quo warranto or impeachment.

If at least one-third of the members of the House of Representatives vote to impeach Sereno, the complaint would go to trial at the Senate.

The Senate, convening as an impeachment court, will need a two-thirds vote or 16 of 23 senators to convict the Chief Justice.

CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.
Public transit, airports, childcare : What you need to know about the strikes

Bonn/Region German public sector strikes will be widespread on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the region, local transit, the Cologne/Bonn Airport and some kindergartens will be affected.

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Labor union Verdi is exerting pressure on employers in advance of the likely decisive wage round. Beginning on Tuesday, the warning strikes will be widespread, requiring citizens to face significant disruptions. Affected are all areas of public service at federal and local level, according to Verdi.

Massive disruptions in bus and rail

Public transit is included in the strike on Tuesday. The SWB Bonn (transit authorities) and the KVB (Cologne transit authorities) say urban rail and buses will not be running. A few buses operated by their subcontractors may run sporadically. Lines 16 and 18 between Bonn and Cologne will not run at all. Pickets are expected to block exits at railway stations.

Some other buses will be underway in the city. The RSVG (Rhine-Sieg transit) runs from the right bank of the Rhine, some lines going into the city, and the RVK (Cologne regional transit) runs from the left side of the Rhine. Both companies believe their workers will not strike as their drivers have tariff agreements. But they expect delays due to full buses and busy traffic.

A Bonn transit authority from SWB said she expected they would be back in operation on Wednesday morning. Passengers are not entitled to reimbursement of travel costs if they have to use alternative means of travel such as taxis. For those who want to go to Cologne/Bonn Airport, one can take a regional train from Beuel train station. Deutsche Bahn, Mittelrheinbahn (MRB) and National Express are also not affected by the strike.

RSVG is currently assuming their bus routes will run on Tuesday, but the ones that are operated together with SWB will be affected: the 640 completely, for the 550 sporadic trips are expected and the SB55 will run a good number of trips.

For motorists there is some good news, the closure of a lane on the 565 autobahn in the direction of Meckenheim has been postponed. Bonns waste management company, Bonnorange will strike.

Kindergartens stay closed

The trade union Komba is also planning a warning strike. Several kindergartens and day cares are expected to be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. The following day care centers are closed according to Komba: St. Mark's Square, Estermannstrae, Herpenstrae, Waldenburger Ring 30, Waldenburger Ring 44, Domhof, Ellesdorfer Strae, Maria Montessori Allee, Heinrich-Schneiders-Strasse, Weidenweg, Alte Bonner Strae, Ossietzkystrae, Graurheindorfer Strae, Annabergerstrasse and Limpericher street. In other parts of Bonn and Rhine-Sieg, there will also be closures. The youth welfare office has organized emergency groups and set up a hotline for all parents from 8 am to 4 pm: (0228) 77 55 44. The city has also set up a hotline for parents: (0228) 77 55 44 from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Friday.

Citizen services are not expected to be affected in Bonn. In Bonn, however, Komba will hold its biggest demonstration with 7,000 participants. It begins at 9:30am at Stiftsplatz and goes to the Markt, where there will be a rally at 1pm.

Warning strikes at Telekom

Verdi has also announced strikes at Telekom on Tuesday. Customer service at Telekom is expected to be affected most of all, according to Verdi on Monday. Airport strikes Verdi announced a strike for Tuesday at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Ground service personnel and some airport fire brigade are participating.

On Monday, 74 of 250 flights were already cancelled for Tuesday out of Cologne/Bonn Airport, including 12 Lufthansa and 62 Eurowings flights. More disruptions are expected as a result of the strikes. Frankfurt, Munich and Bremen Airports are also experiencing strikes and major disruptions.

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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.
clarajancita at 10-04-2018 05:33 PM (3 years ago) (f)

Police officers in Lagos have revealed through investigation how a fake Benin Prince duped a Nigerian politician the sum of $1.5 million. Police detectives attached to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton, Lagos State, have arrested some men, who posed as international businessmen, members of House of Representatives and members of Benin Kingdoms royal family to defraud a former lawmaker of $1.5 million.

Police officers in Lagos have revealed through investigation how a fake Benin Prince duped a Nigerian politician the sum of $1.5 million. Police detectives attached to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton, Lagos State, have arrested some men, who posed as international businessmen, members of House of Representatives and members of Benin Kingdoms royal family to defraud a former lawmaker of $1.5 million.

The report revealed that police operatives began investigation of the suspects on July 28, 2017 with a crack team of detectives going to Murtala International Airport, Lagos State, to arrest the syndicates leader identified as Franklin Osiemwonyi Izekor, 45, aka Prince Joshua Akenzua.

It was learnt that rather than follow the policemen, Izekor resisted arrest, fought the policemen and even attempted to abduct one of the policemen in his car.



Although the lawmaker, Eseme Eyiboh, told detectives that he was swindled of over $1.5 million, Izekor insisted that the money was just $1 million and another N47 million. A police source said: The report revealed that police operatives began investigation of the suspects on July 28, 2017 with a crack team of detectives going to Murtala International Airport, Lagos State, to arrest the syndicates leader identified as Franklin Osiemwonyi Izekor, 45, aka Prince Joshua Akenzua.It was learnt that rather than follow the policemen, Izekor resisted arrest, fought the policemen and even attempted to abduct one of the policemen in his car.Although the lawmaker, Eseme Eyiboh, told detectives that he was swindled of over $1.5 million, Izekor insisted that the money was just $1 million and another N47 million. A police source said: Quote The amount of money involved in this scam is no longer the issue. Whats important is that the principal suspect, Franklin Osiemwonyi Izekor, who was posing as a prince of Oba of Benin, admitted that he actually defrauded the victim.



Aside Izekor, other members of the syndicate are Stephen Victor aka James Ajayi, Bolade Babatunde aka Honourable Lawal Adewunmi, Tola aka Peter Ajayi (still at large) and Alhaji Saka Jimoh (67).



How the syndicate was able to zero in on the lawmaker is still nebulous, however, it was learnt that trouble started for Eyiboh after he landed a juicy contract with Exxon Mobil.

He needed some items, which were mostly overseas to execute the contract. The lawmaker was aware that there is an anti-bulk movement of money treaty, including dollars, which Nigeria is a signatory to. He was not too sure how to get the vital items from overseas, especially since he couldnt transfer bulk dollars.



How the lawmaker was conned

One day, he received a phone call from his colleague Honourable Lawal Adewunmi (Bolade Babatunde), who was also a member of the House of Representatives. He didnt know that he was speaking with a fake Honourable Lawal Adewunmi.

Adewunmi exchanged pleasantries and soon delved into businesses. Eyiboh, thinking he was speaking with a concerned friend, spilled out his gut and his present contract. Adewunmi then promised to link him up with some international businessmen, who were agents of a company called International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency. Eyiboh was made to believe that it was an international money order organisation and an affiliate of American Forex Organisation with address at Plot 16, Agbara Estate, Ogun State. The syndicate convinced Eyiboh to part with $30,000 which was supposed to be money for him to be part of the organisation. After paying the money, he was given a registration form to fill and return.



A member of the syndicate, Stephen Victor, who called and introduced himself as James Ajayi, met with Eyiboh at his residence in Abuja, where he used the opportunity to screw every loose nuts into place, drawing the lawmaker completely into their web of deceit.



Eyiboh later alleged that Izekor presented himself as Prince Joshua Akenzua, representing International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency, which could assist him to acquire some equipment needed to execute a contract he won with Exxon Mobil.

Aside Izekor, other members of the syndicate are Stephen Victor aka James Ajayi, Bolade Babatunde aka Honourable Lawal Adewunmi, Tola aka Peter Ajayi (still at large) and Alhaji Saka Jimoh (67).How the syndicate was able to zero in on the lawmaker is still nebulous, however, it was learnt that trouble started for Eyiboh after he landed a juicy contract with Exxon Mobil.He needed some items, which were mostly overseas to execute the contract. The lawmaker was aware that there is an anti-bulk movement of money treaty, including dollars, which Nigeria is a signatory to. He was not too sure how to get the vital items from overseas, especially since he couldnt transfer bulk dollars.One day, he received a phone call from his colleague Honourable Lawal Adewunmi (Bolade Babatunde), who was also a member of the House of Representatives. He didnt know that he was speaking with a fake Honourable Lawal Adewunmi.exchanged pleasantries and soon delved into businesses. Eyiboh, thinking he was speaking with a concerned friend, spilled out his gut and his present contract.then promised to link him up with some international businessmen, who were agents of a company called International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency. Eyiboh was made to believe that it was an international money order organisation and an affiliate of American Forex Organisation with address at Plot 16, Agbara Estate, Ogun State. The syndicate convinced Eyiboh to part with $30,000 which was supposed to be money for him to be part of the organisation. After paying the money, he was given a registration form to fill and return.A member of the syndicate, Stephen Victor, who called and introduced himself as James Ajayi, met with Eyiboh at his residence in Abuja, where he used the opportunity to screw every loose nuts into place, drawing the lawmaker completely into their web of deceit.Eyiboh later alleged that Izekor presented himself as Prince Joshua Akenzua, representing International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency, which could assist him to acquire some equipment needed to execute a contract he won with Exxon Mobil. Quote The lawmaker said that he paid N47,133,000, through four bank accounts. Later, Izekor collected $45,000 in cash from him, the police source added.



On August 8, 2017, Izekor was arrested at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while trying to collect more money from Eyiboh. Izekors statement was later used to arrest Stephen and Babatunde.

the police source added.On August 8, 2017, Izekor was arrested at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while trying to collect more money from Eyiboh. Izekors statement was later used to arrest Stephen and Babatunde. Quote Investigation revealed that Izekor, Babatunde, Stephen and Tola conspired to fraudulently obtain from the complainant various sums of money amounting to N47,133,000 and $45,000.

The suspects confessed to sharing proceeds of the crime on equal basis, said police source.



While fielding questions from police, Izekor, from Edo State, said that he was into Real Estate Business and that he was a single father with four children.

He reportedly said: In 2016, I got a call from Eyiboh that he had a congealed chemical and N17.5 million defaced black notes in his custody at home.



I went to Abuja to inspect the defaced notes. Thereafter, I gave him account to pay the money into. The account of Ahmed Abubakar, Alakawa Venture, Ihaka World General Investment Limited; I collected up to $40,000 to get the chemical to clear the defaced currency. I showed Eyiboh an identity card of International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency as its agent.



Izekor further told the police that he didnt know the office of the agency, which he claimed to represent. He further claimed to have gone to a hotel at Osolo Way, Ajao Estate on the invitation of Eyiboh and was shown black papers cut-to-size. He told police that he collected all the money paid by Eyiboh through provided Bureau De Change accounts.



On August 28, 2017, Izekor returned N2 million to Eyiboh, while on September 13, 2017, N400,000 was paid. Also on September 19, 2017, additional N2 million was paid. Babatunde, 57, from Ondo State, also claimed to be into Real Estate business. He told the police: said police source.While fielding questions from police, Izekor, from Edo State, said that he was into Real Estate Business and that he was a single father with four children.He reportedly said: In 2016, I got a call from Eyiboh that he had a congealed chemical and N17.5 million defaced black notes in his custody at home.I went to Abuja to inspect the defaced notes. Thereafter, I gave him account to pay the money into. The account of Ahmed Abubakar, Alakawa Venture, Ihaka World General Investment Limited; I collected up to $40,000 to get the chemical to clear the defaced currency. I showed Eyiboh an identity card of International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency as its agent.Izekor further told the police that he didnt know the office of the agency, which he claimed to represent. He further claimed to have gone to a hotel at Osolo Way, Ajao Estate on the invitation of Eyiboh and was shown black papers cut-to-size. He told police that he collected all the money paid by Eyiboh through provided Bureau De Change accounts.On August 28, 2017, Izekor returned N2 million to Eyiboh, while on September 13, 2017, N400,000 was paid. Also on September 19, 2017, additional N2 million was paid. Babatunde, 57, from Ondo State, also claimed to be into Real Estate business. He told the police: Quote It was Izekor that called me that he had a job for me. He said that I should call Eyiboh and present myself as Honourable Lawal Adewunmi. I should say that Peter Ajayi (Tola) called me from overseas that I should assist him in buying property in Nigeria. Stephen Victor took the money to Izekor, who came on as a solution man to clean the defaced dollars. Im the person that used to go and collect money. The total money collected so far is $60,000. Its Stephen that used to share the money.



Babatunde added that he used his share of the money to pay his childrens school fees, bought plots of land, blocks to build a house, acquired more land which he used for planting of plantain and cassava. He also admitted that it was Izekor who brought Eyiboh to him. The suspect said he had intention to pay back the money, but needed to put his finances in order first.



Stephen, 46, from Edo State, explained that Tola, who happened to be his friend, asked him to go to Abuja and present himself to the lawmaker as James Ajayi, younger brother to Tola. The said Tola had earlier presented himself to Eyiboh as Peter Ajayi.

He reportedly said: Babatunde added that he used his share of the money to pay his childrens school fees, bought plots of land, blocks to build a house, acquired more land which he used for planting of plantain and cassava. He also admitted that it was Izekor who brought Eyiboh to him. The suspect said he had intention to pay back the money, but needed to put his finances in order first.Stephen, 46, from Edo State, explained that Tola, who happened to be his friend, asked him to go to Abuja and present himself to the lawmaker as James Ajayi, younger brother to Tola. The said Tola had earlier presented himself to Eyiboh as Peter Ajayi.He reportedly said: Quote After meeting with the lawmaker, I was given a phone number to call. The lawmaker later stopped picking my calls. I knew that Izekor was collecting money from the lawmaker, which was shared among the four of us. We have collected over $60,000 from the lawmaker. I cant say exactly how much I got, but I got my first share payment in June 2016. All other payments were brought by hand by Izekor.



In the course of investigation, detectives discovered that all the bank account details, where the monies were paid into, were given to Izekor by Alhaji Saka Jimoh, a Bureau De Change operator at Obi Shopping Complex, Ikeja, Lagos.

In the course of investigation, detectives discovered that all the bank account details, where the monies were paid into, were given to Izekor by Alhaji Saka Jimoh, a Bureau De Change operator at Obi Shopping Complex, Ikeja, Lagos. Quote This Jimoh introduced Izekor to the owner of the accounts and Bureau De Change operators as Honourable Eseme Eyiboh. The money collected was under the pretext of supplying industrial machine for pipeline cleaning to execute contract awarded to Eyiboh in 2016, the police noted.

The suspects were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 8.

They were arraigned before Justice Muslim Hassan. The SFU in a charge marked FHC/L/435c/2017, filed before the court by Mr. Emmanuel Jackson, a Chief Superintendent of Police, alleged that, the police noted.The suspects were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 8.They were arraigned before Justice Muslim Hassan. The SFU in a charge marked FHC/L/435c/2017, filed before the court by Mr. Emmanuel Jackson, a Chief Superintendent of Police, alleged that, Quote the accused persons and others now at large had between June 2016 and August 2017, at Jatoz Royal Hotel, Osolo Way, Ajao Estate, Lagos, conspired among themselves, and presented themselves to Honourable Eseme Sunday Eyiboh, a former House of Representatives member from Eket Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State, as accredited representatives of International Foreign Exchange Monitoring Agency/Bureau, in Nigeria.



The prosecutor, Emmanuel Jackson, told the court that the defendants acted contrary to Sections 8(a), 1(1)(a) and 8(9) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, No.14 of 2006 and were liable to be punished under Section 1(3) of the same law.



The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges, following which their counsel pleaded with the court to grant them bail. The prosecutor, however, opposed the bail application. The case was adjourned. The prosecutor, Emmanuel Jackson, told the court that the defendants acted contrary to Sections 8(a), 1(1)(a) and 8(9) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, No.14 of 2006 and were liable to be punished under Section 1(3) of the same law.The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges, following which their counsel pleaded with the court to grant them bail. The prosecutor, however, opposed the bail application. The case was adjourned.

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 10-04-2018 05:33 PM (3 years ago) | Hero
Despite continued persecution from Muslim extremists, Christians in Egypt remain unwavering in their faith, compelling a "multitude" to come to Christ, church leaders have revealed.



The Rev. Sameh Hanna, associate pastor at the Evangelical Church in Cairo, told Premier on Monday that the "mood is very, very good amongst Christians who are living in Egypt."



"Not because the situation is good or bad - that is not the reason," he explained. "We have two kinds of news - earthly news, which is very ugly, very discouraging and I think in the West, you get only the earthly news - a bombing here or there."



"But there is heavenly news. We know what is going on spiritually. We see things that not everybody is seeing. We see things you are not hearing. We see the multitude coming to the knowledge of Christ from every background, so this brings joy to us."



The Rev. Andrea Zaki Stephanous, president of the Protestant Community of Egypt, said that believers in the country put their faith in God alone, as further attacks by the Islamic State terror group or other extremists are a very real possibility  even in church.



"When security knows I'm going to a certain church there will be double security, but you never know. You can expect at any moment that someone will come with a bomb and create a massacre. So every day we trust God and we go," he said.



Fr. Kyrillos Fathy was at St. Mark's Coptic Church, one of the houses of worship that was bombed by Islamic extremists during Palm Sunday of last year, and said that he narrowly escaped crossing paths with the suicide bomber during the attack.



"Even though the incident was very terrible and it left us emotionally vulnerable, we believe in the Bible and in the verse in the Bible that says everything works out for the good," Fathy shared.



He explained that the church was full for service after the attack on Palm Sunday despite the horror the people had suffered through.



Albert Falzi, SAT 7's Egypt director told Premier they want to share the message of Christ with everyone  no matter how resistant to the gospel.



"Many times we receive comments from people who are not Christian and we welcome them. Even when people send hostile messages, we just react in the Christian way," he said.



Last Palm Sunday, ISIS carried out twin attacks on churches in Egypt, leaving 45 people dead and 126 injured. In a letter written to persecution watchdog Open Doors USA, believers in the region declared they would not give in to the spirit of fear, but would attend Easter services to worship Jesus.



"We love Egypt. We will not leave Egypt. We cast out the spirit of fear by the power of His love," the believers wrote. "We will go to churches on Easter and beyond to worship the Name of Jesus."



"We will spread out the light we were given by His grace, in every street, village, town and city," the letter continued. "We will keep praying for all Egyptians, especially for those dark minded, brainwashed and miss-led so that our Father may cleanse their minds and hearts."


We've worked on government technology issues since World War II and a bit before. We've all been part of an amazing digital revolution for several generations, one that has transformed not only our personal and working lives but also our systems of commerce and governance. But what we haven't really grasped is justthe power of technology has grown and how recently so much of that growth has happened.And, most important, we haven't really recognized or prepared for onrushing and dramatically disruptive changes, propelled by this ongoing digital revolution, in jobs within and among larger communities of interaction. For the public sector in particular, the issues have shifted from technical and economic to organizational and political. The stakes, and especially the downside risks, have become huge. But while the digital future now requires new governance and leadership, we've largely been asleep at the switch.Clearly that needs to change. But to get a handle on the task before us, we need to understand the key trends:Digital power -- the performance per dollar of digital processors, data storage, and data communications -- has roughly doubled every two years or less, growing some 33.6times over the past 50 years. Three-quarters of that improvement has emerged in just the past four years. In another four years, computer processing should be four times more productive than today.Digital coordination makes work and jobs more readily measured, monitored and controllable. And in just the past few years, digital tools have been taught to automate many tasks we've always thought of as uniquely human, such as translating languages and driving cars. Oxford University researchers have estimated that computerization is likely to significantly change or eliminate some 47 percent of jobs over the next 10 to 20 years. No wonder people are frightened.Digital economies of scale -- as with the internet and cloud computing -- have enabled products, services and social interactions to be produced and consumed within larger and sometimes global communities. As but one example, while education involves mostly local teachers and classrooms, a single online computer-programming course offered by edX (a Harvard-MIT collaboration) has enrolled more than a million learners worldwide.Some public officials appreciate these trends, some certainly don't, and many haven't yet paid much attention. What should we be doing about them? As with so many challenges in the public sector, ultimately it comes down to governance and leadership.A basic problem is that the digital world of the public sector has outgrown past patterns of governance. We have long assembled technology specialists and vendors to help with applications on a project-by-project or program-by-program basis. But what we need is to assemble leaders and develop strategies for larger communities of interaction. Examples include both public service communities and geographic communities. While individual agencies are typically required to produce technology plans (often created by CIOs with minimal senior-leadership engagement), we now need to pull together broader and more institutionally powerful groups to develop strategies for the digital future of a range of governmental activities, including public safety, business and environmental regulation, economic development, and civic engagement. Equally important will be strategies for the digital future of entire cities, counties, metropolitan areas, states and even nations.New governance will require better engagement and decision-making by the full range of government's stakeholders. Political leadership -- and success for the digital future is ultimately about using public power and authority -- will depend on productive interaction and a wise balance among four main actors: managers of public resources and services; advocates in political decision-making, including elected executives, legislators, candidates for office and journalists; analysts of public value, including those who deal with policy, budgets and services; and citizens in their multiple roles as consumers, regulated parties and sources of authority through voting and other political activities.While each group and actor will have their own perspective and interests, the decision process must analyze and then decide how to bring ever-more-powerful technology to bear on the ultimate goal: promoting long-term public value. While we have understandably focused to date on avoiding failed projects and improving productivity (usually incrementally), the future is bringing more and bigger concerns, especially about disappearing jobs and declining public trust. Leaders must learn how to analyze and respond to these new and disruptively powerful realities.
Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.
Teacher strikes have lit up red states over the last month as educators reach their breaking point with stagnant wages and inadequate education funding.But teachers struggle to make ends meet all over the country.On average, teachers make just 60 percent of what similarly educated professionals are paid, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In some of the most expensive cities, they struggle to put a roof over their heads.In a 2017 Apartment List analysis , San Francisco was the worst offender: Fifth-year teachers in the city have to spend nearly 70 percent of their income -- almost three times the recommended amount -- to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Miami, New York and Seattle all closely follow San Francisco on the list.In Miami, where the average teacher spends 50 percent of their income on rent, local officials are proposing a novel solution: Let teachers live at school. preliminary proposal before Miami-Dade County outlines plans for the construction of new apartments on school property, which would be rented out to low-income people but give preference to school staff. Because the district can sidestep the areas high land prices, it says they can charge cheaper rates.The first step would be to construct a new middle school with one floor carved out for residential units for teachers. Next, the county would build a complex with as many as 300 units on an elementary school campus.When people talk about the need for more workforce housing, teachers are at the top of that list," says Michael Liu, director of the Miami-Dade Public Housing Agency, which is leading the effort, along with the school system.Miami is one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the country. The median value of a single-family home is around $330,000 -- more than twice what a teacher could afford on the median $40,000 salary. And the layout of the sprawling city presents added difficulties, says Ned Murray, associate director of the metropolitan center at Florida International University."A lot of teachers, and workers in general, have added transportation costs. [Miami] lacks premium transportation service like other cities have, says Murray, who believes the new proposal could make a real difference for teachers. "Given the high cost of land, when its already a city-owned property at least you can eliminate that land cost. You have much more flexibility with pricing and density."Teachers, though, don't appear to share Liu and Murray's excitement about the idea."The sentiment [of teachers] is that this plan is insulting to them," says Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade, the county's teacher's union. "Instead of finding a real solution where we can afford to live where we teach, they say we'll give you the opportunity to live on campus at your school? That's not very appealing."Teachers she's spoken with are concerned about how their work and home lives might mix if they live at the school. If some students' families take up residence in the school apartments, it could result in students knocking on teachers' doors at 8 o'clock at night to ask about homework assignments, she says.Moreover, Hernandez-Mats says it would only benefit younger teachers who are less likely to have families."A very small percentage may want to live in those conditions," she says, "but it's [a solution] designed for a transient workforce. In order to be an expert in what you're teaching, it takes about seven years. You're disenfranchising that expert teacher."While the idea of building apartments directly on school property is unique, other governments -- mostly in California -- are building teacher-specific housing in their jurisdictions.In San Francisco, voters approved a $310 million housing bond in 2015, with $80 million set aside to build middle-income housing for teachers on land owned by school districts and to provide teachers with mortgage subsidies.In Los Angeles County, the school district constructed a complex with 66 affordable units for teachers . To live there, though, renters must earn between 30 and 60 percent of the area's median income,and most teachers earn too much. Most of its tenants areschool district service workers.In Santa Clara County, where the Silicon Valley tech boom has led to skyrocketing home prices, local officials want to turn a public parking lot into teacher housing School districts across the state of Colorado, both rural and urban, are also looking into building their own housing for teachers and other school personnel.This year when it comes to hiring season, I will probably struggle to replace four to six teachers because of housing. Its in the middle of every conversation about quality staff, David Blackburn, superintendent of the Salida School district in Central Colorado, told The Atlantic last year.In Miami, the most recent proposal is reflective of many of these same problems.This is one part of a long-term solution. This is exciting because its more than just one site, one property, says Liu. There are other schools -- public, private and parochial -- that might want to think about, hey, lets maximize the use of our properties.Teachers, on the other hand, are hoping for a different kind of long-term solution."This is not a real solution to the problem that we know exists," says Hernandez-Mats. "What about teachers that have families? They're not accounting for anything like that."
California on Monday jumped into the middle of a legal dispute over the future of the federal Affordable Care Act, seeking to preserve the law that is under assault in the courts by 20 other states.California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced he is part of a coalition of 16 attorneys general who have filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit filed in February by Texas, Wisconsin and other states seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which provides tax credits for coverage and requires coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions."It is an irresponsible action," Becerra said of the Texas lawsuit. "It is a legally unsound action, and it is a dangerous action for millions of Americans who left the bad days of pre-existing conditions and the inability to get care for their children."The lawsuit by Texas challenges Obamacare as unconstitutional, arguing that because Congress has set the penalty for going without insurance at zero, it does not count as a tax. A 2012 Supreme Court decision had upheld the law as a tax.The motion to intervene by California, New York and other states argues that Texas' lawsuit is legally insufficient and would cause chaos in the healthcare market.The federal law has resulted in a reduction in the number of uninsured in California from double digits to about 7%, according to Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Assn., who joined Becerra at a Sacramento press conference to announce the legal action."We can't let the politics in a handful of states risk and erode the gains that we have made here in this state," Coyle said.The intervention to oppose the Texas lawsuit also drew support from Gayle Batiste, a nurse at Dignity Northridge Hospital and president of SEIU 121RN, a union representing registered nurses. She said before the Affordable Care Act, many patients waited until their illnesses were serious before seeing a doctor."They were waiting to come into the ER because they could not afford the care," Batiste said during the event.The states seeking to intervene have received more than half a trillion dollars in federal funding to provide healthcare to their residents under the federal law, with California getting $160 billion of that money, Becerra said."It's our intent to protect the health of California families," he added, criticizing the Trump administration for what he said was its history of not defending the Affordable Care Act.
The Trump administration on Monday released new regulations aimed at giving states more flexibility to offer cheaper plans on Obamacares exchanges next year.The new rules would ease the requirements on the health benefits that plans must cover, as well as quality control.Critics say the new rule will allow insurers to charge higher prices and skirt patient protections.The rule outlines how insurers can apply for plans sold on Obamacare's exchanges in 2019. It contains several major changes aimed at allowing plans to offer more affordable options on the exchanges, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The changes include new flexibility in how states cover essential health benefits and how much money insurers must devote to improving services.Too many Americans are facing skyrocketing premiums that they cant afford, and every year consumers are faced with the threat of fewer choices, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. This rule gives states new tools to stabilize their health insurance markets and empower citizens to find coverage that fits their families needs and budgets.
Aileen Rizo was sitting at a lunch table with other math consultants in 2012 when she learned that her employer had just hired a man with less experience and education at a higher salary.Rizo, then a math consultant for the Fresno County Office of Education, said the new hire made $13,000 a year more than she did. When she asked management about the disparity, she was told her pay had been based on her prior salary. She sued.On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided unanimously in Rizo's favor, ruling employers may not consider prior salaries in setting a person's pay."I am just overjoyed," Rizo, 43, said in an interview. "I have three daughters, and I know what I did will make the world a better place for them. I wanted to make a difference."The decision by an 11-judge en banc panel overturned a three-judge panel's decision last year against Rizo.Written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt before he died late last month, Monday's ruling said that allowing employers to consider prior salaries in setting pay was "wholly inconsistent" with the federal Equal Pay Act, passed in 1963."The financial exploitation of working women embodied by the gender pay gap continues to be an embarrassing reality of our economy," wrote Reinhardt, a Carter appointee who was dubbed the liberal lion of the circuit courts.Women still earn less than men, and the gap costs women more than $860 billion a year, he said."If money talks, the message to women costs more than 'just' billions: women are told they are not worth as much as men," Reinhardt wrote."Allowing prior salary to justify a wage differential perpetuates this message, entrenching in salary systems an obvious means of discrimination," he said.The federal Equal Pay Act bars wage disparity except in cases of seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production or "any other factor other than sex."The Fresno County Office of Education argued unsuccessfully that setting wages based on prior salaries came under the last exception for a factor "other than sex."Reinhardt said the decision announced Monday amounted to a "general rule" and did not determine whether past salary may play a role in salary talks.But several judges said in concurring opinions that the decision was overly broad.Four complained that the majority had wrongly held that any consideration of prior pay was illegal, even when it involved job-related factors. A fifth said employers should be able to consider past salaries as long as they did not reflect sex discrimination.In one of the concurrences, Judge M. Margaret McKeown, a Clinton appointee, said she agreed that prior salaries may reflect historical sex discrimination."But the majority goes too far in holding that any consideration of prior pay is 'impermissible' under the Equal Pay Act, even when it is assessed with other job-related factors such as experience, education, past performance and training," wrote McKeown, who was joined by Judge Mary H. Murguia, an Obama appointee.McKeown warned that Monday's "drastic holding" might impose liability on employers who even consider prior salary in setting a wage."The Equal Pay Act should not be an impediment for employees seeking a brighter future and a higher salary at a new job," she wrote.Attorneys on both sides of the case said that the decision would prevent employers from considering prior pay in any context.Michael Woods, an attorney for the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said the office plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.The policy of basing pay on prior salaries applied to more than 3,000 employees over 17 years and had "no disparate impact on female employees," who make up a majority of staff and senior administrators in the county office, Woods said.The Fresno office stopped considering prior salary in 2016 in response to changes in California law, which now says prior pay cannot be used to justify disparity in earnings.Kevin Brunner, Rizo's lawyer, called the decision "the exact precedent we were trying to set.""If you could use prior pay, you could never close the gender gap," Brunner said.Monday's decision applies to nine Western states. California's pay law, amended in part because of the Rizo case, says pay differences based on race, sex or ethnicity may not be justified solely by prior salary.Laurence Zakson, who represented guilds for makeup artists, hair stylists and costume designers as well as a public employee union, said Monday's ruling was important because the wage protections now extend beyond California."My clients are extraordinarily pleased and think this is a major step forward toward getting the pay gap remedied," Zakson said.Rizo, who is now a candidate for state Assembly, testified in Sacramento in favor of the recent changes to California's equal pay law.Once the new state requirements took effect in 2016, she and other women working in the Fresno office received pay raises, though they were not retroactive, Rizo said."For the last six months (at the office) I finally did get equal pay for equal work," she said.Basing pay on prior salary hurts many women, including those who take time off work to have or raise children, she said.Her lawsuit created tensions at work, and she always felt like "the elephant in the room," she said. She resigned in 2016 and now works as a math researcher for a nonprofit.The timing of the 9th Circuit decision "couldn't be better," she said. Tuesday is national Equal Pay Day.
Beleaguered NYCHA chairwoman Shola Olatoye, accused of making misleading statements about the conditions in public housing and under fire from multiple critics, will announce Tuesday that she is resigning.Olatoye will make the announcement at a public housing development in the Rockaways along with Mayor de Blasio, who appointed her four years ago and has defended her against a growing chorus of criticism.Late Monday, the mayor said he will tour the Ocean Bay Bayside Houses Tuesday morning, and a City Hall spokeswoman confirmed Olatoye would step down and the mayor will install government veteran Stanley Brezenoff as interim chair of the New York City Housing Authority.De Blasio previously relied on Brezenoff as an in-between fix at another troubled, cash-strapped authority, Health & Hospitals, where he took over on an interim basis after the departure of de Blasio's first CEO for the city's public health network, Dr. Ram Raju.And the mayor has also turned to Brezenoff to provide oversight of the embattled Correction Department as the former chair of the city's Board of Correction.Late Monday the mayor continued his defense of Olatoye, 43, calling her "a change agent from Day One. Crime is down. Repairs are faster. Finances are stabilized. And NYCHA is putting record investment from the City to work making life better for the 400,000 New Yorkers that call NYCHA home."He also praised Brezenoff in a statement, saying, "With a proven track record of transforming large agencies, I'm confident that Stan Brezenoff will help to continue our progress while we search for a new chair."Olatoye has been the subject of growing concern since the city Department of Investigation released a report in November stating she falsely certified in federal documents that NYCHA was performing all required lead paint inspections.She was then forced to admit that she'd made the claim knowing it wasn't true, and acknowledge that she'd known about it since April 2016 and told the mayor soon after. Both Olatoye and de Blasio then decided to withhold that disclosure from tenants and the public for more than a year.Then, in December, Olatoye gave erroneous testimony to the City Council under oath, claiming that a recent series of inspections for lead paint in apartments that housed young children had been performed by trained, certified workers.At the request of City Councilman Ritchie Torres, DOI discovered that was not true. She later claimed she'd been misinformed. Torres (D-Manhattan) and others, including Public Advocate Letitia James, had called for Olatoye to step down."While her intentions were never in question, we are long overdue for a fresh start at NYCHA," James said. "It is time to move forward and open a new chapter at NYCHA, one that continuously puts the needs of tenants first."Torres said, "I think the chairperson's position became indefensible, so it was not a matter of if, but when."Even though she has considerable talent as an individual, she was ill-equipped to manage the largest assemblage of public housing in North America," he said.Torres cast a skeptical eye on the notion that Olatoye's departure wasn't related to the scandals."I think it would be disingenuous to deny the context in which the resignation is taking place," he said.For the last two months, however, de Blasio has stood by Olatoye's side, chiding critics for laying all the blame for NYCHA's myriad problems -- including tenants living with no heat, broken security lighting and endless waits for repairs -- at her doorstep.The resignation precedes what's expected to be a damaging report by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney whose civil unit has been investigating whether NYCHA deliberately misled federal authorities about its housing conditions.Three weeks ago, the agency provided federal prosecutors with a "corrective plan" to address their concerns and settle what's expected to be a lawsuit implementing a monitor over the authority.But the feds rejected that plan and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development began requiring NYCHA to submit all invoices for ongoing federally funded capital projects to a HUD overseer.
Oregon joined a wave of states backing net neutrality Monday, with Gov. Kate Brown's signing of a bill designed to give companies an economic incentive to allow unfettered online access."In Oregon, we want to make sure that access to the internet is a level playing field, instead of exacerbating economic disparity," Brown said in a written statement.The Federal Communications Commission voted in December to repeal net neutrality protections adopted during the Obama administration, with the new rules taking effect in April. Trump administration appointees say regulation could stifle online innovation.Advocates for an open internet say that without net neutrality, Comcast and other big internet service providers might charge certain sites extra for fast connections to their customers. Net neutrality proponents say that could make it prohibitively expensive to start new internet companies, and they say existing websites might pass along their higher costs to subscribers.The governor signed the bill Monday morning at Mount Tabor Middle School in Portland. Students from Mount Tabor were among those who testified in favor of Oregon's legislation.The net neutrality fight generally splits along party lines, with Democrats favoring the rules and Republicans opposing it. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is among the most visible proponents, nationally, of an open internet; U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, is a leading opponent of net neutrality.Oregon and several other states are suing the FCC over the net neutrality repeal, arguing the commission didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures. Meanwhile, lawmakers across the country are trying to undo the FCC's action.Washington lawmakers passed a bill last month that would require all internet providers operating in the state to retain net neutrality protections. It's an uncertain proposition, legally, because federal authority generally takes precedence with the internet.Oregon and several other states are trying a different approach, using government contracts as an incentive for internet companies to retain net neutrality policies. (There are exceptions for cases where only a single internet provider is available.)Even so, some legal experts have suggested Oregon's approach could be subject to legal challenge. Former Oregon Supreme Court justice Mick Gillette wrote in The Oregonian/OregonLive last month that a court fight is almost certain.And it's not clear the efforts of Oregon and similar states will discourage all internet companies from flaunting net neutrality. They may conclude that prioritizing some internet traffic is more valuable than relatively small contracts with state and local governments.Net neutrality advocates say they're not sure how much business telecom providers do with the state of Oregon. But Oregon's largest city reports the value of its vendor payments, and they provide some sense of the scale involved.Comcast, for example, had contracts worth $1.25 million with the city of Portland last year. But the company reported nearly $85 billion in revenue altogether. CenturyLink's Portland contracts were worth $1.8 million, against $16.3 billion in total revenue.
The two top Republicans in Massachusetts aren't planning on spending any time with Mike Pence while the vice president swings through the Bay State for a Republican National Committee fundraiser.Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Swampscott, said he plans to be in New Bedford, nearly 60 miles away, when Pence is in Massachusetts on Tuesday.Asked whether he was trying to send a message by not attending a large fundraiser for the Republican National Committee, Baker said, "I'm not sending a message, I'm just not going to be here because my calendar had all kinds of other stuff on it which was important."Baker said he didn't know whether he'd been invited to the fundraiser."My calendar was full, I didn't know about it," the governor said. "Generally speaking, when important fellow officials come through town, if we have a chance to say hello to them, we try to, whether they're Republicans or Democrats."Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, R-Shrewsbury, said she also has no plans to attend. "Wasn't asked to attend and I have other commitments tomorrow," she told reporters at the State House.Baker and Polito, his running mate, are up for re-election this year. Public polling has shown Baker remains popular in Massachusetts, while President Donald Trump is deeply disliked among voters.Three Democrats are vying for the chance to take Baker on in November. They are former Newton Mayor Setti Warren, former Deval Patrick budget aide Jay Gonzalez and environmental activist Bob Massie.Pence is set to fly into Logan International Airport on Air Force Two at 4:15 p.m. before heading into the Langham Hotel for the fundraiser, according to the Boston Globe. The fundraiser is closed to press.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D, vetoed a bill Monday that would have prohibited the establishment of sanctuary cities, an issue that dominated his race for governor last year.The bill was a single sentence: "No locality shall adopt any ordinance, procedure, or policy that restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws."Northam suggested the legislation would require Virginia cities and towns to shoulder the burden of enforcing federal immigration law, either by deputizing local police or by holding undocumented inmates in local lockups. He called the measure "unnecessary and divisive.""This legislation would force local law enforcement agencies to use precious resources to perform functions that are the responsibility of federal immigration enforcement agencies," Northam wrote in a statement accompanying the veto. "It also sends a chilling message to communities across Virginia that could have negative impacts on public safety."Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, who sponsored the bill, said the measure was intended only to ban localities from interfering federal immigration actions, not press them into service.
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GIS 10 April, 2018: The The Country Programming Framework (CPF) for the Republic of Mauritius for the coming four years which renews the support of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to Mauritius in agri-business development and agro value chain, promotion of sustainable agriculture for food security, and sustainable fisheries was signed yesterday afternoon at the Restaurant Le Courtyard in Port Louis.

The signatories were the Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Seeruttun, and the FAO Representative for Mauritius, Mr Patrice Talla Takoukam, in presence of the Minister of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries, and Shipping, Mr Premdut Koonjoo, the United Nations Development Programme Resident Coordinator, Mrs Christine Umutoni, and the Commissioner for Agriculture, Rodrigues Regional Assembly, Mr Richard Payendee.

The Framework sets out priorities for collaboration in the fields of agri-business development with focus on the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in addition to making agriculture, forestry and fisheries more sustainable. It also addresses the approach to reducing rural poverty and sets the scene towards enabling inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems while increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters.

In his address, Minister Seeruttun expressed satisfaction regarding the signing of the CPF which he said bears testimony to the longstanding partnership between the Agro-Industry Ministry and the FAO. The organisation has always provided support in terms of expertise , capacity building, advice and financial assistance to Mauritius, he added. Moreover, he recalled the efforts put in by his Ministry to promote a sustainable agriculture while encouraging the youth to join the sector and providing assistance to farmers to cope with climate change, pests and diseases.

The set objectives under the CPF will also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, and they can be achieved with the spirit of partnership and pragmatism to make the right choices now for the future, stated Mr Seeruttun.

The Agro-Industry Minister further announced that besides the CPF, a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) for Rodrigues will be signed shortly for strengthening rural development planning in Rodrigues through land suitability maps and natural resource information systems. The TCP, he pointed out, is in line with the policy of Government not to leave out Rodrigues but empower it to be the driver and trend-setter in agricultural innovations.

For his part, the FAO Representative, Mr Takoukam, reiterated the FAOs firm commitment to provide assistance geared towards ensuring food security in Mauritius. He also stressed that the Government of Mauritius should be in the driving seat regarding the implementation of the priority areas listed out in the CPF and that FAO will continue to provide both technical and financial assistance as well as expertise to Mauritius.
(TNS)  DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  Daytona Beach Police Department is the first agency in Volusia County to launch its own mobile app, providing an added digital platform to send out messages and giving citizens another way to report crime."We at DBPD are very proud to announce the rollout of our app," said police spokeswoman Lyda Longa. "We are the first cop shop in Volusia to have one."Deputy Chief of Police Jakari Young said the idea of the app came up after seeing that Orange County Sheriff's office has been using one to keep its citizenry informed. That's what got the wheels turning to get the Daytona Beach Police Department an app. The police department is always looking for ways to better connect with the community, Young said."With smartphones, everything nowadays is pretty much at the push of a button so we figured out what better way than to connect with our community than to come up with our own app," Young said.The app cost an initial payment of $7,500 and the department will pay $2,000 a year for maintenance, the deputy chief said. Daytona Beach Police Department contracts with Apex Mobile of California for the service. The Daytona Beach app is available for download free on Apple and Android devices."The app also has no ads and does not mine data," Longa said.The app features 12 functions and includes the possibility to make anonymous tips, although police cautioned the app is not intended to replace 911 in case of an emergency, Longa said.Other features of the app are links to wanted persons, information on some of Daytona Beach police's most wanted suspects, contact can be made with the school resource officers, reports can be filed and extra patrols can be arrested.The Flagler County Sheriff's Office is the other local police agency with a mobile app. Its FC Sheriff's Office app is designed and built by Live Tour Network of Palm Coast and is available free on both Apple and Android devices, said Flagler County sheriff's spokeswoman Brittany Kershaw.The Volusia County Sheriff's Office has an app in the works but it has not been completed, said sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Williams.DeLand police does not have an app of its own but sends information to mobile devices through the Crime Watch app, said city of DeLand spokesman Chris Graham."We do not want this app to replace calling 911," Young said. "If you are in danger, immediate danger, imminent danger, please go ahead and call 911."
(TNS)  See, click, fix.Scranton City Council is reviewing whether to use the mobile app SeeClickFix as a tool for citizens to report potholes, graffiti, blight and other problems. The app allows users to send photos of problem areas directly to City Hall.Once logged, a problem would get assigned to the proper department or employee to take care of it, said Councilman Wayne Evans, a proponent of the city using the app.The app notifies senders their submissions were received and provides updates on the citys progress addressing the submitted issue.The city would get analytical information about the number and nature of problems logged, their locations and resolutions, and lengths of time it takes to resolve them, Evans said.This is something I view as not only transparent, but engaged and efficient government, Evans said.The cost for Scranton to use the app and service could be about $16,000 a year, said Evans, adding he believes it would be money well spent and not require hiring more employees.Council plans to hold a public caucus soon for the SeeClickFix company to explain its app and service. A date for this session has not been set.The idea stems from general discussions between council members and residents, business owners and others about ways to improve the city, Evans said. Earlier this year, council revived holding brainstorming idea sessions.After hearing about an app approach to reporting maintenance and nuisance-type problems and tracking their fixes, Evans researched, found SeeClickFix and contacted the New Haven, Connecticut, company for information.Efforts to reach SeeClickFix officials were unsuccessful.A video demo on the companys website explains the app, saying We care deeply about our neighborhoods and when something is broken on our street, we want it fixed quickly. Knowing who to call and having the time to call them can be really frustrating. On the other side, managing these concerns along with daily workloads takes time and a lot of internal communication  so much so, that the concerned citizen often gets lost in the shuffle. This results in a bad service experience and a discouraged citizen. It doesnt have to be this way.Problems also could be submitted through their website, according to the decade-old company that boasts 3.6 million issues fixed and counting in numerous cities nationwide. Cities using SeeClickFix include New Haven, Connecticut; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Albany, New York; Carbondale, Illinois; Bainbridge Island, Washington; Howard County, Maryland; Huntsville, Alabama; Houston, Texas; Vallejo and Corona, both in California; Taylor, Michigan; Taunton, Massachusetts; and St. Paul, Minnesota, according to the companys website.Testimonials on the companys website cite several benefits. Phone traffic and caller wait times are reduced by channeling submissions directly to the proper department for fixing. Residents can easily track a citys responses to reported problems. Cities also can better track problem areas in real time and better respond to citizen concerns.Whether Scranton gets the service in place this year or waits until the next budget year remains unknown, Evans said.Councilman Bill Gaughan said the SeeClickFix app sounds like a good way for the city to be more responsive in identifying and correcting problems.
(TNS) - The emergency alert systems that blare out warnings during natural disasters, terrorist incidents or manmade calamities could be hijacked into sending out false alarms.A security company, Bastille, said Tuesday that it had found a vulnerability in San Franciscos emergency alert system that would allow hackers to trigger the citys sirens or even blare out malicious messages.The Boston manufacturer, ATI Systems, said it had developed a patch that will be rolled out shortly and noted that such a hack is not a trivially easy thing that just anyone can do.Balint Seeber, director of vulnerability research at Bastille, which has offices in San Francisco and Atlanta, said he began studying vulnerabilities in the system of 130 or so public sirens and outdoor speakers scattered about San Francisco in 2016. Once he determined the radio frequencies employed, he said it would be easy to hijack the unencrypted system, even using only a $30 radio and a laptop.A hacker could broadcast his or her own voice as a public address audible to the entire city, Seeber said.ATIs siren systems are installed at military bases, nuclear and petroleum plants, universities and urban centers across the country.False alarms have caused dangerous panic, as was seen in Hawaii on Jan. 13. Human error, not hacking, caused an emergency text message warning of an incoming nuclear attack at a time of heightened tension with North Korea. It sent residents flooding into the streets, into underground shelters and clogging freeways on the islands.A hacker did trigger all 156 emergency sirens in Dallas to sound off on April 7, 2017, waking up city residents.An expert on the nations emergency alert systems, retired Rear Adm. David G. Simpson, said older parts of the nationwide network were not designed to thwart hackers.It should be very concerning to citizens but certainly to emergency management professionals, said Simpson, the former chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.Older alert systems, he said, were never designed to counter an advanced cyber adversary. They are very vulnerable.Any vulnerability in emergency alert systems, trusted by the public, could undermine confidence in the governments ability to detect and warn people of real threats, he said.If you set up a system where a large population is residing and knows that the system is exclusively for emergencies, and people have confidence that it works, when it goes off, people genuinely get really scared and distressed, Seeber said.ATI Systems is one of the larger players among manufacturers of the alert systems, and numerous military installations, such as Eglin Air Force Base in Floridas Panhandle, are clients, according to its website. The company also notes that One World Trade Center, the New York skyscraper that replaced those destroyed in the 2001 terror attacks, uses one of its systems.Other clients include the University of South Carolina among other academic institutions, and governments such as Sedgwick County, Kansas, surrounding Wichita.Audible warning systems are crucial during emergencies, experts say, because high traffic can cause cell phone signals to go out and power to fail.In its statement, ATI Systems said many of its military clients use more sophisticated encrypted emergency alert systems than the older system set up in San Francisco.It is interesting to note, for example, that when the ATI system was installed at San Francisco 14 years ago there was no such thing as an iPhone because they hadnt been invented yet, the company said.Simpson, the former FCC official, said emergency management professionals should take a new look at alert systems across the country to really better assess where the weak points are and assign clear accountability.At places like universities, he said, any legacy system without adequate safeguards to deter hacking could prove to be more disruptive than helpful if breached.What if that is hacked and a false message is sent? Might that be worse than any lives saved from having the system to begin with? Simpson asked.During a Senate field hearing in Honolulu last Thursday on the false missile alert that shook Hawaii, a commander acknowledged that the military made mistakes that compounded general alarm. Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military operations throughout the Asia-Pacific region, knew the missile alert from the states emergency management agency was false yet did nothing when a duty officer triggered warning sirens at a joint base at Pearl Harbor.2018 McClatchy Washington BureauVisit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
I personally know of two families who lost their homes to house fires. I think most people don't expect to have a home fire and in my mind, when the house is paid for  they might even drop their insurance  since nothing has ever happened...See the information below about new research from the American Red Cross that can inform you about home fire safety."Every day, seven people die in home fires, most in homes that lack working smoke alarms. But new research from the American Red Cross shows that Americans underestimate the chance that a home fire could happen to them and are unaware of simple steps that can help keep them safe.In fact  Only 1 in 4 people believe they are likely to experience a home fire in their lifetime. About 40 percent of people have forgotten to turn off a stove or oven, even though cooking is the leading cause of home fires. 80 percent of people believe everyone in their household knows what to do when a smoke alarm goes off. But the fact is that less than half have a plan in place, and only about half have practiced that plan. 1 out of 10 have had to sacrifice buying other essentials for their families to purchase a smoke alarm.The Red Cross is combating these statistics and misinformation by installing smoke alarms and discussing fire safety nationwide. To continue to save lives, the Red Cross will Sound the Alarm about fire safety through a series of smoke alarm installation events in more than 100 high-risk communities in the United States, from April 28 to May 13  volunteers and partners will install 100,000 free smoke alarms. So far, the Red Cross and partners have installed 1.1 million smoke alarms that have saved 381 lives."And, for those that can afford it (anyone reading this blog can) don't forget to install a carbon monoxide detector, or two, in your home. I've got one on each level of our home.
Speakers call for progress on Task Force report

Next steps remain unclear

(TNS)  Although there is support for a city-owned broadband system among Cambridge residents and at least one grassroots group, the city manager is not interested in bringing it to pass."The city manager [Louis DePasquale] does not support a Cambridge-financed municipal broadband system," said Lee Gianetti, director of Communication and Community Relations for the city, at a March 22 hearing organized by the Neighborhood and Long-Term Planning, Public Facilities, Arts and Celebrations Committee of the City Council.About 25 residents attended the discussion, gave testimony, and heard from city staff, councilors, and experts on issues related to the city's digital divide and its potential solutions.Over 200 local governments across the country have built or overseen municipal broadband systems, according to industry outlets like Broadband Communities. Municipal broadband systems can result in lower fees for high-speed access, according to studies like a 2018 look at 22 systems by Harvard's Berkman Center.In 2014, then-City Manager Richard Rossi appointed the Broadband Task Force to examine alternatives for Cambridge in hopes of improving and lowering the cost of internet access for all residents and businesses. After a two-year study, the Task Force published a report recommending the city build its own fiber optic network.However, in the 18 months since the group submitted its recommendations, no significant progress has been seen. Because of the inaction, a new grassroots organization of concerned Cambridge residents, led by Task Force member Saul Tannenbaum called Upgrade Cambridge, formed early last month The March 22 public hearing was the first time the topic of municipal broadband was brought back to the table since the last and final meeting of the Task Force in 2016.At the meeting, Nancy Ryan, a resident of Central Square and a member of the Cambridge Residents Alliance, urged city officials to move forward with a broadband system that provides same internet access to everyone in the city."There is no option to really make a serious dent in digital divide without having some kind of a broad system that services people where they are," she said. "It's really time."Teresa Cardosi and Glenna Wyman, both Cambridge residents living in public housing, talked about the struggles of getting decent internet connections in their buildings. Both of them said that the WiFi doesn't reach upper floors, which causes inconvenience to people who want to use their laptops and work at home. The community room, which is the only spot people can access free internet, becomes a public place. People engage in what ought to be private transactions, such as paying taxes and "Skyping with family members," Wyman said."It's absolutely not acceptable in this day and age," she added.Seventeen people also submitted written testimony to the committee because they could not attend in person. Many said that having the city provide the internet service prevents the monopoly by telecommunication companies such as Comcast and thus could lower the price.According to a 2015 public opinion survey, Comcast is the major provider of internet service at home in Cambridge. However, some residents are not pleased with its price and service.Roy Russell, a member of Upgrade Cambridge's steering committee, said he currently pays $96.90 a month to Comcast for the internet service, which is "the lowest possible rate, [and] that is triple the price of the same services provided by RCN in Somerville.""A municipal broadband system could provide a higher-level service for a lower price," he said, adding that it is also necessary to address digital equity issues.Task Force member Tannenbaum suggested city officials do a detailed financial analysis and hold outreach community conversations to study the feasibility of a municipal broadband system before making further decisions."We are considered the birthplace of the internet," he said. "We should honor that tradition, fill the gap, and move forward with a municipal broadband."Despite the call for equitable digital access and reliable internet service, building a municipal broadband is not financially feasible, according to some city officials.In 2016, the Task Force estimated it would cost $180 million to construct a municipal broadband network, but in an email interview after the hearing, Gianetti said that much more funding would be needed to operate the system -- "potentially millions of dollars needed annually" -- and that it could pose "a financial risk."Even though city officials agree with the Task Force on the goal of providing affordable, reliable and fast internet service, Gianetti said the next steps would focus on addressing access and the digital divide. He reiterated that the city is assuming it will not "build or fund on its own any commercially available network infrastructure."However, committee chair, Councilor Quinton Zondervan, who supports putting in municipal broadband, said he is still in favor of the "city owning at least some part of the network," in an email interview following the meeting.While he acknowledged that "not putting the city in a disadvantageous financial position" is crucial, Zondervan said he believes there are cost effective ways that should be explored more fully to achieve the goal of providing better internet service to all.Yaochi Fu is a Boston University journalism student writing as part of a collaboration between the Cambridge Chronicle and the BU News Service.
Oregons top technology official will be moving on later this spring as his deputy fills in and a nationwide search for his replacement ramps up, the state announced in a news release.Oregon Chief Information Officer Alex Pettit announced his resignation effective June 1, the state said in a news release late on April 6, adding that Deputy CIO Terrence Woods would take over as interim CIO during the search for Pettits permanent replacement.Gov. Kate Brown and CIO Alex Pettit mutually agreed that after his service stabilizing several technology challenges for Oregon state agencies and partner jurisdictions, the time is right for a new CIO to be put in place to build on his work and move the governors vision for information technology (IT) governance forward, the state said in its announcement.In a statement, the governor thanked the CIO for his "work managing creative solutions for difficult problems.Alex's commitment to Oregonians was evident in his efforts to steer the Chief Information Officer's office towards customer-centered and innovative solutions, Brown said.Pettit had previously served as the first-ever CIO for the state of Oklahoma and came to Oregon in early 2014 to replace CIO Dugan Petty.In January, the state issued a notice of default to provider IBM, after experiencing difficulties with the implementation of Project Mobilizing Unified Systems and Integrated Communications (MUSIC), a multi-year, multimillion dollar telephone system deployment. According to the Willamette Week , the project will connect more than 30,000 staffers around Oregon and has cost the state $45.8 million (between 2015 and 2017)  but left staffers without working telephones.In a follow-up memorandum on March 23 made available by the, Pettit told agency heads that IBM had submitted their final root cause analysis (RCA) and mitigation plan to address issues laid out in the default notice; that the state had accepted the RCA and preliminarily accepted their mitigation plan.Several technical changes have been executed or will be addressed to improve the resilience and reliability of the solution, Pettit wrote in the memo, adding that IBM has shared its plan to conduct a readiness review of the incident, the problem change process, and the core telephony solution itself.The state, Pettit said in the memo has also hired Gartner Inc., to scrutinize documentation, offer recommendations and observations and help the state conduct a comprehensive test of the solution. During the two weeks leading up to his memo, the CIO noted, we have experienced no phone outages.In an email, Scott Cook, a member of IBMs external communications team, told: With respect to our work with the state of Oregon, we are committed to the continued success of this project and we have diligently worked with the Department of Administrative Services to resolve the State's concerns.It is unclear whether Pettits departure is related to the troubled phone system deployment. The CIO did not respond to an email fromseeking comment.Oregon state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, a member of the Legislature's Joint Subcommittee on General Government, was in attendance last spring when lawmakers learned Project MUSICs rollout would be delayed for four months.Johnson toldshe had heard during the week of April 2 that Pettit might be leaving, but called his resignation a complete surprise. The legislator did not mince words when asked what qualities shed like the states next CIO to possess.What I want across state government is performance and accountability, Johnson added.Oregons CIO has considerable company among C-level tech execs heading for the exits nationwide. Recent state-level departures include Nevada CIO Shanna Rahming ; New Jersey Chief Technology Officer Dave Weinstein ; and Montana CIO Ron Baldwin
The Bridges and Tunnels Division of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is embarking on a chatbot pilot project called the Collision Accident Reporting System (CARS).The program is a partnership with Oracle, and will deploy a chatbot for agency employees allowing them to report and document accidents via their smartphones. It will also give managers the ability to examine accident hot spots and make decisions about rebuilding problem infrastructure.With 10 bridges and tunnels throughout Manhattan, connecting commuters to upstate New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, the agency's daily undertaking is daunting. While the MTA moves millions of people every day on buses and trains, the Bridges and Tunnels Division is responsible for all vehicles that drive into or out of the city.We have trains, buses, and vehicles crossing all those bridges, said Dyan Ganepola, director of application development for the division. The authority collects money on one million vehicles a day, the biggest in the nation in terms of volumes.MTA hopes to roll out the pilot this summer to about 100 employees in the field. We will launch in the second half of the year. We still need to get to know how the technology will work, and then work with it to get good value from it for the business, said Ganepola.Not only does the transit agency have a massive number of commuters to protect, but it also oversees a large number of employees, including law enforcement and national guardsmen assigned to policing and counter-terrorism activities.This will be used by people who are mobile, said Ganepola. They will be traveling from place to place, taking care of accidents and law enforcement.Officials hope the chatbot project will offer a secure way to communicate about any damage to structures and get information about vehicles involved in traffic accidents. It will also allow them to update station managers so that they can signal drivers about hazards ahead using electronic signage.The division runs on complicated legacy software that could not be modified to run a chatbot, requiring Oracle to work around it using tailored software.They have a complex sort of system that is difficult to modify. It was not a simple swap for something new, said Suhas Uliyar, vice president for bots, AI and mobile product management at Oracle. We have produced software that allows us to integrate with the legacy software, which connects to their systems of record.For Eric Ellis, the former chief technology and innovation officer for North Carolina and an early proponent of the government chatbot, the effort to allow employees in the field to communicate via bot and interact with legacy systems in the cloud is a unique and a much-welcomed solution to problems facing government.Ellis is currently the director of strategic solutions with SHI.What I do like about this system is that runs parallel. What if you have an enterprise with many departments or divisions and they have individually made decisions about data systems and apps because they have different funding sources, Ellis said. What if as an enterprise you want to push a consistent theme? If this improved system sits on top of the system, it allows them to move into the future in modernizing the interface, and it doesnt necessarily upset the apple cart.Oracles Uliyar hopes the next iteration of the MTA chatbot program will see a bot with human resource features built in that could save the department and its employees a lot of time.Ideally, an employee could ask: How is my schedule tomorrow? For a lot of the MTA workers, some of whom are bus drivers, there can be schedule changes on a very dynamic level, he said. Instead of logging on to a system and paging through 20 different screens, employees could speak into their smartphones and gain access to their schedule or other human resource features.According to Uliyar, the bot can be fully integrated with human resources capabilities. For example, the employee could tell the bot that they are not feeling well and be presented with their current sick leave balances and the option to call in sick.Ellis agrees with Uliyar that a bot could take the place of the time-consuming activities like having employees paging through screens to get necessary information.Bots can be good in replacing a person and act as a figurative person. This is a clever way to use it, Ellis said. Some people that I have worked with say they dont want their field people clicking through screens. If you create a mobile app where you avoid this, I say thumbs up.
Pierre Gasly has admitted his weekend in Bahrain will not have hurt his quest for a top seat in formula one.

Toro Rosso's rookie Frenchman stunned the F1 world by qualifying sixth and finishing fourth -- Honda's best result since its return to the sport over three years ago.

And Gasly, 22, had already been linked with a potential move to Red Bull next year to replace Daniel Ricciardo.

When asked if Bahrain gives that quest a boost, he answered: "I don't want to think about it now, but a little later I'll analyse everything."

Gasly's path to F1 was not straightforward.

He won the GP2 title in 2016 but Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko sent him instead to Japan's Super Formula, ruling that he was not ready for F1.

"My way here was not easy, but in the end I was always in the top three in all the junior series I did," said Gasly.

"Now I'm with very experienced and talented drivers and I cannot make a mistake.

"It was a very important experience to stand on the grid next to Daniel Ricardo and Valtteri Bottas. They've been in F1 a long time and it's my seventh grand prix. I have a lot to learn but Bahrain helped me a lot," he added.

As for what Red Bull supremo Marko told him after Bahrain, Gasly answered: "He said I did a great race, but I knew that already!

"The smile on Helmut's face was really great to see."

But for now, Gasly is an important part of Toro Rosso and Honda, the Japanese carmaker that is rebuilding after the McLaren nightmare.

"Honda has made great progress, but it's difficult to compare them to other manufacturers," he said. "I don't want to mention numbers, but it's obvious that they made a big step forward."

Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost added: "We didn't expect fourth place in the second race. But we were always told by Honda that we can expect a good result within the first ten races."

(GMM)
World champion Lewis Hamilton has questioned Max Verstappen's maturity.

A controversy broke out after the Bahrain grand prix, where Hamilton called his Dutch rival a "d------d" following a clash.

But Sebastian Vettel leapt to the defence of Hamilton's "human" reaction, and even Verstappen agreed.

"At the moment he said that, he was still full of adrenaline," Verstappen, 20, told Het Laaste Nieuws. "He'd just got out of the car. So it happens."

But Verstappen's boss Christian Horner had gone a step further, saying that racing incidents are exactly what fans want to see.

"It's interesting to hear that from Christian because they've got a car that should be getting good results," Hamilton said.

"And I don't know if they're inexperienced or not totally mature decisions, but they (Red Bull) are not getting the results they should."

Hamilton added: "I think to myself if Fernando was in that car he would have finished a decent race and got points for Red Bull."

But former Minardi driver Christijan Albers sides with Horner, saying that when drivers race, they will often clash.

"In my view Verstappen was past Hamilton, so he is allowed to determine his line. Only Hamilton showed 'I am not afraid, I do not give up' and then it happens.

"Who knows, perhaps Verstappen will think again next time he's with Hamilton," Albers told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

(GMM)
Heads are still being scratched, several days after Max Verstappen explained away his qualifying crash in Bahrain.

The Dutchman says his Red Bull-Renault package suddenly delivered him an extra 150hp from the engine, throwing him into a barrier.

But another Renault-powered driver says that story makes little sense.

"First I'd like to ask where the 150hp comes from," Nico Hulkenberg told Speed Week.

"Does he have a party mode, too?

"I've never experienced anything like this. I'll say it like this: it seems strange to me," the works Renault driver added.

And two Dutch racing drivers agree that Verstappen's explanation was "unusual".

"It is highly unusual, but possible," Jan Lammers told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

Former Minardi driver Christijan Albers added: "Verstappen is not the type to make up a story that is not right. Then he makes himself out to be crazy.

"I myself have also experienced strange things in a car. Remember, it's all electronics -- there's no cable attached to the throttle," he said.

(GMM)
The promoter of the Russian grand prix says he is determined to find a way around F1's new 'grid girl' ban.

Monaco has already announced that, notwithstanding Liberty Media's ban, "beautiful women" will be on the grid next month -- albeit not to hold the driver boards.

And a similar approach is being taken by Russian organisers, who have misgivings about replacing 'grid girls' with 'grid kids'

"We do not want to give up girls -- they are wonderful," said promoter Sergei Vorobiev.

"We foresee that when children are close to cars, this is fraught with difficulties relating to security and image.

"But if we find the right approach and how to make the children's participation justified, we will of course do it," he added.

"At the same time we are developing creative approaches that will allow the girls to remain next to the cars," revealed Vorobiev.

"It could be athletes, it could be representatives of the world of Russian art, but my task is to have our girls still going on the starting grid," he said.

Another opponent of the grid girls ban is ousted former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who met with Vorobiev in Bahrain last weekend.

"We are still friends and we talked very well, sharing our memories of various good projects of the past," said the Russian official.

(GMM)
US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced a new Department of Energy Request for Proposals (RFP), potentially worth up to $1.8 billion, for the development of at least two new exascale supercomputersand possibly threeto be deployed at DOE National Laboratories in the 2021-2023 timeframe.





The new supercomputers funded through this RFP (CORAL-2 RFP No. 6400015092) will be follow-on systems to the first US exascale system authorized by Secretary Perry this past June, named Aurora, which is currently under development at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and scheduled to come online in 2021.

The RFP announced today also envisions the possibility of upgrades or even a follow-on system to Aurora in 2022-2023, depending on an assessment of needs and opportunities at that time.

Targeted Exascale HPC systems in the RFP Laboratory Description ORNL System delivered in 2021 and accepted in 2022 LLNL System delivered in 2022 and accepted in 2023 ANL Potential system delivered in 2022 and accepted in 2023

This RFP calls for a system to be deployed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and for another to be sited at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. The RFP, the product of a collaboration among the three laboratories known as CORALthe Collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne and Livermoreprovides an opportunity for US industry to develop at least two new unique system designs, each with a possible cost range of $400-$600 million, with a possibility of a third system with a similar or wholly different design from each of the previous two. Future amounts are subject to congressional appropriations.

The RFP is being managed for CORAL by UT-Battelle LLC, which operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory on behalf of the Department of Energy.

The new systems will provide 50 to 100 times greater performance than the current fastest US supercomputer. They will enable breakthroughs in both science and industry through modeling and simulation, high-performance data analysis, and artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. Potential examples include:

Identifying next-generation materials

Deciphering high-energy physics data

Accelerating industrial product design and reducing cost-to-market

Evaluating options for nuclear security

CING Funding is not presently available. The Laboratories anticipate funding from DOE Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to become available in a manner that will allow the selected Offerors to perform continuously until completion.

Funding for the RFP is being provided jointly by the . The Office of Science and NNSA are also partners in the Departments Exascale Computing Project, which is responsible for research and development efforts to accelerate application development, software technology, and hardware and integration for exascale systems.
Positioned further south of this beautiful group of craters is Catharina, 100 km in diameter and 3.1 km deep. Its rough, irregularly contoured walls host the smaller impact marks. Catharina is clearly the most eroded and thus the oldest of the trio.



The middle crater, Cyrillus, is not much younger. Note the seemingly huge "channel" that connects Cyrillus to Catharina. In reality, the connection is the result of many impacts and collapses.



Cyrillus is 98 km in diameter and only 3.1 km deep, although its inner slopes are more prominent and give the crater a deeper impression. On the floor of Cyrillus, near the center, there are three prominent peaks.



The youngest crater of the three is Theophilus, with its 100 km in diameter and 3.2 km deep. It is, in itself, a spectacular formation. The outer edges surrounding the crater rise by about 1.2 km above the level of the outer roundness. The outer edges form a kind of "fortification" with steep and sloping walls, created by the debris of impact.



Its interior is a little deeper, presenting 3.2 Km below the level of external roundness. The interior of the Theophilus crater is very complex. Clearly its interior walls in the form of steps or curves of level, were very degraded by slides and collapses.



Equipments:

CPC1100

So 174mm and so290mc

Filter L

Powermate 4x

Sao Paulo-SP

04/05/2018
interviews

The Bartender Who Quit Cocktails to Become a Mortician I had been thinking about it for years, but just trying to survive in New York  youre constantly in that rat race and just trying to make enough.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for black-raspberry sorbet. Photo: Melissa Hom

Soon, youll have another place to eat some of New York Citys best ice-cream. Morgensterns will move into the former Silver Spurs space on La Guardia Place, its owner Nick Morgenstern confirms. The news was reported on Bowery Boogie, which spotted submitted plans to Community Board 2 for, interestingly, a liquor license. Booze could be one significant difference from the original, and another is the space, which is at the corner of West Houston, and offers far more visibility (and size) than the original Morgensterns.

This is something Ive been planning for a very long time, and you know we looked for the right location for about two years, Morgenstern says. This is going to be the flagship for the brand.

Despite the locations bigger footprint, the ice-cream man actually says its the smallest space he considered. Diners are dropping like flies in New York, and the narrative is typically that theyre being shoved out by landlords looking to cash in on trendier, more expensive businesses. But Morgenstern was quick to point out that the buildings landlords owned Silver Spurs, saying theyve been supportive and involved on a daily basis. Hes now building out the store  its still me, its not me and Bank of America  and mentioned perks like a full gas oven and the possible liquor license. This also isnt the only big thing in the works for him. While the restaurateur recently closed his East Village pizzeria GGs, hes been tapped to open a restaurant and rooftop bar at the forthcoming Sister City, from the Ace Hotel group.

Weve had a bigger vision for what Morgensterns could be as an experience to our customers, he says. Theres going to be a lot more that weve always wanted to do but were restricted.




Haiti - FLASH : Chile requires a Visa for Haitians





According to the data provided by the PDI (Policia de Investigaciones), during the month of February 2018, 11,619 Haitians entered Chile. In March, given that the flights of the airline LAW had been temporarily suspended https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23733-haiti-flash-law-airline-temporarily-suspends-its-flights-haiti-chile.html , the number of Haitians fell 53% to 5,477. In 2017, 104,782 Haitians entered Chile, an increase of 114% compared to 2016 when 48,783 Haitians entered the Chilean territory.



The official figures indicate that there are currently more than one million foreigners in Chile (nearly 6% of the Chilean population) of which about one third are in an irregular migratory situation. Haiti, Venezuela and Colombia are the countries with the highest migration growth to Chile in the last four years.



Monday, April 9, 2018, the Chilean Conservative President Sebastian Pinera, announced a bill to regulate migratory flows, through the application of visas, saying "We want these people to enter Chile in accordance with our laws, integrate into our society, be a contribution to our country and realize their dreams of a better life [...]"



Among the measures proposed in the decree issued on Monday, Pinera decided to require for haitians a simple tourist consular visa, with the right to enter and stay in Chile for a maximum period of 30 days. Holders of this visa will not be able to work or earn money in Chile.



Haitians who already have a family member in Chile having a regular immigration status, will be able to access the 12-month family reunification visa. This visa must be requested from the Consulate of Chile in Haiti and will be subject to a maximum annual quota.



Other new measures accompany the decision of the Chilean Government among others: the entry ban for persons with criminal records, the creation of a national migration service, mandatory application outside Chile for a temporary residence visa that will not be interchangeable with a tourist visa and a simplified eviction mechanism for offenders. Elimination of the possibility of applying for a temporary visa in Chile for work reasons.



All these measures will come into effect, according to the Chilean press, as of April 16, 2018.



Pinera has also introduced a bill that reformulates the current immigration law, which has been in force since 1975 and leaves the migration officer the power to say who can enter Chile. Currently the legislation allows any foreigner who enters Chile with a "tourist visa" to be able to apply for a temporary or permanent residence once on the national territory "Our country needs a new migration law, adapted to our time and guaranteeing a safe, orderly and regular migration, which opens the doors to those who do good in Chile and closes the doors to those who harm us," said President Pinera.



The new regulations will be submitted to Congress with a simple emergency request, which means that it will have to be evaluated within 30 days, said Interior Minister Andres Chadwick.



In addition, Monday's decree specifies that foreigners who want to come to work in Chile will be able to do so as long as they ask in their own country a "Visa Temporaria de Oportunidades" or a "Visa Temporaria de Orientacion Internacional".



3 types of temporary visas may be requested from 1 August 2018



The "Visa Temporaria de Oportunidades" concerns migrants from all countries who wish to come to Chile to undertake and work for a period of 12 months, renewable with the possibility of applying for permanent residency.



The "Visa Temporaria de Orientacion Internacional" is aimed at foreigners holding a postgraduate degree in the top 200 universities in the world according to the QS World University Rankings and who wish to undertake and work in Chile. It allows to work for 12 months with the possibility of access to permanent residence.



The "Visa Temporaria de Orientacion Nacional" the only one that can be obtained in Chile concerns foreigners wishing to obtain advanced degrees in Chilean accredited universities and desire to undertake and work in Chile later.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23803-haiti-chile-law-announces-the-resumption-of-its-flights-the-dgac-cancels-them.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23733-haiti-flash-law-airline-temporarily-suspends-its-flights-haiti-chile.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23723-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23276-haiti-flash-nearly-105-000-haitians-arrived-in-chile-in-2017.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-22289-icihaiti-flash-chilean-airline-law-resumes-flights.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22252-haiti-flash-haiti-and-chile-very-close-to-a-diplomatic-incident.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21970-haiti-flash-equivalence-of-haitian-studies-in-chile.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21709-haiti-social-mass-arrival-of-haitian-migrants-chile-preoccupied.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20490-haiti-chile-president-bachelet-addresses-the-issue-of-illegal-haitians-in-her-country.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18331-haiti-social-stampede-of-thousands-of-illegal-haitians-in-chile.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Economy : 8th International Finance Summit





Monday at the Karibe Convention Center, Economist Kesner Pharel, President of the Group Croissance, opened the 8th International Finance Summit (April 9-13), stressing the importance of decentralization in a process of poverty eradication and sustainable development.



In his speech, the deputy of Petit-Goave, Limonji Samson, emphasized on the difficulties faced by municipalities in meeting their obligations, following the constraints imposed by the excessive centralization of State resources, and the need for to make corrections to this situation as soon as possible.



The Senator Francenet Denius (VERITE), President of the Commission Interior and Local Authorities, intervened on the provisions of the Senate to pass laws allowing the town halls to acquire the autonomy which is guaranteed to them by the Constitution but which do not have legal framework and to have a better functioning.



For his part Joseph Lambert, President of the Senate, invited to "break with partisan practices that can only handicap us" and drew attention to the need to invest in the agricultural sector "The time has come to change paradigm of development and we will not be able to do that by keeping our old clan reflexes."



A first panel of speakers composed of Evenson Calixte of the National Regulatory Authority of the Energy Sector (ANARSE), Edgard Jeudy, Director General of the Industrial Development Fund (FDI), Pierre Charles Lubin, Director of Operations (FDI) and Nicolas Allien from the energy unit of the Ministry of Public Works; presented the sub-theme "Rural Electrification". Stakeholders reported on the situation in the country in terms of electricity. Evenson Calixte presented ANARSE and the electrification strategies of the Moise-Lafontant administration. Nicolas Allien, for his part, presented projects related to electrification in Haiti, while Pierre-Charles Lubin discussed the legal and financial aspects of energy programs.



For his part Michel Lelievre, Canadian expert on local public administration and municipal finance, made a presentation aimed particularly at local elected representatives present "If your communes are strong, the capital will be strong. If your communes are weak, you will have a weak capital, "he said encouraging municipal representatives to good governance for the good development of the country.



Moreover, after the various interventions around the theme of Energy, the Canadian professor Goze Bertin Benie developed around the geomatics at the service of the municipalities. Geomatics is, according to his explanations, an intelligent form of planning and management of the territory that could satisfy citizens, private companies and town halls. This revolutionary form of municipal management would help local elected officials in the management of: the fiscal cadastre; the legal cadastre; of the conservation and the diffusion of the data and the systematic cadastre / technical cadastre.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The cause of late Fred Zaepfels death is still unknown. Photo: Georges Cumbo
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Hawaiis 8th grade progress in reading stands out in 2017 Nations Report Card

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released its 2017 results in The Nations Report Card. Hawaii is one of only ten states to show an increase in grade 8 reading scores in 2017, with an increase of four scaled score points.

News Release from Hawaii DoE, 09-Apr-2018

HONOLULU  The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released its 2017 results in "The Nation's Report Card." Hawaii is one of only ten states to show an increase in grade 8 reading scores in 2017, with an increase of four scaled score points. State reading scaled scores in grade 4 (+1) and mathematics scaled scores in grade 4 (no change) and grade 8 (-2) showed no significant change since 2015 test scores.

"The uptick we're seeing in reading scores among our eighth graders is encouraging. The percentage of students ranked 'at or above proficient' in reading shows continued improvement over time," said Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. "Being one of only ten states to show solid progress in eighth grade reading in 2017, our students' improvements over the last twelve years continues to be some of the highest in the nation and reflects the hard work of our students and teachers."

The Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) is taking a close look at the 2017 results, alongside other student data. The NAEP assessment was originally designed to provide a common measure of student performance across the country at a time when there was no consistency among state academic standards or common measures to compare states. This includes college and career readiness standards adopted by states, including Hawaii, in the last decade.

Superintendent Kishimoto added, "Our commitment to equitable access to quality education for all students continues to drive our focus on excellence in the Hawaii Public School System."

NAEP results are reported in four achievement levels: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient and Advanced. The proportion of grade 8 students who were Proficient in reading increased in 2017, with no significant changes in grade 4 reading and grades 4 and 8 math. From 2013 to 2015, Hawaii followed a national drop in test results. Hawaii's percentage of students scoring Proficient in reading and math has increased steadily over the last decade. Hawaii's students' average scores have also increased significantly over time.

Percent of Students "Proficient" on NAEP, Hawaii results since 2005:

2017 2015 2013 2011 2009 2007 2005 Math, Grade 4 38 38 46 40 37 33 27 Math, Grade 8 27 30 32 30 25 21 18 Reading, Grade 4 32 29 30 27 26 26 23 Reading, Grade 8 30 26 28 26 22 20 18

"We are very proud of the progress in our reading scores. We also need to strengthen our math performance and close the gap with national scores," said Assistant Superintendent Rodney Luke, Office of Strategy, Innovation, and Performance. "Math scores are often correlated to college and career readiness and we want our younger students to continue the momentum of our Advanced Placement and dual credit programs when they reach high school. Improving reading and math scores will demand strategic planning, thinking and action and we know our students will be up to the task."

NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics , reading , science , writing , the arts , civics , economics , geography , U.S. history , and in Technology and Engineering Literacy . In 2017, NAEP began administering digitally based assessments (DBA) for mathematics, reading and writing.

Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of tests across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time.

2,300 grade 4 students and 2,200 grade 8 students represented Hawaii in the 2017 NAEP math exam, along with 2,300 grade 4 students and 2,200 grade 8 students in the reading exam.

NAEP reports are located at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ .

---30---
(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump expressed optimism the U.S. will be able to reach a deal with China that diffuses trade tensions between the worlds two biggest economies. Trump said his administration will probably come to an agreement with China to resolve a dispute that has roiled financial markets and raised fears of a major economic conflict between the nations.

To read this article:
The Ministry of Finance has published statistics indicating that the employment rate for 2534-year-old men has fallen from more than 87 per cent to less than 80 per cent over the past decade  a trend that has coincided with a notable decline in the number of births from 61,000 in 2009 to roughly 50,000 in 2017.

The social exclusion of young men is partly to blame for the fact that fewer and fewer children are born in Finland, writes Talouselama.

The statistics also indicate that 2534-year-old men find it increasingly difficult to move up from low-income status: while nine per cent of men in the age group fell into the low-income category in 2007, the share of low-income earners had risen to over 18 per cent in 2015.

Another set of statistics also shows that over 15 per cent of 2539-year-old men have a bad credit record.

The Ministry of Finance interprets the statistics as an indication that young men are becoming socially excluded at a rapid pace, which in turn has contributed to the low number of births recorded and to the rising share of men who are childless.

The Population Research Institute has revealed that over a third (35%) of 4045-year-old men with only basic education qualifications are childless. The corresponding share for men from the same age group with higher education qualifications is considerably lower, 22 per cent.

Childlessness, however, does not correlate with education attainment for 4045-year-old women in Finland, according to the Population Research Institute.

Men are being excluded from family formation. Almost 87 per cent of 2029-year-old men are currently childless. Thats a very high number, Anna Rotkirch, the director of the Population Research Institute, told Talouselama on Friday.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Emmi Korhonen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
I am increasingly concerned about young men, he wrote on Facebook on Monday. The employment rate for 2534-year-old men  men who are in the best age to start a family  has decreased in the 2000s at the same pace as the birth rate. This is a big problem at both the personal and societal level.

Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of Finance, has admitted to being alarmed by the sharp decline in the number of births in Finland in the 2000s.

Talouselama on Friday drew attention to the parallels between the decline in the number of births and the employment rate for young men in Finland.

Helsingin Sanomat, meanwhile, pointed out that both numbers have fallen well short of demographic projections, which form the basis of political decision making and structural reforms including the pension reform and the social, health care and regional government reform.

Orpo suggested the problem may partly be attributable to differences in the academic performance of boys and girls.

Boys struggle to do well in school, and too many are left with no post-primary qualifications. Girls fare better, and they consequently do not even meet one another. This is already evident in the birth statistics, as fewer children are born in Finland than ever before in the past 150 years, he highlighted.

The Finnish government, he added, has already proposed measures to address the problem, such as the reform of early-childhood and vocational education. The reforms have been rejected as spending cuts by opposition parties.

Orpo also insisted that the government must nonetheless take action to help young men in Finland.

Nothing good ever came of a lonely young man with nothing to do and no faith in the future. Neither for himself, nor for others. We cannot afford to blame them, but we must afford to help them, he stated.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The only one who seems to be slow is you, my dear.



SEE: Plyler v. Doe









These arguments do not apply [p220] with the same force to classifications imposing disabilities on the minor children of such illegal entrants.





But the children of those illegal entrants





There is no evidence in the record suggesting that illegal entrants







the court also took notice of congressional proposals to "legalize" the status of many unlawful entrants. Id. at 577-578. See also n. 17, infra.





In presenting to both the Senate and House of Representatives several Presidential proposals for reform of the immigration laws -- including one to "legalize" many of the illegal entrants currently residing in the United States







The courts below noted the ineffectiveness of the Texas provision as a means of controlling the influx of illegal entrants into the State.





Both the opinion of the Court and JUSTICE POWELL's concurrence imply that appellees are being "penalized" because their parents are illegal entrants.



As you were saying my dear?





JWK
Braveheart said: There is hatred here, and it is about hatred for police. Click to expand...

The Police are agents of the State, and the State is controlled by the Jews and therefore not working for you, but against you. They are not and never will be your friends. At best, they're your tools. At worst, they're your killers.
imaginethat said: Please quote the prohibition in the regulations. Click to expand...

(b)Additional jurisdiction. If in the course of his or her investigation the Special Counsel concludes that additional jurisdiction beyond that specified in his or her original jurisdiction is necessary in order to fully investigate and resolve the matters assigned, or to investigate new matters that come to light in the course of his or her investigation, he or she shall consult with the Attorney General, who will determine whether to include the additional matters within the Special Counsel's jurisdiction or assign them elsewhere.

This is 28 CFR 600.4:Yet Rosenstein appears to grant Mueller such authority preemptively in the letter authorizing the special counsel. This at (b) (ii) and (iii) of the letter, which is not allowed as can be seen above, wherein the special counsel is required to consult about additional matters.
"I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. Good man. And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt," Trump said Monday, referring to a lawful FBI raid.



"It's an attack on our country," Trump said. "It's an attack on what we all stand for."
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FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
At 10:48 a.m. on Nov. 14, 1965, UH-1B helicopters delivered the lead units of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), to Landing Zone X-Ray in South Vietnams Ia Drang Valley. North Vietnams 33rd Regiment attacked, triggering the first major battle between the U.S. and North Vietnamese armies, immortalized in the book We Were Soldiers Onceand Young and its film adaptation.

Media coverage of the battle featured images of what became the wars iconic American weapons, the M16 rifle and the UH-1 Huey helicopter, commonly called a slick because no guns were mounted on its sides, giving the chopper a smooth, slick surface. The Huey was at every major battle, making Vietnam the helicopter war.

When the aircraft, made by Bell Helicopter Co., entered production in 1959, it was officially the HU-1 Iroquois, but troops began calling it Huey, a play on the HU designation. The designation was changed to UH-1 in 1962, but the nickname stuck.

The Army had intended to use Hueys as medevac helicopters. By 1963, however, the emerging air mobility doctrine gave them an expanded mission, including troop lifts to combat zones. When the newly activated 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) entered Vietnam in late summer 1965, it possessed 435 helicopters, mostly UH-1s.

The Huey was to Vietnam what the jeep was to World War II. All five major armed services employed them. Hueys flew missions that included troop movements, cargo transport, signals intelligence, psychological warfare, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, command and control, search and rescueand, of course, medical evacuation. They evacuated more than 120,000 casualties, saving thousands of lives.

By wars end, more than 8,000 Hueys had been built, with over 1,000 outfitted as gunships, and 7,013 served in Vietnam, where 2,820 were lost. The final single-engine variant was the UH-1H, which was introduced in 1967 and became the most produced model. The last version to see combat in Vietnam, the twin-engine UH-1N, entered production in 1970.

Hueys served the U.S. and its allies well into the 21st century, but they will be remembered most for their starring role in the skies over Vietnam.
W ith war clouds looming over Charleston Harbor as he assumed the presidency in March 1861, Abraham Lincoln had little time to determine whether conciliation with the South or a show of military force would be the appropriate response if fighting broke out. As expected, Lincoln received advice on several fronts, but the rookie president would ultimately be swayed by the counsel of one of his closest associatesPostmaster General Montgomery Blair.

Blair was the only graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in Lincolns Cabinet, so his opinions on military matters carried great weight. More important, however, was that he belonged to one of the foremost political families in America. In 1861, it was Blair who would drive events not just in South Carolina, but also in Virginia and Missouri, in ways that profoundly shaped the course of the Civil War. He would be guided greatly by the similar threat of civil war the nation had faced during the Nullification Crisis nearly three decades earlier.

Lincoln was an outsider to Washington, but by 1861 the Blair family had been a major presence in the political life of the nations capital seemingly forever. The family patriarch, Francis P. Blair Sr., had become one of the most important players there during Andrew Jacksons presidency. As a member of Jacksons kitchen cabinet and, as an editor, one of the administrations most zealous defenders in the press, Blair played a critical role in the organization of the Democratic Party to support Jacksons political fortunes and mobilize support for his policies. The home he acquired across the street from the Executive Mansion during Jacksons presidencythe Blair House, which he passed on to his son Montgomery in 1854became a central gathering place for leading officials in the government. (In recognition of its prominent place in the nations history, in 1939 Blair House became the first building to receive recognition as a National Historic Landmark and shortly thereafter was acquired by the U.S. government to provide lodging for distinguished visitors to the capital.) But Blairs loyalty to the Democratic Party was shattered in the 1840s and 1850s by the Southern minoritys efforts to control the government and dictate policy to the rest of the countryviolating what he believed one of the bedrock principles of Jacksonian Democracy: the principle of majority rule.



Front exterior of the Blair House, located across from the White House, in Washington, D.C. (Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress)

Despite being a slave owner, Blair transferred his loyalties to the new Republican Party. He dedicated his familys considerable talents and energy into making the Republican Party an effective vehicle for ensuring majority rule would prevail in the country. The most important of these in 1861 would be his sons Francis P. Blair Jr. (Missouris lone Republican in Congress) and elder brother Montgomery; daughter Elizabeth Blair Lee, a leading member of Washington society; and her husband, Union Admiral Francis Phillips Lee, Robert E. Lees cousin.

Despite being a slave owner, Blair transferred his loyalties to the new Republican Party.

Lincoln was eager for advice from those with such a long record of service when he arrived in Washington in February 1861, facing a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Seven slave states had seceded and eight others awaited events to determine their course. The central question was how to strike a balance between firmness and generosity in forging a policy to regain the Southern peoples consent to be governed by Washington.

One man who no doubt had a clear view of the situation and how to address it was Bvt. Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott. His approach differed significantly from Montgomery Blairs. Like the Blairs, Scott was a man of long experience in Washingtons ways, having been U.S. Army commanding general since 1841. Scott, however, never shared the Blairs enthusiasm for Andrew Jackson, personally and politically. Scott and the Blairs immediately were at odds over how to deal with the South as they attempted to influence the new president.

Scott believed the incoming administration should adopt a conservative, conciliatory course. To shape Lincolns thinking, Scott wrote to long-time political ally and kindred spirit, William H. Seward, whom Lincoln had just selected secretary of state. Scotts March 3, 1861, letter argued a war to conquer the South would be neither cheap nor easy. He believed military victory over the Confederacy might be accomplished but was convinced it would take two or three years at the cost of more than 100,000 lives and frightful destruction. The end result would not be a happy and glorious union but, Fifteen devastated provinces!to be held for generations, with heavy garrisons, at an expense quadruple the net duties or taxes which it would be possible to extort from them, followed by a protector or an empire. To avoid such a conflict, Scott urged Lincoln to conciliatory measures. If this was done, we shall have not a new case of secession; but, on the contrary, an early return of many, if not all of the states which have already broken off.

In his approach, Scott was influenced by his experiences as soldier and diplomat. His most significant experience came during the 1832-33 Nullification Crisis, when South Carolina hotheads challenged the federal governments authority over the tariff issue. Scott, commanding the U.S. garrison at Charleston during that crisis, believed the conflict had been resolved because it never reached the point where shots were actually fired. Scott had encouraged interaction between his men and Charlestons population to foster mutual good will and impress upon them the federal governments benevolence, which he believed mitigated President Jacksons belligerent tone and was critical to the administrations ability to reach a crisis-resolving compromise.

Scott found Lincoln inclined to adopt a watchful waiting policy and was gratified with Lincolns extending an olive branch to the South in his inaugural address. Lincolns commitment to a policy of conciliation and restraint toward the South, however, rested on his expectation that his resolve would not be tested. The crisis over the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter wrecked that assumption. It also gave the Blairs an opening to steer the presidents thinking to a point more in line with their own.

Scott believed the incoming administration should adopt a conservative, conciliatory course.

Blair believed the Nullification Crisis had been successfully resolved not by compromise and conciliation but because Jackson made it crystal clear to the South Carolinians that they faced serious consequences if they persisted in their course. The Nullifiers had acted as they did because they refused to believe the federal government possessed the will and determination to stand up to them. Jacksons demand from Congress for a Force Bill enabling him to march an army into South Carolina and his unabashed glee at the prospect of hanging their leaderswhich Blair enthusiastically endorsed and encouraged in the party newspapermade clear this was a serious mistake.



Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army with his staff, c. 1861. (Library of Congress)

It was a message that resonated with many Republicans, not least Lincoln, who understood that he led a coalition of former Democrats, Whigs, and Know-Nothings who disagreed on many points. What led them to form the Republican Party and held them together was a belief that for far too long the Northern majority had let itself be bullied and blackmailed into making concessions to the minority South.

L incoln did not want war and believed the Union could be restored peacefully without compromising Republican principles. The key factor in Lincolns thinking was the silent Unionist majorities he believed had been cowed by secessionist minorities. As he saw it, the first step toward a peaceful reconstruction was keeping the eight states of the upper South in the Union. Once this was done, it would be only a matter of time before Unionists in the cotton states, alarmed about their isolation from their Upper South brethren, would rise up, overthrow the secessionists, and return their states voluntarily to the Union.

Yet to keep the Upper South in the Union it seemed paramount that the new administration refrain from actions that suggested using force to coerce the Lower South back into the Union. The situation at Fort Sumter destroyed Lincolns hopes to avoid having his resolution tested. He naturally turned to Scott and to his dismay was advised to surrender the fort. To do so, Scott argued, would facilitate voluntary reconstruction by cooling Southern passions and reassuring Southern masses of the good will of the Federal government. Moreover, Scott saw no [practical] alternative but a surrender.[W]e cannot send the third of the men in several monthsnecessary to give them relief.

The Blairs saw the matter differently. They were convinced secessionists believed Northerners weak and spineless, which the policy of restraint reinforced. Even before Lincoln took office, Montgomery Blair had bluntly advised him, The real cause of the trouble arises from the notion generally entertained in the South that the men of the North are inferiors.They swell just like the grandiloquent Mexicans. And I really fear that nothing short of the lesson we had to give Mexicowill ever satisfy the Southern Gascons.

As Lincoln pondered what to do about Fort Sumter on March 11, Francis P. Blair Sr. made his appearance at the Executive Mansion. He told Lincoln that the surrender of Fort Sumter was virtually a surrender of the Union unless under irresistible force and used such strong language that he asked his son to personally apologize to Lincoln if he felt he had been disrespectful. After hearing from the Blairs and Scott, Lincoln asked the members of the Cabinet to submit their opinions in writing.

Scotts ally, Seward, echoed the generals view. Secession, he argued, could be banishedonly in one way, and that by giving time for it to wear out. If the fort could not be held without risking a fight, then Seward believed it must be evacuated. Deny to the Disunionists any new provocation, he urged, Enable the Unionists in the Slave States to maintain, with truth and with effect, that the claims and apprehensions of the Disunionists are groundless.

Montgomery Blair completely disagreed. He laid out what the Blairs believed was the lesson of 1833, telling the president that evacuating the fort would convince the rebels that the administration lacks firmness and willso far therefore from tending to prevent collision will ensure it. Every hour of acquiescence in this condition of things, Blair contended, strengthened the rebels and their claim to recognition as an independent people. . . The action of the President in 1833 inspired respect, whilst in 1860 the rebels were encouraged by the contempt they felt for the incumbent of the Presidency.



The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12-13, 1861. (Currier & Ives/Library of Congress)

Ultimately Lincoln decided to risk a collision and approved a planconceived by Francis Phillips Leeto resupply Sumter. Before it could arrive, the Rebel batteries ringing Charleston Harbor opened fire April 12. Fort Sumter surrendered two days later.

Lincoln responded to Sumters fall by calling for 75,000 volunteers to overcome combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. As men rushed to the colors, the question of what to do with them again brought the Blairs into conflict with General Scott.

Scott remained convinced a war to conquer the South would neither be short nor easy. Even if the North triumphed, Scott believed it could do so only through a massive military effort inflicting such horrific destruction that the worst passions of both sections would be unleashed. Invade the South at any point, he warned Lincoln, I will guarantee that at the end of the year you will be further from a settlement than you are now.

Fort Sumter gave the Blairs an opening to steer the presidents thinking to a point more in line with their own.

Instead, Scott intended to impose a complete blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports combined with a powerful movement down the Mississippi to the ocean, with a cordon of posts at proper pointsto envelop the insurgent States. The movement on the Mississippi would take place after four months and a half of instruction in camps. Scotts objective was to employ economic pressure to convince Southerners of secessions folly, sparing the nation the destruction and polarization of a full-scale invasion. Cut off from the luxuries to which the people are accustomed; andnot having been exasperated by attacks made on them, Scott predicted, The Union spirit will assert itself; those who are on the fence will descend on the Union side, and I will guarantee that in one year from this time all difficulties will be settled.

The Blairs believed in a quicker, easier way. They shared Scotts desire to avoid a long, bloody war and that Unionists were in the majority in the South. But they believed Scott was fundamentally wrong-headed to believe that time worked for the Union by cooling passions in the South. General Scotts system, Montgomery Blair argued in a May 16 letter to Lincoln, arises from the constitution of his mind & is but a continuation of the compromise policy.He does not comprehend the true theory of this contest and for that reason cannot adopt wise measures.

Time, Montgomery and his family were convinced, actually worked against the Union. Putting off a confrontation with secessionist leadership would confirm the impression of Northern weakness that decades of compromising and making concessions to the slave state minority had impressed on the minds of the Southern people. Moreover, it would enable them to strengthen their hold over the South and suppress Unionist sentiments that the Blairs were certain a majority held. Indeed, Montgomery went so far as to assure Lincoln that prompt action by Union military forces will now be hailed with joy by the people of the south everywhere and it can be given with a very inconsiderable part of the force at our command by a forward movement.

For Lincoln, this was an appealing argumentnot only did he possess the impatience for results characteristic of politicians, the analysis also had the benefit of being rooted in assumptions central to the Republican Partys worldview, which Lincoln had played a critical role in articulating. Thus, Lincoln decided, weeks before the On to Richmond banner began to appear in the New York Tribune and over the protests of Scott and other military men, to promote Irvin McDowell brigadier general and appoint him commander of a newly organized Department of Northeastern Virginia, whose only purpose was to produce a field army for operations against the Rebels at Manassas Junction, Va. (One thing Scott and the Blairs did agree on in early 1861 was the desirability of having Robert E. Lee at the head of any army the United States government might place in the field. To the dismay of both luminaries, the interview between Francis P. Blair Sr. and Lee that took place at Blair House failed to persuade Lee to accept the honor.) Though dubious about the prospects of throwing an effective army together in such a short period, McDowell understood his appointment meant Lincoln wanted action before the April volunteers 90-day enlistments expired and went to work preparing operations against Confederate forces gathering around Manassas Junction.

I n addition to Fort Sumter and the question of taking the offensive in Virginia, the Blair family prevailed over Scott on other issues. Few states were more precariously balanced in early 1861 than the critical Border State, Missouri. Its residents were mostly loyal to the Union, but the state legislature was dominated by Breckinridge Democrats and Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson believed his state must stand by her sister slave-holding States, in whose wrongs she participates and with whose institutions and people she sympathizes. In the aftermath of Lincolns election, Colonel William S. Harney, commander of the Department of the West headquartered at St. Louis, followed Scotts lead by adopting a conciliatory policy toward state authorities. His efforts seemed to validate the assumptions that shaped Scotts approach, as both he and the commanding general were gratified by the overwhelming election of Unionists to Missouris state secession convention, which adjourned March 22, 1861, without even bringing secession to a vote.

The Blairs were convinced secessionists believed Northerners weak and spineless.

Less happy were Republican Rep. Francis P. Blair Jr. of St. Louis, and Nathaniel Lyon, an Army captain with no sympathy for aggrieved slave-owners complaints. Blair pulled strings to get Lyon in command of the St. Louis Arsenal. Lyon was just the kind of military man the Blair family wanted. Like their beloved General Andrew Jackson, Lyon had unbending Unionist convictions and little patience for the secessionist desires of Southern slaveowners. More important, Lyon agreed with Blair that secessionists believed the federal government lacked the nerve to firmly assert its authority. He believed this idea must be crushed.

The only way to do this, Lyon and Blair believed, was to act with uncompromising firmness toward the Missouri government, backing that up with a whiff of grapeshot. Despite the actionor lack of actionof Missouris convention, Blair and Lyon were intensely dissatisfied with Harneys conciliatory approach that fostered an image of Northern timidity. Unsurprisingly, Blair and Lyon felt vindicated in their view by Governor Jacksons refusal to obey Lincolns call for troops after Fort Sumter, which the governor decried as illegal, unconstitutionalin its objects inhuman and diabolical.

When Jackson took control of the St. Louis police and mobilized the pro-Southern state militia, Lyon and Blair responded by distributing arms to St. Louis Unionists (principally filling their ranks from the citys German population especially antagonized pro-Southern Missourians), and sending out armed patrols. To his and Blairs dismay, when Harney found out about this, he stepped in and brought a halt to Lyons machinations. Blair responded by successfully petitioning Washington for Harneys removal from command on April 21. Upon reaching Washington, however, Harney made the case for a conciliatory policy in a meeting with Scott, who promptly restored him to command in Missouri.

While Harney was gone, all hell broke loose. Blair attempted to convince William T. Sherman, who was in St. Louis after resigning as superintendent of the Louisiana State Military Academy, to take Harneys place, but Sherman declined. Privately, Sherman declared, I would starve and see my family want, rather than ask Frank Blair or any of the Blairs whom I know to be a selfish and unscrupulous set.

Shortly thereafter, the Missouri militia established a camp on high ground overlooking the arsenal and named it Camp Jacksonafter the current governor, not the former president. Lyon surrounded and captured Camp Jackson on May 10 and provoked a riot in St. Louis when he marched his prisoners through the citys streets. The Missouri General Assembly in Jefferson City responded by pushing through a military bill strengthening the governors hand as a newspaper commented, The name of Colonel F.P. Blair seems to strike terror to allthe Governor, the officers, and the Assembly.

The Blairs believed Scott was fundamentally wrong-headed to believe that time worked for the Union by cooling passions in the South.

Upon his return to St. Louis on May 12, Harney immediately moved to leash Lyon and promised Jackson that he would disband the Home Guard units that Blair had raised, or confine them to Jefferson Barracks, 10 miles south of St. Louis. Blair then confronted Harney with an order from Lincoln that gave him authority to raise units and impose martial law if he so chose. Harney also managed to reach an agreement with the commander of the state militia, Sterling Price, that Missouri would remain in the Union, but assume a position of neutrality in the coming military contest between the Union and the Confederacy. Blair and Lyon were furious. The former had already petitioned Washington for authority to remove Harney from command and got it. On May 30, he used it. Harney was relieved, this time for good. Lyon received promotion to brigadier general.

Although unable to save Harney, Scott still wanted to salvage his conciliation policy in Missouri and decided to give command of the region to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan by extending his Department of the Ohio to include Missouri. By then, McClellan had clearly established he was a man who shared Scotts belief in conciliation and had already proved himself capable of handling affairs in a far-flung department. More important, McClellan had an aura of success from victories his command won in western Virginia that would hopefully give him the ability to rein in Lyon.

But McClellan was too far away, with too much else on his plate, to rescue the cause of conciliation in Missouri. By the time McClellan learned of his commands extension to Missouri on June 18, Blair and Lyon had already crossed the Rubicon in their dealings with Governor Jackson and his pro-Southern administration. A conference between Blair, Lyon, Price, and Jackson in St. Louis, convened in a last-ditch effort to salvage peace, collapsed on June 11 when Lyon made clear he would make no concessions to Jacksons government and was prepared to use force to back up his position. In words that effectively encapsulated the sentiments of his Blair family allies, Lyon closed the meeting by declaring: rather than to concede to the State of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my Government in any matter however unimportant, I would see you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and every man, woman, and child in the State dead and buried. This means war.

Lyon followed up the conference by leading Union forces he had raised in St. Louis 180 miles up the Missouri River to the state capital at Jefferson City. After seizing possession of the town and expelling Jacksons government, Lyon chased the Missouri State Guard 50 miles northwest to Boonville, where it made a feeble stand before being routed on June 18. Jackson and his government fled to southwestern Missouri. Whatever prospect Missouri had for joining the rebellion was effectively killed. Lyons actions undoubtedly proved great comfort to the Blairs, as they seemed to validate their own assumptions about dealing with secessionists firmly. The bitter, bloody, and prolonged guerrilla war that subsequently engulfed Missouri, however, led many to wonder later if Harneys had been the proper approach.

While Harney was gone, all hell broke loose.

What happened a month later, however, was less happy. In northern Virginia, McDowells green army tested the Blairs belief that a quick demonstration of military might lead to the collapse of the rebellion. Unfortunately, the merits of the LincolnBlair strategy were not revealed. After a day-long battle at Bull Run on July 21, McDowells army was sent reeling back to Washington, hopes for a quick and easy end to the rebellion collapsed, and even the New York Tribune found its enthusiasm for what it called the headlong forward to Richmond school significantly diminished.

The Blairs had advocated action and successfullyand relentlesslypushed for it believing it would provide a quick resolution of secession. They would be proved mistaken: 1860 was not 1833. The bitter war that began in 1861 would take on a character that they neither anticipated nor wanted. In this, they were by no means alone.

Ethan S. Rafuse is professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
G ary Gallagher recently retired from a 30-year career teaching history at Penn State and the University of Virginia. A prolific scholar, he has mentored many students who are leading Civil War experts and is also an important member of this magazines advisory board, as well as a columnist. Fortunately, Gallagher will continue his scholarship. He is working on several book projects and will continue to be involved in the University of Virginias Nau Center for Civil War History. One project involves essays by 25 historians describing a Civil War site that has affected each profoundly. The field of Civil War history, Gallagher says, is more vibrant than ever.

CWT: How did you get interested in the Civil War?

GG: I grew up on a Colorado farm and I got interested by reading an April 1961 article in National Geographic that anticipated the centennial and featured a lot of the sketches that the British artist Frank Vizetelly had done during the war. It just captivated me. I was 10 when I bought The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. That absolutely became a presence in my life; I practically memorized it. By the time I was in high school, I probably had 250-300 books about the war.

CWT: How has the field shifted over the decades?

GG: When I was young, most of the books focused on military or political topics, and a little bit of diplomacy. Bell Wiley pioneered writing about common soldiers and African Americans in the Confederacy, and since then there has been an unbelievable broadening of the field. The social history wave was first, then gender history, memorytopics that are hot now were discussed a little bit, like guerrilla war, the home front, and so forth. Memoirs became interesting to me early on. I had an undergraduate teachera Civil War specialistwho never even mentioned a battle. That was my first real exposure to somebody who had a really different view of the war than what I had learned as a boy and in high school.

CWT: How has the perception of the war changed?

GG: The Lost Cause was powerful down through the 1960s. Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind are dramatic expressions of that. But since the centennial, a much larger amount of attention has been been paid to emancipation, related to the mature civil rights movement. In terms of popular culture, I dont think we would have the African American Civil War memorial in Washington, D.C., if not for the movie Glory. I think before that film came out, most people were literally not aware that black soldiers had fought in the Civil War. It shows just how much of an effect a movie can have, a much greater effect than any historians book or books. In many ways, people get their impressions of the Civil War more from popular culture than they do from anything that historians write.

CWT: What drew students to your class?

GG: Some come to class because they got interested in battles, and others are drawn to it because the questions are so hugewhether the work of the founding generation would survive, whether slavery would continue or not, and some even have a sense of how much was at stake in defining the relative powers of local and state governments. Youd have to work really hard to make the Civil War boring.

CWT: How do you develop interest among your students?

GG: One of the best ways to have them really engage with the war is through the voices of the people who lived through it. For example, I often use the diary of Kate Stone, the daughter of a Louisiana slaveholder. Shes their age, and lives in a Jane Austen kind of world, then loses a brother and becomes a refugee. Stones account is a way of getting at major themes of what was going on inside the Confederacys white populace. I used other firsthand accounts to get students into the world view of other parts of the Civil War population.

CWT: Is there a Civil War question that nags at you?

GG: When you study something for a long time you realize that the more you learn about something, the less certain you can be about almost anything. Its so complicated, and there is so much evidence that the wartime generation bequeathed to us. This literate population engaged in great events, wrote about it both in the midst of events and then retrospectively, and it just gives historians such a great mass of evidence to work through. Its changed my view about Gettysburg. When I was young, I thought it was the turning point of the war, but the more I read about it, the more I was persuaded that it wasnt really that at all. There were a number of other battles that were much more important in terms of how they shaped the broader direction of the war. Theres such a wealth of evidence. Its really intimidating.

Youd have to work really hard to make the Civil War boring

CWT: The Civil War still makes news.

GG: The Civil War continues to resonate in such powerful ways, and I really do believe that if you dont try to come to terms with how people have remembered and used the war, you have no chance of understanding United States history. Its a culmination of huge questions that grew out of the generation that wrote the Constitution and created the nation. And then it puts in place elements relating to race and governmental relationships at different levels. The current controversies over the Confederate memorial landscape are only one element of how the Civil War has a continuing power to affect America. I think it is wonderful to make people confront the past. There are lots of warts with the Civil War, but there are also lots of empowering elements in terms of how the field has expanded.

CWT: How long will the Civil War remain topical?

GG: I have no idea, and neither does anyone else. Ive done a lot of work with high school teachers over the years, and I think some schools are shying away from the Civil War because they think its too controversial. I think thats absolutely the wrong approach. I find that heartbreaking. I think pretending things didnt happen or pretending things werent complicated is really a destructive approach to engaging with the past.

CWT: What part of your career are you most proud of?

GG: Ive been extremely lucky. For more than 30 years I have been paid to teach and write about the Civil War, give lectures and battlefield tours, and it has been wonderful. I think some of the books Ive written, both The Confederate War and The Union War, have had an impact on the academic side of things. The book that has surely reached the most readers is Porter Alexanders memoir, Fighting for the Confederacy, probably the most quoted primary account on the Army of Northern Virginia. Thats because of the inherent quality of Alexanders analytical and descriptive powers.

CWT: Anything you would like to add?

GG: The first article I ever published was in Civil War Times about Abraham Lincoln and the plan for black colonization on Ile a Vache off the coast of Haiti. I read the magazine in the early 1960s and started subscribing in 1965. I soon bought all the back issues, so I have a complete run of Civil War Times. Its been part of my life for almost as long as Ive been interested in the Civil War. 

Interview conducted by Senior Editor Sarah Richardson
UNTIL CHRISTIANITY SPREAD THROUGHOUT FIJI in the second half of the 19th century, the South Pacific island was riven by constant tribal and feudal violence (including ceremonial cannibalism). Men were fortunate to reach middle age, as many Fijians were brutally killed in war or opportunistically murdered. Consequently, handheld weapons were essential companions at all times, whether in the home, while traveling, or when working in the fields.

In addition to spears and daggers, clubs were important fighting tools on Fiji, and they were produced with exceptional quality from local hardwoods in diverse profiles and dimensions. The culacula, for example, resembled a vicious combat paddle, with a broad wooden blade on a long haft. This spatulate club, more than three feet from butt to tip, was designed to split flesh and break big bones. By contrast, the I-ula tavatava, a much shorter weapon, featured a slender, balanced handle that flared into a bulbous shape rather like a head of garlic; it was designed to be thrown from a distance and from close range could deliver a killing blow to the skull. Pictured here is the totokia, a brutal battle hammer often called the pineapple club because of the spiked ball behind its beak. Such was the quality of these and other Fijian war clubs, especially the highly decorative ceremonial types, that they became desirable among collectors of ethnographic weapons and tribal artifacts. MHQ

CHRIS McNAB is a military historian based in the United Kingdom. His most recent book is The Mighty 8th at War: The Missions, The AircraftThe Full Story Told By the Men Who Were There (Metro Books, 2017).

This article appears in the Spring 2018 issue (Vol. 30, No. 3) of MHQThe Quarterly Journal of Military History with the headline: Fiji War Club

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Dermot Kennedy, Rejjie Snow, Hudson Taylor, Eden, All Tvvins  were only a few months into 2018 and weve already sold out an unprecedented amount of Irish shows.

John Johnston, General Manager of the Olympia Theatre, is reflecting on the incredible stream of local talent hes had the pleasure of hosting in the venue these past few weeks. Its been a rough winter for businesses in Ireland, with the impact of the snow, yet the live music industry is thriving once again. And the trend isnt just in the Olympia, nor is it confined to the capital city  all over the country, audiences are packing into venues to see their favourite artists (homegrown or otherwise) come rain, hail, sleet or snow.

Back in 2017, a report titled Lets Celebrate  conducted by well-known industry expert Justin Green  highlighted the value of the music industry to the Irish economy. A comprehensive analysis of the live sector, the results of the report were truly impressive  even for us here at Hot Press, where wed been banging on about the importance of live music for decades.
Dublin's Slow Skies (aka Karen Sheridan) has just announced that her debut album Realign will be coming out on 11 May and she will be playing Fumbally Stables on 17 May.

Ahead of that, a new single Fire was revealed yesterday. The song featured in the premiere of the new Greys Anatomy spin-off series Station 19 in the US last week.



The album was produced in Dublin with Ber Quinn and was recorded whenever they could snatch some time between Ber's busy touring schedule.

The album has various Irish musicians playing on it including Pat O'Leary on keys, Micheal Quinn on drums, Joe Furlong on bass, Danny Snow on double bass, Lia Wright on violin and Matt Rafter on cello.

Speaking about the album Karen says I started writing the album in Sweden on a writers retreat but ended up writing most of it in the attic of my grandparents' house much later, when the pressure was off.

"I had bought an electric guitar and various electronic bits to endeavour to make some cool music but it just was not working. I ended up scrapping all that and just went back to my trusty, old acoustic guitar.

"I was in a transition and I needed to evaluate a lot of things in my life. The title for the album came from a song called Realign, a song of hope and joy, exploring the possibility of change and of self-transformation for yourself and for the people around you no matter how bad things have been before.



Here's the album's tracklist: Opening / Shut Your Eyes / Lilac Love / Fire / Patterns / Dancing / Feel It / Realign / Map Out / A Place In Time.
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Ontarios energy plan falls short

Apr 10th, 2018 4:57 AM

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- The Ontario governments Long-Term Energy Plan ignores its own climate law, says Making Connections: Straight Talk about Electricity in Ontario , a new report from Dianne Saxe, Ontarios Environmental Commissioner. The climate law requires Ontarians to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas and oil by 2030, but the province isnt planning how to make that happen.The climate law means that Ontarians must be prepared to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use by 40 to 50 per cent in the next 13 years, said Saxe. This means more conservation, and converting some fossil fuel uses - including some gas-fuelled cars and trucks, and some heating of our homes and businesses - to electricity instead. Ontarios electricity system produces very few emissions since coal-fired power plants were closed.The Long-Term Energy Plan is produced by the Ministry of Energy to detail Ontarios energy needs for the future. It guides the governments energy investments to meet these needs. The current Long-Term Energy Plan however, predicts that demand for electricity will remain fairly stable, and doesnt recognize or plan for the low-carbon transition that is needed. In addition to switching from fossil fuels to electricity, the energy system as a whole must become more efficient, and Ontarians must do more to conserve.Saxe acknowledged the governments role in cleaning up Ontarios electricity system and air by ending coal-fired power. By replacing coal with low-carbon electricity sources such as hydro, solar, wind and nuclear power, the system was 96 per cent emission-free in 2017. She noted that the cost to clean up the system led to higher electricity bills, but overall, it was worth it.Electricity was cheap, but it came at a very high cost to our environment and health, said Saxe. In 2005, the system not only strained to meet the peak demand, it was also a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and smog. Those with asthma and other respiratory ailments struggled with bad air quality. There is no doubt that our electricity system was a major contributor to poor air quality and higher health costs.Making Connections: Straight Talk about Electricity in Ontario can be downloaded at: eco.on.ca/reports/2018-making-connections Ann Lehman-AllisonSenior Manager,Communications & Outreach416-325-0142The 2017 Long-Term Energy Plan is the governments roadmap for Ontarios energy sector. It outlines energy needs for the future, and how the government will invest to meet those needs. The 2017 plan is Ontarios 20-year energy plan. The plan assumes that demand for electricity will remain stable over the next 20 years. This assumption is inconsistent with the climate law.The electricity system meets about one-fifth of Ontarios energy needs. Almost all of the remaining 80 per cent is provided by fossil fuels. While fossil fuel energy in Ontario produces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, Ontarios electricity system was 96 per cent emission-free in 2017. Sources include nuclear power, hydro (water) power, wind, solar and natural gas-fired generation.Most of the power needs formerly met by coal are now met through new renewable power generation and conservation. Nuclear refurbishments and new natural gas-fired plants have also increased system capacity and reliability.Ontario has a surplus of electricity only at times when demand for electricity is low - mostly nights and weekend in the spring and fall. Conservation has reduced the amount of electricity Ontario uses. We sell surplus power at low rates to keep clean electricity from going to waste, and earn money for ratepayers. The surplus is expected to lessen in the next few years.The system as a whole now costs about $21 billion each year, up from about $15 billion in 2005. The extra costs are mostly for added capacity to generate power, so the system is more reliable; it can handle high demand at peak periods on the hottest summer days. A clean, low-polluting system also benefits human health and lowers health care costs through improved air quality.Ontarios climate law has put a cap on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed in Ontario from burning fossil fuels each year. The cap will decline each year.Emitters, including companies that sell fossil fuels to Ontarians, are required to buy allowances to cover their emissions. These companies will pass on costs of allowances to those who purchase fossil fuels for use. As allowances become increasingly scarce as the cap is reduced, these costs will increase.For more information about Ontarios cap and trade system, see our Introduction to Cap and Trade in Ontario In 1990, Ontario industry was responsible for more than one third of our emissions, producing 67 of 181 megatonnes (Mt) of carbon pollution. Transportation produced 48 Mt, buildings produced 28 Mt, mainly from heating, and our electricity system produced 26 Mt.Things have changed since then. In 2015, Ontario industry emitted 48 Mt, down 28 per cent. The electricity system reduced its contribution from 26 to 5 Mt*, a drop of 80 per cent, due mainly to the elimination of coal-fired power.Its not all good news however. Transportation emissions increased over the same period from 41 to 55 Mt in 2015, an increase of 34 per cent. Freight traffic alone more than doubled its emissions. Emissions from buildings increased by 32 per cent as well, from 28 to 37 Mt.For more information about Ontarios 2015 emissions, see The Climate Act: from Plan to Progress While Ontarios electricity system is now low-carbon, our energy sector as whole is not. In 2016, Ontario emitted 126 Mt of carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels for energy, which is more than three-quarters of Ontarios total greenhouse gas emissions. The 2030 cap on emissions means that fossil fuel emissions will need to be cut almost in half in the next 13 years.Ontarians need to look at where fossil fuel use has increased - in transportation and building heating - to find ways to reduce emissions. As Ontarios electricity system produces almost no emissions, conservation, and electrifying transportation and building heating could produce large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and more improvements to air quality.Ontarians will be encouraged to conserve electricity, but we could need about a third more low carbon electricity to have enough to power much of our transportation and heating. The Long-Term Energy Plan needs to think through the potential for higher electricity demand, and what supply sources can meet that demand, to make sure Ontario stays within its emissions cap and meets its climate obligations.*Note: Some slight differences in emissions data occur due to inconsistencies in data collection from different sources.Table of Contents1. Whats this report about?2. How does Ontario make decisions about its sources of electricity?3. How and why has Ontarios electricity demand changed?4. Where does our electricity come from and how has the supply mix changed?5. Has Ontarios electricity system become more reliable and able to meet peak demand?6. How does Ontario deal with the variability of wind and solar electricity output7. Why does Ontario export and curtail so much electricity?8. How high are Ontario electricity prices?9. What do higher electricity costs pay for?10. What are the environmental impacts of Ontarios electricity sources?11. How much have the coal phase-out, renewable electricity, and conservation reduced greenhouse gas emissions?12. How much did the coal shutdown reduce pollution in Ontario?13. What does the 2017 Long-Term Energy Plan propose for Ontarios electricity future?14.What are the consequences of the Long-Term Energy Plans commitment to nuclear power?15.How much of Ontarios energy system must be electrified to meet Ontarios legal greenhouse gas limits?16.How can Ontario make full use of clean off-peak electricity and prevent it from going to waste?17.What impact will Ontarios electricity market redesign have on the cost and greenhouse gas emissions of our electricity system?18.What impact will net metering have on the future of renewable electricity in Ontario?19.What is the value of conservation?
The Humane Society of the United States thanks Governor Ralph Northam for signing a bill to reduce the use of animals in product testing. Virginia is only the fourth state in the country to pass such a law. Delegate Jennifer Boysko, D-86, was the lead patron of the bill, HB 1087.

By minimizing animal testing and instead focusing on the use of faster, cost effective and more reliable testing methods, Virginia companies can save lives, time and money, said Matthew Gray, Virginia state director for the HSUS. We thank Delegate Boysko and Governor Northam for their leadership on this issue.

21st century science is rapidly moving away from outdated animal tests. HB 1087 requires the use of available methods that avoid animal testing or reduce the number of animals used for testing product such as cosmetics, household cleaners and industrial chemicals. Many effective alternatives to animal testing now exist, including 3-D printing, construction of artificial human tissue and the generation of sophisticated computer programs that can make accurate predictions about chemical safety. With these sophisticated technologies comes the promise of improved and more predictive information on safety of chemicals and other products.

Virginia has now joined California, New Jersey and New York in all passing laws requiring companies to use available alternative test methods.

More Information
Why The Music Business Favors Night Owls

While many industries are structured in a way which benefits the early risers among, the music business is one of few populated largely by night owls. Here we look at why the business caters to night dwellers and why can be a scheduling challenge for all of us.

___________________

Guest post by Patrick McGuire of the ReverbNation Blog

It isnt fair for everyone, but most of the world is designed for people who wake up early. Music, however, is a completely different story. Music is rare in the fact that the industry surrounding it is mostly suited for people who stay up late. Besides the service industry, most every other occupation requires its employees to show up at or before 9AM. This means that music can be both a bastien for night owls and a significant challenge for musicians accustomed to sleep schedules that align with more conventional industries.

Why the music industry works late

In the same way that a 3:30 PM time for a meeting is normal for a conventional office job, being asked to take the stage at 12:30 AM is completely typical in music. The music industry has a long history of working late because of its close ties with alcohol and the establishments that serve it. Yes, for most musicians music is a serious artform used sometimes to convey a variety of serious feelings and emotions, but musicespecially live musicis mostly marketed as a tool to help entertain people.

The music industry works late because it caters to people looking to kick back and relax after working at their conventional 9-5 jobs. Live music cant be a dayjob for musicians because aside from weekend and summer festivals, daytime demand for live music just doesnt exist. And live performances arent the only way music favors night owls. With most bands practicing, writing, and recording after work and in their spare time, the culture surrounding music is largely a nighttime affair.

Get unbiased fan feedback on your songwriting, production, and more with brand new Crowd Reviews

Challenges for early birds and night owls alike

The music industrys preference for working late poses challenges for musicians on any sleep schedule. For early risers, a month-long tour consisting of playing multiple times a week and getting to bed every night at 2-3 AM is an obvious challenge. Research shows that a few things can be done to help a person shift their natural sleep schedule, but the unpredictable nature of touring makes this difficult or even downright impossible for some musicians.

A major hurdle for night owls in the music industry is maintaining solid relationships with people outside of music. You might be accustomed to a sleep schedule that has you falling asleep at 4 AM every night, but if your boyfriend has to get up at six, thats not going to be sustainable over the long-term. And if youve got a job outside of music like the vast majority of musicians out there, a late night sleep schedule might negatively impact that source of income. Balancing a life in music with outside needs and obligations isnt easy.

Theres no easy solution here for musicians working in a field as dynamic as music. But as a general rule, musicians who fail to take care of themselves dont make it very long. Learning to be realistic about your physical needs will help you to sustain a career in music over the long-term no matter what your sleep schedule is.

Patrick McGuire is a musician, writer, and educator currently residing in the great city of Philadelphia. He creates music under the name Straight White Teeth, and has a great affinity for dogs and putting his hands in his pockets.

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iciHaiti - Senate : 3 laws passed, 2 proposals and 3 bills introduced in a week





During the first week of April, the senators were not idle, closing the week with 3 laws passed, 2 proposals and 3 bills introduced in a week.



Laws passed :

An Act to recognize and validate prior learning and work experience https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24001-haiti-politic-two-important-bills-passed-in-the-senate.html A bill already passed in the Chamber of Deputies in April https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20575-haiti-news-zapping.html



An act on the reform of the status of the merchantand acts of commerce and organizing the trade registerhttps://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24001-haiti-politic-two-important-bills-passed-in-the-senate.html Download the bill : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/projet-de-loiportant-reforme-du-statut-du-commercant-et-des-actes-de-commerce-et-organisant-le-registre-du-commerce.pdf



Law on the integration of citizenship education in the curriculum of the Haitian school.



Law proposals :

Senators Richard Herve and Lenine Fourcand proposed a bill to regulate the storage, handling, distribution and sale of petroleum products on the national territory;



The Senator and Dieudonne Luma Etienne proposed a bill on the prevention, punishment and elimination of violence against women https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-24003-icihaiti-politic-tabling-of-a-bill-for-the-protection-of-haitian-women.html



Tabling of bills :

In addition, the Senate office noted the tabling of three bills.



Two by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant: One Fixing the General Statute of the Civil Service, and another relating to the organization of the State Administration https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24053-haiti-politic-tabling-of-2-very-important-bills.html



Finally, a 3rd bill tabled by Stephanie Auguste, the acting Minister for Social Affairs and Labor, determining the status, organization and operation of the National Solidarity Fund for the Integration of Disabled Persons.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24053-haiti-politic-tabling-of-2-very-important-bills.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-24003-icihaiti-politic-tabling-of-a-bill-for-the-protection-of-haitian-women.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24001-haiti-politic-two-important-bills-passed-in-the-senate.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20575-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/projet-de-loiportant-reforme-du-statut-du-commercant-et-des-actes-de-commerce-et-organisant-le-registre-du-commerce.pdf



IH/ iciHaiti


















Marking the first visit by a Saudi energy minister to the International Energy Agency, H.E. Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabias Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources met with the Agencys Executive Director, Dr Fatih Birol, at the IEA Headquarters in Paris yesterday, to discuss global oil market developments and IEA-Saudi co-operation.

Dr Birol and Mr. Al-Falihs discussion focused on the state of global oil markets, including the need for investment to meet continued growth in demand and to offset declines from mature fields. Dr Birol noted the importance of Saudi Arabia, the worlds leading oil exporter, with respect to the stability of global markets.

They also discussed how they can expand their cooperation in other areas such as improving energy efficiency, increasing the contribution of solar to the global energy mix and reviewing the role played by nuclear power.
Imperial Valley News Center

What You Need To Know About President Donald J. Trumps Efforts To End Catch And Release

Washington, DC - President Trump directed his Administration to end catch and release and enhance immigration enforcement efforts.

On Friday, the President signed a Memorandum directing his Administration to promptly submit reports laying out what further steps are needed to strengthen immigration enforcement, secure our border, and end catch and release, the dangerous practice whereby aliens who have violated our Nations immigration laws are released into the United States shortly after their apprehension.

Within 45 days, the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, and Health and Human Services will submit a report outlining past and ongoing efforts to end catch and release. Another report will be submitted within 75 days detailing what additional resources or authorities are needed to finally and fully achieve this goal.

President Trump also directed his Administration to submit a report within 60 days laying out all measures currently being pursued to ensure removable aliens are returned to their home countries. This report will include diplomatic measures being pursued against countries that refuse to take back nationals who are being removed from the United States.

WHY: Catch and release has allowed an influx of illegal aliens to enter and remain in the United States and only encourages more and more illegal immigration.

Legal loopholes continue to obstruct immigration enforcement efforts, leading to a significant number of illegal aliens being detained and subsequently released into the interior of the United States. For example, DHS can only detain accompanied minors who enter as part of a family unit for a maximum of 20 days based on a courts interpretation of a consent decree from twenty years ago. Constraints on immigration enforcement also ensure that nearly all family units apprehended at the border are released. Current law entirely prohibits unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who are not from Canada or Mexico from being promptly returned to their home countries. As a result, more than 107,000 UAC have been released into the United States since fiscal year 2016. Finally, despite repeated requests to Congress for more funding, DHS lacks sufficient resources to ensure detention space to meet operational needs.

It is time to empower Federal authorities by providing them with the legal authority and resources they need to effectively enforce our Nations immigration laws. Otherwise, the influx of illegal aliens into the United States will only continue.
Imperial Valley News Center

Man Charged with 24 Additional Offenses Associated with Cyberstalking Former Housemate

Boston, Massachusetts - A Newton, Massachusetts man, who was arrested and charged in October 2017 for conducting an extensive cyberstalking campaign against his former housemate, was charged today in federal court in Boston with an additional 24 offenses.

Ryan S. Lin, 25, was charged with seven counts of cyberstalking, five counts of distribution of child pornography, nine counts of making hoax bomb threats, three counts of computer fraud and abuse and one count of aggravated identity theft.



Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling for the District of Massachusetts, Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw of the FBI Boston Field Office and Waltham Police Chief Keith MacPherson made the announcement today.



The conduct charged in the October 2017 complaint is incorporated into todays charges. Specifically, from about May 2016 through Oct. 5, 2017, Lin engaged in an extensive cyberstalking campaign against a 24-year-old female victim. Lin, the victims former housemate, allegedly hacked into the victims online accounts and devices and stole the victims private photographs, personally identifiable information, and private diary entries, which contained highly sensitive details about her medical, psychological and sexual history, and distributed the victims material to hundreds of people associated with her.



Lin also allegedly created and posted fraudulent online profiles in the victims name and solicited rape fantasies, including gang bang and other sexual activities, which in turn caused men to show up at the victims home. Lin engaged in a number of other activities targeting the female victim, including relentless anonymous text messaging and additional hoaxes, from shortly after he met her until October 2017.



The Information further charges that, in addition to his former housemate, Lin engaged in cyberstalking activity aimed at six additional individuals. Some were associated with the former housemate, and others were entirely unrelated. The additional victims include a female victim that was also Lins housemate in Newton at the time of his arrest. It is also alleged that on multiple occasions, Lin sent sexually explicit images of prepubescent children on an unsolicited basis to the victims mother, the victims co-worker and housemate, a friend of the victim who resided in New Jersey, and two of Lins former classmates in New York.



In addition to the cyberstalking activity, it is alleged that Lin falsely and repeatedly reported to law enforcement that there were bombs at the victims Waltham, Massachusetts residence. Lin also allegedly created a false social media profile in the name of the victims housemate in Waltham and posted that he was going to shoot up a school in a nearby town. These threats expanded beyond Waltham and became part of an extensive and prolonged pattern of threats to local schools, private homes, businesses, and other institutions in the broader community.



The investigation was conducted by the FBIs Boston Field Office and the Waltham Police Department. The Middlesex County District Attorneys Office and Watertown, Newton and Wellesley Police Departments assisted in the investigation. Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Harman Burkart, Chief of Lellings Cybercrime Unit are prosecuting the case.



The details contained in the charging document are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography Depicting Victims in the Philippines

Washington, DC - A Manassas, Virginia man pleaded guilty today to using the Internet to pay women to sexually abuse children as young as six years old in the Philippines while he produced numerous images of the abuse.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick for the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement.



According to court documents, from at least October 2011 until February 2012, Dwayne Stinson, 53, used an electronic payment service to pay women in the Philippines he was chatting with to sexually abuse children while he directed the abuse. He admitted that some of the children were as young as six or seven years old. The defendant contemporaneously produced numerous screenshot images of the abuse and stored them on his computer.



Stinson pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography before U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 24, 2018.



The Prince William County Police Department and Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (NOVA/DC ICAC) assisted in the investigation. CEOS Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV and Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Russell for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.



This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
Acting Secretary Sullivan's Phone Calls With UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson

Washington, DC - Acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan spoke by phone twice today with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. During these calls, the Acting Secretary and Foreign Secretary discussed the alleged chemical weapon attack in Douma, Syria, which killed dozens of innocent civilians and injured several hundred more.

The two leaders discussed the international communitys response and potential further steps the U.S. and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners.
Presidential Elections in Sierra Leone

Washington, DC - The United States congratulates the people of Sierra Leone on its peaceful presidential elections held on March 31. The election proves the strength and resilience of Sierra Leones democracy, and we look forward to working with President Julius Maada Bio to further strengthen our bilateral relationship.

We commend the National Electoral Commission for administering an orderly, well-managed process. We also recognize the important role Sierra Leones political parties and civil society organizations played in the elections. We welcome the statements by international and domestic observer missions affirming the credibility of the election. We would also like to recognize Presidential candidate Samura Kamara for his campaign and his gracious concession, and President Ernest Bai Koroma for his commitment to an orderly and timely political transition.

We look forward to advancing our longstanding mutual interests in economic development, trade, health care, and the strengthening of democratic institutions.
Alia Bhatt plays a valorous Indian Muslim girl in Raazi who risks her life by marrying a Pakistani and moving to the neighboring country to spy for her own. (YouTube screenshot photo)
New Port Richey, Florida police are reopening a 20-year-old cold case involving the slaying of Chandrahas Patel (left), Indian American owner of the Green Key Beach Motel, who was stabbed at the motel on Jan. 12, 1998. The suspect (right) was described at the time as a white male in his early 20s. (Crime Stoppers Tampa Bay photos)
A phone app about Sikh turbans was advertised at the Turban Day celebrations in New York's Times Square April 7, 2018. The California state Assembly is expected to pass a resolution on April 12 recognizing that day as Baisakhi in California, which was proposed by Indian American Assembly member Ash Kalra. (IANS photo)
Kenneth Juster at the World Economic Summit 2003 in New Delhi. Juster, who is the U.S. Ambassador to India, will lead a U.S. delegation to DefExpo2018, Indias premier defense industry trade show. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)
America Must Go To War, Immediately!

Watch Tucker Carlson Destroy The War Propaganda Consumed By A Lazy, Uncaring Nation.

We, as citizens of this sick nation, must not allow these politicians to send our children to die in another needless war. Those who profit from the destruction of our fellows in far off lands and those who work for our military industrial complex, the military and the racist bigots who fuel these flames can not be permitted to savage another million innocent civilians while the their fake tears are wiped away with the trillions of dollars that could be used to feed, clothe and house those people starving around our planet.

We need to go to the streets and shout "No more war, not in my name". I will no longer allow you to kill women and children in our name as you pretend to care for the people of Douma. Should we fail to do so, the last thing we may see in our lives is a mushroom cloud. The choice is ours! Get off your ass and do something! No More excuses.

Posted April 09, 2018 - Reposted April 10th as original video was removed.



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Lady gang raped

A young lady and her family have been left traumatized after she was raped at gun point while her husband and brother were made to watch.

The bitter incident happened at their cocoa farm in Okuni, Ikom Local Government Area on November 6, 2017.

The rapists attacked the cocoa plantation, stole bags of cocoa, beat up the womans husband, then tied him and the womans brother at gun point while the woman was raped by multiple men until she passed out.

A culprit was arrested but was later released on bail without any sanction from the police in Ikom. This angered residents of the community and they decided to take action.

Last week women in Okuni marched to protest the ugly incident and this alerted the Government to respond to the case.

The Governor of Cross River State has directed the Attorney General of Cross River State Bar Abang to immediately prosecute the culprit earlier arrested for raping the woman along side 4 of his friends.

The Honorable Commissioner for Health Cross River State, Dr Inyang Asibong and Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu last Wednesday at Ikom assured the victim and her family that though justice has been delayed, the perpetrators will face the full wrath of law.

Dr Inyang Asibong criticized the police for releasing the culprit and assured everyone that the Cross River State Government will do everything to make sure the culprits are rearrested and made to face the law. She said the State Government will henceforth be responsible for the medical bill of the Lady and push for justice.

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The first set of winners in the Score a Trip to Russia promo by Coca-Cola has been unveiled, and it still feels unreal for them. The winners became lucky just by inputting the codes online on https://torussiawith.coke.com.ng/ and by texting the codes under the Coca-Cola crowns to 5453 as they continued buying and drinking Coke regularly over a period.

One of the winners, Tega Kute, who was super excited could not stop expressing his happiness and appreciation to Coca-Cola. He actually said, My body is here but my Spirit is in Russia already.

On how many times he actually tried before winning, he says, I have been drinking Coke up until the day I won and on that same day I celebrated by drinking even more bottles of Coke. So, keep buying Coke! Keep drinking Coke!! Buy Crates of Coca-Cola just to get the codes and send the code to 5453. Its real!!!

I think Coca-Cola just got an official lifetime brand loyalist.
Daily Times

Boko Haram faction, Islamic State West Africa Provence (ISWAP), has given the reason it released the girls kidnapped from the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State.

Punch

President Muhammadu Buhari briefly stopped activities at the All Progressives Congress National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on Monday when he declared his intention to seek re-election in 2019.

Vanguard

THE Deputy Editor of Daily Post Newspapers, Mr. Wale Odunsi, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, accusing Mr. Edward Onoja, Chief of Staff to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, of threatening to kill him.

Thisday

President Muhammadu Buhari last night arrived in London, the United Kingdom capital, where he is billed to hold discussions with Prime Minister Theresa May on Nigerian  British relations.

The Sun

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described yesterdays declaration of re-election bid by President Muhammadu Buhari as an ambition dead on arrival.

Guardian

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) yesterday confirmed eight new cases of Lassa fever and three deaths in six states, within one week.

Daily Trust

The Senator representing Kogi Central, Ahmed Ogembe, has said that the era when politicians win elections through thuggery is over.

Tribune

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has thrown its weight behind plans by Friends of the Earth Netherlands to take Shell to court if it does not act on demands to stop its destruction of the climate, adding that this will help Niger Delta communities take similar action and save their environment from further pollution.

The Nation

THE Organised Labour has presented fresh demand for the new National Minimum Wage for workers to the tripartite committee, using current economic indices as its yardstick.
Lagos born Nollywood actress Liz Anjorin who marked her birthday some days ago was honoured by an Islamic group headed Lagos-based cleric Shiek Olarenwaju Alufilani.

Her new Islamic title, Borokini Adini was delivered to her in a letter format.

The nollywood actress who converted to Islam in 2013 said she is experiencing true love from her newly found faith than when she was a non-practicing Christian.
A notorious thief has been left with the shock of his life after the wallet he snatched from a traditional healer turned into a deadly snake.

A shocking incident has left people baffled after they watched as a wallet turned into a deadly cobra in the hands of the thief as a result of black magic. The incident happened on Monday morning in Ghana.

Adom Online reports that the 27-year-old thief identified as Mdu had snatched a wallet from an alleged Sangomas pocket (Sangoma is a traditional healer), but shock and surprise took over peoples faces as the wallet turned to a cobra as he tried to open it.

An eye witness revealed that Mdu tracked the alleged Sangoma who was about to board a taxi and confessed that he stole his wallet and wanted to return it.

He stole a wallet from an old lad, people around are just saying the old man is a Sangoma but no one knows the man around. When he snatched the wallet he went behind that billboard thats when the wallet turned into a snake.

Now he tracked the man and found him but the problem is the old fellow is denying his wallet, he even produced a pouch like wallet as proof to show that the snake wallet wasnt his.

The snake is not biting him but its stuck in his hands he failed to throw it way, this is first grade black magic.

The police just come after a commotion but they ignored the case, I am not sure what he is thinking right now but if the owner denies the wallet they will have to visit a popular local sangoma to cast out the spell, he said.

A police officer who was at the scene, revealed that they cant do anything about it but have only called the Parks and Wildlife management department.
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Vancouver, British Columbia - April 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) SilverCrest Metals Inc. (TSXV: SIL.V; OTCQX: SVCMF) ("SilverCrest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its first set of Phase III drill results for the Las Chispas Property (the "Property") located in Sonora, Mexico. Step out drilling of the Babicanora Vein, including Area 51, continues to intersect highgrade mineralization (see attached Figures). There are now 23 identified epithermal veins on the Property (previously reported as 19 veins). Of the 23 veins, the Company has only drilled tested nine of these veins, which are the Babicanora, Babicanora Footwall, Las Chispas, Giovanni, La Blanquita, William Tell, Varela, Granaditas and Amethyst veins. Only five of these nine drilled tested veins have been included in the recently announced maiden resources (refer to the Company's news release dated February 26, 2018).

N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng, and CEO, remarked, "Our initial Phase III drill holes in the Babicanora Vein continue to intercept high grade precious metal mineralization along a drilltested strike length of 1.5 kilometres. The drill results from the southeast extension of the Babicanora Vein, known as Area 51, show further bonanza grades1, with increased size of the highgrade footprint. For H1 2018, we will continue expansion drilling of the Babicanora Vein, initial holes into Babi Sur Vein, and additional holes into the Las Chispas, Amethyst, Granaditas and other veins. We are systematically drilling only step out expansion holes and working towards an updated resource for Q3 2018."

The most significant result for this release was returned from Hole BA1881, which intersected 4.0 metres (true width) grading

22.83 grams per tonne ("gpt") gold and 1,718.8 gpt silver or 3,341 gpt silver equivalent ("AgEq", based on 75 (Ag):1 (Au) and 100% metallurgical recovery). Also noteworthy is Hole BA1877 at 4.5 metres grading 7.96 gpt gold and 912.0 gpt silver, or 1,509 gpt AgEq. The following table summarizes the most significant drill intercepts (uncut, undiluted) for this release:

Note:

all numbers are rounded.

* AgEq based on 75 (Ag):1 (Au) and 100% metallurgical recovery.

1 The Company defines bonanza grades as grades greater than 1,000 gpt AgEq

All assays were completed by ALS Chemex in Hermosillo, Mexico, and North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Drill holes BA1866, 67, 69, 71, 73, 76, 78, 79, and 80 intercepted anomalous mineralization, but are below the Company's 150 gpt AgEq cutoff. Holes BA1868, 70, 77, and 81 intercepted grades greater than 1,000 gpt AgEq, consisting of acanthite, argentite, electrum, native silver and visible gold. Holes BA1866, 67, and 68 were included in the Company's maiden resource estimate dated February 26, 2018. Hole BA1875 deviated and did not intercept intended target. Holes BA1867, 71, 73 and 79 showed elevated lead, zinc and copper (including precious metals) with possible transition to increased base metals to depth and southeast along the strike of the Babicanora Vein. Further core review, sampling and assaying is underway on holes southeast and to depth of Area 51 to determine boundaries for potential base metal transition. Results for this review are pending. Drill success rate for the Babicanora Vein to date is approximately 70% of intercepts in the highgrade footprint.

The Babicanora Vein highgrade footprint measures approximately 1,500 metres long by 180 metres high by 3.1 metres in average true width. Further drilling is ongoing with six surface drills and one underground drill. Area 51 now measures approximately 500 metres long by 200 metres high by 3.0 metres in average true width. To date, a total of 20 holes have now intersected the highgrade footprint of Area 51 with an average estimated grade of 10.37 gpt gold and 943.7 gpt silver, or 1,721 gpt AgEq (uncut, undiluted).

The Company commenced Phase III exploration program for further stepout drilling at the Babicanora Vein, including Area 51, and initial drilling on several other veins in the district. An additional 15,000 to 20,000 metres of drilling are planned by Q3 2018. Other ongoing site work includes continued underground mapping and sampling on the Las Chispas Vein, drilling test wells for site water, permitting work, and a review of the maiden resource model for optimization and update.

The Company's maiden resource report for the estimate announced on February 26, 2018 will be filed on SEDAR later this week.

The Qualified Person under National Instrument 43101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for this news release is N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng, and CEO for SilverCrest, who has reviewed and approved its contents.

ABOUT SilverCrest Metals INC.

SilverCrest is a Canadian precious metals exploration company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, that is focused on new discoveries, valueadded acquisitions and targeting production in Mexico's historic precious metal districts. The Company's current focus is on the highgrade, historic Las Chispas mining district in Sonora, Mexico. SilverCrest is the first company to successfully drilltest the historic Las Chispas Project resulting in numerous discoveries. The Company is led by a proven management team in all aspects of the precious metal mining sector, including taking projects through discovery, finance, on time and on budget construction, and production.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains "forwardlooking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. These include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company's exploration, rehabilitation and drilling programs of the Las Chispas Property, including drilling test water wells, permitting for various work, and optimizing and updating the Company's resource model; information with respect to high grade areas and size of veins projected from underground sampling results and drilling results; and the accessibility of future mining at the Las Chispas Property. Such forwardlooking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: the conditions in general economic and financial markets; availability of skilled labour; timing and amount of expenditures related to rehabilitation and drilling programs; and effects of regulation by governmental agencies. The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forwardlooking statements as a result of risk factors including: the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities; the interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; and general market and industry conditions. Forwardlooking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forwardlooking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forwardlooking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.

N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng

Chief Executive Officer

SilverCrest Metals Inc.

For Further Information:

SilverCrest Metals Inc.

Contact: Fred Cooper, Investor Relations

Telephone: +1 (604) 694-1730

Fax: +1 (604) 357-1313

Toll Free: 1-866-691-1730 (Canada & USA)

Email: info@silvercrestmetals.com

Website: www.silvercrestmetals.com

570 Granville Street, Suite 501

Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3P1

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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 investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact each company directly regarding content and press release questions. 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. More disclaimer info: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp. Disclosure: Investorideas.com is compensated by SilverCrest Metals Inc for annual news publishing effective January 2017.

Additional info regarding BC Residents and global Investors: Effective September 15 2008 - all BC investors should review all OTC and Pink sheet listed companies for adherence in new disclosure filings and filing appropriate documents with Sedar. Read for more info: http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894. Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - April 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc. (CSE:AKE) (XFRA:A49) (OTCPINK:ATLEF) (the "Company" or "Atlas Cloud"), an experienced IT service provider focused on becoming the lowest cost producer in the blockchain and digital currency mining sector, is pleased to advise that facility upgrades at its Washington State Grant County Data Center are advancing as scheduled.

As previously reported, Atlas Cloud's five-megawatt (5.0 MW) Grant County Data Centre is undergoing renovations to become a dedicated Bitcoin mining facility. The Company is fully funded to complete its facility refit and has engaged an electrical engineering firm. Major distribution components have been sourced, and the utility company will provide a transformer suited to the proposed needs of the facility. At this time, electrical and mechanical contractors are onsite, and the project is proceeding as planned with anticipated completion scheduled for Q2/18.

Upon completion of the facility upgrade, the Grant County Data Center is expected to commence operations utilizing 80% of the currently dedicated 3.0 MW of available power with a potential to host up to 1,700 ASIC S9 Antminer machines. A second phase infrastructure upgrade (an additional 2.0 MW) is planned for completion in 2019. Leveraging its proximity to Washington State's Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, the Company benefits from electrical provisioning rates at approximately $0.03/kWh, one of the most cost-effective commercial rates in the world. With a target capacity of 5.0 MW at the current electrical provisioning rates, Atlas Cloud aims to position itself as a top performer in the cryptocurrency mining sector.

"Outright ownership of the Grant County Data Centre provides Atlas Cloud competitive differentiators in the cryptocurrency mining sector including reduced and more predictable overhead costs, and the ability to undertake technical and related facility upgrades free from interference, unnecessary cost or complications from 3rd party property owners or leaseholders," Fred Stearman, Atlas Cloud's CEO notes. "The Company is employing innovative designs throughout the current modernization effort with plans for enhanced energy efficiency through electrical load balancing automation, high volume ventilation, and software-based switching systems designed to reactively manage mining operations between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash depending upon gross mining profitability. These and other concepts are being positioned for future implementation to create a reproduceable model of efficiency, productivity and profitability as part of our long-term strategic planning."

In the interim, Atlas Cloud continues installation activities at an industry-partner operated co-location hosting facility to commence immediate near-term mining operations. At the partner operation, the previously announced $2.38 million USD order of ASIC S9 miners are operational and have a computing capacity of 13.5 petahashes per second (PH/s) with a mining capacity of approximately 1.01 BTC/per day, based on current parameters.

The development of the Company's business to digital currency mining has been deemed a fundamental change under the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. As a result, the Company's expansion of its business remains subject to the approval of the Company shareholders and the Exchange.

About Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc.

Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc. is a growth oriented, CSE-listed company focusing on the business of providing co-location and backup/redundancy IT, telecom equipment and cloud computing. Atlas Cloud will provide customers with secure power access, cooling and bandwidth to ensure co-located, back-up or Cloud systems offer minimum risk of failure. Furthermore, Atlas is focused on the blockchain sector and digital currency mining. Atlas Cloud aims to become the lowest-cost producer of digital currency mining and blockchain infrastructure. Atlas Cloud owns a facility currently undergoing preparations for use as a digital currency mining operation located in Electric City, WA. This location currently benefits from a dedicated low-cost energy source of 3.0 MW and the Company is seeking to significantly expand its operations with the development of additional facilities offering economical, high-yield energy infrastructure opportunities.

More Info:

This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders

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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Vancouver, British Columbia - April 10, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) ("PEMC" or the "Company"), a hybrid prospect generator focused in British Columbia, is pleased to announce that partner-funded diamond drilling has recommenced on the Stars copper property (the "Property" or "Stars") in central British Columbia.

"Having multiple ongoing drill programs has always been an objective for us," commented Brad Peters, President and CEO of PEMC. "We are pleased to see our partner commencing a second round of diamond drilling following positive results from the initial diamond drilling campaign and information gathered from an airborne magnetic survey."

The current drilling program intends to test magnetic targets within the recently identified (approximately 1 km in diameter) Central Area and expand the newly discovered Zone 4 where ML Gold Corp.'s (TSXV: MLG) ("ML Gold") recent drill hole DD18SS04 intersected 204 metres at 0.5% copper equivalent from surface (see ML Gold news release dated Feb 28, 2018).

Figure 1: 2018 Partner-Funded Diamond Drilling and Airborne Magnetics at the Stars Copper Property

Current Drilling Targets at the Stars Property

Central Area - a broad (approximately one-kilometre diameter) newly identified circular magnetic low area with several inlying circular magnetic high anomalies. The Central Area is interpreted as a hydrothermal cell associated with a porphyry system and has the potential to host the core of said system.

Zone 4 - a newly discovered zone identified on the margin of the main intrusion where mineralization has been identified in both the volcanic and intrusive rocks. Zone 4 shows significant similarities to the mineralization style and setting of the Huckleberry mine 60-kilometres to the south, where the primary ore body is located marginal to and not within the intrusion.

ML Gold's current drilling will be collared from existing areas of disturbance aimed to test new areas while it awaits the near-term granting of permits for new drill sites allowing for greater step-out drilling locations.

Additional information on the Company and its projects can be found on SEDAR at (www.sedar.com), and on the Company's website at www.pemcorp.ca. You may also email info@pemcorp.ca or call Investor Relations at (604) 356-6246.

Qualified Person

Rory Ritchie, P.Geo., is the Company's qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release, approving the disclosure herein. Mr. Ritchie is not independent of the Company as he is a consultant to the Company, a shareholder and holds incentive stock options.

About Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.

PEMC is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that employs a "hybrid prospect generator" business model and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC. The Company's strong portfolio of projects is a result of continuous generative work conducted since the Company's inception in 2012.

By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost RC drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying, and focusing on, the highest quality projects for partnerships and advancement.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Brad Peters"

President and Chief Executive Officer

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.

Tel: +1-604-356-6246

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

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about the planned exploration of the Ashley Gold mine, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

More Info:

This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders

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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Moore and Daly tied the knot during the summer of 2017 in a secret getaway wedding in St. Lucia.





What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments below!





Photo Credit: Bravo

Kenya Moore confirms she is expecting her first child with husband Marc Daly. Kenya shared the news during Part 1 of theSeason 10 reunion. We will definitely be welcoming a boy or girl in late this year, Moore said during the reunion episode.She continued: Oh my God, I said that! I dont want to talk about the details because Im still very nervous about everything so I want to get past a safe place.When Andy asked if Kenya wants to have a boy or a girl, she replied, I want a healthy baby.Following the reunion, Moore headed to Twitter to share her gratitude over the well-wishes she received from her co-stars.So sweet of the girls to be so happy for me, wrote Moore on Sunday night. So blessed.Moore also responded to fans comments and questions on Twitter, Sunday, writing to one who tweeted, Kenya never really said she was preggers, but that they will be welcoming a baby at the end of the year, soooooo do they have a surrogate?No surrogate but maybe my next one, tweeted Moore in response.She also responded to a user who addressed critiques of Moores marriage to Daly. Nothing is in a rule book. We are well loved and supported by our families.Added Moore, People always looking to judge or criticize.Back in November, Moore was spotted entering an IVF treatment facility in Barbados. Moore has been vocal about wanting to have children with her husband Marc Daly. We both want to start a family and soon  like right away, she toldover the summer. We both want a child.
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Civil Ledmen / Charge Hand Job in Saudi Arabia

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I am happy to own up to a long held admiration for Mr. Michael Fumento, a Right-wing writer always ready, willing and able to take on vested interests and movements of mass hysteria. I first came across him when, alone and, er, 'un-aided', he took on the frantic, hysterical ranks of the AIDS movement which, in a desperate attempt to shift the blame for HIV AIDS off the backs of rampant homosexuals, druggie needle-users and prostitutes and spread it onto the behaviour of normal heterosexuals. He wrote a book - a brave book given the climate at the time - pointing out that the main cause of HIV AIDS was the constant, repetitive insertion by some, mainly metropolitan, homosexuals of their unprotected penises into the backsides of other homosexual men! People who pursued their sexual desires in a more normal manner were exceedingly unlikely ever to catch AIDS. Cue a veritable firestorm of protest from the usual suspects but Fumento was right and they were wrong!

Anyway, I have just picked up from the news that for reasons unknown, Mr. Fumento has been suddenly slammed into jail in Colombia without, so far, any charges being laid. According to reports, life expectancy in a Colombian jail, particularly for an American, is, shall we say, short! I know you have other matters on your mind, Mr. President, but perhaps you could manage a 'twitter', or better still, pick up the 'phone to whichever crook is running Colombia today!

In checking my blog's memory banks, I came across this post from November 2007 which was my first mention of Mr. Fumento with whom previously I had swapped some e-mails:

Oh, the sweet joy of being right!



If you live long enough, and if you are as intelligent, wise and knowledgeable as me - stop giggling, 'Teabag'! ['Larry Teabag' was a young Leftie who sniped at me regularly] - you will eventually find yourself proved right and a bunch of con-artists and mugs proved wrong. Was it the 1980s or the 1970s that AIDs first appeared? I can't remember exactly but it was certainly a hell of a long time ago. Do you remember the scare stories, the 'Great & the Good' telling us all never on any account to dip our wicks without at least two condoms and a woolly sock for protection? And do you remember how they howled their outrage at the merest hint that it was only druggies, poofters and prostitutes who were at real risk, despite the excellent Michael Fumento writing a book at the time which comprehensively showed that, apart from the constant needle use of drug addicts, it was abrasions to the anal passage, and to vaginal linings, of mostly prostitutes, which were subject to wear and tear, that were the means by which the infection was passed? And do you remember the zillions and trillions of dosh that disappeared down the greedy gullets of UN so-called scientists who kept forecasting the end of the world? And were you one of the mugs who contributed to their enrichment? And do you ever dwell on the thought of, say, how many African villages and South American shanty towns could have been provided with fresh water for the same money and thus saved the lives of too many children to count - and still have change left over? Well, if you did, and you didn't, then you should!



Today, it was announced that the UN, at last, has had to revise its estimates of AIDs drastically downwards. For example, in India they reckoned there were 6m sufferers, that has now been halved - and my guess is they could halve it again and they would still be over!

Apparently, only a year ago some conman, oops, sorry, some cove called M. Peter Piot, a Belgian scientist(!) and boss of the UN AIDs agency since its inception in 1995, warned that the AIDs "pandemic and its toll are outstripping the worst predictions". Can we look forward to M. Piot's resignation on the grounds of either gross mendacity or gross incompetence? Don't hold your breath!



One prize prune pulled this plum from the pudding that constitutes his brain: "Daniel Halperin, an AIDs expert(!) at the Harvard School of Public Health, said Governments face a dilemma. "On the one hand, it would be a mistake to radically decrease funding for HIV. But on the other hand, why not put more money into family planning or climate change?" That's the sort of decisive, clear thinking one would expect from Harvard/Yale/Oxbridge, take your pick! Climate change, so dear to the hearts and wallets of yet another bunch of alarmists with an eye on relieving you of your hard-earned money whilst promising to save you from Armageddon. Their great-grandfathers sold snake oil!



A quick prayer to the Intelligent Designer, or Incompetent DIY-Man: Please, please, please, let me live long enough to see the HAFs (Hot Air Fanatics) similarly shown up.
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Louisville Metro Police Department(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- Two Louisville police officers shot and killed a homeless man after he lunged at them with a screwdriver, according to body camera footage released Monday.



The officers were responding to a disorderly conduct call on Sunday evening when they encountered 45-year-old Russell Bowman, who they said became confrontational and told them to shoot him, the Louisville Metro Police Department said Monday.



Officers Devin Dawes and Matthew Aden, who joined the department in 2015, fired their weapons in self-defense, the department said.



In this situation you will see from the video that two of the officers, or actually three of the officers Tased the individual, prior to the shooting, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad said during a press conference. Unfortunately they were not effective, which resulted in the officers having to resort to the use of deadly force.



Body camera footage from the scene shows Bowman pacing with the screwdriver in his right hand as the officers yell for him to drop it.



Just drop it, were not trying to hurt you, one officer yells, while other officers deployed their Tasers unsuccessfully.



"It ain't working," Bowman screams, before charging toward one of the officers. Aden and Dawes immediately opened fire.



Conrad did not take any questions after the press conference, but he did reiterate the departments use of deadly force policy.



Police work is a dangerous job that often requires difficult split-second decisions that others will judge and scrutinize for a lifetime, Conrad said. We hope that we never have to fire our weapons, but when were forced to do so, we understand and accept the high level of public scrutiny that will result from those actions.



He said the department is investigating the shooting.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
At what stage is the visa liberalization? - Mane Tandilyan

Yelk (Way out) faction member Mane Tandilyan asked Deputy Foreign Minister Karen Nazaryan about EU's agreement with Azerbaijan: "Will the same rhetoric and emphasis be maintained with Azerbaijan, too? Also, I want to know the stage of visa liberalization issue and when can we expect results? " Karen Nazaryan noted that those discussions are being held in closed regime and its content is not informed, as it can jeopardize public interest. "Maintaining a unified position is also important for maintaining a peaceful solution to the conflict," said Karen Nazaryan and noted that he hopes that the EU will maintain its principle approach and it will provide an action plan that will have a reform process for the visa liberalization. "We have already made a number of legislative initiatives. We have taken all the necessary steps for the launch of the ratification of the agreement, and we believe the EU will appreciate it."
[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Texas [advocacy websites] and Arnold & Porter filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] Sunday in federal district court challenging the Galveston County Jails policy of releasing those arrested for felonies and misdemeanors who can afford to pay the cash bail and detaining those who cannot.

According to the complaint, [t]he County sets these payment amounts without any meaningful hearing.

The plaintiff, Aaron Booth, is currently detained in the Galveston County Jail because he is unable to pay his bail. The complaint alleges that Booth had no attorney when the bail was set, he was not asked if he could afford bail and he had no chance to explain his inability to pay.

The ACLU of Texas said [press release] that the bail setting was arbitrary. Trisha Trigilio, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said, [a] system that requires people to buy their freedom is not a system interested in dispensing justice. She went on to say, [r]ich or poor, everyone should have a meaningful chance for a judge to hear them out before they are locked in a jail cellbut thats not whats happening in Galveston County.
International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Monday filed a motion [PDF] with the president of the Courts Pre-Trial Division seeking a ruling on whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, which Bensouda contends is actionable under Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute [text].

Noting that 670,000 Rohingya lawfully present in Myanmar have been intentionally deported across the border to Bangladesh since August 2017, Bensoudas office argued that the Court has the necessary jurisdiction under Article 12(2)(a) of the statute because an essential legal element of the crimecrossing an international borderoccurred on the territory of a State which is a party to the Rome Statute (Bangladesh).

Bensouda further highlighted the characterization of the situation by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee [official profiles] as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing potentially bearing the hallmarks of a genocide.

Article 7(1) of the statute defines crime against humanity as including, among other things, 1) murder; 2) torture; 3) enforced disappearance; 4) rape, sexual slavery, and enforced prostitution; 5) persecution against any identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, and/or gender grounds; 6) extermination; and 7) deportation or forcible transfer of population.

Much discussion in the motion focused on the distinction between deportation, which involves a cross-border element, and forcible displacement within a nations borders. The motion notes that such a distinction is vital to the issue of jurisdiction because [w]hile both safeguard the right of individuals to live in their communities and homes, deportation also protects a further set of important rights: the right of individuals to live in the particular State in which they were lawfully present.

Emphasizing the broad scope of Article 19(3) empowering the prosecutor to seek a ruling from the Court regarding a question of jurisdiction or admissibility, Bensouda stated:

The Prosecution is mindful that this is the first occasion on which it has sought a ruling under article 19(3). This course of action is justified by the exceptional circumstances at hand and it has been decided by the Prosecutor based on the discretion and independence vested in her by article 42 of the Statute.  In the particular circumstances of this situation, and considering the unique nature of the issue in question, the Prosecutor therefore considers it appropriate to seek an article 19(3) ruling.

The motion was submitted to Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua [official profile] who is now expected to assign it to a Pre-Trial Chamber based on a pre-established roster, unless its subject matter falls outside the competence of the Pre-Trial Chamber or is manifestly frivolous.'
The Belfast City Council [official website] voted on Monday to decriminalize abortion upon requests from Amnesty International, Family Planning Association and Both Lives Matter [advocacy websites].

The council passed [BelfastLive report] the motion with a 34-15 vote and five abstentions. Councillor Kate Nicholl proposed [meeting webcast] the motion, and Councillor Mary Ellen Campbell joined, in response to growing numbers of women avoiding professional medical care for abortions. Under Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 [text], healthcare professionals have a duty to report instances of abortions. The fear of facing prosecution deters many women from seeking care for abortion complications. The result is that many women buy abortion pills online.

A case is set for judicial review later this month, concerning a mothers prosecution for buying her daughter abortion pills after the daughter was raped. The court granted judicial review [Guardian report] to determine whether prosecution for abortion under 1861 Offences Against the Person Act violated the daughter and mothers human rights.

The proposed motion [text, PDF] stated in-part:

[T]he Council believes that abortion should be regulated like any other medical care and not by criminal law, while still enabling incidents of malpractice to be addressed, as with any other health service, through the general criminal law or medical disciplinary procedures  A woman who has an abortion is not a criminal, nor are healthcare professionals who care for them, and the law should not treat them as such.

Northern Ireland has recently faced criticism for having the harshest abortion laws in the UK. In February the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) stated [press release] that women and girls in Northern Ireland are faced with systematic violations of their rights because the UK is forcing them to either carry their pregnancy to term or travel outside of the country to have a legal abortion [JURIST report]. The government issued a response [statement, PDF] to the recommendations stating that the Committees findings and recommendations which focus on changes to the criminal law on abortion cannot be addressed in the absence of a legislature with authority to legislate on such matters in Northern Ireland.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam [official website] on Monday vetoed [press release] Virginia House Bill 1257 [text], which would have banned so-called sanctuary cities.

The bill would have prohibited cities and municipalities from implementing any policy that restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The governor stated that the bill would have sent a chilling message to communities across Virginia that could have negative impacts on public safety.

The governor also explained that many localities have found it better to develop a relationship with immigrant communities for the good of overall public safety. Northam believed the bill would cause people to fear law enforcement and not participate in policing their communities by assisting law enforcement in investigations or reporting criminal activity.

The General Assembly will have a chance to override the veto later in April, but the Washington Post reports[WP report] that this is not likely to occur as the bill passed through both the House and Senate by a narrow margin.
The 7th meeting of the organizers of the Qoms Cultural Week in Lebanon was held on Sunday, April 8th, with the presence of Dr. Khameyar, Deputy Director of Culture and Communication Organization, in Qom Governerate.

According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency  ABNA the 7th meeting of the organizers of the Qoms Cultural Week in Lebanon was held on Sunday, April 8th, with the presence of Dr. Khameyar, Deputy Director of Culture and Communication Organization, in Qom Governerate.



in terms of propaganda, we are facing difficulties due to huge and lie-spreading propaganda of the enemies in the region. Fortunately, our capabilities are so great, unique, and astonishing and there is fertile ground for us to carry out cultural, literary, economic, and artistic plans all over the world., Dr. Khameyar said.



the capacities are huge but we have to be able to make use of them in different countries if we be able to manage them, he added.



Speaking on the glory of Islamic Republic in the world he said, an anchor on an Arabic TV program has recently said that the Arab regimes in the region spent billions of dollars to make Sadam rise against Islamic Republic, and in the end Iran won the whole Iraq. They spend a lot in Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah but in the end Iran won the whole Lebanon.



They did everything they could in the U.S and Iran won Europe. You comprise 5 perecent of the world population. However, 60% of immigrants are Arabs and you import 50% of the worlds weapons, fight each other and only pray for elimination of Israel. Alas, victory belongs to those who employ wisdom and reason.



Speaking on political conditions in Lebanon, Khameyar Said, once only Hezbollah was with us. Today it is the whole Lebanon. The foolishness of our enemies led to this. In the event of Saad Hariris arrest, Saudis paid a huge price and lost most of their Sunni allies in the region, while the unity among the Shiite muslims in Lebanon strengthened.



Speaing on the week-long event in Lebanon he said, when Mr. Shariatmadar, Irans Cultural Advisor in Lebanon, brought up the idea of this event we accepted the idea wholeheartedly and have done our best to hold this event in the best way possible. There ae 3 important factors regarding the event. First, security. Second, the political devolopments in Lebanon which is beyond our control. And third, we ourselves and the Islamic Republic. Lebanon is particulary different and many things may develop in short time. In and event such as this there has to be total cooperation among authorities and governments of the two countries.



Lebanese authorities efforts in different levels is excellent. They consider all aspects and make the most precise decisions. Hezbollah considers the event trans-regional, apolitical and not limited to Shia Islam. We had to choose a city and since Nabtieh is a religious city in southern Lebanon we chose it to represent Qom., he continued.



Speaking on why the event has been postponed to another time he said, everything had been prepared and taken care of, including the permissions. We have a great cooperation with Lebanese authorities on higher levels. We knew that there was going to be an election in Lebanon and everyone believed that the election will not have any interference with the Cultural event. However, some elements outside of Lebanon seek to sow the seeds of disagreement, sedition, and division. They have spent a lot of money on this too. Considering the current conditions, we decided to postpone the event to another time so that it will not be harmed and targeted by ill-wishers. We held meetings and discussions and in the end we decided to postpone the event to May 9th, 3 days after the election in Lebanon. We hope to be able to represent Qom as it is and display its real status.



In the end, Dr. Khameyar said, we should not consider this event as a one-time event. This has to be considered as the first step towards greater programs in future, in different cities and even countries.





................................

End /257- 276
Addressing a gathering of air defense forces in Tehran on Monday, Brigadier General Esmaili shrugged off recent reports claiming that two F-35 fighter jets of Israel flew over Syria and Iraq and reached the Iranian airspace.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Commander of Irans Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili dismissed as nonsense recent claims that two Israeli aircraft had entered the Iranian airspace, saying the claims did not merit a response.



Addressing a gathering of air defense forces in Tehran on Monday, Brigadier General Esmaili shrugged off recent reports claiming that two F-35 fighter jets of Israel flew over Syria and Iraq and reached the Iranian airspace.



In the past days, some nonsense was heard from the enemys media outlets about the flights of (Israeli) airplanes over the country that did not merit a response, he noted.



However, if any country does a foolish move and its airplane nears (the Iranian airspace), definitely, the air defense, which is the first front line, will give a crushing response, the commander added.



He went on to say that such nonsense claims have no place but in the evil and delusional media outlets.



The Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Jarida, widely believed to be an outlet used by Israel to send messages to the Arab world, reported on March 29, Two (Israeli) Aidr stealth jets flew undetected over Syria and Iraq and snuck into Iranian airspace, flying reconnaissance missions over the Iranian cities Bandar Abbas, Esfahan, and Shiraz.



Citing an informed source, Al-Jarida maintained, The two jets went undetected by radar, including by the Russian radar system located in Syria.



An unnamed source affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry has denied the report. Iraq's Defense Ministry also denied Israel's jets had violated its airspace.







/257
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on a family that disappeared on road trip in Northern California (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

Authorities are planning a search of a rain-swollen river where a vehicle reportedly fell in last week in the same region of Northern California where a family vanished during a road trip.

Mendocino County sheriff's Lt. Shannon Barney tells The Press-Democrat newspaper that officials will launch a search of the south fork of the Eel River once water levels drop and the flow slows.

Witnesses reported a newer-model maroon vehicle went into the river about 1 p.m. Friday during stormy weather. The vehicle was southbound on U.S. 101, pulled into a turnout and went over the side and into the river.

San Jose police say four members of the Thottapilly family have been missing since last week while on a road trip from Portland, Oregon, to their home in Santa Clarita, California. A relative who had been expecting them in San Jose on Friday reported them missing on Sunday.

A "missing" poster on Facebook identifies the family members as 42-year-old Sandeep, 38-year-old Soumya, 12-year-old Siddhanty and 9-year-old Saachi. Their car is a maroon or burgundy 2016 Honda Pilot with license plates 7MMX138.

The poster says their last known location was the "Klamath-Redwood National Park area."

___

11:46 a.m.

Authorities say a family of four has been missing since last week while on a road trip from Portland, Oregon, to their home in Santa Clarita, California.

San Jose police said Tuesday a relative called on April 8 to report the Thottapilly family missing.

Police say the family was expected at a relative's home in San Jose on April 6 but did not arrive, and hasn't been heard from since April 5.

A "missing" poster on Facebook identifies the family members as 42-year-old Sandeep, 38-year-old Soumya, 12-year-old Siddhanty and 9-year-old Saachi. Their car is a maroon or burgundy 2016 Honda Pilot with license plates 7MMX138.

The poster says their last known location was the "Klamath-Redwood National Park area."

Heavy rain fell on that northwestern California region last week.
MEDFORD, Ore.  Approximately 100 nurses held an informational picket outside Providence Medford Medical Center this morning.

Nurses, represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, were on the sidewalk from 7 am - 9 a.m., and plan to picket from 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. as well.

A press release issued yesterday by Kevin Mealy, ONA Communications Manager, indicated that local nurses are asking Providences administrators to take steps to agree on a new, fair contract agreement for nurses that will reduce staff turnover, end unpredictable scheduling, and provide appropriate backup for nurses during 12-hour shifts.

Providences Lisa Helderop, Senior Manager of Communication for Oregon, said We have been in negotiations for some time and as recently as yesterday.

Tomi Ryba, chief executive of Providence's Southern Oregon Service Area, issued the following statement this morning:

Providence is committed to ensuring that caregivers rights related to labor organizing are respected, honored and upheld. Providence has a long history of working together with unions that caregivers have chosen to represent them.

Providence supports open communication. Caregivers can always talk with each other, any core leader or an HR representative about questions or concerns. We are committed to open and honest communication and will answer questions so people can make their own informed decisions. Providence does not question caregivers about their position related to the union, and we are always mindful of our core value of respect.

Providence does not negotiate in the media. We negotiate with the union that represents our nurses  Oregon Nurses Association. The two sides have been meeting since November and agreed to bring in a federal mediator in March. We have had numerous conversations and were talking as recently as last night.

We care deeply about our caregivers and believe we will come to an agreement with the union that represents them.

According to the ONA press release, More than 600 community members have already signed a petition asking Providences administrators to reach a fair agreement with local nurses to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high-quality health care.

The post will be updated throughout the day, and well have segments in our broadcasts at 11 a.m., and 4, 5 and 6 p.m.
FILE - In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016, file photo, conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham speaks during the third day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Ingraham returned to Fox News Channel, Monday, April 9, 2018, with a passionate speech about what she called "Stalinist" liberal bullies attempting to stifle the free speech of conservatives. Several advertisers have dropped her program after she tweeted about a Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor supposedly whining about colleges he didn't get accepted into. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
Justice Minister Mark Furey fields question as he holds a bill briefing on the Cannabis Control Act in Halifax on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. Nova Scotia legislation governing legalized cannabis is moving ahead despite calls for strengthening provisions that govern where it can be smoked in public by several heath groups. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Jacques John Grenier heads from his sentencing hearing at provincial court in Halifax on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Grenier, a Nova Scotia sailboat captain, has pleaded guilty to two drug charges after 250 kilograms of cocaine was found hidden in his vessel in September 2017. The sentencing was put over until April 19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Vice-Admiral Mark Norman arrives for his first appearance at his trial for breach of trust, at the courthouse in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Former prime minister Stephen Harper speaks at the 2017 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, Sunday, March 26, 2017. Harper has publicly offered his congratulations to the controversial Hungarian political leader, Viktor Orban, for winning re-election as Hungary's prime minister Monday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ AP/Jose Luis Magana
In this March 2, 2017 photo, Moderator Jamie Allman, host of Allman in the Morning, sits at a City of St. Louis Mayoral Debate filmed at Vue 17, in Richmond Heights, Mo. The conservative commentator who tweeted that he would use "a hot poker" to sexually assault a survivor of a Florida high school shooting resigned from KDNL-TV, a St. Louis TV station. (Cristina M. Fletes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
An aide to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg closes a binder of notes left on the table as Zuckerberg takes a short break from testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bus carrying civilians who were released by the Army of Islam group that were held them since 2013, in Damascus, Syria, early Monday, April 9, 2018. Syrian state media is reporting that dozens of civilians who had been held for years by a rebel group near the capital Damascus have been freed. (SANA via AP)
The building in New York where Michael Cohen, who is President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has his office, is photographed in New York, Monday, April 9, 2018. Federal agents raided the office of Cohen, seizing records on topics including a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his opening speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao in south China's Hainan province, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Xi promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiraling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (Li Xueren/Xinhua via AP)
Dr Christine Blanshard, Medical Director, and Lorna Wilkinson, director of nursing, left, make a statement outside the District Hospital in Salisbury, England, Tuesday April 10, 2018, giving an update on the condition of nerve agent poison victims Yulia and Sergei Skripal. Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital Tuesday, "This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," said Dr. Christine Blanshard, and her Russian father former double agent Sergei Skripal remains in hospital. (Ben Mitchell/PA via AP)
A Customs and Border Patrol agent patrols the international border Tuesday, April 10, 2018 near Nogales, Ariz. The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he's called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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BELMOND, Iowa  A Waterloo man is charged with burglary after a standoff in Wright County.

Andrew Schroeder, 36, was arrested Saturday after authorities responded to an incident at a rural home east of Belmond. The property owner told the Wright County Sheriffs Office that Schroeder was in the home without permission. Schroeder is on federal probation and the Sheriffs Office was told he may have had access to weapons inside the home.

Law enforcement found the home locked and says they made many unsuccessful attempts to contact Schroder by phone and through their PA system. The North Iowa Special Operations Group entered the home around 7 pm Saturday and arrested Schroeder without incident.

He is being held in the Wright County Jail on $10,000 cash only bond. He is facing one count of 3rd degree robbery.

The Belmond Police Department, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Enforcement, Hancock County Sheriffs Office, and the Belmond Ambulance also assisted at the scene.
MASON CITY, Iowa  One person is in jail after a crash Monday where the vehicle had reached speeds of 110 miles per hour.

The Iowa State Patrol says it was involved in a pursuit that began around 5:14 p.m. when a vehicle was clocked going 110 miles per hour on 245th St. south of Mason City. The car turned onto Kentucky Ave. and hit another vehicle at the intersection with 8th St. SE. A utility pole was also knocked down.

The State Patrol says the trooper was going to call off the pursuit because the fleeing car was usafely passing other vehicles, but then the crash happened.

The State Patrol says two people in the fleeing car suffered what appear to be minor injuries, which is being described as amazing given the size of the car.

The driver of the car, 36-year-old Eric William Jensen has been booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail on charges of driving while license was suspended, failure to use a seat belt, and improper passing on the right.
BYRON, Minn.  According to the U.S. Fire Administration, 97% of fire departments in Minnesota are volunteer-run.

Byron Fire Department is one of them. Jeff Thorpe has volunteered with the department for 28 years and spent 12 of those years as fire chief.

Its not the easiest volunteer job.

The amount of training we end up doing every year becomes more and more. When no one else knows what to do the fire department gets called, Thorpe said.

But he said he would do it all over again.

Sometimes it's bad feelings when we leave, but other times we end up really helping. And Byron being a smaller town you end up knowing a lot of people and you are helping your neighbor, Thorpe said.

And because he gained another family in the department.

Everybody on the department took you in and it became another family, he said.

These wonderful rewards of a hard job not only kept Jeff volunteering, but it has the fire department with a wait list of people wanting to volunteer with them.

Thorpe has advice for people wanting to join.

Get your application inand get some education in this so you know what youre getting into, that will always end up helping get on a department, he said.

Though Thorpe still works, he will have some free time now that his firefighting career is coming to an end. He said hes going to do some fishing and spend time with his familyand still spend time with this other family, the department.

As a retiree I plan on coming down here to help out where I can. I told them I might be retired but I'm not going anywhere.
MASON CITY, Iowa - Some people may be looking forward to building a patio or remodel the outside of a house, but the snow and cold temperatures are not allowing that to happen.

Andy Evans is the sunroom project manager for Midwest Construction in Mason City and said the snow is making their job more difficult than it has to be.

"We can get our guys out there, but in the snow, we're tearing up people's yards, making a bigger mess, and we try not to do that," Evans says.

But because they work statewide, they typically adjust.

"For example, these ceilings ... I had my sunroom crew come in. We redid all the tiles, two or three winters ago when it was real cold," Evans adds.

Large-scale outdoor construction season typically begins anywhere from mid-March to mid-November, depending on conditions.

VP of Operations for Henkel Construction, Kent Brcka, said that business is taking a hit, though they try to keep their crews active by working inside.

"Our goal is to keep our guys working every day, so we tend to shift people around to get them working inside when we can't be doing productive things outside," Brcka says.

Evans also keeps his crews busy during the colder months by helping another aspect of business by getting advertising.

"December, January, February ... those three months, it's kind of our home show season, so we're out and about. We're doing that, getting our names out there, getting leads, getting people interested. But then if we can, we keep on going," Evans adds.

According to Brcka, Henkel currently has about 6-8 projects that require most work to be done outdoors, while Evans says that some outdoor projects may take an extra 2-3 days because of the weather, and because crews typically have more gear on that can slow them down.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A man is pleading not guilty to a string of drunken crimes.

Kurt Neil Gabrielson, 46 of Forest city, is charged with 2nd degree burglary, two counts of extortion, assault of a peace officer, and 4th degree theft. Gabrielson was arrested on March 6 after Forest City police said he entered the homes of at least two other people, harassed a woman in her car, and refused to obey officers commands.

A breath test at the Winnebago County Jail reportedly showed Gabrielson with a blood alcohol content of .185, more than twice the legal limit.

A trial is now scheduled to begin on June 6.

For previous coverage of this case, click here.
HAMPTON, Iowa  Hampton police are asking for the publics help to locate a man who has been seen in north Iowa.

James Boylan, 80, is a white male around 6-foot and weighs around 165 pounds with dementia. He is driving a white 2001 Buick Lesabre.

He has a gray beard, mustache and gray hair.

Boylan left his home around 7:30 p.m. Monday and did not return. He was spotted around midnight at Fuel Time in St. Ansgar before being spotted in Buffao Center in Winnebago County around 3:30 a.m. He was headed westbound.

Hampton Police Chief Robert Schaefer says Boylan was last seen in Alta at the First Co-op.

If you have any information about his whereabouts, call Franklin County at 641-456-2529.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Law enforcement is cracking down on distracted driving during the month of April as part of distracted driving awareness month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured each day in the U.S. because of distracted driving.

KIMT spoke to deputies who tell him they are committed to lowering the number of distracted driving crashes.

Police are cracking down on distracted driving in a new way, by reaching out to teens to help enforce the law through a campaign. Some of the teens were recognized by the city for advocating to their peers about the dangers of distracted driving. Lap Nguyen is a high school student who said all teens should care about distracted driving campaign.

As teenagers, it is a real prevalent issue for all of us, so this is why we're happy to be a part of this, he said.

The campaign will run from April 9-22.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man who eluded police at 110 miles per hour before crashing into a vehicle and a power pole is now facing felony charges for eluding and criminal mischief.

Eric Jensen, 36, of Osage, is accused of causing between $1,000 and $10,000 in damage to an Alliant Energy power pole after the vehicle he was driving hit it Monday.

Jensen is accused of eluding an Iowa State Patrol trooper on 230th St. before reaching 110 miles per hour and entering city limits.

The trooper slowed down their vehicle because of heavy traffic and fear of an accident and said in court documents that they noticed the black 2d vehicle attempt to pass a group of cars on the right hand side.

While attempting to pass, the vehicle appeared to catch the curb. The vehicle then came into contact with an SUV. The vehicle hit the curb again and struck an electric pole, the criminal complaint states.

Authorities say both occupants exited the car under their own power and sat on the curb.
MASON CITY, Iowa  The next city administrator in Mason City will start out making $170,000 a year.

The City Council has set a special meeting for 5:30 pm on Thursday to officially hire Aaron Burnett. He will be taking over a job that has been vacant since Brent Trout resigned as city administrator in October 2017 to take a similar position in Topeka, Kansas.

In a memo sent from Mayor Bill Schickel to city council members, Burnetts salary is listed as $170,000 a year, with a raise to $175,000 on December 29, 2018 and annual cost of living increases after that. In addition, the city will cover up to $14,000 of Burnetts moving expenses.

The special City Council meeting will be held in the Mason City Public Library. Burnett is scheduled to start his new position on June 29.

For previous coverage of this issue, click here.
NORTHWOOD, Iowa  A Forest City teen gets probation for a one-day crime spree while still awaiting trial for a rash of burglaries.

Jordan Lee Meier, 18, was sentenced to two to three years of probation Monday for pleading guilty in Worth County District Court to 2nd degree theft, 2nd degree criminal mischief, and 3rd degree burglary. Authorities say he broke into several vehicles in Fertile on May 7, 2017, then stole and crashed a white SUV.

A trial date for Meier also remains in place for May 9 in Winnebago County District Court. Hes charged with two counts of 2nd degree burglary and three counts of 3rd degree burglary. Authorities say he illegally entered several Forest City homes during September and October in 2016 and stole guns, medication, and cigarettes.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A North Iowa woman is pleading guilty to a drug tax stamp violation.

Kristin Traci Adams, 30, was initially charged with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine after her arrest on November 5, 2017. Mason City police say Adams was found sleeping in the lobby of the Days Inn and admitted to using meth the night before.

Officers say a search of Adams turned up two baggies of meth, a glass pipe, six needles, and clear baggies.

She is due to be sentenced for failure to affix a drug tax stamp on May 21.
Warren Strobel, John Walcott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday raided the offices and home of U.S. President Donald Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen, law enforcement sources said, in a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving close Trump associates.

Cohens lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said that U.S. prosecutors conducted a search that was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating whether members of Trumps 2016 campaign colluded with Russia during the U.S. presidential election. Trump has called the probe a witch hunt and denied any collusion.

Today, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients, Ryan said in a statement.

I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, Ryan said.

Mondays raids were first reported by The New York Times.

Cohen has been at the center of a controversy surrounding a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who has alleged that she had sex once in 2006 with Trump and was paid money shortly before the 2016 election to keep quiet about it.

Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters for a request for comment. A spokesman for Mueller had no comment.

A source familiar with the investigation said that among the items the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan sought in the raids were information on the origins of a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen has said that he paid the $130,000 settlement money from his own pocket through a personal home equity loan. Trump, in comments to reporters on Air Force One last week, said that he did not know about the payment.

The FBI and U.S. Attorneys office on Monday also sought any emails between former White House communications director Hope Hicks and Cohen about a false and misleading account that Trump helped prepare of a June 9, 2016, meeting between Trumps son Donald Trump, Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians who had promised dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, another source familiar with the investigation said.

Such emails would not be covered by attorney-client privilege, this source said, because Cohen did not represent Hicks.

Ryan, in his statement, called the search warrants executed by the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients, he said.

Ryan said that Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscows alleged efforts to influence the U.S. election.

The New York Times, citing a source, said FBI agents seized emails, tax documents and business records.

Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Karen Freifeld and Makini Brice; Editing by Leslie Adler
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a party meeting on Monday where he analyzed the future outcome of dialogue with the United States and development of inter-Korean relations ahead of a summit with South Korea on April 27, the Norths state media said on Tuesday. In North Koreas first mention of official dialogue with United States and the summit with Seoul, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) added that Kim Jong Un set strategic and tactical issues to be upheld by his powerful Workers Party. Reporting by Christine Kim, editing by G Crosse

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.
(Kitco News) - There is a level gold can reach that would hurt the stock market, according to Piper Jaffray. And that level is not even much higher than the precious metals current trading range.

The next gold rally could weigh on the markets, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray Craig Johnson told CNBC on Friday.

You've got to get a break above $1,365 specifically to really suggest that gold is starting a new leg higher, he said. If we get this break above $1,365, that's going to be a real negative event for the overall market itself.

Johnsons comment came as traders rushed into gold last week in search of safe-haven investments amid trade war fears.

Last week, gold prices briefly climbed above $1,350 only to fall back to $1,330 an ounce early this week. As Asian trading opened on Tuesday, spot gold on Kitco.com edged down, last seen at $1.333.50, down 0.13% on the day.

It is not a new concept that gold performs better than equities when fear is present in the markets, Johnson noted, adding that more upside in gold would point to investors being bearish on equities.

We're supposed to be in a pro-growth environment. We've got the tax cuts put in place, the economy is supposed to be doing better, and then you've got gold moving up? That's a pretty defensive move, said Johnson. It would be a pretty negative meaning for a lot of investors if we break above that $1,365 level.

Will Gold Suffer After Trade Tensions Ease? https://t.co/2kglGaFlNa pic.twitter.com/0tVFBBlLts  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) April 10, 2018

But, some analysts disagree that current U.S.-China tensions will turn into a trade war.

For the remainder of the year we expect that trade tensions between the U.S. and China will not escalate into a trade war, ABN Amros senior precious metals and diamond analyst Georgette Boele said a report published on Monday.

Boele added that as trade threats dissipate, gold will suffer, falling to below $1,300 an ounce. Our end of June is now USD 1,275 while our end of September and end of December forecasts remain at USD 1,250 per ounce, she said.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said on Tuesday that he is still optimistic that very few if any of the proposed tariffs by the United States and China announced in recent weeks will actually be implemeneted. Kaplan told reporters at an event in Beijing that it is in the interests of both countries to have a constructive trade relationship. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by Kim Coghill

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.
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices markets have not strayed far from unchanged price levels so far Tuesday. The bulls are impressed with the resilience of their safe-haven metals, in the face of keener risk appetite in the marketplace the past two days. A weaker U.S. dollar index so far this week is working in favor of the precious metals bulls. June Comex gold futures were last up $1.10 an ounce at $1,341.30. May Comex silver was last up $0.006 at $16.535 an ounce.

World stock markets were mostly higher overnight. U.S. stock indexes are also pointed toward higher openings when the New York day session begins. The solid gains in world stock indexes so far this week are an indication of little risk aversion among traders and investors.

The U.S.-China trade tensions have significantly eased early this week. Trump administration officials said on Sunday and Monday that trade sanctions against China are not imminent and there is time to work out a solution to the matter. Chinas Premiere Xi Jinping said today he wants a more open Chinese economy and pledged to do a better job of protecting intellectual property.

News that the U.S. has sanctioned Russian oligarchs and the metals firm United Co. Rusal has boosted aluminum, copper and palladium prices early this week. Rusal is the worlds second-largest aluminum producer.

The key outside markets on Tuesday morning see the U.S. dollar index lower. The greenback is seeing a corrective pullback so far this week after hitting a five-week high last Friday. Meantime, Nymex crude oil prices are higher and trading just below $65.00 a barrel. Crude is boosted by the easing of U.S.-China trade tensions and by the missile strikes against Syria this week.

U.S. economic data due for release Tuesday includes the weekly Johnson Redbook and Goldman Sachs retail sales reports, the NFIB small business index, the producer price index, and monthly wholesale trade.

Technically, June gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage amid recent choppy trading. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the March high of $1,362.60. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at the March low of $1,309.30. First resistance is seen at $1,348.00 and then at $1,352.50. First support is seen at todays low of $1,334.20 and then at this weeks low of $1,320.10. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0

May silver futures bears have the slight overall near-term technical advantage amid recent choppy trading. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $17.00 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 $16.68 and then at $16.895. Next support is seen at this weeks low of $16.295 and then at last weeks low of $16.15. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.5.
* LME/ShFE arb:* GRAPHIC-2018 asset returns: (Updates prices, U.S. premiums) By Zandi Shabalala LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - Aluminium prices rallied to a more than six-week high on Tuesday in their longest winning streak since December as U.S. sanctions on Russian producer United Company Rusal fuelled concerns over supply. Benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was bid 1.6 percent higher at $2,173 per tonne after failing to trade in official rings. It earlier touched $2,183, its highest since Feb. 23. The United States imposed major sanctions on Friday against Russian entities and individuals, including Russian aluminium giant Rusal, in one of Washington's most aggressive moves to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other "malign activity." "It's quite clear that the sanctions could lead to lower production from Russia and Rusal is a big enough producer to move prices," said Capital Economics commodities economist Caroline Bain.

LME ALUMINIUM: The metal used in beer kegs and aeroplane parts is up about 8 percent so far in London since the sanctions on Rusal were announced on April 6. RUSAL: Rusal produced 3.7 million tonnes of aluminium last year, which according to brokers Argonaut is about 7 percent of the world total. Rusal says exports to the United States account for over 10 percent of its output. U.S PREMIUMS: Premiums for aluminium in the United States climbed to 19.50 cents per pound, the highest levels since March 2015, on expectations of tighter supply. INVENTORIES: Aluminium stocks in London Metal Exchange approved warehouses originating from producers in Eastern Europe stood at 450,650 tonnes as of April 6, data from the exchange showed on Monday. Sources say this category would mostly be metal produced by Rusal. On-warrant aluminium stocks fall 24,875 tonnes to 972,000 after fresh cancellations. SPREADS: The LME cash to three month contract changed from a contango of $20.50 on Friday to a backwardation of $16 on Monday, indicating a shortage of material for immediate delivery. On Tuesday backwardation drifted to $3.75. "Market participants are inferring the likely ex-China tightness less Rusal to the situation on the LME," ING said in a note.

GLENCORE: Swiss-based trader Glencore said on Tuesday it would not "at this time" be swapping its shares in Rusal for Global Depository Receipts in EN+ due to U.S. sanctions on both firms. OTHER METALS: Copper traded 1.5 percent higher in official trading rings at $6,930 per tonne, lead was bid up 0.6 percent at $2,400, tin was bid at a steady $21,200, zinc was bid 1.1 percent higher to $3,245, while nickel was bid up 2 percent to $13,700.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Potter)

zandi.shabalala.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))LME price overview COMEX copper futures Base metals news All metals news All commodities news Metals diary Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES ))
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will not attend the Latin American summit this week in order to focus on the Syria crisis, the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump was scheduled to arrive in Peru on Friday to attend the summit and then visit Colombia.

At the presidents request, the vice president will travel in his stead. The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.
South College launching information technology masters degree online



KNOXVILLE - South College will offer an online degree for a masters in information technology, an in-demand career track that can offer excellent career potential upon graduation.



Image courtesy of South College





Students can enroll for the Master of Science program beginning June 29. The degree program is ideal for practitioners in the field who want to further their education and advance their career options.



A full-time student can complete the information technology (IT) degree in 12 months, and the program provides training that can lead to career positions as IT systems administrator, information security analyst, computer network architect, IT project manager, chief technology officer and IT systems engineer.



The field of information technology is one of the fastest-growing in the country, South College Chancellor Steve South said. By offering a Master of Science degree program online, we are helping to meet a demand for well-educated specialists in this field and providing graduates with a dynamic career track.



According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), careers in information technology are expected to grow by up to 13 percent by 2026. Published salaries in this field range from $50,000 to $100,000-plus a year.



South College already offers an online programs Associate of Science in Network Administration & Security and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Concentration in Information Systems Management. The coursework is taught by highly qualified faculty with academic and professional backgrounds in business and information technology.



South College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to offer programs at the doctorate, educational specialist, masters, baccalaureate, and associate levels.



South College is a private institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to offer programs at the doctorate, educational specialist, masters, baccalaureate, and associate levels. Certificates and Post-Graduate Certificates are also offered by South College. To learn more about South College, visit www.southcollegetn.edu.


Three charged with murder following TBI, GBI joint investigation





Hector J. Ruiz, one of three individuals arrested on murder charges. Image courtesy of TBI



NASHVILLE  A joint investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the indictment of three individuals who are charged in the murder of a Tennessee man whose body was found in Georgia.



At the request of 20th District Attorney General Glenn Funk, on March 6, 2017, TBI Special Agents joined Agents with the GBI in investigating the death of Luis Antonio Lopez (DOB 09/13/1990) of La Vergne. On January 10, 2017, GBI began an investigation after the victims partially burned body was discovered in a wooded area near Dalton, GA. During the course of the investigation, Agents determined Mr. Lopez had been murdered in Davidson County, TN. The investigation revealed that three friends of the victim, Hector Ruiz and Kevin Palacio of Antioch, and Roberto Viera-Aybar of La Vergne, were the individuals responsible for his murder and the disposal of his body.



On March 19, the Davidson County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Hector J. Ruiz (DOB 01/15/1988), Kevin Isaza Palacio (DOB 03/09/1993), and Roberto Josue Viera-Aybar (DOB 07/14/1993) each with one count of First Degree Murder. On March 25th, Ruiz (pictured below) was served in the Davidson County Jail, where he has been incarcerated on unrelated charges. His bond was set at $500,000. Palacio and Viera-Aybar are currently in a Georgia jail after being arrested on charges related to this case. Both have holds placed on them pending their extradition to Nashville.



Source: TBI

Published April 9, 2018
Victims & advocates honored with crime victims rights week ceremonies



NASHVILLE, TN - The Board of Parole (BOP), the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Department of Correction (TDOC) and the Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction (TRICOR) are marking 10 years of ceremonies honoring crime victims and victim advocates statewide. All events this year take place April 9-13, which coincides with the observance of National Crime Victims Rights Week.



Parole Board Chairman Richard Montgomery said, Crime victims are a key voice in the justice system. This years national theme is Expand the CircleReach All Victims. We are proud to partner with TBI, Correction and TRICOR on this statewide effort, and to make more crime victims aware of the services our agencies provide to them.



TBI Director Mark Gwyn agreed. Assisting crime victims strengthens the criminal justice system. It also helps people affected by crime to heal, and makes our communities safer. When crime victims feel understood and supported, they are more likely to seek services.



Correction Commissioner Tony Parker shared, More than 90% of the offenders in our prisons will return to the community. This is why education is so important  not just in the traditional sense, but education on the impact of their crimes on victims and the community. It is important for offenders to understand how their crimes affect others so they will be less likely to commit crimes in the future.



TRICOR Chief Executive Officer David Hart said, Each partner in this effort works to serve victims and reduce crime. TRICOR provides job training to help offenders find employment after release, and pro-social programming to address behavior that may have led to incarceration. Statistically, an ex-offender who thinks differently and is gainfully employed is less likely to recidivate, which helps prevent the creation of new crime victims. During the event, Director Gwyn was honored with the statewide Voice for Victims Award for 2018. Gwyn, who will retire in June, has been recognized nationally for his work and established TBIs first Victim Services Unit. The Davidson County Voice for Victims Award went to Timothy W. Dickerson, Director of the Domestic Violence Prosecution & Support Unit for the District Attorney Generals Office.



The Nashville event took place at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, which was the scene of a church shooting last year. Church Pastor Joey Spann, who was wounded in the attack, was the keynote speaker. Vicki Yates, anchor at Newschannel5, served as event emcee. Additional events for this week will take place in Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, Johnson City, Jackson, Clarksville, Cookeville, and Columbia.



Monday, April 9



Nashville

10:00 a.m. CDT

Burnette Chapel Church of Christ

3890 Pin Hook Road, Antioch



Clarksville

2:00 p.m. CDT

Tennessee Career Center

523 Madison Street





Tuesday, April 10



Memphis

10:00 a.m. CDT

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance

Suite 100, Conference Room

2670 Union Avenue Extended



Jackson

2:00 p.m. CDT

East Jackson Church of Christ

1461 East Chester Drive





Wednesday, April 11



Murfreesboro

10:00 a.m. CDT

Rutherford County Workhouse

1720 South Church Street



Cookeville

2:00 p.m. CDT

Cookeville City Hall (Council Chambers)

45 East Broad Street





Thursday, April 12



Johnson City 10:00 a.m.

EDT Memorial Park

5190 Bert Street



Knoxville

2:00 p.m. EDT

Knoxville Police Dept. Family Justice Center

400 Harriet Tubman Street



Friday, April 13



Chattanooga

10:00 a.m. EDT

Coolidge Park, Walker Pavilion

150 River Street



Columbia

2:00 p.m. CDT

Columbia Police Department

707 North Main Street

Published April 9, 2018














By Kim Yoo-chul



The country's financial regulator said Tuesday that it has begun an investigation into alleged hiring irregularities at Shinhan Bank.



"Regarding the issue over hiring irregularities at Shinhan, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has started investigating the case," FSS Governor Kim Ki-sik told reporters.



Reports said about 20 sons and daughters of executives at Shinhan Financial Group, which has Shinhan Card and Shinhan Bank under its wing, received "extra favors and credits" when being hired by group affiliates.



"The FSS didn't find any hiring irregularities at Shinhan Financial Group and its affiliates in last year's inspection; however, the regulator recently received requests for a new investigation into such allegations," an FSS spokesman said.



Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card and Shinhan Capital are the initial targets of the probe. The FSS has notified the three affiliates about this.



"In detail, the FSS will probe Shinhan Bank for seven business days with the regulator looking into the allegations at Shinhan Card and Shinhan Capital for five business days from April 12," the FSS official said.



The government agency plans to team up with local prosecutors for further inquiries, if necessary.



Shinhan Financial Group has denied the allegations that executives at the group's main affiliates were involved in hiring irregularities.



"Simply, the allegations are groundless as it doesn't make any sense to pick sons and daughters of group executives and to give them extra favors and credits. The number of executives working at the group and group affiliates was over 300 as of March this year," the group said.



Months ago, Choe Heung-sik, a former FSS governor, stepped down from the position after allegations about his involvement in hiring irregularities when he was head of a major commercial bank.



Since last year, major banks here have come under fire for allegedly favoring applicants with ties to bank executives or top-tier customers in their hiring processes.



The FSS said it is "still investigating" similar cases at KB Kookmin, KEB-Hana Bank and Woori Bank.




A customer attempts to register for a financial service in a Shinhan Bank branch in Jung-gu, downtown Seoul, March 6. / Korea Times file



By Kim Yoo-chul



Consumers are complaining about proposals by a labor union of bank employees in Korea that wants to close banks during lunch hour, as the proposal, if implemented, would hurt their best interests.



"Banks could not force customers to stay outside and lock the doors during lunch hour. Bank officials aren't supposed to treat customers this way," Choi Jae-ho, a 41-year-old office worker living in Seoul, said by telephone Tuesday.



"My common sense is there has to be someone at the counter to attend to customers."



In Korea, standard business hours at banks are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the work week, banks are open during lunch, which typically is from noon to 1 p.m. Banks usually are open Monday through Friday.



While banking hours in the United States, for instance, fluctuate depending on the size of the bank, the hours of operation for banks have been fixed for a long time.



The Korean Financial Industry Union (KFIU), a labor union of Korean bank employees, has recently been demanding its employees at member branches lock the doors during lunch hour.



The KFIU is an umbrella group representing labor unions of over 30 financial institutions including major local private banks and provincial banks.



Given similar cases adopted by banks in Germany, France and Spain, the group said its latest proposal should proceed as planned to protect the "right for lunch," as employees at Korean banks work in shifts during the lunch hour so they can have lunch breaks.



KFIU claimed the brief closure at the banks during lunch hour will have limited impact on consumers as ATMs are available "practically everywhere" if customers need quick banking services such as deposits, withdrawals or transfers.



"Lots of employees at domestic banks skip lunch as they have to serve many customers during the lunch hour. ATMs are available and the need for face-to-face consultations with bank employees for banking services during the time period isn't as high as it was in the past," a KFIU representative said.



The KFIU suggestion is one of 53 requests for a collective bargaining agreement it submitted recently to the Financial Industry User Committee.



Specifically, the group is asking to reduce working hours, for management to allow labor representatives on board committees and to prohibit the wider use of performance-based pay systems.



But critics say the KFIU's lunch hour suggestion won't win majority backing from the public given the preference by Koreans to visit a physical branch or speak with a "real person" for new financial products or advice.



"The banking industry has evolved rapidly in the past few decades due to the rise of internet banking, and that does make sense. However, traditional banks, with their primary focus on in-person customer service, have been proving more trustworthy than banks that lack brick-and-mortar operations in Korea. Therefore, the KFIU proposal is quite controversial and seems against common sense by most salaried workers here," said Kim Yoon-ho, a 37-year-old office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.



The KFIU will start talking with the committee over those issues beginning April 12. The committee's key members include presidents of the country's leading banks and representatives of the state-owned financial institutions.




National Pension Service Chairman and CEO Kim Sung-joo

By Jhoo Dong-chan



The National Pension Service (NPS) has decided to halt dealing with Samsung Securities after the brokerage mistakenly gave 2.8 billion shares in dividends instead of 2.8 billion won ($2.62 million) to its employees who own company stock.



The state-run pension fund buys and sells stocks through Samsung and other securities firms.



The NPS reportedly sold about 820,000 Samsung Securities shares worth 31.2 billion won at a loss, Friday. It was the day the brokerage issued 2.8 billion shares worth 110 trillion won. Of those issued stocks in the dividend, 16 employees sold about 5 million shares, escalating the unprecedented mishap.



"We have suspended direct trading with Samsung Securities on concerns over decreasing stability in trading after the financial accident occurred," an NPS official said Tuesday.



"The NPS has stopped direct stock trading through Samsung Securities, and will also decide whether to stop its cosigned stock trading with the brokerage based on the results of the financial authorities' inspection."



The NPS is one of the nation's largest investors with 136 trillion won in the local stock market as of January, and other public fund agencies, including the Teachers' Pension, Government Employees Pension Service and Korean Teachers' Credit Union, have halted their entire trading with Samsung Securities.



"The Teachers' Pension has temporarily suspended its trading with Samsung Securities. We are trading with the nation's 35 securities firms, but have decided to reselect the agency's partner firms in the June quarterly evaluation. We will reflect the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS)'s inspection in our evaluation," said a Teachers' Pension official.



The Military Mutual Aid Association also said it will take a similar step.



"I believe there's a systemic problem at Samsung Securities. We will review our plan to suspend trading with the brokerage," the association official said.



Experts said public fund agencies won't sustain heavy damages through the brokerage's "fat finger" scandal thanks to their diversified investments. However, Samsung Securities won't be able to recover anytime soon if the FSS decides to impose a severe disciplinary action on the brokerage.



"Possible disciplinary action will definitely influence Samsung Securities negatively in the future assessment of public fund agencies," said a Korea Financial Investment Association official.





Samsung Securities CEO Koo Sung-hoon
Ven. Inkyung smiles in this photo taken in March 2013 at the Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm in the eastern mountainous county of PyeongChang. Courtesy of MPCA



Buddhist monk to hold photo-poem exhibit

By Park Jin-hai

Revered monk Inkyung, 61, is credited with being the trailblazer in integrating Buddhist meditation into Western psychotherapy. He has embarked on another meaningful experiment  taking photos to heal wounded minds. He says meditation and taking photos are related as they are similar in many ways.

His decade of effort bore fruit.

The religious leader will hold a photography exhibition ahead of the publication of his latest photo-poetry book titled "Pilgrim's Silver Tree (literally translated)."

Seventy of the 100 included in his upcoming book, which he took over the past ten years traveling around the country, will be exhibited along with meditative poems he wrote at Bulil Gallery within Beomnyeonsa Temple, located across from Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, April 16-25.

The monk says taking photos is part of his meditation. "Taking photos involves picking up the subject, holding back one's breath to focus on it, pressing the shutter and selecting images. Likewise, meditation is the process of noticing where one's thoughts and feelings are heading, focusing on them and gaining insight," said monk Inkyung during an interview with The Korea Times, Sunday. "The only difference is that taking pictures requires outward probing, while meditation requires inward looking."

The former teacher who spent five years teaching elementary students, quit his stable job and despite his family's fierce opposition, became a monk in 1988. He says he has always had an intense desire for inner growth. "My job was stable, but I felt that I had stopped growing. I felt out-of-place," said the monk. "The unanswered question of who I really am put me at a loss and pained me. I felt I had no answer, anything else would be meaningless."

He started studying Buddhism and, like many other Korean Buddhist scholars, he studied Buddhist philology. "I've studied scriptural materials of the Buddhist tradition in their original languages for over ten years. But, I couldn't stop, because it felt empty without connections to what is happening in the real world," he said. "The financial crisis of the late 90s that hit the country hit people hard. Faced with problems of the real world, I thought people should be mentally prepared to deal with those real problems."

Since 2002, he has been interpreting Buddhism in the light of psychotherapy and has developed programs for counseling focused on Buddhist meditation.

Reverend Inkyung says religion as a subject of blind belief will wane and meditation will take its place. "With the economy in bad shape, youth unemployment running high and people worrying about getting older, more people tend to lean on religion to find solace and comfort. But many existing religions don't suggest practical solutions that can give inner peace and help people cure their suffering. This is why the religious population is shrinking these days," he said. "Meditation is what suggests practical cures and enables spiritual growth."

In 2007, he established the Meditation-based Psychological Counseling Association (MPCA), devoting himself to research and training meditation counseling experts.





Ven. Inkyung's photo "Who Are You" captures a dying lotus flower days after it bloomed. Just like the flower blooms and dies as time goes by, he said, life decays once it reaches the peak. Courtesy of MPCA



Meditative counseling psychology emerged in 2000, and in the wake of the healing trend, it has become hugely popular since 2010. Meditation is gaining more attention, he says. "In 2000, almost all academic papers on Buddism were about philology, but now some 30 to 40 percent of all papers published are about applied Buddhism," said the monk.

The poems accompanying his photos in the upcoming exhibition are the subjects he met and experienced on his way to heal the stressed, anxiety-prone people of today.

"Today's people are constantly threatened. They worry about war, their jobs and their futures. But the more people strive not to think about these issues and to eliminate them from their minds, the bigger their anxieties grow. People should learn the skills to stop their free-running thoughts and accept reality as it is. That is meditation," he said.

He took the photo in "Pilgrim's Silver Tree," featuring snow-covered winter trees, in March 2013 at Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. With the silvery trees beaming under the sun he meant to convey the luminous mind which can be understood as either Buddhist spirituality or Christian spirituality. "I wanted to express the truth-seeker's way to reach the pure mind, unchanging over the passage of time."
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next month or in early June to "hopefully" reach a deal on denuclearizing the regime.

Trump made the remarks at a cabinet meeting where he also acknowledged the two sides were in talks to prepare for the meeting.

"North Korea, by the way, as you've probably seen -- and we've been in touch with North Korea -- we'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June," he said. "And I think there'll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we'll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea. They've said so; we've said so. Hopefully, it will be a relationship that's much different than it's been for many, many years."

The White House had previously said the president would meet with Kim before the end of May. The unprecedented meeting was arranged through a group of South Korean envoys who met with Kim in Pyongyang last month. The envoys said Kim had expressed a commitment to denuclearization and promised to halt nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

On Sunday, the White House confirmed that North Korea had told the United States it was willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.












A semitranslucent figure stands in the hallway of an abandoned mental hospital in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi Province, that has become the setting of the surprise hit film "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum." / Image courtesy of R. Bandun



By Ron Bandun



The abandoned mental hospital in the movie "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" is a real place, but the risks of visiting it are underreported. The threat isn't ghosts, but the living  police, neighbors, even ourselves.



The hospital first surfaced on my radar in early 2010 on a ghost-hunting online cafe named in English, "Masculine Pride." Their thing was trying to stay overnight in a "haunted" place to prove their manliness.



A companion of this writer registered on the site and said we wanted to photograph the hospital, to which the members cautioned us: if we bring our camera gear there, the ghosts in anger will make them stop working.



I first visited in February 2010, inviting four or five friends along. It was a 90-minute bus ride from Seoul. Finally we showed up at the front gate, a twisted old metal thing, and walked right in. But the trip ended in instant failure when the property owner, who'd been doing landscaping work nearby, accosted us right at the front gate.



I returned a week later with two other friends, with expectations lowered. I brought an American friend and his Korean girlfriend, who assured me she was ready for the challenge. This time we got in unseen, and there was the hospital ahead of us, a decaying old white building.



While we were upstairs, we could hear men's voices below, aggressive and yelling every Korean curse word I could name. It gave us a scare thinking it was the owner, but it turned out to be high school kids looking for ghosts.



Later on during that visit, we went to the second floor where a strong crosswind would occasionally slam one of the doors closed or open. This was too much for our Korean companion, who ran all the way back to the bus stop, forcing my friend to desert me to go after her. I spent about 10 minutes alone in there, enjoying the breeze.



I recognized this very "supranatural" phenomenon could very well induce people to believe in supernatural causes. Now every time I find a door slamming in the wind, I wedge it open or closed and say I exorcised the building. Perhaps future visitors will benefit from my action and not conclude ghosts are slamming doors.



Over the years, there were three more visits to show friends from overseas. I've seen more graffiti, increased security features, vandalism to create new entrances, and signs out front threatening maximum punishment and 5 million won fines.



Others have shared their own stories of bad encounters. One friend joined an ill-prepared expat meetup group, and as they were climbing out the front gate, a local resident reportedly assaulted one of them. I know a couple guys who hid in the bush from the police, who patrol the area regularly.



Another foreigner I spoke to claimed he went there to take pyrotechnic photos using steel wool in the hospital's very flammable hallway. The only reason he didn't burn the whole place down is because he brought silver-colored dishwashing pads instead of real steel wool. He instead started a bonfire on the roof with abandoned hospital records.



Around 2012, a now-defunct online source claimed the hospital received 1,000 visitors annually. That's shockingly high, yet still probably an underestimate. Shortly after that, the hospital hit the expat blogosphere and CNN named it one of the seven "freakiest places on the planet." Directions on how to get there are all over the internet, but not information about visiting safely and responsibly.



Rumors swarmed about the mysterious circumstances of its closure, of deaths there and hauntings. But those sorts of stories start from online speculation among the superstitious. I know how they can be made because I've made up and propagated a few myself, before I knew better.



Nowadays, now that "Gonjiam" is a surprise hit film, now that it practically has its own station on the Seoul Metro system, I expect another upswing in visitors to the area. The movie was not filmed there, and it may well be because the same property owner I met eight years ago still strongly opposes any recreational trespassers visiting there.



Ron Bandun is a self-described "anarchaeologist." No abandoned buildings were harmed in the making of this article.


Rani poses with one her artworks at Scalatium in Gangnam. / photo John Redmond





Rani in the Sahara. / photo Rani
Chongshin University students hang banners demanding President Kim Yeong-wu step down in March / Yonhap



By Kim Hyun-bin



Stories of corrupt politicians are nothing new with cases rising each day from all parts of the globe, including here in Korea.



However, what people despise even more than dirty politicians is corrupt religious and academic leaders, who sell themselves respectively as servants of God and students.



But behind the scenes, they scavenge for every last drop of cash in their vicinity.



Those corrupted tend to use the funds not to spread their beliefs, but to move up the religious hierarchy through bribes and under-the-table deals.



Reverend Kim Yeong-wu, the president of Chongshin University, fits this description perfectly. Chongshin University is a well-known theological university in Seoul.



Kim has allegedly embezzled hundreds of thousands of won of the school's fund.



Just to name a few, he is accused of giving high-end presents to priests and elders of several key churches, which are unrelated to school affairs.



The total cost of gifts added up to roughly 45 million won taken from the university's reserves, which are supposed to be used to foster next-generation Christian leaders.



Since September 2016, Kim has been on trial for giving 20 million won to the head of the Presbyterian Church of Korea in exchange for being named its vice president.



The Ministry of Education estimates the total amount to be 280 million won ($262,000) over the years that was wrongfully taken from the institution's education budget.



Not only Kim, but even the institution's board is also seen as an accomplice to the act, for giving a blind eye toward his tainted values and greed.



Last September, Kim was booked without detention for dereliction of duty, but the board failed to take any disciplinary action.



Even worse, with mounting accusations of corruption, the board re-elected Kim as university president last December, without going through the proper nomination process.



The allegations against Kim have taken a toll on the university's image and its beliefs.



Since its establishment in 1901, the university's core values aimed to push the Presbyterian way of life.



Students of Chongshin University have been affected the most through this scandal that has plagued their campus, and simultaneously shut down their hopes to become aspiring religious leaders.



Another problem is the Ministry of Education's lack of inside knowledge of the candidates.



For private institutions, the nomination process is solely directed by the university board of directors. Once passed, the ministry goes through a simple background check of the individual.



Student protests started in late January, demanding Kim's resignation.



It seems only then the education ministry realized the severity of the problem.



After nearly three months of protests, the ministry decided to request prosecutors officially investigate Kim and 10 university board members for alleged dereliction of duty.



The Chongshin University incident just proves how easy it is for corruption to occur in universities nationwide.



Without radical, harsh preventive measures, it does not seem the country can drastically root out such corruption in the education sector anytime soon.


By Kang Aa-young, Park Si-soo







A Malaysian man has been arrested over a phone scam involving eight Korean victims, police said Tuesday.







The scam took place between March 28 and April 6, during which the suspect had duped nearly 88.6 million won ($84,100) from the victims, all jobseekers in their 20s, according to Suwon Nambu Police Station.







Police said the suspect's Korean-speaking accomplices in China had made phone calls to the victims pretending to be prosecutors. They demanded the victims withdraw money from their bank accounts and put it in a refrigerator in a hotel room in Gyeonggi Province or they would have trouble getting a job because their accounts had been used in crimes.







The Malaysian's role was to take the money out the refrigerator and wire it to his partners in China, police said.







The suspect arrived in Korea on March 23 via Incheon International Airport and received 150,000 won per successful case.







Police are seeking the help of Chinese police to catch the other gang members.


By Kang Seung-woo



Seoul's "ambitious" public transportation plan to go electric is facing a backlash from industries complaining of its frequent policy changes.



The city government announced, last month, it will test operate 30 electric buses in September throughout the green transportation area within the city center to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.



It further plans to increase the number of eco-friendly vehicles to 3,000 by 2025. The envisaged number will account for more than 40 percent of all 7,400 city buses.



To this end, the city will offer a subsidy of 294 million won ($276,000) to operators for buying a single electric bus, which costs up to 500 million won. If an operator sets up a charging station, it will receive up to 50 million won in an additional subsidy.



However, the bus and compressed natural gas (CNG) industries disagree with the scheme, saying the move will make obsolete their erstwhile massive investment in CNG, known for its low emissions and eco-friendly benefits.



In the early 2000s, the city launched a project to replace diesel buses with natural gas-powered ones, which was completed in 2012. But according to the new plan, bus operators will soon have to once again change CNG buses to electric ones, which will require another massive investment.



According to the bus industry, a CNG bus costs 120 million won, meaning purchasing one electric vehicle is equivalent to buying four CNG ones.



In addition, Hyundai Motor came up with an all-electric-powered bus last year that has a range of 290 kilometers on a single charge that takes 67 minutes.



However, industry observers say the range is only under optimal conditions, adding there can be variables the electric bus has yet to deal with.



"We need more vindication an electric bus can run despite inclement weather as we should make passenger safety a priority," an industry official said.



Similar adverse reactions are coming from the CNG sector.



First of all, natural gas suppliers will face declining revenues due to the shift from CNG to electricity.



Charging facilities are also expected to trouble recovery of investment costs. Currently, there are 32 CNG charging stations across Seoul and it costs 1.2 billion won to establish each one, according to the industry.



It expects going electric will inevitably lead to a bus fare hike as the process of switching from CNG to electricity is likely to incur extra expenses.



When announcing the plan, the city said CNG buses are more environmentally friendly, but still produce emissions such as nitrogen oxide.



However, the CNG sector claims electric vehicles are not the solution to tackling greenhouse gas emissions.



"Given that the process of producing electricity also emits air pollution, electric buses also cannot be completely eco-friendly," an official of the CNG industry said.


Ritual at the Lao Bunpimay Festival in Thai Nguyen province (Source: VNA)

The event, held by Vietnam - Laos Friendship Association of Thai Nguyen province, drew the participation of representatives of the Lao Embassy in Vietnam, leaders of Thai Nguyen province, and Lao and Cambodian students in the province.

It aims to foster exchange between the foreign students and local peers, and encourage them to explore cultural characteristics of Vietnam and Laos.



Diverse activities such as presenting gifts to students, rituals welcoming the Lao festival and art performances by Vietnamese and Lao students were held.



Bunpimay Festival is observed on April 13th to 16th annually to pray for good weather, health, abundant harvests and prosperity.



Over the past years, there has been an increase in the number of Lao students in Thai Nguyen province. In 2008-2009 school year, there was only 27 Lao students in four universities in the province. Now, nearly 2,000 Lao and 30 Cambodian students are studying at 13 universities and colleges there./.


By Kang Seung-woo



The number of Seoul subway accidents that took place last year sharply declined thanks to safety-enhancement measures, the city-owned operator said, Monday.



Subway accidents refer to subway crashes, derailments and fires as well as safety accidents happening to passengers and staff.



According to the Seoul Metro's latest report, five subway accidents occurred in Seoul in 2017, down 58 percent from 12 accidents the previous year.



The number of accidents stood at 137 in 2003 and since then, it has been declining _ 118 in 2005, 92 in 2007, 57 in 2009 and eight in 2011.



The subway operator said its introduction of enhanced safety measures such as installing platform screen doors and expanding personnel dealing with safety management works has helped reduce the accidents after it merged last year with the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp. that operated Lines 5, 6, 7 and 8. The Seoul Metro ran Lines 1 through 4 at that time.



In particular, the Seoul Metro stressed the consolidation mainly contributed to the outcome.



In the first five months of last year, four accidents occurred in Seoul subways, but only one accident happened during the remainder of the year following the merger.



"Right after the consolidation, we added 100 safety staffers and 400 from headquarters were dispatched to perform safety work," said a Seoul Metro official.



"In addition, we have applied information and communication technology to the safety system enabling real-time closed-circuit television and multilateral video conferencing en route to setting up a safety-integrated situation room."



However, the number of cases disturbing subway operations increased by one to six during the same period.



The cases include operation delays of more than 10 minutes and others that are not categorized as subway accidents.



The subway operator said a number of old subway lines _ particularly, Lines 2 and 3 _ affected the increase.



"The rise in the cases was also affected by Seoul Metro's shift from a punctuality-focused operation to a safety-centered one," the official said.



The subway operator has published a monthly report of its service quality index (SQI) regarding safety, convenience and comfort of the subway system.



"The Seoul Metro has been going through a paradigm shift in safety management focusing on field, staff and passengers. For continued success, we call for civilians to aggressively assess our system," said CEO Kim Tae-ho.


A national research center on earthquakes will be built in Busan in collaboration between the city and universities, officials said Tuesday.

The port city, some 450 kilometers southeast from Seoul, has the highest density of nuclear reactors in the country, also the third highest globally. Three fault lines cross the city to form the Yangsan fault zone.

Building the country's first national research center on earthquakes in the area was a campaign pledge by President Moon Jae-in.

A preparatory task force launched in November concluded that the center would need about 250 staff members to handle monitoring, research planning and execution, infrastructure support and public relations. The Institute for Research & Industry Cooperation of Pusan National University was evaluated as the best among four candidate sites to host the center. (Yonhap)
Seoul's top education officer Cho Hee-yeon greets President Moon Jae-in during a recent education-related function in Seoul. The progressive educator is bidding for re-election. / Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin



Native English speakers are looked at as pawns in top Seoul educator Cho Hee-yeon's effort to be re-elected in the June 13 local elections.



The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, of which Cho is Superintendent, last week revealed a plan to hire 100 native teachers to service all 561 public elementary schools next year.



This plan goes against the key English-related policies.



Present policies include the continued reduction in the number of native teachers. In 2014, they numbered 592. The number tumbled to 470 in 2015, to 404 in 2016, to 388 in 2017 and to 377 this year.






By Kim Jae-heun



Korea's No.1 low-cost carrier (LCC) Jeju Air is being criticized for a seven-hour delay on a flight to Da Nang, Vietnam, Saturday, after the air crew found fault with electronic equipment on board hours into the flight and returned to Incheon.



The plane took off for Vietnam at 10:40 p.m. from Incheon International Airport and had almost reached Taiwan when the pilot discovered the electrical problem. Instead of landing at the nearest airport in Taipei, the pilot decided to turn around and go all the way back to Incheon.



Back in Korea, passengers had to wait two more hours for the next flight and finally arrived at Da Nang at 2:40 a.m. in the morning on Sunday.



Jeju Air, meanwhile, claimed it found no fault with the aircraft during its routine preflight maintenance.



It said it is currently investigating the cause of the sudden electronic problem.



Customers became angry when the LCC decided to compensate them only 50,000 won ($46.75) per person for the flight delay.



"It's ridiculous that the carrier is only paying 50,000 won for all the time and money wasted by the delay," a passenger said on condition of anonymity.



Another passenger said he will not accept the compensation and will file a civil complaint or even sue Jeju Air if the airliner refuses to fairly compensate him and the other passengers.



The LCC refused to comment.



According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), a carrier failing to depart on time must compensate passengers.

The FTC standard suggests Jeju Air pay each passenger between $300 and $600 for delaying a flight by over four hours.



However, this standard has no legal bearing and carriers do not have to compensate passengers when the delay is caused by unforeseen necessity.



Jeju Air and Jin Air received the most civil complaints from customers last year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.



The two airlines were criticized for frequent flight cancellations and delays as well as their refusal to fully compensate passengers in such cases.



Jeju Air, in particular, recorded the second-highest number of domestic flight delays at 13.5 percent.



Jin Air topped the list with 15.7 percent. T'Way Air ranked third with 13 percent, followed by Air Busan with 12.5 percent, Asiana with 11.5 percent, Eastar Jet with 10.9 percent and Korean Air with 10.1 percent.






By Kim Bo-eun







Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono arrived in Seoul, Tuesday, as Tokyo seeks to bolster ties with Seoul in efforts not to be excluded from talks with North Korea on its denuclearization.







Kono will meet with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha, Thursday, to discuss the nuclear issue and bilateral ties.







This is Kono's first visit to Seoul since he took office last August. It is the first visit by a Japanese foreign minister since his predecessor Fumio Kishida came for talks that resulted in a disputed sex slavery deal in December 2015.







Japan appears to be making efforts to strengthen cooperation with South Korea and the U.S. ahead of the Pyongyang-Washington summit, which will address disarmament of the reclusive state.







Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump next week to discuss the issue. Abe will visit the U.S. from April 17 to 18.







Japan has been pushing for a Pyongyang-Tokyo summit, but no visible progress has been made.







North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, and is set to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, April 27. Kim's summit with Trump is expected to take place in May or June.







While Japan seeks closer cooperation with South Korea on the North Korean nuclear issue, the two countries remain in conflict over historical and territorial issues such as the sex slavery deal and ownership of South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.







The 2015 sex slave deal agreed to put the disputed issue of the Japanese military's sexual enslavement of South Korean women to rest, with Tokyo providing Seoul 1 billion yen in government funds for victims.







The funds were transferred to South Korea and handed out to victims amid controversy that the deal excluded victims in the negotiating process.







The foreign ministry said in January that it would draw up its own fund equivalent to 1 billion yen and decide what to do with it at a later time.







Kang said last week that South Korea will pursue a two-track approach toward Japan _ taking a hard-line stance on historical issues while seeking cooperation regarding pending matters.








By Lee Kyung-min



Sejong University professor Hosaka Yuji released a book, Tuesday, in what he called the first translated work in Korean with detailed footnotes in historical context _ of Japanese official documents on former sex slaves during WWII. Other works thus far had no such commentary, only literal translation from Japanese to Korean of written references found up to 1992, he said. The new book contains works discovered from 1997 onwards.



The Japanese-born scholar who acquired Korean citizenship in 2003, said he hopes the book will help the country take a "logical" approach to what has largely been an "emotional" issue. He is also an expert on Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, over which Japan has recently been increasing its "systematic" territorial claims.



In the 416-page book, he translated 80 documents preserved by Japanese government agencies, historical archives and other research and academic institutes between 1937 and 1945, during which time forced sexual slavery was "rampant."

"I made complete and full citations in my book, which will enable readers themselves to make comparisons for mistranslations," he said. "The primary focus for compiling the book was to draw comparisons and contrasts between victims' testimonies and the written references."



The book, he added, will help not only the public but also the government of Korea and Japan to deal with the sexual slavery issue in a broader historical context, thereby fostering deeper understanding about the issue. "I have long been of the opinion that Japan should acknowledge its wrongdoings and offer not only an apology but also legal responsibility. Materials including cartoons cited in my book have already been publicly disclosed in Japan. I consider the historical references highly important as it will help Japan acknowledge its legal responsibility," he added.



In 2015, Korea and Japan "agreed" to put the long-disputed issue to rest, with Tokyo pledging to provide 1 billion yen (10.7 billion won) for the victims without acknowledging legal responsibility, drawing a huge backlash not only from the former sexual slavery victims but also from the public at large.



Born in 1956 in Japan, Hosaka graduated from the University of Tokyo and earned his master's and doctorate degrees in political science from Korea University in Seoul.


By Lee Min-hyung







The Ministry of National Defense plans to discuss demolishing the Dragon Hill Hotel, a lodging facility for U.S. soldiers inside the Yongsan garrison with the United States Forces Korea (USFK).







This is in line with the relocation of USFK headquarters from Yongsan to Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province by the end of this year. The USFK initially planned to keep the hotel in Yongsan.







However, there have been complaints from locals that the existence of the hotel is not helpful for a plan to redevelop the Yongsan base.







"We will take enough time with the USFK to discuss the details for the demolition of the facility," defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a media briefing, Tuesday.







According to Choi, no detailed steps, such as timing have been decided.







In 2014, Korea and the U.S. agreed to relocate the U.S. Army at the Yongsan Garrison to Pyeongtaek, but decided to leave the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) headquarters in Yongsan. But this January, the two sides agreed to relocate even the CFC headquarters inside the defense ministry.







The lodging facility has since stood at the center of the controversy, as its fate has so far remained undecided.


A captured image from the White House's petition website "We the People"



By Park Ji-won



An online petition posted on the White House website calling for a peace treaty with North Korea has gathered over 100,000 signatures in about three weeks since its posting _ the minimum number to get a response from the White House.



The petition titled "A Peace Treaty on the Korean Peninsula" was created on March 15 by a person named J.Y. asking U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a comprehensive and permanent peace treaty with North Korea in his meeting with the North's leader Kim Jong-un slated for late May or June.



As of Tuesday, the petition had 102,500 signatures, about 25 days after its posting.



"We will do our best to respond to petitions that cross the signature threshold," the White House petitions page says, saying it "will post a response _ and any updates _ are posted as quickly as possible"









In the petition, J.Y. insists the first move towards peace lies in denuclearization, and normalizing U.S.-North Korean relations with a peace treaty would be "a bold move for peace that will be remembered for ages."



The online petition site, called "We the People," was launched by former President Barack Obama in 2011 with a pledge that any petition gathering over 100,000 signatures within 30 days would receive an official response from the White House. Anyone from any country can participate in signing petitions.





Members of The Peace Foundation in Seoul promote the petition submitted to the White House on signing a peace treaty with North Korea, Sunday. / Courtesy of The Peace Foundation
Members and employees of the Farmer's COOP and its cooperatives and consumers from across the nation wore costumes at a protest in front of the Government Complex in Seoul, April 10, to demand a revision of food laws so genetically modified organism ingredients are on labels. They hold a flag that says, "Fake GMO labeling No! Better GMO labeling Yes!" / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul







By Ko Dong-hwan



Hundreds of farmers, consumers and environmental activists gathered in front of the Government Complex in Seoul Tuesday to demand that food labeling list genetically modified organisms (GMO).



About 500 protesters from across the nation criticized the central government for not changing the regulations.



They were concerned that GMOs could be harmful to health and demanded the right to know whether their purchases contained any GMO.



Cooperative group Farmer's COOP said the government imports an average of 2.28 million tons of GMO as ingredients for food products a year and each person consumes 40 kilograms. But a survey by Farmer's COOP, the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice and consumer group Consumers Korea revealed that none of 438 market products containing GMOs that it searched listed the ingredients on labels.



Farmer's COOP, formerly iCOOP, said unrealistic food labeling regulations and the government exempting too many products are the main reasons behind the protest.



"Many of us farmers don't want GMOs but the government just keeps importing them," a rice paddy farmer from Buan, North Jeolla Province, said during the demonstration. "I am fearful of GMOs that, once taken by rats, can sterilize them. I want a healthy Republic of Korea."





Farmers from across South Korea gathered in front of the Government Complex in Seoul to join the demonstration that employed flash mob dances and singing. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Placards with the event's catchphrase, "Fake GMO indication out, better GMO indication yes," were hoisted above the crowd. Demonstrators also were told that their petition to the presidential office's online site was endorsed by almost 210,000 people. Any petition that attracts 200,000 or more supporters requires an official response.



The petition from March 12 demanded that the president revise the GMO regulation to meet international standards. It also called for a revision of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's law that prevents food products from having "Non-GMO" on labels.



Consumers, farmers and employees of social cooperatives who came from as far as Hampyeong, South Jeolla Province, some 320 kilometers south of Seoul, made the event a cheerful gathering with songs and flash mob dances.



"Thank you for coming to the demonstration from across the country when you all must right now be at your farms since we have entered the busy farming season," Farmer's COOP President Cho Seong-kyu told protesters from 88 subsidiary cooperatives that have about 230,000 registered members. "We social cooperative members, producers and consumers all must protect our rights."





Costume-wearing activists, farmers and consumers livened up Tuesday's demonstration with music and dancing. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Despite his second place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas moves on to China aware that the weaknesses of Mercedes' W09 have been exposed.

The Silver Arrows outfit was left chasing Ferrari all weekend in the Bahrain heat, and the race Sunday evening was just another reflection of the team's lack of pace on abrasive tracks relative to its Italian rival.

"I think this weekend has really opened up our eyes in terms of how much we still have to work with the car," said Bottas.

"In certain conditions its really fast but like yesterday [qualifying] we could spot some weaknesses and even today.

"Its been an important weekend, we need to make sure we keep improving what are the negatives of the car, compared to Ferrari."

The Finn's thrilling battle against Sebastian Vettel in the final stages of the event saw the Mercedes driver snapping at the heels of the leader as he made the most of his medium tyres against the Ferrari's worn out soft rubber.

Bottas came close to overhauling the future winner, but not close enough.

"When youre closing up on the car ahead and you get to the braking zones you lose quite a bit of front downforce because youre running in turbulence, that mainly affects the front end and its a bit easy to lock up the front wheels," he said.

"Its early days, but anyway it was a lot better than two weeks ago and today, the race pace we had, was actually slightly better than what we expected coming into the race, so that was positive."

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By Choi Sung-jin





Three former presidents are in jail now  two in South Korea and one in Brazil.



There are similarities and dissimilarities between Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye on the one hand, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the other.



All three underwent or are undergoing trials on suspicion of corruption during their tenure. These ex-presidents commonly say all the charges against them are trumped-up and amount to nothing more than political vendettas plotted by their political opponents who are currently in power. Their supporters are vehemently protesting the political persecution of their idols.



The similarities, albeit ostensible, end there.



Lee and Park, both conservative leaders, are being held to account by their progressive opponents while leftist Lula is being accused by his rightist foes. The former Brazilian president could win in the next election if he were free as he enjoys support from one-third of voters. The two ex-Korean leaders would have no such chance even if they were allowed to run. Park has only tens of thousands of ultra-rightist, anti-communist followers and Lee has just a handful of sympathizers.



Lula is suspected of taking an apartment and other bribes of relatively smaller amounts. According to media reports, Park extorted tens of billions of won, and Lee, at least 10 times more than Park.



The biggest difference is their legacy while in office. The former leader in the largest Latin American country lifted 20 million people out of poverty with various social programs. "If Lula stole, at least he gave some of it to the people," the Washington Post quoted a Brazilian steelworker as saying. Little wonder former U.S. President Barack Obama called Lula "the world's most popular politician."



During the nine-year-long tenure of Park and Lee, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer in Korea. Park was even accused of refusing to communicate not just with her people but with members of her Cabinet. She lived in Cheong Wa Dae like a queen surrounded by attendants and confidants. The daughter of general-turned-president, Park Chung-hee, did not even bother to come out of her bedroom while more than 300 people were drowning in a sinking ferry with most of them being high school students.



Lee, who ran a large construction company before jumping into politics, poured more than 20 trillion won of taxpayers' money into refurbishing the nation's four largest rivers, destroying the environment and stripping numerous farmers of their land. He also wasted a similar amount on abortive overseas resources development projects. In the process, his unqualified cronies embezzled huge amounts of public funds, part of which are presumed to have ended up in Lee's private coffers. Lee is also blamed for the tragic deaths of squatters who protested against the urban redevelopment project in Yongsan, Seoul, in the course of a SWAT-style crackdown.



Granted, not all of the charges leveled against Lee and Park by prosecutors may be true, and some of them may not be punishable because of a lack of hard evidence. However, charges that have all ready been proven are enough to put them in prison for decades, given the law is applied equally to all people regardless of their status and former positions.



Two former liberal presidents  Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun  also had to apologize to the people for corruption involving their family members and aides. Aside from their far smaller bribes, these two former leaders did not commit irregularities themselves. Park and Lee told family-controlled conglomerates to donate money to their relatives and confidants. All corruption cannot be the same with the graveness of criminality varying widely.



Of course, the punishment of individual leaders cannot cure the "Korean Disease" completely. The fact that all former presidents in modern Korea have not been free from one disgraceful irregularity or another indicates there is a severe defect in the nation's "imperial" presidential system. The ongoing debate about constitutional amendment should tackle this problem without fail.



There is also the political awareness of both the elite and ordinary people. According to Michael Oakeshott, a British philosopher and political scientist in the 20th century, the nature of a country's politics relies on "social imagery" of the governing and the governed.



A country's political landscape is decided depending on whether its rulers and people regard their country as a business entity that pursues a single purpose or see it as the association of equal citizens united in a common legal system. Since the 17th century, European states have shifted from business associations to citizens' associations as democracy developed.



Lee's governing style showed he regarded the state as a business corporation, seeking economic growth by all means, including random ones, and ignored all social evils occurring in its course. Park saw the state as an inherited fortune of sorts belonging to royal families. The problem is some Koreans still think of themselves as little more than the employees of such authoritarian rulers or vassals of monarchal families.



The "Candlelight Revolution" of late 2016 was the process in which a majority of Koreans awoke from the pre-modern political consciousness and decided to turn their nation into an association of democratic, self-reliant citizens.



The two former South Korean presidents must be held to account if for no other reason than developing this country's young democracy. Lula was far better than Lee and Park. Koreans should no longer be forced to choose relatively good corruption from entirely bad ones.





Choi Sung-jin is a Korea Times columnist. Contact him at choisj1955@naver.com.


When legislators in Sacramento passed a reasonable and conservative assisted-suicide law in 2015, California was only the fifth U.S state to allow terminally ill people to obtain a lethal prescription.



Giving dying people who have six months or less to live an alternative to terrible pain and suffering was the compassionate and correct thing to do, so it's no surprise that Colorado and Washington, D.C., have passed similar right-to-die laws since then, and that more than two dozen states  from Hawaii to Maine  are now considering doing the same.



California can't take credit for this trend. Oregon passed the first such law more than 20 years ago, establishing a successful model that California and other states have followed, setting strict rules to safeguard against abuse. The widespread interest in assisted-suicide laws today owes much to Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old California woman who in 2014 used Oregon's Death with Dignity law to escape the final, brutal days of end-stage brain cancer.



After investigating the paltry end-of-life options in this state, she and her family decided to move to Oregon and use her remaining time to push for aid-in-dying laws in other states.



Not even a year after Maynard's death, California lawmakers revived and passed a proposal that right-to-die advocates had been pushing here for about a quarter-century. Now no dying Californian has to leave home in order to have assisted suicide as an option.



Nor is it surprising that some people are talking about expanding the scope of existing assisted-suicide laws. The six-month timeline shuts out some terminal patients, such as those with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, and Alzheimer's disease, who are often no longer physically or mentally capable of meeting the extensive requirements to qualify for the law once they are within six months of death. Assisted-suicide laws require both the physical ability to self-administer the lethal medication and mental competence to make an extraordinarily difficult decision.



Discussion about expanding the timeline has already begun. In Oregon, the chairman of the Legislature's healthcare committee, Rep. Mitch Greenlick, said he plans to introduce a bill in the next legislative session that would change the timeline from six months to 12 months. That idea was also discussed at a legislative hearing in Sacramento in January looking at how California's End of Life Option Act has been implemented.



It makes sense to study how the new law is working and to make changes if needed. But be prepared: Assisted suicide is a contentious, ethically complicated issue, and any attempt to expand it will engender fierce debate. That's fine  any law that broaches such sensitive life-and-death matters ought to be vigorously discussed. Indeed, California's law is still being challenged both legislatively (by a bill, for instance, that would add even more reporting requirements) and in court.



But data don't support some of the fears that were initially voiced, including the concern that family members would coerce their aging grannies to avail themselves of the new law. Rather, initial reports from California as well as two decades of data from Oregon show that the law is being used as was intended, sparingly and as a last resort by dying people. That was backed up at January's hearing by testimony from physicians, hospice providers, healthcare administrators and the families of sick people who used the law.



In some cases, families reported, they tried and failed to use the law because the hurdles  including four physician meetings and approvals from two doctors, a 15-day waiting period, and a ton of paperwork  were too high.



As some physicians noted, the new law has had the unintended, though welcome, consequence of encouraging frank conversations about end-of-life care that they say is improving care overall. That's heartening and hopefully will help change attitudes about dying for the better.





The above editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


By Pratheepan Gulasekaram and Rose Cuison Villazor



The Trump administration intensified its fight with California last month when the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit arguing that the state's so-called sanctuary laws undermine federal immigration enforcement and are therefore unconstitutional. A few cities and counties in California have also opposed the policies in recent weeks.



Despite all the bluster, California is likely to prevail. The Supreme Court's governing interpretation of the 10th Amendment protects the autonomy of states and prevents them from being conscripted into federal enforcement programs.



Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, a new development could undercut the DOJ's anti-sanctuary campaign. Across California and the country, many institutions of everyday life _ churches, schools, employers, businesses and nonprofits of every stripe _ are taking bold steps to protect undocumented immigrants. The sanctuary offered by this groundswell has the potential to be just as effective as the protections offered by the state.



Churches from Tucson to Boston have offered shelter to the undocumented and provided emotional and spiritual support to families under threat of deportation. In Los Angeles, an extensive consortium of religious organizations of various faiths has provided housing, food and legal assistance to undocumented immigrants.



Universities have declared themselves "sanctuary campuses," including Wesleyan in Middletown, Conn., and Pitzer College in Claremont, or have adopted other policies to shield undocumented students, as the University of California system has done. Entire school districts from Chicago to Davis, Calif., have taken measures to protect the privacy rights and information of undocumented children and their families.



Restaurants across the country are advertising a "table for everyone," while community members in places such as Oakland have set up rapid-response networks to document raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and assist people who are targeted. Many others are using mobile apps or social networks to warn noncitizens about immigration enforcement activity. Facebook groups such as Retenes California, for instance, routinely post information on ICE, Border Patrol and checkpoints around the state.



These groups and individuals happen to have a wealth of legal protections that the DOJ's lawsuit can't defeat. For the most part, their policies and actions are safeguarded by the 1st Amendment's protections of free speech and free religious exercise; the 4th Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures; federal privacy laws governing student information; and common-law rights regarding private property and workplaces.



The DOJ's lawsuit has no purchase with this diverse set of rights and legal defenses. It focuses only on the constitutional leeway that states have to disentangle themselves from federal immigration enforcement.



For example, one of the California laws being challenged, AB 450, requires employers to verify that immigration officials have a judicial warrant or subpoena before allowing them into their workplaces. But regardless of whether AB 450 is ultimately upheld, the right of employers to keep immigration agents out of their workplaces is settled. The 4th Amendment and common-law rights allow any private property owner to turn away law enforcement who lack proper judicial approval.



Leveraging these long-standing rights, a restaurant owner in Ann Arbor, Mich., lawfully refused to grant ICE officials entry to his restaurant's kitchen last summer. "Sanctuary restaurants" abound, and now advocates are pushing for Greyhound to exercise its property and civil rights protections and bar ICE officials from their buses.



Universities and colleges that are safeguarding undocumented students from immigration enforcement have rights to protect the physical space of their campuses from undue intrusion. Federal privacy laws allow educational institutions to protect information about undocumented students without fear of legal reprisal.



Our Constitution and federal and state laws empower nongovernment actors to provide sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. These groups and individuals are therefore engaged in lawful forms of resistance, not civil disobedience.



If they were to coordinate their efforts, these institutions and local actors could form a formidable sanctuary network for undocumented immigrants.



There are already signs of collaborative efforts between private organizations and like-minded government officials. One Denver church gave shelter to an immigrant, Jeanette Vizguerra, last year while three Colorado Democrats in Congress introduced legislation on her behalf. In New York City, a public-private partnership called the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project has provided legal defense at no cost to undocumented immigrants since 2013.



An extensive sanctuary network in this vein would help to mitigate the harshest effects of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, potentially in ways that state laws alone could not.





Pratheepan Gulasekaram is a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. Rose Cuison Villazor is a law professor at UC Davis School of Law. The above article appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


By Heo Mane





There are high expectations about the upcoming inter-Korean summit and another summit between Pyongyang and Washington. However, the summits may take a new turn and become more complicated after Kim Jong-un made a surprise visit to China to meet President Xi Jinping in a blitzkrieg manner late last month.



Beijing might have felt sidelined in the summitry toward denuclearization by Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington. Beijing seems to have closely watched the developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula since the South and the U.S. each agreed to hold a bilateral summit with North Korea, this month and next month respectively.



The government welcomed the Xi-Kim meeting as it is expected to improve strained Beijing-Pyongyang ties, which will subsequently have a positive effect on the North's denuclearization.



However, Kim may try to use the to-be-restored blood ties with China as leverage to boost his bargaining power at the summits with Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump. The Xi-Kim summit could also allow Beijing to play a bigger role in the denuclearization talks.



In this regard, there are some concerns that Kim may make efforts to weaken President Moon's role of taking the driver's seat in navigating toward the denuclearization of the North.



What effects will Kim's sudden visit to Beijing have on international efforts to make the North give up its nuclear program? How will it affect the upcoming summits?



Kim's diplomatic offensive might face serious challenges because the roadmap for denuclearization Seoul and Washington advocate is different from Pyongyang's.



Seoul's strategy appears to strike a comprehensive package deal with Pyongyang, while favoring step-by-step implementation of the deal. It is somewhat different from Washington's immediate and complete denuclearization of the North, which is similar to the Libyan-style denuclearization formula.



On the other hand, Kim Jong-un proposed a phased and simultaneous formula during his meeting with Xi. He apparently wants to take a step-by-step approach. It seems that Kim would like to demand rewards for each and every step it may take to scrap his nuclear arsenal. His formula could resemble salami tactics aimed at eliciting as many concessions from the U.S. and South Korea.



Trump, however, has called for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" denuclearization. He has made it clear that no reward is available until the North completes its denuclearization process. He has also repeatedly said that he will not repeat mistakes committed by the previous U.S. administrations over the past 25 years.



The Beijing-Pyongyang summit is likely to help Kim be better positioned for denuclearization talks with Seoul and Washington. Kim and Xi reaffirmed that China and North Korea have maintained the blood alliance which goes well beyond a mere military alliance. They implied that the two countries want to restore the old-time friendship under which China and North Korea were as close as lips and teeth.



Seoul and Washington are now faced with another player, China. Seoul and Washington has sought to tackle Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development programs via the trilateral diplomacy involving the two Koreas and the U.S. South Korea has also floated the idea of holding a trilateral summit between Moon, Kim and Trump if the bilateral summits make a breakthrough.



Pyongyang is likely to make every effort to secure as many concessions as possible by engaging Beijing in the nuclear talks. By doing so, Kim can let the North obtain the status of a normal state. At the same time, he may try to weaken the Seoul-Washington alliance and demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the South, possibly later negotiations with America.



I hope President Moon's roadmap for comprehensive and synchronized denuclearization will be accepted as it aims to offer a dynamic and equitable solution to the issue. The roadmap will pursue the denuclearization of North Korea with reasonable compensations.



Traditionally, the U.S. contributed to containing the communist expansion and its challenges, including North Korea, ever since the end of World War II. Essentially, this is a series of status quo policy, not imperialistic ones. Nobody has viewed the U.S. status quo policy as imperialism.



Nevertheless, the Trump administration vividly remembers that a set of provocations from the Kim family have posed serious threats to peace on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S., and further the European Union.



The latest replacement of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser Herbert McMaster by more conservative and hawkish Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, respectively, signals that the Trump administration will not make mistakes anymore in seeking a solution to the North Korean issue. The reshuffle is raising concerns that Trump might shift to military options if his summit with Kim ends up in failure.



It remains to be seen how the upcoming summits will play out in finding a solution to the nuclear showdown.



Heo Mane (mane398@naver.com) is a professor emeritus and adviser of the Korea-EU Forum.






YouTube is becoming a new hub for misinformation in Korea. / Reuters



By Jung Min-ho










By Park Jae-hyuk







The Korea Development Bank (KDB) has decided to examine STX Offshore & Shipbuilding's self-rescue plan this week, allowing the debt-ridden shipbuilder a second chance to avoid court receivership, industry officials said Tuesday.







The decision came after the belated agreement of STX management and labor on the self-rescue measures, including unpaid leave and a pay cut, to reduce the payroll.







After the shipbuilder's failure to submit its self-rescue plan by midnight Monday, the KDB-led creditors said they would place the company under court receivership "in principle."







Given the procedure takes a week at least, the KDB said it may withdraw the decision if STX comes up with a satisfactory self-rescue plan.







Unlike Kumho Tire, which was acquired recently by the Chinese-based Doublestar Tire, STX has reportedly enough money to avoid bankruptcy over the liquidity crisis.







It secured 147.5 billion won ($138.6 million) as of February, according to industry officials.







STX promised to submit the self-rescue plan by Tuesday afternoon, after getting approval from the union. The labor union held several meetings to persuade members.







In March, the government urged STX to implement additional restructuring, including reducing its payroll to cut fixed costs by 40 percent.







The management tried to convince the labor union to follow the measure, saying it was inevitable, but the union resisted. This led the company to miss the deadline for the self-rescue plan.







STX Offshore, once the world's fourth-biggest shipbuilder by orders, was placed under court receivership in 2016 and graduated from the program last July.







Korean shipbuilders have suffered from declining orders amid a global economic slowdown after the 2008 financial crisis.


Sebastian Vettel is slowly but surely coming together with his Ferrari SF71-H, but insists that more improvement will be necessary to counter its rivals challenge.

The German driver admitted that his win in Melbourne had been achieved behind the wheel of a car in which he had yet to put his full confidence.

Subsequent hard work before Bahrain, mainly centered around the Ferrari's front work, raised his confidence level although the four-time world champion conceded that his win at Sakhir was likely also the result of Mercedes' own under-performance at a venue which did not suit its W09.

"I can't speak for them but I think it's always a combination of things. Probably the circuit came our way. [But it was] mostly the fact I had a better feel with the car," Vettel told Motorsport.com.

"We worked on the set-up, [which] helped us to extract more. It was more consistent on one lap but also in the race. So, I felt just healthier and more in control.

"How much they struggled, I don't know. They looked pretty handy at the end of the stints, at least, and in qualifying the gap wasn't massive.

"Overall it's been close but obviously it's good to be just ahead."

Two successive wins won't make Vettel complacent however. As Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne said in his post-race statement, it's a long season, with a close battle between the trio of front-runners just getting started.

"It's clear that we need to improve," he said.

"Valtteri and Lewis are pushing very hard. Obviously, Kimi, alongside, is pushing incredibly hard. The two Red Bull guys with Max and Daniel are pushing hard.

"Those three teams and six drivers are very, very close to each other. It will be important to improve and be quick everywhere you go. That helps.

"The quicker you are, the more you are one unit with your car, the happier you feel, the more you're able to extract when it really matters."

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Pierre Gasly's stunning drive to fourth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix has confirmed his status as a rapidly rising star in the Formula 1 paddock.

The breakthrough performance even won him recognition from Red Bull's formidable motorsports consultant, Dr Helmut Marko.

"He said I did a great race," Gasly revealed. "But I knew that already!"

Last weekend's race was only his seventh Grand Prix with Toro Rosso - and just the second with a Honda engine. It's the first time he's finished in the points since his F1 debut last year in Malaysia.

He qualified for the race in fifth position. He then gained a place in the race when the senior Red Bull drivers suffered disastrous early retirements.

It left Gasly as the standard bearer for the drinks company's colours - and he delivered beyond anyone's expectations.

"We didn't expect fourth place in the second race," admitted Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost. "But we were always told by Honda that we can expect a good result within the first ten races."

"Honda has made great progress," Gasly concurred. "But it's difficult to compare them to other manufacturers. I don't want to mention numbers, but it's obvious that they made a big step forward."

And Sunday's success means that Gasly is now working at a whole new level in the sport.

"It was a very important experience to stand on the grid next to Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas," he said. "They've been in F1 a long time

"Now I'm with very experienced and talented drivers and I cannot make a mistake," he added. "I have a lot to learn, but Bahrain helped me a lot."

Gasly won the GP2 title in 2016, but Marko had previously indicated he was still unconvinced whether the Frenchman was fully F1-ready. It's why he spent most of last season competing in Japanese Super Formula, instead of getting an immediate seat in Formula 1.

"My way here was not easy," Gasly admitted. "But in the end I was always in the top three in all the junior series I did."

Having finally been given a promotion to the Toro Rosso team last summer, the 22-yer-old has now proven he's ready for the big time.

The question is now whether Red Bull view him as a potential replacement for Ricciardo, if the Australian should decide to leave the squad at the end of 2018.

"I don't want to think about it now," Gasly insisted. "But a little later I'll analyse everything."

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Former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer says that Valtteri Bottas will come to regret not making a more assertive bid to pass Sebastian Vettel in the final laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Mercedes was running in second place on Sunday. He was on a one-stop strategy on medium tyres. Ferrari had originally planned to two-stop, but were forced to change strategies late in the race.

It meant the four-time world champion ran 39 laps on soft tyres. And he was still able to thwart Bottas' attempts to get past.

"I've been in situations like Bottas was in," Palmer told the BBC Sport website this week. "In my case, it might not have been for a grand prix victory!

"But in any situation where a chance presents itself and you don't take it, as a racing driver you can't help but think of the missed opportunity."

Given the lead the pair had over Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the field, Palmer felt it wouldn't have been too risky for Bottas to try.

"He either would have emerged from turn 1 with the lead and the win," he said. "Or he would have gone in too deep and ended up having Vettel slide back underneath him and ultimately finished second.

"At least that way he would know he had given it a go.

"The only way such a move would end in tears is if he was half-hearted and stuck just a nose down the inside. That's where collisions so often happen."

Palmer compared the situation to a key moment in last year's United States Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo had muscled his way past Bottas.

"In that race, Ricciardo threw the car down the inside from an unfathomable distance," he recalled. "At the first attempt, the Australian ran off the track and Bottas re-passed.

"But next time Ricciardo made it stick," the Briton continued. "Bottas had the chance to do the same to Vettel in Bahrain.

"Note how few times Ricciardo actually makes contact with another driver, despite his amazing overtaking bravado," Palmer added. "He commits so heavily to his moves that they either come off, or he overshoots the corner too much and loses the place again.

"There's so rarely a half-hearted attempt from him," he said. "I'd say he's the true master of the art."

Palmer explained that Ricciardo's reputation helped unsettle drivers around him. He said it gave the Aussie a psychological advantage in his racing.

"I feel Bottas has the reverse effect in F1 at the moment," he added. "Yes, he's had a few scrapes, most notably with countryman Kimi Raikkonen.

"But he's seen as something of a soft touch in wheel-to-wheel fighting. Drivers are throwing moves down the inside of him that they wouldn't try on Hamilton.

"They know Bottas would rather let them through than risk a crash.

"Bottas is an incredibly talented driver. But if he is to really take the fight to those around him, I feel he needs a bit more bite in the heat of battle."

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Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, talks with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 9, 2018. They are here to attend the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

BOAO, Hainan, April 9 (Xinhua) -- It's normal for the world's two biggest economies to have problems with trade, but tackling them with a trade war is just like treating a flu with chemotherapies, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Jack Ma said Monday.

"You are not solving the problem of the cold, you are destroying the whole body, the whole system," Ma made the comment while attending a dinner with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, which runs from April 8 to 11.

Ma said that trade is about mutual respect and that nobody can stop globalization. "Trade is about rules and negotiations. If trade stops, war starts," he said.

Speaking of the U.S.-China trade deficit, Ma dismissed the issue as a problem, citing economic growth and a low jobless rate in the United States as well as huge profit made by U.S. firms in the bilateral trade.

"Today as a businessman, I don't feel that trade deficit is a problem," he said.

For her part, Lagarde also warned of the risk of temptation for inward policies, protectionism and closing off to the outside world.

She suggested reducing trade barriers in the service industry where there is "a big, big upside" in promoting openness.

The managing director also cautioned challenges to the global economy, including corporate debt and demographic change, saying that "the sun is shining, but we have to look at the cloud arising."

Globalization has not been inclusive enough in the past decades, but there are ways to fix it, Ma noted.

Hearty chuckles rang around the room as Ma used some humorous parables to stress the importance of opening up, peace and development.

If China had not started the opening up and reform policy 40 years ago, "there would be no Jack Ma sitting here today," he said.

He said the world is facing a lot of challenges from poverty, environment and technology, noting that innovation is the only way to solve these challenges and problems.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, meets with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu met with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Van der Bellen yesterday and the two countries have established a friendly strategic partnership.

Li said China is ready to work with Austria to implement the consensus reached by the heads of state, cement political mutual trust, enhance dialogue and exchanges, and accommodate their respective core interests and major concerns.

Li said China hopes to work with the Austrian side to enhance cooperation in all fields including the Belt and Road Initiative and make positive contributions to bilateral relations in the new era.

Van der Bellen said the Austrian side attaches great importance to relations with China and will support exchanges between the legislatures of the two countries.

He also expressed the confidence in China's development and the willingness to facilitate cooperation between the two countries in all fields.

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1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
The past two days have seen an exchange of fierce words between the two nuclear powers. U.S. President Donald Trump, who had kept from lashing out at Russia and President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and many other issues, attacked Putin several times in a move many U.S. experts saw as "groundbreaking."

Calling the recent chemical attack in Syria "SICK" on Sunday, Trump tweeted that "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible" for backing the Syrian government, warning that there will be a looming "big price" for them to pay.

At a cabinet meeting on Monday, Trump said Putin "may" have to bear responsibility for the Syrian incident.

"If he does, it's going to be very tough. Very tough," he said. "Everybody's going to pay a price. He will, everybody will."

He also hinted that Syria, Iran and Russia are behind the attack.

"They're saying they're not. But, to me, there's not much of a doubt. But the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours," said Trump.

Later on Monday, envoys of Washington and Moscow traded barbs at a United Nations Security Council special meeting over the alleged Syrian attack. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia has the "blood of Syrian children" on its hands, and Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the incident was staged and that possible U.S. military action could trigger "grave repercussions."

TENSIONS IN RELATIONS

U.S.-Russia relations have already hit rock-bottom. Recently, Washington stepped up its pressure by kicking out 60 Russian diplomats last month to join Britain's retaliation over the disputed ex-Russian spy poisoning case, and launching sanctions against Russian business leaders and high-ranking officials in the two months over alleged Russian intervention in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections.

Such U.S. moves have sparked fierce responses from Russia. Besides a counter diplomat expulsion, Russia vowed tough measures against U.S. sanctions on Friday, and said "there remains only a desire of the United States to ensure by all means its global hegemony."

Trump's threat on Monday of military option in response to the alleged Syrian chemical attack further strained ties with Russia, endangering the "de-escalation zone" and hotlines the two sides have agreed to set up so as to avoid conflicts on the Syrian battleground.

MILITARY ACTION OR WITHDRAWAL?

Experts said Trump's military threat, an apparent setback compared with his statements last week to take the U.S. troops out of Syria very soon, could further complicate the U.S.-Russia ties.

Russia and Syria have been urging a withdrawal of U.S. troops, whose presence they say is uninvited and is a violation of international law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in early April said he welcomes Trump's pledge of an early withdrawal from Syria, despite what he called "worrisome" signs that U.S. troops were becoming "deeply entrenched" in areas east of the Euphrates River in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

Afshin Molavi, a senior research fellow from U.S. John Hopkins University, told Xinhua that Trump's warning to take military action in response to the alleged "chemical attack" will not change the balance of power on the ground fundamentally, but create a confusing situation for Washington itself.

"If he (Trump) goes for something larger this time, for example, targeting Syria's air force, I think that could play a much more significant role in changing the balance of power on the ground at the end of the day," he said.

"But as long as Russia and Iran continue to be on the ground while President Trump is talking about pulling America's special forces out of Syria," it creates "a confusing situation, just got a lot more confusing," he added.

"It's a very muddled policy," he noted. "On the one hand, you declare that you want to remove the U.S. troops from a battle zone. On the other hand, you are threatening military strikes."

Daniel Davis, a retired army lieutenant colonel and fellow at the Defense Priorities military think tank, cautioned against U.S. military action.

An expert said the U.S. military presence over years in Syria failed to facilitate the humanitarian relief there.

"Realistically, the 2,000 American troops have not made a huge difference to the landscape of the war in terms of humanitarian assistance, because the United States never had a vested interest in protecting the Syrian population," Janine di Giovanni, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wrote on New York Times on Friday.

[ Editor: Xueying ]
Palermo, April 10 - Palermo prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrests of the members of a criminal organisation brining migrants from Tunisia to Sicily on "de luxe" voyages on high-speed dinghies, judicial sources said. The passengers were prepared to pay dear in exchange for safe journeys, the sources said. Those who landed were able to elude police controls and identification procedures. This service could also be used by terrorists wanting to preserve their anonymity, police said.
Vibo Valentia, April 10 - A 42-year-old former Calabrina local election candidate, Matteo Vinci, died at Limbadi near Vibo Valentia in Calabria as the car he was driving blew up because of a bomb on Monday. Carabinieri said the bomb, in the car boot, was remotely activated. Vinci's 70-year-old father Vincenzo was seriously injured in the blast. He is fighting for his life in hospital. Vinci, a former medicines salesman, was a candidate in a civic list in the last town council elections. Police on Tuesday arrested a 'Ndrangheta mafia-linked man who publicly quarrelled with Vinci in 2014, 71-year-old Domenico Di Grillo. Di Grillo, the husband of clan chieftains' sister Rosaria Mancuso, was arrested on charges of illegally possessing arms and munitions.
Rome, April 10 - Seeing League leader Matteo Salvini before government-formation talks later this week "makes no sense now" due to Salvini's refusal to ditch ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio told Il Fatto Quotidiano daily Tuesday. "If we have to see each other to say Berlusconi yes or no, it's no use," said Di Maio, who has been negotiating from afar with Salvini since the two emerged as the two victors from the March 4 general election. Di Maio also said he was "expecting the whole of the PD" to respond to his alternative overture for a government alliance, referring to the centre-left Democratic Party which got a pasting at the general election and has vowed to stay in opposition. Di Maio said "we are busy writing a government contract the League or the PD can sign up to but we will have to wait for the evolution of the internal dynamics on the centre right and in the PD". He said he wanted to be the leader of a government "to change things". Salvini said Monday that he saw a "51%" chance of the centre-right coalition striking a deal for a new government with the M5S. But M5S leader Di Maio immediately dismissed this hypothesis, saying there was "0% possibility" of the movement joining forces with the whole of the centre-right coalition, including ex-premier Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI). Anti-migrant, Euroskeptic League leader Salvini responded by telling ANSA that "Di Maio, at this moment in time, interests me less than zero". If Di Maio continues to "just so no" to the centre right's alliance proposals, Italy should go back to the polls, Salvini said. "I want to dialogue, I don't want to be premier at all costs, I'm prepared to talk about programmes but if on the other side we just get Nos, let's vote and the Italians will give their vote to those they trust more and I think that will be us," Salvini said. Salvini said the answer to Di Maio's rejection of an alliance with the centre right that includes Berlusconi "is real life: it means that if there is a team that won, I want to talk". Salvini has said the only possible government after last month's inconclusive general is based on a deal between the centre right and the M5S, which was the top single party in the general election and says it should lead the next government. Neither the M5S nor the centre right has a majority in parliament. But the M5S wants the League to drop FI. "The League promised change, but it prefers to keep close to Berlusconi and condemn itself to irrelevance," Di Maio said. The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which was pounded in the election, has said its manifesto is incompatible with the proposals of the M5S and the centre right and intends to be in the opposition in the new parliament. Salvini has said he would not strike a deal with the main losers of the election anyway. Salvini on Monday also dismissed the notion that the next premier could be a "third" figure - neither himself nor Di Maio - in order to break the political deadlock. "A third premier? (You can have) a fourth, fifth or 12th one, but who would vote for them?," Salvini said. "Where would the votes in parliament come from? From the centre right and from the 5-Star Movement, I imagine, if they want to reason in a serious way. "I ask Di Maio if he wants to reason or if he prefers the PD, because I saw that he says he dialogues with the PD and also with (ex-premier and former party head Matteo) Renzi. Best wishes". The League leader said there were no more gatherings of centre-right leaders on the horizon after Sunday's meeting at Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi's home at Arcore near Milan that also featured Brothers of Italy (FdI) chief Giorgia Meloni. "We can't have summits every day," Salvini said. "Fortunately, the telephone exists in 2018". President Sergio Mattarella is set to hold a fresh round of government-formation consultations this week after the first round last week failed to throw up a path to a new executive.
Rome, April 10 - President Sergio Mattarella on Tuesday called a second round of government-formation consultations for Thursday and Friday. The president said he would start with the political parties and end with the institutional figures. On Thursday, the consultations will end with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) while the united centre right will lead off the consultations, parliamentary sources aid.
Ukraine needs to raise around $8 billion on foreign markets for well-timed servicing of its commitments, Lead Economist and Program Leader covering Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Faruk Khan has said.

Ukraine would need large volumes of financing for servicing foreign liabilities and cover the fiscal deficit for 2018-2019. This would require attraction of near $18 billion this year and the coming years, including around $8 billion on foreign markets, he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Khan expressed opinion that for the successful attraction of the financing, which Ukraine needs, it is important to continue cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year and the coming years. It would be an important signal for international capital markets, he said.
Rome, April 10 - Italy has seen 95,600 fewer migrant landings thanks to a Libya deal since July 1 compared to the previous year, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said Tuesday. "This has been an extraordinary blow to the human traffickers," he said.
Ferrara, April 10 - A 13-year-old boy received death threats from a teen gang at his school in Ferrara, sources said Tuesday. "Unless you take back your complaint I'm going to beat you up so badly I'll kill you," was one of the threats reportedly received by the boy. Parents at the school said "we need prompt intervention".
Rome, April 10 - More Italians are binge drinking and consuming alcohol outside mealtimes, a report said Tuesday. Some 8.6 million Italians are at risk from heavy drinking, including 800,000 minors, said the report on health ministry measures to combat dring-related problems.
Aosta, April 10 - Karl-Erivan Haub, a 58-year-old German retail magnate, went missing in the area of the Matterhorn on the Swiss-Italian border on Saturday, sources said Tuesday. Haub, the CEO of the Tengelmann Group and the member of an extremely rich family, often takes part in ski mountaineering races. He failed to turn up for an appointment in Zermatt, Switzerland, at 16.00 on Saturday, the sources said. Haub's family have said they are willing to pay for search operations, which have been slowed by bad weather. The last signal from his mobile phone was on Saturday evening.
Florence, April 10 - Italian highways company Societa Autostrade said Tuesday that it will replace devises for an electronic speed-monitoring system on its network after a ruling that it had breached the patent of a small Tuscan firm by using them. A Rome court ordered Societa Autostrade to remove the devices and destroy them due to a breach of the patent filed by the Craft firm of Greve in Chianti in case that started in 2006. The judges also ordered the company to pay Craft 500 euros for every day it fails to apply the ruling. Societa Autostrade said the devices will not be immediately removed, but phased out, adding that it would appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation against the sentence. It said it would pay the penalties for failing to immediately remove the devices in order to keep the current system active while it replaces them, saying this should take three weeks. It said it had decided to do so "to avoid the cancellation of the benefits of the Tutor (device), which has reduced the number of deaths on the motorway network by 70%".
Germany has taken into account the position of Ukraine regarding construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and believes that it is important to retain gas transit across the country's territory, Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel has said.

"We have taken into account the opinion of the Ukrainian president on the issue [construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline]. We also discussed this situation with the Russian president and communicated Ukraine's concern about the issue. The issue that some gas goes across the Ukrainian territory is on the agenda," Merkel said at a joint briefing with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Berlin on Tuesday.

The Federal Chancellor pointed out the importance of retaining gas transit across Ukraine.

There are also political considerations in the issue, Merkel said.
It wont be a room with a view, but it may help prevent neck strain. Passengers flying on Airbus SE planes soon will be able to slip down into the cargo hold for a proper nap.

The European jetmaker is working with seat manufacturer Zodiac Aerospace on the design and construction of lie-flat beds to fit in lower-deck cargo areas. The berths initially will be offered on Airbus A330 widebody aircraft from 2020, the companies said Tuesday at a conference in Hamburg, Germany.

The idea for specially designated sleeping areas on planes also was raised last month by Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Alan Joyce, who said his airline is studying options for making ultra-long-haul flights more bearable for passengers. Qantas is exploring direct links from Australia to the United States and Europe that would require travelers to spend as many as 17 consecutive hours in flight. Joyce said the airline could introduce a new four-class structure, with part of the cargo hold used for beds.

Under Airbus plan, the sleeping berths would be installed as modules that could be quickly replaced with regular cargo fittings during an aircrafts typical airport turnaround. Holds have, in the past, been designed as cabin crew rest areas and for religious facilities.

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Airlines will be able to retrofit old planes with the modules or build them into aircraft coming off the production line, according to the manufacturer. Airbus also is studying the possibility of offering similar sleeper compartments on its A350 airliner.
The signs of a pullback in Chinese investment in Los Angeles and elsewhere have been abundant over the last year.

Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group was poised to build a $1.2-billion luxury condominium and hotel complex near Beverly Hills, only to turn around and put the project back on the market.

In Hollywood, Paramount Pictures thought it had inked a deal to receive a $1-billion investment in its movies from another Beijing company, but the deal fell apart months later.

It was a sobering turnaround for real estate, entertainment and other interests that thought they had found a new long-term supply of capital.

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That drop in investment was quantified in a report released Tuesday by the nonprofit National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and research firm Rhodium Group. It found that total foreign direct investment in the U.S. from China fell to about $29 billion in 2017 from $46 billion the previous year.

The pullback, which reversed nearly a decade of sharp growth, was underway even before President Trump threatened a barrage of tariffs on Chinese goods amid rising economic tensions between the two nations.

In August, Chinas State Council laid down new regulations on outbound investments to reduce the risk of runaway debt and to blunt capital flight.

(L.A. Times Graphics )

The drop would have been steeper if not for $18 billion in Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. that were announced in 2016 but not completed until last year, the report said. The value of newly announced Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. last year plummeted 90% compared with 2016, according to a second report by the organizations that focused on Chinese investment in the U.S. by congressional districts.

Still, last year China invested more than twice as much in the United States as the United States did in China. U.S. investment in China held basically steady in 2017, at $14 billion compared with $13.8 billion the previous year, the report said.

RELATED: Amid Trumps threats, Xi pledges to slash tariffs, open Chinas markets 

The decline in Chinese investment in the U.S. represents a new normal, reflecting a more problematic political environment, the report said.

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That not only includes Beijing tightening controls on capital leaving the country to reduce over-leveraged private investment but also tougher scrutiny by Washington  begun during the Obama administration  of the national security implications of Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies.

More broadly, the Trump administration is redefining the U.S.-China relationship by declaring China a rival power and taking a more confrontative approach to trade and investment relations, the report said.

The new U.S. strategy toward China seems to integrate economic interaction ... into the definition of national security more holistically than before. This new approach indicates that more confrontational measures in trade and direct investment are likely, the report said.

Such an approach would seem almost certain to crimp financing for big new real estate developments given how Chinese investors are already withdrawing from some high-profile ventures.

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The 8 acres of land that Wanda Group is looking to sell on Wilshire Boulevard is widely regarded as one of the most desirable development sites in the country. The One Beverly Hills project slated for the site was designed by renowned architect Richard Meier.

Another giant Chinese developer, Greenland USA, recently started shopping around two key buildings in its $1-billion Metropolis complex in downtown Los Angeles  the Hotel Indigo and the 56-story Condo Tower 3, which is still under construction. A sale would depend on the strength of offers from potential buyers, Greenland said.

In Hollywood, Paramount Pictures was far from the only company to feel the effects of Beijings capital controls.

Chinese conglomerate Recon Holding scrapped its bid to acquire a majority stake in Millennium Films for $100 million. Also, Wanda Group canceled its $1-billion acquisition of Dick Clark Productions and abandoned plans to integrate Burbank-based Legendary Entertainment into its publicly traded film company.

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Meanwhile, Trump has railed against the large trade deficit the U.S. has with China and accused the Asian superpower of unfair trade practices. In recent weeks, the tensions between the two countries have increased.

Last week, Trump threatened to slap tariffs on $100 billion worth of imported Chinese goods, on top of $50 billion worth of Chinese products announced earlier. Chinas Commerce Ministry responded with a promise to fight the new tariffs at any cost with a full slate of unspecified countermeasures.

In the reports foreword, Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said the findings come as the past year has seen a ratcheting up of negative attitudes toward investment. The group promotes constructive relations between the two nations, and the report said more than 150,000 U.S. jobs are supported by Chinese investment.

Chinese investment in the U.S. in 2017 focused on coastal states. New York led the way with $11.7 billion in investment, including HNA Groups $10-billion purchase of CIT Group Inc.s aircraft-leasing business, the report said. Virginia was second with $6.5 billion in direct Chinese investment and California ranked third at $4.7 billion.

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California was the top location of U.S. investors pumping money into China, sending about $4.4 billion in direct investment to the nation last year, the report said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

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UPDATES:

6:15 p.m.: This article was updated with examples of Chinese investment pullbacks in Hollywood and Los Angeles commercial real estate.

This article was originally published at 7:35 a.m.
Equal Pay Day is Tuesday, and any progress companies have made toward tackling pay disparities between male and female employees comes without much evidence of change on the statistical front.

The most recent annual government data show women who work full time, year round, still earn 80 cents for every dollar men earn, a level that has hardly budged over the last decade after rising from about 60 cents in 1980.

The wage gap seems to be stuck, said Vicki Shabo, vice president for workplace policies and strategies at the National Partnership for Women and Families, which cites annual figures  rather than weekly figures showing an 82-cents-to-the-dollar disparity  to avoid fluctuations that come with seasonal work.

Equal Pay Day, launched in 1996, is meant to symbolize how far into the year a woman must work in order to earn the same amount that a man earned the previous year.

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The gap exists, to varying degrees, across jobs and industries. Personal financial advisors show the largest disparity, with womens median weekly earnings at 59% that of mens, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Womens Policy Research. Only in two occupational categories  dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers and wholesale and retail buyers, except farm products  do women earn more than men, while in 107 occupations women are paid less than 95% of what their male counterparts make, the report found.

People rally and march on International Womens Day on March 8 in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

That is still not an apples-to-apples comparison. Controlling for occupation, industry, education, experience and other factors that influence salary, the nations gender pay gap is less than 3 cents, according to a new PayScale survey of more than 2 million people.

But the overall 20-cent gap matters because it reflects that far fewer women than men are in executive roles and other higher-paid positions, and that the industries in which women are more likely to work tend to be lower paid. The lower lifetime earnings make it harder to pay back student debt, buy a home or support a family, putting women  15 million of whom are heads of households  at higher risk of financial insecurity, Shabo said.

The wage gap grows the older women get, as many more men than women move into senior roles, and research suggests that is driven in part by career interruptions to have children. Women are five times as likely as men to take a break from work to raise kids, and employees who leave the workforce for a year or more find that their pay upon returning is 7% less than a currently employed person seeking the same job, according to PayScales report.

Despite the slow progress, Shabo is optimistic that change is afoot as attention to issues of gender equity soars.

Were in a very unique moment in the ethos of this nation, she said.

Growing movements to raise the pay of care workers, plus teacher strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma, are forcing society to rethink the value of the jobs women tend to do, she said.

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Several cities and states have passed legislation prohibiting employers from asking job candidates about their prior salaries so as not to perpetuate lowball offers. And on Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that employers may not consider prior salaries in setting a persons pay.

Meanwhile, more companies are proactively fixing pay inequities among their employees. Last month, Starbucks announced 100% gender and racial pay equity for employees performing similar work at its U.S. company-owned stores, drawing praise from womens advocacy groups that hope it serves as a model for the retail sector.

JP Morgan Chase in February became the latest bank to disclose a pay gap of 1%, after adjusting for factors such as job role, seniority and geography. That disclosure came as legislation in Britain required large employers, including multinational banks such as JP Morgan, to report their raw pay gaps by an April 4 deadline, not adjusting for job role and other factors, which showed far larger disparities resulting from many more men holding senior positions. In the United States, an Obama-era policy that would have required large companies to report to the government what they pay employees by race and gender was halted by the Trump administration in August.

In the end, persistent pay gaps are less about pay and more about career barriers, said Haig Nalbantian, co-founder of Mercer Workforce Sciences Institute, which works with large global companies.

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Companies on the cutting edge of addressing the issue are digging into the root causes preventing women from getting the same positions as their male colleagues and designing solutions, he said.

But even initiatives meant to address those career barriers, such as more flexible schedules or generous paid leave, are proving to be insufficient, Nalbantian said. Companies with such policies are not seeing higher promotion rates for women, his research has found, perhaps because employees fall out of consideration when theyre not around.

You have to make sure youre also paying attention to the career progression, Nalbantian said. If its not managed well and leaders are not cognizant of this drag, theyre going to end up not having enough women in the pipeline.

aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com

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The other wage gap: Moms are paid less than dads

Equal Pay Day is a reminder of the importance of negotiating a salary

Trump administration halts Obama-era rule to shrink the gender wage gap
Mick Mulvaneys overhaul of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is so extensive it now could include revising the agencys name and discarding its simple, modern logo.

Mulvaney, installed as acting director by President Trump last fall, has taken to calling the agency the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection in formal correspondence. Then, last month, his staff unveiled the bureaus first-ever official seal, which formalized that name, written in full above an eagle with its wings raised over a shield featuring symbols for justice, consumer financial security and transparency.



For the record: An earlier version of this article reported that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus seal was unveiled this month. It was unveiled March 30.

Consumer advocates worry that the wording change and old-fashioned-looking seal are part of a broader strategy by Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency he now heads, to undermine its mandate by making it sound more bureaucratic and de-emphasizing the word consumer.

He changed the bureaus mission statement in December to make the top priority identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations. He also publicly declared that the bureau no longer would aggressively push the envelope to protect consumers.

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I have no doubt that this goes hand-in-hand with their other efforts to stymie the bureaus mission to protect consumers and hold industry accountable, said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress, a consumer watchdog group.

The name change, the reconfiguring of its missionthe new [seal], all of that is designed to dull the popular support the bureau receives when people hear about it by making it sound more bureaucratic and less effective, he said.

This is how @CFPB becomes just another bureacracy. The "cool" logo was part of an attempt to earn trust from Americans, who don't trust government anymore. Now it's back to the default: out-of-touch, out-of-date, out-of-order.https://t.co/T6IGps286G  Monte Desai (@MonteDesai) April 5, 2018

Under its first director, Democrat Richard Cordray, the bureau aggressively pursued consumer abuses.

Since opening in 2011, it provided consumers about $12 billion in refunds and debt relief from financial institutions. The bureau also played a key role in penalizing Wells Fargo & Co. after the bank created millions of accounts in customers names without those customers consent.

The agency has yet to issue an enforcement action under Mulvaney, a Republican who took over in a controversial appointment being challenged in court by Leandra English, the deputy director picked by Cordray to temporarily run the agency after he left.

There was a report this week that Mulvaney is considering fining Wells Fargo & Co. hundreds of millions of dollars for its mortgage-lending and auto-insurance abuses. But ahead of his first appearance before Congress on Wednesday, he formally asked lawmakers last week to sharply reduce the bureaus authority.

Robert Niemi, a former mortgage regulator in Ohio and a senior advisor at the BakerHostetler law firm, said the seal reflects a re-branding of the agency to show it will take a different approach than under the Obama administration.

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I think its just one of the ways theyre trying to signal that its a different bureau and its not the same as the previous administration, he said.

Its unclear if Mulvaney plans to formally change the name of the bureau or replace its logo, which is still displayed at the top of the website.

A March 30 news release introducing the seal said that over the next several months, the bureau will publicly incorporate the new seal in various ways.

Spokespeople for Mulvaney did not respond to requests for comment.

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The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which created the agency in the wake of the financial crisis, refers to it as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. But from the start under the Obama administration, it was called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who first conceived of the agency as a law professor, was in charge of launching it after the law passed as an aide to President Obama at the time.

She stressed that it would be a 21st century federal agency. And the bureaus green-and-white logo looked different than those of other agencies. It features the bureaus acronym in lower case with a spotlight extending out from the letter c. The agency is now popularly referred to by that acronym.

Consumers are the foundation and the focus of our mission and our logo reflects that, according to the CFPB website. A soft beam of light symbolizes our efforts to illuminate the financial landscape and foster transparency in the marketplace.

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The news release introducing the seal said it reflects the bureaus mission through American imagery and references to the nations founding documents.

The announcement also noted the seal, which Dodd-Frank gave the bureau the authority to adopt and use, aligns with those of other federal financial regulators.

Some federal agencies have revised or changed their names before. The Department of War was changed to the Department of Defense after World War II. And Congress General Accounting Office changed to the Government Accountability Office in 2004 to reflect its broader scope.

There also have been politically motivated name changes.

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In 1997, House Republicans changed the name of the Education and Labor Committee to Education and Workforce Committee. When Democrats took the House majority in 2007, they restored the old name. Republicans took the majority in 2011 and again replaced labor with workforce.

Consumer advocates note that changing the bureaus name could be costly and would be an unusual move for a Republican like Mulvaney, who has complained in the past about its spending.

Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition that supports tougher regulations, said the bureau was structured to focus on consumers and the public. That was a change from other financial regulators, which focused on banks and financial institutions, and the reason why the bureau has become popular with average Americans, she said.

Changing the bureaus name, as the seal does, represents a turn away from that view.

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Why would you want to put bureau first instead of consumer first? she said. It does seem like you do that if you want to take the emphasis away from consumers and put it on this is a bureaucracy.

Staff writer Joseph Tanfani contributed to this report.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera
There are few more brazen examples of healthcare practices that put industry profits ahead of patient interests than hawking prescription drugs in cheerful, 60-second TV commercials.

Its such a surefire recipe for misinformation and manipulation that nearly every developed country forbids the practice. Only the United States and New Zealand say its OK.

Yet a new study finds that U.S. authorities take such a lackadaisical approach to so-called direct-to-consumer drug ads that many of the commercials violate federal guidelines and, unsurprisingly, the quality of information presented is alarmingly low.

The advertisements dont often represent the best treatment or medication available, said Joseph Ross, an associate professor of medicine and public health at Yale University and the studys lead researcher. Theyre selling products.

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The concern, he told me, is that these advertisements are doing more harm than good.

Dont expect a crackdown anytime soon. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, amid a rollback of government regulations under President Trump, is considering even more leeway for drug companies to pitch prescription meds.

Its allowed because of a broad interpretation of free-speech rights, Ross said. The question is whether this information is accurate and useful, or whether these companies are yelling fire in a crowded movie theater.

Almost the entire developed world, including the World Health Organization, says its the latter.

The main problem, they say, is that these are complicated medical issues, and you simply cant communicate everything a patient needs to know for an informed decision in under a minute.

As a result, according to the Yale study, the information provided is unreliable and potentially misleading.

The drug industry, needless to say, sees things differently. It presents itself as a friend to patients, striving first and foremost to heal the sick and safeguard the public.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group, says direct-to-consumer ads are designed to provide scientifically accurate information to patients so that they are better informed about their healthcare and treatment options.

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It says such marketing encourages patients to visit their doctors offices for important doctor-patient conversations about health that might otherwise not take place.

Yep, putting patients first, thats the drug industry.

Or you can side with actual medical practitioners  that would be doctors  who say direct-to-consumer drug ads are dangerous.

The American Medical Assn. called for a ban on such ads in 2015, arguing that the billions of dollars drug companies spend on marketing pushes prices higher and inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.

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The Yale study looked at nearly 100 direct-to-consumer drug ads that aired in the United States between January 2015 and July 2016. Researchers found that about three-quarters of the ads were for chronic conditions such as arthritis and diabetes  the sort of illnesses that guarantee return business.

They also found that judging from the main characters in the ads, most target young or middle-aged women.

None of the commercials contained quantitative information regarding risks or side effects, the researchers found, meaning that viewers were left with incomplete knowledge of the potential dangers of a drug.

No less troubling, 13% of ads, all for diabetes medications, suggested off-label uses for weight loss and blood pressure reduction.

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This is significant. Under current FDA rules, prescription drugs only can be marketed for approved purposes, such as a diabetes pill that helps keep blood sugar under control. Unverified benefits  that is, off-label use  cant be part of the sales pitch.

However, Ross said his team saw ads for Type 2 diabetes medications along the lines of: This drug isnt indicated for weight loss, however we have found that some patients lose weight.

Lawyers say this isnt explicitly promoting an off-label use, he told me, but you could also say it is.

Of course it is. Type 2 diabetes is most common among obese and overweight people. Like theyre not going to take added interest if a TV commercial says a pill might help them shed pounds?

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Stephanie Caccomo, an FDA spokeswoman, declined to comment on the Yale study.

She said the agency is considering loosening its rules on off-label drug uses as part of our ongoing efforts to best protect and promote the public health in light of ongoing scientific developments and 1st Amendment considerations.

Drug companies spent more than $6 billion last year on direct-to-consumer ads, according to the consulting firm Kantar Media. Over 770,000 such ads were aired in 2016, the most recent year for which stats are available. Thats up a whopping 65% from 2012.

I asked PhRMA, the industry group, if it had any reaction to the Yale study finding that direct-to-consumer drug ads can be misleading and potentially in violation of federal rules.

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Priscilla VanderVeer, a spokeswoman, responded by citing a 2003 study, partly funded by drug companies, that found no widespread adverse health effects resulting from drug ads aimed at consumers.

She also cited a 2012 survey by a wellness magazine concluding that drug ads make many consumers feel more involved with their healthcare.

Not exactly a rebuttal of Yales findings, but OK.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) last month reintroduced a bill to get rid of the tax deduction that drug companies claim for their billions of dollars in marketing expenses  legislation that Republican lawmakers have consistently opposed.

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Although all businesses are permitted to deduct ordinary and necessary expenses, including marketing, critics say theres nothing ordinary and necessary about direct-to-consumer drug ads. They werent even a factor for the industry until 1997, when the FDA relaxed its advertising guidelines.

In a recent report, the National Academy of Sciences said drug companies spend substantially more on marketing and administration than on research and development.

It called on Congress to disallow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs as a tax-deductible business expense to refocus manufacturers priorities.

A majority of Americans think prescription drugs shouldnt be advertised on TV, according to a 2016 poll.

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Where does that put us?

On the one hand, direct-to-consumer drug ads are opposed by doctors, academics, global healthcare authorities, nearly all other developed countries and most Americans.

On the other, theyre backed by multibillion-dollar drug companies.

So I guess were stuck with them.

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David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.
The senators groused and grimaced and expressed general disapproval with all that has gone wrong at Facebook, but they stopped short of giving its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, reason for panic on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Zuckerbergs five-hour grilling by 44 lawmakers confirmed Facebook is in for a prolonged period of government scrutiny, but also highlighted how unprepared Congress is to impose game-changing rules on the worlds biggest social network.

Once lawmakers finally got Zuckerberg where they wanted him  under oath and forced to answer all their questions about Facebooks role in the 2016 election and its lax privacy protections  they struggled to articulate how exactly they want his company to change.

WATCH LIVE: Lawmakers to grill Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg over data-privacy scandal 

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The proceedings brought into stark relief how San Francisco Bay Area innovation can be more nimble than Washington bureaucracy. Zuckerberg had to spend a good deal of time explaining the basic workings of Facebook, such as how its Messenger app functions. The biggest revelation to come out of the hearing may have been that Facebook has been approached by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and is cooperating with his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

As the highly anticipated hearing that was supposed to be a reckoning for Facebook stretched toward evening, the companys stock price lifted; investors watching it did not see signs that lawmakers were equipped and ready to rein in the company.

Instead, the lawmakers mostly aired grievances. They had many.

Among the notable exchanges was one in which Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded of Zuckerberg: Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night? No, Zuckerberg would not. Durbin emphasized that the loss of control of such personal details by Facebook users necessitated the hearing.

They drilled down on privacy invasions and other issues dogging Facebook, such as foreign operatives using the platform to influence elections, a proliferation of hate speech and calls for ethnic violence in Myanmar, and its vulnerability to discriminatory marketing practices. Again and again, Zuckerberg was asked how the data of 87 million unsuspecting Facebook users landed in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked on the Trump campaign.

We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry, Zuckerberg said in his opening statement.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein demanded to know why Cambridge Analytica wasnt banned when Facebook learned it had abused the platform years ago. California Sen. Kamala Harris demanded to know why Facebook waited until the media learned of the abuse  only months ago  to inform its users about it.

In retrospect, we clearly view it as a mistake that we didnt inform people, Zuckerberg said. Knowing what we know now, we should have handled a lot of things differently.

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If the tech icon who favors hoodies and gray T-shirts felt out of place in his Washington attire of a dark suit and bright blue tie, it didnt show. Zuckerberg  who is also scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday  confidently answered questions and rarely stumbled.

Pressed on whether Facebook should be regulated more, Zuckerberg said he would support the right regulations that capture the nuances of how these services work.

Working in Facebooks favor is the reluctance of Republicans to impose rules more strict than those the company already seems to be embracing. But even they warned they are tired of the companys long history of abusing the trust of users, publicly apologizing and then repeating the cycle again.

I dont want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God I will, said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). I just dont feel like we are connecting. There are going to be a whole bunch of bills introduced to regulate Facebook. It is up to you whether they pass or not.

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The Menlo Park, Calif., company has been on the defense since it downplayed the effect of Russian interference on its platform during the 2016 presidential election. The widening Cambridge Analytica scandal has also resulted in a new Federal Trade Commission investigation into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree requiring the company to properly inform users about changes to their privacy settings.

The biggest threat to Facebook, however, would be new regulations that challenge the companys lifeblood: access to increasing amounts of personal data from its 2 billion users.

Such access is necessary, Zuckerberg argued, to support Facebooks ad-driven business model.

We want to offer a free service anyone can afford, Zuckerberg told the lawmakers. Its the only way we can reach billions of people.

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Rather than wait for regulation, Facebook in recent days has announced a slew of changes aimed at boosting transparency for users and limiting how much data is accessible to outside apps. Zuckerberg has also expressed support for the Honest Ads Act, a bipartisan proposal to apply the same disclosure rules to political ads online as those on television or print media.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, challenged Zuckerberg on the issue of competition, asking the executive if he thought Facebook was a monopoly.

It certainly doesnt feel that way to me, Zuckerberg said, eliciting chuckles in the room.

Asked if new privacy rules introduced by European regulators were appropriate, Zuckerberg was less than specific in his response. I think they get things right, he said, drawing even more laughter.

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After the hearing, Graham said the dark side of Facebook needs to be addressed, and the government may not have the tools to address it. It could possibly take the creation of new laws and regulations to deal with this platform, he said in a statement.

Some Democrats are ready to impose them immediately. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Facebooks business model would always favor data collection over user privacy and security, and new laws are needed to keep it in check.

Weve seen the apology tours before, Blumenthal said. I dont see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road.

He and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pressured Zuckerberg to support their Consent Act, which would require tech companies to get explicit permission from users before using or sharing their personal data.

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Zuckerberg said he supports the principle of consent but declined to endorse any such bill, saying the details [of a bill] matter a lot. Markey retorted that the act is a carbon copy of the new European regulation Facebook is going to have to live with starting next month.

But the measure has limited traction in a Congress conflicted about how to oversee a tech powerhouse that has had a profound effect on democracy but operates in a way many still struggle to understand. The platform is so widely used by voters that any unintended consequences of regulations could have considerable political fallout.

One of the few senators able to rattle Zuckerberg was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who complained the platform was censoring conservative content.

There are a great many of Americans deeply concerned Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship, Cruz said. Among his complaints: The muting of a Chick-fil-A appreciation page and the page of Trump supporters Diamond and Silk.

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Zuckerberg said Facebook was a platform for all ideas and dismissed a suggestion from Cruz that conservatives were not getting hired at the company. He said Facebook did not fire Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey because of his political ideology, but would not elaborate on the reason for the termination.

Concerns that the company is also failing to police at the fringes were also fired at Zuckerberg.

Senators pressed him about the spread of misinformation and hate speech in Myanmar that has fueled additional violence against the Southeast Asian nations Rohingya minority group. Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) asked why the onus always seems to be on users to flag problematic content rather than the company itself.

He relayed an anecdote involving an erroneous photograph he discovered of himself that was being shared on Facebook..

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Isnt it Facebooks job to better protect users? he asked.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the problems exist  but suggested the company is already ahead of Congress in addressing it. He noted there are 20,000 employees engaged in monitoring and security at Facebook, and the company is hiring dozens of more Burmese language content reviewers.

Along with that human oversight, Zuckerberg proposed a technological solution to a technological problem.

He said artificial intelligence and sophisticated algorithms will be part of the companys broader plan to weed out bad actors on its platform. Lawmakers posed few questions on that.

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david.pierson@latimes.com

Follow me @dhpierson on Twitter

UPDATES:

6:30 p.m.: This article was entirely rewritten to include broader political context.

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4:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Maggie Hassan.

3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Sens. Kamala Harris and John Kennedy.

3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Dean Heller.

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with details about testimony regarding Myanmar.

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2:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Christopher Coons.

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated after questions from Sen. Ted Cruz.

1:15 p.m.: This article was updated after questions from Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

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12:55 p.m.: This article was updated after questions began to focus on regulation.

12:10 p.m.: This article was updated after the hearing began.

This article was originally published at 6 a.m.
Ukraine to get about $3 bln in 2018, 2019 as revenues from gas transit - Vitrenko

Ukraine will receive about $3 billion each in 2018 and 2019 as revenues from natural gas transit, Naftogaz Chief Commercial Officer Yuriy Vitrenko has said.

"The revenues from transit should be at the level of $3 billion each in 2018 and 2019," he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

According to the ruling of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Naftogaz should receive money from the transit through Ukraine's gas transport system of 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas regardless of actual volumes of transportation. The contracts between Gazprom and Naftogaz for gas supply and transit are valid until the end of 2019.

According to Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev, this is not a classic "take or pay" case, but if Gazprom does not fulfill the contractual volume of transit of 110 billion cubic meters per year, Naftogaz will again file a claim with the arbitration court and will sue the Russian company for non-fulfillment of the terms of the contract.
Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased.

The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up.

But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest.

Educators have been fretting about the National Assessment of Educational Progress  known as NAEP  since 2015, when scores stagnated after a long period of slow but steady gains.

Even the slight progress in eighth-grade reading nationwide this time was not across the board.

The performance of lower-performing students stayed about the same, said Peggy G. Carr, the associate commissioner of assessment at the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Department of Educations research office.

California, though, had a success story across the distribution of students in eighth-grade reading, said Jack Buckley, a senior vice president at the American Institutes for Research, who previously led the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the test.

Interpreting the scores

California was one of just 10 states to post statistically significant increases in eighth-grade reading.

In 2015, the average reading score for California eighth-graders was 259 on the 500-point test. In 2017, the average was 263.

Ryan Smith, executive director of the Education Trust  West, an Oakland-based nonprofit that fights for educational equity, partially credited the effects of the states Local Control Funding Formula, which aims to give schools extra resources for the neediest students.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Its showing Californias efforts to provide more resources have given [students] some gains, he said.

Otherwise, the states scores on the test were flat, which the state Dept. of Education downplayed.

Robert Oakes, a department spokesman, said of the test: We do not believe it is the best measure of success because it is not aligned to California standards.

Big achievement gaps remain

Gaps between different racial groups remained wide both nationally and in California. In L.A. Unified, only 13% of black students met or exceeded proficiency goals in fourth-grade reading, compared to 51% of white students and 23% of students overall. In California, only 10% of black students and 15% of Latino students met those benchmarks in eighth-grade math, compared to 44% of white students and 29% of students overall.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

This is a wake-up call that we need to do more to put equity at the center of the discussion, Smith said. We have to start putting our actions where our words are. Im concerned that California claims to be a beacon on the hill and yet still leaves black and Latino students languishing on the sidelines.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Tested on tablets

The national exam generally is considered the gold standard of educational measurement, in part because it has no consequences for individual students, schools and teachers, so theres less incentive to try to game it by spending hours on test-prep drills. In states such as California, where many districts are posting higher and higher graduation rates, it can also be a reality check.

Last year was the first time the test was administered digitally, with 298,000 fourth-graders and 268,800 eighth-graders in public and private schools nationwide logging their answers on tablets.

Southern Californias scores

In L.A. Unified, average scores increased by a few points between 2015 and 2017 in all areas except fourth-grade math, but the federal government judged those small increases to be statistically insignificant.

In comparing ourselves to other districts, we did fairly well, said Oscar Lafarga, executive director of LAUSDs office of data and accountability. Students with disabilities and English learners, he said, saw some higher scores.

Los Angeles Times

In eighth-grade math, though, the performance gap between white and Latino students widened between 2015 and 2017.

All gaps  are concerning, Lafarga said.

But where the lowest-performing students in California and the nation overall largely posted lower scores in 2017 than their peers in 2015, L.A.s bottom scorers held steady and even posted higher scores.

There was good news for San Diego, too, where fourth-graders average scores went up in both subjects.
Last month in a jam-packed San Jose arena, fire-walking guru Tony Robbins dismissed the #MeToo movement with an anecdote he should have been ashamed to share.

That he brought up the story at all tells us everything we need to know about the casual acceptance of our cultures unexamined misogyny and the deep-seated need of some men to close ranks. It also tells us that despite all the progress weve made in the last half year, we have so much further to go. Well, men do.

As Robbins told it, a man he knows  a very famous man, a very powerful man  interviewed three people for a job, two men and a woman.

The woman, said Robbins, 58, was better qualified. But she was very attractive and he knew, I cant have her around because its too big a risk, and he hired somebody else. Ive had a dozen men tell me this.

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Robbins did not share this story because it was so outrageous and sexist and wrong, which of course, it is.

He shared it as a kind of misbegotten rebuttal to a woman in the audience who had stood up and calmly challenged him for mischaracterizing the sexual reckoning as a counterproductive strategy by angry women.

You are an influential man, Nanine McCool, 55, told Robbins, and you are doing a disservice in my opinion to the #MeToo movement.

Anger is not empowerment, Robbins told McCool before gently pushing her backward with his outstretched fist in a misguided gesture that was supposed to demonstrate the folly of resistance (to what? male dominance?), but which struck many observers as physical intimidation. (Robbins is 6-foot-7; McCool is 5-foot-8.)

If you use the #MeToo movement to try to get significance and certainty by attacking and destroying someone else, he said, all youve done is basically use a drug called significance to make yourself feel good.

This constitutes such a cringe-worthy misreading of what has happened in the last six months that its hard to believe Robbins has become rich and famous teaching people to Unleash the Power Within, the title of this three-and-a-half day, $2,995 seminar.

Has the guru lost his mojo?

::

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@TonyRobbins If you talk to more SURVIVORS and less sexist businessmen maybe youll understand what we want. We want safety. We want healing. We want accountability. We want closure. We want to live a life free from shame. Thats the reality of the @MeTooMVMT sir, do better.  Tarana (@TaranaBurke) April 7, 2018

That day in San Jose, a California beat box musician, Antoinette Clinton, who goes professionally by Butterscotch, happened to have her phone out.

She recorded the exchange between Robbins and McCool and posted it on Facebook, where it remained for four days until Robbins attorneys demanded she take it down.

By that time, however, the 11-minute clip had come to the attention of feminist activist Tarana Burke, who coined the phrase Me Too and has become a key player in the new social movement.

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On Saturday, Burke tweeted several times at Robbins, excoriating him for his cluelessness.

If you talk to more SURVIVORS and less sexist businessmen maybe youll understand what we want, she wrote. We want safety. We want healing. We want accountability. We want closure. We want to live a life free from shame. Thats the reality of the @MeTooMVMT sir, do better.

One day later, Robbins posted an apology on Facebook.

sometimes, the teacher has to become the student and it is clear that I still have much to learn, he wrote. ...what Ive realized is that while Ive dedicated my life to working with victims of abuse all over the world, I need to get connected to the brave women of #MeToo. I am committed to being part of the solution.

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He singled out Burke for praise, but never bothered to mention McCool, whose courage certainly deserved to be acknowledged. His organization did, however, refund McCools seminar fee in full. No questions asked.

::

When I reached McCool on Monday, she was in a car en route from her home in Lacombe, La., to the airport in New Orleans. Shes doing the media rounds in New York City this week, starting with an appearance Tuesday on Today.

She had heard good things about Robbins motivational talks and decided the seminar would help snap her out of a bad professional place.

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In 2015, after a 15-year-legal career, she had been disbarred by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which found that she violated the rules of professional conduct when she encouraged citizens to contact two judges involved in a custody case where there were allegations of sexual abuse against the father of two girls.

McCool, said the Louisiana Supreme Court, had inappropriately spearheaded a social media blitz in an attempt to influence the judiciary.

She refused to acknowledge wrongdoing or apologize and so, rather than accept a suspension, she was disbarred.

I was kind of stuck, she said. I felt like I needed to figure out how to move forward.

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If media interest is any indication, her career as an advocate for women, and victims of domestic violence is back on track.

I clearly am nervous about screwing it up, and worry that I am in over my head and will say the wrong thing, she said.

Shes still processing her odd moment with one of the worlds most successful motivational speakers, and is more generous toward him than hes been toward her.

I believe he has the potential to understand and grow and become a tremendous force for change, said McCool. I know hes taking a lot of heat and he deserves it, because what he said was improper. But he did a service by saying what he did.

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Yes, he did. He revealed to the world how some of his rich, powerful, male friends are conducting themselves in the post-#MeToo world.

They are punishing women for the sins of their badly behaving brethren.

Somehow, you cant be surprised.

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

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Twitter: @AbcarianLAT
A ruling by a San Diego federal judge allowing construction of President Trumps border wall to go ahead will be appealed by two entities opposed to the wall, including Californias attorney general.

Both the Center for Biological Diversity and Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed formal notices of appeal Monday seeking to reverse a decision in February by U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. The judge ruled that the Trump administration did not abuse its discretion in waiving environmental laws in its rush to begin border wall projects along the Southwest border.

The center had said after the ruling it would appeal, and Becerra also hinted the state would seek appellate court review at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The notices declare an intent to appeal. They do not outline arguments to be made on appeal or why each group believes that Curiel got it wrong.

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In a prepared statement Becerra said: When we said that a medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border does not belong in the 21st century, we meant it. There are environmental and public health laws in place, and we continue to believe that the Trump Administration is violating those laws. We will not stand idly by. We are committed to protecting our people, our values and our economy from federal overreach.

The lawsuits challenged a law that allowed the federal government not to comply with environmental and other laws and regulations when building border security projects. They argued the law was outdated and Congress never intended for it to be an open-ended waiver for all border projects, and contended it violated constitutional provisions of separation of powers and states rights.

In his decision Curiel said both that the law was constitutional and it gave the Department of Homeland Security wide latitude over border security.

Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley said in response to the Curiel ruling that the administration was pleased DHS can continue this important work vital to our nations interest.

Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security, OMalley said.

Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Delano police say immigration agents gave statements that conflicted with surveillance footage in the wake of a crash in which two immigrants in the country illegally died while fleeing.

The death of Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Profecto sparked protests in the Central Valley community. The couple, who had six children, were not the intended targets for arrest, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Shortly after the March 13 crash, a deportation officer told police officers that his car followed in the same direction of a vehicle he was attempting to stop, but that he was not in pursuit with emergency lights/sirens, according to a statement provided in a Delano Police Department traffic collision report.

But surveillance footage obtained by the Police Department showed that one of two cars driven by the deportation officers had its front and rear emergency lights activated and the second had its rear emergency lights activated. A time stamp showed the couples car at 06:48:42 traveling at a faster rate of speed than other traffic. At 06:48:52, two cars that matched the deportation officers vehicles followed with the lights activated, according to the report.

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The statements provided by the deportation officers, contradict with the surveillance review conducted, the department stated in its report. The Delano Police Department declined to comment further.

Per routine protocol, at the time of the incident, the facts surrounding the encounter were referred for review and that review is ongoing, ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said in a statement. While this was an isolated and extremely unfortunate incident, ICE wants to encourage all individuals we encounter to fully cooperate with our law enforcement officers.

The statement cited sanctuary policies that have pushed ICE out of jails and force our officers to conduct more enforcement in the community  which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public.

It also increases the likelihood that ICE will encounter other illegal aliens who previously werent on our radar, Rocha said.

Officials for ICE have said that Garcia matched the description of the person whom agents sought to arrest. Delano police said that after initially stopping, the couple fled in their car and recklessly passed westbound traffic by crossing into an eastbound lane. The maneuver caused vehicles traveling east to move to avoid crashing, the police report said.

The driver, Santos Hilario Garcia, passed additional motorists on the north dirt shoulder, before crashing into a utility pole.

Garcia had been convicted in 2014 of driving under the influence and was voluntarily returned to Mexico three times between 2008 and 2017. Profecto had no prior encounters with ICE.

An organization working with the family has given different spellings for Marcelinas last name, but Delano police and ICE have given it as Profecto.

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The sequence of events leading to the high-speed wreck began early that morning.

The couples son told police that at 5 a.m., his father had woken up, eaten breakfast, then headed out with his wife to drop off their daughter at school before driving to work, according to the report. He told police that Garcia had been in good spirits.

Deportation officer Ramiro Sanchez told police that about 5:30 a.m. he and colleagues were conducting surveillance on an apartment on Albany Street, in order to detain Celestino Hilario-Garcia, a man who is wanted for removal from the country.

The report does not state what relationship that person has to Garcia.

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Sanchez stated that a colleague witnessed Garcia, who they mistakenly thought was the target, enter a vehicle in front of the apartment, along with a woman and a girl.

Sanchez and another deportation officer, Dimas Benitez, followed the car in black, unmarked Jeeps with tinted windows. They followed the car to an area where the couple dropped off their daughter, who was heading to high school. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez conducted a traffic enforcement stop on the car by activating his emergency lights.

As Sanchez got out of the car, Santos Hilario Garcia sped off on West Cecil Avenue. Sanchez said he followed the car for 15 seconds before stopping. He and Benitez then decided to continue on West Cecil Avenue in an attempt to locate the car, according to the report. They soon spotted a traffic accident in front of North Kern State Prison and called police.

Three witnesses to the crash said the couples car was not being followed or chased and that no police were present, according to the police report.

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Delano police officers were dispatched to the 29000 block of West Cecil Avenue shortly before 7 a.m. to check on the crash. Officers found a blue Ford Explorer Sport Trac overturned with the couple inside. They died at the scene.

In a supplemental report, a Delano police officer said that ICE agents stated that, due to their policy, they did not pursue the fleeing vehicle. Another supplemental report said that Benitez stated that he and Sanchez drove in the direction of the fleeing car but did not chase it.

According to the police report, when the two deportation officers were told they could leave, Sanchez stated that they were waiting for the male passenger to be identified, so they could determine whether he was the person they were pursuing.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

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Twitter: @brittny_mejia

UPDATES:

8:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the surveillance footage.

7:20 p.m.: This article was updated clarifying the spelling of Marcelinas name.

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This article was originally published at 6:45 p.m.
Los Angeles County officials released a proposed $30.8-billion budget for the next fiscal year Monday, emphasizing the need to combat and prevent homelessness and to provide crucial safety-net services.

Of all of the issues confronting the county none is more urgent and complex than homelessness, Sachi Hamai, the countys chief executive, said at a news conference.

Hamai said the county is making unprecedented progress on the issue, largely because of Measure H, the countywide quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters last year that is expected to generate $355 million annually.

In the last six months of 2017, Hamai said, more than 7,000 people received temporary housing and 3,000 received permanent supportive housing.

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L.A. Countys homeless population has surged in recent years, reaching nearly 58,000 in 2017. A clearer picture of any effect Measure H has had so far will emerge once the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority releases its point-in-time count for 2018.

If approved, the budget for 2018-19 would allocate $374 million in Measure H funds for homeless services and prevention. Separate from Measure H funds, $45 million would go toward affordable housing and $34 million toward permanent supportive housing for those who have been in the criminal justice system.

The budget also includes $52 million for the countys child welfare agency to find permanent homes for foster youth and to support the families that take care of them. Nearly $100 million would fund a wide range of mental health and substance abuse services. An additional $2 million would go toward the establishment of two new outpatient primary care facilities in Lincoln Heights and Canoga Park.

Close to $1 billion would go toward capital projects, including two mental health facilities in the South Bay and San Fernando Valley. An additional $67 million has been budgeted for road repairs across the county.

A new item this year includes $511,000 for Bringing Our Loved Ones Home, a program to help families and caretakers find relatives with Alzheimers disease or autism who wander off. The initiative grew out of the disappearance in 2016 of 57-year-old Nancy Paulikas, a former computer engineer who suffered from advanced Alzheimers disease.

L.A. Countys budget is one of the largest local government budgets in the country, funding a sprawling bureaucracy that includes social service, child welfare, health and public safety agencies, including more than 110,000 jobs.

It is three times the size of the budget of the city of Los Angeles, though smaller than that of New York City, which has a consolidated city-county system of government and a budget of more than $85 billion.

The countys recommended budget of $30.8 billion represents a slight decrease  of about $800 million  from last years final adopted budget. Hamai said that was primarily because of one-time costs in last years budget that were not renewed this year.

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Hamai noted that the county has consistently received excellent credit ratings for its strong fiscal stewardship. That approach requires us to be vigilant about potential issues down the road, she said.

Hamai cited the looming expiration next year of a federal waiver under which the county receives $440 million for foster care services, escalating costs of the In-Home Supportive Services program, and $225 million for a new touch-screen voting system to be rolled out in 2020.

The budget will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Public hearings will be held in May and budget deliberations in June.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

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Twitter: @AgrawalNina
Two Los Angeles police officers were injured in a downtown collision with a produce truck early Tuesday.

At about 1:30 a.m., the officers were driving a patrol vehicle northbound on Los Angeles Street and collided with a Frankies Produce truck that was turning left on Temple Street, ABC7 reported.

The two officers were hospitalized. They were conscious and talking, and the extent of their injuries was not immediately known, LAPD Lt. Allen Schubert told ABC7.

The driver of the produce truck was cooperating with investigators, Schubert said.

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The cause of the crash is under investigation.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson
Ten months after a man who had a toy gun was shot by Los Angeles police, then run over by an uncontrolled patrol car, police commissioners determined Tuesday that the officers were justified in using deadly force.

Siding with Chief Charlie Beck, the five commissioners unanimously decided that officers reasonably believed Eric Rivera posed a serious threat before they fatally shot him last June in Wilmington.

The ruling was met with anger from Riveras relatives and activists. Some cursed at commissioners. Riveras mother cried. His father sat in silence.

Riveras parents have routinely attended the civilian oversight panels weekly meetings, demanding that the officers who shot their son be held accountable.

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I felt like I was actually doing something, Philip Malik, Riveras father, said. Now it feels like it didnt really result in anything.

Rivera, 20, was shot and killed after officers responded to Wilmington Boulevard to check on a 911 call about a man carrying a gun, according to a report Beck gave police commissioners.

READ: LAPD Chief Charlie Becks report about Eric Riveras death 

Officers spotted Rivera walking down the sidewalk, holding what one said he thought was a gun, according to the report.

The officers bailed out of the car  so quickly that the driver didnt put it in park  and ordered Rivera to drop the gun, the report said. Instead, the officers told investigators, he raised it in their direction.

I still see that look  the anger of determination, one of the officers said, according to the report. I thought he was going to kill me.

The officers fired 11 rounds, striking Rivera in the head, chest and legs. The patrol car then rolled over him, the report said.

A Los Angeles police official cordons off a police car last summer as part of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Eric Rivera in Wilmington. Police said the officers vehicle hit the man after he was shot. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

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Rivera died at the scene. Becks report said a green and black colored plastic toy water gun was found near his body.

Parts of the shooting were captured by the officers body cameras, Becks report said, though the view was intermittently obscured by their arms and the doors of their car. The footage was not clear enough to determine Riveras movements at the time of the shooting, the report said.

The videos have not been released.

The union representing the LAPDs rank-and-file defended the officers actions, saying they only had fractions of a second to react to a man pointing a gun at them.

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This incident is a tragic reminder that firearms, whether real or replicas, create an inherently dangerous situation in our communities when pointed at police officers, the Los Angeles Police Protective League said.

The names of the officers were redacted from the copy of Becks report that was made public Tuesday. The LAPD previously identified them as Arturo Urrutia and Daniel Ramirez.

Riveras parents, who filed a federal lawsuit last year alleging police used excessive force, have called for criminal charges against the officers. On Tuesday, the district attorneys office said it had not yet received a case from the LAPD to review.

Tuesdays decision came on the heels of what has become another controversial encounter between police and members of the Rivera family.

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On March 31, Riveras mother posted on Facebook a 21-minute livestream showing officers detaining his brothers and friends at the site of his shooting. Valerie Riveras video prompted an internal investigation by the LAPD and a review by the commissions inspector general.

The recording shows five young people lined up against a fence, hands cuffed behind their backs. A small group of candles sits just a few feet away.

All we did was come and light my sons candles, Valerie Rivera says. We didnt even do anything wrong.

One officer tells her that police stopped the boys when they saw their car, which appears to be parked diagonally on a driveway. There have been shootings in the area, he said  were here making sure that no one has guns.

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Police ultimately let the group go. But the interaction prompted concern from at least one police commissioner.

The officers, for the most part, appear to be acting in a very professional manner, Commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill said at Tuesdays meeting. However, it is the long term and frequent detention of young men of color, handcuffed, up against walls, that occurs all too often that is the underlying basis for much of the hostility, the outrage and the mistrust that is directed at law enforcement.

Beck said the LAPD would look into the legality and propriety of the stop.

Valerie Rivera stood with nearly 20 other people outside the LAPDs downtown headquarters Tuesday, crying after the Police Commission announced its decision. As the group chanted her sons name, their voices echoed off the building.

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I just want my baby back, she said.

kate.mather@latimes.com

@katemather

UPDATES:

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8:30 p.m.: This article was edited throughout and updated with additional details from the police report about Eric Riveras death, comments from his family and a police commissioner.

This article was originally published at 3:10 p.m.
With the city of Los Angeles and Orange County on opposite sides, Southern Californias role in financing a massive water delivery project is likely to hinge on a few smaller agencies.

In what will be a crucial decision, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is expected to vote Tuesday whether to approve nearly $11 billion in financing to help build two giant water tunnels in the center of the states waterworks or $5.2 billion to construct a single tunnel.

Lobbying on the long-planned project continued Monday as Gov. Jerry Brown asked MWD directors to move ahead with both tunnels.

Tomorrow you have a historic decision to make about the future of California and the basic security of our water supply, wrote Brown, who has made the project a priority of his administration. I urge the board to support the full project  without delay.

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Hours earlier the five MWD board members from Los Angeles signaled they might vote against both options because too many uncertainties hung over the much-debated proposal to revamp the way water supplies are routed through the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.

Los Angeles has the biggest vote under MWDs system, which weighs the votes of member agencies according to assessed property values in their service areas.

Second to L.A. is the San Diego County Water Authority, which is also expected to oppose the project, along with Santa Monica.

But the agency with the third-largest vote, the Municipal Water District of Orange County, is aggressively pushing the $11-billion buy-in, which would finance about two-thirds of the full project.

I think its very close, said MWD director Brett Barbre, who is president of the Orange County agency. They just need to get 11% more and they can kill us.

Both sides Monday restated familiar arguments about the project, known as California WaterFix.

The full $17-billion project calls for construction of a new diversion point on the Sacramento River in the deltas northern reach that would feed two 35-mile tunnels. They would carry supplies to the big government pumping operations that send water south to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities.

The projects underlying concept is that by partially supplying the export operations with tunnel water, the huge pumps would draw less water from the deltas southern portion, alleviating the pumpings harmful effects on the delta ecosystem.

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When the San Joaquin Valley agricultural districts that were supposed to help pay for the tunnels voted not to participate, the Brown administration said it would initially pursue a smaller, one-tunnel project, to be financed by MWD and the other largely urban districts that get delta supplies from the State Water Project. Under that approach, the state said a second tunnel could be built later.

It didnt take long for WaterFix backers on the MWD board to suggest the agency step up and help fill the funding void to build both tunnels. They argued that agricultural districts would eventually buy some of the tunnel capacity and MWD would recoup its extra investment.

But Westlands Water District and other agricultural districts that depend on delta deliveries have so far declined to sign options or purchase agreements to buy future tunnel supplies.

That has raised the possibility that MWD  and Southern California ratepayers  could be stuck paying for a second tunnel that, according to MWDs analysis, would not send any more water to the Southland than one tunnel.

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Making Southern Californians foot the bill for this project is irresponsible, and unfair to our ratepayers. I would support a one-tunnel solution that protects ratepayers, our local investments and our environment, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday in a statement. MWDs current plan does none of those things, and I cannot support it.

Garcetti appoints L.A.s five MWD board members, who Monday sent a three-page letter to MWDs general manager, asking him to delay Tuesdays vote  something that is unlikely to happen.

The letter raised a host of concerns about pushing ahead with twin tunnels, arguing that MWD ran the risk of winding up with a largely unused second tunnel that could turn into a stranded asset. The delegation also questioned the wisdom of a $5.2-billion investment in a single tunnel, which would add roughly a billion dollars to the tunnel funding approved by the MWD board last year.

Asked if that meant the Los Angeles contingent might vote against both options, L.A. director John Murray replied, Its not impossible.

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Twin tunnel backers say the second tunnel would give managers more flexibility in operating the delta pumps, and do more to reduce the harmful effects of pumping operations on native fish.

MWD board Chairman Randy Record said Monday that he supports the $11-billion buy-in for the full project and thinks it would be worth it even if agriculture never contributes to the project.

In considering his vote, I have to look at it as though  were going to be building the whole thing and were going to hold that infrastructure for our own use, he said. I still believe thats the right thing to do.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

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Twitter: @boxall
The L.A. district attorneys office announced this week it would not bring sexual assault charges against director James Toback, but it continues to consider what to do about Harvey Weinstein and the sexual assault allegations against him.

The DA has been reviewing the case for several weeks, and prosecutors could take significantly more time to decide what to do.

The stakes are high, given that revelations against Weinstein began the #MeToo movement and a series of allegations about powerful men in Hollywood and beyond.

When it comes to sex crimes, Weinstein is the case of the century, said Steve Cooley, former Los Angeles district attorney.

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Here is what we know about the case:

What are the allegations against Weinstein?

The case involves an Italian model-actress who alleges Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel room five years ago. According to law enforcement sources, detectives believe the case is promising because the woman told her story to three people, including her priest, relatively soon after the alleged attack. LAPD detectives also have obtained bills showing she was at the hotel at the time, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Though the case is far from overwhelming  the sources said detectives have found little physical evidence of an attack and have been unable to secure proof that Weinstein was at the hotel when the woman says the rape occurred  prosecutors will have one additional weapon at their disposal: a California law that allows them to introduce allegations by other women, even those that do not result in criminal charges.

In October, the actress, 38, provided LAPD detectives with what she said was a moment-by-moment account of how Weinstein had bullied his way into her hotel room in 2013 and attacked her.

She told The Times that she and Weinstein had spoken briefly on the evening in question at the Los Angeles Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest. Later, she said, he showed up without warning in the lobby of her hotel  which surprised her because she didnt tell him where she was staying. He asked to come up to her room. She said she told him no and offered to meet him downstairs, but soon he was knocking on her door.

He ... bullied his way into my hotel room, saying, Im not going to [have sex with] you, I just want to talk, the woman told The Times. Once inside, he asked me questions about myself, but soon became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked.

She said Weinstein repeatedly bragged about his power and influence and told her not to fight him. She tried to show him pictures of her children as she cried and begged him to go away, she said.

He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do, she said. He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me.

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She did not tell authorities about the incident at the time, so no rape kit was taken. As a result, the law enforcement source said, there is little physical evidence in the case.

What has Weinsteins response been?

Weinstein attorneys Blair Berk and Benjamin Brafman have said that their client never engaged in nonconsensual sex acts. On Saturday, they released a statement saying Mr. Weinstein unequivocally denies there was any criminal conduct.

In the case of the Italian actress, a Weinstein spokeswoman said, it is hard to answer her accusations because her identity has not been officially disclosed to the producers legal team.

What is the upcoming timeline?

The LAPD spent months investigating the case. It turned it over to prosecutors several weeks ago.

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An experienced sex crimes deputy district attorney from a special task force recently spent more than three hours interviewing the actress, sources said.

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey established a special sex crime task force for the celebrity cases as the allegations against Weinstein and others expanded.

But experts said it could take months for the DAs office to make its decision on whether to charge Weinstein.

Cooley said all prosecutors are cautious when comes to complex high-profile cases, but the district attorney doesnt really make decisions in such cases  rather, its the prosecutors in sex crimes units and to some extent the head of criminal prosecutions. The district attorney isnt making the decision here. It may eventually come to her desk, Cooley said.

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Cooley said it is hard to ignore the suspects name. Does the evidence show he committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt is the question  but its hard to forget it is a high-profile celebrity case when the whole world is watching, he said.

Cooley said no prosecutor likes to lose such cases, pointing to another high-profile case that L.A. prosecutors lost. I had Robert Blake and evidence showed he was guilty of murder, but a jury didnt agree.

What about other allegations against Weinstein?

Some 85 actresses, assistants and models have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Actresses Annabella Sciorra, Rose McGowan, Lysette Anthony and Paz de la Huerta all have publicly accused him of rape.

Of the three Weinstein cases submitted by the LAPD to the district attorney, two are outside the statute of limitations. One is a rape accusation and another a lewd acts allegation. But the accusers stories could be used if the producer were charged in another case.

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Beverly Hills police have two investigations of Weinstein under review by prosecutors. In addition, least five women have made reports to New York law enforcement. The Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom has received reports from nine women.
Setting the stage for whats certain to be an expensive and explosive political battle that could decide control of the U.S. Senate, Republican Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that he will challenge Bill Nelson, the Democratic incumbent.

Both parties are likely to spend tens of millions of dollars, as Republicans seek to hold or expand their one-seat margin in the Senate and Democrats seek to take control of the chamber.

We have to all acknowledge that Washington is a disaster. Its dysfunctional. There is a lot of old, tired thinking up there, Scott said at a rally in Orlando, Fla., on Monday. This concept of career politicians has got to stop. We have to have term limits on Congress.

Scott, 65, is a former hospital executive who became governor in 2010 with the help of $60.4 million of his own money, upsetting the GOP establishment along the way. His fundraising prowess, along with his personal wealth  if he needs to use it  sets up Nelson with a fierce challenge for reelection.

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His announcement was a preview of expected attacks against Nelson, a three-term incumbent who previously served in the U.S. House, the state Legislature and in Cabinet-level elected positions in state government during a career that spans more than four decades.

But Nelson, 75, seemed unfazed by Scotts candidacy.

Ive always run every race like theres no tomorrow  regardless of my opponent, Nelson said in a statement. While its clear that Rick Scott will say or do anything to get elected, Ive always believed that if you just do the right thing, the politics will take care of itself.

Scotts candidacy was immediately bashed by several Democrats and progressive groups.

Just like the rest of the Tallahassee establishment, Rick Scott is only looking out for himself  thats why he gave tax breaks to wealthy and powerful millionaires like himself while slashing education spending and refusing federal help for hundreds of thousands of Floridians without health insurance, said Chris King, a Democratic candidate for governor.

Scotts support for President Trump will be a major factor in the race. Even so, Scott has taken several moderate positions at odds with Trump, such as signing a bill with gun control provisions and supporting an extension to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the program for immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children that Trump ended last month.

But Scotts position on gun control is viewed skeptically by Democrats, who note he did not embrace such action after the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando in the same way he did after the mass shooting at a Parkland high school in February.

[Scott] used the Pulse tragedy as a political prop while shamelessly touting an A+ rating from the NRA, said Anna Eskamani, a Democratic candidate for an Orlando-area state House seat. [Scott] wholeheartedly supports President Trumps anti-women, anti-immigrant and anti-equality agenda.

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Attack ads began hitting the internet as soon as Scott made his announcement.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee unleashed a pair of Facebook ads slamming Scott and highlighting the $1.7 billion fine paid by HCA, the hospital company he led, for Medicare fraud in the 1990s.

Republicans responded with a website, nomorenelson.org, paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, casting Nelson as a do-nothing career politician. The National Republican Senate Committee followed with an ad bashing all Democrats, including Nelson, for voting against the tax-cut bill last year.

Scott echoed some of those criticisms, although he did not mention Nelson by name.

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We need to shake up Washington, he told supporters. Lets stop sending talkers to Washington; lets send some doers to Washington.

Rohrer and Lemongello write for the Orlando Sentinel.
Video of attempt by Russian diplomats to take Nord vessel crew out of Ukraine posted on Internet

Ukrainian State Border Guard Service spokesman Oleh Slobodian has published on his Facebook page a video on which Ukrainian border guards communicate with alleged crew members of the Nord fishing vessel. The crew stayed in diplomatic cars and tried to leave for Russia.

"The fragment of a night communication at the Hoptivka checkpoint with Russian diplomats who 'carry out the order,'" Slobodian wrote, commenting on the video.

It is audible on the video that representatives of the Nord crew allegedly refuse to leave Russian diplomatic cars, since they do not have a respective "order."

Earlier on Sunday, April 8, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service reported that the crew of the Nord ship, which was detained by Ukrainian border guards in the Sea of Azov on March 25, unsuccessfully attempted to leave Ukrainian territory through the Hoptivka checkpoint (Kharkiv region) late on April 7.

The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service detained the Nord flying the Russian flag with ten crewmembers on board on March 25.
A conservative commentator who sent a violent and vulgar tweet saying he would use a hot poker to sexually assault a 17-year-old survivor of a Florida high school shooting has resigned from a St. Louis TV station after several advertisers withdrew from his show.

KDNL-TV has canceled The Allman Report and accepted Jamie Allmans resignation, according to a brief statement from Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates the TV station. Before the shows launch in January 2015, KDNL-TV touted it as a nontraditional newscast with a conservative spin.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said Laura Ingraham had taken a leave from her television show after criticizing school shooting survivor David Hogg. She was on vacation, not leave.

Allman hasnt responded to messages from the Associated Press seeking comment. He was absent Monday from his show on KFTK-FM. The radio stations owner, Emmis Communications, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking about Allmans status.

Several businesses pulled advertising from Allmans shows after he sent the March 26 tweet targeting David Hogg. Allmans Twitter account was locked shortly after he sent the tweet, restricting access to his account, but a screenshot of it has been widely circulated on social media.

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Hogg has strongly advocated for stricter gun control since 17 people were killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at his school in Parkland, Fla. The teenagers willingness to take on the cause has made him a target for some conservatives.

Fox News Channels Laura Ingraham apologized via social media for her tweet that Hogg had whined about not getting in to some colleges where he had applied. Ingraham hasnt discussed that episode specifically but promised upcoming stories about conservatives who she says are fighting attempts to silence them. She returned to her program Monday night after a weeklong vacation and denounced a Stalinist effort by liberals to stifle the free speech of conservatives.

Hogg, meanwhile, has said its time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children.

Their social media spat came to symbolize the debate over how youthful advocates for gun safety should be treated by political opponents. Another student, Emma Gonzalez, has been falsely depicted in a doctored photo tearing up the Constitution.

State Rep. Stacey Newman (D-Richmond Heights) led calls for a boycott by Allmans sponsors after the tweet.

Weve had people all over Missouri [and] all over the country weighing in on this. ... Its heartwarming to know that tons of people throughout the state understand this is not acceptable, Newman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday. Even though we hadnt asked for his removal or resignation, [Sinclair] took it upon themselves. People know where the line is.

Sinclair is a conservative-leaning company that owns nearly 200 local TV stations, making it one of the largest such companies in the U.S.

President Trump last week defended the company after a video showing dozens of Sinclair news anchors reading a script expressing concern about fake stories and one-sided news stories plaguing the country appeared on TV news reports and circulated online. Trump said rival TV stations were merely worried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast.

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Sinclair also has pushed for regulation of the broadcast industry to be eased and is trying to buy Tribune Media in a move that would dramatically increase the companys reach.

Allman served a six-month stint in 2004 and 2005 as chief spokesman for then-St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and executive director of communications for the archdiocese. Archdiocese spokesman Gabe Jones didnt immediately respond to a phone call and email message seeking comment.
Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities.

The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year.

First word of the 7-0 decision came in a tweet from Arizona Atty. Gen. Mark Brnovich. The court said it would issue a written opinion explaining its reasoning by May 14.

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The high court heard arguments last week in the case affecting participants in the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.

Matt Hasson, spokesman for the Maricopa County Community Colleges District, said the district was disappointed.

This ruling is troubling for the 2,000 DACA students currently enrolled in Maricopa Community Colleges, he said in a statement. During the past five years, more than 600 DACA students earned an associates degree or a certificate from one of our colleges and are making valuable contributions to the health of our economy.

The chair of the state Board of Regents also lamented the decision, which came in a case pursued by the attorney general after the community college district began allowing DACA students to pay in-state tuition several years ago.

A lower court in 2015 rejected the attorney generals contention that lower tuition violated a voter-approved 2006 law known as Proposition 300 that prohibits public benefits for anyone living in Arizona without legal immigration status.

The university system used that ruling to offer lower tuition and continued the practice when the Court of Appeals ruled last year that federal and state law dont allow lower tuition for DACA students.

A current community college student taking a full-time course load would see tuition go from about $2,580 a year to about $8,900 a year. The states three universities have a policy of charging residents without citizenship 150% of in-state tuition, moving tuition from about $10,000 a year to $15,000 per year.

Many young people covered by the DACA program, who are known as Dreamers, had said their school plans would be derailed if they lost access to lower in-state fees.

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Not only does this put education out of reach for most students, many will simply drop out from this disappointing decision, said Edder Diaz Martinez, a DACA recipient himself and a founding member of Undocumented Students for Education Equity, a group representing immigrant students at Arizona State University.

The Arizona Supreme Court said it was making its decision known quickly to give the district and its students, as well as the state, as much time as possible for planning.

The case was filed under former Atty. Gen. Tom Horne and continued by Brnovich. He issued a statement saying his duty was to uphold the law.

While people can disagree what the law should be, I hope we all can agree that the attorney general must enforce the law as it is, not as we want it to be, the statement said.
Arizona, New Mexico and Texas pledged on Monday to send about 1,600 National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border, responding to President Trumps plan to use the military to help fight illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would add about 300 troops a week to the 250 members of the National Guard whose deployment was announced Friday until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops. Arizona officials announced they were sending 225 National Guard members to the border Monday and would deploy another 113 on Tuesday.

And New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinezs office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico are all led by Republican governors. The other southwestern border state, California, is led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and has not made a public commitment to sending troops from his states National Guard. Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors retain command and control over their states Guard members.

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Trump said last week he wanted to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the southwestern border.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their mission is about providing manpower and resources to support federal, state, county, tribal and local law enforcement agencies in stopping the flow of criminals, narcotics, weapons and ammunition that is being trafficked into our state.

Ducey initially said Arizona would send more troops on Tuesday but did not specify how many. The states National Guard in a statement later that 113 members would follow the initial deployment of 225.

Ducey told reporters later that the deployments were needed to stop a surge of border crossings since March and accused the U.S. government of previously ignoring the border for nearly a decade.

Texas agencies posted images over the weekend of Guard members arriving at the border. On Monday, Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that Texas would significantly ramp up its commitment to Trumps call over the next several weeks.

Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said. He added that he wanted to downplay any notion that our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody thats coming across the border, because that is not their role.

He said that based on his conversations with Trump and other officials, theres no end date on the deployment.

We may be in this for the long haul, he said.

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Ducey denied that his decision to send Guard members to the border was politically motivated.

I dont think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue, he said. You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition thats coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis on Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

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A Defense Department memo said the National Guard members would not perform law enforcement functions or interact with migrants or other persons detained without Mattiss approval.

It said arming will be limited to circumstances that might require self-defense but did not further define that.

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes part of west Texas and all of New Mexico said Monday he met with leaders of the New Mexico National Guard to begin discussions about what will be required and their capabilities.

El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull says those troops are nowhere near deploying yet.

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The New Mexico Guard members could help with air support, surveillance and infrastructure repairs, Hull said.

Browns spokesman, Evan Westrup, said Monday that California was still reviewing Trumps request for use of the states National Guard members.

California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Keegan said last week that any request would be promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners.

After plunging at the start of Trumps presidency, the numbers of migrants apprehended at the southwest border have started to rise in line with historical trends.

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The Border Patrol said it caught about 50,000 people in March, more than three times the number in March 2017.

Thats erased a decline for which Trump repeatedly took credit.

Border apprehensions still remain well below the numbers when former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the border.
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Tuesday, April 10, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Washington is ready for what many expect to be the Mark Zuckerberg apology tour as he testifies on Capitol Hill today. Will it be enough? And is it actually the start of improvements for the tarnished social media powerhouse? Los Angeles Times

-- Will the Facebook scandals move to Washington end up hurting President Trump? Washington Post

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-- Mission One for the Facebook chief: Staying cool. Wall Street Journal

-- And who is more powerful? Zuckerberg or Congress? Vox

-- Oh, and about the biggest Black Lives Matter Facebook page. Never mind. CNN

No criminal charges

Writer-director James Toback, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by scores of women over his decades in Hollywood, will not face criminal charges in five investigations into his conduct because the allegations are beyond the statute of limitations. Authorities, however, are still actively investigating allegations against Harvey Weinstein and others. Los Angeles Times

Equal pay ruling

Employers should not base a workers wages on his or her past salary because that could exacerbate unequal pay between men and women, a federal appeals court decided Monday. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, overturning last years decision by a three-judge panel in the case, ruled unanimously in favor of a Fresno math consultant who was paid less than men for equal work because her prior salary was lower. Los Angeles Times

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L.A. STORIES

A look at the numbers: L.A. Countys new budget focuses on a safety net for the most vulnerable, starting with the homeless. Los Angeles Times

Unleashing her power: Personal empowerment guru Tony Robbins told an audience in San Jose last month that women who accuse men of sexual harassment are simply making themselves significant by making someone else wrong. He was chastised by audience member Nanine McCool, who has become an instant star. Los Angeles Times

Danger zone: Fridays at 4 p.m.: Not the greatest time to drive on L.A. freeways. Crosstown Traffic

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CRIME AND COURTS

YouTube complaint: Child advocates and consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google over allegations that the firm violated young childrens online privacy and allowed ads to target them. Los Angeles Times

In Sacramento: Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert was met with boos, applause and chants of Stephon Clark Monday at the state Capitol as she joined several law enforcement officials who were honored for their work in public safety at a crime victims rally. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Clarks brother, after two weeks of sometimes bizarre behavior, is seeking medical help. Sacramento Bee

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GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Choices to be made: California versus Trump  beyond the political differences, there is really a serious fork in the road about where America should go. The New Yorker

Stormy weather: How Trumps one-night stand became a legal nightmare. New York Times

Big questions: A miracle drug from a San Diego company is tied to deaths, raising questions about why regulators approved it. CNN

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Tech paradise, hiring nightmare: The Bay Area is broken, say some who are locating tech outside California and in places like Boise, Idaho. Is this a threat to Silicon Valley? Mercury News

THE ENVIRONMENT

Key decision: The big vote on the future of the delta tunnel is going to be a nail-biter. Los Angeles Times

Grape fight: The Napa Valley has always had strict laws protecting vineyards. Now there is a move that could bring more development, and its causing quite the uproar. San Francisco Chronicle

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Disappointing sequel: Its wildflower season in Southern California, but dont expect any superblooms. San Gabriel Valley Tribune

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

An emotional fight: How Airbnb has created a gold rush in Lake Tahoe, for better and worse. Reno Gazette Journal

No escaping the past: For victims of the wine country fire, the mental anguish seems to never end. Press Democrat

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Dance craze: Looking back to a very different time  the 1960s  when an L.A. man helped start the go-go movement, and a strange type of feminism. Wall Street Journal

Yes, comrade: In Chinas Hollywood, everyone is seeing red. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Can upscale seats and fancy food keep struggling movie theaters alive? Wall Street Journal

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

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Los Angeles area: mostly sunny and 85. San Diego: partly cloudy and 78. San Francisco area: scattered showers and 59. Sacramento: scattered showers and 66. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Dorothy Sundbye:

Reading about Ojai and its charms reminds me of my great-grandparents migrating to the place, then called Nordhoff, from St. Louis. They apparently were caught up in the illustrious advertising to buy property, sight unseen, in California, where they could plant orange trees and live a fabulous life. They were an adventurous couple with two daughters and would add a son and another daughter while living in Nordhoff. They planted orange seedlings on their rocky soil, irrigating them from a nearby stream. They worked hard, dreaming of the rewards. However, there were no legal water rights in the 1880s. A woman who lived upstream resented the newcomers using the water, so she built a dam. The result was the loss of all the saplings and the end of the dream of living in beautiful Nordhoff. They returned to St. Louis.

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There is an epilogue. About 1906, Great-Grandpa died. My great-grandmother gathered up her family, took the train to Los Angeles and settled them in the small town of Glendale, where some our family still lives. Grandmas quote is, I hope the good Lord gives me a break for the seven years I lived on the ranch. 

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.
President Trump on Monday indicated that he will decide soon whether the United States would respond to the Syrian governments suspected use of chemical weapons against its own people. Trump rightly described as atrocious Saturday nights apparent poison gas attack on a Damascus suburb in which dozens of people died. He even made a rare criticism of Russias president, saying Vladimir Putin may bear responsibility for the actions of his ally and client Syrian President Bashar Assad.

But even if Trump launches a military strike  as he did a year ago in similar circumstances  the objective should be to punish Assad for violating an international norm, not to oust him from power. Nor does the chemical attack argue for (or against) the continued presence of 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. Those forces were sent to Syria to combat the unique threat posed by Islamic State, not to overthrow Assad.

Last year, Trump responded to the use of chemical weapons with a missile strike. Chemical agents were used anyway.

Its tragic that Assad, who brutally repressed his nations version of the Arab Spring, has now crushed most of his opposition and faces little pressure to step aside or even share power as part of the political transition called for in a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions. That is a result not only of his own ruthlessness but the support he has received from Russia, which has championed his cause at the U.N. and, more important, come to his rescue militarily, launching airstrikes on opposition forces beginning in 2015.

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Assad also has benefited from the fact that among his opponents were Islamic State and other Islamic extremists  and that the United States ultimately (and rightly) saw the defeat of Islamic State as a higher priority than regime change in Damascus. It was to counter Islamic State that Barack Obama and then Trump authorized the use of military force in Syria, a country with which the U.S. was not at war and which didnt invite U.S. forces to intervene.

Last month, Trump raised eyebrows when he told an audience in Ohio: Were knocking the hell out of ISIS. Well be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Subsequently, the president was reportedly convinced by his advisors that the troops would need to remain in Syria for several months to deal with remaining concentrations of Islamic State fighters and to train local forces to deal with new threats.

Thats a reasonable argument, and it echoes a statement by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in January that U.S. troops would remain in Syria to ensure that Islamic State cannot reemerge. But it differs from the more expansive mission that some have advanced for a U.S. military presence in Syria: to carve out a protectorate that would deny Assad control of some of his territory and undermine the influence of Syrias ally Iran. That is a much more open-ended and, to us, troubling rationale for deployment of U.S. troops in a foreign country  especially in the absence of an authorization for such a deployment from Congress, without backing and assistance from the U.N. or other countries around the world, and with no indication that the American people have the will or the fortitude for another protracted military commitment in the years ahead.

But what about deterring the use by Assad of chemical weapons? After Saturday nights attack, Sen. John McCain suggested that Trumps talk of withdrawing U.S. troops might have emboldened Assad to launch the chemical attack. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took exception to the idea that Trumps comments greenlit the use of chemical weapons. She has a point. For one thing, the troops were still in the country at the time of the attack (albeit in another location). For another, the relevant evidence of U.S. intentions would seem to be the fact that last year Trump did respond to the use of chemical weapons with a missile strike. Chemical agents were used anyway.

Sanders added: The president wants to bring our troops home after we complete the mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria. At the same time he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks. Both goals are worth pursuing, but its a mistake to try to connect them.

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Every year more than a million students pay an extra fee to do the optional essay section of the SAT and ACT, though according to a Princeton Review analysis only 27 colleges and universities in the country require submission of an essay score. Half of those 27 schools are in California, which means the Golden State is well-positioned to put an end to what is a huge waste of time and money for millions of high school students and their parents each year. In March, Harvard announced that it will no longer require the SAT essay; Dartmouth did the same thing Monday. Now the University of California and Stanford should kill off these tests once and for all.

Having students write an essay as part of the SAT and ACT sounds like a good idea. The ability to write matters a great deal in school and beyond, and many students are ill-prepared to write with the frequency and sophistication college studies require. The ACT essay test asks students to take a position on an issue. The SAT asks them to write a rhetorical analysis of a published argument.



For the record: For the record: California administers the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium exam (the SBAC) for 11th graders, not the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test.

The problem is that students scores on these exercises dont indicate much about how they will perform in the classroom, which is what these tests are supposed to reveal. When the College Board redesigned the SAT and made the essay optional in 2016, it admitted as much: While the College Board remains steadfast in its commitment to the importance of analytic writing for all students . . . one single essay historically has not contributed significantly to the overall predictive power of the exam.

It is no surprise, then, that so few colleges require the SAT and ACT essays or that, even among those that do, there is little indication that any of them use the essay to determine whether to accept an applicant.

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And yet 1.2 million students in the Class of 2017 dutifully wrote at least one SAT essay, and about 1.1 million did the ACT essay. The essay takers made up 70% of those who sat for the SAT, and 53% of those who took the ACT. We surmise that the numbers are so high because too many students are unsure whether the colleges they apply to will want it. They take it just in case.

Its a costly just in case, especially in aggregate.

The total amount of money spent on taking the essay tests isnt easy to calculate  many students take these tests multiple times, and neither the College Board nor ACT publicly talks about how much they take in each year on essay tests alone. But we can do some rough math.

There are no published studies showing that the tests are valid for assessing state writing standards.

It costs as much as $14 to add the essay portion to the SAT, and as much as $16.50 to add it to the ACT, on top of the $46 for each test. The test makers absorb some or all of the costs for low-income students, about 20% of test takers. If 20% of the Class of 2017s essay-test takers paid absolutely nothing to the College Board and to ACT, the companies still would have collected more than $25 million for an educational measurement almost no college wants and even fewer use.

Those millions are not coming just from students families. In more than half the states, the SAT or ACT is offered during school hours and the states taxpayers foot the bill, at full fare for some students and at discounted rates for low-income students. School day testing is smart public policy  research shows that offering in-school, free-to-the-student exams increases the number of students who attend college.

But its not smart for states to pay for the extra essay section. Thirteen states add that cost to their testing, and in 10 of them  Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming  there are no schools that require the SAT or ACT essay.

Some states may pay to include the essay portion because they are required to test writing skills in their 11th grade assessments. But, just as there is no evidence that the SAT and ACT essay are good predictors of college performance, there are no published studies showing that the tests are valid for assessing state writing standards. In fact, a recent report argues that the exams lack of alignment with states college- and career-ready standards means that they are not the assessments to use for accountability purposes.

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The California Legislature is considering AB 1951, which would require the state superintendent to select the SAT or ACT as a replacement for PARCC tests that are now administered to all high school juniors (PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). Because so many 11th graders need and want to take the SAT or the ACT (or both) for their college applications, eliminating the PARCC assessment would streamline the testing regimen for schools and ease students test-anxiety levels as well. But the choice should be between the SAT or the ACT without the essay test.

Unfortunately, that bit of streamlining will never happen as long as California schools demand the essay score for admittance, especially the behemoth UC system and Stanford.

For the sake of the state budget and families private pocketbooks, and for high schoolers in California and across the country who have enough testing worries without the useless essay, the SAT and ACT writing test should be dropped. California, you have the power: Kill the essays.

James Murphy is the director of national outreach for the college admissions test prep service the Princeton Review.

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To the editor: The Times Editorial Board inveighs against the recent California Supreme Court decision that upholds the automatic collection and storage of DNA samples from arrestees. (A DNA decision undermines Californians privacy and their presumption of innocence, editorial, April 4)

A petition to expunge the genetic data is available to those who wish to opt out. The editorial board believes that this is a violation of the 4th Amendment and constitutes an invasion of privacy.

The likely outcome of requiring an opt out as opposed to automatic expungement of genetic data for non-convicted arrestees is that more criminals will be matched to banked genetic data and taken off the street. The downside, according to the board, is the compromise of the privacy rights of innocent individuals.

This seems a lofty position, but the reality is that no innocent person will experience an adverse outcome if he or she committed no crime. The societal benefit of convicting more felons outweighs any potential compromise of privacy that is more nominal than factual.

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Stephen Levinson, Encino

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To the editor: The editorial board opposes the California Supreme Courts decision to reject a challenge to Proposition 69, which empowers the police to take DNA samples of anyone arrested for a felony, even if the arrest does not result in a conviction. The Times argued that this is lumping the innocent in with the guilty.

What is wrong with that? Why is the collection of DNA any more intrusive than collecting ones fingerprint, which is done routinely? To the police, it serves the same function, and to the arrestee it should not matter as long as he or she does not commit crimes.

DNA evidence has proved to be an invaluable tool for law enforcement. It has solved cases that otherwise would have remained unsolved forever. It should be collected from anyone suspected of a crime, not just a felony.

Finn Sveen, Redlands

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To the editor: President Trump has masterly shifted the direction of our immigration issues toward south of the border and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to achieve his political agenda. (Mattis authorizes up to 4,000 National Guard troops for U.S. border with Mexico, April 7)

Instead, we should really focus on visa overstays. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the United States violate their visa stay requirements annually, dwarfing the number of illegal immigrants coming from south of the border.

The Trump administration has stated visa overstays account for a tiny percentage of the tens of millions of people who visit the U.S. every year. Yet illegal border crossings are significantly lower as visa overstays rise.

Trump is willing to spend millions of tax dollars to send National Guard troops to our southern border to manipulate us into focusing on his wall instead of addressing the real issues with our immigration laws and procedures. This reckless manipulation must stop.

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Steven Apodaca, Whittier

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To the editor: The immigration debate is the least informed public discussion of my lifetime. Ink spills over the electoral calculus and over insoluble questions like whether immigrants add more to the economy than they subtract, while the key impact of todays high immigration level is ignored: It forces Americas population to grow even though Americans have small enough families to reduce the population.

Now that the United States ranks as the third-highest populated country on Earth, I hope Americans reconsider the wisdom of importing population growth, while California still has some prime farmland that has not been bulldozed into housing tracts, and some groundwater to irrigate that farmland.

The Constitution says it was adopted to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Do Americans still care about future generations?

Kenneth Pasternack, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: I have no problem with President Trump deploying the National Guard. Its just that the location is all wrong.

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Instead of being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border, the troops should be reassigned to Californias Central Valley to assist with agricultural operations.

Joe Kevany, Mount Washington

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To the editor: The United States and other countries will have to help Mexico and its neighbors to the south build their economies and rid themselves of corruption. This, unfortunately, will not happen quickly.

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In the meantime, we must maintain our vigilance in guarding our borders. We must continue to return people here illegally to their home countries, where they may apply, like everyone else in the world, to come to the United States legally.

Robert Miller, Sherman Oaks

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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
Ukraine in January-March 2018 exported 169,941 tonnes of nitrogen mineral or chemical fertilizers (under foreign activity code 3102) for $34.238 million, while imported 558,292 tonnes worth $117.265 million.

According to the State Fiscal Service, nitrogen fertilizers exports to Turkey amounted to $14.846 million, Mexico to $7.085 million, Romania to $3.983 million, and other countries to $8.325 million.

Nitrogen fertilizers in the first quarter of the year were imported from the Russian Federation for $21.929 million, Uzbekistan for $21.929 million, Lithuania for $15.372 million and other countries for $49.1 million.

In addition, Ukraine in January-March of this year exported 1,474 tonnes of ammonia (code 2814) for $433,000, imported 114,906 tonnes for $41.965 million. All the ammonia was imported from the Russian Federation.

As reported, in 2011, Ukraine exported nitrogen fertilizers for $1.69 billion, and imported - for $153.347 million, in 2012 - for $1.695 billion and $163.234 million, in 2013 - for $1.134 billion and $211.822 million, in 2014 - for $647.623 million and $175.747 million, in 2015 - for $521.552 million and $212.931 million, in 2016 - for $321.614 million and $216.095 million, in 2017 - for $ 125.427 million and $337.346 million.

In 2011, Ukraine exported ammonia for $594.942 million, and imported - by $0.006 million, in 2012 - for $640.281 million and $0.026 million, in 2013 - for $628.606 million and $40.412 million, in 2014 - for $314.713 million and $43.518 million, in 2015 - for $251.937 million and $28.676 million, in 2016 - for $40.569 million and $51.802 million, in 2017 - $42.969 million and $123.012 million.
Allies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook

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Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings  one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook

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U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook

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Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook

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He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect  despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook

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Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram  which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal  claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook

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It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook

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New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook

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Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.  #Georgia  Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook

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Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook

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Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook

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Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook

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Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution  something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm  U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush.



The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T  Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY  LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook

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Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook

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Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook

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James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump  as recently as Tuesday  continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along  that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right  to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook

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Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops  You really are our heroes, he said  as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water  we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook

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Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook

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Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see.  James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook

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Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes  he last won reelection by a 14-point margin  suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook

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Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook

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Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January  eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook

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Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook

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Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook

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Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook

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Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election  again, in blowout fashion  but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook

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Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook

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Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes  which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook

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Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook

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Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook

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GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10.  Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook

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Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook

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Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook

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Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook

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Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook

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CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook

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Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks  Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank  when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while  including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook

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Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook

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ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook

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Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters...  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook

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Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press  President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook

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Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there  the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day  and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event  a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt m
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took the stand at a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday afternoon to an almost audible reaction from Republican members of Congress: Finally, someone elses turn in the hot seat.

On Tuesday the usual strategy by congressional Republicans in dealing with President Trump  lobby privately, support publicly, criticize rarely  was tested again by the presidents angry denunciations Monday night, after federal agents seized documents from his attorneys Manhattan office.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon, Democrats loudly demanded that Republicans publicly support legislation protecting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III from being fired at the behest of Trump, a move the president Monday suggested he was entertaining.

Republicans divided into two camps: a very small one inhabited by North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, one of the authors of the measure to protect Mueller, and a much larger one trying to brush the problem aside, as senators insisted confidently that the president would not move against Mueller but never explained why they were so confident.

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I dont think hes going to do it, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters as he ducked into an elevator and eagerly waited for the doors to close. Itd be a bad decision. I dont think hes going to do it  unless theres a reason.

Among Republicans on Tuesday, rare was the stern warning to Trump  such as Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassleys statement on the Fox Business channel that it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Justice Department lawyers had determined Trump could in fact fire Mueller  suggesting that, at minimum, the topic had come up.

Instead of addressing the Mueller investigation, Republican Senate leaders opened an early afternoon media conference with the usual handful of issues.

They complained about Democratic recalcitrance in approving Trump administration nominees, praised the economic impact of the December tax bill, expressed concern about the opioid epidemics scythe through much of America. Trumps threatened move against Mueller came up only when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the floor for questions.

It is still my view that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job; I think that is the view of most people in Congress, the Kentucky Republican said. I havent seen a clear indication yet that we need to pass something to keep him from being removed because I dont think thats going to happen.

Asked what gave him that confidence, McConnell replied, Youre asking a hypothetical.

What assurances have you been given? McConnell was asked.

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Im not going to answer a hypothetical, the leader replied, frustration seeming to grow. Im telling you I think hell be allowed to finish the job. He should be allowed to finish the job.

Minutes later, Democratic leaders came to the same bank of microphones off the Senate floor and blistered their across-the-aisle colleagues. They spoke about Mueller and nothing else.

Our Republican colleagues must not continue ignoring the elephant in the room, insisted Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. Lets not wait until its too late.

It seems increasingly to be no longer a question of if but when President Trump might take a reckless and irresponsible step, echoed Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware.

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More than most other days, Tuesday seemed to tear at what had been a carefully calibrated Republican strategy. On paper, Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. In reality, its uncommon for those three entities to dance in sync. Often, the citys public power struggles pit minority Democrats, congressional majority Republicans and the White House in a complicated calculus.

Their modes of operation are worlds apart: At one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the president can explode at his Justice Department, vent at the special prosecutor, cancel a trip abroad to monitor an international crisis in Syria and lose another key aide, his homeland security advisor  all things that happened from Monday night into Tuesday.

But at the other end of Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill, icy discipline most often takes over, and Republican leaders focus the issues they believe are strongest for them this election year, such as the economy. They publicly ignore the president who has vastly complicated their lives even as they privately seek to influence him.

Politics dictates why Republicans have adopted an arms distance approach to the Trump vs. Mueller conflict  and why Democrats are going out of their way to force them to choose a side.

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Mueller remains popular among voters; a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans oppose Muellers firing. Even among Republicans, 55% opposed Muellers firing.

But to vociferously support Mueller means vociferously opposing Trump. The president remains intensely popular among Republicans, many of whom see the investigation as an attempt to push him from office. In the same Quinnipiac poll, 85% of Republicans supported Trumps actions as president; only 10% disapproved.

The bulk of Republican legislators appear to be betting that Trump wont act against Mueller and they will stay in the good graces of Republican voters. The danger: that Trump will move to fire Mueller and they will appear complicit for not acting to protect the special counsel.

Thus came a cacophony of similar responses from Republicans on Tuesday.

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I dont think its necessary, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said about protecting Mueller.

I just dont think hes going to do it, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said of Trump.

I dont anticipate it happening, and I certainly would advise the president not to, said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

Im not worried, said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.

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Like Graham, he was spared further discussion as the elevator doors closed.

The latest from Washington 

For more on politics from Cathleen Decker 

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

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Twitter: @cathleendecker
President Trump was never going to be met with rose petals for his first official Latin America visit, which had been set for this weekend. By abruptly canceling his two-day trip on Tuesday, amid an international crisis over Syria and a political one after the FBI raid against his personal attorney, the president likely increased resentment in the region.

As it is, Trumps approval rating sat at 16% in a Gallup poll conducted in 20 Latin American countries last year and released in January. And that was before the president in recent days ordered National Guard troops to patrol the border with Mexico and escalated his rhetorical attacks against Central American migrants.

President Trumps decision to skip the Summit of the Americas sends the wrong message to our many Latin American friends, said Jason Marczak, the director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, an offshoot of the Atlantic Council think tank.

This was to be his opportunity to personally meet with leaders and alleviate some of their concern on the trajectory of U.S. commercial policy.

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Trump had planned to leave Washington on Friday, first for Lima, Peru, to attend the annual Summit of the Americas gathering of leaders from the hemisphere, and then to visit Bogota, Colombia. In his place, the president is sending Vice President Mike Pence.

The White House, in a statement, attributed Trumps cancellation to the need to respond to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed dozens of civilians there on Saturday.

The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Trump said on Monday that within 48 hours, he would forcefully respond to the apparent toxic gas attack, which he and U.S. officials have blamed on the Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran.

A year ago, Trump was absent from the White House when the United States launched missiles at Syria following another chemical weapons attack, meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The fact that he decided he needs to remain in the country could suggest that the response to this latest incident in Syria will be more intensive and prolonged than last years quick strike on a Syrian airfield.

The Syria crisis isnt the only thing preoccupying Trump. He has been fuming over Mondays FBI raid of the office, residence and hotel room of Michael Cohen, his personal attorney. After an angry tirade to reporters Monday night, the president followed up with terse tweets on Tuesday morning.

Attorney-client privilege is dead! he wrote, following a minute later with a second tweet: A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!

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Two hours later, the White House officially scrapped the Latin America visit. This years theme for the Summit of the Americas is transparency and anti-corruption efforts, issues that would have surely evoked thoughts of the unspooling special counsel investigation embroiling Trump and his circle in the United States.

In something of a parallel, President Clinton skipped an Asia summit at the last minute in 1998, sending Vice President Al Gore to Japan. Clinton was also facing both a Middle East crisis, weighing a military strike in Iraq and an investigation of his personal behavior that led to his impeachment by the House.

Trumps unpopularity in Latin America has by extension diminished the United States stature in the region, reducing it more than in any other part of the world, according to analysts and polling data. Yet America remains the hemispheres dominant player, and Trump would have had a critical voice, in one-on-one meetings and in a speech he had planned to deliver at the summit.

Vice President Pence is a great representative of the president and has traveled to the region previously, but its not the same the same as having Trump there, Marczak said.

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White House advisors expect Pence to pursue Trumps goals, emphasizing efforts to reduce terrorism threats, combat gangs and drug trafficking, insist on more favorable trade deals and promote regional security.

Pence looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger U.S. economy and working with our close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions, Jarrod Agen, Pences communications advisor, said in a statement.

Trump says summit with North Korea is on for May or early June as aides scramble to prepare 

To date, Trump has been largely successful in mobilizing pressure from regional leaders, including sanctions, against the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Yet American officials suggest the administration wont promise additional help in stemming the refugee crisis sparked by Venezuelas upheaval.

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Last month, the United States announced $2.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help Colombia handle an estimated 1 million migrants. Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as regional leaders, had been hoping for a much larger commitment.

Trumps no-show further lowers expectations for the summit, including the chance to allay bad feelings. Those have built since he announced his presidential campaign in 2015 with a speech denouncing Mexican immigrants as rapists, drug smugglers and criminals. The ill will was exacerbated in January when he was said to disparage immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and Africa as coming from shithole countries, and more recently by his order of troops to the southern border.

Administration officials nonetheless insist that he is committed to engaging the region and promoting trade.

The president is a very straight speaker. He speaks whats on his mind, said a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

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Trumps call for 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops along the border with Mexico dredged up dark memories of the United States history of military engagement in the region, including support of repressive regimes.

Last week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto delivered a prime time televised address calling Trumps attacks on the country offensive and unfounded. The Mexican Senate passed a resolution aimed at suspending cooperation in stemming drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

Presidents Obama and George W. Bush also deployed thousands of reservists to help with border enforcement and Obama employed an aggressive deportation policy. The context is much different for Trump, however, given his harsh rhetoric on immigration, drug-trafficking and trade with Latin America, and his demand that Mexico pay for a border wall.

Even as Obama faced criticism for indifference to the region, he won accolades at the end of his tenure for opening ties with Cuba after decades. Trump has fought to reverse that opening and didnt plan to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro at the summit.

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Immigration, drug policy, reversals on Cuba, the tweets, the use of the military  all in the context of inflammatory rhetoric  has raised a lot of concern, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank that specializes in Latin America. And Latin America is bewildered, confused and worried.

Some Trump allies say the administration has not gotten credit for its engagement efforts, including high-profile tours from Pence and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

James Jay Carafano, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank who has advised Trump on foreign policy, said the administration has worked behind the scenes to disrupt criminal cartels that have terrorized local populations, and publicly to counter the threat of regional destabilization posed by Venezuelas upheaval.

Administration officials emphasize that the United States is the top trading partner for more than half the countries in the hemisphere and we sell more goods to the Western Hemisphere than we do to all of Asia combined, said one senior official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

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Another administration official said Trump, who often views himself as an international salesman, had planned to promote the idea that we want to be the partner of choice for Latin American countries to work with.

But the trade relationship has also been complicated. Trumps early action pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multination trade pact that included Chile, Mexico and Peru, limited the United States ability to counter Chinas growing influence in the region.

Trump has said he is eager to pursue one-on-one deals instead, but aides said he wouldnt have announced any new negotiations. The other nations that are parties to the TPP trade agreement are proceeding under its terms, yet the absence of the United States has cleared the way for China to make significant inroads in the region.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

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tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com
Costa Mesa planning commissioners gave the thumbs-up to two proposed medical marijuana facilities Monday  pushing the number of commission-approved businesses so far to nine.

On a pair of 3-0 votes, with Vice Chairman Byron de Arakal and Commissioner Isabell Kerins absent, the commission granted required conditional use permits to Yummi Karma LLC and The Healing Plant.

Yummi Karma proposes to operate within a 2,650-square-foot facility at 3505 Cadillac Ave., Unit O-101, while The Healing Plant is eyeing a 22,173-square-foot building at 1685 Toronto Way.

Both decisions are final unless appealed to the City Council within seven days.

Under Measure X  an initiative local voters passed in 2016  businesses that research, test, process and manufacture some medical marijuana products can open in a specified area north of South Coast Drive and west of Harbor Boulevard.

Last week, the City Council approved a code amendment to also allow recreational marijuana businesses of those types in that same area. Costa Mesa still prohibits retail sales of marijuana and marijuana products.

The Healing Plant would be a manufacturing, processing and distribution facility for cannabis products. Activities at the site would include filling vape pens, crafting edibles and bottling cannabis-infused, non-alcoholic beverages, according to planning documents.

On Monday, several company representatives gave the commission a detailed walk through of how the facility would function and what measures are in place to ensure it operates safely and securely.

Yummi Karma has an existing line of products including cannabis-infused tinctures and snacks like chips and popcorn that would be made at the Costa Mesa facility.

Company representatives said their products are largely geared toward women.

I just want to say, Go ladies, said Commissioner Carla Navarro Woods, prompting cheers from the companys supporters in the audience.

I wish you a lot of luck, she added. This sounds pretty cool.

Commissioner Jeffrey Harlan said he thinks the proposed operation will be a good addition and hopefully a good model for other companies who may want to do something similar.

Before opening, the two companies must secure city fire-prevention, finance and building safety approvals as well as finalize their medical marijuana business permits and business licenses. They also will need state approval.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to delay a permit application from Leaf Concepts LLC  which is looking to open a 7,783-square-foot medical marijuana manufacturing and processing facility at 3505 Cadillac, Building E  saying they wanted more information about the proposed operation.

That item is expected to come back on May 31.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoney
A man who died after his pickup crashed into a Caltrans grader on the 73 Freeway in Newport Beach was identified Monday as a South Gate resident.

Alex Salas-Blanco, 30, was driving a Ford F-250 south on the 73 shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday when the car veered into the center divider and slammed into the grader, Orange County coroners officials said.

Salas-Blanco died of his injuries at the scene, authorities said.

An SUV traveling behind the Ford crashed into it after the pickup had hit the grader. A passenger in the SUV suffered minor injuries.

The SUV driver and the California Department of Transportation employee operating the grader were uninjured.

The southbound 73 at MacArthur Boulevard was closed for several hours while officers investigated and crews cleaned up debris.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
Ukraine's foreign minister has been invited for the first time to a meeting of the foreign ministers of the G7 countries, which will begin in Toronto, Canada, on April 22, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has told Ukrainian Internet newspaper Yevropeiska Pravda.

He confirmed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin had received an invitation to the meeting from his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland.

"The time has come for serious, strategic decisions on Ukraine and Russia... We are happy that Ukraine will be able to join the difficult but critically needed conversation, and we hope to make a valuable contribution to future joint decisions," Shevchenko said.

According to him, Ukraine hopes that this conversation will be continued at the upcoming summit of G7 leaders, which will be held in the Canadian region of Charlevoix (Quebec) in June.
My mother, Betty Jean (Thomlinson) Carnett, turned 94 a couple of weeks ago.

Shes had a wonderful life.

I never thought Id live this long, she confessed at her birthday party.

Shes outlived all of her relatives and her high school chums.

Im not sure why Im still here, she added. I guess the Lord has something for me to do.

He does indeed. Shes been matriarch of our family for decades.

Mom was born in Coffeyville, Kan., on March 31, 1924, but has long considered Costa Mesa her home. She was a Costa Mesan for nearly 60 years before moving to Huntington Beach after my fathers death in 2008.

Im now the Carnett with the longest tenure in the City of the Arts: 66 years.

Costa Mesa will always remain my home, Mom says.

Situated on the Verdigris River in southeastern Kansas, Coffeyville was established as a trading post in 1869. Its a half-mile from the Oklahoma border, and 75 miles north of Tulsa.

My great-grandfather, William B. Ragsdale, worked for the railroad for 40 years and put on public display his ringing Irish tenor every Sunday morning at Coffeyvilles First Christian Church.

But my grandfather, William M. Thomlinson, who was from Arkansas and never developed an affection for Coffeyville, dreamed of leaving the Jayhawk State for California. He finally convinced my grandmother in 1935 to do just that. They never regretted it.

Mom joined them in Santa Monica the following year, at the age of 12. When she left Coffeyville, it had a population of 17,000. Today its barely half that.

During the six years before she finished high school, Mom returned to Kansas a couple of times for extended stays. But, when she graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1942, shed become fully Californian.

My grandfather, an executive chef, worked for a time at Thelma Todds Sidewalk Cafe, a well-known roadhouse in Pacific Palisades. He then became assistant chef at Earl Carrolls Hollywood Nightclub at Sunset and Vine.

In 1942, he was recruited to Orange County to the newly established Santa Ana Army Air Base. The base trained 150,000 aviation cadets  including my father  during the war.

My grandfather was executive chef of the bases 11 mess halls. He purchased a Balboa Island home in 1943. The home, consisting of a two-bedroom house and a second-story apartment over the garage, set him back $7,500.

My mom worked as secretary to a cadet mess officer, Maj. Philip Caldwell. My father, Bill Carnett, met my mom at the base in 1943; they were married in 1944; and I was born just before the war ended in 1945.

Mom has always been my champion. I recall in the fifth grade at Lindbergh Elementary School my teacher harshly berating me in front of the class for some insignificant infraction. I told Mom. She was so upset that she had a tete-a-tete with the teacher the next day. If I were to receive a tongue-lashing, Mom made very clear, shed administer it (and, boy, did she over the years). No classroom histrionics.

A decade later, when I was a soldier stationed in Korea, I was at best a sporadic letter-writer home. One morning at formation my company commander bellowed to the 300 GIs assembled in front of our barracks: Carnett, write your mother. Now!

I was mortified.

It seems Mom sent the CO a Memo From Betty. It got his attention, mine and everyone elses in Headquarters Company.

I retired from Orange Coast College in 2008 after 37 years as director of community relations. The college hosted a farewell reception in my honor.

Mom, who was 84 at the time, was there.

Margaret Gratton, the colleges president from 1996 to 2002, was on hand and I introduced her to Mom.

Im so glad that you met your future husband at the air base on this very property, Margaret said graciously. Because of your existential tie to the land, Jim became our Mr. OCC.

There is even conjecture that he may have been conceived on this property. Thank you so much.

It was my pleasure, Mom deadpanned.

Expect always a straight answer from Mom.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.
The various cities actions regarding sanctuary cities are heartbreaking enough without the added support of out-of-town white supremacists and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa). The reported sign, Thank you Jesus, thank you Dana, strikes at the heart of the hypocrisy of this protest (Fountain Valley, with aid from Rohrabacher, backs federal lawsuit against sanctuary laws).

As a reminder, Jesus main teaching is to love one another. I dont believe that denying human beings a life of dignity, food and shelter quite fits that teaching. That a congressman is trying to gain votes by showing up at cities that are voting for hateful treatment of people, even offering them money for their cause, is beyond disgusting. Rohrabacher continues to amaze with his nose in anything that brings him notoriety.

Judy Mader

Costa Mesa

Huntington Beach showed courage on sanctuary city issue

Re: (Huntington Beach prepares to sue state to challenge sanctuary immigration laws): While U.S. presidents come and go, and control of the federal government shifts back and forth between the two major political parties, our constitution endures. That document is the foundation of our nation and serves as the supreme law of the land, to which all state laws must adhere.

When a state breaks that basic tenet of our democracy by treating a federal agency like an occupying force, their unlawful legislation must be challenged. Kudos to the Huntington Beach City Council for having the courage to take a public stance on this contentious issue, when remaining silent would have been such an easier option.

Chris Borg

Huntington Beach

Homeless have it tough enough

Ive been following the plight of the homeless from the Santa Ana River, and the almost universal rejections by the local communities to provide emergency space for them to live is appalling. We have rallies to protest building a wall, we complain about an administration rejecting those from abroad who need help, and then immediately turn our back on local community members who simply need a place to lay their head at night. Supporting a group with such specific needs and inherent difficulties is challenging, but their lives are challenging each and every minute, and we only prolong their pain when we only consider our comfort.

Eric Kuyper

Costa Mesa

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.
Most recently in the news for her work as current chair of Hillsides Board of Directors, Donna Ford was recognized for her many volunteer contributions by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) at a luncheon honoring his districts 2018 Women of the Year.

The La Canada Flintridge resident was one of several district residents feted at the event, held April 5 in Echo Park to coincide with Womens History Month.

Today, I met with 13 remarkable women who have all worked tirelessly to make our communities a better place, Schiff said in a statement issued immediately following the event. These women have worked to found or support a myriad of charitable organizations, started multiple businesses and given so much of themselves to improve the common good. They are all pillars of our communities and I thank them for their invaluable service.

Prior to moving to La Canada Flintridge in 2005, Ford was a civil litigator in New York and Pennsylvania. Once here with her family  Dr. Henri Ford and their two children  she became involved in numerous volunteer activities with area nonprofits.

Believing that all children have tremendous potential regardless of their background or circumstances, Donna is a passionate advocate for young people and is committed to enriching the lives of children and adolescents, according to the news release announcing the award.

Ford mentors African American girls at Pasadena Unifieds John Muir High School, serves as a board member of the Institute for Educational Advancement and lends her hand and expertise not only to Hillsides, but also as a volunteer for the Cottage Guild at Rosemary Childrens Services and the USC Medical Faculty Family and Friends organization. She has also served on the diversity committee for the Pasadena Playhouse.

Recognized along with Ford at the April 5 luncheon were Claudette Nicole Saba Monestime, Atwater Village; Vicky Marachelian, Burbank; Isa-Kae Meksin, Echo Park; Emily Gleicher, Elysian Valley; Lori Hartwell, Glendale; Anastasia Mann, Hollywood Hills; Kiljoo Lee Kurumada, La Crescenta; Brenda Levin, Los Feliz; Patricia Anne Kinaga, Pasadena; Nina Sorkin, Silver Lake; Kelly Erin Decker, Kagel Canyon; Medea Kalognomos, Sunland and Ivy Bottini, West Hollywood.

carol.cormaci@latimes.com

Twitter: @CarolCormaci
I met Mickey Mantle and even shook his hand. I sold Bob Hope a Rheingold when I hustled beer at Yankee Stadium. And, let me tell you the good fortune I stumbled across, when, in 1971, while my Marines provided security for the USO shown at Freedom Hill in Dan Nang, Jill St. John kissed me on the cheek. Well, that alone was a life-changing moment for a street rat from the East Bronx. Like Eliza Doolittle, I Could Have Danced All Night.

But, now Im pushing 71 and about the only thing that cranks my tractor is watching a thunderstorm on the prairie while smoking a cigar and pulling on a flask of Johnny Walker Blue. Yet, the other day I visited Gen. Michael Hagee, the retired 33rd commandant of the United States Marine Corps. Once again, I felt like a kid in a candy store.

I had previously arranged through the generals secretary to meet him at 8 a.m. I arrived at 7:45, with the understanding that if I didnt, Id be considered 15 minutes late. The last thing I wanted to do was have the commandant, a four-star general, waitin on me.

When Gen. Hagee appeared at precisely 8 a.m., my sensory impressions helped me see beyond the greatness of the man, outside of his accomplishments. What I saw was graciousness. I thought of Shakespeares Henry V, wherein he wrote, He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both.

It was apparent the generals graciousness was inborn. He was present not only in body, but in spirit and I sensed that his essence was that which is the best in human potential. As we spoke, I sensed his inner harmony and realized here is a man who has lived life well.

I appreciate biography and absorb the lives of men and women as they evolve. Those individuals who impose a lasting impression reveal accomplishments attributed to ones basic core: spirit, soul and body. Gen. Hagee is a man of such fiber.

I reminded the general that our first encounter had been a casual meeting during the fall of 1969. At the time, we were both 2nd lieutenants perfecting the skill sets that would enable us to become effective Marine Corps officers. I was in Alpha Company and the general was in Bravo. I find it serendipitous that 49 years hence, I would be writing these thoughts about a man who would go on to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and advise the president of the United States.

I thought I had taken too much of the generals time. I thanked him for his time and begged my leave. I sensed his sincere reciprocal respect as he made me feel happy that I came.

You cant compare apples to oranges, but if I were to do so, Id say visiting Gen. Hagee was right up there with getting a kiss from Jill St. John  maybe as close as 6- and 7/8s to a 7.

JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
A day after President Trump called aspects of the U.S.-China trade relationship stupid, his Chinese counterpart tried a different strategy. He responded on Tuesday with a promise to slash auto tariffs and further open the countrys markets to imports.

President Xi Jinping  in his first public comments since the two nations veered toward a trade war  presented China as a steady, globalizing force that seeks to partner with countries rather than manipulate them. He made no mention of U.S. actions, but the contrast was clear.

Openness versus isolation and progress versus retrogression, humanity has a major choice to make, Xi said at the Boao Forum for Asia, Chinas version of Davos, held on the tropical southern island of Hainan. The trend of peace and cooperation is moving forward and a Cold War mentality and zero-sum game are outdated.

RELATED: Chinese investment in U.S. plunged last year, even before Trump threatened tariffs 

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Xi pledged to reduce restrictions on imported cars by the end of the year, bolster intellectual property rights, and allow greater access to financial markets  all White House grievances. A day before Xis speech, Trump tweeted about the injustice of Chinas 25% tariffs on foreign cars.

We want the outcomes of our opening-up efforts to deliver benefits as soon as possible to all enterprises and people in China and around the world, Xi said.

Chinese officials and state media, in the lead-up to Tuesday, breathlessly billed his speech as a major announcement about the countrys reforms. And yet few of his pledges signaled much change. China has previously agreed to strengthen intellectual property protections and make it easier for foreign companies to operate. Officials have gradually reduced taxes on auto imports and discussed chopping them further.

China said in November that it would ease restrictions on foreign ownership of financial institutions. Its still not clear when that will happen.

But Xis vows, made in a cavernous room full of global investors and state dignitaries, carry greater weight. They may also help appease leaders frustrated by Trumps erratic behavior on trade. Stocks rallied across Asia on Tuesday and European shares rose in morning trading.

Many of those steps are not entirely new, and the U.S. side will likely want to see deeds, not just words, said Ashley Qian Wan, China economist for Bloomberg Economics in Beijing. Even so, with Xis speech positioning China as conciliatory, the chances of a damaging trade war appear a shade lower.

The speech commemorated four decades since China embraced an economic transformation that opened it to the world. The country has vowed for years to free up its markets, but foreign companies still struggle for the same access as domestic competitors.

Xis calm remarks followed rising threats last week between the worlds two largest economies, which fueled fears of a trade war that would pulverize the global economy.

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The latest salvo began April 3 when the Trump administration proposed tariffs on 1,300 Chinese-made products worth about $50 billion, including medical devices and auto parts. Officials accused China of forcing American companies to hand over trade secrets that would help it surpass the U.S. in cutting-edge innovation. Chinese officials responded dollar-for-dollar, preparing to taking aim at major U.S. exports like soybeans and aircraft.

Trump then said hed instructed his staff to explore another $100 billion in tariffs. So Gao Feng, a spokesman for Chinas Ministry of Commerce, gathered reporters Friday  on a national holiday at 8 p.m.  to warn the country would immediately fight back with a major response if Trump enacted the levies.

Analysts question whether Xis conciliatory speech really popped the tension.

I suspect Trump is going to go Jerry Maguire and say, Show me the money, said Christopher Balding, associate professor of business and economics at the HSBC Business School in Shenzhen. Give me what the actual tariff rate into China is going to be. Dont just tell me youve changed, show me.

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Trumps aggressiveness may worry Chinese leaders, but his America First policy has offered them the chance to seize a more prominent spot on the world stage. Xi reinforced that last year when he spoke at Davos for the first time in a rousing defense of free trade and climate change.

With his Tuesday speech, he maintains the defender-of-the-global-order posture adopted at Davos, said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Gavekal Dragonomics, a Beijing research firm.

Since Xis Davos debut, China has abolished term limits so he can stay in power indefinitely. Hes also embedded the Communist Party more deeply into society  including within businesses  and sought to promote Chinas dominance in high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics. The latter is a key tension in Washington.

Some still viewed Xis speech as a welcome de-escalation after last weeks antics.

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He has made a unilateral move without even going into negotiations with the U.S., said Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization, a public policy think tank in Beijing. China is voluntarily showing a very good gesture of opening up.

Even the hint of more access energized American companies hungry for a bite of the worlds biggest market.

This is a very important action by China, tweeted Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, who has reportedly struggled to open a factory in Shanghai. Avoiding a trade war will benefit all countries.

Meyers is a special correspondent.

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Twitter: @jessicameyers

ALSO

China retaliates against U.S. tariffs, escalates trade war

China announces retaliatory tariffs on 128 U.S. products, including California wine and almonds

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Trump wants to punish China on trade, but his latest tariffs strike Asian allies instead
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Tuesday that his country would support airstrikes against the Syrian government if an alliance including France, Britain and the U.S. called for such a military operation.

Mohammed, who was on his first official visit to France, made the comments during a news conference with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

If our alliance with our partners demands it we will respond, said Mohammed, the heir to the Saudi throne.

Earlier, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir told reporters in Paris his country was greatly concerned about a suspected chemical weapons attack Saturday that aid groups and activists said killed dozens of people in the city of Duma in Syrias east Ghouta region, but made no mention of Saudi Arabia taking part in any potential intervention.

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Macron said Tuesday that France had red lines regarding the access of humanitarian aid to Syria and the suspected use of chemical weapons by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Macron said he would announce in the coming days whether France would respond militarily.

Frances decision would be separate from United Nations Security Council discussions over a possible international response to the alleged chemical attack, he said.

We are going to continue an exchange of technical and strategic exchanges with our partners, particularly the British and Americans, and in the next few days we will announce our decision, Macron told journalists.

President Trump has blamed the Syrian government for the suspected chemical attack, called Assad Animal Assad and warned of a big price to pay.

On Monday, ambassadors for the United States and Russia, an Assad ally, exchanged sharp comments during an emergency session of the U. N. Security Council to debate a U.S.-drafted proposal to create an independent panel to investigate poison gas use in Syria.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley blamed Russia for refusing to condemn Assad, while Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia described the behavior of the U.S. and countries that followed it as boorish and said the alleged attack in Duma was staged by anti-Assad terrorists.

On Tuesday, Macron also announced that he would organize a humanitarian conference on Yemen before the summer. Saudi Arabia has been criticized for its involvement in the civil war, which has included airstrikes and a blockade of aid to relieve a famine threatening millions of Yemenis.

Macron said Frances position was clear: support for Saudi security and condemnation of rocket attacks by Houthi rebel militias inside Yemen, and a wish to find a political solution to the conflict with concern for humanitarian demands.

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We are very attached to respect for international humanitarian law and we will continue to be vigilant about this, he said.

Macron spoke of future Saudi investments in France and joint ventures between the two countries in the media, telecom, leisure and luxury sectors. France has been a major arms supplier to the Saudis traditionally, but no big weapons contracts were announced during Mohammeds three-day visit.

The trip included the signing of contracts worth billions of dollars between French and Saudi businesses. Cultural links include Saudi Arabia being represented at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time next month. France is also to help Saudi Arabia set up a national opera and orchestra.

Macron invited Mohammed and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri for a gala dinner, a diplomatic move from France that sees itself as playing a mediation role in the region. Last November, the Saudis were accused of holding Hariri hostage after the Lebanese prime minister resigned while in Saudi Arabia, saying he feared being assassinated.

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Hariri eventually left Saudi Arabia and rescinded his resignation. Macron said the dinner was aimed at boosting attempts to stabilize Lebanon and improve relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Also Tuesday, a lawyer representing a Yemeni human rights group filed a lawsuit in Paris accusing Mohammed of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen.

Taha Hussein Mohamed, director of the Legal Center for Rights and Development, along with two French advisors said they were suing over the indiscriminate bombings against civilian populations in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Mohammeds visit was part of a whirlwind tour that included trips to the United States, Britain and Egypt. He is attempting to project a moderate reformist image. The Elysee Palace announced Macron would visit Saudi Arabia this year.

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Willsher is a special correspondent.

UPDATES:

4:35 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times reporting.

This article was originally published at 11:25 a.m.
Myanmars military on Tuesday sentenced seven personnel to 10 years in prison and hard labor as alleged accomplices in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine state, where the countrys security forces carried out a brutal crackdown against the minority group, officials said.

The military personnel also were permanently expelled from the army, according to a statement released by the army chief on an official Facebook page.

The army in January made a rare admission that its soldiers had killed 10 Rohingya villagers who were captured and accused of being terrorists during insurgent attacks last year in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine. The military said its soldiers confessed to carrying out the slayings.

The armys statement Tuesday said an investigative group under the military had interrogated 21 military personnel, three police officers, 13 security forces, six civil servants and six Inn Din villagers. It said the investigation proved that the soldiers violated the law by killing the villagers.

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For the military personnel under the Military Act 71, four military personnel and three soldiers will be sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor and to be permanently expelled from the army, the statement said.

Myanmars security forces launched brutal counterattacks against Rohingya Muslims after a Rohingya insurgent group attacked police outposts on Aug. 25. The military called it a clearance operation against the terrorists, but the U.S. and the United Nations branded it an ethnic cleansing after the armys operation drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.

The military said in a statement on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies of Bengali terrorists had been found on the outskirts of Inn Din village in northern Rakhines Maungdaw region. Local authorities and the military have carried out an investigation since.

The government usually refers to Rohingya Muslims as Bengalis, a term that denies they belong to Buddhist-majority Myanmar and implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September during the crackdown, international aid group Doctors Without Borders said in December after conducting a field survey.

Little or no information has been revealed because the Myanmar government has denied humanitarian workers and independent media access to northern Rakhine.
The hit men arrived by motorcycle at high noon, stepped into the Toreo Restaurant and, without uttering a word, opened fire on Antonia Jaimes Moctezuma.

Then they sped away, their mission completed.

Jaimes was a 47-year-old mother of two, the owner of the restaurant and aspirant for a state congressional seat. Her killing on Feb. 21 in the city of Chilapa, in Mexicos violence-plagued Guerrero state, is among more than two dozen assassinations of candidates running for office in July.

The situation of insecurity is very grave here, said her widower, Moises Acevedo. But not only in Chilapa. Theyre killing candidates all over the country.

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Authorities have confirmed the slayings of at least 30 candidates, according to Alfonso Navarrete, Mexicos interior secretary. Some reports indicate the toll since last year may be almost twice as high.

The killings  mostly of local candidates in provincial areas far from the Mexican capital  form a chilling backdrop to the July 1 elections, which include races for president, Congress and local posts across the country. In all, more than 3,000 offices are up for grabs, the most ever on a single day.

The slain candidates represented a range of political affiliations and movements, suggesting that the killings are more about local power grabs and gang rivalries than national conflicts among parties. The great majority of victims lacked the security teams and public renown that offer some measure of protection for national and other high-profile office-seekers.

Most of the killings have garnered little attention from national news outlets, which are heavily focused on the presidential contenders, who appear daily on television.

Among the most recent victims is Aaron Varela Martinez, a mayoral candidate in Puebla state who was found shot to death on March 1 in his vehicle outside the town of Santa Clara Ocoyucan. A lawyer, Varela was a member of the leftist National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena.

His campaign vow: Not to lie, not to betray and not to rob.

Also last month, a Morena congressional hopeful was shot on a street in the northern state of San Luis Potosi, but survived.

The litany of attacks has generated profound concern here and abroad about the state of Mexican democracy.

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Mexico is suffering a risk in the legitimacy of its electoral processes, said Erubiel Tirado, a political scientist at Mexicos Iberoamerican University and an expert on violence. The question here is: Does the Mexican state really have the capacity to protect [candidates]? I believe that it doesnt.

The increase in political slayings is absolutely unacceptable in an electoral process, said Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, which plans to send a team to observe Mexicos July voting.

Its an average of one murder of a candidate every four or five days, he told reporters in Madrid last month. We are very worried.

Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States. (Salvatore Di Nolfi / Associated Press )

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Most cases remain unresolved, despite authorities vows to investigate. Motives remain murky, but many suspect both internal political disputes and gangs determination to retain or assert control of the political system in their backyards.

The attacks, the interior secretary recently told reporters, are very focused on some regions of the country, mostly in areas where organized crime often holds an insidious grip on power and federal law enforcement is stretched thin.

That doesnt mean we are not taking steps, the interior secretary said. We could do it in a much better manner in an electoral year, be much more effective.

Among the hardest-hit places is the state of Guerrero, where political corruption is rampant and sundry factions vie for control of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and other rackets. Mobsters routinely buy off local cops and politicians. Since the beginning of 2017, more than a dozen candidates have been reported slain in Guerrero.

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The situation has become so volatile in Guerrero state that Roman Catholic Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza held an extraordinary, Good Friday summit with cartel leaders pleading for an end to the targeting of political aspirants.

I asked above all that they please try not to assassinate politicians, he told an interviewer from Mexicos Milenio television, describing his conversation with the narcos. I also asked that they allow them [candidates] to conduct their campaigns freely.

Rangel, who met a firestorm of official criticism for his unorthodox approach to the capos, said he extracted a vow that candidates would not be placed on hit lists.

But Mexicos recent history suggests that such a promise may be illusory.

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There were no assassinations of mayors during the 1980s and 1990s, according to Justice in Mexico, a research project at the University of San Diego. But today, being a mayor or other regional lawmaker may be among the countrys most dangerous jobs.

Mexicos National Assn. of Mayors recently reported that more than 100 mayors, mayors-elect and ex-mayors had been slain since 2006.

That was the year when then-President Felipe Calderon, with U.S. backing, launched a new chapter in Mexicos war on drugs, including the so-called kingpin strategy that targeted cartel leaders, resulting in battles for fragmented trafficking empires. The last decade has seen heightened intra-cartel clashes, shootouts between traffickers and government forces, and a surge in killings and disappearances of citizens.

By 2016, when six mayors were killed, Mexican mayors were nearly 12 times more likely to be killed than members of the general population, according to an analysis by Justice in Mexico.

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In one particularly disquieting case, gunmen stormed the home of Gisela Mota shortly after dawn on Jan. 2, 2016, and executed her. The first female mayor of the city of Temixco in Morelos state, Mota had campaigned on an anti-corruption pledge. It was her second day on the job.

The mayor of Temixco, Mexico, Gisela Mota, of the left wing party Partido de la Revolucion Democratica, speaks with journalists in Temixco. Mota was killed at her home on Jan. 2, 2016, a day after taking office. (European Pressphoto Agency )

Family members of the slain mayor of Temixco, Mexico, Gisela Mota, mourn next to her casket. (Tony Rivera / Associated Press )

In places like Morelos and Guerrero states, lawmakers must walk a fine line between elected responsibilities and not upsetting hyper-violent criminal syndicates. Even politicians inclined to be honest, observers say, are often obliged to forge a modus vivendi with the gangs.

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In areas where turf is disputed, politicians may be viewed as allies of one rival faction or another.

An organized crime group may believe that a mayor is collaborating with another group and needs to be removed immediately, said Laura Calderon, program officer for Justice in Mexico. Or organized crime may feel betrayed that a mayor refused to collaborate, so they need to delete the mayor from the picture.

Political killings may also serve as especially potent messages from the underworld.

In June 2014, the bullet-riddled body of a former councilwoman from San Miguel Totolapan in Guerrero state was found with a placard declaring: This is going to happen to anyone who passes information to the fish.

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The warning was from Los Tequileros, or the Tequila Drinkers, the dominant cartel in the area. The fish was the leader of a rival gang known as the Michoacan Family.

At the time of her assassination in Chilapa, Jaimes was running for the state congress under the banner of the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution.

The former city councilwoman understood the risks in Chilapa, a sprawling municipality of 120,000 that has become one of the countrys deadliest places. Two gangs  the Reds and the Squirrels  compete for surrounding terrain to grow poppies, the source of heroin smuggled to the United States.

Four days after Jaimes killing, another candidate from Chilapa for the same congressional seat was found shot dead, stuffed alongside the body of a slain cousin in the trunk of a car left on a roadside. Dulce Rebaja Pedro, 28, was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which holds Mexicos presidency, and headed regional committees on indigenous and Afro-Mexican affairs.

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The violence in Chilapa has not let up.

On Thursday, police discovered five bodies dumped along a highway. That evening, officials said, Chilapas chief of security was riding in a police car along the same road when assailants opened fire and killed him.

The slayings of the two state congressional candidates prompted at least one political aspirant from Chilapa to drop out of the same race.

But political parties have vowed to put forward new candidates.

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To read this article in Spanish, click here

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
Ukraine's SBU Security Service on Tuesday morning searched unaligned Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy Nadiia Savchenko's flat as part of their criminal investigation into her activities.

"A legal search was conducted," SBU Spokeswoman Olena Hitlianska told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news service.

Savchenko's mother, Maria, told Newsone TV that she agreed to open the door for the agents after speaking with her Nadiia's sister, Vera. The search took two hours.

Savchenko's mother said the agents looked like they were searching for weapons.

According to Savchenko's defense lawyer Oleh Solovey, SBU agents also searched Savchenko's office.

On March 22, the Verkhovna Rada supported the motions and green lighted Savchenko's prosecution, detention and arrest. Then representatives of law enforcement bodies in the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine informed Savchenko about suspicion, after which the MP, accompanied by law enforcers, went to the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and Kyiv region.

The motions were filed in the framework of criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 109 (actions aimed at the forcible change or overthrow of the constitutional order or the seizure of state power); Part 1 of Article 14 (preparation for crime), Part 2 of Article 28 (commission of a crime by a group of persons, a group of persons by prior agreement, an organized group or a criminal organization), Part 1 of Article 109; Part 1 of Article 14, Part 2 of Article 28, Article 112 (encroachment on the life of a state or public figure), Part 1 of Article 14, Part 3 of Article 258 (terrorist act); Part 1 of Article 258-3 (creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization); Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Kyiv's Appeals Court on March 29 turned down an appeal against the Shevchenkivsky District Court ruling on taking remanding Savchenko to pretrial custody for two months.
Poroshenko, Merkel discuss possibility of continuing sanctions against Russia in case of non-fulfillment of Minsk accords

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed the possibility of prolonging sanctions against the Russian Federation in the event of Russia's failure to comply with the Minsk accords.

"We also discussed the issue of continuing sanctions in case of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements," Poroshenko said at a press conference with Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president said: "We still do not have progress in the negotiations on the Minsk process."

He also recalled that the 'Easter truce' is not observed in Donbas.

"I informed the Chancellor that the truce was not observed, even though we had a joint statement by the participants of the Normandy format  French President Emmanual Macron, Chancellor Merkel, President Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian-controlled militants and Russian soldiers have violated the ceasefire regime 10 times more and the Ukrainian military opened fire in response in order to protect themselves only 12 times," the president said.

Poroshenko stressed that at the present time in the Joint Coordination and Control Center there are no Russian representatives in the occupied territory that could effectively enforce the ceasefire regime.
The summit of the leadership of Germany, France and Ukraine in Aachen will take place against the backdrop of a dialogue with Russia, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Konstiantyn Yeliseyev has said.

"It is very important for us that this will also happen against the backdrop of an intensive dialogue of the leaders of Germany and France with Moscow. Because without Moscow, it will be very difficult to promote this issue, since everybody knows that Russia has the right of veto in the UN Security Council," Yeliseyev told journalists in Berlin on Tuesday.

The deputy head of the presidential administration has said Ukraine is impressed by Germany's position, which states that the key condition for the deployment of a peacekeeping operation in Donbas is Ukraine's consent.

According to Yeliseyev, during the negotiations in Germany, including with the foreign affairs minister, the conditions for the future peacekeeping mission were considered. "The German side is determined to implement this idea, since everyone already knows that this issue is a component of the German coalition agreement, that is, it has political support in Germany," he said.

Yeliseyev stressed that the parties once again coordinated their positions and agreed there should be a multifunctional full-fledged UN peacekeeping mission, which should cover the entire occupied territory of Donbas and it should, among other things, be deployed at the uncontrolled sector of the Ukraine-Russia border.

As reported, the meeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Presidents of France and Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and Petro Poroshenko, will be held in Aachen (Germany) in May this year.
A Giant grocery store in Bethlehem will be getting a new gas station, the chain announced on Tuesday.

The store at 2182 W. Union Boulevard is one of three Giant stores getting new fueling stations in Pennsylvania, all to be built this year.

The store is located in a shopping center where West Union Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue meet in West Bethlehem, in the Lehigh County part of the city.

Giant gas stations in the Valley are already at stores in Allentown, Coplay, Nazareth, Trexlertown, and Bethlehem, Forks and Palmer townships. With the new stations, Giant will have 103 fuel stations total.

The Carlisle-based grocery chain offers a gas reward program to earn cents off a gallon of gas with certain purchases, which can be used at Giant pumps or participating Shell gas stations. The discount is good for one vehicle fill-up, with a 20-gallon maximum.

The chain also plans to build six new stores, including at 300 S. Best Ave. in Walnutport and at 300 Lincoln Ave. in East Stroudsburg. Both are expected to open in 2019.

The Walnutport location replaces Pathmark in the Walnut Plaza along Route 145 in the Northampton County community. It was among 25 stores closed in 2015 by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. amid a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
When a massive high school like Liberty in Bethlehem goes into lockdown, accounting for every student and keeping staff informed is a massive undertaking.

The Bethlehem Area School District is considering a new school safety software program that will take all of its emergency responses digital, putting its plans into an app easily loaded onto staff members' phones.

If an external or internal threat triggers a lockdown in any of Bethlehem's 22 schools, teachers would be able to pull up real-time student rosters -- showing absences and early dismissals -- and check a box for every student in their classroom.

Principals could pull up their building's emergency plan and run through a checklist of steps they must take.

Like many districts across the nation, Bethlehem has been reviewing its school safety plans and internal student supports in the wake of the Valentine's Day school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead.

Bethlehem is in continual contact with all five police departments that serve its school buildings, officials report. Building principals have gone over the existing plans and checklists with staff.

"Our response to an active shooter currently is to lockdown," said Mark Stein, district chief facilities and operations officer. "We do what we need to do to be safe for five minutes until the police show up."

Administrators have emphasized the importance of keeping all exterior and classroom doors locked at all times, he said.

"We need to reinforce the things we have been doing and make sure they are done every day," Stein said.

Currently, emergency plans for the district and every school building are stored in massive, cumbersome binders. School Director Eugene McKeon questioned if there's a way to digitize the records so a principal could load it on a tablet during an emergency or drill.

Stein said that the administration is recommending a tech solution that does just that.

"It takes this giant binder and puts it into virtual binders in the cloud," Stein said.

Later this month, the school board is being asked to approve an emergency management software contract with NaviGate. It would cost $44,000 for the first year and $22,000 annually in subsequent years; the district would get a 20 percent discount for paying the entire contract up front, Stein said.

What really sold Stein on the software is the app's ability to be used for two-way communication in an emergency. It can send alerts to staff if they've silenced their phones.

Superintendent Joseph Roy said in certain situations a principal cannot get onto the public announcement system to let staff know what is going on. This gives them a way to get information to teachers locked down in classes quickly.

NaviGate goes way beyond putting the district's plans into the cloud. The company will map all of the district's buildings and take 360-degree photos of every classroom, which will be available in the app. First responders will be able to see every card reader, utility shut-off and even where hazardous materials are stored in science labs and it can integrate with security cameras, Stein said.

The district has been meeting with teachers and student advisory groups in the wake of Parkland to get a sense of how they're coping and what they're feeling.

Roy shared at one middle school a principal had been holding off on doing a lockdown drill to avoid rattling students, but the children said they wanted a drill.

"Kids said, 'We want to know you are thinking about this, that my teacher has thought this through and there is a game plan,'" Roy said.

School Director Karen Beck Pooley praised the district for engaging students.

"This is an issue on a lot of their minds," she said.

This summer, the district plans to send seven administrators to ALICE active shooter response training, who will then be able to bring back what they learn and train other administrators.

"ALICE is a marketed program. It is not perfect," Roy said. "We would do the training and they say, what works best for us."

The superintendent noted that the recommended response to an active shooter in a building is constantly evolving. There is now talk of fleeing or fighting a shooter if you encounter one, he said. Evaluating kindergarteners versus high school seniors are two very different scenarios.

"You have to apply some common sense to that," Roy said. "When you see a school district putting buckets of stones into classrooms, you need to apply some common sense to what that might look like."

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Philadelphia man was arrested after troopers said they found 775 cartons of out-of-state cigarettes in the bed of pickup truck on Interstate 78 in Williams Township.

Ahmad Jeaidi, 26, was charged with two counts of possession of unstamped cigarettes and a summary traffic violation for traveling in the left lane.

He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

State police at the Belfast barracks said a trooper stopped a pickup truck Friday on I-78 East in Northampton County, for traveling in the passing lane but not to pass another vehicle, state police said.

Troopers said Jeaidi appeared very nervous, and was shaking and avoiding eye contact when they spoke with him.

Jeaidi said he did not have any contraband in the truck and reportedly gave troopers consent to search the truck.

Jeaidi initially told troopers he could not find the key for the truck bed cover, but a trooper was able to peer inside and saw several hundred cartons of cigarettes, state police said.

After he was arrested, Jeaidi revealed he had the key for the cover hidden under the driver's seat, troopers said.

All told, troopers found 775 cartons "packed" into the truck, state police said.

The cigarettes had a Virginia tax stamp. Pennsylvania law only allows a person to have up to one carton of cigarettes that does not have a Pennsylvania cigarette tax stamp.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Palmer Township man was arrested Tuesday, accused of having "numerous" photos and videos of child pornography.

Jacob Wilken, 25, was charged with 87 counts of possession of child porn, and two counts of criminal use of a communication facility.

Bail was set at $50,000, and Wilkens was sent to Northampton County Prison after he could not post the amount.

Palmer Township police said their lengthy investigation began in July 2017, when a case was opened in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, based on tips from the CyberTipline about numerous searches from a Flemington address for child porn.

After subpoenaing different internet and cellphone providers, an IP address led investigators to Wilken's address in Palmer Township, township police said.

Police raided the home, and seized cellphones, tablets and online gaming systems.

Police said they uncovered numerous photographs and videos of child pornography, along with internet searches of websites relating to pornography involving children.

The images and video all appear to be from online sources, and were not photographed by Wilkens, police said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has met with President of the German Bundestag Wolfgang Schauble in Berlin to discuss the progress of reforms in Ukraine and continued cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In particular, the two officials discussed the progress of reforms in the financial, economic, banking and energy sectors of Ukraine, the Ukrainian president's press service said on Tuesday.

"The importance of ongoing cooperation of Ukraine with the IMF as a weighty factor of stability and international confidence was underlined," it said.

During the meeting, Poroshenko and Schauble also agreed on strengthening of interparliamentary cooperation between Ukraine and Germany.
"She-Rex" Rachel Hutcheson and her mother Penny, both of Nazareth, participate in the worldwide March for Science on April 22, 2017, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com

The 2018 March for Science

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of scientists, educators and supporters are expected to once again join the March for Science.

Last year, the inaugural March for Science was held on Earth Day and drew more than 1 million people to some 600 marches worldwide, including in the Lehigh Valley.

At least 200 events are planned this year. Locally, a march will once again be held in Bethlehem.

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What is the March for Science?

The stated goal of the March for Science is to amplify the role of science in public policy. It uses grassroots efforts to spur interest and support among the scientific community.

Organizers say they want it to be nonpartisan. "Science does not belong to any political party," they say on the march website. The 2017 march drew from opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies.

Since last years protests, the March for Science organization has backed a number of endeavors, including support for gun violence research and a campaign encouraging Congress to consider the science backgrounds of appointments to government positions.

The march has also grown to include a grant program, funded in part by a book called "Science Not Silence" from the 2017 march.

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 Shared the event with my friends

 Donated to the March

Grabbed some cool merch

 Made cool signs



...are you ready for April 14th? Use our 2018 March checklist to make sure you're all set to #MarchforScience! pic.twitter.com/YGHt1r8kHv  March for Science (@MarchForScience) April 2, 2018

Where is the March for Science happening?

The main March for Science in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to start with a 12:30 p.m. rally and a number of speakers  including former New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt  preceding the march at 2:30 p.m.

There are more than 200 satellite marches planned on at least six continents (researchers in Antarctica also participated last year). The satellites are organized locally.

Locally, marches are planned in Bethlehem; Philadelphia; Hawley, Pennsylvania; Trenton and New York City.

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March for Science: Best signs from the 2017 Lehigh Valley march

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Dan Miller, of Coopersburg, carries his sign through Payrow Plaza during the March for Science on April 22, 2017, in Bethlehem.

Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com

March for Science Lehigh Valley

March for Science Lehigh Valley is scheduled 1-3 p.m. Saturday, April 14 at Payrow Plaza in Bethlehem.

This is the same location the 2017 March for Science was held. Several hundred people attended.

The local march is organized by Lehigh Valley for All, a group with the stated goal of organizing progressive political movements since Trump's election.

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The Bethlehem march last year had about 800 participants, said Kathy Harrington with Lehigh Valley for All. This year, she expects about 600, depending on the weather.

Weve had a lot of interest and many scientific groups are advertising to their members in the area, she said.

The local march also has arranged a slate of speakers, including college professors, a state representative, a student and a science-minded local comedian.

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&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://glentickle.bandcamp.com/album/yes-really" data-mce-href="http://glentickle.bandcamp.com/album/yes-really"&amp;amp;gt;(Yes, Really) by Glen Tickle&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

"My talk will focus on why I think it's important to get kids into science early, and why I hate it when audiences laugh when I say I used to teach preschool science," said comedian Glen Tickle, who used to be a substitute science teacher.

Tickle worked his experience teaching young children into one of his comedy albums, talking about why the sky is blue and why Pluto was demoted from its status as a planet (you can listen to it above). He hosts Nerd Nite in Bethlehem every month at SteelStacks.

Also making an appearance at Saturdays march: Tickles toy robot that he programmed to write its own knock-knock jokes.

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ANNOUNCING THE 2018 #MARCHFORSCIENCE SPEAKERS! This amazing group will be joining us in Washington DC. Join us there and stay tuned for more announcements soon!  Science advocates: Share this to spread the word! On April 14th, we'll #KeepMarching! Posted by March for Science on Friday, April 6, 2018

Kira Lawrence, the head of Lafayette College's environmental geoscience program, is also among the Lehigh Valley march's speakers.

Last June, after Trump announced he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, she wrote a guest column for lehighvalleylive.com in which she promised her young son "that I will do everything in my power to save you and your generation from the worst impacts of climate change."

Her speech on Saturday will be a call to action against climate change and the importance of valuing scientific evidence, according to Lafayette College.

Other speakers include Shavon Smith, a student and robotics team member at Dieruff High School; John Cigliano, the director of the Cedar Crest Environmental College Conservation Program; Daniel Spiegel, a computer science professor at Kutztown University.

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Doug Eadline, of Bethlehem, raises his slide rule in a show of solidarity during the March for Science on April 22, 2017, at Bethlehem's Payrow Plaza.

Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com

Lehigh University astronomer Joshua Pepper said he plans to speak about the importance and benefits of attracting bright scientific minds from around the world to the U.S., and the role of science in public health and the country's status as a superpower.

Its important to call attention to the value and importance of science, especially in an era when politicians tend to ignore the importance of science, he said. It doesnt work unless we have a very broad and supportive community.

Even if Saturdays march in Bethlehem draws only a handful of people, Pepper said it will be worth it to keep the discussion going.

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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Thousands of RCN customers in the Northeast lost their internet connections for about an hour Monday night in an outage that also affected the company's customer service phone lines and apparently its website.

A cause for the outage has yet to be identified.

An RCN spokeswoman late Monday night called it a "short service interruption" that lasted about 40 minutes, at least in the Lehigh Valley.

Late Tuesday morning, the company officially acknowledged the outage on its social media accounts.

PA customers  Last evening, there was a brief service disruption. Services were fully restored last night. If you are unable to access the internet; unplug your modem for 30 seconds then plug it back in. Find full instructions here. https://t.co/T4gELQ4tr6  RCN (@RCNconnects) April 10, 2018

The spokeswoman, Diane Carragher, said most service was restored Monday night.

Reports of problems with RCN spiked about 8 p.m. Monday on the website downdetector.com.

The website's outage map indicated all of RCN's service areas were affected. It glowed deep red around Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Some problems appeared to remain Tuesday morning.

The hashtag #RCNoutage sprang up on social media, where users vented frustration over a lack of information.

It appeared RCN's website was down during the outage. Calls to the company to report or ask about the outage were met with a busy signal. By 9 p.m., RCN's phone lines had been restored but the wait for customer service was estimated to be 20 minutes or more.

The call center was affected by the same problem as the internet service, Carragher said.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Bon-Ton recently filed notices with the state that it plans to close its store at Bethlehem's Westgate Mall and a distribution center in Whitehall Township.

But an announcement on Tuesday from the embattled department store chain suggests there's hope the closures may be averted and the more than 100 workers at the local store and distribution center could keep their jobs.

The chain, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, has received a letter of intent from an investor group to purchase its assets, Bon-Ton says in a statement. The investor group comprises DW Partners, Namdar Realty Group and Washington Prime Group. Washington Prime owns the Whitehall Mall and Namdar owns the Phillipsburg Mall.

Reuters reported on April 5 that the investment group was interested in bidding on Bon-Ton's holdings, but Tuesday's announcement of the letter of intent represents a commitment from the group that could bring an end to a stint in bankruptcy court.

An auction is now scheduled for April 16, a move that Bon-Ton says will allow the finalization of the sale to the investment group.

The announcement comes just days after Bon-Ton filed federally required WARN notices with Pennsylvania's Department of Labor & Industry. The notices say Bon-Ton plans to close four sites in the state, including the Westgate Mall store and Whitehall distribution center. The closure would result in a combined 140 layoffs at those two sites, the notices say.

Tuesday's statement from the chain says the sale may render those notices moot.

"Bon-Ton was required to provide notification under certain state and federal laws of potential job losses even as it works to complete a sale of the company ... and is hopeful the sale process will preserve jobs," the statement says. "The company's stores remain open and are continuing to serve customers."

The statement doesn't specify which stores previously slated for closure would remain open and how many jobs will be preserved if the sale goes through as planned.

The four Bon-Ton sites that were the subject of the most recent WARN notices are in addition to 47 stores nationwide that Bon-Ton in January announced would be closing. Included in the previous announcement were Bon-Ton stores at the Trexler Mall in Trexlertown, the Stroud Mall in Stroudsburg and the Phillipsburg Mall.

Bon-Ton President and CEO Bill Tracy says in a statement that Tuesday's announcement represents progress. He expressed gratitude toward employees who have endured through the bankruptcy proceedings.

"I would like to thank our talented associates, our vendors and our other partners for their ongoing support through our court-supervised restructuring process," he says. "As always, we remain focused on serving our loyal customers with quality merchandise and an exceptional shopping experience in our stores and across e-commerce and mobile platforms."

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement routinely inspects local restaurants, bars and clubs to make sure they enforce liquor laws. Several Lehigh Valley businesses were cited for violations in March 2018.

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Potential penalties

The businesses will be called before an administrative law judge, where they face penalties ranging from $50 to $1,000 for minor offenses and up to $5,000 for serious offenses. The judge can potentially suspend or revoke a liquor license or mandate training as a result of a serious citation. At this point the allegations are only allegations. Each business will have an opportunity to defend itself at an upcoming hearing.

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The bars and clubs that were cited:

Rice-Ebner Post Association of Easton was cited March 21 for failing to have its managers complete the Responsible Alcohol Management Program, or RAMP training, between Oct. 23 and Nov. 27. The training helps managers and workers understand liquor laws so the business can comply with them. The social hall is at 423 Davis St. in Easton.

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(File photo)

The Tally Ho Tavern was cited March 30 for using a loudspeaker on July 22 and 29. The tavern didn't require patrons to leave a half hour after alcohol ceased to be served on Sept. 30, a news release says. The bar allowed smoking in a non-smoking section on that date, the release says. The tavern is at 205 W. Fourth St. in Bethlehem.

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City Center Hospitality Four was cited March 21 for failing to notify the state liquor control board of a manager change between May 16, 2017, and Jan. 31, 2018. The business is at 526-530 W. Hamilton St. in Allentown.

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Allen Six Pack Shop was cited March 30 for various violations. The business allegedly had inadequate seating for eat-in customers and operated a secondary business illegally on Jan. 31, 2017, and Feb. 5, 2018. It failed to notify the board of a change of manager during the period of Dec. 21, 2017, to Feb. 5, 2018, according to a news release. The business is at 549 N. 10th St., Allentown.

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1760 Pub-N-Grille was cited on March 26 for serving alcohol to an 18-year-old. The bar is at 1176 Trexlertown Road in Upper Macungie Township.

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(File photo)

Monocacy Field & Stream Association was cited March 21 for failing to hold regular meetings, stick to the club bylaws and keep records of alcoholic beverage sales between March 22, 2017, and Feb. 5, 2018. The club allegedly transported brewed beverages without a license on April 1. The association is at Mauch Chunk Road and Elizabeth Avenue in Bethlehem.

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West End Veterans Home Association of Allentown was cited March 21 for failing to keep accurate bingo records for two years prior to Dec. 13, 2017. The group is based at 1615 Sumner Avenue, Allentown.

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The Fogelsville Hotel was cited March 16 for selling alcohol to an 18-year-old on Jan. 26. The hotel is at 7921 Main St. in Upper Macungie Township.

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The Antlers Association of South Bethlehem was cited March 16 for failing to adhere to bylaws, maintain records and conduct business through officers from May 12, 2017, through Jan. 23, 2018. A manager allegedly didn't complete RAMP training between Nov. 20, 2017, and Jan. 23, 2018. The association is at 431 W. Union Boulevard in Bethlehem.

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(AP Photo)

The Pennsville Hotel was cited March 16 for failing to maintain sufficient bathrooms from Aug. 13, 2016, through Feb. 21, 2018. The hotel is at 3750 Lehigh Drive in Lehigh Township, Northampton County.

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Nevulis Beverages was cited March 16 for selling alcohol to an 18-year-old on Jan. 26. The business is at 4041 Route 309 in North Whitehall Township.

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The North End Republican Association was cited March 16 for failing to adhere to bylaws and failing to maintain records from Feb. 8, 2017, through Feb. 7, 2018. The club allegedly improperly admitted members between March 1, 2017, and Feb. 7, 2018. The association is based at High and Greenwich streets in Bethlehem.

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Bowman's North restaurant was cited on March 16 for selling alcohol to an 18-year-old on Jan. 12. The restaurant is at 1274 Easton Road in Riegelsville, Bucks County.

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The Willow Street Pub was cited March 12 for selling alcohol to a 19-year-old on Feb. 8. The pub is at 2775 Willow St. in North Whitehall Township.

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Invisible Chefs was cited March 12 for failing to break empty liquor bottles within 24 hours on Jan. 24. The businesss health permit expired on July 31, 2017, the news release says. The business is at 37-39 S. Ninth St. in Allentown.

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Slider's Pub was cited March 12 for serving alcohol to an 18-year-old on Jan. 26. The pub is at 4650 Route 309 in North Whitehall Township.

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Northampton Post VFW Home Association was cited March 2 for operating small games of chance illegally from April 15 through Nov. 27, 2017. The club allegedly failed to maintain liquor code records from June 27 through Nov. 27, 2017. The association is at Main Street and Laubach Avenue in Northampton.

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The Pennsylvania Roadhouse was cited March 7 for operating a hotel with ill-equipped bedrooms on Feb. 5 and 6, 2018. Records weren't properly maintained for two years prior to Feb. 6, the press release says. The restaurant is at 5784 Sullivan Trail in Plainfield Township.

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The Roosevelt Democratic Club of Lehigh Township was cited March 7 because its manager wasn't RAMP certified between Oct. 22, 2017, and Jan. 29, 2018. The club is at 3980 Mountainview Drive in Lehigh Township, Northampton County.

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Volpe's Sports Bar was cited March 7 for selling an unlimited amount of alcohol to customers for a set price of $60 on Dec. 31, 2017. The bar is at 1926 Tilghman St. in Allentown.

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Christmas City Spirits was cited March 7 because its manager wasn't RAMP certified between Nov. 30, 2017, and Jan. 23, 2018. The business is at 564 Main St. in Bethlehem.

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(Thinkstock Photo)

Emmaus Fire Co. No. 1 was cited March 2 for failing to post a notice of suspension on its outside window on Feb. 12. The social hall is at 50 S. Sixth St., Emmaus.

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Lehigh Valley bars cited under liquor laws in February 2018

Lehigh Valley bars cited under liquor laws in January 2018

Lehigh Valley bars cited under liquor laws in December 2017

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
An masonry dump truck careened into a roadside display of lawn tractors Tuesday in Warren County, according to police.

Two people looking at the tractors at the time had to jump out of the way, Blairstown Township police said. One of them suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken by Blairstown Ambulance Corps to Newton Hospital, according to police.

It occurred about 11 a.m. at Central Jersey Machinery on Route 94 in the township.

Responders with the township police department, Blairstown Hose Co. No. 1, Blairstown Office of Emergency Management and the ambulance corps arrived to find the truck "on its side, and tangled in tractors," police posted on Facebook.

On 4/10/2018 at 11:10 am, the Blairstown Police, Blairstown Hose Company #1, Blairstown OEM and Blairstown Ambulance... Posted by Blairstown Police Department on Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Investigators determined the truck had been northbound on Route 94 when it veered off the road, striking multiple tractors and rolling onto its side.

The truck appeared to belong to Ray Bears & Sons Landscaping in Newton. A call for comment to the company was not immediately returned.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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In March, 2018, aquatic export was estimated at 158,000 tonnes, worth US$600 million.

According to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in first two months of 2018, the export volume of tra (pangasius) fish and basa fish were the highest with 110,900 tonnes, worth US$ 257.1 million, down 6.1% in volume, but still up 13.2% in value thanks to rising export prices.

The average price of tra and basa catfish in the first two months of 2018 was US$2,319 per tonne, up 23.6% against the same period last year.

In the first two months of 2018, shrimp exports reached 46,000 tonnes, worth US$ 429.1 million, up 20.6% in volume and up 14.5% in value over the same period last year. The average price of shrimp in the first two months of 2018 was US$ 9,334 per tonne, down 5.1% from the same period last year.

In the first week of March, 2018, an Australian delegation visited Vietnam to inspect and evaluate the process and quality of the shrimp production in Vietnam.

The experts highly appreciated the Vietnamese shrimp industry, which opens the prospect of Vietnamese shrimp exports to Australia in the near future.
At the event, New Zealand's experience and innovative solutions will also be shared in order to help Vietnam improve the competitiveness of the sector.

Earlier, the good news was announced during the official visit to New Zealand by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on July 27, 2017.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnamese rambutans have been exported to the US, Canada, the EU, Eastern Europe, several countries in Africa, China and a number of other countries in Southeast Asia.

Vietnamese rambutans are mainly grown in the southern provinces with an area of more than 50,000 hectares, providing roughly 300,000 tonnes of produce each year.

The export of Vietnamese rambutans to New Zealand will contribute to increasing the export turnover of this year and in the future. In 2017, the export value of fruit and vegetables reached over US$ 3.5 billion, up by 40%, while the export turnover in the first quarter of 2018 reached US$ 950 million, up 35.6% over the same period.
The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

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The words spring break often conjure images of young people lazing on a sunny beach, or perhaps headed home for a relaxing week with family. Not so for 20 Lycoming College students, who instead headed to Lucedale, Miss., to participate in the Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge.

Habitat for Humanity partners with people all over the world to help them build or improve a place they can call home. Homeowners, who pay an affordable and interest-free mortgage, build right alongside volunteers. Lycoming College has participated in the Collegiate Challenge for 26 years, and the Colleges Habitat chapter regularly helps with local builds, as well as builds across the country.

Months before journeying to Mississippi, criminology major Destiny-Ann Schott 20, treasurer and trip coordinator, worked to identify a destination for spring break. Schott was first introduced to Habitat as a high school student through her church in Abingdon, Md. She quickly developed a love of volunteering. I learn new things with every build, said Schott. This time we mostly hung vinyl siding for the house, and we learned a whole lot about soffits!

At the build in Mississippi, the students worked on a house for a disabled veteran who had been living in a shed without running water or sewer services. It was cool to be a part of that, said Andrew Shelly 18, president of the Colleges Habitat chapter. A biology major hailing from Cochranville, Pa., Shelly has participated in the Collegiate Challenge during all four of his years at Lycoming.

Habitat has given me a sense of volunteerism and community, he said. It was the first club I joined as a freshman at Lycoming College, and it holds an awesome place in my heart. It also showed me how to get involved on campus. Although he never participated before attending Lycoming College, Shelly plans to continue his involvement in Habitat after he graduates from the College in May.

Although the College chapter has a core group of members that meet and work to raise awareness, as well as critical funds needed to provide suitable housing for those in need, participation is open to the entire campus. Participants are required to pay a small fee, while the Lycoming College Student Senate funds the majority of trip expenses.

Psychology major Kaitlin Clark 18, from Sunbury, Pa., has been involved with Habitat for the entire four years shes been at the College. Reflecting back on her experiences, she treasures the memories, as well as the relationships she has made. Like many others I'm not doing it for myself or to look good on a paper, I do it to sincerely help others, especially those who can't totally help themselves, such as the veteran for whom we were building the house. While his wife can help, he isn't able to, so I volunteer my body and strength to do so, said Clark. Habitat is a hand up, not a hand out. I love that model. They don't just want to give you something and say see ya later. They work with the homeowners to build responsibility, self-efficiency, independence, safety, and skills that will help improve their lives far beyond a house to live in.

But its not just students who travelled to Lucedale; several advisers accompanied the students, driving vans, and providing mentorship and spiritual guidance throughout the journey. They lead us in reflection, and the students look up to each of them in various ways, said Shelly.

Jeff LeCrone, director of spiritual life at Lycoming College, has served as adviser for the Habitat spring break trips since he began at Lycoming. I have greatly enjoyed all 11 trips Ive been on. Each group is different with its own dynamic, which makes going on the trips lots of fun, said LeCrone. Most importantly, Habitat has introduced me to some really great people, from the staff and volunteers to the homeowners.

Annie Spencer 06, chemistry lab manager at Lycoming, participated in Collegiate Challenge Spring Break trips as a student, and enjoys her role as an adviser on the trips now. Spencer, who now serves on the Board of Directors for Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity and as the Family Services Chairperson, has done international Global Village trips with Habitat to El Salvador and Guatemala, and will lead another Global Village trip to Johns Island, SC this August. Ive had the opportunity to see first-hand the conditions that people are living in not only in developing countries, but right here in the United States. If there is any way that I can even be a small part of helping a family have a decent place to sleep at night, I want to be a part of it, she said. I believe that it is our responsibility to help the communities in which we live. My involvement with Habitat has changed the way I live my life for the better.

Rounding out the crew from Lycoming was Katherine Wrona of Mobile, Ala., who drove to Lucedale for a day to help with the build. Wrona, a 2014 alumna of Lycoming, was a member of the Colleges Habitat chapter during her time on campus.

Despite the daily hard work, the group did manage to find time for a few fun spring break activities, including a side trip to nearby New Orleans, a visit to an alligator farm, and a ride on an airboat. One unexpected perk to participating in this years spring break build was the opportunity to learn about different cultures. Things are slower in the south, commented Schott. And the food the volunteers prepared for us was delicious. Every day is like Thanksgiving dinner!

Participants in Lycoming Colleges Habitat for Humanity 2018 Collegiate Challenge included the following students:

Melizabeth Abundis 21 (Austin, Texas)

Dominick Berardelli 21 (Montoursville, Pa.)

Sergei Cole 20 (Montgomery, Pa.)

Kaitlin Clark 18 (Sunbury, Pa.)

Guillermo Estrada 20 (Houston, Texas)

Marlen Gallegos 21 (Houston, Texas)

Brittany Halblieb 21 (Hummelstown, Pa.)

Olivia Heckroth 19 (Oakdale, Pa.)

Kathryn Henry 19 (New Windsor, N.Y.)

Kaitlyn Lovette 21 (Lewistown, Pa.)

Natalia Puga 19 (Houston, Texas)

Ericka Reese 20 (Memphis, Tenn.)

Kelly Rogawski 19 (Bayville, N.J.)

Bryyan Ruiz 20 (Ontario, Calif.)

Ansharah Saib 21 (Phoenix, Mauritius)

Destiny-Ann Schott 20 (Abingdon, Md.)

Andrew Shelly 18 (Cochranville, Pa.)

Evelyn Torres 20 (Round Lake, Il.)

Sheila Whitman 21 (Lake Ariel, Pa.)

Lyna Worles 20 (Memphis, Tenn.)

Advisers included:

Jeff LeCrone, Director of Spiritual Life and Community Service, Lycoming College

Annie Spencer 06, Chemistry Lab Manager, Lycoming College

Casey Spencer 05, Assistant Pastor, Faith Wesleyan Church
The delegation visited and presented gifts to the Tra Vinh Patriotic Clergy Solidarity Association and veteran revolutionaries from the Khmer ethnic group.

Extending his best wishes to Khmer dignitaries and community on their traditional New Year, Man lauded their contributions to implementing the Party and States policy and law, as well as their active engagement in patriotic movements and campaigns launched by the VFF, thus fostering the great national solidarity bloc.

Most Venerable Sok Xane, Vice President of the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and head of the provincial Buddhist Sangha, thanked the Party and States attention and support to the Khmer community.

He affirmed that he will continue calling on the community to strengthen solidarity and promote the great national solidarity.

Chol Chnam Thmay is one of the most important festivals for Khmer people in Cambodia. It usually lasts three days and is celebrated mostly in pagodas. The festival is a demonstration of Khmer peoples aspirations, like many other ethnic groups, to move on from the previous years misfortunes and look forward to a promising new year. This years event will take place from April 14-16.

At a meeting with the VFF Committee of Tra Vinh the same day, Man hailed the achievements that Tra Vinh has made so far, especially in ensuring social security and poverty reduction.

He asked the locality to exert more efforts in improving locals living conditions, while strengthening the national solidarity bloc.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Nguyen Quoc Cuong handed over the national flag, an emblem of Vietnam and the appointment decision to Nagato Natsume on April 8.

Also in attendance at the presentation ceremony were Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Phong, former Vietnamese Vice President Truong My Hoa, Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura, Mayor of Nagoya city Takashi Kawamura and other officials of the two countries.

Nagato Natsume, Director of the Japanese Cleft Palate Foundation and Secretary General of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation, first came to Vietnam in 1992. He and the Japanese Cleft Palate Foundation have assisted clef lip and palate surgeries for Vietnamese children and carried out numerous charitable activities to help enhance the two countries relations.

Ambassador Cuong said the appointment is the Vietnamese State and Governments recognition of the doctors contributions to their bilateral ties.

He expressed his hope that as the Honorary Consul, Nagato Natsume would continue helping to enhance the connections between Aichi and Vietnamese localities, as well as between Japan and Vietnam in general.

Natsume told Vietnam News Agency that, over the last 26 years, he has visited Vietnam 200 times and organised more than 4,000 cleft lip and palate surgeries in the country. He hopes that in the future, more Vietnamese people will come to work in Japan and more Japanese firms will do business in the Southeast Asian country.

He noted that the Vietnam-Japan relations are particularly close at present and he will exert every effort to contribute to the ties.

Also at the ceremony, Ambassador Cuong offered his congratulations on the establishment of the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Association in Aichi, which coincided with the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

He said the Japan-Vietnam relationship is at its best stage, demonstrated by the many mutual visits of their leaders, especially the visit to Vietnam by the Japanese Emperor and Empress in 2017. Locality-to-locality ties have also been strengthened, including between Aichi and HCM City.

The ambassador asked the friendship association to work harder to promote the relations between Aichi and Vietnamese localities and assist Vietnamese people in the prefecture.

For his part, Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura congratulated Natsume on his appointment and the associations foundation, voicing his belief that these moves would contribute to the cooperation between Aichi and Vietnam.

He noted that 200 Aichi businesses are investing in Vietnam, while approximately 23,000 Vietnamese people are living in the prefecture.
The biggest challenge when planning a travel wardrobe is usually the weather. If you expect mixed weather with temperatures varying from mild and sunny to rainy and cold, you wouldn't want to carry double wardrobe sets of everything and then only use half. Instead you'd be focusing on layering, and on how to make travelling less bulky and heavy.





Going to Thailand was one of the few occasions where the weather presented no challenge... we knew it was going to be very warm at all times, so no provisions for cooler temperatures were needed. The challenge lay elsewhere... since we'd booked an island vacation and a city break, the wardrobe pieces I would bring along would have to work in both environments. As this was our first trip to Thailand, I couldn't rely on previous experiences for what to wear. So it was even more important that all wardrobe pieces could be dressed up or down, and adapt to the atmosphere of the destination.





Some of my favorite sundresses that I'd had for many years were sure to come along, but I'd also taken advantage of the sales a couple of months before our trip and bought a couple of pretty dresses and tunics, all of which will be fabulous for the coming summer. Planning the accessories was great fun, and with wonderful timing the summer jewelry pieces I'd selected at a show in Paris the month before arrived just in time.



I hope you enjoy the pictures of our island vacation on Koh Samui. Most were taken in the beautiful Belmond Napasai resort where we stayed.. it is a picture book paradise you never want to leave!







To get the maximum out of a travel wardrobe, the individual items should work together as much as possible. A skirt or pair of trousers for example should be compatible with many different tops. The same goes for accessories and shoes; there is not much point in bringing a pair of shoes that would only go with one particular wardrobe item or a necklace that goes with just one top. A mix of well-matched, simple and dressier clothes, shoes and accessories will be perfect ingredients to create numerous different looks which can be dressed up or down, and also go from day to night: A simple, bohemian style necklace, straw bag and flat thong sandals can turn a more elaborate robe into a sweet daytime sundress, whereas strappy sandals, sparkling earrings and a clutch transform it in a second into something more glamorous for the evening.



A beautifully presented, fragrant cup of ginger and honey tea at the Napasai's spa





This floral dress below is one of those I've had forever, and it was fun to style it with the pretty new items I recently found.

I took quite a few bags on this trip, but since they were lightweight and stackable straw bags as well as small evening bags (a Kelly Pochette and a Zara clutch) the weight and bulk weren't so different from taking a leather bag.











The Belmond Napasai's accommodation consists of individual villas dotted about in the lush tropical grounds, or on the oceanfront, making your stay completely private and very relaxing.



The skirt below was a very lucky find, it was only 25 Euros! I spotted it at the weekend market next to the gym where DS goes on Saturdays. It was a perfect travel companion for Thailand. You could wear it strolling over to the pool or lounging on the terrace, or dress it up for the evenings. Here teaming it with a cream Zara tank top. The pale mauve beach cover-up will be available in the shop soon too; I found it in Bangkok and it features a brightly coloured, hand-embroidered dream catcher on the back.

g



Lobby area







room with a view





The dress below (by Peter Pilotto) was another sale find. It was love at first sight, and it seems that it was designed with the Gulf of Thailand's colors in mind













tranquility



This silk chiffon kaftan is another wonderful item I found in Bangkok



The peaceful pool setting of our villa





If you read my previous post on Bangkok you probably know how important decoration is in Thailand, and how skillfully even the humblest things are turned into something beautiful and extraordinary. It must have taken more than an hour to turn the shallow, water-filled bowl into this magnificent bougainvillia petal arrangement.













Bag decoration with a Frangipani flower







The picture-perfect infinity pool of the Napasai, overlooking the Gulf of Thailand







The dress below is another favourite addition, also by Peter Pilotto. I love how easily you can accessorize it for a casual lunch on the beach, or a summer night in a city restaurant.





On our first night, we strolled into the restaurant at around 8h30 pm, only to find it completely empty. We quickly learned that pre-dinner drinks were best taken at around 6h30, the most magical part of the day. From then on we had early dinners with everyone else, followed by a wonderful breakfast the next day and perhaps some fruit, if anything, for lunch.



Starry, starry night Lobby areaThe dress below (by Peter Pilotto) was another sale find. It was love at first sight, and it seems that it was designed with the Gulf of Thailand's colors in mindBag decoration with a Frangipani flowerThe picture-perfect infinity pool of the Napasai, overlooking the Gulf of ThailandStarry, starry night
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A coalition of Canadian companies has proposed a regime to block egregious copyright infringing websites. McCarthy Tetraults Barry Sookman voiced support for the proposal at the Fordham IP Conference while pointing to the recent experience in the UK and elsewhere
Gold Coast : Heena Sidhu picked up India's third gold medal in shooting at the ongoing Commonwealth Games, finishing on top in the women's 25m pistol event and also breaking the CWG record in the process here today.



The 28-year-old Sidhu shot a final score of 38, two of them perfect fives, to claim the top honours ahead of Australian Elena Galiabovitch. This was her second medal at the 2st Games after having claimed the silver in the 10m air pistol event behind 16-year-old compatriot Manu Bhaker.

Earlier, defending silver-medallist Gagan Narang signed off a disappointing seventh while debutant Chain Singh finished fourth in the 50m rifle prone event at the Belmont Shooting Centre.

Narang, who qualified third for the final with a score of 619.4, went out after the first stage of elimination. PTI
Hai Duong should become a dynamic locality named in the list of the countrys leading localities with comprehensive development, the leader said at a working session with the provincial leaders on April 9.

To meet the goal, Hai Dong needs to restructure industrial clusters and zones, and assess efficiency of industrial parks, universities and vocational institutions in the locality, the PM said.

Apart from restructuring the agricultural sector and public investment, Hai Duong should heed developing the contingent of leaders in order to build a growth-enabling administration, he said.

The leader asked Hai Duong to enter the list of 20 localities with the best indexes in terms of competitiveness and business environment, and double the number of businesses as soon as possible.

To become an industrial centre of the nation, Hai Duong needs to attract big enterprises both at home and abroad, and pay more attention to restructuring industrial production in the time ahead, he further said.

The leader also stressed the need for Hai Duong to ensure environmental protection during economic development, intensify transport connectivity, especially waterways, and increase logistic services.

The province was urged to participate in tourism chains with national and international tours, creating momentum for developing service sectors.

In 2017, nearly 60% of communes and two districts in Hai Duong were recognised as new-style rural areas.

The province contributed nearly VND14.7 trillion (US$648.8 million) to the State budget, equivalent 117% of the assigned estimate.

Earlier the same day, PM Phuc held a dialogue with farmers in Hai Duong, where he pledged that the Government will open more channels to acquire public feedback and enable farmers to do their best to enrich themselves and the nation.

He then visited a vegetable processing facility and a war invalid in Gia Tan commune, Gia Loc district.
Interview with Percy Ebo Sackey, Architect at Pergola Creations

What are the current trends in the Ghanaian market? Is it very competitive?

My industry is architecture, construction, and the real estate market. The good thing is that over the years, Ghana has gradually started gaining some ground in economic development. Recent reports from the World Bank state that Ghana is now the fastest growing economy. We can see that all around us from the developments that are coming up now. The industry is getting more competitive by the year. Investors are coming in, but it is not so easy for the local services industry like ourselves. These investors do come into the market with their own services, so it makes competition very challenging for us. We really have to up our game in terms of research and development and try to catch up with the foreign competition.

It is difficult to have access to the market. But then, you have the opportunity to work with the local people and the local companies, the ones that know you. Do have a strategy to achieve this?

My advantage comes from my real estate background. I was trained in a real estate company so my thinking as an architect is not typical because I would come in from a more business point of view.

Our strategy has always been client satisfaction. Within our industry, we do not advertise, just like lawyers. That is why you will not see any signs with our name on it. Most of our business comes in through recommendation. When we get a client, we see that as an opportunity to get other clients, and we try to make sure that the service that we provide for them is so unique that they will always want to come back and then recommend us to other people. Networking really helps. For example, I had a client once and I did not know he was a top executive at Nestle Central & West Africa. I designed his house for him, and we really took our time to detail it out very well and he was very impressed. Next, he asked me to come to his office to meet his director because Nestle was trying to do a project and he thought I could help with it. That was a big break for us. Through that, we got an opportunity to work with Nestle CWA. Similarly, we have gotten the opportunity to work with Ghana Commercial Bank, Bayport Financial Services, and other industry giants through individual recommendations.

What are your competitive advantages? Why do people recommend you?

My advantage comes from my real estate background. I was trained in a real estate company so my thinking as an architect is not typical because I would come in from a more business point of view. I have more understanding of the materials and construction, which is helpful when most of the clients that come in usually want to invest in the construction industry or development. My speciality, because I was trained in the real estate company, gives me a competitive advantage because I have a much better understanding of that sector and most of the clients are willing to get into the real estate market. It seems that in Ghana, when people earn disposable income, they tend to want to invest it in real estate because there is a notion that you can never go wrong in real estate. When I sit down with them and I listen to their brief, because I have an experience in real estate, I am able to tell them, even by the location of their land, that this area is not the best for a house and why. I can give them the reasons and an idea of how much money it would cost. Those are the kind of things that intrigue them. Because I have that experience in construction, I am able to give them a cost estimate which is very useful because now they do not have to go to a consultant to get a rough idea of the budget, I can do that off the top of my head. Looking at the scale and the size, I can tell them it will cost X USD and even tell them how much it will sell for and how quickly. This has been my advantage with most of my clients. Once they know that, they get very excited and happy and before I know it, I get another recommendation from another developer.

What are the opportunities for you to grow your business?

I realize that over the years, I have been helping these developers get into real estate and I ask myself why am I not doing it myself? I have studied the real estate market well and I know that most people go in for the high-end development. There is a huge gap between the high and the middle-income developments. We are also very efficient when it comes to construction. We are able to build for about 10 to 20 percent less than the market. Our project management techniques have always been an advantage. We have now actually acquired close to 11 acres of land where we intend to develop low income housing. We are now starting our own real estate development company.

Is your work mainly in Accra?

We have done most of our works in Accra and a few outside Accra. We have also had a few international clients. One is in Bamako, in Mali. We currently have about three projects there that also came through a recommendation from one of our clients. He had travelled to Mali and one of his business partners saw our design on his phone and then they asked us to fly to Mali to speak with him. The scale of those projects in Mali are actually bigger than most of the projects we have done here in Ghana in terms of service.

What challenges do you face?

The challenges are human resources and technology. That also comes with the underlying factor of capital. For the human resource, the training we have here in Ghana is great, but it is not enough. After school, the graduates come here, and you see from the level of education they have that they need some sort of foreign exposure. Taking them out of the country to see the new trends in architectural design, building materials, construction, and technology would help greatly. I have been lucky enough to have had that exposure. Any architects skill or level of creativity depends on the exposure that they have around them or they are given. If, as an architect in Ghana, you do not travel or see the things around you, your creativity will suffer. If you look at the current trends in the system, a lot of the big organizations are going after foreign architects and there are a large number of foreign architects in the country now. Some of them have set up firms here and some of the big jobs that we do now are in collaboration with these foreign firms. For our first collaboration, we worked on a building with Paolo Breggia, an Italian architect. We have also worked with Stefano, who owns a firm here in Accra. When you look at the work that they produce, it is somehow superior to most of the ones that our local architects come up with in terms of detailing rather than in terms of design. We can equally match their design. But in detailing, materials, specifications, because they have many more materials and building materials, they are exposed to a lot more. We must import most of the materials here and most of the time, the challenge is that our client has a small budget. So even when you want to be creative and you have done some research and you have gotten to know some new materials that you want to try and experiment with, the client asks if you are getting the materials locally or if you have to import it. And if you have to import it, it will make the project too expensive.

Project yourself in three years time. If everything you had planned went well, what will Pergola Creations have achieved?

When I speak with my team, I tell them that we are pursuing a very big vision that will require a lot of commitment and dedication within the short term, from now to three years. We want to be, if not the leading, then one of the leading design and build firms in the country. We want to transcend that vision to the boundaries of Ghana. We want to send this to sub Saharan Africa and take it beyond Africa and eventually become one of the global giants in our industry. But it is a process and we must go through it step by step. Our strategy for this is to keep up with the trends. We need to study the architectural trends that are currently happening in the world and try keep up with them. There is a wave of energy efficiency, sustainable buildings, green architecture, etc. These are trends that will eventually take hold, and some countries are actually implementing them into their laws and their building codes and demanding that buildings must have a certain level of efficiency. Eventually, this will happen in Ghana, so we do not want to wait and be caught by surprise. Now, we are doing research into green architecture and trying to place ourselves strategically in that position, so we can move with the trend.

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Authorities of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has directed relevant agencies and sectors to prepare needed conditions for the event in terms of venues, reception, security, and logistics, Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Truong Quang Hoai Nam reported at a meeting with a Foreign Ministry delegation on April 9. The delegation was led by Director of the Directorate of the State Protocol Mai Phuoc Dung. The sides agreed to coordinate in preparing the event.

Slated for June 19 and 20, the ASEM conference is set to feature four plenary sessions, sidelines exhibitions and local tours for participants, among other activities.

It is expected to be attended by 180 delegates from 53 ASEM member states and international organisations.

At the 13th ASEM Foreign Ministers Meeting held on November 2017 in Myanmar, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh put forth an initiative on hosting an ASEM conference on joint actions in response to climate change in order to realise the Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative has to date been sponsored by Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Myanmar, Finland, Australia and Vietnam. The conference is the most important event hosted by Vietnam as part of ASEM 2018.

Vietnam joined the forum in 1996. The country organised the 5th ASEM Summit in 2004, and economic ministers meeting (2001), information-technology ministers meeting (2006), foreign and education ministers meetings (2009) and labour ministers meeting (2012).

In 2107, Vietnam successfully carried out the Prime Ministers initiative at the 11th ASEM Summit in Mongolia in July 2016 by hosting the ASEM conference on innovative education and human resources building for sustainable development in Hue city on March. The country chaired the 37th meeting of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Board of Governors.
We publish Alan Woods guest introduction to a special edition of Farsi-language art magazine, Contemporary Scene, called Capitalism and Art. The edition contains a series of articles about Marxism and culture, many of which were previously published on Marxist.com. Read the full edition in Farsi here.

I have been asked by the Iranian magazine Contemporary Scene to contribute an article to a special issue on the subject Capitalism and art. I have only recently become acquainted with this publication, which is a theoretical journal related to art and stage art in particular. I believe the growing interest in Marxist ideas among young people, artists and intellectuals in Iran to be an extremely significant development and am delighted to be able to contribute to this important discussion.

The English poet Robert Graves was once told by a businessman; Theres no money in poetry to which he replied: No, but theres no poetry in money. It is my firm conviction that capitalism, especially in its period of senile decay, is profoundly inimical to art. The capitalists see art as they see everything else: as a commodity. They know the price of a work of art, but not the value. For them, art is and artists are to be bought and sold like any other commodity.

When the great Dutch artist Vermeer died his wife had to sell the few paintings he had left to the baker to pay the bills. Similarly, Van Gogh sold only a single painting in his entire life. Now great paintings (and even not-so-great ones) are sold for vast sums in the auction rooms of London and New York. Art in the modern world is merely an object of speculation  a highly profitable and secure field of investment.

Leonardo da Vinci's 'Saviour of the World' was bought for $450 million (342 million) in New York / Image: public domain

In the past some wealthy men, such as the Medici family in Florence, were generous patrons of the arts. True, they had more money than they knew what to do with, but some of them at least had some interest in art and showed a degree of appreciation for the works they commissioned. But today, the anonymous figures who bid over the phone, offering countless millions of dollars for a painting by Picasso do not do so out of any love for art.

Most of the paintings thus acquired will never be seen by the public, maybe not even by the buyer himself. They will be buried in the vault of some Swiss bank  as lost to humanity as any of the wonderful ancient works of art that have been dynamited or bulldozed by the barbarians of Daesh in Syria and Iraq. We might add that not all of these artefacts were physically destroyed. Many were carefully removed, smuggled out of the country and secretly sold to wealthy American art lovers who are holding them prisoners, like the poor devils in the underground prisons of Daesh. The real barbarians and destroyers of art are to be found in New York and London.

Literature and revolution

The revolutionary poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley retains all its power today / Image: public domain

Historically speaking, literature and poetry have often been the vehicles for the most advanced and revolutionary ideas. Marx was a great admirer of Percy Shelley, the great revolutionary English poet who died tragically young. Among his works we find revolutionary masterpieces like The Revolt of Islam and The Masque of Anarchy. The second of these works is an angry condemnation of a massacre of unarmed men women and children perpetrated by the reactionary government.

On the 16 August 1819 in St Peter's Square, Manchester, 60,000 peaceful protesters gathered to demand liberty and freedom from poverty. They were brutally attacked by cavalry in an event which became known as the Peterloo Massacre. That day an estimated 18 people, including four women and a child, died from sabre cuts and trampling. Nearly seven hundred men, women and children were seriously wounded.

The Tory government was ultimately responsible for the massacre and Viscount Castlereagh, leader of the Tories in the Commons, was a spokesman for the harsh measures of political repression that followed it. Shelley wrote The Masque of Anarchy as an impassioned protest against this massacre. It is a powerful indictment of the government and the forces of reaction. In it we read the following:

I met Murder on the way - He had a mask like Castlereagh - Very smooth he looked, yet grim; Seven blood-hounds followed him: All were fat; and well they might Be in admirable plight, For one by one, and two by two, He tossed the human hearts to chew Which from his wide cloak he drew. Next came Fraud, and he had on, Like Eldon, an ermined gown; His big tears, for he wept well, Turned to mill-stones as they fell. And the little children, who Round his feet played to and fro, Thinking every tear a gem, Had their brains knocked out by them.

Today, over 200 years after these lines were written, they have lost none of their power to shock and inspire revolutionary indignation. It is no accident that a few months ago the left-wing leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, quoted the final two stanzas of this great poem to an ecstatic audience of young people at the Glastonbury pop festival:

Men of England, heirs of Glory, Heroes of unwritten story, Nurslings of one mighty Mother, Hopes of her, and one another; Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few.

The thousands of young people who listened to these inspiring verses were overjoyed by their revolutionary spirit. They had come to the festival to listen to pop music but went away fired by revolutionary enthusiasm. Here we see clearly the power of poetry to produce fire in the hearts of men and women. It is a power that does not diminish with the passing of time but if anything grows stronger.

Wordsworth and the French Revolution

Some years before Shelley wrote these lines, the celebrated English poet William Wordsworth composed his great poem The Prelude. At that time, together with many writers and poets in England, Wordsworth was under the spell of the Great French Revolution. He visited revolutionary France as a young man and wrote the following inspired verses to celebrate his experience:

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times, In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways Of custom, law, and statute, took at once The attraction of a country in romance!

In later life Wordsworth became disenchanted with the French Revolution, following the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Many other intellectuals followed in his footsteps and even became reactionary conservatives. But one man stands out in striking contrast to this trend: the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Unlike the other poets and writers of those times, Burns did not come from a wealthy, aristocratic or even middle-class background. The son of a poor small farmer he knew the world of poverty and hard work. Through his own native genius he rose through the ranks of the most outstanding poets of his age, or of any age.

William Wordsworth was inspired by the French Revolution / Image: public domain

Apart from being a marvellous lyrical poet, Burns was also a courageous and consistent revolutionary democrat. In his works we frequently find the most biting and hostile references to the objects of his hate: landlords, kings, priests and lawyers. In his long satirical poem Tam oShanter, for example, we read:

Three lawyers' tongues, turn'd inside out, Wi' lies seam'd like a beggar's clout; Three priests' hearts, rotten, black as muck, Lay stinking, vile in every neuk.

These lines are written in Burnss native Lowland Scots dialect. In modern English it would read as follows:

Three Lawyers tongues, turned inside out, Sown with lies like a beggars cloth - Three Priests hearts, rotten, black as muck Lay stinking, vile, in every nook.

In his brief but bitingly mocking poem Thanksgiving For A National Victory, Burns shows his complete contempt for the patriotic fever that gripped the whole of Britain during the long wars against revolutionary France:

Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks? To murder men and give God thanks! Desist, for shame!-proceed no further; God won't accept your thanks for Murther!

Unlike Wordsworth, Robert Burns never lost his passion for the French Revolution / Image: public domain

Robert Burns retained his burning faith in the French Revolution to the end of his days and was outspoken in its defence. Only the support of his aristocratic admirers saved him from imprisonment or worse. Nevertheless, the government took its revenge by denying him a comfortable office in the civil service. He ended his days, as his father had done, working on the land in harsh conditions that undermined his fragile health and killed him in the end.

Revolutionary drama

In drama, poetry and prose find a new dimension and meaning. The relationship between the poet and the individual reader is the relationship between two essentially unrelated atoms. Drama brings new life to the written word, which at last escapes from the narrow confines of written literature and jumps off the page to confront a larger audience in a far more concrete and more immediate way.

This provides literature with a far greater scope than would ever be possible in a written form. It contains greater power to shock, to move or to amuse. Its main genres were traditionally tragedy and comedy, although a genius like Shakespeare was able to combine the two with great effect. The potential to use the theatre for political and revolutionary purposes is therefore very clear.

Even in its most ancient form drama has been used to convey a certain message. In Greek tragedy we find a powerful anti-war message in The Trojan women by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War, it is often interpreted as a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and enslavement of its population by Athens. If this interpretation is correct, it was a very courageous and audacious political statement indeed. It shows the subjugation and cruelty towards the captured women in its crudest and most shocking way. Like all great drama it has lost none of its power to shock more than 2000 years later.

'The Trojan Women' by the Greek playwright Euripides is an ancient, powerful anti-war piece / Image: public domain

On another entirely different level the comedies of Aristophanes had an equally sharp political message. The plays that have come down to us contain a biting criticism of contemporary Athenian society, its customs, its politics and even its philosophy. The most definite political message in Aristophanes relates to the bloody and prolonged wars between Athens and Sparta. Four of his plays are passionate appeals for peace.

Unlike the plays of Euripides, however, in Aristophanes we find no lofty principles or morality. Politically Aristophanes was a conservative and a bitter enemy of Athenian democracy, which he considered to be the source of all evil. His plays contain many scathing attacks on the people of Athens who he considered to be mere dupes in the hands of unscrupulous demagogues. Probably his desire for peace with Sparta indicates a certain sympathy towards the conservative and draconic political system in that state. In any case, in the works of Aristophanes, the art of comedy reaches similar heights to those attained by his rivals, the great tragedians of the Athenian stage.

Shakespeare and Ibsen

With the works of Shakespeare, the dramatic art reaches a truly sublime level that has never since been equalled, still less surpassed. Here poetry and drama become fused into a single art form. Every line in these great dramas is poetry of the very highest order. This does not in any way lessen the dramatic impact of the plays. Quite the contrary, the dramatic impact is rendered even more powerful by the impact of the poetic imagery.

This is not the place to develop an analysis of Shakespeares work (I have attempted to do this elsewhere). I am certainly not alone in my unshakeable conviction that Shakespeare was the greatest writer of all time. But since the main emphasis of the present article concerns the relationship between politics (and specifically revolutionary politics) and literature, I must point out that such a relationship, although it can be detected in some of Shakespeares works, is very far from being of major importance.

One can draw certain conclusions about Shakespeares attitude to revolution from certain passages in Henry VI Part 2 and Julius Caesar, for example, but such a conclusion would have to be of a distinctly negative character. Memories of the bloody civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses were still very much present in peoples minds in Shakespeares day, and people of his social class were not favourably disposed towards a return to social and political upheavals. Shakespeares outlook in that sense was conservative, although in the field of art and literature he was a very great revolutionary and an audacious innovator.

Shakespeare was a revolutionary in the field of art, although some of his political views were conservative / Image: public domain

In the 19th century we have the works of the great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. These dramas can shed a great deal of light on the nature and problems of Norwegian society of that period, and particularly the narrow philistinism and hypocritical morality of the Norwegian middle-class. Ibsen subjects this to a scathing and penetrating criticism in his plays.

These plays shocked and scandalised Europe at the time. Ibsen embraces the theme of the emancipation of women in plays as A Doll's House. Here a woman finally escapes from the suffocating confines of an unhappy marriage. The sound of the door she slams behind her is a powerful symbol of the prison she leaves behind. It is a devastating condemnation of the hypocritical 19th century values that tried to disguise the slavery of women to men as the natural, unalterable God-given state of affairs.

In An Enemy of the People the central character Doctor Stockman discovers that the baths' drainage system is contaminated. He alerts several members of the community and at first receives support and thanks for making his discovery. The next morning, however, his brother, who is also the town's mayor, tells him that he must retract his statements, as the repairs would be too expensive and in any case the mayor is not convinced by the findings.

The mayor mobilises public opinion against his brother and one by one his erstwhile supporters abandon him. Because he refuses to renounce his ideas he is ostracised by the respectable middle-class community. His home is vandalised and he is sacked, together with his daughters. He has become an Enemy of the People.

Henrik Ibsen's plays skewered many of the problems of 19th century Norwegian society / Image: public domain

Many years later, when the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was living in enforced exile in Norway, he meditated on the meaning of Ibsens great dramas. Having been welcomed to democratic Norway by the Labour Party that was in government, Trotsky soon found himself in far worse conditions than he had previously been in France. Cut off from the outside world, forbidden to write or even comment on external affairs at a time when Stalin was launching the monstrous Moscow Trials, he was virtually under house arrest.

Trotsky was struck by the profound and truthful way in which the great Norwegian dramatist of the 19th century so eloquently denounced the hypocrisy that is so characteristic of the Scandinavian petty bourgeoisie in general and the progressive and liberal (nowadays one would say Social Democratic) petty bourgeoisie in particular. Behind the smiling mask of liberalism, we always find the ugly face of bourgeois reaction. Anyone who dares to tear away this mask is automatically denounced as an Enemy of the People.

Political art

The German writer Bertolt Brecht once observed: For art to become unpolitical means only to ally itself with the ruling group. Of course, it is possible for art to avoid social comment altogether, to bury itself in a bed of sweet smelling flowers, closing its eyes to the ugly reality of oppression and exploitation that surrounds it. But art that is true to itself, above all, great art, cannot be indifferent to the fate of humankind.

That is not to say that art must descend to the level of crude propaganda. Propaganda belongs to the field of politics where it plays an important role. But politics is not the natural field of art. The artist must express the feelings of the heart and soul. These feelings cannot be dictated by external influences, whether political, religious or monetary. However, at its highest level, artistic feeling can reflect the drama of human existence in a most powerful way.

In order that art may become genuinely free, in order that culture may cease to be the private property of a few and become genuinely human, it is first necessary to shatter the bonds of slavery, exploitation and oppression. That is why art, if it is to be true to itself, must be revolutionary art. And as we have seen in the case of Picasso, revolutionary art can attain the level of genius.

In the field of literature and drama, we can cite examples of writers who successfully combined revolutionary work with great artistic achievements. Mayakovsky was an active member of the Bolshevik party in Russia from a young age. In his poetry we can see a perfect fusion of revolutionary fervour with the highest possible poetic levels of achievement. He also wrote successful plays like The Bedbug and produced posters in the constructivists style that carried this branch of art to the highest level attained at any time either before or since.

It is no accident that Mayakovskys poetry exercised a powerful impact on the minds of millions of ordinary Russian workers and peasants in the years following the October Revolution. That great act of emancipation inspired the masses to participate not only in politics but in culture. The tremendous flowering of art, poetry and music in the 1920s was suffocated under the leaden rump of Stalinist bureaucracy. The suicide of Mayakovsky in 1930 was without doubt a protest against the Stalinist political counterrevolution.

Another striking example was the case of Bertolt Brecht. Like Mayakovsky, Brecht was a convinced Marxist who used his plays to mercilessly denounce capitalism. In plays like The Threepenny Opera, Rise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny and The Seven Deadly Sins (brilliantly set to music by Brechts talented collaborator Kurt Weill) he castigated bourgeois society, its morality and hypocrisy. Brecht is best known for his experimental plays and his revolutionary dramatic theory. But he was also an important poet who wrote 1,500 poems. Among these we find the powerful Questions of a Reading Worker, which is worth reproducing in full:

Who built Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the name of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock? And Babylon, many times demolished. Who raised it up so many times? In what houses Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live? Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song, Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis The night the ocean engulfed it The drowning still bawled for their slaves. The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not have even a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep? Frederick the Second won the Seven Years' War. Who Else won it? Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten years a great man. Who paid the bill? So many reports. So many questions.

However, it is undoubtedly his dramatic works for which Brecht is best remembered. He developed an entirely new theory of drama known as the alienation effect (in German Verfremdungseffekt), which represents an unusual way of using the theatre. He described it as playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and utterances was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience's subconscious.

The uncompromising message of Brecht and Weill's 'Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny' caused uproar amongst middle-class audiences / Image: ROH

By destroying the illusion whereby, the audience unconsciously identifies with the ideas and motives of actors in the drama, Brecht compels us to think about the real content of what is being presented to them. This sometimes makes for an uncomfortable experience. But as a revolutionary dramatist Brecht was least of all interested in making audiences feel comfortable.

I remember many years ago when Mahoganny was put on the London stage the howls of protest that it elicited from middle-class theatregoers whose feelings were upset by its uncompromising message. At one point a character in the play is due to be hanged and can only be saved by the payment of a certain amount of money. An actor stepped forward on the stage and addressed himself directly to the audience asking them to make the necessary financial sacrifice to save a mans life.

Naturally, no such donation was forthcoming as the shocked London public put their hands in their pockets to make sure that their wallets were still there. This was subsequently denounced as an insult to the human race. If any insult was intended, it was not to humanity in general but only to the egotistic and tight-fisted petty bourgeois London theatre goers whose fit of righteous indignation indicated to me that Brechts barbed arrow had hit its target perfectly.

Literature, east and west

In many ways the east is more cultured than the west. Whereas poetry in the west is nowadays the preserve of a handful of intellectuals and is often looked on with suspicion by ordinary people, in the east it remains a vibrant, popular tradition. Like poetry, drama is an art with a long history in Muslim countries. The poets of former days were courtiers, feudal retainers of uncertain rank, whose duty it was to be at hand whenever their patron wanted to be refreshed or amused with the poets wit. In most instances, the poets of the court were slaves to the autocrat on the throne.

However, it seems to me that Persian attitudes to poetry always possessed an essentially social and critical content. And I am told that there is a lot of very interesting things taking place in all fields of Iranian art today. Unfortunately, I must confess a regrettable ignorance on the details of this subject. In part this is due to the fact that in the west insufficient attention is paid to the great cultures of the East, not just in the present but even in the past.

Click the image below to read the original, Farsi version of the 'Capitalism and Art' edition of Contemporary Scene

In the schoolbooks to this day Alexander of Macedon is portrayed as a great man who saved Europe from the Persian barbarians. Not a word is said about the great cultures and art of ancient Persia, which attained astonishing heights when the people of Macedonia were poor shepherds and Alexanders father (known to the Greeks as Phillip the Barbarian) was struggling to learn the Greek language. So impressed were the marauding Greek-Macedonian hoards with the wonders of Persepolis that they lost no time in burning it to the ground. All this is well known to the people of Iran but it is a closed book to most people in the west to whom Alexander is still the Great.

However, the main problem I have is the language. One can appreciate the visual arts without any special language skills. It is not necessary to speak or read Dutch to appreciate the paintings of Van Gogh. In that sense painting and sculpture (and also music) are almost universal in their appeal. But things are different with literature, and especially poetry, the highest form of literature.

Poetry cannot be translated. To translate poetry is to destroy it as poetry. There are only two possibilities. One can translate it literally, word by word  in which all the poetic qualities are lost. Or one can recreate it in another language, in which case it is possible to create good or even great poetry  but it is something entirely different to the original.

Nevertheless, some relative success has been achieved via the work of a few competent translators. Some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the marvellous translation of Edward Fitzgerald. I believe that something of the magic of the original is conveyed in Fitzgeralds translation. But I am under no illusion whatever that Fitzgeralds poems are the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; they are fantastic, but something entirely different.

From what I know about him, Khayyam was a remarkable figure, similar in many ways to the geniuses of the western Renaissance, but several centuries earlier. Like Leonardo da Vinci he was a polymath. As early as the 11th century his works spanned the fields of astronomy, mathematics, philosophy and poetry.

Although I am unable to read it in the original, it is obvious that this is poetry filled with great beauty, combining sensuality with a profound and moving sense of the fragility and impermanence of life. In his sharp, rhythmic and melodramatic satirical style, Khayyam not only evokes intense emotions, but through these he also brings out his rationalist agnostic philosophy, which were far ahead of his time. Apart from its intrinsic poetic and philosophical merits, this early Persian literature is interesting because of its critical and rebellious character. Along with his passionate appeal for humans to celebrate life and use the limited time on this earth to the fullest  often conveyed through the imagery of wine, which symbolises passion and life as well as wine itself, which was prohibited by the clergy  he was a thorn in the side of the religious establishment. And where would Persian poetry be without love, wine and the tavern?

Hafiz, too, was a poet who sang of the joys of love and wine but at times also attacked religious hypocrisy. He is well-known for his poetry, but he also wrote about politics and religion. His sharp tongue mercilessly flayed the hypocrisy of the religious men and the ruling elites during the 14th century.

From these examples (there must be many others of which I regrettably have no knowledge) it is clear that from the very earliest times, Persian literature has contained important critical, non-conformist and rebellious elements. The great Persian poets perfected the use of satire as a political weapon. And this weapon retains all of its potency in modern day Iran.

Does art have a future?

Perhaps the greatest painting of the 20th century was Picassos Guernica, which he painted as a reaction to the brutality of the Spanish Civil War and the crimes of fascism. Nobody can describe this great work of art as mere propaganda. Yet it carries a very clear and extremely powerful political message. It is the linear descendant of the equally powerful black-and-white etchings of the great Spanish painter Goya called The Disasters of War.

These incredibly powerful works of art were the products of an artists deeply felt reactions to the terrible fate of men and women in the bloody wars of their own time. I frequently ask myself where are the equivalent works of art today? Our world is torn apart with constant wars, bloody massacres, ethnic cleansing and brutality on an unprecedented scale. To take only one example, in the ghastly civil wars in the Congo at least 5 million men, women and children have been slaughtered. Yet these atrocities do not even make the front-page of the newspapers.

Just as the bourgeoisie has nothing to say in the realm of philosophy, so in the fields of art and music it has long since abandoned any claim to relevance, let alone greatness. If art means anything at all today, one would have expected it to have something to say about these questions. But we look in vain for a modern equivalent of Picassos Guernica or Goyas Disasters of War. Instead, our artists in Britain spend their time producing works on such fascinating subjects as an unmade bed or shark pickled in formaldehyde. To such levels of triviality has art descended in our times.

Where is the modern-day Guernica? / Image: public domain

Does this mean that the cause of art is irrevocably lost? To draw such a conclusion would be to fall into the kind of pessimism and artistic nihilism that undoubtedly is the most general mood that exists today in the ranks of the bourgeoisie and its middle-class camp followers. But Marxism is optimistic and revolutionary by its very nature. Far from being pessimistic about the perspectives for art and culture in general, we are very confident in the role it can play both today and in the future.

Marxists by no means reject the great achievements made by art and culture in the course of the last 2000 years of human civilisation. But we understand that for all of this time the road to culture was blocked for the great majority of men and women. For all this time art and culture have been the monopoly of the privileged few, the same privileged few that enjoyed the benefit of wealth and education, and consequently controlled the government and destiny of the people.

All history shows that art is revolutionary by its very nature. Beneath the surface, great art always seeks to break with stale convention and find new ways of looking at the world. Art is involved in a never-ending quest for the truth. For that reason, it is hostile to all forms of hypocrisy, lies and deception. Modern art is bound to clash with the system if it sincerely wishes to break out of its impasse in which it finds itself.

The present social and political ferment in Iran will inevitably inspire a whole new generation of poets, writers and dramatists whose works will reflect the events in society. Now more than ever is it impossible for Iranians writers to isolate themselves from social reality. The new generation will find ways and means to express the feelings, thoughts and aspirations of the masses. In so doing, they will return to the rich artistic and literary traditions of the past, breathing into them the breath of new life.

Dialectics tells us that sooner or later everything turns into its opposite. History in general can sometimes appear to be never-ending cycle in which events that have been seen in the past are repeated. There is an element of truth in this observation, but it is incomplete and therefore false. The wheel of history is constantly turning. But in all its revolutions, it never returns to its starting point. History is repeated, but it always ends on a qualitatively higher level, enriched by all the accumulated contents of the past.

These observations are applicable not only to the development of societies but of art and culture also. In the past Persia experienced periods of great artistic attainments, followed by periods of decline and even barbarism. But the colossal potential of the people of Iran and its artists, writers and intellectuals, remains intact. In the future this potential will enable Iran to rise to heights of cultural achievements that will place all the glories of the past in the deepest shade. Today more than ever the true artist will seek to unite his or her personal creative strivings with the strivings of the mass of the exploited and oppressed people to change society and create a better world. There can surely be no higher art form than that.

London, 4 April 2018
UPDATE: We have just been informed of the good news that the students have been released, but the fact they were arrested to begin with is still a scandal. Yesterday, 9 April, University of Nanterre management called two units of the CRS [Compagnies Republicaines de Securite: general reserve of the French National Police] to violently expel 100 students gathered in a General Assembly. Seven students were arrested. Six were remanded in custody, including our comrades Andreas Coste and Victor Mendez. It is clear that the arrests targeted student activists at the university.

The arrested students are not guilty of any acts of violence. The violence, which shocked the students and staff present, was entirely on the side of the CRS. Many videos, shot during the events, demonstrate this.

This repression and these arrests aim to break the legitimate mobilization against the ORE law [Orientation et reussite des etudiants, which will end universal access to universities in favour of a selection system], but they will have the opposite effect. Today, at the University of Nanterre, the General Assembly has seen the participation of more than 700 people. This is the most important such meeting, at this university, since the beginning of the movement.

A student General Assembly was violently broken up by police / Image: Revolution

We demand the immediate release of the six students arrested yesterday. Of course, no legal action should be brought against them. We call on the students of Nanterre and elsewhere to respond to the repression with an even more massive mobilization against the ORE law and all the reactionary policies of the government. At the same time, labour and political organizations of the labour movement must react strongly (and mobilize) against the police violence against students that is increasing across the country.

Free our comrades!

Against repression: mobilization!

Students, workers: unite in struggle with the railway workers!
We said from the very beginning that the Venezuelan opposition and the US administration were responsible for the attempted mercenary coup foiled in Venezuela on 3 May. As days go by, more details emerge which confirm that assessment.
SPRINGFIELD -- The first four uncompleted shells for MBTA Orange Line subway cars arrived at the CRRC MA plant in East Springfield this week.

Workers there are unpacking them and getting ready to begin assembly work, said spokeswoman Lydia Rivera. She expects work on completing the cars to begin in earnest sometime in the next month or so.

The cars arrived by truck in white wrapping after being shipped from China to the port of Philadelphia, Rivera said.

Production of each $2.43 million car will take 22 days. The Springfield complex has a 2,240-foot track where cars off the production line will be tested.

Chinese-owned CRRC, the largest rail car maker in the world, built the $95 million factory at the old Westinghouse site on Page Boulevard to fulfill contracts to supply cars to the MBTA.

Transportation nerd alert. Just passed two CRRC #mbta rail cars with vehicle escorts on the Mass Pike in Blandford. Must be heading to Springfield for assembly. (From the intermodal rail facility in Albany?) #mapoli  Chris Dempsey (@cdempc) April 9, 2018

In 2014, CRRC received a $566 million contract from the MBTA to build 152 Orange Line cars and 252 Red Line cars in Springfield. In December 2016, the state upped the order with another 120 new Red Line cars, with production set to begin in June 2022 at a cost of $277 million.

Work on the Red Line cars will begin later this year.

CRRC subsequently received contracts to build cars in Springfield for transit systems in Philadelphia and Los Angeles and wants to make cars for Atlanta and elsewhere.

CRRC said it has enough work now to keep the plant busy through 2025.

CRRC MA has 124 employees and plans to staff up to 200 by the fall, Rivera said.
Ambassador Nguyen Hai Bang presented a basket of flowers to Lao Ambassador to Thailand Seng Soukhathivong, conveying his best wishes for a New Year full of happiness and prosperity for the Lao people.

He also extolled the exemplary and faithful relationship between Vietnam and Laos, as well as the sound coordination between the two embassies.

Ambassador Seng Soukhathivong expressed his gratitude for the greetings of the Vietnamese diplomat, expressing his belief that the special solidarity between the two Parties, Governments and peoples would be everlasting.

He took the occasion to call for more effective cooperation between the two embassies.

The participants then joined a party hosted by the Lao embassy and tasted the signature New Year dishes of the Lao people.
WASHINGTON D.C. -- Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart reportedly got good news on Monday regarding his surgically repaired right thumb on Monday. Per Yahoo! Sports' Shams Charania, the Celtics guard was progressing well and hoped to return by April 27.

On Tuesday, Brad Stevens tempered expectations slightly, speaking to reporters at shoot around before the Celtics' game against the Washington Wizards.

"From everything I've been told, he will be re-evaluated middle of next week," Stevens said. "The April 27 date is the earliest I've heard he can be back. We'll cross our fingers and see."

Stevens added that Smart will have to wear something on his hand to protect his thumb when he returns.

The Celtics won't push Smart to come back too early, but they need him for the playoffs badly, particularly if they make a run to the second round and face either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Philadelphia 76ers. Smart's defensive versatility makes a huge difference in the postseason. Offensively, his shot is a weak point (and it's going to be worse when he has to play with something on his hand), but he's a reliable ball-handler and distributor who can play starter-level minutes in addition to Terry Rozier.

Opposing teams have started doubling Rozier to take the ball out of his hands, but Stevens said he isn't worried about his third-year guard.

"You pick your poison when you do those things," Stevens said. "There's other guys on the court too. That's just something you learn as you go on. But Terry's done a great job handling it. I'm not worried about Terry. Terry's a competitor. Terry's going to be ready."

Guerschon Yabusele, meanwhile, sat out Saturday's practice and Sunday's game with a sore knee. His MRI was clear, but Stevens said he hasn't improved and will miss Tuesday's game as well.

Stevens said the rest of his starters will likely play "a good amount of minutes" on Tuesday against a Wizards team the Celtics might face in the first round. The Celtics also play on Wednesday, taking on the Brooklyn Nets back in Boston.

"We're in a unique situation because we have our seed wrapped up," Stevens said. "We have no idea who we are going to play, and we have enough injuries that we have to be alert to playing our guys that are going to play the most minutes enough but not more than enough. It is a unique situation. We have to mentally prepare to the very best of our ability, play as well as we can when we're on the court, and be able to move on to whatever is our first-round matchup."
Former "Silicon Valley" star T.J. Miller has been charged with calling in a false bomb threat from an Amtrak train.

He appeared before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven, on Tuesday and was released on a $100,000 bond.

Todd J. Miller, 36, was arrested Monday night at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. He was charged in a federal criminal complaint "with intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train traveling to Connecticut, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut.

On the evening of March 18, Miller allegedly called a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey and reported that he was on Amtrak Train 2256 traveling from Washington, D.C., toward Penn Station in New York City, and that a female passenger with brown hair and a scarf "has a bomb in her bag." By the time Amtrak investigators received notice of the call and were mobilized to stop and search the train, the train was in Connecticut.

Amtrak officials stopped Train 2256 at Green's Farms Station in Westport, where passengers were directed to detrain, and bomb squad members boarded and searched the train. No evidence of any explosive device or materials was detected.

Miller was found to actually have been traveling on Amtrak Train 2258, not 2256, and that train was also searched and found to have no explosive device, according to authorities.

The complaint alleges that an investigator contacted Miller, who was in New York, by phone. On the call, said the woman, who he described this time as having red hair and a red scarf, was carrying a "black bag carry on suitcase with a handle." He said she kept checking her bag without taking anything out; kept asking the First Class attendant what the next stop was, and seemed to want to get off the train and leave her bag behind. The officer detected slurring in Miller's voice and asked if he had consumed alcohol that day. Miller replied that he had consumed "one glass of red wine." Asked if he suffered from mental illness, Miller replied "no, absolutely not. This is the first time I've ever made a call like this before. I am worried for everyone on that train. Someone has to check that lady out."

An Amtrak attendant told investigators had appeared intoxicated upon boarding in Washington, and he consumed multiple drinks on that train. The attendant also advised that Miller had been involved in hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row from him in the First Class car.

In addition to HBO's "Silicon Valley," Miller portrayed Weasel in "Deadpool" and the upcoming "Deadpool 2." He also played I-R0k in "Ready Player One."
Springfield - Allie Thorpe has been hired as associate director of marketing at Dakin Humane Society, according to Executive Director Carmine DiCenso.

Thorpe will develop, implement and measure innovative strategies that enhance the organization and effectively connect it to the communities that it serves. She will also oversee and implement Dakin's marketing and communications strategy, building a comprehensive brand while incorporating program, development and organization objectives for all marketing and public relations channels, including digital, that align with organization goals and priorities.

She was formerly Communications Manager at Stockbridge School of Agriculture in Amherst, where she provided public affairs support to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to that, she was communications specialist for the Central Hampshire Veteran Services of Northampton and web producer at Knectar Design, Inc. in Easthampton.

A former assistant public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy, Thrope earned a Master of Science, Communications and Information Management at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, and a Bachelor of Arts: Liberal Arts at Hampshire College in Amherst.

Thorpe is a member of The Association for Women in Communications and SALUTE Veterans National Honors Society. She resides in Easthampton.

Dakin Humane Society delivers effective, innovative services that improve the lives of animals in need and the people who care about them from its two locations in Leverett and Springfield. The 501 (c)(3) organization shelters, treats and fosters more than 20,000 animals each year. Dakin is a local non-profit organization that is totally self-sustaining and relies solely on contributions from individuals and businesses that care about animals to bring its services to the community. For more information, visit www.dakinhumane.org.
Springfield - Luis Andres Moral, M.D. has joined the staff or New England Pathology Associates and Mercy Medical Center.

Board-certified in anatomic pathology and neuropathology, Dr. Moral received his medical degree from the University of Guayaquil in Ecuador and completed his residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Kansas in Kansas City. He has completed a fellowship in surgical pathology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a fellowship in neuropathology from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Moral's clinical interests include surgical pathology, neuropathology, cytopathology, and autopsy pathology.

Mercy Medical Center has established itself as one of the leading providers of health care services in Western Massachusetts. In 2015, Mercy Medical Center became part of Trinity Health of New England, an integrated health care delivery system that is a member of Trinity Health, Livonia, Michigan, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery system in the nation serving communities in 22 states. Mercy Medical Center, is a 182 -bed acute care hospital in Springfield.
An Everett City Councilman apologized Monday, after a comment he posted on Facebook was decried "racist," "anti-immigrant," and "unacceptable" by city leaders and residents.

Stephen Simonelli posted to the City of Everett Facebook page Monday writing: "It's not in my character to hurt, harm or upset anyone."

"I was expressing an opinion on a Facebook post; something I now regret. However, I never said nor would I ever say anything racist, bigoted or hateful. I was simply commenting on a post. Any insinuation that my comments were racist are an attack on me and the work I've done for our community," Simonelli wrote.

Statement on Behalf of Councilor Simonelli First of all, I want to apologize if I offended anyone with my... Posted by Stephen Simonelli on Monday, April 9, 2018

Simonelli commented on a profanity-laced Facebook post April 5, that discussed a traffic incident with a "nasty Haitian woman."

The councilor commented: "Hallelujah we say learn how to drive the rules of the road learn language stop complaining. Should be grateful for just beung [sic] here we know [sic] you nothing but you want everything," according to screenshots of the messages posted to the Everett Stands Against Racism Facebook group.

The comments were quickly decried by the city's Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who wrote that he was "disgusted and saddened" in a statement.

"The City of Everett is truly a diverse community, and has been for generations. We are one of the fastest growing immigrant cities in Massachusetts and are proud of that. Many new Americans call the city home. That is our strength. By embracing and assisting all Americans, we flourish together. We simply cannot turn our backs and remain silent when we hear hurtful comments," DeMario wrote.

A group of residents organized a silent protest of Monday night's city council meeting. In interviews with NBC Boston many called for the councilor to resign.

Simonelli, 64, is the third person in his family to serve on the City Council, following his father and grandfather. He battles a "serious disease that has affected his ability to speak," according to a biography posted to the city's website.

In December, Simonelli voted against a resolution to support people living in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

He argued "We have to take care of our own first," and said he wanted "Everett [to] keep Everett people first," according to the Everett Independent.
A woman remains in critical condition Tuesday morning after she was struck by a fleeing driver in Revere Monday night.

Massachusetts State Police are investigating after a driver operating a dark-colored vehicle struck and injured a female pedestrian on Route 145 in Revere Monday night. The crash happened around 8:30 p.m. according to police.

State authorities originally reported the woman had been killed, but later said hospital staff at Mass. General Hospital had successfully resuscitated her. She remains in critical condition there.

The crash is under active investigation by Troop A with assistance from other state police agencies. They say the suspect vehicle was likely blue or black, and could have damage from the pedestrian crash.
Updated at 11:07 p.m. Monday, April 9, 2018 to include a video of Whitney Anderson, Holyoke public schools maintenance administrator, discussing how the age of the Kelly School boilers makes them innefficient.

The update included identifying the consultants joining Anderson: Janis B. Mamayek of Icon Architecture of Boston and David H. Billings, project director with Hill International Inc. of Boston, a general contractor.

HOLYOKE -- Kelly School would get a new boiler this year and 1,000 new windows would be installed at three schools next year under a plan to borrow nearly $13.8 million recommended Monday by a City Council committee.

Kelly School at 216 West St. would get a new boiler and Kelly, Sullivan School at 400 Jarvis Ave. and Morgan School at 596 South Bridge St. combined would get about 1,000 new windows, said Whitney G. Anderson, maintenance administrator for the Holyoke public schools.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) has told officials here the state will reimburse the city for 77 percent of the cost.

That would mean the state will pay $10.6 million and the city $3.1 million.

The Finance Committee voted 5-0 to recommend that the full Council approve the borrowing at its next meeting April 17.

The vote followed a presentation by Anderson and two consultants: Janis B. Mamayek of Icon Architecture of Boston and David H. Billings, project director with Hill International Inc. of Boston, a general contractor.

Kelly School opened in 1975 and has 86,302 square feet. It has an enrollment of 587 students in kindergarten to grade eight, Anderson said.

Pending City Council approval of the borrowing, the two-tank boiler system would be replaced this year for nearly $1.5 million. After state reimbursement the city share would be over $376,000, he said.

"They've done well but they're at the end of their useful life," Anderson said. (see video above)

Replacing the windows at Kelly School would cost over $4.9 million. The city's share after state reimbursement would be $1.1 million, he said.

Sullivan School opened in 1961 with renovations in 1969 and 1989 and has 112,000 square feet. An enrollment of 621 attends kindergarten to grade eight, he said.

Replacing the windows at Sullivan School would cost over $4.9 million. The city would pay $1.1 million after state reimbursement, he said.

Morgan opened in 1963 and was renovated in 1990. Students attend preschool to grade eight and enrollment is 442 with 62,397 square feet of space.

Installing new windows at Morgan School would cost over $2.4 million, with the bill to Holyoke after reimbursement at nearly $567,000, he said.
AGAWAM -- An Agawam man was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a home off Springfield Street following an hours-long standoff with police that began early Monday evening and ended early Tuesday.

Michael Kerr was found dead inside 74 Brookline Ave. shortly after midnight, said police, who continue to investigate what led him to barricade himself inside the home in the Feeding Hills section of the city.

Agawam police Chief Eric Gillis said Massachusetts State Police negotiators made around 40 unanswered phone calls to Kerr, who lived at the small home on the residential block north of Springfield Street.

Gillis, speaking at an impromptu press conference at the scene, said State Police took a "careful, slow, methodical approach" in response to the situation, which prompted authorities to block off Brookline and Belvidere avenues and order nearby residents to leave their homes.

Some of the residents gathered in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church on Springfield Street while waiting for the standoff to end. Witnesses reported smelling teargas and hearing what sounded like gunshots.

Agawam Mayor William P. Sapelli said police sent a robot into the Brookline Avenue home before teargas was deployed.

"Mike was a good man," Rose Guilbault said on a popular community Facebook forum, identifying Kerr as a relative.

"He was always good with his parents and took care of them," said Guilbault. "It's too bad his mental problems and health problems led him to this. R.I.P., cousin. You're with your mom and dad again."

Guilbault said her cousin suffered from depression.

Agawam resident Frank Andruss said he graduated from high school with Kerr and "shared a few beers" with him over the years.

"I was so shocked to learn it was someone from our class," Andruss said. "I guess everything just got too much for him."
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that health care providers screen for HIV infection in adolescents and adults aged 15 to 65 years.

It also recommends the screening of younger adolescents and older adults who are at increased risk for the human immunodeficiency virus. There is no cure but there is treatment for the virus that destroys the body's ability to fight infection and certain cancers and causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13 percent of HIV-infected people are unaware of their infection from the virus that is spread through unprotected sexual contact, blood and blood products, and from mother to infant during pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding.

In a release today for National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day, the CDC said youth aged 13 to 24 accounted for 1 in 5 of all new HIV diagnoses in the country in 2015.

This means about 22 percent of the estimated 50,000 new cases diagnosed annually in the country occur in this age group. The majority of them are said to occur among gay and bisexual men.

However, the CDC says in its release only about 10 percent of U.S. high school students have ever been tested for HIV, though more than 40 percent have reported to have had sex.

Among male students who had sexual contact with other males, only 21 percent are said to have ever been tested for HIV.

Data also shows that 43 percent of sexually active high students not to be using a condom the last time they had sex.

While the number of new cases of HIV has dropped dramatically in recent years, data showing less use of condoms among those at risk as well as an increase in injecting drug use among those who engage in illicit drug use could threaten gains made in these populations.

There has been an increase in new HIV cases in Lawrence and Lowell among people who inject drugs, prompting Massachusetts to request the CDC's help in investigating the increase.

Hampden County has the highest rate of people living with HIV in the state. In 2014, some 473 of every 100,000 people in the county were living with a diagnosis of HIV.

In April 2012 Governor Deval Patrick signed into law an act that removed the requirement from state law to obtain written informed consent prior to HIV testing. The 2012 law allows for verbal informed consent from the individual being tested with written informed consent required to disclose the results of the test and identify the individual tested.



According to the CDC:
PALMER -- A state Land Court judge has determined that the owners of Whiskey Hill Raceway had violated a condition on their permit to operate involving the proper monitoring and recording of noise.

Judge Michael D. Vhay said the violation impinged on the town Planning Board's ability to adequately assess whether the track was complying with state regulations.

The town's zoning enforcement officer filed a lawsuit last year over a disagreement about whether the track's owner, Palmer Motorsports Park, recorded noise levels in the manner they agreed to when the planning board issued a special permit in 2007.

Vhay's interim order Friday allowed Palmer Motorsports Park to open as planned for season this past weekend.

The judge ordered PMP to work with the town to develop a way to record and monitor noise levels by the end of the month. He requested an update by April 27.

Vhay's order requires the racetrack to have a sound engineer monitor the track May 5 or May 6, which PMP said is the park's first "high sound" event of the year, and submit a written report to the town's zoning officer by June 8.

PMP must pay the town $7,500, which will be used by Palmer to pay costs associated with the noise study, including the contracting costs to hire a sound engineer.

The judge's order says the racetrack had violated condition #10 of the 2007 special permit, which states:

"Within 90 days of the commencement of operation, the applicant shall record actual noise readings (receptors shall have the same location as in the original study), to validate the project model and confirm compliance with state regulations. New information shall be submitted to the Board for professional review, at the applicant's expense, and proper mitigation measures shall be implemented, if needed."

Vhay's order says once the noise monitoring is in place and the data reviewed, either party may petition to "prepare and issue a final judgment."

Palmer Zoning Enforcement Officer Bonnie Weeks is listed as plaintiff in the suit filed Aug. 29. She is represented by attorney Christopher H. Heep, of Wellesley. Palmer Motorsports Park LLC's lawyer is Roger Dowd, of Framingham.

The 40-foot wide, 2.3-mile track is located on 18 acres off 58 West Ware Road.

Right after the racetrack opened for business in May 2015, town officials in Palmer, Ware and Warren began fielding noise complaints. Palmer officials have convened numerous meetings over the years to address the complaints.
Launched by the Association of Vietnamese Students and Professionals in the US in 2016, this year's event attracted the participation of 201 teams from 17 countries around the world, including teams from Vietnam and the host nation.

Speaking at the event, Ambassador Vinh highly praised the development of the association and VietChallenge in recent years, in not only supporting students in their studies and research, but also attracting talented people to hold practical activities which promote the homeland.

The diplomat expressed his belief in the enthusiasm, talent, and creativity of Vietnamese youngsters, expecting young people abroad, as well as Vietnamese start-ups, to continue to unite and contribute to the development of the homeland and the good relations between Vietnam and the US.

Since it was first organised in 2016, the annual competition has become a prestigious contest for creative Vietnamese entrepreneurs and youth from all over the world. It has been expanded to not only attract young people in the US, but also connect youths and students from Vietnam and other countries.

After three rounds, the VIoT team, with a smart urban lighting system project, won the top prize at this years event, worth US$25,000.

Earlier the same day, Ambassador Vinh attended and delivered a speech at the Vietnam-US investment conference which was jointly organised by the US law firm Foley Hoag and VietChallenge with the participation of US businesses and Vietnamese start-ups in the host country.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh speaks at the Vietnam-US investment conference in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 7. (Photo: MOFA)



The Vietnamese ambassador emphasised the strong development of bilateral relations in various areas since they were normalised in 1995, and the establishment of a comprehensive partnership in 2013.

He updated the guests on the continued development of relations between the two countries, reflecting in the two State visits by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the US in May 2017 and the visit to Vietnam and attendance at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting by President Donald Trump in November of last year.

Informing the participants on the development of a favourable investment environment in Vietnam, the diplomat affirmed that the Vietnamese representative offices in the US are always ready, and continue to be a bridge and provide support for investors and businesses of both sides.

On the occasion, Ambassador Vinh also hosted a working session with the Association of Vietnamese Students and Professionals in the US.
BOSTON - The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Obama Administration and former Governor of Kansas - Kathleen Sebelius - as well as four other former governors will discuss states' roles in current and future treatment approaches to opioid addiction Thursday at the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Sebelius' name for many is closely linked with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as she served during the years its provisions became the country's federal health care legislation. It mandated that insurance sold on Health Insurances Exchange as well as Medicaid cover treatment for substance abuse disorders starting in 2014.

A Democrat, she was governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, and served as health secretary in the Obama cabinet from 2009 to 2014.

Reuters Boston Bureau Chief Scott Malone will moderate the discussion that takes place from noon to 1 p.m. and that also includes former governors Republican Jim Douglas from Vermont, and Democrats Steven Beshear from Kentucky, Ted Strickland from Ohio, and Jack Markell from Delaware.

Ohio and Kentucy are among the states to have seen some of the largest increases in the number of opioid deaths in 2016.

Kentucky is also among the states to have increased access to treatment and has seen an increase in the number of people receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse.

Vermont is among the states that has seen a jump in recent years in the number of babies born with a drug withdrawal syndrome because of exposure in utero.

According to government data, Delaware emergency rooms saw a 105 percent increase in suspected opioid overdoses from July 2016 to September 2017.

Efforts in these states to address the epidemic in recent years of deaths due to opioid overdose mirror those of others that include increasing the number of treatment beds, outpatient programs and access to Narcan, which can reduce the effects of an opioid overdose.

This is the second in a series of Governors Roundtables. A similar roundtable was held last spring with Beshear and Strickland joined by former governors Republican Linda Lingle from Hawaii and Democrat Jay Nixon from Missouri.

President Donald Trump, who declared opioid abuse a public health crisis in October, called for tougher penalties, including the death penalty, for those convicted of drug trafficking when he spoke last month in New Hampshire.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams recently issued an advisory, calling for more people who come into contact with people suffering from substance abuse disorders to carry Narcan.
Updates a story posted Monday, April 9, 2018 at 12:43 p.m.

HOLYOKE -- Edward Laboursoliere had compiled an arsenal of unlawful firearms, including one he made himself, and bomb-making materials when he was arrested at his 1080 Main St. home Sunday night, police said.

"It was a very dangerous situation," Holyoke police spokesman Lt. Jim Albert said Monday.

Laboursoliere, 49, was arraigned on 26 charges Monday in Holyoke District Court. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, and he was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing that was scheduled for April 17.

A search of his home, prompted by a call to police by his wife, revealed several unlawful firearms, including a fully-automatic machine gun, thousands of rounds of ammunition and the raw materials for making explosives, according to court documents.

At least one of the guns appeared to have been manufactured in the basement, Albert said.

Police also found evidence in the basement of guns being fired at a wall. According to court documents, officers inspecting the basement found "bullet fragments and copper jacketing on the ground next to the concrete wall, consistent with someone firing a gun into the wall, and bullet strikes were located on the wall."

Among the charges are seven counts each of carrying a firearm without a license and possession of a large-capacity firearm, nine counts of improper storage of a firearm and single counts of possession of a machine gun, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling and possession of a hoax device or substance.

In Massachusetts, a hoax device is defined as any substance, material or ingredient that could be used to make a bomb.

Police said they found a 50-pound bag of ammonium nitrate, a three-pound bag of aluminum powder, one-pound containers of potassium nitrate, red iron oxide, Tannerite and bomb-making materials when they searched his residence.

Ammonium nitrate is a type of fertilizer that can be mixed with other materials to make explosives. Timothy McVeigh used the same materials, albeit 2,000 pounds of it in a rental van, in the 1995 attack of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Since 2011, anyone purchasing 25 pounds of the material needs to register with the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Police were called to his house after Christine Laboursoliere reported her husband had "brought bomb-making materials in the house," according to Holyoke police reports.

The couple has three children living in the house, according to police.

Holyoke police, the fire department and the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad all responded to the address. When Christine Laboursoliere gave police consent to search the property without a warrant, officers discovered several guns lying around, along with seven 30-round magazines and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

According to police, Edward Laboursoliere returned home about 30 minutes after police first arrived. He was read his Miranda Rights, handcuffed and brought to the station for questioning and then charged, according to police.

Albert said it was "very fortuitous" that Christine Laboursoliere called police.

Police are still investigating what Laboursoliere was intending to do with the materials.

He said Holyoke police had no suspicions of Edward Laboursoliere or any indication of what was going on in the basement prior to receiving the call from his wife.

None of the neighbors had reported hearing any gunfire from the residence, he said.

According to court records, Laboursoliere has seven prior convictions, including operating under the influence of alcohol and possession of a class D substance.

In the basement, according to reports written by Holyoke police officers, trooper Jeremy Cotton of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad found the ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, plus other chemical powders, some fuses, a length of pipe that was threaded on each end and some caps.

Police found numerous rifles and handguns around the house, including a short-barrel AR-15 rifle. This was inspected by Special Agent Anthony DiPaolo of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and it was determined to be a fully automatic weapon.

Police also found several firearms in the master bedroom, and none of them were locked up or secured in any way.
Attorneys representing Steve Wynn and his former companies are asking the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to remove the casino mogul as a "qualifier" - the regulators' term for a key person - for the $2.4 billion Wynn Boston Harbor project.

The commission received the requests from attorneys for Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts and Wynn MA LLC, which holds the lone eastern Massachusetts casino license.

Steve Wynn resigned from the company and divested from Wynn Resorts after the Wall Street Journal reported on an alleged pattern of sexual misconduct, which Wynn has denied.

The five-member Gaming Commission plans to discuss the requests at its public meeting on Thursday, April 12 in downtown Boston. Wynn representatives aren't expected to appear before the commission that day, an agency spokeswoman told MassLive.

Investigators for the Gaming Commission are looking into the "suitability" of Wynn officials owning the casino license.

The investigation was launched after the Wall Street Journal report earlier this year. They're seeking what Wynn executives knew about the allegations against Steve Wynn, and more information on an alleged multi-million dollar settlement that investigators say was actively kept from them.

Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby said the Wynn Boston project is proceeding on an "at-risk" basis, while the investigation is expected to wrap up later this year.

Qualifiers listed in the Gaming Commission's original 2013 "suitability" investigation include Steve Wynn, ex-wife Elaine Wynn, the new Wynn CEO Matthew Maddox, and general counsel Kimmarie Sinatra, among others.

The Gaming Commission's Thursday meeting is also expected to cover preparations for the opening of MGM Springfield later this year and a vote on a detailed construction schedule.
State environmental regulators on Monday approved expanded operations at a controversial ash landfill in Saugus, an Essex County community of 27,000 north of Boston.

Wheelabrator Saugus, Inc., which operates a waste-to-energy plant, plans to steepen grades at its adjacent landfill, and fill two valleys with an additional 500,000 tons of incinerator ash.

Environmental groups and elected officials had urged the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to deny a permit for the "major modification" engineering plan.

The agency wrote that the Wheelabrator application complies with relevant state laws, subject to adherence with 21 conditions.

State Rep. RoseLee Vincent (D-Revere) had previously said it would be "unconscionable" to allow more contaminated ash in the middle of a saltwater marsh designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, according to Wicked Local Saugus.

Vincent said the landfill lacks a liner, is near the communities of Saugus, Revere and Lynn, and that "ripping open" a retired landfill section would expose the Pine River and Rumney Marsh to risk during storm and flooding events.

As part of its permitting, MassDEP fielded more than 1,800 comments, many from neighbors, local officials, and others who opposed Wheelabrator's plan.

In a statement, Wheelabrator vice president James Connolly said the approval "represents the best environmental and economic solution for the town, the region and the state." He said the MassDEP review "was rigorous and transparent, and included extensive public comment." Connolly said the company remains open to discussing "a long-term plan for Wheelabrator Saugus that will enhance our economic and environmental value to the community."

The Conservation Law Foundation on Monday lashed out at Gov. Charlie Baker, saying 80 percent of the waste burned by facility could be composted or recycled, and charged that the state is not enforcing its own diversion rules.

"By issuing this permit, the Baker administration has clogged our community's air, water, and land with another 500,000 tons of toxic ash in Rumney Marsh," said Kirstie Pecci of CLF's zero waste program. "We will all be able to breathe easier when the Commonwealth stops pandering to dangerous landfills and starts protecting public health by enforcing its zero waste regulations."

The saga of the landfill and incinerator, first built in 1975, goes back decades.

In 1989, MassDEP told then-owner Resco that the ash landfill would close in 1996. In 1995, the Weld administration granted an extension. New owner Wheelabrator in 2016 petitioned for the current changes. Baker's energy and environment secretary, Matthew Beaton, signed off on project, putting MassDEP in charge of permitting.

The 1989 administrative consent order saw nearly a dozen amendments over the years.
AMHERST - The investigation into how Amherst College senior Andrew Dorogi was electrocuted while on spring break in Mexico is continuing.

Dorogi, 21, was found dead on the railroad tracks near a train station in a Mexico City neighborhood March 15.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs, in an email, wrote that "although U.S. Consular officials remain in close contact with Mexican authorities regarding this case, local authorities in Mexico City are the lead on this investigation."

She referred further inquiries to the Embassy of Mexico. A spokeswoman there said she would look into it.

Amherst College, meanwhile, issued this statement regarding the disclosure that Dorogi was electrocuted: "It is important that the matter is fully investigated and that the truth becomes known; our primary focus continues to be on supporting a campus that is grieving."

Last week in addressing the college, President Carolyn "Biddy" Martin said Dorogi did not take his own life. "The cause of Andrew's death is still unknown and under investigation. We know from his family that he did not die of suicide," she wrote.

Besides Dorogi, the college is mourning the loss of student Christopher Collins, who died by suicide on campus March 29, and Jeffrey B. Ferguson, a professor of black studies, who died of cancer March 12.

ABC News, which broke the story of Dorogi's electrocution Friday, initially called it a case of "culpable homicide," but updated the story to say the cause of death was electrocution.
AGAWAM -- A man barricaded inside a Brookline Avenue home fired at least 20 rounds, including one that hit a neighboring house, during a tense, six-hour standoff with police in Agawam on Monday.

Police say they were called to 74 Brookline Ave. just before 5:30 p.m. Monday for a report of "explosions" in the Feeding Hills neighborhood. The explosions turned out to be gunfire, prompting officers to evacuate surrounding homes and secure the area.

After hours of trying to communicate with Michael Kerr, a 1975 graduate of Agawam High School, authorities gained entry around 11:30 p.m. and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

For the first hour of the incident, Kerr fired roughly 20 rounds "in and out of his house, with at least one round striking a neighboring home," said police, who did not indicate what type of weapon was used in the shooting.

Police say they repeatedly tried to communicate with Kerr, including making some 40 phone calls and using a loudspeaker to try to persuade him to surrender. The incident ended after a Massachusetts State Police STOP team entered the residence and found Kerr's body.

"It's a tough thing," said Mayor William P. Sapelli, echoing reports that Kerr, the son of a former Agawam police officer, was suffering from health issues.

Mike Kerr was the son of the late Paul Kerr, a longtime city policeman, said Sapelli, who knew the officer well.

The mayor commended the community for remaining calm and coming together during the crisis. He also praised Sacred Heart Church on Springfield Street for providing sanctuary to evacuees waiting for the OK to return to their homes.

Local public safety officials did a good job of quickly securing the area to prevent any additional injuries, according to the mayor. "They handled it well," Sapelli said.
AGAWAM -- Police on Monday night were involved in a standoff with a person inside a house in the city's Feeding Hills section.

An Agawam police officer said the person was armed. Massachusetts State Police are attempting to negotiate with the individual, police said.

Police blocked off Brookline and Belvidere avenues and ordered residents to leave their homes.

Residents are gathered in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church, across from Brookline and Belvidere on Springfield Street in the city's Feeding Hills section.

A resident of Brookline Avenue said she heard a gunshot just before 5:30 p.m.

Several police cruisers were parked at the end of Brookline Avenue. An ambulance and more city and state police vehicles also were in the immediate area.

This is a developing story that will be updated as our reporting continues.
WORCESTER -- Ralph Santaniello was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for extorting a Springfield tow company operator in 2013, including leveling a death threat and smacking the businessman in the face during an initial overture.

Santaniello's sentencing hearing followed that of co-defendant Giovanni Calabrese, sentenced to three years in prison in connection with the same scheme.

Santaniello and Calabrese were among five organized crime associates charged in 2016 with shaking down Craig J. "C.J." Morel for $20,000 in "street taxes" three years earlier.

Morel is the founder of C.J.'s Towing Unlimited, the largest towing and scrap metal business in Western Massachusetts. Morel testified in a related trial for co-defendant Richard Valentini that he has paid "tribute" to slain mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno until Bruno's murder in 2003.

More told jurors he ran his business unfettered by the mob until Santaniello and Calabrese ambushed him at his land in Hampden in the fall of 2013, demanding $100,000 for their new regime of the Springfield faction of the New York-based Genovese crime family. The figure was later negotiated down to $20,000 and Morel sought help from the police to manage the threats, agreeing to covertly record subsequent meetings.

The family has long had ties to Greater Springfield, and prosecutor Katharine Wagner highlighted the crime family's rich history in the area and its fearsome reputation.

Santaniello, who has previous illegal gaming and loansharking convictions, has been held without bail since his arrest two years ago. He also was charged in a separate mob-related scheme in New York City and pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for that, which will run concurrent with his Massachusetts sentence.

This story will be updated after further reporting.
AGAWAM -- Social media lit up during and after an armed standoff with police, with residents relaying information and updates via Facebook and other platforms as the crisis unfolded on Brookline Avenue.

Family, friends and former classmates took to Facebook to offer condolences to the family of Mike Kerr, the man found dead early this morning after barricading himself inside a Feeding Hills home. Kerr died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Agawam police said in a statement to The Republican / MassLive.com.

"So sad," JoAnn Halpy said in a Facebook post. "Mike was such a nice person in high school."

Frank Andruss, who "shared a few beers" with Kerr over the years, was blindsided by the news. "I was so shocked to learn it was someone from our class. I guess everything just got too much for him," Andruss said.

Rose Guilbault said Kerr was her cousin and dealing with some health issues at the time of his death. "He took good care of his parents as they got older. He did have a big heart," said Guilbault, who was glad no one else was injured in the standoff.

"We would like to express our condolences to the members of the Kerr family," the Police Department said in a statement issued late Tuesday morning, thanking Mayor William P. Sapelli for "his support of our agencies during this time."

Area residents were evacuated as authorities blocked off Brookline and Belvedere avenues as dozens of local and state police swarmed the area and established a crime scene perimeter.

Some witnesses reported smelling teargas and hearing what sounded like gunfire in the otherwise quiet section of Feeding Hills. Neighborhood residents gathered in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church on Springfield Street while waiting to return to their homes.

A Massachusetts State Police spokeswoman said troopers assisted Agawam police at the scene. Agawam police Chief Eric Gillis said authorities took a slow, methodical approach in an attempt to defuse the situation, including making numerous attempts to communicate directly with Kerr.

"Rest In Peace to you, Mike. Another Agawam (High School) 1975 graduate from my class," Deb Godbout said on a popular online Agawam forum.

Kerr was a "great guy" who was "tough and fearless," said Stephen Gould. "Thanks for havin' my back all those years on the ice."
SPRINGFIELD -- The City Council voted unanimously Monday to order the city not to interfere with South Congregational Church, which is providing sanctuary to a Peruvian woman facing deportation.

The council's 13-0 vote in support of the sanctuary came after Mayor Domenic J. Sarno criticized the Maple Street church and ordered inspections to determine if there were any violations of housing codes.

Armed with a court order, the city's code enforcement and fire departments did conduct a full inspection of the sanctuary April 5, in which only minor violations were found, city officials said.

An overflow crowd at the council chambers Monday cheered and applauded the council vote that said the city "shall not interfere with the South Church or any other place of worship and the Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition in carrying out its religious convictions and providing sanctuary."

"I think common sense prevailed tonight," council President Orlando Ramos said after the vote. "We had a very long and healthy debate on this very important issue, but at the end of the day we all agreed the administration overstepped their authority."

Councilor Jesse Lederman called the vote the "right thing to do, the courageous thing to do."

The order was amended by Councilor Kenneth Shea to refer to city interference rather than directly order city employees and agents to not interfere. Some councilors were concerned about orders aimed at city employees.

A reference to the council being opposed to spending public dollars on interference was also dropped.

Gisella Collazo, a Peruvian woman who had been ordered by federal immigration officials to return to her home country, has been living at the sanctuary since March 26 with her two children, ages 10 and 4. She moved to the U.S. 17 years ago, and married an American citizen in 2006, having two American-born children.

The Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition and the church are welcoming Collazo to stay at the sanctuary as long as necessary to gain legal status.

Sarno said last week that city inspections were necessary to protect public health and safety and to ensure the dwelling met all housing and safety codes.

Code Enforcement Commissioner Steven Desilets said the sanctuary passed the inspection. There were only minor maintenance issues found, such as a stuck window and the need to replace a door lock, Desilets said. He said he expected the issue would be wrapped up within a couple of days.

Ramos was among councilors saying they wanted a vote by the council on Monday despite the inspection already taking place. The vote would show the council's support for the church's decision to create a sanctuary, and serve to protect the sanctuary from interference, he and some other councilors said.
Holding a reception for Danish Minister of Health Ellen Trane Norby in Hanoi on April 10, PM Phuc hoped to receive further support from Denmark in the prevention of non-infectious diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular and high blood pressure as well as in medical personnel training.

Lauding the northern European countrys achievements in managing and providing comprehensive public health care as well as mobilising the involvement of private sector, the leader hoped that Denmark will share its experience with Vietnam and endorse Vietnam in information technology application in the medical sector.

Ellen Trane Norby, for her part, affirmed that Denmark is willing to help Vietnam in health care and food safety research.

Denmark holds strengths in cancer prevention, control of diabetes and many other non-infectious diseases, she said, hoping that both sides will have deeper cooperation in the fields.
SPRINGFIELD -- A planned $1 million "image campaign" to promote the city of Springfield took a significant step forward Monday night as the City Council voted unanimously to contribute $100,000 in taxpayer funds.

Councilors said that a key to their support for the campaign is the explanation that it will tell the story of the entire city of Springfield including the neighborhoods, rather than be a downtown promotion.

"It's to tell the good story of all the things happening in the great city of Springfield," said Richard K. Sullivan, the president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, which is overseeing the campaign. "It's not just a downtown campaign. This will not be a casino campaign."

MGM Springfield, planning to open a $960 million casino in September, is perfectly capable of promoting the casino itself, Sullivan said.

Participants in the campaign will develop the campaign strategy, graphics and advertising, with the actual promotion expected to begin in late 2018, Sullivan said.

The Economic Development Council has already committed $400,000 in funds toward the campaign from its business members.

In addition, the EDC expects that the combined total of $500,000 in business and city contributions will be matched by in-kind contributions from media organizations including The Republican, MassLive, 22 News and Western Mass News, along with Comcast, Sullivan said.

Ward 1 Councilor Adam Gomez said he appreciates the "positive attitude' shown by the EDC and that the door is open for neighborhood groups to share their positive news.

Hearing that the campaign is not going to be an "MGM commercial, you won me over with that," Gomez said.

Councilor Jesse Lederman said he is pleased the campaign will "paint the story of all of Springfield."

Sullivan said the benefits of promoting Springfield to visitors and others will far outweigh the cost.

"There has been a huge response from the business community in support of this," Sullivan said.

In December, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno supported the plans for the campaign, saying, "If we don't tell our story, no one else will."

Sullivan has said the campaign capitalizes on the major economic development investments occurring in the region, with the focus on Springfield.



It will highlight some of the positive things happening in Springfield ranging from the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum and the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame to highlights of the Springfield neighborhoods and how Springfield is a great place to live and visit, he said.




Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is ripping leaders at Mount Ida College, saying they let down the students and staff who now feel left in the lurch as the University of Massachusetts moves to acquire the small private institution in Newton.

"Like everybody, I was stunned, shocked, amazed, and really disappointed by the current state of play at Mount Ida," Baker told reporters on Tuesday. "I mean, the thing that bothered me the most about that was it was pretty clear that for the past several years, this deficit that they are dealing with now has gotten worse and worse."

Baker added: "And I feel terrible for the kids, because as far as I'm concerned, the grown-ups let them down."

If UMass can make sure the students can continue education, "that's a good thing," the governor said.

There are still questions about how the purchase will be financed and what it means for the overall five-campus system, according to Baker.

UMass Amherst is acquiring the 74-acre Mount Ida campus and assuming the small college's debt, according to a joint release. Students will be granted automatic admission at UMass Dartmouth, while Mount Ida faculty and staff face layoffs.

Mount Ida President Barry Brown, in a letter released after the deal was announced, said "financial pressure on small colleges has never been greater and our limited resources obligate us to consider what is best for our students and community."

While the boards of Mount Ida and UMass trustees signed off on the deal, elements of it must still go before the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.

"But yeah, the kids at Mount Ida and the folks who work there should be really upset about the way they've been let down by leadership," Baker said.

Asked about criticism of the deal from some quarters at UMass Boston, which has students and faculty who are feeling ignored by UMass as they grapple with budget problems, Baker pointed to the expected selection of a new chancellor.

Barry Mills took over as interim chancellor in an effort to right budget problems on the UMass Boston campus, which underwent a rapid building boom in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. A search committee is currently looking for a permanent chancellor for the campus.

"That I think is going to be a big statement about the leadership and the direction of the campus going forward," Baker said.
Mount Ida College students and parents are reeling from news of the struggling institution's decision to close up shop and to get absorbed into the five-campus University of Massachusetts system.

The UMass deal came weeks after a failed attempt at a merger between Mount Ida and Lasell College, another small private college in Newton, Mass.

The fate of Mount Ida has officials in the higher education sector, a key part of the Massachusetts economy and a competitive marketplace, looking at the potential for additional mergers and closures. Mount Ida has about 1,450 students attending classes, and 280 full-time and part-time faculty and staff who will lose their jobs as a result of the deal.

"There's going to be contraction in the industry, no doubt about it," said Robert Johnson, the chancellor at UMass Dartmouth, where Mount Ida students are getting routed towards as part of the deal.

"You're going to see more of this type of thing happening," said Johnson, who headed up Becker College, a similarly small and private institution in Central Massachusetts, before coming to Dartmouth.

Carlos Santiago, the Massachusetts commissioner on higher education, said more closures, mergers and acquisitions are already happening, particularly among the private colleges and universities, due to demographics.

"So higher education, particularly the enrollment-driven institutions, are under a lot of financial stress because the college-going population has declined so dramatically," Santiago told MassLive. "And we don't expect this decline to change until around 2033."

It's also happening on the for-profit side: According to the Associated Press, Corinthian Colleges "collapsed" in 2015, followed by ITT Technical Institute.

The UMass/Mount Ida deal must go before the state board of higher education for approval, since it involves the closure of a school. The real estate portion of the deal - UMass is acquiring the 74 acres in Newton - doesn't need approval.

Santiago's state agency has similarly looked at Boston University and Wheelock College's bid to merge and create a new school of education. The small college, which started as Miss Wheelock's Kindergarten Training School, has about 1,000 students.

As small colleges struggle, students are finding more affordable options, according to Santiago.

"The public institutions are - it doesn't mean we don't have our challenges - but the public institutions are doing okay," said Santiago, who has previously served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "We've seen declines in enrollment, which is expected, but they are in a sense holding their own. So we expect the publics to remain strong."

Johnson, the UMass Dartmouth chancellor, said he expects the public colleges and universities to feel the effects, though not necessarily in Massachusetts.

"We have to be prepared to figure out how we're going to serve these students," he said, since a disruption is coming to the education marketplace and to institutions "large or small."

Attorney General Maura Healey, whose office is looking into the UMass/Mount Ida deal, noted the effect of the reshaped marketplace on students and families.

"Of course that's concerning, any time, you know, there's a school closure, we've seen it in my time in office, how devastating it is for students and for families," Healey said. "I think all the more reason why we've got to get the right processes in place, why there's got to be ample time and notice and ability for students to transfer, to find other programs and the like."

At Mount Ida, students and parents are still left with questions, as they post in rage and frustration on social media networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"Why weren't we told that the school was in financial difficulty?" That was one of the questions added to Mount Ida's website on Monday, an apparent nod to the confusion students and parents are feeling.

"Small problem quickly becomes a big problem," the answer reads. "The debt was always there, we don't have the endowments that other schools have, but the goal has always been to find ways to get funding that they've needed. We made decisions when we still had a bargaining chip."

"Who is profiting from this?" another question says.

Mount Ida finances faced regular outside reviews, the response says. "This is a loss for all involved and no one is profiting from these circumstances."
Whether the Wynn Boston Harbor casino gets sold or stays in the hands of the Steve Wynn's former company, Massachusetts gambling regulators and officials from the city of Everett will have a big hand in it, according to Gov. Charlie Baker.

Steve Wynn has stepped away from the board of Wynn Resorts and moved to divest from the company he built after the Wall Street Journal reported on an alleged pattern of sexual misconduct while he was at the helm.

Investigators with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission are looking into the claims, which Wynn denied, and their impact on the suitability of Wynn officials holding the lone eastern Massachusetts casino license.

Asked about the speculation about what would happen to the $2.4 billion project, Baker told reporters, "Keep in mind that the Gaming Commission's investigation is ongoing, and some of the things that were most important to people - Steve Wynn leaving the board, Steve Wynn selling out his position in the company - those have happened."

Bloomberg reported Friday that the new CEO at Wynn Resorts, Matthew Maddox, had talked about selling the project, which is located in Everett, north of Boston.

The Gaming Commission would have to sign off on a transfer of a license if Wynn Resorts decides to sell the project, and under the commission's regulations a company can't own two casino licenses in Massachusetts. And Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria told the Boston Globe he has "veto power" on a sale.

"Certainly the Gaming Commission and the city of Everett have major roles to play in whatever happens on that site, as they should, and I fully expect those'll play out as more information becomes available going forward," Baker said Tuesday after attending an unrelated event at the Omni Parker House Hotel.

Baker's comments came hours after the Gaming Commission acknowledged they've received requests from lawyers to remove Steve Wynn as a "qualifier," or key person involved in the Wynn Boston Harbor project. The lawyers represent Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts and Wynn MA LLC, the entity set up to hold the eastern Massachusetts casino license.

The commission is meeting this week to discuss the requests.
WILBRAHAM -- Maynard Road will be closed to through traffic while repairs are made from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to an alert from the Town of Wilbraham, which did not specify the nature of the roadwork.

The alert says no vehicles will be allowed through during that time frame. Maynard runs between Boston and Three Rivers roads.

MAP showing location of Maynard Road:
By Tricia Farley-Bouvier

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. Sexual assault on college campus is a national public health crisis. Statistics show that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college nationally. During their time at college, 43 percent of women report experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors and 13 percent of women report being stalked.

To put things in perspective in our state, more than a half a million students are enrolled in a Massachusetts institution of higher education. In 2014, there were 283 reports of rape on Massachusetts campuses, yet only 7 percent of rapes were reported to school officials. The actual number of incidents is likely much higher. What can we do about this?

The lack of sexual violence education and prevention throughout students' primary education contributes to the large number of sexual violence incidents on higher education campuses. We must give these institutions the tools to assist their students, provide resources to victims, and have a clear understanding of the policies and reports of sexual violence on all campuses. In our current climate where Title IX policies are being rolled back by the federal administration, and the discussion of gender-based violence is prevalent in mainstream media, we in Massachusetts are in a position to secure the safety and well-being for our students.

Currently, all public and private higher education institutions must have a campus security policy. I filed House Bill 632, 'An Act relative to sexual violence on campus' to take these policies further and require all institutions of higher education in Massachusetts to create and communicate policy on sexual and gender-based violence. This bill would also require schools to include trauma-informed policies on dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking that are developed in consultation with the Title IX coordinator. Providing students with the details on how to report an incident, where to seek medical treatment and counseling and how to request protective measures will create a safer environment for victims and all students.

The act also requires awareness and prevention programming through training for students, faculty, and staff. Furthermore, relationships will be established with local rape crisis centers and domestic violence programs. These policies and resources, along with sexual violence data, will be made publicly available on the campus website -- which is important from a safety and consumer perspective. If a student or parents can easily look up which campus has the best dorm rooms, they should also be able to access statistics on campus safety and sexual violence.

One of the most important aspects of the bill is the outline of how proceedings shall be conducted when an incident of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking is reported. Both the reporting party and responding party are given equal rights, notices and opportunity for representation throughout the proceeding. These procedures mirror those that were outlined in the federal Dear Colleague Letter of 2014 that was recently rescinded by the current Trump administration. This section helps clarify proceedings for higher institutions of learning as well as protecting the rights of both parties.

We have the ability to tackle this crisis of sexual assault at our colleges head on. No student should ever lose their opportunity for an education due to harassment, intimidation, violence, or an environment that allows these behaviors.

Tricia Farley-Bouvier is Massachusetts State Representative, 3rd Berkshire District.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno's job is to represent the city's best interests, but his determined effort to evict a Peruvian family from sanctuary at a local church was an ill-conceived effort that created controversy where none needed to exist.

At issue has been the South Congregational Church's willingness to shelter a woman and her two children - and why the mayor turned their status into a crusade that mistakenly confused a city's sanctuary status with a church's independent decision to lend one family a helping hand.

Sarno was concerned the Trump Administration would look unfavorably at providing sanctuary, possibly costing Springfield federal dollars in the future. This would be a legitimate concern if a federal judge didn't permanently block Trump's executive order to cut funding for cities that don't cooperate with US immigration authorities.

In Springfield's case, that danger never existed. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has never invaded a church to evict isolated immigrant families.

The agency is casting a broader net for more flagrant policy abuses. Furthermore, churches have been sheltering needy families this way from time immemorial.

For a church to provide sanctuary for one family does not make Springfield a sanctuary city. It has no official impact on Springfield at all.

Yet the mayor's singular determination to oust the family - which caused him to go so far as obtain a warrant in search of code violations that did not exist - has not only suggested a mild obsession with this case but sought to portray an isolated situation as a large-scale immigration problem with major social, political and financial repercussions in Washington and at home.

None of that is true. The city inspection turned up no code violations, which added another layer to a picture of the mayor looking for ways to turn a woman in need of help onto the street.

This was the last image Sarno needs. Tough enforcement of law is one thing, but the mayor's blunt talk and actions like this have risked his reputation for accepting diversity.

He says that's unfair, but perception is powerful and he is not helping himself - or the city - by feeding it reasons to flourish.

Only the sheltered woman is without citizenship in this case. Other members of her family are citizens. That should not be overlooked in this story.

The publicity generated by Mayor Sarno's fruitless crusade has turned an immigration molehill into a public relations mountain - one that Sarno is losing. That's because, regardless of the mayor's motivation or intent, his resolute attempt to evict the family has taken on the flavor of insensitivity and even mean-spiritedness.

Yes, some residents will cheer the attempt to throw out a foreigner, but others will ask why one family in dire straits deserved so much of Sarno's time and attention, and why winning this dispute had become so important to him.

Even if the mayor had somehow won, what would he have achieved? Would Springfield be a better city in any way by throwing out a single family from a church?

It's more likely that had the mayor understood this was not a fight worth pursuing, hardly anyone would have noticed, let alone been affected.

Legitimate concerns about immigration, refugee housing and related issues exist for Mayor Sarno to be completely correct in protecting Springfield's best interests. That, and not to posture as a political Good Samaritan, is what his job is.

Targeting the South Congregational Church, however, was a mistake. It vastly overstated this case's impact on the city, and it mistook a church's independent decision as a shift in city policy.

It also made the mayor look like a heavy-handed landlord, making a single family pay a fearsome price for a national controversy these people did not create.

The mayor should concede defeat because victory would have been worse. This dispute was not worth winning because it was not worth fighting.

By the way it has treated church sanctuaries with hands-off policies in the past, even ICE has understood that. So should he.
HOUSTON (AP) -- Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas pledged on Monday to send about 1,600 National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border, responding to President Donald Trump's plan to use the military to help fight illegal immigration and drug trafficking.



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would add about 300 troops a week to the 250 members of the National Guard whose deployment was announced Friday until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops. Arizona officials announced they were sending 225 National Guard members to the border Monday and would deploy another 113 on Tuesday.



And New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

Breaking: New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez will deploy more than 80 National Guard members to the border as part of the president's effort to enhance border security. https://t.co/UmJSiIRJn6  CBS4Local (@CBS4Local) April 9, 2018



Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico are all led by Republican governors. The other southwestern border state, California, is led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and has not made a public commitment to sending troops from his state's National Guard. Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors retain command and control over their state's Guard members.



Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the southwestern border.



Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their "mission is about providing manpower and resources to support federal, state, county, tribal and local law enforcement agencies in stopping the flow of criminals, narcotics, weapons and ammunition that is being trafficked into our state."



Ducey initially said Arizona would send more troops on Tuesday but did not specify how many. The state's National Guard in a statement later that 113 members would follow the initial deployment of 225.

Tomorrow we will be deploying an additional 113 members of the @AZNationalGuard for a total of 338 troops https://t.co/5qB2kiDr0h  Doug Ducey (@dougducey) April 9, 2018



Ducey told reporters later that the deployments are needed to stop a surge of border crossings since March and accused the U.S. government of previously ignoring the border "for nearly a decade."



Texas agencies posted images over the weekend of Guard members arriving at the border. On Monday, Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that Texas will significantly ramp up its commitment to Trump's call over the next several weeks.



Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said. He added that he wanted to "downplay any notion" that "our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody that's coming across the border, because that is not their role."



He said that based on his conversations with Trump and other officials, there's no end date on the deployment.



"We may be in this for the long haul," he said.



Ducey denied that his decision to send guard members to the border was politically motivated.



"I don't think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue," he said. "You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition that's coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here."



Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress.



Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.



A Defense Department memo said the National Guard members will not perform law enforcement functions or "interact with migrants or other persons detained" without Mattis's approval.



It said "arming will be limited to circumstances that might require self-defense" but did not further define that.



The head of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes part of West Texas and all of New Mexico said Monday he met with leaders of the New Mexico National Guard to begin discussions about what will be required and their capabilities.



El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull says those troops are nowhere near deploying yet.



The New Mexico Guard members could help with air support, surveillance and infrastructure repairs, Hull said.



Hull says the troops could help with air support, surveillance and repairs of infrastructure along the border.



Brown's spokesman, Evan Westrup, said Monday that California is still reviewing Trump's request for use of the state's National Guard members.



California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Keegan said last week that any request will be "promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners."



After plunging at the start of Trump's presidency, the numbers of migrants apprehended at the southwest border have started to rise in line with historical trends.



The Border Patrol said it caught around 50,000 people in March, more than three times the number in March 2017.



That's erased a decline for which Trump repeatedly took credit.



Border apprehensions still remain well below the numbers when former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the border.



By BOB CHRISTIE and NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press. Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.




U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, pressed President Donald Trump this week for an update on how his administration is responding to the more than 50 recommendations a White House commission has put forth to address drug addiction and end the opioid abuse crisis.

Warren and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington penned a letter to Trump seeking information on his response to the Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis's proposed policy changes.

Although Trump declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency in late October, the senators argued that the White House has taken little action to address the epidemic since the commission issued its recommendations in November.

They questioned how the administration has taken advantage of the authorities and resources tied to the designation.

Warren and Murray further raised concerns about proposed budget cuts to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, reports that aides "with limited public health expertise" have been coordinating the administration's response to the crisis and Trump's failure to fill the position of Drug Enforcement Agency administrator.

"Over five months have passed since the commission issued its final recommendations," they said in a statement. "We are concerned ... by reports that in spite of the opioid epidemic's devastating impact on American communities, your administration has failed to act aggressively to combat it."

The senators asked Trump to provide an update on the administration's efforts to implement the commission's proposals, highlight which recommendations will require congressional action and to identify who is overseeing the federal government's response to the opioid epidemic in the executive branch.

They asked that the White House provide such information, as well as brief lawmakers on the status of the recommendations by the end of April.

Warren and Murray asked the Government Accountability Office in January to review the Trump administration's actions to address the opioid epidemic since declaring the issue a public health emergency -- a request which has been accepted, according to the senators' offices.

Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency in late October, directing federal agencies to use all resources available to help combat the growing number of opioid-related deaths across the country.

He pledged to implement additional recommendations from his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

The White House panel, which was tasked with examining steps lawmakers can take to combat and treat opioid abuse, called on federal officials to implement a series of policy changes aimed at ending the growing rate of prescription drug and heroin overdoses that kill more than 100 Americans each day.

It, among many things, recommended that federal officials: create an expansive, national multimedia campaign to highlight the dangers of opioid abuse, remove stigma as a barrier to treatment and cast addiction as a "chronic brain disease;" provide better addiction prevention education to students; and get federal funding support more quickly and effectively to state governments.

The panel also urged the Trump administration and Congress to "block grant federal funding for opioid-related and (substance use disorder)-related activities to the states," contending that the current system of multiple agencies and grants "cause states a significant administrative burden from an application and reporting perspective."

Trump unveiled a wide-ranging and controversial plan to address opioid addiction during a March stop in New Hampshire.

The president said his proposal, which includes a contentious measure that could open some drug traffickers up to the death penalty, is focused on three main areas: reducing opioid demand, cutting off the supply of drugs and increasing access to treatment services.
BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday that he hopes lawmakers -- not the voters -- will decide the fate of major economic issues, including the minimum wage, paid family leave and the state sales tax.

"My hope is we'll find a way to work through some of this stuff in the context of the legislative process," Baker said. "I think we can probably do a better job of dealing with those issues that way than through the ballot."

Baker declined to offer his own opinions on the ballot questions.

Advocacy groups representing unions, clergy and liberal organizing groups have been pushing for ballot questions that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and establish a statewide paid family and medical leave program. Business groups are pushing for a ballot question that would lower the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 5 percent.

The questions are all likely to appear on the November ballot unless the Legislature passes a version of these policies that satisfies the advocacy groups.

Discussions have been ongoing about whether a legislative compromise can be reached. The same business groups who support the sales tax decrease oppose raising the minimum wage and mandating paid leave.

Bill Rennie, vice president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said it is still a "fluid situation."

"We certainly are open to discussion with the Legislature and the administration," he said.

Rennie said it is not certain yet whether all the questions will be part of one negotiation. "There are certainly some folks that want to see all these combined into some type of deal or bargain and others that look at them separately," Rennie said.

Baker was a strong advocate on ballot questions in 2016, campaigning not to legalize recreational marijuana and to allow more charter schools. The voters rejected his stance on both issues.

Baker spoke Tuesday at a 2018 Small Business Day event in Boston organized by groups representing small businesses. Much of the program was dedicated to speaking about -- and lobbying against -- the ballot questions that would raise the minimum wage and institute paid family leave. The business groups also oppose a proposed constitutional amendment, which will also appear on the ballot, raising the income tax rate on income over $1 million.

But during his speech to the group, Baker notably did not even mention the ballot questions.

When he was asked about the ballot questions during a question and answer session, Baker did not give his personal opinion about the content of any of the questions. But he did say he would like the see the Legislature decide on the policies, not the voters.

Baker said he thinks the questions come with opportunities to do positive things but also with potential negative consequences. He said he believes the result is a more informed and better outcome when a policy passes after going through the legislative process, which includes input from all the relevant interest groups.

Baker said he believes there is interest in the Legislature in having these discussions, but warned that most legislative business tends to get done at the end of the legislative session in July.

Baker did say he supports making a sales tax holiday permanent, which he has tried to do through bills that he filed. A permanent sales tax holiday is included in the retailers' ballot question to lower the state sales tax.
During a reception for the RoK diplomat in Hanoi on April 10, Deputy PM Minh affirmed that Vietnam is willing to work with the RoK to effectively implement the common perceptions reached by the two countries high-ranking leaders.

The two nations will ceaselessly expand and deepen cooperation across fields including economy, trade, investment, tourism, labour, sci-technology, culture, education and people-to-people exchange, towards lifting the bilateral relations to a new height.

He expressed his belief that with his experience and deep understanding of Vietnam, Lee will continue to effectively contribute to reinforcing the friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

In reply, Lee thanked the Vietnamese Foreign Minister and his ministry for supporting and creating all possible conditions for him to fulfill his duties in Vietnam.

He affirmed the RoK always treasures its relations with Vietnam, promising that in his new position, he will continue efforts to elevate the Vietnam-RoK strategic cooperative partnership in the future.
Gov. Charlie Baker has chosen a former emergency management official from Pittsfield to head his Western Massachusetts office.

Patrick Carnevale will be the new liaison between Baker and Western Massachusetts residents, as the director of the governor's office in Springfield.

"Our Springfield office serves as an important connector to support our constituents, local leaders and municipalities in Western Massachusetts," Baker said in a statement. "With almost two decades of public service and his role in overseeing emergency management for Western Massachusetts, Patrick is uniquely qualified to lead the office and we are proud to welcome him to our team."

Carnevale said in a statement, "The communities and people of Western Massachusetts have much to offer the Commonwealth and I am pleased to contribute to furthering the Administration's important work in the region."

The previous head of the office, former state Sen. Michael Knapik of Westfield, left in February to take a job as a lobbyist for Baystate Health.

Carnevale was most recently a regional manager for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, responsible for emergency management in Central and Western Massachusetts. Since 2002, he has held multiple roles in the State Emergency Operations Center.

He held a job similar to the one he is taking for Baker now when he was deputy director in the office of Acting Governor Jane Swift, where he served as a liaison between the administration and constituents of Western Massachusetts. Carnevale started his career in government under Gov. Paul Cellucci.

Carnevale holds a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a master's degree from Western New England University, both in business administration. He has obtained numerous certificates relating to emergency preparedness and disaster management.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. Senate lawmakers Tuesday that his company is working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office as part of a probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Zuckerberg, while testifying before the U.S. Senate's Judiciary and Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees, offered that Facebook officials have been interviewed by the special counsel are cooperating with the high-profile probe.

"I want to be careful, because our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure that in an open session I'm not revealing something confidential," he told lawmakers, in response to questions from U.S. Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont. "I am not aware of a subpoena -- I believe there may be. But, I know we're working with them."

Zuckerberg: We're working with the Special Counsel from CNBC.

Zuckerberg further said he believes that at least one person at Facebook has been interviewed as part of Mueller's probe. He, however, noted that he has not personally sat down with the special counsel.

The Facebook founder's revelation came as he briefed Senate lawmakers on steps Facebook is taking to protect his social media platform users' from privacy breaches and the spread of misinformation.

Zuckerberg, who came under fire for his company's use and protection of user data in wake of a scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, discussed Facebook's response to the incident.

He further discussed how the social media company is responding to Russia interference in the 2016 election and how it's working to "be a force for good in democracy everywhere" by weeding out "fake news" and cyber threats.

Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller in May 2017 to serve as special counsel in an investigation into the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
BOSTON -- One day, former Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw was asked about an old mystery portrait that was hanging in the courthouse.

After an exhaustive search for the identity of the person in the painting, Shaw, the state's top judge from 1830 to 1860, was told, "No one could remember that justice's name," said Supreme Judicial Court Director of Education and Public Programs Cliff Allen.

In 2018, SJC Chief Justice Ralph Gants decided it was time to try to identify another unidentified portrait hanging in the John Adams Courthouse.

On Tuesday, after a public appeal and some forensic research, a name plaque was added to the portrait of that mystery justice: This time, it was Lemuel Shaw.

"I'd say 98 percent or higher, we've got the right guy here," said Trial Court Assistant Chief Court Officer Keith Downer, whose examination of the painting helped identify Shaw.

The story of the unidentified justice has brought renewed attention to a man who was once viewed as one of the most respected legal minds of his time, said Robert Brink, executive director of the Social Law Library.

Shaw was born in 1781 and grew up in Barnstable. He became a lawyer and was elected to the Massachusetts House and Senate for multiple terms between 1811 and 1829.

Shaw was appointed to the bench by Gov. Levi Lincoln in 1830. He served as chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court for 30 years, retiring in 1860. He died a year later.

Shaw's daughter married the famous author Herman Melville.

"Chief Justice Shaw was one of most important and influential justices in the U.S. during the formative period of American law," Brink said.

When Shaw took office, Brink said, there was no copyright or trademark law, and patent law was in its infancy. There were few negligence cases, and insurance law was used only for marine cases.

"It's doubtful anything in U.S. law was fundamentally settled," Brink said.

Brink helped shape the law, issuing 2,200 decisions and only one dissent during his 30 years on the bench. He wrote lengthy opinions in a grand style, but also knew how to speak clearly to a jury. (Unlike today, the chief justice at that time presided over jury trials.) He ruled in cases related to slavery and race.

Brink said Shaw was known to be austere and gruff. One lawyer joked he would bring his dog to court "so the chief justice could teach him how to growl."

Shaw's portrait was removed from the courthouse during a restoration and rehung in 2005. Since then, efforts had been made periodically to identify the justice, to no avail. In early February, Gants decided to appeal to the public. Gants said the court received inquiries from as far away as Australia.

"To be able to identify him as Lemuel Shaw is tribute to the industriousness of an enormous number of people," Gants said.

The court received 42 guesses suggesting 24 individuals. Shaw received the greatest number of guesses, with 10 people naming him.

Gants said one reason no one previously identified Shaw is the painting was of a young man, while most portraits of Shaw depict him later in life. "We know how he looked toward the end of his tenure," Gants said. "It seems quite remarkable that this gentleman is the same Lemuel Shaw we see in older portraits."

But, Gants joked, "If I were to stay in the job for 30 years as he did, perhaps I would understand how it would age you to a certain degree."

A break in the mystery came from Downer, a former Department of Correction investigator who also worked in antiques and who spent the last 25 years as a court officer. Downer had experience applying the techniques he learned to investigate crime scenes to art.

When a friend told him about the painting, he went to examine it. From the style of dress, Downer estimated that the painting was made between 1820 and 1840. He determined that it was removed from the original stretcher and put on a new piece of canvas. He used a UV light to examine the canvas, which allowed him to see things like multiple layers of paint that are not visible to the naked eye.

Using UV light and removing a back panel, Downer was able to identify script writing in pencil reading "LS" hidden under the new canvas.

Downer said he believes the portrait was painted around 1830, around the time Shaw was appointed to the court.

Allen, who has been working with the public tipsters to gather information about Shaw, said although Shaw has been identified, the mystery is not entirely solved.

The painting has no artist's signature. Although Allen and some scholars have educated guesses about the painter, Allen said, "The issue now is who painted Lemuel Shaw?"
State officials on Monday announced new money and new efforts to help victims of crime, particularly sexual assault.

Attorney General Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance announced the awarding of $65 million in federal grant money to pay for programs that offer free services for crime victims.

The new money comes amid efforts by women who were sexually assaulted to call attention to assault and as students who were affected by school shootings have formed an advocacy coalition for gun control.

Healey praised the efforts of both those groups at a Statehouse awards ceremony to honor individuals who advocate for the rights of crime victims, as she announced the new money to help crime survivors.

"For victims, we know the road to recovery can seem impossible," Healey said, adding that is important to give victims reasons to get help.

The money will go to 124 programs across Massachusetts that help victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, child abuse and other violent crimes. The programs will help victims get mental health support, legal help, housing assistance and financial support.

Healey will join the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance again on Thursday to announce the opening of a new victim assistance office for Western Massachusetts, based in Northampton.

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito used the event to announce that she plans to organize discussions around Massachusetts in April and May focusing on preventing sexual violence.

The discussions will bring together state government, nonprofits and experts. The goal will be to highlight ways that communities can combat sexual violence and determine what improvements are needed in different regions of the state.

According to Polito's office, the discussions aim to highlight successful strategies, foster collaboration among groups in each region, and identify needs specific to each community.

Polito said the goal is "to have meaningful dialogue and conversation about what we can do more to build out these safety nets all throughout our commonwealth, not just in some places but in every region."

Meanwhile, as the problem of sexual assault is gaining prominence both in Massachusetts and nationwide, students from 20 Massachusetts campuses are planning a rally Tuesday at the Statehouse to urge lawmakers to pass bills that would create a climate survey about sexual assault to be distributed on campuses across Massachusetts; require all colleges to have policies about sexual assault and dating violence; and maintain certain standards for responding to and reporting incidents.

"No student should ever lose their opportunity for an education due to sexual harassment, violence, or a college environment that allows these behaviors," said Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, who introduced one of the bills aimed at addressing sexual violence on campus.

The other bill was introduced by Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead.
Cities and towns buying the anti-overdose drug Narcan from a state bulk purchasing program are paying more after the fund that provided a state subsidy ran out.

Massachusetts officials are looking for ways to get more money to continue the subsidies.

The cost for Narcan spray, or naloxone, went up from $40 to $71 for a box with two doses. The cost of a syringe to administer the drug increased from $20 to $30.

"This is exactly the wrong time for the fund to run out of money," said state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, whose legislation helped create the fund. "This is the time we need to be dramatically ramping the program up."

The program was established in 2015 as a way for the state to buy naloxone in bulk, then pass the bulk discount on to municipal police officers and firefighters. The goal was to save cities and towns money and increase the use of Narcan, which can revive someone after a drug overdose.

In addition to the discount for buying in bulk, the state created a fund to provide additional subsidies to keep costs low.

The fund was started with $100,000 in state money. Attorney General Maura Healey then reached a $325,000 settlement with Narcan manufacturer Amphastar Pharmaceuticals over the company's price increases, and that money went into the fund.

But by the end of September 2017, the trust fund money had run out. On Oct. 1, the cost of naloxone bought through the purchasing program rose. Because municipalities buy in bulk, many had supply on hand, so it took time for them to feel the impact of the cost increases. But it is making a difference.

"With this increase, some first responders have reduced their purchasing habits as they navigate their budgets," Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel wrote in a report submitted March 26 to the Legislature.

The report notes that at the same time, there has been an increase in the need for naloxone because of the increasing presence of the dangerous drug fentanyl in illegal opioids.

The bulk price is still cheaper than the drug's price on the retail market, which is around $125 for a box with two doses.

Ann Scales, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said Massachusetts continues to invest in initiatives to improve access to naloxone for first responders. "The amount the state pays for naloxone through its Municipal Bulk Purchasing program and charges to cities and town has not changed, however, the temporary discount provided to cities and towns through the one-time settlement fund ended last year," Scales said.

Healey's office plans to provide another $47,000 in settlement funds, which could be used for further discounts. Healey's office has reached out to the business community and the Legislature asking for more money for the fund.

"The availability of Naloxone to first responders in our communities is a life or death issue. That's why our office worked with the Legislature to create the Naloxone Bulk Purchasing Trust Fund, which has helped provide tens of thousands of lifesaving doses," said Healey spokeswoman Emalie Gainey. "Our office is replenishing this critical fund with additional settlement money, and we call on others who want to support this work to consider making additional donations."

Both Lesser and Rep. Andy Vargas, D-Haverhill, plan to sponsor budget amendments to put more state money toward the fund.

"This is a real example of an absolute success of a state program that worked exactly as intended," Lesser said. "The price was brought down substantially."

Lesser and Vargas are both also trying to expand the program to allow social service agencies to access the cheaper naloxone, rather than just municipalities.

Vargas said his amendment will ask for approximately $300,000 in state money for the fund.

"For me in my district, it's not only a budget issue but a health issue, and it's a humane issue," Vargas said. "If we're serious about the opioid crisis, the least we can do is ensure we keep people alive until they're ready for treatment."

The House Ways and Means Committee plans to release its state budget proposal on Wednesday. "That could be one of the issues that we will be talking about," said House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop.

In fiscal 2017, the state received 285 orders for Narcan from 143 municipalities and a small number of school districts, sheriffs, district attorneys and state agencies.

Some of the largest orders came from Haverhill, Cambridge, Chelsea, Leominster, Worcester, Quincy, New Bedford, Brockton, Fall River and Saugus.

Lt. Sean Murtha of the Worcester Police Department said Worcester has been paying the higher rate for Narcan since January, although the purchases are funded through a grant from the state Department of Public Health. "Despite the jump in price, every officer will continue to carry Narcan," Murtha said.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump's national security adviser -- the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump's selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump's team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria's government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

.@POTUS Trump condemns the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. #Syria pic.twitter.com/qiEahlL3Ah  Department of State (@StateDept) April 9, 2018



Although Bolton didn't formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.



And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the "atrocious" chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn't speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.



Inevitably, Bolton's past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on "Fox and Friends" -- he said he would have opposed an authorization to use force in Syria.



"The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president's," Sanders replied.



Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton's influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall as the new national security adviser takes charge.



In Trump's reality-show-infused White House, it's become a truism that when a powerful aide departs -- like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary -- others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn't suffer fools quietly.



Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, the White House said National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton would be departing, a high-profile public face of national security team. The White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, but his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.



Although it's unclear whether Bolton will "clean house," two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.



In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.



Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, said individuals familiar with those conversations who weren't authorized to discuss them and requested anonymity.



Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as "to help the president get his program implemented." Bolton has been "preparing his whole life to be in this job," Gaffney said.



Yet in his 2007 book "Surrender is Not an Option," Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.



"Being on the White House staff was fun," Bolton wrote. "But I wanted 'line' responsibility -- to manage something and to change it, not simply to be 'staff,' even at the White House."



Bolton's start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump's second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster's exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.

By JOSH LEDERMAN and CATHERINE LUCEY, Associated Press
Massachusetts' two U.S. Senators -- Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey -- have voiced support for work being done in the Massachusetts Legislature to impose state-level net neutrality.

Warren and Markey did not endorse specific proposals, but both submitted letters to a state legislative committee supporting the concept of state action to maintain free and unfettered internet access.

"Now that the FCC has abandoned its commitment to protect fair and open internet access, it's up to citizens, federal elected officials, and state and local governments to defend net neutrality," Warren wrote in her testimony.

Net neutrality is the concept that an internet service provider must treat all internet content the same -- and cannot block or slow down particular content or websites. The Federal Communication Commission adopted net neutrality rules in 2015 but overturned them in 2017, under the new chairman, Ajit Pai, who was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump.

A special state Senate committee that was formed to examine the issue has recommended that Massachusetts implement a state-level net neutrality policy, which would bar internet service providers operating in Massachusetts from blocking or slowing down content.

The effort has garnered opposition from internet companies and the technology industry, whose members worry about a patchwork of regulations that they would have to comply with across the 50 states.

In addition to the Senate effort, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy held a hearing earlier this month on several bills that would establish state-level net neutrality. The committee has until Thursday to decide whether to recommend passing the legislation.

Versions of the net neutrality bills were sponsored by Sen. Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover, Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, Rep. Andy Vargas, D-Haverhill, and Rep. David Rogers, D-Cambridge.

Warren and Markey both submitted written testimony to the committee stressing the importance of net neutrality.

"Massachusetts has always been a leader in the search for the next great discovery," Warren wrote. "Fair, open access to the internet has helped jet-power those advances. It has also become essential to the way we live our lives."

Warren argued that government involvement in scientific discovery is as important today as when President John F. Kennedy committed government resources to put a man on the moon.

Warren praised a decision by Attorney General Maura Healey to join a lawsuit challenging the FCC's rollback of net neutrality policies. She also praised the Senate for convening its special committee.

"The internet doesn't belong to giant internet companies. It belongs to all of us," Warren wrote. "That's why all Americans should fight to oppose the FCC's rollback of net neutrality protections and work to restore net neutrality rules."

Markey cited the importance of the internet to Massachusetts, a state where he said technology underpins 34 percent of all jobs, whether in the tech sector or in other areas like finance or health care. "Net neutrality has been an essential element for the healthy operation of the internet since its inception," Markey wrote. "Our internet economy is thriving, and we shouldn't mess with it."

Like Warren, Markey criticized Pai for "gutting" federal net neutrality rules.

Markey said without net neutrality in Massachusetts, "There is nothing stopping broadband providers from blocking websites, slowing down competitors' content, or charging Bay State innovators and entrepreneurs more to reach their customers."

"It means that big broadband is in control, and consumers and job creators are left to fend for themselves," Markey wrote.

Markey introduced a resolution in Congress that would undo the FCC's actions and restore net neutrality. Although Markey can force a vote procedurally, the vote will be largely symbolic since the chances are slim that it will pass the Republican-controlled House and Senate, much less be signed into law by Trump.
due to county regulations, he says he was forced to spend roughly $40,000 in building permit fees and had to dedicate almost twice the amount of space on his lot to parking as he did to living space.

DAVID ERICKSON [email protected]

http://missoulian.com/news/local/developer-of-tiny-home-community-in-east-missoula-discusses-obstacles/article_5edb8aca-ab2e-5734-a4b3-3129ede39cad.html

***

State of the Community  Mayor Engen, UM President Bodnar and County Commissioner Strohmaier talk housing, other challenges at City Club Missoula http://www.matr.net/article-82260.html
New initiative to support and connect Montana-based tech companies announced.

Blackfoot, the owner and operator of the regions largest multi-gigabit network, announced the launch of its new open innovation lab today, called C2M beta http://www.c2mbeta.com . The first of its kind in the region, C2M beta will provide startup companies with access to Blackfoots technology infrastructure, expertise and its nearly 20,000 customers across 16 states, with the aim of jointly accelerating the delivery of products and services to the market.

"As part of Blackfoots Smart Growth strategy," said Jason Williams, CEO at Blackfoot, "we are continuing our decades-long commitment to deliver cutting-edge products and services to our customers. With the launch of C2M beta, we are now proactively partnering with startups to drive innovation, attract strategic partnerships and further support Montanas thriving tech economy."

Joe Fanguy is the founder of C2M beta and VP of Strategic Development at Blackfoot. "C2M beta will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and industry experts to quickly prototype solutions, and test them with real customers," said Fanguy. "To sweeten the opportunity, Blackfoot will support participants with its advanced broadband, wireless, cloud and data solutions as part of the open innovation experience."

Companies selected to participate in the program will work with Blackfoot over a six-month period, during which C2M beta will assemble a customized, multi-disciplinary team (including a coach) to support the startup, plus provide a combination of business, technical and project support, with a focus on lean startup and agile methodologies.

"We aspire pre-seed and seed stage startups to think broadly about this opportunity," added Fanguy. "C2M beta will initially focus on innovative solutions in healthcare, banking, telecommunications and media that leverage cloud, wireless, big data and analytics, IoT and AI technologies."

C2M beta is already in full recruitment mode for its 2018 cohort of startups.

Audience Awards, a Missoula-based tech company leveraging the cloud to provide "crowd sourced" marketing solutions to global brands, has accepted a slot in the inaugural C2M beta cohort. "As a growing tech startup," said Paige Williams, CEO and founder of Audience Awards, "the opportunity to jointly develop business with Blackfoot, receive feedback from their customers, and leverage their technology infrastructure and expertise will be a huge boost to our company."

Front Street Capital https://www.frontstreetcap.com/ , manager of the Tarkio Fund (ranked as the #1 performing midcap mutual fund in the U.S. over the last five years by Money Magazine), will also actively participate in the 2018 group by co-hosting quarterly Open Innovation Sessions with C2M beta and Blackfoot in Missoula. These invite-only conversations will focus on testing the culture and chemistry of the team, and gauging the fit of the business opportunity with C2M beta resources and Blackfoots network. "The philosophy of C2M beta aligns well with our focus on company management, specifically the principles of integrity, teamwork, passion, purpose and employee empowerment," said Russ Piazza, founder of Front Street Capital.

"We are thrilled to be working with Blackfoot to get this exciting initiative off the ground," added Jeremy Brown, development manager for Front Street Capital. "It will provide benefit to Front Streets growing portfolio of early stage investments, and the Montana tech ecosystem as a whole."

"C2M beta is not just a Missoula opportunity," said Fanguy, "but a partnership platform with reach across Blackfoots rapidly expanding service areas, both inside and outside of Montana."

Learn more about C2M beta at http://www.c2mbeta.com.

About Blackfoot: Blackfoot offers advanced communications solutions to customers throughout the region. Based in Missoula, Montana, Blackfoot serves homes and businesses in Montana and Eastern Idaho with voice, data, cloud and IT services. For more information, visit http://www.Backfoot.com.

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Montana Launches State-Wide Business Plan Competition With Up To $50,000 In Capital Investments  EarlyStageMT.org  Have you started your application yet? Do you know someone who should enter? http://www.matr.net/article-81922.html

All are invited  John Ruffatto Business Startup Challenge Live Pitch Event!  4/13  Missoula http://www.matr.net/article-82146.html
To better define the crisis, Strategies for Children has released a new policy brief  "ECE Workforce Needs: Local Solutions from Preschool Planning" http://www.strategiesforchildren.org/doc_research/ECEWorkforceBrief.pdf  thats written by Jenna Knight, an intern at Strategies and a student at Tufts Universitys Eliot-Pearson Child Study & Human Development program.

"One thing that stood out for me is how typical these workforce needs are across the state and nation, but the community-generated approaches such as the ones Ive highlighted come from a strengths-based lens," Knight says. "Empowering communities to collaborate, identify connections, and use approaches that work for their needs and for families being served is essential to making effective progress, particularly on ECE workforce needs."

by Alyssa Haywoode

Examining local workforce needs through the lens of preschool planning
Itsunori noted that Japan wants to strengthen partnership with Vietnam in an effort based on the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Minister Lich, for his part, expressed his belief that the visit will make positive contributions to enhancing the friendship and mutual understanding between the Vietnamese and Japanese people and armies, for the sake of peace and stability in the two countries as well as in the region and the world.

He said the maintenance of peace and stability, maritime and overflight freedom in line with law in the region is of significance.

On territorial disputes at sea, including the East Sea issue, both sides stressed that parties concerned need to exercise self-restraint, fully respect diplomatic and legal processes and peacefully settle disputes in line with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) while seriously abiding by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea towards formulating an effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

They expressed support for denuclearisation by peaceful means, constructive and practical actions to fully implement resolutions by the United Nations Security Council, contributing to maintaining peace, security and stability in the region and the world.

The two ministers spoke highly of thriving Vietnam  Japan ties in diverse areas, especially between the armies. They agreed to step up cooperation under signed agreements and enhance exchanges between the army services, joint work in search and rescue, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, response to disasters and cyber security. They consented to hold the sixth deputy ministerial-level strategic dialogue in Japan.

The Vietnamese minister suggested promoting army medical cooperation, including scientific training and research, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance and maritime security.

Vietnam is willing to welcome Japans self-defence vessels, he said.

Minister Lich also lauded Japans role in multilateral mechanisms and proposing initiatives to maintain peace and stability in the region, including the Vientiane Vision.

He added that as Vietnam will take the role of rotating Chair of ASEAN in 2020, when the 10th anniversary of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting mechanism is marked, he wished that Japan would support his country in assuming the role and hosting national defence conferences and activities on the occasion.

At the talks, host and guest signed a Joint Vision Statement on Vietnam  Japan Defence Relationship towards the next decade.

While in Japan, Minister Lich met Special Advisor to the Japanese PM Koya Nishikawa and received General Secretary of the Japan  Vietnam Friendship Society of Sakai city Kato Hitoshi, Director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation Yohei Sasakawa and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku. He also visited Vietnamese Embassy in Japan.

On the occasion, the Military Hospital 108 and Military Hospital 103 signed a cooperation agreement with the Juntendo University of Japan.
Under the co-chair of Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy and Secretary of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Preeti Saran, the event reviewed the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

They highlighted the fruitful development of the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in many fields, especially politics, defence-security, and economy-trade.

The two sides agreed to continue regularly maintaining all-level delegation exchanges via the channels of the Party, Government, State and legislature, as well as promoting people-to-people exchange.

The visits by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to India in early 2018 helped enhance political trust and open a new chapter in bilateral cooperation, they said.

Deputy FM Quy applauded India for successfully organising the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit.

The two sides pledged to effectively implement the Action Plan for the period of 2017-2020, thus promoting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in all areas of cooperation.

They agreed to foster collaboration in huge potential domains such as agriculture, health, oil and gas, renewable energy, education-training, culture-tourism, science-technology, and people-to-people exchange.

Preeti Saran expressed her joy at the strong growth of two-way trade in recent time, and agreed to hold the 4th Meeting of the Joint Sub-Commission on Trade in 2018 in Vietnam, which will set out measures to reach the US$15-billion trade goal by 2020.

Quy suggested the Indian side restrict trade barriers to Vietnams exports.

While sharing Vietnams opinions on international and regional issues of common concern, Preeti Saran hailed the role played by Vietnam in coordinating with the Indian side in organising the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit and the ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting.

With its role as the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations in 2015-2018, Vietnam is willing to serve as a bridge connecting India with other ASEAN member nations and promote all-around cooperation between the country and the bloc, Quy said.

The two sides committed to closely coordinating and supporting each other in multilateral forums, especially the UN.

The Vietnamese official spoke highly of Indias stance on recent East Sea-related issues, assuring that Vietnam is ready to work with India and other ASEAN countries to promote maritime security cooperation in regional forums in the coming time.

Both sides agreed to organise the next political consultation and strategic dialogue in Vietnam in 2019.

During his stay, Quy made a courtesy visit to Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who asked the two countries foreign ministries to effectively coordinate in holding the 16th Joint Commission meeting of foreign minister level in Vietnam in 2018.
The event, held jointly by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology, and the Vietnam Association for Intellectual Women, is organised in response to the World Intellectual Property Day 2018 on the theme of Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity.

The event also aims to raise public awareness of intellectual property, and the role of women in the formation and development of the creative community and economy.

A photo exhibition and thematic seminars on womens inventions and their role in innovation and creativity will be held as part of the event.

This years World Intellectual Property Day campaign celebrates the brilliance, ingenuity, curiosity, and courage of the women who are driving change in our world and shaping our common future.

World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on April 26. The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 2000 to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks, and designs impact on our daily life, and to celebrate creativity, and the contribution of creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe.

April 26 was chosen as the date for World Intellectual Property Day as it coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation entered into force in 1970.
Following the incident, which took place in Munster city on April 7, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed representative bodies of Vietnam in Germany to work closely with local authorities for updated information on the case. Under the direction, if any Vietnamese citizen is reported among the victims, citizen protection will be promptly underway.

On April 7, a mini-bus was driven at high speed into a crowd in the downtown of Munster city, leaving three people dead and more than 30 others injured.

Local police said that the driver killed himself with a gun.

According to State Minister of Internal Affairs Herbert Reul, the driver is believed to be a German national, 49, who was not an extremist and had mental issue. However, a terrorist attack was not ruled out. Security has been tightened in Munster and other cities.
The Palestinians have long been seen as an obstacle by Israels leaders; an irritant to be subjugated. Noam Chomsky commented:

Traditionally over the years, Israel has sought to crush any resistance to its programs of takeover of the parts of Palestine it regards as valuable, while eliminating any hope for the indigenous population to have a decent existence enjoying national rights.

He also noted:

The key feature of the occupation has always been humiliation: they [the Palestinians] must not be allowed to raise their heads. The basic principle, often openly expressed, is that the Araboushim  a term that belongs with nigger or kike  must understand who rules this land and who walks in it with head lowered and eyes averted. (Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, Pluto Press, updated edition, 1999, p.489)

Recent events encapsulate this all too well. On Friday, March 30, Israeli soldiers shot dead 14 Palestinians and wounded 1400, including 800 hit by live ammunition. By April 5, the death toll had risen to 21. During a second protest, one week later on Friday, April 7, the Israelis shot dead a further 10 Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, and more than 1300 were injured. Among those killed was Yasser Murtaja, a journalist who had been filming the protest. He had been wearing a distinctive blue protective vest marked PRESS in large capital letters. The brutality, and utter brazenness with which the killings were carried out, is yet another demonstration of the apartheid states contempt for the people it tried to ethnically cleanse in 1948, the year of Israels founding.

On the first day of the protest, on March 30, many Palestinians had gathered in Gaza, close to the border with Israel, as part of a peaceful Great March of Return protest demanding the right to reclaim ancestral homes in Israel. 100 Israeli snipers lay in wait, shooting at protesters, including an 18-year-old shot in the back while running away from the border. The Israel army boasted in a quickly-deleted tweet that the massacre had been planned, deliberate and premeditated:

Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed

BBC News and other mainstream news outlets, including the Guardian, carried headlines about clashes at the Gaza-Israel border leaving Palestinians dead and injured. As we noted via Twitter, an honest headline would have read:

Israeli troops kill 16 Palestinians and injure hundreds

When the Israelis shot dead yet more Palestinians on the second Friday of protests, the BBC reported, Deadly unrest on Gaza-Israel border as Palestinians resume protest. BBC impartiality meant not headlining Israeli troops as the agency responsible for the deadly unrest.

Adam Johnson, writing for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, observed of news reports carrying inappropriate headlines about clashes:

We do not have one partys snipers opening fire on another, unarmed party; we have violent clashesa term, as FAIR has noted before, that implies symmetry of forces and is often used to launder responsibility.

Later, the Guardian quietly removed the word clashes from its headlines, while adding Israeli military spin: that the protest was a Hamas ploy to carry out terror attacks; compare this early version with a later version.

On the first Friday of mass killing, we noted that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had reported the presence of Israeli snipers. We asked the public to look for any mention of this on BBC News. Around the time we made the request, the Newssniffer website picked up the first reference to snipers on the BBC News website (albeit buried in a tiny mention at the bottom of a news article). Coincidence? Or were BBC editors aware that their output was under public scrutiny?

Within just one day, the BBC had relegated the news of the mass shootings in Gaza to a minor slot on its website. It considered news about television personality Dec presenting Saturday Night Takeaway without Ant, and royal couple Harry and Meghan choosing wedding flowers, more important than Israel killing and wounding many hundreds of Palestinians.

When BBC News finally turned to Gaza, with a piece buried at the bottom of its World news page, it was from Israels perspective:

Israel warns it could strike inside Gaza

and:

Palestinian groups using protests as a cover to launch attacks on Israel

This disgraceful coverage strongly suggested that Israel was the victim. As political analyst Charles Shoebridge observed:

Editors especially at the BBC arent stupid, they know exactly what theyre doing, and the use of very many devices such as this isnt somehow repeatedly accidental. Indeed, its a good example of how the BBC is perhaps historys most sophisticated and successful propaganda tool.

By contrast, a powerful article in Haaretz from veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy pointed to the reality that the mass shooting by Israeli Defence Forces:

shows once again that the killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes.

The Silence of Liberal Interventionists

Last year, Jeremy Corbyn was hounded by mainstream media jounalists, demanding that he condemn acts of violence by the socialist government in Venezuela. But there was no corporate media campaign calling upon Theresa May to denounce much worse Israeli violence. The same media that devoted sustained, in-depth coverage of Spanish police brutality during the Catalan independence referendum swiftly relegated Israels mass murder to other news.

Imagine if Russian or Syrian troops had shot dead almost 30 civilians, and injured well over 1000, during peaceful protests. MSM headlines and airwaves would be filled with condemnations from senior UK politicians and prominent commentators. But not so when it is Israel doing the killing.

We tweeted:

Twitter task for today: think of any of the famously impassioned, outraged humanitarian interventionists in the Guardian, The Times, the Observer and so on, and check how much theyve tweeted about the mass killings and woundings in Gaza. Go ahead, try it.

Examples were glaring by their absence.

Writing for The Intercept, journalist Mehdi Hasan asked rhetorically:

Where is the moral outrage from former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, the famously pro-intervention, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a A Problem From Hell, which lamented U.S. inaction in Rwanda []? Where is the demand from Canadian academic-turned-politician Michael Ignatieff, who was once one of the loudest voices in favor of the so-called responsibility to protect doctrine, for peacekeeping troops to be deployed to the Occupied Territories? Where are the righteously angry op-eds from Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, or Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, or David Aaronovitch of The Times of London, demanding concrete action against the human rights abusers of the IDF?

Hasan concluded:

The ongoing and glaring refusal of liberal interventionists in the West to say even a word about the need to protect occupied Palestinians from state-sponsored violence is a reminder of just how morally bankrupt and cynically hypocritical the whole liberal intervention shtick is.

Global realpolitik was highlighted yet again when the US government blocked a vote at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council calling for an international investigation into the mass shooting of civilians by Israeli troops on March 30. The US repeated its block a week later after the second wave of Israeli killing. We have found no coverage in the UK mainstream media of the US blocking a UN investigation. In other words, Israel can act with impunity when committing grievous crimes against humanity, backed to the hilt by its biggest sponsor in Washington.

Weaponising Antisemitism Against Corbyn

Meanwhile, the MSM was continuing to deploy charges of alleged antisemitism against Corbyn-led Labour; and, seen in a wider political context, against realistic hopes of even moderately progressive changes to UK government policy.

A Facebook comment made in 2012 by Corbyn about a mural depicting Jewish and non-Jewish bankers was unearthed and used to mount a remarkable barrage of vehement media attacks. BBC News took its lead from the obviously right-wing, anti-Corbyn agenda across the spectrum of the countrys free press.

The attacks continued with a vicious front-page exclusive in the extreme right-wing Sunday Times:

Exposed: Corbyns hate factory

The article, based on a trawl of Facebook posts, painted a hugely exaggerated picture of racism, violent threats and abuse by leaders fan base. Alex Nunns, author of The Candidate, a book about Corbyns improbable path to power, pointed out the absurdly cynical nature of this Murdoch journalism. Nunns undertook his own Facebook search for posts by Conservatives and quickly discovered examples of misogyny, abuse, an implied threat of violence and implicit racism. The Tory Facebook page he found:

appears to have links to The Bruges Group, which in turn has links to leading Conservative politicians including Iain Duncan Smith. Headline: EXPOSED: Iain Duncan Smiths hate factory. See how this is done?

Guardian columnist Owen Jones picked up Nunns tweets and pointed out in a live BBC interview:

Why has there been no coverage of the despicable racism and abuse found in Conservative Facebook groups?

The BBC news presenter replied:

Because Labour is the story at the moment.

That the MSM, including the BBC, had made Labour the story at the moment was simply not worthy of comment by corporate journalists or, perhaps, permissible thought.

Shamefully, the BBC published a big splash based on the Sunday Times article on Jeremy Corbyns hate factory. The BBC piece was almost gleeful in saying that there was no let up for Labour:

With negative stories on the front pages of at least four newspapers, this is not a happy Easter Sunday for Labour.

In other words, as it so often does, the BBC was following the lead of the right-wing, anti-Corbyn mainstream press. The onslaught of news linking Corbyn to antisemitism continued with an account of how Corbyn had attended a left wing Jewish event organised by Jewdas. The BBC stated:

Jewdas, which describes itself as a radical and alternative Jewish collective, is at odds with mainstream Jewish groups over allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour.

Three of the principal pro-Israel bodies in the UK, the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement, criticised Corbyn for attending the event. The BBC reported:

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: If Jeremy Corbyn goes to their event, how can we take his stated commitment to be an ally against anti-Semitism seriously?

The BBC not only ran with this latest story linking Corbyn to antisemitism, but promoted it as the lead item on the BBC News website.

However, there is nothing that says we must allow BBC News to determine what is mainstream and what is not. And, in particular, when it comes to the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement, journalist Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada notes:

Their primary function is to lobby for Israel, an institutionally racist, apartheid state.

A measure of the Jewish Board of Deputies staunch pro-Israel stance can be seen from the tweet they sent in the wake of the brutal Israeli killings in the first Friday border protest:

Alarming developments at Gaza border as Hamas once again using its civilians  inc children  as pawns.

The lack of condemnation from mainstream voices in politics and the media to such a disgraceful message reveals widespread deep fear of being accused of antisemitism. This fear, used to constrain reasoned debate, needs to be seen in a broader historical context. In 2002, former Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni explained the rationale behind the charge of antisemitism:

Well, its a trick  we always use it. When from Europe somebodys criticising Israel then we bring up the Holocaust.

And it works. Professor Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group related that he was once told by a senior BBC News editor:

The BBC waits in fear for the telephone call from the Israelis.

None of the above is to deny that there is a significant problem of antisemitism in British politics, or in wider British society. But, as the group Jews for Justice for Palestinians notes, the facts are that:

Levels of antisemitism among those on the left-wing of the political spectrum, including the far-left, are indistinguishable from those found in the general population.

Moreover, antisemitism has decreased in Labour under Corbyn, and public polling indicates that it is more prevalent among Conservative and UKIP members than among Labour and Liberal members. Indeed, there is ample evidence of an extraordinary scale of Tory racism and abuse.

In summary, then, here is the horrible irony of recent coverage on Israel and antisemitism: the corporate media continued to headline Corbyns antisemitism crisis  supposedly triggered by a comment about a mural in 2012  while quickly relegating Israels massacres of civilian Palestinians to other news at the bottom of the page and running order.

The truth is that the deadliest racism today is indicated by the casual way in which the West and its allies rain violence down on countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. Although human rights are typically used as a pretext, the real goal is control of natural resources and the global economy; the tears of compassion evaporate the instant that an Official Enemy obstructing Western control has been overthrown. As Chomsky has noted, this is actually closer to a kind of speciesism than racism:

Namely, knowing that you are massacring them but not doing so intentionally because you dont regard them as worthy of concern. That is, you dont even care enough about them to intend to kill them. Thus when I walk down the street, if I stop to think about it I know Ill probably kill lots of ants, but I dont intend to kill them, because in my mind they do not even rise to the level where it matters. There are many such examples. To take one of the very minor ones, when [President Bill] Clinton bombed the al-Shifa pharmaceutical facility in Sudan, he and the other perpetrators surely knew that the bombing would kill civilians (tens of thousands, apparently). But Clinton and associates did not intend to kill them, because by the standards of Western liberal humanitarian racism, they are no more significant than ants. Same in the case of tens of millions of others.

A further example, as we have seen, are the yawns of indifference from the corporate media as hundreds of civilian protestors  Palestinian mosquitoes  are gunned down by Israeli snipers.

DC & DE
Low cost carrier Vietjet Air said it plans to increase flights to serve the expected rise in demand from passengers during the holidays.

The airline will add 200 flights, with 46,000 seats, to domestic popular tourism destinations such as Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Da Nang, and Da Lat, and international destinations, including the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) and Thailand.

Jetstar Pacific will also raise an additional 20 flights per day to serve the growing demand, an increase of 20% from the same period last year.

The two carriers said they have ensured sufficient ground services and flight crews for the holidays.

Meanwhile, the Hanoi Railway Transport JSC said it will add 29 passenger trains and offers 15,172 tickets, including 6,804 sleeper tickets and 8.368 seater tickets.

Eight trains will be added to serve the Hanoi  Vinh route from April 24-28, and another eight for the Vinh  Hanoi route from April 30  May 1, with 4,652 tickets each way.

Two additional trains will be added for each way, from Hanoi to Da Nang and vice versa, with 844 tickets.

Two more will be deployed to serve the Hanoi  Dong Hoi route on April 27 with 788 tickets, while an additional three will be launched for Dong Hoi  Hanoi route from April 30  May 1, with 1,182 tickets.

Similarly, two additional passenger trains will serve the Hanoi  Thanh Hoa route with 906 tickets and three for the Thanh Hoa  Hanoi route with 1,018 tickets.

The company also plans to launch additional 27 trains from Saigon to Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon and vice versa from April 26 to May 1, with around 13,000 tickets, of which 17 trains will serve the Ho Chi Minh City  Nha Trang route, each way.

Discounts of 5-7% of normal prices will be offered for groups of 20 or more and their tour guides from May 24 to August 12.
Approximately 20,000 Palestinians participated in a rally in five locations along the border between the eastern part of the Gaza Strip and Israel. It was the second largest march in the six-week-long protest of the Palestinians aimed at Israel, demanding fundamental and legitimate rights, including the right to return to their homeland. The rally became violent when the Palestinian demonstrators threw stones at the Israeli soldiers, leading to clashes between the two sides. Nine Palestinians were killed during the conflict, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths from the two weeks of frontier protests to nearly 30 and thousands of people have been wounded.

The first day of the demonstration marked Palestines Land Day as 42 years ago, the Israeli government ordered the expropriation of the land in Galilee and Negev, resulting in large-scale protests by the Palestinians in Israel. The current Palestinian marches are planned to last until the new headquarters of the US Embassy in Israel is inaugurated in Jerusalem this May 14. The rally aims to demonstrate the Palestinians fierce opposition to US President Donald Trumps omission of Palestines territorial claims over Jerusalem and his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The eastern part of the holy sanctuary is considered by the Palestinians as the capital of an independent Palestinian state in the future, therefore they are willing to fight to the end for that purpose. The demonstrations are also due to conclude on May 15 (Nakba or Catastrophe Day), marking the event in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their home during the war between the Palestinians and the newly established Israeli State in May 1948.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)s envoy to the US Husam Zomlot criticised the US administrations silence without any appropriate response to Israels use of force aimed at the Palestinians. In fact, Palestine has denied the mediate role of the US in the conflict since President Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The PLO has warned that the tension in the Gaza Strip could possibly explode at any time. Given the worsening developments in Gaza, Kuwait has continued to send notifications urging the United Nations (UN) Security Councils to promptly intervene in order to stabilise the situation. The move took place as the UN Security Council had earlier failed to reach a final statement on the violence that has left many dead and injured in Gaza, because the representative of the US, which has the right to veto at the UN Security Council, rejected the draft statement.

The UN, the European Union (EU) and many countries in the region have condemned the military actions of the Israeli forces against the Palestinians and called on the two sides to restrain from further violence. The violence in Gaza has also triggered a quarrel between Israel and Turkey. The quarrel broke out after the Israeli Minister of Public Security announced that the agreement on the normalisation of relations between Israel and Turkey signed in 2016 might be a mistake. The Israeli officials condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an anti-Semite after he criticised Israels shooting dead of many Palestinian demonstrators. The Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using disproportionate forces against the Palestinians participating in peaceful protests.

The past few days have become the bloodiest period in the Israel-Palestine conflict since the 2014 war. Violence in Gaza, if not stopped, will continue to get worse and threaten the whole region.
Jack Ma (R), founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, talks with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 9, 2018. They are here to attend the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

Trade is about respecting other cultures and nobody can stop globalization, Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group said on Monday at the Boao Forum for Asia in Chinas southern Hainan Province.

Globalization is great thing, but over the past forty or thirty years, its not inclusive enough. Developing countries, young people and small businesses do not benefit from that, Ma made the comment at a dinner with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

As a businessman, Ma expressed his concerns over the recent trade tensions between China and the US. As the two biggest economies in the world, China and America definitely have problems, but it does not necessarily have to lead to a trade war, according to Ma.

I dont think trade deficit is a problem In the past twenty or thirty years, through trade, China made revenue and America made profit, said Ma.

About jobs, last quarter, American unemployment was 4.1 percent, at historical low. There are about 6 million jobs waiting for Americans, he said.

If China and US have good relationship, we can not only make 1 million (jobs), we can make 10 million or 20 million jobs for both countries. If they have no good relationship, were going to destroy 10 million jobs, said Ma.

Last year, Ma promised to create 1 million jobs by supporting small US businesses in selling to China and the rest of Asia through Alibabas network.

Lagarde: Trade based on rules

While attending the dinner with Ma, Lagarde also called for taking advantage of trade and solving disputes through the established rules, and she warned of the temptation of protectionism.

Trade must be according to the rules that the players are giving to themselves. So there is WTO which has provided [rules] for multilateral trade, She stressed.

When there is allegation of dumping and unfair trade practices that contravene the rules, there is mechanism in the rules that is called dispute resolution mechanism that needs to be used, said Lagarde.

As trade is picking up again more than current growth, lets take advantage of it, said Lagarde.

Trade has been a major factor in reducing extreme poverty, in bringing people out of poverty, and in spreading innovation, said Lagarde.

Back in the mid-1980s, the number of people in extreme poverty was about 90 percent. In 1990, the number went down to about 37 percent of total population. Todays number is around 10 percent, according to Lagarde.

If we want to have reduction of poverty, improved productivity and more growth, we need to have trade, said Lagarde.

We cannot deny that around the world, there are some regions and some industries that have been affected by trade. They have partly affected by trade and predominately affected by technology. But for those people and regions seriously affected, measures have to be taken, whether by way of readjusting them, retraining them, and giving them support, said Lagarde.

She stressed that trade should be conducted under the terms which are predicable, based on the rules, and which do not disadvantage those people who will be displaced, will lose their job, but need to be given another one.

A global economic recovery has really taken root, and about 120 countries around the world are expected to grow 3.9 percent this and next year, with the numbers close to the pre-financial crisis level, according to Lagarde.

Although the sun is shining, we have to look at the clouds on the horizon. One is protectionism temptation, said Lagarde.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Page 1

Judge Czuleger to Teach in Albania Under Fulbright Specialist Grant

By a MetNews Staff Writer

STEPHEN J. CZULEGER Superior Court Judge

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger will teach in Albania next month under the Fulbright Specialist Program, it will be announced today by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

According to the announcement:

Judge Czuleger will complete a project at University Aleksander Moisiu and School of Magistrates in Albania that aims to support the next generation of Albanias justice system through presentations to undergraduate and graduate law students, as well as Albanian Judges, to advance their analysis of the foundational principles of international law and through meetings and discussions with Albanian faculty, judges and prosecutors.

It explains:

Recipients of Fulbright Specialist awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership in their field, and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.

Czuleger, a past presiding judge of his court, taught in Albania at Tirana University under the Fulbright program in 2014.

He was first introduced to Albania in 2011 when he and his wife, mystery writer Rebecca Forster, visited one of their two sons, Eric Czuleger, who was a Peace Corps volunteer there, teaching English. This will be Czulegers fourth visit to the nation, located on the Balkan Peninsula.

Copyright 2018, Metropolitan News Company
Forum pushes for inclusive growth in Asia to reverse tide

Asian officials and experts pushed back against rising protectionism in the US at the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in South China's Hainan Province, arguing such anti-free trade sentiment could damage Asian and global economies.

Coming at a time when China and the US are locked in a tit-for-tat trade spat that many believe could escalate into a trade war, the BFA called for further integration among Asian economies to reverse the rising protectionist tide and ensure long-term growth.

A trade war between China and the US would hurt the global economy, Atul Dalakoti, Executive China Director, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the BFA on Sunday.

"Many developed countries believe that trade protectionism is the best way to [address a sluggish economy], which is one-sided and, of course, wrong," he said, adding that the US and its people have benefited from international free trade, and "we now need to negotiate with [those Western countries]."

China-US trade frictions will also affect Asian economies, Fan Gang, director of China's National Economic Research Institute, said at a panel discussion on Monday.

"Asian countries are located in the same industrial chain, and China's exports to the US are made from raw materials and parts sourced from other Asian economies like South Korea's panels and Malaysian parts," he explained. "Asia is connected as a whole and China-US trade frictions would affect Asia's supply chain."

Beyond Asia, China's trade surplus is also a crucial part of the global trade surplus, as US, Japanese and EU companies, such as Apple, General Motors and Boeing, in the Chinese market have also contributed to China's trade surplus, said Zhang Yansheng, a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchange.

"There is no way out for trade protectionism! The US economy has problems, but the Trump administration is giving a wrong prescription," Zhou Wenzhong, BFA secretary-general, said at a press briefing on Sunday in Boao.

"Asia's economy comprises approximately 40% of the world's total, and contributes nearly one-third to global economic growth. However, given that anti-globalization and trade protectionism are on the rise, Asia's economy might be losing its momentum. We need to review the past and discuss prospects for openness and innovation in Asia," Zhou said.

Crunch time

In a report on integration released on Sunday, the BFA called for measures to complete negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade pact to "reverse the anti-globalization trend and push for faster growth for the Asian economy."

At the forum on Monday, experts also called on China and the US to resolve their trade disputes through negotiations and resume cooperation.

"For the sake of the world, the two countries should focus on cooperation," Zhang said.

"The next two or three months will be a period of intense negotiations, because almost all the tariffs [the US and China have announced] are expected to take effect in late May," Kent Calder, Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told reporters at the BFA on Sunday.

He noted that negotiations would not lead to a destructive trade war. "US President Donald Trump is a risk-taker because of his business background as a property developer, but this is not saying he is an irresponsible person," he stressed.

But Lin Guijin, vice president of the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics, said if the US does not change its consumption structure, its huge trade deficit with other countries, including China, would still exist. "Trump's policy is imposing tariffs on Americans, and they are paying more for imported goods," he said at a press briefing on Sunday.
Rampant illegal online content requires harsher penalties: analysts

Four popular Chinese news apps were reportedly removed from online stores, but observers said law enforcement efforts are far from enough and should be further enhanced because of rampant illegal online products.

"In order to regulate the dissemination of information, internet application stores should suspend downloading access to the four apps Toutiao, Phoenix News, NetEase News and Tiantian Kuaibao," Southern Weekly reported on Monday, citing information obtained from application platforms.

The report did not specify which kind of content in the apps was deemed in violation of regulations.

The report said downloading access to the four apps will be suspended starting Monday. The suspension will last three weeks for Toutiao, two weeks for Phoenix News, one week for NetEase News and three days for Tiantian Kuaibao.

The official versions of the four apps are available for download on the iOS app store as of press time, but could not be found on the app store for Android smartphones. However, versions developed by the same companies are still available for download, such as Toutiao Jisuban and Tiantian Kuaibao Daziban.

The platforms did not provide detailed information when reached by the Global Times.

Complaints about the heavy advertising, fake news and vulgar content of apps have been rising in recent years.

"Some news portals are running without qualifications, and have been publishing fake news or news that contains wrong political information, which could easily mislead people, especially the young and elderly," Wang Sixin, a law professor at the Beijing-based Communication University of China, told Global Times on Monday.

To better regulate the market, government regulators should strengthen law enforcement and impose harsher penalties on news platforms that publish illegal content, Wang suggested.

Wang also noted that effective communication between news portals and the government should be conducted and the public should be encouraged to provide information on illegal content on online products.

The Cyber Administration of China on Wednesday ordered Huoshan, a livestreaming site run by Toutiao, to make changes to its practices.

The agency accused it of allowing minors to spread harmful content, Xinhua News Agency reported, which did not specify the nature of the forbidden content.

Since March, 70 online applications suspected of involvement in pornography or gambling have been taken down, Xinhua reported.

China has launched three campaigns against illicit cultural content to foster a "positive" and "healthy" cultural environment.

A cyberspace regulation campaign will target pornographic content on mobile applications, live-streaming platforms, online games, chat groups, and pop-up ads, Xinhua reported on Monday.
China and Japan should work with commitment and a long-term vision to create a favorable atmosphere for high-level exchanges between the two countries and put the bilateral relationship back on the track of steady development, Premier Li Keqiang said.

Li made the remark as he met with the visiting delegation of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday afternoon. The delegation was led by Yohei Kono, president of the association and former speaker of the Japanese House of Representatives.

"Signs of improvement have been seen in China-Japan relations lately and interactions between the two countries have also increased, which is a good thing. Yet we should also note that relations between our two countries still face challenges," Li said.

Saying that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China, Li said the two countries should cherish the current momentum of development in bilateral ties, and he urged Japan to work with China to meet each other halfway.

It is important for both countries to honor the spirit and the agreements reached in the four key China-Japan political documents while looking at the interests of both countries so as to move Sino-Japanese ties in the right direction, he said.

China will support and safeguard multilateral trade and advocate facilitated investment and liberal trade against the backdrop of the complicated and changing international context, Li said. He added that China will press ahead with reform and open its door even wider, and lend more efforts to maintaining steady and improving economic growth.

China welcomes investors from overseas, including Japan, to invest in China and jointly create new opportunities for development, the premier said.

Kono told Li as this year also marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, industrial and commercial circles in Japan look forward to seeing continued improvement in Sino-Japanese ties, and Japan is willing to contribute to friendly bilateral relations. He added that they expect Li to make an official visit to Japan.
Lei Haiwei

A 37-year-old fast food courier from Central China's Hunan province was crowned champion in a televised Chinese poetry knowledge contest, winning fans over with his true love for ancient poems.

Lei Haiwei beat other competitors, including a master's degree graduate from the prestigious Peking University, in the third season of the Chinese Poetry Conference on China Central Television on April 4.

"My interest in ancient poems began as early as I was six years old," Lei said after winning the competition.

Born in a village of Dongkou county, Shaoyang city, Lei inherited his father Lei Changgen's love of poems. The elder Lei put poetry on the kitchen wall for his son to read throughout childhood.

"My father hoped I would grow up to be a man who keeps the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas in mind," the courier said.

"My son showed great interest in Chinese culture when he was a child. Every time I told him the stories behind each poem, he was totally absorbed," Lei Changgen said.

In the father's small house, there is a four-story bookshelf, the top of which is filled with poetry books. "My son bought most of them. He was keen on reading poems," Lei Changgen said.

In 2001, the younger Lei graduated from a technical secondary school and found a job in Shanghai.

During his stay there, Lei was fascinated by a poem titled Xia Ke Xing, which appeared on a martial arts TV drama. The poem's author was the noted poet Li Bai, who lived in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

This reignited Lei's love for poems.

Lei began to read books related to ancient poems at bookstores or libraries in his spare time, since the wages he earned were not high enough for him to buy many. The young man also developed a habit of reciting poems he liked, writing down them after returning home.

Though Li came to Hangzhou city in 2008 and works as a fast food courier, his love for poems hasn't faded.

On his busiest work days, the courier has to deliver more than 50 orders a day, earning up to 9,000 yuan ($1,429) a month. Even so, he seized any available moment to recite poems. "For example, I am used to reciting poems when I wait for food at restaurants, and traffic lights on my way to deliver food. Reciting poems not only enriches my knowledge, but also makes my job less boring," the courier said.

As for his future plans, the courier said he will stick to reading and reciting poems.
As the US mourns the 17 dead victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, gun advocates are offering a new idea to stop school shootings: arm the teachers. The idea might seem novel to some, the suggestion is probably not the best idea due to fact that people can be imperfect and untrustworthy.

While it initially makes sense to have increased security to protect innocent school children, providing teachers with firearms would be disastrous due to the possibility of teacher negligence and the US history of sexual abuse in schools.

Individuals in favor of providing firearms to teachers typically assume that once trained, a teacher will be able to handle a firearm with relative ease. However, that is not the case as even trained professionals can mishandle guns from time to time.

This notion came to the US attention when Dennis Alexander, a teacher, Seaside City council member, and reserve police officer, accidentally discharged a gun while he was teaching a public safety class in March. Alexanders mishap caused the injury of a male student when a piece of debris, caused by the shot, cut open the students neck.

According to the Washington Post, the students wounds were nonfatal, and Alexander continued his lesson without even notifying the students parents.

The fact is Alexander, a trained professional and reserve police officer, still managed to mishandle his pistol and caused an injury to a child. If thousands of teachers are given pistols  it would only be a matter of time until another student is hurt or even killed by accident.

An increase of trained gun holders in schools is not a sure bet for increased safety either, since its now well known that Stoneman Douglas High School had armed security on campus during the shooting. Former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, according to security footage, stayed outside the school during the entire incident and failed to save anyone from harm.

If a veteran sheriff cannot be trusted to protect students in a shooting incident, how will inexperienced teachers react?

Furthermore, the US school system has received massive attention for the amount of sexual abuse that goes on between students and teachers. In 2014, there were 781 reported cases of sexual abuse involving a student and a school employee.

Now, imagine how much sexual abuse could occur if students were further intimidated by teachers since theyre now armed with guns. Situations dealing with sexual abuse become much more complex when guns become involved.

There is also the notion that sometimes teachers just exhibit bad behavior and adding a firearm to the situation would just make matters worse. This exact scenario recently happened in February, when a Dalton High School teacher lost his temper during school hours and fired a shot from his handgun through a window.

The teacher, Randal Davidson, eventually surrendered and no one was hurt, except a student who injured her ankle while running through the school.

While the true reason behind Davidsons outburst is being investigated, the truth is that sometimes, teachers can make bad decisions. Just because a person gets certified to teach, doesnt mean that theyre perfect.

Yet the question remains  why does the US have a high instance of gun violence when compared to other developed nations such as China? According to a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the US had 3.85 deaths due to gun violence per 100,000 people in 2016 compared to Chinas .06.

One possible explanation is that China has much heavier regulations for firearms compared to the US lax laws. China also has much stricter punishments for illegal gun possession, with death being the maximum punishment.

The bottom line is that teachers are flawed people  they can react poorly to a situation, they can be manipulated, they can cause accidents, and they can sometimes take advantage of others in the worst way possible. Arming teachers will only amplify problems already present in US schools and it will only increase student victimization.
Beijing (People's Daily) - Before his departure to the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is visiting China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, had an exclusive interview with Peoples Daily on Monday.

Guterres said he was impressed with Xis comments about securing people's sense of fulfilment in both domestic and global governance. He said the claim of building a community with a shared future for mankind, pioneered by Xi, is an important contribution to the world.

Guterres also said that the UN is undergoing reforms to improve work efficiency to better serve the people around the world.

Peace and development are the two major goals for the UN and achieving development and spreading peace are the fundamental roots for overcoming global challenges. During the 70th Anniversary Summit of the UN in 2015, Xi announced the establishment of China-UN Peace and Development fund to support the development of multilateralism. The fund sponsored and helped multiple departments of the UN on dozens of projects.

Guterres praised Chinas partnership with the UN, saying that China is the backbone of multilateralism since the country actively participates in global development and cooperation, while also working to explore and solve global challenges with the international community for the global governance mechanism.

Guterres also said he was happy to participate in the 2017 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. He said the summit was an effective way for China to discuss the challenges of globalization. He said the Belt and Road policies are bringing peace to the region and that he looks forward to the expansion of cooperation between the UN and China in the future.

With 2,400 active peacekeepers in dangerous areas around the world and an additional 8,000 standby peacekeepers in its ranks, China is the largest troop contributor to the UN and its second largest provider of funds.

When it comes to China participating in UN peacekeeping operations, Guterres said he remembers every detail clearly. Guterres said the UNs peacekeeper troops in their stylized blue helmets create a recognizable image for the organization. Guterres said he appreciates the fact that China is committed to supporting the UNs peacekeeping efforts and its actions on strengthening global peacekeeping operations.

At the 70th UN General Assembly on September 28, 2015, Xi made the solemn pledge that China will join the new UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System and form an 8,000-member standby peacekeeping force. China has since honored its commitments.

During Guterress first official visit to China as UN Secretary-General, he was able to visit Chinas peacekeeping force training center, which is the largest of its kind in Asia. It was regarded by Guterres as a showcase of Chinas contribution to world peace. He also believes that China will play a leading role in the UNs peacekeeping system in the future.

As several international issues  such as the Korean Peninsula, Syrian crisis, the war in Afghanistan  are hot topics in the news, people are also starting to see the positive influence that China has on international and local issues. China recently played a key role in starting talks for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula when the country hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in March.

Guterres said China is important for peaceful talks between North and South Korea and will play a major role going forward. Guterres said that China was irreplaceable in these peace talks, and that war would have happened if a similar issue happened elsewhere in areas like the Southern Pacific or Africa.

Guterres made his first visit to China in 1984 and made several more visits through the years under different positions.

He witnessed the dramatic changes that China went through after practicing Reform and Opening-up policies for 40 years.

As the former head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guterres said the Chinese government has helped millions of people by eradicating poverty. He said the sheer size of poverty alleviation was impressive and unique.

Today, China is about to start a historic undertaking as it aims to promote a fully open economy with a broader view, a higher requirement, and more powerful actions.

Guterres said he expects to hear Chinas new reform and innovation measures to the world and how the countrys development and improvement will benefit its people during Xis keynote speech at the Boao Forum.

As China play a role of growing importance in the world, its people are also becoming concerned for issues including climate change, wildlife protection, and humanitarian actions. Guterres said he is glad to see Chinas youth becoming involved in these issues.

To show his support for Chinese culture, Guterres attended a Beijing Opera during his visit. He said one of Chinas most unique aspects is its ability to absorb positive characteristics from other nations and cultures to make itself better through this integration.

Guterres said the positivity of Chinese culture is worth learning for the entire world, since they can learn the importance of peace, communication and mutual understanding from them.

These traits are especially important in modern times, as global communities are facing more and more challenges, he noted.

Related: Op-ed: 2018 Boao Forum sets new starting line for peaceful development, win-win cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), and attend a host of other activities during the four-day forum scheduled to open on April 8 in Boao, a coastal town in the southern island province of Hainan.

Related: World sets sight on Boao forum for fresh impetus of globalization

In a world troubled by grave uncertainties over growing protectionism, China is highly expected to inject new vitality into globalization and free trade.
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expected to meet Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in May or early June.

"We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June, and I think there will be great respect paid by both parties," he told a cabinet meeting, saying that he hoped the two sides would be able to make a deal on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump also said the U.S. side has been in touch with the DPRK.

The White House host said "hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years ago," referring to the U.S. confrontation relations with the DPRK.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula has thawed in recent months. In March, Trump and Kim agreed to meet, but the exact timing and place of the high-profile gathering have not been announced yet.

Seoul and Pyongyang have agreed to hold a summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
LIVONIA, MI - More than 70 businesses and companies from across Michigan are looking to hire new employees during Schoolcraft College's Spring Job Fair on Thursday.

The Spring Job Fair is from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 12 at the VisTaTech Center, 18600 Haggerty Road, located on the Schoolcraft College main campus in Livonia. It is free and open to the public, with parking available in the nearby north parking lot.

Anywhere from 300 to 600 job seekers are expected to attend, said JoAnne Stadnicar, career services coordinator at Schoolcraft College, a community college in southeast Michigan.

Jobs up for grabs cover industries like customer service, hospitality, public safety, education, healthcare and technology.

"Our goal with this job fair is we try to get a wide variety of employers and jobs to apply for the widest range of job seekers," Stadnicar said.

There are 78 confirmed employers from Kroger to the Michigan Department of Corrections and the U.S. Secret Service, which Stadnicar said is not just searching for bodyguards.

"They don't just hire law enforcement people; they also hire staff in the areas of business and accounting and IT," Stadnicar said. "The recruiter there isn't just looking for Secret Service agents who are going to guard a public official."

Detroit Public Schools Community District is also on the list, Stadnicar said, and seeking to hire both support staff and teachers.

Employers must fulfill certain criteria to be part of Schoolcraft's biannual job fairs, she added, like offering full or part-time positions that are not temporary and also a guaranteed hourly or salary wage versus commission.

Those who attend are encouraged to dress professionally and bring copies of their resume, with Stadnicar advising job seekers to bring twice as many resumes they would anticipate using and to not focus on just one industry.

"Don't be afraid to talk to a variety of employers," Stadnicar said. "Don't make assumptions; talk to the recruiter anyways."

Another piece of advice is to arrive early to get a good parking space and remember registration or check-in is not required, she said.

Anyone with questions is encouraged to contact Schoolcraft's career services department at 734-462-4421 or email careerservices@schoolcraft.edu.

Employers expected at the Spring Job Fair include:
LANSING, MI -- A retired Houghton Lake man doesn't know exactly what he's going to buy just yet, only that he'll buy "whatever I want," after he won a large prize playing the Michigan Lottery's Lucky for Life.

Mike Darocha, 69, matched the five white balls drawn on Mar. 19 -- 17-26-31-32-45 -- to win a prize of $25,000 a year for life.

"My wife always checks our tickets, and she came to our living room and told me that I won," Darocha said. "She said I won the second prize, but I had no idea it was this much."

Darocha bought his winning ticket at the Country Peddler Store, located at 4845 East Houghton Lake Drive in Houghton Lake. He visited Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing Monday to claim his prize.

Instead of accepting the $25,000 a year prize, Darocha elected to receive a one-time lump-sum payment of $390,000, rather than annuity payments for 20 years or life, whichever is greater.

Along with making that major purchase, Darocha hopes he can convince his wife to spend some of the money with him.

"I've been retired for several years and maybe now I'll be able to convince my wife to take a vacation with me," Darocha said.
The following is a guest editorial written by Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice Kerr Swift. On Wednesday, April 11, the Michigan Supreme Court will hold a hearing on lawsuits related to AAPS and Clio Area School District's policies on guns in schools.

Jeanice Swift

In the Ann Arbor Public Schools, we have worked to ensure student, staff, and parent safety by enacting policies to prevent the disruptive and dangerous presence of guns in our schools. We believe that the possession of a gun in school, other than by sworn officers, runs counter to what we are hard-wired to do as educators: keep our students, staff, and families safe and ensure a warm, welcoming environment where our students may grow, learn and thrive at school.

Our AAPS district involvement with guns in schools began on Thursday evening, March 5, 2015, when an individual with a concealed pistol license attended a choir concert at Pioneer High School and openly carried a gun into the auditorium. Unfortunately, during the three years since that evening, many tragic deaths from school and other mass shootings have occurred across the country. In February, the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, resulting in the death of 14 students and three staff members, again brought this issue even more forcefully into our national consciousness.

In public schools, we are charged under Michigan law with providing for the safety of the children entrusted to our care each day; federal and state laws designate schools as safety sensitive zones and weapons free school zones. Safety is our first and foremost duty, even before our critical mission of teaching and learning, and ensuring the safety of students is the promise we make to our parents and community. We always maintain our focus on providing the safe, supportive, and productive environment for learning that our children and staff deserve and our parents and community expect.

For three years now, we have defended the AAPS Board of Education's school safety policies as they have undergone challenges in Michigan courts. These district policies have been upheld by the Washtenaw County Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals. This process continues with the hearing of oral arguments before the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 11

,

in Michigan Gun Owners, Inc. v Ann Arbor Public Schools. Amicus briefs have been submitted in support of the District's position by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, City of Ann Arbor, Michigan Association of School Boards, and the Michigan Education Association.

Now, more than ever, this is a critical time for reason, for wisdom, and for prioritizing the safety of our most vulnerable citizens: our children. We know, as responsible members of a community who care for children, that guns and children make a frightening, dangerous combination. In the same way that we have successfully protected our courthouses, legislative chambers, airports, and other locations through the prohibition of guns in those sensitive settings, it is long past time to ensure the same protections for our children in Michigan classrooms and schools.

Related: Michigan Gun Owners Inc. say law is clear in allowing CPL holders to open carry guns at schools

One of the primary arguments of those in support of allowing guns in schools is the idea that a "good guy with a gun" can ensure safety in the case of an active shooter situation. Proponents of the carrying of guns in schools hold to the theory that responsible armed gun owners can deter, interrupt or minimize gun attacks. I wonder if these individuals recall real-life situations, right here at home in Michigan, where the presence of a gun-carrying adult in school placed everyone in danger.

On March 3, 2015, in Macomb County, while attending an event at Cheyenne Elementary School, a parent forgot his jacket that contained a handgun. Later, a custodian at the school discovered the jacket and gun left on a stage in the gymnasium. For five hours a gun sat completely unguarded in that elementary school. Fortunately, it was an alert custodian, not a small child, who discovered the gun.

On September 23, 2015, in L'Anse Creuse Public Schools, a parent arrived at school, observed a fight in progress and, wanting to lend a hand, intervened in the altercation. At one point, a gun belonging to this parent, a licensed CPL holder, fell from her holster onto the ground. Certainly, a loose gun in the midst of the escalated setting of a school altercation presents a significant risk to student safety; in fact, it constitutes an outright school emergency.

Well-intended people, even those with gun training, are just like everyone else, prone to make mistakes. When a parent forgets a jacket or a gun falls out of a pocket at school, it could cost a child's life. Both of these Michigan parents arrived at school on appropriate school business and both lost control of their weapons while on school property. The presence of their weapons in school placed everyone there at increased risk, posing a significant threat to the safety and security of students, staff, and families. While some may believe that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens in schools is a good idea, real-life Michigan examples provide compelling evidence to the contrary, highlighting the increased instability of introducing weapons into a school environment. Allowing guns in our Michigan schools is an ill-conceived and dangerous solution.

If compromise is what is needed in this current situation, we request that those in positions of authority consider providing the opportunity for local school districts to establish protocols through school safety policies such as those enacted in the AAPS. Surely, respect for the fundamental value of local control survives even in the midst of widely differing perspectives on how best to achieve safe schools. Ensuring a safe, nurturing, and protected environment for learning is both our moral imperative and our legal requirement under Michigan law and if lawmakers feel unable to prohibit the carrying of guns in schools outright, they must, as Gov. Snyder has supported, allow the question to be answered by school board leaders within local communities.

It is the business of law to draw lines, and this week the Michigan Supreme Court has an opportunity to move forward in drawing a definitive line on the side of keeping our children safe at school. Our 1 million Michigan children, and the teachers and staff who serve them, deserve to learn, teach, and grow each day in protected, peaceful, and nurturing classrooms within safe, secure schools.
BURTON, MI - Bentley Community Schools will soon begin the search for a new full-time superintendent following the resignation of Chris Arrington following an investigation that led to him being placed on leave.

A March 29 message from the Bentley Board of Education to the community states Arrington, who took over the superintendent role in July 2016 following the resignation of Rebekah Dupuis, asked for his resignation to be accepted.

Arrington told MLive-The Flint Journal he "felt the need to explore other opportunities better suited for my new family situation, and the board graciously agreed to accept my resignation."

"I wish nothing but the best in the future for Bentley as a district and all the wonderful people I worked with, he added.

He declined to comment when asked if the district had reached any type of settlement regarding the departure.

Arrington had been placed on paid administrative leave in December 2017 after an investigation was launched into job-related issues under the district's whistleblower policy.

Elaine Beckelic, the district's Board of Education president, has declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, stating the issue is a personnel matter.

Beckelic offered some kind words for Christine Brockmon, principal at Bentley Middle School, who stepped into the superintendent role on an interim basis after Arrington was placed on leave.

"She is doing an admirable job," said Beckelic.

In an April 3 letter sent to all Bentley staff members, Brockmon thanked them for their "patience and confidence, as the board worked through a difficult process."

"We know that change is difficult and we have seen many changes in the past few years," she said.

Those changes have included four different superintendents -- including two full-time and two interim seat holders -- since 2013, but Brockmon maintained a positive tone.

"We also know that change promotes growth and we have seen growth in the past few years," she said. "I am confident that we will continue to see change and growth."

The search for a new full-time superintendent is expected to begin soon, but Beckelic said the details are still being ironed out and expected to be finalized during the next few board meetings.
UPDATE:

Water distribution sites officially close in Flint

FLINT, MI -- Mayor Karen Weaver has read Gov. Rick Snyder's rationale for ending state spending on bottled water in Flint but wants to hear it from him in person.

Representatives of the mayor and governor said Weaver wrote to Snyder Monday, April 9, asking for the meeting, and Snyder's communications director said aides are looking at possible dates for the two to meet.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced Friday, April 6, it was ending free water distribution in the city, saying testing has shown lower levels of lead and water quality that's better than many cities in the state.

Instead of bottled water, Snyder told Weaver in a letter last week that the state would now focus on "health, education and economic development assistance needed to help move Flint forward."

The mayor has advocated for the bottled water program to continue until the city has replaced all residential lead and galvanized water service lines -- a job that could take another two years to complete.

In a news conference Monday, Weaver called the state's bottled water decision "really sad" and "insensitive to the people," and said she had requested a meeting to discuss the issue further with Snyder.

The city did not immediately release the mayor's letter but confirmed it had been sent to the governor.

It was Snyder who recognized a water emergency in Flint in January 2016, after emergency managers he appointed made a series of decisions to change the city's water source to the Flint River in April 2014.

The DEQ never required the city to treat the river water to make it less corrosive to pipes and plumbing in homes, causing lead to leach into the water supply.

Flint water has also been suspected of having triggered outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease while the river was in use for 17 months.

Two emergency managers, 10 state and three city employees have since been charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the water crisis.

Snyder's April 6 letter to Weaver says that state taxpayers have provided more than $350 million for water quality improvements, pipe replacements, health care, nutritional food distribution, educational resources and job training since he recognized the water emergency.

Bottled water alone has cost the state an average of $22,000 a day in 2018. Deliveries are expected to end this week.

The disagreement between the mayor and the governor is not the first since the two first met following Weaver's election in 2015.

The mayor said a year ago that her relationship with Snyder had turned "a little bit" icy after the state announced an end to water bill credits for city residents.

The two have agreed that water quality in the city has improved since Flint was reconnected to pre-treated water purchased from the Great Lakes Water Authority in October 2015.
GRANDVILLE, MI -- Bon-Ton Stores Inc. plans to shutter its longtime Younkers department store at RiverTown Crossings mall in Grandville, along with Carson's stores in Livonia, Rochester Hills and Clinton.

The closures will result in 688 employees losing their jobs, according to a WARN notice filed with the state on Monday, April 9.

The paperwork didn't indicate the closure dates, but indicated the first wave of layoffs will be June 5.

"The timetable for the closing is based on the best information available, although it is subject to change as we evaluate our options, including the option of selling the business and continuing as a going concern and subject to any actions of the bankruptcy court," wrote Gail Monreal, Bon-Ton's vice president of human resources, in the WARN notice.

The letter indicated the number of employees impacted at each store location:

Younkers store, at 3688 Rivertown Pkwy in Grandville, has 163 workers

Carson's, 17625 Newburgh Road in Livonia, has 204 workers.

Carson's, 400 North Adams Road, in Rochester Hills, has 130 workers.

Carson's, 17480 Hall Road, Clinton, has 191 workers.

Earlier this year, the Midwest department store chain announced plans to close three Michigan stores: a Younkers in Marquette, Elder-Beerman in Adrian and a Carson's in Benton Harbor.

At the time, Milwaukee-based chain operated 260 stores, including nine furniture galleries and five clearance centers, in 24 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains. The nameplates include Bon-Ton, Boston Store, Bergner's, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers.

Bon-Ton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. The company's assets could be acquired by an investor group that includes two mall owners.

The group submitted a letter of intent to buy Bon-Ton Stores Inc. and keep it in business, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing a court filing.

"A bid by Namdar Realty Group, of Great Neck, N.Y., Washington Prime Group, of Columbus, Ohio, and New York hedge fund DW Partners could prevent bankrupt Bon-Ton, which has not been profitable since 2010, from facing liquidation if the offer is approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware," the newspaper reported.
JAMESTOWN TOWNSHIP, MI -- An 80-year-old man fell asleep while on a driving trip from Florida to Michigan, crashing a couple miles from his home, police say.

The crash happened at 8:23 a.m. Sunday, April 8, on Byron Road west of 24th Avenue, where the vehicle left the road and struck trees, the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office said.

The driver, Allan Perry Hielkema of Byron Center, was wearing a seatbelt and suffered what police describe as non life-threatening injuries. He was transported to a hospital.
MACKINAW CITY, MI -- Though officials maintain there have been no reports of birds harmed by a spill of toxic fluid into the Straits of Mackinac last week, others aren't so sure.

The leak, reported to the U.S. Coast Guard on April 2, came from 138-kilovolt underwater electrical transmission wires operated by Wisconsin-based utility American Transmission Company.

An estimated 600 gallons of dielectric fluid leaked into Lake Michigan from the cables, according to a press release from the U.S. Coast Guard. The leaking fluid was composed primarily of alkyl derivatives of benzene, a hydrocarbon, and is categorized as potentially fatal for humans if swallowed or if it enters airways, and "very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects."

A researcher who spends hours watching the straits from McGulpin Point, just south of where the spill occurred, observed some unusual bird behavior the week of the spill. He believes it revealed birds were harmed by the spill, despite the insistence of Coast Guard officials there has been no such evidence.

Early on, a U.S. Coast Guard press release categorized the incident "a low risk to fisheries and wildlife," based on the dilution of the product in the water of the Great Lakes and the mobility of fish in the area. There could be still a threat to waterfowl coming into contact with the product floating on the surface, officials said.

As of an April 9 Coast Guard press release, no signs of pollution had been found and "no impacts to the environment or wildlife have been identified." Anthony Wilson, a wildlife specialist with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, described a survey of the Mackinac Straits area conducted over the weekend.

"We did not see any oil sheen or injured wildlife," Wilson said in a statement. "We observed more than 1,200 water fowl including long-tailed ducks, common mergansers, herring gulls, common loon and even a bald eagle."

But Adam Bradley, an observer for the nonprofit Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch, believes otherwise. Bradley wrote in his daily blog for Thursday morning, April 5, that he saw about 50 red-breasted merganser ducks engaging in what he described as "excessive preening."

"The preening seemed to last over an hour and I have yet to observe this behavior by any waterbird during the count," Bradley wrote. "Preening is something I have seen waterbirds do, but not an entire raft of birds and not for that long."

Bradley, who also noted seeing yellow grayish-tinged rafts of ice later in the week, passed along that information to Department of Environmental Quality Water Quality Division District Supervisor Joseph Haas, who stopped to speak with Bradley on Sunday, April 8.

'Excessive preening'

Haas confirmed he spoke with Bradley, and said he passed the information along to the proper authorities.

Excessive preening is a behavior observed in cases where birds came into contact with oil, Haas said, and he does not doubt the value of Bradley's observations.

"This guy is certainly a professional," Haas said. "And he is stationary for eight hours. That gives him an observation on behavior that our teams aren't going to have."

Bradley has been conducting daily bird counts for Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch since March 20, often braving freezing temperatures for seven or eight hours at a time. He noted the incident on April 5 because, per his experience, it is unusual for such a large group of birds exhibit the preening behavior for so long -- particularly on such a calm day, which normally is an ideal time for the ducks to conduct spring courtship displays.

"The preening definitely seemed excessive to me," Bradley said. "That particular day they seemed to be doing it longer than normal, and it was all of them."

But without any observations of the oil itself and no reports of dead or debilitated birds, Haas said, there was no justification to take further action. A wildlife rehabilitation contractor is standing by, he said, in case any harm to waterfowl or other wildlife is confirmed.

A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed Bradley's report was passed on to its "unified command," a group of federal, state and local officials coordinating the spill response with American Transmission Company.

"The USDA has observed over 1,200 birds over the past few days, and have not observed any impact to correlate to the report," Lt. j.g. Sean Murphy wrote in an email. "They will continue to look for evidence of impact, and of course, keep in mind the report of excessive preening, in order to identify any sort of pattern."

An 'inadequate' response

The Coast Guard reports repeated flyovers and inspections by boat have been unable to identify any lingering evidence of the dielectric fluid. But Bradley believes the discolored chunks of ice he saw on April 6 and 7 might have been ice coated in the fluid.

Since starting his count on March 20, Bradley said, it was the first time he saw anything other than bluish-colored ice in the straits.

Bradley said he was angry when he learned his observations were not sufficient to trigger any action.

"The response seems to be wholly inadequate," he said. "I'm dismayed, as someone who loves birds, that the bar is so low. The animal apparently has to be flightless or die for there to be a response."

Allen Burton, a University of Michigan professor and expert in ecological risk assessment and aquatic ecosystems, confirmed the risk the spill poses to animal life is minimal.

Though toxic, Burton said, the chemicals were likely "almost immediately diluted" and the key ecological threat would be to any benthic organisms that live on the lake bottom very near the leaking cables.

In his notes, Bradley noted very strong winds and large waves on the evening of April 1, when American Transmission Company reports the two transmission lines tripped off within 30 seconds of each other.

The company cites "unfavorable weather conditions" in hindering its early efforts to pinpoint the leak, and ultimatley decided to shut down both damaged cables.

Referencing the potential for a much bigger ecological disaster tied to the underwater oil and gas pipelines crossing the Straits of Mackinac, Bradley said the residents of Michigan should be concerned.

"The people of Michigan have got a warning," he said. "It's a shot across the bow."

Burton also sees the spill as a warning of what could happen if the Line 5 pipeline -- which carries much larger volumes of crude oil -- were to rupture underwater.

"This is a huge red flag of what can happen on a bigger scale," he said.

Vessel traffic investigated

The Coast Guard has released very little information about the cause of the spill, though they've hinted that "vessel activity" in the straits might be to blame.

The Coast Guard on Friday, April 6, initiated a marine casualty investigation to probe the possibility a boat caused the leak. Such investigations are conducted by the Coast Guard in response to boat collisions, shipwrecks, vessel groundings and other incidents.

Lt. j.g. Sean Murphy on Monday, April 9, declined to release any further information about the investigation or marine traffic in the area during time of the incident.

Other companies with lines crossing the Straits of Mackinac were notified they should inspect their crossings for issues, though the Coast Guard reports no signs of pollution have been seen that would indicate another leak.

One of those other crossings is Enbridge Energy's Line 5, which transports up to 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids per day.

Enbridge shut down the twin pipelines Tuesday, April 3, to fully evaluate its leak detection systems, Enbridge spokesperson Michael Barnes said in a statement.

"In addition, Enbridge launched additional inspection tools on each of the dual pipelines on Wednesday to confirm the integrity of the pipelines," Barnes said. "A review of all available data indicated the structural integrity of the pipelines had not been compromised and Line 5 was restarted Wednesday afternoon."

Other crossings in the general area of the spill include the TransCanada twin natural gas pipelines, which also run between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and a power line that runs between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island.

Cleanup efforts continued this week as crews work to pump remaining dielectric fluid from the disabled American Transmission Company lines.

The American Transmission Company cables stretch a distance of about 3 1/2 miles across the Straits of Mackinac, from McGulpin Point west of Mackinaw City to Point La Barbe west of St. Ignace.

In total, the Coast Guard reported, the company's six-cable network and its reservoirs contained more than 4,000 gallons of dielectric fluid, which would have been the worst-case scenario for a spill.

Only about 600 gallons is believed to have leaked into the water from two cables impacted by the leak, and the Coast Guard reported Monday "there is no evidence of any ongoing release."

Each of the damaged cables can hold about 400 gallons, and crews have aleady extraced about 250 gallons of fluid from one of the two damaged cables, the Coast Guard reports. Once all the fluid has been extracted from the first cable, then crews will start work on extracting the remaining fluid from the second cable.

American Transmission Company announced Monday it has set up a page on its website to provide information and updates about the incident.
HOLLAND, MI - Janelle Ortega, the 21-year-old passenger in a crash that killed the car's driver, died Monday morning.

Ortega died around 2:20 a.m. on April 9 at a Grand Rapids Spectrum Hospital, where she had resided since the crash on April 1, according to a Holland news release.

The crash occurred sometime before 11:35 p.m. Sunday, April 1, on River Avenue near 1st Street where the road begins to curve. Emergency crews arrived on scene to find two individuals pinned inside a 1996 Honda Civic, which had struck a pole.

Police said the driver, William Montano, 34, of Holland, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ortega was freed from the passenger seat and transported to Holland Hospital, and then to the hospital in Grand Rapids.

Investigators with the Holland Department of Public Safety said the Civic was northbound on River Avenue when it struck a pole on the east side of the road, just north of W 1st Street. The vehicle was "badly damaged," when officers from Holland and the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office arrived.

After interviewing witnesses, police say they believe another car also was going northbound at the time of the crash.

The car was described as a smaller, light-colored vehicle, possibly a Honda similar to the one involved in the crash.

Police say they don't believe the other driver was to blame for the crash, but want to speak to that person to get more information.

Speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash, police said. The crash remains under investigation.

Anyone with information about the second vehicle can call police at 616-355-1737 or Silent Observer at 1-877-88-SILENT.
Michael Cohen, the Donald Trump attorney under federal investigation, has a Michigan connection: He is a 1991 graduate of Cooley Law School.

Cohen, 51, attended Cooley's Lansing campus, according to a spokesman for the law school, which is now affiliated with Western Michigan University.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Cohen went to American University for his bachelor's degree. After graduating law school, he was co-owner of a taxicab company and got involved in real estate. He was hired by the Trump organization in 2006.

Cohen was among those featured as a Cooley distinguished graduate in a 2013 edition of the law school's alumni magazine.

The New York attorney has been in headlines in recent weeks for his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election.

On Monday, FBI agents raided Cohen's home and office, reportedly seeking papers related to the Daniels payment. The New York Times and Washington Post have said that Cohen is under investigation for potential bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign-finance violations.

The third-largest law school in the country, Cooley was ranked as the worst in the nation in 2017 by the Above the Law website, which cited Cooley's high acceptance rate and the low scores of its students on the LSAT, which is the law school entrance exam.

The website also has criticized Cooley's low passage rate on bar exams and the poor job-placement history of Cooley graduates.
Paris (People's Daily)- A ceremony to mark the Chinese laborers who died in World War I was held in Noyelles-sur-Mer, France, on Sunday, 100 years after the end of the war.

The ceremony began to the solemn sound of Scottish bagpipes. Representatives from China, France and the UK delivered speeches hailing Chinese labors crucial contributions to Allied Forces.With the national flags of China, France and the UK fluttering, the Cemetery of Nolette, where 884 Chinese laborers are buries, was inaugurated in 1921 and is the largest cemetery dedicated to Chinese laborers in Europe.

Paperboards and epitaphs like "Fight unto death and Long lives your soul tell stories of the war labors, and attract many visitors throughout the year in April.

"This historic site is a great connection between France and China and a symbol of freedom and fraternity, said Jean-Louis Demarest, mayor of Noyelles-sur-Mer.

Jean-Louis Demarest, mayor of Noyelles-sur-Mer delivers a speech

In 1917, up to 150,000 men left their homes in east China and traveled 9,000 km to labor for the Allies in World War I, which was inflicting huge numbers of casualties.

Their duties included burying the dead, digging trenches and building roads, as well as unloading ships and trains. 20,000 men lost their lives in the war effort and the reconstruction after war.

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps (Photo: W J Hawkings Collection, courtesy of John de Lucy)

A hundred years later, their stories were barely known to the Western world, and have almost been obliterated since.

"These men sacrificed themselves and deserve our respect and gratitude, Demarest said, noting a museum and a documentary were underway in honor of these laborers, and an application has been made to add the city to the World Heritage list of UNESCO.The commemoration has been held since 2002 during the Qingming Festival, the Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Day for honoring the dead.

Zhai Jun, Chinese Ambassador to France

"A centennial commemoration of the end of WWI is so important that in a world threatened by populism, unilateralism and instability, peace becomes so precious, Zhai Jun, Chinese Ambassador to France, stressed during his speech. By recalling their sacrifices, we are more determined to preserve the peace we enjoy in the moment.

Representatives and visitors laid wreaths and flowers and observed one minute of silence. The national anthems of the three countries were played.

Andre Coillot, an 88-year-old Frenchman from Arras, a northern French city that installed a monument for Chinese Labors Corps last December, was pleased that the French government paid more attention to this part of history.

"Chinese laborers fought for us, they should be remembered, especially by the young French, the old man said.

(Photos: Li Yongqun and Gong Ming/People's Daily)
SOUTH BEND, IN - A Michigan man has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for his role in a police pursuit crash that killed an Indiana motorist.

According to the Associated Press, 39-year-old James Morrison of Niles was sentenced in an Indiana courtroom on Monday, April 9. He previously pleaded guilty to five felony counts, including resisting law enforcement, during the February 2017 crash.

Police say Morrison had heroin in his system and was driving a stolen SUV at speeds of more than 100 mph as he fled from a pursuing Berrien County sheriff's deputy, the AP reported.

The pursuit ended in Indiana's St. Joseph County when the SUV crashed into a pickup truck along Indiana 933, killing its 62-year-old driver, Andre Northern of South Bend.
MERIDIAN TWP., MI - An armed man robbed a Subway restaurant Monday evening, fleeing the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police were called at 8:57 p.m., April 9, to the Subway restaurant at 2160 Grand River Ave. in Okemos, according to a statement from the Meridian Township Police Department.

An employee told police a man wearing a mask and dressed all in black entered the restaurant, displayed a weapon and demanded cash from the register, police said.

The man was handed an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the scene, police said. The employee was not harmed, they said.

A police K-9 unit was unable to locate the suspect. East Lansing Police Department and Michigan State University Police Department assisted in the search, but were also unable to locate the suspect, police said.

The suspect is described as a white male with blonde hair, about 5-foot-7-inches to 5-foot-10-inches tall with a petite build. He was wearing a mask, a black long sleeve shirt, black pants and black shoes, police said.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Meridian Township Police at 517-853-4800.
JACKSON, MI - City Manager Patrick Burtch's potential appointment to the Downtown Development Authority, and a new set of council meeting citizen guidelines are among the topics at the next Jackson City Council meeting.

The Tuesday, April 10 meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor of Jackson City Hall, 161 W. Michigan Ave.

Burtch has been appointed to the Downtown Development Authority by Mayor Derek Dobies, but that appointment must be voted on by council. It's part of the consent calendar for Tuesday's meeting.

Burtch also serves on the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority board, the Public Arts Commission, various city pension boards and the Planning Commission.

It's not unprecedented for a city manager to sit on the city's DDA, as cities like Wixom and Alpena have the manager on the board. Some cities have the city manager appoint members instead of the mayor.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the council will consider entering nationwide opioid litigation to potentially recover funds from pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors for their role in the opioid epidemic.

A pair of law firms, including the Bernstein Law Firm, presented to the council at the last meeting.

Public comment guidelines, removed from the March 27 agenda, are also back on Tuesday's docket. Go to page 70 to see the list of 14 guidelines.

One change from the previously proposed set is the elimination of the guideline stating: "If an individual's disruptive behavior rises to the level of a criminal offense, the person may be charged with a criminal offense."

Other items Tuesday include the following:
MERIDIAN TWP., MI - Police have arrested a man who they say allegedly attempted to rob a woman at gunpoint in a supermarket parking lot in broad daylight Sunday afternoon.

Michael Jermel Mountain was arraigned, Monday, April 9, on one felony count each of armed robbery, receiving and concealing a stolen vehicle, possession of a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent and felony firearm, according to a statement from the Meridian Township Police Department.

Mountain, 24, allegedly approached a woman shortly before 12:13 p.m., April 8, in the Kroger parking lot, 4884 Marsh Road, and threatened her with a gun, police said.

He ran away when the woman called for help, fleeing south in a red sedan, police said, adding that the woman was not injured.

An Ingham County Sheriff's deputy spotted the sedan and unsuccessfully attempted to stop it, police said. A chase ensued, ending in a foot chase in Delhi Township, they said.

Sheriff's deputies, assisted by the Lansing Police Department, tracked Mountain with a police K-9 unit, locating him in a nearby residence where they arrested him, police said.

Mountain is currently lodged in the Ingham County Jail with bond set at $100,000.

The incident is still under investigation. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Meridian Township Police Department at 517-853-4800.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Reckless city vehicles and flooded sewer drains caused Kalamazoo pay citizens thousands of dollars in property damage settlements last year.

According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the city of Kalamazoo paid more than $76,000 to residents who filed 22 liability claims with Attorney Clyde Robinson's office. This includes claims filed between Jan. 1, 2017 and February 2018.

Settlements were paid through the city's internal insurance fund. Kalamazoo pays general liability claims worth up to $250,000; anything larger is covered by the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority.

Settlements are meant to be a compromise between the two parties, Robinson said. According to releases signed at the end of the process, payments shouldn't be construed as an admission of liability; it's intended to avoid litigation with residents and "buy their peace."

Robinson said only around a quarter of claims are settled this way. Out of 90-100 claims filed each year, most are for damages that the city can't be held responsible for.

"We only pay for those claims where we think we have some exposure under the law," Robinson said. "We only have liability for a handful of types of claims. If we have liability (we're) better off paying the claim and moving on as opposed to making the person jump through hoops (go to court) only to be victorious at the end of the day. That doesn't do anyone any good."

For example, claims for damages caused by potholes aren't usually paid. The city has 30 days to repair a pothole after it is made aware of one existing on city-owned roads, and Robinson said most claims fall within that time window or are filed for roads owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

A total of $67,252 was paid to residents who received damages from flooded sewer lines, while $9,108 was paid to cover damages caused by city-owned vehicles.

Government vehicles

Three plow trucks and two Department of Public Safety squad cars struck vehicles, causing property damage and briefly hospitalizing a pregnant woman.

Robinson said city departments are responsible for reviewing crashes to determine whether the incident was preventable. If it was, the employee is disciplined based on the severity of the crash.

A claim filed in 2017 for an incident which occurred in December 2016 was perhaps the most serious incident.

According to city documents, a 22-year-old woman who was nine months pregnant was driving north on Oak Street when she was struck by a city plow truck driving east on West Walnut Street.

The woman was transported to Bronson Methodist Hospital by ambulance after complaining of head pain. It was a precautionary move, according to a police report, but she believes she suffered a concussion from the incident.

The collision caused $8,417 in damages to her 2015 Nissan Altima. She was paid $1,000 to cover her insurance deductible.

The intersection requires Walnut Street traffic to rest at a stop sign before crossing Oak Street.

Another resident was paid $3,173 after a public safety officer rear-ended their parked vehicle. An officer was exiting the parking lot at Hays Park Avenue and Portage Road when he struck a parked Ford Explorer last April.

According to city documents, the officer's view was obstructed by an open laptop computer.

In a letter to the city, Wendy Olson said her husband put more than $500 of new front-end parts into the Explorer a week before the crash.

"We have three children with special needs and we are a one-income family, so that is a huge amount of money for us," she said in the letter.

Another public safety officer was issued a citation for failing to yield in an June 2017 incident. The claimant was stopped at a red light near Oakland Drive and Howard Street when a public safety vehicle rear-ended her, forcing the claimant's Mitsubishi Outlander to strike another car in front of her.

The woman was driving with her 1-year-old daughter. She was paid $1,000 to reimburse her insurance deductible.

Plow trucks were involved in two additional crashes.

A woman was waiting to pull out of a parking lot in the 6900 block of East Cork Street during her lunch break when a city plow truck passed by. She began to exit the parking lot when the truck suddenly began to back up, striking the passenger's side door of the vehicle.

She was paid $1,603 for damages not covered by her insurance company. The crash happened in December 2017.

A resident was paid $1,000 when his vehicle was struck on Applelane Avenue in January 2017. The plow driver did not see the vehicle stopped behind his truck and backed into it.

The city paid $795 to the owner of a Biggby Coffee when a city truck damaged its drive-thru. A truck was pulling through the drive-thu along the south side of the building when its bucket lift caught the edge of the canopy, bending and cracking the aluminum frame.

Sewage leaks cause big payouts

Most of the claims settled by Kalamazoo last year involved water leaking from the sewer system into residents' basements. In a majority of these claims, debris like rags or mop heads were found stuck in sewer lines, causing water to back up and exit floor drains in residences.

"Unfortunately, a lot of things go thorugh the sanitary sewer system," Robinson said. "People throw rags and diapers things that don't easily degrade, and that backs up."

Provable defects in the city's water and wastewater systems make up a majority of claims paid out to residents, Robinson said.

The largest claim paid by city of Kalamazoo was nearly $30,000 for flood damage at Michigan Holistic Health.

Michigan Holistic Health helps adults apply to use medical marijuana under state law. The business is located near Axtell Creek Park in an area chronically affected by flooding.

In October 2017, Kalamazoo experienced a heavy rain event and subsequent flooding in low-lying areas near the Kalamazoo River. A "significant" amount of sanitary sewer water was backed up into the business, according to a city report.

The Department of Public Services found a defective back-flow preventer and a "hydraulic jump" event caused the flooding.

The ASU Group found it cost $18,604 for flood mitigation and cleanup, $17,056 for repairs, $2,144 to move office furniture, finding around $1,900 in other costs.

Crocker recovered $9,968 in assistance from FEMA, reducing the amount being sought from the City to $29,734.

Kalamazoo also paid $12,766 for incident in February 2017 at 130 block of South Kalamazoo Mall. A sewage line was blocked at the property, and when city was jetting a nearby line, water backed into the basement.

Crews found that a cast iron sewer line had a hole in it, allowing water to come in thorguh the wall. A total of $8,300 in personal property was destroyed, including a $4,800 painting.
KALAMAZOO, MI - The day before a student gunned down 17 of his classmates at a high school in Parkland, Fla., U.S. Rep. Fred Upton was at Portage Central High School for a normal visit.

Since then, Upton, R-St. Joseph, has stepped up his school visits, bringing Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller and other local law enforcement along, for what they're calling "listening sessions."

Fuller and Upton were joined by other community leaders, including U.S. Rep Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), at Western Michigan University's Fetzer Center on Monday, April 9 for another session. In addition to discussing school safety, panel members discussed mental health concerns and lack of resources.

Earlier that day, Upton, Fuller and Dingell were at Portage Northern High School. They have also visited Portage Central High School, Kalamazoo Central High School and Gull Lake High School.

Upton said mental health was incorporated in Monday's panel discussion because students often know someone who needs help and they can't learn if they don't feel safe.

"They would far rather see someone get help than have something erupt," Upton said.

Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Michael Rice said Parkland was known as a safe city in Florida. If a violent act can happen in a safe Florida city, it can happen in a safe Michigan city, he said.

At each school visit, Fuller said students have come prepared with questions to ask. Some are about "red flag" bills, which would allow a court to temporarily prohibit someone from buying or possessing firearms if they are believed to be a threat to themselves or other people.

Upton said just because some students are not of voting age yet does not mean they don't care about the direction the country is going. A hot topic in the discussion is whether teachers should have guns, a step Upton said he opposes.

He said a majority of students and teachers don't think a teacher should be armed with a gun.

"What happens if they overpower the teacher? They'll never have the training," Upton said.

In addition to legislation, Fuller said how law enforcement trains is part of the discussion. He said for years officials have altered the way they train to solve problems associated with a school shooting if they arise in the community.

"We've made it clear to people, while we recognize the rarity of these events, the severity of these events is causing us to change our operations," the sheriff said.

Fuller said the questions students ask relate to the same message authorities have been sent away from each school with, which is, "we as students expect our schools and law enforcement to keep us safe because we're here to learn," he said.

Molly Podiak, a senior at Portage Central High School and founder of the school's Republicans Club, said the visit with Upton and law enforcement at school was a way to make sure student voices are being heard.

"We can know that we feel safe and that we are being a part of what is happening and what will go forth in our schools," Podiak said.

Fuller said he is proud of the young adults in the community, who he believes finally have the ear of elected officials.

"I'm thankful for the support from the young people now that help us make it clear to the people who write these laws that it's time to listen more closely to the people they represent," Fuller said.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- First Lady Sue Snyder has announced Michigan's fourth "Inform. Empower. Prevent. Let's End Campus Sexual Assault" summit will be held Monday, Sept. 24, at Western Michigan University.

The day-long summit's goal is to continue Michigan's leadership role in the fight against sexual assault among the college-age population, a news release from the governor's office states.

"I'm proud of the leadership role Michigan has taken to address the prevalence of sexual assault on our college and university campuses," First Lady Sue Snyder said in a prepared statement. "These statewide summits are an important part of our work to raise awareness and prevention efforts to ultimately change the culture and put an end to campus sexual assault.

"Western Michigan University has been a tremendous partner in our work to address this critical issue. I'm excited to host our fourth summit at WMU and look forward to focusing our efforts this year on best practices for prevention and response to sexual assault," she said.

The summit will continue the conversation of campus assault and is an ongoing campaign to inform communities, empower individuals and ultimately bring an end to campus sexual assault, the news release says.

WMU President Edward Montgomery said the university is pleased to host the summit, which is vital to keep the conversation going.

"First Lady Snyder's support has been critical over the past few years as organizations from across the state work together to prevent sexual assault and to change behavior and attitudes," Montgomery said in a prepared statement.

"These summits have helped foster real change and the development of best practices for use across the nation. But this work must continue, and we need to remain vigilant to insure our students and community can feel safe at our university."

Previous summits were hosted at the Lansing Center, the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Additional summit details, registration options, speakers and a full summit agenda will be updated in the coming weeks and can be found at www.endcampussexualassault.com.

Gov. Snyder recently proclaimed April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Visit www.michigan.gov/CampusSexualAssault to find resources for campus sexual assault survivors, family and friends.
MUSKEGON, MI - Members of the Muskegon Public Schools Board of Trustees have been violating the Michigan Open Meetings Act with routine group text messages, according to one trustee who provided copies of the texts.

Board members have engaged in group texting and emailing among four or more trustees on a regular basis, especially just before and after board meetings, for at least three years, said Trustee Zachary Anderson, who was seated in January 2015.

Many of those text conversations were among a quorum of board members and constituted deliberation on official matters, which experts say is a violation of Michigan's Open Meetings Act.

Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Zachary Anderson

"There is constant text message and email dialogue of conversations that should have been happening in the public," Anderson told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. "It was a way to get group pressure on certain members of the board to fall into line, all in a way where it was completely un-transparent and unavailable to the public to even know the conversations were being had."

Texting continued even after Anderson expressed concern about OMA violations, he said, and after board Secretary Pro-tem Billie Bruce spoke up in a public meeting about feeling left out of decisions.

The OMA requires deliberations to occur in public meetings, with some specific exemptions. In the instance of an exemption, the board must vote to go into closed session. In a closed session, the board may only discuss the matter specified in the motion and must avoid coming to a decision. All decisions must be made, and votes must be taken, in open session.

A quorum of the seven-member school board is four or more members.

Anderson provided MLive/Muskegon Chronicle with 17 screenshots of samples of texts among board members between June 21, 2017, and March 28.

Here are examples:

In a conversation about

In December, trustees discussed a $100,000 severance package for Jennings. Whether to give him a couple months to find another job was also discussed. Secretary Lynnette Marks responded, "No. Too much damage already."

Separate conversations in October and December discuss an investigation that was commissioned by then-President Louis Churchwell (now vice president) without the knowledge of the rest of the board. According to the texts, the board reviewed an investigation from Barb Ruga, of Clark Hill law firm, at a special meeting on Dec. 13. The discussion occurred in a closed session for "personnel matters."

In March, President Cindy Larson texted three trustees to say that she would begin texting smaller groups to avoid violating the OMA - although that group was still a quorum. She later texted the same group to say that she saw the error and had begun texting two trustees at a time.

Bruce was not included in any of the text messages provided to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle and said in an interview in March that she was unaware of whether that kind of communication was taking place.

Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education Secretary Pro-Tem Billie Bruce

"I don't have any definite proof" of OMA violations, she said, in an interview. "It seems to me the four of them (Larson, O'Brien, Treasurer Tasha Bibbs-Oakes and Churchwell) are meeting and making decisions. They seem to be really prepared. I don't see how they could be doing that without communicating. They'd already decided on a whole lot of things, and I didn't know what they were talking about."

Bruce was so concerned that she might be getting left out of some board conversations, she raised concerns during a public board meeting in January.

"I am concerned that there may be meetings of the board that have not been properly posted, and I am concerned about informal meetings that may have occurred with four members of the board without the proper posting over the last several months," she said at the meeting on Jan. 16. "We are governed by the Open Meetings Act and a quorum of this board, which can take legal action, is four members. That is why all meetings of the board are to be publicly posted. I am not convinced that that has always occurred these past several months."

The text messages provided to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle were reviewed by a lawyer who said many of them were OMA violations.

"A number of the texts that I reviewed were communications of a quorum of a public body and I think that they were deliberations. The Open Meetings Act requires such deliberations to take place at a properly noticed and public meeting," said Robin Luce Herrmann, general counsel for the Michigan Press Association and shareholder at Butzel Long law firm in Detroit.

Violating the OMA could result in civil and criminal consequences. A civil lawsuit could undo decisions of the board made in violation of the act. Violating the law is a misdemeanor with a first offense sentence of a fine up to $1,000.

Larson was surprised to learn from Anderson that texting could violate the OMA.

"It's something I truly was not aware of," Larson said. "I didn't know that it applied to text messages; I thought that it just applied to a physical meeting. It was my misunderstanding."

On Wednesday, March 28, Larson sent a group text to Anderson, O'Brien and Marks, which makes a quorum of four members.

"Learned that if I txt 4 or more, I'm in violation of open mtgs act so I will be texting 2 or 3 at a time," reads the text message screenshot provided to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle by Anderson. "Also, if anyone meets with administration, I need to know. That's policy. Thanks"

Responses from Marks and Anderson challenged that a policy exists requiring them to let the president know of meetings with administration. Anderson also pointed out that a group of four is a quorum.

"Some on our board will try to do whatever they want anyway," O'Brien responded.

"Just like the superintendent who has continuously disregard (cq) our bylaws and hiring practices," Anderson replied to the group.

"He will learn though," O'Brien texted back. "Keep the faith."

Marks told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle in an email that she too was ignorant of the fact that the OMA applied to texting. She found out through Larson's March 28 text.

"While many of the texts regarded scheduling concerns and reminders, looking back I believe that some of the texts may have violated the OMA," Marks said. "Although decisions weren't made, some texts could be considered as deliberations."

Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education President Cindy Larson

On March 30, Anderson told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle that Larson had begun texting groups of two or fewer trustees - less than a quorum - on March 29 and 30.

However, she sent final messages to the group of four on Friday, March 30.

"That's why my last txts have been 2 at a time," Larson said to Anderson, Marks and O'Brien. "I saw my mistake Zach."

"This text chain is a violation," Anderson responded. "So quit using it."

"YES, this one is!!! I've corrected it!!" Larson said.

However, communicating between fewer than four members of the board does not necessarily circumvent the OMA. "Round robin" practices are forbidden under the OMA. For example, a trustee can ask all the other board members' opinions on an issue, but they may not collect each trustee's opinions and stipulations for a deal and bring those to the other board members to build a consensus outside of an open meeting.

Anderson first realized the text and email conversations among board members could be a violation of the OMA after talking to an attorney friend during November 2017. Around that time, he verbally informed the board of his concerns, he said.

Conversations were most often started by the board president, previously Churchwell and now Larson, but also by other board members, Anderson said. Anderson could not provide texts back to 2015 because he bought a new phone in early 2017.

A text from Larson to five members of the board on Dec. 14 discusses giving Jennings time to find another job and a possible $100,000 severance package.

By Dec. 14, the board had met in four special meetings that month to discuss "personnel matters" in closed session, which was leading up to Jennings' evaluation. In January and February, the board met for special meetings on personnel matters four more times before announcing the results of the evaluation at a board meeting on Feb. 20. The board rated Jennings "minimally effective."

In October, board members discussed an MLive article with Jennings via text messages. The group included six members of the board - excluding only Bruce - and Jennings. The conversation was initiated by Anderson who was concerned about raises given to administrators without the board's knowledge.

In the texts, Jennings claims some of the information in the Oct. 24 article about administrative raises is false but doesn't provide examples when asked. The article detailed a $500,000 increase in administrative spending for the 2017-18 school year compared to 2016-17 while the district was working with a budget that was $105,500 in deficit. A budget amendment approved by the board on Feb. 20 included a $1.3 million deficit.

In the October texts, Anderson specifically mentions Chief Financial Officer Catherine Kloska's $132,000 salary, which is the second highest in the district behind Jennings.

"I like Catherine I think she's great at her job but she shouldn't be paid more than most superintendents," he said in the group text.

Anderson continues to say that he does not believe bringing the finance department back from the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, from which Muskegon schools contracted financial services, was a cost-savings as Jennings claimed.

"Why would you decide what Catherine makes?" O'Brien texted in response to Anderson in the group. "That is why our only real job is to hire a good superintendent (we did that) and stay out of the way. This is for the long haul not a quick snap shot."

O'Brien also texted that it's not the board's job to visit schools or to listen to teachers and that Jennings "doesn't lie."

"I hope the board will do a better job of being transparent and involving the community and following the Open Meetings Act," Anderson told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. "At the end of the day, the decisions we make have a great impact not only on our students and their families but the community in a broader sense and to circumvent that by text messaging and emailing is doing a disservice to everybody that elected us."

Bibbs-Oakes, Churchwell and O'Brien did not return calls for comment for this story.
NORTH MUSKEGON, MI - Muskegon-area students want "common sense gun legislation" and a town hall on gun safety with their congressional representative.

The Youth Activism Coalition held an event on Tuesday, April 10, at the Walker Community Center in North Muskegon, during which they called on U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, to hold a town hall to answer questions on gun safety.

During the event, the coalition released a video in which a dozen students from Huizenga's district read a "form response" from the congressman that they say shrugged off questions ask by Reeths-Puffer High School senior and coalition co-founder Elijah Nichols.

Nichols asked his questions at a press conference on March 12 and in an email to Huizenga on March 13.

The questions were:

What are you doing to keep my friends and me safe in our schools?

Do you believe schools should be turned into fortresses or do you believe the solution is fewer military-style weapons?

If you believe mental health is a major cause of gun violence, what are you doing to help my school get counselors, nurses, social workers and other people who can help reduce mental health illnesses in schools, and why are you not fighting for universal access to mental health coverage?

Lastly, in your opinion, why are we seeing all this gun violence today?

Huizenga's office is denying having received the questions via email.

"Our office has no record this message was sent or received," said Brian Patrick, communications director, in an email on Tuesday, April 11. "Prior to this claim, we did receive a message requesting a town hall from Mr. Nichols at his school, however that did not include any additional questions."

Huizenga's response - read aloud by students in the video - came via email on March 23:

Thank you for contacting me. I always appreciate hearing from students in West Michigan and welcome this opportunity to respond.

Throughout my time serving as your Representative, I have held many town halls including in person, on social media, and on the phone. I have enjoyed opportunities to meet with students in the past, including with students at Reeths-Puffer High School. My favorite part of representing West Michigan is having the opportunity to regularly listen to and connect with my fellow West Michiganders.

Both in Washington D.C. and back home in West Michigan, I interact with my staff on a daily basis. I rely on them to inform me of proposed legislation, recommend how to vote on various issues, and assist West Michigan residents who need help communicating with the federal government. They also set up meetings and organize my busy schedule. While my job is stressful, my staff enables me to better serve the people of West Michigan.

Being a Member of Congress is a great privilege. Representing the communities that make up Michigan's Second District is something I am very passionate about; and is a duty I take very seriously. Working in Washington can be a very busy and sometimes stressful place. Even so, the opportunity to work on issues important to West Michigan is gratifying.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to write or call me in the future.

Sincerely,

Bill Huizenga

Member of Congress

Huizenga's staff did not deny that an email was sent to Nichols on March 23.

"Young people across West Michigan and America demand real action," Nichols said in a statement Tuesday. "We simply want our policymakers and our so-called leaders to put the lives and safety of ordinary citizens first. The overwhelming majority of Americans, including strong supporters of the Second Amendment like my own family, want common-sense, responsible safeguards that can help minimize gun violence."

The students are planning a march from Muskegon High School to Hackley Park downtown Muskegon at 11 a.m. on April 21. They are also attempting to raise $1,000 for a trip to Washington D.C. to "shine a light on congressional inaction on gun violence."

Nichols and Stella Branch, North Muskegon High School senior, plan to meet with Huizenga, and U.S. senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters while in D.C. on April 19.

"Students and our families will not sit quietly while the people who are supposed to represent us in Congress refuse to protect us from gun violence," Branch said. "Though we're still in high school, many of us will be old enough to vote by this Election Day. ... as long as he refuses to take action that can keep dangerous military-style weapons off our streets, we will continue to speak up."

Branch and Nichols were both active in organizing their school's National School Walkout events in March.

They hope to attract more students to their cause from Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, Holland, Montague, Whitehall, Reeths-Puffer, North Muskegon, Grant, Grand Haven, Mona Shores, Wyoming, Zeeland, Spring Lake, Hart, Shelby, Ludington and Pentwater, Nichols said.

"This movement is not just about gun violence anymore," Nichols told MLive. "It seems as if it is now about mobilizing young people to vote and to hold our government accountable when they won't answer our simple questions. Personally, politicians like Huizenga just show us young people how (we) need to be involved. They give us another reason to be truly done with these establishment, woven "perfect" politicians that dance around questions and don't care about the people they represent."
After a flight from Hong Kong International and Dallas-Fort Worth airports, an overhead oxygen canister collapsed and fell onto a one-year-old child's head.

The boy's mother, Jennifer Zanone, posted a photo of the collapsed canister and alleged details behind the incident to Facebook. Zanone said that after the plane landed, "an entire ceiling panel, including a tank full of oxygen" fell on her son's head.

The 33-year-old of Denver told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the incident occurred on American Airlines flight AA126 on 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 7.

"We were directed to wait for a gate agent to document the incident but no one met us at the gate. We stood there waiting for an agent and our stroller until the captain himself walked off the flight and apologized to us," she writes on Facebook. "After leaving the gate area, we went to the next customer service area to try to report the incident and were given the run around for 1.5 hours and have made no progress.

"While the apologies were appreciated, documentation of the incident would have been preferred as a piece of the plane fell directly on my child's head and that is not ok. Fly American Airlines with extreme caution."

Extremely disappointed today with our American Airlines flight AA126 from Hong Kong to Dallas. Upon landing, an entire... Posted by Jennifer Zanone on Saturday, April 7, 2018

--

American Airlines said in a statement that the plane was inspected, repaired and put back into active service on the same day of the incident. The airline said in a statement that it extended medical care to the woman and her child, and that "American's primary concern is for the Zanone family and their young child.

"We were offered medical assistance immediately following the incident and we did decline because I didn't know what the medic could do on site with a let-lagged, exhausted child," the mother told the Star-Telegram," so I chose to monitor him myself until I could get him back to his own doctor."

She said that the family has returned home to Denver, her son appears to be fine and that she has not filed a lawsuit and only wants "documentation of the incident, which the flight attendant assured me would be performed."
After recent autonomous vehicles (AVs) accidents, the accountability issues are back on the agenda, sharply reducing consumers enthusiasm, with various countries legal systems releasing regulations to the technology, threatening its commercialization.

Car owners responsible

The owner of a self-driving vehicle will be responsible when the automobile is involved in an accident, according to an expert panel report of Japans transport ministry on March 20.

The report applies to specific self-driving models when all dynamic driving tasks are performed with a single autopilot system, even if the human driver cannot respond to requests and takes over the control, which might occur under certain conditions, such as on expressways, according to a news report in the Jakarta Post.

The panel report will take effect during a transitional period from around 2020 to 2025.

When an accident is caused by the hacking of a self-driving system, it would be treated like an accident caused by a stolen car, the government would provide restitution and the owner would not be held responsible, the news report added.

The Japanese government plans to release an outline by the end of the fiscal year on creating a sytem to enable self-driving, including the rules from the latest report.

Speeding up regulations

Critics in Japan have said the government had been slow to create systems for AVs, such as deciding where the responsibility for the accidents lies.

In contrast, Germany has taken the initiative, enacting legislation that makes vehicle owners responsible for accidents, and with major insurance companies and automakers working together on compensation for victims.

Germany is the pioneer when it comes to creating national policies for AVs. With its regulations and ethical guidelines in place, other countries and regions might leapfrog the European economic powerhouse to create the optimal regulatory environment for AVs.

Two of Germanys latest federal laws require that a person in an AV should be ready to take over at all times, with all systems and events to be recorded for later analysis. The set of car rules adopted in August 2017 stated it would be illegal to program an AV with demographic preferences when faced with the prospect of causing injury, according to market intelligence website roboticsbusinessreview.com.

Beijing released its first temporary license plates for Baidu's AVs for public road testing on March 22.

The capital city has opened 33 roads with a total length of 105 kilometers for AV testing outside the Fifth Ring Road and away from densely-populated areas.

The test vehicles must be equipped with monitoring devices for driving behavior, collect vehicle location information and monitor whether a vehicle is in self-driving mode.

Test drivers are supposed to have received at least 50 hours of self-driving training.

In Haidian District, Beijing has built its first closed test field, covering about 13 hectares.

The licenses for road testing are valid for 30 days and license holders can apply for a renewal after AVs pass assessments.

Impact on industry

AVs are the latest competition within the automobile industry, with wide commercial and consumer interest.

Carmakers, tech companies and ride-hailing start-ups are all competing for a market share and they are likely to cooperate in this novel field.

In terms of business models, AVs could disrupt car ownership habits, and there is a big opportunity for carmakers to reinvent themselves as mobility providers, selling service miles rather than metal transportation tools themselves.

Take parking for instance. An article describes the gold mine as such spaces might no longer be for cars only, as the AVs and car-sharing user scenarios might cause new dynamics in traffic. Cities around the globe might redefine the parking spaces for various other usages, according to technology news site Motherboard.

In this case, the AV industry is promising enough to disrupt the real estate market in the long run.

The first autonomous vehicle in the market is expected to come from General Motors (GM), which is ready to mass-produce a self-driving car in 2019.
FRANKFORT, MI -- Have you been watching "The Curse of Civil War Gold" this season on the History Channel?

The finale of the six-show series airs at 10 tonight (April 10, 2018).

Fans can watch the finale tonight with Kevin Dykstra, the treasure hunter who has been on this trail of history for more than 7 years.

He will attend a viewing party tonight at Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort, said brewery co-owner Rick Schmitt.

"He'll get here about 9:30 p.m. to shake hands and field questions about the show."

Schmitt said Dykstra and the whole crew of the show became regulars last fall when taping took place in the area. He said the ship they were using to make dives into Lake Michigan was visible from the shoreline.

"They were here for quite some time," he added. "They were here on and off for three weeks and became good customers of all the operations."

In case you have not tuned in, "The Curse of Civil War Gold" follows Muskegon-area history enthusiasts Kevin Dykstra and Brad Richards, who learn of a deathbed confession made by a lighthouse keeper about a national treasure dating back to the Civil War.

According to the treasure hunters, the Union Army's Michigan 4th Cavalry tracked down Confederate president Jefferson Davis in 1865 and confiscated his gold. The stolen loot was smuggled north years later using the railway system.

In stories written by Justine McGuire of MLive.com and the Muskegon Chronicle, Dykstra, of Fruitport, and Richards, of Nunica, believe that a share of that gold went to Muskegon's most famous philanthropist, Charles H. Hackley.

They also believe the gold somehow ended up in Lake Michigan.

See a clip of tonight's finale below.

Other stories:
WAYLAND -- The director of the Henika District Library in Wayland recently announced she has taken another job as a children's librarian at the Valdeze Consortium Library in Alaska.

Molly Walker, 30, was an intern for four months before she was hired almost three years ago as the library's director. "I will miss Wayland almost more than I can say. It was a very difficult decision to make," Walker said. "This opportunity came up. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid to live in Alaska."

Walker will be moving to Valdeze with her husband, Kyle. Her last day is May 15.

"Molly has been a great director for us, and while I'm sad to see her go, I'm excited for her and her new adventure," Library Board President Teresa Fulk said.

Nick Favreau, circulation and youth services assistant, said "she's been an individual who has really helped the library grow."

She made a difference, Youth Library Services Supervisor Vicki Kouchnerkavich said, by "getting out into the community to create awareness of library services."

Although she will miss Wayland, Walker said she is excited to move to Alaska. "It's just a beautiful place, with the mountains and water. I am a big outdoors person. It has a lot of opportunities for hiking and that kind of thing," she said. "I really fell in love with the community out there. My husband and I wanted to try something new, and this is it."

Walker said she hopes the new director will continue to make the library a welcoming place for the Wayland community. "We have programs they can get online or whatever they need to do," she said. "If they need a quiet place to sit and read a book or friendly face to chat with, we do that too. They can come here for any reason."

Walker said she is going to miss her co-workers. "I just work with a truly wonderful staff. They're on top of things and have wonderful ideas and are so good at what they do," she said.

Fulk said the Henika District Library Board is moving swiftly on seeking a replacement for Walker and hopes to have a candidate in place by Walker's last day.

Interested candidates may view the job posting at: http://henikalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Director-Posting.pdf
Our old friend the Alberta Clipper storm system is coming back to Michigan Thursday, April 12, 2018. This Alberta Clipper will have a much different ending compared the the Alberta Clippers of mid-winter.

An Alberta Clipper storm is a weather system that moves southeast quickly out of, yes, Alberta, Canada. The center of the storm races across the Great Lakes region. This storm will have the typical snow area north of the storm center.

The image above is the forecast for 2 a.m. Thursday, April 12, 2018. Rain will spread into Lower Michigan at that time. Snow will be developing across the U.P. and far northern fringes of Lower Michigan.

Surface weather forecast for 8 a.m. Thursday, April 12, 2018.

The storm center should be in western Lower Michigan around 8 a.m. Thursday. With this position, the rain/snow line should sit across northern Lower, from the Traverse City area to Gaylord to Alpena. Far northern Lower and the U.P. should have snow. The rest of Lower Michigan should have rain showers.

Surface weather forecast for 2 p.m. Thursday, April 12, 2018.

The difference with this Alberta Clipper and a mid-winter Alberta Clipper will be the ending. Mid-winter Alberta Clippers yank down windy, cold air from Canada after the storm passes. This Alberta Clipper won't have cold air behind it. It will actually have some sun come out late Thursday, and temperatures warming up late in the day.

Total snowfall expected Wednesday, April 11, 2018 through Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Just above is the total snow expected from this Alberta Clipper. I'd call it a two to five inch snow for far northern Lower and the U.P. Most of that snow would fall late Wednesday night and Thursday. The southern two-thirds of Lower Michigan may have less than one inch Wednesday morning.

If you are driving north of Gaylord Thursday, and especially across the U.P., you better plan for winter driving.

The next storm, here on the weekend, is a much bigger storm with heavier amounts of precipitation. That storm will have more impacts on Michigan, from heavy snow to heavy ice to heavy rain, depending on your location. Watch for updates here on MLive.com in the next few days.
BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for people around the world to work together toward a community with a shared future for mankind and make Asia and the world peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, open and beautiful.

"With the future in mind, we need to treat each other with respect and as equals," said Xi when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

With the future in mind, Xi said, we also need to promote dialogue and share responsibility, engage in cooperation for win-win results, uphold inclusiveness and seek harmony without uniformity, as well as treat nature with respect and treasure our planet.
Students Naomi Contreras and Dailiany Velasquez, working on art projects at The SPOT

Teaching artist Stephanie Howells

Art work by student Dailiany Velasquez

It's early evening in late March, and the sunset is flooding through the windows of an open studio for teens in southwest Detroit. Karla Rodriguez, a 9th grader at Cass Tech High School, leans intently over an intricate line drawing with a calm focus, slowly expanding the design across the page. Other students around the room are also quietly immersed, all lost in various stages of sketches or painting.These teenagers are enrolled in The SPOT , an open studio that emphasizes unstructured studio time, student-curated guest artists, and field trips to local studios and galleries. A part of nonprofit Living Arts' curriculum for adolescents, the studio centers around the idea that students thrive artistically when given time to wander creatively without the pressure of assignments.The laid-back, self-guided nature of the session is why Rodriguez has attended regularly since 2015. "I'm usually stressed out most of the week with school work," she says. "When I come here, I get to relax. It's good to not stress about anything and just get to do whatever you want." Living Arts director of programs Erika Villarreal Bunce says the studio's focus is based on what teens need the most to flourish as artists. "Adolescence is a time when students can and should be making decisions about their learning experiences," she says. "And they are really quite good at it when they have the right amount of guidance and support."Located in the Ford Resource and Engagement Center , the studio space is chock-full of art, from the paintings and photographs lining the walls to the mobiles made from shredded plastic bottles hanging from the ceiling. Materials for wire sculptures, print-making, and paper mache all have designated containers, ready for use, and iPads are available for everything from song recording to digital illustration.In a typical session, seven to 10 students can be found absorbed in their work. Some might be working solo in a focused manner, while others might be chatting with each other or the teaching artist overseeing the studio. Since there are no objectives or assignments, the room has an overall relaxed feeling. Everything that happens in this time is determined by each individual student leading his or her own artistic exploration.The SPOT was initiated in the summer of 2014 in response to teens' low and inconsistent enrollment in Living Arts' Out-of-School Art Program. Concerned, Villarreal Bunce and her colleagues dug into national research and knowledge curated within the organization that showed teens want more freedom over how they spent their time artistically. They also found that students respond better when the hierarchy of the arts teacher as a "master" is discarded and replaced with a model where teachers are mentor figures on equal ground with students."It's our job to be a 'guide on the side' for students, not a 'sage on the stage,'" Villarreal Bunce says. "We see ourselves as partners with the young people in our studio."Teachers are chosen based on their ability to relinquish control to students. "These are teachers who are really good at creating open-learning situations that involve a lot of youth voice," she says. "They give young people the space to say what needs to happen in an art studio and also give them accountability for how the studio is run and where it's all going."Stephanie Howells recently served as the teaching artist of The SPOT for the first three months of 2018. She often used the time to develop projects for her 2D and 3D art classes she teaches through Living Arts. Working alongside the students, she would often ask them for feedback or help with working out kinks in the assignments.Howells says this reciprocity and co-learning provided a much-needed break from the "performance" aspect of teaching her other classes. "Personally, I love the space," she says. "It's just as healing for me as, hopefully, it is for the students. I don't have an open studio, I don't do it for myself. That's why it's so special for me, too."Outside of Living Arts, Howells curates community exhibitions centered around social justice and community healing through art. She brought this focus to The SPOT by inviting students on a trip to The Alley Project , a program put on by the Detroit Collaborative Design Center that transformed an alley in southwest Detroit into a street art gallery.The students take field trips across the city, including multiple trips to the Detroit Institute of Arts and even chocolate-making excursions to Bon Bon Bon. They've also presented their own open studio at a professional conference in Troy.The artists themselves rotate frequently based on what students are interested in learning. "The cool thing about rotating the teaching artist in the space is that we each have our own medium and technique and personality," Howells says. "Students can develop relationships with different artists and learn from their expertise."An array of artists have visited The SPOT in recent years, including visual artists Mary Kate Hoffman and Michelle Souliere, dancers from the Ann Arbor Contact Improv, AcroYoga practitioner Justin Alesna of the Suttle Dance Company, and jewelry maker Rebecca Willens, among others.Though her tenure in The SPOT ended in March, Howells says her time there influenced her approach as an instructor. "The SPOT's format has influenced even my teaching style in my other classes, where I'm loosening the reins a little bit. Because I've witnessed the magic when students have the freedom to create what they want," she says.The SPOT's current teaching artist is Sterling Toles. A working musician, Toles teaches songwriting and recording in a number of Living Arts' in-school and out-of-school classes. He says the SPOT's open studio time allows students to take everything they've learned and create their own artistic path; one that is not dependent on anyone else."I just love people being able to create authentically without needing to make a product or even something that people will like or understand," he says. "Rather, they are doing it for themselves. Because that's the cool thing. You can be your own favorite artist."
By By:

Dr. Francis R. Souder, 85, formerly of Telford, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 in the skilled nursing unit of Peter Becker Community, Franconia Township. He and his wife Marion R. (Parker) Souder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in July.

Born in Souderton, he was a son of the late Elvin B. and Mary (Rittenhouse) Souder.

A 1938 graduate of Souderton High School, he received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Souder went on to receive his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1944 and completed his internship at Hahnemann Hospital from Oct. 1944  July, 1945.

He served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 30 months in San Diego and Long Beach, Calif. during WW II and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant prior to his discharge. He entered his second tour of duty during the Korean War where he served in Panama City, Fla. as the medical officer for the Panama City Naval Air Station and the Tyndal Air Force Base.

Dr. Souder owned and operated his family practice on Main Street in Telford from 1947-1989. He served on the staff of Grand View Hospital, and as its president, and taught at the Grand View Hospital Nursing School. He was a member of the Pa. Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, Diplomat American Academy of Family Practices, and served on the board of trustees at Grand View Hospital, Sellersville.

He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Telford, where he sang in the church choir. He was also a member of the MacCalla Lodge #596 in Souderton, the Raja Shrine, and Lehigh Consistory.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by a son, Dr. Ronald L. Souder, and his wife Susan L. of Green Lane; a daughter, Susan J. Souder, and her husband Stephan Russo of New York, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Jennifer A. Souder of Philadelphia; Emily E. Souder of Philadelphia; Kathryn A. Souder of Washington, D.C.; Noah Russo of New York, N.Y., and Rebekah Russo of New York, N.Y., and two brothers: Attorney Elvin B. Souder of Souderton and Dr. Lawrence Souder of Souderton.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. in Trinity United Church of Christ, 101 S. Main St., Telford, with calling hours following the service.

Interment will be private in Trinity UCC Cemetery Telford.

Memorial contributions may be made to Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville, Pa. 18960.

Arrangements are by Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, Telford.
April 10, 2018

Open Thread 2018-16

After last nights maintenance there still appear to be some small problems with the back-end of the blog infrastructure. I currently can not upload pictures and have difficulties editing longer text. The provider is working on these issues.

Use as open thread ..

Posted by b on April 10, 2018 at 17:23 UTC | Permalink

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Tracey Jewel from Married at First Sight Australia has reversed $9000 worth of cosmetic surgery after admitting to feeling extremely bullied by viewers during her time on Married At First Sight.

She confirmed she's had all the fillers in her cheeks, lips and under her eyes dissolved after she was targeted for her looks. Its understood Tracey had had a boob job, Botox, lip fillers, and liposuction following her divorce five years ago.

I got filler in my cheeks, lips and under my eyes, Tracey told Womans Day .

But TV wasnt so kind. Id look at some of the angles I was shot in and think, S**t, is that what I look like? Then the online abuse started.

She said it left her feeling very teary and extremely bullied and made her realise she may have gone too far with the fillers in her face, so she went back to her surgeon to have it reversed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to further open up China to the world at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 on Tuesday.

To further widen market access

Late last year, China announced that measures would be taken to raise foreign equity caps in the banking, securities and insurance industries.

China will accelerate the opening-up of the insurance industry, ease restrictions on the establishment of foreign financial institutions in China and expand their business scope, and open up more areas of cooperation between Chinese and foreign financial markets.

On manufacturing, China has basically opened up this sector with a small number of exceptions on automobiles, ships and aircraft. "Going forward, we will reduce as soon as possible limits on foreign investment in these industries, automobiles in particular," Xi said.

To improve the investment environment for foreign investors

Likening investment environment to air, Xi said that only fresh air can attract more investment from the outside.

"China relied mainly on providing favorable policies for foreign investors in the past, but now we will have to rely more on improving the investment environment," he said.

"We will enhance alignment with international economic and trading rules, increase transparency, strengthen property right protection, uphold the rule of law, encourage competition and oppose monopoly," he said.

In March, China established a host of new agencies such as the State Administration for Market Regulation as part of a major readjustment of government institutions.

The purpose of this readjustment was to remove the systematic and institutional obstacles that prevent the market from playing a decisive role in resources allocation, and enable the government to better play its role.

Xi said that China will complete the revision of the negative list on foreign investment in the first half of the year and implement across the board the management system based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list.

To strengthen protection of intellectual property rights

IPR protection is the centerpiece of the system for improving property rights protection, and it will provide the biggest boost to enhancing the competitiveness of the Chinese economy.

"Stronger IPR protection is the requirement of foreign enterprises, and even more so of Chinese enterprises," Xi said.

China is re-instituting the State Intellectual Property Office this year to step up law enforcement, significantly raise the cost for offenders and fully unlock the deterrent effect of relevant laws.

"We encourage normal technological exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and protect the lawful IPR owned by foreign enterprises in China," he said.

Meanwhile, China hopes foreign governments will also improve protection of Chinese IPR, the president said.

To take the initiative to expand imports

The country will work hard to import more products that are competitive and needed by the Chinese people.

China will also seek faster progress toward joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, according to the president.

China will significantly lower the import tariffs for vehicles and reduce import tariffs for some other products this year.

"China does not seek trade surplus; we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," he said.

China hopes developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable trade of high-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China.

The first China International Import Expo to be held in Shanghai this November is not just another expo in an ordinary sense, but a major policy initiative and commitment taken of our own accord to open up the Chinese market, Xi said.
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How did you team up with Favre-Leuba?

It was actually at a meeting in Baselworld this time last year. A friend of mine spotted the brand and suggested that they might be interested in teaming up with Arctic Mission. I am the director of the mission, which is concerned with marine ecosystem research in the Central Arctic Ocean and public awareness of the issues that this ecosystem faces due to sea-ice loss. This is seen as a geophysical issue but it is actually a habitat issue because animals live above the sea ice, on the sea ice (bears, Arctic foxes and walruses), in the ice itself, and below it.

Arctic Mission aims to promote, through the United Nations, the idea of increased protection for the international waters around the Arctic and the North Pole. The habitat is already disappearing, but as a result it is also making the area accessible for the first time. Last year, our two 50-foot yachts were the first vessels without ice breakers to penetrate 300 miles into the international waters around the North Pole. Our point was that if we can do that with our small boats, imagine what commercial shipping and fishing vessels can do right now and imagine the consequences of that for this fragile environment.

One of the boats of the Arctic Mission  Favre-Leuba

Which Favre-Leuba watch did you wear?

I wore the Raider Harpoon, which I love because the issue with diving is that two hands on a watch can lead to confusion and Favre-Leuba have simplified this by just having one hand. Its practical but quirky.

The Favre-Leuba Raider Harpoon on Pen Hadow's wrist  Favre-Leuba

What do you like about working with Favre-Leuba?

I am passionately fired up about the brand because a model like the new Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth is best in class. It can record the lowest depth of your dive down to 120 metres and it is water resistant to 200 metres.

The Raider Bivouac was the only watch back in 1962 and still is the only watch today with an analogue system for showing altitude. This has genuine practical applications if you know what you are doing. For example, in mountainous terrain if you have been in a white-out for some time and you have been climbing and ascending, you may not remember what mountain you are on. It may sound silly but it can happen. You may know the slope you are on and you may know that it is south-facing; you probably know the area of the map that you are in but very often if you know your altitude to within five metres you can locate exactly where you are. You have to know what you are doing, of course. Every time you go through a known altitude, for example past a mountain hut, you need to reset the altitude.

Because the Raider Bivouac uses barometric pressure to measure altitude you can also use it for weather forecasting. On a yacht, for example, your altitude will always be a constant zero, so you can set the altitude to zero and then forecast the weather based on changes in barometric pressure and how quick it is rising or falling.
Delinquencies Down Overall, Texas and Florida Still Coping

In the company's loan performance report for January, Frank Martell, CoreLogic's president and CEO said, "Except for the metropolitan areas affected by natural disasters, most of the country has seen delinquency and foreclosure rates move lower over the past year. Declines in the unemployment rate have supported a rise in income and home-price growth has built home equity. These two economic forces coupled with high-quality underwriting have lowered overall delinquency rates."

The national rate for loans that were 30 or more days past due declined from 5.1 percent of active loans in January 2017 to 4.9 percent 12 months later, but that improvement would have been greater absent the push higher from two states. Besides being among the nation's most populous, Texas and Florida bore the brunt of last fall's twin hurricanes and were the only two states where delinquencies increased year-over-year. The delinquency rate in Florida, which was 6.0 percent in January 2017 had risen to 8.4 percent by this January's report. In Texas the year-over-year increase of 0.7 percentage point brought the rate to 6.3 percent.

The higher rates in those states are increasingly due to serious delinquencies. While the national rate for loans more than 90 days past due but not in foreclosure was 2.1 percent, down from 2.3 percent the prior January, the rate in Texas was up 0.8 percent to 2.7 percent while in Florida it grew 1.9 point to 5.1 percent. However, in both states the foreclosure inventory rate declined as it did nationally as well, moving from 0.8 percent in January 2017 to 0.6 percent in January 2018. Many lenders have or had put foreclosure moratoria in effect after the storms.

CoreLogic's chief economist Frank Nothaft said, "The areas hit by last year's hurricanes and wildfires are experiencing the "pig in a python" effect on their local delinquency rates, a bulge in an otherwise level trend. This means that although early-stage delinquencies have largely dropped back to normal, serious delinquency remains elevated. In hard-hit markets, like the Houston and Naples metro areas, serous delinquency is triple what it was before the hurricanes." Nothaft noted that, in the San Juan area of Puerto Rico, not included in national statistics, serious delinquency has quadrupled.

The effects of natural disasters are even more clearly seen on the metro level. CoreLogic identifies 31 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) where the serious delinquency rate increased. All but two are in either Texas or Florida. The outliers were Fairbanks, which has been suffering from the decline in oil prices, and Santa Rosa, California where a wildfire last fall leveled much of the town. There the 30-day rate jumped a half-point to 2.4 percent while serious delinquencies rose from 0.7 percent to 1.0 percent for the 12 months ended in January. In 11 other CBSA's the serious delinquency rate was unchanged.

CoreLogic also looks at transition rates that indicate the percent of mortgages moving from one stage of delinquency to the next. The rate for those that transitioned from current to 30-days past due was 0.8 percent in January 2018, down from 1.1 percent in December 2017 and down from 0.9 percent in January 2017. By comparison, in January 2007, just before the start of the financial crisis, the current-to-30-day transition rate was 1.2 percent and peaked in November 2008 at 2 percent.
LO Training, Lender Products; State-Level Changes

Plenty of folks are moving to Florida, where I am today for a VA Conference. Do property taxes matter? Sure they do. Enough to move to an entirely different state? This article says, Apparently. Experts say that jobs are the most important determinant of where home buyers will locate. After that, state and local taxes matter in areas that are seeing strong population inflows anyway. Among the counties that saw the biggest percentage of in-migration in 2017, according to Census data, all are in Texas, Florida, Georgia, or the Carolinas. (Texas property taxes arent low, but it has no personal income tax, making the overall tax burden much more manageable.) Lots more state stuff below.



State-level Changes and Lender State Changes

Texas has amended 7 TAC Chapter 153 Home Equity Lending. Key changes include: The current three percent fee limitation has been replaced with a two percent fee limitation. The revisions clarify that the fees included in the limitation calculation do not include certain third-party charges such as appraisal fees, property survey fees, lenders title insurance premium and title report fees. The current prohibition on home equity loan for agricultural property has been removed. Certain subsidies of depository institutions have been added to the list of lenders permitted to make home equity loans. A home equity loan is now allowed to be refinanced into a non-home equity loan if four conditions are met: one-year timing limitation for refinance, limitation on advance of additional funds, may not be more than 80% LTV, required 12-day disclosure to property owner providing information concerning consumer protections that may be lost by a refinance into a non-home equity loan. The revisions outline changes to the required 12-day consumer disclosure to conform to new requirements. The current 50% limitation on additional debits or advances for a home equity line of credit has been removed.

South Dakota has enacted provisions regarding notifications relating to system security breaches where personal or protected information has been or may have been acquired by an unauthorized person. Personal information includes a persons name in combination with other assigned identification numbers such as a social security number, drivers license number, employee number or credit card number. Protected information includes a user name or email address in addition to a password or security question answer or other information that permits access to an online account; and an account number in addition to a security or access code that permits access to a financial account.

Florida has recently enacted House Bill 935, regarding business purpose mortgage loans. The updated provisions are effective as of July 1, 2018. The crux of this update is a new provision stating that, under Florida law, it is unlawful for any person in a mortgage loan transaction to misrepresent a residential mortgage loan as a business purpose loan. A business purpose loan is a mortgage loan in which the borrower intends to use the proceeds primarily for a business purpose, rather than a personal, family, or household purpose. A common example of a business purpose loan is the purchase of a non-owner-occupied investment property. An example of the type of fraud that this update is targeting is the situation where a borrowers income is too low to qualify for a mortgage to purchase a primary residence. A borrower may decide to fraudulently apply for a mortgage to purchase the home as an investment property, so that he or she may use rental income to qualify for the loan.

Indiana amended provisions relating to notarial acts through Senate Bill 372. Provisions in this bill range from being effective immediately to being effective on July 1, 2019. Many of the amendments make technical changes to the standard language and definitions as they relate to notarial acts. There are also new provisions in Senate Bill 372 that specify requirements for remote notarial acts.



Capital Markets

Rates stayed relatively flat yesterday after a shaky Friday on Wall Street, mostly due to the lack of any meaningful economic releases. The largest news of note was the Congressional Budget Office releasing its latest Budget and Economic Outlook, which projected a slowdown in real GDP over the next two and a half years. The budget deficit is expected to grow substantially over the next few years. This comes as China is reportedly looking into yuan devaluation as one of a litany of potential responses to tariffs. In mortgage-related news, private mortgage insurers saw their stocks take a pounding yesterday following MGIC's decision to cut premiums citing benefits from lower corporate taxes.

Weve already had the March NFIB Small Business Optimism this morning, reversing sharply. Weve also had the March PPI (+.3%, strong) and core PPI (+.4%), of which both were expected to remain at 0.2% like their previous readings. We then have Redbook Same-Store Sales (previously 0.4% MoM and 4.4% YoY) before February Wholesale Inventories at 10am ET, where the consensus is a rise to 1.1% from the prior 0.8% reading. The only other news of note are a $30 billion 3-yr note auction, and remarks by Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan & Atlanta's Fed President Bostic. We start Tuesday with agency MBS prices -.125 versus last nights close and the 10-year yielding 2.80%.

LO Events and Training

Mortgage Professionals Academy is interested in teaching your employees their Continuing Education for 2018; offering live classes for mortgage Continuing Education and Pre-Licensing. If you are a manager, owner, broker, AE., compliance officer or office manager who is hoping to have us come to your office to teach your employees, please reach out to us for a competitive bid. We offer a live, classroom setting in lieu of online learning, and in one day. We are flexible and can teach half day or evening classes. If you are interested, reach out to Corey Moser (800-746-1961). We have a 5-Star Rating from our students.

Todd Duncan and High Trust are pleased to announce Sales Mastery 2018. Over 60,000 Loan Originators and Leaders have made Sales Mastery their trusted source for information to keep them on the leading edge. This 4-day event will be held in San Diego, California at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina on October 10-13th, 2018. Click here for more information. Success in sales has everything to do with keeping personal priorities. If your numbers are stale, it may just be a matter of trust. Sales Mastery 2017 is focused on bringing you fresh ideas, easy to implement strategies, and innovative training from the most unique, standout influencers and experts in the industry. Also, if you lead others and want to take your leadership skills to the next level, Todd has just released a free resource entitled, 5 Character Traits of Lousy Sales Leaders. You can download it here.

(By the way, yesterdays commentary noted that The North Carolina Bankers Association is hosting the American Mortgage Conference on May 1-2. The location is in Pinehurst  no change; for out-of-towners Raleigh is the likely airport to use.)

Jobs and Products

Act Presidential, everybody, you are representing Stearns! The 2018 Stearns Wholesale Presidents Club Winners positive attitude, hard work and an unstoppable spirit have helped countless buyers achieve the American dream, while helping brokers grow their businesses. Positive attitude and recognition are great, but we thought a trip to Hyatt Ziva in Cabo San Lucas would be even better. All of our award-winning Account Executives and Operations team members are headed to the beach tomorrow for a fabulous and well-deserved vacation. Watch out Cabohere we come! Want to be a part of our fun? Email jvazquez@stearns.com to learn more about Stearns.

A very happy birthday to Mortgage Network, which is celebratingholy cowits 30th year in business! Over the past several decades, Mortgage Network has expanded from its New England roots and is now licensed in 27 states with more than 400 employees in over 40 branch offices. EVP Brian Koss attributes the companys longevity to its vibrant sales culture, a bend over backward customer approach and a focus on technology. The company took the forward-thinking step of building its own technology platform, which lets borrowers start the mortgage process online while helping loan officers deliver an incredible, more efficient experience. Weve always done things differently here, Koss says. Because were privately owned, we call our own shots and cut through red tape for our clients. Customer surveys have found 98% of Mortgage Network borrowers would recommend the lender to their family or friends, so the company is doing something right. And management is hiring!

Trying to keep everyone on the same page sometimes feels a bit like herding cats, especially if you have multiple branches, multiple operations centers, and distributed staff. Staying compliant and sticking to procedures can be hard without the right tools to support you. Heres a little help to ensure your teams stay informed, have access to the most current job aides and other corporate resources, and follow consistent simple-to-use workflows. The Hub promises all of this, comes pre-configured with lots of mortgage-specific resources and workflows, and you can add your own within minutes. You might be surprised at how much of a unifying effect these simple-to-use tools can have on your scattered staff. The Hub is offering a free 15-day trial and theyll waive your setup fee if you sign up before April 15th. More at http://thegrindhub.com.

The online loan trading platforms come up in conversations everywhere, with Resitrader appearing to be the leader in driving us to a market trading platform. We hear about adoption from both buyers and sellers who reference the marketplace, and what they mean is online trading. Maybe its time we start monitoring the whole loan volumes driven through platforms versus email.

HomeScout  HBM knows that loan officers have got better things to do than managing traditional email and digital marketing campaigns and chasing dead end leads. In a recent survey, OutboundEngine found that over 31% of loan officers purchased leads, with many spending more than $500 a month, and average conversion rates between 2-4% without critical conversion processes. HBM has a proven 22-year history of drastically increasing lead conversion, making HomeScout the must have app for all lenders and agents looking to grow their business. Our consumer & realtor referral platform is an affordable lead conversion solution, and perfect for any lender or branch, regardless of size. For more information or to schedule a demo, reach out HERE or give us a call at 952-831-0623. You can also schedule an appointment with us at the MBA Technology Solutions Conference, in Detroit, MI April 15-18 and stop by our booth #318.

Fundingshield, one of the fastest growing fintech firms in the risk, wire fraud and closing vendor compliance in the mortgage lending space, is pleased to share rapid growth in 2018 with a multiple increase in lender clients on its platform in the last 6 months. This includes several recently on-boarded household name banks using their loan transaction level services that have the market leading track record of over $530 Billion in verified mortgage closings with no losses, no claims and no delayed closings. We are glad to see mortgage lenders approving and embracing our plug-n-play and pay per loan cloud-based solutions, especially the wire fraud services, shared Ike Suri, Chairman & CEO. Fundingshield will be on two MBA Technology Solutions Conference panels in Detroit: Cyber Security: Learning From Previous Cyber Attacks and Residential Closing Session: A Conversation About Collaborative Opportunities where William Klumper, Senior Advisor of Fundingshield and Vice Chairman of MISMO, will be speaking alongside Blend, Arraya Solutions and a top 10 global law firm Jones Day.

Congrats to Mary Porges who is retiring this week after a stellar 35-year career at GE Capital (now Genworth), Chase and National MI!

And to Michelle Gill whom SoFi has named as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Gill comes to SoFi from TPG Sixth Street Partners, a credit firm, but prior to that was with Goldman Sachs doing mortgage securitizations.
Egypts Court of Cassation overturned on Tuesday death sentences and jail terms and ordered a retrial for defendants previously convicted in the Waraq terrorist cell case.

The court ordered the retrial after reviewing appeals filed by eight of the defendants, who had been sentenced to verdicts ranging from five-year prison terms, life imprisonment and death sentences.

The defendants will be retried in a different criminal court district.

Tuesdays ruling comes more than one year after a Giza criminal court sentenced two of the defendants to death, two to life imprisonment, and four to five-year terms.

The defendants were convicted of joining an outlawed group, killing a policeman and a civilian, and possessing weaponry in Waraq district, northern Giza in February 2016.

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An Alexandria military court issued on Tuesday preliminary death sentences against 36 people convicted of involvement in deadly bombings on two Egyptian churches in Alexandria and Tanta in April 2017.

The case involves 48 defendants, 31 of whom are in custody and 17 are fugitives.

The court has referred the case to the country's Grand Mufti for his non-binding opinion on the death sentence as per Egyptian law. The verdict is subject to appeal.

According to the prosecution, a number of the defendants formed an illegal group that calls for the suspension of the law and the constitution, the obstruction of state institutions from carrying out their duties, and assaulting the personal freedom of citizens.

The prosecution charged three of the defendants with training a number of the groups members in manufacturing explosives, using weaponry, and combat tactics at training camps.

The defendants were convicted of a number of terrorist attacks against civilians and policemen in 2016 and 2017.

In April 2017, suicide bombers attacked St George's Church in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria on Palm Sunday, killing 46 people and injuring dozens.

Both attacks were claimed by the Daesh terrorist group.

One day after the April attacks, the interior ministry said that police had killed seven members of a terrorist cell involved in the bombings in a shootout in Upper Egypt's Assiut governorate.

A three-month state of emergency  which has since been renewed every three months  was declared by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the day of the church attacks.

The defendants were also charged with participating in a January 2017 attack on a security checkpoint in Egypts New Valley governorate near the Western Desert, killing eight policemen.

The attack on the Naqb checkpoint took place some 80 kilometres away from the provincial capital of Al-Kharga, and more than 600 kilometres southwest of Cairo.

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Alibaba Leads $600m Round for Facial Recognition Firm

Facial recognition technology developer SenseTime has received $600m in a Series C round of funding, led by Chinese eCommerce company Alibaba.



SenseTime is headquartered in Beijing and Hong Kong, with offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Kyoto and Tokyo. The firm's multifunctional technology, based on AI and big data analysis, is used for facial recognition, image recognition, and intelligent video analytics.



The new funding, which adds to last July's $410m Series B round, was supported by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Chinese retailer Suning and is expected to be used to open up new business opportunities and expand SenseTime's AI platform. Company CEO and co-founder Li Xu said that the investment will accelerate the development of a global footprint with both domestic and overseas partners.



In a statement, Alibaba Vice Chairman and co-founder Joe Tsai (pictured) said of SenseTime's achievements: 'We are especially impressed by the firm's R&D capabilities in deep learning and visual computing. Our business at Alibaba is already seeing tangible benefits from our investments in AI, and we are committed to further investment. Our strategic partnership with SenseTime will spark more innovation and create value for society'.



Web site: www.sensetime.com .




A delegation from the Russian Ministry of Transportation inspected on Tuesday security measures at Cairo International Airport one last time before the arrival of the first direct flight from Moscow to Cairo since Russia suspended commercial flights between the two countries in late 2015, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Security sources at the airport told Al-Ahram that the delegation, accompanied by representatives from the Russian embassy in Cairo, inspected security procedures at the arrival and departure halls in Terminal 2, which will receive inbound and outbound Cairo-Moscow flights.

The sources added that the delegation inspected security procedures for goods and passengers, starting from when passengers first enter the airport to take-off.

The first flight (Aeroflot SU400) will take off from Russia's Sheremetyveo International Airport on Wednesday at 10:50pm Moscow local time, and is expected to arrive on Thursday at 12:25am Cairo local time.

The direct flight will be the first by the Russian national airline to Cairo International Airport since a Russian Airbus A321 crashed in October 2015 shortly after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

Egypt has since boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian security conditions for lifting the flight ban.

The Russian flight ban, which was implemented shortly after the crash, struck a blow to Egypts tourism industry.

Russia has traditionally been the largest exporter of tourism to Egypt, contributing about a fifth of foreign vacationers to the country as of 2015, according to official data.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree to resume commercial air traffic between the two countries' capitals.

A round of talks between the two countries is set for later this month to discuss resuming charter flights from Russia to the Red Sea resort cities of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh.

Starting Thursday, Egypt's flagship airline EgyptAir is set to resume Cairo-Moscow flights with a flight to Moscow that will depart at 9:30am CET from Cairo International Airport's Terminal 2.

EgyptAir will be flying three weekly flights to the Russian capital.

In March, EgyptAir said it would offer a 50 percent discount on business class seats on Thursday's flight, as well as a 35 percent discount on economy seats.

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In Focus with Allison Walker is a 30-minute public affairs program, featuring a roundtable of newsmakers representing a range of perspectives, including local officials and expert analysts as they tackle topical issues of importance to Floridians.

In Focus airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., right after Political Connections.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed the latest regional developments with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Minister of Defence Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Cairo on Wednesday, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

El-Sisi and bin Zayed agreed to continue consultations and coordination between the two countries on regional crises.

The two leaders agreed on the importance of supporting efforts to reach political solutions to different conflicts in the region, stressing the importance of maintaining the sovereignty of the concerned states and the integrity of their territories.

They also discussed the latest developments in the war against terrorism, as well as boosting bilateral relations.

Bin Zayed arrived in Cairo earlier on Wednesday for a two-day visit.

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Seven Iranian military personnel were killed in Sunday's air strike on a Syrian air base, Tasnim news agency said, almost double the number originally reported.

Syria's government and its ally Iran have accused Israel of carrying out the attack on the Tiyas, or T-4, air base near Homs - something that Israel has not confirmed or denied.

The bodies of the Iranians, described as military advisers, had been flown back to Iran and funerals would take place later on Tuesday, Tasnim said. Earlier Iranian media reports said four personnel were killed.

The attack took place hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay" following the reports of a poison gas attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma. Syria's government has denied any involvement in that attack.

"It seems the U.S. government is looking for an excuse for military intervention," Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said has he arrived in Brazil early on Tuesday, according to state media.

"Iran's stance on chemical weapons is clear and we condemn any use of them against any target," Zarif added.

The Revolutionary Guards, Irans most powerful military force, have been fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for several years. More than 1,000 Iranians have been killed in Syria's civil war, including senior members of the Guards.

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Dozens of buses arrived in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Tuesday carrying Syrian insurgents who agreed to surrender the town they controlled near Damascus after it was hit in a suspected chemical attack, a war monitor said on Tuesday.

Their evacuation, along with their families, came as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet later on Tuesday to discuss the suspected poison gas attack on Douma over the weekend.

Rebels accused the government, which denies any involvement, and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to take swift action. The U.N. chemical weapons watchdog has started an investigation. The Syrian government's main ally, Russia, says the reports of the chemical attack are bogus.

About 40,000 militants and their families are expected to leave Douma, the pro-government Watan newspaper reported.

The deal restores President Bashar al-Assad's control over the entire eastern Ghouta - formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus.

Sixty-seven buses carrying hundreds of fighters, along with family members and other civilians who did not wish to come back under Assad's rule, reached opposition areas near Aleppo on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

RIA news agency quoted Russia's Defence Ministry as saying 3,600 militants and their families had left Douma over the past 24 hours. As part of the surrender deal, the Jaish al-Islam group which controlled the town released scores of people it had been holding.

The deal took effect on Sunday, hours after medical aid groups reported the suspected chemical attack, saying it had killed dozens of people in the town the day after the government renewed its intense bombardment.

Jaish al-Islam's departure will bring to an end the opposition presence in eastern Ghouta after a seven-week military offensive against the densely populated area.

Thousands of fighters from other rebel groups, accompanied by tens of thousands of civilians, have already left for northwestern Syria after surrender deals for the Ghouta's other major towns.

It represents Assad's biggest battlefield victory over rebels since late 2016 when he fully recaptured Aleppo, and underlines his unassailable position in the war.

Western countries have said Assad's assault on eastern Ghouta was a violation of a Security Council resolution calling for a complete ceasefire across Syria.

Damascus and Moscow said the groups controlling the area were not covered by the truce, and the offensive was needed to end the control of Islamist insurgents over the area's large civilian population and to stop mortar attacks on the capital.



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Jeremy Wade searches for answers in the most remarkable rivers, lakes and seas on the planet to reveal the secrets of these extraordinary places.

Tuesdays from 9pm AEST.
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International chemical weapons experts will go to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate a suspected poison gas attack, their organisation said on Tuesday, as the United States and other Western powers consider military action over the incident.

US President Donald Trump, who had been due to travel to Peru on Friday, cancelled a trip to Latin America to focus on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

France and Britain also discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the incident. Both stressed that the culprit in the incident still needed to be confirmed.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday's suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syrian relief group.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

The incident has thrust Syria's seven-year-old conflict back to the forefront of international concern and pitted Washington and Moscow against each other again.

Russia and the United States were headed for a showdown at the United Nations over how to respond to the Douma attack.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran, Assad's other main ally, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country's northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad's control over the eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

Smell Of Gas

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team.

"The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly," it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used, but will not assign blame. Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move apparently aimed at averting any US-led action.

"Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions," Syria's state news agency SANA said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail.

Any US strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defence systems. A US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government's allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government's chemical facilities.

Speaking alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Macron said a decision on whether to carry out military strikes would be made in the coming days after more consultations with the United States and Britain.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base.

A US action similar to last year's would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad's way since 2015.

A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by the United States and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said.

Trump met at the White House with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Trump gave no hints about potential U.S. action, but al-Thani told reporters, "We cannot tolerate, with a war criminal" like Assad.

UN Tensions

The UN Security Council is due to vote on three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria on Tuesday, setting up a showdown between the United States and Russia.

The United States has requested the Security Council vote at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) on a proposal for a new inquiry into chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution was likely to be blocked by Russia, which will put two draft resolutions on Syria of its own to a vote because it does not agree with the U.S. text, diplomats said.

"This is basically a diplomatic set-up," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"Russia will inevitably veto the US resolution criticising Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes," he said. "A breakdown at the UN will also make it easier for France to justify strikes."

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France and Britain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a "confrontational policy" against Russia and Syria.

France said it would respond if it was proven that Assad's forces carried out the attack.

A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside US ships as part of France's contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

A previous inquiry by the United Nations and the OPCW found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in 2017, and had also used chlorine several times as a weapon.

Despite the international revulsion over the chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents is in the dozens, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.

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This blog offers updates on the National Conference of State Legislatures' research and training, the latest on federalism and the state legislative institution, and posts about state legislators and legislative staff. The blog is edited by NCSL staff and written primarily by NCSL's experts on public policy and the state legislative institution.
Adrian Kraus / AP Photo

I know Im late but I wanted to take the first couple of days to really reflect on how far the Lord has brought me and what Hes calling me to do in New England. The opportunity to play for the Patriots is the ultimate honor and Im excited to get to work with the guys! LETS GO!! pic.twitter.com/nro7cRfc9i April 8, 2018

The Patriots signed wideout Jordan Matthews to a one-year deal last week, and it looks like he's excited to get to work for his new team. Matthews expressed his reaction to signing in New England on Twitter, and it was about as positive as can be:By the way he talks about the Patriots organization, it's clear Matthews is thrilled to be in Foxborough and wants to help the Patriots compete for another title. We'll see how it plays out this year.Like what you read? Read more by me here , and follow me on Twitter @AidanStenson
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Union minister and OBC leader Upendra Kushwahas cavalcade was on Tuesday stopped and he was manhandled by anti-reservation protesters in Bihars Vaishali district during Bharat Bandh. Bihar witnessed several incidents of clashes during the protests.

Some 30 protesters forced Kushwahas car to stop near Hajipur when he was on his way to Motihari to attend a programme in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest. The incident prevented the Union minister of state for human resource and development, who is also the national president of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), from making it to Motihari.

Some people with feudal characteristics and opposed to social equality had blocked the road at Loma village of Hajipur. When I tried to persuade them, they manhandled me and used derogatory words against Dalits and the backward community, said Kushwaha in a series of tweets.

RLSP national spokesperson Madhaw Anand and several other leaders condemned the attack on Kushwaha. The RLSP has been founded on the ideals of socialism and equality. We have always stood in favour of affirmative action and will continue to do so. The people of Bihar know this very well, said Anand.

Violent protests by people demanding abolition of caste-based reservation in jobs and educational opportunities were seen in Barh, Kaimur, Chapra, Ara, Nalanda, Gaya, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, among other places. The state police were on high alert for the bandh, which was the second nationwide bandh in a fortnight over reservations based on caste.

In Ara town of Bhojpur district, 12 people were injured in a violent clash between supporters of the Bharat Bandh and a pro-reservation group comprising OBCs and Dalits during the bandh. Supporters of the bandh, mostly upper-castes youth, blocked roads at several places of the district.

At least five policemen were injured in Gaya during an incident of stone pelting by the bandh supporters. Police wielded the baton to disperse the mob. In Begusarai district, the SHO of Lakho police station was injured in stone-pelting by the anti-reservation protesters.

A statue of dalit icon BR Ambedkar was damaged by the bandh supporters in Sheikhpura. The protesters pelted stones at police and clashed with the cops, said sources.

#WATCH: Clash between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/s0RUA4KP2B  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

In Jharkhands Deoghar, a group of bandh supporters forced their way into Ambedkar Library in the town and indulged in vandalism. Swift police action, however, prevented any major damage, said sources. The protests in Jharkhand were much smaller in magnitude than Bihar.

Violence seen during this bandh was incited by BJP and RSS. While the protests took to the streets, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar remained a mute spectator because he is just a puppet, said Rajya Sabha member and RJD national spokesperson Manoj Jha.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of all political prisoners held in the country, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The decision came in response to calls from political parties and groups that have participated in the country's ongoing national dialogue to grant detainees the opportunity to engage in the political process, SUNA reported.

Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989 when he came to power in an Islamist and military-backed coup, has said he will not stand in elections expected in 2020 and appointed a prime minister last year for the first time.

"The release of political prisoners comes to strengthen the spirit of reconciliation, national harmony and peace created by the national dialogue" and as part of "steps to prepare a permanent constitution for the country," SUNA said.

Since 2015 Bashir has held ongoing meetings with opposition and rebel groups under the banner of a national dialogue, in part to end longstanding conflicts in warring regions such as Darfur.

Many groups have boycotted the initiative however, demanding that Bashir first repeal what they describe as repressive security and press laws and free political detainees.

SUNA did not specify how many political prisoners the decision would affect or the names of any of those set to be released.

Last month Bashir ordered about 80 political detainees released, weeks after they were arrested amid countrywide protests over soaring food prices and ongoing austerity measures.

Opposition groups have said about 50 political detainees remain in prison, including prominent politician Mohamed Mokhtar al-Khatib, the leader of Sudan's communist party.

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Lockdown lifted at Rogers High after report of stranger on campus

According to an email that went out to the school community, the school went into lockdown around 12:30 p.m.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Tuesday it was unclear whether talks between Europeans and the United States would be enough to fix the Iran nuclear deal's shortcomings, and that Tehran's "vision of darkness" had to be stopped.

US President Donald Trump gave an ultimatum to the European powers on Jan. 12, saying they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws" of the 2015 deal or he would refuse to extend the U.S. sanctions relief on Iran that it calls for. US sanctions will resume unless Trump waives them again on May 12.

Speaking to reporters after talks in Paris, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he believed France, Britain and Germany agreed that Iran's ballistic missile programme and regional activities had to be addressed, but that they disagreed with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel on the need to revamp the accord.

"The deal is lacking and the agreement needs to be improved," he said. "I believe their (European) position is that if you have a deal you shouldn't reopen the deal. There is some talk (among them) on what options you could have to enhance the deal without removing the deal."

Washington last held talks with the European powers in March. Its lead negotiator said afterwards the United States was making contingency plans in the event that they failed to agree.

European officials said the next consultations would take place in Washington on Wednesday. Two diplomats said they had little hope that the deal could be ultimately be saved.

The crux of the 2015 agreement between Iran and six major powers - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States - was that Iran would restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions that had crippled its economy.

Trump sees three defects in the deal: its failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program and regional activities; the terms under which international inspectors can visit suspect Iranian nuclear sites; and "sunset" clauses, under which limits on the Iranian nuclear program start to expire after 10 years.

The three European powers broadly agree on the ballistic aspects and the need to curb Iran's regional influence, and have been pushing for EU support to approve new sanctions on those issues, but have struggled to win over other member states.

The European powers have also held parallel talks with Tehran, without result, over its role in the Middle East, where it is fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and backs Lebanon's armed Hezbollah party and the Houthi movement opposing Saudi-led forces in Yemen.

Jubeir said curbing Iran's regional actions could no longer wait, and that Trump had made clear that "no deal is better than a bad deal".

"There are two visions in the Middle East, a vision of light where you want to reform your country ... and then there is a vision of darkness to use sectarianism, export your revolution, support terrorism ... and that's the Iranian model," he said.

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Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.
Russia and the United States tangled on Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council over Syria as they blocked attempts by each other to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in the war-ravaged country.

The United States and other Western powers are considering taking military action over a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held Syrian town that long had held out against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution to create a new inquiry to ascertain blame for such attacks. The United States and other countries then blocked a rival Russian bid to set up a different probe that would require the Security Council to attribute responsibility.

Moscow opposes any Western strike on its close ally Assad. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Washington's decision to put forward its resolution could be a prelude to a Western strike on Syria.

"The United States is again trying to mislead the international community and is making yet one more step toward confrontation," Nebenzia told the 15-member Security Council. "It is clear that the provocation step has nothing to do with a desire to investigate what happened."

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday's suspected chemical weapons attack on the town of Douma, according to a Syrian relief group. Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that adopting the U.S.-drafted resolution was the least that member nations could do.

"History will record that, on this day, Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people," Haley said, referring to Assad.

Twelve council members voted in favor of the U.S.-drafted resolution, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting no, and China abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to pass.

U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

International chemical weapons experts will go Douma to investigate the suspected poison gas attack, their organization said on Tuesday, as the United States and other Western powers consider military action over the incident.

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Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam met Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 in Hainan today.

Mrs Lam said she hopes co-operation between Hong Kong and Pakistan will be strengthened.

"Pakistan is a very important country along the Belt & Road.

"I heard in these two days about the significance of infrastructure along the Belt & Road countries, and this is certainly an area that Hong Kong can contribute both in terms of raising money for the infrastructure projects, in terms of risk management of the project, monitoring and also on the construction side, because over the years, Hong Kong has built many important infrastructures, like bridges, tunnels and railways. So we are very happy to be able to play a part in your government's development."

Mrs Lam also met CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee Secretary Ren Xuefeng and discussed the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area.

She said with the forthcoming promulgation of the bay area development plan, it is important to enhance understanding of the bay area among the people in Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau.

She hopes the bay area's development will offer more opportunities to people from Hong Kong and Guangzhou, especially young people.
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer.

Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back arms support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are leading the coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to ease the crisis.

Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a YouGov poll found.

Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.

"Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, France has adopted a very specific process whereby all sales of military equipment are analysed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations," Macron said at a news conference alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

France is the world's third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers.

Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defence and economy ministries.

Details of licences are not public and, once approved, are rarely reviewed.

Stressing concerns over the humanitarian situation, Macron said he would host a conference in the coming months to see what more could be done, although he backed the Saudi-led coalition's actions in Yemen.

"France's position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and strong humanitarian demands on civilian populations," Macron said.

A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed in France, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said his country was working to modernise its rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties, but said that in "military operations throughout history, whatever the country, there were mistakes."

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Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital more than a month since she was poisoned along with her father, a former Russian spy, with a military-grade nerve agent, the English hospital where they are being treated said.

Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of spies to Britains foreign spy service, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

They were in a critical condition for weeks and doctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have suffered brain damage, but the Skripals' health then began to improve rapidly.

Yulia, 33, was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters. She did not say when Yulia had been discharged but the BBC said she had left hospital on Monday night.

"We have now discharged Yulia," Blanshard said. "Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment we've been providing, but equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery."

"Her father has also made good progress. On Friday I announced he was no longer in a critical condition. Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course."

Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning, the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two.

Moscow denied any involvement and suggested that Britain had carried out the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

NOVICHOK POISONING

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.

Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

The attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War as allies in Europe and the United States sided with May's view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.

But Moscow has hit back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering its rival interpretations, including that it amounted to a plot by British secret services.

Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britain's MI6, was arrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the United States.

Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned.

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At least 14 people sustained burns in a fresh outbreak of fires at a camp housing tens of thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram jihadists in northeast Nigeria, according to an aid agency.

The outbreak comes just two weeks after a blaze at the camp, located at Rann, about 175 kilometres (108 miles) east of the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killed five people.

"There have been three separate fires reported," stated a memo seen by AFP from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) circulated among international aid agencies in Maiduguri.

The incidents, which occurred over a number of days, resulted in "reported 14 injuries (and) estimates that over 1,000 shelters have been burned," said the memo, which blamed flying embers from "cooking of food".

Kaka Ari, a civilian militia member assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram in the town said fires had ruined hundreds of tents. The camp shelters refugees as well as internally-displaced people.

"For three consecutive days we recorded fire outbreaks in different parts of the camp which destroyed more than a thousand," Ari said.

"People cook in the open and the breeze carries firewood splinters in all directions which end up at the tents and fire breaks out," Ari said.

Last month five people were killed and several others injured when a fire broke out in the camp while residents were making breakfast.

Rann, where nearly 80,000 people are living and supported with humanitarian assistance from international aid agencies, has been vulnerable to attacks from Boko Haram.

On March 1 heavily-armed Boko Haram fighters killed three aid workers and abducted a female nurse, prompting aid agencies to suspend their operations.

In January 2017, a botched Nigerian air strike intended to hit jihadist fighters killed at least 112 people in what the military said was a mistake and blamed on "the fog of war".

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Former police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri allegedly seized a vault containing diamonds worth millions of dollars belonging to a company that was in partnership with the cops before he forcibly took its claim in the gem rich Chiadzwa fields, Parliament heard yesterday.



Chihuri, who had been invited to give evidence and explain how the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) came to partner Gye Nyame, was again conspicuous by his absence from the parliamentary hearing.



The committee on Mines and Energy chaired by feisty independent MP for Norton, Temba Mliswa, was told the vault was never recovered.



Parliament was also told of how Chihuri allegedly had Ghanaian investors who had 30 percent stake in Gye Nyame evicted from the claims by heavily armed police officers and forcibly deported back to their country despite having invested heavily in the business.



Chihuri, the committee was further told, had ZRP shareholding in the mine verbally inflated from five percent to 20 percent in just one week.



All this was happening without the knowledge of his fellow senior police officers and the ministry of Home Affairs, the committee was told.







Gye Nyame project manager Itai Munyeza said Chihuri dispatched eight armed police officers to his house in Harare, who force-marched him to the companys offices before they forced him to hand over the key to the diamond vault.



Armed police officers led by one superintendent Dube came to my home and found that I had gone to collect my children from school.



They then called me to say they were waiting for me. Upon my arrival, they demanded the key to the diamond vault and I refused to surrender the key.



I was then detained for a few hours and I later handed them the key after realising that they were up to something nasty. They clearly said they were acting on Chihuris orders.



We then wrote to the ministers of Mines and Home Affairs as well as to the Presidents Office informing them that we were no longer in control. We left the police alone. As to what happened to the diamonds, only God knows, Munyenza told the Mliswa-led committee.



ZRP initially had five percent shareholding, but it was verbally increased to 10 percent and then to 20 percent within a space of a week.



The police always felt the concession was theirs and yet they were our partners. We initially fought this viciously as we thought we were being set to fail. We had severe overheads even before we started operations in March 2013.



By that time, some of the Ghanaians had already left and by June of the year, they had all been expelled, Munyeza added.



Former Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZDMC) board chairperson Goodwills Masimirembwa said that he was aware the ZRP had indeed forcibly taken over the diamond vault and the claims.



The police kept one key to the vault and Mr Munyeza kept another key but he was forced to surrender it. He surrendered the key and what happened to those diamonds, we dont know, he said.

Home Affairs permanent secretary Melusi Machiya said he was kept in the dark about the existence of the mine against standard government practice.



As a ministry, we were never directly involved. We never knew that there was a concession which was granted to police. They never declared any such thing but normally, when they get something, they declare for accounting purposes, even if it is very small and so an investment of this magnitude should have been declared but it wasnt, he said.



Former Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo also said he was never told of the mine when he took over office.



I wasnt briefed about this mining entity during my time at the ministry, said Chombo.

Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who was the minister of Home Affairs at the time the concession was granted to police in 2012, did not attend the hearing as he had commitments elsewhere.



Current minister of Home Affairs Obert Mpofu  who was the minister of Mines at the time  did not give evidence as he had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda saying he was uncomfortable to do so as long as Mliswa was chairing the hearing.

The mining of diamonds in Marange have been shrouded with controversy and accusations of plunder.



In 2016, former president Robert Mugabe made startling claims that his government could not account for a jaw-dropping $15 billion that was allegedly lost through nefarious activities by players involved in the extraction of the gems in Chiadzwa.



The fields in Marange are considered to be one of the worlds biggest deposits of diamonds.

While the gems were discovered decades ago, a diamond rush only ensued in 2006, resulting in Mugabes government deploying the military to restore order.



At the height of the mining of diamonds there, Mbada Diamonds, Marange Resources, Anjin Investments, Diamond Mining Company, Kusena and Gye Nyame (which had police) were some of the companies which were involved in the extraction of the gems in conjunction with the ZMDC.



The mining companies licences were not renewed after Mugabe made his startling claim.

And in a controversial move, the government subsequently replaced the mining companies with the State-owned Zimbabwe Diamond Consolidated Company, which now exclusively carries out all the mining in the area.



In 2012, long before Mugabe alleged that the $15 billion had been spirited away, a watchdog group campaigning against blood diamonds had also released a damning report in which it alleged that more than $2 billion worth of diamonds had been stolen from the Marange fields.











It also claimed that Mugabes inner circle, together with some international dealers and a large

network of criminals had connived in the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen since Cecil Rhodes. Daily News
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is not begging for aid during his official visits to other countries but is aksing for business deals since Zimbabwe has enough resources to steer economic revival, a Government minister has said.





Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs Cde Monica Mutsvangwa said this on Saturday while addressing hundreds of people in Machongwe, Chimanimani, who gathered to witness the groundbreaking ceremony for the tarring of Charter-Peacock Road.





President Mnangagwa is not begging because Zimbabwe has all we need to resuscitate our economy. What is lacking is good governance.





Corruption and nepotism had become deep-rooted in the country. The President is saying no one must be left behind. Even our office here in Manicaland is overwhelmed by investors who want to bring money for investment in the country, Minister Mutsvangwa said.





She said President Mnangagwas slogan was Zimbabwe is open for business, and his vision can only be realised when there is unity and peace in the country.





She urged people to be united and shun violence during the forthcoming elections, saying peace was the ingredient for development.





Minister Mutsvangwa said bureaucracy in some institutions was contributing to the countrys underdevelopment.





She said Zimbabweans should heed the Presidents call to engage people who are willing to work and contribute to the nations development.





The President said lets remove those who do not want to work and replace them with those willing to work. We cannot afford to withhold development. Our country needs to move forward and nothing will stop us from graduating into the First World, she said.





Minister Mutsvangwa urged those into farming to form synergies and optimally use land, saying the land reform would not be reversed.





Zanu-PF Central Committee member Cde Joshua Sacco, who is also eying the Chimanimani East constituency in the forthcoming elections, thanked the new dispensation for improving road networks in the area.





Cde Sacco was entrusted by Zanu-PF to superintend Chimanimani East following the expulsion of the areas legislator, Samuel Undenge, from the ruling party. He said roads had been neglected for nearly 22 years. He also called for formalisation of mining activities in Chimanimani. Herald








MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri has said some of their MDC Alliance partners are not visible enough on the ground, urging them to touch base with the grassroots to complement the coalitions countrywide rallies.



He said the Alliance partners must mobilise support in all constituencies. While our MDC Alliance rallies are important, the election winning formula lies in constituency and ward-based campaign strategies. Our Alliance partners also need to be more visible on the ground to address communities and stakeholders where they are strong, Mudzuri wrote on his Twitter

account.



MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisas countrywide rallies have been attracting huge crowds. The youthful leader has been holding a rallies almost every weekend.



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.



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 Emmerson Mnangagwa.



This comes as leading political analyst, Ibbo Mandaza recently predicted a victory for new opposition leader Chamisa in the elections  as long as the polls are free and fair.



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.

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-fist 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 Mnangagwa as his successor both in government and in Zanu PF. Daily News
His Trek Up Mount Whitney

Was 'a Hell of His Own Making'
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday Russia was holding the Syrian people to ransom by failing to back a U.N. resolution that would have created a new inquiry to ascertain blame for alleged chemical weapons attacks in the country.

Twelve council members voted in favour, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting no, and China abstained. A Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to pass.

"Hugely disappointing that Russia vetoed the proposal at the UN for an independent investigation into Syrian chemical attacks," Johnson said on Twitter.

"Russia is holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting a regime responsible for at least four heinous chemical attacks against its people."

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(Newser)  The stunning FBI raid on the offices of President Trump's personal lawyer Monday happened because Michael Cohen is suspected of crimes including bank fraud and campaign finance fraud, insiders say. Sources tell the Washington Post that agents seized documents including Cohen's tax returns in raids on his offices, home, and hotel room. The sources say the records seized include those relating to Cohen's controversial pre-election payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump. Agents also seized records of Cohen's communication with his clients, including Trump, the sources say. A roundup of coverage:

Bad news for Trump. This is very bad news for Trump, who may have committed a felony violation of campaign finance laws if he directed Cohen's payment to Daniels, Politico notes. But the fact that the investigation was referred to the US attorney's office by Robert Mueller suggests Cohen may also be involved in "Russia-related malfeasance" connected to the president: "For Trump, then, the trouble is that even if he is able to weather this particular storm, the roof shielding him may be blown away in the process."

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Beyond Stormy. Cohen could be in very serious trouble if it emerges that he lied when he said he used his home equity credit line to borrow the $130,000 to pay Daniels, though sources tell the New York Times that investigators, who seized Cohen's business records, are also looking at several other issues. If they do uncover anything relevant to the Russia probe, they will be allowed to turn it over to Mueller's team.

Cohen could be in very serious trouble if it emerges that he lied when he said he used his home equity credit line to borrow the $130,000 to pay Daniels, though sources tell the New York Times that investigators, who seized Cohen's business records, are also looking at several other issues. If they do uncover anything relevant to the Russia probe, they will be allowed to turn it over to Mueller's team. High bar for a warrant. Legal experts tell the Post that the FBI would have had to clear a higher bar than usual to obtain warrants for the Cohen searches, meaning there's likely strong evidence he was involved in criminal conduct. "A search warrant for a law office is extremely rare, says Stephen Gillers at the New York University School of Law. "Lawyers are given the courtesy of producing documents in response to a subpoena or a request unless the government believes a lawyer will destroy or conceal the objects of the search."

Legal experts tell the Post that the FBI would have had to clear a higher bar than usual to obtain warrants for the Cohen searches, meaning there's likely strong evidence he was involved in criminal conduct. "A search warrant for a law office is extremely rare, says Stephen Gillers at the New York University School of Law. "Lawyers are given the courtesy of producing documents in response to a subpoena or a request unless the government believes a lawyer will destroy or conceal the objects of the search." Delay from the Daniels team. Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Daniels, says that after the FBI raids, he may delay the release of a composite sketch of the suspect Daniels says threatened her in 2011, when she first threatened to go public about the alleged Trump affair, the AP reports.

Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Daniels, says that after the FBI raids, he may delay the release of a composite sketch of the suspect Daniels says threatened her in 2011, when she first threatened to go public about the alleged Trump affair, the AP reports. The outlook for Cohen. CNN analyst Paul Callan looks at various scenarios and decides most of them look bad for Cohen, though there is, of course, the possibility that both he and Trump will be exonerated. He notes that Cohen will appear unethical even if he is telling the truth about Trump not knowing about the Daniels payment, since attorneys aren't supposed to act without consulting their client. "If Trump was not advised by Cohen that he had negotiated a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement with a porn actress prohibiting her from revealing anything suggesting an intimate relationship with Trump one month before the presidential election, he certainly should have been," Callan writes.

(Trump has called the raids "disgraceful" and an "attack on our country.")
(Newser)  Day one of Bill Cosby's retrial on sexual assault charges was markedly different than his first go-round, beginning with a topless protester who barreled toward him outside a Pennsylvania courthouse and evident in the prosecution's revelation of what he paid accuser Andrea Constand to settle her 2005 lawsuit. That amount$3.38 millionwas shared toward the end of the day. The Philadelphia Inquirer explains that in Cosby's first trial, which ended in a mistrial, neither side brought up the suit. Both sides are singing a different tune this time around, with Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele arguing in his opening statement the settlement's hefty amount suggests Cosby was covering for bad behavior.

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Cosby's team will present its opening statement Tuesday; it's expected to portray Constand as a greedy money-seeker. Constand sued after prosecutors opted not to go after Cosby in 2005. The payment was made in 2006, reports the AP, and had never before been made public, thanks to a confidentiality agreement. But the judge ruled it was fair game for both sides in this trial. As for the ruckus this morning, the protester has been identified as Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, NJ. She appeared on four episodes of the Cosby Show between 1990 and 1992, but has no personal accusations against Cosby. She says "the main goal was to make Cosby uncomfortable because that is exactly what he has been doing for decades to women." She was charged with disorderly conduct and released. (Read more Bill Cosby stories.)
(Newser)  A Russian woman who went for a routine procedure in hopes of soon becoming pregnant ended up dead after doctors mistakenly injected her with formaldehyde instead of salineleading to her being "embalmed alive," per the Washington Post. Ekaterina Fedyaeva, in her late 20s, had gone in for the operation in March in Ulyanovsk to remove ovarian cysts, the London Times reports. But doctors "did not read the name on a bottle" believed to contain saline, says local health minister Rashid Abdullov, and injected her with poisonous formalin, a formaldehyde solution, instead, leading to her agonizing death. "Her legs were moving, she had convulsions, her whole body was shaking," her mother tells the Sun, adding that the formalin, typically used to preserve corpses, was inside her daughter's body for 14 hours before doctors tried to remedy the situation.

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"Mom, I'm dying," her mother tells RT her daughter said after the operation, right before her organs started shutting down and she was put on life support. Doctors used more than 50 drugs in their efforts to save Fedyaeva, but it was too late, per the Sun. Fedyaeva died earlier this month. Her mother also tells the Times that right after the procedure, doctors tried to conceal what had really happened and blamed the side effects Fedyaeva was suffering on the anesthesia she'd been given. "They deliberately tried to deceive us," Fedyaeva's mother says. In a recent tweet, Abdullov called the incident a "terrible tragedy" and said those responsible are being held accountable while the investigation continues. Medical staff could face up to three years in prison if convicted of causing Fedyaeva's death due to negligence. (A 30-year-old Chicago woman died during plastic surgery.)
(Newser)  It's not every day that a livestock-abuse video is set at sea, but such is the situation in Australia. The New York Times reports the country's 60 Minutes on Sunday broadcast footage shot by a whistleblower in August 2017 on a ship laden with sheep that was sailing from Western Australia to Doha, Qatar. The voyage is common: Roughly 1.4 million sheep are sent around the globe via boat from Western Australia annually. But in this case, more than 2,400 of the 65,000 animals aboard didn't make it, having succumbed to heat stress. The Times' report describes "rotting corpses" being thrown into the sea and "images of sheep dying in their own feces." The Guardian reports Australia's Department of Agriculture investigated at the time and noted the temperatures in the Persian Gulf had hit about 96 degrees with 95% humidity overnightperilous conditions for animals.

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The department found that Emanuel Exports switched to heavier staffing to help with water distribution and opened "excessively boggy pens and those in hotter areas," but the steps taken were "insufficient." It was the publication of the footage months later that spurred outrage. The government has vowed to investigate, and the ship the animals sailed on was on Sunday barred from leaving with another 65,000 sheep due to airflow concerns, reports Australia's ABC. Critics, including one lawmaker who referred to the vessels as "death ships," want real changea ban on live exports during summer months, perhaps, or a shift to more onshore butchering. One farmer tells the Times that doesn't work for him, citing a lack of slaughterhouse facilities and his own need to export. "I would go broke." (Read more animal abuse stories.)
(Newser)  More good news for the daughter of a poisoned former Russian spy: Yulia Skripal is out of the hospital. "This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone," says a statement from the UK's Salisbury District Hospital, per the BBC. The 33-year-old had been treated there since last month after she and her father, Sergei Skripal, were found poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok. The hospital said the elder Skripal also was improving, but not as quickly as his daughter, who will continue her recuperation at an undisclosed location. The US and Britain continue to blame Russia for the attacks, while Moscow continues to deny any involvement, notes Reuters. (Read more Yulia Skripal stories.)
(Newser)  President Trump has acknowledged a planned meeting with North Korea, but Kim Jong Un hasn't done the sameuntil now. Kim made his first public acknowledgement of a meeting with the US, though the BBC reports he did not mention Trump by name. Yonhap reports that state news agency KCNA covered a Monday meeting of the Workers Party by writing that Kim "made a profound analysis and appraisal of the orientation of the development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the [North Korea]-US dialogue."

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The report came hours after Trump spoke of the summit and its possible timing with reporters during a Cabinet meeting Monday. Politico has his quote: "North Korea, by the wayas you can probably see, we've been in touch with North Korea. We'll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June, and I think there will be great respect paid by both parties." A separate Yonhap report sees the North as "trying to drum up international support for [Kim's] vision for denuclearization" after speaking with an unnamed diplomat who had last week been in Azerbaijan for a meeting with other states. His comment to Yonhap: "With regard to negotiations on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, (the issue) can be resolved with phased, synchronized measures." (Read more Kim Jong Un stories.)
(Newser)  This is the official Facebook page for the Black Lives Matter movement, one with more than 300,000 followers. Anyone searching for it over the past year would have been forgiven if they'd instead stumbled onto a different BLM Facebook page with more than double the number of followers. That one, however, appears to have been a fake, and Facebook has suspended it after inquiries from CNN. The site in question had links to a middle-aged white man in Australia, and at least some of the $100,000 it raised in the name of BLM instead went to Australian bank accounts. The site raised money through sites such as PayPal, Patreon, Donorbox, and Classy, all of which have cut ties. One aspect of the story getting attention: Facebook had been receiving complaints about the site for months, including from authentic BLM organizers, but didn't act.

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The man apparently behind the site is Ian Mackay, an official with a prominent workers' union in Australia. The National Union of Workers has suspended him and another union official in the wake of the allegations, and the controversy has caught the attention of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. "I haven't seen the details of that report, but any sort of dishonesty or fraud of the kind that's alleged is wrongit would be illegal," he tells Australia's ABC. Mackay denied running the site to CNN, saying he buys and sells domain names as a "personal hobby." He has registered several other websites with ties to black rights, including blackpowerfist.com. (One of the biggest names in tech says he's defecting from Facebook.)
Egypt closed a 2 billion euro-denominated two-tranche bond issuance on Monday that was 3.8x oversubscribed, the finance ministry announced in a Facebook statement on Tuesday.

This is the first time Egypt has issued bonds denominated in euros.

The two tranches consisted of bonds with maturities of eight years with 4.75 percent yield, and bonds with maturities of 12 years with a yield of 5.625 percent.

Over 350 investors from 35 countries made purchase orders worth 7.5 billion euros.

From 3 and 6 April, a delegation from the finance ministry led by Minister Amr El-Garhy engaged in a road show in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France to meet with European investors.

It is worth noting that many investors expressed their appreciation and praised [Egypts] macroeconomic developments and the improvement of [macroeconomic] indicators recently, the statement read.

The finance ministry said the bond issuance reflected the trust of international finance institutions and confidence by the international community in Egypts reform efforts.

The funding will be used to support the Central Bank of Egypts international reserves.

The cash equivalent in EGP will be used to finance the state budget.

The issuance was managed by Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Alexbank Intesa Sanpaolo and Standard Chartered.

The National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr assisted in managing the issuance.

Egypt had raised $4 billion in a dollar-denominated Eurobond sale that closed in February this year.

Last year, Egypt sold $7 billion in five-, 10- and 30-year dollar-denominated bonds.
(Newser)  US military drones patrolling the skies over Syria have an operational issue: Russia is messing with them. Specifically, US officials tell NBC News, Russia is jamming their GPS signals, a tactic that seems to have started in earnest on smaller drones a few weeks ago after chemical attacks were suspected in Ghouta. For security reasons, the DOD isn't offering many details on the impact the jamming is having, but one official says the high-tech Russian gear is definitely having an effect, as it's able to get around jamming receivers and cut through even encrypted signals. It doesn't even take a lot to pull off such a stunt, Dr. Todd Humphreys, the director of UT Austin's Radionavigation Laboratory, tells NBC. "GPS receivers in most drones can be fairly easily jammed," he says.

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The Russian military has apparently been up to these jamming hijinks for at least four years, when it was busted jamming UN drones trying to monitor Ukraine after Russia's invasion of Crimea. In February, it was revealed Russian forces in Syria had been instructed to jam 2G and 3G signals on cellphones, which can emit signals to drones, per the Moscow Times. Effects of such jamming, per Humphreys, can entail anything from "serious confusion" for the operator of the drone to causing the drone to stop working or crash. For now, the drones being targeted appear to be smaller surveillance units, not larger armed ones. Still, it's a serious matter. "It's like shooting at them with radio waves instead of bullets," Humphreys tells NBC. (The Russians might also want to mess with underwater communications cables.)
(Newser)  Perhaps the "Guilty" fragrance in her grave was a giveawaybecause it took only 40 minutes Monday for jurors to decide Luc Tieman killed his wife. "I changed my story a lot," the Maine man admitted Friday when delivering his own closing arguments in his murder trial, against his lawyer's advice, reports CentralMaine.com. Tieman said he'd invented theories about what happened to 34-year-old Valerie Tieman because police had threatened his parents, on whose Fairfield property Valerie's body was found in September 2016. Authorities believe Valerie was killed around Aug. 25, when her cellphone was last used. But it was Sept. 9 before her parents reported her missing. Her husband then told police Valerie had vanished from a Walmart store on Aug. 30, reports the Bangor Daily News.

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She might've gone camping, or died of a heroin overdose, Tieman said, before Valerie's body turned up with gunshot wounds to the head and neck in a shallow grave near his parents' home, where the couple lived. The grave also contained flowers, a wedding band, a bag of potato chips, a bottle of Gucci fragrance "Guilty," and a note containing Tieman's nickname "Luc-e," per CentralMaine.com. "I'll love you forever. Rest in peace," it read. Tieman, who said the items came from a bedside table, couldn't explain how they got in the grave. But he said he had no motive to kill Valerie, even though prosecutors say he admitted she'd recently learned he was having an affair. After the jury's verdict, Tieman's lawyer said his client would appeal. "We're obviously disappointed. There was no forensic evidence. There was no DNA," he said. (A 1966 murder appears solved.)
(Newser)  One might think a high school senior called the "best thing in Texas" by Texas Monthly, and who got accepted to 20 collegessome of which were Ivy Leagues, and all of which offered him a full ride with grants and scholarshipswould receive universal praise in the media. But per KSAT, staffers at a DC station seemed annoyed last Tuesday at his avalanche of good news. Podcast host Sarah Fraser asked Fox 5 DC morning co-anchors Holly Morris and Allison Seymour if they thought it was "a little ridiculous" Micheal Brown threw his hat in the ring for 20 schools, which Fraser believes yanked spots away from other teens who'd be waitlisted. Morris agreed it was "ridiculous" and also "obnoxious," because "you can only take one full ride and you are taking a spot from someone else who works really hard."

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Seymour tried to point out that scholarships from schools Brown eventually turns downhis first choice is Stanford, though with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other esteemed schools in the mix, he hasn't made up his mind yetwill go "back into the pot." HuffPost notes that many online were angered by the journos' takes, with some saying their comments may have been racially motivated, as Brown is black. Fraser has since apologized to Brown (he accepted), calling their remarks "petty" and insisting Brown is "awesome." Morris clarified on Twitter she just believes in a more "targeted search" for colleges; she also conducted a Skype interview with Brown, which he says was "respectful," but he adds he won't give permission for it to air until he gets an apology from the station. "Where's the #humandecency?," he tweeted last week. (Read more colleges and universities stories.)
(Newser)  President Trump will skip an upcoming summit in South America to focus on the US response to a chemical attack in Syria. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Tuesday that Trump will not attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, nor travel to Bogota, Colombia, as planned, per the AP. Vice President Mike Pence will travel in his place on the trip, which begins April 13. It was to be Trump's first visit to Latin America, notes the Miami Herald, and the cancellation erases one intriguing question: whether Trump would have shaken the hand of Cuba's Raul Castro. (Trump has promised a quick decision on Syria.)
(Newser)  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, testifying before Congress Tuesday, said his company is "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller in his probe into Russian interference, the AP reports. Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using US aliases and politicking on US soil. Some of the Russian ads were on Facebook. Zuckerberg says he has not been personally interviewed and said he is not aware if the company has been subpoenaed.

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Earlier, the 33-year-old tried to assure US lawmakers who are worried that Russia and other foreign powers will use the social media network to meddle in the upcoming midterm elections. He said Facebook has deployed new artificial intelligence tools that do a better job identifying fake accounts. This is intended to help prevent elections interference by foreign actorssomething Zuckerberg says is an "arms race." He's said in the past that the company is in better shape this year than it was in the 2016 US presidential election. (Read more Mark Zuckerberg stories.)
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One of the fundamental teachings of Islam is that every individual must think for himself when deciding on rules of conduct

A boy was intent on personalising his brand-new electronic device, a smartphone of the latest generation. Since he was religious, he did not forget to download the Quran, among other things that best reflected his personality, onto the phone.

During the downloading process, however, he headed towards the bathroom, though not until he had stopped the download. In the middle of his way there, he stopped. Could he enter the bathroom with his smartphone, now that it carried the Quran? Wouldnt that be a violation of the Sacred Book?

The boy submitted a question to one of the many social-networking sites now offering fatwas, or Islamic legal rulings. He asked a virtual authority to promulgate a fatwa for him, which could save him from the abyss that had suddenly opened up in front of him.

Until 50 or so years ago, general fatwas were a vital necessity in societies in which illiteracy rates could exceed three-quarters of the population. The lack of technology at that time forced illiterate people to judge by themselves all affairs of daily life.

Travelling to urban centres was expensive and took a long time. Therefore, everyone had to formulate his own judgements to satisfy his conscience and, consequently, God.

Today, modern means of communication allow everybody to obtain fatwas answering their own special cases. There is no need to think, ponder and argue any more as a result. Modernity has provided a technology that has disentangled religion from such forms of individual rationality.

A fatwa can be requested at any moment, in any place and on any subject, no matter how specific it might be to the requester.

However, this contradicts one of Islams most distinguishing characteristics  the absence of clergy mediating between man and God, together with the principle that says consult your heart, even when you are given a legal opinion. The heart of the individual is the ultimate authority in judging human actions.

The boy hesitating on the bathroom threshold was neither illiterate nor resource-less. He was the son of a culture in which religion, turned into ideology, has triumphed, seemingly destroying any possibility of practicing religion individually.

At the same time, he lives according to the dictates of a Western world in which religion has been mostly set aside at the price of excluding it from public life such that it has ceased to produce meaning at the personal and collective level.

The worst defeat religion can experience is its being transformed into an ideology. If this happens, it does not matter if it triumphs or if it is defeated as in either case the first victim will be the person concerned.

Giving up the responsibility of thinking for oneself by acting as mere mediators either between east and west, or between the past, the fathers and the ancestors and the present and the sons, has led some societies to forms of exclusion.

Extremists, whether modernist or traditionalist, exclude the different, whereas moderates, whether modernist or traditionalist, exclude diversity, blurring the differences between dissimilar stances to avoid clashes.

Such contradictions become more complex in the case of Muslim immigrants to European societies, where the identity crisis and the meaning-production crisis are as acute and as serious as they are in Arab-Islamic societies.

At a time of postmodern globalisation, a time of fragmented and artificial identities, the Europeans are constantly escaping from their past, whereas the Arabs are constantly escaping towards theirs.

Two world wars have left deep wounds on the European consciousness, so that any attempt to generate, or define, a meaning for life, the individual, society or history is seen as an exclusion, something that is paradoxically itself threatening to pluralism.

The grand narratives of religion and different ideologies have fallen in Europe today. Instead, each person is responsible for creating his own small narrative, even if this does not make any space for the other as this would imply a loss of legitimacy and its own impermanence.

Such small narratives leave nothing behind them apart from smiling or frowning icons on Facebook. Every human quality is turned into signs that prevent such small narratives from becoming grander ones, making all of us the prisoners of endlessly reiterated models.

In the Arab-Islamic world, colonialism and its consequences, including political, economic and political subordination, have left a deep wound in the Arab consciousness to the extent that attempts to generate meaning for life, the individual, society or history too often are seen as a reaffirmation of Arab humiliation.

The preservation of Arab purity is seen as the only possible way of washing away the shame of love for the oppressor and his imitation. Pure origins have become the grand narrative that swallows up small narratives in the Arab world and forbid any possibility of generating meaning.

How can new meaning be generated if all practices are the eternal repetition of an ideal origin transcending reality and history?

Western society today resembles a man that has decided to castrate himself because he does not want to have an evil son, whereas Arab society is like a man who kills his sons because they do not resemble an ancestor he has never known.

The first man lies to himself by saying that he does not need sons and does not care about the future.

The second man lies to himself by saying that forcing his sons to resemble an unknown ancestor will reverse the course of history.

The first man lies to others because he tries to convince them that his noble values have no origin and no history.

The second man lies to others because he tries to convince them that his noble values are still alive and are not only a mask hiding his own moral decay and human decadence. While Western reason cuts its ties with the future by deriding and deconstructing the past, Arab reason struggles to move towards the future with its back turned and its look fixed on the past, as if this were the only guarantee of not losing ones way forward.

However, the fundamental guarantee for a dignified human life is to rebuild a culture that is capable of producing meaning, for there is no true separation between culture and life. Life manifests itself in culture and is complementary to it.

Similarly, culture can manifest itself only as life and inside the deepest meanings of life. Consequently, any negation of culture necessarily implies the negation of life itself.

The site eventually replied to the boy, still suspended between his smartphone and the bathroom, with another question.

Did you memorise anything from the Quran? Yes, the boy replied in surprise.

The site then pronounced its fatwa: the boy had to leave both his smartphone and his head outside the bathroom.

The writer is a professor at the Catholic University of Milan and author of Conflicting Arab Identities: Language, Tradition and Modernity.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly



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Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 22F. Winds light and variable..

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Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 22F. Winds light and variable.
New Delhi:

In a tragic incident, at least 18 people, including seven women and two children were killed and 15 others injured after a speeding truck overturned in western Maharashtras Satara district on Tuesday.

The truck was carrying construction workers from Bijapur district in Karnataka and was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am.

The accident took place on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway passing through the district, around 250 km from Mumbai, Sataras Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said.

After crossing the Khambatki ghat section, there is a difficult turning of S shape. It is an accident-prone spot. The truck driver probably dozed off and lost control over the wheels, as a result of which the vehicle hit a barricade and overturned, he said.

Also Read | 30 killed after school bus plunges into gorge in Himachal Pradesh

The labourers were heading towards a construction site and carrying sharp-edged equipment. The truck overturned after the accident and equipment fell on them.

They were carrying some sharp and heavy equipment in the truck. When the vehicle overturned, the equipment fell on the labourers. Many of them died due to head injuries caused by the equipment, the SP said.

The injured were rushed to Satara Civil Hospital where three of them were said to be in critical condition. The police were trying to identify the deceased and their bodies were sent to the hospital for post-mortem.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi:

The trailer of Ali Bhatt starrer Raazi is finally revealed on Tuesday. The spy action-thriller flick is based on a Kashmiri girl who becomes an Indian spy on the order of her father and marries a Pakistani officer.

In the two-and-half minute trailer, Alia clearly proves why she is undoubtedly one of the finest actress in the film industry today.

She is playing the role of a Kashmiri girl Sehmat who is on a mission and gets married to a Pakistani officer. Sehmat is a girl who is strong, well trained and knows her job very well.

Alias role and her acting skills clearly justifies the sub-title of the flick The story of an ordinary in extraordinary circumstances.

Raazi is based on Harinder Sikkas novel Calling Sehmat which features Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. The flick is extensively shot in Punjab, Mumbai and Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking on her role in Raazi, Alia Bhatt earlier said, I think in Raazi, the audience will see me in a completely different avatar. At least that is my wish because Raazi as a film is very different. Its the first time I am doing a period film and is based on the true story as well, so I am very excited for it and I hope the audience will like it.

Helmed by Meghna Gulzar, Raazi is slated to hit the theatres on May 11.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Ever since Anushka Sharma tied the knot with Virat Kohli, grapevines have been busy speculating over the next wedding in tinsel town.

Rumour mills havenat stopped buzzing about Sonam Kapooras marriage with beau Anand Ahuja since the time it was reported that the two are dating. It was earlier said that the adorable couple would get hitched in Geneva in May.

However, a recent report in DNA has suggested that Sonam and Ahuja would take nuptial vows in Mumbai itself, that too in April. The report added that the Bollywood Diva would walk the aisle on April 29.

aNeither will it be a destination wedding nor will it take place in May. Sonam and Anand are likely to tie the knot on April 29 in Mumbaiaa, a source told DNA.

The report added that the Kapoor family would be busy with pre-wedding activities due to the marriage date being shifted this month. The Kapoor and Ahuja families are yet to confirm the development.

Talking about Sonam and Anand, the two of them are yet to reveal their relationship in public. The celebrity couple has been spotted having dinners and vacations by shutterbugs.

Sonam Kapoor will soon be seen in the much-awaited film Veeri Di Wedding, which also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Swara Bhaskar. The female buddy film will hit the silver screens on June 1.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

At least 27 students and two teachers of Wazir Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School died after a school bus they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge at Himachal Pradeshs Nurpur district on Monday evening.

Superintendent of Nurpur district Santosh Patial confirmed the development.

According to government officials, around 27 schoolchildren were killed in the accident, along with two teachers and student. The fatal accident occurred near Gurchal village on Nurpur-Chamba road.

Expressing grief over the deaths of students and teachers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident."

The state Chief Minister Jairam Thakur announced Rs 5 lakh each for the family of the accident victims and ordered a magisterial probe into the accident.

NDRF team has been engaged into the rescue operation. Stringent actions will be taken against school and government officials if any lapses found, the CM added.

According to police officials, all the students boarded on the bus were from Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School. The bus was on its way to drop the children home after the school closed at 3 pm.

The injured were rush to the district local hospital for medical attention. Himachal Pradesh Police, National Disaster Management and fire-brigade officials with help of villager are rescuing the trapped.

A senior police personnel on request of anonymity said, "All students killed in the accident are below 10 years. Nine students died at the incidet site, while others succumbed during treatment or on way to the nearest hospital."

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bihar's Champaran district on Tuesday to be a part of the concluding celebration of Centenary of Champaran Satyagraha. He will address "Swachchh Bharat Mission" volunteers and flag off a number of railway schemes, an official of East Champaran district said on Monday.

The Prime Minister's visit is a part of the concluding celebration of Champaran Satyagraha centenary launched by the Bihar Government in April last year.

All chief ministers and senior officials have been invited to the function. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union minister Radha Mohan Singh and other dignitaries are also set to attend the ceremony.

Gandhi had launched his first agitation against the British rule here by protesting against the indigo cultivation order on farmers in 1917.



PM Modi will also unveil several development projects on this occasion like;

# PM will award ten Swachhagrahis who have performed outstandingly in their villages.

# He will also address 20,000 Swachhagrahis or the Ambassadors of Cleanliness in Motihari on this occasion.

# Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bihar visit will be the flagging off of India's first all-electric high-speed locomotive, developed at Madhepura's Electric Locomotive Factory.

#The train is the first big Make-in-India project completed by Alstom of France.

# Inauguration of Motijheel Project, Bettiah Nagar Parishad water supply scheme under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

# Four sewerage projects aimed at creating a sewage-treatment capacity of 60 million litres daily for Patna, under Namami Gange, doubling of Railway lines between Muzaffarpur and Sagauli and Sagauli and Valmikinagar.

# Flagging off of first 12000 HP Freight Electric Locomotive and Champaran Humsafar Express with many more other projects.

# PM Modi is also likely to flag off a new bi-weekly train, Humsafar Express, connecting Katihar to New Delhi.

# PM Modi will also unveil several development projects on this occasion, including four big-ticket sewerage projects in Patna.

# Mahatma Gandhi launched the Champaran satyagraha over a century ago, on April 10, 1917 against the Britishers to fight for the rights of farmers who were forced to undertake indigo cultivation.

Also Read: Bharat Bandh over SC/ST protection act: Schools to remain shut in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad

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New Delhi:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday conducted raids at the residence of former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadavas wife Rabri Devi in Patna.

The raids were conducted in connection with the railway hotel tender case. The CBI sleuths also interrogated Rabrias son and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, one of the accused in the alleged corruption case.

Earlier in July 2017, the investigative agency had registered a case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and others under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

They were accused of irregularities in awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of the BNR hotels in Ranchi and Puri during Laluas tenure as Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009.

#Visuals CBI searches at Rabri Devi's Patna residence conclude, son Tejashwi Yadav questioned for over 4 hours in connection railway hotel tender case. pic.twitter.com/gp38UJlihX a ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

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New Delhi:

Two jawans were killed as Pakistan army violated ceasefire along the LoC in Sunderbani sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday morning.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 1715 hours in Sunderbani sector along the Line of Control (LoC) last night," a defence spokesman said. The Indian Army was giving a befitting reply, he said.

Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were grievously injured in the firing and later succumbed to their injuries, the spokesman said. Singh, 24, belonged to Danapur village of Akhnoor district in Jammu and Kashmir. He is survived by his father, Ajit Singh.

Sharma, 30, was from Sanhail village of Hiranagar district in Jammu. He is survived by his wife, Rajni Devi. "Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were brave and sincere soldiers.

The nation will always remain indebted to the brave hearts for their supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the defence spokesperson said.

(with inputs from agencies)

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Cynthia Nixon, the former Sex and the City actor challenging Andrew Cuomo for Governor, has weighed in on the debate over the definition of "Upstate New York," and her response has raised a few eyebrows.

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Nixon, a Manhattan resident, gave this response:

"I don't think the Hudson Valley is upstate. Once you get to Ithaca, by around there, you're starting to get upstate."

Naturally, New Yorkers statewide had a lot of opinions about her opinion, and they shared them on Twitter.

Ithaca's mayor, Svante Myrick, told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle by phone, "We're at least three hours away from the upstate-downstate border, which for me is once you're past Yonkers (heading north), you're in upstate.'

He also tweeted this:

  Mayor Svante Myrick (@SvanteMyrick) April 9, 2018

A potential opponent of Nixon's, Dutchess County executive Marc Molinaro also weighed in.

We might agree on the pervasive, corrosive corruption infecting the Governors #NewNormal, but Ithaca? Im open to the idea that Dutchess is downstate... but #Upstate begins well before Ithaca (a wonderful upstate community).  Marc Molinaro (@marcmolinaro) April 9, 2018

The debate spread beyond the political spectrum too, with a variety of voices weighing in.

Any answer to where is Upstate is wrong. :-)  Sean Lahman (@seanlahman) April 9, 2018

I feel like Poughkeepsie is basically the start of it. But then again, Im not running for office (yet).  Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 9, 2018

Some people drew pictures. It got pretty intense.

Everything above the red line is upstate but split into 3 subcategories #WhereIsUpstate pic.twitter.com/jH5E3WLJLG  Audrey Montague (@audreymontague) April 9, 2018

Rebecca Katz, a spokesperson for Nixon, tried to smooth things over by saying the actor-turned-gubernatorial-candidate had just been joking.

"Everyone knows that no one agrees on where Upstate begins, so she named the Hudson Valley as a dividing point, and then lightheartedly named an area few would take issue with," Katz told the Democrat & Chronicle.

According to polling, New Yorkers are heavily divided on the matter. Public Policy Polling from 2016 showed that 29 percent of New Yorkers think anything north of Westchester County is Upstate, 25 percent say anything north of New York City, and 22 percent call anything north of Poughkeepsie "Upstate New York."

Where do you stand on the subject? Take our unscientific reader poll and leave a comment.
World champion Lewis Hamilton has questioned Max Verstappens maturity.

A controversy broke out after the Bahrain grand prix, where Hamilton called his Dutch rival a "d------d" following a clash.

But Sebastian Vettel leapt to the defence of Hamiltons "human" reaction, and even Verstappen agreed.

"At the moment he said that, he was still full of adrenaline," Verstappen, 20, told Het Laaste Nieuws. "Hed just got out of the car. So it happens."

But Verstappens boss Christian Horner had gone a step further, saying that racing incidents are exactly what fans want to see.

"Its interesting to hear that from Christian because theyve got a car that should be getting good results," Hamilton said.

"And I dont know if theyre inexperienced or not totally mature decisions, but they (Red Bull) are not getting the results they should."

Hamilton added: "I think to myself if Fernando was in that car he would have finished a decent race and got points for Red Bull."

But former Minardi driver Christijan Albers sides with Horner, saying that when drivers race, they will often clash.

"In my view Verstappen was past Hamilton, so he is allowed to determine his line. Only Hamilton showed I am not afraid, I do not give up and then it happens.

"Who knows, perhaps Verstappen will think again next time hes with Hamilton," Albers told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
Several Nigerians have taken to social media to express their opinion about the news of the official declaration by President Muhammadu ...

It is within the president's right to seek re-election. It is also within the right of the citizens to say NO to incompetence and bad leadership.  /smolfrd/ (@samoalfred) April 9, 2018

...seeking re-election for doing nothing in 3years? That's corruption!  orji Emmanuel (@andyorji) April 9, 2018

African Leaders dont know when to step down, from a position of power Even if it means coming to office in a wheelchair with an IV drip!  BOKETTO (@KingSanda) April 9, 2018

Affliction will never rise the second time says the Lord Almighty!  THE TRUTH ONLY (@FACT_UNDISPUTED) April 9, 2018

Retweet if you prefer Aso Rock is empty than seeing President Buhari in power again and like to see him return...Lets endorse a stat.  I_Follow_Back_Instantly (@Gov_jay) April 9, 2018

My Monday was rolling on a positive note, now Buhari has spoilt it with this yeye declaration. Who did this to us Nigerians?  Joe Oko Odey (@JoeOdey) April 9, 2018

The man knew that his 2nd term declaration is unpopular, unpleasant and unpalatable to the vast majority of Nigerians which is why he ran away to London as soon as he announced the news. One would have thought he is contesting for @Theresa_May s job the way he dashes to the UK. April 9, 2018

Buhari, a few hours ago at the National Executive Council meeting, made known his intention to contest the presidency again in 2019A social media aide to the President, Bashir Ahmad, broke the news earlier on Monday (today) via his social media page with the hashtag #PMBForNigeria 2019.Reactions to Buharis declaration are swift, as Nigerians greet the news with different reactions.Read some of the comments below:
The Federal Government has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja not to hear the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, in respect of the ex parte motion seeking an order for the interim forfeiture of his 22 houses.The 22 houses are said to be subject of an ongoing investigation by the Okoi Obono-Obla-led Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property.The panel had said it was investigating Ekweremadu for breach of code of conduct for public officers by failing to declare the houses to the Code of Conduct Bureau as part of his assets.The SPIPRPP had on March 21, 2018 filed, on behalf of the Federal Government, an ex parte motion seeking an interim forfeiture of the 22 houses located in Nigeria and three other foreign countries pending the conclusion of the investigation of the Deputy Senate President.But Ekweremadu, through his lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), had on March 26, 2018 filed a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the Federal Governments motion and praying for an order declaring the SPIPRPP which initiated it as unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.Since the motion filed by the Federal Government was ex parte and not on notice, Ekweremadu was not entitled to respond to it as of right.He had to file a separate motion seeking the leave of the court to be allowed to air his objection to the motion.The case was mentioned before Justice Binta Nyako for the first time on Tuesday.During the proceedings, Mr. Bala Dakum, who represented Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), the Federal Governments lead counsel, said he had filed an objection to Ekweremadus motion seeking leave to be heard.While Ekweremadus lawyer, Awomolo, argued that their motion challenging the courts jurisdiction should be heard and determined ahead of other applications pending before the court, Dakum maintained that the court ought to first resolve whether or not to grant leave to be heard to the Deputy Senate President.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Monday inaugurated a panel of inquiry in Abuja to investigate claims by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), that the armed forces were colluding with herdsmen in Taraba State to perpetuate the killings and destruction of communities.Buratai, after inaugurating the committee headed by Maj. Gen. John Nimyel (retd.), said Danjumas claims could damage the reputation of the military and could therefore not be ignored.The army chief ordered the panel to confirm the truthfulness or otherwise of the allegations.Danjuma, also a former Minister of Defence, had said on March 24 at the convocation of the Taraba State University, Jalingo, that Nigerians must defend themselves against the killer herdsmen, as the armed forces were not ready to defend them.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. Every one of us must rise up. Our Armed Forces are not neutral. They collude with the bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians. The Armed Forces guide their movements; they cover them. If you are depending on the Armed Forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one. Defend yourselves because you have no other place to go, Danjuma had said.The Ministry of Defence on the following day had criticised Danjumas statements, saying they were uncalled for and could lead to anarchy in the country.But Buratai said on Monday that if the army was to earn the trust of Nigerians, there was a need to investigate Danjumas claims.The army chief ordered that the panel must visit all flashpoints in Taraba State and interact with various stakeholders in order to come up with a comprehensive report.Buratai said, The actions of the army in recent military operations, particularly in Taraba State, have been criticised by individuals and very senior citizens from the state. Most recently, a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), alleged that the Armed Forces collude with armed bandits and other criminal elements. Statements of this nature could damage the reputation of the armed forces and thus cannot be ignored if the army is to continue to earn the trust of the Nigerian populace.Thus, it became imperative for the army to set up this panel to confirm the veracity or otherwise of these allegations. You are enjoined to visit all flashpoints and interact with various stakeholders and interest groups in Taraba State in order to come up with a comprehensive report. The task is a burning national issue and you are to treat this assignment with the seriousness it deserves.Meanwhile, various groups in Taraba State on Monday welcomed the constitution of the probe panel.The President of Jukun Development Association of Nigeria, Mr. Benjamin Bako, who attended the inauguration of the panel at the Nigerian Army Headquarters in Abuja, said they welcomed the setting up of the panel as it would avail the people of Taraba the opportunity to present oral and documented evidences of army complicity in the killings in the state.Also, Mr. Musa Rika of Coalition for Peace and Security told one of our correspondents that the group welcomed the probe, but wondered why Nigerians were making noise about Danjumas statement.Meanwhile, troops of the Nigerian Army have destroyed three camps used by herdsmen militia in Gbajimba, Kaseyo and Adagu communities of Benue State.The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Texas Chukwu, who confirmed the destruction of the herdsmens camps in a release on Monday, said a motorcycle was recovered from the camps.
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated elder statesman and legal luminary, Chief Ayo Adebanjo on his 90th birthday.Buhari, in a message by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina in Abuja on Tuesday joined family members, friends and professional colleagues in celebrating the elder statesman.He thanked God for the grace that had taken Adebanjo to this landmark age.The president, who noted with delight that Adebanjo had clocked 90 years, believed the politician and lawyer had contributed to national development through his profession and commitment to nation building.He prayed that Almighty God would grant Adebanjo longer years and strength to serve humanity.Born on April 10, 1928, Adebanjo has been identified as one of the strong and die-hard associates of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Awoism.Adebanjo, one of the chieftains of the National Democratic Coalition, has also been described as the last of the original Awoists.He is also a leader of the Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group in the South-West region of the country.
Political leaders and stakeholders in the country have continued to react to the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to seek second ...

Political leaders and stakeholders in the country have continued to react to the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to seek second term in office come 2019 general election.





President Buhari had at the closed-door meeting of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress on Monday, officially announced his intention to seek re-election.





But speaking on Thursday in a phone interview, the National chairman of Green Party of Nigeria, GPN, and former Presidential candidate in 2015 general election, Chief Sam Eke, said re-electing Buhari for a second term would be a continuation of suffering in the country.





He explained that the President was entitled to his own right to seek for re-election, stressing that only Nigerians would decide who will be next President of the country come 2019.





 I want to really tell you that the declaration by President Buhari, if Nigerians allow it to see the light of the day,that means Nigerians like and enjoy suffering.





I want to also say that Nigerians that I have seen,will not want continuation of suffering, instability, lack of security in the system. So, I know very well that is far from reality. And now that he has declared, we expect more people to declare.





A lot of people will declare and Nigerians will choose the best candidate from among them. We know Buhari has the legitimate right to contest or seek re-election, but the fact remains that, what is obtainable in this country is suffering.





And we do not want to continue the suffering. There is no one that enjoys suffering, instability, killings or a lot of uncertainties. He is entitled to his own ambition, but Nigerian electorates will decide.





Also reacting on the Presidents second term bid, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Abia state and the South East zonal vice President of National Youth Leadership Congress, NYLC, Austin Okezie Meregini described Buharis declaration as a welcome development.





He expressed optimism that the president will win the 2019 presidential election, saying he had done well to seek for reelection.









He said, it s a very good development to the party, by extension the country. I am very happy he has declared his intention to seek re-election in 2019. Many Nigerians are happy he declared given what he has done so far, and the foundation he has laid, he need more time to consolidate.





So, I think he deserve second term to enable him consolidates on his achievements. You see, for the first time in Nigeria, he has tackled the security issue which even the oppositions are applauding him.





Every Nigerian should be happy that he has indicated his interest. I am very optimistic that Buhari will win that Presidential election. He will take Nigeria to a greater height after 2019 election.





So, Buhari declaration is a welcome development to APC, the country and Africa continents at large.





In his reaction, a former Abia state representative in the board of Federal Revenue, Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Senator Chris Adighije said the Presidents declaration has put to rest speculations on whether Buhari would seek for re-election or not.





He said,That gives Nigerians another four years of rebuilding and restructuring and making sure the country stands firm. So, it is a happy development.





I believe after eight years of President Buhari, an Igbo man should be given the opportunity to run in all aspects and perspective. It should be the rightful turn of the igbos to take a shot at the Presidency.





 If another person had come in as president, that would have extended our situation. 2023, igbos will be allowed to produce next Nigerian President.




Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina has described as a `misquote the report that President Muhammadu Buhari had pledged only one term pr...

Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina has described as a `misquote the report that President Muhammadu Buhari had pledged only one term presidency and will never seek re-election in view of his age status. President Buhari, 75, had on Monday shortly before he left for London, declared his intention to run for presidential election in 2019.Adesina, who is the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity and currently on the entourage of the president to London, was reacting to a contributor on Channel television programme via Skype, on Tuesday.Yemi Akinbode, who contributed to the programme, said he was not surprised by the presidents declaration in spite of his pledge in 2014 not to seek re-election.Cue in audioNo, thats misquote, he was never, never quoted that way. If there is anything on record like that is a misquote because I was with him in South Africa when that issue came when he said, oh, he wished he had become president at the time he was a military governor that he would have done a lot for Nigeria. And the other happened in 2011.When he was running in 2011 he said, yes he would be a president for one term. But did he win in that year, no.The victory came in 2015. So, that being quoted in 2011 is not applicable again because he did not win that year. Akinbode said: It didnt come as a surprise to me. We have seen indications that the president was going to run a long time ago. The president in 2014 said that he was only going to run for one term because of his age. But the presidential aide maintained that it was not on record that Buhari had told the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or any member of the party that he would do only one term in office.On the purported vote of no confidence allegedly passed on the President by Northern Elders Forum and the Council for Shariah, Adesina said the two groups had the constitutional right to support anybody vying for political office in the country. He cited an example of a former president of the country who equally failed to secure the votes in his state and region but ended up winning the presidential election twice.On whether the president had obtained the support of his doctors before making his declaration on Monday, Adesina said Buhari was a responsible man who would never go against the advice of his medical personnel.He said: The President is a very responsible man. If there had been any warning, any red light from his doctor, you know, he wouldnt have ventured into it, unless you are telling me there is something you know that I dont know. But I know the President, as a very, very responsible man.If there was any warning he wouldnt do it. Adesina, who said that the president took him and other presidential aides unaware when he announced his intention to run for re-election in 2019. He said the presidents declaration was in reaction to appeals by millions of Nigerians. Yes, there had been a lot of appeals. I have served in different meetings with different interest groups and all of them want him to run for second term in office.And do you know that whenever the president reacted to these groups he would speak on all other points they raised except the issue of second term. It has been like this in the past one year even before he went for medical vacation, these calls had started coming but Mr President would not say a word and that reinforced my opinion that for him it was not a matter of do-or-die.It is just a matter of serving the country and If he feels that he has done it with the best of his ability that is just it, he said
Mr Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director, National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), says the next edition of the Big Brother Nigeria (BBNaija) reality show should be hosted in the country.Thomas, in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, said this while expressing displeasure on why a Nigerian show was being held in South Africa.The BBNaija which was introduced in 2006, is a special Nigerian version of the continental show Big Brother Africa.The 2018 edition is its second consecutive running year as it had previously suffered a 10-year hiatus after holding its first edition in 2006.He said: If it is Big Brother Africa, they can host that anywhere, but the one for Nigeria, should be hosted in Nigeria.Nigeria has what it takes to host the show, after all, there are many Multinational /Telecommunication companies hitherto operating hitch free in the country.If the organisers are talking about lack of available infrastructure as an excuse, then how is MTN operating successfully 24/7 in this same country.If MTN, a similar South African company has been surviving in this country, then I dont think anybody has an excuse for not hosting BBNigeria in Nigeria.They are making a lot of money from Nigerians here, so, we want them to host it here, he said.On the criticism in some quarters that the show was not healthy for younger viewers, Thomas said it was the responsibility of parents to check what their wards watch.He said the programme is rated 18+ adding, a couple of the scenes are adult content and that is where parental guidance comes in.Parents can always block the watching of some scenes within a particular period or in totality.It is not Governments responsibility to assume the parental roles of moral upbringing of children in their homes, he said.
If Immanuel Ibe-Anyawu had not hurriedly made that Facebook post from where he hid inside a toilet bank, he might have ended up in the dun...

If Immanuel Ibe-Anyawu had not hurriedly made that Facebook post from where he hid inside a toilet bank, he might have ended up in the dungeon of the gun-wielding men of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS).





Ibe-Anyawus phone was running out of power, around 2pm on Monday, when he made a post on Facebook: I was accosted by SARS officers at Ago-Palace, Okota, opposite Zenith Bank. They humiliated me and accused me of being a fraudster. Checked my documents and found nothing, and then said I should follow them back to my office in Ikoyi to confirm my claims. People intervened. I called the PPRO of Lagos State and he asked to speak with them. They took the phone and seized it. They are still holding my documents. Later one called me aside and asked me to go arrange money. I asked for my phone to let me make a transfer to my ATM account and he gave me. I took the phone and card and went into the bank and have gone into hiding here. Im updating from my hiding place. They are waiting for me by my car. Phone battery down. Please share.





Hours later, Ibe-Anyawus post had gone viral and a couple of his friends had started calling on the police authorities to intervene.





The victim, a writer, on Tuesday, narrated how it all happened.





It was past 2pm yesterday and I was at Zenith Bank Okota Branch to submit a document prepared on my company letterhead. I was asked to edit a part of it and resubmit. Because I wanted to conclude the transaction same yesterday, I had to go look for a business center around to type in the edit. Across the bank was one and, as I walked towards it, a young, scruffy-looking man accosted me, saying he was a police officer. His superiors wanted to see me inside a bus waiting around, he said. He was slightly bearded and on mufti, so I was skeptical. I asked for his ID card and he unhooked it from his waist and showed me. The prints were tiny and blurred, so I reached out to collect it and read properly. So you want to snatch my ID card, he shouted.





He took from me the PLANEX-branded envelope containing plain letterheads and other documents, and walked towards the bus, asking me to come along. Right away I made a call to my brother, Ekene Okoro, and briefed him. By the time I got to the bus, the story had changed: that I snatched his ID card from him. They were about 7 armed men, and one of them started interrogating me. Why did I choose to use this branch of Zenith Bank instead of the one close to my office in Ikoyi? Where is the other director of PLANEX? Why was the document I was to edit not stamped with my company stamp? Dismissing all my answers, he said they would take me to my office in Ikoyi to confirm. That he knew people on that street and had just spoken to them, and they couldnt identify me. Speak to my office landlady, I said. He ignored me.





At that point, I stepped aside and called the Lagos PPRO and narrated my experience. He asked me to pass on the phone to them and they took the phone from me, cut the call, and seized the phone. I became scared and started inviting passers-by into the argument and people gathered. One man intervened and begged them a lot and they calmed down, though insisting that they would still take me away anyway. Then they asked to search my car, parked outside the bank premises and I let them. Finding nothing, they took my ID card and demanded my car key and car documents. I had to corner their leader to a side and beg him, telling him he was like a father to me and should appeal to his men. His men were almost going violent but he kept calming them down. He told me to go arrange some money and I told him I needed the phone to transfer money from the corporate account to my ATM account. I needed the car key too to get the ATM card. On my way to the ATM, the one who arrested me asked me how much I was going to withdraw. I told him N5,000 and he flared up.





Ibe-Anyawu, instead of returning to the policemen went into the bank, entered the toilet and hid for hours.





The bank was going to close, and he had thought the SARS officers would have left.





The bank policeman said I should leave the bank, that the bank was not the place for people to hide. So he eased me out of the bank and, outside where my car was parked, I noticed the number plates had been taken away. The SARS bus was no longer around so I assumed they had left, he explained.





I got into my car and plugged my phone desperate to reach people. As soon as I started the car and moved, the SARS bus came from nowhere and double-crossed me. I turned swiftly facing the bank gate and blocking it, hooting crazily to draw attention and for the bank security to let me in. The bank security, on the order of their skeptical policeman, refused me entry, leaving me out for SARS to devour. It is a branch I have frequented for over 10 years, visiting there almost weekly. SARS people jumped out of their bus and started banging on my car windows. One attempted to puncture the tyre but that superior asked him not to. My phone was still yet to come on, heightening my fear. It was the longest moment of my life, as I was surrounded by 7 armed policemen who had patiently waited for me for over 2 hours. They ordered me to wind down but I wouldnt and a crowd began to gather. They stepped aside, speaking to the bank policeman. The bank policeman later came to me and asked me to wind down, that he had spoken to them, and that I should leave even outside the bank premises where all this was happening. The management had asked him to chase me away, he said, adding that the bank was not the place for me. Shouting through shut windows, I pleaded with him to let my phone come on so help could reach me. He threatened to use force on me if I didnt leave that very minute. I steered out of the gate and parked in the outside parking lot, still locked up in the car.





They came back to me again, SARS, asking me to wind down, and I pretended to be making a phone call. One was impatient and wanted to smash the glass. Their superior who had been soft all along got angry and dumped the number plates and documents on my bonnet and stormed out. The others followed him, entered their bus, and they drove ahead and waited. I was scared that they were still waiting along the same road I was to take, so I remained in the car. The bank policeman came back again, fuming, banging on the car and urging me to leave. I had to take the opposite direction amid a slow-moving traffic, driving insanely cutting through the traffic until I found a free road which was in the opposite direction to my house. I fled, literally.





The erring police officers have, reportedly, been arrested.





But, Chike Oti, the Lagos command police public relations officer could not immediately confirm this when we reached out to him. Please call me back, he told our correspondent.





However, Ibe-Anyawu said he has been called by the police authorities to come and identify the men who harassed him. I am on my way to the Lagos police command in Ikeja. I was called that the men are in custody and I should come and identify them, he said on Tuesday.




The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has described the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari as a welcome development.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has described the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari as a welcome development.





Buhari announced on Monday that he will be seeking re-election in office during the 2019 elections.





He said this is because of the clamour by Nigerians urging him to seek a second term.





In a statement on Tuesday, Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesman, said the presidents decision portends goodwill for its members.





We have always maintained that the rebirth of Biafra will happen under Buhari or under whoever is answering to his name, he said.





This second coming of Buhari portends goodwill for freedom lovers because God Almighty wants to fulfill his divine purpose in the life of Biafrans in 2019 as foretold by our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.





Powerful said though IPOB has lost a lot of people in its quest for a sovereign state of Biafra, no amount of tribulation will stop us from emerging victorious as a free people at the end of this process.





We urge our brethren in the Middle Belt and Western Nigeria not to give up or capitulate in this our collective quest to free our people from the shackles of caliphate domination and creeping Islamisation.








Veteran journalist, Ray Ekpu, says out of Nigerias top leaders, only the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe were fully prepared to lead the country.Ekpu said all presidents that ruled the country from 1999 till date did not show demonstrable evidence of being fully prepared for leadership, stressing that lack of preparation and organised cabalism were the bane of good governance in the country.He spoke in Lagos on Monday during a public discourse organised by Africa Future.Africa Futures Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Tosin Ajayi, also spoke on the topic, The master drive: The only thing that connects you with all with everything where he addressed the reasons why underdevelopment had been persisting in Nigeria and on the Africa continent.Ekpu, whose speech was titled, State of the nation, said the country was wallowing in poverty and underdevelopment because leaders were picked, not on merit, but by certain godfathers desperate for power.He also bemoaned the falling standard of education in the country and lamented that Nigerian universities were producing idiots unlike in the past when they were the pride of Africa.Ekpu said, I attribute Nigerias leadership failure to two main factors  lack of adequate preparation for high office. In the Nigerian case, the pathetic lack of preparation for high office has been most evident. Except for Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, there has hardly been any demonstrable evidence that our past leaders did burn the midnight oil unceasingly.In the case of Shehu Shagari who had political experience at the grassroots but a limited breadth of vision, education and erudition, he had opted to be a senator. President Shagari told the late Dele Giwa in an interview that he had told his ministers to stop stealing but they would not listen. Can you imagine that? Of those who were ready for the jobAzikiwe and Awolowo none of them got the job of Prime Minister or President. They were both at the periphery of substantive power.In his lecture, Ajayi blamed most of the countrys problems on selfishness, emphasising that the only way to achieve self-actualisation and fulfilment was to abandon self-centredness.The doctor said the countrys inability to provide solutions to the nations problems was caused by the very small capability to listen, see and learn. We seem to learn only by rote.Ajayi noted that it was unfortunate that the countrys social inheritance modelled only on the survival of the own-self had become generational.He said, If you dont forget about yourself, you cannot achieve self-actualisation on earth. Submission of self is the precondition to intellectual activities of our minds and self-actualisation. In other words, forget about yourself and you can be self-actualised.
On Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he will be seeking a second term in office.

On Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he will be seeking a second term in office.

He made the public declaration while meeting with the national executive committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.





The president said he is seeking re-election because of the clamour by Nigerians.





Prior to the public declaration, some Nigerians publicly canvassed against the presidents re-election bid.

Here are five of the figures who left no stone unturned in driving home their message against Buharis presidency come 2019.





OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

The former president could have been instrumental to the election of Buhari in 2015 through his unbridled endorsement, but that has not stopped him from wielding his lethal letter writing skills against the president.





On January 23, Obasanjo wrote a strongly-worded letter to Buhari, asking him to forget about the 2019 election. In the letter bomb, the Owu chief said the president had performed below expectation.





He wrote, The lice of poor performance in government  poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed  if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality  are very much with us today.





AYODELE FAYOSE

Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, is a foremost critic of Buhari and he would never hold back his emotions when it comes to criticising the president. Some see him as the strongest voice of the opposition.





While reacting to Obasanjos letter to Buhari, Fayose described the letter writer and its recipient as expired leaders and that both leaders have outlived their usefulness to Nigeria. At another time, he said those who voted for the president in the 2015 general election ought to beg God for forgiveness.





FEMI FANI-KAYODE

Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister, has written a myriad of letters and articles to lampoon the Buhari presidency. Recently, he claimed that the $1bn approved by the president for the procurement of security equipment to fight Boko Haram insurgency will be used to fund his 2019 re-election campaign. He appealed to Nigerians to vote against Buhari.





IBRAHIM BABANGIDA

The former military president asked Nigerians to co-operate with President Buhari until his tenure ends  but vote for a new generation of leaders in 2019. On February 4, in a statement titled Towards a national rebirth, he said the 2019 elections offer a unique opportunity for Nigerians.





Babangida, who overthrew Buhari in 1985 and ruled till 1993, said: In the fullness of our present realities, we need to cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to complete his term of office on May 29th, 2019 and collectively prepare the way for new generation leaders to assume the mantle of leadership of the country. While offering this advice, I speak as a stakeholder, former president, concerned Nigerian and a patriot who desires to see new paradigms in our shared commitment to get this country running.





ANGO ABDULLAHI

Abdullahi, spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, has described as corrupt act the recent endorsement of the president for a second term by the APC governors.





On March 24, he led a coalition of northern groups to pass a vote of no confidence on President Buhari and other northern politicians, saying they have failed the region.





OLUBUNMI OKOGIE

In January, the archbishop emeritus of the Catholic archdiocese of Lagos, advised Buhari to respect himself and retire quietly.





The fiery cleric who has rated the current administration low said it is an insult to Nigerians for the president to be talking about 2019 election. He advised Buhari to be thinking of finding solutions to the problems confronting Nigerians.





said. What has he done in the years he had been in the saddle? He has performed woefully; thats the verdict of Nigerians, Okogiehadsaid.




Following increasing cases of farmers/herdsmen clashes leading to loss of lives and properties across Nigeria, Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has taken the campaign for peace and tolerance to the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, for spiritual intervention.Governor Al-Makura, who spoke when he received the leadership of Nasarawa State branch of CAN, said with the unabated killings of innocent Nigerians, the only option left for a sustainable peace was for the religious bodies to take Nigerias problems to God in prayers.According to the governor, my administration has put in place several measures including resuscitating the states inter-religious council to foster religious unity and peaceful co-existence in the state.Earlier, state Chairman of CAN, Bishop Joseph Masin, commended Al-Makura for his policies that had brought about relative peace across the state and assured him of CANs continuous prayers for peace to rein in the state.
Senteni Masango, the eighth wife of King Mswati III of Swaziland, has allegedly committed suicide after taking an overdose of a pain reli...

Senteni Masango, the eighth wife of King Mswati III of Swaziland, has allegedly committed suicide after taking an overdose of a pain relief medicine.Her lifeless body was said to have been found in the room.The kings wife is believed to have overdosed on about 40 amitriptyline capsules  widely used to block the long-term (chronic) pain of some rheumatic conditions and treat depression and related disorders, online publication News24 reported.She was buried on Sunday morning.King Mswati III got married to the deceased in September 1990 when she was just 18 years old.Last year, King Mswati III married his latest bride, Siphelele Mashwama, who was aged 19 years.It is a tradition for the Swazi King to choose a wife every year.In Swaziland, tens of thousands of unmarried and childless girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to participate in the eight-day event during which the king selects a new bride, and would-be brides are publicly checked to ascertain their virginity.King Mswati III was crowned in 1986 at the age of 18, succeeding his long-serving father King Sobhuza II, who died at the age of 82.The king, now aged 50, is known as Ngweyama the lion.
Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, says former President Olusegun Obasanjo cannot stop President Muhammadu Buhari from winning in...

Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, says former President Olusegun Obasanjo cannot stop President Muhammadu Buhari from winning in 2019.





Speaking in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Tuesday, Shittu described Buharis declaration as a welcome development.





Shittu, who is the coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group, asked supporters of the president to start mobilising for the election.





Who is OBJ? OBJ is not God. IBB is not God. Obasanjo was president here, he wanted a third term and he didnt get it, he said.





What Mr President did yesterday (Monday), we had done that much back on his behalf; that is the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group. So what he did yesterday was just a follow-up to what we had done about three months ago. And I want to assure you is that by the grace of God, Muhammadu Buhari will become president the second time.





He said the president had distinguished himself as his achievement in three years had surpassed that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for in 16 years.





For instance in the area of job creation for youths, no government has ever in one day employed 200, 000 graduates. It has never happened but under Buhari N-Power it happened, he said.





Through this, he has provided jobs for 200, 000 families spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria.





Government is still processing the employment of 300, 000 more graduates to make it 500, 000, this has never happened. In the areas of transport, works and housing, the last budget of the PDP government was less than N20 billion and most of these monies were stolen; diverted to private pockets.





In 2017 alone, the Buhari government spent N255 billion on those subject matters; transport, works and housing. So how do you compare? Today, government is also building new roads across the south-east states with 100 million dollars SUKUK loan; non-interest loan from Islamic Development Bank.




Former President Goodluck Jonathans ex-aide, Reno Omokri has described Bola Tinubu, Babtunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi and Rochas Okorocha ...

Former President Goodluck Jonathans ex-aide, Reno Omokri has described Bola Tinubu, Babtunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi and Rochas Okorocha as looters.





Omokri made the remark while rubbishing the President Muhammadu Buharis ongoing anti-corruption war.





He said until the above-named politicians were included in the looters lists, the ongoing anti-graft war was dead on arrival.





In a tweet, Omokri said Buhari lacks the moral right to fight corruption because those named above funded his campaign using alleged looted funds.





The tweet reads, Has Buhari called Amaechi, who admitted spending $500,000 state fund on dinner for Wole Soyinka, a looter?





Has Buhari called Fashola who used $500,000 state fund to build his website, a looter?





Until then, his anti corruption fight is #DEADONARRIVAL





In law, a man who receives stolen goods is as guilty as the thief. Can President Buhari tell us who funded his 2015 campaign? Can he say Tinubu, Amaechi, Rochas & co didnt provide cash?





From where did they get it? If you are serious, include your financiers in your looters list!




A Gloucester Township man jailed on drug possession charges got more charges when jail officers discovered he had ingested -- and then vomited into his mouth - 32 packets of heroin.

Officers arrested Michael Rosario, 24, while patrolling near the Sicklerville Road Wawa on April 5 around 4:30 p.m. They spotted Rosario in a Honda Civic speeding through a work zone area, Camden police said.

He initially gave a false name, but police discovered his real identity and that he had several outstanding warrants.

Upon searching him, police also found Rosario with six bags of heroin and thirteen empty bags which police say containing heroin residue.

Police took him to the Camden County Jail, where officers found that Rosario had vomited 32 bags into his mouth.

Rosario was sent back to the Gloucester Township Police Department to be processed on additional heroin possession charges, then to a local hospital, due to the possibility he ingested the drug.

He was then taken back to the county jail again.

Rosario faces heroin possession, drug paraphernalia and distribution charges, as well as hindering apprehension.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Jacqueline Laurita, former cast member on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," is criticizing her local library after she said her son Nicholas, who has autism, was asked to leave.

Laurita, 47, who lives in Franklin Lakes, posted videos of her son on Facebook over the weekend showing him at the library. In the clips, Nicholas, 8, can be seen holding and tapping DVDs at the library before putting them back. He can also be heard making moderately loud sounds.

"Keep it down, Nick," Laurita tells her son in one video. She says that after library staff asked them to leave, Nicholas threw a fit.

"I guess non contextual vocals & tapping (twice) on the (DVDs) are frowned upon," Laurita said in a post. "He had a meltdown as I struggled to get him to leave. Not one person offered or tried to help, or even opened the door for us. They just watched me struggle to get him out... as asked."

"My heart hurt so bad for the both of us after I got him out of there," she continued. "The day before he had such a great experience there. I wish everyone understood #Autism. Time to go back and educate them! Time for inclusion."

Laurita's autism advocacy and Nicholas' diagnosis were subjects on the Bravo reality show.

"Our policy of inclusion is demonstrated daily," the library's board of trustees said in a statement Monday night. "Our staff has years of experience catering to patrons who are physically challenged, visual or hearing impaired, as well as special education students from our public school system, and developmentally delayed children and adults."

"No patron is ever asked to leave the library unless and until their actions are depriving other patrons of the ability to enjoy our services."

Nicholas is the son of Jacqueline and her husband Chris Laurita, who has also appeared on the show. Chris is the brother of former cast members Caroline Manzo and Dina Manzo.

Laurita was a main cast member in the original season of "RHONJ" and over five seasons in total before transitioning to a "friend of the Housewives" role in the sixth season. She left the reality show after returning to a main cast member role in the seventh season, when she was consistently at odds with former friend Teresa Giudice.

This post has been updated with a response from the library's board of trustees.

Yy

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
Helen's Pizza in Jersey City celebrated its 50th anniversary by turning back the clocks.

The Newark Avenue pizzeria, which was founded in 1968, today offered slices to the public at 1968 prices -- 25 cents -- to mark it's 50th year in business.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Ward E Councilman James Solomon were on hand for a special lunchtime ceremony congratulating the pizzeria's second-generation owner, Steve Kalcanides, who was also joined by his mother, Irene, and wife, Maria.

Kalcanides' father, Nicolas, opened in the business five years after immigrating to the United States from Greece in 1963. He ran a hot dog stand prior to founding Helen's, which he passed down to Steve in 1985.

"It's been part of my life the past 50 years," said Steve Kalcanides, who oversaw the pizzeria's renovation and expansion in 1989. "My son is going to be the next generation taking it on."

And it wasn't just the Kalcanides family who was eager to celebrate today; the public jumped at the opportunity to buy 25-cent pizza. A total of 1,000 slices were sold throughout the day, Steve said.

"Oh my God, it was busy until 4 o'clock. The line stretched down to the store next door!"
12:45 p.m. UPDATE: The broken rails have been repaired and the PATH is operating with delays, officials said.

PATH service between Journal Square and 33rd Street in New York and on the Hoboken-World Trade Center line has been suspended for "approximately" one hour because of a broken rail near Newport Station, Port Authority officials said.

Port Authority made the announcement at 12:06 p.m. through its PATH alert service. Officials said in the alert that New Jersey Transit is honoring PATH at New York and Newark Penn Stations.

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system is cross-honoring at its Hoboken stations, Newport and Exchange Place.

On it's website, Port Authority also offers a guide to alternate transportation.
Authorities charged five men and seized nearly $200,000 worth of heroin after New Jersey and Pennsylvania investigators discovered a trafficking operation that was bringing opioids from Philadelphia to the Trenton area for at least the last six months.

County detectives identified Daquan Baylor, 26, of Ewing as receiving large quantities of heroin and distributing it throughout the area, the Mercer County Prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

On April 3, officers observed Cristian Baez-Belliard, 25, leaving his North Philadelphia home, concealing a large item underneath his jacket. He drove in a silver Nissan Sentra to Suburban Plaza in Ewing, just outside Trenton, where he met up with Baylor in a white Sentra, prosecutors said.

Authorities observed the men exchanging the suspected drugs, and moved in.

Officers with the Mercer County Narcotics Task Force, Ewing police and New Jersey State Police detained Baylor and Baez-Belliard and obtained warrants to search their vehicles, prosecutors said.

Officers located 150 bricks of heroin in Baylor's Sentra and a plastic bag with nearly $21,000 in cash in Baez-Belliard's vehicle.

Baylor also had $2,800 in cash and seven Percocet pills in his Country Lane home in Ewing.

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control then obtained a warrant and searched Baez-Belliard's Tampa Street home in Philadelphia, where they found 819 grams and about 15 bricks of suspected heroin, about 12 grams of fentanyl and items for packaging and distributing heroin, prosecutors said.

At the Philadelphia home, officers also arrested Jonathan Nunez-Cordero, 25, Armando Santos, 20, and Yoncarlo Nunez-Cordero, 21, who were then charged with various narcotic-related offenses.

Baylor and Baez-Belliard were each face possession and intent to distribute charges, prosecutors said. The office added it filed a motion to detain Baylor until trial.

Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri estimated the street value of the seized heroin is about $196,800, the prescription pills at $210 and the fentanyl at $720. The office also seized nearly $24,000 in cash.

"As the opioid addiction crisis continues to escalate across the country, I want these drug dealers to be on notice that we are going to fight in Mercer County," Onofri said.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Nearly 10 months after one man was killed and another was seriously injured during a robbery at a Woodbridge couples motel, a fourth person from New York been arrested and charged with murder.

John Mingo, 29, was taken into custody Monday in Brooklyn, by U.S. Marshals Service, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

Mingo awaits extradition to New Jersey, where is he charged with one count of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. He was only recently identified as a suspect, authorities said.

He had been sought for a "few months" and was picked up in the evening, but additional details about how Mingo was found were not immediately available, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.

Mingo, Chelsey Mendoza, Cynthia Rivera and Martin Martinez Jr. plotted to rob a 24-year-old man after he posted on social media about possessing a large sum of money and jewelry, prosecutors said.

During the robbery, the man was shot and another man, Andrew Torres, 21, was killed, authorities said.

Mendoza, Rivera, Torres and a 24-year-old man who has never been identified rented a room June 21 at the Loop Inn Motel off Routes 1 & 9 in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, authorities said.

While they were in a hot tub, Martinez and Mingo arrived armed with handguns and fatally shot Torres when he answered their knock on the door, prosecutors said.

The 24-year-old, who had posted about the money, was shot multiple times and taken to University Hospital in Newark in critical condition. Before undergoing surgery, the man told authorities he had never met the women before that night, prosecutors said.

Mendoza pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit robbery and agreed to testify against Rivera and Martinez.

Authorities continue to investigate the killing. Anyone with information is asked to call Anyone with information is asked to call Woodbridge Det. Santiago Tapi at 732-634-7700, or Detective David Abromaitis of the prosecutor's office at 732-745-4436.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The lawyer for a Carteret police officer accused of beating a teenager after a brief car chase last May has asked the court to move the officer's trial to a different county.



In a brief filed in state Superior Court, defense attorney Charles Sciarra argues the publicity generated by NJ Advance Media "has inflamed and prejudiced the potential jury pool," making it unrealistic for his client, Joseph Reiman, to receive a fair trial in Middlesex County. "The crusade against Reiman has been relentless," Sciarra wrote.

Reiman has been indicted on charges that include third-degree aggravated assault, second-degree official misconduct and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records. The officer, who has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case, also faces a civil lawsuit brought by the family of the teenager.



Sciarra claims reporter Craig McCarthy's stories on NJ.com -- several of which feature police dashcam video obtained under the state's Open Public Records Act -- have repeatedly made unsupported statements about the facts of the encounter between Reiman and his alleged victim, and that McCarthy has never disputed the Middlesex County prosecutor's allegations "as they support his publicized opinion."



The defense attorney argues the reporter has selectively highlighted Reiman's prior use of force without context, quoted comments by anonymous fellow officers and declined to publicize the inadmissibility of the prior use-of-force incidents as evidence in the criminal case.



The officer's attorney argues McCarthy's online promotion of his work on social media, coupled with coverage by other outlets and "inflammatory" allegations of involvement in the case by Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman, the defendant's brother, leaves the court without a way to "adequately ensure Reiman will receive an impartial assessment of his guilt or innocence in Middlesex County."

Sciarra sent a copy of his notice to seek a change of venue to NJ Advance Media and invited this reporter to review the dozens of documents, including a 60-page brief, that he is using to support the motion.

Kevin Whitmer, VP of Content for NJ Advance Media, said the organization stands behind McCarthy's vigorous reporting. "Craig has carefully used sources to complement smart and determined street reporting that was fueled by what everyone can see and hear on bodycam and dashcam recordings."

In a statement, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said it is "inappropriate for the attorneys involved in this case to publicly comment at this time."

"The prosecutor's office will be abiding by the rules of ethics and will litigate this case in court," Carey said.

The motion has yet to be argued in front of a judge.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty.

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Family members of the late South Brunswick Mayor Christopher J. Killmurray, who died on Sunday, are asking admirers to support local organizations and "just have a beer and relax" in his memory.

Killmurray, 55 -- a married father of four, partner at his law firm and mayor for the past year -- had been battling brain cancer.

Christopher J. Killmurray

A funeral Mass will be held Thursday at St. Cecelia's Church in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick, according to his obituary.

"He will always be in our hearts as his legacy lives on in the many lives he has touched during his time with us," his family said.

Killmurray was elected to the South Brunswick Council in 2003. He was named mayor on April 12, 2017, following the death of Mayor Frank Gambatese -- the longest-serving mayor in the township's history -- and was elected to fill out the remainder of Gambatese's term last November.

Though Killmurray had missed recent meetings, South Brunswick Manager Bernard Hvozdovic said he regularly visited him at his home to update him on municipal matters, up until about a week ago.

"He was still interested ... right up until the end really," Hvozdovic said.

A native of Woodbridge, Killmurray is being remembered as a champion of his adopted hometown.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of South Brunswick Mayor Christopher Killmurray. He was an honorable and dedicated public servant who was very passionate about this community. Mayor Killmurray will be missed.https://t.co/NnqCis46Ay  Senator Kip Bateman (@KipBateman) April 9, 2018

In an obituary that mixed sorrow with pride and playfulness, his family described him as "everyone's favorite Irish person," a dedicated attorney and booster of local youth sports.

Though not a natural at camping, he became an assistant leader in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and was facetiously dubbed 'The Great Outdoorsman' after he "learned how to delegate putting up his own tent," his family said.

"As mayor, Chris Killmurray always strove to try his best for those around him and help them reach their potential," his obituary read.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to the South Brunswick Public Library or South Brunswick Food Pantry -- in addition to the suggestion of a relaxing beer.

Tuesday's meeting of the South Brunswick Council has been cancelled.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is examining a series of previously unreported meetings that took place in 2017 in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to two sources briefed on the investigation.

The sources said several of those meetings took place around the same time as another meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates (also known as "MBZ"). Details of that earlier meeting were first reported by the Washington Post last year.

The sources requested to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The inquiry into the meetings in the Seychelles suggests there is growing interest on the Mueller team in whether foreign financing, specifically from Gulf states, has influenced President Trump and his administration.

The New York Times reported in March that Mueller's team questioned George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who helped broker the Seychelles meeting, about whether the Emiratis attempted to buy political influence in the White House.

Documents obtained by this reporter, and interviews with those familiar with the probe, suggest Mueller is also looking at other foreign influencers, including individuals from Russia and from Saudi Arabia.

The meetings in the Seychelles are a key component of Mueller's investigation, sources familiar with the investigation said. The meetings connect powerful players from Russia, the U.S., the UAE and Saudi Arabia across the political, financial and defense worlds. The details of what was discussed in the meetings in January and in the following months, however, are scarce.

Flight records and financial documents obtained by this reporter over twelve months, as well as interviews with parliamentary and aviation officials in the Seychelles, paint a scene out of a Hollywood thriller.

Wealthy and politically-connected individuals from across the globe -- from Russia, France, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- land in the Seychelles for meetings that take place as a part of a larger gathering hosted by MBZ, according to an individual briefed on the matter, who also requested anonymity. Many of them fly in on private jets and several do not clear customs. Some check into the Four Seasons Hotel while others arrive and stay on their yachts.

Individuals connected to the Saudi financial system, including the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Arab National Bank, flew into the island the second week of January 2017, as did an aircraft purportedly owned by the former deputy minister of defense, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, fight records show. Other individuals on those aircraft held passports from Egypt and Singapore.

Dmitriev flew into the Seychelles Jan. 11, 2017 with his wife Natalia Popova and another woman with the last name Boldovskaia. Six other Russian individuals flew to the island just a few days after Dmitriev. The aircraft's ownership is unclear but it flew between Russia, Geneva and Cyprus in 2017.

Others on the island included Alexander Mashkevitch, an alleged financier of Bayrock, an investment vehicle linked to Trump, and Sheikh Abdulrahman Khalid BinMahfouz, according to flight records. BinMahfouz's father, before his death, was a billionaire and the former chairman of Saudi Arabia's first private bank.

Nader travelled to Seychelles Jan. 7, 2017 and again on March 24 on an aircraft with the tail number VP-CZA, flight records show. The aircraft is registered to Gryphon Asset Management, an aviation consulting company based out of Dubai.

Nader is a well-known advisor to the UAE with links to Dmitriev and members of the Saudi Royal family. He has attended meetings at the White House with Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner in the past, according to the Times, and has also been linked to Trump fundraiser and deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee Elliot Broidy.

The Associated Press reported last month Nader sent Broidy $2.5 million through a Canadian company. Broidy then began giving donations to members of Congress who were actively supporting legislation critical of Qatar, the AP reported.

The previously reported meeting in the Seychelles between Prince, Dmitriev and MBZ was described as an attempt by the U.S. to set up a backchannel with Russia. The Post reported that Blackwater founder Erik Prince, an informal adviser to the Trump team, acted as a representative of the administration in the meeting with an unnamed Russian individual.

Later, this reporter broke the news in The Intercept that Prince had met with Dmitriev -- the head of the sovereign wealth fund with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prince admitted in a congressional testimony earlier this year that he had met Dmitriev on the island, but said it was a chance meeting.

Mueller's team has received evidence challenging Prince's testimony, according to an ABC News report.

Erin Banco may be reached at ebanco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ErinBanco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
UPDATE: 'They were so scared.' Inside the heroic rescue of girls from dance school inferno

Several girls leapt from the balcony of an Edgewater building early Monday evening to escape roaring flames that ripped through their dance studio and other businesses as people rushed with ladders to mount a frantic rescue effort.

None of the girls was seriously injured, though 10 to 15 suffered minor injuries in the harrowing escape, which was captured on video, according to borough Mayor Michael McPartland.

Video from the scene showed several people from the ground lift ladders to the balcony as flames blew through a lower level.

At least one girl was clinging to the balcony with legs dangling before dropping. Another girl slides down a beam from the balcony. One girl dropped before she is helped up and walks away.

Officials said there were no reports of anyone missing in the fire, which sparked shortly before 7 p.m.

Edgewater Wine & Spirits owner Tony Nehmi was the first person on the scene and he rescued two of the girls with the help of Edgewater Police Officer Jimmy Dalton.

Nehmi said he immediately ran toward the building when he saw smoke down the street from his shop. He started asking some restaurant workers who had escaped if they knew if anyone was still inside and then saw two girls pounding on the glass on the second floor.

He said he knew had to act quickly as the room was quickly filling with smoke.

"I just wanted to get those two girls out, I never would have lived with myself if they got hurt," Nehmi said.

He said the girls were unable to break the glass so he grabbed a ladder, used it to climb to the balcony and then broke the glass with it.

"The flames were spreading so fast," Nehmi said. "I only had a couple of seconds to save them, there was no time."

Once the girls were out he set up the ladder so the girls could escape to the ground. He said they were "not severely hurt," but that they may have stepped on some broken glass and cut themselves.

Videos showed the fire burning strongly in the commercial building on Old River Road, which leads down from Palisades to the Hudson.

Thick smoke from the fire was visible from Manhattan. Firefighters managed to stop flames that climbed a section of the Palisades toward an apartment building on Gorge Road in Cliffside Park, a borough spokesman said.

The fire was brought under control around 9:45 p.m.

Yikes what a fire in Edgewater. Hope all are safe. pic.twitter.com/UGRwxOjogv  Joshua Marlar (@joshmarlar) April 9, 2018

The business at the address is listed as a hookah lounge, the dance studio and other businesses.

The cause of the fire is still undetermined as of 10 p.m.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Scientists and concerned citizens will take to the Trenton streets on Saturday to stand up for science.

"There has been a war on science in this country," said Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, during a conference call previewing the march. "We're having this march to not only stand up for science but to stand up for the foundations of our society."

The demonstration will be held in conjunction with the national March for Science in Washington, D.C., marches in New York City and Philadelphia and other marches around the world. More than 230 demonstrations are planned for the day.

The Trenton event will start at 10 a.m, with organizers and community leaders speaking about the importance of science based policy in government. After the speakers, demonstrators will march from the war memorial to the Statehouse Annex. On the grounds of the Statehouse Annex, organizers will hold a "science fair" that will include two panel discussions, one on climate change and one on the science behind gun control.

"Putting a march on is a lot of work, but we believe this is an important thing to be doing," said Matthew Buckley, a Rutgers physics professor and one of the demonstration's main organizers.

Organizers of the New Jersey march stress their fear that the Trump administration is trying to undermine the scientific community to support efforts to rollback a variety of regulations.

For Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, D-Mercer, speaking out in support of science's place in governing is not trivial. Zwicker, a physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, is the only scientist currently serving in New Jersey's state legislature. He said that unbiased, scientific study of the world informs good policy.

"Science, as we know, knows no political party," Zwicker said. "We have to come together and make sure our voices are heard."

The first New Jersey March for Science occurred last year with nearly 1,000 people assembling on the steps of the War Memorial. Doug O'Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey, said that last year's demonstrations were the first time many people "came out of the lab and marched," and he hopes that this year will be the same.

The March for Science comes amid a scientific debate at the federal level. At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, a proposal to change the way the agency assesses scientific work is being touted by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as a boost to transparency but is being criticized

by scientists as a move that would restrict the amount of hard facts available to policymakers.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who spent his teenage years in Bergen County, is not stopping in New Jersey during his highly-anticipated book tour.

The 1978 graduate of Northern Highlands Regional High School will visit seven states and Washington, D.C., to promote his autobiography, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership."

There is huge interest in Comey's story, stemming from his firing last year by President Trump and the ongoing investigation into possible obstruction of justice by the president and other matters involving Russia leading up to the 2016 election.

Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.  James Comey (@Comey) March 17, 2018

His book briefly topped Amazon's best-seller list last month because of pre-order sales.

The first of Comey's nine book signings is April 18, at a Barnes & Noble store on East 17th Street in Manhattan, according to MacMillan Publishers. His tour concludes May 25 in Kansas.

In contrast to Comey, former Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton -- whose 2016 defeat to Trump's was blamed in part on Comey's investigation of her emails -- visited Montclair while promoting her post-election autobiography last year.

About 1,000 showed up Sept. 26 at Watchung Plaza, where Clinton signed copies of her book, "What Happened."

Comey's "about the author" bio on MacMillan's website notes he was born in Yonkers, N.Y., but does not mention his short time in New Jersey. His family moved to Allendale in the early 1970s.

Though not scheduling a book tour stop in New Jersey, Comey will be making a splash here this fall.

Fairleigh Dickinson University recently announced that Comey will lead off its next "New Jersey Speaker Series" with a speech Oct. 4 at the N.J. Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
An Ocean County chiropractor faces up to 15 years in prison after admitting he over-billed insurance companies, laundered the cash and later collected disability while still working, authorities said.

Carlo Amato, the former owner of Chiropractic Care Consultants and Accident Recovery Physical Therapy in Lakewood, pleaded guilty to money laundering and theft by deception, the Ocean County Prosecutor's office said in a statement Tuesday.

Amato used the ill-gotten money to set up trust accounts in the name of his children, officials said. Between January 2013 to December 2016, he then wired about $1.5 million to Russia, where his wife and children live, authorities said.

While out on bail, Amato went on disability and pocketed another $116,000 after claiming he was hurt in a car accident and couldn't work. After authorities learned he was still working, they searched his Beachwood home in December 2017 and found $182,515 cash hidden in a wall as well as various forms of fake identification.

Police also found fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, that authorities said he had for his personal use, authorities said.

In January, 2017, a grand jury indicted Amato on four counts of healthcare claims fraud and one count each of theft by deception and possession of fentanyl, according to court documents.

Amato's attorney, Alan Zegas, didn't immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media seeking comment.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
(Above: At the inauguration I listened to Donald Trump talk about his "America-first" foreign policy, outraging the establishment. Now he's gone over to the "America-last" side of the internationalists who want the U.S. to put countries like Syria first.)

On Sunday I got a call from Mike Doherty. The current state senator and former U.S. Army officer was livid about President Trump's about-face on Syria.

"In the 2016 campaign, his major promise was ending these stupid foreign wars," said the Warren County Republican. "If he breaks that promise with his base, I think he's finished."

As of early last week, Trump sounded like he was sticking to his promise to pull U.S troops out of Syria. On Tuesday, he met with his generals in what was supposed to be a private meeting on the issue.

On Wednesday, leaks from that meeting were widely reported in the press. The reports said his call for a rapid withdrawal of troops from Syria "faced unanimous opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community."

News reports said Trump was enraged by the leaks.

"You got a bunch of generals with top-secret security clearances that don't mind leaking," said Doherty. "Heads should roll. They should find out who leaked that information and he should be fired."

Instead, by Sunday Trump had reversed his policy on withdrawal. Now he was in favor of intervention (just like Hillary Clinton was.).

Trump wrote in a Tweet that Syrian President Bashar Assad will face a "big price to pay" after reports of a chemical - or as he put it "CHEMICAL" - attack in rebel-held territory in Syria.

Trump's getting spun by the generals, said Doherty.

He noted that back when President Obama faced a similar situation in 2013, Trump Tweeted - again in all caps, "AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!"

Now Trump's promising to do some very foolish things of his own - and in a much more dangerous situation than anything Obama faced.

I got an assessment of just how dangerous when I talked with another former Army officer with whom I like to discuss current events.

"This time it could easily get out of hand," said Pat Lang, a former Vietnam Green Beret who later spent a couple decades in the Mideast. (See this debunking of the co-called "white helmets" on his site.)

Back in 2013 the war was mainly between the Syrian government and the rebels. Now Russia is a major supporter of the Syrian government.

"The Russians have made it very clear that if we attack Syria again that they're going to fight our attack," Lang said. "There will be a war between the United States and Russia over Syria."

Lang said Trump had it right when he was saying we should get out of Syria. But "the swamp captured him," he said.

"He'd have to be so strong to sit in the Pentagon and look at all these four-star generals and striped-pants idiots from the State Department and say, 'I don't care what you say. We have to be out of there in five months or you'll all be out of a job,'" he said.

Trump's problem, said Lang, is that he gives too much credence to the generals.

When it comes to generals, Lang had an assessment shared with Doherty, who oversaw an artillery unit in Germany during the Cold War. Far from being brilliant leaders, they tend to be "suck-ups" or "butt-kissers," both say.

Lang said the current crop is particularly bad.

"They can't remember when there wasn't a war to fight," he said. "Their reason for being is to fight."

As recently as a week ago, Trump was arguing that those fights costs us $7 trillion with nothing to show for it. Now he's ready to start what could be the real mother of all battles.

Doherty, who was the first prominent politician in New Jersey to back Trump, said the Donald's going back on the campaign promise that first drew him to Trump.

"My point is that Trump defeated 16 other Republicans on just this issue, to stop fighting those stupid wars in the Mideast," he said. "This is why he won the election."

Now that he's president, Doherty said, Trump should listen to his old speeches.

Back then he was noting, accurately enough, that our involvement in places like Syria and Iraq had actually helped the Islamic radicals organize the populations against the Americans.

But now he seems to be falling for the foreign-policy establishment's familiar refrain in favor of intervention.

Who knows? Maybe this time the generals will finally come up with the missile attack or bombing campaign that will finally make everything all right - after 17 years of failure since 9/11.

There's only one way to find out.

Let's hope Trump doesn't take it.

ADD - TRUMP'S AMERICA-LAST FOREIGN POLICY: As conservative Pat Buchanan notes here, Trump won the support of conservatives by promising to end the so-called "neo" conservative policy of meddling in the Mideast to promote the interests of countries other than America.

Now Trump is reverting to the discredited politics of intervention, he writes:

"The War Party that was repudiated in 2016 appears to be back in the saddle. But before he makes good on that threat of a 'big price... to pay,' Trump should ask his advisers what comes after the attack on Syria."

Buchanan also asks what proof the U.S. has that this attack was carried out by the Syrian government. So does Doherty:

"Assad has the rebels on the run and Trump says we're gonna leave Syria, and all of a sudden you have a chemical attack?" he said. "Assad wouldn't do it at this time. He won the war over the rebels. Why do the one thing that's gonna draw the U.S. back in?"

Like that attack last year, this one occurred in a rebel-held area where the U.S. has no reliable sources of information. TV fan that he is, Trump is relying on a video put out by rebel sympathizers who have every reason to try and sucker the U.S. into attacking the one man who keeps the Islamists in check.

That's Assad. He's doing what's best for his country.

As for Trump, he seems to be having a hard time figuring out just what country is his.
State authorities want to teach local police on how to detect shady dealings at New Jersey bars and liquor stores.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Tuesday announced the state has launched a new task force to train local police on how to enforce liquor laws.

And that includes everything from shutting down establishments that serve minors to detecting organized crime activity at bars.

The officials said the creation of the task force came on the heels of state and local partnerships that cracked down on St. Patrick's Day celebrations around New Jersey last month.

There are more than 9,000 liquor licensees in New Jersey, and Grewal said his office's alcohol enforcement arm, known as ABC, has long relied on local police to spot problem establishments and assist in investigations.

The ABC Task Force will sign up local police officers for a one-year term working alongside investigators from ABC and the state Division of Criminal Justice.

"ABC officers can't be everywhere at once," ABC Director David Rible said in a statement announcing the move. "By providing local officers with in-depth training in applying and enforcing our laws in their towns, we're putting additional boots on the ground to help us promote the responsible use of alcohol, while maintaining a fair regulatory environment for the industry."

There's a long history of mob influence on New Jersey's bar and restaurant industry. In the 1990s, the State Commission of Investigation published a series of reports detailing how organized crime figures were able to get liquor licenses or operate bars in secret.

Just last year, the Attorney General's Office pulled the license of Satin Dolls, the Lodi strip club that served as the setting for the fictional "Bada Bing" in the HBO series "The Sopranos."

The club's former operator, Anthony Cardinalle, had previously been convicted on federal racketeering charges and authorities said he had ties to the Genovese crime family. The club is in the process of reopening.

Authorities say the task force will also focus on more commonplace problems such as underage drinking, untaxed liquor sales and other violations.

In March, the ABC teamed up with Hoboken police on the day of "LepreCon," the city's St. Patrick's-themed bar crawl. The Attorney General's Office attributed a 21 percent decrease in emergency calls to their intervention, and the next day sent officers to help local police with the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Belmar.

The new task force will consist of 17 detectives from the ABC and DCJ and three local police officers -- one each from the northern, central and southern parts of the state.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
New Jersey needs to create a statewide commission to review claims of wrongful conviction, a state lawmaker said Monday, pointing to the case of two Paterson men freed after 24 years thanks to new DNA evidence.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Eric Kelley and Ralph Lee on Friday -- seven months after a judge granted them new trials, and more than three years after evidence surfaced pointing to another suspect.

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, R-Morris, said the case "proves that our criminal justice system is in need of reform."

"Although I am relieved to see the outcome in their case, the reality is that our work is far from over," the Republican lawmaker said in a statement. "There is no telling how many innocent people could be languishing behind bars at this very moment."

Pennacchio called on legislative leaders to advance stalled legislation he sponsored with one of his colleagues across the aisle, Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, to create a state wrongful conviction watchdog.

The measure was introduced more than a year ago but never received a hearing in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

It would establish the "New Jersey Innocence Study and Review Commission," which would first be directed to study the scope and scale of wrongful conviction in New Jersey. Eventually, the panel would have the power to review evidence in specific cases and present its findings to a judge.

Its most recent version was re-introduced in January and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee but has not been given a hearing.

I'm calling for action on my bipartisan bill to reduce wrongful convictions, in light of a report by @spsullivan @njdotcom that 2 men were freed from prison after serving YEARS for a crime they didn't commit. Many more are suffering. It's time for action. https://t.co/ipgbGB4hYX  Sen. Joe Pennacchio (@joepennacchio) April 9, 2018

A spokesman for the Senate Democrats declined to comment.

Kelley and Lee confessed to killing a Paterson video store clerk in 1993. They quickly recanted but were convicted at separate trials.

A July special report from NJ Advance Media detailed evidence two legal groups, the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, had gathered contradicting the confessions. They were granted new trials in September, but prosecutors continued to fight their release until weeks after they lost an appeal.

The proposed innocence commission would also study the systems for compensating exonerated people and helping them reintegrate into society.

Under current state law, Kelley and Lee can sue the state for up to $50,000 for each year they spent locked up for their wrongful convictions, which could total more than $1 million apiece.

"We cannot keep waiting for the cases to pile up," Pennacchio said. "The time for action is now."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Former Gov. Chris Christie has some advice for his longtime friend, President Donald Trump: Don't fire Robert Mueller.

That, Christie said during a television appearance Tuesday, would be a "big problem."

"And I've told him that," Christie, a fellow Republican and Trump adviser, said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"You can't fire the special counsel," the former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor added. "You just can't."

President Trump weighs in on FBI's raid of home and offices of his personal attorney Michael Cohen. Former governor @ChrisChristie and ABC chief legal analyst @danabrams on what could be next: pic.twitter.com/xapatKksHw  Good Morning America (@GMA) April 10, 2018

Christie's comments came a day after FBI agents raided the offices of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Trump called it a "disgraceful situation" and once again dismissed Mueller's investigation as a "total witch hunt."

"It's a real disgrace," Trump told reporters Monday about the raid. "It's an attack on our country."

Trump was then asked if he'll now direct U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller, the special counsel the U.S. Justice Department chose to oversee the probe into Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election.

"We'll see what happens," Trump said. "Many people have said, 'You should fire him.'"

Advisers have reportedly warned Trump not to axe Mueller, a fellow Republican, worrying that could trigger a constitutional crisis and possibly Trump's impeachment.

Christie, a Republican, said the president is "really angry" about Monday's raid but he "does understand" the consequences if he fires Mueller.

When he was still governor last June, Christie told reporters in New Jersey that he has "no reason not to have confidence" in Mueller, a former FBI director.

But Christie said he was opposed to the federal government hiring a special counsel at all.

"I want to remind everybody that these special prosecutor things tend to go off into all kinds of tangents," Christie said at the time.

The FBI, according to reports, is seeking records from Cohen about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump: adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
New Jersey has agreed to pay $1.4 million settlement to the family of a disabled woman who died while under the state's care, in a case that raised concerns about the Christie administration's rush to close public institutions five years ago.

Maureen Doran, a 68-year-old resident of the Woodbridge Developmental Center, had received attentive care for 17 years, according to her sisters and co-guardians. But conditions deteriorated inside the facility after the state decided in July 2012 to close Woodbridge and a similar facility in Totowa within two years.

A flurry of resident transfers and staff reassignments created a chaotic environment that allowed safety and supervision to decline, according to the family and the wrongful death lawsuit they filed in state Superior Court.

Doran was assaulted by a cottage mate in May 2013 and spent three days in the hospital recovering from facial fractures. In August of that year, Doran was unsupervised when she fell and broke her leg.

While recuperating in bed, she developed aspiration pneumonia and septic shock and died Sept. 3 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway. The Middlesex County Medical Examiner said Doran died from pneumonia and "septic shock" caused by ingesting food into her lungs.

The settlement was reached April 2, the day the case was scheduled to go to trial in Middlesex County, said the family's attorney, Bruce Nagel of Roseland.

"This really tragic situation directly reflects Gov. Christie's decision to reduce the budget for the essential care of our special needs citizens," Nagel told NJ Advance Media Monday. "Unfortunately, Maureen was repeatedly assaulted by other residents of Woodbridge and there was not enough staff to protect her."

Lee Moore, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, which represented the state Department of Human Services that ran the facility, declined to comment on the settlement.

Nagel called the settlement "a small measure of justice" for Lori Centrella and Kathy DeCicco, "having lost their sister. I would like to think this case will prevent these tragedies from happening again."

Doran's death, first reported in The Star-Ledger in 2013, sparked legislative hearings and a call to halt the closure of Woodbridge -- a campus dotted with large cottages that were home for decades to hundreds of people with autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities.

But with the backing of some advocacy groups, Gov. Chris Christie moved ahead to diminish's New Jersey's reliance on large institutions and to shift more people and funding into supervised group homes and apartments.

An advisory group in 2012 recommended two of the seven facilities should close by 2017. Christie closed both Woodbridge and North Jersey developmental centers by 2014.

"I understand why some people are upset about that, but I cannot allow a vocal minority to stop progress," Christie said in a town hall meeting in 2014. "I cannot sleep at night knowing I'm institutionalizing people by my hand as the governor."

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
New Jersey is trying to help save Obamacare from Texas.

State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal on Monday joined his counterparts in a number of Democratic-led states in pushing back against a lawsuit filed by Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to overthrow the Affordable Care Act.

Texas filed the suit against the U.S. government last month claiming that the federal health-care law championed by former Democratic President Barack Obama -- popularly known as "Obamacare" -- is unconstitutional. Nineteen other states signed on to the suit.

But California filed the legal brief opposed to the effort. Grewal, the top lawman in Gov. Phil Murphy's administration, and other Democratic attorneys general from 13 other states and Washington D.C. joined.

Grewal argued in a statement that Obamacare has given health care to nearly 20 million Americans since it was enacted in 2010 -- including more than 800,000 New Jersey residents.

"Typically, it's the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice to defend federal laws like the ACA from constitutional attack," Grewal added. "But unfortunately -- given everything going on in Washington these days -- it's clear that New Jersey and other like-minded states need to step up to protect the law from yet another meritless legal challenge."

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit seeking to strike down Obamacare on the charge that the so-called "individual mandate" that fined Americans who don't have health care violated the U.S. Constitution.

But the new suit argues that Obamacare has been rendered unconstitutional because the Republican-backed federal tax reform that became law last year repealed the individual mandate.

"Once the heart of the ACA -- the individual mandate -- is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall," Texas wrote in the suit.

Supporting Texas' suit are Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Mississippi and Maine, which have Democratic attorneys general, also joined the suit through their Republican governors.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference Monday that the opposition brief was needed because President Donald Trump's administration would likely not protect Obamacare.

"We're taking this action to protect the health and financial security of millions of people in our country, as well as billions of dollars of federal funds that go to our states to make sure that we can afford the health care that our families need," Becerra said.

The future of Obamacare has been uncertain since the election of Trump, a Republican who vowed to repeal and replace the law.

In addition to California and New Jersey, the other states joining the brief are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C.

This is the latest of many lawsuits New Jersey have joined under Murphy and Grewal to fight back against policies Trump has enacted or supported -- including against his travel ban and the federal tax overhaul.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Frank Pallone, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce, called Tuesday for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to step down, calling him "the poster child for the Trump administration's shameful culture of corruption."

Pruitt, who sued the EPA when he was Oklahoma attorney general, has been criticized for rolling back environmental regulations under President Donald Trump.

"Pruitt has repeatedly used his position to enrich himself rather than protect the lives of the American people he was appointed to serve," Pallone, D-6th Dist., said in a statement along with other Democratic members of the committee.

"His actions have jeopardized EPA's ability to protect human health and the environment, and the only way to regain the American people's trust in EPA is for Pruitt to resign immediately."

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Pruitt is busy carrying out the Trump's administration's positions on the environment.

They included withdrawing from the multinational Paris Accord to reduce the emissions blamed for climate change, repealing President Barack Obama's regulations governing most bodies of water (Waters of the United States) and power plant emissions (Clean Power Plan), and speeding Superfund site cleanups, he said.

"Administrator Pruitt is focused on advancing President Trump's agenda of regulatory certainty and environmental stewardship," Wilcox said.

Pruitt also faces an EPA's inspector general investigation for his travel and is under fire following reports that he rented space at cut-rate prices in a Capitol Hill condominium owned by the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist.

"When confronted about these scandals, Pruitt failed to take responsibility for his own actions, blaming his staff, his security detail, his critics - anyone but himself in order to save his own career," the lawmakers said. "Scott Pruitt has lost all credibility and the confidence of the American people - it's time for him to go."

Former Gov. Chris Christie said he expected Pruitt to eventually resign, saying "I don't know how you survive" earlier this month on ABC's "This Week."

Besides Pallone, the statement on Pruitt was issued by Reps. Kathy Castor of Florida; Diana DeGette of Colordao; the top Democrat on the oversight and investigations subcommittee; and Paul Tonko of New York, the top Democrat on the environment subcommittee.

Separately, Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., and Albio Sires, D-8th Dist., were among 64 House Democrats signing a letter to Trump calling him to dismiss Pruitt.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Gov. Phil Murphy's new spending plans are in jeopardy. And members of his own party are the ones putting the governor's vision for New Jersey at risk.

It was opening day at the Statehouse on Tuesday for state lawmakers to begin picking apart the the Democratic governor's proposed budget, which includes new spending for free community college and expanded pre-K education.

But those programs -- detailed in Murphy's $37.4 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 -- would require new taxes. And Democrats, who control the state Legislature, said Tuesday they're not ready to support them.

"All the new programs are tied to new taxes, so of course they are," state Sen. Paul Sarlo, chairman of the Senate budget committee, said when asked if Murphy's new programs could be on the chopping block.

"At this point in time, I think we need to keep the taxes on the side for a moment," Sarlo, D-Bergen, said. "I don't think anybody here is convinced yet on the tax piece."

Sarlo made his comments after the Legislature's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services and the state Department of Treasury provided details about Murphy's budget.

Acting state Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio told lawmakers a failure to raise revenues is "not only unsustainable, it's unacceptable."

"This budget puts us on a path towards meeting our fiscal obligations, while at the same time making critical and long overdue investments," Muoio said.

Murphy unveiled his proposal less than a month ago. It's up to lawmakers to review it and send the governor a final budget by June 30.

Murphy's spending plan relies on more than $1.5 billion in new revenue to pay for his plans to boost spending to public schools, launch a tuition-free community college initiative, raise and create tax credits, increase the cap on property tax deductions, raise the minimum wage for state employees and contractors, and pump $3.2 billion into public worker pensions.

He expects to collect an extra $765 million by raising the top gross income tax rate from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent on income over $1 million. He's anticipating $581 million in extra revenue from increasing and expanding the sales tax, which was cut to 6.625 percent at the beginning of this year.

Murphy's administration expects to see a 5.7 percent increase in tax collections, which also includes revenue from some business tax changes legalizing and some money from taxing marijuana.

But Democratic lawmakers aren't ready to talk about any new taxes -- for now, at least.

"I'm not saying that we're going to have a budget here without taxes. I'm not saying that," Sarlo said. "But we're not going to make that conclusion after today's hearing."

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.
The alleged gunman in a fatal shooting outside an Elizabeth go-go bar early Easter Sunday was picked up by U.S. Marshals Tuesday hiding out in Pennsylvania.

Sharif Q. Robinson

Sharif Q. Robinson, 27, of Jersey City was found in the basement of a family member's Wilkes-Barre, Pa. residence. He was suffering a gunshot wound, officials said.

He is awaiting a court appearance and extradition back to New Jersey, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.

Union County Acting Prosecutor Michael A. Monahan announced six days ago that Robinson was wanted for the murder of Daniel Louis, 26, of Irvington.

He was killed following a fight among a large group of patrons as the Exotics Gentlemen's Club, on the 1100 block of Elizabeth Avenue, was closing at about 2:35 a.m. April 1.

Don K. LaFortune, 23, of Irvington allegedly fired two shots into the air, causing the crowd to disperse, police said.

LaFortune, Louis, Pierre Cadet, 21, of Irvington, Robinson, Jonathan Philippe, 25, of Irvington, and others moved to the parking lot across the street and the shooting started.

Louis, who was not armed was fatally shot, authorities said.

Two Elizabeth Police officers responding to shots fired were shot at by Philippe and Cadet, police said. The two then jumped into a Maserati, with Cadet at the wheel, and led authorities on a high-speed chase into Newark and then fled on foot, authorities said.

LaFortune and Cadet were arrested April 3 and Robinson and Philippe remained at large.

After being apprehended by U.S. Marshals Tuesday, Robinson, who was wounded in the April 1 shooting that killed Louis, was taken to a Pennsylvania hospital for treatment.

Monahan said last week that Robinson has two gunshot wounds one to the leg and one to his side and Philippe was shot either in the leg or the foot.

Jonathan Philippe

Robinson is charged with one count of first-degree murder, firearms charges and hindering apprehension.

Philippe is charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder (of Robinson and responding officers), aggravated assault and a firearm charge.

Philippe should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said. Anyone who sees him should call 911 and not to approach him, authorities said.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Phillippe can contact the Union County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Task Force Sgt. Johnny Ho at 908-403-8271 or Detective Danika Ramos at 908-451-7739.

The Union County Crime Stoppers continue to offer a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of Philippe; tips can be given anonymously by phone at 908-654-TIPS (8477) or online at www.uctip.org.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Wednesday (April 10) is Equal Pay Day and the spotlight is again on Louisiana -- the state remains the worst in the country for the pay gap between working men and women.

The National Partnership for Women & Families calculates a woman employed full-time, year-round in Louisiana is paid roughly 70 cents for every dollar paid to a white, non-Hispanic man, a yearly median pay gap of $15,238. The pay gap worsens to $26,642 a year for Hispanic women and $29,426 for black women in Louisiana.

Skeptical of the research? You're not alone.

These type of cents-on-the-dollar figures are quick to draw critics, who often say equal pay numbers don't account for differences in experience or education levels between men and women, or that women choose to work in lower-paying professions, which skews the data. If the wage gap actually exists, surely it's much smaller than all these reports claim?

A report released this week by the Economic Policy Institute takes a look at some of those criticisms. It acknowledges that there are different ways to measure the gap in wages between men and women, ways that show the gap either growing or shrinking depending on what demographics you are looking at. However, it says it's a mistake to look at these different ways of measuring and assume the overall data is unreliable.

The report concludes the pay gap is "remarkably clear and (unfortunately) consistent" across the board, and can't be explained away. There are also factors that are harder to observe in data, like the role cultural expectations and discrimination play in steering girls' and women's career choices, or how employer scheduling practices affect women workers.

"In simple terms, no matter how you measure it, there is a gap," the report says. "And, different gaps answer different questions."

Here are some highlights from the Economic Policy Institute's report.

Nationwide, a typical woman working full-time is paid 83 cents for every dollar a typical man working full-time is paid.

The Economic Policy Institute report calculates wages a little bit differently, examining median wages on an hourly basis and including all workers who reported a positive number of work hours in the data. The goal, the report says, is to compare women's and men's wages without assuming women would be able or willing to work the same amount of hours as male counterparts, who tend to work more hours on average during the year. It also adjusts for the fact that more women work part-time jobs.

In that analysis, federal data show the typical woman is paid 82.7 percent of what the typical man is paid, according to the report.

The gender wage gap exists at every wage level.

To be sure, the gap varies depending on how much a worker made. In 2015, the report says the gap was smallest among the nation's lowest-earning workers -- women in the 10th percentile of earners nationwide were paid 92 percent of men's wages. The minimum wage, which sets a pretty universal floor for pay, is likely the cause for the narrower gap. The wage gap was most defined among top earners. Women in the 95th percentile of earners were paid 73.8 percent of men's wages.

Black and Hispanic women are paid least relative to white men.

Nationwide, black women are paid 65.3 percent of what non-Hispanic white men make. The drops to 57.6 percent for Hispanic women, and rises to 81 percent for white, non-Hispanic women and 89.8 percent for Asian women.

The report also found the wage gap persisted for women of all races among both low and top earners.

The pay gap has narrowed, but mostly because men's pay has stalled.

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Men's wages have fallen 6.7 percent from $20.30 an hour in 1979 to $18.94 today, according to the report. During the same period, women's real median hourly wages have increased, totaling 82.7 percent of men's real wages at the median by 2015.

That means about 30 percent of the reduction in the pay gap is because of the decline in men's wages, the report says.

On average, women have less work experience than men.

The report says women are more likely to exit the labor force temporarily, to raise children or, increasingly, to care for an elder parent. One report cited found 10 percent of male MBA graduates experience a career interruption in the decade after graduation, compared with 32 percent of female MBA grads.

That report says this leaves women with less work experience, and likely contributes to the wage gap. But that does not rule out the role of discrimination in pay differences, the report says.

There is a "motherhood penalty" for earnings.

Women with children are paid about 4.6 percent less on an hourly basis than women who are not mothers, the report says.

This penalty persists even though women are having children at a later age and are more likely than ever to return to the workforce. The report says this is because mothers are more likely to have taken a break in employment, which affects their pay, though the perception that women with children choose to work less is often false.

Women have not been able to educate themselves out of the wage gap.

Among workers who have not completed high school, women are paid 78.2 percent of what men are paid. That falls to 75.2 percent among college degree holders, and 73.4 percent among workers with an advanced college degree.

Men are paid more than women in both female- and male-dominated occupations.

The report finds the within-occupation gender wage gap plays a large role in why overall pay differences exists. This means that even when men and women work the same jobs -- whether a hairdresser or nurse, teacher or computer engineer -- men make more, on average, than women.

The report estimates as much as 68 percent of the gender pay gap by occupation for college graduates is because of the within-occupation gap.

The average woman worker loses more than $530,000 over her lifetime thanks to the wage gap.

The report notes that this is an average. A variety of factors influence how much money a woman makes over her lifetime, including the health of the economy, her education and how long she is in and out of the labor force.

The loss widens for college-educated women, who lose nearly $800,000 over a lifetime, according to the report.
Police believe a double shooting in the 7th Ward that left two young men dead last May was retaliation for two shootouts earlier the same month that involved the brothers accused in a Mardi Gras day shooting in the CBD, according to the warrant of a man accused in the killings.

Javonte Thomas, 20, is accused of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of 17-year-old Keenon Williams and 20-year-old Kelvin Jones, Jr., who were both shot inside a car in the 3000 block of Pauger Street on May 31. One of the victims died on the scene and the other was brought to the hospital where he later died. Thomas' warrant was signed by Orleans Parish Magistrate commissioner on Nov. 24, 2017.

During an unrelated arrest, investigators found the gun used in the shooting, according to Thomas' warrant, and it was registered to a 23-year-old man. While being questioned, the man who owned the gun said he loaned the it to Thomas, who he referred to as his brother, according to the warrant.

However, the man said Thomas told him the gun was stolen from Thomas in early May.

The man also told police he was friends with one of the victims of the killing and said Thomas knew them both. He said the victims and Thomas were in some type of "territorial" feud.

According to his warrant, on May 7, 2017 Thomas reported he and his friend, Christopher Bordere, were shot at in the 2100 block of St. Anthony Street. On May 21, Thomas reported he and Bordere were shot at again, this time while they were with Bordere's younger brother, Jerald Bordere in the 4700 block of Viola Street.

Later, detectives matched the bullets found at the scenes of the May 7 and May 21 shootings to a gun found in the car Williams and Jones were fatally shot.

According to the warrant, police believe the fatal May shooting was in retaliation for the two attempted shootings.

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Both Christopher, 20, and Jerald Bordere, 18, are accused in a Mardi Gras day shooting that left two teens injured. According to NOPD, the 15-year-old and 16-year-old boys were shot after a large fight broke out around 3:30 p.m., near the intersection of Carondelet and Union streets. One teen was shot in the head and was reported in critical condition.

Jerald Bordere is the alleged shooter, police said, and he was booked into Orleans Justice Center jail in early March on two counts of attempted second-degree murder. He is currently being held in custody on a $400,000 bond.

Christopher Bordere is accused of two counts of principal to attempted second-degree murder and is being held in Orleans Justice Center jail on a $50,000 bond.

Thomas was booked into Orleans Justice Center jail Friday (April 6) on one count of first-degree murder in connection to the May 2017 shooting, court records show. As of Tuesday, bond information was not available.

According to a motion filed by his lawyer, C. Gary Wainwright, Thomas was arrested in Jefferson Parish the same day his warrant was signed. The motion states Thomas was taken in on a murder warrant out of Orleans Parish, but he was kept in a "temporary holding tank," in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center for three days because NOPD and Orleans Parish Sheriff's office would not come pick him up.

On the third day of being held in Jefferson Parish, Thomas "got into an argument" with a deputy and was arrested and booked on a battery of a corrections officer charge. Jefferson Parish court records show Thomas posted a $1500 bond on April 2. Wainwright did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

According to OPSO records, he was arrested in New Orleans Friday, and was booked later that day. Court records show Thomas is currently facing a single murder charge and it was not immediately clear if investigators believe anyone else was involved double shooting.

New Orleans police did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
A bill proposed to create a stand-alone statute outlawing bestiality in Louisiana is not a ploy to remove unconstitutional sodomy laws from the constitution, according State Sen. J.P. Morrell, the author and sponsor of Senate Bill 236, which passed in Senate 25 to 10 Monday (April 9).

The bill does more than just separate bestiality from the current "crimes against nature" laws that were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003, Morrell said on the Senate floor Monday. In short, Morrell said the new law specifically defines bestiality and how it should be prosecuted and was written to mirror bestiality laws in other states.

Morrell he is aware of talk that he wrote the bill with an intention to eventually strike the current laws, but denied the accusations. When State Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, brought an amendment to the Senate floor Monday that proposed to do just that, Morrell urged his fellow senators to vote it down.

"I appreciate Senator Claitor is trying to right the wrong of this historic injustice," Morrell said. "But this is not the vehicle in which to do it."

Morrell did not deny his desire to see the current law removed, which still includes language criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults, but said SB236's sole intention is to make bestiality illegal under an enforceable law.

Claitor's amendment was voted down 25 to 9.

The current law defines bestiality as "carnal copulation with an animal," a definition Morrell said is far too ambiguous. His bill states any person who either engages in sexual contact with an animal or participates in the exchange of animals to be used in sex acts will be charges with sexual abuse of an animal.

If convicted, the offender would no longer be allowed to own, work or live with animals.

Morrell called the current law "archaic" because it is not only vague and unconstitutionally enforceable, but also because it does not take today's technology into account.

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"As you know, you can find anything on the internet," Morrell said Monday. "Part of what has developed is a huge market for the trafficking of animals for sex acts," which is not covered in the current law.

Morrell referred to an online marketplace that has over 1.5 million registered users and has been viewed more than 700,000 times in Louisiana alone. Furthermore, Morrell referenced studies that show bestiality is often a strong indicator of pedophilia.

"This is serious, ladies and gentlemen," Morrell said on the floor. "People who molest animals eventually graduate to children."

Louisiana is not the only state whose bestiality laws were lumped in with sodomy laws deemed unconstitutional in the 2003 Texas v. Lawrence ruling. Julia Breaux, director of the Louisiana Humane Society, said there is a wave of states "revamping" their laws to clarify their position on bestiality.

Morrell referred to a case in New Jersey in 2009, when the case was dropped against a former police officer who investigators said taped himself sexually molesting cows. According to Morrell, the law the man was charged under was similar to Louisiana's current crimes against nature law, and the case was dropped when prosecutors could not prove the animals where harmed.

Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum, called the proposed law "redundant and unnecessary," after the bill passed in committee late last month. At the time, Mills said the group was "monitoring" the bill, but would oppose it later if it became clear the intention was to strike the state's sodomy laws from the constitution.

Mills did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Now that the bill has passed in Senate, it will move into House committee. If voted favorably in committee, it will have to pass on the House floor before becoming law.
New Orleans investigators are searching for a dark-colored pickup after the truck was spotted on L.B. Landry Avenue just minutes before an armed robbery at a nearby intersection, according to the NOPD.

The pickup is deemed a "vehicle of interest" in the robbery, which occurred about 1:50 a.m. Saturday near the intersection of L.B. Landry Avenue and Mardi Gras Boulevard in Algiers, police said.

The victim told investigators he was approached by a dark-colored pickup occupied by two men, including a passenger who wore all dark clothing and a black ski mask featuring red "monster teeth" on the front.

According to the victim's statements to police, the passenger got out of the vehicle and took out a handgun while demanding the victim empty his pockets.

The victim complied, handing over $40 in cash and a payroll check, and the robbers then fled on L.B. Landry Avenue.

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The victim described the pickup as an older model, possibly a GMC.

On Monday, police released images of a truck seen on L.B. Landry Avenue just before the robbery, headed in the direction of the victim.

Police initially indicated that the victim is a woman but said Monday night that the victim is male.

Anyone with information on the robbery or the pictured vehicle is asked to call NOPD Det. Tracy Raney or any NOPD 4th District detective at 504-658-6040 or 504-658-6045. Those with tips may also call Crimestoppers anonymously at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-7867.
Louisiana State Police have arrested 21-year-old Bickett Theophile in connection with a dramatic crash in the Marigny Monday night (April 9).

Video provided by Joe Ashlar, a nearby driver, shows a dark-colored vehicle drive onto the neutral ground and careen into a pole at the intersection of Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues.

Around 10:10 p.m., troopers attempted to stop the vehicle traveling along North Rampart Street near Frenchmen Street for a failure to display tags properly. But, the driver refused to stop, later running a red light at St. Claude and Elysian Fields avenues and hitting another vehicle, according to State Police Trooper Melissa Matey.

Witnesses at the scene saw the car flip over and then burst into flames.

The driver fled on foot. Police deployed a Taser, but did not hit the driver. He was later apprehended by Troopers and identified at Theophile, Matey said.

He was taken to the hospital for minor injuries. The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries, but refused aid on the scene, according to State Police.

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Elise Milani said she was driving on Elysian Fields Avenue, headed lake-bound when the dark-colored car T-boned her vehicle as she drove through the intersection at St. Claude Avenue.

Milani said she was feeling some back pain after the crash, but otherwise felt okay.

Theophile was booked on allegations of aggravated flight from an officer, resisting an officer by flight, reckless driving and hit and run. He also had an active warrant for second degree battery, according to State Police.

Court documents show Theophile was also booked on allegations of theft less than $750.

It is unclear when the theft and battery incidents occurred. Police did not immediately respond to questions regarding the incidents.
Like many people, chef Ian Schnoebelen and his partner, Laurie Casebonne, faced an uncertain future after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. It wasn't clear at first whether their jobs at Lilette would return. So they took a chance, did what they always wanted to do, and opened Iris. The restaurant began in the Carrollton neighborhood in 2006 and moved to the French Quarter in 2008.

"Of all the excellent new restaurants that sprouted in that heady time (post-Katrina), when the city's wounds had yet to harden into scars, Iris was arguably the gutsiest," said Brett Anderson, food critic for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Iris shook off the traditions of New Orleans, offering food that was modern but still felt grounded in the city. Iris closed in 2014. The couple also created Bywater's Mariza, which opened in 2014 and closed at the end of 2017.

Readers who ate at Iris shared these memories:

"All of their restaurants were good and consistently good, which is a tough thing to pull off." -- Walter Wolf

"Still miss their wonderful lamb meatballs, gulf fish and shrimp in coconut broth and citrus sorbet." -- Susan LeBlanc Dill

"This was one of my fave places! I was so sad when it closed." -- Ffion Ambroise

Share your memories and photos www.facebook.com/groups/whereNOLAeats.
Leonard Giarraputo opened his Sicilian restaurant in September in a suburban strip mall in Mandeville, never imagining so many paisans (OK, we know the Italian word is actually compaesano, but play along) would walk through the door.

The restaurateur was born in Santa Margherita di Belice, Sicily, where he grew up in the restaurant business, learning to cook when he was just 7. As a young man he moved to Orlando to work in his uncle's restaurant, and went on to work at Disney's Animal Kingdom and resort hotels, finally opening his own restaurants.

In October 2016 he moved to Mandeville with his wife, Rachel, who was born on the North Shore, after she was offered a job as a district manager for Zales jewelers in the area. The couple, who by then had a toddler, Robert, decided to come to her hometown to be near family.

At that time he had no plans to return to professional cooking but, he said, it's "in his blood," so on Sept. 25 he opened Leonardo's Trattoria and Pizzeria on Florida Boulevard.

He took the 1,200-square-foot space down to bare walls, created an efficiently designed open kitchen so guests can watch their food being prepared, hand-built a small bar, and created a menu that mirrors the food his family still serves at two restaurants and a coffee bar Sicily.

His marinara sauce is light, with tomato, fresh garlic, onion and basil. He imports his Italian bread from New York. Each dish is prepared "just the way it's done in Italy," he said, noting that he has worked hard to find Sicilian olives and salami and the right canned tomatoes.

He has been rewarded with a packed dining room during his daily lunch service from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and at peak dinner times, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Some regulars have started coming during off-peak hours to avoid the crowds, he said.

He attributes the steady flow of diners to word-of-mouth and the authenticity of the parmigiana, carbonara, ravioli and bruschetta at his 52-seat restaurant that's easy to miss because it is tucked away in the Magnolia Plaza shopping center with a pool equipment shop, a vet and a bike repair store.

People warned him off the site, saying several restaurants had failed there, but he said, "If you have good food, people will come, people will follow.

"All my business has been referral," he said. "They love (it) so much, they told their friends and told their family and it's been really, really nice, a tremendous response."

The biggest surprise for Giarraputo, however, has been his discovery that so many South Louisiana families have roots in Sicilian towns.

"Thirty years living in Florida, I never had this kind of experience," said Giarraputo, who moved to the United States in 1987. "They all come from the same side of Sicily where I lived, very, very close to my town. I mean extremely close to my hometown, like from Covington to Mandeville.

"Every single day this is happening," he said, noting that just the day before, people seated at two different tables told him their family had come from towns just 15 minutes from Santa Margherita di Belice.

"If I would not have opened this restaurant, I would never have known," he said of the large number of Sicilian-Americans who turn up at his door. "It's incredible."

Giarraputo said he thinks word is spreading among those of Sicilian descent because he makes food the way customers' parents or grandparents made it.

"People say, 'I remember my grandmother's sauce was very close to this sauce over here," he said. " 'It reminds me of my family the way you're cooking.'

"That has been what is so rewarding to me," he said. "I have people come over here and say I never eat a red sauce anywhere else because it is sweet, because this and because that, they say I come over there and it is totally different.

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"The recipes come out of my family. The lasagna was my mother's recipe. The Bolognese sauce was one of my uncle's (recipes). It was his recipe that I grew up eating.

"It's been a challenge to get the real food product that I'm using, to find the real good prosciutto, the real pancetta to make the carbonara."

And, he said, he prides himself on made-to-order service.

"We don't have anything pre-made over here," he said. "If you want the chicken pizzaiola, we start with the garlic, we drop the chicken, the white wine and we go from there and build the plate up from scratch.

"We don't cut any corners," he said. "Sometimes to do it the right way takes a lot of work," he said. He began with just one other cook in the kitchen, but after four months he added staff and is now up to 11, with five in back of the house.

Along with attracting his paisans, Giarraputo said he thinks he has attracted regulars so quickly because he keeps the atmosphere casual and the prices affordable.

Lunch prices range from $7 for a 10-inch cheese pizza to $8 for rigatoni Bolognese to $9 for Mediterranean fresh tuna panini, all served with salad. The majority of the entrees on the regular menu run $12 to $15. Leonardo's serves Sicilian, Italian and California wines that range from $23 to $75, with glasses at $7 or $8. The set menu is complemented with daily fish, meat and pasta specials.

"Italian food is simple. It's genuine. It's good for your health," he said, adding that it is best enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere, like in a trattoria in Italy.

Good prices, good food and a casual atmosphere has worked for him throughout his career, said Giarraputo.

"I don't want to be a once-a-month restaurant," he said. "I like to have family here. I don't mind the kids. I have a kid," he said laughing. "If they come here with their kids, it's my pleasure."



Leonardo's Trattoria & Pizzeria, 2625 Florida St., Mandeville, 985.778.2550. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

This story is part of the Where NOLA Eats series on neighborhood restaurants in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Do you know a restaurant whose story deserves to be told? Leave your suggestion in the comments below, or email Ann_Maloney@nola.com with your suggestions. Follow him on Twitter: @AnnMMaloney

Please join our conversation about New Orleans food at facebook.com/groups/wherenolaeats
Gnarly Barley Brewing in Hammond was named one of the fastest growing U.S. small and independent craft breweries in 2017 by the Brewers Association, a not-for-profit trade group.

The brewery, founded in 2014, ranked 43rd among the Top 50 small and independent breweries from across 25 states, according to the association.

Median growth from 2016 to 2017 for these breweries was 216 percent; the median size of breweries on the list went from 284 barrels in 2016 to 963 barrels last year, according to the organization. The brewing companies on the list represent 5.5 percent of craft's growth by volume for last year and include eight brewpubs, 40 microbreweries and two regional craft breweries, it said.

Gnarly Barley founders Zac and Cari Caramonta called 2017 a "delightfully overwhelming" year of growth for the company. They said their team worked many days and nights to keep up with market demand.

"We are proud to say all our brewing, canning, design and marketing is done in-house," they said in a statement. "It's crazy to think this growth occurred within our current distribution footprint in Southeast Louisiana. We added personnel and increased brewing capacity, however, we did not add any new markets."

The association's list includes only small and independent breweries with all of their production at their own facilities. Breweries had to have opened Dec. 31, 2015, or earlier to be considered. It only includes breweries that reported to the Brewers Association's annual Beer Industry Production Survey. Finally, breweries must have had data from at least three years to be considered.

Gnarly Barley currently distributes in southeast Louisiana their flagship brands: Catahoula Common, Radical Rye P.A., Korova Milk Porter and Jucifer IPA.
Want more chicken? Brett Anderson's list of the best fried chicken at restaurants includes places that also do takeout: Come Back Inn, Crabby Jack's, Dooky Chase's and the Original Fiorella's Cafe.

Note: Due to an editing error, Popeyes was originally left off this list. Which we realize is a big error!

Tell us!

We'd like to know - white meat or dark meat?
Special Olympics, which is celebrating its 50th year in Louisiana, will hold its 4th annual Champions Together Breakfast fundraiser on April 19 at Benedict's Plantation in Mandeville.

The event, which will feature inspiring stories told by athletes, will be from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the venue at 1144 N. Causeway Blvd.

The cost is $100 per person, or $1,000 for a table of 10. Sponsorships are available.

"You will be inspired as you hear the Special Olympics athletes tell their stories of how this program has impacted their lives," a flier for the event says.

For more information, call Mary Louise Prudhomme at 225-505-7093.
The Tangipahoa Parish Council voted to hold a public referendum on whether voters want a riverboat gambling in Robert, just miles from the St. Tammany Parish line. The Tangipahoa Parish Council voted 6-3 Monday (April 9) to hold a special election Nov. 6 to allow voters to weigh in on the issue.

The state Legislature must also agree to put the issue on the ballot. If the proposal wins voter approval, the Los Angeles-based company Peninsula Pacific would be allowed to establish a $100 million riverboat gambling and resort complex along the Tangipahoa River southwest of the intersection of Interstate 12 and Louisiana 445, west of St. Tammany Parish. The company already owns one of the state's 15 riverboat casino licenses for DiamondJacks Casino & Hotel in Bossier City but would like to open a casino in Tangipahoa Parish instead.

Parish leaders had already signaled their support for the project. Last month, Parish President Robby Miller testified in favor of state legislation that opened the door for the gambling facility in his parish. Miller said the concept of a local casino referendum during the November election is widely supported by mayors and other elected officials in Tangipahoa, including Sheriff Daniel Edwards, who is the brother of Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Brent Stevens, manager and chief executive officer of Peninsula Pacific, thanked the Parish Council for putting the issue before voters. The approval sends a strong message that the final decision must be made by Tangipahoa Parish citizens, he said.

"Since beginning this process, we have wanted the citizens of Tangipahoa to remain actively engaged and ultimately approve of this economic development opportunity before we move forward," Stevens said. "Today's overwhelming majority vote is another major step in giving the people a voice in this decision, and we look forward to working with them and providing all the information they need to make an informed final decision."

The three council members who voted in opposition to placing the issue before voters represent constituents in the Robert, Bedico and Ponchatoula areas, the Hammond Daily Star reported. Eight audience members spoke in opposition to putting the proposal on the ballot.

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Stevens has said that the Tangipahoa location would allow the casino to capture some of the gambling traffic that currently goes to Mississippi.

The proposed complex would include a 27,000-square-foot gambling floor with about 800 slot machines and 25 card tables, Stevens said. Initial plans call for one 200-room hotel, but Stevens said he hopes to recruit other developers to build two more hotels at the same location.

The casino is expected to produce 500 permanent jobs with an average of $35,000 a year in salary and benefits per job, he said.

Answering concerns raised last week regarding drainage, traffic and crime, company representatives said they have applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to design a drainage plan that can handle a 200-year flood using two retention ponds to keep runoff on site.

They said the casino would add about 3,800 cars to the roughly 12,000 cars that go through the nearby intersection but they would generally not be traveling during peak commuting times.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Following two weeks of record-shattering COVID hospitalizations, Louisiana saw a glimmer of hope in its battle against its fourth and worst surge of the deadly virus on Friday when the number of patients hospitalized dropped for the second day in a row.
Roseburg, OR (97470)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable.
iStock/Thinkstock(PORTLAND, Ore.) -- A deadly shooting in Portland, Oregon, between cops and a knife-wielding carjacker was captured on video by a terrified witness.



The footage showed the man, who relatives later identified as 48-year-old John "John-John" Elifritz, ducking into a shelter in southeast Portland at around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night.



Residents of the Cityteam Ministries Portland Shelter frantically fanned out of the armed stranger's way, as flickering blue police lights appeared to be pulsing from the front glass doors.



A man in the room then shouted, "Get out from behind him!"



That's when the frame captured a bald man lurking in the recesses of the room in front of a massive cross, wearing a back hooded jacket.



For a few moments, the man appeared to be ducking and sidestepping.



A person, who may have been the one recording, then said "Oh my god!" and "Please God!"



Dogs were barking loudly as more than a dozen policeman, some with rifles drawn, slowly entered the main room.



An enclosure in the middle of the room with a tall, white railing appeared to be separating the cops and the man.



Numerous police officers appear to point their flashlights at the man as they announced, "Drop the knife!"



The command was repeated several times.



After seconds passed and the man failed to surrender, several shots were fired.



Again, a man who may have been recording the footage yelled, "Oh my God!"



In subsequent statements from the Portland Police Department, multiple units were said to have responded to a pileup involving a stolen vehicle at the intersection of Southeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and Southeast Stark Street.



When responding officers attempted to surround the driver, police said the suspect "fled the scene of the crash."



The same car was involved in an incident three hours earlier when it "had reportedly been taken by force" on Southeast Knight Street, the police statement added.



When the suspect was tracked into the homeless shelter where police "contacted" the man they believe stole and crashed the vehicle, then fled the scene, the statement said that was when "shots were fired."



Emergency medical professionals were called to the scene, but were unable to resuscitate the man, who police have not officially named pending the results of an autopsy.



Protesters have been flocking to the shelter, calling the fatal shooting unjustified.



Some carried signs in front of the homeless shelter blaming the police for what they say were overly aggressive tactics.



The signs had charged messages like: "Murder is not protection," "This is not a local problem!" and "Cops Stay out of my Sanctuary!"



Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw asked the public to wait for the results of the department's investigation before drawing conclusions.



"The Portland Police Bureau values human life and accepts the authority to use lethal force with great reverence," Outlaw said in a statement. "I am aware a video was taken of this incident by a community member and that video was posted to the internet. Please be reminded that deadly force investigations are extremely complex and take time. The Police Bureau is committed to transparency and will ensure the entire investigation is released in a timely manner that does not impact the integrity of the investigation."



While Portland Police Department initially was going to release the names of the cops who fired on Elifritz on Sunday -- in keeping with their policy to do so in 24 hours -- they have since delayed the release citing "credible threats" lodged against the officers, Portland Police Department spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley confirmed to ABC News on Monday.



In the meantime, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler also pleaded with people to not rush to any judgment regarding the fatal incident with police.



"The loss of a life is always tragic," he wrote in the statement. "My priority is to discover the facts and circumstances regarding this incident. Already, there are those who want to immediately define what happened. It would be highly irresponsible for me to participate in speculation at this time. I urge us all to allow investigators to do their work, to uncover the facts, and to report on their findings."



Morgan Pickering, who allegedly posted the video footage, told ABC station KATU-TV that Elifritz was stabbing himself in the neck with a pocket knife and that he remained a threat to officers.



He suggested police were in the right when they took lethal force to neutralize him.



"Police protected us, had to shoot the man," he said.



David Rogers, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon issued a rebuke after seeing the video footage of what took place inside the shelter on Saturday.



"The video shows a disturbing and chaotic scene of people in the shelter running and yelling in fear, while others looked on, including one person in a wheelchair, as Portland Police officers enter the building with guns drawn," Rogers stated. "In less than a minute, officers shoot and kill the man, while members of an already traumatized population, Portlands homeless community, watch in horror. Was there any attempt to de-escalate the situation before officers open fire inside the homeless shelter full of innocent bystanders? If not, why not?"



On Sunday a makeshift memorial was held outside Cityteam Ministries Portland Shelter to honor Elifritz.



Several friends paid their respects, including his childhood friend Victoria Nevarez.



"He was an upstanding individual with a family, daughter, grandchildren," Nevarez told KATU-TV. "John-John would give you the shirt off his back. He would've done anything in the world for anybody.



"He would take his last $5 and give it to anybody that needed it."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Experts in the oil and gas industry have tipped government on how to fully benefit from the local content by skilling Ugandans so as to make sure they partake in the oil and gas activities.

This was during an oil and gas conference organized by the Association of Uganda Oil and Gas Service Providers (AUGOS) in partnership with the Association of Tanzania Oil and Gas Service Providers (ATOGS)

Dr Ernest Chu Nwapa, the pioneer executive secretary/ CEO of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), in a keynote presentation delivered at the Oil and Gas conference said: The measurement of local content is how many people you have employed and how many additional years and new skills you have added to the people. Therefore, how much you are doing to change the bulk of the people.

Nwapa, who prioritized local content for the Nigerian oil and gas industry, said Uganda has a lot to learn from the Nigerian experience. Local content commitments need to be negotiated in the contracting process and agreements included in the contract, he said.

Peter Lokeris, the minister of state for Energy and Mineral Development, said achieving local content in Ugandas oil sector will require concerted effort of all institutions like banks, schools, insurance, private oil companies, tourism, environmentalists and jua kalis.

He said the ministry now knows the skills and services needed in the oil sector and is in the process of developing a database to fill these positions.

We are looking at foreigners but if a Ugandan can fill the position, he/she will have the first opportunity, he said.

Ernest Rubondo, the executive director of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, said all entities who will work in the oil sector must be certified and registered in the National Supplier Database to ensure that Ugandans and foreigners who will work in the oil sector are monitored.

Now we have 1,200 entities listed and we continue to register, he said.

According to statistics, local employment in Ugandas oil sector has increased to 83 per cent of 262 direct workforce. Some 2,298 Ugandans are indirectly employed by the sector. He also said an estimated 5,700 induced Jobs were created.

justuslyatuu08@gmail.com
Grave Of The Fireflies is one show I almost never recommend to people, mostly because I fought hard to forget it the day I watched it.

But that is only because I am a coward who generally avoids negative emotions. So, why would I recommend it as a starting point for an anime novice?

Well, this recommendation is aimed at that man or woman, girl or boy that has tried and failed to take anime seriously.If you cannot bring yourself to take anime s eriously, then you will never watch it; even if you do, your intrinsic biases will keep you from truly appreciating it.

Some novices just need a savage kick in all the painful places; and that is what Grave Of The Fireflies is: a steel-toed boot guaranteed to shake all those anti-anime biases out of you.

Grave Of The Fireflies is a movie. That should make it far more accessible to people unwilling to commit to several episodes of a season of an anime series. Most people can afford to spare an hour and a half to consume this gloomy, haunting, yet beautifully told story.

Directed by Isao Takahata and produced by Studio Ghibli  a studio that specializes in prodding, poking and pulling at the heartstrings  Grave Of The Fireflies takes you to Japan.

It is March 1945. World War II is in full swing and Seita is just another teenager trying to carve out a semblance of normalcy. The times are tough, but Seita, his five-year-old sister Setsuko and their mother are alive, and that is more than most people can say.

All that changes when American planes bomb Japans most populated cities with napalm. The canisters, though seemingly innocuous and almost beautiful as they descend to the earth, trailing fluttering cloth behind them, unleash a storm of wildfire that consumes Setias neighborhood.

Overnight, Seita and Setsuko watch their lives crumble around them. What follows over the next hour or so is a DISTURBING journey that explores the horrors of war.

Seita and Setsuko watch as their society initially attempts to rally together in an effort to counter the chaos seeded by the Americans, only for food shortages to make monsters out of even the humblest of individuals.

It took me three tries to watch Grave Of The Fireflies, mostly because the first 10 minutes always promised a dark and depressing tale I was not willing to experience. I finally watched it, though.

I cannot say I regretted it. The movie leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But you know what? I dare you young woman, old man, or little girl who thinks so little of anime to watch Grave Of The Fireflies.

I dare you to sit through this brutal depiction of the evils of war and then come back to me and dismiss anime as just a childish fad.

Grave Of The Fireflies came out in 1988, but will go toe to toe with any live-action movie of this genre you throw at it, be it Saving Private Ryan or Hacksaw Ridge.

mbjjnr8@gmail.com
Inspired by Operation Thunderbolt, an Air France flight from Tel-Aviv to Paris is hijacked and the flight crew forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda.

At the airport, Jewish passengers are held hostage by the terrorists as ransom for the exchange of Palestinian militants held in Israeli prisons.

With deadlock in negotiations between the Israeli government and the terrorists mediated by Ugandan president Idi Amin, a secret military plan to rescue the hostages is planned with unforeseen consequences for the armed terrorists and their hosts.

7 Days in Entebbe goes ahead to ignore historical events that led to the raid on Entebbe, painting the terrorist hijackers in good light and Idi Amin as a compassionate hostage negotiator seeking to broker a truce between the terrorists and the Israeli government.

Directed by Jose Padilha behind the 2014 Robocop reboot film, the film casts Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, A United Kingdom, Jack Reacher) and Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War), Eddie Marsan (Hancock, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ray Donovan, Jack the Giant Slayer) and Nonso Anozie (Game of Thrones, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Pan, Zoo).

7 Days in Entebbe opened on Friday at Century Cinemax.



ayebeanthony@gmail.com
Zzina awards held on Thursday last week at Freedom Citys Sky beach left many people surprised with the biggest winner of the night.

Granted, controversy is expected at any awards event; yet still

Fik Fameica on stage

This years edition, the fifth, organized by Galaxy FM, served up its surprise in the Artiste Of The Year category. The winner for the Breakthrough Artiste category, Fik Fameica, also walked away with the artiste of the year gong.

How possible it is for one to be the notable breakthrough artiste but also the best artiste of the year, left many patrons puzzled.

In this category, the Kutama rapper beat Ykee Benda (Best Male Artiste), Sheebah Karungi (Best Female Artiste) and B2C (winners for Song of the Year, Best Collaboration and Best Afro Beat Song), among others.

Receiving the accolade, Fik, whose birth name is Shafik Walukagga, took time to appreciate his fans for putting him on top and went on to brag about how he was running things in the industry at the moment.

While it is good manners to congratulate the Fresh Bwoy, it needs to go on record that the B2C trio or perhaps Sheebah and Ykee Benda lost the award to the biggest surprise of the night.

Jose Chameleone was honored for his contribution to the industry with Legendary Award presented to him by Galaxy FM CEO Dr Innocent Nahabwe. The nights biggest performance was Steve Keys tribute to Mowzey Radio.

The awards were also full of emotional rewards that saw Radio, who died from head injuries suffered during a bar brawl earlier this year, recognized several times.

On top of the Goodlyfes collabo with B2C (Gutamiiza) that took two accolades, Radio was also voted best songwriter, best contemporary/RnB artiste, best fans team (for RAW) and surprisingly, for best inspirational song (Tambula Nange)  a song that only came to light hours after his death.

His singing partner Weasel (Douglas Seguya) was in London at the time of the awards and could not represent the Goodlyfe Crew as fans knew it.

Producer Danz Kumapesa was also awarded posthumously as the best in his craft last year.

barangasam@gmail.com
The Rotary Club of Kampala Naalya has held its third annual Women in Rotary event where Rotarians committed to continue developing their communities as well as helping each other reach the top.

The Rwenzori Ballroom at the Sheraton Kampala hotel was full, wall to wall, with who-is-who in Rotary in Uganda.

Proscovia Nabbanja, a geologist and chief operations officer at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, gave the keynote address on how women can get to the top and remain there.

You learn to juggle both motherhood and career and you must always find a balance and have a support system if you are to get to the top and remain there, she said. Nabbanja is also the president-elect of the Rotary Club of Muyenga Sunset.

Her views were echoed by the panelists who discussed the role of women in community development. The panel included Barbara Kaija, the first Ugandan woman editor-in-chief at Vision Group; Jackie Asiimwe Mwesige, a woman activist; Amina Nasaazi, a surveyor and district Rotaract representative for Uganda and Tanzania; and Rosemary Mutyabule of Enterprise Uganda. The panel was moderated by Anne Nkutu, the incoming Rotary Uganda country chair.

District governor Ken Mugisha was the chief guest and encouraged women to do more and achieve more but also thanked them for the role they play in the community.

Women were only admitted to Rotary in 1989 but they have played a great job. Clubs which are led by women like Kampala-Naalya do better than many which are led by men. Let us encourage more women to become Rotarians, he said.

Stephie Gacukuzi, the president of the Rotary Club of Kampala-Naalya, thanked all Rotarians and others for embracing the event.

The event was sponsored by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation; Vivo Energy, distributors of Shell products; Rela Dental Clinic; and DStv.

Several women won several awards and they include Rosette Nabbumba, a former Rotary Uganda country chair; Dr Grace Nambatya, a nutritional medicine expert; and Rita Nkemba of the Dwelling Places.

Ivuga band performed and Rotarians were seen pulling rare strokes on the dancing floor till the wee hours of Sunday. Proceeds from the event will go to Akwang Hill SS in Agago district, where the Rotary Club of Kampala-Naalya is building a modern computer lab.
The joint petitioners opposed to presidential age limit removal, today Monday failed to convince the Constitutional court to have speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga be cross examined for the role she played in amending of the Constitution last year.

On December 20, 2017, parliament passed into law the Constitution Amendment (No.2) Bill 2017 that among others lifted the upper age limit of 75 years and also lowered the age limit from 35 to 18 years. The amendment also extended the term of parliament from five to seven years and restored presidential term limits that were scrapped in 2005.

Hearing of the presidential age limit removal petition started in Mbale today. Photo: @SolidarityUG

Now, in their joint submission, the petitioners, who include Uganda Law Society (ULS), six opposition MPs, lawyer Male Mabirizi, former presidential candidate Abed Bwanika, and another concerned citizen Prosper Businge had listed several state officials to be summoned to explain the roles they played during the debate and amendment process last year.

Mabirizi had listed speaker Kadaga, Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Gen David Muhozi, secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi, parliament clerk Jane Kibirige, Kampala Metropolitan Police commander Frank Mwesigwa and others to appear before court for cross-examination. The hearing of the petition began today at Mbale High court.

Mabirizi wanted Kadaga cross-examined for allegedly ignoring parliamentary rules and procedure during the debate and passing of the age limit law when she allowed presidential guards to raid the House and forcefully evict suspended MPs opposed to the amendment.

Deputy attorney general Mwesigwa Rukutana asked court not to grant Mabirizi his wish because he said, the speaker is immune to prosecution for her actions and rulings on the floor of parliament.

A panel of five judges led by deputy chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, Remmy Kasule, Elizabeth Musoke, Cheborion Barishaki and Kenneth Kakuru ruled in Rukutanas favour saying they saw no reason to compel the speaker to appear before court.

However, the judges ruled that the other witnesses have to appear before court on April 17 at 9am for cross examination. Muhakanizi, for example is accused of granting a Certificate of Financial Implication to support a private members bill despite the money never being ever budgeted for as required by law.

MPs were given Shs 29 million each as facilitation for consultation in their constituencies on the then age limit bill. A total of Shs 13 billion was dished out to the MPs for consultations on the bill. Less than 15 MPs opposed returned the money back to parliament.

Muhoozi and Mwesigwa are to be cross examined on how presidential guards and police personnel flouted House rules and ended up on the floor of parliament.

The Constitution was amended amidst chaos and violence on the floor of parliament after presidential guards with the help of police twice raided parliament and brutally arrested MPs believed to be opposed to the amendment.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mike Chibita has written to the Chief Magistrate Makindye Court to withdraw charges of attempted murder against city socialite Brian Kirumira alias Bryan White.



The directive comes just a day after Kirumira's legal team comprising John Bulungu and Rama Omungu told Makindye Chief Magistrate Erias Kakooza that their client, had reached an out of court understanding for amicable settlement of the matter with his accusers.
Police inspectors in Pilar, Argentinas Buenos Aires province, were recently questioned about the disappearance of 540 kg of marijuana from the evidence room, and the best explanation they could come up with was that addicted rats ate it all.

It all started in April 2017, when Commissioner Emilio Portero relieved his partner Javier Specia, as head of the police department in Pilar, a town located 60 km from the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Protocol dictates that in the case of such a transfer of command, a sort of inventory of everything left in the hands of his successor by the officer who is transferred to another unit be signed. Although the inventory was allegedly conducted, it was never signed by Specia, which made Portero suspicious. He notified the Division of Internal Affairs of the Police, which in turn tasked the National Gendarmerie with conducting an official inventory.

Photo: Matt Baume/Flickr

After checking everything in the evidence room, the National Gendarmerie reported that of the 6,000 kg of marijuana mentioned in Specias paper of transfer, 540 kg were unaccounted for. Judge Adrian Gonzalez Charvay opened an investigation and cited Commissioner Javier Specia and three of his subordinates to testify about the missing drugs. Interestingly, they all offered the same alibi  that the 540 kg of marijuana had all been consumed by rats.

Internal Affairs conducted another investigation to check the truthfulness of their claims, but didnt find any evidence that might suggest that the rats were indeed responsible for the disappearance of such a large quantity of drugs.

The drugs were in a state of absolute dryness, since they were in storage for about two years, which forced us to investigate if a rodent invasion could have eaten so much marijuana, but the experts consulted concluded that that was very unlikely because if it had happened, the mice would have died, and no animal carcasses were detected in the room, investigators said in a statement.

The lack of evidence regarding a rat infestation and Commissioner Specias conveniently missing signed inventory statement for last year convinced the judge to go ahead with the case. So far, no disciplinary action was taken against them, but Specia and his subordinates are due in federal court next month.
If youve always dreamed about climbing into a nine-foot-tall mecha suit and actually showing off your sci-fi fantasies to the whole world, nows your big chance. A Japanese company is actually selling custom mecha suits for only 10 million yen ($93,000).

Skeletonics have been around since 2011, when a group of students at the Okinawa National College of Technology showed off their very first fully-mechanical exoskeleton. It didnt do much except turn the wearer into a metal giant with increased reach, but it definitely looked cool, so the project made international headlines at the time. But while the team came up with several improved Skeletonics over the years, they were merely showed off online and at special events, so only a few fans ever got to give them a try themselves. However, everything changed last month, when Skeltonics finally announced that it would finally begin producing commercial versions of its popular exoskeleton.

Made almost entirely of light metals like aluminium, Skeletonics measure nine-foot tall and weigh around 88 pounds. Unlike most other exoskeletons unveiled so far, they are completely analog, meaning they dont rely on motors or hydraulics to make the wearer faster or stronger. Like the original version unveiled seven years ago, its merely designed to make you look cool and increase your reach.

We didnt think about creating anything useful. Thats probably why we were able to develop a unique thing, Reyes Tatsuru Shiroku, one of the brilliant minds behind Skeletonics, told The Japan Times. Im frequently told that it looks fantastic, but then have to explain that it doesnt really do anything, which ends up confusing a lot of people.



So instead of helping you effortlessly perform difficult physically-strenuous tasks, operating a Skeletonics suit actually leaves the user feeling exhausted even faster. Walking in the 88-pound-heavy suit and moving those long metal arms using only the strength of your own body apparently takes a toll on stamina.



But if all you care about is looking good in your personal mecha suit, and happen to have 10 million yen ($93,000) available, this is the closest you can get to living out your sci-fi fantasies right now. The newest version of the Skeltonics suit has become available on April 7th, so you should be able to order yours now.

via Kai-You
Angela Gillespie

Angela Gillespie, who returned to W2O two years ago as healthcare practice leader & chief strategy officer, has been named president of its W2O wcg unit. She reports to Jennifer Gottlieb, W2O president.

Gillespie has more than 20 years of healthcare marketing experience, supporting the initiatives of pharmaceutical, consumer health, device/diagnostic and payer/provider networks.

She exited WCG in 2010 for a series of key posts at Boston Scientific (clinical strategist/educator), Covidien (venous vascular therapies unit market development leader) and NeuWave Medical (VP-marketing).

"Angela took a leap mid-way through her career, evolving her skill set to become today's necessary hybrid marketing and communications professional," said Gottlieb in a statement.

She considers Gillespie "a formidable and well-regarded force in healthcare."

Gillespie owns Gillespie Family Wines in Argentina.
LANE, a Finn Partners Company, has added Applegate, Dutch Bros Coffee, the International Olive Council and the Marine Stewardship Council to its food-and-beverage client portfolio. For Applegate, a natural and organic meat brand, the agency will conceptualize and implement up to four campaigns this year to educate consumers and drive awareness. LANE's work for Dutch Bros Coffee will focus on public relations activities in seven western states highlighting the company's fun-loving culture and philanthropic endeavors. The International Olive Council selected LANE to develop and execute the Olive Oil Promise, a three-year marketing campaign aimed at educating Americans about the health benefits of olive oil. The agency will lead U.S. communications efforts for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) through a series of consumer engagement campaigns, including influencer partnerships, sponsored content and media relations to raise awareness of its blue fish label. These clients join LANE's roster of mission-driven and wellness-focused brands, which includes Northwest Cherries and Steaz.

Evins Communicaions is now the agency of record for Nylon Media. Evins will be responsible for managing all media relations, strategic partnerships and events for the company and its associated brands. NYLON Medias portfolio includes NYLON.com, its online editorial platform; Socialyte, an influencer marketing agency and content production studio; and SIMPLY, an agency that produces fashion and beauty conferences and works with celebrity bloggers. "EVINS' successful track record of brand strategies and effective communications made them the clear partner for the NYLON brand," said Nylon Media presiden Evan Luzzatto.

AMP3 PR has grown its client roster with the addition of KEF, Derma-E and Brooklyn Candle Studio. KEF produces a line of hand-crafted speakers, ranging from headphones to home theaters. Derma-E is a California-based producer of natural skincare products. Brooklyn Candle Studio makes minimalist botanical candles. AMP3 will handle publicity, events, and influencer marketing for all three campaigns. With the addition of Derma-E and Brooklyn Candle Studio, AMP3 now represents three sustainable, green, ethical brands including KL Polisha vegan and cruelty-free nail polish.

Turner has brought on several new travel and hospitality clients. The agency will now be working with Visit Houston; Visit SLO CAL (San Luis Obispo County, CA); the Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau; the Nebraska Tourism Commission; Unique Hotels of Belize and Visit Hamilton County, Indiana. The newcomers join such existing agency clients as the Bermuda Tourist Authority, Hertz Europe, Allegro Hotels and REI Adventures. Turner has offices in New York, Chicago, Denver and Miami.

Laura Davidson Public Relations has been appointed the public relations agency of record for Mount Airy Casino Resort. The resort has partnered with architectural firm Friedmutter Group to design a multi-million dollar expansion that will add 100 guest rooms as well as a 16,000 square-foot ballroom and events center to be unveiled in Spring 2019. Mount Airy Casino Resort will also open a 27,000 square-foot Outdoor Concert Pavilion in May.
Mercury Public Affairs has inked a three-month, $90,000 pact to lend consulting and management services for the Republic of Kazakhstans Ministry of Justice.

The public affairs and strategy shop will provide strategic consulting and management services to the central Asian country in areas of lobbying, government relations and issues management, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed with the Justice Department in April.

Mercury will work as an independent subcontractor on behalf of U.S. law firm Latham & Watkins, with whom there is a direct contractual relationship, while the work will be funded and performed under the direction and supervision of Kazakhstans Ministry of Justice.

The oil-rich former Soviet Union state is Central Asias top economy, generating 60 percent of the regions GDP, primarily through its booming oil and gas industry.

The $30,000 per-month pact terminates in June.

Omnicom is Mercurys parent company.


Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is doing the thought-to-be impossible, topping Donald Trump as today's headliner, with his mea culpa on Capitol Hill for allowing Cambridge Analytica to "harvest" the data of 87M Facebookers, which possibly helped the Russians keep Hillary Clinton from the White House.

A grateful nation thanks you, Mark. You gave us a much-needed reprieve from 24/7 Trump.

The President did his level best to keep the media spotlight.

Trump railed over news that the FBI raided the office and hotel room of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in search of records about payments to stripper Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claim they had sex with the now tweeter-in-chief.

Adding salt to the wound, Trump nemesis, deputy general Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special prosecutor Robert Mueller to investigate the president, personally signed off on the FBI's raid.

Trump stewed about whether he should do a package deal trifecta firing of Rosenstein, Mueller and attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Zuck, though, temporarily stole the PR show. Dodging cardboard Zuckerbergs wearing "Fix Facebook" shirts, the FB CEOaccompanied by a dozen handlerscooly took the Senate witness chair to admit that his company didn't do enough to prevent its tools from producing fake news, interfering in elections, generating hate speech and destroying data privacy.

"We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here," said the repentant Zuckerberg, according to his transcript.

The grilling continues tomorrow in the House, and then Zuckerberg flies off to California to try to restore user and investor confidence in his social media site. He'll fade from the spotlight.

The rest of us aren't so lucky. Trump isn't going anywhere for now and especially to this weekend's Summit of the Americas in Peru.

Officially, the president canceled the Peruvian swing to plan for a military strike against Syria to retaliate for its use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Really, does anybody think Trump was looking forward to going to Peru to share the stage with leaders from countries such as Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Uruguay and Panama? They don't rank high on Trump's A-List.

The media spotlight shines more brightly in DC than in Lima. With Zuckerberg gone off into the sunset, the president will have the spotlight all to himself.


Janice Min

Janice Min, former Hollywood Reporter co-president and chief creative officer, has been enlisted by NBCUniversal to advise E! and other female-skewing NBCU cable networks. Min, who edited US Weekly before she served as editor-in-chief of the Hollywood Reporter, will serve a consultant to NBCUniversal while also remaining in her capacity with Valence Media, the newly formed parent company of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, Dick Clark Productions and MRC. I can think of no one better to collaborate with as we create new initiatives that enhance and move forward our commitment and connection to women, said E! president Adam Stotsky.

The Denver Post responded to the latest round of staff cuts demanded by its owner, Aldus Global Capital, by giving its Sunday Perspectives section over to articles protesting the move. Aldus has control over Digital First Media, which also owns the Boston Herald, as well as the Long Beach Press-Telegram and St. Paul Pioneer Press. The Post has undergone several previous rounds of staff reductions since Aldus took control in 2010, with 20 employees being offered buyouts in 2015, 26 either laid off or offered buyouts in 2016 and ten laid off last November. With a newsroom staff that currently numbers less than 100, the new round of cuts would axe another 30 positions. Chuck Plunkett, the Posts editorial page editor, told the New York Times that he did not give Aldus or Post editor-in-chief Lee Ann Colacioppo any notice the articles criticizing Aldus would run. I had to do it because it was the right thing to do, he said.



Frank Baker

The Associated Press has launched a beat covering marijuana legislation and the issues surrounding it. The team, led by AP California news editor Frank Baker, will be responsible for producing marijuana-related stories in addition to keeping up with other breaking news. Whether they love, hate or are ambivalent about marijuana, Baker said, people want to read about it. The move comes as content centered on marijuana is proving to be a sweet spot in the current publishing environment. High Times Media just shelled out $6.9 million in cash and stock for Green Rush Daily and ENTtech CEO Tom Florio has announced plans to partner with recreational marijuana company MedMen to put out Ember, a custom-published print title.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

The glitters of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies attract a handful of Wall Street executives as many of them are joining the crypto world for better opportunities.

Hedge fund manager and digital currency investor Mike Novogratz has lured Richard Kim from Goldman Sachs as his new chief operating officer for Galaxy Digital, the merchant bank he created that will focus on virtual currencies, reports CNBC.

Kim, a former executive director in Goldman's London office, is reuniting with his former colleague, Luka Jankovic, who used to be a hedge fund analyst in the bank before joining Galaxy Digital.

Kim and Jankovic are just two of several high-ranking Goldman Sachs executives who have entered the digital currency world.

In January this year, former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Bucella was hired by Blocktower. Ex Goldman vice president Matt Goetz founded BlockTower in 2017.

Last 2016, former Goldman Sachs managing director James Radecki left the bank to work for a startup virtual currency company. Radecki is now in charge of business development at one of the largest digital currency trading firm Cumberland Mining.

Novogratz is optimistic about Bitcoin's future, predicting that the digital coin will rebound to $40,000 at the end of this year. Bitcoin peaked to nearly $20,000 in December 2017.......................

To view our full article Click here
Opalesque Industry Update - Hedge funds registered their second consecutive month of losses since the start of 2018, with the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index declining 0.51%1 in March, while still outperforming the MSCI World Index which ended the month down 2.21%. The average return of global hedge funds was pulled into negative territory in March as choppy trading conditions across commodities, and weaker global equity performance continued to affect the trading scene. March was marked by investors' concerns over the US and China trade war which made headlines throughout the month and negatively affected the global equity markets, most of which ended the month in the red. As of Q1 2018, hedge funds are down 0.10% ahead of underlying markets as the MSCI World Index posted losses of 2.24%. Close to 56% of managers were in positive territory and roughly 5% posted year-to-date returns in excess of 10% over the first quarter. Latin American managers led among regional mandates this month with their 4.30% gain, while relative value managers topped the table across strategies, gaining 2.92% over the month. Looking at year-to-date performance, Latin American managers outshone their peers from other regions with gains of 5.21%. Meanwhile, distressed debt hedge fund managers posted the best Q1 2018 performance among all strategies based on preliminary numbers, gaining 2.02% over the quarter, followed by relative value managers who generated gains of 1.01%. Below are the key highlights for the month of March 2018:

 Hedge funds were down 0.51% during the month, outperforming underlying markets as represented by the MSCI World Index which declined 2.21% over the same period. On a year-to-date basis, managers declined 0.10% while underlying markets were down 2.24%. 43% of managers were in the red as of Q1 2018.  Asian hedge funds continued their slide with Asia ex-Japan mandates down 1.79% during the month with losses among India and China dedicated managers coming in at 2.47% and 0.79% respectively as preliminary numbers showed. Japanese managers were also down 0.95% in March and down 0.84% year-to-date.  Event driven hedge fund managers posted the steepest decline, down 3.04% during the month - their worst monthly performance since January 2016. Q1 2018 losses for the strategy came in at -2.53%, the worst among all strategic mandates.  Emerging market mandates were down 0.22% with losses mitigated by Eastern Europe and Russia mandated funds' performance. Frontier market mandate, as represented by the Eurekahedge Frontier Markets Hedge Fund Index was up 0.87% for the month.  The Eurekahedge Billion Dollar Hedge Fund Index which tracks the performance of the hedge fund industry heavy weights was down 0.45% in March, bringing their Q1 2018 performance into the red, down 0.38%.  The CBOE Eurekahedge Short Volatility Hedge Fund Index declined 0.88% in March based on early numbers, with year-to-date losses for the index coming in at 7.62% and expected to increase as the complete picture emerges. Meanwhile relative value and long volatility focused strategies are up 1.01% and 1.21% on an asset weighted basis.  The Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index declined 42.49% in March, bringing its Q1 2018 losses to 56.67%, barely behind of the 51% decline in the price of bitcoin in the first quarter of 2018.
Charlie Plummer stars in the film "Lean on Pete," based on Scappoose writer Willy Vlautin's novel. (Scott Patrick Green/Courtesy of A24)

"Lean on Pete" has come full circle, all the way around the muddy track at Portland Meadows.

Willy Vlautin's novel about a lonely kid and a broken-down racehorse gets its setting and its soul from the Meadows, the North Portland landmark with the neon horse and jockey roaring along the facade. Vlautin used to write in the grandstands but took time out to gamble and got to know the trainers and hot walkers and hangers-on who spent their days on the backside. He took notes, of course, and turned a song called "Laramie, Wyoming" into a novel about a boy named Charley Thompson who went to the track because he had nowhere else to go and found himself trying to rescue a horse that couldn't cut it anymore.

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Charlie Plummer stars in the film "Lean on Pete," based on Scappoose writer Willy Vlautin's novel. (Scott Patrick Green/Courtesy of A24)

"Lean on Pete" was published in 2010 and won two Oregon Book Awards. Cheryl Strayed wrote a rave review in The Oregonian and Ursula K. Le Guin proclaimed herself a fan. Movie people took notice, including a young English director named Andrew Haigh.

"I just fell in love with it and with that character, with Charley," Haigh said. "I wanted to reach through the pages and protect him. I felt like I understood him, however different our lives may be. The world of the story was really interesting to me, not just the horse racing but the ease in which someone can fall through the cracks and be left floundering."

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Steve Buscemi co-stars in the film "Lean on Pete," based on Scappoose writer Willy Vlautin's novel. (Scott Patrick Green/Courtesy of A24)

Haigh wanted to make "Lean on Pete" his next movie but there was a bidding war. He talked to Vlautin via Skype and connected on books and movies they both loved. Haigh got the rights and came to Oregon to hang out. Vlautin took him to the Meadows and to the nearby Delta Park neighborhood where he imagined Charley Thompson lived. They went to a stakes race in Tillamook County and Haigh followed Charley's route across eastern Oregon to Laramie and Denver, soaking in the lonely, wide-open American West and writing the script in hotel rooms.

"Lean on Pete," which opens Friday in Portland, was filmed in Oregon in the late summer of 2016 in many of the same places Vlautin wrote about: Delta Park and the Apple Peddler restaurant in Burns and, most importantly, Portland Meadows. Haigh joked that he wouldn't have done the movie if he had had to shoot the racetrack scenes in Seattle but he really wasn't kidding. Location is everything, and it wouldn't have been right if the cast, led by Steve Buscemi and Chloe Sevigny, had been anywhere other than North Portland.

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Charlie Plummer stars in the film "Lean on Pete," based on Scappoose writer Willy Vlautin's novel. (Scott Patrick Green/Courtesy of A24)

The veteran actors slipped comfortably into their roles as hard-luck trainer Del Montgomery (Buscemi) and tough jockey Bonnie (Sevigny). They were natural around the horses and supportive of Charlie Plummer, who carries the movie on his skinny frame.

Plummer, 17 when "Lean on Pete" was filmed, gives Charley Thompson depth and the strength to keep moving forward when life knocks him back. Haigh puts Plummer in full frame, always moving, and lets the audience follow him on a linear narrative without flashbacks or cutaways to other characters or plotlines. It's a daring choice with such a young actor.

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Charlie Plummer stars in the film "Lean on Pete," based on Scappoose writer Willy Vlautin's novel. (Scott Patrick Green/Courtesy of A24)

"I was terrified about it," Haigh said. "Charlie's in almost every frame of the movie. Even when there's landscape he's in that landscape. There's not a time when he's not working. He's just a really talented, natural actor. Charlie's always trying to find something more interesting. You want to lean in and understand what he's trying to do."

Vlautin gave Haigh notes on the script but swears he didn't have much to do with the movie. He does have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in a bar scene in Burns, one his director thinks will lead to big things.

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"A total natural," Haigh said, laughing. "No one could have done it any better."

Lean on Pete

121 min., R, wide
The Clatskanie School District has cancelled Monday night's school board meeting due to "perceived threats," Superintendent Lloyd Hartley said in a statement.

In an email to media, Hartley said that because of "recent perceived threats directed at the board and administration, and having no imminent board business, all public Clatskanie School District meetings have been suspended until the recall process has been completed," The Clatskanie Chief reported.

Hartley did not elaborate on the kinds of threats received and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Update: The Clatskanie Chief now reports that Hartley has taken medical leave due to stress caused by "a situation that has clearly divided the community.")

A recall election for school board members Monty Akin and Judy Skirvin is set for May 1. The pair voted in February not to renew the employment contract for popular elementary principal Brad Thorud. Because of that vote, the recall claims the community "no longer has faith in (their) ability or desire to continue to work to improve the quality of education for all students."

A third school board member, Walt Lovegren, who made up the 3-2 majority vote not to bring Thorud back next school year, resigned when faced with the same recall effort.

Though Hartley said there was no "imminent business," two vacancies on the school board were slated to be filled Monday night  Lovegren's seat, and another seat vacated when Valerie Williams moved out of district.

Many in the community don't understand why Thorud's contract wasn't renewed. During a meeting about his contract, Hartley said Thorud had threatened a fellow principal, Amy McNeil. But the supposed threat  he said he was "very scared and concerned for her"  sheds little light on the issue. And because McNeil is dating Skirvin's son, some community members believe Skirvin should have recused herself from the vote.

Lt. Brian Pixley said the Columbia County Sheriff's Office is aware of the "contentious" nature of the recall, but not of any specific threats.

"We are aware of the situation as a whole, however there have been no direct threats reported to us to investigate," he said.

-- Samantha Swindler

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com
Updated 3:40 p.m.

LEGGETT, Calif. -- A vehicle fell into a rain-swollen river and vanished last week in the same region of California's far north coast where a family that vanished during a road trip is last known to have been, authorities said.

Mendocino County sheriff's Lt. Shannon Barney told The Press-Democrat of Santa Rosa that officials will launch a search of the south fork of the Eel River once water levels drop and the flow slows.

Witnesses reported a newer-model maroon vehicle, possibly a Honda Pilot, went into the river about 1 p.m. Friday, said California Highway Patrol Officer William Wunderlich. The vehicle was southbound on U.S. 101, pulled into a turnout and went over the side and into the river.

Four members of the Thottapilly family have been missing since last week while traveling from Portland to their home in Santa Clarita, California, the San Jose Police Department said in an email to The Associated Press.

San Jose police said Tuesday a relative called on April 8 to report the Thottapilly family missing.

Police say the family was expected at a relative's home in San Jose on April 6 but did not arrive, and hasn't been heard from since April 5.

A "missing" poster on Facebook identifies the family members as 42-year-old Sandeep, 38-year-old Soumya, 12-year-old Siddhanty and 9-year-old Saachi. Their car is a maroon or burgundy 2016 Honda Pilot with license plates 7MMX138.

The poster says their last known location was the "Klamath-Redwood National Park area."

Heavy rain fell on that northwestern California region last week.

--The Associated Press
A 25-year-old man was arrested Monday in Newport on suspicion of filming a teen girl while she was in the bathroom, according to records and police.

Jonny Redwolf Fulton

Jonny Redwolf Fulton, an acquaintance of the family, was in the coastal city for work and staying with the family, according to Newport police. Fulton also had a warrant out of Idaho for video voyeurism, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He's accused of six counts of first-degree invasion of personal privacy and a single count of being a fugitive from justice, records show. Fulton had been staying in a trailer in the family's driveway, according to the affidavit.

The 14-year-old girl found Fulton's cellphone hidden behind things on a shelf when she was in a bathroom undressing to take a shower, according to the affidavit. The girl's stepfather said the video showed Fulton setting up the camera, according to the affidavit.

The stepfather confronted Fulton, who pleaded that he destroy the phone because he was scared he'd "go away for a long time," the affidavit says. Fulton ran away before police showed up, the affidavit says, and the girl's stepfather gave the phone to police.

The stepfather later called police to say Fulton had come back to the home. Fulton tried to flee when he saw an officer approach, but a relative of the stepfather tackled him and held him down, according to the affidavit.

Fulton said in a jailhouse interview that he has had a problem with voyeurism for more than a decade and never physically acted on his attractions, the affidavit says. Fulton let police access his phone to review videos he had shot, according to the affidavit.

There were three videos of the girl, including ones from late March and earlier in April, according to the affidavit. He also tried to communicate with her on social media, the affidavit says.

Fulton is being held in the Lincoln County Jail and is next scheduled to be in court Monday, April 16.

 Jim Ryan
More than three dozen state prison inmates with severe mental illness are still held an average of 23 hours a day in dark, cramped cells despite an agreement with a disability rights group to reduce such isolation, says a new report released Tuesday.

In January 2016, the state corrections director pledged in a written agreement with Disability Rights Oregon to ensure inmates in the Behavioral Health Unit at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem spend more time out of their cells.

The agreement, to be carried out over four years, also calls for qualified mental health professions to be on site daily and better tracking of when officers use force against inmate or discipline them.

The agreement followed a stinging report by the advocacy group in May 2016 that found adults with the most severe mental illnesses routinely were isolated in cells for 23 hours a day without access to mental health care.

The 2016 report showed that few of these inmates regularly showered or had a chance for recreation, even though both were required under state policies. Some were routinely punished for harming themselves and subjected to restraints or stun guns.

In a new two-year status report, Disability Rights staff said some of their most serious concerns have resurfaced despite state efforts to improve the unit's operation and leadership.

On the plus side, the state secured $8 million to build a new treatment building expected to open by June 2018. It will provide additional treatment space for the unit and allow an increase in mental health staff and security staff by May, said state Corrections Director Colette S. Peters. The state hired an expert in treating mental illness, Joel Dvorskin, to help it meet the goals in the agreement.

Document: Response by Oregon Department of Corrections director

Dvorskin also created an incentive program for good behavior in the unit, called the "BHU Bucks Program.'' Security staff are to issue bankable rewards to inmates for positive behavior.

State officials said they also have expanded outdoor recreation opportunities for these inmates. They reported a reduction in force against the inmates, fewer inmates harming themselves and greater capacity for socialization and meaningful activity for inmates.

Disability Rights Oregon acknowledged that "the unit, although still dark and foreboding, is not the loud, foul smelling place that it was in 2015. Residents have at least some opportunity to see the sky and breathe outside air."

But the group's investigators found the state has made little progress in reaching the goal of getting the inmates out of their cells for at least 20 hours a week  10 hours for structured activity, such as classes and treatment, and 10 hours for unstructured activity, such as recreation and meals.

The group examined state data, and found a significant increase in isolation time for unit inmates in late 2017, with the time out of cell for BHU residents less than five hours per week, attorney Joel Greenberg wrote in the report.

"What we're seeing is that (the Correction Department's) initial modest progress came to a standstill at the end of the second year. Unless there is a dramatic shift, DOC is unlikely to meet the goals it agreed to within the time frame."

Prison Superintendent Brandon Kelly recently reminded correction officers that recreation time and other out-of-cell time is more of a need than a "privilege" and to consider that before imposing discipline that requires more cell time, according to the advocacy group's report. The state also may increase staff, using freed-up space in the unit instead of waiting for the new building.

State corrections officials questioned some of the agency findings, contending that unstructured time had increased to 6.1 hours per week by March 2018, compared to 1.5 hours in early 2016, with expanded outdoor recreational opportunities.

"We believe all our efforts are the foundation to meet the ... commitments by the end of 2019,'' Peters wrote in a response to Disability Rights Oregon. "We have been, and continue to be, committed to provide the highest level of care for the adults in custody in the BHU.''

Disability Rights Oregon's Greenberg said he's skeptical. "It's not sustained, and we don't trust it a reliable trend,'' he said.

In 2016, the unit's approximately 40 inmates made up only about 2 percent of the prison's population but received more than 11 percent of the disciplinary sanctions, the group reported.

From January to mid-April in 2017, unit inmates were kept in their cells for discipline 31 times for behavior that included verbal disrespect, throwing toilet water and sheets, exposing themselves to an officer or refusing to get off the phone. Of those so-called cell-ins, 17 were for the maximum 72 hours.

Disability Rights Oregon officials said many of those behaviors could be handled through treatment and better training of security staff.

"It is hard to reconcile a goal of increased time out of cells with continued use of cell-ins as a primary response to expected behaviors,'' the new report said.

Disability Rights Oregon urged the state to move swiftly to end solitary confinement and isolation, transfer the most acutely impaired residents to a more therapeutic environment, quickly improve access to high-quality psychiatric care and make sure corrections officers value the role of clinicians for inmates.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill Monday withholding state business from internet providers who throttle traffic, making the state the second to finalize a proposal aimed at thwarting moves by federal regulators to relax net neutrality requirements.

The bill stops short of actually putting new requirements on internet service providers in the state, but blocks the state from doing business with providers that offer preferential treatment to some internet content or apps, starting in 2019. The move follows a December vote by the Federal Communications Commission repealing Obama-era rules that prohibited such preferential treatment, referred to generally as throttling, by providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon.

"When the federal government repealed net neutrality it took a giant step backward," Brown said before signing the measure at a Portland-area school.

Brown's signature makes the state the second to enact such legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It also stakes out the state's claim to a moderate approach, compared to others: Five weeks to the day before Brown, Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill in his state to directly regulate providers there.

Critics of the federal change say it could lead to the division of the internet into tiers, with high-quality information reaching only those willing to pay extra and controversial views or outlets relegated to slower channels.

But states looking to create their own standards face potential federal opposition. In February, the FCC said it would use its power to pre-empt the laws of any states that try to directly regulate providers, and set an April 23 deadline for the new, more relaxed rules to take effect.

At the Oregon signing, state House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson echoed statements from Democratic legislators there that using the power of the state's checkbook would influence providers while stopping short of actually imposing regulations on providers themselves.

The prohibition, which restricts with whom the state may contract for internet services, applies to cities and counties, but exempts areas with only a single provider.

Democratic legislators had also cited the deadline in support of taking immediate action. Republican lawmakers said they were worried that even the hands-off approach could draw scrutiny from the federal government.

Legislators in more than half the states have introduced net neutrality legislation, including both outright bans and purchasing prohibitions like Oregon's, but most have yet to pass, according to a report from the NCSL. Governors in five - Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Montana, Vermont_have signed executive orders on the subject.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum also joined a coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia in filing legal challenges in February to block the federal rules from taking effect.
WASHINGTON - White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert is leaving the Trump administration, another departure during what has been a chaotic few months of personnel changes.

Bossert, a favorite of Chief of Staff John Kelly, is leaving one day after national security adviser John Bolton began the job. Bossert was believed to be on shaky footing in the Bolton era and he resigned two days after Michael Anton, the National Security Council spokesman, also quit.

Bossert's resignation was requested by Bolton, according to two people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity to discuss internal personnel issues.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to comment on whether Bossert was pushed out.

"I'm not going to get into specific details about the ongoings of personnel. But I can tell you that he resigned," she told reporters Tuesday. "The president feels he's done great job and wishes him the best as he moves forward."

Bossert joins a growing list of officials who have left the administration in recent months as the historically high staff turnover rate continues under President Donald Trump.

So far this year, the president has changed his secretary of state, national security adviser, veterans affairs secretary, CIA director, chief economic adviser, staff secretary, communications director and members of his legal team.

Bossert and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster feuded bitterly throughout their tenure in the White House in meetings that on occasion devolved into screaming, according to people familiar with their relationship who requested anonymity to discuss the situation. McMaster and others in the White House were particularly frustrated that Bossert was slow to move forward with a strategy to both defend the United States and punish Russia for its efforts to undermine the U.S. elections.

In late February, Adm. Michael Rogers, the departing head of the National Security Agency, suggested in congressional testimony that he did not have the authority he required from the White House to combat Russian cyberattacks. "[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there's little price to pay and that therefore 'I can continue this activity,'" said Rogers, who is set to retire in April. "Clearly what we have done hasn't been enough."

Inside the White House, many blamed Bossert for those shortcomings. "He's a foot dragger on everything," said a former senior U.S. official who worked with Bossert in the White House. "But that's also how he hung on for a while in this crazy White House."

Bossert has publicly taken issue with assertions that the Trump administration has not imposed sufficient costs on Russia.

"We are deterring through increased defenses, we are deterring through punitive measures that impose costs," he said Sunday while speaking at the CipherBrief national security conference held in Sea Island, Georgia. "We are applying economic diplomatic, military penalties to our adversaries, and in some cases, to our friends that are behaving poorly."

He also discounted any potential impact of Russian manipulation of social media in the 2016 election.

"I frankly have a whole lot more confidence that no voter in this country was influenced by those ads," he said. "I'm not forgiving the meddling in the slightest, it's galling."

Beyond Russia, there was widespread frustration in the White House that Bossert's office had failed to produce formal strategies to deal with counterterrorism and cyberactivities. Bossert also suffered from a confusing chain of command inside the White House. He insisted that he reported directly to the president and not to the national security adviser, which became a major source of frustration for McMaster. His sudden forced resignation suggests that Bolton may be intent on ensuring that Bossert's replacement on cyber and counterterror strategy reports directly to him.

Bossert, who also served in the George W. Bush administration, wasn't a marquee name, but he was liked by the president, senior administration officials said, and often defended Trump's agenda in meetings and in interviews with the media.

His most public role came during last summer's hurricane season when he often appeared in the White House briefing room and on TV.

When the administration was facing heavy criticism for its response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico, Bossert was one of the officials put forward to defend the president.

"I understand the coverage, in some cases, is giving the appearance that we're not moving fast enough," Bossert said on Sept. 28.

"I think that there's kind of two responses I'd have to that," he said. "First, there's an understandable degree of devastation on the island, and for anybody that needs food and water, power, lifesaving needs and commodities, health care, there's nothing that can help fast enough. . . . But what I will tell you is that we are mobilizing and marshaling the resources of the United States of America in a way that is absolutely professional, fast and adequate to meet the needs."

In Bossert's last public remarks, he told a group of current and former intelligence officials, private sector executives and reporters Sunday night that "this White House seems to function just about the same as every other White House.'' He added: "At the end of the day the only thing that creates instability or the perception of it is (a) the coverage and (b) the turnover. I think at this point we've reached what seems to be a decent stability point."

Asked by the moderator, Suzanne Kelly, at the CipherBrief conference whether that meant no more departures, he said, "No," prompting the audience to laugh. "I feel comfortable for today."

He said he sees "stability" in the president. "I see consistency in his messaging and thinking, and I see stability in the Cabinet," he said. "John Kelly's an absolute rock of stability."

-- The Washington Post
A man whom Lents residents reported was firing a semiautomatic rifle into a house Monday night turned out to be carrying a realistic-looking air rifle, police said.

The man, identified as Adalid Flores Pelayo, 31, also fired pellets at two people in the Southeast Portland neighborhood, striking one, police said.

Police were called just before 11 p.m. to the 4400 block of Southeast 99th Avenue, where neighbors described a man firing a semiautomatic rifle into a home. While interviewing witnesses, officers heard what sounded like gunfire.

Officers searched the neighborhood with a canine team before finding a man near Southeast 100th Avenue and Boise Street.

The man fought with officers and the police canine, the police bureau said.

During the struggle, the police dog was struck with a less-lethal foam projectile fired by an officer, police spokesman Sgt. Christopher Burley said. The dog was treated for injuries at a local veterinary hospital.

A large knife and the rifle were found nearby. The police bureau said officers didn't realize the weapon was an imitation firearm until examining it up close.

Pelayo was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault, menacing, second-degree disorderly conduct and reckless endangering. He was lodged at the Multnomah County Jail, where he remains in custody, according to jail records.

The incident came two days after Portland police officers fatally shot a man carrying a knife in a Southeast Portland homeless shelter.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
Portland police are withholding the names of all the officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 48-year-old man who burst into a Southeast Portland homeless shelter Saturday night with a knife, citing "threats made regarding their safety.''

Sgt. Christopher Burley, police bureau spokesman, didn't describe the threats or their origin, but said police are continuing to assess them before releasing the officers' names.

Seven Portland police officers and one Multnomah County sheriff's deputy were involved in the shooting that killed John Andrew Elifritz about 8 p.m. inside the Cityteam Ministries on Southeast Grand Avenue.

Elifritz died of multiple gunshot wounds. Toxicology results are still pending.

The eight officers were scheduled to be interviewed Monday by internal affairs investigators, within the bureau's 48-hour requirement.

Internal affairs investigators are conducting a simultaneous investigation to the criminal inquiry to determine if officers followed bureau policies and training.

Twelve other officers were witnesses to the shooting.

The Portland Police Bureau Monday released a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting inside the shelter.

Officers in outer Southeast Portland had an encounter with Elifritz earlier Saturday afternoon but decided to "disengage,'' or walk away, though they had seen him holding a knife to his throat.

Soon after, police said, Elifritz was considered a suspect in one attempted carjacking, another successful carjacking, a road-rage encounter, and the crash of a stolen car before he entered the homeless shelter holding a knife, startling a group of men gathered for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

In 2011, Portland police shifted their practice in responding to mental health crises, pursuing a new approach of sometimes walking away from incidents. They began training sergeants to consider not engaging people with mental health problems if they're not an obvious threat to others, even if they're suicidal and armed. Some praised the move, while others criticized it for swinging too far to a hands-off response, potentially putting the public in danger.

Here's the police timeline of Saturday's events they say involved Elifritz:

About 2:25 p.m., a man who identified himself as Elifritz called 911 and reported his family had been murdered and gave a location in the 4400 Block of Southeast 79th Ave. Officers responded to the location, which was a duplex under construction. The contractor at the location said a man fitting Elifritz's description had been outside earlier and was acting in a bizarre manner. No one was found inside the duplex. Police later confirmed Elifritz's family was safe.

Other officers located Elifritz at Southeast 86th Avenue and Holgate Boulevard and attempted to contact him, but he backed away from them, retrieved a knife from his pocket and held it up to his throat. Elifritz ran from officers. A decision was made to de-escalate the situation by not pursuing him, but rather "make a referral to the Bureau's Behavioral Health Unit for follow-up.''

As officers were discussing the encounter, a community member approached and told them a man waving a knife had just attempted to carjack him. The victim did not want to report the crime, but wanted the police to be aware of the incident.

At 4:37 p.m., a 911 call was made by a woman who reported her 2003 silver Honda CRV had just been stolen from her by force at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Foster Road. Officers responded and learned a woman had struggled with Elifritz, who had jumped into the passenger seat and was wrestling for control of the vehicle. The woman's father was in a separate vehicle behind her at a stoplight. He got out of his vehicle and was able to disengage his daughter from the suspect. The suspect jumped in the driver's seat of the car and drove away.

At 7:25 p.m., a man called 911 call and reported he and his family had been a victim of road rage in the area of North Columbia Boulevard and Chautauqua Boulevard. Officers responded and learned the suspect in this case was Elifritz in the stolen Honda CRV. The victim said the driver was tailgating him and driving next to him in the bike lane and pointed a black object at him, which he believed to be a gun. (Police did not include this, but a recording of 911 dispatch indicated that officers later said over the radio that no gun was seen in the North Portland incident)

At 7:29 p.m., a 911 caller said he saw Elifritz jump out of a moving vehicle on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Stark Street. Police responded and the community member said the man appeared to be "drunk or high" and had left eastbound on Stark.

At 7:46 p.m., a 911 caller reported a man had been standing in the doorway of a store in the 600 block of Southeast Grand Avenue for the last five to 10 minutes, holding a knife in his hand. At 7:50 p.m., the call was updated that Elifritz was walking southbound on Southeast Grand Avenue.

At 7:55 p.m., it was reported a man had been standing in front of the 500 Block of Southeast Grand Avenue, holding a knife to another person's throat.

At 7:58 p.m., officers responded to the Cityteam Ministries shelter on Southeast Grand Avenue. The suspect was located inside. Officers deployed less lethal rounds and then broadcast that shots were fired at 8:00 p.m.

The owner of the Maple Leaf Restaurant, who spoke Monday with the Oregonian/OregonLive on the condition her name not be used, said Elifritz had walked into her restaurant on Southeast Foster Road Saturday afternoon before the alleged carjacking. He wore a rain poncho, was acting erratic and demanded to know what kind of soup they had.

"I told him chicken potato," the owner recalled in an interview.

"I don't like that kind of soup," the man told her, the owner said.

When the owner suggested another kind of soup, the man said it was too expensive. Then he asked her if the restaurant had wireless internet.

"I said, 'No, I don't have any WiFi," the owner said.

The man stormed out of the Maple Leaf and walked half a block east along Southeast Foster Road to 72nd Avenue. Restaurant patrons then saw the man dragging a woman out of an idling car before getting into the vehicle and speeding off, the owner said. Within minutes police were on scene interviewing the owner and patrons, she said.

Just before police arrived at the Cityteam Ministries, a dispatcher alerted officers the man with the knife had been identified as Elifritz.

"The suspect is going to be John Elifritz. ... A couple of calls earlier today he had a knife to his throat. He was ranting about his wife and daughter being murdered,'' the dispatcher told officers. "We disengaged from that on East.''

On Monday, Mike Giering, executive director of Cityteam Portland, declined to detail his understanding of Saturday's chain of events but said it's been traumatic for clients of his organization who were on hand.

The organization closed after the shooting and remained closed all day Sunday, he said. It was to reopen early Monday evening for dinner, and its emergency homeless shelter, which serves 58 men per night, was also set to reopen.

Giering described the police shooting as scary and tragic and said it's heartbreaking that someone died in his organization's building.

He said his organization wasn't aware of having any previous contact with Elifritz.

Giering estimated about 10 of Cityteam's long-term recovery clients were attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when the incident unfolded. He said some interns who live on site were at the shelter at the time, but no full-time staffers were there, which is usual practice on a Saturday night.

Everyone who saw the shooting was later sequestered into TriMet buses and questioned by police, Giering said.

Cityteam, a nondenominational Christian nonprofit, has operations in Portland, California and Pennsylvania.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said in a statement Monday that she asked county staff Sunday "to work with partners to provide counseling and support."

She said Trauma Intervention Program of Portland/Vancouver personnel have responded and thanked Cityteam, Imago Dei and Transition Projects "for moving quickly to continue to shelter and support visitors to the shelter."

Multnomah County residents who need mental health support can call 503-988-4888 or visit the Urgent Walk-In Clinic at 4212 S.E. Division St., according to Kafoury's statement.

Oregonian Staff Writers Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Jim Ryan contributed to this story.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Back when the U.S. Navy decided to name an under-construction ship the USS Portland, the world was a different place.

It was 2013. Barack Obama was president, "Blurred Lines" was playing everywhere, all the time, and people were excitedly making videos of themselves doing the Harlem Shake.

Tide Pods were just for clothes washing.

It's taken five years, but now, that under-construction ship is a full-fledged Navy vessel set to be commissioned in Portland this month.

And, unlike two previous ships with the same title, the new USS Portland, is named exclusively for Portland, Oregon. Sorry, Maine.

The USS Portland is a San Antonio class amphibious transport, which is 684 feet long and displaces 25,000 tons of water as it moves through the sea. It will have a crew of 371, and hold 500 to 800 Marines. The ship also has a 24-person hospital ward.

Sound exciting? Well, starting April 16, civilians will be able to tour the ship for free at Portland Marine Terminal #2, 3556 N.W. Front Ave. Tours will take place 2-5 p.m. April 16-18 and 20.

If you go, wear closed-toe shoes and be prepared to climb ladders.

The ship will be commissioned at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 21. However, no more tickets are available for that event.

But don't despair, USS Portland acolytes! Stoller Family Estate has created a USS Portland wine that you can purchase for $30 for your own at-home mock commissioning ceremony.

The USS Portland, sadly, will not live in Portland forever. After April 22, the ship will return to her home port in San Diego. If we know Californians, though, she'll be back.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Tide Pods were for dishwashing. They are actually for washing clothes.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
Police on Tuesday released the names of the seven Portland police officers and one Multnomah County sheriff's deputy involved in Saturday night's shooting of John Andrew Elifritz, a 48-year-old man killed after he burst into a homeless shelter armed with a knife.

The Police Bureau initially held off identifying the officers after learning of a potential threat against them that may have surfaced on social media after the shooting.

But the bureau "ultimately could not locate any credible information,'' said Sgt. Chris Burley, police spokesman.

The Portland officers and their years of service with the bureau are: Richard Bailey, two years, Justin Damerville, seven years, Kameron Fender, eight years, Alexandru Martiniuc, six years, Bradley Nutting, 11 years, Chad Phifer, 10 years and Andrew Polas, 14 years.

The deputy is Aaron Sieczkowski, a six-year member of the sheriff's office.

Police haven't said who fired less-lethal rounds and who fired lethal rounds or how many.

The officers and deputy will remain on paid administrative leave, per standard policy, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation.

Elifritz died of multiple gunshot wounds. Police had encountered him earlier in the day Saturday, finding him holding a knife to his throat in outer Southeast Portland after he had called 911, talking about his wife and child being murdered. Police found Elifritz's family was safe and decided to leave Elifritz alone, according to police and an emergency dispatch recording.

A short time later, police said, he went on a crime spree that included an attempted carjacking, a successful carjacking of a silver Honda CRV after forcing a woman from the SUV and a road-rage encounter. He crashed the stolen SUV on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Stark Street.

A clerk in the nearby Jacksons Gas Station said he entered the convenience store, holding a knife to his throat and talking of suicide and murder. Someone at the store called 911. Witnesses said Elifritz then burst into Cityteam Ministries on Southeast Grand Avenue, holding a knife in one hand and cutting himself.

Police initially stood at the open door with guns drawn as startled men about to attend an Alcohol Anonymous meeting at the shelter tried to get out of the way of Elifritz and box him in a corner using chairs. A group of officers then entered the shelter, ordering Elifritz to drop his knife, before they fired less-lethal rounds and then lethal rounds, police said.

Portland Officer Polas was involved in the May 12, 2010, shooting of Keaton Otis. A Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by police in the Otis shooting. Police said they stopped Otis, 25, for making unsignaled lane changes. Otis grabbed a 9mm pistol from the glove box and shot an officer in the groin. Three other officers fired a total of 32 shots, striking Otis 23 times.

Phifer was cited in a federal investigation of Portland police as an example of excessive force for firing a Taser repeatedly at a man with mental illness and punching him in the ribs up to six times in 2010.

Nutting used a stun gun in 2014 on a bicyclist six times in 15 seconds in a use of force that drew years of scrutiny and conflicting opinions.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
David Nelsen's last startup was one of the big successes in the last generation of Portland startup. Five years after selling that company, Giftango, he's back with another startup for the new generation of Portland tech.

Bumped, Nelsen's new company, launched Tuesday after a year in stealth mode with a dozen employees and $2.5 million in seed funding. It's taking an unconventional approach to consumer loyalty, enabling brands to offer company stock to frequent customers. He said it gives customers a stake in the brands they identify with.

"Everybody recognizes that you have to build this relationship with the customer that extends beyond price," Nelsen said.

Bumped says its app tracks a customer's spending with publicly traded companies and returns a small percentage of the customer's spending in the form of companies' stock. It holds that stock for them in the app, accumulating value if they make more purchases or the stock goes up.

Consumers can sell their shares any time, according to Nelsen, but Bumped hopes they'll hold onto them as they generate a financial return -reinforcing their connection to the underlying brand.

The startup anticipates brands will kick back between 1 and 5 percent of a purchase in stock. Bumped won't charge consumers any fees to hold or sell their stock.

Still, it could be a tricky proposition.

While traditional rewards programs connect shoppers to a specific brand, Bumped seeks to connect consumers to that brand's corporate parent. Shoppers may not realize, for example, that Odwalla's health-oriented smoothies are owned by the Coca-Cola Co., known for sugary sodas. And if they do know, Odwalla's health-oriented customers may not be excited to own Coke stock.

Some market-savvy shoppers may be intrigued at the notion of adding to their investment portfolio, but the appetite for stocks waxes and wanes. The stock market is enjoying long, steady growth but it will eventually hit another down cycle - and that could make company shares a less inviting incentive.

To Nelsen, though, tying shopping to investment savings makes sense for marketers and for shoppers. And he said it will remove the structural and financial barriers that keep many people from investing.

"They never end up participating. They never end up experiencing what it is to become an owner," Nelsen said. "People need to understand how the system works."

Bumped's backers include Peninsula Ventures, Commerce Ventures and Stanford. A fifth of its funding comes from Nelsen himself.

Giftango, his last company, sold to InComm in 2013 after raising nearly $7 million in outside backing. While the companies didn't disclose the sale price, a person familiar with the transaction valued it at roughly $50 million. That makes it one of the biggest deals for a Portland startup in the past decade.

With its roots in hardware and business software, Oregon tech rarely produces tech companies focused squarely on consumers. That's contributed to a dearth of breakout companies chasing big markets. Nelsen said it took a big opportunity to make him want to start another business.

"We haven't had enough, big, audacious, crazy concepts to go after," he said.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699
Bronte McKinney works 9-to-5 as a cannabis trimmer. She's a little quiet around new people. And she's not fond of crowds.

"I'm Peter Parker," McKinney said, relating herself to the reserved Marvel character who spends evenings fighting crime as Spider-Man.

But when she's dressed head-to-toe in alternating black and red  including jester's boots, a skirt, corset, gloves and a pair of pigtails  ala longtime Batman villain Harley Quinn?

"I light up."

For the past 13 years, the 26-year-old from Hazel Dell has been a regular at anime and comics conventions throughout the Northwest. She's always in character, dressed as one of her favorite heroes or villains.

McKinney aspires to have her cosplay resemble characters as they appear in books, movies and video games.

To do that, she learned to mold silicon and latex. She took up welding. McKinney even taught herself soldering for more complex costumes. All told, she estimates she's spent $10,000 to $20,000 to support her hobby.

Bobbi Kaye Kupfner, a 29-year-old administrative assistant who lives in Southwest Portland, takes a different approach.

"I'm not someone that has to recreate something the way it is," she said. "I want to do my interpretations of the things I love."

Kupfner is particularly invested on an Aquaman cosplay she's working on. It's an update to an outfit she wore to GeekyCon in Orlando three years ago.

The GeekyCon iteration of her costume was modeled after the classic Aquaman look from the '70s "Super Friends" series: A scaly orange shirt atop a pair of dark green pants. Add a trident and  ta da!  you've got a superhero.

Two weeks before Wizard World, Kupfner spent three hours one evening gluing seashells to a set of arm guards. The GeekyCon Aquaman outfit called for gold spray paint on the armor. This time, it should have more of a flotsam look.

It's been a lot of work, Kupfner said. But she was giddy about a third meet-and-greet, this one scheduled with the man who played Aquaman in last year's "Justice League" film.

"The reason I'm excited for Wizard World is that Jason Momoa is going to be there and I'm going to touch him," she said.

But don't call her "Aquawoman."

"I've always liked dressing up as characters I really identify with," Kupfner said. "It doesn't matter what gender they are."

Gearing up for your first convention as a costumed attendee can be intimidating, McKinney said. But seasoned vets are more than happy to help inquiring minds.

"It doesn't matter what level you're at," McKinney said. "Hit up the forums. Hit up the community. Those people will help you out."

Portland's Kumoricon was her first convention in 2005.

McKinney, then 13 and a sixth grader at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, plundered her closet to find something to help her resemble a character from her favorite anime, "Cowboy Bebop."

"It opened the door for me," McKinney said.

She didn't do any sewing for that first cosplay. And McKinney wouldn't learn leatherwork for a few years. Still, she felt comfortable in her homemade costume.

It helped that other convention-goers were so friendly.

"People will open up to you. They want to talk to you," McKinney said of the people she would meet during conventions in Portland and Seattle.

She was soon surrounded by a squad of fellow cosplayers, many of whom she now considers good friends. And as McKinney became immersed in the convention culture, the characters she inhabited would also evolve.

As a teenager, she typically tackled anime-inspired cosplay. But she began noticing the constrained proportions of characters like Sailor Moon and her cadre of celestial warriors.

McKinney started reading Marvel's "Thor" series. She fell in love with the armor worn by one of the hammer-wielding Avenger's companions: the warrior Sif.

"From there, it just kind of dominoed," she said. "I was picking up other series that I thought were interesting."

Popular anime characters, she said, were typically rail thin. And they only turned into fierce warriors after some sort of mystic transformation.

Women in comics were different.

McKinney loved flipping through panels featuring Jennifer Walters, an attorney whose strength rivals that of Bruce Banner's when she becomes She-Hulk. Or Captain Marvel, who cut her teeth in the Air Force as a fighter pilot.

Later, McKinney drew inspiration playing video games featuring sinister creations like the killer Big Sister from "Bioshock 2."

The villain wears a diving helmet, the kind you'd expect characters in Jules Verne novels to don before plunging thousands of feet undersea. Big Sister equips a footlong needle on one arm as a weapon and carries a wire cage on her back.

"It was one of my biggest projects" and required months of work, McKinney said.

But McKinney can also cobble a costume together in a day or two, like Kupfner, who prefers to keep things simpler.

"I want to feel confident and comfortable in stuff I'm wearing," Kupfner said.

To feel at home on the convention floor, she sometimes has to tone down a costume she'd otherwise wear for a studio shoot.

Kupfner's racy take on Batman's nemesis the Riddler, with its lime-green corset and fishnet leggings, leaves her feeling too exposed for a convention.

Female cosplayers, Kupfner said, often face unwanted stares and sometimes suffer awkward interactions with men at conventions.

It's also something McKinney is wary of when she dresses for an event. That's why she and her boyfriend have a code "look" she can give if she's feeling uncomfortable.

"Once in awhile, the sad, sour apples in the bunch come in," McKinney said.

Things have improved significantly since the "cosplay is not consent" movement spread through convention circles a few years ago, urging attendees to ask permission before shooting photos of cosplayers or touching any part of a costume. Now, even smaller events like Portland's Rose City Comic Con have adopted strict policies targeting harassment on their show floors.

For McKinney, that means she can relax in an environment she said "brings me such a joy I can't explain."

Just as Peter Parker transforms from shy nerd into wise-cracking web-slinger once he dons the Spider-Man mask, McKinney feels most at home once she's dressed, as she says, "to the nines" as her favorite characters.

At Wizard World, she's trading the witticisms for villainous sneers. Because instead of Spider-Man, McKinney will become one of his most infamous enemies: The black-clad Venom.

"I feel proud of what I'm doing when I cosplay," McKinney said. "I shine."

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
Ahlstrom-Munksjo to Invest EUR 27 Million in Production/Environmental Efficiency Projects April 10, 2018 - Ahlstrom-Munksjo announced plans to invest about EUR 27 million on two investment projects in Sweden  both with attractive financial returns and improved environmental performance and employee safety, the company says. Billingfors Mill Ahlstrom-Munksjo plans to increase pulp production capacity and improve environmental performance of the pulp production line at it Billingfors pulp and paper mill in Sweden. The investment involves rebuilding the recovery boiler and debottlenecking the pulp line. When completed in the third quarter 2019 the plant will meet stricter environmental regulations as a result of improved process combustion, reducing air emissions. The financial benefits include lower maintenance costs, and higher pulp and insulation paper production. The total investment is approximately EUR 23 million and the final investment decisions is conditional on receiving a new environmental permit from the authorities, expected in Q2 2018. Installation work will be made during a scheduled maintenance shutdown in the summer of 2019. Aspa Bruk Ahlstrom-Munksjo has also decided to modernize the bailing line at Aspa pulp plant in Sweden. An investment of EUR 4 million will improve the safety level at the bailing line, improve production efficiency and give access to a more favorable customer mix. The new line is estimated to start during the first half of 2019. During the modernization project, production will continue normally. Both Billingfors and Aspa plants are part of the Industrial Solutions business area, producing a wide range of products and materials often used in manufacturing and production processes, such as abrasive backings, electrotechnical insulation papers, release liners and specialty pulp. Ahlstrom-Munksjo noted that these projects will not materially impact the company's current year capital expenditure plan. The capital expenditure guidance for 2018, published on February 13, 2018, remains unchanged. Ahlstrom-Munksjo is a global leader in fiber-based materials, supplying innovative and sustainable solutions to customers worldwide. The company's offerings include decor paper, filter media, release liners, abrasive backings, nonwovens, electrotechnical paper, glass fiber materials, food packaging and labeling, tape, medical fiber materials and solutions for diagnostics. To learn more, please visit: www.ahlstrom-munksjo.com . SOURCE: Ahlstrom-Munksjo
Ballarpur Industries Agrees to Sell Malaysian Subsidiary, Sabah Forest, for $310 Million

April 10, 2018 (DEALSTREETASIA) - Ballarpur Industries, India's largest manufacturer of writing and printing paper, has agreed to sell its Malaysian subsidiary Sabah Forest Industries for RM1.2 billion ($310 million), according to a stock exchange filing.

The National Stock Exchange of India-listed Ballarpur said, it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Malaysia's Pelangi Prestasi, a unit of Albukhary Group, owned by billionaire Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.

The agreement involves the sale of Sabah Forest's entire assets, including procurement of fresh timber licenses from the state government of Sabah, Ballarpur said. Pelangi Prestasi has deposited 10 per cent, or about $31 million, of the consideration in cash following the signing of the SPA.

The said agreement is subject to necessary corporate and regulatory approvals including appropriate court orders of the High Court of Sabah & Sarawak, Malaysia, the Indian paper maker said.

Last year, Ballarpur was in talks with a Chinese firm to sell its Malaysia forest arm in a $350-million transaction but the deal did not push through.

In 2016, the company also announced that it was selling Sabah Forest to Pandawa Sakti for an enterprise value of $500 million. The deal, however, was later scrapped because the buyer failed to meet the deadline for the transaction.

Sabah Forest Industries is one of Malaysia's largest timber growers and wood processors. It manages a forest estate totaling 288,000 hectares, pulp and paper manufacturing facilities, and an integrated timber complex consisting of a saw mill and a veneer and plywood factory.

Ballarpur acquired Sabah Forest in 2007, marking the first overseas acquisition by an Indian paper company.

SOURCE: DEALSTREETASIA
The Gluten Free Bar Power Breakfast Wins Best New Packaging Innovation Award Graphic Packaging's IntegraFlex packaging is comprised of two distinctly different paper-based substrates to create a collapsible cup package: a paper liner and paperboard cup. April 10, 2018 - The Gluten Free Bar (GFB) Power Breakfast recently won the NEXTY Award for Best New Packaging Innovation during Natural Products Expo West. IntegraFlexTM, the collapsible cup packaging technology, is a solution developed by Graphic Packaging International (GPI). The award recognizes the most innovative products in the natural products industry. "The GFB is all about making good-for-you, gluten-free food, in good-for-you ways," said Elliott Rader, Owner/Partner at The GFB. "This packaging allows us to deliver our food in an innovative manner and, considering the package is partially recyclable, it delivers on the "good-for-you ways" part of our brand promise. We try to bring innovative products to the market that communicate quality, convenience and taste. GPI's IntegraFlex packaging speaks to quality and most certainly convenience, and once a consumer tries the product, they'll realize that we are delivering on great taste as well." Kelly Fitzwater, new product development manager at GPI, explained, IntegraFlex is comprised of two distinctly different paper-based substrates to create a collapsible cup package: a paper liner and paperboard cup. The ability to mix and match substrates allowed us to create a package that reinforces the healthy natural look that Gluten Free Bar was seeking. The slim space-saving design makes it a snap to take a convenient snack or meal on the go." Chuck Tarlton, director of business development at GPI, noted, "Oatmeal is an ideal product for IntegraFlex. This is an example of the right product combined with the right packaging that simultaneously drives value for the brand and the consumer." The technology allows for the product to ship flat, making distribution a little simpler. It also demonstrates several consumer benefits. To use, the consumer tears open the top of the liner, erects the collapsible cup by pressing the two sides together, adds liquid to cook, then enjoys right out of the package. The compact solution is portable and can be easily tossed in a bag to go camping or to work, and it can be easily dispensed from a vending machine. Graphic Packaging's IntegraFlex collapsible cup also won the Paperboard Packaging Council's 2017 Innovation of the Year award. Graphic Packaging International, Inc., a subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a leading provider of packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage and other consumer products companies. The Company is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and holds a leading market position in coated-unbleached kraft and coated-recycled board. To learn more about Graphic Packaging, please visit: www.graphicpkg.com . SOURCE: Graphic Packaging International
A friend of mine noticed that I mentioned in passing that I hold to a panentheistic view of God, and asked for more information. And so I thought I would share some things that I have already written on the topic. It turned out that there were several such relevant posts, most from many years ago, and so I decided to quote what I think are particularly interesting bits here, with links to the original posts for my friend and anyone else reading this to trace the excerpts back to their original context. Ill start with a post called Why Panentheism? since it addresses precisely the question of why I hold the view that I do:

I dont know that I, from my own human perspective, can sort out where Nature ends, or where God ends, or whether talking about either having an end really makes any sense. But by not positing a radical distinction between the two, I can note that most people would agree that there is a Reality that transcends us, which caused us to exist, and in which we live, and move, and exist. And so I think that helpfully moves things away from fruitless debates about Does God exist? to a discussion of What is reality, how do we know, and how should we live in light of both what we know and the limitations on our knowledge?

There is, in addition to this aspect of humility and recognizing the limits of my own and any human perspective on God and the cosmos, a theological aspect that relates to problems at the intersection of the anthropomorphic theism depicted in the Bible and the problem of undeserved suffering. And so, from a blog post that asked whether my view of God can live long and prosper:

To say that God once parted seas and flooded worlds and now helps Americans find parking spaces is, in my opinion, a move backwards and not forwards in our theological thinking. Indeed, that there are religious believers who will deal with the problem of evil by saying that God does not intervene to prevent genocides and rapes and starvation on a grand scale in order to allow room for free will, but who will then thank God for intervening to get them a job or help them find a bargain at the mall, is not merely disturbing but truly sickening.

In another post, I talk about God being a mystery rather than an explanation:

In a sense, all that we mean by universe really was encompassed within the Hebrew term elohim, the deity. While I would not go so far as to argue that the ancient Hebrew authors were advocates of panentheism, their worldview can be plotted on a trajectory moving in that direction. That we are dealing with a trajectory and not an end point is important to note. Some Biblical authors still thought of God fighting with the sea monster to create, as was the norm in the wider Mesopotamian context. The furthest that the Israelites got was to think of all the deities  the storm god, the heavens and mother earth all wrapped into one God in the singular who is responsible for all the things these diverse deities were thought to do  fertility of womb and of soil, creation of life, blessing of households, and so on. But there is still much of the assumptions of pre-scientific polytheism in such a view of God, and it still attributes a personal purpose to forces of nature, to weather, to earthquakes, and so on. Without the Hebrews insights into the unity of these divine/natural forces, the rise of modern science might never have been possible. The challenge to the theologian in the modern scientific age is to find ways of embracing science, one of Abrahams children every much as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and to find the next spot we can affirm on the trajectory of mystery that begins, but by no means ends, with the writings of the Biblical authors.

And in a post that responded to a challenge asking progressive Christians to write substantively about God, I explored the widely-used analogy between soul and body on the one hand, and God and cosmos on the other:

If we take seriously the depiction of God relating to the world as we do to our bodies, then assuming we consider personhood an emergent property rather than something inserted into us as a separate substance, there is no place where we can pinpoint our self if one removes the entirety of our bodies. The human person is a reality that emerges from the organization and interaction of the constituent parts that make us up, and is not to be found somewhere tucked in between the cells. And so, if we think of God as the highest order of emergence out of all that exists, then we can truly say, in good panentheistic fashion, that God is everywhere, and all things exist in God, and yet none of them simply is God. And when we think about the connections that come to exist between us, and emerge as something transcendent from the interaction, then we may say things such as God is love and really mean it. In the past, I have used the analogy of two cells in a human body talking about their existence. One, an atheist or perhaps ahumanist says that it looks around and sees nothing but cells  they are born, they die, and that is it. The second says that sometimes it thinks that they are all part of something greater, like one big Cell. The latter is projecting its own image onto a transcendent reality that it cannot fathom. But it is intuiting something about the nature of existence that the first denies, and so is not entirely wrong, and is perhaps correct in important respects even though a cell can never have concepts or language to talk about what a human person is like. And so this language points to a sense of being part of a Reality that connects and hangs together in ways that I cannot fathom from within the midst of it, but nonetheless intuit and affirm and believe This approach is a model that I find useful. But to take these as literal statements about God would be to mistake the way religious language functions. It is a pointer towards transcendent realities that we cannot speak of directly. But what these metaphors offer are ways of relating to and pointing to that transcendent reality we refer to as God, in ways that make sense in light of our current understanding of the cosmos and of ourselves. The symbols I am recommending will have a limited duration of usefulness. All human symbols do. But we cannot simply use older symbols when our understanding of the world has radically changed. We have no choice but to find new ways of thinking and speaking  being prepared to jettison them when the time comes.

That should get the conversation started, but there is more that you can find on my blog (to say nothing of elsewhere) that relates to this topic, whether directly or indirectly. In particular see the recent discussion of panentheism in Reform Judaism. And here on my blog, see for instance my post asking whether panentheism is atheism, another exploring differences between panentheism and pantheism, and Religion 2.0.
Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable.
Inaccessible Louvre Exhibit Highlights Ongoing Challenges For Persons Living With Disabilities in Iran

04/09/18

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

A popular exhibition by the Louvre Museum in Paris at the National Museum of Iran has come under criticism because it is inaccessible to people living with disabilities. From March 2018 until June, works of art from the Louvre will be displayed in Tehran to mark the 80th anniversary of the Iranian museum.

"Unfortunately the National Museum of Iran, like many of our other public spaces, does not have suitable facilities for the commute of individuals with disabilities," tweeted Mahmoud Sadeghi, a reformist member of Parliament (MP) from Tehran, on March 30, 2018.

"Of course, according to the authorities, the museum does have a special ramp, but it has been closed due to a request from Louvre Museum officials in order to protect the works on exhibit!" he added.

Exactly why the exhibit is inaccessible to persons with disabilities is unclear.

Regardless, the National Museum of Iran, which operates under the state-funded Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, is responsible for making public spaces accessible to all people in Iran.

Even with a ramp, the exhibit would remain inaccessible to various people living with disabilities since it would only assist people with wheelchairs with getting in the front door.

Widespread Problems

The problem is not exclusive to the national museum in Tehran. The Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization has not implemented adequate measures at various cultural sites including museums that would enable all citizens to visit them.

In October 2015, Esmail Sheikh-Gharaei, the director general of the Pars Association for the Disabled, described various shortcomings in public infrastructure in Iran for people living with disabilities.

"The audio-visual departments at museums are not complete," he told the semi-official Mehr News Agency. "The hearing-impaired cannot hear the guides and the information posted next to the items in the museums is not complete in order to free them from the need to hear the guides and to see well."

He continued: "There are also no museum guides that provide complete information for the visually-impaired. For the latter group of individuals, there should be a special room but there are none. In hotels there should be special rooms for the disabled according to international standards but such facilities do not exist even at Iran's five-star hotels."

"Also, the bath and sanitary service doors should be more than 80 centimeters wide but how many hotels are complying to allow the disabled to enter with a wheelchair?" asked Sheikh-Gharaei.

Two years later, in December 2017, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reportedthat the National Museum of Iran had made audio equipment available to blind people but other museums in the country remain inaccessible to people living with blindness or deafness.

Slow Pace of Change

Iranian officials have made numerous promises over the years to enhance accessibility throughout the country but the pace of change has been slow or insignificant.

In November 2017, Ali Asghar Mounesan, the vice president and director of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, told ISNA that all tourist locations should be made accessible to everyone.

"Attention should be paid to preparing suitable spaces to allow the disabled and veterans to make better use of them," he said. "Therefore, in the ratification of plans by the National Development Fund, we will include compliance with refitting principles in these areas."

The National Refitting Headquarters was established in 2014 to implement Article 2 of the Law for the Protection of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, which calls for making public spaces in Iran accessible for everyone.

The organization was created to increase the quantity and quality of accessible areas in Iran. However, many places in Iran are still not accessible to disabled individuals four years after the organization's creation.

For example, in Tehran, only 24 percent of public spaces have been refitted, and this has made commuting difficult or impossible for persons with disabilities in most of the city.

Inaccessible urban facilities and public areas can lead to isolation for persons living with disabilities.

Officials have publicly acknowledged this issue.

"The city's lack of preparations for the disabled has resulted in them staying at home, in some ways, imprisoned at home," said Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi in March 2017.

According to Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, which Iran ratified in 2009, the Iranian government must take "measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility."

According to Iran's Ministry of Labor, 10 million Iranians were living with some form of a disability in 2017. But disability rights organizations have reported that this number is much higher.

In 2016, only 1.3 million people living with disabilities in Iran were registered with the Welfare Organization of Iran, the main organization providing state services to people living with disabilities.
Only 2% of devices affected by recent cyberattack: Iranian IT Minister

04/09/18

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN - "Only two percent of devices in Iran were affected by the recent cyberattack and the attack was neutralized in two hours," Iran's Communication and Information Technology Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi has said.

Following an attack which was detected late on Friday, a flaw in Cisco switches allowed hackers to target critical infrastructure in many countries with cyberattack, including Iran.



Hackers left the image of a U.S. flag on screens along with a warning about intervention in U.S. election.



"Some 55,000 devices were affected in the United States and 14,000 in China," he said in an interview with state TV on Saturday.



Azari Jahromi named Europe, the U.S. as well as India as the main targets of the cyberattack.



"The widespread attack apparently affected 200,000 router switches across the world, including 3,500 switches in our country," he added.



He said that Iran was not amongst the top ten victims of the cyberattack, however, an Iranian data company, Respina, ranked 6th among data companies that were affected worldwide.



He named other companies including ISIRAN, and Shuttle as the data centers which were most seriously affected by the attack.



Tehran and Semnan cities were mostly affected by the attack, he reported.



He called for being more active and faster in dealing with these issue by updating data center companies.



Network settings were frozen during Norooz



Previously, Azari Jahromi in a tweet lamented the state-run computer emergency response body MAHER, a Persian acronym for the Computer-related Events Operation and Coordination Center, which had shown "weaknesses in providing information to (affected) companies".



The telecommunications ministry revealed on Saturday that ten days ago CISCO had warned about the vulnerability of the router switches that were attacked Friday night.



However, many companies froze their networks' settings during the two-week New Year holidays, Norooz, starting March 21, and that the companies did not update their settings as MAHER failed to inform them of the imminent attack. Friday is a weekend day in Iran.



On Saturday, chief of the detection and prevention center at FATA (Iran's Cyber Police) said that no sensitive data has been leaked in the Friday cyberattack.



Ali Niknafs added that any Iranian company or organization that faces some type of disorder or anomaly in its network after starting work on Saturday morning should take immediate action to resolve the problems.



According to a security report from the Cisco Talos team, as many as 168,000 systems in the world might have been affected by the flaw.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has broadly assessed Ghanas banking sector, indicating that its well capitalized, profitable and liquid.



Dr Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, who doubles as chairman of the MPC, disclosed this to the media at a press conference recently in Accra.



He, however, stated that this does not mean that there are no pockets of weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Obviously, these are average numbers, so within the broad averages there may also be a few weak points. And weve already made these assessments in the past and stressed the need for banks that do not have enough capital to rebuild their capital. And if you look at the latest numbers, we are reporting a Capital Adequacy Ratio of 19 percent from around 16 percent, so theres a lot going on.



Dr Addison said banks were rebuilding their capital buffers and becoming more resilient compared to what pertained six months ago.



As the banks continue to increase their capital towards meeting the new GH400 million minimum capital requirement, we expect that banks resilience would firm up. So broadly, we should take it that yes, we have had some challenges but reforms are ongoing, capital buffers are growing, and we should expect to see a stronger banking system by the end of the year.



Banks capital adequacy ratios are going up, so there is some additional effort by banks to raise their capital and that includes some six indigenous banks.



Obviously, they must be the ones that are contributing to the increasing resilience that we are seeing.



Non-performing loans



He said a significant portion of the non-performing loans were legacy debts and so it would take some time for these to be written off.



I am told that our legal systems are so complicated that it could take four years to write off some of these loans, but the most important thing is that NPLs net of fully provisioned loans is near single digits, so we are making progress.



The NPLs are highly concentrated. For instance, the top 10 non-performing loans account for almost 41 percent of the total non-performing loans stock. In other words, if you resolve just the top 10 of the loans, you would be able to resolve the NPL problem.



He continued that ESLA helped reduce the public sector portion of the non-performing loans, but not by much because a lot of the energy sector loans were already classified as performing loans so it did not have such a big impact on the NPLs.



State of indigenous banks



The indigenous banks are also improving and trying to rebuild capital, obviously, we have a number of them that are smaller, so we expect that they would consolidate. As part of the broader recapitalization process for 2018 we expect that the smaller indigenous banks would in a sense come together and become stronger.



Microfinance sector



On this, he said there were a lot of challenges and BoG had put out a lot of directives recently to right the wrongs.



Now, we are trying to look at the numbers. The issue is that micro-finance institutions are doing everything that they are not supposed to do and behaving like they are banks, thats the core part of the problem. So, the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department has given the sector new guidelines on business practices.



He added also that there was an intention to increase the capital requirements for micro-finance institutions, which BoG was discussing with the government to devise a roadmap on possibly consolidating that sector and finding a way in which it can deal with the issue of depositors funds.



This is not unrelated to the attempt we are making at pushing for the deposit insurance. It is because of this problem that the deposit insurance arrangement becomes very important and as you are aware, Parliament last Friday passed the Deposit Insurance Amendment Bill and when that is operationalised at least, deposits up to a certain threshold would be covered by insurance.

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.

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A court in Guinea has sentenced a traditional healer to five years in prison for conning women into thinking they were pregnant.



The court found N'na Fanta Camara guilty of fraud and impersonating a doctor by giving the women harmful substances and endangering their lives.



Her victims and rights groups said they were disappointed with the sentence and were hoping that she would be jailed for life.



Two other accomplices were convicted of similar charges, and were sentenced to three years and four years in prison.



Camara was arrested in January for giving hundreds of women, who had been unable to conceive, a mixture of leaves, herbs and other medicines that caused them to bloat and look pregnant.



For her services, patients paid $33 (24) in a country where the average monthly wage is around $48 (35).



Over 700 women aged 17 to 45 are believed to have been affected by Camara's pregnancy "cure".



Some of the women reported looking pregnant for 12 to 16 months.



A police doctor, who had examined 47 of the affected women, said at the time that they risked long-term complications from the treatment.



Camara had defended herself, saying: "I work very hard to help [the women] realise their dream but the rest is in the hands of God."

Source: BBC









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.

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Residents close to the Adabraka Market in Accra have complained about the bites of strange Mosquitoes which could lead to an epidemic due to unsanitary conditions in the area.



This is due to the bad stench emanating from the drains and homes.



Some foreign nationals believed to be Malians and Nigeriens are allegedly buying and selling used bottles that breed the strange Mosquitoes.



Owing to the situation, the residents, especially children, often rush to various hospitals to seek treatment for severe Malaria and other diseases.



Also, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) transformers in the community are covered with heaps of used bottles, as if they are going to be recycled.



This came to light during the National Sanitation Day at Adabraka, led by Victor Acquaye, Director of Public Health Department of the AMA.



Vincent Yaw Ofori, a resident of the area, who spoke to Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, We are confronted with grave sanitation problems because a large number of residents who live in the area lack the sense of cleanliness.



He called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to immediately evacuate the used bottles and prosecute the offenders.



Mr Ofori reminded the people of Adabraka that a clean and healthy environment would ensure good health and urged them to keep their surroundings clean at all times.



The Enforcement Taskforce later cleaned the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Independence Avenue, Graphic and Castle Roads, Agbogbloshie and Kaneshie.



He said the taskforce would intensify its efforts to monitor sanitary conditions and hygiene in Accra and encourage store owners and petty traders to register with accredited waste management companies to avoid arrest and prosecution.



Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, told GNA that AMA is embarking on vigorous public health education and enforcement drive to keep the people alive to their civic responsibilities.



He said AMAs vision of promoting good health in the communities is in fulfilment of the Presidents initiative to ensure a clean Accra.



He cautioned them against indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains even though the rain pattern, which had changed due to climate change, could cause disasters.



Throwing refuse into gutters and drains is likely to block waterways and result in the spread of diseases, putting the lives of the residents at risk always, he said.



Joseph Akl, Deputy General Manager of Qualiplast Limited, who participated in the exercise with his staff, told GNAthat the exercise formed part of the companys corporate responsibility.



He urged the people to segregate the waste to ensure good sanitation.

Source: GNA









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Former President John Mahama has asked President Akufo-Addo teasingly to get 'an obinim sticker' to cure his incompetence.



Speaking at the National Democratic Congress Unity Walk at Wa in the Upper West Region, he said: "I must say that we must do hard work. You do not win an election on the weakness of your opponent. You win an election because the electorate has confidence in you to give power to you and so although the NPP has proven to be super incompetent, we cannot sit down and relax and say because of their super incompetence we are going to win the election...The incompetence is so bad the President and his government need an Obinim Sticker. If it really works, they may need an Obinim sticker.









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.

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NDCs Felix Kwakye-Ofosu has fired back at Deputy Information Minister, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, for her recent social media "attack" on ex-President John Dramani Mahama, calling on NDC supporters to ignore the blockheaded minister.



The Deputy Information Minister, in a Facebook post, severely criticized the former president for describing the Akufo-Addo led administration as super incompetent because it has failed to deliver on its promises.



Wa Unity Walk



While addressing party supporters on Saturday after a unity walk in the Upper West Regional capital, Wa, former President Maham said despite the incompetence of the New Patriotic Party [NPP], the National Democratic Congress [NDC] will have to put in extra efforts to win the 2020 elections.



Joining the #Obinimstickerchallenge, John Mahama mockingly said the government needed an Obinim sticker to perform.



I have been watching social media lately and theres something that has come, and I think it cures everything. Its the Obinim sticker, the President and his government needs an Obinim sticker. If it really works, then I think they need the sticker. So I am saying that we cannot depend on their incompetence, we need to work hard to gain the support of the electorate, Mahama said.



'More Competent Than An Odwan Funu'



But Nana Ama Dokua, in a sharp reply on Facebook, accused John Mahama of being a culprit of election malpractices not only in Ghana but in other nations where he [Mahama] served as an observer.



After all the trail of embarrassments you brought back to Ghana recently, to remain relevant in Ghana politics, you describe President Akufo Addo today, as though you were talking about your own self. A president who may need an Obinims sticker is still 100% more competent than an odwan funu, She wrote on her on Facebook wall.



Ama Dokua Is A Nonetity



Speaking to the issue on NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie, the former deputy Minister of Communications under the previous National Democratic Congress [NDC] government, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu wondered why Ghanaians would give space to someone who appears to have been relegated to the background in her ministerial role.



Why should we even waste our time on someone who cannot construct good sentences? Read carefully what she posted on Facebook.



How on earth can an election observer rig an election? How is that possible? Shes misleading the public and its a shame. What she did was a terrible advertisement for the Akufo-Addos government. Until recently she wasnt known but I wouldnt be surprised if she is reshuffled. She is clearly a disaster as a Minister, he told the sit-in host Mc-Jerry Agyemang.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash









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The National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams has insisted the wonder working Obinim sticker is all that President Akufo-Addo together with his 110 Ministers need to snap out of their non-performance in government.



The former President during a Unity walk in Wa in the Upper West region, Saturday said  I have been watching social media lately, and theres something that has come, and I think it cures everything. Its the Obinim sticker, the President and his government need an Obinim sticker.



He added You do not win an election on the weakness of your opponent. You win an election because the electorate have confidence in you. And so even though NPP is proving super incompetent, we cannot sit and relax and say because they are super incompetent we are going to win the next election. So we are going to work hard to win.



Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Dr Kingsley Nyarko has said the comment from the former President shows a drowning and desperate man seeking straw to survive in order to be relevant and increase his chances of leading his party in the 2020 presidential contest.



But Speaking on Kasapa FM, Mr. Adams said the loud cry from Ghanaians about the high standard of living and general hardships warrants such suggestion from the former leader.



The hardships is unbearable. Ghanaians complain that now if you receive your salary, it doesnt even reach the middle of the month and they run out of cash; always in debt. And looking at the wobbling situation in the economy now, is it not in order that Mr. Akufo-Addo and his 110 ministers will go for Obinim Sticker to end the troubles of Ghanaians. he said on Monday.



Meanwhile her Aide, Joyce Bawa Mogtari has said the Obinim sticker jab by her Boss was a joke and must be taken as such by the President.

Source: kasapafmonline.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.

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A manufacturer of kiln-dried hardwood has chosen Franklin County to call home.

Pennsylvania Cherry LLC, will open a facility in Mercersburg. The company was formed after conducting a site search, and has acquired and will redevelop the property at 6100 W. Buchanan Trail.

The manufacturer of kiln-dried hardwood cherry has committed to invest more than $15 million in the project which includes land and building acquisition, infrastructure development, machinery and equipment purchase, and job training, and will create 42 new jobs in the next three years, Gov. Tom Wolf announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The lumber manufacturer will be eligible for $126,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits to be distributed upon creation of the new jobs and $16,650 in WEDnetPA funding for employee training from the Department of Community and Economic Development. The company has also been encouraged to apply for a $2.1 million low-interest loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, the press release said.

The project was coordinated by the Governor's Action Team in collaboration with the Franklin County Area Development Corporation.

--Business Buzz
Police in Philadelphia say a 12-year-old boy was walking around the city with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle over the weekend.

As 6ABC in Philly reports, police stopped and arrested the boy, along with an 19-year-old man who was allegedly carrying a loaded 9 mm handgun, Saturday evening in the city's Bridesburg section.

This after a resident heard a commotion outside his home and then saw the pair of heavily armed young people.

"This kid comes running down the street, looked like he was 11-years-old, with an AR-15 and another kid had a 9 mm," witness Jim Dipiera was quoted by 6ABC as saying.

After the incident, Philly police tweeted out a photo of an officer holding the AR-15.

The 12-year-old was not publicly identified by police. However, 19-year-old Michael Mitchell was the boy's companion who cops say was armed with a handgun.

Neighbors told police it all started with a dispute between the two and some other young men on the block.
A 25-year-old woman in western Pennsylvania is accused of calling a crisis hotline, but not to seek help.

Rather, police say the woman, Brittany M. Hartos of Butler, Pa., threatened to go to the home of Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger and kill him.

According to the Butler Eagle, Hartos phoned in the alleged threats to the National Crisis Hotline around 9 p.m.

In addition to threatening to kill Goldinger at his home, she allegedly threatened to kill him at the county courthouse where he works, the newspaper writes.

WPXI reports Hartos admitted to making threats because the district attorney refused to prosecute a case involving her.

The distraught woman, who was pictured crying during her state police mug shot, faces charges of making terroristic threats.

At last report, Hartos was lodged in Butler County Prison, unable to post $100,000 bail.
A self-proclaimed "third-generation God-gifted psychic" in western Pennsylvania allegedly promised clients she could make the evil surrounding them disappear. She stands accused of making the clients' money disappear, instead.

As TribLive.com and KDKA report, psychic, tarot-card reader and fortuneteller Sophey Mary Mills, 27, of Beaver County, Pa., now faces two felony counts of theft by deception and two misdemeanor counts of fortune telling.

The charges stem from a state police investigation launched after complaints from Mills' clients who said the psychic charged them "thousands of dollars to rid them of evil spirits and negativity in their lives," TribLive.com writes, adding:

In one case, Mills, whose fortune-teller name is Sophia Wilson, charged a woman $200 for a tarot card reading and three-day soap and candle cleanse and then told the woman it would cost $3,000 to lift a curse that had been placed on her by an aunt, a complaint said.

The $3,000 in cash, all in $100 bills, was to be placed in a "mojo" or healing jar along with 30 teaspoons of various ingredients and an egg wrapped in a T-shirt.

When the woman brought the jar to Mills' business on March 10, Mills broke the egg in a ritual that she said would trap evil afflicting her client and then instructed the woman to run so the evil wouldn't follow her, a complaint said. Mills refused to return the money despite assurances she would do so, according to police.

Another client made a mojo jar containing $2,300, which the fortune teller kept, TribLive.com adds, citing the criminal complaint.

Mills' business, Psychic and Tarot Card Readings by Sophia, dates to 2004 in Beaver County.

Mills was released after being arraigned on the charges late last week. An April 20 preliminary hearing is scheduled in the case.
An international brew is in the works.

Major Tom, a collaboration beer between Philadelphia's Monk's Cafe and Belgium's Brasserie de la Senne, will make its debut at 5 p.m. on April 10 at the Philadelphia bar.

Major Tom is a double saison which has been bottle-conditioned with a strain of Brettanomyces grown by Brasserie de la Senne and brewed with Beechwood smoked malt. The result is a super-dry finish and notes of smoke. It has an ABV of 7.2 percent.

It was brewed by the owner of Monk's Cafe, Tom Peters, in Belgium along with Brasserie de la Senne master brewer Yvan de Baets and Peters' daughter Isabel Thomas-Peters. It's the first time de Baets has collaborated with an American bar.

"Yvan is one of the finest brewers in the world, and Major Tom is a passion project for both of us," Peters said in a press release. "This beer is doubly special to me because it is a collaboration with my daughter, Isabel, and brings my love for craft brewing into the second generation of my family while adding another strong young woman to the flourishing craft beer conversation."

Major Tom will only be available at Monk's Cafe from April through June. Those who can't make the trip to Philadelphia will be able to enjoy it after that, when 11.2 ounce bottles will begin being distributed across the country by Shelton Brothers importers.

Major Tom also serves as a celebration beer, commemorating the 20 year history of Monk's, which was first opened in 1997 by Peters and Fergus Carey. Monk's is known for its collection of rare and Belgian beer. It's located at 264 S. 16th St. in Center City Philadelphia. For more information visit monkscafe.com or call 215-545-7005.

Want more stories about Philly? Click here for all our coverage of the City of Brotherly Love. You may also enjoy these videos of Unique Eats in Philadelphia.
In the ever-competitive supermarket industry, Giant Food Stores said it is expanding its footprint in Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, the Carlisle chain announced a $70 million capital investment in Pennsylvania toward new stores, remodeled stores and more fuel stations.

Unfortunately, none of the improvements are slated for the Harrisburg region.

However, Giant said the projects are expected to create an additional 300 full-time and part-time positions in the state. In 2019, Giant will enter two new communities - East Stroudsburg and Walnutport - with brand new stores.

It is also working on four replacement stores in Pennsylvania, including:

176 W. Street Road, Feasterville-Trevose, which replaces the store at 1055 Bustleton Pike; anticipated opening summer 2018.

2121 South Atherton St., State College will replace the store at 2222 East College Ave.; anticipated opening late 2018/early 2019.

1661 Easton Road, Warrington, which replaces the store at 2395 York Road, Jamison; anticipated opening early 2019.

West Chester Pike & Route 476, Broomall which replaces the store at 2910 Springfield Road; anticipated opening late 2019.

Stores scheduled to be remodeled include:

14635 Mt. Airy Road, Shrewsbury, with a 4,000 square-foot expansion

698 Downingtown Pike, West Chester

In addition, Giant will add fuel stations at existing stores at:

825 Lititz Pike, Lititz

314 Horsham Road, Horsham

2182 W. Union Blvd., Bethlehem

The improvements follow Giant's completion of a Peapod wareroom in North Coventry, which opened in February. Giant said Peapod has experienced double digit growth over the past three years in the Philadelphia region.

Giant operates 171 stores in four states and was founded in Carlisle in 1923.
The coroner was called to the scene of a fatal crash in Lebanon County on Monday night.

The crash happened at around 10 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Route 72 and the off ramp from Route 322 westbound, according to WGAL.

The road was also closed overnight until PennDOT could replace a stop sign.

Officials have not released any other details about the crash or information about the victim.
For more than a decade, the Pennsylvania legislature has been the place where gun control bills went to die.

If that changes this year, it will be further evidence that the recent spate of mass shootings - and the new waves of public advocacy it has unleashed - are moving the political needle in America.

At least, in an election year.

One of those signs occurred last month, when the state Senate voted 50-0 in favor of a bill that would require anyone who gets a final protection-from-abuse order imposed on them to surrender any guns they own.

As recently as last year, a slightly stricter version of that bill couldn't get a floor vote in the state House or Senate: in March, it passed unanimously.

A second step may have occurred Monday, as the House Judiciary Committee opened a multi-day "listening session" for members to air their own gun control proposals, and field questions or concerns.

Some saw Monday's hearing as little more than window-dressing: An exercise that could be accomplished just as easily through a topic search in the House's electronic bill room.

On the other hand, here was Committee Chair Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Township, saying that he anticipates bringing several of these proposals up for committee votes this spring.

The top contenders, Marsico said, will likely be a version of the domestic violence bill that has passed the Senate, and a second proposal from Rep. Todd Stephens that would create an "extreme risk" protective order that concerned family members or law enforcement could use to win a temporary confiscation of guns from those with pressing emotional or mental health issues.

The common theme of both bills is that they target people whose behavior or mental condition has called into question - at least in the short-term - their right to bear arms, without changing the rights of everyone.

"Those two bills would probably be brought up by the committee first," Marsico said Monday, adding he'd like to see that happen this spring in order to give both a fighting chance at final passage this year.

But Marsico said he also is open to further discussion of bills barring bump stocks and other equipment designed to accelerate the firing rate of semi-automatic rifles into something like that of a machine gun; and the extension of background checks on gun buyers to private sales of rifles and other so-called "long guns."

There are a lot of steps between here and floor votes, including, Marsico said, a likely committee caucus in which he will look for what has the most support, or opposition, with the majority Republicans on his committee.

But the chairman also suggested that this time, some of these bills start with his support - a key first step.

"I think it has shifted," Marsico said afterward, of tenor of the gun debate in the legislature. "I've talked to a lot of constituents about this. A lot of friends. And I think it's shifted for them as well."

It has apparently shifted for some in the gun rights lobby, as well.

One important factor in the Senate's domestic violence debate, sources have said, was the National Rifle Association's agreement to be neutral on SB 501, which meant votes on that bill won't go into the association's grade for lawmakers.

That provides essential political cover for lawmakers, like Marsico, who like to tout their strong ratings with the NRA.

Marsico was quick to caution, though, that even if gun control bills make it through his committee, he's in no position to predict what would happen on the House floor.

Election year dynamics, especially as the November general election approaches, could have a lot to say about that.

More on Monday's discussion.

The domestic violence bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Marguerite Quinn, R-Bucks County, would require anyone facing a final protection from abuse order to surrender his or her guns within 48 hours.

At present, courts have the discretion to order that, but only do so about 14 percent of the time, Quinn said.

Guns would have to be turned over for the duration of the order to law enforcement, a licensed gun dealer or an attorney. But in another change from existing law, surrendered guns could no longer be held by a family member or friend.

Quinn said the bill targets people at risk of committing a crime, rather than gun rights. "We are addressing the ownership of guns on a temporary basis. Only while that PFA is in place are we saying: 'Your guns are out of reach.'"

Quinn noted that in the PFA process, by definition, both sides have an opportunity to make cases to the court.

The Stephens bill, meanwhile, wold create a PFA-like process for family members or law enforcement to take when they have concerns about the mental or emotional stability of someone who hasn't otherwise committed a crime.

It is an attempt, the Montgomery County Republican said, to help prevent suicides, and the collateral damage that those on a suicide mission can sometimes inflict on others.

Five states, Stephens said, have some sort of extreme risk protection order in place already.

The fact that gun control ideas are getting a chance to breathe in Harrisburg, however, does not mean that getting bills to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk has suddenly become easy.

Rep. Paul Schemel, a Republican from Waynesboro, said after Monday's hearing he understands that pressures to do something on gun control are heavy on his colleagues in areas like the Philadelphia suburbs.

But, Schemel said, his aim will be making sure that lawmakers don't fall into the trap of "doing something" that actually does nothing but restrict law-abiding gun owners' rights.

Marsico's forums, seen as a prelude to any formal committee action, are expected to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and then resume on Monday of next week.
A Franklin County man has been charged with shooting and injuring his father during an argument early Tuesday, according to state police.

Samuel Grady Adkins III, 24, of Mercersburg, has been charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and simple assault.

Police said the "domestic argument" took place at sometime between midnight and 1:30 a.m. at a home along the 9700 block of Anderson Road in Montgomery Township, police said.

During the incident, Adkins III fired a shotgun at his father, Samuel Grady Adkins II, 52, hitting him in the upper arm, police said.

Adkins III was later arrested in Washington County, Maryland and is currently awaiting extradition back to Pennsylvania, police said.

Adkins II was transported by a personal vehicle to a hospital in Hagerstown where he underwent surgery, police said.

Further information was not released.
No property owner I know wants property taxes.

Many, including baby "boomers", are on fixed incomes. Property taxes keep taking more of our limited incomes. Losing one's property due to higher taxes is unconscionable. You never really own your property.

Recent PennLive letter writer John Sloanaker says "boomers" want schools supported only by the income/sales taxes applied to propertyless younger parents. No "boomers", either individually or in groups, ever made such statements.

"Boomers" pay income and sales taxes. Should property taxes be eliminated and other taxes increased, "boomers" would pay those increased taxes.

Some propertyless younger parents have an advantage since they don't pay property taxes. Sloanaker does not support his assertions with evidence.

Sloanaker says that "boomers" are responsible for the massive monetary, social and environmental debt.

"Boomers" don't set the policies for massive debt. Ask those that set the policies to account for how our taxes are spent. Ask why the policies are needed in the first place.

Sloanaker says, "The point of this letter is not name calling." That is what he is doing. "Boomers" "are selfish", says Sloanaker.

Sloanaker then shows his true colors....anticapitalistic.

It is said that capitalism is the worst possible system...except for all the others. Does Sloanaker believe other systems will work in the United States because he and others know better than those that came before?

JOE FIGUERIDO, Mount Holly Springs
Requiring background checks for all gun purchases and requiring anyone with a final protection-from-abuse order imposed on them to surrender their firearms were labeled by one representative as a good place for Pennsylvania to start if it wants to change its gun laws to improve public safety.

Rep. Jamie Santora, R-Delaware County, told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that is not all that he believes needs to be done. He'd like to see steps taken to protect schools from gun violence and to help those with mental illness too.

But for him, the bottom line is something needs to be done.

"We can take steps to get to comprehensive solutions but we do not have to wait until we figure it all out to do something," he said. "If we do, we will do nothing and most important that cannot happen."

The committee is holding a series of hearings that continue on Wednesday and into next week to give House members an opportunity to make a pitch for gun law changes they favor and answer questions from their colleagues who may hold different views.

Committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin County, anticipated that the debate on this controversial topic could be lively but said it was a discussion that needs to be held in the wake of the rash of mass shootings in recent months. He anticipates his committee will consider some gun-related bills being discussed at the hearings later this month or next.

A recent poll by Franklin & Marshall College shows the Parkland school shooting in Florida has Recent polls show strong support among Pennsylvania voters for tighter background checks; a ban on assault weapons and raising the minimum purchasing age from 18 to 21.

Deb Marteslo, Pennsylvania state lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said she is grateful that Marsico is having the hearings.

"It is important to have conversations for both sides to listen to the other's point of view," she said, after Tuesday hearing. "There is real value to start to open the dialogue."

Among the ideas bandied about during the hearing for improving school safety included arming school staff, making modifications that restrict entry points in schools, and performing threat vulnerability assessments of school building.

More generally, Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh County, urged passage of legislation that create an "extreme risk" protective order that allows concerned family members or law enforcement to temporary confiscate guns from those with pressing emotional or mental health issues. He also advocated for a ban on assault rifles.

Along with other ideas, Santora pushed for passage of his bill extending the state's background check requirement on private sales of long guns which include rifles, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles.

Other lawmakers called that the least effective of all the solutions that have been offered since most crimes involve handguns and not long guns.

But Rep. Dan Miller, D-Allegheny County, said there is a growing concern about the amount of long guns used to harm police officer and in intimate partner violence. Given the capability of some of those guns, he said he believes every gun transfer should require a background check through a system that is expedient and accurate.

Democratic Reps. Mike Schlossberg of Lehigh County and Carolyn Comitta of Chester County both called for passage of Senate Bill 501, which passed the Senate by 50-0 vote, to accelerate the timeframe from 60 days to within 48 hours in which firearms must be turned over to an attorney, law enforcement or licensed gun dealer from an individual who has a permanent protection from abuse filed against them.

But Rep. Barry Jozwiak, R-Berks County, argued that a similar law is already on the books. The former sheriff of Berks County said federal law prohibits anyone with a protection order against them from possessing all types of firearms.

He said in his experience, anyone going for a protection order who told a judge their life was threatened, "the judge will write in that PFA order to surrender that weapon to take that person's weapon at the time the PFA is served." But Comitta said as a matter of practice, judges in Pennsylvania use their discretion when it comes to seizing firearms in PFA orders and Senate Bill 501 would make it mandatory.

Marteslo said along with being strong proponents of universal background checks, Moms Demand Action put passage of this Senate bill as one of its main priorities to protect women.

"This is not about guns," she said. "Senate Bill 501 is about domestic violence perpetrated for the most part against women."
Tim Hortons restaurant sign is shown in Newcastle, Ontario on Sunday Feb. 11, 2018. An association representing some Tim Hortons franchisees says a prominent member has had his licence renewal denied amid ongoing tensions with the company. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives
Pumps were working overtime Monday as city crews sent water down Duncan Avenue while clearing the storm-sewer system in the area, where basements in four townhomes were flooded Saturday.
Halifax yoga instructor Kristin Johnston (right) and Canadian opera singer Measha Brueggergosman are shown in a handout photo. A Halifax jury has heard from a friend of the man accused of killing Kristin Johnston, who says he was hanging out with Nicholas Butcher the night before the Montreal-born yoga instructor was found dead in her home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
Kat Roivas, who is opposed to the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, stands at an access gate at the company's property near an area where work is taking place, in Burnaby, B.C., on Monday April 9, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks to media after a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Legislative Building in Regina on Friday, March 9, 2018. Questions about what kind of budget Saskatchewan's new premier plans to deliver will be answered today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell
Jasmine Williamson is shown in a Toronto Police Sevice handout photo.Toronto police say they're searching for a six-year-old girl missing from the city's east end. Const. David Hopkinson says Jasmine Williamson was last seen at 1 a.m. this morning by an unidentified caregiver. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Toronto Police Service MANDATORY CREDIT
Lance Blanchard is shown in an Edmonton Police Service handout photo. An Edmonton man with a history of making violent attacks is appealing his latest convictions and his designation as a dangerous offender. The dangerous offender designation handed to Lance Blanchard last month means he could be held in prison indefinitely. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Edmonton Police Service MANDATORY CREDIT
In this Monday, April 9, 2018 photo, girls flee a second-story dance studio onto a balcony as a roaring fire engulfs their building in Edgewater, N.J. About 15 girls were treated for minor injuries, Mayor Michel Joseph McPartland said. (Ilker Kesiktas via AP)
Motorists pass under the flag of Malaysia's ruling National Front coalition, or Barisan National in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Malaysian general elections that could determine scandal-plagued Prime Minister Najib Razak's political survival were set for May 9, with analysts saying the workday polls may reduce voter turnout. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
FILE Ai In this Feb. 11, 2016, file photo, Heidi Thomas, a Denver woman who claims she was assaulted by Bill Cosby, heads to a hearing room after a news conference at the state Capitol in Denver. Cosby's retrial took a far more combative turn Tuesday, April 10, 2018, than the first go-round, as his lawyers launched a withering attack on his accuser and prosecutors put the first of a parade of women on the stand to portray Cosby as a sexual predator. Thomas, who was a 24-year-old-aspiring actress when she met Cosby in Reno, Nevada, testified the comedian knocked her out with a potent glass of wine and forced her to perform oral sex. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - This 2017 file photo shows Trevor Davis of the Green Bay Packers NFL football team. Police say Davis was arrested after falsely claiming to have explosives while checking in for a flight at Los Angeles International Airport. Airport police spokesman Rob Pedregon says Monday, April 9, 2018, that Davis was booked on a charge of making a false bomb threat at an airport and released with a summons to appear in court. (AP Photo/File)
Bodies of 23 school children are kept in a mortuary at a government hospital in Nurpur after a school bus fell into a deep gorge about 60km (37 miles) south of Dharmsala, India, Monday, April 9, 2018. A school bus plunged off a mountain road Monday in the Himalayan foothills, killing 23 children, some as young as four years old, Indian officials said. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)
FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday, June 14, 2016, Oscar Pistorius leaves the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, after beginning sentencing for the murder of his girlfriend Reev Steenkamp. South Africa's highest court dismissed Pistorius' request to review the 13-year prison sentence on Monday, April 10, 2018, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the athlete. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
Pirates play to win against Blackcats Perryville football has had a flair for the dramatic this season. This past week was no different as they held on late for a 21-14 victory over Fredericktown on Friday at Pirate Stadium. Perryville 

St. Vincent keeps foot on the gas in victory St. Vincent made quick work of Herculaneum in week four. The Indians got off to a quick start and kept it rolling as they dispatched of the Blackcats 49-0 on Friday at Herculaneum High School. That 
Guyana's president Ramotar gave NABI Construction oil block, less than two years after it was set up, operations at standstill

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018 NABI Oil and Gas Inc, whose parent company is NABI Construction, was able to secure an oil block in the Guyana Basin. The company was given the block less than two years after it was set up in October 2010.



By June 2012 President Donald Ramotar and Company Secretary/Director of Nabi Oil and Gas Inc., Rafael S. Nabi, had already signed an agreement similar to other existing contracts.



The company was granted a lease for 2,300 square kilometres onshore in the Mahaica-Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara area. This area is considered part of the Guyana Basin which encompasses both onshore and offshore.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the company's activities are dormant.



The Ministry said that during the last quarter of 2013, the company conducted a geochemistry survey and was supposed to be analyzing the data it had gathered, but the company's activities have been dormant since that time.



The Ministry also released the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that was signed in 2012. That agreement did not include a signing bonus. It features a cost-recovery ceiling of 70 per cent pegged on the price of oil being US$100 and above per barrel and 75 per cent should the price fall below US$100.



The remaining 25 per cent or 30 percent portion of profit oil will be split between the contractor and Government on a 50/50 basis if production remains below 50,000 barrels per day. Should it top that level, the production will be shared on a 55/45 in favour of Government. Royalty is one per cent payable from the Government's share of the profits.



The PSA also features a Stability Clause similar to those in the ExxonMobil, CGX and Tullow/Eco-Atlantic contract.



Nabi's contract also features the cheapest annual licence fee when compared to the other contracts. That company has to pay US$10,000 per year.



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Kaieteurnewsonline.com 04 10 2018

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Hedge funds from WTI to Brent in search for roll yield: Kemp

By John Kemp



LONDON

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018

Hedge funds trimmed their bullish position in crude oil and fuels in the most recent week after increasing it significantly over the previous fortnight.

But the overall reduction conceals a sharp shift away from U.S. light crude (WTI) and towards the international marker Brent, according to an analysis of position data published by regulators and exchanges.

Hedge funds and other money managers cut their net long position in the six most important futures and options contracts linked to petroleum by 43 million barrels in the week to April 3.

Portfolio managers cut their net long position in WTI (NYMEX and ICE) by 48 million barrels while trimming their net long in Brent by just 4 million barrels ( tmsnrt.rs/2GPRVs8 ).

The fall in WTI net length was the largest one-week reduction since the end of August, when hurricanes disrupted the U.S. refining system, and continues a trend evident in recent weeks.

Funds have been steadily cutting their exposure to WTI over the last two months while maintaining a strong bullish position in Brent.

The net long position in WTI has fallen by 105 million barrels since it peaked on Jan. 23 even as the net position in Brent has risen by an extra 27 million barrels over the same period.

The result is that the position in Brent now looks exceptionally stretched while positioning in WTI looks far less lopsided.

Fund managers now hold almost 21 long positions in Brent for every short position, a record imbalance, up from a ratio of 11:1 on Jan. 23.

By contrast, funds hold fewer than nine long positions in WTI for every short, down from a ratio of almost 12:1 in late January.

The shift in relative positioning between WTI and Brent mirrors the changing calendar spreads at the front end of the futures curve.

The front-month calendar spread in WTI has gradually eased from backwardation towards contango since the start of February.

Crude stocks have been increasing around the WTI delivery point at Cushing and there are reports of spreading pipeline bottlenecks throughout the West Texas/Permian region.

By contrast, Brent calendar spreads have remained firmly in backwardation, and recently tightened again after softening during much of the last three months.

Hedge funds are being drawn from WTI towards Brent in the search for roll yield (long positions have a positive yield in a backwardated market but cost money to maintain in a contango market).

With oil prices having been basically flat since December, roll yield is becoming increasingly important to portfolio managers.



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Eletrobras CEO says new minister Wellington Moreira Franco raises chances of privatization By Reuters



RIO DE JANEIRO

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018 Brazil's incoming energy minister will boost chances of approval in Congress of a bill outlining the rules for the privatization of Eletrobras, the state-controlled power utility's chief executive Wilson Ferreira Jr told Reuters on Monday. The press office of Brazil's President Michel Temer said on Sunday that Wellington Moreira Franco, currently the secretary of the presidency, will take over as energy minister, replacing departing Fernando Coelho Filho. Ferreira said Franco has the political strength necessary to help approve the bill, which he expects to pass still this year despite turbulence related to the general elections.

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Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier Writing by Marcelo Teixeira Editing by Chizu Nomiyama from Reuters.



reuters.com / 04 09 2018

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Growing fleet of gasoline in tankers off Europe's coast threatens to sink profits

By Libby George and Ahmad Ghaddar



LONDON

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018

Gasoline stored in ships off Europe's coast has ballooned to more than 400,000 tonnes, putting pressure on the continent's traders to compete for buyers once summer demand starts.

Several vessels have joined the three initially booked to store fuel off Europe's ports in mid-March, and brokers said even barges have held cargoes of gasoline for three to four weeks as the volumes traded in Europe hit record levels last month.

The tankers Torm Tevere, Ridgebury John B and STI Clapham are now parked off Europe's Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub, where on-land stocks hit a record 1.387 million tonnes last week, according to figures from PJK International.

Fuel in vessels, rather than in tanks on land, is typically the most expensive way to store fuel, so notable volumes of floating storage only build when the market is oversupplied. Volumes off the coast of Europe have risen from just over 250,000 tonnes in mid-March.

Traders said the atypical floating fuel stores will target hungry buyers in the United States and the Middle East as the former restock following maintenance and the latter stock up before Ramadan. Already, some cargoes that had been parked off Europe's coast, such as the Nan Lin Wan, are sailing for buyers in New York Harbor.

Expectations that prices in the coming months will rise above the current levels also created the market condition, known as contango, that allowed traders to make money storing the fuel in these tankers.

Profits for gasoline have also risen significantly since late last month as the market shifted to summer-quality fuel  and sellers cleared their backlog of winter grades.

Industry monitor Genscape showed a spike in the amount of gasoline booked to sail from Europe to West Africa and the Americas in the week to March 30, rising to more than 700,000 tonnes for the former and more than 400,000 tonnes for the latter.

But analysts said the owners of the fuel - and refineries in Europe - could run into trouble if demand does not come in particularly strong over the summer.

We're just dealing with the fact that there is a fair amount (of fuel) out there, said Robert Campbell, head of oil products research with consultancy Energy Aspects. ARA stocks are full. There's not the same sort of pull from the Middle East, and China is still exporting.

Chinese state energy giant CNPC said it had sold its first ever gasoline to the Americas, an indication of the ample supply in Asia that has also seen top trader Vitol store gasoline on tankers.

Cargo tracking firm Kpler said that there is Korean gasoline on the Marlin Ammolite heading for Ecuador, and Chinese gasoline aboard the BW Wren en route to Mexico, underscoring the coming fight for buyers.



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14 people killed; Lebanon army says warplanes violated air space

DAMASCUS - The Syrian army said Israeli F-15 warplanes had carried out an attack on the T-4 air base in central Syria before daybreak on Monday by firing missiles from Lebanese airspace, according to state television.

The Israeli warplanes fired several rockets from inside Lebanon and targeted the air base in Homs province.

The Syrian air defenses responded to the attack, destroying several rockets but a number reached their target.

The Lebanese army said four Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon's air space, flying from the Mediterranean Sea over the coastal town of Jounieh and then heading east, toward the city of Baalbek near the Syrian border.

A statement from the Lebanese Armed Forces said the warplanes stayed in Lebanese airspace for about 10 minutes, starting at 3:25 am on Monday before leaving it.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about the accusations.

The attack came before daybreak on Monday and was initially thought to have been carried out by the United States, which has recently threatened retaliation against the Syrian army over allegations made by the rebels about the use of chlorine gas in a recent attack on the Douma district, the last rebel-held area in eastern Ghouta.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 14 people were killed in the missile strike.

State media outlets said several loud explosions were heard early on Monday near the airfield in the eastern countryside of Homs. It was later confirmed to be a missile attack targeting the military facility.

US Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood denied the report in a statement, saying the US Department of Defense "is not conducting airstrikes in Syria at this time".

The attack came amid an international wrangling about the allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army in the attack on the rebels in Douma district.

The pro-rebel Ghouta Media Center has claimed that nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas have been used in Syrian army's recent offensive in Douma, which has caused civilians to suffocate and choke.

A 'big price'

The Syrian government has strongly denied possessing chemical weapons, saying such allegations were fabricated to deliberately frame the government forces.

Western countries, such as the US and Britain, have warned that they would respond with military action if the Syrian army is proven to have used chemical weapons in its attacks.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday promised that a "big price" would be paid for what he called a chemical weapons attack on Douma on Saturday.

Douma is the last rebel-held area in Ghouta. Earlier, the rebels of the Islam Army in the area backed down on an agreement they had concluded with the Damascus t and Moscow on their evacuation from Douma and refused to release kidnapped people from its prisons.

But on Sunday, the Islam Army agreed to evacuate after a weekslong military operation by government forces and released the first batch of kidnapped people from its prisons.

Also, buses transporting Islam Army rebels and their families have gathered at the assembly point in the Wafideen area northeast of Damascus to prepare to leave for the rebel-held city of Jarablus in northern Syria.

Monday's missile strike is not the first foreign attack against Syria, as the US targeted the Shayrat air base in the countryside of Homs in April last year to punish alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army on a rebel-held area in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Israel has also carried out several attacks on Syria air bases on the pretext of targeting positions of the Iranians and the Hezbollah group.
Mexico reviewing U.S. ties as Trump stirs new tensions

By Dave Graham



MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018

Mexico said on Monday it will review all forms of cooperation with the United States, including efforts to combat powerful drug cartels, in a sign of mounting frustration over President Donald Trump's antagonistic attitude toward the country.

President Enrique Pena Nieto gave the order to his cabinet in a meeting on Sunday after a week of heightened bilateral tensions, during which he rebuked Trump for repeatedly stoking conflict and chafing against Mexico.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the review would cover all aspects of the relationship, ranging from border security and migration to trade and the fight against drug gangs.

Mexico has long been identified as the leading transshipment point for illicit drugs entering the U.S. market.

Noting that no decision had yet been made to suspend or reduce collaboration, Videgaray said the government had to act given the degree of public support that had been expressed in Mexico for Pena Nieto's tougher stance.

The key thing here is that it's not just words. This stance needs to have practical consequences, said Videgaray, who as recently as February had said Mexico's relationship with the United States was closer than it had been with previous governments.

The review will last a few weeks and take place under the aegis of the foreign ministry, Videgaray said. After that, Pena Nieto would make decisions based on the very public, notorious differences we have today with the United States, he said.

White House spokeswoman Helen Aguirre Ferre said the U.S. administration welcomed the review of cooperation and continues to do the same with Mexico. The two nations were working together on numerous issues of mutual interest, she added.

President Trump looks forward to working with the president of Mexico and other leaders of the Western Hemisphere who share our democratic values and celebrate the promotion of free and fair trade at the Summit of the Americas in Peru, she said.

The summit takes place in Lima on April 13-14.

TOUGH TALK

The Mexican government's decision was backed by opposition lawmakers, who said it vindicated the Senate's call last week for the government to end cooperation on migration and security with the United States in response to Trump deploying the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Donald Trump has to understand that he must stop threatening, blackmailing and lying in the relationship if he wants Mexico to carry on cooperating on things that matter to him, said Laura Rojas, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the opposition National Action Party.

After Trump set out his National Guard plans, Pena Nieto chided him in unusually forthright terms, telling him not to take out his domestic policy frustration on Mexico.

The border plan took shape after Trump accused Mexico of doing next to nothing to stop illegal immigrants reaching the United States when news broke of a caravan of Central Americans organized by a human rights group moving north.

Trump again threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the caravan quickly began dispersing when Mexican authorities moved in to register the migrants.

Trump, who launched his election campaign in 2015 by calling Mexicans who come to the United States rapists, has caused profound anger in Mexico with his repeated broadsides on trade and migration, as well as his plans for a southern border wall.

The latest Trump spat comes as Mexico, the United States and Canada are at a crucial phase in talks to rework NAFTA. The Mexican government has long said the renegotiation should be couched within a review of the entire relationship.

Many Mexicans would like to see the government take a tougher line with the U.S. president. The Mexican public is far more united in its antipathy toward Trump than it is in support of its own leading politicians.

Mexico's next presidential election takes place on July 1, and the main candidates have all upbraided Trump for his digs against the country. The candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is in third place in most polls.

Pena Nieto, who cannot stand for re-election, has one of the lowest approval ratings of any modern Mexican president, but tends to benefit from taking a firm stand against Trump.

Despite heated public rhetoric, some senior Mexican officials say privately they believe Trump's Twitter attacks in the past week were more intended to fire up his voter base and attack his domestic opponents than hurt Mexico.

Videgaray said NAFTA talks would continue at the Summit of the Americas, which government officials responsible for the renegotiation are expected to attend.



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IMF concern with Guyana oil deal favorable' to Exxon



Future oil deals ones need improving: IMF. Country is home to biggest new deepwater oil play in a decade.

By Kevin Crowley



HOUSTON

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018

Exxon Mobil Corp. got such a favorable deal from Guyana, home to the biggest new deepwater oil play, that the tiny South American country should rewrite its tax laws, the International Monetary Fund said.

While Guyana should honor the existing deal, future contracts should ensure the state gets a higher portion of crude proceeds, the fund said in a report seen by Bloomberg News. The country, South America's third poorest with an average per capita income of around $4,000, has little experience of dealing with multinational behemoths such as Exxon.

Terms of the 2016 contract are relatively favorable to investors by international standards, the IMF said in a report prepared for Guyanese officials. Existing production sharing agreements appear to enjoy royalty rates well below of what is observed internationally.

IMF officials have visited the nation multiple times over the past nine months as they help improve its legal, fiscal and regulatory frameworks before Exxon commences oil production in 2020. Guyana, whose entire population of 770,000 is about half the size of Philadelphia, has become one of Exxon's five key global projects for the next decade due to the sheer size of its oil endowment.

Government take is generally lower in frontier plays than in established areas as governments need to incentivize companies to undertake high-risk exploration, Exxon said in a statement, citing a Wood Mackenzie Ltd. study that found Guyana in the middle range of the 148 jurisdictions evaluated.

A Giant Awakes

Guyana's huge deepwater oil discovery keeps growing

Minimum recoverable resource (million barrels of oil equivalent)



Source: Exxon Mobil, Guyana's Ministry of Finance

With companies such as Total SA, Tullow Oil Plc and Repsol SA also exploring for oil in Guyana's waters, time is of the essence. The government could consider issuing a temporary moratorium on new licensing until a new fiscal regime is in place, the IMF said.

Exxon's total acreage in Guyanese waters covers 11.5 million acres, equivalent to about 2,000 leases in the U.S. sector of the Gulf of Mexico. Exxon leads a partnership group that includes Hess Corp. and China's Cnooc Ltd. The IMF declined to comment beyond the report.

$700 Million

Expectations are high. Government revenues from Exxon's first project, which involves pumping less than 15 percent of the crude found to date, are expected to peak at $700 million a year by the late 2020s, equivalent to the country's tax take in 2016.

The government has no plans to change the Exxon contract, Mineral Resources Minister Raphael Trotman said by email. The terms cover the Stabroek Block where Exxon struck oil through its Liza-1 well in 2015. However, the government will have different terms for future contracts, Trotman said.

Exxon climbed 1.2 percent to $75.73 a share at 3:09 p.m. in New York, paring this year's decline to 9.5 percent.

Exxon's deal was procured partly because it entered the country in 1999, when the Guyanese coastline wasn't regarded as promising oil territory by most of the industry. It is not unusual to see more favorable fiscal terms for early investments in the extractive industries, the IMF said in its report, which was delivered to Guyanese leaders in November.

Resource Curse

To reap the benefits of oil, Guyana faces a familiar challenge: gaining as much revenue as possible without deterring investment. Politicians say they want to set up a sovereign wealth fund and avoid the resource curse -- the phenomenon whereby discovery of a valuable commodity stunts growth in other sectors of an economy, fueling corruption, conflict and currency swings that ultimately strand most of the population in poverty.

Either way, oil is poised to profoundly change Guyana, a country the size of Kansas that was colonized by the Dutch and British before obtaining independence in 1966. Its economy currently relies on agriculture and gold mining.

With first oil due in 2020, just five years after it was discovered, the government has much to do, the IMF said in the report. Exxon's deal with Guyana gave it the lowest average effective tax rate among nine projects in countries that include Norway, Brazil, Peru and Trinidad & Tobago.

Cost Deductions

Open Oil, a Berlin-based company that advocates contract transparency, also found Guyana's share of the Stabroek was low compared with both established and early-stage producing countries. Guyana will receive 52 percent of positive cash flow over the life of Exxon's initial project, compared with between 63 percent and 72 percent for developments in Liberia, Mauritania, Ghana, Senegal and Papua New Guinea, it said in a March report.

The Exxon contract, which was published on a government website last year, provides Guyana with a 2 percent royalty on sales and 50 percent of profitable oil, once costs are repaid. Exxon and its partners can only deduct three-quarters of their costs each year, giving the government some cash in the first years of the project.

The IMF report recommends that Guyana:

employ a more progressive tax regime so that the government receives a higher share of profits as projects earn more





consider eliminating interest expenses from the project's costs to avoid abusive use of debt





introduce tighter ring fences to avoid costs being shared around multiple fields





bulk up its regulatory capability

We intend on implementing as many of the recommendations as possible, Trotman, the minister, said. In so far as the Exxon-led group's contract is concerned, the government has no intention of revisiting it at this time. For future contracts we certainly will be having updated terms.



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Pipeline industry in Wake-Up Call' on Cyberattack to U.S. electronic communications systems

Scada

Companies weren't required to report attack to regulator TSA. Congressman Latta sees bad actors' looking to weaken U.S.

By Naureen S Malik



NEW YORK

Petroleumworld 04 10 2018

A cyberattack that U.S. natural gas pipeline owners weren't required to report has lawmakers taking a closer look at how the industry is handling such threats, raising the prospect of tighter regulation.

In website notices to customers this week, at least seven pipeline operators from Energy Transfer Partners LP to TransCanada Corp. said their third-party electronic communications systems were shut down, with five confirming the service disruptions were caused by hacking . But the companies didn't have to alert the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the agency that oversees the nation's more than 2.6 million miles of oil and gas conduits in addition to providing security at airports.

Though the cyberattack didn't disrupt the supply of gas to U.S. homes and businesses, it underscores that energy companies from power providers to pipeline operators and oil drillers are increasingly vulnerable to electronic sabotage. It also showed how even a minor attack can have ripple effects, forcing utilities to warn of billing delays and making it more difficult for analysts and traders to predict a key government report on gas stockpiles.

These attacks are a wake-up call that addressing our aging energy infrastructure needs to be a priority, Congressman Robert Latta, a Republican from Ohio who serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in an emailed statement on April 5. Bad actors are looking at any way to weaken the American energy sector.

This isn't the first time hackers have had oil and gas pipes in their sights: The Congressional Research Service reported intrusions targeting pipeline communication systems back in 2012. A web attack could disrupt pipeline service and cause spills, explosions, or fires -- all from remote locations, the service said in a report.

The electronic systems that were targeted in the recent cyberattack help pipeline customers communicate their needs with operators via a computer-to-computer exchange of documents, such as contracts and invoices. The attacks didn't affect operational control of the pipelines.

Even before the most recent pipeline web attack, there were signs that the government was intensifying its focus on web-based energy threats. Last month, the TSA issued a 27-page report on pipeline security that included a section on cybersecurity. In the report, the agency urged pipelines to take measures including establishing a cybersecurity plan, limiting network access and changing default passwords.

But TSA doesn't require operators to report web intrusions, and it's not clear whether the agency would have jurisdiction over an attack on a third-party communications provider. TSA requests voluntary notifications of security incidents that are indicative of a deliberate attempt to disrupt pipeline operations or activities that could be considered precursors to such an attempt, according to the report last month.

TSA will continue to work with the pipeline industry to assess any vulnerabilities associated with this incident, Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email Friday. TSA, in consultation with cyber experts, will make recommendations, as appropriate, to the pipeline industry to mitigate concerns.

The American Gas Association, an industry group that represents more than 200 gas supply companies, supports voluntary reporting of cyberattacks, said Dave McCurdy, the association's president. Mandatory reporting could be counterproductive because it may set the bar too low and create a false sense of security, especially in an environment where cyber threats evolve quickly, McCurdy said by phone Friday.

Just asking for reporting and requirements is not the answer, he said. We need to understand the nature of attacks. Every industry in a critical area receives attacks mostly daily.

$96 Million

In February, Energy Department Secretary Rick Perry announced the department would use $96 million in funding to create an office to address cyber threats to energy. Though Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, has the legal authority to oversee energy cybersecurity, DOE works closely with the sector on cyber security and threat information sharing, Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement.

But some lawmakers say it's not enough.

At a congressional hearing in March, Maria Cantwell, a Democratic senator from Washington, told Perry that budget cuts could make it more difficult to shield the energy sector from cyber intrusions.

Our energy infrastructure is under attack,' Cantwell said . A year ago, I called for a comprehensive assessment of cyber attacks to our grid by Russians. We don't need rhetoric at this point  we need action.

The threat appears to be widespread. Two years ago, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, said its firewall system blocks 25,000 cyberattacks a day.

Though the energy industry and regulators are looking more closely at cybersecurity risks, the shift may not be happening fast enough, said Edgard Capdevielle, chief executive officer of Nozomi Networks Inc. in San Francisco, a company that provides cybersecurity applications for customers including power producers and oil and gas pipeline operators.

The industry's perception is that addressing energy cyber threats is important, but manana is OK, said Capdevielle. Manana is not OK.



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Vanguard Group has urged the federal court in Philadelphia to dismiss its former tax lawyer David Danon's wrongful-firing lawsuit, arguing that he wasn't protected as a whistle-blower under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-reform law because he didn't appeal to the Securities and Exchange Commission until after the company told him in January, 2013, that he would be terminated.

According to Vanguard's filing Monday, a victory for the Malvern-based investment giant would result in "finally ending his five years of attempting to plead a viable whistle-blower claim against Vanguard." The filing, by Vanguard's lawyers at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP in Philadelphia and Jones Day in New York, noted the federal court had previously rejected Danon's claim for protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley federal accounting law and a Pennsylvania whistle-blower law. A New York judge ruled Danon could not demand payment under that state's whistle-blower statute, either. He has collected $117,000 from Texas for giving that state information that led to Texas collecting more money from Vanguard.

In his amended complaint in the wrongful-filing suit last month, Danon argued he was told in January 2013 he would have to leave, but the company kept him on the payroll until June, so he was still an employee when he told the SEC in May that the company had been systematically and significantly underreporting its taxable income and underpaying its income taxes for years; tax lawyers have said liabilities could reach the billions if the Internal Revenue Service agrees. Danon joined Vanguard in 2008.

If Danon's federal claim is rejected, it's still up to the IRS and state tax officials to decide if his critique of Vanguard's financial and tax policies should result in higher payments of past or future taxes, and whether Danon deserves any reward as a whistle-blower. Danon has also told the SEC that Vanguard failed to properly report tax issues to its shareholders. If the SEC believed Vanguard should say more it could require the private, for-profit company to increase disclosure. The SEC filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting some of the whistle-blower arguments cited in Danon's initial wrongful-firing suit, but hasn't taken any position as to his tax or reporting claims.

The IRS can take years to decide corporate tax liability questions, and Vanguard could appeal any filing in court. Even if the IRS finds Vanguard underpaid, will it matter to shareholders? Even though the company has lowered fees on many of its funds in recent years, it has increased revenues, to around $5 billion a year, from an estimated $3 billion in the early 2010s, potentially enabling it to absorb a significant back-tax bill or higher future taxes without raising fees, even if the service does find the company should have paid more.

"As we have stated from the outset of these matters in 2014, we are confident that we pay a fair and appropriate amount of taxes," said Vanguard spokesman John Woerth, adding that "we continue to lower costs" and extend savings to investors in the form of lower fees.
A brigade from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force successfully hit all targets with four rocket-propelled grenades after it conducted its first live-fire drill on a plateau, a move hailed by experts as a significant progress on the military's capability in cross-regional missions.

In order to make the exercise more challenging, the unnamed brigade chose a target that was only one-tenth the size of a simulated target, instead of targets that are large and easily seen, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese military, reported Sunday.

It did not specify where the drill took place.

Ballistic trajectories are different on high plateaus as the air is thinner at altitude, which demands greater ability from pilots to project and adjust the firing, Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Monday.

The oxygen deficit on plateaus is also physically challenging for pilots, he said.

The exercise encountered turbulence as the jets flew over the mountain valleys, as well as a sudden sandstorm which blurred the pilots' vision.

The 100 percent hit rate shows that the PLA air force is able to accomplish attacking missions in regions they are not stationed in and also in extreme environments and geographic regions, Song stressed.

The brigade, from the PLA's Eastern Theater Command, has conducted several live-fire drills at different times, in different weather conditions and on different targets in the plateau area, according to the PLA Daily report.

According to information released in the reports, Song concluded that the exercises were conducted in the regions of the PLA Western Theater Command, which shows the PLA is stressing the need for cross-regional combat ability.

The exercise aims to simulate the situation in highland regions in the island of Taiwan, and also the attacking of an air force base in Taiwan's Hualian county, Song said.
Daniel Rose (left), chef of Le Coucou, and Stephen Starr arriving at the 2017 James Beard Awards at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Read more

Pastis, the chic Lower Manhattan restaurant that closed four years ago because its building was being torn down, will be revived nearby.

Philadelphia-based restaurateur Stephen Starr, expanding on his New York holdings, said he would join founder Keith McNally on running the new restaurant, coming to 52 Gansevoort St. in the Meatpacking District. It's about three blocks from Starr's first New York restaurants, Buddakan and Morimoto. Both men are James Beard restaurateur-of-the-year winners.

"I admire Keith not only for his giant impact  he changed pop culture with Odeon, Pravda, Balthazar, and Pastis," Starr said. "They transcended just the restaurant world. Their impact was felt around the world."

When Pastis closed, "I think the city lost something," Starr said.

McNally lives in London, and is recovering from a stroke last year.

"We're based in New York and Philadelphia, with a strong infrastructure," Starr said.

Starr said he expected Pastis to open in about a year.

Among Starr's other New York restaurants are Le Coucou, Upland, the Clocktower, and El Vez.

Le Coucou, with a French theme and in a partnership with chef Daniel Rose, won the James Beard Award last year for best new restaurant in America, as Starr was named the Beard's top restaurateur.

Starr has found success in French concepts. In its previous guise, Pastis had a bistro atmosphere similar to Starr's Parc (Rittenhouse) and Le Diplomate (Washington, D.C.).
Nearly 43,000 Pennsylvania drivers need to find new auto insurance before midnight Thursday.

Access Insurance, a Texas-based company, was ruled insolvent last month and is not able to pay out on policies. Claims filed by Access policy holders before 11:59 p.m. April 12 will be paid through the Pennsylvania Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association. But after midnight, Access customers will be left uncovered. Insurance is mandatory for all drivers. Without it, drivers may not get behind the wheel.

Access insures 42,785 of Pennsylvania's 9.2 million motorists, according to the state's Insurance Commission.

Access was ordered into liquidation after it was found to be $29 million in the red, according to Insurance Journal, and unable to make good on claims. Prepaid premiums will be returned to Access policy holders "as soon as practical," said state Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman in a news release. "Policyholders do not need to take any action to receive refunds."
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Center City, along with the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, will remain the single academic medical center for the dramatically expanded Jefferson Health, according to a new bond offering statement. Read more

As part of the realignment of services in the 14-hospital network Thomas Jefferson University has assembled since 2015, the nonprofit health system projected this week that it will eliminate more than 400, or at least 16 percent, of its staffed hospital beds in the next two to four years.

In a preliminary bond offering statement published this week, Jefferson said it has 2,509 staffed beds and expects the number to decline to fewer than 2,100.

"The simple fact is there are going to be a lot fewer hospital beds in this country," Jefferson president and chief executive Stephen K. Klasko said in an interview last month, referring to predictions that the number of hospital beds nationwide will decline 20 to 25 percent over an unspecified time period.

Asked for a comment on potential job cuts, a Jefferson spokesman said: "We believe the investments in innovation we are making today could very well mean even more jobs in the region in the future, despite the reduction in inpatient beds."

Jefferson's bond offering statement to raise $485 million also published the first details on the broad structure of the dramatically expanded Jefferson. It did not reflect the preliminary deal for Jefferson to acquire Einstein Health Network, which has 965 licensed beds.

"Jefferson Health plans to support a single academic medical center," which is comprised of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, both in Center City, the pitch to potential bond investors said.

Abington Memorial Hospital and Jefferson/New Jersey  Washington Township would serve as "regional referral centers." In addition, the system would be organized into "two community hospital centers, four 'connected' community hospitals, three specialty hospitals and micro hospitals," the prospectus said. It did not provide details on which of the smaller hospitals fit into each category.

Since Jan. 1, Jefferson has been operating profitably. That has reduced the organizations operating loss for the first eight months of the fiscal year ending June 30 to $10.4 million. For the first six months of fiscal 2018, Jefferson had an operating loss of $27.9 million.
Pohlig Homes plans to build 15 luxury custom homes on nearly 10 acres of the Ardrossan estate grounds. A streetscape from the builder depicts what the homes may look like. Read more

After sitting for decades as untouched land in fast-growing Delaware County, nearly 10 acres of the fabled Ardrossan estate will soon become the grounds for 15 luxury custom homes that are expected to sell for at least $2.25 million each.

Todd Pohlig, principal of the luxury custom-home builder Pohlig Homes, said Monday in an interview with the Inquirer and Daily News that his Malvern-based company had settled on the purchase of the lots in February. The price was not disclosed.

According to Pohlig, his company plans to develop the 15 homes on 3/4-acre lots near the property's large, stone water tower on Newtown Road in Villanova, just a few miles away from I-476. Each of the homes will back up to large swaths of open space, including the gently rolling hills and pockets of trees that helped etch the Ardrossan estate into history as an example of old Main Line grandeur.

Situated in the heart of Radnor Township, the Ardrossan estate  once set on nearly 800 acres  spent decades as a rarefied manor for one of the Philadelphia-area's most famous families. In 1911, Col. Robert Montgomery, a wealthy stockbroker, commissioned renowned architect Horace Trumbauer to build his family home. The result was Ardrossan, a 50-room, nearly 33,000-square-foot Georgian Revival manor set amid the sprawling, open space.

The estate skyrocketed to fame beyond the local region after Ardrossan inspired the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, who played Montgomery's first daughter, Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. Eventually, however, as time passed, chunks of the land were sold off or donated, including about dozens of acres that became part of the Radnor Township park system, and 300 acres were put under conservation easements.

The emphasis for the property, according to Edgar "Eddie" Scott III, Hope Montgomery Scott's grandson, has been to "preserve as much open space at Ardrossan as possible." However, 50 to 100 acres have and will continue to be sold for development, including the 10 acres to Pohlig.

"Our goal is to have the fewest number of houses," said Scott, a developer and family spokesman. "But we also want to listen very carefully to what the market wants, which has given us the opportunity to do some very unique things."

A handful of other homes have sprouted on the parcels that have been earmarked for development, including some that were built earlier by Pohlig.

Pohlig's new houses will be clustered around a cul-de-sac dubbed Ivy Lane. Pohlig anticipates that two models of houses will be built at the site: properties for "empty nesters," ranging from 3,700 to 4,200 square feet, as well as houses for move-up buyers, which will be in the 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot range, he said. Each of the houses, he added, would offer covered porches, cooking areas, spas, pools and more.

The land development has been approved and a permit will be sought for each custom house.

Pohlig said he expects to start construction of roads, sidewalks, and curbs in May, with the first homes completed by summer 2019. Four of the lots have been sold thus far.

"It's a super location and just a magnificent piece of ground," Pohlig said. "I don't think I have ever been associated with a piece as nice as this."
Yolonda Keels, at her home in North Carolina, with the ashes of her father Sebastian Riley. Riley, a reclusive Philadelphia handyman, died in 2017. Read more

I thought I was going to have to bring home a stranger's ashes.

I wasn't sure if that was even allowed, and I couldn't imagine how that conversation was going to go over in my house. But I didn't know what else to do. No amount of digging led to living relatives of a reclusive North Philadelphia handyman I wrote about in 2017. The thought of leaving the remains at the M.E.'s Office didn't seem right.

I first learned about Sebastian Riley through LaTanya Pierce, who'd hired him to do some work for her and her family. Riley, whom she called "Ralph," was a private man who never shared much past his devotion to his mother, Julia, who died in 2006. But he'd recently asked Pierce for help to get his few papers in order, and they were enough to paint a picture of a man who didn't have much, including running water.

When Riley collapsed one day in June, Pierce rushed to the hospital  she didn't want him to be alone. She was too late. A heart attack, they told her. He was 62.

Pierce reached out to me hoping I could help find his people. If he didn't have any, she at least wanted the world to know that a man who had lived under the radar had mattered, that "he was somebody."

Read Helen's previous column on Sebastian Riley.

On the 2500 block of West Lehigh, where he lived in his mother's house, I found a neighbor who thought Riley had a daughter and son somewhere. Maybe in North Carolina, he guessed. But I couldn't find them. A detective who wanted to help poked around but didn't get much further.

Maybe, I thought, there were just no people to find. Maybe this was the end of the story.

And yet, I couldn't let him go, and pondered how to get those ashes from the medical examiner.

Then, out of the blue, an unexpected email in January. Subject line:

"Daughter of Sebastian Riley."

I called Yolonda Keels immediately. She sent me an old photo of her, Sebastian, and his mother in their West Lehigh home.

Sebastian Riley had people after all.

Over many conversations and texts, Keels, 39, recounted bittersweetly how she had always felt different than her siblings. She was more social, more artsy, more of a free spirit. It all finally made sense when her mother, commenting on her ability to draw, let it slip that she must have gotten it from her father. Finally, she told the girl about Riley.

The two had met in Philadelphia after she'd separated from her first husband. Riley was handsome, a little younger, interesting  a painter and a poet. They moved to North Carolina when Keels was just a few years old, but Riley missed the pace of home.

He missed his mother even more. Riley left and never came back.

Over her mother's concerns and objections, Keels reached out to Riley more than 20 years ago and traveled to North Philly to meet him. He was happy to see her; he called her "baby girl." Her grandmother pulled $100 from her brassiere as a gift. Riley showed her his artwork and poetry. He told her about his love of chess and a half-brother.

Keels had expected to meet the young, vibrant man in the pictures she'd seen. What she found was a man with demons  including alcoholism and drug addiction. He told her he'd been in jail. Court records I found when I first wrote about him showed a few arrests for possession of drugs, one of which led to about a year behind bars.

He handed her some documents, including discharge papers from a hospital that listed his condition as schizophrenia.

For years, she worried that in addition to inheriting his creativity, she would also inherit his mental illness. Over the next two decades, she called him on Father's Day and his birthday. He sent her intricate, handmade cards he embellished with his artwork and always signed, "Dad." She shared the milestones in her life: college graduation, her wedding, the birth of her first child. She probably would have asked him to walk her down the aisle if she thought he could make the trip.

After Riley's mom died in 2006, Keels, a mental health case worker, worried. But when she called him, he assured her he was managing. "I'm going to make it through," he told her.

The calls and cards grew more infrequent until she stopped hearing from him.

An uncle in Philly who she'd occasionally ask to check on him had moved. The phone number that hadn't changed in decades was disconnected. She thought maybe he'd relapsed, or landed in the hospital with schizophrenia.

She'd search for clues on the internet. No news, she thought, was good news. And then in January, she found my column online. She was shocked.

In her first message she said she wanted to know more, and for the next few months we kept in touch as she tried to come to terms with his death.

"I never felt like there was anything I could do," she said. "I didn't want to put any strain on him by asking him too many questions about his issues, and no matter how many times I asked, I knew he'd never come live with me."

When I told her that her father had been cremated, she decided she wanted his ashes.

Last week, she sent a text with a picture of a black box holding her father's ashes. He was home.

Keels wrote, "Finally."
Justin Scott, 31, stops moving for a moment and allows his mother, Annette Scott, to rub his head in his room. Justin is blind, has cerebal palsey and is diagnosed autistic. His story was chronicled in Falling off the Cliff. Read more

"Down syndrome protection legislation."

That's how State Reps. Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) and Judy Ward (R., Blair) cynically described House Bill 2050 when they announced their proposed legislation in January.

Sounds noble, doesn't it? The bill seeks to ban abortion based on a diagnosis, or even just a hunch, that a fetus has Down syndrome.

It's an unenforceable restriction because  and I can't believe I have to make this obvious point  a woman who seeks an abortion before 24 weeks is under no obligation to explain to anyone her reasons for doing so.

Even if she were, she'd just make up a more "acceptable" reason to terminate her pregnancy.

No matter.

In passing H.B. 2050 out of the Health Committee on Monday  with no public hearing  and fast-tracking it for a final vote next week, Harrisburg's anti-choice gang gets to pretend to care about people born with disabilities when this state's advocacy for them says otherwise.

I learned as much while researching "Falling Off the Cliff," a four-part series published last December that delved deeply into the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the families who care for them.

I was gutted by how tough, worrisome, and exhausting their lives could be.

Thousands of them languished for years on a waiting list for government assistance that would fund help with the basics of daily living, like feeding, toileting, bathing, and dressing.

But even when those dollars came through, the direct-support workers who showed up at their doors were often incapable of providing reliable, competent, and compassionate care. Parents shook with rage as they shared stories of caretaker abuse (mysterious bruising, theft of household money) and neglect (broken bones, even death).

>> READ MORE: Pa. House advances bill limiting abortions because of Down Syndrome

Children with disabilities rarely fared better in school, where the quality of special education instruction and post-school planning waffled wildly from district to district.

The gaps became evident after high school, when families tried in vain to find engaging daily programs or appropriate work for their now-adult children, who yearned for meaningful ways to participate in society.

What they found, instead, was that their sons and daughters had graduated from the classroom to the sofa, losing whatever gains they'd achieved in school.

They were denied the chance to express their abilities in the world. And the world was denied the chance to know them.

These families did not want pity. They just wanted help to ensure, to the best degree possible, that their sons and daughters would have what all parents want for their kids: safety, happiness, independence, meaning, belonging, and being known and loved for who they are.

It was heartbreaking how hard they had to fight for that. And it was obvious that what they needed was more support in Harrisburg, in the form of new funding streams, creative policies, and innovative programs to help people with disabilities enjoy life with dignity and respect.

Such support requires reliable Medicaid funding, since that's how we finance services for people with disabilities.

But Republican legislators, at every turn, have sought to dismantle the safety nets that would keep these families from tumbling into an abyss from which no one can return on their own.

>> READ MORE: What I did after getting a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome should be no one else's business | Opinion

"The difference is day and night," disability advocate Audrey Coccia said in "Falling Off the Cliff," describing how federally mandated services disappear once a person with a disability turns 21. "One day your kid is getting what she needs. You're able to go to work because she's being looked after. The day she turns 21  boom  the help ends."

To be fair, H.B. 2050, acknowledges a hard truth: Worldwide, so many women abort fetuses because of a Down's diagnosis that the syndrome is close to extinction in some countries (Iceland's Down-related abortion rate is almost 100 percent).

That's a wrenching irony, given game-changing medical and social advances over the last decades that have rescued people with Down's from lonely lives and early deaths. Ward said as much in January, when she announced the introduction of H.B. 2050.

"I like to think the United States is better than that," she said. "I think instead of giving [pregnant women] reasons to get an abortion we need to provide more information and support when it comes to Down syndrome."

Except that we already do. Pennsylvania's Down Syndrome Prenatal and Postnatal Education Act, passed in 2014, mandates that medical practitioners give expectant or new parents "informational publications," to be provided online by the state Health Department.

The law renders H.B. 2050 moot  unless, of course, the real goal of HB2050 is to restrict abortion, period.

You know what would reduce abortion among women whose fetuses show evidence of disability? Legislation aimed at making life better for anyone born with a disability  not just Down's. But ongoing attempts to shred America's safety nets prove how far we are from that reassurance.

Sadly, after a child has left the womb is when members of this country's "pro-life" cabal continue to show how anti-life they really are.
If you ever wanted to spend a night at Bam Margera's house, your chance is coming up soon, and you won't even have to break in naked in the middle of the night, like one woman did in 2012.

The Jackass star's West Chester home is under renovation as part of a plan to list the property on Airbnb, Margera's mother, April, said in a phone interview. She has been hard at work, rehabbing the property with a two-man crew for more than a month and hopes to list the house for rental by early summer.

"People have been wanting to come to Bam's house, so we decided we'd put it up," April said. "It looks great on film, but the wallpaper's taken a hit, and it needed painting badly."

Known as "Castle Bam," the house at 435 Hickory Hill Rd. in West Chester was made famous on MTV's Viva La Bam in the early 2000s. Many of the show's antics took place in or around Castle Bam, and Margera even dedicated an episode to moving into the house in 2004. He promptly painted much of it purple and installed amenities including a so-called pirate bar, which is being redesigned in the renovation.

"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm over the purple," April said.

According to West Chester public records, Margera bought the house in 2004 for $1.2 million. A 2003 real estate listing for it indicates it is 4,200 square feet, has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, and sits on 14 acres. Today, the property is also home to an indoor skatepark, a swimming pool, and a band practice space used by CKY, which features drumming by Margera's brother Jess.

"It's not going to look like the show set," April said of the new Castle Bam, "but there are a lot of amenities there that people might be interested in in this area."

The house has been empty since Margera and wife Nicole Boyd moved to a house about six miles away last year in preparation for the arrival of son Phoenix Wolf. Since then, items from Viva La Bam's 40-person production team had been left to gather dust alongside items left behind by touring bands and friends who had used the house over time. Cleaning up that mess, April said, has been a large part of the renovation.

"There are 'heartagrams' all over the place, and I don't know what to keep and what not to," she said, referring to Bam's signature logo combining a heart and a pentagram, formerly used by the Finnish goth rock band HIM. The work has been so intense, April said, that she believes all the sanding and cleaning gave her laryngitis.

Still, she said her son's decision to leave the house was wise, because it wasn't "a good situation for him."

"It was almost like he was living on a show set, and the whole show left and he was left behind," she said. "I told Bam it might be a bad idea to sell it right now. He's got a little son, and he might want to see it one day. As long as you can kind of rent it out, it will help pay taxes, and that's about it."

As part of the rehabbing, April plans to style the space with renovated furniture and decor from her business, Rose Hip Barn, which she began in 2011. Guests will be able to buy the items during their stay.

April says Margera has been staying in California, where he was arrested on DUI charges this year and later checked into a rehabilitation facility, although he was recently home for an Easter visit. In 2016, VH1's Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn detailed the skateboarder's trouble with drinking. Last year, he told Inquirer reporter Jason Nark that the death of friend Ryan Dunn in 2011 set him down a destructive path from which he has been trying to recover.

"He went to rehab, and he has embraced his sobriety," April said. "We're really proud of him. He's moving forward, and he takes it one day at a time."
Smoke rises after the Syrian army's shelling targeted the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Syria, on April 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq over what later appeared to be false intelligence information, dragging an entire country into the woes of war.

In 2018, the U.S. is threatening to strike Syria, again over allegations of chemical weapons use based on photos and videos that have yet to be verified.

After quickly striking Syria last year over claims of a chemical attack by the Syrian army on a rebel-held area in northwestern Syria, the U.S. has been threatening a similar move while accusing the Syrian army of carrying out a chlorine gas attack on the rebel-held Douma district near Damascus.

The U.S. has been warning of retaliation against what it called chemical attacks by the Syrian army on the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army was steadily advancing.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using or having such weapons. The government also said the Syrian army was making progress and it does not need to use chemical weapons.

On Monday, the UN Security Council held emergency meetings on Syria following the alleged chemical weapons attack on Saturday.

The tension was obvious between the representatives of the U.S. and Russia.

The Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the photos of the chemical attack in Douma were fabricated, proposing to send an investigation team to Douma to examine the claims.

But U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley directly accused Russia, saying Russia's hands are smeared with the "blood of Syrian children."

"Either way, the United States will respond" to the alleged chemical attack whether the UN Security Council acted or not, Haley said.

U.S. President Donald Trump also struck a warmongering tone when he said "major decisions" on Syria will be made within the next 48 hours.

He said his country was still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the alleged attack.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," he said.

A day earlier, the Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations of chemical weapons use were premeditated to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma.

The ministry said the rebels use such allegations every time the army makes progress.

Ali Haidar, minister of national reconciliation, told Xinhua in an interview late last month that the United States has a premeditated will to strike Syria, and is studying the possibilities and the results of such an "aggression."

"The U.S. aggressions are not new, and it won't be the first one, but the difference is that in previous times they would strike and say by mistake, but now they have a premeditated intention for the aggression," he said.

But Haidar also said the Americans must make several calculations before they could carry out their aggression on Syria.

The U.S. must take into consideration the "power balance in the region and the Syrian reaction to such strike as well as the Russian stance," he explained.
Around the spring holidays, we always get a craving for lamb. We still have fond memories of the rack of lamb at Deux Cheminees, and obviously love the lamb shoulder at Zahav. We asked Craig LaBan who else is doing a great lamb dish.

There are so many good lamb dishes to be had in town, with an international array of options. The Uzbek places of Northeast Philly (like Uzbekistan, Suzani, Shish-Kabab Palace, and Samarkand in nearby Feasterville) showcase some of the best lamb cookery around, from charcoal-grilled skewers to fragrant plov, soups, and dumplings. The Cypriot-themed Kanella Grill is another can't-miss lamb destination, with aromatic ground kofte kebabs, the occasional braised lamb dish, and, I'm told, a charcoal-fired spit planned for this weekend's celebration of Greek Easter.

There are compelling Asian lamb traditions, too. Lamb loves the ma la spice of Sichuan peppercorns in the cumin lamb at Han Dynasty (one dish that is pretty consistent at its various branches), but I'm especially fond of the spice-crusted Xi'an BBQ lamb skewers (and lamb pita soup) at Xi'an Sizzling Woks in Chinatown. Some meaty Thai-style lamb chops with Massaman curry left an impression on me at Chabaa Thai in Manayunk, where the coconut milk curry is mild but aromatic. In Cherry Hill, I love the Vietnamese-flavored chops of "Lambs on Fire" at Lemongrass, a charming little Vietnamese bistro on Route 38.

For straight-ahead Italian lamb chops, Caffe Aldo Lamberti in Cherry Hill does an excellent Tuscan-style rendition. Some perfectly medium-rare little chops, stacked with feta and gravy over fries, are the poutine-styled star of the lamb frites at Bar Volver (where the lamb sliders with harissa aioli are also hard to resist). If classic French chops are what you crave, it might be worth a special request to Pierre Calmels. His menus at Bibou and Le Cheri change regularly, but I still dream about the big lamb chop he once served me over a lamb-stuffed Pithiviers pastry.

Speaking of lamb and pastry combos, if you're lucky, Sam Jacobson will make one of his crazy Bedfordshire Clangers at Stargazy, a pastry tube that starts with curried lamb sausage at one end, then morphs about two-thirds down into a sugar-dusted peach pie at the other. Jacobson often changes the meat and fruit fillings of that clanger, which may sound bizarre. But the lamb version was totally delicious. The clanger this week will feature coffee-cardamom lamb sausage with minted pineapple at the sweet end.

If there's one Philly lamb dish other than the Zahav shoulder you must know, it's the lamb barbacoa served at El Compadre on Ninth Street each weekend. Whole lambs are cooked Mexican-style overnight, then chopped down to order in the front window for tender tacos alongside pancita sausage and a lamb-chickpea consomme that is simply a sublimely earthy feast. One could not get farther from the fancy French version once served at posh Deux Cheminees, but I believe El Compadre's barbacoa is such a powerfully soulful dish that the late, great Fritz Blank of Deux Cheminees certainly also would have been a fan.
The drugmaker says the high price is justified to pay for research and development. Read more

Even though the $550 yellow pills sold as Korlym have a controversial origin as the abortion pill, Leslie Edwin says they "gave me life."

The 40-year-old Georgia resident lives with Cushing's syndrome, a potentially deadly condition that causes high levels of the hormone cortisol to wreak havoc on a body. When first diagnosed, she said, she gained about 100 pounds, her blood sugars were "out of control," and she suffered with acne, the inability to sleep, and constant anxiety.

"I wouldn't leave the house," Edwin said of her first bout with the condition. "I quit my job after a certain point. I just couldn't keep being in front of people."

That's when Edwin endured surgeries, including one to remove her pituitary gland. She went into remission, but then, in 2016, her weight shot up 30 pounds and the anxious feelings returned. Her doctors prescribed Korlym.

The drug's active ingredient is mifepristone, once called RU-486 and better known as the abortion pill because it causes a miscarriage when taken early in a pregnancy. Nearly two decades ago, Danco Laboratories won approval to market Mifeprex in the U.S. as the abortion drug, with tight restrictions on use. Corcept Therapeutics, a Silicon Valley-based drug company, began marketing Korlym six years ago as a specialty drug for about 10,000 rare-disease patients such as Edwin.

The difference in price between Korlym and Mifeprex is striking, even though the ingredients are the same: One 200-milligram pill to prompt an abortion costs about $80. In contrast, a 300-milligram pill prescribed for Cushing's runs about $550 before discounts. Patients wanting an abortion take only one pill. People with Cushing's often take up to three pills a day for months or years.

Joseph Belanoff, chief executive of the drug's maker, Corcept, said Korlym's average cost per patient is $180,000 annually and concedes that "we have an expensive drug. There's no getting around that."

The story of Korlym highlights how America's drug development system can turn an old drug into a new one that treats relatively few  but often very desperate  patients.

Mifepristone has been the subject of a number of studies aimed at repurposing it as a cancer drug because it has effects on the immune system. For example, Jerome Check, a reproductive endocrinologist in Melrose Park, Pa., is leading a clinical trial using mifepristone in metastatic lung cancer patients who have exhausted other treatment options. Corcept is giving Check the drug for free, but not covering any other costs of the trial.

When the Food and Drug Administration approved Korlym in 2012, it was designated as an orphan drug, giving Corcept seven years of market exclusivity as well as other economic incentives. Congress approved orphan drug incentives to encourage the development of medicines for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 patients. Since the drug's approval, Korlym's price has risen about 150 percent, and last year the company's revenue nearly doubled to $159.2 million. (Korlym is the company's only product and treats about 1,000 patients in the U.S.)

"You can hike that drug [price] 50 percent or 80 percent, and if there is backlash you can walk it back," said Joshua Liao, an associate medical director at University of Washington Medicine.

Corcept has steadily increased the price with little backlash.

Belanoff said the profits from Korlym pay for the company's past spending on the drug's research and development as well as its effort to create new drugs. The company last month reported an encouraging Phase 2 trial update on Korlym's successor, relacorilant, a drug that could treat Cushing's without the possible side effects of endometrial thickening and possible vaginal bleeding.

The company's pipeline is also full of potential oncology drugs that hold the promise of using molecules to influence the cortisol receptors, with wide-ranging effects in the body. Korlym, in combination with another drug, is being tested for the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, which tends to be more aggressive than other types of breast cancer. And relacorilant is in the very early stages of testing to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer.

While many of the second-generation drugs are not related to Korlym structurally, Korlym did "provide the funding.  If there had not been orphan-drug pricing and the [Orphan Drug] act, you would have to look for a different way to develop those drugs," Belanoff said.

Korlym came to market in 2012 with an average wholesale price of $223.20 per pill before discounts, according to the health-care technology firm Connecture. Corcept boosted the price $20 to $50 each year. By December 2017, each pill had an average wholesale price of $549.60 before any discounts or rebates were negotiated for patients.

Alan Leong, senior research analyst and owner of BioWatch, who follows Corcept, said he thought the company might fail at one point but noted that Belanoff "played the odds" with Korlym and won.

So far, incrementally increasing Korlym's price while adding patients has paid off. Corcept's stock soared 27.4 percent in January before Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced it had filed an application for a generic version on the drug. Teva declined to comment for this article.

Belanoff said he would like to know where Teva obtained enough doses of Korlym to successfully test a generic: "We have a single pharmacy and a single manufacturer and the medicine has to be [FedEx'ed] to the patient."

Talking to analysts last month, Corcept chief financial officer Charlie Robb said the impact of Teva's generic filing for the next few years is "nothing but litigation, which we can comfortably afford."

Corcept's executives expect revenues to keep climbing, reaching $275 million to $300 million in 2018  an expectation that has not changed despite Teva's announcement.

A pioneering substance

Cushing's syndrome happens when the body produces too much of the powerful hormone cortisol, which normally helps keep the cardiovascular system functioning well and allows the body to turn proteins, carbohydrates and fats into energy. But too much cortisol can be destructive. It can cause cognitive difficulties, depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, bone loss and, in some cases, Type 2 diabetes. Those affected by the syndrome can develop a fatty hump between their shoulders and a rounded face. Without treatment, patients can die of a variety of complications, including sepsis after the hormone compromises the immune system.

Mifepristone, the active ingredient in Korlym, helps Cushing's patients by blocking the body's ability to process cortisol. It induces an abortion by blocking the body's receptor for progesterone, which causes the uterine wall to break down.

When the FDA approved Korlym for a specific set of Cushing's patients, the agency required a "termination of pregnancy" warning box at the top of the label.

Constantine Stratakis, a senior investigator and scientific director at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development who specializes in treating people with Cushing's syndrome, calls mifepristone a "pioneering substance" because it "has a lot of crossover" to other receptors in the body.

That means the drug has a lot of potential uses. Belanoff and Alan Schatzberg, a Stanford University psychiatrist and scientist, co-founded Corcept in 1998 to explore whether mifepristone could help treat major depression. In 2002, Schatzberg said the drug "may be the equivalent of shock treatments in a pill."

But clinical trials didn't back up the claim. Schatzberg rotated off the board and left the company in 2007, saying the company "went in a different direction." A congressional investigation also questioned whether Schatzberg had conflicts of interest as the government's principal investigator overseeing clinical trials and a co-founder of Corcept, which had awarded him stock options.

In response to the congressional investigation, Stanford said Schatzberg was fully compliant with its internal conflict-of-interest policy.

Leong of BioWatch recalls the transition to Cushing's research as a difficult time for Corcept. But after the "psychiatric depression program shut down, [Belanoff] stuck to it," Leong said.

Social Contract

Corcept's "Hail Mary" moment came in 2007. The company filed an application to see whether mifepristone might work for Cushing's patients. (Cushing's affects about 20,000 people in the U.S., but Corcept executives say the condition often goes undiagnosed.)

Developing the drug cost about $300 million, Belanoff estimates, and involved long-term toxicology tests to ensure that patients could safely take higher doses for months or years. As an orphan drug, a portion of Korlym's research and development costs could be written off. For example, Corcept reported in 2013 that it had $19.7 million in federal tax credits.

And while Korlym's annual costs pale against other specialty drugs, which run as high as $750,000 a year, the climbing price tag and increasing number of patients do affect the health care system.

"It's like an unseen cost and then down the road this is a huge cost burden," said the University of Washington's Liao.

Most patients are covered by private insurance, Belanoff said, but Medicare and Medicaid are paying for the drug, as well. According to Medicare Part D data, 52 Korlym patients cost Medicare $2.6 million in 2013. Two years later in 2015, 115 beneficiaries filed claims of $11.4 million.

In Georgia, Leslie Edwin is on private insurance and describes herself as being in "a really high tax bracket" yet she never paid more than $25 a month through Corcept's patient assistance program called SPARK (the Support Program for Access and Reimbursement for Korlym).

"Across the board, it would be very difficult to find any patient that pays the full price," said Edwin, who volunteers as president of the nonprofit patient advocacy group Cushing's Support and Research Foundation. The small organization, which reported $50,000 in contributions and grants in 2015, notes on its website that Corcept as well as Novartis Oncology provide financial support to the organization. Edwin is not paid, and the group's federal tax filing details that the majority of its expenses go to distributing a quarterly newsletter, contacting members and patients "to promote mission," and providing referrals to doctors.

Belanoff said he believes Corcept has a "social contract" to take care of patients and pledged that any patient who is prescribed Korlym will get it regardless of insurance coverage or costs.

"We were starting with a notorious drug, and the growth has been steady from a very low base over time," Belanoff said, emphasizing that the "single most important thing" is that the drug works very well.

Sherwin D'Souza at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center in Idaho prescribed Korlym for the first time last year to Vonda Huddleston, knowing the company would provide financial assistance until Huddleston could get insurance to pay for surgery.

Huddleston, though, recalled being concerned about the price and what it would cost her out-of-pocket. The company provided her first two months' worth for free and asked her to call back when she was enrolled for insurance.

"They were so eager to get me on this medication," she said.

Inquirer staff writer Marie McCullough contributed to this article. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Funeral services will be Sunday, April 15, for Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, 28, one of four Marines killed when their military helicopter crashed on Tuesday, April 3, during a training exercise near El Centro, in southern California.

Capt. Schultz, of Huntingdon Valley, was a six-year veteran of the Marines and the third generation of the Schultz family to become a pilot. His father, Mitchell, is a licensed civilian pilot, and his grandfather Albert flew with the Army Air Force at the very end of World War II.

"He grew up around airplanes," his father said of Capt. Schultz. "He just decided he wanted to fly. He was a white-knuckle flier when he was a toddler, but he grew to love it."

Capt. Schultz was aware of the danger inherent in flying for the military, but was dedicated to the job, his father said: "He died doing what he loved and serving his country, which he thought was important to do as well."

Born at Abington Hospital, Capt. Schultz graduated from Abington Senior High School in 2008. He enrolled in the Navy ROTC program while at Pennsylvania State University, and on graduating in 2012 chose to join the Marine Corps.

Capt. Schultz was assigned to the Third Marine Aircraft Wing's 465th Squadron out of Miramar Air Station in San Diego. He had served in Florida, Texas, and North Carolina, and had also been deployed with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit in California.

The Marines were practicing desert landings when their heavy CH-53E Super Stallion crashed about 2:35 p.m. Tuesday in rough terrain 15 miles west of El Centro. The Marine Corps Public Affairs Office said Monday that an investigation into the cause of the crash is continuing.

The others killed were First Lt. Samuel Phillips, 27, of Pinehurst, N.C.; Gunnery Sgt. Richard Holley, 33, of Dayton, Ohio; and Lance Cpl. Taylor Conrad, 24, of Baton Rouge, La.

Capt. Schultz's parents, Mitchell and Julie, learned of the tragedy last Tuesday night when a Marine detail appeared at their door.

The remains of all four Marines were flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Funeral director Kevin Bloch said that once Capt. Schultz's body is released by the military, a motorcycle escort of Warriors Watch Riders and the Leathernecks Motorcycle Club will accompany it to the Joseph Levine & Sons Inc. funeral home in Trevose, Bucks County.

Mitchell Schultz said many friends had come forward to honor his son. "There's all kinds of things happening that are taking on a life of their own. It's truly amazing," he said.

His father described Capt. Schultz as very adventurous. He loved to sail, scuba dive, surf, sky dive, and ride a motorcycle. "He loved life," his father said.

Last Jan. 1, he flew in from San Diego to enjoy the Mummers Parade and especially the Mollywoppers, a comic club that prides itself on entertaining the fans rather than the judges, its website says.

"He was down to earth, witty, funny, bright and easygoing, as evidenced by the outpouring of love by everybody," his father said.

In addition to his parents, Capt. Schultz is survived by brother Eric; grandparents Phyllis and Arnold Rosoff; and girlfriend Shea Livingston.

A visitation at 10 a.m. April 15 will be followed by an 11 a.m. funeral service at Joseph Levine & Sons, 4737 E. Street Rd., Trevose. Interment with full military honors is in Shalom Memorial Park in Huntingdon Valley.

At the request of the Schultz family, the funeral home will live stream the funeral starting at 11 a.m. Sunday on the website www.levinefuneral.com/. Viewers should click on "funeral webcam."

Memorial donations may be made to the Travis Manion Foundation via https://www.travismanion.org/. The foundation helps the families of fallen soldiers and encourages the wounded to rebuild their lives.

A ROTC program scholarship in Capt. Schultz's memory has been set at Penn State in the form of a gofundme page. The page can be accessed via https://www.gofundme.com/sam-schultz-scholarship-fund

This story has been updated to reflect that the Warriors Watch Riders and the Leathernecks Motorcycle Club will escort Capt. Schultz's remains from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to the funeral home in Bucks County. The story also has new information on the scholarship fund set up in his honor.
Philadelphia Police Officer Krzysztof Wrzesinski, of the 15th District, displays the semiautomatic rifle and handgun he recovered on Saturday, April 7, 2018, from a 12-year-old Bridesburg boy and the boys 19-year-old brother. Read more

The police report and the image it conjured quickly went viral on social media: A 12-year-old Bridesburg boy wielding a semiautomatic assault-style rifle during a neighborhood beef on the streets of Northeast Philadelphia.

Police on Tuesday said that weapon, and a second retrieved from the boy's 19-year-old brother on Saturday, appeared to have been purchased legally.

Still, both brothers were in custody, facing charges in a dispute that ended without violence but raised concerns about how a preteen ended up armed with an AR-15-style rifle  a weapon that has stoked the national debate about kids, guns, and violence.

"We've had 12-year-olds arrested with guns" before, said Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum of Northeast Detectives. But this case, he said, is "just an odd story all around."

According to Rosenbaum, the incident unfolded like this:

About 6:30 p.m. Saturday, 19-year-old Michael Mitchell took his mother's handgun, went across the 2200 block of Kennedy Street with his younger brother, and knocked on a neighbor's door after some kind of dispute with a teen who lived there.

The teenager's father opened the door, saw Mitchell with a handgun, and asked what he was doing. Mitchell then yelled to his younger brother: "Go get my gun!"

The 12-year-old, whom police aren't identifying by name, grabbed his brother's Diamondback 15 rifle from their home, came back outside, and pointed it at his neighbors, Rosenbaum said. The gun was loaded with about 20 rounds of ammunition.

Neighbors called 911.

When 15th District Officer Krzysztof Wrzesinski, who was on patrol nearby, drove up, the two brothers put their guns in a car on the block and complied with the officer.

"He took them into custody, got the guns," Rosenbaum said.

Police are investigating Mitchell's claim that he legally owned the semiautomatic rifle, which police say retails for about $800 or $900. Mitchell wouldn't answer officers' questions about why he had the gun, but he has no criminal history that would have barred him from buying it, Rosenbaum said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracing the weapon's origin, he said.

Under state law, anyone who's at least 18 can buy a semiautomatic rifle if he or she passes a criminal background check, has no protection-from-abuse orders, and was not involuntarily committed for mental-health reasons, Rosenbaum said.

Police on Monday tweeted a photo of Wrzesinski with the seized weapons. (Police initially said the older brother was 18.)

The mother of Mitchell and the boy is cooperating with police, Rosenbaum said. She said that she had her handgun locked in a safe and that her 19-year-old son took it without permission, he said. "She's furious" about what happened, he said.

The ATF will also be conducting a trace report on her handgun, which had four rounds in it, Rosenbaum said. Such reviews could take weeks or months, he said.

Mitchell was charged with gun offenses, terroristic threats, corruption of a minor, and related offenses. Bail was set at $55,000 and he remained in custody Tuesday at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Mitchell faces a hearing next Wednesday on the charges; his court-appointed attorney, Dennis Turner, declined to comment Tuesday.

His brother was charged as a juvenile with similar offenses, Rosenbaum said. He has a hearing scheduled for April 19. It was not known Tuesday if he was still in custody or released. It also was not known if the younger brother has an attorney.
President Donald Trump says he expects a proposed meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take place in May or early June.

His comments Monday came after U.S. officials said they have confirmed that Kim is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It was the first tangible sign that Kim was still willing to meet with Trump since the North first proposed the summit last month.

Details on the talks are still unclear, including the exact agenda and place. But U.S. officials have said there have been secret contacts between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump has consistently called for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.


A 45-year-old man was fatally wounded in a shooting Monday evening in Southwest Philadelphia, police said.

The man was shot once in the lower body just after 7 p.m. while on the 5800 block of Belmar Street. He was taken by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m.

Police said a suspect was arrested and a weapon was recovered, but did not elaborate.
Dr. Gary Rendsburg, a professor in Rutgers Universitys Department of Jewish Studies, played a crucial role in identifying the Torah scroll sheet for the Library of Congress. Read more

The Library of Congress recently got its hands on a Torah scroll sheet that dates to the 10th or 11th century, the earliest known legible version of the "Song of the Sea" and an invaluable find  and a Rutgers University professor played a vital role in its acquisition.

Detailing the flight of the Jewish people from Egypt, the vellum sheet measures 23 by 23.5 inches and contains Exodus 10:10 to 16:15, beginning with the "Ten Plagues" and continuing through the "Song of the Sea."

Though the oldest legible Torah scroll sheets are the Dead Sea Scrolls, which predate the "Song of the Sea" scrolls by around 1,000 years, this scroll is still a remarkable find, said Ann Brener, head of the Hebraic section of the Library of Congress' African and Middle Eastern division.

"What makes this scroll sheet so special is that it is the oldest legible scroll sheet in which the 'Song of the Sea'  the song in which the children of Israel celebrate the transition from slavery to freedom  is written," she said.

Gary Rendsburg, a professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers, helped to identify the scroll sheet before the library purchased it from a bookseller's catalog.

Brener happened across the Torah sheet scroll in a private catalog that offered only a description of the sheet, with no photos provided.

A former student of Rendsburg's at the Graduate School at Cornell University, she sent him the link to the catalog via email, hoping that he would be able to help identify the scroll sheet by description. He did so within minutes.

"I knew immediately what it was, because in the year 2001, the same text was sold at Christie's in London at auction," Rendsburg said.

While the scroll sheet was for sale, professor Jordan Penkower of Israel's Bar Ilan University was invited to London to study the manuscript, and wrote a scholarly article detailing its authenticity.

Rendsburg had read Penkower's 20-page treatise, and knew right away that the scroll sheet Brener found was Penkower's subject of study, resurfacing more than a decade later.

Much of the history of the scroll sheet's travel remains hazy, but historians have been able to fill in a few of the gaps.

Rendsburg said its Hebrew letters tell them it was written somewhere in the Middle East, and for unknown reasons, this single part of the scroll was preserved.

On the back of the sheet is an inscription from around 1860, written in both in Hebrew and Russian, indicating that it was given by a group of Jews living in Crimea to the archduke brother of the czar of Russia.

From there, history again becomes unclear.

It's entirely possible, he said, that it was folded and smuggled out of the country based on folds on the sheet, but as of now, that is speculation. The scroll sheet's history until it was sold in England is unclear.

Now, the scroll sheet is on display in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress until mid-April beside the Guttenberg Bible, the first mass-produced book in the West.

To Brener and Rensburg alike, the scroll sheet's acquisition by the Library of Congress marked a once-in-a-lifetime turn of events.

"The story of Exodus is one of the foundational texts of Western culture. It figures largely in the American narrative about freedom, and it resonates powerfully with American history. For all these reasons, it seemed to me vitally important to acquire this piece for the Library of Congress," Brener said.

Rendsburg, enthralled to be involved, remains humble about his contribution.

"I'm grateful that I was in a position to be involved, he said. "I'm getting a lot of publicity for this, but honestly, I played a small but crucial role."

"This Torah scroll sheet is a curator's dream, the kind of treasure that you just know, from the very first moment you see it in the bookseller's catalog, belongs in your institution," Brener said.
Anthony Moore (left) is suing Atlantic City and Officer Franco Sydnor for alleged violations resulting from an incident at Ballys in 2012. At right, Sydnor and other officers detain one of Moores friends. Sydnor (center back) is wielding a baton in this security video. Read more

The Atlantic City Police Department, which just a month ago was ordered by a federal jury to pay $300,000 to a man who was beaten by three officers and mauled by a police dog, is back in federal court in Camden facing another claim of police brutality.

A 44-year-old Drexel Hill man, Anthony Moore, says Officer Franco Sydnor assaulted him, striking his head repeatedly with a baton and kneeing him in the ribs, while Sydnor and other security personnel were ejecting him and his friends from Bally's Atlantic City on Oct. 6, 2012.

Moore maintains that Sydnor has a pattern of escalating incidents and seeks to tie Sydnor's actions to poor training, a broken Internal Affairs process, and a police department that he says is deliberately indifferent to its officers' bad behavior. Sydnor contends that it was Moore who became violent with him, and says any injuries Moore incurred were accidental.

On Monday, ahead of a trial set for May 14, lawyers debated whether the jury should be able to review the lengthy history of complaints against Sydnor. According to the filings, that history includes at least seven federal lawsuits and 21 Internal Affairs complaints, including nine for excessive force and two for sexual misconduct. Judge Jerome Simandle said he would take the matter under consideration.

Complaints the jury may get the opportunity to review include: an incident in which a man was allegedly punched in the face at the Tropicana and thrown into a wishing well; a 2012 incident involving a man named Peter Vazquez, who was disputing a bill at a club at Harrah's when Sydnor allegedly pulled him into a bear hug and slammed him to the ground; and a 2006 incident in which Sydnor was called in to escort a man named Paul Friedman from the Borgata and ended up allegedly throwing him into the back of his police car. (Moore's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said exactly what happened next was unclear, but "15 minutes after being with Officer Sydnor, he ended up unconscious in the parking lot of an Applebee's with a head wound.")

"Those Internal Affairs investigations were all not sustained," Gregory Glickman, one of Sydnor's lawyers, said in court. "No charges were ever filed."

Atlantic City has sought to keep the records sealed.

According to Bonjean, the department's Internal Affairs office sustained one complaint from 2007 to 2014 out of more than 400 filed.

Plaintiffs have had marginally more success in federal court. Vazquez's case ended in a settlement, as did a claim by a Latrobe, Pa., man, Jason Cordial, who said Sydnor and other officers assaulted him at Harrah's while he was handcuffed to a bench in 2009.

Sydnor was also the detective on a case that ended in a $210,000 jury verdict for wrongful prosecution last year.

Glickman said any previous complaints, if true, were "isolated incidents." He said introducing them would prejudice the jury against Sydnor.

"If you allow this in, there's a chance they'll think my client's just a bad person," he said.

Bonjean will seek to prove a pattern on the parts of Sydnor and the police department.

Moore suffered a concussion and lacerations on his forehead that required surgical staples to close, according to his complaint. His friend went to the Atlantic City Police Department the next day to file a complaint and waited three hours, but no officer responded to accept it.

"This wasn't a mistake  and there are other incidents quite similar to this one where he claims it's a mistake and the evidence shows it's not," she said of Sydnor. "We see this over and over again  it escalates into use of force that becomes excessive  and he lies about it."

An expert report for Bonjean by Jon Shane, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that Atlantic City's Internal Affairs function was substandard, that investigations were superficial and incomplete, and that they are not sustained at a rate far higher than is standard. He also found that special employment details  like the ones at casinos  presented a particular risk.

"The rate of sustained complaints for excessive force is exceptionally low," he noted in the report. The average for municipal police agencies is to sustain 8 percent of use-of-force complaints; Atlantic City sustains one-fifth of 1 percent.
Michael Cohen, the personal lawyer for President Trump, is under investigation. Read more

The FBI raided the office and home of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, on Monday. The move enraged the president, who called the raid a "disgrace," and has captivated the attention of both political parties.

A former U.S. attorney told the Washington Post that the raids were like "dropping a bomb on Trump's front porch."

Here's what you should know about the investigation and the people involved.

Who is Michael D. Cohen?

Cohen has been an ardent defender in Trump's business, personal, and political affairs for more than a decade.

He gained headlines recently when he acknowledged that he had paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000  just days before the 2016 presidential election  to stay silent about her alleged affair with Trump. Daniels has said the affair happened in 2006. (Trump told reporters last week that he did not know about the payment.)

What the FBI was after

Agents were seeking records on payments to Daniels and another woman who said she had an affair with Trump, according to the New York Times. The newspaper identified the second woman as Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Trump, the Times said.

Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission have said the payment to Daniels appeared to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC, urging it to investigate.

Who authorized the raids

The Times has said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Philadelphia native and Trump appointee, authorized the raids.

Rosenstein last year appointed special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign during the presidential election.

>> Read more: What's a guy gotta do to get impeached in Trump's out-of-control America? | Will Bunch

Monday's raids were part of an investigation that Mueller referred to federal prosecutors in New York, according to the Washington Post. The Post said Cohen is under federal investigation over possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign-finance violations.

Under Justice Department regulations, Mueller must consult with Rosenstein when his investigators uncover new evidence that may fall outside his original mandate. Rosenstein then determines whether to allow Mueller to proceed or to assign the matter to another U.S. attorney or another part of the Justice Department.

What the president has said

As he has before, Trump on Tuesday called the investigation into his associates a "witch hunt."

On Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump believed he has the power to fire Mueller  a move that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa) warned would be "suicide."

This isn't the first time Mueller has potentially been on the chopping block. Trump last summer ordered Mueller be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order, the New York Times reported in January.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, a pro-gun-rights Democratic candidate in New Jersey's Second Congressional District, won't have to cast votes on six pending gun-control bills until after the June primary.

According to a vote schedule released Monday by the office of Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a fellow Democrat from Gloucester County, the six bills passed last month by the Assembly will be brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, but a full vote won't happen until the Senate reconvenes June 7, two days after the New Jersey primary.

Van Drew's 100 percent NRA rating has become a subject of criticism among his Democratic primary opponents and progressive groups in the district, which includes much of southernmost New Jersey, including the cities of Vineland and Atlantic City and parts of eight counties. It has been represented for 24 years by retiring U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo and is considered a key district likely to flip from Republican to Democrat. Van Drew is not on the Judiciary committee.

Will Cunningham, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Cory Booker who also is running in the primary, accused Sweeney of blocking the legislation from reaching the Senate floor, "likely in a ploy to protect Second District congressional candidate Jeff Van Drew from being forced to take a vote and reveal his pro-gun, pro-NRA ties."

Sweeney spokesman Richard McGrath dismissed Cunningham's accusation as "part of a campaign debate, which the Senate president will not participate in."

"We are following the legislative process and the Senate schedule," McGrath said, via e-mail.

Van Drew, a dentist, has received the support of the national campaign arm of the House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and is considered a popular moderate with the ability to flip the seat. He has the support of all eight county Democratic parties and the party establishment in New Jersey, including South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III, who endorsed him before he even declared his candidacy.

In a recent appearance on WOND, an Atlantic County-based talk-radio station, Van Drew said he would vote in favor of one of the bills, to expand background checks to include private gun sales, and declined to say how he would vote on the rest. They include establishing a new class of protective court order that would bar people who pose "a significant danger" from possessing or purchasing firearms, and lowering the limit for magazine rounds from 15 to 10, with an exception for a .22-caliber firearm. Another bill would further tighten the state's concealed carry law.

Van Drew's chief of staff did not respond to a message seeking comment on the senator's position on the gun bills.

Shortly after the Parkland school shootings, Van Drew was confronted by 17-year-old Emily McGrath of Egg Harbor Township over his accepting donations from the NRA in the past. He has said that he returned past NRA donations and would not accept them in the future.



Supporters of his more progressive opponents, who include Cunningham and Tanzie Youngblood, a retired schoolteacher who was featured on Time magazine's "Avengers" cover, have urged voters to reject Van Drew's candidacy. Another candidate, Sean Thom, who dropped out of the race, had complained to the DCCC about supporting Van Drew.

Youngblood, an African American woman who has unsuccessfully sought an endorsement from the women's group EMILY's List and was critical of the DCCC's backing of Van Drew, opened a campaign office in Pleasantville over the weekend and received the "Gun Sense Candidate" distinction from Moms Demand Action.

"The entire state Senate of New Jersey is stalling on passing critical gun control legislation because the Jersey political machine wants to protect their NRA A-rated candidate, Van Drew," Cunningham said in a statement.

The Assembly vote took place March 26, two days after the March for Our Lives brought hundreds of thousands of people to Washington and other cities around the country demanding gun control laws. "The Senate president supports the bills and will have the Senate act on them soon," McGrath said in an earlier message.
Carlyne Beverly (left) records her daughter Candace Beverly (right) reading her testimony before a joint hearing of the N.J. Senate and Assembly Committees on school security at Camden County College. Read more

New Jersey lawmakers who wanted to hear from stakeholders on Monday about school security got plenty of advice from educators, police, security experts and a student at a special session in South Jersey.

Nearly two dozen speakers signed up to address the Senate and Assembly Education Committees during a meeting at the Camden County College campus in Cherry Hill. It was the second of three hearings on school security convened in the aftermath of the massacre in Parkland, Fla.

"The issue of school security has never been more pressing," said Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Pamela Lampitt (D., Camden). "Children should not fear going to school."

During the hearing, which lasted for several hours, Candace Beverly, 11, of Bordentown Township, pleaded with lawmakers "to put an end to the terror and the fear" and make New Jersey schools safer. She cited a chant from students at Parkland, "Enough is enough!"

"I have lived through many lockdown drills in school. It is scary to curl up in a ball in a small space, and to try to be invisible and completely silent, all while dealing with fears about whether the danger is real," said Candace, a fifth grader at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Princeton.

The youngster, accompanied by her mother, asked lawmakers to support a bill approved by the Assembly in June that would require schools to train students on how to interact with police. She also asked for more mental health awareness for students, a suggestion echoed by others during the hearing.

"We need you to pass laws that will help stop guns from falling into the wrong hands," she said.

The panel applauded and Lampitt promised support for the bill. There was an offer from a senator to sponsor a companion bill.

"We're all proud of you," Lampitt said. "Your words are not on deaf ears."

The February shootings in Parkland, in which 17 people were killed, galvanized students across the country to stage protests and demand action and new laws to make their classrooms safer and pass gun control measures. Voters in Pennsauken responded by approving a $36 million bond to install "mousetrap" security vestibules in all 11 district schools. The vestibules will be equipped with bulletproof glass and two sets of doors that require a buzzer entry.

In Cherry Hill, an uproar erupted after a popular teacher was suspended for raising school safety concerns at Cherry Hill High School East. After protests and meetings with parents and students, the township assigned nine full-time armed police officers to the district's 19 schools until the end of the school year.

"That's not sustainable," Superintendent Joseph Meloche told the lawmakers.

Meloche and others told the lawmakers that schools need more state funding to pay for security upgrades. About 91 percent of Cherry Hill's budget comes from property taxes, he said.

"New Jersey doesn't have a school security problem. What it has is a school funding problem," said Amy Jablonski, a mother of two and a Chesterfield Township school board member.

Cherry Hill, which has about 11,300 students in grades K-12, plans to arm its four campus officers for the 2018-19 school year and hire five additional armed officers, Meloche said. The superintendent also asked the lawmakers to approve a measure that would allow schools to screen students for mental illness, which currently requires parental permission.

Law-enforcement officials and security experts said deploying police to schools is only part of the answer. They suggested training for all school employees and programs to identify potential risks such as the weekly "huddle" by Gloucester Township police, a violence-prevention program that provides intervention for troubled youngsters.

"Police in schools is not the final answer," said Cherry Hill Police Chief William "Bud" Monaghan. "The security measures that we put in schools should not detract from the learning environment. We shouldn't be in a school and make it feel like a security institution."

Kathleen Devlin, a former security chief in Pemberton Township schools, agreed: "I think you need to try to be more preventative."

The final hearing will be held on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 4 p.m. at Rutgers University-Newark, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd, Newark. Students, parents and other members of the public who want to share their thoughts and recommendations on school security can register by calling (609) 847-3850.
For the next two weeks, Pennsylvania's House Judiciary Committee will hold a rare series of hearings on gun bills that range from arming teachers to disarming bad guys. This is noteworthy only because Pennsylvania has some of the nation's weakest gun laws. Let's hope the legislature becomes more afraid of the political wave sweeping the country in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting of 17 children and adults on Feb. 14 than it is of the National Rifle Association.

These hearings could turn out to be as useless as the thoughts and prayers of gutless politicians, but we hope the committee will consider a few fresh examples of how guns in the hands of the wrong people lead to needless death and injury  and take action to protect us.

Lawmakers should know that on Easter, a 4-year-old Southwest Philadelphia boy found a loaded .22-caliber handgun lying on his dad's bed. The boy shot himself in the leg. The father wasn't charged, but he should have been, under the city's gun safety ordinance, which requires parents to keep guns locked up so children can't get them. Philadelphia, though, is ahead of the state. Pennsylvania does not even have a safe-storage law. A bill requiring safe storage sponsored by State Rep. Tim Briggs (D., Montgomery) should be passed.

Massachusetts has such a law, and it's effective: While guns are used in 39 percent of youth suicides across the nation; in Massachusetts, it's 9 percent.

Over the weekend, a man shot his girlfriend and himself in West Philadelphia while three young children were in the home. The loss of life and trauma to children are reason enough to keep guns away from domestic abusers. A bill sponsored by State Sen. Thomas Killion (R., Delaware) would keep guns away from those convicted of domestic abuse. It's already cleared the Senate; the House should pass it.

On Friday, Gov. Murphy issued a "name and shame" executive order in New Jersey. He wants to expose the states where guns used in crimes in New Jersey originate, which means he's likely to frequently wag his finger at Pennsylvania.

Most out-of-state guns found at New Jersey crime scenes were purchased in Pennsylvania because it's much easier to get a gun in a state that protects the NRA rather than its people. In 2016, 412 of the guns found at New Jersey crime scenes came from Pennsylvania. An additional 247 guns were purchased in Virginia, which puts it in second place.

It is a disgrace that Pennsylvania has laws so loose that criminals and others with bad intentions can so easily obtain guns. Among other reforms, the state can and should tighten up background checks and institute a waiting period for gun purchases.

Also on Friday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Second Amendment does not protect assault rifles. Bills calling for an assault weapons ban in Pennsylvania are sponsored by State Sen. Wayne Fontana and State Rep. Ed Gainey (both D., Allegheny). The legislature should pass them.

These bills are real opportunities for the state to turn the tide on gun violence, and for lawmakers to finally signal that keeping the status quo is no longer viable. Shame on any legislators who can't see that.
A topless protester with "Women's Lives Matter" written on her body jumped a barricade and got within a few feet of Bill Cosby on Monday as the comedian walked into a suburban Philadelphia courthouse for the start of his sexual assault retrial.

The woman ran in front of Cosby toward a bank of TV cameras but was intercepted by sheriff's deputies and led away in handcuffs. The European feminist group Femen claimed the protester as one of its own.

Cosby seemed startled by the commotion as a half-dozen protesters chanted at him. Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt praised deputies for their quick action but urged court officials to increase security.

"It's a different world. Things have changed," Wyatt told The Associated Press, referring to recent mass shootings and other episodes. "You never know who's going to want to make a name for themselves."

The protester, Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, New Jersey, was charged with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Inna Shevchenko, a Paris-based leader of Femen, told The Associated Press that the activist was seeking to defend Cosby's alleged victims, calling the protest ``our contribution to the global revolt launched by (hash)MeToo.''

The disruption came ahead of opening statements, which were delayed while the judge sorted through allegations raised late Friday that a juror told a woman during jury selection that he thought Cosby was guilty. Cosby's lawyers want the juror removed from the case.

Prosecutors have lined up a parade of accusers to make the case that the man revered as "America's Dad" lived a double life as one of Hollywood's biggest predators.

Cosby is fighting back with a new, high-profile lawyer and an aggressive strategy: attacking Andrea Constand as a greedy liar and casting the other women testifying as bandwagon accusers looking for a share of the spotlight. "You've seen previews and coming attractions, but things have changed," said professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Cheong Wa Dae said Monday it has no intention of removing new Financial Supervisory Service chief Kim Ki-shik from his post over allegations that he accepted favors from Woori Bank and a think tank.

"We have concluded that the overseas trips" the institutions paid for "were part of an official business and legitimate," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.

The presidential office "looked into the allegations that have been raised by some news media regarding Kim and confirmed that the purpose of the overseas trips was to help relevant institutions launch overseas operations or to conduct an on-site investigation into whether budget allocations were being spent properly."

Kim added, "We humbly accept criticism for failing to live up to the expectations of the public, but decided that the issue was not serious enough to require his removal."
The government has appealed a World Trade Organization ruling that accused Korea of violating trade regulations by banning imports of seafood from Japan's Fukushima Prefecture, which was the site of a massive nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011.

"The nuclear fallout persists in Japan, and the ruling is problematic since it's our job to make sure the food Koreans eat is safe," a government spokesman said Monday.

In February of this year, the WTO ruled in favor of Japan, which has demanded Korea lift the ban.

Korea banned imports from the region in 2011, just after a massive earthquake there resulted in the nuclear meltdown. Japan sued Korea at the WTO in 2015.


A man led officers on a high-speed pursuit through Yuba County, CA, Friday morning and then shot a K-9 in the neck before being fatally shot, authorities said.

A California man shot a K-9 before he was fatally shot. (Photo: KCRA screenshot)

The man was identified as 26-year-old Jonathan Erick Alexander, the Yuba County (CA) Sheriff's Department said.

The incident began just before 2:30 a.m. when Wheatland, CA, police initially pulled over Alexander for DUI after he was seen driving at 90 mph. The Sheriff's Department said Alexander turned off his lights and continued northbound before eventually pulling over, reports KCRA.

Police say officers smelled alcohol emanating from the vehicle and the driver became uncooperative, speeding away and running over two sets of spike strips before coming to a stop.

After Alexander refused to surrender and get out of the car, a sheriff's K-9 was deployed. The Yuba County Sheriff's Department said Alexander then pulled out a gun, shooting the dog.

Officers then opened fire on Alexander, the Sheriffs Department said.

The bullet that hit the K-9 came out the other side of the dog's neck. He was taken to a veterinarian for treatment, where his condition has been stabilized. The K-9 is expected to survive the gunshot wound, the Sheriff's Department said.

No officers were struck by the suspect's gunfire.
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that six San Diego police officers  including Dave Nisleit, recently appointed chief  violated the civil rights of a man they mistakenly held at gunpoint while investigating a death threat in City Heights three years ago.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ruled that a jury should decide whether officers were guilty of unreasonable seizure and excessive force on Sept. 9, 2014, when they trained their guns on Demetrice Sightler after he walked onto his balcony, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

The court is reluctant to expose officers to liability when they answer an emergency call under the belief that a fellow citizen has a gun held to her head, Burns wrote in his order, dated March 28. At the same time, fellow citizens shouldnt have to experience the terror of an AR-15 pointed at them for ten minutes on a fall afternoon  especially when they are at home.

Police were called to an apartment complex on Lemona Avenue by a woman who said her son was threatening to shoot his girlfriend. She identified him as a 26-year-old black man living in apartment No. 5. As police gathered outside, Sightler, 33, and also black, went onto his balcony off apartment No. 3, looking for his girlfriend.
Deputy Sydney Davis' neck was broken in an on-duty crash. (Photo: Pierce County Sheriff's Department)

A 25-year-old man was charged Monday for an alleged DUI wreck that sent a Pierce County, WA, sheriff's deputy down an embankment and fractured her cervical vertebra last week in Parkland.

Deputy Sydney Davis, 25, was hospitalized in a critical care unit after the wreck Thursday. She was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, which is a CHI Franciscan hospital.

Asked Monday about Davis' condition, a CHI Franciscan spokesperson said she had been treated and released. Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Friday it would be "quite some time" before Davis could return to work.

The suspect in the crash pleaded not guilty to vehicular assault Monday at arraignment in Superior Court, reports the News Tribune.
Prosecutors on Monday indicted ex-president Lee Myung-bak on 16 criminal charges including bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion.

The indictment came 18 days after Lee was arrested. In a Facebook post, Lee claimed that he was "framed by investigators" who are "above the law." He had apparently written the statement before his arrest and told aides to release it when the time came.

"I heard rumors the Moon Jae-in administration has targeted at me since its inauguration," Lee wrote. "I had expected some sort of revenge and was even determined to endure it by considering it my fate. But more than 100 people, including former Cheong Wa Dae chief secretaries and administrative officers, have been investigated by prosecutors."

He continues to deny that he is the real owner of automotive parts maker DAS, which nominally belongs to his brother. "I do not own a single DAS stock. It is true that I offered advice since the company was established because it belongs to my family, but it is ludicrous to accuse me of being the actual owner."

Prosecutors believe Lee used the company as a channel for massive slush funds.

He dismissed as "absurd" charges that he forced Samsung to pay the legal fees of DAS is the U.S. in exchange for pardoning Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who had been convicted of corruption.

"I cannot accept the legitimacy of the investigation... and this is why I am refusing to agree to be questioned by prosecutors," he added.


Such incidents were rare when Samsung was managed by a central office. But that was disbanded after the conglomerate became embroiled in the massive influence-peddling and corruption scandal that brought down ex-President Park Geun-hye, and individual units were given greater autonomy.

On March 9, a Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek suffered a power outage, and one person died in an accident in a Samsung C&T warehouse on March 19. Earlier this month, Samsung Securities sold off huge numbers of ghost stocks that were mistakenly given to them.

Samsung Electronics, Samsung Securities and other subsidiaries of the sprawling conglomerate have suffered a spate of accidents recently.

The plant in Pyeongtaek is an almost brand-new facility. The blackout was not caused by external reasons but by a malfunctioning power generation system within the plant.

It resulted in around W50 billion in losses since production had to be halted for two days until the problem was fixed (US$1=W1,070). An industry insider said, "Memory chip factories need around-the-clock power management, and such an accident is unprecedented at Samsung."

One worker died when five fell at the building site of a Samsung C&T warehouse in Pyeongtaek. The accident was apparently due to lax safety.

Workers who were there said construction was halted a month before the accident after a high-rise platform supporting workers was found to be unstable, but work soon resumed to meet tight deadlines.

The Fair Trade Commission accuses Samsung of dragging its heels in resolving the Byzantine network of cross-shareholdings between subsidiaries that keep the founding family, who are minority shareholders, in control.

But now individual subsidiaries must deal with individual issues on their own. One industry source said, "It will take quite a bit of time for the changes in management to take root."
While Minnesota farmers face an industry climate similar to the one during the 1980s crisis, they rely on close to the same number of advocates to support them with financial and legal issues.

"People say its not as serious as it was in the 80s, but Ive talked to many different people in the industry, including bankers, and they say it is," said Connie Dykes, one of 10 advocates for farmers in Minnesota.

The Farm Advocate Program is funded through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and provides direct assistance to farmers who face crisis caused by either natural disaster or financial problems.

Most, if not all, of the 10 advocates come from farming backgrounds and understand the needs of agricultural families and communities. Advocates are trained and well-versed in lending practices, mediation, farm negotiations, crisis counseling and disaster relief. There is no charge for Minnesota Farm Advocate assistance.

For Dykes, work in farm advocacy began in 1984  the same year MFA found funding through states Department of Agriculture. Dykes and about 20 other individuals witnessed the advocate program get its roots, but shes quick to credit Lou Anne Kling for being the programs true pioneer.

Kling, who passed away last year, started to advocate for local farmers in the 1980s who faced unfair foreclosure. Many farmers at the time found themselves in financial ruts after using high land values to borrow money. When land values fell, farmers who had never missed a payment still found themselves in non-monetary default.

After Klings insistence to get a copy of the federal regulations governing the foreclosures, she discovered that farmers were missing out on their right to an appeal. She won her first appeal for a farmer, and the instance served as the tipping point for thousands of family farmers to stay on their land.

Dykes said the kind of support that advocates provide farmers has gotten more diverse, but hasnt changed much since the program began. She said shes found the simple one-on-one communication with farmers to be the most beneficial for them. A farmer who may be struggling with a problem can call Dykes, and get a knowledgeable opinion on what steps to take.

If legal assistance is required, Dykes has a network of attorneys that she can get the farmer in contact with. If the farmers financial records are not in order, shell line up the farmer with the one of the extension departments such as Agricultural Business Management or Farmer-Lender Mediation.

"Thats one of the more important things, to get their numbers, balance sheets and cash flow in order," said Dykes for getting farmers to the right extension resources. "Theyre the professionals on the numbers, so they can set them straight"

Dykes is also trained in business finance, having earned an accounting degree in college and ran the books for her husbands construction company for years.

Jan Boll was in the group of early advocates along with Dykes and is now one of the two field managers for the program. Boll, who worked for years as an advocate before transitioning to her new role, said corporate challenges are now a recurring issue advocates work on with farmers. She referred to a recent incident when a larger dairy processing facility was sold to Wal-Mart.

"The farmers were notified that as of mid April or the first of May, they would no longer be getting their milk picked up," said Boll of the corporate shift. "So what are these guys going to do?"
Like a lot of people in small towns and out of the way places in rural Minnesota, Eric Klindt wears many hats. A family man with deep roots in southern Wilkin County, he runs two businesses, volunteers for local service clubs and events, and is a safety instructor for a professional association.

Hes also a county commissioner on the front line of a deepening divide between more populated areas of the state where high-speed, dependable, wire-line access to the world-wide web is available in a click, and areas like his where it is not.

"Were stranded," he said, referring to the lack of reliable, high-speed broadband available to homes, farms and businesses in the area. "In a world that revolves around access to wired, high-speed internet service, were on the dark side of the moon until we get connected."

His aerial applicator company covers a three-state area where agriculture is king. "Frustrating," is the polite word he would use to express his feelings about the internet service available to track weather and planes.

He used a wireless service for 10 years, but it was slow. "Dial-up was faster," he said. It took several minutes to load a single map that takes seconds for anyone in most other areas of the state. "I just switched to satellite only to find the service drops when weather moves in  which is when I need it most!"

And hes not alone. The Office of Broadband Development maps show 13 counties where more than 50 percent of the population is without even basic broadband service  and another five counties where that number is between 40 and 50 percent.

So Klindts frustration is shared on a deeply personal level by the Realtor or resort owner in Aitkin County when they lose another prospect because the expectation of a fast, reliable connection to the net cannot be met, or the parent in Redwood County whos child cant complete homework assignments, or the elderly, sick or infirm who are blocked from participating in the exciting emerging benefits telemedicine is providing the state as a whole, and deep rural areas in particular.

Getting connected cant come fast enough for the quarter-million Minnesotans who are last in line and most in need as the state pushes toward meeting its broadband speed goals of 100Mbps/20Mbps upload to all Minnesota homes and businesses by 2026.

The goal is within reach, but legislators need to keep their eye on the ball, stay committed to getting the job done and dont leave unserved areas in the dark.

Minnesota Rural Counties (MRC is a 29-member advocacy organization working on behalf of Greater Minnesota counties) is a participating member in the MN Broadband Coalition. The coalition and its nearly 70 participating members are requesting $51.48 million this year to fund the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program, in order to stay on pace to achieving established state speed goals.

Funding the Border-to-Border program is a top priority for MRC and for a broad cross section of rural advocacy organizations. In the mix of funding requests legislators must consider this year, we hope this issue is a top priority with them as well.
Korea experts in Washington have been rattled by revelations that Cheong Wa Dae leaned on the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy to cut off funding aid for the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The wonks are shocked that USKI was pressured by Seoul to replace its right-leaning chief, Ku Jae-hee.

In an article titled, "South Korea's 'Liberal' government is trying to censor the North Korea policy debate in America," Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based attorney and expert on sanctions against North Korea, said, "Don't forget, this is the same government that just sent six former officials, including two former culture ministers, to prison over allegations they blacklisted artists. The 'blacklisting' in question did not involve jailing or punishing the artists; it selectively denied them government funding because of their political opinions."

He admitted that Seoul "is as free to choose its fiscal priorities as any other government if it doesn't think USKI is a good return on its investment." But he added, "It is not free to use unregistered foreign agents to censor critics of its policies, threaten their careers, or turn our think tanks into its propaganda mouthpieces. That is a serious threat to the independence of our public policy debate, to say nothing of Korea's. It's also illegal."

Bruce Klingner at the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center tweeted Stanton's analysis "this time points out again the close-mindedness of South Korea's liberal government."

Cheong Wa Dae denied the allegations and said it never demanded that Ku be replaced. A high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday, "The National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences demanded Ku be replaced as part of reforms being raised by the National Assembly."


Whoever said avocado toast was so "last year" didnt know what they were talking about. Not only is avocado one of the most popular toppings on toast these days but is showing up in wraps, omelettes, smoothies, soups, pasta and even brownies. Sliced, mashed, grilled or fried, avocados in some form are on just about every restaurant menu in town, from fast food to high-end.

One example is Tonic Local Kitchen and Juice Bar(1217 Second St. SW), where owner Nicci Sylvester is bringing out her new spring-summer menu which includes an avocado cobb salad as well as a green mango mojito smoothie. This is a powerhouse of a healthy drink with spinach, lime, mint and half an avocado.

Sylvesters personal favorite way to eat an avocado? Avocado toast. (So there, naysayers!)

Certainly one of the most popular ways to enjoy this favorite is in guacamole. In fact, probably more avocados are used in this snack favorite than any other way. At last years Super Bowl, an amazing 104 million pounds were consumed.

Go ahead and enjoy avocados anyway that appeals to you. Theres almost nothing they dont complement or go with.

For one thing, it turns out this darling of the produce section is quite the super food. They contain no cholesterol or sodium, are low in saturated fat, rich in monounsaturated fats and full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Its four grams of protein make it a fruit with more protein content than any other and more potassium than bananas.

Did I say fruit? Yes. Though we consider avocados more like a vegetable, technically they are considered a fruit, like tomatoes.

The truth is we cant seem to get enough of them, always finding new and creative ways to eat their buttery goodness. The average American consumes seven pounds of avocados per year, up from just one pound per year three decades ago. According to the Hass Avocado Board, annual retail sales reached $1.6 billion by 2016.

So how did something thats been around for centuries suddenly become so popular and in demand? In the late 1990s, the U.S. government lifted an 83-year-old ban on avocado imports from Mexico. This had been put in place originally to protect California growers, who were worried about two things  pests and competition. Getting rid of the ban has created a year-round supply of avocados for us.

Cultural changes have also played a part, like the popularity of tacos and "good fats" as health food.

Though there are other varieties of avocados, the most popular is the Hass, named after Rudolph Hass, a mailman who patented it in 1935. He had bought some seedlings in the mid-1920s and tried to graft them with no luck. So, the story goes, he just let them grow unattended. It was his children who some time later saw the fruit and picked it, and the rest is history.

The fruit is distinguished by a dark pebbly skin and that wonderful buttery interior. Hass avocados account for more than 80 percent of the avocado crop and 95 percent of those grown in California. They dont ripen on the tree, but instead soften and become edible after harvest. The skin darkens as it ripens, going from green to nearly black.

Until recently, avocados had a reputation for being a hit-or-miss proposition. They were either hard as a rock or way too soft. Here is the best way to tell if its ready or not: Cradle the avocado in your palm and give it a gentle squeeze. If it gives a little, then its ready. You can also ripen them at home, though it can take a few days. Either leave them on the counter or put them in a paper bag with a banana, apple or tomato. The ethylene gas will do the trick.

To cut an avocado, go lengthwise around the pit and twist the halves to pull it apart. Remove the pit by sliding a spoon underneath and gently lifting it out. Some cooks might smack the pit with a knife  its not safe, so dont do it. Then scoop the meat out with a spoon.

Lucky for us there is no season for avocados  they are always available.

Remember the adage, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"? Maybe we should change that to an avocado.
ATLANTA  The nations chief doctor wants more Americans to start carrying the overdose antidote naloxone to help combat the nations opioid crisis and save lives.

Speaking at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta last week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams issued his offices first national public health advisory in 13 years.

Adams said he hopes those who are at risk  as well as their friends and family members  will keep the antidote on hand and learn how to use it.

"You dont have to be a policeman or a firefighter or a paramedic to save a life," said Adams, who pointed out that more than half of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. occur at home.

According to federal data, more than 42,000 Americans suffered fatal opioid overdoses in 2016, more than double the number who died in 2010.

Naloxone can restore a persons breathing after it is injected or sprayed in the nostrils, quickly bringing overdose victims back from near-death.

The drug, which is often referred to by the brand name Narcan, is available without a prescription in most states and is regularly used by first responders across the country. Another product, Evzio, is available with a prescription and delivers naloxone via a hand-held auto-injector.

Adams said 95 percent of all insured Americans are covered to purchase naloxone. First responders and community organizations can purchase Narcan nasal spray, one of the most widely available products, at group discounts of $37.50 per dose, drugmaker Adapt Pharma said in a news release.

Generic, injectable versions of naloxone are cheaper.

For those who are uninsured, Narcan can cost around $80 per dose but the antidote is often available at little or no cost through local public health programs, Adams said. The surgeon general also wants more federal funds dedicated to increasing naloxone access on local levels.

"Costs should not and, in the near future, will not be a barrier to accessing naloxone for anyone in America," Adams said.

As of July 2017, all 50 states have passed laws improving naloxone access, according to The Network for Public Health Law, a nonprofit that helps government agencies.

Maines Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the push, arguing that naloxone doesnt treat addiction and merely discourages people from seeking treatment by essentially offering a safety net if they do overdose.

Proponents, however, argue that greater access to naloxone doesnt draw people to illegal drug use or foster an addiction.

Adams said naloxone will not single-handedly solve the opioid crisis and should instead be used "in conjunction with expanded access to evidence-based treatment."

"There are people out there who think naloxone doesnt make a difference: youre just going to go on and misuse substances again," Adams said. "That would be like me saying Im not going to do CPR on someone having a heart attack because if we save them, theyre just going to go out there and eat fast food and be back here all over again."
Chinese property giant Evergrande to invest big in high-tech sectors

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-04-09 21:57

BEIJING - Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande Group has partnered with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to invest in high-tech sectors, the company announced Monday.

The company plans to invest about 100 billion yuan ($15.84 billion) in the next decade in sectors including life sciences, aviation, quantum science, new energy, artificial intelligence, robotics, and modern agriculture.

The two parties will build three bases to attract and nurture top scientists and promote research and development as well as industrialization of research findings.

Evergrande Group saw its sales exceed 500.9 billion yuan last year, up 34.2 percent year on year. Late last month, the company said it will tap into high-tech sectors to complement its property, cultural tourism, and health businesses.

Investing in high-tech sectors is a major strategy for Evergrande Group to become a sustainable development enterprise, said Xu Jiayin, board chairperson of the Hong-Kong-listed company.
and tell him hes fired? That would be cool. Mueller shows for the moment of his lifetime  interrogating the U.S. president  but instead is told to hit the road. President Trump then walks out of the room. Thats some mighty fine reality TV.

After todays raid of Michael Cohens home and office, I think its fair to consider whether Trump should fire Mueller. However, its premature to reach a conclusion. We need to know more.

Its possible that the raid has a legitimate connection to the issue Mueller and his band of anti-Trump partisans is supposed to be investigating  alleged collusion with Russia. If so, and if Mueller adhered to proper procedures in connection with the raid of the presidents personal attorney, then the raid provides no basis for firing him.

However, reports suggest that the raid may have been related to the issue of payments by Cohen to Stormy Daniels. If so, then Mueller has moved so far from the scope of a reasonable investigation that he should be sacked.

Theres a third, and middle possibility. The search and seizure of Cohens documents might result from the desire to investigate the presidents personal finances and dealings. Trump has warned that such an investigation would cross a red line.

Muellers actions regarding Cohen are sufficiently provocative to make me wonder whether he would like to be fired. Maybe he and his gang have concluded that they dont have much on Trump  not enough to bring him down, anyway  but that Muellers firing might bring the president down.

This seems far-fetched. But its clear that, at a minimum, Mueller is willing to be fired. Perhaps he views this as a win-win situation. Either way he makes a run at taking Trump down through hyper-aggressive investigatory tactics or he makes that run by being fired and becoming a martyr.

And either way, he promotes the interests of his team  Democrats and other Trump haters.

UPDATE: I gather from various reports that Mueller brought whatever evidence he had about Cohen to Rod Rosenstein, who had him refer the case to the U.S. Attorney in New York because he thought it was beyond the scope of Muellers proper investigation. But if, as has been reported, the information was about Stormy Daniels, then Mueller might well have been acting beyond his proper scope when he uncovered that information.

It also seems ridiculous to have raided Cohen over what, under a very aggressive interpretation of the campaign finance law, might have been an illegal campaign contribution of $130,000. Why would Mueller even have brought this matter to Rosenstein unless he wanted a raid for his own purposes?

As I say, I think we need to know more.
Not long ago, the political science department at Beloit College posted the following job opening:

College of Liberal Arts, Department of Political Science, Tenure-Track Position Opening POSITION: Assistant Professor of Political Science (Political Theory) Beloit College, a selective liberal arts college with a proud tradition of innovation, seeks an energetic teacher-scholar for a replacement position of five courses per year. The successful candidate will be responsible for introductory courses in political theory and US government, and for upper-level courses in the history of political theory, American political thought, and constitutional law. Ability to approach these courses from critical perspectives is a plus.We prefer candidates with a desire to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines, and who develop pedagogical approaches that foster creativity and apply theoretical knowledge to address real problems such as institutionalized racism. Because equity and inclusion are central to our students liberal arts education and vital to the thriving of all members of our residential learning community, Beloit College aspires to be an actively anti-racist institution.

Boy, I am glad Beloit clarified things with that last statement, because I was deeply worried that Beloit College was a hotbed of white supremacy.

So I guess given Beloits intense interest in virtue-signalling, we shouldnt be surprised to see this story:

Speaker invited by Young Americans for Freedom sparks controversy The appearance of political philosopher Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. at Beloit College on Friday, April 6, stirred controversy among Beloit students who object to Dr. Mansfields views regarding gender and sexuality. Mansfield, 86, is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught for over 50 years. His lecture on Friday highlighted his 2006 book Manliness, in which he defines manliness as confidence in a situation of risk. The book suggests that this quality has lost value in Western culture, and claims that innate differences exist between men and women which adhere to Western societys traditional perceptions of masculinity and femininity. . . Several audience members booed Mansfield as he took the stage, and some heckled him throughout his talk. After Mansfield said that women are innately weaker than their husbands, Reese Iafano18 stood and yelled, Who the fuck is paying you to be here? Iafano was asked to leave by the security guard present, and he obliged. Mansfield did not acknowledge most of the interruptions.

Now, the amusing thing here is that I hosted Mansfield at Berkeley last month, and there was no fusseven when he said in his remarks that The Democratic Party is a coalition of PhDs and morons. And in the course of my introduction, I did mention that I have oft been tempted to walk through all the student activist tables on Sproul Plaza with a copy of Manliness tucked under my arm, just to see what might happen. (Some other time Ill explain why I think the problem of leftist intellectual conformity is actually much more severe at private liberal arts colleges than it is at storied public universities like Berkeley, Boulder, or Ohio State.)

Memo to Power Line readers who may be Beloit alums: Send a stiff note to the administration informing them that you will henceforth decline to make any financial contributions to the college.
Scott wrote earlier about the FBIs raid on the home and office of President Trumps long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen. I want to add my own thoughts in a separate post.

News reports indicate that the FBI raid resulted, at least in part, from a referral by Robert Mueller. The subject of the raid included payments to the former porn actress known as Stormy Daniels. Good going, Bobyou were assigned to investigate non-existent collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russians, and now youre down to liaisons with porn performers.

Donald Trump allegedly spent one illicit evening with Ms. Daniels 12 years ago, when he was a private citizen. (Lacking personal knowledge, I assume the allegation is probably true.) That might be a big deal to Melania Trump, but to the rest of us it is utterly irrelevant. What makes the encounter news is the fact, acknowledged by Mr. Cohen, that he paid Daniels $130,000 for a non-disclosure agreement in October 2016. Such a payment is entirely legal and (relatively speaking) proper. I regard the claim that this payment was a campaign contribution as frivolous.

So heres the situation: the Special Democratic Party Prosecutor and the Department of Justice, in the person of the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of New York, have nothing better to do than investigate a 12-year-old, one-night consensual encounter involving Donald Trump. Apparently, actual crime in New York is a thing of the past. Organized crime is extinct; political corruption is non-existent; illegal immigration has ceased; violent crime is unknown. Stormy Daniels is the most pressing item on the law enforcement agenda.

It is blindingly obvious that this whole story, and the leak thereof, is a political attack on President Trump by the Democratic Party. There is only one serious question: Didnt President Trump appoint the current Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray? And the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions? Yes, he did. So why is DOJ making war on the president?

The answer is that Trump and his appointees do not control the departments they ostensibly run. Liberals tell us that at DOJ, it is critically important that political appointees not interfere with the career professionals who do all the work. I say, bullshit. The career professionals are just Democratic Party lifers who have risen to the top of the bureaucracy, often by avoiding any actual, risky work. Im not talking about FBI agents on the street, or the majority of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. (U.S. Attorneys, of course, are political appointees.) Im talking about career bureaucrats like James Comey, Bob Mueller, Andy McCabe, and so on.

President Trumps appointees absolutely should interfere with these Democratic Party operatives. They should order them to direct their efforts toward legitimate law enforcement ends, not toward Democratic Party activism. Those who refuse should be fired.

We are witnessing, as Scott says, a political death struggle with the authorities operating under [President Trumps] nominal control. President Trump and his loyal appointees need to assert the powers that the voters have given them.
Bone flutes to play sounds from history

From:Shine | 2018-04-10 01:29

Wei Sijun plays a replica bone flute, said to be Chinas oldest musical instrument as well as the worlds oldest wind instrument.

Themagical sound of a bone flute can be enjoyed when flautist Tang Junqiao and her colleagues perform at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival next month.

About 30 flutes will be used in the performance with some of them reproducing the sound of bone flutes that were discovered at the Jiahu Relics in Henan Province and are said to be up to 9,000 years old.

More than 30 flutes made from bones of red-crowned cranes were unearthed at Jiahu Village in the 1980s and in 2001. They suggested that the bone flute was Chinas oldest musical instrument as well as the worlds oldest wind instrument.

Zhao Songting, the renowned flute player, was invited to play the bone flute when they were discovered. He made a replica bone flute and planned to perform on stage but passed away in 2001.

Zhaos student Tang is following in her teachers footsteps. With the help of flute maker Wang Jianhong, she and her colleagues tried to replicate a six-hole flute from the No. 253 Tomb of the Jiahu Relics with materials that included rosewood, China fir, bamboo and resin.

It took us about a year, with repeated experiments, tests and comparison with the audio data, to find the voice closest to that of the original bone flute, said Tang. Fortunately, we succeeded in the trials with bitter bamboo and resin synthetic materials. The finished flutes sound very similar to that in the recording, but have better intonation.

Tang and her colleagues will present the history of Chinese flute during the performance next month. The director Xu Ying said it will be a unique cross-over work with the participation of a traditional Chinese orchestra, symphony orchestra, chorus and multimedia support with the flute playing the leading role.
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President Andrzej Duda paid tribute to the late presidential couple at the Wawel Cathedral crypt, the final resting place of Lech Kaczynski and Maria Kaczynska (1 / 33)

President Andrzej Duda paid tribute to the victims of the 2010 Smolensk air disaster in west Russia which killed the Polish presidential couple and scores of high-ranking state and military officials.

On Tuesday morning, President Duda marked the 8th anniversary of the 2010 Smolensk air disaster by laying flowers at the Wawel Cathedral crypt in Krakow, the final resting place of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska.

The ceremony was attended by Marta Kaczynska, the late first couple's daughter.

Earlier, President Duda attended a mass in the crypt. In the crypt, there is also a plaque commemorating the Smolensk disaster victims bearing a Latin sentence "Corpora dormiunt, vigilant animae" (bodies are sleeping, spirits keep watching), an inscription: "In memory of the victims of the disaster in Smolensk on April 10, 2010" and the names of the victims. After the ceremony in Wawel, the President said that Tuesday's ceremony "looked the same as every year since that memorable moment". "It can be said that this is the ritual of the tenth of April," he added. "On April 10, 2010, many people passed away, people who were treasures for Poland, a great hope for Polish politics, Polish public life and probably nothing can replace this loss," President Andrzej Duda stressed. He also said he believes that "sooner or later it will be possible to explain the Smolensk tragedy."

After that the Polish President at Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery paid tribute to the victims of the 2010 Smolensk air disaster. The presidential couple Andrzej Duda and Agata Kornhauser-Duda laid flowers on the graves of the disaster victims and under the cemetery's memorial to the crash.

Also attending were National Security Bureau (BBN) head Pawel Soloch and President Duda's chancellery head Halina Szymanska. Earlier Andrzej Duda also visited Warsaw's Brodnowski Cemetery in order to pay respect at the graves of presidential staff killed in the disaster.

On Tuesday afternoon, the memorial to the 96 victims of the Polish presidential plane crash was unveiled in a central Warsaw square by representatives of their families. The names of all the victims appear on it in alphabetical order.

"The Smolensk air disaster was a tragic moment, the most terrible one for the families of the victims but a terrible one also for all Poland," President Andrzej Duda said.

Addressing the gathering at the newly-unveiled memorial, President Duda said that it was a terrible moment for all of Poland as "the people, who were killed in the disaster, were building the reborn Poland, and who - as we hoped - were to continue building it for years." "The monument to the victims of the Polish presidential plan crash belongs to all of us," President Andrzej Duda stressed.

After that a stone marking the site of a future monument to the late President Lech Kaczynski was unveiled. The monument will be erected in front of the Warsaw Garrison headquarters, by Pilsudskiego Square.

Also on Tuesday, President Duda and his wife, the Polish prime minister, parliamentarians and government officials attended a holy mass for the disaster victims in Warsaw's St. John's Metropolitan Cathedral.

On April 10, 2010, President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, the last President of Poland in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski and dozens of senior government officials and military commanders were killed in the air disaster near Smolensk, western Russia. The delegation was on its way to Katyn to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn Massacre, during which around 22,000 Polish POWs were murdered at the hands of the Soviets.

The funeral of the presidential couple took place in Krakow, southern Poland, on April 18, 2010. Lech Kaczynski and Maria Kaczynska rest in a sarcophagus in a crypt in the Tower of Silver Bells on Wawel Hill. (PAP/BZ)
Xuhui unveils walking tour map tracing CPC story

From:Shine | 2018-04-10 01:29

A HISTORIC walking route has been drawn up that incorporates key sites of the Communist Party of China and the former residences of CPC members and reformists.

The route in Xuhui District was where the early CPC members and reformists carried out secret activities. The map, which has 16 sites to see, include the former base of the New Fourth Army, the site of the Partys secret radio station as well as former residences of Qu Qiubai, a CPC leader, and Tian Han, who wrote the lyrics of the national anthem.

Visitors can trace the history of the Party, witness the frugal lifestyle of the leaders as well as feel the passion of early Party members and reformists, the Xuhui District government said.

The walking tour starts from the former residence and now a memorial museum of Soong Ching-ling on Huaihai Road M. and goes along the Yuqing and Tianping roads.

The highlight of the tour is the secret base and supply station of the New Fourth Army.

The base of the army, a unit of the National Revolutionary Army led by the CPC, was hidden within a shikumen, a stone-gate style residential building on Jiashan Road. The building is now a residential property so it can only be admired from outside.

The secret base was established in March 1941, two months after the Wannan Incident, when the army was ambushed and attacked by the Kuomintang army in south of China. The base was set up to transfer survived soldiers, doctors and technicians to CPC-controlled regions.

Among those rescued include famous composer He Luting and well-known journalists Zou Taofen and Fan Changjiang.

Jacob Rosenfeld, an Austrian doctor who came to Shanghai to escape the Holocaust in 1939 and joined the Chinese peoples fight against the Japanese, Polish writer Hans Shippe and his wife were also among those who were rescued.

The base was shut down at the end of 1942.
Home  Just In  Flights affected as Yeti Airlines craft gets its wheel locked on Pokhara Airport runway

Pokhara, April 10

Flights scheduled to land in and take off the Pokhara Airport in Kaski district this afternoon have been affected as an aircraft belonging to Yeti Airlines got its wheel of landing gear locked on the runway.

The aircraft witnessed the problem while it was being parked after landing. It had successfully carried the flight from Kathmandu earlier.

We have called technicians from Kathmandu and we will fix it soon, informs the Airport Chief Bhola Guragain. He says the aeroplane will be take to the parking bay before the runway resumes operation.

The Airports Information Officer Kashi Nath Adhikari says a small-size Tara Air craft has been mobilised to ferry the technicians as no other big planes can land there currently.

Airport officials hope that the flights will resume by Tuesday evening.

The airport handles around 35 flights every day.
Broadsheet dailies published in Kathmandu on Tuesday have priortised a host of political, social and economic issues on their front pages. Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis visit to India and negotiations between the CPN UML and the Maoist Centre are two issues that have made it to most of the front pages. Heres a summary of important, ignored and interesting reports that made it to the press on Tuesday.

Important

Maoist ministers unhappy with Prime Minister Oli

Republica says that ministers from the Maoist Centre party have accused Prime Minister KP Oli of taking important decisions without consulting them. The paper says that ministers from the party have complained to the party chief Prachanda that the Prime minister did not consult them before transferring 30 secretaries ahead of his visit to India. The Himalayan Times says quotes the CPN-MC leader Dev Gurung as saying that the ministers will also raise the issue with the Prime Minister. Party spokesperson Pampha Bhusal told the paper that the Finance Minister Yubraj Khatiwada and officials from the National Planning Commission are working on the governments policies and programs without consulting the ministers. Republica says that the planned merger between the two parties could be delayed by a few weeks or even months as distrust between the two sides widens.

Forum or RJP? Which party will join Oli govt?

Naya Patrika says Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has left three ministerial berths in his Cabinet vacant so that Madhesh-based parties, who voted in favour of his confidence motion recently, can join the government. Although Forum-Nepal and the RJP are in contention for the posts, getting Forum Nepal onboard is Olis priority, the paper reports. The paper says that the RJP hasnt been able to choose its leader in Parliament as leaders are divided on the issue of joining the government.

Olis to Modi: Why Indian projects arent completed on time?

Kantipur reports that during the delegation-level meeting between Nepals Prime Minister Oli and his Indian counterpart Modi, Oli asked Modi why India-backed projects in Nepal do not finish on time. The paper says that Oli told Modi that he was not the best diplomat and would put things in a straightforward manner. Oli told Modi that New Delhi has always been pointing out that the lack of a stable government in Nepal was the main obstacle for India to implement projects. However, this time around, a stable government has been formed in Nepal and problems can be addressed easily.

Ignored

Basnet walks free in money-laundering case

The Kathmandu Post reports that the Special Court has found notorious don Parshuram Basnet not guilty in a money-laundering case. The paper says that a joint bench of Special Court Chairman Baburam Regmi, Ratna Bahadur Bagchand, and Narayan Prasad Pokhrel acquitted Basnet stating that the Department of Money Laundering Investigations claim that Basnet amassed property worth Rs 110.1 million by illegal means could not be established. The paper says that the Office of Attorney General has 50 days to file an appeal against the verdict at the Supreme Court. In the last eight months, this is the third time the Special Court has acquitted a politically well-connected person charged with amassing property illegally. The Special Court had earlier acquitted Rajeev Gurung (Deepak Manange) and Milan Gurung (Chakre Milan) in similar cases.

Interesting

Final breakthrough in Melamchi tunnel

The Himalayan Times reports that the much-hyped Melamchi Water Supply Project was set to achieve its final breakthrough on Monday night. The project is nearing completion 20 years after work began.

Drone delivers medicine to rural Nepal

Kantipur has dedicated considerable front page space to innovator Mahabir Pun and his groups attempt to ferry medicine using drones. According to the report, Pun and his group tested a cargo-laden drone flight in Myagdi. The drone flew over 1 km with load of 1kg of medicine, the report says. Similar tests are being undertaken to use drones to ferry medicine to remote parts of the country,
NOIDA, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

On the invitation of Sandeep Marwah, Founder of Noida Film City and President of AAFT-Marwah Studios, a British delegation visited Noida Film City to witness how this city has emerged as one of the fastest growing film city of the world.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/655519/AAFT_Logo.jpg )



The delegation was lead by Bob Blackman, Member - British Parliament, a member of several All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including ones associated with Israel, India, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Croatia, the USA and the UAE.

Bob Blackman was accompanied by Founder of Siddhashram Shakti Centre U.K., H.H. Raj Rajeshwar Guru Ji; Chairman of City of London Police Federation, Mike Reed; Police Commander Simon Owen; Councillor of Harrow Council, Ajay Maru; Assistant Director Home Affairs, Richard Lederleand and many important people from England.

Recently, the most prestigious award of 'Ambassador of Peace' was handed over to Sandeep Marwah in London. Bob Blackman presented this award to Marwah in the House of Commons at British Parliament. Bob is also a Co-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health and also leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Hindus.

"I was delighted to honour Marwah who has spent years and years of his life in spreading love, peace and unity in the world through arts and culture. Sandeep Marwah has proved to be an achiever. I am thankful to all of you for giving me this noble job to perform," said Bob Blackman at the event hosted at Noida Film City.

"I was thoroughly impressed and obliged by the style and the respect showered on me by calling me to the House of Commons in British Parliament. I pay my gratitude to the host Bob Blackman and to the British Government for considering me for Ambassador of Peace Award. This has added a lot to India and British relations. It has motivated me to do more in the same direction," said Sandeep Marwah, President of World Peace Development and Research Foundation.

Later, Marwah honoured all the members of the delegation by presenting them the life membership of World Peace Development and Research Foundation.

About AAFT

AAFT is the premiere film and television institute of India. AAFT - Asian Academy of Film and Television - is one of the first ten best film schools of the world. For more information, visit: http://www.aaft.com.

Media contact:

Haripriya,

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+91-120-4831143

http://www.aaft.com

Asian Society of Film & Television



SOURCE AAFT (Asian Academy of Film and Television)
This acquisition will address a well-documented issue in the discovery and access of scientific and academic research today, which stems from the circuitous, time-consuming and manual routes that researchers take to access the journal articles they need, even when their institutions and organisations have legitimate subscription access. This has resulted in the growth of social sharing networks and a hotly discussed dark web of crowdsourced journal articles.

Kopernio uses artificial intelligence to enable users to seamlessly access journal articles with just one-click, saving researchers time and frustration when accessing their institutional subscriptions. Kopernio automatically detects what individual or institutional subscriptions a user already possesses and facilitates instant access to the chosen article. It will also suggest free, alternative legal versions of the content that might already exist on openly available platforms if a user lacks the required subscriptions to access content behind a paywall.

Kopernio was founded by Jan Reichelt and Ben Kaube, the co-founders of Mendeley and Newsflo, respectively. With a proven track record of creating innovative technology solutions for the research community, Reichelt will join the group as Managing Director, Web of Science, and report to Annette Thomas (CEO, Scientific and Academic Research), whilst continuing to support Kopernio's growth and strategic direction as the company's President. Kaube will join as Managing Director, Kopernio.

Clarivate Analytics will invest in and scale-up Kopernio, while integrating it within other Clarivate products and services along with third-party platforms and partners. Kopernio intends to quickly build a valuable commercial offering for publishers and academic institutions.

Annette Thomas, CEO, Scientific & Academic Research division at Clarivate Analytics explained: "This is a strategic investment to acquire and scale a highly complementary business; the combined effect of which will address a major issue in scientific and academic research today. The scale, reach and unique citation network of Web of Science, the world's most trusted and extensive publisher-neutral citation index and research analysis platform, combined with Kopernio's researcher-facing product, will allow us to significantly increase access to research articles and provide novel solutions to the problems in research across the ecosystem. It further establishes our commitment to develop world-class innovative products to address critical challenges in one of the most important fields our society relies on: science and research."

Jan Reichelt, Co-Founder, Kopernio and incoming Managing Director at Web of Science added, "The global scale as well as the publisher-neutral position of Clarivate Analytics will allow us to quickly scale Kopernio and finally help solve one of the most frustrating and time-consuming research problems today. It's amazing to get another opportunity to help advance the technologies that support researchers in their daily work. Our partnership with Clarivate will allow us to develop new features that will be available to ten million researchers and scientists worldwide and in addition will provide valuable support and insights for publishers and academic institutions too."

Both Clarivate and Kopernio share a strong commitment to transforming the way articles are delivered to researchers whilst supporting the existing ecosystem between publishers and institutions. Each year, 10 million researchers around the globe access 2.5 billion journal articles (in PDF format) in order to conduct their research, whilst universities invest millions to provide access to academic journals.1

About Kopernio: Kopernio is a London-based startup, established in 2017, by the founders of Mendeley and Newsflo. Kopernio's vision is to provide immediate one-click access to academic journal articles, dramatically improving and facilitating access to scientific knowledge worldwide. For more information, please visit kopernio.com.

About Jan Reichelt: Jan Reichelt is the former Co-Founder of Mendeley, a global research collaboration platform. Jan led the company from foundation to acquisition by Reed Elsevier (now RELX) in 2013. He continued to lead Mendeley while at Elsevier, successfully growing it to service millions of users. Jan also supports other startups as an angel investor, was named "European Founder of the Year 2013", and sits on the board of Emerge Education, an EdTech-focused accelerator, and previously served as an advisor to SAP's supervisory board. He graduated with an MBA, having studied Business and Information Management in Germany, England and Italy.

About Clarivate Analytics: Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.

About Web of Science: Web of Science is the world's most trusted and largest publisher-neutral citation index, powering global discovery and citation analytics across the sciences, social sciences and art & humanities. With over 1.4 billion cited references going back to 1900 and millions of users per dayfrom leading government and academic institutions and research-intensive corporationsthe Web of Science citation network serves as the foundation for the Journal Impact Factor, InCites, and other powerful and trusted citation-impact measures. The Web of Science helps researchers, research institutions, publishers, and funders discover and assess the citation impact of over a century of research publications found in the most prestigious books, conference proceedings, and journals.

References 1. Theodore C, et al. Evaluating big deal journal bundles. PNAS 2014. 111 (26) 9425-30. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1403006111 2. A non-exhaustive list of currently supported institutions: https://kopernio.com/library-guides

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664556/Clarivate_Analytics.jpg

SOURCE Clarivate Analytics
PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Command and Control Systems Market by Platform (Airborne C2, Land C2, Maritime C2, Space C2), Solution (C2 Hardware, C2 Software, C2 Services), Application (Defense, Commercial), and Region (NA, EU, APAC, ME, Row) - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated at USD 29.10 Billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 35.65 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.15% from 2017 to 2022.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )

Browse 116 market data Tables and 60 Figures spread through 206 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Command and Control Systems Market - Global Forecast to 2022"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/command-control-system-market-144844194.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Demand for interoperability between various armed forces and increasing adoption of these systems in commercial applications are driving the market.

The land segment is projected to account for the largest market share during the forecast period

The land platform segment is projected to account for the highest market share of command and control systems market during the forecast period. Command and control systems for land forces include air defense, battle management, and nuclear defense. Apart from defense applications, land based command and control systems are being used for various transportation systems. Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) and European Train Control System (ETRS) are land based railway command and signaling systems. Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Vessel Traffic Management (VTM) are other transportation areas using command and control systems. Other emerging applications of land based commercial command and control systems include critical infrastructure and industrial applications for security management and monitoring.

The commercial segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The usage of command and control systems in commercial applications is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. These systems are being used for the security management of critical infrastructure, such as financial institutions, research labs, power plants, and offshore oil & gas installations. Transportation is another emerging application wherein command and control systems are being used for traffic management, such as vessel traffic management, air traffic management, and train signaling system. Industrial installations include automotive and commercial facilities.

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The Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the command and control systems market during the forecast period

The Asia Pacific region is expected to experience extensive growth during the next few years. Increase in defense spending among countries in the Asia Pacific region is expected to lead to high demand for command and control systems. Rise in conflicts among neighboring countries in the Asia Pacific region and the threats from growing terrorism are reasons driving this market. Due to geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea and border issues in multiple countries, the procurement of various C4ISR systems for military and homeland security applications is expected to increase across the region.

Key players profiled in the command and control systems market report include Lockheed Martin (US), Raytheon (US), Rockwell Collins (US), General Dynamics (US), BAE Systems (UK), Thales (France), Leonardo (Italy), Elbit Systems (Israel), SAAB (sweden), Systematic (Denmark), and Northrop Grumman (US), among others. Other commercial players include Cisco Systems (US), Motorola Solutions (US), Siemens (Germany), and Alstom (France), among others.

Know more about the Command and Control Systems Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/command-control-system-market-144844194.html

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MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
"We are delighted to announce the release of DentalCAD 2.2 Valletta and energized about the new possibilities it presents for dental professionals," said Tillmann Steinbrecher, CEO. "This release, as always, is very much a collaborative effort between exocad and its customers. The product evolves as a result of invaluable feedback and feature requests we receive from users, enabling us to drive innovation and continuously set the industry standard in digital dentistry excellence."

Major highlights of the new release are among others:

dentalshare webview : True 3D preview links that work in a web browser and on your mobile device

: True 3D preview links that work in a web browser and on your mobile device Faster interaction thanks to many usability and performance improvements

Many new hotkeys for frequently used functions

New Contact Point tools: Smarter approximal adaptation, easy editing with Disc Cutter

Simplified nesting in CAD (Production Blank Selection) for CAM export, multi-layered blank rendering with TruSmile support

support New HD tooth library with natural and aesthetically pleasing tooth set

Articulator: Free selection of guidance surface in articulator movement

Model Creator: Implant models with gingiva mask and individual insertion directions for dies

Improved rendering of textured/colored scans from intra-oral and face scanners

Option to display additional interactive cut views

All users who already have an update contract will be able to use the new release.

About exocad GmbH

exocad GmbH (exocad.com) is a dynamic and innovative software company committed to expanding the possibilities of digital dentistry and providing OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) with flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use CAD/CAM software for dental labs and dental practices. exocad software has been chosen by leading OEMs worldwide for integration into their dental CAD/CAM offerings, and thousands of exocad DentalCAD licenses are sold each year. For more information and a list of exocad reseller partners, please visit exocad.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664934/exocad_GmbH_Valetta.jpg

SOURCE exocad GmbH
PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Almond Oil Market by Type, Application and Distribution Channel: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023, the global almond oil market was valued at $1,118 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $2,680 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13.2% from 2017 to 2023. The sweet almond oil segment dominated the market in 2016, with more than half share, in terms of revenue.

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Almond oil is extracted from kernels of Prunus Dulcis tree using cold-pressed method. Presence of various vitamins such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B, and vitamin A; minerals; proteins and omega fatty acids make this oil an all-purpose essential and carrier oil which is utilized in food preparation, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The demand of almond oil is on an increase across the globe due to its health benefits and high nutritional value.

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Rise in demand of aromatherapy products and growth in use of almond oil in cosmetic formulations due to increase in preference for natural ingredients are the primary factors that drive the almond oil market across the globe. Almond oil is widely utilized in the production of face creams, body lotions, hair oils, and various other cosmetic products for moisturizing and cleansing. Rapid urbanization, growth in applications in pharmaceutical industry, and changes in lifestyle are other factors that supplement the market growth. However, high price of almond oil, especially bitter almond oil as it is extracted from exotic species hinder the market growth. Nevertheless, growth in demand for almond oil from emerging economies such as India and China and favorable government regulations, which encourage use of natural ingredients in cosmetic formulations provide great potential for market expansion.

Sweet almond oil accounted for more than half of the market, in terms of revenue, in 2016 as it is being widely utilized in pharmaceutical, skin care, and color-cosmetic industries owing to its healthy moisturization properties and natural stability. It can be utilized as reepithelization agent, excipient, and sebum restoring agent in cosmetic industry. Sweet almond oil is rich in fatty acids, which favor restoration of skin lipid balance and thus is utilized in various skin treatments.

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Cosmetic segment holds the largest share, in terms of revenue, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5%. Use of almond oil is increasing in cosmetic formulations due to rise in preference of consumers toward organic and healthy ingredients. Favorable government regulations, which encourage the use of natural ingredients in these formulations also assist in supplementing the growth of the cosmetic segment.

Key Findings of the Almond Oil Market:

North America is expected to lead the market during the forecast period in terms of revenue, followed by Asia-Pacific .

is expected to lead the market during the forecast period in terms of revenue, followed by . Sweet almond oil market volume is projected to grow with a CAGR of 12.5%, in terms of volume during the forecast period.

The cosmetic segment is expected to show highest growth, registering a CAGR of 12.9% in terms of volume.

Turkey accounted for 6.58% share in the LAMEA almond oil market in 2016.

accounted for 6.58% share in the LAMEA almond oil market in 2016. Mexico is projected to grow at a fastest rate in the North America almond oil market, registering a CAGR of 13.8%.

is projected to grow at a fastest rate in the almond oil market, registering a CAGR of 13.8%. Germany accounts for 10.20% share in the Europe almond oil market in 2016.

North America and Asia-Pacific collectively contributed more than half of the share to the global almond oil market revenue in 2016. In the same year, Asia-Pacific was the fastest growing market owing to massive urbanization and growth in income of people.

The prominent market players are AOS Products Private Limited, Ashwin Fine Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Blue Diamond Growers, Inc., Caloy Quality Natural Oils, Eden Botanicals, Jiangxi Baicao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Xuesong Natural Medicinal Oil Co., Ltd., Liberty Vegetable Oil Company, Mountain Ocean, NOW Foods, and Proteco Oils.

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Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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United States

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
HYDERABAD, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report by IndustryARC titled "Blockchain Market in Supply Chain: By Type (Public, Private and Consortium); By Application (Contract management, Payment systems, Procurement, Provenance, Ownership transfer, Asset Tracking and Inventory Control) and Geography - Forecast (2018-2023)", the market is expected to reach $424.24 million by 2023 with a CAGR of 48.37 % during the forecast period. Large number of companies have been using the blockchain technology for supply chain applications. This factor bolsters the market.

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North America has a major share in the Blockchain Market in Supply Chain Market

North America is expected to dominate the Blockchain Market in Supply Chain with a revenue of $131.65 million by 2023. In Asia Pacific, the market is expected to have a CAGR of 56.1% in the coming years. It is beneficial in transforming the payments prospect by offering an economy cost. Digital currency is the latest trend being followed in the market. In the Asia Pacific region, technology has developed with Blockchain. Blockchain technology maintains the transparency of the databases which includes payments, contract management, procurement, etc.

In other economies like Middle East, Africa, and Brazil, the increasing demand for digitization is due to government initiatives through foreign investment in these countries to become the top global economies. This enhances the scope for the blockchain solutions in these countries.

Selected Analysis done in the full Report:

Smart contracts and blockchain technology are the main driving forces for contract management. This in turn drives the market due to better economic efficiencies, saving time and other factors. The manufacturers and their partners have individual transactions in a block that has bills for raw materials, finished goods, quality, proof of origin, etc. A blockchain management ensures the creation of smart contracts, comprising of terms and conditions. Hence, manufacturers and partners can trust the contract and the identity of their counterpart.

The need for product lifecycles has led to various conflicts between the manufacturers and suppliers. But the problem of managing the development of a complex product has resulted in the use of blockchain technology, since it protects the competitor's edge of the manufacturer and supplier, thus propelling the growth of peer to peer technology across the world.

To purchase or browse the table of contents of the report follow the link below:

https://industryarc.com/Report/17923/blockchain-market-in-supply-chain.html

Excerpts Growth Factors Mentioned in the Full Report:

Blockchain transactions has become more flexible and many manual tasks are carried out automatically using smart contracts. This reduces the costs and speeds up the processes, which in turn spurs the cryptocurrency market.

Blockchain technology offers a better transparency for the end users and consumers in the supply chain. It allows the consumers to track and provides assurance of provenance in the trade.

Programmable blockchain platforms have a decentralized data structure which provides the execution of transaction and data storage in a decentralized manner. The inventory management software keeps a record of the price, date, location, quality, and certification. Technical infrastructure and scalability of the technology are the main features of the Blockchain Market Ecosystem.

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https://industryarc.com/pdfdownload.php?id=17923

Keyplayers of the Blockchain Market in Supply Chain

IBM Corporation is one of the leading companies in developing blockchain technologies. It has major presence in countries like Japan, US, Europe, China, and Asia Pacific. It operates in business segments such as analytics, cloud, commerce, IT, infrastructure, and security. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu operates in segments like finanacial advisory, risk advisory, consulting, tax, and audit. T-Mining which has its headquarters in Belgium uses blockchain technology for sharing data and secure file transfer for logistics and support.

Abra AlphaPoin Bitfury Group Limited Bloq BTL Group Ltd Chain, Inc Chainvine Coinbase Digital Asset Holding LLC Digital Treasury Corporation Ethereum Foundation Factom Guardtime Internation Machine Business Corporation IBM Blockcypher, Inc. Microsoft Primechain Technologies Pvt. Ltd Skuchain Monax Romit Provenance Ltd Others (15+)

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https://industryarc.com/inquiry-before-buying.php?id=17923

Blockchain Market in Supply Chain is segmented as below

Blockchain technology enables the businesses to work together with more trust. It provides a sharing operating system where the parties involved in an exchange can access the digital record of transactions which are unchangeable.

Blockchain Market in Supply Chain by type

1. Public

2. Private

3. Consortium

Blockchain Market in Supply Chain by Application

1. Contract Management

2. Payment Systems

3. Procurement

4. Provenance

5. Ownership Transfer

6. Asset Tracking and Inventory Control

Blockchain Market in Supply Chain by geography (12+ countries)

Company Profiles

Appendix: Abbreviations, Sources, Research Methodology, Bibliography, Compilation of Experts, Disclaimer.

Related Report:

Blockchain in Healthcare Market :https://industryarc.com/Report/18224/blockchain-in-healthcare-market.html Blockchain in small and Medium Business :https://industryarc.com/Report/17926/blockchain-market-in-small-medium-business.html Blockchain Market in Retail :https://industryarc.com/Report/17925/blockchain-market-in-retail.html

What can you expect from the report?

The Blockchain Market in Supply Chain Report is prepared with the Main Agenda to Cover the following 20 points:

1. Market Size by Product Categories

2. Market trends

3. Manufacturer Landscape

4. Distributor Landscape

5. Pricing Analysis

6. Top 10 End user Analysis

7. Product Benchmarking

8. Product Developments

9. Mergers & Acquisition Analysis

10. Patent Analysis

11. Demand Analysis (By Revenue & Volume )

12. Country level Analysis (13+)

13. Competitor Analysis

14. Market Shares Analysis

15. Value Chain Analysis

16. Supply Chain Analysis

17. Strategic Analysis

18. Current & Future Market Landscape Analysis

19. Opportunity Analysis

20. Revenue and Volume Analysis

Does IndustryARC publish country, geography or application based reports in Blockchain Market in Supply Chain ?

Yes, we do have separate reports and database as mentioned below:

1. Americas Blockchain Market in Supply Chain

2. Europe Blockchain Market in Supply Chain

3. Asia pacific Blockchain Market in Supply Chain

4. Contract Management Block Chain Market in Supply Chain

5. Payment systems Block Chain Market in Supply Chain

6. Procurement Blockchain Market in Supply Chain

Talk to one of our sales representative about the full report by providing your details in the link below:

https://industryarc.com/support.php?id=17923

Does IndustryARC provide customized reports and charge additionally for limited customization?

Yes, we can customize the report by extracting data from our database of reports and annual subscription databases. We can provide the following free customization:

1. Increase the level of data in application or end user industry.

2. Increase the number of countries in geography or product chapter.

3. Find out market shares for other smaller companies or companies which are of interest to you

4. Company profiles can be requested based on your interest.

5. Patent analysis, pricing, product analysis, product benchmarking, value and supply chain analysis can be requested for a country or end use segment.

Any other major customizations can be discussed with our team and can provide a separate quote based on your requirements. You can drop an e-mail to [email protected] to discuss more about our consulting services.

About IndustryARC:

IndustryARC is a Research and Consulting Firm that publishes more than 500 reports annually, in various industries such as Agriculture, Automotive, Automation & Instrumentation, Chemicals and Materials, Energy and Power, Electronics, Food & Beverages, Information Technology, Life sciences &Healthcare.

IndustryARC primarily focuses on Cutting Edge Technologies and Newer Applications in a Market. Our Custom Research Services are designed to provide insights on the constant flux in the global supply-demand gap of markets. Our strong team of analysts enables us to meet the client research needs at a rapid speed, with a variety of options for your business.

We look forward to supporting the client to be able to better address their customer needs, stay ahead in the market, become the top competitor and get real-time recommendations on business strategies and deals. Contact us to find out how we can help you today.

Media Contact:

Mr. Venkat Reddy

Sales Manager

Email 1: [email protected]

Or Email 2: [email protected]

Contact Sales: +1-614-588-8538 (Ext-101)



SOURCE IndustryARC
PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market by Vehicle Type and Technology: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023, the global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market was valued at $278 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at $12,133 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 72.4% from 2017 to 2023.

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Presently, North America dominates the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market. However, Japan is expected to register the highest growth in Asia-Pacific by 2023. Moreover, the UK is anticipated led the overall market in Europe in 2023. At present, the U.S. dominates the North American market.

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Rise in environmental concern and government initiatives for the development of hydrogen fuel cell infrastructure drive the market growth. Furthermore, tax rebates and developments in aggressive hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) fuel the market growth. However, initial large investment in infrastructure is expected to restrain the market growth.

In 2016, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell segment dominated the global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market, in terms of revenue. However, based on vehicle type, passenger vehicle led the global market in 2016.

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Key Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market:

Passenger vehicle generated the highest revenue in 2016.

In 2016, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell segment accounted for the highest revenue in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market.

Asia-Pacific is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The key players profiled in the report include Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Daimler, Audi, BMW, Volvo, Ballard Power Systems, General Motors, and MAN.

Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree

Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

Shriram Dighe

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285

UK: +44-845-528-1300

Hong Kong: +852-301-84916

India (Pune): +91-20-66346060

Fax: +1855550-5975

[email protected]



Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com

SOURCE Allied Market Research
NEW DELHI, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Special display arena will showcase exquisite signature collections from interior decor and home textile sectors

India's premium fairs for home textiles, homeware and interior decor, Heimtextil India and Ambiente India have launched Bespoke Living, an exclusive product showcase space dedicated to companies dealing with signature collections. The pioneer event will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 27th - 29th June, 2018. With four successful editions in a row, Heimtextil India and Ambiente India also slated on the same dates, have become the country's leading business trade fairs to showcase the finest quality of dining, living, giving and home textiles. Organised by Messe Frankfurt India, the launch of Bespoke Living aims to highlight one of kind brands who deal with uniquely crafted designs that will range from plush statement pieces to extensive signature collections for home and retail furnishing.

The term luxury decor is not restricted to brand names anymore. With trends like fully furnished luxury houses, theme-dominated homes and tastefully designed retail showrooms rapidly picking up in the country, consumers are open to different styles and unique designs. Be it the very popular Scandinavian-themed houses to colourful cultural artefacts creating a soothing aura, Indians now want their homes and businesses to reflect their personal style with statement interiors.

Halls dedicated to Bespoke Living will feature selected designer brands from India and around the world showcasing their premium collections. This product showcase arena will be beneficial for interior designers, architects, hotel buyers, buyers of luxury goods and luxury homes developers. Business visitors can gain knowledge about the upcoming trends, source timeless pieces, build new connections with people sharing the same interest and experience the quality of the products in person. Exposure to best-in-class products and latest trends presented here will help them create a better home design experience for their clients.

Excelling in statement leather pieces the brand, Three Sixty will showcase their latest leather collection that comprises of rugged travel accessories and signature furniture pieces. Inspired by the world's deserts and explorers who traversed them, the brand designs fully customisable handmade products which are available in beautiful shades of tan, sure to up the sophistication quotient of home and retail interiors.

"Our latest collection at Bespoke Living will showcase our ever evolving tastes and designs. We believe luxury need not be synonymous with breaking open the bank. Traditional Indian craftsmen can craft the most beautiful signature pieces and provide quality beyond compare," shared Mr. Vikash Gupta, CEO, Three Sixty. International exhibitors present at the show will showcase exquisite artefacts like decorative ceramics with glaze, handmade clay wreaths with metal leaves, ceramic vases and other decorative items to make every home unique.

Apart from this specially curated design platform, Heimtextil India and Ambiente India 2018 will host the Interior Lifestyle Awards that will bring creative masters from the interior decor and home textile sectors together by recognising their art and giving them an international platform to showcase their designs. The trade fair will also organise the Hospitality Day, a hospitality and retail procurement programme that will bring top-class purchase managers from the industry to build new contacts and source quality products. Together, Heimtextil India and Ambiente India together will host over 100 companies from countries like India, Indonesia, Switzerland and Thailand showcasing trendsetting designs in the interior decor and home textile industry.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ambiente-india.com ; http://www.heimtextil-india.com

About Messe Frankfurt

Messe Frankfurt is the world's largest trade fair, congress and event organiser with its own exhibition grounds. With more than 2,500* employees at some 30 locations, the company generates annual sales of around 661* million. Thanks to its far-reaching ties with the relevant sectors and to its international sales network, the Group looks after the business interests of its customers effectively. A comprehensive range of services - both onsite and online - ensures that customers worldwide enjoy consistently high quality and flexibility when planning, organising and running their events. The wide range of services includes renting exhibition grounds, trade fair construction and marketing, personnel and food services. With its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, the company is owned by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and the State of Hesse (40 percent). *preliminary numbers 2017

For more information, please visit our website at:

http://www.messefrankfurt.com | http://www.congressfrankfurt.de | http://www.festhalle.de

Media Contact:

Ruhi Shaikh

[email protected]

+91-22-6144-5914

Manager - PR & Corporate Communications

Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt. Ltd.



SOURCE Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt. Ltd.
NEW DELHI, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The pioneer of TV & online shopping in India, HomeShop18 has announced its 10th anniversary celebrations with great pomp and show. By being a part of this cherished occasion, shoppers can avail unbeatable offers on all categories from clothing and footwear to jewellery and appliances, throughout the month of April.

Speaking about the big day, Chief Executive Officer, HomeShop18, Mr. Manish Kalra said, "Keeping the interests of customers in mind, our team has worked hard on curating the bestsellers, as well as finding new and unique products with great offers that our customers will love. So do check out the collections to get amazing offers on unique products."

Established in April 2008 as a 24-hour TV shopping channel, HomeShop18 revolutionised the world of shopping in no time. A one-stop-shop to buy the latest products at the cheapest rates, it was an instant hit in thousands of Indian households. As a result, it ventured further and expanded operations by first launching an e-commerce website in January 2011, and then a mobile app in August 2013.

Today, after 10 glorious years in the business, it stands head and shoulders above the rest - serving over 3 crore happy customers across more than 24,000 postal codes. While it's TV shopping channel records a weekly viewership of 15 million and above, its call centre receives nearly 60,000 calls every day.

Ever so grateful, Homeshop18 wishes to reward its customers for these 10 happy years with a celebration they're worthy of. Starting today, it promises a ten-on-ten experience to one and all - complete with the most tempting offers, the most pleasing rewards, and the most gratifying contests.

Come; celebrate the 10/10 feeling!



About HomeShop18

HomeShop18 is a one-stop portal for TV and online shopping in India, with a collection of 100% original products spread across various categories such as digital, clothing, home & kitchen, health & beauty, footwear, accessories, jewellery and appliances. Everything at HomeShop18 is weaved around what you like. With quality, value, and convenience mixed right into our foundation, we try to provide you - our beloved customer - the best possible shopping experience.

Media Contact :

Rahul Singh

[email protected]

+91-9560416661

Sirez Ltd.



SOURCE HomeShop18
PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report "Mobile Substation Market by Application (Industrial (Metals & Mining, Oil & Gas, Construction, Port, and Data Centers), and Utilities), and Region (Midle East & Africa, Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific) - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 789.3 Million in 2018 to USD 1,136.9 Million by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.57% between 2018 and 2023. The mobile substation is also known as portable substation or compact power house. Factors driving the growth of this market include the ease of transportation, time-saving, flexibility, and easy installation of the mobile substation. Moreover, mobile substations can be installed in a limited space and can be easily relocated without difficulties. Transportability, short startup and commissioning time, reduced mechanical footprint, and non-requirement of civil work are some key benefits which are expected to drive the growth of mobile substation in the global market during the forecast period.

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Browse 32 market data Tables and 34 Figures spread through 97 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Mobile Substation Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/mobile-substation-market-1857695.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report



Market for utilities application expected to grow at higher CAGR during the forecast period

Mobile substations can be useful for emergency response as back-up units and are also useful in cases where the energy distribution requires to be provided or reinstated in a short span of time. Mobile substations are utilized in both, utilities and industrial applications. Planned maintenance, disaster response, rapid expansion of transmission capacity are some use cases where mobile substations have delivered proven outcomes for utilities. Mobile substations are used to provide temporary power supply during unplanned repairs. Moreover, in the times of planned maintenance, mobile substations can reduce or even eliminate the need for extended electricity outages.

Various companies, including Siemens, General Electric, Eaton, and MEIDENSHA provide mobile substations to the utility industry. For instance, in 2017 Siemens delivered 2 mobile substations for National Grid SA, the transmission operator of Saudi Electricity Co. Siemens is expected to design 2, 380kV mobile substations with transformer rating of 502 MVA each. General Electric supplied several mobile substations in the utility sector including for Saudi Electricity Company from Saudi Arabia and E.ON SE electric project in Spain.

Mobile substation market in the Middle East & Africa to grow at the highest CAGR during forecast period

Middle East & Africa not only account for the largest market share followed by the Americas but is also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rapid electrification in Africa along with demand from the metals & mining industry in Africa is expected to drive the growth of the global mobile substation market.

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Politically unstable situations in Middle East countries, such as Iraq, are reducing day by day and the government is making efforts to provide basic amenities. As a part of this, in 2017 the Ministry of Electricity, Iraq ordered 12 mobile substations for its utilities. This increase in power supply due to the installation of new substations are expected to overcome power shortage issues in Iraq. Moreover, in 2014 Ministry of Electricity, Iraq ordered 16 mobile substations from CG Power (India). These substations are expected to be deployed throughout Iraq for utilities and industries to provide interim grid connections and temporary power supplies. Recently, in 2017 the Aktif Group delivered 10 mobile substations to the Ministry of Electricity Iraq. Countries such as Angola, Algeria, Mozambique, and Libya, among others are also leading to the high demand for mobile substations.

Key players in this market are Siemens (Germany), ABB (Switzerland), Eaton (Ireland), General Electric (US), CG Power (India), and MEIDENSHA (Japan). Other companies covered in this report are WEG (Brazil), AZZ (US), TGOOD (Hong Kong), Powell Industries (US), Elgin Power Solutions (US), Matelec Group (Lebanon), Aktif Group (Turkey), PME Power Solutions (India), EKOS Group (Turkey), Efacec (Portugal), and Delta Star (US).

Know more about the Mobile Substation Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/mobile-substation-market-1857695.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]





Visit Our [email protected] http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Home  Just In  Government may pick new chiefs of Nepal Police, Armed Police Force today

Kathmandu, April 10

The Council of Ministers is likely to appoint new inspectors general of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force on Tuesday.

Incumbent Nepal Police IG Prakash Aryal and APF IG Singha Bahadur Shrestha are retiring this week.

A Cabinet meeting was held this morning. However, it could not make the appointments. Therefore, it is expected that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will call the second meeting. Ministers have been told to stay standby.

It has been learned that Prime Minister Oli and Home Affairs Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa held a separate meeting about the appointment this morning.

Meanwhile, the morning meeting also failed to appoint the new Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission. PM Olis CPN-UML has proposed its Central Audit Commission chief Pushpa Kandel for the position.

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LONDON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Set Hotels, known for their modern take on grand luxury, is leading the trend for hoteliers across Europe with their decision to partner with Cendyn, the leading hotel CRM platform.

Headquartered in London, ultra-luxury hotel group The Set owns and operates three iconic properties in Europe: Hotel Cafe Royal in London, Conservatorium in Amsterdam and Hotel Lutetia in Paris. With a unique, grand take on each property, The Set prides themselves as a group of hotels that puts the modern guests' needs and expectations at the heart of what they do.

Martijn van Eijk, Director of Guest Loyalty & Retention commented, "We're extremely excited to be embarking on this partnership with Cendyn. As one of the most important aspects of what we do, we are looking at multiple ways in which we can leverage the data we have to help drive loyalty and guest retention, whilst ensuring it is managed and utilized in a secure and compliant way. In order for us to use this data in the right way and provide the best possible experience for all our guests, we need an engine to help power that, and that engine is Cendyn."

Cendyn will implement a guest intelligence solution utilizing data collected from multiple sources, to provide a true, single source of truth for each guest. This visibility and accessibility will enable each property to gain a clear understanding of their guest history and preferences in real time. It will also keep their guests at the forefront of what they do and allow them to concentrate on providing exceptional service for every guest.

"We are honored to be partnering with The Set. We are always delighted to see hoteliers looking to the future and embracing technology that will enable them to drive success for years to come" said Charles Deyo, President & CEO, Cendyn. "Using data to pave the way for how they engage with their guests will revolutionize their approach and enable them to provide the experiences that the modern-day guest now expects. As a testament to their plans, our partnership will drive loyalty and brand recognition with every guest, no matter which channel they book through."

Transparency and collaboration are at the core of how the team at The Set operates. With the decision to embark with CRM, they have allocated a team of CRM Discovery Experts who sit within each property. They are departmental experts who collaborate and share ongoing updates across the team to ensure a seamless implementation and ongoing commitment to their new approach at driving guest loyalty and retention.

About The Set Hotels

Founded in 2011, The Set hotels is a collection of modern grand hotels of our time. Located in distinguished addresses in the most vibrant cities across the world, the collection currently comprises Hotel Cafe Royal in London, Conservatorium in Amsterdam and Lutetia in Paris (opening spring 2018). The Set transforms heritage properties into dynamic, diverse hotels offering luxurious contemporary experiences created to engage and inspire guests and leave them with the desire to return. A stay at one of The Set hotels is always 'beautifully composed'.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a cloud-based software and services provider that develops integrated technology platforms for driving sales and marketing performance in the travel and hospitality industry. The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud offers the most complete set of innovative software and services in the industry, covering hotel marketing, guest engagement, group sales, and event management. With offices in Boca Raton, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, Toronto, Whistler, Munich, London and Singapore, Cendyn proudly serves more than 30,000 clients in 143 countries with enterprise spend levels in excess of $1 billion. For more information on Cendyn, visit www.cendyn.com.

Media Contact

Michael Bennett

SVP, Global Marketing

[email protected]

+ 1 561-419-2286

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Related Links

http://cendyn.com



SOURCE Cendyn
MUMBAI, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

TimesPro has partnered with SGPC's Guru Nanak Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, for a Post Graduate Business Management Program in Banking & Financial Services. As compared to other management programs, the PGDM offers an unparalleled advantage to students looking forward to a career in BFSI industry.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664774/GNIMS_campus.jpg )

The Indian banking industry has the potential to become the 5th largest by 2022, states a KPMG-CII report and hence would require top notch professionals who understand its intricacies, especially in the wake of demonetization and advent of digital banking.

On the announcement, Anish Srikrishna, President - Times Professional Learning said, "BFSI sector is poised for unprecedented growth and challenges. I'm confident that this partnership will help create a pool of dynamic professionals, ready to reap the benefits and take challenges head on."

This two-year PGDM (Banking and Financial Services) program, approved by AICTE, has TimesPro as the academic and employability partner, whereas the PGDM shall be conferred by SGPC's GNIMS.

Director Dr. Dattajirao Patil, the spokesperson for GNIMS said, "We are proud to associate with TimesPro, an experienced and reputed training institute, with such a rich legacy and hope our students get the best out of it."

This program will be delivered by renowned industry practitioners using an industry-vetted curriculum including Harvard Business School Case Studies. It has the perfect blend of theoretical knowledge and practical learning. Besides rigorous classroom training, students have to go for field visits to various banks in the first year whereas in the second year they are exposed to experiential learning through full-time placement opportunities.

The program also delivers software-based learning in advanced BFSI software such as Finacle and ET Finpro. They are also prepared for NISM and DBF certifications, which are well-recognized in the industry.

So it's not surprising then that students from earlier batches have been placed at some of the best banks and financial institutions in the country, such as DBS, HSBC, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Standard Chartered Securities, Tata Capital and Yes Bank to name a few.

About TimesPro

TimesPro a part of Times Professional Learning (TPL) offer a variety of courses in sectors such as banking, management, analytics, digital marketing, decision science and many more. As a professional skilling powerhouse for graduates and working professionals, we equip students with key skills that allows a student to kick start his or her professional career. Our vision is to ensure that we provide the Indian youth with tailor made and industry vetted educational courses that bridge the gap between the current formal education system and what the Industry requirements are, thereby making our Indian youth employable.

About GNIMS

SGPC's Guru Nanak Institute Of Management Studies was established by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which is a Sikh governing body. It is recognized by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi and is also affiliated to University of Mumbai. The institute strives for excellence, producing not only successful professionals, managers and entrepreneurs; but also responsible human beings who care for core human values and ethics.



Media Contact:

Sheetal Tambe

[email protected]

+91-7045186001

TimesPro



SOURCE TimesPro
TVP Solar announces the one-year study of its solar thermal panels at a live client site in Kuwait. The results prove TVP's best-in-class performance operating up to 200C as recently certified by Din Certco Solar Keymark. The solar field in Kuwait produces a massive amount of thermal energy - 750 kWh/m/year - with a peak efficiency of 57%, validating certification values.

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(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/663386/TVP_Solar_2018_Performance.jpg )



"TVP has proven itself a game-changer," exclaimed Mr. Piero Abbate, TVP's CEO. "Our super-performing panels predictably deliver massive thermal energy for the most energy-consuming applications, even in harsh environments like the Gulf." The panels can be applied to industrial process heat, desalination, and air conditioning.

The solar field delivered up to 180C to directly drive a double-effect absorption chiller and supply air conditioning to the new Agility Headquarters in Sulaibiya, Kuwait. Over 365 days the system ran automatically and unattended with 98% reliability, showing a mere 8% of efficiency loss due to soiling effect; this was achieved without a single day of panel cleaning!

The TVP solar-driven cooling system contributes 73% of the points for the new building's LEED certification. Operating from 10am to 3pm (on average per day), with ambient temperatures up to 62C, solar thermal supplied 70% of the daily cooling load, matching the peak load.

Alternative Energy Solutions (AES) CEO Mr. Stephen Lubrano stated: "We are extremely proud to be the first adopter of this revolutionary solution in Kuwait. The solution is perfectly in-line with our parent company's vision of innovation and social responsibility." He went on to add that, "TVP economically and efficiently cuts OPEX, meets Agility's sustainability objectives, and is a key component of the new headquarters' LEED certification."

Email [email protected] for more information and see how solar thermal can benefit you now.

About TVP Solar:

TVP Solar SA is a Swiss company which designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative high-vacuum mirrorless solar thermal collectors based on patented technology. A game-changer for the thermal industry, solar is now a new paradigm in energy supply, beating liquid fuels with a cheaper, carbon-free alternative. In volume production since 2017 TVP high-vacuum products have been installed across 9 countries and 3 continents, cutting OPEX, boosting sustainability, and securing energy supply worldwide.

For more information please visit: http://www.tvpsolar.com

Jonathan Koifman

+41-22-534-9087

[email protected]



About Alternative Energy Solutions:

AES is a wholly owned subsidiary of Agility, one of the world's leading providers of integrated logistics. Agility is a publicly traded company with more than $4.1 billion in revenue and more than 22,000 employees in over 500 offices across 100 countries.

For more information about Agility, visit http://www.alteso.at/about/about-us/

Stephen Lubrano

+965-2498-1810

[email protected]



SOURCE TVP Solar SA and AES
TRIVANDRUM, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

For joint collaboration in cutting-edge technologies like Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

UST Global, a leading digital technology services company, today announced that it has signed an MoU with the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET). The MoU will allow Infinity LabsTM, an innovation center of UST Global, and CET students to jointly collaborate in cutting-edge technologies like Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

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UST Global believes that the academia and industry can together solve business problems of customers. The MoU will help students enhance their knowledge about the latest technologies by working on UST Global's innovation ecosystem. The internship is for a duration of 3-6 months and the students will work from UST Global's Trivandrum campus.

CET was established in 1939 as the first engineering college in the then princely state of Travancore. The institute which ranked 75th in the prestigious NIRF (2018) ranking by MHRD under engineering category, currently offers 8 under graduate, 27 post graduate and doctoral programmes under APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University. The college overall has around 4,000 students.

UST Global Infinity LabsTM is building Digital Innovation capabilities across domains like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics, Robotic Process Automation, UI/UX, Social, Mobile, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Design Thinking and Enterprise Computing. The Infinity LabsTM are a core ingredient of UST Global's Innovation-as-a-Service offering. It creates a confluence of Digital Technologies, Human Centered Design, Artificial Intelligence, the company's ecosystem of partners and cutting-edge R&D from the academia. The Infinity LabsTM provide a platform for UST Global employees to get exposed to cutting-edge technologies, get access to world-class R&D institutions and disruptive startups from around the world.

Dr. J. David, Principal, CET, emphasized, "Our association with UST Global, the leading digital company, will go a long way in bridging the gap between academia and industry. The students will get an opportunity to work on state-of-the art labs and also keep updated on the latest technologies in various disciplines, which will help them mould their career. This will equip students to take up challenging problems posed by the industry and help developing solutions for them. We are extremely happy that students have already shown keen interest in working with the Infinity LabsTM of UST Global and have taken up projects related to areas like Data Analytics, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Robotics, IoT and Financial Engineering. As the first step, the Infinity Labs, UST and CET-Centre for Interdisciplinary Research join hands to develop a novel social robot for UST. Indeed, this collaborative project requires expertise in state-of-the-art digital technologies such as robotics, automation, IoT, deep learning and artificial intelligence. Hope this association will provide the right impetus for the faculty and students in cutting-edge technologies of the future."

Commenting on the MoU, Sachith Sebastian, Sr. Director - Digital Innovation & Head - Infinity labs, UST Global, said, "We are happy to join hands with the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) to engage student interns in our state-of-the-art Infinity LabsTM, to work on innovative digital solutions and platforms. We are confident that they can help us in coming up with innovative concepts and ideas to solve business problems of our Fortune 500/Global 1000 customers. This partnership will also enable the students get the right exposure into the industry to launch their career."

About UST Global

UST Global is a leading digital technology company that provides advanced computing and digital services to large private and public enterprises around the world. Driven by a larger purpose of Transforming Lives and the philosophy of "fewer clients, more attention", we bring in the entrepreneurial spirit that seeks the fastest path to value in today's digital economy. Our innovative technology services and pioneering social programs make us unique. UST Global is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and operates in 25 countries. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies in Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Retail, High Technology, Manufacturing, Shipping, and Telecom. UST Global believes in building long-lasting, strategic business relationships through agile and client-centric global engagement models that combines local experts & resources with cost, scale, and quality advantages of global operations.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ust-global.com

Media Contact:

Divya Singh

[email protected]

+91-8552944004

UST Global



SOURCE UST Global
PUNE, India, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report "UV Curing System Market by Technology (Mercury Lamp, and UV LED), Type (Spot Cure, Flood Cure, and Focused Beam), Pressure (High, Medium, and Low), Application, End-User Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market was valued at USD 3.28 Billion in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 5.45 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 10.66% between 2018 and 2023. The UV curing system market has huge potential in end-user industries such as medical, consumer electronics, automotive and transportation, and industrial and machinery. Major factors driving the UV curing system market are environmental awareness and stringent regulation; and quick curing and better performance compared to traditional curing systems.

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Browse 75 market data Tables and 44 Figures spread through 165 Pages and in-depth TOC on "UV Curing System Market - Global Forecast to 2023"



https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/uv-curing-system-market-201220731.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report



Mercury lamp held largest share of UV curing system market in 2017

Mercury-based UV lamps have been extensively adopted for industrial and printing applications, owing to the technology advancement and reduction in manufacturing time compared to traditional curing method. Furthermore, increasing government efforts, especially in the US and European countries, to implement environment-friendly curing technologies are encouraging industries to adopt UV curing systems.

UV curing system market for bonding and assembling application held the largest share of the UV curing system market in 2017

UV curing systems in bonding and assembling application is used to bond or stick materials such as glass, plastic, and metals in industries such as semiconductor and consumer electronics. The demand for UV curing systems for bonding and assembling is increasing because of its fast, flexible, and environment-friendly curing method. The growing demand for semiconductor devices and the increasing sales of mobile and consumer electronic devices are expected to fuel the demand for UV curing systems in bonding and assembling application.

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Medical industry held larger share in the UV curing system market between 2018 and 2023

Medical device manufacturers across the globe are using UV curing technologies in their manufacturing process owing to its benefits such as reduction in friction between medical electronic devices, uniform adhesion and surface coverage, and coating homogeneity. These characteristics make UV curing system an ideal solution for the medical industry.

Currently, North America leads the UV curing system market in terms of market share

North America is the largest market for UV curing technologies owing to the presence of key UV curing system manufacturers such as Dymax, Phoeseon, and Baldwin Technology. Stringent regulatory framework by agencies such as Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is playing a key role in the monitoring and commercialization of UV curing technology.

The UV curing ecosystem comprises companies such as Dymax (US), Nordson (US), Baldwin Technology (US), Heraeus (Germany), Phoseon (US), Honle (Germany), Panasonic Corporation of North America (US), Delo (Germany), IST METZ (US), and American Ultraviolet (US). This report also covers the following prominent players: Omron (Japan), Excelitas (US), Uvitron (US), Atlantic Zeiser (Germany), Benford UV (Shire county), GEW (EC) (England), Hanovia (UK), Miltec UV (US), Thorlabs (US), and Hoya (Japan).

Know more about the UV Curing System Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/uv-curing-system-market-201220731.html



About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog: http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors

Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets



SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Dubai's top luxury developer will establish its first presence in Hong Kong this weekend as it kicks-off its global roadshow.

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(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664466/Omniyat_Opus_Exterior.jpg )

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Omniyat, a Dubai-based luxury real estate company behind several of the emirate's most high-end developments, will set-up a display in The Langham Hong Kong on Friday 13th April, from 7 pm. Hong Kong is the first stop on Omniyat's global roadshow to meet new investors.

Omniyat is well-known in Dubai for its luxury residential and commercial buildings including One Palm, the most exclusive address on the iconic Palm Jumeirah, and The Opus designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid.

Over the past 12 months Omniyat has also expanded into the luxury hospitality sector, announcing partnerships with both Hong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group and the famous London brand Dorchester Collection.

The arrival of the first The Langham hotel in the Middle East, which includes luxury serviced residences Langham Place, has already generated significant interest from Hong Kong and China-based buyers.

Mahdi Amjad, executive chairman and CEO at Omniyat, said: "We knew that bringing The Langham brand to Dubai would be a game changer in terms of quality and heritage in the Middle East market. What is fascinating is the impact the brand has in the Far East - the esteem in which it is held is incredible. To invest in such a prestigious brand and even live in Langham Place Residences, Downtown Dubai, is a rare opportunity.

"Omniyat offers many unique investment opportunities with projects that have been designed by leading artists and architects in Dubai's most prime positions. The whole world knows The Palm Jumeirah but only a few could live in the opulence and prime positioning that One Palm offers. The Opus by Zaha Hadid is another incredible opportunity to invest in a project so unique and so special - designed by one of the most creative minds the industry has ever seen."

Established in 2005, Omniyat has a strong track record for delivering high quality projects, with a development portfolio of over $6.2 billion.

SOURCE Omniyat
In tune with growing focus on sustainability that is driving the demand for biobased chemicals, the Bangkok summit spotlights on the 'Future of Biobased Chemicals in Asia' by Lux Research while the 'Development of FDCA & its Potential' is presented by Wobaltexpedition Consultancy. The 3 day summit also has 3 key sessions on biobased chemical building blocks: 'Technological Developments of Biobased Building Blocks, Additives & Surfactants', 'Enabling CO2 Direct Use as a Valuable Building Block for Sustainable Chemicals & Plastics' and 'Conversion of Renewable Resources into Drop-in Biobased Chemical Building Blocks' to be presented by Croda, Econic Technologies and Global Bioenergies respectively.

IKEA is slated to share an end user's perspective on 'Unleashing Potential in Bio-based Materials Value Chain' and how it is using biobased materials in its products, while beverages manufacturing major -- PepsiCo presents its Long-term Sustainable Packaging Strategies -- highlighting its developments on sustainable materials, compostable and biodegradable packaging.

The biochemical track also feature these presentations by:

LanzaTech - Innovating Approaches to Carbon Smart Future for a Circular Economy

Novomer - Using Bio-ethanol to Produce Bio-acrylic acid, Bio-succinic acid & Bio-polyols

MitrPhol Sugar - Modernizing Biorefinery & Creating Value Added Biobased Products

PTT Global Chemical - Biochemicals plans and Thailand's Bioplastics industry update

Bioplastics industry update Clariant Chemicals - Open Innovation in Biobased Plastics & Chemicals

Poyry Management Consulting - Highlights of Bio-based Chemical & Plastic Markets in 2017-2018

Sofinnova Partners - Role of Start-ups in Innovation of Bio-sourced Molecules & Plastics. Emergence of a New Business Model

Among key speakers from bioplastics industry players are Carbios sharing on 'Novel Enzymatic Process to Depolymerize Plastics', Synvina with paper on 'Establishing an Innovative PEF Supply Chain', plus DuPont Industrial Biosciences detailing its innovation in bio-based materials in a paper entitled - 'Derived from Nature, Designed for Performance'.

The success stories and emerging applications of 'Marrying High-level Performance with Sustainability for Cellulose-based Thermoplastics' is shared by Eastman Chemical Company while the opportunities and challenges of 'Marine Degradable Plastics' is presented by Organic Waste Systems. The rest of panellist for bioplastics track include:

IndoChine Bio Plastiques (ICBP) - Assessment of Cassava Supply in Southeast Asia

Plantic Technologies - Development of Biobased PE & Market Potential

UPM Raflatac - Labelling a Smarter Future with Plant Based PE

Sulzer - Upscaling & Enabling PLA Production on an Industrial Scale

Polydime International - Future of Sri Lanka Bioplastics Market

A post conference site visit to Advanced Biochemical (Thailand) Plant is arranged on 8 June 2018.

Visit 7th Biobased Chemicals and Plastics website or call Ms. Grace Oh at +65-6346-9147 for more details.

SOURCE Centre for Management Technology
WordRake CEO Jim Figel says, The WordRake creator and founder is a lawyer and a bestselling author. He knows we all need help with our writing. Thats why thousands of Mac users have asked us for years, When will WordRake be ready for Mac? Im happy to say, Todays the day!

WordRake Holdings, LLC announces WordRake for Mac, the newest arrival in WordRakes stable of professional editing and proofreading software. WordRake for Mac finds edits even Ernest Hemingway and his editors missed. Watch WordRake edit a page from "Death in the Afternoon" in this 90-second video.

WordRake creator Gary Kinder says, The premise behind WordRake is that every word not conveying meaning detracts from every word trying to convey meaning. Hemingway said it like this, Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. Had WordRake editing software existed 70 years ago, Hemingway would have used it, because WordRake hunts down those needless words and turns dull nouns into lively verbs. And now, everyone who writes on a Mac can use WordRake, the most powerful editing tool on the market.

Already the #1 editing software in the legal profession, WordRake is fast becoming the standard for all professionals in government, business, and education for two reasons: it analyzes text like a human editoronly much fasterand it never communicates with the cloud, so its absolutely secure.

Lawyers find WordRake particularly helpful in trying to meet shrinking word limits imposed by state and federal courts. And WordRakes unique focus on clarity and brevity makes it an excellent proofreading tool for government agencies and private organizations with a Plain English mandate, like the Plain Writing Act of 2010.

After a month-long WordRake for Mac Beta Program, 89.2% of the participants said they had better results using WordRake; 86.1% said that using WordRake helped them feel more confident; and most important, 96.2% said they would recommend or highly recommend WordRake for Mac to colleagues and friends.

One of the participants, Randy Lewis, teaches in the Reiman School of Finance at the University of Denver. After the Beta Program, Lewis wrote: I am super happy to have WordRake at my fingertips. My students and my consulting clients are grumbling about my editing them with WordRake, but I am very happy. I love this product and have waited years for the Mac version.

Another participant, Jim Monast, practices law in Columbus, Ohio, and is a long-time Mac user: Many of us who practice law using Macs have clamored for WordRake ever since it came out for PCs. When I took the new Mac version for a test drive, I revisited articles and posts Id written long ago, and WordRake breathed new life into them. Even if I didn't implement 100% of the suggestions, WordRake made me think more about clarity and precision.

WordRake CEO Jim Figel explains why WordRake appeals to so many people who have to write: The WordRake creator and founder is a lawyer and a writer. Hes written a New York Times bestseller and taught over 1,000 writing programs to law firms, corporations, agencies, and writers conferences. He created WordRake because he knows we can get too close to our writing, or too tired, or were not sure what to look for. Thats why thousands of Mac users for the past five years have contacted WordRake Support with one question, When will WordRake be ready for Mac? Im happy to say, Todays the day!

Click here to sign up for a free 7-day trial of WordRake for Mac, or PCs with Microsoft Word and Outlook. Or visit WordRake.com for more on pricing and enterprise installation.

About WordRake Holdings, LLC

Based in Seattle, WordRake Holdings, LLC was founded in 2011 by Gary Kinder, Jim Figel, and a cadre of former Microsoft engineers. Harvard Law School has labeled WordRake Editing Software Disruptive Innovation, and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has awarded WordRake nine patents for its unique technology. For more information, email jimf(at)wordrake(dot)com, call Jim Figel at 206-650-5864 or visit WordRake.com.

Follow WordRake:

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"This marks the first time as a company weve been able to support the short line rail space with proven, Class I derived tools."

PS Technology (PST) and Rio Grande Pacific Dispatch are pleased to announce the first implementation of CrewPro Short Line, a cloud-hosted and subscription-based railroad crew management system.

Leveraging the latest technological advances in architecture, design and construction, this system will provide a subscription-based, dynamic and flexible platform for Crew Scheduling. In addition to handling Hours of Service (HOS) requirements, the system also handles tie-up, work-list/pool management, seniority move bumps, FRA certification requirements and more.

Rio Grande Pacific Dispatch, the third-party dispatching arm of short line holding company Rio Grande Pacific Corporation (RGP), will utilize PSTs CrewPro Short Line to manage crew calling for the multiple railroads it serves. The system will vastly improve cost savings and accuracy while preventing errors prone to legacy methods used by many short line railroads.

We are extremely pleased to be working with such a well-respected leader in the short line arena, says PST President, Seenu Chundru. RGP immediately saw the benefits and implications of using a cloud-based, modern crew management system, he continued. This marks the first time as a company weve been able to support the short line rail space with proven, Class I derived tools. A Cloud-hosted solution will be transformational for the short line railroad Crew environment.

Both companies have chosen to leverage their long-standing relationship and industry best practices to develop an unparalleled service solution.

About PS Technology

PS Technology is committed to delivering significant and measurable returns to its clients and partners. For over three decades, PST has improved the processes and systems surrounding crew management, timekeeping and physics-based simulation solutions with integrity and a desire to create value.

PSTs asset management systems power the largest railroads in North America. PSTs crew management and timekeeping solutions have been used to manage the day-to-day operations of over 100,000 employees that run, maintain and support rail operations across more than 120,000 miles of rail. PSTs physics-based simulation solutions provide a premium learning environment.

About Rio Grande Pacific Dispatch

Rio Grande Pacific Dispatch delivers reliable, around-the-clock primary and backup rail dispatching for freight railroads, short lines and transit agencies operating over 2,000 miles of main track throughout the United States. The Fort Worth dispatch center supports more than 1,100 crew starts, while typically issuing more than 1,800 Track Warrants and 200 bulletins each monthly. RGPD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rio Grande Pacific Corporation (RGPC) which has rail operations in Louisiana, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Texas. The firm has extensive national holdings in commercial real estate, energy, and technology.

For more information, contact:

Mark Bremmer

Senior Marketing Manager

PS Technology

303.527.2111

mark.bremmer(at)pstechnology(dot)com

http://www.pstechnology.com

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Photo credit: New Brunswick Tourism

Only an eight-hour drive from Boston, New Brunswicks Bay of Fundy, along the southern coast of the province, is the site of new adventures launching this summer. Famous for the highest tides in the world, with 160 billion tons of water rushing in and out of the bay twice a day, the Bay of Fundy offers unforgettable outdoor, culinary, and cultural experiences combined with warm Maritime hospitality.

GET PUMPED UP

Biking enthusiasts of all levels will weave, dip, and swell around the new Fundy Park Mountain Bike Pumptrack opening May 2018. Made in one continuous loop, the pumptrack lets cyclists ride around banks and turns with minimal pedaling keeping momentum with body movements. The adventure track is set in Fundy National Park and will feature several multi-purpose trails with varying levels of difficulty. Built with locally sourced granite dust, the environmentally friendly track is part of more than 12 miles of mountain bike trails created from old roads and campground sites. The addition of the pumptrack is part of the larger Chignecto recreation area redevelopment project which will include a large pavilion, astronomy interpretation site and campfire circle set to be completed by 2019. The pumptrack will be open year round.

BREWS IN PEWS

The church bell at Almas decommissioned church-turned-brewery signals Happy Hour at the Holy Whale Brewery and Buddah Coffee Roaster & Cafe. Brothers Pete and Jeff Grandy restored the historic church by repurposing the stained-glass windows, some of the original pews, and the church exterior. The Grandys are focusing on freshly roasted coffee and craft beers on tap that use Maritime ingredients, such as the popular Bi-Furious Wit beer with New Brunswick blueberries. Nestled at the doorstep of Fundy National Park, the bayside fishing village and its first brewery/roastery is an ideal spot to begin or end a day of exploring the expansive National Park.

FOLLOW THE INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE TRAIL

Theres no need to be an art lover to appreciate the impressive collection of 56 large-scale granite sculptures along the International Sculpture Trail stretching from Maine to New Brunswicks Bay of Fundy. Through the New Brunswick International Sculpture Symposiums in 2012, 2014, and 2016, Sculpture Saint John has added the Canadian section to the existing trail along the coast of Maine. Plans are in the works to extend the trail with eight additional sculptures to be created on the Saint John water front in 2018. Together the two trails create a one-of-a-kind, 547-mile long international contemporary art exhibition by world-renowned sculptors. New Brunswick will host the international symposium this year from August 9 to September 22, 2018, and again in 2020.

SCALLOP SAFARI

Visitors can join an Atlantic Canada safari to search for scallops with Huntsman Marine's scientists beginning May 2018. Aboard the research vessel the Fundy Spray, the Scallop Safari encourages shellfish-lovers to try their hand at collecting research materials with a plankton tow and participate in a scallop drag. Following in the steps of the first European settlers, guests travel through the St. Croix estuary and the Passamaquoddy Bay before ending the day with a tasty surprise. The excursion is available from May to October for ages 10 and older. Additional details to be released in April 2018 at http://bayoffundystartshere.com/plan-your-trip/experiences/.

TOUR THE WORLDS HIGHEST TIDES

Red Rock Adventure is launching new tours on the worlds highest tides along the Fundy Trail via Zodiac. Tide riders will explore the record-breaking tides when 160 billion tons of seawater flows in and out of the bay twice daily. Led by a company of professional adventure experience guides, guests will tour the longest stretch of coastal wilderness on the eastern seaboard from the water. The bay is filled with geological formations, wide marine diversity, and rugged landscapes best seen from the seat of a Zodiac. Lucky guests might also spot wildlife like seals, porpoises, and bald eagles. The two-hour excursion costs $65 CAD plus HST per person. Tours are available June through October and are weather dependent.

For more information on New Brunswick, visit https://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca/.

About Atlantic Canada Agreement on Tourism (ACAT):

This project has been made possible through funding provided by the Atlantic Canada Agreement on Tourism (ACAT). ACAT is a nine member pan-Atlantic initiative comprising the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the four Atlantic Canada Tourism Industry Associations, and the four Provincial Departments responsible for tourism.

For more information on the four provinces, visit these websites or follow on social media:

New Brunswick

Web: http://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca

Instagram: @DestinationNB

Twitter: @SeeNewBrunswick

Facebook: @DestinationNB

Nova Scotia

Web: http://www.novascotia.com

Instagram: @VisitNovaScotia

Twitter: @VisitNovaScotia

Facebook: @NovaScotia

Newfoundland and Labrador

Web: http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com

Instagram: @newfoundlandlabrador

Twitter: @NLtweets

Facebook: @NewfoundlandLabradorTourism

Prince Edward Island

Web: http://www.tourismpei.com

Instagram: @tourismpei

Twitter: @tourismpei

Facebook: @tourismpei

MEDIA CONTACT:

Gina Dolecki/Katherine Henry

Redpoint

212.229.0119

dolecki@redpointspeaks.com

henry@redpointspeaks.com

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We are pleased to be exhibiting at 2018 FWRC in Daytona Beach, and to be showcasing all of our products and services.

Synagro Technologies, Inc., one of the largest private composters in the United States, is pleased to announce its participation in the 2018 Florida Water Resources Conference (FWRC), in Daytona Beach, Florida, April 15 to 18, 2018, at the Ocean Center Exhibit Hall.

Join us inside the Ocean Center at Booth Number 623 to learn about the many ways Synagro can assist you with biosolids and organic feedstocks management. From thermal drying and energy generation to digester cleaning, when it comes to biosolids, our mission is to be the most trusted provider of resource recovery solutions. We help our customers identify their needs and the solutions that are best tailored to most economically address those needs.

We are pleased to be exhibiting at 2018 FWRC in Daytona Beach, and to be showcasing all of our products and services, announced Michael Wolfe, business development manager, Synagro. Were equally excited to join in sponsoring an exceptional University of South Florida (USF) student in the 2018 Florida Water Environment Student Design Competition.

The USF project that we are sponsoring is based on work undertaken by students at the Pinellas County South Cross Bayou Facility where we have a biosolids drying facility, said Matt Busch, plant manager, St. Petersburg, Synagro. The projects that these student teams are working on include side stream centrate phosphorus removal to reduce alum consumption; denitrification improvements  investigating alternative denitrification technologies; and methods and process improvements to increase bio-gas production.

About Synagro

Founded in 1986, Synagro Technologies, Inc. provides environmentally sustainable solutions for commercial and municipal organizations that generate organic by-products. Synagro consistently transforms industrial and municipal waste into environmentally friendly resources that benefit our communities. As the largest recycler of organic by-products in North America, Synagro uses best-in-class processes, from beneficial reuse to renewable energy, that adhere to the strictest of environmental regulations to provide compelling solutions for communities across the continent. Serving more than 600 municipal and industrial water and wastewater facilities in the United States and Canada, Synagros leading systems of organic by-product management services support municipalities of all sizes in saving money and meeting environmental regulations. Visit synagro.com to learn more.

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A premier professional liability program offered by Professional Services Plans will be on exhibit at the Midwest Podiatry Conference in 2018 in Chicago, IL at the Hyatt Regency April 19-22.

The Midwest Podiatry Conference is a confederation of fourteen state podiatric medical associations. The mission of the Midwest Podiatry Conference is to promote the art and science of podiatric medicine and the betterment of public health through an annual program of continuing education and other professionally oriented instruction for member podiatric physicians. Their goal is to achieve a better rapport and understanding among the health professions, and increase public awareness of podiatric medicine through public relations activities.

We are very excited to be returning to the Midwest Podiatry Conference again this year, said Cindy Myers, Vice President of Professional Service Plans. We look forward to connecting with podiatrists, physician assistants, residents and vendors to develop relationships and gain insights into finding out what matters most to their practices to provide a comprehensive insurance solution.

Attendees at the Midwest Podiatry Conference can learn more about podiatry tailored insurance coverage at Booth #1024. The complete program provides podiatry malpractice insurance coverage, property insurance, general liability, workers compensation and umbrella coverage.

About Professional Service Plans

Professional Services Plans is a tradename of B&B Protector Plans Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brown & Brown, Inc. Professional Services Plans program specialists provide podiatrists with a tailored product specifically designed to meet the needs of the podiatric physician but also engage in the industry daily providing service that is second to none. Strong partnerships allow Professional Services Plans to bring insureds options which best fit their needs based on their practice profile and location at the lowest available price. Professional Services Plans insurance carrier partners are rated A and A++ by A.M. Best and proven to be the strongest and most reputable insurance carriers in the industry.

About Brown & Brown, Inc.

Brown & Brown, Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers a broad range of insurance products and related services. Additionally, certain Brown & Brown subsidiaries offer a variety of risk management, third-party administration, and other services. Serving business, public entity, individual, trade and professional association clients nationwide, Brown & Brown is ranked by Business Insurance magazine as the United States sixth largest independent insurance intermediary. Brown & Browns Web address is http://www.bbinsurance.com.
The initial focus for the product is on womens safety in India, but the technology has global potential and can be used across genders and age groups to provide assistance to anyone in danger.

Hera Global Tech, Inc., in partnership with Software Design Solutions (SDS), is a semifinalist in the Anu and Naveen Jain Womens Safety XPRIZE, which focuses on using technology to create affordable and accessible solutions to promote womens safety. The companies are working on an Internet of Things (IoT) womens safety device that can identify when a woman is in a dangerous situation, simply by measuring detectable physiological characteristics, and send out a call for assistance without the need to press a button for help.

Hera Global Tech is one of 21 semifinalists in the XPRIZE competition. This was narrowed down from a starting group of 85 entrants. The semifinalists solutions will be judged by a panel of experts in Mumbai, India in April. The winner  to be announced in Mumbai  will receive a $1 million prize. Viable solutions for the Womens Safety XPRIZE must autonomously and inconspicuously trigger an alert and send out information to responders within 90 seconds. The solution must be affordable, costing no more than U.S. $40.

How the safety device works

The IoT device co-developed by Hera and SDS consists of a wearable patch that measures physiological elements such as skin response and heart rate, as well as the wearer's geographical location and other pertinent data. This information is sent to the users cellular phone via Bluetooth. An Android app on the users phone uses a machine-learning model to analyze the data and determine if the individual is in danger or in fight or flight mode. If the algorithm determines a dangerous state is present, a call for help is sent to a predetermined support group for assistance. The initial focus for the product is on womens safety in India, but the technology has global potential and can be used across genders and age groups to provide assistance to anyone in danger.

As the work on the prototype continues, the development team is focused on gathering as much data as possible for machine learning purposes. A related goal for the device is that it needs to be able to determine healthy range levels on the gathered data based on the wearers sex, age, height, and overall health status. Selecting the best material with which to adhere the patch to the skin is another factor being considered. Hera and SDS are working together diligently to create the best prototype possible for the April XPRIZE judging.

As the two partners continue to fine-tune their patch solution in the hopes of winning the $1 million prize, they are setting their sights on victory. If selected as the winner, they plan on using the money to fund further development of their product. The ultimate goal is to create a self-contained device independent of cell phones that can be worn anywhere on the body to provide reliable yet discreet protection for people of all walks of life across the globe.

Hera Global Tech is a biotech startup formed in 2017. The company  named after the Greek goddess Hera  is dedicated to providing affordable products and services to improve personal health, provide safety, and empower people. The companys three co-founders  Poorvi Mathur, Elizabeth LaRue, and Brady Sheehan  came together to work on an IoT womens safety device after Mathur was enraged by crimes against women in her native country of India.

During her initial work, Mathur met LaRue, who developed a software algorithm that detects episodes in people with mild to moderate depression and sends out support text messages. The shared desire of using IoT technology for safety brought the two women together and Hera Global Tech was formed. They were shortly thereafter referred to Brady Sheehan, a graduate of Duquesne University with extensive machine learning knowledge. Sheehan further added to the expertise of the company.

Hera Global Tech partnered with Software Design Solutions, a company that developers applications for the Internet of Things, to gain the needed expertise on embedded systems and hardware. The SDS engineers are focusing on the hardware aspect of Heras product, providing valuable insight throughout the design phase and hardware selection. SDS has years of experience in rapid prototyping, making them an ideal partner for the XPRIZE competition.

About XPRIZE

XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the worlds grandest challenges. XPRIZE utilizes a unique combination of gamification, crowdsourcing, incentive prize theory, and exponential technologies as a formula to make 10x (vs. 10%) impact in the grand challenge domains facing our world. XPRIZEs philosophy is that - under the right circumstances - igniting rapid experimentation from a variety of diverse lenses is the most efficient and effective method to driving exponential impact and solutions to grand challenges. Active competitions include the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE, the $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, the $1.75M Water Abundance XPRIZE and the $1M Anu & Naveen Jain Womens Safety XPRIZE. For more information, visit http://www.xprize.org/.
Zero liquid discharge is the pinnacle of water treatment technology [...]. This is an investment in the future.

Saltworks Technologies has been selected to build and deliver two full-scale zero liquid discharge (ZLD) water treatment systems for a Northern Canadian mine. The water treatment systems will be used to treat mine water to recover freshwater and produce solid salts.

A year-long pilot project was conducted and demonstrated that the SaltMaker Evaporator Crystallizer could treat the challenging mine water, meet strict discharge regulations in the Arctic, and the clients goals for solid salt production. The produced salts can be reused at the mine to de-ice mining shafts.

The first of two SaltMaker plants is currently being built in Saltworks production facility in Richmond, BC. The modular plant will be rapidly delivered as ISO shipping container blocks early this summer. The design of the plant facilitates future expansion to increase processing capacity, if required.

The energy efficient evaporator crystallizer system can use on-site waste heat to drive its operations towards zero liquid discharge. In addition, its lower operating temperatures and non-corroding composite construction allow safe and reliable operation.

We are thrilled to be a part of providing water management solutions to mining operations. Zero liquid discharge is the pinnacle of water treatment technology  our products are engineered to reliably deliver this to our clients. This is an investment in the future, said Saltworks CEO, Ben Sparrow.

About Saltworks Technologies

Saltworks Technologies treats the toughest water. Saltworks delivers modular, intelligent industrial desalination and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) water treatment plants. We reliably separate out the salt, so customers can focus on their core business.
Mills College will offer a Bachelor's Degree Completion Program beginning in fall 2018. Our six majors provide individualized and flexible credit-earning options and a pathway for working adults to complete their undergraduate degree in an inclusive and empowering learning environment that is distinctively Mills.

Research shows that virtually all job growth in the US since 2007 has come from jobs that require some form of postsecondary education. In response to the growing need for adult education, Mills College has announced plans to offer a Bachelors Degree Completion Program for working women who want to return to college and complete their degree beginning in fall 2018.

The Mills Bachelor's Degree Completion Program will allow working adults to complete their bachelor's degree at night with some online and weekend classes. Mills will offer students six degree completion majors to choose from including, business administration; English; ethnic studies; interdisciplinary studies; politics, economics, policy, and law; or sociology.

Students who have already completed at least 60 transferable college credits can complete their bachelors degree program in less than two years. This can be accomplished through a combination of transfer credits from previous college courses, Mills courses that are convenient to working schedules, and individual projects that reflect a students unique interests and goals. Mills will dedicate resources with personalized faculty advising to help students identify their best path.

Were excited to introduce the Bachelor's Degree Completion Program, said Mills College President Elizabeth L. Hillman. For adult students, returning to college will inevitably improve their job prospects and raise their pay. Our six majors provide individualized and flexible credit-earning options and a pathway for working adults to complete their undergraduate degree in an inclusive and empowering learning environment that is distinctively Mills.

Visit the Mills College website for more information or to apply for the Bachelors Degree Completion Program.

About Mills College

Located in Oakland, California, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mills College is a nationally renowned independent liberal arts college for women with graduate programs for women and men. Ranked one of the top-tier regional universities in the West by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of The Best 382 Colleges in the nation by The Princeton Review. Since 1852, weve been empowering students to become creative, independent thinkers who take and inspire action. For more information, visit http://www.mills.edu.
Right now, people are suffering.

A solar energy installation company from tiny Dorset, Vermont is turning on the power in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. Bill Laberge, owner of Grassroots Solar, of Dorset recognized the potential for solar power in Puerto Rico, 50% of which is still has no electricity, and set about to help residents there.

The opportunity became clear when one of Laberges Vermont customers asked his help for her Puerto Rican relatives. Grassroots Solar responded quickly and manufactured a small, emergency power system which Bills customer carried down on a commercial airline. This kit allowed her aunt to power her critical medical device for the first time since the hurricane hit last September 20. Laberge recently traveled to the island to show his expanded line of emergency Solar Now Kits to local electricians and homeowners, and train electricians to install solar panels.

Right now, people are suffering. They are having to run generators, costing them $440-$500 a month to put gas in these generators that they can only run 4 or 5 hours a day. Theres something thats more sustainableits putting up some solar panels and some batteries, said Laberge in a recent profile on his efforts in Puerto Rico which aired on Bostons WNBC affiliate WCVB channel 5.

During his journey to Puerto Rico to assess the level of interest in solar power (So far 100% of the people want solar! says Laberge), the Vermont entrepreneur trained a half dozen local electricians on installing larger kits. The smallest kit, which allows charging of communication devices, some lights and a little more, does not need an electrician to install. As the kits step up in size and are able to power more devices and appliances, an electrician is needed. Laberge said, It is a tremendous opportunity to partner with the wonderful people of Puerto Rico, to help them help themselves, and get them using renewable energy so they can recover quickly from these weather catastrophes.

Bill Laberge, founder of Grassroots Solar, is also on the Governors Council for Renewable Energy in Vermont. He is NAPCEP certified and is Vermonts only dealer for SunPower solar panels and Sonnen Batteries. Grassroots Solar installs solar powered systems to operate homes and businesses in Vermont, New York state, and now, Puerto Rico. For more information on Grassroots Solar and to find out more about their Energy Now Kits visit http://www.grassrootssolar.com or call 802-681-3579.
Rabbi Betzel explains, "Love is the greatest power on Earth and the major doctrine of all faiths. So, it is my privilege to assist interfaith couples in creating a meaningful ceremony that reflects and respects both faith traditions."

Rabbi Daniel Boaz Betzel of central Ohio has dedicated his work to building bridges between Jews and non-Jews. He is quickly becoming the Rabbi of choice for many interfaith couples. Rabbi Betzel explains, "Love is the greatest power on Earth and the major doctrine of all faiths. So, it is my privilege to assist interfaith couples in creating a meaningful ceremony that reflects and respects both faith traditions."

Rabbi Betzel also speaks and teaches for the interfaith community. Shortly after his ordination, Rabbi Betzel was the guest Sunday morning speaker at the Unity Church in Delaware. They asked him to speak about "Judaism and Shabbat". Rabbi Betzel is currently teaching two five weeks courses in the Spiritual Education and Enrichment Department for Unity's Teacher Education Program. There is great interest in his two courses: "Overview of the Hebrew Bible" and "Interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures".

In the eight months since his ordination, Rabbi Betzel has been very active leading services, traveling and planning for next year. He explains: "One of the year's highlights was co-officiating Yom Kippur Services with Rabbi Jennifer Rudin in Holliston, Massachusetts."

Rabbi Betzel was ordained by the Jewish Spiritual Leadership Institute ("JSLI") in 2017 and is a member of Union for Jewish Universalist Congregations ("UJUC"). Rabbi Steve Blane, a founder of the UJUC, said, "The Union encourages our Rabbis to collaborate, and we are excited to see so many examples of our Rabbis working together to bring relevant, thoughtful, and meaningful progressive Judaism to their communities."

Rabbi Betzel will be in Israel during the upcoming High Holidays (5779/2018). He will be working, studying, celebrating, and participating in the High Holidays with members of a Kibbutz in the Negev.

Rabbi Betzel just returned from a 10 day trip to Israel where he explored the history of Zionism that included an amazing stop in the ancient city of Safed to view the Davidka-a piece of artillery used in the defense of Safed during the War of Independence. While in Safed, he also attended an exhibit and lecture on Kosmic Kaballah Art.

The UJUC is a group of progressively minded rabbis and their communities who welcome participants from all walks of life. The Union seeks to nurture the greater good by emphasizing compassion and love for all humankind through the lens of Jewish history, liturgy, rituals, traditional texts, and holidays. More information about Rabbi Betzel as well as her contact information can be found at the UJUC's website: http://ujuc.org/rabbi-daniel-betzel/

About Sim Shalom and UJUC

Sim Shalom is an interactive online Jewish Universalist synagogue, which is liberal in thought and traditional in liturgy. Sim Shalom provides accessible and short services every weeknight and Shabbat and additionally Sim Shalom provides online education programs, Jazz concerts, and conversion and life cycle ceremonies. Rabbi Blane is also the founder and director of the Spiritual Leader's Institute, http://www.jsli.net, the online professional rabbinical program.

Sim Shalom and Rabbi Blane are one of the Founding communities of the Union of Jewish Universalist communities. For more information visit http://www.ujuc.org or call 201-338-0165.
Hart Cunningham 2020 would be the 150th year that humans have been burning oil. Its time to tap into the great capability of our brightest minds and innovate.

Tennessee born All American and presidential candidate, Hart Cunningham, has released the first seven major platforms that he will build his campaign upon. He has done this as part of his promise to release 1,000 ideas to greatly improve the lives of all Americans by 2028. The fact that he has made this promise for breadth and depth in his ideas to create change is just one of the many factors that make Hart Cunningham a breath of fresh air in the eyes of many voters. He also greatly encourages bringing together the ideas of other thought leaders, scientists, and community members.

His first seven home run ideas were released on Marth 13th on his YouTube channel. Cunningham states, These are not ideas based upon my ideas, personality, or ethos. These are not ideas based on psychology. These are ideas based on logic and common sense, and when implemented they will bring us closer to equality, a higher standard of living and human rights, and a healthier planet. I encourage everyone to do their research on everything I bring up during my campaign.

The first of Cunninghams topics is something he is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about  clean, renewable energy. In his mind, its a no-brainer that we would move from utilizing fossil fuels as our primary source of energy to other sources like solar and wind. He says, 2020 would be the 150th year that humans have been burning oil. Its time to tap into the great capability of our brightest minds and innovate.

The second main issue is womens rights. Under Cunninghams presidency, women would no longer have to fight for the right to their reproductive health. Every woman would have the ability to make decisions about their own healthcare and to do what is best for them. Access to certain types of health care, such as family planning, would be free and anonymous. Another important aspect of his plan for womens rights is to provide more grants for women who wish to open small businesses. He believes that women are among the best small business owners in the country and that they should be empowered and encouraged to follow their dreams as just much as men are currently.

He also discusses peaceful international diplomacy. Cunningham believes in a plan to incentivize China to adopt solar energy and an eco-friendly way of life. He would bring together the top 1,000 scientists from all of the major countries to come up with a plan on how to move forward to combat climate change. He asks, What other president is going to say day one, its time to address big oil and climate change? We need a presidential order that will protect the health and the future of Americans, but we also need the rest of the world to be on board. Thats where China comes in.

Hand in hand with women's rights, he brings up equality. This important topic is sometimes shied away from by top politicians who fear anything controversial or potentially inflammatory, but Cunningham is not afraid to take on hard topics. He believes that there is a lack of hope, ownership, opportunity, and education for those who need it the most in our country. During his presidency, he would make resources available to minorities, women, and impoverished populations to level out the playing field in America. Its his dream to ensure that the American dream is a possibility for every citizen.

Stay tuned for new releases in Cunninghams 1,000 ideas series by subscribing to his YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPj3zpaUiETzZIGeICFE6dg

About Hart Cunningham - #Hart2020

Hart Cunningham is running for the presidency in 2020 in the hopes of helping the world overcome struggles due to capitalism, unsustainable economic and environmental practices, and a lack of equality. After being a successful businessman for many years, Cunningham turned his attention to humanitarian work and to bringing awareness to these issues. Originally from the south, hes made his roots in California and has a deep understanding of democratic and republican politics and ideals. True to his name, Hart Cunningham wants to bring the heart back into politics in America and believes that poverty and climate change must be solved for the greater good of our world. Volunteer or contribute to his campaign by visiting, http://hart2020.org.

Follow Hart Cunningham on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HCfor2020

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HartCunningham2020/
PsyInnovations, the developer of the mental and behavioral health platform, wayForward, announced today that it has received an investment from Brand Capital, the investment arm of Times of India group, the largest media group in India.

Based out of New York and New Delhi, PsyInnovations was started by Dr. Navya Singh, an award winning psychologist and research scientist at Columbia University. 1 in 4 people globally will have a mental health condition in their lives, according to WHO. The problem is that majority of the people do not receive any care. At PsyInnovations, our mission is to make mental healthcare accessible to everyone, globally. We want to equip individuals and organizations with proven, scalable, cost-effective solutions for reducing the incidence and severity of stress, anxiety and depression. We see our app-based platform, analytics and machine learning algorithms as a way of solving these problems, Dr. Singh said.

We are looking at long-term partnership with the PsyInnovations team, and believe they have the right team and strategy achieve their global mission. said Neville Taraporewala, who runs BCCL International and Brand Capitals US based operations from San Francisco Bay Area. We believe that mental and behavioral healthcare requires raising awareness globally, where we can leverage our decades of experience as one of the largest media houses. Together this partnership will help highlight this critical aspect of everyones life. This is our first digital health investment out of our Bay Area office.

The founding team of PsyInnovations also includes Ritvik Singh and Stan Miroshnikov. Ritvik is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and Columbia University and has over a decades experience as a portfolio manager and markets expert on Wall Street at major investment banks. Miroshnikov, also an alumnus of Columbia University, has over a decade of experience leading software development and product teams. And now serves as chief technology officer (CTO) for Psyinnovations.

This investment will enable us to strengthen our India presence, and deliver the solution to more corporations and individuals. said PsyInnovations CEO, Ritvik Singh. The startups key focus has been the $200-billion mental health industry in the US, where the mental health and emotional wellness market is more mature, Singh said. In the US, we have been focusing on healthcare and employee wellness sectors at large organizations. PsyInnovations had previously raised angel funding from healthcare experts in US and India including Padma Sri Dr. Harsh Mahajan; Gunjan Khanna, a Partner at McKinsey in Pittsburgh, USA; and Sreepathy Viswanathan, senior vice president of M&A at Hinduja Global Solutions Inc. They have industry and clinical experts as advisors including Chris Cavazos, who led Wellness Operations at Humana, and Prof Lata McGinn, President and Founder of Academy or Cognitive Therapy.

About PsyInnovations

New York, NY and New Delhi- based PsyInnovations is a digital behavioral health company with the mission of delivering evidence based programs and expert care using technology. Their flagship platform, wayForward (http://www.wayforward.io and http://www.wayforward.co.in ) delivers programs based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness and Positive Psychology, developed by its team of expert researchers and clinicians.
Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution "1st Capital Bank and Clearinghouse CDFI share the same values when it comes to supporting communities. $500,000 is a significant investment from a bank of their size, which reflects a genuine belief in the power of community development." - Douglas J. Bystry, Clearinghouse CDFI President & CEO

Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) announced today a $500,000 Class A equity investment from 1st Capital Bank. A locally owned and managed community bank, 1st Capital Bank is headquartered in Monterey County. Both Clearinghouse CDFI and 1st Capital Bank are dedicated to enhancing the financial health and wellbeing of California's communities.

Clearinghouse CDFI will use this investment to benefit low-income and distressed communities along Californias Central Coast and throughout Western United States and Indian Country. The $500,000 investment will help Clearinghouse CDFI continue financing community facilities, affordable housing, commercial real estate, and other projects that create jobs and services in underserved areas. The resulting funds will enhance community development efforts along California's Central Coast.

"We are thrilled to invest in an organization whose mission is to provide economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for lower-income individuals in the areas we serve," said Michael J. Winiarski, Chief Financial Officer of 1st Capital Bank.

Community Development projects previously financed by Clearinghouse CDFI include:



Tri-Counties Community Housing Corporation - Arroyo Grande and Atascadero, CA: Over $1 million in loans to create group homes for individuals with developmental disabilities.

2025 Union LLC - Paso Robles, CA: A $3.4 million loan to construct a 24-bed assisted living facility.

"1st Capital Bank and Clearinghouse CDFI share the same values when it comes to supporting communities," said Douglas J. Bystry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Clearinghouse CDFI. "$500,000 is a significant investment from a bank of their size, which reflects a genuine belief in the power of community development. These funds will be leveraged to make a difference in communities we serve."

Clearinghouse CDFI has funded $1.55 billion in total loans for over 1,820 community projects over the past 21 years. These projects have created or retained more than 18,000 jobs and benefit over 1.5 million individuals. This includes the rehabilitation of more than 15.1 million square feet of blighted properties. These projects have benefited over 610 separate underserved communities throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Native American Reservations.

About 1st Capital Bank:

The Bank's primary target markets are commercial enterprises, professionals, real estate investors, family business entities, and residents along the Central Coast Region of California. The Bank provides a wide range of credit products, including loans under various government programs such as those provided through the U.S. Small Business Administration ("SBA") and the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA"). A full suite of deposit accounts is also furnished, complemented by robust cash management services. The Bank operates full service branch offices in Monterey, Salinas, King City, and San Luis Obispo. The Bank's corporate offices are located at 150 Main Street, Suite 150, Salinas, California 93901. The Bank's website is http://www.1stCapital.bank.

About Clearinghouse CDFI:

Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) addresses unmet credit needs in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Indian Country in the Western United States. Clearinghouse CDFI is an industry leader helping to bridge the gap between conventional lending standards and the needs of low-income and distressed communities. Clearinghouse CDFI is also a B Corp--a certification received from the nonprofit B Lab. B Corps are companies who meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and use business as a force for good. For more information, visit: http://www.ccdfi.com.
Dr. Mark Leondires works with LGBTQ patients to help them start a family at RMACT, a "Leader in Equality."

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), the educational arm of the nations largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, named Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut (RMACT) on its eleventh edition of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI). For the second consecutive year, RMACT had a perfect score, making them Leaders in Equality by demonstrating a commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive policies and practices for both employees and patients. RMACT is the one of two fertility practices in the nation and one of four healthcare facilities in Connecticut on the list.

Being a part of HEI shows that we walk the walk when it comes to LGBTQ inclusiveness, says Dr. Mark Leondires, medical director at RMACT and its LGBTQ educational platform Gay Parents To Be. We want to live in a world where our straight and LGBTQ friends, family, employees and patients all feel welcomed and have equal access to quality healthcare, and this is our small part in making that happen. Out of over 400 IVF centers in the country, we are one who has received this stamp of approval.

RMACT has a team dedicated to working with LGBTQ patients to address their unique family-building needs. With advanced fertility treatment as the cornerstone for all its patient care, RMACT provides complete family-building services, including support groups, individual and couples psychological counseling, acupuncture, nutrition counseling, and third-party support for any patient working with egg donor, sperm donor and gestational carrier. Additionally, in 2012 RMACT launched GayParentsToBe.com, an educational website for LGBTQ community with resources to help individuals find a path to having a family.

The HEI survey is a rigorous, multi-stage process that requires validating the implementation of LGBTQ-inclusive policies and practices in four areas: LGBTQ patient-centered care, LGBTQ patient services and support, fully-inclusive employee benefits and policies, and LGBTQ patient and community engagement. In addition, applicants are evaluated on responsible citizenship, which requires applicants show they do not engage in any activity that would undermine LGBTQ equality or inclusive patient care. Despite a national policy shift based on exclusion of the LGBTQ community, HCR had a record 626 applicants who participated in the survey, with 418 hospitals and healthcare facilities being named Leaders on Equality.

About Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut (RMACT)

RMACT specializes in the treatment of infertility, including assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS). RMACT, Fairfield Countys largest fertility clinic and egg donation center, is one of 11 leading In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) centers nationwide chosen by In Vitro Sciences to participate in its Centers of Excellence program. RMACT has been named to the Health Equality Index in 2017 and 2018. RMACT has offices in Norwalk, Danbury, Stamford and Trumbull, and an affiliate office now in Poughkeepsie, NY. RMACT also offers infertility treatment financing and support services, such as nutrition counseling, individual and couples psychological counseling, acupuncture and yoga, through RMACTs Integrated Fertility and Wellness Center.

The RMACT team includes lead physicians Drs. Mark P. Leondires, Joshua M. Hurwitz, Cynthia M. Murdock, Spencer S. Richlin, Shaun C. Williams, as well as fertility specialist Dr. Ilana B. Ressler. All six physicians are Board-Certified Reproductive Endocrinologists and are members of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Five of the doctors are Castle Connolly "Top Doctors" and members of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), the Fairfield County and Connecticut Medical Societies. RMACTs IVF laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and CLIA; other accreditations include the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) and the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM). For more information visit http://www.RMACT.com or find us on Facebook.

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Marketing Assistant Katie Sorce

Healthcare marketing agency Smith & Jones recently welcomed their newest team member, Katie Sorce. As marketing and administrative assistant, Katie contributes to research and strategy projects, manages social media and digital marketing accounts, and assists with everyday agency tasks in content creation, account management, finance and operations.

Katie is a great addition to our hospital marketing team, said Mark Shipley, Smith & Jones CEO and Strategy Director. Her experience working in the health care industry gives her a valuable perspective and she is always eager to lend a helping hand.

Prior to joining Smith & Jones, Katie received her BS in Mass Communications from State University of New York at Oneonta. After graduating, she was part of the promotions team for iHeartMedia in Rochester, New York. Most recently she worked as marketing manager for an integrated medical practice, running social media, managing websites and creating videos for the practices four locations.

In addition to her role at Smith & Jones, Katie is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Communications from Syracuse Universitys Newhouse School.

About Smith & Jones

Smith & Jones is where healthcare brands come to get better. We help our clients create meaningful and desirable healthcare brands, align their internal teams, engage new and existing patients, and drive downstream revenue.
Modern Landlord Software Were excited to offer our landlords and renters fast, easy, and safe cash payments with MoneyGram.

Schedule My Rent, the provider of online rent payment solutions, is broadening their offering with cash payment options.

For landlords, collecting rent can be a time-consuming process. Collecting checks, making deposits, creating receipts, and meeting tenants for cash payments all take time out of a busy landlords schedule. Schedule My Rent now frees up that time by providing a breadth of payment options, while removing the hassle involved in rent collection.

With cash-based rent payments, many times landlords are meeting renters in person to collect payments. Scheduling a meeting at a property or other location takes time, coordination, and it can be dangerous for both parties to carry large sums of cash.

With Schedule My Rents newest offering, renters now have the convenience and security of making cash rent payments at any MoneyGram location across the United States. Renters simply walk into a MoneyGram retail store and make a rent payment with cash. Schedule My Rent then transfers the rent payment to the landlords bank account, saving both tenants and landlords time.

Landlords who are seeking on-time rent payments now have another simple way to ensure that renters have options in making rent payments. With Schedule My Rent, renters can easily make either cash payments or electronic bank transfer payments, eliminating the need for paper checks.

Were excited to offer our landlords and renters a breadth of simple solutions to help save time, said Kris Winckler, President of Schedule My Rent. Our mission is to provide better landlord and renter solutions at a low cost, with excellent customer service  and adding easy, safe, and convenient cash payments is another way we can do that.

About Schedule My Rent

Schedule My Rent is an online rent payment service for landlords and renters that is secure and automated. Renters can pay with cash or with their bank account using AutoPay or one-time payments. Landlords save time by automating reminders, receipts, late and return fees, splits between roommates, and tracking  always know who has paid, who hasnt paid, and what payments are scheduled. Schedule My Rent is available nationally, with headquarters located in Albuquerque, NM. Please visit our website, Collect Rent Online, to see how we make rent payments easy and how we save you time.

About MoneyGram International

MoneyGram is a global provider of innovative money transfer and payment services and is recognized worldwide as a financial connection to friends and family. Whether online, or through a mobile device, at a kiosk or in a local store, we connect consumers any way that is convenient for them. We also provide bill payment services, issue money orders and process official checks in select markets. More information about MoneyGram International, is available at moneygram.com.
HR Scholarship Recipient - Stephanie Follansbee Someone that clearly puts so much effort into her studies and has such a passion for human resources is bound to do great things in the future. We are so excited that we are able to make a contribution that helps Stephanie fulfill her academic goals.

A winner has been selected to receive the 2018 HR Scholarship, awarded by HRISPayrollSoftware.com. Stephanie Follansbee, a student at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, has been chosen as this years winner based on her outstanding academic record and her dedication to the human resources field.

Stephanie articulated her gratitude upon finding out that she had won the scholarship.

I was absolutely thrilled to receive this great honor from HRIS Payroll Software. I am a committed student with a 4.0 GPA, and will put this scholarship to great use to relieve my remaining student debt, as I complete my degree in Human Resources Management at Regis University this summer. Thank you so much for your generosity!

Stephanie was chosen by The Scholarship Selection Committee based on her demonstration of commitment to human resources. Her fantastic GPA, the letter of recommendation that she submitted, and her personal statement regarding the importance of the field all helped to identify her as the rightful recipient of this years HR scholarship.

Dave Rietsema, the founder of HRISPayrollSoftware.com, was delighted to award the scholarship to Stephanie. Someone that clearly puts so much effort into her studies and has such a passion for human resources is bound to do great things in the future. We are so excited that we are able to make a contribution that helps Stephanie fulfill her academic goals. Thank you, Stephanie, for participating in our scholarship program and for striving to be a human resources leader!

This is the third year that Dave and the team at HRISPayrollSoftware.com have offered the scholarship. HRISPayrollSoftware.com is a site that helps match companies from all industries with HR and Payroll software that can assist with streamlining their HR processes. The Florida-based company is committed to improving and shaping human resources from every angle, the scholarship is one way that the company supports the people behind the processes.

Lucerna, LLC runs HRISPayrollSoftware.com and also operates sister sites HRPayrollSystems.net and ApplicantTrackingSystems.net. These sites offer free services that help companies select and implement software that will best assist with their human resources, payroll, and recruitment needs.
Cadence helps us provide a more complete service and significantly increases our capacity for more customers, said President Doug Hayes.

Cadre Technologies announced today that long-term 3PL customer, Progressive Logistics has selected Cadence Warehouse Management System to expedite high-volume fulfillment order processing. The company is expanding its fulfillment capabilities to meet new needs of its dynamic base of shippers. The Cadence implementation takes advantage of Cadres cloud-based hosting services.

Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Progressive Logistics serves customers in a variety of industries including consumer products, automotive, electronics, food, industrial, paper, plastics and containers/packaging. It operates multiple facilities to provide a specialized, comprehensive suite of inventory and shipping services.

We are located strategically in Indianapolis, near the second largest Federal Express hub and a major Amazon hub at the Indianapolis International Airport, explained President Doug Hayes. Cadence helps us provide a more complete service and significantly increases our capacity for more customers.

The company has successfully operated Cadres Accuplus WMS and LogiView Visibility system for many years. The expansion to Cadence solves complex parcel packaging, increases flexibility, and provides greater throughput, all required in multi-channel fulfillment. Accuplus will continue to manage most 3PL operations, going forward.

We are extremely pleased that Progressive Logistics has added Cadence WMS to its warehousing and fulfillment operations, said Daryl Grove, Executive VP at Cadre. We are proud when our full suite of solutions are in place, working to provide comprehensive warehousing capabilities for forward thinking logistics operators like Progressive.

About Progressive Logistics

Progressive Logistics offers both dedicated and public/shared warehouse space. Facilities are modern, efficient, sanitation-certified and security-monitored to provide the highest standards for customers inventory. The company has operated in the Indianapolis area for more than 30 years. The Progressive team is highly skilled and experienced to assess customer needs and create innovative solutions. For more information, visit http://www.progressivelogistics.com.

About Cadre Technologies

Cadre Technologies is a leading innovator of software for fulfillment and logistics operations including warehouse management, transportation management and online collaboration. Products include Accuplus 3rd Party Logistics WMS; LogiView, SaaS based supply chain control tower; and Cadence Warehouse Management System. The company is based in Denver, Colorado with offices in Lenexa, Kansas and Baltimore, Maryland. Cadre is a FOG Software Group company, part of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX:CSU). For more information, visit http://www.cadretech.com.
Siemplify Security Orchestration and Automation Platform Users can now investigate, triage and remediate security events faster and more efficiently, all from a single console.

Siemplify, the leading innovator in security orchestration and automation, announced today that it has achieved technical integration of the Siemplify Security Orchestration and Automation Platform with McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as well as other products in the McAfee portfolio. This integration enables customers to deploy more robust security solutions, seamlessly manage their various security tools and automate incident response processes to better protect against emerging cyber threats.

As a member of the McAfee Security Innovation Alliance, Siemplify plays a critical role in the programs mission to accelerate the development of interoperable security products and to simplify the integration of these products within complex customer environments, bringing better value and more protection against the growing threat landscape to joint customers. Through this partnership, Siemplify and McAfee address a rising industry need to shorten response times from security events and more easily remediate compromised systems.

Siemplifys platform enables security teams to work smarter and respond to threats faster by delivering context-rich security orchestration and automation capabilities through a holistic analyst workbench, said Meny Har, vice president of products, Siemplify. With the integration of McAfee ESM, Threat Intelligence Exchange and ePolicy Orchestrator, to name a few, users can now investigate, triage and remediate security events faster and more efficiently, all from a single console.

Security should be easy to manage, and together with Siemplify we are able to deliver solutions that enable joint customers to more effectively manage their portfolio of McAfee products, said D.J. Long, vice president strategic business development, McAfee. This results in better protection, reduced remediation time, and increased efficiency.

About Siemplify

Siemplify provides a holistic security operations platform that empowers security analysts to work smarter and respond faster. Siemplify uniquely combines security orchestration and automation with patented contextual investigation and case management to deliver intuitive, consistent and measurable security operations processes. Leading enterprises and MSSPs leverage Siemplify as their SOC workbench, tripling analyst productivity by automating repetitive tasks and bringing together disparate security technologies. Founded by Israeli Defense Forces security operations experts, Siemplify is headquartered in New York with offices in Tel Aviv. http://www.siemplify.co

McAfee and the McAfee logo are trademarks of McAfee LLC in the United States and other countries.
"Using multiple HR systems in isolation from Jira can drain productivity and take up a lot of time. We have endeavored to get all these essential processes in one place to prevent any transmission loss from one tool to the other." - Anand Inamdar, CEO & Product Director

Employee Garrison is the second product under the company's flagship brand UpRaise, first one being Employee Success. It has been created to simplify core HR processes such as employee leave management as well as document management and make them a part of Jira. Philosophy behind this expansion is to consolidate enterprise level tools and get rid of departmental & functional silos.

Employee availability at all times is paramount to ensure successful completion of projects within time & budget. Thus, it becomes crucial that employee leaves are properly managed so that delays can be avoided. Garrison guarantees efficient tracking and availability at all times of all Jira users. Managers or HR teams do not have to rely on independent systems to retrieve this information as it is readily available within Jira itself.

Secondly, all employee documentation such as appointment letters, salary slips, agreements and/or contracts can be stored in one centralized database and accessed by the right authorities. And lastly, Employee Garrison provides an easy way to convey the org structure to ensure a greater understanding of reporting structures.

Employee Garrison takes care of all your HR needs. Newer features will regularly be added to meet customer expectations. It can be purchased through the Atlassian Marketplace (https://goo.gl/BfSCzn).

About UpRaise for Employee Success: Employee success (http://upraise.io/) is an agile performance management tool natively developed as a Jira app (previously known as add-on). It is available for cloud, on-premise as well as data center version. It extends Jira to manage OKR goals, exchange continuous feedback & even conduct performance reviews.
DanceTangoTV instructor Elina Ruiz in a close embrace with her partner DanceTangoTV allows dancers to immerse themselves in their Tango practice; wherever and whenever it is convenient for them to do so.

DanceTangoTV is the first website of its kind to offer an inexpensive subscription-based model with a focus on the social dance of Tangowidely considered the most beautiful partner dance in the world. The site allows dancers to immerse themselves in their Tango practice; wherever and whenever it is convenient for them to do so.

For $19 a month DanceTangoTV subscribers are able to stream unlimited classes in HD on their computer, tablet, or smartphone. The website features a wide range of full-length instructional videos for dancers of all skill levels, with lessons for the absolute beginner, to classes for professional level dancers. Highly sought-after master Argentine Tango teachers based in Buenos Aires, the birthplace and mecca of Tango, instruct all of the lessons in the ever-growing library of videos on the site.

DanceTangoTV was conceived for all levels of dancers, but specifically for those who don't have access to quality tango teachers; or if making the trek to Buenos Aires to study with the masters just isnt a realistic option, said Angel Prince, CEO of DanceTangoTV. We bring high-quality Tango lessons into the comfort of everyone's homeor wherever they choose to practiceat an affordable price.

The website is also a great tool for those people who want to learn the dance of Tango but aren't ready to step outside their house and into a group lesson, says Prince. Whether a user a total beginner, too busy, or simply too shy to make it to a class, DanceTangoTV removes those barriers and brings the classes them.

Designed with the user experience in mind, DanceTangoTV provides subscribers with simple and intuitive navigation, so they can quickly find classes that appeal to them and start dancing. The classes on the website are organized in three primary ways: by teacher, by level, and by topic. For seasoned DanceTangoTV subscribers, there is even a feature called Make Your Own Class that allows users to assemble a tailor-made lesson based on their preferences.

Visit http://www.dancetangotv.com to experience this unique and forward-thinking method for learning the beautiful, elegant, and sensual dance of Argentine Tango. New users receive a seven-day free trial to test out the site.

To celebrate the launch of the website, DanceTangoTV is hosting a launch and milonga (an Argentine Tango dance party) on Saturday, April 21 in Hawaii. The event will be held at the Honokaa Peoples Theatre on Saturday, April 21, 2018 on Hawaii Island.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dancetangotv/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancetangotv/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanceTangoTV

About DanceTangoTV

DanceTangoTV (http://www.dancetangotv.com) is an online Tango community featuring high-quality educational videos of Argentine Tango instruction. The website offers classes for every level of dancer. Based in New York, Hawaii, and ArgentinaDance Tango, LLC is a privately held company.
Enbala CEO Bud Vos Winners were selected based on the way in which they are responding to changes and disruption in the energy system.

Enbala has received the 2018 New Energy Pioneer Award from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The company was one of only 10 award recipients from around the world. The award honors game-changing companies globally in the field of clean energy technology and innovation and was unveiled on April 9 at BNEFs The Future of Energy Global Summit in New York City.

Winners were selected based on the way in which they are responding to changes and disruption in the energy system. BNEF stated, By recognizing innovators, BNEF aims to highlight and accelerate the transition that is underway in todays new energy economy, towards new business models, technologies, market structures and commercial opportunities.

We are very honored to be one of this years 10 game-changing, clean energy companies, said Enbala CEO and President Arthur (Bud) Vos. We exist for one reason: to create an energy future thats sustainable and balanced. Its gratifying to me personally and to everyone who works at Enbala to have our energy balancing technology recognized by such a prestigious and well-respected organization.

An independent panel of industry experts, assisted by BNEFs analysts and technology specialists, selected the 10 winners from more than 160 applicants from 47 countries around the world. Each candidate was assessed against three criteria: technology or business model innovation, and what novelty it brought to the market; evidence of substantive progress in the form of strong commercial partnerships, the distribution channels in place and sales growth; and the potential to scale and have a global impact.

About Enbala

Enbala provides the advanced technology needed to ensure the operational stability of the worlds power grids by harnessing the power of distributed energy. Enbalas real-time energy-balancing platform provides a highly flexible approach for creating controllable and dispatchable energy resources from flexible loads, energy storage and renewable energy sources. The platform underpins Enbalas award-winning and industry-leading DERMS and VPP technology and dynamically optimizes and dispatches distributed energy resources to respond to the real-time needs of the power system. The platform gives energy retailers and utilities the flexibility to operate in real-time and to better manage the escalating complexities of increasingly variable energy assets and evolving market opportunities. For more information, visit http://www.enbala.com or follow @enbala on Twitter.
Site Selectors Guild logo

The Site Selectors Guild (SSG), the association of the worlds leading corporate location advisors, elected a new board and unveiled a new visual identity at the organizations 2018 Annual Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in March. Along with the election of new board members, Didi Caldwell was elected chairman of the board.

Caldwell has been a member of SSG since 2012, has served on the board for four years and previously served as treasurer. She is a principal at Global Location Strategies, a business-consulting firm providing site selection and location incentives negotiation services.

The Site Selectors Guild is the only association of its kind to advance the site selection profession and assist economic development organizations as a collective whole, explains Caldwell. I believe in its vision that every corporate location decision is guided by an experienced location strategy professional and I look forward to working closely with the board, staff and members this year to keep the organization constantly striving for professional excellence.

In addition to the chairman, the following Guild members have been elected to the board and will serve as officers:



Mark Williams, president of the Strategic Development Group and immediate past board chair will remain on the board as vice chair

Andy Shapiro, managing director at Biggins Lacy Shapiro, remains on the board as secretary

John Sission, executive managing director at the Next Move Group, will serve as board treasurer

Chris Lloyd, senior vice present and director of infrastructure and economic development at McGuireWoods Consulting, LLC, remains on the board

Don Schjeldahl, principal at the Don Schjeldahl Group, also remains on the board

Phil Schneider, president of Schneider Strategy Consulting LLC, also remains on the board

The Guild also developed a new logo and design standards that were unveiled at the Annual Conference.

By developing a new logo and design standard, our goal was to solidify our organizations appeal and professionalism through contemporary colors and imagery, improved audience engagement and stronger online resources, said Site Selectors Guild vice chair Mark Williams. We also added the tagline, The Worlds Leading Location Strategists, to communicate that our members do so much more than site selection.

The Guild also refreshed its website, SiteSelectorsGuild.com, to showcase this new brand and better represent the thought leadership of its 44 members. The new site has an improved member search function, a blog with articles authored by Guild members from around the globe and improved content areas for both economic developers and corporate end-users.

About The Site Selectors Guild

The Site Selectors Guild (SSG) is a professional association comprised of the world's leading corporate location advisory consultants to companies looking to build or expand. The mission of SSG is to advance the profession of corporate location strategy by raising awareness of the value professional location strategy and site selection services create for corporations. Professional site selectors often serve as a barometer for the overall economy  when companies are growing and expanding, they turn to site selectors for location advisory assistance. If projects slow down or stop coming in to site selectors, it is an early indicator that business may be headed for a downturn.

Guild members are also committed to sharing thought leadership and best practices, developing and nurturing relationships between SSG members, economic development organizations and corporate stakeholders, and contributing to policy discussions that affect location strategy and the future of the profession.

All members of SSG have been nominated and approved by their industry peers. As the first and only group of its kind, SSG brings together a dynamic network of site selectors from around the world, combining their talent and expertise to create an invaluable, top quality resource for both corporations seeking site selection assistance and economic development organizations.

For more information, visit http://www.siteselectorsguild.com or follow @siteselectguild on Twitter.
We hope this webcast can better prepare organizations with the correct tools and policies in place to avoid GDPR fines and for insight on the best ways to manage their mainframe security with real-time threat notifications.

CorreLog, Inc., a leader in multi-platform IT security event log management, today announced an exclusive sponsorship for a SHARE eLearning webcast titled, How to Arm Your GDPR Data Protection Officer with Mainframe Security Tools Needed to Navigate the New Law's 72-Hour Reporting Requirement on Tuesday, April 24 from 9:00 a.m.  10:00 a.m. CDT U.S. The webcast will feature CorreLogs Vice President of Development and support, Peter Mills, and CorreLogs Marketing Chief, Tony Perri; along with Infotels Account Manager, Antoine Gruson. SHARE, an independent volunteer-run information technology association, works with their members, volunteers, and vendor partners to bring new industry information and education through their webcast series.

We are excited to be a part of the SHARE eLearning webcast alongside highly-valued EU partner Infotel, said George Faucher, CorreLog president and CEO. The GDPR is effectively here and its going to bring hefty consequences for those not in compliance. We hope this webcast can better prepare organizations with the correct tools and policies in place to avoid GDPR fines and for insight on the best ways to manage their mainframe security with real-time threat notifications.

CorreLogs webcast will focus on the upcoming European Unions GDPR as it relates to mainframe data. The GDPR goes into effect on May 25, 2018, and the law calls for a new role in IT, the Data Protection Officer. The DPO must notify the proper authorities within 72 hours of potential breach, arguably the most difficult component of the GDPR to master. This webinar will discuss how to prepare your DPO with the proper tools and resources for real-time threat alerts. CorreLogs products provide the real-time notifications and archiving from IBMs z/OS that are needed for GDPR compliance as well as compliance for other data security standards.

Founded in 1979, Infotel is a French-based IT consulting services and software firm specializing in enterprise information management systems, with specialties ranging from mobile to very large-volume datacenters. At the forefront of technological innovations, Infotel develops its expertise around two complementary IT infrastructure services and software publishing.

To register for the SHARE webcast, click here.

For more information on CorreLogs products for mainframe security and compliance, click here.

CorreLog SHARE Webcast Details



What: SHARE / CorreLog webcast  How to Arm Your GDPR Data Protection Officer with Mainframe Security Tools Needed to Navigate the New Law's 72-Hour Reporting Requirement

When: Tuesday, April 24 | 9:00 a.m.  10:00 a.m. CDT U.S.A.

Speakers: Peter Mills, CorreLog VP of product development and customer support; Tony Perri, CorreLog marketing & PR chief | Antoine Gruson, Infotel account manager

Register: click here

About SHARE

SHARE is an independent volunteer-run information technology association that provides education, professional networking and industry influence. SHARE began as the first-ever enterprise IT user group back in 1955 and continues to deliver important avenues of professional growth for the industry today. While the means of learning, networking and influencing this space have evolved  the desired result of providing a valuable user-driven perspective is the same. SHARE is here to lend a hand in training, to offer valuable collaboration opportunities and to embrace discussions on timely challenges. For more information visit share.org.

About Infotel

Listed on Compartment B of Euronext Paris since January 1999 (ISIN code FR0000071797) Infotel is the Specialist of large accounts information management systems, from mobile to very large volume databases (Big Data). At the forefront of technological innovations, Infotel develops its expertise around two complementary poles: computer services and software editing. Infotel posted a revenue of 209.3 million in 2017 and employs over 2,200 people. For more information on Infotel, visit infotelcorp.com.

About CorreLog

Since 2007, CorreLog, Inc. has been committed to delivering software solutions for Security and Compliance auditing professionals who need more advanced network/system security and improved adherence to PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, GDPR, ISO 27001, IRS Pub. 1075, NERC and other industry standards for protecting data. Our solutions are designed to be complementary to clients existing IT investments.

CorreLog specializes in providing the most comprehensive Security & Compliance software at the industrys lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Our solutions help secure data across both mainframe and distributed operating systems and provide alerts with notifications in real-time to security and network operations resources. CorreLog has worked with companies across Fortune 500 to SMB class who all benefit from our ease of installation and highly interoperable approach to building software that is simple to use and master, out of the box. Our customers are up and running with monitoring and alerts within just a few hours, versus weeks or even months with competing enterprise vendor solutions. Our software agent monitoring technology spans from Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac, SAP, and databases all the way up to the largest mainframes running IBM z/OS, Linux on z Systems, IBM Db2, IBM IMS, and IBM z/VM.

CorreLog has installed software and framework components used successfully by hundreds of commercial and government organizations worldwide. Our core solutions provide visibility on privileged-user activity, data integrity, FIM and application activity that may hold evidence of cyber threat, and in real time, we notify security personnel with alerts in accordance with compliance standards. For more information on CorreLog, please visit CorreLog.com.
OURA Headwear We want to inspire people to fight cancer alongside some of our youngest warriors

Cancer survivor introduces nanomineral headwear to the worlds of fashion, wellness and philanthropy. Launched for the healthy lifestyle, OURA is the only self-cleaning, stylishly functional headwear available to consumers today.

Founded by siblings, Keane and Shaun Veran, OURA brings nanomineral technology to American-made headwear, while giving back to pediatric cancer patients. The inspiration came after Keane was diagnosed with leukemia. He recognized the need for cleaner hats while undergoing chemotherapy and the vital relief that support from a charity can bring during a serious illness.

A social enterprise focused on cancer support, OURA harnesses the collective power of community to empower patients with a message of resilient hope. Keane Veran spent most of his childhood in treatment fighting cancer. It was the overwhelming support of family, friends, doctors, and even strangers, that inspired him to be more hopeful in the face of a life-threatening illness. That feeling of resilient hope helped him to become a survivor. Now, OURA wants to help other patients fight cancer with that same feeling of hope. .

Inspired by the Japanese legend of folding 1000 origami cranes to receive a wish, OURA manufactures 1000 limited edition hats with each design. After they have been sold, OURA grants the wish of a pediatric cancer patient through Make-A-Wish. We want to inspire people to fight cancer alongside some of our youngest warriors, said co-founder Keane Veran, whose wish to meet the President was granted by Make-A-Wish in 2011. Nothing motivated my fight more than having my wish granted and we wanted to recreate that for other patients. OURA is a statement of solidarity with those who need our support the most. Each headwear represents 1/1000th of a potentially life-saving wish.

OURA combines fashion and function by using the most advanced fabrics to create a highly comfortable, stylish, and protective hat. In every hat are millions of nanominerals that play a role in protecting the wearer with 10 unique features. All OURA headwear are anti-bacterial, UV protective, self-cleaning, water repellent, hypoallergenic & more. OURA combines technology, style and philanthropy so youll feel good, look good, and do good.

OURAs first limited-edition design and more information about the cause is available at ouragami.org

About OURA

OURA is a wellness brand passionate about fighting pediatric cancer and bringing healthy solutions to your wardrobe. Hope helped us beat cancer and now we are recreating that same hope for other patients. With every 1000 hats sold, OURA grants the wish of a child battling cancer through our nonprofit partners. We fuse fashion and technology to create functional headwear and accessories.
"We're excited to add SimpleWAN as an Alliance Preferred Provider. With that designation, SimpleWAN will have immediate access to the sales and marketing engine of the top master agencies and direct sales entities in the channel." - Bill Power, CEO of The Alliance Partners.

The Alliance Partners, the channel partner collective that brings together agents, VARs, managed service providers, IT consultants, and cloud specialists, has added SimpleWAN  the industry's provider of SD-WAN 2.0  to its Preferred Provider portfolio.

The Alliance is a consortium dedicated to providing real-world business benefits to its members, providers, and clients by leveraging the power of its collective strengths. These include the ability to carry out combined contract negotiations, efficient supplier and customer relationship management, and an unparalleled body of industry knowledge.

"In our eyes, joining The Alliance Partners opens up the SimpleWAN platform to some of the most well known and distinguished master agents in the industry," said Erik Knight, CEO of SimpleWAN.

"The Alliance Partners' members are a marketing force for SD-WAN solutions, and it was critical that we add SimpleWAN to our Preferred Provider portfolio," Bill Power, CEO of The Alliance Partners said. "Were looking forward to a long and mutually profitable relationship with SimpleWAN."

Power continued: Were excited to add SimpleWAN as an Alliance Preferred Provider. With that designation, SimpleWAN will have immediate access to the sales and marketing engine of the top master agencies and direct sales entities in the channel. The Alliance members represent over $2 million in monthly sales, and it will be exciting to leverage SimpleWANs strengths to grow those numbers even more."

SimpleWAN offers SD-WAN 2.0  the next generation of SD-WAN  encompassing over 20 technologies including managed Wi-Fi and cyber security to streamline business's network management needs.

"We're thrilled to become a part of The Alliance's ecosystem, and to work with the esteemed partners the group has in its portfolio," Knight said.

SimpleWAN is a very important player in the SD-WAN space, and as The Alliance Partners members continue to expand their offerings, SimpleWAN will play a very critical role," said Power.

SimpleWAN won Best in Class at The Alliance Partners' Tech+Connect sales empowerment event in November 2017.

About SimpleWAN

Launched in 2013, SimpleWAN is quickly becoming an industry leader in cloud-based networking and automated solutions. With state of the art features like SD-WAN, SD-Voice, cloud managed WiFi and automated security and protection systems, SimpleWAN is working to meet the needs of small and large business networks. SimpleWAN won SDN Product of the Year for 2014 and 2016 by TMC Magazine.

For more information, please visit http://www.simplewan.com or call 1-855- GET-A-WAN.

Contact

Brian Perdue, VP of Sales

(602) 460-4118, Brian.Perdue@SimpleWan.com

About the Alliance

Since 1997, the Alliance (http://www.agentalliance.net), originally the Agent Alliance, has been a powerful voice for the channel. This diverse industry consortium of shareholders represents all industry sectors, from traditional communications to IT, cloud, storage and virtualization, mobility and converged IP services.

The Alliance is dedicated to fostering best business practices nationwide for the channel ecosystem. It is an important forum for education, collaboration and information-sharing, aimed at helping channel partners evolve their practices to remain competitive. The Alliance is able to leverage the unique and diverse expertise of its formidable member roster to put knowledge into practice in highly pragmatic ways to create an environment of continuous growth and improvement, which benefits partners, suppliers and clients alike.
This Is It! BBQ & Seafood Logo "It was my honor to recognize Butch at the Georgia House of Representatives and introduce him to our states leaders. His story of overcoming obstacles to build a successful restaurant empire is a must read for anyone in need of inspiration in life and in business." - Rep. Josh Bonner

On Tuesday, March 27th, Atlanta metro-area entrepreneur, author, and founder, President and CEO of restaurant chain This Is It! BBQ & Seafood Shelley Butch Anthony III was recognized by the Georgia State Legislature for his contributions to the Atlanta-metro area, as well as for the publication of his inspirational new book, God Has a Plan for the Underdog (available on Amazon). The book tells the story of Anthonys rise from humble beginnings to successful entrepreneur through faith in God, self-respect, persistence, and courage. Anthony gave copies of his book to every member of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Georgia House Representative District 72 Josh Bonner introduced Anthony and his book to the members of the House of Representatives. "Mr. Anthony has been a friend of my family for a number of years and serves as a true role model for our community. It was my honor to recognize Butch at the Georgia House of Representatives and introduce him to our states leaders. His story of overcoming obstacles to build a successful restaurant empire is a must read for anyone in need of inspiration in life and in business. (see recorded presentation on YouTube)

Georgia House Representative District 63 Debra Bazemore said, I believe first and foremost that he allows our young people to see what is possible. Hes teaching all of us, not just through his words but through his actions, how to be good citizens in our communities. Anthonys corporate headquarters is in Rep. Bazemores district.

Mr. Anthonys restaurant chain This is It! BBQ & Seafood has a legacy that spans 65 years, with ten restaurants (the eleventh soon to open in Stockbridge, GA), a state-of-the-art events center, catering services, and national recognition as consumers' choice for "Best BBQ" by CNN and the Wall Street Journal. Anthony is the recipient of many awards, including the Tenacity Award (GA Minority Business Association, 1999), Self-Made Millionaire Award (Women of Wealth Magazine, 2016), Appreciation and Commitment Award (American Culinary Arts Association, 2007). Shelley "Butch" Anthony will be featured on the cover of the June 2018 Father's Day issue of Faith & Soul News Magazine.

For more information or to inquire into booking Mr. Anthony to speak to your group or event, please contact Melinda Sylvester at 770-412-2331.
Dr. William Groff, Board-certified Dermatologist at Cosmetic Laser Dermatology in San Diego "There are several myths about this condition, so it's important to correct these common misconceptions to help men better understand the truths surrounding PPP," said Dr. Groff

Pearly penile papules are flesh-colored or white small dome-shaped bumps that form around the rim and underside of the tip of the penis. They commonly appear in rows around the circumference of the penis. Statistics have shown that 30% of men will be affected by this skin condition.

Dr. Groff, a board-certified dermatologist and partner at Cosmetic Laser Dermatology in San Diego, believes that once men understand the facts about pearly penile papules they can make an informed decision about whether to have their pearly penile papules treated.

Dr. Groff's website (http://www.ppptreatment.com) is the only website in the U.S. that is created by a PPP specialist and is 100% focused on pearly penile papules.

"Most men are not well-informed about pearly penile papules. For that reason, I created this website to provide men with comprehensive information on this common skin condition," said Dr. Groff. "My website provides men all over the world a safe place where they can learn about their condition online, alleviate their anxiety, and decide what, if anything, to do about their PPP.

When men see bumps on their penis, they fear theyve contracted a sexually transmitted disease or that they have cancer or another serious illness, said Dr. Groff. They may be too ashamed to see a doctor. However, anxiety about their appearance can adversely affect their sex life and prevent them from becoming intimate with a partner.

In addition to arousing fears about STDs or other illnesses, some men feel ashamed because they think having PPP reflects on their personal hygiene.

"One purpose of the website, said Dr. Groff, is to assure men that they did nothing to cause their PPP. The causes of this skin condition are unknown. However, we do know that pearly penile papules are a normal variant of penile skin and are more common in uncircumcised men in their twenties and thirties, although other men may be affected as well."

Some men are often too embarrassed to consult their doctor about pearly penile papules, which leads men to try over-the-counter or web-based creams, lotions, and DIY home remedies. Dr. Groff warns that by using home remedies, men risk making their condition worse by developing scarring issues, inflammation, loss of sensation, infection, bruising, numbness, and other serious side effects. Home remedies can cause permanent damage.

"Men need to realize that this skin condition is harmless and has no health risks, so treating pearly penile papules is not necessary and is strictly optional," said Dr. Groff. However, some men with PPP may experience a great deal of anxiety and psychological stress concerning the appearance of their penis and decide to get the PPP removed, so they can feel more confident about their appearance. Men do not have to feel victimized by this skin condition when there is an effective, quick, simple, and painless treatment available to permanently resolve it.

I have successfully treated more than 1,600 men with PPP, said Dr. Groff. "Medical case studies have proven that the only safe, effective, and permanent way to remove PPP permanently is with a CO2 laser that instantly vaporizes the papules."

The CO2 laser procedure is a fast and painless treatment that takes only 15 to 20 minutes but requires great skill on the part of the physician who must be a well-trained and have extensive experience removing pearly penile papules using the latest generation carbon dioxide CO2 laser.

Before the laser procedure, Dr. Groff applies a numbing creaming to the treatment area. His patients often express surprise that they felt no discomfort at all when their PPP were removed. Each papule is vaporized individually. Men can return to normal activities, including sex, within 7 to 10 days.

The PPP website includes a gallery that gives men an opportunity to view Dr. Groff's PPP before and after photos. It also provides PPP videos of Dr. Groff demonstrating the CO2 laser procedure to remove pearly penile papules on real patients.

Dr. Groff said, My patients are thrilled when I eliminate their PPP in just one simple treatment. The CO2 allows me to give my patients results that are life-changing. It is very gratifying to be able to make a difference in their lives."

Dr. Groff's website could be a lifesaver for those men who think they have PPP but actually have an STD or more serious condition.

Sometimes, men think they have PPP, but when they describe the symptoms, such as burning or pain, thats highly suggestive of a serious condition, such as an infection, Dr. Groff said. This website not only arms men with knowledge about PPP but also directs them to seek medical care immediately if their penile bumps are symptomatic of something more serious.

On the PPP website, men can find answers to Frequently Asked Questions and a section that discusses the Facts and Myths about PPP. "There are several myths about this condition, said Dr. Groff, so it's important to correct these common misconceptions to help men better understand the truths surrounding PPP."

Dr Groff is a partner at Cosmetic Laser Dermatology which is an esteemed cosmetic clinic located in beautiful San Diego, California and a member of the West Dermatology network. The team of board-certified dermatologists is committed to providing each and every patient with the highest level of care in a comfortable setting. Cosmetic Laser Dermatologys dermatologists are all highly respected in the field for their use of innovative treatments, involvement in advanced medical research, and continued participation in clinical trials.

For more information please visit http://www.CLDerm.com

Cosmetic Laser Dermatology

9339 Genesee Ave #300,

San Diego, CA 92121

(858) 943-2113

inquiries(at)CLDerm(dot)com
We are excited about the evolving digital currency industry and the possibilities it opens up for investors. Our team is dedicated to monitoring the changes that come with this evolution and will be ready to comply as the regulations are amended.

Scivantage, a technology provider of Cost Basis, Information Reporting and Digital Wealth Management solutions, announced today it has expanded its support for cryptocurrencies in Maxit, its cost basis reporting system.

Scivantage continually monitors investment trends, industry regulations, and investor demand to ensure our clients are ahead of the curve on any changes, said Cameron Routh, Chief Commercial Officer, Tax & Analytics at Scivantage. As investment in cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, it is important to our clients that we extend cost basis support to more cryptocurrencies to provide investors with enhanced solutions to complex reporting requirements, added Routh.

Maxits robust rules engine supports many new asset classes natively. The recent enhancements, based on market demand, provide additional functionality to Maxits cryptocurrency platform.

In IRS Notice 2014-12, the IRS indicates that cryptocurrency is treated as property for federal tax purposes. To help investors comply with this notice, Maxit has expanded support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and over 1,500 other cryptocurrencies. The Maxit cost basis support includes:



Matching buy and sell activity using multiple depletion methods, including tax-efficient strategies to minimize tax liabilities

Trading in all major fiat currencies

Automated adjustments for cryptocurrency forks

Unrealized and realized gain/loss reports

Real-time tax calculations

Support for both brokerages and exchanges

We are excited about the evolving digital currency industry and the possibilities it opens up for investors. Our team is dedicated to monitoring the changes that come with this evolution and will be ready to comply as the regulations are amended, said Routh.

About Scivantage

Scivantage is a technology provider of Cost Basis, Information Reporting and Digital Wealth Management solutions. With proven expertise in online brokerage, tax and portfolio reporting, and wealth management applications, Scivantage delivers intelligent and actionable information that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional financial software, helping improve investment decisions. Leading financial institutions, including broker-dealers, mutual fund companies, bank custodians, trust and prime brokers, depend on Scivantages cloud-based technology to achieve critical business insights, generate new revenue and build stronger customer relationships. For more information, please visit http://www.scivantage.com or contact us at +1.646.452.0050
Attorney Paul Hofmann of Hofmann & Schweitzer Injured sailors must take quick action to preserve their potential rights to file a claim.

Paul Hofmann, a maritime attorney based in New York, NY, will seek damages on behalf of five sailors injured in last years collision between the ALNIC MC and the USS JOHN S MCCAIN (1). These sailors and over 200 others aboard the JOHN S MCCAIN are being legally compelled to make any injury claims they may have relating to the collision by June 15, 2018. After this date, families of the deceased and injured seamen may not be able to recover any compensation for the incident (4).

On August 21, 2017, the oil tanker ALNIC MC collided with the U.S. Navy destroyer USS JOHN S MCCAIN in the Singapore Straits. Ten U.S. Navy sailors were killed when compartments below the destroyers water line flooded; many other sailors were injured in the incident, including the five represented by Hofmann & Schweitzer (3).

The owners of the ALNIC MC, Energetic Tank, Inc., filed a preemptive lawsuit under the Limitation of Liability Act, a maritime provision that allows vessel owners to limit the amount of possible compensation to victims and families after a disaster at sea (4). It also places a strict filing deadline by which victims must come forward to collect compensation, after which all right to payment might be forfeited. The filing deadline, previously established as April 16, has been extended to June 15, 2018 (9).

If the ALNIC MCs owners lawsuit is successful, the action could determine that Energetic Tank does not have to pay any damages to claimants, or at least would limit Energetic Tanks liability to the value of the ship, approximately $16.8M, which is a fraction of what the combination of all claims could be worth (5). Hofmann & Schweitzers clients claims in the case seek to have the court reject these potential outcomes.

Court documents filed by Hofmann & Schweitzer maintain that the owners of the ALNIC MC failed to train its crew, failed to maintain a proper course, failed to check radar to prevent a collision, and failed to follow basic navigation rules and procedures (6)(7)(8)(10)(11).

As of April 9, 2018, Hofmann & Schweitzer has filed responses on behalf of each of its clients, stating that the injuries sustained in the collision caused significant medical expenses, past and future loss of earnings, emotional distress, and pain and suffering. The responses also request an order to deny Energetic Tank, Inc. the right to limit its liability, allowing the sailors to have their cases heard before a jury (6)(7)(8)(10)(11).

Over 200 sailors on the vessel, including the families of the ten sailors who were killed, were sent documentation informing them of the action and filing deadline. The U.S. Navy has a right to its own claim against the ALNIC MC and its owners, but the U.S. Justice Department will not represent individual sailors. The Navy is encouraging individual sailors affected by the incident to contact maritime injury attorneys in order to assert their claims (2).

Injured sailors must take quick action to preserve their potential rights to file a claim. To learn how attorney Paul Hofmann can help injured JOHN S MCCAIN crew members assert claims against the ALNIC MC and its owners before the June 15, 2018 filing deadline, visit Hofmann & Schweitzer.

Attribution:

1. Washington Post. August 20, 2017.

2. Notice sent to the crew of the JOHN S MCCAIN from the US Navy concerning the lawsuit filed by the owner of ALNIC MC. March 6, 2018.

3. US Navy. October 23, 2017. Report on the Collision between USS JOHN S MCCAIN and the ALNIC MC.

4. Notice of Complaint for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability. February 15, 2018. ENERGETIC TANK, INC., Owner of the M/V ALNIC MC.

5. Order for an Interim Stipulation for Value. February 15, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

6. Claimant 1s Answer and Claim. April 2, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

7. Claimant 2s Answer and Claim. April 3, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

8. Claimant 3s Answer and Claim. April 4, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

9. Order extending Notice of Claim to June 15, 2018. March 27, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

10. Claimant 4s Answer and Claim. April 9, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

11. Claimant 5s Answer and Claim. April 9, 2018. New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York.

Case Numbers:

New York 18-CV-1359, United States District for the Southern District of New York

About Hofmann & Schweitzer

Hofmann & Schweitzer represents victims of maritime and construction injuries, and has won multimillion-dollar awards for its clients. Based in New York, NY, the experienced legal team fights for sailors and families seeking justice for injuries and wrongful death, including the case of the ALNIC MC and USS JOHN S MCCAIN. To learn more about the team at Hofmann & Schweitzer, visit our website or call us at 800-362-9329.
The SMARTIES Business Impact Index raises the bar for the industry to create marketing campaigns that are effective in driving business growth and delivering the highest level of business impact, said Sheryl Daija, Chief Strategy Officer, MMA

In a first for the industry, the http://www.mmaglobal.com Mobile Marketing Association __title__ ] (MMA), the leading global trade group for the mobile marketing industry, today revealed the 2017 Global and North America rankings of the Agencies (Media, Creative, and Specialist), Holding Companies, Agency Networks, Advertisers, Brands and Technology Enablers that are delivering the highest level of business impact through mobile-first campaigns.

Following the release of the MMA SMARTIES Business Impact Index shortlists last month, the much-anticipated complete rankings are now available revealing those companies who claimed the # 1 spots.

The methodology for the Index, developed in close collaboration with WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, uses the finalist and winner data from the previous years highly-competitive SMARTIES Awards programs regionally and globally assigning points to campaigns and the organizations behind them.

2017 GLOBAL SMARTIES BUSINESS IMPACT INDEX: Ranked #1

Advertiser: Unilever

Brand: Nike

Agency Network: Mindshare Worldwide

Holding Company: WPP

Creative Agency: JWT

Media Agency: Mindshare

Digital/Specialist Agency: R/GA

Technology Provider: AdColony

2017 NORTH AMERICA SMARTIES BUSINESS IMPACT INDEX: Ranked #1

Advertiser: PepsiCo

Brand: Linksys

Agency Network: R/GA

Creative Agencies: Decon and Edible

Media Agency: Initiative USA

Digital/Specialist Agency: R/GA USA

Technology Provider: Aquto

The SMARTIES Business Impact Index raises the bar for the industry to create marketing campaigns that are effective in driving business growth and delivering the highest level of business impact, said Sheryl Daija, Chief Strategy Officer, MMA. Those companies who have earned top positions on the rankings have shown the marketing and business community what it takes to stay ahead and create award-winning ideas that work  achieving the perfect blend of strategy, creativity, execution and, ultimately, results.

The Global and North America companies that have achieved the number one ranking in the various categories were honored and recognized on stage today at Impact NY. To view the complete Index and rankings across categories by region, visit http://www.mmaglobal.com/smarties-index.

The MMA SMARTIES are the only global awards that identify and recognize the most innovative and effective mobile campaigns. Now, the Business Impact Index expands the SMARTIES reach beyond the awards to benchmark what success looks like for the industry. The campaigns created by the companies named on the Business Impact Index are available in the MMA SMARTIES Case Study Hub, which grants members-only access to the most comprehensive body of successful, award-winning work in mobile. This robust, highly-searchable database of more than 1,000 case studies, including a portfolio of the latest prize-winning Cannes Mobile Lions, helps both buyers and creators in the industry navigate the mobile marketing landscape to understand what matters in mobile and why.

The 2018 SMARTIES Awards call for entries is officially open and accepting submissions. For more information or to submit work for consideration, visit http://www.mmaglobal.com/smarties2018.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The MMA is the worlds leading global non-profit trade mobile marketing association comprised of more than 800 member companies, from nearly fifty countries around the world. Our members hail from every faction of the mobile marketing ecosystem, including brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, operators and others. The MMAs mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer and stronger consumer engagement. Anchoring the MMAs mission are four core pillars; to cultivate inspiration by driving innovation for the Chief Marketing Officer; to build the mobile marketing capabilities for marketing organizations through fostering know-how and confidence; to champion the effectiveness and impact of mobile through research providing tangible ROI measurement; and to advocate for mobile marketers. Additionally, MMA industry-wide committees work collaboratively to develop and advocate global best practices and lead standards development.

Members include: 1-800-Flowers.com, AdColony, Allstate, Ally Financial, American Express, AT&T, Bank Of America, Campbells, JPMorgan Chase, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Citi, Clear Channel Outdoor, Colgate-Palmolive, Dunkin Brands, eBay, E*TRADE, Electronic Arts, ESPN, Facebook, Ford, Foursquare, Google, GroundTruth, Heineken, Hersheys, Hilton Worldwide, Hulu, IBM Watson, Johnson & Johnson, LinkedIn, Marriott International, Match Group, Mastercard, McDonalds, Microsoft, MillerCoors, OpenMarket, Pandora, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Pinterest, PlaceIQ, Procter & Gamble, R/GA, RetailMeNot, Salesforce, Samsung, Snap Inc., Spotify, SUBWAY, Tapjoy, Target Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, Time-Inc, T-Mobile, TUNE, Turner Broadcasting, Twitter, Uber, Ubimo, Unilever, Vibes, Walmart, Wendys, Zurich and many more. The MMAs global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM). For more information about the MMA please visit http://www.mmaglobal.com.
ARtillry Intelligence, in partnership with Thrive Analytics, today released a new Intelligence Briefing: Mobile AR Usage & Consumer Attitudes. Working closely with Thrive Analytics' Virtual Reality Monitor (N=2,198), ARtillry authored survey questions and a narrative report to examine the findings.

Highlights include the fact that almost a third (32 percent) of consumers have used mobile augmented reality (AR) apps. More importantly, they're using it often: more than half of respondents use mobile AR at least weekly. This is telling indication of mobile AR's potential, given that active use is a key mobile app success factor.

Moreover, satisfaction levels are high. 73 percent of mobile AR users reported either high or very high satisfaction with mobile AR experiences. However non-users sing a different tune, stating high disinterest, confusion, and low probability of adopting. This biggest reason reported for non-use was "just not interested."

"AR's visually-immersive experience is a double-edged sword: It produces highly visceral and satisfactory user responses... but you have to see it to believe it," said ARtillry Chief Analyst Mike Boland. "This creates a marketing and logistical challenge because the experience can't be captured in images or video. AR apps that contain social features can accelerate that market education and adoption through viral growth and network effect."

The top mobile AR app category used today is gaming, followed by social. These categories are driven by popular AR apps and features, such as Pokemon Go and Snapchat's AR lenses. Both categories will continue to lead mobile AR according to ARtillry Intelligence, driven by apps like Pokemon-Go maker Niantic's forthcoming Harry Potter, Wizards Unite AR game.

Virtual Reality Monitor applies Thrive Analytics' acumen and time-tested practices in survey research. The AR survey in this this wave (Wave II) included a sample of 2,198 U.S. adults. Thrive and ARtillry will continue to analyze the AR & VR market opportunities through the lens of consumer sentiments.

AR and VR are in the initial stages of adoption, said Jason Peaslee, Managing Partner of Thrive Analytics. There are still many technology challenges, but we think AR & VR have the ability to significantly change the way people work, connect, and learn. We are excited about the prospects and will continue to broaden our services in this space.

Report Availability

Mobile AR Usage and Consumer Attitudes is available through ARtillry Intelligence. More details about the report including previews and links to subscribe can be found here: http://artillry.co/artillry-intelligence/mobile-ar-usage-and-consumer-attitudes/

The base data is also available from Thrive Analytics. More details about Virtual Reality Monitor can be found here: http://thriveanalytics.com/Virtual%20Reality%20Monitor.html

About ARtillry

ARtillry is a publication and intelligence firm that examines augmented reality and virtual reality, collectively known as XR. Through writings, data and multimedia, it provides deep and analytical views into the industrys biggest players and opportunities. Its about insights, not cheerleading. Learn more or contact ARtillry at https://artillry.co/

About Intelligence Briefings

ARtillry Intelligence Briefings are monthly installments of VR/AR data and analysis. They synthesize original data and market insights to reveal opportunities and dynamics of VR and AR sectors. In addition to data, a layer of analysis is applied to translate market events and raw figures into prescriptive advice. More information, past reports and editorial calendar can be seen at: https://artillry.co/artillry-intelligence/

About Thrive Analytics

Thrive Analytics is a leading digital marketing research and customer engagement consulting firm. With clients spanning leading national brands as well as publishers and agencies serving the small business community, it pairs proprietary market research services and data analytical tools with time tested business insights and methodologies to help organizations measurably improve customer experience, loyalty and sales results. Its mission is to provide superior research and support services that inspire clients to make smarter decisions. Learn more or contact Thrive Analytics at http://www.thriveanalytics.com/
Dr. Fu has over 20-year experience in finance and business development. Prior to join BeBetter Med, she served as Managing Partner, China Head at Capvent AG, an early and growth stage investment fund based in Switzerland. She held managerial positions at Peregrine Investments, ABN AMRO Bank, and Pan-Pacific Investments. She was Director for Business Development and International Cooperation at the South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Fu obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester in the UK and a MBA from INSEAD in France.

I am pleased to join BeBetter Med, an innovative new drug company in China, which is widely recognized for its expertise in drug discovery and development, said Dr. Fu. I believe that my extensive experience gives me a unique perspective that will enable me to identify opportunities where BeBetter Med can deliver even greater value to shareholders, investors, partners, employees and society.

I am excited to welcome Congling (Connie) who is a seasoned leader in finance and business, said Dr. Qian. I look forward to working together as we further BeBetters new drug pipeline, plan for fund raising and IPO, and pursue international partnerships.

About BeBetter Med

Guangzhou BeBetter Medicine Technology Co., LTD is a drug discovery and development company founded in 2012 by overseas returnees and aims to create advanced novel medicines to treat cancer and other challenging diseases. The company has strong expertise and outstanding facilities to conduct comprehensive pharmaceutical research from chemical synthesis to clinical evaluation. Several innovative drug candidates with own IP rights are entering IND filings and clinical trials. The company's leading anti-cancer drug candidate, BEBT-908, is expected to enter phase II clinical trial in China during the 2nd half of the year. To learn more, please visit http://www.bebettermed.com.

Contact

Connie Fu Ph.D., MBA.

CFO & CBO

BeBetter Med Co, LTD.

25 Yayingshi Road, Science City

Guangzhou, China 510660

Phone: 86-20-3665-7220

Email: cfu@bebettermed.com
"A force to be reckoned with... she gives one hellava performance that will leave you laughing, crying and oh so hungry... for more!" Lisa Lucas, Emmy Winning writer/producer

Santa Fe actorvist, Debrianna Mansini (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Hell or High Water, Crazy Heart) brings her critically acclaimed solo show The Meatball Chronicles to Santa Fe for two very special performances. The Jean Cocteau owned by the renowned George R.R. Martin is hosting the show at Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living located at 505 Camino De Los Marquez, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505.

With the heartbeat of her show being about food and the special connection it carries, Mansini was moved to use her voice for something even greater than theater- she wants to help bring a broader awareness to Lunch Shaming and to those who are working to end it nationwide. When I read about Lunch Shaming, I about lost my mind, says the actress, who prefers the tag actorvist these days. How can this be something that happens in our country? To kids? 

Lunch Shaming is what happens when kids who with reduced lunch programs are shamed when their parents owe money to the school. Different schools use anything, from throwing out the hot lunch and giving the student a piece of cheese instead, to stamping I NEED LUNCH MONEY on a childs arm.

New Mexico was the first state to ban this practice but it happens over the country. New Mexico Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham is working to end it nationwide.

Mansini has decided to help both Lujan Grisham and the Santa Fe nonprofit NM Appleseed. NM Appleseed is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization focused on improving the lives of the poor and underserved through systemic change. I have time before I take the show to Los Angeles in June and I thought, Lets start this effort right here, at home. 

The Meatball Chronicles reveals Mansinis Italian immigrant family recipes and the complex ways that families cope, laugh, grieve and show their love through food. On May 20th the show will help raise money for Lujan Grisham's Gubernatorial race. Lujan Grisham is carrying the House Bill (H.R. 2401) to End Lunch Shaming nationwide. Campaigners will be present to speak about their efforts at a special VIP party after the show. Every effort is being made to bring Michelle herself to the VIP event.

On May 21st, the show will raise funds for NM Appleseed. There will be a VIP party following the performance to help give the organization a bigger fundraising boost. The Jean Cocteau will have special cocktails inspired by the show at the cash bar. The incredibly creative mixologist, Nicole Lawe, has something quite amazing on her drink list, says Mansini. Both VIP events will feature the catering work of Chef Noela Figeroa, owner of the acclaimed Santa Fe restaurant Bodega Prime, which is known for its organic, farm to table, made from scratch menu. Noela has worked within the slow food movement throughout her twenty pus year career, believing that the best food comes from within our community.

WHAT: The Meatball Chronicles

WHERE: PERFORMANCE: Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living

505 Camino De Los Marquez, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

VIP party located at a private home.

VIP tickets : Ticketleap



Show Only Tickets:

May 20th 4pm Jean Cocteau Calendar

May 21st 7pm - Jean Cocteau Calendar

WHEN: May 20th at 4pm / May 21st at 7pm

PERFORMANCE TICKETS: $25

VIP TICKETS: $50 to $1000 Donation

RUN TIME: 75 minutes

SPECIAL NOTE: Directions to the VIP party will be emailed.
Copyright: Bryan Adams

The Hear the World Foundation, a Swiss charitable foundation that supports people in need, and particularly children, with hearing loss, is thrilled to welcome Bruce Springsteen among its ambassadors. The new ambassador for conscious hearing supports the non-profits hearing loss prevention campaign.

Bruce Springsteens recording career spans over 40 years, he has released 18 studio albums, garnered 20 Grammys, won an Oscar, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, received a Kennedy Center Honor, and was MusiCares 2013 Person of the Year. Springsteens memoir Born to Run and its companion album Chapter and Verse were released in September 2016, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November that year. Springsteens The River Tour 2016 was named the years top global tour by both Billboard and Pollstar. In October, Springsteen made his Broadway debut with Springsteen on Broadway, a solo show currently running at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

Photographer and musician Bryan Adams, an ambassador of the Foundation for from day one / from the very beginning, took Bruce Springsteens official ambassador portrait in the Hear the World pose with one hand behind an ear  synonymous with conscious hearing. The meaningful black-and-white photograph will unite Bruce Springsteen with over hundred other musicians, models and actors who have supported the Hear the World Foundation over the past ten years. The team of renowned ambassadors help to raise global awareness about the importance of good hearing.

Hear the World helps children in need hear

Since 2006 the Hear the World Foundation, the cornerstone of Sonovas CSR engagement  Sonova is the leading provider of hearing solutions, has supported over 80 projects on all five continents, providing financial resources, donating hearing solutions, and training project workers in audiology on site. Efforts such as awareness campaigns, charity events and the sale of the Hear the World calendar, featuring the celebrity ambassadors help to raise global awareness about hearing health and supports children in need with hearing loss enabling them to develop at an appropriate rate for their age. More about the history of the Hear the Word Foundations and its projects can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63rDw7YDdE

Hearing loss  an underestimated issue with serious consequences

The significance of hearing loss is still underestimated, despite the figures painting a clear picture: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 466 million people (around 5% of the global population) are affected by moderate to profound hearing loss  around 34 million of whom are children. Most of those affected live in low- or middle-income countries and do not have any access to audiological care. Untreated hearing loss can have serious consequences, particularly for children. As well as difficulty learning to talk, they have hardly any chance of going to school and are often ostracized from society.

About the Hear the World Foundation

Founded in 2006 by Sonova, the leading provider of hearing solutions, the Hear the World Foundation supports disadvantaged people with hearing loss around the world and gets involved in hearing loss prevention. The foundation focuses particularly on projects for children with hearing loss, enabling them to develop at their fullest potential. Since its establishment, the non-profit Swiss foundation has supported over 80 projects in 39 countries with funding, hearing aid technology and expertise. More than 100 high-profile ambassadors, such as Bryan Adams, Cindy Crawford, Placido Domingo, Annie Lennox and Sting support Hear the World as ambassadors for conscious hearing.

http://www.hear-the-world.com

Supporting picture material to download:

https://www.hear-the-world.com/en/media/media-releases/bruce-springsteen-joins-htw

Hear the World Foundation

Louise Kaben

Email louise.kaben(at)hear-the-world(dot)com

Phone: +41 58 928 01 01
Envoy America helps senior living communities reduce their capital and staffing costs by 20-40% on average while helping them increase their occupancy rate.

Envoy America, a comprehensive ridesharing program that offers accompanied transportation and extra assistance for seniors and patients; today announced that Tiffany Wright has joined the company's team as Director of Business Development.

Wright, who is based in Phoenix, will lead Envoy America's business development strategy to grow the company's market share in the senior living, healthcare and religious institutions market segments. She will also be instrumental in driving business growth by developing new demand generation programs.

A 25-year marketing and business development veteran, Wright has extensive experience working with top-tier senior living companies, as well as numerous local and national healthcare organizations. Her career includes serving as President of Senior Lifestyle Connections, Owner of Morning Star Assisted Living, Director of Business Development at Nightingale Homecare and Skilled Admissions Director at Vi Senior Living.

"Tiffany's impressive background driving programs and growing revenues for some of the leading senior living companies is exactly what we need at this critical point in our growth," said K. C. Kanaan, CEO of Envoy America. "With her long list of accomplishments, a passion for innovation and astute business development & marketing perspective, she's an invaluable addition to our team."

"As a technology startup targeting the seniors - a market that is on a trajectory to swell to more than 72 million by 2020, Envoy America is poised for rapid growth," said Wright. "I am pleased to join Envoy America in the early stages to help the company set up a strong foundation for future success. The opportunity to focus on the core business while also making a positive impact on such a crucial segment of our population that has also been so influential in my life is something I am eager to be a part of," added Wright.

About Envoy America:

Envoy America was founded in July 2015 to help seniors stay independent, healthy and socially active - all without getting behind the wheel of a car. Envoy America is the fastest growing rideshare company in the US that is solely focused on seniors and people that cannot or shouldn't drive. Envoy America is preferred by senior passengers and drivers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to affecting positive change for the future of seniors.

For businesses such as senior living communities, the company provides numerous benefits to the them including replacing and/or augmenting the senior community's transportation services thus reducing their capital and staffing costs and headaches by 20-40% on average per ALF/IL/MC, while providing better and more customized transportation services to residents and their families to help them differentiate their senior community in a crowded marketplace. For more information, visit http://www.envoyamerica.com or visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EnvoyAmerica/
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorney Chelsea Berger has joined the firms Columbus office as Of Counsel.

Ms. Berger will be focusing her practice primarily in the areas of education and employment law. Prior to joining Dickinson Wright, Ms. Berger practiced in school law, employment law, general civil litigation, domestic relations, and estate planning. She regularly appears in state and federal courts, and at administrative hearings. She has also argued appellate cases in front of the Sixth Circuit and state district courts.

Ms. Berger is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, the Columbus Bar Association, and the Central Ohio Association for Justice. She received her B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and her J.D. from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law.

About Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC is a general practice business law firm with more than 450 attorneys among more than 40 practice areas and 16 industry groups. Headquartered in Detroit and founded in 1878, the firm has 19 offices, including six in Michigan (Detroit, Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw) and 12 other domestic offices in Austin and El Paso, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Nashville and Music Row, Tenn.; Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. The firms Canadian office is located in Toronto.

Dickinson Wright offers our clients a distinctive combination of superb client service, exceptional quality, value for fees, industry expertise and business acumen. As one of the few law firms with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, Dickinson Wright has built state-of-the-art, independently-verified risk management controls and security processes for our commercial transactions. Dickinson Wright lawyers are known for delivering commercially-oriented advice on sophisticated transactions and have a remarkable record of wins in high-stakes litigation. Dickinson Wright lawyers are regularly cited for their expertise and experience by Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and other leading independent law firm evaluating organizations.
Teresa Elders extraordinary work in support of specialty certification is elevating patient care and safety and empowering nurses who work in the dynamic environment of critical care transport.

The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), the benchmark for nursing certifications across the emergency spectrum, today announced that Teresa Elder, MEd, BSN, RN, CFRN, a flight nurse with Flight For Life Colorado at St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, is the 2018 recipient of the Distinguished CFRN/CTRN Award. The annual award recognizes a Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) or a Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN) who has shown outstanding support of the certification process in flight or critical care ground transport nursing. The award was presented by BCEN and the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA) this morning during the Air Medical Physician Associations 26th annual Critical Care Transport Medicine Conference at the Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk.

Elder, who is among 3,700 elite flight nurses in the United States who have earned the Certified Flight Registered Nurse certification from BCEN, has been CFRN certified and has served as a primary nurse in rotor wing, fixed wing and critical care ground vehicles caring for critically ill and injured patients for over 23 years.

Teresa exemplifies the best in flight nursing, said BCEN Executive Director Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CPHQ, CENP, FABC. Her extraordinary work in support of specialty certification, including designing a CFRN exam preparation program with a 100 percent pass rate, is elevating patient care and safety and empowering nurses who work in the dynamic environment of critical care transport.

The value of national board certification has long been recognized by the emergency transport profession. To be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), medical transport agencies must ensure that one member of their clinical crew is a licensed nurse with CFRN, CTRN, CCRN, or CEN (Certified Emergency Nurse), or equivalent national certification within two years of hire.

Knowledge is key to providing exceptional patient care, said ASTNA Executive Director Nikole Good. Nurses like Teresa who earn, maintain and advocate for professional certification are vital to the transport industry because they constantly strive to better themselves, their peers and the quality of care through continuing education and a commitment to excellence.

At Flight For Life Colorado, Elder is a chief flight nurse helping to oversee 41 flight RNs across six bases in Colorado. Her clinical program responsibilities include orientation, continuing education, currency of clinical guidelines, and certifications. Flight For Life Colorado completed 6,300 patient transports last year supported by helicopters, fixed wing airplanes and ground transport.

The CFRN certification is important to us, even absent the CAMTS requirement, as validation of our nurses critical care knowledge base and their commitment to remaining current in that knowledge, said Flight For Life Colorado Program Director Kathleen Mayer, MS, RN. Teresa is a long-standing advocate for the CFRN certification and has worked many hours to ensure that our flight nurses are well-prepared for the exam and recognized for passing it. We are grateful BCEN has honored Teresa with this award.

About the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing

The nonprofit Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) develops robust certification exams fostering empowered nurses across the emergency spectrum who contribute noticeably to patient care, safety and outcomes. Nearly 46,000 BCEN certifications are currently held by registered nurses (RNs) who specialize in emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, pediatric emergency and trauma nursing. BCEN offers the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN), Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN) and the Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN) certifications. The CEN, CFRN, and CPEN certifications are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC), the only accrediting body specifically for nursing certifications. Learn more at BCENcertifications.org. Follow BCEN on Facebook.

About the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association

The Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA) is a dynamic, international organization that acts as the voice in transport nursing with regard to patient and provider advocacy. ASTNAs mission is to advance the practice of transport nursing and enhance the quality of patient care through commitment to safety and education. Our 2,300+ members represent the entire spectrum of critical care, emergency, and non-emergency patient transport  hospital-based, public service, military and private providers.
Interactive, accredited, online learning for healthcare providers like you've never seen before. Our new online courses allow us to deliver our education to providers where they are, in their daily practice, thereby extending the reach of our programming to a broader audience of providers and improving preventive care for an even larger number of female patients.

Today, national breast and ovarian health organization, Bright Pink, launched two online courses designed to improve womens health providers ability to stratify and manage their female patients risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

The eLearning platform (available at BrightPink.org/ELearning) features interactive, self-paced, case-based education that is Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Education accredited. Upon completing the courses, providers will be equipped to engage in shared decision-making with patients to appropriately identify their risk and develop personalized prevention and management plans.

This is the latest offering from Bright Pink as part of their Womens Health Provider Education Initiative, which aims to improve patient outcomes through enhancing the quality of preventive breast and ovarian care delivery. To date, the initiative has educated over 18,000 providers through lectures at academic institutions.

Bright Pink is committed to ensuring women can rely on their providers as trusted partners in their breast and ovarian health management, said Dr. Deborah Lindner, Bright Pinks Chief Medical Officer. Our new online courses allow us to deliver our education to providers where they are, in their daily practice, thereby extending the reach of our programming to a broader audience of providers and improving preventive care for an even larger number of female patients.

Bright Pink partnered with the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Womens Health to receive CME and CE accreditation for each of the online courses.

Were proud to partner with Bright Pink to provide accreditation for these courses and to join in their efforts to make continuing education more accessible to front-line family physicians throughout the country.  Vince Keenan, Executive Vice President of Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.

In the development of their first digital program for a provider audience, Bright Pink built upon their past success in digital including their webby-award winning AssessYourRisk.org, which has helped more than 900,000 women assess their risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Following this risk assessment, women are encouraged to discuss their results with a provider to develop a risk-management plan that is right for them.

Providers can access Bright Pinks risk stratification and risk management courses at BrightPink.org/elearning.

About Bright Pink

Bright Pink is a national non-profit focused on the prevention of breast and ovarian cancer. The organizations mission is to save womens lives from breast and ovarian cancer by empowering them to live proactively. Bright Pinks innovative programs motivate women to prioritize prevention, help women assess their risk for breast and ovarian cancer, equip women with personalized risk-management recommendations, and empower women to manage their health proactively in partnership with a healthcare provider. Since 2007, Bright Pink has inspired over a million women to be their own best health advocates. Join us in putting Awareness In Action at BrightPink.org.

About Illinois Academy of Family Physicians

The Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP) is a state professional medical society dedicated

to maintaining high standards of family medicine representing more than 4,800+ family physicians,

residents and medical students. The IAFP is a chapter of the American Academy of Family

Physicians, the largest medical specialty association in the country, which has 125,000 members.

The IAFP, founded in 1947, provides members with advocacy, education and action through

practice-based support, continuing medical education, government relations and public relations

services.

About National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Womens Health (NPWH)

As a national professional membership organization, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Womens Health (NPWH) is the nation's leading voice for courageous conversations about women's health. In our clinics and in our culture, women's health nurse practitioners champion state-of-the-science health care that holistically addresses the unique needs of women across their lifetimes. We elevate the health issues others overlook and compel attention on women's health from providers, policymakers, and researchers. Other advanced practice registered nurses rely on us for authoritative resources and education that improve women's health and wellness through evidence-based practice. NPWH pioneers policies to address gender disparities and forges strategic partnerships that advance health equity and holistic models of care.
Tim has proven himself to be a strong member of the senior team, and we look forward to his ongoing success.

CenterGate Capital (CenterGate), an Austin-based private equity investment firm, announced today that Tim Liu has been promoted to Managing Director. Tim joined CenterGate in 2015 as a Principal and will continue to focus on execution of new investments, portfolio company management, and business development.

Tim has over 15 years of middle market private equity investing experience and has invested across a broad range of industries, company sizes, and transaction structures. Prior to joining CenterGate, he worked at H.I.G. Capital, Platinum Equity, and Brentwood Associates, and he has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Tiffany Kosch, Managing Director at CenterGate Capital, commented, Tim has proven himself to be a strong member of the senior team, and we look forward to his ongoing success.

About CenterGate Capital

CenterGate Capital is a private equity firm that helps companies drive meaningful growth and value through dynamic partnerships and supportive capital. CenterGate enables companies to realize their potential by supplementing managements operational and industry expertise with CenterGates diverse business guidance and insight. CenterGate focuses on investing in lower middle market companies with $20 to $250 million of revenue. Companies interested in more information should visit http://www.centergatecapital.com.
The Montefalco Consortium announces spring tasting events, including two seminars in Chicago and NYC and a month-long promotion for restaurants called Steak & Sagrantino. The events allow fine wine enthusiasts to delve deep into Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG and other reds and whites of the region.

The Montefalco Consortium, the association representing 59 producers from the Montefalco appellation of Umbria, Italy, is pleased to announce a series of tasting activities this Spring. The events include two masterclass seminars in Chicago and NYC and a month-long promotion for restaurants in major U.S. cities called Steak & Sagrantino.

The events will allow fine wine enthusiasts to delve deep into Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG, the flagship wine of its appellation in central Italy, as well as to other reds and whites of the wine region. A dry, red wine made from 100% of the native Sagrantino grape in and around the medieval village of Montefalco, Sagrantino is big-bodied with impressive structure, complexity, and tannins and an aging potential of ten years or more. Its younger brother Montefalco Rosso is a softer expression of Sagrantino blended with 60-80% Sangiovese; and the region makes several dry whites using grapes like Trebbiano Spoletino and Grechetto. The wines will be available at the upcoming masterclasses and Steak & Sagrantino tastings and promotions.

The masterclass seminars will be held for select press and trade to compare two vintages of Sagrantino from six producers, and to taste other offerings from Montefalco. It will be guided by two renowned industry professionals and Italian wine experts: Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Groups Beverage Operations Director Jeff Porter in NYC and Fine Wine Specialist and Wine Educator Kristen Ellis in Chicago. Both seminars will be presided over by the six Consortium producers who are participating in the U.S. communications campaign: Antonelli, Arnaldo Caprai, Briziarelli, Perticaia, Scacciadiavoli, and Tenuta Alzatura Cecchi. Finally, Alessandro Masnaghetti, cartographer of Italys wine regions, will be a special guest at the NYC seminar in honor of the recent inclusion of the Montefalco vineyards in his Enogea wine maps.

Steak & Sagrantino, held throughout the month of May, is the second springtime promotion of the Consortium. Open to the public, the promotion will take place in the best steakhouses and restaurants in major U.S. cities, inviting diners to discover how the bold wine goes perfectly with one of Sagrantinos best pairings: steak. Diners will have the chance to enjoy Sagrantino at a special price and, at select restaurants where Winemaker Dinners are hosted, even meet a producer.

For more information about the Montefalco Consortium and spring tasting activities, or contact Lydia Richards at lrichards(at)colangelopr.com or Diana Zahuranec at dzahuranec(at)colangelopr.com.

About the Montefalco Consortium (Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco): Founded in 1981, the Montefalco Consortium is responsible for coordinating with local producers, guiding them in high quality production, and promoting the historic wines of the territory. The Consortium is currently composed of 59 wineries and represents more than 80% of all certified production of Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG and Montefalco DOC.
Grayhill Celebrates 75th Anniversary

By 1901 the railroads and telegraphs of the steam age spread long tendrils from places like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, driving innovation along the steel rails into deep country. That same year, the Chicago Burlington and Quincy built its station in La Grange, Illinois - a sleepy escape thirteen miles from Chicago - and connected what was once a farming community to the big city. Not many then liked it but they made do and a suburb sprouted up full of quiet shops and friendly neighbors, all centered on the sloped, Norwegian-inspired La Grange station.

Forty years and nearly two World Wars later, two men stood under the "mottled, fire-flashed pressed brick" roof of the La Grange station and spread innovation back out to the world. They were Ralph Hill and Gordon E. Gray, Sr., business partners who started building mechanical switches for heavy-duty users in a two-car gasoline station in nearby Riverside. Grayhill, then called Hill and Gray, was Hill's baby and he and his wife Bernice spent their evenings manufacturing switches and dials for the war effort.

In the mid-1940s the pair built a unique rotary switch designed for submarines. The massive object - it looks like a contact-studded thermos and is made of copper and hard plastic - looks like it could survive a nuclear blast. It clunks from position to position with a gravity and completeness that is nearly impossible to find in today's mechanical devices and it still works as well as it did the day it was assembled.

Today the company still makes high-duty switches, controls, and rotary dials for mission-critical products and it still manufactures most of them right in La Grange. In fact, the company is headquartered in the same converted bowling alley that they used since the 1950s. If you look into any modern jet cockpit you'll see Grayhill switches running all up and down the control panel, ready to lift flaps and cock landing gear at a moment's notice. Grayhill, it could be said, means business.

Now, however, they're expanding into something a bit more 21st century. With this expansion comes risk and the future of Grayhill may be as uncertain - and as exciting - as it was back in 1943.

What's New?

This year Grayhill added a new product to the mix, a unique Touch Encoder that will remind some of higher-end thermostats or Minority Report-style sci-fi controllers. However, this new invention is in a league of its own.

TE New Bezel

The Touch Encoder is, quite simply, a dial. The outer edge is made of rugged metal and is delicately knurled in a cross-hatch pattern. Its face, however, is a touch sensitive surface coupled with a rugged LCD that turns a simple knob into a truly revolutionary interface device.

The Encoder is two inches in diameter and has a round 1.3-inch 320x300 color screen. Designed to survive in nearly any environment, it is sealed to IP67 standards - essentially an indicator of dust and water resistance - and it can survive chemical baths and high impacts. Because the company makes switches and inputs for medical devices and the military, a tool like the Touch Encoder is as rugged as anything Gray and Hill could have dished out to WWII sailors and pilots back in the 1940s.

What can you do with it? The Touch Encoder can output readings based on how a user spins the dial. But, thanks to the LCD, these outputs can control various aspects of a system. For example, you can tap the dial to wake up a microwave then swipe left or right to select a certain setting like time or temperature. A quick twist of the dial sets the control to the right setting and then another tap can start the cooking process. This unique interface means you can reduce the total number of switches and ensure that anyone - from parents to kids to engineers - can see and understand just what they're controlling.

Interestingly, Grayhill has never been big on branding. Now, however, the company is working hard to make the Grayhill Touch Encoder a "thing." Their traditional targets - manufacturers of high-end industrial, health, and military equipment - are still going to be getting their tried-and-true switches but they want new customers to see Grayhill in a new light.

To that end the team has built a mechanical testbed for the Touch Encoder along with an iOS app (Android will follow shortly.) This testbed/app combo lets tinkerers connect the Encoder to computers or single-board systems like Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Rather than depending on push buttons or touchscreens, a tool like the Touch Encoder can literally change the face of physical user experience overnight. Grayhill is in a unique position to carry this revolution to fruition.

Grayhill will also be marketing the Touch Encoder with a unique twist. Rather than selling it in the same way they've sold their switches and dials in the past, they will be launching a Kickstarter in order to expand the product into new markets and get it in front of tech enthusiasts and makers. Because it is such a unique product, it doesn't lend itself to the long sales times associated with government and industrial clients. Instead it will be as sprightly and fast-moving as anything found on Adafruit.com or inside the pages of Make Magazine.

Innovation once flowed out from central hubs. Now it flows from everywhere. Grayhill has a long history of capturing that flow and leading multiple industries in best practices and technologies. Now this little switch company from La Grange, Illinois is switching things up in an effort to change the way we interact, use, and build electronics.

Their effort, epitomized in this new Touch Encoder, points to a bright and fascinating future for electronic interfaces. Gray and Hill would have been pleased.

About Grayhill

Grayhill, Inc. is a privately held firm which designs and manufacturers intuitive human interface solutions that make life simpler, safer and more efficient. Standard products include optical and hall effect encoders, discrete and hall effect joysticks, rotary switches, keypads, and pushbuttons; all with finely tuned haptics. Grayhill specializes in creating ergonomic panels and product shells that integrate various interface technologies, including displays, our components, and gesture recognizing multi-touch technology. With headquarters in La Grange, Illinois, and multiple state-of-the-art facilities around the world, Grayhills team has the full engineering, product development and manufacturing expertise to deliver both standard and customized products quickly and cost-effectively. To learn more about Grayhills products and capabilities, visit http://www.grayhill.com or email info(at)grayhill(dot)com.

Written by John Biggs

John Biggs is an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and maker. He spent fifteen years as an editor for Gizmodo, CrunchGear, and TechCrunch and has a deep background in hardware startups, 3D printing, and blockchain. His work has appeared in Mens Health, Wired, and the New York Times. He runs the Technotopia podcast about a better future. He has written five books including the best book on blogging, Bloggers Boot Camp, and a book about the most expensive timepiece ever made, Marie Antoinettes Watch. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The award winning side by side is both a champion off-road vehicle, and a representation of Polaris commitment to grassroots racing.

RacingJunk.com, the world's leader in automotive motorsports and performance related classifieds, and the United States Motorsports Association (USMA) are both staunch advocates for grassroots racing. Thats why RJ partnered with the USMA at the beginning of March to help spread the word about its SAVE GRASSROOTS RACING campaign (https://www.saveracingRJ.com/).

To raise awareness and funding for the efforts, a 2018 Polaris RZR 1000 is being raffled off. The award winning side by side is both a champion off-road vehicle, and a representation of Polaris commitment to grassroots racing. Everyone can participate and support the campaign by becoming an Official Member of the USMA, which also comes with 20 Raffle tickets, or by purchasing individual raffle tickets. Together we will secure the future of grassroots racing.

Since the campaign itself is a petition-driven effort to unify all types of motorsports enthusiasts and supporters in educating lawmakers, RJ is encouraging users and supporters to sign the petition for racing, which will keep people up to date on the latest issues facing the nation and your local area. There is no cost to sign the petition and have your voice heard. And best of all, RacingJunk.com is offering one free raffle ticket for those who sign up. To get registered visit: http://www.SaveRacingRJ.com and be sure to enter promo code: RJ to get the free ticket.

Jim Sweener, Director of Sales for RacingJunk, said, The USMAs SAVE GRASSROOTS RACING campaign is part of a larger effort to bring together racing enthusiasts from all of the different regional and national elements of racing, something we fully support. The organization helps racers know whats happening at home in their communities and on a national level so they can advocate for their sport."

To learn more about the USMA, visit their website at https://www.unitedstatesmotorsports.com/. For more information on RacingJunk.com, go to http://www.racingjunk.com.

About RacingJunk:

The flagship website of Motorhead Media, Racingjunk.com is a one-stop shop for those looking to buy, sell, trade or interact with people throughout the automotive racing and performance communities. With over 850,000 registered members and 28,000 classified ads, the website generates more than two million visits each month.

About the United States Motorsports Association:

The USMA is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization that was formed in 2015 by a coalition of industry businesses including Lucas Oil, Safety Kleen, Optima Batteries and others, who recognized the need for greater organization, data, and state/local level advocacy for grassroots racing. The USMA serves as a unified voice for grassroots racing across the country with a focus on providing tools and resources that support all forms of competitive racing.
Hillary Medina and Ryan Jones I am thrilled to announce these new roles, as they are derivatives of our past successes and are fueling further growth. - Tim Gleeson

Novasyte LLC has announced the creation and appointment of two corporate positions. Ryan Jones, formerly VP of Sales, now holds the title of VP of Pharma Services and Hillary Medina, formerly Senior Director of Recall Services, now acts as VP of Field and Recall Services. Both positions were effective on Monday, April 9, 2018.

Hillarys expanded role is in response to the growth of Novasytes field action services, including the S.M.A.R.T. Recall Program and new application, Novasyte TRAK. Hillary has been a pillar of the Novasyte family for more than eight years and has done a fantastic job in strategically developing the S.M.A.R.T. Program offering, Tim Gleeson, CEO, said. We expect and look forward to her continued success in this new role.

As Novasyte continues to expand into the outsourced pharmaceutical services market, Ryan Jones will lead the national sales initiative. Ryan has supported Novasyte in both independent sales and leadership functions, said Tim. With his drive for excellence, we are confident Ryan will succeed in leading Novasyte into this new market. With more than 10 years of strategic business development management experience, Ryan has held the positions of Senior Director of Business Development and VP of Sales with Novasyte. He will be based in Dallas, Texas.

About Novasyte

Novasyte partners with medical device, diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies, offering innovative outsourced support teams and technologies. Our flexible model enables us to build, deploy and manage teams that expand and contract to meet our clients' customer-facing needs. Program success is tracked and measured with our real-time business intelligence analytics that provide our clients with critical insights into their most important resources  their people and their customers.
Because 96% of people searching for a lawyer now use a search engine to do so, it is crucial for law firms to take advantage of advertising online. - Daniel DeMaria

Boston-based agency, Pepper Gang, has created the ultimate resource for law firms trying to build their businesses, and amp up their digital advertising. The guide comes in the form of a whitepaper and is available for download on Pepper Gang's website.

The white paper is entitled "Attorney Advertising: The Importance of Google AdWords" and provides highly detailed notes on how law firms can utilize the power of Google's paid advertising service.

Attorneys will understand the importance of:



Google AdWords

Keywords/Targeting a specific audience

Various types of advertisements

Quality score

Managing an AdWords campaign

"Attorneys used to build their businesses through regular ads in the yellow pages. That doesn't work anymore," said Partnership Development Manager, Daniel DeMaria. "Because 96% of people searching for a lawyer now use a search engine to do so, it is crucial for law firms to take advantage of advertising online. Google is the most-used search engine and their AdWords program is extremely powerful. This white paper will provide a roadmap for Attorneys on how to use Google AdWords effectively."

From the guide:



"87% of people who contact an attorney go on to hire an attorney and 72% of them only contact one attorney."

"AdWords taps into the world's biggest and highest quality traffic source."

"[A law firm] must minimize waste, while targeting the most relevant keywords, at the best price."

"AdWords spending can be customized for any budget."

To download the guide, please visit the digital marketing resource center: Attorney Advertising: The Importance of Google AdWords

About Pepper Gang

Pepper Gang is the Boston-based digital marketing company committed to the growth and success of their clients' business. The company was born out of a desire to tell each brand's story in a way that compels like-minded consumers to align with the brand. Meet the Pepper Gang team and read their story at https://www.peppergang.com.
Rita Numerof, PhD, co-founder and President of Numerof & Associates Numerofs third annual survey finds that while nearly all healthcare providers see population health as an important next step, a few leading organizations have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. -- Rita Numerof, PhD

A growing number of healthcare delivery organizations are failing to keep pace with their population health objectives and falling even further behind the leaders in this space, according to the third annual State of Population Health survey by Numerof & Associates, a healthcare strategy consultancy.

In each prior administration of the survey, respondents predicted a dramatic increase in one measure of progress: the percentage of annual revenue that would be at risk in the next two years. However, those projections were not realized, as the majority of respondents to this years survey (54 percent) still reported less than 10 percent of their revenue comes through risk-based agreements.

In addition, the results indicate many organizations have fallen short of their readiness targets. In the 2015 survey, over half of respondents (59 percent) predicted they would be at least very prepared to take on risk in 2017. In the current survey, however, only one in five (21 percent) felt they had achieved that mark.

Despite this slow adoption overall, some leading organizations did report a substantial portion of revenue moving to new models, increasing the gap over the lagging providers. And most executives agree that population health is the future, with 95 percent of respondents rating it moderately, very or critically important.

Numerofs third annual survey finds that while nearly all healthcare providers see population health as an important next step, a few leading organizations have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, said Rita Numerof, PhD, the firms president. The shift in the business model has proven difficult for many to achieve due to institutional hurdles and concerns over financial losses.

In the survey, one-quarter of respondents cited the threat of financial losses as a barrier to moving to a risk-based model, with other concerns including uncertainty about timing (12 percent), and issues with systems like IT, tracking, and management (12 percent).

While more than 75 percent of respondents reported involvement in risk-based agreements, their financial exposure has generally been limited.

Hospitals that hedge their bets by experimenting at the margins with at-risk payment models underestimate the importance of moving up the experience curve, said Michael Abrams, managing partner of Numerof & Associates. Accountability for cost and quality is inevitable, and the sooner a commitment is made, the sooner the necessary competencies will be developed.

Numerof conducted the study in collaboration with David B. Nash, MD, MBA, Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health.

Improving the health of the populations we serve while implementing population health management programs, as a part of risk-bearing arrangements, is an apparent paradox in our country today, said Dr. Nash. We want to improve health, but the numbers say that we are far short of previously stated goals. One is therefore forced to ask the question---what is the real mission of our industry at this key juncture?

Methodology

Numerofs third annual State of Population Health survey report summarizes responses from more than 400 executives in urban, suburban and rural areas across the United States. These individuals represented a wide range of delivery organizations, including standalone facilities, small systems and IDNs; for-profit, not-for-profit and government institutions; and academic and community facilities. The full report is available at: http://nai-consulting.com/numerof-state-of-population-health-survey/

About Numerof & Associates

Numerof & Associates guides businesses across the global healthcare sector to compete and win. Bringing cross-industry expertise and a tailored approach, we develop and operationalize strategies that help clients define, demonstrate, and deliver value. For more information, visit http://www.nai-consulting.com/
Members of RBI Solar pose alongside signed modules at the event on April 4th. Its probably the largest group of stakeholders weve (IGS Solar) worked with on a project  with the public nature making it more complex, but I would say probably the most camaraderie, and the most energy and get-it-done attitude.  Patrick Smith (IGS Solar VP of Sales)

Cincinnati company RBI Solar joined in an anti-groundbreaking ceremony outside of Cleveland, OH for the 4MW DC solar project benefitting the City of Brooklyn. The event brought together key stakeholders to celebrate the most ambitious Ohio solar landfill project to date. Attendees included representatives from local governments of Brooklyn, Cuyahoga County, IGS Solar, RBI Solar, Cleveland Public Power, and the Ohio EPA. The following quotes are directly from speakers at the event representing these groups.

Weve put together (what we think is) a really creative and innovative project, that hopefully will be a model not just for Cuyahoga County or the state of Ohio, but the whole Midwest. Were taking land like the 77 acre landfill in the city of Brooklyn and installing 35,000 solar panels on it  feeding that electricity through Cleveland public power lines. -Mike Foley (Director of the Department of Sustainability for Cuyahoga County)

The array will cover approximately 17 acres and utilized First Solar Series 4 modules. The racking will be manufactured at RBI Solars headquarters in Cincinnati; using concrete ballasts that will be sourced from Ohio based concrete precaster Lindsay Precast. The ballast design will safely secure the racking system without penetrating the landfills cap, while adhering to Ohio EPA specifications.

RBI Solar is a leading turn-key solar mounting solutions supplier, taking responsibility for the design, engineering, manufacturing and installation of the most efficient PV racking systems in the marketplace. With 85+ years of experience in the commercial design-build specialty structures market, we are committed to providing value from project conception to substantial completion. RBI has completed over 100MW of ballasted landfill projects throughout the United States.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact RBI Solar at 513-242-2051 or email at info(at)rbisolar(dot)com.
The SciTechsperience Internship Program is critical for ensuring our state builds and retains its STEM workforce, said Margaret Anderson Kelliher, president & CEO of MHTA. Now that weve placed 1,000 students, its exciting to see how this program will continue to grow.

The SciTechsperience Internship Program (https://bit.ly/2eyfsAl) is excited to announce it has successfully placed 1,000 interns since its start in 2012. For six years, SciTechsperience has helped college students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) find paid internships in their field of study with small Minnesota companies. As of March 28, 2018, Haley Larson is the 1,000th intern placed using the program.

Were so thrilled to reach this milestone, said Becky Siekmeier, SciTechsperience Program Director. Its such a great feeling to help Minnesotas small and growing businesses find these talented students while helping students find opportunities to learn in their field and get the real-life experience they need to launch their careers. Being able to say weve given that experience 1,000 times is really amazing.

Haley Larson will be working as a Mechanical Engineering intern with Celadon Systems (https://bit.ly/2qj7gds) in Burnsville this summer. She will help with the development and documentation of new products for the company, which designs and manufactures semiconductor test equipment.

Engineering is the way I want to go about improving our world and the people that live in it, says Larson. I want to know that I am doing something beneficial towards those who need it. Larson is a junior at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Bill Funk, an Engineer at Celadon Systems, says having an intern at his company is mutually beneficial, adding that it is a good way to grow both our company and the students. I like the synergy.

The SciTechsperience Internship Program is critical for ensuring our state builds and retains its STEM workforce, said Margaret Anderson Kelliher, president & CEO of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA). SciTechsperience connects students with high-quality, hands-on, high-impact experiences in their field while also giving companies access to top talent to build their talent pipeline. Now that weve placed 1,000 students, its exciting to see how this program will continue to grow.

The program, designed to expand a pool of talent to support small Minnesota companies, placed 60 students its first year in 2012, almost doubling that two years later with 117 placements in 2014. The program doubled its results again in 2016, placing 230 paid internships. SciTechsperience continues to expand its reach and is expected to place 300 students in paid internships this year alone.

SciTechsperience is administered by the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Businesses that hire interns receive a dollar for dollar stipend to cover 50 percent of wages paid. The stipends are capped at $2,500. To be eligible, businesses must have fewer than 250 employees worldwide. Students and businesses can view requirements and apply to take part in the program at http://scitechmn.org/.
Getting ISO 9001:2015 certified by an independent auditor provides additional assurance to research scientists that we are monitoring and continuously improving our customer service.

Scientist.com, the life science industrys leading online marketplace for outsourced research, announced today that it received ISO 9001:2015 certification. The certification, which was awarded by SGS following a thorough audit, demonstrates that Scientist.com has a quality management system in place to consistently provide services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

Scientist.com has always been committed to providing outstanding research concierge services to scientists, stated Kevin Lustig, PhD, Scientist.coms CEO and Founder. Getting ISO 9001:2015 certified by an independent auditor provides additional assurance to research scientists that we are monitoring and continuously improving our customer service.

ISO 9001:2015 helps businesses demonstrate their ability to consistently provide outstanding service. Obtained through comprehensive, external audits performed by an independent accredited third party, the certification is based on seven quality management principles: customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making and relationship management.

About Scientist.com

Scientist.com is the world's leading marketplace for outsourced research. The marketplace simplifies the entire research sourcing process, saving time and money and providing access to the latest innovative tools and technologies while maintaining full compliance with an organizations procurement policies. Scientist.com operates private enterprise marketplaces for most of the worlds major pharmaceutical companies, VWR and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Since its founding in 2007, Scientist.com has raised more than $33 million from Leerink Transformation Partners, 5AM Ventures, Heritage Provider Network, Bootstrap Ventures and Hollywood producer Jack Giarraputo among others. Visit scientist.com to learn more.

Join Scientist.com on social media: YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Sean Preci

Director of Communications

+1 858 455-1300 ext. 401
The sector needs to be at the cutting edge of technology, and this announcement from BlueBottleBiz is a leading example of where elearning needs to be heading. We are leading from the front in 21st century learning.

BlueBottleBiz, the worlds first collaborative and curatable learning platform, has announced a growth in its available catalogue to 55,000 titles. Additionally, 40% of its title library is audio and video content, which is all entirely curatable for learners to get the most out of its platform and learn in the most efficient ways possible. This growth also makes BlueBottleBiz one of the worlds largest platforms for business, technical and IT, and software programming materials.

Ahead of the London Book Fair, we must recognise that the elearning sector is going through a seismic shift in the way it deals with learning resources. Books are still a staple of the learning process but, with more technology being introduced to the classroom and the workplace, elearning is having to diversify to meet this changing environment.

With more video content being uploaded in the last 30 days than the major US television networks produce in the last 30 years (source link: https://bit.ly/2EpaNw4), video learning has been growing in popularity. 98% of organizations said they would implement video as part of their digital learning strategy and videos are expected to be responsible for 80% of the internet traffic in the world by 2019. (source link: https://bit.ly/2BD9fkr)

Most of the expected growth is to come from Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa in the next six years. (source link: https://bit.ly/2IwMZIZ) Online video and audio learning, especially mobile friendly titles, will need to be prepared for enhanced usership and increased traffic. This announced from BlueBottleBiz is a statement of working towards this, and the beginning of this new era of learning, where different learners can learn in different ways, all on one platform.

The sector needs to be at the cutting edge of technology, and this announcement from BlueBottleBiz is a leading example of where elearning needs to be heading. We are leading from the front in 21st century learning, commented Marcelino Elosua, CEO and Founder of BlueBottleBiz.

Christian Smythe, Head of Content and Partnerships, praised the announcement. We are thrilled to have so much video and audio content on our platform. In this technologically diverse world where we are learning every time we look at a screen, having so much content, including books, articles and journals as well as new media content, helps all different kind of learners as much as possible.

About BlueBottleBiz

BlueBottleBiz, the first collaborative learning platform for business professionals, empowers its members to grow talent and share knowledge using the most expansive digital business & tech content library, and modern social and content marketing tools. The platform provides businesses, publishers, and individual members the ability to increase brand visibility, establish thought leadership, learn from industry experts and build global connections. Since its inception in 2012, BlueBottleBiz has earned the trust of 400 publishers, allowing the platform to feature 50,000 assets, including 15,000 videos. In a crowded marketplace, BlueBottleBiz offers the clear competitive advantage of applying the sharing economy principles to the knowledge space. To learn more about the platform or to sign up for a free trial, visit http://www.bluebottlebiz.com.

Media Contact

Kestell Duxbury

Knowledge Editor and PR Executive

kestell(at)bluebottlebiz.com

+44 (0)7833 433 128
Approved, the leading digital mortgage platform for independent lenders and brokers, has partnered with LendingQB, a provider of SaaS loan origination technology solutions, to launch a best-in-class digital mortgage experience and wholesale submission platform for lenders and their broker networks. The Approved platform is available now, and launching today with select lenders and brokers across the country.

Approved offers brokers and lenders a white-labeled borrower point of sale to streamline the loan application, automate original document collection, and track milestones online. This improves borrower lead-to-submission rates, and makes it drop-dead-simple for third party originators to submit high-quality loan packages directly to wholesale lenders. With a LendingQB integration, leads through submissions can all take place through the same point of sale a broker is using to manage their borrowers and process loan packages.

Approved makes it easy for any broker or lender to take their business online in minutes, and compete with those that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on technology. says Andy Taylor, Approved CEO.  In a world where over 70% of home buyers start their journeys online, buyers are going to move onto the next search result if you dont offer a competitive user experience. By partnering with LendingQB, were excited to bring our award-winning tech to even more of the mortgage industry.

LendingQB, a provider of an innovative web-based loan origination system (LOS), continues to extend market-leading integrations through its web-based LOS system that provides lenders a flexible, innovative workflow. The LOS open-architecture application program interface (API) enables lenders to select the tools that best help their efficiency. The LOS was cited in the STRATMOR Groups December 2016 Technology Insights report as achieving an end user effectiveness rating of 93%, top marks amongst the major LOS providers.

Approved technology includes:

Seamless Submission Platform: A seamless end-to-end experience from the borrower to the broker into the wholesale submission portal.Dynamic Loan App: Guides the borrower through the loan application process, by only asking the relevant questions.

DocCast: Automatically collect original bank statements, W2s, 1099s, 1040s and paystubs.

DocVision Camera Scanning: Allows borrowers to securely scan documents using their mobile devices.

White-labeled Dashboards: A delightful and mobile-enabled platform for borrower and lender collaboration.

Digital Document Library: Support for all popular loan programs.

Approved offers an innovative method for our wholsale lenders to engage more closely with their broker customers, said David Colwell, vice president of strategy at LendingQB. By integrating with Approved, were able to offer lenders a suite of technology solutions that leverages digital mortgage capabilities across different channels, embedding the user experience directly into the overall lending workflow. We are excited to partner with Approved.

About Approved

Approved is on a mission to bring transparency, efficiency and a little sanity to the mortgage experience. Were building a digital mortgage platform enabling lenders to go digital in minutes (not weeks). Our technology is used everyday by agents, borrowers, loan officers and their teams to provide a world class lending experience for borrowers, and to streamline and digitize the back office. Winner of the HousingWire 2018 TECH100 award, Approved was founded in late 2015 by Redfin alums Andy Taylor and Navtej Sadhal. Were based in sunny San Diego and backed by Social Capital, Precursor Ventures, Graph Ventures, Bluesky Equities, and other leading venture investors. Close more loans, faster.

Learn more and sign up today at http://www.getapproved.io

About LendingQB

LendingQB is a provider of Lean Lending solutions for residential mortgage banking organizations. The Lean Lending solution consists of a 100 percent web browser-based, end-to-end loan origination system, best of breed integrations with key industry partners and adoptimization' services that result in faster cycle times and lower costs per loan. For more information, please call (888) 285-3912 or visit http://www.lendingqb.com.
IBM Systems Media will host a presentation by CM First Group on the use of analytics software to speed enterprise application projects. The webinar will review the challenges associated with maintaining and modernizing mainframe applications, and the need for sophisticated software analysis tools to automate the process of software development.

Webinar Title: "Supercharging The Enterprise Software Factory"

Abstract: Join us as we demonstrate the latest technology available for Application Comprehension, Project Scoping, Data Lineage, and Business Rules projects involving mainframe software assets. We'll detail customer use cases where savings of 80% and higher were achieved on large scale software applications. We'll also unveil CM evolveIT's Software Quality Dashboard as a best-of-breed solution for today's software factory manager.

Speakers:



John Rhodes, Chief Technology Officer, CM First Group

Roger Hammer, Product Owner, CM evolveIT

Date and Time: Tuesday, April 10 at 12 p.m. CDT / 10 a.m. PDT

Registration: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1183856&tp_key=30c5f4eaeb

For other news and updates on CM First Group, visit http://www.cmfirstgroup.com

About IBM Systems Media:

IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe and Power Systems editions provide award-winning technology coverage in print and digital formats. In addition, the magazine offers social media presences (Twitter and Facebook) and Web-exclusive content. Our goal is to help customers achieve the greatest return on their technology investment. Subscribe at http://ibmsystemsmag.com/subscriptions. Print edition FREE in US and Canada; digital edition FREE worldwide.

About CM First Group:

CM First Group's powerful automation tools, augmented by services partners and professional services staff with many decades of software engineering and DevOps experience, ensure successful outcomes for even the most demanding modernization projects. Our products and expertise have helped over 400 customers in the public and private sectors reach their desired future state faster and more cost effectively than by using conventional approaches.

CM First software quickly analyzes, documents and re-platforms legacy code bases with minimal errors and rework, including those that are too large and complex for humans to tackle in any reasonable timeframe. The output is immediately usable by all team members, regardless of experience and knowledge of legacy software languages, accelerating application maintenance and modernization projects.

Americas Headquarters

+1-512-600-1484

+1-888-866-6179

France

+33 608 504 285

infofrance(at)cmfirstgroup(dot)com
OATI is pleased to attend the Gulf Coast Power Association (GPCA) 2018 Spring Conference April 16-18, 2018 at Hilton Americas, Houston, Texas. Experts will exhibit solutions and products for Renewable Energy Credits, Generation and Load Optimization, Reserving Transmission Capacity, Emissions Allowances Trading, Inter-RTO Trading & Scheduling, Data Analytics, and Generation Asset Management.

Built upon decades of power system experience and proven software components, OATI provides a unique combination of capabilities to address the current and emerging energy requirements, including high-penetration Distributed Resources (DRs)/Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), provision of ancillary services from demand-side resources for balancing variable generation, environmental compliance tracking, and distribution congestion management.

About OATI

OATI provides innovative solutions that simplify, streamline, and empower the operational tasks required in todays energy commerce and Smart Grid. Serving more than 2,000 customers in North America, OATI successfully deploys and hosts diverse mission-critical solutions committed to industry standards and stringent security guidelines.

OATI (http://www.oati.com) is a leading provider of Smart Grid, Energy Trading and Risk Management, Transmission Scheduling, Congestion Management, Distribution, and Market Management products and services. OATI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with offices in California, Punjab, Telangana, and Singapore. For more information, please contact Sales(at)oati(dot)net.
Bright Pattern makes us more agile, more nimble. Its made a night and day difference in what we can now offer our clients.

Bright Pattern, leading provider of omnichannel cloud contact center software, helps 80024Support improve customer experience by replacing outdated premise-based contact center technology. 80024Support provides professional technical help desk services and customer care strategies for many leading technology brands across the USA, Canada, and Mexico, as well as other regions around the world. With Bright Pattern software, 80024Support saw a decrease in operational expenses and resource requirements, along with enhanced communications with seamless omnichannel support over voice, email, chat, and self-service channels.

With the goal of aligning infrastructure and technology investments with the companys vision to provide unrivaled customer experience solutions, 80024Support selected Bright Pattern as its solution provider and partner through its transition to the cloud.

Bright Pattern makes us more agile, more nimble, said Tripp Kerr, VP of Operations at 80024Support. Its made a night and day difference in what we can now offer our clients.

80024Support Results from Using Bright Pattern Software:



Significant reduction in call center operational expenses and resource requirements

Enhanced communication offerings with seamless omnichannel support (email, chat, web self-service)

Simplified ticketing and workflow managementno more silos of customer information

Improved agent experience with better tools for interaction, knowledge management, and performance tracking

Positioned for next stage of business growth aligned with market needs

Engineered specifically for modern, cloud-based contact centers, the Bright Pattern platform offered 80024Support everything needed to safely transform their business: an easily scalable and reliable architecture, omnichannel communications, extensive integration with other enterprise apps, and best-in-class agent tools, all in a single, consolidated environment.

Today, the traditional contact center is a liability, not an asset, continued Kerr. We were hindered by our technology before, which made it harder to do what we needed to do, causing us to move slower than we wanted to move. With all the capabilities of Bright Pattern, we have almost unlimited options for realizing our vision. All we have to do now is execute.

About Bright Pattern

Bright Patterns cloud contact center software simplifies omnichannel customer service for customers, agents, and contact center managers. Bright Patterns Cloud Contact Center solutions are used globally in over 26 countries and 12 languages by companies of all sizes.

About 80024Support

80024Support provides professional technical help desk services and customer care strategies for many leading technology brands. With a highly skilled agent workforce and nearly three decades of call center operations experience, 80024Support delivers award-winning customer care across the USA, Canada, Mexico, as well as other regions around the world.

Contacts:

Shelby Faris

Marketing Manager

Bright Pattern

shelby.faris(at)brightpattern(dot)com

720-209-2818
Proteocyte AI and Proscia are mutually committed in the fight against cancer, and the merging of our technologies will help pathologists and doctors give more effective prognostic assessments than the current standard of care.

Proscia Inc., creators of AI-powered digital pathology software, and Proteocyte AI, a company designing tests that accurately predict the risk of developing cancer, today announced they have signed a partnership agreement to integrate Proscias technology with Straticyte, a specific test for predicting the risk of progression to oral cancer. Proteocyte AI will leverage Proscias cloud-based platform to orchestrate workflows of patients, doctors, and laboratories, enabling Proteocyte AI to offer a more comprehensive solution.

"Oral cancer can be a devastating disease. We know that early detection can make the difference for oral cancer patients yet we've had a gap in technology in terms of predicting which oral lesions will transform to oral cancer. Straticyte provides us with more information so that treatment plans can be further personalized and outcome for patients may improve," said Dr. Kevin Lung, Oral Maxillofacial surgeon at Kingsway Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Proteocyte AI is focused on combining artificial intelligence and protein biomarkers to determine a patients five-year risk of developing cancer. This technology predicts who is at risk to develop cancer before they actually have cancer.

Proteocyte AIs Straticyte is a test that predicts the progression of oral premalignant lesions to invasive oral cancer. Straticyte enables healthcare professionals to customize patient treatment, improving outcomes for patients at risk for developing cancer, while reassuring those patients who have minimal risk of disease progression. The test can be easily incorporated into clinical practice as no additional tissue samples are needed for assessment. Straticyte is currently being offered on a complimentary basis during the month of April in recognition of Oral Cancer Awareness month.

"Straticyte provides information to healthcare professionals that can make a real difference. We believe our test will enable earlier treatment of patients contributing to the patient's quality of life and reduce healthcare costs," said John Davis, President and CEO of Proteocyte AI. "The Proscia platform is a good fit for Proteocyte AI as we move to our next stage of development, focused on commercialization and market expansion to fuel global growth."

This marks the first time a third-party algorithm integrates into Proscias platform alongside our algorithms and workflows, said David West, CEO & Co-Founder of Proscia. Our vision has always been to build a flexible platform that is hardware agnostic and lets third parties plug into our modules. Proteocyte AI and Proscia are mutually committed in the fight against cancer, and the merging of our technologies will help pathologists and doctors give more effective prognostic assessments than the current standard of care*.

Proteocyte AI chose Proscia for its back-end infrastructure and workflow features which offer the following:



Image analysis and annotation

HIPAA-compliant infrastructure

Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) integration

Vendor-agnostic scanner support

Flexible deployment options in the cloud or on-prem, Proscias platform can be deployed behind institutional firewalls or alternatively leverage secure, HIPAA-compliant cloud infrastructure

Role- and group-based rules for case access, making it easier to divide project assignments between histotechnologists, pathologists, managers, directors, and others

Custom interfaces for each user, with individual case permissions. For example, cases from one satellite lab may be programmed to not be visible to another satellite location, but users at a hub location may have access to cases from all satellite labs. Single sign-on (SSO) via integration with customer identity providers provides enhanced security and ease of use

Proscias cloud-based platform offers an opportunity to combine the Whole Slide Images of digital pathology with other sources of data  such as LIMS, EMR, laboratory data (-omics), and radiology images, and then apply algorithms to provide pathologists with a more complete, computer-assisted view of the disease processes present in a tissue sample. Such algorithms can identify complex histological patterns like tumors, classify cancer subtypes, and even predict outcomes with a high degree of accuracy. These building block capabilities can be deployed in pathology workflows for precision screening, automated triaging, and used as image-based assays as corollaries or in complement with their molecular counterparts.

For those labs interested in a complimentary offering of Straticyte, please visit http://proteocyteai.com/. If your lab is interested in becoming a Proscia digital pathology partner, visit https://proscia.com/partner.

*Proscia software is not intended for use in primary diagnosis.

About Proscia

Proscia was founded in 2014 by a team out of Johns Hopkins, the Moffitt Cancer Center, and the University of Pittsburgh to improve clinical outcomes and accelerate the discovery of breakthrough advancements in the fight against cancer. Using modern computing technologies that unlock hidden data not visible to the human eye and turning that data into valuable insights in the fight against cancer, the company is dedicated to improving the efficiency, speed and quality of pathology diagnostics and research. To learn more, please visit http://www.proscia.com.

About Proteocyte AI

Proteocyte Diagnostics Inc., operating as Proteocyte AI, is a Canadian company designing tests that accurately predict your risk of developing cancer. Its first product Straticyte is a novel prognostic oral precancer laboratory service that accurately predicts a patients risk of developing oral cancer. Straticyte objectively and accurately detects oral lesions at high risk of transforming to cancer and those that pose low risk. Early diagnosis of high risk lesions permits more effective and less traumatizing treatments. By identifying and treating oral cancer before it happens, clinicians can save lives, healthcare costs are reduced and quality of life of patients is improved. Identifying more accurately low risk precancerous lesions avoids unnecessary surgeries and allows clinicians to monitor patients regularly for peace of mind.

Contact Information

Leigh Minnier

Proscia Inc. leigh(at)gregoryfca.com

610-228-2108

Leslie Caton

Proteocyte AI lcaton(at)proteocyteAI.com

416-994-4051
We believe in supporting safe boating education, for beginners and advanced boaters as well,

Pier 33 Marina of St. Joseph, Michigan will host a public boating course presented by the United States Power Squadrons local unit, the South Bend Sail & Power Squadron, beginning Saturday April 21.

Boaters, including personal watercraft operators, hunters or fishermen operating an outboard utility boat, canoe and kayak paddlers, skippers of a family cruiser, and sailing enthusiasts must follow the same nautical rules, regulations and courtesies of the sea.

Attendees will learn the basics of boating safety. This newly revised comprehensive course includes lessons on seamanship, boat handling, boat types, rules of the road, navigation aids, regulations, adverse conditions, marine VHF radio, knots, trailering and optional introductory piloting.

Organized in 1914, United States Power Squadron is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to making boating safer and more enjoyable by teaching classes in seamanship, navigation and related subjects. Members are boaters and boating families who contribute to their communities by promoting safe boating through education. The Power Squadron has nearly 40,000 members organized into over 400 squadrons across the country and in some US territories. USPS is America's largest non-profit boating organization and has been honored by three US presidents for its civic contributions.

Pier 33 annually makes its facility available for this spring class. We believe in supporting safe boating education, for beginners and advanced boaters as well, said Pier 33 General Manager Tighe Curran and we always appreciate the efforts of the South Bend Sail and Power Squadron to conduct these classes for Pier 33 boaters and boaters from around our area.

Interested boaters can obtain complete information on-line at Pier 33's website and can also register on-line for the course. Classes will be held Saturday April 21 and Saturday April 28 at Pier 33, with the final course wrap up and exam on Saturday May 12. Class will run from 9 am to 1 pm on each date. The cost is $40 for course materials. On-site registrations will be accepted, but advance reservations are encouraged.
Park Cities Pet Sitter Announces a Group Dog Training Class that Focuses on the Skills Required to Pass the Canine Good Citizen Test. "Seeing the huge improvements in the dogs, and the newfound confidence in their handlers between weeks 1 and 6, is truly inspiring. Joette White, President of Park Cities Pet Sitter

Park Cities Pet Sitter has announced a new group dog training class that will begin Saturday, April 14th, and will meet for six consecutive weeks. The class will take place from 11:30am to 12:30pm each Saturday in the courtyard behind the PCPSI offices at 5831 McCommas Blvd in Dallas. The class will be taught by PCPSI trainer, Valerie Fry, who is a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluator.

Dogs participating in the class will learn and practice the ten skills required to pass the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test. Some of the skills include: coming when called, sit and down on command, staying in place, being non-reactive when meeting another dog or human, and sitting politely for petting, amongst others. The first five weeks of class will be devoted to honing these skills, and the test will be administered to students on the sixth (and final) week of class.

Cost to participate in the 6-week group dog training class is $180. If a dog participating in the class passes the Canine Good Citizen Test, and their handler wishes to receive a certificate of acknowledgement from the American Kennel Club, there will be a $10-$20 additional fee based on whether the dog is already registered with the AKC.

Each dog in attendance must have one adult handler, and a maximum of 8 dogs will be allowed to participate in the class.

Joette White, President of Park Cities Pet Sitter, is excited to offer the class, citing how fulfilling it is for both dogs and their owners. We love being able to offer this class, with its focus on building great dog manners, said White. The participating dog handlers get to learn from an amazing trainer, while practicing techniques that help them be best dog owners they can be. Seeing the huge improvements in the dogs, and the newfound confidence in their handlers between weeks 1 and 6, is truly inspiring.

To learn more about the AKCs Canine Good Citizen Test criteria, visit http://www.akc.org/products-services/training-programs/canine-good-citizen/cgc-test-items-pledge/.

About Park Cities Pet Sitter: PCPSI has served the Dallas, Richardson and Plano areas 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1992, and was recently named the 2017 Business of the Year by the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters. Pet sitting, dog walking, pet taxis, overnight sitting, pet supply shopping, and dog training are all part of the services PCPSI offers. Park Cities Pet Sitter is bonded and insured, and all sitters are employees--not independent contractors. A manager is on-call 24 hours a day to handle any emergencies. Go to http://www.pcpsi.com to learn more.
Voting is notorious even in the worlds most sophisticated group decision making systems. Voter intimidation, high costs, and voter apathy plague election processes. Questions of legitimacy and accuracy continually arise in the wake of elections, both large and small; in government and also within elections for shareholders, unions, and nongovernmental organizations.

What if there was a solution that provided affordability, security and verifiability to systems in desperate need of improvement?

Netvote will deliver blockchain technology to solve votings most challenging roadblocks. The platform will rely on the immutable ledger to improve the way votes are cast and grant anyone the ability to verify and audit results. Voting with Netvote will protect voter anonymity, guard against double-voting, and allow elections to be conducted in areas with distributed populations and limited network infrastructure. Most recently, Netvote announced that their 100% open source code project has entered into testing and will soon allow election bodies to bring these safeguards into effect.

Netvote also brings with them three founding advisors with deep blockchain experience, Lee Carter, Ralf Gerteis, and Lukas Sieber, and two advisors with decades of experience in electoral systems worldwide, Jeffrey Phillips and Amy Hamblin.

According to Lee Carter, Netvote has the power to transform elections on a massive scale. Voting has often been discussed as a canonical application for blockchain, and Netvote has the technical vision and founding team to make this reality. Carter is Principal at blockchain investor Reflective Venture Partners in Seattle, Washington, and founder of Elysian Ventures. His background includes serving as the Director of Finance & HR at Geli, the Lead Investment Analyst at Invested Development, as well as funding projects focused on decentralized energy in emerging markets. Carter entered the blockchain space in 2013 focusing on remittances and financial service solution in East Africa.

Ralf Gerteis is a seasoned entrepreneur and internationalization expert based in Zug, Switzerland. He has a deep background in fundraising, channel management, and business development. Gerteis now focuses exclusively on blockchain and has successfully guided a number of high-potential start-ups in the blockchain space. Gerteis says, I was fascinated from the beginning by Netvote. For me it is the best, most secure and thought-through blockchain-based and democratic voting concept with intelligent incentivisation schemes, a team of top experts and real potential to revolutionize the status quo.

Lukas Sieber adds, Ive been involved with and reviewed other blockchain voting projects. Netvote is different. The combination of smart technology and sound token economics has the potential to truly disrupt the way elections are run. Sieber brings a powerful combination of political science and blockchain experience to the board. He worked at the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. and was responsible for all public diplomacy activities and programs for the Swiss government throughout the United States. He now acts as Executive Director North America of Greater Zurich Area, the official investment support agency of Zurich and surrounding areas. Additionally, he co-founded the Mindfire Foundation, a blockchain-based program to decode the principles of human intelligence.

Jeffrey Phillips, secretary of Netvotes election advisory council, draws upon 13 years working in the congressional and nonprofit sectors as a democracy practitioner. He says, Netvote will leapfrog electronic voting to solve many of the challenges associated with paper ballot voting upon which much of the world still relies. This project is positioned to be transformational and a leader in the voting world. Im genuinely enthusiastic to promote its adoption in the US and worldwide. Phillips held a variety of leadership positions at the International Republican Institute and is now Policy Director of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. Having been an accredited election observer in Tunisia, Timor Leste, India and Indonesia, and working on U.S. congressional and presidential campaigns for over a decade, he has deep experience with electoral systems.

Amy Hamblin joins Phillips on the founding election advisory council. She has broad experience in civic engagement, advocacy and international elections, most recently in Russia, as well hands-on experience in the 2008 US election. She is now an Advocacy & Partnership Consultant at the World Bank and Deputy Director for BeTheWave, a Silicon Valley based startup helping to mobilize and invigorate communities of people to vote. Hamblin believes, Netvote gets to the root of the problem. We need people to want to vote and we need people to trust their vote. Netvote can bring these much-needed qualities to elections.

These two advisory bodies will work together to assist in guiding Netvote through the formation of the non-profit Netvote Foundation, an anticipated token sale for project funding, and the promotion of adoption and best practices and improvement of voting systems worldwide.

For media inquiries, please contact Jesse Lucas at Melrose PR Jesse(at)melrosepr(dot)com or call (310) 260-7901.

About Netvote

Netvote seeks to provide an accessible, efficient and safe method of voting that ensures participation, transparency and verifiability in any election worldwide. By using 100% open source blockchain technology, governments, corporations and organizations anywhere can find new and better ways engage billions of voters. Election administrators and voters interact with the network through Netvote dApps, lowering costs, increasing trust, and incentivizing votes. Everyone who wants to vote should. Every vote should count. Every count should be verified.
The US market is fundamental for our denomination and has always had a deep fondness for our wines. We feel that it is important to provide information to opinion leaders and consumers that allows them to recognize and fully appreciate the quality of our production.

The Prosecco DOC Consortium, the entity that oversees the production of the hugely popular Italian sparkling wine, is pleased to announce the launch of the first ever National Prosecco Week, beginning Monday, June 11th. The week-long activation will see masterclasses for media and trade, as well as public consumer events at multiple cities throughout the United StatesNew York, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami and Chicago. The masterclasses, led by well-known sommeliers in each city, will focus on teaching and showcasing Proseccos food pairing versatility with various dishes. Consumer parties will also be held in these cities, in commemoration of the famous Italian sparkler.

On June 14th, as part of the National Prosecco Week activities, Prosecco DOC will host an exclusive Prosecco & Pizza Competition at Ribalta pizzeria in New York. Four pizza makers will compete in front of five celebrity judges, which will include journalists, food influencers and widely respected pizza experts. The event will be solely for press, trade and industry influencers. Following the competition, a Pizza & Prosecco consumer event will be held at the renowned pizzeria Robertas in Brooklyn on June 16th; at this ticketed event, attendees will be served Prosecco by the glass and Prosecco cocktails, along with specialty pizzas.

Prosecco DOC will also launch nationwide restaurant and retail promotion, from Prosecco by the glass specials and limited-edition Prosecco and pizza pairings to various in-store promotions.

In addition to celebrating Prosecco, this initiative will also serve an important educational purpose, debunking myths and misconceptions about the Prosecco category and teaching consumers, press, and trade how to recognizeand enjoyauthentic Prosecco. The sparklers ever-increasing popularity has been accompanied by an inevitable rise in imitations from within Italy and around the world, and steps toward recognizing real Prosecco grown in the designated area and according to strict regulations will be discussed.

Regarding the upcoming campaign and its scope, Prosecco DOC Consortium Director Luca Giavi states, The US market is fundamental for our denomination and has always had a deep fondness for our wines. We feel that it is important to provide information to opinion leaders and consumers that allows them to recognize and fully appreciate the quality of our production.

Stay tuned for more details about the many exciting celebrations and initiatives of Prosecco DOC. For more information on National Prosecco Week, please contact Megan DeAngelo (mdeangelo@colangelopr.com) with Colangelo & Partners. To stay updated for upcoming events, follow Prosecco DOC on Facebook (@proseccodocusa), Instagram (@proseccodoc_usa), and the Consortiums official US website, http://www.casaprosecco.com.

About The Prosecco DOC Consortium:

Prosecco was granted the Controlled Designation of Origin status on July 17th, 2009, and the Prosecco DOC Consortium (Consorzio di Tutela della Denominazione di Origine Controllata Prosecco) was created on November 19th of the same year to coordinate and manage the Prosecco DOC. The organization unites the different groups of manufacturerswineries, individual and associated vine-growers, still wine and sparkling wine producersto ensure the designation continues to grow and that the production regulations are complied with.

About Prosecco DOC:

Prosecco DOC wines come in Spumante (sparkling), Frizzante (semi-sparkling) and Tranquillo (still) varieties. The wines are made from mainly the Glera grape, native to North East Italy for thousands of years, and can be combined with a maximum of 15% of the following grapes: Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera, Glera lunga, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero. Prosecco Frizzante and Spumante varieties get their famous bubbles using the Secondary Fermentation production method, bottled under high pressure after fermentation in bulk tanks called autoclaves, as opposed to the traditional method, which bypasses the autoclaves and is used for other sparkling wine varieties. The end result is a brilliant straw yellow wine with fine, persistent perlage and aromas of white flowers, apple and pear. It is fresh and elegant on the palate with moderate alcoholic strength. For more information regarding Prosecco DOC, visit http://www.casaprosecco.com.
Part Yoga, Part Animal-Assisted Therapy Goat Yoga is about disconnecting from stress, mental health issues or illness and focusing on positive and happy vibes. -Lainey Morse, Founder/CEO

Goat Yoga has become a global phenomenom and a bucket list experience for all those who attend. Lainey Morse, Founder and Creator of The Original Goat Yoga in Oregon is now bringing those classes that are part yoga, part animal-assisted therapy to Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New York, Illinois, California, Michigan and three locations in Oregon. The Original Goat Yoga has had thousands of people on a wait list just to try their classes and now it's easier for you to experience it for yourself.

Lainey has also partnered with the Business Departments of Oregon State University, Xavier College and Michigan State University. The Universities are always looking for businesses that will provide real life experience to students and most of these students will never have the opportunity to work for a business that has gone viral. It's an amazing opportunity for the students because Lainey can teach them about Marketing and building a viral business and they are so excited to be a part of it. It's also a great help to Lainey to have the students help strategize growing the business in the different locations and come up with great ideas. In the future, they hope to partner with more Universities in each of their locations. Lainey Morse also has a book about Goat Yoga coming out in the next few weeks available from Running Press Publishing.
"The strong attendance numbers we have already seen in our conference registration show the need for this type of specialized, exclusive conference and education for advisors."

Organized by myStockOptions.com, the national one-day conference Financial Planning for Public Company Executives & Directors (http://www.myStockOptions.com/conference) is a must-attend event for professionals working with or seeking to advise executives, directors, and high-net-worth employees who have stock compensation and holdings of company stock. To be held in the Boston area on June 18, 2018, this unique conference is being sponsored by some of the leaders in the financial-planning industry, including Eaton Vance Investment Managers, Fidelity Charitable, and StockShield.

Expert Speakers on Crucial Financial-Planning Topics

The conference will feature a distinguished speaker lineup of top industry experts. Many are leading advisors involved with financial planning for stock compensation and holdings of company shares. Talks and panel sessions include the following titles:



Leading Investment Manager Reveals Current Strategies for High-Net-Worth Clients

Trends in Stock and Executive Compensation: What They Mean for Financial Advisors

Important Tax, SEC, and Legal Developments Impacting Financial Planning for Stock and Executive Compensation

Leading Financial Advisor Reflects on His Career Working with Executives

Financial & Tax Planning Strategies for Stock Options, Restricted Stock/RSUs, Performance Shares, and Company Stock Holdings

Estate Planning & Charitable Giving With Company Stock & Equity Comp

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans: Cornerstone of Legal Protection for Stock Diversification

Retirement Distribution Planning for Executives: Key Role for Stock Compensation and Holdings of Company Stock, Executive Retirement Plans, and NUA

Strategies for Concentrated Positions in Company Stock

Pursuing the Equity Compensation Opportunity: Attracting and Retaining Individuals Who Receive Company Stock and/or Options

Continuing education credits will be available, including CE credits for Certified Financial Planner (CFP) professionals.

Limited Space for This Day of Learning and Networking

"The strong attendance numbers we have already seen in our conference registration show the need for this type of specialized, exclusive conference and education for advisors," explains Bruce Brumberg, the editor-in-chief of myStockOptions.com, the creator and organizer of the conference." He encourages attendees to register as soon as possible. "It's the truth, not a mere marketing ploy, when we say that space is limited and filling quickly!"

About myStockOptions.com

With exclusive articles, 800+ FAQs, podcasts, videos, the Tax Center, interactive quizzes, the Learning Center with courses for CE credit, the Global Tax Guide, an extensive glossary, a smartphone app for iOS and Android devices, and dynamic patented tools, myStockOptions.com is the premier online resource of educational content and tools on stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance shares, stock appreciation rights, and employee stock purchase plans. myStockOptions.com is written and managed by leading experts in equity compensation, and is produced by a company with a long history of successful publications explaining complex legal and financial subjects in plain English.

The accounting journal CPA Wealth Provider selected myStockOptions.com among companies "that have taken the lead through innovation, efficiency, initiative, or growth in the financial-planning area." The Specialized Information Publishers' Foundation honored MSO Pro with one of its Editorial Excellence Awards in the category of Best Interactive Content among niche publishers. The influential consumer magazine PC World has ranked myStockOptions.com among "the most useful sites ever" that "deliver top-notch information, support, and services."

myStockOptions.com has also received extensive favorable coverage in the media, including BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boston Globe, and on CNN, National Public Radio, PBS, Money.com, and MarketWatch.com.

For more information, please contact Bruce Brumberg and Matt Simon at 617-734-1979.
Neocortex G2R Cell Neocortex, developed over 10 years, is a sophisticated AI software platform... that can solve a range of problems that have historically required semi-skilled labor.

Neocortex G2R Cells Provide Flexibility @ Speed

Due to e-commerce, supply chains are expanding quickly, requiring more manual labor to handle high product variability. Tight labor markets are driving up costs and leave operations short handed. Universal Logic has solved this problem with a turn-key robotic solution to replace labor. The Neocortex G2R cell is a complete smart robot cell on a 4x4 skid that is up and running in one day. It is controlled by Neocortex, which extends perception, directs grasping, and guides the robot. The installed cell is half the cost of labor at $7 per hour. Most customers realize a 12- to 18-month payback. The three sizes provide collaborative ease with industrial speed. It can be easily redeployed to other human-sized work areas as needed, requiring only a hard-wired Internet connection, compressed air, and power.

Neocortex 5.0 Introduced

Neocortex, developed over 10 years, is a sophisticated AI software platform designed as a general purpose control system. The product uses sensor data, artificial intelligence, and machine control to provide robots and machines real-time reactive control to changing supply chain products and processes. It is independent of sensors, end effector, and robots, capable of working with all major equipment manufacturers. It can solve a range of problems that have historically required semi-skilled labor. The software is structured as a middleware, integrating communications and control between sensors, AI and machine behavior.

In Neocortex version 5.0, application improvements include multiple input and output tote handling, sorting, and special item handling for finished goods piece picking; improved part management and higher resolution inspection for manufacturing part picking; and enhanced depalletizing and palletizing box handling along the supply chain. Version 5.0 platform provides enhanced mixed piece picking, multi-configurations of finger grasping, and integration of new sensors and PLCs.

Exhibits of Neocortex G2R Cells at MODEX

Universals MODEX exhibit will showcase two applications with different requirements. The Large Neocortex G2R cell will be demonstrating machine tending in manufacturing. The Medium G2R will be exhibiting order fulfillment of consumer goods. Each robotic cell ships complete, including robot, end effector, 3D vision, safety, and industrial PC. The cells are operating with Universals Neocortex 5.0 artificial intelligence modular platform software.

Several strategic partners join Universal Logics debut at MODEX in booth C2463.

The Medium G2R cell features Yaskawa Motomans recently introduced GP12, the fastest speed 12-kg payload, six-axis robot in its class. As Roger Christian, Divisional Leader, New Market Development, for Yaskawa notes: Our new high-speed small footprint GP-series of robots are ideally suited for the Neocortex G2R cells need for compactness and high-volume picking. We are delighted to have worked closely with Universal Logic from the beginning to deliver this breakthrough solution to the supply chain.

Additionally, the Medium G2R incorporates Cognex Corporations DataMan 360 Series Barcode Readers into a high-speed barcode tunnel for real-time SKU reading and sorting during the robot picking. Mike Jones, Senior Sales Manager for Logistics Solutions at Cognex, states, our DataMan product line provides superior read rates in traceability applications across the logistics industry. We are delighted to provide products and application engineering to Universal as it continues to push the boundaries of speed with 100% verification of a wide range of products over a large field of view.

IDS Imaging Development Systems GmBH provides superb industrialized high-speed, high-resolution Ensenso N-Series stereo 3D vision structured light sensors for both cells. Jeremy Bergh, IDS Imaging Sales Director of North America, points out, IDS is constantly pushing the envelope on whats possible in speed and resolution for imaging, and working with Universal on their bin picking applications has enabled state-of-the-art solutions.

ABB Robotics supplies an IRB2600 20-kg payload, six-axis robot for Universals Large G2R cell that is demonstrating machine tending. The IRB2600 offers a wider working range for larger material handling with excellent accuracy and acceleration.

About Universal Logic

Universal, the leader in artificial intelligence, has provided manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and agriculture supply chains with complete automated material handling systems for high-mix/high-volume applications. Universals Neocortex is a real-time modular AI platform for machine control that extends perception, directs grasping, and guides robots. This results in high speed robots with human-like flexibility. Universal licenses Neocortex software by itself or includes it in pre-designed robotic work cells, called the Neocortex G2R (Goods to Robot) cells. They are used for order fulfillment, bin/bag picking, machine tending, and kitting. For more information, visit http://www.universallogic.com or call (615) 366-7281.

About Yaskawa Motoman

Founded in 1989, Yaskawa Motoman is a leading industrial robotics company in the Americas. With more than 380,000 Motoman industrial robots, 10 million servos and 18 million inverter drives installed globally, Yaskawa provides automation products and solutions for virtually every industry and robotic application; including arc welding, assembly, coating, dispensing, material handling, material cutting, material removal, packaging, palletizing and spot welding. For more information, visit http://www.motoman.com or call (937) 847-6200.

About IDS Imaging

Founded in 1997, IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH is a leading manufacturer of digital industrial cameras with USB or GigE interface. Boasting nearly two decades of experience in development and sale of USB 2.0 cameras, today we are also among the pioneers in the development of digital USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Gen 1 industrial cameras. For quick, easy and precise 3D machine vision tasks IDS offers the Ensenso 3D camera series. Additionally, the novel vision app-based sensors and cameras of IDS Ensenso NXT open up a new dimension in image processing. For more information visit http://www.ids-imaging.com or call (781) 787-0048.
To further recognize exceptional, groundbreaking contributions in the area of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) research, HMP, a leading healthcare event and education company, today announced it has invited the Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation to hold its annual Sherman Prize for Excellence in Crohns and Colitis awards presentation on December 13, 2018, the first day of HMPs Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (AIBD) conference in Orlando, Florida.

As a family touched by Crohns disease, Bruce and Cynthia Sherman created the prize in 2016 as a way to increase focus on pioneering contributions in IBD. The Sherman Prize is the first award of its kind to reward healthcare providers, medical researchers, educators and public health advocates for outstanding achievements in the areas of IBD patient care, medical research, public service, and professional and public education. Two prizes of $100,000 each are awarded annually to individuals with extraordinary track records of achievement, and a $25,000 Sherman Emerging Leader Prize is awarded to an individual who demonstrates high potential.

It is an honor to present these prestigious awards during AIBD, said Dan Lowrie, president, Imedex, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMP, and organizer of AIBD. AIBD and the Sherman Prize share a common goal  to advance the treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. Were proud to host the awards and help provide Sherman Prize recipients the recognition they deserve. This Prize will surely inspire others in the field and promote even more exciting outcomes in the future.

We are very pleased to present this years awards in front of such a broad cross-section of the IBD community, said Bruce Sherman. It is a great opportunity for these IBD professionals to hear about pioneering research and how their peers are personally making a difference in their patients lives. We believe that by consistently elevating great work, we are creating a ripple effect that encourages future advances in the field and the science that could lead to a cure.

AIBD is a three-day, multi-track, scientific conference that attracts more than 2,000 clinicians, including adult and pediatric gastroenterologists, internists, surgeons, nurse practitioners, and other allied healthcare professionals. The 17th meeting will take place December 13-15, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. To learn more about AIBD, visit advancesinibd.com.

2018 Sherman Prize recipients have not yet been selected. The Sherman Prize is accepting nominations through April 25 at shermanprize.org. Last years Sherman Prize honorees were Stephan R. Targan, MD, Director of the Inflammatory Bowel and Immuno-biology Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA, and Lee A. Denson, MD, Director of the Schubert-Martin IBD Center at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH. Heidi Drescher, MMS, PA-C, of Community Physician Group, Community Medical Center in Missoula, MT, was awarded the Sherman Emerging Leader Prize. To learn more, visit shermanprize.org/prize-recipients.

About HMP

HMP is the force behind Healthcare Made Practical  and is a multichannel leader in healthcare events and education, with a mission to improve patient care. The company produces accredited medical education events and clinically relevant, evidence-based content for the global healthcare community across a range of therapeutic areas. Its brands include Consultant360, the year-round, award-winning platform relied upon by primary care providers and other specialists; Psych Congress, the largest independent mental health meeting in the U.S.; EMS World Expo, North America's largest EMT and paramedic event; and the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC), the largest wound care meeting in the world. For more information, visit hmpglobal.com.

About Imedex

Imedex, an HMP company, is an industry leader in the creation of independent, accredited medical education for healthcare professionals. With an emphasis in oncology, hematology, and gastroenterology, the company develops high-quality scientific programming that translates the latest research into clinically relevant information. The company operates in the United States, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit imedex.com.
nuTonomy, the leading developer of state-of-the-art software for driverless cars, announced today it has been named a finalist for Fast Companys 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards. In its annual list recognizing companies, policies, projects, and concepts that offer innovative solutions to issues facing humanity, Fast Company recognized nuTonomy as a prominent innovator in transportation.

nuTonomy, acquired by Aptiv in November 2017, is the first to have successfully provided rides to passengers in fully autonomous vehicles on public roads. The company achieved the worlds first integration of self-driving cars into a ride hailing service in Singapore in 2016. It quickly followed this achievement by being the first to test self-driving vehicles on public roads in Boston, demonstrating that its technology can scale globally. Today, nuTonomy continues to deploy autonomous vehicles on two continents.

Its an honor to have our achievements recognized by Fast Company, said Karl Iagnemma, President of nuTonomy. As the global transportation ecosystem evolves to meet modern needs, nuTonomy will power the shift to fully autonomous mobility-on-demand across the globe. Our team of engineers and scientists remain steadfast in our mission to radically improve the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of transportation in cities worldwide.

Now in its second year, the finalists for the World Changing Ideas Awards were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 entries in 12 categories, from Food to Energy to Developing World Technology.

nuTonomy will be highlighted alongside other award finalists in the May issue of the print magazine, which hits newsstands on April 17th.

About the World Changing Ideas Awards

World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Companys major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners and finalists based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start work on solving the problems that affect us all.

About nuTonomy

nuTonomy, an Aptiv company, is a leading developer of state-of-the-art software systems for driverless cars. nuTonomy is a driving force behind the successful deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban centers around the world and was the only company to successfully deploy self-driving cars on two continents, the first to market with an autonomous vehicle on demand (AMOD) system, and the first to launch a public trial of a self-driving ride-hailing service. In November 2017, nuTonomy joined Aptiv, Inc., forming a team of the best and brightest engineers with a common vision to be the reliable and responsible future of autonomous vehicles.
Construction at SDG's new Headquarters We are excited about this comfortable and state of the art building where collaboration between clients, SDG family, and the globe can happen easily and seamlessly, in a city that is the cross roads of America and a new foundation for fashion and technology.

Earlier this year, Stars Design Group (SDG) closed on the purchase of their new 14,000 square foot headquarters located at 1301 Gravois Rd.

SDG, headquartered in historic Soulard since 1993, will remain in the area after a gas explosion caused by subcontractors destroyed its previous headquarters on Menard St. Now that they have acquired the building, they have partnered with Urban Werks and Arcturis to translate the companys vision of the property and transform the historic building into its new home.

The multi-million-dollar building will not only exemplify SDGs passion for style and fashion, but also its commitment to technology using next generation multi-gigabit wireless internet using Ciscos Meraki MS Cloud Managed 10 Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation Switch and a high speed multi-gigabit ethernet connection. With the new technology, it allows for SDGs international offices to be virtually connected in real time with their international office traffic routes through servers in Saint Louis. Also, partnering with Elite Saint Louis, the entire office will be a smart office with lights, heating cooling and all media connecting though Crestron.

SDG CEO Bret Schnitker:

We are excited about this comfortable and state of the art building where collaboration between clients, SDG family, and the globe can happen easily and seamlessly, in a city that is the cross roads of America and a new foundation for fashion and technology. 

SDG CCO & Sr. VP of Sales & Marketing Scott McFadden:

Back on a February 5th, 2014 the unthinkable happened, and we are thankful for the St. Louis fire department for getting us out moments before the building exploded. The past four years have shown the resiliency, dedication, and determination of the ownership, management and staff at SDG.

Last year we had the distinct honor of being named St. Louis Business of The Year for 2017 and now in mid-2018 we will move under one roof as we continue to grow as a business and a team. The new building is going to be fantastic in so many ways from the space itself to having all of our departments together again. It will be a professional but relaxing space for our customers to come in and collaborate on their apparel programs in 2018 and beyond.

SDG has experienced rapid growth over the last few years. Gathering the St. Louis SDG team under one roof will serve to further drive workflow efficiency and bring even more innovative apparel manufacturing techniques to the St. Louis area.

About Stars Design Group: SDG is an industry leader in full-package apparel manufacturing established 1993. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, MO, but has established offices around the globe. SDG offers cutting edge, innovative apparel technology solutions, and brings the future to life for their clients, solidly establishing their place as a leader in apparel manufacturing.

For more information, click here.
Sudarsana Rao Alexandre Joly, CEO of Elyctis comments: We are pleased to welcome Sudarsana aboard. The experience he has built over two decades will make him an immediately effective addition to our team. His arrival will help us grow our international development in Government ID markets.

Elyctis, an expert in ID card and ePassport readers, announces the appointment of Sudarsana Rao who comes with a longstanding experience of the industry. Sudarsana Rao has built his 24-year experience over a career at Identiv, where he has accumulated experiences, giving him a full understanding of Product, Marketing and Sales in the field of smart card readers (contact and RFID) and eID documents.

Sudarsana started his career at Shuttle Technology, which was acquired by SCM Microsystems, and later became part of Identiv. Over this period, Sudarsana has held a variety of positions including Test Engineer, Product Development Support, Project Coordinator, Technical Support, Sales & Business Development, across various geographies, and finally Product Manager. In this latest position, Sudarsana was responsible for managing the desktop smart card readers product range of Identity BU, in-charge of keeping a close relation with Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain and Operations teams, to deliver smart card reader products to governments and enterprises across the globe.

In his new role as Global Sales Director at Elyctis, Sudarsana brings his understanding of the diverse and multiple technologies involved in Government Identity, along with strong negotiation skills, problem-solving abilities, keen client needs assessment, program and project management combined with good communication skills.

Alexandre Joly, CEO of Elyctis comments: We are pleased to welcome Sudarsana aboard. The experience he has built over two decades will make him an immediately effective addition to our team. His arrival will help us grow our international development in Government ID markets.

Sudarsana Rao says: I am delighted to join Elyctis. The companys Research & Development, strong international presence, excellent range of products along with its flexibility and customer-friendly approach makes it extremely attractive to organizations worldwide in need of reading Government ID.

He can be reached by email: sudarsana.rao(at)elyctis(dot)com

In addition, Elyctis will be exhibiting at Seamless Middle East, a major event for the secure transactions industry, taking place in Dubai UAE, on April 15-16, 2018. Come and visit us!

About Elyctis

Created in 2008, Elyctis mission is to supply system integrators with mobile and fixed hardware to access data of eIDs (NIC, passport, resident permits, driving license). The company specializes in the development, industrialization, production and marketing of readers and terminals dedicated to Secure Identity Documents (e-passport, e-ID card, e-driver license,..). The company, which now employs 20 people, has a longstanding expertise in eID projects, as well as hardware and software developments, especially in the combination of optics, antenna design, high security software and integration. Elyctis sells its products through its network of distributors and systems integrators, to whom it provides development environment to facilitate the use of its readers. Elyctis is headquartered in Pertuis, France, and has a sales office in Hong Kong.

Alexandre Joly, Elyctis founder and CEO is a laureate of Reseau Entreprendre since 2011, and a laureate of the Reseau Entreprendre Ambition program in 2016.

More information at http://www.elyctis.com
The top ten is an annual bucket list for travel fans, a fascinating mix of global descents to fly in your lifetime

Irelands Donegal Airport has been named the worlds most beautiful landing spot, by global travel fans.

The private jet booking platform PrivateFly asked the global travel community to name their top landing in its annual survey, with the most votes overall going to the Irish runway, on the countrys northwest Atlantic coast.

Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly and an experienced pilot, comments: The top ten is an annual bucket list for travel fans, a fascinating mix of global descents to fly in your lifetime. From tiny runways like last years winner Saba (the worlds shortest commercial runway) and Barra in Scotlands Outer Hebrides; to the major cityscapes offered up by London City or Miami International.

Donegal is extraordinarily beautiful and deservedly sits in the top spot this year. Its rugged coastal landscapes were a location for the recent Star Wars movies, and its not hard to see why. Whether youre in the Millennium Falcon; on an airliner; or on a private jet, coming into land here feels like an otherworldly experience.

One voter commented in support of Donegal: You fly in low...and sweep out over an emerald sea with the perma-white froth of the Wild Atlantic Way, lashing the many tiny rocky islands in a turquoise sea. Another praised the spectacular views of the Atlantic coastline, the beautiful Mount Errigal and a beach which is the most stunning in the world.

PrivateFly teamed up with a panel of travel experts to form the shortlist for the public vote, including aviation and travel writers Miquel Ros of CNN; Rohit Jaggi from the FT; Robb Report's Bruce Wallin and travel influencer Tiffany Dowd.

Anne Bonner, Managing Director of Donegal Airport comments as follows: Having been voted in the top ten in the last two years we are delighted to have been voted No. 1 airport landing in 2018. It is indeed a great endorsement from the traveling public and aviation/travel experts putting Donegal firmly on the map of the worlds places to visit. Donegal as a location was also chosen by National Geographic in 2017 as the coolest place on the planet and what better way to explore Donegal than to fly into the Worlds most scenic airport.

The 2018 top ten is as follows (see full details here):

1) Donegal (Ireland)

2) Barra (Scotland)

3) Nice (France)

4) Queenstown (New Zealand)

5) Saba (Dutch Caribbean)

6) Orlando Melbourne (USA)

7) Toronto Billy Bishop (Canada)

8) London City (England, UK)

9) St Maarten (French/Dutch Caribbean)

10) Miami (USA)

Notes to editors:

See full details of the results.

Images and video are available here via Dropbox or on request.

*The PrivateFly Scenic Airports 2018 poll was conducted in February 2018 and received over 8,500 votes. A total of 112 different airports received nominations.

About PrivateFly:

PrivateFly is a global booking platform for private jet charter, making it faster, easier and more cost-effective to compare and book private jets. With over 7000 aircraft integrated worldwide, PrivateFly combines innovative technology with its team of aviation experts, available 24/7.

For further information, images or an interview please contact:

Viv Diprose, PrivateFly

T: +44 (0)7931 624864

E: viv(at)privatefly(dot)com
CathyHuyghe, Gina Gallo, Emma Gao These three Vinitaly International tastings will offer unique perspectives on women working in the wine industry from various international locations and in various capacities, with the intent to and encourage a constructive exchange of ideas on the influence of women in the business

Three Vinitaly International tastings during Vinitaly will illuminate international women producers and professionals, celebrating their achievements along with their outstanding wines coming from countries such as the United States, France, Spain, Australia, China and others. These three tastings, organized by Vinitaly International in collaboration with the Vinitaly International Academy (VIA), will take place at wine2digital in Veronafieres Palaexpo on Monday April 16th and Wednesday April 18th.

Although the number of women in the wine industry is growing and their responsibilities and skills are increasingly recognized, according to wine writer Karen MacNeil (author of The Wine Bible) women in top positions in the wine industry are still few, with the gender wage gap still far from being leveled off. MacNeil also highlights that women professionals are also 15% less likely to be promoted, hence about a century will be necessary to achieve gender parity among executives. (Source: Karen MacNeil, Women and the Wine Industry, WineSpeed, 29 Dec. 2017, http://bit.do/eddKW). In addition to showcasing a wide array of wines, these three Vinitaly International tastings will also offer unique perspectives on women working in the wine industry from various international locations and in various capacities, with the intent to fuel a wider debate and encourage a constructive exchange of ideas on the influence of women in the business.

On Monday April 16th at 11am, Cathy Huyghe, CEO of Enolytics and author of Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass (Provisons Press, 2015) will kick off this international women in wine celebration with a tasting entiled W3: Wine Women of the World, Huyghe will lead a seminar that will showcase wine produced exclusively by women winemakers, growers and winery owners from Spain, Austria, Australia, Germany, France, California, and Oregon. In her tasting, glasses will be raised to acknowledge the work of Lynn Penner-Ash, the very first woman hired a winemaker in Oregon, or Xandra Falcos work at the legendary Spanish estate Dominio de Valdepusa in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Huyghe will also unearth stories from winemakers specializing in low-intervention wines, from the collective WOW (Woman-owned Wineries) Sonoma Initiative in Califorinia, and many others. On her preparation for such a wide-ranging seminar Huyghe states: Preparing for this event has been one of the most illuminating experiences of my wine career. I thought I had a good understanding of womens roles in the wine world but, through conversations and suggestions leading up to this tasting, Ive learned so much more, both about the initiatives that are newly happening in response to the current global political climate, as well as the organizations and producers who have been women-led for generations. I am both humbled and excited by whats to come. For a detailed preview of this tasting see also Huyghes three-part feature for Forbes (part 1, part 2, part 3).

On the same day at 1pm, Gina Gallo, Senior Director of Winemaking at E. & J. Gallo Winery in California (the largest family-owned winery in the United States) will lead a tasting showcasing three wines from three different terroirs in California. Gina Gallo, one of the most important personalities of the wine business globally, studied winemaking at the University of California in Davis and learned her trade at the family winery with her grandfather Julio. The wines at the tasting are all part of Gallos own Signature Series, the finest expression of her wine making philososphy. They include: Russian River Chardonnay 2015; Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2014, Gallo Signature Series; and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014. Gallo comments on the wine selection: I have the extraordinary honor of representing my familys namesake wines. Our Gallo Signature Series wines express the terroir of our remarkable vineyards in three of Californias most important wine regions, the Napa Valley, the Russian River Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands. We made these wines to represent three things: the journey of our family, where we are today and our legacy of aspiring to do more. This tasting provides an opportunity to share our familys heritage and my interpretation of the terroir of our vineyards.

From California to China, on Wednesday April 18th at 10:30 am, wines from the Chinese winery Silver Heights will be in the spotlight, as well as another exceptional woman winemaker, Emma Gao. Located in the Ningxia region, Silver Heights has been owned and run by the Gao family for three generations and is considered the first boutique winery due to its focus on quality over quantity. Emma Gaos wine making philosophy has been inspired by western techniques she learned in the famous French wine-making region of Saint-Estephe (Bordeaux), while studying oenology and working at the Grand Cru Chateau Calon-Segur. Of her training in France, she recalls: When I first arrived in France, a friend opened a bottle of 1985 Faiveley Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru, one of Chateau Faiveley's most complex, subtle, layered, and long-finishing wines. I was blown away! Until that moment I hadn't understood the full potential of wine or tasted a wine that was the very pinnacle of wine-making and terroir. It definitely inspired me to pursue my oenology studies more rigorously. Since the year of her first acclaimed vintage in 2007, Gaos contribution to wine making shifted Chinas mostly bulk-oriented wine production, with Silver Heights becoming the epitome of a refined and terroir-driven approach to wine making in the Ningxia region.

See below for additional information on the seminars:

1. W3: Wine Women of the World

Convenor: Cathy Huyge, CEO of Enolytics

Time: Monday April 16th, 2018, 11.00 - 12.30

Location: wine2digital

Link: http://bit.do/eddgX

2. 3 terroir, 3 wines, 3 stories by Gina Gallo from E. & J. Gallo Winery

Convenor: Gina Gallo (E. & J, Gallo Winery)

Time: Monday April 16th, 2018, 13.00 - 14.30

Location: wine2digital

Link: http://bit.do/eddho

3. Iconic Chinese wine tasting: Silver Heights from Ningxia

Convenor: Emma Gao (General Manager & Winemaker at Silver Heights)

Time: Wednesday April 18th, 2018, 10.30 - 13.00

Location: wine2digital

Link: http://bit.do/eddAf
Trae Tha Truth throwing ceremonial first pitch at the Astros Game.

This past weekend Trae Tha Truth threw out the first pitch for the World Champion Houston Astros Opening Day Weekend Ceremony. Recently debuting his brand new album, Hometown Hero," Trae gives his first hand account of the destruction and depravity of Hurricane Harvey. His album enter all musical platforms March 16th, while also serving as the Texas Ambassador for the SXSW Music and Film Conference 2018, he still found time for over 30 performances and a myriad interviews with industry titans and media outlets. Most recently during his New York visit, Trae Tha Truth dropped by the popular nationally syndicated radio and television show New Yorks Power 105.1 to discuss his new album, relief efforts, and new episodes of his cartoon airing on 420 TV. Trae also spent time with Gallery Furniture Business Owner, and Philanthropist Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale where they were recognized at the Dress to Kilt Event that donates nearly $14 Million Dollars to Navy Seals and their families. Mack and Trae worked very closely together after the hurricane offering supplies, aide, clothing, and shelter to people displaced by Hurricane Harvey..

Also, this Saturday Trae will be performing for the Western Conference and league leading, Houston Rockets, earlier this year Trae was recognized by the Rockets at a game; Trae also sunk a $5,000 free-throw with one-hand for charity.

contact for interviews or press | links RELIEFGANG(at)gmail.com

release prepared by TJ Falkahn

reliefgang.com https://www.gofundme.com/reliefgang

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook @traeabn @reliefgang
Image courtesy of 4A's APB is our first step in breaking down the silos to create a united community that protects the health of all brands, while keeping consumers safe, too.

Today, at its Accelerate conference in Miami, the 4A's, the leading trade organization for marketing communication agencies, announced the formation of the Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB). Through this bureau, agencies will share the collective responsibility of achieving Advertising Assurance, which is how the association defines its efforts to enforce environments where brands and consumers can coexist with trust.

The APB will allow agency groups to work together for the good of all the brands they serve by notifying each other when they see any brand adswhether from their network or notin unsafe environments. It establishes a process in which risky environments are flagged by the APB and then investigated by agency-client teams.

Founding members of the APB include executives from Dentsu Aegis Network, GroupM, Havas Media, Horizon Media, IPG Mediabrands, MDC Partners, Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Media. Each holding companyas well as Horizon Mediahas committed to dedicating a Brand Safety Leader within their network to serve on the bureau.

The formation of the APB is the first step in a list of actions that nearly 100 4As members and industry leaders outlined and rallied around at the Advertising Assurance Foruma closed-door event hosted by the 4As on March 19.

Additional next steps outlined under the Advertising Assurance initiative include:



Develop a risk management module. APB has a clear mission to work with advertisers to develop categorizations of risk across a spectrum from most safe to least safe. The spectrum will allow agencies, advertisers and publishers/platforms to better delineate each advertisers appetite for risk and appropriateness.

Create a code of decency. Working with the Media Rating Council, Inc., APB agencies will help establish a set of ground rules that align baseline expectations for safety through a new set of standards within the Media Rating Councils (MRC) Brand Safety Guidelines, currently in initial draft. Down the road, media agencies will also work with the MRC to identify efforts and methodologies to mitigate fake news.

Educate the ecosystem. The APB will develop an industry playbook that will include new standards, metrics, methodologies and tools to combat unsafe environments for both brands and consumers.

When it comes to brand and consumer safety, media agencies have to put competition aside, said Louis Jones, EVP, media & data at the 4As. Brand safety and the negative impact it has on consumer trust is an issue that affects everyone. APB is our first step in breaking down the silos to create a united community that protects the health of all brands, while keeping consumers safe, too. Of course, this isnt just an agency conversation; our industry has to have active participation from brands and publishers to be successful in improving the litany of issues around this topic. We look forward to working collaboratively with our industry partners to create effective solutions.

Marla Kaplowitz, 4As president and CEO, added, There has been a lot of discussion around brand safety. Whats unique about Advertising Assurance is that it evolves that discussion to a more holistic view of what our responsibility is to consumers, to brands and to each other because advertising assurance cant happen if were not communicating with each other and working together.

###

About the 4As

Founded in 1917, the 4As was established to promote, advance and defend the interests of our member agencies, their employees and the industry at large. The organization serves 700+ member agencies across 1,300 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising spend. As the leading trade organization for marketing communication agencies, the 4As purpose is to help empower its members to deliver insightful creativity that drives commerce, and influences culture all while moving the industry forward. The organization provides community, leadership, advocacy, guidance and best-in-class training that help enable agencies to innovate, evolve and grow. 4As Benefits division insures more than 160,000 employees and its D.C. office advocates for policies that best support a thriving advertising industry. The 4As Foundation fuels a robust diversity pipeline of talent for its members and the marketing and media industry, fostering the next generation of leaders. The organization is dedicated to, and vested in, our members success just as they are dedicated to helping brands create, distribute, and measure effective and insightful advertising and marketing. Visit the 4As at http://www.aaaa.org.
Derek Abner, president Derek Abner Insurance With tax season coming to a close and spring cleaning in full swing, this is the perfect time to dispose of documents with sensitive information. We are happy to be able to offer this important service to the community, stated Derek Abner, president of Derek Abner Insurance Agency.

Derek Abner Insurance Agency will host a free community shred day on Friday, May 4 from 5 PM7 PM. The event offers area residents the opportunity to securely dispose of documents containing sensitive information.

The event will take place at Derek Abner Insurance located at 60 Hill Road South in Olde Pickerington Village. All vehicles will be directed to enter through Ridgeview Elementary. Vehicles can begin lining up starting at 4:30 PM.

Participants are permitted to bring up to 5 boxes per vehicle. Paper products will only be permitted for shredding (no electronics please).

With tax season just behind us and spring cleaning in full swing, this is the perfect time to dispose of documents with sensitive information. We are happy to be able to offer this important service to the community, stated Derek Abner, president of Derek Abner Insurance Agency.

To prevent fraud, the Federal Trade Commission recommends that consumers shred receipts, credit offers, credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks, bank statements, expired charge cards, and similar documents when [they] dont need them any longer.

For more information about the community shred day, call 614-733-8630 or visit derekabnerinsurance.com.

About Derek Abner Insurance Agency

Founded on the principles of trust, integrity, and family, the Derek Abner Insurance Agency offers more than insurance. The agency offers piece of mind and customized solutions tailored to every stage of an individual's life.

The agency offers a wide array of insurance plans including health, home, life, and business.The office is located at 60 Hill Road South (in Olde Pickerington Village), Pickerington, Ohio 43147. The agency can be reached MondayFriday 9 AM-5PM at 614-733-8630 or anytime online at derekabnerinsurance.com.
Michelle Burrows, CMO of Serenova Michelles vast experience in both marketing leadership and business expertise will be valuable for the Serenova team as we continue to grow and expand across the global contact center market.

Serenova, a leading contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) and workforce optimization (WFO) provider, today announced it has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Michelle Burrows as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and David Nelson as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Both Burrows and Nelson will play key roles designed to position Serenova for rapid market expansion in one of the most promising sectors in the customer experience ecosystem.

In her role, Burrows will lead Serenovas global marketing functions including strategy, brand development, communications and demand generation. She will provide strategic direction for the company, working closely with the executive, sales and product teams to help Serenova broaden its footprint in the contact center market across geographic regions.

Burrows brings extensive experience in marketing and leadership. Most recently, she served as vice president of marketing and analytics at Comcast Business where she also led the customer loyalty contact center. Prior to Comcast Business, Burrows served as the vice president of Demand Marketing for inContact (NICE inContact). She has also held key leadership positions at Rally Software (CA Technologies), Verint Systems and Genesys Conferencing (West Corporation).

Michelles vast experience in both marketing leadership and business expertise will be valuable for the Serenova team as we continue to grow and expand across the global contact center market, said John Lynch, CEO of Serenova. Her track record of growing technology businesses in the contact center industry makes her a vital addition to the leadership team, and we look forward to working with her as she expands the reach of the Serenova brand.

Nelson has also been brought on board as Serenova's CFO. As Serenova experiences rapid growth and increasing demand for its contact center solutions, Nelsons strong record of scaling companies, maximizing revenue growth, and driving profitability will be key components of the companys success. In his role as CFO, Nelson will drive corporate finance, operations, and investor relations at Serenova.

Nelson has more than 30 years of financial management experience in the CFO role, both with private equity and venture-backed software and SaaS companies. Most recently, he was CFO of Periscope Holdings, a private equity backed, $30 million SaaS provider of enterprise and small and medium business procurement software solutions to 9,000 customers. Prior to that, Nelson was CFO at Q2 eBanking, a venture-backed SaaS provider of online, mobile, and security banking software that he led to IPO in 2014. He previously held similar executive positions at Trillion Partners, Salion, Hired.com, and Merrin Financial, a division of ADP.

Serenova Executive Team

These additions round out Serenovas leadership team, which includes: Chief Technology Officer, Pascal Vincent; Chief Operations Officer, Julian Critchfield; Chief Product Officer, Matt Despain; and Vice President of People, Meg Marsh; and come as the executive team continues to evolve with John Lynch, former executive vice president of sales, ascending to CEO in Q1.

Lynchs well-rounded history in leadership and business management make him well-positioned to lead Serenova through its next phase of growth. He is a proven leader with more than 20 years of experience building enterprise software teams, resulting in over $1 billion in revenue. Lynch has been with Serenova for more than two years playing a critical role in leading the global sales program as the company has driven an evolution in the CCaaS market with its introduction of CxEngage.

Prior to joining Serenova, Lynch was the senior vice president of global sales at Vendavo, a private, equity-owned leader in the price optimization space. Lynch served as vice president of sales at Mattersight Corporation, a company building behavioral routing software for call centers, rebuilding and leading the predictive analytics team to over $100 million in SaaS growth in three years. He served as director of North American sales for more than six years at Nuance Communications. During this time, his teams contributed significantly to Nuances massive growth from $60 million to $1.5 billion in revenue and 27 acquisitions. Previously, Lynch held key executive positions at leading technology firms, including Parametric Technology Corporation, NexPrise, Division, and Altos Computers.

About Serenova

Serenova simplifies every aspect of the customer experience, from front office to back, to make life easier for you, your customers and your employees. The worlds most passionate, customer-focused brands achieve brighter interactions, deeper insights, and more meaningful outcomes with Serenovas contact center solutions. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Serenova also has operations in California, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Learn more at http://www.serenova.com. For live updates, follow @SerenovaShine.
This is a big move for our brand as we continue to innovate our business and deliver on new customer demands.

Following an extremely successful test launch at its flagship restaurant in Olathe, Kan. late last year, Goodcents today announced plans to begin expanding its new Centsable Kitchen concept across its franchise system this month.

In addition to its already established Centsable Kitchen locations at 10432 S Ridgeview Rd. Olathe, Kan. and 2233 Louisiana St. in Lawrence, Kan., the additional Centsable Kitchen locations launching this month include:



2115 N. Belt Hwy  St. Joseph, Mo.

4315 Commonwealth Court  St. Joseph, Mo.

3250 C E Battlefield - Springfield, Mo.

22724 Midland Drive - Shawnee, Kan.

6310 N. Chatham Road - Kansas City, Mo.

6760 W. 135th Street - Overland Park, Kan.

900 A. Hayes Drive - Manhattan, Kan.

1317 Anderson Avenue - Manhattan, Kan.

We are very pleased with the initial results weve seen with the new Centsable Kitchen concept, said Scott Ford, president of Goodcents Franchise Systems. This is a big move for our brand as we continue to innovate our business and deliver on new customer demands.

Sales at the restaurant that debuted the first Centsable Kitchen concept in Olathe, Kan. have consistently comped more than 80 percent positive over the last six months since launch.

With a new concept like this, we knew we were going to have to prove the demand and the value before rolling it out broadly, continued Ford. The results have clearly proven that and our franchisees are excited about bringing Centsable Kitchen into their restaurants.

Centsable Kitchen features a wide variety of meal options that are all custom recipes developed by the Goodcents Culinary Team, including: Tri-tip steak with roasted potatoes, Classic Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Carnitas Tacos, Grilled Alaskan Salmon, Mac & Cheese and more. Each meal is individually prepared daily to ensure quality and freshness.

The meals range from $5-9 per meal and are available for fast and convenient pick up in-restaurant or delivery through the Goodcents website or mobile app.

Centsable Kitchen meals are served in durable, leak resistant, BPA-free packaging that is FDA & CFIA approved. The containers are microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe that can easily be reused and or recycled.

To see a full menu of the Goodcents Centsable Kitchen menu or to learn more, visit http://www.centsablekitchen.com.

For a limited time, Goodcents is running a special introductory offer of five Centsable Kitchen meals for $30. To order online go to https://order.goodcentssubs.com/, select your location and use code WEEKLYMEALS.

About Goodcents

Goodcents Deli Fresh Subs has more than 29 years experience providing high-quality deli fresh subs, house-baked breads and pasta. Headquartered in DeSoto, Kan. with more than 80 locations across the country, the company is known for is signature bread recipes baked fresh in the restaurants every day, slicing sandwich meats and cheeses to order, and hearty pasta meals. Goodcents was named a Top Franchise by Franchise Business Review and Entrepreneur Magazine in 2018, as well as one of the Top 50 Best Franchises by FitSmallBusiness.com in 2016. Visit goodcentssubs.com for more information. To connect with Goodcents through Facebook visit http://www.facebook.com/EatGoodcents or Twitter @EatGoodcents and Snapchat at GoodcentsSubs.
Cambridge Semantics Logo Sciformix Corporation and Cambridge Semantics partner to impraove pharmacovigilance processes, and to transform and help interpret big data for the life science industry.

Sciformix Corporation, a leading scientific knowledge-based organization, and Cambridge Semantics, The Smart Data Company, today announced a partnership to launch a semantic technology layer, specifically tailored to pharmacovigilance processes that will transform and help interpret big data for the life science industry. This technology platform will allow Sciformix to further enhance its targeted pharmacovigilance automation suite for its clients.

The solution combines Sciformixs domain expertise in pharmacovigilance with Cambridge Semantics Anzo Smart Data Lake to build safety-specific ontologies onto the platform, enabling life science companies to transform existing legacy data models into self-service analytics to maximize the value of their data. The semantic layer of technology on the data lake is able to process and make sense of vast quantities of structured and unstructured data to allow users to see patterns, signals and extract analytics from the information. The platform can help operationalize machine learning and artificial intelligence to allow it to improve over time and further automate practices, including case processing and medical review, enabling users to have fewer touch points with their data.

Sciformix President and CEO Manish Soman commented, Sciformix is excited to announce this collaboration, which will enhance pharmacovigilance processes in the industry through a new, comprehensive end-to-end solution. We chose to work with the Cambridge Semantics open platform as it is scalable, capable of handling large quantities of data and able to provide advanced analytics. As the scientific work carried out by Sciformix and its clients is very data intensive, this was essential.

He added, The platform will enable us to provide a pharmacovigilance solution that will go beyond automating rule-based activities. It will leverage cognitive computing and artificial intelligence technologies based on machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to build a comprehensive automation platform. This will improve the predictability of regulatory compliance and quality standards, and also allow teams to use the power of analytics to focus on complex, high-level downstream scientific work involving evaluation and interpretation activities.

Alok Prasad, President of Cambridge Semantics said, We are pleased to partner with Sciformix and extend their industry leading safety and pharmacovigilance expertise with our powerful Anzo Smart Data Lake product. Our semantically driven, big data graph platform will provide Sciformix with the unprecedented automation capabilities needed to process and understand vast amounts of medical information, enabling better patient safety for their clients.

Both companies will be discussing this powerful solution set at World Drug Safety Congress, 2018 April 10-11th at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue at Booth 11. In addition Fran Bates, Vice President of Technology Services at Sciformix and Jim LaPointe, Managing Director at Cambridge Semantics, will be presenting together on PV Automation Journey: Past, Present and Future at 3:10 PM EST on April 10th.

Sciformix, headquartered in the United States with operations in Europe, India, and Philippines, partners with life science organizations to provide a full range of services, from study design to post-marketing surveillance. Areas of specialization include safety and risk management, clinical development, real world evidence and market research, scientific writing, regulatory affairs, and technology services.

To learn more about Sciformix, visit http://www.sciformix.com , email us at ask@sciformix.com, or call us at +1.877.576.5005.

ENDS

For further press information please contact: Scott Girling-Heathcote, The Scott Partnership: + 44 1477 539539 mail to sciformix@scottpr.com or Susan Najjar, Director of Marketing, Sciformix Corporation: + 1 617-264-0339 mail to susan.najjar@sciformix.com.

Media contact for Cambridge Semantics, Lora Wilson, Global Results Communications, cambridge@globalresultspr.com, +1 (949) 608-0276

About Cambridge Semantics

Cambridge Semantics Inc., The Smart Data Company, is a big data management and enterprise analytics software company that offers a universal semantic layer to connect and bring meaning to all enterprise data. Its software, the Anzo Smart Data Lake, allows IT departments and their business users to semantically link, analyze and manage diverse data whether internal or external, structured or unstructured, with speed, at big data scales and at the fraction of the implementation costs of using traditional approaches. For more information visit http://www.cambridgesemantics.com.

About Sciformix

Sciformix Corporation is a leading scientific knowledge-based organization that provides process, technology and consulting services to the life sciences industry. We employ best-in-class strategies, technologies and expertise that accelerates business drives higher levels of performance and fosters innovation. What differentiates Sciformix is our ability to integrate scientific and technology expertise with quality driven processes to provide value to our clients throughout the entire drug development cycle. Our areas of specialization include Safety & Risk Management, Clinical Research & Post-Approval Support Services, Regulatory Affairs & Regulatory Operations, and Technology Services. Corporate headquarters is located in Westborough, MA with operations in NA, Europe, India and the Philippines.

We create value for our clients through our singular focus on the life sciences industry, strong pharmaceutical domain competency, exceptional subject matter expertise, uncompromising focus on quality, process rigor, predictable results, and ability to scale. Our portfolio of services spans the full spectrum of product lifecycle from pre-clinical and clinical to post marketing activities to help our customers solve complex analytical challenges, improve the quality of patient healthcare and increase client productivity.

Sciformix is dedicated to providing our clients outstanding services and solutions, fuelled by an unrivalled commitment to quality. We share the same level of involvement, dedication and passion as our clients and become an integral part of their team. Our distinct combination of scientific expertise, process rigor and technology innovation delivers consistent, reliable and insightful results. Our ability to scale and grow to meet your evolving needs means we are flexible and dedicated to your success in delivering safe products with more efficiency and greater speed. We help you make the right decisions at the right time by providing Trusted Services Built on Science. For more information, please visit: https://www.sciformix.com
The above portraits include two intellectuals exemplifying an intelligence so disdained today by a rapacious self-serving political right wing seemingly determined to destroy public educations ambience of free thinking and to erode as much as possible Americas Free Press. The other two images portray panderers of ignorance and narcissism.

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He died on the 4th of July, 1826. It was only 27 years later that my great grandmother Fannie Warner Camfield (died here in Port Townsend in 1952 at the local hospital) was born. I have no personally-related memories further back than the Civil War when Fannie was a schoolgirl; I was 23 when she died and took with her a wealth of memories now lost forever. How time flies. I now continue to read my early U. S. history from books. I have tried to do my own part in uniting past and future with a number of my own books on family and local-area history.

Meanwhlle, the mass of humanity remains caught up in the present. In addition to the necessities of daily existence, guns have become a major factor in survival from one day to the next. They rip and tear the fabric of our societys being at any given moment. Innocent children often are the victims.

One associated thing that also upsets me is . . . every now and then someone is tossing out a brief quote from Jefferson seemingly in support of the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, keeping and bearing arms and all that. But no one seems to want to pay any attention to this following comment by Jefferson:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

That barbarous ancestors seems a bit heavy but Ive left it in out of respect for truth in journalism. I believe he meant barbarous as somewhat primitive. And truly, Jefferson himself and his peers actually were pretty barbarous in todays conception of the wordwith their enslavement of Blacks.

The men among us are not all wearing three-cornered hats these days, or powdered wigs to major public affairs, but many among us are determined to cling to their right, ratified in 1791, to collect and carry gunshindering greatly in my opinion the progress of the human mind as envisioned by the principal author of our Declaration of Independence.

Jeffersons briefer remarks sometimes are sort of like the Bible in easily being used to seemingly support one thing or another. But I think that more elaborate progress of the human mind statement above works philosophically for the ages.

As for Jeffersons snappier one-liner comments on record, my favorites among the lot of them would be:

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people ... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

And then theres Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. Yes indeed, there are those in reasonably comfortable circumstances who just dont want to get involved. I believe were seeing a lot of that today.

First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Second Amendment: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

So after Congress dealt with freedom of religion, speech, press and the right of peaceful assembly and protest, it turned to the matter of accommodating a well-regulated militia by allowing the ownership and carrying of guns. I have always argued that in this day and age, diverse individual citizens, no matter how well armed in private or in public, are in no way well regulated as a necessary military force.

I find the current official application of that Second Amendment totally ludicrous.

We have a well-trained, disciplined militia that trains on a regular basis. It is the National Guard of the various states.The local militias of the American Revolution, which trained regularly, backed up the national standing army (that was hurriedly created for the first time after the Revolution broke out). Some militiamen also had seen important action in the Indian Wars prior to the Revolution. Donald Trump currently is calling up some state guard units to assist the border patrol.

Incidentally, I feel Desperate Donald is blowing up a molehill into a mountain with his sudden concern over a couple hundred Central American refugees heading north through Mexicoto engender favorable public opinion for financing of the beautiful Great Wall he wants to erect between the U.S. and Mexico. He wants more Norwegians and fewer Hispanics coming into our country. I wonder how many troops and border patrol agents it actually will take to deal with those who dont drop out of the caravan at Mexico City.

In addition to our well-trained Guard, of course, in this day and age we have our local and state police, our standing Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard . . . our FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, our military reserve units. We scarcely have any use for individual citizens here and theresome with assault-style rifles, some with semi-automatic handguns, some with Saturday night specials, etc.totally unorganized, without logistics of any type, with no chain of command. All clinging to that ridiculous 227-year old well-trained militia straw that has no real application of any sort to them.

As this year moves on toward the mid-term elections, Ill be be more concerned for the moment with the Fifteenth Amendment when looking at the many red states where Republican legislatures have so blatantly gerrymandered voting districts to favor their partyor instituted voter-identification requirements turning away the poor, college students, etc. A good example of that latter would be Texas, where a gun permit is sufficient at the polling place but not a student identification card. A poor individual without a drivers license also is up against it. Some areas in various states also shorten voting hours to make it tough on the working class. All over, Ohio or wherehaveyou, Blacks somehow come out short on this basic freedom. And they generally vote liberal.

Fifteenth Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

MORE ON GUNSWhile the opportunity is at hand, Id like to point here to a flagrant example of fake news picked out of thin air recently by someone in one of these local forumsTrump style. The comment contributor said that more people are killed by clubs, beaten with blunt instruments, than are killed by guns.

I just found a chart listing the number of murder victims in the U. S. in 2016, by weapon. See:

Handguns 7,105; firearms of unstated type 3,077; knives, etc. 1,604; weapons not stated 903; personal weapons (hand, fists, feet) 656; blunt instruments (clubs, hammers, etc.) 472; rifles 374; shotguns 262; other guns 186; narcotics 114; fire 107; and various lesser categories.

I make that 11,002 murders by gun and 472 by bludgeoning (or 1,128 if including fists etc.). Please note that this break-down is for just murders. Deaths including suicides would greatly increase the gun use total; self-infliction would tremendously increase the narcotics deaths. Accidents would include such things as a 7-year-old killing his 4-year-old sister with a gun he found in his parents bedroom.

Actually, more than 36,000 died from gunshot injuries in the U. S. in 2015, according to another source (https://www.thetrace.org/2015/12/gun-violence-stats-2015/ for those suspicious of my sources). That figure included homicides, suicides and accidental shooting. On an average day that year, 99 Americans died of gunshot injuries.

Mass shootings actually account for less than 2% of annual gun deaths.

MEANWHILE, here are a couple of lines from one of the many items concocted by conspiracy theorists and circulated via social mediaFacebook, email, etc. The material is picked out of thin air for convenience, in this case to promote gun ownership. If it sounds like something from the NRA, perhaps it is; at least its something they wont dispute: During WW II, the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

Those of us who were around in that war (I was in high school) know thats hogwash. I know no one on either side of my family who owned a gun. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, did family friends. There were acquaintance, of course, who still hunted birds or deer. My father-in-law hunted deer, but he mostly just loved exploring the outdoors. I dont remember him ever actually bringing home a deer. I also dont remember ever hearing of a school shooting, or of armed street gangs in the cities. One high school classmates father had a .45 pistol hed brought home from navy service. We shot a few rats at the old garbage dump with it unbeknownst to our parents.

In any case, invasion of the continental United States was not a logically feasible thing for the Japanese. Their navy never got close across the wide expanse of the Pacific, despite how they weakened our own fleet with their 1941 attack on Hawaiis Pearl Harbor. They did at one point establish a minor foothold of combatants in Alaskas Aleutian Islands (I had a couple of uncles who served there with our army) but their stay in that critical military waypoint for aerial attack (Attu and Kiska) proved short-lived, without prolonged bloody combat.

That Alaskan incursion all was realistically close to Port Townsend, but citizens of Puget Sound were not arming themselves with 30-30 rifles and assorted hand guns to meet an invading, coordinated military force on the beaches. Any logical Japanese initial attack would have been aerial. Enemy ground troops still are not our basic threat today. When we arm ourselves individually under delusions to the contrary, we are arming the wrong people.

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WASHINGTON  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg got into an awkward exchange with a top Democratic senator on Tuesday when the lawmaker began asking him personal questions.

During the blockbuster hearing on Capitol Hill, Sen. Dick Durbin asked Zuckerberg, "Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?"

"Um," Zuckerberg said before a long pause. "No."

The audience and panel of senators erupted in laughter at Zuckerberg's hesitancy to answer the question, but Durbin used it to make a point about personal privacy, which was the focus of the joint hearing between the Senate's Judiciary and Commerce committees.

"If you've messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you've messaged?" Durbin asked.

"Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here," Zuckerberg said.

"I think that might be what this is all about  your right to privacy, the limits of your right to privacy, and how much you'd give away in modern America," Durbin said.

Watch a clip of the exchange:

More on Zuckerbergs blockbuster hearing:
Lawyers representing President Donald Trump's namesake company on Monday responded to news reports detailing a letter the firm sent to Panama's president, pushing back at the categorization of it as a pressure point in the business dispute.

Earlier Monday, The Associated Press reported on the letter, saying lawyers at Britton & Iglesias appealed directly to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela president for help in a dispute over a luxury Panama City hotel.

The firm, representing the Trump Organization, asked Varela to intervene in the legal dispute, arguing that the courts denied the Trump Organization due process and violated a bilateral treaty. The AP reported that the letter also warned of consequences for Panama if he didn't.

Britton & Iglesias said in a statement provided to Business Insider by the Trump Organization they "categorically reject" the idea they sought to pressure Varela and that "nobody at Trump Organization was aware of the letter until today."

The firm said it sent a letter to representatives of Panama's executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government to warn of "possible violations of the Investment Protection Treaty, which could be derived by the actions taken by some owners of the hotel units, and that, in our opinion, could result in a possible 'procedural fraud.'"

"We categorically reject any assumption or assertion that the letter sought to 'pressure' the President of the Republic of Panama or any other official of the government of Panama," the firm said. "The drafting of this type of letter to the Governments in matters of International Investment Arbitration (ICSID) is very common, and was sent as part of our legal representation of Trump Panama Hotel Management, LLC."

They called the drafting of the letter "such a routine matter" that they did not feel the need to seek "the authorization of Trump Organization for its delivery."

Panama's vice president and foreign secretary, Isabel Saint Malo, said her office was copied on the letter, which she described as urging the executive branch "to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch."

The hotel dispute is one of the first tests of Trumps conflicts of interest

The hotel dispute gained notoriety in February when Orestes Fintiklis, the majority owner of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Panama City, arrived with associates in the lobby with the aim of ousting the Trump Organization, which had managed the hotel since its 2011 opening.

The organization, however, refused to leave. Over the next few days, police were called to the property to "keep the peace," the AP reported. And after Fintiklis and his associates delivered termination notices to Trump Organization employees at the hotel, witnesses said they saw Trump executives moving files to a room to be shredded.

Fintiklis wanted to drop the Trump name from the building and argued in court documents that the Trump Organization's mismanagement caused occupancy levels to drop while expenses rose. Fintiklis claimed victory last month, saying Panamanian authorities allowed him to take over the hotel's administration.

"Today, this dispute has been settled by the judges and the authorities of this country," Fintiklis said.

The hotel has since been renamed the Bahia Grand.

On March 27, a US arbitrator ruled that the Trump Organization shouldn't have been evicted while arbitration was ongoing, though he did not reinstate the hotel's management.

Instead of divesting himself of his businesses or placing them into a blind trust before taking office, Trump passed control to his two sons and a senior Trump Organization executive  a move ethics experts said did not go far enough in addressing potential conflicts of interest.

Experts told Business Insider last month that Panama provided an example of such a conflict.

"The president can obviously have a great impact on American foreign policy toward Panama," Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Business Insider in March. "How could this affect that? We don't know, but it's not good that we have to ask."

Any US decision affecting Panama will be under the microscope, said Larry Noble, the senior director and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center.

"It could be a trade deal, it could be aid of some sort, it could be a rule involving the Panama Canal," Noble said.
The Chairman of the Wa Polytechnic chapter of the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) Mubash Bamie who was speaking on behalf of the of teaching and non-teaching staff of the school, said Professor Marco Owusu does not deserve to serve in that position given that he had been indicted in some corrupt deals.

His comments come a day after the workers denied the Rector access to the campus.

The staff of the polytechnic prevented the Rector from entering his office by blocking all roads that lead to the schools administration.

Mr Bamie said workers will repeat a similar action if the Rector returns, saying if he comes we will block the roads again.

The Rector was suspended for investigations to be carried out into corruption allegations levelled against him by the Polytechnic Governing Council. He has however filed a suit seeking to quash his suspension.

But Mr Bamie explained that even though they had been served with an injunction Prof Owusus suspension still holds since the injunction had not been granted yet.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Polytechnic Governing Council, Daniel Bagah, has said that the suit has been forwarded to the Councils lawyers for consideration.

The lecturers earlier called on the Governing Council of the institution to cancel the induction ceremony for the Rector, who had been in office for nearly a year, but the induction went ahead.
The three Ivy League schools out of the lot are Princeton, Dartmouth and Columbia universities. The other 5 are Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Williamson and Vanderbilt universities.

In a Facebook post, the US Embassy shared the news of Samuels academic strides with the rest of Ghana.

In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, Samuel Mensah said he was very happy for this feat.

Im really excited at the prospect of going to some of the best universities in the US and consequently in the entire world. Going on full scholarship merits that response so I am very excited and very happy about the whole thing.

From somewhere in mid-March, he began learning he had gained admission to eight universities in the US, all on full scholarships.

Samuel said the journey to achieving this feat has not been easy. He said he had to prepare for the SATs (Scholastic Assessment Tests), right after he finished High School in May 2017. Afterwards he had to go through the application processes.

During October, November, December, thats when we put together the essays, recommendation and all that is required for the applications, he recalled.

He said he received some help from Education USA and Afex Test Prep with his essays and financial aid applications.

Because the whole [American] system is sort of different from how our university system works, its confusing, and that is where they come in with their expertise. When we get a problem, we ask them questions and all that. They had workshops and seminars that we attended, he explained.

Even though Samuel gained admission to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) he dropped out to focus on his application

It takes a lot of determination. Back when we were in school, a lot of people said they would do the Brilla [Science and Maths Quiz] but along the way, they fell off. It was a lot of work. When we completed, there were a lot of people who also said they would write the SATs. Most of them, when we started they werent really getting the thing. They were like; this is too difficult.

Even when we started applications, there were people who had written the SATs, but they said this is too difficult. We were writing about 12 essays for a single school and those kinds of things, and they were like, nah. It takes a lot of perseverance, a lot of determination, focus and drive, Samuel stated.

Its tiring. I know people who tried for about two or three years before they got into a school with scholarships. Its work. It is for those who will persevere to the end. But no matter whatever you put in, the reward at the end is much more than what you put in so its worth it.

Samuel disclosed that his choice will most likely be Stanford University in California. In 2017, Stanford was ranked 5th best out of 1,387 schools in the US

I am more academia inclined. As at now, I am thinking about going to grad school and pursuing a Masters degree and PhD, he noted.

Samuel whose father is a librarian and mother a businesswoman are happy their son has gained a scholarship to the US. He said his siblings understand the magnitude of what he has achieved, unlike his parents.

My parents, they didnt really understand. My sisters understood the magnitude of what I had done. For my parents, they really didnt understand. They were like he has gotten a scholarship and all that, but they didnt understand the Ivy league and that kind of thing.

Samuel attended nursery and basic education at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Basic School, before moving to Opoku Ware.
He made the revelation during an interaction session with with his fans on Facebook dubbed "ASK ME ANYTHING"

According to the "god MC" hitmaker, his absence at this year's edition was a business decision by his management, Singitdamnit Music.

READ MORE: Nigerian rapper

He was responding to a question thrown at him by one of his fans regarding his absence at this year's award ceremony when he let the cat out.

"I did not submit...it was a business decision for this year," M.anifest revealed when asked why he was not nominated for this year's Vodafone Ghana Music Award.
In an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, Chief Commercial Officer of Ghanapost Jonathan Ansah said they exceeded their target for downloads in the first 3 months.

He said their expectation for the first 3 months was 100,000 downloads. However, it was oversubscribed as about 400,000 people downloaded the App within the period.

READ ALSO: Newmont suspends operations at Ahafo mines following the death of 6

So far about 700,000 households have downloaded the App and we believe that in every household you have between 3 and 4 people in there so if you extrapolate, we have about three million people using the App right now. And we believe that three million out of a 29 million population is encouraging. We had an expectation of 100,000 downloads in the first three months but we did around 400,000 which is impressive, he said.

He added that with such a good beginning the management is confident about the success of the App going forward.

In a related development, Mr Ansah disclosed that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has started using the App to enhance its operations.

The Director General of SSNIT indicated this morning that they have started using the Digital Address System. They have incorporated it into their processes. I am sure the directive from the Chief of Staff is to make the use of the Digital Address more formal. The agencies will have to comply. The Digital Address was to formalize and digitize the economy.

READ ALSO: GJA implements Affordable Housing Project for Ghanaian journalists

The digital address system was launched in Accra in October 2017. Many Ghanaians criticised the system claiming it was a waste of public funds since it cost some $2.5 million. Others argued that it is not as efficient as the google map which is free, provided the user has data.
The sticker, as members of his church gave testimonies about, solves all problems.

Therefore any challenge you face in your life, an Obinim sticker is your solution.

The statement has generated a lot of discussions in the media on who really needs an Obinim sticker to perform.

We, therefore, compiled a list of 5 Ministers who have been flayed by Ghanaians for non-performance. Perhaps an Obinim sticker can help them?

Let's find out.

Joseph Koffi Adda: The Minister of Sanitation has taken the biggest chunk of criticism of Ministers under the government of Nana Addo. Mainly because many Ghanaians feel Accra and Ghana as a whole is becoming filthy by the day and his Ministry sits unconcerned.

Ama Dokuaa Asiamah-Adjei: The Deputy Minister of Information has come under a lot criticism recently for a Facebook post on shenanigans of ex-President Mahama in elections observing across Africa. She was flayed for the poor grammar she used in the post.

Mustapha Hamid: The Minister of Information has been labelled as the 'Minister of Misinformation' in some quarters on social media. Just recently, NDC General Secretary Asiedu Nketiah called for Hamid's head to be examined since he is putting out to many untruths out there.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto: The Minister of Agriculture was criticised for claiming government has created over 700,000 jobs with the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative. Recently, a group of farmers called for the sack Dr. Akoto for his negligence of farmers.
Col. Aggrey said,"Enlistment of applicants into the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is always based on merits not political influence or any other means People think that if I pay money to somebody I can get myself in there. If all your documentation is correct you stand an equal chance like any other person to be picked.

The MP took offence to the above comments and responded angrily on Oman FM. He (the Colonel) is a fool, .if he knew what was going on in the military, he wouldnt be going round speaking nonsense that he is a professional and that I can make all the noise", he uttered.Are you my mate? If my people are not recruited in the military so what? Do you know how many people I have employed in Ghana? If he likes let him retire and come to me, Ill give him a job to do. What work does he have to do if he leaves the military now? He can only be a security guard, useless, he fumed.
He said recent comments from Mahama clearly suggests he has been drinking.

Kwasi Kyei said this while responding to comments made by John Mahama on the competence of President Nana Akufo-Addo in Wa over the weekend.

READ ALSO: Mahama suggests NDC has lost trust of voters

Mahama suggested that Akufo-Addo needs an "Obinim sticker" to help him perform since he has been super incompetent.

However, Kwasi Kyei, who clearly disagrees said: "He (Mahama) has been drinking.

He has to stop the alcohol he is taking. No one who is clear-headed will say what he said, he added.

The NPP Communicator also added, "So if you look at how the country was destroyed and how far we (NPP) are bringing it back, you say someone should buy sticker. Then for every one sticker he buys, you will buy three.
The board is under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The board members which includes Rev Isaac Owusu Bempah, were sworn-in by the Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisah Djabah.

The Minister inaugurated the 16-member Board in Accra on Monday (April 9, 2018).

At the inauguration the Minister said that the board is expected to design and implement advocacy programmes on breast and cervical cancer.

They are also expected to raise funds from corporate bodies, development partners, the general public and other available sources both international and local.

They have also been tasked to support the Akufo-Addo government in its effort to curtail the impact of the deadly diseases in the society.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES VISA SCANDAL  MINORITY REJECTS ANOTHER NATIONAL SECURITY COVER UP AND DEMANDS AN INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 278 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF GHANAThe Minority in Parliament strongly rejects Governments attempt to use National Security to engage in yet another cover up over the Commonwealth Games Visa Scandal.We reiterate our demand that the Commonwealth Games Visa Scandal which has lowered Ghanas image abroad and brought considerable shame to our good name as widely reported by the international press must be investigated by an independent commission of enquiry pursuant to Article 278 of the Constitution of Ghana.This is the only process by which the Akufo-Addo Government can be accorded any credit by the local and international community to be genuinely concerned about fighting the numerous cases of corruption in his Government.Ghanaians have not and cannot forget how the National Security was used in a clumsy effort to cover up the BOST Contaminated Fuel Saga only a few months back.Our demand and that of many Ghanaians is that President Akufo-Addo must immediately halt this National Security charade and appoint credible persons with the requisite expertise to conduct a public enquiry into this matter.The overwhelming expectations following this scandal that has dented Ghanas image and the reputation of Ghanaian journalists are that: we need to know who are the public officials involved in this racket? Who are their collaborators? How deep is the rot? Is there any Ministerial complicity especially at the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration? What will be the recommendations needed to forestall this in the future as there are quite a number of international tournaments on the horizon.We take note of Ghanas abysmal performance so far at the games which reveals what the priority of our officials were ahead of the games. Clearly, while other countries were focused on preparing their athletes to lift high the flags of their respective countries, our officials were busily recruiting fake journalists in a shameful unpatriotic moneymaking scam.The Minority wishes to appeal to President Akufo-Addo to exercise good leadership and salvage what is left of Ghanas sinking image abroad. A national security report on this matter would be discredited and shall not be well received by the local and international community. We must also not lose sight of the effect this would have on genuine visa applicants to tournaments of this nature in the future.The world is watching us. Lets do the right thing, Mr. President.Signed,Alhaji A.B.A. FuseiniRanking Member, Communications Committee of Parliament.
He says there is no need to pay attention to the Deputy Minister of Information because she can't even express herself properly.

Asiamah-Adjei yesterday fired back at ex-President John Mahama for comments he made at Wa over the competence of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Mahama said, "I have been watching social media lately and theres something that has come, and I think it cures everything. Its the Obinim sticker, the President and his government needs an Obinim sticker. If it really works, then I think they need the sticker."

But the Deputy Minister of Information didn't take these comments lightly and she fired back in a Facebook post:

Reacting to the post on Neat FM, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu wondered why Ghanaians would give space to someone who appears to have been relegated to the background in her ministerial role.

Why should we even waste our time on someone who cannot construct good sentences? Read carefully what she posted on Facebook", he quizzed.
Blair remembers then US special envoy George Mitchell telling him it was "not going to work" when they entered the final round of talks involving the British and Irish governments and main Northern Irish parties.

The deal came off in the end, putting an official stop to three decades of violence that killed some 3,500 people.

However, Blair warned the deal is now complicated by Britain's decision to leave the European Union, which risks reintroducing border checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Britain and Ireland joined the bloc together in 1973 and are currently both members of the single market and customs union, which means there is no need for checks on travellers or goods.

Brexit "changes what has otherwise been the symmetry of relations between Ireland, the UK and Europe -- that is now broken if Brexit goes ahead", Blair told journalists in London.

He held back from warning of new violence, but cautioned: "Peace has to be worked on continually, so you should never think of it as guaranteed.

"The Good Friday Agreement will have to survive Brexit, and should survive Brexit, but it's a complication."

Takes time

The agreement was signed on April 10, 1998, which was Good Friday.

Blair will mark the anniversary alongside key players including Mitchell, former US president Bill Clinton, and former Irish and Northern Irish leaders Bertie Ahern, Gerry Adams, David Trimble and Peter Robinson.

The deal created a power-sharing executive between the majority Protestant unionists who wanted to stay part of Britain and the Catholic republicans who advocate reunification with Ireland.

There has been criticism that it entrenched divisions, and the two sides have failed to form a government since January 2017.

"If we hadn't gone for a power-sharing process we just wouldn't have had a peace," Blair insisted, adding: "These things always take time."

The former Labour leader, who was in office from 1997 to 2007, strongly opposes Brexit and backs a new referendum on the terms of the final withdrawal deal struck with Brussels.

He believes many Brexit supporters underestimated "practical issues... of which the most acute is Northern Ireland".

Ireland, the EU and Britain all oppose a so-called "hard border", but with Britain planning to leave the single market and customs union, it is not clear how this can be avoided.
Some of the 800 crew members who disembarked put on a Taekwondo martial arts display after an inspection by Nicaraguan military brass.

The warships were Pan Shi, a modern and sleek Fast Combat Support Ship, Pan Chao, an older, US-designed frigate, and Kuen Wing, a more recent, French-made stealth frigate.

They were to stay in port for three days, with the crew of officers, sailors and cadets participating with the Nicaraguan military in joint training activities, the Taiwanese embassy said.

It was the sixth time Taiwan has sent a "friendship flotilla" to Nicaragua.

After Nicaragua, Taiwan's navy ships were to go on to make stops in the Marshall Islands, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

Taiwan is gradually running out of ports of call as China -- which considers Taiwan a renegade province that will one day be brought back under Beijing's control -- presses countries to drop relations with Taipei.

Half the countries with which Taiwan has bilateral diplomatic relations are in Latin America and the Caribbean. And it is slowly losing ground there.

In June last year, Panama cut ties with Taiwan to open relations with China instead. Costa Rica did likewise in 2007.

Assertive China

The parts of Latin America that still have ties with Taiwan are the Central American countries of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; the Caribbean states of Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Dominican Republic, and Santa Lucia; and the South American nation of Paraguay.

Across the region, China's increased investment and a more assertive foreign policy are being felt both economically and politically.

That trend has unsettled the United States, which views the Chinese interest as encroachment in a region that it once regarded as its backyard.

US President Donald Trump is to attend a summit of leaders across the Americas in Peru on Friday and Saturday.
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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a trading profit of N250billion for the year of 2016.

The announcement was made by the Nigeria's state oil's Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts, Isiaka Abdulrazak.

In the NNPC's quarterly publication, Abdulrazak said his office inherited 65 unaudited financial statements between 2011 and 2014.

Abdulrazak also said he was able to clear the corporations unaudited accounts from 2011 to 2016 which was up from a deficit of N123 billion in 2015.

The details of the trading profit

Giving details of the trading profit, Abdulrazak said: In August 2015, when the present management of the Finance and Accounts Directorate took over the mantle of leadership, we inherited a total of 65 unaudited financial statements for NNPC corporate and its subsidiaries covering 2011 to 2014.

The major elements consist of a review of the Group Audited Financial Statements, particularly for 2016 reveals a positive shift to a trading profit of N250 billion from a trading deficit of N123 billion in 2015, indicating a 300 per cent improvement in trading performance.

This is despite the decline in the average price of crude oil to as low as 345 dollars per barrel in 2016, compared to 51 dollars in 2015, and 110 dollars in 2014, he said.

Forcing down costs and improving revenue generation

Abdulrazak said it was also critical to point out that the 2016 result was a reflection of managements philosophy to enhance profitability by forcing down costs and improving revenue generation.

For example, we have discontinued sub-commercial business arrangements such as offshore processing arrangements, disadvantaged crude for product exchange swap and poorly-managed strategic alliances.

To improve revenues, there have been a number of new initiatives such as the introduction of Direct Sale Direct Purchase, a 20-25 per cent cut on all commercial contracts among others.

Also, revenue analysis shows a 10 per cent increase from N2 trillion to N2.3 trillion between 2015 and 2016.

Further analysis shows a 75 per cent increase in petroleum product sales from N820 billion to N1.4 trillion, attributable to the partial deregulation of petrol price, he said.

According to him, the statement of financial position has been riddled with persistent losses over time and this had eroded shareholders equity.

Success under new management

Abdulrazak said the directorate under his watch had recorded successes that include managing foreign exchange intervention pool for importation of petroleum products and savings on insurance premiums.

This has so far led to more than 340 million dollars year-on-year savings in premiums payable over the period of 2015 to 2018 (about 45 per cent) effective reduction in year-on-year premiums.

Other successes include reducing the unwieldy number of accounts managed by the corporation from more than 2,000 to a little fewer than 200. All the old accounts under commercial banks have been fully reconciled and closed.

Another is the settlement of the cash call arrears and self-funding mechanism for joint venture operations, successfully negotiating an agreement 6.8 billion dollars to 5.1 billion dollars, a 25 per cent drop and the implementation of the self-funding mechanism for upstream joint venture operations for the federation.

This has resulted in higher government take in royalties and taxes, sustained reserves development and production, restoring investors confidence, thereby creating windows for financing opportunities,he said.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is not turning deaf ears to the murder of young Nigerians under the age of 30 in the last four months in the United Kingdom.

Against the backdrop of the reported killings, Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has expressed serious worries.

Dabiri-Erewa, a three term lawmaker, advised Nigerians to be careful and exercise restraint while expressing her worries over the recent killings of Nigerians in the UK.

In a statement by her Media Aide, Abdur-Rahman Balogun in Abuja on Monday, April 9, 2018, Dabiri-Erewa said the increased killings of the blacks, especially those of Nigeria origin in London, is very worrisome and disturbing.

Buhari's aide makes a move over killings of young Nigerians in the UK

The apparently worried Presidential aide had made a move to check the killings and prevent further murder of young Nigerians below the age of 30.

Dabiri-Erewa, just before the Easter celebrations, followed up on her protest by writing another protest letter to the British High Commissioner in Nigeria demanding justice and investigation into the matter.

The Presidential aide however, advised Nigerians to continue to be good ambassadors of Nigeria by obeying the rules of their host country and not take laws into their hands.

The former journalist and TV host also condoled with the affected families of the deceased and prayed unto God to comfort them as the Government continues to seek for justice and bringing to book the perpetrators of the gruesome killings.

7 Nigerian youths under 30 have been murdered in the last four months

Within the spate of the first four months in 2018, seven Nigerian youths under the age of 30-years-old have been murdered in cold blood in the United Kingdom.

The Nigerian communities in the UK have continued to mourn youthful members of the communities that have been hacked down as a result of gang wars or cruel murder since January 2018.

It was reported that over 50 blacks, mainly youths, were either stabbed or gunned down in the first quarter of 2018 in London alone.

Nigerian boys killed in the UK in the first quarter of 2018, mainly London, include Oluwadamilola Odeyingbo 18, Taofeek Lamidi, 20 and Harry Uzoka, 25.
Nigerian telcos have lashed out on the National Assembly, NASS over what was described as incessant and and overlapping oversight functions being carried out by various committees of the two legislative chambers.

The telcos through their trade body, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, berated the actions of Nigerian lawmakers, who summon chief executives of the telcos at will.

Chairman of the body, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, said: ALTON members have been inundated with incessant summons from different committees of the NASS served on their chief executive officers to appear before several National Assembly committees, which negatively impact on ability to focus on their business operations."

Continuing, Adebayo said: The NASS insistence on attendance of CEOs at such session is without consideration of these CEOs reasonable schedule conflict or the fact that other senior management staff may be better versed and suited due to the nature of their job roles vis-a-vis the subject matter of investigation.

Lawmakers overlap their duties

Stressing some of activities of the lawmakers engage in to slight the telcos, Adebayo noted that some of the investigative duties of the committees of the lawmaking chambers overlap and require similar information from the attendees.

For instance, members are summoned by both the standing Committee on Telecoms and its Ad-hoc Committee on Operational activities of Telecoms Equipment and Service Providers both investigating loss of revenue to the federal government.

The Committee on Telecoms is also investigating loss of jobs which the Committee on Labour also summons members in respect of. The committee on Telecoms also served summons for investigation by its ad-hoc committee for Value Added Services and committee investigating locally manufactured skills he said.

Adebayo further said: the manner of invitation borders on harassment of our members as the invitations are sometimes scheduled on the same day leading to conflict or scheduled back to back for three to four days, which will necessitate member CEOs being away from their businesses for such long periods.

Furthermore, some of the requested information border on information within the purview of specific government agencies which the NASS could easily request the agencies to provide, such information as evidence of Tax remittances to government since inception of members operations, which could date as far back as 16 years; or confidential information which members should not be obliged to provide e.g. list of all employees and current remuneration package of these employees he added.

Telcos drags NASS to court

Meanwhile, the telcos trade body has sued the National Assembly over some of its activities in the last three years.

In the suit, which was filed in February 2018 at the Federal High Court Abuja, the Nigerian telcos are seeking the courts interpretation of the provisions of the constitution on the extent of the National Assemblys oversight functions on private companies, particularly telecom companies.

The suit is also seeking an order restraining the NASS from serving any further summons on telecommunication companies pending the determination of the action.

In the suit, the telcos also prayed the court to determine specific nature of directives that can be made by NASS pursuant to the outcome of their investigative activities as well as declaration on the proprietary of the NASS to issue these summons and insist that telecom companies are represented by only their CEOs and not other senior management officers.
On April 9, 2018, the OAP and leader of the free the sheeple movement shared an Instagram video on the alleged curse doctrine in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

His caption read: RCCG, Adeboye and their ridiculous doctrine of curses are, in my opinion, Christianitys BIGGEST problem! I teach this as well at 11 am live on YouTube.com/daddyfreezeteaches.

Freeze shared a picture of a ladys reaction to his initial post.

He wrote: This is someones response to the video those pastors made about the curses they were taught!

My response: Who anointed him? Anointed with what? Engine oil or brake oil? Is he Christlike? Or is he a businessman?

I would have told her to ask these questions but just look at her in squalor, as she aggressively defends someone living a life of opulent luxury! Wake up Nigeria, none of these guys are anointed by God! ~FRZ

Daddy Freeze tackles Pastor Adeboye on Youtube

The religious activist took things further by addressing the same issue on his Youtube channel.

In the video titled: Adressing Oyedepos Miracle Jobs And The Red Bible, he criticised the RCCG G.O for having church buildings because God does not live in Temples made by human hands.

After referring to Acts 7:48, Freeze said, So when I tell you as a doctrine that building a church building is false doctrine, I have established it for you in red and in the words of the disciples.

I am not taking a scripture from Revelation and running with it. Dangerous. I am not taking a scripture from Psalms or Malachi and running with it. Dangerous for Christianity.

He added, That is why Adeboye can invoke curses on his people by misquoting the Book of Malachi. He doesn't understand it and he runs with it. He doesn't understand that it's as useless for Christianity as a totem pole. Its useless for Christianity, absolutely worthless for Christianity. He doesn't realize that.

So, he puts 2M people under a curse, telling them that they are cursed if they don't tithe and they accept the curse. So, they tithe to prevent the curse and now they are cursed two ways. One by their G.O and then they are cursed by God
These include:

Seeking Approval

Depending on approval from human beings is a slippery slope that takes you away from God. As Christians, our approval should only come from one place  God.

Knowing this sustains whenever we receive negativity or hate from the world. See John 15:1827 and Matthew 10:22.

Gossiping

Ephesians 4:29 says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Psalm 101:5 adds, Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

Being Worldly

Its impossible to be Godly and worldly at the same time. As Christians, we have been called to be Godly, holy, which leaves no room for worldliness.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life  is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:1517)

Holding grudges

Being a child of God means you have access to Gods forgiveness so its only fair that we treat others the way He treats us.

Since we have been forgiven, its only right that we share this gift instead of holding grudges.

Then Peter came to him and asked, Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but seventy times seven! (Matthew 18:2122)

Fear

This has no place in a Christians heart because of what we carry on the inside.

2 Timothy 1:78 clearly states that we have no business with this particular emotion. It reads: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord

We should always replace fear with hope and faith in our God.
American Pastor and author, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church proffer a solution for this second group of believers on his website.

In the devotional titled: Three Mental Barriers to Hearing Gods Voice, the popular preaches starts by sharing three reasons why people are unable to hear Him.

He writes: Sometimes we dont give God a chance to talk to us. Weve made up our minds. We want to do what we want to do, not what God wants us to do. Our hearts are hardened, and were unwilling to listen. When you have a closed mind, of course, hes not going to talk to you!

Why Christians cant hear Gods voice

According to Warren, there are three mental barriers  pride, fear, and bitterness.

On pride, he writes, Pride keeps you from being open to the possibility that God might want to say something to you.

For fear, the second barrier, the pastor explains: A lot of people cant hear God because theyre afraid to hear God speak. Maybe you think that hearing Gods voice or sensing his leading makes you some kind of religious fanatic.

Concerning the third barrier, bitterness, Warren advises Christians to conquer this so that they can hear Gods voice.

In his words, When you hold on to hurt, resentment, or a grudge, youre not going to be able to hear God, because your heart is hardened. It has grown cold and made you defensive, even to Gods love.

How to hear from God

The preacher concludes his article by encouraging Christians to let go of hurt, resentment, bitterness, fear, pride, everything and anything that stops them from hearing Gods voice.

He writes, You need to get rid of the bitterness, fear, and pride that keep you from hearing Gods voice and living out his purpose for your life.

James 1:21 says, Get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls (NLT).

Humbly accept means you let go of your pride and stop trying to figure it out on your own. This is the key to opening your mind and heart so that you can hear from the Lord.
This could be because some faith-based universities are popular for their expensive school fees and are sometimes in the news because of their rules.

Nevertheless, there are other private tertiary institutions in the country and for those admission seekers, who wish to attend private universities that are not run by religious institutions, here are 10 of the educational institutions you can consider for your university education.

1. Christopher University

Christopher University was approved by the Federal Government in February 2015. The University is located on a spacious land area of over 100 hectares and situated in Mowe, Lagos / Ibadan express way. The proprietorship of the university belongs to Translucent Management Services.

2. Oduduwa University

Located in Ipetu modu, Osun State, Oduduwa University is named after the progenitor of the Yorubas, Oduduwa. It was founded in 2009 and as a university named after Oduduwa, the institution has no affiliation with any religious group or institution.

3. Afe Babalola University

Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, (ABUAD) is a private institution founded by a popular legal practitioner and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Afe Babalola in 2009.

ABUAD has made and still making its marks as one of the best private universities in Nigeria as it ranked second best private university four years after its establishment.

In fact, ABUAD management does not allow its students to wear religious dresses because they believe such dresses can breed discrimination.

4. Baze University

This higher institution was established in 2011, it is one of the very popular universities in Abuja. The school which was established by an Economist and Politician, Sen. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed does not have any religious identity.

5. American University of Nigeria

The American University of Nigeria is a private university in northeastern Nigeria that offers American style higher education programs. The school is situated in Yola and it is believed to be one of the very expensive universities in the country. The university is reportedly owned by the former Vice-President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

6. Igbinedion University

Located in Okada, Edo state, Igbinedion University is the first private tertiary institution in Nigeria. The institution is owned by the Igbinedion royal family of Benin Kingdom and does not share an affinity with any church or Islamic group.

7. Elizade University

Elizade University is a private institution situated in Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, Nigeria. The University aims to be an institution with the best traditions in the production of self-reliant, ethics-conscious, globally competitive graduates. The institution was established by a prominent businessman, Michael Ade-Ojo in 2013.

8. Adeleke University

Adeleke University is a private tertiary institution located in Ede, a town in Osun State. The university is owned by Adedeji Adeleke, father of David Adeleke, (Davido) an award-winning musician.

9. Lead City University

Lead City is one of the prominent private universities in the South-western part of Nigeria probably because it is the first private tertiary institution in the largest city in Nigeria.

10. Nile University
This is coming following tuition increase at the university from N30,000 to N180,000

Since the increment was announced, students and parents have been reacting to the over 500% increase in the university's tuition fees.

On Monday, April 9, 2018, the student leaders of AAUA, with solidarity from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and National Association of Ondo State Students (NAOSS) mobilised thousands of students to protest against the hike.

The protesting students barricade major roads in the state capital, Akure, causing a lot of traffic as they expressed their displeasure with the state governor.

Some of the students carried placards with different inscriptions such as Akeredolu Must Not Send Us Away From School, No To Hike In Our School Fees, Education Is Our Right, Aketi Enjoyed Free Education, He Must Not Take It From Us and Remove Increment Or We Will Make The State Ungovernable, among others.

Parents react to the new school fees

Meanwhile, parents have been kicking against the tuition hike as one of them argues that the management did not consider the economic condition of the parents before fixing the new school fees.

A parent, Mrs. Mabel Salawu, who spoke with Punch, lamented saying: This is too much for us to pay, I have two children in the school and I am a petty trader. How does the school want me to cope?

ALSO READ: 10 private universities that are not owned by religious institutions
The beautiful actress took to her Instagram page on Monday, April 9, 2018, where she posted the photo of the phone she was giving out and captioned it with a quote.

"Feeling Xtra generous..As my Spirit leads I will choose a very loyal fan To win this new iPhone 6(Abeg make una manage economy d shake)..Write an Essay about me using a beautiful picture of me, Post it and tag me using the hashtag #KINGTONTO #MAMAKING #RADICAL4JESUS ..May the best win

''Pls join me in celebrating 3years in the body of Christ..Today marks the best day of the rest of my life   Celebration of a new life Celebrating being BORN AGAIN..HAPPY BORN AGAIN DAY to me...Winner will be announced by the end of the week #KINGTONTO #MAMAKING #RADICAL4JESUS #you must be following @t_d_foundation @mybabysmeal @tontolet," she wrote.

It didn't take long before a winner emerged as she announced the winner with a photo shoot of the winner's essay and a caption.

"You are welcome honey..Thanks for being a great support system.cant wait to meet you someday @ilovemamaking #WINNER OF THE 1st GIVE AWAY," she wrote.

ALSO READ:Kiss Daniels gives back to the poor on Easter day

Now, guys, we've said this times without numbers that Tonto Dikeh has got the heart of gold and is always ready to give out to both the needy and her doting fans.

Recall back in December 2017, the actress in conjunction with her NGO, Tonto Dikeh Foundation, paid a visit to the Persons living with disability in the Karanmajiji Disable Colony in Abuja to celebrate the United Nations International World Disability Day.
According to the statement which was obtained by Pulse, Efe Omorogbe insists that no amount of harassment and intimidation can stop him as COSON chairman.

'Recent orchestrated attacks on the persons and reputation of members of our Board by Chief Tony Okoroji, his acolytes and agents have more than anything else, provided proof of a growing desperation to avoid probe, cover the truth and perpetuate the illusion of his purported reinstatement as chairman of the governing board of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

The widely reported arrest of our substantive and duly elected chairman Mr Efe Omorogbe and another Board member Mr Joel Ajayi and subsequent arraignment and bail on charges of impersonation, forgery, conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace and threat to life are the latest steps in a series of desperate and futile moves by Okoroji to harass, intimidate and coerce them into abdicating the leadership of the board, mislead the law enforcement agencies and the populace as a ploy for dumping the call for a full forensic audit of accounts and operations of COSON.

The statement which is signed by the COSON board also reads, 'Following receipt of the directive of the industry regulator, Nigerian Copyright Commission in a letter dated February 19, 2017 declaring Okorojis reinstatement and sack of elected board members as null and void, the Board proceeded to act in substantive capacity and carried out the following actions:

1. A board meeting was called on March 6, 2018 at the COSON House wherein all 11 directors (including Tony Okoroji, John Uduegbunam, Azeezat Allen and Ras Kimono), management and the Nigeria Copyright Commission were duly notified. Okoroji and co absented themselves from the meeting and directed his agents to lock the other board members out. Having formed a quorum with 6 directors present, we proceeded with the meeting at the entrance of the locked office with representatives of the commission, an officer from the Public Complaint Bureau, Lagos Police Command and reporters all present.

- It is this meeting that has been fraudulently reported to the office of the IG as the mobilization of thugs to disrupt an Okoroji meeting with intent to cause a breach of public peace and threat to life!

2. We wrote to COSON bankers to formally communicate a directive from the duly elected board to stop honouring all cheques signed by Okoroji who has continued to parade himself as chairman along with others who may have been fraudulently listed as directors of COSON and on- boarded as signatories to the accounts.

For the avoidance of doubt we members of Coson Board wish to use this medium to reiterate with emphasis that Tony Okoroji remains sacked and that Mr Efe Omorogbe remains chairman of the board of COSON. We will also like to assure members of the society and concerned members of the public that the phantom charges do not hold any water and that no amount of grandstanding, threat, attacks, intimidation, abuse of power or abuse of court processes will stop a full forensic audit of COSON account and operations.'

It will be recalled that Efe Omorogbe was arrested last week on the grounds of forgery and impersonation but was later granted bail. The case has however been adjourned for May 17th, 2018 in the case file A/29/2018 between Commissioner of Police vs Efe Omorogbe and Joel Ajayi.
The 47-year-old carpenter met and fell in love with one Joy Orkuma, from Benue State one year after his wife, Cecilia, died. According to the reports, Joy soon got pregnant and reportedly asked Agena to get rid of his only child.

Instagblog9ja reports that on February 22, 2018, Agena threw Mercy, who was asleep, into a well.

The body of the deceased was reportedly discovered the next day by a farmer identified as Joseph Kula, who had wanted to use the well.

The suspect who has been arrested and arraigned in court as at the time of this report, blamed his actions on the intense love he has for his new girlfriend. He also revealed that he could not stand to lose Joy or their unborn child.

According to the suspect, Joy had argued that she would prefer to raise a family without a witch around her, the witch being young Mercy.

Agena added that Joy had threatened to abort the pregnancy and break up with him if he failed to take action as she had requested.

Speaking with Joy on phone, following the tragic incident, the evil vixen reportedly showed no remorse for her role in Mercy's death, Sunnews reports.

She claimed that she only suggested that she could not live with Mercy, whose behaviour she described as unusual for a girl of her age.

I told him that if I must marry him, Mercy will have to leave, she asserted, because she always appears in my dreams each time I pass a night in her fathers house.

"So when I became pregnant for him, I told him that I cant deliver a baby in the house for Mercy to kill.

According to the reports, Joy who is currently on the run stated that killing Mercy had been the best thing to do.

Regretting his actions, Agena said: My wife will never forgive me in her grave. I have betrayed her trust and love for me. I regret buying into Joys devilish ideas.

May the soul of the deceased rest in peace.

Father kills 3-yr-old son because 17-yr-old girlfriend hates children

A 22-year-old man from Camden, United Kingdom, David "D.J." Creato Jr., has been charged with first-degree murder and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in the death of his 3-year-old son, Brendan Creato, at the Camden County Superior Court.

Creato Jr. is said to have murdered his son because his 17-year-old girlfriend, Julia Spensky, did not like kids and was uncomfortable with him keeping a child he had from a former relationship.

The Courier-Post reports that weeks before Brendan's pajama-clad body was found in Haddon Township woods after he was declared missing, Creato Jr. was distraught and arguing with Spenksy to keep her from leaving him and vowed to do anything to keep her, including getting the toddler out of the way.

Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah of the Camden County, said Spenky did not want to share Creato with his 3-year-old from a previous relationship and with him being worried she would leave him, he had to kill the boy.

Shah added that Spensky had warned Creato she disliked children and resented his devotion to the boy and authorities learned of the fraught relationship mostly from the couple's numerous text messages and online postings.

Creato was then driven to a point of murder when his girlfriend issued an ultimatum to him and on October 13, 2015, Brendan disappeared and his father was the first to report his disappearance.

He reportedly called 911 at 6:07 am on the day and told the dispatcher that his child must have unlocked the door and wandered off.

"I just woke up, and my 3-year-old's missing. I just woke up and he wasn't in my apartment. I don't know if he wandered out or what happened. I don't know where he is. The door was locked. I guess he unlocked it and left," Creato had said, according to a recording of the call.

But Shah said that going by the recording, Creato's voice had a 'flat affect and tone.' It was discovered during investigations that Brendan had been 'very afraid of the dark,' to the point that he had been reluctant to go to the bathroom at night, according to interviews with grandparents and other relatives who had babysat him.

According to Shah, the stretch - about three-quarters of a mile - between Creato's apartment and the muddy spot by the Cooper River where Brendan's body was found, is extremely dark at night, very steep at one point, and difficult to negotiate.

ALSO READ: Man hires assassin to murder rich family in order to inherit wealth

Much of Creato's life was online, Shah told the court with investigators examining 9,487 text messages he exchanged with his girlfriend after meeting her in June on Tinder, a dating website, and during an 'intense romantic relationship' that continued into October.

Shah said the teen had written a series of 'unbelievable' blogs in which she described her 'strong dislike of children.'

Shah said medical examiners determined the boy died of 'homicidal violence.' Superior Court Judge Edward McBride set bail at $750,000 - lower than the $1 million sought by Shah, but higher than the $250,000 a defense attorney said might be appropriate.
He was killed on Thursday, April 5, 2018, while trying to save the lives of some people during a bank robbery in Offa, Kwara State.

Ajibade, who spoke in a gathering of members of the Kwara Youth Networking League (KYNL), made comments about his partner's boldness in a Punch News report.

Not minding a possibility of harm, Ismaila Jimoh summoned what could only be courage by confronting a group of 30 robbers who ransacked five banks in Offa.

He was unfortunately killed by one of the thieves, leaving "two wives, four children and aged parents," according to Punch.

Many reportedly killed as armed robbers raid 5 banks

Armed robbers on Wednesday, April 4, reportedly invaded more than four commercial banks in Offa, Kwara State, and carted away an unspecified amount of money.

According to The Nation News, many people were killed during the robbery.

ALSO READ: Man who robs motorists on Oshodi bridge meets his end

The gang reportedly entered the town around 4:45pm and operated till about 5:40pm blocking roads from Ilorin and Osogbo to boost smooth operation.
According to reports, the group visited an Okuni Ikom farm on Monday, November 6, 2017, where they stole bags of cocoa.

They capped the heist by taking turns to sleep with the female victim.

Over 1000 women from the Okuni community reportedly took to the street to speak against the act labeled as "barbaric".

Members of the gang have been apprehended following an earlier release.

Dr. Inyang Asibong, the state Commissioner of Health and colleague, Dr. Betta Edu, the Director General of the state's Primary Healthcare Development Agency confirmed this.

Pressure has been mounted on the Attorney General of Cross River State, Joe Abang, who has been urged to conduct a speedy prosecution of the suspects.

Mentally ill pastor apprehended for raping woman abducted at church vigil

In Delta State, Nigeria, a man named Paul who was described as mentally ill, has been apprehended by the police for the alleged abduction and subsequent rape of a 21-year-old woman identified as Esther, who was attending a church vigil.

Punch News reported that the incident which occurred in Ibusa located in the state capital Asaba, saw the suspect hold the victim against her will.

She was reportedly locked up in his shop until she was rescued on Thursday, January 18, 2018.

The event ensured that Esther's family entered panic mode. According to Punch, they searched for her after the church service held at the Living Faith Church to no avail. After ceaseless prayers organized by the worship center, the victim was eventually found thanks to her brother's friend.

The latter had visited Paul's shop to buy some items when she was discovered. She was reportedly hypnotized and bluntly refused to leave the location with her family.

We went for a vigil at our church on Friday, January 12. We could not find her after the service. My sister is a special child. She had convulsion while she was young and it affected her. She cant read and write.

Someone saw her at the mans shop on Thursday and raised the alarm. When we got there, we discovered that the man had bought new clothes for her. She had been hypnotised and refused to follow us.

"Later, she said the man made her to swear with a Bible that she would not leave him and that if she did, she would die. He should be in his 50s.

We learnt that he chased away his wife and children a long time ago. He sells souvenirs outside the church (Winners Chapel).

"The church does not have anything to do with him," Esther's brother who insisted on being anonymous told Punch News.

ALSO READ: 16 kidnappers who drink the blood of human beings captured in Niger

While addressing newsmen, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, the Police Public Relations Officer for Delta State, confirmed the incident but was not able to offer facts concerning the allegation of rape leveled against the suspect Paul.

We are investigating a case of abduction. The victim is suspected to be physically challenged.

The so called pastor is not a pastor. He has a history of mental illness. Be that as it may, it is not for the police to establish who is mad or not.

"The appropriate authorities will take care of that. It is case of abduction, which we may have to charge to court," he revealed.
Punch News reported that the SOS call was made from a toilet at the Zenith Bank office in Okota, Lagos. He made a call for assistance on Monday, April 9, 2018, according to reports.

Ibe-Anyanwu observed that the SARS men met him when he was leaving the bank but their motives were not chiefly related to providing security according to Ibe-Anyanwu.

I was coming out of the banking hall after a transaction around 2pm on Monday when a man in mufti approached me.

"He said he was a policeman. I asked for his ID card, which he showed me. He told me to follow him to where their vehicle was parked.

They were seven in number in a mini-bus. They were all armed, except the driver.

"Immediately we got there, he told his colleagues that I was trying to snatch his ID card from him. I was shocked. I wanted to explain, but they asked me to shut up.

They went through my company documents. They saw that the address of my company was at Ikoyi and asked what I was doing at Okota.

"I told them that I came for a banking transaction. They asked why I didnt do it at Ikoyi and I replied that I lived in Okota and that I left my house late and wanted to do the transaction before going to the office.

They asked what we do in my company and I told them. They asked what I was doing before I opened the company. They said I should open my car for a search. which they did; they didnt find anything there.

"They said I should enter their vehicle so that I could take them to my office at Ikoyi to confirm that I worked there. They said they know the street, but they dont know my company.

They said because of the man that begged for me they would release me. They called me aside and asked me to arrange some money for them. I told them that I needed my phone to arrange the money. They returned my phone.

I went into the bank and sneaked into the toilet where I wrote the Facebook post. I called the police spokesperson again to inform him that they had just released my phone and were demanding money. He told me not to give them anything. He said he had mobilised some officers and they were coming to rescue me.

I was in the toilet till 4pm and thought by then they would have left; but they stayed. Later, the bank workers asked me to leave their premises.

"By then, my phone battery was flat and I could not call anybody. By the time I peeped outside, I saw they had removed my cars number plate, the business man expressed.

Bank could not protect victim from SARS

Shelter at the Okota branch of Zenith Bank appeared to be an issue for Immanuel Ibe-Anyanwu, who was under pressure to leave the financial institution.

An order given by the bank officials insisted on his departure following an end of duty.

This soon forced him to make a forced exit from the company.

ALSO READ: SARS operatives drag innocent man by sexual organ in order to extort money

Help finally came from the office of the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Edgal Imohimi, who requested on having the officers concerned be arrested.

"The bank asked me to leave their premises. I was confused. I decided to risk it and speed out. That was how I escaped.

"Although I can recognise them, they dont have any name tag. They only had their crested guns with SARS jacket," says a rescued Ibe-Anyanwu.

The X-Squad of the police had appeared just in time to force the SARS men to make a run for it.

They have however been identified and are within an inch reach of being arrested.

On sighting the X-Squad personnel of the command, the erring policemen hurriedly left the scene in a manner suggestive that they were on an illegal duty.

The Lagos CP directed the Officer-in-Charge of the X-Squad Section to fish out the policemen within two hours.

"That directive was actualised with the identification of the policemen involved. They were led in that inglorious duty by one Inspector Jude Akhoyemta, attached to FSARS Ikeja.
The pair were part of the guests who attended a birthday party organized for a friend.

This incident occurred on Sunday, April 8, 2018, according to many reports.

Godslove Michael Bernard, a Facebook user expressed grief in a post shared on Monday, April 9, 2018. Bernard, who had just written an exam learnt about the passing of the deceased at a Rector's office.

"I can't Believe u have gone.

"I went to school this morning to write my exams only for me to hear a loud noise from my rector office shouting noooooo..... ubong nooooo, i was like, pls sir what happened?? Only for him to deliver the shocking news that his two cousins was drown at Ibeno Beach yesterday.

"I ask him again pls sir which ubong and he shown me your pics. God have mercy.!!

"What a tragedy!! Two brothers drown and died at ibeno beach.

"RIP Big brother Ubong Ekpe

"A great giver and a philanthropist," Bernard who seemed close to the deceased wrote.

Accompanied in the post was an image showing Ekpe's family.

Pastor drowns while baptising church members in a river

A South African pastor reportedly drowned in a river while in the process of baptising church members in the said river.

The unnamed pastor is reported by Bellanaija.com as preparing to commence the baptism when he was unfortunately carried away by the Blood River located outside Seshego in Limpopo, South Africa.

Reports say it took the Rescue Unit of the Limpopo police to retrieve the body of the poor pastor as the church members were not in the position to help him out.
The announcement was made during a glamorous Global Spring Launch at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Andy Yan, Vice President, TECNO, discussed the progressive thinking behind the brands innovative products and the resultant demise of several "once upon a time "powerhouse competitors. He carried out an x-ray of the African business climes and shed some insights on the typical African consumer  their peculiarities and preferences.

At TECNO, we do not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to developing our products. We take insights from our consumers habits, preferences and needs to develop the next groundbreaking product that fits perfectly into their lifestyle and consequently displace the competition.

The latest CAMON duo is poised to become the best camera smartphones for 2018 and this no doubt is evident in their revolutionary design and outlandish specifications. The CAMON X Pro debuts 24MP + 16MP front and rear cameras with an increased image definition of 30% over that of the CAMON CX to ensure that images are clearer and sharper. Also, it dons a 6-inch FHD screen with 2.5D corning third glass, industry leading 18:9 full view screen, 64GB ROM, 4GB RAM and superfast face recognition technology.

With a dual ISP image processor, the device can process actions a lot faster as both processors work synchronously together compared to the previous generations of the CAMON. Dark state and noise reduction on the CAMON X has been upgraded by 20% with the memory colour function which ensures natural colour reduction while balancing the colour so it can be more pleasant for users to capture incredibly stunning pictures. With front camera background bokeh, the background virtualization function of the CAMON X produces strikingly beautiful Selfies with little interference from the background.

The CAMON X and CAMON X Pro debut a new Face ID technology that can be used to unlock the phone when lighting up the screen. By grasping the face information, the Face ID has 50ms recognition rate and is more functional than the fingerprint identification feature. Also, during hot weather, the HiOS UI identifies components causing heating in the background and quickly cools off the phone through a series of methods such as background cleaning and so on.

Also speaking at the event, Hon. Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications congratulated TECNO for their accomplishments in Africa and appealed to them to setup a production line in Nigeria just as they have done in Ethiopia in order to serve not only her almost 200million population but also the West Africa sub-region and consequently create jobs for her teeming youths. I want to appeal to TECNO Mobile that we are ready to partner with you... We will assist you in every possible way to encourage you. He acknowledged governments failings in the past and their inability to provide an enabling environment for investors to setup locally.

Stephen Ha, General Manager of TECNO Mobile while speaking about the uniqueness of the latest CAMON duo, also reemphasized the brands willingness to look into setting up local production lines in Nigeria and further highlighted a couple of bottlenecks in the process. Nigeria is a key interest market for us and we have considered setting up a massive factory here that will not only create a lot of jobs for Nigerians but also empower her Millennials with key interests in technology to get hands-on and be more involved in the development and design of the world next revolutionary smartphones.

TECNO Mobile also unveiled another Beautiful smartphone that is Powered by Google Android Oreo System

TECNO Mobile also unveiled a new smartphone series called the F Series. These mid-range smartphones come with impressive processing memory and commendable cameras. The TECNO F series dons full display IPS Touchscreen, 2MP front cameras for F1 and F2, and 5MP front cameras for POP1 (F3). All of them are with wide-degree Selfie Panorama which will enable users rotate the device from side-to-side and consequently enable them to take stunning wide-angle selfies.

TECNO F series are powered by Android Oreo (Go Edition) which is optimized to offer consumers lots of benefits including a smooth and fast experience for devices with 1GB of RAM or even less, then provide new and reimagined Google apps for entry-level smartphones including Google Go, YouTube Go, and the Google Assistant for Android (Go edition) with enhanced data efficiency.

Teju Ajani, Country Manager, Android, Nigeria, said: Android Oreo (Go edition) is specifically optimised to bring the magic of Google and Android to smartphones with limited memory and processing power. Were excited to see TECNO take the next step towards bringing computing to more people by launching Android Oreo (Go edition) phones.

"We are also delighted to announce our partnership with Google. As the mobile industry continues to evolve and consumers continue to ask for more, we are certain that with our expertise and resourceful partnerships with the likes of Google, we will be able to effectively cater for the needs of mobile phone consumers in emerging markets across the world, Arif Chowdhury, another Vice President of TECNO concluded.

In line with the partnership with Google, the TECNO F1 will come with superb data offering for MTN subscribers. These subscribers will have access to enjoy 100% data bonus on every MTN data bundle purchased for 6-months.

In the same vein, 9Mobile has also partnered with TECNO Mobile to extend amazing offers to customers who purchase the TECNO F2. These customers will get 2GB instant bonus, plus 100% bonus on all data plans purchased for the first 6-months after purchase. They will also get another 50% bonus on all data plans purchased for the subsequent 6-months. Furthermore, these lucky consumers will have access to an extra 500MB data for daily video streaming for fourteen additional days, upon every 1GB data plan purchased and above.
The victim got involved in the accident on Friday, March 16, 2018.

He was visiting his aunt who lives in Mende, Maryland, according to Punch News.

In a chat with the online news publisher, Oladipo expressed that she has been made to handle the major share of her son's treatment fees.

A visit by Yomi who reportedly works with Primero Nigeria Limited, the manager of the Lagos BRT vehicles only yielded a sum of N100,000, a meagre amount compared to the amount expected.

He was going to Mende that day to spend the weekend with my sister.

"As he alighted from a BRT bus, another oncoming BRT bus hit him. He was taken to the Eko Hospital from where he was referred to LASUTH.

The BRT management gave us N100,000 when the incident happened. One of their officials, Mr. Yomi, came here (LASUTH) about two weeks ago and we gave him a medical bill totalling N400,000.

He promised to get back to me soon. I have been calling him, but he did not pick my calls and nobody from the BRT management has visited since then.

"I called him again today (Monday); he did not pick my calls. It was my sisters call he later picked and he only promised her that he would come.

A doctor has told us from day one in the presence of Mr. Yomi that the grafting would cost about N180,000.

"We have to pay before Wednesday if we want it to be done on Friday. We are worried that the management is not showing up and I have no means of paying the bills," says Funke Oladipo who seemed engrossed in her challenge.

Delay in payment caused by BRT insurer

Cletus Okodolor, Primero's Chief Security Officer, has assured the family of the organization's commitment to surrendering the amount needed for treatment.

He attributed the delay to a problem with the insurer.

The rep revealed plans to make more efforts to ensure that the money is released.

We first gave them N100,000 upfront. We have collected bills which we have given to our insurer; we are pushing the bills. We are cashless in the office.

"I had to rally round before we could raise the N100,000 we gave them.

We have not abandoned the boy; he could be my son. I assure the family that we are going to pay the bills. When we take the money to them, we will collect another bill.
We are one of Nigeria's leading non-banking Financial Institutions, licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria - CBN. We will be clocking 25 years this April and as part of celebrations for our 25th Anniversary, Rosabon would be rewarding individuals who finance the acquisition of a new car with luxurious Home & Kitchen appliances such as washing machines, gas cookers, food processors and many more!

Three Simple Steps To Participate In The Promo:

Pick a car of your choice from any car dealer or owner (Nigerian Used, Tokunbo or New Car)

Apply for a Car lease with Rosabon in this month of April, 2018.

Pay a little percentage (very small %) for the car upfront and you'll be automatically entered for the weekly draw to stand a chance of winning.

Rosabons car lease has a repayment period of up to 48 months.

Are you looking to own a car? Then what are you waiting for!

Visit our Head Office in Lagos or any of our annexes in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Warri & Benin! or you can simply send an email to info@rosabon-finance.com or call 08150880039/Whatsapp 08150880038. Visit http://bit.ly/RFSCarLeasePromo to apply online.
According to the reports, the incident that occurred today, Tuesday, April 10, saw the victim come out of a restaurant located at Haruna Bus Stop when he was accosted by FSARS officials.

ALSO READ: Woman expecting quadruplet allegedly loses pregnancy following SARS assault

The officers reportedly demanded to see the victim's phone, a request the young man turned down.

Angered by his refusal and the fact that he demanded that his rights be respected, the operatives reportedly attacked him, beating him mercilessly.

A video showing the SARS officers beating the young man has since gone viral.

See for yourself below:

WuzupNigeria reports that the young man has been reported dead from the injuries he sustained during the assault.

A witness recounting the incident said, They demanded to see his phone, which he refused. The next thing was them harassing him and tied him all up.

I heard he died though, but not sure about it. Another source said hes in the hospital as those in the area didnt allow SARS officials drop him when they noticed he was convulsing, so they took him to a private hospital.

More tension in Ondo as SARS operative allegedly kills man

In a similarly gruesome occurrence, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ondo State, Nigeria, allegedly killed a man, Seun Ayoade who died under suspicious circumstances in a detention facility in Akure, the state capital.

According to reports, the officers, led by Inspector Oladele Ojelabi arrested the victim as well as others on Tuesday October 17, 2017.

This was perceived as an act of intimidation by Ojelabi who had displayed a lustful interest in the wife of the deceased identified as Mrs. Gbemisola Okoro.

The latter who is also a police officer had repeatedly turned down the advances of the inspector, insisting that she was married with children. But this only encouraged a determined Ojelabi to take drastic measures.

Through an act of bullying, Ademilola, a hairdresser apprehended at her shop in Oke-Aro, located in Ondo, led the SARS operatives to the resident of Okoro and the deceased.

In a chat with the Daily Post News, she insisted the policemen failed to state her offence yet she found herself at the state police command in Akure.

The SARS officers didnt release me until 8am the following day but refused to release others.

As I was trying to secure their release, I met Inspector Ojelabi who promised to help me and had sexual intercourse with me, Ademilola told the Daily Post News of her encounter.

Mr. Femi Joseph, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Ondo State Command confirmed the reports concerning the incident. This was following pressures from the family of the deceased who urged the state commissioner to look into the matter.

The PPRO maintained that the officer concerned is still only a suspect until proven guilty. He assured that the police inspector will face penalties if found guilty of the allegations.

Protests against SARS

Meanwhile, in Lagos, Abuja and Warri,undefined have taken to the streets to state their concern over the excesses of some officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

The marchers carried placards with various disapproving inscriptions that expresses dissatisfaction over the abusive behaviour of SARS operatives who have appeared in online videos where they were seen assaulting civilians.
In the video, Biskit whose real name is Desmond Uyiosa Abifade, is seen taking a few shots of his muscled torso before moving closer to his mother and tapping her butt.

His mother's expression remains somewhat warm, as she asks in yoruba if he's going to work the day after.

Biskit responds that he is and then he leans into her almost suggestively.

While we cannot discount the fact that whatever we saw could be interpreted in a number of ways, Twitter seemed to have settled on the more sexual of them and run with it.

Most users seem to have come to a conclusion that there was some sexual energy on display and the roasts have come in hard and fast.

"Why are you grabbing on your mom, bro?"

One user wrote, "Biskit is deffo in an open relationship with his parents".

Like another wrote, the jokes and memes have been both insanely funny and very uncomfortable.

Why is this important to you?

It really isn't, but every single thing that Biskit has done or being associated with has become fodder for very incisive jokes, including his Nigerian ancestry.

Nigerians both in the diaspora and at home have been deflecting the jokes and making clear that grabbing your mother's batty on social media is not a Nigerian thing, it's just bastard behaviour.

Biskit is mostly known for his role on BKCHATLDN, a millennial talk show that has generated high viewership and interesting pop culture conversations over the years.

ALSO READ:

However, he has been making the news for all the wrong reasons recently.

Bad Biskits and Fraud

In November 2017, Biskit raised another twitter frenzy when news emerged that he was part of a gang of fraudsters who were convicted of stealing six hundred thouand dollars from bank accounts belonging to various businesses.

According to GRM Daily, Abifade copped a two-year suspended sentence for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

The social media personality (if we can call him that) had already taken a lot of blows to his reputation but nothing from that chapter compares to the full-on assault to every fibre of his being that's going on right now.

Everyone's coming for Desmond, including the UK's biggest stars.

Comedian undefinedand afro-swing rapper, J Hus, have passed subliminals acknowledging the masquerade dance on Twitter.

One wonders what Biskit is doing at the moment.

Amid the barrage of jokes that have been imprinted into the Internet forever, one Twitter user jested Biskit's skill as a digital marketer and how this is really just a ploy to stay relevant, so much that he's become a trending topic in multiple countries.
From the rushing waters of Victoria Falls to the wind-blown sand dunes in Morocco, we've narrowed these places down to 10 bucket list destinations.

1. Mount Bromo, Indonesia

ALSO READ: 5 tallest waterfalls in the world

Mount Bromo, the only active volcano on the island of Java in Indonesia is known for its unparalleled views of the sunrise.

The mountain stands tall at 2329meters and is the most iconic and the most hiked mountain in Indonesia. It beckons majestically despite having the entire top blown off and with a crater inside that keeps spewing off-white sulphurous smoke.

2. Erg Chebbi, Morocco

Erg Chebbi is one of Morocco's two Saharan ergs, formed by wind-blown sand. The dunes of Erg Chebbi reach a height of up to 150 meters in places and altogether it spans an area of 50 kilometers from north to south and up to 510 kilometers from east to west.

A number of companies offer camel trips from Merzouga and into the desert, taking tourists on overnight trips several kilometres into the erg, which is enough to bring the village out of sight.

3. Bryce Canyon, Utah

Bryce Canyon is a beautiful selection of natural amphitheatres.

Bryce Canyon National Park, a sprawling reserve in southern Utah, is known for crimson-coloured hoodoos, which are spire-shaped rock formations. Frost weathering and water erosion have created these bizarre looking pillars.

4. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

ALSO READ: 5 extraordinary discoveries in Nigeria

Ha Long Bay, in northeast Vietnam, is known for its emerald waters and towering limestone islands topped by rainforests. The region is popular for scuba diving, rock climbing and hiking, particularly in mountainous Cat Ba National Park.

Junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets.

5. Blue Lagoon, Iceland

ALSO READ: 5 ancient cultures forgotten by history

The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. The spa is located in a lava field in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland in a location favourable for Geothermal power, and is supplied by water used in the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power station.

The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur. Bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from skin diseases such as psoriasis.

6. The Dead Sea, Israel

Due to its high salt content, the dead sea is a wonder to behold. There are no animals or life forms besides bacteria in the sea. You can also easily float in the waters said to have healing qualities.

7. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

The most notable geographic features of the park are the pillar-like formations that are seen throughout the park. They are the result of many years of physical erosion. Much of the weathering which forms these pillars are the result of expanding ice in the winter and the plants which grow on them. These formations are a distinct hallmark of Chinese landscape and can be found in many ancient Chinese paintings.

8. Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Australia

This sandstone formation that looks like Pride Rock in "Lion King" has a circumference of about 5.8 miles.

Uluru, also known as Ayer's Rock, is located in a remote area in Australia's Northern Territory and is also home to the Anangu Aboriginal people.

9. Valle de la Luna, Chile

A valley in Los Flamencos National Reserve, in northern Chiles Atacama Desert, Valle de la Luna is known for its moon-like landscape of dunes, rugged mountains and distinctive rock formations.

An impressive range of textures and colours in the area and the dry lakes which look like craters give this place its stunning look.

10. Jiuzhaigou Valley, China
Women in Business is an interactive session that brings together women from diverse industries and organizations in order to help address issues specific to women in all areas of economic endeavour. The event also aims to encourage networking amongst businesswomen.

Set to speak at the event is Co-Founder of She Leads Africa, Afua Osei who will be sharing insights on Building a Successful Business in Nigeria.

Speaking on Women in Business, Group Chief Operating Officer of Cloudcover Limited, Eleanor Potter explained the essence of the event.

Women in Nigeria face a host of cultural and institutional hurdles. Despite these obstacles, they still continue to thrive because they are learning each others lessons and listening to voices of those who have gone before them. Cloudcovers goal is to open up and connect people in business to increase productivity and ensure our users keep moving up the ladder of success.

Launched in 2016, CloudCover has been providing multi-network mobile data services in Nigeria and over 100 other countries using its revolutionary virtual SIM technology that enables users to connect to the most reliable network available.

Women in Business will feature top female executives, entrepreneurs, startup owners and other prominent women in society. The event will also be hosted by Actress and On-Air Personality, Omotunde Adebowale David popularly known as Ore Onile-Ere.
Bassey told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo on Monday that the president had given the country a direction for Nigerians to appreciate his efforts in reviving the economy.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ensured security of lives and property and taken Nigeria to its winning way. So his declaration of intention at APC NEC meeting today is a welcome development.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly (Senate) Sen. Ita Enang, said that to the yearnings of Nigerians.

Enang said Nigerians were eager and yearning for him to continue in office to deliver good governance and dividends of democracy to the people.

ALSO READ:Buhari says Nigerians asked him to run for 2nd term

Nigerians should continue to support the Federal Government in the task of transforming the country, Enang appealed.
Weeks is the General Overseer of Reigners Bible Church International.

A panel of inquiry set up by the State Governor, Emmanuel Udom, to investigate the cause of the collapse had indicted Weeks, stating that the incident was due to unprofessionalism and negligence.

The panel, which was headed by a retired judge, Umoekoyo Essang, also accused Weeks of not getting appropriate approval from the state authorities before beginning the construction.

The man of God was also said to have exerted "undue interference" over the contractors handling the building.

"His (Mr Week) adamant posture of unbridled impunity as the Founder/General Overseer of Reigners Bible Church led to the unfortunate incident of 10 December, 2016," the panels report read in part.

More than one year after the report, Governor Udom issued a statement exonerating Weeks and the Uyo Capital City Development Authority (UCCDA).

"Facts available indicate that Apostle (Dr.) Akan Weeks relied on the professionals he engaged. It is the obligation of the professionals to execute due care and skill in the discharge of their duties or resign where they are not allowed to do so," the government said.

The statement added that the UCCDA could not be held responsible for the building collapse because it failed to stop the construction work despite the violation of a 'stop work' order it initially issued.

A human right lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, however, accused Udom of deliberately shielding Weeks because of his friendship with him.

He said, "Udom Emmanuel is a friend of Akan Weeks and was physically present during the consecration event when the building collapsed.

"We should remember that the Governor himself rode to power on the blood of innocent Akwa Ibom people and does not have respect for human life. This explains why the government has fraudulently exonerated the principal culprit of the building collapse, Akan Weeks.

"Since the government has rejected the findings and recommendations relating to Akan Weeks and the UCCDA, why should any other person be prosecuted? If Akan Weeks, the principal culprit, is not liable despite being indicted by the Commission of Inquiry, why should any other person be held liable?"

ALSO READ: Pastor Weeks says he got verbal approval to commence construction

The building collapsed on December 10, 2016, during a service where Weeks was consecrated Bishop.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Shema along with the three others were arraigned on a 24-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, fraud and using forged documents.

The EFCC dragged Shema, and his former aides to the court over alleged misappropriation of about N11 billion belonging to local governments in the state.

The EFCC had said that it took the step following a petition presented by Katsina State Government to the commission on the issue.

Others being tried along with Shema were Hamisu Makana, a former commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Lawal Rufai, former permanent secretary in the ministry, and ex-ALGON chairman, Lawal Dankaba.

All the four had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

After taking their plea, the prosecution and defence counsels told the court that they were ready for the trial.

The prosecution counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, presented a witness, the former Auditor-General of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Dabo, who retired in 2004.

Dabo told the court that he was appointed by the state government to head a committee that investigated the finances of the 34 local government councils during the tenure of former governor Shema.

When Fagbemi asked Dabo to explain his committee findings to the court, the defence counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, argued that such report should be formally presented, instead of orally.

The witness consequently greed to present the committees report, if given time to do so.

The prosecution counsel then asked for adjournment to enable the witness testify properly.
Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, expressed governments position on the matter in a statement by her Media Aide, Abdur-Rahman Balogun in Abuja.

He quoted the presidential aide as saying the increased killing of blacks, especially those of Nigerian origin in London was worrisome and disturbing.

She said it was reported that more than 50 blacks, mainly youths, were either stabbed or gunned down in the first quarter of 2018 in London alone.

She added that Nigerian boys killed in the UK in the first quarter of 2018, mainly London, included Oluwadamilola Odeyingbo, 18, Taofeek Lamidi, 20, and Harry Uzoka, 25.

Others were Rotimi Oshinbajo, 26, Fola Odubiyi, 18, Niyi Shode, 24, Kelvin Odunuyi, 19, Abraham Badru, 26, Israel Ogunsola, 18, and more unreported cases.

Dabiri-Erewa had last week written protest letter to the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, demanding justice and investigation into the matter.

She, however, advised Nigerians to continue to be good ambassadors of Nigeria by obeying the rules of their host country and not to take laws into their hands.

She condoled with the affected families and prayed unto God to comfort them.
Adamu, r0epresented by Mrs Justina Ibe, Director, Education Support Services, of the ministry said the theme of the campaign was apt as lifelong readers are constantly learning new  things with each turn of the page.

He said the 2018 theme sought to find ways of sustaining an established reading culture that brought about positive change in Nigeria.

To sustain a lifelong reading culture, there is the need to develop reading interest right from childhood.

Strong behaviors are developed through training and repetition from childhood through the teen years.

This means a sustainable and lifelong reading should be developed in children by parents and schools during early child care as well as through basic and secondary school years.

This can be achieved by making available to them books they can read and enjoy, hence the need to stock our libraries with interesting books that can impacts positively on the children,  he said.

The Minister said the advent of the Internet had affected the reading culture negatively as students no longer read in order to solve given tasks , rather they Google from the Internet and download without synthesising. 

Adamu said to sustain lifelong reading, there must be collaboration between government and the private sector to promote readership campaign.

He added that publication of good books that are interesting to the public and the institutionalisation of prizes and scholarships awards are some of the important ways to attract public interest in reading.

Earlier, the Chairperson, NLN Board, Prof. Zainab Alkali, appealed to government to strive hard towards completing work at the permanent site of the library in Abuja. 

Alkali, who is also a renowned author said Nigeria required a befitting library worthy of her name.The Holy Quran urges mankind to read, in the name of the Lord.

The honorable minister Sir, we want to obey the divine injunction and read, but the nation requires a library worthy of her name. 

Today I seize the opportunity of your proximity to appeal to you on behalf of the National Library to relocate the library to a more befitting site and resume construction work at the permanent site which now looks like a forgotten monument,  she said.

Alkali said that reading was important because it makes a person knowledgeable and exposes him to new information daily. 

She said great nations of the world knew the importance of reading and hence they did not neglect their libraries.

Alkali added that reading help the reader to know how to confront life challenges successfully, learn from other peoples experiences and avoid pitfalls that come from similar experiences.

We all know how important reading is because there is a huge difference between a literate and an illiterate person, illiteracy comes with a status of inferiority and none wants to be referred to as an illiterate,  she said.

Alkali added that the digital world had opened the portal for people to experience new dimensions in life saying however the advancement of technology should not be an avenue for people to relegate reading culture to the background.

As we tag along with the rest of the world in global advancement in technology, as the world goes wild digitally, we must bring back the book.

Reading enables us to think, reflect deeply and to act, in reading comes knowledge, in knowledge comes wisdom and in wisdom there is power and there lies our secret of a fulfilled life,  she said.
The governor, who was in tears, asked a cleric in the audience to hold the signed copy of the budget in his hand and lead everyone present in prayers for divine intervention to make the budget achievable.

Reports said Ayade kept shaking his head while trying to stand up for the prayers and fought back tears at the same time. After the prayer session, the national anthem was rendered in closing the ceremony.

He said Cross Riverians and mankind, in general, will benefit tremendously from the huge budget.

Cross River is the first to pass the N1. trillion mark among states in the nation.

"Indeed this is the first budget in the history of Nigeria where a state will be given a budget in the neighborhood of a trillion. This is the first over a trillion budget in the annals of history. It is historic, it is unique. It is an ambiguous expression of the mood of the people of Cross River State; a deep understanding of the economics and politics of governance and sluggish economy which was properly captured by the Speaker in his eloquent presentation of the philosophy of the budget", the Governor said in his remarks.

"We have decided to focus on a budget that will deal with the fundamental issues and commitments of this administration. It is the fulfillment of the dreams and aspirations our people, who decided to vote young people into power. Therefore, we must speak to power, truth, commitment, energy and the sincerity of the fact that the intellect drives the world not money.

"We are determined with very clear ambitions with clear timelines, with clear performance indicators that will measure for us what we are expected to achieve. We are not driven by the politics of the time. We are driven by the pain, the hunger, the agony of our people. We are driven by the ambition to change their story and that is why in the desperation of that ambition, we are mistaken to be excited young people in office.

"Truly, if you look at our achievement in two years so far in clarity of thought, consistency of focus that creates a vortex that will shock the world. Today as I sign this budget into law, we are certain that within two years plus, we have completed and secured the entire approvals of the superhighway."

ALSO READ: Cross River Government plans to generate N1.7b annually from tourism

The budget report from the state legislature had revealed that out of the N1.3 trillion budget, estimated revenue from internal sources is N40.7 billion and from the federation account, N67.7 billion is expected, totalling about N108.5 billion.
On Monday, April 9, Buhari officially announced his intention to seek re-election in 2019. He said he is responding to the "clamour" by Nigerians urging him to seek a second term.

IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, however, said the agitation for the Republic of Biafra would happen under Buhari as he described the re-election bid as goodwill for Biafrans.

Powerful said, "we have always maintained that the rebirth of Biafra will happen under Buhari or under whoever is answering to his name.

"This second coming of Buhari portends goodwill for freedom lovers because God Almighty wants to fulfill his divine purpose in the life of Biafrans in 2019 as foretold by our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu."

He said though IPOB "has lost a lot of people" in its fight for a sovereign state of Biafra, "no amount of tribulation will stop us from emerging victorious as a free people at the end of this process."

"We urge our brethren in the Middle Belt and Western Nigeria not to give up or capitulate in this our collective quest to free our people from the shackles of caliphate domination and creeping Islamisation.

"IPOB will not relent in its pursuit of total liberation. The continued existence of this disastrous APC government is our passport to freedom", the group's spokesman added.

The Declaration

Buhari made his intention to re-run known at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Abuja on Monday.

The President has in the past months stated that he had not decided if he would seek a re-election but many Nigerians had speculated that he would seek re-election.

Following the declaration, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a negative trend as the market capitalisation lost N150 billion and volume depreciated by over 42 per cent.
Buhari had on Mondayindicated interest to runfor a second term during the APCs meeting in Abuja.

It assured that a second term of Buhari would ensure the consolidation of the gains recorded in nearly three years of the administration in economic growth, security, anti corruption and transparency in governance.

According to the statement, while Nigeria has gotten out of recession, higher level of transparency in government has ensured foreign investments.

ALSO READ:7 things that will happen as Buhari declares for 2nd term

It stated that the administrations zero tolerance for corruption, coupled with its holistic approach to fighting insurgency had boosted the countrys image in the international community.
He said that the air strikes were carried out at Arege and Tumbun Rago in Borno where the Boko Haram terrorists were hiding.

The successful attacks followed reports received sequel to an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission conducted by an aircraft belonging to Nigerien Air Force, which revealed Boko Haram terrorists activities at Arege and Tumbun Rago.

 Consequently, the ATF detailed Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jet and F-7Ni aircraft to conduct air interdiction strikes on the locations, while the ISR aircraft from Niger provided necessary support and also conducted Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), he said.

Adesanya said that the subsequent BDA revealed that during the first wave of attacks at Arege, several vehicles belonging to Boko Haram terrorists were totally destroyed, killing all the occupants in the process.

He said that the NAF fighter aircraft neutralised fleeing Boko Haram terrorists in subsequent waves of attack.

Thereafter, NAF fighter aircraft and the ISR aircraft from Niger again combined to successfully attack Boko Haram terrorists locations at Tumbum Rago.
Oduah was reacting to the viral audio recording between a female student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a lecturer at the institution identified as Professor Richard Akindele.

In the audio, the lecturer was heard demanding to have sex with the student five times as a gratification to upgrade the low mark she scored in a course thought by the professor.

Oduah, who is also the Vice-chairman Senate Committee on Women Affairs, said the lecturer must be captured in a database which would ensure that he would not be able to teach or take up employment at other educational institutions.

The Senator stated this while speaking on the floor of the Senate and she also issued a statement buttressing her points on Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

"This conversation must not be swept under the rug. The University should investigate this issue and deal decisively with the accused person if found guilty", the statement read in part.

"We must also encourage more female students on our campuses to speak up by creating mechanisms that protect them from victimisation.

"Provocative dressing should never be grounds for justifying assault. Institutions are free to enforce codes of conduct, dressing and decorum as they deem fit. This must also be done with respect for the constitutional rights of students.

"As a woman, mother, and Senator who serves as vice chairman of the committee on women affairs, I have continued to put the issue of sexual assault in our campuses on the front burner. We would not relent until we our educational institutions become safe spaces for the development of our girls and not a den of sexual predators", the senator added.

OAU reacts

In response to the alleged sex scandal, the management of OAU said it has set up an inquiry committee to investigate the veracity of the sexual harassment involving professor Akindele.

"The University is aware and we are setting up machinery to critically look at the issue to determine the veracity, otherwise there wont be conclusion", the spokesman for the University, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said in a statement.

ALSO READ: Lady records sexual assault, confronts assaulter

The Senate had in 2016 prescribed a five-year jail term for lecturers sexually exploiting students.

The bill, sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46 other senators, sought to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students.
The president said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to re-contest in 2019,Garba Shehu, the presidents media aide, said in a terse statement.

A feeling of deja vu swept through me when I first read Shehus statement. No Nigerian president in living memory has become president because he wanted the job so badly. They have always been forced or cajoled into running for office.

Unwilling presidents

Throughout Nigerias history, military coups foisted the most unwilling leaders on the people. From Major General Aguiyi Ironsi to civilian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerians had the feeling that their presidents were never ready for the job until power brokers sitting in lush apartments decided to hand them the job.

After Murtala Mohammed was met by a hail of bullets in 1976, in stepped an unprepared General Olusegun Obasanjo who wasted no time handing over to democratically elected Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

Shagari was kicked out by another military coup and the ultimate beneficiary was General Muhammadu Buhari who was asked to become president by the military elite of the day. He wasnt ready for the job either.

Another coup kicked out Buhari and foisted Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) on Nigerians. Ask IBB today if he was ready to be president in 1985 and he would tell you he was just a beneficiary of the nations military elite.

Chief Ernest Shonekan headed a lack luster and uneventful interim government for three months in 1993 and was just relieved to disappear into the shadows because he wasnt ready for the job ab initio.

General Sani Abacha was ready to crown himself lifetime president until death arrived with other ideas.

Obasanjo wasnt willing to be president until the ruling elite plucked him from prison confinement and handed him the task of ushering Nigeria into the fourth republic in 1999.

Umaru Yaradua was handpicked by Obasanjo to become president. After Yar'adua passed on in 2010, Goodluck Jonathan saw out his term and was prodded on by Obasanjo and the nations elite to begin his own term. The last thing on Jonathan's mind in early 2010 was to become president of Nigeria.

They are those who will say even though Buhari always wanted to become president before 2015 and had sought the job thrice prior, he defeated Jonathan because the nations political elite rallied behind him.

Unwilling and accidental presidents are partly to blame for Nigerias troubles since 1960.

When politicians say they are only running for office because someone forced them or asked them to, they cede responsibility should they fail. We become vicariously liable for their poor showing in office because after all, we forced them to take the job.

Governors

On Friday, April 6, 2018, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje swore that if Buhari refused to seek for a second term, he will be sued.

"APC Governors want Mr. President to continue, Ganduje declared. I am happy that it is not the president that said he wants to continue, it is the people that are saying continue. But Mr. President has not made up his mind yet.

" I told him that any time he decides not to contest, we will take him to court. Kano State government will take him to court any time he decides not to contest. So, we are waiting for him, Ganduje added.

Governor Nasir Elrufai of Kaduna spent all of 2017 and 2018 telling anyone who cares to listen that Buhari is the choice of the Governors ahead of another election season in 2019.

The 24 Governors elected on the platform of the APC have been compelling Buhari to run since he returned from his last medical vacation in London.

On his record

A sitting president should run on his record. He should run because hes done A, B and C and intends to achieve D, E and F if handed another term. An incumbent president should be telling the people that he is running again because hes convinced inside of him that it is the right thing to do.

A sitting president should be able to convey his action plan for another four years by rote before signifying interest.

A sitting president shouldnt be hurling his cap into the ring because the people are clamouring that he should. Governance is serious business and should be treated as such. No one should be coercing anyone to run for the office of president of Nigeria.

Buhari should have told us that hes running again because he thinks hes the best man for the job. He should have presented his scorecard and told us hes running again because he hasnt fared badly in his first term.

To reduce a serious election contest to what Governors and a select few are saying, is to toe the line that has brought this country decades of poor governance and disappointment. When we "beg" or "coerce" people to run for office, we make it seem like they are doing us a favour and that they owe us nothing. But the right to seek elective office should be earned.
Santrich, who had been slated to take a seat in Colombia's Congress in July, was arrested on Monday in Bogota.

Colombian prosecutors said he was wanted for his alleged participation in the shipment of ten tons of cocaine to the United States, after the 2016 peace accord was signed.

President Juan Manuel Santos said Santrich could be extradited to the United States to face drug charges.

The FARC charged that his arrest was part of a plan "orchestrated by the US government with the help of Colombian prosecutors."

Santrich, who was a member of the FARC team of peace negotiators in Cuba, is a partially sighted 51-year-old, whose real name is Seusis Pausivas Hernandez.

US President Donald Trump was to have visited Colombia over the weekend, but cancelled his maiden trip to Latin America Tuesday to oversee the US response to an alleged gas attack in Syria.

"It's clear that we are facing another display of twisted US justice, as happened with Simon Trinidad," Marquez said, referring to another FARC leader who was extradited to the US in 2004 and jailed for 60 years.

Under the peace accord, repentant FARC fighters were required to confess their wartime crimes and pay reparations to victims to avoid jail. But they could still be arrested for any crimes they committed after the deal.

The landmark peace deal between the FARC and Santos's government was signed in November 2016, ending half century of conflict.
The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of a French ban of the UberPop service that links amateur drivers with customers through a smartphone application, four months after taking a similar decision over a case in Spain.

In a conciliatory tone, Uber said it is "appropriate to regulate services such as Uber" and pledged to "continue the dialogue" with authorities in European cities where it has met fierce opposition from taxi drivers.

The Brussels-based European Court of Justice rejected the firm's contention that France should have notified the European Commission about legislation under which it faced criminal charges.

"Member States may prohibit and punish, as a matter of criminal law, the illegal exercise of transport activities in the context of the UberPop service, without notifying the Commission in advance of the draft legislation," the court ruled.

The Commission, the 28-nation EU executive, sets broader policy on the burgeoning digital economy and on other issues.

Uber France has argued that French authorities were required to notify Brussels about the criminal legislation under which a case was brought against it, claiming it was a technical regulation of an online service.

But the Luxembourg-based court of justice said the French case resembled one in December when it ruled that Uber was an ordinary transport company instead of an app and should be regulated as such.

"In the Court's view, the UberPop service offered in France is essentially identical to the service provided in Spain," the court of justice statement said.

The Spanish case was brought by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, where belief runs high that Uber is a taxi company that should be subject to rules governing such vehicles.

Uber had fought criminal proceedings in several courts in France based on a 2014 French law before dropping in 2015 its UberPop service linking customers with non-professional drivers using their own vehicles.

'Unjustfied measures'

A court in the northern French city of Lille then sought the opinion of the court of justice to determine if the French government had acted in line with EU law.

Uber, the biggest name in the growing gig economy, claims it is a mere service provider, connecting consumers with drivers in more than 600 cities.

Uber has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who say this allows it to dodge costly regulations such as training and licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles.

Recent protests were staged in capitals Athens and Brussels.

Uber appeared to take the ruling in its stride.

"As our new CEO (Dara Khosrowshahi) has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe," an Uber spokesperson told AFP.

Services by non-professional Uber drivers only continue in Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.

In contrast, the Brussels-based Computer and Communications Industry Association called the ruling a blow to the EU's efforts to promote innovation and build a cross-border digital economy.

The association's Jakob Kucharczyk regretted to see "the Commissions effective oversight powers" being curtailed by the court.
"Mr Glasenberg has resigned from his position as a director of Rusal," the statement said.

The decisions came a day after Rusal saw its share price fall over 50 percent Monday on the Hong Kong stock exchange, where it is listed. It fell an additional 8.7 percent Tuesday.

Glencore also saw its shares dip 3.4 percent Monday on the London FTSE stock exchange, though its shares were back up 2.0 percent Tuesday.

The moves came after the United States on Friday announced a slew of sanctions targeting Russian oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin.

Among the business magnates hit by the punitive measures is Oleg Deripaska, who controls Rusal and EN+.

The sanctions follow a diplomatic crisis sparked by the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.

Tensions between Russia and the West are also soaring over Moscow's intervention in the Syrian conflict, and over an alleged chemical attack targeting a rebel-held area near Damascus.
"The reason we submitted this package before the elections is in order to allow the Hungarian voters to cast their vote knowing our intention on this," said Orban, 54.

"This has happened and we believe we are mandated by this election to pass this law."

The election saw Orban's Fidesz party sweep the board with almost half the vote, giving it a two-thirds majority in parliament and with it a legislative free rein.

One of his main campaign promises was to stop the "globalist elite" led by Soros and Brussels undermining Europe's security and Christian culture through mass Muslim immigration.

Images of the Hungarian-born Soros, 87, were plastered on billboards and Orban depicted opposition figures running in the election as "Soros candidates".

Critics said this recalled dark anti-Semitic propaganda of the past with Orban's talk of an "enemy" that is "not national but international" and "speculates with money".

Civil society groups funded by Soros and their staff have long faced bothersome regulations, harassment from local authorities and online abuse and threats.

But the "Stop Soros" package promises to go much further, aping similar laws in Russia, slapping taxes on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations that "support" illegal immigration.
"This is a letter that calls on the Panamanian executive to meddle in an issue that is clearly a legal matter," she said.

"I don't think that the executive has a position to take while legal proceedings are under way because that would be meddling in an issue that is not within the (government's) remit."

Copies of the letter asking for Panama's intervention were leaked on social media. The foreign minister confirmed the missive's authenticity.

The dispute centers on an exclusive waterfront complex in Panama City where until recently, the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel was located in a building managed by the US president's property company, the Trump Organization.

But last year, the hotel and most of the apartments in the building were bought by Miami-based businessman Orestes Fintiklis, who in March evicted the Trump Organization before its management contract had ended.

Blaming the Trump name for a drop in business, he expelled the management company from the building and removed the president's name from the front of the luxury 72-floor high rise, triggering a flurry of retaliatory legal action.

In the letter, the lawyers ask President Juan Carlos Varela to urgently use his influence in the dispute involving the Trump hotel.

After presenting their case and outlining potential losses, the lawyers appeal directly to Varela, saying his intervention would help avoid a situation in which legal blame could be attributed to the Panamanian government itself.

De Saint Malo said the letter also alluded to the "protection of investments," but didn't elaborate further.

The Trump firm has launched legal proceedings to regain control of the hotel, which was opened by the billionaire businessman himself in 2011 and cuts a distinctive sail-shaped figure among the towers crowding the capital city.

Inside are more than 1,000 rooms, apartments, shops, a spa and a casino. It even has a small private beach.
The suspects are accused of belonging to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says orchestrated the bloody July 15 coup bid two years ago, aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara calls his group the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) but Gulen insists he runs a purely peaceful movement and denies any link to the failed plot.

The latest MIT swoop comes on the heels of the controversial expulsion of six alleged Gulen group members from Kosovo in a similar operation.

Gulen's group had built up huge influence in Turkey but also abroad -- notably in Africa, the Balkans and Central Asia -- in particular through an education network.

In the Gabon operation, one of the suspects was a school principal in Libreville and an education coordinator of Gulen schools operating across Kenya.

The second suspect was also a school principal, while the third was director general of Gulen schools in Gabon and steered the group's money transfers from Europe to Africa, according to Anadolu.

The news agency reported some high-ranking Gulen movement members were detained on March 23 in a raid by the Gabon security forces.

But there was no immediate information on Libreville's role in the operation.

Gabon is ruled by President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the son of Omar Bongo Ondimba who governed the oil-rich nation for more than 41 years until his death in 2009. Ali Bongo Ondimba held talks with Erdogan in Ankara in 2015.

In March, five teachers and a doctor, all Turkish nationals alleged to be Gulenists, were flown back to Turkey from Kosovo in a hugely contentious operation carried out by the Pristina interior ministry and MIT.

The operation sparked a crisis in Kosovo, with both the prime minister and president protesting that they were not informed.

The government said its intelligence agency had brought back from abroad a total of 80 suspected members of the Gulen movement, without elaborating further on the countries.
While he did not directly mention US President Donald Trump's demands, Xi told an economic forum on the southern island of Hainan that Beijing "does not seek a trade surplus" and hopes to increase imports.

Promising a "new phase of opening up", he said China will "considerably lower" tariffs on cars and other products this year, take measures to liberalise automobile investment, and protect intellectual property -- all areas that have been high on the list of demands by Washington.

"Economic globalisation is an irreversible trend of the time," Xi told the Boao Forum for Asia.

"The door of China's opening up will not close, it will only open wider and wider."

But he gave no details or an exact date for taking the measures.

The car tariffs were the target of a Trump tweet on Monday.

"When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%," Trump tweeted.

"Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE -- going on for years!"

Asia markets -- hammered along with global equities by the trade row in recent weeks -- rallied on the speech Tuesday.

"Asian markets are happy, US and European markets are likely to be happy too, but it's unlikely to generate the same optimism in Washington," said Christopher Balding, a Peking University economics professor.

"The tone was conciliatory but Washington is bargaining for action, not promises."

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, congratulated the Chinese leader on his commitment to openness in a speech to the forum.

The measures he laid out such as "removing caps, reducing barriers" were "very specific," she told the Boao Forum, an Asian version of the World Economic Forum, which drew global leaders to Hainan this week.

Musk requests help

Beijing's restrictions on foreign ownership in the auto sector have forced foreign companies to partner with Chinese firms and share their technology.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric car giant Tesla asked for Trump's help on the issue this year, alluding to the troubles his firm has faced to producing in China.

Xi said those restrictions would be liberalised, pledging "to quickly relax restrictions on foreign shareholding, especially the restrictions on foreign investment in the automobile industry".

The threatened tariff war was spurred by a US Trade Representative investigation into China's intellectual property practices, which alleged wide-scale theft and forced technology transfers.

Xi pledged specific measures to address concerns on IP protection.

"This year, we will reorganise the State Intellectual Property Office to strengthen law enforcement," he told the forum.

"We encourage Chinese and foreign companies to carry out normal technical exchanges and cooperation to protect the legitimate intellectual property rights of foreign-funded enterprises in China," he said.

Pledges on autos and IP were accompanied by a promise to push through reforms in the financial services industry, which would open up to more foreign participation -- reforms first announced last year.

On the brink

But Chinese officials have promised many of the measures in the past with little action -- Washington says it has grown tired of China's unfulfilled pledges, while the EU Chamber of Commerce in China summed up the exasperation last year as "promise fatigue".

Fed up, the United States has slapped tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium, followed by planned levies on $50 billion worth of goods from China over Washington IP theft allegations.

China retaliated by unveiling planned levies on $50 billion worth of major US exports, including soybeans, cars and aircraft.

Trump then threatened to impose more tariffs on $100 billion worth of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to warn that it would stand firm and punch back with great strength.

But Trump suggested on Sunday that he saw an end to the dispute, saying on Twitter that he will "always be friends" with Xi and that "China will take down its trade barriers because it is the right thing to do."
A stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems were rushed to clinics after the attack at dusk Saturday, medical and rescue groups said.

The attack appeared to break the will of Doumas rebels, who agreed Sunday to a deal with the government to hand the area over and be bused to another area outside government control in the countrys north. Thousands of fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives are expected to leave soon.

The latest atrocity in Syrias agonizing seven-year civil war drew immediate condemnation from the United States and the European Union, but Assads allies in Moscow and Tehran dismissed allegations of a chemical attack as bogus.

The British Foreign Office called for an urgent investigation and said that if the use of chemical weapons proved to be true, it is further proof of Assads brutality.

The U.S. government said it was working to verify whether chemical weapons had been used.

State news media in Syria denied that government forces had used chemical weapons and accused the Islamist rebel group that controls Douma, the Army of Islam, of fabricating the videos to solicit international support as defeat loomed.

The attack occurred near the end of a monthslong push by the Syrian government to retake a group of towns east of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta. The towns have been held by rebels seeking to topple Assad since the early years of the Syrian war, and the rebels have often shelled Damascus, killing civilians.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
He also posted testimony apologizing for Facebooks role in false news, data privacy leaks and foreign interference in elections, as his company announced it would form an independent commission of academic researchers to study social medias impact on elections.

The blitz of actions preceded Zuckerberg facing lawmakers for the first time over Facebooks role and influence on society, set off by revelations that the data of up to 87 million Facebook users was improperly harvested by a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. Lawmakers, furious over the reports, called on Zuckerberg to explain himself. He is scheduled to testify before congressional committees Tuesday and Wednesday, when where he is set to be publicly grilled.

The prospect that Zuckerberg, a 33-year-old billionaire, will be taken to task on Capitol Hill has created intense interest and a media circus. On Monday, he was trailed by more than a dozen television cameras and numerous reporters when he exited the office of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a Senate Commerce Committee leader. Zuckerberg said nothing as he strode out of a Senate office elevator, accompanied by Joel Kaplan, Facebooks vice president for global public policy, who is based in Washington, and Brian Rice, a leading Democratic lobbyist for the social network, among others.

Nelson, who met with Zuckerberg for an hour, said the chief executive was taking the situation seriously.

He knows regulation could be around the corner, Nelson said, adding that Zuckerberg was forthright and answered questions to the best of his ability. Among the topics the two discussed was Russias interference in the 2016 election, when Russian agents used Facebook to spread divisive messages to the American electorate, Nelson said.

But when asked whether the meeting helped assuage his concerns about Facebooks privacy violations, Nelson said, Count me as skeptical. He also said it was to be determined whether Facebook would be able to stave off more foreign disruption in the U.S. midterm elections this fall.

I think hes trying, Nelson said of Zuckerberg, but I think if we dont get our arms around this, none of us is going to have any privacy anymore.

Staff for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said Zuckerberg and the senator were scheduled to meet Monday. In addition, Zuckerberg met Monday with the Judiciary Committee leaders, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., according to a person briefed on the visits, who asked not to be named because the information was not public.

Grassley did not respond to a request for comment. Thune and Feinsteins offices confirmed the meetings with Zuckerberg but declined to elaborate.

Facebook described Zuckerbergs interactions with lawmakers as courtesy meetings and pointed to Zuckerbergs prepared testimony that was released Monday. In those comments, which were posted by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Zuckerberg reiterated how Facebook needed to do better in data privacy and other matters.

We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake, Zuckerberg said in prepared testimony. It was my mistake, and Im sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here.

Zuckerberg added that Facebook must do more to protect its users personal information and summarized some of the measures the Silicon Valley company is taking to lock down the data privacy of its more than 2.2 billion members. Those include blocking app developers from gaining access to the data of users who have been inactive for three months, restricting the ability of users to inadvertently share information about others in their networks and adopting stricter permissions guidelines and search features.

On Monday, Facebook also began notifying the 87 million people whose data may have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica by posting a notification that they would see when they logged into the social network. In addition, all Facebook users will see a new feature highlighting which apps they use and which information they have shared with those apps.

In recent days, Facebook also suspended two data analytics companies for inappropriately gathering data from their platform. AggregateIQ, a Canadian firm associated with Cambridge Analytica, was suspended Friday, Facebook said. The company was accused of using data inappropriately harvested from Facebook to support the Vote Leave campaign for Britain to exit the European Union.

AggregateIQ did not respond to a request for comment about its suspension, which was earlier reported by The Financial Times. According to a statement on its website, AggregateIQ has never managed, nor did we ever have access to, any Facebook data or database allegedly obtained improperly by Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook also said it had suspended CubeYou for inappropriately harvesting data, using tactics similar those of Cambridge Analytica. The company collected information on Facebook users through quizzes. CNBC, which earlier reported the firms suspension, said people had been misled into believing the quizzes would be used for nonprofit academic research; instead, the data was sold to marketers.

Our apps and activity on Facebook have been subject to regular audits and reviews with the company, a CubeYou spokeswoman said. She added that the company was in compliance with Facebooks data policy and rules and that CubeYous terms informed users that their data would be used for academic and business research purposes.

Yet even as Facebook suspended data firms and took other actions over data privacy, worries about what can be posted on the social network continued. Facebook confirmed Monday that it had removed a popular Facebook page with nearly 700,000 followers that was associated with the Black Lives Matter movement after it was discovered to be inauthentic.

In a separate post on Facebook on Monday, Zuckerberg addressed how the social network was misused by Russians in the 2016 presidential election and said that Facebook would create the commission of researchers to study social medias impact on elections.

The commissions goal, Zuckerberg wrote, is both to get the ideas of leading academics on how to address these issues as well as to hold us accountable for making sure we protect the integrity of these elections on Facebook.

In a statement, Facebook said it planned to assemble experts with different political outlooks, expertise and life experiences, gender, ethnicity and from a broad range of countries. The group, which will be chosen in the next few weeks with initial plans to operate for a year, will decide which topics to study and will solicit proposals for independent research.

The researchers chosen to participate will have access to privacy-protected sets of Facebook data, but only after being vetted by a review board, external privacy experts and Facebooks privacy and research review teams. The company said it would not review or approve the researchers findings before they are published.

Financing for the project is being provided by, among others, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation and the Omidyar Network.

Elliot Schrage, Facebooks vice president for communications and public policy, and David Ginsberg, its director of research, said in a blog post Monday that the company had made real progress in dealing with hoax stories and sham accounts since the 2016 election and the campaign, known as Brexit, to withdraw Britain from the European Union.

But there is much more to do  and we dont have all the answers, they said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Divulging the information on social media, Ms. Ndeti alleged that Mr. Mutua has been spying on her and on several occasions spotted his vehicle around her home.

According to the former Chama Cha Uzalendo (CCU) party leader, the Governor has been tracking her movements. She linked Mutua to an incident where one of her workers was offered money to convey information regarding her tannery to unknown persons.

Ms Ndeti purports that the former Government spokesperson is striving to intimidate her ahead of her appeal challenging High Courts decision to uphold his election during the 2017 General Election.

"The day I served Mutua with court papers for my petition in 2013, my neighbors Range Rover which was similar to mine, was shot as they entered our gate. In early 2017 my opponent opened his MCCP offices 100m from my home in an attempt to intimidate me.

"My appeal is coming on Monday 16th of April 2018. Today 9th of April 2018 at around 4:30 PM he was seen driving slowly along my gate in his white VX Landcruiser tailed by a Grey Subaru. What he is surveying I do not know.

And it is not the first time. In addition, one of my workers recently confessed he was offered 3M by persons known to him to relay information regarding my movements," she posted.

The former MP divulged that his own father was shot two days before she launched her Gubernatorial bid in 2013.

Ndeti confirmed that she has reported the patter at Machakos Police Station and Muthangari police station.

"Ive said it before and it is true. Mutua wants to do something bad to me and I stand by my statement. This has been happening since 2013," he told Kenyans.co.ke.

However, Mr Mutua denied the allegations and vowed to take legal action against Ms Ndeti.
Commission talks contract to promote city.

Three applicants for the Tucumcari city manager position were discussed in executive session by City Commissioners Thursday during a special meeting at City Hall.

No decision was made after commissioners returned to regular session.

The applicants are Britt Lusk of Hobbs, Robert Ratliff of Bucyrus, Ohio; and D. Sam Hughes of Tri Cities, Washington.

Commissioners also approved offering a contract to an Albuquerque-based marketing firm that would help promote events and attractions in Tucumcari and revamp the citys website and Interstate 40 billboard campaigns.

If hired, the firm would update the citys website that has been in need of upgrading in quite some time, said Interim City Manager, Mark Martinez.

The contract is $50,000 for one year, with three additional one-year renewal options. The funds to pay for the services would be taken out of the Lodgers Tax executive funds.

Lodgers taxes are collected from hotels and motels, which pass along the cost to customers. The funds the city receives are separated into executive funds and promotional funds. Executive funds can be used to help fund local events, hire marketing firms and cover insurance and repair costs for the Tucumcari Convention Center. Promotional funds are designated for advertisement of local events.

The Lodgers Tax funds are separated into two parts.

My concern is there being enough money to fund our local events, said Ralph Moya, City Commissioner.

Moya said the executive fund already has ongoing expenses and $50,000 may stretch the budget too thin.

We have to make sure our local events can survive, Moya said.

Commissioner Robert Lumpkin was concerned the contract said the commission or the city manager could approve a project. He believe a project require the approval of both entities.

We need to work together for the benefit of Tucumcari, Lumpkin said. The current contract would create a situation where the commission or the city manager could approve the services of the firm without the others consent.

Commissioner Todd Duplantis was concerned about four years being too long to obligate the city, and the commission approved an amendment of the contract to include the annual renewal.

I also share commissioner Moyas concern on having money available for our local events, Duplantis said. However, we have to try something new to help promote our local attractions and events.

Martinez said the firm would also aid in creating and maintaining a social media presence for the city. He said the promotion would be beneficial to highlight the citys attractions including the Tucumcari Train Depot, Tucumcari Historical Museum and the Mesalands Community Colleges Natural Resource Laboratory and Dinosaur Museum.

Lumpkin suggested another amendment, changing the notice of termination from 60 days to 30 days.

The amended contract was approved 4-1, with Moya voting in dissent.

I want to help the promotion of Tucumcari and local events, I just dont feel that this contract is economical beneficial, Moya said. There could be any number of unforeseen expenses come up that will require the use of the funds used up by this contract.

Neither Martinez nor the commissioners would release the name of the marketing firm, stating it was contract sensitive. The Quay County Sun has filed a public records request for that information.
The event offered 22 health screening booths.

Residents took advantage of more than 20 health screeings and more than 60 booths during the Wellness Fair Saturday at the Tucumcari Convention Center.

The first Quay County Wellness Fair in four years was a success, as residents took advantage of more than 20 health screenings and more than 60 information booths, said Brenda Bishop, Quay County Extension Agent.

"There was a large variety of information from many organizations for residents to benefit from," Bishop said.

Bishop admitted there was concern public participation would wane due to the four-year gap between fairs, but Saturday's turnout quickly alleviated those concerns.

Bishop said the fair, held at the Tucumcari Convention Center, featured 22 health screenings booths including diabetic foot testing, skin, breast cancer and blood sugar.

"We want to thank the University of New Mexico's Pharmacy School along with Dr. Dan C Trigg Hospital Pharmacy for conducting these test," Bishop said.

Bishop said the New Mexico State University's Cancer Outreach Program also brought a blow-up display that you can walk through to learn about colon health.

Bishop said the information at the booths ranged in variety, including local health clinics, organizations and programs. She said first responders including law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics had displays and booths for residents.

Those services included offering car seat safety inspections by a Safer New Mexico trained officer from The Tucumcari Police Department and fingerprint identification cards for children offered by the Quay County Sheriff's Office.

"This was our pilot launch of this service," said Rusell Shafer, Quay County Sheriff.

Shafer said the program was available to children age 2 or older. He said the program included a basic information sheet including name, nicknames, identifying marks and picture of the child. The cards were laminated and a wallet-sized card was given to the parents, Shafer said.

"We let parents know that the information gathered during the event would not be stored in any way," Shafer said, "The information was being used to produce the identification card that could be used in the event the child went missing. They have the only copy."

Shafer said the wellness fair gave the office a chance to use the software for the first time. He said the Sheriff's Office plans on holding future events as well as participating in other public functions to offer this service to the public.

"We want to thank our law enforcement and first responders for being a part of our event," Bishop said
Congestion Pricing Is A Terrible Idea

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QUIZ: Guess the Road Songs

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TANZANIA: A new Tanzania Railways Corp has been established to bring together railway infrastructure and operations, following a decade of vertical separation, Minister of Construction, Transport & Communications. Prof Makame Mbarawa explained at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam to launch the organisation.
Event Co-Chairs Adrienne Falzon and Holli Lienau Courtesy

Two local women are letting people know that breast cancer awareness just isnt for October. On April 28, Rancho Santa Fe residents Holli Lienau and Adrienne Falzon are pinkifying The Santaluz Club for an afternoon of Brunch, Browse and Buy. The backdrop of a Spanish-colonial setting and music provided by classical flamenco guitarist Miles Moynier will create a special afternoon of giving back to Breast Cancer Angels.

The idea behind this event is that everyone comes in, has some wine, nibbles on some brunch, and then browses and buys, said co-chair Lienau, who is also board treasurer of Breast Cancer Angels. Twenty percent of everything purchased goes to Breast Cancer Angels.

The Breast Cancer Angels nonprofit helps more than 500 patients per year living in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County. In San Diego alone, the organization helps roughly 30 women (and men) per month receiving treatment for breast cancer.

Financial assistance comes in a variety of ways, such as food certificates, rental expenses, utilities, medical co-pays, fuel, and more. Money raised in San Diego goes to San Diegans.

Lienau explained that breast cancer is not only affecting an older population. Younger women in their 30s, with children, are receiving this life-changing diagnosis.

There is a huge need to support San Diegans with breast cancer.

We are honored to support Breast Cancer Angels in their unrelenting mission to help women and men impacted by this life-threatening disease, Falzon said. We need to join together and make a difference.

Guests will be in for a treat with a chef-inspired menu and select wines. Attendees will also peruse more than 15 handpicked vendors which include, but are not limited to, Designer Details, Duchess of Pearls, Jacki B., Nancy Alvarez Womens Clothing, Satori Designs, Kendra Scott Jewelry, Blu Sands Boutique, Tina Frantz Designs, Willow Tree Candles.
Rantoul, IL (61866)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.
U.S. national sentenced to 3 years in Russian prison for $7 mln fraud

 flickr.com/Chris Potter

12:59 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  Moscows Presnensky District Court has sentenced U.S. national George Hager to 3 years in prison for $7 million fraud, the courts spokesperson Aleksey Chernikov has told RAPSI.

His accomplices received prison terms ranging from 3.5 to 4 years.

The court found that Hager and two other people misrepresented themselves as senior government officials offering potential clients to organize appointment to high-ranking positions at the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery for $7 million.

According to investigators, in the spring of 2016, the defendants received $300,000 from a victim as a part of the sum. In May 2016, one of the defendants was arrested.
Moscow court upholds sentence in GLONASS-M embezzlement case

 RIA Novosti, Sergey Pyatakov

15:13 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court has upheld sentence against former top managers of Russian Space Systems and Mercury companies in a criminal case over embezzlement of nearly 400 million rubles ($6.3 million) allocated for GLONASS-M space satellite vehicles, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

In December, the Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow convicted four persons in relation to the case. Top managers of the companies Igor Krylov, Vitaly Tolmachev, Alexander Polyakov and Aleksey Diorditsa were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 to 6 years.

As previously reported, the defendants have embezzled budget money under contracts concluded between Mercury company and Russian Space Systems for supplies of details for GLONASS-M satellites.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass), which was officially launched in 1993, is a Russian counterpart to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). It provides data for real-time positioning and speed of surface, sea and air objects to within an accuracy of one meter.

The GLIONASS program was initiated in the 1970s but underwent a radical revamp in 2001. The 24 satellites comprising the system were put into orbit by 2010, though only after several costly malfunctions and launch failures by carrier rockets. The program has cost 140 billion rubles ($2.4 billion) to date, and its budget for 2012-2020 stands at a further 326 billion rubles ($5.6 billion at the current exchange rate).
State Duma passes amendments to law on rehabilitation of political repressions victims

 RAPSI

17:42 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  The State Duma has passed in the first reading amendments to law on rehabilitation of victims who suffered from political repressions that specify the procedure of recognizing people as victims.

According to the bill, prosecutors along with other state security and law enforcement agencies to examine documents, write down their conclusions and provide notes recognizing individuals as the ones who were subjected to political repressions and requiring rehabilitation. Refusal to provide such note may be contested in court.

Authors of the amendments note that currently the procedure requires examination of criminal and administrative cases, yet foreign authorities often refuse to provide these documents in timely manner.
Russian Justice Ministry proposes to assign court-appointed lawyers by electronic system

 RIA Novosti

10:49 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  Russias Justice Ministry has proposed to assign court-appointed lawyers using an automated information system, the ministrys statement reads.

The Justice Ministry currently drafts a relevant bill to amend the Criminal Procedure Code.

The bill is aimed to implement the bar independence principle eliminating the influence of investigators and courts on dividing dock brief duties among attorneys, according to the ministrys statement.

Under the draft law, if an appointed lawyer failed to appear in court a new attorney would be assigned with the use of the electronic information system. In these circumstances, testimony given by suspects, accused persons during pre-trial procedure with the participation of a lawyer appointed with the breach of requirements, which were not later confirmed by defendants in court, would be considered as inadequate evidence.
Six terror attacks prevented starting this year - Russian official

 RIA Novosti, Vitaly Belousov

13:36 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  Six terrorist attacks have been prevented since the beginning of 2018, the National Anti-Terrorist Committees press service reports Tuesday citing its chair and the Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov.

Bortnikov said during the National Anti-Terrorist Committees meeting that three crimes of a terrorist nature were committed in Russias Khabarovsk and Sakhalin regions and the Republic of Dagestan within four months. However, activities of 12 undercover terrorist cells were curbed, 189 terrorists and their accomplices were arrested and 15 were killed during that period, he added.

According to the FSB chief, potential terrorist threats call for the follow-on development of the federal counter-terrorism system including protection of would-be objects of terrorist crimes.
Tele2 mobile operator faces fine for roaming violations

16:59 10/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 10 (RAPSI)  T2 Mobile (Tele2 brand) company faces fine for roaming violations, the Federal Antimonopoly Service reports on its website on Tuesday.

According to the watchdog, Tele2 violated antitrust legislation by fixing monopolistically high prices in national roaming. The company failed to remedy violations unlike other mobile operators involved in the case.

A fine would be set following the results of administrative proceedings, the statement reads.

On July 14, 2017, the watchdog issued warnings to MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom (Beeline brand) and T2 Mobile (Tele2 brand). FAS announced that the operators actions may have violated the competition law by setting different prices for mobile phone service in customers home region and in roaming on the territory of Russia.

In late July 2017, the watchdog opened antimonopoly cases against the companies over alleged violation of competition legislation. At that time, all four mobile operators expressed readiness to enforce the warning.

In February, FAS announced that MTS and VimpelCom corrected violations. Megafon cured the breach in March. Antimonopoly cases against the companies were completed.
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Heidi Klum is getting close to new boyfriend Tom Kaulitz in Mexico.

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The 44-year-old "America's Got Talent" judge and "Project Runway" host went topless during her vacation with the 28-year-old musician Sunday in Cabo San Lucas, according to Page Six.

Klum sported black bikini bottoms and mirrored sunglasses as she enjoyed a sunny day with Kaulitz. The Tokio Hotel guitarist was seen straddling and kissing Klum as she soaked up rays on her lounge chair.

Just Jared reported Klum and Kaulitz arrived together Sunday in Cabo San Lucas. The rumored couple left the airport with their arms around each other.

Klum and Kaulitz were first linked in March after they were spotted leaving a party in West Hollywood, according to Us Weekly. The pair were seen kissing later in the month as Klum took a break from filming America's Got Talent.

Klum, who confirmed her split from Vito Schnabel in September, recently went topless for her first-ever Maxim cover.

"Confidence is sexy," the star said in the cover story. "There's something alluring about a person that just seems at ease and comfortable with themselves. It's something we should all strive for."

"I can look at photos of when I was 24, and of course I am going to look different now at 44 and having had four children -- but again, it's about being comfortable with yourself and what you see in the mirror," she added.

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Klum is mom to 13-year-old daughter Helene, 12-year-old son Henry, 11-year-old son Johan and 8-year-old daughter Lou.
Explorer teams from the Tulare County Sheriffs Office placed third and fourth overall over the weekend during the Central Valley Explorer Competition at the International Agri-Center in Tulare.
'The Modi government needs some big private sector trophies to affirm its anti-corruption credentials before the polls.'

'So on whose neck will the sword fall next?'

'To that extent, the outing of the ICICI Bank-Videocon story is cathartic,' says Shekhar Gupta.



IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi dedicated ICICI Bank's Digital Village to the nation, January 2, 2015.

To Modi's left is Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar.

Photograph: Kind courtesy narendramodi.in

Delhi and Mumbai, we keep saying, are like two sovereign republics yet to establish diplomatic relations with each other. That situation hasn't changed very much.

The relative power of the two varies, depending on just one variable: The strength of the government in Delhi.

The cities, for clarity, are mere metaphors for the power establishments, one representing politics and the other legacy, old-economy Indian entrepreneurship and the financial world still pretty much controlled by a small ecosystem of friends and families, interconnected with marital, ethnic, caste (and sub-caste or clan) ties, plus IOUs.

This is like India's permanent capitalist and financial establishment. It doesn't change.

Regimes change in Delhi. Even if we take 1989 as the cut-off (when India's permanent single-party rule ended) Delhi now has its eighth prime minister.

The ruling parties or arrangements have swung between the deep secular Left -- H D Deve Gowda's Cabinet had two Communist Party of India ministers holding key positions, home and agriculture -- for the first and last time ever; and the unabashed Hindu Right, when the Bharatiya Janata Party won a full majority without even one Muslim or Christian MP elected.

Mumbai can usually find its way around any political establishment.

It knows the tactics and instruments.

It also has patience, helped along by the presumption that regimes in the capital change.

It doesn't, therefore, bother too much interfering in the 'internal affairs' of the other republic.

A turning point came in 2011.

Legacy Corporate India decided it was time for a regime change and that they were capable of bringing it about.

There were three forces driving it.

First, some of the better entrepreneurs were fed up with the policy paralysis, and denial of environmental clearances or fuel linkages after they had borrowed billions and put plants on the ground.

They wanted a functional, pro-business government.

Second, and I say it with great care, where India's old capitalism comes from, there isn't much love lost for Muslims and never mind that 'My best friends are Muslim'.

So, can we now have a government that will be pro-business and also show the Muslims their place?

The third, and the most important factor, therefore, was that option was available.

Corporate India got more involved in 'Mission Modi' than at any time in national politics.

Mumbai thought it had found its man for Delhi.

It believed it succeeded and there were whoops of celebration. That ended quickly.

Four years on, it has now turned into suspicion and fear.

Mumbai is finally, and deeply, frightened of Delhi. Old-timers say the fear is like in the months of V P Singh's raid raj.

The fact, however, is that nobody has been raided yet. So what are they complaining about?

At one level, it is the frustration of jilted lovers. This isn't the government Narendra D Modi had promised us.

Nor is this the Narendra D Modi of Gujarat we had voted, rooted and contributed for.

An important and positive factor with the Modi government is that lobbying mostly doesn't work in Delhi anymore.

His isn't a government that believes it owes anybody anything.

Big business doesn't like it. They want him to be like he was in Gujarat, with open doors to them and a big heart.

But after coming to power, Modi has shifted his politics to where the votes are. And the businessmen don't count.

The tough fact is, never in our economic history, not at least since 1991, has big business been so powerless.

There is also a more complex side to this.

As a consequence of Modi resetting his politics as a champion of the poor and a corruption fighter, the taxman has been given unprecedented powers.

Tax terrorism of today, if you hear the same businessmen who contributed heavily to his campaign -- and are still putting money for him in electoral bonds -- is worse than anything they remember, they say.

Tax departments are being given targets to meet and much greater powers than before.

Almost everybody has a horror story, either his own, or something 'we all keep hearing'.

Industry associations and chambers -- the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers and Industry, and Assocham -- have very little clout or persuasive power left.

It isn't in the nature of corporate India to speak anything other than paeans of praise for any government.

A couple might just have whispered some criticism of demonetisation but were chastened by a slap on the wrist -- just a friendly phone call from Delhi.

Indian business's greatest challenge right now is the frozen credit system.

This government, though, isn't mostly to blame for it, most debts turning bad were given or ever-greened in the United Progressive Alliance's time, especially in the go-go years of 2009-2012.

The rot in the system was known for at least three years, but left too late to be resolved.

Several things came in the way of timely resolution: First, the change at the top at the Reserve Bank of India, and then the shock of demonetisation before the new governor had settled down.

Barely had that debris been cleared when the goods and service tax was pushed through.

The system had not been prepared for any of these changes and therefore got fully consumed in dealing with these.

The bank bad-debt resolution was kept for the government's last year.

Today's stress and distress are a combination of all these factors: Of being dumped by the political establishment you thought was your own, tax terror and frozen credit.

This entrepreneurial fear and loss of morale are for real, and most inopportune when good corporates are seeing profits and demand rise.

Steel, in the dumps not long ago, is booming and so is cement.

The bankruptcy process of the first 'dirty dozen' is proceeding well and banks should see sizeable amounts coming back, especially from steel companies.

At the same time, 12 of the 21 public sector banks are so broke that the RBI is closely monitoring any lending by them.

One, IDBI, is now a basket case. And those that can lend are hesitant, for fear of visits by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate long after they retire.

In this environment everybody is over-correcting, from banks to borrowers to the RBI.

The latest example is the circular the central bank issued in February debarring any restructuring except through the bankruptcy process after a set timeframe.

Nobody wants to take chances, least of all the RBI.

The silent new governor was never allowed (or chose not to allow himself) to build the stature for the job. The government is now trying to get this circular diluted.

The big, rich guy's biggest fear isn't bankruptcy, but the police.

As we noted earlier, none of them has been raided or prosecuted criminally yet. But, first Vijay Mallya and then the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi duo have given corporate India a foretaste of criminalisation of economic offences.

Phobias rise not from reality, but illusion.

The most popular current illusion is: The public sector banks are in a mess.

The Modi government also needs some big private sector trophies to affirm its anti-corruption credentials before the polls.

So on whose neck will the sword fall next?

To that extent, the outing of the ICICI Bank-Videocon story is cathartic. The whistleblower's 2016 letter had been floating on the power-WhatsApp circuit for weeks.

Many would feel relieved that it's out in the open now so all sides can have their say.

Phobias, as we said, are often not based on reality. But they can be a reality as this one is.

By Special Arrangement with ThePrint
Finance ministers from the southern states will discuss their concerns on the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission in Thiruvanathapuram on Tuesday.

'Every Finance Commission creates its winners and losers' point out T N Ninan.



IMAGE: TDP MPs, including former civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, protest outside Parliament demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh, March 9, 2018. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

Does the South protest too much?

Southern state chief ministers and ministers are getting together to protest against the terms of the latest Finance Commission.

For the uninitiated, such a Commission recommends every five years how much of central tax revenues should be shared with the states and, within that, what should be the share of each state.

The brief given to the new Commission is that it should take into consideration the 2011 Census, and not the 1971 Census numbers which were considered in previous Commission reports.

The last Commission had given weight to both 1971 and 2011.

The change has generated some heat because the southern states fear a triple whammy.

First, they have a better record of population control, and therefore will suffer in terms of their share of the tax revenue to be devolved from the Centre, if 1971 is replaced by 2011.

Second, they already lose out because greater weight is given to poorer states (income has so far got about twice the weight given to population).

And third, the goods and services tax, being a consumption tax, will deliver more revenue to the non-producing (poorer) states.

One writer has even said it is becoming 'almost untenable' for Kerala and Tamil Nadu to thrive in the Indian Union.

Some context is necessary.

Bihar gets a one percentage point extra share of central revenue, relative to its share of population.

Surely, that is not the end of the world, especially when it involves the poorest state in the country.

Besides, every Finance Commission creates its winners and losers.

Between the 11th and 14th Commissions, three of the southern states (the exception being the combined Andhra Pradesh) were significant losers in terms of share of central taxes. But northern and eastern states were also losers: UP, Bihar (including Jharkhand), West Bengal and Odisha.

The gainers included the western giants Maharashtra and Gujarat. So one should not jump to facile North-South conclusions -- especially since the Commission has also been asked to reward fiscal performance and population control.

A lurking fear behind the ringing of alarm bells today is that, come 2026, when the state-wise allocation of Lok Sabha seats comes up for review, the use of the 2021 Census as the population base could result in the southern states losing out in terms of number of seats, or share of an expanded seat total, in the House.

This too is an alarmist view.

Most states had between 1.4 million and 1.6 million electors per Lok Sabha seat in 2014, reflecting the national average of a little over 1.5 million.

Other than the north eastern states, there were few stand-outs, like UP with 1.74 million and, at the other end, Kerala with 1.2 million.

Equalisation of seats in 2026, on the basis of population, could reduce Kerala's representation from 20 Lok Sabha seats to 15.

Unfair, you say? Yes, because you penalise success.

But how fair is the current reality: For every 3.6 million electors, Kerala gets three seats, but UP only two?

Still, this is not a straight North-South issue. Karnataka has slightly more electors per seat than Bihar.

Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have the same figure as Kerala: 1.2 million electors per seat. Goa has barely half a million.

Taking the picture in its totality, there is little reason to expect radical change in the levels of Lok Sabha representation, such as to create a North-South cleavage.

Fairness also has a self-interest angle.

The heartland states have less lucrative tax bases, and are more dependent on central funds.

Devolution from the Centre accounts for a half or more of their total revenue; in Bihar's case, it is three-quarters. Whereas the southern states are dependent on the Centre for only a third of their total revenue.

The imbalance persists even after devolution, as seen in expenditure per head.

Without more resources, how do the poorer states improve their people's health and education indices, so as to achieve better population control?

It is that simple.
The Mumbai headquartered company also overtook Japanese carmaker Honda to occupy the fourth spot in domestic passenger vehicle market.

The last financial year (FY18) has been a year of Tata Motors in more ways than one.

The countrys biggest commercial vehicle manufacturer has reclaimed leadership position in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) space from rival M&M after two years.

Besides, the Mumbai headquartered company also overtook Japanese carmaker Honda to occupy the fourth spot in domestic passenger vehicle market.

Making the most of a revival in demand for LCVs, Tata Motors closed the year with a 33 per cent jump in domestic sales.

Sales of these vehicles jumped to a total of 208,443 units, the highest in recent years.

This growth of 33 per cent is even better than the 31 per cent expansion clocked by the company's passenger vehicle segment.

As far as the LCV segment is concerned, M&M did not do badly either.

The automaker hits a growth rate of 20 per cent last fiscal year to sell 206,074 units.

But it lost the lead of over 12,000 units it had gained over Tata Motors in FY16 riding on demand for its pick-ups.

The lead in FY17 was even bigger at 16,000 units. But the situation stands reversed in FY18 with Tata enjoying a lead of over 2,300 units.

Tata Motors introduced the XL series of Ace range of LCV and the Xenon Yodha in FY18, which has helped it gain market share.

The increased demand for vehicles across segments and production ramp-up of the new range of BS-IV vehicles has given a strong boost to sales.

"We have strengthened our network and dealerships, across the country, to be able to service our customers better, said a company spokesperson.

LCV consists of goods carriers, passenger carriers and the former forms over 90 per cent of the segment.

M&M remains a leader in the goods carrier segment though it is a much smaller player in passenger carriers.

At M&M, we are the leaders in goods category with a market share of 47 per cent. We achieved our highest ever annual sales in the goods segment in FY18, clocking almost 200,000 units and a 20 per cent growth," said Veejay Ram Nakra, chief of sales & marketing (automotive division), M&M.

He said Mahindra had one of the widest LCV range to cater to the varied needs of cargo transportation.

The company introduced a guaranteed resale value and two years of free maintenance on the Bolero pick-up and Maxitruck range in February, besides introducing the Supro heavy duty series of LCVs.

It believes these will help it further expand the market share.

Tata Motors is not ready to give up either. It plans to launch the Tata Intra LCV in FY19 with features such as powerful engine, improved ergonomics, high loading capacity, and air-conditioning.

We will continue to deliver superior value to the customers thus reducing the total cost of operation and improving revenue potential, the spokesperson said.

In passenger vehicles (PV), the company has outperformed the market with new products such as Tiago, Tigor, and Nexon.

"We want to be among the top three brands in the customer's consideration set.

"Going forward, with a well-defined PV strategy and robust product pipeline, we are confident of sustaining strong growth," the spokesperson added. Having overtaken Honda, it is eyeing the third position, now held by M&M.

The expansion in volume and cost reduction initiatives helped Tata Motors post a profit during Q3 of FY18 after five consecutive loss-making quarters.

Last week, Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata encouraged the Tata Motors team to plan for becoming leaders again. He said it hurt him when the automaker lost market share in the past 4-5 years and the country looked at it as a 'failing company'.

Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters
Sharma would be 60 in November 2018, and would have completed 10 years as Axis Banks CEO the following year in June.

Shikha Sharma was appointed as the managing director and chief executive officer of Axis Bank in June 2009 by P J Nayak, the then chairman of the bank.

Sharmas appointment came at a time UTI Bank was named Axis Bank, and the board of directors felt that the bank should be more aggressive in pursuing business.

The bank had a legacy issue and high exposure in corporate loans.

Sharmas job was to fortify the retail lending practice at Axis Bank and she did that.

Sharma was earlier with ICICI Bank for 29 years, and would be completing nine- and-a-half years at Axis Bank upon her retirement in December.

Prior to this, she was the managing director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

A contender for the top post at ICICI Bank, Shikha left when Chanda Kochhar became the head.

But Sharmas accession at Axis Bank was not an easy one.

Axis Bank witnessed a flurry of senior management exits upon the appointment of an outsider as CEO.

Sharma almost completely changed the team and picked her own deputies.

Axis Bank became a true universal lender under Sharma, with an enviable investment banking team.

Axis Bank regularly features at the top three of every league tables in debt and equity fundraising.

Sharma acquired Enam Securities with this specific aim in mind.

While her strategy to acquire Enams investment banking business for Rs 2,067 crore and expand the banks retail base worked well, loans to infrastructure sector players resulted in high non-performing assets. When she joined, the gross non-performing asset (GNPA) of the bank was at 1.01 per cent of total advances.

By December 2017, GNPA rose to 5.28 per cent.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) audit also found the bank to be hiding much of its bad debts.

The divergence between what the bank reported and what the RBI auditors found was to the tune of Rs 48.67 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 9,478 crore in 2015-16.

Due to the pressure of bad debts, net profit at the end of December was at Rs 726 crore against Rs 562 crore when she became the MD of the bank.

Between 2008-09 and 2016-17, Axis Banks net interest income and other incomes, mainly from fees, grew five-fold and four-fold, respectively.

In July 2017, Sharma was recommended for a three-year reappointment by the banks board, effective July 2018.

Some analysts say the boards decision was is haste.

But, now the RBI has reportedly asked the board to reconsider the decision.

The apex bank could be upset with the wide divergence in asset quality reporting, but Axis Bank probably angered the RBI by violating Know Your Customer norms during demonetisation and even before.

Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were fined by the regulator in June 2013 for helping a bogus client to legitimise unaccounted money.

Sharma would be 60 in November 2018, and would have completed 10 years as Axis Banks CEO the following year in June.

Considering Sharma was a lateral entry, hired from ICICI Bank, and not grown organically in the bank such as Aditya Puri in HDFC Bank, the RBI might want to ensure the bank has other options as well.

Highlights of her stint

2009: Moves into corner office at Axis Bank 2010: Acquires Vallabh Bhansali-led Enams investment banking arm 2011: Rolls out online broking; push for infrastructure lending 2012: Raises Rs 55 billion in capital for future growth 2013: Targets ultra-high net worth segment via private banking 2015: Begins to feel heat from corporate defaults 2016: Faces trouble after demonetisation, sale rumour 2017: Bank acquires FreeCharge to push digital banking Faces RBIs wrath for NPA divergence for FY16 and FY17 Regulatory flak for alleged leak of its Q1 earnings on WhatsApp Raised over Rs 110 billion in capital from institutional investors PRIORITIES & FOCUS AREAS Push with agenda to increase higher share of retail in business Leverage subsidiaries for business growth Strengthening consumer-friendly profile

Photograph: PTI Photo
The Bill provides comprehensive legislation to prohibit unregulated deposits, with punishment for those promoting such schemes or defaulting on repayment.

The Banning Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, proposed by the central government, will hit the jewellery business by a 25 per cent reduction in sales, and lead to consolidation in the industry.

The Union Cabinet in late February approved the Bill for introduction in Parliament. It is aimed at curbing illicit deposits, such as ponzi schemes.

As its name suggests, once the Bill is passed, it would ban all unregulated deposits, replacing the current legislative-cum-regulatory framework that has considerable time lags.

Deposit schemes run by jewellers would also be hit by this.

Several jewellers incorporated under the Companies Act 2013 take monthly deposits.

The tenure is usually 11 months, with the jeweller waiving off the deposit for the 12th month or not charging making expenses.

Jewellers show these deposits, unregulated by any agency, as advance against sales.

The Bill provides comprehensive legislation to prohibit unregulated deposits, with punishment for those promoting such schemes or defaulting on repayment.

The states also have to create a competent authority to ensure repayment.

Once it becomes a law, jewellery retailers will be forced to wind up their schemes.

About 25 per cent of gold sales are driven through these.

This is likely to affect cash flow, at a time when more and more jewellery business is moving to the organised sector after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

With banks starting to tighten finances to jewellers after the alleged Rs 13,000 crore letters of undertaking fraud by companies of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, restriction on deposits would hike jewellery prices, because the cost of credit would be high for jewellers.

It seems that the Bill is being brought to not only protect investors from ponzi scheme, but also to ensure that such deposits are regulated through a proper banking channel to strengthen banks working capital.

This will force jewellers to approach banks for financial requirements, making them more accountable and prevent diversion of funds, said Surendra Mehta, secretary, India Bullion and Jewellers Association.

Jayantilal Challani, president, The Madras Jewellers & Diamond Merchants Association, said, It would not be right to completely ban deposits for the mistake of a few people.

"Almost 20 per cent of the jewellery business is through savings schemes, which offer better rates than banks.

"It is a win-win situation for both the jeweller and the customer. The industry is becoming more organised, especially after the GST roll-out.

"Almost 95 per cent of the industry is organised now. The deposit schemes could be regulated, but should not be banned.

The main attraction of jewellers gold savings schemes is their simple design.

Every month, the customer deposits a fixed instalment with the jeweller.

At the end of 12 months, the customer is free to swap these savings for an equivalent value of gold jewellery, or roll it over for another year.

Jewellers say this entails no wastage or little or no making charges. Jewellers do not offer any interest on these deposits.

Photograph: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
Aeron Systems, founded in 2008 by Ashvani Shukla and Abhijit Bokil, is looking to contribute to programmes such as the Tejas light combat aircraft

Small, ultra-high-tech companies such as Aeron Systems that are attending Defexpo 2018 in Chennai from Wednesday, are hoping to benefit from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharamans assurance that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) would form the core of a galvanised defence industry.

Aeron Systems, founded in 2008 by Ashvani Shukla and Abhijit Bokil, two electronics graduates from Pune, is looking to contribute to programmes such as the Tejas light combat aircraft and the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV).

Aeron operates in the rarefied realm of inertial navigation systems (INS), a complex package of motion sensors and computers that allow moving objects - whether a spacecraft, missile, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), aerial bomb or a land vehicle - to continually track their own location with an accuracy of just inches.

INS is distinct from satellite navigation, which allows moving objects to glean their own location using signals from a network of satellites called the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) - a more accurate version of Google Maps.

GNSS includes satellite networks from several countries - the American Global Positioning System (GPS), Russias Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the European Galileo and Chinas Beidou.

Most such networks allow all users to access a less accurate commercial signal, while reserving the highly accurate military signal for their respective militaries.

In the Kargil conflict in 1999, Indias military experienced problems in receiving GNSS signals, prompting the establishment of an Indian satellite constellation called IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System).

In addition, Indias GAGAN system - short for GPS And Geo-Augmented Navigation - uses ISRO satellites to augment the GPS commercial signal, enhancing accuracy to close to military grade.

However, satellite navigation is unreliable. A satellite signal can be lost because of weather, or while traversing dense foliage or tunnels or in mountain valleys.

Signals can be deliberately jammed by the enemy, or spoofed (a false signal created) to divert a missile or UAV from its intended course.

Furthermore, satellite signals are updated only once a second.

A missile or aircraft that could be travelling 500 meters per second needs location update data 50-100 times every second.

That is why critical systems like ballistic missiles, fighter aircraft or the FICV would navigate primarily with INS, using GNSS as back up.

An INS system uses multiple, data inputs - including a high-tech gyroscope - for navigation and control. The data is fused into an output that minimises navigation errors.

A companys core skill and intellectual property lies in the accuracy of its data fusion algorithm.

Indias Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) spearheads INS development for Indias strategic missiles.

Meanwhile, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) develops INS for space applications and spacecraft.

Neither have resources to build INS for other crucial applications like fighter aircraft, land combat vehicles and mine-laying.

Consequently, notwithstanding the lip service to indigenisation, many Indian platform developers continue to rely on foreign INS, with little done to indigenise these crucial devices.

Ashvani Shukla says the technical specifications for the FICVs INS mandates a Hemispherical Resonator Gyro, which is only made by French company, Safran, and US vendor, Northrop Grumman.

We provide an equally high-performance INS, but get ruled out of the project on technical grounds, he says.

Similarly, an INS that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) builds under licence from Safran, is fitted on almost every Indian Air Force aircraft.

Safran has given HAL technology for licence manufacture, so they effectively enjoy a monopoly, says Bokil.

In another example, Bharat Forge is also using a Safran INS in the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) it is developing in partnership with DRDO.

If we were told to build an INS for ATAGS, we would take just 18 months to deliver it, says Shukla.

He hopes to pursue the project under the Make 2 category, in which the MoD reimburses the development cost of successful projects undertaken by MSMEs.

Already, Aerons systems are being installed on the armys mine-laying vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles used for bomb disposal, and on precision guided kits for rockets.

Aeron has also developed a miniaturised INS that converts dumb iron bombs that have been dropped from aircraft since World War I into smart bombs that navigate their way from an altitude of 20,000 feet to a ground target 30-50 kilometres away, landing within 5-10 metres of the target.

Aeron is a profit making company, turning over Rs 130 million in the last year.

But its founders and its 55 employees are waiting to see how much of a boost Defexpo 2018 provides by bringing foreign vendors in touch with Indian industry.

Photograph: PTI Photo
The new ITR forms have shifted the entire onus on taxpayers to prove their claim for deductions, expenses or exemptions.

Tinesh Bhasin reports.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

The new Income Tax Return (ITR) forms released for the assessment year 2018-2019 seek more details from taxpayers than they did in previous years.

Overall, there are over 25 key changes compared to last year across all the forms meant for individuals, businesses and other assessees.

Most of these changes require taxpayers to give the break-up of information provided or other details that help the income tax department to reconcile the transactions that taxpayers report.

"It is apparent that the new ITR forms have shifted the entire onus on the taxpayers to prove their claim for deductions, expenses or exemptions," says Naveen Wadhwa, general manager, Taxmann.com.

Provide break-up of salary

Those with income from salary, one house property and other sources (like interest) use the most basic one-page ITR-1 or Sahaj form.

In the last assessment year, around 30 million taxpayers used this form.

The form now seeks additional details of salary.

The taxpayer first needs to fill up salary amount excluding allowances, perquisites, and so on.

Then, provide details pertaining to perquisites, allowances, 'profit in lieu of salary', etc. Up to last year, an assessee was required to mention only the taxable figure of salary.

The same goes for income from house property.

The form now wants the taxpayer to provide the break-up of gross rent received, tax paid to local authorities, etc.

Wadhwa points out that taxpayers now need to give specific details in case of capital gains too.

The new ITR forms have specific columns to report each capital gain exemption separately.

Details of each capital gains exemption under Sections 54, 54B, 54EC, 54EE, 54F, 54GB and 115F need to be reported in its applicable column now.

A taxpayer availing these capital gains exemptions needs to mention the date of transfer of original capital asset which was missing in earlier ITR forms.

The Budget had also introduced penalties on late filing of tax returns.

If the return is furnished after the due date (July 31) but before December 31, the penalty is Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 after that.

Tax experts believe that the income-tax software will not allow assessees to start filing their returns unless they pay the penalty first.

Relevant changes have been included in the new ITR forms wherein a new row is added to enable the taxpayer to fill the details of late filing fees.

Unlike last year, non-residents cannot use the ITR-I.

"The ITR-1 form is not applicable to non-residents and not ordinarily residents, who would now have to file their tax returns in the ITR-2 form. Non-residents can seek a refund in a foreign bank account by providing details of one foreign bank account," says Amarpal Chadha, tax partner and India mobility leader, EY India.

Earlier, the forms didn't distinguish taxpayers based on their residency.

Tax experts say the assessment of returns is done through computers.

The authorities are, therefore, seeking additional data across different forms to reconcile different transactions to ensure better compliance.

ITR 4 seeks more disclosure

The presumptive taxation scheme -- meant for small businesses such as freelancers and shop owners and for professionals such as doctors -- does not require the taxpayer to maintain books of accounts or get their financials audited.

The assessees can pay a percentage of their total turnover as the tax.

The old ITR-4 sought only four details -- total creditor and debtors, total stock-in-trade, and cash balance.

But the new form asks for more financial details of the business such as the amount of secured and unsecured loans, advances, fixed assets, capital account and so on.

Tax experts say the details sought essentially requires the person to maintain balance sheet to report the information asked.

These details are essentially sought after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

The business owner also needs to provide GST number of the assessee and the amount of turnover based on the GST return filed.

Earlier, business owners reported a different turnover for income tax and other indirect taxes based on their convenience.

The details disclosed in the ITR can now be crossed-checked with the GST filing.

Chadha also points out that the newly notified ITR-2 form is no longer applicable for individuals who have profits and gains from any business or profession.

The assessee now needs to use ITR-3 to file the return. Until last year, a partner was allowed to file the return using ITR-2.

Reference for employee stock options

The government had made changes to the taxation of employee stock option plan in an unlisted firm in the previous year's Budget. The amendments are applicable from this assessment year.

The new provisions state that if unlisted shares are transferred at a price which is lower than its fair market value (FMV), it would still be taxed at the FMV that a merchant banker or a chartered accountant calculates.

While filing the return, employees will need to obtain valuation report in case of sale of unlisted shares to ensure that they correctly report the capital gains or loss.

The ITR form also asks for the detailed break-up of such transaction.

GST details in income tax now

The ITR-6 meant for businesses now seeks many details about GST transactions.

A company needs to disclose transactions in exempt goods or services, transactions with composite suppliers, transactions with registered entities and total sum paid to them and even those with unregistered entities.

Business owners need to ensure that their GST returns filed matches with the details provided with those provided in the income tax form.
#Afghan evacuees Assimilation programs begin for Afghan evacuees in S. Korea The government on Wednesday started assimilation programs for Afghan evacuees who settled in South Korea in August upon fleeing their country after it was taken over by the Taliban...
Xiaomi plans to bring global component suppliers to India and this could potentially bring investment of at least Rs 15000 crore

Chinas Xiaomi is trying to bring its global component suppliers in India.

The smartphone firm, leading player in the local market since late 2017, hosted some 50 suppliers in Gurugram on Monday.

It is also trying to create a bridge between the component makers, mostly from China, and representatives of the Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh governments.

Key management personnel from Shenzhen-based BYD Electronics and O-Film Technology, Huizhou-based Biel Crystal Manufactory, Yuyao City-based Ningbo Sunny Opotech and Hunan-based Lens Technology, among others, will be visiting proposed sites in the two states to set up manufacturing units.

Chinese component makers, primarily into assembly of handsets and producing cover glass, camera lens, camera modules and mobile chips, are expected to finalise plans after understanding the handset eco-system in the country.

If all its suppliers set up base in India, this could potentially bring investment of at least Rs 15,000 crore and create 50,000 jobs, according to Xiaomi.

The firm entered India in mid-2014 and managed to take top spot in the smartphone market in less than four years.

Under the governments Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), the import duty on components have been raised significantly in recent months.

According to its first phase, 2017-18, the government had attempted to boost production of mechanics, die-cut parts, microphones and receivers, keypads and USB cables.

Printed circuit board (PCB), camera modules and connectors are being targeted in FY19.

Other key components like the display assembly, touch panels, vibrator motors and ringers are kept for FY20.

This has potential to dent Xiaomis run, as it relies on offering handsets at competitive prices.

As the governments push towards local manufacturing of smartphones gains pace, Xiaomi is trying to take a lead.

Recently, its head of operations in India and global vice-president, Manu Kumar Jain, met key people in the Union government - minister of information technology Ravi Shankar Prashad, minister of commerce Suresh Prabhu and chief executive of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant - to discuss Xiaomis role in the Make in India and Digital India initiatives.

Xiaomi is starting assembly of PCB in association with handset supplier Foxconn in Tamil Nadu.

This would help to bring down the cost of handsets, as local assembly would mean value addition going up to 16 per cent, from the current 10 per cent.

PCB forms over half the cost of making a handset. Xiaomi aims to procure its internal requirement for PCBs locally by this September.

Growing demand in recent quarters have put supply pressure on its two handset manufacturing units in partnership with Foxconn.

To ramp up production, Xiaomi is also beginning to source from four more units - one in Noida in partnership with its power bank supplier Hipad and three units with Foxconn in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
'If an 'informal meeting' with Xi Jinping materialises before the SCO summit in June, that itself could be regarded as a significant breakthrough in India-China relations,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.



IMAGE: The last time they met: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi greets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, September 5, 2017. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

India's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is clicking into place in the crucial domain of regional security.

An expert-level meeting in Beijing between February 27 and March 1 discussed matters related to the preparations and holding of the 13th meeting of the SCO national security council secretaries and also prepared consolidated drafts of the meeting's final documents that would be taken up at the summit meeting in June.

The meeting in Beijing led to a 'constructive discussion on documents concerning security and stability in the SCO area.'

I wish I were a fly on the wall in the Beijing conference room watching the Indian and Pakistani experts participating in 'constructive discussion.'

Personally speaking, it was a dream come true, since I had all along hoped that India and Pakistan would grow up when they take their place at the SCO high table and are duty-bound to behave as adults -- and, incrementally, how such happenings would inevitably rub on the climate of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The pro-American lobbyists in Delhi -- who consistently demeaned the SCO -- simply didn't want regional security to be addressed by a forum that excludes the US.

What a myopic, perverted, 'anti-national' thinking to view India's interests through the American prism! (By the way, the SCO is working on a joint military exercise by the armed forces of the member countries.)

Be that as it may, the meeting of the SCO national security council secretaries is due to take place next week in Beijing.

Our NSA Ajit Doval will take part. The spin doctors in the Indian establishment have given a twist to Doval's visit to Beijing as if it is a China-centric enterprise. But that is imagination running really wild.

We should know by now that China relations cannot be the stuff of media management.

Even if Doval were to get a bilateral with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi -- which is not unlikely -- the Chinese side will not put their cards on the table on Doklam, etc at this point simply because it is rumoured that Modi government may be having some rethink on its 'muscular' policies lately.

Generally speaking, China's foreign policies are never reactive -- and in our case, these are early days.

On the other hand, the Delhi grapevine in recent weeks has been that PM Modi himself might visit China toward the end of the month for an 'informal meeting' with President Xi Jinping.

Indeed, if such an 'informal meeting' materialises even before the SCO summit in June, that itself could be regarded as a significant breakthrough in India-China relations.

But then, one can safely surmise that the thrust of the 'informal meeting' would be on the economic side.

The heart of the matter is that there is interest on both sides to add greater content to the economic partnership, especially through Chinese investments in the Indian economy.

When Xi visited India in September 2014, China had pledged $20 billion investments in India. But for obvious reasons, not much happened on that front in the past 3-year period when under American tutelage geopolitics took centre stage of South Block's China policies.

Quite obviously, Beijing's recent signal to Kathmandu that in all propriety, the first foreign trip by Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli ought to be to India -- and not to China -- speaks volumes about China's order of priorities in its South Asian policy.

The Western media -- and their kindred souls in the Indian media -- may script the Nepal story as if it is a China-versus-India slugfest. But China appears to regard its relations with Nepal from an altogether different calculus.

Thus, China has splendidly succeeded in plugging the infiltration routes from across the Nepal border for militants from third countries undertaking covert missions to destabilise Tibet -- thanks to Beijing's effective coordination with the political leadership and security agencies in Kathmandu in recent years.

Having achieved that, China is now shifting gear by dovetailing the Belt and Road Initiative with the Nepalese economy.

In sum, China has high stakes in not only having a friendly government in Kathmandu but also ensuring that Nepal remains a stable, secure, country, which remains receptive to the security and stability of Tibet as well.

But the bottom line is that China sees Nepal as an invaluable hub that could connect it with the Indian economy.

Therefore, fresh from the talks with Oli in Delhi, which had robust economic content (a refreshing change, no doubt), Modi should prioritise economic diplomacy in a summit meeting with Xi Jinping.

To put it mildly, during the present term in office till May next year, Modi cannot hope to resolve the border dispute with China.

But what is possible is that he can breathe new life into his moribund development agenda with China's cooperation and help.

Now, it may or may not bring dividends for the ruling party in the 2019 poll, but that is really beside the point.

The important thing is that the complementarity of interests on the economic side could make the trajectory of the overall relationship predictable.

The ball is in Modi's court.

Meanwhile, Doval's mission to Beijing will receive attention although External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are also visiting China in April.

Will Doval swing an 'informal meeting' for Modi with Ji Jinping? It seems a tough call.
'The court came to a conclusion using one person's case... Based on that one case, the term "rampant misuse" was used as if it is a generalisation.'

'If one in 10 cases turns out to be false, is it possible to call the Act a charter for blackmail or charter for personal vengeance?'

'Is there any Act either in India or anywhere in the world where there are no false cases?'



IMAGE: Police break up protests by Dalits in Varanasi during the Bharat Bandh, April 2, 2018. Photograph: PTI Photo.

Eighty-five-year-old former IAS officer P S Krishnan is more than just a retired bureaucrat. He is an activist working relentlessly for the upliftment of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

As a secretary to the Government of India, Mr Krishnan was instrumental in the formulation and initialisation of the special component plan for scheduled castes in 1978.

The Supreme Court directive to prevent 'rampant misuse' of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act disappointed him immensely.

"The unhappiness, despair, resentment, anger and frustration among the scheduled castes is a reality. If anybody ignores it, it will be like Indira Gandhi not knowing the anger of the people towards the Emergency. The same mistake is being committed by those who are governing today," Krishnan, below, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

Did the Supreme Court directive to prevent, in the court's words, 'rampant misuse' of the SC/ST Act shock you?

Yes, it came as a shock.

The court came to a conclusion using one person's case.

There was an allegation that he was refused anticipatory bail by the high court on account of Section 18 of the SC/ST Act. The Supreme Court found that what he did was not an offence.

I have no comment on the finding of an individual case. Based on that one case, the term 'rampant misuse' was used as if it is a generalisation.

If you want to make a general examination of the Act and its implementation, I believe that according to the rule of the law and basic principle of jurisprudence, you should listen to the other side also.

Who is the other party? Not only the government of Maharashtra, not only the Government of India to whom he gave notice, but there are more than 21% of the people belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the country.

They form around 30 crores (300 million) and these people should have been heard.

Also, those organisations who are familiar with the working of this Act or a person called P S Krishnan who was a non-political author of this amendment. Then, they would have got a holistic picture to pass an appropriate judgment.

The Supreme Court quoting high court judgments and statistics from the National Crime Research Bureau said that the Act had become a 'charter for exploitation and oppression', and an 'instrument for blackmail or to wreak personal vengeance'. Do you agree with this?

Certainly not. That is why I said they would have got a full picture if they had listened to the views of the organisations working for the SCs and STs and implementation of the Act and atrocities against these people.

A person like me had the opportunity to work with them. I would say, it is not an instrument of blackmail.

There may be a few cases and the statistics they gave was that 5,000 cases turned out to be false cases according to the police record.

It appears one in 10 cases was found to be false.

If one in 10 cases turns out to be false, is it possible to call the Act a charter for blackmail or charter for personal vengeance?

Is there any Act either in India or anywhere in the world where there are no false cases?

I would further say, what is shown as false is not really false.

What happens is, in some cases, not all from the most vulnerable community in every village and every state, go to the police when they face humiliation and atrocities on a daily basis.

They cannot afford to go to the police for all this as they are dependent on the landlords for daily wages in the village and he belongs to a particular dominant caste.

The poor man from the dominant caste will also support the rich man of his caste than a poor man from the Dalit caste.

This is the misfortune of the caste system. Since they cannot antagonise those who give them daily wages, they prefer to remain silent in many cases.

These poor people are also mortally afraid of the police station because you will find that the police people at the lower level belong to the dominant caste in the village.

So, they are persuaded, cajoled and intimidated to withdraw the cases. If they don't compromise, there is widespread boycott of the Dalits.

Even B R Ambedkar said before the Simon Commission in 1928 that there was wide prevalence of the crippling social boycott of the scheduled castes. This is worse than a massacre.

If you tell a scheduled caste labourer not to come for work tomorrow, it means he cannot have the next meal.

So, the social boycott and economic boycott continues...

The Supreme Court, without knowing all these things, without getting an opportunity for all these things to come before them, and with limited information and not full information, came out with those directives.

There was no opportunity to bring before the court what exactly was happening to the most vulnerable people in our society.

It was observed that the Act perpetuates casteism.

Casteism is not a new phenomenon. It did not start with this Act. It actually started hundreds of years ago.

What is casteism? Giving the monopoly of positions of status, like land-holding, land owning, administrative posts, religion-related posts, trading posts...

All these are monopolised by the limited members of certain castes. Not all people from those castes monopolise, of course.

Then, the burden of labour is imposed on other castes. And the worst sufferers were the untouchables who had no contact with the rest of society. They had to suffer in isolation.

The caste system is a jail for the Dalits and untouchability is like putting some people in isolation cells.

This unequal distribution of advantages and burdens is what makes casteism.

Unless you break it, casteism will not go.

The Supreme Court is justified in frowning upon casteism, but it did not have the information that casteism is rooted not merely in the minds, but in the traditional and modern economy.

You find casteism even in the corporate sector. Casteism has to be eliminated.

How can we eliminate something that is so rooted in the psyche of the Indian people and Indian society?

I have explained the roadmap to eliminate it in many papers and articles.

The first is, eliminate the dichotomy between landholding and landless labour.

How can we do this? Give land to every landless rural scheduled caste family; viable agricultural land with minor irrigation.

There is plenty of land with the government. Who said that? Not me.

The governors committee appointed by the first Dalit President of India, K R Narayanan, and headed by a distinguished retired IAS officer, the then governor of Maharashtra, Dr P C Alexander, said so.

The committee examined government records and found that the total land available with the government is enough to distribute among all the scheduled castes in the country.

There is enough land to distribute to the landless who do not belong to the scheduled castes also.

If you do this, the basis of the vulnerability of the scheduled castes will first disappear.

They can assert against caste-based restrictions and discrimination as they need not depend on somebody else for the next meal.

When you give them land with irrigation, they can reap three crops and automatically they become liberated.

Above all this, India is shamed internationally for the high rate of neo-natal mortality, infant mortality, child mortality, mother mortality even compared to other South Asian countries and sub Saharan African countries.

Why is it so low? Because the lives of the SCs and STs are so miserable.

Once they have enough food, all the malnutrition and anaemia disappears, the mother's health improves, child mortality improves and India's figures go up and with that, India's dignity also goes up.

When the landless gets land with water, and gets three crops and works throughout the year, he can also keep one or two buffalos, chicken, and cows and the children get protein.

He can send them to school. And, this way, the unemployment rate comes down.

This is a magic tablet which both Prime Minister Narendra D Modi and Sonia Gandhi should jump at.

I have told them to do this, but they are not doing (it). I have sent all this to the previous government, the present government and to all the chief ministers.

Why is there no political will to implement this?

Political will depends on the will of the political leaders.

How many of our political leaders are sufferers of untouchability and labour hood?

Take all our prime ministers. How many of them have suffered untouchability? How many of them were agricultural labourers? So, they don't know the pain.

If you don't know the pain, you must have a moral sensibility. You should have patriotism. You should feel my country should be at the top; not by my army conquering other nations but when my people are not suffering.

That is called burning patriotism.

I have given adult education to leaders through my papers and personal discussion. I have met many of them, given my papers with all humility though I am older than all of them, but they have not done it.

The Supreme Court which is anxious about casteism, which I agree with, should instruct all the chief ministers and the prime minister to do this. It should say that they were going to monitor it.

We have seen protests by Dalits in many parts of the country. Is it the culmination of many years of suppression and anger?

Anger and resentment were building in the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes for some time.

In the past, there were no educated people among them, but today, there are some educated youngsters.

So, they are organised and are able to articulate better than in the past.

Scheduled castes have always been unhappy. That was why a large number of scheduled castes in south India converted to Christianity and Islam.

99% of the Christians in Andhra Pradesh, more than 2/3rds in Kerala, more than 3/4ths in Tamil Nadu are converts.

Do you think the protests and violence will continue till the resentment goes away?

They won't agitate every day. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have the least capacity to agitate every day. They cannot afford to. But they are unhappy.

Why are they unhappy?

They have no protection of life, they do not have right to dignity, their children do not have the right to take water from the same place in school, their children cannot sit in the front row in class, there are so many such things.

Are these agitations political?

No political party has the capacity to organise an agitation like this.

This was essentially a spontaneous outburst of long periods of suffering and frustration triggered by recent incidents. Calling it provoked by some political party is trivialising the issue.

The unhappiness, despair, resentment, anger and frustration among the scheduled castes is a reality.

If anybody ignores it, it will be like Indira Gandhi not knowing the anger of the people towards the Emergency.

When it happened, she had no control over it. The same mistake is being committed by those who are governing today.

What I am worried about is if party after party is found incapable of and not anticipating the genuine reactions of its people, what will happen to this poor country?

Cry, my beloved country!
Kharge shoots off another letter to the prime minister.

The Congress on Tuesday once again boycotted the meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee with its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge saying that he was invited by the government as a 'special invitee' with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the Opposition in the selection process .

Kharge shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi declining the offer to attend the meeting and alleged that his government has not accorded priority and importance to the issue and its 'double standards' stood exposed.

'Inviting the leader of single largest opposition party as a 'Special Invitee' is done with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the opposition from the selection process of Lokpal,' he said in his letter.

The Congress leader said the government is aware that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act for a 'special invitee' without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure and it has been done only to "mislead" the nation and the people, rather than sincerely seeking the participation and opinion of the opposition.

'Therefore, to participate in this charade while your government runs roughshod over the intent and spirit of the Lokpal Act would amount to dereliction of my constitutional duty,' he said.

Kharge said the people of the nation should know that the government has wasted four precious years in the fight against corruption by not amending the Lokpal Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee under the said Act.

'This would have established the bona fides of the government in fighting corruption before the people,' he said.

'The process of appointing the Lokpal under such circumstances would be vitiated if the voice of the opposition is not included.

'If the government is, indeed, serious about ensuring that the Lokpal is appointed with the sanctity it deserves, I would once again suggest that the government bring in the necessary amendment by way of an ordinance to include the voice of the opposition in this process.

'Under these circumstances, I must once again respectfully decline the invite as 'special invitee' to prevent any dilution of the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act, 2013,' Kharge said in his letter to the prime minister.

Kharge said the government's 'double standards in this matter stand exposed' as a similar amendment was made to Delhi Special Police Establishment Act in 2014, where leader of the single largest opposition party was made a member of the Selection Committee for the appointment of director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

'It is apparent that the appointment of the Lokpal has not been accorded the same degree of importance or priority by your government,' he said.

The Congress leader told the prime minister that he would be aware that the amendment bills to the Lokayukta Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the selection committee were moved and even approved by the select committee.

'Yet till date your government has never bothered to list the same for debate or voting,' he said.

'It is clear that the current exercise is merely perfunctory gesture to assuage the letter of the Supreme Court's direction,' he said.

Kharge had earlier on March 1 written a similar letter to the prime minister while boycotting the earlier meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee as a special invitee'.

Kharge had said that a special invitee invitation is a concerted effort to exclude the voice of the opposition in Lokpal selection.

As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, only the leader of the opposition (LOP) in Lok Sabha is a member of the Selection Committee and since Kharge does not have that status, he is not a part of the panel.

A party should have at least 55 seats or 10 per cent of the strength of Lok Sabha for its leader to get the LOP status.
Modi accused opponents of trying to pit one section against the other while his government is working towards taking all people along.



IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during 'satyagrah se swachhagrah' programme on the concluding ceremony of centenary of Champaran Satyagraha celebration at Gandhi Maidan in Motihari, Bihar on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed the opposition for allegedly trying to break up society and put hurdles, "from the Parliament to the streets," in the governments' efforts to uplift the poor.

Without mentioning the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress combine in Bihar, Modi lauded Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his "fight against the corrupt and anti-social forces in the state" and said the Centre stood firmly behind his efforts.

"From the streets to Parliament, roadblocks are being created in the government's work. While the Centre is working towards uniting people, opponents are working towards breaking the society," he said in Bihar's Motihari.

The prime minister was addressing over 20,000 Swachhagrahis (cleanliness volunteers) at the concluding ceremony of 'Champaran Satyagraha' centenary celebrations.

The PM's remarks came in the wake of recent disruption of parliamentary proceedings by opposition parties over issues like dilution of SC/ST Act and their support to the "Bharat Bandh" called by Dalit and tribal organizations, which resulted in violence in several parts of the country.

Why JD-U is upset with Modi The Janata Dal-United on Tuesday expressed disappointment over Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on demand for special category status to Bihar during his visit to the state.



"We expected PM Modi to announce granting of special category status to Bihar. It was disappointing," JD-U general secretary Shayam Razak said. Last month, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had also said that he had not given up the demand for special status to Bihar "for even one second" since he first raised it in 2005. Leader of Opposition and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav also attacked the prime minister, calling his promise to grant special status to Bihar a mere jumla. Similarly, dozens of workers were left upset when Modi chosen not to say anything about re-opening of shutdown sugar mills, a promise he made during the 2014 general elections campaign. Modi had promised the reopening of the shutdown sugar mills within hundred days of coming to power. - M I Khan/Patna

Lauding the Bihar's Nitish Kumar government, Modi said, "This government has put an end to the culture of keeping files on hold. The government is completing every mission, every resolve with the help of the people. But this is troubling those who are not able to accept the change."

"There are elements who are worried at the sight of improvement in the condition of the poor. They feel that if the poor are empowered, it would no longer be possible to mislead them with lies. Hence, attempts are being made to put hurdles in the way of the government, from the Parliament to the streets," Modi said.

While the government is working towards taking all people along, "our opponents are trying to pit one section against the other", Modi said.

"But I will laud Nitish ji for his patience and good governance and the way he is fighting anti-social elements, it is not easy," he said during his nearly 50-minute speech, which he began in Bhojpuri, much to the delight of the local people.

Modi asserted that the Centre was working in tandem with the Bihar government for the economic development of the state and the eastern region as a whole.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi being welcomed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik upon his arrival at Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport in Patna. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

The prime minister also launched a number of schemes related to railways, roads, petroleum and sanitation to mark the occasion of Champaran Satyagrah'.

Praising the "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" initiatives of the government, he said, "I have been told that Bihar, under the leadership of Nitish Kumar and (deputy CM) Sushil Kumar Modi, has succeeded in constructing more than eight lakh toilets in just past one week we can look forward to making India free of filth by Gandhi Jayanti next year."

He also recalled that the state had "showed the way to the entire nation" on three occasions -- the Champaran Satyagraha movement of Mahatma Gandhi, the Bhoodan movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave and the valiant and successful fight against the Emergency, led by Jayaprakash Narayan.

Those who shared the dais with the prime minister included the CM, the deputy CM, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Mallik and Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan, Uma Bharati, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Radha Mohan Singh, Giriraj Singh, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and S S Ahluwalia.

Modi also felicitated 10 "Swachhagrahis" from different states -- six of them women -- on this occasion.

Each "Swachhagrahi" was presented with a cash prize of Rs 51,000, a shawl, a memento and a certificate.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister paid floral tributes to a bust of Mahatma Gandhi here. The PM was presented with a Mithila-style painting by Nitish Kumar.
Instead, 1,200 members of the public who are perceived by the couple to have made an impact within their community have been invited.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and United States President Donald Trump are among the world leaders who have not been invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next month.

Kensington Palace said that in a departure from usual protocol, no "official list of political leaders" will be compiled for the royal wedding on May 19 at Windsor Castle.

Instead, 1,200 members of the public who are perceived by the couple to have made an impact within their community have been invited alongside guests with a close relationship to the couple.

"It has been decided that an official list of political leaders  both UK and international  is not required for Prince Harry and Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household," said a spokesperson for Prince Harry, the fifth in line to the British throne.

It has also been confirmed that former US President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, who are friends of Harry, have also been left out of the guest list.

The decision was reportedly made based on the size of the wedding venue, St George's Chapel, and the fact Prince Harry is much further down the line of accession.

The guest list for the wedding of Prince William, second in line to the throne, and Kate Middleton in 2011 included foreign royals, Commonwealth governors-general, ambassadors, senior religious figures and many politicians from around the world.

The royal couple had already announced plans to invite members of the public and some of those who have already received their invitation in the post include a 12-year-old girl injured in the terrorist attack during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May last year.

Amelia Thompson had damaged her vocal chords from screaming in horror in the aftermath of the suicide bombing.

Prince Harry, 33, and Meghan Markle, 36, are set for a very different kind of royal wedding, having announced on Monday that guests should consider donations to their chosen charities in place of showering them with wedding gifts.

Among their chosen charities is Myna Mahila Foundation, an organisation that works with women in Mumbai's slums to provide them with employment opportunities.
IMAGE: BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Sengar rejected all the charges and called the entire incident a conspiracy by his opponents. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

Police on Tuesday arrested Atul Singh, the brother of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, in connection with the gang rape of an 18-year-old woman in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and the custodial death of the victims father, and a special investigation team was formed to probe the matters.

Yogi govt decides to withdraw rape case against ex-minister The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to withdraw a rape and kidnapping case against former Union minister Swami Chinmayananda, official sources said in Shahjahanpur on Tuesday. A letter in this regard has been sent to the district administration on March 6 on behalf of the government, the sources said. Subsequently, the Shahjahanpur administration had on March 9 written to the prosecution officer of the case for its withdrawal. On the other hand, the rape victim has sent letters to the President and the district judge raising objections over the move, urging them for immediate issuance of a warrant against the accused. Additional district magistrate (administration) Sarvesh Dixit said the state government has decided to withdraw the case filed against Chinmayananda in the Kotwali police station and the process for the same has been initiated by the prosecution officials. The victim, in her letter, also said that Adityanath on a visit to Shahjahanpur, had a lunch at the house of the accused on February 25, 2018. The first information report against the former minister was lodged in November 30, 2011, on the complaint of a girl who had spent several years at his ashram. The girl had alleged she was kept at an ashram in Haridwar and raped by the former minister. Her father had lodged an FIR against him at Kotwali police station in Shahjahanpur. However, Chinmayananda moved the high court, which had stayed his arrest. The case has been pending since then.

"The SIT will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident, ADG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar said, after the MLAs brother was arrested in Unnao.

The National Human Rights Commission also sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state police chief seeking a detailed report on the custodial death of the victim's father and asked the authorities to ensure 'the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment'.

"Notices have been issued to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, calling for a detailed report in the matter, including action taken against the delinquent police officials, who refused to register an FIR," the NHRC said.

The woman has alleged that she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers, and blamed the lawmaker for her fathers death.

The BJP MLA has rejected the charges as a conspiracy by his opponents.

The police officer said that so far a clean chit had not been given to anyone in the matter.

Kumar said the SIT would be headed by the Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow zone).

The Superintendent of Police (crime branch) will be a member of the SIT, which will look into various aspects of the case and accordingly take action against those found guilty, he said.

"The entire gamut of the complaint...will be factored in by the SIT and whatever legal actions can be taken, will be taken, Kumar said.

The victims father died in custody in Unnao on Monday, prompting her to charge that he was killed inside the district jail at the behest of the lawmaker.

To a question about the possibility of any role of influential persons close to the MLA in the case, the ADG said, The SIT will establish all that... As you know the SHO of the police station and five other policemen have been suspended on grounds of dereliction of duty and mala fide considerations. The entire issue will be reconstructed and whoever is culpable and whosoever has tried to shield any person will be taken to task.

Kumar said that the death of the victims father did not take place in police custody.

Whatever incident of beating up the deceased took place, it occurred in the village. The police in fact admitted him to the hospital immediately. But, whether there has been impartial and proper investigation, all these facts will be probed by the SIT, which will holistically probe the entire issue and the guilty will be booked, he said.

Asked whether a clean chit had been given to the BJP MLA, the ADG said, Nobody has been given any clean chit to anybody. The investigation by the SIT will establish the culpability of anyone and everyone who is involved in this episode and action will be taken accordingly. I can tell you that no guilty will be spared... The SIT will interrogate all the persons involved in this case including the MLA.

Chief medical officer of Unnao, S P Chaudhary, said, The death may have been caused by shock and septicaemia due to peritonitis (inflammation of the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen).

To a question whether the deceased suffered from colon perforation as a result of torture, Kumar said, How colon perforation happened and where it happened is a matter of judicial inquiry.

According to a police spokesperson, a crime branch team arrested Atul Singh, the MLAs brother, on the directions of the state police chief.

The NHRC observed that the allegations, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim family.

"The incident was reported to have happened a day after the alleged rape victim tried to immolate herself near the chief minister's residence accusing BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides of gangrape," the NHRC said today and directed that the magisterial inquiry in the matter be expedited.

"The NHRC also expects from the DGP, an explanation for not communicating the custodial death to the commission within 24 hours. All the reports, including health screening report of the deceased at the time of his admission in the jail and medical treatment provided by the jail authorities, are to be sent," the rights panel said in a statement.

They have been given four weeks to respond, it said.

Earlier, four persons -- Sonu, Baua, Vinit and Shailu -- named in the FIR registered on April 4 for beating up the womans father had been arrested.

The complaint was lodged by the womans mother.

The womans father was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act after he was allegedly beaten up by the MLAs brother.

Makhi police station SHO Ashok Kumar Singh and five other cops been suspended so far.
Ahead of the 2019 elections, the race for consolidating the Dalit vote-bank has intensified among all the political parties, more so in Uttar Pradesh, where the community comprises almost 21 per cent of the population.

IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bahraich Sadhvi Savitri Bai Phule has alleged that there's a systematic conspiracy to end reservation. Photograph: Sadhvi Savitri Bai Phule/Facebook

A day before the Bharat Bandh call given by various Dalit organisations over alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act rocked the country on April 2, Kanshi Ram Smriti Upvan in Lucknow witnessed a large congregation of Dalit activists for the protection of the Constitution and the reservation policy.

The rally was organised under the aegis of Namo Buddhay Jan Seva Samiti, run by Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bahraich Sadhvi Savitri Bai Phule, a turncoat from Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party.

In her signature saffron attire, Phule was all guns blazing at the event, castigating the central government over a purported spurt in cases of atrocities on the Dalits and desecration of statues of Dalit pantheons. Without naming any party, she alleged there was a systematic conspiracy to end reservation through privatisation.

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll and recent bonhomie between BJPs bete noire Samajwadi Party and BSP, the race for consolidating the Dalit vote-bank has intensified among all the political parties, more so in Uttar Pradesh, where the community comprises almost 21 per cent of the population.

A diminutive Phule, a first-time MP after her brief and maiden stint as the MLA from Bahraich, over the past several months has been sulking at the BJP leadership for not elevating her stature in the party hierarchy even as several other state leaders from her Dalit community had been given ministerial berths or organisational posts.

It is no secret that the 37-year-old Sadhvi shares an uncomfortable affiliation with other BJP leaders in Bahraich. However, her sudden banner of revolt and acerbic utterances publicly have left the party embarrassed.

Since the process of identifying candidates for the next years general election has already begun in the saffron outfit and given her disgruntled disposition, there have been indications that she could be denied the poll ticket.

Against the backdrop of zealous opposition efforts to forge a national anti-BJP front before the Lok Sabha poll and the Dalits trying to reassert politically in the election year, Phule sensed an opportunity to show her strength. The success of the SP-BSP alliance in the recent Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary bypoll has proved that a well-crafted pre-poll alliance could trump the BJP even in its pocket boroughs.

According to political pundits, Phule had organised the rally with twin purposes in mind. First, the attendance at the rally would convince the top BJP leadership about her core support base among the Dalits and her organisational and leadership skills, which could fetch her party support and also a ticket to fight the next election.

Second, if the BJP still does not entertain her according to her wishes, Phule could then bargain with the SP-BSP combine to utilise her Dalit lineage and leadership by fielding her from Bahraich, a reserved constituency.

Recently, Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale, the president of BJP ally Republican Party of India, had also claimed that the SP-BSP combine would definitely affect the BJPs performance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll and reduce its number of seats in Uttar Pradesh to around 50 from 73 in the 2014 election. This accorded credence to the potency of the alliance and the challenge at hand for BJP to rework its poll match, especially with regard to the Dalits.

Nonetheless, Mayawati has yet not commented over Phules Luckow rally. The Dalit czarina is known to be wary of acknowledging any emerging leadership among the Dalit community, which could potentially pose her a challenge.

After the phenomenon of Bhim Army, founded by Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan who is currently lodged in Saharanpur jail, had surfaced in the state following violent caste conflicts in the western UP district, Mayawati was quick to brand the 30-year-old lawyer-activist as a BJP agent.

Dalits in UP, especially Jatav sub-caste of which Mayawati also belongs to, had steadfastly stood behind BSP over the past several polls. However, the aggressive Dalit outreach programme initiated by top BJP leadership in consonance with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha poll and 2017 UP poll had managed to dilute the BSP core vote bank by attracting the community towards the saffron bandwagon, especially the non-Jatavs. Phule belongs to the Pasi community.

In the recent Rajya Sabha poll, the BJP candidate had managed to defeat BSP nominee Bhimrao Ambedkar, although his candidature was supported by SP and Congress as well. Since Ambedkar belonged to the Dalit community, the opposition was quick to label BJP as anti-Dalit. This amply indicates the exigency of the political parties trying to get traction with a lucrative vote bank, which is considered to vote en bloc, thus playing a vital role in ensuring poll victory or defeat.

The opposition parties desperately want to cash in on the Dalit anger by pitching it against BJP for resurrecting their political fortunes. The Vidhan Parishad polls scheduled to be held later this month would offer another chance to parties to reflect their Dalit agenda by fielding candidates from the community.

According to sources, BJP is likely to field Dalit candidates to keep the community in good humour. Since BSP lacks numbers to get any of its leaders elected to the Upper House of UP legislature, SP is likely to transfer its extra votes in favour of the BSP nominee to further strengthen the alliance and establish its pro-Dalit credentials.
At the Battle of Malegaon, Muslim soldiers in the Maratha army defied the British army for a full month when they had no hope of victory as the Chhatrapati and Peshwa had already surrendered.

These battles, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), are in contrast to the colonial mindset driven narrative of Muslim separatism.

The current politics of both communities ensures that the heroes of Malegaon -- or for that matter personalities like Ibrahim Khan, who led the Maratha artillery at the battle of Panipat in 1761 -- are forgotten.



IMAGE: The Malegaon fort. Kind courtesy: Wikipedia

On January 1, 2018, the bicentenary of the defence of Koregaon by a small British force -- that had a number of Mahar troops -- was observed with great fanfare.

The British -- the victors in the third Anglo-Maratha war -- erected a pillar to commemorate the event.

During the same war, Muslim troops of the Marathas defied British forces for a full month from May 15, 1818 to June 13, 1818.

Since the Marathas were on the losing side, this saga of bravery was obliterated from history by the British.

As we approach the bicentenary of that event it is time to remember the brave soldiers of the Maratha army who continued to fight even when they had no hope since the Chhatrapati had already been captured by the British and Poona and Satara were under British occupation.

The loyalty to the Maratha flag by its Muslim soldiers even in a hopeless situation deserves to be remembered.

My own research in 1990 began with a question posed by the late Major General D K Palit, a military history scholar of repute.

The question he posed was this: How is it that the Marathas -- who spiritedly fought a 22 year-long guerilla war against the mighty Mughal empire -- succumbed to the British without a fight?

It is this quest for truth that led me to research the story of the Anglo-Maratha struggles of the 18th and 19th century.

The Battle of Malegaon fought in May-June 1818 was the last major attempt at resistance by the Marathas.

On May 15, 1818, a brigade strength force under Lieutenant Colonel A MacDowell reached the vicinity of Malegaon fort.

The British expected that this show of force would be sufficient to overawe the defenders of the Malegaon fort.

The British were in for a nasty surprise.

In response to summons to surrender, the defenders fired on the British camp leading to panic.

The quadrangular fort of Malegaon is located near the bend in the Musam river so as to cover two side of the fort, Malegaon town being on the other sides.

The fort had two lines of defence built of masonry surrounded by a seven feet wall and a 25 feet deep 16 feet wide ditch.

The outer wall had watch towers built of mud and stone. The inner fort or the citadel was 60 feet high with 16 feet wide ramparts.

On May 16, Colonel MacDowell reached the west bank of the river and began work to erect barriers of breastwork to deploy guns for the final assault.

At 8 am the British began bombardment of the fort with 20 guns, an assortment of 12 pounders (the biggest calibre gun then in India), 8 pounders and mortars.

The defending soldiers sortied out of the fort, destroyed the batteries and killed two British officers and several soldiers.

At the same time 7 guns from the fort opened devastating fire on the British lines on the west bank of the river.

The ding dong battle continued for six days.

On May 22, after particularly heavy shelling from the fort, the British were forced to abandon the breastwork for the guns and retreated.

On May 26, the British -- through constant bombardment -- succeeded in creating a breach in the inner wall of the fort.

The next day the British launched a three pronged attack after a bombardment lasting nearly two hours.

One column was led by Major Greenhill and consisted of a native battalion of 1,000 soldiers with 100 Europeans to directly go into the fort through the breach.

Another column of 800 sepoys under Lieutenant Colonel Stewart crossed the river downstream to outflank the fort from the west.

The third column consisting of 300 sepoys and 50 Europeans under Major Macbean went towards the river gate.

Each column had pioneers with tools, mines and ladders to tackle the fortification.

But the defenders of the Malegaon fort proved equal to the challenge.

The attacking British were met with a hail of bullets and gunfire. The attempt to scale the inner wall failed. Many of the engineer officers leading the attack suffered injuries.

Both the columns led by Majors Greenhill and Macbean were ordered to withdraw.

Only Lieutenant Colonel; Stewart's column met with some success and he occupied part of the town.

The stalemate continued till June 4.

On that day another column under Major Watson arrived from Ahmednagar with a battalion of native infantry and a large number of siege guns.

For nine days, till June 13, the fort was subjected to heavy bombardment by the British guns.

On June 13, at 3 pm, the fort garrison accepted surrender and the Union Jack was hoisted in place of the Maratha saffron jari patka flag.

he next morning the garrison of 300 men marched out of the fort and surrendered their arms.

The British strength at Malegaon numbered over 2,000 troops. During the battle the British casualties numbered 11 officers and 220 soldiers (killed or wounded).

Thirty Maratha defenders died while 60 Maratha soldiers were wounded.

The British record states that in the end they used 36 guns, fired over 8,000 shells and used 35,500 pounds of gunpowder.

The British were so impressed with the valour and chivalry of the defenders that they permitted the surrendered soldiers to keep their daggers.

Historian N C Kelkar notes in his Marathi book Marathe ani Ingraj that at one stage the desperate British sent a message to the Muslim soldiers of the Maratha army that since the Chhatrapati had already surrendered, they should do likewise.

The doughty defenders replied that they were indeed aware that their king was in British captivity, but they were yet to receive instructions from him to surrender and therefore would keep fighting.

The devotion to duty and loyalty to their king was of the kind seen later only during World War II when many Japanese soldiers continued to fight even after Japan surrendered.

There is neither any victory pillar nor are the names of these brave soldiers engraved anywhere.

Even two hundred years after the event and the departure of British 70 years ago, the Muslim heroes of battle of Malegaon remain unknown, forgotten and unsung.

Two hundred years ago, the third Anglo-Maratha war fought in 1817 and 1818 ended in the Maratha Chhatrapati and Peshwa (prime minister) surrendering to the English.

After having defeated the Holkars and Shindias in early 1817, the British turned to the conquest of Maharashtra proper.

The full story of the Maratha struggle with the British has for long been swept under the carpet. In its place a modern myth of the British having directly taken over India from the Mughals or accidently acquired an empire has gained currency.

Ignoring the Marathas and their role in ruling most of north and central India was part of the grand colonial project of disinformation that sought to then play up Mughal-Rajput rule.

I recall an interesting news report some years ago, datelined Aligarh, where an Aligarh Muslim university 'scholar' had discovered that a major battle between the Marathas and the English had indeed taken place in Aligarh in 1803!

The worthy had, of course, never heard of the second Anglo-Maratha war that took place in 1803-1804 with battles at Delhi, Lassawari near Agra, Aligarh, Shekohabad etc.

The British had sound reasons to whitewash the Maratha period of our history.

Since the Marathas formed a formidable alliance with the Muslims, Jats and Sikhs in resisting the British, they posed a potential threat.

The distortions continued post-Independence as writing and teaching history was hijacked by the left-leaning Delhi elite. But those who ignore the Maratha or Sikh epoch fail to answer a simple question.

The Marathas fought three wars with the British, so did the Sikhs, the Gorkhas and Tipu Sultan in the south. Is there any mention of the Anglo-Mughal wars, even in the doctored historical narrative?

Note: The information about the Battle of Malegaon is based on a British Indian Army General Staff Publication (Simla 1910), Maratha and the Pindari War pages 89-91.

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian. This article is based on extracts from his forthcoming book, The Story of the Mighty Marathas and their Empire.
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.
Title VB and Another (draft evaders and prison conditions (CG)

Publication Date 7 March 2017

Citation / Document Symbol [2017] UKUT 79

Cite as VB and Another (draft evaders and prison conditions (CG), [2017] UKUT 79, United Kingdom: Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), 7 March 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,GBR_UTIAC,5accfc1e4.html [accessed 30 September 2021]

Comments (i) What are the likely punishments for draft evasion in Ukraine (ii) Are prison conditions for draft evaders in Ukraine contrary to Article 3 of ECHR, or has there been a significant and durable change in Ukraine such that the country guidance decision of PS (prison conditions; military service) CG [2006] UKAIT 00016 should no longer be followed?
Comments

i) Is the Appellant at risk under Article 15(c) if returned to Libya? ii) If Article 15(c) does apply, can the Appellant relocate to, and reasonably be expected to stay in, another part of the country in which he would not face such a risk? (humanitarian protection) Replaces AT & others (Article 15(c); risk categories) Libya CG [2014] UKUT 00318 (IAC) in respect of the assessment of the art 15(c) risk
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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
The Wire creator David Simon is working on a new drama series with Spain's Mediapro called A Dry Run. It will follow members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion who came to Spain from the U.S. to fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War.

Simon, whose latest series The Deuce is currently heading towards its second season on HBO, will be teaming up with two fellow writers on The Wire, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane, in what's set to be a six-hour miniseries.

The show will have a "compelling and tragic narrative," Simon said, adding that the "Spanish struggle against fascism and the misuse of capitalism as a bulwark to totalitarianism" represent "the preeminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still."

Mediapro founder Jaume Roures said: "A Dry Run is really one of the great projects for the coming months. Not only for the story but also for what it means for us to work with David Simon, one of the best scriptwriters of recent years."

Via Variety
Hong Kongs polished-diamond imports rose 9% to $18.93 bn in 2017, according to data from the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China.

Imports, by volume, grew 3% to 19.5 mn carats for the year, while the average price climbed 6% to $971 per carat. Polished imports from India increased 14% to $8.83 bn, while those from the US also increased 14% to $2.08 bn. Shipments from Israel reportedly dropped 7% to $1.69 bn, and imports from Belgium fell 15% to $1.56 bn.

Hong Kongs polished exports increased by 5% to $13.97 bn in 2017. That is, net polished imports increased 22% to $4.96 bn. Polished exports to mainland China rose 12% to $3.15 bn.

Rough imports grew 19% to $1.6 bn, with rough exports up 70% to $3.21 bn. Net rough imports stood at negative $1.61 bn compared with negative $538.9 mn a year ago, as exports shipments exceeded imports.

Hong Kong's net diamond account, which is the total rough and polished imports minus total exports, came down 5% to $3.35 bn.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
Great Falls Hearing Postponed Until April 26 at 1:30 p.m.

On April 4th, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled to vacate the injunction imposed by District Court Judge Brian Morris on construction of the fish bypass and concrete weir at Intake.

Although the ruling was a huge, positive step in what has been a very long, frustrating process, Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project manager James Brower stressed the need for attendance at the summary judgment hearing in Great Falls on April 26th. "It is an undeniable miracle when three 9th Circuit judges rule in favor of farmers from a small Montana community," he said. "But, we can't let this positive ruling cause us to become complacent."

The Defenders of Wildlife has asked for an extension in order to reply to the ruling.

The 9th Circuit ruled to remove the injunction, in part, because the defendants (Defenders of Wildlife) did not say they were going after existing operations of the dam. But, they are doing exactly that in the most recent filings with the district court. Brower said there are over 12 other legal complaints that Morris could use to stop the project. "We have only won a battle," Brower said. "We have not yet won the war."

Brower pointed out that the fish bypass would have already been completed and working this season if the environmental clubs hadn't sued and stopped construction in 2015. The pallid sturgeon would have been on its way to recovery right now,

Although contracts for construction of the fish bypass and concrete weir have expired and will need to be renegotiated, funding for the project remains mostly in place thanks to our senators and congressmen in Washington.

The 9th Circuit ruled that Judge Morris erred when he considered the harm caused by the "continued operation of the existing weir" in its assessment of the irreparable harm attributable to the proposed project because the DOW did not seek to enjoin the operation and maintenance of the existing weir. Morris again erred when he flipped the burden of proof to the Corps, rather than the DOW on whether the proposed project would allow fish passage. The Court also ruled that the district court has no basis to conclude that the public interest favored an injunction.

The district court also erred in concluding that DOW had established a likelihood of success on its claims under the Endangered Species Act, the National Environment Protection Act or the Clean Water Act. "Under this deferential standard, we find no basis to conclude that DOW was likely to succeed on the merits of its claims," the court decision stated. The 9th Circuit found Judge Morris's ruling on the various alternatives to the proposed project, including pumping, as arbitrary and capricious. It also said that the Corps' finding that there was no other practicable solution was supported by ample evidence.

The hearing for Summary Judgment is scheduled for Thursday, April 26 at 1:30 p.m. in Great Falls. Buses will begin loading at 5 a.m. at the Richland County Extension building and will leave promptly at 5:15 a.m. Lunch and beverages will be provided and LYIP will provide a hot meal after the hearing.

Anyone wishing to ride is asked to contact Richland Economic Development at 406-482-4679. Also, please let them know if you plan to drive on your own; the court needs to know how many people in that courtroom are there in support of our community.

Updated 4-10-2018: The hearing for the Summary Judgement has been set to Thursday, April 26 at 1:30 p.m. in Great Falls. The story has been edited to reflect this new information.
Faith Alliance Church in Sidney will be hosting the annual Empowered to Connect Conference on April 13 and 14.

The Empowered to Connect Conference is an annual event put on by Child Bridge Montana, a non-profit aimed at improving outcomes for children in foster care and the families who care for them. The organization has helped to connect 589 children in need of care with loving families to care for them, which has led to 70 adoptions by Child Bridge families.

The conference is led by staff at the renowned Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University, including the Institutes Assistant Director of Education Dr. Casey Call. The conference includes Trust-Based Relational Intervention methods developed at TCU to help facilitate attachment and connection in families, especially for those children who have experienced trauma. It is vital that caregivers, teachers, and caseworkers understand the impact of trauma on the brain of a growing child. Trauma can impact behavior throughout a childs life, but with supportive, knowledgeable parents and teachers, children can learn to overcome and grow into healthy, productive members of society, said Amanda Snodgrass, adoptive and foster parent and the local organizer for the conference. As an adoptive and foster parent, Empowered to Connect gives me the understanding and tools needed to parent these children in a better way. As a teacher, I can see past childrens behaviors to understand some of the inner workings because of Empowered to Connect. All people interacting with children from hard places should come and learn from the best in the field during this simulcast, Snodgrass said.

Empowered to Connect is designed for foster parents as well as ministry leaders, social workers, counselors, child care workers, teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents who seek better ways to connect with children, especially those in the foster care system. The event has been approved by the Office of Public Instruction for 14 renewal credits for teacher licensure, or split renewal units for attendance at only one of the two days.

The conference will be simulcast across the state, with additional locations in Libby, Kalispell, Butte and Great Falls.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. The cost of the event is $20 per person, which includes the course book as well as snacks, coffee and lunch on both Friday and Saturday. Childcare is provided, and children eat for free. Registration is required. Register at https://www.childbridgemontana.org/empowered-to-connect.html. Contact Amanda Snodgrass at 406-647-4970 with questions about the Empowered to Connect conference at Faith Alliance Church. The Church is located at 301 East Main, in Sidney.
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Colombian presidential candidate Piedad C?rdoba announced her withdrawal from the electoral race by the Poder Ciudadano movement for personal reasons.

In a rally in Bogota, Cordoba said that she decided to refrain from running for president given the delicate condition of her mother, who is hospitalized.

Her vice presidential running mate, Jaime Ara?jo, denounced that she was "discriminated" during her presidential campaign for being a "woman," being an "Afro-descendant" and for her ideas of leftist orientation.

Cordoba, meanwhile, complained that she was made "invisible" in the campaign for the presidential elections on May 27, for which the latest polls gave her less than 1% of voting intention.

Cordoba was senator between 1994 and 2010 for the Liberal Party, and in 2010 she was barred for 18 years by the then Colombian Attorney General, Alejandro Ordonez, for alleged links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), turned into a political party after the peace agreement signed in 2016.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Kinross Gold Corp. (KGC, K.TO) said that its mining operations in Russia continue to operate according to plan and remain unaffected by the new sanctions announced by the United States on April 6, 2018.

Kinross said it will continue to closely monitor sanction legislation in Canada, the U.S. and the European Union so that Kinross and its subsidiaries remain in compliance.

Kinross has successfully operated in Russia for over 20 years and has proactively developed and diversified its procurement and logistics structures in the country.

The Company continues to focus on responsibly operating its two mines and providing value to employees, host communities and shareholders.

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Givaudan AG (GVDBF.PK) reported that, in the first three months of 2018, the Group recorded sales of 1.31 billion Swiss francs, an increase of 5.0% on a like-for-like basis, and 5.4% in Swiss francs compared to the previous year.

The Fragrance Division recorded sales of 604 million francs, a growth of 5.7% on a like-for-like basis and an increase of 4.9% in Swiss francs. The Flavour Division reported sales of 704 million francs, an increase of 4.5% on a like-for-like basis and 5.8% in Swiss francs. Including Vika B.V., acquired in September 2017, the growth was 7.0% in local currency.

Looking forward, Givaudan reaffirmed its 2020 ambition to create further value through profitable, responsible growth. As part of the company's 2020 strategy, Givaudan also seeks to create value through targeted acquisitions. The Group aims to outpace the market with 4-5% sales growth and a free cash flow of 12-17% of sales, both measured as an average over the five-year period of its strategic cycle.

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Editors Pick

It's again that day of the year when coffee lovers celebrate their passion for the caffeinated beverage. It is National Coffee Day today in the U.S. when major food and beverage outlets across the nation promote the coffee culture with deals for coffee fans. Nearly 60 percent of Americans choose coffee each day over other beverages, including tap water.

United Airlines' 593 employees are facing termination for failing to comply with Covid-19 vaccine requirement, reports said. Meanwhile, more than 99% of employees complied with its policy to receive the vaccine or apply for a medical or religious exemption. The employees were required to upload proof of vaccination by Monday.

Cuisine Innovations Unlimited, LLC is recalling certain Vemondo Vegan Crabless Mini Crabcakes by Lidl citing the possible presence of undeclared egg yolks, a known allergen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. The affected Vegan Crabless Mini Crabcakes comes in an 8.5-ounce, 6-piece box marked with various lots. These include 23021 with Exp. Date 2/17/2023; 23121 with Exp. Date 2/18/2023.
Estonia's foreign trade deficit decreased in February from a year ago, as exports grew faster than imports, figures from Statistics Estonia showed Tuesday.

The trade deficit fell to EUR 93 million in February from EUR 100 million in the corresponding month last year. The shortfall also decreased from EUR 223 million in January.

Both exports and imports surged by 15.0 percent and 13.0 percent, respectively in February from last year.

Exports to non-EU countries advanced notably by 33.0 percent annually in February and those to EU countries rose by 8.0 percent.

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The latest sigma study from the Swiss Re Institute said that total global economic losses from natural and man-made disasters in 2017 were $337 billion, almost double the losses in 2016 and the second highest on record. Global insured losses from catastrophe events were $144 billion, the highest-ever recorded in a single year.

The highest losses came from three hurricanes - Harvey, Irma and Maria - that struck the US and the Caribbean in quick succession.

These hurricanes resulted in combined insured losses of $92 billion, making 2017 the second costliest North Atlantic hurricane season since 2005. Last year was also a

record year for wildfires. Major wildfires across the globe resulted in combined insurance losses of $14 billion, the highest ever.

In terms of sigma criteria, there were 301 catastrophes worldwide in 2017,

down from 329 in 2016. More than 11 000 people lost their lives or went missing in disaster events last year, and millions were left homeless. Natural catastrophes claimed more than 8 000 victims. A landslide and floods in Sierra Leone in mid-August took most lives, with 1 141 people declared dead or missing. Elsewhere, heavy monsoon rains and separate flood events led to more than 1 000 deaths across India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

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Total (TTA.L, TTFNF.PK,TOT) announced the company and Saudi Aramco have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a petrochemical complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The complex will be integrated downstream of the SATORP refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco (62.5%) and Total (37.5%) in Jubail. The project will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of high value chemicals.

Located next to the SATORP refinery in the same industrial area, the complex will comprise a world-size mixed-feed steam cracker (50% ethane and refinery off-gas) with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.

The project will represent an investment of around $5 billion. The two partners are planning to start the front-end engineering and design in the third quarter of 2018.

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Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly has approved a Presidential Decree allowing the use of cryptocurrencies and validating its national cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR), as the impoverished country's new "oil-backed" currency. Venezuela is the first country to create a state-backed cryptocurrency.

The pro-government Assembly (ANC) has approved the draft Constituent Decree on Cryptoassets and the Petro, which was presented by Vice President Tareck El Aissami last week.

"We are making history with the approval of the Decree on Cryptoassets and the Cryptocurrency El Petro. Nothing can stop the impulse of our country," said Venezuela's Superintendent of Cryptocurrency.

The decree says President Nicolas Maduro will have the power to "regulate the issuance, organization, and operation of the Petro," Sputnik News reported.

Last month, the Opposition-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly had declared Petro as illegitimate. The House passed a resolution saying that it believes the Petro is unconstitutional, and denounced the project as fraud, and a threat to potential investors.

But with the passage of the decree by the Constituent Assembly, the National Assembly's decision becomes irrelevant.

The National Assembly's stand is not expected to have any influence on the government, as the Constitutuent Assembly, which is loyal to Maduro, had stripped the former of its legislative powers.

Major Opposition parties have called to boycott the Presidential election in May, saying the electoral system was rigged in favor of the President. The decision paves the path for Maduro's easy re-election, and consolidation of power, political analysts say.

Maduro launched the pre-sale of Petro on February 20 to ease the country's economic crisis, and circumvent U.S.-led sanctions.

The Venezuelan Government claimed its oil-backed cryptocurrency raised $30 billion in the first week of its pre-sale, and that it evoked overwhelming response from as many as 127 countries.

But the Opposition lawmakers lashed out against the sale, which, according to them, is simply a symptom of the country's ongoing political crisis.

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President Donald Trump has warned that his government is mulling several options for striking Syria in response to a suspected deadly chemical-weapons attack in Douma, which Washington blames on Damascus. The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied any responsibility.

At a Cabinet meeting Monday, Trump said he will take a decision on how to respond to it within 48 hours.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon. So we're looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously."

"Atrocious and horrible" attacks like these could not be allowed to happen, Trump told his cabinet colleagues, referring to reports of a chlorine bomb allegedly dropped by Syrian warplanes on Douma on Saturday, which killed dozens.

"We have a lot of options militarily," he told reporters after holding a meeting with his top military and national security officials later.

The White House called upon the Syrian regime and Moscow to open the rebel-held town to international medical assistance and international monitoring.

"The chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime against innocent civilians is horrifying. The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilized world," Sanders said during her routine briefing.

Sanders said Trump wanted to withdraw U.S. troops after completing the mission to eradicate Islamic State in Syria.

"At the same time, he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians. Signaling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible," she told reporters.

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President Donald Trump will not make a planned trip to South America later this week as he focuses on the situation in Syria, the White House announced on Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump will stay in the U.S. to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

Vice President Mike Pence will instead travel to Lima, Peru, to represent the U.S. at the Summit of the Americas beginning on Friday.

A statement from Pence's Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director Jarrod Agen said the vice president looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger U.S. .

Agen said Pence also looks forward to working with close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions.

Trump's decision to not attend the summit comes on the heels of a suspected chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus over the weekend that killed dozens of people.

Ahead of a meeting with senior military leadership on Monday, Trump said the U.S. has "a lot of options, militarily" to respond to the developments in Syria.

"We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed  and you can see that and it's horrible  we can't let that happen," Trump said.

He added, "In our world, we can't let that happen, especially when we're able to  because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country  we're able to stop it."

Last April, Trump ordered an airstrike on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

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A video recently emerged showing thousands of sheep dying from heat stress onboard a export ship traveling to the Middle East from Australia.

The Australian government said it will commence an investigation into the alleged horrific conditions aboard the vessel.

The sheep died from heat stress on the MV Awassi Express, a ship used by Western Australia-based Emanuel Exports, during a voyage between Australia and Qatar.

The New York Times reported that the video was taken in August 2017 and showed on Nine Network's 60 Minutes program. The video footage shows sheep struggling to breathe and dead animals being thrown overboard. Some of the animals died in their own feces, The Times' report said.

David Littleproud, the agriculture minister, said he was "shocked and gutted" by the footage and promised that those responsible would be punished, the Time reported.

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - Spain should foster investments in Argentina in the renewable energy, infrastructure, banking, finance, transport, tourism, and telecommunications sectors, said the Spanish Secretary of State for Trade, Marisa Poncela, in a visit to Buenos Aires.

Her statement came after the Second Meeting of the Bilateral Committee of Economic and Commercial Cooperation. The Argentinean delegation was headed by the Minister of Production, Francisco Cabrera.

During the meeting, the Spanish secretary told Cabrera the interest of Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in Argentina. Meanwhile, both stressed the need to strengthen Mercosur and its insertion in new , as well as the key role of Spain to advance the agreement with the European Union.

The meeting takes place within the framework of the official visit of the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, to Argentina. He is ahead of a delegation of 70 Spanish businesspeople.

At the beginning of the afternoon, Rajoy should be welcomed by the Argentinean president, Mauricio Macri.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Dear Editor,

The first point that I would like to start this discussion with in relation to Pauls teachings in (Romans 13:1-6) is about the heart and the origin of the church of Christ and Christianity. The heart and the origin of the Church of Christ and Christianity is Israel but not Rome or any other nation of the world. Israel is the chosen nation of God but not Rome or any other nation of the world. In other words, God never had any covenant with the nation of Rome like He did with the nation of Israel.

That means the laws of Caesar and the government of Rome is totally different from the commandments and the law of God. To put it in another way, the laws of Caesar and the government of Rome do not have anything at all to do with Pauls teachings in (Romans 13:1-6) about the governing authorities of the government of God and the Church of Christ. That is the first important point that should be taken into consideration very seriously in any debate about the Apostle Paul and his ministries. The new foundation of Pauls life after God converted Paul from Judaism to Christianity was Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

Pauls testimony in [Acts chapter 25, 26 & 28 / Galatians 1] about his old person in Judaism and his new person in Christ is the main key to unlock confusions when it comes to the truth about Paul and Pauls ministries. In Pauls testimony and his ministries, he quoted the Old Testament. He also explained his former conduct in Judaism of pursuing and persecuting of Christians. After Pauls conversion into Christianity, he opposed and went against the Judaism authority he formerly practiced and followed.

The problem with authorities in Judaism is clearly explained by Paul in (Romans 10:1-3) Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

That strange behavior of Israel is not new in the times of Christ and Paul. Its roots can be traced back in the Old Testament when Prophet Samuel ruled Israel. Beyond that period of time, Israel was in the situation of inandout relationship with God. They turned away from God sometimes and served other gods until they got into the point of leaving God out of their lives and demanding a king like the kings of other nations.

Before Israel had its first earthly king, God forewarned His people about the behavior of the king because God does not approve the behavior of earthly kings. Which is also mean, God does not approve the behavior of governments of other nations. However the people of Israel refused to obey and still asked Samuel for a king. The whole story of that situation is in the book of (1 Samuel 8).

(1 Samuel 8:6-20) But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day  with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods  so they are doing to you also Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

The forewarning of Israel by God about the behavior of the king is a great deal for the debate about (Romans 13:1-6). Also, it is very important to realize that the God who forewarned Israel about the behavior of the king is the same God who called out Paul to take His message through out Israel and gentiles. Therefore, if the book of (1 Samuel 8) is telling the truth that God forewarned Israel about the behavior of the king, then the book of (Romans 13:1-6) is a demonstration about the governing authorities in Ecclesia / Ekalesia (Church government) and the Kingdom of God. In other words, Pauls teachings in (Romans 13:1-6) are not referring to a State government or a civil government like the national government of Samoa and the government of the ancient Rome during the reign of Caesar.

As I have said before, God does not approve governments of other nations because of the behavior of their kings and their rulers. The only government that God has His approval is His own government. Through the Prophet of Isaiah, God foretold His government upon a shoulder of a Child to be born out of Israelites. (Isaiah 9:6-7) For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Isaiahs prophecies were fulfilled in Christ and therefore Jesus Christ was the Child of the prophecy. The government of God was upon the shoulder of Christ and it is still upon the shoulder of Christ because Gods government is everlasting according to Prophet Isaiah. During Christs times in Israel, He established His church. (Matthews 16:18) And I also say to you that you Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Peter worked together with Paul and other Disciples of Christ as governing authorities in the government of God and the Church of Christ both inside and outside of Israel in order to spread the message of the Gospel and the kingdom of God.

Therefore the governing authorities such as rulers and ministers that Paul mentioned in (Romans 13:1-6) are Gods servants called out by God as well as the believers of God who responded to the servants of God and joined themselves to the congregation and the community of believers known as Ecclesia or Church. The governing authorities were held by servants and believers of God are not about greatness, power and force. They are about services and salvation as enlightened by Jesus in Luke 22 and Matthew 11.

(Luke 22:24-27) Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.

(Matthew 11:28-30) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Furthermore, the governing authorities such as the rulers and ministers of God, they are not new in the work of God in the times of Paul in the New Testament. The starting point of Gods rulers and ministers is from the time of Moses in the Old Testament. (Deuteronomy 10:8-9) At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.

(Exodus 18:21) Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. (2 Samuel 23:3) The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in fear of God.

To be continued tomorrow.

Nanai Malonuu Lealaiauloto Nofoaiga
The Electoral Constituency of Gagaemauga No. 2, consisting of Saleaula Savaii and Saleaula Upolu, has strongly urged Parliament to reconsider the proposed changes in the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018.

The Constituency made their point known before a Parliamentary Committee hearing yesterday at Parliaments makeshift home at Tuanaimato.

The Parliamentary Committee is chaired by Falealupo M.P., Aeau Peniamina Leavaiseeta. The members include Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Nafoitoa Keti Talaimanu, Pau Sefo Pau, Fuimaono Sam Teo and Nonu Lose Niumata.

A delegation from the constituency was the first to front the Committee hearing yesterday.

Saleaula Savaii and Saleaula Upolu, that make up the Electoral constituency, is one village. They were divided during the Mt. Matavanu volcano in 1905 when some of them sought refuge in Upolu where their descendants now call Salamumu home.

Historically though, despite the physical separation, they have had one Member of Parliament. That seat for the current Parliamentary sitting is occupied by Faasootauloa Pati Taulapapa, the Associate Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

But the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018 is threatening to change that so that voters in Saleaula Savaii will vote as part of Gagaemauga 1 while Salamumu voters will vote as part of Safata 1.

Yesterday, Saleaula Savaii and Upolu urged Parliament to reconsider its decision.

A written submission delivered by village Spokesperson, Fepuleai Attila Ropati, called on Parliament to leave Gagaemauga No. 2 as it is, citing cultural and historical reference, logistics, number of voters as well as issues of fair representation.

The submission was accepted by the Parliamentary Committee who will report back to Parliament about the matter.

Gagaemauga No. 2 is one of the many villages and constituencies affected and are opposing the Bill.
A prisoner who escaped from Tafaigata last December, Uili Manuleleua, is back behind bars. He surrendered himself to the Police during the weekend.

Hes now back in the custody of Prison Correction and Services, thanks to the assistance by the Vaimoso Village Council, said Police Superintendent Auapaau Logoitino Filipo.

His family brought him into the Police Station Saturday night and he has been charged accordingly.

Manuleleua had escaped from jail with Lauititi Tualima, Vaioa Solia and Aniseko Vaelei just before Christmas. In February, the Vaimoso Village Council offered to help the Police, since Manuleleua, had connections to the village.

Manuleleua has been charged with escape from lawful custody and possession of narcotics. Police found drugs in his possession when conducting routine search when he was brought in, said Auapaau.

Policies Committee Chairman for Vaimoso Village Council, Aulavemai Asiata Tafito, told the Samoa Observer since the escape of Manuleleua, they have been working with the family.

This prisoner is a son of Vaimoso and if anyone in the village knows his whereabouts they should come forward and inform the Police.

Penalties will be levelled against anyone in the village who knows any information, but does not come forward. We have met with the Manuleleua family on many occasions and this led to the surrender of Uili to the Police over the weekend.

Uili is serving time for several burglary cases.

The Minister of Prisons and Correctional Services Tialavea Tionisio Hunt told the Samoa Observer that Manuleleuas decision to escape is puzzling.

He escaped around 5am, yet he was supposed to be released around 8am the same day. Its puzzling as to why he did not wait until 8am to sign the proper documents for his release from jail.
Six students of the National University of Samoa are proud scholarship award recipients courtesy of the Yazaki Kizuna Foundation.

The awards, presented yesterday, will benefit five students studying Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship with one PhD student whose research topic aligns with the Samoan governments growth strategy.

The Bachelor programme students are: Faapopo Maiava, Upuia Sefo, Ietitaia Simi, Alva Tulimalefasi and Eileen Williams. The PhD student is Torise Sau Neemia.

Representative of the Yazaki Kizuna Foundation, Takumi Iwata, said their objective is to support the development of Samoa.

Yazaki Corporation has been seeking a way to express our appreciation for Samoas support and this is why we decided to establish the Yazaki Kizuna Foundation, he said.

The funds provided by this scholarship will ensure a stable academic life for the recipients and this will allow you to focus in your specialty in expectation of its contribution to the countrys future development.

A chance to attend university is not available to everyone. Make the effort and expand your knowledge through N.U.S. and in the future use the experience to find your opportunities for the country and your own path in life.

Scholarship awardee Torise Sau  Neemia is extremely grateful.

My research is driven by a passion to see more opportunities open for women to discover their full potential, Torise said.

I believe that if you give a Samoan woman who has a heart for God and her country the opportunity to realise her full potential  she will not thrive on her own but she will thrive with and for her church, her village and her family.

However in saying this, receiving this scholarship award is more than financial relief, the most inspiring aspect of receiving this award is the fact that Yazaki recognises the importance of my field of women in the village.

I have always believed that women in the villages especially in the church hold the key to the socio-economic and development of families in Samoa.

She said that one of the greatest challenges of undertaking a PhD project is funding.

Thank you for the opportunity to receive this award, it has lightened my financial burden and now allows me to concentrate on writing my doctorate thesis.

To the University, honourable Vice Chancellor, our Deputy Vice Chancellor and fellow colleagues thank you for your support and the opportunity given.

Todays scholarships presentation demonstrates the integrity of your foundation, you opened this pathway to a good education and now you have given some of us the means to make the journey.

Your ongoing support and assistance is greatly appreciated.

The National University of Samoa Vice Chancellor, Professor Fui Asofou So'o thanked Yazaki Kizuna Foundation for their generous support.
Hard work pays off. Daniel Faletoese, 21, knows this.

He is living proof that if you work hard enough, anything is possible.

Mr. Faletoese, the eldest son of Mulinuu Sua and Sara Faletoese Sua from the villages of Vaivase-Tai, Moataa, Safotu and Safune, Savaii, is the Top Nursing student at the National University of Samoa.

After three years of challenges, he says through this achievement it is proof that despite how society sees a person it will never limit their capabilities.

I think the support my family gave me was the main motivation for me and also being a faafafine there were a lot of issues like people mocking and stuff like that, he said.

That was my drive I can do this and prove myself. I feel really proud because my classes are really long and there were so many of us when we first started.

I am honoured and privileged to get this prize.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer he shares it was through his parents support and friends that he was able to pull through.

I did not do it alone; greater is he that is in me than of the one that is in the world, which was my motivation.

I have seen it happen to many faafafines, the bullying, but I think I grew up in a safe environment and I was not bullied.

I was able to stand up for others that were like me, that is how we do it, one faafafine stands up for one another. Some people see it as a joke, but we are just human beings.

In class, he said: No one laughs at me in class; and I think that faafafines stand out. We come in with make-up and stuff. But I am thankful that we are not getting mocked in class.

The journey that I was in was not easy, but I am thankful for the supporters that I had which made it manageable for me.

I think I was one of the youngest in my class, everybody was seeing me as a little child, but proving myself, that I can do this, I can be the same as them. It makes me really proud of that achievement that I never knew I would get.

I think there were like 130 or something when I started in class, now there are only 73 I think that graduated in the area that I have chosen.

Mr. Faletoese acknowledged his mother for being his inspiration in his life and also his grandmother who was able to witness this milestone in his life.

I guess this achievement that I have made sets up a good example for my younger siblings.
In the early morning hours on the three corners of Salelologa where the one street light for the entire big island of Savaii is located a small gathering of people in white T Shirts and waving small Samoan flags were assembled.

It seemed like they were there waiting for something.

Included was a mother who had travelled from Texas, U.S.A. and her family members. Aolipa Agavale McClure had travelled to Savaii to visit her family and had been aware of this event for S.S.I.G. Global as she was an active participant and fan of OLP, so she was able to plan her trip back to the homeland to coincide with the March for Peace that would be held in Savaii.

Aolipa seemed a little concerned, as the numbers were not impressive at 6:30am in the morning. She was used to Texas and the importance of time. Be there early is how she preferred.

But this was not what she anticipated. She had expected crowds of people already anxious to walk and show their displeasure with the alienation of customary lands law that she was concerned with. Living in Texas for over 30 years she was familiar with the American way of being on time or you leave early to beat the traffic to an event.

But this is Savaii. Savaii is a whole different world. Time stands still it seems on this tropical isle of an estimated 60,000 people and this was one of those times.

As Aolipa wondered, Pau Mulitalo, an attorney who has handled land court cases for clients in Samoa, began to call the assembled marchers together. As they came to the front of the store where a hand made banner was attached to the front awning, declaring that L.T.R.A. 2008 was an illegal law, he began to welcome those who had gathered and recited the traditional acknowledgement of Salelologa.

Then he began to teach them the chants he had prepared for the marchers. These were interesting and entertaining.

And more people started arriving.

Mike Tanuvasa, one of S.S.I.G. Global Samoa team who actually is from Utah, U.S.A., was also there and he was greeting people as they began to arrive first in small groups, but then more and more were showing up.

Mike began to video tape the gathering and the prelude to the march. They had a Police escort who arrived early and were sporting brand new vehicles. This was according to the requirements for the safety of the marchers and L.T.A. requirements. The marchers now were all assembled, the numbers had swelled from a few to almost 600.

The people of Savaii are so laid back. No one expected a big turn out. The last March in downtown Apia had brought together almost 300 marchers. That was in December of 2017. It was now April. Four months later. Was the fire still there?

For organizer Unasa Iuni Sapolu, the plans had been set early on right after the success of the first march. To her it was a matter of executing the plan.

To duplicate the success of the last march would be nice. But to exceed the prior march would be even better.

Unasa Iuni had not rested on her laurels. The S.S.I.G. Global Samoa team began a program called Village Education Understanding (V.E.U.).

Between the last march and this one she and her team had gone to various villages in Samoa where they met with the Chiefs and Villagers to discuss the message of loss of customary land ownership under the L.T.R.A. 2008 registration process.

This began with meetings with Salelologa chiefs. The chiefs of Salelologa were receptive and thus the plan for a march in Savaii was hatched. But that was not all.

S.S.I.G. Global Samoa also went to Nofoalii, Satapuala in Upolu and then Faga and Palauli in Savaii. These meetings were productive because for many of these matai and villagers this was their first time hearing about this.

For Unasa Iuni and her team they saw the transformation of the people once they understood what was at stake; their customary lands.

Once the seriousness of the situation dawned on them they began to be quite upset at the conspiracy of silence that the government had engaged in for all these years of keeping them and the majority of Samoa in the dark.

Prior to the march Saina Tomi had been travelling to Savaii over several weeks to pass out flyers and pamphlets for the benefit of the Savaii people who she could reach at the Saleologa town and wharf, but even certain villages that she went to driving with her husband.

She had helpers at times to distribute the pamphlets but for the most part she was alone. This did not deter her and she pressed on for the goal of encouraging people to march on Saturday, April 7, 2018 at Salelologa. She had no idea how effective her work would be until the day of the march.

As the marchers were lined up under the stop light at Salelologa, it was apparent that Savaii had answered the call, old people and young stood together ready to launch this march. The weather was perfect with cloud cover over the march route. There was a disabled person who struggled but made it to the end of the march. There were Chiefs and children, Sogaimiti and young girls.

All of Savaii seemed to be represented in this group of nearly 600.

As they marched down the road toward the wharf, the air was filled with statements and cheers. Chants and songs, the voices of Savaii were heard as they marched. The closer they got to the final destination the more vocal and louder they became.

Once they arrived at the location of the area where tents were set up and breakfast ready, the enthusiasm turned into celebration as the marchers began to siva as is traditionally appropriate at the conclusion of all cultural events. Savaii ended this day with the Taupou dancing her traditional dance and dressed in the traditional kuiga and outfit. She looked beautiful and was elegant in her look and dancing.

As the dance concluded after Unasa Iuni the organizer danced a short taualuga, the marchers settled into the tents and chairs to listen to speakers who were appointed to talk about the event.

There had been a lot of controversy surrounding the former Head of State who had asked S.S.I.G. Global Samoa for an opportunity to speak at the March and he had been granted that request however he backed out at the last moment.

In his place the organizers asked youths of whom there many, to come up and share their feelings.

This was an emotional moment as the younger generation spoke of their fear for the future because of what this generation was not doing which is to protect Samoan customary lands and their civil rights.

They feared what kind of future they would inhabit. One young lady who came from the furthest point from Salelologa to participate had left her village in the early morning paying $10 fare to and $10 back, in order to march for her rights. She was firm in her commitment to be at the march and nothing was going to prevent her from that goal. She stirred the crowd with her fearless speech. She was identified as a potential leader for that district.

This was the highlight of the day. To witness the passion of the younger generation and see that they were not passive nor were they going to allow their future to be sold by corrupt and misguided politicians.

They had faith and had come to show their faith by marching.

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The Mau a Pule was alive and well in Savaii. Lauaki Mamoe and his supporters from the early 1900s must have celebrated in the spirit world when they saw or heard of this March. This was the birth place of Samoan Independence and it was now the center of the Mau reborn movement.

Meanwhile 1000 miles south of Samoa in Mangere, New Zealand, the Samoan community of South Auckland united to march in solidarity with those marching in Salelologa.

The President of New Zealand, Puleiti Clara Gray was very happy with the turn out at their march, which exceeded their expectations as well. They had a group of nearly 100 marchers who came together and showed their passion for the same issue.

This was an increase of nearly 200% over the previous march. The marchers sang songs and chants that were heard echoing throughout Mangere. One of the best features of their march as a group of young marchers in their 4-10 years old marching and holding placards while all wearing the T Shirts and uniforms of the march.

We ask that God bless all who marched and those who contributed world wide for this event to be successful, either through Go Fund Me or direct contributions to Samoa.

The support was used to provide the marchers with water, tents, food and loud speakers to hear the speakers. The event was a success, not because of one person, but due to all the hands that worked together to make this a success. S.S.I.G. Global Samoa had made a commitment and had followed through to achieve their goal. They were able to make their march a success due to the support from all over the world. Apparently team work works. Malo faafetai.
The Samoa Meteorology Office has issued a warning for heavy rain for the rest of Samoa. This according to their latest weather update, indicates that flooding and landslide are possible in vulnerable areas.

An active convergence zone remains within the vicinity of Samoa, the warning says.

Associated rain and gusty winds affects the group at times.

The bad weather is part of the developments brought by Tropical Cyclone Keni.

Cyclone Keni is expected to be closest to Fiji about midday today, on the tail of a week of rain and Cyclone Josie the previous weekend.

The director of the Fiji Met Service, Ravindra Kumar, said Cyclone Keni is expected to be about 120 kilometres off Nadi by this afternoon.

He said on its current southeasterly trajectory it will come within about 100 kilometres to the south of Kadavu Island.

Mr. Kumar said the cyclone is expected to become a category two storm as it approaches Fiji.

He said "we have got a storm warning for parts of the main island [Viti Levu] and as it comes closer this storm warning will be expanded to most of Viti Levu, the Lau and Lomaiviti group, as well as Kadavu and nearby smaller islands".

Ravindra Kumar said they are anticipating 150 millimetres over 24 hours particularly in the Western Division, which is already sodden after last week's rain.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak said Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He said the "profits are all based on the user's info, but the users get none of the profits back."

Wozniak said he'd rather pay for Facebook.

"Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you," he said.

In an interview late Monday in Philadelphia with The Associated Press, Wozniak said he had been thinking for a while of deleting his account and made the move after several of his trusted friends deleted their Facebook accounts last week.

It's "a big hypocrisy not respecting my privacy when (Facebook CEO Mark) Zuckerberg buys all the houses around his and all the lots around his in Hawaii for his own privacy," Wozniak said.

"He knows the value of it, but he's not looking after mine."

A British data mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's Republican presidential campaign gathered personal information from 87 million Facebook users to try to influence elections.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, has announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.

Zuckerberg has apologized, and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, has said she's sorry the company let so many people down.

Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company's ongoing data privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

Wozniak said he doesn't believe in the current system that Facebook can fix its privacy issues, saying he doesn't think Facebook is going to change its policies "for decades."

Wozniak said Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, has systems and policies that in many cases allow people to choose whether to share certain data. He said he doesn't foresee Apple not allowing the Facebook app to be bought or downloaded on its phones but said he does not make those decisions for the company.
Dear Editor,

So, given all the information as explained in the first part of my letter yesterday, I do believe, we can now draw a conclusion about the truth in (Romans 13:1-6). The truth is that the governing authorities in (Romans 13:1-6) are referring to the servants of God in the government of God at Church. If (Romans 13:1-6) is referring to the State government or the civil government then that sort of claim makes (Romans 13:1-6) a direct contradiction to the rest of the Bible. Not only that, but it also tells us that Paul himself was contradicting himself about his messages to the Christians of all Gentile churches he established.

That is, if it is really true that the governing authorities Paul encourages Christians to be submitted to are rulers and ministers of the State government or the civil government then what is the purpose of the government of God on earth? What is the point of Christ on earth? Did God call Paul to promote authorities and governments of other nations He disapproved since the beginning of Israels journey? And why did Paul and Luke teach a different message that is against Pauls messages in (Romans 13:1-6) according to the Scriptures as quoted below?

(1 Corinthians 6:1-4) Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?

(Acts 13:45-47) But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

(Acts 17:6-7) But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king  Jesus.

(Acts 26:17-18) I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I know send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance by faith in Me.

(Acts 28:30) Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

Finally, the governing authorities in the government of God such as rulers and ministers are based on Christs standard or the SHOULDER of Christ. It is not based on the person who sits at the table. It is not based on standards of kings of other nations such as greatness, power and force. It is based on the standards of the King of Israel; Jesus Christ.

The leaders of our national government are members of different Churches. They must always use the shoulder standard like Christ carried the cross on His shoulder to His death to serve our country. In other words, the leaders of our national government should never use greatness, power and force to rule our country. Samoa is not exile or in captivity. Samoa is under freedom because of the yoke and the cross that Christ carried on His shoulder.

If they need or want something out of the government of God, then ask first. The commandments and the Law of God are fixed principles and fixed authorities. Apart from that, if they need or want something out of customary lands such as mortgages then ask first.

The meaning of Article 102 and 109 in the Constitution about customary land is asked first. Use discussion and conversation like Jesus did to His disciples, the sinners, the poor and others in order to sort out their problems and the problems of the nation.

Samoa is founded on God is the reference of God that was framed by the Founding Fathers on the Constitution of Samoa. It is also the same reference to the faith of the Founding Fathers. They were not Church Ministers, they were not Lawyers, they did not have Doctors qualifications but they were saints because they were ruling in fear of God.

Nanai Malonuu Lealaiauloto Nofoaiga
Nothing is impossible with God.

That is the humble reaction from Violina Seumanutafa and Nuumua Joe Seumanutafa, the parents of Sanele Mao.

The 32-year-old won Samoas first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, on Monday.

At their Vaitele fou home yesterday, Mrs. Seumanutafa said they are extremely proud of their sons achievement.

She said their prayers had been answered and even Maos hard work has paid off.

We are extremely satisfied and proud of the magnificent achievement by Mao but at the same time we are grateful to God for his guidance and protection upon our son during his preparation and even when he stepped up on the battlefield."

We want Gods name to be glorified by our sons achievement because we have been praying and fasting for his competition, so all the glory goes back to him."

Even before he left for the Commonwealth Games, his last words to us were to keep praying and to uplift his mission to God."

Mao spent the past three months at their Weightlifting teams training camp and we know that he had been working hard through his journey.

Mrs. Seumanutafa says they werent aware of the news until the photos were shared on Facebook about Mao.

She hopes their son has made Samoa proud.

His father was not at home at the time when we heard about it. He was shocked when we delivered the news, he was in tears and couldnt believe it.

Mr. Seumanutafa said he was excited about his sons achievement and at the same time he wants to thank the Lord for lifting the bar with his son.

What he had achieved is spectacular, not only for our nation, but for my Church and for my family."

This is a good way of marketing our country especially in a competition as big as the Commonwealth Games, and I hope that he had served our country well with his given talent.

Mrs. Seumanutafa added that Mao doesnt do much around their house. He is a good cook and she wants his younger siblings to learn from him.

Mr. Seumanutafa added they are looking forward to his return and his family will have a Church service to acknowledge Gods help.

Mao is expected to be back with his fellow weightlifters before the end of the week.
A man from Vaitele has been charged with murder following an incident where he is accused of running over a drinking buddy.

The incident occurred at Vaitele-Fou last Thursday.

This was confirmed by Police Media Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo.

On Thursday, 5th April, the Ministry was contacted about the death of a man from Vaitele-Fou, he said.

According to reports, the matter started when the deceased and the accuseds drinking session turned into an argument.

When the deceased got away, the accused got into his car and hit him. He died upon arriving at the hospital.

The accused has now been charged with murder.

He will appear before Court on 5 May 2018.

In another matter, Police have charged two men for marijuana possession.

They were travelling towards Apia in a taxi when the Police stopped them and found packets of marijuana.

They will appear before court on 16 April.

In another incident, a car travelling towards Apia crashed onto another vehicle at the village of Laulii.

Police report says the driver of the car slept which caused the accident. The driver is now charged with negligent driving causing injuries and he will appear before Court on 17 April.
With longtime chairman and chief executive Debra Reed retiring, San Diego-based energy giant Sempra Energy on Tuesday announced several top-tier management appointments as part of its succession plan.

The 61-year-old Reed last month announced she was stepping down as CEO and president on May 1 and will fully retire after a 40-year career on Dec. 1. At the same time, Jeff Martin was named CEO, and Joseph Householder was named president.

On Tuesday, the Fortune 500 company announced Householder has also been appointed chief operating officer, effective May 1.

The company also said, effective immediately, Dennis Arriola has been appointed Sempra Energys chief strategy officer and executive vice president of external affairs and South America. Previously, Arriola was Sempra Energys executive vice president of corporate strategy and external affairs, and now has added responsibility for oversight of the companys South American operations.

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Additionally, effective May 1, Trevor Mihalik has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Peter Wall has been named vice president, controller and chief accounting officer.

Todays appointments reflect the thoughtful implementation of our leadership succession plan and alignment of our organization with our strategic priorities, Martin said in a statement.

Mihalik and Wall each joined Sempra in 2012, continuing the companys tradition of hiring from within. Martin has been with Sempra Energy since 2004 and between 2014 and 2016 was CEO at San Diego Gas & Electric, one of Sempras subsidiaries.

Householder joined Sempra in 2001.

Reed is one of a few women to hold top executive positions in the energy industry and assisted in the $6.2 billion merger that created Sempra itself in 1998. Ten years earlier, Reed became the first female officer at Southern California Gas, which is another Sempra subsidiary.

Under Reeds leadership, the company reported the day Reed announced she was stepping down, Sempra Energys market value has more than doubled to nearly $29 billion.

Sempra Energy stock finished the trading day at $111.68, down 10 cents.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

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Saffron, an India Street staple for more than three decades, is expanding to La Jolla, where a new restaurant will open in June.

The planned 2,000-square-foot eatery, which will occupy a now closed Chipotle on Torrey Pines Road, marks the first new Saffron since former owner and founder Su-Mei Yu sold the restaurant to San Diego hospitality firm Karinas, which has a number of its own restaurants in the county.

When Karinas decided to take over ownership in 2016, the restaurant group said it planned to open a new Saffron each year, with the guidance of Yu, who remains a presence in the restaurant. While still passionate about Thai cooking, Yu no longer had the capital and energy to grow the business.

La Jolla seemed the next logical location considering it is where Yu lives and that so many customers had been requesting a move there, said David Contreras Curiel, a partner with Karinas Group.

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Im thrilled to expand Saffron to La Jolla, Yu said in a written statement. Customers have been asking me for years to add more locations, but I havent found the right opportunity until now.

Curiel said the company is now looking beyond San Diego County and California for possible new locations, not only for Saffron but also for Karinas Ceviches & More, which has a location next door to the Saffron on India.

Curiel said Monday that he was recently in Houston exploring the possibilities of opening a Saffron or a Karinas  or both. The focus for now will be on fast casual outlets as opposed to full service restaurants

We hear Houston is a great market and wanted to check it out and we really did like it, he said. We have close relationships with the malls where we have other restaurants, so we are exploring different territories and states. But we definitely have to make sure its the right move.

There is also interest in more San Diego County locations, potentially in North County, Curiel added.

Building out the new La Jolla location is expected to cost about $250,000, Curiel estimates. The decor will mirror that of the existing restaurant, with its earth tones, dark flooring and generous use of brick accents. The restaurant will have an outdoor patio that will account for an extra 800 square feet of dining space.

While the traditional menu with such favorites as Thai grilled chicken, salad rolls and noodle dishes will remain, the restaurant group is looking at adding gelatos and ice cream specially made for Saffron, as well as wine on tap, Curiel said. He is also looking at incorporating the popular daily specials into the regular menu.

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lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

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Ride-hailing giant Uber is buying the electric-bike startup Jump Bikes, adding bike sharing to its transportation options.

Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi announced Monday that his company had reached a deal to acquire Jump, which operates dockless bike-sharing services in San Francisco and the District of Columbia.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. TechCrunch reported last week that the sale could exceed $100 million.

Were committed to bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app  so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where youre going, whether thats in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more, Khosrowshahi said in a blog post.

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The deal comes a few months after Uber launched a pilot program to integrate Jump services into the Uber app in San Francisco. The pilot, which enables people to find and reserve the bikes through the Uber app, is off to a very strong start, Khosrowshahi said.

Ubers move to acquire Jump signals the companys willingness to continue to expand its reach beyond its core ride-hailing services. Uber has been working to partner with fixed transit systems and pursuing autonomous vehicle ventures, food delivery services and now bike sharing.

Both Uber and Jump say the goal is to offer multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app, to give users options to fast and affordable transportation and make it easier to live without owning a car.

Were excited to begin our next chapter and to play a significant part in the transition of Uber to a multi-modal platform, Jump Bikes founder and Chief Executive Ryan Rzepecki said in blog post Monday. Joining Uber presents us with the opportunity to realize our dreams faster and at a much larger scale.

The Jump brand will continue as part of the Uber family, Rzepecki said.

The neon red bikes available for rent in the nations capital and the Bay Area are part of a growing market for dockless bike sharing. Dockless bike share companies are expanding across the U.S., giving riders the freedom to locate GPS-tracked bikes through apps, unlock them and ride them from wherever the last user left them.

In Washington, Jump is one of five dockless bike operators. It has deployed about 200 bicycles in the city and has become one of the most popular bike services, with each bike averaging 3.5 trips daily and 11 miles per day, according to a company spokeswoman.

The bikes feature an electric motor in the front wheel and a battery concealed in the frame. Unlike other dockless systems, which can be left wherever theres sidewalk space, Jump bikes must be locked to a bike rack with an integrated U-lock that is held magnetically to the frame. It costs $2 for 30 minutes of ride time.
The Grossmont Healthcare Districts governing board last month gave grants totaling more than $100,000 to three local health care clinics that serve low-income and uninsured East County residents.

The grant recipients were the La Maestra Family Clinic ($35,000), Family Health Centers of San Diego ($40,276) and Vista Hill Foundation ($30,000).

The grant for La Maestra will provide dental and orthodontic services, including screenings, education and specialty treatment, to patients who visit its four dental offices. La Maestra operates two dental clinics in El Cajon at 1032 Broadway and 183 South First St., and two others in Lemon Grove at 7139 Broadway in Lemon Grove, 7967 Broadway in Lemon Grove.

A fifth dental clinic at 1341 East Main St. in El Cajon is expected to open this fall. La Maestra officials said its dental clinics work with about 55,000 patients annually, including an expected 7,000 patients projected for the clinic in El Cajon once it opens.

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The grant for Family Health Centers will go toward a new peer navigation program that helps recently discharged hospital patients connect with behavioral health services at the Grossmont Family Counseling Center. There are two dozen Family Health Centers in San Diego County, including two in El Cajon, one in Spring Valley and one in Lemon Grove.

Grossmont Family Counseling Center, a mental health facility, is next to Sharp Grossmont Hospital and has been assisting discharged patients since January 2017. The new peer navigation program will include follow-up with patients, family members and friends. The hope is that patients will be less likely to need to visit the hospitals emergency department.

The grant for Vista Hill Foundation, a social services nonprofit, will go toward helping pregnant and parenting women and their newborn infants and young children as part of its Vista Hill ParentCare Family Recovery Center in La Mesa.

The recovery center provides mothers considered high risk and their children with services including daily substance abuse treatment, parenting skills training and on-site specialized child care. The grant will help cover services such as psychiatric care to address mental health disorders, domestic violence, chemical dependency and homelessness.

The Grossmont Healthcare District formed in 1952 to build and operate Grossmont Hospital. It serves as landlord of Sharp Grossmont Hospital and owns the property and buildings on behalf of East County taxpayers. The district is governed by a five-member board of directors that represent more than 500,000 people residing within 750 square miles.

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karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
The Lemon Grove City Council has denied an appeal by Jilette Yousif of KIM Investments, LLC, to operate a medical marijuana dispensary.

By a 4-1 vote, the City Council on April 3 upheld a decision by the citys Development Services Department rejecting an application from KIM for a permit to open a dispensary in the 3500 block of Harris Street.

City Councilman David Arambula cast the lone no vote.

In November 2016, Lemon Grove voters passed Proposition V, which allowed medical marijuana dispensaries in the city with certain restrictions, including not being allowed to open within 1,000 feet of certain protected uses, including a licensed daycare.

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As City Councilman Jerry Jones explained, for a medical marijuana dispensary to open in the city, there are four steps:

Applying for and receiving a zoning clearance showing no sensitive uses such as daycares, playgrounds or schools;

Applying for a conditional-use permit;

Filling out and completing the permit;

Getting City Council approval.

In March 2018, Development Services Director David DeVries told Yousif and the KIM group that its permit request would be denied because the groups proposed dispensary at 3515-3521 Harris St. was within 1,000 feet of a state-licensed daycare.

The daycare, at 3335 Citrus St., had previously shut its doors in November 2017, leaving an opportunity for a qualified dispensary to move in.

A short time after the daycare closed, KIM was cleared by the citys zoning laws. But the daycare was re-licensed in February.

Pam Epstein, a cannabis land-use and zoning expert hired by KIM, told the City Council that the dispensary had requested an application for a business permit in-between the time the daycare closed and then reopened. She said that fact was enough to prove that Yousif and KIMs dispensary should take precedence over the daycare.

However, DeVries told the City Council that the KIM groups conditional-use permit for the business had not been filled out in full and was missing necessary information, and that was why it hadnt gotten the OK to proceed.

The same group had previously requested a zoning clearance at the same spot in March 2017, and was denied because of the Citrus Street daycare. No appeal was filed at that time. There was also another, different licensed daycare in the area that had also surrendered its license.

Arambula said he was concerned about the public hearing process that dispensaries go through and that certain protected uses might come out of the woodwork and testify, thus negating a medical marijuana businesss completed application for a conditional use permit.

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Jones requested that the city look into refining the approval process.

Because of the way (Proposition V) was written, we have to do something different with it in order to be fair, Jones said. To me, if in the third step, if an application is already completed and a daycare moves in, I think the medical marijuana business should take precedence. Thats fair.

Lemon Grove has had some pushback from prospective medical marijuana dispensaries since Prop. V was first passed in relation to daycare facilities because the city does not divulge where the daycare businesses are.

The city maintains that it is bound by the state of Californias confidentiality request that it cannot make public where those daycare facilities are.

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DeVries said the state does agree to share its list of licensed family daycares on the condition that Lemon Grove keep the list confidential.

In a report to the City Council, DeVries said that applicants have options in locating those daycare homes by canvassing their proposed location for other businesses which may prohibit their planned site; by conducting internet research regarding daycare facilities that advertise on the internet; or by phoning the DSS about daycare facilities in the community.

The City Council also voted to waive the citys prohibition regarding that particular prospective business in case it plans to apply again in the future. Lemon Grove permit regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries ban an applicant from reapplying for one year once denied.

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karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
The Oceanside Unified School District has launched a search for a new superintendent to replace Duane Coleman, who will retire in June.

The district hired national search firm Hazard, Young and Attea to conduct the search, which is expected to conclude in June. A candidate is expected to be hired in time to plan for the next school year that starts July 1.

Former San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Rudy Castruita will lead the search, with assistance from Joseph Farley, a former deputy superintendent for Oceanside, and superintendent for Capistrano Unified School District and Anaheim Union High School District.

They will hold focus groups and community and staff meetings to find out what qualities Oceanside families, teachers and others would like to see in the new superintendent. Once they crunch the results of those meetings, theyll draw up criteria for candidates, Farley said.

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Once the leadership profile is developed, that becomes the basis for evaluating and screening and interviewing candidates for the position, he said.

Coleman, 56, announced his retirement plans in February after four years as superintendent, and years before that as a teacher, principal and administrator in the district. Coleman is an Oceanside High School graduate and second-generation Oceanside educator whose mother taught at Laurel Elementary School.

Farley said most California positions are filled by administrators who are working in the state, but the firm recruits candidates nationally. He said he expects to receive about 30 to 40 applicants, and recommend five or six for interviews with the school board.

The new superintendent will probably earn a salary similar to what Coleman currently receives, Farley said. According to Transparent California, a state compensation database, Coleman earned $247,114 in base pay in 2016, with total compensation of $301,367.

Typical applicants have prior classroom teaching experience, as well as backgrounds in school administration in the role of principal, superintendent or assistant superintendent, Farley said. They should have expertise in curriculum and instruction, as well as strong interpersonal and business skills, he said.

Were seeing theres an interest in experience with budgeting and finance, because districts are facing reduced enrollment and reduced income, Farley said.

The Oceanside district serves 18,500 students at 23 schools and employs more than 2,000 teachers and other staff. School officials have warned that the district faces spending deficits this year and next year, and the district declared a qualified budget in January, which means that it may not be able to meet all its financial obligations.

This month, Farley and Castruita will hold meetings with school district administrators and cabinet members and labor leaders.

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Starting at the end of the month, it will also hold community meetings for students, parents, and other interested residents. Those meetings will be:

Wednesday, April 25, 6 p.m., community parent meeting, Mission Elementary multipurpose room, 2100 Mission Ave.

Thursday, May 3, 6:30 p.m., Cesar Chavez Middle School multipurpose room, 202 Oleander Drive.

Monday, May 7, 6:30 p.m., El Camino High School, Truax Theater, 400 Rancho Del Oro Drive.

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This story has been modified to reflect the correct background of Former San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Rudy Castruita.

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deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
Stefan Edgerly (Courtesy photo )

Friends and family, co-workers and the children he taught in the Carlsbad Unified School District have not forgotten educator Stefan Edgerly, who died in 2016 at age 42.

Theyll gather again to remember him at a fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 12 for the scholarship fund established in his name. It takes place at Gregorios restaurant at 300 Carlsbad Village Drive (in the Village Faire), which is donating 20 percent of all sales to the Edge Scholarship Fund for Carlsbad High School students.

Edgerly was an alumnus of the Carlsbad district, having been a student at Magnolia Elementary, Valley Middle and Carlsbad High schools. After graduating from Cal State San Marcos, he taught at Aviara Oaks Middle School after a couple of years teaching third grade at Pacific Rim Elementary. He handled many different subjects, including English and social studies, but he loved teaching art above all, said his mother, Sandra Hadder.

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And he loved the kids. He went to their games, attended their events, gave them support. He was also involved in Where Everybody Matters (WEB), a program in which eighth-graders helped sixth-graders make a smooth transition to middle school.

To me, he was the kind of guy who had a positive impact on everyone around him, said Bryan Brockett, Aviara Oaks principal at the time and now principal at Carlsbad High. His impact expanded beyond the classroom. He was just a fun guy to be around.

Edgerly went back to school to get a second minor in art so he could pursue his dream of being an art teacher. But he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in March 2016, and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

We were blessed we were able to have him here and assist him, said Hadder. He fought for six months  the most horrible six months. He was in such pain. But he had so much support.

The community, colleagues and the kids rallied, following his progress and posting positive, loving messages to the web page set up at posthope.org/stefans-journey.

In September 2016, he was going to be the art teacher, recalled Hadder. The principal brought Stefan the keys to the classroom and told him he was the art teacher, even though he wasnt able to do it. He got to sit in the classroom. But it was beyond obvious that this wasnt going to happen.

Stefan Edgerly died Oct. 14, 2016, at Scripps Memorial Hospital-Encinitas. They took such good care of us, his mother said. They gave him more care than we were able to give him. Stefan was such an infectious personality, such a gracious man to the end. The staff came to the funeral.

So did many of his students. It was the most amazing thing, Hadder said. These kids just poured their hearts out at the service. Losing a favorite teacher whos young was not to be expected. We did our best to try to help them through this.

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The service was held on the Aviara Oaks campus, where family, former classmates, students and parents overflowed the 600 seats set up in the gym. Edgerlys family allowed the students to scrawl messages of love in marker on his truck; they also provided notepaper for them to write messages to Edge and his family.

It was definitely a blow to the school, said Brockett. We had families that had known him since he taught elementary school. He was loved by his colleagues.

Two teachers helped create the scholarship fund, launched with a fundraiser at That Pizza Place in Carlsbad. Two scholarships of $1,000 each were awarded. This year, Gregorios restaurant will host the fundraiser.

You look for ways to keep his spirit alive, said Hadder of her son. It takes a very special person to be a middle school teacher. The kids are kind of struggling with their own inner beasts at that age. Stefan was perfect for middle school. And the parents loved him. He was so encouraging. He helped their kids get through.

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Hadder recently shared one of the notes written by a student at the service: I never had Mr. Edgerly as a teacher, but he was always as encouraging as humanly possible. He told me to chase my dreams; I could go to Princeton. He always said he would be the first to contribute to my college fund: $25. Mr. Edgerly has changed me forever.

Inspired by the note, Hadder reached out and contacted the student this month  and sent that check for $25.

She DID have the grades to apply to Princeton! Hadder reported in a subsequent email. She didnt get accepted but she chased her dreams. Stefan would be SO proud!

To donate, make check out to Carlsbad High School and put Stefan Edgerly Scholarship Fund in the memo line. Mail to Carlsbad High School, Attn. ASB Finance, 3557 Lancer Way, Carlsbad CA 92008.

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laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
The San Diego County District Attorneys office has charged National City Treasurer Mitchel Beauchamp with multiple counts of animal cruelty and other misdemeanors, court records show.

The six counts, which carry $1,000 fines or sentences of 90 days to a year, include animal cruelty, unlawful removal of game, unlawful trapping and harassment of animals, according to a complaint dated April 9.

Beauchamps lawyer, Thomas Warwick, said Monday he had no comment on the charges. Beauchamp did not immediately respond to an email and voicemail.

The alleged cruelty happened between June 19, 2017, and August 1, 2017. Prosecutors say Beauchamp did maliciously and intentionally maim, mutilate, torture, wound and kill an animal, which is a misdemeanor.

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Other charges include violations of the states Fish & Game Code, such as unlawfully trapping skunks and opossums.

The complaint does not say how many animals were killed or how.

Beauchamp previously served as a National City council member from 1994 to 2002 and is a trained botanist who owns a natural resource consultant company called Pacific Southwest Biological Services, according to his bio.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter
Israel faced international blowback on Tuesday over the bombardment of Syrias largest air base, a center for the Iranian military effort to support Syrian President Bashar Assad. Although it has not acknowledged a role in the attack, Israel is widely believed to have carried it out.

Lebanon announced it would complain to the United Nations about the Israeli intrusion into its airspace. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the strike as a dangerous development in the Syrian civil war, now in its eighth year, and Israels ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow for a rebuke.

The bombing of the air base, known as T4, came the day after reports emerged from Syria of a suspected chemical weapon attack on civilians in Damascus rebel-held suburb of Duma. It was unclear whether there was any connection between the two events.

In Damascus, Ali Akbar Velayati, the diplomatic advisor to Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued an open threat to Israel on Tuesday after the Iranian government said it had lost seven personnel in the strike.

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Asked by the official Iranian news agency to address crimes committed by the Zionists against the Syrian forces and defenders of the holy shrines in the Al Tifour Airport, an alternate name for the air base, Velayati said: The crimes will not remain unanswered. Victory is near.

Both Russia and Syria have denied that the Assad government was behind the chemical attack  if it even occurred. The Russian Embassy in Israel condemned what it called the hasty conclusion made in Israel in regard to the fake chemical attack in Duma. The truth is that there is no evidence of any chemical attack in Duma at all.

As is customary, Israeli officials refused to comment on the bombing. But on a visit to an emergency command center along Israels northern border with Syria, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman alluded to Israels concerns over Irans entrenchment in Syria and its fear that President Trump may order the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, as he has proposed.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrives for the inauguration of an underground military operation center in the Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the Golan Heights on April 10, 2018. (Jalaa Marey / AFP/Getty Images )

Israel views Iran as its greatest enemy, and a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat.

I dont know what happened there and who attacked, Lieberman said of the Syrian strike. I know one thing with certainty: We will not allow the Iranians to establish themselves in Syria, whatever the price may be. We have no other choice.

Allowing Iran to remain in Syria, he said, was akin to agreeing to the Iranians placing a noose around our necks. We will not allow it.

Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative reporting site Bellingcat, said in an interview that, in addition to a strictly military purpose, bombing T4 may serve as an Israeli signal to a wavering Trump that it is possible to respond militarily against Russia and Syria in the Syrian arena.

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This, he says, is what drew Russian ire. Russia clearly sees it as a threat, he said.

Trump has said he will make a major decision in the next day about how to react to the suspected chemical attack. The White House has not commented specifically about the apparent Israeli airstrike. In Israel, there is concern that the countrys traditional allies are not speaking out in support of its position.

Interviewed on Israels Army Radio, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked alluded to Israels growing realization that the rest of the world may not share its uncompromising stance regarding Iranian entrenchment along its northern border.

I hope the international community will join our efforts not to allow Iran a permanent presence on our border, she said, but if the international community does not, well act to prevent this on our own.

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Alex Grinberg, an expert in Tel Aviv on the Mideast, Russia and Iran at the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, said Israels alarm at the situation in Syria is roughly equivalent to its outrage over the nuclear deal President Obama signed with Iran, over strenuous objections from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even if Trump retaliates with great force  not contenting himself with a symbolic missile salvo at empty buildings  it wont change the balance between the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and other Iran-affiliated forces with Israel, he said.

If Trump withdraws U.S. troops from Syria, he added, it will be a real gain for Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Irans Khamenei.

ALSO

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What if your favorite app got banned? Thats becoming a reality for millions in Iran

In an abrupt turnaround, Netanyahu cancels deal to resettle African migrants in Israel. Now what?

Saudi crown prince says Israelis, Palestinians both have right to have their own land

Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.
The court-martial trial of three SEALs accused of committing war crimes began with a flurry of motions Monday morning inside the courtroom of Naval Base San Diego.

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Daniel V. Dambrosio Jr. and two Special Operator Chief Petty Officers  Xavier Silva and David N. Swarts  stand accused of abusing unknown male prisoners at Village Stability Platform Kalach in the Chora District of Afghanistans Uruzgan Province on May 31, 2012.

A trial for their commander, Navy Lt. Jason L. Webb, waits in the wings.

The Navys top attorney might have scuttled a war crimes case against three SEALs by unlawfully meddling behind the scenes to bring charges against them.

After a flurry of Monday motions in the courtroom of Navy Cmdr. Arthur Gaston, the military judge ruled that Vice Adm. James Crawford III  the Navys judge advocate general  appears to have exerted unlawful command influence in a case first brought to light by a 2015 story in The New York Times.

The burden now shifts to military prosecutors to prove that Crawford, Naval Special Warfare Commands Rear Adm. Timothy Szymanski and other senior leaders never created the appearance of behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

In the case at hand, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Daniel V. Dambrosio Jr. and two Special Operator Chief Petty Officers  Xavier Silva and David N. Swarts  are accused of abusing male prisoners at Village Stability Platform Kalach in the Chora District of Afghanistans Uruzgan Province on May 31, 2012.

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A June trial for their commander, Navy Lt. Jason L. Webb, waits in the wings but could be scuttled by the judges ruling, too.

Although military officials insist the SEALs defense team was searching for evidence that didnt exist, the attorneys for the three commandos pointed to a series of actions by Crawford and other high-ranking commissioned officers, including now-retired Rear Adm. Brian Losey, the former commander of Coronado-based Naval Special Warfare.

For example, defense attorneys say that although Losey was hedging at reopening a probe into the SEALs, Crawford told him that a captain was being scrutinized for allegedly bypassing traditional investigative processes  possibly sending a warning to junior leaders that the Navy wanted the commandos prosecuted.

Its now the third time Crawford has been accused of unlawfully plotting with military leaders to convict SEALs.

A ruling is expected in the coming days from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., into Crawfords alleged involvement in the rape case of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Keith Barry, who was court-martialed and convicted in San Diego in 2015.

A special judge hearing evidence in Barrys appeal already ruled that Crawford and others unlawfully tampered in the matter but left the final adjudication to the higher court.

Crawford also was accused by defense attorneys of unlawfully inserting himself into a probe involving the May 6, 2016, pool drowning of Seaman James Derek Lovelace during initial SEAL training. He has long insisted he was innocent in those cases and declined comment on Monday.

The prosecution has opposed the defense motion to dismiss based on unlawful command influence in US v. Dambrosio, Silva and Swartz, and the judges ruling on the matter is forthcoming, Navy spokeswoman Patricia Babb said by email. It would be inappropriate to discuss this case further, as it is Navy policy to not comment on ongoing or pending litigation.

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Military prosecutors suspect that the three SEALs and several village militiamen began committing war crimes hours after a bomb detonated at an Afghan Local Police checkpoint.

Called ALP, they were part of an ad hoc mix of armed militiamen that fall under the control of Kabuls Interior Ministry but often are trained and led by SEALs or Army Green Berets.

Angered by the death of one of their militiamen in the blast, the Afghan police unit detained a group of Afghan men and marched them to the American compound near Kalach, kicking them and beating them with rifle butts and car antennas, according to witness statements compiled in a Navy Criminal Investigative Service report.

Relying on the recollections of four American soldiers, two Navy support personnel and a local Afghan police officer who allegedly witnessed and reported parts of the incident, prosecutors believe that Dambrosio, Silva and Swarts joined in with the militiamen and, by the end of the night, one Afghan prisoner died.

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An Army witness later claimed that a senior Afghan police officer told him that the prisoners, including the dead detainee, were innocent.

The NCIS probe determined that Dambrosio, of Naval Special Warfare Group Training Detachment, assaulted one unknown man by grabbing his throat and striking his chest with a rock. He also pulled out his service pistol, placed it near a bound prisoners head and fired it in order to terrify him, military investigators say.

A member of Special Reconnaissance Team 2, Silva allegedly dragged an unidentified detainee by the neck, struck his chest with a rock, kicked him and at one point placed his body weight on his body to crush him.

Likewise accused of firing his pistol near a prisoners head, SEAL Team 5s Swarts also allegedly struck a man with a rock. Hes also been charged with conspiring with his commander, SEAL Team 10s Lt. Jason L. Webb, to lie to military leaders about what really happened that night.

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Prosecutors allege that Swarts and Webb discussed filing a fake statement with their superiors and mulled submitting alternative versions of what really happened, omitting key details in their official report.

Because he was the senior SEAL during the incident, Webbs charges are the most serious.

Hes accused of willfully failing to supervise the interactions between his sailors and the Afghan militiamen when they interrogated the prisoners. Instead, Webb retreated to his office for the duration of the interactions to avoid supervising the situation and the U.S. personnel, according to his charge sheet.

Instead of sending a report warning his chain of command about the alleged war crimes, he sent a bogus message indicating only that an Afghan militiaman died in an explosion and that the village police officers swift actions, decision making, and communication skills reflect that they are well prepared to handle situations of this magnitude, court filings state.

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He also allegedly urged an Army staff sergeant to never talk about how the SEALs abused the prisoners, part of an effort to impede a criminal probe, federal agents believe.

Not that it initially mattered because neither Webb nor his men ended up at a court-martial in 2012, after allegations of the war crimes surfaced.

Their commander, Capt. Robert E. Smith, gave them non-judicial punishment. Called a Captains Mast in the Navy, its a far less severe form of justice and its proceedings play out in private, far from public courtrooms and a paper trail citizens can follow.

Smith later said that he believed some of the statements against the SEALs were shaky and senior staff advisers had urged him to forgo whats called Article 32 proceedings, which are similar to a grand jury probe launched by federal prosecutors in civilian courts.

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Allegations by the soldiers that the SEALs tried to cover it all up reverberated across a Navy already reeling from multiple scandals, including the ongoing Fat Leonard Navy bribery case.

After the 2015 story in The New York Times, the Navy launched probes not only into what the SEALs allegedly did in Afghanistan but also the process Smith used to sidestep court-martial proceedings against them.

Smiths name was scrubbed from a selection list for admiral, although prosecutors said Monday his delayed promotion now has been forwarded to the White House for approval.

In his Monday ruling, Cmdr. Gaston seized on actions taken against Smith, reasoning that they could have sent a perceptible chill over the military criminal justice system by warning future commanders that they also wouldnt get promoted if they didnt prosecute the SEALs.

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If it was known to (Rear Adm.) Losey it would be known to Szymanski when he took over, Gaston said.

On Jan. 19, 2017, the three enlisted SEALs were charged with war crimes by Szymanski and nearly eight months later Navy Region Southwest commander Rear Adm. Yancy B. Lindsey forwarded their prosecutions to a general court-martial trial in San Diego.

The top military prosecutor in the war crimes case, Cmdr. Andrea Lockhart, vowed to press the Navys view that even if Crawford and others discussed the SEALs it doesnt mean other commanders such as Szymanski and Lindsey failed to rely on evidence uncovered by news reporters and NCIS to make independent decisions to charge the sailors.

And the defense will keep trying to seek more than 200 emails and documents that Navy officials have withheld from them. They believe more evidence of high-ranking meddling might be found in them.

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The hearings resume on Tuesday morning with the prosecution expected to submit statements from top admirals insisting that they reached their decisions to charge the SEALs without concerns about what Crawford or other more senior leaders wanted.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
They had been waiting for the moment for years.

After the sermon, and before Communion, their priest, the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, stood before them in resplendent white vestments and proclaimed simply but exuberantly, Welcome to St. James.

From pews that had sat empty for three years, a packed house at St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach rose Sunday to embrace Voorhees like a rock star with cheers and whistles.

It was the first service since 2015 at the church, which had been locked and mired in an emotional ecclesiastical and legal battle as the past bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles twice tried to sell the land to developers, incurring church sanctions before his retirement. A flock stayed together, following Voorhees to services at a park, in a museum and, for the last year, a community room at Newport Beach City Hall.

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The past was inescapable Sunday, but so was the present.

Sue Rawlings brought her Havanese, Rawlie, as she always does  dogs are welcome at St. James Mass  and without prompting the little dog, with red bows in her silky ears, trotted down the aisle directly to Rawlings usual pew  to the right and two rows from the front.

Rawlings knows that church isnt necessarily a building, but she longed to see the brilliant, centerpiece stained-glass window.

I missed the pews, and I missed the kneelers, she said.

Rawlings was one of the many faithful nomads. She expected emotion to overcome her when she crossed the threshold into the consecrated space of the sanctuary.

But when I walked into that church, I felt like I was home, she said. This is where we belong.

When Bishop John Taylor was installed as head of the diocese late last year, he was tasked with mending the wounds caused by his predecessors attempts to sell the property. Former Bishop J. Jon Bruno locked the church in 2015, around the time of his first sale attempt to townhouse developers. Another attempted transaction in 2017 fell through and, ultimately, the diocese decided to reopen to worshipers.

Taylor preached a message of reconciliation and unity Sunday, a message that church leaders have been focused on for months now.

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Reconciliation, my friends, is for any herder who has squabbled with another, he said, referencing the property conflict in Genesis between the prosperous shepherds Abram and Lot.

The congregants were joyful throughout the service, which included Sunday school pupils making their formal entrance led by a boy carrying a child-scaled processional cross.

Welcome home, people of St. James Episcopal Church, Taylor said.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

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Davis writes for Times Community News
Writer-director James Toback, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by scores of women over his decades in Hollywood, will not face criminal charges in five investigations into his conduct because the allegations are beyond the statute of limitations, the Los Angeles County district attorneys office said Monday.

The alleged victims in the five investigations conducted by the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments say they were abused from 1978 to 2008. The papers declining to file charges were signed Thursday by Deputy Dist. Atty. Liliana Gonzalez, who found the allegations were all too old to prosecute and, in one case, the alleged victim failed to appear for an interview.

The decision comes six months after The Times published several stories in which women made allegations against Toback.

It means that L.A. prosecutors currently have no cases outstanding against Toback. But they continue to mull whether to bring charges against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

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A veteran sex crimes deputy district attorney recently interviewed an actress who alleges Weinstein raped her at Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013. The LAPD completed its investigation and sent it to prosecutors. New York prosecutors are also considering charges against Weinstein.

The Toback allegations came in the wake of a New York Times article initially exposing sexual misconduct by Weinstein.

The most recent allegation reviewed by L.A. County prosecutors involved a woman who had dinner with Toback in the fall of 2008 and then agreed to accompany him to a private screening.

When she arrived at the home, she found Toback alone, according to the prosecutor. The suspect instructed the victim to masturbate in his presence. Victim reports she complied out of fear, the prosecutor wrote.

During that time, Toback sat in a chair by the door and then made her sit in the chair while he rubbed his groin on her bare leg until he ejaculated, according to the prosecutors review of the Beverly Hills police investigation. Gonzalez declined the case, citing a one-year statute of limitation for sexual battery.

The victims were identified only as Jane Does 1 through 5.

In October, a Los Angeles Times investigation detailed a four-decade pattern of behavior in which Toback approached women in New York and Los Angeles and boasted of his movie credits and relationships with stars such as Robert Downey Jr. Under the pretext of meeting with the women for interviews or auditions, he then asked explicit questions about the womens sexual histories, often proposing that they remove their clothes, the women said.

The encounters often ended, according to many of the women interviewed, with Toback performing a sexual act in front of them, ejaculating into his pants or onto their bodies.

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Toback, 73, denied the allegations to The Times, saying he had never met the women or, if he did, it was for five minutes and he has no recollection. He also repeatedly said that for the last 22 years it had been biologically impossible for him to engage in the behavior described by his accusers.

In the days since the article was published, nearly 400 women have contacted The Times to complain of their experiences with Toback.

Among the actresses who have spoken publicly about Toback are Julianne Moore, Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams. Blair alleged he threatened her life if she ever revealed their encounter.

In researching the five local cases, prosecutors found a pattern of similar behavior.

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In the 1978 allegation, a woman told Los Angeles police detectives that Toback pushed her against a wall after dinner and asked her for sex. She refused, but on the drive home, she alleged Toback exposed himself to her.

Two years later, another woman alleged Toback tried to persuade her to have sex with him while on a date. During that encounter, he repeatedly touched her chest and buttocks and attempted to kiss her, prosecutors said.

In 1993, Toback allegedly lured a woman to visit Los Angeles to discuss film roles. On the actress first trip, he allegedly solicited her for sex and she declined. But when she returned for a second visit  meeting at a Beverly Hills hotel  Toback knelt in front of her as she sat in a chair and repeatedly rubbed his groin against her leg until he ejaculated.

Victim reports that he did this four times over several hours, the prosecutor noted. Toback also allegedly used her sock foot to rub his groin until he ejaculated, according to the report.

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In February 2008, another woman alleged Toback rubbed his groin against her leg until he ejaculated, according to the prosecutor. The woman made a police report last fall to Beverly Hills police, but failed to appear for a scheduled interview and respond to follow-up inquiries, according to the prosecutor.

The prosecutor wrote that, based on what is known, the sexual battery was beyond the statute of limitations, but the case could be subject to further review if the victim comes forward again.

It remains unclear when prosecutors will decide whether to charge Weinstein.

The case involves an Italian model-actress who alleges Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel room five years ago. According to law enforcement sources, detectives believe the case is promising because the woman told her story to three people, including her priest, relatively soon after the alleged attack. LAPD detectives also have obtained bills showing she was at the hotel at the time, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

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Though the case is far from overwhelming  the sources said detectives have found little physical evidence of an attack and have been unable to secure proof that Weinstein was at the hotel when the woman says the rape occurred  prosecutors will have one additional weapon at their disposal: a California law that allows them to introduce allegations by other women, even those that do not result in criminal charges.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

UPDATES:

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5 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the Weinstein case.

This article was originally published at 2:40 p.m.
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said Tuesday that Californias courts should disclose the names of judges who entered into settlements to resolve complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination.

I want to make sure theres no ambiguity as to whether courts should be required to disclose those records now, Cantil-Sakauye said in a written statement.

The Times and other news organizations in California have sent requests to trial and appellate courts in the state asking for the names of judicial officers who have reached settlements to resolve accusations of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination.

Cantil-Sakauye said a court rule governing the matter does not make clear enough that these records should be disclosed.

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Judicial independence relies in part on judicial accountability, she said. The judiciary relies on the trust and confidence of the public it serves, and the public has a right to know how the judicial branch spends taxpayer funds.

She named five members of the Judicial Council, the administrative body for the courts, to revise the rule: Justice Marsha G. Slough, Judge Stacy Boulware-Eurie, Judge Kyle S. Brodie, and attorneys Gretchen Nelson and Rachel W. Hill.

The Judicial Council, which Cantil-Sakauye heads, will have to approve the rule change. A spokesman for the council said the rule could be revised within a month.

In March, the Judicial Council produced documents that showed Californias court system paid more than $500,000 over seven years to resolve sexual harassment complaints against judges and staff.

The Judicial Council said at the time that it could not reveal names because of attorney-client privilege and the court rule governing such disclosures.

The council acts as a lawyer for the courts in addition to doling out state money and providing services.

The legal office of the Judicial Council said in March that it would contact the courts and individuals involved in the settlements to find out if they would waive their privilege to allow for the records release.

The Times followed up by making separate requests for information to county and appellate courts. County courts can resolve sexual harassment cases without reporting to the Council.

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So far, Inyo County Superior Court, responding to a Times request, has said it had no cases to report. San Francisco Superior Court asked for additional time to research the request.

The California Legislature has disclosed 18 cases of sexual harassment involving lawmakers and staff, and identified the names of the legislators involved.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolan
When Robert DeLaurentis says he plans to go to the ends of the Earth, he is not kidding.

Proof sits in a hangar at El Cajons Gillespie Field.

Its a 1983 Gulf Stream Turbo Commander 900 plane modified like no other. Its twin Honeywell engines have been tweaked to achieve maximum efficiency, 750 horsepower each on takeoff and an altitude of 35,000 feet where the temperature drops to 76 degrees below zero. Six fuel tanks will be added to store 928 extra gallons of fuel, enough to ensure more than 5,000 nautical miles of travel without refueling. The small plane is propelled by giant custom five-bladed scimitar props and has a 52-foot wing span.

DeLaurentis plans to fly from the South Pole to the North Pole, hoping to break records for speed and distance for his class of plane en route.

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Meet the Citizen of the World, a seriously customized plane that will have six added fuel tanks during its polar circumnavigation flight, which begins this December. (Robert DeLaurentis photo )

On Dec. 15, he plans to leave from San Diego International Airport. The 52-year-old pilot aims to fly over the South Pole on Jan. 1 in full daylight before heading toward the North Pole, which will be shrouded in darkness.

DeLaurentis calls his plane Citizen of the World because his polar circumnavigation will take him on a journey of nearly 30,000 miles over more than 20 countries. The longest leg will cover 5,063 miles and take more than 18 hours to complete.

Nobody has ever attempted this in this weight class, said the San Diego real estate manager whose plane weighs 10,700 pounds. He called this the greatest thing he could do in an aircraft short of going into outer space.

DeLaurentis is no stranger to challenges. In 2015, I interviewed him after he circumnavigated the globe in a single-engine Piper Malibu Mirage named the Spirit of San Diego. He carried with him a rosary, a stone etched with Love and a bracelet given to him by a monk in Thailand. His solo adventure was chronicled in his book, Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion & the Journey Within, which he wrote to inspire others to go after their dreams.

The upcoming trip has a practical value as well. His plane will be carrying three scientific STEM experiments designed by students and teachers.

Ellen DeGeneres chats with Matthew Alvarado, left, and his spouse, Brian, on her April 9 show broadcast. Brian was named U.S. Navy Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse magazine, the first gay man selected for that honor. (Michael Rozman/Warner Bros. )

Military coup: Brian Alvarado and his husband, Matthew, hit the jackpot on Mondays Ellen show.

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Ellen DeGeneres had invited the San Diego couple on her program because Brian recently became the first LGBT spouse to be honored as U.S. Navy Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse magazine. Matthew has served 19 years in the Navy.

Brian now is among nominees to be named Military Spouse of the Year, representing all six branches of military service, next month in Washington, D.C.

He has been active in projects targeting the military community, such as Hiring Our Heroes, which helps veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses find jobs.

For my entire adult life, you have been a true inspiration for us to live as our authentic selves and not be defined by our sexuality, he told Ellen on Mondays show. Matthew then presented the talk show host with a military challenge coin in honor of her ongoing inspiration and civil service.

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Ellen surprised the couple with her a gift of her own  a $10,000 donation to Hiring Our Heroes from Walmart.

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diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: @dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
A new care clinic across the street from Sharp Grossmont Hospital looks like any other modern medical office suite but, from a certain perspective, its actually a pressure-release valve for the countys busiest emergency department.

As East Countys only full-service hospital, Grossmont has long been the closest option for a wide swath of inland San Diego, drawing from La Mesa out to Lakeside and beyond. But many who come, noted Scott Evans, Grossmonts chief executive, dont technically have an emergency.

We know that a good number of those patients, maybe even 30 percent, that are seen in the emergency room might be equally served in a lower-level clinic, Evans said.

Equipped with 14 exam rooms, the 6,500-square-foot clinic had a soft opening last week and is set to swing into full operation after a grand-opening ceremony Tuesday. The idea, Evans explained, is to let patients know about the clinic after they receive an initial workup in Grossmonts main ER.

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I dont want to discourage people from coming into the emergency room, but we will present the option if there is something thats available in the care clinic, Evans said.

In addition to higher costs, one of the big problems with treating non-emergency patients in emergency departments is that they often get stuck in the triage process, which prioritizes the most-severe injuries, meaning that lower-severity conditions get shunted a little further back in the line every time a patient with a more-severe medical problem arrives.

Thats frustrating, especially for uninsured patients who dont have access to an urgent-care provider. The clinic could also be a big help for follow-up care after a true emergency is treated. Often, emergency doctors ask a patient to return the next day to have a wound checked or a follow-up test that could just as easily be handled in a clinic.

They could schedule that follow-up appointment at the care clinic and be seen the next day to avoid re-admission, Evans said.

In 2016, the most recent year for which countywide data is available, Grossmonts ER handled 105,444 emergency encounters, slightly more than were handled by Palomar Medical Center in Escondido.That total put both facilities among the top-20-busiest in the state, though its difficult to make a precise ranking because some hospitals with multiple medical campuses operate under a single license and are added together in reporting from Californias Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

With the help of Proposition G, a $247 million public bond passed by voters in 2006, Grossmont rebuilt and enlarged its previous emergency department, but that has not allowed the medical center to keep pace with demand. ER Wait Watcher, an emergency room wait time website run by nonprofit investigative journalism firm ProPublica, lists Grossmonts most recent wait time as 4 hours and 35 minutes for patients who are treated and sent home and 7 hours 16 minutes for emergency patients who are admitted to the hospital.

But that data, Evans said, is out-of-date.

Today, Evans said, the waits are closer to two hours for patients with more minor emergencies such as cuts and bruises while four hours is more common for those with severe emergencies. The goal, he said, is to bring that four-hour number down to an average of three hours for the most-severe cases.

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Shifting non-emergencies outside the emergency department with the new care clinic is part of the recipe for reducing wait times, he said, but so is finding ways to free up beds in the main hospital for those who need to be admitted. Today, federal data suggests that transferring out of the ER and into Grossmonts inpatient wards takes 11 hours, on average.

Evans said that a big part of the hold up can be patients waiting for transfer to a skilled nursing facility in the community. Some, especially those who are homeless, may take longer to place, remaining in a hospital bed for much longer than they otherwise would.

Plans are underway to convert an underused 30-bed unit at the hospital for skilled nursing patients. When that unit comes online this summer, he said, it should also help relieve pressure on the emergency room.

Some of our work is determining how best we can place patients on the back end to create more capacity on the front end, Evans said.

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Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

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paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson
A coalition of community groups urged the San Diego County Board of Supervisors not to join in a lawsuit against Californias so-called sanctuary laws when it meets to weigh the issue next week.

The call came at a news conference in front of the county administration building downtown with representatives of several groups including the San Diego chapter of the ACLU, county labor unions, a minister and small businesses.

Next week the board is supposed to meet in closed session to discuss if the county will join a growing number of cities around the state joining in the suit which targets a suite of California laws that seek to blunt the administrations crackdown on unauthorized immigration.

One controversial law prohibits state and local police agencies from notifying federal officials in many cases when they have unauthorized immigrants in their custody who could be subject to deportation.

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At the news conference, the groups urged Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, who is running for a congressional seat as well as serving on the board, not to put the item on the docket for discussion. Barring that, the groups demanded that the entire board discuss the issue in an open session instead of a closed session, and then urged board members to vote no on joining the suit.

It sends the wrong message about how we in San Diego value our immigrants contributions, said Vilavanh Sanginthirath, owner of the small business San Diego Innovations and a board member of the group Business for Good.

Speakers said that the laws in dispute protect unauthorized immigrants living in the state, and reflect what they described as the states values of inclusiveness and fairness. Rolling back the state laws could have several effects, such as imperiling public safety by making those not here legally reluctant to report crimes to law enforcement, and slowing economic growth in immigrant-heavy sectors such as agriculture and hospitality.

The Trump administration says the Californias laws are an unconstitutional power grab away from the federal government, which historically has exerted authority over immigration issues.

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Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com
Seven top officials of the website Backpage.com, long accused of facilitating child sex trafficking, have been arrested after a grand jury in Phoenix issued a 93-count indictment alleging conspiracy, facilitating prostitution and money laundering.

The arrests come after the government seized all of Backpages websites around the world on Friday.

The indictment was unsealed Monday after all defendants made their first appearances before a magistrate in Phoenix. Among those charged are the sites founders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Carl Ferrer, the sites current owner was not charged. But the indictment claims the site continued to be financed by Lacey and Larkin and two other co-owners who all retained operational control of Backpage.

The indictment accuses Backpage of facilitating prostitution committed by those posting ads on the site, specifically citing 17 victims trafficked on Backpage, some as young as 14. Authorities also allege the company laundered some of the estimated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue the site has generated since its launch in 2004.

Virtually every dollar flowing into Backpages coffers represents the proceeds of illegal activity, according to the indictment.

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The government alleges that Backpage netted profits of more than $112 million in 2013 and more than $134 million in 2014. A Senate report issued last year said that Backpage ran sites for 943 locations in 97 countries and 17 languages.

In addition to the criminal counts, the government is seeking to seize 10 residences in California, Arizona, Texas and Illinois, 25 bank accounts and 35 website domains in the U.S. and 20 other countries.

Many of the ads published on Backpage depicted children who were victims of sex trafficking, the indictment states. Although Backpage has sought to create the perception that it diligently attempts to prevent the publication of such ads, the reality is that Backpage has allowed such ads to be published while declining  for financial reasons  to take necessary steps to address the problem.

Backpage has argued that it assists law enforcement in tracking down victims and perpetrators of crimes, which some police officials have corroborated, and is not a participant in the advertising on the site. Some in the sex worker industry say that removing Backpage from the Internet takes away a safe mechanism for screening clients, and that the ads will simply move to sites outside the country, or to social media.

The federal investigation in Phoenix was first disclosed by Backpage in a court filing in February 2017. Lacey and Larkin created Backpage in Phoenix as owners of the New Times alternative weekly newspaper chain, which became Village Voice Media Holdings after Lacey and Larkin bought the iconic New York weekly.

Backpages general counsel, Liz McDougall, did not return messages seeking comment. Larry Kazan, who told the Arizona Republic he was representing Lacey, also did not return a message.

Backpage is a classified ads website that grew after Craigslist.com stopped hosting Adult Services ads in 2010. Embedded among the ads for adult prostitutes on Backpage are solicitations for teenage girls and boys, anti-sex trafficking advocates said, enabling pimps to repeatedly sell children for sex. Though Backpage closed its Adult Services section in January 2017, the ads promptly reappeared in the Dating section, most recently with very little written copy accompanying photos of the males and females seeking dates.

Desiree Robinson, a 16-year-old girl in Chicago, was slain in 2016 after responding to an ad placed by her pimp on Backpage. Charles McFee pleaded guilty on April 3 to one count of sex trafficking conspiracy for recruiting her into a life that ultimately led to her slaying. McFee brought Robinson to a pimp, Joseph Hazley, who also faces charges in the case.

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Robinsons mother, Yvonne Ambrose, filed a lawsuit against Backpage, alleging the company knowingly facilitates sex traffickers.

For years, Backpage.com has been a major hub of sex trafficking, the place where some of our nations most vulnerable women and children have been bought and sold, said Lauren Hersh, national director of World Without Exploitation. The closure of Backpage removes one of the most prolific online platforms of exploitation. It is high time to hold websites accountable for the harm they knowingly cause by facilitating sexual exploitation.

Mary Mazzio, whose documentary I Am Jane Doe featured numerous women trafficked on Backpage said, I dont think any of the children who filed suit against Backpage ever thought their fight for justice would result in a federal indictment or a legislative response. That Congress and the Department of Justice would respond with urgency to the voices of these children, as well as survivors from across the country, who lined up, shoulder to shoulder in support of these children, is stunning.

Seizing websites is not a new tactic for the Justice Department. The department last year said it had shut down AlphaBay, a site on the dark Web that functioned as an illicit marketplace for guns, drugs and fake documents. It has previously seized websites suspected of facilitating prostitution, such as RentBoy.com and MyRedBook.com, and obtained convictions of the sites operators.

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But Backpage had evaded prosecution, in large part by invoking the Communications Decency Act. Enacted in 1996, the law provides legal immunity for website operators for content posted by third parties, so long as the operators werent involved in creating the content. Lawsuits brought by women who had been trafficked on Backpage were dismissed by federal courts in Chicago and Boston because of the immunity granted by Section 230 of the decency act, as was a criminal case in California filed by the attorney general there.

The courts in each case invited Congress to amend the decency act. So the Senate subcommittee on investigations launched a probe into Backpage, and found that Backpage employees were editing prostitution ads to delete references to underage girls, while still allowing the ads to be posted.

In addition, The Washington Post found that Backpage had hired a contractor in the Philippines to solicit ads from prostitutes advertising on other websites, creating ready-made ads for them on Backpage, though Backpage had said it was not involved in creating content. The indictment cites the Philippines operation and said internal emails showed it was part of a five-year business plan and the main task is international market content acquisition.

Members of the House and Senate both launched bills last year to amend Section 230, and a combined version of those passed both houses last month. Nicknamed FOSTA, for the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, it would enable victims and state prosecutors to pursue websites in criminal and civil court without being blocked by Section 230. It is awaiting President Trumps signature or veto.

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But opponents of the bill noted that federal prosecutors already had the tools to pursue websites such as Backpage, and indeed the new indictment did not require the new legislation. It accuses Backpage of being on notice for many years, from law enforcement, news media and its own public relations firm, that its most of its ads were thinly veiled offers for prostitutes.

In addition to one conspiracy count, 50 counts of facilitating prostitution cite specific ads published on Backpage between September 2013 and February of this year The indictment also includes one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and then 41 counts of alleged instances where sums of money as large as $5 million were shifted between banks to allegedly avoid detection.

That included routing the money through seemingly unrelated businesses, wiring it through other countries and converting it in and out of bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency, according to the indictment.

In addition to Lacey and Larkin, also indicted were Backpage executive vice president Scott Spear, chief financial officer John Jed Brunst, sales and marketing director Dan Hyer, operations manager Andrew Padilla and assistant operations manager Joye Vaught.

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Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner contributed to this report.
The Republican governors of three southwestern border states on Monday committed 1,600 National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what hes called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

Arizona, New Mexico and Texas all made new pledges that add up to almost half of the up to 4,000 troops Trump requested. Some Guard members started arriving at the border as states and the federal government officials continued to discuss what they will do.

The only holdout border state was California, led by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not announced whether troops from his states National Guard will participate.

Brown has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy. Under the federal law Trump invoked in his proclamation calling for National Guard troops, governors who send troops retain command and control over their states Guard members and the U.S. government picks up the cost.

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Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border, issuing a proclamation citing the lawlessness that continues at our southern border.

My administration has no choice but to act, he wrote.

Administration officials have said that rising numbers of people being caught at the southern border, while in line with seasonal trends in recent years, require an immediate response.

Apprehensions are still well below their historical trends during the terms of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom also deployed the Guard to the border.

In Mexico City, a caravan of Central American migrants that had been heading north stopped in the Mexican capital. The caravan had sparked furious criticism from Trump, followed days later by his National Guard border protection deployment plan. Organizers said they never intended to go to the U.S. border.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told a group of soldiers preparing to deploy from a Phoenix military base that their mission is about providing manpower and resources to support agencies on the border and denied that there was a political motive.

I dont think this is a partisan issue or an identity issue, he said. You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition thats coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told San Antonio radio station KTSA that he would add about 300 troops a week until the total number reaches at least 1,000 troops.

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Some Guard members will be armed if they are placed in potential danger, Abbott said, adding he wanted to downplay speculation that our National Guard is showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybody thats coming across the border, because that is not their role.

There is no end date for the deployment, Abbott said: We may be in this for the long haul.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinezs office said that more than 80 troops would deploy later this week. They will be the first of an expected 250 Guard members from New Mexico to serve on the border.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, offered to send members of his states Guard as well. South Carolina sent troops to the border during Operation Jump Start, the border deployment ordered by Bush in 2006.

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In California, Browns spokesman, Evan Westrup, said Monday that state officials are still reviewing Trumps troop request.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress. Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

Joel Villarreal, the mayor of Rio Grande City in Texas, said he did not agree with what he characterized as the militarization of the border.

Its not good for business, to be frank with you, Villarreal said.

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Christie reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, N.M.; and Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, Calif., contributed to this report.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to prove that his company can keep users private information secure.

Zuckerberg goes before the House Commerce and Energy Committee on Wednesday. Peters has been a member of that group since January 2017.

Facebook is under fire after a political research firm harvested user data and for its response to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Ahead of Congressional hearings with Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Rep. Scott Peters, a member of one of the committees that will question the social media tycoon, said that Zuckerberg needs to prove it can keep users information private or that Congress will be obligated pass legislation that provides protections.

They can come up with a solution to this which is technically sound and is fair to people and their privacy or the government has to step in, which would be a shame, Peters said by phone on Monday.

Zuckerberg is making appearances on Capitol Hill this week as his company navigates through two two scandals. In one case it was reported that a political research firm that touted its abilities to sway public opinion harvested information about Facebook users. In the other the company is under fire for its slow response to address interference by Russian operatives in 2016.

Ahead of this weeks hearings, Zuckerberg has met with lawmakers and done news interviews in which he apologized for how Facebook handled these two problems.

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This week hell appear as a witness in two congressional hearings, including one joint hearing on Tuesday before Senate committees and another on Wednesday before the House Committee on Commerce and Energy. Peters, D-San Diego, has been a member of the latter committee since January 2017.

I am very concerned about this breach of privacy and its unacceptable, Peters said. And its not the first time that this company has done something like this without going on an apology tour without showing that their values are to protect their customers.

In prepared testimony posted by the House committee on Monday morning ahead of the hearing, Zuckerberg took blame for lapses that allowed political research firm Cambridge Analytica to gain access to information about millions of Facebook users as well his companys slow response to Russias use of Facebook and Instagram to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

He also detailed measures taken to limit how and what types of information third parties can collect about Facebook users and increased digital security and policing of rogue users to cut down on interference on elections.

Zuckerberg also credited his social media platforms for facilitating countless positive interactions between users, but also acknowledged that his company needs to do more.

Its now clear that we didnt do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well, his pre-released testimony says. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech as well as developers and data privacy. We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry.

Peters said he hasnt had the chance to review Zuckerbergs prepared remarks but said it would be most prudent to wait until after this weeks hearings before suggesting any legislation.

Its perfectly legitimate fo the federal government to look out for consumer protection, we do it all the time for food safety to consumer fraud, he said.

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Banks are obligated to keep track of potentially criminal activity, so its not unreasonable for Facebook and other social media platforms to have similar obligations, Peters said.

Federal law, he said, hasnt kept pace with the still-emerging technology, he said.

Theres not a lot of regulation, and I think, generally, thats good. We dont want government to step in and interfere with innovation, Peters said. On the other hand when you have a situation where people are taken advantage of for private gain the government has an interest to make sure we get this right.

Peters said that this will be the committees first hearing related to social media since he became a member, and noted that its unusual for the full membership rather than a small subcommittee to convene.

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Twitter: @jptstewart

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joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
San Diego is giving more than 600 city workers pay raises that range from 2 percent to 30 percent.

The raises coincide with the end of a five-year prohibition against city employee pay hikes that was included in the Proposition B pension cutback ballot measure.

An analysis estimates the raises will increase San Diegos pension debt by $15.8 million.

San Diego City Council members gave more than 600 city workers pay raises on Monday that range from 2 percent to 30 percent, increasing the citys pension debt.

The series of hikes, which will spike salaries by $9.7 million per year, are expected to be followed by a second wave of raises in the next few months that would affect roughly the same number of workers, labor union officials said on Monday.

City officials say the raises, called special salary adjustments, are needed to alleviate recruiting and retention problems in certain positions for which employee turnover rates have been above average.

The raises, which take effect in January 2019 and 2020, are in addition to 3.3 percent pay increases virtually all 11,000 city employees will receive this July and in July 2019.

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The raises coincide with the end of a five-year prohibition against city employee pay hikes that was included in the Proposition B pension cutback ballot measure that San Diego voters approved in 2012.

Proposition B prohibited pay raises, except in special circumstances, through June 30, 2018. The idea was to ease pressure on the citys pension obligations, which are calculated using a formula including an employees final salary.

An analysis completed in late March for the citys pension system estimates that these raises, combined with the second wave coming later, will increase San Diegos pension debt $15.8 million.

The amount would be roughly double if not for Proposition B, which replaced pensions with 401(k)-style retirement plans for newly hired city workers other than police officers.

The analysis, which was conducted by actuarial firm Cheiron, said that 739  about half -- of the employees slated for these two waves of pay raises still have pensions, meaning they were hired before Proposition B took effect in July 2012.

The citys unfunded pension debt has grown to $2.76 billion from $2 billion during the past two years, and the raises will increase it to $2.775 billion.

The raises are also expected to increase the citys annual pension payment, which is typically about $320 million per year, by about $3.6 million per year.

Higher payments shrink how much the city can spend on police, firefighters, parks, libraries and any new initiatives that emerge.

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The pay hikes range from 2.5 percent for recreation specialists to 30 percent for workers compensation claims representatives.

Turnover rates cited in the analysis range from less than 2 percent for accountants, who are getting 15 percent hikes, to 7.5 percent for airport managers, who are getting 25 percent raises.

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david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A ruling by a San Diego federal judge allowing construction of President Donald Trumps border wall to go ahead will be appealed by two entities that opposed it, including the state Attorney General.

Both the Center for Biological Diversity and Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed formal notices of appeal on Monday seeking to reverse a decision in February from U.S District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. The judge ruled that the Trump administration did not abuse its discretion in waiving environmental laws in its rush to begin border wall projects along the southwest border.

The center had said after the ruling it would appeal, and Becerra also hinted the state would seek appellate court review at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The notices declare an intent to appeal. They do not outline arguments to be made on appeal or why each group believe that Curiel got it wrong.

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In a prepared statement Becerra said, When we said that a medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border does not belong in the 21st century, we meant it. There are environmental and public health laws in place, and we continue to believe that the Trump Administration is violating those laws. We will not stand idly by. We are committed to protecting our people, our values and our economy from federal overreach.

The lawsuits challenged a law that allowed the federal government not to comply with environmental and other laws and regulations when building border security projects. They argued the law was outdated and Congress never intended for it to be an open-ended waiver for all border projects, and contended it violated constitutional provisions of separation of powers and states rights.

In his decision Curiel said both that the law was constitutional and it gave the Department of Homeland Security wide latitude over border security.

Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley said in response to the Curiel ruling that the administration was pleased DHS can continue this important work vital to our nations interest.

Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security, OMalley said.

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greg.moran@sduniontribune.com
A robber wearing a hoodie on his head and a bandanna covering his face threatened a gas station clerk with a gun Monday night before taking cash from the register, San Diego police said.

The gunman entered the Chevron gas station on Lake Murray Boulevard and Navajo Road in the Lake Murray area shortly before 11 p.m. and told the clerk to get on the floor, said San Diego police Officer John Buttle.

The man then took cash from the register and left. The clerk wasnt injured.

The robber was described as being black, in his mid 30s, between 5 feet 7 and 5 feet 8, about 150 to 160 pounds, with a thin build. He was wearing a black hoodie and black jeans and had his nose and mouth covered by the bandanna, said police Officer Billy Hernandez.

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Robbery detectives were investigating.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
Authorities reached out to the public on Monday for help in identifying and locating a woman wanted for stealing peoples personal identifying information in San Diego and Riverside counties and using it to open credit lines in their names.

In late February, the thief stole an Encinitas residents identity, tried to withdraw money from the victims bank account, secured credit cards in her name and used them to make numerous fraudulent purchases, according to sheriffs officials.

The same woman is believed to have committed similar crimes in Poway and the Riverside area. The perpetrator -- described as a white or Hispanic woman in her early 20s to early 30s with long red hair -- usually has been clad in medical scrubs while using the bogus credit cards in stores, authorities said.

A mugshot of the suspect sought in an identity theft case. (San Diego County Sheriffs Department )

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Surveillance cameras have captured images of the alleged impostor. Anyone who might be able to help investigators track down the suspect was asked to call San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 or contact the agency online at sdcrimestoppers.org.

Tipsters may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
A woman stole a car with two children inside in a Lincoln Park shopping center and drove it to the U.S-Mexico border, where authorities arrested the suspected kidnapper Monday.

The car theft occurred about 12:15 p.m. after the childrens father went into a Cricket Wireless store in the shopping center on Euclid Avenue near Imperial Avenue, San Diego police said. The man had left his 3-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter in his car, with the engine and air conditioner running.

Moments later, a witness saw a woman get into the gold Hyundai sedan and drive away, with the children still inside.

Within a few minutes, the 8-year-old girl called 911 and reported the kidnapping before hanging up, police said. San Diego police then notified other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the car.

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About 30 minutes later, Customs and Border Protection officers located the sedan on southbound Interstate 5 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

The vehicle was attempting to cross the border into Mexico, police Officer Dino Delimitros said.

The suspect, a 26-year-old woman, was arrested without a struggle.

The children, who were not injured, were reunited with their father.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Flames and smoke heavily damaged a home in San Diegos Skyline neighborhood Tuesday, displacing 10 residents, including six children, a fire official said.

No one was home at the time, and no one was injured in the fire, San Diego fire Battalion Chief Glen Holder said. The blaze was reported about 8:40 a.m.

A resident on Black Oak Road, Maurice Carnell, said he got up to go to the store and saw his neighbors house engulfed in flames.

He said police officers got there first and tried to get inside to see if anyone was home. They couldnt get past the security bars on the doors and windows, Carnell told OnSceneTV.

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They hollered, kicked, did what they could, Carnell said, adding that officers did evacuate immediate neighbors.

Firefighters had tools to force the security bars open and found most of the flames in the living room, Holder told OnSceneTV.

The rest of the house was filled with smoke.

Holder said four adults and six children were displaced, and would be assisted by the Red Cross.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

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Twitter: @pdrepard
Authorities said Monday they have not located the driver of a horse trailer who crashed Saturday while transporting 19 unauthorized immigrants on Interstate 8 near Campo.

Five of six passengers injured in the collision had been released from hospitals as of Monday afternoon, said William Rogers, spokesman for the Border Patrol in the San Diego area.

All of the undocumented immigrants, with the exception of the woman who remained hospitalized, were being processed for removal from the U.S. The 19 individuals detained are Mexican nationals, Rogers said.

The crash occurred about 11:50 a.m. Saturday after the two-axle, four-horse trailer being hauled by a Ford F-250 truck began to fishtail on westbound I-8, west of Crestwood Road, authorities said.

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The pickup driver was not able to maintain control and drifted off the freeway, causing the trailer to separate from the truck and flip onto its right side, said California Highway Patrol Officer Travis Garrow.

Several individuals ran away from the trailer, triggering a search in the area by the Border Patrol.

Two women were transported by air ambulance and four men by ground ambulance to hospitals, with minor to moderate injuries. Others were treated without being taken to a hospital.

Rogers said his agency was still working to determine when, where and how the group crossed into the U.S.

No information about the driver was available on Monday. It was unknown if he or she had been identified.

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Phone: (619) 293-1876

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Trump administration officials consulted with global allies Tuesday on a possible joint military response to Syrias alleged poison gas attack, as President Donald Trump canceled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Trump spoke with other world leaders, and other U.S. officials said the U.S., France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week. None of the three countries leaders had made a firm decision, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss military planning by name.

A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syrias political and military support from Russia and Iran.

President Emmanuel Macron said France, the U.S. and Britain will decide how to respond in the coming days. He called for a strong and joint response to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which Syrian activists and rescuers say killed 40 people. The Syrian government denies responsibility.

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The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the U.S.-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Multiple IS attacks have targeted French soil, including one last month.

Trump suggested Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence. Officials suggested such evidence was lacking, or at least not yet at hand. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which U.S. intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of Sarin gas. Trump responded by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

One official said the U.S., France and Britain were considering military options that would be more extensive than the punitive, one-day strike last April. That strike did not appear to have had the desired effect of deterring Assad from further use of chemical agents. So the three countries are discussing a range of options, including preventing Assad from conducting future attacks by striking military capabilities involved in carrying out such attack, the official said.

Asked whether France would take military action, Macron said his country will continue discussing technical and strategic information with U.S. and British allies and in the coming days we will announce our decision. He said any action would target chemical weapons stocks. Under a 2013 agreement for which Russia was a guarantor, Syria was to have eliminated all its chemical weapons, but it has used chlorine and perhaps other chemicals since then.

Trump spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May. A British government statement said the two agreed the attack in Syria was utterly reprehensible and that the international community must respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. Trump met at the White House with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who told reporters that he and Trump see eye to eye on the Syria problem.

We cannot tolerate with a war criminal, the emir said, adding, This matter should end immediately. Qatar hosts the United States main air operations center for the Middle East, which would coordinate any American air attack in Syria.

A watchdog agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, announced that it will send shortly a fact-finding mission to Douma, after receiving a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers to investigate the allegations. It was not immediately clear whether that visit would delay or avert U.S. or allied military action.

The Russian military, which has troops in Syria, said on Monday that its officers had visited the site of the alleged attack and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis canceled plans to travel to California this week, indicating his focus on Syria. He was expected at a White House meeting Wednesday for further consultations on Syria.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, or travel to Bogota, Colombia, as planned. She said he will stay home to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

The presidents new national security adviser, John Bolton, urged Trump to skip the trip, an official said. This reflects a view in the White House that deeper Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria have complicated calculations about a response to any U.S. military attack, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Moscow has cautioned the U.S. not to launch a military attack.

Amid the tough talk from the White House, the U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order. A Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, got underway in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday after completing a port call in Cyprus. The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.

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Also, the Navy said the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled deployment to Europe. The Navy does not currently have a carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Edith M. Lederer in New York and Jill Colvin, Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Mexico and the United States share a border that is nearly 2,000 miles long. California, with about 140 miles, has the fewest of the four U.S. border states.

To hear President Donald Trump tell it, the southern border is a dangerous place, at a point of crisis, marked by lawlessness.

To hear San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Jerry Sanders tell it, Trumps rhetoric is whats dangerous.

Our border community, which has double fencing in many areas, is among the safest in the country, Sanders wrote Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday. In his letter, Sanders rightly advised Brown the border region is not a threat but an opportunity, called it a national model for collaboration and cross-border commerce resulting in a $2.5 billion manufacturing supply chain and stressed that security along most of the border is tighter than it has ever been.

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Trump has shown some pragmatism in his quest to build a border wall  second-guessing sections in remote and rugged places. But now he is asking southwestern states to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guardsmen to secure a border he sees as porous.

Porous, of course, depends on your point of view. San Diego Border Patrol agents caught more people crossing illegally into the U.S. last month  4,103  than in any one month since early 2011, mirroring a national monthly spike and following a typical seasonal surge. Yet U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the number of people caught crossing illegally in fiscal year 2017  303,916  was the lowest total since 1971 and that the figure was falling in the first six months of the fiscal year that began in October. That hardly suggests a need for the infantry.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to ask governors to use their authority to deploy the National Guard to the Mexican border. George W. Bush rotated 30,000 guardsmen to staff 6,000 positions in southwestern states from 2006 to 2008. And Barack Obama deployed 1,200 troops to the border in 2010.

In 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger OKd Bushs first request for troops but rejected a second one, saying he needed the National Guard available for potential wildfires or earthquakes. That means a no by Brown, who on his own has stationed more than 50 National Guardsmen in support roles at the southwest border, wouldnt be unprecedented.

Nor would it be more political than Trumps request  or Bushs or Obamas. In 2010, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board labeled Obamas action more politics than proper policy. We wrote, the arrival of those troops still wont secure the border ... because a 2,000-mile border cant be completely secured as long as desperate people who will risk their lives to feed their families are willing to go under, over or around any impediment.

That Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico are deploying about 1,600 National Guard members doesnt change that reality. Nor does Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authorization late Friday to pay for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel at the border through September, especially given that they will only be backups as they are unable to arrest unauthorized immigrants.

Gov. Brown is handling Trumps reflexive request appropriately so far, letting experts weigh in. Brown, a Democrat, has spoken to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen and deferred questions to the California National Guard, which says it will review the request promptly but needs more information about funding, duration and end state.

In urging Brown to reject Trumps request, Sanders called the deployment a waste of taxpayer money and damaging to our economy and national security. He also called it a risk to national security as it deteriorates our bilateral relationship with Mexico.

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If you ask us, Brown should listen to Sanders. As a former police chief and popular Republican former mayor of a city with the worlds busiest border crossing, he knows what hes talking about.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion

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Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
If youve been out and about at all in San Diego the last month, youve probably either seen or heard about the rental dockless bikes and scooters taking over the county.

There are a wide range of opinions about the app-based, brightly-colored new modes of transportation dotting the regions sidewalks  from those who find them to be a nuisance to those who see them as a transportation revolution.

Whether you love or hate them, just know that youre not alone. Theyre popping up all over the country, too, with varying degrees of regulation, in places like Maryland and Texas.

Coronado, for example, has a municipal code that prohibits the bikes and has taken to impounding them. Will more local cities adopt similar regulations? Will San Diego?

San Francisco is shedding some new light on the subject, and its scooters that are becoming the easiest target in the dockless transportation war, especially because theyre illegal on sidewalks in the state of California.

Since they appeared in San Francisco en masse at the end of March, officials have received enough complaints that theyre considering legal action and increased regulation on the motorized scooters. The city attorney has said hes examining all of our legal options.

San Franciscos Municipal Transportation Agency wants more regulation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and has warned the scooter companies that permit requirements  like the ones required in Coronado  are on the way. The citys board of supervisors is considering related legislation.

Since San Francisco has firm contract deals with bike services that use docking stations, it only really has the scooters for now, and thats why they stand out so much. In San Diego, its bikes and scooters all over the place.

Local police in San Diego have said theyre cracking down on illegal behavior on the scooters, but its easy do walk outside downtown and see someone without a helmet or two people riding a single scooter. Otherwise, there seems to be little interest from local officials in following San Franciscos example in considering more regulation.

While San Francisco officials consider their options, residents of the city, like San Diegans, have a lot to say about the scooters in the meantime.

At least one local loved using one to get to work on Tuesday and some Twitter users expressed some general support or interest.

The outrage, which the city attorney said he recognized, is also present on social media.

Everyones waiting for the dockless bubble to burst. Will more business owners revolt? (Some already have.) Will cities consider ditching the programs if enough people complain?

Want more information on the dockless bikes and scooter? The Conversation has you covered:

Do you want to weigh in on San Diegos own dockless frenzy? Send a tweet to @sdutideas or email us your thoughts and we may add your opinion to this page.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin

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Twitter on Tuesday became the next internet giant after Facebook to publicly support the Honest Ads Act, the first and most significant form of internet regulation aimed at requiring transparency for online political ads.

Now the question is, what will Google do?

In a statement, Twitter said that its backing of the bill comes after it had previously expressed support for similar proposals to bring more transparency to political ads.

The announcement comes days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post last week that his company, too, welcomed government regulation to make it harder for misinformation or divisive content to spread on the internet.

These steps by themselves won't stop all people trying to game the system, Zuckerberg wrote. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads.

Facebook also announced a new policy for political ads.

With Twitter on board, lawmakers and transparency advocates brought the issue back to the forefront of the national conversation as Zuckerberg prepared to testify before Congress to answer questions about his companys role in Cambridge Analyticas harvesting of profile data of up to 87 million users.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, called Twitters backing a huge step forward and said he hoped to see Google also throw its weight behind the bill.

The Honest Ads Act would require internet companies to keep copies of political ads, information about the media buyers, their intended target audiences and rates charged for the ads. The bill would make companies keep that information on file for no less than four years and make that information public.

The requirement would apply to anyone spending $500 or more in a political ad, a higher bar than previously set. The requirements would apply to any site that has at least 50 million unique monthly visitors in the previous 12 months.

Among the backers of a version of the bill in the U.S. Senate are its co-sponsors Warner, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and John McCain, R-Arizona. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Washington, and Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, have co-sponsored a version of the bill in the House of Representatives.

Google has yet to publicly support the bill despite sending executives to testify at a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Russian election meddling last year. Executives for Google, Facebook and Twitter said they do not know how Russian-backed accounts used their ad platforms to spread content to sow political divisions but vowed to do more.

But Googles silence on the Honest Ads Act did not go unnoticed by Sen. Klobuchar and others.

At a tech conference on Monday, Allan Thygesen  a Google president in the Americas  told an audience that it was launching three initiatives to flag ads that were deemed inappropriate, Mediapost Agency Daily reported.

At times, Google has fallen short, Thygesen was quoted as saying. Underlying this belief is that healthy ad ecosystem must be transparent, trustworthy and valuable.

As of Wednesday morning, the company had not publicly commented on the Honest Ads Act but we will updated this story if or when it does.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

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If theres one international food item whose arrival in New York in the past decade or so has been a mixed blessing, its poutine, the Montreal snack of fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy.

Why mixed? Well, on one hand its a bowl of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy!

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On the other hand, its a bowl of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, and its really freaking bad for you. But when the craving hits, nothing will satisfy except for this Montreal import. Truly great poutines start with well-made fries that retain their crispness even when covered with delicious homemade gravy, and fresh, high-quality cheese curds, and these six spots serve New York Citys best.

Pommes Frites, Manhattan

Best known for its twice-fried Belgian frites and legion of dipping sauces, its often forgotten that Pommes Frites (which was destroyed in an explosion in 2015 but re-opened the following year) also serves great poutine, as the name suggests. The ratio of fries to real English gravy to curds is spot-on, and its even served in a Styrofoam cup, as it is at many places in Montreal.

Mile End, Brooklyn

The shop that started the poutine craze in New York is still serving the dish in its finest iteration at both its Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. Fries are super-crispy, the brown gravy is homemade, and cheese curds are from Maines Silver Moon Creamery. Amply portioned, super-fresh, properly proportioned, well-sourced, and topped with freshly made Montreal-style smoked meat if you want it (you want it), it doesnt get any better than Mile End, at least outside of Montreal.

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375 Degrees Thrice Cooked Fries

Great poutine starts with great fries, and this Lower East Side Belgian fry shop certainly has that covered: Theyre using fresh-cut Idaho potatoes, fried three times and sprinkled with French sea salt, as the base for their unique Swedish Poutine. These fries are topped with Swedish meatballs, gravy, fresh Cheddar cheese curds, and a dollop of lingonberry jam.

M. Wells Steakhouse

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This unique Long Island City steakhouse is the brainchild of chef Hugue Dufour, who honed his chops at one of Montreals finest restaurants, Au Pied de Cochon. So as expected, his poutine here is spot-on. Super-crisp fries are topped with a classic Montreal gravy mix combined with pork shank stock and a slurry of burnt flour and black pepper as well as cheese curds from the legendary Murrays.

Desi Galli

The poutine served at this street food-focused Indian restaurant is about as outside-the-box as it comes, but its ridiculously delicious. This Desipoutine starts with crispy fries, but the similarities end there: Theyre doused in creamy tikka masala sauce, shredded fresh paneer, and Indian spices. Its the perfect drunk food.

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Shopsins, Manhattan

Yes, hiding in this legendary hole-in-the-walls sprawling menu is a stellar bowl of poutine. Super-crispy fries are doused in brown gravy, topped with cheese curds, and finished off with three poached eggs. It is truly a thing of beauty, served at the best restaurant for breakfast in the city.

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For many, Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby defined the Jazz Age in New York, but Ben Railton points out that there are many other stories to be told.

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This series by American studies professor Ben Railton explores the connections between Americas past and present.

On April 10th, 1925, the first edition of F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby was released in the United States. Originally published to mixed critical reviews and mid-level sales at best, over time Gatsby has become one of the most acclaimed and well-read American novels. It is often located close to the top of Best of the 20th Century lists, is a perennial contender for the elusive title of The Great American Novel, and is one of the most frequently taught texts in American classrooms. While Fitzgerald did not choose to go with the alternate title Under the Red, White, and Blue, theres no question that his book has become closely linked to images of American identity and communityand to national narratives such as the American Dream.

Fitzgeralds novel is also closely connected with its time period and cultural moment, and specifically with images of the Roaring Twenties. The novels depictions of wealth, excess, recklessness, the interconnected cultures of alcohol and organized crime during Prohibition, and new technologies like automobiles and Hollywood silent films, have become synonymous with that era between World War I and the Great Depression. Yet while Gatsby certainly captures those historical and cultural contexts, there are many other sides to 1925 America that are much less central to its world. There are other books published in 1925 that can better connect us to those histories and add them into our collective memories of the era.

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Perhaps the most striking historical absence from Fitzgeralds novel is that of African Americans and the nascent Harlem Renaissance. As part of the first wave of what came to be known as the Great Migration, large numbers of African Americans had been migrating to New York City for more than a quarter-century, and the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem was by 1925 one of the nations most vibrant African American communities. Many of New Yorks white socialites were frequent visitors to and patrons of the jazz clubs, parties, and social events that came to embody the relationship between that Harlem world and the city around it. Yet despite its New York setting, Fitzgeralds novel does not reference Harlem at all  indeed, the books only African American characters are a stereotypical trio of three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl, whom the narrator Nick Carraway observes in a passing car, the yolks of their eyeballs roll[ing] toward us in haughty rivalry.

Providing an important corrective to that absence is another ground-breaking 1925 book, The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Assembled and edited by the philosopher, educator, and activist Alain Locke, The New Negro features a broad and varied collection of African American creative writers, scholars, historians, journalists, and visual artists, highlighting the wide range of forms, topics, and contexts to which this developing Harlem community had already connected. From the first published story by Zora Neale Hurston (who was about to enter Barnard College) to some of the earliest published poems by Langston Hughes, along with contributions from established authors and leaders such as James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois, The New Negro reflects a burgeoning African American, New York, and national community that existed alongside Gatsbys world but offers a very different side to America in 1925.

In the political realm, many of the most prominent and divisive 1925 debates focused on the interconnected topics of immigration and national identity. Coming at the culmination of a four-decade period of particularly significant waves of immigration, the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and 1924 Quota Act had enshrined exclusionary, white supremacist attitudes in national immigration law. As South Carolina Senator Ellison DuRant Smith put it in a Senate speech in support of the 1924 law, It seems to me the point as to this measure  is that the time has arrived when we should shut the door.  Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock  and it is for the preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an asylum for the oppressed of all countries. Debates over these laws and policies, and whether for example to extend them to immigrants from Mexico and other Western Hemisphere nations (initially not included in the 1924 Act), continued throughout the remainder of the decade.

Fitzgeralds novel does include such a white supremacist and xenophobic voice in the character of Tom Buchanan, and particularly his unhinged Chapter 1 rant about how civilizations going to pieces and if we dont look out the white race will bewill be utterly submerged. Tom is as close as the novel has to a villain, and by linking him to these bigoted views Fitzgerald certainly makes a clear point about those national debates. But although New York City was one of the most consistent destinations for the eras immigrant arrivals (and had been since the late 19th century), Gatsby does not feature any overtly immigrant or even particularly ethnic American characters. Indeed, its only such minor character is Meyer Wolfsheim, the small, flat-nosed Jew to whose illicit and criminal activities Jay Gatsby is connected in unclear but unsavory ways and who is at best a stereotypical character of Jewish and Jewish American identity.

To read about the very distinct images of Jewish immigrants to New York City and Jewish American identities, read Anzia Yezierskas Bread Givers. This compelling and ground-breaking 1925 novel offers is narrated by Sara Smolinksy, the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants whose perspective and story we follow from age 10 through her graduation from college and subsequent professional and personal developments. Through Saras eyes we see the challenges facing a multi-generational Jewish American immigrant family (with a father determined to maintain his role and identity as an Orthodox Talmud scholar), the communal setting of the Lower East Sides tenements, and the possibilities and limitations of assimilation into American society for a second-generation immigrant such as Sara.

On the anniversary of Gatsbys publication, adding books like Bread Givers and The New Negro to our reading list can only help contextualize and expand the world and meanings of Fitzgeralds classic novel.
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When Corey James led a group of inner-city Newark teens to Manhattan, he wanted to free them  at least for a day  from crime-ridden streets. They visited museums, enjoyed a Broadway show, and ate exotic foods. The teens marveled at the Big Apple bustle, the well-dressed businesspeople, the tourists and weirdos and glitz. But when the memorable day was over and it was time to go home, one young man confronted James.

He said, Youre teasing us, remembers James, then a youth advocate in New Jerseys juvenile justice system. You take us out of our environment, which is infested with drugs and violence, and you bring us to this beautiful city, and then you take us back to the hood.

James was devastated. I thought I was doing something good, he says. He brooded over the words  youre teasing us  and eventually realized: He was teasing them. In a good way. He was igniting their desire for a different life.

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Hed seen something better than the hood, James says of the confrontational teen. And he didnt want to go back.

That idea  exposing inner-city youth to a world beyond their violent neighborhoods  is part of the mission of Painting Pictures (paintingpicturesinc.org), an organization James formed to provide mentorship, life skills, and academic assistance, from teaching anger management to steering teens away from gangs to helping them apply to colleges and trade schools.

These young people know that where they live is a dead end, but its the only picture they see.

Too often, inner-city youth become trapped in a cycle of violence, crime, drugs, and jail. When James created Painting Pictures in January 2015, that cycle was becoming unbearable. Hed been working with a 16-year-old boy who was shot dead on the streets  a bullet to the head. At the funeral, James hugged the boys mother and offered his condolences. He was startled by what she told him: I didnt expect this to happen so soon.

The words haunted him  the expectation that young men were destined to die. And the tragedies continued. Not long after the murder, a 15-year-old boy named Khalil Taliaferro, whom James was mentoring, was shot at a party. The bullet hit his spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. For seven months, James visited Taliaferro almost daily in the hospital.

He was suffering  mentally and physically, says James. I just stayed with him and said, Okay  this has happened. Were not going to stop. Were not going to regress. Were going to continue moving forward.

That stability and support is essential for troubled teens. And in Taliaferros case, it worked. With James encouragement, he returned to high school. Hes now taking classes at a community college and working as a youth advocate for troubled teens.

Another of James many success stories is Khalil Williams. Williams became involved with James in 2014, at age 19, and is now a senior at Rutgers University. But the journey from mean streets to campus greens hasnt been easy. About a year ago, I told Corey that I wanted to drop out, Williams says. I was under a lot of stress, my friends and family were getting shot, and I just thought school wasnt for me. He told me, If you quit, then I quit. His face was as serious as Ive ever seen it. And he said it again: Khalil, if you leave college, then I am resigning. It motivated me and helped me realize I had someone on my side willing to make sacrifices.

Williams is staying at Rutgers. By working with James, hes learned many important lessons. Corey has changed my life in a billion ways, but I think whats most influential is his altruism, he says. He gives without desire for recognition, and this made me want to do the same. Williams works with several youth organizations, and once he graduates  hes majoring in history  he wants to become a high school teacher in Newark. I think its the best way to give back to my city, he says.

To change the lives of at-risk teens like Williams, James exposes them to new people, places, and ideas, whether taking them to a Japanese restaurant to sample sushi or to a museum to see the masterworks of Gauguin and Van Gogh. In September 2017, James arranged for four young people to see the Grand Canyon. It was their first time on an airplane. After they returned home, they brimmed with new goals and ambitions. These young people know that where they live is a dead end, but its the only picture they see, says James, who has also published a book on inner-city youth called Painting Pictures. Our goal is to help them create a new picture, a new perspective, and to understand that where they are now does not define their future.

For James, its rewarding but difficult work  and progress, hes learned, requires patience.

Those that need the most love show it in the most unloving ways, he says. Theyve gone all of their lives without it, so when someone enters their life, they dont know how to accept it. Theyre also testing you to see if youll stick with them, because theyve had people come in and out of their lives. Thats why I continue to work with the family and the young person as long as they allow it. Young people that I worked with 10 years ago still reach out to me.

At the funeral, James hugged the boys mother and offered his condolences. He was startled by what she told him: I didnt expect this to happen so soon.

Inner-city kids are desperate for love, says James. They crave it. Many kids are growing up without dads, so gangs become substitute families, offering father figures, loyalty, and trust.

The misconception is that these kids want to be in their situation, James says. That they want to be defiant, and they want to be locked up, and they want to be arrested and on drugs and in gangs. But really, theyre crying. Theyre trying to figure out  usually on their own  how to navigate their situation. And that leads to disruptive behavior.

James understands their pain: He was abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandmother and great aunt in Franklin Township, New

Jersey. Rather than becoming destructive, I internalized it, he says. I had depression and low self-esteem. The two women were deeply religious, and James aspired to be a pastor. But after graduating from college and working as a youth pastor, he realized he wanted to immerse himself in the community, not be confined to a church. He was working for a nonprofit when a supervisor suggested he apply for a counselor position, assisting kids in juvenile detention. James reluctantly took the job.

I had no interest in working with disruptive or disadvantaged youth, he says. It was intimidating. I thought: What will they gain from me? But I realized that I too had love issues, trust issues, feelings of abandonment and neglect.

His first day on the job, he arrived at a teenagers home  and found the young man pointing a gun at his father. James calmed him and successfully mediated the situation.

I was never taught to do that, he says. I just figured it out in the moment. And I walked away and thought, Wow, Im making a difference. Thats when the journey really began.

James goal is to help more kids. He meets regularly with 20 young people through Painting Pictures and wants to obtain grants to expand the program. Hes also talking with an organization about a joint project to send 20 Newark youths to South Africa this year, where theyll perform community service, immerse themselves in the local culture, and, yes, paint new pictures.

For me, its all about relationships, says James. Because if you build a relationship with a young person, they will begin to look up to you, and to be motivated by you. We cant move all of these kids into great communities, but we can become father figures, mother figures, big brothers, and big sisters. We can stop judging them and start loving them.

Ken Budd has written for The New York Times, Smithsonian, and National Geographic and is the author of The Voluntourist. For more, visit thevoluntouristbook.com.

This article appears in the March/April 2018 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- Substations that employ air insulated switchgear primarily use air for phase to ground and phase to phase insulation and have been in operation years prior to the introduction of gas insulated switchgear substations. Air insulated switchgear substations are best fitted for expedited installations as they require less construction time. Moreover, it is easy to attend to faults as all the equipment are within view, thus helping with easy maintenance. Such substations are practically feasible because of the low cost of switchgear and construction and quality design. Furthermore, they are one of the first choices for areas with ample space.



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Global Air Insulated Switchgear Market: Key Trends



The international air insulated switchgear market is prognosticated to take precedence with a colossal growth expected to be witnessed on account of low capital investment and swelling investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure. The market growth could be hindered due to the threat of substitutes such as gas insulated switchgear which can be installed even underground apart from indoors because it is filled with sulfur hexafluoride and entirely sealed, whereas air insulated switchgear requires more space. Howbeit, air insulated switchgear finds usage in a range of different segments by voltage range, installation, and application, which opens up new avenues for players in the air insulated switchgear market.



The indoor air insulated switchgear market is projected to record a faster growth rate as well as dominate other installation segments during the course of the forecast period 20172025. With their usage in applications related to the distribution, manufacturing and processing, infrastructure and transportation, and power generation sectors, air insulated switchgears of 3 kV36 kV are predicted to showcase both a faster and larger growth. By application, transmission and distribution is prophesied to rake in a handsome demand in the global air insulated switchgear market that is attributable to the rising attention on investments and renewable power generation.



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Global Air Insulated Switchgear Market: Market Potential



Siemens India had a perfect day at office in March 2017 when it won an INR 187.4 crore worth project in Dhaka from the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB). The project is expected to incorporate the construction of 33/11 kV air insulated switchgear substations also in Chittagong and Sylhet. The share prices of the company had added 1.3% on a Friday. Siemens had quoted an INR 1,250.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), up by an INR 10.80, during the same period. The project is researched to use solutions and products that are all manufactured in Siemens India factories.



Global Air Insulated Switchgear Market: Regional Outlook



The researchers envision six key regions, viz. Africa, South America, the Middle East, North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, which could set the tone for the world air insulated switchgear market. Out of these, Asia Pacific is foretold to outshine with a remarkable dominance and higher CAGR throughout the forecast period. Countries such as India and China and Southeast Asia are foreseen to be the major regions propelling the growth of the air insulated switchgear market in Asia Pacific. Besides this, the decent presence of manufacturing facilities, surge in transmission and distribution expenditure, and soaring power generation capacity are prognosticated to help Asia Pacific make a statement in the global air insulated switchgear market.



Global Air Insulated Switchgear Market: Competitive Landscape



One of the most frequently adopted strategies by the top companies in the international air insulated switchgear market could be agreements and contracts. However, they are anticipated to be followed by new product launches, acquisitions and mergers, and expansions. Some of the dominating players in the global air insulated switchgear market are Eaton Corporation PLC, General Electric Company, Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, and ABB.



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- Automated Border Control Global Market - Overview



Due to rise in security concern against terrorism and illegal works, many of the airports, seaports and borders are implementing automated border control gates and other technologies. This are controlled by a centrally located computer and is mainly operated at the time of immigration check in airports. The automated system may mostly include an automated passport scanner, a biometric facial recognition, and other technology that helps in automatic reading at control gates. The market is largely fuelled by rise in automation and IoT applications. Europe is one of the first regions to adopt automated border control to provide an efficient security check system at its airports.



Automated Border gates are computerized self-service barriers operated by border force located at immigration check points, at arrival halls, which proves its worth in the sector through smoother and faster passenger flow, reduced frustrations and provides more operational efficiency. For operation, the passports are required to possess a biometric logo on the front cover which can be readable by automated border control gates. After recognizing the ID, the person at control tower confirmed the person's identification with the support of facial recognition technology and provides immigration. These gates can be adapted at all major arriving halls of the airport, seaport which reduces the time taken by the conventional ones. With the increase in automation and IoT, it is necessary to adapt such technologies in order to be prepared for future challenges. Gunnebo Group (Sweden) mentioned in its recent study that in 2015, 700 million people travel yearly and is expected to grow by 75% in 2023. Incorporating automated border control, provides facilitates faster immigration to passengers within shorter time duration.



Key Players



Market Research Future identifies HID Global (U.S.), Atos Corporation (France), Cognitec Systems (Germany), Cominfosec (Czech Republic), Cross Match Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Gemalto (the Netherlands), Gunnebo Group Corporation (Sweden), Accenture PLC (Ireland), Magnetic Autocontrol GmbH (Germany), and Modi Modular Digits GmbH (Germany) as the key players in the global automated border control market.



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Automated Border Control Global Market - Segmentation



The market for automated border control is segmented by solution type, by component, and by application. On the basis of solution, the segment is further classified into ABC eGate and ABC Kiosk which differ by the process they follow. In the case of eGate, it allows the users to go through scanning of biometric page and then facial recognition which provides immigration after confirming from security tower. While with Kiosk, the passport is inserted in a kiosk machine where all the necessary identification will be done inside the machine and provides a token for eGate. The growth of this market can be attributed to rising security concerns and enhanced traveler convenience during border crossing process. Nine new automated passport control eGates have been installed at Copenhagen Airport which provides immigration on facial recognition technology. Vision Box, an Australian based company, implemented automated border control technology at the busiest airports like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and many more. As of now 83 eGates have been installed and over 10 million passengers have been successfully screened through them.



Regional Analysis



On the basis of region, Europe is leading the Automated Border Control market. The major reason behind this is most of the automation companies are based in Europe and possess strong technical base in the region. Most of the busiest airports in Europe such as Heathrow Airport (London), Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (France), and Frankfurt Airport (Germany) are already equipped with automated border control gates. The Netherlands based company Gelmato acquired 3M's Identity Management Business made a strategic move by adapting it's biometric technology. North America is expected to occupy second place in revenue generation for automated border control in the market. Further, Crossmatch Technologies Inc., which is the largest independent provider of biometric solutions, has acquired DigitalPersona. This acquisition has helped in making the advancements in technology for identification. Secunet (Germany), which is a key player in European market, has taken over bintec elmeg Security GmbH in July 2017. This acquisition has strengthened Secunet with additional expertise and expansion of its packet alarm product family.



Asia Pacific region is said to be at a growing stage. Rise in security concerns, need for automation and improved traveler convenience are the drivers responsible for the growth. China Public Security Technology, which is a leading provider of high tech public security Information, successfully implemented automation at busiest airports in China such as Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport and its objective is to make all the airports automated by 2025.



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Intended Audience



- Border Security Control

- Immigration Department

- End Users

- Government Representatives

- Technical Developers

- Research Firms

- IT Enablers



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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.
Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- As per International Monetary Fund (IMF) Bhutan's nominal gross domestic product is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.19% from it's 2015 level of BTN 125.784 billion and reach BTN 299.502 billion by 2022.



Bhutan is a tiny and remote kingdom nestling in the Himalayas between its powerful neighbours, India and China. Almost completely cut off for centuries, it has tried to let in some aspects of the outside world while fiercely guarding its ancient traditions. The Bhutanese name for Bhutan, Druk Yul, means "Land of the Thunder Dragon" and it only began to open up to outsiders in the 1970s.



Bhutan had estimated population of 0.791 million in the year 2016 and expected to reach 0.871 million by 2022. Bhutan's unemployment rate was 3.2% of total labor force in 2016, which is expected to remain same till 2022.



Bhutan's real gross domestic product (GDP) was around BTN 61.015 billions in 2016 whereas the nominal GDP was BTN 141.43 billions. This resulted in GDP deflator 231.796. Per capita GDP was estimated at USD 2673.53 whereas purchasing power parity (PPP) based per capita GDP was estimated to be at USD 8227.37.



In 2016, Bhutan government's revenue was BTN 41.73 billions whereas the expenditure was BTN 44.679 billions. This resulted Bhutan government's net lending / borrowing negative at BTN 0.245 billion in 2016 indicating that enough financial resources were not made available by the government to boost economic growth.



The current account balance for Bhutan was estimated to be negative at USD 0.616 billions for the year 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 194.35% and reach USD 0.382 by 2022.



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Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- As per International Monetary Fund (IMF) Botswana's nominal gross domestic product is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.7% from it's 2015 level of BWP 145.923 billion and reach BWP 261.678 billion by 2022.



The Republic of Botswana, a landlocked country located in Southern Africa, is bordered by Namibia to the north and west, Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south. Botswana is divided into nine districts and five town councils, with Gaborone as the capital. The official language of Botswana is English, although Setswana is widely spoken across the country. The official currency of Botswana is the pula (BWP).



Botswana had estimated population of 2.154 million in the year 2016 and expected to reach 2.312 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 1.18%.



Botswana's real gross domestic product (GDP) was around BWP 88.546 billions in 2016 whereas the nominal GDP was BWP 163.695 billions. This resulted in GDP deflator 184.87. Per capita GDP was estimated at USD 6972.11 whereas purchasing power parity (PPP) based per capita GDP was estimated to be at USD 17041.58.



In 2016, Botswana's government's revenue was BWP 52.728 billions whereas the expenditure was BWP 55.854 billions. This resulted Botswana government's net lending / borrowing negative at BWP3.126 billion in 2016 indicating that enough financial resources were not made available by the government to boost economic growth.



The current account balance for Botswana was estimated to be at USD 2.202 billions for the year 2016 and is expected to decline at a CAGR of 3.56% and reach USD 0.87 by 2022. This positive current account balance indicates the Botswana is net lender to the whole world.



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/09/2018 -- The report "Electrical Bushings Market by Type (Oil Impregnated Paper, Resin Impregnated Paper), Insulation (Porcelain, Polymeric, Glass), Voltage (MV, HV, EHV), Application (Transformer, Switchgear), End-User (Utilities, Industries), & Region-Global Forecast to 2023", The electrical bushings market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 2.45 Billion in 2018 to USD 2.96 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 3.86%, from 2018 to 2023. This growth is primarily due to the rising investments in electrical infrastructure and growing demand for electrical equipment from end-users such as railways and the renewable sector.



Browse 79 market data Tables and 44 Figures spread through 144 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Electrical Bushings Market by Type (Oil Impregnated Paper, Resin Impregnated Paper), Insulation (Porcelain, Polymeric, Glass), Voltage (MV, HV, EHV), Application (Transformer, Switchgear), End-User (Utilities, Industries), & Region-Global Forecast to 2023"



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The utilities segment is expected to hold the largest share of the electrical bushings market, by end-user, during the forecast period.



The utilities segment led the electrical bushings market in 2017. Electrical equipment such as transformers, switchgears, and circuit breakers are an important part of the T&D infrastructure and bushings are used to connect this equipment to HVDC lines. Asia Pacific requires huge investments in the infrastructure sector including energy, transport, telecommunications, and water. According to the Asian Development Bank, an investment of USD 8.22 trillion is required for infrastructure development in the region from 2010 to 2020. With increasing investments in power infrastructure, the market for bushings is likely to grow, leading to the utilities segment being the largest and fastest-growing end-user segment of the electrical bushings market.



The transformer segment is expected to hold the largest share of the electrical bushings market, by application, during the forecast period.



The transformer segment led the electrical bushings market in 2017 and is projected to have the largest market share during the forecast period. In transformers, bushings offer various advantages such as fire hazard reduction and eliminating the need for oil supervision. Moreover, to withstand any transformer voltage, bushings are the only electrical equipment used for providing external input and output connections. All these factors have resulted in the largest share of the transformer segment.



The resin impregnated paper segment of the electrical bushings market, by type, is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The resin impregnated paper (RIP) bushings segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023. The key advantages of RIP bushings include reduced risk for oil leakage, reduced chances of fire explosion, the capability to withstand seismic activity, and no requirement for oil expansion chambers. Moreover, RIP bushings are lightweight and compact in size resulting in easy transportation and easy handling during installation.



Asia Pacific: The leading market for electrical bushings.



In this report, the electrical bushings market has been analyzed with respect to 5 regions, namely, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. The market in Asia Pacific led the global electrical bushings market in 2017. It is the most populated region in the world and consequently witnesses a high demand for electricity. Increasing grid investments especially in developing economies such as China and India and plans for electrification in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are expected to drive the electrical bushings market in Asia Pacific. China accounted for the largest share of the electrical bushings market in Asia Pacific in 2017. The National Energy Administration of China estimates a cumulative investment of USD 280 billion is required to increase the length of the transmission lines in the ultra-high voltage (more than 800 kV) network, under its 20152020 Power Grid Construction and Reform Plan. This eventually increases the demand for power equipment such as transformers, generators, and circuit breakers, thereby creating business opportunities for the electrical bushings market in Asia Pacific.



To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the electrical bushings market. The key players include ABB (Switzerland), Siemens (Germany), GE (US), Eaton (Ireland), and Nexans (France). The leading players are adopting various strategies to increase their market shares.



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Deerfield Beach, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- 99strategy added a new latest industry research report that focuses on "Deployable Military Shelter Systems market" and provides in-depth Global Deployable Military Shelter Systems market analysis and future prospects of Deployable Military Shelter Systems market 2017. The research study covers significant data which makes the 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 research study is segmented by Application/ end users, products type and geographies like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Korea & Taiwan.



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The analysis covers the present market size of the us Deployable Military Shelter Systems market and its growth rates supported five year history knowledge in conjunction with company profile of key players/manufacturers like Alaska Structure, Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, HDT Global, Roder HTS Hocker, MMIC, MMIC, Berg, Super Structures Worldwide, Gichner Shelter Systems, General Dynamics, AAR etc.. The in-depth info by segments of Deployable Military Shelter Systems market helps monitor future profitableness essential selections for growth. the data on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and also the ever-changing structure of the us Deployable Military Shelter Systems Market.



The study provides company identification, product image and specifications, sales, market share and call info of key makers of us Deployable Military Shelter Systems Market, a number of them listed here ar Alaska Structure, Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, HDT Global, Roder HTS Hocker, MMIC, MMIC, Berg, Super Structures Worldwide, Gichner Shelter Systems, General Dynamics, AAR etc.. The market is growing at a really fast pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities within the business several native and regional vendors ar giving specific application merchandise for various end-users. The new manufacturer entrants within the market ar finding it arduous to vie with the international vendors supported quality, responsibleness, and innovations in technology.



Global Deployable Military Shelter Systems (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product kind like Glass, chrome steel, Ceramic, Acrylic & Others. additional the analysis study is divided by Application like family, Office, Commuter, Sport & Others with historical and projected market share and combined annual rate.



Geographically, this report is divided into many key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and rate of Deployable Military Shelter Systems in these regions, from 2017 to 2023 (forecast), covering The North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, The South & The geographical area and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted amount 2017 to 2023.



Read Elaborate Index of full analysis Study at @: http://www.99strategy.biz/global-deployable-military-shelter-systems-market-2018-2023.html



What this Research Study Offers:



1. Global Deployable Military Shelter Systems Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments

2. Market share analysis of the top industry players

3. Strategic recommendations for the new entrants

4. Market forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets

5. Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)

6. Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations

7. Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends

8. Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments

9. Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements



There ar fifteen Chapters to show the us Deployable Military Shelter Systems market



Chapter 1, to explain Definition, Specifications and Classification of Deployable Military Shelter Systems , Applications of Deployable Military Shelter Systems , Market phase by Regions;

Chapter 2, to investigate the producing value Structure, stuff and Suppliers, producing method, business Chain Structure;

Chapter 3, to show the Technical knowledge and producing Plants Analysis of Deployable Military Shelter Systems , capability and business Production Date, producing Plants Distribution, R&D standing and Technology supply, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;

Chapter 4, to indicate the general marketing research, capability Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales value Analysis (Company Segment);

Chapter 5 and 6, to indicate the Regional marketing research that features The North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, The South & The Midwest, Deployable Military Shelter Systems phase marketing research (by Type);

Chapter 7 and 8, to investigate the Deployable Military Shelter Systems phase marketing research (by Application) Major makers Analysis of Deployable Military Shelter Systems ;

Chapter 9, Market analytic thinking, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product, Market Trend by Application;

Chapter 10, Regional promoting kind Analysis, International Trade kind Analysis, offer Chain Analysis;

Chapter 11, to investigate the shoppers Analysis of us Deployable Military Shelter Systems ;

Chapter 12, to explain Deployable Military Shelter Systems analysis Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and knowledge source;

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to explain Deployable Military Shelter Systems sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, analysis Findings and Conclusion, appendix and knowledge supply.



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Deerfield Beach, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/09/2018 -- Global Neck Traction Devices Market 2018-2023 Industry News, Market Position, Size, Share, Rate of Growth, Strategis, Trends Across The Globe



Global Neck Traction Devices Market 2018 report covers a detailed study of the Global Neck Traction Devices Market which highlights the latest technological improvements and new launches, current industrial affairs and developments, upcoming policy alterations, and knocking opportunities in the Neck Traction Devices market.



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The report covered by MRS Research Group provides information that is gathered from different essential and optional assets. The information gathered was approved from the business investigator which makes the record a valuable for supervisors, examiners, industry specialists and other to get access and self-analyzed the study which helps to understand market challenges, applications, specifications and changing structure of the Global Neck Traction Devices Market.



What all important aspects concerning the market will be encompassed in this report?



- The report has information of Global Neck Traction Devices Market that comprises of a large number of reputed organizations, firms, vendors, manufacturer and can deliver detail summary of the overall key players who hold major count in terms of revenue, sales, end-user demands, variable market changes, restraining elements, regulatory compliance through their reliable services, products, and post-sale processes.



- characteristics of Neck Traction Devices Market including growth factors, limiting factors, new upcoming opportunities, the technological advancements, and Emerging segments of the market



- Many trends such as globalization, technology advancement, over-capacity in developed markets, market fragmentation regulation & environmental concerns, and product proliferation are covered in Global Neck Traction Devices Market report.



- Various aspects such as production capacity, demand, product price, material parameters and specifications, supply chain and logistics, profit and loss, and the growth factor are broadly discussed in the Global Neck Traction Devices Market report.



- The analytical tools such as investment return analysis, SWOT analysis and feasibility study are used to analyze the key global market player's growth in the Global Neck Traction Devices Market industry.



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This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, including



Duro-Med , Alex Orthopedic , The Pettibon System , Ohuhu , Gideon , Instapark



Market Segmented By Regions: United States, EU, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan



The report is well-crafted with graphs, diagrams, and realistic figures which indicate the status of the specific Neck Traction Devices industry on the global and regional platform. The performance and characteristic of the market are evaluated based on the quantitative and qualitative method to provide a clear picture of the current and future forecast trend.



The Global Neck Traction Devices Market report provides a thorough assessment of the market entailing market drivers, challenges, deployment models, standardization, opportunities, regulatory landscape, operator case studies, future roadmap, value chain, and ecosystem player profiles. Additionally, Reports help to identify the reliable potential of the suppliers and vendors. The report is also useful for the governments, commercials, manufacturers, residential & industrial consumers and other stakeholders to propose their market-centric strategies in proportion to the estimated and enduring trends in the market.



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Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- Green power is basically production of electrical energy from environment friendly and renewable sources such as wind, geothermal, biomass, solar and low-impact hydropower. There has been an increased awareness among consumers regarding use of environment friendly sources of electricity supply. This in turn has led towards demand for green power sources in the recent past. In order to support green environment campaign, governments of various countries are taking initiatives to enhance consumer awareness as well as availability of green power sources. Globally, there has been integration of renewable energy and equipment installations. For instance, in Iceland 80% of the electricity is generated from earth's heat. Similarly in Norway, 98% of electricity is generated using geothermal, hydroelectric and wind energy.



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There have been increased number of attempts to offer low-cost, environment-friendly options to low down the negative impact of using non-renewable sources of energy for electricity generation. For instance, in India the untapped market of renewable energy is anticipated to be around US$ 10.5 billion by 2017 end. In order to tap this potential market, government of India is taking various measures such as promotion of small power plants for both biomass and solar, entrepreneurship development for electricity in rural areas through solar power, biomass waste and rice husk, solar cooking initiatives, green campuses and buildings construction, and projects for off-shore wind generation, among others. With introduction of programs offering consumer choice for domestic electricity ensuring price stability balancing the increased electricity price volatility in some countries is leading towards increased adoption of green power sources as a mode of electricity generation.



Green Power Market Segmentation:



Green power market is segmented on the basis of energy resources, equipment type. Different type of energy resources include solar, biomass, wind and small hydropower. Of which, biomass is further segmented into landfill gas and agricultural waste. On the basis of different energy resources, equipment vary and are classified into solar energy equipment, wind energy equipment, geothermal energy equipment and hydropower energy equipment. Further, agricultural waste is sub-segmented into poultry litter and others. Geographically, the green power market is segmented into seven regions namely North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Latin America.



Green Power Market Dynamics:



Factors such as population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, growing per capita consumption, depletion of conventional reserves and increasing concerns for climatic change are contributing towards increasing adoption of green power sources as mode of electricity generation. This is further fuelling green power market growth at a robust rate and is expected to gain significant traction in the near future. However, proper balance of environmental stability and economic development is a concern for government and environment control authorities across the globe. However, barriers towards growth of green power market include low cost of utility default service, high entry barriers for new entrants, lack of existing renewable energy plants and insufficient unbundling of revenue-cycle services. Despite of the aforementioned challenges, green power market is anticipated to grow significantly in the near future. This is attributed to development of solar parks, government initiatives and programs, increasing awareness regarding use of renewable energy sources, among others.



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Green Power Market Key Players:



Depending on the equipment manufacturers for energy resources such as wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy and hydropower energy, some of the key solar panel manufacturers are Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Solar, Canadian Solar and others. Similarly prominent wind turbine manufacturers include Siemens AG, General Electric Company (GE Power), and Senvion SE among others. Few prominent geothermal energy system manufacturers include FHP Bosch Group, Earthlinked Technologies Inc., Aquatherm Industries, Inc., and Ormat Technologies, Inc. among others.



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- In-mold labeling is a process utilized for labeling or decorating an object while it is being formed in the mold. In-mold labeling has opened up new opportunities for the injection-molded, thermoformed plastic containers, and blow-molded technology. In-mold labeling is a process of producing high-quality in-mold labels at a comparatively low price. In-mold labeling technology provides advantage, such as transparency, waterproof, and permanently molded label. All the major end-use applications, which are immensely benefited by the in-mold labels are petrochemical, household, pharmaceutical, paint, cosmetic, and cosmetic containers. In-mold labeling is widely applicable in several industries to enhance brand logo at the point of sale. Moreover, it is widely accepted as a creative solution for numerous custom product development.



Currently, consumers have become more conscious of the overall appearance of packaging and labeling, which is majorly driving for the in-mold labels market evolution in recent times. In-mold labels provide detailed information about the product through an innovative way, which offers 360-degree graphics on entire container. In-mold labels assist the product brand to build an image for future prospects. Moreover, low-cost in-mold labels are cost-effective for a packaged container, which, in turn, is anticipated to propel the in-mold labels market throughout the forecast period. In-mold labels enable the utilization of numerous color patterns, 3D effects, and textures in a single operation. As in-mold labeling and decorating are accomplished using plastic injection molded process, no subordinate procedures are required further, thus, excludes post-molding labeling process, reduces decorating labor, equipment costs, and time. As the packaging and labelling are manufactured using the same material, the package manufactured is totally biodegradable. As in-mold labels provide lightweight product development and ability to stack tightly, which results in reduced delivery discharges, less space consumption, and a much lighter and smaller transportation footprint. In-mold labels indulge less breakage waste and are safer than metals and glass.



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Global in-mold labels market has been segmented based on technology, material, application, and region. Based on technology the market is segmented into extrusion blow-molding process, injection molding process, thermoforming, and others. Among these, injection molding is projected to dominate the in-mold labels market until 2023. The dominant position of this segment can be attributed to the provision of a 3-Dimensional effect to the labels, along with economical operations as compared to other technologies. Based on the material, the market is segmented into polypropylene, polyvinylchloride, ABS resins, and others. Polypropylene waste dominated the market in 2016 and is projected to be the fastest-growing segment. Polypropylene is extremely versatile as a plastic material, which can be utilized in wide ranges of plastic containers and labels. Polypropylene has become an important labeling material due to its effective moisture-resistant property. Based on the application, the market is segmented into food & beverage, chemicals, personal care, consumer goods, and others. The growing demand for packaged and branded products, and consumer awareness regarding the genuineness of the product. Beverages manufacturers across the world widely utilize in-mold labels on bottles, owing to technological advancements, such as thermoforming, extrusion, and injection molding which offer cost-effective solutions.



The in-mold labels industry is expected to have a vast number of new participants over the forecast period, owing to continuous expansions in packaging industry, coupled with rising consumer preferences for high-end features. The market is also expected to have high development activities by multinationals and well-established companies. Mergers and acquisition activities are anticipated to be witnessed over the forecast period.



Global in-mold labels market is estimated to grow at ~ 5% CAGR during the forecast period.



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Global In-Mold Labels Market



The global in-mold labels market is majorly fragmented into four dominant regions, which are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. Among these, Europe is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR and holds the largest market share in the global in-mold labels market. The dominant position of the European region is due to increasing use of in-mold labels in end-use applications, such as industrial packaging and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). Growing financial stability has positively impacted the development of the region for the packaging industry, specifically, for in-mold labels. High demand for in-mold labels from developed countries, such as Germany and France, is due to development in the manufacturing industry coupled with a rise in disposable income to purchase highly customized products.



Asia Pacific and North America are the other two major regions who have contributed a significant market share in the global in-mold labels market in 2016. These regions are witnessing growth due to increasing demand for efficient, innovative, and premium labels. Furthermore, increasing consumer awareness about the trends relevant to packaged food and rise in consumption of bottled and container packaging are contributing to the growth of the market.



Key Players



The key players in global in-mold labels market are CCL Industries, Inc. (Canada), Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH (Austria), Huhtamaki Group (Finland), Coveris Holdings S.A. (Luxembourg), Cenveo Inc. (U.S.), Fuji Seal International, Inc. (Japan), Multicolor Corporation (U.S.), EVCO Plastics (U.S.), Innovia Films Ltd. (U.K), Inland Label and Marketing Services, LLC (U.S.), Mepco Label Systems (U.S.), Avery Dennison Corporation (U.S.), Century Label , Inc. (U.S.), Allen Plastic (Taiwan), and Ameri-Seal Inc. (U.S.)



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In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.
San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- An investigation was announced concerning potential breaches of fiduciary duties by certain directors and officers of Banc of California Inc.



Investors who are current long term investors in Banc of California Inc (NYSE:BANC) shares, have certain options and should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 - 1554.



The investigation by a law firm for current long term investors in NYSE:BANC stocks follows a lawsuit currently pending against Banc of California Inc over alleged securities laws violations. The investigation on behalf of current long term investors in NYSE:BANC stocks, concerns whether certain Banc of California directors are liable in connection with the allegations made in that lawsuit.



According to that complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California the plaintiff alleges that the Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects, including that the Company had extensive ties to an alleged "fraudster" named Jason Galanis ("Galanis"), that, given Galanis' history, the Company's ties to Jason Galanis created substantial regulatory risk, that revelation of Jason Galanis' ties to the Company could cause a substantial decline in the market price of the Company's securities, that the Company allegedly misled investors concerning the Company's connections with Jason Galanis, and that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about Banc of California's business, operations, and prospects, were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.



Those who purchased shares of Banc of California Inc (NYSE:BANC) have certain options and should contact the Shareholders Foundation.



Contact:

Shareholders Foundation, Inc.

Michael Daniels

3111 Camino Del Rio North - Suite 423

92108 San Diego

Phone: +1-(858)-779-1554

Fax: +1-(858)-605-5739

mail@shareholdersfoundation.com
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- Polyethylene Terephthalate are used in various end-use industries such as automobile, electronics, and food & beverage among others. The growing demand from the developing region throughout the globe are the major factors driving the global market of polyethylene terephthalate. The growing government inclination towards development of retail sector coupled with the augmenting demand from the automobile sector are other factors contributing to the growth of the market. Among the various end-user industry food & beverage is the dominant segment and expected to show the same trend during the forecast years.



Market Segmentation



The Global Polyethylene Terephthalate Market is segmented on the basis of product types and application. On the basis of product type, the market is segmented as carbonated soft drink, energy drinks, bottled water sheets & films, food and non-food and others. On the basis of application industry, the Global Polyethylene Terephthalate Market is segregated into food & beverages, electronics, automotive, and others.



Market Scenario



The carbonated soft drink followed by bottled water product segment is the leading type in the market and is expected to show the same trend during the forecast years. On the basis of application, food and beverage is anticipated to be a dominant sector during the forecast years. The growing demand for convenience and on-the-go food products in the developing regions is attributing to the growth of the market.



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Competitive Analysis



Some of the prominent players operating in the Global Polyethylene Terephthalate Market are Alpek S.A.B de C.V (Mexico), RTP company (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), The Dow Chemicals Company (U.S.), Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group (China), Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (Thailand), M&G Chemicals (Italy), NAN YA PLASTICS CORPORATION (Taiwan), Far Eastern New Century Corporation (Taiwan), and The Quadrant group of companies (Switzerland) among others.



Regional Analysis



The Global Polyethylene Terephthalate Market is spanned across five key regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, Asia Pacific holds a major portion of the global market and is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The developing end user industries in the region such as electronics and automotive is expected to fuel the market growth. Moreover, the favorable government schemes has resulted in the shifting of manufacturing base in the developing economies of Asia Pacific which has further propelled the market growth. The major countries attributing to growth of polyethylene terephthalate in this region are India, China and Japan. North America is the dominant region for the market Polyethylene Terephthalate. The developed end user industries coupled with the growing adoption of Polyethylene Terephthalate are the major factor contributing to the growth of the market. The key countries attributing to this growth are Canada and the U.S. European market of Polyethylene Terephthalate is mainly driven by the developed automobile and electronic industry. Moreover, the increasing use of Polyethylene Terephthalate in the packaging industry coupled with the growing demand for on-the-go food products is anticipated to further add to the growth of the market during the forecast years.



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- By Geography, the Global Reactive Dyes Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Among all region Asia Pacific will keep the leading position by 2023. The Asia Pacific reactive dyes market is anticipated to grow on account of the rising demand in various applications such as cotton, paper, nylon, leather, and others from countries such as China, India, Indonesia, and Japan. Furthermore, growing textiles industry in Asia Pacific region is predicted to drive the reactive dyes market. Presently, China Reactive Dyes Market share is estimated to be maximum as related to other countries of this region. China, Taiwan, India, Japan and Pakistan are among major Reactive Dyes manufacturing countries in the world. India has taken lead in manufacture of reactive dyes due to convenience raw materials in this country. The increasing demand for Reactive Dyes from textile industry is continuous growing in the Asia Pacific region, as China and India are considered as foremost players. Apart from textiles, Reactive Dies are highly utilized in paper industry. In Asia Pacific, application paper in packaging industry enhance the growth of revenue followed by printing paper and newsprint industry in countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan, and India. Due to increasing demand in retail packaging, corrugated cases segment is likely to gain highest growth rate of Reactive Dye Market over the forecast period.



Europe region, holds second position of Global Reactive Dye Market due to rising demand of paper industry especially for tissues, including the countries U.K., Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Nordic countries, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.



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North America region holds third position for Reactive Dye Market including the countries Canada, United Mexican States, and US due to increasing textile, and paper industry thorough different applications such as printing paper, cotton, leather, coated paper, wood, packaging & board, newsprint, and others. Latin America, Middle East and South Africa is an emerging region for Reactive Dye Market due to increasing demand of dyes application in various industries.



Segmentation



The Global Reactive Dyes Market is segmented on the basis of type, function, end users, and region. Based on the type, the market is segmented into reactive cold dyes, reactive hot dyes, reactive highly exhaust (HE) dyes, reactive mild exhaust (ME) dyes, and others (reactive 'M' dyes, reactive 'P' dyes, etc.). Based on function, market is segmented into monochlorotriazine, vinyl sulphone, bi-funcational, and others. On the other hand, based on application, the market is segmented into cotton, paper, nylon, leather, and others (wood, etc.). Based on region, this market is segmented into APAC, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.



Key Players



NIPPON KAYAKU CO. LTD. (Japan)

Sumika Chemtex Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Colourtex (India)

Kiri Industries Ltd. (India)

IM Dye Chem (India)

Roop dyes and Intermediates (India)

Kevin India Co. (India)

Bodal Chemicals Ltd. (India)



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Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- The significant rise in lifestyle-related diseases and the developments in healthcare infrastructure are expected to influence the demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia. In 2016, the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is anticipated to procure value worth US$ 5,209.5 Mn at a y-o-y growth of 6.0 % over 2015. The mounting demand for branded drug products will continue to incite the growth of the Saudi Arabian pharmaceutical market in 2016.



The demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia is expected to register substantial growth owing to the increasing penetration of health insurance companies and the rising incidence rate of non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, the exceptional rise in the per capita income of Saudi Arabia is also expected to foster the demand for branded pharmaceutical drugs. Another key factor driving the growth of the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is the country's strategic move to allow 100% FDI in the pharmaceuticals sector. Although, the shortage of profound indigenous research capacity in the pharmaceutical industry and the delayed registration of drug and medicine patents is expected to limit the expansion of the market in 2016 and beyond.



Based on the product type, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is expected to witness an upsurge in the prescription-type branded drug products. In terms of market value, the branded drugs are estimated to reach US$ 2,760.8 Mn by 2016-end. The demand for generic drugs is projected to secure steady growth, attributing to the insisting promotion of generic drug adoption by healthcare insurance providers.



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On the basis of the diseases, the pharmaceutical drugs used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases will continue exhibiting robust growth in 2016. The demand for cardiovascular medications will continue to surge due to the prominence of circulatory disorders in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the rising prevalence of disorders related to body sugar levels is expected to make diabetes a rapidly growing disease-based sub-segment in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market.



The pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is also segmented on the basis of distribution channel, where retail pharmacies will continue to account for 80% market share compared to hospital pharmacies. The westernised modernisation of retail pharmacies in Saudi Arabia has led to the availability of a wide range drugs and medicinal products, thereby attaining a considerable growth in the retail pharmacy sub-segment in 2016 and further.



The rising resource potential in Saudi Arabia is projected to positively reform the production environment for pharmaceutical manufacturers. In order to expand the market's size, structuring alliances with well-established native companies is predicted to be a key strategy for global pharmaceutical leaders. The key players in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market include Novartis AG, SPIMACO, Pfizer Inc., and Glaxosmithkline plc., Jamjoom Pharma, and Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co. among others.



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Long-term Outlook: The Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast period 2016-2026. In terms of market value, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be worth US$ 12,281.4 Mn by the end of forecast period.
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2018 -- Unmanned Sea System Market - Overview:



In recent years, the unmanned sea system has become more advanced in terms of technology and operational capability. The traditional unmanned sea system were mostly remote controlled system, which were either pre-programmed to follow only some basic mission parameters or completely controlled by a human operator. In contrast, the modern unmanned sea system are capable of highly-autonomous operation. In many cases, the system consists of advanced on-board electronics to make real-time decisions and navigation as per mission parameters. The systems are also capable of controling and operating autonomously as per the changing conditions during real-time mission situations. Also, the increased electronics computing and communications capabilities have led to more sophisticated control.



Furthermore, as the unmanned system do not have human on-board, they are not hindered by the physiological limitations of human operator, to operate in challenging environments. As a result, unmanned sea system are being designed for highly autonomous, extended mission capabilities, where these systems can operate for a longer period, and enable continuous surveillance or monitoring of targets. Thus, there has been a growing demand for unmanned sea system that can operate autonomously based on pre-programmed navigation plans and less interference or control from human operator.

The global unmanned sea system market will grow at a CAGR of more than 7% during 2017-2023.



Major Key Players



The Leading Market Players in the global Unmanned Sea System Market primarily include Atlas Elektronik, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Raytheon, BaltRobotics, Bluefin Robotics, Boston Engineering Corporation, Gate Elektronik, Kongsberg, and Lockheed Martin.



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Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:

December, 2017:- Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman signed contracts with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), to develop a prototype low-cost autonomous cruise missile.

August, 2017:- Lockheed Martin and Raytheon signed contracts with the US Air Force, to work on Long Range Standoff weapon (LRSO), a nuclear-capable cruise missile.



Regional Analysis



Emerging nations, such as China and India, have increased their defense budgets, and are expanding their naval systems to strengthen their defense capability. A large part of the naval defense budget goes for the purchase and upgrade of military naval system (including unmanned sea system).



Although the North American and Europe regions have much larger markets for the unmanned sea systems at present, some factors such as the defense budget cuts in the U.S. and the economic slowdown in some European countries, can affect the market growth. Concurrently, the increasing military expenses in the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions have led to a gradual change in the market dynamics. It has been estimated that the emerging economies such as India, Brazil, and China can serve as a much attractive market opportunity for the unmanned sea systems.



According to research from University of California, Berkeley, armed conflicts could further increase by 50% worldwide in the coming decades. Increased tension and territorial disputes at international waters such as South China Sea, East China Sea, and Indian Ocean, have also led to the increased deployment of naval forces in those regions.



In South China Sea, there is an increased risk of conflict involving China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, regarding the territorial and jurisdictional claims. Amid such tensions, China is building naval bases and has deployed many of its naval vessels in the region. Along with the rise in conflict and regional tensions, the need for deployment of naval vessels (including unmanned sea system) also increases.



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Intended Audience



- Distributer & Supplier companies

- End Users

- Consultants and Investment bankers

- Government as well as Independent Regulatory Authorities



About Market Research Future

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.



MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.
A cache of rare coins from the period of the Jews Great Revolt against the Romans has been discovered at the Ophel archaeological site near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel.

The 1.5-cm (0.6 inch) bronze coins are well preserved, probably because they were in use for a short time.

The coins were left behind by Jewish residents who hid in a large cave for four years (66-70 CE)  from the Roman siege of Jerusalem, up until the destruction of the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem, explained Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.

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).

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 changing mood of the rebels during this period of horror and famine.

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 at the site.

These finds all date back to the time of the rebellion and were found in Ophel Cave directly above a Hasmonean period layer that was situated at the base of the cave, Dr. Mazar said.

It is remarkable that this cave was never discovered by subsequent residents of Jerusalem nor used again after the Second Temple period, he added.

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.
Andreas Brynestad, EVP sales, marketing and operations, noted Freeman's wealth of experience in the areas of management, itinerary development and marketing for other lines.

Freeman most recently was VP itinerary at The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. Before that, he directed itinerary planning at Hurtigruten. Earlier roles were director of brand operations and destination delivery, responsible for shore excursions for Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises. He spent many years with The World, ultimately as SVP operations.

Prior positions were with Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Viking Line and Royal Caribbean.

'I am excited about joining such an award-winning brand,' Freeman said. 'SeaDream is known for its highly desirable small port yachting itineraries, remarkably genuine service, and, of course, its world-class cuisine. What an incredible brand to work with,' he added.

Freeman will be based from SeaDreams Miami office and work with the teams in Miami and Oslo.

See also 'Ritz-Carlton taps V.Ships Leisure for port operations'
The merger of the container line businesses of NYK, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and K Line to create ONE, the world's sixth largest box line started business on 1 April.

With a 6.9% market share ONE online freight forwarder iContainers said it would enjoy benefits of economies of scale, but would also face the challenge of taking on a new brand identity.

With the creation of single business identity the company may lose some clients.

Obviously, with three company cultures coming together into one there will be some values that will change. Approaches and protocol will have to be set as the trio look to take on a brand new identity. This will cost them some clients, especially those who enjoyed a certain way of working with a certain carrier, said Klaus Lysdal, vice president of sales and operations at iContainers.

While the new identity could create challenges Lysdal does expect to see financial benefits for the lines involved.

The industry will be waiting for the operational and financial results of this merger. But at first look, it's safe to say that it makes a lot of sense for the three to come together and join forces instead risking it on their own, he said.

Read more on ONE

ONE a merger of the container businesses of NYK, MOL and K Line officially started operations on 1 April.

ONE announces top regional management appointments
Cohen raid is a big deal. The most important people in Trump's life have generally been his lawyers. They protect him, they find the loopholes, they call in the threats, they take care of the dirty business and let him be a brand. Trump is likely feeling very exposed right now.

The worst thing for Trump is to be exposed -- truly exposed. He will do anything to prevent that. It's not just the secrets, or the law, but a true loss of control.



Trump is very private for a public figure. He needs to be a brand because he's terrified of being a person. https://t.co/lPMmFYuzRa
The New Zealand dollar rose to the highest level in seven weeks as US President Donald Trump tweeted his thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping for saying he was committed to an open economy and lower tariffs.

The kiwi dollar rose to 73.68 US cents as at 8am in Wellington and earlier touched 73.75 cents, the highest since Feb. 22, from 73.30 cents late yesterday. The trade-weighted index rose to 75.48 - above the 75 average level the Reserve Bank has projected for the second quarter - from 75.04 yesterday.

Trump tweeted that he and Xi "will make great progress together" and he was very thankful for President Xi's "kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers." He was responding to Xi's keynote address to the Boao Forum yesterday that set a conciliatory tone despite offering no substantial new concessions. The trade spat has overshadowed economic indicators, which included a drop in optimism among small US businesses and a stronger-than-expected US March PPI. Commodity-linked currencies were among the biggest gainers overnight.

"Calming comments from the Chinese president, plus a generally risk-on mood, contributed to a decent rally in commodity currencies, with the NZD/USD hitting levels not seen since February," said Miles Workman, an economist at ANZ Bank New Zealand, in a note. "Risk on returned after President Xi eased trade war fears in his speech yesterday. A second wind followed after president Trump took to Twitter to thank Xi for his kind words."

With no local economic data scheduled for release today, traders may focus on April consumer confidence, Chinese PMI for March and a speech by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe later in the day.

The kiwi rose to 4.6263 yuan from 4.6130 yuan late yesterday. It edged up to 94.87 Australian cents from 94.76 cents and rose to 51.96 British pence from 51.68 pence. The kiwi traded at 59.61 euro cents from 59.50 cents and rose to 78.94 yen from 78.49 yen.

(BusinessDesk)

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Australia's Longreach Oil has agreed to a buy a New Zealand company which plans to develop a dairy factory in Otorohanga, as it seeks to bolster its investment portfolio and resume trading on the ASX.

Longreach was suspended from the ASX in May last year after the stock exchange operator deemed it had insufficient operations to warrant quotation. The firm, which owns a share of some Australian oil and gas exploration leases and a stake in a US telecommunications company, said in a statement to the ASX yesterday that it has agreed to buy Happy Valley Milk Ltd., a New Zealand company that has land use consents from the Otorohanga District Council to establish and operate a fully integrated milk processing, blending and packaging plant on a site near Hamilton. The transaction is conditional on obtaining Waikato Regional Council water use and water discharge consents, which it said were well advanced.

The transaction would see Longreach issuing shares to Happy Valley Milk shareholders, who would then own 77.8 percent of Longreach whose current shareholders would retain a 22.2 percent ownership. As part of the agreement, Happy Valley Milk would raise A$2.5 million through convertible notes to fund its development, while Longreach would raise at least A$3 million through a prospectus. The companies expect the conditions of sale could be satisfied and completed within six months.

For Longreach, the purchase of Happy Valley Milk is effectively a reverse takeover, resulting in a change of focus for the company and a likely name change, with a new chief executive nominated by Happy Valley Milk and three of the milk company directors joining the board. Meanwhile, for the fledgling Kiwi company, the reverse listing would give it a lower cost path to listing in Australia where it can access a deeper pool of investors to fund its growth.

Happy Valley Milk has consent for a plant containing two dryers, although construction would be staged with a second dryer added when capacity is utilised. The cost of the facility with one dryer is estimated at $230 million, half of which is expected to be funded by debt. Longreach said construction is expected to start March 2019 and take 12 months, plus three months for commissioning. Its consented design includes an integrated high-speed blending and canning plant, and Longreach expects the facility to produce premium milk powder for sale into China and elsewhere, where it says demand continues to soar.

"HVM's site is situated in one of New Zealand's largest A2, organic, pasture-fed catchment areas which includes Waikato and King Country," the company said in an overview of the project.

Once constructed, the plant will specialise in processing A2 milk and organic milk into infant milk formula and other nutritional milk powder products, as well as anhydrous milk fat, it said.

Happy Valley Milk is in talks with several global infant formula product companies but no contracts have been inked, and it has also developed its own branded infant formula products, Longreach said.

(BusinessDesk)

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Landcorp Farming, the state-owned farmer trading as Pamu Farms of New Zealand, has gone with a back-up bidder for its Jericho Station sheep and beef farm in Fiordland after the preferred foreign buyer withdrew.

Wellington-based Landcorp expects the new purchaser will complete the transaction in early June, spokesman Simon King said in an emailed statement. Southland farmer Ed Pinckney was pipped by an $8.7 million offer from Chinese buyer Qianlong Farms when the 1,400-hectare farm was put to market in late 2016.

"Pamu has been advised that the purchaser of Jericho farm has withdrawn their application from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) and is therefore unable to complete the purchase of the farm," King said. "As such we have proceeded to finalise the sale and purchase of the farm with the party that has made an unconditional back-up offer, which does not require OIO approval."

The state-owned farmer last month reported an underlying loss of $6 million in the six months ended Dec. 31 as a wet spring followed by drought weighed on milk production and increased the need to buy extra feed. Landcorp is New Zealand's biggest corporate farmer, managing 140 properties with its property plant and equipment valued at $1.29 billion as at June 30 last year.

Landcorp typically recycles capital through buying and selling properties to maintain the right balance of land to pursue its long-term strategies, and sold $20.1 million of property in the 2017 financial year, leaving it with $59.1 million of assets held for sale at the June 30 balance date.

King said the SOE has no farms currently for sale.

(BusinessDesk)

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The senior citizens had been looking forward to their trip to Dubai, and to visit the exotic locations in the Gulf city. But all their aspirations came to a grinding halt with the tour operator cancelling the trip just one day prior to departure.

64 senior citizens looking forward to their first joyous overseas trip were duped by a Mumbai-based travel agent.

The would-be tourists had booked a foreign trip after coming across an ad in a national daily. Preparations were in full swing and Rs 18 lakh from savings had already been arranged for the trip.

The agent Nrupathy Manay hailing from Mumbai called off the trip claiming the money raised was insufficient to meet their expenses.

The wannabe travellers were part of a local senior association in Dwarka and Balbir Singh Yadav the association's President was quoted in a report in the Indian Express as saying that Manay had committed to offer a five-night six day trip at a cost or Rs 37800 per person. Post the cancellation of the trip, Manay was expected to return the amount, but he did not.

A formal police complaint has been lodged at a Police station in New Delhi. A senior officer said that a contact has been established with the tour operator and there have been efforts to arrest him although he now claims that he will offer a full refund.

Cops suggested that efforts are on way to bring Manay to Delhi in the coming two days.
David Attenborough the famous British broadcaster was chatting with the Queen during the making of the documentary while a helicopter flew overhead.

Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest reigning monarch made a light-hearted remark aimed at US President Donald Trump. Although it was never meant to be publicized, a video of the Queen's comic timing was captured during the video recording of a documentary.

The Queen joked "Sounds like President Trump", making an indirect and inoffensive comparison at noise of the helicopter with the man whos at the center of the recent trade wars with China.

Attenborough was walking with the Queen in the Buckingham Palace for the documentary- The Queens Green Planet. The Queen was being interviewed to talk about her program- Queens Commonwealth canopy, an effort aimed at creating a network of forests around the world.

When the helicopter went overhead, the Queen was recorded asking Why do they go round and round when you want to talk?" Then making the remark- "Sounds like Trump"

Apparently the Heathrow airport located 30 kilometers away operates multiple flights that fly over the Windsor and Buckingham Castles.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With the cost of homes on Staten Island increasing over the last few years, a new study says you need to earn between $108,000 and $140,205 annually to be able to afford a modest home in the borough.

The report, put out by Unison, a home ownership investment firm, reveals that less than half of New Yorkers are homeowners. In fact, 51 percent of Big Apple residents are renters.

According to the report, the median home price on Staten Island is $492,685. And the average monthly mortgage payment for Staten Island homeowners is $3,227 -- a sum that can be difficult for singles, millennials and even for some couples, when you factor in other costs, such as utilities, car payments, and money needed to raise kids.

"There has been a significant amount of coverage of late regarding the departure from the McMansions we have all become accustomed to seeing," said James Prendamano, managing director/associate broker for the St. George-based Casandra Properties.

"To afford a median priced home on Staten Island you would have to earn between $108,000 to $140,000 per year [according to the study]. This becomes an even more daunting task for millennials who are strapped with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt on top of the salary requirements. It's no wonder the millennials have shifted to much more efficient sized homes and in many cases to rent," added Prendamano, who is a big advocate for the city to offer more incentives for affordable housing programs that apply to ownership.

In addition to high monthly mortgage payments, it's often coming up with the down payment that's difficult for potential buyers.

"The problem is the down payment. Most folks are barely making ends meet because of credit card debt, paying rent, and transportation costs to the job; [there's] not enough money to save to buy," said Neila Nuzzi, associate real estate broker with Neuhaus Realty Inc.

When it comes to the cost of living, New York City is one of the most expensive places to live in the country.

"...Purchasing in New York, yes, [is] tough. Many New Yorkers are moving to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and perhaps retirement communities in New Jersey because it is cheaper, but the pay in those areas is also less," she added.

LESS EXPENSIVE THAN OTHER BOROUGHS

While the pricetags for homes on Staten Island are higher than other areas of the country, they're still less expensive than other New York City boroughs. According to the study, you need to earn at least $400,000 annually to own Manhattan real estate. Brooklyn homeowners need to earn between $210,000 and $273,000 a year, according to the study.

"While the rest of New York City continues to move out the middle class, Staten Island continues to offer attractive housing options for working class New Yorkers," said Frank J. Rizzo, president and broker of Cornerstone Realty in Annadale.

"No other borough offers the compelling value that Staten Island does with affordable housing stock, highly rated schools, safe neighborhoods and community involvement at prices that are affordable for middle class families," he added.

The lower prices of Staten Island real estate when compared to other parts of the city are often chalked up to the borough's lack of public transportation and long commute times to Manhattan -- especially from the South Shore.

However, some Realtors say the salary Islanders need to afford a home is one that is obtainable by two-family households.

"Dual income families, savings and help from mom and dad allow for the American Dream to be alive and well in our community, which, among many other reasons, makes us the tastiest slice of the Big Apple," said Jon Salmon, broker/owner of Salmon Real Estate in Castleton Corners.

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD is asking for the public's help in locating a man sought for questioning in connection to a robbery which took place last month in Clifton.

It was reported to police that a 61-year-old cab driver picked up two males in his vehicle on Bowen Street on March 12 at approximately 5:20 p.m., according to a written statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information

Once inside the vehicle, one of the males reportedly placed the victim in a chokehold and placed a handgun to his head while the second individual removed the victim's cell phone from his hand, according to the NYPD statement.

Both men then fled the vehicle on Bowen Street, police said.

Following an investigation, Kyle Beaton, 18, of the 200 block of Park Hill Avenue, was arrested and charged with robbery in connection with the incident, police said.

His next court date is May 17.

The NYPD statement identified the other individual sought as Jallah Emmanuel, 22.

He is described as a 5-foot, 10-inch tall black male, who was seen wearing dark colored clothing and is known to frequent areas in the 120th Precinct.

Police released an image of him to the public.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island Community Education Council President Michael Reilly is running for the South Shore's state Assembly seat.

Reilly, a Republican, recently filed as a candidate and set up a committee with the state Board of Elections. He told the Advance that he's seeking the position because he feels he can better advocate for community needs in the state Legislature.

"I think this is something that's the next step where I can advocate for our community," Reilly said. "In the past, it wasn't the right time for my family, but speaking with them now, it seems like we're in a better place and this is an opportunity that will hopefully put me in a better position to advocate even further for our community."

"Overall, that's who benefits," the Eltingville resident added.

Reilly is the first candidate to file to run for the South Shore seat after Assemblyman Ron Castorina (R-South Shore) announced that he'll run to be judge of Staten Island Surrogate Court and will not seek re-election to the Assembly, which triggered an open race in the 62nd Assembly district.

Reilly told the Advance that improving transportation options on Staten Island will be one of the key issues of his campaign.

"Improving transportation, our infrastructure, whether it be the Outerbridge, the West Shore Expressway, or buses, or a fast ferry from the South Shore -- those are things that are paramount," Reilly said. "We have the longest commute going to Manhattan and other places in the region."

Reilly also cited addressing the Island's deer population, supporting uniform city workers, and advocating for increased funding for education as major priorities.

BACKED BY BORELLI

Reilly has already won the support of one prominent Island Republican, Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore), who offered his backing while Reilly was considering whether to run.

"I think Michael Reilly would make a great candidate to run for the South Shore Assembly seat that I once held, and which Ron Castorina Jr. has elected not to run for again," Borelli wrote on Facebook in March. "You all know who Mike is, and I think that's a key part of it. No one will have to explain to you how much he cares for our community, because he wears it on his sleeve.

"If he's in, I'm in; and I hope you're in too," Borelli continued.

Reilly has eyed political offices in the past. In May 2016, he was reported to be eyeing a long-shot run for mayor and created a "Mike Reilly Supporters" Facebook page. Reilly also ran a write-in campaign for mayor in 2013 and got a little over 100 votes.

Reilly, 45, is a retired NYPD lieutenant who spent a little more than 12 years on the force. In 2009, he joined Community Education Council 31 and was elected president of the body in 2014.

After the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Reilly proposed installing buzzers for entry and "panic buttons" at all schools.

The proposal also recommended using retired NYPD officers as security.

The CEC passed the safety proposal in 2013 and submitted it to the city's Department of Education.

Reilly also successfully advocated for additional drug recognition experts (DRE) for the NYPD on Staten Island to combat "drugged driving."

Reilly said in a 2016 Advance letter to the editor that DREs are a "crucial piece missing in the current efforts to make our roads safer and enhance prosecution in drug cases."

After bringing the issue to the NYPD's Highway Unit DRE Training Coordinator, the NYPD implemented an "Impaired Driving Awareness Course" at the Police Academy in November 2017.

Also reported to be interested in the Assembly seat are Nick Iacono, director of communications for the New York Archdiocese superintendent of schools and president of the Richmond County Young Republicans; Patrick Ryan, communications director for GOP Rep. Daniel Donovan, and Guyon Rescue community activist Derek Tabacco.

The primary election for the Assembly seat will be Sept. 13.

FOLLOW CLIFFORD MICHEL ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two individuals are in stable condition at Richmond University Medical Center after being shot in Stapleton, police said.

Police responded to a report of shots fired on Prince Street in Stapleton at approximately 8:15 p.m on Monday

Police closed off a portion of Prince Street at approximately 8:30 p.m., between Vanderbilt Avenue and Wiederer Place, and could be seen canvassing the area for evidence.

This is a breaking news story. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An apparent school threat that originated in New Mexico and spread across the country via social media sparked fears at Curtis High School Tuesday morning, prompting additional security measures at the school and assurances from police there was no danger here.

The original post was created out of state on social media and was not about Curtis High School, said a spokeswoman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

"Everyone that goes CURTIS!!," the threat, which contained an image of a man holding a rifle, said. "What the f--k. F--k CHS I'm going out with a bang. don't go to school tmrw."

A person reported a social media post against Curtis around 7 a.m., according to emergency radio communications.

The same image and slightly altered threats are appearing at other high schools around the country that happen to have the initials "CHS," according to media reports.

The NYPD's 120th Precinct posted on Twitter that it is aware of the threat and that it originated in Clovis, New Mexico, where an arrest has been made.

"Additional security measures have been implemented at Curtis HS today," according to the 120th Precinct Twitter feed.

The 120 Precinct has been made aware of a threat against CHS High School. ***The threat originated in Clovis, New Mexico and an arrest has been made** Additional security measures have been implemented at Curtis HS today.  NYPD 120th Precinct (@NYPD120Pct) April 10, 2018

The original threat was made in a Snapchat post showing a person holding a rifle with a caption referring to Clovis High School and the warning "going out with a bang," according to KKTV11 in New Mexico.

The threat first was reported late on April 5. Police arrested a 17-year-old male student in connection with the social media post, according to EasternNewMexicoNews.com.

Police tracked down the teen in the photo and interviewed him, according to EasternNewMexicoNews.com.

"During the interview, the juvenile confirmed the picture was of him, but relayed that he did not post the captions to the post. As the interview continued, the juvenile ultimately stated he did create a portion of one of the captions, 'F*** CHS,'" according quote from a police news release on EasternNew MexicoNews.

Similar unfounded threats have been made at schools including Christiana High School in Delaware, Chopticon High School in Maryland, Central High School in Nebraska and Cocoa High School in Florida.

Since the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., there has been a "huge uptick in school-based violent incidents" with 1,435 threats and incidents at 1,854 schools nationwide, according to the Educator's School Safety Network.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 61-year-old man was arrested after police allegedly found a gun, ammunition and crack cocaine in his apartment in Clifton.

Herbert Phill, 61, was arrested after members of the 120th Precinct obtained a search warrant for his apartment on Park Hill Avenue as part of an ongoing investigation, according to information from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police searched the apartment on Monday at about 6 a.m. and allegedly found a .25-caliber firearm, .25-caliber ammunition, an unspecified amount of crack cocaine and a scale.

The suspect has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.

In a social media post, the 120th Precinct praised Field Intelligence officers for taking another gun off of the streets of Staten Island.
'ASIAN' = MUSLIM 99% OF THE TIME





The politically correct term 'Asian' is used by the leftist UK media as a way to cast suspicion on a wider group of people and take some of the negative attention away from the group usually responsible for committing the heinous acts.

A perfect example would be the Muslim grooming gang epidemic which are constantly referred to by the press and authorities as 'Asian' grooming gangs.

It isn't people from China, Japan or any Far Eastern Asian place.

Nor is it Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists,Christians Etc....

They are Muslims!!!!
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Simple "yes" or "no" responses were required, yet Deniesha Lee paused, and for a few seconds pondered each of Justice Mario F. Mattei's questions to her in court on Monday.

Lee, 27, was in the process of pleading guilty to attempted second-degree murder stemming from an incident on Oct. 4, 2016, in which authorities allege she severely stabbed another woman with whom she had become embroiled in a heated dispute in the lobby of the Holland Avenue apartment building where the defendant lives.

In exchange for her top-count plea, Mattei told Lee, a Mariners Harbor resident, he would sentence her to no less than 10 years in prison and no more than 13 years behind bars.

She would also be subject to five years' post-release supervision.

Prosecutors had sought a 13-year prison sentence.

At one point, Lee, who was garbed in a black ball cap, black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, asked for a tissue.

She removed her eyeglasses and dabbed at her eyes.

But before Mattei could complete the process in which the defendant must also waive his or her right to appeal, defense lawyer Mario F. Gallucci stopped him.

His client, Gallucci said, was "not prepared to go on."

In view of the defendant's change of heart, Mattei set the case down for trial on Wednesday in state Supreme Court, St. George.

There is a lot at stake for Lee.

The defendant, who is also charged with multiple counts of assault and criminal weapon possession, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted at trial of either attempted second-degree murder or second-degree assault.

She remains free on $500,000 bond.

Assistant District Attorney Brooke Baranoski is prosecuting the case.

The defendant, whose first name also appears as "Deneisha" in court records, has a criminal record.

She was sentenced in December 2014 to five years' probation after previously pleading guilty to attempted second-degree criminal weapon possession, online state court records show.

That case arose from an Aug. 30, 2012 incident when Lee was 21.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Michael Grimm, the insurgent, calls it a scandal.

Dan Donovan, the incumbent, says it never even happened, adding, with earnest anger, that the only real scandal is the egregiously dirty tricks that Grimm is using to construct a make-believe one.

So who's right here?

The answer is Donovan -- hands down -- in what, by any dispassionate analysis, is nothing more than a case of malevolently motivated nonsense. In the process, however, unassailable facts have been masked by preposterous fiction, and a young man's life-or-death struggle with drug addiction has been cruelly exposed for political gain.

According to a March 31 story in the New York Post, an as-yet anonymous individual has filed a complaint against Donovan with the Office of Congressional Ethics. It accuses him of going to the 122nd Precinct in December 2015 on behalf of Timothy O'Connell, the then 19-year-old son of his domestic partner, Serena Stonick, following the youth's arrest on a heroin possession charge.

The gravamen of the complaint is an allegation that Donovan thereupon used his position as a member of Congress, "to illegally request that officers issue O'Connell ... a 'desk appearance ticket' instead of proceeding with normal arrest protocols." This, the complaint continues, "allowed [O'Connell] to be immediately released from custody, as well as the records to be sealed."

CATEGORICAL DENIAL

Donovan categorically denies ever going to the 122nd Precinct for O'Connell, and insists that he didn't even learn of his arrest until after the youth's release. These assertions merit the strongest presumption of credibility because, whether one agrees or disagrees with Donovan's performance in public service, his reputation for honesty and integrity is impeccable. In fact, ironically, he's been criticized for being overly scrupulous in perceiving and avoiding potential ethical conflicts.

Many people will demand more, of course, and police records supply it, verifying that O'Connell never made any phone calls during police processing. So, unless Donovan has extraordinary psychic powers, he couldn't possibly have known that the youth was even in custody.

Nor can any inference to the contrary be drawn from the fact that O'Connell was given a desk appearance ticket (DAT) in lieu of being detained pending arraignment. Since he had no prior arrests, no outstanding warrants, and was facing a misdemeanor-level drug possession charge, the issuance of a DAT was standard operating procedure.

DATs originated experimentally in Manhattan in 1964, but didn't come into widespread use throughout the city until years later. Maintaining a criminal defense practice at the time, I chaired an ad hoc committee of the Richmond County Bar Association to facilitate drug-law education on Staten Island. Like my fellow committee members, I welcomed the DAT as an alternative to the pretrial detention that had previously been axiomatic even for low-level misdemeanors.

APPLICABLE LAW

Pursuant to section 150.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law, police are authorized to issue a DAT to an arrestee charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance -- including heroin -- in the seventh degree. So, clearly, there was nothing suspicious or even unusual in the issuance of a DAT to O'Connell for precisely that. An assertion to the contrary by a former NYPD detective in the Post story is demonstrably wrong.

The claim that the DAT allowed O'Connell's "records to be sealed" is more nonsense. Records aren't sealed because a DAT is issued. Period. As it turned out, O'Connell's Criminal Court record was sealed, by court order, a few months later, after the misdemeanor proceeding against him was dismissed.

It should also be noted that the baseless ethics complaint against Donovan is defamatory of police personnel at the 122nd Precinct who handled O'Connell's arrest. For they, like Donovan, did absolutely nothing wrong.

BRUTAL PAIN

As a result of the publicity generated by all this nonsense, Timothy O'Connell's battle against drug addiction -- a battle for his life, really -- has gotten much more difficult and painful. For, now, he must struggle with the knowledge that what he knows about his life, millions of other people know, too. And in case he somehow manages to forget, a newspaper story, or a television report, or a simple Google search will remind him with another shot to the gut. Stonick called the revelation of her son's drug addiction "brutally painful," noting that she and Donovan have been on a "harrowing journey" regarding it.

There's no doubt, of course, that this vicious, cruel smear was politically motivated. Although O'Connell's arrest took place well over two years ago, the ethics complaint wasn't filed until the middle of a bitterly contested congressional primary campaign. And if the timing weren't enough, the complaint being given to the Post seals the deal.

Grimm told television station NY1 that he didn't file the complaint, nor does he know who did. When asked, "Did your campaign?" he replied, "Not that I know of, no."

Voters can ponder the credibility of these denials, of course, but one thing is crystal clear. Grimm has not denounced the complaint, as Donovan called upon him to do, opting, instead, to label it a "scandal."

Sometimes, silence, in the face of outrage, says all one needs to know.
Vanuatu says no to China military base



Sydney, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Vanuatu insisted Tuesday it had no plans to allow China to set up a military base on its territory after a report suggesting Beijing was pushing the proposal sparked concern in Australia and New Zealand.

The Sydney Morning Herald said China had approached the Pacific nation about the possibility, potentially upsetting the delicate strategic balance in the region.

China has been aggressively growing its military and expanding its footprint deeper into the Pacific, forging closer links by showering nations with development money.

The Herald, citing multiple sources, said Beijing's military ambition in Vanuatu would likely be realised incrementally, possibly beginning with an access agreement allowing Chinese naval ships to dock routinely for refuelling.

This arrangement could then be built on, it added, with intelligence and security figures in Australia, New Zealand and the United States becoming increasingly worried about China's growing influence.

But Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu angrily rebuffed the claim.

"No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," he told ABC radio.

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who travelled to Vanuatu last weekend with Britain's Prince Charles, earlier said she was confident of Canberra's strong relationship with Port Vila.

"We have very good relations with Vanuatu and I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said.



- 'Keeping a watching eye' -



While China has been investing in infrastructure around the world, to date it has only established one military base -- in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she could not comment on the validity of the Herald report.

"But what I can say is that we of course keep a watching eye on activity within the Pacific and that New Zealand is opposed to the militarisation of the Pacific generally," she said.

Australia's Lowy Institute estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16.

Earlier this year, Beijing lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a senior Australian minister called Chinese infrastructure projects in the region "white elephants".

During the spat, Australia's International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the Pacific was "full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains", built by China.

She also warned that unlike loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, Chinese financing had less than favourable terms.

"We don't know what the consequences are when (Pacific nations) have to pay back some of these Chinese loans," she said.

Beijing responded that it "fully respects the will of the Pacific islands' governments and their people" and that development aid "has brought real benefits to local people".

China has diplomatic relationships with eight Pacific island nations -- the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Six other Pacific countries recognise self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory.
China, Vanuatu deny military base plan



Beijing, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Vanuatu and China both insisted Tuesday there were no plans for Beijing to open a military base in the Pacific nation after a report suggesting the Asian giant was pushing the proposal sparked concern in Australia and New Zealand.

The Sydney Morning Herald said China had approached Vanuatu about the possibility, potentially upsetting the delicate strategic balance in the region.

China has been aggressively growing its military and expanding its footprint deeper into the Pacific, forging closer links by showering nations with development money.

The Herald, citing multiple sources, said Beijing's military ambition in Vanuatu would likely be realised incrementally, possibly beginning with an access agreement allowing Chinese naval ships to dock routinely for refuelling.

This arrangement could then be built on, it added, with intelligence and security figures in Australia, New Zealand and the United States becoming increasingly worried about China's growing influence.

But Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu angrily rebuffed the claim.

"No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," he told ABC radio.

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also shot down the speculation at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, calling it "fake news".

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who travelled to Vanuatu last weekend with Britain's Prince Charles, earlier said she was confident of Canberra's strong relationship with Port Vila.

"We have very good relations with Vanuatu and I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said.



- 'Keeping a watching eye' -



While China has been investing in infrastructure around the world, to date it has only established one overseas military base -- in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she could not comment on the validity of the Herald report.

"But what I can say is that we of course keep a watching eye on activity within the Pacific and that New Zealand is opposed to the militarisation of the Pacific generally," she said.

Australia's Lowy Institute estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16.

Earlier this year, Beijing lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a senior Australian minister called Chinese infrastructure projects in the region "white elephants".

During the spat, Australia's International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the Pacific was "full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains".

Beijing responded that it "fully respects the will of the Pacific islands' governments and their people" and that development aid "has brought real benefits to local people".

China has diplomatic relationships with eight Pacific island nations -- the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Six other Pacific countries recognise self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory.

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~ Lack of proper maintenance and security are major setbacks, Civil Servant paid $2,000.00 to hackers. ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Since 2015 the Government of St. Maarten have been affected by ICT troubles causing major shutdowns. In March 2017 the entire government apparatus shut down due to what is believed to be a virus attack through emails from external servers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and Social media.

The government had ordered a forensic investigation which took over 6 months before it was completed. That report states that simple updates and maintenance to the government servers were not being conducted to avoid virus attacks.

SMN News understands that the ICT department of Government wanted Government to invest some $40.000.00 in software to upgrade its security but that was not done since government believes that the attacks could have been malicious and more information was needed before such an investment could be made.

According to information reaching SMN News its states that a particular civil servant fell for a $2,000.00 ransom for the return of government information. The source said that the civil servant went ahead and paid the $2,000.00 hoping that if government information was returned that would have somehow solved the problem.

Even though the report from the Forensic Investigation was submitted late October 2017, Government did not take the necessary steps to upgrade its servers or even continue to with basic updates to protect its information.

Last week Tuesday the Government Administration Building closed its doors due to another cyber attack that has once again crippled almost all departments.

Civil Servants are being called out to work even though there are signs on their computers telling them they are prohibited to use their office computers.

Persons that are in need of vital services are unable to get those services simply because almost nothing is done to protect the ICT services of government.

It is stated that an email was sent to the Ministry of General Affairs that caused the latest shutdown but that information is withheld from the public of St. Maarten.

In May 2015 some 150 countries were affected by the Wannacry virus. Microsoft stated back then that governments were storing data on software with known vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers.

Since then those countries seemingly took action to protect their information with the latest technology while their ICT heads ensure that updates are done regularly.

However, that seems to be the farthest thing on the minds of the local government especially since the current Council of Ministers in office as a caretaker government.
POND ISLAND:--- Acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Cornelius de Weever, says job fairs are stepping stones to employment opportunities, but also at the same time, an increase in economic activity for the country which trickles down throughout the community.

Another job fair will get underway on Tuesday, April 10 at the John Larmonie Center on the Pondfill. It opens at 8.00am and runs until 5.00pm.

The type of jobs at this fair are construction and its related to the rebuilding of Sonesta Maho Beach Resort.

The construction job positions available are Drywall installer; Mason; finish carpenter; flooring tile installer; aluminum window/door installer; roofer; welder; structural steel bender; electrician (high voltage); and electrician (low voltage).

Divi Little Bay Beach Resort just concluded a job fair over the weekend for tourism/hospitality jobs as the resort is set to partially reopen for business on May 1.

Another opportunity presents itself and its the job fair on Tuesday by Sonesta Maho Beach Resort. The rebuilding of the resort as quickly as possible is good news for the economy. The construction phase itself will inject money into the economy from investments made into the hiring of persons who are paid wages, from building materials that can be purchased on the island etc.

The job fair is a stepping stone for the unemployed to find employment during these very challenging times, and at the same time, it generates economic activity. We look forward to Sonesta Mahos return built back better and stronger at the end of the rebuilding phase.

At the end of that track, another stepping stone would have been created. Transitioning for some from builder to hospitality service provider.

The rebuilding, renovations and renewal process of hotel properties will benefit the overall image of the country as a tourists destination in the long-run as I pointed out before. Some properties within our hotel stock needed to be renovated and now is the time to do so.

The return of the Sonesta Maho Group will be a significant development for the national economy once construction activities have been completed. It will result in an increase in airlift into the country where we will see more tourists returning to the destination.

On Tuesday, make use of the employment opportunities that are being provided in the construction field as it will be a plus for our economy, Minister Cornelius de Weever said on Monday.
One in three women around the world will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.

In 2006, $90.5 million was spent on medical treatment and assistance for sexual assault victims. Only $3.3 million of that was supported by state-wide victims services.

Domestic and sexual violence are silent killers in our community and in our state. It is a subject many people refuse to address or acknowledge but far too many experience.

April 8  14 is National Crime Victims Rights Week, and April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, while Domestic Violence Awareness Month is in October.

Alexa is one of many, many survivors of domestic violence. Her story is her own, but it has similarities to many other survivors stories.

I want to thank Alexa for her honesty and her willingness to help others by sharing her own story.

The reason Alexa reached out to me was because she truly feels her story is an opportunity to save another life. She fears her abuser will not stop his ways. She has great concern there are other womens lives in danger.

She wanted to speak out. She wanted to show she is a survivor. She didnt always feel this way, but now she is using her story to empower not only herself, but others; for the victims and survivors of domestic violence who cannot speak for themselves.

Alexa had many other support systems in place throughout her cycle of abuse, and those support systems included her friends, her teachers and social workers at her school, her parents, and herself.

These support systems are crucial. As I have learned through my own experience as a domestic violence advocate, and avid supporter of spreading awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault, it is important to know that isolation from other support systems is one of the ways abusers can get the upper hand. And they use this to their advantage, especially in our small, rural communities.

For Alexa, it was her friends at school who noticed the bruises on her arm after her boyfriend physically abused her the first time.

Her friends spoke up and took Alexa to an adult who could help.

To any bystander in a situation where you may believe abuse is happening, speak up. You have the potential to save someones life, says Alexa. If you see or hear something, speak out that is where we have the power to end domestic violence. If you are in school and your friend starts acting distant or different because of a boyfriend or a girlfriend, talk to a teacher you trust, a guidance counselor, a school social worker, parents, anybody. We have to end the cycle of abuse together.

Alexa saw two different parental responses to her situation. She saw her own parents, who supported her in changing schools when she felt unsafe, and did what they could to protect her from her abuser.

She also saw her abusers parents, who she felt made excuses for his violent behavior.

There is never, ever an excuse for that kind of manipulative behavior. I am not blaming the parents of Alexas abuser. Repeat abusers know how to manipulate anyone to get what they want or what they need.

Alexa has advice to parents who may have a teenager in a violent relationship:

Listen. If you think something is happening, listen to your child and listen to your intuition. Be there for them, be supportive. They are never at fault when someone does something like that to them, she shares.

And to the victims of abusive relationships themselves, Alexa also has sound advice:

That is not love. You are worth so much more than what your partner tells you, what they want you to believe when they hurt you. That is not okay. Be strong you are not that situation. They are not your burden to carry, says Alexa. Do not hesitate to call 9-1-1. They are there to help you. Listen to your intuition. Dont be afraid to cry out for help.

As a student in college, Alexa has found a circle of peers and professors who have empowered her to be the strong survivor that she is now.

She has devoted her secondary education to a path that will help others like her.

In order for there to be change, you have to be that change, she says. The perspective from a victim or survivor of violence is more important than what you usually read or hear.

Alexa wants to bring awareness to the violence that is happening in our communities. She feels people need to know what is happening next door, especially in our small towns and communities.

This happens more and more often than you think, and if it takes me to speak out, good or bad, Im going to keep talking. The more awareness we can spread, the more people know, she says.

Through school and talking to other empowering women, I woke up and realized it was time for me to speak out. I am a lot stronger. I will never let anyone else tell me what my self worth is ever again. Now I know that Im not what anyone tells me I am anymore. To the survivors out there, you are not alone. People may not be ready to hear your experience, you may not be ready to share it, but know you are not alone.

One of Faribault Countys strongest resources for victims of domestic violence is the Committee Against Domestic Abuse, Inc. (CADA).

The nonprofit organization covers eight counties in Southern Minnesota and has been serving individuals and families for 38 years. CADA offers advocacy to victims of domestic and sexual violence as well as sex trafficking.

They operate an emergency safety shelter, run three supervised parenting time and exchange centers, and provide 24-hour crisis intervention via their hotline. CADA?also provides support groups, individual therapy, legal advocacy, hotel stays, offender education, emergency medical exams and incident reporting accompaniment, community prevention education, volunteer and internship opportunities, and housing support.

Another great support network for victims of abuse is the Faribault County Victim/Witness Program.

I echo what Alexa and the CADA advocacy group says: we can put an end to this. If you see it, speak up. If you think something is happening, talk to someone. You are not alone.


Cincinnati may be the 65th largest city in the US, but did you know that it boasts the second busiest library in the country, preceded only by New York City? Thats because were always looking at ways of being on the front edge, says Paula Brehm-Heeger, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Back in 2008, the main library had just begun work on a Main Library for the 21st Century strategic plan. Soapbox reviewed key offerings at the downtown library such as the Teenspot, Technology Center with desktop computer access, a Small Business Resource Center and a Virtual Library accessible from home. As part of our Ten Year Anniversary series, Soapbox looks back at how the main library has changed in the past ten yearsand looks forward to whats next for the beloved civic institution.

Weve definitely had some major changes, many around technology, said Brehm-Heeger. The biggest has been the addition of the Makerspace, just across from the Teenspot in the north annex building. It offers such a wide variety of technologies for people to use directly. Some are things people use for hobbies, some for small businesses and entrepreneurs, she explained.

Public Library 3D PrinterWith the help of dedicated Makerspace staff, patrons can use 3D printers, audio and visual equipment, laser cutters and engravers, an Espresso book machine, a vinyl banner printer, sewing machines, cameras and other hardware and software tools. Reservations for the equipment are made online for short blocks of time, and materials associated with use of the machines are paid by the patron but fees are kept to a minimum. Due to the popularity of the Makerspace, Mini Makerspaces have also been installed at the Loveland and Reading branches.

Technology has continued to play an important and ever-growing role at the library, both customer facing and behind the scenes. Self-checkout has been a mainstay at the library for a number of years, but the library implemented RFID tagging so that patrons no longer have to scan a barcode. They just tap the book at checkout and are on their way. The library has also implemented automatic sorting systems to move material quickly and get it out to branches.

The library is also part of the SearchOhio system, a group of public and academic libraries throughout the state. If the Cincinnati library doesnt have a book, patrons can search statewide, and a courier service will deliver it to their local branch. This has greatly expanded the reach of what we can provide locally, explained Brehm-Heeger.

Reach and access are important factors for patrons, which is why the main library recently began offering a laptop kiosk service. With just a library card, patrons can borrow laptop computers with the same features as the desktops and use them anywhere in the building. This is a new option for our customers and really represents how people like to be mobile, were trying to adapt to that, said Brehm-Heeger.

Another huge boom area at the library are eBook, eAudiobooks, and digital material offerings. There is now a large catalog of eBooks available through the library website, as well as complimentary specialized offerings such as Ask a Librarian, which gives cardholders access to a holds list for new eBooks, eAudiobooks, and print materials. Other tech-enabled programs include Hot Tickets, which lets patrons reserve new-release DVDs in a genre of their choice. Book Hookup sends personalized book recommendations based on interests, and CD of the Month Club gives personal music recommendations.

The library doesnt just give patrons the opportunity to read, listen, and view for pleasure, it serves as an important resource for job seekers and professionals. During the recession, the Cincinnati library and libraries across the country became an essential resource for people with job and employment difficulties. The library offers trainings and works closely with Ohio Means Job and other partners. Library patrons have access to online training courses through the library that would otherwise charge a subscription service such Lynda and Treehouse, both of which provide self-paced tutorials for topics as varied as web design, programming, and project management.

The breadth and customization of services helped the library win a National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2013, the nations highest honor for libraries awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 2017 also marks the fifth year running that the library was deemed a five star library system by Library Journal.

The library continues to be an important resource at the heart of the community, just as it was in 2008. We are incredibly busy with 494,000 cardholders, 19.8 million items in circulation, and 41 locations, said Brehm-Heeger, with no signs of slowing.

For more information and to plan your visit to the Main library, visit their website and like the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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California's Lost Coast Loop: Part 1  The North Loop

Where the end justifies the means

You may have heard of the Lost Coast in northwestern Northern California. You may have also heard that there are no roads that actually go there. But there is one that comes close. And while this loop is entirely paved, be ready for some rugged surface.

Photo: Just off the Avenue of the Giants, Mattole Road boasts its own share of tall trees. At the very beginning of Mattole, make a quick detour down to the Rockefeller Loop to check out a huge grove of redwoods.

Mattole Road is part of what's often called the Lost Coast Loop, and there's probably no better route that captures the areas remoteness as it weaves through thick forests and river valleys en route to the Pacific. I like starting at the loop's southern portion near Weott, California, where the path darts through jaw-dropping stands of old redwoods. The south-to-north direction also rewards you with a grand stop in the picturesque village of Ferndale.

Photo: Mattole Road south In the first few miles on Mattole-it's often difficult to see the next turn as the road winds through a wickedly dense forest before picking up steam and heading uphill.

Begin your jaunt north on Avenue of the Giants (Route 254) as it parallels US 101 from Weott and follow signs for the Rockefeller Forest - they'll eventually route you west, under the 101. You're then on Bull Creek Flats Road along the Eel River and it'll eventually turn into Mattole Road in a couple of miles. You're deep into the redwoods now with gnarly roots growing right onto the roadway, which only gets narrower and darker as it weaves between the trees, the turns playing hide-and-seek behind massive trunks.

Following a path that's only a lane wide in spots and pockmarked with tire-swallowing potholes, Mattole Road eventually begins its steep ascent from the valley on a series of roughly-paved switchbacks. You'll cross several creeks and skirt some mountain ridges before hitting Panther Gap, and then the redwoods fade away into open fields and smaller woodlands.

Photo: Once you hit the Lost Coast, find an ocean access point and check out the very cool black-sand beaches. There's often fog here (even in summer) so layer up accordingly.

There are few communities here, and you're about to come upon one. Stay on Mattole Road across the bridge into Honeydew and pass the Honeydew Country Store - or better yet pull over and grab a snack, as there's nothing else around these parts for miles. The ride can get rough west of here, so be alert: road conditions change quickly. Mattole Road shadows the Mattole River before curling out of the valley into Petrolia, site of the first oil well in California. Really, there's not much to Petrolia, but don't miss the tricky left turn here onto Front Street, just past the Mission Church.

After a couple of miles the road is again called Mattole as it runs through farmland and up a ridge before hooking west. Up here, after a two-hour journey from US 101, you'll get your first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean! Nice job - you've just ridden the only road to a 100-mile section of the most undeveloped part of the continental U.S.'s western shore.

The black mass of Sugarloaf Island rises from the waves off in the distance, so make a beeline down the hill and shadow the coast for a few straight miles. With ocean access points up the road and the rugged black-sand beaches beckoning, it's a prime opportunity to stretch your legs and explore the tidepools.

Photo: After its dalliance with the coastline, Mattole Road makes a steep turn up Wildcat Ridge. Pull over before reaching the top for a view of Sugarloaf Mountain (that black island just offshore) behind you.

Mattole Road hugs the ocean heading north along the low coastal terrace just south of Cape Mendocino, the westernmost point of California. Offshore, three giant tectonic plates grind together, waiting to spring into action. Hang on as the road starts to climb and then abruptly hooks east just before Sugarloaf Island and straight up the notorious 'Wall to the Wildcat' ridge. At the top of this steep ascent are more majestic views of the ocean, though sometimes fog likes to gather here too...so no guarantees.

Mattole squiggles along a couple more hilltops before a final winding descent off Wildcat Ridge into Ferndale, an unbelievably quaint Victorian village decked out with all the opulent architecture of the era. The road ends at Ocean Avenue/Bluff Street, so hang a right onto Bluff and a quick left onto Main Street, then screech to a halt: the meticulously restored Victorian Inn on the corner really is worth a photo stop.

Photo: Once you hit Victorian-crazed Ferndale you're almost home. It's a pretty neat town to explore and/or grab lunch. Even the most jaded biker will probably want a photo of this lovingly restored building.

To complete the full loop, continue on Main Street out of town (Route 211) and in minutes you'll cross the Eel River into Fernbridge. Jump back on Hwy 101 South (but fuel up in Fernbridge or Fortuna first) and in 20 minutes you'll exit onto the Avenue of the Giants North entrance. This is Route 254 - where you started - and a more visually entertaining option than the 101 as it continues south among the redwoods. In 25 miles you're back at Weott and your loop is now complete.

Give yourself well over 3 hours to ride this 120+ mile rollercoaster, but make time for photos and exploration too. Along the way you'll probably realize the Lost Coast is more a state of mind than a destination.

Andrew Cherney/April 2018
iStock/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would raise the total number of Texas National Guard troops to "more than 1,000" along the U.S.-Mexico border.



Across all border states, "the goal is to have at least 4,000 deployed here in about a month or two," the Republican governor said Monday during a radio interview with KTSA.



Texas will increase its number of Guardsmen by about 300 per week until "fully staffed up," Abbott said. About 250 troops currently are near the border.



Texas announced the deployment of 150 Guardsmen to support Trump's new border-security mission on Friday night.



Over the weekend, they met with officials from Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security in five sectors along the southern border.



That group of 150 individuals joined 100 Guardsmen, who had been working on a previous border-support mission.



The Arizona National Guard has announced the deployment of 338 members. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, was present to send off the first group of 225 on Monday.



New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, has expressed support for National Guard troops supporting Border Patrol agents in her state, but not deployed them.



California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is considering sending California National Guardsmen to the border, according to Lt. Col. Thomas Keegan, a Guard spokesman.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
111-year-old black veteran gets African-American museum tour



Washington, April 9 (AFP) Apr 09, 2018



The oldest US veteran of World War II, the 111-year-old grandson of a slave, has received an exclusive tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture after being flown to Washington on a private jet by a wealthy benefactor.

Richard Overton, who turns 112 next month is believed to be the oldest man in the United States and the third-oldest in the world.

Overton grew up in Texas, where his grandfather, a former slave, settled after being granted his freedom in Tennessee.

He served in the Pacific during World War II in an all-black battalion and worked in a furniture store after the war.

On Sunday, Overton took a private tour of the African-American museum in Washington thanks to Robert Smith, a billionaire businessman and investor who is richest African-American in the country, according to Forbes magazine.

Volma Overton, a cousin, told AFP that Smith met with Richard Overton on Friday in Austin, Texas, where they both live.

Smith, who donated about $20 million to the museum, made the arrangements "for us to have a personal tour, a special tour," Volma Overton said.

"We never thought about going to the museum any time lately, but Mr. Smith came by his house to visit Richard for the first time," he said.

"He sat and talked to Richard about two hours on Richard's porch, and he said: 'Would you like to go to DC to see the museum? What about tomorrow?'

"It happened just like that."

The Washington Post said that during the tour, Richard Overton received a call from Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state and ex-general who was the first African-American to serve as chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Richard Overton was married twice. He divorced his first wife and his second wife died in the 1980s. He has no children.

Volma Overton attributed his relative's longevity to his love of cigars and whiskey.

"He smokes 15 cigars everyday," he said. "In DC he was desperate for a smoke, but it was so cold!

"He doesn't like cold weather."
US agrees guided missiles for Qatar before Trump talks



Washington, April 9 (AFP) Apr 09, 2018



The United States approved a deal to sell Qatar $300 million in guided missiles Monday, on the eve of President Donald Trump's White House meeting with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Gulf emirate is a long-standing American military ally and host to the largest US air base in the Middle East, but ties have been clouded by a crisis with its Arab neighbors.

Led by US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Qatar's regional rivals launched a diplomatic and trade blockade last year, and Trump initially appeared to take Riyadh's side.

Saudi and Emirati officials have accused Thani's government of cozying up to Iran and funding Islamist extremist groups. Qatar denies this and Washington wants to mediate a truce.

The emir met US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday and is due to meet Trump on Tuesday. His visit comes after Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman conducted a successful three-week US visit.

As a warmup to the visit, the State Department approved the sale of 5,000 Advance Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) to Qatar, including 5,000 high explosive warheads.

"Qatar is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Persian Gulf region," the agency said.

"Our mutual defense interests anchor our relationship and the Qatar Emiri Air Force plays a predominant role in Qatar's defense."

During the Saudi prince's visit, the US government confirmed more than two billion dollars in arms sales to the kingdom.
Greece fires warning shots at Turkish helicopter: Greek source



Athens, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Greek soldiers fired warning shots at a Turkish helicopter after it approached the small island of Ro, which marks their border in the Aegean Sea, a Greek military source said Tuesday.

The overnight incident comes with the erstwhile NATO allies locked in yet another round of tense exchanges, sparked this time by Turkey's detention of two Greek soldiers who according to Athens strayed into Turkish territory by mistake.

"The order to fire the warning shots to force the helicopter to move off came in the context of stepped up surveillance and reaction measures adopted given the increase in tensions with Turkey," the Greek source said.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the helicopter, apparently operated by the Turkish coastguard, flew along the outer limit of the air control identification zone between the two countries.

The source added that later analysis of radar readings showed that the helicopter had not infringed on Greek airspace.

Recent months have seen a sharp spike in tensions between Athens and Ankara, with Greece determined to protect its sovereign rights in the Aegean where the two sides have a series of longstanding territorial disputes.
Israel confirms video showing soldier shoot Palestinian



Jerusalem, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Israel's military on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a video that has spread widely showing a soldier shoot a Palestinian along the Gaza Strip border, but alleged it followed riots and warnings from troops.

It said in a statement that the Palestinian in the video was hit in the leg and wounded. The video was recorded on December 22 in the area of Kissufim near the Gaza Strip, it said.

Israeli right-wing ministers have defended the actions of the soldiers in the video in which rejoicing can also be heard after the shooting.

"Wow. What a video! Yes! That son of a bitch," one of the voices behind the camera says in Hebrew.

Palestinians have said the video shows Gazans are being shot along the border while posing no threat to soldiers.

"The video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours," the army said.

"During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air."

It alleged the warnings were ignored and "a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organising and leading this incident while he was a few metres from the fence."

According to the army, the video was recorded by a soldier not part of the unit that fired the shot.

"As for the unauthorised filming of an operational event, the distribution of the filmed material and the statements made there, it should be noted that these do not suit the degree of restraint expected of (Israeli) soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly," it said.
Lebanon drops six-month jail term for journalist



Beirut, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



A Lebanese military court on Tuesday dropped its six-month prison sentence against a journalist accused of criticising the army, the tribunal and reporter said.

Hanin Ghaddar, a writer known for her criticism of the powerful Hezbollah movement, was sentenced in absentia on January 10 for "defaming the Lebanese army".

During a conference in Washington in 2014, Ghaddar alleged that Lebanon's Sunni Muslims were "being clamped down by Hezbollah and the Lebanese army".

On Tuesday, the same court recanted its decision after an appeal by Ghaddar's lawyer, saying it "did not have jurisdiction" over her because she is a reporter.

But the accusation of defamation still stands, with the military tribunal saying it would transfer the file to Lebanon's publications court.

Ghaddar on Tuesday confirmed that the six month sentence had been cancelled but said the case "hasn't been dropped".

"This is not only a personal victory, it's a victory for free press," she told AFP.

The military courts in Lebanon have a very broad jurisdiction over civilians.

Rights groups have voiced concern that could be used as a tool for intimidation against free speech and activism.

"In no case should authorities detain people for peaceful criticism," Human Rights Watch warned in January.

Hezbollah, a Shiite organisation backed by Iran, is represented in Lebanon's government. Its armed units are often considered more powerful than the Lebanese army.
Iran says 7 dead in Syria strike will 'not go unanswered'



Tehran, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Iran said Tuesday the number of its soldiers killed in an air strike in Syria this week had risen to seven and that it would not go unanswered.

Iranian media reported that seven bodies had been flown back to Tehran for burial following Monday's strike against the T-4 airbase in Homs.

Syria, Russia and Iran have blamed Israel for the attack, which Tehran had initially said killed four military advisors.

"The Zionist regime's attack on Syria will not go unanswered," said Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iran is a key ally of the Syrian government, alongside Russia, and Velayati was speaking on arrival in Damascus where he was due to meet with President Bashar al-Assad, according to ISNA.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at US President Donald Trump, who has said Russia and Iran share the blame for an alleged chemical attack in a rebel-held town in Syria.

Iran "has consistently condemned use of chemical weapons by anyone (and) is itself the victim of their use by Saddam with US support," Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to chemical attacks during Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Trump's "threats to repeat impulsive acts of aggression is symptomatic of US policy helping extremists," Zarif added.

The US president has threatened a "forceful" response to the alleged chemical attack.
Bosnia arrests two suspected jihadists, find weapons



Sarajevo, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Bosnian police arrested Tuesday two men suspected of being part of a jihadist movement, seizing weapons and Islamic State paraphernalia, prosecutors said.

"A certain quantity of arms was found, as well as grenades, ammunition, automatic rifle magazines, knives, combat vests and flags looking like Islamic State insignia," a prosecutors' statement said.

It did not elaborate whether the suspects planned to commit terrorist acts.

Their age or identity was also not revealed.

In December, a 25-year-old Bosnian man, in possession of a large quantity of weapons, was arrested in Sarajevo.

He had already been sentenced in 2016 to a year in prison for having joined the ranks of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2013.

The man was arrested at Sarajevo's bus station, not far from the US embassy.

In the boot of his car, police found a rocket-launcher, two automatic rifles, a large amount of ammunition, an anti-personnel mine, four grenades and two combat vests.

About 1,000 people from the Balkans joined jihadist ranks to fight in Syria and Iraq since 2012 but the flow has dried up, with more than 200 killed on the frontline.

Another 300 or so have returned to the Balkan region.

Interpol is currently searching for some 20 Bosnian citizens suspected of terrorism, the Dnevni Avaz daily paper reported Tuesday.
Israel will not accept Iranian entrenchment in Syria: defence minister



Jerusalem, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday his country would not accept Iranian entrenchment in Syria after missile strikes on a Syrian regime air base blamed on Israel.

"We will not allow Iranian entrenchment in Syria no matter the price to pay," he told journalists. "We have no other option. Allowing Iran to strengthen itself in Syria is like accepting that the Iranians strangle us."

Lieberman did not confirm Israel carried out Monday's deadly strikes, which Syria and Russia blamed on Israel.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to its enemy Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that is backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

It has also repeatedly warned it will not accept its arch-foe Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

On Monday, Israel accused Syria of "crimes against humanity" over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town, saying Assad's regime was responsible.
Mattis cancels weekend travel plans as Syria response looms



Washington, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has canceled weekend travel plans, a US official said Tuesday, as the Pentagon works with the White House on a response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.

The change of plans comes as US President Donald Trump shelved his first trip to Latin America, scheduled for later this week, saying he wants to "oversee the American response to Syria."

Mattis was supposed to visit California and Nevada, the official added without giving further details.

Trump has vowed to respond "forcefully" to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, where rescuers and medics say more than 40 people died after the suspected poison gas attack in the last rebel-held pocket of the one-time opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.
7 Myanmar soldiers sentenced to 10 years over Rohingya killings: army



Yangon, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



Seven soldiers in Myanmar were sentenced for their part in the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men, according to a Facebook post by the army chief late on Tuesday.

The bloody incident in Inn Din village on 2 September is the only atrocity to which the military has admitted during its violent crackdown in northern Rakhine state which has forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into Bangladesh since August last year.

Two Myanmar Reuters journalists, Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were investigating the massacre when they were arrested in December on the outskirts of Yangon for possessing classified documents that could land them up to 14 years in jail if convicted.

A month after their detention, the military issued a statement in a rare admission of wrongdoing that some of its security forces had been involved in the killing and pledging to take action against those responsible.

"Four officers have been purged (from the army) and given a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour. A further three soldiers were purged and given a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour in a criminal prison," the post read.

The tribunal took place behind closed doors, ignoring international calls for an independent inquiry.

The arrest of the Reuters journalists has provoked global outrage with calls for the pair's release echoing around the world as they wait to hear whether the court will throw out their case on Wednesday.

Their report described how Myanmar troops and Buddhist villagers executed the 10 men before dumping their bodies into a mass grave.

The account was based on testimony from Buddhist villagers, security officers and relatives of the slain men.

It included photographs of the victims, hands bound and kneeling on the floor before the killing -- and of their bodies in a pit afterwards.
NGOs urge Spain not to sell warships to Saudi Arabia



Madrid, April 10 (AFP) Apr 10, 2018



A coalition of NGOs on Wednesday urged Spain not to sign off on a planned sale of warships to Saudi Arabia during an upcoming visit to Madrid by the kingdom's crown prince.

The "Arms Under Control" collective, which includes Amnesty International, Oxfam and Greenpeace, also called on Spain to stop exporting arms to the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed.

During his trip to Spain on Thursday, Prince Mohammed bin Salman will meet King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy -- "a meeting during which bilateral agreements will be signed," read the Spanish government's agenda, without giving more details.

Spain's loss-making shipyards are placing a lot of hope on the planned sale of five corvettes, which has reportedly been under negotiation for two years.

But rights groups have denounced it, saying the warships could be used in Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen.

On Wednesday, the NGOs coalition asked the royal palace and Spanish government "not to promote the signature of Spanish company Navantia's contract to build five corvettes... for the Saudi army and to end arms exports to Saudi Arabia".

It also called on Spain "to join a growing number of countries like Germany, Sweden, Norway or Belgium that have stopped exporting arms to the Saudi coalition" fighting in Yemen, which also includes countries like the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi prince's trip to Spain will come hot on the heels of a three-day official visit to France and after a tour lasting several weeks of the United States, Britain and Egypt, where the self-styled moderniser signed multimillion-dollar deals.

Spain and Saudi Arabia's royal families are very close as King Felipe VI's father Juan Carlos was a close friend of the kingdom's late King Fahd, who reigned from 1982 to 2005, and is close to his brother King Salman.
A Woman's World in the Caucasus Nagorno-Karabakh's Grand Experiment

The small, renegade republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus is deeply patriachal. But for the last several years, more and more women have been rising to positions of leadership in the government, courts and universities. The development has changed the country.
English10/04/2018

NAMES AND SYMBOLS OF NDH ARE BEING REVIVED AND IC FACTORS ARE KEEPING SILENT

Attempts to reduce or deny the crime can be seen in the use of modern Croatian language  Jasenovac is called an internment camp in Wikipedia, which is contrary to definitions in foreign languages where it is marked as a concentration death camp, warns Dario Atijas, a member of the World Jewish Congress. An interview by Aleksandar LUKIC



DOBOJ, April 10 /SRNA/ - Dario Atijas, a member of the World Jewish Congress, has warned that a mild position of international representatives, accompanied by the immaturity of domestic political structures, enables the naming of streets or public buildings in the FBiH after Nazi and Ustashe war criminals.



In an interview with SRNAs Aleksandar Lukic, he has reminded of the case of an elementary school in Dobrosevici which was named after Mustafa Busuladzic or the case of a street in Mostar which was named after Jure Francetic.



Unhindered spreading of hatred towards Jews is also enabled by a free street sale of anti-Semitic books, such as Mein Kampf and the Protocol of Elders of Zion.



This is inadmissible, but the politics of the IC is partially being clarified by the current events in Croatia, one of the signatories of the Dayton Peace Agreement.



Even though Croatia is officially denying it, Croatia has a great influence on Croats in BiH, and it cannot face crimes committed by its predecessors against Jews in WWII, Atijas says.



As bad examples, he cites the putting of Ustashe signs in public places and the Ustashe greeting for the Homeland ready, which is increasingly more present among the Croatian right wing.



He also mentioned statements by Croatian officials, including statements by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic during her official visit to Argentina, which was a safe haven for Ustashe criminals from Croatia from WWII.



An attempt to reduce or deny the crime can also be seen in the use of modern Croatian language - Jasenovac is called an internment camp in Wikipedia, which is contrary to a definition in foreign languages where it is marked as a concentration death camp, Atijas has warned.



Just like Croatian politics is spreading across its borders towards the Croatian people in BiH, the mutually connected extreme right wing is spreading from Europe towards minorities, particularly in Bulgaria, Hungary, even Poland.



These are things we, the Jewish community, are aware of, and when faced with them, we are trying to spread a positive spirit. But, in an attempt to improve our cooperation with the governments at all levels, a support from the IC is needed and already signed conventions on human rights need to be implemented, Atijas says.



He says that the authorities in Republika Srpska are more sensitive regarding this issue.



Atijas says that in a few years, Jews will celebrate the 500th anniversary of their presence in the area of BiH, where only 1,000 Jews live today in six Jewish municipalities, out of 70,000 who lived here before WWII.



Neighborly relations are very specific relations in BiH. They are sometimes good and sometimes bad, says Atijas, who is also the executive vice-president of the Doboj Jewish Municipality.



When it comes to Doboj, Atijas says that members of the Jewish community feel rather safe today and live in a tolerant environment when compared to the events in the region.



Before WWII, between 120 and 140 families lived in the Doboj region, and we draw data about their lives from various sources, including archives of the local Orthodox Church, the Islamic Community but also the Catholic Church, Atijas says.



He says that all documents testifying about the existence of Jews in Doboj are destroyed, that certain testimonies were collected during the time of the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia, and that they are kept in the Museum of BiH, the National Museum and the Museum of Genocide in Belgrade.



Unfortunately, data about property once owned by Jews, which are in the Doboj land registry office, are not available to us today, Atijas says.



He says that sufferings of Doboj Jews in WWII are documented in rare publications, based on archives of messages from the leadership of the then Independent State of Croatia /NDH/ from Zagreb with clear instructions about their deportations, and based on testimonies of contemporary people.



Women and children were mostly deported to Djakovo in Croatia, while men were taken to Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska and Donja Gradiska. There is no information that any of them survived, Atijas says.



Atijas says that Jews would like to mark in 2021 in Doboj the 500th anniversary of the presence of Jews in BiH, the 150th anniversary of their presence in Doboj, and the 81st anniversary of their deportation to concentration camps.



He says that Jews will not give up the idea that property seized from the Jewish community in Doboj be restored or in other ways compensated, adding that this property is today freely resold or leased by foreign private entities and the city administration. /end/sg
English10/04/2018

WHO HIDES IDENTITY OF SERB VICTIMS?

SARAJEVO, April 10 /SRNA/ - A member of the Board of Directors of the Missing Persons Institute of BiH, Nikola Perisic, told SRNA that he was in an operational meeting in Sarajevo with the Acting Chief Prosecutor of BiH, Gordana Tadic, where he was particularly interested in the remains of 192 Serbs who were buried as John Does /NN/ under traditional Muslim symbols in Visoko.



According to him, Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor, Nedzad Corovic, has issued an order and promised that soon the information will be given how it could happen that Serb victims were buried without their religious symbols, which also happened at the sites of Sokolac mental hospital, and the cemeteries in Vlakovo, Kosevo, Foca, Rogatica and others.



"There is a process of revision of the memorial ossuaries and mortuaries in BiH underway. I hope that the International Commission on Missing Persons in BiH will announce revision results in a month or two. I am convicted that when it comes to data on 7,145 verified missing persons in BiH, the figure will be much smaller, and that the families will get mortal remains of their beloved ones and that DNA analyses will match,"said Perisic.



He has said that the meeting with the topic - the cooperation of the BiH Prosecutor's Office concerning the search for missing Serbs in the past war in the area of Sarajevo, besides Tadic, was also attended by her associates Stanko Blagic and Izet Odobasic.



Perisic emphasizes that he particularly insisted on searching the sites in Sarajevo where Sarajevo Serbs were killed, such as Buca Potok, Kazani, Alipasin Most, and the execution sites on Mount Ozren, Vozuca, Visoka Krajina, Petrovac, Drvar, Grahovo and Glamoc.



"Of course, I have special feelings for Mrkonjic Grad mass grave dating back to 1996, where out of 181 Serb victims, mortal remains of more than 40 Serbs have not yet been identified. We must not forget Posavina, Derventa, Brod ..." said Perisic.



He has announced that another operational meeting will be organised soon at the level of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and the Missing Persons Institute of BiH, which will analyze the essence of the cases that have been waiting for the epilogue for a long time, and are about the fate of missing Serbs and the identification and sanctioning of perpetrators of the crimes against them.



"When it comes to pathological department, i.e. the town cemetery in Visoko, 252 cases are covered by anthropological research concerning the taking of reserve DNA samples. It is known that 192 cases resulted in NN /John Doe/. Information was received that a tombstones shape is a Bosniak, i.e. Muslim traditional religious. I was told in the court that this was not their mandate," Perisic has said.



He has announced that the BiH public should soon be informed on the creation of a missing persons database in BiH.



The Prosecutor's Office of BiH today announced that the leaders of this institution met with a new member of the Board of Directors of the Missing Persons Institute of BiH, and the main topics to discuss were the strengthening of cooperation in the process of finding and identifying missing persons in BiH.



It is noted the member of the Board of Directors of the Missing Persons Institute of BiH, Nikola Perisic, after taking office, visited the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and met with Tadic and her associates for the first time.



The processes of searching, exhumation and identification of missing persons in BiH were discussed in the meeting.



The intensive cooperation between the BiH Prosecutor's Office and the Institute in these processes at the operational level has been agreed noting that the search and identification of missing persons will accelerate and improve, primarily for the families of victims who are searching for their closest relatives.



As SRNA announced earlier, this meeting was scheduled after Perisic has received a request from the Head of the Association of families of missing persons from Sarajevo-Romanija region, Milan Mandic, that the Institute should take DNA samples of the remains of 365 Serbs who were transported from Sarajevo and buried in the cemetery in Visoko with the Muslim religious symbols, although they have not been identified.



Without informing either public or families of the missing persons, unidentified remains, found mostly in the broader Sarajevo area, were buried in the graveyard complex in Visoko at the end of last year in 163 graves. /end/vos
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Andrew Pozzi finished sixth in the 110m hurdles final.

STRATFORD'S Andrew Pozzi missed out on a medal in the 110m hurdles at the Commonwealth Games as Jamaica took gold and silver.

Ronald Levy won ahead of countryman Hansle Parchment in 13.19 seconds, with Australia's Nicholas Hough securing bronze.

Pozzi hit the first hurdle and struggled to get into the race after that, finishing sixth in a time of 13.53.

"I'd rather not see replays to be honest," said a disappointed Pozzi.

"I was trying to play catch up but I rushed it. I started to make some headway but through rushing things made mistakes and it just wasn't good.

"It's an event where you can't make a mistake. I made too many and wasn't good enough.

"There were several people who did a better job and they got what they deserved."

More in this week's Herald
The car-themed trip is part of the iconic British brands Journey into Luxury programme and includes a four-day luxurious getaway across some of Europes most beautiful landscape during May.

The journey begins in the magical city of Venice with a gondola ride in the morning, followed by a seat at Venices oldest theatre for a performance of La Traviata by Verdi at night.

The following morning, the tour moves inland to visit Italian fashion designer Bottega Venetas studio, and later heading to Lake Garda to sample food from Ristorante Oseleta, a Michelin-starred restaurant located on the grounds of a stunning villa above the lake.

Next up is a helicopter tour of northern Italian lakes, which will take guests to the grounds of The Grand Hotel Villa dEste, where the car-related extravaganza begins. The programme offers front row seats for the prestigious Concorso dEleganza at Villa dEste.

To bring the tour to dramatic finale, Rolls-Royce has reserved the Sunday for a driving experience along the shores of Lake Como followed by a vintage speedboat trip to Locanda Isola Comacin, and fireworks above a gala dinner.

Rolls-Royce is offering this memorable four-day grand tour for $42,000.
It was back in 1987 that Dean Shelton moved to the Costa del Sol with his parents. At the time he was just 10 years old, but he can still remember his dad asking how he would feel about moving to Spain and leaving his school and friends behind.

When are we going? he replied.

Since then the 44-year-old has worked his way up to become the councillor of Foreigners' Affairs, Commerce, Consumers and the Environment in Manilva - a post he has held since the local elections in May 2015.

SUR in English talks to Dean Tyler Shelton, the first ever foreign councillor in Manilva

Of the 15,000 people in Manilva, 42 per cent are foreign - almost half of whom are British

On a day-to-day basis he looks after the interests of the huge expat community in the municipality, which includes Sabinillas, El Castillo and Puerto de la Duquesa.

Born in Nottingham, Dean went to a local Spanish school in San Enrique de Guadiaro before taking over his first business in Puerto de la Duquesa at the tender age of 17, called Video Club Square Eyes.

Before Dean stepped into the world of politics in June 2011, he ran a successful estate agent in Torreguadiaro for ten years - before he decided to close it down in 2010.

Helping people every day

As for how he got into politics, he told SUR in English: I've always been interested in politics. It puts you in a position of power where you can help people every day.

I never had any intention to get into politics. I started off doing sofa politics, reading the paper and talking to the television. Then one day the mayor of Manilva at the time came to me and asked me if I would join them on the next election campaign in 2011.

She felt that the foreign community was one that she needed to tap into for votes.

Forty-two per cent

Putting it into perspective, Dean explained that of the 15,000 people registered as living in the municipality of Manilva, 42 per cent are foreign - and of that group of foreigners, almost half are British.

In June 2011 he got his first job on Manilva council as an area director - which, according to Dean, is a right-hand man to a councillor.

He added: In my first four years as area director I gradually realised that I wanted to represent the community and the way to do that was to either become a mayor or a councillor. Becoming the mayor was unrealistic in this town, but it was realistic that I could fight an election and become a councillor - so that's what I did.

Making history

In May 2015, Dean became the first ever foreign councillor in Manilva

It felt awesome, he said.

The good thing about being a councillor is that I'm in a position to do a lot of good. You're being paid money to help people. If you like helping people and you can better your own town, for me there's not a better thing to do.

And for Dean, who lives in Sabinillas, Manilva is somewhat different to the other Costa del Sol towns popular with foreign residents.

We have a very high percentage of expats who are working age and work in Gibraltar, which makes it different from the rest of the coast.

We have a lot of young working professionals that work in areas other than bars and restaurants, such as online gaming, shipping and law firms. As well as that we have a lot of retirees, but we have more residential expats here than holidaymakers.

And over the years Manilva has welcomed its fair share of celebrities, with Dean meeting Bernhard Langer, Tiger Woods, Mike Reid and Robert Kilroy Silk and having Kevin Keegan round for family barbecues.

An easy way of life

As for what Dean likes most about the Spanish way of life, he added: I like the way it used to be more. I liked it when Spain was a bit simpler, as one of the beauties of this country is the easy way of life, the lack of stress and the good quality fresh food.

Basically people from the north of Europe would give their right arm to live here and we've got it for free. So for me, Spain is an absolutely awesome place to live, but I do prefer the Spain of old from 15 to 20 years ago, when life was just that little bit easier.
A new boutique hotel will open in Calle Ancha in Marbella's old town by next summer. To be known as Maison Ardois, it will occupy a 16th century mansion that is currently being restored.

The 4.5-million-euro property development is being carried out by a group of international investors, including members from Britain and Switzerland, who are being advised by Rhone Property group. Although an operator for the hotel is still being sought, once open the hotel will be targeted at the mid to high end of the market and will also cater for families.

Plans for the building include a restaurant covering around 150 square metres and 11 rooms in different styles on the first and second floors. There will also be a rooftop terrace offering views across Marbella old town, a relatively new concept to Marbella that draws on the current fashion for rooftop bars on historic buildings in Malaga city. Talking about the project, head of Rhone Property, Miguel Cervan, said that careful consideration would be given to any possible impact on neighbours from the new rooftop terrace.

Quartz in the walls

The house is in an area of the old town with historic merchants and nobles houses complete with coats of arms above the doors.

The restoration of the building is being carried out by builders Aryon and respecting original architectural features. For example, antique tiling from the main staircase has been placed in storage to be put back again once the work is complete.

The property was originally built by the Ardois family, linked to the old mining industry in the town. As a result, an unusually large amount of quartz was used in the building of the walls, although much of this is now covered over. Rhone Property has presented a piece of quartz to the mayor of Marbella, Angeles Munoz. Munoz has also visited the site and praised the quality of the work and the commitment of the company to the town. The company has said it plans more investment in Marbella.
Age Concern Fuengirola/Mijas has announced its latest thrill-seeking fundraising event, and it is most certainly not for the faint-hearted. Following last year's daredevil skydive, which raised 2,000 euros, the charity has invited its members and supporters to ride the longest, and only cross-border, zip wire in Europe.

Participants will cross over the River Guadiana on the 720-metre journey from Spain to Portugal at a speed of around 80 kilometres per hour. Those brave enough to participate will literally fly through time, landing approximately one hour earlier than take off because of the time zone change between both countries. The charity is looking for volunteers to participate in the event, which is planned to take place in October. It also needs sponsors and is appealing to local businesses and individuals to support the fundraising challenge.

Right now we are looking for people who want to have a go. However, it is of the utmost importance to confirm that all applicants are physically able to participate, secretary, Steve Marshall, told SUR in English.

Those wishing to take part in the event - whether zip wiring or helping out on the day - should contact Steve Marshall on 667 83 44 50. Information can also be obtained from the charity shop in Los Boliches.
The planned expansion of Tivoli World, the iconic amusement park in Arroyo de la Miel, remains on hold due to an ongoing legal battle between the land's current owners, developers Tremon, and former owner, the Cordoba businessman known as Sandokan.

Tremon, which plans to expand the park to include leisure areas and a shopping centre in a 300-million-euro project, bought the park as part of a large operation which included seven million square metres of land spread across Andalucia.

However, Sandokan has since insisted that the sale had not gone through, presumably because of lack of funds, and the park remains in a state of limbo: owned by Tremon, yet run by a company affiliated to the businessman who in December started a five-year prison sentence for tax-related crimes.

Increased competition

With this project paralysed, and the imminent arrival of a major shopping centre in Torremolinos, business owners in Benalmadena are increasingly concerned by the lack of commercial spaces in the town.

President of the town's business association (ACEB), Rosa Maria Gonzalez, has urged Tremon to resolve the issue as people are already going to Malaga or Fuengirola to shop and the problem is only going to get worse.
Underwriting conditions remain soft in 2018, particularly in commercial insurance, but seem to be passing through an inflection point. This is on account of the large hurricane losses in 2017 which set the stage for a price correction. Commercial line premium rates started to rise at the end of 2017, but it remains to be seen how strong and sustainable the market firming is. Rate increases for accounts and commercial lines of business not affected by the catastrophe losses, for instance, have been below initial expectations. In personal lines, there has been moderate rate hardening in several key markets for a few years already. However, more work to improve underwriting performance needs to be done if current shortfalls in profitability are to be redressed.

Premium rates need to increase substantially to restore profitability

Underlying economic growth improved strongly in 2017, and we expect this to carry over into 2019, putting upward pressure on inflation and interest rates. Central banks in many countries are already withdrawing monetary stimulus to ward off overheating. Under the current stronger economic conditions, we expect interest rates in mature markets to continue to rise moderately, which should support insurers' earnings through higher investment returns.

However, macroeconomic developments alone are unlikely to generate sustained improvement in non-life sector profitability. While the trend of declining investment yields has bottomed, we do not foresee a substantial increase in long-term interest rates. Also, tighter labour markets will likely push up general and claims inflation, which will likely further offset gains in investment returns. To achieve sustainable improvement in sector profitability, insurance premium rate increases in excess of rising claims trends will be needed.

Long-run performance in line with other industries

The pressure on the industry has heightened interest in innovation. Over the long run, investments in data and advanced analytics improve efficiency, underwriting and the insurability of increasingly complex risks. Further, this report finds that over the long run, insurance companies have delivered a level of profitability comparable with firms in other sectors. In line with these profit trends, a two-decade comparison of non-life insurers' stock market performance suggests at par or even above-par valuation. Furthermore, insurance stocks demonstrate low correlation of price returns with other industry sectors and thus offer value to investors in the form of diversification benefits.
Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse police detective described today how evidence in a Syracuse murder case was handed over unexpectedly.

Hanza Muhammad, 26, was not found for two weeks after an Oct. 8. 2017 murder on Butternut Street. John White, 22, was shot to death shortly after midnight.

After the murder, detectives went to two residences in North Syracuse, looking for Muhammad, who was a suspect. He wasn't at either residence.

But the second location was the home of Muhammad's girlfriend, Detective Kevin Birardi testified today. Muhammad had been living at the Maple Manor Drive residence for an unknown amount of time.

Prosecutors say the evidence shows that the girlfriend, Meghan Lamirande, gave police permission to search her home for Muhammad. His defense lawyer, Ken Moynihan, disputes that.

Police searched the residence and didn't find Muhammad. Afterward, Birardi said he had a conversation with Lamirande, who became belligerent.

After a few minutes, Lamirande's cell phone began ringing, Birardi testified. Lamirande, who appeared nervous at that point, put the phone in her bra, the detective testified.

Awhile later, Lamirande's mother arrived. Lamirande pulled the phone from her bra and gave it to her mother, Birardi testified.

At some point, Lamirande showed the caller ID screen and said, "It's him," Birardi testified, saying he took that to mean Muhammad.

Immediately after taking the phone, the mother turned and handed it to Birardi, the detective testified.

"He tried to kill me last year. I want to cooperate," the mother said, according to Birardi.

The mom said that while her daughter, Lamirande, used the phone, it belonged to mom and she gave detectives the passcode, Birardi added.

The mom also consented to police searching the phone. It's unclear what evidence was discovered, though prosecutors are clearly interested in being able to use it at trial against Muhammad.

The defense lawyer believes that police didn't have proper consent to search the phone. He wants its contents suppressed.

Lamirande was angry at police getting the phone, Birardi testified. She was briefly handcuffed after becoming belligerent for a second time, he said.

On a later date, Lamirande was charged with felony hindering prosecution for helping Muhammad avoid capture in the weeks following the murder.

Muhammad was caught Oct. 20 after sheriff's deputies in Broome County pulled over a car he was riding in. The cell phone handed over to police did not appear to aid in his capture.

Today, County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to sustain the felony hindering prosecution charge against Limirande.

Prosecutor Joseph Coolican said that may be the case, but Lamirande could still face criminal prosecution. He wasn't sure whether he would try to indict Lamirande again.

Miller's ruling this afternoon dismissing Lamirande's charges created an odd series of events, as Lamirande was allowed to walk out of court before Muhammad's hearing.

But Muhammad's lawyer, Moynihan, wanted Lamirande to testify in regards to the events leading to police obtaining the cell phone.

By then, Lamirande had left the building.

The hearing was adjourned after Birardi's testimony so Moynihan could get Lamirande back to court to testify -- perhaps by subpoena. He also wanted to hear from the mom, who also showed up for court as a civilian but left before the hearing.

Muhammad remains jailed. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.
CLINTON, N.Y. -- An Oneida County doctor has pleaded guilty to defrauding more than $86,000 from the state workers' compensation system, according to the state inspector general.

Gregory B. Shankman, 70, of Clinton, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oneida County Court to two counts of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott said in a news release.

Shankman, an orthopedic surgeon who had medical offices on Genesee Street in Utica, has surrendered his medical license. He is expected to pay the full restitution of $86,896.31 at the time of his sentencing in June.

Shankman defrauded the workers' compensation system by certifying he was present during worker's compensation medical examinations at his Utica office when he was instead traveling in western New York, out of state, and even out of the country, Scott stated.

On multiple occasions, Shankman was performing workers' compensation medical examinations in offices across Upstate while also billing for examinations conducted simultaneously at his Utica office, where he was required to be under state law, Scott stated.

"This doctor brazenly supplemented his income through an illicit medical mill that left honest physicians at an unfair competitive disadvantage," Scott said. "With pure greed, he billed for services he was supposed to personally oversee but was instead traveling across the state or vacationing abroad."

The investigation found that Shankman was not in his Utica offices on more than 150 separate days between January 2015 and August 2017 when he certified he was at the office each of those days overseeing multiple workers' compensation exams, Scott said.

Shankman will remain released pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for June 5.
DEWITT, N.Y. -- A Texas man cleaning his own gun shot himself in the finger at a DeWitt hotel on Tuesday, DeWitt police said.

A call was received at the Onondaga County Dispatch Center about a shooting at the Days Inn on Thompson Road at 11 a.m., according to dispatch logs.

Christopher Compton, of Texas, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, police said, and is scheduled to return to Town of DeWitt Court on May 15, police said.

An ambulance took Compton to the hospital, where he was treated for his injuries and cooperated with an investigation, police said.
OSWEGO, NY -- It's tempting to look at the phenomenal rise of craft brews -- all those IPAs, porters, wits, sours, stouts etc. -- and think they are going to take over the beer world.

Not so fast, says Ranjit Dighe, a professor of economics at the State University College at Oswego.

The rise of American mainstream lagers (Bud, Miller, Coors etc.) was built over a long period, he says, and it won't go away soon. He's written an academic paper on the subject, and a popular version for a site called theconversation.com.

The article's title sums up Dighe's thinking. "Why Bland American Beer is Here to Stay."

Here's how his piece starts:

"Although craft beer has experienced explosive market growth over the past 25 years, the vast majority of Americans still don't drink it.

"Only about 1 in 8 beers sold in America is a craft beer. For the first time, the three best-selling beers in America are light beers: Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite. Bud Light alone has a greater market share than all craft beers combined.

"So while the selection has broadened dramatically, most people's tastes have not. Even craft beer companies are adjusting to this reality: A recent Chicago Tribune article noted that craft breweries are releasing beers that are "less hoppy and in-your-face" in order to appeal to the majority of Americans who prefer 'big corporate lagers.'

"In other words, they're brewing blander beers."

Ranjit Dighe, professor of economics at SUNY Oswego.

Make no mistake: Dighe himself is a fan of craft breweries (see definition below). He sent a post-interview email to this writer detailing his recent visit to U.S. Brewers at the Cellar Door in Oswego.

He's just not convinced that the beers craft fans deride as yellow, fizzy and flavorless are going to disappear -- or even fall behind.

One solid reason: The cost. A sixpack of beer of the Bud/Miller/Coors variety can be half the price of a sixpack of craft beer. Bargain brands like Keystone or PBR are even less.

"It's the same as going to the wine store," Dighe said in a recent interview. "You'll see a lot of high-end, top quality and expensive wines if you're interested in that. But the fruity wines, the $6 jug wines, are always going to sell well because they're the most affordable.

"Beer is no different. People will go for what's cheaper."

But Dighe's other argument is that the palates of many American drinkers, despite 25 to 30 years of the so-called "craft beer revolution," have been conditioned to prefer beer that is, to use one phrase, "pleasant and inoffensive."

"Unlike European countries with beer preferences and styles that have evolved over centuries, America lacks a homegrown brewing tradition," Dighe wrote in his essay at theconversation.com. "The classic American beer (Bud/Miller/Coors etc.) is an 'adjunct pilsner,' which means that some of the malted barley is replaced with corn or rice. The effect is a beer that's lighter, clearer and less hoppy than its counterparts in countries like England, Germany and Belgium."

Dighe's essay spends much if its time tracing beer's history in America: How German immigrants brought their lager tradition with them, in contrast to the somewhat bolder English-style ales and how that milder or "mellower" beer dove-tailed with the growing temperance movement in the 19th century. Prohibition helped seal the deal, Dighe writes, and even as it was ending, new laws prescribed the production of "non-intoxicating," low-alcohol beer and wine.

"The new, watered-down beer was a huge hit with the public, which hadn't tasted a full-strength legal beer since 1917," Dighe writes. "Dark beers and ales had accounted for some 15 percent of the market before World War I. But in 1936 their share was just 2 to 3 percent. In 1947, researchers at Schwarz Laboratories analyzed the alcohol, hop and malt content of American beers in the 1930s and 1940s and remarked that many of these early post-repeal beers were 'too hoppy,' 'too heavy and too filling' for consumers' tastes. The report noted 'a corrective trend' in which brewers sharply reduced their hop and malt content."

Those beers were also cheaper to produce and easier to market nationally. Then, in the 1970s, came the wave of low-calorie or "lite" beers, which were even more watered down. "Hop content (for American beer) fell 35 percent from 1970 to 2004," Dighe noted.

That pale, clear and less flavorful beer is what craft brewers rebelled against starting in the late 1980s and into the '90s and beyond. Today, craft brewers continue to push the boundaries by making hoppier, more sour, stronger and more cutting edge beers with ingredients ranging from coconut and coffee to watermelon and wasabi.

And yet, as Dinghe points out, the top three beers in the U.S. market today are light (or lite) beers that are the blander versions of the already fairly bland pale lagers that grew to dominance in the mid-20th century.

"What we're really seeing is a bit of polarization," he said. "A large segment of beer drinkers want those beers that are pleasant and inoffensive. Another segment, a much smaller one at this point, really wants to be challenged, to discover new flavors and to try things they haven't had before."

Dighe doesn't even get into the contentious issue of whether the big brewers of mainstream beers engage in unfair practices in the marketplace.

The share of the total U.S. market now held by craft beers hit 12.7 percent (by volume) in 2017, according to a report released in March by the national Brewers Association. That was a 5 percent increase from 2016, a period in which the overall beer market (mainstream, craft and imports) actually fell 1.2 percent.

So how big a share of the market could craft beer reach? Brewers Association founder and past president Charlie Papazian has argued it could make it to 30 percent, as some markets, like Portland, Ore., already exceed that level.

"It's easily doable (to reach 30 percent), but it's not going to happen overnight," Papazian said in a recent interview. "The trend is there. People are not the same kind of beer drinkers they were 20 years ago. There is still a lot of perceived value in craft beer, and there will be people seeking that value and authenticity."

Dighe doesn't disagree. But his research still leads him to the conclusion: Bland beer is here to stay.

"Despite the phenomenal rise of craft beer, light beers are still dominant," Dinghe ends his essay. "The craft beer explosion is a remarkable story, but perhaps we should stop calling it a revolution.

"For now, bland beers are still king."

Note: The Brewers Association defines a craft brewer as "small, independent and traditional." A craft brewery, under that definition, makes less than 6 million barrels a year (a barrel is 31 gallons) and is less-than-25-percent owned or controlled by a non-craft brewer. Most important, the majority of the production for a craft brewer is beer "whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation." That essentially rules out beers like Bud, Miller and Coors.

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
Bennett Raglin | Getty Images

Cardi B cops to getting illegal butt injections

'Bodak Yellow' rapper Cardi B is living large this week, performing on 'SNL,' co-hosting 'The Tonight Show' with Jimmy Fallon in support of her debut album, and celebrating her pregnancy with fiance Offset (of Migos). But she could've died four years ago when she paid $800 for illegal butt injections in a Queens basement. The 25-year-old Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, told GQ she was in "he craziest pain ever. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I felt a little dizzy. And it leaks for, like, five days." She said she was working as a stripper at the time and thought about going back for touchups later but the woman who injected her was arrested for killing someone by injecting toxic silicon into her buttocks.

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'The Meg' trailer

Jason Statham takes on a huge shark in the first trailer for "The Meg." The action star and former champion swimmer will face off against a prehistoric beast in the new ridiculous(ly fun) looking movie, also starring Rainn Wilson and Ruby Rose. "The Meg" opens in 4DX (a 3-D experience with special effects like water, smoke and motion) on Aug. 10.

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WWE's Paige retires

WWE wrestler Paige announced her retirement Monday. "Unfortunately due to neck injuries, I can no longer perform in this ring as an in-ring competitor," the 25-year-old star said. She was injured by Sasha Banks during a six-woman tag team in New York last December, and had to bow out of the first-ever women's Royal Rumble. Paige, whose real name is Saraya-Jade Bevis, says she's also suffering from scoliosis along with stress-induced anorexia and baldness after her sex tape was leaked.

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Completely overwhelmed with the love and support. Thank you everyone. Seriously means so much to me. This isn't the end though. Just the beginning of something special. #ThankYou #ThisIsMyHouse pic.twitter.com/WUhEKdXfMd  PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) April 10, 2018

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Seth Meyers' wife gives birth in apartment lobby

Late-night host Seth Meyers' wife gave birth in the lobby of their apartment building over the weekend. The former "SNL" star and Alexi Ashe welcomed their second child Sunday after calling an Uber and realizing they wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. "My wife just says, 'I can't get in the car. I'm going to have the baby right now. The baby is coming,'" Seth recalled. Then she lowered herself to the floor and the baby was already on its way out.

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Sonia Recchia | Getty Images

Rachel McAdams gives birth

Rachel McAdams has given birth to her first child, according to reports. The 39-year-old actress, known for 'The Notebook' and 'Mean Girls,' has been pictured with her boyfriend, screenwriter Jamie Linden, holding a baby boy in his arms. The couple has kept a low-profile and declined to confirm, but insiders say it's their newborn son. McAdams has not appeared on any red carpets since the premiere of "Disobedience" in September.

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Taylor Swift fan robs bank

Look what you made him do: A Taylor Swift fan says he robbed a bank in hopes of impressing the singer. TMZ reports Bruce Rowley was arrested last week in Ansonia, Connecticut, where he allegedly confessed to stealing after cops say he confessed to demanding an undetermined amount of cash from a bank teller, then driving to Swift's house and throwing some of the money over her fence. Rowley said he hoped the gesture would woo her, but now he's in jail on charges of robbery and larceny.

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Bruce Rowley, Man Robs Bank for T-Swift: What We Know - https://t.co/9x04Ofaxn1 pic.twitter.com/joUg9A5zLX  Second Nexus (@SecondNexus) April 10, 2018

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Baby Vuolo

Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo are expecting a baby girl, the reality TV couple announced Monday. "We could not be more excited and are eagerly anticipating meeting our little lady this Summer," they wrote on Instagram. The pair married in November 2016 after a brief courtship, as is custom in the "19 Kids and Counting" family. Duggar, who changed her name to Vuolo, and the former Syracuse soccer star currently star on "Counting On."

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Good Morning  pic.twitter.com/VBVkc5vt3A  Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 9, 2018

Kim K jokes

Kim Kardashian West and her sister Kourtney Kardashian are posting lots of racy photos in bikinis while vacationing in Turks and Caicos. "Good morning," Kim wrote while paddle-boarding, prompting thousands of fans to tweet the same joke about losing her diamond earring in the ocean -- which happened on an episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashian." Don't worry, she and her bling are doing just fine.

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Kesha officiates a wedding

Kesha officiates a same-sex wedding in her new video for "I Need a Woman to Love." The song appears on the new "Universal Love" EP, which also features Bob Dylan, Ben Gibbard and St. Vincent reinterpreting classic songs for LGBTQ couples. The video features a couple that saw Kesha perform at a Pride event in 2015 and said "in here it's all love."

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the hollywood breakup I am most disturbed by still remains cellino and barnes. the song sucks now. we must reunite them. what can we do  christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) April 10, 2018

Too many celebrity breakups?

It's shaping up to be quite a year for celebrity breakups. Famous couples who have split include Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, Jennie Garth and her husband Dave Adams, and Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik. But John Legend's wife Chrissy Teigen is most upset over Cellino and Barnes, the lawyer duo with offices in Upstate New York.

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Cellino & Barnes breaking up? Upstate NY lawyer suing longtime partner https://t.co/9VxsyrhVz4 pic.twitter.com/K49R5g20JZ  Geoff Herbert (@deafgeoff) May 11, 2017

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Billboards have sprung up around Syracuse, which neighbors the Hancock Air Force Base, decrying the U.S. military's use of unmanned military aircraft in conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

A non-profit organization, World Beyond War, paid nearly $20,000 for the advertisements, including stationary billboards and a billboard that will be paraded around the city on the back of a trailer.

The money came from small donations from concerned citizens from Syracuse and elsewhere, said group spokesman David Swanson.

"People in Syracuse don't know who is being blown up by people sitting in rooms at Hancock," he said. "...If we can help more people be aware of what is going on with unmanned and unwomaned drones killing people with missiles, that will be a step in the right direction."

In 2010, the Hancock base became the site of the 174th Attack Wing of the National Guard's MQ-9 Reaper drone operations and the first to have an MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft squadron. The drones have missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The billboards say "armed drones make orphans" and "drone wars, like all wars, kill innocent children, and may make us less safe."

The billboards will be up at from April 2 to May 27 at two of the four billboards at 115 S. State St., 700 E. Washington St., 1430 Erie Blvd. E and 1201 S. Salina St.

Between May 28 and July 22, the advertisements will again be up at 700 E. Washington St., 909 E. Genesee St., and 1758 Erie Blvd. East, according to the group.
The American Civic Association sits in the heart of downtown Binghamton, around the corner from the city's high school, up the street from the historical museum and across the river from the court house.

It connects Binghamton, a city of under 46,000 people in the Southern Tier, to the international community, offering English classes, citizenship classes, referrals to immigration lawyers and refugee resettlement services for immigrants in the Binghamton community. It serves as a vibrant cultural hub for ethnic, cultural and religious groups to meet and celebrate.

The sign outside the Binghamton American Civic Association announces ongoing programs as well as last week's vigil.

But on April 3, 2009, the ACA building also became the place where 13 lives were taken by a gunman. Where children lost parents and spouses became widows. Where an Upstate New York community became a national statistic, soon to be joined by city after city experiencing the same tragedy with deadlier weapons and higher casualties.

On that day, 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, who took English classes at the ACA, parked his car to block the rear door of the facility and walked in. Wearing a bullet-proof vest, he fired 88 shots between two semi-automatic guns, killing 13 people before taking his own life.

Three days later, a Syracuse television news station received a letter that Wong had mailed on the day of the shooting. Enclosed were a hand-written note, a photo of Wong holding guns and smiling and gun permit. While the note claims to explain Wong's motives, his explanation seemed paranoid and not rooted in reality.

"And you have a nice day," the last line read.

At the nine year anniversary memorial service held at the ACA Tuesday, April 3, community members, local and state government officials, religious leaders and families of the victims gathered to remember the lives lost in the mass shooting and to reflect on the community's healing process since the tragic event.

The vigil at the Binghamton American Civic Association was filled with victim's families as well as community members.

Early in the ceremony, Richard David, the current mayor of Binghamton, set the record straight on what he believes is a misguided narrative surrounding the ACA shooting.

"When this tragedy is discussed at the national level, sometimes it is referred to as the 'forgotten shooting,' or the 'forgotten tragedy,'" said David.

The "forgotten shooting"

The phrase has cropped up a few times in the nine years since the shooting. A number of media outlsets, such as Vocativ and the Albany Times-Union, have written about how the ACA shooting isn't specifically referenced after mass shootings, in the way that other tragedies, such as Columbine, Sandy Hook and Pulse nightclub, are brought up for comparison and reflection.

Jaclyn Schildkraut, assistant professor of public justice at SUNY Oswego and national expert on mass shooting data, can only research and speculate why this is - and she doesn't like what she's found.

"There is certainly research that says these types of events, homicides in general, are more likely to be covered when the victims are white, or younger or older, or killed in wealthier areas," said Schildkraut.

Based on analysis of news coverage of mass shootings between the Columbine shooting and 2012, Schildkraut found that a non-white shooter and high fatality count also tend to yield higher media coverage.

"With those two factors in play with the Binghamton shooting, the only justification I can come back to is the 'worthy victim,'" Schildkraut said. "That's horrible to say and I feel terrible even having to say that, but I think that in the scheme of victims that will be paraded in front of the news media, they [the ACA shooting victims] weren't the sympathetic victim."

In his address at the vigil, the Binghamton mayor made it clear that for Binghamton residents, this is not the case.

"To refer to this as the forgotten shooting, that just doesn't sit right with me because we will never forget those 13 individuals," David said. "We will never forget the survivors, we will never forget the family members and we will never forget the random acts of kindness from the community that came together in the seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years that followed."

The memorial for the 13 victims of the American Civic Association shooting in Binghamton.

Families of victims call for gun control

While national news coverage may glance over the Binghamton shooting on anniversaries or when new mass shootings takes place, those affected by the tragedy certainly have their eyes on the national discourse over gun violence.

Last Tuesday's vigil came in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting and amidst nationwide protests for stricter gun control, spearheaded by the teenage survivors of the massacre. With this tragedy heavy on their minds, speakers at the memorial service delivered testimonies that rang with political undertones.

Samir Khalil reflected on the loss of his wife, Layla. The couple and their three children came to the U.S. as survivors of car-bombings right near their home in Iraq.

"I have been shot by many times, but I haven't seen such thing to happen in the quiet place [like Binghamton.] It is something strange. I've seen a lot of things...but this is the first time in the United States. That is what makes us very shocked...We [were] scared of war, and then coming here, see? This happens."

Then, Khalil started talking about guns.

"These are used in the war," Khalil said of automatic weapons. "This makes getting 50 people within three or four minutes like what happens in Las Vegas. The weapons should be banned."

Dr. Jeffery King, one of victim Roberta King's 10 children, shared Khalil's sentiment regarding the Las Vegas shooting and the number of people killed in such a short time because of the weapon used. "It's insane," said King.

A sculpture outside the Binghamton American Civic Association.

After the vigil, King also opened up about the Parkland shooting and the response of politicians who want to amp up school security and arm teachers.

"I will tell you, this nonsense about hardening our schools? Hello, it's going to cost billions," King said. "They will spend billions making schools like an airport. They have to go through screening, you've gotta do this...all that to make it safer? What are they going to do next?"

To him, the mass shooting issue in the U.S. isn't about safety precautions or just the mental health component of the gun-restriction debate.

"It's not just the mentally ill, it's the ability to have the capacity to blow a hundred bullets in 20 seconds," King said. "It's appalling. How did that become legal? It's mind-blowing."

King shared his opinion on gun control freely, and he isn't even the most outspoken of his siblings. His sisters have met with legislators and even former President Barack Obama while he was in office.

And while "Obama tried," said King, nothing has been done to change gun laws and he is doubtful that they ever will.

But King does have one glimmer of hope: the current movement against gun-violence being lead by the youth.

"With social media, people are connected," King said. "They care about it."

King pointed to the changes that have come in recent weeks: Dick's Sporting Goods and Wal-Mart changing their gun-selling policy and Citigroup setting restrictions on the minimum age for gun purchases and the sale of bump stocks for its business partners.

"I'm encouraged," said King, who otherwise spoke with almost a sense of resignation.

Moving forward with hope

It is 2018. Nine years have passed since Roberta King and 12 others were killed at the American Civic Association. By now, the children of the victims have grown.

Hermanoschy Bernard certainly has. He and his younger sister spoke at the memorial service to honor their parents, Marc and Maria. They came to the U.S. from Haiti and were raised by their aunt and uncle after their parents' deaths.

Binghamton American Civic Association Vigil

Like many of the survivors in Parkland, Bernard has been shaped by a violent tragedy and wants to do something about it.

"I want to pursue a career where I can form policy so things like this never happen," Bernard said during the vigil. He is currently working toward that goal at Baruch College in New York City.

When Bernard finished his remarks, the room filled with applause. This applause came from friends and family of victims, ACA staff, community members, religious leaders from various faiths, reporters, local government officials and a representative sent by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

This applause came from a room full of people who have not forgotten the "forgotten shooting" and who honor the "unworthy" victims who they embraced and valued as members of the Binghamton community.

Perhaps it is to the city's advantage that the words "Binghamton" and "American Civic Association" aren't tragically paraded like "Las Vegas, Orlando nightclub, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Sutherland Springs church, San Bernardino, Columbine and Aurora."

Perhaps this helps Binghamton live on with respect for the shooting victims, but without the immediate attachment of pain and grief to its name.

This is how the ACA has operated over the last nine years.

"The fact that the doors are open today, that we are here today, is a triumph over tragedy," the mayor said to the people gathered at the ACA for the vigil.

The ACA goes on, offering the same services to immigrants and refugees that it was founded to provide in 1939.

A memorial stone in honor of victim Roberta "Bobbie" King.

The association's work can be summed up in eight words - the eight words that, according to King, were the last words his mother, Roberta "Bobbie" King, said to her friend who dropped her off at the ACA on April 3, 2009.

"It will be okay," she said, referring to the hours of work preparing for the family's Passover celebration that she had decided to leave for later.

Roberta King wasn't supposed to be at the ACA that day. But on that Friday, despite her hectic holiday week, she agreed to substitute teach for an English class.

Before closing the car door she said to her friend:

"I love this building."

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CORTLAND, N.Y. -- Cortland police posted a message on Facebook page Monday to let the community know that a threat targeting "CHS" was not Cortland High School.

Instead, the Snapchat post with a photo of a male in bed with a military-style rifle and the caption, "(Expletive) CHS I'm going out with a bang" and "dont go to school tmrw" was aimed at a school in Clovis, N.M., police said.

Clovis police in New Mexico arrested a 17-year-old student after they say he posted the threatening message on Snapchat Thursday night, according to news reports.

But as the Snapchat post continued to be shared and frightened some in communities that also had schools with the same "CHS" initials, Cortland police and other departments tried to ease fears.

"This Snapchat DOES NOT reference the Cortland High School," Cortland police posted on Facebook Monday.

Police in Florida told residents that CHS also did not refer to Cocoa High School.

The 17-year-old boy in New Mexico was taken into custody as a juvenile offender. He was charged with delinquent act of aggravated assault on a school employee, according to news reports.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ithaca police say they are still searching for a man who tried to sexually assault a woman last month in Collegetown.

Police released a composite sketch of the suspect on Monday and asked if anyone has any information about the attack to contact them.

Here's what police say happened:

At 10:15 p.m. March 11, a man approached the victim in the 200 block of Linden Avenue and grabbed her from behind. He tried to pull her clothes off, but the victim fought off the suspect.

The man then ran away.

Police described the suspect as a white man, about 20 to 30 years old, and about 5 foot, 10 inches tall, with an average build, and with medium length dirty blonde or light brown hair. The suspect was clean-shaven with no facial hair at the time of the assault.

The sketch of the suspect was created with help from the Cornell Police Department.

Ithaca police ask anyone with information to call their dispatch center at (607) 272-3245 or a police tip line at (607) 330-0000, email policeinfo@cityofithaca.org

or visit www.cityofithaca.org/ipdtips.
Randall D. Eliason teaches white-collar criminal law at George Washington University Law School. He blogs at Sidebarsblog.com.

By Randall D. Eliason | Special To The Washington Post



When your lawyers need lawyers, it's usually a bad sign. When your lawyers have their offices and homes raided, it's a really bad sign. News that federal investigators on Monday took the extraordinary step of executing a search warrant at the legal office of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, indicates that Cohen is suddenly in serious legal jeopardy of his own.

And although the investigation is not directly related to the Mueller probe, it's yet another example of the legal walls closing in on one of the people closest to Trump -- someone who may have a wealth of information about the president's own conduct.

The FBI executed the search warrants at Cohen's New York office and his home and hotel room. The warrants were obtained by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. According to a statement from Cohen's attorney, prosecutors informed him their investigation is, "in part," based on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The first thing to note about this striking development is that the warrant was not obtained by Mueller himself. Whatever the subject matter of this particular investigation, it apparently falls outside of Mueller's jurisdiction and thus resulted in his referral to the New York prosecutors. So we know the evidence seized today does not directly relate to Mueller's inquiry into any conspiracy with Russians to influence the election or related crimes such as obstruction of the special counsel's investigation.

We also know that a search warrant, unlike a grand jury subpoena, requires prosecutors to go before a federal judge to demonstrate probable cause that a crime has been committed and evidence of that crime can be found in the premises to be searched. Before approving a search of a lawyer's office, a judge would want to be satisfied that there was some substance behind the prosecutors' allegations. This is not just some prosecutorial fishing expedition; it bears the imprimatur of a federal judge.

We don't know for certain the nature of the Southern District's investigation. The potential crime outside of Mueller's jurisdiction to which Cohen has been linked most directly relates to the $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels just days before the presidential election. If Cohen made that payment himself or facilitated the payment from another individual or company, it could be deemed an illegal contribution to Trump's campaign. There could be other alleged offenses, such as tax or bank fraud violations, surrounding any such payments as well. Or there could be other non-Stormy-Daniels-related allegations about Cohen's conduct that have not yet surfaced publicly.

This was not just any search warrant; that the raid took place at a lawyer's office further highlights the seriousness of the investigation. Searches of an attorney's office are extremely rare and are not favored, due to their potential to impinge on the attorney-client relationship. Prosecutors must jump through multiple hoops to get such a warrant approved, both within their own office and at the criminal division of the national Justice. (Notably, this would likely have included approval by Trump's own guy, the new interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, who was just appointed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions this past January.)

Prosecutors are also required to consider less intrusive alternatives to a search warrant, such as a subpoena, if practical. Approval of a search warrant suggests prosecutors were able to demonstrate not only the gravity of the potential case but also the risk that evidence might be destroyed or otherwise go missing if they pursued a less aggressive option.

Cohen, and perhaps the president, will likely argue that this raid violates the attorney-client privilege. Indeed, on Monday evening, Trump said it was "a disgrace what's going on." In a search like this, prosecutors typically set up a privilege team or "taint team" of investigators not involved in the case to review potentially privileged documents and shield those from the team actually involved in the prosecution. There is an exception to the attorney-client privilege if communications to an attorney are used in furtherance of a crime or fraud; that could come into play here as well. And documents related to anything Cohen did on his own -- after all, Trump has denied knowing about the payment to Daniels -- are likely not privileged if they do not contain attorney-client communications. Documents are not automatically privileged simply because they passed through an attorney's hands.

There may well be litigation concerning whether particular records seized during this search are protected by privilege. But seizing the records now allows prosecutors to ensure that the integrity of the evidence is maintained while those legal issues are sorted out.

Cohen, someone extremely close to Trump and who has been known as the president's "fixer," appears to have serious legal problems. If federal prosecutors feel they have enough on you to execute a search warrant, it's never a good sign -- just ask Paul Manafort. And to the extent that Cohen, part of Trump's innermost circle, might have knowledge relevant to Mueller's inquiry, we can't rule out the possibility that his own legal troubles could induce him to cooperate in the Russia investigation.

Hold on tight -- it's only Tuesday.



Trump furious after FBI seizes documents from his lawyer
On the Thursday before Easter, Juanita Perez Williams showed up at Laci's Tapas Bar in Syracuse at a fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidate Dana Balter.

Perez Williams said she donated $250 to Balter at the event because she wanted to support the candidate that Democrats viewed as having the best chance of defeating Republican U.S. Rep. John Katko in November.

But three days later, on Easter Sunday, Perez Williams changed her mind and decided she would enter the race and challenge Balter in a Democratic primary.

Perez Williams said her decision -- less than two weeks before the deadline to file petitions to get on the June 26 ballot -- was influenced by a political mentor she would not identify and a belief that Balter failed to raise enough money and attention to compete against Katko.

In an interview with syracuse.com, Perez Williams said she was disappointed that Balter's campaign had not gained traction with national Democratic leaders and donors, and that it appeared Democrats were conceding defeat to Katko.

Katko began the year with more than $1 million in cash on hand for his campaign, compared to $46,626 for Balter, who struggled to raise money before her designation as the Democratic candidate.

"I've been supporting her," Perez Williams said of Balter. "I think she is just brilliant and a superb person. But at the end of the day the race was not getting attention at the national level. We need the national endorsements and the funding, and that should be happening now."

She added, "My concern is that people had already moved on. There was this sense that we don't have the ability to beat John Katko."

Fueling a backlash

The harsh assessment and decision by Perez Williams set off a firestorm among grassroots Democratic groups and party activists in Central New York who support Balter and view the challenge by Perez Williams as a betrayal.

Perez Williams, 54, won an insurgent campaign for Syracuse's Democratic mayoral nomination last year, but lost the general election in November to independent Ben Walsh.

Balter, 42, a Syracuse University professor, volunteered for the Perez Williams campaign and helped energize Democrats to support a candidate who had defied the party establishment.

Perez Williams returned the favor Nov. 18 when she made her first public appearance after the mayoral campaign at an event to support Balter. The meet-and-greet was held at the home of Syracuse Democratic activist Jonah Minkoff-Zern.

Minkoff-Zern said in an interview Monday that he had hoped "Juanita would stand behind Dana the way Dana stood behind her."

It appeared that was the case in January, when Perez Williams told syracuse.com that she rejected efforts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C., to recruit her to run against Katko, R-Camillus.

The DCCC, the campaign arm of House Democrats, views New York as one of the key battleground states in its effort to flip enough Republican seats to gain control of the House in the November election. The committee spent about $2 million in a failed effort to unseat Katko in the 2016 election.

Balter, making her first run for public office, defeated three other challengers to win the Democratic Party designation in February from county committees in the 24th Congressional District.

But now with Perez Williams' late entry into the race, Minkoff-Zern and Democratic Party chairs in the four-county district blame the DCCC for interfering in local politics.

"I think the DCCC is undermining the will of the people here," Minkoff-Zern said. "We as a community have been through a process to determine who the best candidate is. Had Juanita wanted to participate in that process it would have been fantastic, but she didn't, and we've chosen Dana. So, it's time for us to move forward with Dana."

DCCC officials have not acknowledged recruiting Perez Williams, and party officials did not respond Monday to requests for comment.

Thomas Keck, a Democratic activist from Syracuse, is among members of Balter's liberal base outraged by what they view as the latest example of meddling by the national party to undermine grassroots candidates in favor of those who have ties to the party's establishment.

Keck said it's also upsetting to him that Perez Williams would challenge a loyal ally.

"All of those things together have really touched a nerve with people," Keck said. "I'm not speaking for the campaign, but lots of people know that Dana campaigned hard for Juanita, so that kind of rubs people the wrong way."

Balter did not return messages asking for comment.

Prepared to take the heat

Perez Williams said she expected the backlash from Balter's supporters, but believes her attempt to force a primary election will ultimately help Democrats to spread their message in the effort to unseat Katko.

"As a good Democrat, I supported the designee," Perez Williams said. "But it got to the point that I just couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore. It was my decision to make and I knew that there would be some strong feedback."

Perez Williams said after her initial decision against running for Congress, she started a new job in February as an advocate for injured workers with the New York State Workers' Compensation Board.

She had to resign the state job last week before declaring as a candidate for Congress. She filed a statement of candidacy on Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

Perez Williams said she was ultimately swayed by strangers she met in public who encouraged her to challenge Katko, and by "an elected female official that I look up to...who said to me, 'We can't concede at this point.' We need to put Central New York on the map in this race."

Perez Williams declined to identify the elected official or national Democratic groups she met with before making her decision. She also declined to say what role, if any, the DCCC is playing in her campaign.

But the former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and JAG officer said she called Balter last week before publicly announcing her candidacy.

Fighting for a spot on the ballot

Perez Williams said she knows it will be difficult to make it onto the Democratic ballot. To succeed, she will have to gather at least 1,250 valid signatures from registered Democrats before a deadline at 5 p.m. Thursday for petitions to be filed with the state Board of Elections in Albany.

"I just want people to know this is not an easy task," she said. "I know the odds are not with me at this point, and time is of the essence."

About 20 volunteers who worked on her mayoral campaign began circulating petitions for her campaign on Wednesday, Perez Williams said, adding that she is not employing paid canvassers.

One challenge is to find Democrats who have not already signed petitions for Balter, making signatures for any other candidate invalid.

"It's still a battle," Perez Williams said. "Whether we can get past the (1,250) threshold, we'll see. There are places in the district that Balter's camp didn't hit. People have called me to say, 'Nobody has been on our street, and nobody has been in our building.'"

Balter plans to announce today that she has collected 8,000 petition signatures from more than 800 volunteers, giving her a big cushion to meet the threshold of 1,250 valid signatures.

Dustin Czarny, one of the two elections commissioner for the Onondaga County Board of Elections, said 8,000 signatures would rank as one of the largest petition submissions he has seen from a candidate in his 25 years in politics.

By comparison, two-term incumbent Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from the North Country, boasted Monday that she had about 6,400 signatures from GOP voters on petitions her campaign filed with the state Board of Elections.

Perez Williams, asked when she plans to submit her petitions, said she will likely come close to the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline to submit the petitions in Albany.

"I suspect we'll be racing down the Thruway to get them in," she said.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
A Florida high school forced one of its students to put Band-Aids over her nipples after she went to school without a bra on.

Lizzy Martinez, a student at Braden River High School, wore a gray long-sleeve shirt to school on April 2 without a bra and was called into the dean's office, the Bradenton Herald reported.

After going to class without a bra, school tells #Florida girl to cover up her nipples https://t.co/HHbnfAODwR pic.twitter.com/LCXRvgnuRs  Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) April 8, 2018

Dean Violeta Velazquez told Martinez to put on a second shirt beneath the one she was already wearing, and then had her move around to see if it made a difference, the Herald said.

"She told me that I needed to put a shirt on under my long-sleeve shirt to try to tighten my breasts -- to constrict them," Martinez told the Bradenton Herald. "And then she asked me to move around."

Velazquez then sent Martinez to the nurse's office where she was given Band-Aids -- two for each nipple -- by the nurse, the Daily Mail reported. Martinez left the nurse's office in tears.

Martinez later tweeted about the incident and wrote, "I decided not to wear a bra today and got pulled out of class bc one of my teachers complained that it was a 'distraction to boys in my class.' My school basically told me that boys' education is far more important than mine and I should be ashamed of my body."

I decided not to wear a bra today and got pulled out of class bc one of my teachers complained that it was a distraction to boys in my class. My school basically told me that boys education is far more important than mine and I should be ashamed of my body. @Manateeschools :)  liz (@lizzymartineez) April 2, 2018

Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted about the incident and said, "This is insane. Everyone has nipples. If u can see a boy's nipples through his shirt no one has a problem. Limiting the freedoms of females bc of the low expectations we have of boys is insulting to all involved."

This is insane. Everyone has nipples. If u can see a boys nipples through his shirt no one has a problem. Limiting the freedoms of females bc of the low expectations we have of boys is insulting to all involved. https://t.co/nIdXaJt9ii  Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) April 10, 2018

Mitchell Teitelbaum, the district's general counsel, released a statement saying the incident had been brought to the superintendent's attention and would be reviewed, Fox News reported.

"It is undisputed that this matter should have been handled differently at the school level and corrective measures have been taken to prevent a reoccurrence in the way these matters will be addressed in the future," Teitelbaum said, according to the Herald. "You are expected to dress appropriately for school and for the business of learning with proper attention given to personal cleanliness, grooming and neatness."

According to the Herald, the school's dress code does not specifically mention or require students wear bras.

Follow Georgie Silvarole on Twitter @gsilvarole.
Lerona, W. Va. -- A West Virginia woman has been charged with second-degree murder after she allegedly cut off a man's head.



Roena Cheryl Mills was in court on Monday for a competency hearing. A judge ruled she needs further evaluation.



The killing took place April 1, according to WVNS in West Virginia.



The incident began when deputies were called to a road in Lerona, West Virginia, near the border with Virginia. They found Mills covered in blood and wearing a glove on her left hand, WVNS said.



Homeowners called authorities after finding Mills and offering her a ride. She refused to leave the property, according to The Associated Press.



She allegedly gave authorities a false name when they arrived and said she was cut by being thrown through a glass door, the station said. She became combative and was arrested.



While in a police vehicle, she said "you have to take me back and let me get my heads," according to WVNS.



Later in the day, police got a call about a body found nearby. They found a man decapitated inside a residence and a body part of the victim outside.



The man, 29-year-old Bo White, and Mills were dating, WVNS said.



The glove Mills was wearing when she was arrested matched one found in White's bedroom, according to The Associated Press. Both gloves were covered in blood.



Police told AP it's unclear if White was killed by decapitation or if he died before that. Prosecutors have not disclosed a motive for the murder.



An autopsy is pending, AP said.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112
A woman in Russia died after she accidentally received an IV drip containing formaldehyde during surgery.



Ekaterina Fedyaeva, 28, was in a hospital in Ulyanovsk for surgery to remove ovarian cysts, according to The Washington Post. The procedure was considered routine. Ulyanovsk is several hundred miles east of Moscow.



During the operation, medical personnel mistakenly gave Fedyaeva an IV drip of formalin, a solution that contains formaldehyde and is used to preserve dead bodies. She was supposed to receive saline, the Post said.



The medical staff members tried to wash the woman's abdominal cavity when they realized what happened, but it was too late. She died last week.



Formalin is 37 percent formaldehyde, according to Newsweek. Just one ounce of formaldehyde can kill an adult.



Fedyaeva was flown to a hospital in Moscow for emergency treatment, but died of multiple organ failure. She suffered pain and convulsions for two days before falling into a coma, according to Newsweek.



Doctors used 52 different drugs to try to save her, Newsweek said.



"Her legs were moving, she had convulsions, her whole body was shaking," said Galina Baryshnikova, the woman's mother, according to Newsweek. "I put socks on her, then a robe, then a blanket, but she was shivering to such an extent, I can't even describe it."



Staff members noticed the mistake after about two minutes, Newsweek said. Those responsible were fired after an internal investigation.



Hospital personnel apparently neglected to read the label on the lethal chemical before administering it to Fedyaeva, according to the Post.



Family members and friends described her as sweet and tender.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112
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. ...
Posted on Monday, April 09, 2018

It has been over 100 years since the people of Kingsville rallied together to bring home the first normal school south of San Antonio. Now, that group includes thousands of alumni who join the fight to make Texas A&M University-Kingsville the best it can be and make sure its current and future students have everything they need.

To that end, university officials and alumni joined together Friday, April 6, to mark the beginning of the new With You, Without Limits comprehensive campaign with a celebration at the on-campus home of President and Mrs. Steven Tallant.

Alumnus Gene H. Dawson Jr., president of Pape-Dawson Engineers in San Antonio, is the campaign chairman. He took to the stage Friday to announce the goal of the campaign is to raise $100 million in private support by the end of 2021. However, organizers are more than halfway to the goal having raised over $58 million in the first phase of the campaign.

According to Tallant, most of the funding will be divided into four major areas, including $15 million for academic programs; $15 million for capital needs; $20 million for student scholarships; and $40 million for the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute (CKWRI).

Faculty endowments are important because they allow the university to recognize, reward, recruit and retain the best teachers and researchers. And donors can make sure our faculty and students are learning in state-of-the-art labs with state-of-the-art equipment, Tallant said. We are very fortunate to have the premier wildlife research faculty in the country in the CKWRI. When we talk about our university and our faculty being Without Limits it starts them.

Student scholarship endowments are important because With You, our University is Without Limits, he added.

About Gene H. Dawson Jr.

In his position as president of Pape-Dawson Engineers, he provides technical management and leadership to the firms management team and its employees. The company has grown from a staff of two, 50 years ago, to a firm that employs 380 professionals and has grown into one of the largest and most respected engineering firms in the state.

Although the company has grown, it continues to serve its clients with the same dedication to integrity, competence, hard work and quality service. They have worked on projects including the Texas Research Park, Sea World of Texas and Fiesta Texas.

A 1982 graduate with a degree in civil engineering, Dawson also serves his alma mater, Texas A&M-Kingsville, with the same dedication. He consistently provides support for our future engineers to complete their educations through the Gene and Lori Dawson Engineering Scholarship.

Dawson serves as director of The Bank of San Antonio, Capitol of Texas Bancshares, Southwest Bancshares and served as president of the Real Estate Council of San Antonio.

The Bexar Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers named him Young Engineer of the Year in 1991 and Engineer of the Year in 1999. He also was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2011.

-TAMUK-
by John J. Ray



University of New South Wales, Australia



BASIC LEFTISM: The current Confusion



Most ordinary people do not fit very neatly into any political category and may hold to a mix of views that include what would usually be seen as both Leftist and Rightist ideas. Among professional politicians and in academe, however, there is perhaps generally clearer polarization. So what is it that makes any given view "Rightist" or "Leftist"? In contemporary North American terms, what is it that makes one an archetypal "liberal" or an archetypal "conservative"? What IS a Leftist or a Rightist position on any issue?



There does seem to be a divide there of considerable potency and generalizability and the demise of that great icon of Leftism -- the Soviet Union -- seems to have had little impact on the division concerned. Leftists may no longer have Communism to point to as a possible alternative system but they remain Leftists all the same. The banner proposal of Leftists since Karl Marx -- State ownership of the means of production or "socialism" no longer seems reasonable to all but a handful of diehards but Leftists are still Leftists and Rightists are still Rightists and never, it seems, the twain shall meet.



And the great rubric of "conservative" long fastened on Rightists seems equally moribund. "Conservative" is generally amplified as meaning "opposed to change" or "favouring the status quo" but from the Reagan/Thatcher years onward, Rightists have been the great advocates and practitioners of social and political change. Rightists have been almost revolutionary in tearing down the proud edifices of the Left -- with privatization, deregulation, welfare cutbacks, tax reductions etc. Judging by the politics of the last 20 years, Rightists LOVE change! Certainly, they have clearly and energetically changed what was once the status quo.



So what is going on? Again, what really IS Leftism/liberalism and WHY are people Leftist/liberal? What, if anything, do people have in common who describe themselves (and are described by others) as "Leftists", "socialists", "social democrats", "Communists" and (in North America) "liberals"? However unsatisfactory and apparently simplistic the Left/Right division of the political world may be, there is any amount of research showing it to be a powerful, ubiquitous and perhaps inescapable way of identifying both people and political parties (e.g. Budge et al., 1987; Ray, 1982; Bobbio, 1996) so we do need to answer such questions.



Defining Leftism: Central proposal



The central proposal here may seem at first paradoxical but it is that attitude to the status quo characterizes Leftists rather than Rightists. It is proposed that it is not Rightists who are in favour of the status quo. They are in fact indifferent to it and may equally favour it or oppose it according to circumstances. Leftists, on the other hand, characteristically RESENT the status quo -- at least in the modern democracies. Whatever else the Leftist may be, the bedrock of Leftism is a strong dislike or even a hatred of the way the world is. They have a strong desire or even a need for political change, often extreme change. This does not, of course, mean that Leftists will favour all sorts of change equally. What sort of change the Leftist favours will depend on what it is about the world that the Leftist dislikes. It will depend on the needs that drive his/her desire for change. And there are even times when those needs dictate a defence of the status quo -- as I discuss later.



The Rightist, by contrast, generally has no need either for change or its converse. If anything, Rightists favour progress -- both material and social. So most Rightists are conservatives (cautious) not because of their attitude to change per se. On some occasions they may even agree with the particular policy outcomes that the Leftist claims to desire. They resist change, then, mainly when it appears incautious -- and they are cautious (skeptical of the net benefits of particular policies) generally because of their realism about the limitations (selfishness, folly, shortsightedness, aggressiveness etc.) of many of their fellow humans (Ray, 1972b, 1974 & 1981). So it is only vis a vis Leftists that the Right can on some occasions and in some eras appear conservative (cautious about proposals for social change).



Few writers have a better claim to representing historic conservative thought than Edmund Burke yet note this summary of what Burke said: "Far from opposing all reform, Burke insisted, "A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation." The issue was not reform versus no reform; it was between the view that reform was a simple matter that could be engaged in sweepingly and the view that it required prudence and was best approached incrementally". So conservatives have NEVER opposed change per se and it is little more than a calumny to say that they do. Caution certainly characterizes conservatives but attitude to change does not.



This broad idea that what Leftists basically want does not have to be the exact opposite or mirror-image of what Rightists basically want -- and vice versa -- may seem at first surprising but does have some precedents. Kerlinger (1967) suggested that Leftists and Rightists have different "criterial referents" and even thought that he had found in his survey research a complete lack of opposition between Leftist and Rightist attitudes. Kerlinger's reasoning is interesting but that he misinterpreted his research results has previously been shown in Ray (1980 & 1982 -- online here and here). Whether Leftist and Rightist objectives are opposite or just simply different, how Leftists and Rightists go about achieving their different basic objectives certainly generates plenty of conflict and opposition between the two sides.



Whatever Rightists might want, however, wanting to change the existing system is the umbrella under which all Leftists meet. Even at the height of British socialism, for instance, British Leftists still wanted MORE socialism. That permanent and corrosive dissatisfaction with the society they live in is the one thing that clearly identifies all Leftists. That is the basic thing that they all have in common. In deciding where they go from there, however, they are extremely fractious and can even be murderous towards one-another (e.g. Stalin versus Trotsky). It is in describing his fellow revolutionaries (Kautsky and others) that Lenin himself spoke swingeingly of "the full depth of their stupidity, pedantry, baseness and betrayal of working-class interests" (Lenin, 1952). He could hardly have spoken more contemptuously of the Tsar. This divisiveness of the Left does not however stop them from generally having some identifiable broad policy themes in common. There was great hatred and antagonism between Russian and Chinese regimes in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, for instance, but they were nonetheless both Communist.



We will see below why one of the most consistent themes to emerge from the love of change is the claimed need for "equality". And the belief in "equality" also tends to lead to support for such things as redistribution of wealth generally, heavily "progressive" income taxes, inheritance taxes, foreign aid, feminism, gay rights and socialized medicine. Again for reasons explored below, Leftists also tend to oppose religion and the churches and this in turn tends to mean that they favour abortion and oppose or obstruct religious schooling and religious observance in various ways.



How Left is Left?



Leftism is however a matter of degree and we need to remember that there are many extreme Rightists who would regard more moderate conservatives as Leftists. So who really is a Leftist?



In answer, I think the basic guide is that the further Left we go, the more government intervention in people's lives is demanded and practiced. All governments exercise power over people's lives in one way or another but the more Leftist you are, the more pervasive and all-encompassing you will want that government meddling, influence and direction to be. And, by that criterion, note that so-called "Rightists" such as Mussolini's Fascists and Hitler's Nazis were FAR to the Left.



We will see in more detail later how this love of big government is related to the Leftist's love of change and his/her underlying personality needs.



Note, however, that the intrusiveness of government into our lives is now very well advanced worldwide. ALL modern governments are more interventionist than they were 100 years ago. The 20th century was broadly a century of ever-advancing Leftism and we live at the end of that process. Government meddling and regulation CAN be rolled back -- Reagan and Thatcher showed us that -- but so far we have seen only a small amount of such rolling back. And, for all the Reagan/Thatcher efforts, the Western world is now more regulated and bureaucratized than it ever has been in history. Part of this is the work of the "Greens" -- who have managed to get an utter torrent of fresh regulation unleashed upon us. At least, however, government is not yet all pervasive and all-powerful in the modern-day Western world -- the way it was in extreme Left regimes such as Stalin's, Hitler's, Mao's and Mussolini's.



Although all the authoritarian governments that were responsible for megadeaths in the 20th century were Leftist, it must be noted that not all authoritarian governments are Leftist. Most governments throughout human history have in fact been authoritarian. They were usually called Kings or Emperors. And they were all pretty ferocious with those who were a challenge to their power. And they often came to power via military means. But, with very few exceptions, nobody would ever call them Leftist. Why not? Because it is WHAT THEY DO with their power that makes them Leftist or not. If they are just happy to stay in power they are neither Right nor Left but simply historically normal. But if they want to use their power to transform the whole of society and vastly reorganize everyone's lives, however, they are Leftist.



Such military-based governments still pop up in the modern world too. The regimes of Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal, for instance, had a security apparatus that ensured that they stayed in power regardless of what their people might want but, aside from that, they just let people get on with their lives as before and in fact resisted change of most kinds.



Pinochet in Chile and Suharto in Indonesia were also undemocratic, military-based regimes that were unscrupulous in protecting their power but many of their other policies were more like Western conservative governments: They encouraged gradual and cautious change. They used their power to free up their economies --- thus extending the liberties of their citizens in important respects. Thus they were clearly not Leftists either.



Both the static Franco/Salazar type of regime and the progressive Pinochet/Suharto type of regime are often referred to as conservative but that simply reflects the fact that both opposed the large-scale forced reorganization of society that is associated with Leftism. Neither type of regime shows much respect for human rights and individual liberties or any other of the philosophies that characterize conservatives in the Western democracies.



As a libertarian, I deplore all government meddling in people's everyday lives but conservatives have always realized that it is a matter of degree. And while all governments are tyrannical to some degree, Rightist governments are intrinsically less so. A Rightist philosophy does embody respect for the individual and his rights and choices. The mass murders of Stalin, Mao and all of the many other Communist regimes show us, however, how much respect for the individual is built into a Leftist philosophy. Once they obtain absolute power, Leftists have no respect for other people at all.



Why does it matter to us? Centrism and its implications



The sort of absolute power that the Communists often obtained in the 20th century now seems to be a thing of the past, so why should we worry now about Leftism? Do we in fact have any really Leftist political parties any more?



There is a good article on "Slate" by Mickey Kaus puts very convincingly the well-established view that the major political parties in a democracy both have to stay very close to the centre.



Excerpt:



Think of it in ... well, cheap Darwinian terms. Imagine that we have a two party system, and each party is a collection of status-seeking individuals looking for power by winning a greater "market share" of the vote. Imagine that they each have their ideological principles --one is more to the left, one more to the right -- but these principles are quite flexible in the face of imminent or repeated failure at the polls. Over time, as each party crafts its message to maximize its appeal -- and adjusts its message after each election to regain any lost share of the votes -- wouldn't one expect the system to reach a roughly 50-50 equilibrium, in which every election was a cliffhanger?



This is particularly marked in Australia where the policy differences between the two major parties are so minute that even a dedicated anti-Leftist like myself would not see it as an important change if the Australian Labor Party got control of the Australian Federal government.



The really interesting implication of centrism, however, is that you can only get big change by moving the whole political agenda in one direction or the other. This happened very markedly after the implosion of the Soviet Union --- after which socialism went out the window worldwide and market-based economic arrangements (particularly privatization of former government-owned businesses) were brought in by parties of every political stripe from Britain to Bangladesh -- not even excepting "Communist" China.



This rightward shift in the economic management agenda has been enormously beneficial -- with world poverty now becoming steadily "Africanized" (i.e. with India and China both rapidly becoming more prosperous under their new, more capitalist arrangements, populations stuck in poverty are now very largely restricted to Africa).



So the job of conservative/libertarian writers like myself is now to try to expose the destructiveness of government activism in ALL spheres. If we can convince enough people of that, we will have moved the political agenda in a way that the major political parties (whether Right-leaning ot Left-leaning) will have to follow.
Courtesy: Owenscorning

Owens Corning, a global producer of glass fibre reinforcements for composite systems, and developers of insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites, has entered into technology licensing and manufacturing supply agreements with Taiwan Glass Ind. Corp., based in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan Glass is a leader in producing yarns and high-quality glass fibre.The agreements will leverage Owens Cornings Advantex glass fibre reinforcements and the well-positioned manufacturing platform of Taiwan Glass to produce a mix of products for both thermoplastic and thermoset applications. The companies will continue to operate as separate commercial entities.Arnaud Genis, president of Owens Cornings Composites business said, The agreements with Taiwan Glass will support Owens Cornings growth in the Asia Pacific region, beyond China, while also expanding our capacity to supply customers in Europe and North America. Over the years, Taiwan Glass has been a customer, supplier, and licensee of Owens Corning technology. We are pleased to build upon our successful, long-term relationship with the announcement of these new agreements.The agreements with Taiwan Glass represent the latest in a series of relationships Owens Corning has consummated with Asia-based manufacturers that license its technology. These agreements have enabled the company to leverage its internal capacity while also taking advantage of external assets to deliver Owens Corning products  tested using the companys quality systems and meeting the same specifications as its owned operations.Richard Lin, general manager of fibreglass business, of Taiwan Glass said, We are pleased to strengthen our strategic relationship with Owens Corning. These agreements enable Taiwan Glass to continue to satisfy customers through delivering outstanding quality and comprehensive services, and to contribute to the composites industry. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
SpaceX should not be blamed for the lost Zuma satellite, which was the mysterious payload of a Falcon 9 rocket launch in January.

Apparently, the culprit was identified to be a hardware issue on the end of contractor Northrop Grumman, ending the investigation on an embarrassing failure by the United States government.

Mysterious Zuma Satellite Vanishes

The SpaceX Falcon 9 Zuma mission in January was reportedly a failure, as the mysterious satellite that the rocket was carrying suddenly vanished shortly after launch.

The U.S. government, through defense contractor Northrop Grumman, tapped SpaceX to handle the Zuma mission. The task was to launch Zuma, a U.S. spy satellite, into low-Earth orbit, but the rocket apparently failed to do it.

SpaceX said that the Falcon 9 rocket did everything correctly, but the loss of the satellite, which reportedly cost $3.5 billion to develop, was a black mark in the operating history of the space start-up.

Investigation Reveals Cause Of Zuma Satellite Failure

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, investigations have concluded that Northrop Grumman, not SpaceX, should take the blame for the loss of the Zuma satellite.

It remains unclear what exactly happened with the spy satellite after the Falcon 9 rocket launch, but it looked like the rocket's second stage and Zuma failed to separate. This happened due to "engineering and testing errors by Northrop Grumman," particularly with a piece of hardware known as a payload adapter. The defense contractor tested the adapter three times, but it did not properly operate in space.

Because of the usage of the modified payload adapter, the Zuma satellite did not detach from the Falcon 9. Instead, it fell back to Earth with the returning Falcon 9 second stage. The satellite broke free, but it was said to have dropped to an altitude that made rescue impossible.

SpaceX Moves Forward To New Missions

SpaceX is now in the clear, wiping off an asterisk in its list of missions. The space startup, however, never let the Zuma incident slow it down, as SpaceX has since launched six missions after it.

The most recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch brought 10 more iridium satellites to low-Earth orbit, though its live stream was cut due to an obscure law passed in 1992 in the name of national security. It remains unclear why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just recently started enforcing the regulation, which is definitely obsolete and should be replaced.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms at least one death from a recent salmonella outbreak that affected eight states and caused 265 people to get sick, and also caused 94 people to be hospitalized.

Federal officials the death of a woman from Iowa is tied to salmonella poisoning from a contaminated chicken salad sold by Fareway Stores, a Boone-based retail chain. The state's top health expert isn't so sure, however.

"It was the same strain, but where she got it, we just don't know," said Patricia Quinlisk, of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Chicken Salad Culprit Of Salmonella Outbreak

An Ackley company prepared the chicken salad in question, found to have been tainted with salmonella bacteria, which can cause severe stomach and intestinal complications. The salmonella outbreak was first reported late February, with state department investigations confirming the food came from Triple T Specialty Meats, which made it especially for Fareway stores.

"CDC recommends people do not eat any remaining recalled chicken salad sold at Fareway grocery stores, including any that has been frozen. Throw it away or return it to the place of purchase," said the CDC in its latest and final report on the outbreak.

Lawsuits Filed Against Fareway And Chicken Salad Maker

Others affected with poisoning have launched lawsuits, and others are presently contemplating whether they should too. One woman from North Liberty is of the patients suing both Fareway and Triple T Specialty Meats.

"That could have been me," she said upon hearing that a death had been tied to the outbreak.

After consuming the chicken salad, she experienced body aches, a headache, a severe case of diarrhea, and weight loss. Her physician even suspected she had the flu.

"It was horrific, truly horrific." She's now at home, although still weak from the food poisoning and subsequent hospitalization.

Salmonella often thrives in uncooked chicken and, when ingested can cause cramps, fever, and an intense case of diarrhea. Some people even reach a point of severe dehydration that need to go to the hospital for more immediate care. Most people recover within a week, although symptoms may persist for months.

Fareway has since pulled the chicken salad from its stores and has offered refunds to any consumers who had purchased the product. The company said it's as "disappointed" and "concerned" as its customers.

"This outbreak appears to be over," according to the CDC, which advises to throw away the contaminated chicken salad and sanitize countertops, drawers, or freezers where it might have been stored.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A Russian woman died in the hospital after she was given formaldehyde instead of saline. Doctors tried to save her after realizing the mistake but it was too late.

She was basically embalmed alive.

Embalmed Alive

During a planned laparoscopic surgery, medical staff at the Central Clinical Medical and Sanitary Unit in Ulyanovsk introduced formalin by mistake to a woman's abdominal cavity. After the surgery, she died.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva went to the hospital for ovarian cysts, which occur when fluid-filled sacs form within or on the surface of ovaries. The 28-year-old was advised to undergo the laparoscopic procedure in order for the cysts to be removed.

On March 15, while Fedyaeva was in surgery, instead of giving her a saline drip, doctors gave her formalin. Formalin contains formaldehyde, a substance used to preserve dead bodies. Following the operation, Fedyaeva told her mother that she's dying. She then had to be attached to machines to be kept alive.

Having realized the mistake, doctors tried to remove the formalin from her system. Authorities haven't revealed what happened during the surgery in which the mistake was made. According to Russian-based TV network RT, medical personnel failed to read the label on the chemical before it was given to Fedyaeva.

Fedyaeva was then moved while in critical condition to the A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center in Moscow. During this time, doctors were trying to remove the formalin from her system. She was already having organ failure and was hooked up to machines that were standing in for her lungs and kidneys.

Fedyaeva died on April 5.

Investigation Into Negligence

Rashid Abdullov, the minister of health, family and social well-being in Ulyanovsk, offered his condolences to the family over Twitter. In the tweet, Abdullov also announced that the region will provide any aid the family needs during this time and that those responsible have already been held liable. Abdullov said that the investigation into the matter is underway.

Abdullov added that doctors in the region should exercise more caution to avoid situations like this from occurring again.

Russian government-owned news agency TASS has revealed that after the doctors realized they gave Fedyaeva formalin, they tried to wash her abdominal cavity.

On March 26, a criminal investigation was started in Ulyanovsk region for the infliction of harm while providing medical care in the state. After Fedyaeva's death on April 5, the charges were changed to causing death by negligence. That same day, the head physician of the hospital in Ulyanovsk was dismissed.

Meanwhile, doctors in Kenya also made a medical mistake by performing brain surgery on the wrong patient.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
With eight weeks to go, the heat is on for all the parties, but primarily the PCs and the Liberals.by Adam McDowellHeres TVO's daily look at whats making news in the lead-up to the next provincial election.Latest newsProgressive Conservative leader Doug Ford had a testy exchange with an audience member at a Somali Canadian Forum event in Toronto on Saturday. Ford said he would support bringing back the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (or TAVIS), a policing program that critics say disproportionately targeted young Black people for carding and scrutiny.Ford: Im in favour, 100 per cent, as a premier, to get involved with the TAVIS program as well. The TAVIS program was good, but then it was cut. (Later, community activist Waleed Khogali tweeted that Ford has agreed to meet with young men who say TAVIS negatively affected them.)Last week, Ford was criticized for being the only major party leader planning not to attend the Black Community Provincial Leaders Debate this Wednesday in Toronto, an event that will be hosted by the Jamaican Canadian Association. Hes travelling in northwestern Ontario this week.No one from the Liberal caucus has announced so far Monday that theyre bowing out of the upcoming election, but the day is young. In case youve lost track, 11 Liberal MPPs have discovered a desire to return to private life recently  a high number that might just have something to do with the Liberals disheartening poll numbers. Whos jumping ship? The CBC has a list here.What to watch forFinance Minister Charles Sousa is set to make an early-morning announcement at Amsterdam BrewHouse on the Toronto waterfront.Doug Fords travels in northwestern Ontario also include a brewery stop: hell have a photo op at Lake of the Woods Brewery, in Kenora. (Ford has previously hinted that, as premier, he might liberalize the sale of alcohol in Ontario; will he reveal more details on that today?) Later in the day, Ford will meet with businesspeople in the paper-mill town of Dryden, then hell attend a rally at the local training and cultural centre. The next Rally for a Better Ontario will take place Tuesday evening in Thunder Bay.Sixty medical students from across Ontario will make a house call on Queens Park today for the Ontario Medical Student Associations annual lobby day. Theyre asking for measures to ensure that every medical student gets a residency (the OMSA says a growing number of doctors-in-training are going without being matched up with a placement, delaying or preventing the completion of their qualifications). So far this year, the NDP and the Liberals have made promises relating to young people and health care, so it might not a bad to time for medical students  who tick both boxes  to make a big ask.
Kinders Pipeline Pause Puts Pressure Squarely on Trudeau to Act, Somehow



April 9, 2018 by Josh Wingrove and Natalie Obiko Pearson

(Bloomberg)

Justin Trudeau has a lot riding on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. But the Canadian prime minister has few viable options to save it.

Kinder Morgan Inc. halted most work on the project Sunday, ramping up pressure on the federal government to somehow deter provincial opposition and protests from environmentalists before a May 31 deadline. Trudeaus energy strategy is at stake, along with overall business confidence and the price of Canadian oil landlocked in neighboring Alberta.

His problem is that opposition from British Columbia has been mostly talk, leaving Trudeau essentially in a war of words thats been enough for the Houston-based company to warn the uncertainty has become too great. Trudeaus team backs the pipeline and flatly promises it will be built, though with the project already approved its options are few beyond trying to cajole the Pacific coast province.

The consequence of their indirection has created a problem of certainty for the proponent. That problem is real, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Monday in an interview at his Ottawa office. We will look at every option available to the government of Canada  financial, regulatory, legal.

Shares of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. fell 13 percent Monday, the biggest decline since its initial public offering last May. 

It's a question if when, not ifI can hardly wait to watch the brain dead out in Burnaby and YVR weeping for Gaia when the go-ahead is announced.
BILOXI  The dispute between hip-hop star Boosie (Lil Boosie, Boosie Badazz) and promoters of Biloxi Black Beach Weekend heated up over the weekend on social media.

The feud began after the Baton Rouge rapper was sprayed with pepper spray by a security guard while shopping at Dillard's at Edgewater Mall after performing during the 2017 Spring Fest concert at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Several members of his entourage also were pepper-sprayed, and three people who Biloxi police said were associates of Boosie's were arrested April 9 on charges of simple assault on a police officer, a felony, and simple assault on the security officer.

Here's why Baton Rouge rapper Boosie is saying #NoBiloxiNoMore, boycotting Mississippi festival Black Spring Break organizers expect a large crowd for the April 13-15 event at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, but one hip-hop star says hes

Boosie was not arrested, but he did claim that Biloxi police stole more than $1 million in jewelry. Biloxi Police Chief John Miller disputed the theft claims, and the rapper's jewelry was returned to a member of Boosie's team.

In March, the rapper made a post on his Instagram account that said, No Black Beach 2018. He also used the hashtags #theydiduswrong, #notsupporting, #dowhatsrightnpayme, #whycantishop and #becarefulifyougo.

Sun Herald: Lil Boosie claims 'million' in jewelry stolen; Biloxi PD: Come pick it up BILOXI  The Biloxi Police Department is waiting for a representative of Boosie BadAzz to come pick up the jewelry he claimed was stolen.

A few days ago, Boosie made more "No Biloxi Black Beach" posts on his social media platforms, even claiming the water in Biloxi has "got stingrays everywhere."

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But this time, Biloxi Black Beach Weekend promoters Derrian Burns and Maurice Bryant responded with their own boycott.

In a post made April 7, the promoters said that while they didn't support what had happened to the rapper during last year's festival, they would not be playing his music at any "official events."

They made a post on Instagram with the #NoBoosie hashtag, saying Coast promoters had booked and supported the artist for many years.

"Black Businesses and the black community on the MS Coast are directly affected and offended," the post said. "Boosie your fight is not with Black Beach Weekend, your fight is with Dillard's and the city of Biloxi."

For the original story from The Sun Herald, click here.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditors office has opened an investigation into the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority, months after the Housing Authority board discovered that the agencys top two executives were overpaid $75,000 during two years.

Roger Harris, director of investigative audits, confirmed that his office had recently opened the probe but said he could not provide specifics about it. Outgoing Housing Authority Executive Director Richard Murray said Tuesday that auditors recently showed up unannounced and interviewed him about the overpayments.

Housing Authority board chairwoman Dianna Payton caught the overpayments error eight months ago during a performance evaluation for Murray. She and her board quickly enlisted auditors from Postlethwaite & Netterville to help figure out what went wrong.

Every other week since late 2015, Murrays paychecks were $1,000 heftier than they should have been, while Chief Operations Officer Melonie Bayham also received nearly $500 more than she should have every two weeks.

The overpayments to Murray totaled $52,000 and the overpayments for Bayham amounted to $22,000 during the two year period. Both told board members and auditors from Postlethwaite & Netterville that they did not notice the overpayments.

They paid back the money, and Payton said the mistake appeared to be human error with a former employee who incorrectly entered the salaries into the payroll system. Murray's salary in 2016 should have been around $220,000, but he was paid $268,344, while Bayham should have been paid $127,000 in 2016 but received $145,497, according to their payroll records.

I told them that it was an error and that it happened to me and the deputy director, Murray said Tuesday about his meeting with auditors.

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+7 Baton Rouge Housing Authority votes 'no' on director's contract renewal in fiery meeting A divided East Baton Rouge Housing Authority Board voted Friday against renewing the contract for longtime Executive Director Richard Murray a

Since last week, auditors have been returning to the Housing Authority offices and pulling files and records, Murray said. He said they did not give a timeline for when they will complete their work.

Payton said Tuesday that auditors had not reached out to her yet.

I can say that the board of commissioners and staff understand the duties of the legislative auditor and well respond to their review accordingly," she said, adding that the board declined to renew Murray's contract after the Postlethwaite & Netterville audit.

Murray has been at the helm of the agency since 2001, and helped to steer the Housing Authority toward stability after a string of his predecessors wound up in prison for their illegal dealings at the agency. But board members late last year, on the brink of the fallout from the overpayments, also said they were frustrated the Housing Authority had missed a deadline for a major affordable housing grant.

They voted against re-upping his contract, which expires in October.

East Baton Rouge Housing Authority launches search to replace longtime director The East Baton Rouge Housing Authority has put together a search committee and expects to hire a consulting firm to help find their next director.

Payton recently assembled a search committee for Murrays replacement and said they hope to spend around $20,000 on a search firm to help them.
Attorneys for one of the men charged in the 2015 abduction and killing of a Highland Road couple asked a judge Monday to throw out the statements he gave detectives after telling them he had "nothing else to say."

Ernesto Llerena Alonso's lawyers argue, in a motion to suppress, that all police questioning of Alonso should have stopped at that point, but it didn't.

Alonso, 45, lived in an apartment above a barn on property owned by Denis "Bubbie" Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne "Suzy" Duplantier, 70, and performed landscaping work for them.

Alonso and his cousin, Frank Garcia, 50, each are charged with first-degree murder in the killings and face sentences of life in prison if found guilty on those counts. They are being held without bail.

+6 Death penalty not sought against two men accused of killing Highland Road couple during robbery, DA decides Family members of an elderly couple killed in their Highland Road home made a gut-wrenching decision after meeting with prosecutors over whe

The bodies of the Duplantiers were discovered Oct. 19, 2015, in the backseat of their red pickup at a truck stop in Hammond. Authorities have said they were strangled.

Alonso's white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couple's truck into the gas station, authorities have said.

After his arrest in Hollywood, Florida, on Oct. 21, 2015, Alonso was advised of his constitutional rights and made several statements in response to questions by law enforcement officers. But he later invoked his right to remain silent by stating, "I have nothing else to say," according to his attorneys, Dwight Doskey and Meghan Harwell with the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana.

"But the interrogation did not cease, and ultimately Mr. Alonso gave in to the pressure of the continued questioning," Doskey and Harwell argue in the suppression motion.

The motion cites detectives informing Alonso that the Duplantiers were found in the truck stop parking lot, and that "they have on video there, in that parking lot, your truck following (Bubbie's) truck inside of the parking lot."

Alonso then states in Spanish, "Have them show me the video, because ... I went there to get gas."

"You're not going to see the video," the motion quotes a detective telling Alonso.

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"Then I have nothing else to say ..." Alonso replies.

"So you were at the truck stop, then?" a detective asks.

"I went there to get gas, I was on my way to Florida," Alonso says.

Alonso's truck was recovered at Garcia's house in Florida, authorities have said. A large amount of cash and a number of unspecified items believed stolen from the Duplantier home also were found in Garcia's home, authorities said.

+3 Two cousins accused in 2015 Highland Road double murder have trial delayed to June The first-degree murder trial of two cousins accused in the October 2015 robbery, beating, abduction and slaying of an elderly Highland Road c

A safe inside the Duplantier home was discovered open and cash was missing. Investigators have said they believe Alonso and Garcia went into the home and beat the couple to get the information needed to open the safe. Blood was found in several rooms, police said.

Alonso and Garcia, who appeared in state District Judge Trudy White's courtroom Monday, are scheduled to stand trial June 18, but it is widely expected that the trial date will be pushed back.

Their next court date is a May 9 motion hearing. Garcia, who is represented by the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defenders Office, has asked for the trial to be moved out of the parish due to media publicity.

+6 Change of venue requested for trial in 2015 slaying of Highland Road couple One of the two men awaiting trial in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and killing of a Highland Road couple claims he can't get a fair tr

East Baton Rouge prosecutors announced in 2016 that, after discussions with the victims' families and in order to expedite the case, they would not seek the death penalty.
The director of a state board that oversees the private security industry has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation related to his recent efforts to shut down a security company whose employees were accused of "acting like cops" during an incident outside a Tigerland bar last year.

Fabian Blache III, director of the State Board of Private Security Examiners, confirmed Monday night that he and his assistant, Bridgett Hull, were placed on paid administrative leave about 10 days earlier. He said the board chair notified them of the decision.

Blache said he couldn't comment on specific allegations against him but said the investigation is somehow related to his attempts to shut down Delta Tactical LLC, possibly including his actions during an audit of the company, which was hired by bars in the Tigerland area to patrol their parking lots.

Blache said he's confident he will be back at work soon  likely by early next week  and alluded to underlying politics, asserting emphatically that "I've done absolutely nothing wrong. I'm doing my job."

The director once again defended his ongoing efforts to revoke Delta Tactical's operating license. Blache has accused the company's owner, Nick Fetty, of crossing an important line that separates police officers from private security guards.

Did Tigerland security guards blatantly overstep authority? Company owner, critics clash A man was sitting inside his truck in the parking lot of a Tigerland bar one night late last year when three security guards approached him wearing bulletproof vests and armed with handguns. The man told police later that he initially thought the guards were law enforcement officers as they pulled him out of his truck and placed him in handcuffs.

Fetty applied for an operating license with the state board early last year. Security companies are required to be licensed by the board. Blache issued Fetty a probationary license in April, but about six months later notified him about issues with company uniforms, incomplete training requirements and other violations.

Blache and other board staff conducted an audit investigating the company while employees were working one night in late September. Fetty's body camera footage from that night  which he shared with The Advocate in December  shows Blache asserting his authority as board director and warning Fetty his company is on the rocks for violating board rules on a provisional license.

"Let's be real," Blache told Fetty then. "Your company has no leg to stand on.  You've got to get this chip off your shoulder and understand that you don't run this show."

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Fetty and two of his employees were arrested the following month on false imprisonment and simple battery counts after an incident outside a Tigerland bar when the three Delta Tactical guards pulled a man out of his truck and placed him in handcuffs.

Board staff happened to be conducting another audit of the company that evening and witnessed the incident. Body camera footage shows Blache and Hull approach the guards.

"They put a light in this guy's face and started acting like cops," Blache said in an interview last year. In order to justify using handcuffs, security guards "must have a clear felony situation or reasonably believe that people are in danger"  two conditions that Blache said were not met in this case.

Fetty had denied any wrongdoing and asserted the guards were justified in their actions because they believed the man may have swallowed a controlled substance while making "questionable gestures" inside his truck. Fetty had also said he believed the incident was a setup orchestrated by Blache and his associates, claiming the man inside the truck was working with board members who "magically appeared" just in time to witness the interaction unfold.

Blache later sent Fetty a "cease and desist" letter dated Oct. 16, telling him his license had been revoked and ordering him to stop company operations.

The board voted in January to hold a hearing to consider overturning the revocation, but no hearing has been scheduled. In the meantime Delta Tactical can't operate.

Blache, who is a former New York Police Department officer and former investigator for the Louisiana Attorney General's office, took over as director of the board in 2016. He maintains that some of his actions as director have been unpopular because his goal is to clean up the private security industry, making sure companies are following the rules and displaying an adequate degree of professionalism.

Fetty did not respond to requests for comment, and his attorney John Brumfield declined to comment on the case.

One board member, Ritchie Rivers, confirmed having received an email from the board chair on March 29 stating that Blache had been placed on leave. Rivers said he anticipates a meeting will be scheduled for later this week when the board will address the allegations against Blache. Other board members declined to comment.
Two siblings killed in a car crash in Zachary only a few miles from their high school earlier this month will be buried on Wednesday.
Sen. Bodi White, left, and Sen. Barrow Peacock, confer during Senate debate on Monday on the TOPS bills.

Sen. Bodi White, left, and Sen. Barrow Peacock, confer during Senate debate on Monday on the TOPS bills.
Legislation that would abolish the death penalty in Louisiana is advancing to the Senate for consideration.

Senate Bill 51, sponsored by New Orleans Democrat Sen. J.P. Morrell, passed out of the Senate Judiciary C Committee on a 4-1 vote Tuesday.

Life in prison without possibility of parole is in itself a death sentence, Morrell said.

The move comes a day after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Allen Robertson Jr. is not intellectually disabled and is to remain on death row. The Baton Rouge man known as Lil Boo was sentenced to die in 1995 for stabbing an elderly couple to death 27 years ago.

Legislature looks to tweak medical furlough program to keep violent criminals behind bars Louisiana lawmakers are considering legislation that seeks to address a previously little-known effect of last year's criminal justice overhau

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III supported the Courts decision. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that intellectually disabled defendants cannot be executed.

Louisiana currently allows the possibility of a death sentence for those convicted of first-degree murder, as well as in cases of first-degree rape of victims under the age of 13. A death sentence is mandatory for the crime of treason. Louisiana is one of 31 states in the U.S. to allow the death penalty.

Morrell said in the hearing that its becoming increasingly hard and expensive to carry out the death penalty.

Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, raised concern about the cost of sentencing criminals to life sentences instead of to death, but Morrell said the state could face millions if convicts are wrongfully killed.

Bishop Shelton J. Fabre testified on behalf of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops as a pastor of souls. He said the death penalty perpetuates the cycle of violence and a culture of death, and said he felt the bill was crucial to promoting a culture of life in Louisiana.

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+4 Louisiana Senate passes bill to let voters decide fate of state's unusual split-verdict rule The state Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill that represents the most serious challenge in nearly a half-century to a state law  enshrined i

The Catholic Church considers the death penalty an offense against the sanctity of life, Fabre said. Therefore, the use of the death penalty is unnecessary and unjustified in our time.

Sen. Mack Bodi White, R-Baton Rouge, the only vote against SB51, said he didnt believe the measure would curb violent crimes.

A bill to end the death penalty in the House was killed last year.

If approved by the full Senate, the bill would head to the House for consideration. The bill would apply to crimes committed after Aug. 1.

How they voted:

Voting for (4): Sens. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge; Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge; Fred Mills, R-Parks; and Troy Carter, D-New Orleans.

Against (1): Sen. Bodi White, R-Central.
Joe Leggett looks at the portable armored panel in the backpack of his son, Cameron Leggett, at their home Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018, in Papillion, Neb. Leggett bought the 9-inch-by-12-inch inserts from a Sarpy County security firm and says the $120 panels give his kids a protective edge if a school shooting ever occurs. Sales of the panels have risen at the local store and nationally since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla. (Rebecca Gratz/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
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Genealogical and Historical Society -- Claire 'Butch' Chennault, grandson of the famed leader of the World War II 'Flying Tigers,' spoke Dec. 9 to the Baton Rouge Genealogical and Historical Society. Shown are, from left, Larry Landry, Mary Gay Nilson, Chennault, Yvonne Lewis Day, Lynn Shelley, Brenda Perkins and Mary McKeough.
'Leadership & Common Ground' -- Walter Isaacson, seated, who spoke at the Public Affairs Research Council's annual luncheon, signs copies of his biography of Steve Jobs as event co-chairmen Virginia Freeman Rowan and Charles Landry look on.
Mayor-Elect LaToya Cantrell, left, moves to hug former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, third from left, with Mayor Mitch Landrieu, second from left, and former Mayor Moon Landrieu, right, after the Renwick Lecture, put on by Loyola University's Institute of Politics, at Loyola University in New Orleans, La., Thursday, April 5, 2018.
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Denis Amaya Rodriguez, who was convicted in January of negligent homicide for his role in a crash that killed a firefighter and two others on Interstate 10 near LaPlace, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday.

An immigrant from Honduras who had been living in the country illegally, he also faces the prospect of deportation after he's done serving his term.

In August of 2016, Amaya was driving a bus full of people from Metairie to Baton Rouge to look for work after that summer's devastating floods when he slammed into a parked firetruck that had stopped to assist with a previous wreck.

Three firefighters were thrown into the swamp below the roadway, and one was killed, along with two others inside of a car that was also struck.

Before sentencing on Monday, Amaya told the judge in Spanish: In my heart, I feel very bad for this moment. Its painful for me as well."

Jennifer Chauvin, the widow of St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, described how painful it had been to tell their son Jude, then 7 years old, what had happened.

No matter what sentence is imposed on you today, our sentence will always be greater, she told Amaya. We were given a life sentence: to live without Spencer.

Sara Pagones explains here that Mandeville's mayor believes he's getting short-changed.

The city's charter says the mayor may only serve three terms, with a term defined as any period over two years.

Villere has two full terms under his belt, plus the last two years and three months of Eddie Price's final term.

(You'll remember that Price, after a few too many drinks, drove a city-owned SUV through a toll-booth barrier on the Causeway and subsequently resigned.)

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Now, Villere has asked the city's lawyers to draft a charter change so he can run again, regarding the existing rules as unfair, given the circumstances.

"Because of three months, I had a 'full term,' " Villere said.

Police have accused two 19-year-olds in New Orleans of being particularly prolific stick-up artists.

Authorities got a tip that a car matching the description of one used in quite a few recent robberies, which happened mainly Uptown and in the Bywater, was sitting in the 2000 block of Feliciana Street in the Upper 9th Ward, where they made the arrests.

Authorities say the pair is responsible for robberies at the following dates and places:

March 31 in the 1000 block of Bordeaux Street, about 12:50 a.m.

April 1 in the 2300 block of Marais Street, about 3:45 a.m.

April 4 at Prytania and Josephine streets, about 12:40 a.m.

April 4 in the 1600 block of Pauger Street, about 1:30 a.m.

April 4 in the 1400 block of Urania Street, about 2:30 a.m.

April 5 in the 2500 block of North Rampart Street, about 11:20 p.m.

April 6 at Freret and Joseph streets, about 12:45 a.m.

April 6 in the 3300 block of Dauphine Street, about 2:40 a.m.

April 6 at Chartres Street and Franklin Avenue, about 2:30 a.m.

April 6 in the 800 block of Clouet Street, about 10:35 p.m.

April 6 in the 8200 block of Panola Street, about 11:45 p.m.

April 7 in the 1800 block of North Rampart Street, about 12:25 a.m.

April 7 at North Rampart and Frenchmen streets, about 12:30 p.m.

April 7 at Dauphine and St. Ferdinand streets, about 12:35 a.m.

From around the web

The FBI raided the office and hotel room of Donald Trump's personal lawyer, provoking exceptionally angry comments from the president. Trump meanwhile is vowing a quick decision on how to respond to the latest chemical attack in Syria. The administration's trade decisions have winners and losers, sometimes in the same family. The National Guard will not be arresting immigrants at the border. Facebook says it is launching a research group to study social media's impact on elections.

Also...

We're buying the Gambit! Which is cool for us because now we get to sit next to their staff.

***

The Morning Briefing is compiled by Andrew Vanacore, deputy editor for the New Orleans Advocate. Get in touch with feedback, tips, complaints at avanacore@theadvocate.com.

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A Honduran national filed a lawsuit last week claiming federal agents assaulted him for refusing to sign paperwork at the New Orleans field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, claims Marco Tulio Hernandez was thrown to the ground and kicked "repeatedly" after telling an interpreter he wanted to speak to an attorney before signing any documents.

Tulio Hernandez lives in Metairie and is facing deportation proceedings.

The April 2017 assault lasted about five minutes, the lawsuit claims, and ended with four agents "forcibly" taking Tulio Hernandez's fingerprints.

Tulio Hernandez received injuries to his spine, back and arm and experiences "continuing pain more than one year after the incident," the lawsuit alleges.

"One of the four officers stepped on and stood on Mr. Tulio Hernandez's face and another on his back while the other two held his arms," the lawsuit states.

The agents are not identified in the lawsuit.

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Bryan Cox, an ICE spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit Monday. He said Tulio Hernandez had been taken into custody for violating the terms of his supervised release.

Tulio Hernandez's attorney, Paul "Woody" Scott, of Baton Rouge, said it's not clear what documents his client had been asked to sign.

The lawsuit says Tulio Hernandez had been taken into custody the day of the assault after he reported to ICE's field office on Poydras Street for a "check-in"  a required visit under his participation in the agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program.

"There was no reason he had to sign these papers without speaking to an attorney," Scott said.

Tulio Hernandez, an asylum applicant, has long represented himself in immigration proceedings and is therefore "cautious" in his dealings with ICE, Scott said.

The lawsuit says Tulio Hernandez, seeking to escape violence in Honduras, "was arrested at the border but released from immigration detention in 2013."

The lawsuit claims the agents' use of force was "grossly disproportionate to any legitimate and necessary conduct." It says Tulio Hernandez filed an administrative claim against ICE in late May but that "no agency action has been taken."
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump nominated Scott Patrick Illing to serve as the next U.S. marshal for the federal Eastern District of Louisiana on Tuesday.

Illing, 56, is a former Louisiana state trooper and a retired investigator for the U.S. Customs Service in New Orleans. The Madisonville resident mounted an unsuccessful run for St. Tammany Parish sheriff in 2015.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Illing would lead the U.S. Marshals Service in the 13-parish Eastern District, which is based in New Orleans. The Marshals Service is responsible for apprehending fugitives wanted for federal crimes, transporting federal prisoners and protecting federal judges and courthouses.

A lifelong St. Tammany Parish resident, Illing graduated from St. Pauls in Covington and then attended LSU before leaving college to join the Louisiana State Police Academy. He eventually earned a degree in criminology from Southeastern Louisiana University.

Illing finished third in the race for St. Tammany Parish sheriff. Then-Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith ultimately unseated incumbent Sheriff Jack Strain in a runoff.

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The White House tapped Illing to replace Genny May, whom former President Barack Obama picked to head the office in 2010. May spent more than three decades with the Louisiana State Police, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, before taking the job.

Illing's nomination late Tuesday had not been scheduled for a vote before the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee, which must sign off on presidential nominations to serve in the federal judiciary. The Senate confirmation process can take months.

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a fellow Madisonville resident and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised Illing's nomination.

"We need qualified leaders to ensure the publics safety and I know Mr. Illing will serve the district well," Kennedy said in a statement.

Fellow Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy also praised the pick, calling Illing "a well-qualified choice" for the U.S. marshal position.
The explosion of social media has changed how people connect with each other, with likeminded people, all over the world. It has certainly helped people living with HIV, or people interested in or using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), to connect with each other and discuss their experiences, helping to break stigma and isolation.

But recent scandals involving Facebook's selling the data of its users to Cambridge Analytica, resulting in an estimated 87 million people's data being collected outside the site (and used for political interference), and gay-dating app Grindr's mea culpa on selling data on the HIV status of its users, has raised a lot of questions about privacy and the unintended consequences for people with HIV, or using PrEP, or just searching for information on those issues on social media.

I spoke to Frank Pasquale, J.D., M.Phil., professor of law with the University of Maryland about these issues. Pasquale is an expert on the law of big data, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and algorithms. He is the author of the 2015 book The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information and co-host of the podcast This Week in Health Law.

Kenyon Farrow: This conversation has been in the back of my head almost since I started at TheBody, but now it just obviously seems much more prescient, thinking about questions of data and surveillance as they relate to health issues.

You've been looking at some of these issues for a long time, and it feels as if your moment has arrived.

Frank Pasquale: Oh, yes. Absolutely.

KF: Probably in some scary ways. In the last couple of months, there have been a number of scandals about how data is being used by companies, even in some ways that might actually be legal, but in ways that the public didn't know about.

Your most recent book, The Black Box Society, which was released in 2015, seems to have been written for everything that we're experiencing right now. I first want to ask you to talk about the premise of your book and how it relates to the issues we're seeing right now.

Related: HIV, Social Media and the Valley of the Trolls

FP: I'm really glad that you bring it back to the book. I was thinking about a lot of these issues of runaway data from about 2009 onwards. And I started actually looking at the surveillance state. One of my first articles was on these things called "fusion centers" that were combining data from police departments, public governments, private sector entities, etc.

But then, the deeper I got into it, and the more I learned about groups like Patient Privacy Rights or the Electronic Privacy Information Center, [and] I just saw how the data profiling that they were doing about people at big companies was really remarkable.

In the health area, in particular, I was impressed by a book by Mary Ebeling called Healthcare and Big Data: Digital Specters and Phantom Objects about how she was being marketed to on the basis of a child that she had miscarried. But the marketers had assumed that she had had a child, and they would market to her, assuming that this child was growing up, and so she was being marketed to.

KF: And you know, a lot of this has come into concern, particularly in the press, since the 2016 election and the revelations that Russian actors were involved in various forms of disinformation campaigns, through fake news websites kind of creating Twitter bots, and then these fake Facebook groups. And then, obviously, there's the recent revelation of Cambridge Analytica's role in that entire scandal.

But I think there's been a slower recognition of the more mundane ways and reach of data surveillance, and the whole industry behind it, through various aspects of life, including health-related information.

Are there specific concerns you have about how a person's health status -- and for our readers, people who are HIV positive or people who are on PrEP, even -- can be gleaned by how you use social media?

FP: Yes. Well, I'll start from the beginning, which is to say that a lot of us think that HIPAA [the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996] covers health data, but it doesn't. It covers entities, which are like doctors, hospitals, insurers, and their business associates. But if any sort of data broker or social media site or anything gets ahold of, or learns, your status from something that's not a covered entity, HIPAA doesn't cover any of that.

So, your doctor, if your doctor wanted to tell somebody that you had HIV, be it a marketer or any type of firm, they'd have to ask your permission. But anybody else that has that data, under the First Amendment, particularly asserts rights to say, "We get to share it with anybody."

Now, there are some interesting ways in which that could be challenged. But it's really not been challenged in the U.S. at all. That's the first thing.

The second is, there was that article in The New York Times about the guy that was denied life insurance? Did you see that one?

KF: Yeah, yeah, I did.

FP: And you know, I think that's a really interesting area, where I think people don't expect that life insurers and some other service plans are going to be looking at everything. And a huge weakness of the American privacy regime, too, is that they can look at everything. And lots of lists out there are not accurate.

And you would think you could sue them for defamation: for example, the list of people with diabetes. But then these firms say: "Well, we're not calling them diabetics. We're saying they're diabetes-concerned households. And that's an opinion. So, you can't sue us."

So, this whole landscape is incredibly complicated and largely unregulated. And especially with the revelations about Facebook and Grindr, you see that entities that you may have thought would have some fiduciary role, or obligation, or some moral or ethical code to keep your data private are not doing a very good job of it.

KF: You're raising a couple of points that I was going to get to, such as the thing about the HIPAA law that, as you describe, applies to covered entities. And, we've seen a couple incidents where the breach of those laws by covered entities have had legal consequences. Aetna last year had to pay out $17 million dollars to people living with HIV whom they had exposed just by sending a letter to them. You could see through the envelope that it said HIV on it. And so, they had to pay folks based on a kind of HIPAA violation.

And then, recently, there hasn't been a settlement, but there is a pending lawsuit in Cincinnati that the CVS chain in that region did a similar thing, a mailing that was not put together well, and outed about 6,000 people who are HIV positive through that.

So, we see that the way the law can work for entities covered by HIPAA.

But I want to ask you; you kind of jumped to this question about Grindr. Given that that story really just came out [at the time of this interview], what are your thoughts about that, specifically?

FP: I'm really surprised and disappointed that they did not ask for consent. I think their European users may be very interested looking at it, in terms of law in Europe. I think there's a controversy over whether there was some form of consent or not, in terms of the terms of service. But I feel this is a situation where everybody should realize that you ought to have affirmative, expressed consent for sharing data like that. I mean, that would be my, sort of, bottom line, in terms of why I feel disappointed in them for doing that.

KF: In the last 24 hours, I've been looking at debates on Facebook, and people have been making the argument, "Well, because I'm on Grindr and I disclose in my profile that I'm positive and undetectable, or I'm on PrEP or whatever, that is essentially public information at that point and so therefore not a privacy concern, because I chose to disclose it." What would you say to people who are making that argument?

FP: Well, you know, I think that the issue for a lot of the users is that you don't connect it to your name, and you don't connect it to a really durable social media profile. Or you have some degree of distance of those things from the Grindr profile.

And I think, by the same logic, there are ways in which this is particular information, offered for a particular purpose [on Grindr], and it's important to people that the stigma be as low as possible, and the consequences be as low as possible. Otherwise, you're going to be encouraging people to be secretive about it, and that's not a good thing. You want to create a space where it's safe for people to be totally honest about their status.

So, I think that people need to understand: It's not like Tinder, where maybe your profile is up for everybody all the time. It's a particularly sensitive and privacy-protecting site. Or it just seems [like] that.

KF: Right. What are the things you think we need to change, in terms of law and policy, regarding these data disclosures, particularly around health issues or non-covered entities under HIPAA or HITECH [the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health]?

FP: I think we need something like the European privacy law in the U.S., the General Data Protection Regulation. And I think that [we need] to bring that to U.S. leaders. I think that the first step we need is [for] people to understand what data every company has on them and who they're sharing it with. And I think there are particular categories of data -- for instance, about health -- where people need to be able to give consent, direct consent, for that sharing before it is shared.

I think that we just have to change the law to make certain categories of information really sensitive, where you don't just sign terms of service and then for the rest of your life that governs your transactions, but you actually have to give consent for those types of data sharing.

KF: What do you think that individuals, people with HIV, or people on PrEP, or other kinds of sensitive and highly stigmatized -- and actually, in the case of HIV, criminalized -- conditions should be doing personally to protect themselves?

FP: That is a very hard question, because I think that the problem is that every time someone offers a personal self-defense, a privacy enhancement technology, we usually find out within three months to a year that there are ways of that being overcome.

So, right now, it's very difficult to say that there's a way that you could do that. I think that this is something that has to be solved on a more broad-based social level than by individuals.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Linkedin Jony Eko Yulianto (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Tue, April 10, 2018 16:17 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd74a8 3 Opinion Blasphemy-Law,human-rights,freedom-of-expression,Sukmawati-Soekarnoputri,blasphemy Free

The daughter of Indonesias first president, Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, issued her tearful apology to Indonesian Muslims over her poem which allegedly insulted Islam. She said Ibu Indonesia (Mother Indonesia), which suggested traditional songs and womens appearances were more beautiful than your azan (call to prayer) and your cadar (full covering veil) had no intention of insulting Islam. However some Islamic organizations continued the planned rally calling for penalties against her alleged crime.

Similarly in 2016 Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), was reported by the Indonesian Catholics Students Association (PMKRI) for allegedly committing religious blasphemy. Rizieq was earlier shown in a video discussing Christmas, which was considered quite offensive to Christians

However, the response of many Muslims was phlegmatic, although the police reported that the FPI leader has violated the Criminal Law as well as the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions. Why couldnt we see the same level of anger particularly despite the similarly alleged blasphemous speech? Obvious it depends on who made the blasphemous statements.

Clearly we are facing the threat of selective anger.

The cause is outgroup critique  and revenge. Last year police, based on Sukmawatis report also named Rizieq a suspect for insulting Pancasila, a state symbol, and late president Sukarno.

Research on intergroup sensitivity, that is widely studied in social psychology, shows ingroup critics are generally received more positively and legitimate rather than outgroup critics, even when the criticism is identical. In other words its okay if we make that accusation but you cannot  as intergroup critics are perceived to have different motivations than outgroup critics.

Ingroup critics, like how hardliners see Rizieq elaborating on Christian teachings, are attributed with positive motives. Hardliners believe Rizieq genuinely wanted to tell the truth, even it tastes bitter for non Muslims. However outgroup critics, like Sukmawati, are instead attributed with destructive motives. She was percieved to demoralize the group or struggling for supremacy, leading to resistance and rejection. Thus, responses to criticism are said to be driven not by what people say, but why they are perceived to be saying it.

The case of Riziek, and now Sukmawati, are further evidence that the blasphemy law does not protect the primary intent of Pancasila to stabilize a multicultural society. Instead, the law justifies intolerance, allowing the law to be abused for intergroup conflict. Since the feeling of being insulted is subjective it is high time for the government to face these issues more seriously.

We can start evaluating the blasphemy law. We should indeed prevent and address violence based on religious beliefs. But what is important now is a more objective measurable law with more rigorous standards of determining what constitutes a crime. The articles in the Blasphemy Law must provide a balance between religious harmony and human right norms.

Further, we should refrain from wanton criticism As an Arabic proverb says beautifully, People who live in a glass-house should not throw stones on others. The case of Riziek and Sukmawati also shows it is okay to be strongly associated with our social identity. But, we still need to be aware of bias as we tend to have selective attention on what we and our group believe in. Being critical and skeptical will prevent logical fallacy among us.

***

The writer teaches social psychology at Ciputra University in Surabaya, East Java.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to academia@jakpost.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Endy Bayuni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 09:34 1269 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdbf826 1 Opinion Africa,Indonesia-Africa-Forum,#commentary,diplomacy,geopolitics,international-relations Free

Six decades ago, Indonesia had a much closer affinity with Africa than today, and the feeling was mutual. The Indonesia Africa Forum (IAF) kicking off in Bali this week could restore and indeed increase that sentiment. Africa today is strategically important to Indonesias ambitions to become a maritime nation straddling both the Indian and Pacific oceans.



The Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java, in 1955 was a historic event of immense proportions though perhaps not as widely appreciated by todays generation. A poor nation that had only gained its independence 10 years earlier, Indonesia had the audacity to call for the gathering, bringing together not only leaders from nations that had just won their independence, but many that were still struggling for theirs, to challenge the domination of the West.



Many of the African leaders went home encouraged that in their struggle for their independence, they could count on the moral support and solidarity of friends they had met in Bandung. In some African countries, Bandung, and Indonesias president Sukarno, are written into their history books. And the Bandung principles are still invoked today in governing international relations.



Fast forward 63 years and that camaraderie between Indonesia and Africa is missing. When countries became independent naturally they became preoccupied with the nation-building process. Foreign affairs, particularly relations with distant nations, took a backseat.



Indonesia has neglected Africa for far too long, even though no one can erase the memory of Bandung and the inspiration it gave to many nations around the world.



This is now changing under the government of President Joko Jokowi Widodo, who, since coming to power in 2014, has embarked on rebuilding Indonesia as a truly maritime nation, or, in the Presidents vision statement parlance, a global maritime fulcrum.



This is something that all six of his predecessors neglected, even though Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, with one of the largest coastlines and with two-thirds of its vast territory made up of water.



Indonesia has always boasted about its strategic location as one of the few large countries that link the Indian and the Pacific oceans, yet it has expended far more effort in building relations on the Pacific flank, and less on the Indian Ocean side.



The new vision of Indonesia as a maritime nation, and a maritime power down the road, has meant a massive reorientation of foreign policy. Jakarta needs to pay more attention to countries on the other side of the Indian Ocean, and this means not just South Asia and the Gulf countries in the Middle East, but right across the vast ocean to Africa.



The timing is ripe at any rate for Indonesia to build relations with Africa, both politically and economically.



Indonesia today is the 16th largest economy in the world and all independent predictions point to it reaching the 10th largest by 2025 and top five by 2040, if not earlier. Indonesia has a seat in the Group of 20 wealthiest nations, and yet, when its leader speaks, he does so on behalf of fellow developing countries.



Last year, Indonesia used its position as chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to host the first summit of the 21-nation group founded in 1997. Indonesia has made a point of keeping the Bandung flame and principles alive by organizing commemorative summits in 2005 and again in 2015.



Africa matters even more now that Indonesia, beginning this year, has taken up the initiative and the leadership to push for Indo-Pacific community development.



While other countries have shown ambitions to develop the idea for several years, the Indo-Pacific concept would not take off without the role of Southeast Asian countries, particularly Indonesia, located right at the heart of where the two oceans intersect.



The IAF in Bali this week will discuss mostly business, exploring the potential to build closer economic ties. This may be Asias century, but Africa is also emerging economically, and there are bound to be opportunities for Indonesian and African business leaders to cooperate to bring prosperity to people on both sides of the ocean.



And as one of the organizing members has said, this forum is not about Indonesia exploring and exploiting the African market, rather this is a meeting still governed by the Bandung spirit of establishing mutually beneficial relations. Just to remind our African friends, Indonesias population of 260 million is also a large market with an increasing spending power.



The IAF may have a limited agenda, but it is an important addition to the jigsaw puzzle of Indonesias maritime-nation ambitions.

***

The writer is senior editor of The Jakarta Post.
A river stone inscribed by Yoko Ono has reportedly been stolen from Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Female sought in Theft Over $5000 investigation. Mon. Mar. 12, at 5:35 p.m., at the Gardiner Museum located at 111 Queens Park. She allegedly stole a rock on display of an art exhibit. Last seen walking south on Queens Park. #GO601628 if seen pls call 416-808-5200 ^gl pic.twitter.com/uzoQ38AZ9S  Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) April 7, 2018

Toronto Police are currently searching for a female suspect estimated to be 55-60 years of age and 1.62 meters tall. According to CCTV footage, the woman was wearing a black coat, red scarf with black stripes, black pants, black hat and black shoes.

Read also: Berlin police seeking more missing John Lennon items

Pitchfork reported that the stone is part of the Yoko Ono: Riverbed exhibition. Featuring Stone Piece, the exhibition presents a pile of river stones that have been honed and shaped by water over time. The stolen river stone reportedly has an appraised insurance value of US$17,500.

Some of the stones were inscribed by Ono with words such as "dream", "wish" and "remember". The stolen stone was inscribed with Love yourself.

The museum said on its website that visitors to the exhibition were invited to pick up a stone, hold it and concentrate on the words. After the brief meditation, visitors were asked to place the stone upon a pile of other stones at the center of the room.

Toronto Police media officer Gary Long told The Star that the suspect had just picked it up and walked away with it. (jes/wng)
Many people of Chinese descent and their family from Semarang and the surrounding areas slowly arrived at Mount Carmel, a hill in Ungaran, Semarang regency, Central Java on Sunday.

They were visiting the burial ground there, cleaning it and held sembahyang (prayer) or pai as part of the Ceng Beng or Qing Ming ritual, a 20-day tradition of respecting the ancestors.

The peak of Ceng Beng fell on April 5. But the pilgrimage to the ancestors' tombs can be conducted ten days prior or after the day.

"We came here with the whole family. This is the resting place of my mother in law, Ibu Paulina Sri Samiati or Lo Sam Nio," said 68-year-old Liem Kian Hwie or Widiyanto.

"We always come during Ceng Beng, since 2014. We gather and pray together in front of my mother's grave," said The Bie Nio or Mientariningsih, the oldest daughter of Lo Sam Nio.

Lo Sam Nio was a Catholic hence her tomb features a statue of Jesus and Mary. It also has writings of her and her family's full names, including her husband (who had passed away and was cremated), children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

There is also a sentence from Mazmur 31:16, "Into your hand I surrender my life. You set me free, dear God, the loyal Allah."

The tomb also has a painting of Jesus, including the Last Supper. Meanwhile, various food, flowers, incense and candles can be found on the altar.

Despite being Catholic, this family maintains Ceng Beng traditions, such as performing rituals at their ancestors' tombs.

Despite being Catholic, this family maintains Ceng Beng traditions, such as performing rituals at their ancestors' tombs. (JP/Suherdjoko)

"Perhaps we don't perform all the Ceng Beng rituals; I don't understand it all myself. But we try to preserve this good tradition. Perhaps other families who have other religions will conduct Ceng Beng in their own way as well," said Liem Kian Hwie, the husband of The BIe Nio.

Ganita Ridwan, the grandchild of Lo Sam Nio, said she was happy and understood the importance of the ritual. "It also serves as an event for our big family," said Ganita, who studies at Semarang Soegijapranata Catholic University.

There are around 600 tombs in Mount Carmel. Those who were buried there were either Christian, Buddhist or Confucian. The price for a grave in the cemetery can reach from tens to hundreds of million of rupiah. Each graveyard is well-maintained thanks to the cleaning staff.

Read also: Celebrating Ceng Beng festival

Each Ceng Beng ritual usually turns into a festival. One of the committee members, Kris, said this year was the 11th time such event was held.

Meanwhile, many people of Chinese descent in Semarang also observed the Ceng Beng ritual in Bong Bunder or Bundeng Cemetery at Jl. Taman Mugas Timur. There are two graveyards there that are believed to be the place where Chinese people lived when they first arrived in Semarang.

These two cemeteries were previously located in Petolongan. Hence the tombs in Petolongan were said to be the oldest Chinese graveyards in the city. Those who are buried there were people of Chinese descent who lived in Gedong Batu in Simongan, where Chinese admiral Cheng Ho once landed.

Bong Bunder itself is maintained by the Tjie Lam Tjay Foundation. The foundation's head, Aman Gautama, said those who were buried at the two graveyards were perhaps the ancestors of Semarang's first Chinese residents under the colonial period. The cemetery was then moved from Petolongan to Mugas in 1797.

"Ceng Beng serves as a time for contemplation on better respecting and caring for parents and ancestors," he said. (kes)
Facebook has started informing the 87 million users on its platform if their data was improperly shared with data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Those with affected accounts will see a notification on the top of their Facebook's News Feed informing them what happened and how they are affected.

Facebook told tech news site The Verge in a report that ran early Tuesday morning (April 10, Singapore time) that "the notification is rolling out over the course of today".

This marks the first time users will know if their account information was shared or not.

"We have banned the website 'This Is Your Digital Life', which one of your friends used Facebook to log into," the notification reads. "We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica."

Furthermore, all of Facebook's 2.2 billion users will also see a prompt on the top of their News Feed that gives them quick access to check which apps and websites they are currently sharing data with.

Users can then choose to remove these apps from their account, which stops them from accessing further data from their profiles.

Read also: Over 1m Indonesian users affected in Facebook privacy scandal

These notifications are part of Facebook's attempts to deal with a global scandal where information about its users was improperly accessed by third-party companies.

The social media company revealed last week that 65,009 Facebook users here had their Facebook information inappropriately shared with Cambridge Analytica, which is said to have exploited the data for commercial and political use.

The "thisisyourdigitallife" app was a personality quiz administered by data scientist and academic Aleksandr Kogan, from Cambridge University, who paid hundreds of thousands of users to take it for academic research purposes.

However, the app also collected information of the test-takers' Facebook friends, leading to the accumulation of a data pool of over 80 million users.

Facebook banned the app in 2015 but the data collected was not destroyed, in violation of Facebook's personal data policy.

Facebook has since also suspended two other data analytics firms for improperly handling or sharing user information: American firm Cubeyou and Canadian company AggregateIQ.
Adding a fine touch to the Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival is the Wine and Cheese Expo, to be held alongside the annual event at the Summarecon Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Running from April 5 to 29, the expo presents wines from around the world, including Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and Spain. There are a total of 16 tenants at the expo, including locally sourced wine from Bali called Hatten Wines.

Soeggianto Nagaria, JFFF chairman, said the expo would be an opportunity for an introduction on wine and cheese to some, as the majority of visitors would be coming for the more familiar choices of traditional Indonesian food at the Kampoeng Tempo Doeloe (KTD), the center of the food festival.

Read also: Annual fashion, food festival to return to Kelapa Gading

All the wines are affordable, Soeggianto said, adding that they had been curated to ensure the quality.

"The point is actually not to make people too intimidated to buy. But rather to make them feel open to try and hopefully enjoy it, then learning to understand the quality and knowledge of wine," Soeggianto said. He added that visitors could also try wines from lesser-known regions, such as Hungary and Georgia.

Speaking on different types of wine, Alexander H. Effendie, an adviser to the Indonesian Sommelier Association, said Indonesians who were new to alcoholic beverage would have a tendency to try a fruity, sweeter variety.

"In that case there is Moscato, Traminer and Pinot Gris, which are slightly sweeter. Meanwhile, Indonesians who are already used to wine might enjoy something like Sauvignon Blanc, which is high in acidity and dry, as well as Chardonnay," Alexander said, noting that they are all white wine varieties.

He further said white wines were also enjoyable in warm weather, suitable for Indonesian climate. Red wine, in comparison, was more full-bodied and complex in taste, Alexander added. (wng)
Despite its bad smell, jengkol (dogfruit) deserves attention. Most people have a love-hate relationship when it comes to jengkol, but the ingredients unique flavor and texture have inspired numerous creations in kitchens across the archipelago.



In Jakarta, Betawi people like to cook dogfruit with spices and soy sauce to make semur jengkol (dogfruit stew). Meanwhile, jengkol balado (dogfruit cooked with spicy chili sauce) is usually the star in warteg (Tegal food stalls) across the capital city.



Afaf Sri Handayani is one of the many die-hard fans of jengkol. For her, semur jengkol is a must-eat side dish to pair with her favorite Betawi food, nasi uduk (steamed rice cooked in coconut milk).



Obsessed with dogfruit, the meatball seller then created bakso jengkol (dogfruit meatballs). As the name suggests, she combined the popular beef dish with the smelly bean, something that her friends initially deemed bizarre.



Afaf introduced her food fusion at the recent Jengkol Festival at BTC Mall in Bekasi, West Java.



These meatballs are especially made for people who do not like to eat dogfruit, the 37-year-old said.



Served with a clear broth, yellow noodles and sprinkles of crisp fried onions and fresh parsley, bakso jengkol looks like any meatball soup at a glance, because the jengkol is hidden inside.



The taste was surprisingly delectable. The bitter flavor of the dogfruit was still there, but it was not smelly, thanks to its well-seasoned broth. The composition of the beef and the vegetable was also balanced.

Jengkol Crispy (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The Jengkol Festival served up other mouth-watering dogfruit dishes, such as burger jengkol (dogfruit burger), katsu jengkol (breaded deep-fried dogfruit), rendang jengkol (dogfruit stewed in coconut milk and spices) and sate jengkol(dogfruit satay).



Afaf said she was aware that many people disliked dogfruit because they were worried it would give them bad breath and unpleasant-smelling urine, but she was confident with her jengkol meatballs because she knew how to treat the ingredients. She said her dish was not smelly, because she soaked the dogfruit in salted water. After marinating it for one night, she boils it with herbs for hours in order to flavor and

soften it.



Using a mixer, I crush it [the cooked jengkol] into paste, she said. She then covers the paste with a thick layer of meat dough.



During the festival, some visitors told her that they liked her meaty dish and even asked her to add more dogfruit to strengthen its bitter flavor.



Native to Southeast Asian countries, jengkol is believed to have medicinal properties, such as purifying blood, easing dysentery and preventing diabetes. This bean, however, contains a substance called djenkolic acid, which can disturb the urinary system if consumed excessively. To minimize the risk of negative effects, it is boiled in salted water before being consumed.



Ratna Perdana Wantie, a resident of Bandung in West Java, learned about djenkolic acid when studying chemistry at Padjajaran University.



Her life became different after she embraced jengkol as a business in 2016. She ditched her job as a food safety auditor and developed her own food brand, called Jengkol Neng Iting, which produces dogfruit chips called Jengkol Crispy.



I want to make people no longer feel shy about eating dogfruit, she said.



The cooking process to make her chips is simple. The dogfruit is cut into slices and then soaked in slaked lime water for hours to reduce its djenkolic acid. Afterward, it is fried without flour until it becomes crunchy.



Ratna, who initially thought the chips would only appeal to the local market, proudly said she had exported the snack to South Korea and Taiwan. At home, she cooks 10 kilograms of dogfruit every day and produces over 300 cups of Jengkol Crispy every week.



Food writer and historian Fadly Rahman said that today, people openly express their love for dogfruit. The Padjajaran University lecturer said native Indonesians already loved dogfruit long before independence.



Renowned Malayan writer Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Munsyi wrote in his notes that dogfruit was an important commodity in the early 19th century and was available in traditional markets in Sumatra. Munsyi said local elites refused to admit their penchant for dogfruit publicly and tended to eat it in secrecy.



At that time, dogfruit was deemed to be [ordinary] peoples food, said the writer of Jejak Rasa Nusantara: Sejarah Masakan Indonesia (Archipelago Flavor Trail: History of Indonesian Food).



Fadly is optimistic that one day, dogfruit-made products can be globally accepted like tempeh. He hopes that people will be more creative in processing it to reduce or remove its bad smell.
Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani paid a visit on Monday to the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, France, to observe the ongoing collaboration between the tech giant and cultural organizations in preserving and promoting cultural heritage through the digital medium.

A press release from her office stated that the visit was part of the coordinating minister's working visit in her capacity as head of the Indonesian delegation to the 204th session of UNESCO's Executive Board on Apr. 4-17 at the world cultural body's Paris headquarters.

Puan stated her appreciation for Google Cultural Institutes efforts in digitally archiving cultural heritage items while also stressing the need to secure intellectual property rights to protect artworks.

We need an affirmation program to accelerate the digital publication of Indonesian art and cultural property, so any work of Indonesian art can be uploaded to the Google Cultural Institute and protected, said Puan.

She added that such cooperation would not only protect Indonesia's arts, literature and cultural artifacts, but it would also promote them to the world.

The younger generation and students can learn the philosophy behind these artistic and cultural works, for instance, the many traditional dances of Indonesia, she said.

Puan was welcomed on her visit by Google Cultural Institute director Laurent Gaveau and policy manager Claire Marie Foulquire.

Foulguire said the institute had over 300 partners in 44 countries, including Indonesia. It had also published a digital archive of one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Indonesia, the Borobudur Temple Complex and the history of the temple's relief and stupa.

Indonesia had also contributed to Google Art and Culture through Indonesian resident artists and several IT experts.

The Google Cultural Institute, founded in 2011, is a non-profit organization that partners with cultural foundations and institutions around the world. It aims to create digital archives of works of art and cultural heritage from every country that will be accessible to the global public. (wng)
Ugo Untoro has forgotten his mothers age but believes she is in her sixties.

Living in Yogyakarta, the painter has routinely gone home once a month to meet her in Purbalingga, Central Java, after his father passed away four years ago.

For him, each reunion with his mother is like stepping into a time machine, taking him back to his childhood. Understanding how much he enjoyed drawing, she was never angry with him for sketching on the walls or the floor when he was little.

My mother would also comfort me after my father scolded me for my bad grades. I did not like going to school because I was lazy, Ugo said.

To pay tribute to his mother, the 47-year-old artist is holding an exhibition entitled marang ibu (For Mother) from March 23 to April 22 at Galerikertas at Studiohanafi in Depok, West Java.

The word Ibu can also refers to the soil, the earth or the home, he said.

For children who travel thousands of miles to other cities or other countries to either pursue a career or continue their studies, the exhibition aimed to remind them of their mothers and their motherland, Ugo said.

He is now working on a comic book called marang ibu, which tells the story of a girl named Sri who longs to go home to meet her biological parents but does not know who and where they are.

Sketching a story: In his comic book, marang ibu, Ugo combines his skills in sketching and writing. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The book is still a rough draft and unfinished, but its first 24 pages are on display at the exhibition at Galerikertas. Displayed in glass frames, they show that Ugos skills are not limited to sketching, but extend to writing.

Unlike other artists who seek perfection from their work, Ugo does not care about letting his audience see his mistakes, which are there for all to see on the page.

In another room, Ugo displays 149 untitled sketches. He lets visitors touch them but they must wear gloves to prevent damaging the works, which are delicate and produced on recycled paper.

These sketches are very simple, but are suited for adult viewing only, as most depict naked women. For Ugo, nudity represents freedom, openness and honesty.

This is who I am. I have nothing to hide or to pretend about, he said.

However, Ugo does not mind if his sketches are interpreted as erotic.

Having held 15 solo exhibitions and participated in 101 group exhibitions at home and abroad since 1995, Ugo says that his artworks are inspired by love, women and family.

A tall, tattooed man with dark skin, Ugo admits that his ice-cold appearance often makes people scared of him or gives people the wrong impression.

I dont feel macho because I have many feminine sides to me. I am a mellow, romantic man, said the fan of musician Ebiet G. Ades ballads.

Artist Ugo Untoro pays tribute to the most important woman in his life after winning his battle against his toxic inner demons. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

For Ugo, tattoos are also artworks. He has never counted his tattoos, but his first is named after his first girlfriend in high school. He believes his passion for art comes from his father, an elementary school teacher who was also an artist in Purbalingga.

My father liked to make puppets. I didnt want to go to school if he did not give me drawings, he said.

Ugo recalled that after graduating from high school, he actually did not want to continue his studies.

However, he changed his mind after learning about Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) Yogyakartas student admission.

Ugo was surprised when the prestigious art school accepted him in 1988 because he thought he was too lazy and not good enough. He took up a major in painting and graduated eight years later.

I completed my studies for my father because he really wanted me to have a university degree, he said.

At his graduation, Ugo was happy because he had realized one of his fathers wishes. However, Ugo still carries a deep regret about not showing the best version of himself to his father before the latter passed away.

I was addicted to drugs and alcohol for 25 years, he said, adding that during that time, it was hard to leave drugs behind because they helped boost his imagination while he was working.

I overdosed many times and almost committed suicide twice, he said.

His parents did many things to help him overcome his addiction, from seeking the help of clerics at Islamic boarding schools to rehabilitation at a mental hospital. However, all their efforts failed.

Young fan: A boy looks at Ugo's artwork origami mi mi. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

Ugo managed to overcome his addiction to alcohol and drugs after he took up yoga and finally had the will to commit to getting better. After he started living life to the fullest again, he planned to tell the good news to his father. But, he did not make it in time.

I wanted to show off, but I was too late, he said.

So, my father never knew I had recovered.

In addition to his mother, Ugo also shares a close relationship with his two sons. As part of the marang ibu exhibition, he displays a work of origami-like crumbled paper titled origami mi mi, for which he teamed up with his eldest son, who suffers from down-syndrome, to create.

When Ugos son was still small, he was unable to fold paper into decorative shapes because of his low muscle tone. Rather than forcing him to follow the guidelines, Ugo asked him to squeeze the paper with all his strength.

For the artist, the crumpled papers are artwork.

They contain perseverance, imagination and patience, he said.

Ugo hopes that younger aspiring artists will have the courage to be different, unique and critical.

An artwork is beautiful if it comes from deep within your heart, he said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 20:13 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdea3b6 1 City Matraman,underpass,traffic-congestion,trial-run Free

The Jakarta Transportation Agency has planned to close the Tambak intersection in Central Jakarta on Wednesday to deal with traffic congestion during the trial run of the newly constructed Matraman underpass.

I plan to close the intersection [connecting] Tambak and Matraman tomorrow. So there will be no [direct] travel, the agency's head, Andri Yansyah, said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Vehicles from Tambak will not be able to go directly to Matraman. They must pass Jl. Proklamasi then turn right at the Megaria intersection, while vehicles traveling in the reverse direction need to drive under the Matraman overpass to reach Tambak.

It should be fine to turn back [under the Matraman overpass] as the distance is less than 100 meters. We have evaluated the [traffic engineering plan] and decided to close [Tambak] intersection tomorrow, Andri said.

The plan was made following severe congestion during a trial run of the Matraman underpass on Tuesday morning. As a result of the congestion, many commuters switched to public transportation. (wnd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 19:28 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde95c8 1 City Tanah-Abang,road-closure,Dispute Free

Angkot (public minivan) drivers challenging Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan at the Central Jakarta District Court over the closure of Jl. Jatibaru Raya in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta have rejected mediation.

The first hearing in the trial on Tuesday examined power of attorney and files of both the plaintiff and defendant.

A representative of the drivers, Abdul Rosyid, said before the hearing on Tuesday that if his side won the lawsuit, the city administration must reopen the road to traffic.

No compromise, no meditation, Abdul said as quoted by tempo.co.

He added that the road closure had affected drivers, who had reportedly seen their income decline by 50 percent. The drivers, however, would not ask the administration to compensate their losses.

On March 26, the Indonesian Ombudsmans Jakarta office gave the city administration 60 days to evaluate the spatial plan of Tanah Abang and reopen Jl. Jatibaru Raya to traffic.

Public minivans were not allowed to pass the once busy road, but after their several rallies against the closure, they were allowed to pass between 3 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Meanwhile, during the hearing, Anies was represented by an official from the Jakarta Legal Bureau. The trial will resume on April 17. (wnd)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java  Tue, April 10, 2018 10:00 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdc10e7 1 National bootleg-liquor,bandung Free

Cicalengka Regional Hospital director, Yani Sumpena, said the death toll of a recent bootleg liquor case had reached 20 in his hospital alone. One died en route to the hospital while 19 died in the hospital.

The 20 deaths added to the death toll in two other cases in Bandung, which each recorded three fatalities. The total deaths over the weekend reached 26.

The cause of their death was intoxication leading to internal organ failure, Yani said.

The hospital, as of Monday, was treating 15 people. Seven of them were in the emergency unit.

Cicalengka hospital treated patients of another bootleg liquor case in 2015. From 12 patients, six died.

In Majalaya Regional Hospital, three bootleg liquor patients had died as of Monday. The hospital's director, Grace Mediana, said they had received six patients. Three have died, said Grace.

Bandung Police chief, Sr. Comr. Hendro Pranowo, said they had arrested one bootleg liquor maker in Buah Batu district in Bandung. They confiscated dozens of plastic bottles containing clear yellow liquid. (evi)
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara  Tue, April 10, 2018 15:00 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd28a0 1 National NTB,banknote,BI,bank-indonesia,TNI-AL,rupiah,central-bank Free

A joint team of bankers and Indonesian Navy personnel has been dispatched to circulate rupiah banknotes on small islands across the province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), allowing the islanders to exchange old or broken money.

The team of representatives from Bank Indonesia (BI) and conventional banks as well as medical and security personnel from the Hiu 634 warship are carrying cash amounting to Rp 2 billion (US$140,000).

BI NTB office payment system team head Ocky Ganesia said the team, slated to be in the field from Monday until April 14, would visit several small islands, such as Moyo, Pusu and Medang in Sumbawa.

We will accept all money exchanged by the locals, whether it is shabby, damaged or out-of-circulation, Ocky said on Tuesday.

He added that his team had been coordinating with local administrations and leaders on each island to spread the word about the expedition, which aimed to improve access to banking services for residents of small islands.

Apart from replacing old banknotes, the team will also hold seminars at schools on the islands about central bank programs and provide books and sport equipment for 13 schools.

The medical team will provide free medical checkups on each island, BI NTB office head Achris Sarwani said.

NTB is comprised of two major islands  Lombok and Sumbawa  and has more than 280 small islands, around 48 of which are inhabited. (kuk/ebf)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java  Tue, April 10, 2018 18:55 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde8258 1 National oplosan,bootleg-liquor,alcohol,alcohol-consumption,alcohol-poisoning,West-Java,West-Java-Police Free

As of Tuesday, 51 people have been confirmed dead after consuming oplosan (bootleg liquor) in separate areas across West Java. The highest number of victims reportedly occurred in Bandung regency, where victims were treated in three separate hospitals.

Bandung Health Agency head Ahmad Kustijadi said that 41 of the 155 people treated at hospitals across the regency had died.

Cicalengka Regional General Hospital (RSUD) received the highest number of patients, with 31 of the 103 people treated passing away.

At RSUD Majalaya, three of the 26 patients treated died while seven of the 26 patients treated at AMC Cileunyi Hospital also died, said Kustijadi on Tuesday.

(Read also: Indonesias deadly liquor crisis escalates)

Kustijadi said the Bandung regency administration had declared an emergency status as the number of patients suffering from alcohol poisoning had continued to increase since last Friday.

The treatment costs for the alcohol poisoning are born by the local administration. We have coordinated with related institutions to prevent the number of cases from rising, said Kustijadi.

Bootleg liquor victims were also reported in Buah Batu in Bandung city and Pelabuhan Ratu in Sukabumi.

West Java Police chief Insp.Gen. Budi Maryoto said four people had died after consuming bootleg liquor in Bandung city while six people had died in Sukabumi.

Agung said the police were investigating three areas suspected to be production centers of oplosan. It has been reported that in Bandung regency, the bootleg liquor was sold for Rp 20,000 (US$1.40) per 600 milliliter bottle. (ebf)
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Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 15:15 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd357e 1 National KPK,graft,corruption,bank-century-corruption,bank-indonesia,BI,graft-suspect,graft-trial,bailout Free

The South Jakarta District Court has ordered the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to continue its investigation into the 2008 Bank Century bailout, which reportedly caused more than Rp 7 trillion (US$508 million) in state losses.

On Monday, sole judge Efendi Muhtar ruled in favor of antigraft activists grouped under the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Community (MAKI), who had filed a pretrial motion against the antigraft body accused of being 'slow' in handling the case.

[We are] ordering [the KPK] to move on with the investigation [] of alleged corruption related to the Bank Century [bailout], said Efendi when he read out the ruling on Monday.

The judge said the KPK had to name several figures implicated in the case  including former vice president and then-Bank Indonesia governor Boediono and former Financial Services Authority chairman and then-BI deputy governor Muliaman D. Hadad  as suspects in the case.

With the ruling, theres no reason for the KPK not to name new suspects in the Bank Century bailout case, MAKI coordinator Boyaman Saiman said.

He said MAKI would ask for the official copy of the ruling before handing it out to the KPK and the House of Representatives to monitor its implementation by the antigraft body.

The KPKs investigation into the case has been in limbo since the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced the first suspect in the case, former BI deputy governor Budi Mulya, to 10 years of imprisonment in July 2014.

Previously, prosecutors indictment against Budi mentioned Boediono and Muliamans names, as well as other then-BI board of director members, of playing a role in the case. (ebf)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York  Tue, April 10, 2018 06:53 1269 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdb53b7 2 World trump,Stormy-Daniels,US,FBI Free

Federal agents on Monday raided the New York offices of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress who says she had an affair with the former real estate magnate.

Cohen's own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents seized "privileged communications" between Cohen and Cohen's own clients, in part based on a request from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Cohen has been Trump's personal lawyer and confidant for years, advising him on real estate and personal matters, as well as supporting him since he became president.

Cohen also made the $130,000 payoff to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election, which she claims was meant to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.

Ryan lashed out at prosecutors over the raid, which came as Mueller seeks to interview Trump for his sprawling investigation.

"The decision by the US attorney's office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Trump broke his silence over the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, denying he paid her hush money through his attorney and insisting he did not know why Cohen made the payment.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 15:19 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd3627 1 City bogor,flood Free

The extreme weather that has hit West Java's Bogor regency in recent weeks has caused floods in several areas and claimed the life of an elderly woman, an official has said.

At least three subdistricts in three separate districts were hit by the floods, with Sukawangi subdistrict in Sukamakmur suffering the worst as dozens of houses were swept away by the floodwater, Bogor Disaster Mitigation Agency secretary Budi Pranowo said.

Mari, 70, was killed when her rumah warung [combined stall and house] was swept away by the floodwater," Budi said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co., and that dozens of motorcycles and cars were also swept away.

"The road that connects Bogor and Cianjur [West Java] was damaged, hampering access to a number of villages affected by the floods," he added.

A flood and landslide hit Batu Kasur in Batu Layang, Cisarua, destroying a local bridge.

"The flood eroded the river cliff along the banks of the Cigamendung, and toppled dozens of trees," said Budi.

Dramaga Budi Suhardi of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said that the extreme weather was due to the transitional period between the wet and dry seasons. He reminded residents to remain vigilant, as the region might experience similar disasters in the coming days. (fac)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 13:56 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdce525 2 National Indonesia,Interpol,ship,crime,China,Mozambique Free

Indonesia seized an alleged "slave ship" following a dramatic high seas chase sparked by an Interpol alert after the vessel escaped capture in China and Mozambique, authorities said Tuesday.

Interpol tipped off Indonesian authorities that the stateless STS-50, a vessel with a notorious maritime rap sheet, would be entering the Southeast Asian nation's waters with authorities concerned the crew were being forced to work.

The boat, captured on Friday some 60 miles (95 kilometers) from Weh Island in Aceh province, had 20 Indonesians, two Ukrainians and eight Russians aboard, including the captain, a senior navy official said.

The crew have been detained and are now being questioned.

The Indonesian sailors said they were not paid and that their passports and other documents had been taken away as soon as they boarded the ship nearly a year ago, the navy said.

"These Indonesians had been sailing for 10 months without being paid so that's why we suspect there was slavery happening," Indonesian navy deputy chief Achmad Taufiqoerrochman said.

The 258-metre (850 foot) long vessel, which was flying the flag of tiny African nation Togo, has previously flown flags from a string of countries including Japan, South Korea and Mozambique, authorities said.

It was on the run after escaping detention in China and also fleeing seizure in Mozambique.

Before it was caught in Indonesia, the vessel used several other names including Sea Breeze, Andrey Dolgov, and Aida, according to the fisheries ministry.

The vessel was equipped with some 600 gillnets -- banned in some waters -- targeting cod species and Antarctic toothfish. It is also suspected of involvement in "organized transnational crime", the ministry added without elaborating.

Two years ago, Indonesian warships detained a Chinese trawler wanted by Interpol in Argentina.

Jakarta has launched a tough crackdown on illegal fishing which involves sinking foreign vessels caught fishing without a permit after impounding the boats and removing the crews.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 17:26 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cddaf83 1 Business Indonesia-Africa-Forum,jusuf-kalla,business,agreement Free

Vice President Jusuf Kalla says the government is eyeing Rp 6.75 trillion (US$472.5 million) in business deals with partners from Africa at the Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF) 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, from April 8 to 11.

I hope that during the two-day forum, Indonesia and Africa will be able to map out their future economic cooperation, said Kalla on Tuesday in his opening speech at the event attended by about 500 people from 53 African countries and Indonesia as quoted by kompas.com.

Kalla expressed the hope that the forum could boost economic cooperation in various sectors such as infrastructure, strategic industries and financing.

He also stressed the importance of boosting trade between Indonesia and African countries, which was recorded at US$8 billion in 2017, the figure of which was a 15 percent increase from 2016.

Although the value was relatively small, Kalla said there had been a significant increase in trade between Indonesia and several Asian countries  284 percent with Liberia, 268 percent with Comoros, 215 percent with Gabon, 105 percent with Togo, 105 percent with Burundi and 100 percent with Cabo Verde.

Kalla said Indonesia needed various commodities such as crude oil, cotton and cocoa from Africa, while African countries needed CPO, motorcycles and instant noodles from Indonesia.

According to Kalla, about 30 Indonesian companies, including those running in textile and pharmacological manufacturing businesses as well as in energy supply, operated in African countries. (bbn)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Tue, April 10, 2018 16:25 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd7920 1 National bootleg-liquor,West-Java,jakarta,alcohol Free

A spike in the number of fatal bootleg liquor cases in recent weeks has alarmed the authorities in the country with the worlds largest Muslim population.

The latest incidents taking place in Greater Jakarta, West Java and Papua have reportedly claimed the lives of more than 70 people.

The West Java Police announced on Tuesday that the consumption of unlicensed alcoholic drinks, locally known as oplosan, has killed 45 people in the province in the past few days. Most of the casualties were reported in Cicalengka, with 35 fatalities, followed by Pelabuhan Ratu with six and Bandung with four.

We are trying to find out who made the [bootleg liquor], West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said.

A public hospital in Cicalengka said 20 people had died in the hospital alone after consuming bootleg liquor. The cause of their death was intoxication leading to internal organ failure, the hospitals director, Yani Sumpena, said on Monday. The hospital is currently treating 15 people.

According to witnesses, the victims bought a yellow-colored drink sold in used mineral bottles. It has been reported that the drink contains pure alcohol, cough medicine and mosquito repellent.

More than 30 people died of bootleg alcohol poisoning within four days across Greater Jakarta last week, according to the Jakarta Police.

Eight people died in Depok and seven in Bekasi. Both regencies, while located in West Java, are under the jurisdiction of the Jakarta Police. Eight more casualties occurred in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta, and another 10 were recorded in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta.

Tangerang City Police in Banten show confiscated alcoholic drinks after raiding jamu (herbal drink) stalls suspected of selling bootleg liquor on April 4. (kompas.com/ Sherly Puspita)

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Idham Azis said he would form a special team to investigate the circulation of bootleg liquor in the city.

Our main target is not the sellers, but the distributors, said East Jakarta Police chief Sr. Com. Yoyon Tony Surya Putra.

In Papua, six people were killed after consuming homebrew last week.

Restrictions and bans on the sale of beverages containing between 1 and 5 percent alcohol have indirectly increased the production and consumption of bootleg liquor, according to the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS).

The rise in the number of people who have died after drinking bootleg liquor is related to the prohibition of alcoholic beverage distribution and sales in areas across Indonesia as well as liquor sale restrictions stipulated in a Trade Ministry regulation, CIPS researcher Sugianto Tandra said on Monday.

He was referring to a 2015 Trade Ministry regulation that banned the sale of alcoholic beverages at minimarkets and kiosks. Regulations imposing a high excise on liquor and sales limits have made it more difficult for people to purchase legitimate products.

Sugianto said the government would not succeed in imposing a total ban on liquor sales, because there was demand in the market. Therefore, we are asking about the effectiveness of such a regulation. I think the aspect of public health should be included in the study for such a regulation.

While the House of Representatives is still deliberating a bill on alcohol, some regions, including in West Java, one of the most conservative provinces in the country, have enacted regional bylaws limiting the sale of booze.

Such regulations are usually driven by religious zeal, as Islam prohibits alcoholic drinks. (ahw)




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Linkedin Suherdjoko and Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Semarang/Surakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 17:23 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cddadb5 1 National Pesantren,shabu-shabu Free

National Narcotics Agency personnel have arrested a teacher at an Islamic boarding school, or pesantren, in Surakarta, Central Java, for allegedly possessing 10 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

The suspect, identified as AGR, 47, could face the death penalty if found guilty.

AGR was reportedly driving a Toyota Avanza with another Surakarta resident, SYN, 53, when he was arrested. Local residents had reportedly tipped off the agency about a possible drug sale between the two, who were allegedly caught red-handed.

National Narcotics Agency Central Java head Brig. Gen. Tri Agus Heru Prasetya said AGR had planned to go on the minor haj with his wife on Monday, but that plan had been foiled by his arrest. AGRs wife then decided to proceed with the pilgrimage on her own.

AGR reportedly admitted that he had been addicted to methamphetamine since 1998, and that he had tried to quit in 2002, but I continued to consume it after a reunion with an old friend. The friend also asked me to sell [the drug], he told the media.

The agency is currently searching for the person who sold the narcotic to AGR, identified as Bejo.

This case shows us that narcotics can even spread to pesantren. We will intensify communication with religious groups to launch a campaign on the danger of illegal substances, Tri said.

Meanwhile, Surakarta pesantren Tamirul Islam Surakarta was quick to deny any affiliation with AGR. The pesantrens principal, Mohammad Adhim, said AGR was not a staffer at the pesantren, though he acknowledged that AGR had frequented the pesantren to attend sermons.

He was a frequent visitor and he often came [to attend sermons of] Muhammad Ali or Abah [father] Ali. But hes an outsider, Adhim said Tuesday. (swd)
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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 18:41 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde5e67 1 National Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Papua,Iriana-Joko-Widodo,Mama-Mama-market,Holtekamp-Bridge Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo is scheduled to make a work trip to Papua from Wednesday to Friday. This will be his eighth visit to the easternmost province of Indonesia since he took office in October 2014.

The President will distribute land certificates in Jayapura and visit Mama-Mama Market. He will also monitor the progress of [the under construction] Holtekamp bridge, Cenderawasih military commander Maj. Gen. Elnadus G. Supit said in Jayapura.

From Jayapura, President Jokowi, accompanied by First Lady Iriana, is scheduled to fly to Timika and Asmat, before continuing their visit to West Papua. In the neighboring province, Jokowi will visit an early childhood education unit (PAUD) and meet inspirational women, among other things on the agenda.

Authorities have made some preparations prior to the arrival of the President on Wednesday, such as cleaning the town and taking security precautions in the hotel where Jokowi will stay during his visit. Around 3,000 joint personnel from the military and police will be readied, the military commander went on to say.

Jokowis visit is intended to accelerate the development of Papua, which has been considered way behind other regions across the country, said Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo. (kuk/ebf)
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Linkedin Sunghee Hwang (Agence France-Presse) Seoul  Tue, April 10, 2018 08:53 1269 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdbcdb2 2 World kim-jong-un,US,North-Korea,politics,summit Free

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North -- which would be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader -- but no specific dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang's participation.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the "development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue", the official KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym.

He delivered a report "on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula", including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearisation as soon as next month.

But the North had remained publicly silent on the US summit since its leader's invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean officials last month.

As officials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North's willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

Kim's remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a "summit" with Trump.

Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in "May or early June".

"I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said.

"Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years."

- Diplomatic activity -

North Korea's recent frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fire multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.

Since sending a high-profile delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing -- his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

The North's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.

Ri also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.

If the summit does take place, many remain sceptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed.

It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings.

No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple reports.

Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington's long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearisation -- a very high bar.

The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington -- an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.
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Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 21:23 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdee274 1 National KPK,bandung,Febri-Diansyah Free

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested a number of state officials in West Java in relation to a bribery case on Tuesday afternoon.

Our investigators arrested around seven people [during an operation] in a regency in West Java, including a regent and several officials, KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said in a statement on Tuesday.

Febri, however, refused to reveal further details on the arrests.

The antigraft body has carried eight operations across the country this year to arrest state officials allegedly involved in graft cases.

The latest operation was carried out on March 12, when KPK investigators arrested several officials of the Tangerang District Court, including Judge Wahyu Widya Nurfitri and clerk Tuti Atikah. (swd)
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Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java  Tue, April 10, 2018 14:03 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdce8d3 1 City puncak,bogor,West-Java,Ciliwung-river,forest-conservation,ForestConservation,Perhutani,ecosystem,IPB,Bogor-Agricultural-University Free

Two tea plantation companies and state forestry company Perhutani have allocated land for forest restoration in an effort to rehabilitate the ecosystem Puncak, Bogor, West Java, which was previously the upstream area of Ciliwung river basin (DAS).

The tea plantation companies are PTPN VII Gunung Mas and Ciliwung, which are managed by tea company Sumber Sari Bumi Pakuan.

Together with Perhutanis Bogor forest management office (KPH), the two companies are carrying out forest restoration programs with support from Forest Watch Indonesia, Bogor Agricultural Universitys public service and research center and the Puncak Area Conservation Consortium.

The partnership has been formalized through the signing of an agreement between the companies and the consortium at PTPN VIII Gunung Mas on April 3.

Natural products: Members of the Cibulao Hijau Forest Farming Group demonstrate forest products at Gunung Mas meeting hall in Bogor, West Java, on April 3. (JP/Theresia Sufa)

Thomas Oni Veriasa, manager of Perhutani KPH Bogors program to mitigate the impact of climate change in the upstream area of DAS Ciliwung, said the company had allocated 30 hectares of land in Kampung Cibulao, North Tugu district, Cisarua, to cultivate coffee trees and forest plants through a community-based forest management scheme.

Meanwhile, PTPN VIII Gunung Mas allocated 125 ha of land for forest rehabilitation. This does not yet include 5,700 square meters of land provided to develop tree seedling estates.

Sumber Sari Pakuan, as the holder of the Ciliwung tea plantations land use permit, has agreed to work with the Puncak Area Conservation Consortium. It agreed to allocate around 35-40 ha of land for the cultivation of various coffee and fruit plants and trees, among others things. (ebf)
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Linkedin Karina Tehusijarana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 18:16 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde4580 1 Politics Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Gerindra-Party,Prabowo-Subianto,Oesman-Sapta,Oesman-Sapta-Odang,Fadli-Zon Free

Lawmakers and officials from both pro-government and opposition coalitions have responded variously to President Joko Jokowi Widodos fiery speech on Saturday.

In front of thousands of his volunteers, Jokowi hit back several criticisms recently fired against him and his administration. They include #2019changepresident and the opposition leader Prabowo Subianto's claim that Indonesia could break up by 2030.

A leader should convey optimism and encourage his or her people, even though there are many difficult challenges, Jokowi shouted. He [Prabowo] should not be pessimistic and talk about a potential for Indonesia to break up in 2030.

Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko denied that the speech was a sign of Jokowis anger.

Read also: We could fight together, SBY tells Jokowi

He was not angry. He was just a little bit stern, said the former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander as quoted by Kompas.com. The President can get irritated too, especially with all the false and misleading news.

Oesman Sapta Odang, chairman of the Jokowi-backing Hanura Party, said President Jokowi's speech was an understandable response to attacks he had faced.

Now that he is officially running [for president in the 2019 election], its natural that he will counter all rumors that are detrimental to him, he said.

House of Representatives deputy speaker and Gerindra vice chairman Fadli Zon suggested that Jokowi might have been trying to emulate the Gerindra chairman.

Maybe he [Jokowi] was trying to imitate Prabowo.".

Fadli had previously tweeted a veiled statement on his official Twitter account @fadlizon, saying: [He] wants to be an orator like Prabowo, but ends up being like stand up comedy. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 18:19 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde4ad2 1 Business Lion-Air,Gapki,MoU,research,bioavtur Free

The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) and Lion Air Group signed an agreement on Tuesday to carry out joint research to develop bio aviation turbine fuel (bioavtur).

This agreement is opening the way to reduce the dependency of aviation companies on fossil fuels and to absorb palm oil produced in this country, said Lion Air Group founder Rusdi Kirana, who was also Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, after attending the signing ceremony in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi also attended the signing ceremony.

Rusdi said the use of bioavtur would not only help boost the economy but would also help improve the welfare of oil palm farmers.

Meanwhile, Gapki advisory council member Franky O. Widjaja welcomed the agreement, saying that the use of bioavtur would help develop the downstream palm oil business.

The government plans to use 3 percent bioavtur this year.

As the largest palm-oil producing country, Indonesia produced 36.5 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) in 2017, while Malaysia, the second-largest producing country, produced 19.9 million tons. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 12:40 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdc95b0 1 City Matraman,underpass,jakarta,TrafficCongestion,trial-run Free

The first day of East Jakartas Matraman underpass trial on Tuesday, which kicked off at around 6 a.m. with the assistance of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, has worsened the traffic condition in the area.

Long lines of vehicles were seen stuck in traffic past 10 a.m. from Jl. Jatinegara to Jl. Matraman Dalam and Jl. Tambak. The same condition was also visible on Jl. Salemba heading to Jl. Matraman Dalam.

The condition forced several Transjakarta bus passengers to cut their ride short to continue with a different mode of transportation.

Ive been stuck in traffic for around one hour, whereas it usually takes around 20 minutes from Matraman to my office in Senen by Transjakarta bus, said Rini, who decided to continue her journey on a ride-hailing ojek (motorcycle taxi).

Meanwhile, some motorcyclists were apparently unaware of the new route.

Where does this underpass lead to? Can we pass through it? a motorcyclist asked a Jakarta Transportation Agency official on duty near the underpass, as quoted by kompas.com. The official replied that motorists could take the underpass to Jl. Pramuka and Jl. Jatinegara.

Overpass and intersection head Heru Suwondo of Jakarta Bina Marga road agency said that the traffic condition on the first day of the trial would be discussed during their evaluation. (ami)
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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar  Tue, April 10, 2018 18:04 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cde37e3 1 National umrah-business,scams Free

Police have arrested a travel agency executive in what appears to be the latest in a string of umrah (minor haj) scams.

Mahditiara Syafruddin is the executive director of PT Global Inspira Indonesia, a travel agency that offers pilgrimage packages.

She was arrested in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday. Her arrest follows that of her husband, Edwin Djabbar, the companys executive commissioner.

They have been arrested for fraud after reportedly failing to fly out 6,300 aspiring pilgrims.

The estimated losses suffered by the victims total Rp 100 billion (US$7 million).

South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Dicky Sondani said on Tuesday that the two would be charged with fraud and embezzlement, which carries a minimum prison sentence of five years.

Police have investigated the case since November 2017.

Edwin has been detained since [November], while Mahditiara moved cities to avoid arrest but was eventually arrested on Sunday in Medan before being taken to Makassar, Dicky said.

Edwin claimed bankruptcy as the reason for failing to send the aspiring pilgrims on the trip.

The company has operated since 2010 and offered umrah trips at bargain prices.

Meanwhile, Resor Barru Police in South Sulawesi have arrested Lukman Jamaluddin, owner of the PT Safa Marwah Aulia Utama travel agency, and named him a suspect in another alleged umrah scam. At least 400 people have reportedly fallen victim to his travel agency. (swd)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Tue, April 10, 2018 13:36 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdcd9a8 1 National computer-based-national-examinations,computer-based-test,Central-Java,UNBK,PLN Free

Nineteen state senior high schools in Central Java lacked the necessary facilities to conduct computer-based national exams (UNBK), acting Central Java governor Heru Sudjatmoko said on Monday.

"Despite being unable to administer the UNBK, they will still take the national exams," he said. "The 1,058 students will take a written exam (UNKP)."

Out of the 1,486 schools and 185,173 students in Central Java, 98.74 percent have taken the UNBK, while the remaining 1.26 percent are taking the UNKP.

(Read also: Jayapura digital exam 'successful', despite technical glitches)

Central Java Education and Culture Agency head Gatot Bambang Hastowo said the 19 schools were located in Demak, Purworejo, Semarang and Tegal.

"The schools are far away from other schools so they cannot use the other schools' computers," Bambang said.

"Some also lack facilities. For example, one state senior high school in Sayung, Demak does not have enough computers for all of its students."

As of Monday evening, there have been no reports of disruption to the national exams. The Central Java Education and Culture Agency has coordinated with state-owned electricity company PLN to ensure that there are no blackouts. Every school is also required to prepare a backup generator. (kmt/ebf)
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Linkedin N.Adri (The Jakarta Post) Balikpapan, East Kalimantan  Tue, April 10, 2018 09:44 1269 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdc1079 1 National #Pertamina,pertamina,Balikpapan,#EastKalimantan,#BalikpapanOilSpill Free

A member of House of Representatives Commission VII  which oversees policies on the environment, energy, research and technology  has urged state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina to bear full responsibility for the victims of an oil spill and an ensuing fire in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

This is cannot be negotiated, commission member Adian Napitupulu from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said on a visit to Balikpapan on Monday.

He added that that responsibility could take the form of an education fund for victims children until they graduate from college.

Five fishermen died in a fire that broke out following an oil spill in Balikpapan Bay on March 31. Pertamina admitted last week that the spill had come from a burst oil pipeline of the company. One of the killed fishermen, Imam Nurokhim, 41, had a toddler.

The spilled oil also allegedly killed marine animals living in and around the bay. Residents in Klandasan Ulu subdistrict found the body of an Irrawaddy dolphin, an endangered species commonly found in Kalimantan river mouths.

House Commission VII deputy chairman Herman Khaeron from the Democratic Party, meanwhile, urged the company and authorities to completely clean up the spill. (kuk)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 14:28 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdcf0c3 1 National pertamina,oil-spill,#environment,Balikpapan,East-Kalimantan,crude-oil,environment Free

State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina continues to monitor the waters of Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan, to detect any remains of a recent oil spill.

Pertamina is concentrating on six areas of the bay in its cleanup: the jetty area, Semayang to Balikpapan Plaza, Kampung Atas Air to Kampung Ulu Baru, Penajam, Balikpapan Bay and Kariangau.

"Pertamina has three patrol boats in zones 1, 2 and 3," Kalimantan regional communication manager Yudy Nugraha said on Monday as quoted by Tempo.co. "Several boats are also on standby, consisting of seven tugboats, three barges and four aluminum boats."

On March 31, a burst undersea Pertamina pipe - connecting the company's Lawe-Lawe Terminal to its refinery in Balikpapan - caused an oil spill across 12,900 hectares of the bay. An ensuing fire resulted in the deaths of five people.

(Read also: Police question 22 witnesses in relation to Balikpapan oil spill)

Yudy claimed the Balikpapan waters appeared to be clean. "We still need to clean remaining layers of oil," he said. "We also need to clean oil-covered plants near residential areas."

Of the six locations, the jetty area was almost completely clean by Sunday, he said. "But we are still conducting patrols and cleaning the remaining pockets of oil and the thin layers."

According to Yudy, the waters and coastal areas in the Semayang-Balikpapan Plaza area looked clean. A film of oil remains in Kampung Atas Air while the Kariangau coast cleanup was in progress.

Pertamina claims that the Penajam and Balikpapan Bay areas have been clean since Friday. "However, boats will continue to patrol four times a day," Yudy said. (kmt/ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 10, 2018 16:13 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd6b92 1 City robbery,ATM-machine,shooting Free

West Jakarta Police have shot four suspected ATM thieves in Greater Jakarta on separate occasions.

The polices general crimes head, Adj. Comr. Rulian Sauri, said the four perpetrators had collected Rp 700 million (US$49,000) from 36 different locations.

The four perpetrators specialize in stealing from ATMs. They conduct their criminal activity in different areas and each have their specific roles. In this case, we shot their legs because they tried to fight us, Rulian said on Tuesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He added that the police had arrested the perpetrators in different locations and on different days in Penjaringan, North Jakarta; Tambora, West Jakarta; and Caringin village in Tangerang, Banten.

The first perpetrator, identified as Mulyadi, 40, and Rusdi Bawono, 37, were arrested on Friday in a hotel in Penjaringan. Police then arrested Firmansyah, 29, in Tambora on Saturday, which was followed by the arrest of Irfan Maulana, 39, in Tangerang on Sunday. All of them were shot in the leg. (wnd)
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Linkedin Carole Landry (Agence France-Presse) United Nations  Tue, April 10, 2018 09:21 1269 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdbede8 2 World Russia,US,United-Nations,Syria,chemical-attack Free

The UN Security Council could vote as early as Tuesday on rival US and Russian proposals to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting up a clash that could trigger vetoes of both measures, diplomats said.

The United States put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken soon on US military action.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told a closed-door Security Council meeting that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, even though Russia said it contained "some unacceptable elements."

Russia put forward its own proposal in January that has been rejected by Western powers who say it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory.

"The United States is pushing for a vote tomorrow," said a Security Council diplomat. "The US position was that they were negotiating in good faith, but the world is watching for the council to act."

There was no formal request for a vote, however, by early evening on Monday.

The US push for a new inquiry came amid heightened tensions over possible US military action in Syria, with Trump saying "major decisions" would be taken within 48 hours.

"From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following an emergency council meeting.

Trump -- who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base after sarin was used in the town of Khan Sheikhun -- warned after the latest accusations that there would be a "big price to pay."

Rescuers and medics in Douma say more than 40 people died after a "poisonous chlorine gas attack" late Saturday in the last rebel-held pocket of Eastern Ghouta.

- Grave repercussions -

At the council meeting, Nebenzia warned that a US military strike against Syria could have "grave repercussions" and stressed that the use of chlorine or sarin had not been confirmed in the attack.

Haley urged the council to take action, but warned that the United States was ready to respond, with or without the United Nations.

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley said.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria," she added.

"Either way, the United States will respond."

The Russian envoy said Moscow had told the United States that it would not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk.

"Armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions," Nebenzia said.

Moscow and Damascus have fiercely denied that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

- Bait for the Russians -

A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted and no vetoes from the five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Russia has used its veto power 11 times at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally.

"The US resolution is pretty obviously a bait for the Russians, who will have no choice but to veto it," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert from the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"That will give the US and possibly France an excuse for military action," said Gowan.

"All sides know what is going on, and the Russians have actually been predicting US military action over Ghouta for some time. We just have to hope that Moscow will not overreact when the strikes come."

Russia killed off a previous UN-led probe in November by vetoing the renewal of its mandate.

The United States is proposing to establish the new panel for one year to work with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks.
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Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, April 11, 2018 05:55 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdf1c44 2 National #environment,sea-turtles,raja-ampat,#RajaAmpat,Papua,#Papua,#WestPapua,West-Papua,environment,conservation,marine-plastic-debris,marine-pollution,#ClimateChange,climate-change Free

When the sea becomes thronged with jellyfish because of the absence of their predators, the endangered sea turtles, we will probably think twice before swimming. Yes, jellyfish do not go after humans, but they can sting divers and swimmers who have direct contact with the creatures.

This is not an impossible scenario, at least in the Bird's Head area, in West Papua, where the leatherback turtles, which are jellyfish predators, have become critically endangered.

The Bird's Head region is world-renowned as home to the scuba-diving destination of Raja Ampat. For critically endangered leatherbacks, locally known here as penyu belimbing, it is their last stronghold in the western Pacific.

Ricardo Tapilatu, head of the Research Center for Pacific Marine Resources at the University of Papua (Unipa), points to climate change as the main culprit for the decline in leatherback numbers.

It was announced in February that Ricardo had received a grant from the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, becoming one of the eight international fellows in 2018. Using the US$150,000 grant over a three-year project, he wants to study how climate change has affected the leatherback population in the Bird's Head area.

Read also: W. Kalimantan declares 'extraordinary event' over sea turtle deaths

"I think this is a great opportunity, because I have been doing the research for years. I know that climate change is one of the biggest problems," Ricardo told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview in Jakarta.

The Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation is part of the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the planet's most prestigious fellowships, which began in 1996, established by the children of Joseph N. Pew and his wife Mary Anderson Pew in their parents' honor.

Two Indonesians have previously been made Pew marine fellows in the past. Last year, Raymond Jakub, a marine scientist with Rare Indonesia, became a fellow for his tech-based, fish catch-recording project and in 2013, Meity Mongdong, now a senior manager of Conservation International Indonesia, was named for her project developing custom-based marine protection in the Bird's Head region.

Ricardo has been focusing for years on studying the leatherback. Prior to the Pew Award, he obtained multiple grants including from the Marine Turtle Conservation Funds (MTCF) and in 2013 a Marine Conservation Action Fund (MCAF) grant for his Bird's Head Leatherback Conservation Program.

"Combining my previous efforts with the current one [from Pew], we can at least learn something about what action we need to take to save the population," said Ricardo.

There has been a steep decline in leatherback numbers, estimated at 5.9 percent per year, amid threats to nest survival, which include predation by pigs and dogs, tidal inundation, erosion and extreme beach temperatures.

In his Pew-funded study, Ricardo will use a variety of sensors, including data loggers, to record sand and incubation temperatures on Jamursba Medi Beach, one of leatherbacks primary nesting beaches in the region.

The sex of leatherback hatchlings is determined by the incubation temperature. Rising beach temperatures may be affecting the hatching success and the sex ratio of new generations, potentially limiting the ability of populations to reproduce and recover.

"The goal is to produce more hatchlings with better fitness," said Ricardo, referring to his Pew-funded study.

Raja Ampat in West Papua. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

"There should be a balance between the number of females coming every year and the number of hatchlings they produce. The hatchlings will return to the nesting beach after 10 to 15 years."

In addition to satellite sensors and apart from the data logger, Ricardo will rely on weather stations to record important parameters related to global warming, such as air temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind direction and sun penetration.

"By using the combinations we can discover whether there is a problem associated with global warming," said Ricardo.

Ricardo said the benefits of his coming study would be enjoyed by future generations to get a sense of how vital marine resources are.

"I am quite old and I don't know whether my work will be worthwhile and I will only see the results after 20 or 25 years. But at least I have already initiated it," said Ricardo.

An earlier version of this article contains an error concerning Pew Charitable Trusts. The organization began in 1996 and was established by the children of Joseph N. Pew and Mary Anderson in their parents' honor.
Almost half the profit: PT Astra Agro Lestari president director Santosa (right) and the board of directors speak to journalists after the annual general shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday. The company gave out dividends to shareholders amounting to 45 percent of its net profit in 2017. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)(right) and the board of directors speak to journalists after the annual general shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday. The company gave out dividends to shareholders amounting to 45 percent of its net profit in 2017. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, April 11 2018

A group of foreign policy scholars embarked on a five-day visit to North Korea last week, aiming to get information and possibly fill a perception gap that exists between the socialist country and the outside world.



From Tuesday to Saturday last week, scholars and experts from several Asian countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as New Zealand, went on an unofficial outreach effort, which was initiated by Dino Patti Djalal, the founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia. Dino said the idea came to him at the end of 2017 when tensions had started to increase in the region. We thought, lets see as a non-governmental entity if we can initiate something that we can contribute, he told a seminar on Tuesday. The former Indonesian ambassador to the United States stressed that there were no government officials in the...
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Linkedin M Jegathesan (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Tue, April 10, 2018 13:52 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdcdf7a 2 SE Asia Malaysia,general-elections,politics Free

Malaysians will go to the polls next month, officials announced Tuesday, with the long-ruling and scandal-tainted ruling coalition facing one of its toughest ever challenges from veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power for six decades, has seen its popularity wane in recent years, a slide further compounded by a multi billion-dollar scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB.

Najib is still tipped to win due to BN's firm grip on Malaysia's weakened institutions, and what critics claim are efforts by the government to rig the election through gerrymandering and other forms of cheating.

But he faces a tough challenge from Mahathir, 92, who was Malaysian premier for over two decades but has come out of retirement to take on his former protege Najib at the head of the opposition.

The poll date announced by the election commission -- May 9 -- sparked fury among the opposition who claimed a weekday election was deliberately chosen to keep turnout low, favouring Najib.

It is the first time in almost 20 years that a Malaysian election has been set for a weekday.

"I am very, very angry," opposition candidate Maria Chin Abdullah told AFP. "This move by the election commission is obviously to ensure victory for the ruling party."

Najib is under pressure from allies in his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main coalition party, to score an emphatic victory after the government lost the popular vote in at the last election in 2013.

Voters had become increasingly disillusioned over recurring graft scandals, divisive racial politics in the multi-ethnic country, and the rising cost of living.

- Massive financial scandal -

The 1MDB scandal has only added to Najib's woes.

Billions of dollars were allegedly looted from the fund in an audacious campaign of fraud and money-laundering which is being investigated in several countries, and it is claimed that large sums ended up the personal bank accounts of Najib.

Najib, who has been prime minister since 2009, and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The 64-year-old has so far weathered the scandal by sacking critics in government and launching a crackdown that has seen opponents arrested on various charges.

His prospects at the election have been helped by a robust domestic economy while he has vowed to protect the country's Muslim majority, a key vote bank for BN.

As the polls approached, the government has taken steps critics say are desperate efforts to cling on to power -- the BN-dominated parliament voted to redraw constituency boundaries in a manner analysts say favours the ruling coalition.

MPs also voted in favour of a law banning "fake news" that could see offenders jailed for up to six years, which some fear could be used to crack down on dissent.

Victory is however less certain due to the comeback of Mahathir.

In a stunning volte-face, he was named the prime ministerial candidate in the opposition coalition Pact of Hope, which is filled with parties he crushed during his time in power.

Mahathir has long championed the Malay cause and the opposition hopes he can win over Muslim voters disillusioned with BN, to bolster their support base of urban voters and ethnic minorities, particularly the Chinese.

The government lost a two-thirds parliamentary majority, needed to amend the constitution, in the 222-seat parliament at the 2008 election and is hoping to win it back.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Hanoi  Tue, April 10, 2018 15:38 1268 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cdd5c1d 2 SE Asia Vietnam,subversion,activist-arrest,human-rights Free

A Vietnamese democracy activist was sentenced to 13 years in prison Tuesday for "attempting to overthrow the state", just days after six of his colleagues were also handed heavy jail terms in the one-party state.

Communist authorities have been accused of vigorously targeting critics over the past two years since a hardline administration took charge.

Amnesty International says at least 97 prisoners of conscience are behind bars, including pro-democracy and environmental activists, bloggers and rights lawyers.

Hanoi denies a coordinated crackdown.

The latest to be jailed is Nguyen Van Tuc, a 53-year-old member of the outlawed Brotherhood for Democracy activist group which says it has about 80 permanent members nationwide.

He was accused under Article 79 of the penal code of trying to topple the government.

"Tuc admitted he was a member of the Brotherhood for Democracy. He admitted he had been fighting for democracy, but denied his alleged attempt to overthrow the state," Tuc's lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan told AFP after a half-day trial in Thai Binh province east of Hanoi.

"The result of the trial was of course not what we wished," Tuan added.

Tuc was previously convicted for anti-state propaganda and sentenced to four years in prison after handing out political leaflets in 2008.

He has called for multi-party democracy and has been outspoken on maritime issues regarding Vietnam's claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Tuc's daughter Nguyen Thi Mai told AFP her father looked weak at Tuesday's trial and insisted he was not guilty.

"My father said he did nothing wrong, he only fought for democracy and justice, he did not commit any crime. He said he was innocent and I believe him," Mai said, as her mother wept nearby.

The verdict comes after six activists linked with Brotherhood for Democracy were sentenced last week at a high-profile trial held under heavy security in Hanoi.

The most prominent among them was lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who got 15 years in prison -- the harshest sentenced doled out to an activist in years -- while the remainder got between seven and 12 years.

The jail terms sparked outcry from the international community, including from the United States, the European Union, Britain and Germany, who issued harsh rebukes.

Independent civil society organizations, political parties and media are all banned in Vietnam.
The Tourism Ministry is set to participate in the 2018 Riyadh Travel Fair (RTF) in Saudi Arabia on April 10-13.

This year, Wonderful Indonesia is the Platinum sponsor of the fair. The ministry said in a press release that it would exhibit the South Sulawesi phinisi and Natural Wonders of Indonesia during the fair.

The Indonesian pavilion will also provide Saudi Arabian travelers with various information related to local tourism, including through a coffee corner, virtual reality corner and cultural performances.

Read also: Tourism Ministry targets Middle East market for summer vacation

The ministry had previously taken part in the Sales Mission Riyadh 2018 on Monday. The sales mission is reportedly focusing on business to business (B2B) activities as local travel agents offered travel packages to travel agents in Riyadh.

During these two events, the ministry introduced several popular destinations in the archipelago, namely Aceh, West Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara.

The activities were among the ministrys efforts to welcome 20 million foreign tourists by 2019. (jes/wng)
NYCHAs embattled chair, Shola Olatoye, is stepping down. [New York Times]

HSBC has lent CitizenM $82.5 million to refinance its new hotel at 189 Bowery. The 20-story hotel is scheduled to open this summer. [Commercial Observer]

Lobbyist James Capalino has agreed to a $40,000 settlement with the states ethics panel, in connection with his involvement in the mayors shuttered non-profit. One of the issues that came up during the panels investigation is Rivington House, the former Lower East Side nursing home. [Times Union]

Following news of the Capalino settlement, the Daily News editorial board writes, The mayor skates yet again Someone, please, hold the man who put the for sale sign on City Hall accountable. [Daily News]

Suraj Patel has now raked in $1.1 million to challenge U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents sections of the Lower East Side. [Washington Post]

Producer/actor Nev Schulman opens a combo matcha bar/art gallery on the Bowery. [Page Six]
Clearwater Beach was recently named the No. 1 beach in the USA, fighting off its close competitors in Miami.

Clearwater is quite a looker; white sand beaches, crystal blue waters, palm-lined walks, and a small-town atmosphere to boot.

Boasting its rare and eclectic species of marine life, its a perfect sea-lovers paradise. Its also steeped in history; the city of Clearwater is over 100 years old and boasts some of the best cultural activities in Florida.

Bypass Tampa, and dont even think about Hollywood Beach; head out for sun, sea, and serious fun at Clearwater.

1. Dolphin Cruise

As the home of the largest pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, the Gulf of Mexicos waters are the perfect place to hop aboard a sunshine cruise. Watch as dolphins flip and frolic in the shallow surf, all while sipping an ice-cold beer.

2. Marine Aquarium

At the opposite end of the spectrum to SeaWorld, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium invites experts and presenters to teach its visitors about the protection and rescue of our sacred marine life. See rescued dolphins, otters, sea turtles, and speak to the doctors at the working animal hospital.

3. Pier 60 Sunset Festival

The free festival takes place 365 days per year, meaning your chances of missing out are slim to nothing. Immerse yourself in a wonderful world of artisans, crafters, musicians and street performers, topped off with an Insta-worthy sunset.

Pop down on a Friday or Saturday evening to catch a free, outdoor movie on the grassy grounds near the entrance to the Pier. Dont forget a blanket and some snacks!

4. Sand Key Park

If youre looking for the archetypal beach experience, look no further than Sand Key Park. Lined with colourful beach cabanas, bathhouses, dog parks and marine life habitats, it offers visitors a whole host of beachside pleasures. If youre lucky, you might even spot endangered sea turtles laying their eggs in the warm, white sands.

5. Jolley Trolley

Image courtesy of Daniel Oines, via Flikr.

Clearwater offers stunning beachside walks, but I think we can do one better. The Jolley Trolley treks the coastal path of Clearwater, taking tourists on a unique, vintage adventure through all the top sites and scenery. Even better? It helps to reduce traffic congestion and puts an end to that horrible parking conundrum.

6. Clearwater Farmers Market

Get your fill of tropical goodies at Clearwaters famous farmers market. Showcasing the best of Floridas local produce, buy yourself some local baked goods, fresh fruit, salsa, honey and smoothies to keep fuelled during your beachside experience.

7. The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail

Feeling a bit more energetic? Why not venture down a historic old railway line named after former County Administrator Fred Marquis. The trial sweeps across Pinellas County from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg, and standing at just over 38 miles long, is best done on wheels.
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Vernest Griffin, 45, will have to wait until next week to get his day in court to answer to charges that he killed two people during a Feb. 1 crime spree that spanned Wayne and Oakland counties.

The case, which was supposed to have been heard April 9, is now pushed back to 2 p.m. April 16 at 23rd District Court in Taylor.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Griffin with first-degree premeditated murder, carjacking, armed robbery and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony for the incident at BSD Linehaul in Taylor, where Keith Kitchen, 60, was shot to death.

RELATED: Vernest Griffin has history of gun violence

Prosecutors allege Griffin entered the business, where he used to work, and fired an AK-47 several times at Kitchen. Griffin then allegedly carjacked a semi-truck from the company, drove to another of his former places of employment, Aluminum Blanking, Inc. in Pontiac, and allegedly fired the AK-47 at Eribo Perez, 58, as he sat at his desk. Perez was hit multiple times in the back and pronounced dead at the scene.

In Oakland County, Griffin was charged with one count each of premeditated murder and felonious assault, two counts of assault with intent to murder, and four counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the shootout he had with Waterford Township police following the two homicides.

He was charged separately in Wayne and Oakland counties and will face court in both counties. The Oakland County case is pending the outcome of a mental competence exam and is expected to move forward on May 22 in 50th District Court in Pontiac.

Griffins alleged planned killing spree came to an end at around noon Feb. 1 after two shootouts with Waterford Township police. Officers caught up with him after he allegedly showed up at a Waterford business, Assured Carriers, minutes after the Pontiac shooting, armed with the AK-47 and asked for the general manager. He left after the business went into lockdown and police were called.

Oakland County Sheriffs deputies found more than 200 bullets in the truck while searching it, leading them to believe he intended to kill more people had he not been captured.

Griffin also faces felony charges for an alleged prior assault on Kitchen. Griffin was out on bond pending a trial for brandishing a firearm in public, assault with a dangerous weapon and a felony firearm charge when he allegedly committed the more recent crimes.

Digital First Media Multimedia Journalist Aileen Wingblad contributed to this report.
When Hurricane Maria bore down upon Puerto Rico last September, island residents expected the damage to be bad, but few imagined just how devastating it would be.

The island territory is no stranger to hurricanes. They frequently carve a path of destruction through the islands of the Caribbean, but few are as powerful as Maria was, and much of Puerto Rico took a direct hit.

Maria was the strongest hurricane to strike the island in more than 80 years, destroying homes, roads and bridges.

But perhaps the hardest part of dealing with the aftermath was destruction of the power infrastructure. The hurricane knocked out power across the entire island, and it would be no easy fix to restore it.

To do so required the assistance of a multitude of utilities workers from the mainland, including those who work for DTE Energy.

On Jan. 22, DTE sent 80 employees including linemen, mechanics, safety and supply personnel, and others to the island to assist with recovery.

That team stayed for about 30 days, returning on Feb. 23. They were immediately replaced by a second wave of 80 employees that were sent to the island to continue the electric grid restoration effort. The second wave of employees returned April 3.

Among the employees who participated in the first wave were Charlie Crosby of Wyandotte, DTE corporate safety supervisor; and Lineman Eddie Castillo of Brownstown Township.

For both men, it was an experience they said theyll never forget.

Those who go on these assignments arent required by their company to do so. They step forward to willingly take on the challenge.

For Crosby, he did so out of empathy for the people of Puerto Rico.

I kept thinking what it must be like to have power out for five months, he said. If we go one or two weeks in Michigan, it turns your life upside down. They had no hope in sight.

As safety supervisor, it was Crosbys job to put a safety program together each morning, to conduct a briefing on what to expect that particular day.

We dont want to see anyone injured, he said.

The tropical environment presented a challenge, especially to employees from states like Michigan. In Puerto Rico, workers can encounter scorpions, snakes and poisonous plants.

There also was the temperature change to deal with. When DTE employees left Michigan in January, the temperature was 20 degrees or lower. When they arrived in Puerto Rico, the daily high temperature was between 85 and 90 degrees. Employees worked 16 hours per day, seven days a week. Staying hydrated was a top priority.

But being on an island so far from the mainland presented other challenges, as well.

We had to send trucks on a barge and it took 15 days to get there, Crosby said. Then supplies have to be brought to the island.

Once on Puerto Rico, trucks had to travel on small, one-lane roads to get to many of the job sites.

In Castillos estimation, the terrain was the biggest challenge. Some residents lived in extremely remote areas, so the DTE crew had major obstacles to overcome in order to restore their power.

Toward the end of the 30 days, we had three houses in the middle of the rainforest, Castillo said. It took us three days to restore those three houses. We had to go up in the mountains, trim trees and make access to the poles.

Like Crosby, Castillo said he volunteered for this assignment because he saw it as a humanitarian task.

Hearing in the news that the island was having so many issues, and people were out of power for such a long time, I just wanted to help, he said.

In addition to his skills as a lineman, Castillo was able to assist both his fellow workers, as well as the people of Puerto Rico, in another very important way. Being bilingual, he often was called upon to serve as a translator.

Having grown up in Mexico, Spanish was Castillos first language. After living in Michigan for 20 years, he doesnt speak it much anymore, but all that changed while he was in Puerto Rico.

Although Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, a majority of its residents speak Spanish. Castillo said that at some point in their lives, many Puerto Ricans have lived on the mainland for a period of time, so are familiar with English.

Crosby said many Puerto Ricans have at least a limited ability to speak English, but workers were told if possible, try to speak to them in Spanish.

After 30 days we were good at asking for what we needed, Crosby said. Ninety percent wanted us to attempt (speaking) the language.

Much of the work employees performed was outdoors, but occasionally there were issues inside houses.

Castillo recalled one instance after restoration work had been completed, some residents still didnt have power.

He went inside their homes to talk to them about it, learning they had bad breaker boxes that had become corroded from salt water. It was occasions such as this one where being bilingual was most helpful.

Castillo said its difficult to imagine the level of distress the Puerto Rican people were in during such a long period without electrical power.

Because roads were so narrow, not allowing for the passing of vehicles, at times during their work they had to close roads, which meant some people were unable to get home until they were reopened.

The DTE employees worked in the Carolina region, on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico.

We were on the tip of the island, Crosby said. In a bucket truck, you could see the ocean.

As beautiful as the area was, this was no vacation for the workers, and certainly not for the people of Puerto Rico. Crosby recalls missing attending a Superbowl party, which he does every year. He said they all talked about where they would be that day, if they were back home in Michigan.

Crosby and Castillo said they missed their families, but the experience was worth it for what they were able to help accomplish on the island.

When asked what they will most remember about their time in Puerto Rico, Crosby had this recollection:

The first day we turned on power, it was just getting dark, he said. A couple ran out of their house and started screaming and dancing, shouting I love DTE!. They didnt know they were going to get power. They were so happy and thankful, they threw parties.

Castillo said he was blown away by the camaraderie on the island.

We didnt know what to expect, but they were so thankful, Castillo said. They killed their own livestock to feed us. It was amazing.

He said he will most remember the hard work they put in, as well as the gratitude of the people after their power had been restored.

It was a really good experience, he said.
A very 95-year-old Stan Lee made his first appearance in months at Silicon Valley Comic Con.

Source: Uncle Rich's Rumor Rag

There's two types of people in the world: those that think Stan Lee invented comics and those that know who Jack Kirby is. Regardless of your position, comics as a whole is best known for not caring about those that came before. There's Bill Mantlo, co-creator of Rocket Raccoon. There's William Messner-Loebs, writer and artist on Wonder Woman and The Flash. There's Don Perlin, who co-created Moon Knight.

And then there's Stan Lee, the co-creator of a large stable of Marvel Comics characters. The 95-year-old made his first public appearance in months at Silicon Valley Comic Con over last weekend and he certainly looked his age, following a recent case of pneumonia. The formerly outgoing Lee was instead reserved as he was carted from signings to photo ops.

There's a remarked difference in Lee's personality from this year and just two years prior.

2018

2016

Fans took to Facebook to voice their concern for Lee only after making sure they got his signature for $120 a pop.

We gotta look out for each other. Excelsior.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 10 April 2018 - Intertrust N.V. ("Intertrust" or "Company") [Euronext: INTER], a leading global provider of high-value trust, corporate and fund services, today announces that it has repurchased 83,700 ordinary Intertrust shares at an average price of EUR 16.9263 per share in the period from 3 April 2018 up to and including 6 April 2018.

The aggregate consideration for this repurchase was EUR 1.42 million. This repurchase was made as part of the Company's share repurchase programme, which was announced on 13 November 2017.

The total number of shares repurchased under this programme up to and including 6 April 2018 is 2,335,771 shares for a total aggregate consideration of EUR 36.80 million.

Approximately 850,000 shares will be used for employee stock ownership and incentive plans vesting in 2018 and 2019, with the remainder of the repurchased shares to be cancelled (after approval by the general meeting of shareholders). Further details on the share repurchase transactions can be found on the Company's website.

This press release contains information which is to be made publicly available under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

For further information

Intertrust N.V. marieke.palstra@intertrustgroup.com

Marieke Palstra Tel: +31 20 577 1157

Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

About Intertrust

Intertrust is a leading global provider of high-value trust, corporate and fund services, with more than 2,500 employees located throughout a network of 39 offices in 28 jurisdictions across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle-East. The Company delivers high-quality, tailored services to its clients with a view to building long-term relationships. Intertrust's business services offering is comprised of corporate services, fund services, capital market services, and private wealth services. Intertrust has leading market positions in selected key geographic markets of its industry, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Jersey, and the Cayman Islands. Intertrust works with global law firms and accountancy firms, multi-national corporations, financial institutions, fund managers, high net worth individuals and family offices.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:05 am

Washington State Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida, will be back in North County this weekend as the lawmakers will have three town halls across the county on Saturday.

A release from the Washington State Republicans announced the legislators series of events which will have locations in Battle Ground, Ridgefield and Camas. Topics will include issues from the 2018 legislative session, which ended March 8, as well as other matters of interest to 18th District residents.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:06 am

Two Democratic challengers for U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutlers seat in the U.S. House of Representatives have upcoming town halls in Clark County.

On April 12, Carolyn Long is set to host a town hall from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Clark Colleges Gaiser Hall, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Information from the town hall event page states it is the first in a college tour, which will see Long, a college professor at Washington State University Vancouver, hosting town halls at college campuses across the district.

Two weeks later, Democratic challenger David McDevitt will host his own town hall.

On April 23 McDevitt will stop by the Battle Ground Community Library, 1207 SE 8th Way, Battle Ground from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., for what will be his 54th town hall since announcing his campaign.

Both candidates are challenging for the seat currently filled by Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground. A third Democrat, Iraq War combat veteran Dorothy Gasque, is also in the running.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:14 am

17 people, both students and staff, died at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February when a gunman walked into the school and opened fire.

Soon after, the Battle Ground Public Schools district office was hit with an influx of inquiries from parents hoping to find out what was being done to protect their own sons and daughters in the case of a mass shooting.

Superintendent Mark Ross, both in an email to parents and a column in The Reflector, addressed their concerns, which included a statement that if the bond had passed, funding would have gone toward replacing schools where security is most lacking, additional schools which would have up-to-date security infrastructure, and improved security in other manners around the whole district.

The bond is up for vote again at the end of this month. It first failed in the fall of 2016, and again last February  the day before the Parkland shooting happened. If it again fails to reach a super majority vote of 60 percent, the district cannot run it again in 2018.

Although detractors of the bond were quick to accuse Ross of using the shooting to stump for the bond, the improvements he addressed were put in place years ago when the minds behind the bond first identified security improvements as the top priority.

The bond is the brainchild of 15 residents of the district, making up the Facilities Improvement Team. Along with a group facilitator, every section of the district had two representatives, along with a representative from the Battle Ground Education Association, Principals Association, Administrative Support and Public School Employees.

When the Facilities Improvement Team formed and began planning in 2014, it was quickly apparent  mainly through survey data and face-to-face conversations  that above all else, district parents wanted the bond to fund security improvements.

That continues to be our number one concern, said Cathy Golik, a member of FIT and co-chair of the Battle Ground Citizens for Better Schools, during a recent discussion The Reflector had with six members of the team. Theres no other way to address the safety and security of each of these schools without replacing the schools that are most at risk.

Roger Jarvis, who said that security improvements were his number one motivator for working on the project after spending 32 years working for the Department of Defense, offered a similar sentiment.

Discussions about security are nothing new to them, he said, given that it was brought up at every meeting throughout the entire planning process.

Jarvis said his adamant views on safety improvements were not ignited by the Parkland shooting, but rather served as a reminder.

Theres a lot of people out there that will say, youre trying to scare people. Youre trying to use tactics to scare people. Well, maybe we need to be scared, he said. Dont tell me this cant happen here, because everywhere else its happened they say this is unbelievable, This couldnt have happened here. But it did. God forbid that it ever does, but we have to be prepared. If you dont have safety and security, nothing else is going to matter.

How the district plans to improve safety through the bond

Pleasant Valley schools, primary and middle, which share a campus, and Glenwood Heights Primary and Laurin Middle School, which also share a campus, would all be replaced. These schools were built between 1956 and 1975 and according to district staff, do not offer secure classroom access along with a number of other modern safety features. All four schools are also overpopulated.

Other schools around the district would see security improvements as well, including more security cameras, internal classroom locks, card-controlled entrances and perimeter fencing would be installed at Prairie High School.
Dublin, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Battery Monitoring System Market by Component (Hardware, Software), Type (Wired, Wireless), Battery Type (Lithium-Ion Based, Lead-Acid), End-User (Telecommunications, Automotive, Energy, Industries), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The battery monitoring system market is projected to reach USD 5.47 billion by 2022, from an estimated USD 2.37 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 18.23%, during the forecast period.



The need to prevent unplanned outages, increasing demand for electric vehicles, and improved operational efficiency of batteries have boosted the demand for battery monitoring systems. In addition, increasing renewable power generation and the growing use of battery monitoring systems in data center applications would further aid the growth of this market. The high costs of battery monitoring systems for larger battery solutions would act as a restraint for the battery monitoring system market.



The hardware segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing battery monitoring system market, by component, from 2017 to 2022. The growth of this segment can be attributed to simple installation, reduced need of cabling, and fast data sampling of components such as sensors, hub, and controllers. Asia Pacific and North America are the key markets for hardware due to the rising demand for monitoring the state of health and state of charge of batteries with the help of hardware components. All these factors are expected to drive the battery monitoring system market during the forecast period.



The wired segment is estimated to be the larger market for battery monitoring systems in 2017. Wired systems are used in applications where there is more electrical interference such as data centers, which is expected to be the largest end-user segment of battery monitoring systems.



North America is expected to be the largest market for battery monitoring systems in 2017, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. The market in North America is driven by rising electric vehicle sales, growing investments in data centers, and rising renewable power generation capacities in the region. It is projected to grow at the second-fastest rate during the forecast period. The US and Canada are estimated to be the largest markets for battery monitoring systems in the region.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Country

4.2 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Component

4.3 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Type

4.4 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Battery Type

4.5 Battery Monitoring System Market, By End-User

4.6 North America Battery Monitoring System Market, By Country and Battery Type



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Preventing Unplanned Outages

5.2.1.2 Increased Operational Efficiency of Batteries

5.2.1.3 Rising Demand for Electric Vehicles

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 High Cost of Battery Monitoring Systems for Larger Battery Solutions

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Rising Demand for Battery Monitoring Systems for Datacenter Applications

5.2.3.2 Increasing Renewable Power Generation

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Presence of A Large Number of Local and Regional Players



6 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Component

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Hardware

6.3 Software



7 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Wired Battery Monitoring System

7.3 Wireless Battery Monitoring System



8 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Battery Type

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Lithium-Ion Based Battery

8.3 Lead-Acid Battery

8.4 Others



9 Battery Monitoring System Market, By End-User

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Telecommunications

9.3 Energy

9.4 Automotive

9.5 Industries

9.6 Others



10 Battery Monitoring System Market, By Region



11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Ranking of Players Analysis

11.3 Competitive Scenario

11.3.1 Contracts & Agreements

11.3.2 New Product Launches

11.3.3 Investments & Expansions

11.3.4 Partnerships



12 Company Profiles



ABB

Batterydaq

Btech

Canara

Curtis

Eagle Eye

HBL

NDSL

Powershield

SBS

Schneider Electric

Socomec

Texas Instruments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/m5s23z/battery?w=12




Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:28 am

Battle Ground is asking city residents for input about the impact and use of fireworks around the Fourth of July as it reviews regulations.

Fireworks can currently be used during the week of Independence Day, June 28 through July 5, and for New Years celebrations, December 2731.

These parameters provide as much fireworks use as the state of Washington will allow, but city governments have the power to restrict them further if they so choose. Last year, following a 2015 vote by its city council, the city of Vancouver implemented a complete ban of fireworks within city limits.

When announcing the survey last week, city staff wrote that the goal was to better understand the use and impact of personal fireworks under current city of Battle Ground regulations.

The survey will run until 5 p.m., April 27. The Battle Ground City Council will receive the results at its May 7 council meeting.

The survey is available online at cityofbg.org/formcenter/fire-marshal-15/fireworks-survey-75

works-survey, or a hard copy can be picked up at the following locations:

 Battle Ground City Hall, 109 SW 1st Street

 Battle Ground Police Department, 507 SW 1st Street

 Battle Ground Fire Station, 505 SW 1st Street

 Battle Ground Community Center, 912 East Main Street.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:07 am

A retired professor from Camas is eyeing Jaime Herrera Beutlers seat in Congress as Earl Bowerman announced his decision to run for Washingtons 3rd Congressional District seat last week.

Bowerman, a retired agriculture professor whose tenure included work at Texas A&M and California State University, Fresno, announced both his candidacy as well as his first town hall meeting for April 24.

Regarding his decision to run, Bowerman said he's at the phase of his life where he can give back as a civil servant.

I think that we have basically three stages in our life. We collect our tools, we go about lifes work, and then we give back, Bowerman said. Thats where I am now.

The decision didnt come overnight  he recounted how in meeting with politicians  including Ronald Reagan before he became president  instilled in him a concept of political service.

I think we all have a civic responsibility to make some type of contribution to our political process, Bowerman said. Now that hes retired he has the opportunity, squaring off as the first Republican to challenge Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground.

Bowerman said that In the broad sense he supports the Trump Administrations agenda. He took issue with Herrera Beutlers own stance on the president, regarding past statements she had about not voting for Trump in 2016.

If our Congresswomans leadership had influenced more Republicans, than Hillary Clinton would be president, Bowerman said. He also took issue with what he perceived as Herrera Beutler being out of touch with constituents, noting her lack of in-person town hall meetings.

That perceived disconnect could be corrected with one of Bowermans biggest focuses in his campaign  term limits, he said. He mentioned he would introduce legislation allowing for states to make decisions on their own representatives term limits.

When a Congressperson is newly-elected, they are very much in tune with the people, Bowerman said. After about the third term they become part of the establishment and the focus is on special interests.

If she was really in touch with the citizens, she would have town halls, Bowerman remarked.

In a release announcing his campaign Bowerman touched on the importance of fiscal responsibility, a skill of which he said he has. He took issue with the incumbents vote on a massive omnibus spending bill recently, saying it was the opposite of what he would have done, instead suggesting breaking the bill down to better analyze its contents.

Overall, Bowerman feels he is the right candidate for those who want conservative leadership that will take civic responsibility seriously.

In general, Im a conservative, I support President Trump and his agenda. If that is something you are looking for, you would want to support Earl Bowerman, he remarked.

Bowerman is the only Republican currently challenging Herrera Beutler, though three Democrats are already campaigning to unseat the Representative: Washington State University Vancouver professor Carolyn Long, businessman and lawyer David McDevitt and Iraq War combat veteran Dorothy Gasque.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:10 am

A Vancouver man was arrested following an altercation involving a bow and arrow, Clark County Sheriffs Office reported last week.

On April 4 at about 8:30 p.m. Clark County Sheriffs deputies were sent to 7312 NE 128th Ave. on a report of a possible disturbance. The home owner and her adult daughter had fled the residence after being involved in an argument with her adult son, identified as Jeremy Prevost, 25, of Vancouver.

The adult daughter reported to deputies that during the argument, her brother picked up a compound bow with an arrow and pointed it at her while he was pulling back on the strings. She immediately closed a door that was between them before she and her mother then fled the scene fearing the suspect may deploy the arrow against them.

Deputies went to the address to contact the suspect. He refused to answer the front door, and was seen in the backyard on the patio. Deputies went into the back yard to speak with the suspect, but he had went back inside his house.

As deputies approached the open sliding glass door the suspect appeared in the opening and pointed a bow and arrow at them, pulled back and held in a ready shooting position.

Deputies retreated toward cover and began attempts to communicate with the suspect. After communications with the suspect were unsuccessful a search warrant was written, and served by the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team. The suspect was taken into custody for several counts of Assault II.

 Clark County Sheriffs Office
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:18 am

Washington State University Vancouver is looking to teach business leaders how to protect their company in the digital age with an upcoming Business Growth MAP Alliance forum from 8:30 to 10 a.m. April 18 at the Columbia Bank Community Room, 101 E. Sixth St., Vancouver.

Josh McKinney, CIO and Head of Security at Edge Networks, will discuss cyber security basics and simple things business owners can do to mitigate danger. McKinney, known for explaining complex technical concepts in a way that is easily understood, will break it down at the next forum. McKinney has been a leader in and around technology for nearly 20 years, working for top companies such as Nike, Lockheed Martin, UPS and the US Federal Government.

The forum is open to all. Register online at business.vancouver.wsu.edu/bgmap and click the link Upcoming events.

Cost is $10 per person in advance or $15 per person at the door. There is no cost for students with a valid WSU student ID.

The Business Growth MAP Alliance brings together small businesses and entrepreneurs to learn from each other, industry experts and WSU Vancouver faculty.

 WSU Vancouver
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:18 am

Former state lawmaker Jim Moeller recently announced his intent to run for county government as he plans to seek the District 1 seat in the election this November.

Moeller, a Democrat, announced his decision to run for the seat during a breakfast hosted by the Labor Round Table of Southwest Washington.

The 62-year-old former chemical dependency counselor with Kaiser Permanente is aiming for arguably the most urban of the districts, including much of Vancouver and the citys urban growth boundary.

Moeller has previously served as both Vancouver City Councilor and in the Washington State House of Representatives. He served seven terms total in Olympia, which included the role of House Speaker Pro Tempore from 2010 until his last year in office in 2016.

It was in 2016 that Moeller looked toward U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutlers seat in Congress, running unsuccessfully against the Republican in that years general election. It would not prove to be his last foray into politics as his eyeing of County Council confirms.

I love it here, and Im not done, Moeller remarked when speaking with The Reflector last week.

Chief policy issues of interest for Moeller are the marijuana industry in Clark County and transportation, along with issues at the county jail.

The county has banned marijuana businesses in unincorporated Clark County since 2014, the year that it became legal in Washington State. Moeller would like to see that prohibition removed, which would allow for more tax revenue from sales.

On transportation, Moellers response was simple  We need a bridge. He said he would be in favor of replacing the aging Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River, though he did acknowledge the past failings of state government to move forward on the Columbia River Crossing (CRC), a contentious plan that sought to modernize the bridge but was essentially killed by Washington state legislators.

That doesnt mean the CRC; it means whatever is appropriate now, Moeller said, explaining that he could use some of the relationships made from his experience as state legislator working with Oregon counterparts to help bring the state to the south to the table on bridge replacement.

Moeller is eyeing the seat currently occupied by Jeanne Stewart, a Republican.

As of publication time, Stewart had not announced a re-election run, with Moeller saying he personally hadnt heard any word from the councilor on the issue. Stewart had been elected as an at-large Clark County Commissioner in 2014, becoming a councilor with the adoption of the countys home rule charter.

As to what would make him win, Moeller said his history as a state and city lawmaker would be an asset for him to take District 1.

I have the experience, number one he said, adding that many of the people hes likely to encounter out in the community while campaigning will recognize him from previous campaigns in state and city government.

Currently Moeller is the only Democrat seeking a seat on the Clark County Council, which is made up of solely Republicans save Council Chair Marc Boldt, a former Republican, who does not claim a party affiliation in his current position. To Moeller, the Republican lean needs to change.

There has to be a Democrat on council. Either Im going to be it or somebody else, Moeller remarked.
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 4:43 am

At the Feb. ODOT no-Value Tolling Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting, there were amazing developments citizens must know.

There were eight initial proposals offered, narrowed down to five by ODOT staff. There are basically four options going forward for further evaluation.

One of those options is to toll all lanes of both I-5 and I-205. If implemented, Portland would be the only place in the country to implement tolling on all lanes of an existing interstate.

The staff described the current traffic situation as hyper congestion. He also used the word severe.

Incredibly, members of the tolling committee were not offered information on the price or price ranges of tolls, the amounts that might be collected from each option, before the choices were narrowed.

Incredibly, members of the tolling committee were not offered information on traffic diversion impacts for each option, before the choices were narrowed.

The alleged purpose is to force people off the interstates. People will divert to alternate side roads to avoid the tolls. And yet no information was provided about traffic diversion before the eight choices were narrowed.

One PAC member shared there are already 50,000 vehicles presently diverting due to the horrible congestion. Any new traffic diversion will only make things worse. It increasingly becomes a safety issue for neighborhoods and communities.

Mayor Ann Ogle shared one option that is moving forward, had 5 failures in the internal data. Why would an option with that many failures go forward?

Incredibly, part of the answer was that the staff and outside experts said they didnt believe the model, for that part of the evaluation. Well if one part of the model is delivering unbelievable data or outputs, then why isnt the entire evaluation model suspect?

Incredibly, there was no ranking of each option by the 25 tolling committee members. At the end, there was no vote affirming or rejecting the 5 projects ODOT staff recommended to move forward. Several PAC members asked for other options to be included in the next phase. They were ignored.

One sadly dropped from consideration, was build a new lane in each direction on both I-5 and I-205, and toll just the new lanes. The initial indications showed this option had the best impact on congestion. It likely had the least traffic diversion and would ultimately reduce the 50,000 vehicles presently diverting.

Incredibly, it was dismissed due to the alleged cost of building that many miles of freeway lanes. But when the staff and experts were asked, what is the cost so we can evaluate it, and share it with constituents, they were not given the information. The staff never created costing models. The common sense solution was dismissed by staff, due to an unknown cost.

Ultimately, there is no value in Oregons value pricing tolling scheme. Sadly, with no votes to affirm or reject any of the staff options by the advisory committee, it demonstrates the entire process is controlled by unelected bureaucrats.

President Trump or Congress must kill it.
After Lindsey Buckingham's decision to leave Fleetwood Mac, Neil Finn was chosen to appear in the band's touring lineup.

Many people were surprised by the replacement but the decision to pick Neil was partly due to Mick Fleetwood and Neil Finn being close friends for years.

In 2016 Fleetwood called Finn a 'new music friend' and both of the musicians took part in the recent Concert for Our Lives.

Fleetwood also sat in with Finn on a cover of the Crowded House hit 'Don't Dream it's Over'.

Fleetwood mentioned he was a fan of Crowded House as far back as 1989, and the group later got Crowded House producer Mitchell Froom to oversee three of the four cuts on Fleetwood Mac's 2013 Extended Play EP.

Fleetwood travelled to New Zealand in 2016 for a studio collaboration.

"Fleetwood Mac has always been about an amazing collection of songs that are performed with a unique blend of talents, Fleetwood told Variety. We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked and let the band realize that this is the right combination to go forward with in Fleetwood Mac style. We know we have something new, yet its got the unmistakable Mac sound."

Source: Ultimate Classic Rock
Octopus VCT 4 plc

10 April 2018

Company Secretary Change

Octopus VCT 4 plc announces the resignation of Nicola Board as Company Secretary and the appointment of Dawn Noel as Company Secretary with effect from 9 April 2018.

For further information please contact:

Dawn Noel

Company Secretary

020 3935 3500
Sellbyville, Delaware , April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Global Artificial Lift Systems Market is expected to surpass USD 14 billion by 2024; as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc. Increasing number of marginal and stripper wells coupled with the rising demand of crude oil will drive the artificial lift systems market size. In the U.S., the Energy Information Administration estimated around 380,000 stripper wells compared with about 90,000 non-stripper wells in 2015. As per the Artificial Lift R&D Council, around 80% of the wells in the U.S. are stripper wells, with majority of them installed with sucker rod pump.

The U.S. artificial lift systems market was valued over USD 3 billion in 2017. Ongoing E&P spending coupled with increasing shale exploration will enhance the business growth. As per the EIA, 44 onshore oil companies have increased its capital expenditure by 72% between 2016 and 2015 in the country. The U.S. DOE has estimated 89 BBL of untapped oil across onshore wells, which will further enhance the product adoption.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/404

Offshore artificial lift systems market will witness a strong growth owing to the ongoing expansion of deep-water projects. In 2018, the U.S. Federal Government has unveiled five-year plan which includes expansion plans of offshore drilling, targeting Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. Abundant resource availability coupled with increased offshore investments will further complement the industry outlook.

Hydraulic pump ALS market is projected to witness gain of 5% by 2024. Ability to reduce the resistance coupled with less work requirement of downhole pump will augment the industry growth. These pumps can be circulated out of the hole for repair with minimum intervention cost, which will further boost the product penetration.

Browse key industry insights spread across 230 pages with 253 market data tables & 39 figures & charts from the report, Artificial Lift Systems Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/artificial-lift-systems-market-report

Operators focus toward unconventional wells to meet the growing demand of crude oil will propel the global artificial lift systems market share. Ongoing government plans and strategies to boost crude production along with increasing number of mature fields will further stimulate the deployment of these systems. In 2018, the Government of Iraq announced its target to produce 7 million bpd of crude by 2022.

Technology advancements to provide cost effective solutions for low-rate liquid-loaded gas and gas-lifted oil wells will complement the gas lift systems market growth. Innovations including the development of smart gas lift systems to offer rig-less installation, minimized manual intervention, reduced OPEX, increased visibility & data logging, decreased flowline backpressure and multi-well control will further encourage the product adoption.

Growing primary energy consumption coupled with escalating focus toward sustainable resources to extract crude oil and gas will foster the Iran artificial lift systems market. As per the British Petroleum in 2016, the primary energy consumption of the country increased to 266.5 Million tonnes oil equivalent, when compared with 237.4 in 2013.

Key players operating across the ALS market include Schlumberger, General Electric, Halliburton, Borets Co. LLC, Weatherford, JJ Tech, National Oilwell Varco, Dover Corporation, BCP Group, NOVOMET, Aker Solutions, and Occidental Petroleum.

Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/404

Browse Related Reports:

Levant Power Cable Market Size 2017  2024

Levant Power Cable Market size for 2016 was valued over USD 3 billion and is set to witness gain over 8% by 2024. Growing investments towards infrastructure development among war affected countries including Syria and Iraq will drive the levant power cable market trends.

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/levant-power-cable-market

Ring Main Unit Market Size 2017  2024

Ring Main Unit Market share for 2016 was valued over USD 1.5 billion and the annual installation is set to exceed 400 000 units by 2024. Rising infrastructural spending favoured by ongoing regulatory reforms pertaining to expansion and refurbishment of grid networks will augment the ring main unit market trends.



https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/ring-main-unit-market

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.
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FT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE--PotNetwork Holding, Inc. (OTC Pink:POTN) On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. announced record breaking sales performance for March 2018. With over $2.2 million in sales revenue recorded across the month, the company has posted a 152% year over year increase when compared with March 2017.



With over $6.3 million in revenues recorded for Q1 of 2018, PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. is well on track to exceed its performance in 2017. The company recently announced the release of audited consolidated financial statements reporting 2017 sales of $14.5 million, with gross profits of $5,180,865, and, despite making large reinvestments in its future growth, positive net income of $178,918.

The company's wholly owned subsidiary, Diamond CBD, Inc. has been aggressively exploring new business development opportunities. In March 2018, the company presented its products at the high profile industry leading trade shows ASD Market Week and Global Pet Expo.

As a provider of the highest quality CBD hemp oil products, Diamond CBD, Inc. continues to attract new customers in verticals such as petcare products which are allowing the brand to differentiate itself in the market.

In 2017, American pet owners spent more than $69.36 billion on their pets. Of that number, nearly $15 million was spent on over-the-counter health and wellness products in the same category as Diamond CBD, Inc.'s recently released "MediPets" product line.

Between April 17 and 27, 2018, Diamond CBD, Inc. is launching an African business development project by contributing material support and resources towards community action projects taking place across Kenya.

Diamond CBD, Inc.'s efforts in Kenya align the brand's corporate culture with values of corporate social responsibility and service to the community.



Recently, the Company launched its first international charity event in Manila, Philippines. Co-sponsored by Diamond CBD, Inc.'s marketing partner, XPO2, this charitable event offered over 100 at-risk children and adolescents hundreds of items of food as well as critical supplies such as soap, clothing and blankets.

Diamond CBD, Inc. is dedicated to offering financial returns to investors as well as measurable benefits to society and the local environment in which the business operates.

About Diamond CBD, Inc. : Diamond CBD focuses on the research, development, and multinational marketing of premium hemp extracts that contain a broad range of cannabinoids and natural hemp derivatives. Diamond CBD's team consists of hemp industry pioneers and natural product experts, chemists, doctors and scientists, dedicated to producing the finest and purest cannabidiol (CBD) oils. The result is a robust selection considered among the most powerful natural CBD oils, tinctures, edibles, and vape liquids found anywhere. For more information, please visit its website at www.DiamondCBD.com.

About PotNetwork Holdings, Inc : PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. (OTC Pink:POTN) is a publicly traded company that acts as a holding company for its subsidiary, First Capital Venture Co., the owner of Diamond CBD, Inc., the maker of Diamond CBD oils.

Safe Harbor Act: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact: PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. Investor Relations:

Marisol Elwell, 1-800-915-3060 investor@PotNetworkHolding.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7902da34-3c33-4b17-9c35-8402e34224be
Zoe Recruitment is an HRconsultancy company that exists to contribute to the transformation ofproductivity and work ethic, by linking talent to business/organizations, andplacing people right. At Zoe we believe this then forms the foundation forsustainable business and on a larger scale, economic growth.
Job Title: Senior Data Management

Assistant

Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: 10019442

Vacancy Notice: 024/2018

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Post Grade: GL5

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.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Enter data mainly

related to asylum seekers, refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR

into the computer database.

Prepare reports and

project documents by providing information, preparing tables and drafting

routine correspondence and reports.

Offer support in the

compilation of data and interpreting the statistics for various reports.

Assist in the

development of forms for data collection and analysis, if requested.

Act as interpreter in

the exchange of routine information and translate routine documents and

correspondence as and when required.

May be required to

collect GIS data, update maps and undertake field trips to project sites.

Perform any other

duty, as requested.

Key Performance Indicators: The Office has reliable and

up-to-date data on persons of concern.







Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate

for the United Nations UNHCR Senior Data Management Assistant job

placement should have completed secondary education with post-secondary

training/certificate in Electronic Data Processing, Information Technology

or related field.

At least five years of

previous job experience relevant to the function.

Fluency in English and

working knowledge of another relevant UN language or local languages

(Lugbara, Madi, Aringa)

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: 11th April 2018
PETALUMA, Calif. and BENGALURU, INDIA, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calix (NYSE:CALX) today announced a strategic multi-year partnership with Infosys (NYSE:INFY) that will accelerate communications service provider (CSP) adoption of AXOS, its Software Defined Access (SDA) platform. Calix and Infosys will jointly invest to co-create new services and value-added offerings on the award winning AXOS platform. By reducing time-to-market for new AXOS capabilities and greatly broadening AXOS offerings, the partnership will enable service providers to accelerate deployments of next generation access networks that will dramatically reduce their operating costs and enable them to deploy new services at a rapid pace.

To have a global technology leader like Infosys be our first co-creation partner is an honor and it speaks directly to the dramatic leverage our customers get when they deploy the AXOS platform. Infosys shares our vision for the future of the universal, unified access network and understands the value of a collaborative, standards-based and open approach to innovation, said Carl Russo, President and CEO at Calix. Our journey to create the worlds only Software Defined Access platform has been challenging and exciting. This is the next major step in that journey.

Calix has pursued the vision of the unified access network for a decade, and AXOS delivers on the promise of the software defined network. With AXOS, any CSP can deliver all services on a single, elastic network that is always on. Because AXOS is a standards-based, modular software platform, Calix is creating a vibrant ecosystem that will rapidly extend and expand the capabilities that are available to CSPs via the platform.

The digital revolution, driven by the proliferation of devices and hyper connectivity, has forced nearly every organization to reassess their core business and operating models, said Ravi Kumar, President and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Infosys. The rapid digitization of business processes has also opened up new opportunities for organizations to innovate and create new products and services that address unmet customer needs. We are evolving our business model by partnering with innovators such as Calix, that can leverage our market scale, unparalleled expertise, and deployment capabilities to help our customers digitize their businesses. For our CSP customers, we will extend the capabilities of AXOS to help them remain essential to their subscribers. Ultimately, our goal is to help them transform their access and subscriber networks, evolve their business models and generate entirely new revenue streams.

Through this partnership, Infosys will develop and deliver new software modules for the AXOS platform. With these new capabilities, service providers can reduce the cost of operating their networks, improve network intelligence and deliver improved subscriber experiences. The fully abstracted, modular, standards-based architecture of the AXOS platform makes it an ideal innovation platform for technology leaders who want to deliver break-through capabilities to CSPs.

"Over 200 Calix customers have already deployed AXOS - from relatively small regional service providers to Verizon, one of the world's largest and most innovative service providers, said Michel Langlois, Senior Vice President, Products and Strategy at Calix. Infosys is one of the largest and most capable software development firms in the world. By embracing the AXOS platform, they are dramatically increasing the resources that are developing new capabilities on the platform. This agreement represents a significant enhancement to the ecosystem enabling our customers to achieve their transformation objectives."

About Calix

Calix, Inc. (NYSE:CALX) - Innovative communications service providers rely on Calix platforms to help them master and monetize the complex infrastructure between their subscribers and the cloud. Calix is the leading global provider of the cloud and software platforms, systems, and services required to deliver the unified access network and smart premises of tomorrow. Our platforms and services help our customers build next generation networks by embracing a DevOps operating model, optimize the subscriber experience by leveraging big data analytics and turn the complexity of the smart home and business into new revenue streams.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are based upon management's current expectations and are inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this release, and we assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance after the date of this release, except as required by law. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from current expectations based on risks and uncertainties affecting Calixs business. The reader is cautioned not to rely on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information on potential factors that could affect Calix's results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov.

About Infosys Ltd.

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE:INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

Press Inquiries:

Neila Matheny

707-766-3512

Neila.matheny@calix.com
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday that 225 members of the states National Guard were heading to the U.S.-Mexico border to support President Donald Trumps call for troops to fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

More of the states Guard members will be deployed on Tuesday, said Ducey, a Republican.

The Arizona troops were being sent after Texas announced Friday it would send 250 National Guard members and helicopters took the first of them to the border.

Trump said last week he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border.

New Mexicos Republican governor has said her state would take part in the operation but no announcement has been made on deployment. California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said if the states Guard members will participate.

Trump has said he wants to use the military at the border until progress is made on his proposed border wall, which has mostly stalled in Congress.

Defense Secretary James Mattis last Friday approved paying for up to 4,000 National Guard personnel from the Pentagon budget through the end of September.

A Defense Department memo said the National Guard members will not perform law enforcement functions or interact with migrants or other persons detained without Mattiss approval.

It said arming will be limited to circumstances that might require self-defense but did not further define that.

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes part of West Texas and all of New Mexico said Monday he met with leaders of the New Mexico National Guard to begin discussions about what will be required and their capabilities.

El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull says those troops are nowhere near deploying yet.

The New Mexico Guard members could help with air support, surveillance and infrastructure repairs, Hull said.

Hull says the troops could help with air support, surveillance and repairs of infrastructure along the border.

Browns spokesman, Evan Westrup, said Monday that California is still reviewing Trumps request for use of the states National Guard members.

California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Keegan said last week that any request will be promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners.

After plunging at the start of Trumps presidency, the numbers of migrants apprehended at the southwest border have started to rise in line with historical trends.

The Border Patrol said it caught around 50,000 people in March, more than three times the number in March 2017.

Thats erased a decline for which Trump repeatedly took credit. Border apprehensions still remain well below the numbers when former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the border.

(AP)
You may be wondering, where did Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner spend Pesach?

Turns out it was in the great state of Wyoming!

This just landed at the Cheyenne Regional Airport, the citys mayor, Marian Orr, tweeted.

Her tweet itself contained a photograph of a Trump-branded Boeing 757 on a tarmac, backed by a nearly cloudless sky.

Mayor Orr would later break the news to KGWN, a local TV station, that it was actually the Kushner family on the plane, which is owned by Donald Trump.

This just landed at Cheyenne Regional Airport. pic.twitter.com/zXEe5f9Cno  Mayor Marian Orr (@gofishwyo) March 30, 2018

While the extended Trump family spent the Easter holiday at Mar-a-Lago, Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, and about two dozen members of the Kushner tribe landed in Cheyenne.

According to Orr, they took a private escort to Saratoga, (population: 1,686) a pastoral town in Carbon County, where they would stay for about a week.

The plane would stay on the tarmac all week, and it became a spectacle for the locals, whos town no longer has air service.

Cheyenne Mayor Orr even got a special tour inside and posted photos to twitter.

Welcome to Cheyenne, WY @POTUS family. Im no Melania or Ivanka navigating those stairs  what a fun treat to tour the plane. Enjoy your stay in our state! pic.twitter.com/3J4MMqYzQK  Mayor Marian Orr (@gofishwyo) March 30, 2018

(Nat Golden  YWN)
Police in Waterbury are investigating vandalism at Fulton Park.

Officials say swastikas painted in red were discovered at the park.

Sources say police are on the scene and the Parks Department is cleaning up the vandalism.

The Waterbury Police Department released a statement on the incident which reads, in part, The incident is currently under investigation with no leads at this time.

The Historic Overlook Community Club in the city released a statement condemning the act of vandalism. The club says it insults their members and all members of the Waterbury community.

The Historic Community also thanks the citys parks department employees who are working to remove the vandlism.

Officials are asking that anyone with information as to who vandalized the park is urged to call the Waterbury Police Department at (203)-755-1234 or Community Relations at (203)-574-6962. They say reports can be made anonymously.

Source: News 8
Following last Fridays violent confrontations between Gazans and Israeli security forces along the Gaza border, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman was hesitant and unwilling to accept claims that Yasser Murtaja, who was among those killed, was simply a well-known media correspondent.

Lieberman stated Israel is not aware of this, adding a probe must be launched but it is entirely possible the dead journalist is nothing more than a Hamas terrorist.

Hamas was quick to portray Murtaja as a well known area journalist, insisting he was killed while filing the clashes. The international media quickly ran with the claim.

Walla News has since quoted Israeli security officials confirming the dead journalist was indeed a long-time Hamas-affiliate, who attained high standing in the terrorist organization.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman provided no evidence to back up the claim.

Defense Minister @AvigdorLiberman: The photographer (#YasserMurtaja) was a terrorist with a prior association w/ the military wing of Hamas. He held the rank of captain & was paid regularly by Hamas since 2011. He used to fly drones to collect intel on IDF forces at the front. pic.twitter.com/zGLfDdYzpr  Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) April 10, 2018

Yasser Murtaja died from a gunshot wound while filming a mass demonstration near the fence with Israel on Friday in an area engulfed in thick black smoke from Palestinians setting tires on fire.

Murtaja was shot while carrying a video camera and wearing a flak jacket marked with the word press.

Hamas has called for Palestinians to amass at the border as part of a weekslong campaign of protests against a decade-old Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the territory. It also has suggested that it may attempt a mass border breach.

Israel is closely guarding the fence and has warned it will not tolerate attempts to breach it. Twenty-six protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded since the protests began March 30. Israel says it has only fired at instigators trying to carry out attacks.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Lieberman said that Murtaja was a terrorist who had been on the Hamas payroll since 2011. He said Murtaja had used a drone to collect intelligence on Israeli forces along the border.

This is a member of the military arm of Hamas who holds a rank parallel to that of captain, who was active in Hamas for many years, Lieberman said. Once again we see how Hamas uses the media, ambulances and patients, including cancer patients who are sent to hospitals in Israel, to carry out terrorist missions.

Lieberman provided no evidence to support his allegations. Israels military said it is still investigating and was not able to confirm Liebermans claims.

Murtaja, 30, was the co-founder of Ain Media, a local TV production company that has done projects, including aerial drone filming, for foreign media clients such as the BBC and Al-Jazeera English.

The State Department said Tuesday that the media production company had recently received an $11,700 grant from the U.S. government. Ain Media became a USAID program beneficiary last month under a program that supports private sector development. The State Department said the grant was still in its early stages, and no equipment or technical assistance has been provided.

It said the grant was vetted according to strict U.S. government requirements of USAID-funded assistance.

Murtaja had been hired to begin work for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major international aid organization. The group released footage showing what it described as his last work. He died two days before he was to start his new job.

The footage, taken at a protest a week earlier, shows several aerial shots of tires being set on fire near the border fence, wounded protesters being rushed to medical tents as well as other shots, apparently taken from the ground, of an Israeli tank and Israeli troops off in the distance.

The NRCs secretary-general, Jan Egeland, called Murtajas death heartbreaking, and has called for accountability for the shooting of an innocent civilian.

In Gaza, Murtajas brother, Mutasem, angrily denied Liebermans claims.

He spreads lies to get himself out of the impasse, he said. Yasser was filming the protests with simple cameras to show they are peaceful.

At the funeral Saturday, Murtajas body was draped in a Palestinian flag with his flak jacket reading press placed upon it as it was carried through the streets of Gaza.

Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, attended the funeral in a sign of respect. But no gunmen were visible at the ceremony, as is common when members of militant groups are buried.

Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israels destruction, has called for the protests to continue until May 15, the anniversary of Israels founding, when Palestinians commemorate their displacement during the 1948 war over Israels creation.

Hamas hopes the protests can create pressure to break a border blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when Hamas took over Gaza, without the militant group being forced to disarm.

Israel has accused Hamas of using the recent protests as a cover for carrying out attacks and trying to infiltrate Israel. It has said some of those at the border tried to damage the fence, planted explosives or hurled fire bombs. The army says it uses live fire as a last resort, and only on attackers.

Also Tuesday, Israel released the results of an investigation into video footage in which soldiers are heard cheering as a sniper shoots a Palestinian along the border.

The army said the video was not from the recent unrest, and was taken in December when protesters allegedly tried to damage the border fence.

The video, apparently taken from a sniper position, appears to show a soldier shooting a Palestinian near the fence. Other soldiers are heard cursing the man and then cheering when he falls.

The military said the man was a main instigator in the clashes and was shot in the leg and wounded after ignoring warning shots and calls to halt.

The statement said the footage was not filmed by the Israeli sharpshooter but by a soldier from a different unit.

It condemned the filming of the incident and the statements the soldiers made. It said the troops behavior does not reflect the armys values and they will be dealt with accordingly, without elaborating.

Gazans are being called to report to the border fence this coming erev Shabbos too, for an even large event that seen in previous weeks. Last week, officials estimated there were some 30,000 Gazans participating.

(AP / YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Fund firms could be forced to deliver 'wealth warnings' about charges in future, after City watchdogs tested the effectiveness of alerts on hundreds of investors.

Savers are more likely to buy cheaper funds when investment costs are explained better and more fully than they typically are now, their new study found.

A battery of tests looked at whether a standalone warning banner, a chart showing how charges drag on returns, a comparison with rival fund fees, and a rundown of costs just before purchase, would prompt investors to choose a cheaper fund.

Wealth warning: More than one thousand investors took part in tests to find out if new alerts and messages about charges would work

In all the above cases, people were more likely to select cheaper funds - while still taking into account other important factors such as performance and risk - than when they only got the limited information fund managers reveal at present.

New watchdog rules have already forced fund firms to start disclosing single, all-in fees in pounds and pence at a bare minimum, in an attempt to make investing costs more transparent. Fund providers will also start having to prove they are offering clients value for money under a tougher regime from next year.

But the Financial Conduct Authority's latest research suggests it could go a step further in future, and compel fund firms to display more prominent and useful messages about charges.

For now, the watchdog said firms should consider its new findings when thinking about how their charges disclosures are working.

But it plans to feed the results into its current study of DIY investing platforms, and said it would 'consider changing rules and guidance to mandate certain forms of disclosure' in light of them.

What happened when investors were given alerts and fuller messages about fund charges?

More than one thousand investors took part in tests on a mock online investing platform, which was made to look as much like the real thing as possible. See the picture below for what the web page looked like.

How was mock investing site created? 'We designed the experimental environment carefully to make sure that it replicated the most important features of online investment platforms as closely as possible,' said the FCA report. 'This included the information provided, how participants could navigate through it and its general look and feel. We created mock-up pages which we tested in our focus groups and pilot. 'This ensured they were as similar to investors expectations as possible and that they captured all the information which investors would require to make an investment decision. 'In total we created 90 fund sets which participants were randomly allocated to in each of the three choice experiment rounds. The order of the funds was also randomised to prevent participants being able to identify any patterns and to control for any ordering effects. 'We also used fictitious fund names to avoid associations with popular brands and randomly allocated these to funds.'

The investors involved were the financial decision-makers in their households, had invested in an actively-managed investment fund before, and had at least 10,000 of assets available to invest, but they had not paid to use a financial adviser.

The mock investing platform offered six fictional funds, with charges displayed to mimic the way they usually are now on DIY platforms and fund provider sites.

Annual performance for the last five years and risk categorisation was also given, and you could read further fund details by opening pop-ups.

The pop-ups contained two pages of detailed information including fund objectives, asset allocation, and a table showing a breakdown of costs and charges in both pounds and pence and as a percentage.

The investors were divided into five groups, who were all shown the mock site and asked to pick one fund to invest in during the tests.

But one group only saw the basic site, while four other groups were given different information and messages about fund charges during the process.

Immediately afterwards, the FCA surveyed everyone to find out what impact the various tests had on people's awareness and understanding of fund charges and their importance.

1) Control group: This cohort was only shown the mock site below, which was meant to simulate how charges are shown now, and asked to pick a fund from those available.

Mock investing site: All investors were shown a simulated online platform and a range of fictitious funds

2) Warning: Investors were given a warning reminding them to check how much they were paying and that charges can have a significant impact on their returns. It appeared at the top of the page containing the six funds. See what it looked like below.

3) Warning and impact chart: This group saw the same warning as above, as well as a graph illustrating the impact of a small difference in charges on net returns over time.

'The impact of compounding of fees over time is an important factor which many investors may not understand or consider in their investment decisions,' said the FCA. See below.

4) Warning and comparator chart: Investors could see a chart comparing a funds charges to others in the same asset class when they opened a pop-up page.

'We designed this treatment to help participants understand how each funds charge compared to others in the same asset class. They could also easily identify if a funds charge was more or less expensive than average.' said the FCA. See below.

5) Warning and review screen: Once investors had selected a fund, a summary of its costs and charges as well as the comparator chart in 4) appeared. They could then either confirm their choice or go back to look at the available funds again.

'We designed this treatment to provide participants with charges information on a screen which they had to view before proceeding as we know that where information is provided can have a significant impact on the attention consumers give it,' said the FCA.

'This treatment also provided participants who might not have considered their initial decision carefully enough with an opportunity to make a more considered decision.' See below.

What were the results?

All the groups that got extra information on charges were more likely to pick cheaper funds than those who only saw the basic site. However, the messages given to groups four and five proved most effective.

Number crunching: Percentage of investors in the control group and other test groups who selected one of the cheaper funds

'The warning and review screen [group 5] had the largest impact on decision-making. It led to a 10.5 percentage point increase in the proportion of participants selecting a cheaper fund,' said the FCA.

'This treatment also led to an improvement in awareness and understanding as measured by our survey questions. For example, we found a 11.3 percentage point increase in the ability of participants to recall how the charges for their chosen fund compared to the others they were shown.

'The warning and impact chart [group 3] also had a significant impact on decision-making but a more limited impact on participants awareness and understanding.'

The FCA said the warning and comparator chart [group 4] had an impact on the likelihood of investors choosing a cheaper fund, but in this test the chart was only placed on fund specific pages which fewer than half of participants clicked on.

When the comparator chart was placed on the fund review page, which people had to look at after choosing a fund [group 5], it had a much larger effect.

The FCA said the standalone warning put at the top of the page [group 2] also seemed more effective when combined with either the review screen or the impact chart.

The watchdog added: 'Although some of our treatments led to participants selecting cheaper funds, it appears they did not change the attention they placed on other fund characteristics including performance and risk.

'The proportion of participants selecting high performing funds in any treatment group was not statistically significantly different to the control group. We also found similar results for low and medium performing funds.'

Closer study: The tests didn't have much effect on whether investors were likely to pick high performing funds

The FCA admitted its experiment was limited because it could not use real brand names for funds.

'Brand is an important consideration to investors when selecting a fund. Although we included fictitious fund names, for legal reasons, we could not include brands in the experiment. We know that investors typically report brand and reputation as being factors they would consider when selecting funds.

'In our survey, 21 per cent of participants stated that seeing a particular brand would have affected their choice of fund.'

In the survey, investors were tested on their understanding of charges and financial literacy in general, asked to rank the factors which were most important to them in choosing funds, and questioned on whether brand names would have had an impact on their behaviour, and if they would have invested in their chosen fund in reality.

FCA made the following further points about its research.

* When it came to the education level of participants, it found the proportion of investors choosing a cheaper fund did not significantly differ between those with or without a university degree. However, the warning and comparator chart [group 4] had a particularly strong impact among those with a degree.

* It gave investors an incentive to take part in the tests, but did not reward participants who chose one of the cheaper funds in case this encouraged people to behave how they thought they should, rather than actually would in reality.

* When people were asked whether they would actually invest in their chosen fund, the proportion of investors who said would not was around 40 per cent, and this was no different between the control group and the others who saw various messages on charges.

* Among those who would not have invested, 16.7 per cent said they required more information and 10.4 per cent said they did not recognise any brands. Asked what they would do with the money instead, 24.9 per cent said they would invest in another type of fund and 14.1 per cent in another type of asset.

You can read the FCA's research results in full here.

Why is the FCA concerned that investors take account of fund charges?

'Why do charges matter? It is important that investors take charges information into account when selecting funds. Charges act as a drag on performance and impact the return which investors actually receive,' said the FCA report.

'While performance is volatile and the consensus is that past performance is not a good indicator of future performance, investors will always incur charges. Due to compounding, over time, a seemingly small difference in charges can have a significant impact on returns.

How much do fees hurt? Research by consumer group Which? shows that if you invested 10,000 in a fund with no charges and it grew by 6 per cent annually for 20 years, you would get a return of 32,071  just over 22,000-worth of growth. However, if that fund had a charge of say 1.67 per cent your return would be reduced to 23,344. Around 9,000 of your growth would have gone on charges. Check out our fund charges calculator here. If you input the size of your investment and your charge, it will show you the impact.

'Some investors might choose to invest in funds with higher charges in the expectation of achieving higher returns. However, research from the US has suggested that cheaper active funds deliver higher returns than more expensive funds in the same investment category.'

The FCA said its own analysis found no clear relationship between charges and gross performance for actively funds in the UK, but there was some evidence of a negative relationship once charges were taken into account.

'This suggests that when choosing between active funds investors paying higher prices for funds, on average, do not necessarily achieve better net returns,' it said.

The FCA also found weak price competition in a number of areas of the asset management industry, with high levels of profitability across its sample of firms, considerable price clustering for active funds, and little evidence that firms compete on the basis of price.

'This suggests that drawing attention to charges, alongside other factors such as performance and service, might allow investors to drive more effective competition between asset managers.'

The FCA said that its previous consumer research has shown that investors awareness and focus on charges is mixed, with a significant number of investors unaware that they were even paying for fund manager services, and fewer than one in ten investors seeking out charges information while browsing an online investment platform.

It also found investors are prone to investing in funds that are unlikely to deliver good value for money, including putting 109billion in active funds which closely mirror market performance - popularly known as closet trackers - but are much pricier than passive index funds which will clone market performance automatically and cheaply.

When it came to the cost of passive funds, the FCA cited academic research that showed considerable numbers of investors select ones with high charges, when cheaper alternatives were available that were almost certain to generate higher returns.

How do you find out fund charges? New watchdog rules mean fund firms now have to cough up full details of investing costs, including transaction costs and administration charges, in a standardised format. Transaction costs were traditionally excluded from the 'ongoing charge' given to investors, though transparency campaigners say they add significantly to total costs The ongoing charge is the investing industry's standard measure of fund running costs. It should be found on companies' fund documents used for marketing purposes. But one of the easiest ways to track the figure down is on the short and standardised Key Investor Information Documents (KIID) that all firms must produce for each of their funds. Links to KIIDs can be found on fund analysis sites like FE Trustnet, and some DIY investing platforms carry them alongside individual funds. You can also put the name of a fund and 'KIID' together in an internet search engine. The ongoing charge typically appears at the top of page two of a KIID.

The FCA offered the following behavioural reasons for why investors might not pay enough attention to charges.

1) 'Investors have limited attention spans when making investment decisions. The prominence that information is given can have a significant impact on how much investors focus on it. For example, information located on the top of a page is likely to be more effective than that at the bottom of a page,' said the FCA.

It cited one study that found firms might have an incentive to make their charges more complex or less transparent to reduce competitive pressure, and another that claimed only a small fraction of fund advertising is informative about important characteristics like fund fees.

2) 'Investors might find it difficult to understand and compare information on charges. When faced with complicated decisions and lots of information, consumers often use simplified decision-making mechanisms to make choices.

'So more information will not necessarily lead to better decisions. The format in which charges information is provided can affect how likely it is that investors will pay attention to and understand the information.'

The FCA quoted a study showing investors can make better investment decisions when presented with charges in pounds and pence rather than as a percentage.

3) 'Investors might mistakenly consider small differences in charges to be unimportant when making investments. We know that due to compounding, over time, even a small difference in charges can have a significant impact on net returns.

'It has been well documented that investors might struggle with even basic financial calculations so they might not appreciate the impact of charges on returns over time.'

4) 'We know that many investors pay attention to past performance (which is net of charges) when selecting a fund. There is evidence that some investors may focus more on past performance than charges when selecting funds, believing that funds which have performed well in the past will perform well in the future.

'This belief is not supported by UK academic analysis, which has found that the majority of funds with historical outperformance do not continue to outperform the relevant market index or peer group for more than a few years.

'This suggests that some investors could incorrectly assume that past performance will continue (this is known as extrapolation bias). They may pay too much attention to past performance, possibly at the expense of other important factors such as charges.'

What was the response to the FCA's findings?

'It is good to see that the FCA finds how important it is to disclose costs and charges in a clear and meaningful way, as this leads to consumers buying cheaper funds,' said Gina Miller, a campaigner for transparency on investment costs and co-founder of wealth manager SCM Direct.

'They have also found, apparently in some magical "now you see it" moment, that costs alone are not the biggest buying trigger.

'Through our True and Fair Campaign, we have always said that consumers need to see the true level of costs, then balance this with the likely risk and return.'

Miller called on the FCA to investigate whether fund firms were complying with new rules brought in this year on the disclosure of charges.

She also wants the FCA to set up a taskforce to create a compulsory common costs and charges template to be used industry-wide.

Miller said SCM Direct would consider legal remedies, including seeking a Judicial Review, on the grounds the FCA was failing ordinary consumers by not ensuring a competitive industry.

This is Money asked the FCA and fund industry group the Investment Association for comment on Miller's statement, but neither responded.

Last week, the IA welcomed the FCA's latest rules aimed at protecting investors, saying: 'Our industry is committed to demonstrating, and delivering, good value to the millions of people who entrust their savings to us.

'We welcome the FCA recognising that people judge their asset manager by investment performance and service, as well as cost.

'We strongly support a greater emphasis on communication as well as governance to help customers better understand what they are investing in, what they are paying for and what they are getting in return.

'The IA is already working with the FCA in these important areas and looks forward to continuing this in the coming months.'
Rolls-Royce is selling its engine technology firm LOrange to US based engineering firm Woodward for 610m.

LOrange will continue to supply Rolls-Royce for at least another 15 years.

Based in Stuttgart, Germany, LOrange makes fuel injection technology for industrial engines such as those powering ferries and electricity plants.

Looking ahead: Rolls-Royce boss Warren East is planning for the future

It has 1,000 employees based mostly in Germany but also in the US and China and made sales of 212m last year.

Colorado-based Woodward designs and manufactures control systems and components for the aerospace and industrial sectors. Rolls is trying to simplify its business and plans to sell its commercial marine division to slim down to three core units.

Boss Warren East, 55, said: This transaction builds on the actions we have taken over the last two years to simplify our business.

Selling LOrange enables Rolls-Royce to focus on other long-term, high growth opportunities, he said. East is trying to drive down costs, and plans to cut a new layer of management.

Last month Rolls reported 1.1bn in profits for 2017, as it continues to recover following a string of profit warnings in 2016.

Rolls-Royce, which has 50,000 staff across 50 countries, fell into the red by 4.6bn in 2016 in what was its largest ever loss and one of the biggest in UK corporate history, after being knocked by the pounds plunge and a corruption scandal. Shares in the FTSE 100 engineer rose 1.2 per cent, or 10.8p, to 878.8p as investors welcomed the deal.
Thousands of City jobs could be on the block at Deutsche Bank after it fired chief executive John Cryan.

The Yorkshireman was forced to quit by his own board amid concerns that his already-brutal programme of cuts does not go far enough.

He has been replaced by insider Christian Sewing, who has hinted that the troubled German lenders once-mighty investment bank will be slashed further.

Ousted: John Cryan was forced to quit by his own board amid concerns that his already-brutal programme of cuts does not go far enough

The investment bank accounts for the vast majority of Deutsches 8,600 UK staff  meaning London roles are likely to be in the firing line.

Sewing, a 47-year-old father of four who was previously head of Deutsches audit department and then the retail bank, has no background in investment banking.

He is expected to abandon the dreams of a global finance empire and pay more attention instead to provincial German lending. In a memo to staff, he warned changes are coming in the corporate and investment arm.

Cryan, 57, was forced out following a breakdown in relations with the banks chairman Paul Achleitner.

Cryan took over Deutsche in 2015 after a period of wild over-expansion which saw it vie with Wall Street to conquer international finance.

But this concealed a host of bad behaviour which came to light on Cryans watch.

Since the start of 2017, the lender has coughed up 5.9bn for mis-selling US mortgage debt; 505m for money laundering in Russia; and 122m for failing to properly monitor traders online conversations. Cryan planned to axe 15,000 jobs and had a reputation for tough talk, warning as many as 50,000 more roles could go and taking particular aim at accountants who he said spend a lot of time basically being an abacus.
House-buyers shelled out a record 9.5billion in stamp duty last year amid sky-high prices and a rise in rates.

The amount of tax raised was 1.3billion more than in 2016, largely because of an extra 3 per cent levied on landlords buying properties to rent out and on second homes. This group handed over 4.1billion.

The average owner-occupier paid 7,161 in taxes to move house in 2017, research by the adviser London Central Portfolio (LCP) shows. But the priciest 10 per cent of purchases made up 60 per cent of the bill.

House-buyers shelled out a record 9.5billion in stamp duty last year amid sky-high prices and a rise in rates

It follows reforms from the then-chancellor George Osborne in 2014 that meant buyers of homes worth more than 1.5million paid a rate of at least 12 per cent. The single biggest purchase last year, 90million for a leasehold flat in Knightsbridge Apartments, generated more than 10million in tax. In London, which accounted for 39 per cent of the total tax take, the typical bill was four times the average at 27,232.

Naomi Heaton, of LCP, said: Despite the continued rumble around whether the richest are paying their fair share, it is clear that they are the main contributor to stamp duty revenue.

Campaigners have long argued that stamp duty does more harm than good. They fear it puts off movers who might free up homes for others further down the ladder.

Sam Dumitriu, of the Adam Smith Institute think-tank, said: Stamp duty is probably the most destructive tax there is.

People are stuck in houses that are too small or too big for them because they dont want to pay a massive tax bill.

It came as separate figures from Halifax showed that house prices were 2.7 per cent higher last month than a year earlier.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Venzee Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:VENZ) ("Venzee" or the "Company") is pleased to introduce its new enterprise pricing model and enterprise channel partner opportunities that has come into effect.



Venzee provides a middleware software (SaaS) data transformation technology that improves product information workflow between vendors (suppliers and manufacturers) and their retailers by eliminating spreadsheets and costly manual labour. It solves a legacy technology issue, and improves data quality and data transmission speed, while eliminating manual labour and human error, to increase efficiencies for its customers.

Venzee plugs, as a plugin or API (application programming interface), into existing systems such as Product Information Management (PIM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), which systems have supported the retail and supply chain market for thirty years. Venzee does not compete with these systems, which have significant market share, but rather complements their technology to significantly improve product information flow and data transmission.



Enterprise License Pricing Changes



New pricing features have been updated to reflect the growing industry adoption of Venzee.



The freemium model has been removed, and pay-for-use basic, premium and enterprise licenses are in place. A small portion of the previous freemium users have converted to paying basic users.



A basic license starts at US$79 per month and allows the client to use limited or restricted features of Venzee.



A premium license begins at US$249 per month and is subject to further monthly fees which are dependent on how often and to how many retailers the vendors upload product information. Additional setup fees may apply to premium monthly packages.



Enterprise licenses for suppliers and manufacturers are much higher value monthly customized licenses to meet the needs of suppliers/manufacturers with much larger distribution channels and retailers that sell their products. Enterprise licenses are subject to additional set up fees.



Peter Mackay, CEO of Venzee states, Venzees growth strategy to date has been primarily driven by our internal sales team and onboarding staff but we believe channel partners and system integrators will further expand and accelerate the reach of Venzee into new verticals, new geographies, and growing high margin revenue.



Channel Partner Opportunities



Venzees channel partners are primarily technology-focused companies and global system integrators who benefit by providing Venzees solutions to their current and future customers.



Channel partners significantly expand the Companys ability to introduce, educate, and sell Venzee content exchange products across multiple retail, distribution and manufacturing clients.



Venzee's targeted channel partners act as a marketing and sales force multiplier validating and endorsing the Venzee platform while promoting the Venzee value proposition across a significant customer base.



The Venzee platform compliments the majority of content management systems used today by mid-market and larger retail, distribution, and manufacturing companies. The Venzee platform provides any content management system with scalable, reliable, and efficient content ingestion and distribution capabilities.



Venzee is currently in advanced discussion with more than twenty potential enterprise channel partners, many of which have a strong market share in their respective verticals in North America. The response of these prospective partners has been positive. Targeting additional channel partners remains a strong focus of the Company to increase industry-wide adoption of the Venzee platform.



Venzee anticipates one or more large-scale channel partnerships to be executed in the current quarter.



Beyond the channel partnership relationships, Venzee has also established a co-marketing agreement with a major retailer with more than 9,000 suppliers - many of which use manual labor and spreadsheets to distribute product information. Venzee is now working with this retailer to convert their vendors to the Venzee platform and simplify their product information workflow.



John Abrams, VP of Enterprise Partnerships at Venzee states, The response from potential channel partners is very strong and confirms our industry experience that the vendors and retailers are in dire need for a data transformation platform such as Venzees middleware to allow incompatible technology to now efficiently exchange data.



About Venzee

Venzee is a SaaS (software as a service) company that launched in 2014 to help e-commerce vendors and retailers easily share product information in a US$23 trillion retail industry (source: Statista). Traditionally, this was achieved by using spreadsheets, which created a labor-intensive, error inducing process that delayed products from reaching the marketplace. Venzees technology streamlines product information management, allowing vendors and retailers to seamlessly share information, avoiding delays and getting products to market faster than ever. To learn more about Venzee, visit https://venzee.com.

On Behalf of the Board,

Peter Mackay, CEO

Contact

Investor Relations

Caleb Jeffries

Investor Relations, Kin Communications Inc.

1-866-684-6730

VENZ@kincommunications.com

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the execution of the Company's growth strategy, the onboarding of new customers and the development and execution of new channel partner opportunities. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; and regulatory risks. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under "Risk Factors" in the Company's filing statement dated December 12, 2017, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities laws.

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.
SAVINGS are a key component of capital formation in any economy. Likewise, capital formation is necessary to stimulate long-term economic growth.

Governments that adopt well-crafted saving policies stand to win in the long-run. This is because savings contribute to wealth creating and hence positions a countrys economy for prosperity through its citizens personal solvency and financial independence, as well as through the investments that the citizens savings fund.



If more households are able to save and invest their money, their investments can actually create more jobs or ensure that more people find jobs in the economy. In the long-run more people benefit as they gain financial freedom while government benefits as the tax base and size of the economy increases.



For instance, national savings funds like the Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF) and the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF) would have more people contributing to the funds thus generating more wealth to invest in the economy of Swaziland. Imagine just how many more Dlanubeka, Sibekelo, The New Mall Building, Hilton and Happy Valley Hotels, and MTNs and Swazi Mobile companies could be funded by these funds if more savings could be made by households in Swaziland? Savings are a store of wealth. A traditional bank account is probably familiar to most people but there are many types of savings such as stocks, bonds, retained business profits, and any income that is invested rather than consumed.



It is not a coincidence that these private and public sector savings funds have managed to play a central role in the various investments that we have all witnessed in Swaziland: it has simply been through household savings! Just to emphasise the importance of household savings in creating a viable and vibrant economy, in the USA, the retirement saving system alone, mainly based on workplace payroll deductions is responsible for creating the worlds deepest and most liquid capital markets. Swaziland certainly needs more active and diverse capital markets and making sure that households have more disposable income to save would be the starting point.



Raising Swazilands household savings should be a policy imperative because of the benefits to both Swazis and the Swazi economy. If government could focus on raising household savings, it could enhance Swazilands ability to finance its future, stimulate higher growth rates, and contribute billions of Emalangeni in added Swazi output which would translate to higher living standards for the wider population.



It seems government is increasingly forgetting that everything it does, all the money it collects and spends is inherently about households. Gouging more from households in the form of increased taxes and user-fees for largely inefficient government services does nothing for creating wealth to finance the countrys development aspirations.



Instead governments financial prudence and action that fosters household savings actually contributes to building long-term prosperity without having a negative impact on current households welfare. When government becomes so fixated on squeezing households to fund its programmes and capital projects it takes away the ability for low and middle income households to accumulate assets that can allow them to survive financial crises and sustain a comfortable living into retirement.



In fact, when households are unable to accumulate wealth, they face difficulties in investing in a home, car, education, and even extreme difficulty in starting a business that could improve their economic condition. A 2016 report from the Central Bank of Swaziland indicates that despite holding a high portion of bank credit, households also hold a significant and increasing level of credit from banks and non-bank financial institutions. It reveals that non-banks credit to households has grown from 45.8 per cent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2016 accelerating household indebtedness from 128 per cent in 2015 to 156 per cent in 2016.

Fast-forward to December 2017 and January 2018, housing finance fell by 8.1 per cent to close at E2.9 billion while motor vehicle loans declined by a lesser rate of 2.9 per cent to reach E1.3 billion.



In contrast, unsecured loans reflected a month-on-month growth of 8.6 per cent to settle at E1.8 billion. In short, these figures indicate that it is becoming a real struggle to invest in long-term assets like houses while more households are being pushed to take unsecured loans to finance their month-to-month financial shortfalls.



With the many direct and indirect taxes to hit households starting in 2018, more households will be pushed into indebtedness. Government can in turn forget about any real economy growth and prosperity going forward. In the absence of household savings that can improve ownership of a home, business, etc, the larger Swazi society may end up paying more in crime related costs and even higher taxes to sustain government programmes due to a shrinking economy.



The lesson here is this: increasing taxes and government user fees to raise more money for governments wallet is just a coping out strategy that will create more economic woes than economic prosperity. If government could just remember that its most important stakeholder is the household, and make sure that households are taken care of by having more money in their pockets with more room to spend and save, then perhaps our economy could actually turn for the better.
MBABANE  The National Commissioner of police has been ordered to expunge from the police criminal data system the fingerprints of a lawyer, who was convicted of drink- driving nine years ago.



Mxolisi Dlamini is one of the prosecutors who were hired by government last month.

The order directing the national commissioner to expunge Dlaminis fingerprints from the criminal data system was issued by Judge John Magagula.



This comes after Dlamini approached the court, where he was praying for the aforementioned order.

In his application, Dlamini of Trelawney Park in Manzini, stated that he was once arrested for drink-driving and not stopping at a traffic light on June 12, 2009.



He submitted that he was convicted by a Manzini-based magistrate.

According to the newly-hired prosecutor, he duly paid the fine and he had reformed, as for the past nine years he had not been arrested or convicted of any offence.



He pointed out that when he was convicted, he was still at the University of Swaziland pursuing his Bachelor of Law Degree.

Dlamini informed the court that his wish to the court was to discharge/expunge the fingerprints as he was now living a normal life.

He went on to state that he had been practising with Ginindza Attorneys for the past five years from 2014 as an admitted attorney, and he had been on the right side of the law.



Recruited



I do state I have been recruited and appointed a Crown prosecutor by the Civil Service Commission on March 8, 2018 and I am expected to resume my duties at the Siteki Magistrates Court, submitted Dlamini.



He contended that the fingerprints were a stumbling block to his future now as the Civil Service Commission might revoke his appointment because of the previous conviction record.



I, therefore, request the court to discharge or expunge my fingerprints from the police data criminal record, submitted Dlamini.

He contended that in the event his fingerprints were expunged from the criminal data system, the Royal Swaziland Police Service would suffer no prejudice. Dlamini said this was so because his conviction was that of a traffic offence as opposed to a serious criminal conviction.



Dlamini averred that at the moment he was forced to serve the sentence forever and consequently a double jeopardy, which was unfair to him.

In a similar case, a final year student at Ngwane Teachers College wants the court to direct the National Commissioner of Police to expunge his fingerprints from the criminal data system.
ERMELO  Dagga blocks which were retrieved from a spare wheel. (R) One of the three Swazi nationals who were arrested in Ermelo, South Africa lying on the ground. (Courtesy pics)

MBABANE  Three Swazi nationals were arrested in Ermelo, South Africa after they were found with 68 blocks of dagga, with a street value of close to E100 000.



The three were travelling in different vehicles headed for various destinations to deliver their consignment.

Information gathered from South African sources was that the police first arrested a couple for the illegal possession of the herb.

They are said to have admitted in court that they were on their way to Pretoria.



According to a report made by the police who nabbed the couple from Manzini, the suspects are said to have informed the law enforcers that it was the womans birthday and they were supposed to be celebrating it after they had received the money from the dagga sale.

The arrests were made during Operation Fiela in Ermelo on Friday.



The SA police are said to have discovered nine blocks of compressed dagga concealed in the rear panel of the vehicle the duo was travelling in. While searching the car, the police also became suspicious of a spare wheel, whose sound suggested it contained something.



The male suspect confessed he had more dagga stashed in the tyre. He further volunteered to cut the wheel open. A further 48 dagga blocks were found stashed inside the spare wheel, explained Sergeant Peace Mbokane in an article published by Mpumalanga News.

The suspects were arrested on the spot and they face charges of dagga possession and dealing.

They were found in possession of 30kg dagga, worth an estimated street value of E45 000. They were both detained at Chrissiesmeer police holding cells, while they waited to appear at Ermelo Magistrates Court.
SIKHUPHE  The countrys history has been rewritten as the President of India has paid a visit to Swaziland.



The President of the Republic of India, His Excellency Ram Nath Kovind, landed in the country yesterday through King Mswati III International Airport at exactly 3:19pm.



Kovind is in the kingdom on a State visit, as he had been invited by His Majesty King Mswati III. He was welcomed by Prime Minister (PM) Sibusiso Dlamini, who was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Paul Dlamini, Cabinet ministers and traditional leaders, together with high profile business people from India who stay in the country, among others.



The President of Indias visit reciprocates the trip by His Majesty King Mswati III to India in March 2017, where he was the chief guest for the India-Africa Business Conclave.



His Majestys visit to India had helped identify several areas for strengthening and deepening bilateral cooperation between the two countries, and it had been reliably gathered that these areas would be further discussed during President Kovinds current visit.



It is worth noting that India is already a significant contributor to the Kings Vision 2022 to convert the kingdom into a developed country. This is more so because India has helped in the construction of the Innovations Centre at the Royal Science and Technology Park, through a concessional loan of about E240 million.



Part of the Innovations Park, which is the Information Technology (IT) Centre, which is located at Nokwane, will be officially opened by both His Majesty King Mswati III and the visiting Indian president today.



Again, India has also financed a successful project for enhancing the productivity of maize by small farmers, through another concessional loan of about E454 million, which has helped raise maize output several times in the target areas. Furthermore, last year, India announced a donation of medicines and medical equipment worth E36 million to the Ministry of Health. The first batch of medicines has already been delivered to the country.


LOBAMBA  Our phones have been bugged. Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Dumisani Ndlangamandlas absence in Parliament yesterday saved him from giving responses regarding the above statement.

The statement was made by Mtfongwaneni Member of Parliament (MP) Mjuluko Dlamini, who said the nation was now scared to communicate on their cellphones as their gadgets had been bugged.



His statement comes after rumours have been circulating that the state was now able to listen to all conversations between certain individuals. Dlamini said it was a pity that the minister was not in attendance as he wanted him to tell the nation what was going on.

He did not specify how exactly the bugging was being done or even the mobile company that was involved. He moved that the minister should be made to explain the moment he sets foot in the chambers.



His motion was seconded by Mbabane West MP Johane Shongwe, who also said people were now scared to communicate freely.

During yesterdays sitting, there were only two Cabinet ministers in attendance, and these were Edgar Hillary and Christopher Gamedze.

While Hillary stayed for the better part of the sitting, it was not the case with Gamedze, who left before the legislators went for a short break at 4pm.



Gamedze was later seen with some of his colleagues at the Mandvulo Hall, where they welcomed visiting President of India Ram Nath Kovind.

The absence of the ministers did not augur well with the MPs, who demanded to know if they had done so deliberately. MP Jan Sithole was among those who stood up and raised this concern, saying he did not understand why the ministers were not present.
Jacksonville, FL, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mCig Inc., (OTCBB: MCIG), a leading provider of technologies and solutions for the legal medical and recreational marijuana industry, CEO discusses and outlines the companys strategy for 2018.

Paul Rosenberg, MCIG CEO, begins the announcement by stating, With the recent growth in our business over the past couple of years we want to take this opportunity to thank our investors and shareholders for your investment and ongoing support in our Company. I feel it is important for us to continue to keep the market aware of our current projects and our strategic agenda for 2018 and well into the future.

MCIG expects to release its third-quarter numbers within the next couple days. The Company has been in the process of three audits with its subsidiaries requiring additional time in meeting its quarterly obligations which typically go unaudited.

A recent S-1 registration statement was filed by mCig for its marketing consulting subsidiary, OBITX Inc. With OBITX spinning off into its own publicly traded entity, all MCIG shareholders can expect to receive shares once the filing process has completed.

First comments have been received from the SEC and MCIG has responded accordingly. This whole process takes multiple communications between an SEC reviewer and management before final approval is granted to become a publicly traded company. There should be a response from the SEC by the end of April.

As the main shareholder of OBITX, MCIG management believes the current management team for OBITX has progressed the business enough to warrant its spin-off. This progress has been displayed by their work on multiple projects for its growing roster of clients helping them to utilize blockchain technology by infusing it into their existing business models. MCIG expects OBITX management to make announcements in the very near future about its current portfolio of signed partners and projects.

While some of MCIGs subsidiaries and their management teams have focused on synergistic opportunities within the cannabis communities, MCIG management has been focusing on turning 2018 into the year MCIG institutes its own production by creating 'real' cannabis projects. With that in mind, MCIG is expecting a final decision from California City, CA, in regards to receiving licenses permitting the cultivation, production, and extraction of marijuana along with other related products by the end of the month.

Another example of MCIGs ramped up efforts into real cannabis projects is the development of The NYAcres Project, a joint venture between NYAcres, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MCIG and FarmOn! Foundation. The joint venture recently placed its first order for hemp seeds and is on schedule to plant the crop in New York state sometime this month.

In anticipation of the first crop, MCIGs management has been focusing on developing a strategic plan for the HEMP division which is considered to be a direct line to the end consumers.

The plan for the HEMP division is straightforward. The company will make its own line of products using a developed oil under the supervision of its Director Of Research Development Dr. Arkady Uryash.

These products include:

CBD pain relief cream Skin/coat care and wellness products for Pets Anti-aging and Active-aging creams with an improved formulation including Hemp Cannabidiol and Terpene components

MCIG management believes these new products will make this division one of the strongest revenue generators for the company. Recent tests with the new pain cream have displayed positive results leading to tremendous interest. This interest has translated into pre-orders placed by those waiting for the commercialization of the products.

mCig company recognizes the crucial need to educate the hemp and cannabis community about safe practices and to also strengthen its own testing standards to ensure safe and effective products.

mCig technology and in-house core laboratory facilitates comprehensive and accurate detection of pesticides, toxic metals and components in hemp and cannabis from the field, during extraction, and for product testing.

"We are committed to implementing all necessary industry testing standards so that only the safest and highest quality cannabis and hemp products are reaching the consumer. The mCig team is filled with energy and passion as we look to raise the bar on testing, said Dr. Uryash. We are also building capabilities for providing testing services, laboratory supplies, genomic profiling and compliance consulting for growers and users.

In order to meet the highest cannabis testing laboratory standards, mCig will apply cutting-edge life science techniques to enhance quality and safety standards that will exceed state and federal regulations, emphasized mCig CEO, Paul Rosenberg.

With the planned development of its own product, MCIG has now decided to invest in the cannabis equipment market as well. This has been done in conjunction with its cannabis supply division currently showing great growth and expansion in the states of Nevada and California. A streamlined approach to the growth, development, marketing, distribution, and sale of its products and services has demonstrated the division's ability to take on the new task.

MCIG CFO Mike Hawkins said, We continue to execute on our business strategy while also remaining flexible and exploring new opportunities as they arise. Its gratifying to see the growth and progress weve made with each line of business and we have been very aggressive about expanding our portfolio of marijuana licenses. Let me clarify the business model of MCIG one more time:

1. There will be ownership of different cannabis grow/manufacturing licenses in different states (through land acquisition)

2. We will be developing hemp farms and hemp/CBD products

3. We are expanding the Cannabis equipment manufacture and cannabis supply division

4. We will create an ownership interest in public companies through private company registrations.

Paul Rosenberg, CEO of MCIG, said, I am truly excited about our future. When I look around at the extraordinary talent we have been able to assemble, I am truly humbled. I believe that will be the factor that sets us apart in 2018.

About MCIG Group (OTCQB: MCIG)

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, mCig, Inc. (www.mciggroup.com) is a diversified company servicing the legal cannabis, hemp and CBD markets. mCig, Inc. is committed to being the leading distributor of technology, products, and services to fit the needs of a rapidly expanding industry.

For more information visit our websites: https://www.mciggroup.com



Safe Harbour

Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to the Companys ability to develop, market and sell products based on its technology; the expected benefits and efficacy of the Companys products and technology; the availability of substantial additional funding for the Company to continue its operations and to conduct research and development, and future product commercialization; and the Companys business, research, product development, regulatory approval, marketing and distribution plans and strategies.
NEWTON, Mass., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BRIDGE Energy Group (BRIDGE) today announced the availability of its 2018 BRIDGE Index Grid Analytics Survey results. Reaching over 20,000 North American utility employees, this years survey finds investments in analytics increasing year-over-year. However, with 72% reporting that they dont employ active data governance frameworks for OT data needs, those investments may not yield all of their intended benefits. Glen Sartain, BRIDGEs VP of Analytics, will be leveraging industry insights when discussing utility workforce changes and challenges at the Utility Analytics Summit, April 16-18, Irvine, California.



Tweet these:

Accelerating Change in the #Utility #Workforce will be the topic of talk by @BRIDGEEnergyGrp VP of #Analytics @glensartain on April 17 @Utilanalytics #UASummit2018 http://bit.ly/BRUASum Survey says -- 42% increase in #utilities developing #PredictiveAnalytics http://bit.ly/BRUtilAnalyt Download @BRIDGEEnergyGrp 2018 BRIDGE Index #GridAnalytics Survey results.

The BRIDGE Index family of surveys from BRIDGE Energy Group, provide an objective look at the current and future priorities across a broad cross-section of North American utilities. Utility decision makers leverage the survey results as a basis to measure progress against peers as well as a foundation to justify analytics, modernization, operations and security projects.



This years survey revealed a significant increase in the development and planning of predictive analytics, however many of these initiatives have yet to be operationalized. The survey also showed a substantial number of respondents (62%) were planning major analytics projects in the next two years. However, nearly half (47%) of utilities surveyed are investing less than $1 million in these efforts.

Average utility investment in analytics is increasing year over year, said Sartain. The increased number of $10M-plus programs demonstrates utilities are embracing analytics as a core competency, but too many are investing far too little to have a real impact on their analytics maturity and usefulness.

Sartain will be presenting at the 7th Annual Utility Analytics Summit. The summit represents the largest gathering of utility analytics leaders who share insightful expertise on the challenges facing todays utility industry while also offering new methodologies and techniques to address todays most perplexing grid issues.

Sartains presentation - Accelerating Change in the Utility Workforce: Digital Solutions to Solve Problems While Attracting and Retaining New Industry Talent, will take place on April 17th from 10:45-11:30 AM. He will offer attendees guidelines on how to rethink operations by embracing new tools, integrating situational awareness and how to leverage new Internet of Things (IoT) data for the introduction of machine learning and real-time analytics.

To improve your utility organizations real-time operations and security, contact BRIDGE Energy Group at 1.888.351.8999 or via www.bridgeenergygroup.com/contact-us/

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https://www.bridgeenergygroup.com/challenges-we-solve/industry-insights/

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About BRIDGE Energy Group

BRIDGE Energy Group is a consulting and systems integration firm transforming Transmission & Distribution operations. We leverage operations, technology, analytics, visualization and real-time systems expertise to deliver innovative and pragmatic solutions. Our focus is on solving utility challenges and improving grid security and reliability while increasing profitability and efficiency for our clients. For more information on BRIDGE, please contact 888-351-8999 or visit www.BridgeEnergyGroup.com

For more information, contact:

Jackie Abramian

BridgeView Marketing (for BRIDGE Energy Group)

603-570-7533

Jackie@bridgeviewmarketing.com

https://twitter.com/BridgeEnergyGrp

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/2163ad00-acde-46c1-91ed-ec29ac937f74
International chemical weapons experts will go to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate a suspected poison gas attack, their organization said on Tuesday, as the United States and other Western powers consider military action over the incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who had been due to travel to Peru on Friday, canceled a trip to Latin America to focus on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

France and Britain also discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the incident. Both stressed that the culprit in the incident still needed to be confirmed.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday\s suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syrian relief group.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\s government and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

The incident has thrust Syria\s seven-year-old conflict back to the forefront of international concern and pitted Washington and Moscow against each other again.

Russia and the United States were headed for a showdown at the United Nations over how to respond to the Douma attack.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran, Assad\s other main ally, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country\s northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad\s control over the eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

SMELL OF GAS

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team.

"The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly," it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used, but will not assign blame. Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move apparently aimed at averting any U.S.-led action.

"Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions," Syria\s state news agency SANA said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail.

Any U.S. strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defense systems. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government\s allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government\s chemical facilities.

Speaking alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Macron said a decision on whether to carry out military strikes would be made in the coming days after more consultations with the United States and Britain.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base.

A U.S. action similar to last year\s would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad\s way since 2015.

A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by the United States and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said.

Trump met at the White House with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Trump gave no hints about potential U.S. action, but al-Thani told reporters, "We cannot tolerate, with a war criminal" like Assad.

U.N. TENSIONS

The U.N. Security Council is due to vote on three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria on Tuesday, setting up a showdown between the United States and Russia.

The United States has requested the Security Council vote at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) on a proposal for a new inquiry into chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution was likely to be blocked by Russia, which will put two draft resolutions on Syria of its own to a vote because it does not agree with the U.S. text, diplomats said.

"This is basically a diplomatic set-up," said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"Russia will inevitably veto the U.S. resolution criticizing Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes," he said. "A breakdown at the U.N. will also make it easier for France to justify strikes."

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France and Britain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a "confrontational policy" against Russia and Syria.

France said it would respond if it was proven that Assad\s forces carried out the attack.

A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside U.S. ships as part of France\s contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

A previous inquiry by the United Nations and the OPCW found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in 2017, and had also used chlorine several times as a weapon.

Despite the international revulsion over the chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents is in the dozens, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Yulia Skripal has left hospital more than five weeks after she and her father, a former Russian spy, were poisoned with a nerve agent in an attack that has sparked one of the biggest crises in the West\s relations with the Kremlin since the Cold War.

Yulia and Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britains MI6 foreign spy service, were found unconscious on a public bench in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain accused Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack and Western governments including the United States expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning and retaliated in kind.

The Skripals were in a critical condition for weeks and doctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have suffered brain damage. But the Skripals\ health since then has begun to improve rapidly.

Yulia, 33, has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters on Tuesday and her father could be discharged in due course.

"We have now discharged Yulia," Blanshard said. "This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone."

"Her father has also made good progress," Blanshard said. " "Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course."

Yulia has been taken to a secure location, the BBC said. The Sunday Times reported that Britain was considering giving the Skripals new identities and a fresh life in the United States to protect them from further attacks.

Russia said it would consider any secret resettlement of the Skripals as an abduction of its citizens.

"The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation," a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London said.

DIPLOMATIC CRISIS

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.

Russia has denied Britain\s charges of involvement in the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two and suggested Britain carried out the attack itself to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

Blanshard, a doctor with 25 years experience, said nerve agents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in the body that then stop the nerves from functioning. She said this had resulted in sickness and hallucinations.

Giving the first details about the medical treatment of the Skripals, she said doctors had first sought to stabilize them to ensure that they could breathe and that blood could circulate.

"We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients, until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning," Blanshard said. "We also used specialized decontamination techniques to remove any residual toxins."

She did not say when Yulia had been discharged.

Both Britain and Russia congratulated Skripal, a Russian citizen, on her recovery.

"We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery," the Russian embassy in London said, adding that it had not been granted consular access to her.

Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britain\s MI6, was arrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the United States.

Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned. He has British citizenship.

SOURCE: REUTERS
PHOENIX, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobivity Holdings Corp. (OTCQB:MFON), creators of the award-winning platform for driving customer frequency, recurrency, announced today that their partnership with Round Table Pizza and Global Franchise Group (GFG), the owners and operators of more than 1,500 restaurant locations across five brands, has been expanded into a three-year relationship, and will now include the roll-out of Mobivitys full recurrency platform to all Round Table Pizza locations nationwide.



As previously reported, the owners and operators of selected Round Table Pizza locations were the first to see the impact of Mobivitys recurrency platform on their business, with 75% of customers redeeming their first offer sent through reach, the messaging and consumer outreach mechanism of the recurrency platform.

Our mission at Mobivity is to increase customer frequency for the brands that we engage with, and we are committed to seeing the results that these Round Table Pizza franchisees have experienced spread through the companys system with this expansion, said Dennis Becker, CEO of Mobivity. We are thrilled to have a long-term partner in Round Table Pizza and Global Franchise Group and look forward to continually delivering powerful results through the implementation of our full recurrency platform across their entire system of stores.

To date, the implementation of Mobivitys recurrency platform has driven a greater than 40% increase in average customer spend, with over 1,000 participating Round Table Pizza guests per location opting to receive text-based communications. More than 75% of those customers redeemed their first offer, and each subsequent message brought approximately $100,000 in incremental revenue over just 6 weeks for the participating locations.

Early trials of leveraging Mobivitys recurrency platform to increase guest frequency and spend wildly exceeded our expectations, added Geoff Goodman, EVP of Round Table Pizza. Furthermore, the ability for Mobivitys recognition solution to deliver unparalleled insights through data has addressed the pressing need of assessing and improving other marketing channels. With clear visibility into data, coupled with personalized guest engagement, were now operating our brand at a whole new level.

About Round Table Pizza

Round Table Pizza was founded by Bill Larson in 1959 in the San Francisco Bay Area to create a place where families could relax and share a superb pizza. More than fifty years later, Round Table Pizza remains true to its founder's vision with 440 restaurants across the western United States and the world. Round Table's signature tagline, "The Last Honest Pizza", describes its commitment to quality and authenticity. For the latest news and fun and games from Round Table Pizza, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Global Franchise Group, LLC

Global Franchise Group, LLC is a strategic brand management company with a mission of championing franchise brands and the people who build them. The company owns a portfolio of franchise brands that includes five primary quick service restaurant (QSR) franchise concepts: Great American Cookies, Hot Dog on a Stick, Marble Slab Creamery, MaggieMoos Ice Cream & Treatery, and Pretzelmaker. The brands are managed by GFG Management, LLC, a subsidiary of Global Franchise Group, LLC. Global Franchise Group, LLC is a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, an independent investment firm, with approximately $9 billion of capital under management and substantial franchise management experience.

About Mobivity

Mobivity provides a platform to drive customer frequency for national restaurants, retailers, personal care brands, and their partners. Mobivitys recurrency platform increases customer engagement and frequency by capturing detailed POS transaction records, analyzing customer habits, and motivating customers and employees through data-driven messaging applications and rewards. For more information about Mobivity, visit mobivity.com or call (877) 282-7660.

Media Contact

Dennis Becker  Chairman and CEO, Mobivity  (877) 282-7660

Investor Relations Contacts

Charles Mathews  Chief Financial Officer, Mobivity

Charles.mathews@mobivity.com  (877) 282-7660
[April 10, 2018] Florida Peninsula Insurance Chooses Duck Creek Policy and Billing OnDemand to Increase Speed and Expand into New Markets

Duck Creek Technologies announced today that Florida Peninsula Insurance, a top P&C insurer in the Sunshine State, has selected Duck Creek's Policy and Billing solutions as critical components of their digital transformation. The carrier chose Duck Creek as part of an overall strategy to pursue new markets, launch new products more quickly, increase customer digital engagement, and make business planning more efficient. Duck Creek OnDemand, the provider's SaaS (News - Alert) offering for the P&C insurance industry, was key to meeting these challenges. Florida Peninsula's drive to increase speed and efficiency in all aspects of its operation required a modern, open core systems platform with advanced digital capabilities and SaaS delivery. One of the features of the Duck Creek platform that stood out to the insurer was codeless configuration - the ability for everyday business users to make product changes rapidly, without the need for custom coding or development. Another key factor was Duck Creek OnDemand's ability to deliver regular software and content updates seamlessly in the cloud. "Being able to meet our customers' digital needs where and when they want is critical to meeting their new service expectations," said Paul Adkins, Chairman of Florida Peninsula Insurance. "That digital capability, plus our team's ability to launch new products and change existing ones without any coding, put Duck Creek ahead of the pack for us." "We're happy to welcome Florida Peninsula to our growing list of OnDemand customers, and excitd to partner with them as they take this important step in their digital transformation. Our platform will give Florida Peninsula the tools they need to keep growing and to retain business long into the future," said Bill Bond, Chief Technology Officer of Duck Creek Technologies.



The Duck Creek Suite, which includes Duck Creek Policy, Duck Creek Billing, Duck Creek Claims, Duck Creek Rating, and Duck Creek Insights, is user-configurable software designed to work independently or as part of a combined approach to manage all aspects of the P&C insurance lifecycle. It can be deployed on-premises or via Duck Creek OnDemand, the provider's SaaS solution for the P&C insurance industry. About Florida Peninsula Insurance:

Florida Peninsula is one of the top homeowners' insurance carriers in Florida, and together with its subsidiary Edison Insurance, serves over 150,000 customers throughout the state. Florida Peninsula is financially strong with a surplus which well exceeds the State's requirement. With over 150 years of combined insurance experience, their management team has made conservative and savvy decisions allowing Florida Peninsula to secure reinsurance from only "A" rated carriers around the world. In addition, Florida Peninsula has experience dealing with the ever-changing Florida market, including hurricane handling experience, as they have recently assisted over 25,000 families with the rebuilding of their lives after Hurricanes Matthew and Irma devastated areas of the State. About Duck Creek Technologies: Duck Creek Technologies paves a genuine path to the future for P&C insurance companies. Decades of insurance experience underpin advanced technologies specifically designed to accommodate change - allowing carriers to navigate uncertainty and capture market opportunities faster than their competitors. Duck Creek solutions are available standalone or as a full suite. All are cloud-ready. For more information, visit www.duckcreek.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005214/en/

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LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEF announced that the MEF 3.0 Transformational Global Services Framework has achieved a significant milestone with the publication of two new specifications advancing the orchestration of MEF 3.0 connectivity services over multiple network technology domains. The new standards  the Network Resource Management: Information Model (MEF 59) and Network Resource Provisioning: Interface Profile Specification (MEF 60)  were developed within MEFs LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) Reference Architecture that has been embraced by leading service and technology suppliers worldwide. The specifications are important steps toward accelerating the delivery of agile, assured, and orchestrated services over automated networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV.

MEF members have been working diligently to develop and demonstrate model-driven North-South intra-provider LSO APIs and East-West inter-provider LSO APIs that are required to orchestrate MEF 3.0 services, said Nan Chen, President, MEF. The new specifications enable us to define the critical LSO Presto NRP (Network Resource Provisioning) API for orchestrating services over a mix of underlying network technologies. We thank the LSO project teams for their diligent work and look forward to also sharing more good news related to inter-provider orchestration in the coming months.

MEFs LSO Reference Architecture guides agile development of the models, processes, tools, and APIs that will enable orchestration of MEF 3.0 services (e.g., Layer 1, Carrier Ethernet, IP, and SD-WAN) across multiple providers and over multiple network technology domains. The LSO RA extends the traditional MEF scope concerning service modeling to cover a range of operational, orchestration, and network management behaviors, including SDN and NFV paradigms.

Network Resource Management (NRM)  Information Model (MEF 59)

In support of the LSO RA, MEF 59 defines the information model to facilitate the orchestration of Carrier Ethernet connectivity services through WAN SDN controllers, OTN subnetwork managers, and legacy network management systems. The MEF NRM model is specified in Papyrus UML and is based on current and developing best network management solutions by ITU-T, ONF, and TM Forum to allow for wider interoperability across multi-vendor and multi-technology platforms. This approach also facilitates upcoming work on OAM and OTN.

Along with the LSO RA, the MEF NRM serves as a basis for the new MEF 60 specification and thus supports the LSO Presto interface.

MEF is playing a leading role to deliver the seamless management of services and resources in a multi-carrier, multi-vendor, multi-technology environment, said Andrea Mazzini, editor of MEF 59 and Senior Systems Engineer, Nokia. Interoperable network management models are a fundamental part of the picture and play a key role in the standardization of agile, assured, and orchestrated end-to-end connectivity.

CenturyLink, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Ericsson, Huawei, Infinera, NEC, and RAD joined Nokia in contributing to MEF 59.

Network Resource Provisioning  Interface Profile Specification (MEF 60)

MEF members have been working to create a suite of standardized LSO Presto APIs defined in MEF Interface Profile Specifications (IPSs) dealing with network resource provisioning, performance monitoring, and other functions over various technology domains. MEF 60 is an LSO Presto NRP IPS.

MEF 60 provides an abstracted, intent-based solution for activation of  as well as topology retrieval of  network resources in support of MEF-defined services. The specification is complemented by an enhanced LSO Presto SDK (software development kit) that has been made available to the MEF Developer Community on the MEF GitHub.

"The CenturyLink-led MEF 60 provides an essential solution in the overall development of the MEF LSO portfolio of APIs, said Jack Pugaczewski, editor of MEF 60 and Distinguished Architect, CenturyLink. This development effort is a great example of a traditional standards development and open source hybrid, which resulted in a quality, expedited specification alongside the release of a corresponding API and SDK."

MEF 60 is an excellent illustration of standards collaboration between industry organizations, said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. Specifically, MEF 60 leverages ONFs TAPI model for network resource activation and topology. The LSO Presto NRP API already is integrated into an OpenDaylight SDN controller plug-in, created by the MEF Developer Community working alongside the ODL UNI Manager project. And LSO Presto NRP service provisioning scenarios will be tested as part of the OIF 2018 SDN Transport API Interop Demo.

CenturyLink, Amartus, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Ericsson, Huawei, Infinera, Iometrix, NEC, Nokia, and RAD contributed to MEF 60.

About MEF

An industry association of 200+ member companies, MEF recently introduced the MEF 3.0 transformational global services framework for defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated services over a global ecosystem of automated networks. MEF 3.0 services are designed to provide an on-demand, cloud-centric experience with user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities. MEF 3.0 services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV. MEF produces service specifications, LSO frameworks, open LSO APIs, software-driven reference implementations, and certification programs. MEF 3.0 work will enable automated delivery of standardized Layer 1, Carrier Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 4-7 services across multiple provider networks. For more information: https://www.mef.net.

Additional resources:

Media Contact:

Ashley Schulte

Witz Communications for MEF

ashley@witzcommunications.com
[April 10, 2018]

PwC Canada reveals finalists for 2018 Vision to Reality Awards

TORONTO, April 10, 2018 /CNW/ - PwC Canada announced today the list of finalists for the 2018 Vision to Reality (V2R) Awards. This year's awards were open to organizations of all sizes, industries and sectors whose innovative ideas have added value to people, business or society.

"Congratulations to all the 2018 V2R Awards finalists. The high quality of applications we received this year is a testament to the continuing growth and influence of Canadian organizations that are making their mark by pushing the boundaries of innovation," said Tahir Ayub, Managing Partner, Markets and Industries, PwC Canada. "We are thrilled to see growth and diversity in applications, evidence that organizations from a range of industries are bringing their visions to life."

An independent panel of judges, comprised of prominent members of the business community with experience in assessing innovative organizations, evaluated the applications. The judging panel selected a shortlist of finalists, which are soon to be further evaluated to identify winners in each category.

For the first time, PwC Canada introduced a new category to recognize innovation in public sector organizations: The Accelerator category. In addition to this new category, the firm will recognize innovation in three other categories: The Visionary, The Builder, and The Reinventor.

2018 Finalists

To find out more about the finalists, please click here. The Awards winners will be revealed at an exclusive awards celebration on Thursday, May 10 in Toronto.

For more information on the Vision to Reality Awards or our independent panel of judges, please visit www.pwc.com/ca/en/vision-to-reality.html.

Follow PwC on Twitter at @PwC_Canada and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pwccanada.

About PwC Canada

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. More than 6,700 partners and staff in offices across the country are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax, consulting and deals services. PwC Canada is a member of the PwC network of firms with more than 236,235 people in 158 countries. Find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com/ca.

 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership. All rights reserved.

PwC refers to the Canadian member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see http://www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

SOURCE PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
[April 09, 2018] Innovative Industrial Properties Acquires Pennsylvania Property and Enters Into Long-Term Lease with Vireo Health

Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE: IIPR), the leading provider of creative real estate capital solutions to the medical-use cannabis industry, announced today that it closed on the acquisition of a property located at 2000 Rosanna Avenue in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which comprises approximately 89,000 square feet of industrial space. The purchase price for the property was approximately $5.8 million. A subsidiary of Vireo Health, Inc. ("Vireo Health"), the tenant at the property, is also expected to complete additional tenant improvements for the building, for which the Company has agreed to provide reimbursement of up to approximately $2.8 million (the "TI Allowance"). Assuming full reimbursement for the tenant improvements, the Company's total investment in the property will be $8.6 million. In addition to its cultivation and processing of medical-use cannabis in Pennsylvania at the property, Vireo Health operates one cultivation and processing facility and four registered medical-use cannabis dispensaries in Minnesota, and one cultivation and processing facility and four registered medical-use cannabis dispensaries in New York. Concurrent with the closing of the purchase, the Company entered into a long-term, triple-net lease agreement with the Vireo Health subsidiary, which intends to continue to operate the property as a medical-use cannabis cultivation and processing facility in accordance with Pennsylvania medical-use cannabis regulations. The initial term of the lease is 15 years, with two options to extend the term for two additional five-year periods. The lease provides for an initial annualized aggregate base rent equal to 15% of the sum of the purchase price of the property and the TI Allowance. The aggregate base rent is subject to annual increases of 3.5% during the term of the lease. The Company previously executed two sale-leaseback transactions with Vireo Health for its cultivation and processing facilities in New York and Minnesota in 2017, representing a total investment by the Company of approximately $8.4 million, including a $1.0 million tenant improvement allowance available at each property to fund future tenant improvements. These leases were also for 15 year initial terms, with initial annualized aggregate base rent equal to 15% of the sum of the purchase price and tenant improvement allowance made available for each property. Pennsylvania, the fifth largest state in the country with nearly 13 million residents, enacted medical-use cannabis egislation in May 2016, and dispensaries made their first sales in February of this year. Twelve grower/processor licenses were issued in the first phase of this program, including the license to Vireo Health, with a total of 25 grower/processor licenses potentially issuable pursuant to the legislation. Although in its very early stages, as of early March, more than 21,000 patients were registered to participate in the medical cannabis program. In recognition of the large market potential, the strong support of the state's residents and the significant range of qualifying medical conditions under the program, ArcView Market Research projects Pennsylvania's total medical-use cannabis spending to grow rapidly, with $227 million in sales by 2021.



"We are very pleased to close on this third transaction with Vireo Health in Pennsylvania, projected by many to become one of the largest medical-use cannabis markets in the country," said Ben Regin, Director of Investments and Finance of the Company. "We believe our transactions with Vireo Health clearly illustrate the value of our platform, partnering long-term with our tenants to opportunistically unlock the value of their real estate and redeploy that capital into their expanding operations." "Innovative Industrial Properties has proven to be a great real estate partner in addressing our capital needs, allowing us to move forward effectively and efficiently with our expansion plans through our series of real estate transactions with them," said Kyle Kingsley, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vireo Health. "We are thrilled to execute on this latest transaction in Pennsylvania with IIP, and look forward to watching the momentum build for the Pennsylvania market and expansion of the program to serve our patients."

About Innovative Industrial Properties Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. is a self-advised Maryland corporation focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of specialized industrial properties leased to experienced, state-licensed operators for their regulated medical-use cannabis facilities. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. intends to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. Additional information is available at www.innovativeindustrialproperties.com. About Vireo Health Vireo Health is a physician-led company dedicated to providing patients with best-in-class cannabis-based products and high-quality care. Vireo Health is the parent company of two vertically integrated, seed-to-sale, medical-cannabis subsidiaries - Vireo Health of New York and Minnesota Medical Solutions. Vireo Health also runs Pennsylvania Medical Solutions, a cultivation, manufacturing and wholesale medical cannabis distribution company that has just begun operations in the Keystone State. Additional information is available at www.vireohealth.com. Innovative Industrial Properties Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that the Company believes to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than historical facts, including, without limitation, statements regarding the lease of the Pennsylvania property, Vireo Health and the Pennsylvania medical-use cannabis market, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as we "expect," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "should" or the negative thereof or similar terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such statements. Investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409005225/en/

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[April 09, 2018] FASTSIGNS Franchisees Recognized for Giving Back to Their Communities

CARROLLTON, Texas, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., a leading sign and graphics franchisor with more than 675 locations worldwide, recently recognized five FASTSIGNS franchisees for their local charitable works and community involvement as part of the FASTSIGNS Cares initiative. Franchisees across the United States and Canada participate in local philanthropic efforts throughout the year, including providing free or discounted signs and graphics, volunteering time, hosting events, donating banners to returning military servicemen and women, and giving financial donations to local organizations. This year, winners of the internal "Show Us How You Care" initiative were chosen by their peers during the 2018 FASTSIGNS International Convention in Houston, Texas. In addition to the recognition, each franchisee recognized earned a donation of $1,000 for their local charity of choice: FASTSIGNS of Windsor, Ontario, Canada , owned by Jackie Raymond and Donna Bilodeau , donated $1,000 to The Hospice of Windsor and Essex County.

, owned by and , donated to The Hospice of and Essex County. FASTSIGNS of San Antonio  Northwest, owned by Stephanie and Chuck Drileck , donated $1,000 to the Petco Foundation.

 Northwest, owned by , donated to the Petco Foundation. FASTSIGNS of Orlando  Central, owned by Renee Friedman , donated $1,000 to Friends of Down Syndrome.

 Central, owned by , donated to Friends of Down Syndrome. FASTSIGNS of Englewood  Littleton, owned by Barbara and Matt Metcalf and Larissa and Dan Croll, donated $1,000 to Developmental Disabilities Resource Center - Weiland Center Parent Advisory Board.

 Littleton, owned by and FASTSIGNS of Uniontown , owned by Brenda Stipanovich , donated $1,000 to the American Heart Association.



$250 were made on behalf of five additional "Show Us How You Care" finalists to their local charities of choice, which included Stembassadors in Ventura, California ; The Children's Shelter in Lawrence, Kansas ; Special Kneads & Treats Bakery in Snellville, Georgia ; Delta Young Life in Antioch, California ; and Cove Valley Youth Camp in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania .

"We know that FASTSIGNS centers do a lot in their local communities to give back and make a positive impact," said Catherine Monson, CEO of FASTSIGNS International, Inc. "We are so proud of the many ways FASTSIGNS franchisees and their teams serve others. Through the FASTSIGNS 'Show Us How You Care' awards, we recognize the wonderful acts of kindness in our network and the local organizations that are very near and dear to franchisees' hearts."

About FASTSIGNS Cares

FASTSIGNS Cares blends local fundraising, team building and community involvement. Whether it's raising awareness for money for local charities, or honoring returning servicemen and women with signs and banners, FASTSIGNS local charitable endeavors are as diverse as our network of independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers. About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of more than 675 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in eight countries including the U.S., Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE). FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or on LinkedIn. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson (mark.jameson@fastsigns.com or call 214.346.5679). View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fastsigns-franchisees-recognized-for-giving-back-to-their-communities-300626546.html SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc.

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[April 09, 2018] HIV Protest: Florida Medicaid Contract Denial Will Disrupt Health Coverage for Thousands, Says AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider and largest global AIDS organization, today blasted Florida Medicaid officials for their failure to renew an HIV care contract with AHF's Positive Healthcare-a respected non-profit which has been providing critical health insurance coverage for people living with HIV in Florida since 1999. AHF says the state's move will recklessly disrupt care for a vulnerable population of nearly 2,000 Florida HIV patients. In response to the decision, AHF and Positive Healthcare are spearheading a PROTEST in FORT LAUDERDALE on Tuesday, April 10th starting at 10:30am in front of the Broward County Area Office of the state's Medicaid agency (1400 W. Commercial Blvd., Ft Lauderdale FL 33309). The protesters-expected to be about 50 HIV/AIDS advocates, community partners & others-will seek to persuade state officials to renew its Medicaid contract with Positive Healthcare.







WHAT: PROTEST over Denial of Florida Medicaid HIV Care Contract HIV/AIDS advocates, community partners & others to protest Florida Medicaid's move to deny renewal of an HIV care contract with AHF's Positive Healthcare. WHEN: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM WHERE: In front of: Florida Medicaid Program's Broward Area Office (Agency for Health Care Administration) 1400 W. Commercial Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309 WHO: PROTESTERS: 50+ HIV/AIDS advocates, community partners and others

AHF MEDIA CONTACT: Imara Canady, Imara.Canady@aidshealth.org - 954.952.0258 mobile "The reality is that Florida is the epicenter of the HIV epidemic in the United States today, and people living with HIV should have the right to choose where they receive their HIV care," said Mike Kahane, AHF Bureau Chief, Southern Region. "AHF is a highly respected non-profit organization devoted to serving the needs of the patient. Our Positive Healthcare program has been doing so in partnership with the State of Florida on behalf of its Medicaid population living with HIV for nearly twenty years. And unlike most large insurance providers like Aetna and United Health, Positive Healthcare provides wraparound services, including access to our AHF healthcare centers where expert HIV medical care is provided, as well as access to our AHF Pharmacies, all staffed with teams solely dedicated to helping patients overcome barriers to care. If this critical health coverage is eliminated by Medicaid officials, thousands of Floridians living with HIV will have their care disrupted." AHF Launches Statewide Ad Campaign Challenging Florida Medicaid Officials on HIV Care Contract

In addition to the Florida Medicaid/HIV care contract protest set for Tuesday in Ft. Lauderdale, AHF advocates also kicked off a statewide newspaper advocacy ad campaign with a full-page, full-color ad which ran in five major daily newspapers in Florida on Sunday, April 8th. The ad, with the headline, "Why Are Florida Medicaid Officials Disrupting Healthcare Coverage for People Living with HIV?", ran in the 'Miami Herald,' the 'Sun-Sentinel' in Ft. Lauderdale, the 'Tallahassee Democrat,' the 'Tampa Bay Times' and the 'Florida Times-Union' in Jacksonville. The advocacy ads included several alarming statistics about HIV in Florida including the following facts: Nearly 5,000 people in Florida were infected with HIV in 2016 alone, which means one out of every eight new HIV infections in the United States occurred in Florida.

South Florida leads the nation in new HIV diagnoses at 38.7 new infections per every 100,000 people. In contrast, the overall rate in the United States is 12.3 new infections per every 100,000 people.

Nearly 136,000 Floridians are estimated to be living with HIV, but one in six is still not aware of his or her HIV-positive status.

More than 30,000 Floridians currently living with HIV are not receiving care for their infection. The ad urged readers to go to the website: HIVcare.org/Florida to learn more and how you can support those living with HIV. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 889,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook (News - Alert) : www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) : @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409006475/en/

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Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Announces Investigation on Behalf of JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Investors (JELD)

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE: JELD) investors concerning the Company and its directors' and officers' possible violations of state laws.

If you purchased JELD-WEN stock, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerningthis announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Bryan Faubus, of GPM, 230 Park Avenue, Suite 530, New York, NY 10169 at 212-682-5340 or at bfaubus@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.







This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180409006483/en/
[April 10, 2018] PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. Sets New Monthly Sales Record in March 2018, With $2.2 Million in Sales

FT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE--PotNetwork Holding, Inc. (OTC Pink:POTN) On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. announced record breaking sales performance for March 2018. With over $2.2 million in sales revenue recorded across the month, the company has posted a 152% year over year increase when compared with March 2017.

Diamond CBD, Inc.'s efforts in Kenya



With over $6.3 million in revenues recorded for Q1 of 2018, PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. is well on track to exceed its performance in 2017. The company recently announced the release of audited consolidated financial statements reporting 2017 sales of $14.5 million, with gross profits of $5,180,865, and, despite making large reinvestments in its future growth, positive net income of $178,918. The company's wholly owned subsidiary, Diamond CBD, Inc. has been aggressively exploring new business development opportunities. In March 2018, the company presented its products at the high profile industry leading trade shows ASD Market Week and Global Pet Expo. As a provider of the highest quality CBD hemp oil products, Diamond CBD, Inc. continues to attract new customers in verticals such as petcare products which are allowing the brand to differentiate itself in the market. In 2017, American pet owners spent more than $69.36 billion on their pets. Of that number, nearly $15 million was spent on over-the-counter health and wellness products in the same category as Diamond CBD, Inc.'s recently released "MediPets" product line.



Between April 17 and 27, 2018, Diamond CBD, Inc. is launching an African business development project by contributing material support and resources towards community action projects taking place across Kenya. Diamond CBD, Inc.'s efforts in Kenya align the brand's corporate culture with values of corporate social responsibility and service to the community.



Recently, the Company launched its first international charity event in Manila, Philippines. Co-sponsored by Diamond CBD, Inc.'s marketing partner, XPO2, this charitable event offered over 100 at-risk children and adolescents hundreds of items of food as well as critical supplies such as soap, clothing and blankets. Diamond CBD, Inc. is dedicated to offering financial returns to investors as well as measurable benefits to society and the local environment in which the business operates. About Diamond CBD, Inc. : Diamond CBD focuses on the research, development, and multinational marketing of premium hemp extracts that contain a broad range of cannabinoids and natural hemp derivatives. Diamond CBD's team consists of hemp industry pioneers and natural product experts, chemists, doctors and scientists, dedicated to producing the finest and purest cannabidiol (CBD) oils. The result is a robust selection considered among the most powerful natural CBD oils, tinctures, edibles, and vape liquids found anywhere. For more information, please visit its website at www.DiamondCBD.com. About PotNetwork Holdings, Inc : PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. (OTC Pink:POTN) is a publicly traded company that acts as a holding company for its subsidiary, First Capital Venture Co., the owner of Diamond CBD, Inc., the maker of Diamond CBD oils. Safe Harbor Act: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact: PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. Investor Relations: Marisol Elwell, 1-800-915-3060 investor@PotNetworkHolding.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7902da34-3c33-4b17-9c35-8402e34224be

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[April 10, 2018] Versa Networks to Exhibit and Present at MPLS + SDN + NFV World 2018

Versa showcasing leading SD-Security features and Cloud IP Platform;

Vice President EMEA Sales, Hector Avalos, speaking at two separate sessions SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Versa Networks, a leading innovator of next-generation software-based networking and security solutions, today announced that the company will be exhibiting its leading Secure Software-Defined Branch (SD-Branch) solution and speaking in two sessions at the MPLS + SDN + NFV World conference (booth #403). Delivered by its Cloud IP platform, Versas Secure SD-Branch brings networking and security together, enabling service providers to address their customers multi-cloud challenges and combat an ever-increasing number of threats. Vice President of EMEA Sales, Hector Avalos, will be speaking in a pair of sessions during the NFV and 5G tracks on Thursday, April 12. MPLS + SDN + NFV World takes place April 10-13 in Paris. What: In his track, Advanced Network Security Services for SD-WAN Solutions, Hector will explore different schemes to deliver advanced network security services for SD-WAN solutions, including SD-Security. In the panel, The need for a wider scope of features in terms of security, Hector will join fellow panelists Rachna Srivastava, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, VMware and Nav Chander, Senior Director Service Provider Marketing, Silver Peak with moderator Amir Zmora, CEO SwitchRTC. For more information on these tracks and others at the conference, please visit: http://www.uppersideconferences.com/mpls-sdn-nfv/index.html Where: Both of Hectors speaking tracks will be held in the Level 1 conference room located at the Marriott Conference Cnter Paris, Marriott Rive Gauche, 17 Bd Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris.



When: The Advanced Network Security Services for SD-WAN Solutions, track begins at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 12, 2018. And The need for a wider scope of features in terms of security, panel begins at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 12, 2018. Who: Hector Avalos has over 25 years of experience in the computing, networking and telecommunications industries. He is currently VP EMEA Sales and Business Development at Versa Networks. His current activities are focused on virtual CPE, Software-Defined WAN and Software-Defined Security solutions for Service Providers and Enterprises. Prior to Versa, Hector worked four years at Ericsson as Head of technology, architectures, solutions and strategy and nine years at Juniper Networks as Technical Director. He possesses a BSc. in Computing Science from UDLA Mexico.

Why: Increasingly, the branch or remote office is becoming a common entry point for cyber-attacks into the enterprise. Industry analysts noted in 2013 that attack volume for branch offices would grow more than 500 percent by 2016. Fast forward to today, and while the attack landscape has broadened and become more sophisticated, branch security architectures and the managed service offerings often used to deploy and operate them, have not significantly evolved. Point security appliances  usually firewalls or unified threat management (UTM) devices  or add-on software in a branch router are used to approximate perimeter data center security at the branch. Enterprises with multiple branches today either manage their security devices in-house or leverage a managed service provider. Regardless, there are multiple challenges to address when multiple security technologies are deployed as separate resources in the branch, including cloud apps/internet connectivity; complexity and cost of ownership; complexity and risk of error and lack of agility. Adopting a software-defined and NFV-based approach, such as Versa Networks Cloud IP Platform, gives enterprises and managed service providers the flexibility to deploy the right security functions necessary to meet an ever-increasing complex threat landscape while reducing deployment times, operation complexity and significantly reducing capex and operating costs. Interview Opportunities: To schedule a time to speak with Hector Avalos, contact Versa@10Fold.com. More Information

Follow Versa Networks on Twitter @versanetworks

To request a demo, please visit Versa Networks at http://www.versa-networks.com/request-a-demo. About Versa Networks

Versa Networks is a leading innovator in the SD-WAN and SD-Security market. Versas solutions enable service providers and large enterprises to transform enterprise WANs to achieve unprecedented business advantages. Versas carrier-grade cloud-native software platform provides unmatched agility, cost savings and flexibility, transforming the business of networking. The company is backed by premier venture investors Sequoia, Mayfield, Artis Ventures and Verizon Ventures. For more information, visit https://www.versa-networks.com. Versa Networks Media Contact:

Rick Popko

(415) 800-5381

versa@10fold.com

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[April 10, 2018] Panopto Introduces the Easiest Way to Manage, Search, and Replay GoToMeeting Recordings

SEATTLE, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Panopto, a leading video platform provider for businesses and universities, today announced an integration with GoToMeeting that dramatically simplifies the process of managing, sharing, and searching inside GoToMeeting recordings. For many organizations, recording online meetings and web conferences has become an efficient way to preserve and share the knowledge of their employees. Many web conferencing solutions, including GoToMeeting, provide basic recording functionality that captures the audio and screen content presented in online meetings. However, GoToMeeting's built-in recording capability has three fundamental shortcomings: At the end of a meeting, GoToMeeting recordings are simply downloaded to the presenter's computer, limiting how easily they can be shared with co-workers. GoToMeeting video files aren't formatted for efficient streaming across corporate networks and the internet, creating an unnecessary strain on bandwidth. GoToMeeting recordings don't make the content from online meetings searchable, thereby limiting the value of each video as an on-demand reference for other employees. Today's announcement addresses these shortcomings with an elegant solution that requires minimal setup and configuration. Users simply install GoToMeeting, install Panopto, and click one checkbox within the Panopto interface. From that point, any recordings initiated from GoToMeeting will be automatically uploaded to Panopto and published to the user's personal folder for instant acess and secure sharing.



"Online meetings have become the preferred way to exchange ideas and information in real time, but their value is transient if the meetings aren't recorded and shared," said Eric Burns, co-founder and CEO of Panopto. "Today, we're taking the next logical step, enabling employees to automatically publish their GoToMeeting recordings and share them in a secure, searchable video library." Making GoToMeeting Recordings Network-friendly and Searchable

When GoToMeeting recordings are uploaded to Panopto, they're automatically transcoded for optimal playback on any device and efficient streaming across corporate WANs and the internet using modern video streaming protocols.

Panopto also indexes each GoToMeeting recording so that the content presented during the meeting, including every word spoken and shown on-screen, can be searched by keyword without the need for manual tagging. This enables viewers to find and fast-forward to precise moments in the meeting where a given topic was covered. Panopto's GoToMeeting integration will be available at no additional cost to Panopto customers. This new integration with GoToMeeting follows similar integrations Panopto has established with other web conferencing solutions, including Zoom, Bluejeans, and Skype for Business. About Panopto

Panopto helps businesses and universities create searchable video libraries of their institutional knowledge. Since 2007, the company has been a pioneer in video capture software, video content management systems, and inside-video search technology. Today, Panopto's video platform is the largest repository of expert learning videos in the world. Headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Pittsburgh, London, Hong Kong, and Sydney, Panopto has received industry recognition for its innovation, rapid growth, and company culture. For more information, visit www.panopto.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/panopto-introduces-the-easiest-way-to-manage-search-and-replay-gotomeeting-recordings-300626965.html SOURCE Panopto

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[April 10, 2018] LifeMap Sciences Announces WGS Phenotype-Driven Structural Variation Interpretation in Version 3 of its Clinical Genetics Platform, TGex

LifeMap Sciences, a subsidiary of AgeX Therapeutics, has announced the release of Version 3.0 of its clinical genetics platform, TGex, including phenotype-driven analysis and interpretation for structural variations, leveraging the GeneCards Suite Knowledgebase (www.genecards.org), the GeneHancer database, and VarElect (varelect.genecards.org). The new version introduces a revolutionary way of interpreting structural variations based on patient phenotypes. Whether the variation affects a protein coding gene, or a regulatory element that is associated with it, TGex scores the variation based on the association with the patient's phenotypes, and provides detailed evidence, including link between enhancers and genes, and, most importantly, the association between the gene and the phenotype. For this purpose, TGex leverages the GeneHancer database, a part of the GeneCards Suite Knowledgebase, which is a comprehensive database of regulatory elements and their association with genes integrated from four data sources. Together with VarElect, it enables linking all the way from regulatory elements (enhancers / promoters) to a set of phenotypes through associated genes. Implemented within TGex, it allows one to perform phenotype-driven analysis on both CNVs and SNVs on a genome-wide scale. "With more labs transitioning from Exome to Whole Genome Sequencing, and starting to look at structural variations as part of the interpretation process for rare disorders, we believe we are addressing a big challenge in making sense of these by providing this innovative phenotype-driven interpretation solution," said Yaron Guan-Golan, CEO of LifeMap Sciences. "We are delighted to see how the knowledgebase and tools of the GeneCards Suite, including VarElect and GeneHancer, empower TGex's Whole Genome Sequencing interpretation," said Prof. Doron Lancet, Principal Investigator of the GeneCards Suite project at the Weizmann Institute of Science. About LifeMap Sciences LifeMap Sciences is a life sciences technology company that develops and commercializes innovative Next Generation Sequencing analysis solutions and tools, as well as the company's core tehnology, the GeneCards Suite Knowledgebase, which is developed at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel, to improve biomedical research & healthcare. Its TGex platform (https://tgex-app.genecards.org and https://tgex-app.genecards.cn in China) is a Clinical Genetics platform that provides accurate and rapid analysis, interpretation and reporting for rare disease diagnosis, health screening and tumor biopsy. TGex is based on the GeneCards Suite Knowledgebase (www.genecards.org), which integrates information from more than 150 data sources and is a popular biomedical database that is used by 3.5 million users from >3,000 institutions world-wide, including top biotech-pharma, hospitals and academia.



About the Weizmann Institute of Science and GeneCards The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, and scientific, technical and administrative staff. In addition, visiting scientists and their families - over 500 from 35 countries are regularly hosted at the Institute. The Institute was founded in 1934 following a donation from Israel and Rebecca Sieff to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a noted biochemist and biotechnologist, who envisioned the establishment of a world-class scientific research center in Israel, and later also became the first President of the State of Israel. Weizmann Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, established in 1958, has 1200 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students enrolled in studies covering the Institute's five faculties: Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics and Computer Science. The Institute's technology transfer arm, Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. was the first company of its kind in Israel, and is currently one of the most successful worldwide. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment. Particular excellence in bioinformatics and systems biology is manifested, among others, in the GeneCards project, initiated in 1996, under the leadership of Prof. Doron Lancet of the Dept. of Molecular Genetics, until recently Head of the Crown Human Genome Center. A team of 10 led by Marilyn Safran continuously innovates and keeps GeneCards as a world-top human gene compendium, automatically mining and integrating 150 worldwide web resources.

About AgeX Therapeutics. AgeX Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc., is a biotechnology company applying technology relating to cellular immortality and regenerative biology to aging and age-related diseases. The company has three initial areas of product development: pluripotent stem cell-derived brown adipocytes (AGEX-BAT1); vascular progenitors (AGEX-VASC1); and induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR). Initial planned indications for these products are Type 2 diabetes, cardiac ischemia, and scarless tissue regeneration respectively. AgeX's ESI (News - Alert) BIO division markets stem cell lines for the research product market. For more information, please visit www.agexinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter or Facebook (News - Alert) . View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005731/en/

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[April 10, 2018] dynaCERT Expands its Dealer Network in the Middle East with Mr. Maheboob Nagji and Closes Second Tranche of Equity Private Placement

TORONTO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- dynaCERT Inc. (TSX VENTURE:DYA) (OTCQB:DYFSF) (DAX:DMJ) ("dynaCERT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it is expanding its network of dealers with the appointment of a key dealer for Dubai and the greater region of the Middle East. In conjunction with this dealer expansion, dynaCERTs official launch in the Middle East is scheduled for a trade show in Dubai during the week of May 7, 2018 where the media will be featuring our HydraGEN Technology.

dynaCERT is also pleased to announce that Mr. Maheboob Rahemtulla Nagji is joining the Companys Advisory Board. Having spent his entire professional life as an entrepreneur, Mr. Nagji's family trading business, Orchid Gulf, has grown under his management. He has expanded Orchid Gulfs existing paper merchant business to increase its presence in the Middle East, Africa and India. He has had a keen attachment to environmental issues ever since he received his Juris Doctor in Environmental Law from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon in 1998. In addition to having a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan, he is also alumni of Harvard Business School. Mr. Nagji stated, "Im very optimistic about the present and future outlook of dynaCERT in the Middle East. I have great confidence in management and the board. dynaCERTs carbon emission reduction technologies can play a positive role in the transportation and energy sectors on a global scale. Jim Payne, President & CEO of dynaCERT, states, We are pleased to enhance the Advisory Board with the addition of Maheboob. As a successful businessman and entrepreneur, Maheboobs expertise and connections in the international business community can be invaluable to the Company. Closing of Second Tranche of Private Placement dynaCERT is pleased to announce the closing of the second tranche of its non-brokered equity private placement, as previously announced on January 31, 2018 (the Financing) via the issuance of 3,354,285 units at a price of $0.42 per unit for gross proceeds of $1,408,800. When combined with the first tranche closing of the Financing (pursuant to which 2,894,762 units were issued on February 22, 2018 for gross proceeds of $1,215,800), the aggregate gross proceeds raised under the Financing to date is $2,624,600, with an aggregate of 6,249,047 units having been issued. The Financing is expected to be completed in multiple tranches, for gross proceeds of up to $3,000,000. Each unit consists of one common share and one-half of one common share purhase warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable at $0.50 for a period of one year from closing, provided however that in the event that the Company's common shares trade at a price above $1.00 per common share on the TSX Venture Exchange for twenty (20) consecutive trading days, dynaCERT shall have the right to give notice to holders that the warrants shall expire within thirty (30) days of such notice. Proceeds from the Financing will be used to fund working capital, manufacturing and special projects of the Company. All of the common shares and warrants that have been issued today in connection with the Financing are subject to statutory four-month hold periods, expiring on August 11, 2018.



About dynaCERT Inc.

dynaCERT Inc. manufactures, distributes, and installs Carbon Emission Reduction Technology for use with internal combustion engines. As part of the growing global hydrogen economy, our patent-pending technology creates hydrogen and oxygen on-demand through electrolysis and supplies these through the air intake to enhance combustion, resulting in lower carbon emissions and greater fuel efficiency. Our technology is designed for use with all types and sizes of diesel engines used in on-road vehicles, reefer trailers, off-road construction, power generation, marine vessels and railroad locomotives. Website: www.dynaCERT.com READER ADVISORY

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to: the completion of additional tranches of the Financing and the potential uses of the proceeds from the Financing. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; the uncertainty of the emerging hydrogen economy; including the hydrogen economy moving at a pace not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements; and the other risk factors disclosed under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. 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 the release. On Behalf of the Board Murray James Payne, CEO

For more information, please contact: Jim Payne, CEO & President

dynaCERT Inc.

#101  501 Alliance Avenue

Toronto, Ontario M6N 2J1

(416) 766-9691 x 2

jpayne@dynaCERT.com Investor Relations

dynaCERT Inc.

Nancy Massicotte

(416) 766-9691 x 1

ir@ dynaCERT .com

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SEATTLE, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CFN Media Group (CFN Media), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the North American cannabis industry, announces publication of an article covering NanoSphere Health Sciences Inc.'s (CSE:NSHS) (CSE:NSHS.CN) (CNSX:NSHS) recent announcement that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Patent No. 9,925,149 covering the core technology behind the production of its NanoSphere Delivery System, which paves the way for commercialization of its breakthrough delivery technology.



Researchers might know that active pharmaceutical ingredients produce a certain result in cells, but they often face difficulty delivering those APIs to target areas within the body. Many of the most promising companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical spaces are focused on developing drug delivery technologies designed to bring precise doses of APIs to highly specific targets without being degraded by the liver, digestive system or other parts of the body.

NanoSphere Delivery System

NanoSphere Health Sciences NanoSphere Delivery System is one of the most important advancements for the non-invasive delivery of biological agents in over 25 years. By nanoencapsulating a broad range of bioactive compounds in a protective, lipid membrane, the delivery platform transports them rapidly and effectively into the bloodstream and cells, while also making the active ingredients safer and more bioavailable by delivering precise doses to target sites.

The cannabis industry may be legal across much of North America, but physicians and patients have struggled to accurately prescribe the drug even if they know its safe and efficacious. For example, researchers have found that the bioavailability of cannabinoids differs greatly between individuals and delivery methods. The companys NanoSphere Delivery System can help bypass first-pass metabolism and enhance and stabilize the bioavailability of cannabinoids.

In addition to cannabis, the NanoSphere Delivery System can be applied to many different hard-to-absorb nutrients, such as fat-soluble vitamins, fatty acids, minerals, botanical extracts, and phytochemicals. The technology could help increase bioavailability of these agents compared to traditional methods without the need to swallow capsules or take tinctures. These benefits could be enormous in the multi-billion dollar nutraceutical industry.

Building an IP Portfolio

NanoSphere Health Sciences new patent broadly covers the formation and manufacturing of lipid, structural nanoparticles, which is the NanoSphere Delivery System, for the delivery of cannabinoids, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and other biological agents. In particular, the patent extends to its 16 forms of lipid nanoparticle structures, which can be applied across healthcare sectors for vastly improved delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The granting of the patent for the NanoSphere Delivery System secures our position as a leader in advanced nanoparticle delivery, said NanoSphere Health Sciences CEO Robert Sutton in the press release announcing the new patent. Major industries have the potential to be reshaped and reimagined by our next-generation technology.

With the new patent, NanoSphere Health Sciences will have long-term market exclusivity over the delivery platform. The company plans to license the patented NanoSphere Delivery System and its proprietary manufacturing process to select companies in its target industries to maximize commercialization. The patent also enables the company to develop its own product lines, including Evolve Formulas transdermal, intranasal, and intraoral cannabis applications.

Looking Ahead

NanoSphere Health Sciences Inc. (CSE:NSHS) (OTC:NSHSF) represents a compelling investment opportunity in the drug delivery space. With its new patent in place, the company is well-positioned to commercialize its breakthrough technology in both the cannabis industry and the wider nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Keep an eye NanoSphere as it pursues opportunities in these potentially lucrative markets.

For more information, visit the companys website at www.nanospherehealth.com.

Please follow the link to read the full article: http://www.cannabisfn.com/nanosphere-health-sciences-achieves-landmark-patent/

About CFN Media

CFN Media (CannabisFN) is the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the global cannabis industry, helps companies operating in the space attract investors, capital, and publicity. Since 2013, private and public cannabis companies in the US and Canada have relied on CFN Media to grow and succeed.

Learn how to become a CFN Media client company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/featuredcompany

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Disclaimer

CannabisFN.com is not an independent financial investment advisor or broker-dealer. You should always consult with your own independent legal, tax, and/or investment professionals before making any investment decisions. The information provided on http://www.cannabisfn.com (the Site) is either original financial news or paid advertisements drafted by our in-house team or provided by an affiliate. CannabisFN.com, a financial news media and marketing firm enters into media buys or service agreements with the companies that are the subject of the articles posted on the Site or other editorials for advertising such companies. We are not an independent news media provider. We make no warranty or representation about the information including its completeness, accuracy, truthfulness or reliability and we disclaim, expressly and implicitly, all warranties of any kind, including whether the Information is complete, accurate, truthful, or reliable. As such, your use of the information is at your own risk. Nor do we undertake any obligation to update the items posted. CannabisFN.com received compensation for producing and presenting high quality and sophisticated content on CannabisFN.com along with financial and corporate news.

The above article is sponsored content. Emerging Growth LLC, which owns CannabisFN.com and CFN Media, has been hired to create awareness. Please follow the link below to view our full disclosure outlining our compensation: http://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/

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[April 10, 2018] Patriot One partners with reseller UnitedEye at ISC West in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patriot One Technologies Inc., (TSX.V:PAT) (OTCQX:PTOTF) (FRANKFURT:0PL) (Patriot One or the Company), developer of a revolutionary concealed weapons detection system, will be attending ISC West this week in Las Vegas, the largest security industry trade show in the United States.

Last year, Patriot One Technologies won the 2017 Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection category of the Security Industry Association's New Product Showcase at ISC West. Patriot One will be showing its PATSCAN CMR concealed weapon detection radar device at Booth 33101 with its North American reseller partner UnitedEye inside the Sands Exposition Hall. In addition, other global security system integrators, resellers and solution providers attending ISC West are welcome to schedule a meeting with Patriot One Technologies business development team via Allison Lumsden at allisonl@patriot1tech.com on Wednesday, April 11th or Thursday, April 12th, as well as take a tour of the Companys new development center in Las Vegas. PATSCAN is a unique Cognitive Microwave Radar technology that can covertly detect concealed weapons. It can be installed at key access points in buildings and facilities and can create an instant alert that triggers a security response to help deter, detect and defend against security threats. About Patriot One Technologies, Inc. (TSX.V:PAT) (OTCQX:PTOTF) (FRANKFURT:0PL):

Patriot One has developed PATSCAN CMR the next generation of its award-winning radar device and software solution. PATSCAN CMR is a first-of-its-kind Cognitive Microwave Radar concealed weapons detection system, designed as an effective tool to combat active shooter threats before they occur. Built for cost-effective deployment in weapon-restricted buildings and facilities, the Patriot One software solution and related hardware can be installed in hallways and doorways to covertl identify weapons and to alert security of an active threat entering the premises. Owner/operators of private and certain public facilities can now prominently post anti-weapons policies with compliance assured. The Company's motto Deter, Detect and Defend is based on the belief that widespread use of its technology will act as an effective deterrent, thereby diminishing the epidemic phenomena of active shooters across the globe. Patriot One Technologies are proud winners of the 2017 Anti-Terrorism / Force Protection category of the Security Industry Association's New Product Showcase at ISC West. For information, visit: www.patriot1tech.com



About UnitedEye

UnitedEye Inc. was built to directly confront our nation's most complex security threats by delivering cutting edge front-line security and surveillance solutions. With over 15 years of commercial and government security experience, UnitedEye specializes in providing layered security without infringement to public civil liberties. The company offers a prime modern security infrastructure to serve public access and entry points such as schools, receptions and several other use cases. In a society where active shooters and terrorist threats are on the rise, UnitedEye is earnestly committed to protecting the publics right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The companys mission is to provide Security for the People while protecting government and entrepreneurs' physical investment. To learn more about UnitedEye and our partner technology, visit www.unitedeye.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Martin Cronin"

CEO & Director

Media contacts:

North America: Scott Leddingham, PR Media Now | scott@prmedianow.com | +1-613-806-7135

UK/Europe: Iain Waterman, Missive | iain.waterman@missive.co.uk | +44 (0)7718 705124 CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT:

No Securities Exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include the failure to satisfy the conditions of the relevant securities exchange(s) and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by applicable law. Neither the 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.

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[April 10, 2018] Bluetooth Advertising for Small Business Owners in Kentucky

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott Lucas Strategies, a technology and web consulting company, is pleased to announce the Asirvia Go Services and the Go. This handheld, portable device broadcasts a notification to every Bluetooth and Google Nearby-enabled Android phone and all iPhones with the Physical Web app within a 400-yard radius. Business owners who purchase the Asirvia Go Services and the Go will be provided with training and the website access needed to construct and program advertisement or promotional messages. Consumers will receive these messages when close-by, generating leads for the business. Robert Burns from Richardson, TX says, "75 hits before it reached the door to my business." The device is activated before being shipped to the business owner, resulting in possible leads and new customers along the entire shipping route. Once the device has been received, the business owner is able to broadcast messages from any location. The device works especially well in crowded areas like shopping malls and movie theaters, but will broadcast from any location. This tchnology is here to stay but it is still new and under-utilized. Compared to traditional advertising, this proximity marketing device is bargain-priced.



Asirvia's Go is a wireless Bluetooth advertising platform that will broadcast a 40-character message for any product, service, promotion, event, or news alert.

The Go can be turned on or off as desired, and broadcasts a message within a 400 meter distance. The device has a 2-year battery life and will be replaced for free when needed.

A user may update messages at any time, with new notifications showing up on consumers' phones within 15 minutes.

Android represents 60% of the North American smart phone market (85% globally).

To receive promotional messages and links from the Go, Bluetooth and Google Nearby must be enabled on the Android device. About Scott Lucas Strategies: Scott Lucas Strategies is an IT consulting company and provides technology strategies, technical support and proximity marketing services. Local business owners can use the proximity marketing device to cut down on advertising costs by broadcasting their products/services to any nearby Android phone using Google Nearby. Check out the link for more details at http://ScottLucasStrategies.com/pr Scott Lucas

Scott Lucas Strategies

(270) 872-6990

192818@email4pr.com

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluetooth-advertising-for-small-business-owners-in-kentucky-300626483.html SOURCE Scott Lucas Strategies

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[April 10, 2018] Jetico Kicks off New Campaign to Help with GDPR Compliance

On May 25th, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforced, and the fines will start rolling in for organizations which are not yet compliant. However, many organizations are either unaware of the regulation or not taking meaningful steps towards GDPR compliance. Only a quarter of organizations across Europe are thought to be compliant with GDPR, according to a recent report by Forrester. In addition, a study conducted by big data application provider Solix Technologies found that two-thirds of organizations do not have an adequate system for complete deletion of records and confirmation checks, in case customers wish to practice their 'Right to Be Forgotten'. To help organizations prepare for GDPR compliance, Jetico is offering a 10% discount* on BestCrypt and BCWipe from now until the end of April 2018. Go to Jetico's Online Shop and nter GDPR2018 on Redeem Coupon Code.



Talking about the GDPR deadline, Jetico CEO, Michael Waksman noted, "Caring for customer privacy is essential for any business, now more than ever with GDPR. Yet we notice many organizations are still confused about which actions must be taken to get ready. Granted, GDPR doesn't do a great job of specifying required actions, but it does give organizations some guidelines about data protection tools. Encryption is specifically recommended in the regulation, while no other alternatives are mentioned. With a relatively small investment for reliable encryption software, not only can you be compliant with GDPR, but also eliminate heavy costs of data breaches down the road." To help organizations prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation, Jetico is offering a GDPR Promotion on BestCrypt and BCWipe. By using BestCrypt Volume Encryption and BestCrypt Container Encryption, you can encrypt your hard drives as well as files and folders in a breeze. With BCWipe, you have a powerful, military-grade wiping tool to delete data beyond forensic recovery.

About Jetico Jetico provides pure and simple data protection software for National Security, Compliance and Personal Privacy. Trusted for over 10 years by the U.S. Department of Defense, Jetico's BCWipe can wipe selected files beyond forensic recovery such as in response to classified data spills, while BCWipe Total WipeOut can erase hard drive data entirely such as for disposal or decommission. To protect stored data, Jetico's BestCrypt delivers compliant data encryption software for whole disks, virtual drives and selected files or folders. Jetico Enterprise Editions include central management for client software control. Jetico products are trusted by government and military agencies, all of the top 10 U.S. defense contractors, many national laboratories, as well as various other enterprises and a wide global base of home and small business users in over 100 countries. Founded in 1995, Jetico is privately held and headquartered in the Otaniemi Science Park in Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit jetico.com. *Disclaimer: Promotion valid only on Jetico's Online Shop for Standard Edition products, for a maximum quantity of 25 licenses. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005723/en/

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[April 10, 2018] Sirrus Corp. to Develop Security Hardened High-Performance Cryptocurrency Mining Rigs

JOHNS CREEK, GA, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sirrus Corp. (Sirrus or the Company) (OTC PINK: SRUP), an emerging cybersecurity solutions provider, is pleased to announce that the Company has begun development of specialized high-performance security hardened cryptocurrency mining rigs.

Based on the Companys recently launched line of uniquely designed high-performance cluster computers, the Sirrus HPC Crypto Mining Rig platform is expected to take advantage of several proprietary design improvements aimed at significantly increased cybersecurity, superior computational efficiency, and thus lower cost of operation. Cryptocurrency mining rigs are specialized computer systems used for cryptocurrency mining, the process in which complex computation puzzles are solved to confirm transactions to be added on a decentralized blockchain ledger. Miners who successfully complete the mining process earn a reward in the form of cryptocurrency or other blockchain coin or token. The faster and more economically this mining process occurs, more potential profits can be earned by the miner. The development of Sirrus designed high-performance security hardened cryptocurrency mining rigs is a natural extension of our expertise at providing propriety hardware and software solutions that deliver outstanding performance combined with the highest level of security, stated Sparrow Marcioni, CEO of Sirrs Corp. It doesnt matter what cryptocurrency you are trying to mine, our custom designed mining rigs can protect your investment from costly cyber-attacks and hacks, and allow customers to mine more cost-effectively with less potential downtime.



The Company is currently in discussions with several cryptocurrency mining operations for potential sale and deployment of Sirrus Crypto Mining Rigs. About Sirrus Corp.

Sirrus Corp. (OTC PINK: SRUP) provides security technology products and services to assist companies with protecting their assets and information. The Company is primarily focused on providing cybersecurity services to healthcare companies in the United States, which are required to be in compliance with government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additional information regarding Sirrus Corp. and Sirrus Security can be found at www.sirrussecurity.com . Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release by Sirrus Corp. (Sirrus) may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by words such as expects, plan, believes, will, achieve, anticipate, would, should, subject to, or words of similar meaning, and by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Although Sirrus management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Known risks and uncertainties include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by Sirrus Corp. with the SEC. Sirrus assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Sirrus Corp. - Investor Relations: Toll-Free: (888) 263-7622 E-mail: investors@sirrussecurity.com Website: www.sirrussecurity.com

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[April 10, 2018] New Research Shows Three Touchpoints Is Magic Number When Proactively Sourcing Potential Job Candidates

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In todays competitive hiring environment, it takes three touchpoints to earn a candidate response to cold outreach, according to a new study from Lever , the recruiting software for more than 1,500 fast-growing companies around the world. Lever examined communication between 135,000 sourced candidates and recruiters in Lever Nurture and found that consistent follow-up was vital for hiring success. Just under 50 percent of candidate responses come in after the first outreach, while a further 35 percent come in after two emails (84.7 percent) and three candidate touches earn almost 100 percent of responses. The study also examined the types of candidate roles most receptive to proactive candidate sourcing via Lever Nurture. Engineers had the lowest response rate to cold outreach at 35 percent, with sales candidates coming in just below with a response rate of 41 percent. This is likely due to sales and engineering candidates being in high demand, and often the recipients of weekly recruiter contact. Design candidates, on the other hand, were most responsive to cold outreach, with 59 percent responding. The best hires arent always the easiest to find. Todays competitive hiring climate requires companies to be proactive and patient in order to find and recruit the best candidates, said Sarah Nahm, CEO, Lever. To succeed in sourcing and hiring passive candidates, its vital to nurture them through consistent, compelling, and most importantly, personalized contact. We've found that sourcing passive prospects, in the end, costs one fourth of the acquisition cost of active channels, said Jer Langhans, Co-founder & Principal Growth Hacker, Paired Sourcing, LLC. You're not going to get pivotal talent to just walk in the door without spending even moe on passive channels than active ones.



Lastly, Levers research found that brand may be less important than one might think in eliciting a response from cold outreach. Companies with more than 1,000 employees saw an average response rate of 44.7 percent using Lever Nurture, roughly three percent higher than smaller companies, likely due to stronger brand recognition - but companies with as few as 50 employees were seen to average a response rate of over 41 percent using Lever Nurture. This relatively small discrepancy shows company size or brand is not the driving factor for response rate. Crafting great content for the outreach is critical. The full report, entitled The Science of Sourcing: Benchmarks for Recruiting Success is available for download here .





Lever Nurture is a sourcing automation technology that allows teams to deliver consistent, effective, and personalized communications to passive candidates. Lever Nurture is built natively inside Levers applicant tracking system, and allows recruiters to use metrics to identify the most effective sourcing tactics and build meaningful candidate relationships at scale. Methodology

Levers report aggregates data from over 147,000 Lever Nurture campaigns targeting 135,000 candidates from January 2017- January 2018. For data integrity reasons, data for every metric was not included for every customer, and some began using Lever midway through the period studied. About Lever

Lever is on a mission to help the world hire with conviction. Built with the belief that recruiting is the responsibility of everyone at the company, Levers applicant tracking and sourcing technology draws the entire team together to source, nurture, interview, and hire top talent through effortless collaboration. Lever has been intentionally designed with integrated ATS and CRM functionality, and features a modern interface that helps employers develop stronger candidate relationships in fewer clicks. Lever was founded in 2012 in San Francisco. The company has raised more than $73 million in funding from Adams Street Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Redpoint Ventures, and Correlation Ventures among others. Lever supports the hiring needs of over 1,500 companies around the globe including the teams at Netflix, Shopify, Hot Topic, KPMG New Zealand, and Cirque du Soleil. With an overall gender ratio of 50:50, Lever is also fiercely committed to building a team culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion. For more information, visit https://www.lever.co . MEDIA CONTACT:

Ashley Cohen

Traeger Communications

acohen@traegercommunications.com

303-522-0783

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[April 10, 2018] The Common Application Welcomes New Members for 2018-2019

ARLINGTON, Va., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Students applying to college in 2018-2019 will have access to more than 800 diverse colleges and universities through The Common Application, the powerful platform that eases the college application process for more than three million applicants, teachers, and counselors across the United States and around the world every year. The Common Application membership represents institutions from 49 U.S. states, 19 countries, and includes more than 160 public institutions, 48 minority serving institutions, and 65 international institutions. New members will continue to join throughout the spring and summer. "The diversity of our membership is one of our greatest strengths," said Jenny Rickard, President & CEO of The Common Application. "By joining The Common App, these institutions have demonstrated a shared commitment to pursuing access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Thanks to our members, all students, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to easily apply to the college or university that will help them achieve their best future." In addition to providing a single, online application and 24/7/365 support for all students applying to member colleges and universities, the Common App connects applicants to financial aid and scholarship tools, digital portfolios, virtual mentors, a Virtual Counselor, and a library of resources for counselors, advisors, and recommenders working with students to complete their college applications that includes Spanish language translations. "As an investment into ollege access, the University of Iowa is excited to join the Common App," said Jeffrey Waechter, Director of Operations at the University of Iowa. "Financial aid is challenging for students in general, and the Common App integrates financial aid information right within the application. Additionally, the Common App's one-step, need-based fee waiver simplifies the process for applicants."



By becoming a Common App member, these colleges and universities will gain exposure to students who may not have otherwise considered the institution while making the application, including fee waiver, process more efficient. One-third of the more than one million Common App applicants are the first in their family to pursue a college degree. "The University of Pittsburgh wants to make the college application process as easy and accessible as possible for all students," said Kellie Kane, Executive Director of Admissions at University of Pittsburgh. "We wanted to be a member, in part, because of The Common App's dedication and success with advancing college access for first-generation and underrepresented students."

Students can create a Common App account now because their account will roll over from year to year. Beginning this year, Common App members will also begin using the newly introduced Common App for transfer, a separate application designed exclusively to meet the needs of transfer and adult student populations. "By being on the Common App, UNC Charlotte not only serves high school students and counselors - who've told us directly about the benefits - but we will be able to reach transfer applicants and returning adults," said Claire Kirby, Director of Admissions at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "We appreciate The Common App's focus on this significant student group." New Members of The Common Application for 2018-2019

(as of April 10, 2018) New England

Bridgewater State University (MA) Mid-Atlantic

Cairn University (PA)

Penn State (PA)

Queens College, CUNY (NY)

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (PA)

St. Francis College (NY)

University of Pittsburgh (PA)

Webb Institute (NY) South

Bellarmine University (KY)

Florida State University (FL)

Radford University (VA)

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (NC)

The Wilkes Honors College of FAU (FL)

University of North Carolina at Charlotte (NC) West

Oregon State University (OR)

The University of Utah (UT)

Warner Pacific University (OR) Midwest

CCAD - Columbus College of Art & Design (OH)

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) (IN)

Lewis University (IL)

Michigan State University (MI)

Morningside College (IA)

Quincy University (IL)

The University of Kansas (KS)

University of Central Missouri (MO)

University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash College and Clermont College (OH)

University of Iowa (IA)

University of Mount Union (OH)

Walsh University (OH)

Wright State University (OH) Hawaii

Chaminade University of Honolulu Puerto Rico

Universidad del Este (UNE) International

Arts University Bournemouth (United Kingdom)

Temple University, Japan Campus (Japan) About The Common Application Founded in 1975, The Common Application is a not-for-profit member organization committed to the pursuit of access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Each year, more than one million students, one-third of whom are first-generation, apply to college through the Common App's online application. To learn more, visit commonapp.org, follow @CommonApp, and #CommonApp. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-common-application-welcomes-new-members-for-2018-2019-300627314.html SOURCE The Common Application

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[April 10, 2018] Walter O'Brien Receives the Humanitarian Award at North Hollywood's 5th Annual 'NoHo CineFest'

LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Walter O'Brien, founder and CEO of Scorpion Computer Services and Executive Producer of CBS's hit television show "Scorpion," received the Humanitarian Award at the fifth edition of the North Hollywood CineFest for his donated time and expertise to advise, provide intelligence to, protect the identities of and execute anti-kidnapping and anti-human trafficking missions for over a decade. "It is an honor and privilege to be recognized for my work in these areas," said O'Brien. "I hope to set an example and inspire others to lend their talents towards positive social missions that go beyond their day-to-day professional work." The CineFest awards show was new to NoHo's program this year and took place at the El Portal Theater on March 30, 2018. CineFest gave three special awards. In addition to the Humanitarian award, an "Innovation & Inclusion Award" was presented to MinTIC Colombia for their program Cine Para Todos, a phone app that syncs to the movies in the theater and provides closed captioning for the hearing impaired and an audible description of action for the vision impaired. Last, the "Visionary Artist Award" was presented to Siddhali Shree, director of Stopping Traffic, a documentary about human trafficking. This is not the first time O'Brien has been honored for his humanitarian efforts. In April of 2017, O'Brien became the youngest recipient of the Celebrity ICON Humanitarian Lifetime Achievement award at Unite4:Good's Unite4:Humanity gala for his work in charitable ventures which create positive societal change. His other philanthropic works are numerous, including Code Wars, California State Science Fair, MENSA, MIT Technology Review, the Junior Achievement Conference, Project ECHO, Superhero Brain and Houston Technology Center. He also received C-Suite Quarterly's isionary award in 2017 and funded Kilkenny's Taxi Watch, a suicide-prevention program that has saved more than 130 lives since its inception in 2014.



ABOUT NORTH HOLLYWOOD CINEFEST Located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District in Los Angeles, the North Hollywood CineFest has established itself as a premier event for independent cinema from all over the world.

By combining a vibrant local social scene with a state-of-the-art cinema, every filmmaker and film lover is sure to be impressed and delighted with the theater and surrounding location. The combination of great film screenings, press and red carpet events, parties, seminars, all offered in this seven-day event, is what makes this a dynamic and must-go film festival. ABOUT WALTER O'BRIEN Walter O'Brien is the founder and CEO of Scorpion Computer Services, Inc., and CEO of Scorpion Studios. He is the Executive Producer and the inspiration behind the hit CBS television drama, Scorpion, with over 26 million viewers in the U.S. and airing in 188 countries. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has certified Walter O'Brien as being a person of national interest to the United States and granted him an Extraordinary Ability EB 1-1 Visa. He has worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, plus Navy and Air Force systems to deploy artificial intelligence that protects American military personnel. Walter was recently recognized by the Fort Wayne Base Community Council for saving countless lives and awarded a member's Combat Infantry Badge and Battle Dress Uniform from Operation Desert Storm. The Northeast Indiana Defense Industry Association recognized O'Brien's tremendous support of defense initiatives. Walter was the youngest recipient of Unite4:Good's Humanitarian Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2017 won C-Suite Quarterly's Visionary award. In addition, he has worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies including the world's largest mutual fund, Fujitsu, Trados, Oracle Corporation, Baltimore Technologies and Critical Path. O'Brien serves as chairman or former board member for Strike Force Solutions, Talentorum Alliance, Lawloop and previously served on the boards of Houston Technology Center, American Environmental Energy, Starglobe and Toin Corp. O'Brien regularly donates his time to charities and the community in general, to encourage all generations to celebrate intelligence. O'Brien provided the seed funding for TaxiWatch Kilkenny, a suicide prevention program that has saved over 133 lives since its inception in 2015. Often appearing on CNBC, Fox News and CBS as an expert on computer security, O'Brien has contributed to XPRIZE selection as part of XPRIZE Visioneering. Press contact:

Jordan French

jordan.french@scorpioncomputerservices.com

www.scorpioncomputerservices.com Related links:

http://www.scorpioncomputerservices.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/walter-obrien-receives-the-humanitarian-award-at-north-hollywoods-5th-annual-noho-cinefest-300627335.html SOURCE Scorpion Computer Services, Inc.

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RSA Conference 2018: Kingston Showcases Encrypted USB Solutions as GDPR Implementation Approaches

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, will demo its complete line of encrypted USB solutions at RSA Conference 2018, one of the world's leading information security conferences and expositions. With full implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) due next month, Kingston will also showcase its other technology offerings including client and data center SSDs and its Server Premier memory.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005041/en/

Kingston to demo complete line of Encrypted USB solutions, including award winning IronKey drives at RSA (News - Alert) Conference 2018. (Photo: Business Wire)

"The upcoming RSA Conference 2018 is the perfect event for us to present our many quality solutions helping security professionals do their jobs as effectively as possible," said Richard Kanadjian, encrypted USB business manager, Kingston. "Protecting data from malicious attacks or from being stolen is a vital undertaking in today's digital environment and global economy. Kingston's encrypted USB Flash drives, SSD, and server memory products provide users with rock-solid reliability, ultimate security and high performance."

RSA Conference 2018 takes place April 16-20 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. Kingston will showcase the folowing in the North Expo, booth #3017:







Kingston Encrypted USB Drives: Kingston encrypted USB drives are designed to protect data, maintain a productive and efficient mobile workforce, and serve as an additional element in GDPR compliance. These drives help users meet specific agency directives, such as Encryption, TAA and FIPS compliance, and are ideal for government or corporate use. The line includes both IronKey  drives available in 4GB to 128GB capacities; and, Kingston  DataTraveler  models available from 4GB to 64GB.

Kingston encrypted USB drives are designed to protect data, maintain a productive and efficient mobile workforce, and serve as an additional element in GDPR compliance. These drives help users meet specific agency directives, such as Encryption, TAA and FIPS compliance, and are ideal for government or corporate use. The line includes both IronKey drives available in 4GB to 128GB capacities; and, Kingston DataTraveler models available from 4GB to 64GB. Kingston Solid State Drives (SSD) : Kingston makes SSDs for business, enterprise, and system-builder applications. In business applications, Kingston SSDs increase performance, make data more secure, and can be used to extend the life of older systems, helping organizations prolong the corporate refresh cycle. In enterprise applications, Kingston NVMe SSDs offer increased performance, reliability and power-failure features to keep mission-critical environments up and running 24/7.

Kingston makes SSDs for business, enterprise, and system-builder applications. In business applications, Kingston SSDs increase performance, make data more secure, and can be used to extend the life of older systems, helping organizations prolong the corporate refresh cycle. In enterprise applications, Kingston NVMe SSDs offer increased performance, reliability and power-failure features to keep mission-critical environments up and running 24/7. Kingston Server Memory: Kingston server memory has a worldwide recognized standard of reliability. Server Premier modules are designed for big data centers, high-quality branded, provisioned servers as well as those who use or build white box systems and require a consistent brand and revision of DRAM.

For more information visit www.kingston.com.

Kingston Can Be Found On:

Facebook (News - Alert) : http://www.facebook.com/kingstontechnology

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KingstonTech

Instagram: https://instagram.com/kingstontechnology/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/kingstontechmemory

LinkedIn (News - Alert) : http://www.linkedin.com/company/kingston

About Kingston Digital, Inc.

Kingston Digital, Inc. ("KDI") is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please call 877-546-4786 or visit www.kingston.com.

Editor's Note:

For additional information, evaluation units or executive interviews, please contact David Leong, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., 17600 Newhope Street, Fountain Valley, CA (News - Alert) USA 92708, 714-438-1817 (Voice). Press images can be found in Kingston's press room at kingston.com/company/press/.

Kingston and the Kingston logo are registered trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. IronKey (News - Alert) is a registered trademark of Kingston Digital, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2018

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410005041/en/
[April 10, 2018] MetLife Joins the MIT Media Lab, Adding to Its Multi-Pronged Innovation Ecosystem

Today, MetLife announced a multi-year collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT (News - Alert) ) focused on accelerating innovative technologies that will transform the insurance industry. The announcement furthers MetLife's comprehensive and disciplined innovation approach of bringing together leading companies and institutions to identify and create disruptive solutions for the industry. "Every industry is impacted by the exponential growth in technology, the rise in globalization, and changing consumer demographics," said Marty Lippert, executive vice president and head of MetLife Global Technology (News - Alert) & Operations. "Our collaboration with MIT is the latest proof point of a strategic approach that is providing MetLife first-mover advantage in identifying and capitalizing on emerging consumer and technology trends." MetLife joined the MIT Media Lab as a Consortium Lab Member. The Media Lab has developed tools, materials and methods that have led to transformative tech innovations such as the touch screen, GPS and wearables. Today, they have 26 research labs and approximately 450 active projects. MetLife's collaboration with the Media Lab will focus on disruptive applications of these technologies for the insurance industry. MetLife is also leveraging MIT's advanced research in the areas of sensors (Internet of Things), social data, digital records, machine learning, and data science to reimagine underwriting to enable an enhanced customer experience with smplified underwriting, improved risk management and differentiated pricing.



The collaboration with MIT is the latest addition to MetLife's growing innovation ecosystem. In January, MetLife announced the launch of two InsurTech investment programs for start-up companies: MetLife Digital Ventures and MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars. Backed by a $100 million co-investment fund, MetLife Digital Ventures accelerates MetLife's transformation through direct investment in strategically aligned start-up companies that can bring new forms of value to MetLife customers. Through direct investment, MetLife will have an opportunity to influence the direction of these early-stage companies that offer products and capabilities that are strategically important to the organization. The launch of MetLife Digital Ventures brings to the next level MetLife's existing strong relationships with 16 of the leading venture capital firms. These long-established relationships continue to provide MetLife unique access to a portfolio of top-tier investment opportunities.

The MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars is a first-of-its-kind program that identifies and mentors startups around the globe that are developing industry-disrupting technologies in the insurance space. Startups selected will be hosted at MetLife's Global Technology Campus in Cary, North Carolina, for an intensive 13-week program focused on the development and acceleration of transformational ideas. MetLife also works directly with startups through LumenLab, MetLife Asia's Singapore-based innovation center. Through its open innovation program, "collab", Lumenlab invites entrepreneurs and insurtechs to scale their business with MetLife. About MetLife MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 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/20180410006179/en/

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[April 10, 2018] Automotive Grade Linux Continues Growth with Five New Members

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open platform for the connected car, is announcing that five new members have joined the project including ARKAMYS, IVIS, Paragon Software, SiFive, and Trillium Software. The steady growth of AGL demonstrates continued momentum and community support for the project, which now has more than 120 members. "We are excited to welcome five new members to the project that will expand our growing and global community," said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux, The Linux Foundation. "Our newest members are some of the leading companies in embedded technologies including audio, navigation, security and software. With their knowledge and expertise, we look forward to expanding our open platform and working together to further establish AGL as the de-facto industry standard." AGL members and the broader open source community will come together for Automotive Linux Summit, June 20-22 in Tokyo, to learn about the latest developments, share best practices and collaborate to drive rapid innovation across the industry. Details and registration information can be found here. New Member Quotes: ARKAMYS

"As a leading company in audio signal processing, ARKAMYS develops innovative software and services for the automotive industry to enhance the user experience with 3D audio, voice processing, and sound rendering technologies," said Philippe Tour, CEO of ARKAMYS. "We are delighted to join AGL and contribute our expertise in providing audio solutions for the connected car." IVIS

"IVIS is 'small but strong' in this rapidly changing automotive industry.Our mission is to contribute to the safety and happiness of consumers by providing user-friendly infotainment and navigation software," said Kimo Nam, CEO of IVIS. "We have extensive experience in developing automotive software systems and look forward to working with the community to further enhance the AGL platform."



Paragon Software

"Paragon's File System Link technology enables car owners to connect any external storage media to their infotainment systems and instantly access audio and video recordings," said Konstantin Komarov, CEO of Paragon Software. "We are happy to support the AGL initiative in addressing growing automotive storage demand for advanced IVI systems and the opportunity to integrate Paragon's Linux drivers into AGL-based infotainment systems." SiFive

"We are excited to join the Automotive Grade Linux community as they help shape the future of the connected car, including semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles," said Jack Kang, Vice President of Product Marketing at SiFive. "As one of the leading providers of RISC-V based IP, SiFive is eager to contribute to the AGL platform and its future support for RISC-V."

Trillium Software

"We are proud to offer our customers the choice of deploying our cyber security solutions on the Automotive Grade Linux platform," said Ross Hirschi, Director of Global Engineering at Trillium Secure, Inc. "With a growing community of automotive ecosystem suppliers and developers, AGL is positioned to become one of the industry standard automotive software platforms for the connected car." About Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)

Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected car. Leveraging the power and strength of Linux at its core, AGL is uniting automakers and technology companies to develop an open platform that offers OEMs complete control of the user experience so the industry can rapidly innovate where it counts. The AGL platform is available to all, and anyone can participate in its development. Learn more: https://www.automotivelinux.org/ Automotive Grade Linux is hosted at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world's top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and industry adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org. Additional Resources Developer Resources

About the AGL Community

Participating in Automotive Grade Linux Media Inquiries

Emily Olin

Automotive Grade Linux

eolin@linuxfoundation.org View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/automotive-grade-linux-continues-growth-with-five-new-members-300626666.html SOURCE Automotive Grade Linux

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English French

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KP Tissue Inc. (KPT) (TSX:KPT), which holds a limited partnership interest in Kruger Products L.P. (KPLP), will release the financial results for KPT and KPLP for the first quarter of 2018 on Thursday, May 10, 2018 before the market opens. KPT will hold its conference call the same day at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.



Details of the Conference Call

Via telephone: 1- 877-223-4471 or 647-788-4922

Via the internet at: www.kptissueinc.com

Presentation material referenced during the conference call will be available at www.kptissueinc.com.

Conference Call Rebroadcast

A rebroadcast of the conference call will be available until midnight, June 10, 2018 by dialing 800-585-8367 or 416-621-4642 and entering passcode 8486799.

The replay of the webcast will remain available on the web site until midnight, June 10, 2018.

About KP Tissue Inc.

KP Tissue Inc. (KPT) was created to acquire, and its business is limited to holding, a limited partnership interest in KPLP. For more information visit www.kptissueinc.com.

About Kruger Products L.P.

Kruger Products L.P. is Canada's leading manufacturer of quality tissue products for household, industrial and commercial use. Kruger Products L.P. serves the Canadian consumer market with such well-known brands as Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels, Scotties and White Swan. In the U.S., Kruger Products L.P. manufactures the White Cloud brand, as well as many private label products. Kruger Products L.P. has approximately 2,500 employees and operates eight FSC CoC-certified (FSC C104904) production facilities in North America. For more information visit www.krugerproducts.ca.

INFORMATION:

Francois Paroyan

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

KP Tissue Inc.

Tel.: 905.812.6936

francois.paroyan@krugerproducts.ca

INVESTORS:

Mike Baldesarra

Director of Investor Relations

KP Tissue Inc.

Tel.: 905.812.6962

IR@KPTissueinc.com

Source KP Tissue Inc.
[April 10, 2018] MightyHive One of Five Companies in US Certified for Google Attribution 360 Beta

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MightyHive, the premier Programmatic Solutions Partner, today announced it is one of an exclusive group to receive certification for the Google Attribution 360 platform in the U.S., currently in pilot with Fortune 100 customers. This key certification will allow MightyHive enterprise clients to access both programmatic media buying and attribution expertise under one roof. MightyHive, already Google's largest DoubleClick Certified Marketing Partner and a leading Google Analytics Certified Partner, has more than 400 clients running media through its platform. With this expertise, the company can equip brands and agencies with powerful and precise analytics revealing how paid media channels are contributing to performance. With credible insights into ad effectiveness, advertisers will be able to allocate media budgets more effectively, eliminae wasted spend, and ultimately drive stronger results.



Google Attribution 360 taps into Google's unparalleled user graph to offer cross-device, cross-channel attribution analysis that can be further enhanced by advertisers' first-party campaign data. Marketers are also able to use predictive analytics to model the impact of budget changes and optimize media spend across channels. By aggregating marketing touchpoints across DoubleClick, Google AdWords, and Google Analytics, Google Attribution 360 offers marketers a uniquely comprehensive  and ultimately more accurate  view of the relative contributions of campaigns and media channels. The data-driven attribution methodology and model-comparison features available in Google Attribution 360 also give marketers vastly superior insights when compared to outdated and misleading attribution methodologies such as last-touch.

"MightyHive has developed a truly unique offering that brings programmatic media buying and data-driven attribution under one roof. With Google Attribution 360, we can bring game-changing insights to advertisers who expect greater clarity than ever before into how their media dollars are influencing performance," said Ming Wu, Chief Revenue Officer at MightyHive. In addition to its existing Google Analytics 360 service, MightyHive will offer Google Attribution 360 on a managed-service basis. About MightyHive

MightyHive is a Programmatic Solutions Partner that provides custom consulting services, agency functionality, and enables programmatic in-housing for enterprise clients. The MightyHive advantage is its deep expertise in leading ad tech platforms combined with a range of offerings including full-service campaign management for marketers, in-housing training and support, and platform implementation -- all under one roof and with complete transparency. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, Singapore, and Sydney. About Google Attribution 360

Google Attribution 360, part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite, offers enterprise-level attribution designed to meet the data integration and modeling needs of the largest advertisers. Google Attribution 360 uses a data-driven approach to determine how impactful your ads are, allowing you to make better cross-channel and cross-device decisions and drive greater returns. Jenny Mulholland

Gull Rock PR/East Coast

732-245-0021

jenny@gullrock.com Andrea Boren

Gull Rock PR/West Coast

650-644-1700

andrea@gullrock.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mightyhive-one-of-five-companies-in-us-certified-for-google-attribution-360-beta-300627079.html SOURCE MightyHive

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[April 10, 2018] The Weather Network Ranks as Top Canadian Brand in 7th Annual Study

Ipsos Ranks The Weather Network 12th Overall on 100 Most Influential Brands list OAKVILLE, ON, April 10, 2018 /CNW/ - The Weather Network has been named one of the country's leading brands, placing first among Canadian owned brands on the Ipsos' annual study of Canada's 100 Most Influential Brands. The Weather Network rose three spots from last year, ranking 12th overall among all brands, clearly indicating that The Weather Network is highly valued by Canadian consumers. The list was unveiled last week and incorporates public opinion on company reputation across a variety of indicators. "We are proud to be on the list of The Most Influential Brands in Canada," said Sam Sebastian, President and CEO of Pelmorex Corp., the parent company of The Weather Network. "Placing first amongst Canadian brands is a huge milestone for us and a credit we take seriously. We value our consumers and continually strive to meet their needs and to be a brand they can rely on and trust." The Most Influential Brand Study is the result of interviews with over 6,000 Canadians. The scores are determined based on the participants' responses to questions about their involvement with and perception of the brand's presence, trustworthiness, being leading edge, corporate citizenship and engagement. The top brands have frequency of use in common, resulting in them being firmly entrenched in daily life. As the country's leading weather information provider, The Weather Network is committed to delivering weather information to Canadians 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through its multiple platforms. Through these platforms, The Weather Network has become an integral part of millions of Canadians lives helping them to plan their daily activities and keep themselves and their families safe. About Pelmorex Corp.

Pelmorex Corp. is a market leader in operating multi-platform TV, Web and Mobile services in weather-related information categories under the leading brands The Weather Network, MeteoMedia, eltiempo.es and Clima. The company reaches over 58M* users internationally with a focus on North America, Europe and LATAM. It also operates Canada's National Alerting Aggregation and Dissemination System (Alert Ready). Pelmorex has evolved to delivering information networks and data solutions to consumers, advertisers and enterprise clients. It launched the Pelmorex Data Solutions Division in 2016 and acquired Addictive Mobility in 2017. Addictive Mobility operates mobile-first data management services as well as Digital Sales Platforms.







* Source: Global Reach reports 3 month average Dec 2017  Feb 2018 Gap/Adobe/Numeris Data

SOURCE The Weather Network

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[April 10, 2018] New Social Impact Technology Company "Givewith" Enables Businesses to Increase Sales and Profits While Giving Millions to Nonprofits

NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Social impact technology company Givewith announced its official launch during today's "Transforming Commerce" symposium. Founded by social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto in partnership with CBS Corporation, the company's twin offerings, Givewith Commerce and Givewith Advertising, enable businesses to increase sales and profits and attract socially responsible investors, while raising awareness and funds for some of the world's most effective nonprofit organizations. "We have an audacious mission," said Paul Polizzotto, Givewith's Founder and CEO. "We're unleashing the power of commerce as an engine for social change. Our model makes social impact a business driver, so we're fulfilling two objectives at once: realizing greater business value for our corporate clients and creating new sources of critical funding for nonprofits. It's a paradigm shift that's moving the traditionally underserved to the head of the line, to the center of every business transaction. And we're leveraging technology to do it at scale and with precision." Givewith expands on the success of its sister company, CBS EcoMedia, which Polizzotto founded in 2001 and sold to CBS in 2010. As reviewed by Mission Measurement, CBS EcoMedia has guided approximately $100 million in funding and resources to nonprofits supporting important social impact programs and service projects that have, and will, touch the lives of an estimated 60 million people. Volunteers of America, Junior Achievement, Feeding America, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Black Girls Code are some of the hundreds of leading nonprofit organizations in the EcoMedia and Givewith network. "Givewith solidifies CBS's place in the vanguard of social corporate entrepreneurship," said Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation. "Thanks to its technology platform, Givewith allows for a positive social impact to take place with every single transaction between a seller and buyer. Going forward, we look forward to helping transform the way both business and philanthropy are done." "Givewith has been a critical partner as we advance positive social impact for more than a million people each year," said Mike King, President and CEO of Volunteers of America. "The need is undoubtedly greatand yet, Givewith has enabled Volunteers of America to access new funding streams and generate added awareness of our mission. With innovative companies like Givewith stepping forward to support our work in unprecedented ways, we are certain to create greater positive change in our communities." Givewith's inaugural business clients include Dell, Allstate, Coldwell Banker, Molina Healthcare Natixis, HP, Toyota, and UnitedHealthcare. Givewith Commerce and Givewith Advertising are now available to business clients. Both offerings enable companies to achieve quantifiable, measurable business gains; generate increased interest from investors who allocate capital with social impact in mind; meet a variety of investor relations objectives including increased sales, profits, and improved ESG scores; and accomplish United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through social impacts, while also reducing recruiting and retention costs. As a result, Givewith creates a new and sustainable source of funding for nonprofit organizations.



Givewith Commerce can leverage any business-to-business "transaction." Sellers differentiate their offering to buyers, and gain a unique competitive advantage, by providing access to the proprietary Givewith technology platform. The platform identifies nonprofit programs that will deliver the maximum business value; measures and tracks project outcomes; and provides detailed reporting, translating the social impact from the transaction into hard numbers. Givewith Advertising enables consumers to join with companies to support nonprofit programs. Through engagement on premium digital sites, consumers direct corporate dollars to a selected nonprofit organization, making a positive impact for a cause that matters to them, in real time and without taking money from their own pockets. Brands connect with consumers around a shared purpose, creating a deeper and more meaningful relationship.

Givewith was unveiled at the 'Transforming Commerce' symposium held at United Nations Headquarters on April 10; the event was supported by the United Nations Office for Partnerships. During his opening address, Polizzotto introduced the new company to an audience of more than 300 business, tech, and creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and social innovators. Polizzotto and Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation, co-hosted the event. 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker acted as Master of Ceremonies for the day. The symposium featured sessions on a variety of topics, including corporate social entrepreneurship, inclusive and sustainable standards for businesses, and forward-thinking, multi-sector partnership models. ABOUT GIVEWITH Givewith Video http://www.givewith.com We're a social impact technology company on a mission: To empower business to create social good in never-before-seen ways. Founded by career social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto in partnership with CBS Corporation, Givewith is pioneering a technology-enabled collaboration between business and nonprofits that goes well beyond traditional corporate giving to put social impact at the center of every business transaction. Givewith is an end-to-end solution that allows companies of every size to increase sales and profits, improve ESG scores, attract capital from social impact investors, and accomplish United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, while creating a new, sustainable source of critical funding and resources for nonprofit organizations. Our proprietary platform measures and tracks social impacts and translates them into hard numbers. By assigning a business value to companies' social responsibility efforts, Givewith highlights areas for growth and facilitates collaborations with nonprofit programs that will achieve these goals. Givewith moves people in need to the center of commerce, transforming the way both business and philanthropy are done. ABOUT PAUL POLIZZOTTO Over his 30-year career as a social entrepreneur, Paul has dedicated himself to developing, refining and realizing one vision: that by prioritizing social impact, businesses can deliver a sustainable source of funding for the critical work of nonprofits and differentiate themselves from the competition. Paul has been honored with numerous recognitions for his work, 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. In 2012 and 2013, Paul and his team earned back-to-back Edison Awards for Social Innovation and Social Impact. Paul was first motivated to dip his toes into the waters of social entrepreneurship in 1989 when, as an avid surfer distressed by the pollution plaguing his hometown watersthe Santa Monica Bay in Southern Californiahe pioneered technology to remove toxins from run-off before it entered the storm drain system and ultimately, the Bay. In 2001, Paul founded EcoMedia, which became CBS EcoMedia when he sold the company to CBS Corporation in 2010. At EcoMedia, Paul innovated three unique advertising productsEcoAds, EducationAds, and Wellness Adsthrough which brands and leading nonprofits continue to collaborate to deliver positive, tangible, and lasting social impacts to communities across America. Givewith, officially launched in April 2018, is the latest iteration of Paul's vision: To move people and causes in need to the center of every business transaction. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-social-impact-technology-company-givewith-enables-businesses-to-increase-sales-and-profits-while-giving-millions-to-nonprofits-300626559.html SOURCE Givewith

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[April 10, 2018] Only One Week Left to Enter Busabout's 'Ultimate Travel Squad' Competition

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you a talented blogger, Instagrammer, Snapchatter or vlogger with dreams of getting paid to create amazing travel content? If so, you have just one week left to enter Busabout's Ultimate Travel Squad contest and win an all-expenses-paid adventure in Europe! So far over 1,300 applications have poured in from travel addicts around the world, but there is still time to enter before the April 17th deadline. There are four spots available on the squad: we are looking for one Instagrammer, one blogger, one vlogger and one Snapchatter or Instagram Stories creator. So whether you have a way with words, are a pro at making a picture pop, or a master at inducing FOMO in a video clip, there just might be a chance for you. If you think you have what it takes, submit your 60-second video here before it's too late! You can even enter as a group with three of your friends, as long as you each choose a different social media platform. The four winners will explore Europe on Busabout's Hop-on Hop-off door-to-door bus network over three months, from early June to early September 2018. Each member of the squad will experience an unforgettable adventure worth $7,000, which includes an Unlimited Hop-on Hop-off Pass, accommodation, spending money, and a bonus fee at the end of the trip! Return flights from the U.S. will be included on top of this. The itinerary will tick off some of Europe's trndiest hot spots like Lake Bled, Krakow and San Sebastian, and venture off the beaten track to hidden gems like the hikers' paradise of Grunau in Austria, and adrenaline junkie haven of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland. Plus, the squad's epic three-month adventure will culminate with a week-long sailing adventure in Croatia.



To apply for a spot on the squad, all you need to do is select your preferred social platform (Instagram, YouTube, blogging or Snapchat/Instagram Stories), and record a 60-second video showcasing why you're the only person for the position. Extra points will be awarded for creativity! Videos can be submitted on the Busabout website here, and entries are open until 6:59 PM ET on April 17th, 2018. For complete contest rules, visit www.busabout.com/ultimate-travel-squad

For more information about Busabout and the Hop-on Hop-off bus network, visit www.busabout.com Follow Busabout on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the #BUSABOUT hashtag. About Busabout

Busabout is not your average travel company. Offering a unique Hop-on Hop-off bus network across Europe and guided Adventure trips around the world, Busabout and its partner companies Shamrocker Adventures and HAGGiS have been helping independent-minded travelers of all ages see the world affordably and without too much hand-holding since 1998. Their "freestyle" form of travel combines the flexibility that independent travelers crave with the best aspects of traditional tours. Sometimes they show you around, other times you are free to explore. Either way, you get plenty of local knowledge of destinations and the chance to make unforgettable memories alongside like-minded friends. About The TreadRight Foundation

Created as a joint initiative between The Travel Corporation's (TTC) family of brands, The TreadRight Foundation is a not-for-profit that works to help ensure the environment and communities we visit remain vibrant for generations to come. Founded by Brett Tollman, Chief Executive, TTC, to date TreadRight has supported more than 40 sustainable tourism projects worldwide. To learn more about our past and current work at TreadRight, please visit us at TreadRight.org. Busabout is a member of the family-owned The Travel Corporation (TTC) and is renowned and trusted for its outstanding quality, service, value, reliability and financial stability. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/only-one-week-left-to-enter-busabouts-ultimate-travel-squad-competition-300627516.html SOURCE Busabout

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[April 10, 2018] British Columbia businesses supported in clean technology adoption by Fisheries and Oceans Canada

VANCOUVER, April 10, 2018 /CNW/ - The adoption of clean technology and innovation is a key component to stronger and greener fisheries and aquaculture industries in Canada. Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced over $225,000 in funding from the Fisheries and Aquaculture Clean Technology Adoption Program to support clean economic growth for six British Columbia businesses. Effingham Oysters Inc. will use the funds to install solar panels and energy storage batteries that will reduce diesel transport and consumption by two-thirds of its current use. Nova Harvest Ltd. will reduce propane use by 95 per cent by reclaiming heat from water outflows with a heat-pump. A new auxiliary engine and upgraded longline strengths at Salish Seas Fisheries will lead to reduced emissions and protect the environment by preventing the loss of hooks and lines at sea. Bee Islets Growers Corp. will replace Styrofoam floatation billets with high density polyethylene floatation billets. This will reduce the environmental impact and provide proof of technology for other aquaculture operators to transition to this cleaner form of floatation support. OM Harvesting Ltd. will use the funding to replace an outdated auxiliary boat engine. The new fuel efficient engine will result in fuel savings of 10 to 20 per cent while increasing dependability for operations in remote regions of the B.C. coast. West Coast Fish culture will convert a diesel engine, used to wash nets, to an electric engine and replace an old tugboat engine with a high efficiency engine, resulting in reduced emissions and fuel and energy use. The Province of British Columbia is an active partner in promoting the adoption of clean technologies into the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and contributed over $30,000 in funding to these environmentally friendly initiatives. The Fisheries and Aquaculture Clean Technology Adoption Program will provide up to $20 million over four years. The program will help fisheries and aquaculture industries incorporate existing clean technologies into their day-to-day operations. Adopting the use of more sustainable and efficient tools, practices and techniques will reduce the potential environmental impact of their activities.



Parties interested in applying for funding can do so through the DFO website at: www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/aquaculture/business-entreprises/factap-application-patppa-eng.htm. Quotes

"Canada's fisheries and aquaculture industries know the importance of environmental stewardship for the sustainability of our coastal waters. We're pleased that through this program, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is able to help these businesses decrease their environmental impact."

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., Q.C., M.P.,

Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

"These projects will help energize the growth and production of B.C. seafood products and extend the reputation B.C. has for sustainable aquaculture and fishery practices. The improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental footprints are one more reason to buy B.C. seafood, enjoy its quality, and support jobs and communities along our coast."

The Honourable Lana Popham

Minister of Agriculture, British Columbia

"Strengthening our economy for the long-term will require us to be innovative in our approach to using our natural resources. These investments will help our fisheries and aquaculture industries further protect our environment, and become more sustainable, by adopting clean technology solutions."

Terry Beech, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

Quick Facts Effingham Oysters Inc. received $37,313 to support energy savings.

to support energy savings. Salish Seas Fisheries received $34,470 to reduce their environmental impact and fuel consumption.

to reduce their environmental impact and fuel consumption. Bee Islets Growers received $43,125 to reduce their environmental impact.

to reduce their environmental impact. OM Harvesting Ltd. received $41,063 to increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

to increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Nova Harvest received $33,535 to reduce dependency on propane.

received to reduce dependency on propane. West Coast Fishculture received $37,246 to support energy saving and emissions reduction.

to support energy saving and emissions reduction. Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced the Fisheries and Aquaculture Clean Technology Adoption Program on December 18, 2017 .

. The program will provide up to $20 million over four years (2017-2021) to help Canada's fisheries and aquaculture industries incorporate existing clean technologies into their day-to-day operations.

over four years (2017-2021) to help fisheries and aquaculture industries incorporate existing clean technologies into their day-to-day operations. The Fisheries and Aquaculture Clean Technology Adoption Program is part of a commitment in Budget 2016 of over $1 billion to support clean technology in Canada's natural resource sectors. Associated Links Apply to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Clean Technology Adoption Program

NRCAN website on clean tech Internet: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FisheriesOceansCanada/ Follow us on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/FishOceansCAN SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region

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[April 10, 2018] AIS Awarded Army Cloud Computing Enterprise Transformation (ACCENT) Contract Vehicle

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AIS is proud to announce that we were awarded a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) on the Army Cloud Computing Enterprise Transformation (ACCENT) contract vehicle. With this award, it's easier than ever for Department of Defense customers to access the extensive Azure knowledge and experience AIS has gained on the platform. AIS began working with Azure in 2008 and now has ten years of experience applying cloud capabilities to create mission-oriented solutions for our commercial and government clients. Issued by the Enterprise Computing and the US Army Contracting Command (ACC) - Rock Island (ACC-RI), ACCENT is specially awarded to support the DoD effort to move designated information technology applications, systems, and associated data to the commercial cloud. About AIS

AIS provides software and systems engineering services to government agencies and businesses across the United States. We specialize in cloud services, DevOps, custom application development and IT services. Our areas of expertise include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services(AWS), Office 365, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, software development, User Experience (UX), Data and Analytics, Emerging Technologies (i.e., AI, Blockchain, and IoT), and Managed Services.



Our customers range from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies and include state and local governments as well as defense and national security agencies. Our analysis-driven approach to solving business problemscombined with our commitment to deadlines and budgetsresults in successful projects and long-term relationships with our clients. We're a top-tier cloud partner for Microsoft, Amazon, and Equinix with proven capabilities and a track record of success. AIS is a Microsoft managed partner with six gold competencies and have been selected as a Microsoft National Solution Provider (NSP). From over 750,000 Microsoft partners, there are less than 50 partners in the NSP organization. Microsoft chooses NSP partners based on their proven capabilities to scale to the needs of large enterprises across the United States. Founded in 1982, AIS is a growing and privately held company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with offices in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and India

To learn more, visit us at https://www.appliedis.com or contact us at sales@appliedis.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ais-awarded-army-cloud-computing-enterprise-transformation-accent-contract-vehicle-300627538.html SOURCE AIS (Applied Information Sciences)

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VANCOUVER, B.C., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auramex Resource Corp. (TSXV:AUX) announces the following changes to the Board and Management:

Effective April 6, Judie Whitby, B.Com, CMA, CPA announced her resignation as CFO, Corporate Secretary and Director. This change marks Judies retirement after having served the company as CFO since 2002. The company thanks Judie for her outstanding and dedicated service to the company and wishes her the very best in her well-earned retirement.

Wylie Hui, CPA, CA, has been appointed CFO and Corporate Secretary. Wylie is Founder & Principal of Altastra Office Systems Inc. and has over 20 years of professional experience in financial management. Before moving into the mining industry, Wylie was a Senior Manager of Ernst & Young LLP in San Francisco, advising private equity and corporate clients, and he was in the Risk Advisory practice in Vancouver, performing a broad range of services for mining and telecommunication companies. Before founding Altastra, he was CFO of Tintina Resources Inc., which was developing a 1.3 billion pound copper project, until that company was taken over by an Australian copper producer.

Wayne Crocker, P.Eng., MBA, CFA, Chairman of the Board, announces his retirement from the Company. Wayne joined the Company in 2009 as President, CEO and Director. In December 2017 Lawrence Roulston became a director of Auramex then became President and CEO, as part of a planned transition to new management. Bill Raney will also be resigning as a director. The company thanks Wayne and Bill for their service to the company.

Two new directors have been appointed:

Marie Brannstrom, B.Sc. (Hons. Earth Science), will be rejoining the Company as a director. Marie began her fifteen year career in mineral exploration in the Snippaker Creek  Iskut River area of the Golden Triangle. Since then, Maries experience has consisted almost exclusively of exploration for intrusion-related mineral deposits, including: Donlin-style porphyry gold in Alaska, Zeballos-type gold veins on Vancouver Island, iron oxide copper gold and porphyry mineralization in northern Mexico and Texas Creek plutonic suite in the Golden Triangle.

Dr. Paul Metcalfe, P.Geo., will join the Auramex board, and rejoin the Company as VP, Exploration, a position he held prior to resigning in 2017. Paul is a highly regarded geologist whose 40-year career integrates experience with major, mid-tier and junior mineral exploration companies, the Geological Survey of Canada, B.C. Geological Survey Branch and U.B.C.s Mineral Deposit Research Unit. He has worked extensively on intrusion-related gold systems and his experience in the Golden Triangle spans three decades of regional to deposit-scale geology in the Iskut River, Eskay Creek and Stewart camps. His intimate knowledge of the regional geology enabled him to identify the transpressive/transtensional environment of Texas Creek-related gold mineralization at Georgie River as a regional phenomenon, with significant potential for future exploration in the area. Pauls broad experience, talent for synthesis and industry connections make him a valuable addition to the Board and Management of Auramex.

Corporate Update

Lawrence Roulston, CEO, stated: We are extremely pleased to have attracted such exceptional talent to the company. Auramex now has a clean balance sheet, cash and with the new team, we will be moving aggressively to add shareholder value. Work is already well underway toward evaluating the companys extensive property holdings in BCs Golden Triangle, a prospective very favourable mineralized region.

The properties were accumulated over the past decade, largely under the direction of the late Dr. Rod Kirkham who introduced Paul to the project. Paul, a highly regarded expert in the geology of the region has augmented Dr. Kirkhams work. Over the coming weeks, the non-core properties will be evaluated with the intent of securing further joint venture partners to help fund further work on those properties.

The focus for Auramex will be the Georgie River project, located on tidewater, 18 kilometres south of Stewart. A high-grade underground mine operated on the property in the 1930s, with 1,200 metres of development on 3 levels. Decade Resources Ltd. can earn a 75% interest in 161 hectares covering the old mine, representing 2% of the Georgie River property held by the company.

The primary target for Auramex is the Hume Creek Mylonite Zone, a 500m thick zone containing intensely deformed gold-bearing Texas Creek plutonic suite rocks. The high-grade gold present in the mine is believed to be directly related to that Texas Creek intrusion. The zone of deformation is coincident with a large 1km2 electromagnetic anomaly and represents a greatly underexplored target for intrusion hosted gold and copper mineralization.

Auramex is also evaluating other opportunities in the region.

About Auramex

Auramex holds 190 square kilometers of mineral rights in BCs Golden Triangle. The Georgia River property surrounds a past producing gold mine near tidewater, 18 km south of Stewart; the Tide North property is 4 km from an all-weather road; and the Bear Valley properties straddle highway 37A north and east of Stewart.

For information on Auramex please contact Lawrence Roulston at (604) 924-9376 or (604) 398-8829 or refer to the companys website: www.auramex.com.

The technical disclosure in this release has been read and approved by Paul Metcalfe, PhD, P.Geo a qualified person as defined in NI 43101.

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.
Kansas City needs community input for new housing policy KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The city is holding the second of four community meetings to gauge neighborhood needs to create a new five-year housing policy Tuesday. The policy will serve as a guide for the city to provide safe, clean, and affordable housing.

Here's a peek at a forum that'll feature activists and all manner of politically engaged denizens looking to make life and profitability harder to achieve for landlords. Take a look:
ST. LOUIS, MO - Missouri's four Catholic bishops join a growing chorus of voices around the country calling for an end to gun violence and a reevaluation of how guns are used in society. A letter released last week, signed by Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis, James V.
PARKER, Colo., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Assure Holdings Corp. (the Company or Assure) (TSXV:IOM) (OTCQB:ARHH), a provider of intraoperative neuromonitoring services, has appointed Kent J. Lund to its board of directors, effective April 9th. He will also serve on Assures audit committee. Lund is the Companys fourth board member and the third serving independently.



For nearly 20 years, Lund has worked in various business, legal and securities compliance roles within the financial services industry. He currently serves as a member of the Colorado Securities Board.

Prior roles include: general counsel and chief compliance officer for SDR Ventures, a private investment banking firm; executive vice president and chief compliance officer for George K. Baum, a private securities broker-dealer; chief compliance officer for Prairie Capital Management, a multi-billion-dollar registered investment adviser; and executive vice president and general counsel for Kirkpatrick, Pettis, Smith, Polian, another private securities broker-dealer. Before working in financial services, Lund served as a law clerk for two federal court of appeals judges, in private legal practice with a large law firm, and as a domestic U.S. and international attorney for a large multinational oil, gas and petrochemical company.

Kent is a highly-experienced business, legal and securities compliance professional that brings our board significant and complementary experience, said Preston Parsons, Assures founder and chairman. This includes building and managing compliance and legal departments, drafting and implementing securities compliance policies and procedures, as well as deep experience managing numerous SEC and FINRA inquiries and examinations. We welcome his skillset to our board and are confident his experience will be invaluable as we continue to expand our platform throughout the U.S.

Lund has also served in public and private company director and/or corporate secretary roles, including as an independent director on two public company board audit committees.

Lund commented on his appointment: I believe that Assure has created a unique IOM platform that has significant opportunity for long-term, national growth. I look forward to leveraging my relevant experience to strengthen the boards focus on best practices in corporate governance as we position the company to grow its footprint and strengthen its brand position.

Lund earned his Master of Laws from the University of Colorado Law School, his MBA from the University of Colorado, his JD with honors from Drake University Law School, and his BA magna cum laude from Midland Lutheran College. He is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska, as well as various federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States.

Lunds appointment remains subject to review and approval by the TSX Venture exchange.

About Assure Holdings

Assure Holdings Corp. is a Colorado-based company that works with neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons to provide a turnkey suite of services that support intraoperative neuromonitoring activities during invasive surgeries. Assure employs its own staff of technologists and uses its own state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, handles 100% of intraoperative neuromonitoring scheduling and setup, and bills for all technical services provided. While Assure focuses primarily on supporting spinal and vascular surgeries, plans are in place to support other classes of medicine that rely on the standard of care that intraoperative neuromonitoring provides. For more information, visit the companys website at assureIOM.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. All statements, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results, developments, performance or achievements that Assure anticipates or expects may or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking information. Such information may involve, but is not limited to, comments with respect to strategies, expectations, planned operations and future actions of the Company. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" (or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or come to pass. Forward-looking information is based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans, strategies or beliefs as of the date of this news release, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Assure to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors may be based on information currently available to Assure, including information obtained from third-party industry analysts and other third-party sources, and are based on management's current expectations or beliefs regarding future growth, results of operations, future capital (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof) and expenditures. Any and all forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

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 securities of the Corporation have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Contacts

Peter Csapo, Chief Financial Officer

Assure Holdings Corp.

(720) 287-3093

Peter.Csapo@assureiom.com

Cody Slach, Managing Director

Liolios Investor Relations

(949) 574-3860

IOM@Liolios.com
Consultants hired by the Kansas City Council to assess the wellbeing of the American Jazz Museum on Monday recommended closing the museum temporarily.





The museum, according to the consultants' report, is "in need of complete rethinking, akin to starting a new museum." The report called for a "complete rebirth, starting with its leadership, but continuing with a revamped financial model, visitor experience, and operational infrastructure."





City Council members had requested this evaluation in October, after months of challenges at the museum, including a $1 million deficit.





The 62-page report, prepared by Museum Management Consultants, Inc., focused on areas such as vision, visitor experience, collections, business model, organizational structure and leadership.





Its assessment of the museum's vision: "Despite being open for 20 years, AJM lacks a clearly defined vision and identity."





Regarding visitor experience: "The visitor experience is seen as stale and offering little to entice repeat visits ... AJM is static and uninspiring, which is particularly surprising given the dynamic story that underpins its mission."

The centerpiece of an embattled district confronts a crisis amid mounting financial losses . . .Here's the report . . .Deets:Developing . . .
Meanwhile, the sexual proclivities of the Guv or how he plunged Missouri into a tabloid adultery scandal is tacitly approved by many so-called Conservatives.

"The filing says any draft reports or interview notes could be crucial, as they say they learned during the deposition that Grietens lover told AUTHORITIES that she had gotten voluntarily naked in front of Greitens. She changed into a T-shirt and pajama bottoms before the pair went into the basement, the filing quotes . . .. In a footnote, lawyers say that would raise questions about her statements that after changing, she still believed that she was going into Greitens unfinished basement to talk.









STL Public Radio: Deadline extended for Missouri lawmakers investigating Greitens

Again, our blog community notes that today's news is mostly good for embattled Guv Greitens as pundits, politicos and newsies focus on court proceedings and the testimony of some woman who never wanted to be a part of this political debate . . .A money line sent by one of our smarter readers . . .Check today's better news items . . .Developing . . .
Kansas City Working Fashionista

Local entrepreneur works to turn idea into product made in KC KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Entrepreneurs in the apparel industry have many challenges to overcome, but the maker of the Jomper said Kansas City is the place to do it. Brittany Weltner had the idea of creating a functional jumpsuit for women, and she is trying to make it happen in her home of Kansas City.

Celebrate KICK-ASS Local Lady Cyborg

Robotic arm brings Platte City woman new life You've probably seen athletes do amazing things with robotically powered prosthetic limbs. Now there's robotic technology that takes it beyond just amputees - to help people who still have their li...

Goodbye Hen House

Hen House in Northland to close next week after 25 years in business KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After 25 years in business, the Hen House grocery store off N.W. 64th Street in Kansas City will close its doors for good next Monday. The owners of the store, Balls Food Stores, said sales have lagged ever since a HyVee moved in, directly across the street, in 2009.

Not Really

Technology brings unprecedented accuracy in severe weather forecasting Forecasting the weather remains a tricky business, but new technology is allowing meteorologists to look further into the future and provide more accurate predictitions. Jared Leighton has seen a lot of advancements in his time as a National Weather Service meteorologist. Radar technology continues to develop, along with high resolution monitors and satellite imaging.

KC Royals FINALLY Start Season

Royals offense explodes for 10 runs while Junis takes no-hitter into the seventh The first of three tilts against their sworn enemies in the Battle for Grass Creek presented the Kansas City Royals with a chance for the club to make a statement. A statement they made.

We start today's news cycle with a progress report on one of our favorite all time fashionistas . . .Closer to home, check some of the Kansas City news that's also turning a few heads:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
The Library, in collaboration with KCPT-Kansas City PBS and KSHB-41 Action News, examines the indelible episode and its aftermath in a two-pronged event marking its 50th anniversary. First is the premiere screening of the new documentary short '68: The Kansas City Race Riots, Then and Now, co-produced by KSHB and KCPT. Then, a panel discussion featuring Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, Mayor Sly James, and former city council member and longtime community activist Alvin Brooks addresses the lessons learned from the violent chapter of history, from the role of policing to the value of protest.



Joining Cleaver and Brooks on the panel: Clarence Gibson, the last Kansas City police officer at the time of the unrest who remains on the force; Linda Spence, a Central High School student in 1968; and Southeast Missouri State University historian Joel Rhodes, who has extensively researched the episode. KCPTs Nick Haines moderates.

Concluding weeks of KCMO controversy regarding the legacy of an American icon. Check the community chat this evening . . .You decide . . .
For many years, the prevailing theory on how the Mycenaean civilisation collapsed was that devastating earthquakes led to the destruction of its palaces in the Peloponnese, southern Greece around 1,200 BC.

Nevertheless, new evidence suggests that some type of internal uprising or an external invasion might have brought about the downfall of the Mycenaean civilisation.

From 2012, a team led by German archaeologist Joseph Maran of Heidelberg University and geophysicist Klaus-G. Hinzen has been conducting research in Tiryns and Midea. The findings of their research were published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

Although some of the observations from the two investigated citadels could be explained by seismic loading, alternative nonseismic causes could equally explain most observed damage. In some cases, the structural damage was clearly not caused by earthquakes, they stressed in the study, adding that: Our results indicate that the hypothesis of a destructive earthquake in Tiryns and Midea, which may have contributed to the end of the LBA Mycenaean palatial period, is unlikely.

The Mycanean civilization

Mycenaean Greece (or Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 16001100 BC. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art and writing system. Among the centers of power that emerged, the most notable were those of Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in Argolid, after which the culture of this era is named. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy.

The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as wanax.

Mycenaean Greece perished with the collapse of Bronze Age culture in the eastern Mediterranean, to be followed by the so-called Greek Dark Ages, a recordless transitional period leading to Archaic Greece where significant shifts occurred from palace-centralized to de-centralized forms of socio-economic organization (including the extensive use of iron). Various theories have been proposed for the end of this civilization, among them the Dorian invasion or activities connected to the "Sea Peoples". Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have been also suggested. The Mycenaean period became the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology, including the Trojan Epic Cycle.

Grace Circle B at Mycenae Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: K beard License: CC-BY-SA





Initial decline of Mycanean Greece

In c. 1250 BC, the first wave of destruction apparently occurred in various centers of mainland Greece for reasons that cannot be identified by archaeologists. In Boeotia, Thebes was burned to the ground, around that year or slightly later. Nearby Orchomenos shared the same fate, while the Boeotian fortifications of Gla were deserted. In the Peloponnese, a number of buildings surrounding the citadel of Mycenae were attacked and burned.

These incidents appear to have prompted the massive strengthening and expansion of the fortifications in various sites. In some cases, arrangements were also made for the creation of subterranean passages which led to underground cisterns. Tiryns, Midea and Athens expanded their defences with new cyclopean-style walls. The extension program in Mycenae almost doubled the fortified area of the citadel. To this phase of extension belongs the impressive Lion Gate, the main entrance into the Mycenaean acropolis.

It appears that after this first wave of destruction a short-lived revival of Mycenaean culture followed. Mycenaean Greece continues to be mentioned in international affairs, particularly in Hittite records. In c. 1220 BC, the king of Ahhiyawa is again reported to have been involved in an anti-Hittite uprising in western Anatolia. Another contemporary Hittite account reports that Ahhiyawan ships should avoid Assyrian-controlled harbors, as part of a trade embargo imposed on Assyria. In general, in the second half of 13th century BC, trade was in decline in the Eastern Mediterranean, most probably due to the unstable political environment there.[62]

The final collapse of Mycanean civilization

None of the defence measures appear to have prevented the final destruction and collapse of the Mycenaean states. A second destruction struck Mycenae in ca. 1190 BC or shortly thereafter. This event marked the end of Mycenae as a major power. The site was then reoccupied, but on a smaller scale. The palace of Pylos, in the southwestern Peloponnese, was destroyed in c. 1180 BC. The Linear B archives found there, preserved by the heat of the fire that destroyed the palace, mention hasty defence preparations due to an imminent attack without giving any detail about the attacking force.

As a result of this turmoil, specific regions in mainland Greece witnessed a dramatic population decrease, especially Boeotia, Argolis and Messenia. Mycenaean refugees migrated to Cyprus and the Levantine coast.[64] Nevertheless, other regions on the edge of the Mycenaean world prospered, such as the Ionian islands, the northwestern Peloponnese, parts of Attica and a number of Aegean islands.[59] The acropolis of Athens, oddly, appears to have avoided destruction.

The Grave Circle A, and the main entrance of the citadel (left), at Mycenae Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Andreas Trepte License: CC-BY-SA





Hypotheses for the collapse

The reasons for the end of the Mycenaean culture have been hotly debated among scholars. At present, there is no satisfactory explanation for the collapse of the Mycenaean palace systems. The two most common theories are population movement and internal conflict. The first attributes the destruction of Mycenaean sites to invaders.

The hypothesis of a Dorian invasion, known as such in Ancient Greek tradition, that led to the end of Mycenaean Greece, is supported by sporadic archaeological evidence such as new types of burials, in particular cist graves, and the use of a new dialect of Greek, the Doric one. It appears that the Dorians moved southward gradually over a number of years and devastated the territory, until they managed to establish themselves in the Mycenaean centers. A new type of ceramic also appeared, called "Barbarian Ware" because it was attributed to invaders from the north. On the other hand, the collapse of Mycenaean Greece coincides with the activity of the Sea Peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean. They caused widespread destruction in Anatolia and the Levant and were finally defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III in c. 1175 BC. One of the ethnic groups that comprised these people were the Eqwesh, a name that appears to be linked with the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite inscriptions.

Alternative scenarios propose that the fall of Mycenaean Greece was a result of internal disturbances which led to internecine warfare among the Mycenaean states or civil unrest in a number of states, as a result of the strict hierarchical social system and the ideology of the wanax. In general, due to the obscure archaeological picture in 12th-11th century BC Greece, there is a continuing controversy among scholars over whether the impoverished societies that succeeded the Mycenaean palatial states were newcomers or populations that already resided in Mycenaean Greece. Recent archaeological findings tend to favor the latter scenario. Additional theories, concerning natural factors, such as climate change, droughts or earthquakes have also been proposed. The period following the end of Mycenaean Greece, c. 1100-800 BC, is generally termed the "Greek Dark Ages".

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Andreas Trepte License: CC-BY-SA
Franco-Moroccan sensation Hindi Zahra returns to Greece after a sold-out show at the Pallas Theater in Athens last year, for two new performances. The soul-folk act will play the Principal Club Theater in Thessaloniki on May 3 and Athenss Fuzz Club on May 4, with tickets already on sale, beginning at 22 euros. For reservations, log on to www.viva.gr or call 11876.

Principal, 15 26th October, tel 2310.428.088;

Fuzz, 1 Patriarchou Ioakeim, Tavros, tel 210.345.0817

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Guillaume Laurent License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ekathimerini.com
The Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey includes first, second, third, and fourth generation Greek-Americans. Photo: Courtesy of Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey

HOLMDEL, NJ  The renowned Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey (HDNJ) presents its 46th Anniversary Taverna Night Dinner Dance, Saturday, April 28, at Kimisis Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church, 20 Hillcrest Road in Holmdel. Beginning at 6:30 pm, attendees will enjoy a full Greek dinner buffet and desserts, Greek and popular music, and a special performance and fashion show by the HDNJ. All proceeds from the event will support HDNJ in preserving the folk dance customs of Greece, and perpetuating Greek heritage in America. Funding from the event will also support the dance troupes 2018 touring schedule.

For reservations, contact Aphrodite Bucco by phone: 732-576-1511 or email: info@hellenicdancersofnj.org, or online: www.hellenicdancersofnj.org/taverna.php with secure payment through Paypal. Tickets are $30 adults/students (13  23) and $20 children under 12 if reserved by April 15. Adult tickets are $40 at the door (student and children tickets remain the same as above).

This year, HDNJ is excited to show off its ever-growing repertoire of dances. Our instructional staff has dedicated itself to attending Greek dance workshops in Montreal, Canada; Bethesda, MD, and in several villages throughout Greece, in order to continue bringing our audiences new and fresh dances, said HDNJ Artistic Director Spiro Petroutsos. Instead of focusing on any one region, this years Taverna Night routine will showcase the incredibly diverse styles of dance that can be exhibited from both past and present-day Greece. Among others, regions that will be represented include; Crete, Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, Pontos, Cyprus, and the Aegean Islands. We are very excited to show how much our Greek traditions truly have to offer.

Traditional Greek folk dances will debut on the HDNJ stage at the 2018 Taverna Night

Several new traditional Greek folk dances will debut on the HDNJ stage at the 2018 Taverna Night including: Perdikoula Imeriva and Aintin from Florina and Serres, both in Macedonia, Ethianos Pidihtos from Ethia, Crete, Mantilia, from Pontos, Ballaristos from Mykonos and Syrtos from Tzia (Kea), both in the Cyclades islands. These additions to the troupes 350+ dance repertoire not only continue HDNJs mission of preserving the folk dance traditions of Greece, but also keep the performances fresh for its long-time supporters.

While the 2018 Taverna Night is a dinner dance celebrating Greek folk dance traditions, the event is a chance for the troupes friends, supporters, alumni, and anyone who has a love of Greek culture to dance the night away. Proceeds from HDNJs Annual Taverna Night will support this all-volunteer 501 (c) 3 nonprofit with general operating expenses. By purchasing a ticket, or an ad in the new electronic journal, audience members directly assist HDNJ in its mission of preserving Greek culture through presentations of the traditional folk dances of Greece.

Founded in 1972, by Fr. Jim and Eleni Chakalos, the HDNJ has researched, presented, and preserved over 350 folk dances, songs, and traditions from mainland Greece, its islands, Cyprus, and Asia Minor, and passed them on to three generations of Greek Americans. The troupe has been commended numerous times throughout its 46-year history, for its dedication to its mission, as well as the enthusiasm and excitement of its performances. The dance troupe is currently comprised of first, second, third, and fourth generation Greek-Americans, ranging in age from 16-45, and representing the many Greek communities of New Jersey.

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: thenationalherald.com
Greekcitytimes.com reports that Financial Times recently presented its list of the 10 most beautiful hideaways in the Mediterranean and named Serifos island as the number one destination for 2018.

Serifos is a Greek stunning island in the Western Cyclades and only a short ferry ride from Athens. It is not a hot tourist spot and the island has kept its traditional character and the landscape. Chora is the most picturesque spot in Serifos, constructed on the slopes of a mountain and has fabulous view across the Aegean Sea. The island has crystal clear beaches all around its coastline and is ideal for everyone.

While Mykonos and Santorini are the megastars of the Cyclades, Serifos remains gloriously in their shadow, overlooked and undisturbed by the holidaying masses. As one guidebook notes, Little has happened here since Perseus returned with Medusas head. There is no airport, and ferry timetables can be capricious (the time from Athens varying from two to five hours), but the journey is worth it  as your ferry pulls into the harbour, you cant fail to be impressed by the steep, barren mountains rising straight from the shore. Improbably perched on one of these peaks is Chora, the islands capital, among the most picturesque towns in the Mediterranean.

When the Victorian English traveller Theodore Bent visited Serifos in 1883, he was shocked by the poverty and filthy living conditions, but in recent years the islanders humble dwellings  shepherds huts, sailors cottages, even an abattoir  have been reimagined by Athenian designers and architects as stylish but discreet retreats. Several are available to rent, or you can stay at the Coco-Mat hotel, above the white-sand beach of Vagia. Formed from a row of former miners huts, it has a bar and restaurant scooped out of the rock and open on one side to the elements, and exudes a sort of castaway chic. Rent a car and tour the island, stopping to walk down dusty tracks to little coves you wont have to share, FT reported.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: G Da License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greekcitytimes.com
Greeks are very proud of their history and national heritage and are very eager to share both with the country's visitors

Greekreporter.com notes in the following article that on 10 April 1825, three years after the failed attempt to occupy Missolonghi, the Ottoman armies returned to besiege the city that had become the seat of the Senate of Western Continental Greece.

The siege lasted a whole year and the 10,500 city inhabitants eventually made the heroic Exodus of Missolonghi on 10 April 1826, adding another brilliant page in the Greek War of Independence Greeces history.

The army of Resid Mehmed Pasha, or Kioutachis as Greeks called him, numbering 20,000 men. began the second siege of the city, later to be joined by another 10,000 men of Ibrahim Pasha who arrived from the Peloponnese campaign. It was April 15, 1825.

The siege of the city can be divided into two periods: a) April 15 to Dec. 12, 1825; and b) Dec. 25, 1825 to April 10, 1826. Without much help from the rest of the Greeks due to the civil war, having to cope with superior enemy forces, the Missolonghi residents resisted bravely for one year.

A three-man committee organized the citys defense: Ioannis Papadiamantopoulos; Dimitrios Themelis; and Georgios Kanavos.

The fortress of the city after the first siege had been restored and fortified, after the efforts of Alexandros Mavrokordatos, philhellene Lord Byron and engineer Michail Kokkinis.

Its trench was deeper and the courtyard was reinforced with towers, on which several cannons had been placed. The islet of Vassiladi, between the lagoon and the sea, became a kind of advanced fortress. There were six guns and 2,000 women and children were gathered so as not to aggravate the city guard.

Within Messolonghi there were 10,000 people, including 4,000 men, outstanding warriors from Epirus and Aitoloakarnania and another 1,000 men capable of using weapons.

The first phase of the Missolonghi siege

In the first phase of the siege (April 15  Dec. 12, 1825) Missolonghi was besieged only by the forces of Kioutachis and their attacks were easily repelled. The siege from the sea was not strong enough and was repeatedly disrupted by Andreas Miaoulis fleet, which supplied the besieged citizens with munitions and food.

On July 24, 1,000 Russian soldiers under Greek General Georgios Karaiskakis forced the Ottomans to withdraw their forces to the foot of Mount Zygos, relaxing the siege of Missolonghi. The Turkish fleet, being harassed by the Greek, was forced to seek shelter in English-ruled Kefalonia.

On August 5, Kitsos Tzavellas, head of a group of fighters from Souli, entered the city, raising the morale of the besieged. But at the start of November, a fleet of Ottomans and Egyptians brought 8,000 Egyptian soldiers to the siege and a month later the army of Ibrahim Pasha came to the region. At the time, Ibrahims army numbered 25,000 troops comprised of Ottomans, Egyptians and Albanians commanded by French officers and with modern artillery at their disposal.

The second phase of the Missolonghi siege

It was Dec. 25, 1825 when the second phase of the siege commenced . The two generals of the Ottoman forces where in disagreement and Ibrahim attacked the city first. On Jan. 16, 1826, Ibrahim admitted his failure to conquer the city and was forced to co-operate with Kioutachis.

The two armies had stunned the besieged Greeks with merciless bombardment. They managed to take over the strategically important islets of Vassiladi (Feb. 25) and Kleisovas (March 25). After the fall of the two islets, the situation for the besieged became desperate, as Miaoulis and his ships could no longer bring supplies to the city.

Missolonghi was now without food. Soon its defenders were forced to eat seaweed, mice and cats. Under the circumstances, it was impossible for the city to defend itself. On the April 6 the board of chieftains decided to make the exodus at midnight on the Saturday of Lazarus through the dawn of Palm Sunday (April 9  10).

At midnight, according to the plan, they were divided into three groups, under Dimitrios Makris, Notis Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas, in the hope of breaking enemy lines, taking the enemy by surprise. Earlier they had killed all Ottoman prisoners while only the wounded and the very old would stay in the city.

The heroic Exodus of Missolonghi

Nevertheless, the plan was not carried out properly or there was a traitor who betrayed the scheme to the Ottomans. Ibrahims forces slaughtered the Greek freedom fighters who fought against all odds. Meanwhile, the enemy forces had invaded the city and killed everyone who was left behind.

It is calculated that 3,000 Greek men were killed during the Exodus of Missolonghi. The 6,000 women and children of the city were taken as slaves, sold to the slave markets of Constantinople and Alexandria. The Ottoman-Egyptian casualties amounted to 5,000 men.

The Ottoman victory proved to be Pyrrhic as the barbarity of Ibrahims troops and the heroism of the Greeks generated a new wave of philhellenism across Europe.

Missolonghi was freed on May 11, 1829. In 1937 it was recognized as Holy City due to the mass slaughter of its citizens and Palm Sunday was designated as the anniversary of the Exodus.

Source: Philip Chrysopoulos/greekreporter

Read more here.

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prolynx LLC (San Francisco, CA) announced it received a Notice of Allowance for its DNA damage enhancer PLX038 (PEG~SN-38), currently in Phase 1 trials at MD Anderson. PLX038 is a prodrug of SN-38, the active metabolite of the anti-cancer agent Irinotecan, which inhibits Topoisomerase 1 (Topo 1) during DNA replication and causes replication stress and DNA damage. The new allowed claims expand ProLynxs broad patent coverage of PEG~SN-38 conjugates using ProLynx beta-eliminative linkers in US Patent 8,754,19.



DNA damaging agents, such as PLX038, have assumed a new importance in the context of the DNA damage response (DDR) and synthetic lethality. To combat threats posed by DNA damage, cells have mechanisms to signal the presence of DNA damage and promote its repair  collectively termed the DNA-damage response. Cells defective in DDR  as in many tumors  display heightened sensitivity towards DNA-damaging agents such as Topo 1 inhibitors. Such agents can increase DNA damage to a level that is tolerable to normal cells but lethal to cancer cells with DDR deficiencies. Hence, an effective Topo 1 inhibitor will enhance DNA damage and death of cells with DDR defects  such as cells deficient in DNA repair proteins BRCA, ATM or ATR  or in cells treated with inhibitors of DDR components  such as PARP, ATM or ATR inhibitors.

ProLynxs PLX038 slowly releases SN-38 such that tumors are exposed to the DNA-damaging agent SN-38 for long periods. In addition, the nanomolecule accumulates and remains in tumors for long periods, slowly releasing the drug at high intra-tumoral concentrations.

ProLynxs PEG~SN-38 conjugates show remarkable antitumor effects in mouse models of human tumors with DDR defects and those treated with DDR inhibitors. For example, in the BRCA1 human xenograft MX-1, a single, non-toxic dose completely inhibited tumor growth and resolved massive tumors. Likewise, a combination of low dose PEG~SN-38 with a PARP inhibitor completely inhibited tumor growth, and shrank large tumors. Moreover, a low dose of PEG~SN-38 followed by a period to allow tumor accumulation and systemic elimination sensitized the tumor such that treatment with a low dose of PARP inhibitor completely inhibited tumor growth.

Daniel Santi, cofounder and President of ProLynx, said, PLX038 may provide a general agent for enhancing the selective killing of cancer cells with certain DDR defects. In addition, PLX038 seems to enhance the effects of other inhibitors that act on DDR components by synthetic lethality, suggesting that it may be used in combination with such agents.

About ProLynx : ProLynx LLC is a privately held biotechnology company located in San Francisco, CA, developing delivery systems for half-life extension of small molecules, peptides and proteins. The company applies its technology to extend half-lives of new drug candidates, and to improve properties of off-patent therapeutics. ProLynx has a monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist in its pre-clinical portfolio, and PLX038 in Phase 1 clinical trials. Further information about the company may be found at www.ProLynxllc.com.

Daniel.V.Santi@gmail.com 415-552-5306 or linda@pullanconsulting.com 805-558-0361
Egypt is set to invest a total of E55 billion ($3.1 billion) for the revamp of the national railway network over the next five years, including the addition of 1,000 new train cars, reported Al Ahram Arabic news website, citing the country's transport minister.



Last year, President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi had highlighted the need for upgradation of the railway network to prevent fatal accidents, stating that the system needs E180 billion ($10 billion) to be modernised, stated the report.



His comments came shortly after an August train disaster in Alexandria that killed 41 people and injured some 179, reported Al Ahram.



Hisham Arafat said Egypt has a clear and comprehensive plan to develop all aspects of the railway system, whether in infrastructure, tractors, train carriages and signals.



Egypt has signed deals with US company General Electric for the supply of 100 tractors and the refurbishing of 81 others, as well as access to funding for another 100 tractors, said Arafat during a surprise visit to Giza railway station on the Sham El Neseem holiday.



"We have also signed deals for 1,300 passenger carriages and 300 others for cargo," he stated, emphasising that citizens will see an upgrade in the ailing system next year.



The minister's statements come nearly a month after Egypt's parliament finally approved several government-drafted amendments to the 1980 law that regulates the performance of the debt-laden Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA), with a view to rescuing the vital railways sector.



Egypt's railway system has a poor safety record, with frequent deadly collisions often blamed on lack of maintenance and poor management, said the report.



Last February, 12 people were killed when a passenger train collided with a cargo train in the northern governorate of Beheira.


Octal, one of Omans principal exporters, recently partnered with the Omani Ministry of Commerce and Industry to ensure exports of Omani PET resin to Canada are uninterrupted without any additional duties imposed.



Octal, one of Omans principal exporters recently partnered with the Omani Ministry of Commerce and Industry to ensure exports of Omani polyethylene terephthalate resin (PET resin) to Canada are uninterrupted without any additional duties imposed.



The win for Omani industry came in the wake of an inquiry conducted by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal into the effect of dumping and subsidizing of PET resin originating in or exported from China, India, Pakistan and Oman on Canadian industry, which resulted in the finding of negligible.



Oman has a window of opportunity to accelerate economic growth and stimulate job creation and investment opportunities by continuing to foster a progressive international trade policy, said Octals CEO, Nicholas Barakat.



The ongoing implementation of Omans diversification agenda, boosting of exports and investment for the future by nurturing innovation, are key elements for Oman to achieve its economic development aspirations.



Barakat added: The win for Omani PET resin in the Canadian market is a real testament to Omani manufacturing, its capabilities and most importantly, its promise for the countrys growing exports and international trade, which is increasingly considered the modern engine of prosperity.



The size of the economy in Oman has been growing steadily, and market conditions are stable. Oman and Canada have a growing trade and investment relationship. Canadas export credit agency, Export Development Canada classified Oman as a key market for Canadian businesses and investment.  TradeArabia News Service
The Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) has reported a record production of 391,343 metric tonnes of Ammonia, Urea and Methanol in the first quarter of the year without a lost time accident.

Company President Dr Abdulrahman Jawahery said GPIC is now accustomed to such achievements and records and attributed it to the attention, care and continuous follow-up of the wise leadership, which sees it as one of the most important industrial entities leading the Kingdom of Bahrains national economy.

He said this was also the result of GPICs approach towards continuing modernisation and development of operations and plant equipment as well as its commitment to implementing maintenance procedures. He said the companys keenness to develop its human elements by making available for them the latest training programmes and involving them in courses, conferences, exhibitions and workshops to develop their professionalism was another reason for the success.

Dr Jawahery spoke about the company's abilities to keep pace with ambitions and excellence in an industry that is full of challenges and competition at all levels. He stressed such results have been achieved as a result of the flexible strategy of the Board of Directors, which takes into account circumstances and rapid changes experienced by the industry.

He noted that the professionalism of the Executive Management and all employees of the company, who work in a one family spirit was also responsible. He said everyone had worked together with competence and through their years of experience to make sure GPIC exceeded its set targets.

Dr Jawahery praised the role of the company's Labour Union and its constructive cooperation with the Executive Management. He applauded the principles the Labour Union applies not only at the company but also at the local, regional and international levels.

Dr Jawahery said all these elements had contributed to GPIC achieving an average daily production in the first quarter of this year of 4,430 metric tonnes of Ammonia, Urea and Methanol. He said the company would continue to achieve more records at all levels, while adhering to strict international standards in occupational safety and health, and while taking care of the environment and its components.

Dr Jawahery said GPIC had exported 334,785 metric tonnes of its products in the last three months, with Thailand amounting to 27 per cent and China importing 21 per cent. These, he said, were exported on board 19 vessels.

Dr Jawahery said that all of the companys products are subject to international regulations related to quality, environmental protection, occupational health and safety as well as responsible care, and that the company has received the highest honours and awards that indicate the excellence and quality of its products.

He said GPIC trains its national cadres both within and outside Bahrain in order to achieve sustainability in its operations and services provided to the community. He said the company also faces challenges head on and everyone makes twice the efforts in a one family spirit to achieve all success.

He said GPIC is very keen on the development of its Bahraini employees by providing them specialised courses and workshops at home and abroad on all aspects of the petrochemical industry.

He said the company is keen on everyones health, safety and occupational health as well as the protection of the environment and social responsibility. He said they are keen to continue to promote this culture among all institutions and sectors.

He said GPIC offers all forms of support to and participates in various activities organised by civil society organisations, including associations, clubs and professional institutions, in accordance with a clear vision and to ensure a meaningful partnership.

He said the company is also making efforts in the field of environmental care and conservation, and plays a major role in the rationalisation of energy and water to meet the challenges ahead.
Flight bookings in Saudi Arabia grew 14 per cent in 2017, revealed Cleartrip - a leading mobile and online travel company in the Middle East - in its 2017 Travel Insights Report.



The report, which derives insights from the company's proprietary data and the data from over 400 partner airlines, also showed that mobile bookings in the kingdom jumped 116 per cent during the year, largely driven by reservations made on Saudia and flynas.



"The air travel sector in Saudi Arabia continued to experience strong activity resulting from a steady increase in both international and domestic flight bookings in 2017. Along with the industry growth, customer habits and interests have seen marked changes as detailed in our 2017 Travel Insights Report. After sifting through millions of data points, our team at Cleartrip has aptly captured the evolving needs and preferences of travellers in the kingdom. The growing traveller inclination towards mobile-based bookings is a key highlight of the report. We are confident that the key learning's from the report will enable travel businesses in the kingdom to shape their products and services to meet and exceed expectations of their customers," said Stuart Crighton, founder and CEO of Cleartrip.



Even though desktop continues to be the dominant platform for travel bookings, the country has been witnessing a growing shift to mobile. During the year, mobile transactions grew at a whopping pace of 116 per cent, even as reservations made on mobile devices represented just 31 per cent of all bookings, as compared to 69 per cent desktop-based purchases. The country's travellers are increasingly opting mobile devices over other means to book their trips and this trend was more evident in purchases made on Saudia and flynas.



Among the top regional cities assessed in the report, Riyadh had the highest rate of mobile booking penetration (MBP), followed by Jeddah, with total purchases made on mobile devices in the two cities amounting to 32 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively.



The findings of the report show that ticket prices for air travel between different origin and destination cities recorded a significant drop in 2017, as compared to the previous year. Jeddah-Dubai marked the biggest decrease with a 28 per cent decline in travel fares.



Contrary to popular belief, the majority of travel bookings in Saudi Arabia are taking place within a week prior to departure and mobile outperforms desktop in last-minute purchases. The comprehensive report shows that 57 per cent of mobile bookings and 45 per cent desktop reservations in the kingdom during the past year occurred up to a week ahead of travel. The 2017 Travel Insights Report also shows that the country witnessed significant airfare fluctuations with average prices dropping 21 per cent during the year. The average fare per booking on desktop and mobile in the kingdom stood at $396 and $360, respectively.



In the region, credit card continues to be the preferred method of payment for travellers. However, new trends are emerging as debit cards are increasingly becoming a popular option for online payments in Saudi Arabia. In 2017, credit card, debit card and other payment methods represented 70 per cent, 28 per cent and 2.1 per cent of total bookings, respectively.



In addition, Cleartrip's booking data shows that 13 per cent of travellers like to grab a bargain on tickets in the kingdom. - TradeArabia News Service
Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau has successfully concluded a two-day promotional mission to Saudi Arabia as part of its on-going efforts to develop new markets and increase the number of visitors and spend from the region to Sri Lanka.



Headed by Anjantha Ratnayake, assistant director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, a delegation of 20 partners from Sri Lankas tourism and hospitality industries visited Dammam and Riyadh and held the roadshow at Holiday Inn Corniche and Holiday Inn Qasr on April 8 and 9, holding one to one meetings and informational seminars with leading travel agency representatives and outbound operators in each city.



Ratnayake said: The mission has been a resounding success, with excellent attendance with the right partners in each of the cities visited, and our co-participating Sri Lankan industry partners reporting highly productive meetings that will result in increased business and travel to Sri Lanka from the region.



In 2017, Sri Lanka received a total of 78,873 tourists from the Middle East region with Saudi Arabia topping the rank with the most number of tourist visitor arrival from the region with a total of 35,481 visitors. Currently, there are 28 direct flight services a week connecting Saudi Arabia to Sri Lanka, suggesting the potential to grow and develop the market further, especially as travellers from the country on average have one of the highest travel spends in the world. This will result in not only return dividends for Sri Lankas tourism and hospitality industries, but also for the retail industry.



Ratnayake added: Sri Lanka has much to offer visitors from Saudi Arabia with our distinctive, adventure-packed, eco-friendly, family-focused experiences and offerings, as well as our rich nature, heritage and culture, year-round schedule of festivals and special events, numerous parks and eco-centers, and luxury resorts and wellness centres. Our mission has done much to put Sri Lanka on the map and in the hearts and minds of Saudi-based travel partners, and in combination with future promotions planned for the country and the region, Im confident we will see many more visitors from Saudi Arabia making Sri Lanka their next holiday destination of choice in the coming months.



In each of the cities visited, over a hundred key outbound travel professionals attended the Sri Lanka Tourism workshops and seminars to learn more about its touristic offerings and business opportunities. Both events were also attended and supported by Sri Lankas Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Azmi Thassim, along with Sri Lankan commercial secretary to Saudi Arabia, Gayan Rajapakse.



A total of 13 industry partners from Sri Lanka-based tourism and hospitality entities joined the roadshow including Aitken Spence Travels, Isra Holidays, Centuria Travels, I Am Sri Lanka, Araliya Green Hills Hotel, Explore The Wonders, and Asian Adventures Travel Management Company, among others.



The Saudi Arabia mission was successfully coordinated by Aviareps, the worlds leading destination marketing and promotion company. - TradeArabia News Service


Swiss-Belhotel International is among the top 10 most active brands in the kingdom, with five projects featuring over 1,200 rooms currently under development, according to a report by Tophotelprojects, prepared exclusively for The Hotel Show Saudi Arabia 2018.



Laurent A. Voivenel, senior vice president, operations and development for the Middle East, Africa and India for Swiss-Belhotel International, said: Saudi Arabia is a very significant market for us with 35 per cent of our development pipeline concentrated in the kingdom. Out of the six hotels opening this year, three are located in Saudi Arabia. Two of these will be in the capital city of Riyadh i.e. Swiss-Belboutique Tahlia Riyadh, a deluxe four-star hotel featuring 60 rooms and Swiss-Belhotel Riyadh, a four-star hotel featuring 112 rooms. Both hotels are owned by Jumaiah Group. In addition, we will be making our debut in the second half of 2018 into the Holy city of Makkah with Swiss-Belhotel Al Aziziya Makkah. Featuring 525 rooms, the upscale four-star property is owned by Cardamom International Property Management and is superbly located in the rapidly expanding hotel hub of Makkah only a few minutes drive away from Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Al Aziziya.



Saudi hospitality sector is set to grow at 13.5 per cent CAGR per annum up to 2022. Widespread investment in the kingdoms tourism and infrastructure sector in pursuit of attracting 30 million visitors annually by 2030 is driving demand for quality accommodation. With 40,020 keys in 89 projects, the country at the moment has the most hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and North Africa.



Laurent stressed: Saudi Arabia is a market that is currently under supplied in terms of hotels and is, therefore, projected to show strong growth over the next few years and we are extremely keen to take advantage of this massive opportunity. Our expansion in Saudi Arabia, like the rest of the region, demonstrates the confidence of owners in the strength of our brands. At Swiss-Belhotel International, with 14 well-established brands, we are well equipped to meet the needs of every segment of Saudi hotel sector. We believe our upcoming hotels will add tremendous value to our growing presence in the country.



Swiss-Belhotel International will be present at Arabian Travel Market from April 22 to 25 on stand HC1130 in Sheikh Saeed Hall in Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. - TradeArabia News Service


No one can claim to be surprised that the Dominican Republic now ranks as the most visited country in the Caribbean. With the United States high season for travel being the Dominican Republics low season, the Dominican Republic should definitely be a destination on your list.



(TRAVPR.COM) DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - April 10th, 2018 - IF YOU ARE PLANNING YOUR SUMMER VACATION, YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW THE BEST TIME TO VISIT THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!

With the United States high season for travel being the Dominican Republics low season, the Dominican Republic should definitely be a destination on your list.

No one can claim to be surprised that the Dominican Republic now ranks as the most visited country in the Caribbean. The diamond white beaches and exotic resorts from Punta Cana to La Romana attract millions of sun lovers every year. The amazing landscape and vegetation are uniquely preserved and pleasing to the eye. But with all the fanfare and multitude of tourists that flock into the country each year, it would be nice to note the importance of timing. Honestly, it is a wonderful country all year long. But several factors make certain times more enjoyable than others. If youre wondering when the most enjoyable time is, read on. When deciding the best time to visit the Dominican Republic, you must understand that there are two distinct tourist high seasons:

1) High tourist season runs from mid-December through mid-Marchexpect higher rates during this time. This is a natural economic principle, the higher the demand, the higher the price. Loads of tourists visit The Dominican Republic at this time of year to bask in the warm weather, so expect your accommodations to be hard to come by and even expensive. Everywhere you turn during this period just seems to be stacked with tourists. Around Christmas and New Years Eve in December and Carnival in February, the crowds are even larger. It is advisable to make your reservations at least 5 months in advance.

2) The low tourist season April- August brings with it attractive airfare and slashed hotel rates. Apparently, due to peak season rush decline, this is when the tourists trickle out of the city. Its usually around now that the temperatures are at their highest (with average highs around 800 F). Youll, therefore, save a considerable amount of money and have an easier time booking a hotel room on the spot. The bars and beaches are not as crowded during these times, making for a more relaxing and enjoyable time. Add this to the fact that rates are cheaper- Im sure youre starting to see why this makes for a more enjoyable time in the Dominican Republic.

Companies like Transekur will be ready to navigate you at whatever time you choose to visit The Dominican Republic. They provide Secure Premium Private Transportation for you to and from any part of the country, and Private Luxury Excursions & Experiences. Transekur is the #1 Premium Transportation provider in the Dominican Republic, offering airport transfers, luxury taxi and chauffeur service, nationwide since 2012. This includes Punta Cana airport transfers and Santo Domingo transfers.

When you book your Dominican transportation, you do not receive a third service. They are the only online retailer in the entire Dominican Republic that owns all of its vehicles and employs all of its drivers. This allows them to guarantee a higher level of service, while maintaining very competitive prices.

Start your vacation the right way, by booking a Dominican Republic transportation company that is trusted, affordable, and reliable from Transekur.com.



Are you ready for paradise?

###
NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Startup Cuba, a nine-episode weekly documentary series about the Communist run islands cuentapropistas (entrepreneurs), releases its first episode today.



As Raul Castro prepares to hand the reins to the first non-Castro in sixty years, Startup Cuba takes viewers to Cuba, deep into the grittiest, most inspiring startup scene on the planet. Produced by VERV.tv, a new digital media company for the US Hispanic market, the series focuses on the Cuban entrepreneurial spirit and explores how this new generation of more than 500,000 entrepreneurs resolver (overcome) in the face of adversity.

We created this to show Americans that Cuban entrepreneurs do exist and that they have the same dreams for themselves and their families as we have. They are indisputably changing their lives, and possibly their country, as they build their businesses, said Ken Deckinger, executive producer and host of the series.

"Cubans have this endless ability to re-engineer beauty out of scraps, to rally when situations seem impossible, and laugh no matter what. And the entrepreneurs seem to embody it most. Their creativity and joy are contagious," says Tamara Park, executive producer and director.



Starting a business in Cuba is not without challenges. Recently, the government stopped issuing new business licenses. Restaurants cant get matching silverware or sometimes key ingredients; tech startups cant get stable internet; and business services such as legal firms simply dont exist. Still, a new generation of Cuban entrepreneurs and cuentapropistas have chosen to leave their government-run jobs for the uncertainty of business ownership.

The Cuban people can handle anything, nothing stops them. Given this opportunity to become entrepreneurs, theyre going to be the rockstars of the startup world, says Deckinger.

They always find a way and their ability to master the workaround is sure to inspire viewers in the US, added Park.

ABOUT STARTUP CUBA

Startup Cuba is a documentary series about cuentapropistas in Havana. In nine, eight-minute episodes, the series connects viewers with both top and everyday entrepreneurs on the island. Shot from a documentary-style perspective, Startup Cuba shows its viewers an authentic POV of Cuban cuentapropistas. Viewers can watch the series at VERV.tv or YouTube.com/startupcuba.

ABOUT VERV.tv

VERV.tv, launched in September, 2017 is a new digital media company for the US Hispanic market. Experiencing rapid growth since its inception, the company has seen over 1.7 million views of its video content in its first six months. Through social media, the companys video content on issues of importance to the Latino community, is now viewed by hundreds of thousands of people monthly, and growing.

For More Information

Crystal Woody

617.306.9427

crystal@carltonprmarketing.com

facebook.com/startupcuba

www.verv.tv
SEATTLE, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EchoNous, the parent company of Signostics, is applying the emerging field of artificial intelligence (AI) with the extreme miniaturization of ultrasound to solve common everyday problems in health care. At the 2018 AONE Conference from April 12-15 in Indianapolis, the company will be demonstrating the EchoNous Vein1  a new, best-in-class tool designed to improve first-time peripheral IV (PIV) placement.



The soon-to-be released EchoNous Vein is designed specifically for nurses inserting peripheral IV catheters by providing an immediate and clear image of veins using just two-button controls. The easy-to-use device also includes optimized settings for use with adults and pediatrics.

As one of the most commonly performed minimally-invasive procedures, and the gateway to further treatment, PIV placement can be challenging due to chronic illness, chemotherapy, obesity and drug abuse, with first-attempt IV catheter insertions failing in up to 26% of adults and 54% of children according to an article published in the Journal of Nursing Infusion2.

We believe our new vein finding tool can turn around the adult and pediatric trends for IV insertion failures and help contribute to improving performance on HCAHPS patient satisfaction surveys, said Goodwin. We are enthusiastic about attending AONE and meeting nurse executives face to face about their concerns.

2018 AONE attendees are encouraged to learn more about the EchoNous Vein by visiting Booth #1345 during the conference.

1This device is currently 510(k) pending. The information contained herein is provided for informational purposes only. The device is not for sale and we are not currently accepting any orders.

2Helm, Robert E., et al. Accepted but Unacceptable: Peripheral IV Catheter Failure. Journal of Infusion Nursing. 2015 May-Jun;38(3):189-203.

About EchoNous & Signostics

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, EchoNous, a KKR portfolio company, is applying the emerging field of artificial intelligence (AI) with the extreme miniaturization of ultrasound to solve common everyday problems in health care. CEO and industry innovator Kevin Goodwin and EVP, COO & CIO Niko Pagoulatos, PhD, a prolific engineering leader, together direct the company based on more than 45 years of experience and new category creation in the ultrasound industry. For more information, visit www.echonous.com.

Signostics Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoNous, a Delaware-based corporation. Signostics is applying emerging fields of artificial intelligence, including deep and machine learning, with the extreme miniaturization of ultrasound to solve common everyday problems in health care. The companys Uscan device simply and precisely measures bladder volume and bladder wall thickness, saving time and money and leading to improved patient satisfaction. Signostics has regulatory approvals in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe, Singapore and Japan, and exports to countries around the world. For more information, visit www.signosticsmedical.com.

Signostics and Uscan are Trademarks of Signostics Limited.



Caution: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a physician.

Media Contact:

Jaime Quick

ChangeUp Advisors for EchoNous

jq@changeupadvisors.com, 206.229.5183
Enova has signed a new lease contract for 2,560 sqm in Powerhouse Brattrkaia, a new office building under construction at Brattrkaia 17 A in Trondheim.

Powerhouse Brattrkaia will be an energy positive and environment friendly office building of approximately 18,200 sqm, of which a 2,500 sqm parking basement. Powerhouse Brattrkaia will utilise sun and sea water for heating and cooling. The building will be covered by 3,500 sqm of solar panels and thus produce around 500,000 kWh of renewable energy annually. This is more than twice as much as the building consumes for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. It means that the building has a positive energy balance in its lifetime also when all the energy that goes into building processes, materials and finally demolition is included. The project is aiming for the environmental classification BREEAM-NOR Outstanding and Energy class A.

Entra and Enova share a strong commitment towards combatting climate changes and Enova is an important advisor and partner for Entra in this respect. Powerhouse Brattrkaia is a pioneer project in terms of technology, energy efficiency and production of green energy and we look forward to welcome Enova to this ambitious and innovative office building says Entra CEO Arve Regland in a comment.

Powerhouse Brattrkaia will be finalised in March 2019 and is now 64 % pre-let.

For further queries please contact: Arve Regland, CEO, tel: +47 479 07700, email: ar@entra.no.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 10

A high drama was witnessed on Tuesday at a private hospital in the city when the family members of a patient, alleging medical negligence, entered into a heated verbal duel with hospital staff and demanded compensation.

The family members and relatives (around 15 in all) of the patient who had undergone treatment at the hospital in Namdev Road, after being confronted by the hospital staff, stormed into the hospital and had a scuffle with the managing director. Later, police personnel reached the spot.

As the family members and hospital staff was busy arguing with each other, the patient kept writhing in excruciating pain on a stature at the entrance of the hospital. Later, the patient was taken to another hospital for treatment by the family members.

Kuldeep Singh, son of Sito Devi (patient) from Talwandi Sabo, said, My mother developed severe pain in her back and we visited a private hospital on Namdev Road for treatment on February 27. She was admitted to the hospital and the doctor concerned said she would be operated upon. On March 4, she was operated (as claimed by doctors) upon and discharged on March 10 from the hospital.

Kuldeep Singh said, Today, when her condition deteriorated, we came to know from a doctor of another hospital that she was not operated upon for the disease. Then we came to the hospital to get back the money that we had spent on the treatment.

Atin Gupta, managing director of the hospital, said, The family members of the patient, who had been treated at the hospital, resorted to acts of hooliganism and demanded from us the expenditure amount borne by them.

Station House Officer, Civil Lines, Kuldeep Bhullar said, The statements of both the parties have been recorded and after conducting a thorough investigation, action will be taken.
editorial@tribune.com

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 10

The government has come under pressure to dilute the norms for the stake sale in the debt-ridden Air India as Jet Airways on Tuesday became the latest airline to pull out of the race for the purchase of the 76% stake in the national carrier. Last week, IndiGo had opted out of the race to acquire Air Indias operations.

This latest decision by Jet Airways means that the government now has no clear frontrunner in the sale campaign, forcing it to reconsider some of the norms it has put for the stake sale in the national carrier.

Earlier on April 5, IndiGo had revealed its stance. From day one, IndiGo has expressed its interest primarily in the acquisition of Air Indias international operations and Air India Express, said Aditya Ghosh, president and whole-time director of InterGlobe Aviation.

However, that option is not available under the governments current divestiture plans for Air India. Also, as we have communicated before, we do not believe that we have the capability to take on the task of acquiring and successfully turning around all of Air Indias operations, he added.

IndiGo, which is the countrys largest airline by domestic share, was hoping that the government would demerge the domestic operations of Air India, enabling it to bid for just the international business of the national airline.

But, the government has decided to sell Air India, Air India Express and the ground handling unit, AISATS, together.

The preliminary information memorandum (PIM) released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on March 28 noted that Air Indias buyer will have to take on debts of Rs 33,392 crore.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that the government may extend the deadline for submitting an expression of interest (EoI) to buy 76% in the state-owned carrier.

Now, with the latest developments, the government may think of relaxing some other norms as well or may open the doors to foreign airlines as well to think about purchasing the Maharaja.
editorial@tribune.com

London, April 10

The SBI has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million from its parent entity.

Indias largest state-owned bank, which celebrated the new subsidiary with a special event in London on Monday, becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.

SBI said the ringfencing and subsidiarisation of the retail franchise SBI UK, the banks largest overseas operation, offers UK customers stability and reassurance amid continuing uncertainty around the UKs decision to leave the European Union (EU).

We are extremely proud of how far the bank has come from the first time it opened its doors to UK residents in 1921, said Sanjiv Chadha, Regional Head of SBI UK.  PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10

Merely 10 months after its launch, the government-owned AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment) pharmacy has disbanded the sale of orthopaedic implants.

Confirming the development, Dr Unnikrishnan, SM Associate Vice-President, Corporate Strategy and Communications, HLL Lifecare Limited, said, The manufacturers of orthopaedic implants are unwilling to supply the implants through AMRIT, citing reasons of unviability  low margins.

In June last year, Union Health Secretary CK Mishra had inaugurated the facility for providing orthopaedic implants to patients at significantly reduced rates at the AMRIT pharmacy in Nehru Hospital. The facility was opened following complaints that agents selling ortho implants were fleecing poor patients at the PGI.

The implant of total knee replacement was available for a base rate of approximately Rs 65,000 instead of Rs 1 lakh. Similarly, the cost of the total hip replacement implant was Rs 40,000 instead of Rs 70,000, said a PGI official.

However, the sale of orthopaedic implants at the Amrit pharmacy proved to be almost a non-starter.

Many factors led to a drop in the sale of orthopaedic implants, say experts at the PGI.

Initially, the sale of implants was hampered due to the imposition of the GST.

Later, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority under the Department of Pharmaceuticals capped the prices of orthopaedic implants in order to check unethical profiteering and exploitative pricing in an unregulated market.

Now, the makers have refused to sell the implants to the AMRIT pharmacy after the government imposed a cap on the implants. Earlier, the companies were quoting fat prices of implants and offering 30 to 40 per cent discounts. However, after the cap on the implants, these companies are left with low margins, said a pharma company employee.

Poor sale to blame

One of the employees working at the AMRIT pharmacy blamed poor sale for disbanding the facility.

The employee said the record revealed a sale of merely two or three implants a month.

Lack of awareness was also stated to be a major factor behind the decline in the sale of orthopaedic implants at the AMRIT pharmacy.

People from various states visit the PGI for treatment.

A majority of the patients and their attendants are not aware that these implants were available at the AMRIT pharmacy.

Lengthy process also a factor

A medical expert said, The Amrit store does not directly deal with the sale of ortho implants. Patients visit the pharmacy with the doctors prescription and place an order for an implant. Pharmacy staff further place the order and the backend department of the pharmacy then arranges the implant. Who will wait for so long when it is easily available at medical stores in the Sector 11 market for a competitive price?
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Chandigarh, April 9

A local court on Monday sentenced four persons, including a father-son duo and two brothers, to imprisonment for three years and a half in an assault case.

The convicts, Bir Singh (48), his son Nitu (29) and brothers Ravi (27) and Ashwani (22), all residents of Sector 25, will also have to pay a fine of Rs 20,000 each as directed by the court.

The case dates back to August 23, 2014, when the police received a call from a Sector 25 resident that he was being attacked by four persons.

As per the complaint, Ravis sister Meenakshi and Nitus sister Reena had an altercation with each other and thereafter, they started a scuffle. The neighbours intervened and the matter was sorted out. When Ravi returned home, he got to know about the scuffle. He then had an altercation with Bir Singh and his son Nitu. The complainants father, a neighbour, intervened and the matter was resolved.

However, the four accused later trespassed the complainants house and thrashed him and his father. The complainant received injuries and was taken to hospital.  TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 10

"Quality always matters. It is one life - you can make it or you can break it," said, Prof RK Kohli, Vice-Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, while inaugurating a two-week specialised training programme on drug regulatory affairs at NIPER, Mohali, on Tuesday.

The programme is an initiative by the MEA under the India Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III). As many as 40 officials from 17 countries, including Botswana, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, are attending the programme.

Prof Sanjay Jachak, course coordinator, said the objective of the course was to train regulatory officials from African countries and inform them of requirements and challenges of drug regulation.
Yogendra Yadav

Yogendra Yadav

The government is about to announce an ambitious scheme to ensure that the farmers get remunerative prices for their produce. This comes more than two months after the budgetary announcement and PMs claims of offering a historic deal to Indian farmers. To be fair, Niti Aayog officials charged with designing the scheme have been more honest in admitting that so far farmers are not getting the minimum support price (MSP) assured by the government. Given this governments record, we should expect a lot of publicity around this announcement.

Therefore, it is important to understand how exactly are the farmers denied a fair and remunerative price. Over the last month, I have visited various mandis, usually the Agriculture Products Marketing Cooperative (APMCs), across eight states to understand this. Let me summarise what I have seen in terms of 10 major methods by which the farmers are deprived of fair remunerative prices for their produce, or even the MSP.

The first and foremost trick is official amnesia, or announce it, forget it. The government announces MSP for 23 crops with much fanfare. And then, it forgets about it, except in the case of wheat and paddy which it needs for public distribution through ration shops. Barley is a case in point. The government announced an MSP of Rs 1,410. The crop has arrived and is selling between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200. None of the major barley growing states like Rajasthan, MP, Haryana and UP have announced any scheme to procure barley or support farmers in meeting their deficit.

As and when the government announces the decision for state purchase or procurement, what follows is timing trick. State procurement begins only after the most vulnerable and the needy farmers have sold their crops to private traders, and is closed very soon, often arbitrarily and without any notice. In Haryana, this window for procurement of mustard was narrowed further by designating specific days for specific cluster of villages. This forces farmers to sell their produce to private traders, who, in turn, sell the crop to the government in the name of farmers and in the guise of state procurement.

Third, the location trick involves creating government purchase centres in such a way that farmers cannot possibly sell their produce. In Rewari, while government procurement centre is Anaj Mandi, the centre for mustard is 4 km from the main mandi. The number of procurement centres is a huge issue as there is no norm about where and how these centres will be located. Haryana has set up 29 centres for mustard, but there was no centre in the major mustard growing district of Mewat till farmers held a dharna. In Telangana, cotton procurement centres were located inside private ginning mills!

The fourth trick involves quantitative restrictions on how much produce can be sold to government agencies. While the government never tires of exhorting farmers to produce more and taking the credit for bumper crops  it punishes the farmer for overproduction. Besides a per acre limit, the government has also imposed a cap per farmer and fixed an overall quota for the state, which is a fraction of the total produce. The worst sufferers are districts like Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad in MP, where productivity is higher than the state and national average.

The fifth fair and average quality trick involves qualitative restrictions. On paper, there is nothing wrong with insisting upon fair quality, but in practice, restrictions regarding moisture, wastage or the quality of grain etc. are implemented in a subjective, if not corrupt, way. These parameters are not relaxed when needed, as was the case with cotton in Andhra Pradesh this year following widespread attack of bollworm.

The sixth hurdle paperwork trick  is about asking farmers to furnish an impossible amount of documents to be eligible for state procurement. MP requires them to do free online registration, but in a short time window, when computers in APMC offices are frequently down. The farmers are required to produce their Aadhaar number, bank account number, passbook, and land records including, girdawari, all duly attested and certified. While this is daunting for any farmer, the paperwork requirements are impossible for a tenant farmer.

The open market is also not transparent. Rigged and manipulated auctions are the seventh way of cheating them. Once inside the market, the farmer is at the mercy of traders who, in many cases, double as moneylenders. In many small mandis, auction still takes place through opaque signals that the farmer whose crop is being auctioned does not even understand. Often, the auction is rigged as the trader who has a relationship with the farmer fixes the price and others collude with him.

The little tricks department in each mandi swindles farmers in many visible and invisible ways. There are mandi taxes that defy the new GST regime. Each mandi has illegal cuts that the farmer cannot escape. In Rudrapur mandi of Uttarakhand, a farmer loses Rs 40-50 on each bag of wheat or paddy through these small, illegal cuts. Most smaller mandis continue to use outdated weighing machines. In Nuhu mandi (Haryana), traders use a heavy sack (dipped in sugar syrup) to deduct more grain per bag!

The ninth trick is delayed payment, which dissuades most farmers from selling to the government. Most payments now take place through NEFT and should be done within a few minutes. But in practice these payments are delayed by weeks, if not months. Farmers in MP are still waiting for bhavantar payment for urad dal for the past six months. The delay in payments to sugarcane farmers runs into several years.

Finally there is bank trick. As and when the farmers get payment in their account, banks take away a substantial chunk to adjust against their outstanding loans. This happens without any consent from the farmer and in complete violation of the RBI guidelines. No wonder, the farmers prefer the good old arhtiya, who would make a hassle free and prompt cash payment even though the rate would be much lower.

So, let us judge the announcement of the new scheme against each one of these tricks and ask if it negates them. If not, let us ask a troubling question: why has the government taken four years to announce the scheme and formulated it two months after the budgetary announcement, well into the rabi marketing season when most vulnerable farmers had already done distress sale of their crop? Are we looking at the latest 11th trick to rob farmers?

yogendra.yadav@gmail.com
English French

MONTREAL, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On April 28, 2018, international burlesque queen Scarlett James celebrates her 10-year career with a dazzling spectacle. For one night only, Scarlett Grande Revue will bring together the finest performers, circus artists, vaudeville wonders, comedians and musicians at Club Soda. Together, they are re-igniting the spirit of the 1940s, a time during which Montreal was the number-one destination for international jazz stars, variety acts, and daring, flamboyant showgirls.



Scarlett James, who is at the top of her game, will take to the stage to delight fans with a musical revue of her most grandiose burlesque numbers, including her world-famous giant champagne glass; The Carousel Horse, a recent hit at the Montreal Casino; and The Chandelier, a number only seen previously in Las Vegas.

Les Separatwists, one of Canadas best burlesque-jazz bands, will provide the swinging live score to a night filled with performances by some of Scarletts dearest fellow artists and burlesque stars: Anouk Vallee, the mistress of the aerial silks; the award-winning Lady Josephine, the delicious Lexxi Brown, the baffling mind reader duo, the Sentimentalists, Loulou la Duchesse and the indomitable Audrey Ivory. MC Mr. Arman is well known at the Casino de Montreal.

"Burlesque allows people to express their sensuality and reconnect with their true self, with love. Therefore we are all beautiful. We are empowering people," said Scarlett.

While the Grande Revue will be packed with stellar performances, one element will be missing: plastic straws. Scarlett, who is also a yoga instructor, uses her voice and decided to ban the notorious pollutants from all her productions, including the upcoming Montreal Burlesque Festival. Plastic straws were first introduced in 1960 and became a major environmental scourge, explained Scarlett. I intend to do my part to eliminate them completely. Our future and that of our children is at stake. I believe there is always something we can do, no matter how big or small, to protect our planet.

Scarlett, who grew up in a small seaside town in France, admired the glamour of Hollywoods golden age and dreamed of bringing fantasy, joy and escapism to audiences everywhere. Through hard work, resilience and fearless devotion, she became a celebrity on five continents. Her high-class performances, breathtaking acts and strong personality are highly coveted. She is widely credited for bringing burlesque to the Canadian mainstream, thanks to her appearances for luxury brands, including Bentley Motors Inc., Moet & Chandon, M1NT and Buddha Bar. A scholar of her craft, she is the co-author with historian Michel Grondin of Burlesque: The True Art of Seduction, a book about the landmark moments in the history of burlesque.

In 2009, Scarlett James founded the Montreal Burlesque Festival, an annual sold-out three-day spectacle, featuring the best burlesque headliners in the world and the fabulous Mister & Miss Burlesque pageant. The 2018 edition, will take place at Club Soda on October 18, 19, and 21.

To download high-res photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/68wwow77x37mhl7/AADqkUYOGnjURnPgEQR1hIsAa?dl=0

#scarlettgranderevue #scarlettjames #montrealburlesque

SCARLETT JAMES GRANDE REVUE

April 28, 2018, 8 p.m.

Doors open at 7 p.m.

Club Soda: 1225 St-Laurent, Montreal, QC, Canada

VVIP: Priority access; reserved front stage table seating; 4 guests / table; one champagne bottle / table; Scarlett James autographed photo.

VIP: Priority access; reserved front stage table seating; 4 guests/table; one sparkling wine bottle/table.

PREMIUM: Priority access; reserved Premium seating on the floor section; 4 guests/table; one sparkling wine bottle/table.

GENERAL: First come, first served.

Sources: https://scarlettjames.com/ https://montrealburlesquefestival.com/ Media relations: Leeja Murphy, Agence Pink leeja@agencepink.com 514-213-0045








Shreenath A Khemka

Shreenath A Khemka

King's Law Scholar, University of Cambridge

Language has a violence of its own. When something is defined, a boundary is constructed. The challenge then is to erect a fence which keeps all the hens in and all the foxes out. Social institutions also run on a 'fencing' principle; but it becomes seemingly impossible to isolate the two when foxes begin to cluck and the hens howl. The problem that the reservation policy faces before the Supreme Court is also one of keeping the foxes out of the henhouse.

The apex court has been approached with a petition to disqualify the privileged section within the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) community from claiming reservation under Articles 15 and 16. It has been asserted that the benefits are cornered by a miniscule section within the SC/ST communities which have benefited to emerge as equal participants in society. Therefore, the plea is bifocal-those who have benefited from the policy must move out as beneficiaries, and their continuance prevents the benefits from percolating to the intended beneficiaries. Such a 'creamy layer' had been deliberated in Indira Sawhney v. UOI where the Supreme Court was adamant on filtering out the privileged lot within the OBCs. However, the concept was not extended to the SC/ST, and now is before the court.

The Constituent Assembly chose a model of substantive equality over formal parity. There would be no equitability in treating unalike as similar. Under Article 16(4), the state was given the power to create reservation in public employment for 'any backward class of citizens' who were underrepresented in the services. Concurrently, the categorisation of SC/ST (under Articles 338, 341, and 342) was aimed at abolishing untouchability (Article 17) and protecting them from social injustice and exploitation (Article 46). However, there was no qualification of the term 'backward class' as being SC/ST under 16(4). It was only in 1995 through the 77th Amendment (Article 16(4A)) that reservation in promotions was specifically qualified for SC/ST.

Backwardness under Article 16(4) was guided by Article 340 which qualified the term as 'socially and educationally backward classes'. However, economic backwardness was not the determinant criterion of backwardness as per either Article 340 or the later inserted Article 15(4). The First Backward Class Commission (Kalelkar Commission of 1953) identified the relevant factors of backwardness as: traditional occupation, literacy, distribution of community, social position in caste hierarchy, and under-representation in government or industry. The Chairman, Kaka Kalelkar, had also advised the President against creating reservations solely on the basis of caste. But, the 1955 report was found unsuitable by the Centre and not adopted. Not heeding to Kalelkar's advice, reservations were granted to existing category of SC/ST without seeking to define Backward Classes.

The Second Backward Class Commission (Mandal Commission of 1979) was constituted to re-identify 'backward classes'. However, between the Kalelkar Report and the Mandal Report, it was assumed that all SC/STs would automatically be qualified as Backward Classes as they were already enjoying benefits under Article 16(4). Therefore, what was being defined was a secondary category of backwardness in the form of OBCs. Even the terminology of 'Other Backward Classes' gave the hierarchy where the SC/STs were the primary, and the OBCs were the 'other'. This was a poor categorisation under Article 16(4) which only used the term Backward Classes and did not distinguish between OBC or SC/ST. Regardless, the violence of language would dictate that while on the latter the concept of 'creamy layer' applied, the same was absent for the former.

The Mandal Report had evolved an 11-point determinant of backwardness which spread across social, educational, and economic parameters. While all of these were meters to be classified as Backward Classes, the economic parameter gathered judicial scrutiny. In Indira Sawhney v. UOI, the Supreme Court stated that while OBCs were defined under the three broad parameters (social, educational, economic), their backwardness was still only social and educational, as per the guidance in Article 15(4) and Article 340. Therefore, mere economic disadvantage would not be adequate to categorise backwardness. Economic disadvantage was found as a suitable parameter to substantiate and define social and educational backwardness, and no more. Strong economic character would be indicative of social and educational opportunity. Ergo, economic ability would serve as a disqualification along with other indices which showed that social and economic backwardness was mitigated. This was the 'creamy layer'. Because the question before the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney case only related to OBCs and not all 'backward classes' under Article 16(4), therefore, the export of the 'creamy layer' was never made to SC/ST reservation. But when the Constitution had used the same expression to qualify both, then differing parameters could not be used to exclude members between the SC/STs and the OBCs.

There are constitutional differences between the SCs, the STs, and the OBCs. The purpose for defining SC/STs was also different from that of Backward Classes. For SC/STs, the function of the State was of negative protection-preventing continuing atrocities against socially excommunicated (Scheduled Castes) and tribal populations (Scheduled Tribes). On the other hand, Article 16(4) dealt with a positive protection-affirmative action measure, which was provided for all Backward Classes. Yes, unlike OBCs, the SC/ST community enjoys greater protection from the State in terms of Article 17 and Article 46 and laws like the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. However, these measures are negative in their design, and different from reservations under Article 16(4).

'Should creamy layer apply in SC/ST reservation' is a question of how the court creates equability within Backward Classes. It would be just and equitable to apply the same parameters of 'backwardness' for both SC/STs and OBCs. If OBCs are disqualified on economic basis and other relevant considerations, the same should apply to SC/STs too because both enjoy the same protection under Article 16(4). Not doing the same would be a violation of Article 14's non-arbitrariness mandate because the Constitution does not distinguish between the two under Article 16(4). Where the Constitution treats them on a par (as Backward Classes), the State cannot have different criteria for inclusion and exclusion.

'Creamy layer' does not prevent members of the SC/ST community from seeking legal recourse against untouchability, social exclusion, atrocities, or even community-culture protection. However, members cannot and should not cordon off actual beneficiaries by cornering in the name of their community's disadvantage.
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10

The ML Khattar government is set to pay a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to victims of the 1975-77 Emergency. The issue figures on the agenda of the Haryana Cabinet that meets on Wednesday.

Sources said 2,000 persons were imprisoned during Emergency broadly under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), the Defence of India Act and Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC on grounds of apprehension of breach of peace and tranquility of an area.

Prominent state RSS and BJP leaders, including Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, were among those who were put behind bars by the Indira Gandhi government.

If the proposal is cleared, Haryana would join two BJP-ruled states  Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh  that have instituted pension for those jailed during Emergency.

Earlier, Haryana had issued identity cards to Emergency victims, allowing them and their spouses free travel on roadways buses and a 75 per cent rebate in case of Volvo buses. The government has already announced a life-time pension of Rs 10,000 for Hindi Satyagrahis, imprisoned during Hindi Satyagraha launched in 1957 that culminated in the creation of Haryana in 1966.
editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10

Leader of the Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala has shot off a letter to Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar, asking him to initiate privilege proceedings against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for making a false claim about the Uddar Gagan land deal on the floor of the House.

I draw your attention to the utter contempt shown by the Chief Minister to the Vidhan Sabha. In the recently concluded Budget session, the Chief Minister had categorically assured the House of getting the matter probed from the CBI. Now, the CM has backtracked and ordered an inquiry by a retired HC judge, Abhay has alleged in his letter to the Speaker.

He gave copies of the letter to the media here on Tuesday.

Chautala has further said in his letter that it was obvious that the Chief Minister had no intention of fulfilling his assurance and had made a false promise.

This is utter contempt of the House and its members and deserves strong response from you as a Speaker, since you are the guardian of the rights, privileges and dignity of the House. I am sure that you will initiate action at the earliest and send a strong message to everyone that the rights, privileges and dignity of the House shall not be allowed to be trifled with or compromised at any cost, the letter reads.

If the Speaker fails to take action, the INLD will move a contempt motion against Khattar, he told the media.

When contacted, Gujjar told The Tribune he had sent the letter to officers of the Vidhan Sabha for examination. Prima facie, the CMs statement or action cant be construed as a breach of privilege of the House, as Abhay has alleged, he added.

The land deal dates back to 2005 when private builder Uddar Gaggan Properties Limited was given a licence to develop a colony across 280 acres in Rohtak by then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

The land was part of 850.88 acres acquired by the HUDA but, later, released by the government allegedly to benefit the company.

The company, according to Abhay, was owned by Rajya Sabha member Subhash Chandras relative.
editorial@tribune.com

At least 23 children of Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School, Nurpur, and and four others were killed when their school bus plunged into a deep gorge near Nurpur on Monday.

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, April 10

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday met the children, who were injured in a bus accident near Nurpur in Kangra district on Monday, at the local Civil Hospital and a private hospital in Pathankot.

He assured their families of all possible help.

In the wake of the tragedy, the government has shifted the state-level Himachal Day function, scheduled to be held on April 15, from Indora in Kangra district to Shimla. No cultural function will be held in Kangra for the next 10 days.

Thakur will preside over the event, which will now be organised on The Ridge. Power Minister Anil Sharma will preside over the district-level function at Dharamsala instead of Shimla.

The birthday celebrations of former CM PK Dhumal on Tuesday were also cancelled. Only a blood donation camp was organised as a tribute to accident victims.

Thakur lauded the bravery of 10-year-old Ranveer who, despite being himself injured, reached the road site and informed people about the accident. He said a magisterial inquiry into the accident had been entrusted with the Kangra ADM, who had been asked to submit his report within a month.

The government will take stern action against those found responsible for this tragedy. A high-level committee will be formed to suggest safety measures for schoolchildren travelling in buses or using other means of transport. The government will ensure that the Supreme Court guidelines for schools buses are being followed, said Thakur.

According to reports, local MLA Rakesh Pathania reached the local hospital immediately after the accident and helped in shifting the injured to other medical institutions. Meanwhile, the CM, along with Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Kangra MP Shanta Kumar and his other Cabinet colleagues laid floral wreaths on the bodies of the deceased.

Lauds kids bravery

"I appreciate the bravery of 10-year-old Ranveer who, despite being himself injured, reached the road site and informed people about the accident. The government will take stern action against those found responsible for this tragedy." Jai Ram Thakur, Chief minister
editorial@tribune.com

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 10

The heart-rending bus accident has again brought the issue of safety of children to the fore. The government has issued guidelines for the safe transportation of children to school and back home but these are not being followed.

The problem pertains mainly to private schools, which charge heavy fees, and in many cases do not have their own buses.

The free travel facility in HRTC buses is available to children in government schools, but in private schools, they take private vehicles, pooled cabs or school buses and safety norms are often ignored. Overspeeding school buses or cabs, mechanical faults and bad roads result in accidents and casualties are more in hilly terrain.

There are 18,208 schools in Himachal, including 15,429 government and 2,718 private, but enrollment in private schools is much higher. While the enrollment in government schools is 8,90,137, private schools, whose number is less than 20 per cent of the total schools, have 5,61,912 (36.6 per cent) students on rolls.

Guidelines in place

Guidelines are in place and instructions are issued from time to time to Deputy Directors to hold meetings with the district administration, transport authorities and police for safety of students, said Director, Elementary Education, Manmohan Sharma. We will issue directions of the NCERT and a survey be conducted to see the safety measures adopted and adhered to by schools, he said

Action against overloading

The police will act tough against overspeeding and rash driving by drivers of school buses and school managements will be asked to purchase or hire more buses to ensure that there is no overloading, said DGP SR Mardi. In a bid to reduce accidents, the police have issued more than 85,000 challans in the past 100 days.

Another wakeup call

The administration and school managements wake up whenever a mishap happens but the approach towards safety of children is casual and parents are at the receiving end, said a parent.

Regional Transport Officers are supposed to issue fitness certificates but still a large number of vehicles are running.
editorial@tribune.com

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 10

Again a family has lost its only son. After the retirement of his father, Rifleman Vinod Singh was the main source of income for his family. He was a pivot around which his family revolved.

Vinod Singh (24), a soldier of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) Regiment, was killed along with his colleague Jaki Sharma in the Sunderbani sector during unprovoked firing and shelling by the Pakistani army on Monday. Both soldiers were grievously injured and succumbed to their injuries later.

As Rifleman Vinod Singhs mortal remains were on way to his native Danapur village in the Jaurian area of Jammu district, hundreds of people had gathered in his house to pay last respects to the soldier.

Emotional scenes were witnessed as Vinod Singhs mortal remains reached his native village. People thronged the house to a get a glimpse of the soldier who laid down his life for the country while guarding the Line of Control.

The slain soldier was cremated with full military honours. Pro-Army and anti-Pakistan slogans were raised at the funeral.

His father Ajit Singh, an ex-serviceman, was surrounded by neighbours and relatives who were trying to console him in the hour of grief.

Both India and Pakistan should understand that violence will only lead to devastation. Only peace can bring prosperity. If they cannot bring peace on the borders, they should go for a full-fledged war so that the issue is resolved once and for all, Ajit told mediapersons at his home.

Rifleman Vinod Singh is survived by his aged parents and two elder sisters, one of whom is unmarried.

There were no marriage plans for Vinod at present as one of his elder sisters is yet to get married. But we had bigger plans for him which will never materialise now, said Pawan Singh, Vinods uncle.

My nephew was energetic and always wanted to join the Army. It has been four years since he joined the JAKLI. He had come home a month ago, Pawan said.

Emotional scenes at Hiranagar too

Kathua: Amid heart-rending scenes, family members bid adieu to Rifleman Jaki Sharma, who was killed in Pakistani shelling and firing in the Sunderbani area on Monday evening. Jaki, who hailed from Sanyal village of Hiranagar, is survived by father Dharamveer Sharma, mother Neelam Sharma, wife Rajni Devi and two-year-old son Kanav Sharma. Thousands of people, including Army and police officers, attended the funeral and laid wreath on the martyrs body. OC
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Pervin Malhotra

Q. I studied in a government school and later did BCom. through correspondence. I am now doing Company Secretary course. However, I lack the confidence to converse in English fluently. I am facing a lot of embarrassment because of this even in the compasny where i am currently doing my internship. Please suggest how I can improve my English.  Skhbeer Singh

A. Like it or not, English is the most widely spoken language in the world, besides being the lingua franca or global link language of education, technology and trade in most parts of the world. And with the world's largest share of English speaking people, India is fast emerging as the centre of gravity. Moreover, English has a unique bearing in aspirational India where it's considered a passport to upward social and financial mobility.

Those who cant speak and write good English do find it somewhat tough to survive in the modern information age. The best way to improve your verbal skills is through self-learning. This is possible by consciously listening to English programmes on radio and TV, and paying attention to correct pronunciation and intonation. Watch Ted talks and keenly observe good speakers.

Practice reading aloud from the newspaper (in privacy of course!). This simple exercise will also hone your GK skills. Browse these five pages: front page, business, international, edit and sports. Make bullet points on the edge capturing the gist of the articles. Record and review your process.

Grab every opportunity to converse in English. The more, the better. Ask a well-meaning friend to help you out and correct you wherever necessary. Dont be afraid of making mistakes. English is not our mother tongue. A few of us can claim to be 100 per cent fluent. However, practice makes a man perfect. Once you overcome the initial hesitation; youll be pleasantly surprised how quickly your vocabulary and conversational skills improve. Just try these simple steps and youll be pleasantly surprised.

There are plenty of mobile apps and audio tutorials that you can use.

Try http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en

This free website helps you strengthen your English language skills through fun games and interesting exercises. Similarly, log onto Voice of America's website: http://learningenglish.voanews.com

Youll find their broadcasts and word list very useful.

Scope in library science

Q. I am in second year of BA (Hons.) English. I am a voracious reader and also see myself as a people person. Could you describe the role a librarian plays in this digital age?

A. An ideal librarian needs to be friendly and helpful while keeping abreast of emerging fields of knowledge. Your love for reading combined with your flair for interacting with people can take you a long way in this field.

Whats more, the role and scope of a career in this field has increased manifold thanks to technology. Increasingly, libraries have geared up to undertake large-scale digitisation of their rare books, periodicals, patents, manuscripts, photographs etc, for which they require trained manpower. As a result, conventional librarians have redefined their services and job profiles. From being mere book-keepers and journal managers theyre transforming into information architects, content publishers, editors, digitisers, indexers and consolidators, which calls for considerable technical skills and continuous updating of knowledge. That said, we need librarians more than ever, to find creative ways to find and use data. What automated and digital systems cannot do is pique the curiosity of a reader, and inculcate a lifelong habit of reading in children.

Your profile as a librarian will be varied and change according to the institutions in which you work; schools, colleges, universities, public libraries, research institutes, archives, audio-visual media, commercial/industrial/scientific organizations, newspaper industry, public and private sector undertakings, government departments, national museums, foreign embassies, corporate offices, and other organizations that need to access large amounts of information.

You can pursue a BLib (1-year) degree after you complete your bachelor's degree, and top it with MLib or specialised certifications in Information Science.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 10

Eighteen peopleamong them four women and a childwere killed after a truck they were travelling in overturned on the Pune-Bangaloru highway in Maharashtra's Satara district early this morning, police said.

The condition of three others is believed serious.

According to the state police control room, the trucks driver apparently dozed off causing the vehicle to go off the road and turn on its side around 4.30 am on Tuesday. More than 35 labourers, including members of three families from Karnataka who were going to work as contract workers at the Shirwal industrial estate near Pune, were on

board the truck, police said.



The dead have been identified as Madhavi Rathod (45), Shankar Chavan (55), Santosh Naik (32), Mangalabai Naik (42), Krushna Pawar (60), Kiran Rathod (15), Devabai Rathod (27), Priyanka Rathod (18), Vitthal Rathod (40), Kallubai Rathod (35), Devanand Rathod (35), Sangeeta Rathod (26), a child Tanveer Rathod (aged 18 months), Shrikant Rathod (38), Sinoo Rathod (30), Arjun Chavan (30), Mehboob Atar (55) and

Majid (25).



"The truck was carrying construction material made of steel that fell on the passengers on board, injuring them seriously," a police official said. The vehicle was illegally carrying passengers, police added. All the dead suffered injuries to their heads caused by the

construction material, according to police.



The mishap happened on the hilly section when the driver lost control of the truck. The vehicle rammed into the safety barrier on the hillside and turned on its side, state traffic police officials said.




vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Jammu, April 10

Two soldiers were killed as Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation on the Line of Control (LoC) in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district on Monday night.

The slain soldiers were identified as Riflemen Jaki Sharma and Vinod Singh.

A defence spokesperson said around 5.15 pm, the Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling to which the Indian Army responded strongly and effectively. However, in the exchange of fire, Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were grievously injured and later succumbed to injuries, he added.

One more soldier was injured and is undergoing treatment, said a source, adding that the incident happened in the Keri area of Sunderbani sector.

Keri is around 8 km from Battal, from where four militants, killed on March 28 in Sunderbani, had infiltrated into the Indian side.

Rifleman Vinod Singh, 24, who belonged to Danapur village of Akhnoor in Jammu district, is survived by his father Ajit Singh, while Rifleman Jaki Sharma, 30, who belonged to Sanhail village in Hiranagar of Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir, is survived by his wife Rajni Devi.

Since January 1, the Indian Army has lost 16 soldiers while defending the LoC, whereas the BSF, which works under the operational command of the Army on the LoC, has lost a jawan.  TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 10

With seemingly no let-down in the Dalit anger, the BJPs problems appear to be growing. Apparently, ideological fountainhead RSS has also alerted its political arm on perils of ignoring signs from the ground.

In fact, the postponement of BJP chief Amit Shahs scheduled visit to Lucknow is being viewed in connection with the reported anti-reservation Mahabandh on Tuesday. Shah was supposed to be in the state capital to resolve issues staring the Yogi Adityanath-led governmentthe internal strife, resentment among a section of Dalit MPs, discontented allies and a prospective reshuffle

Instead, he inaugurated a park opposite the BJP headquarters here, which leaders insist was always his plan for the day. He is expected to be in Lucknow on Wednesday and follow it up with a visit to poll-bound Karnataka  a state which may prove to be the barometer for actual level of Dalit anger in the country.

Reports of his scheduled visit on April 10 to Lucknow had been doing the rounds for many days, like warnings from at least five of its Dalit MPs and allies like Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP on the dilution of the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Dalit MPs claimed the dilution of the Act may cost the BJP dear if some corrective measures are not taken but apprehensions also are that indulgence of the community may cost it votes of others.

While Udit Raj  BJP MP from Northwest Delhi  is regularly voicing his concern, the most vocal of the lot has been Bahraich MP Savitri Bai Phoole. Speculations are she might join BSP  the party she quit to join the BJP.

Significantly, BJPs UP ally  Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP)  which has wanting to be included in the SC category also seems to be trying to find a way out of the NDA. I will have detailed discussions with BJP chief Amit Shah on various issues when he visits Lucknow and then decide my partys course of action SBSP leader Om Prakash Rajbhar was quoted as saying.

The magnitude of Dalit mobilisation and aggression is a matter of concern for the saffron party trying hard to win their support. Notably Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders and MPs will join in a fast on April 12 to spread awareness about the Centres measures for their welfare.
MINNEAPOLIS, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leslie Pitt Schneider, Founder and President of Project Lolo, selected as a recipient of the Womens Health Leadership TRUST 2018 Courageous Women in Health Care Award. The 2018 TRUST Courage Awards celebrate Minnesota women and companies in health care who have taken a risk and demonstrated courage in navigating the unknown to help the health care industry move boldly to transform its future. The award will be presented at the TRUST Forum at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday, April 11, 2018.



I am honored to be named as a recipient of the 2018 Courage Award by the Womens Health Leadership TRUST. I identified the need to help children impacted by differing abilities, realized it is my ultimate calling and began activating globally, said Ms. Pitt Schneider. To be considered a Courageous Leader for my initiation and leadership of Project Lolo by this esteemed organization of women leaders who courageously represent the face of healthcare feels tremendous and is very empowering.

The Womens Health Leadership TRUST, located in St. Paul, MN, supports women leaders in health care. Its membership represents a broad spectrum of health care sectors and includes over 500 members. Since its inception in 1979, it has played a pivotal role in its commitment to advancing women in health care professions, influencing policy and contributing to health care in our communities.

Project Lolo is a global, non-profit organization headquartered in Minnesota, dedicated to helping provide access to orthopedic medical care and orthopedic devices, such as prosthetic limbs or wheelchairs to children. Leslie Pitt Schneider founded Project Lolo in 2017 under the assertion that no child should ever be denied their right to life, healthcare, education or dignity because of their differing orthopedic abilities.

For more information on Project Lolo, its mission and fundraising efforts, please visit Project Lolos website or email contactus@projectlolo.org.

About Project Lolo

Project Lolo is a global, non-profit organization that advocates for children to live limitlessly. It helps children gain equal standing in life, with fundraising efforts to ensure children have access to orthopedic medical care and orthopedic devices such as wheelchairs, crutches and prostheses. Learn more at projectlolo.org and follow Project Lolo on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contact

Linda Williams, Project Lolo Director

(844) 224-5656 Ext. 2

mediainquiries@projectlolo.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/c784b770-0706-4b93-af96-e20a53fbb16d
uttara@tribuneindia.com

Tribune News Service

Motihari (East Champaran), April 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised his rivals on Tuesday for using divisive politics out of their frustration at his National Democratic Alliances pro-poor policies.

Addressing an assembly of volunteers of the Swachh Bharat Mission, Modi said: They are having problems with our efforts to improve the lot of the poor and weaker sections of society.

This was Modis first public meeting after a stormy Budget Session, the second half of which was washed out due to protests by opposition parties, and even allies like the Shiv Sena, on several issues, among them the PNB banking scam and demands for special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The meeting also comes in the back of seemingly growing Dalit disaffection, fallout of which was a bloody violence witnessed in some parts of the country on April 2.

"There are some people who are trying to create hurdles to the government from Parliament to the streets," Modi said at an event to mark the centenary year celebrations of MK Gandhi Champaran satyagraha on April 10, 1917.

He complemented ally-turned-enemy-turned-ally Janata Dal (United) on its development policies.

"I appreciate the towards development works undertaken by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in spite of disruptive efforts against them by anti-social elements," he said, adding that the state government under Nitish Kumar had the full support of his own government at the Centre.

The Prime Minister also asked elected representatives use events connected with iconic figures, such as social reformer Jyotirba Phule and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, to push the governments cleanliness campaign.

He also used the platform to announce that his government was going to launch the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan from April 14the birth anniversary of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said thatcentral government's 'Swachh Bharat' kept with Gandhis mission. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, president of NDA ally Lok Janashakti Party, criticised the Congress for stoking caste and religious fires in the country, and called their hunger strike at the national capital a farce.

Tuesdays event, organised by the central governments ministry if drinking water and sanitation in collaboration with the Bihar government, was a culmination of a weeklong "Champaran Chalo" campaign undertaken by Swachhgrahis across the country.

Champaran was divided into two districtseast and westafter the countrys independence in 1947. The area where Gandhi launched his crusade is located in the present East Champaran, with Motihari as the district headquarter town.

The event was organised by Union Drinking Water and Sanitation and Bihar government.The government has invested the Swachh Bharat drive with slogan "Satyagrah se Swachhgrah" ( from Satyagrah- urge for truth- to urge for cleanliness.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated projects worth about Rs 6,600 crore, including the new Champaran Humsafar Express train to and from Katihar to Old Delhi Railway Station.



Tuesdays event was marred by Clean India campaign volunteers protesting against their erratic honorarium.




monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Phagwara/ Patna, April 10

Some 127 people were arrested in Bihar in connection with protests, while a confrontation between some Hindu organisations and Dalits led to tensions in Phagwara, during a bharat bandh called by some organisations on Tuesday against caste-based reservation.

Tension was witnessed in Punjab after members of Hindu organisations, who were getting shops closed during the "Bharat Bandh" called to protest against reservation policies, were confronted by Dalits.

A minor tension was also reported in Ferozepur, however, the situation is under control.

Bandh was observed in Ropar, Morinda and Nangal amd markets remained closed.

Reports from Bihar showed attempts to block trains, while some schools suspended their bus services in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (MP), which was the worst hit during the April 2 nationwide bandh called by Dalit groups with at least eight people being killed in violent protests.

Officials in MP said the call for today's bandh was given on social media and no organisation had come forward so far to claim responsibility for it.

In Rajasthan, which was also hit badly during the Dalit-convened bandh, the state government has issued prohibitory orders under the Section 144 of the CrPC and blocked mobile internet services in the state capital as precautionary measure.

The police chiefs and collectors of districts across the state have been asked to take prompt action if any nuisance is created, officials in Jaipur said.

Yesterday, the union Home Ministry had issued advisory to all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the Bharat Bandh against caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said the districts magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs) would be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The directive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of at least 11 persons.

The authorities in Bhopal have announced daytime curfew in Morena and Bhind, besides enforcing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incidents.

The internet services too have been blocked in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering, officials said.

In Uttar Pradesh, life remained by and large normal and officials said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon.

In Gujarat, which has seen several Dalit protests of late, the response to the bandh call, was tepid, with most establishments and markets remaining open.

Barring Idar and Khedbrahma towns in north Gujarat, where markets remained shut during the day in support of the bandh, the state remained unaffected, the official said.

Khedbrahma MLA Ashwin Kotwal claimed shopkeepers joined the bandh out of fear.

"I was told shopkeepers decided to join the bandh in panic, as some people circulated messages warning them of consequences if the locals did not support the protest," the Congress legislator claimed.

Security

The central government has sent 30 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)the country's largest paramilitary forceto various states to maintain law and order during the bandh.

Home Ministry officials said 14 of these companies have been sent to Uttar Pradesh, eight to Rajasthan, and four each to Madhya Pradesh and Bihar to prevent any untoward incident during the bandh called in protest against the country's reservation policy.

Tuesday's anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against "dilution" of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, entailing massive violence in different parts of the country and leading to the death of nine people. With inputs from agencies



#WATCH: Clash between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/s0RUA4KP2B  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, April 10

The income of the BJP increased by 81.18 per cent to Rs 1,034.27 crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14 per cent to Rs 225.36 crore between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a report released on Tuesday said.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, seven national parties -- the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress -- have declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore and expenditures of Rs 1,228.26 crore.

The report, based on the submissions made to the Election Commission, compared the total income of the BJP and Congress, their expenditure and sources of income.

"Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18 per cent (Rs 463.41 crore) from Rs 570.86 crore to Rs 1034.27 crore while the income of the Congress decreased by 14 per cent (Rs 36.20 crore) from Rs 261.56 crore to Rs 225.36 crore," it said.

The BJP had declared expenditures of Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17 while Congress incurred Rs 321.66 crore -- Rs 96.30 crore more than its total income.

The report said that both the parties have declared "donations/ contributions" as one of their three main sources of income.

"The grant/ donations/ contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by the BJP forms 96.41 per cent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.644 crore under revenue from issuance of coupons by the Congress forms top most income of the party, contributing 51.32 per cent of its total income during the fiscal," it added.

The report said that the seven national parties collected a maximum of 74.98 per cent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17.

Voluntary contributions accounted for 60 per cent (Rs 616.05 crore) of their income in the previous fiscal.

These parties received Rs 128.60 crore income in bank interest in the same fiscal.

The release said that the due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017, but the BJP submitted its report on Februray 8 and Congress on March 19.

The ADR said the BJP, Congress, NCP and CPI have consistently delayed submitting their audit reports for the past five years.

It demanded the political parties to provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act as a step to strengthen elections and democracy.

"Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI," the report said, adding that countries such as Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan have done so.

It said the Election Commission should ensure that no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank.

The ADR said that a political party which does not submit its Income Tax returns on or before the due date should be given tax exemption and should be de-recognised.

IANS
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, April 10

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to holistically investigate the several cases emerging out of the 18-year-old rape survivor accusing Bangarmau (Unnao) BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of rape and her father dying in judicial custody on Monday.

Addressing a press conference ADG Law and Order Anand Kumar said the ADG (Lucknow) Zone Rajeev Krishna would head the SIT, which would include Lucknow SP Crime branch and his team.

The first high profile arrest in the case took place on Tuesday when Bangarmau MLAs brother Atul Singh Senger was arrested.

However, demanding the immediate arrest of the BJP MLA in the case the rape survivor and her family have refused to accept any compensation.

They have threatened to sit on an indefinite dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi till the MLA is arrested.

ADG (L&O) disclosed that the cause of death of the rape survivors father inside the Unnao district jail according to the post mortem report is colostomy and septicaemia.

According to sources the man had been badly thrashed by the culprits and had 18 lacerations on his body reportedly caused by lashing from leather belts.

Refusing to admit any negligence on the part of the police in the mans death ADG Kumar said that he had come to the police station on April 5 in an injured state and was sent by the police in an ambulance to the district hospital from where he was shifted to the Unnao jail.

Disagreeing with the police version of developments the rape survivor said that when the family had approached the court for the arrest of the MLA her father was beaten up and sent to Unnao district jail on April 5 under a false Arms Act case.

She said that after failing to get justice when she attempted to set herself ablaze in front of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths residence on Sunday, (April 8) her father was tortured inside the jail reportedly by the BJP MLA, his younger brother Atul Singh Sengar, the Nawabganj Block Pramukh Arun Singh and others causing his death the next morning.

Confirming the arrest of the MLAs brother ADG (L & O) said that the Lucknow Crime Branch team, which has been investigating the case since on Monday prima facie found the presence of the MLAs brother at the spot.

The body of the father was cremated on Tuesday morning in Shuklaganj amidst tight security as tension is building up in the rural areas of the district as well as the neighbouring districts.

Spelling out the SITs sphere of investigation ADG Kumar said that in the original FIR filed after the rape in June 2017 had not named the MLA and his associates.

It was only the second FIR filed on August 22, 2017 when Sengers name along with his associates was added.

The SIT will factor in all the complaints and investigate if there was any pressure on the survivor at the time of filing of the first complain or when she recorded her statement under Cr PC Section 161 and 164 as she had not named the names of persons, which were added in the second FIR, pointed out ADG (L&O).

He also maintained that when the Department of Home demanded a report on the incident from the Unnao Police, they had pointed out these discrepancies, which are factual.

On Monday, in a damage control mode the UP government had suspended six police personnel including SHO Makhi police station Ashok Singh Bhadouria, Sub Inspector Kamta Singh, Head Constable Ramraj Shukla, constables Laxman Shukla, Ashok and Mohit.

Police have already arrested four persons including the Block Pramukh Arun Singh on Monday for beating up the rape survivors father. The fifth arrest of the MLAs younger brother was made on Tuesday while the main accused , Kuldeep Singh Senger, is still scot free.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 10

A day after the Supreme Court turned down West Bengal BJP's plea for intervention in the panchayat polls scheduled next month, the issue was back to the top court on Tuesday again.

The state BJP has now challenged the West Bengal State Election Commission's decision to recall its Monday's decision extending the last date for filing of nominations in the state by a day.

The top court agreed take it up on Wednesday after advocate Aishwarya Bhati, representing the state BJP, on Tuesday mentioned it for urgent hearing.

"They (State Election Commission) have extended the deadline for filing the nominations by one day, but today they have recalled the order under pressure from the ruling Trinamool Congress," Bhati said.

The matter would be listed on Wednesday, before the same bench which had passed the verdict on Monday, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said.

Bhati said BJP filed a fresh plea for proper representation to the SEC and extension of the last date for filing of nominations. Due to recall of the order, BJP candidates were not able to file their nomination papers, she said.

Though the last day for filing nominations for the polls slated for May 1, May 3 and May 5 was till Monday, the SEC had extended it till 3pm on Tuesday on complaints that the opposition candidates had been prevented from filing papers.

The Supreme Court had on Monday refused to interfere with the poll process, saying courts could not interfere once the election process had started.

On Tuesday, suddenly the State Election Commissioner cancelled the poll panel's previous order extending the deadline for filing of nominations. The SEC said there was no specific direction by the apex court for extension of the nomination date.

The State Election Commissioner had received two letters, one from the special secretary of the state government and another one from the Trinamool Congress, citing legal infirmities in the previous order of the commission.

The state unit of the BJP had moved the top court accusing workers of the ruling TMC of not allowing its candidates to file their nomination papers for the panchayat polls. It had demanded extension of the last date of nomination, online availability of nomination papers, police protection for its candidates and deployment of central paramilitary forces for peaceful polls.

"We are not interfering in the matter. But we give liberty to all candidates to approach the State Election Commission," a bench of Justice RK Agrawal had said.

As per original notification, the last date of filing of nomination papers for the panchayat polls is April 9 and the last date of scrutiny of the nominations April 11. Polling is to be held on May 1, May 3 and May 5. Counting of votes will take place on May 8.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, April 10

The Delhi Police have filed chargesheet against an Indian Air Force officer, arrested in February for alleged espionage.

The chargesheet was filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Shehrawat here against Group Captain Arun Marwah, who was booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for allegedly leaking classified documents to a woman through WhatsApp.

The court has put up the final report for taking cognisance on April 24.

As per the complaint filed against Marwah by the Air Force, he was caught by the counter-intelligence wing after he was found carrying a high-end phone at the headquarters which are banned there.

Punishment under the Official Secrets Act entails a jail term of up to seven years.  PTI
amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, April 10

The Congress on Tuesday once again boycotted the meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee with its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge saying that he was invited by the government as a special invitee with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the opposition in the selection process.

Kharge shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi declining the offer to attend the meeting and alleged that his government has not accorded priority and importance to the issue and its "double standards" stood exposed.

"Inviting the leader of single largest opposition party as a 'Special Invitee' is done with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the opposition from the selection process of Lokpal," he said in his letter.

The Congress leader said the government is aware that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act for a 'special invitee' without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure and it has been done only to "mislead" the nation and the people, rather than sincerely seeking the participation and opinion of the opposition.

"Therefore, to participate in this charade while your government runs roughshod over the intent and spirit of the Lokpal Act would amount to dereliction of my constitutional duty," he said.

Kharge said the people of the nation should know that the government has wasted four precious years in the fight against corruption by not amending the Lokpal Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee under the said Act.

"This would have established the bona fides of the government in fighting corruption before the people," he said.

"The process of appointing the Lokpal under such circumstances would be vitiated if the voice of the opposition is not included.

"If the government is, indeed, serious about ensuring that the Lokpal is appointed with the sanctity it deserves, I would once again suggest that the government bring in the necessary amendment by way of an ordinance to include the voice of the opposition in this process.

"Under these circumstances, I must once again respectfully decline the invite as 'special invitee' to prevent any dilution of the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act, 2013," Kharge said in his letter to the prime minister.

Kharge said the government's "double standards in this matter stand exposed" as a similar amendment was made to Delhi Special Police Establishment Act in 2014, where leader of the single largest opposition party was made a member of the Selection Committee for the appointment of director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"It is apparent that the appointment of the Lokpal has not been accorded the same degree of importance or priority by your government," he said.

The Congress leader told the Prime Minister that he would be aware that the amendment bills to the Lokayukta Act to include the leader of single largest opposition party in the selection committee were moved and even approved by the select committee. "Yet till date, your government has never bothered to list the same for debate or voting," he said.

"It is clear that the current exercise is merely perfunctory gesture to assuage the letter of the Supreme Court's direction," he said.

Kharge had earlier on March 1 written a similar letter to the Prime Minister while boycotting the earlier meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee as a special invitee'.

Kharge had said a special invitee invitation is a concerted effort to exclude the voice of the opposition in Lokpal selection.

As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, only the leader of the opposition (LOP) in Lok Sabha is a member of the Selection Committee and since Kharge does not have that status, he is not a part of the panel. A party should have at least 55 seats or 10 per cent of the strength of Lok Sabha for its leader to get the LOP status.  PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

Motihari, April 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lashed out at the Opposition parties for their divisive politics, attributing it to their frustration at the NDAs pro-poor policies.

Addressing volunteers of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the PMs first public meeting after the stormy Budget session, Modi said:They are having problem with our efforts to improve the poor and weaker sections of society.

Lauding the Bihar government for pursuing all-round development policies, he said: I appreciate the development works undertaken by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar despite disruptive efforts of some anti-social elements. But, the Centre fully backs the state government.

Modis address to the volunteers, who have been named Swachhgrahis, marked the centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha movement started in north Bihar on April 10, 1917.

The event here was a culmination of a week-long Champaran Chalo campaign undertaken by Swachhgrahis from across the country. During the period, 10,000 of them from all parts of the country joined their local counterparts of Bihar. They all worked for cleanliness in 38 districts of the state.

As many as 20,000 volunteers took part in the gathering. Modi said large number of leaders and acolytes of Mahatma Gandhi had descended in Champaran to take part in his crusade. The history has repeated itself as I see Gandhi and others in the Swachhgrahis, he said.

Urging people to make the mission a peoples movement with slogan Satyagrah se Swachhgrah (from urge for truth to urge for cleanliness), he said the Centre would launch Gram Swaraj Abhiyan from April 14, the birth anniversary of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.

He urged elected representatives to celebrate cleanliness through functions on occasions related to leaders such as social reformers and saints like Jyotirba Phule, another Dalit icon and Ambedkar.

He said the cleanliness drive has been a success, and called upon volunteers to involve all sections of the people in their respective states.

Unity, peace and harmony in the polity will help the nation become strong and keep it on the fast track of progress, he said.

Modi also laid foundation stones and inaugurated projects worth about Rs6,600 crore. It included flagging a new Champaran Humsafar Express to and from Katihar to Old Delhi railway station.

Lauding the cleanliness drive, Nitish praised Modi for implementing Gandhis dream to a satisfactory level.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan flayed the Congress for stoking violence in society on the basis of caste and religion. Attacking Congress leaders for staging a sham of dharna at Gandhi Samadhi in the national capital, he said it was the Modi government that tried to give more teeth to law to prevent atrocities against SCs and STs, but the judiciary spiked it. The government has appealed against the judgment.
uttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, April 9

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Tuesday that the Class 10 and Class 12 examinations that were postponed in Punjab due to the "Bharat bandh" on April 2 would be conducted on April 27.

It has been decided to conduct the cancelled examination in Punjab on April 27. The roll numbers and examination centres already allotted to the students will remain the same, KK Chaudhury, CBSEs Controller of Examinations, said.

The CBSE had put off the examinations at the request of the Punjab Government. Dalit organisations had called a shutdown to protest the Supreme Courts dilution of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 on April 2.

The protest meant Class 12s Hindi examination and Class 10s optional language paper was supposed to be held on that day.

The Punjab Government had announced that all educational institutions would remain closed on April 2. PTI
Chicago, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guaranteed Rate set three new records for the month of March, positioning 2018 to be its largest year in total loan volume. In a highly-competitive housing market, the retail mortgage lender showed its the home purchase expert by achieving the following records: 8,858 in total locked units, $2.3 billion in locked purchase volume, a 52% increase from February, and 7,428 in locked purchase units.



Its absolutely astonishing to see these records achieved, said Founder and CEO Victor Ciardelli. All our previous records were accomplished during the peaks of 2016 or 2017, with higher purchase volumes of mortgage originations.

Guaranteed Rates previous record of overall locked units was set in July 2016 in a year where the total origination volume was over $2.1 trillion. And the locked purchase volume and locked purchase units records were both set in May 2017 in a year where the total origination volume was over $1.8 trillion.

Freddie Mac forecasts the 2018 loan originations market to be down about 20% compared to 2016, according to Ciardelli. To capture our best performing month in a shrinking mortgage environment speaks volumes to what our team can accomplish and is evidence we are seizing market share from our competitors.

Further demonstrating aggressive growth, Guaranteed Rate has already had its largest loan officer recruiting class in the first quarter of the year, with expectations of having its largest hiring growth year in the Companys history.

About Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the company has approximately 210 offices across the U.S. and Washington, D.C., and is licensed in all 50 states. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded nearly $19 billion in loans in 2017 alone. The company has become the Home Purchase Experts by introducing the world's first Digital Mortgage technology and offering low rate, low fee mortgages through an easy-to-understand process and unparalleled customer service. Guaranteed Rate won an American Business Award for its Digital Mortgage technology in 2016, ranked No. 1 in Scotsman Guide's Top Mortgage Lenders 2016, was chosen as Top Lender 2016 and 2017 by Chicago Agent magazine, made the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list seven of the past eight years, and was named Best Overall Online Lender and Best Lender for FHA Refinance by NerdWallet in 2018. Visit rate.com for more information.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Motihari (Bihar), April 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.

The Prime Minister was here to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 1,200 HP freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory. He also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections--Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar--are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of north Bihar. The train will run bi-weeklyTuesdays and Fridays--covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railway has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years. PTI
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

New Delhi, April 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on Thursday along with BJP MPs to protest the recent washout of the Budget session of Parliament, while party chief Amit Shah will hold a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka the same day.

While observing a fast, Modi will not disturb his daily official routine of meeting people and officials, and clearing files, sources said.

Addressing BJP MPs on Friday, Modi had accused the Opposition, particularly the Congress, of practising divisive politics and said that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament.

The Congress had tried to preempt the BJP event by announcing that its members would observe a fast on April 9 to promote communal harmony in the country.

All BJP MPs will also observe a fast on April 12 in their respective constituencies. Shah will hold a dharna in poll-bound Karnataka.

The party will also observe the birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule, a social reformer from Backward Caste, on April 11 as Samta Divas (Equality Day).

On this day, Modi will address the MPs.

The BJP MPs will also organise events to mark the birth anniversary of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar on April 14. The BJP has been underlining its commitment to the welfare of Dalits and works of the Modi government while highlighting Ambedkars legacy at a time when Opposition parties have accused it of being anti-Dalit.  PTI
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 10

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Centre to further probe cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riots on Tuesday indicated it would very shortly approach the Supreme Court against the anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar by a lower court, which was upheld by the Delhi High Court.

The complainants in the case will ask the probe agency to inform them about the listing of the petition for hearing so that they can appear in support of the plea.

We have decided to go in for appeal in the Supreme Court against the anticipatory bail for Sajjan Kumar, as our legal team feels that the trial court, which first granted the relief, had erred on the ground of lapse of time, said an official.

In December 2016, Kumar was granted anticipatory bail by a sessions court in two cases where three Sikhs had been murdered in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri during the riots. The High Court on February 22, 2018, disallowed a petition filed by the SIT, which sought to cancel the anticipatory bail.

The SIT, as it was argued in the High Court by its lawyer, also feels witnesses have not been coming forward as the Congress leader is not in custody, said the official.

The decision to approach the apex court was taken following the green signal given by the Ministry of Law and Justice. Counsel for complainants HS Phoolka has welcomed the SIT decision.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Alwar, April 10

BJP MLA from Alwar on Tuesday raked up a controversy alleging that Muslims were habitually involved in all kinds of crimes so he would not seek votes from them.

BL Singhal said that he would not ask the Meo sect of Muslims to vote for him as it would mean helping them in getting away with crime, which they allegedly commit regularly.

He said, Asking for votes from the Meo sect of Muslims mean that I would be compelled to help them in getting away with crimes they regularly commit. So I always stay away from them.

Singhal also said that the sect have never voted for the saffron party. ANI
editorial@tribune.com

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Mansa, April 10

The state government finally buckled under the pressure mounted by seven farmers unions and agreed to all the demands of the protesting farmers.

Following the compromise, the farmers ended their stir and announced that the last rites of the deceased farmers would be conducted in their respective villages after the post-mortem examination.

Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugraha) state president Joginder Singh stated that on April 3, Surjit Singh of Khiva Kalan and Ajmer Singh of Kahangarh had lost their lives in a road accident on their way back from Chandigarh where they had gone to participate in an agitation.

Two days back, the farmers had turned down the compensation of Rs 5 lakh. Then, Monday nights meeting remained inconclusive.

A meeting was convened on Tuesday by DC Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal in the presence of SSP Parambir Singh Parmar and other officials.

Following a nod from the Mansa Deputy Commissioner, cheques of Rs 10 lakh each were given to the kin of the deceased.

The families were also assured that cases for government jobs to a member of both the families would be sent to the government for approval and that the procedure for complete debt waiver of the affected families would also be initiated.

Apart from bearing the cost of treatment of the injured farmers, the government will also give compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 each to the farmers who sustained minor injuries.

Raising victory slogans, the farmers ended their five-day-long protest outside the District Administrative Complex. But they announced that in case, the government fails to fulfil the promises, the farmers would be back on the protest path.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10

State DGP Suresh Arora has recused himself from the three-member panel set up by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to look into the recent dissension in the police top brass, following which he has been replaced with Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh.

The other members of the panel are Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar and Home Secretary NS Kalsi.

The DGP, in a communication to the Chief Minister, said he did not wish to be a member of the panel examining the matter arising out of a senior officers complaint against him.

His request was accepted. Sources said Arora had argued that it was not proper for him to head a panel when a colleague had doubted his credentials.

The panel has been asked to submit a detailed report after DGP (HRD) Siddharth Chattopadhyaya targeted Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta in a drug case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The Chief Minister has called an urgent meeting of DGP and ADGP-rank officers on Wednesday on the issue of indiscipline.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Tuesday expressed concern over the ongoing controversy between top police officials of the state.

In a press release, Dr Joginder Dayal, national executive member of the CPI, said the allegations levelled against DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta by DGP (Human Resource Development) S Chattopadhyaya was a serious matter.

He said the Chief Minister should ask both senior officials to step down and order a CBI probe into the case. He alleged that the way Chief Minister had tried to push the entire issue under the carpet showed that he was callous when it comes to dealing with drug mafia.
editorial@tribune.com

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 10

The farmers, whose land is near the venue of the CMs state-level debt waiver function on April 12 at Rampura village of the district, have demanded financial compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre.

The compensation is for the loss of their dry fodder as the administration has directed them to harvest their wheat immediately to make parking space despite the fact that the wheat has high moisture content due to the recent rain.

Sources said that the administration has sent invitations to 35,000 farmers of different districts to attend the debt-waiver programme.

The administration has been making arrangements for the programme at Rampura village grain market. For the 40 acres needed for parking, the land of farmers in the vicinity of the grain market is being vacated.

The farmers said that Monday nights rain had drenched their standing wheat. On Tuesday, they started harvesting it after the administration assured them of its purchase. But the farmers are also demanding compensation for the loss of dry fodder.

Officers are tightlipped about the purchase of wheat with high moisture content just to make space for the parking of vehicles for the CMs function.

Sangrur Congress MLA Vijay Inder Singla, who is supervising the arrangements, on Tuesday assured farmers that they would get the required compensation.

Their wheat will be dried first by officers after purchase. We will also pay the farmers financial compensation for the loss of their dry fodder. We are organising the function for the welfare of farmers and no farmer should suffer losses during the function, said Singla.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/New Delhi, April 10

In a twist to the controversy over ban on screening of movie 'Nanak Shah Fakir' in Punjab, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has decided not to intervene in the issue in view of the film-makers' reported decision not to release the movie in the state.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court cleared the decks for an all-India release of the controversial movie 'Nanak Shah Fakir' on April 13.

Earlier in the day, a senior functionary in the Punjab Chief Minister's Office (CMO) had confirmed that the government had decided to ban the movie in the state. Later, after the news of the ban went viral on social media, the government denied having issued any orders to ban the movie.

The top court criticised the apex Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for putting restrictions on the release of the movie, based on the life and teachings of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev.

A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said once the statutory body like the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the movie, no individual has the right to impede its release.

The Bench asked all the states to maintain law and order and ensure smooth screening of the film.

The petitioner Harinder S Sikka, a retired Naval officer and the producer of the film, had approached the apex court seeking protection of the Fundamental Right of speech and expression and the propagation of religious views which, he alleged, was being curtailed by certain section of the people having vested interests in scuttling the release of the movie.

The CBFC had cleared the movie on March 28 but, Sikka claimed, he had received a communication on March 30 from SGPC asking him not to release the film. With PTI inputs
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Amritsar, April 10

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the decks for a nationwide release of controversial film Nanak Shah Fakir on April 13 even as a disappointed Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee said they would file a review petition on Wednesday.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra criticised the SGPC for trying to impose restrictions on the film. No group, body, association or individuals can create any kind of disturbance in exhibition of the film after CBFC certification, it said.

Producer Harinder S Sikka had petitioned the top court, claiming that the SGPC had banned the film on the life and teachings of the founder of the Sikh faith despite the CBFC nod on March 28. He said he had volunteered not to screen the film in Punjab in view of the public sentiment.

Citing the decision of the filmmaker not to release the movie in Punjab, CM Capt Amarinder Singh said any decision to ban the movie had become unnecessary. He added that the government would review the situation and take a decision, if need be.

The film depicts Guru Nanak and other Sikh figures in living form, which the clergy holds as blasphemous. Accusing the judiciary of ignoring the sensibilities of the Sikhs, SGPC chief GS Longowal said it should have been kept in the loop.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Chandigarh, April 10

Punjab will rope in IIT Kanpur, Roorkee, Delhi and Kharagpur to assess demand of sand and its availability in rivers as per Union Environment Ministry guidelines, as part of the state government's efforts to plug revenue leakage by curbing illegal mining in the state.

During a cabinet sub-committee meeting on mining chaired by state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for framing of a new mining policy in the state to boost revenue from the sector, it was proposed that sand would be made available to consumers at a fixed rate.

A third party customer feedback audit of availability, quality, quantity and rates of sand will also be conducted, the minister said.

"District survey reports will be prepared by IIT Kanpur, Roorkee, Delhi and Kharagpur, and the remote sensing department for assessing availability of river sand as per MoEF guidelines," he told reporters.

Asserting that mining activity would be conducted in a transparent manner, Sidhu said these institutes would also be entrusted with the task of assessing the demand of sand in the state.

Among the measures for curbing illegal mining activities, the cabinet sub-committee proposed that trucks carrying sand would be have a specific colour for identification.

"GPS and radio frequency ID system will be also installed in trucks carrying sand from rivers to the stockyards," Sindu said, adding such steps would help in curbing "transportation mafia".

There would be facility for online booking of sand by individuals, panchyats, local bodies and government departments. In the meeting it was also proposed that digging beyond three metres in a quarry would not be allowed.

"Demand and supply will also be monitored," the minister said.

Punjab is in the process of coming out with a new mining policy to boost revenue from this sector. The cabinet sub-committee will submit the final draft of the new policy on April 21. - PTI
English Lithuanian

UTIB INVL Baltic Real Estate (hereinafter  the Company) has signed an agreement with AB Siauliu bankas (hereinafter  the Bank) on 10 April 2018, regarding the loan limit upgrade to EUR 24 million.

The Company and the Bank signed a Credit Agreement on 26th September 2014. According to the Credit Agreement the used and outstanding balance for the Bank for the day of the notification amounted to EUR 18.2 million. The final loan repayment term - the beginning of 2023.

Additional information:

The real estate investment company INVL Baltic Real Estate has signed an agreement with Siauliu Bankas on raising its loan limit from EUR 18.2 million to EUR 24 million and more favourable borrowing terms.

INVL Baltic Real Estates gearing ratio is currently too small  at the end of 2017 the debt-to-asset ratio was only 39 per cent. Thats why, in order to increase shareholders return on equity, were increasing that leverage, said Vytautas Baksinskas, the Real Estate Fund Manager at INVL Asset Management, which manages INVL Baltic Real Estate.

He said access to some of the loan amount would depend on INVL Baltic Real Estates need for cash flow for investments. Under current legislation, the company can borrow up to 50 per cent of the value of the assets it directly holds.

We react to clients needs and try to help them realize their business ambitions. In working together with INVL Baltic Real Estate we see that a bigger loan will give it more opportunities to grow as one of the countrys most professional real estate management companies. This will also provide the company with more flexibility in planning investments, says Rimvydas Mockus, Head of Vilnius Region at Siauliu Bankas.

INVL Baltic Real Estate owns real estate in Vilnius and Riga: office and commercial premises at the Vilnius Gates complex in the Lithuanian capital, the IBC Business Centre near Konstitucijos Avenue, office buildings in the Old Town on Vilniaus Street and in Siaures Miestelis, and the Dommo Business Park manufacturing, warehouse and office complex beside the Riga bypass. As at 31 December 2017, INVL Baltic Real Estates property holdings had a total area of 56 900 square metres and a total value of EUR 56.3 million.

Since 22 December 2016, INVL Baltic Real Estate has operated as a closed-end investment company. Management of the company was assumed by INVL Asset Management, one of Lithuanias leading asset management firms. The company will operate as a closed-end investment company until 2046, with extension possible for another 20 years.





The person authorized to provide additional information:

Real Estate Fund Manager of Management Company

Vytautas Baksinskas

E-mail vytautas.baksinskas@invl.com
editorial@tribune.com

Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, April 10

Timely intervention of the police and local administration helped defuse communal tension in the town during Bharat Bandh on Tuesday.

The incident took place near Cinema Road where Dalits sat on a dharna against the bandh and protested forcible shutting of shops. On the other hand, general category activists assembled near Gur Mandi and alleged that Dalits were trying to sabotage their protest by forcing traders to open their shops.

However, police officials succeeded in pacifying the protesters on both sides. Dalits submitted a memorandum to SP Parminder Singh Bhandhal. The general category activists alleged that Dalits came on streets carrying arms to prevent their bandh, while no one intervened during their protest on April 2.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 10

Takima Sakamato, Japanese International Cooperation Agencys Chief Representative in India, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat will be among the dignitaries attending the 10th Annual JICA National Workshop to start in Mussoorie on Wednesday.

The three-day workshop that holds importance for the states implementing JICA projects will be hosted by the Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project.

JICA is supporting Uttarakhand in the forest sector, particularly in creating livelihood opportunities.

Besides, Chief Minister, Forests Minister Harak Singh Rawat, Additional Director General, Forests, Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change Saibal Dasgupta, Uttarakhands Additional Chief Secretary Ranbir Singh and Uttarakhand Head of Forest Force and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Jairaj will attend the deliberations.

Former Director General (Forests), Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, and now Chairman of the Uttarakhand Village Development and Migration Commission Dr Sharad Singh Negi will chair a session on livelihood opportunities.

Delegates from Odissa, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya will also participate.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Beijing, April 10

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to "fix" the social networking giant that is mired in data breach controversy.

Attending the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, which runs from April 8 to 11, Ma told delegates that Zuckerberg should "really take it seriously".

"It is the time to fix it. It is the time for the CEO to really take it seriously. I think the problems will be solved," Ma said.

Zuckerberg told the Congress in written testimony on Monday that he was "responsible for" not preventing the social media platform from being used for harm, including fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake," Xinhua news agency quoted Zuckerburg as saying in a prepared testimony released by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here," he said in the remarks he is expected to deliver in a hearing on Wednesday.

His apology came after the social media giant found itself embroiled in a widening scandal that a British data firm called Cambridge Analytica had improperly gathered detailed Facebook information on 87 million users, up from a previous estimate of more than 50 million.

On US-China trade war, Ma said it was normal for the world's two biggest economies to have problems with trade, but tackling them with a trade war is just like treating a flu with chemotherapies.

"You are not solving the problem of the cold, you are destroying the whole body, the whole system," Ma made the comment while attending a dinner with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Ma said that trade is about mutual respect and that nobody can stop globalisation.

"Trade is about rules and negotiations. If trade stops, war starts," he said.

Speaking of the US-China trade deficit, Ma dismissed the issue as a problem, citing economic growth and a low jobless rate in the US as well as huge profit made by US firms in the bilateral trade.

"Today as a businessman, I don't feel that trade deficit is a problem," he said.

For her part, Lagarde also warned of the risk of temptation for inward policies, protectionism and closing off to the outside world.

She suggested reducing trade barriers in the service industry where there is "a big, big upside" in promoting openness.

The executive also cautioned challenges to the global economy, including corporate debt and demographic change, saying that "the sun is shining, but we have to look at the cloud arising".

Globalisation has not been inclusive enough in the past decades, but there are ways to fix it, Ma said.

He also said the world is facing a lot of challenges from poverty, environment and technology, noting that innovation is the only way to solve these challenges and problems.

IANS
uttara@tribuneindia.com

LONDON, April 10

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would talk to President Donald Trump later on Tuesday about a suspected chemical attack in Syria, as the United States considers a multinational military response.

Trump promised forceful action on Monday in response to a suspected Syrian poison gas attack that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others. US officials said military options were being developed.

May, wary of the domestic political risks of promising military action, has so far focused on the need to discover the facts about the attack and establish a common international response.

But, she has also said that those responsible must be held to account and British diplomats have indicated that all options remain on the table.

"I'll be continuing to talk with our allies and partners as I have done, speaking to President Macron this morning, and I'll be speaking to President Trump later today," she told reporters in Cambridgeshire in eastern England.

Britain currently conducts air strikes in Syria from its military base in Cyprus, but only against targets linked to the Islamic State group.

Parliament voted down military action against President Bashar al-Assad's government in 2013, in a major embarrassment for May's predecessor David Cameron that then deterred the US administration of Barack Obama from similar action.

When asked whether Britain would join the United States if Washington decided on further military action in Syria, May declined to answer the question directly but said: "We believe that those responsible should be held to account".

May has already faced calls from some members of her party to consider committing to a military response without asking parliament's approval. The British parliament is currently not in session, and resumes on April 16.

Although not a legal requirement, parliament has voted on taking offensive military action since a 2003 vote on the US-led invasion of Iraq. That was seen as the first step towards establishing a constitutional convention, which has been observed in subsequent military deployments in Libya and Iraq.

May said she would chair a meeting of Britain's National Security Council later on Tuesday.

"This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground," she said.

OPCW

Inspectors with the global chemical weapons watchdog will travel to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate reports of an attack there that killed as many as 60 people, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The OPCW "has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.

"This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly." Reuters




editorial@tribune.com

Defends disputed sea military buildup

China's military says it's entitled to strengthen its defences on islands in the disputed South China Sea but says those measures aren't directed at any specific countries

Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang's statement on Tuesday follows the US Navy's deployment of three aircraft carriers to the strategically vital sea body

Ren was quoted as saying on the ministry's website that it was China's right to take such measures, which he said help protect its sovereignty and security along with regional peace and stability

Sydney, April 10

Australia and New Zealand said today they were closely monitoring developments while downplaying a report that China wants to establish a permanent military base on the Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

The Sydney Morning Herald said Beijing had approached Port Vila about the possibility, potentially upsetting the delicate strategic balance in the region.

China has been aggressively growing its military and pushing its footprint deeper into the Pacific, forging closer links by showering nations with development moneyThe Herald, citing multiple sources, said Beijings military ambition in Vanuatu would likely be realised incrementally, possibly beginning with an access agreement allowing Chinese naval ships to dock routinely for refuelling.

This arrangement could then be built on, it added, with intelligence and security figures in Australia, New Zealand and the United States becoming increasingly worried about Chinas growing influence.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who travelled to Vanuatu last weekend with Britain's Prince Charles, said she was confident of Canberra's strong relationship with Port Vila.

Im not aware of a military offer being made by China to Vanuatu, she said, noting that the Vanuatu government had said to the newspaper it was not aware of such proposal.

While China has been investing in infrastructure around the world, to date it has only established one military base -- in Djibouti in northern Africa.

We have very good relations with Vanuatu and I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice, Bishop added.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had read the Herald report and "I can't comment on the validity of that".

But what I can say is that we of course keep a watching eye on activity within the Pacific and that New Zealand is opposed to the militarisation of the Pacific generally. Australias Lowy Institute estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006 and 2016.

Earlier this year, Beijing lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a senior Australian minister called Chinese infrastructure projects in the region white elephants.

During the spat, Australia's International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the Pacific was full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains, built by China.

She also warned that unlike loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, Chinese financing had less than favourable terms.

We don't know what the consequences are when (Pacific nations) have to pay back some of these Chinese loans, she said.

Beijing responded that it fully respects the will of the Pacific islands governments and their people and that development aid has brought real benefits to local people.

China has diplomatic relationships with eight Pacific island nations -- the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Six other Pacific countries recognise self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory.  AFP
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New York, April 10

The FBI has raided the office of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen and seized documents related to porn star Stormy Daniels along with other bank records, the media reported.

Cohen is a longtime ally of the President, and admitted earlier this year to setting up a limited liability company in 2016 to pay Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 that the White House has denied.

His attorney Stephen Ryan told CNN that the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York on Monday had executed "a series of search warrants" including at his office, and "seized the privileged communications" between Cohen and his clients.

The Monday raids included the Loew's Regency hotel where Cohen has been staying. There were approximately a dozen Federal Bureau of Investigation agents involved.

The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, including communications between Trump and Cohen.

Ryan called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary", and said federal prosecutors had told him it stemmed partially from a referral by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

"I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller," Ryan said in the statement.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.

"These government tactics are also wrong because Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath." Trump slammed the move as a "disgraceful situation" and "an attack on our country", reports CNN.

A White House official said Trump had been watching TV reports, and that the President knew about the raid before the news broke.

"This is ridiculous. This is now getting ridiculous," Trump said Monday, pointing to a "whole new level of unfairness".

Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, responded to the news on Twitter, saying "an enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed" on Cohen's shoulders.

Mueller's office and Justice Department have not yet commented on the Monday raids.

IANS
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, April 10

Pakistan has initiated the process to put a senior US diplomat, involved in a fatal road accident that killed a biker, on the Exit Control List.

A fast-moving Land Cruiser, driven by Col Joseph Emanuel Hall, the defence and air attache at the US embassy, jumped the red light and hit a motorcycle carrying two men at a traffic signal near Islamabads Daman-e-Koh area on Saturday.

One of them died and the other was injured.

The capital police sent a letter to the Ministry of Interior, asking to include Halls name in the Exit Control List (ECL). The ministry has started the process, Dawn News reported.

Inspector General of Police Sultan Azam Temuri said a written request was sent to the ministry on Monday seeking the name of the American diplomat on the ECL.

The capital police informed the ministry that the diplomat was booked on criminal charges, including murder by mistake or rash or negligent driving. The presence of the diplomat is necessary for investigation.

CCTV camera footage showed that the diplomat had jumped the red signal. Although the diplomat was not detained because of his diplomatic immunity, the police are now proceeding to get his local driving licence revoked.

The director general, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), also confirmed that arrangements were made to prevent the diplomat from leaving the country, Temuri stated.

Another letter was sent to the FIA to place the US diplomats name on its Watch List.

So far the US diplomat has not left the country, sources in the immigration department were quoted as saying.

Subdivisional Police Officer Secretariat ASP Zohaib Nasarullah Ranjha said the US diplomat had made an attempt to travel abroad on a Middle East-bound Qatar Airway. He reached the airport at 4 am on Sunday but left from there after seeing officials of the capital police there, he added.

Investigating officer of the case, Inspector Arshad Ali, said the investigation of the case was being finalised.

The investigators had so far collected statements of eyewitnesses, the injured victim and the accused, he added.

The police are waiting for the medico-legal report of the deceased and the injured to finalise the investigation and challan, the officer said. PTI
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Moscow, April 10

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow will not accept "provocation and speculation" around the latest suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, the Kremlin said.

Putin made the remarks during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Xinhua quoted a Kremlin statement as saying.

"The two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria, including chemical attack accusations made by a number of Western states against official Damascus. Russia's position -- that it is unacceptable to use this as an opportunity for provocation and speculation - was conveyed," the statement read.

On Saturday, local activists said the Syrian forces used chlorine gas in an attack against Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, killing at least 40 people. The accusation was strongly denied on Sunday by the Syrian government.

In the meantime, US President Donald Trump in his Twitter account accused Putin, Russia and Iran responsible for the attack due to their backing of "Animal Assad".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the US and their allies are using provocations in order to maintain their presence in Syria.

"Experts agree that these players, primarily the American coalition and the US itself, do not intend leaving and leaving Syria to others, as US President Donald Trump said, but they plan to consolidate their positions there for a very long time," Lavrov said at a press conference.

IANS
harinder@tribunemail.com

Washington, April 10

Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the US Congress and taken personal responsibility over the Cambridge Analytica scandal for not doing enough to protect Facebooks 87 million users private data from being misused and manipulated.

In a testimony released on Monday on the eve of his first congressional appearance, Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the social networks failure to protect private data of its users and prevent manipulation of the platform.

We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry, Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by a House of Representatives panel.

I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here. Its clear now that we didnt do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg, 33, who is facing the worst crisis of business, will next testify before senators and a House panel amid a firestorm over the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users by the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform, used by two billion

people, could be abused and manipulated.  PTI
uttara@tribuneindia.com

Washington, April 10

US President Donald Trump has decided to cancel his first official trip to Latin America this week in order to focus on responding to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump had been scheduled to travel to Lima, Peru, on Friday to attend the Summit of the Americas and then travel on to Bogota, Colombia. The trip had been expected to be tense and awkward because of Trump's repeated disparagement of the region over immigration, narcotics and trade.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions in Latin America, with some expressing relief and others expressing criticism that the United States appeared to be giving the region short shrift.

Every Summit of the Americas, a gathering of heads of state organised by the Organization of American States (OAS), has been attended by a US president since the first gathering in 1994.

The change in Trump's travel plans came a day after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the offices and home of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

It also followed a Saturday night attack on the Syrian town of Douma that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others. Trump has vowed to make a swift decision to respond to what he called "atrocities".

"At the presidents request, the vice-president will travel in his stead. The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

This will be the second trip to the region for Vice-President Mike Pence, who met with leaders in Colombia, Argentina and Panama in August.

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Pence, said the vice-president plans to promote policies aimed at strengthening the US economy and would continue to work with regional allies to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to enact democratic reforms ahead of an election next month that has been slammed by the opposition and regional leaders as a sham.

However, Richard Feinberg of the University of California, San Diego, who led Latin America policy in the Clinton White House, called the change in plans a shocking abandonment of US leadership in our own hemisphere and said it made Trump look like he was afraid of confronting the consequences of his rhetoric for the region.

Feinberg said the change in plans leaves a leadership vacuum that others will rush to fill.

A Peruvian diplomat said the cancellation would make it easier for Latin American leaders to discuss topics ranging from Venezuela to the fight against corruption.

"He's a controversial figure. A lot of people on the streets in Latin America dont like him ... so you have the awkwardness out of the picture," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. "The downside is the US president always has clout in media terms, so there may be less attention on the summit." Perus foreign ministry and the office of Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ana Quintana, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Trump made the right decision to focus on Syria, leaving the summit focus on the issues at hand.

Pence will expand the regional coalition against Venezuelas dictatorship and demonstrate why the US should remain Latin Americas economic partner of choice, Quintana said.

It was not yet clear what decision Trump would make in response to the latest attack in Syria. Syria and Russia have denied there was a chemical weapons attack and have proposed international inspections.

Last year, Washington bombed a Syrian government air base after a chemical weapons attack. Reuters




Washington, D.C., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USDA Offers Food Safety Tips to Avoid Foodborne Illness While Celebrating at Spring Gatherings

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018  Spring is finally here. It has been a long wait, but warmer temperatures bring events like weddings, graduations and holiday celebrations. These events bring together groups of people to enjoy considerable amounts of delicious and often traditional foods. But if proper food safety steps arent taken, your celebration could turn into a disaster.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the U.S., foodborne illness causes 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths each year. This spring, USDA is offering tips on how to properly handle, cook and store food when serving large groups of people. These tips will keep you and your guests safe from foodborne illness.

The Four Basic Steps to Food Safety

Having the right kitchen equipment will make your life easier when practicing four food safety steps: clean, separate, cook and chill.

Grocery Shopping Plan

When shopping for groceries:

Pick up cold items last and bring them home immediately so they are refrigerated or frozen within two hours.

Place raw meat and poultry in plastic bags to prevent raw juices (which may contain harmful bacteria) from dripping onto other foods in your shopping cart.

Spring Kitchen Basics

Make sure your refrigerator temperature is set to 40F or below and your freezer at 0F or below. An appliance thermometer can come in handy to check those temperatures.

Spring clean your fridge for a fresh, healthy start this time of the year.

Do not wash meat and poultry. Doing so increases the risk of cross-contamination in your kitchen. Cooking meat and poultry to the correct internal temperature will kill any bacteria.

Consumers can learn more about key food safety practices by following FSIS @USDAFoodSafety on Twitter or Facebook. Consumers with questions about food safety can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or chat live with a food safety specialist in English or Spanish at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.

### NOTE: Access news releases and other information at FSIS website at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.



Follow FSIS on Twitter at twitter.com/usdafoodsafety or in Spanish at: twitter.com/usdafoodsafe_es .





USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Attachment
harinder@tribunemail.com

Beijing: Calling for speeding up of its ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday told Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that the ties between the two countries should be a pillar for regional peace and stability. In his meeting with Abbasi on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia in the southern Chinese city of Boao, Xi called for efforts from both sides to advance the construction of CPEC and ensure the sound planning and implementation of cooperation projects involving infrastructure construction, such as the Gwadar Port, as well as energy and industrial parks. India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The ties between China and Pakistan should become a model for good-neighbourly relationship and international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi told Abbasi. PTI
SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Directly, a crowd-powered AI platform for customer service, announced a $20 million Series B funding round today, led by Northgate Capital with participation from Microsoft Ventures and Series A investors Costanoa Ventures and True Ventures.



The investment will fund further development of Directlys platform, which helps companies build trusted networks of experts (i.e. affiliates, champions, and power users with deep product expertise) that earn rewards for answering customer questions, creating help content, and training the AI.

Directlys machine learning technology routes support questions to a companys high performing experts whose responses and interactions train the AI to improve.

It was an aha moment, said Antony Brydon, CEO and co-founder of Directly. The AI makes the experts more effective, the experts make the AI more effective, and the result is better answers.

Directly changes how companies think about artificial intelligence and how they deliver customer service, said Leo de Luna, managing director at Microsoft Ventures. We see a number of ways that Directlys platform can help transform the enterprise by implementing amazing customer service experiences.

Directly customers increase CSAT to an average of 93 percent, reduce response times to 2-3 minutes across digital channels, and reduce support costs by an average of 65 percent.

The quality of the answers are good, the response times are very, very fast and the feedback we get from our customers is very positive, said Grant Rochelle, Senior Director of Technical Support for Autodesk, which uses the Directly platform to harness a trusted network of Autodesk power users that include architects, designers, and aerospace engineers.

At Samsung, were constantly pursuing innovative options to deliver great customer care, said Michael Lawder, Senior VP of Customer Care for Samsung, which won a 2018 Gold Stevie Award for its Directly-powered web service solution. Our partnership with Directly came about as part of the companys vision to leverage the sharing economy to help our customers. Its been wildly successful.

World-class brands like Autodesk, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinterest, Samsung, and SAP use Directly to leverage the expertise in their network, provide better answers with Crowd-Powered AI, and transform the customer experience.

Media Contact:

Joey Greenwald

Directly

press@directly.com

800.787.3176

About Directly

We believe the fundamental nature of work is changing from fixed to fluid, as AI and collaborative technology transform how people and companies work in the next economy. Were leading this shift with an enterprise platform that changes the way companies deliver customer support. Our Crowd-Powered AI platform combines machine learning and gig work to transform and scale customer service for world-class companies like Autodesk, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinterest, Samsung, and SAP. Were based in San Francisco and backed by top firms including Microsoft, True Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Northgate. Were hiring! Visit https://www.directly.com/careers/ to find out more.
IRVINE, Calif., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peter J. Brennan, an award-winning business journalist who has written more than 30,000 articles and headlines, today announced the publication of his newest book, How to Write at Work: Quickly Create Great Messages.

About one third of employees in Americas largest corporations lack adequate writing skills and companies are spending billions to correct these mistakes, according to a survey by the CollegeBoard. If you write something as simple as an email or a letter, this book can teach you the secret techniques employed by business journalists.



This new book is for people in business or government who dont love writing or grammar, or the embarrassment that comes with critiques of their writing, Brennan said. They realize their path to success is to write well enough and avoid those silly errors that everyone else seems to know.



Are you worried others may make fun of your writing? Have you heard people snicker about your writing? Do you need to write clearly to get ahead at work? The books 11 chapters show how to spot the dangling modifier, use commas as signals and write dazzling headlines. A reader learns how to avoid common mistakes such as the lost pronoun, the changing verb tenses or the misplaced parallelism.

Brennan is an expert at using numbers to tell a story. He is the Financial Editor of the Orange County Business Journal in Southern California where he covers an economy the size of Portugals. During a career spanning 35 years, he has written articles that were published in the worlds most famous media including The New York Times and the Washington Post. The author worked for 15 years for Bloomberg News, where his headlines and articles won dozens of awards for moving the market capitalization of companies to move by hundreds of millions of dollars. He also spent a decade in Latin America covering civil wars, earthquakes and business. He won a Kiplinger Fellowship at The Ohio State University.

The book is now available on Amazon.com either on Kindle for $9.99 or in paperback for $14.99. To arrange an interview with the author or for group or private writing lessons, contact:

Phone: 949-910-9876

E-mail: peter@howtowriteatwork.com

Website: www.howtowriteatwork.com
Englewood, Colorado, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightwave Logic, Inc. (OTCQB: LWLG), a technology company focused on the development of Next Generation Photonic Devices and Non-Linear Optical Polymer Materials Systems for applications in high-speed fiber-optic data communications and telecommunications, announced today that CEO, Dr. Michael Lebby has been voted winner of the PIC Entrepreneur and Business Leader Award at the PIC International Conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday April 10, 2018. The award precedes Dr. Lebbys invited talk on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at the conference.

As noted by the PIC International Conference and PIC Magazine, the PIC Industry awards have been created by the PIC International Conference to: recognize and highlight key industry achievements in the advancement of photonic integration through platform development, manufacturing, design, packaging and device characterization. PIC International magazine is proud to host its 2nd PIC Awards program. With nominations and voting taking place online and presentations made at the PIC International 2018 networking dinner on the evening of April 10th in Brussels, the awards put the spotlight on innovation. The awards program is dedicated to celebrating leading-lights in the industry.

Dr. Lebbys award is in the PIC Entrepreneur and Business Leader category, where the individual award is voted for candidates who achieve the following criteria: Leader for PIC-based technologies and driving new frontiers with start-up companies or internal technological programs within large corporations.

Dr. Lebby noted: This is a proud moment for both Lightwave Logic, and the integrated photonics technology that I have promoted, nurtured, developed, and manufactured over my career both leading programs inside large corporations as well as an entrepreneur scaling PIC technology in start-up and SME (small, and medium-sized enterprise) companies. I have technically engaged with III-V compound semiconductor technologies such as GaAs and InP and III-N technologies such as GaN/InGaN, as well as Silicon Photonics which include SiGe, and Dielectric Photonics. More recently, with Lightwave Logics electro-optic polymer PIC platform in the Polymer Photonics field.

I would like to thank those who voted for me, as well as those with whom I have collaborated over the years to allow me to win this prestigious award at the worlds largest and most prestigious PIC conference globally.

Dr. Lebby added, I hope through this award that it stimulates other PIC technologists to drive new and innovative PIC programs both in large corporations, SMEs, and start-ups into successful businesses. As I will indicate in tomorrows invited talk, Lightwave Logics advancement in polymer-based PICs: PICs are Here to Stay  They are a game changer for the photonics community.

For more information about Lightwave Logic, please visit the Companys website at: www.lightwavelogic.com

Powered by Lightwave Logic

Lightwave Logic, Inc. is a development stage company moving toward commercialization of next generation photonic devices using its high-activity and high-stability organic polymers for applications in data communications and telecommunications markets. Photonic electro-optical devices convert data from electric signals into optical signals. For more information, about the Company please visit the corporate website at: www.lightwavelogic.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "explores," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, lack of available funding; general economic and business conditions; competition from third parties; intellectual property rights of third parties; regulatory constraints; changes in technology and methods of marketing; delays in completing various engineering and manufacturing programs; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations; shortages in components; production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components; those events and factors described by us in Item 1.A Risk Factors in our most recent Form 10-K; other risks to which our Company is subject; other factors beyond the Company's control.
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Published April 9, 2018

Twice in one month, University of Louisiana Monroe student Siddharth Gaulee has won a prestigious contest for student photography.

In early March, he won third place in the Audience category at the College Media Association Conference for an image he took during a protest in New York City. Gaulee was recently notified that the photo went on to win first place in the Adviser and Professional category.

March 7-11, Gaulee and fellow members of The Hawkeye staff attended the CMA conference in the Big Apple. Gaulee, The Hawkeyes art director, was assigned with 22 other students to hit the streets and take a representative photo of New York.

We were supposed to capture a scene of New York. There was an International Womens Day march and I though it represented all the revolutions and movements of New York, Gaulee said.

There were people and signs, but I knew I had to set my photos apart, he said.

There was a ruckus at the rear of the march and following his instincts, Gaulee headed in that direction.

There was a woman holding a For Trump sign and there was an altercation. Then it turned out she had a weapon and the police came, he said of the incident in Washington Square Park. It was not the best photo of the day, but I wanted to tell the story without someone having to read the caption.



As a winner in the Audience category, Gaulee got to visit with professional photographers who were providing constructive criticism and also judging the photos for the Professional category.

That was very cool. I got to talk to photographers from the New York Times and New York Daily News, he said. I was super proud. One of the professional photographers said I have an eye for photojournalism, not just a news shot.

As it turns out, the other professional judges agreed and named him the first-place winner of the contest. The prize is that his photo will be the cover on next years conference folder.

Winning at CMA was one of Gaulees goals for 2018  he even listed it on his New Years resolutions. Gaulee also wanted to thank two people who have encouraged and helped in with his photography and digital media.

I want to give a shout out to Srjdan Marjanovic, creative director, and digital media editor Emerald McIntyre. They are always so receptive and so helpful. I dont have a photography class. They are my mentors, he said.

Gaulee is a junior communications major studying digital media and production. He is from Nepal and Jacksonville, Fla.


Through improved climate change adaptation planning, countries across the world trigger climate actions to reach the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Our final destination is clear: we want a world without hunger, a world without inequalities, and a world without fear. We want to protect our people and our planet from rising seas and rising temps. We want to insulate our economies and institutions from increases in extreme weather events, droughts and floods, mass migration, war and famine.

We know where we want to go. Now we need to roll up our sleeves and find out how to get there.

In 2015, countries signed on to a global agreement in Paris. Key to this were the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), commitments by each country on what they will do to support climate action.

For many countries, adaptation to climate change featured as priority in their NDCs. Instruments such as National Adaptation Plans and long-term strategies provide the way.

So how do we deliver on this? The key here is detailed planning on local, national and international levels, and building the strong institutions, policies and frameworks we need to reach the goals outlined in these global accords. Feedback between local, national and global stakeholders will be essential in triggering effective actions at scale.

Our goals on climate change  and our work across the United Nations Development System to use MAPS (Mainstream, Accelerate, Policy Support) to achieve goals for Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty  all interconnect.

Reducing greenhouse gasses and protecting our environment will be central. Government-led efforts to reduce poverty, provide education and ensure no one is left behind are equally important.

And, because we live in the real world, where current rises in global temperatures and other climate impacts are already disrupting economies, displacing people and undermining sustainable development efforts, we need to take a real-world approach to climate action and the Paris Agreement by supporting countries to adapt to our changing climate.

The mandate for improved adaptation planning as articulated in the Paris Agreement is clear. Article 7.9 tells us: Each Party shall, as appropriate, engage in adaptation planning processes and the implementation of actions, including the development or enhancement of relevant plans, policies and/or contributions.

National Adaptation Plans support this mandate, and in effect, become the implementation arm for adaptation under NDCs.

What steps are being taken

UNDPs support for National Adaptation Plans comes from several innovative programmes. These programmes provide broad-based support to National Adaptation Plans through our Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) with UN Environment, as well as specialized attention to specific sectors, such as agriculture, through our Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans Programme (NAP-Ag), a joint effort with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. These various programmes are funded through the Global Environment Facility, and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. UNDP also currently supports 41 nations in accessing dedicated Green Climate Fund (GCF) finance for National Adaptation Plans.

This work means that gender is being integrated into adaptation plans and supporting the peace process in Colombia. It means that decision makers in Thailand are better able to understand the costs-and-benefits of climate change adaptation initiatives and make better decisions. It means technical staff in government departments have access to tools and training to make agricultural policies that adapt to our changing climate. It means farmers and decision makers will be able to use climate information to build more effective food systems.

It will be easy to get lost on our way to low-emission climate-resilient development. By supporting countries worldwide in building more effective adaptation plans, our hope is that we will have a roadmap that connects information with action, policy with impact, and people with empowerment.


NEW ORLEANS, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until May 11, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against BRF S.A. (NYSE:BRFS), if they purchased the Companys securities between April 4, 2013 and March 2, 2018, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of BRF S.A. and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-brfs/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by May 11, 2018.

About the Lawsuit

BRF S.A. and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) BRF employees bribed regulators, among others, to unduly influence results of inspections to conceal unsanitary practices at the Companys food processing plants; (ii) the discovery of the foregoing conduct would foreseeably subject the Company and its officers to heightened regulatory enforcement and/or prosecution; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, BRFs financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447
When Muzoon Almellehan fled her home in Daraa, Syria, five years ago, she did not know if she would be able to attend school at the refugee camp in Jordan. So, the then 14-year-old packed her school books among the handful of belongings she was allowed to carry to safety.

I was very worried about education. It is the greatest weapon that can help us fight for our rights and achieve our dreams, she told a meeting of government officials, civil society and international organizations in Geneva today.

The meeting Let them learn: access to education for refugee children at the Palais des Nations was convened on the sidelines of formal talks to discuss how refugee access to quality to education could be improved as part of the new global compact on refugees.

Muzoon recalls the relief and sense of hope she felt when able to attend school at Zaatari refugee camp, where she soon became a passionate activist persuading other children to attend school.

When I heard I could go to school in the camp, that moment changed my life."

When I heard I could go to school in the camp, that moment changed my life. It gave me hope and made me stronger. It made me who I am now, said Muzoon, now 20, who has since moved to the United Kingdom with her family and become UNICEFs youngest goodwill ambassador.

I am so lucky now I live in the UK with my family. But I cannot be completely happy without seeing every child in the world with access to quality education. I am fighting for every child, not just refugees, for every child over the world.

Muzoon has a strong plea for governments around the world meeting in Geneva this week as part of formal consultations on the refugee compact, and calls on them to put education at the top of the agenda.

The compact aims to transform the way the international community responds to refugee crises, and in particular to find ways for refugees to be better included in host communities which in turn should receive more robust and reliable support.

Other speakers at todays meeting called on governments to ensure access to quality and timely education opportunities for refugee children and youth, who fall far behind their peers.

Worldwide, only 61 per cent of refugee children attend primary school compared with the global rate of 91 per cent, according to a UNHCR study, Left Behind: Refugee Education in Crisis. Even fewer, 23 per cent refugee children, attend secondary school compared to a global rate of 84 per cent. Only one per cent of refugee youth attend university compared to 36 per cent of youth globally.

The vast majority of refugee children face the double jeopardy of losing their homes and their education, said Joseph Nhan-OReilly, Head of Education Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children.

Quality education is really the be all and end all of everything."

He noted refugees can face particular challenges and called for the compact to detail practical actions that will move the needle in closing the education gap, making a tangible difference for refugee children.

The meeting heard that proper technical and financial support was needed for hosting governments so they can include refugees in their national education sector plans. Refugees may also need bridging programmes or intensive language support in order to transition to local schools.

Summing up todays meeting, UNHCRs Assistant High Commission for Protection, Volker Turk, noted: Quality education is really the be all and end all of everything. It helps protect refugee children, giving them hope in their future, and promotes social cohesion. Investments in education can also provide real opportunities for host communities.

UNHCR was given the task of developing a global compact on refugees by the UN General Assembly in this historic New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants of 19 September 2016, in which 193 governments pledged to forge a fairer global system. Formal consultations are currently underway, and the compact expected to be adopted by UN Member States at the end of 2018.
A family displaced from Eastern Ghouta by fighting lives in a small shelter they put up themselves in Herjalleh, Syria.  UNHCR/Ola Kabalan

With violence in several areas of Syria UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency today expresses its alarm at the civilian deaths this is causing as well as spiralling new displacement. This is on top of a humanitarian situation that is already desperate; Syrian civilians have more than suffered enough.

Of particular concern is the situation in Douma in Eastern Ghouta where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped. We estimate that more than 133,000 people have fled Eastern Ghouta over the past four weeks. This is almost three times the number we reported on 20 March and includes some 45,000 people who are currently being accommodated in eight collective shelters in Rural Damascus. An estimated 44,000, mainly women, children and elderly have so far been allowed to leave the collective shelters after completion of their security screening. UNHCR teams are working with UN and NGO partners to help improve the conditions at these collective shelters, which remain congested. We continue to appeal to all parties to the conflict for proper protection of civilians, including freedom of movement and free choice over where to stay. Family unity must also be respected.

Since the outset of this emergency, as part of the wider UN response, UNHCR has been working to address the needs of the displaced. Our staff are paying daily visits to all the collective shelters where displaced people from Eastern Ghouta are accommodated, to assess needs and help address them. Overcrowded shelters and insufficient sanitation facilities are posing serious health risks. Common concerns we are hearing are a lack of civil documentation, restrictions on freedom of movement, family separation and SGBV risks.

UNHCRs response to the Eastern Ghouta emergency encompasses the delivery of core relief items, shelter support and protection services. Nearly a quarter or a million urgently need aid, and more than 60,000 people have been reached so far. UNHCR is purchasing clothes locally as many people fled with nothing more than what they were wearing. In addition to a massive shelter effort, UNHCR protection partners have provided legal counseling to 22,000 people.

Meanwhile, we are facing similar challenges and concerns in responding to the humanitarian needs of more than 137,000 Syrians displaced from the Afrin region. Most are scattered across Tal Rifaat, Nubol, Zahraa and surrounding villages in northwest Aleppo, living in makeshift shelters, damaged or unfinished buildings, mosques, warehouses and open-spaces. Some 3,500 people are being accommodated in a tented camp in Fafin to the north of Aleppo. In addition we have distributed more than 1,400 kits for shelter rehabilitation and redeployed 1,000 UNHCR family-sized tents, for use as needed.

Displacement from Afrin has subsided and some returns to the city are taking place. The challenging journey back home for the displaced may take up to four days in some cases. Movements of displaced people towards Aleppo and other government-controlled areas continues to be constrained.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
San Francisco, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Deem, a leading mobile and cloud software technology provider for the business travel industry, and Pinnacle Travel Services, a leading travel management company, announced a strategic partnership today. Under the agreement, Pinnacle Travel Services will resell Deems business travel management solutions to their customers and prospects for the next three years.

Pinnacle Travel Services has years of travel management experience serving corporate travel customers, said John F. Rizzo, President and Chief Operating Officer, Deem. Together, were providing those customers with a streamlined and customized travel experience, where users can plan and manage their entire trip in one seamless flow."

Were delighted to partner with Deem, said Bob Singh, Owner and President, Pinnacle Travel Services. Deems tools really stand out for their responsiveness and flexibility, so its the perfect platform for our customers.

Pinnacle Travel Services, a California based travel management company, was formed in 1999 to provide service support to premium American Express Platinum Travel Service network and other high-profile American Express members. Pinnacle Travel Services now operates corporate and government travel management divisions, alongside its group and vacation travel departments.

We want to revolutionize business travel, thats why were investing heavily in mobile, machine learning, AI and predictive analytics to make business travel effortless for road warriors, said Rizzo. It means we can offer superior solutions for everyone, all the way from travelers and travel managers to finance organizations.

Deems continuous improvements mean travelers can book their trips in less time and with fewer clicks than the leading competitor, corporations can save thousands of dollars on productivity and travel managers can manage their programs more effectively with enhanced admin functionality.

"Customers no longer have to put up with marginal travel technology because of mandated usage by the expense software tool," said Rizzo. "With Deem they can choose a best in breed travel solution integrated with a range of expense technologies through Deem Open Expense.

Deem and Pinnacle share a vision for providing innovative, best-in-breed secure travel solutions for customers, said Singh.

Millions of travelers using Deem-powered booking tools, such as Work Fource, can book and manage end-to-end travel itineraries that align with their preferences and corporate policies. With advanced Intelligent Attach technology, the software automatically recommends hotel and car service options matched to travelers preferences, behavior and corporate policies, dynamically links to calendars and offers hassle free travel management and seamless cost control features.

Deem Data Points

Deems free 24-hour check-in on Southwest can save companies $30[1] per trip.

Deems advanced Automated Ticket Exchange can save companies money by eliminating unused tickets and reducing manual exchange by the travel management company.

Deem Work Fource integrates Google ITA flight search results for lowest and best fares  which means users are less likely to search non-approved online sites for a better price.

Deems speed of booking can save millions of dollars a year in aggregate by eliminating lost employee productivity due to slow booking tools requiring multiple searches and wasted time.



[1] Southwest early bird check-in costs $15 per flight





About Deem | www.deem.com

The most difficult part of any business trip is too often the trip itself. It shouldn't be. Deem makes it painless for the traveler to get down to business without distraction, simpler for the travel manager and management company to keep track of all the moving parts, and easier for partners to get the information they need to stay competitive.

The Deem Work Fource platform is designed for the entire business travel ecosystem using machine learning, AI and predictive analytics. Deem's suite of tools range from a dynamic traveler booking platform, travel manager cost controls, travel agency service technology, and supplier revenue opportunities, including the world's largest car service affiliate network and operator solutions.

Deem's Work Fource Platform services more than 50,000 corporate customers in 61 countries, speaking 15+ languages - including the world's largest travel management companies. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Bangalore, India, is backed by leading venture capital funds, as well as corporate and private equity investors.





About Pinnacle Travel Services | www.ptsla.com

Pinnacle Travel Services, LLC is a full-service, multi-lingual agency dedicated to expertise, value, and outstanding customer service. Its staff of 160 travel professionals provides customers with the security of a highly knowledgeable travel team that has collectively amassed hundreds of years of experience. Its clientele ranges from business executives to the individual budget-minded traveler, and specializes in meeting unique travel requirements, from elite business and personal travel to the casual family vacation. Regardless of the need or circumstance, its clients can confidently rely on the Pinnacle dedication to providing the ultimate in value and service.

- End -
PRESS RELEASE - REGULATED INFORMATION

GLOBAL GRAPHICS PLC: TRADING UPDATE FOR THE QUARTER ENDED 31 MARCH 2018

Cambridge (UK) Tuesday 10 April 2018 (18.00 CEST) - GLOBAL GRAPHICS PLC (Euronext: GLOG) provides a trading update for the first quarter of the financial year ending 31 December 2018.

Gary Fry, Global Graphics CEO comments, "the year has started well with a strong performance from all three operating segments. It is pleasing to see that our strategy to offer printer manufacturers a more integrated solution for their production digital presses is bearing fruit, buoyed by the growth in industrial inkjet markets. It's also pleasing to see that the increasing cooperation between our business units and the resulting geographical expansion is contributing to revenue growth. Equally important is that all segments have shown a positive operating profit in the quarter, which places us in a good position for the remainder of the year."

Financial highlights for the quarter ended 31 March 2018

The following information is unaudited.

Revenue for the quarter was 5.85 million (2017: 4.70 million)

Gross profit for the quarter was 4.58 million, or 78% of sales (2017: 3.61 million, 77% of sales)

Net profit for the quarter was 0.82 million (2017: loss of 0.11 million)

EBITDA for the quarter was 1.52 million (2017: 0.73 million)

Cash at 31 March 2018 was valued at 5.08 million (31 March 2017: 4.30 million)





At constant exchange rates (those used for the comparative period in 2017), revenue would have been approximately 0.30 million higher and totalled 6.15 million. Net profit and EBITDA would have been approximately 0.14 million higher and totalled 0.96 million and 1.66 million respectively.

Segment sales analysis

The following table provides information about revenue for the Group's operating segments for the quarter

ended 31 March 2018 and 31 March 2017.

Quarter ended 31 March  millions 2018 2017 Software 2.49 1.99 Printhead Solutions 2.49 2.00 Fonts 0.87 0.71 Total revenue 5.85 4.70

Each segment has produced significant revenue growth compared to the same quarter in 2017 and the Software and Printhead Solutions segments have shown a similar increase when compared to the final quarter of 2017.

EBITDA

EBITDA is calculated by adding back interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to net profit.

Cash

The Group continues to be free of any interest-bearing bank debt, therefore, has no interest payments or capital repayments to make.

Deferred consideration payments for the acquisition of Meteor Inkjet Limited are contingent on revenue and will be paid annually in arrears. No payments are due during this financial year, with the next payment expected to be made in Q1 2019.

About Global Graphics PLC

Through its operating subsidiaries, Global Graphics PLC (Euronext: GLOG) is a leading developer of platforms for digital inkjet printing and type design and development. Customers for digital inkjet technology include press manufacturers such as HP, Canon, Durst, Roland, Hymmen and Mark Andy. Those for font design include numerous international brands, from manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz and Siemens, to digital media and epublishing companies.

Global Graphics PLC is headquartered in Cambridge UK. Its subsidiary companies are printing software developers Global Graphics Software; the type foundry, URW++ Design and Development, and the industrial printhead driver solutions specialists, Meteor Inkjet.

Global Graphics also has offices in: Florida, USA; Tokyo, Japan; and Hamburg, Germany.

Contacts
UW Electrical Engineering Standout Earns Prestigious Scholarship

UW student David Mohler inspects an unmanned aerial vehicle used for research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. (UW Photo)

Unlike some college students, David Mohler, from Evanston, knows exactly what he will be doing when he graduates from the University of Wyoming.

Mohler, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at UW, recently was accepted into the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program.

The scholarship allows the Department of Defense (DOD) to recruit and retain the next generation of science and technology leaders. Recipients work as summer interns during the academic degree program and subsequently are employed at a DOD organization following graduation.

SMART funds the total cost of full-time tuition at UW and provides a yearly stipend. Mohler expects to graduate in spring 2019.

Once I have completed my degree, I will transfer out of the SMART program into full-time employment through the Department of the Navy as a civilian scientist, Mohler says. I am required to fulfill a one-to-one commitment in terms of time. For every year of school that was funded by SMART, I have an obligation to stay with the facility that has sponsored me. In my case, it means that I am committed to a two-year service period after I complete my masters degree.

The program was established by the DOD to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing technical degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Mohler started down the path two years ago, when UW engineering alumnus and College of Engineering and Applied Science Hall of Fame member Tom Lockhart visited campus. He was the director of the Air Force Research Laboratorys Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and, during his visit, he and chief scientist Tim Bunning met with Mohler and other students. They talked with them about what it was like to work in research for the government in the aerospace and defense sector.

Based on mutual interest, Lockhart offered Mohler an internship opportunity in Dayton, Ohio, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. During the internship, he interacted with the director and the chief scientist, both of whom encouraged him to pursue a graduate degree and told him he would be an excellent candidate for the SMART scholarship. They wrote letters of recommendation, along with his UW adviser Cameron Wright, who served in the Air Force.

The scholarship works in such a way that they pay for my graduate degree without any interruption to a standard academic year, Mohler says. In the fall and spring semesters, I attend classes and perform research like normal. In the summers between academic years, I am required to serve an internship with the facility at which I will work following graduation. The program is easy to manage: There is minimal paperwork and effort during academic periods with a few occasional reports. Essentially, I am paid a salary while being a student, which is hard to beat.

The award has a prestigious nature. In 2017, only 343 scholarships were given, and the award rate for reviewed applications was just 14 percent, according to statistics from the National Defense Education Program.

The SMART scholarship award is very selective, but I suspect Davids combination of impressive technical expertise, with superb communication skills, is probably what put him over the top, Wright says. I predict that this is just the first step in a highly successful career for David. His selection is a very positive reflection upon both the college and the department in highlighting the strong mentorship component to our degree programs. We do more than just teach. We guide, we motivate, and we challenge our students to reach for their maximum potential.

As part of the selection process for the scholarship, candidates are interviewed by some of their prospective matches based on work and research interests.

I interviewed both with the Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, Ala., as well as with the Naval Air Warfare Center at Point Mugu, Calif., Mohler says. Of those two places, I was offered the position at Point Mugu. I was lucky enough to be offered the position that I preferred.

That means Mohler, who has several family members who have attended UW, will soon leave the high plains for the West Coast. He will likely always remember his experience at UW fondly.

As a Wyoming native, I have always had a certain pride for the state and university. Beyond that, my family has a history at the university, he says. Between my family ties and the outreach the university does with Wyoming high schools, I knew that it was a top-notch school for engineering at a value that is hard to beat, especially considering the scholarship opportunities I was afforded.
DALLAS, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rocky Mountain High Brands, Inc. (OTCQB:RMHB), a fully reporting consumer goods company specializing in brand development of healthy, hemp-infused food and beverage products and a naturally high-alkaline spring water, announced today that its has released a new interview with Company President and CEO Michael Welch on CEOLIVE.TV.



In this interview, Mr. Welch discusses the recent launch of www.HEMPd.com, the status of the Companys Master Manufacturing Agreement with CBD ALIMENTOS SA DE CV, the status of having the new HEMPd products available on Amazon, and future goals for the Company.

To view the video, please click on the following link: https://youtu.be/_o31K4F_A1M

About Rocky Mountain High Brands:

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH BRANDS, INC., (RMHB) is a publicly-traded brand management company. RMHB specializes in developing, manufacturing, marketing, and distributing high-quality, health conscious, hemp-infused products that span various good for you categories. The Company currently markets a lineup of four naturally flavored hemp-infused functional beverages (Citrus Energy, Black Tea, Mango Energy and Lemonade) and a low-calorie Coconut Lime Energy drink. RMHB also bottles and distributes a naturally high- alkaline spring water under the name Eagle Spirit Spring Water. In 2018, the Company added a new brand, HEMPd, a CBD product line.

For interested investors, our stock symbol is RMHB.

For corporate information please visit: RockyMountainHighBrands.com

Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rockymountainhighbrands

Visit us on Twitter:

#GetYourHempOn

Visit us at Investors Hangout: http://investorshangout.com/Rocky-Mountain-High-Brands-Inc-RMHB-69150/

Investors Hangout is the only authorized Investors blog page for Rocky Mountain High Brands, Inc.

About CEOLIVE Media Group

CEOLIVE Media Group offers extensive, in-depth coverage of U.S publicly traded companies and their management teams. Our exclusive interviews and investor profiles have been viewed by millions of investors and featured on thousands of investor media networks globally. Although we cover companies from multiple sectors and of all sizes our focus is on emerging opportunities in the biotech, technology and legal Cannabis space.

For more information and to follow our coverage of exciting opportunities please visit CEOLIVE.tv.

Safe Harbor Act: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involves risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic business conditions and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

Contact:

Michael Welch, President and Chief Executive Officer

michael@rockymountainhighbrands.com

Corporate Accounts:

John Blackington, Chief Commercialization Officer

john@rockymountainhighbrands.com

Investor Relations:

Mike Elliot

CEOLive Media Group

Phone: (813) 421-1701

RMHB@ceolive.tv

Jack Eversull, President

The Eversull Group, Inc.

Phone: (972) 571-1624

Fax: (214) 469-2361

jack@theeversullgroup.com
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that its Newport News Shipbuilding division has completed the inactivation of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 65).



As part of the complex process that began in 2013, more than 1,000 shipbuilders defueled Enterprises eight nuclear reactors, inactivated its propulsion systems and prepared its hull for final tow. Newport News Shipbuilding completed the inactivation base work in December 2017, and the government contracting office review and certification of the paperwork has just been completed. The ship will remain at Newport News to complete post-inactivation work to prepare the ship for storage in the Hampton Roads area until a disposal plan is determined by the U.S. Navy.

This is bittersweet moment for us, said Chris Miner, Newport News vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs. Enterprise has meant so much to Newport News Shipbuilding and the men and women who helped cement her place in history. With all of the lessons we learned from inactivating the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in our companys 130-year history, we look forward to bringing that knowledge to the inactivation of the Nimitz class of aircraft carriers, beginning with CVN 68 in 2025.

Built by Newport News shipbuilders and christened in September 1960, Enterprise provided a record 51 consecutive years of service to the Navy. The only one of its class, the aircraft carrier aided in the Cuban Missile Crisis and operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn, as well as naval maritime security operations.

The ship was decommissioned on Feb. 3, 2017.

Newport News Shipbuilding currently is performing advance construction on the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80), the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the legendary name. Award of the CVN 80 detail design and construction contract is anticipated in 2018.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is Americas largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HIIs Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HIIs Technical Solutions division provides a wide range of professional services through its Fleet Support, Integrated Missions Solutions, Nuclear & Environmental, and Oil & Gas groups. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs nearly 38,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com

HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries

HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries

Statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements. Factors that may cause such differences include: changes in government and customer priorities and requirements (including government budgetary constraints, shifts in defense spending, and changes in customer short-range and long-range plans); our ability to estimate our future contract costs and perform our contracts effectively; changes in procurement processes and government regulations and our ability to comply with such requirements; our ability to deliver our products and services at an affordable life cycle cost and compete within our markets; natural and environmental disasters and political instability; adverse economic conditions in the United States and globally; changes in key estimates and assumptions regarding our pension and retiree health care costs; security threats, including cyber security threats, and related disruptions; and other risk factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements that we may make.

Contact:

Duane Bourne

Duane.A.Bourne@HII-co.com

(757) 380-3581
Onlookers rushed to search the mangled yellow bus upturned on the valley slope for survivors AFP/-

At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed on Monday (Apr 10) in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said.

The bus carrying young students in Himachal Pradesh state flew off a cliff near Nurpur, about 325 kilometres (200 miles) from the state capital Shimla, and crashed into a valley.

"The bus rolled into a 200 feet-deep (60 metre) gorge, killing 27 schoolchildren, two teachers and the driver," a senior local police official, Santosh Patialma, told AFP from the scene.

Most of the students aboard were aged between 10 and 12 years and hailed from a local school, he added. Twelve had been rushed to hospital, most in a critical condition.

Onlookers rushed to search the mangled yellow bus upturned on the valley slope for survivors.

Images from the scene showed injured children being carried away bloodied and bruised, some on stretchers and others in the arms of bystanders.

The state government has announced 500,000 rupees (US$7,700) in compensation for each victim's family.

India has some of the world's deadliest roads.

More than 150,000 people are killed each year with most accidents blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

Last month, a truck carrying a wedding party drove off a bridge in western India killing 30 people, mostly women and children.

Nine children were killed in February when a vehicle crashed into them outside their school in an apparent hit-and-run.

And thirty-two people died in late December when their bus swerved off a bridge into a riverbed in Rajasthan state.

Lives are frequently lost in India's remote, mountainous northern reaches, where narrow hairpin turns cut paths into the steep Himalayan foothills.

Last July, a bus rolled off a cliff around 100 kilometres from Shimla, a hill resort popular with tourists, claiming 28 lives.

Just a week earlier, 16 pilgrims died in a bus crash in neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir state.

In April last year, 44 people were killed in a similar accident in Himachal Pradesh.
Aseem Goyal, head of Transaction Banking at ANZ Greater Mekong Region

Accordingly, ANZ, among other Asian corporates and banking institutions, have been recognised for executing the most effective and innovative treasury, cash management, capital and trade finance and risk management solutions in the region, by the Asset Triple A Treasury, Trade & Risk Management Awards.

We are pleased to be recognised for our efforts to support customers with trade and capital flows in the region through our extensive network of trade specialists combined with strong local insights, said head of Transaction Banking at ANZ Greater Mekong Region Aseem Goyal.

According to Goyal, Vietnam is playing an increasing role as the manufacturing hub of South East Asia, in turn attracting record breaking foreign investment. Therefore we continue to see significant opportunity in this important market.

ANZ wins Best Trade Finance Bank in Vietnam

This year, ANZ was also recognised by The Asset for its Transaction Banking capabilities in Australia. ANZ picked up eight awards for Australia: Best in Treasury and Working Capital for multinational companies and limited liability companies (MNCs/LLCs), Best Service Provider for Cash Management, E-Solutions, Liquidity Management, Supply Chain, Transaction Banking, as well as Best Supply Chain Solution and Best Trade Finance Solution in Australia.

ANZ was one of the first foreign banks in Vietnam when it opened in 1993. The bank was named Best Trade Finance Bank in Vietnam in The Asset Triple A Treasury, Trade and Risk Management Awards 2015 and 2016.

ANZ was also named Best Trade Finance Bank in Vietnam in the Worlds Best Trade Finance Providers Awards 2016 by Global Finance magazine. Also in 2016, ANZ was recognised as Product Innovator in transaction services in Greater Mekong by Global Finance magazine.

ANZ has been ranked Best Foreign FX Provider in Vietnam for five consecutive years (2012- 2016) by Asiamoney magazine.

A new route for ANZ as FDI growth hits records Surfing the first wave of FDI inflows in the early 1990s never seemed enough for ANZ Vietnam. The lender has now chosen to focus all ...

ANZs MoneyMinded programme promotes money management skills in Vietnam ANZ Vietnams flagship financial education programme MoneyMinded has attracted 1,402 participants in 2017, helping over 4,000 people in Vietnam to develop basic money management skills ...
Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini has undergone a successful operation on his leg broken when Kimi Raikkonen ran over him in the Bahrain Grand Prix. (Photo: AFP/Giuseppe Cacace)

Cigarini suffered a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg in a botched second pit-stop in Sunday's (Apr 8) race.

Ferrari were fined 50,000 for the incident. It was the second time the team had been involved in an unsafe release from a pit stop during the weekend.

Cigarini was preparing to fit a new left-rear tyre during Raikkonen's second stop when the Finn was wrongly signalled to pull out and re-join the race.

He was transferred from the circuit medical centre to Bahrain?s BDF Hospital for surgery.

"The operation went well," he wrote on Instagram. "I want to thank all the people who asked about me and worried. Only a big thank-you. Hugs."

Raikkonen, who was criticised on social media for his lack of emotional response at the time, wrote back: "Get well soon mate!"

Ferrari launched an immediate investigation to discover how their automated system had failed.

The system turned on a green light to signal that all four wheels had re-fitted tyres, but the left-rear tyre was stuck and had not been removed.

Raikkonen was stopped immediately in the pit lane because it is against the regulations to run a car with a mismatched set of tyres.

In a stewards' statement, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) said: "The stewards determined that the car was released unsafely in breach of Art. 28.13 (a). The team released the car in a manner endangering team personnel and causing injury."

Raikkonen's Ferrari team-mate, four-time champion German Sebastian Vettel, won the race, his second victory in two events this season.
FPT reduces its ownership rates in FPT Retail and FPT Trading for focusing on digital transformation

Digital transformation is expected to help FPT's continued growth and preserve its position as the leading tech group in Vietnam which it has been holding for the past 30 years. Therefore, despite no longer being the major stake-holder of the two golden geese (47 per cent in FPT Retail and 48 per cent in FPT Trading), FPTs leaders still believe in the groups development.

Large businesses' digital transformation demands are growing unprecedentedly. Some of these businesses decided to sign with FPT in only two months, while previously they spent 2-3 years to find partners in the same segment, Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Group, said at FPTs annual general shareholders' meeting on March 28.

Binh also added that the number of FPTs partners within the Fortune Top 500 group in 2017 remained 64, exceeding 2016's 24. Many of the worlds leading brands, including Starhub, GE, Airbus, and Coca Cola Vietnam, have co-operated with FPT to satisfy their digital transformation demands. Currently, the number of these partners increased by 104.

FPT even has ambitions to become one of the worlds leading companies specialised in digital transformation and become a key partner of many the world's leading IT.

FPT also set the target of increasing its turnover by 50-70 per cent per annum from digital transformation segment, in order to preserve the growth rate of 25-35 per cent during the next five years. FPT also expects that digital transformation will make up 50 per cent of the groups turnover.

Technology will be FPTs main engine of growth in 2018 with an anticipated turnover and profit of VND12.149 trillion ($535.2 million) and VND1.46 trillion ($64.3 million), up 10 and 29 per cent year-on-year, accounting for 55 per cent of the groups turnover and 42 per cent of its profit.

The telecom segment is expected to reach VND8.66 trillion ($381.5 million) of turnover and VND1.394 trillion ($61.4 million) of profit, up 13 and 16 per cent year-on-year, respectively.

After FPT Trading and FPT Retail become FPT Groups venture companies, the groups turnover in 2018 is predicted to hit only VND21.9 trillion ($964.7 million) (after excluding the turnover of FPT Trading and FPT Retail), lower than last year's VND43.8 trillion ($1.92 billion).

However, the net profit is expected to reach VND3.484 trillion ($153.4 million), up 18 per cent year-on-year.
Local businesses improved production quality has helped them gain contracts to become suppliers to major companies. - Photo www.sggp.org.vn

Bac Viet Technology Joint-Stock Company, for example, has become a supplier of plastic electronic components and precision samples for Samsung Electronic Viet Nam and Samsung Electronics Viet Nam Thai Nguyen.

The company has reduced its inventory ratio from 37 per cent to 24 per cent and has successfully built a system for recognising and repairing mistakes on the goods that it manufactures. After making improvements, the percentage of errors fell by 63 per cent. Shim Won Hwan, director of Samsung Electronic Viet Nam, said that Samsung expected to have 50 suppliers from Viet Nam by 2020.

Samsung has been working with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on a business innovation programme that trains Vietnamese professionals who will offer training to local companies.

HCM Citys Department of Industry and Trade has selected businesses that show high potential to take part in the business innovation programme.
The Ministry of Transport plans to label energy certificates for new motorcycles. The roadmap for energy labelling for motorcycles is compulsory from January 1, 2020. - Photo baogiaothong.vn

This is a key content of a draft circular on energy labelling for motorcycles by the ministrys Vietnam Register. The labelling is compulsory.

The producers must inform accurately about the vehicles fuel consumption according to an agreed measuring method. The volume of fuel consumption will be stated on the energy label on the vehicle to provide customers with this information when they purchase the vehicle. The volume will be registered and announced by the manufacturer, which will be under the inspection and certification of the management agency.

According to statistics, the total number of vehicles registered in police stations as of March 15, 2018 was 3.76 million cars and more than 55.1 million motorcycles nationwide. Motorcycles are the main means of transport in the country, and the annual growth rate is expected to increase by 10 per cent in the coming years.

Energy labelling programme has been implemented in many countries of the world, such as the European Union, the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China and India. In Southeast Asia, Singapore and Thailand are also implementing energy labelling.

In a draft project on motorcycle emissions control, the Ministry of Transport has proposed a roadmap for 2018-20 to complete legal documents and submit to the Government a draft decree on conditions for services of inspection of motorcycle emissions, which will add to the existing decree on administrative sanctions against violations of motorcycle emissions.

According to Prime Ministers Decision No 04/2017/QD-TTg dated March 9, 2017, which stipulates the list of vehicles and equipment that must be labelled with energy and minimum energy efficiency as well as have a roadmap for energy labelling.

The roadmap for energy labelling for motorcycles is voluntary until December 31, 2019, and compulsory from January 1, 2020.

Bui Danh Lien, former chairman of the Transportation Association of Ha Noi, said that for new vehicles, manufacturers had announced the specifications of the car, including fuel consumption in the relevant technical documents, and they were responsible before the law for these parameters.

Sticking the energy label on fuel consumption is repetitive, unnecessary and wasteful, Lien told nguoilaodong.com.vn.

Nguyen Nam Hung, a resident of HCM City, who owns a seven-seat car and motorcycle, said the amount manufacturers or importers pay for the energy label would be added to the vehicles selling price, and as a result, customers would have to pay more for the vehicle.

Meanwhile, former director of the ministrys transport department Than Van Thanh said energy labelling was the trend. The management body should apply it to locally-assembled vehicles first, and then draw from experience before applying the same rule to imported vehicles.

"This is needed to calculate the time to apply the labelling of energy. It must be in accordance with the economic conditions and the technical management level of our country to make it feasible," said Thanh.
TORONTO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alacer Gold Corp. (Alacer or the Corporation) (TSX:ASR) (ASX:AQG) plans to release its first quarter 2018 operating results, financial statements and the related managements discussion and analysis before the Toronto Stock Exchange opens on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 (North America).



Rod Antal, Alacers President and Chief Executive Officer will host a conference call on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. (North America Eastern Daylight Time) / Wednesday, May 2, 2018 at 7:00 a.m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

You may listen to the call via webcast at http://services.choruscall.ca/links/alacer20180501.html. The conference call presentation will also be available at the link provided prior to the call commencing.

You may participate in the conference call by dialing:

1-800-319-4610 for U.S. and Canada 1-800-423-528 for Australia 800-930-470 for Hong Kong 800-101-2425 for Singapore 0808-101-2791 for United Kingdom 1-604-638-5340 for International Alacer Gold Call Conference ID

If you are unable to participate in the call, a webcast will be archived until August 2, 2018 and a recording of the call will be available on Alacers website at www.AlacerGold.com or through replay until Tuesday, June 12, 2018 by using passcode 2185# and calling:

1-855-669-9658 for U.S. and Canada 800-984-354 for Australia

The corresponding financial statements, managements discussion and analysis, press release, and presentation will be posted on Alacers website and on www.SEDAR.com.



About Alacer

Alacer is a leading intermediate gold mining company, with an 80% interest in the world-class Copler Gold Mine in Turkey operated by Anagold Madencilik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Anagold), and the remaining 20% owned by Lidya Madencilik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Lidya Mining). The Companys primary focus is to leverage its cornerstone Copler Mine and strong balance sheet to maximize portfolio value and free cash flow, minimize project risk, and therefore, create maximum value for shareholders. The Copler Mine is in east-central Turkey in the Erzincan Province, approximately 1,100 kilometers southeast from Istanbul and 550 kilometers east from Ankara, Turkeys capital city.

Alacer is actively pursuing initiatives to enhance value beyond the current mine plan:

Copler Oxide Production Optimization  Expansion of the existing heap leach pad capacity to 58 million tonnes continues. A maiden Mineral Reserve of 176,000 ounces was released for Cakmaktepe in December 2017 1 and adds oxide production starting in late 2018. The Company continues to evaluate opportunities to extend oxide production beyond the current reserves, with in-pit and Copler District exploration and potential for a new heap leach pad site to the west of the Copler Mine.





and adds oxide production starting in late 2018. The Company continues to evaluate opportunities to extend oxide production beyond the current reserves, with in-pit and Copler District exploration and potential for a new heap leach pad site to the west of the Copler Mine. Copler Sulfide Expansion Project (the Sulfide Project)  The Sulfide Project construction is over 80% complete, under budget, and on schedule for first gold production in the third quarter 2018. The Sulfide Project is expected to deliver long-term growth with robust financial returns and adds 20 years of production at Copler. The Sulfide Project will bring Coplers remaining life-of-mine gold production to approximately 4 million ounces at All-in Sustaining Costs averaging $645 per ounce 2 , 3 .





. The Company continues to pursue opportunities to further expand its current operating base to become a sustainable multi-mine producer with a focus on Turkey. The systematic and focused exploration efforts in the Copler District, as well as in other regions of Turkey, are progressing. In December 2017, a 70% increase to the Cakmaktepe Mineral Measured and Indicated Resource estimate was released, and the resource remains open. In 2018, the Copler District remains the focus, with the goal of continuing to grow oxide resources to deliver production utilizing the existing Copler infrastructure. In the other regions of Turkey, targeted exploration work continues, and work continues on a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Gediktepe Project4 and is expected to be complete later in 2018.

Alacer is a Canadian company incorporated in the Yukon Territory with its primary listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company also has a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange where CHESS Depositary Interests (CDIs) trade.

For further information on Alacer Gold Corp., please contact:

Lisa Maestas  Director, Investor Relations at +1-303-292-1299

____________________

1 Detailed information regarding the maiden Mineral Reserve can be found in the press release entitled Alacer Gold Announces Maiden Mineral Reserve and a 70% Increase in Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource for Cakmaktepe as well as Additional Exploration Results for Cakmaktepe, dated December 18, 2017 (Cakmaktepe Update), available on www.sedar.com and on www.asx.com.au.

2All-in Sustaining Costs per ounce is a non-IFRS performance measure with no standardized definition under IFRS. For further information and a detailed reconciliation to IFRS, please see the Non-IFRS Measures section of the latest MD&A.

3 Detailed information regarding the Sulfide Project, including the material assumptions on which the forward-looking financial information is based, can be found in the technical report dated June 9, 2016 entitled Copler Mine Technical Report, available on www.sedar.com and on www.asx.com.au.

4 Additional information on the Gediktepe Project can be found in the press release entitled Alacer Gold Announces a New Reserve for its Gediktepe Project Providing Future Growth, dated September 13, 2016, available on www.sedar.com and on www.asx.com.au.
Ambassador of New Zealand to Vietnam Wendy Matthews today officially announced that New Zealand has authorised the import of rambutan from Vietnam, making the country the first to get a licence for the fruit.

Ambassador Matthews has also handed over the signed Import Health Standard Export Plan for Rambutan to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The New Zealand Ambassador presenting the Standard Export Plan to Hoang Trung, director general of the Plant Protection Department under MARD

According to the ambassador, so far three Vietnamese tropical fruits have been granted market access to New Zealand, including rambutan in 2018, dragon fruit in 2014, and mango in 2011.

As Vietnamese rambutan has now gained access to New Zealand, it is not only the opportunity [to export] that we have secured here, but, more meaningfully, this shows that the competitive advantages of local fresh produce have been strengthened over time, said MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh on the sidelines of the seminar discussing the support the local government gives to enhance the productivity of the agricultural sector, held by the New Zealand Embassy and MARD.

This is a testament to how the quality of Vietnamese fruit has improved over the years, as we all know that the New Zealand market is a tough one with high standards and requirements for imported fresh produce, including strict phytosanitary and food safety criteria, noted Doanh. If we can make it to New Zealand with our fresh produce, we can make it to anywhere else around the world.

Ambassador Matthews said, New Zealand is one of the most efficient agricultural economies in the world, with a reputation for producing cutting edge research and technology, robust and safe agricultural practices, and delicious and high-quality products.

During his official visit to New Zealand in March this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to encourage further growth in two-way trade, including high-tech agriculture. There are many opportunities for our agricultural sectors to cooperate to help support the development of Vietnams growing agricultural sector and value chains.

Vietnam will be the first nation to export fresh rambutan to New Zealand

In 2017, Vietnam exported a record high of $3.5 billion worth of fresh fruit. In the first quarter of the year, the country reported $934 million in fresh fruit exported overseas, up 33 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2017.

New Zealand experts from Plant & Food Research and the New Zealand Government-to-Government Partnerships Office (G2G) also joined the ambassador to discuss how New Zealands technical expertise and innovation in the agricultural sector can help support the Vietnamese agricultural sector to be more internationally competitive.

New Zealands world class agriculture expertise is making a practical difference in Vietnam by improving farmers income and food safety. Agriculture is one of the four priorities for the New Zealand Aid Programme in Vietnam, along with education, disaster risk management, and renewable energy.

Key projects include the Premium Fruit Variety Development Project to improve the income of Vietnams dragon fruit farmers and develop new varieties for commercialisation, a safe vegetables project in Binh Dinh Province, and a new Food Safety Project to assist Vietnamese food processing companies and supplier farmers to achieve safe food certification, improving incomes and reducing food risks for consumers.

New Zealand also supports agriculture and food safety through its 30 post graduate scholarships offered each year, short-term training scholarships, and the English Language Training for Officials programme.

Two way trade in goods and services between New Zealand and Vietnam in 2017 totalled almost at $1.24 billion in 2017, representing a 32 per cent increase over 2016.

Bilateral goods trade has tripled since the signing of the ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) in 2009. There are significant opportunities to expand growth, particularly in agricultural cooperation, education, and tourism.
Man drives into crowd in Germany, at least 2 dead, photo AFP

Two people died and 20 others were left injured, including six critically, after a mini-bus was driven at high speed into a crowd in Munster city earlier the same day, said local police, adding that the driver killed himself with a gun.

The embassy said it had been working closely with German authorities and the overseas Vietnamese community in Germany to determine if any overseas Vietnamese person was affected.

According to State Minister of Internal Affairs Herbert Reul, the driver is believed to be a German national, 49, who was not an extremist and had mental issues.

However, a terrorist attack was not ruled out. Security has been tightened in Munster and other cities.
Sabeco urged to pay $109.8 million in tax arrears

The requirement is based on Article 7 of the Law on State Audit, which deals with the legal validity of audit reports. Accordingly, audit reports made by the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) are binding upon audited units after they are published in terms of management and use of public finance and/or public property.

MoF required the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to assign a representative for the state-owned stake in Sabeco to solve these violations and complete the payment of $109.8 million according to SAVs requirment. MoIT and Sabeco will have to submit a report about the implementation of MoFs requirements to the ministry before April 30.

Earlier in mid-March, after an inspection at Sabeco, SAV submitted a report to MoIT, stating that as of December 31, 2016, Sabeco held more than VND2.8 trillion ($122.99 million) in profit after which it had not declared tax.

In the first quarter of 2017, VND76 billion ($3.33 million) of this VND2.8 trillion ($122.99 million) was divided among several funds. Thus, the remaining undeclared profit of Sabeco was more than VND2.7 trillion ($118.6 million).

As 89.59 per cent of Sabeco was owned by the state before selling 53 per cent of this to Thai Beverage, the state audit proposed MoIT to collect VND2.5 trillion ($109.8 million) to the state budget.

MoIT and Sabeco will have to submit a report about the implementation of MoFs requirements to the ministry before April 30.

According to the latest development, Sabeco has released a document to explain the 2017 business results as well as the VND78.7 billion ($3.45 million) difference in the after-tax profit figures in its audited and initial financial statements.

Notably, according to the audited financial statement, in 2017 Sabeco acquired an after-tax profit of VND4.562 trillion ($200.01 million), VND78.7 billion ($3.45 million) or 2 per cent less than the VND4.641 trillion ($203.46 million) in the previous financial statements.

Besides, the expenditure for managing the operations of the firm increased by 8 per cent to VND25.93 billion ($1.13 million).

According to the audited financial statement, as of December 31, 2016, the money that Sabeco has to pay to the state budget increased by VND163.87 billion ($7.18 million) compared to the initial figure, almost all of which comes from corporate income tax.

According to SAV, the special consumption tax that Sabeco paid in 2007-2009 would not be deducted from the 2016 corporate income because previously MoF asked Sabeco to use the profit from 2015 onwards (which has yet to be divided among shareholders) to pay for 2007-2009 special consumption tax.
The press conference took place this morning in Ho Chi Minh City

This morning, Vietnam Listed Company Awards, co-organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the Hanoi Stock Exchange, and Vietnam Investment Review under the sole sponsorship of Dragon Capital Group Ltd., announced its 2018 edition.

Vietnam Listed Company Awards (VLCA) is an extension of Vietnam Annual Reports Awards, which has accompanied the growth of the Vietnamese stock market and listed companies throughout the past ten years (2008-2017).

Besides the annual reporting and the sustainability reporting awards, this years contest will conduct an in-depth review of the corporate governance standards at listed companies, with a tailored set of criteria. The aim of this corporate governance review is to encourage Vietnamese listed firms to adopt international standards of governance and promote sustainability.

The corporate governance standards developed by VLCAs Organising Committee are based on the standards of OECD countries, with adjustments to fit the current situation at Vietnamese listed firms and the Vietnamese law.

The Organising Committee

Beside the annual reports, judges will also take into account reliable information published by companies between July 1, 2017 and April 30, 2018 via other channels, such as their own or policymakers website. An independent third-party judge will be invited to evaluate the corporate governance section.

Similar to previous editions, the preliminary results of VLCA and the corporate governance section will be checked by global auditors Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, and PwC to ensure the highest levels of transparency, impartiality, and professionalism.

Another new aspect of VLCA this year is that participating companies are listed on the HSX and HNX. The participants will be classified into three groups based on their market capitalisation (large, middle, and small-cap). This classification will create opportunities for small-and medium-sized companies, encouraging them to join the awards and receive recognition.

Various media outlets attended the press conference

The preliminary round and auditing of results will end on August 31, 2018. The final round will end on September 15, 2018. The awards ceremony is expected to take place in October 2018.

Le Hai Tra, acting chairman of HOSE and co-head of the Organising Committee, said, As the Awards reach the 11th year, we continue to feel a strong responsibility to continue the Awards, which has had a positive impact on listed Vietnamese companies, investors, and the entire market in general. This year, we are determined to raise the quality and reputation of the Awards.

Annual Report Awards honour 2017 winners Vietnam Annual Report Awards have unveiled the top reports of its 2017 edition.

Annual Report Awards celebrates immense improvements The 9th Vietnam Annual Report Awards Ceremony honours its 50 winners today at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (2nd left) arrives at a meeting with US Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg placed the blame for privacy and security lapses at the world's largest social network squarely on himself as he girded on Monday (Apr 9) for appearances this week on Capitol Hill before angry lawmakers.

In prepared remarks released by a congressional panel, Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform - used by 2 billion people - could be abused and manipulated.

The 33-year-old is to testify before senators on Tuesday and House lawmakers on Wednesday amid a firestorm over the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users by the British firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked with Donald Trump's campaign.

On Monday, Zuckerberg ditched his trademark T-shirt for a suit and tie as he made the rounds on Capitol Hill with his wife Priscilla for private meetings with lawmakers ahead of the hearings - a key test for the Facebook founder.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by the House commerce committee.

"I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

In his written remarks, Zuckerberg called Facebook "an idealistic and optimistic company" and said: "We focused on all the good that connecting people can bring."

But he acknowledged that "it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

Zuckerberg said he has called for more investments in security that will "significantly impact our profitability going forward," adding: "I want to be clear about what our priority is: protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profit."

INVESTIGATING EVERY APP

Zuckerberg recounted a list of steps announced by Facebook aimed at averting a repeat of the improper use of data by third parties like Cambridge Analytica, and noted that other applications were also being investigated to determine if they did anything wrong.

"We're in the process of investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before we locked down our platform in 2014," said Zuckerberg.

"If we detect suspicious activity, we'll do a full forensic audit. And if we find that someone is improperly using data, we'll ban them and tell everyone affected."

After meeting with Zuckerberg on Monday, Senator Bill Nelson told reporters that he appears to be taking the matter seriously.

"I believe he understands that regulation could be right around the corner," Nelson said.

Nelson said lawmakers would be looking at other social media sites in determining any new regulations.

"It's not just Facebook," the Florida senator said.

Facebook "happens to be the point of the spear, but all these other app sites that get your personal data, that's another way of us losing our privacy," Nelson said.

Facebook has taken a series of proactive steps to make up for massive lapses in protecting personal data, as lawmakers signaled they intend to get tough on privacy.

Last week, the company announced new privacy tools to be in place in user news feeds on Monday, and said it would notify the 87 million users affected by the data hijacking scandal, amid probes underway on both sides of the Atlantic.

Over the weekend, it said it had suspended another data analysis firm, US-based Cubeyou, after reports that it had used private data harvested from psychological testing apps for commercial purposes. It also suspended the Canadian firm AggregateIQ over apparent collaboration with Cambridge Analytica.

BACKING 'HONEST ADS'

On Friday, Facebook sought to quell some concerns over political manipulation of its platform by announcing support for the "Honest Ads Act" that requires election ad buyers to be identified, and to go further with verification of sponsors of ads on key public policy issues.

Zuckerberg said the change will mean "we will hire thousands of more people" to get the new system in place ahead of US mid-term elections in November.

"We're starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months," Zuckerberg said.

On Monday, Facebook agreed to supply proprietary data for a study on its role in elections and democracy.

"The focus will be entirely forward looking. And our goals are to understand Facebook's impact on upcoming elections - like Brazil, India, Mexico and the US mid-terms - and to inform our future product and policy decisions," Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook has said it has seen little impact on its business from the privacy scandal despite a #deleteFacebook movement and concerns from advertisers.

But Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research said the entire digital advertising industry, of which Google and Facebook are the leaders, could be impacted by the scandal.

The changes announced by Facebook and Google restricting third-party access "indicate a higher likelihood that both companies will 'raise their walls' ... Both of these trends will likely harm ad tech companies focused on buying media or otherwise focused on the Facebook and Google ecosystems."
English Icelandic

Landsvirkjuns Board of Directors appointed at the Annual General Meeting



Jonas or Gumundsson re-elected Chairman of the Board

At the Annual General Meeting of Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company of Iceland, held today, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs appointed Board members and reserve members for Landsvirkjuns Board of Directors.

Members of Landsvirkjuns Board of Directors:

Jonas or Gumundsson, Alfheiur Ingadottir, Jon Bjorn Hakonarson, Gufinna Johanna Gumundsdottir and Gunnar Tryggvason.

Leaving the Board were Haraldur Flosi Tryggvason, Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir and Ragnheiur Elin Arnadottir. They have been members of the board since 2017 and were thanked for their work.

Reserve members of the Board: Jens Garar Helgason, Ragnar Oskarsson, Asta Palmadottir, Hakon Hakonarson and Arna Ir Gunnarsdottir.

The Annual General Meeting confirmed the Board of Directors report and consolidated accounts for the past financial year, which can be found in the annual report:

annualreport2017.landsvirkjun.com

Deloitte ehf. was elected as the audit company for Landsvirkjun as recommended by the Icelandic National Audit Office.

Jonas or Gumundsson re-elected Chairman of the Board

Jonas or Gumundsson was re-elected Chairman of the Board and Alfheiur Ingadottir was elected Vice Chairman of the Board, at the first meeting held by the Board.

1.5 billion ISK dividends for the year 2017

The Boards proposal for the payment of dividends to owners in the amount of 1.5 billion ISK, for the year 2017, was also approved at the Annual General Meeting.

More information:

Magnus or Gylfason

Director of Corporate Communications

Magnus.Thor.Gylfason@landsvirkjun.is

+ 354 5159000
On 7 May 2018 the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Public limited liability company Novaturas, code 135567698, registered at A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter, the Company), is being convened (hereinafter, the Meeting) upon the initiative and decision of Board of the Company.



The place of the Meeting  hotel Radisson BLU Lietuva, conference room OMEGA, Konstitucijos ave. 20, Vilnius 09308, the Republic of Lithuania. The Meeting commences at 3 p.m. (registration starts at 2.00 p.m. and ends at 2.45 p.m.).



The Meetings accounting day  27 April 2018. The persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of accounting day of the General Meeting of Shareholders or authorized persons by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the Meeting.



The Board of the Company initiates and convenes the Meeting, which on 10 April 2018 approved the following agenda of the Meeting:



1. Election of 2 (two) members of the Supervisory council of the Company.



2. Provision of authorisations to the Manager of the Company.



The total number of the Companys shares of EUR 0.03 par value each and the number of shares granting voting rights during the general meeting of shareholders is the same and amounts to 7,807,000.



ISIN code of the Companys shares is LT0000131872.



The Company shall not provide the possibility to participate and vote in the Meeting through electronic communication means.



Draft resolutions on agenda issues, documents to be submitted to the Meeting and other information related to the exercising of the shareholders rights are available on the website of the Company www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors. This information will also be available for the shareholders at the head office of the Company (A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania) on business days from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m.



The shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the Meeting by providing the draft resolution on each additionally proposed issue or in case no resolution is required  the relevant explanation. The proposals to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days or by sending them to its registered mail address, A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, LT-44245 Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania. The proposals submitted via e-mail shall be sent to gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt. The proposals to supplement the agenda with the additional issues shall be received in the Company till 22 April 2018, 4 p.m. In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented the Company will notify on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same manner as on convening of the Meeting.



Each shareholder holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes at any time before the general meeting of shareholders or during the meeting shall have the right of proposing draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders, as well as the additional candidates to the members of the Supervisory Council of the Company (if elected). The proposed draft decisions must be presented in writing sending them by registered mail or providing them against signature at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice.



The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to the issues of the agenda of the Meeting to the Company in advance in writing. The shareholders shall present the questions not later than 3 business days before the Meeting via electronic mail to gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt. The Company undertakes to respond to the submitted questions via electronic mail till the Meetings day, except the questions related to the Companys commercial (industrial) secret, confidential information, as well as if the questions will be received in the Company later than 3 business days before the Meeting.



Responses of a general character shall be posted on the Companys website www.novaturasgroup.lt. The Company will not respond personally to the shareholder if the respective information is posted on the Companys website.



Each shareholder shall have a right in the manner established by the laws to authorise other (natural or legal) person to attend and vote at the general meeting of shareholders on his/her behalf. At the general meeting of shareholders an authorised person shall have the same rights as would be held by the shareholder represented by him/her, unless the authorized persons rights are limited by the power of attorney or by laws. The authorized person must provide a power of attorney certified in the manner established by laws. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by laws.



Shareholder shall also have the right to authorize through electronic communication means another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the Meeting on shareholders behalf. Such authorization shall not be confirmed by the notary public. The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through electronic communication means by e-mail gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt no later than on the last business day before the Meeting by 4:00 p.m. The power of attorney and notification shall be issued in writing. The power of attorney and notification to the Company shall be signed with the electronic signature but not the letters sent via e-mail. By submitting the notification to the Company the shareholder shall include the Internet address from which it would be possible to download free of charge software to verify an electronic signature of the shareholder.



Each shareholder or representative thereof shall have the right to cast his/her vote in advance in writing by filling in a general ballot paper. The form of a general ballot paper is provided on the Companys website www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors. Upon a written shareholders request, the Company no later than 10 days before the Meeting shall send a general ballot paper by registered mail or hand it in person against signature. The general ballot paper filled shall be signed by the shareholder or his/her representative. In case the ballot paper is signed by the shareholders authorized representative, such person together with the filled ballot paper shall submit the document confirming the voting right. The ballot paper filled and the document confirming the voting right (if required) shall be submitted in a written form to the Company by its registered mail address, A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, LT-44245 Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania, or by submitting it to the Company. Valid will be dully filled-in ballot papers, received in the Company until the Meeting.



The shareholders could get familiarised with the following information and documents at the address of Company or on the website of the Company www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors:



notification on convocation of the Meeting;

total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares with voting rights on the convening day of the Meeting;

draft resolutions on each agenda issue and other documents to be submitted to the Meeting;

general ballot paper form. Additional information is provided by Investor Relations Manager Gytis Smolskas, +370 37 321264.
WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xalles Holdings Inc. (OTC: XALL), a company focusing on accelerating fintech companies, leveraging blockchain technology for financial reconciliation, and payment auditing solutions, recently revised and revamped its business plan to meet the increased demands of the X2X transaction tracking and reconciliation markets.



The core business model for Xalles is setting up toll gates for payment transactions to capture revenue from the commerce conducted by government organizations, businesses and consumers. In 2018, the company intends to utilize a blockchain-based platform to meet client challenges in investment & financing systems (IFS) and financial transaction reconciliation (FTR). Open-ledgers and Smart Contracts combined with the intellectual property designed into the companys X2X system, provide a new, previously inaccessible level of transparency and integrity in these areas.

Recently, we have seen blockchain take the world by storm, said CEO Thomas Nash, Many people have come to realize the technology has tremendous potential, but not as many people have put it to practical use yet. We have an actionable plan to make use of blockchain technology to dramatically improve the transparency, speed, and integrity of the IFS and FTR markets.

In addition to creating a less error-prone and more trustworthy approach to reconciliation and investment and financing systems, blockchain-based platforms will increase the speed and efficiency of these services. The company will look to a combination of organic development and growth in 2018, plus several strategic acquisitions to enhance the resources and service offerings to consumers, business and government agencies. Xalles most recent acquisition was of ArrowVista Corporation, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Xalles, which performs payment audits.

More updates will follow as the company continues to execute on its new business plan and begins putting its blockchain-based platform plan into action through X2X.

About Xalles Holdings Inc. (OTC: XALL)

Xalles Holdings Inc. is a holdings company that focuses on direct investments in disruptive fintech companies. The company actively seeks acquisition targets with solid management teams and business models, large total attainable markets (TAM), and lucrative exit opportunities to invest and accelerate growth in. Recently, the company has placed emphasis on leveraging blockchain technologies to provide industry-leading financial reconciliation and auditing solutions, which will allow for the capture of recurring revenue streams over time. For more information visit: http://xalles.com

Visit us at Investors Hangout: https://investorshangout.com/Xalles-Holdings-Inc-XALL-91200/

Investors Hangout is the only authorized investors blog page for Xalles Holdings Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release should be considered in light of all filings of the Company that are contained in the Edgar Archives of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and in OTC Markets at www.otcmarkets.com




SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Syapse, a leading precision medicine company, announced today that Dennis Shin, the former Senior Vice President of National and Strategic Accounts at The Advisory Board, has joined the company as Chief Commercial Officer. Shin, an expert in health system partnerships and physician-focused technology platforms, will help Syapse accelerate its rapid growth through building and expanding its partnerships throughout the precision medicine ecosystem.



Syapse has developed an extremely innovative strategy thats accelerating collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem to make precision medicine available to more patients, said Shin. Im thrilled to get started and help Syapse continue to grow its partnerships with the worlds leading healthcare organizations.

In his 22 years at The Advisory Board, Shin managed relationships with many of the largest health systems in the United States. Most recently, he oversaw firm-wide strategy for serving and growing all U.S. health system members across The Advisory Boards research, technology, and consulting offerings. At Syapse, Shin will help expand the companys new and existing partnerships with health systems, life sciences companies, payers, and diagnostics labs.

Dennis deep experience partnering with health systems makes him the perfect addition to the Syapse leadership team, said Ken Tarkoff, CEO of Syapse. His insights and expertise in building relationships and fostering growth will be crucial to Syapse as we grow our partnerships and write a new chapter in how cancer is treated through precision medicine.

Shin joins Syapse in a year of momentum for the company. Last fall, Syapse raised $30 million in funding from a world-class group of leaders in healthcare, technology, and life sciences. The company also launched partnerships with Roche Pharmaceuticals and Medidata and was named one of Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies for 2018. Earlier this year, the company expanded to Asia through partnerships with Seoul National University Hospital and Megazone, Asias largest Amazon Web Services cloud partner.

About Syapse

Syapse is on a mission to deliver the best care for every cancer patient through precision medicine. Our software platform, data sharing network, and industry partnerships enable healthcare providers to bring precision cancer care to every patient who needs it. By bringing together leading healthcare innovators into a unified ecosystem, we are working toward a future in which all cancer patients have access to the best personalized care, regardless of location or income. Our customersincluding Intermountain Healthcare, Providence St. Joseph Health, Henry Ford Health System, Aurora Health Care, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Healthmanage one million active cancer cases at nearly 300 hospitals in 25 states. Headquartered in San Francisco, Syapse is backed by investors including Social Capital, Safeguard Scientifics, Ascension Ventures, GE Ventures, Intermountain Healthcare Innovation Fund, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Medidata Solutions, Roche Venture Fund, and Amgen Ventures.

Contact:

Courtney Lamie

Crosscut Strategies

202-792-7200

courtney@crosscutstrategies.com
SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Summit Semiconductor, a technology company that delivers the wireless immersive sound experience with patented technology supporting the WiSA (Wireless Speaker and Audio) interoperability standard, appointed Brian Herr to its board of directors, effective February 28, 2018. As of today, April 10th, Summit Semiconductors board of directors numbers eight.



Herr said, "I believe Summit Semiconductor is in a unique position to expand the quality and ease of use of a consumers audio experience by delivering immersive wireless sound, which will in turn position the company to grow and expand its served markets. I am very excited to join the company at this crucial stage in its growth trajectory.

Summit Semiconductor CEO Brett Moyer stated, Brian strengthens our board with his financial acumen, including his serving as chair of our audit committee. We are excited to be working together to create and deliver long-term growth.



Brian Herr

Brian Herr is a co-portfolio manager for Candlewoods Structured Strategy Funds, a co-portfolio manager for the Structured Credit Opportunity Fund, and is co-head of the Investment Committee for the Structured Credit Opportunity Fund. Prior to joining Candlewood, Herr worked at Credit Suisse as a portfolio manager within its structured credit effort. Prior to that, Herr worked for two years in the structured products department of Brown Brothers Harriman and Co. as a Structured Products Sector Manager, where his primary responsibilities included trading and sector management for the ABS and RMBS sectors with approximately $2.5 billion in AUM. Prior to that, Herr, while employed at Brown Brothers Harriman and Co., served in a variety of positions within its institutional fixed income division.

Herr holds a B.A. in Economics from Boston University.

Summit Semiconductor

Summit Semiconductor sells audio semiconductor chips, modules and licensable IP to enable the WiSA (Wireless Speaker and Audio) Association interoperability standards that deliver immersive wireless sound. The companys patented technology creates Picture Perfect Sound for action TV and movies, live sports, Esports, and gaming and delivers a home theater experience that is easy to set-up, portable, and low-cost. Founded in 2010, Summit has offices in San Jose, CA, Beaverton, OR, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea. For more information, please visit www.summitwireless.com

Contact Information:

Moriah Shilton/ Kirsten Chapman, LHA Investor Relations , +1 415 433 3777, summit@lhai.com

.
Do the Western powers hope to put an end to the constraints of International Law? That is the question asked by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serguei Lavrov, at the Moscow conference on International Security [1].

Over the last few years, Washington has been promoting the concept of  unilateralism . International Law and the United Nations are supposed to bow to the power of the United States.

This concept of political life is born of the History of the United States - the colonists who came to the Americas intended to live as they chose and make a fortune there. Each community developed its own laws and refused the intervention of a central government in local affairs. The President and the Federal Congress are charged with Defense and Foreign Affairs, but like the citizens themselves, they refused to accept an authority above their own.

Bill Clinton attacked Yugoslavia, blithely violating Internal Law. George Bush Jr. did the same by attacking Iraq, and Barack Obama by attacking Libya and Syria. As for Donald Trump, he has never hidden his distrust of supra-national rules.

Making an allusion to the Cebrowski-Barnett doctrine [2], Serguei Lavrov declared:  We have the clear impression that the United States seek to maintain a state of controlled chaos in this immense geopolitical area [the Near East], hoping to use it to justify the military presence of the USA in the region, without any time limit, in order to promote their own agenda .

The United Kingdom also seem to feel quite comfortable with breaking the Law. Last month, it accused Moscow in the  Skripal affair , without the slightest proof, and attempted to unite a majority of the General Assembly of the UN to exclude Russia from the Security Council. It would of course be easier for the Anglo-Saxons to unilaterally rewrite the Law without having to take notice of the opinions of their opponents.

Moscow does not believe that London took this initiative. It considers that Washington is calling the shots.

 Globalisation , in other words the  globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values , has created a class society between states. But we should not confuse this new problem with the existence of the right to a veto. Of course, the UNO, while it declares equality between states whatever their size, distinguishes, within the Security Council, five permanent members who have a veto. This Directorate, composed of the main victors of the Second World War, is a necessity for them to accept the principle of supra-national Law. However, when this Directorate fails to embody the Law, the General Assembly may take its place. At least in theory, because the smaller states which vote against a greater state are obliged to suffer retaliatory measures.

La  globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values  ignores honour and highlights profit, so that the weight of the propositions by any state will be measured only by the economic development of its country. However, over the years, three states have managed to gain an audience to the foundations of their propositions, and not in function of their economy  they are the Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (today under house arrest in his own country), the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez, and the Holy See.

The confusion engendered by Anglo-Saxon values has led to the financing of intergovernmental organisations with private money. As one thing leads to another, the member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for example, have progressively abandoned their propositional power to the profit of private telecom operators, who are united in a  consultative committee .

 Communication , a new name for  propaganda , has become the imperative in international relations. From the US Secretary of State brandishing a phial of pseudo-anthrax to the British Minister for Foreign Affairs lying about the origin of Novitchok in the Salisbury affair, lies have become the substitute for respect, and cause general mistrust.

During the first years of its creation, the UNO attempted to forbid  war propaganda , but today, it is the permanent members of the Security Council who indulge in it.

The worst occurred in 2012, when Washington managed to obtain the nomination of one of its worst war-hawks, Jeffrey Feltman, as the number 2 of the UNO [3]. From that date onward, wars have been orchestrated in New York by the very institution that is supposed to prevent them.

Russia is wondering today about the possible desire of the Western powers to to block the United Nations. If this is so, it would create an alternative institution, but there would no longer be a forum which would enable the two blocks to discuss matters.

Just as a society which falls into chaos, where men are wolves for men when deprived of the Law, so the world will become a battle-field if it abandons International Law.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affinor Growers Inc. (Affinor Growers) (CSE:AFI) (OTC:RSSFF) (Frankfurt:1AF) announces that it has determined to not exercise its overallotment option previously announced on March 8, 2018. The private placement of units of Affinor Growers announced on March 5, 2018 has officially closed.



Affinor Growers is pleased to announce that it has arranged by a way of a private placement of 9,090,910 units (the Units) of the Company at $0.11 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to approximately $1,000,000 (the Offering).

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (each a Share) and one Share purchase warrant of the Company (each a Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Share at $0.20 per Share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance. In the event that the Shares trade at a price on the Canadian Securities Exchange (or such other stock exchange on which the Shares may be traded at such time) of greater than $0.40 per Share for a period of 20 consecutive days, Affinor Growers may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof by way of a news release, and in such case, the Warrants will expire on the 30th days after the date of such notice.

The proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund Affinor Growers operations, corporate development and for general working capital purposes.

Affinor Growers plans to close the Offering shortly and may pay commission to certain eligible finders.

The Company also granted 2,000,000 options at $0.115 to its officer and director expiring on April 5, 2021.

About Affinor Growers Inc.

Affinor Growers is a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol (AFI). Affinor is focused on growing high quality crops such as romaine lettuce, spinach, strawberries using its vertical farming techniques. Affinor is committed to becoming a pre-eminent supplier and grower, using exclusive vertical farming techniques.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this 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 Affinor Growers control that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
Jon Hamm (center) in Beirut. Photo: Sife Eddine El Amine/Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

This review originally ran during the Sundance Film Festival.

In the tightly plotted espionage thriller Beirut (which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival), Jon Hamm has finally gotten a movie script that lets him strut his stuff. In the film, Hamm plays Mason Skiles, whom we meet in 1972 as a fast-talking Beirut-based deputy cultural attache. He enumerates for guests at an embassy reception the challenges facing a city often called the Paris of the Middle East  the chief one being Palestinian refugees who, once allowed into Lebanon, promptly sought to burn down the Israeli house next door. (The PLO-led Munich Olympics massacre is foremost in his mind.) The last thing Beirut needs, says Skiles, is a retaliatory Israeli invasion or tension between Muslims and Christians. As soon as the talking stops, the fighting starts, he adds. But as he intends to keep talking  hes a great talker  hes not over-stressed. Hes in love with the city, in love with his wife, in love with what theyve built together. The couple is extremely liberal. Theyve virtually adopted a Palestinian boy named Karim. With 20/20 hindsight, we know that this episode wont end well. We just dont know how not well.

Most of Beirut is set a decade later, when Mason is a small-time labor negotiator and a hopeless drunk. Thats well inside the actors comfort zone, but Hamm has clearly worked to purge Don Drapers rhythms and posture. Even at Masons most stuporous, his motor runs faster than Dons  hes not as essentially private. Mason is bent over a bar outside Boston in the middle of the day when he gets word that his presence is kindly but firmly requested in Beirut. Returning to a city that bears little resemblance to the one he left (You missed quite the civil war, says the Englishman who picks him up at the airport), he finds himself in the middle of a hostage negotiation for a former friend and colleagues life. The kidnappers  members of an ultraviolent Palestinian fringe group  specifically requested him.

The closely hovering CIA and White House operative think hes a pitiful alcoholic whos in over his head  a tough position for Mason but a great one for Hamm. The more that others underestimate Mason, the more we cheer him on, and its instantly apparent that even in his cups Mason is a hell of a negotiator. He quietly studies other people, which means Hamm must engage with actors in a way weve rarely seen from him. In Beirut, Hamm still doesnt have the outsize personality we associate with major movie stars  a lot of whom are lesser actors. But he has focus. He can think onscreen. He can make you watch him closely, trying to keep up with the wheels churning in his head. I think he has fully arrived on the big screen.

Crucial, of course, is the script by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), a virtuoso when it comes to procedural-thriller structure and the hard-bitten dialogue that ends every exchange with a satisfying snap. Just as smart is Brad Andersons direction, which is clean and crisp but never on the nose, always slightly off-center to catch the threats on the periphery. (Bjorn Charpentiers deep-toned  at times monochromatic  cinematography has both sweep and intimacy.)

Related Stories The Best of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival

The supporting cast is top-notch. Shea Whigham deserves to be in the front rank of character actors, and he has a good showcase as a CIA agent whos too wound up to be completely effectual. Dean Norris (with hair and glasses) reins in his bluff personality to play a creepy-furtive embassy man. Larry Pine is a coolly believable ambassador trying to synthesize many disparate points of view. Rosamund Pike plays the skirt (Masons phrase) he thinks is supposed to use her wiles to keep him on a leash. She mocks that label and is sufficiently embarrassed to keep herself in check  and frequently lose Mason to Palestinians making private overtures.

By thriller standards, theres a fair amount of substance  and scathing political assessment  in Beirut. Israeli intelligence types are none too attractive and the Palestinians (both on the violent fringe and under Arafat) just as unscrupulous. Gilroy throws in a bit of financial chicanery that probably doesnt need to be there, and the denouement seems too pat, too obviously intended as a time for us to exhale. But if you know the history and are disappointed by how the film ends, just wait. Theres a montage of news reports and footage that covers what came after the fictional characters leave the screen. Beirut is a mid-disaster film, marking a pause after the hellfire and a prelude to the human catastrophe to come.
David Simon. Photo: John Lamparski/WireImage

Vamanos back to cable TV! Per Variety, David Simons next foray in the television-industrial complex will be a drama set during the Spanish Civil War, revolving around members of two International Brigade battalions who came to Spain from the U.S. to fight fascism. Specifically, A Dry Run will explore the inner workings of the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington battalions from their arrival in Spain in 1937 to their eventual departure in 1939, and all of the easy-peasy, definitely chill experiences that occurred within that time frame. In a statement, Simon promises the show will offer his signature compelling and tragic narrative  what a shock  which will recount the preeminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still. The dramas still in early development stages, so no network is assigned yet. But well put a tenner on HBO.
Good Girls Special Sauce Season 1 Episode 7 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Photo: NBC/Steve Dietl/NBC

Ruby, Beth, and Annie stumbled their way into a get-rich-quick scheme, but theyre quickly discovering theres no such thing as a stay-rich scheme. I continue to love the way Good Girls compares their growing criminal operation to that of a more typical direct-sales pyramid organization  but instead of tricking the neighborhood into hosting their Tupperware parties, Ruby, Beth, and Annie are tricking their fellow carpool moms into buying thousands of dollars of goods with counterfeit cash, then returning the goods for real cash, and finally handing it over to a criminal overlord for their deescalating share of the profits.

This Secret Shopper scheme is a fun, relatable, and potentially smart twist, but the haplessness with which Ruby, Beth, and Annie operate said scheme is  frustrating. Lets start with the fact that Tyler, a man who left $20,000 worth of merchandise in his car to be stolen, is still in their Secret Shoppers club. Thats absurd. If Tyler is an example of the discretion with which theyre handing over Rios cash to outsiders, its no wonder that that someone has simply been handing their Secret Shopper cash back with a faked questionnaire, without ever really buying and returning any goods, as revealed at the top of Secret Sauce.

But Ruby, Beth, and Annie dont figure out that flaw themselves. Rio figures it out for them, because Rio puts in the work to make sure his operation is running smoothly. Hes taking a risk by involving Beth in his money-cleaning process, but hes also keeping tabs on her operation because this is his livelihood. That does not make Rio a hero, of course: He holds a gun to Beths neck and tells her hes going to take care of whoever tried to trick him with his own cash. But it does make Rio someone who recognizes that just because hes not making money the old-fashioned way, doesnt mean it is without effort. Nobody cannot outrun hard work.

When trying to figure out which of their nearly 30 Secret Shoppers handed the same cash back in with a faked shopping survey, Annie realizes it wouldnt take a criminal mastermind: Just somebody smart, but like, lazy. Beth and Ruby stare at Annie until she realizes shes describing herself, but shes also describing all of them. At the zany, coffee-fueled Secret Shopper meeting that opens Special Sauce, Annie screams at their shoppers about making sure to keep their receipts  it ends with everyone chanting RECEIPTS! RECEIPTS! RECEIPTS! for goodness sake  but presumably the three women in charge dont then check those receipts?

No, Ruby, Beth, and Annie are too busy enjoying the spoils of their  well, not exactly hard work, but theyre definitely enjoying the money. Annie is flashing cash around to buy fancy suits for Sadie, Beth is indulging in an expensive necklace, and Ruby is treating Stan to a dinner of tiny, fancy foods. But Rio, his men, and all their guns arrive while the women are watching The Real Housewives as a stern reminder that if youre going to make big and spend big, you have to step up big too. Rio informs them that he knows they purposefully tried to hand back $100,000 in counterfeit bills without him noticing. They swear up and down that they didnt do that, and they have a system for cleaning the cash. Ruby desperately suggests maybe it was one of the women. Uh oh

The realization that Ruby, Beth, and Annie have started their own little cleaning operation within his operation doesnt seem to bother Rio. He just wants a name so he knows who to take care of whoever tried to cheat him. During a stakeout, it becomes clear that the woman who duped them is Mary Pat, a character weve only just met, but whom our core trio apparently entrusted with nearly $100,000.

The women of Good Girls clearly arent criminal masterminds, but they have always been presented as intelligent. How could they have had no system for keeping their secret shoppers accountable other than a one-page fake survey? How could they have not been checking receipts? Need I remind you again that Tyler was entrusted with more money after losing $20,000?

But just because the writing of Mary Pats laziness is a little lazy itself doesnt mean I dont want to see more from this character. One, because shes played by the wonderful Allison Tolman (whom television has been tragically lacking lately), and two, because she exists as proof that Ruby, Beth, and Annie are not exactly special  theyre simply victims (or winners, depending on how you look at the situation) of their own circumstances. There are millions of other women out there, just as desperately looking for a loophole to their own disasters as these three were when they decided to rob a grocery store. In robbing that grocery store, they stumbled into an even more profitable loophole. But in getting a little too big for their britches (and a little too lazy for their circumstances), they exposed themselves to someone else finding a loophole inside of their loophole.

When the women finally confront and fire Mary Pat, they find that shes a recently widowed single mom whos barely scraping by. Mary Pat is so embarrassed to have been found out, but she ran out of time to make the purchases and couldnt do without getting the money. Shes fired gingerly, but just as her former employers are about to leave, she has a few questions: Why did Annie say she turned in the same cash? How could she know that? And if shes being fired from Secret Shoppers, shouldnt that come through the corporate office that they keep referring to? Why doesnt she just give the Better Business Bureau a ring to get a few answers?

Instead of offering up a solution themselves, perhaps a monetary one, or the option to stay a Secret Shopper, Beth just says, What do you want? Criminal masterminds  even criminal middle-minds!  they are not.

Mary Pat wants $10,000. And Beth is going to give it to her because thats her way of taking care of it. When she refuses to give Rio the name she wants, he doesnt put up a fight, but he wants to give her a little advice: When you got a rotten egg in the bunch, it stinks up the whole batch until you get rid of it. Hes right about that. Beth tells him not to ever point a gun at her again. Shes also right about that.

That self-assurance is whats been missing all episode, and I think its absence makes the hour seem a little off. I can buy that the Secret Shopper program would go off the rails, but I cant quite buy that it would go off in such an amateur way. Seven episodes in, Ruby, Beth, and Annie certainly shouldnt be master criminals, but I also shouldnt feel like theyre not learning anything from their mistakes simply for the sake of hilarious hijinks  even if the whole Secret Shoppers concept is very funny.

Less funny is listening to Ruby tell an awful story about her time working at the diner when she had to stir a 55-gallon barrel of secret sauce with her arms because her boss was trying to save money. Annies horrified face is all of our horrified faces, but the point is that Ruby cant go back to the diner. And she cant get out of this mess with Rio, at least not yet. Shes stuck  just like they were all stuck, floundering in their own lives, when we met them. The question now is, are they going to look for yet another loophole, or are they going to put in the work to take control of the mess theyve already made?

Its a mess that gets a whole lot bigger when they deliver the $10,000 of hush money to Mary Pat and ask if theyre good now. Yeah, were good, she says. Until next month.

A Few Loose Ends

 A seriously loose end pops back up in the form of Rios associate who nursed a gunshot wound at Beths house, drove her minivan around for a while, and then broke Sadies bullys finger in the middle of an elementary school as a favor to Annie

 It looks like Agent Turner is going to get that fella to talk. Closing in on Rio means the FBI is bringing in some local police to form a task force  a task force including newly minted police officer, Stan.

 Speaking of police, Annie also briefly goes to jail for the drugs Boomer planted in her work locker. Then Annie sleeps with her ex when he comes by to pick up Sadies jeans. Oh Annie  why do they make you do the things you do?

 This is the second episode in a row where theres a tear-filled personal argument among Ruby, Beth, and Annie thats suddenly resolved off-camera just because they love each other so much. Its not my favorite thing the show is doing.

 And thats because my favorite thing is Ruby, Beth, and Annie gasping at the Please dont let it be about Tom episode of The Real Housewives of New York!!! That is just a perfect detail.
James Toback. Photo: Venturelli/WireImage

The Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office wont press charges against James Toback. After more than 300 women  including Rachel McAdams and Selma Blair  accused the screenwriter and film director, known for his work on Bugsy and The Pick-up Artist, of sexual assault or harassment, the DAs Hollywood sex-crimes task force reviewed five cases against Toback, the earliest of which dated to 1978. All five were found to fall outside of the statue of limitations, according to Variety. All of the cases involved Toback masturbating in front of women, groping them, or exposing himself.
Take that beef off the grill and throw it right in the trash: the sizzling feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Sean Hannity has died down, days after the pair started squabbling online and on television over Kimmels mocking reference to Melania Trumps accent at the White House Easter Egg Roll. After feuding Friday, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host offered an olive branch Sunday, primarily to LGBTQ viewers taken aback by the homophobic insults he dished out to the Fox News host on Twitter, but also to Hannity and FLOTUS as well.

On Mondays edition of his show, Sean Hannity accepted Kimmels attempt to end their argument, albeit with a grain of salt. On the surface, to be honest, it feels more like a forced Disney corporate apology directed more towards the LBGTQ community rather than about Kimmels comments about the First Lady, the Fox host said.

In the end, however, Hannity is apparently happy to let the flames die down, provided everyone agrees to leave Melania and President Trumps son Baron off the list of Late Night Joke Targets. Said the Fox News host, I believe everyone should accept apologies. Thats how I was raised. Thats what my religion teaches me, and Im going to assume hes sincere.

Moreover, the conservative host offered to have Kimmel on his show sans name calling any time he likes. From my perspective, I do really kind of enjoy a good fight, and I do agree with Jimmy in the sense that its time to move on, he said. Should things start popping off again, however, Hannity said he now has a stockpile of the ABC hosts career worst-ofs at the ready. My producers spent all weekend compiling a lot of your highlights  or lowlights  in your career; they dont make you look too good, he revealed. So instead of airing them, well put them in storage. God help us if they start this up again any time soon. Too much beef is terribly bad for the body.
Wild Wild Country Part 2 Season 1 Episode 2 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * * Photo: Netflix

Netflixs documentary series Wild Wild Country is wild, wild indeed. It follows the path of Bhagwan Rajneesh and his red-clad religious group, the Rajneeshees, after they moved to Antelope, Oregon, in 1981 in an attempt to establish a utopian community. Its a twisty story that goes to very shocking and unexpected places, so were going to try something a little different: Instead of typical recaps, well highlight the most surprising discoveries unearthed by directors Chapman and Maclain Way after each installment of the six-part series. Here are the wildest, wildest things we learned in Part 2.

Bhagwan owns an absolutely massive plot of land

Ma Anand Sheela, Bhagwans personal secretary, arranged for the purchase of the 63,000-acre Big Muddy Ranch in Oregon. That is about the same size as both the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn combined, just to give you an idea of how much space (and privacy) Bhagwan wanted for his Rajneeshpuram commune.

The intense construction of Rajneeshpuram

To build their utopia, the Rajneeshees needed a whole lot of explosions, dams, an entire fleet of backhoes and bulldozers, and more A-frame houses than the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta has wigs. They built their own plumbing system, power grid, roads, and farms. They even built a shopping center, a pizza parlor, and a boutique that only sold clothing in the red family, sort of like a cult version of White House, Black Market.

Sheela might be nuts

First of all, Sheela thinks that she deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for reclaiming nature in Oregon. Secondly, when the people of Antelope start trying to get rid of the incorporated town of Rajneeshpuram, she says, They will paint those bulldozers with my blood if it comes to bulldozers. If they doubt my determination they are stupid. They are unintelligent. Uh, okay!

Its (probably) a sex cult

Well, that is at least what the media led people to believe at the time  as well as an ad the Rajneeshees placed in a national magazine looking for sexually open people. While Bhagwan encourages them to practice open relationships and a radical form for free love, it ultimately looks a lot like theyre just having giant orgy parties in padded rooms. Im not going to knock it until Ive tried it.

Kelly McGreer is hot

One of Antelopes leading opponents of the Rajneeshees, we often see McGreer as a handsome older gentleman talking about what happened. But then we see some archival footage of him testifying against the Rajneeshees and, damn, he was a hot piece back in the day! Im shocked they didnt try to get him to join the sex cult.

Margaret Hill is the anti-Sheela

No one ever wanted to be mayor of Antelope because it was too much work to lord over a town of 40 people. Unfortunately for Mayor Hill, she was stuck with the job when Bhagwan showed up. She became a staunch opponent of the Rajneeshees, educating the townspeople about what they intended to do and dealing with all of the media surrounding this very strange incident. She also has the most amazing glasses, possibly from the Sophia Loren Collection.

Dynamic Meditation is  a lot

Based on what we learned about Dynamic Meditation in episode one, it seemed more extra than a whole shelf of sugar-free gum. Based on the footage from the documentary Ashram in Poona, it basically features members of the group ripping their clothes off, beating the hell out of each other, and possibly engaging in unwanted and unsolicited sexual activities. No wonder those in Antelope didnt want them there.

Yes, there is a Jonestown connection

When the Rajneeshees were moving to Oregon, a lot of townspeople were worried about another Jonestown incident, in which cult leader Jim Jones led the mass suicide of 918 people in South America in 1978. A U.S. senator, Leo Ryan, was also killed while visiting the Jonestown compound  and shockingly enough, his daughter Shannon Jo later spent her life-insurance money to become a Rajneeshee. If Bhagwan asked them to kill someone else, they would do it, she told the L.A. Times in 1981. I dont know if my trust in him is that total. I would like it to be, and I dont believe he would ever do that.

Oprah!

Youre going to tell us that the nations premier spiritual leader, Oprah Winfrey, was aware of this organization and she didnt do more to warn us about them? Thats shocking. Shocking!

The Rajneeshees invade Antelope 

When the county decides that the Rajneeshees cant have a city on their plot of land, they start to buy up the houses and business of Antelope, opening a Zorba the Buddha cafe downtown, among other efforts to alienate the townspeople. Soon enough, Antelopers turn even harder against their interlopers: They start carrying their guns around and touting the slogan Better Dead Than Red to intimidate their new neighbors. When Antelope tries to disincorporate so that the Bhagwan couldnt take over the local government, the Rajneeshees flooded the town with their votes to keep it intact. The final tally? The Rajneeshees prevail, 52 to 44, and its covered on the national news that evening.

 and dont hesitate to play dirty

They start videotaping all of the people of Antelope in an attempt to drive them out (a tactic that Scientologists have also deployed). They start shining flashlights into the houses of the people who wont sell their land to them. Next thing you know, red-clad men with long beards are toting machine guns around the Rajneeshpuram compound. Sheela all but makes the threat clear: Where Jesus says turn the other cheek, we take both cheeks.

Still, its a surprisingly tricky conflict

On one hand, its easy to side with the townspeople. Who would want a group of outsiders coming and upsetting the way of life these people were used to and relied on to be there in the future. But on the other hand, the Rajneeshees arent doing anything explicitly illegal. At least initially, theyre exercising their right to buy property and vote in a representative democracy. Mostly, the townspeople of Antelope seem to hate that theyre different, like to have lots of sex, and practice a weird religion. But if we started kicking out everyone with different ideas and religions, would America even exist in the first place?
Bel Powley in Wildling. Photo: IFC Midnight

Theres something especially visceral about horror movies rooted in coming-of-age narratives. Being a teenager is a hormonal and emotional nightmare already, and the process of bodies changing and hearts breaking and love blossoming and skin mutating and family pressures mounting is a biological script practically written to terrify. This weekend, a new movie enters the canon: Wildling, a haunting creature feature. The feature debut of filmmaker Fritz Bohm, Wildling stars Bel Powley as Anna, a teenage girl whos lived her entire life in a basement belonging to a man called Daddy (Brad Dourif), whos been injecting her with hormone-halting drugs since she got her first period. Daddy tried to freeze Anna in time, but when she gets free of him after a series of events we wont spoil, she starts to change all at once into something she was never prepared for.

Wildling joins a storied tradition of fantastic coming-of-age horror movies, chock-full of confused teen feelings, stunning body horror, and the occasional dashes of sadism and serial killings. Below, weve made a list of 25 of the best. (Get through a few of these and youll notice it also doubles as a guide to high-grade gory movies, too  but how better to honor those relatively gross years than with extreme and unsightly visual effects?)



Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

This Australian classic from director Peter Weir focuses on a group of schoolgirls in 1900 who set out for a day trip. Several of them end up disappearing after venturing into the caverns around Hanging Rock. Its beloved by film fans for how it explored themes of emergent female sexuality during adolescence, and you can see its effects in movies like the haunting, dreamy sad-nightmare that is Sofia Coppolas The Virgin Suicides.



Alucarda (1977)

Alucarda became infamous after its release for elements like extreme violence, scenes of sacrilege, and perversely defiled religious imagery. It also features a pair of orphaned teen girls who come together at a convent, develop an obsessive relationship with each other, summon a demon, and get possessed by Satan. High-school years are crazy.



In the Company of Wolves (1984)

The second movie on this list from Neil Jordan also deals in fantasy. Its basically a take on the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood that also serves as a parable about the dangers of men. How 2018! Wolves stars Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen, a girl whose dreams have been invaded by wolves and witches, and an old grandma played by Angela Lansbury who warns Rosaleen, The worst kind of wolves are hairy on the inside. And when they bite you, they drag you with them to hell. In other words, choose abstinence, kids!



Society (1989)

Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) was adopted into a ritzy Beverly Hills family, but hes never really fit in among the upper crust. When we meet him in Society, hes starting to think his family is involved in some seriously weird shit. Bill is right, but he also has absolutely no idea what hes about to find when he starts unpacking what it truly means to be a productive member of Society. This movie features some of the most brain-scrambling practical effects of cinemas pre-CGI gore heyday (thing The Thing, The Brood, Total Recall) and a finale so bizarre it could put David Cronenberg at a loss for words.



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Ginger Snaps (2000)

This cult hit stars Katharine Isabelle as Ginger and Emily Perkins as Brigitte, two sisters living in the sleepy town of Bailey Downs. After Ginger gets her first period, shes mauled by a wild creature, which catalyzes a gradual, bloody transformation into a new animal form. So when you have those bad cramp days, just remember that it could be worse (better?): You could turn into an actual werewolf.

Pans Labyrinth (2006)

Life is hard when youre a young girl with a pregnant and sick mother and your bastard stepdad is a soldier hunting down rebels in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. Given her circumstances, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) does what any little girl would do when she becomes convinced she is the reincarnation of an underworld princess: She follows a fairy to a labyrinth, where she finds a giant faun who tells her she can achieve immortality if she can pass a series of challenges. And unlike almost all the other movies on this list, its actually something you could watch with your kids. (Well, provided you dont have very sensitive kids and are willing to explain that fleshbag demon with eyes in its hands.)

Teeth (2007)

Teeth arrived as a beloved indie when it came out in 2007, but if it debuted today, this tale of a young girl who develops teeth in her vagina would likely have been a whisper-campaign hit and a magnet for Twitter-intellectual discourse. Jess Weixler stars as Dawn, a high-school girl whose vagina dentata begins as a burden, but becomes an asset when she has to start fending off the brutish advances of the men around her.



Jennifers Body (2009)

This Diablo Codywritten and Karyn Kusamadirected tale of a thoroughly modern succubus stars Megan Fox as hot cheerleader Jennifer Check and Amanda Seyfried as her (mostly) platonic companion, Needy Lesnicki. Its a story about finding your individuality in an all-consuming friendship, navigating different types of relationships in your raw teen years  and also what happens when you think you can just sacrifice a woman and leave her for dead, only to have her revive as a bloodlusting hell-beast.



Amer (2009)

Amer is a movie told in three parts. It tracks the emotional and sexual development of a girl named Ana, who is, as the movie says, in thrall to her own fantasies. The more fully Ana explores eroticism, the closer to danger she gets. The movies aesthetics are heavily inspired by the giallo works of Italian icons like Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci.



The Snowtown Murders (2011)

Based on real events that took place in a South Australian community, Snowtown centers on a teenage boy named Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) who falls in with his moms violent and compelling boyfriend, John (Daniel Henshall), and is groomed to help him commit terrible crimes. Australian filmmakers have a real way with suburban horror stories (see: Hounds of Love, The Loved Ones) and Snowtown is a gritty take on this chilling subgenre.



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Excision (2012)

Strap in, because this one gets really weird  as in, Malcolm McDowell, Traci Lords, and John Waters are all here levels of weird. In Excision, AnnaLynne McCord stars as Pauline, an extremely awkward high-school girl coming into her own as she develops obsessions with sex and the human body. But Pauline doesnt just want to see naked bodies. She wants to cut them open and writhe in the blood and organs  visuals were treated to as hyperstylized fantasies, in which Pauline imagines herself as a sort of ultrasexual surgeon goddess. Relevant to these fantasies is her younger sister, played by Ariel Winter, whom her parents definitely love more  and who is slowly dying from cystic fibrosis. It all culminates into something truly unexpected.



Byzantium (2012)

Another twist on the vampire narrative, Byzantium is the story of Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), an undead mother and daughter who are on the run from a vampiric group called the Brethren trying to hunt them down for breaking community rules a few hundred years ago. Arterton and Ronan both deliver moving performances  and who better to trust with a unique story of vampire familial relations than writer-director Neil Jordan, who also gave us Interview With the Vampire?



We Are What We Are (2013)

Its a rite of passage for teenagers to push back against the expectations foisted upon them by their parents. In We Are What We Are, the Parker sisters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) must decide whether or not to carry on a sinister legacy thats been passed through their family for generations. This 2013 film is based on the Mexican original called Somos lo que hay from 2010, and both are well worth watching.



When Animals Dream (2014)

Nothing says coming of age like a good animal transformation! In this moody Danish thriller from Jonas Alexander Arnby, actress Sonia Suhl plays Marie, a lonely teenage girl growing up on a small island whos about to realize why shes always felt so disconnected from everyone else around her. Its also a fine showcase for Scandinavian fishing village ennui.



The Tribe (2014)

Its debatable whether Ukranian writer-director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiys The Tribe is a straight horror film, but youll rarely come across a movie so deeply horrifying from start to finish. Shot entirely without music and with dialogue delivered almost exclusively in sign language  with no subtitles  The Tribe takes place in a boarding school for the deaf thats lorded over by a savage gang of upper classmen who run a drug, theft, and prostitution ring, using fellow students as labor. Grigoriy Fesenko plays the new boy, Sergey, whose efforts to fit in lead him on a path to ruin and revenge. There are at least three scenes that are so intense theyll make you want to throw up.

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The Lure (2015)

How many Polish musicals about man-eating mermaids do you get to see? At the center of The Lure are sisters Srebrna (Marta Mazurek) and Zlota (Michalina Olszanska), two mermaids who take to the land and join a singing and dancing act at a nightclub. But they become compromised after Srebrna (silver in English) falls in love with the bassist of her backing band, and she must choose between a life with him and a life with Zlota (translated to golden). Theres murder, stripping, cabaret, and extremely invasive leg-transplant surgery.



It Follows (2015)

Writer and director David Robert Mitchells second feature has become synonymous with the recent surge in high-brow horror cinema. Maika Monroe stars as Jay, a teenage girl who, after having sex for the first time, is beset by an entity passed along like a monstrous STD. It follows and follows and follows in a variety of human forms until it either kills its target or is passed along to the next victim  a true innovation in the walk-and-stalk genre.



We Are the Flesh (2016)

We Are the Flesh is hard to describe: Its a French and Mexican collaboration about a pair of siblings who are forced to scrounge for food and shelter in a post-apocalyptic environment. They come upon a man named Mariano who has dominion over a fortified structure, but the price of protection is participating in a series of increasingly strange and disturbing acts. It must be seen to be believed.



The Witch (2016)

Robert Eggers wrote and directed his impeccably designed debut film, and it earned him the top directing honor the year it premiered at Sundance. Genre stalwart Anya Taylor-Joy plays Thomasin, a teen girl coming into adulthood right as her zealot family has been cast out of their commonwealth for worshipping God the wrong way. They make a settlement at the edge of some ominous woods, and are soon terrorized by an elusive witch. But thanks to stellar casting, Thomasins eroding relationship with her family is as harrowing as her battle with good and evil.



Evolution (2016)

This haunting French film is extremely deliberate, introspective, and beautifully shot. Evolution takes place on a remote island inhabited only by prepubescent boys and ethereal young women who serve as their nurses and caretakers. Young Nicolas (Max Brebant) starts to get suspicious about the intentions of their stewards, and sets out to unearth the secrets of his island prison.

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Neon Demon (2016)

Nicolas Winding Refn delivered one of the most sumptuous movies of 2016 with Neon Demon, the story of a young model, Jesse (Elle Fanning), who arrives in Los Angeles to find creepy old men, competitive women, vacuous fashion-industry moguls, hangers-on, and basically a whole city set up to consume her pure beauty. Whether you take it as a study of how we commoditize and covet physical appeal, or just as a superficial, stunning feature-length music video, Demon invites you to be complicit in the cannibalism  both literal and figurative  of star worship.



Raw (2017)

French writer-director Julia Ducournau made her debut with this absorbing, beautifully shot story about a brainy introvert who goes off to her first year of vet school, and realizes she has a hunger for human flesh in the aftermath of a gross hazing ritual. Star Garance Marillier gave one of 2017s standout performances as Justine, and Ducournau introduced herself as one of the genres most exciting up-and-coming voices.

The Babysitter (2017)

At its warm heart, McGs The Babysitter is the story of a young boy coping with first love. His first love just happens to be his cool babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), a Satan worshipper in need of his virgin blood, who invites a bunch of friends over one night after Cole (Judah Lewis) has gone to bed for a rip-roaring ritual sacrifice. Its well-done slasher fare, but the sweet relationship at the center of the movie is what makes The Babysitter better than body count business as usual.

Super Dark Times (2017)

Teen female friendships are complicated, but those formative high-school years are hell for sensitive boys, too. Super Dark follows best friends Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) whose bond turns into a dangerous codependency after a tragic accident, and theyre forced to protect the worst kind of secret for one another. Kevin Phillipss debut feature is as chilling as it is emotionally fraught.

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mon mon mon Monsters (2018)

This Taiwanese horror satire is populated by savage teen bullies and apathetic bystanders that make the people-eating monsters feel like extremely sympathetic characters. Lin Shu-Wei (Yu-Kai Teng) is relentlessly harassed at school by a violent clique of popular boys, but he accidentally gets absorbed into their group when, on a community-service assignment, they end up capturing a childlike monster and keeping it prisoner. As long as the monster is chained up and being tortured, Shu-Wei has a respite from abuse. But he must decide if saving himself physically is worth sacrificing any shred of decency hes got left. These teens make Plug it up! sound like a mantra of encouragement.


President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip to South America, set to begin Friday, to monitor the American response to chemical weapons use in Syria, the White House said on Tuesday.

"President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia, as originally scheduled," press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "At the President's request, the vice president will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

Trump has been mulling a response to the weekend attack with military leaders and foreign counterparts. He has signaled a decision would come within days.

The trip was set to have been Trump's first visit to South America as President. He was expected to meet fierce resistance to his hardline immigration stances from the assembled leaders.
A gun range owner in Brevard gave people a chance to shoot fully automatic weapons Monday. Assault-style weapons have been a big topic since the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida.

Fully automatic means the gun fires continuously from the moment the trigger is pulled until it is released.

"Today is a machine gun social," explained Bear Arms co-owner Justin Fisher.

For $25, plus the price of ammunition, people got to try a fully automatic weapon, like a Vietnman-era M-60.

"It's a very cheap and inexpensive way for you to come out and have a fun afternoon and get your hands on something you'd normally never get to see, let alone utilize," Fisher said.

"That's cool," exclaimed Lindsay Bowen, who shot the M-60.

People who finished firing wore the same expression: a smile.

"It's a great experience. I think everyone should have it," said Zane Shipman, who shot a couple automatic weapons.

'I carried that thing, (referring to a Thompson machine gun), for about a week in Vietnam. It's just nostalgia for me. I love it. It's fun. It brings back old memories too," the gun's owner said.

It is illegal for a private citizen to own a fully automatic weapon made after 1986. Older automatic weapons can be owned through a longer purchasing process, and Fisher explained those guns aren't cheap.

"You put $60,000 out there, and you just kind of sit around and wait for a year and hope. They say, all right, we're good now. Then you get a special stamp from the ATF that says, OK, you can own this gun," Fisher said.

"It's not exactly the cheapest thing in the world, but I enjoy it. It's worth it," the Thompson's owner said.

Recent gun control discussions have been about bump stocks and assault weapons. The gun used to kill and injured dozens of Florida high school students recently was an AR-15, which looks like the M-4 at Bear Arms. But, it's different, because an AR-15 is semi-automatic.

"You get one shot for every pull of the trigger," Fisher said, explaining what semi-automatic means.

He understands that people have fear of guns, but he said an event like the machine gun social can help relieve that fear.

"A lot of fear that comes from firearms is just either inexperience, bad experience or just they don't know any better," he said.

Bear Arms holds a fully automatic event about once a year.
Redwood City, Calif., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Informatica , the enterprise cloud data management leader, today announced Amit Walia was appointed president of products and strategic ecosystems. In this role, Walia leads all of Informaticas product strategy, product management, engineering, user experience, cloud hosting operations, cloud security, strategic ecosystem relationships, as well as company-wide business transformation initiatives.

Walia joined Informatica in 2013 and most recently served as executive vice president and chief product officer. In that role, he spearheaded Informaticas innovation journey across cloud, big data, streaming, data governance, data security, and data catalog, He led the creation of industrys first Intelligent Data Platform and Informaticas innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) through the launch of the CLAIRE engine , the metadata-driven AI in the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform.

Walia also defined and accelerated the companys strategic partnerships with ecosystem partners like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Salesforce.com, among others. During his tenure, Informatica was positioned as a Leader in five Magic Quadrants in 2017 related to its markets. [1]

Prior to Informatica, Walia worked in leadership positions at Symantec, Intuit, and McKinsey & Company. He spent the earlier part of his career working for Tata Group and Infosys Technologies in India. Walia holds a masters degree in business administration, with honors in strategy and economics, from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and an engineering degree with honors from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Varanasi.

Supporting Quotes

Amit has been an integral part of enabling Informaticas customers to succeed in the Data 3.0 world that demands high-performance hybrid clouds, AI-driven data management, and best-in-breed data security and governance. He has crystallized Informaticas product and ecosystem vision and has defined Informaticas intelligent platform strategy by advancing innovative technology beyond traditional data and cloud infrastructures. Amit will continue our design-led innovation, providing customers with completely reimagined hybrid data management products.

- Anil Chakravarthy, CEO, Informatica





- Anil Chakravarthy, CEO, Informatica Our customers rely on Informatica to help them accelerate their data-driven digital transformations, which range from transforming their business and operating models, to their innovation and customer engagement models. We understand this transformation is an ongoing evolution for our customers, not just destination, and in this role, I will continue to drive Informaticas innovation journey to help accelerate our customers their digital transformations.

- Amit Walia, President of Products and Strategic Ecosystems Informatica

Tweet this: News: @Informatica appoints as Amit Walia as president of products & strategic ecosystems to drive innovation http://infa.media/pr041018a

1Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service, Keith Guttridge, Massimo Pezzini, et al., 30 March 2017.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools, Mark A. Beyer, Eric Thoo, Mei Yang Selvage, Ehtisham Zaidi, 3 August 2017.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools, Mei Yang Selvage, Saul Judah, and Ankush Jain, 24 October 2017.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions, Bill O'Kane, Alan Dayley, Michael Patrick Moran, Simon James Walker, 30 October 2017.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions, Guido De Simoni, Roxane Edjlali, 10 August 2017.

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Informatica

Informatica is the only Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader that accelerates data-driven digital transformation. Informatica enables companies to unleash the power of data to fuel innovation, become more agile and realize new growth opportunities, resulting in intelligent market disruptions. With over 7,000 customers worldwide, Informatica is the trusted leader in Enterprise Cloud Data Management. For more information, call +1 650-385-5000 (1-800-653-3871 in the U.S.), or visit www.informatica.com . Connect with Informatica on LinkedIn , Twitter and Facebook .

###

Note: Informatica and CLAIRE, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Informatica in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

The information provided herein is subject to change without notice. In addition, the development, release and timing of any product or functionality described today remain at the sole discretion of Informatica and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, nor as a representation, warranty or commitment to deliver specific products or functionality in the future.
(CNN) -- What happened to a contestant in a hot-pepper-eating contest may give spicy food aficionados one more reason to "fear the reaper," according to a recent case report.

The 34-year-old man, who was not identified, experienced a series of intense headaches and dry heaving after eating a Carolina Reaper, reportedly the hottest pepper in the world, during the contest in New York.

The man developed excruciating pain in his head and neck, prompting him to go to an emergency room, according to an article published Monday in the journal BMJ Case Reports. "The patient ate the pepper and immediately starting having a severe headache that started in the back of the head and spread all over within two seconds," said Dr. Kulothungan Gunasekaran, an internal medicine physician at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a lead author of the report, who was not involved in the patient's care.

"Because he could not tolerate the headache, they sent him to the ER," he added.

When the patient arrived at the hospital, physicians were not positive what had caused his symptoms. The man did not have any neurological deficits such as slurred speech, muscle weakness or vision loss that would have indicated a stroke. CT imaging also ruled out a blood clot or bleeding in one of the large blood vessels supplying the brain.

But a CT angiogram of the brain's blood vessels did reveal something unusual: a substantial narrowing of the left internal carotid artery and four other blood vessels supplying the brain.

"Then CT angiography was done, which showed narrowing of the blood vessels in the brain," Gunasekaran said. "You could see the beaded appearance [of the arteries], and the yellow arrows point to the narrowing of the blood vessels."

Gunasekaran and Dr. Gregory Cummings, the neurologist on the case, eventually diagnosed the man with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome, or RCVS, probably caused by the hot peppers.

RCVS is typically characterized by an intense "thunderclap" headache due to constriction of blood vessels in the brain and usually resolves within a few days or weeks, according to Dr. Anne Ducros, professor of neurology and head of the migraine and headache unit at the University of Montpellier, who was not involved in the report.

It is normally associated with certain medications, such as ergotamine or triptans, and illicit drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamines -- not peppers. Severe cases can even be life-threatening, according to Ducros.

"A proportion of patients will have a severe form with strokes, and they can get either an intracranial hemorrhage of an ischemic stroke," Ducros said. "But the mortality is low, around 2% ... and most patients who die from RCVS are young women and often in the postpartum state.

"But most of them will do well with only recurrent headaches, and then they have a total recovery," she added.

Hot peppers have a high concentration of capsaicin, a chemical responsible for the spiciness of certain foods. The substance is known to cause constriction of blood vessels in some parts of the body and is even used at low concentrations in some topical medications.

A 2012 study documented a 25-year-old man who had a heart attack and coronary vasospasms after taking cayenne pepper pills -- which also contain large amounts of capsaicin -- for weight loss.

But this would be the first documented case of hot peppers causing vasoconstriction in the brain, according to the report.

"This is the first time that pepper has been related to RCVS," Gunasekaran said. "Capsaicin, the key ingredient in the pepper, is a vasoactive substance, so it could potentially narrow the blood vessels to the most important organs like the heart and brain."

The Carolina Reaper was bred in 2013 by Ed Currie of the Puckerbutt Pepper Company. The pepper measures roughly 1.5 million on the Scoville Heat Scale -- a measurement of the pungency, or spiciness, of chili peppers -- according to the company's website.

That is over 400 times spicier than jalapeno peppers, which average 3,500 to 8,000 on the Scoville scale, according to a 2013 study.

Greg Foster of Irvine, California, holds the Guiness World Record for Carolina Reaper eating. He achieved this accomplishment by consuming 120 grams of the pepper in 60 seconds at the Arizona Hot Sauce Expo in November 2016.

According to Ducros, RCVS can also be triggered by extreme emotions or pain, which may have played a role in the case of the hot pepper contestant.

"You can also have RCVS after strong emotion, such as learning the death of a friend," Ducros said. "The mechanism is that strong emotion can activate the sympathetic tone, and this leads to vasoconstriction."

Sympathetic tone refers to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which also results in the constriction of blood vessels.

"For example, in the case of ingestion of pepper, perhaps it is the intense pain triggered by the pepper which triggered the RCVS and not the pepper itself," Ducros added.

Treatment for RCVS typically consists of removal of the offending substance and supportive care such as pain management, she said.

In this case, the patient's symptoms improved, and he was released from the hospital after a few days.

"The patient was followed up after five weeks, and a repeat CT angiography showed resolution of the narrowing of the blood vessels," Gunasekaran said. "Usually, RCVS resolves on its own after days to weeks."

The authors of the report advise that RCVS should be considered for patients who experience intense headaches after eating hot peppers, cayenne pepper or any other substance containing high amounts of capsaicin.

"It's important to think about RCVS if you get a very severe and instantaneous headache. It's the main cause after a subarachnoid hemorrhage," Ducros said. "But, unfortunately, this condition is still not widely known."

The-CNN-Wire

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A gas tax increase in Colbert County isn't going to happen after the bill died on Governor Kay Ivey's desk.

Colbert County Commissioners said Ivey indirectly vetoed their bill. It would given commissioners the option to increase Colbert Counties gas tax.

"Their rough and they have always been rough," that's how Colbert County citizen, Rhonda Bishop, described Colbert County roads. "I drive an older car and it makes a lot of noise on these roads. If I had a new car all it would do is mess up the bottom of it."

Alabamas Constitution doesnt let counties raise taxes without a referendum or state approval. Commissioners asked the state to sign off on a three cent gas tax increase. The commission believes it would generate 1.5 million annually to fix roads across the county. The state House and Senate passed the bill in the dying days of this years session but it died on Governor Kay Iveys desk because she didnt sign it.

"It's a little discouraging. Hopefully the people can make her change her mind," said Colbert County citizen, Kayla Davis.

The news upset Davis who wants to see road repairs. Governor Ivey said she wouldnt sign any bill increasing taxes unless the public voted on it first. Similar bills did become law without Iveys signature but a section of Alabama's Constitution says if a bill is sent to the governor in the last five days of a session and isnt signed, it dies.

"The ones in town are pretty bad it's about time to do something about them," said Davis.

Davis and everyone else in Colbert County are now waiting on what commissioners will do next, and a public referendum is an option. Colbert County Commissioner, Tommy Barnes, said they are going to be exploring many options over the next year to come up with a plan to fix the roadways.
Huntsville police are searching for a man who they say has robbed several people in downtown Huntsville in the last month.

The robberies happened in the parking lot of the shopping center on Church Street across the street from the Huntsville public transit and the Depot Museum.

Some of the more well known businesses in the center are Cyn Shea's Cafe, Alpha, Southern States Bank and Sidetracks Music Hall.

This morning police released this surveillance video of the suspected robber.

WAAY 31's MaryLee Adams spoke with two victims who are both employees at two different businesses in the shopping center. They were robbed within 5 hours of each other as they were leaving and arriving at work.

Both are still very shaken up by the incident but agreed to go on camera without their faces shown, as the robber took several personal items including one woman's keys to her home.

They hope by speaking out it in will help find the man who did this.

"I was arriving at work at 6:30, I pulled up at my usual parking lot at the end of the building, I got out of the car, walking towards the restaurant...And I didn't even get like 15 feet and this man came up behind me and said give me your purse. I turned around, there was a gun pointing in my face and I gave him my purse."

The victim says she then took of running and so did the robber. She thinks he was hiding out behind this tree waiting for her to get out of her car.

About 5 hours earlier, another robbery took place in the same parking lot only this one involved a knife.

"Yeah it was about a little pocket knife, like a 3 or so inch blade."

This victim was leaving his workplace and described to WAAY 31 what happened next...

"As I'm getting into my car, I'm trying to set my stuff down and as I'm closing my door to leave, somebody pulls the door open and says give me your f*in wallet...And I thought it was a joke at first because you just don't expect it."

He quickly realized it was not a joke and gave the robber his wallet he then went back inside to call police. Both hope this newly released surveillance video will help to catch him.

If you have seen this man or have any information you are asked to please call Huntsville police.
A Michigan woman is headed back to Alabama to face charges for taking her four children from a Marshall County home.

Marshall County Sheriff's Office deputies picked up Anna Marie Carroll, 37, of Taylor, Mich., Tuesday morning at the Laurel County Jail in Kentucky. They were expected to arrive back in Marshall County Tuesday afternoon.

Taylor faces four counts of interference with custody after authorities said she tried to take her four children, who range in age from 14 to 17, back to Michigan after the Easter holiday.

Taylor and one of the children were found in Kentucky. The other three children were later located in Michigan. Authorities said they rode back to Michigan with Taylor's relatives.

The children have since been brought back to stay with their proper custodians, authorities said.
Both parents of a Dickson County child reported missing last week are now behind bars.



On Monday, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested Krystal Nicole Daniels, 27, and charged her with Aggravated Child Neglect or Danger.

Back on April 4, her 5-year-old son, Joe Clyde Daniels was reported missing by his parents.

TBI officials said in a statement that the action prompted the Dickson County Sheriff's Office to ask TBI to issue an Endangered Child Alert.

The alert prompted law enforcement agencies along with search and rescue organizations along with citizen volunteers to begin a search for Daniels.

Following a three-day search, investigators determined Daniels father, Joseph Daniels, 28, "intentionally killed his son sometime during the night of April 3rd-4th in the familys residence and then hid his sons body."

Joseph Daniels was arrested on April 7 and charged with Criminal Homicide.

According to Nashville ABC-affiliate WKRN, Joe Clyde's body has not been found.

Both of his parents are being held in the Dickson County jail, both with a bond of $1 million.
One person was shot in a northeast Huntsville apartment complex Monday.

The shooting Started in the Westlake Apartments off Sparkman Drive and ending with a police pursuit on Meadow Drive near Union Drive.

Westlake Apartments shooting Westlake Apartments shooting

Huntsville police were called to Westlake apartments on Sparkman Drive around 6P. Investigators told WAAY 31 one person was shot multiple times in the complex parking lot. That victim was then placed inside of a car by a friend, to be taken to the hospital, but when police pursued the vehicle, the person driving fled on foot.

The driver was eventually caught and is now being questioned.

The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and he is expected to be ok.

The shooting is under investigation. Anyone with information on the shooting is urged to contact HPD.
Police are asking for information regarding a robbery in Unity.

Authorities say a man entered the Unity Pharmacy Monday afternoon and handed a note to an employee demanding prescription medication.

He was given an undetermined amount of medication.

Police say the man is about 6 feet tall with an average build and blue eyes. He was wearing black clothing with his face covered by a mask.

Video surveillance shows the suspect arrived driving a red four door car similar to a Chevy Aveo.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Waldo County Sheriff's Office at 1-800-660-3398.
TORONTO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OntarioMD is excited to announce that its Health Report Manager (HRM) service has been selected by PwC Canada as a finalist for the Vision to Reality (V2R) Awards in the Accelerator category. The V2R Awards are PwC Canadas annual program aimed at recognizing and celebrating the most forward-thinking organizations in the nation. Find out more at www.pwc.com/ca/v2r. OntarioMD would also like to congratulate fellow finalists @atbfinancial, @civrestribunal, @InvictusToronto and @ONgov for creating solutions that are impacting society and making Canada a better place.



HRM is a digital health solution that securely delivers patient reports (e.g., discharge summaries) from hospitals and specialty clinics seamlessly into the electronic medical records (EMRs) of nearly 9,000 clinicians. Reports appear in minutes; a vast improvement over the days or weeks it took for mailed or faxed reports to arrive - reports are not lost or misdirected.

Information about a patient's hospital visit now reach their family physician before they do. Receiving reports faster has meant that clinicians in the community have the most up-to-date information they need to be proactive and follow up with patients. Care can be better-coordinated and the management of potential complications and hospital readmissions reduced, especially for patients with complex conditions. These outcomes of using HRM are aligned with Ontarios Patients First Digital Health Strategy which focuses on patient-centred care and improving the patient experience of the health care system.

The productivity gains and operational efficiencies from HRM for clinicians and hospitals have been considerable. HRM reduces the administrative, paper burden on physician practices, and saves them approximately 30 minutes per clinician per day by not having to handle paper reports. It saves money for hospitals by eliminating the need to produce and distribute paper reports. On just measuring efficiency, HRM represents an annual cost avoidance now averaging $15 million across the Ontario health system, said Sarah Hutchison, CEO, OntarioMD. Each month HRM delivers 1.25 million reports to Ontario clinicians, and this number increases every month.

HRM includes eNotifications that inform clinicians when patients are discharged from an emergency department or in-patient unit in real time, and before the discharge summaries arrive. My practice receives eNotifications and it's been a positive experience. I followed up with a patient shortly after he was discharged and he was blown away that I was able to follow-up with him so quickly," said Dr. David Kaplan.

Innovation is happening everywhere - in organizations of all sizes, representing all industries and sectors. Congratulations to this year's finalists who prove just that, said Tahir Ayub, Managing Partner, Markets and Industries, PwC Canada. We are thrilled that PwC Canada's Vision to Reality Awards gives applicants an opportunity for Canada-wide recognition, networking opportunities and exposure to entrepreneurs, CEOs and other industry leaders.

Innovative enhancements to HRM are released regularly based on clinicians needs and input. Any clinician using an OntarioMD-certified EMR can sign up to receive HRM. To get the process started, please contact report.manager@ontariomd.com.

About OntarioMD

OntarioMD is unique in its ability to deliver the full spectrum of high-quality digital health programs and services for physicians across the province. Today, well over 15,000 community-based family physicians, specialists and nurse practitioners use digital health tools across Ontario, supported by OntarioMDs infrastructure, relationships and experience to achieve Patients First priorities.

OntarioMD supports Ontario's physicians with practical advice from Peer Leaders and experienced Practice Advisors who help them optimize their EMR use to enhance patient care and achieve greater practice efficiency.

Certified EMRs are a foundational access point for provincial digital health services and enable access to Health Report Manager (HRM), eNotifications, Provincial eConsult Initiative, OLIS Deployment, EMR Physician Dashboard, Peer Leader Program, EMR Practice Enhancement Program, EMR Adoption Program. For more information about these services, please visit OntarioMD.ca.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/84c734a2-2b18-4a0f-8156-7a5ec7e76bd9
ROSEMONT, Ill., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It can happen fast. One minute the kids are all playing peacefully outside on a warm, spring day. The next minute a piercing scream reveals that one of them has been stung by a bee. To help alleviate the panic, dermatologists from the American Academy of Dermatology say its a good idea to know what to do  and not do  to treat a bee sting.



The first thing to do is to get the stinger out quickly, said board-certified dermatologist Carrie Kovarik, MD, FAAD, an associate professor of dermatology, dermatopathology and infectious diseases at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The longer the stinger stays in the skin, the more venom it releases, adding to the persons pain and swelling.

To treat a sting from a bee, wasp or hornet, Dr. Kovarik recommends the following tips:

Stay calm. Although most bees usually only sting once, wasps and hornets can sting again. If you are stung, calmly walk away from the area to avoid additional attacks. Remove the stinger. If the stinger remains in your skin, remove it by scraping over it with your fingernail or a piece of gauze. Never use tweezers to remove a stinger, as squeezing it can cause more venom to release into your skin. Wash the sting with soap and water. Apply a cold pack to reduce swelling. However, if the swelling moves to other parts of your body, such as your face or neck, go to the emergency room immediately, as you might be having an allergic reaction. Other signs of an allergic reaction include difficulty breathing, nausea, hives or dizziness. People with a known allergy to bee stings should talk to their doctor about having an epinephrine injector available. Consider taking over-the-counter pain medication. Bee, wasp and hornet stings are painful. Painkillers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help relieve the pain. If the sting is itchy, consider taking an over-the-counter antihistamine. Always follow the directions on the label and use the correct dose.

Although most people do not experience severe reactions to bee stings, its a good idea to keep an eye on anyone who has been stung in case they develop more serious symptoms, said Dr. Kovarik. If you notice any signs of an allergic reaction, or if you or someone you know has been stung multiple times  particularly if he or she is a child  seek medical attention immediately.

These tips are demonstrated in How to Treat a Bee Sting, a video posted to the AAD website and YouTube channel. This video is part of the AADs Video of the Month series, which offers tips people can use to properly care for their skin, hair and nails. A new video in the series posts to the AAD website and YouTube channel each month.

Nicole DiVito Amanda Jacobs (847) 240-1746 (847) 240-1714 ndivito@aad.org ajacobs@aad.org

Headquartered in Rosemont, Ill., the American Academy of Dermatology, founded in 1938, is the largest, most influential, and most representative of all dermatologic associations. With a membership of more than 19,000 physicians worldwide, the AAD is committed to: advancing the diagnosis and medical, surgical and cosmetic treatment of the skin, hair and nails; advocating high standards in clinical practice, education, and research in dermatology; and supporting and enhancing patient care for a lifetime of healthier skin, hair and nails. For more information, contact the AAD at (888) 462-DERM (3376) or aad.org. Follow the AAD on Facebook (American Academy of Dermatology), Twitter (@AADskin), or YouTube (AcademyofDermatology).



To view a media-rich version of this release, go to: http://aad.new-media-release.com/2018/bee_stings/
Boulder, Colo., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cryptanite Blockchain Technologies Corp. (CSE: NITE), a Boulder-based blockchain technology company, today announced the private beta launch of its Cryptanite Wallet app. Once publicly released, the Cryptanite Wallet will include three new baskets for cryptocurrency buyers and investorsHODL, HOOD and BASE. Together, they provide a secure, easy-to-use and frictionless process to buy, invest and store a diversified collection of more than 15 top cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar and Dash.



Cryptanites core belief is that buying and investing in cryptocurrency shouldnt take weeks or months, and should be as easy as clicking a button, said John Eagleton, founder and CEO of Cryptanite. Our new cryptocurrency baskets will provide easy access to the same currencies available on major platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase, but without the waiting lines and difficult user experience.

Cryptanite plans to offer three initial cryptocurrency baskets: HODL, HOOD and BASE. The baskets will be available exclusively through a private beta accessible at www.cryptanite.com.

The HODL Basket:

The HODL basket currently includes Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM) and NEO (NEO).

The HOOD Basket:

The HOOD basket represents the top 5 cryptocurrencies listed by Robinhood in their trading application. The HOOD basket currently includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM) and Litecoin (LTC).

BASE Basket:

The BASE basket represents the 4 cryptocurrencies currently available for purchase on Coinbase. When Coinbase adds another cryptocurrency to its platform, the BASE basket will be automatically updated for purchase to reflect the changes. The BASE Fund currently includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).

Cryptanites innovative baskets will transform the current user experience from a painstakingly slow, manual process, to a simple, one-click transaction. New baskets are based on Cryptanites proprietary decentralized wallet technology and quantitative models. Cryptanites machine learning algorithms actively identify top-performing cryptocurrencies according to pricing variability and make corresponding basket combinations available for purchase.

About Cryptanite Blockchain Technologies Corp.

Cryptanite Blockchain Technologies Corp. (CSE: NITE) harnesses blockchain technology to provide secure, real-time peer-to-peer payment systems. Cryptanites growing product line includes web and mobile apps, including credit and debit products for fiat and cryptocurrency markets. Cryptanite is based in Colorados Front Range. For more information, visit www.cryptanite.com .

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively forward-looking statements). The use of any of the word will and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

# # #
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shanghai HEP Pharma Co. LTD, a research and development company focused on developing innovative drugs for hepatitis B, has signed a new agreement with OmniComm Systems, Inc. (OTCQX:OMCM), a leading global provider of clinical data management technology. Under the agreement, Shanghai HEP Pharma will use OmniComms TrialMaster EDC technology for a randomized Phase II/Phase III hepatitis B study.



The agreement represents OmniComms first TrialMaster deal in China. More than two years ago, OmniComm established a goal of developing a presence in the Chinese market, and to-date the companys performance in that sector has met expectations. The expanded footprint in the Asia-Pacific region includes OmniComms first contract for TrialMaster in Japan, along with 13 TrialOne agreements in China.

As a system that is compliant with global industry standards, TrialMaster allows user organizations to ensure the quality and integrity of the data collected and managed during the entire study. TrialMaster also enables users to comply with the Chinese FDAs new regulation and approval process for new drug development in China. TrialMasters ability to facilitate users compliance with CFDAs regulations aimed at harmonizing local practices to global standards was also a key factor.

From our research and development pipeline, we have developed this hepatitis B drug from the concept stage, said Dr. Hongli Liu, CEO of Shanghai HEP Pharma. This hepatitis B drug is a critical product for us, and we wanted to select a high quality and global standard EDC system to ensure our study is well managed. We had excellent experience using OmniComms Phase I system, Promasys, which naturally led to TrialMaster, OmniComms Phase II/III EDC system. We look forward to working with OmniComms team on study build and are confident to hit First Patient In date on time.

We are very excited about our first deployment of TrialMaster in China, and it is with a highly innovative biotechnology company, said Kuno van der Post, Ph.D., chief commercial officer, OmniComm Systems. We are delighted that we were selected in a highly competitive evaluation.



About OmniComm Systems, Inc.

OmniComm provides comprehensive solutions for clinical research with an extensive global experience from more than 6,000 clinical trials. For more information, visit www.omnicomm.com.

Contact Info

Kuno van der Post

OmniComm Systems, Inc.

+1.954.473.1254

KvanderPost@omnicomm.com
Boyle spoke to the Age/Sydney Morning Herald/Four Corners investigation to expose the actions of the ATO. He has had repeated run-ins with management over his handling of cases. In 2016, he was sanctioned for inappropriately accessing files of clients he says he was trying to help. Then in September he was suspended with pay for allegedly remitting interest incorrectly on two cases and storing information on his work computer. Again, Boyle says his motive was to help taxpayers.

The instruction followed an email sent in May to staff towards the end of a shift: the last hour of power is upon us ... that means you still have time to issue another five garnishees ... right?

A garnishee notice is a debt-collecting tool that allows the tax office to order a bank to hand over money from the taxpayers account, without consulting the taxpayer. A standard garnishee notice requires the bank to keep sending money to the tax office whenever money is deposited in the account.

We were instructed quite clearly and categorically to start issuing standard garnishees on every case, he says.

It was June 8, 2017, when Boyle and other staff were called into a meeting and instructed to use more heavy-handed debt collection tactics on taxpayers who owed the tax office money.

People were rushing around, there was a lot of paperwork, I wondered what was going on, he says.

Amid the chaos of the end of the financial year, Richard Boyle strolled into work at the Adelaide branch of the Australian Taxation Office, a key centre for debt collection.

Boyle believes the decision in June to ratchet up debt collection activities was motivated by a revenue grab before the end of the financial year. In 2017 the tax office raised $360 billion in revenue from taxpayers.

He agreed to speak to the media to expose debt collection tactics.

Then at 8am on April 4, his home was raided by the ATO and Australian Federal Police. The warrant enabled them to seize his mobile phone, go through his computer and take a raft of documents. The warrant specifically refers to a reporter on this investigation, Adele Ferguson, and alleges that Boyle had illegally taken either originals or copies of taxpayer information, photos of ATO computer screens or emails. The ATO issued a statement saying it was now an ongoing investigation.

He decided to knock it back to speak to the media.

The ATO tried to settle with him in February, offering him a confidential payout and a statement of service to leave his job.

The motivation appeared to be that we were just collecting revenue before the end of the financial year and it didnt matter if we hurt members of the community, he says.

Ron Shamir: You would be looking at taxpayers who are less able to resist the might of the tax office." Credit:Eddie Jim

You would be looking at taxpayers who are less able to resist the might of the tax office  taxpayers that are more vulnerable, he says. And that often meant individuals and small businesses  rather than larger businesses  who had less legal resources.

Shamir says the pressure would build and result in shortcuts and staff looking for easy targets.

Its an estimate given to government so that it can plan and know how much tax revenue is to be collected, Shamir says. It then cascades down to various tax office branches and becomes a target of what they will be collecting in revenue for that financial year.

He referred to it as the plan, an estimate of how much tax revenue the tax office will be collecting in the forthcoming financial year.

Others, including former senior ATO insider Ron Shamir, told the joint investigation his division in the Box Hill branch in Melbourne had revenue targets that had to be met.

The deputy commissioner for small business, Deborah Jenkins, declined to comment on Boyles allegations but says the tax office uses garnishee orders only as a last resort. I dont know the details about who it was sent to or anything like that, but what I do know is we use those powers very sparingly, she says.

Richard Boyle: I said it could possibly even push people towards suicide." Credit:James Elsby

At the June 8 meeting, Boyle says he made it clear that issuing garnishee orders to everyone could have profound repercussions. I said it could possibly even push people towards suicide that needed our compassion, as opposed to the people that we should rightly be targeting with standard garnishees, he says.

Its a really important part of what we do, we cant set aside the fact that we are a revenue authority but for me its actually really important if we want people to willingly participate in our system ... Thats why our focus is on education, prevention, and support, and  a huge part of my team is actually dedicated to doing that work.

The ATOs Jenkins says she couldnt talk about individual staff but denies the ATO is driven by revenue. We dont have a focus on the revenue collection, she says.

The Age/Sydney Morning Herald/Four Corners investigation spoke to other current and former employees who confirm what Shamir says. One senior tax office insider, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, says the plan continues to exist and trickles down to employees in each business line. He says that, within each business line, key target areas are identified and revenue goals attached.

Shamir was sacked in mid-2015 for non performance. He took his case to the Fair Work Commission, winning initially but losing on appeal. The ATO offered to settle his case but he refused to sign a gag order.

Emails obtained by the joint investigation show that, on June 13, Boyle and other staff were sent a follow-up email with tips on garnishee notices.

These clients are not entitled to any additional time and shouldnt be granted any unless they have unbelievably exceptional circumstances, the email says. This can only be judged case by case but 95 per cent of these clients should be having either a FAWL [Firmer Action Warning Letter]/Garnishee or next recovery action on their account.

In other words, accelerate 95 per cent of these clients to the next level of debt collection.

Boyle gives an insight into the world of debt collection, where staff are closely monitored and supplied with performance tables that itemise debt recovery measures including the number of garnishees each employee issues a week, the amount of debt collected, the number of calls and duration.

He says some staff were relatively new and were issuing standard garnishees on every case, without calling the taxpayers. I was quite concerned and worried about the effect this would have on the community and many people on my floor were also quite worried.

Garnishee n. Third party legally notified to surrender money to a debtor; v. to attach a debt by garnishment

Then, in late August, everything changed. An email arrived saying Adelaide had been issuing more garnishee notices than anywhere else and a significant number were inappropriate. It seemed to be they were covering themselves and trying to explain away the original decision as a mistake, Boyle says.

Ken Phillips, an advocate for small business who runs Self-Employed Australia, believes the ATO targets small business instead of big business because the latter have more money to fight. They [the tax office] set targets, they chase low-hanging fruit, people who are being honest and upright, and they whack them with a huge bill and then chase them, he says.

Helen Petaia, who has been in battle with the ATO since late 2012, says: In lots of ways it is like a false imprisonment because your life is put on hold, your business is put on hold and its up to you to prove your innocence.

Helen Petaia: "They claimed we had been reckless." Credit:Paul Harris

Wrongly accused of fraud

Petaia set up a technology company, Safe Family Cards Australia in 2006, to deliver immediate access to critical medical information.

It was inspired by a medical emergency during the birth of her youngest son, Christian, when the hospital couldnt find vital medical information, a situation that could have ended in a tragedy.

Investors backed the idea and she won contracts with sporting codes including the Queensland Rugby League and AFL Auskick. She also won government research and development grants and tax rebates.

But things started to unravel when the ATO announced it was auditing her businesses, which were based in Brisbane. At the conclusion of the audit meeting in December 2012, she was told the tax office would get back to her and audit her second company.

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Then came the bombshell.

At the beginning of November 2013, after hearing virtually nothing, despite making numerous calls to the tax office to follow up on the audits, Petaia was sent two letters stating that her companies owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the tax office.

They claimed we had been reckless, that we had made false and misleading statements and that, because of that, we had to pay an additional 50 per cent penalties, she says.

The tax bill came as the company was in the final stages of raising capital of up to $3 million to take the technology to the next stage. At that stage, there was no competition for this product on the market.

But it all fell apart and investors pulled out when she told them about the audit, the tax bill and the allegations that she had been dishonest and fraudulent.

I felt my head was on the chopping block and I had to fix the problem.

It was overwhelming. I felt very abandoned at the time because the documents seemed to be very strong that wed done the wrong thing. It was one thing for me to tell people, Well, we havent done it, but everybody said, Well, Helen, you have to prove that.

Company cashflows dried up and she had to start living off a line of credit. She couldnt pay her childrens school fees, couldnt afford textbooks and school uniforms, started defaulting on bills; her car was repossessed and she was in arrears with the mortgage on the family home in Brisbane.

Everything was imploding, she says. I didnt have the option of finding another job because I was trying to keep the business alive and clear my name.

Then, in November 2014, after almost a year of being pummelled, she decided to fight back. She requested everything that had been written about her and her companies.

In an interesting twist, on November 24, the tax office called her out of the blue to apologise.

Assistant commissioner Daryl Richardson followed it up with another call. Petaia says he admitted there had been a breakdown in ATO processes and that he apologised for this and for the impact it had on her and her colleagues.

By that stage, the two businesses were destroyed and a competitor had entered the market and was gaining traction.

The compensation offered was nowhere near the millions of dollars she says she lost. The ATO rarely offers taxpayers high compensation, at least not unless the taxpayer is prepared to fight for it. It initially offered Petaia $20,000 for the errors and for the maladministration of her audit.

Petaia decided to launch her own forensic investigation to see what had gone wrong with her audit.

Case notes obtained under Freedom of Information laws revealed a litany of problems. Crucial information had not been passed on between case officers. The ATO misplaced important documents yet accused her of withholding this information. It didnt audit one of the two companies yet decided the company owed the tax office money.

Well, they did fabricate documents, she says. I dont know how you can write an audit finalisation letter about an audit that never happened?

With Petaias second company, Vital One Technologies, the ATO used the contents of the audit from the first company, Safe Family Cards, to slap a separate debt on it.

She discovered that a case officer had been instructed to cut and paste the first companys document and use that to build a case that the second company owed it money.

In February this year  more than five years after the tax office first flagged she was being audited  she entered mediation.

The offer was significantly higher than the $20,000 it had initially offered but it was still poles apart from the millions she has lost.

Weve lost our investments, weve lost our home, Ive personally lost my business reputation, she says. The only thing I havent lost is my family.

The only redress is suing the ATO in court. I suppose the only way to get fairness is to take it outside the tax office and to have people not involved in the tax office become judge of my destiny, she says.

They were trying to find something to scalp me for: businessman Peter Fortunatow

Attacked as a tax evader

Peter Fortunatow has also suffered at the hands of the ATO. In 2015 the tax office accused him of fraud and tax evasion on GST credits relating to investment properties.

The ATO first audited his family trust in 2008 in relation to those investment properties and gave him a clean bill of health.

Fast-forward seven years to November 3, 2015 and it changed its mind, accusing him of fraud and tax evasion.

Unlike other institutions, the ATO only has to form an opinion of fraud or evasion and the taxpayer is guilty and has to pay now  then try and prove their innocence.

Stunned by the accusations, Fortunatow lodged a Freedom of Information request to review his file.

The file included case notes of a conversation he was supposed to have had with an ATO auditor on December 12, 2008 about an important technical ruling which could impact his eligibility for GST credits. It says, I made him (Peter) aware of ATO ID 2008/114. He said he would check this ID.

Fortunatow says he never had that conversation. He alleges those words were falsely inserted, possibly during the 2015 audit. He says if the conversation had taken place, why hadnt the tax office followed it up? He also points out that the technical ruling it was referring to in the December 12 conversation was withdrawn on December 17.

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Using his IT expertise, he investigated how the phone-call log of the alleged conversation had been made. Through subsequent Freedom of Information searches he found that his file was stored on a shared drive that enabled staff to go in and modify it anonymously and without accountability.

The ATO conceded the case notes werent in their original format but denied the content had been changed.

At the end of the day, its a Word document, and anyone can go into it and modify it, Fortunatow says.

On September 5, 2016 he lodged a complaint with the Inspector-General of Taxation, alleging his file had been manipulated. Weeks later, on October 7, the ATO dropped the fraud and evasion charge and wiped his debt without explanation.

Fortunatow says the ATO is an organisation made up of career climbers who get promoted by the number of scalps they collect. And theyll do it whichever way they can.

Peter Fortunatow: "They've got way too much power." Credit:James Elsby

Where to now?

He has won one fight, but the war isnt over.

The other battle relates to my IT consulting business, he says. As part of that, I provide services and what theyre saying is were going to treat you like an individual and we want to tax you like an individual. Theyve backdated the taxes and theyve applied a 50 per cent penalty and the interest is accumulating so it's interest on interest.

Small business advocate Ken Phillips says there are more than 780,000 people in Australia in the gun on this.

As a self-employed person, you should be and are entitled to be treated under tax law as a business, which means youve got eligibility for certain business deductions; if youre in a partnership you can share the income with your partner, perfectly legitimate, perfectly legal, what people do every day of the week, Phillips says.

But as the ATOs Jenkins confirms, personal services income is a risk area for the ATO. One of many risk areas we look at.

For Peter Fortunatow, the war with the tax office has taken its toll. Its been a journey of being depressed, being desperate, not being able to speak to people about it, not knowing who to go to, and not knowing whats going to happen, he says.

Like Helen Petaia and others, Fortunatow is not about to give up. This is bigger than me, he says. Theres a saying: power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Theyve got way too much power ... and it needs to be called out.

Know more? Email the authors on adele.ferguson@fairfaxmedia.com.au or nassimkhadem@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Santos's Chinese shareholder is understood to be in talks with suitor Harbour Energy to retain a major stake in the Australian oil and gas producer if Harbour's $13.5 billion bid succeeds.

ENN, which holds 10.1 per cent of Santos, made it clear on Monday night it was not interested in a cash offer for its shares. However, it is understood the group is open to a deal with Harbour that would allow it to retain exposure to Santos' assets.

Earlier this month, Harbour Energy made a $13.5 billion bid for Santos, putting forward an all-cash offer of $6.50 a share, the third proposal it has made.

ENN has no desire to sell out of Santos but could consider being part of a new company if Harbour Energy's bid is successful. Credit:Brendan Esposito

The newest bid represented a 40 per cent premium on Harbour Energys first bid in August last year.
The current heated debate over immigration has largely ignored the marginalisation of migrant workers in low-skill jobs and the failure of our workplace regulations to protect them from mistreatment and wage theft by disreputable employers.

Wage theft as reported in the media was virtually a non-issue prior to the 7-Eleven scandal in 2015. However, incidences of underpayment in Australias major newspapers have increased ten-fold over the past five years, the latest involving Sydney institution, Bar Coluzzi. Our new analysis shows that this trend has been fuelled by increasing temporary migration, where visa rules constrain workers rights and protections, and dismantling of Australias effective employment regulation system.

7 Eleven Credit:Glenn Hunt

This is a major concern. Growing income inequality fuelled by perceptions that immigration policy is contributing to it are central to the rise of populist demagoguery in the US and Europe. Australia is now at risk of the same.

Until relatively recently Australia maintained an exemplary legacy which, in contrast to many other countries, largely ensured that migrant workers entering through permanent visas received the same conditions and protections as citizens.
Washington: Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has told the United States Congress that the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members' data being misused and offered a broad apology to legislators.

His conciliatory tone precedes two days of Congressional hearings where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the US 2016 election.

"We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he said in remarks released by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday.

"It was my mistake, and Im sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and Im responsible for what happens here."
Vatican City: Pope Francis has put Satan in his place, citing the devil repeatedly in a new document following a Vatican rebuke last month of a journalist who quoted him as saying hell does not exist.

In the document known as an Apostolic Exhortation called Gaudete et Exsultate, (Rejoice and Be Glad), the pope also bewails the amount of defamation and slander spread online by some Roman Catholic bloggers and Twitter users.

Pope Francis has given Satan his due. Credit:AP

Satan gets more than a dozen mentions in the document as Francis talks about how life can be "a constant struggle against the devil, the prince of evil".

"Hence, we should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable."
English French

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER AND NANOBIOTIX HAVE AN AGREEMENT TO RUN IMMUNOTHERAPEUTIC PRE-CLINICAL RESEARCH IN LUNG CANCER COMBINING NBTXR3 AND NIVOLUMAB

Paris, France and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, April 10, 2018 - NANOBIOTIX (Euronext: NANO - ISIN: FR0011341205), a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, today announced that it will cooperate with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX, to work on NBTXR3, Nanobiotix's lead product. NBTXR3 is a first-in-class product designed to destroy, when activated by radiotherapy, tumors and metastasis through physical cell death and to induce immunogenic cell death leading to specific activation of the immune system.

This project with MD Anderson, one of the world's leading oncological research centers, will provide an unparalleled ability to develop pre-clinical data using NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy plus anti-PD1 Nivolumab (murine version of Opdivo(TM)).

Dr. Elsa Borghi, CMO, said: "The main objective of this collaboration is to analyze the micro environment of the tumors treated with NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy, in order to increase and optimize the immune response."

Dr. James Welsh, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, will be the Principal Investigator and lead the research program. The project between MD Anderson and Nanobiotix will take place over the course of two years and will evaluate the use of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy plus anti-PD1 Nivolumab (murine version of Opdivo(TM)), provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in lung cancer models (in vitro and in vivo). Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 1.69 million deaths annually (WHO 2015).

The joint program will focus on 3 aims, leading to the maximization of NBTXR3 potential benefits in triggering an immune response:

Evaluate the abscopal response through the combination of NBTXR3 plus an anti-PD1 antibody and radiation therapy in specific and resistent murine lung cancer models, in order to measure NBTXR3's potential to control metastatic disease.

Evaluate if NBTXR3 can further improve T cell activation for standard radiotherapy fractions compared to SBRT, notably by determining the STING activation in vitro in cancer cells with and without NBTXR3.

Continue the characterization of the different mechanisms and types of cell death induced by NBTXR3 activated by radiation.

The joint program will also further explore the potential future use of NBTXR3 in immuno-oncology with checkpoint inhibitors, as well as its potential to control metastatic disease.

As announced in December 26, 2017, the Company has received from the Food and Drug Administration the approval of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application and should launch its first clinical trial combining NBTXR3 with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the U.S. in Q2 2018. This will be a multi-arm trial targeting a sub-population of advanced lung cancer patients and head and neck cancer patients.

NBTXR3 positioning in IO

Many IO combination strategies focus on 'priming' the tumor, which is now becoming a prerequisite of turning a "cold" tumor into a "hot" tumor.

Compared to other modalities that could be used for priming the tumor, NBTXR3 could have a number of advantages: the physical and universal mode of action that could be used widely across oncology, a one-time local injection and good fit within existing medical practice already used as a basis for cancer treatment, as well as a very good chronic safety profile and well-established manufacturing process.

Published preclinical and clinical data indicate that NBTXR3 could play a key role in oncology and could become a backbone in immuno-oncology.

Nanobiotix's immuno-oncology combination program opens the door to new developments, potential new indications, and important value creation opportunities.

***



About NBTXR3

NBTXR3 is a first-in-class product designed to destroy, when activated by radiotherapy, tumors and metastasis through physical cell death and to immunogenic cell death leading to specific activation of the immune system.

NBTXR3 has a high degree of biocompatibility, requires one single administration before the whole radiotherapy treatment and has the ability to fit into current worldwide standards of radiation care.

NBTXR3 is being evaluated in head and neck cancer (locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx), and the trial targets frail and elderly patients who have advanced cancer with very limited therapeutic options. The Phase I/II trial has already delivered very promising results regarding the local control of the tumors and a potential metastatic control through in situ vaccination.

Nanobiotix is running an Immuno-Oncology program with NBTXR3 that includes several studies. In the U.S., the Company received the FDA's approval to launch a clinical study of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy in combination with anti-PD1 antibodies in lung, and head and neck cancer patients (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer). This trial aims to expand the potential of NBTXR3, including using it to treat recurrent or metastatic disease.

The first market authorization process (CE Marking) is ongoing in Europe in the soft tissue sarcoma indication.

The other ongoing studies are treating patients with liver cancers (hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastasis), locally advanced or unresectable rectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy, head and neck cancer in combination with concurrent chemotherapy, and prostate adenocarcinoma.

About NANOBIOTIX: www.nanobiotix.com

Incorporated in 2003, Nanobiotix is a leading, late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approches to significantly change patient outcomes by bringing nanophysics to the heart of the cell.

The Nanobiotix philosophy is one rooted in designing pioneer physical based approaches to bring highly effective and generalized solutions to address high unmet medical needs and challenges.

The Company's first-in-class, proprietary lead technology, NanoXray, aims to expand radiotherapy benefits for millions of cancer patients. Furthermore, the Company's Immuno-Oncology program has the potential to bring a new dimension to cancer immunotherapies.

Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (Euronext: NANO / ISIN: FR0011341205; Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Company's Headquarters are based in Paris, France, with a U.S. affiliate in Cambridge, MA, and european affiliates in Spain and Germany.

Contact

Nanobiotix



Sarah Gaubert

Director, Communications & Public Affairs

+33 (0)1 40 26 07 55

sarah.gaubert@nanobiotix.com /

contact@nanobiotix.com







Noel Kurdi

Director, Investor Relations

+1 (646) 241-4400

noel.kurdi@nanobiotix.com / investors@nanobiotix.com Media relations



France - Springbok Consultants

Marina Rosoff

+33 (0)6 71 58 00 34

marina@springbok.fr



United States - RooneyPartners

Marion Janic

+1 (212) 223-4017

mjanic@rooneyco.com

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Nanobiotix and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Nanobiotix considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the estimates contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which estimates are subject to numerous risks including the risks set forth in the reference document of Nanobiotix filed with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) under number D.17-0470 on April 28, 2017 as well as in its 2017 annual financial report filed with the French Financial Markets Authority on March 29, 2018 (a copy of which is available on www.nanobiotix.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Nanobiotix operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Nanobiotix or not currently considered material by Nanobiotix. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Nanobiotix to be materially different from such forward-looking statements.

This press release and the information that it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe for, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for, Nanobiotix shares in any country. At the moment NBTXR3 does not bear a CE mark and is not permitted to be placed on the market or put into service until NBTXR3 has obtained a CE mark.
On Sunday, the US president who had sought warmer relations with Russia criticised Putin by name on Twitter as he castigated Russia and Iran for backing "Animal Assad." The US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Washington would respond to the attack regardless of whether the UN Security Council acted or not. The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in the attack. International bodies led by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were trying to establish exactly what happened in Douma, a rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta district. 'Shocked the conscience'

A rescue worker carries a child following an alleged chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, on Saturday night. Credit:Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP Britain and the United States agreed on Monday that the attack bore the hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by Assad's government but neither country gave details of what kind of chemical might have been used or how the attack was staged. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch said the attack was a war crime. "The use of chemical weapons is inherently a war crime. Add on top of that the people here who seem to have been targeted - which is typical for the Assad government - have been civilians," Roth said in an interview with Reuters in his Geneva office. "This use of chemical weapons against civilians sheltering in their basements is part of a broad pattern, not simply a pattern of chemical weapons use but a pattern of targeting civilians who happen to live in areas held by the opposition."

These constituted grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by a future special court on Syria, said Roth, an American lawyer who has headed the group since 1993. "The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilised world," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. "Sadly, these actions are consistent with Assad's established pattern of chemical weapons use." Loading The United States fired missiles on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town. The missile strikes did little long-term damage to Syrian government forces and Assad's position has only become stronger with Iranian and Russian support. The stakes are higher for any new US military action, with Trump explicitly mentioning Iran and Russia in connection with the weekend attack.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday accused Russia of falling short of its obligations to ensure that Syria abandoned its chemical weapons capabilities. Russia and Syria both offered, during the UN Security Council meeting on Monday, to take OPCW investigators to Douma. The OPCW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But weapons inspectors are not expected to go to Syria after being attacked twice while tying to get to the sites of chemical weapons attacks since 2013. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Credit:AP Instead, they have in recent investigations gathered blood samples from victims and interviewed witnesses outside of Syria.

"As we've said, Russia has time and again shown that it is unable or unwilling to stop these kind of attacks. I put little credibility in these type of statements or offers from Russia at this point," a US official said. Retaliatory air strikes The Syria conflict was further complicated on Monday when yet unidentified war planes struck a Syrian air base near Homs, killing at least 14 people, including Iranian personnel. Syria and Russia accused Israel of carrying out the attack. Syrian state media initially blamed the United States for the air strikes. Loading Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour's seven-year-old civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence by its arch foe in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development. The incidents in Douma and Tiyas demonstrated the complex and volatile nature of the Syrian war, which involves a number of countries and a myriad of insurgent groups. Assad now has the upper hand in the conflict. The US State Department said on Monday that the Douma victims' symptoms were consistent with those caused by a nerve agent but they could not confirm what had been used. It urged Russia and the Syrian government to allow international monitors access to the affected areas.

The Russian military said on Monday its medics had examined patients in a hospital in Douma and had found no traces of a chemical attack, Interfax news agency reported. Syrian government forces had launched an air and ground assault on Douma, the last town held by rebels in eastern Ghouta, on Friday. The Union of Medical Care Organisations (UOSSM) said at least 60 people had been killed by the alleged chemical attack, up from an estimated 40. "The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge," it said. One video shared by activists showed bodies of about a dozen children, women and men, some with foam at the mouth. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
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VICTORIA, British Columbia , April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canada Foundation for Innovation



The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, will be at the University of Victoria to announce funding for research equipment at universities and research hospitals across Canada.

The Minister will be joined by the Canada Foundation for Innovations President and CEO, Roseann OReilly Runte.

Following the announcement, media will have access to Minister Duncan as she joins scientists and students who will showcase their ground-breaking projects and research.

Media are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes early.

Date: April 11, 2018 Time: 9:30 A.M. (PDT) Lab tour: 10:25 A.M. (PDT) Location: University of Victoria, Bob Wright Centre  Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 3rd Floor foyer (announcement) 2nd Floor Laboratory (tour) Victoria, BC

For more information:
Schibsted ASA's annual report for 2017 is attached to this release.

Shareholders who request a printed version of the annual report and other general meeting documents may order this by e-mail or by calling the Schibsted Media Group head office.

Please note that Schibsted publishes the annual report in English only. Schibsted is granted an exemption by the Directorate of Taxes from requirements in Section 3-4 of the Accounting Act regarding use of the Norwegian language when preparing the annual report and the annual financial statements.

Contact persons:

Nathalie Kavin, Director of Communications, mobile: +47 934 01 363

Jo Christian Steigedal, VP Head of Investor Relations, mobile: +47 415 08 733

Oslo, 10 April 2018

SCHIBSTED ASA

Jo Christian Steigedal

VP Head of Investor Relations
WCO organized a regional workshop on Digital Customs and E-Commerce for East and Southern Africa (ESA), with the support of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and China Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/China) from 26 to 29 March 2018 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

23 Customs officers of senior and middle management level from 13 countries in the region, representatives from African Union (AU) and the private sector attended the workshop. The workshop was opened by, Mr. Adrian P. Swarres, Acting Commissioner of ZIMRA.

In his opening speech, Mr. Swarres emphasized that the topic of Digital Customs and E-Commerce had become imperative and not optional; Customs administration needed to adopt and complement economic partners through a greater uptake of information and communication technologies (ICT) and E-Commerce solutions in the receiving, processing, and transmission of information and documents. He noted that the workshop would enable participants to conceptualize how the region could respond to the changing needs and expectations of traders and other stakeholders by using ICT as a powerful tool in Customs modernization and reforms.

The WCO experts presented wide-range of topics relating to Digital Customs and E-Commerce, as well as related WCO instruments and tools, new and emerging technologies and necessary legal and regulatory frameworks to support Customs digitalization and cross-border E-Commerce management. Participants shared their respective national experiences including new initiatives in these domains. There were comprehensive, interactive and intensive discussions during the workshop that included group exercises.

The representatives from AU expressed their enthusiastic to coordinate with Customs administrations of the region and shared their work on Interconnectivity of the computerized Customs clearance systems and Tracking E-Commerce data and regulatory challenges for developing countries. The WCO experts and AU representatives further discussed on the future joint efforts by elaborating specific activities on E-Commerce under the framework of the MOU signed between the two organizations.
SAN MATEO, Calif., April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday, April 26, 2018 at approximately 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, Franklin Resources, Inc. (the Company) [NYSE:BEN] will release its second fiscal quarter 2018 operating results. A written commentary on the results by Chairman and CEO Greg Johnson and CFO and Executive Vice President Ken Lewis will be available at approximately 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The written commentary will be available via investors.franklinresources.com.



Johnson and Lewis will also lead a live teleconference at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time to answer questions of a material nature. Access to the teleconference will be available via investors.franklinresources.com or by dialing (877) 407-8293 in the U.S. and Canada or (201) 689-8349 internationally. A replay of the teleconference can also be accessed by calling (877) 660-6853 in the U.S. and Canada or (201) 612-7415 internationally using access code 13678488, after 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 26, 2018 through May 26, 2018. Analysts and investors are encouraged to review the Companys recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and to contact Investor Relations at (650) 312-4091 before the live teleconference for any clarifications or questions related to the earnings release or written commentary.



Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 170 countries. Through specialized teams, the Company has expertise across all asset classesincluding equity, fixed income, alternative and custom solutions. The Companys more than 650 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With offices in more than 30 countries, the Californiabased company has more than 70 years of investment experience and over $737 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2018. For more information, please visit investors.franklinresources.com.

Franklin Resources, Inc.

Investor Relations: Brian Sevilla (650) 312-4091

Media Relations: Matt Walsh (650) 312-2245

investors.franklinresources.com
Boston, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gordon Brothers, the global advisory, restructuring and investment firm, announced today that it has expanded its presence in Australia with the opening of a Melbourne office. The firm entered the Australian market in the spring of 2017 in Sydney.

Gordon Brothers Melbourne office will be led by Fenton Healy. Healy brings over 20 years of experience in asset valuation, advisory and asset sales programmes.

Were excited to have boots on the ground in Melbourne. The timing of our entry and expansion is perfect as the need for more options for Australian businesses in transition increases, stated Tim Stewart, Head of Australia. Gordon Brothers balance sheet and experience navigating change will be incredibly valuable to companies seeking liquidity solutions through non-bank financing and asset sales.

This is an important next step in building our business in Australia, particularly in the retail capital of Melbourne, said Healy. It offers us the opportunity to build on Gordon Brothers historic success in retail as the industry undergoes significant structural changes. Combined with our commercial and industrial expertise, strong appetite to deploy our own capital to deliver asset-based solutions, and asset advisory services, we believe we can assist corporates, financiers and their advisors as they implement transformation and turnaround programmes.

Prior to joining Gordon Brothers in the fall, Healy held numerous sales, senior management, directorial and leadership roles at GraysOnline, where he was one of the original major shareholders. He has worked on some of the regions largest disposition projects, including for Toyota, Procter & Gamble, Alcatel, Sunbeam Victa, Kirby Engineering, Huntsman Chemicals, Solectron, Email Metering, Colgate Palmolive, and Mitsubishi.

Fenton brings a tremendous amount of expertise in crafting capital solutions for clients. The additional coverage we gain through his focus on Melbourne will provide an enhanced level of support to clients in this market, Stewart commented.

Gordon Brothers is based in Boston and maintains offices in Sao Paolo, Tokyo, London, New York, and Los Angeles, among others.

About Gordon Brothers

Since 1903, Gordon Brothers (www.gordonbrothers.com) has helped lenders, operating executives, advisors, and investors move forward through change. The firm brings a powerful combination of expertise and capital to clients, developing customized solutions on an integrated or standalone basis across four service areas: valuations, dispositions, operations, and investments. Whether to fuel growth or facilitate strategic consolidation, Gordon Brothers partners with companies in the retail, commercial, and industrial sectors to put assets to their highest and best use. Gordon Brothers conducts more than $70 billion worth of dispositions and appraisals annually. Gordon Brothers is headquartered in Boston, with 25 offices across five continents.
Regina, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today's Saskatchewan budget forecasts a $365 million deficit in 2018-19 and a return to a balanced budget with a forecast $6 million surplus in 2019-20. Restaurants Canada is pleased that there are no new tax increases, and that this budget includes a 1.4 per cent decrease in expenditures to help balance the books by 2020.

However, the Saskatchewan government has not done enough to offset the pain of last year's anti-foodservice budget. From liquor mark-up increases and a 1 per cent increase in the PST rate to 6 per cent, to the critical 6 per cent tax instituted on restaurant meals, the combined impact of the 2017 provincial budget had a devastating impact on Saskatchewan's foodservice industry. As a result of these tax increases, Saskatchewan restaurant sales were down by a staggering 4.5 per cent, resulting in the loss of 1,700 industry jobs.



In order for Saskatchewans foodservice industry to thrive once more, those taxes must be reduced or eliminated altogether.

"Restaurants Canada is disappointed that today's budget provides no relief for the province's struggling restaurant industry, which is one of Saskatchewan's largest private sector job creators," said Mark von Schellwitz, Vice President, Western Canada. "A 4.5 per cent drop in sales in just one year compared to average sales growth of 4.1 per cent in the rest of Canada demonstrates how damaging last year's budget measures were to Saskatchewan's foodservice industry.

Restaurants Canada continues to work with the Saskatchewan government to find ways to help the provinces restaurant industry return to positive sales and employment growth.

Restaurants Canada is one of Canadas largest business associations, with more than 30,000 members representing restaurants, bars, caterers, institutions and other foodservice providers. Saskatchewans $2.3 billion restaurant industry is Saskatchewans fourth largest employer employing more than 36,425 people in communities across the province.
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Garrison: Promotion of Deputy Jailers a Good Thing

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By Greg Garrison

Apr. 10, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY

By Greg Garrison Apr. 10, 2018 | 10:34 AM | PADUCAH, KY

Over the last few months the citizens of McCracken County have been expressing their concerns in reference to the operational state of the county jail. It has become a hot topic throughout the county and they are concerned about the future and stability of the jail.



It is time to move forward and focus on the jail's financial troubles, including shoring up operational concerns that have plagued our local jail.



I am pleased that the Fiscal Court and current appointed jailer have taken these first steps toward professional leaders such as Captain Stephen Carter and Lieutenant Tray English.



I had the opportunity and honor as Chief Deputy Jailer to watch both of these men establish themselves as honorable professionals who have a passion to serve this county. I never had a doubt about initiative, dependability or integrity while we worked side by side on many issues.



They performed reliably and responsibly and can be trusted to be consistent in their duties. Carter and English take initiative to find ways to make improvements. Being motivated and enthusiastic like these two men will be the starting point to recovery.



Congratulations Captain Carter and Lieutenant English for being honorable and stepping up to the plate once again to serve your community. I look forward to serving with you again soon.



Former Chief Deputy Jailer Greg Garrison announced his candidacy in January for McCracken County Jailer in the 2018 election.



Garrison, a Republican, served as Chief Deputy Jailer for 10 years under former Jailer Bill Adams, who retired early in 2017. During that time, he managed day-to-day operations of the facility.
Standoff Ends, Man Charged with Attempted Murder

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 09, 2018 | LIVINGSTON COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2018 | 12:26 PM | LIVINGSTON COUNTY, KY

Multiple law enforcement agencies were on the scene Monday of an apparent standoff situation at a home near Smithland.



Livingston County Emergency Management Director Brent Stringer tells West Kentucky Star, the Livingston County Sheriff's Department, along with deputies from McCracken County, and Kentucky State Police Troopers negotiated successfully with a man who had barricaded himself inside a home on Holland Road with a large caliber revolver and a high-powered rifle. According to Stringer, the man surrendered at 2:30 pm and was taken into custody, and no one was injured.



The man involved in the standoff has been identified as 46-year-old Charlie Hopkins of Smithland. In a situation leading up to the standoff, Paducah police were called shortly after 9:30 Monday morning to a home on North Friendship Road. Allison Schnuck reportedly told officers that she had been in a relationship with Hopkins, but had fled Sunday to a friends home. She said Hopkins had learned where she was, and had come to the home, cursing and beating on the door.



While Schnuck was on the phone with dispatchers, Hopkins fired two shots at the door in an alleged attempt to get inside. She and a 13-year-old, who lives in the home, hid until officers arrived. Hopkins was gone when officers arrived on the scene, and Schnuck told them he probably was returning to his home on Holland Drive in Smithland.



The Livingston County Sheriff's Department says they responded to a shots fired incident in Ledbetter, and learned that Hopkins has fled that scene. They learned a few minutes later about the incident in Paducah, and went to Hopkins' home, where the standoff occurred.



Hopkins was arrested by Livingston County Sheriff's deputies on a Paducah Police Department warrant charging him with attempted murder. Charges are pending in Livingston County.
Three arrested on meth charges in Paducah
Details Released in Hopkinsville Officer's Death

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 09, 2018 | HOPKINSVILLE, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2018 | 06:26 PM | HOPKINSVILLE, KY

More details have been released about what led to the fatal shooting of Hopkinsville Police Officer Phillip Meacham on March 29.



In a press release, Kentucky State Police Post 2 says Meacham was off-duty and driving his personal vehicle when he saw another vehicle behind him on Faulkner Drive in Hopkinsville. That vehicle had flashing blue lights, which are illegal on a civilian vehicle.



Meacham was able to get behind the vehicle, driven by 35-year-old James K. Decoursey of Hopkinsville, after it turned onto another street, and Meacham called a police supervisor at 4:59 pm to request a uniformed officer to help investigate.



At 5:11 pm, the officer met Meacham and they approached Decoursey, who appeared to be working on his vehicle in a driveway. After they spoke to him, Decoursey reportedly shot Meacham and fled the scene. Meacham was later pronounced dead at Jennie Stuart Medical Center.



Decoursey was shot and killed after a brief encounter with law enforcement in Clarksville, Tennessee the next day.



Meacham was 38 years old, and is survived by his wife and two school-aged children.
Trump Lets Loose After Attorney's Offices Raided

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By The Associated Press

Apr. 10, 2018 | WASHINGTON, DC

By The Associated Press Apr. 10, 2018 | 06:50 AM | WASHINGTON, DC

President Donald Trump has lashed out against special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation, branding it an attack on our country and exhibiting mounting concern about the yearlong probe after federal authorities raided the offices of his personal attorney.



Caught off guard and furious with the encroaching inquiry, the president showed a flare of temper watching cable news coverage of the raid Monday afternoon, summoning lawyers Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow to get their opinion of what was happening.



Aides and outside allies described Trump as shaken and increasingly frustrated by the development, and they said his reaction had sparked discussion about whether the raid would usher an unpredictable new phase in how the president responds to the probe.



Trump vented from the Oval Office that Muellers investigators were going too far and conducting their witch hunt to undermine his presidency, according to three people familiar with the presidents views but not allowed to discuss them publicly.



Minutes later he publicly unleashed his sharpest invective to date against the sweeping investigation, calling the Monday search a disgrace.



Its an attack on our country in a true sense, he said in the Cabinet Room, flanked by the nations top military brass, who watched the scene stone-faced. Its an attack on what we all stand for.



President Donald Trump also called special counsel Robert Muellers investigation an attack on our country. (April 9)



Trump let loose after federal agents pierced the protective bubble around him, seizing records from the offices of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen, on topics including a $130,000 payment made to a porn actress who says she had sex with Trump more than a decade ago.



Cohen has been an ardent defender in Trumps business, personal and political affairs for more than a decade  Cohen claims to have used a personal home equity loan to pay the adult film actress, known as Stormy Daniels  and the probes expansion into the presidents inner circle left Trump fuming.



The president didnt bat away the idea of firing Mueller, saying people have advised him to take that action: Why dont I just fire Mueller? Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on  well see what happens.



He said the raid in New York marked a whole new level of unfairness by Mueller and his team.



Trump called the probe a witch hunt, as he has many times in the past, complaining that it distracts from serious issues such as consideration of a military response to the apparent use of a chemical weapon on Syrian civilians over the weekend. That was one of the intended subjects of his Monday evening meeting with the defense secretary, the joint chiefs of staff and U.S. combat commanders.



Instead, with reporters in the Cabinet Room and cameras rolling, Trump opened the meeting with an unprompted four-minute critique of Muellers investigation. I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, Trump began, referring to agents who had obtained search warrants from a federal judge.



The raid on Cohens office was conducted by the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan and was based at least partly on a referral from Mueller, according to Cohens lawyer, Stephen Ryan.



Trump blasted the Mueller team as the most conflicted group of people Ive ever seen, labeling most of them Democrats and saying the few Republicans had worked for President Barack Obama.



Theyre not looking at the other side, he complained, referencing the long investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. Theyre not looking at the Hillary Clinton horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that she committed.



Mueller, a lifelong Republican, and his team of attorneys have been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and associated misdeeds in the presidents orbit since May 2017.



Mueller reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel last year after the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey.



Trump lit into Sessions, repeating in public his private criticism of the attorney general for making a terrible mistake in recusing himself from the Russia probe. Trump said Sessions should have certainly let us know he would step aside in the probe and we would have put a different attorney general in.



Word of the Cohen raid came as the White House suffers from decreased morale amid a period of staff turnover and policy unpredictability. It also comes as aides are girding for the release of Comeys memoir next week, which promises to reveal new details about the former FBI directors conversations with the president and the Russia probe.



The harsh tone of Trumps comments immediately drew warnings from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have sought to preserve Muellers independence.



South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he didnt know the purpose of Muellers raid on Cohen, but added, I just want to let Mr. Mueller do his job without any political interference.



Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York released a statement warning Trump against firing Mueller. The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy and must be allowed to continue, he said.



Under Justice Department regulations, Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, but could order Rosenstein or his successor to remove the special counsel. The regulations only allow Muellers removal for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or for other good cause including violation of Justice Department policies.
By The Associated Press Apr. 10, 2018 | 03:25 PM | LOUISVILLE, KY

Kentucky teachers who rallied last week at the state Capitol to support education funding plan to be there again Friday when state lawmakers reconvene to consider overriding the Republican governor's veto of budget and revenue measures.

The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents has encouraged local school leaders statewide to send delegations to the rally in Frankfort, said Tom Shelton, the group's executive director. Shelton acknowledged Tuesday that "closing school may be necessary if they have too many staff absent, but that is a local decision."

In Trimble County, the school district said on its Facebook page that classes would be canceled Friday in the northern Kentucky district to allow teachers and staff to join the rally.

In Lexington, Fayette County schools Superintendent Manny Caulk signaled he would lead the contingent of teachers and staff from the state's second-largest school district.

"We're going to Frankfort on Friday to make our voices heard and to insist the fight for justice, the fight to equity still continues," he said. "That's a fight not only about our educators. It's about our children and families."

Caulk didn't say whether he would cancel school Friday.

Patricia Lea Collins, the Head Start and preschool director for the Pike County school system in eastern Kentucky, said teachers were "furious" after Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin announced Monday he would veto a $480 million tax increase and a two-year operating budget.

"It was kind of contentious ... after the governor's press conference," she said. "People here in Pike County wanted to walk out today."

Collins predicted the district would send a large group of teachers and staff to the Capitol on Friday.

Thousands of Kentucky teachers and other school workers swarmed the Capitol at last week's rally, forcing superintendents in districts not on spring break to cancel school. Some school administrators have accompanied their teachers and staff to rallies in a show of solidarity.

The statewide teachers union had called on Bevin to spare the budget and revenue bills, which include no pay raises for teachers but substantially increase education funding.

The budget vetoed by Bevin included record-high classroom spending, restored funding for school transportation and family resource centers and ensured that teachers who retired after 2010 but don't yet qualify for Medicare would have health insurance.

The revenue plan would impose a 6 percent sales tax on a variety of services like auto and home repairs while cutting the income tax rate for some individuals and businesses.

Bevin's administration has questioned the revenue projections, saying the new taxes would not pay for the spending that lawmakers approved, but would lead to at least a $50 million shortfall over the next two years. Bevin said the budget and the new taxes were not responsible or wise.

The Kentucky Education Association denounced Bevin's vetoes as another example of "his blatant disrespect for Kentucky's public employees." The Jefferson County Teachers Association, which represents Louisville educators, urged its members to take a personal day on Friday to come to the Capitol and urge lawmakers to override the vetoes.

Lawmakers could override Bevin's vetoes later this week. The Republican-led legislature is scheduled to convene Friday and Saturday before adjourning for the year.

Teachers and other public employees also are waiting to see what Bevin does with pension legislation. The overhaul measure preserves benefits for most workers but cuts them for new teachers. Kentucky's pension system is among the worst funded in the country. Opponents worry that the changes will discourage young people from becoming teachers.

The unrest in Kentucky comes as teachers elsewhere are mobilizing to protest low funding and teacher pay along with changes to struggling pension systems.

In Oklahoma, classes remained canceled in the state's biggest school districts Tuesday as teachers walked out for a seventh day. Leaders of Oklahoma's largest teacher's union have demanded a repeal of a capital gains tax exemption. They also want the governor to veto a repeal of a proposed lodging tax as they push for more education funding in massive demonstrations at the state Capitol. The demonstrations were inspired by West Virginia, where teachers walked out for nine days earlier this year and won a 5 percent pay increase.

Collins was unsure whether Kentucky teachers would win more concessions with their rally Friday. The bigger goal, she said, is to influence legislative elections this November and in 2019, when the governor's race will top statewide elections.

"We're going to keep working," she said. "We may lose this battle, but we'll win the war in November of '18 and November of '19."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Uniserve Communications Corporation (the Company) (TSX.V:USS) is pleased to announce that Mr. Louis-Vincent Gave has agreed to join its Board of Directors as an independent Director of the Company.

Mr. Gave is the founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of GaveKal Capital Limited and Gavekal Research Limited. Mr. Gave oversees the firms money management business. Mr. Gave, now a resident in Canada, brings a wealth of experience from the Asia-Pacific market, which Uniserve now has begun targeting. Mr. Gaves company Gavekal Research, focuses in particular on artificial intelligence and financial modelling, which Uniserve will soon embrace.

Mr. Gave has also written five books, including his latest, Too Different for Comfort, published in October, 2013. He also speaks English and French and received his bachelors degree from Duke University. He studied Mandarin at Nanjing University and served as a second Lieutenant in the French Mountain Infantry Division.

About Uniserve

Uniserve is a unified communications company which has been in existence for over 28 years, combining voice, data and media all into one seamless solution, one bill and one point of contact in Canada, spread across 13,000 customers serving the Residential / Small Office / Home office and Enterprise markets. The Company resells diverse metropolitan networks across Canada from the incumbents, and provides a rich service of enhancements, with a mixed product portfolio wrapped around connectivity.

This news release was prepared on behalf of the Board of Directors, which accepts full responsibility for its contents.

Learn more at www.uniserve.com or at www.sedar.com.

Michael C. Scholz

Chairman of the Board

For more information please contact Mr. Mark Stanton at 604-395-3908 or email us at mark.stanton@uniserveteam.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Management has prepared this release and no regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. The statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements. Such statements are based on managements estimates, assumptions and projections using available information. Uniserve cautions that actual financial results could differ materially from the current expectations due to several factors.
$2 MILLION APPALACHIAN UNIVERSITY BANK FRAUD SOLVED

Feds charge LA man in $1.9 million Appalachian State billing fraud case

March 28, 2018, by Michael Gebelein

A California man faces a federal indictment in connection with the theft of nearly $2 million from Appalachian State University.

Appalachian State University in Boone. Courtesy of ASU.

Ho Shin Lee, 31, of Los Angeles, is accused of laundering $1.9 million stolen from the Boone university in a billing fraud scam. He was charged with 14 counts of money laundering, with each count carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The indictment against Lee was unsealed following his arrest in California. The FBI investigated the case.

Federal officials for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina said Lee registered a corporation in California called Royce Hub Trading, opened a bank account in the corporations name as the sole account holder and transferred the money stolen from the university into that account.

Court documents referenced in a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office said that in 2016 Appalachian State University awarded a construction contract for a new building on campus to Rodgers Builders, a legitimate construction firm based in Charlotte. In December 2016, a university employee received an email from an individual claiming to be a representative of Rodgers Builders with instructions to change the direct deposit information for the company to the Royce Hub Trading account newly opened by Lee. The fraudsters used an email address nearly identical to one used by Rodgers Builders and posed as a high-ranking employee of the company when asking the university to change the direct deposit information.

The university employee complied with the request and, in early December 2016, a payment of more than $1.9 million meant for Rodgers Builders was deposited into the Royce Hub Trading account. University officials discovered the fraud when a representative of Rodgers Builders contacted ASU to inquire about a missed payment.

Authorities said Lee quickly moved that payment out of the Royce Hub Trading account through a series of financial transactions, in an effort to conceal the fraud.

Federal officials announced in January that more than $1.5 million stolen in the scam had been recovered and returned to the university.

Megan Hayes, director of University Communications at Appalachian State, told Carolina Public Press at the time of the asset recovery announcement that the university was grateful to federal authorities for their efforts.

We are very appreciative of the work by the U.S. Attorneys Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation to seize and recover the universitys funds, Hayes said. In addition to implementing more stringent policies to increase vigilance in the face of rising rates of cyber crime, we will continue our efforts to recover the remainder of the lost funds.

U.S. District Attorney R. Andrew Murray said at the time of the asset recovery announcement that recovering the money stolen from ASU had been a priority for his office.

Todays announcement is an example of the results we get when we use civil forfeiture laws to swiftly stop crime and provide financial relief to victims of fraud, Murray said.

In this case, the FBI located and seized the stolen funds even before criminal investigative targets had been identified or a criminal case had been filed. Under these circumstances, civil forfeiture is the only area of law that enables law enforcement to swiftly obtain warrants to secure stolen funds, and to prevent the perpetrators of fraud from accessing them.

Identifying and seizing ill-gotten gains and returning forfeited funds to victims is a priority for my office. I will use all of the tools at my disposal to make victims whole, and civil asset forfeiture is an invaluable tool in that arsenal.




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FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES LAW.

CALGARY, Alberta, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alaris Royalty Corp. ("Alaris" or the "Corporation") (TSX:AD) is pleased to announce dates for the release of its Q1 2018 financial results as well as the date of the Corporation's Annual General Meeting.



Earnings Release Date and Conference Call Details

Alaris expects to release its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2018 following the closing of regular trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday, May 7, 2018. Alaris management will host a conference call at 9am MST (11am EST), Tuesday, May 8, 2018 to discuss the financial results and outlook for the Corporation.

Participants can access the conference call by dialing toll free 1-866-475-5449 (or 1-213-660-0709) and enter in passcode 1674288. Alternatively, to listen to this event online, please enter https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/257mmd7t in to your web browser and follow the prompts given. Please connect to the call or log into the webcast at least 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the event.

For those unable to participate in the conference call at the scheduled time, it will be archived for instant replay until 11:59pm Eastern Time, May 15, 2018. You can access the replay by dialing toll free 1-855-859-2056 (or 1-404-537-3406) and entering the passcode 1674288. The webcast will be archived for 90 days and is available for replay by using the same link as above or by finding the link we'll have stored under the "Investor section - Presentations and Events, on our website at www.alarisroyalty.com.

Annual General Meeting

Alaris will be holding its Annual General Meeting of common shareholders at 3:00pm MST on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at the Hotel Le Germain, 899 Centre Street SW, Calgary, AB. Materials for the meeting have been mailed to shareholder of record as of March 26, 2018 and copies are available and the Corporations profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com as well as on its website under the Investors section.

About Alaris

The Corporation provides alternative financing to a diversified group of private companies (Private Company Partners) in exchange for royalties or distributions from the Private Company Partners, with the principal objective of generating stable and predictable cash flows for dividend payments to its shareholders. Royalties or distributions to Alaris from the Private Company Partners are adjusted annually based on the percentage change of a "top line" financial performance measure such as gross margin, same clinic sales, gross revenues and same-store sales and rank in priority to the owners common equity position.

For further information please contact:

Curtis Krawetz

Vice President, Investments and Investor Relations

Alaris Royalty Corp.

P: (403) 221-7305

Suite 250, 333 24th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2S 3E6




By: Paige Cline The hills are still green for the most part, but a little[Read More]
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- In the wake of an early morning FBI raid on his personal attorney, sources close to President Donald Trump and his legal team say the president is less inclined to sit down for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Muellers team.



For the last several months, the Trump legal team has been having active negotiations with the Mueller team working toward a potential interview which would have included either a face to face interview with parameters, a written questionnaire or some mix of both, sources have told ABC News.



Yet in the wake of Mondays FBI raid on the home and office of Michael Cohen, the presidents longtime personal counsel, multiple sources tell ABC News things might be changing and that the president per one source is understandably less trusting of Mueller and his team.



Multiple sources say advisers dont know how to deal with the presidents frustration and are bracing for what he may do next. One source in close contact with the White House says any and all possibilities are in play.



During a lengthy rant late Monday in the Cabinet Room, the president told reporters the special counsels team was the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen. The sources emphasize that no final decision on a potential interview by the president with the special counsels team has been made, as negotiations continue. The presidents lawyers handling the Russia probe  Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb  declined to comment.



In late March, Trump said he would sit down for an interview with the Mueller team saying "Sure I would like to. I would like to, in response to a reporters question.



It was just after 7 oclock Monday morning that FBI agents were dispatched by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to three locations tied to Cohen  his home, his office in Rockefeller Center and a hotel he was currently staying at on New Yorks East Side. It was Muellers team that passed information on to the Department of Justice, which referred the matter to the U.S. Attorneys Office New York, but the raids and investigation are separate from the ongoing investigation into Russia meddling during the 2016 election. It was during this raid that sources tell ABC News agents took personal and financial records dating back as far as 2013. Sources say the search was for evidence of possible bank and wire fraud in addition to possible campaign finance violations. Agents also took documents related Cohens dealings with adult film star Stormy Daniels just weeks before the 2016 election, according to multiple sources. Cohens personal electronic devices were also seized in Mondays raid.



Cohens attorney Stephen Ryan told ABC News in a statement that the FBI executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients. I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.



The purpose of the raid remains unclear. Cohen has been questioned by lawmakers as part of a separate congressional probe. During that questioning, sources have told ABC News, Cohen was asked about a proposal pitched to the Trump Organization during the 2016 campaign to pursue development of a Moscow tower bearing Trumps name.



Cohen told Trump about the project three times, and said in a statement his lawyer released in August that he reached out to the Kremlin about the proposal before the project was ultimately abandoned. No money changed hands, he said.



In a statement at the time Cohen told ABC News: The Trump Moscow proposal was simply one of many development opportunities that the Trump Organization considered and ultimately rejected.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read more
Entrepreneurship is on the agenda again: More hype or real action?

Compared globally, South Africa has an unusually low share of employers and self-employed people in the labour force.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's hope-filled SONA speech with reference to entrepreneurship and small businesses is inspiring; particularly as he said, While change can produce uncertainty, even anxiety, it also offers great opportunities for renewal and revitalisation, and for progress.

It is precisely at the nexus of uncertainty and opportunity that entrepreneurship takes place. According to the traditional neoclassical view, entrepreneurship is the mystical element that delivers external shocks to a state of equilibrium in the marketplace by introducing new products and services. However, without the presence of these two phenomena - lucrative opportunities and enterprising individuals - very little renewal or revitalisation will take place in South Africa.

As a global phenomenon, it has been estimated that about 73 million people in 34 nations are active entrepreneurs. Empirical evidence is mounting which demonstrating that there are more entrepreneurial opportunities in developing countries and that the higher number of entrepreneurial opportunities and demand for entrepreneurship in developing countries is indeed matched by higher rates of opportunity-driven entrepreneurs entering the market.

However, South Africa has an unusually low share of employers and self-employed people in the labour force, and a relatively low share of working age adults in employment at all. This is a major factor behind high joblessness and the associated inequality and economic exclusion. In fact, South Africas total entrepreneurial activity rate remains among the lowest in the peer group of developing nations. Even more disconcerting is in South Africa, many initiatives and programmes sponsored by national government are not yielding much benefit. Decades of coordination on a centralised national basis seem not well suited to timely reactions for dynamic global changes and the inherent dynamism found within entrepreneurship.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the issue around bureaucracy and red tape and how these are limiting factors for start-ups and enterprise growth. Problems of red tape, inflexible legalisation and state bureaucracy currently stifle entrepreneurial activity and SMME capacity development in South Africa. In many cases red tape is a code word for rent-seeking activities (litigious behaviour, nepotism and corruption) resulting in unproductive entrepreneurship. Government agencies and institutional factors provide incentives for rent-seeking entrepreneurial activities that may not lead to socially productive entrepreneurial activities. Sadly, in South Africa, as a result of rent-seeking activities by government officials, SMMEs tend to engage in corruption to make possible their entrepreneurial endeavours. The importance of bribery to successful entrepreneurial action has led to a widely held view of unproductive entrepreneurship where illegal behaviour is seen as justifiable in terms of normal business practice.

Additionally, what is often overlooked and what many SME reports are silent on when discussing red tape, is the structure of the market which has traditionally been hostile towards SMMEs. South Africa has a distinctive economic history, which over the years has contributed to the creation of a highly concentrated economy. Several industries in South Africa can be categorised as tight oligopolies, where several large firms dominate the competitive landscape, hold considerable market power, and are protected by high entry barriers, which exclude SMMEs. There is a paradox here when considering the Enterprise Development (ED) programmes that big business support. Perhaps SMMEs are not perceived as real competition by big business and ED is yet just another tick-box exercise. However, market openness is at the core of doing business and is cited as a key factor constraining entrepreneurial activity in South Africa. Such hindrance to gain entry into the market is evident insofar most small enterprises are predominantly found in trade and business services. In the informal sector the self-employed are overwhelmingly in retail. Such limited entrepreneurial activities prohibit SMMEs from climbing up the value chain and they remain suppressed and uncompetitive.

Small business lobbyists and academics have highlighted the prevalence of monopoly capitalism and wealth centralisation in South Africa as an inhibitor of robust market rivalry which constrains SMME growth and innovation. To remedy such monopolistic conditions many SMMEs have appealed to the competition authorities to address these issues where the Competition Act tries to ensure that small businesses have an equitable opportunity to participate in the economy.

Accordingly if entrepreneurship is really to be reinvented in South Africa it needs to be part of a larger paradigm shift at the level of the market economy. This includes:

A robust and interactive entrepreneurship ecosystem that offers equal access to opportunities, development tools and comprehensive access to resources.

A functioning ecosystem that connects everything, from suppliers, distribution channels, universities, to venture capital.

Improving access to entrepreneurial finance and market access for small businesses to ensure there is a level playing field for opportunities.

Long-term investments need to be made in developing entrepreneurial capital, which is a function of individuals with a high quotient of human and social capital.

Small businesses are not simply just smaller versions of big business; instead they are vulnerable as they are small and new and consequently need a supportive environment and a mix of responsive policy interventions.

Promisingly, despite a dismal track-record, a number of government-led interventions in the 2018 budget speech were proposed which focus on creating a more vibrant small business sector, these include revisiting the competition policy to improve market access, investing in innovative start-ups and using public procurement to support small businesses. We live in hope!

Lastly, the milieu also demands that entrepreneurs do not simply sit back and blame the environment. Entrepreneurship involves human agency, where to be an agent is to intentionally make things happen by ones own actions. Entrepreneurs need to develop a hard-headed awareness of market realities and hard-won business truths. Entrepreneurship requires individuals to take action and surmount environmental obstacles, which is often a synthesis of imagination and realism.

To paraphrase the dictum Big businesses are not against you; they are merely for themselves. Similarly, entrepreneurs need to do it for themselves, despite facing countless market obstructions.

Boris Urban is a Professor at the Wits Business School.
Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, covered only half the risk last week when he said President Donald Trump's escalating trade conflict with China threatened "to light American agriculture on fire."

Trump's mounting confrontation with China also threatens to light a bonfire directly beneath the Republican Party's last firewall against potentially significant losses in the 2018 midterm elections.

The GOP's dominance of small-town and rural America has become the indisputable geographic foundation of its power in Washington. And the party is counting on continued strength in those areas to contain its losses this fall, particularly after the repeated indications in a number of special and local elections over the past 15 months that distaste for Trump in urban centers and white-collar suburbs could produce a sharp backlash against Republican candidates in more densely populated areas.

In this volatile dispute, the stakes in rural America are high both economically and politically. No industry is more identified with the American heartland than agriculture, yet few are more tightly integrated into global markets.

Tariffs would hit farming communities harder

Tough talk against China was a big part of Trump's campaign pitch, but the prospect of an actual trade war with China could weaken that last line of defense for the GOP. No economic sector has raised greater alarms about the potential consequences of a trade war than agriculture, a highly export-dependent industry mired in a years-long slump even as most other economic sectors have revived. That's sent farm state Republican elected officials and strategists scrambling to criticize the rapidly multiplying threats by Trump to impose punishing tariffs on a wide array of Chinese products -- and the Chinese threats to respond in kind, particularly against US agricultural exports.

"For the rural economy in Iowa the forecast is grim, and I think Trump needs to understand what's going on the ground out there," says Craig Robinson, a longtime GOP strategist in Iowa. "These people in rural Iowa are already seeing their towns, their people and their population disappear. It is all consolidating in these metropolitan areas. If these tariffs actually happen, it is going to speed that up, and you risk speeding up that change where these are rock solid conservative voters today and in the next election cycle it could be completely different."

Democrats believe the threatened tariffs are creating new opportunities for them in rural places that have become very stony ground for the party. "He is making a very, very big mistake by doing this," says Rep. Cheri Bustos, an Illinois Democrat who leads the party's rural engagement effort for 2018. "Many of the farmers I know, the growers and the producers, they were not only just supportive of President Trump but they were enthusiastically supportive of him. It's one more indication that he's treating us like flyover country. When you are messing with someone's pocketbook at a time when they are already hurting, that does not bode well."

Agricultural exports now consistently account for about 20% of farm income. That's considerably higher than exports' share of the total economy, which has varied from about 11% to just below 14% over the past decade.

China in 2017 passed Canada (which is locked in trade disputes with Trump over renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement) as the largest market for American agricultural exports. And soybeans, which China conspicuously targeted for retaliatory tariffs, this year will surpass corn as the crop that American farmers are planting on the most acres -- the first time it has exceeded corn in at least 35 years, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Soybeans and corn rank one-two as the most highly exported American crops; China has tagged both, along with wheat, beef and pork, as targets for offsetting tariffs if Trump implements his threatened levies on a wide array of Chinese imports.

Adding to the pressure, the trade tensions are rising when many farmers are already scuffling. Though the recovery in energy production (particularly natural gas) boosted overall job growth in 2017 across small town and rural communities, agriculture itself has been suffering through a cycle of excessive production and weak prices: The Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service recently projected that farm income this year would slump to its lowest since 2006. Ironically, even as Trump is threatening China, one of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's principal responses to the squeeze has been to pledge to increase American agricultural exports.

Republicans' rural base

All of this pressure is concentrating on exurban, small town and rural communities that have become central to Republican electoral power. As Tom Davis, a former Republican representative from Virginia and chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, often says, the GOP's center of gravity "has moved from the country club to the country."

The extent of the shift is captured in data analyzed by Bill Bishop, the author of a highly regarded book on geographic and political polarization ("The Big Sort") and co-founder of The Daily Yonder, a nonprofit website that examines rural issues.

At the presidential level, the Daily Yonder's analysis ranks counties across seven categories based on their size, from counties of 1 million or more people that are in urban centers down to rural areas. Democrats have won the largest category, of million-plus urban centers, in every presidential election since 2004, and also carried the next two groupings (million-plus counties not located in central cities and metro counties with 250,000 to 1 million in population) in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Republicans, in turn, have established a commanding advantage on the smallest four groups of counties on the list, including metropolitan areas that range from 250,000 to 1 million in population. Small town America is centered on the bottom three groups: metro areas with less than 250,000 in population, rural counties adjacent to metropolitan areas and rural counties not near any metro areas. Republicans have carried each of those areas comfortably since 2004, but in 2016 Trump still dramatically expanded the party's advantage in those places. He beat Hillary Clinton by almost exactly 2-to-1 in each of the two smallest areas.

In the House, the GOP hold on small town America is even more overwhelming. The Daily Yonder ranks each House seat based on the share of the population that lives in rural areas (according to census definitions). By its count, Republicans now control 44 of the 50 most rural House seats across the country, and fully 107 of the top 120 -- a stunning ratio of nearly 9-to-1. Even looking at all 181 districts where one-fifth or more of the residents qualify as rural, Republicans hold 155 seats and Democrats just 26 (including Bustos' seat). That means almost 2-in-3 House Republicans represent seats that are at least one-fifth rural, compared with only about 1-in-8 Democrats.

The fight for rural voters

Democrats are targeting very few of the Republican-held seats at the top of that list, generally the places where the rural population reaches at least 45% of the total. (Republican Reps. Bruce Poliquin of Maine, John Faso of New York and Tim Walberg of Michigan are among the few exceptions.)

But the Democrats are aiming at a large number of GOP representatives one rung down the ladder, in districts that mix a substantial rural population (around 15% to 40% of the district) with larger population centers, particularly white-collar suburbs. Republicans in that category range from Andy Barr in Kentucky to Rod Blum and David Young in Iowa; Rodney Davis and Mike Bost in Illinois; Jeff Denham and David Valadao in California; and Cathy McMorris Rodgers and the open seat being vacated by Dave Reichert in Washington state.

Relative to his 2016 vote, Trump's approval in rural America has declined, just as it has in bigger places. But the President's culturally conservative and anti-immigrant themes generally find a receptive audience in those communities, and the most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll placed his approval rating in rural communities at 51%, 7 points higher than in suburban areas and 13 points higher than in urban centers.

Trump's relatively stronger standing has fortified Republican hopes of preventing any Democratic rural revival in 2018. But the trade dispute has complicated that picture. While the President's hard line against China could prove popular in small towns that revolve around manufacturing, it has drawn near universal condemnation from the leading farm groups. "It is the worst kind of news we could get," John Heisdorffer, an Iowa farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, told the Des Moines Register last week.

Responding to those alarms, a parade of farm state Republican senators and representatives have criticized the proposed tariffs and urged the administration to find other ways to pressure China. But, apart from Sasse, few have personally criticized or distanced themselves from Trump.

Republican Rep. David Young of Iowa, who could face a competitive race this fall, walked that tightrope in an appearance on National Public Radio last week. "I think the President has the best interests of America in mind when it comes to the economy and making sure that farmers and anybody else has great opportunity out there," Young said. "It's just so unfortunate that when it comes to the trade issue, and it's not fair, whatever the issue is first -- steel, intellectual property, aluminum -- that those foreign countries, China, know where to hit us first, and that's with agriculture."

Most important, Trump's farm state Republican critics have yet to propose any concrete action Congress might take to discourage him from pursuing sanctions if talks with China stalemate; Young's staff, for instance, says only that he "isn't ruling out any action available to Congress." The administration has signaled it may use other federal programs to financially compensate farmers hurt by any eventual tariffs -- though the magnitude of the potential losses would be difficult to entirely offset.

In rural America, the cultural barriers for Democrats remain formidable. But the Republican reluctance to confront Trump too forcefully could create a rare opening in farm country for Democrats who are generally challenging Trump much more directly than their GOP counterparts over the tariffs. North Carolina Democrats, for instance, held a press conference Monday to denounce Trump's saber rattling as a threat to the state's farmers.

"If the Republican members of Congress don't start ... standing up to this President, I think that November is going to be a very positive election for Democrats," Bustos says. "Republicans definitely have to own what the Trump administration does. [As the majority] it is on them to allow us to debate these issues. It is on them to make sure we have reasonable legislation we can vote on. It is on all of their backs."
Two Democratic senators say they have evidence that shows the Environmental Protection Agency may be overstating the need for 24/7 security and first class travel for Administrator Scott Pruitt.

In a letter asking for hearings on the expensive security apparatus for Pruitt, the Democrats cite threat assessment documents from the Secret Service that were provided by a whistleblower that maintain EPA has relied on non-violent protests, negative feedback and "other First Amendment-protected activity, to justify millions of dollars in additional security spending, including first-class air travel, as compared to his predecessors at the agency."

The documents Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Carper relied on are not public, and CNN was not able to review them. They are asking Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso for hearings on the issue. Barrasso, R-Wyoming, has defended Pruitt in recent days.

"We're happy with the things he's done," he told CNN's Manu Raju Monday.

CNN has reported that the EPA Inspector General found there were numerous serious threats against Pruitt.

"They run the variety of direct death threats -- 'I'm going to put a bullet in your brain' -- to implied threats -- 'if you don't classify this particular chemical in this particular way, I'm going to hurt you,'" assistant inspector general Patrick Sullivan told CNN.

But the Democrats' letter says that the assessments from the US Secret Service identify no "reports of behaviors of interest" against Pruitt, and says that "an internal EPA Intelligence Office report that disputes the administrator's claims that the nature of the threats against him justify his expenditures."

Pruitt's unprecedented security includes a staff of 20 agents providing round-the-clock coverage, even when he is not on official business. Pruitt has come under scrutiny for taking security on family vacations, frequent trips home to Oklahoma, and to sporting events. The costs have totaled above $2 million, and have included sweeps of his office, biometric locks on his office and first-class airline travel.

The Carper-Whitehouse letter cites a memo from William Stull, special agent on Pruitt's private security detail, to Nino Perrotta, the detail's special agent in charge, which summarizes available threat information and shows 16 threats directed against Pruitt.

The threats the Democrats cite include: Protestors attempting to disrupt a Pruitt speech at a closed-door event, a social media post where an individual "stated he is not happy with some of the administrator's policies and wanted to express his displeasure," a postcard saying "CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!!! We are watching you. For the sake of our planet, our children & our grandchildren, will you be a reasonable man? I repeat, we are watching you!" and an email stating: "Hi, I am considering dumping the old paint I just scraped off of my home outside your office door on Tuesday."

"Notably, none of the incidents listed in this report concerned air travel," the senators wrote.

The letter says an October 17, 2017, threat assessment states that "at the time there were 'no known investigations underway concerning threats to Scott Pruitt' by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and that an open-source review of social media uncovered 'no evidence of a direct threat to the Administrator's life or physical well-being.'"

Another document cited in the letter, but not provided publicly, is a February 14 memo from EPA's Office of Homeland Security Intelligence Team the Democrats say concludes that a threat was being mischaracterized by the security detail and the Inspector General and "DOES NOT employ sound analysis or articulate relevant 'threat specific' information appropriate to draw any resource or level of threat conclusions regarding the protection posture for the administrator."

"EPA Intelligence has not identified any specific credible direct threat to the EPA Administrator," the memo states, as described by the senators.

EPA Intelligence has "not seen any analysis to indicate why the Administrator would be at any greater risk on a commercial airline than any other passenger, or why a trained EPA (Private Security Detail) member could not protect the Administrator in a different location on the aircraft [than in the business or first-class section]," the memo adds.

The letter also cites two requested queries from the Secret Service in February, asking for potential threats against Pruitt which did not turn up "reports of behaviors of interest directed toward EPA Administrator Pruitt."

In response to the letter, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Pruitt's security is based on the number of threats against the administrator.

"Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and these threat assessments are conducted within (the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance) using information collected from the PSD, EPA's Office of Homeland Security, and Inspector General," Wilcox told CNN. "Americans should all agree that members of the President's Cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats."
Russia vetoed a US draft resolution at the UN Security Council Tuesday that would have established an independent investigation into the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The US draft condemned the suspected attack by the Assad regime in Douma, demanded immediate access for humanitarian workers to the region and called for an inquiry.

"When the people of Douma, along with the rest of the international community, looked to this council to act, one country stood in the way. History will record that," US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said. "History will record that on this day, Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people."

"Russia has trashed the credibility of the council," she added.

Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog called Russia's veto a "tragic d-j- vu."

In November, Russia blocked the renewal of the independent panel investigating chemical weapons in Syria, and British Ambassador Karen Pierce reminded the council that Tuesday's vote marked Russia's sixth veto related to chemical weapons in Syria.

Seven nations -- including the US -- voted against a Russian resolution that would have set up an investigation overseen by the Security Council.

According to Haley, that draft was designed to give Russia a chance to approve the investigators who were chosen for the task and allow the Security Council to assess the findings of the investigation before any report was released.

A second Russian resolution that only supported the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons fact-finding mission in Syria also failed to pass.

While Haley and Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia were seen greeting each other with handshakes and kisses on the cheek prior to the meeting, the mood quickly changed as the diplomats hurled accusations at each other.

Prior to vetoing the US draft, Nebenzia said that by putting the resolution forward for a vote "the delegation of the United States is once again trying to mislead the international community and making yet one more step toward confrontation."

On Monday, Haley told the Security Council that the US will respond to the Assad regime's alleged chemical attack against Syrian civilians as she excoriated Russia, saying its hands are "covered in the blood of Syrian children."

"Chemical weapons have once again been used on Syrian men, women and children," Haley said at Monday's meeting to discuss what appeared to be a chemical attack on Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria, on Saturday that left 49 people dead and scores injured.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria," Haley said. "Either way, the United States will respond."

Images of gasping children struggling to breathe shocked the world and galvanized President Donald Trump, who condemned the attack as "sick" and attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Davenport Police along with troopers from the Iowa State Patrol, while doing a routine car check, have arrested a man accused of killing his wife and leaving her body in a dumpster behind a liquor store.

Arrested was Donnell Stafford, 30, of Wichita.

Iowa State Patrol say on Tuesday, April 10 after 10 a.m. at the Quad City Inn off of Brady Street, a vehicle theft officer spotted a car with a Kansas plate. After running some checks, it came back stolen, linked with the Kansas murder. According to Wichita, Kansas news station KWCH Stafford is the husband of Leuh Moore, the 38-year-old victim whose body was discovered in a garbage dumpster behind a Wichita liquor store on Sunday, April 8. Moore's family members say the car found in Davenport belonged to her.

Davenport police said the Iowa State Patrol is the leading the investigation. Police were executing a search on a room in the second floor of the motel, which is on North Brady Street, around noon on Tuesday.

Police say the woman died of blunt force trauma.

"This happened just like the police want it to happen. It was resolved quickly and without any incident and nobody was hurt," says Iowa State Trooper Dan Loussaert.

Stafford is being held at the Scott County Jail pending extradition back to Wichita on the charge of murder in the first degree.
ILION  The union that represents the workers at Remington Arms in Ilion has endorsed Congresswoman Claudia Tenney in the race for the 22nd Congressional District.

Tenney, who was elected to the position in Nov. 2016, is seeking re-election this fall, and shell be running against Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi.

The endorsement announcement was made Monday morning at the United Mine Workers of America Local 717 headquarters in Ilion. The union leaders say they feel comfortable with what Tenney has done to support their jobs at Remington in the past, and they believe she will continue those efforts in the future.

Union leaders point in particular to Tenneys efforts as a former state assemblywoman in fighting New York States gun law legislation known as the Safe Act, which was passed in 2013.

It's very important about the 2nd Amendment, not only to protect our rights, but to protect our jobs  she's been adamant, said Fran Madore, former president of UMWA Local 717. The SAFE Act, she stood up with us, she was the only politician that stood up with us in Albany on the stage when we were down there, and actually it was four years ago in April."

"She's been a solid force for us, on the state level and the federal level. We're very confident in Claudia, said Aaron Laventure, current president of UMWA Local 717.

Tenney said Monday morning that shes also fighting to protect the UMWA pension. She co-sponsored the American Miners Pension Act to ensure that the nearly 87,000 UMWA retirees on the plan continue to receive their hard-earner pension.

Tenney also answered some questions Monday morning about what may happen following this past weekends events in Syria. Tune into the NEWSChannel 2 Live at Five Newshour and NEWSChannel 2 at 6 p.m. for more on that story from Gary Liberatore.
UTICA  The Utica Police Department is investigating a robbery at GPO Federal Credit Union that occurred Monday evening.

The robbery at GPO Federal Credit Union, located at 2711 Genesee Street, was reported at 5:02 p.m., according to the Oneida County 911 Center. Utica and New Hartford police departments were both dispatched to the scene.

Utica police say a white male came into the credit union at closing time and showed a note to the teller, and he was given an undisclosed amount of money. Police say the suspect did not display a weapon, and nobody was injured in the incident.

A suspect is not in custody at this time.

We will provide more information as it becomes available.
COOPERSTOWN  Calling hours for Lt. Col. John Penree are being held in Cooperstown until 7 p.m. today.

Lt. Col. Penree is a Utica native who served as a U.S. Army officer for more than 43 years, and he was serving as deputy commander of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Norfolk, Virginia. He died March 27 at age 61.

Penree is survived by his wife and six children.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, located at 305 Main Rd. in Herkimer. He will receive full military honors.
KIRKLAND- At Monday night's board meeting in Kirkland, several people showed up to voice their concerns over having the gun show at the Clinton Arena, after some alleged "racist" and "hateful" posts on the organizer's website.

New Eastcoast Arms Collectors Associates, run by Dave Petronis, is the organizing comany's website. According to people at the meeting, there were things posted under the blog section that were allegedly racist and hateful.

Those opposed, voiced their concerns saying having the gun show at the arena sends a bad message and doesn't make the village of Clinton look good.

The attorney for the town board addressed the issue saying, everyone has a right to freedom of speech. He also said, he and the board have to look at all the facts and laws before coming to a decision.

Clinton High School students were among many of the people who were expressing their concerns. "Yes, Mr. Petronis has the right to hold a gun show at the Clinton Arena, but we as a community don't have to embrace the racist and hateful speech that he so publicly broadcasted on his blog," said Libby Militello, Senior Class President at Clinton High School.

Another Clinton High School Student, Georgia Zoller, told NEWSChannel 2 some of the things Petronis allegedly said. "He talked about how racial affairs should not be allowed, and how African Americans should go back to Africa," said Zoller.

Councilmembers sat and listened to the arguments made by both sides. Councilmember Garry Colarusso said they've heard from all party's and will make a decision based on facts. "We have time to make that decision. We want to make a right decision and we want to make sure that it's based on facts." He also said, "there was a lot of emotion in the room and we don't make our decisions based on emotions, we make them based on laws and what we feel is the right thing to do."

Colarusso said the board will have an answer at either their April 25, or May 14 meeting.
UPDATE: Rome police say 30-year-old Leslie Berneche, the latest "Warrant/Wanted Person of the Week," was located and arrested in Utica on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say after receiving several tips from the public regarding Berneches whereabouts, they developed an address on Erie Street in the city of Utica. In a joint effort by Rome and Utica police, the Oneida County Sheriffs Office and the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Task Force, Berneche was taken into police custody without incident.

Berneche was transported to the Rome Police Department where she was held for arraignment.

______________________________________

(Previous coverage)

ROME  The Rome Police Department is asking for the publics help locating a suspect for the latest Wanted Person of the Week.

Leslie Berneche, 30, is wanted on a warrant issued by Rome City Court for robbery and assault with the intent to cause injury. Police say the warrant was issued Sept. 2017 when Berneche failed to comply with court orders.

Berneches last known address was on South George Street in Rome. Shes described as being 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing about 180 pounds.

If you have any information regarding Berneches whereabouts, you can send it to Rome police via an anonymous tip, or by contacting the Mohawk Valley Crime Stoppers. You can also call Rome police at 315-339-7780, or call 911.
Utica, N.Y. - On Monday, Rep. Claudia Tenney of New Hartford told News Channel 2, she believes the U.S. must take action after this weekend's chemical attack on civilians in Syria.

Tenney says the latest developments are especially concerning because Russian President Vladimir Putin has been backing Syrian President Bashar Al-Asaad the past few years, "Obviously we're very concerned. Syria has apparently, between Putin and Assad, used chemical weapons on their own people again. We have to have not just the United States, but the entire international community condemn this."

Tenney was emotional Monday morning talking about Syria and a potential U.S. response, "We need to do something about that, its sort of breaking news, of course we have to take action against Syria for doing this, its just sick, it's just sick."

We also talked to Utica College Assistant Professor of Government and Politics, J.T. Kwon on Monday. Kwon says it's a very scary time in the world, but he says one thing is for sure, he says there has to be clear evidence that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad orchestrated this weekend's chemical attack, before any U.S. response, "The important thing is, if the U.S. wants to do something about it, that the U.S. needs to build some kind of justification using its own intelligence to convince the world community that Asaad did it and is giving justification for more interventions in terms of removing Assad from office."

Kwon says even with clear and convincing evidence, he believes Russia would still side with Assad, so any retaliation must be carefully thought out, even more so than any retaliation in the past, "Syria is the only country that Russia has naval bases, so if Russia lost Syrian support, if Russia lost Assad, yes, it would be a huge blow to Russia's influence in the Middle East, so this is why Putin has been supporting the Asaad administration in Syria.

Russia is warning that if the United States should take any military action, it would have serious consequences.

President Trump says he will make a decision on a U.S. response in the next 24 to 48 hours.
ROME  A Rome man is facing an aggravated DWI charge and several other charges following a traffic stop in the city of Rome, according to New York State Police.

Around 8:15 p.m. Sunday, April 8, troopers pulled over a vehicle on Erie Boulevard in Rome that had a headlight out. Police say they interviewed the driver, 40-year-old Dametrias Jones of Rome, and arrested him for driving while intoxicated.

Police say they processed Jones at state police barracks in Lee where Jones provided a breath test, which determined his blood alcohol content level was .19 percent, more than twice the legal limit.

Jones is charged with aggravated DWI, second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle, and several other vehicle and traffic violations. Jones was released and hes scheduled to appear in Rome City Court on April 24.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Brothers from the FarmHouse Fraternity at Purdue University hosted a hog roast for a cause today.

Students from across campus were invited to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Those who came to the roast were encouraged to participate in the "Be the Match" booth to join the blood and bone marrow registry.

Along with food, the fraternity held a corn hole tournament. Jared Forgey said FarmHouse is proud to host this event in the honor of a fellow brother.

"Because of our brother John Romine, he was affected by it and he was diagnosed before my time," said Forgey. "He's really the one who started all this and sadly he passed away but he really started this."

To donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society their website here.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- Franciscan Health Lafayette East celebrated the opening of the new West Tower.

Public figures and members of the medical community gathered for a dedication and blessing Monday afternoon.

The $60 million addition was finished in just under two years. It was both on time and under budget.

It adds 106,000 square feet of space and more than 50 more beds for in patient care.

Some of the new ammenities in the new tower are a new rehabilitation gym, wound treatment center and cancer center.

Franciscan Health Lafayette president and CEO Terry Wilson said the the new tower gives much needed extra space to the East campus.

"We started it at a time when this hospital was full too often and we've been dealing with that for the last two years. So it feels good to have the room to roam so-to-speak and have opportunity grow a little bit and provide better service for people," said Wilson.

The West Tower will also have more beds for surgery patients. Wilson said that will help with improve care throughout the hospital.

"It brings some services that have been over at the Central campus on to this campus where they have a lot more resources and access to collegues and so forth and we're excited about that as well," said Wilson.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue University is celebrating a new alliance with a university in Peru, all in the name of research.

The two universities officially launched the collaboration Monday evening. Purdue President Mitch Daniels even welcomed the other university leaders in Spanish.

Faculty members at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin will work with faculty and researchers at Purdue. They will work on research related to environmental health, including food security and water quality.

"What we're doing there with the university in Peru translates to our own region here in Indiana - to improve agricultural production, to improve overall environmental management of our resources," said Tomas Diaz de la Rubia, chief scientist and executive director at Discovery Park.

The agreement is currently set for three years of work. However, leaders expect work and projects to expand.




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Another Japanese unit resumes commercial operation

10 April 2018

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Unit 3 of the Ohi nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui Prefecture today resumed commercial operation, Kansai Electric Power Company announced. The reactor is the sixth to be restarted after clearing the country's revised safety regulations.

Ohi units 3 and 4 (Image: Kansai)

Following the shutdown of all of Japan's reactors after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Ohi 3 and 4 were given permission to resume operation in August 2012. However, the two 1180 MWe pressurised water reactors (PWRs) were taken offline again for Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) inspections in September 2013.

The NRA announced in May 2017 that the two units meet safety standards introduced in July 2013. The NRA approved Kansai's plan for strengthening the units in August last year. The regulator subsequently conducted pre-operation inspections of the units to confirm that the safety countermeasure equipment complies with the approved construction plan at the plant. The governor of Fukui Prefecture approved the restart of Ohi units 3 and 4 in November.

New reactors?



An energy advisory panel has included nuclear power as an option for Japan to meet its emissions targets for 2050, implying the possibility of the construction of new reactors, Reuters reported today.



The panel, whose recommendations will feed into a review by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of the country's 2030 basic energy plan and its measures to reduce carbon emissions by 2050. While recommending a reduction in Japan's reliance on nuclear, the panel includes nuclear as an option for long-term decarbonisation.



"The report does not specifically talk about possible building of new reactors or replacing existing reactors, but it does not deny such a possibility either," Shogo Tanaka, director of METI's energy strategy office was quoted as saying.

Kansai began loading the 193 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 3 on 9 February, completing the process on 13 February. The reactor was restarted on 14 March and attained criticality - a sustained chain reaction - the following day.

Kansai announced that Ohi 3 resumed commercial operation at 4.40pm today after completion of the final periodic outage inspection - the integrated plant performance test - by the NRA.

Kansai President and Director Shigeki Iwane said, "Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere gratitude, in particular to members of the public in the host region, for deep understanding and generous support toward restart of the plant." He added, "We are committed to exerting every possible effort to gain more trust and understanding in the importance and safety of nuclear power generation from members of the public while making steady steps forwards to achieve and maintain safe plant operation after restarting operation."

Ohi 3 is the sixth of Japan's 42 operable reactors which have so far cleared inspections confirming they meet the new regulatory safety standards and have resumed operation. The others are: Kyushu's Sendai units 1 and 2; Shikoku's Ikata unit 3; and Kansai's Takahama units 3 and 4. Another 18 reactors have applied to restart.

Kansai began loading the fuel assemblies into the core of Ohi unit 4 yesterday. It expects to restart that unit around mid-May.

Kyushu Electric Power Company expects to restart both units 3 and 4 at its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga prefecture later this year.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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According to CBRE's, the UK, Germany and Spain are the three most attractive hotel investment destinations in Europe, with more than two-thirds (69%) of investors identifying these markets as the preferred countries for hotel investment in 2018.The UK has retained its position as the most sought after destination in Europe for hotel real estate investment in 2018. 35% of respondents selected the UK as their target market for hotel investment, an increase of 106% compared to 2017.The UK's number one spot was reinforced by a record year for hotel investment which saw the UK register 6.2bn, a 39% increase year-on-year, and the highest hotel investment volume of all the European countries in 2017.Germany was identified as the second most attractive market favored by 18% of respondents. The German hotel sector has experienced strong market fundamentals, coupled with favorable financing conditions and this is set to continue in 2018. Spain was ranked third by 16% of respondents and saw the highest year-on-year growth in investment volumes on a country-level in 2017. France was fourth with 8% of respondents and Ireland jumped to fifth place, alongside Italy with 6%.Poland and the Czech Republic have entered the top 10 in 2018. Poland was ranked ninth with the Czech Republic moving from 12th to 10th place. Eastern European markets are being increasingly targeted by the more opportunistic funds because of robust performance growth over the past few years.Paul Collins, Head of Hotel Investment properties for UK & Ireland, commented: "The UK is attracting a wide range of international investors seeking opportunities in key cities such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Investor appetite for quality regional hotels will remain resilient and despite the UK's impending withdrawal from the European Union, our survey results suggest that any restrictions to the growth of UK investment volumes are more likely to be because of restricted supply rather than a reduction in demand for hotel assets."In a clear reflection of the gathering strength for European hotel investment, 94% of respondents cited that they are planning to invest either the same or more capital into hotel real estate in 2018 compared to 2017. This highlights the growing attractiveness of hotels amongst an increasingly diverse investor base.The annual report, now in its second year, also found that 38% of respondents are targeting predominantly gateway cities with capital cities falling slightly behind with 36%, secondary cities ranked third with 16%, followed by resort locations with 9%. This could be attributed to the shortage of investible stock in major European Capital cities, and the low yield environment across prime cities, which is prompting investors to look further afield.
Distraction burglaries by men pretending to be from the water board

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 10th, 2018

North Wales Police have warned people to be cautious of letting people into their homes  with reports of people pretending to be from the water board.

Police have said this evening: Residents of Wrexham and surrounding areas should be cautious of men pretending to be from the water board following a number of distraction burglaries in the area today.

If you see anything suspicious please call 101/999

Yesterday we were made aware of an account of a similar sounding incident at a town centre address that was widely shared post on social media  referring to men gaining entry after saying they wanted to check the water pressure, and an elderly man was robbed.

That post now not visible, and on checking with North Wales Police they said they could not locate a report of that nature with the information we provided.
Over the weekend, the Socialist Equality Partys congressional candidates from California, David Moore (US Senate) and Kevin Mitchell (US House of Representatives, 51st Congressional District), held the initial public meetings of their election campaign. Both candidates spoke in the City Heights district of San Diego on Saturday and at UC Berkeley on Sunday.

Under the title, No to War, Inequality and Censorship! The Socialist Campaign in the 2018 Elections, the meetings elaborated upon the program and perspective of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). Both speakers highlighted the growing danger of world war and the resurgence of class struggle, which have led the US government and major technology companies to begin censoring the Internet and social media.

In fact, Sundays meeting in Berkeley was directly censored by Facebook, which blocked an advertisement for the meeting during the peak online traffic window from Friday evening until midnight Saturday, roughly 14 hours before the event took place.

After an ad was submitted and approved on Thursday evening, on Friday evening Facebook sent an email titled, Your active ad is disapproved, writing vaguely, We have reviewed your ad more closely and have determined it doesn't comply with our Advertising Policies. On their website, Facebook wrote, We dont allow ads that contain shocking, disrespectful, or sensational content, including ads that depict violence or threats of violence.

Message from Facebook on why our ad was disapproved

An appeal was sent to Facebook, demanding clarification on why the ad was disapproved and stressing that there was nothing shocking, disrespectful, or sensational in the ad, nor any depiction of violence or threats of violence.

Facebook responded with silence for 31 hours, at which point an automated message was sent, titled, Your appealed ad is currently active. The message said, It looks like the ad you appealed for is already active. As a result, we won't be looking into this case any further.

In a similar fashion, SEP ads related to the Oklahoma teachers strike were also blocked by Facebook on Sunday. These moves towards censorship and the suppression of socialist political viewpoints underscore the looming threat of dictatorship, which Moore and Mitchell delved into at both meetings.

Moore opened the meetings with an overview of the political and economic situation: New crises are emerging at such a rapid pace because of the objective crisis of world capitalism. It is not the result of one rotten person or a particularly bad policy.

The American ruling class has two main methods of protecting their profits in the world economy: militarism to control other countries access to material and markets, and cuts to social services to direct more of the wealth produced by the working class to the financial elite.

Moore noted that the new allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria raise the imminent threat of nuclear war.

He then turned to the growth of inequality in the United States, and traced its continuity from the bank bailout, through the Affordable Care Act, to the latest tax cuts.

Income share of the top 1% compared to the bottom 50%

Moore highlighted the fundamental agreement between the Democrats and Republicans on war and austerity, and how the Democrats have attacked Trump from the right for being too soft on Russia. Theres no shortage of reasons to attack Trump--his defense of white supremacists, his anti-immigrant chauvinism, his belligerent foreign policy, Moore said, But the Democrats insist on sex scandals and fabrications of Russian interference that leave Trumps right-wing politics untouched.

He then explained how the campaign over fake news was being used to censor the Internet and social media. Under the guise of combating Russian interference, Google, Facebook and Twitter were directly collaborating with the state to remove socialist, left-wing and anti-war websites from search results and news feeds.

Moore concluded his remarks with an overview of the upsurge of working class struggles worldwide, appealing to attendees to join the SEP and take up the fight for socialism: 2018 has already seen mass protests in Tunisia and across the Middle East, statewide teacher strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma, hundreds of thousands of youth protesting against mass shootings, and mass strikes in France. Our task is to break the isolation of these individual struggles and transform them into a politically conscious, international mass movement for socialism.

Kevin Mitchell began his remarks by describing the recent attacks on immigrants by the Trump administration. He explained that the deployment of the National Guard to the US-Mexico border was ultimately bound up with the resurgence of class struggle in the United States, especially the ongoing strikes by teachers.

He warned the audience, It is not impossible to see a situation where striking teachers may be subject to search and detained by National Guard checkpoints, adding, Yuma and Tucson are close to the border and could be used as staging areas.

Mitchell then underscored the international context of the deployment, citing the recent comments by Trump threatening to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mitchell also stated, The district Im running in, the 51st, runs along the US-Mexico border, and it contains the poorest region in California, the richest state in the country. He noted that Democrat Juan Vargas, his opponent, pretended to be a friend of immigrants while doing nothing to speak out against deportation while Obama was in office, when more than 3 million immigrants were deported. Vargas was also a supporter of sanctions against North Korea and Iran and supported the Democrats program of war.

He implored the audience to support his candidacy, stating, Our campaign is not simply a regional or even a statewide effort. We see ourselves as part of an international movement. Even if you cannot vote because of your immigration status, we want you to join our campaign and the fight for socialism.

When an audience member in San Diego asked the candidates what made them join the SEP, Mitchell replied, The two events which galvanized my generation more than anything else were the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2008 crash on Wall Street. I joined the SEP in 2007 at the height of the Iraq War and here we are more than 10 years later and things are worse now for young people. Thats what keeps me going.

In Berkeley, a question was raised about what the SEP would do if elected to office. Would they compromise with the capitalist parties to try and make short-term gains? Moore responded that, if elected, we would oppose every budget and piece of legislation that attacked workers anywhere in the world, and the Democrats and Republicans are incapable of doing anything else.

Mitchell added, Our program and platform is the total opposite of the electoral campaign of Kshama Sawant, who represents Socialist Alternative in the Seattle City Council. Her campaign was meant to provide a left cover for the political establishment, while our campaign wants to use the election as a means to win people over to a genuine socialist and internationalist perspective.

Turning to another audience question about the role of Internet censorship, Mitchell stated, To me, the most revealing aspect of the campaign to censor the Internet is the timing. The American ruling class knows that teachers and students have been using social media to coordinate protest outside of the usual channels, like the Democratic Party and the trade unions. He added, They saw what happened in Egypt and the Arab Spring, and they are scared of the internet, and that is why we are being censored.

The two candidates will speak together again in Los Angeles on April 19, and more meetings are planned in Northern California in Newark and Tracy. If you live in California and would like to help organize a meeting in your city or region, contact the SEP today to get involved.
On Monday morning the National Gendarmerie, Frances militarized police, deployed nearly 2,500 heavily armed officers to brutally attack an environmentalist camp in Notre-Dame-des-Landes near the city of Nantes. Scenes resembling civil war unfolded as bulldozers and armored vehicles moved into the camp to destroy a colony of about 100 huts and makeshift homes that protesters and farmers have built since they set up the camp 10 years ago.

By mid-morning some 10 huts had been destroyed, along with a watchtower erected by the activists to guard their site, regional security official Nicole Klein told the media. Six people living in one of the shelters were evicted, she said, claiming that they had refused an offer by the government to be rehoused. While journalists were banned from the site when the operation began, videos give an impression of the scale and brutality of the operation to clear out the camp.

The anarchist farmers and activists, called zadistes in France, set up the camp in 2008 to block the construction of an international airport to serve the Atlantic coast. The site had been earmarked for a new airport nearly five decades ago, before the French government finally abandoned plans to construct the controversial hub earlier this year. The government of French President Emmanuel Macron argued that since the decision had been taken to drop the plans to build the airport, the zadistes (from Zone to Defend or ZAD) had to leave.

Less than two hours after the official start of the evacuation of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb went on air to defend the operation. On Europe1, he declared that after the announcement to halt the airport project, the government wanted life in this sector to return to normal. Pledging to reinstate the law he threatened: Authority must reign everywhere, the law must be respected everywhere.

There would be no arrests, except for those who commit acts of rebellion, Collomb threatened. He said it would be impossible to know how long the operation will last, and that police would operate as long as it is necessary to prevent new occupations. I hope that within a few weeks, order will be restored to Notre-Dame-des-Landes.

The violent assault and the threats by Collomb come amid a rising strike and protest movement throughout the country. Yesterday the French rail strike entered its fourth day, bringing around 80 percent of trains to a halt. Today one in four flights at Air France will be canceled due to a pilot strike. Students who are occupying universities all over France have been calling for a day of action to denounce Macrons plans to restructure the universities along neo-liberal lines.

The protests in France are part of a broader international upsurge of the class struggle. In Germany public sector workers are on strike for higher wages and better working conditions today. Lufthansa alone has been forced to cancel 800 flights. In the US the strike by tens of thousands of Oklahoma teachers and support staff entered its second week. Teachers have also been on strike in West Virginia and Arizona. Other strikes and protests this year included metal and autoworkers in Germany, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, pensioners in Spain and railway workers and lecturers in Britain.

The violent and unprovoked assault on the peaceful protest camp in Notre-Dame-des-Landes by the Macron government is a warning. The ruling class will stop at nothing to repress the explosive opposition in the working class against its unpopular pro-business and pro-war policies.

Im not sure that sending heavy forces against protesters is the best of tactics, warned Philippe Martinez, the leader of the Stalinist CGT union. Martinez and the unions have been negotiating the attacks with Macron and are horrified by the danger of a social explosion and the development of an independent revolutionary movement of the working class.

On Monday evening, solidarity protests in support of occupants of Notre-Dame-des-Landes took place in the west of France, as well as in Paris, Lyon and Marseille. The largest erupted in Nantes where, according to police sources, some 1,200 people gathered. In Rennes around 200 demonstrators gathered on Sainte-Anne Square chanting: They destroy, we rebuild. At around 8:45 p.m. police forces reportedly fired tear gas at protesters.

In Paris hundreds of protesters gathered in the district of Belleville in the northeast of the capital. They blocked the Rue de Belleville with construction barriers and chanted, Who is ZAD? She is ours, and ZAD everywhere, expulsion nowhere. Marylene, a 49-year-old civil servant who participated in the spontaneous protest, told a reporter, To send 2,500 gendarmes to evacuate families, sometimes with children, is worthy of an authoritarian regime.
On Saturday, amid a growing strike wave in France, the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) held a meeting in Paris to mark 50 years since the May-June 1968 general strike. The featured speakers were 1968 student leader Alain Krivine and a union official, Mathieu (he gave only his first name) who spoke on the strikes against President Emmanuel Macrons move to privatize the French National Railways (SNCF).

The meeting was a case study in the utter bankruptcy of the NPAs petty-bourgeois politics. It was not a mass meeting to prepare workers and youth for struggle by drawing lessons of the great revolutionary struggle a half century ago. The NPA did not mobilize even the hundreds of members they have in the universities and union bureaucracies of Paris. Only a few dozen people showed up to a meeting, hidden away in a back room of a restaurant in a small side street in the Paris suburbs, to hear Krivine and Mathieu make perfunctory, demoralized remarks.

Those in attendance seemed most interested in the potato chips, boxed white wine and cheap cocktails served over gossip after the speakers had finished. Looking at the meeting, one would never have known that workers are striking against a government that is slashing social rights established over generations of struggle, to divert hundreds of billions of euros into war and tax cuts for the rich. The affluent middle-class people who clashed with police as students a half century ago in Paris are indifferent, indeed hostile to the social interests of the working class.

The NPA speakers presented a reactionary, politically absurd perspective, insisting that there is no revolutionary situation either in 1968 or today, and demanding that workers subordinate themselves to organizations which, they admitted, are working to strangle the strikes.

Krivine spoke after screening a video featuring NPA members reminiscences of street fighting with police and gender issues, like problems involved in buying condoms, in 1968. The film underscored the two distinct social forces at work in 1968: the middle-class student movement, to which the future NPA members belonged; and the mobilization of millions of workers in the general strike. The lifestyle and gender issues that motivated the middle class were distinct from issues of democratic rights and wages that drove masses of workers into struggle.

At the meeting, Krivine summarily wrote off the revolutionary potential of the general strike and the necessity to fight to build for a revolutionary leadership in the working class. According to his sophistical argument, since the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) and General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union did not want to take power, there was no revolutionary situation, and so workers did not need a revolutionary party.

We shouted power to the workers, he said, but the tragedy was that no one wanted it. Because the best known people, Alain Geismar, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Jacques Sauvageot, were men first of all; and they were students, professors, they were not workers. The working class had confidence in them  to hold protests, but not to take power. The people who could have taken power at the time were the PCF and the CGT, but they did not want to do that.

For me, it is not a revolution, Krivine said, adding: You can have a popular explosion that is not revolutionary but is popular and spontaneous. There is no need for a party for that.

Krivines counterrevolutionary analysis of 1968 is absurd and false. That year, mass anger over police repression of student protests boiled over into the largest general strike in European history. Over 10 million workers went on strike, hoisted red flags over factories across France, and brought General Charles de Gaulles regime to its knees. The Paris police disintegrated, and when de Gaulle fled to Baden-Baden in Germany to discuss ordering French troops stationed in Germany to march on Paris, his generals indicated they could not guarantee the loyalty of their troops.

The revolutionary character of this situation is self-evident. French capitalism was saved only by the crisis of revolutionary leadership in the working class: the PCF and the CGT blocked the seizure of power by the working class. They fought for weeks to force workers back to work based on wage concessions granted by the bosses, and ultimately backed new elections called by the government. Using the economic resources of European capitalism at the height of the post-World War II boom, as well as the political services of Stalinism, the bourgeoisie had managed to keep power.

A quarter century after the Stalinist dissolution of the USSR and the disintegration of the PCF, French imperialism no longer has the resources to make such concessions. Amid the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s, as Europe rearms and the NATO powers threaten war with Russia, China, and the Middle East, Paris is restructuring class relations along authoritarian lines, taking hundreds of billions of euros from workers to fund the military and tax cuts for the rich, to join in the scramble to redivide the world. There will be no reformist outcome to the class struggle.

Krivines dismissive view of the 1968 general strike is bound up with the NPAs reactionary political role today. Hostile to a revolutionary struggle against Macron, they promote a strategy of crushing and selling out workers struggles against him.

The unions have called impotent rotating strikes for two days per week until June, allowing Macron to wait out the strikes while the unions continue to negotiate the austerity with him. While admitting that these maneuvers are bankrupt, Krivine argued that the situation is still not revolutionary, and that workers still do not need a revolutionary political leadership. Instead, workers should rely on the unions and an alliance of pseudo-left groups like the NPAhoping they might suddenly turn 180 degrees, start opposing Macron, and force him to retreat and make concessions.

He said, There can be a popular insurrection, it can come, it is growing in universities everywhere. But indeed there is an absence of one or several political organizations that helpand do nothing more than helpto coordinate and advance the demand for a general strike. Because we will not make them retreat with occasional strikes like that every 15 days, with bla-bla-bla protests.

Mathieu spoke to amplify Krivines remarks. He said, There is an entire series of difficulties, which come mainly from the strike schedule proposed by the CGT and the CFDT, which the majority of rail workers is respecting today, but may be modified in line with the level of social struggle in the company and in the country.  About this schedule, I will admit that when I saw it come down on my mobile phone, I told myself, Well, thats a betrayal. I mean, that is obvious.

The unions know very well that they are proposing a strategy that will lead to defeat, Mathieu stressed, and they do not want to shift to another strategy.

Inside the unions, Mathieu said, for the time being, the sentiment is that everyone is looking at everyone else a bit, saying, Well who is going to start? No one really wants to be the one that goes out first.  Many CGT comrades are sort of sitting on two stools, because they know very well that if they want to win, they cant strike two days out of five, but there you go. Everyone is just looking at each other and waiting.

A WSWS reporter attending the meeting asked what lessons the NPA drew from 1968 for the class struggle today. Krivine insisted that the only way forward was for workers to support an alliance of political forces who, as he and Mathieu had just admitted, strangled the struggles of the working class in 1968 and today.

Krivine endorsed former NPA presidential candidate Olivier Besancenots call for unity with the big-business Socialist Party (PS), the PCF, and the union bureaucracy: Olivier, and he is not alone, he is doing it with NPA approval, he is trying to bring as many organizations as possible together against Macron. I think everyone wants convergence and unity, but its not obvious that we will get there. And we cant just have the political parties, we need the trade unions, too.

Krivine refused to say what perspective this alliance would advance: On this issue, we have a fraternal debate not only with the PCF, which is completely divided today  The same thing more or less is happening but in a different form among the Greens, and there is more or less the same thing in what is left of the PS. So its complicated, very complicated to intervene in this.

In fact, it is not hard to see that the forces to which Krivine is oriented are supporters of capitalism and austerity that would prove bitterly hostile to the working class.

A class chasm separates the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world Trotskyist movement, and the NPA. In their youth, the ex-student radicals joined Pabloite parties that had broken with Trotskyism and split from the ICFI in 1953, adapting to the stabilization of capitalism after World War II and the post-war boom in Europe. A fundamental element of Pabloite politics in France was the view that the Trotskyist movement should dissolve itself into Stalinism, to which the Pabloites attributed a revolutionary role, writing off the independent revolutionary role of the working class and of the Trotskyist movement.

The 1968 general strike itself demonstrated the bankruptcy of this perspective: the PCF emerged not as the locomotive of the revolution, but a dead weight blocking the struggles of the working class. Krivines claim that there is no revolutionary situation in 1968 or today because the workers did not have a revolutionary leadership leaves out one central issue: the role of the Pabloite movement itself in blocking the building of a revolutionary leadership in the working class.

Over the ensuing decades in which they defended the PCF or the PS, masses of people in France were told to identify Trotskyism with the reactionary antics of Krivine and Company, which took various forms, including the LCR (Ligue communiste revolutionnaire), founded in 1974 as the French section of the Pabloite movement, and its successor, the NPA, founded in 2009.

Fifty years later, the growing movement in the working class is blowing apart the rotten political foundations of the Pabloite pseudo-left tendency. They are not revolutionaries or representatives of continuity with Trotskyism and the October Revolution, but vicious opponents of Trotskyism, working to strangle working class opposition and tie the workers to austerity and war. The way forward in the struggle against Macrons cuts, as the ICFI has insisted, is a revolutionary struggle of the working class against not only Macron, but also the reactionary pseudo left parties.
Britains largest academic institution, the Open University (OU), has announced plans to drastically slash the numbers of academics it employs and greatly reduce the number of courses available for distance learning.

Hundreds of jobs are threatened, in what the vice-chancellor making the cuts, Peter Horrocks, described as the largest restructuring redundancy programme ever in UK university history.

The cuts will decimate a public resource that has been utilized by thousands of mature, working class and overseas students who could not otherwise train or become better qualified.

Last summer, the OU announced that government cuts to funding demanded savings of 100 million from its 420 million annual budget. The OU has more than 170,000 students enrolled, 1,000 academic and research staff, and over 2,500 administrative, operational and support staff.

During the last week of the recent and ongoing lecturers strike over pension cuts, which involved staff at more than 60 universities, management announced plans to slash 220 teaching staff in the University of Liverpool.

Redundancies in FE continued to be pushed through, with the Hull College Groupwho provide FE colleges in Hull, Goole and Harrogateproposing redundancies for 230 lecturers, almost one-third of the teaching staff. University and College Union members at the Hull College Group are being balloted for strike action over the coming weeks.

According to the Guardian, confidential documents reveal the scale of the cuts to be made at the OUwith staff told they have only until early April to accept voluntary redundancy. The report uses management-speak like focusing, rationalisation and consolidation rather than redundancy and offering less education to describe the fundamental changes being proposed.

The number of OU courses, qualifications and modules available to students is to be cut by at least a half. More than 40 undergraduate courses and postgraduate degree courses are to be axed, leaving only around 70 courses available. Courses to be sacrificed will fall from within departments teaching science, business and music.

The devastating OU cuts would mean an end to the education reform carried out in 1969 by Harold Wilsons Labour government to provide tertiary education for the working class. In its near 50 years of existence, almost 2 million British and international students have been able to gain qualifications studying with the OU.

In its early days, the OU was renowned for novel and inventive ways of successfully teaching scienceto students based at home, for example. The Conservative governments of Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s and 1980s attempted to cut resources to OU, as they were opposed to its egalitarian ethos, but were opposed by students.

Over recent decades, course content has been allowed to atrophy, with staff overworked and burdened with additional administrative measures and reduced budgets.

The atmosphere prevailing at the OU was illustrated by a letter to the Guardian from a member of staff who noted, Where voices of opposition have been raised, senior faculty staff are pressured to keep quiet (and not to support the pension strike). With an ever-present threat of redundancies, others are simply fearful of speaking out in public.

The letter continues, Disquiet with the direction of change and incompetent management has seen innumerable departures of senior staff under Peter Horrocks tenure.  The current leadership oversaw the disastrous closure of regional OU centres and the chaotic introduction of the group tuition policy, all against warnings from experienced academics.

University workers will see no struggle waged by the University and College Union (UCU) or any of the education unions against any of the cuts and job losses being proposed. The union has not lifted a finger against the drive to privatize education in HE and FE over the last decade, and is currently attempting to sell out the struggle of its university members who are opposing huge attacks on the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension scheme.

A spokesperson for the UCU said, The proposals under discussion would destroy the OU as we know it, turning it from a world-leading distance education university into a digital content provider, but offered no proposals to oppose this.

As the Liverpool cuts were announced, UCU regional official Martyn Moss said only, We are seeking more information on what exactly this will mean for staff and students at the University of Liverpool.

The role of the unions as adjuncts of management is seen in their role in the planned destruction of jobs at the University of Portsmouth. The university lost 4.5 million income in 2018/19 and is set to lose at least the same again this year as the result of a freeze on undergraduate tuition fees. Applications from 18-year-olds to the university dropped by 3,220, down to 13,620, between 2014 and 2017. In response, management declared that the university is in a fight based on competitive student recruitment and demanded that departments find savings of 5 to 7 percent or take measures to boost income.

Last Friday, staff received an email signed jointly by Vice-Chancellor Professor Graham Galbraith, the UCUs vice-chair Phil Verrill and the Unison union branch chair Chris Burke-Hynes. The email, published by the Portsmouth N ews , outlined a redundancy scheme being sent to all 2,500 staff. It stated, We need to respond to the sector challenges and to seek to create opportunities from them so that our long-term strength and sustainability is secured. Against this background, the university is working in partnership with UCU and Unison to develop a voluntary severance scheme which could be offered to all staff.

The email continued, It would seem that there are some staff who would like to take the opportunity of leaving the university if this could be achieved through a mutually agreed financial package.

Justifying the job losses to local UCU members, Branch Secretary Dr. James Hicks stated, I think all universities are looking to make the kinds of savings that Portsmouth is looking to make.

When the details of the scheme come out then well deal with the enquiries that members may have about their specific concerns. I believe its a wider sector problem. Portsmouth is in a better position than a lot of other universities.

According to the Portsmouth News the job cuts scheme is being promoted by the UCU on the basis that it will be available to all staff and not just a select number! It reported that Hicks said the scheme was different from redundancies and it would allow all staff to applywith their applications to leave then considered by bosses.

The UCU will act no differently anywhere else in imposing the diktats of management.

The Socialist Equality Party and Education FightBack are holding an online and call-in forum today, April 10, to discuss these vital issues. We urge teachers, lecturers, academic and FE staff and students to attend.

Education FightBack forum

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.

To participate in the meeting, visit http://bit.ly/efb100418 when the meeting begins, or call +44 330 221 0088 and enter access code 274-739-237.
The United States and NATO are on the brink of a major escalation of the war in Syria, which could lead to a direct clash with nuclear-armed Russia.

Amid a wave of labor unrest throughout the United States and Europe, coupled with acute domestic political crises, the ruling elites see in war a means not only of reversing a series of geopolitical setbacks in the Middle East, but also of cracking down on political opposition.

The United States, Britain, France and Germany are all being shaken by a growing strike movement amid crisis and turmoil within the political establishment and the state. On the very day that US President Trump met with his National Security Council to decide on military action against Syria, the FBI raided the office and residences of Trumps personal lawyer, escalating the conflict raging within the American ruling class.

The potential consequences of a war against Syria are massive. Last month, Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov vowed to retaliate against any attack on Russian troops in Syria, declaring, In the event of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, Russias armed forces will take retaliatory measures against the missiles and launchers used.

On Monday, Gerasimov again warned, We have to say once again that military interference in Syriais absolutely unacceptable and can lead to very grave consequences.

Such statements underscore just how close the world is to war between nuclear-armed powers, threatening the lives of millions of people and human civilization itself.

The pretext for this escalation is the chemical weapons attack alleged by the US, without any substantiation, to have been carried out by the Syrian government. This casus belli is the crudest of fabrications. What possible reason could there be for the Assad regime to stage such an attack under conditions where it has routed the US-backed Islamist rebels on the outskirts of Damascus and is in its strongest position since the early stages of the US-fomented civil war?

The media hysteria over the alleged gas attack is in line with the relentless campaign of provocations and threats against Russiaa campaign that has reached a new crescendo in recent weeks. The latest allegations take place within days of the discrediting of the claims that Russia was responsible for the supposed chemical poisoning in Salisbury, England of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Trump has issued a series of tweets that proclaim the Syrian government guilty of horrendous crimes, charging Russia and Iran with complicity and promising that those responsible will pay a big price.

The US media, military-intelligence apparatus and political establishment are baying for blood. Republican Senator John McCain blamed Trumps inaction in Syria for emboldening Washingtons enemies. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives, signaled her support for military action against Syria while demanding that the Trump administration finally provide a smart, strong and consistent strategy to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

France and Britain have said they will join the US attack in Syria, if invited, or even mount their own strikes. The New York Times cited a Trump administration official as saying that Washington is feeling pressure to hasten an American attack on Syria lest French President Emanuel Macron do so first.

Last week saw a furious dispute within the American ruling elite, including the senior-most levels of the Trump administration, as the Pentagon, the CIA, the Democrats and much of the Republican Party leadership successfully pushed back against Trumps suggestion that US troops would soon be coming home from Syria. Trump was bluntly told that such a pullout would not only be to the benefit of Russia, but would also cut across Trumps plans to intensify economic and military pressure on Iran by torpedoing the Iran nuclear accord.

Vladimir Putin and the regime of capitalist oligarchs he heads have long sought an accommodation with Washington. But US imperialism, under successive administrations, has made clear that it would be satisfied only with Russias semi-colonial subjugation.

That Moscow, in the face of NATOs expansion to its borders, US-sponsored color revolutions in neighboring states, and a quarter-century of US wars across North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia, has intervened to disrupt Washingtons plans in Ukraine and Syria is deemed by Washington and Wall Street to be intolerable.

The real causes of the United States reckless provocations against Russia have nothing to do with meddling in US politics or an alleged poison gas attack.

In the quarter-century since the dissolution of the USSR, US imperialism sought to reverse the erosion of its global economic position through aggression and war. In its quest for world hegemony, the United States has razed entire countries such as Libya and Iraq. But Washingtons never-ending wars have failed to reverse its decline. Instead, they have metastasized into military-strategic offensives against Russia and China and official declarations from Washington that the US is involved in a new age of great-power conflict.

The eruption of US militarism is accelerated by deepening economic crisis. In an article titled Cracks Form in Global Growth Story, Rattling Investors, published Monday, the Wall Street Journal warned, Investor confidence has flagged amid fears that a long-expected global synchronized surge may be turning into a synchronized stall.

Most importantly, the ruling elite sees war as the most expedient means of attacking democratic rights at home in order to crush the growing upsurge of the working class. On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress amid demands that major technology firms implement even more aggressive measures to crack down on foreign propaganda and fake news. Against the backdrop of a major new military conflict, calls will be redoubled for the banning of political opposition.

But it is precisely the growing international movement of the working class that represents the antipode to imperialist war. The class struggle is more and more demonstrating the common interests of workers around the world. The World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International are fighting to politically arm this movement with a socialist and internationalist program linking the struggle against war to the defense of workers social and democratic rights.
Police shot 48-year-old John Elifritz to death at a homeless shelter Saturday night in Portland, Oregon after responding to reports of a man brandishing a knife at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the building.

Saturday evening, police received reports of a car crash blocking the tracks of a Tri-Met light rail train and subsequently learned that the car had been involved in a carjacking earlier in the day. On the way to the scene, they received reports of someone entering an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at the nearby Cityteam Ministries homeless shelter and cutting himself with a knife.

An emergency dispatcher told officers responding to the incident that police had received multiple calls earlier in the day that a man, subsequently identified as Elifritz, was holding a knife to his throat and ranting about his wife and daughter being murdered, but officers had disengaged with him during that encounter.

When police arrived at the shelter, they initially fired less lethal beanbag rounds at Elifritz before switching to live ammunition. According to the official police account the failed to comply with orders to drop a knife and lunged at police, prompting officers to shoot him several times.

However, a video of the incident shared on social media exposes the police narrative as a lie. In the video, Elifritz can be seen standing in a corner of a large room enclosed by a short wall. Police fired three shots, presumably the beanbag rounds, at him through the door before identifying themselves or providing any instruction.

Police shoot John Elifritz inside a homeless shelter

When roughly a dozen heavily armed police enter the room, there is nobody else in the vicinity of Elifritz, who appears disoriented. Police can be heard yelling, Drop the knife! and Elifritz bends over as if to comply before standing back up. He then tries to say something to the officers, though his words are not discernible over the officers shouting and the barking of a police dog.

Without warning, police fire a volley of gunshots at Elifritz, who stumbles forward before collapsing to the floor. It is unclear from the video whether Elifritz was holding a knife at the time of the shooting. However, at no point in the video does he appear to lunge at the officers and given the distance and physical barriers between them, Elifritz could not have posed a threat even if he had done so. It is apparent from the video and witness accounts that police made no attempt to deescalate the confrontation before gunning him down.

According to the video, less than 30 seconds elapsed between the time police entered the room and when they shot Elifritz using live ammunition. At least 11 gunshots can be heard clearly during the fatal encounter toward the end of the video.

Family and friends present at a vigil at the shelter on Sunday told local news station Fox 12 that Elifritz was a loving husband and would be sorely missed by his family. They said he worked in construction and had struggled with mental health issues over the course of his life but had made great strides in recent years, including graduating from a substance abuse recovery program.

Victoria Nevarez, a close friend of the victim, told Fox 12, I just know that what we saw and what we know, is that it was not okay and he was murdered. Thats how all of us feel.

Nevarez went on to say: He was an upstanding person whod give you the last $5 in his pocket and the shirt on his back if he needed it.

A statement released by American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon Executive Director David Rogers read in part, In less than a minute, officers shoot and kill the man, while members of an already traumatized population, Portlands homeless community, watch in horror. Was there any attempt to de-escalate the situation before officers open fire inside the homeless shelter full of innocent bystanders? If not, why not?

Meanwhile, the Portland Police Bureau has attempted to justify the shocking murder by releasing various conflicting reports about Elifritzs actions earlier in the day.

According to a police report, Elifritz had threatened to kill himself when confronted by police earlier in the day and police allowed him to leave in the hope that the situation would not escalate further. Later, he reportedly stole a car by force and engaged in a road rage incident, tailgating and pointing an object believed to be a gun at another driver. Another report said that Elifritz jumped out of a moving vehicle, appearing drunk or high. Yet another report alleged that Elifritz had held a knife to another mans throat.

The police killing of Elifritz, who leaves behind a wife and 12-year-old daughter, is yet another demonstration of the fact that police violence in the United States is fundamentally an issue of class, not race. Like the largest number of victims of police homicide, Elifritz was a white man from a working-class background. He is the third person in 16 months to be fatally shot by police in Portland, a city whose chief of police, Danielle Outlaw, is an African-American woman.

Outlaw, who was appointed last year by the citys notoriously anti-homeless Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler, has made vague and empty pledges of transparency in the investigation into Elifritzs killing. However, while the Portland Police Bureau had initially promised to release the names of the eight officers involved in the shooting on Sunday, it has since delayed the release indefinitely citing supposed threats to the officers safety.

Security camera footage of the incident has likewise been withheld pending the verdict of a grand jury investigation into whether the shooting was justified. The overwhelming majority of grand juries convened over police killings fail to bring charges against the officers involved, so it is highly unlikely that Elifritzs killers in the police force will ever be brought to trial.
The political conflict within the US ruling elite escalated to new levels Monday, with FBI agents in Manhattan raiding the home and office of Michael Cohen, the personal attorney of President Donald Trump, and the president denouncing his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation indirectly triggered the raid.

The raid was reported by the New York Times Monday afternoon and quickly became the subject of non-stop coverage on the television networks. Cohen is allegedly under investigation in connection with the payment of $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The payment was made during the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign to insure her silence about a ten-year-old relationship with Trump.

Both the scale of the raid and the nature of the materials seized are extraordinary. FBI agents reportedly entered Cohens home on Park Avenue, a room he was temporarily occupying at the Loews Regency Hotel, and his office in Rockefeller Center. They took not only documents related to the payment to Daniels, but records of communications between Cohen and Trump that would normally be considered protected under attorney-client privilege.

The W ashington Post reported that the FBI took from Cohens office his personal computer, his phone and personal financial records. The newspaper claimed, citing a person with knowledge of the case, that Cohen is under investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.

The campaign finance violation charge would relate to the payment to Daniels, made 12 days before the election, from what Cohen claimed were personal funds. If he was not reimbursed by Trumpand the president claimed not to have known of the paymentthe $130,000 could be construed as a donation to the campaign, far exceeding the $2,700 legal limit.

The FBI raids were carried out based on search warrants obtained by the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey S. Berman, a Trump appointee. Press reports said that special counsel Robert Mueller referred the possible charges against Cohen to the US attorney, indicating that the case was not within the scope of his own investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The referral would have required approval by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises the Mueller investigation.

Cohens attorney Stephen Ryan denounced the FBI raids. The decision by the US Attorneys Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, he told the press. It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients. He said Cohen has already supplied thousands of documents to Congress, sat for sworn depositions, and otherwise cooperated with federal investigators.

Cohen has been a peripheral figure in the Russia investigation, named in the notorious Steele dossier, paid for by the Clinton campaign, which compiled a number of allegations about Trumps business operations in Russia. One of the most dubious claims was that Cohen had met with Russian officials in the Czech Republic to discuss a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow. Cohen has denied ever visiting the Czech Republic.

Frank Montoya, a former FBI agent who served for years under Robert Mueller when he was FBI director (2001-2013), writing in the New York Daily News, said the tactic of executing a search warrant rather than a subpoena was an indication of extreme hostility to both Cohen and Trump on the part of the US attorney and the FBI. These prosecutors and investigators dont trust them, he wrote, and are playing hardball, like they would with a drug dealer or a terrorist 

Not only the manner, but the timing of the raids is extraordinary, coming as the Trump administration is preparing to launch a major military operation against Syria. If anything, the raids seem likely to push Trump into a more aggressive military strike, which would serve to push his legal problems off the front pages. Such action would also placate his opponents within the military-intelligence apparatus, who, backed by virtually the entire Democratic Party and some prominent Republicans, have been clamoring for a more confrontational policy towards Russia.

Trump responded to the FBI raids with a ten-minute diatribe Monday evening before reporters and television cameras who had been ushered into the White House to record the beginning of a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss military options for a US attack on Syria. He denounced the raid on his lawyer as a disgraceful situation and total witch hunt.

He added, When I saw this, when I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness. He said the Mueller investigators were the most biased group of people  These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I have ever seen. Democrats all. Either Democrats or a couple of Republicans who worked for President Obama.

When one reporter shouted a question about whether he would fire Mueller, Trump replied, Well see what happens, adding that many of his supporters were urging him to do so. Why dont I just fire Mueller? he continued without answering the question, referring instead to the chain of command in the Department of Justice.

As reactionary as Trump and his administration are, there is nothing progressive or democratic about the mobilization of the intelligence and police agencies of the state against him. The campaign against Trump being spearheaded by the Democratic Party, based on concocted claims of Russian meddling and fake news, is aimed at whipping up a war hysteria against Russia and justifying Internet censorship. The escalating political warfare in Washington is a struggle between opposed factions of the same corporate-financial elite, largely over US imperialist foreign policy issues.

Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, but he can order Rosenstein to do so and fire Rosenstein if he refuses. The latest stage of the conflict sets up the possibility of a repetition of Richard Nixons Saturday Night Massacre, when the two top officials of the Justice Department resigned rather than fire special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. Nixon prevailed on the third-ranking official, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to do the dirty work.

Democratic Party leaders, who have made the Russia investigation the sole axis of their opposition to Trump, responded to Trumps comments with a further public defense of Special Counsel Mueller. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Monday night denouncing Trumps disparagement of special counsel Muellers investigation as a grave reminder of his utter contempt for the rule of law. She reiterated the unsupported claim that the Russians perpetrated a strategic attack on the 2016 elections to support the Trump campaign.

Most Democrats and some Republicans have suggested that if Trump fired Mueller, it would trigger impeachment proceedings by the House of Representatives.
Air France workers are taking strike action today over wage demands, after rail workers mounted a fourth day of rotating strikes yesterday against President Emmanuel Macrons austerity measures. Trade union officials and students occupying universities to protest Macrons moves to impose harsher selection procedures also mounted a protest outside the National Assembly, as it launched two weeks of debate on the planned privatization of the French National Railways (SNCF).

The rail strike continued, with one quarter of rail workers listed as striking, including 75 percent of train drivers and 71 percent of controllers. Only one in every five high-speed trains (TGV), one in every three express regional trains, and one in six inter-city trains were running. SNCF management reported that the strike has already cost the company 100 million in lost revenues.

The number of rail workers formally listed as striking went down yesterday, but there were many signs of growing militancy among workers and suspicion of the unions strategy of holding rotating strikes two days a week until June, when the Assembly is slated to approve the rail bill.

Union officials and workers at the North and Saint Lazare Stations in Paris voted to authorize indefinite renewable strikes, effectively repudiating the union leaderships strategy of limited, rotating strikes while continuing to negotiate the cuts with Macron. It was in particular a rebuke to Philippe Martinez, the leader of the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union, who went on Europe1 radio yesterday morning to say that he does not want a lasting labor conflict.

While union officials typically report that workers are staying away from their strike meetings, a number of workers showed up at the North Station meeting yesterday, together with protesting University of Paris students from the Tolbiac and Saint Denis campuses. Everyone was there, one union official told Liberation, which quoted a rail worker at the meeting as saying: They are just playing with us, we have to go all the way now. We have to break Macron.

A CGT member at the North Station disavowed the CGTs policy: I am CGT, but I am for indefinite strike action. As I see it, we have to go for it now, we cant just wait for weeks this way.

The radicalization of broad layers of the French and European population is proceeding rapidly and moving towards a confrontation with the Macron administration and the European Union (EU). The central challenge facing workers and youth is to fully grasp the implications of the struggle that will emerge as they move into opposition to the EUs agenda of militarism and war. There will be no peaceful, negotiated settlement by which the ruling elite peacefully agrees to abandon this agenda.

The massive police build-up across Europe, the writing of the provisions of the state of emergency permanently into Frances anti-terror law, and the constant NATO war threats against Syria and Russia are sharp warnings that the ruling elite is considering a crackdown and military escalation. Driven by the escalating military and economic crisis of world capitalism, they are determined to ram the attacks through and restructure class relations in Europe along authoritarian lines, so that French imperialism can compete in the escalating war drive and scramble for profits internationally.

Workers entering into struggle against the EU and Macron will be compelled to fight to bring down the Macron government and mobilize workers in France and across Europe in a struggle for state power.

WSWS reporters attended a protest held by the CGT and SUD (Solidarity Unity Democracy) unions near the National Assembly in Paris, as parliamentarians began to debate the rail privatization. Though the rally was dominated by union officials and legislators close to the union bureaucracy, some workers and youth in attendance spoke to the WSWS about their growing opposition to austerity and war.

Benjamin told the WSWS: I am at the Post Office; what they are doing at the SNCF is what they did to us at the Post Office and they did even worse to my friends at Orange/France Telecom. That means going to more precarious conditions, more competition means systematically lowering working conditions, freezing wages, jobs where you are working next to temp workers who arent working in the same conditions at all.

Government officials, Benjamin said, tell us all the time that there is no money for hospitals, for schools, for any of the public services. But then, to buy Rafale fighter jets, they always find the money. Obviously, Im not for that.

Benjamin said he opposed social attacks on working people being used to fund wars in Iraq and Syria that are based on lies: They already did this to us with Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction. Now Im not a great specialist on Syrian politics, but I think its the same people who absolutely want to bomb all those countries who want to crush the workers and spread misery here in France.

The WSWS also spoke to two students from the University of Paris-Tolbiac, who said they had come to the protest out of solidarity with rail workers: We want to be with them, and in particular we at Tolbiac are organizing a party for the rail workers Saturday on the Tolbiac campus to bring our support to their strike fund. And we think the rail workers are under attack just when we are facing attacks under the Student Plan, we want to build a stronger movement against it.

They said Macrons attacks would have a broad impact on students: We know that when there is a privatization there will also be sackings, it will hit jobs and wages. We will soon be on the job market, very soon even, and we do not want our social rights degraded, to lose the right to a pension We know that if they get the attack on the rail workers through, then it will be the public service and finally it will be an open door to all sorts of attacks.

They also indicated their lack of confidence in the trade unions: The union confederations, SUD-Rail, they are only calling for rotating strikes two days per week, that is not enough to make the government back down. Macron wants to break the social rights of the rail workers and the union confederations do not have a plan that is up to the task.

The maneuvers in the National Assembly yesterday in the opening discussion of Macrons privatization plans reflected the attempts by the political establishment to impose the bill while trying to acknowledge and cynically manipulate rising opposition to Macrons platform.

After Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne gave introductory remarks hailing the bill to a virtually empty Assembly chamber, Olivier Faure of the Socialist Party (PS), which introduced the labor law based on which Macron is attacking the SNCF, made a few cynical criticisms. He said the PS has divergences with the proposed bill, and warned that Macron would encounter the hostility of the rail workers and also of commuters and of France.

The right-wing The Republicans (LR) party indicated that it would decide today whether to abstain or vote no on the privatization measure, not because they disagreed with the attack on the rail workers, but because they thought that Macrons resort to decrees to pass it would discredit the bill. Why use the labor decrees? Macron could just have had confidence in the National Assembly and the Senate, a LR deputy told Le Parisien.
Yesterday saw British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron indicate their readiness for coordinated action with the United States in Syria, including a possible military strike.

May linked action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with denunciations of its backers, including Russia.

Macron rang US President Donald Trump to agree that chemical weapons had been used in Syrias Eastern Ghouta region on April 7, issuing a statement with the caveat, All responsibilities in this area must be clearly established.

Macron has previously declared the use of chemical weapons to be a red line that would prompt French action.

Britains Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking as Washingtons mouthpiece, earlier told his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, that a full range of options should be on the table, including airstrikes against military targets.

The alleged chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta provides an all-too convenient excuse for both countries to deepen their existing operations in Syria, including participating in a possible ground war that both governments have until now officially rejected.

In fact, France and the UK already have troops on the ground in Syria, though at this point limited to their special forces.

On April 6, representatives of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the self-proclaimed Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava), told Russias Sputnik news channel that French and British troops had been deployed in the region.

Rezan Gulo, the defense minister of the Kurdish canton of Jazire in Rojava, stated: The military contingent of the US, Britain and France is located not only in Manbij but also in Tell Abyad, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Tabqa, within the framework of the [US-led] coalitions assistance [to the SDF]. The coalition forces are increasing their presence throughout northern Syria.

On April 5, Turkeys pro-government Yeni Safak reported that France had deployed 50 soldiers to Manbij to support the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), while the state-run Anadolu Agency said 100 French special forces personnel were deployed at five bases in YPG-controlled areas of Syria.

On April 3, Americas Defense Post had already reported that US and French troops were operating in northern Syria. It cited from Gulos interview with the Kurdish broadcaster Kurdistan 24, reporting: Sometimes the NATO states deny the existence of their forces in the region to avoid any tension, but, actually, French and US troops are operating on the ground in our region.

On March 30, Turkeys state owned Anadolu news agency published a map detailing the locations of French special forces in northern Syria.

The wide range of reports of a French military deployment in Syria came after a meeting between Macron and a delegation from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris on March 29.

Following the meeting, both Kurdish officials and the media reported that Paris was planning to send additional French troops to Manbij, the northern Syrian city occupied by the SDF, to accompany US troops. According to the French daily Le Parisien, the aim of the deployment was to block the advance of the Turkish army eastwards.

Having declined to comment on whether Paris was sending troops, Macron's office stated that it was not planning any new military operation in northern Syria and offered to mediate between Ankara and the SDF.

Ankara sharply criticised Frances wrong stance and categorically rejected Macrons offer. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his government had no need for mediation, adding, you can sit down at the table with terror organisations, but Turkey will continue its fight against terror.

Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli described any French military deployment in the region as an illegitimate step that would go against international law and in fact, it would be an invasion.

Paris first admitted the existence of its special forces on the ground in Syria in June 2016, when Le Drian confirmed that France was providing weapons, air support and advice to the SDF during the battle to recapture Manbij from Islamic State. Nevertheless, there is no official information about the numbers involved and the missions they have conducted.

The same holds true regarding British troops. While being one of the main coalition partners of the US government in its predatory war for regime-change in Syria, the British government has no mandate for ground activities and gives no information about its dirty operations in Syria.

However, their presence could no longer be denied after reports of the killing of two coalition troopsone American and one Britishon March 30, by a roadside bomb in Manbij.

The March 31 Daily Mirror reported the casualty as 33-year-old SAS member and sniper Sergeant Matt Tonroe, from Manchester. He died alongside Master Sgt Jonathan Dunbar of the US Delta Force.

On April 8, the Sun ran a bloodthirsty article detailing how the ruthless SAS had killed 12 jihadis in revenge for Tonroe . A Special Forces source was quoted saying, The attacks have been unrelentingassaults are being launched night and day These are kill-not-capture missions If they fight, they die.

Almost two years ago, in August 2016, the BBC obtained exclusive pictures showing, for the first time, British Special Forces operating on the ground in Syria. The Ministry of Defence refused to comment. It took several months for the British Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, to announce the deployment of an extra 20 trainers in addition to some 500 British infantry in the Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish regions, purportedly to help train moderate Syrian rebels engaged in the fight against Islamic State.

The deployment of British and French troops was publicly condemned by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as far back as March 18 as illegal and a direct involvement in the war.

Lavrov said in an interview with the Kazakh state broadcaster: There are special forces on the ground in Syria from the USthey no longer deny itthe UK, France and a number of other countries Thus, its not so much of a proxy war, but rather a direct involvement in the war.

He added that the US coalition is illegitimate from the standpoint of international law and the United Nations Charter. But we are realistic and understand that we wouldnt fight with them, he stated. So, we coordinate actions at least to prevent unintended clashes. Our military always keeps in touch with the American commanders who lead the operation on Syrian territory.

Moscow, he explained, was in a permanent dialogue with the US General Staff officials, who actually lead the operation on the ground.

No such dialogue occurred prior to yesterdays early morning air strike on a Syrian airbase in Homs that killed at least 14 personnel, including Iranians. This indicates that the US and its allies will also not give any warning of action they plan to take on the pretext of a reprisal for Eastern Ghouta. Britain and France would then be involved alongside Washington in a potentially direct confrontation with Russia, in an alliance with the very jihadis they claim to be opposing in Manbij.
The US has not ruled out launching airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in response to the weekend's suspected chemical gas attack on civilians, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday.

"I don't rule out anything right now," Mattis said while hosting Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, at the Pentagon.

"The first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all chemical weapons, and so working with our allies and partners from NATO to Qatar and elsewhere we are going to address this issue," Mattis continued.

President Donald Trump strongly condemned the "atrocious" chemical weapons attack in Syria during a Cabinet meeting at the White House Monday and said a decision on US action would be made over the next 24-48 hours.

"I'd like to begin by condemning the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons," he said. "It was an atrocious attack, it was horrible, you don't see things like that as bad as the news is around the world, you just don't see those images."

"We are very concerned, when a thing like that can happen, this is about humanity. We're talking about humanity. And it can't be allowed to happen," he added.

Asked if US military action is off the table in response to the chemical weapons attack, Trump told reporters it's not.

"Nothing's off the table," he said, shortly after noting that major decisions would be made in the next day or two.

Trump also expressed frustration at investigators not being able to get immediate answers about who was behind the attack.

"So if it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon," the President said.

Asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin bears responsibility for the attack, Trump said he may and, if so, Putin will pay a price.

"He may, yeah, he may, and if he does, it's gonna be very tough. Very tough," the President said.

"Everybody's gonna pay a price, he will and everybody will," Trump said.

National Security Council principals are holding a "small group" meeting to discuss Syria on Monday, led by John Bolton on his first official day as White House national security adviser, two administration officials told CNN.

A small group meeting is typically held to discuss options for the President, one of the officials said. Trump is not participating in the meeting according to a senior administration official.

Syrian activist groups on Saturday said toxic gas inside barrel bombs dropped from helicopters over a rebel-held city in Syria killed dozens of civilians and wounded scores more. Syrian state news said an "official source" denied the allegations.

Trump on Sunday warned Syria and its two closest allies, Russia and Iran, of a "big price to pay" following the attack, and slammed Assad as an "animal" on Twitter.

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," Trump tweeted. "Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price..."

He continued, "....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A recent study shows a majority of Hoosier parents think their kids are safe at school but, after seventeen people were killed in a Florida school shooting, Indiana lawmakers will discuss other safety measures during a special session.



Indiana is one of only two states in the nation with a law requiring every public school have a certified safety specialist. Most schools in the state have more than one. These specialists are trained to deal with everything from cyber bullying to active shooters. They do not have to have a background in security and can sometimes be the school superintendent or principal.

According to the National Survey of Children's Health nearly eighty percent of Hoosier parents "definitely agree" their student is safe in school but those responses were collected before recent school shootings in other parts of the country.

Tami Silverman is CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute. She says the goal is to reach ninety-five percent of parents feeling their children are safe while at school.



"The reality is if you don't feel safe in your environment you're not going to be able to focus on your studies, you're not going to be as engaged in school."

Governor Eric Holcomb wanted lawmakers to approve additional funding for school safety during the regular session but they did not. Now, they'll head back to the capital in May to take up the issue again.

News 10 asked you on Facebook what measures lawmakers should consider. Some says schools should have metal detectors. Others think military veterans should get jobs as armed guards. Several people also mentioned mental health and the need for more counselors and resources for students who are victims of bullying.

Silverman says, "Access to mental health professionals for students is inadequate at this point. We know that there's just not enough individuals out there providing the services and there isn't access to that for all of our students."

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick is asking lawmakers for more money for mental health resources. She also thinks private schools should have the same safety requirements as public schools.

It remains to be seen what, if anything, will be decided during the May special session.

Silverman says parents should contact their schools to learn more about the safety plan. She says concerned parents or family will often ask police questions but it is up to the schools to establish a safety plan. School officials will likely not go into detail but should be able to provide some answers to parents.

For more information about the Indiana Youth Institute, click here.
VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - It's the scene many have yet to forget. An FBI raid at the Vigo County School Corporation and several of its buildings dominated headlines two summers ago in June 2016.

"He did not want to be involved in this, never wanted to be involved in a kickback scheme," said Linda Pence, lawyer.

Pence represents Michael Pick and his business, M&P Properties. Both are listed as defendants in the civil lawsuit filed by the Vigo County School Corporation in February.

The lawsuit is in response to a kickback scheme. Franklin Fennell and Frank Shahadey were accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the school corporation through inflated invoices from Pick's business. Fennell and Shahadey were later convicted for their role in the incident.

Pence has represented Pick for two years.

When Pence spoke with News 10 she said Pick is an honest, kind, man who did the right thing by cooperating during the investigation.

"Mr. Pick, when all the facts are known, is going to be the true hero," Pence added, "He went into the government on his own, without any promises or assurances, and worked wearing a wire for about five months. This school board would not have known the extent of the activity, they would have lost a lot more money, but for Mike Pick, they wouldn't have the convictions."

That's what led Pence to travel to Terre Haute for Monday's school board meeting.

On the meeting agenda, board approval was requested in regards to taking legal action against Franklin Fennell, Frank Shahadey, Paula Shahadey, Michael Pick and M&P Properties Group, LLC.

Board President Jackie Lower confirmed to News 10 that board members voted to move forward with the civil lawsuit.

However, the approval of the lawsuit led to confusion for some of the involved parties. That's because according to the documents, the lawsuit had already been filed in February.

"It was filed at a time when Mr. Pick was prepared to make restitution, and he had advised that he would be making restitution for his activity years ago when he first got involved in this case," Pence said, "So when the lawsuit was actually filed, I was shocked. Yet I wanted to see today why they are now ratifying the filing of the lawsuit because that says to me when the lawsuit was filed in February, the board hadn't approved it, which is unusual."

Kal Ellis, who represents Frank and Paula Shahadey, also shared the same concern. That's also because the lawsuit was later amended in March to include Paula Shahadey as a defendant.

"We're confused, the public is confused, I think the news media is confused as to what the real facts are," said Ellis, "Who made the decision to file the lawsuit? And if the board did not make the decision, then who made the decision? Who has the authority to bring a civil lawsuit without the board members ratifying and consenting to it?"

Ellis says Frank Shahadey has and still is, paying his debt to society. Since he's already paying restitution, Ellis says he believes the added lawsuit is overkill.

As far as Paula Shahadey, the lawsuit alleges she knew about and benefitted from the kickback scheme.

"Mr. Shahadey, he's been paying restitution for the last several months, and was that brought before the board prior to deciding whether to file a lawsuit?" Ellis said, "As for my other client, Mrs. Shahadey, there's no evidence she was involved at all."

Pence says she believes the lawsuit is part of an attack on Pick. Because of that, she says she is prepared to battle the complaint.

"I will be inquiring as to the reasons for the filing of this lawsuit, what's behind it, and what in fact are they trying to seek?" Pence said, "They want to apparently spend a substantial amount for attorney fees trying to collect who knows what, and as I've said, Mr. Pick from the get-go, said he would make restitution of any ill-gotten gains received by him, and he will do that. He is a stand-up guy."

Attorney Jonathan Mayes represents the school corporation. While he was not at Monday's meeting, a statement from him was printed in his absence:

"Over four years ago, Franklin Fennell, Frank Shahadey and Michael Pick entered into a criminal scheme to take public funds from the Vigo County School Corporation--monies intended for teachers, educational supplies, and facilities for the benefit of Vigo County children. Two years ago, Vigo County School Corporation employees alerted federal law enforcement of this scheme, launching a federal criminal investigation. Federal law enforcement agencies brought justice late last year. On April 19, 2018, Fennell will be sentenced by a federal judge following his December 13, 2017 conviction by a jury. Although the School Corporation is unaware of any ongoing investigative activity by federal or local law enforcement, the School Corporation looks forward to receiving formal notice that the investigation, which revealed the criminal scheme and produced convictions of Shahadey and Fennell, has ended. The focus now turns to recouping unpaid damages caused by this criminal scheme.

Indiana's Crime Victim Act allows victims, like the Vigo County School Corporation, to pursue civil damages against wrongdoers. By authorizing a lawsuit against those who defrauded the Vigo County School Corporation, the School Corporation seeks to recoup public funds unlawfully taken that were for student's education. The School Corporation also seeks to send a message to those who would consider defrauding public institutions. Since Shahadey has pleaded guilty, Fennell was convicted, and Pick admitted under oath to involvement in the criminal scheme, the School Corporation expects these defendants to accept responsibility for their established and admitted actions."

News 10 is still working to officially speak with the school corporation's legal counsel on the matter. We'll bring you the latest as we hear more.
(AP) - President Donald Trump has lashed out against special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation, branding it an attack on our country and exhibiting mounting concern about the yearlong probe after federal authorities raided the offices of his personal attorney.

Caught off guard and furious with the encroaching inquiry, the president showed a flare of temper watching cable news coverage of the raid Monday afternoon, summoning lawyers Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow to get their opinion of what was happening.

Aides and outside allies described Trump as shaken and increasingly frustrated by the development, and they said his reaction had sparked discussion about whether the raid would usher an unpredictable new phase in how the president responds to the probe.

Trump vented from the Oval Office that Muellers investigators were going too far and conducting their witch hunt to undermine his presidency, according to three people familiar with the presidents views but not allowed to discuss them publicly.

Minutes later he publicly unleashed his sharpest invective to date against the sweeping investigation, calling the Monday search a disgrace.

Its an attack on our country in a true sense, he said in the Cabinet Room, flanked by the nations top military brass, who watched the scene stone-faced. Its an attack on what we all stand for.

Trump let loose after federal agents pierced the protective bubble around him, seizing records from the offices of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen, on topics including a $130,000 payment made to a porn actress who says she had sex with Trump more than a decade ago.

Cohen has been an ardent defender in Trumps business, personal and political affairs for more than a decade  Cohen claims to have used a personal home equity loan to pay the adult film actress, known as Stormy Daniels  and the probes expansion into the presidents inner circle left Trump fuming.

The president didnt bat away the idea of firing Mueller, saying people have advised him to take that action: Why dont I just fire Mueller? Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on  well see what happens.

He said the raid in New York marked a whole new level of unfairness by Mueller and his team.

Trump called the probe a witch hunt, as he has many times in the past, complaining that it distracts from serious issues such as consideration of a military response to the apparent use of a chemical weapon on Syrian civilians over the weekend. That was one of the intended subjects of his Monday evening meeting with the defense secretary, the joint chiefs of staff and U.S. combat commanders.

Instead, with reporters in the Cabinet Room and cameras rolling, Trump opened the meeting with an unprompted four-minute critique of Muellers investigation. I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, Trump began, referring to agents who had obtained search warrants from a federal judge.

The raid on Cohens office was conducted by the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan and was based at least partly on a referral from Mueller, according to Cohens lawyer, Stephen Ryan.

Trump blasted the Mueller team as the most conflicted group of people Ive ever seen, labeling most of them Democrats and saying the few Republicans had worked for President Barack Obama.

Theyre not looking at the other side, he complained, referencing the long investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. Theyre not looking at the Hillary Clinton horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that she committed.

Mueller, a lifelong Republican, and his team of attorneys have been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and associated misdeeds in the presidents orbit since May 2017.

Mueller reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel last year after the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Trump lit into Sessions, repeating in public his private criticism of the attorney general for making a terrible mistake in recusing himself from the Russia probe. Trump said Sessions should have certainly let us know he would step aside in the probe and we would have put a different attorney general in.

Word of the Cohen raid came as the White House suffers from decreased morale amid a period of staff turnover and policy unpredictability. It also comes as aides are girding for the release of Comeys memoir next week, which promises to reveal new details about the former FBI directors conversations with the president and the Russia probe.

The harsh tone of Trumps comments immediately drew warnings from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have sought to preserve Muellers independence.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he didnt know the purpose of Muellers raid on Cohen, but added, I just want to let Mr. Mueller do his job without any political interference.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York released a statement warning Trump against firing Mueller. The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy and must be allowed to continue, he said.

Under Justice Department regulations, Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, but could order Rosenstein or his successor to remove the special counsel. The regulations only allow Muellers removal for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or for other good cause including violation of Justice Department policies.
A Utah man is in custody in Fremont County after allegedly raping an adult family member.

Jacob Oberg, 26, is accused of a drugging and raping a 23-year-old female relative while on a camping trip in Island Park last June. Both the victim and the suspect are from the Roy, Utah, area.

Court documents show the incident was reported to Fremont County Sheriff deputies over the phone by the victim's stepfather sometime afterward. Deputies worked with the Roy City Police Department to interview the suspect and victim and investigate the crime.

During interviews, the victim told officers she drank a beer given to her by Oberg during the outing. After drinking it, she said she became dizzy, "felt paralyzed" and like her fingers were tingling. She said she felt it was hard to breathe.

Then, Oberg allegedly began kissing the victim on the face and neck and then led her to a camper, where he undressed her. The victim reports going in and out of consciousness, but says she could see Oberg sexually assaulting her. She said she wasn't able to do anything to defend herself as she couldn't move her arms or legs.

She also remembered hearing the sounds of a camera click from a cell phone and thought Oberg had documented the incident.

Documents show the victim was in pain due to the alleged rape and very sick after it had taken place. She also reported her undergarments were missing.

Fremont County detectives received a warrant for Oberg's cell phone and confiscated it. They found numerous Snapchat messages between Oberg and the victim on the phone. They also found a picture message of what appeared to be a male and a female having sex with an explicit caption. The text suggests it could have been the victim in the photo.

Deputies also found messages where the victim confronted Oberg about "slipping something into her drink" and that she knows about the alleged rape. The victim also said she wasn't going to tell anyone because she didn't want to hurt other relatives.

In the Snapchat messages, Oberg replied, "Ok sorry that I went too far, I was drunk, I know that is no exvuse (sic)."

He also told her, "I think it is best to go back to normal likr (sic) before and never mention anything I think we can borh (sic) handle it I will nave (sic) make another segestive (sic) comment again. I enjoy chilling and smoking with u."

A warrant was issued by Fremont County detectives in August, and Oberg was arrested in September.

Documents show Oberg has a history of taking the victim's underwear when they were younger. Additionally, Oberg has a history of sexually abusing the victim while she was between the ages of 8 and 12, and he was a juvenile. He was caught by a family member and formally charged. That case is sealed due to the suspect being a juvenile at that time.

Oberg was on probation in Utah at the time of the incident in Island Park. Dates on the Idaho repository overlap and show the case was closed on Nov. 6, and a new case with the same charge was filed opened the same day. It's unclear why it was re-filed. Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Murdoch declined to comment on the case.

"My office policy is that I don't discuss open cases while they're still pending," Murdoch said.

Oberg remains in custody at the Fremont County Jail. His bond is set at $50,000.

He is scheduled for a pretrial conference on April 16.
Colombia's former rebel group FARC has reacted angrily to the arrest of one of its prominent members on drug charges, warning the move is an obstacle to peace.

Colombian federal agents arrested Seuxis Paucis Hern-ndez Solarte, alias "Jes-s Santrich," on Monday, according to a statement from Colombia's attorney general. Santrich and three others face extradition to the United States, the statement said.

Ex-rebel groups says arrest is "worst moment" in peace process Prominent member and three others face extradition to the US

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced Tuesday that Santrich and three other FARC associates were arrested in Colombia and accused of "conspiring and attempting to import cocaine into the United States."

"As alleged, these defendants conspired to ship thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to the streets of the US. Thanks to the investigative work of the DEA, they are now under arrest and face significant criminal charges," US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement.

The indictment, unsealed in federal court, alleges the suspects worked together to produce and distribute approximately 10,000 kilograms (about 11 tons) of cocaine. If convicted, they face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum term of life in prison, according the US Attorney's statement.

Santrich was a prominent member of the FARC, a guerilla group formerly known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016.

It now functions as a political party named the Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Com-n" or "Common Alternative Revolutionary Force."

A FARC spokesman said in a statement posted to Twitter that Santrich's arrest was the "worst moment" of the peace process. Santrich was a member of FARC's main delegation at the negotiations that led to the peace deal being announced in Cuba.

Under that agreement, former FARC combatants were allocated 10 seats in Colombia's congress until 2026. Santrich was one of FARC's candidates in last month's congressional elections.

Santrich was indicted by a US federal grand jury on a narco-trafficking charge.

An Interpol red alert said Santrich conspired to export cocaine to the United States between June 2017 and April 2018 -- after the November 2016 signing of the landmark peace deal that saw the former rebel group turn in its arms in exchange for reintegration into society.

Read about Santrich's arrest in Spanish on CNN Espanol

FARC responds

FARC slammed the arrest and extradition request in a statement released Tuesday: "The judicial order issued yesterday by the US goes against national sovereignty and is a slap in the face to the agreements made with the FARC. It also shows the lack of willingness from the regime to facilitate a true peace process, with the new changes in Colombia."

On Monday, Ivan Marquez, a chief negotiator during the peace process, called on the Colombian government to "act and prevent these legal obstacles from generating mistrust."

FARC leaders also stated that the arrest demonstrated the group's vulnerability.

"This is a very delicate and dangerous situation. This, yet again, underscores what we have been complaining about in relation to the legal insecurity and lack of guarantees that we have as members of the FARC political party," former FARC commander Victoria Sandino said in a statement. "This is sabotage and an obstacle for those that have committed wholeheartedly to this process, starting with one of the main negotiators and signatory of the peace accord."

Colombian President says law must be respected

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for overseeing the accord to end Colombia's half-century civil conflict, addressed Santrich's arrest.

"The vast majority of former fighters have complied with the peace accord in good faith, in line with the law and the constitution. We guarantee all of them that we will respect the accord, in particular their special legal treatment and their reintegration.

"But I must be emphatic and categorical: Building peace requires absolute compliance with and respect for the law and for accords. This is what the Colombian people have demanded. There will be no tolerance or wavering on this," Manuel Santos said.

He added: "The attorney general has informed me that, following rigorous investigations, he has strong and conclusive proof that will show Mr. Seuxis Hernandez, a.k.a. Jesus Santrich, is responsible for narco-trafficking crimes committed after the signing of the accord. Of course he, like all citizens, should have his rights respected, including his right to due process.

"The accord is clear and I will strictly abide by it: I will not extradite anyone for crimes committed before the signing of the accord and during the conflict.

"That said, if due process is followed -- and if there is irrefutable proof -- there is room to carry out extraditions for crimes committed after the signing of the accord. I will have no hesitation to authorize that."

What is the FARC?

FARC was formed in 1964 with rebels wanting to forcibly redistribute wealth in Colombia. Inspired by the success of the Cuban revolution and espousing anti-US and Marxist ideology, the group drew the overwhelming majority of its members from the rural poor.

It was funded by a sophisticated cocaine trafficking network and was armed with child soldiers.

The armed group seized territory, attacked government forces and interfered with political life through high-profile kidnappings.

Among the group's most notorious feats was the 2002 capture of presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was held deep in the jungle for six years before a Colombian military operation rescued her.

Both the United States and European Union designated it as a terrorist group.
As the city clerk in the capital of one of the nation's most liberal states, John Odum had been asked the question dozens of times: Why can't non-citizens vote in elections? After all, they own land and pay taxes.

"I always acted like it was a strange question," Odum, the city clerk in Montpelier, Vermont, told CNN.

But after doing some research Odum determined it's not such "a crazy question" after all.

Odum discovered that noncitizens voted in American elections for more than 150 years, from around the time of the American Revolution up until after World War I. And even today noncitizens are voting in some local elections in a handful of US cities and towns.

So later in the month, Odum plans to hold a public hearing to gauge just how much interest is out there to allow noncitizens to vote in Montpelier's local elections. And if the interest is there, Odum said the community would have to plot a way forward to make such an idea a reality.

It would be "just a conversation among citizens of Montpelier," he said. "We would have to make the argument that it's the kind decision that our community could make."

Proposal would face many roadblocks

Odum said Vermont's state constitution doesn't explicitly bar noncitizens from voting in local elections. But the city's charter would need to be changed, via a special election, to allow it in Montpelier. And then state lawmakers in Vermont would have to give it their OK.

A measure allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections could pass in liberal Montpelier, predicts Odum, who said he's received very little pushback since word of this proposal got out.

"Nothing from inside of Montpelier," he said. "And just a smidgen from outside the city."

But he's not so sure state lawmakers would go for it.

And the president of a conservative Vermont think tank doesn't like the idea either. Rob Roper says noncitizens shouldn't be considered permanent residents or legal voters.

"The question we have is do we want people who are not living in those communities as permanent, primary residents influencing the outcome of elections for people who do live there as permanent, primary residents," Roper told CNN affiliate WCAX.

Odum doesn't think that if Montpelier allowed noncitizens to vote that a horde of people from nearby Canada would flood the city to vote in its local elections. He doesn't think the change would affect that many people at all.

"We're talking a very small amount. Maybe a dozen, maybe not even that. It's more about responding to those few people that are already here," he said.

An idea old as America itself

Some say the idea is un-American, but actually noncitizens voting in elections goes back to the founding of the United States, according to research from Jamie Raskin, who's taught constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law for more than two decades. Raskin, a Democrat, is also a US congressman, representing Maryland's 8th congressional district.

After the American Revolution non-US citizens were allowed to vote in a number of states, Raskin writes, and by the 19th century noncitizens in at least 22 US states or territories were voting in local, state and federal elections.

But a flood of immigrants to America at the start of the 20th century fueled a rise of anti-immigrant sentiment. And by 1926, all states had abolished the practice. Noncitizens have been barred by law from voting in federal elections since 1996.

Noncitizens are allowed to vote in some local elections in Chicago, San Francisco and a few communities in Maryland.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low 72F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low 72F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
PONTOTOC, Miss. (WTVA) - Pontotoc police need the public's help finding a man accused of stealing a radio from a truck.

The theft happened on Friday, April 6 at Raines Auto Sales on West Oxford Street in Pontotoc.



Suspect's truck | Photo: Crime Stoppers Suspect's truck | Photo: Crime Stoppers

Photo: Crime Stoppers Photo: Crime Stoppers

Police say a man arrived at the business sometime near 7:30 a.m. The radio was stolen from a Nissan Titan truck that was for sale on the lot.

The person-of-interest is described as a white man with facial hair, wearing a light-colored button up shirt, jeans, work boots and a cap.

Police say he was also driving a green Dodge truck shown in the pictures.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at 1-800-773-8477.
Editor's Note: This article has been modified with the latest information provided by the Webster County Sheriff's Department.

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) - A man is accused of pointing a rifle at the Webster County sheriff, but the gun misfired.

Webster County Sheriff Tim Mitchell says his department, along with Eupora police responded to a residence on Highway 82 after a man made a threat Tuesday morning. The type of threat is unkown at this time.

Later, law enforcement said a deputy went to the residence to serve a commitment order.

Mitchell says the man has a history of mental problems and pointing firearms at law enforcement.

The sheriff says the man barricaded himself in the house. The man is accused of then pointing a 30-30 rifle at the sheriff but the gun misfired. The man was taken into custody and is being turned over to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

The man is identified as Justin Shurden.

"The guy they were seeking did not want to come out of the houe. Once that happened, he (deputy) called for back up. When we arrived, we found he had a weapon there and he barricaded himself in the house and would not come out," said Landon Griffin of the Webster County Sheriff's Department. "Right now, he is being looked at medically and as soon as he gets through, we will look at charges, if any charges are filed."

Sheriff Mitchell says he's lucky to be alive.

WTVA's Xavier Harris will have a full report coming up on WTVA 9 News and online at WTVA.com.
Yerevan police detained two members of the My Step movement after they were spotted drawing graffiti on the street.

The My Step (Im Kayl) movement seeks to prevent outgoing Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan from becoming the countrys next prime minister. Its supporters are marching across Armenia to recruit additional members to the My Step movement.

The two detained individuals, Babgen Grigoryan and Varsenik Ouzounyan, were taken to the Kentron Police Station, this according to Civil Contract Vice-President Souren Papikyan.

Two other My Step supporters were detained, and later released, on Sunday on the same charge; destruction of public property.

Photo: Souren Papikyan
Talks tariffs, border protection, Mueller investigation

WORLAND - U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, spent a portion of her last week in Wyoming before heading back to Washington, D.C. attending Lincoln Day dinners around the Big Horn Basin including Lovell on Thursday, Worland Friday and Fremont County on Saturday.

Cheney said as she's talked to groups during this "home work session" or Congressional recess and has been updating people on some key issues including the tax cut bill, de-regulation of "some of the overreach we've seen the last eight years, and also talking to folks about some of the issues that have been in the news recently such as the tariffs."

TARIFFS

Prior to her giving the keynote address at the Washakie County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, Cheney sat down with the Northern Wyoming Daily News to discuss a number of issues.

Regarding tariffs, she said, "It's absolutely true that the Chinese are cheating, that the Chinese have been for a long time engaged in practices that clearly violate their obligations. But what they are doing goes beyond that, they've been stealing our trade secrets ... they've hacked into the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] computers. They really are moving on all fronts against us. I think it's important for us to recognize that and important for them to know they are going to be held accountable."

Cheney added, "I worry very much about getting into a trade war. It's good that the president narrowed the focus. When he first announced the steel and aluminum tariffs it was very broad. But even with the narrow set that he's announced, I think it could really ended up hurting consumers here in the United States. It could end up hurting our ag industry in terms of inputs they need.

"We've got to make sure we protect ag. I know I've certainly made sure that that message has gotten through, and colleagues of mine from other states where agriculture is so important have also been doing the same thing. Just making sure that we don't get ourselves into a situation if it becomes a trade war, a situation where the repercussions and the response from the Chinese devastate our ag industry."

In addition, she said, with the new tariffs Trump has threatened and the Chinese response, "even though none of those tariffs have gone into place, it's having a huge impact already, in terms of the market, and conditions that ag producers are facing.

"We've got to find a way to avoid a trade war and we've got to find a way to hold the Chinese accountable that doesn't put at risk our most fundamental sources of economic development as well as food for the nation."

MUELLER

INVESTIGATION

Another issue people are asking about is the investigation into possible Russian collusion into the 2016 election by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Cheney said, "My impression is that they are looking at the wrong things. There are some things that are of real concern. It looks like the Obama administration used a political document that the Clinton campaign paid for, and they used that to get a warrant put surveillance on an American citizen. That is fundamentally wrong and disturbing set of circumstances. That's the kind of thing we need to be focused on."

She added, "I think people are right to have real concerns about our law enforcement in terms of the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] and how they were operating and how partisan they seemed to have been and that should never happen."

Among those, according to the Associated Press, Peter Strzok was an FBI counterintelligence agent assigned to Mueller's investigation and was discovered to have exchanged derogatory emails about Trump with FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

RUSSIA

Cheney said, "Instead we have the Mueller investigation looking into, this so-called collusion, which nobody has had any evidence of. I really think we need to spend more time on what really matters, and what really is a danger."

She added that the United States knows that Russia and China are engaged in cyber warfare against the U.S. "We need to be protecting ourselves. I was glad to see the president, just today [Friday] sanctions on a number of Russians in response, partly to their efforts to be involved and engaged in our election process and that's a good thing."

According to the Associated Press, The United States punished dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials on Friday with sanctions that took direct aim at President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Seven Russian tycoons, including aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, were targeted, along with 17 officials and a dozen Russian companies, the Treasury Department said. Senior Trump administration officials cast it as part of a concerted, ongoing effort to push back on Putin, emphasizing that since Trump took office last year, the U.S. has punished 189 Russia-related people and entities with sanctions.

Rather than punishing Russia for one specific action, the new sanctions hit back at the Kremlin for its "ongoing and increasingly brazen pattern" of bad behavior, said the officials, who weren't authorized to comment by name and briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

ELECTION

With the upcoming elections this year, Cheney said the United States needs to make it clear to other countries that they will face "really, severe consequences" if they do try and interfere in our election process.

On a state and county basis, "We've got make sure our electoral process is protected. I support things like having people show their IDs when they go into vote. Often times you get a lot of pushback ... but to me it's just common sense. You've got to make sure the people who are coming in to cast their votes are actually qualified to be voting."

BORDER PROTECTION

On Thursday, President Donald Trump called for 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to help fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

Trump's proclamation directing the use of National Guard troops refers to Title 32, a federal law under which Guard members remain under the command and control of their state's governor, according to the AP.

Texas sent troops late last week with Arizona already pledging troops. Other governors have also voiced support to send troops if called, according to the AP, those states include Mississippi, Wisconsin, Missouri, North Dakota and Iowa. Montana Governor Steve Bullock has said he will not. Several other states are reviewing numbers of guard troops available and have not made decisions either way.

Cheney said Friday, "No. 1 I support his decision to do that. I think that's the right decision to do. You've had a lot of inaccurate reporting. I've seen analysis that this is 'unprecedented,' when in fact President Obama did it [1,200 troops in 2010] and President Bush did it [6,400 from 2006-2008]. It's a really important thing to do. You've also seen in response to his announcement that he was going to be sending troops, some of those caravans [from Central America] turn around."

She added, "We've got to protect the border. We're in an uphill battle. We've had eight years where laws weren't enforced ... we're now faced with a lot of people who make a lot of money getting folks in here illegally, who are exploiting weaknesses in our system. They know if they send kids with adults across the border they're going to get more lenient treatment. We've got a lot of work to do and I think that's why the wall is important and why I was really glad to see President Trump make the decision to send the National Guard."

Read more about the Northern Wyoming Daily News' interview with Rep. Cheney is Wednesday's issue with the two main topics - public lands and the Second Amendment.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-09 22:25:11|Editor: Mengjie

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BOAO, Hainan, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The global value chain will be seriously damaged if the United States insists on a unilateral approach in dealing with a trade spat with China, former Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Monday.

Such unilateral approach will be a step backward for globalization and cause unbearable outcomes, said Chen at the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference.

"The proposed tariff hike on 50 billion U.S. dollars worth of imports from China will undermine not only the interests of Chinese enterprises, but also those of other countries in the global value chain," said Chen.

It is a common practice that parts of a product are produced in various countries and then assembled somewhere else. More than 60 percent of the global trade transactions are realized through intra-firm transfers within multinational companies, he said.

"The United States will lose more than it gains if it encroaches the global value chain using trade protectionism," he said.

Chen's remark was echoed by Francis Gurry, director-general of World Intellectual Property Organization.

"Technology and production are all globalized," said Gurry. "The global value chain will be affected by even a dispute between two parties as many other parties are also involved in the chain."

Jenny Shipley, former New Zealand prime minister, expressed hope that there would be a way out.

Imposing tariffs will hurt ordinary people at a time when the world is trying to improve people's standard of living and well being, she said, adding that small economies also get hit by these types of disputes.

"Inclusion and sharing are part of the future. It's very important that we don't stand back but take actions," she said.
This picture provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Feb. 9, 2018 shows the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un attending the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Korean People's Army in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK. (Xinhua/KCNA)

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has told the United States that it was ready to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at the planned meeting between the two countries' leaders, media reports said Sunday citing U.S. officials.

It is believed to be the first time for Pyongyang to convey the message to Washington directly about its intention to denuclearize, seen as a positive step toward the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un scheduled to take place by the end of May.

"The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a Trump administration official told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

It was not made known when or how the message was delivered, but the U.S. official told media on condition of anonymity that Washington and Pyongyang have held secret contacts recently.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula has thawed in recent months. In March, Trump and Kim agreed to meet, but the timing and place of the high-profile gathering have not been announced yet.

Meanwhile, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold a summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 01:36:10|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will attack any country that threatens the Jewish state.

It is the first official remark from Israel after an alleged Israeli missile strike on a Syrian air base earlier in the day.

"We have a simple rule that we constantly express: Get up and hurt those trying to hurt you," Netanyahu said, without directly mentioning the deadly strike.

"Security in the present is a necessary condition for future security, and what we have here today is a powerful and mighty expression of our future security," he said at a public ceremony in the southern city of Sderot.

Russia and Syria blamed Israel for carrying out an airstrike on the T-4 military air base in Homs Province early Monday.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people, including troops of Iranian forces allied to the government, were killed in the missile strike.

A NBC news report cited anonymous U.S. officials as saying that Israel was behind the attack while Washington was informed in advance.

Under a long-held Israeli policy, Israel refrains from officially commenting or confirming its involvement in air attacks in the territories of its Arab neighboring countries.
ARUSHA, Tanzania, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Eight family members died after a van they were traveling in collided with a passenger bus in southwestern Tanzania's region of Mbeya, police said on Monday.

Mussa Talib, acting Mbeya Regional Police Commander, said the head-on collision occurred at Igodima area, Mwasekwa ward in Mbeya City at around 11 a.m. (local time).

"The ninth passenger on the van survived, but sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital for treatment," said Talib, adding that all passengers of the bus were unhurt.

The regional police chief said the nine family members including the driver had driven from Chunya district in the region to Mbeya city to attend the funeral of their relative who had died days ago.

"The cause of the accident is reckless driving by both drivers: the bus driver was on the wrong side of the road while his counterpart behind the wheels the van was speeding," Talib said.

Monday's crash adds to the long list of deadly accidents that have claimed multiple lives of Tanzanians in various parts of the country with reasons being mainly reckless driving.

On Wednesday night last week, 12 people were killed and 46 others injured in a road accident when a bus, carrying 57 passengers, collided head-on with a lorry in western Tanzania's region of Tabora.

Road accidents that kill thousands of Tanzanians each year. The authorities have issued statements and promised to end the carnage, but with little success.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 02:31:20|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Tens of families of the kidnapped people staged a sit-in in the capital Damascus on Monday, blocking the road, as they wanted to know the fate of their relatives who have been in the rebels' captivity for years.

Upon gathering in the Victoria area in the heart of Damascus, the people demanded to speak on the national TV, and when the reporters arrived they made their only demand to know the destiny of their relatives.

What stirred this situation is the recent deal reached between the Syrian army and the Islam Army rebels in the Douma district, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside.

Douma was believed to contain thousands of kidnapped people, and their release was the priority of the Syrian government in the deal with the Islam Army, which also includes the departure of rebels and their families from Douma.

On Sunday, the first batch of the kidnapped people was set free and reached Damascus as the rebels were also getting on the buses to leave to the assembly point in the Wafideen area northeast of Damascus near Douma.

But the news started emerging that the number of the kidnapped people is not accurate, reported the Syrian national TV.

It said the rebels exaggerated the number of kidnapped people, with recent reports placed it between 3,500 and 5,000.

On Monday, news emerged that only 200 kidnapped people are in the custody of the rebels in Douma, which broke the heart of tens of families who have been waiting for their sons for years and their hopes were revived with the release of the kidnapped people from Douma.

"We want only to know what happened to our sons if they are dead or alive ... we just need to know," one man said on the live broadcast.

Another soldier said his brother is kidnapped as well, demanding the suspension of the evacuation of the rebels until the release of the kidnapped people.

"They are getting on the buses but they shouldn't leave until they release our relatives," he said.

A woman approached the reporter of the TV, crying and begging to know the destiny of her son.

"Please just tell me anything about him ... I am devastated," she said.

Later on, the people broke the sit-in and went to the Faiha Stadium where the released people are being hosted to reunite with their families.

The state TV said the buses of the rebels are gathering at Wafideen, but will not leave until the kidnapped people leave Douma.

The fresh agreement between the Islam Army and the Syrian government under the mediation of Russia is the second to be reached recently after the rebels' failure to live up to their previous pledges to leave Douma toward Jarablus and release the kidnapped people.

Recent estimates placed the number of the militants who will evacuate Douma at 8,000 and their families at 40,000.

The full evacuation of the rebels and their families from Douma will be the last evacuation of Eastern Ghouta, as the entire region has been captured by the Syrian army after 43,000 rebels and their families left other areas of Eastern Ghouta late last month.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 02:41:26|Editor: ZX

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Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a protest east of Gaza City near the border security fence between eastern Gaza and Israel, on April 9, 2018. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that the current anti-Israel mass rally will continue until its goals are achieved. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)

GAZA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that the current anti-Israel mass rally will continue until its goals are achieved.

Haniyeh made his remarks on Monday afternoon in Gaza City, just a few hundred meters from the border security fence between eastern Gaza and Israel.

"Greetings to the heroes who made the images of popular confrontation as extensions to popular uprisings (Intifadas) that broke out on this blessed land for freedom and return to all the land of Palestine," said Haniyeh.

March 30, the Palestinian Land Day, was the start of a six-week anti-Israel protest, which is expected to peak on May 15, the day after the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence but marked by the Palestinians as the Nakba Day, or "Day of the Catastrophe."

"We will return to Palestine and our villages and will return to Jerusalem and will bring our people from all areas of refuge and Diaspora to the blessed land," the Hamas chief told the crowd.

Since the beginning of the anti-Israel rally on March 30, about 32 Palestinians, including a journalist and two children, have been killed and 2,850 others injured, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The mass protest, known as the "Great March of Return," demands Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes occupied by Israel.

Dozens of tents have been pitched in areas 700 meters from the border between Gaza and Israel as part of the rally.

"Tens of thousands of Gazans will be marching toward Palestine, toward their villages and cities," Haniyeh said.

He also slammed the U.S. government for derailing the Palestinian cause.

"All shame to the American administration and all shame to those who collude with it in order to exhaust the cause of Palestine," Haniyeh concluded.
ACCRA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's Minerals Commission has taken over investigations into the Newmont Ghana gold mine accident which killed six people over the weekend, a senior state official said on Monday.

Benito Owusu Bio, deputy minister for Lands and Natural Resources, said the incident required an investigation in order to avert such occurrences in the future.

"So, as we speak, an investigative team has been put together to investigate the matter to ascertain the actual cause of the problem," Bio told local media in Accra.

Six people were killed on Saturday when a tunnel roof collapsed at one of Newmont's gold mining sites in Ghana, the company confirmed to local media on Sunday.

The tragedy happened following the collapse of the reclaim tunnel roof at the mining company's Ahafo Mill Expansion project, located some 307 km northwest of Accra.

Eight crew members were working inside the reclaim tunnel at the time of the collapse, said Newmont, the world's second largest bullion producer, in a statement.

The dead were workers of Consar Company Limited, a firm contracted to construct the reclaim tunnel roof, the statement said.

Although investigations into the accident are yet to conclude, Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John Peter Amewu, says the fatal incident pointed to a clear engineering failure.

Speaking to the media after a brief tour of the accident scene, Amewu said the tragic incident could have been prevented had key structural adjustments been done.

Operations at the mine have since been shut.
Armenias National Assembly will debate who will be the next prime minister of the country at a special session to be held on April 17.

The parliaments four political factions must nominate candidates for prime minister, after which an election will be held. The nominee garnering a majority of votes will assume the post of prime minister.

The four factions are:

Republican Party of Armenia Faction  58 deputies

Tsarukyan Faction  31 deputies

Yelk Faction  9 deputies

ARF Faction -7 deputies

Photo: Parliament President Ara Babloyan
Bassem Tamimi, the father of Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian arrested in December after a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier went viral, speaks to journalists on April 9, 2018 in the West Bank city of Ramallah after presenting a video of his daughter being questioned by Israeli interrogators. (AFP photo)

RAMALLAH, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A video revealed on Monday morning shows two Israeli interrogators harassing and threatening the Palestinian teenager resistance icon Ahed Tamimi.

The interrogation came without her lawyer nor a female officer in suspected breach of international standards and laws, according to the two-hour video provided by the family of Tamimi and rights groups.

Her father, Basem Tamimi, told a press conference in Ramallah that Ahed stayed strong despite the physical and psychological pressure.

The video clip was a segment of a long interrogation on Dec. 26, 2017, about one week after 17-year-old Ahed was detained by Israeli forces in an overnight raid on her home over a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier outside her home going viral on the internet.

It was released by the Israeli army to Ahed's lawyer, under an internationally recognized legal obligation to have all children's interrogation recorded on tape.

"What we are dealing with is not an individual practice but a systematic and institutionalized approach," Amani Sarahneh, the information officer of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Xinhua.

"The physical and psychological consequences, especially on children, may appear in the long term as they grow," she added.

More than 12,000 Palestinian children have been arrested since 2000, with over 80 percent of them reported to have suffered verbal and physical abuse, including being beaten and prevented from sleeping, said Fadi Quran, a senior campaigner with Avaaz, a U.S.-based online activist network.

Meanwhile, a report by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Detainees Affairs Commission said over 350 Palestinian minors are being detained in Israeli prisons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press conference with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts after their meeting on Syria issues at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, on April 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya)

MOSCOW, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will not accept "provocation and speculation" around the latest suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, the Kremlin said.

Putin made the remarks during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to a Kremlin statement.

"The two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria, including chemical attack accusations made by a number of Western states against official Damascus. Russia's position - that it is unacceptable to use this as an opportunity for provocation and speculation - was conveyed," the statement read.

On Saturday, local activists said the Syrian forces used chlorine gas in an attack against Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, killing at least 40 people. The accusation was strongly denied on Sunday by the Syrian government.

In the meantime, U.S. President Donald Trump in his Twitter account accused Putin, Russia and Iran responsible for the attack due to their backing of "Animal Assad".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that the United States and their allies are using provocations in order to maintain their presence in Syria.

"Experts agree that these players, primarily the American coalition and the U.S. itself, do not intend leaving, and leaving Syria to others, as U.S. President Donald Trump said, but they plan to consolidate their positions there for a very long time," Lavrov said at a press conference.

At the end of March, Trump said in an address to his supporters that after the destruction of Islamic State (IS) terrorist group the United States planned to "be coming out of Syria like very soon" and "let the other people take care of it now."

But on Sunday, Trump spoke over the phone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and both sides agreed on a "strong, joint response" to the attack, according to the White House.

Lavrov recalled that Russia and Syria have repeatedly warned that a serious provocation was being prepared in Syria with the aim of accusing Damascus of using toxic agents against civilians.

He said Moscow supported an "honest and immediate" investigation of the incident, as Russian military and Syrian Red Crescent representatives visited the place of the supposed attack and did not find any traces of the use of chemical substances against civilians there.

Lavrov said that Monday's attack against a Syrian military airfield also required an investigation. He stopped short of attributing the attack to any party.

"There were a lot of reports on who was flying there," he said.

Russian media quoted Monday a Russian Defense Ministry report that two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out strikes against T4 (Tiyas) airfield near Homs in central Syria.

It said Israeli jets conducted the strikes from Lebanese air space, and Syrian air defense systems shot down five out of eight missiles.

The report was not available on the official Defense Ministry website or on its social networks pages.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 04:52:00|Editor: yan

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RIO DE JANEIRO, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian meat giant Marfrig announced on Monday it had bought 51 percent of shares belonging to National Beef, the fourth largest American beef producer, for 969 million U.S. dollars.

This purchase makes Marfrig the second-largest beef producer in the world, behind its Brazilian compatriot, JBS, the company's statement revealed.

Marfrig said that the acquisition had been wholly financed with a loan by bank Rabobank. Marfrig valued National Beef at 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, including debts.

"With this transaction, we will have operations in the two largest beef markets in the world, we will arrive to extremely sophisticated consumer countries," said the statement, adding that "we have managed to grow while maintaining rigorous financial discipline."

The U.S. firm exports to 40 countries, including Japan and South Korea, which currently maintain an embargo on Brazilian meat imports.

Founded in 1992, National Beef saw revenue of 7.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 and has the capacity to slaughter 12,000 head of cattle a day.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 05:22:11|Editor: Yamei

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Mark Zuckerberg (Xinhua file photo/Lino De Vallier)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress in written testimony on Monday that he is "responsible for" not preventing the social media platform from being used for harm, including fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he said in the prepared testimony released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here," he said in the remarks he is expected to deliver in a hearing on Wednesday.

His apology came after Facebook is embroiled in a widening scandal that a British data firm called Cambridge Analytica had improperly gathered detailed Facebook information on 87 million users, up from a previous estimate of more than 50 million.

Also, Facebook revealed on Wednesday that outsiders took advantage of search tools on its platform, making it possible for them to collect personal information on most of its 2 billion users worldwide without the users' explicit permission.

This was Zuckerberg's latest apology for the personal data leak and he vowed to plug the vulnerabilities while attempting to defend himself by listing the company's measures to protect user privacy in past years.

He said Facebook had changed the entire platform in 2014 to "dramatically limit the Facebook information apps could access."

Moreover, Facebook banned Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University researcher who leaked the data to Cambridge Analytica, from using Facebook data in 2015, and certified that "they had deleted all improperly acquired data," according to Zuckerberg.

But he didn't explain why and how Cambridge Analytica still managed to misuse the personal data afterwards.

Zuckerberg pledged to limit the information the platform developers can access and they have to get users' approval.

The leaked data was said to be inappropriately used by Cambridge Analytica in activities allegedly connected with U.S. President Donald Trump's election campaign in 2016.
Michael Cohen, personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives to appear before Senate Intelligence Committee staff as the panel investigates alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., September 19, 2017. (Xinhua file photo/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The FBI on Monday raided the office of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, seizing documents related to topics including his payment to an adult film actress, according to U.S. media.

The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, but the raid does not appear to be directly related to Mueller's investigation.

The seized documents also reportedly include emails, tax documents, business records and communications between Cohen and Trump.

Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told The Times that the search was "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

Among the documents federal agents seized were those related to Cohen's 130,000-U.S.-dollar hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who has alleged having an affair with Trump in 2006.

The payment was made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, for her silence about the alleged affair, just days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cohen has denied it violated campaign finances laws.

Last week, Trump denied knowledge of the payment. It was the first time that the president has publicly addressed the issue. The White House has said that Trump denies there was a relationship.

Daniels was trying to void a non-disclosure agreement that she signed for the payment, while her lawyer filed a renewed motion on Sunday to depose Trump and Cohen over the matter.

Cohen, who has been Trump's personal lawyer for years, has reportedly a role in aspects of the special counsel's investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
DUBLIN, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), the largest business representation organization in Ireland, has expressed concerns about the trade friction between United States and China, saying it would pose a potential risk for the growth of the country's economy, reported local media RTE on Monday.

The concerns were expressed by Gerard Brady, Head of Tax and Fiscal Policy at Ibec, while talking to local media about the future outlook of the Irish economy.

Brady said that there were potential headwinds in the global and domestic economies despite a 5.6 percent strong growth predicted by his group for the Irish economy in 2018.

In terms of potential global headwinds, Brady expressed concerns about talk of a looming trade war between the U.S. and China, and the effect that could have on the Irish economy apart from the possible impact of a strong euro on the competitiveness of the country's exported goods in the future.

"If we were to see a (U.S.) trade war with China, it would say something about the rollback of globalisation. That would be the major threat for the future of the Irish business model," he said.

He said that Irish economy is very vulnerable to external risks.

The Irish economy depends heavily on its exports. Currently the U.S. is the largest export market of Ireland, and China is its largest trading partner in Asia with believed huge potential for Ireland.

Brady said that specific industries could be harmed in the event of tariffs being placed on goods coming out of the European Union (EU).

"The EU has said it would put tariffs on bourbon if the U.S. puts tariffs on European goods. The U.S. would then be expected to put tariffs on the whiskey industry which has been growing here on the back of exports, particularly to the U.S.. It would be a real threat for specific industries," he said.

Founded in 1993, Ibec represents the interests of 7,500 companies and organisations of all sizes and sectors in Ireland.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 06:27:29|Editor: Yamei

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Smoke rises after the Syrian army's shelling targeted the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Syria, on April 7, 2018. The Syrian army on Saturday stormed the frontlines of the Islam Army in the Douma district of the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq over what later appeared to be false intelligence information, dragging an entire country into the woes of war.

In 2018, the U.S. is threatening to strike Syria, again over allegations of chemical weapons use based on photos and videos that have yet to be verified.

After quickly striking Syria last year over claims of a chemical attack by the Syrian army on a rebel-held area in northwestern Syria, the U.S. has been threatening a similar move while accusing the Syrian army of carrying out a chlorine gas attack on the rebel-held Douma district near Damascus.

The U.S. has been warning of retaliation against what it called chemical attacks by the Syrian army on the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army was steadily advancing.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using or having such weapons. The government also said the Syrian army was making progress and it does not need to use chemical weapons.

On Monday, the UN Security Council held emergency meetings on Syria following the alleged chemical weapons attack on Saturday.

The tension was obvious between the representatives of the U.S. and Russia.

The Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the photos of the chemical attack in Douma were fabricated, proposing to send an investigation team to Douma to examine the claims.

But U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley directly accused Russia, saying Russia's hands are smeared with the "blood of Syrian children."

"Either way, the United States will respond" to the alleged chemical attack whether the UN Security Council acted or not, Haley said.

U.S. President Donald Trump also struck a warmongering tone when he said "major decisions" on Syria will be made within the next 48 hours.

He said his country was still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the alleged attack.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," he said.

A day earlier, the Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations of chemical weapons use were premeditated to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma.

The ministry said the rebels use such allegations every time the army makes progress.

Ali Haidar, minister of national reconciliation, told Xinhua in an interview late last month that the United States has a premeditated will to strike Syria, and is studying the possibilities and the results of such an "aggression."

"The U.S. aggressions are not new, and it won't be the first one, but the difference is that in previous times they would strike and say by mistake, but now they have a premeditated intention for the aggression," he said.

But Haidar also said the Americans must make several calculations before they could carry out their aggression on Syria.

The U.S. must take into consideration the "power balance in the region and the Syrian reaction to such strike as well as the Russian stance," he explained.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 06:27:30|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, on Monday warned of the danger of the current situation in Syria running out of control.

Recent developments in Syria carry more than ever before the danger of such a scenario, de Mistura told the Security Council.

"The council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front," he said.

At a point of his briefing, de Mistura said he had to slow down his speech because he was talking about a matter of major issue of international security, not just regional or Syrian security.

The events in the past days in Syria had come amid increased international tensions, drawing national, regional, international actors into dangerous situations of potential or actual confrontation, he said. "There is an urgent need for this council to find a way to address the situation with unity and purpose."

The Security Council was holding an emergency session on the situation in Syria, particularly after reports of the use of chemical weapons over the weekend in rebel-held Douma near the capital city of Damascus.
LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Two Los Angeles police officers were injured and a man was fatally shot in a police shooting on Monday.

The incident occurred in the Reseda area Monday morning following a pursuit of a stolen SUV. The officers were in a patrol car in the area when they began chasing the suspect.

"Officers were in pursuit of a stolen vehicle. There was a foot pursuit at the termination of the pursuit at which point an officer-involved shooting occurred. We can confirm the suspect is deceased at scene," said Los Angeles Police Department on Twitter.

The suspect was described by officers as a man in his 20s.

The two injured police officers were transported to a local hospital and they both have non-life threatening injuries, according to Los Angeles Police Department.

The suspect was the seventh person shot by on-duty Los Angeles Police Department officers this year and five of them were killed, Los Angeles Times reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 07:02:37|Editor: ZX

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RIO DE JANEIRO, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Michel Temer said Monday that the country is undergoing a "difficult time" politically, but called on the people to "keep carrying on" and respect the Constitution.

Speaking in Rio de Janeiro at the national development bank, Temer avoided directly referencing former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was arrested on Saturday to begin a 12 year and one month prison sentence for corruption, sparking protests nationwide.

"We need to know that we are coming out of a difficult time for the country, we continue seeing a difficult time politically, but we must keep carrying on," said Temer.

He added that "carrying on means... carrying out the Constitution... which is what gives stability to the country."

"We can only have organization when there is a controlled and strict following of the law. When somebody thinks they need not abide by the law, they sow disorganization among society."

Lula turned himself in on Saturday to federal police after an arrest warrant was issued against him on Thursday by Sergio Moro, the judge overseeing Operation Lava Jato.

On Monday, Lula's defense team said they would continue to fight to overturn his sentence. One of his lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, told the press that "from what we understand, there is no legal reason for him being a prisoner and we will take every avenue for this imprisonment to be revoked."

The team may also be planning to ask that Lula be moved from prison in Curitiba, the capital of the southern state of Parana, to the state of Sao Paulo, where Lula lived with his family. "We will analyze this but we cannot reveal the defense strategies," Zanin commented.
While some get rich by dint of hard work and creativity, many others scratch their way to the top via price gouging, skimping on quality, and false advertising.

Its a worldwide phenomenon. Here in Armenia, we see that many of the largest corporate taxpayers play a similar game.

Recently, inspectors from the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments revealed that the big players in the diesel and gasoline industry have been cheating consumers by selling low grade petroleum products advertised as top of the line.

The Market Monitoring Inspectorate (MMI) says that the octane numbers of gasoline sold by the companies Maksdal and Lak-A-Bos showed discrepancies.

No violations at Flesh gas stations were reported.

A similar violation was found at the Makshur Company owned by Republican Party of Armenia MP Harutyun Pamboukyan. Last year, the company was awarded a contract to supply the agriculture ministry with 5 million liters of diesel fuel.

Inspectors also found discrepancies in the fuel sold by Multi Agro, a company owned by Gagik Tsarukyan.

Tsarukyans MultiGaz stations were found to be pumping pressurized natural gas by the cubic meter, and not by the kilogram.

Ran Oil, one of Armenias largest importers of gasoline, was found to be selling a different grade of gas as advertised on the gas pump. The meters on many of the pumps were also outdated.

Inspectors also found violation in the toy market.

MegaToys, one of the largest retailers, was selling toys that hadnt been tested for safety.

The SAS supermarket chain, owned by Republican Party of Armenia MP Artak Sargsyan, was selling toys and cleansers without appropriate labelling.

The MMI inspected 197 businesses and found violations in 161.

AMD 23 million in fines were issued in 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 07:17:39|Editor: ZX

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UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A UN official on Monday called for the establishment of an investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria after reports of a new chemical attack in the Arab country over the weekend.

"The use of chemical weapons is unjustifiable. Those responsible must be held to account," Thomas Markram, deputy to UN Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, told the Security Council.

At least 49 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held Douma near Damascus on Saturday, Markram told the Security Council. More than 500 people showed symptoms consistent with a chemical attack, he said.

Markram, who briefed the council last week on chemical weapons in Syria, again called for unity of the council on a dedicated mechanism for accountability for chemical weapons use in the country.

He said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), is gathering information about the attack from all available sources. The FFM will report its findings upon completion of its investigation, he said.

The FFM, however, has no power to attribute accountability. A Joint Investigative Mechanism between the OPCW and the United Nations was set up by the Security Council for that purpose. The mechanism, however, ceased to function in November 2017 after Russia blocked the renewal of its mandate.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 08:24:37|Editor: ZX

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Palestinians sit outside their tents near the border between eastern Gaza and Israel, on April 9, 2018. Dozens of tents have been pitched for a mass protest in areas 700 meters from the border between Gaza and Israel as part of the rally. The mass protest, known as the "Great March of Return," demands Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes occupied by Israel. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 07:37:44|Editor: ZX

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Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari (front) addresses the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, April 9, 2018. The Security Council held an emergency session on the situation in Syria, particularly after reports of the use of chemical weapons over the weekend in rebel-held Douma near the capital city of Damascus. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, on Monday warned of the danger of the current situation in Syria running out of control.

Recent developments in Syria carry more than ever before the danger of such a scenario, de Mistura told the Security Council.

"The council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front," he said.

At a point of his briefing, de Mistura said he had to slow down his speech because he was talking about a matter of major issue of international security, not just regional or Syrian security.

The events in the past days in Syria had come amid increased international tensions, drawing national, regional, international actors into dangerous situations of potential or actual confrontation, he said. "There is an urgent need for this council to find a way to address the situation with unity and purpose."

The Security Council was holding an emergency meeting on the situation in Syria, particularly after reports of the use of chemical weapons over the weekend in rebel-held Douma in Eastern Ghouta near the capital city of Damascus.

De Mistura, however, said the danger of escalation comes from beyond Eastern Ghouta.

There were missile attacks on the T-4 airbase in Syria's Homs province on Monday. The United States and France have denied involvement while Syria, Russia and Iran claim that Israel could have carried out the attacks, said the UN envoy.

The Islamic State terrorist group launched new operations inside Syria -- in rural Damascus and in remote areas on the Iraqi border, he said.

In Afrin, where Turkey is pursuing a military campaign against Kurds, the conflict may also spread to other areas, he warned.

"What we are seeing is an escalation before an (even bigger) escalation."

The first priority must be the protection of civilians -- from the conflict, chemical weapons and hunger, he said, calling for humanitarian access throughout Syria so that people in need can be reached.

Continued allegations of the use of chemical agents are of extremely grave concern and must be independently and urgently investigated, he told the Security Council. "I urge the Security Council ... to, or God's sake, ensure a mechanism is found to investigate those allegations and attribute responsibility."

Any confirmed use of chemical weapons is abhorrent and requires a thorough investigation, he said.

While several states had alluded that the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical attack in Douma, others -- including the Syrian government itself -- had called those claims a fabrication, he said. "That was yet one more reason for a thorough investigation."

Another UN official also called for the establishment of an investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

"The use of chemical weapons is unjustifiable. Those responsible must be held to account," Thomas Markram, deputy to UN Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, told the Security Council in a briefing.

At least 49 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a chemical weapons attack in Douma on Saturday, said Markram. More than 500 people showed symptoms consistent with a chemical attack, he said.

Markram, who briefed the council last week on chemical weapons in Syria, again called for unity of the council on a dedicated mechanism for accountability for chemical weapons use in the country.

He said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), is gathering information about the attack from all available sources. The FFM will report its findings upon completion of its investigation, he said.
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on Monday visited the Pentagon and met with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis to reaffirm and enhance the strategic security partnership between the two nations.

According to a statement of Pentagon spokesperson Dana White, Mattis and Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani discussed mutual security interests, including the campaign to defeat the Islamic State (IS).

They also discussed the Gulf Cooperation Council and the importance of deescalating tensions so all U.S. partners in the region can work together in the region, the statement read.

The two sides also affirmed their shared commitment to continued security cooperation, as the United States announced to sell Qatar Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) for an estimated cost of 300 million U.S. dollars also on Monday.

At an enhanced honor cordon welcoming the Qatar top leader to the Pentagon, Mattis lauded Qatar's long-term support of the United States in information sharing and counterterrorism efforts.

Sheikh Tamim said his nation hosts more than 10,000 U.S. servicemen and women and work with Washington in countering terrorism.

"We're looking also forward on ways how to expand this relationship," he said.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran, an accusation Qatar strongly denied and called it "unjustified" and "baseless."

U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks in June, which claimed that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level," further exacerbated the standoff.

Trump is scheduled to meet Sheikh Tamim at the White House.
Michael Cohen, personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives to appear before Senate Intelligence Committee staff as the panel investigates alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., September 19, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The FBI on Monday raided the office of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, seizing documents related to topics including his payment to an adult film actress, according to U.S. media.

The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, but the raid does not appear to be directly related to Mueller's investigation.

The seized documents also reportedly include emails, tax documents, business records and communications between Cohen and Trump.

Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told The Times that the search was "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

Among the documents federal agents seized were those related to Cohen's 130,000-U.S.-dollar hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who has alleged having an affair with Trump in 2006.

The payment was made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, for her silence about the alleged affair, just days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cohen has denied it violated campaign finances laws.

Last week, Trump denied knowledge of the payment. It was the first time that the president has publicly addressed the issue. The White House has said that Trump denies there was a relationship.

Daniels was trying to void a non-disclosure agreement that she signed for the payment, while her lawyer filed a renewed motion on Sunday to depose Trump and Cohen over the matter.

Cohen, who has been Trump's personal lawyer for years, has reportedly a role in aspects of the special counsel's investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
TOKYO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks opened lower Tuesday as investor sentiment was soured by solid gains on Wall Street being pared in later trade overnight after a report that the FBI had raided the New York office of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer.

As of 9:15 a.m., the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 101.54 points, or 0.47 percent, from Monday to 21,576.72.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 6.42 points, or 0.37 percent, at 1,719.46.

Pharmaceutical, securities and bank-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most in the opening minutes after the morning bell.
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States discussed the response to the alleged "chemical attack" in Syria with Britain and France, as the possibility of U.S. military actions against Syria loomed larger on Monday.

The White House said in a statement that President Donald Trump spoke with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to continue their coordination on responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons on April 7 in Syria.

The communication came on the heels of Trump's call on Sunday with Macron over the Syria issue, as both leaders "strongly condemned" the "horrific chemical weapons attacks" and agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a "strong, joint" response.

According to a statement of State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, U.S. Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan spoke by phone twice on Monday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to discuss the attack in Douma, Syria, which killed dozens of civilians and injured several hundred more.

They discussed the international community's response and potential further steps the two governments might take in coordination with other partners.

Also on Monday, Trump said that the United States is "going to make a decision tonight or shortly thereafter" on the Syria incident.

"We're making decisions as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus. And it will be met. And it will be met forcefully," he said.

The White House host added that "we can't let that happen in our world, especially when we're able to -- because of the power of the United States -- we're able to stop it."

Speaking of the U.S. possibility to strike Syria, U.S. defense chief James Mattis also said on Monday that "the first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all, when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all the chemical weapons."

"And so, working with our allies and partners, from NATO, to Qatar and elsewhere, we are going to address this issue," he added.

Mattis refused to rule out possibility of the U.S. military actions, including the launching of airstrikes against Syria.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria claimed that Syrian forces used chlorine gas in the attack on Saturday against Douma, in the rebel-held area near Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons used by the Syrian army in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations have been planned beforehand to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma. The Syrian government has denied the allegations and called it "fake news".
TRIPOLI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Libyan UN-backed government said on Monday that the military operation the government launched a few days ago to pursue terrorist remnants does not involve foreign forces.

"The forces that carry out this operation are the counterterrorism force with the support of air force. There are no forces of any foreign country in this operation," government spokesman Mohamed Al-Sallak told a press conference in the capital Tripoli.

"The task of those forces is to trace terrorist remnants in (the) valley and desert areas only. The operation will not include cities and populated areas." Al-Sallak added.

The spokesman pointed out that the operation continued for the second week in a row, with great cooperation from the people, stressing that the geographical scope of the operation is now totally free from any terrorists.

Last week, the Libyan government launched a military operation called Homeland Storm to pursue remnants of terrorist groups, mainly the Islamic State (IS).

The operation raised questions about possible participation of U.S. air force to support the Libyan ground troops.

U.S. air force occasionally launches air strikes on remnants of terrorists in the city of Sirte, some 450 km east of Tripoli, as well as central and south Libya.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 09:43:09|Editor: ZX

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UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council is working on a resolution with regard to chemical weapons use in Syria, said Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations Gustavo Meza-Cuadra on Monday.

"At the expert levels, we have convened our colleagues to continue working on the possibility of a resolution on the matters," the ambassador, who is president of the Security Council for the month of April, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council members.

They were supposed to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution on an international investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

Monday's consultations and the preceding open emergency meeting came after reports of a new chemical attack over the weekend in rebel-held Douma in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

Russia has also prepared a text for an investigative mechanism. But insiders said the Russian text does not have the support of the majority of the council members.

Meza-Cuadra said members of the Security Council on Monday agreed on the need for an urgent and impartial investigation conducted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The OPCW, through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), is already gathering information about the attack in Douma. The FFM, however, has no power to attribute accountability. A Joint Investigative Mechanism between the OPCW and the United Nations was set up by the Security Council for that purpose.

The mechanism, however, ceased to be in November 2017 after Russia blocked the renewal of its mandate.

At Monday's emergency meeting, several Security Council members believed that the Syrian government was responsible for Saturday's chemical attack in Douma, while Russia claimed that the whole incident was a fabrication.

On Saturday, activists said the Syrian forces used chlorine gas in an attack against Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

They said that dozens of people suffered suffocation as a result.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations have been planned beforehand to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma.

It also said the rebels use such allegations every time the army makes a progress.
Nikol Pashinyan, who heads the Yelk (Way Out) faction in Armenias National Assembly and is participating in a march through the country to prevent outgoing Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan from becoming the countrys next prime minister, told Hetq that tens of thousands of people would have to take to the streets for such a goal to be achieved.

Armenias parliament will nominate candidates for the post of prime minister and Serzh Sargsyans Rebublican Party of Armenia faction holds a majority of seats.

Despite promises made in the past that he would not seek the post of prime minister after ending his second term as president, which he did yesterday, Sargsyan recently hinted at the possibility that he would accept the post if nominated. He argued that Armenia faces a number of challenges, both domestic and foreign, and he feels a moral obligation to steer Armenia clear of the danger.

Pashinyans Yelk Alliance has organized a rally to be held on April 13 at Yerevans Liberty Square.

The hope is that thousands will show up to voice their opposition to any move designed to swear in Serzh Sargsyan as the next prime minister.

Pashinyan said that his party might even nominate a candidate of its own at the rally if conditions warranted such a move.

When this reporter asked Pashinyan about his recent Facebook post in which he says that his supporters are preparing to blockade the homes of Republican Party of Armenia MPs, not allowing them to reach the parliament and nominate Sargsyan, he said that such a plan would need the participation of the whole society.

Whether people heed their call and attend the Yerevan rally in their thousands, Pashinyan says he and his supporters do not plan to simply give up and go home.

Some fifty or so marchers today made their way through the town of Hrazdan.

Photo: Narek Aleksanyan
SYDNEY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Papua New Guinea is hoping to draw on Australia's experience to improve its disaster response and management, after four deaths were confirmed from the latest quake that hit the southwestern Pacific nation over the weekend, local media reported.

"We need a better system to cope with future natural disasters," the ABC News channel on Tuesday quoted Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato as saying.

"Clearly we are looking to the systems that are in use here in Australia ... They have a fantastic setup with the tool kit which requires them to take a unified approach, in the event of hailstorms or bushfires, or landslips, or floods, so the reaction to those kinds of disasters are immediate..." said Pato, who had attended a senior ministers forum in Australia's Queensland state capital Brisbane late last week.

Pato's comments came amid the latest reports of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that shook Papua New Guinea last Saturday, killing at least four people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The tremor was the latest major one to hit the country following a 7.5-magnitude quake in February that left more than 100 people dead in the Southern Highlands region.

Aftershocks and disrupted communications links have hampered vital relief supplies to isolated communities.
YANGON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is planning to establish a movie studio and skill training school in Nay Pyi Taw for development of the country's movie industry, Myanmar News Agency reported Tuesday.

The establishment is to raise the image of Myanmar through the art of motion picture and for its development, Minister of Information Pe Myint was quoted as saying.

At a coordination meeting on the move, Pe Myint pledged the government's assistance for the set-up, saying that the next coordination meeting will take place in Yangon.

Meanwhile, at a recent film academy awards presentation ceremony held in Yangon, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi also pledged the government's support for further development of the country's movie industry.

On March 23, the Myanmar Motion Picture Association presented a total of 12 film academy awards for the year 2017 to the country's outstanding artists.

Aiming at encouraging domestic film production and bringing up its quality, the film academy award presentations were annually held since 1952.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 10:43:42|Editor: Yamei

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Smoke rises after the Syrian army's shelling targeted the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Syria, on April 7, 2018. The Syrian army on Saturday stormed the frontlines of the Islam Army in the Douma district of the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The alleged Syrian chemical attack is becoming a new flashpoint for relations between the United States and Russia that many already see as having hit rock-bottom.

EXACERBATING TRADE OF ACCUSATIONS

The past two days have seen an exchange of fierce words between the two nuclear powers. U.S. President Donald Trump, who had kept from lashing out at Russia and President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and many other issues, attacked Putin several times in a move many U.S. experts saw as "groundbreaking."

Calling the recent chemical attack in Syria "SICK" on Sunday, Trump tweeted that "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible" for backing the Syrian government, warning that there will be a looming "big price" for them to pay.

At a cabinet meeting on Monday, Trump said Putin "may" have to bear responsibility for the Syrian incident.

"If he does, it's going to be very tough. Very tough," he said. "Everybody's going to pay a price. He will, everybody will."

He also hinted that Syria, Iran and Russia are behind the attack.

"They're saying they're not. But, to me, there's not much of a doubt. But the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours," said Trump.

Later on Monday, envoys of Washington and Moscow traded barbs at a United Nations Security Council special meeting over the alleged Syrian attack. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia has the "blood of Syrian children" on its hands, and Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the incident was staged and that possible U.S. military action could trigger "grave repercussions."

TENSIONS IN RELATIONS

U.S.-Russia relations have already hit rock-bottom. Recently, Washington stepped up its pressure by kicking out 60 Russian diplomats last month to join Britain's retaliation over the disputed ex-Russian spy poisoning case, and launching sanctions against Russian business leaders and high-ranking officials in the two months over alleged Russian intervention in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections.

Such U.S. moves have sparked fierce responses from Russia. Besides a counter diplomat expulsion, Russia vowed tough measures against U.S. sanctions on Friday, and said "there remains only a desire of the United States to ensure by all means its global hegemony."

Trump's threat on Monday of military option in response to the alleged Syrian chemical attack further strained ties with Russia, endangering the "de-escalation zone" and hotlines the two sides have agreed to set up so as to avoid conflicts on the Syrian battleground.

MILITARY ACTION OR WITHDRAWAL?

Experts said Trump's military threat, an apparent setback compared with his statements last week to take the U.S. troops out of Syria very soon, could further complicate the U.S.-Russia ties.

Russia and Syria have been urging a withdrawal of U.S. troops, whose presence they say is uninvited and is a violation of international law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in early April said he welcomes Trump's pledge of an early withdrawal from Syria, despite what he called "worrisome" signs that U.S. troops were becoming "deeply entrenched" in areas east of the Euphrates River in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

Afshin Molavi, a senior research fellow from U.S. John Hopkins University, told Xinhua that Trump's warning to take military action in response to the alleged "chemical attack" will not change the balance of power on the ground fundamentally, but create a confusing situation for Washington itself.

"If he (Trump) goes for something larger this time, for example, targeting Syria's air force, I think that could play a much more significant role in changing the balance of power on the ground at the end of the day," he said.

"But as long as Russia and Iran continue to be on the ground while President Trump is talking about pulling America's special forces out of Syria," it creates "a confusing situation, just got a lot more confusing," he added.

"It's a very muddled policy," he noted. "On the one hand, you declare that you want to remove the U.S. troops from a battle zone. On the other hand, you are threatening military strikes."

Daniel Davis, a retired army lieutenant colonel and fellow at the Defense Priorities military think tank, cautioned against U.S. military action.

An expert said the U.S. military presence over years in Syria failed to facilitate the humanitarian relief there.

"Realistically, the 2,000 American troops have not made a huge difference to the landscape of the war in terms of humanitarian assistance, because the United States never had a vested interest in protecting the Syrian population," Janine di Giovanni, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wrote on New York Times on Friday.
CANBERRA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has sidestepped calls for live animal exports to be banned during the northern summer months, despite rising anger about the mass deaths of Australian sheep at sea.

Confronting footage was aired on Australian TV on Sunday night of sheep crowded into a small space aboard a ship bound for the Middle East, workers throwing dead sheep overboard, and faeces-covered pens where animals stood panting or collapsed on the ground.

More than 2,400 sheep died from heat stress aboard the live export ship, the MV Awassi Express, used by a Western Australia-based company, during a voyage between Australia and Qatar in August 2017.

The vision has angered many Australians and reignited the debate about live animal exports, with activists wanting the practice banned given the conditions the animals are forced to endure on voyages that sometimes last three weeks.

But both the government and opposition are resisting calls for the ban, as are farmers who say the trade is too important to warrant a halt.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud was quoted on Tuesday as saying he would launch a review into the regulator's investigative capability and powers, and beef up protections for whistleblowers exposing animal cruelty.

Littleproud met with animal activists on Monday to discuss welfare aboard live export ships.

"The reality is, I'm going to make sure we put a framework and an environment where we can give comfort to the community," he told Australian TV.

He said the government would also look to impose tougher penalties on exporters, and their management, who flouted rules on transporting live animals.
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has arrived in China for the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia annual conference and an official visit on April 8-12 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The following is a profile of Rutte.

Born in 1967 in The Hague, Rutte obtained a master's degree in history from Leiden University in 1992.

He served as state secretary for social affairs and employment from 2002 to 2004.

In 2004, he took the post of state secretary for education, culture and science.

In 2006 he was elected as the leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and served as the parliamentary leader of the VVD in the Second Chamber, or the House of Representatives.

Rutte became Dutch prime minister in 2010, and was re-elected twice in 2012 and 2017.

Rutte is single and has no children.
BERLIN, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The German government spends billions of euros in public subsidies to businesses and consumers each year, a study published on Monday by a German think tank Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) finds.

The German federal government paid out financial assistance worth around 55 billion euros (67.75 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 alone, claimed the study co-authored by Claus-Friedrich Laaser and Astrid Rosenschon.

The IfW warned that subsidies could distort market competition as in the area of high speed Internet. The authors expressed concerns that regional inequalities in the quality of Internet provision could be exacerbated because firms would retreat from rural areas with an expectation that the government would make up for the resulting gap.

The study also suggested the government focus on financing basic research because it can hardly foresee which technologies would be crucial to everyday life in the future.

"We would prefer subsidies to be technologically open-ended," said the study, specifically referring to an annual sum of 400 million euros (492.98 million dollars) spent on e-mobility development sales and development in 2017.

The institute particularly criticized the subsidies which it viewed as "contradictory," such as electricity bill rebates -- around 1.7 billion euros in 2017 (2.1 billion dollars) -- offered by the federal government to energy-intensive industries which contradicted an official desire made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to transform the national economy into a greener one.

"These expenses make the entire energy and environmental policy pursued by the government self-defeating," said the study.

However, German magazine "SPIEGEL" pointed out that Berlin appeared to be intent on allowing the government to play a more assertive role in domestic resource distribution rather than adopting the IfW's libertarian views.

Peter Altmaier, Germany's federal minister for economic affairs and energy recently told press that the "long-term preservation of industry, above all, through innovation, is one of the questions which cannot be solved by the market alone."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 11:38:51|Editor: Xiang Bo

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LANZHOU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A joint burial tomb dating back to the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.- 220) has been found in northwest China's Gansu Province, local authorities said Tuesday.

The tomb was found at a construction site for an expressway in Zhuanglang County, Pingliang City. The county museum sent its staff to the site to investigate after receiving the report.

Cultural relics workers said that the tomb is believed to date back to the Han Dynasty based on the type and burial objects.

The tomb is a joint burial tomb consisting of a tomb passage and coffin chamber containing two coffins, one for a man and another for a woman, according to Li Xiaobin, deputy curator of the museum.

Iron nails, copper rings, beads and a coin were found in the tomb.

Li said the discovery could shed more light for the research into the tomb types, funeral customs, society and economy of the Han Dynasty.
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump blasted the ongoing Russia probe on Monday after knowing that his long-time personal lawyer's office was raided by FBI agents who seized documents related to a hush money payment to an adult film actress.

"It's a disgraceful situation," Trump told reporters before a meeting with senior military leaders at the White House, adding that FBI agents "broke into" the office of his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who Trump said is a "good man".

The New York Times reported earlier that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, then raided Cohen's office and seized emails, tax documents, business records and communications between Cohen and Trump.

Prosecutors and agents must convince a judge that they have probable cause of criminal activity and that they believe they'll find evidence of wrongdoing in a search before they are granted a warrant.

But the raid reportedly does not appear to be directly related to Mueller's investigation, which focuses on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Sharpening his invective, Trump called the sweeping Mueller inquiry "an attack" on the country and what it stands for. "That is really now on a whole new level of unfairness."

The president repeated his claim that "there was no collusion at all," while describing the team of Mueller, a lifelong Republican, as having "the biggest conflicts of interest" he has ever seen and the investigation again as "witch hunt."

Trump stressed that he's not concerned about what the FBI might find, but said "we'll see what happens" when asked if he would fire the special counsel, who reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told The Times that the search was "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

Among the documents federal agents seized were those related to Cohen's 130,000-U.S.-dollar hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who has alleged having an affair with Trump in 2006.

The payment was made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, for her silence about the alleged affair, just days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cohen has denied it violated campaign finances laws.

Last week, Trump denied knowledge of the payment. It was the first time that the president has publicly addressed the issue. The White House has said that Trump denies there was a relationship.

Daniels was trying to void a non-disclosure agreement that she signed for the payment, while her lawyer filed a renewed motion on Sunday to depose Trump and Cohen over the matter.

Cohen, who has been Trump's personal lawyer for years, has reportedly a role in several aspects of the special counsel's investigation, which is looking into whether Trump attempted to obstruct the progress.

The special counsel has so far charged 19 people, among whom were several Trump campaign associates that have pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from Mueller's investigation. They are all cooperating with prosecutors but none of the charges directly relate to the collusion allegation.

Analysts say that the raid creates a new legal headache for Trump and his attorneys as they were reportedly considering an interview with the special counsel.

It was reported earlier this month that Mueller told Trump's lawyers that the president is not a criminal target of the Russia probe, but stressed that he remains a subject of the investigation.

CNN reported whether Trump will speak with Mueller under oath or in an informal setting is still being negotiated.
HOUSTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday announced the beginning of a section of barrier construction on the southern border with Mexico.

The existing fence on the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, will be replaced by a new barrier, said Agent Aaron A. Hull, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's El Paso sector at the groundbreaking ceremony.

"This is the beginning, in this sector, of the president's border wall," he said, adding that the project will include 32 km-long wall up to 9.1 meters tall, extending west from Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Hull said the new construction was mandated by U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration in January 2017, which will take about a year to complete and cost more than 73 million U.S. dollars from 2017 Department of Homeland Security funding.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration has told U.S. Congress that it wants 18 billion U.S. dollars over the next decade for the initial phase of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Half of the around 3,300-km border between the two nations would have a border wall or other fences by 2027 if the work was completed.

Last month, Trump signed a 1.3 trillion spending bill unveiled by the Congress and passed by the House, but the bill only provides 1.6 billion dollars -- far short of what the Trump administration has sought -- for border security measures, including construction of a border wall with Mexico.
NEW DELHI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed and 15 others injured Tuesday after a goods truck carrying laborers hit a road divider in western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said.

The accident took place on Pune-Satara highway near Khandala in Pune district about 81 km east of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

"This morning a goods truck carrying over 40 laborers met an accident near Khandala," a police official posted in Pune told Xinhua over telephone. "Eighteen people were killed and 15 others injured in the accident."

According to officials the laborers were going for daily work.

"The injured have been admitted in Satara civil hospital and among them the condition of seven was stated to be critical," the police official said.

Reports said no sooner the accident took place locals informed the police and carried out rescue work.

Police have registered a case and ordered investigations.

Preliminary reports suggest the driver lost control over his vehicle and hit the divider.

On Monday, 30 people including 27 school children were killed when a school bus ferrying them back home plunged into a deep gorge in northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Deadly road accidents are common in India often caused due to overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.

An official report says on an average 400 deaths take place every day in India due to road accidents.
Author: Tigran Martirosyan

A compactly Armenian-populated county until the mid-eighteenth century, Manazkert/Manzikert, later renamed Malazgird, during the late Ottoman era was located in the northeastern edge of the Moush sandjak (prefecture) of the vilayet(province) of Bitlis. For the most part, the countys territory overlapped that of Apahunik gavar (county) of the Touruberan ashkhar (province) in the Kingdom of Greater Armenia. The principal town of the county shared the same name, Manazkert. Known as Manavazakert in antiquity, it was one of the most impregnable towns in all of historic Armenia due to its towered fortress walls, with a total population ranging from 30,000 to 35,000 people living in about 6,000 households. [1] One legend links the towns name to Urartian king Menua. [2] Another theory suggests the town could be named after Manavaz, one of the sons of Hayk, the progenitor of the Armenian nation. From the fourth century BC until the sixth century AD, Apahunik belonged to nakharars, members of the Armenian nobilityfirst to the Manavazian princely house, who claimed descent from Manavaz, and then to the Aghbianosian family. After the Arab conquest of Armenia in the seventh century, nakharars continued to rule the county as vassals of Arab amirs.

At the end of the tenth century, Manazkert became a target of Byzantine eastward expansion, which was seen as a method of self-defense or the regaining of lands lost to Arabs centuries earlier. [3] At the beginning of the following century, however, the Byzantines had to confront the Seljuks, a nomadic Turkmen tribe belonging to the Oghuz branch of Turks, which in the tenth century began migrating westwards from the steppes of Inner Asia. Not long after the Seljuks expanded across Persia and into Asia Minor, they converted to Islam. Although they had raided eastern Asia Minor at one time or another, Byzantine control had been tight enough that the area remained largely Armenian and Greek-populated. In 1071, Seljuk Turks defeated an army of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes near Manazkert. [4] The Byzantine defeat opened up Karin (Erzurum), Yerznka (Erzincan), and other Armenian regions of eastern Asia Minor [5] to Turkish-Islamic conquest and marked the beginning of the long process of Turkification and Islamization of the region. [6] In the sixteenth century, Manazkert was annexed to the Ottoman Empire.

A century later, the countys Armenian villages were ravaged during a series of Ottoman-Persian wars. In the 1770s, deadly clashes between Kurdish sheikhs of Malazgird and the neighboring Khnous (Hns) county resulted in the destruction of many Armenian villages. According to Tadevos Hakobyan, Stepan Melik-Bakhshyan, and Hovhannes Barseghyan, authors of the Dictionary of Toponymy of Armenia and Adjacent Territories, of 220,000 inhabitants in the first half of the eighteenth century, only about 60,000 remained in the latter half. [7] The subsequent influx of semi-nomadic Kurdish tribes distorted the countys demographic make-up, while their chieftains struggle for arable land and pastures gave rise to violence against Armenians, who owned most of them. During the 1828-1829 Russo-Turkish war, hundreds of Manazkert Armenians, fearing an outbreak of Kurdish violence, followed the Russian retreat and settled in eastern Armenia and Russian Transcaucasia. Seizing this opportunity, Kurds moved in abandoned villages. British consul-general John George Taylor reported in 1869 that the Manazkert plain became, using an expression figuring in his report, infested with the common curse of the county, the Kurds from Hasananli (Hasanan) and Millanli (Milan) tribes, who amounted to 3,500. The Armenians who, in his words, formed the principal portion of the industrious inhabitants in the plain, supplying all agricultural labor and trade, amounted to 2,100. [8]

After the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, Ottoman authorities encouraged the resettlement of muhajirs, Muslim refugees from Russias North Caucasus, such as Circassians, Ossetians, Lezgins, and Chechens, as well as Turks and Karapapaks from Russias Kars oblast (province), in Malazgird villages. By the early 1880s, as many as 200 Muslim households were resettled in Malazgird and the lower sub-district (nahiye) of the Bulanik county, [9] while the Kurdish tribes of Hasananli and Sipkan seized control of most of the county. [10] Hasananli tribesmen laid hands on most of the Oshakan valley (called Havtrang in the Kurdish language and translated as seven colors), which extended westward through Malazgird along the banks of the Aratsani (Murat) River. [11] French geographer Elisee Reclus reported that in the late-1880s the upland river valley was inhabited by Kurdish tribes and that amongst the few centers of population in that region, the most noteworthy, were Manazkert, which supplied a great part of Armenia with salt from the Tuzla-su, or Salt River, and Moush. [12] The soil of the Oshakan (Havtrang) valley yielded grain of excellent quality, but the extensive flat plain in the countys southeastern part was desolate and rendered unusable for agricultural work. That, in addition to the Kurdish influx factor, explained why the number of Armenian households in Manazkert villages was not as large as, for example, in the neighboring kaza of Bulanik. [13]

In 1883, Ottoman authorities assigned the status of kaza (county) to Malazgird and included its territory in the vilayet of Bitlis. In order to boost Muslim numbers, authorities preemptively merged into the newly-formed county the kaza of Karayaz from the neighboring vilayet of Erzurum, which was almost entirely populated by Kurds. [14] This resulted in Malazgird boundaries extending northwest into and beyond the Tvaratsatap (Karayaz) valley and passing to the northwest of the town of Dutagh (Tutak). As a consequence of demographic and administrative manipulations, in the late nineteenth century Muslims constituted the majority of the countys population. The number of Manazkert Armenians dwindled during and after the 1894-1896 Hamidian massacres, when hundreds were killed and thousands fled to the Russian empire to escape atrocities. In the aftermath of the massacres, Armenian settlers from Sparkert, Khizan, and other counties of the Bitlis province, repopulated several Manazkert villages, which somewhat improved the Armenian demographics. However, in May of 1903, a devastating earthquake centered near Mount Sipan claimed the lives of about 700 Armenian inhabitants of Manazkert, destroyed five nearby villages and affected seventeen others. [15] Nearly a decade later, after the 1912-1913 First Balkan War, Ottoman authorities facilitated further resettlement of muhajirs in Malazgird villages.

This study relied on a number of sources, which can be found in the article Kaza of BulanikDemography (http://www.houshamadyan.org/mapottomanempire/vilayet-of-bitlispaghesh/kaza-of-bulanik/locale/demography.html). The 1902 Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople census of the population of towns and villages on the Plain of Moush and its vicinity collected by writer Gegham Ter-Karapetian, the 1878 trip report by Armenian ethnographer Aristakes Ter-Sargsents (Tevkants), [16] the letter of 28 May 1915 from Pastor Hovhannes Ter-Avetissian, the vice-prelate of Manazkert, addressed to Catholicos Gevorg V Soureniants, [17] and an account on Taron by contemporary Armenian intellectual and historian Karo Sassouni, [18] provided supplementary data.



Immediately conspicuous among sources becomes a discrepancy regarding the number of villages in Malazgird. According to Ghukas Inchichian, a Mekhitarist geographer, in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there were 360 Armenian villages in the county. In the 1760s, their number dropped to 100, and in the late eighteenth century, to twenty. [19] Authors of Msho ashkhar, an editorial published in the periodical Luma, suggested that in the 1870s there were 64 total villages. [20] This figure matched the total of villages for the years 1871, 1872, and 1873 in Ottoman salnames, government annuals containing statistical data for the state and provinces. [21] Tevkants reported sixteen Armenian and 75 Kurdish villages in 1878. Bishop Grigoris Aleatchian, a prelate of Moush, reported 23 Armenian localities in 1880. Alexey Kolyubakin, a Russian vice-consul in Van, reported that in the mid-1880s the total number of villages amounted to 147. [22] Bishop Garegin Srvandztiants reported 49 Armenian villages for both Manazkert and Bulanik counties. [23] Vital Cuinet, a French geographer, suggested that in 1891 there were 50 total localities. [24] Ottoman salname from 1898 listed 126 total villages. Vladimir Mayewski, a Russian General Staff colonel, listed 149 villages in 1899, out of which 21 were Armenian. [25] The Patriarchate listed 26 Armenian villages prior to World War I (Raymond Kevorkian and Paul Paboudjian upgraded the figure to 39 using supplementary Patriarchate census data available to them). [26] Teodik (Teotoros Lapjinchian), an Armenian writer, reported 25 Armenian villages prior to 1915. [27] Pastor Hovhannes Ter-Avetissian reported 27 Armenian villages or 1,089 households prior to 1915.

The only two primary sources, in which the number of Armenian villages matched up, were the household count prepared by the Moush Prelacy from 1899, which was republished in 1912 by Armenian statistician A-Do (Hovhannes Ter-Martirosian), [28] and the household-and-population count prepared by the secretary of the Prelacy, Nazaret Martirosian. Both reported 40 Armenian villages in Manazkert. The reason this overlap occurred was that A-Dos figures were initially supplied by Martirosian, who later updated the data and, in 1916, tabulated the village populations in the periodical Van-Tosp. [29] Sassouni apparently borrowed the figure from A-Do and Martirosian, when he suggested that prior to the genocide there were 126 villages in the county, out of which 40 were Armenian inhabitted. [30] Paradoxical as it may seem, most Armenian authors seem to have underreported the number of Manazkert villages containing Armenians. Russian authors Kolyubakin and Mayewski, on the other hand, appear to have offered the best estimate for the total number of villages. Until the late-1870s, Ottoman salnames matched the Armenian figures remarkably closely. The 1871 salname for the vilayet of Erzurum stated there were 1,876 Armenian and 3,218 Muslim men in Malazgird. The 1872 salname stated there were 1,976 Armenian and 2,518 (it should read 3,518) Muslim men. A Moush Prelacy count concurred that, in 1,510 households, 5,494 men lived in the county, of whom 1,976 were Armenians and 3,518 Muslims. [31] Yet another salname, from 1873, listed 2,024 Armenian and 3,929 Muslim men living in a total of 1,510 households. [32] One exception was Tevkants, who reported 2,687 Armenian and 9,746 Kurdish inhabitants. [33] Based on a Prelacy count from 1880, Bishop Aleatchian listed 5,089 Armenian men and women living in 487 households. [34] Over the following decade, however, this convergence of Ottoman and Armenian statistics disappeared. The 1892 salname for the vilayet of Bitlis listed 14,649 inhabitants in Malazgird, of whom 10,066 were Muslim, and 4,583 Armenian. [35] The 1898 salname, upon which Mayewski appears to have based his count, listed 570 Armenian households. [36] If multiplied by eight, an average number for members per household in rural areas suggested by Bishop Vahan Ter-Minassian (Partizaktsi), [37] this figure would put the number of Armenians at 4,560. By contrast, a Prelacy count from the 1890s suggested there were 1,149 Armenian households or 8,043 inhabitants. [38] In Cuinets estimation, of 21,000 inhabitants in Malazgird in 1891, 12,000 were Kurds and 9,000 Armenians. [39] Martirosian reported 11,166 Armenian inhabitants living in a total of 1,351 households prior to World War I. [40]



The numerical discrepancy between Ottoman and Armenian sources is generally attributed to the implications of the peace treaties of San Stefano and Berlin after the conclusion of a Russo-Turkish war in 1878. The treaties called upon the Ottoman government to carry out reforms in eastern vilayets, referring to them as the provinces inhabited by the Armenians. Unsettled by European powers involvement with the Ottoman Armenians in terms of guaranteeing their security against Kurds, Circassians, and other Muslim groups, Ottoman authorities resorted to frequent undercounting of the Armenian population. [41] In the 1892 salname for the vilayet of Bitlis, the Armenian population figure for Malazgird is 1.7 times smaller than the figure contained in the Moush Prelacy count, and 1.9 times smaller than the figure contained in Cuinets report. In 1893, an Ottoman census put the Armenian population in four of the five counties of the Moush sandjak: Malazgird, Bulanik, Vardo, and Sassoun, at 25,873. In Cuinets report, the Armenian population in these counties is put at 9,000, 10,361, 7,994, and 8,389, respectively. The resulting total of 35,744 is almost 1.4 times larger than the Ottoman census figure. Inconsistencies with regard to population figures intensified throughout the 1890s and, in the early 1900s, turned into a statistical standoff. A census carried out by the Ottoman authorities prior to World War I placed the number of Muslims in Malazgird at improbable 30,929 and the number of Armenians at 4,438. [42] Conversely, a census carried out by the Patriarchate produced a figure for the Christian population, almost all of whom were Armenians, at 11,931. [43] Drawing on Ottoman salnames, Mayewski stated that Armenians amounted to thirteen percent of the total population of Malazgird. [44] Cuinet, on the other hand, suggested that Armenians accounted for 43 percent of the total population. [45] Researchers are fortunate to have Karo Sassounis account Turkish Armenia under the Russian Rule, in which the number of Armenians of Manazkert and Bulanik counties, who were evacuated to eastern Armenia and other provinces of the Russian empire during the Russian advance into and withdrawal from Moush in the spring of 1915, was estimated to be 34,000. [46]



In mid-April, the Russian forces advanced as far as Dutagh, and the Ottoman army beat a hasty retreat, plundering Armenian villages as they withdrew. When the Russians arrived at the town of Manazkert the following month, almost all Armenian villagers were fortunate to escape massacres; killings of several dozens of Armenian adolescents occurred in Banzde, Kharaba Ghasmik, Khotanlu, Marmous, Mollabagh, Molla Mustafa, Noradin, and Roustamgetik. Except for inhabitants of several villages in the Lower Bulanik nahiye who were killed, most Armenians of the Bulanik county also escaped massacres, fleeing to Manazkert between the fourteenth and sixteenth of May. [47] If using only the Ottoman data for both counties4,438 for Malazgird and14,662 for Bulanikthe number of Armenians would total 19,100. On the other hand, if using solely the pre-war Patriarchate figures of 11,931 for Manazkert and 25,053 for Bulanik, the number of Armenians would total 36,984. From only a few villages of Manazkert, Bulanik, Moush, and Van, within days after the Russian forces unexpectedly withdrew in mid-July, around 5,653Armenians fled. [48] Another source indicated that the number of Armenians from the Bulanik, Khlat (Ahlat), and Khnous counties who fled to Manazkert was estimated in late May to be around 20,000. [49] It can, therefore, be said that Sassouni fairly accurately reported the number of Armenian populations of Manazkert and Bulanik that fled for safety.



Another Ottoman source, found in the collection of documents titled Armenian Activities in the Archive Documents, 1914-1918, indicated that, in 1915, the number of Malazgird Armenians who were to be forcibly deported, or as the source put it, relocated and distanced, was recorded in Ottoman registries at 4,430, and the number of Bulanik Armenians at 14,309. [50] However, the resulting total of 18,739 differs from the figures contained in Armenian sources. An Armenian accusatory report published in 1918 in Aleppo put the number of survivors from Manazkert and Bulanik at about 25,000. [51] Although a report signed by a group of genocide survivors carries less accuracy than a census or a count, the figure contained in it is still 1.3 times larger than the Ottoman figure for the two counties. According to a Moush Prelacy count, the results of which were published in Martirosians statistical table, prior to World War I, Armenians in Manazkert accounted for 11,166 inhabitants living in 1,351 households. This figure is 2.5 times larger than the Ottoman figure for the same county. Listed below are the villages in Malazgird, which were either largely populated by Armenians or had a number of Armenian (in some cases, ethnically-unspecified) households or were formerly inhabited by Armenians, along with their present-day Turkified names placed in brackets. In cases where present-day names were not identified, names of the mahallesi (translated from Turkish as neighborhoods) in which they are located, are given. Because sources used for this study provided discrepant data, determining the most approximate population number per village was not deemed achievable. Unless otherwise specified, the data submitted below are drawn from sources covering a period of about 25 years or from the 1890s to 1915. read more
LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. porn star Stormy Daniels' attorney filed declarations here Monday against the petition of President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen to have the legal dispute over an alleged affair "solved" through arbitration.

The filing came a few hours before Cohen's office in New York was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). U.S. news outlet CNN reported that the raid seized documents related to Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 which the White House has denied.

Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, said in a statement that the search was "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted after the raid "an enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC (Michael Cohen)'s shoulders," and "this could end very very badly" for Trump and others.

Monday's declarations filed to court is the latest move in the legal battle between Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, Trump, and the limited liability company Essential Consultant LLC (EC) which was allegedly created to pay her for a "hush agreement" preventing her from disclosing the alleged affair to others.

In a lawsuit filed on March 6, Daniels sought to invalidate the hush agreement because Trump didn't personally sign it.

According to the lawsuit, Daniels said she had a sexual relationship with Trump from summer of 2006 to 2007. In October of 2016, Daniel wanted to disclosed details of the relationship to media outlets, and this move came to attention of Trump and his presidential campaign, so Cohen arranged a hush agreement to her.

Under the agreement, 130,000 U.S. dollars would be paid to a trust account of the actress' then attorney.

Daniels and Cohen signed the agreement and a side letter agreement on Oct. 28, 2016, just days before the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit alleged that in the hush document aliases were used by design of Cohen. Trump was referred to as David Dennison (DD) and Daniel as Peggy Peterson (PP). In the side letter agreement, the true identity of DD is blacked out, but Avenatti said the individual is Trump. However, neither of the documents was signed by DD.

Last week, Trump made his first public response to the alleged affair, saying that he did not know about the 130,000-dollar hush money payment that Cohen made to Daniels.

After filing the lawsuit, Avenatti applied a motion for an expedited trial and discovery process, including to depose Trump and Cohen for the case. A federal judge in California put a temporary stop to the motion, citing that it is "premature" because Trump and EC had not filed a petition to compel arbitration.

According to U.S. law, if the arbitration provision of an agreement was valid, one of the parties of the document has the right to ask for compel-arbitration, which will not be held publicly and limits the investigation process.

Cohen filed his petition to compel arbitration last week, arguing that it doesn't matter whether DD signed the contract since the settlement agreement defined the parties to the agreement as EC and/or DD on one part and PP on the other.

Avenatti issued a statement later in response to the filing, opposing the motion by Cohen to have the case decided in arbitration.

On Sunday, Avenatti filed a motion again, requesting the deposition of Trump and Cohen, and the production of documents directed at Trump and Cohen.

Avenatti said the questions he wants to ask include whether Trump is "David Dennison," whether he truly did not know about the 130,000-dollar payment, whether the payment was made with Trump's money, what was Cohen's role, and was Mr. Trump personally involved in the effort to silence plaintiff in order to benefit his presidential campaign by preventing voters from hearing the plaintiff speak publicly.

The court set the hearing date for Sunday's motion by Avenatti on May 7 and hearing date for Monday's declaration on April 30.
An Afghan man receives medical treatment after the blast at a local hospital in Herat city, capital of Herat province, Afghanistan, April 9, 2018. At least five civilians were killed and seven others injured as a blast ripped through a bazaar in Shindand district of Afghanistan's western Herat province on Monday, police spokesman in the province, Abdul Ahad Walizada said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Elyas)

HERAT, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least five civilians were killed and seven others injured as a blast ripped through a bazaar in Shindand district of Afghanistan's western Herat province on Monday, police spokesman in the province, Abdul Ahad Walizada said Tuesday.

According to the official, the anti-government militants placed explosive device into the cavities of a bicycle and detonated it in Shindand bazaar in the evening killing five civilians on the spot, including some children.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, the official did nott rule out the involvement of Taliban militants in the attack.
BANGKOK, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least six people, all Myanmar migrant workers, were killed and several others injured after a double-decker bus slid down into a roadside ravine in northern Thailand late Monday, Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said on Tuesday.

The accident happened at about 10:50 p.m. local time on Monday. The six Myanmar nationals were among a busload of 51 Myanmar migrant workers on their way from Mae Sot district of Tak province, about 420 km north of Bangkok, to Chachoengsao province in eastern Thailand where they had been employed, the department said.

Seventeen people, including one Thai and 16 Myanmar nationals were injured in the incident and were sent for treatment in a local hospital.

Meanwhile, Thai media Thairath said on Tuesday morning that 12 were killed and 18 were injured in the incident.

The police were looking into the double decker's conditions and its braking system.

Mae Sot is a main gateway between Thailand and Myanmar, through which many Myanmar migrant workers come to work in Thailand.

Thailand hosts some 3.8 million migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Emails containing threats of violence sent to schools in the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California forced at least four of them to shut down Monday, police authorities said.

The Emery Unified School District in Emeryville, about 13 km northeast downtown San Francisco, decided to close schools after receiving the threatening emails Sunday.

"Parents received their first round of robocalls Sunday night and another Monday morning informing them of the decision to close the school," local TV KRON4 reported.

"It was an email that went to a district employee last night saying there were threats of shooting at the school today," said the TV news outlet.

The school authorities have informed local police of the threat, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is getting involved and investigating who sent the threats to several Bay Area school districts, according to the TV report.

"The FBI is working with our local law enforcement partners to determine the validity of the reported school threats within our area of responsibility. At this time, they appear to be part of a larger influx of threats and they do not appear to be legitimate," the FBI San Francisco Office twitted Monday afternoon.

Emeryville police believe the emails all started through an online gaming community and sort of a contest to see who would generate the most school evacuations in Britain and the United States.

"Not just Bay Area ... they're across the state as well and across the nation," a police officer told the KRON4 TV.

Schools in Emeryville will resume Tuesday following a spring break, but there will be a heavy police presence in case parents or kids have questions or concerns about safety, it said.

School authorities have been on alert about campus violence in recent days following a mass shooting in a high school in Florida on Feb. 14, when a 19-year-old gunman shot and killed 17 people and injured another 14.

The massacre has sparked nationwide campaigns against gun-related violence, which culminated in massive protests and demonstrations calling for gun control across the country on March 24.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 13:59:16|Editor: ZD

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LHASA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Newly discovered cliff carvings in eastern Tibet may offer a glimpse into Buddhist art and local history from 1,200 years ago.

According to the regional cultural relics protection research institute, the discoveries dating back to the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom were found in Acur township in Chagyab County of Qamdo City.

The relics of the Buddha figure carvings were first found by construction workers who were mining for stones in a valley. The carvings are inscribed on cliffs that stretch some 10 meters in total.

Experts believe that the carvings were created in the 9th century, based on their style.

Experts said the relics are located at a transportation junction between the north and the south. The discoveries will not only contribute to the study of art and culture, but also ancient transportation.

Construction on the section has been halted and the relics are under the protection of authorities.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Armed Taliban militants have set a school on fire in Afghanistan's eastern province Nangarhar, authorities said Tuesday.

"The incident occurred around 3:00 a.m. Tuesday when the Taliban stormed Hazaar Naw High School in Muhmand Dara district. A major portion of administrative building of the school burned and amounts of documents were destroyed by the blaze," the provincial government said in a statement.

However, officials and locals put out the fire before it spread to classrooms and other parts of the building, the statement added.

No one was hurt in the incident and the school was opened for students Tuesday morning.

More than 9.5 million Afghan children with around 40 percent of them girls attend 15,000 schools across the country, while over 3.5 million school age children have no access to education due to poverty, conflicts and insurgency, according to education officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 14:04:18|Editor: pengying

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Mohd Hashim bin Abdullah (2nd R), chairman of Malaysia's Election Commission, attends a press conference in Putrajaya April 10, 2018. Malaysia will hold general elections on May 9, said the Election Commission on Tuesday, days after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the dissolution of the parliament. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian voters will go to the polls on May 9 in the country's general elections, said the Election Commission of Malaysia on Tuesday, days after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the dissolution of the parliament.

Mohd Hashim bin Abdullah, chairman of Election Commission, at the press conference also announced the nomination date, which falls on April 28. After nomination day, candidates will have 11 days for their campaign.

The polling date, a Wednesday, was decided at a previous special meeting chaired by Hashim. He noted that the date was to avoid a clash with major cultural and religious events. Ramadan, a major festive period for the Muslim-majority country, begins on May 15.

Hashim said military and police forces as well as voters outside Malaysia could begin early voting on May 5.

According to data from the Election Commission, a total of 14.9 million voters are eligible for voting. Candidates will contest 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state seats, including all states except the eastern Borneo state of Sarawak, which conducted its state election in 2017.

A simple majority of 112 parliamentary seats will deliver a victory to Najib, who is leading the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition against the challenge of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

In the last general election held in 2013, BN managed to win 133 out of the 222 seats, though it obtained less than half of the popular votes.

Both BN and the opposition alliance led by Mahathir, called Pakatan Harapan, have released their campaign manifestos, in which generous benefits were promised to the voters.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 14:04:19|Editor: pengying

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Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, addresses a meeting of the UN Security Council on the chemical weapon use in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York April 9, 2018. China supports an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syria, Hu Taitao said on Monday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- China supports an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syria, a Chinese envoy to the United Nations said Monday.

"China supports a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation of the incident concerned so that a conclusion that is based on substantiated evidence and that can stand the test of history and facts can be reached, so that the perpetrators and responsible parties can be brought to justice," Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council.

The reports of the latest chemical attack in Syria and of the related civilian casualties are of grave concern to China, said Wu.

"China's position on chemical weapons has been consistent and clear: we are firmly opposed to the use of chemical weapons by any state, organization or individual under any circumstances. Any use of chemical weapons, whenever and wherever, must not be tolerated."

The question of chemical weapons in Syria is closely linked with the political settlement of the Syrian issue, he said. "China supports the Security Council and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in continuing to play an important role as a main channel for addressing the chemical weapons in Syria."

He expressed the hope that the parties concerned will take a constructive approach, engage in consultations to seek a solution, discover the truth, avoid the recurrence of chemical weapons use, maintain the unity of the Security Council, and work to advance the political process in Syria.

The Syrian conflict has entered its eighth year, inflicting tremendous suffering on the Syrian people, he said, adding that political settlement is the only way out. The international community must remain committed to the political settlement and effectively respect the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, he said.

China is always opposed to the use of force or threat of the use of force in international affairs and always advocated the adherence to the UN Charter, said Wu.

All parties should increase their support to the United Nations as the main mediator, push parties in Syria to seek a political settlement under the principle of Syrian leadership and Syrian ownership and in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, he said.

Counter-terrorism is an important and urgent issue in the political process. The international community needs to enhance coordination, uphold uniform standards and combat all terrorist organizations listed by the Security Council, said Wu.

On Saturday, activists said the Syrian forces used chlorine gas in an attack against Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 14:39:24|Editor: ZX

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by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Despite attempts to dominate Latin America in decades, the United States has seen its influence declining in the region where the governments are strengthening external communication, a Cuban political expert said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has worsened his political and trade links with the continent by pushing back relations with Cuba, threatening Venezuela with military aggression, stressing Mexico should pay for a border wall and imposing additional tariffs on imports from the region, said Cuban political analyst Esteban Morales in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"It will be very difficult for Trump to rebuild relations with Latin America as he intends to impose Cold War policies on and apply the Monroe Doctrine to the region," said Morales.

The Monroe Doctrine was first initiated in the mid-19th century, which advocates intervention in Latin America considered as the U.S. "backyard" and never tolerates any economic or political policies or values that differ from its own.

Morales also said that the upcoming eighth Summit of the Americas in Peru will be a "challenging moment" for Trump's ties with the continent, as many nations are unwilling to accept impositions from the White House.

"The Summit of the Americas will be hard for the U.S. and for Trump in particular as he will try to present himself as a world leader with a strong personality and an efficient foreign policy but it has actually been quite the opposite," added the Cuban scholar.

With different political and ideological values co-existing in the region, there is still a sense of unity among the Latin American nations when it comes to defending their common history and sovereignty, he said.

Last year, when Trump backtracked American ties with Havana and threatened Caracas with a possible military invasion. The entire region rejected his actions.

"U.S. policy towards Cuba and the permanence of the economic embargo are catalyst of the regional solidarity. Latin America as a whole supports and encourages to normalize ties between the United States and both countries, and demands Washington lift the blockade," Morales added.

The Summit of the Americas scheduled for April 13-14 in the Peruvian capital Lima takes place days before the Cuban National Assembly meets on April 19 to name the new president as the present Cuban President, Raul Castro plans to step down then.

The event is bound to be Castro's last major international meeting, where he is expected to send a message that Havana will continue its socialist path and further deepen economic and social reforms, the expert said.

"Cuba is going to show its position to improve its economic situation without changing its sovereignty and political system. It will convey a message of solidarity and unity with the rest of Latin America," he said.

Morales also said he believes Castro will reiterate Havana's stance to normalize ties with Washington on the premise of sovereignty, independence and mutual respect.

"Cuba wants to continue cooperation with the U.S. in numerous areas and carry on the political dialogue started under the Obama administration." Trump was the one who decided to halt everything previously done and roll back relations, he added.

Although there are divided opinions in Latin America about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government, Trump's military threat to Caracas did not receive any sympathy or support in the region.

The exclusion of Venezuela from this year's Lima summit reflected Washington's firm stance against Maduro's administration, "but only Venezuelans can determine their future and solve their internal difficulties," he added.

"Although Venezuela is excluded this time, I don't believe the U.S. can return to the times when they had total control of this summit and determined who participated or not," added Morales.

Trump and heads of state from the Western Hemisphere plan to travel to Peru this weekend for the 2018 Summit of the Americas with the theme "Democratic Governance against Corruption."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 14:49:27|Editor: Yamei

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HAIKOU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's southern island province of Hainan will carry out new measures to make itself more open, dynamic and international, Liu Cigui, Party chief of Hainan, has said.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone, as well as the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up of the whole country.

Hainan will fully engage in the Belt and Road Initiative and push ahead with the construction of an economic cooperation zone around the South China Sea, Liu told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The province will accelerate transportation links between Hainan and countries and regions along the Belt and Road. A total of 100 international air and sea routes are expected to open in three years, Liu added.

The province's tourism industry has made tremendous achievements since a national strategy to make the island an international resort was adopted in 2009, he said.

Statistics show tourists visiting the island increased from nearly 26 million in 2010 to over 67 million in 2017, while total tourism revenue grew from 26 billion yuan in 2010 to more than 81 billion yuan (about 12.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017.

The province attracted more than one million overseas tourists last year.

"Hainan will further strengthen the role of tourism in the development of the province, and promote its integration with other industries," Liu said.

The province will strengthen regulation and management to protect the island's ecology and environment, and retain the good quality of its air, water and sea, he noted.

Hainan has been promoting rural tourism to invigorate its rural areas and improve the living standards of rural people, Liu said.
MANILA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen inmates at a police jail in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines escaped before dawn on Tuesday, local police said.

Police Senior Superintendent Vincent Neri Ignacio of the Zamboanga City said 12 of the 17 inmates were recaptured a few hours after the jailbreak. Five escapists are being hunted down.

Ignacio said the inmates, who are facing drug charges, destroyed the detention padlock using a handsaw.

He said only one jail officer was manning the detention cell when the jailbreak occurred around 02:50 a.m. local time, making it easy for the prisoners to bolt.

The police immediately launched a manhunt to prevent the inmates from getting out of the city.

Ignacio also ordered the relatives of the inmates to surrender their fugitive kins within 24 hours or face charges for harbouring wanted persons.

Ignacio has already relieved the police jail personnel for their negligence, saying administrative charges will be filed against them.
HERAT, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 armed militants and two soldiers were killed after clashes erupted between Afghan security forces and militants in Herat province, west of Afghanistan, a local official said Tuesday.

"The clashes occurred after Taliban militants stormed security checkpoints with guns and rockets in remote Chishti Sharif district late Monday, leaving 15 militants dead and eight others injured," Jilani Farhad, spokesman for provincial government, told Xinhua.

During the clashes four security forces were also wounded, he added.

The Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militants have intensified attacks recently as spring and summer known as fighting season is drawing near.

Earlier on Tuesday, the country's Defense Ministry said that Afghan security forces waged 15 clean up operations and 56 special operations in 11 provinces over the past 24 hours.

The Afghan air force also conducted 43 supportive flights and eight airstrikes against militants while the army's bomb disposal teams also found and destroyed 68 rounds of landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in different provinces over the period, the statement added.
PHNOM PENH, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Tuesday launched the first airport train service here, aiming at reducing traffic congestion, said Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol.

The service runs on 10 km of the rail track from the railway station in the center of Phnom Penh to the Phnom Penh International Airport in the west.

"This is another historic day that our country has a railway passenger shuttle service connecting the Phnom Penh City to Phnom Penh International Airport," the minister told reporters at the launching ceremony.

"It will contribute to reducing traffic congestion and road accidents."

The air-conditioner-equipped trains would take a maximum of 25 minutes for a single trip, the minister said, adding that each train was capable of carrying about 100 passengers, including 56 seating and 44 standing.

Chanthol said two train engines are used to transport passengers and the number will be increased to five when other three train engines purchased from Mexico arrive.

According to the minister, the airport train service would be free to citizens from April 10 until July 31, and after the period, a reasonable ticket price would be charged. The airport train service is the latest launch of a new public transportation option in the Southeast Asian nation.

On April 4, a passenger train service resumed operations between Poipet town bordering Thailand and Serey Sophorn in northern Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, and on April 6, a taxi boat service along the Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers from Phnom Penh to southern Kandal province was launched.
Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

by Zhang Yuliang, Gretinah Machingura

HARARE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa concluded his five-day state visit to China last Friday, giving substantial impetus to future cooperation between the two nations.

The trip was Mnangagwa's first outside Africa since taking over from former leader Robert Mugabe last November, and resulted in the two countries deepening political and economic ties.

During the visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and and his counterpart Mnangagwa agreed to establish comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between the two countries.

Xi said the Zimbabwean people have started a new journey in building their country since Mnangagwa took office last November.

"As a good friend, partner and brother of Zimbabwe, we are glad to see that," Xi told Mnangagwa.

When meeting with Mnangagwa, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Zimbabwe is an important partner of China in Africa and China will continue to uphold the principles of sincerity, friendship and equality, and bring new vitality to the traditional friendship between China and Zimbabwe.

China is ready to work with Zimbabwe to give full play to the complementary advantages of both economies, innovate cooperation methods and deepen cooperation in infrastructure construction, agriculture, production capacity and human resources, said Premier Li.

On the economic front, China and Zimbabwe managed to strike deals worth billions of U.S. dollars for implementation of various infrastructure development projects in energy, water, transport, tourism and telecommunications, among other sectors, Chinese economic and commercial counsellor to Zimbabwe Li Yaohui told Xinhua.

The two countries also signed numerous agreements to advance economic cooperation, skills development, education and other facets of the economy, the counsellor said.

Among major deals Zimbabwe finalized with China is the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station by 600 megawatts by China's Sinohydro.

Funds for the 1 billion U.S. dollars project, which has been in pipeline for some years now, are expected to be released immediately, the counsellor said.

With this latest deal, China is emerging as the top investor in Zimbabwe's energy sector after the government, two weeks ago, commissioned another Chinese-built-and-funded power expansion project at Kariba South Hydro Power Station.

The 533 million-U.S. dollars Kariba South Hydro Power expansion project. (Xinhua/Shaun Jusa)

The expansion project, which added two 150-megawatt units to the power plant, was also done by Sinohydro at a cost of 533 million dollars.

The expansion lifted Kariba's installed capacity from 750 MW to 1,050 MW, making it currently the country's biggest power plant.

The completion of Kariba expansion and implementation of the vast Hwange Thermal Power project will greatly boost Zimbabwe's power supplies and help the country, which faces perennial power shortages, be energy self-sufficient.

Li Yaohui said that other mega projects sealed by Mnangagwa in China are for the expansion of Harare Robert Mugabe International Airport, construction of a new parliament building, network expansion for Zimbabwe state-owned mobile firm NetOne, refurbishment of Harare's water treatment plant and construction of a pharmaceutical warehouse, among others.

The two countries also signed a tourism memorandum of understanding and an economic and technological cooperation agreement.

During his stay in China, Mnangagwa also visited Anhui and Zhejiang and met with the political leadership and business communities from the two provinces, Li Yaohui said.

Mnangagwa, who was accompanied by several cabinet ministers and business leaders, said a lot of achievements were made from the state visit. He described the China trip as historic and a resounding success.

"Today, I conclude my first historic visit which will help bring further crucial momentum to our economy. We had many fruitful discussions with political and business leaders in China, including President Xi Jinping, and secured a host of deals which will make a real difference to the lives of Zimbabweans," he said in a Facebook post at the end of his visit last Friday.

"They will focus on road, rail, air and dam construction projects..." he said.

In its editorial comment Monday, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said Zimbabwe-China ties had hit a new high following Mnangagwa's visit.

"Major milestones were reached during President Mnangagwa's meeting with Chinese officials. What is most important is that relations between Zimbabwe and China were elevated to comprehensive strategic status, a move that is set to change the bilateral cooperation between the two nations," the newspaper said.

Another major milestone that came out of the Beijing visit was the incorporation of Zimbabwe into the Belt and Road Initiative where Zimbabwe stands to reap huge benefits by being part of the select group of countries that China is dealing with under the initiative, the paper added.

"Zimbabweans should celebrate President Emmerson Mnangagwa for convincing the Chinese to make the country a part of such a huge investment that is set to change the face of the world," the newspaper said.
Photo taken on Oct. 16, 2016 shows South Sudan's government troops patrolling in Malakal town, South Sudan. (Xinhua/Gale Julius)

JUBA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's ex-army chief, Paul Malong, on Monday launched a new armed movement, vowing to reclaim the country and restore peace and order.

The former chief of general staff of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said his movement, the South Sudan-United Front (SS-UF), will steer the nation toward democracy and development as the basis of founding a nation.

"Our movement is a just and urgent call to our compatriots and a struggle to first, arrest the carnage that has ensued our country; secondly to steer us towards democracy and development which are the cornerstones of nationhood, an African nationhood of democracy, development, equal citizenry, justice and freedom," the ex-army chief said in a statement issued in Juba.

Malong accused President Salva Kiir of turning the east African nation into a "nest for systemic corruption" that has devastated the lives of all citizens on a daily basis.

The former army chief said through his new movement, he would work with compatriots to establish strong institutions.

"We must build our nationhood around strong institutions and not strongmen," Malong said. "Strong institutions will outlive all of us and guarantee the prosperity of our nation. This is what we yearn for in our country."

Malong accused President Salva Kiir of committing war atrocities, obstruction and violation of a peace agreement.

"In less than a decade the country has become a failed state under the inept leadership of President Salva Kiir," said Malong.

Malong was widely regarded as a key ally of Kiir after he mobilized an ethnic militia to fight for the Kiir administration.

But in May 2017, Malong was sacked and put under house arrest before being allowed to leave the country in November 2017 to seek medical attention in Kenya.

Human rights groups have on several occasions accused Malong and his militia of committing atrocities on civilians across the war-torn country.

The former army chief is also among three South Sudanese officials sanctioned by the United States and Canada last year for allegedly obstructing peace efforts and benefiting from the ongoing civil war.

Earlier, the government accused Malong of rebellion and ordering his followers to attack government position in several parts of the country.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny confirmed to Xinhua by phone that the government is fully aware of the ex-army chief forming a new armed faction.

He said Malong had denied being a rebel but within less than two months now he has formed his alliance, confirming the previous charge.

"Malong will be destroying his legacy. He is going to fight against the same army he led in the war since 2013 until the time he was relieved," Ateny said.

South Sudan has been embroiled in four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people, and creating one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under United Nations pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.

The UN estimates that 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 16:39:52|Editor: Mengjie

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CHANGSHA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Thirty years ago, farmer Sun Xueyuan was exhausted even to manage one hectare of land a year. Now he is 65 and has an easy time handling 20 hectares.

Farming is a kind of heavy work, especially in places where farmers depended on weather conditions and their own hands for a good harvest. This is also what Sun, in Yiyang City, central China's Hunan Province, had done in past decades.

Pre-germinating rice seeds is the most time-consuming work of spring ploughing. Traditionally, farmers must soak the seeds and cover them with straw and quilt to keep them warm. But they also have to get up at night in case the temperature gets too high that the seeds get burnt.

"We can hardly sleep well during this period," Sun said.

But this year, Sun was able to sleep through every night, thanks to the help of modern technology.

"Someone else did it for us, and it did an even better job," he said.

All her seeds were sent to the nearby cooperative where pre-germination is done mechanically.

"Our seedlings nursery can maintain a stable temperature and humidity and effectively encourages growth of seeds," said Liu Chuangye, who operates the cooperative.

"Almost all farmers now send the seeds here for pre-germination; it's cost effective," Sun said.

In the nearby Xiejiapu Town, Kuang Yongli opened his WeChat and called for help to plough his 20 hectares of land. The next day, he had three rotocultivators running at full steam.

However, when Kuang became a farmer five years ago, he often spent days looking for help to plow the land as farming machinery was scarce at that time.

The local cooperative have since set up a WeChat group so that machinery experts, farmers and farm machinery providers can directly communicate with each other.

"Now we can reserve the machine in real time on WeChat, and each rotocultivator can farm almost three hectares every day," Kuang said. "The price is also very good, ranging from 1,500 to 1,800 yuan (237 to 285 U.S. dollars) per hectare."

According to Liu, modern technology has been applied in every stage of farming and is being widely accepted by local farmers.

In Huarong County of Hunan's Yueyang City, stay-at-home women are now taking time harvesting vegetables and transplanting rice seedlings. Labor shortages used to be a big headache during spring plowing and autumn harvesting, but these stay-at-home women have become a major force to tackle the problem.

About 50 local women have been mobilized to work in the fields in the busy seasons and more will join this year, according to Zhang An'de, one of the organizers.

"By working together and sharing resources, farming has become much more efficient and easier in recent years," said Lu Qingnian, a local farmer.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 16:54:57|Editor: Lu Hui

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SHIJIAZHUANG, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 34 suspects have been arrested in north China for illegally hunting and trafficking 72,000 wild birds, police in Hebei Province said.

Hebei forest police said the trafficking gang was caught in 2017.

In September and October last year, the suspects ensnared a total of 72,000 wild birds, mainly yellow-breasted buntings, then fed them at bird farms before selling them to restaurants in southern China.

A total of 34 suspects were seized. Four are still on the run. Two of the main suspects are surnamed Wan and Li and live in Tianjin Municipality. The suspects are being investigated by prosecutors.

Yellow-breasted buntings are under state protection, but people in parts of southern China believe the birds to be good for the kidneys. Dishes made from the birds are expensive, with a single plate costing around 100 yuan.

"It is hard to root out poaching if the profit chain is still there. We will continue the crackdown and strike poachers," said Cui Guojun, deputy director of the Hebei forest police bureau.

Tian Zhiwei, a wildlife protectionist, said public campaigns are needed to prevent poaching, and more manpower is needed to fight poachers.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 17:10:04|Editor: Lu Hui

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Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attends a symposium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Zhang Tingfa, former commander of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, in Beijing, capital of China, April 10, 2018. Wang met with Zhang's relatives prior to the symposium. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A symposium was held Tuesday in Beijing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Zhang Tingfa, former commander of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attended the event and met with Zhang's relatives prior to the symposium.

Zhang was appointed air force major general in 1955 and served as the political commissar and the commander of the Air Force.

Zhang was regarded as an outstanding member of the CPC, a loyal Communist fighter, a proletarian revolutionary and an eminent military leader.

Zhang died of illness in Beijing in March 2010, aged 92.

Zhang Youxia, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, also attended the symposium, calling on army officials to learn from Zhang Tingfa's beliefs, military wisdom and loyalty to the CPC.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 17:15:05|Editor: Lu Hui

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TOKYO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A secretary of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe allegedly informed local officials that a project to open a veterinary school in Ehime Prefecture is a "matter concerning the prime minister," local accounts said Tuesday, citing a document on the matter.

According to Kyodo News, senior officials from the prefecture said they found the document on a visit to Abe's office in 2015.

The prefecture, however, officially denies the existence of the document, in contrast to recent sources' version of events.

The Asahi Shimbun daily reported that the document makes reference to Abe's secretary at the time, Tadao Yanase, describing the opening of the school as a "matter related to the prime minister."

Yanase has denied making the comment, adding that he does not remember such a meeting with the local officials.

The Asahi Shimbun daily also reported that it had confirmation of a record of talks between Abe's secretary at the time and the officials from the Ehime.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK also said Tuesday that sources had said that such a document had surfaced, implicating Abe in the cronyism scandal.

Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura said in a press briefing on the matter Tuesday following the report by the Asahi Shimbun daily that the prefectural government is looking into the matter and will share its findings at the earliest possible juncture.

The veterinary school, which opened last week in western Japan, is run by Kake Educational Institution.

Abe has close ties with the school's operator, Kotaro Kake, and suspicions have long been circling that Abe used his influence in the government's approval of the newly-opened department at the Okayama University of Science.

The veterinary medicine department is Japan's first to be opened in half a century and is located in a specially deregulated zone in Ehime Prefecture.

The surfacing of the alleged document threatens to put Abe and his administration on even shakier ground.

Along with the reemergence of the unresolved Kake Educational Institution influence-peddling scandal, Abe has also been implicated in a protracted cronyism scandal connected to a nationalist school operator.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 17:20:09|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States violated World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and its own public commitment by launching a Section 301 investigation unilaterally and threatening punitive tariffs against China, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Tuesday.

In accordance with the WTO rules, its members are forbidden to unilaterally assume when others break WTO rules and are not allowed to unilaterally stop tariff concessions or other obligations without WTO authorization.

Meanwhile, the United States has breached its own public commitment made in the Statement of Administrative Action in 1994.

The statement declared that the U.S. trade representative should decide that its rights under the WTO framework are infringed only based on the decision of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

The United States on April 3 announced tariffs on a proposed list of Chinese goods worth 50 billion U.S. dollars, covering industries in aerospace, information and communication technology, robotics and machinery.

The list was authorized by the U.S. Trade Representative's office, which in August 2017 initiated an unfounded investigation under the Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 to probe China's intellectual property and technology transfer practices.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 17:25:14|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to support free trade, President Xi Jinping said Tuesday when meeting with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

China is a responsible nation, and a constructor of and contributor to the current international system, the president said.

"We will continue to safeguard the international order and rules, and support free trade and the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment," Xi said.

"The international community should abandon the cold-war mentality and advocate working together to build a community with a shared future for mankind," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 18:10:25|Editor: Lu Hui

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KUWAIT CITY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Residents in Kuwait who hang out laundry in their balconies to dry clothes will be fined up to 300 Kuwaiti dinars (about 1,000 U.S. dollars) under a new campaign, local media reported.

The campaign is prompted by concerns over hygiene and visual pollution, the Gulf News reported, noting that several cities and regions in Gulf countries have been pushing for strict regulations in this regard.

Bahrain's Southern Governorate introduced a similar ban last year after some residents complained that the sight of underwear and lingerie outside was "provocative, disrespectful and embarrassing", the report said.

The campaign in Kuwait has been going on for years, dating back to a ministerial decision issued in 2008, Zaid Al Enezi, head of the team, was quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas on Monday.

So far, 12 apartments have been warned that they would have to pay fines if they continued drying their clothes on balconies, he said.

Hefty fines are actually not rare in this Arabian country. In August last year, a Kuwaiti man was told by police that he might have to pay 10,000 Kuwaiti dinars (33,300 U.S. dollars) for throwing an empty can on the beach.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 18:10:27|Editor: Lu Hui

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PARIS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Air France said on Tuesday that seven days of strikes by its French pilots, cabin crew and ground staff would cost the airline 170 million euros (209.59 million U.S. dollars).

"The impact on Air France's operating result of the seven days of strikes between 22 February and 11 April is estimated at 170 million euros," the flag carrier said in a statement.

Air France expected that 75 percent of its scheduled flights would be operational on Tuesday, when the sixth strike is due to take place.

More than a third of the pilots, 20.2 percent of the cabin crew, and 13 percent of the ground staff will stop working to demand a 6 percent rise in pay.

Consequently, 35 percent of the flag carrier's long-haul flights were canceled while a third of medium-haul flights to and from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport have been suspended.

Some 20 percent of short-haul flights have been canceled to and from Paris's Orly airport and French regions.

Unions representing the airline staff have planned the seventh worker stoppages on Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 18:20:30|Editor: Lu Hui

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 15 anti-government militants had given up fighting and joined the peace process in the eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, the provincial government said in a statement released here.

"Ten members of Taliban group and five Islamic States (IS) fighters handed over their weapons to provincial authorities here and surrendered to the government" said the statement.

According to the statement, the surrendered insurgents were involved in anti government activities in Shinwar district over the past years.

Taliban fighters usually lay down arms and join the government-backed peace process. However, militants affiliated to the hardliner IS group rarely give up fighting and surrender.

Previously a four-member group of IS militants surrendered to the government in northern Jawzjan province last week.
PYONGYANG, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has confirmed a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the truce village of Panmunjom, official media reported here on Tuesday.

The DPRK central television and Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday.

In his report to the meeting, Kim mentioned the summit meeting, saying that talks will be held at the "House of Peace" in the southern part of Panmunjom on April 27, according to the KCNA.

Related:

Trump sees meeting with DPRK's top leader in May or early June
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:00:42|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli addresses the handover ceremony of China-Aid Solar Photovoltaic Project at Singhadurbar in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 10, 2018. The Nepali government administrative headquarters known as Singhadurbar will be officially illuminated by solar power starting Tuesday with the help of China Aid. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government administrative headquarters known as Singhadurbar will be officially illuminated by solar power starting Tuesday with the help of China Aid.

At a special ceremony organized in the premise of Singhadurbar in Kathmandu, the completion of Solar Photovoltaic Project was inaugurated by Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong.

Prime Minister Oli expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for the installation of the solar power system which is efficient and cost-effective.

"Solar energy is an important technology for the mountainous country like Nepal in terms of efficiency and cost. I am thankful to China for the construction of this solar photovoltaic project in a short period of time and hopeful that this project can work as a model project for other areas."

On the same occasion, the prime minister also said that China's Belt and Road Initiative has opened up a new avenue for cooperation between Nepal and China in multiple sectors including energy.

Stating that solar technology is crucial for the modernization of agriculture and for the operation of small and large scale industries, Oli said that it is necessary for Nepal to end dependence on traditional electricity sources for energy needs.

"Though we are rich in water resources, sole dependence on hydropower is costly. Thus, we are focusing on renewable energy," the prime minister said.

The installation of solar panels started in November 2016 in at least 21 buildings around the central secretariat of the Nepali government, including the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy, among others.

According to government officials, the project cost is around 37 million Chinese yuan (about 5.97 million U.S. dollars). The 14-month long project was implemented by China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd.

"I hope that this project will become a model project for Nepal to expand energy supply channels, strengthen electricity supply security and realize green development," Chinese Ambassador Yu Hong said.

"The Chinese government has been engaged in efforts to help Nepal realize electricity development and will continue to provide assistance and support within its capacity the economic and social development of the country," Yu said.
LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A ban on the export to mainland Europe of life animals for slaughter is to be explored by the British government, the country's top foods minister announced Tuesday.

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced a call for evidence for the ban to be introduced once Britain leaves the European Union (EU) next March.

Every year thousands of sheep are shipped from Britain to slaughterhouses in EU countries, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

A spokesperson for Defra said: "Taking action on live animal exports forms part of the government's program of reforms to cement our position as a global leader in animal welfare."

The official Farm Animal Welfare Committee has also launched a review into the existing welfare standards for animals during transport, complemented by research commissioned by Defra from Scotland's Rural College and the University of Edinburgh.

Gove said: "We have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world which we are strengthening further by raising maximum sentences for animal cruelty to five years and introducing mandatory CCTV in abattoirs.

"All animals deserve to get the respect and care they deserve at every stage of their lives. This call for evidence begins to deliver on our commitment which aims to control the export of live animals for slaughter once we leave the European Union."

The call for evidence, which will last for six weeks, seeks views from across industry, devolved authorities, charities and the general public on how the government might raise standards of animal welfare during transport after Britain leaves the EU.

"All options for future improvements in this area are being considered, including a potential ban on the live export of animals for slaughter," said Defra.
TOKYO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Masazo Nonaka, a 112-year-old Japanese man residing in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, was recognized as the world's oldest living male, Guinness World Records said Tuesday.

Nonaka, who was born on July 25, 1905, as well as receiving a certificate from Guinness World Records, was also presented with an award and a cake from the mayor of the town of Ashoro where he was born and currently lives, local media reported.

Nonaka, who said he enjoys watching sumo wresting on TV and listening to music, lives with his family in his home in Ashoro.

The home is also a hot spring inn dating back more than a century that Nonaka used to run with his wife.

"Mr. Nonaka's achievement is remarkable," Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records' editor-in-chief was quoted as saying, adding "He can teach us all an important lesson about the value of life and how to stretch the limits of human longevity."

Koki Kurohata, Nonaka's great-grandson said "He has not been receiving nursing care at a facility and has clear brain. He's really amazing."

His granddaughter, Yuko, said that her grandfather enjoys relaxing in the hot spring once a week and has a sweet tooth, enjoying cakes in particular.

Following the death of Jamaican Violet Brown aged 117 in September, Nabi Tajima, a 117-year-old Japanese resident of Kagoshima Prefecture, is likely to be recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living woman.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:25:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel will open the Democracy Pavilion in Tel Aviv to the public from May 18 till the end of the year to mark its 70th anniversary of founding.

Yuli Edelstein, speaker of the Knesset (parliament), Ron Huldai, mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, and Sean Taube of Taube Philanthropies attended on Monday a pre-launch event at the pavilion, where they re-signed the Declaration of Independence.

The pavilion, a large geodesic dome located on the Rothschild Plaza in Tel Aviv, will use the full 360 degree technology to give an audio-visual presentation of the main events since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

"The establishment of the Democracy Pavilion is an impressive demonstration of Israeli democracy, located in the first modern Jewish city, which was dedicated to democracy from the very beginning," said Huldai.

"Only in a democratic society can freedom and tolerance co-exist. This is what allows the opposing sectors of Israeli society to co-exist and together create Tel-Aviv's multi-cultural mosaic," Huldai added.

The pavilion is established by the Israel Democracy Institute in partnership with the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, supported by the Taube Foundation.
SYDNEY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Arabia's oldest human finger bone fossil is around 90,000 years old, an Australian university announced Tuesday after completing data collection to directly date the fossil.

The fossil was discovered in Al Wusta, an ancient freshwater lake that is now the Nefud Desert in Saudi Arabia, by an international team led by the University of Oxford in Britain, which also included scientists from Australia, Germany, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

"It's quite a significant discovery because it confirms what we were expecting," co-author Mathieu Duval from Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) explained to Xinhua.

"We know that modern humans left Africa around 180,000 years ago because we have found fossils in China, but there have been no fossils, nothing, outside of the Levant in the Arabian peninsula."

"So the fossil is the oldest that has been directly dated outside African and the Levant."

Playing a vital role in the excavation of the finger bone, Griffith University palynologist Dr Julien Louys helped locate and identify the fossil at the dig site, while ARCHE's head of research Professor Rainer Grun, was the one responsible for calculating the age of the mysterious find at his Australian laboratory.

Using a technique called uranium series dating, Grun was able to pinpoint how long the fossil had been buried.

But in order to confirm the timeline, Duval performed electron spin resonance dating on a hippopotamus tooth also found at the site and correlated the data.

Although the scientific community has estimated that modern humans started to leave Africa 60,000 ago, the discovery all but lays to rest any doubt people were on the move long before then.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:36:01|Editor: Liangyu

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Wang Xingzui (2nd, R), Executive Vice President of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), delivers a speech during the launching ceremony of a 1-million-U.S.-dollar project in Kampala, Uganda, on April 10, 2018. A Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO) and Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian NGO, on Tuesday jointly launched a 1-million-U.S.-dollar project to help South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda become self-reliant. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)

KAMPALA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO) and Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian NGO, on Tuesday jointly launched a 1-million-U.S.-dollar project to help South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda become self-reliant.

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) said the "Bright Future Program" will benefit over 3,800 people, including 2,660 refugees and 1,140 host community members in Palabek Refugee Settlement in Lamwo district.

Over 19,000 South Sudanese and Ugandans are expected to benefit indirectly from the one-year project.

The beneficiaries will be trained in better farming practices and also given small grants in a bid to boost agricultural production and increase household incomes.

Wang Xingzui, Executive Vice President of CFPA, while launching the program said the organization came to Uganda to share its experiences of helping vulnerable people.

He said the project is a pilot of the partnership between Mercy Corps and CFPA.

"If successful, I hope new and additional resources could be brought in to scale up the program and reach out to more people in need," Wang said.

Sean Granville-Ross, Regional Director for East and Southern Africa of Mercy Corps, said the partnership provides an opportunity on how both organizations can work together to address the immediate humanitarian needs and also enable the economic growth of northern Uganda.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Uganda hosts more than 1 million South Sudanese refugees who fled fighting back home.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:41:03|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China has approved a project to offer technological support for the construction of Africa's Great Green Wall, the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Tuesday.

Proposed by the African Union in 2007, Africa's Great Green Wall initiative aims to reverse desertification spreading drought, famine, and poverty through the Sahel region.

According to Lei Jiaqiang, director of the XIEG, China will cooperate with Mauritania, Nigeria and Ethiopia, amongst other African countries, to systematically diagnose desertification and the technical needs in the region.

The project will bring China's desertification prevention and control technologies, materials, and products to Africa, and conduct environmental adaptability assessments.

It will also include personnel training and capacity building on anti-desertification measures in African countries. Some Chinese enterprises dealing with prevention and control of desertification will also participate in the project.

"We hope to bring China's wisdom in anti-desertification to Africa and help enhance the capability of desertification prevention in African countries along the Great Green Wall," Lei said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:46:07|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said Tuesday that it strongly opposes and condemns the UK auction of a cultural relic suspected of having been illegally obtained from the country.

The government agency made the remarks about a Chinese bronze vessel, known as the Bronze Tiger Ying, which is scheduled for auction Wednesday by Britain's Canterbury Auction Galleries. The vessel is suspected of having been looted from Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, in Beijing during the Second Opium War (1856-1860).

The SACH said in a statement that it had contacted the auction house through various channels, demanding the cancellation of the auction and telling the auction house to "abide by the spirit of international agreements and code of professional ethics, as well as respect the cultural rights and national feelings of the Chinese people."

"The Canterbury Auction Galleries said on Monday in clear terms that it would not cancel the auction," said the SACH in the statement.

Respecting the cultural heritage of all countries and facilitating the return of missing relics to the countries to which they belong is the consensus of the international community and has always been the stance of the Chinese government, the SACH reiterated, noting that it strongly opposes and condemns the auction and the auction house's use of the stolen item for commercial hype.

The Chinese agency said it disapproves of participation by Chinese organizations and individuals in the auction and called on friends from the international community to stand together out of a humanistic spirit against the auction of the looted relic.

The SACH said it will follow the development of the matter and will continue to take all necessary measures to retrieve cultural relics illegally obtained from China in accordance with relevant international agreements and China's laws.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 19:51:07|Editor: Mengjie

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CHENGDU, April 10 (Xinhua)-- A suspect has been caught trying to smuggle 18 pieces of ivory products weighing a total of 1.725 kg into China, customs officials have said.

It was the biggest ivory smuggling case this year seized at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in southwest China's Sichuan Province, customs officials said on Monday.

On March 26, a man returning to Chengdu from Ethiopia, was caught with 18 ivory items hidden in his pockets. The man claimed that he bought the items in Africa as gifts for family and friends. He was taken into custody.

Chengdu customs have handled 20 ivory smuggling cases and confiscated more than 5 kg of ivory so far this year.

China banned the domestic ivory trade at the end of 2017 as part of its commitment to protecting wild animals.
BUDAPEST, April 10 (Xinhua) -- After his third consecutive win in the general elections on April 8, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Hungary will remain in a pro-sovereign group of the European Union, former foreign minister of Hungary Peter Balazs told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday.

"From the EU's perspective, the victory of Orban means that a government that is opposed to closer integration has become stronger," Balazs explained. "They are the so-called pro-sovereign countries, and few countries belong to this group for the moment: the Hungarians, the Poles, the Greek, and not much elsewhere. This policy has failed in the Netherlands and in France, where it is strong, i.e. England, they leave," he added.

The expert, who also had been a European Commissioner wondered: "The important question: which camp will grow? We'll have to watch the Italians closely and the Czech, this will determine if this group, that is in minority, will grow or not in the future?"

According to him, the economically and politically strong center, the French-German axis will lead the way in the EU, leaving the pro-sovereign countries such as Hungary to stay a minority.

Balazs spoke to Xinhua after general elections, in which Viktor Orban consolidated his power by winning 133 or 134 seats of the 199-seat Hungarian parliament according to official but partial results. The final result is to be published on Saturday.

"One thought about the domestic policy: I think it will be tainted by tensions. Due to the disproportionate nature of the election system, the Orban government received a two-third majority when they received less than half of the vote of the Hungarian people," Balazs said.

From the foreign policy's aspect, Hungary will still go on with its opening policies towards China, Russia and the Arabic countries, but it is a small landlocked country that cannot achieve major goals alone, without the full support of the European Union in this matter, according to Balazs.

"And besides Poland, Orban has no real foreign supporters. He did not even manage to get a German Christian-democrat politician to back him up in the campaign," he pointed.

"This shows that even within the V4 (the Visegrad countries: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), the division will continue: the Hungarians and the Poles will turn against the EU, the Czech and the Slovaks, on the other hand will seek to come closer to the EU, especially the Slovaks, who are also member of the eurozone," he added.

So the V4 is not united while the EU is standing before a great change. The planning of the next seven-years budget is starting, and the planning of the budget is the most important act of the EU because that is where the different priorities will take form, according to the expert on European affairs.

"That is when they decide what to finance from the common money, and that will define the direction of the EU for the next seven years," Balazs underlined.

He stressed that it looked like that this direction would be quite different from the earlier ones: "According to what we know from the different documents, a change in priorities seems quite obvious. The EU will not focus on financing the poorer extremities of its territory, but rather will finance mostly the competitiveness and safety of its core."

"This means the countries mostly benefitting from this will be those who integrate the center, the tool for which is the introduction of the Euro, the participation to the Schengen area and the acceptance of a common refugee policy, and it seems that Orban wants to keep Hungary away from all of the above, which will leave Hungary at the periphery of the EU," the expert concluded.
PYONGYANG, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The official media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday called on South Korea to re-investigate the sinking of South Korean corvette Cheonan in March 2010, calling the issue a stumbling block to improving north-south relations.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an article that there is increasing voice for re-investigation into the case of Cheonan in South Korea, as some 70 percent of South Koreans don't believe the result of investigation.

Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed when Cheonan was sunken eight years ago. South Korea said a DPRK torpedo attacked the corvette, which was repeatedly denied by Pyongyang.

"The demand for re-investigation into the case getting stronger amid mounting atmosphere of national reconciliation and unity proves that the case is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the way of improving the north-south ties," said the KCNA.

The DPRK and South Korea have been improving relations since the beginning of the year and the leaders of the two sides are scheduled to hold a summit meeting on April 27, which will be the first in over 10 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:11:13|Editor: Lu Hui

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The opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference is held in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- This year's Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) is the first since China's commitment to building a community with a shared future for humanity was written into the country's Constitution last month.

The vision, together with China's proposal of building "a new type of international relations," represents the country's efforts to search for the answer to a simple question: What kind of future does humanity wish to create?

In his keynote speech delivered Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the BFA annual conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping further explained the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity, which is characterized by treating each other with respect and as equals, promoting dialogue and sharing responsibility, engaging in cooperation for win-win results, upholding inclusiveness and seeking harmony without uniformity, as well as treating nature with respect and treasuring the planet.

He called for people around the world to work together toward a community with a shared future for humanity and make Asia and the world peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, open and beautiful.

This is Xi's first home-court diplomacy since he was unanimously re-elected Chinese president in March.

Apart from the BFA annual conference, three other key global events will be hosted by China this year and are all expected to be attended by Xi.

In June, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members will meet at the Qingdao summit, the first since the SCO expanded to include India and Pakistan as full members in 2017.

In September, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing will propose feasible ways to encourage more African countries to become involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Then in November, the first China International Import Expo will take place in Shanghai, where China would reach out to show its market potential.

These events will demonstrate that China welcomes all countries to participate in and share the new opportunities that come along with its development.

They will also exhibit the "major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics," which embodies championing peace, being non-threatening, standing up for the small and weak, and sharing development opportunities.

Xi is the chief architect of the major-country diplomacy concept and has been personally involved in planning and conducting head-of-state diplomacy.

Over the past five years, Xi has visited 57 countries and received more than 110 foreign heads of state.

Through his travels and diplomatic meetings, Xi has helped deepen the world's understanding of a rising China, reshaped the Asian country's new role on the world stage and offered new ways forward in tackling the most pressing global problems.

At a time when the world is undergoing a new round of major development, great change and profound readjustment, Xi said that humanity has a major choice to make between openness and isolation, and between progress and retrogression.

At the BFA annual conference, the president unveiled new measures for expanding reform and opening-up, including significantly broadening market access, creating a more attractive investment environment, strengthening protection of intellectual property rights, and taking the initiative to expand imports.

The initiatives sent a strong message that China's door of opening-up will not be closed and will only open even wider, showing its resolve and sincerity to share opportunities with the rest of the world and promote common development.

Xi's speech has received wide recognition in the international community. The speech added certainty and hope to the world today, and the world needs leadership like China, said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
PARIS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Pelted with projectiles on Tuesday, French police fired teargas to force scores of protesters to leave a site in western France that has been home to squatters for years, and which was slated to become a new airport project, BFMTV news channel reported.

As the second day to evacuate Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) site turned violent, three police officers were wounded and two activists suffered injuries, according to the report.

Speaking to LCI television, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said a number of people had been arrested.

A total of 2,500 police were deployed on Monday to evict the squatters, a group of farmers, ecologists and anarchists who call themselves ZADists (Zone to Defend).

They have been squatting at the site where the government had planned to build a new airport before it decided to drop the project in January.

"The operation can last until the end of the week. With no doubt, there are people who will come back, we'll be vigilant. The bet... is that farmers forge the future of the territory," the minister said.

Thirteen illegal constructions have been dismantled so far and twenty others will be demolished in the coming days, he said.

In January, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the government's decision to abandon a controversial project to build an international airport at NDDL, ending five decades of protests.

Following the government's decision, protesters have been ordered to leave the site after they succeeded in getting the airport project abandoned.
SourceXinhua| 2018-04-10 20:39:05|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Suspected Taliban militants stand hand cuffed after being arrested in Ghazni city, capital of Ghazni province, Afghanstan, April 10, 2018. Afghan security personnel captured two suspected Taliban militants during a military operation in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan, a local official said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sayed Mominzadah)
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:21:16|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia summoned the Israeli ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday, a day after the Kremlin condemned the alleged Israeli attack on an Syrian airbase, Israel's Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry confirmed in a statement that Gary Koren, Israel's ambassador in Russia, was summoned for a conversation with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

The ministry played down the move, saying that "routine talks with the Russians are being held regularly."

Earlier on Monday, Russia's military said that two Israeli F-15 fighter jets struck the T-4 military airbase in Homs province in Syria. The attack killed at least 14 people, seven of them were reported to be Iranian nationals.

Israel has not officially commented on the attack. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that Israel will attack whoever threatened it.

"We have a simple rule that we constantly express: get up and hurt those trying to hurt you," he said. "Security in the present is a necessary condition for future security."

Israel and Russia have held routine coordination talks since Russia started to send forces to fight along Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army in the war-torn country.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Hebrew-language Ynet news site that Israel's ties with Russia are "very important", but "we have to adhere to our policy and not allow the Iranian enemy to cross our red lines."

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that Israel would not allow Iran to gain a military stronghold in Syria, Israel's northern neighbor.

The attack came amid an international wrangling about the allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army in the attack on the rebels in Douma district on the outskirts of Syrian capital Damascus.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:26:19|Editor: Lifang

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Photo taken on April 10, 2018 shows counters of Lufthansa at Tegel International Airport in Berlin, capital of Germany. German airline giant Lufthansa cancelled more than 800 out of its 1,600 flights scheduled for Tuesday, as warning strikes across Germany began early on Tuesday morning. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

FRANKFURT, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Warning strikes across Germany began early on Tuesday morning, affecting an estimated 90,000 passengers. Public sector workers across the country are demanding a pay rise of 6 percent, according to the local media.

On Monday, public service union Ver.di announced that nationwide warning strikes would take place the following day. Thousands of employees at airports and local transport companies stopped working on Tuesday.

An estimated 90,000 air passengers reportedly have been affected by flight cancellations across the country. German airline giant Lufthansa cancelled more than 800 out of its 1,600 flights scheduled for Tuesday.

Frankfurt Airport, Germany's largest airport, has already reported "considerable delays" and cancellations. Aircraft handlers and the fire brigade stopped working at Frankfurt Airport in the morning. A spokesman for the hub's operator Fraport also said that flight safety control was affected.

Major German labor union Ver.di leading the strike, which represents 2.3 million public workers in the country, is asking for a six percent pay increase for public service workers from state and local governments, with a minimum increase of 200 euros per month.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:26:21|Editor: Mengjie

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SHANGHAI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese musicians are rehearsing a musical play reproducing the sound of an 8,000-year-old bone-flute at the upcoming Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in May.

Chinese flute virtuoso Tang Junqiao and her team took a year to make the replica, which best resembles the sound of Jiahu bone-flute, the world's earliest wind instrument, which was unearthed in central China's Henan Province in 1980s.

The multimedia musical named "Flute: sound of nature" will premiere during the three-week long Shanghai Spring International Music Festival.

"The musical not only tells the legendary story of the Chinese flute, but also demonstrates many Chinese cultural and art elements," said Tang, who acts as the leading lady in the play.

Since the archeological finding of more than 30 bone-flutes from Jiahu Village in Henan, Chinese flute master Zhao Songting has been invited to play music with the ancient instruments. Since then, no one has played with the relics due to their brittle texture.

In 2016, Tang, a student of the deceased master Zhao, started a project to search for the sound of the ancient flutes. The project was supported by the China National Art Fund.

Her team has made over 30 replica flutes, mostly with resin and bamboo, while two were made of bird bone.

The flute originated in China and is believed to have a history of 8,000-9,000 years. Jiahu flutes have six holes and were made of the ulna bones of red-crowned cranes.

Tang's team made over 60 experiments and tried materials from bones, wood, bamboo and synthetics to find the right sound.

The sound of one of the replicas made with resin synthetic material and bitter bamboo is considered by musicians to be "very similar to the bone relic".

Tang, also a professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, said that compared with the previous recording of the flute master, the pitch of the replica to be played in the musical was more precise and the tone quality richer.

"About 4,000 years ago, the Chinese started to make flutes with bamboo instead of bird bone. And bamboo is highly symbolic in the Chinese culture. So we produced the multimedia musical inspired by the replica," said Lin Zaiyong, dean of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and producer of the musical.

He said the musical production had convened China's top level artists for composing, scriptwriting and directing.

"To awaken the sound from over 8,000 years on stage is beautiful. But we are aiming more than that," Lin said.

He said the original musical would be among China's recommended music for international events.
Source:Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:43:04|Editor: Mengjie

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Students practise robot assembling at a primary school in Laoting County, north China's Hebei Province, April 10, 2018. Robots are introduced into the extracurricular educational programs in the school. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)
JUBA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A UN relief official in South Sudan on Tuesday condemned the killing of an aid worker over the weekend in Bentiu town, Unity state.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan Alain Noudehou also called for the immediate and unconditional release of seven others abducted by an armed group in Morobo County, Central Equatoria, on March 25.

"Aid workers risk their lives every day to provide life-saving assistance to people in need in South Sudan. I strongly condemn the targeting of aid workers and demand that those responsible for these acts be brought to justice," Noudehou said in a statement issued in Juba.

According to the relief official, armed men shot at an NGO vehicle clearly marked with the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID) logos, that was transporting five aid workers along Nhialdlu-Bentiu road, killing one staff working for Hope Restoration, a national NGO.

Noudehou also said CARE International staff were robbed at gunpoint while traveling in the vicinity on the same day.

The latest killing brings to 98 the number of aid workers who have been killed since the start of the conflict in December 2013, according to the UN. Most have been South Sudanese nationals.

According to the official, seven national staff from SSUHA, a national aid organization, were taken by SPLA-IO forces on March 25 while traveling in a three-vehicle convoy from Kupera County to Lainya County.

The convoy was delivering supplies to health centers serving thousands of people in need in Kupera, Limuro, Wuji and Koyoki.

Noudehou called for the immediate and unconditional release of the aid workers and strongly urged all parties to the conflict in South Sudan to ensure that the operating environment is conducive to the delivery of aid.

"These events are a reminder of the dangers that humanitarian workers face in delivering assistance each day," he added.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to split within the SPLA, leaving soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the conflict was weakened after the outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:46:27|Editor: Mengjie

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BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference on Tuesday on deepening cooperation in key areas.

Development of China-Singapore ties is closely related with China's reform and opening-up. The two countries should map out new strategic and top-level planning on promoting bilateral ties and advancing pragmatic cooperation, Xi said.

Xi called for efforts to enhance cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and advance the joint project of building the Southern Transport Corridor.

China is willing to strengthen coordination with the ASEAN countries including Singapore, and synergize the Belt and Road Initiative with ASEAN's development plan to build a community with a shared future for both sides, he said.

He expressed hope that Singapore will play a positive and constructive role in this regard.

Lee said Singapore is committed to deepening ties with China and supports a stronger relationship between ASEAN and China.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:46:27|Editor: Mengjie

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CHENGDU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- FDG Electric Vehicles Ltd. Tuesday started construction on a new energy vehicle (NEV) and lithium battery plant in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

With an investment of 16 billion yuan (2.5 billion U.S. dollars), the plant in the city of Jianyang has a designed annual capacity of 400,000 vehicles and 4 gigawatt-hour of batteries, the company said.

The plant will be built in two phases, it said.

Covering an area of 87 hectares, the first phase of the project involves an investment of 4 billion yuan. It has an annual capacity of 100,000 NEVs and 1 gigawatt-hour of batteries.

Miao Zhenguo, vice chairman of FDG, said the first phase of the facility is expected to begin operation in 2019 and generate sales revenue of 20 billion yuan a year.

Due to government subsidies, the domestic NEV industry has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, with 777,000 NEVs sold on the Chinese market last year, up 53.3 percent. The total production and sales of NEVs is expected to hit 5 million units by 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:51:28|Editor: Mengjie

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BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China-Pakistan relations should be a pillar for regional peace and stability, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday when meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

The ties between the two countries should become a model for good-neighborly relationship and international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said.

China is willing to make joint efforts with Pakistan to push bilateral ties to a higher level and build a more closely-knitted community with a shared future between the two countries, the president said.

Xi called for efforts from both sides to advance the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and ensure the sound planning and implementation of cooperation projects involving infrastructure construction, such as the Gwadar Port, as well as energy and industrial parks.

For his part, Abbasi said China and Pakistan are "iron friends" who always support each other on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.

Hailing CPEC's important role in the development of both countries and the region, he expressed Pakistan's willingness to promote bilateral cooperation in finance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and human resources.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 20:51:28|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China will reinforce its crackdown on pyramid schemes with focused efforts, according to China's top market regulator.

In the fight against pyramid schemes this year, the government will prioritize efforts in 11 cities, including Changsha, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning and Wuhan, according to a guideline released by the State Administration for Market Regulation.

The guideline requested work be carried out to eliminate online pyramid schemes, combining online monitoring with solid evidence offline.

The country will encourage online communities and platforms to be free of pyramid schemes and strengthen online supervision, it said.

The guideline also called for improved communication among different departments involved in the government-led crackdown on pyramid schemes.

Despite progress in recent years, pyramid schemes, especially those online, remain an issue in China, causing massive financial losses, twisting the values of participants, and harming the social credit system.
KAMPALA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan cabinet has instructed the country's tax body to stop asking commercial banks to provide bank details of all their clients.

The ministers decided on Monday that while Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has the legal mandate to access any person's bank account for tax audit and assessment, it should not be a blanket and general application to all people, including those who are complying well and paying their taxes, Minister of Information Frank Tumwebaze said in a statement on Tuesday.

"URA should target accounts of individuals who are a subject of tax investigation as has been the practice," Tumwebaze said.

The tax body is also advised to work and coordinate with the Financial Intelligence Authority, another government statutory body mandated to monitor all financial inflows.

The cabinet decision came after commercial banks, through their umbrella body, Uganda Bankers Association, protested URA demands, noting that their clients would sue them over privacy violation.

The URA had directed banks to offer information concerning all bank accounts held for the years 2016 and 2017, citing the Tax Procedures Act of 2014.

The country's president, Yoweri Museveni, recently accused the finance ministry of failing to explore new avenues for tax collection, prompting the ministry to respond with several new tax proposals.
Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. (Xinhua/Gabriel Dusabe)

ADDIS ABABA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Monday said he is keen to closely work with Sierra Leone's newly-elected President Julius Maada Bio in implementing continental priorities within the framework of Agenda 2063.

Having won the presidential run-off on March 31 against his main challenger, Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC), Maada Bio, of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), was sworn in last Wednesday.

Faki congratulated the people of Sierra Leone on the "successful" elections and commended the National Electoral Commission, as well as the political leaders, for their demonstrated spirit of responsibility, which ensured the peaceful and smooth conclusion of the electoral process.

The AU Commission chairperson also hailed the April 7 meeting between Maada Bio and Kamara, and their commitment to working together in the pursuit of Sierra Leone's higher national interests.

"The holding of peaceful, transparent and credible elections and the subsequent smooth transfer of power bear testimony to the entrenchment of democracy in Sierra Leone, as well as to the steady progress being made by the continent as a whole towards the promotion of constitutionalism, the rule of law, democratic governance and accountability," Faki was quoted as saying in an AU Commission statement.

Faki assured Maada Bio of the AU's full support as he works to advance the development of his country and improve the well-being of its people.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:11:34|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's leading task-force fighting pornography has said the Internet is its "main battleground" and it will maintain high pressure on such activities.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications on Tuesday reported its work progress in the first quarter of 2018.

More than 530 cases concerning online porn and illegal publication have been investigated across the country, it said.

While a larger number of cases were investigated offline, the office said fighting online obscenity remained its work focus.

The office said two new campaigns were launched this year to clean the cyberspace and protect minors.

It detailed 13 prominent cases targeted by the campaigns.

In one case, 19 people were convicted by a local court in eastern Shandong Province to jail terms ranging from one to four years for operating a website allowing members to upload and download porn videos and photos, which profited by nearly 70 million yuan (11 million U.S. dollars) through advertisement.

In another case, 22 people were arrested in northern Hebei Province for using overseas servers to run membership-only porn websites, which held tens of thousands of obscene video clips.

In a third case, eight were arrested in eastern Jiangsu Province for spreading porn via a mobile phone app.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:26:39|Editor: Lu Hui

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Smoke rises after the Syrian army's shelling targeted the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Syria, on April 7, 2018. The Syrian army on Saturday stormed the frontlines of the Islam Army in the Douma district of the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

by Xinhua writer Wang Jiangang

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Big powers attending a UN Security Council meeting on Monday crossed verbal swords with each other over their views on the suspected poison gas attack in war-torn Syria.

SHARP DIFFERENCES

Both Security Council members and UN officials briefing them voiced grave concern that the use of chemical weapons risked "being normalized," and could contribute to rapidly escalating tensions between world powers.

Taking the floor, council members differed sharply on their versions of the Douma incident, with some recounting gruesome descriptions of civilians hiding and perishing in their basements as chemical weapons fell from above. Others described it as "fake news" aimed at falsely incriminating the Syrian government and its allies.

Still others, recalling claims of chemical weapons used against two Russians in the British town of Salisbury just weeks ago, expressed concern that the world was seeing a re-emergence of such weapons as part of a dangerous new "status quo."

CROSS SWORDS: RUSSIA VS U.S.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vassily Nebenzia said that Washington and those "blindly" following it, namely London and Paris, were "carrying out a deliberate policy to stoke international tensions."

Without justification, they were "engaged in a confrontational policy against Russia and Syria, prompting others to follow suit," he said.

His country was being "unpardonably threatened" and the tone of language had gone beyond what was "acceptable even during the cold war."

The United States and its Western partners do not understand the potential consequences of their reckless geopolitical experiment in the Middle East, he said, adding that most council members were "confounded" by their lack of strategy, yet were not saying so openly.

The Russian diplomat said that he wondered if the United States and its partners understood "the dangerous threshold" to which they were taking the world.

The use of sarin or chlorine in Douma "had not been confirmed." He invited those who would speak against him to proceed from the premise that no chemical attack had taken place.

The experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should immediately fly to Damascus where Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide the conditions for them to go to the scene and familiarize themselves with the situation, as called for by the U.S. president and other Western leaders, he added.

Quoting U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley as saying that her country had never been a friend of Russia, he said no one could force a friendship and "we are not begging to be friends with you." His country wanted "normal civilized relations," which the United States was "arrogantly refusing."

Emphasizing that international terrorism was the common enemy, he said Russia called on Western politicians "to scale down their rhetoric" and consider the consequences of their conduct.

He called for a return to the legal fold, in line with the UN Charter, and for an end to "egotistical geopolitical games" alongside support for the political process to end the conflict in Syria.

While Haley said she could certainly show pictures of suffering survivors, or first responders in the streets, or hospitals struck by barrel bombs following the gas attack, she instead asked: "Who does this? Only a monster does this."

Russia and Iran were helping to direct the Assad regime's attacks by providing the hardware needed to conduct them, she stressed.

Recalling that the Joint Investigative Mechanism had determined that Syria's government was responsible for the attack in Khan Shaykhun a year ago, she said Russia had "killed it" because of those findings.

What was being considered today was not about a spat between the United States and Russia, but about the use of chemical weapons on civilians. "There can be no more rationalization about our failure to act," she added.

The Security Council must re-establish a "professional and impartial mechanism" to investigate chemical attacks in Syria, she said, noting that the U.S. president was weighing important national decisions related to the crisis.

FRANCE, BRITAIN ON U.S. SIDE

Francois Delattre, French permanent representative to the UN, said thousands of videos and photos emerging from Douma in recent days showed victims "foaming at the mouth and convulsing," all symptoms of a potent nerve agent combined with chlorine. "There was no doubt as to the perpetrators," as only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability of developing such substances.

Karen Pierce, British representative to the UN, said the five permanent council members had a particular responsibility to uphold the global prohibition on weapons of mass destruction.

While Britain believed the Syrian regime was responsible for the latest attack, there must be an independent fact-finding mission to determine if chemical weapons had been used, and if so, which ones, she noted.

SYRIA: FIGHTS BACK

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja'afari said that the "lies of some permanent council members" had fueled conflicts, including in Vietnam, Iraq and on the Korean Peninsula. Now they sought "to defeat Syria."

Emphasizing that the United States, Britain and France were eager to hold council meetings on the basis of "fabricated information," he recalled that the Syrian government had warned the Security Council, OPCW and the Joint Investigative Mechanism on many occasions of terrorist groups possessing chlorine and sarin.

The White Helmets (independent non-governmental organization) would "fabricate evidence and Hollywood-like scenes" intended to stir incitement against Syria and its allies. The Syrian military "had no chemical weapons," having destroyed them under U.S. auspices, he stressed.

TROUBLED UN OFFICIALS

Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, outlined events over the last 48 hours, including reports of civilians in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma suffering symptoms consistent with chemical weapons exposure.

Over the weekend, photos had begun to circulate on social media showing "lifeless" men, women and children, while non-governmental organizations claimed to have received cases of civilians experiencing the effects of chemical weapons, he said.

While the UN was "not in a position to verify" those reports, he said, "it cannot ignore them."

Noting that OPCW had begun an initial investigation, he voiced concern, for the first time in his tenure, over not just the security of Syria or the region, but the world. "The council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front," he stressed.

Thomas Markram, director and deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, cited reports that at least 49 people had been killed and hundreds injured in the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma.

Noting that the OPCW, through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), was already gathering information, he emphasized that what was being seen in Syria could not "go unchallenged" by anyone who valued the decades of efforts to bring about disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Urging the Security Council to unite to those ends, he stressed: "To do otherwise, or to simply do nothing, is to accept, tacitly or otherwise, that such a challenge is insurmountable."

CHINA FIRMLY OPPOSES CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, reiterated his country's firm opposition to chemical weapons use, and its support for a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation that would stand the test of history and facts with the perpetrators being brought to justice.

China supported the Security Council and OPCW as the main channels for addressing chemical weapons, and it hoped that parties concerned would take a constructive approach.

Emphasizing the need for the unity of the council, he said a "political settlement" was the only way to resolve the Syrian question, with the international community respecting Syria's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.

Regarding the poisoning of a former Russian double agent along with his daughter, Wu reiterated his country's position in favor of an investigation within an OPCW framework.

Also speaking were representatives of the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Bolivia and Peru.

Related:

News Analysis: Alleged Syrian chemical attack new flashpoint in U.S.-Russia ties
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:31:40|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAMASCUS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it has sent an invitation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Damascus' eastern district of Douma, according to state news agency SANA.

In a statement, the ministry stressed the Syrian government's willingness to provide all kinds of help for the mission to carry out its work and hoped the mission could do its work with "full transparency and rely on tangible and credible evidence."

"Syria stresses its keenness to cooperate with the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to reveal the truth behind the allegations, which are prompted by some Western sides to justify their aggressive intentions to serve their political goals," the ministry said.

The statement comes against the backdrop of the warmongering rhetoric of the U.S. and its European allies, who are threatening military action on Syria on the pretext of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army in the recent battles against the rebels in Douma district east of the capital Damascus.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:36:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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RAMALLAH, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian national unity government urged on Tuesday the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an immediate investigation into "Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity" of killing Palestinians.

In a press statement issued after its weekly meeting, the Palestinian government highlighted the urgency of the ICC move "to hold Israel accountable" to stop its crimes against the Palestinians.

The statement renewed the call for "a unified and serious international position and work to provide immediate international protection for the unarmed Palestinian people and take effective positions towards the U.S. position that threatens international peace and stability."

The government also criticized the Israeli soldiers for their "killings of Palestinian peaceful demonstrators," describing them as "cold blooded field executions."

It slammed the U.S. for blocking a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution urging Israel to respect international law and the right of civilians to hold peaceful demonstrations.

It also said that the "failure of the UNSC for the second time to reach a final statement on Gaza showed the incompetency of the system to fulfil its duties and its inability to stop crimes committed against Palestinians."

About 30 Palestinians have been killed and over 3,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since the beginning of the Great March of Return at the Gaza border on March 30.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:36:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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MOSCOW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here Tuesday that he has accepted an invitation to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"Comrade minister invited me to pay a return visit to Pyongyang. We accepted this invitation," Lavrov said at a news briefing following talks with his DPRK counterpart Ri Yong Ho who is visiting Moscow.

Lavrov said so far no decisions have been made concerning a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the top DPRK leader, Kim Jong Un.

Commenting on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Lavrov hailed the efforts to ease tensions. He noted that the development in the region was proceeding in accordance with the road map on the settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue proposed by China and Russia.

Lavrov said he hoped that this process would result in resuming the six-party talks comprised of the DPRK, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The talks are aimed at denuclearizing the peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:41:42|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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MOGADISHU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Visiting British Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster on Tuesday lauded the African Union troops in Somalia for securing the country and reducing the threat of terrorism.

Lancaster, who had held talks with senior AU mission officials and force commanders in Mogadishu said they discussed the transitioning of security responsibilities from AMISOM to the Somali security forces, and the British support to the AU mission.

"We have discussed how potentially we can do more to support the mission, but equally talking about how we can progress the situation here in Somalia over the coming months and years," he said in a statement issued by the AU mission.

Lancaster paid tribute to the work of AMISOM over the last eleven years and the sacrifices that have been made to secure the Horn of Africa nation.

"Without doubt, unless the good work of AMISOM over the last eleven years had happened, then Somalia would not be on the course of progress that it is today," Lancaster said.

The African Union has committed to further degrading militant group al-Shabab, and implementing the transition process by continuing joint AMISOM-Somalia National Army (SNA) efforts in executing these tasks.

Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia Francisco Madeira said the minister's visit shows how Britain has taken so much interest in what AMISOM is doing in Somalia.
Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari (front) addresses the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, April 9, 2018. The Security Council held an emergency session on the situation in Syria, particularly after reports of the use of chemical weapons over the weekend in rebel-held Douma near the capital city of Damascus. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council is working on a resolution with regard to chemical weapons use in Syria, said Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations Gustavo Meza-Cuadra on Monday.

"At the expert levels, we have convened our colleagues to continue working on the possibility of a resolution on the matters," the ambassador, who is president of the Security Council for the month of April, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council members.

They were supposed to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution on an international investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

Monday's consultations and the preceding open emergency meeting came after reports of a new chemical attack over the weekend in rebel-held Douma in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

Russia has also prepared a text for an investigative mechanism. But insiders said the Russian text does not have the support of the majority of the council members.

Meza-Cuadra said members of the Security Council on Monday agreed on the need for an urgent and impartial investigation conducted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The OPCW, through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), is already gathering information about the attack in Douma. The FFM, however, has no power to attribute accountability. A Joint Investigative Mechanism between the OPCW and the United Nations was set up by the Security Council for that purpose.

The mechanism, however, ceased to be in November 2017 after Russia blocked the renewal of its mandate.

At Monday's emergency meeting, several Security Council members believed that the Syrian government was responsible for Saturday's chemical attack in Douma, while Russia claimed that the whole incident was a fabrication.

On Saturday, activists said the Syrian forces used chlorine gas in an attack against Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

They said that dozens of people suffered suffocation as a result.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the rebels' claims of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army in Douma district near Damascus as "premeditated pretexts," according to state news agency SANA.

The ministry said the allegations have been planned beforehand to prolong the lives of the "terrorists" in Douma.

It also said the rebels use such allegations every time the army makes a progress.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 21:51:46|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China and Mongolia should push forward their comprehensive strategic partnership based on the principles of mutual trust, cooperation and win-win results, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

Xi made the remarks while meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh at the ongoing annual conference of Boao Forum for Asia in south China's Hainan Province.

Xi said China will deepen its ties with Mongolia, stressing that both sides should respect and take care of each other's core interests.

China has always respected Mongolia's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the development path voluntarily chosen by its people, he said.

China will take advantage of the important opportunities brought by the linking of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Mongolia's Prairie Road development initiative to expand cooperation in various fields and people-to-people exchange, he said.

China welcomes Mongolia's active participation in the activities and development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Xi said.

Khurelsukh said he was impressed by Xi's keynote speech on Tuesday morning, adding that China's open and inclusive development will bring more opportunities to Mongolia.

Khurelsukh said Mongolia gives priority to strengthening cooperation with China and the Mongolian government firmly adheres to the one-China policy.

Mongolia firmly believes that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of the Chinese territory, and issues concerning Tibet and Taiwan are China's internal affairs, he said.

Mongolia supports the Belt and Road Initiative, and highly appreciates China's contribution to the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, he said.
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump will skip his first Latin America trip to stay in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria," the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump was scheduled to pay a visit to Peru and Colombia this week, during which he would attend the Summit of the Americas in the Peruvian capital city of Lima.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the region instead, according to a White House statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 22:01:48|Editor: Mengjie

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JAKARTA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Lim Jock Hoi said ASEAN and China will work together to maintain free trade and develop closer economic partnership for prosperity in the region.

High-level diplomats and scholars from China, ASEAN countries and ASEAN's dialogue partners attended a seminar commemorating the 15th Anniversary of the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership on Monday..

In his opening speech, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Huang Xilian said the China-ASEAN strategic partnership is growing more mature, as a result of the efforts to nurture mutual trust, deepen good-neighborly friendship, seek win-win cooperation and uphold regional stability.

"The remarkable achievements we have seen today have laid solid ground for our renewed partnership in the decades to come," said the Chinese ambassador.

Tan Hung Seng, Singapore's Permanent Representative to ASEAN, said at the seminar that ASEAN and China have been working together to improve infrastructural and economic connectivity.

Both sides are exploring greater synergies between the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and China's Belt and Road Initiative, said the Singaporean diplomat.

"We are also working hard to achieve Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will be a clear signal of the region's commitment to trade liberalization and support for the multilateral trading system."

As to the trade conflicts and trade protectionism, Jose Antonio Morato Tavares, director-general for ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, pointed out that economic integration is a good basis and a strong reason for maintaining peace and stability.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 22:01:48|Editor: Mengjie

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BOAO, China, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Business leaders and experts from around the world on Tuesday hailed China's bold moves to expand reforms and opening-up, unveiled at this year's Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in China's southern island province of Hainan.

In his keynote speech addressing the opening ceremony of the forum at the seaside resort, Chinese President Xi Jinping recalled the historic progress of his country's reform and opening-up over the past four decades.

Xi put forward a set of new and landmark measures to significantly broaden China's market access, strengthen protection of intellectual property rights, improve the investment environment for foreign investors, and reduce import tariffs for vehicles and some other products.

"China's reform and opening-up meets its people's aspiration for development, innovation and a better life. It also meets the global trend toward development, cooperation and peace," the Chinese president said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former French prime minister, told Xinhua that Xi aims "to improve international cooperation against protectionism."

"There is no winner with protectionism and we want win-win dialogue," he added.

Stephen Groff, vice-president of the Asian Development Bank, echoed Raffarin in highlighting the significance of an open economy.

"We believe that the open economy and open trade are critical for a sustainable global economic growth," he noted.

He also said opening-up would increase competition "in whatever sector that is opening up, which ultimately results in more innovation and better products and better services that ultimately benefit consumers at the end of the day."

Sorao Sugiyama, attache at Japanese Consulate-General in China's southern city of Guangzhou, said the proposals that Xi has introduced at the forum are "very significant."

He noted that Japan's population is shrinking, so it needs to expand overseas markets, saying that as trade policies in some countries like the United States are turning protectionist, China's markets are quite important to Japan.

Serge Degallaix, general director of the Prospective and Innovation Foundation in France, told Xinhua that Xi's speech has been very much expected throughout the world.

"We know the president's conviction in favor of openness, free trade and a balanced growth," he said, adding that China has been sticking to openness, and the new reforms measures (that) President Xi freshly announced, which mainly concern finance, manufacturing and the protection of intellectual property rights, are very important after 40 years of reforms and opening-up.

Alexei Chekunkov, general director of Russia's Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund, said he thinks that it is fitting for Xi in his speech to compare fresh air to an attractive environment for investment.

Chekunkov said he believes it is an important signal of China's determination to further integrate into the global economy.

He also noted that China's economy has been pivoting from a focus on high-speed growth to quality-oriented growth, and the Chinese people's purchasing power is also growing, saying that companies in many countries, including those from Russia, are seeking to explore Chinese markets with the hope of winning over the hearts of Chinese consumers.

In his speech, Xi mentioned that China is going to explore the opening of free trade ports.

"Russia has set up a free trade port in Vladivostok. China and Russia share similar goals in this area, and therefore can share their experiences," he said.

"China's reform and opening-up policy," said Chekunkov, "has made it a successful participant of the world economy."

(Xinhua reporters Kang Yi, Wang Shang, Qiu Xia, Zhou Huimin, Tamara Treichel in Boao also contributed to the story.)
MADRID, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish High Court (Audiencia Nacional) on Tuesday handed out prison sentences ranging from eight to 12 years to members of a group of 10 terrorists who were arrested in Barcelona in 2015, the Spanish media reported.

The members of the group had been planning a series of attacks at emblematic locations in Barcelona, along with a subsequent kidnap and decapitation of a person who they intended to dress in an orange jumpsuit as used by the Islamic State in several propaganda videos.

The court decided that the ten members of the group made up a terrorist cell which existed with the "only aim and motive of fulfilling the dictates of DAESH and to carry out attacks on institutions such as the police, banks, or Jewish interests in Spain."

The three leaders of the group were given 12-year sentences, although Spanish prosecutors had asked for 19 years, while the remaining seven members were given eight-year prison terms.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 22:06:50|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised Tuesday a sniper who shot a Palestinian protester in the Gaza Strip after a video footage of soldiers cheering at the shooting went viral on social networks.

The video shows some Israeli soldiers cheering after one of three unarmed Palestinians was shot and fell to the ground near the fence between the besieged Palestinian enclave and Israel during a rally on Friday.

Lieberman, leader of the ultra-nationalist party of Israel Our Home, praised the sniper who "deserves a citation," while the soldier should be condemned for filming the incident without authorization.

After a one-day investigation of the incident, the military said in a statement released on Tuesday that "it should be noted that these do not suit the degree of restraint expected of Israel Defense Forces soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly."

The Palestinians near the fence were warned before the shooting, said the statement. After they stayed near the fence, "a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence," it read.

"He was hit in the leg and injured," the statement added.

The incident occurred during a Friday march towards the fence, which is part of a six-week protest in the Gaza Strip in demand of acknowledgment of the Palestinian refugees' "right of return" to the lands that Israel seized during the 1948 war, known to Israelis as the Independence War and to Palestinians as the Nakba, or "the catastrophe."
KIGALI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda Tuesday announced a ban on importation of sheep, goat and their products from Burundi following reports of a viral disease outbreak.

A statement issued by agriculture minister Gerardine Mukeshimana said the Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) that primarily affects goats and sheep has been reported in Burundi's provinces of Gitega, Mwaro, Kirundo and Karuzi.

"Movement of livestock including sheep and goat and their products; meat, hides and fertilizers from Burundi are hereby banned," the minister said in the statement.

She appealed to livestock farmers, traders, veterinary officers and security agencies in the country and at the border points to be vigilant.

The ministry added that the ban was based on a report about the disease outbreak that was done earlier by Burundian veterinary services and sent to the World Organization for Animal Health.

PPR, also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease affecting small ruminants, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Once introduced, the virus can infect up to 90 percent of an animal heard, and kill between from 30 and 70 percent of infected animals. The virus does not infect humans, FAO says.
OSLO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Norwegian government presented a proposal to parliament on Tuesday to develop the Johan Castberg oil field in the Barents Sea, with a planned production start date of the end of 2022.

"The development of the Johan Castberg field is a gigantic industrial project with good profitability," Norway's minister of petroleum and energy Terje Soviknes was quoted as saying in a statement.

Expected reserves for the Johan Castberg field is an estimated 558 million barrels of oil and the expected production period is 30 years, the Norwegian government said.

Total expected investments for the development are 47.2 billion Norwegian kroner (6.05 billion U.S. dollars) and the project is profitable with oil prices above 31 U.S. dollars per barrel, according to the statement.

A development plan for the Johan Castberg field was put forward to the authorities by Norwegian multinational oil and gas company Statoil in December 2017. As a large development project on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, it needs to be reviewed by parliament before being approved by the ministry of petroleum and energy.

"Statoil has, on behalf of the licensees, submitted a good plan for development and operation and the government recommends its approval," Soviknes said.

"The project brings new business opportunities for companies in the North," he said. "I strongly believe that oil and gas will become even more important to the northern parts of Norway in the future," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 22:26:57|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAMASCUS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it has sent UN an invitation for a fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Damascus' eastern district of Douma, state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian government confirmed in a statement its willingness to provide help to the mission in the investigation, with the appeal being sent to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The statement also expressed hope for the mission to do its work with "full transparency and to rely on tangible and credible evidence."

The ministry said Syria is keen to cooperate with the OPCW "to reveal the truth behind the allegations, which are prompted by some Western powers to justify their aggressive intentions to serve their political goals," the ministry said.

It added that the invitation is the Syrian government's response to the "campaign of fabrications" made by Western countries about the allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army in Douma last Saturday.

The statement comes against the backdrop of the warmongering rhetoric of the United States and its European allies, who are threatening military action on Syria on the pretext of chemical weapons use by the Syrian army.

On Saturday, activists said the Syrian side used chlorine gas while bombing Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

The Syrian government rejected the claims, denying being in possession of such weapons.

The United States has been warning retaliation against what it called chemical attacks by the Syrian army on the rebels, including in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army was steadily advancing.

The UN Security Council held emergency meetings Monday on Syria, which sees tensions between the representatives of the United States and Russia.

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the chemical incident in Douma was staged, warning that a possible retaliatory U.S. military action could have "grave repercussions."

The Russian envoy said the photos of the chemical attack in Douma were fabricated, urging for sending an investigation team to Douma to examine the claims.

For her part, U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley directly accused Russia, saying Russia's hands are smeared with the "blood of Syrian children."

During the session on Monday, Haley said that "either way, the United States will respond" to the alleged chemical attack whether the UN Security Council acted or not.

Also, U.S. President Donald Trump also struck a warmongering tone when he said on Monday that "major decisions" on Syria will be made within the next 48 hours, with U.S. officials not shunning aside the military action.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 22:26:58|Editor: Mengjie

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HANGZHOU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Wang Yuanyuan cannot even attend her good friends' weddings because she is viewed as a bringer of bad luck, but that is just the life of a mortician.

Wearing dark blue overalls and plastic gloves, Wang removes a blanket covering the newest arrival at a funeral home in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

A tag comes with the body showing its name, age and sex, but not the cause of death.

It matters not, as Wang's 12-years on the job have given her a mortician's sixth sense for death -- she instantly knew it was a traffic accident.

Gruesome as it is sounds, she spends three and a half hours washing the corpse, ensuring no blood or wounds are visible, stitching together the dead man's injuries, while providing funeral make-up and fully dressing the body. It is not a much sought after job.

However, the 34-year-old woman with a medium build and girlish ponytail is proud of her job, believing it gives dignity to the dead.

Though being a mortician is a good job in many places, talking about death is still taboo in Chinese tradition as people fear that any work related to death brings bad luck.

"People always ask me why I took such a job," Wang said. "But it was to atone for an early regret in my life."

Wang was born in a small village in east China's Jiangsu Province where according to local custom unmarried girls were not allowed to witness the cremations of relatives.

When her grandfather passed away, she never got a chance to say goodbye, despite begging her family to do so while in tears. It has haunted her ever since.

"I chose funeral services as my major when I applied for a college, without hesitation," she said.

Wang became a mortician in a funeral home in Yuhang District of Hangzhou after graduation in 2006 and still remembers the first time she handled a dead body.

"Holding a razor, I just stood in front of the deceased. Time seemed to go so slowly," she said.

Most of her classmates became masters of funeral ceremonies, managers at cemeteries or took up other jobs at funeral homes. She is the only mortician that directly handles corpses.

As tomb-sweeping day, an occasion when Chinese honor their ancestors, ended last week, life and death re-emerged as a topic for discussion across the country.

"The general mindset has changed a lot in recent years, but death is still a taboo. Many people turn a cold shoulder to funeral service workers," said Ding Hongfeng, director at Wang's funeral home.

Ding said that some people do not let hearses stop in front of their doors or funeral service workers pass by their houses when picking up the deceased.

"Funeral service workers suffer pressure from friends and family too. Some even find it hard to get a marriage partner," Ding said.

The job carries with it its own unique strains of stress. Wang cannot so much as smile at work.

"Smiling in front of families who have suffered a loss is very impolite," she said.

She also pays attention to other details, such as never saying goodbye to others, or attending auspicious events where people customarily regard her as ominous.

But Wang manages these misunderstandings, and despite their occasional cruelty she can cope with being ostracized now and then.

"My biggest wish is to help the deceased and their families make a final parting with respect," she said.

She will never forget one incident when a young girl was killed in a traffic accident. Her mother was heartbroken and could not cope with the sickening experience of seeing her dead child, who had been mutilated in the crash.

"The mother cried, saying her daughter had loved to be beautiful. How could she leave this world in such a terrible state?" she said.

Wang and her colleagues did all they could to succour the mother's grief, using a piece of wood to fix the girl's spine, gently stitching together the girls delicate yet broken skin, dressing her carefully and applying pretty make-up to her face.

Seeing her daughter look almost like she did in life, calmed the mother and gave her spiritual comfort. It is small moments like these that make Wang's job worth it.

Partly driven by China's aging population, there is a rapid growth in demand for death care services across the country. Many technical colleges across the country started offering studies in funeral services.

For Wang, this means more young undertakers will join her to fight for social acceptance in their profession.

Drowned kids, the elderly dying from strokes, or bodies even without names... by facing death every day, Wang cherishes life more than her peers.

"Perhaps we can't choose when and how we die, but we can decide our attitude toward death -- the transfer station between life and eternity," Wang said.
ADDIS ABABA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and Kenya on Tuesday expressed commitment to enhance ties on bilateral and regional issues.

The announcement came during the visit of Kenyan foreign minister Monica Juma to Ethiopia, where she held talks with new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

In a press statement, The Office of Spokesperson for Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Juma had also extended an invitation to Ahmed to pay his first foreign state visit to Kenya.

Kenya was among the first African countries to congratulate Ahmed on his swearing in on April 2 as Ethiopia's new prime minister.

The two neighboring nations Ethiopia and Kenya enjoy strong economic, political and defense ties, underscored in recent years by construction of road and electric infrastructure.

In particular, a 1.26-billion-U.S.-dollar Ethio-Kenya high voltage electricity transmission line, financed by the African Development Bank and being built by China Electric Power Equipment and Technology, is expected to further cement ties.

Ethiopia is constructing or has constructed electric transmission lines to Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya with a view to earning revenue from energy exports to the neighboring nations.
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 in early March 2018, in a still image from video provided March 25, 2018. (CBSNews/60 MINUTES/Handout via REUTERS)

LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. porn star Stormy Daniels' attorney filed declarations here Monday against the petition of President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen to have the legal dispute over an alleged affair "solved" through arbitration.

The filing came a few hours before Cohen's office in New York was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). U.S. news outlet CNN reported that the raid seized documents related to Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 which the White House has denied.

File Photo: An FBI agent exits her car after arriving at the scene of an explosion on Galindo Street in Austin, Texas, U.S., March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, said in a statement that the search was "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted after the raid "an enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC (Michael Cohen)'s shoulders," and "this could end very very badly" for Trump and others.

Monday's declarations filed to court is the latest move in the legal battle between Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, Trump, and the limited liability company Essential Consultant LLC (EC) which was allegedly created to pay her for a "hush agreement" preventing her from disclosing the alleged affair to others.

In a lawsuit filed on March 6, Daniels sought to invalidate the hush agreement because Trump didn't personally sign it.

According to the lawsuit, Daniels said she had a sexual relationship with Trump from summer of 2006 to 2007. In October of 2016, Daniel wanted to disclosed details of the relationship to media outlets, and this move came to attention of Trump and his presidential campaign, so Cohen arranged a hush agreement to her.

Under the agreement, 130,000 U.S. dollars would be paid to a trust account of the actress' then attorney.

Daniels and Cohen signed the agreement and a side letter agreement on Oct. 28, 2016, just days before the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit alleged that in the hush document aliases were used by design of Cohen. Trump was referred to as David Dennison (DD) and Daniel as Peggy Peterson (PP). In the side letter agreement, the true identity of DD is blacked out, but Avenatti said the individual is Trump. However, neither of the documents was signed by DD.

Last week, Trump made his first public response to the alleged affair, saying that he did not know about the 130,000-dollar hush money payment that Cohen made to Daniels.

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)

After filing the lawsuit, Avenatti applied a motion for an expedited trial and discovery process, including to depose Trump and Cohen for the case. A federal judge in California put a temporary stop to the motion, citing that it is "premature" because Trump and EC had not filed a petition to compel arbitration.

According to U.S. law, if the arbitration provision of an agreement was valid, one of the parties of the document has the right to ask for compel-arbitration, which will not be held publicly and limits the investigation process.

Michael Cohen, personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives to appear before Senate Intelligence Committee staff as the panel investigates alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 19, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

Cohen filed his petition to compel arbitration last week, arguing that it doesn't matter whether DD signed the contract since the settlement agreement defined the parties to the agreement as EC and/or DD on one part and PP on the other.

Avenatti issued a statement later in response to the filing, opposing the motion by Cohen to have the case decided in arbitration.

On Sunday, Avenatti filed a motion again, requesting the deposition of Trump and Cohen, and the production of documents directed at Trump and Cohen.

Avenatti said the questions he wants to ask include whether Trump is "David Dennison," whether he truly did not know about the 130,000-dollar payment, whether the payment was made with Trump's money, what was Cohen's role, and was Mr. Trump personally involved in the effort to silence plaintiff in order to benefit his presidential campaign by preventing voters from hearing the plaintiff speak publicly.

The court set the hearing date for Sunday's motion by Avenatti on May 7 and hearing date for Monday's declaration on April 30.
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump will skip his first Latin America trip to stay in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria," the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump was scheduled to pay a visit to Peru and Colombia this week, during which he would attend the Summit of the Americas in the Peruvian capital city of Lima.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the region instead, according to a White House statement.

Trump has been mulling response to the alleged "chemical attack" that occurred in Syria on Saturday, with the possibility of U.S. military actions against Syria looming large.

On Monday evening, Trump said that the United States is "going to make a decision tonight or shortly thereafter" on the Syria incident.

"It (the attack) will be met forcefully," he added.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria claimed that the Syrian government forces used chlorine gas on Saturday in an attack in Douma, a rebel-held area near the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, saying the rebels' claims were "premeditated pretexts," according to the country's state-run news agency SANA.
(File photo)Smoke billows following Syrian government air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave of Douma, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 20, 2018. (AFP photo)

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed on Tuesday that Israel will not allow Iranian foothold in Syria, no matter what the cost will be.

The remark came a day after Israeli war jets allegedly attacked the T-4 military air base in Homs, killing 14 people. Israel was accused by Russia and Syria of carrying out the strike but has not officially confirmed its involvement.

"I do not know what happened there or who attacked," Lieberman said during an inauguration ceremony in the town of Katzrin in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

"I know one thing for sure - we won't allow Iran to establish a stronghold in Syria, whatever the cost. We have no choice. To agree to Iranian entrenchment in Syria is to agree to the Iranians laying a chokehold on our neck," he said.

According to Lieberman, Iran's efforts to establish itself in Syria have been increasing over the past weeks. "It's not planning to build a cultural center or a museum there," he said.

Hinting at Israel's expectation that Russia will avoid Iranian bases in Syria, Lieberman said that there are "those who can prevent it without the use of military force, and I hope that those elements will act and do the right thing in their power to prevent Iran from establishing itself without unnecessary friction."

Regarding the intention of United State President Donald Trump to withdraw from Syria, Lieberman said that the U.S. is Israel's "greatest friend... Yet it is the biggest power in the world and has its own interests, and we will respect any decision made by the White House."

Also on Tuesday, Moscow, which reportedly criticized the attack as a "dangerous development," summoned the Israeli ambassador to Russia for a talk. Iran vowed to retaliate the attack, which reportedly claimed the lives of at least seven Iranian nationals.

The strike came amidst an international wrangling about the allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army in the attack on the rebels in Douma district.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia (front) listens to Vladimir Safronkov (L, 2nd row), Russian deputy ambassador to UN, during the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, April 9, 2018. The Security Council held an emergency session on the situation in Syria, particularly after reports of the use of chemical weapons over the weekend in rebel-held Douma near the capital city of Damascus. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

by Xinhua writer Wang Jiangang

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Big powers attending a UN Security Council meeting on Monday crossed verbal swords with each other over their views on the suspected poison gas attack in war-torn Syria.

SHARP DIFFERENCES

Both Security Council members and UN officials briefing them voiced grave concern that the use of chemical weapons risked "being normalized," and could contribute to rapidly escalating tensions between world powers.

Taking the floor, council members differed sharply on their versions of the Douma incident, with some recounting gruesome descriptions of civilians hiding and perishing in their basements as chemical weapons fell from above. Others described it as "fake news" aimed at falsely incriminating the Syrian government and its allies.

Still others, recalling claims of chemical weapons used against two Russians in the British town of Salisbury just weeks ago, expressed concern that the world was seeing a re-emergence of such weapons as part of a dangerous new "status quo."

CROSS SWORDS: RUSSIA VS U.S.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vassily Nebenzia said that Washington and those "blindly" following it, namely London and Paris, were "carrying out a deliberate policy to stoke international tensions."

Without justification, they were "engaged in a confrontational policy against Russia and Syria, prompting others to follow suit," he said.

His country was being "unpardonably threatened" and the tone of language had gone beyond what was "acceptable even during the cold war."

The United States and its Western partners do not understand the potential consequences of their reckless geopolitical experiment in the Middle East, he said, adding that most council members were "confounded" by their lack of strategy, yet were not saying so openly.

The Russian diplomat said that he wondered if the United States and its partners understood "the dangerous threshold" to which they were taking the world.

The use of sarin or chlorine in Douma "had not been confirmed." He invited those who would speak against him to proceed from the premise that no chemical attack had taken place.

The experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should immediately fly to Damascus where Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide the conditions for them to go to the scene and familiarize themselves with the situation, as called for by the U.S. president and other Western leaders, he added.

Quoting U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley as saying that her country had never been a friend of Russia, he said no one could force a friendship and "we are not begging to be friends with you." His country wanted "normal civilized relations," which the United States was "arrogantly refusing."

Emphasizing that international terrorism was the common enemy, he said Russia called on Western politicians "to scale down their rhetoric" and consider the consequences of their conduct.

He called for a return to the legal fold, in line with the UN Charter, and for an end to "egotistical geopolitical games" alongside support for the political process to end the conflict in Syria.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (front) addresses the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, April 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

While Haley said she could certainly show pictures of suffering survivors, or first responders in the streets, or hospitals struck by barrel bombs following the gas attack, she instead asked: "Who does this? Only a monster does this."

Russia and Iran were helping to direct the Assad regime's attacks by providing the hardware needed to conduct them, she stressed.

Recalling that the Joint Investigative Mechanism had determined that Syria's government was responsible for the attack in Khan Shaykhun a year ago, she said Russia had "killed it" because of those findings.

What was being considered today was not about a spat between the United States and Russia, but about the use of chemical weapons on civilians. "There can be no more rationalization about our failure to act," she added.

The Security Council must re-establish a "professional and impartial mechanism" to investigate chemical attacks in Syria, she said, noting that the U.S. president was weighing important national decisions related to the crisis.

FRANCE, BRITAIN ON U.S. SIDE

Francois Delattre, French permanent representative to the UN, said thousands of videos and photos emerging from Douma in recent days showed victims "foaming at the mouth and convulsing," all symptoms of a potent nerve agent combined with chlorine. "There was no doubt as to the perpetrators," as only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability of developing such substances.

Karen Pierce (front), British Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Karen Pierce, British representative to the UN, said the five permanent council members had a particular responsibility to uphold the global prohibition on weapons of mass destruction.

While Britain believed the Syrian regime was responsible for the latest attack, there must be an independent fact-finding mission to determine if chemical weapons had been used, and if so, which ones, she noted.

SYRIA: FIGHTS BACK

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja'afari said that the "lies of some permanent council members" had fueled conflicts, including in Vietnam, Iraq and on the Korean Peninsula. Now they sought "to defeat Syria."

Emphasizing that the United States, Britain and France were eager to hold council meetings on the basis of "fabricated information," he recalled that the Syrian government had warned the Security Council, OPCW and the Joint Investigative Mechanism on many occasions of terrorist groups possessing chlorine and sarin.

The White Helmets (independent non-governmental organization) would "fabricate evidence and Hollywood-like scenes" intended to stir incitement against Syria and its allies. The Syrian military "had no chemical weapons," having destroyed them under U.S. auspices, he stressed.

TROUBLED UN OFFICIALS

Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, outlined events over the last 48 hours, including reports of civilians in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma suffering symptoms consistent with chemical weapons exposure.

Over the weekend, photos had begun to circulate on social media showing "lifeless" men, women and children, while non-governmental organizations claimed to have received cases of civilians experiencing the effects of chemical weapons, he said.

While the UN was "not in a position to verify" those reports, he said, "it cannot ignore them."

Noting that OPCW had begun an initial investigation, he voiced concern, for the first time in his tenure, over not just the security of Syria or the region, but the world. "The council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front," he stressed.

Thomas Markram, director and deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, cited reports that at least 49 people had been killed and hundreds injured in the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma.

Noting that the OPCW, through its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), was already gathering information, he emphasized that what was being seen in Syria could not "go unchallenged" by anyone who valued the decades of efforts to bring about disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Urging the Security Council to unite to those ends, he stressed: "To do otherwise, or to simply do nothing, is to accept, tacitly or otherwise, that such a challenge is insurmountable."

CHINA FIRMLY OPPOSES CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, reiterated his country's firm opposition to chemical weapons use, and its support for a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation that would stand the test of history and facts with the perpetrators being brought to justice.

Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, addresses a meeting of the UN Security Council on the chemical weapon use in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York April 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

China supported the Security Council and OPCW as the main channels for addressing chemical weapons, and it hoped that parties concerned would take a constructive approach.

Emphasizing the need for the unity of the council, he said a "political settlement" was the only way to resolve the Syrian question, with the international community respecting Syria's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.

Regarding the poisoning of a former Russian double agent along with his daughter, Wu reiterated his country's position in favor of an investigation within an OPCW framework.

Also speaking were representatives of the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Bolivia and Peru.
WARSAW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A monument commemorating the victims of a presidential plane crash in Smolensk, western Russia on April 10, 2010 was unveiled here on Tuesday, marking the eighth anniversary since the tragedy.

The monument is situated on Pilsudskiego Square, in Warsaw city center and displays the names of all the victims. As well as the monument to the victims, a stone marking the site of a future monument of the late President Lech Kaczynski, who was also killed in the crash, was unveiled.

The monument was unveiled by representatives of the victims families as well as high state officials, including President Andrzej Duda, Speaker of the Sejm, Marek Kuchcinski, and Speaker of the Senate, Stanislaw Karczewski.

In his speech, Duda said the Smolensk catastrophe was a tragic moment, terrible not only for the victims' families, but for the whole country.

Earlier, Duda paid tribute to the victims at Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery, while Sejm and Senate Speakers, as well as government members, took part in a roll of honor. Flowers were laid at commemorative plaques outside the Presidential Palace and commemorative events were held throughout the whole country.

The Polish air force plane was heading to Russia to take part in events commemorating Polish victims of the Katyn executions in 1940, but crashed upon landing in Smolensk, killing 96 people, including the Polish presidential couple, state and military high officials and the crew.
LUSAKA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Indian President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Zambia Tuesday for his three-day state visit to the southern African nation.

He was received by President Edgar Lungu, First Lady Esther Lungu and other government leaders. The arrival, which was streamed live on the Zambian leader's Facebook page, was characterized by dances from various traditional groups.

He later inspected a guard of honor and was accorded a 21 gun salute, according to a statement released by the Zambia Embassy in India.

Zambia's High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga said the Zambian embassy in India holds the visit in high esteem, especially that tourism and trade volumes have quadrupled, according to the statement.

It was the first time in three decades that a president of India was undertaking a state visit to Zambia, the statement added.

During the visit, the two leaders are expected to hold bilateral talks and witness the signing of several memoranda of understanding aimed at enhancing cooperation in various sectors including the establishment of an Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Zambia, taxation, visa exemption on diplomatic passports and judicial cooperation, according to Zambia's foreign affairs minister Joseph Malanji.

The Indian president is accompanied by First Lady, Savita Kovind, senior government officials and a business delegation.

According to government figures, private investment in Zambia by Indian companies currently stands at over 5 billion U.S. dollars while bilateral trade stood at 1.2 billion dollars from April 2017 to January 2018.
VIENTIANE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- An ASEAN small arms shooting competition range of the Lao People's Army built with the help of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was handed over to Lao authorities here on Tuesday.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian and Lieutenant General Suvon Luongbunmi, central committee member of Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Deputy National Defence Minister and Chief of General Staff of the Lao army signed the hand-over document.

The Lao party's politburo member and Minister of National Defence, Lieutenant General Chansamone Chanyalath, Senior Colonel Liu Feng from the Logistic Support Department of the Central Military Commission of China, and Senior Colonel Chen Yongjing, military attache of the Chinese embassy attended the ceremony.

Both Ambassador Wang and Lieutenant General Suvon agreed, when addressing the ceremony, that the shooting range program is a gift from the Chinese government and the PLA for the 57th anniversary of China-Laos diplomatic relations and the 70th anniversary of founding of the Lao army.

The facility is also a new symbol of the friendly cooperation between the Chinese PLA and the Lao army.

The two sides also agreed to push the China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a high level with mutual trust, mutual support and mutual benefit.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 23:42:26|Editor: ZX

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Photo taken on April 10, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a draft resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) at the UN headquarters in New York. The Security Council on Tuesday decided to extend the mandate of the MINUJUSTH for a year, and to scale down the UN police presence in the country. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday decided to extend the mandate of the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) for a year, and to scale down the UN police presence in the country.

Resolution 2410 extended MINUJUSTH's mandate till April 15, 2019, to assist the Haitian government to strengthen rule, develop the national police and engage in human rights monitoring.

The resolution said that the UN mission's police component will maintain seven formed police units and 295 individual police officers till Oct. 15, 2018.

In the next six months of the renewed mandate, the police component will be downsized to five formed police units and 295 individual police officers, "with any reduction taking into account the evolving security situation in Haiti and adjusted accordingly."

The resolution affirmed the intention of the Security Council to consider the withdrawal of MINUJUSTH and transition to a non-peacekeeping presence in Haiti beginning no sooner than Oct. 15, 2019.

MINUJUSTH is already a smaller police mission than its predecessor, the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which was composed of military personnel. MINUJUSTH replaced MINUSTAH on Oct. 16, 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 23:42:27|Editor: Lifang

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R, Rear) speaks during a press conference in Budapest, Hungary, on April 10, 2018. Viktor Orban, who won a third consecutive term at the general elections held on April 8, on Tuesday said he would set up a new government structure. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

BUDAPEST, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who won a third consecutive term at the general elections held on April 8, on Tuesday said he would set up a new government structure.

"We will not simply continue governance, but instead a new government will be created," he said. "We are not going to prolong the last cycle, but rather we shall create a new cycle," he told journalists.

Orban said significant changes and modifications are expected, meaning new ministers in a new structure.

He said that his party Fidesz has started negotiations with junior coalition partner KDNP (Christian Democrats) and that the formation of the new government could take as long as three to four weeks.

Evaluating the election, Orban noted: "Hungarians have highlighted the most important issues, such as immigration and national sovereignty, and decided that they were the only ones to select who they would like to live with in Hungary."

He made an allusion to the rejection of migrant relocation quotas of the EU, a strong point of his electoral campaign.

He argued that the government wanted a nation of Europe and not the "European United States".

"Our support is a clear, a strong mandate, even one of the strongest -- if not the strongest -- of the past 30 years," he said about the outcome of the elections.

Orban's Fidesz-KDNP coalition consolidated its power by winning 133 or 134 seats of the 199-seat Hungarian parliament according to official but partial results. The final result is to be published on Saturday.

This result translates into a qualified or so-called two-thirds majority, which allows Orban to make profound changes in Hungarian public administration, including the modification of the constitution.
NAIROBI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The umbrella organization for African local governments on Tuesday urged the continent to increase uptake of decentralization in order for the region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) of Africa, told Xinhua that decentralization and devolved governments help bring critical services such as health and education closer to citizens.

"Decentralization should therefore be a priority for African governments as it will help the continent to achieve many of SDG targets," Mbassi said during the Regional Strategic meeting of UCLG for the Eastern Africa Region.

The two-day event aims to take stock of the progress made in decentralization in Africa.

In 2014, African leaders adopted the African Charter on the Values and Principles of Decentralization, Local Governance and Local Development.

Mbassi said that so far only three countries have signed and ratified the charter, and another 12 countries have signed but not ratified the continent-wide agreement that aims to promote a devolved system of governance.

He noted that adoption of the African charter will help create convergence of devolved governance systems across the region and help empower the residents of the continent.

He added that decentralization helps transfer power and resources from national and sub-national governments.

"This is good for the economy as it helps in the redistribution of resources among all citizens of a country," Mbassi said.
(File photo)Arrested politicians and journalists shout inside the National Prison before their release after demonstrations in Khartoum, Sudan February 18, 2018. (Reuters photo)

KHARTOUM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday issued a decree to release all political detainees held in the country in response to appeals from political parties, official SUNA news agency reported.

The release of political detainees will enhance the spirit of national consensus, the report said.

It added that the move opens the door for participation of the political forces in consultations on national issues and for preparing the country's permanent constitution.

The State Minister for Presidency and Director of the President's offices, Hatim Hassan Bakhit, said the concerned authorities have put the president's decision to release the political detainees under immediate implementation.

The parties participating in the national dialogue in Sudan on Sunday appealed to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to release political detainees.

The Sudanese authorities have detained a great number of opposition leaders since last January, including the Political Secretary of the Communist Party and other party leaders over their call for protests against rise in prices of basic commodities following approval of the country's 2018 general budget.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 23:47:30|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BOAO, Hainan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for elevating the ties between China and the Philippines while meeting with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

Xi said that the leaders of both countries should maintain close communication, and strengthen strategic steering and top-level design for the bilateral relations.

From a rapid turnaround to a consolidated relationship, China and the Philippines have taken "two steps upward" in their bilateral ties over the past two years, Xi said.

"The task of this year shall be upgrading the relationship," he said.

According to Xi, both sides shall dovetail their development strategies and advance cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and in all areas for mutual benefits.

The two countries shall also strengthen security cooperation, and China supports the Philippines in fighting against terrorism and drugs, Xi said.

"A new chapter has opened in the bilateral ties since President Duterte took office," he said.

China is willing to work with the Philippines to stick to the direction of good-neighborly friendship, set the goal of common development and properly manage differences, so that the bilateral ties will keep to the right direction and stay healthy and stable, he said.

Xi also said that China is resolute in developing good-neighborly friendship with the Philippines and sincere in supporting the Philippines' development.

"China supports the Philippine government in exploring a development path in line with its own conditions," Xi said.

"We should continue to properly handle South China Sea issue, and discuss joint exploration, development and cooperation at an appropriate time, thus making the waters a sea of cooperation and friendship," he said.

China has always taken the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, Xi said.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership and also the China-ASEAN Year of Innovation, while the Philippines will be the coordinator of China-ASEAN ties.

Xi said China is willing to maintain close communication and coordination with the Philippines to promote China-ASEAN ties and regional cooperation in East Asia, Xi said.

Noting that the bilateral relations have maintained a sound momentum, Duterte expressed his thanks to China for its assistance and support in boosting the Philippines' socioeconomic development, and improving its capabilities in fighting terrorism and maintaining stability.

The Philippines is willing to participate in the building of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and maintain close cooperation with China in sectors including economy and trade, fishing, tourism, education and infrastructure, Duterte said.

The Philippines will also work with China to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea through bilateral communication and consultation, and boost cooperation in this regard, he said.

The Philippines is willing to help deepen the ASEAN-China cooperation, he added.

After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-10 23:52:31|Editor: yan

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DUBAI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- United Arab Emirates (UAE) Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili discussed on Tuesday the bilateral ties and global developments, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

The two leaders discussed relations of "cooperation and friendship" between the UAE and Georgia, and the means of supporting and developing it to achieve their common interests.

During the meeting, Sheikh Mohamed and Margvelashvili also reviewed areas of bilateral cooperation between their countries, especially investment and trade relations, as well as opportunities for further developing bilateral ties.

In 2016, the volume of two-way non-oil trade exchange reached 132 million U.S. dollars, UAE daily Gulf news reported last year.

The two leaders also exchanged views on international and regional developments.

Sheikh Mohamed said the growth and development of UAE-Georgian relations reflect the desire of the leaders of both countries to push forward and strengthen the bonds of their friendship.

The president of Georgia praised the growing relations between the two countries and their friendly people. He also expressed his country's keenness to bolster economic and investment cooperation with the UAE.

In 2017, the UAE and Georgia celebrated the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Both two sides also emphasized the importance of doubling international efforts to achieve peace and security both regionally and internationally.
PRAGUE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A 34-year-old psychiatric patient wounded two police officers on Tuesday morning in a asylum house of Domazlice, a town in southwest Czech Republic's Pilsen region.

The patient shot himself dead in the head.

A police spokesperson Martina Korandova said the police officers are in hospital and their lives are not at risk, and the assailant is to be transferred to another hospital facility due to a deterioration in the mental condition.

The shooting incident will be further investigated by the General Inspection of Security Forces (GIBS).

GIBS spokesman Ivo Mitacek reported on Tuesday that the shooting was made with the duty firearm of one of the policemen. He added that after evaluation of all facts it would be possible to confirm if GIBS should take over the case.

Jiri Lodr, owner of the mental asylum, said that the shooter had been a patient of the mental hospital since October 2016. Lodr characterized the patient as trouble-free and without any signs of aggression. He commented that it is unknown if the patient kept any personal gun.

Lodr added that the man had fully recovered. Last month, however, the patient refused to visit doctor and take medication. The condition worsened on Monday night, therefore, on Tuesday morning the mental health ambulance was called to help.

According to Andrea Divisova from the Regional Medical Emergency Service, the man did not want to cooperate with the medical crew members and refused to go to the ambulance. The police was called by the medical staff in order to assist them to escort the patient to the hospital. As they arrived, the policemen found that the man had escaped. The incident and shooting happened when the policemen started to follow the man.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin attend the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, Nov.11, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The alleged Syrian chemical attack is becoming a new flashpoint for relations between the United States and Russia that many already see as having hit rock-bottom.

EXACERBATING TRADE OF ACCUSATIONS

The past two days have seen an exchange of fierce words between the two nuclear powers. U.S. President Donald Trump, who had kept from lashing out at Russia and President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and many other issues, attacked Putin several times in a move many U.S. experts saw as "groundbreaking."

Calling the recent chemical attack in Syria "SICK" on Sunday, Trump tweeted that "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible" for backing the Syrian government, warning that there will be a looming "big price" for them to pay.

At a cabinet meeting on Monday, Trump said Putin "may" have to bear responsibility for the Syrian incident.

"If he does, it's going to be very tough. Very tough," he said. "Everybody's going to pay a price. He will, everybody will."

He also hinted that Syria, Iran and Russia are behind the attack.

"They're saying they're not. But, to me, there's not much of a doubt. But the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours," said Trump.

Later on Monday, envoys of Washington and Moscow traded barbs at a United Nations Security Council special meeting over the alleged Syrian attack. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia has the "blood of Syrian children" on its hands, and Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the incident was staged and that possible U.S. military action could trigger "grave repercussions."

TENSIONS IN RELATIONS

U.S.-Russia relations have already hit rock-bottom. Recently, Washington stepped up its pressure by kicking out 60 Russian diplomats last month to join Britain's retaliation over the disputed ex-Russian spy poisoning case, and launching sanctions against Russian business leaders and high-ranking officials in the two months over alleged Russian intervention in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections.

Such U.S. moves have sparked fierce responses from Russia. Besides a counter diplomat expulsion, Russia vowed tough measures against U.S. sanctions on Friday, and said "there remains only a desire of the United States to ensure by all means its global hegemony."

Trump's threat on Monday of military option in response to the alleged Syrian chemical attack further strained ties with Russia, endangering the "de-escalation zone" and hotlines the two sides have agreed to set up so as to avoid conflicts on the Syrian battleground.

MILITARY ACTION OR WITHDRAWAL?

Experts said Trump's military threat, an apparent setback compared with his statements last week to take the U.S. troops out of Syria very soon, could further complicate the U.S.-Russia ties.

Russia and Syria have been urging a withdrawal of U.S. troops, whose presence they say is uninvited and is a violation of international law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in early April said he welcomes Trump's pledge of an early withdrawal from Syria, despite what he called "worrisome" signs that U.S. troops were becoming "deeply entrenched" in areas east of the Euphrates River in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

Afshin Molavi, a senior research fellow from U.S. John Hopkins University, told Xinhua that Trump's warning to take military action in response to the alleged "chemical attack" will not change the balance of power on the ground fundamentally, but create a confusing situation for Washington itself.

"If he (Trump) goes for something larger this time, for example, targeting Syria's air force, I think that could play a much more significant role in changing the balance of power on the ground at the end of the day," he said.

"But as long as Russia and Iran continue to be on the ground while President Trump is talking about pulling America's special forces out of Syria," it creates "a confusing situation, just got a lot more confusing," he added.

"It's a very muddled policy," he noted. "On the one hand, you declare that you want to remove the U.S. troops from a battle zone. On the other hand, you are threatening military strikes."

Daniel Davis, a retired army lieutenant colonel and fellow at the Defense Priorities military think tank, cautioned against U.S. military action.

An expert said the U.S. military presence over years in Syria failed to facilitate the humanitarian relief there.

"Realistically, the 2,000 American troops have not made a huge difference to the landscape of the war in terms of humanitarian assistance, because the United States never had a vested interest in protecting the Syrian population," Janine di Giovanni, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wrote on New York Times on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 00:22:38|Editor: yan

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XI'AN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The first Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) People's Forum adopted the Xi'an Declaration on Tuesday in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The forum, held from April 9 to 10, attracted more than 80 participants from SCO members and observers as well as dialogue partners with the theme of "Promoting regional peace and cooperation, building a community with a shared future for humanity: the mission of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)."

Building a community with a shared future for humanity, a concept proposed by China, is also a consensus among the SCO states. The declaration commends the consensus, stating that it indicates the direction for the long-term prosperity and stability of the region.

The declaration suggests governments and NGOs carry out various exchange activities with relevant themes. Other proposals include working hard to eradicate poverty and advancing pragmatic cooperation to improve the well-being of the people.

The SCO has eight full members: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India. The host of the forum will submit its outcomes to the SCO summit to be held in June in Qingdao, a coastal city in east China.
BANGKOK, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A new song with its lyrics written by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was released online late Monday with similar melody to the theme song of popular soap opera "Love Destiny" or "Bupphesaniwat."

The song "Fight for the Nation," released just before Thailand's new year Songkran, actually shares the same composer, Wichian Tantipimolapan, with the theme song "Bupphesaniwat."

"No matter how badly I'm torn down, Every day I'm tired, but I keep it all inside, because my heart tells me to work for the nation," sings the prime minister's song.

"Bupphesaniwat," a TV opera about a modern Thai woman's soul going back the Ayutthaya Era, dwelling in the body of her twin sister in the past life and falling in love with a handsome nobility then, is very popular in Thailand, as many Thais can be seen taking photos in Ayutthaya Era costumes.

The prime minister's song seeks to capitalize on the massive hit of "Bupphesaniwat," Thai media Khaosod commented.

The song is the sixth written by Prayut since he came into power in 2014. His works include "Returning Happiness to the People," "Because You're Thailand," "Hope and Faith," "Bridge," and "Diamond Heart."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 00:22:38|Editor: yan

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DUBAI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday condemned Somalia for seizing an Emirati aircraft and 9.6 million U.S. dollars in cash at Mogadishu airport, UAE state news agency WAM reported Tuesday.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 47 members of the Emirati armed forces were onboard the aircraft when it was seized by Somali authorities "at gunpoint."

Some Somali security members reportedly disrespected the passengers and seized 9.6 million U.S. dollars in cash that were originally allocated to support the Somali army and trainees.

"The impounded money, allocated to support the Somali army and trainees, was seized at gunpoint by Somali security personnel, who disrespected some members of the UAE forces," Gulf news quoted the UAE ministry.

The UAE condemns "such a violation," Gulf News quoted the ministry as saying, adding that the UAE provided "all forms of political, economic, military and humanitarian support to Somalia in the darkest of its circumstances in order to consolidate the security and stability."

"The act is illegal and violates diplomatic traditions and norms between countries, and is a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the UAE and Somalia," said the ministry.

The MoU, signed in November, 2014, is on military cooperation between the two sides, and included the allocation of funds to the East African country.

Bilateral relations between the UAE and Somalia have been deteriorating since March 13 when Somalia banned UAE ports operator DP World, the world's third biggest container port operator, from operating in its country.

The ban followed Somalia's claims that DP World had no right to sign a contract with the breakaway region of Somaliland to establish a port zone in Berberaa located at the coast of the Gulf of Aden.

Somalia said it regarded the deal as "null and void." The action by Somalia followed an amendment of the contract, which granted the state of Ethiopia minority share in port project.
BERLIN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Germany has experienced severe disruptions to everyday life on Tuesday due to nationwide strikes by public sector employees.

The so-called "warning strikes" coordinated by the trade union ver.di led to hundreds of flight cancellations and forced the Cologne-Bonn international airport to cease operating entirely for several hours. Additionally, large numbers of daycare centers, healthcare clinics, waste disposal- and transport services remained closed on Tuesday.

Ver.di is demanding a six percent pay-rise for 2.3 million government employees in ongoing negotiations and hopes to increase pressure on employer representatives ahead of an upcoming third round of collective wage negotiations on April 15.

"When if not now can there be significant increases in wages for all workers, including those in the public sector?" Ver.di president Frank Bsirske asked during a speech at the Frankfurt International Airport with view to Germany's booming economy.

Bsirske expressed sympathy with thousands of travelers stranded by the industrial action, but defended the disruptions suffered as "acceptable" collateral damage in the current dispute over public sector wages. He warned that the situation would only escalate further unless a satisfactory compromise was found during the next round of talks.

However, the German Airports Association (ADV) criticized the strikes as disproportionate.

"A so-called warning strike, which immediately leads to economic damage in the millions of euros for airlines and airports, as well as long delays and massive flight cancellations, is devoid of any proportionality", VDA director Ralph Beisel argued.

Earlier, Germany's largest airline Lufthansa complained that its customers would bear the brunt of the industrial action although the company was not itself a party to the collective wage negotiations.

In total, Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt international airport, recorded nearly 660 cancellations on Tuesday.
JUBA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Tuesday urged the international community to bar the former army chief Paul Malong who has rebelled against the government from participating in the upcoming third round of peace talks mediated by regional leaders.

President Salva Kiir's spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny told journalists that the ex-army chief was corrupt and peace spoiler who should not be given audience at the next round of the peace talks under the regional body Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Ethiopia.

"The office of the president rejects all the allegations leveled against the president by a war monger. We also urge the international community represented by the African Union, UN, EU and the East African Community to deny Malong any position in opposition when he was part and parcel of the political crisis as member of government since 2013," Ateny said in Juba.

The ex-army chief on Monday formed the South Sudan-United Front (SS-UF) rebel movement seeking to overthrow President Kiir's Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

The former Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) chief criticized president Kiir for plundering the country's resources and grounding the economy.

But Ateny said Malong lacks the moral authority to criticize the government of corruption and yet his tenure at the helm of the SPLA was characterized by corruption and disrespect for the rule of law.

"As Chief of General Staff of the SPLA for three years Malong in an attempt to conceal impunity squandered millions of U.S. dollars in disguise for security operations, banks were opened at night to allow Malong to take the money at whim which in turn polarized the government," Ateny disclosed.

Malong was sacked in 2017 and later on released from house arrest in Juba in November 2017.

He signed an agreement with the government allowing him to seek medical attention in the East Africa region but violated the very agreement after he visited the Sudanese capital Khartoum recently which alarmed the government.

Ateny said President Kiir was vilified by the whole world for being close to Malong whom he described as war monger, citing the fact that he was sanctioned by the United States and UN for fanning violence and obstructing peace.

"Malong was against peace agreement on resolution of conflict that's why he staged almost three attempted coups but were flattened because of the intelligence. He attempted to take over the leadership by force because he did not want peace agreement to be signed," Ateny said.

Ateny added that any new rebellion against the Juba government is an attempt to slow down the peaceful resolution of conflict.

Malong was widely regarded as a key ally of Kiir after he mobilized an ethnic militia to fight for the Kiir administration.

Human rights groups have on several occasions accused Malong and his militia of committing atrocities on civilians across the war-torn country.

The former army chief is also among three South Sudanese officials sanctioned by the United States in and Canada last year for allegedly obstructing peace efforts and benefiting from the ongoing civil war.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after President Kiir sacked his former deputy Riek Machar, leading to fighting between mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir and ethnic Nuer soldiers loyal to Machar.

The violence has killed tens of thousands, leaving four million people living as refugees in neighboring countries.

The efforts by regional leaders to revive the 2015 peace agreement shattered in the wake of renewed violence in July 2016 are yet to bear fruit as they have been indefinitely suspended after the warring parties failed to make headway.
VILNIUS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- There is no reason to talk about crises in Lithuania or dissolving parliament as the country is moving in the "right direction," Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said on Tuesday.

"Last year was good for Lithuania. Objective data shows we are moving in the right direction. There is no any grounds to talk about crises or dissolution of the parliament," Skvernelis told lawmakers in parliament where he presented the government's activity report for 2017.

According to the report, Lithuanian GDP increased by 3.8 percent in 2017.

"It was the highest growth rate in five years and much higher than the EU average of 2.5 percent," Skvernelis underscored.

Moreover, Lithuania attracted 39 foreign investors who committed to create more than 5,000 jobs in three years and to invest more than 200 million euros (246.75 million U.S. dollars).

In his words, Lithuania meets the NATO requirement to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense and will further increase military spending.

Skvernelis added the Lithuanian government last year took systemic actions aimed at solving income inequality and poverty problems in the country and would continue this policy this year.

Foundations for planned structural reforms in the areas of taxation, the pension system, education and combating the underground economy were laid in 2017, the PM noted, naming the demographic situation as one of the major issues.

According to Skvernelis, reforms are expected to further contribute to the nation's competitiveness and the quality of life of people.

The Lithuanian parliamentary opposition called for an early election last month amid a parliamentary crisis following lawmakers refusing to dismiss a member of parliament accused of acting against the state.

The opposition initiative was later rejected by the majority of lawmakers.
CAPE TOWN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Tuesday called for drastic measures to reconfigure the tripartite coalition alliance.

A reconfigured alliance should be an alliance characterized by adherence to the principles of democratic consensus seeking consultation, collective leadership and accountability, the SACP said.

The party warned against a situation where one alliance partner through its executives or an individual leader makes decisions without consultation, or a faction becomes dominant and makes those decisions.

The SACP said such situation is "completely unacceptable."

"This is the general situation we were faced with until recently. However, this unacceptable situation continues at various levels. Rather than build the alliance, arrogance and marginalization of alliance partners will only serve to weaken and ultimately destroy the alliance," the SACP said as it marked the 25th commemoration of the assassination of late SACP leader Chris Hani who was shot and killed on April 10 in 1993.

The SACP took advantage of the event to outline its relations with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

The SACP and ANC form a coalition alliance which also includes the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

Relations between the SACP and ANC reached an all time low last year when then President Jacob Zuma sacked SACP Secretary General Blade Nzimande as Minister of Higher Education and Training in a cabinet reshuffle. The SACP has been critical of the ANC for making unilateral decisions.

As its rift with the ANC deepens, the SACP has stated repeatedly that it will contest the 2019 elections on its own. In previous elections, the SACP stood by the ANC to win votes.

"In memory of Chris Hani, we must combat all tendencies that will liquidate the alliance. The best way to do so is to reconfigure the alliance," the SACP said.

In the same manner, decisive action must be taken against the malady of corporate capture within the ranks of the movement and corporate capture of the state, the SACP said.

"We must deal decisively with all other forms of corruption and wrongdoing," said the party.

This apparently refers to Zuma and a number of senior government officials who have allegedly collaborated with the controversial Indian Gupta family in looting from the state coffers.

A failure to succeed in dealing with corporate capture and other forms of corruption and wrongdoing, both within the liberation movement and the state, will undermine the hard-won democratic hegemony of the movement, the SACP warned.

"Those members within the ranks of our movement who lack personal discipline for instance can compromise the movement. Their undisciplined conduct is the route of entry for externally coordinated attacks directed at our formations," the SACP said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 00:52:43|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian deputy foreign minister on Tuesday condemned the alleged Israeli attack on a Syrian air base.

By striking Syria's Homs air base, Israel is seeking to increase tension in the region, Abbas Araqchi said.

Araqchi praised the Syrian government for what it called its victories against extremist groups.

Syria's military advances have had costs for the enemies of the Arab state, therefore "they are trying to bring back the tension," he said.

He urged the international community to be alert about such Israeli moves in the Middle East region.

On Monday, a total of 14 people, including a number of Iranian troops allied with the Syrian government, died in the attack by Israeli F-15 warplanes on the T-4 air base in central Syria.

On the day, Iranian media reports said that four Iranians military advisors were killed in the attack. However, Asr Iran news website reported on Tuesday that the bodies of seven Iranians killed in the incident were transferred to the country on Tuesday morning.

Besides, a senior aide to Iran's Supreme Leader said Tuesday that Israel's recent attack on the air base in Syria will not go unanswered, according to Press TV.

"Definitely, this crime will not remain without a response," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs, was quoted as saying.

Iran would strongly defend Syria's territorial integrity and national sovereignty, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 01:02:45|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tuesday that the United States is not the sole owner of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal to make decisions on it.

"The nuclear agreement belongs to the international community and to the countries which are involved in the agreement," Araqchi said.

"The JCPOA (or the nuclear deal) was an important deal in which Russia was involved as a major party," he said, adding that "it belongs to Iran, Russia and other members of P5+1."

On Jan. 12, the White House announced that U.S. President Donald Trump was seeking from the European countries an overhaul of the landmark deal in the next 120 days, or he would pull the United States out of the multilateral pact.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned against probable pullout of United States from the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, saying that "If the deal collapses, they will surely regret it."

Rouhani reiterated that Iran would not be the first to walk away from the deal.

The JCPOA is an international agreement reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France plus Germany).

Based on the agreement, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear activities to a considerable degree in return for the lift of international sanctions.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 01:07:48|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Tuesday expressed alarm at the civilian deaths and violence in several areas of Syria and the spiraling new displacement.

"Of particular concern is the situation in Douma in Eastern Ghouta where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said at a UN media briefing, noting that needs extend to the most basic of items such as clothing.

UNHCR estimates that more than 133,000 people have fled Eastern Ghouta near Damascus over the past four weeks.

"This is almost three times the number we reported on March 20 and includes some 45,000 people who are currently being accommodated in eight collective shelters in Rural Damascus," said the spokesperson.

He said the UN agency's response to the Eastern Ghouta emergency encompasses the delivery of core relief items, shelter support and protection services.

Nearly a quarter of a million urgently need aid and more than 60,000 people have been reached so far.

"UNHCR is purchasing clothes locally as many people fled with nothing more than what they were wearing. In addition to a massive shelter effort, UNHCR protection partners have provided legal counseling to 22,000 people," Mahecic said.

An estimated 44,000, mainly women, children and elderly have so far been allowed to leave the collective shelters after completion of their security screening.

UNHCR teams are working with UN and NGO partners to help improve the conditions at these collective shelters, which remain congested.

"We continue to appeal to all parties to the conflict for proper protection of civilians, including freedom of movement and free choice over where to stay. Family unity must also be respected," said Mahecic.
NAIROBI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Sub-Saharan African region could be the next epicenter of cyber attacks targeting government installations, private businesses and ordinary citizens thanks to weak deterrent measures, says a report launched in Nairobi on Tuesday.

The 2017 Africa cyber security report compiled by a Nairobi-based consulting firm, Serianu, disclosed that the continent lost an estimated 3.5 billion U.S. dollars last year as a result of increase in sophisticated cyber crimes.

Experts said the report, which covered 700 public and private institutions in ten African countries, confirmed that the soaring cyber attacks in the continent posed new threats to its security, economic growth and stability.

"The threat of cyber attacks has gained foothold in Africa yet governments and private sector are yet to invest in adequate defenses to curb their spread," said William Makatiani, the CEO of Serianu.

"Securing data should therefore be a priority for public and private institutions in the light of rapidly evolving threats to cyberspace," he added.

Serianu and a consortium of telecommunication giants, academic institutions and think tanks conducted the survey which revealed that cyber attacks were more pronounced in banks, government agencies and mid-sized enterprises across Africa.

The survey noted that cyber-crimes had also escalated in African cities where internet connections are higher.

Makatiani regretted that digital infrastructure owned by households has not been spared the threat of malicious attacks hence the need to invest in strong defenses.

"Securing homes and individual devices is now a paramount issue. Households must now introduce as part of their annual budgets, a cyber security component," said Makatiani.

African small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that provide bulk of employment to the youth and are heavily relying on the internet to conduct transactions are grappling with cyber attacks of huge magnitude.

Makatiani noted that these SMEs lack the financial and technical capacity to deal with cyber threats.

"It emerged that 95 percent of these businesses have limited knowledge and skills set required to deal with cybercrime," said Makatiani.

He stressed that investments in skilled personnel, public education and deterrent tools is key to warding off cyber attacks on state bodies and private businesses.

The year 2017 witnessed unprecedented cyber attacks and data breaches on Africa's public and private institutions that were carried out by home grown criminal networks.

Policy makers recommended homegrown innovations to strengthen detection and disruption of potential threats to digital infrastructure.

John Sergon, the CEO of Kenya's ICT Authority, said investments in cyber-defenses that are adaptable to local settings as well as mass public education are key to minimizing attacks on Africa's cyber space.
KIEV, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's space industry exports rose by 8.1 percent last year to 89.1 million U.S. dollars, local media reported Tuesday, citing a press release of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU).

The exports have risen due to the increased supplies of goods to the European Union (EU) countries and the United States, the SSAU said.

Last year, Ukrainian space industry enterprises participated in Land Launch international program, producing components for the EU's "Vega" and the U. S. "Antares" launch systems, according to the SSAU release.

Overall, Ukrainian space industry enterprises have earned a total of 180 million dollars in 2017 from selling their goods on domestic and international markets, the SSAU said.

The SSAU unites 24 enterprises from various sectors of Ukraine's space industry.
HELSINKI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- It was 4 p.m. local time, and the Helsinki-Vantaa international airport was packed with Chinese passengers arriving or departing Finland. Elizaveta Vinogradova knew her rush hour of largely Chinese customers had begun.

Vinogradova is a saleswoman at a fashion shop in the non-Schengen area of the airport. She speaks English and Finnish fluently, but it was always difficult to talk with some Chinese or Russian tourists who have poorer English skills.

Since early this year, Vinogradova has been provided with a digital helper -- an application installed on a tablet or smartphone. Xinhua reporters saw her using the application when talking with a Chinese woman who wanted to know the material and origin of a handbag.

After clicking the application, Vinogradova waited for about 20 seconds before a native Chinese speaker appeared on the screen. The online interpreter translated the customer's questions from Chinese into English, and Vinogradova was able to solve the communication problem.

"It helps me a lot," Elizaveta told Xinhua about the app. She said she used the remote interpretation service every day, especially in the afternoon when she receives the most Chinese customers.

A Chinese tourist who gave her name as Chen Chen, said she had traveled to several foreign countries, and it was the first time that she got such kind of help from an international airport.

"If someone does not speak good English or has special problems, this service will be very helpful," said Chen, adding it would be nice if the service could be introduced to other places, particularly non-English-speaking countries.

The offer of such service was the latest effort by the Helsinki airport to help foreigners overcome language barriers when landing in Finland.

Provided by Helsinki-based company Tulka, the service is a remote interpretation platform based on mobile internet. When a user opens the app, one of the online interpreters respond quickly, and provide "face to face" interpretation from a foreign language to English or Finnish.

Lauri Hyry, CEO of Tulka, told Xinhua that the demand for instant interpretation increased dramatically during the refugee crisis in Europe in 2015. He organized a team and developed the platform. Since then, Tulka has been providing translation in 14 languages to refugee reception centers, police departments, hospitals, schools and other institutions.

With the increase of incoming foreign tourists, Hyry believed tourism would become a new area for Tulka's business. After a trial project, the airport decided to work with Tulka in providing the service, starting from early this year on the occasion of Chinese Spring Festival.

Tulka's Chinese interpretation is still in its early stages, said Hyry. Ten professional Chinese interpreters contracting with the company have been able to meet the demand of 15 interpretations per week.

Compared to some other languages, Hyry said, the demand for Chinese interpretation is not high at the moment, as tourism is a brand new area for Tulka. However, with the continuous increase of Chinese travelers and their awareness of the service, Hyry believes the demand for Chinese interpretation will rise.

According to Jukka Isomaki, director of commercial services at the Finnish airport operator, Finavia, the Helsinki airport chose Chinese and Russian during the testing period last year, and more languages will be added to the portfolio.

"According to our surveys, incoming Chinese passengers are a very important group for us," said Isomaki.

Chinese tourists often raise questions when shopping and looking for boarding gates, going through customs, connecting flights and getting tax refunds, he added.

Statistics show that in 2017, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Finland grew by nearly 40 percent. China has emerged as the fifth largest market of incoming tourism for the 5.5 million-populated country, and the trend is still growing.

In recent years, Helsinki airport has launched a series of new measures aimed at Chinese passengers, such as displaying signs in Chinese, installing hot water dispensers, distributing red packets during the Spring Festival, and setting up Chinese-speaking guide desks.
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser, resigned on Tuesday, as John Bolton, Trump's new national security adviser, is reshaping the national security team.

"The president is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Bossert, 43, led the administration's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen cyber defenses, and respond to a series of natural disasters that have occurred across the country over the past year or so.

Sanders said that Trump "thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well," but she did not give a reason for Bossert's departure.

Bossert, who previously served in George W. Bush administration, was tapped to be assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism in December, 2016.

He was a Trump favorite for his articulate TV style when defending the administration's agenda and made a name for himself as the public face of the administration's response to hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last year.

Last weekend, Bossert also represented the administration on television to talks about the U.S. response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Bossert's resignation came a day after John Bolton took over as Trump's new national security adviser and two days after Michael Anton announced his departure as spokesman for the National Security Council.

Bolton, a former hawkish diplomat, is expected to add more momentum to the increasingly assertive U.S. foreign policy.

A source close to Bossert told NBC News that the adviser was unware of any intention at the White House to seek his resignation, and that he had no plans for the move.

"New team," the source said, without further explanation.

According to The New York Times, a White House official said that Rob Joyce, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council, would take Bossert's place on an acting basis.

Bossert's resignation also marks the latest high-level departure from the White House.

Other Trump administration officials who have either resigned or been fired in the past few months include Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Communications Director Hope Hicks, among others.
BERLIN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Some Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) politicians have reacted cautiously on Tuesday to widely-publicized proposals by fellow party members to legally ban girls under the age of 14 from wearing headscarves in Germany.

"I can understand the motivation behind the proposals, but I think that the approach is incompatible with the constitutionally-enshrined rights of parents," Andrea Lindholz (CSU), president of the parliamentary committee on internal affairs, told press.

Similarly, the federal government's integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz (CDU) warned that a headscarf ban would raise complicated constitutional questions whilst only resolving the symptoms of the deeper problems which it was actually intended to address.

A ban would not be enough to tackle "underlying issues" in the discrimination of girls and empower young females in Germany, Widmann-Mauz said in an interview with the newspaper Welt.

Proposals for a headscarf ban were first made prominent by Armin Laschet (CDU), governor of North-Rhine Westphalia, and CDU vice-president Julia Kloeckner. The newly-appointed German interior minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) subsequently endorsed these calls as a means to shield girls from outdated gender stereotypes.

The proposals have also received public support from the Federation of Immigrants Associations. A public debate over the need for a headscarf ban in Germany was sparked by a recent decision by the neighboring Austrian government to prohibit the wearing of headscarves in kindergarten and primary school institutions.
RIGA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A group of six money counterfeiting suspects are going to stand trial in Latvia for making and putting into circulation a large amount of fake U.S. dollar banknotes, the prosecutor's office for organized crime informed Tuesday.

According to the prosecutor who has sent the money counterfeiting case to court for hearing, the six suspects, "driven by greed", organized a coordinated underground business to manufacture and store a large amount of fake 100-dollar banknotes with the aim to distribute them.

The money counterfeiters set up a printing shop in the Latvian capital city Riga, adjusting the premises for their illegal operation and purchasing and installing the necessary equipment.

Under the guise of a legal business, they made 3.5 million U.S. dollar worth of fake banknotes. Some of the counterfeit money was stored at the printing shop, while the rest was kept at the suspects' homes and another company's premises.

Police seized a total of 35,745 counterfeit 100-dollar banknotes from the organized group of counterfeiters.

Their case will be heard at Riga Vidzeme District Court. If found guilty, the suspects may face prison sentences of up to 18 years.
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump spoke over phone on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Syria, as the possibility of U.S. military actions against Syria was looming large.

Both leaders condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his "disregard for human life," said the White House in a statement.

Trump and May also agreed "not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue," according to the statement.

Trump has been mulling response to the alleged "chemical attack" that occurred in Syria on Saturday.

On Monday evening, Trump said that the United States is "going to make a decision tonight or shortly thereafter" on the Syria incident.

"We're making decisions as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus. And it will be met. And it will be met forcefully," he said.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria claimed that the Syrian government forces used chlorine gas on Saturday in an attack in Douma, a rebel-held area near the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, saying the rebels' claims were "premeditated pretexts," according to the country's state-run news agency SANA.
File Photo: An AH-64D Apache attack helicopter pilot from 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, fires a 2.75 inch hydra aerial folding-fin rocket, producing a blast of smoke and fire, while conducting a gunnery on the outskirts of Baghdad, Nov. 9, 2009. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Monday announced new sales of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) to Qatar.

According to a statement published on the official website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the State Department has made a determination approving the sale for an estimated cost of 300 million U.S. dollars.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on Monday, saying the Qatari government has requested a sale of 5,000 APKWS II Guidance Sections.

Also included were 5,000 MK66-4 2.75 inch rocket motors, 5,000 high explosive warheads for airborne 2.75 inch rockets, inert MK66-4 2.75 inch rocket motors, inert high explosive warhead for airborne 2.75 inch rockets, support equipment, spares, training, publications, engineering technical assistance, program management technical assistance, logistics support services, and other related elements of program support.

"This proposed sale supports the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States," read the statement. "Qatar is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Persian Gulf region. Our mutual defense interests anchor our relationship and the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) plays a predominant role in Qatar's defense."

According to the U.S. statement, Qatar intends to use these defense articles and services to modernize its armed forces by providing additional capability to its new AH-64E aircraft fleet.
RABAT, April 10 (Xinhua) --The Moroccan King Mohammed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation of the Middle East in Paris on Tuesday, according to a statement from the king's office.

The statement said that during their talks at the Elysee Palace, the king and the French president discussed at length the situation in the Middle East as well as regional and international issues of common concern.

The two parties exchanged views on the latest developments in the region, the source noted.

The two leaders commended the excellent bilateral relations between Morocco and France, voicing their shared will to strengthen bilateral ties in all areas, mainly in the political, security, economic and cultural fields, it said.

"This rich, deep, dynamic and exceptional partnership mirrors the solid foundation of a strategic relation, based on trust, mutual respect and fruitful cooperation to serve the interests of the two countries," it added.

The king reiterated to the president of the French Republic the invitation to pay a state visit to Morocco, the statement said.
SKOPJE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said he was confident negotiations over the name issue between Macedonia and Greece were going in the right direction, according to local media on Tuesday.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and Greek Prime Minister Nikos Kotzias will meet on April 12 in Ohrid, west of Macedonia, to discuss name dispute.

"Progress in the talks has reached the prime ministers' level. I believe it is good for Macedonia for this to happen as soon as possible because this for us means getting a date for beginning European Union (EU) membership negotiations, but also an invitation for NATO membership," emphasized Zaev.

Zaev stressed red lines in the negotiations are the preservation of dignity and identity, which means a dignified solution for both sides.

"I believe that the ongoing commitment of the process, the steps that have been shown, enable movement. And we're moving. At the end of April, or perhaps in early May, it is possible to have a prime ministerial meeting. This of course depends on both sides," he added.

In an interview for the German newspaper "Der Spiegel", Kotzias has stated that differences in Skopje could be solved boldly.

"The differences with Skopje are problems of historical, identity, heritage and cultural character. These issues are sensitive. But they can be solved boldly, as we do now," said Kotzias.

On April 17, the European Commission will make public a progress report on Macedonia.

Macedonia is formally called Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the UN. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece, and Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.
KIGALI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan leader Paul Kagame on Tuesday called on country's leaders to work devotedly like one working for own private investment.

Kagame was officiating at the swearing in of Claudine Uwera, new State Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Col. Jeannot Ruhunga, Secretary General of the new Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) and Isabelle Kalihangabo, Deputy Secretary General of RIB.

"We must work as if we are working for ourselves; putting the interests of all Rwandans before anything else. When we fail in our responsibilities, the repercussions affect our citizens," he said at Rwandan Parliament in the capital Kigali.

"We don't talk about building our nation merely because it's a good thing. It should be part of our identity. This fight we have been involved in for the last 24 years must be sustained, otherwise who else will fight for us," he added.

He described Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony as historic, coinciding with 24th commemoration of the genocide against Tutsi which started on April 7.

This, he said, reminds us of the huge responsibility we have of building our country.

Kagame commended central and local government leaders, urging continuous efforts toward what is in their ability to develop the east African country.

Rwanda Investigation Bureau incorporates the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), formerly under Rwanda National Police, according to the ministry of justice.

Ruhunga said the bureau will put focus on fighting corruption and terrorism crimes among others.

The Bureau is specifically in charge of crime intelligence which looks at crime trends, criminal investigations, judicial police which is normally in charge of pre-trial judicial investigations, Rwanda's Justice minister, Johnston Busingye had explained at a previous press briefing.

Under the law establishing RIB, the institution will carry out investigations on criminal cases under the supervision of Rwanda's National Public Prosecution.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 03:03:10|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army on Tuesday issued the initial inquiry into a video of a sniper shooting a Palestinian.

The video was filmed on Friday afternoon, during violent riots in the area of Kissufim, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement released on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours.

During the riot, verbal warnings and firing warning gunshots were used to disperse the crowd, said the Israeli military.

After none of these were successful, a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence. He was hit in the leg and injured, said the IDF.

The video was filmed by a soldier who was not part of the unit of the soldiers who fired the shot, added the IDF.

After completing the full operational inquiry by the relevant commanders, its findings will be submitted, as is customary, to the Military Advocate General's Office, said the Israeli army.

The soldier who filmed the video will be dealt with by his commanders for unauthorized filming of an operational event, added the IDF.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 25, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump spoke over the phone on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Syria, as the possibility of U.S. military actions against Syria was looming large.

Both leaders condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his "disregard for human life," said the White House in a statement.

Trump and May also agreed "not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue," according to the statement.

Trump has been mulling response to the alleged "chemical attack" that occurred in Syria on Saturday.

On Monday evening, Trump said that the United States is "going to make a decision tonight or shortly thereafter" on the Syria incident.

"We're making decisions as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus. And it will be met. And it will be met forcefully," he said.

Activists, local rescuers and rebels in Syria claimed that the Syrian government forces used chlorine gas on Saturday in an attack in Douma, a rebel-held area near the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, saying the rebels' claims were "premeditated pretexts," according to the country's state-run news agency SANA.
LUSAKA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming on Tuesday bade farewell to Zambia's government officials, foreign Ambassadors to Zambia, and the Chinese community in Zambia.

The Chinese envoy, who leaves the southern African nation after over three years of service, said the joint efforts of the two countries during the period have resulted in bilateral relations progressing significantly and borne new fruits consistently in various sectors.

"China and Zambia are both in a great and fast changing time. The world is changing. China and Zambia are changing. What does not change is our desire for national development and the commitment to realize a better life for our two peoples," he said during a farewell ceremony at the embassy.

According to him, the relationship between the two countries has constantly developed on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, witnessed by high-level visits of government officials.

He added that economic and trade cooperation has increasingly become the highlight of the China-Zambia relations in the new era, resulting in the two countries having formed a wide-ranging, multi-level, and in-depth developing cooperation landscape in areas such as infrastructure, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and medical industry.

China-Zambia cooperation has provided strong support to Zambia's industrialization and economic diversification, and created a large number of jobs for the benefit of the local people, he added.

He further said China-aided projects have soared over the years and were visible in many sectors, with the bilateral trade volume soaring to a record 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.

Vincent Mwale, Zambia's Minister of Local Government, praised the outgoing envoy over his tireless efforts to promote the relation between the two countries and that the Zambia-China relations have benefited tremendously from his commitment.

The Zambian minister said the two countries have now embarked on a second generation of infrastructure projects following the holding of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in South Africa in 2015.

According to him, the two countries have been working on new projects after FOCAC such as the extension of a the Levy Mwanawasa Hospital in Lusaka, the construction of a modern international airport as well as various road projects, a continuation of the spirit of first generation of projects such the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) rail line.

He further said the two countries established a twinning program to facilitate the exchange of ideas among provinces of the two countries, a situation which will go a long way in assisting Zambia's industrialization program.

Zambia, he said, will be forever grateful to China for the invaluable service and selfless contribution it has rendered which have contributed toward enhancing people's livelihood.
UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday vetoed a U.S.-drafted UN Security Council resolution on an investigation mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

Twelve of the 15 members of the Security Council voted for the U.S. text, while Russia and Bolivia voted against it. The draft failed to be adopted as Russia has veto power. China abstained.
In this File photo taken on Aug. 31, 2017, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert speaks during the White House Daily Briefing in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/AFP)

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser, resigned on Tuesday, as John Bolton, Trump's new national security adviser, is reshaping the national security team.

"The president is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Bossert, 43, led the administration's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen cyber defenses, and respond to a series of natural disasters that have occurred across the country over the past year or so.

Sanders said that Trump "thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well," but she did not give a reason for Bossert's departure.

Bossert, who previously served in George W. Bush administration, was tapped to be assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism in December, 2016.

He was a Trump favorite for his articulate TV style when defending the administration's agenda and made a name for himself as the public face of the administration's response to hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last year.

Last weekend, Bossert also represented the administration on television to talks about the U.S. response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Bossert's resignation came a day after John Bolton took over as Trump's new national security adviser and two days after Michael Anton announced his departure as spokesman for the National Security Council.

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) receives a briefing from senior military leadership accompanied by his new National Security Adviser John Bolton (R) at the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on April 9, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

Bolton, a former hawkish diplomat, is expected to add more momentum to the increasingly assertive U.S. foreign policy.

A source close to Bossert told NBC News that the adviser was unware of any intention at the White House to seek his resignation, and that he had no plans for the move.

"New team," the source said, without further explanation.

According to The New York Times, a White House official said that Rob Joyce, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council, would take Bossert's place on an acting basis.

Bossert's resignation also marks the latest high-level departure from the White House.

Other Trump administration officials who have either resigned or been fired in the past few months include Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Communications Director Hope Hicks, among others.
LJUBLJANA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Following Prime Minister Miro Cerar's resignation on March 14, Slovenian parliament members have hours until Tuesday midnight to list a candidate for a new prime minister, which however, local media said, seems unlikely.

Independent parliament member Janko Veber, who has offered to take up the position, stated on Tuesday afternoon that he had managed to collect only five signatures of support from other members while he would have needed at least ten for his bid to succeed.

This means that an early election is the most likely scenario, which will however not be held much earlier than a regular general election, according the Slovenian Press Agency STA.

If no candidate is put forward Tuesday midnight, the National Assembly will meet on Wednesday to take note of this development, triggering a 48-hour window during which it could mount the last attempt to find a prime minister-designate.

If there is still no candidate, the National Assembly will meet again on Friday to get acquainted with the fact, after which Slovenian President Borut Pahor will dissolve parliament on Saturday and call an early election.

According to Pahor, who calls general elections, there are two possible days for an early election: May 27 and June 3.

Pahor will decide which date to choose after consulting deputy group leaders to see which bills parliament members would like to have passed before parliament is dissolved.

Cerar resigned late on March 14, hours after a Supreme Court ruling to annul the result of a September referendum that approved the government's biggest investment program, a railway project worth one billion euros (1.23 billion U.S. dollars.)

The blocked 24-km Second Track Divaca-Koper railway project is intended to connect the coastal cities of Koper and Divaca, and extend to Ljubljana as well. Media reports said Cerar has considered the project vital for Slovenia's development.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 04:13:29|Editor: ZD

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Photo taken on April 10, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a U.S.-draft resolution on probe of chemical weapons use in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York. Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution on probe of chemical weapons use in Syria on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution on an investigation mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

Twelve of the 15 members of the UN Security Council voted in favor of the U.S. text, while Russia and Bolivia voted against it. The draft failed to be adopted as Russia has veto power. China abstained.

Before the vote, Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of pushing for a vote as a pretext for possible use of force against Syria.

He asked Washington to "come to senses" and warned that it will have to bear responsibility if it attacks Syria.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said before the vote that her delegation had tried hard to incorporate Russian proposals in the draft that would not compromise the impartiality of investigation.

Russia has also tabled a draft resolution for vote on Tuesday.

Haley said the main difference between the U.S.-drafted text and the Russian one is that Russia wanted to choose the investigators and assess the outcome while the U.S. text allows for an independent investigation.

Nebenzia said the U.S. draft prejudges the outcome of an investigation.
LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese exhibitors in the London Book Fair (LBF) has been in the top 10 during the recent three years, according to the figures revealed at the international book fair which kicked off here Tuesday.

This year, the annual fair takes place from Tuesday to Thursday at Olympia London. As the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels, the book fair is expected to draw over 25,000 visitors and over 1,500 exhibiting companies from some 120 countries.

Jacks Thomas, director of LBF, said at the opening ceremony that there are 41 percent international attendees while 59 percent are from Britain.

China, the United States, Germany, Estonia, Poland are among the top ten countries represented.

"The number of Chinese exhibitors is always in the top 10 and has been that in the past three years. We are absolutely delighted with that," Thomas told Xinhua.

She said she enjoys going to China and meeting Chinese exhibitors and publishers. She hoped that the LBF, "being the gateway in the English language world, is useful to Chinese exhibitors".

"I very much hope Chinese exhibitors are selling as well as buying," she added.

LBF, taking place every spring in London, is regarded a unique opportunity to explore, understand and capitalise on the innovations shaping the publishing world of the future. This year it is celebrating the Baltic countries, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as the market focus.
HELSINKI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A research manager of the Helsinki-based conflict research institute (CMI) has appealed to Finnish media not to spread certain images of the Moroccan man accused of killing two and injuring eight in Turku, western Finland last August.

At the beginning of his trial in Turku on Monday, photographers were able to take pictures of Abderrahman Bouanane. Contrary to the common practice, Bouanane did not hide his face but looked directly to cameras and gave a calm impression. Some commentators said they saw a slight smile.

Finnish law allows a defendant to cover his or her face when media photographers are taking photos.

Hussein al-Taee, a program manager of CMI, said in social media on Monday that Finnish newsmedia should publish "no more smiling pictures" of Bouanane. "The media should not offer Bouanane the possibility of spreading his propaganda".

Al-Taee claimed that Bouanane is "still at war against us". The CMI manager said that the media should not tell a story defined by Bouanane himself.

He said the accused wanted to carry out a major terrorist attack in Finland and to court the ISIS. "He must not be allowed to send his message to other fanatics or spread discord among Finns," he added.

Besides using the photo-opportunity in the court room, Finnish media also reported in detail Bouananes' statements in the court. The accused was not scheduled to talk, but he intervened on his own and spoke.

There was no general television coverage of the hearing that took place in Turku prison on Monday, but photographers were allowed in at the start for several minutes.

The hearings are to continue until mid-May.
BANJUL, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The survivors of the April 2000 student massacre in The Gambia by the police say they have yet to be healed as justice has not been served for the tragic event that left them disabled and 14 others killed.

It is exactly 18 years today when the Gambia Student Union (GAMSU), furious over government's delay in investigation and action, resorted to staging a nationwide demonstration to demand justice for two of their colleagues -- a female student who had reportedly been raped while a boy beaten by the Gambian fire fighters, leading to his death.

The students burnt tyres on the main highways of the country. The Gambian police officers responded by firing live bullets at students, killing fourteen in different part of the country, leaving several young men and women permanently disabled.

"I was shot on the left knee. The bullet entered and went out my knee cap. I was admitted at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) in Banjul for four months," Abdoukarim Jammeh, a 39-year-old told Xinhua.

He added that he was still feeling the pain every day, "especially when I sit for a long time I use to feel the pain. I am limping and I am using a walking stick to support myself."

Jammeh said the government of former president, Yahya Jammeh, ignored them in terms of treatment and accessing justice.

"Fourteen victims are in their graves, leaving their parents, family members, school mates, teachers and friends with bitter memories in their minds and sores in their hearts which need healing," Jammeh said.

He added that countless number of victims who were subjected to torture are still unknown while dozens more like him are on wheelchairs, crutches and other mobility aids because of injuries sustained from the bullets.

He said they will use this year's anniversary to remind the new authorities that they are still suffering in silence.

"We are waiting to be healed," he said.

He expressed disappointment in the slow move of the new government in fulfilling their promises to the victims.

However, he said, they have an offer from Turkish embassy in Banjul for overseas treatment and their medical papers are at the Ministry of Health in order to update them.

Another victim, Yusupha Mbye, now wheel-chaired due to shooting, recalled that the incident met him when he was attending classes at Pipeline Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Kanifing.

"We were at the school and they (police officers) came and took us out by force. On my way home, when I reached the Post Office trying to cross to the other end of the road the bullet shot me on my back, just near my backbone," he recalled.

"I was then hospitalized at RVTH for a month. They (the former government) evacuated me to Egypt for overseas treatment. I spent three months in Egypt," he said.

Mbye said the final month for his treatment was not paid by the doctor who was treating him before he was evacuated to The Gambia.

"Eventually, I could not walk again and all my medical treatment certificates were seized. I didn't complete my school. I stopped at grade ten. I am not doing anything because I cannot do anything for myself," he said.

Jarra Sumareh, 37, said she was tortured and inhumanely treated by the armed police officers after she was caught on her way to school.

"I was beaten, thrown at the back of the pickup truck and taken to the Kanifing Mobile Police Station. I was later released and I went home," she said.

"For me I was shocked, then I forgot my pain because they shot my younger brother. I got a call in the evening that my brother was shot and admitted at the hospital in Banjul," she added.

She decided to ignore her pains because she pitied her mother whose two children were victimized.

"I was beaten while the other one was shot to almost death. So it is too much for my mother so I ended up hiding my own pain," She said. "They didn't realize until I fell sick later on."

She added that her younger brother, who is still in treatment in America, went through a major operation resulting in the removal of one of his kidneys, the liver and the bladder.

Like others, Sumareh said she hasn't heard much from the new government regarding their status.

"All what I heard is that they formed the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission. That is the only thing I heard and that is the only thing we are hoping on. If they will work out positively for us I don't know because it has been a long time," she said.

The conclusion of the Commission of Inquiry that was set up at the time was only recently released after over 17 years. It confirms that it was the security forces that shot the students.

The coroner's inquest further confirmed that the cause of their deaths were gunshots. At last year's commemoration, victims presented 11-point demands to the Gambian government regarding their plight, including in-depth investigations as to who ordered the security forces to fire bullets.

The current minister of Justice Aboubacarr Tambadou was among the lawyers representing the students in the year 2000 at the Commission of Inquiry.

"The main question we kept on asking was who ordered the firing of the bullets. We never got an answer to this question," Tambadou told victims at last year's commemoration.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 05:38:46|Editor: yan

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QUITO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has asked to meet his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, to address a series of violent attacks against Ecuadorian nationals along their border.

A statement by the Ecuadorian foreign ministry said that Moreno "hopes this meeting can be held during the Summit of the Americas, which will be held this week in Lima."

On March 26, a team of journalists from the El Comercio daily was captured by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa met with the families of the captured journalists on Tuesday, as well as their colleagues. The minister received a petition signed by 500 people, demanding the government secure the prompt release of the kidnapped.

The statement said that Espinosa "expressed her consternation, commitment and solidarity, while showing her openness to the proposals of the families."

She reiterated that securing the freedom of the three El Comercio employees is a "priority" for the government.

Espinosa said she was in constant contact with her Colombian counterpart, Maria Angela Holguin, "to provide constant follow-up in this kidnapping case.

Moreno has also said he was making every effort to secure the release of the journalists.

On Monday, Interior Minister Cesar Navas said there was no ongoing negotiations with the illegal armed group. "We cannot say that we are in any negotiation process," he explained, adding that Moreno wanted to "exhaust every avenue for the three to return home safe and sound."

Other attacks by armed gangs along the border in recent months have left four Ecuadorian soldiers dead and at least 40 injured. This has led Moreno to reinforce the border with over 12,000 soldiers.

Quito has blamed these attacks on organized crime linked to drug trafficking and former FARC members operating out of northern Colombia after rejecting the guerrilla group's peace agreement with Bogota.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia (C, front) is seen prior to a Security Council meeting on the chemical weapons use in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, on April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A Russian-drafted resolution on an investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria failed to be adopted by the Security Council on Tuesday.

Of the 15 members of the Security Council, only six voted in favor of the Russian text, while seven voted against it, and two others abstained.

Adoption needs nine positive votes, including "yes" votes from all the five permanent members of the council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R, Front) and British Ambassador to the UN Karen Pierce (L, Front) vote in favor of a U.S.-drafted resolution on probe of chemical weapons use in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, on April 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Before the vote on the Russian draft, Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted text for the same purpose.

The main difference between the two competing texts is that the Russian draft gives the Security Council the power to attribute accountability for chemical weapons use in Syria while the U.S. draft gives investigators this power, as the case with the now-defunct Joint Investigative Mechanism between the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations.

The Joint Investigative Mechanism had found that both the Syrian government and the Islamic State terrorist group used chemical weapons in Syria.

In this file photo taken on April 7, 2017, Syrian residents of Khan Sheikhun hold placards and pictures during a protest condemning a suspected chemical weapons attack on their town that killed at least 86 people, among them 30 children. (Xinhua/AFP)

The mechanism ceased in November 2017 after Russia blocked the renewal of its mandate.

Before the vote on the U.S. text, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the Russian text wants to choose the investigators and assess the outcome while the U.S. text allows for truly independent investigation.

Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said the U.S. draft prejudges the outcome of an investigation.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 05:48:47|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Tuesday postponed a vote on a Russian-drafted resolution on a probe into allegations of a chemical attack in Douma, Syria.

Right before the Russian text was going to put to vote, Swedish ambassador to the United Nations Olof Skoog requested a suspension of the Security Council meeting for further consultations.

"We want swift and resolute action today. We want this council to shoulder its responsibility," said Skoog. "But I'm not sure if we have exhausted all venues to get there. And I'm not sure that voting now on the draft will get us there, either."

"We are at a very fragile phase of council deliberations now and we need to reflect carefully on the way forward to ensure that we don't jump into further paralysis (that is) difficult to defense or repair."

He asked the council president to suspend the meeting so that the ambassadors can "reflect carefully and collectively on the next step." And the council meeting was suspended.

The Russian text was amended on the basis of Swedish draft elements circulated on Monday in order to find common ground in the Security Council for an outcome in support of an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into the alleged chemical attack in Douma on Saturday.

Russia substantially amended those elements and presented them as a Russian draft on Tuesday. Russia requested the draft to be voted on alongside two competing draft resolutions on an investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria.

The two resolutions, drafted by the United States and Russia respectively, both failed to be adopted on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 05:48:48|Editor: yan

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ANKARA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Three senior suspected members of Gulen Movement were brought back to Turkey from the central African country of Gabon, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Tuesday.

Three suspects had been captured in an operation carried out by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and brought to Ankara from Libreville in a private jet, the report said.

The suspects, Osman Ozpinar, Ibrahim Akbas and Adnan Demironal, were directors of the schools run by Gulen Movement and they were also users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the Turkish government says is used by the supporters of Fetullah Gulen.

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has nabbed nearly 80 citizens in covert operations in 18 countries over accusations being linked to the coup attempt in 2016, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on April 5.

Ankara believes Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Islamic cleric, masterminded a failed coup attempt in 2016 and leads a terror group called the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO).

Gulen has denied any involvement in the July 2016 coup attempt.

President Erdogan on Monday urged Kyrgyzstan to take action against the Gulen Movement during a visit by the country's new President Sooronbai Jeenbekov to Ankara.

"No matter where they run or how much they run, we will go after them," he said.

Gulen movement, had built a network of schools abroad -- notably in Africa, the Balkans and Turkic Central Asian states. Turkish authorities put pressure to countries hosting Gulenist schools to close them and extradite its nationals linked to the group.

Turkish government has arrested about nearly 50,000 people and fired or suspended 150,000 others from public posts in the coup's aftermath.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. leading aerospace manufacturer Boeing Company (Boeing) announced Tuesday it had completed a deal on selling 50 of its new 737 MAX 10 airplanes to an Indonesian low-cost airline.

Boeing said the latest deal with the Indonesian Lion Air Group, the country's largest privately run airline and the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia, is the largest incremental order to date of the MAX 10 variant worth about 6.24 billion U.S. dollars.

"This airplane delivers a new level of fuel efficiency and operating economics and fits with our fleet of modern airplanes," said Lion Air President Director Edward Sirait.

The 737 MAX 10, which is the largest variant in the family with a length of 43.8 meters, can transport a maximum of 230 passengers and offer airlines the lowest seat-mile cost ever in a single-aisle aircraft.

The 737 MAX model is the largest narrow-body airplane produced by Boeing that offers about 130 to 230 seats, with the ability to fly up to 7,130 kilometers.

Lion Air Group, also the second largest airline of Indonesia, was the first in the world to put the 737 MAX 8 into service and the first to order the 737 MAX 9. It became the first to receive the delivery of a 737 MAX 9 last month.

Boeing said the 737 MAX is the fastest-selling airplane in history, accumulating more than 4,400 orders from 96 customers worldwide.

The Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer said in its first-quarter report Tuesday that it sold 132 Boeing 737 passenger jets in the first three months of 2018, a year-on-year increase of 16.8 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 06:08:51|Editor: Liangyu

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A worker is seen in the site of the construction of four solar power stations in Aswan, Egypt on April 10, 2018. Egypt and China's clean energy company TBEA Sunoasis started Tuesday the construction of four solar power stations at the Benban Solar Energy Park in Egypt's southern province of Aswan. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)

ASWAN, Egypt, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt and China's clean energy company TBEA Sunoasis started Tuesday the construction of four solar power stations at the Benban Solar Energy Park in Egypt's southern province of Aswan.

The stations, with an output of 186 megawatts, are part of the giant Benban Solar Plant which is expected to be completed by mid-2019.

The Benban Solar Plant, after its completion, aims to generate up to 2 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity through a total of 40 projects.

Lynn Xia, TBEA's vice president of overseas business, told Xinhua that the plant is going to be one of the largest in the world.

"The responsibility is on our shoulders because we are the ones who deliver the work here," Xia said, adding that the project is TBEA's first in Africa.

TBEA Sunoasis Company is a major global green and smart energy service provider with business in more than 20 countries. It is devoted to achieving sustainable development of human society with the use of smart, efficient and green energy.

Governor of Aswan Magdy Hegazy, who attended the project's inauguration ceremony, said the total investment of the four stations is 180 million U.S. dollars.

The Benban Solar Park, about 650 km south of Cairo, is financed by a number of global funding agencies and banks, including the the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The solar plant, which occupies an area of 37 square km, will help Egypt increase its use of renewable energy to 22 percent of all domestic energy use by 2020.

The project is estimated to help reduce global greenhouse gas emission through cutting more than half million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 06:23:53|Editor: Lifang

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Photo taken on April 10, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a U.S.-draft resolution on probe of chemical weapons use in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York. Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution on probe of chemical weapons use in Syria on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

DAMASCUS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-Russia tension runs high over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, while the U.S. seems banging the drums of war in Syria using the same old pretext of chemical weapons.

Intense political clashes were witnessed in the UN Security Council on Tuesday between Russia and the U.S. over the recent allegations of chemical weapons used by the Syrian government forces in the battles against the rebels in Douma district of Damascus.

Activists claimed the Syrian army used chlorine gas in the attack, a claim completely denied by the Syrian government, which accused the rebels of making up pretexts to attract foreign military intervention.

U.S. officials have also spoken of military action against Syria, but the eyes were fixed on Tuesday evening on the session of the UN Security Council, where both major powers fought diplomatically.

The clash between both powers was reflected in the two draft resolutions on the form of investigating the alleged incident.

Both powers vetoed each other's draft resolutions, with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley saying that the main difference between the U.S.-drafted text and the Russian one is that Russia wanted to choose the investigators and assess the outcome while the U.S. text allows for an independent investigation.

Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said the U.S. draft prejudges the outcome of an investigation, as the U.S. has already made its accusation without investigation.

The U.S. has for long been accusing the Syrian government forces of using toxic gas in an attack on Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, basing its accusations on claims by the rebels.

But last Saturday's alleged incident seemed like the pretext under which the U.S. could justify striking Syria after the Syrian army emerged victorious and after it found the Russians and the Iranians in a stronger position in Syria than itself.

Analysts in Syria said the U.S. threats of military action on Syria is "serious" and exceeds 90 percent.

Hmaidi Abdullah, a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua the U.S. threats of military action on Syria were "serious," saying they reflect the U.S. desire to undermine the Russian-Iranian-Syrian alliance, which is gaining the upper hand in Syria.

He said the U.S. is under pressure from Israel and Saudi Arabia to act against the growing influence of Iran in Syria.

Abdullah said the U.S. has the desire to strike Syria but the decision has not yet been made.

Mahmoud Meri, another political analyst, said the U.S. and its Western allies are preparing to launch strikes on Syria, which could fuel a regional or even international war because Syrian and its allies promised to respond to the fire sources.

Maher Ihsan, a journalist, and political expert told Xinhua that the U.S. is not okay with the Syrian and Russian sides winning in Syria, adding that the recent victory of the Syrian army in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus has raised the ire of the U.S. administration.

"The U.S. wants to say I am here and I call the shots," he said.

The analysts speculated that the possible U.S. strikes could be limited, such as in the last year when the U.S. fired Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian base in central Syria over similar allegations of chemical weapons' use.

Earlier in the day, Russia's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said his country has warned the U.S. against striking Syria.

Speaking to Euronews, Chizhov said "Russia has warned U.S. representatives, publicly as well as through proper channels, over the grave consequences that could arise if these strikes happen and whether deliberately or otherwise Russian citizens are hurt."

On Monday, Trump promised a decision on a possible military response within 24 to 48 hours.

Related:

Security Council fails to adopt Russian-drafted resolution on OPCW probe of Syria chemical attack
ABUJA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's military on Tuesday confirmed its troops nabbed a terror suspect who specialized in the making of improvised explosive devices for terrorist organization Boko Haram.

The suspect, identified as Adamu Hassan, was arrested in the northeastern state of Gombe following a joint operation of troops and the secret police late Monday, Onyema Nwachukwu, a military spokesman, said.

According to Onyema, troops had also intercepted some Boko Haram fighters who raided a community in search of food on the same day.

The bomb maker and others arrested had already made confessions to the security agents, he added.

Boko Haram is a Jihadist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria. The United Nations believes the terror group has killed more than 20,000 people since 2009.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-11 06:38:58|Editor: ZD

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Photo taken on April 10, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a Russian-drafted resolution on inquiry into chemical weapons use in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Security Council failed to adopt a Russian-drafted resolution on inquiry into chemical weapons use in Syria on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday failed to adopt a Russian-drafted resolution on an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria.

The vote came after two competing drafts on a broader investigative mechanism for chemical weapons use in Syria failed to pass the Security Council.

The third resolution related to the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria received only five votes in favor, failing to pass the threshold of nine. Four council members voted against it and six others abstained.

Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia expressed disappointment at the outcome, arguing that the Russian text was a "repetition" of a Swedish document that was circulated on Monday among council members.

Nebenzia blamed some council members for voting against the text, as he said, simply because it was a Russian draft.

Right before the vote on the Russian text, Swedish ambassador to the United Nations Olof Skoog requested a suspension of the Security Council meeting for extra consultations. The result of the vote shows that the closed-door consultations did not bring about consensus.
MONROVIA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Liberian health authorities on Tuesday issued an alert on the possible outbreak of monkeypox, an infectious disease which is found mostly in central and western Africa.

Liberia's chief medical officer Francis Kateh said the disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, has already been discovered in the southern county of River Cess.

Kateh said there are currently four confirmed cases of the disease. A couple of suspected cases have also been sent for testing.

According to the health official, the time from exposure to the onset of symptoms of monkeypox is around 10 days, while the duration of symptoms is typically from two to five weeks.

He said the virus may be spread from handling bushmeat, an animal bite or scratch, body fluids, contaminated objects or close contact with an infected person.

The monkeypox was first identified in 1958, amongst laboratory monkeys. The first human cases were discovered in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fever, itchy toes, headache, muscle pain, and swollen lymph nodes, among others, have been identified as the symptoms of the disease.

The disease is not deadly and can be cured through the smallpox vaccine.

Last year, west African country Nigeria recorded 172 suspected and 61 confirmed cases of the monkeypox disease between September and December.
Leaders of ethnic Hungarian parties and organisations have welcomed Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz partys victory in Sundays general election.

Hunor Kelemen, head of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), said Hungarians had voted to continue work started by Fidesz.



Over the next four years, Hungary will be ruled by a government that prizes the importance of the Transylvanian Hungarian community, he said.



Laszlo Tokes, head of the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania (EMNT), (pictured above) described the outcome of the election as the triumph of love over hate.



He said the election had been won by the party that had committed itself to the issue of the Hungarian nations fight of self-defence and lost by those who had worked to divide the nation.



Balazs Izsak, head of the Szekler National Council (SZNT), called Fidesz and Orbans victory the victory of Szeklers.



We all desire for Hungary to be an independent and sovereign state, for laws to be passed in Hungarys national interests and for the country to be able to protect its own borders, Izsak wrote in an open letter to Orban.



Jozsef Menyhart, head of the Party of the Hungarian Community (MKP) in Slovakia, congratulated Orban in a Facebook post, saying that Fideszs victory was also good news for ethnic Hungarian communities.



It is unparalleled in modern Hungarian history for someone to win a mandate after eight years in power and to do it by winning a lot more votes than before, Menyhart wrote.



Jeno Hajnal, head of the Hungarian National Council of Vojvodina, called the election result a miracle. He attributed the ruling alliances re-election to its focus on national interests that are capable of mobilising not only Hungarians in the motherland, but also those living beyond the border and worldwide.



Istvan Pasztor, head of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), said ethnic Hungarian communities had hoped for a Fidesz-Christian Democrat absolute majority, so that we could continue the nation-building that we have carried out over the past eight years.



With a two-thirds majority, it can be carried out even more intensively, more freely and more clearly, he added.



MTI photo: Koszticsak Szilard
Parties of the Hungarian opposition had no national programme for the parliamentary election, Zoltan Lomnici Jr, a constitutional lawyer, told public television M1 commenting on the election results.

Coordination within the opposition, the policy of agreements made at petrol stations as suggested by websites, the shady deals made in the background have failed, Lomnici said. On the other hand, he added, the ruling parties have advocated reality-driven policies.



Fidesz could have campaigned with its economic, social policy or welfare achievements, but they chose to take on a tougher subject: the issue of security for the people.



The opposition was unable to communicate with rural voters. Hungarians in the countryside, however have saved a fragmented Budapest and saved the country from becoming a migrant destination, he added.



Lomnici also said that high turnout at the polls indicated that people have confidence in the electoral system.



Political scientist Bela Gallo told M1 that voters had been deterred from the opposition parties by their incompetence.



He said that the leftist parties defeat was rooted in a deep structural antagonism rather than in tactical errors.



High turnout may have suggested that the opposition succeeded in mobilising voters, but the results indicate that the ruling parties would have won anyway, even if the whole of the opposition had cooperated, Gallo insisted.



Gallo also pointed out that while the opposition parties have a voter base in cities only, the ruling parties were mostly supported by people living in rural areas.


SCOTI TANULA, kneeling and Emily Strand get a little help from Carlos, one of the children who will occupy the home being constructed by the GCC Service Learning Team.

By IAN MINIELLY

[email protected]

IRONWOOD - Students and former students from Gogebic Community College and Luther L. Wright High School joined eight members of the community to take a service learning trip March 10-18 to Guatemala.

It was in conjunction with Pure Vida Ministries, which works to promote health and education in the Quiche department of Guatemala, according to its website, purevida.org.

The trip cost $2,000 per person and over $7,500 in grants and scholarships were provided to GCC students who applied for funding.

During the service trip, students worked on the c...
Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...
WASHINGTON: In the wake of alleged misuse of user data on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg - founder of the social media giant - on Tuesday appeared before the US Congress. Zuckerberg testified before a joint hearing of the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. On April 11, the Facebook CEO is scheduled to testify at the US House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In the hearing, Zuckerberg apologised and said, "We didn't do enough to keep fake news and foreign interference in elections away. We didnt take a broad view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake and Im sorry for what happened. I started Facebook and I run it. I take full responsibility as the CEO of Facebook."

"We are getting to the bottom of what Cambridge Analytica did and telling everyone affected. We now know that they improperly accessed some information of millions of users by buying it from an app developer, information like names, profile picture and pages they follow," Zuckerberg added.

Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks after it was revealed that the personal data of millions of users of the website fell into the hands of a political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica that worked for US President Donald Trump's campaign.

The firm's former employee Christopher Wylie accused Cambridge Analytica of gathering the details of Facebook through a personality quiz in 2014. He alleged that because 270,000 people took the quiz, the data of some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks.

On April 5, the social media giant, however, revealed that the data of as many as 87 million users was improperly shared with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, far greater than the 50 million previously estimated.

Wylie further claimed the data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, which then used it to psychologically profile people and deliver material in favour of Trump during the 2016 US presidential elections. He also criticised the firm for running campaigns in "struggling democracies", which he called "an example of what modern-day colonialism looks like," as per PTI.

Denying all allegations, Cambridge Analytica has, however, maintained that none of the data acquired was used as part of the services it provided to the Trump campaign.

Amid data breach backlash, Facebook recently said that it will overhaul its privacy settings tools to put users "more in control" of their information. The updates will include improved access to Facebook's user settings and tools to easily search for, download and delete personal data stored by them.

A new privacy shortcuts menu will allow users to quickly increase account security, manage who can see their information and activity on the site and control advertisements they see, they had also said. "We've heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed," chief privacy officer Erin Egan and deputy general counsel Ashlie Beringer had said in a post.

(With inputs from agencies)
Assam Police have launched an investigation into a local youth who has reportedly joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist outfit in Jammu and Kashmir. A picture of Qamer Uz Zaman, of Assam's Hojai district, has gone viral and claims his code name is 'Dr Hurairah'. Zaman's family have dramatically declared that he is a 'traitor' and they wouldn't mind if government has him killed.

Speculation that Zaman had joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen was sparked by the picture which showed him holding what seems to be an AK-47 assault rifle. The image identified him as an MA English graduate from Assam.

Authorities have said the probe will not only be confined to the Kashmir angle, but also to see if youth are being trained by such Pakistan-backed terrorist outfits and sent back to their own home regions to foment terrorism.

Zaman's mother Shahira Khatun has told reporters that if he had indeed joined the terrorist outfit, he has become an enemy of the country and should be killed. "We have not been able to contact him since July 2017. If my son is associated with such an organisation, the government can shoot him, I do not need such a son," Khatun was quoted as having said. "I will not even accept his dead body. We are with the nation," she added. His brother Mufidul too has reportedly branded him a 'traitor'.

Zaman's family had last spoken to him in July 2017, and has been trying to find him ever since. They had filed a missing person report on him. Zaman had returned to India in 2006, after spending a few years in the US. He had then moved to Kashmir, and had told his family that he was running a garment business there. He had last gone home to Assam in July 2017, to drop off his wife and three-year-old son. He hasn't been heard from since.

Assam Police say they are sharing the details of their investigation with the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
New Delhi: Countrys second largest passenger car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) has once again launched HyBuy, a programme to engage customers and offer major discounts and freebies.

Hyundai has launched the 3rd phase of the innovative digital marketing campaign HyBUY for Hyundai XCENT. This month-long campaign from April 10th to May 10th , 2018 will engage Hyundai customers through a unique social media buying experience and in the process offering benefits over and above the prevailing market offer, a company statement said.

HyBUY initiative requires a customer to sign in on the website www.HyBUY.in . The customer can avail benefits by depositing a token amount and gain rewards on sharing this deal with his/her friends and family to participate in this program.

The campaign will be for limited 250 cars only, set with a pre-defined duration in real time and benefits are over and above the current Market Offer. Only booking is done online, while rest of the delivery process continues at the dealership end, Hyundai said.

Our first - ever HyBUY initiative, launched in 2017 has set a benchmark in digital marketing and redefined customer engagement by benefitting them through their social media network. We received an overwhelming response from customers with over 19 Lakh HyBUY site visits with 6.25 Lakh people reached out through HyBUY shares on Facebook, Puneet Anand, Sr General Manager & Group Head, Marketing, HMIL said.
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed states to ensure that there was no opposition to the release of Nanak Shah Fakir, a film on the first Sikh guru which is set to release in India and abroad on April 13.

Directing state governments to ensure law and order, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the freedom of expression of an artiste can't be curtailed by a group of private people.

Film producer Harinder Singh Sikka approached the top court against an Akal Takht order calling for a ban on the film.

Directing the states to maintain law and order, Chief Justice Misra said: "Once the CBFC grants the certificate, there can't be any kind of impediment for the exhibition of the film. It is well settled that once CBFC grants a certificate, it is final.

"Once the certificate is granted (by CBFC), unless it is nullified by a superior authority, the producer has every right to exhibit the film in movie halls. Any obstruction has the potential to bring anarchy and cripple the right of freedom of expression", said the court.

On Monday, with a section of the Sikhs opposing "Nanak Shah Fakir" for its portrayal of the Sikh Gurus as living human beings, the Akal Takht announced a ban on its release.

"We have imposed a ban on the controversial movie... The film cannot be released (on April 13)," Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh told the media in Amritsar. The Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of Sikh religion.

He said the religious sentiments of the community had been hurt over the portrayal of the Sikh masters.

The movie was earlier to be released in 2015, but it was shelved following the controversy.

With a number of Bollywood and Punjabi movies running into trouble vis-a-vis Sikh organisations over the portrayal of community members and the Sikh Gurus, the Akal Takht also decided to constitute a Sikh Censor Board on the matter.

In future, the Jathedar said, filmmakers will be required to seek the approval of the said board before starting a movie project in which Sikh religion or Sikhs were to be portrayed or highlighted in any manner.
New Delhi: Cryptocurrency or blockchain related jobs have seen a significant increase across metro cities in India with Bengaluru leading the blockchain job creation, says a report.

According to leading global job site Indeed, Bengaluru is far and away the leading city for those seeking job opportunities in the blockchain sector, with over 36 percent of all the blockchain job postings in India. This is followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai, making up the top five destinations for blockchain careers in India.

New Delhi and surrounding regions such as Gurugram, Noida, and Mohali also see a share of job postings in the sector; however the volume does not compare to their southern counterparts, the report said.

Blockchain development is fast gaining favour for a number of applications ranging from monetary transactions to legal documentation. With the governments proactive approach towards understanding and exploring the possible applications of blockchain technology, India can look forward to positive growth and developments in the sector. The NITI Aayogs pilot project in blockchain  IndiaChain  will also help in generating job opportunities in the sector, the report said.

While we still have a lot to learn about blockchain technology, given the enormous scope of its application, interest for blockchain roles is here to stay," said Sashi Kumar, the Managing Director of Indeed India.

Kumar further said, "With the global market for blockchain related products and services is expected to reach $7.7 billion in 2022, there are sure to be even more jobs created in the sector in the future.

As revealed in a previous study by Indeed, the number of cryptocurrency and blockchain related jobs posted on the Indeed website rose by 290 percent in the latter half of 2017. There were a significant number of job openings for roles such as Blockchain Developer, Blockchain System Architect, Blockchain Software Engineer.
Motihari (Bihar): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.

The prime minister was here to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 1200 hp freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory. He also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly ? Tuesdays and Fridays -- covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.
Kulveer Diwan

On Monday afternoon, 10-year-old Ranbir Singh was on his way back home on the school bus. More than 40 children, all aged below 12, were travelling with him after finishing classes at Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School.

The bus entered a rocky, damaged patch of road near Gurchal village on the Nurpur-Chamba road. While trying to avoid hitting a bike and manage difficult turn, the driver lost control and the bus veered off the road, falling into a 200-foot gorge.

Everyone was screaming as the bus went down, recalls the Class 5 student.

The vehicle came to rest in the middle of the hillside, suffering massive damage. The window glass panes shattered, falling on the little children.

Ranbir, and another girl  Avni  were flung out of the window, as the bus rolled into the gorge.

Vani was sitting with me. Together we tried to climb up, he recalls.

With the help of tree branches and wood, the children managed a steep 50-ft hill climb. Ranbir, also guided Avni to climb up, as she kept on sliding.

Once on the main road, Ranbir alerted passersby which led to locals plunging into actions and the rescue teams reaching the spot in 30 minutes.

According to locals, this is not the first instance of an accident on that particular patch of road.

There have been few more instances of road accidents here. The authorities did nothing to improve the situation, a local villager told Zee Media.

Thirty people, including 27 children, died in the incident. School bus driver, 67-year-old Madan Lal, and two women teachers also died in the accident, Kangra SP Santosh Patial said.

A pall of gloom descended in the area as wailing parents rushed to the spot on hearing the news.

The bodies were extricated from the rubble with the assistance of local youth. School bags, stationery items and water bottles were strewn across the accident site.

Many of the accident victims are siblings and cousins.

One family of two brothers lost four children. Their mothers sat crying on the floor, numb with shock and pain.

Naresh Kumar lost both his kids  a son and daughter.

Many parents broke down in grief while identifying bodies of the deceased children.

With agency inputs
NEW DELHI: A day after the Kangra school bus accident that claimed lives of 29 people including 26 children, the Himachal Pradesh High Court issued notices to the state government and the concerned school. The court also appointed an amicus curiae and asked him to suggest ways to prevent such accidents in future.

At least 29 people died and several others were injured after a school bus fell into a 200-feet deep gorge in Nurpur of Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district.

The 29 dead include 26 children, two teachers and the driver of the school bus.

The injured children are meanwhile being treated in Nurpur's Civil Hospital. The reason for the accident is being investigated.

Shortly after the tragedy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his condolences for the loss of lives.

The Prime Minister Office (PMO) took to Twitter and had said, "I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident: PM @narendramodi"

Chief Minister Jairam Thakur ordered a high-level magistrate investigation into the accident. He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each for the family of the accident victims.

"I have been told that nine children died and several got injured in the incident. I have spoken with the Chief Secretary, DG and Deputy Commissioner. The NDRF has immediately been deployed. The rescue operation, with the help of locals, is underway. I have ordered a magisterial probe," Jai Ram Thakur had said.

According to preliminary information, the bus belongs to privately-run Wazir Ram Singh Pathania Memorial school. It was heading to drop the children to their respective residences after the school dissolved for the day.
The Home Ministry has given out-of-turn promotion to four jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on the recommendation of the paramilitary force. The jawans who have been given the promotion foiled two terror attacks, killing at least six terrorists, during their posting in Jammu and Kashmir.

While havildar AS Krishna has been made an ASI, Dinesh Raja and Prafull Kumar have been promoted to the post of havildar.

These three CRPF personnel, from the 45th battalion, had foiled an attack on a camp of the paramilitary force in Sumbel in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir on June 5, 2017.

Another jawan, Raghunath Ulhas of the 23rd battalion has been promoted to become a havildar. He had foiled the terror attack on CRPF camp in Karan Nagar area of Srinagar on February 11, 2018.

A jawan of the CRPF was killed by terrorists during the failed bid to attack the CRPF camp at Karan Nagar in Srinagar. Terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba had claimed the responsibility for the attack.

Two terrorists were spotted by an alert sentry at the observation post of 23rd battalion of the CRPF in Karan Nagar area. The two were forced to flee as the alert sentry fired at them.

Searches in the area revealed that terrorists carrying backpacks and AK-47 rifles had taken shelter in a building near the CRPF camp, which was then surrounded.

After the hiding militants were challenged, they fired at the security forces triggering a gunfight. The latest attack on the Army camp took place nearly 15 months after the Jammu region was hit by a similar attack.
New Delhi: The electoral success of Bharatiya Janata Party has been proportional to the rise in its income with the party's income seeing a rise of 81.18 per cent between 2015-16 and 2016-17. In the same period, BJP's main political adversary - Congress - has seen a fall in its income by 14 per cent.

According to report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) - an NGO working for political and electoral reforms in the country, BJP's declared an income of Rs 1,034.27 crore to the Election Commission. This is a rise of Rs 463.41 crore from the previous submission made. The party also declared expenditures accruing to Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17 while Congress incurred an expenditure of Rs 321.66 crore which is Rs 96.30 crore more than its income for the same period.

The report further finds that seven national political parties in the country have a combined income of Rs 1,559.17 crore and expenditure of Rs 1,228.26 crore. Further, these parties received a total of Rs 1,169.07 crore (74.98 per cent) income from voluntary contributions. These parties are BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress.

Donations and/or contributions, according to the report, are one of three sources of incomes declared by the political parties.

There are some key details which are relatively unknown as last month, the Lok Sabha had unanimously passed a resolution which exempted political parties from disclosing funds received from abroad since 1976. The Lok Sabha passed 21 amendments to the Finance Bill 2018, including an amendment to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 that bans overseas corporations from funding political parties.
Patna: The Central Burea of Investigations questioned Lalu Prasad Yadav's son - Tejaswhi - for four hours on Tuesday in connection with the railway hotel tender case. The RJD supremo and have been in the line of fire since news of the scam first broke.

During his tenure as the railway minister in 2006, Lalu allegedly awarded the maintenance contract for two IRCTC hotels  BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri  to a private firm Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar. While Lalu himself is in jail after being convicted in the fodder scam, son Tejashwi and wife Rabri continue to be in the line of CBI's suspicion. While Tejaswhi had already been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, he was interrogated for four hours by CBI on Tuesday. Rabri Devi too was questioned and searches were conducted at her residence.

CBI claims Lalu received a bribe in the form of three acres of the prime plot of land through a benami company Delight. His family members too are suspected to have been involved.

On July 7, 2017, the CBI had filed a FIR against Lalu. On the same day, the agency also raided 12 locations linked to Lalu and his family members in Patna, New Delhi, Ranchi, and Gurgaon.

The CBI has registered the case against Lalu Yadav, wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, and Sarla Gupta, the wife of former union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel; Delight marketing company, now known as Lara Projects and the then Managing Director P K Goel.

The land scam and corruption charges led to a rift between the grand alliance of Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] and RJD, with Tejashwi Yadav losing his position as the Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister and JDU forming a new coalition with BJP.

(With PTI inputs)
NEW DELHI: Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for his planned fast on April 12, in the wake of disruptions during the Budget Session of Parliament. "This is a farce of a fast by PM Modi and BJP," Surjewala said.

Taking a dig at the party, the Congress spokesperson said that the fast should be to seek an apology from the children whose lives have been jeopardised due to the CBSE and SSC scams.

He went on slamming the Modi government at the Centre and said that they must also apologise to the Dalits by observing the fast. "The fast should be to seek an apology from the children whose lives have been jeopardised due to the CBSE and SSC scams.They should tender an apology to the Dalits," Surjewala told ANI.

The Congress leader's statement comes shortly after PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah announced that they will observe a day-long fast on April 12, Thursday. Along with them, all the BJP MPs will also join the fast observation, they said.

On April 6, the second leg of the Budget Session, which had commenced on January 29, concluded with the Rajya Sabha losing over 121 hours. The Upper House had 30 sittings where the sittings were held for just 44 hours. There was no Question Hour in the Upper House for 27 days due to the uproar causing repeated adjournments, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had said.

Issues like special status to Andhra Pradesh, bank scams, demand for Cauvery water management board, vandalising of statues, review of the recent Supreme Court order on SC/ST Act and law and order situation in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh were some of the issues on which the House saw the uproar. The House lost nearly three- fourths of its time to disruptions and adjournments.

Upset by the loss of time caused due to disruptions, Naidu called the session 'an eminently forgettable one'. "I am pained to note that it turned out to be an eminently forgettable one on account of utter disregard of the mandate of this important parliamentary institution and its responsibilities and missed opportunities," Naidu had said in his concluding address to the 245th session of Rajya Sabha.

Due to the disruptions, the House could not debate the important Finance Bill 2018 but passed the payment of gratuity law without debate.
Tej Pratap Yadav met his would-be wife Aishwarya Rai for the first time in February 2018 when their families started to talk about their marriage. Both Tej Pratap and Aishwarya belong to political families and their parents have had a long association. The two also met at Patna airport on Sunday when Tej Pratap returned from New Delhi after meeting his father Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and Aishwarya was leaving for the national capital along with her family members to shop for her wedding.

A day after the news of Tej Pratap and Aishwarya's marriage being fixed broke on April 6, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Bihar minister spoke to the media. "Media was speculating for a long time about my marriage. Now that it has been finalised, they have got the answer. The marriage was finalised by my mother and father. Aishwarya is my choice too," he said in Patna on Saturday.

Tej Pratap's mother Rabri Devi, who is also an RJD leader and former Bihar chief minster, had finalised the marriage in March following consultations with Aishwarya's father Chandrika Prasad rai, a former Bihar minister, and her mother Poornima Rai, who is an assistant professor in Patna Women's College.

The two will have their engagement ceremony on April 18 at Patna's Maurya hotel. It will be a family ceremony with only close relatives being invitated for the same. But the marriage on May 12 is likely to be an extravagant affair with thousands expected to attend.

The guest list will be almost 10,000 strong, close family sources say. Important dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, several Union and Bihar ministers, chief ministers of many states are expected to grace the occasion and bless the newly weds.
Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA BL Singhal has sparked a row by saying that he never asks members of Meo sect of Muslims for their votes. Speaking to news agency ANI, Singhal said that seeking their votes would mean that they be helped in getting away with the crimes committed by them.

Meo sect of Muslims never votes for BJP. I also do not go to them for votes. Asking for votes from them would mean I would be compelled to help them in getting away with crimes they regularly commit. So I always stay away from them, said the BJP MLA from Alwar in Rajasthan.

This is not the first time that the MLA has triggered a row with his statement on members of Muslim community. In January, he had said that any country where Muslim population is 30 per cent or above, members of the community capture the country.

In our country, Hindus have confined themselves to having just one or two children. They are more bothered about making their kids IAS and IPS officers. But Muslims are worried about how to take over the nation by increasing their population, education and development has no significance to them. Its my personal opinion, he had said.

He had also accused members of Muslim community in his constituency Alwar of buying arms and ammunitions and storing them in their houses, unlike a Hindu who spends money on improving his lifestyle.

In his Facebook post, Singhal had said that when Muslims become majority in the country, they would treat Hindus like second class citizens. He added that they would ensure that the country has Muslim Prime Minister and President while all states have Muslim Chief Ministers. He further demanded a law restricting more than two children in any family.

He had alleged that the Muslims were targeting to increase their population to take over the country by 2030.

(With ANI inputs)
Mumbai: Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, arrested for the alleged killing of her daughter Sheena Bora, had an overdose of anti-depressants, which were not prescribed to her, the J J Hospital authorities here said on Tuesday.

Mukerjea, 46, was on Friday admitted to the State-run hospital, where she was brought in a "semi-conscious" condition from her cell in the Byculla Jail in south Mumbai.

She underwent a series of medical tests in the hospital.

"The reports of her urine sample showed a significant increase in the level of benzodiazepine, a class of anti-depressants," a doctor from the hospital said, quoting from the reports of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina that came in Monday night.

"The medicine prescribed to her is amitriptyline, which is an anti-depressant, but certainly does not belong to the benzodiazepine class of drugs," the doctor added.

"How she had an overdose of it (benzodiazepine) will be investigated by the police. Though doctors prescribe the medicines, they are administered by the jail staff," he said.

Another doctor said an overdose of amitriptyline, which was prescribed to Mukerjea, could be fatal. But she had an overdose of another anti-depressant that was neither prescribed to her nor was fatal in case of an overdose, he added.

J J Hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase said Mukerjea's condition was now better and that she was taking oral feed. "She is much better today. She is communicating and taking oral feed. She is being treated for fever and pneumonia," he said.

The city-based Hinduja Hospital had also submitted its report in this connection yesterday and mentioned an "overdose".

A doctor from the J J Hospital said Mukerjea's urine samples were sent to the Hinduja Hospital and the private hospital's report had also confirmed a significant presence of benzodiazepine.

The doctors at the Hinduja Hospital said the presence of a high level of benzodiazepine in Mukerjea's samples implied that she had consumed the anti-depressant in a large quantity.

In October 2015, Mukerjea was taken to the J J Hospital from the Byculla women's prison in an unconscious state due to a suspected drug overdose.

If a patient is on an anti-depressant, the benzodiazepine level in his urine should be about 200. However, in Mukerjea's case, the benzodiazepine level in her urine sample at that time was 2,088 and it was mentioned in the Hinduja Hospital's report in 2015, a doctor at the J J Hospital said.

The Maharashtra Prisons department had earlier ordered a detailed inquiry into a possible drug overdose in the case of Mukerjea, the co-founder of INX Media, who is the prime accused in her daughter Sheena Bora's murder case.

Bora (25) was allegedly killed and her body disposed of in a forest area in the neighbouring Raigad district in April 2012, according to the police.

Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai were arrested for the crime. Rai had later turned an approver (prosecution witness) in the case.

Meanwhile, a special CBI court here today allowed a plea by Mukerjea's lawyer, seeking permission to meet her in the hospital.

Allowing the application, Special Judge J C Jagdale said, "As far as the prayer to visit undertrial Indrani Mukerjea is concerned, there is no impediment. However, it has to be remembered that the accused is still hospitalised and under medical supervision. Therefore, it is not advisable to interfere in the said medical treatment."

The court allowed Mukerjea's lawyer to meet her at the hospital in the presence of the attendants.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are slated to share stage on Tuesday in Motihari in Bihar as the country marks centenary of Champaran Satyagraha that was launched by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

As part of the programme, the Prime Minister will address more than 20,000 Swachhagrahis or the Ambassadors of Cleanliness. Several celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit, have promoted the event through government advertisements.

During his visit to Motihari, the Prime Minister is also slated to launch several developmental projects.

# Laying of foundation stone/inauguration of

- Motijheel Project

- Bettiah Nagar Parishad water supply scheme under AMRUT

- four sewerage projects, worth Rs 1111.56 Cr aimed at creating a sewage-treatment capacity of 60 million litres daily for Patna,under Namami Gange.

- Doubling of Railway lines between Muzaffarpur and Sagauli, and Sagauli and Valmikinagar.

- Motihari-Amlekhgang Oil Pipeline Project etc.

# Dedication of first phase of Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory to the Nation.

# Flagging off of First 12000 HP Freight Electric Locomotive and Champaran Humsafar Express.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off three Indian Railway projects in Bihar's Madhepura. Among them was the start of a project to build India's most-powerful railway engine - one which promises to zip at speeds of up to 110kmph.

A collaboration between India and France, the engine - WAG12 - will be built at Greenfield Locomotive Factory. The factory itself has been built with the help of a French company called Alstom which has a share of 74 per cent in establishing investment. Indian Railways has put in the remaining 26 per cent of the investment. In the first phase, the company has ordered for the main components from France and these would be assembled in the plant in Madhepura. It is expected that the factory here would be able to manufacture five such rail engines by the end of 2019 and the numbers would rise to 35 in 2020, 60 by 2021 and then 100 in each subsequent year.

The engine itself promises to change the face of Indian Railways at a time when it is looking to up its game in freight transportation. Goods would be expected to reach from one part of the country to another at a considerably quicker pace and in turn, more trips - and therefore, more revenue - can be made.

What is helping in the assembly and construction of the WAG12 is that the plant in Madhepura is equipped with cutting-edge technology. Spread over 260 acres, the factory currently has 70 workers and is expected to employ more as scale of production is ramped up. Little wonder then that Indian Railways has its focus now firmly on the Greenfield Locomotive Factory with the existing factory - Chittaranjan Locomotive Factory producing the WAG9 which is in use currently - since 2014.
New Delhi: Indian soldiers will soon wear indigenously developed bullet proof jackets for360-degree protection in combat situations, including safety from hard steel core bullets. In an effort to give impetus to Centre's 'Make in India' initiative, the Defence Ministry on Monday signed a contract with a defence firm for procurement of 1.86 lakh bullet proof jackets for the Army at a cost of Rs 639 crore.

These jackets were finalised after a series of 'stringent field evaluation trials', said Nirmala Sitharaman-led Defence Ministry.

A major contract through capital procurement route, for procurement of 1,86,138 Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJs) has been signed. The impending requirement of the Indian Army for effective BPJs, has been met after successful conduct of stringent field evaluation trials, the ministry said in a statement.

The contract was awarded to indigenous defence manufacturer SMPP Pvt Ltd.

The new jackets will have 'boron carbide ceramic', the lightest material for ballistic protection.

This makes SMPP BPJs the best of the class and will be able to provide ballistic protection at the lowest possible weight," Chairman and Managing Director of SMPP S C Kansal told PTI.

The company added the size of the contract is Rs 639 crore.

Ministry has claimed that these state-of-the-art jackets with, added protection levels and coverage area, will boost the confidence of soldiers.

These ergonomically designed BPJs have modular parts, thereby providing immense protection and flexibility to soldiers operating in different operational situations ranging from long distance patrolling to high risk room intervention scenarios. The new BPJs will provide 360 degree protection to the soldier in combat, including from latest hard steel core bullets, said the statement.

The concerns for BPJs for the Indian Army, have been raised at the highest levels, even in the civil domain and media reports amidst heightened security situation, along the borders and in the hinterland in the disturbed areas. The provisioning of this operationally urgent and very critical equipment concerning personal ballistic protection, will boost the confidence of the soldier and provide moral ascendency to security forces, it added.
A passenger was on Tuesday morning offloaded from an IndiGo Airlines flight for alleged unruly behaviour on the aircraft. The passenger, Saurabh Rai, was removed from the aircraft which was scheduled to fly from Lucknow to Bengaluru.

Releasing a statement in this regard, IndiGo said, A passenger, Saurabh Rai, scheduled to fly this morning from Lucknow to Bengaluru, was offloaded on grounds of unruly behaviour.

According to the airline, the passenger had expressed concerns over mosquitos on board. The airline claimed that before cabin crew could address his concerns, he became aggressive and used threatening language.

As matter escalated after closure of the aircraft doors, he attempted to instigate other passengers on board to damage the aircraft and used words such as hijack. Hence, keeping in mind applicable safety protocols crew apprised pilot-in-command, who decided to offload him, said IndiGo in a statement.

The passenger, however, claimed that he was manhandled by IndiGo crew members when he raised the issue of mosquitoes in the aircraft. "The Indigo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru was full of mosquitoes, when I raised objection, I was manhandled by the crew and offloaded from the aircraft, I was even threatened," he said.

This comes almost 10 days after a man was offloaded from an Air Vistara aircraft at New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport and later arrested for allegedly molesting a crew member.

Releasing a statement in this regard, Air Vistara had said, "A cabin crew member on Lucknow-Delhi flight on 24th March reported incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts safety of its staff and other customers at risk, or compromises their dignity."
NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the government of Uttar Pradesh over the death of a person in police custody in Unnao and related allegations.

The man - father of the Unnao gang-rape victim who has alleged rape by BJP Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar - had on Monday died in died in police custody.

The woman's father, aged around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail last night and died during treatment, officials said. He was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act, they added.

The news of his death spread like wildfire with the opposition and the civil society slamming the Adityanath government.

Under fire, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought a report into the custodial death. Calling the incident unfortunate, Adityanath said, "ADG Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault, whoever they might be, will not be spared."

On Sunday, the woman who has accused the MLA had even tried to immolate herself along with her family outside Adityanath's office.

A defiant Sengar, however, claimed innocence and dismissed the charge as a conspiracy by his opponents and said the complainant belonged to a "low class". "There is no allegation against me, I am open to any kind of investigation. Strict action should be taken against the real culprit," said the BJP MLA.

The woman has alleged that Sengar and his associates raped her and that authorities had refused to register her complaint. She said she had been running from pillar to post for over a year, but that authorities had not paid her any heed. She attempted to set herself on fire twice - first outside Adityanath's residence, and then outside the Gautam Palli Police Station.

(With inputs from agencies)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed more than 20,000 swachhagrahis (ambassadors of cleanliness) at a grand event in Motihari in Bihar. Amid loud cheering and clapping, the Prime Minister began his speech in Bhojpuri.

At the onset of his speech, PM Modi talked about the Satyagraha movement launched by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, 100 years ago. He said that the concept of Satyagraha, brought to the country by Bapu, is still relevant.

Addressing the huge gathering, Modi said that Mahatma Gandhi connected the country with Satyagraha and the concept still lives in each Swachhagrahi working to ensure a clean India. While the event was to mark the end of centenary celebration of Satyagraha movement, the Prime Minister said that it should be looked at as a new beginning.

Mohandas became Mahatma after his Satyagraha in Bihar. Even Jayaprakash Narayan got inspiration for his movement from Mahatma Gandhi, said PM Modi.

He further hailed the work done by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi in the state in the recent past. He lauded them for ensuring construction of record number of toilets across Bihar.

"Pichle 100 varsh mein Bharat ki teen badi kasautiyon ke samay Bihar ne desh ko raasta dikhaya, jab desh ghulami ki zanjeeron mein jakda hua tha, to Bihar ne Gandhi ji ko Mahatma bana diya, bapu bana diya (In the last 100 years Bihar has shown the way the country on crucial moments. When the country was not independent, Bihar made Gandhi ji a Mahatma and Bapu)," said Modi.

Referring to the initiatives launched by him during his visit to Bihar, the Prime Minister said that work has been started for re-development of Moti jheel, which is the identity of Motihari.

He further hailed women power, saying most of Swachhagrahis are women and they understand the need of cleanliness more than anyone else.

Talking about the success of Swachh Bharat Mission, the Prime Minister said that as many as 350 districts across the country are now open defecation free.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed a huge gathering of Swachhagrahis in Motihari in East Champaran district of Bihar, where the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, had launched his Satyagraha movement. Addressing more than 20,000 Swachh Bharat volunteers, Prime Minister laid emphasis on the need to promote cleanliness, even as he lauded the work done by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.

Here are 10 highlights of his speech:

1. Hundred years ago, many people came to Champaran from different parts of the country on the call of Mahatma Gandhi. History is repeating itself, so many of Swachhagrahis have converged from different parts of the country.

2. in the last 100 years, Bihar has shown the path to the country on three crucial occasions. When the country was not independent, Bihar made Gandhi ji a Mahatma, it made him Bapu.

3. the work done by CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi has given encouragement to people. Bihar was the only state where the range of cleanliness was below 50 per cent, but now I have been told that the state has crossed that barrier.

4. In the last one week, 8.5 lakh toilets were built in the state. This is not normal speed and progress. I congratulate the government and the people of Bihar for the success.

5. Villages near banks of river Ganga are being made open-defecation free at a rapid pace. Waste management mechanism is also being put in place so that theres no accumulation of waste deposits.

6. Foundation stones have been laid for LPG plants in Motihari and Sugauli so that people of Champaran do not face any shortage of gas.

7. National high projects worth Rs 900 crore were launched today. These projects will benefit people of both Bihar and Jharkhand.

8. I also got the opportunity to flag off a new train connecting Katihar to old Delhi. Laced with all modern amenities, this train will help you for travel to Delhi. The train has been named Champaran Hamsafar Express.

9. More than 26 lakh toilets have been built in the past one week in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir.

10. Swachh Bharat mission has transformed lives of many women in the country. Construction of toilets has given the women respect, security and health. In Bihar, toilets are being called Izzat Ghar.
The southern states feel they are being penalised for successfully implementing the Centre's programmes to control population growth, while at the same time rewarding the northern states for their abject failure on this count.

The representatives of all the southern states are meeting in Kerala to discuss their concerns over changes to the way the Centre devolves money to state governments. The southern states are concerned that the changes proposed by the Narendra Modi government will lead to significant revenue loses for them.

The meet is being organised by Kerala. The state's Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had invited the other five Finance Ministers of the south - Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry - to take part in the meet. However, the Telangana and Tamil Nadu governments have skipped the meet.

Representatives from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry took part in the meet, at which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also present.

The controversy is over the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission which calls for the use of the population data from the 2011 Census as one of the bases for deciding how much money a state gets from the Centre. From 1976, the data from the 1971 Census has been used, to assuage the reservations of the southern states over the population growth in the northern states.

The southern states have brought population growth to replacement levels, while some northern states have grown their populations at an even faster rate than before. For instance, while the population of the southern states has grown about 35 percent since 1971, the population of the northern states has grown by 150 percent. That means they have more than doubled their populations.

The concern of the southern states is that using the 2011 Census data would penalise them for successfully implementing the Centre's programmes to control population growth, while at the same time rewarding the northern states for their abject failure on this count.

The Terms of Reference for the 15th Finance Commission also places restrictions on populist expenditure, which steps on the political decision making of elected governments in the southern, which often seek election on populist platforms.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddarmaiah had complained in a column last month that the south is subsidising the failures of the north. Tamil Nadu's Leader of Opposition, DMK leader MK Stalin, had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 10 other Chief Ministers over the issue.

Tamil Nadu's Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has reportedly skipped the meet as he did not want to share stage with political players who are outright opposed to the Narendra Modi government. This is reportedly part of efforts by the Tamil Nadu government to soft-play with the Centre. The Tamil Nadu government needs to work with the NDA government to ensure the constitution of the Cauvery Water Management Board, which the Centre has delayed despite Supreme Court orders.
LUCKNOW: In yet another incident of statue defacing and vandalism, a statue of the Father of Indian Constitution B R Ambedkar was allegedly damaged by miscreants near Bhuteshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur. The sculptor was, however, restored later on.

According to police, the statue is situated on a land which belongs to a hostel. The investigation is underway.

"The plot of land on which the statue is located is disputed and belongs to a hostel. We are probing if it was done due to dispute or got crumbled due to wear and tear," police said.

Saharanpur: Statue of BR Ambedkar near Bhuteshwar temple, allegedly vandalised by miscreants, being restored. Police say, 'Plot of land on which statue is located is disputed & belongs to a hostel. We're probing if it was done due to dispute or got crumbled due to wear & tear'. pic.twitter.com/vF1CsmSTE0  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

In the wake of statue vandalism, the Uttar Pradesh Home Department on April 8 directed the state police to ensure the security of the sculptors of famous figures in the state. The state police planned to monitor and ensure the security of the statues of famous personalities in the state, Arvind Kumar, principal secretary of Home Department had said.

This had come after several incidents of vandalism of famous personalities, including Mahatma Gandhi, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, E V Ramasamy Periyar and Vladimir Lenin were reported across the country.

In March, two statues of Dr Ambedkar were vandalised within 24 hours in Siddharthnagar and Allahabad. Despite strong words by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and clear directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there seems to be no end to incidents of vandalism of statues of iconic leaders and ideologues. Several incidents of statue vandalism have been reported from various parts of the country over the last few months.

Reports of incidents of vandalism of statues started pouring in soon after the results of the Assembly elections in Tripura were declared. Following the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Left bastion, a mob demolished a statue of Communist ideologue Vladimir Lenin in Tripura.

These incidents have sparked a war of words between political parties as well. PM Modi, however, had recently made an appeal to people to not indulge in the vandalism of statues. Following this, the Union Home Ministry had issued a directive to states to ensure that no such incidents take place.
At least two soldiers got killed on Monday evening as Pakistan resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The two soldiers  Vinod Singh and Jaki Sharma  suffered injuries during the firing and later succumbed to their injuries.

According to reports, Pakistani Army resorted to indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars, to which India retaliated strongly. The firing began in the Sunderbani sector along the LoC on Monday evening and continued till last reports came in.

Vinod Singh, aged 20 years, hailed from Akhnoor district while Jaki Sharma was from Jammu district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Last week, Pakistan had targeted forward Indian posts along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistani troops have violated the ceasefire along the LoC and the IB over 650 times this year.

Pakistan has repeatedly violated ceasefire in the state and in 2018 alone, there have been more than 650 such instances of firing or shelling from across the LoC. While the Indian Army ensures a befitting reply is given each time, civilians have borne the brunt of the collateral damage. Concerned over this, state-owned NBCC recently gave the go-ahead to construct protective bunkers for civilians.

It is expected that the number of civilian casualties can be brought down significantly by constructing bunkers - an urgent requirement considering the figures of 2017. According to some non-governmental reports, over 55 civilian deaths - either due to cross-border terrorism or cross-border shelling - occurred in J&K in 2017 alone.
A statue of Dr BR Ambedkar, which was recently vandalised in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, has been rebuilt, but with a change. Instead of his usual suit, Ambedkar has now been dressed in a prince suit, which is saffron in colour.

The statue was vandalised on April 7 by unidentified miscreants in Dugraiya village in Kunwargaon area of Badaun. It led to protests in the area and the administration replaced it in haste with another status of Ambedkar brought in from Agra.

Badaun: A BR Ambedkar statue which was vandalized recently has been rebuilt and painted saffron in colour pic.twitter.com/saW7U9BBUi  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

When Zee News made attempts to approach the police and district administration over the statue turning saffron, there was no response from either. However, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Prem Swarup Pathak dismissed any role of the party. This is being made a political issue, BJP has got nothing to do with the statue. As far as saffron is concerned, the colour is a symbol of Indian culture, he said.

In March, two statues of Dr Ambedkar were vandalised within 24 hours in Siddharthnagar and Allahabad. Despite strong words by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and clear directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there seems to be no end to incidents of vandalism of statues of iconic leaders and ideologues. Several incidents of statue vandalism have been reported from various parts of the country over the last few months.

In another recent row in the name of the father of the Constitution, the Uttar Pradesh government last month decided to change the official name of Ambedkar by including his middle name Ramji. As per the decision, all official correspondence with his name would carry it as Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. This was done on the recommendation of Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik.

Justifying the move, the UP Governor had said that Ambedkar was a Marathi and Hindi speaking states have always written his name incorrectly. I am a Marathi and so was he. Hindi speaking states have been writing his name incorrectly. Most importantly his name is written as Bhim and Rao as two words, however, the correct way to write is Bhimrao, he had said.
Washington: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has ruled out resigning over his company's privacy practices as he announced formation of an independent research committee in the backdrop of the elections in countries like India, Pakistan and the US, according to a media report.

Ahead of his Congressional testimonies this week to respond to questions from lawmakers who are outraged at the data breach by the social media giant, Zuckerberg arrived in the US Capital to meet with Congressmen and Senators.

In an interview to Atlantic Magazine, Zuckerberg ruled out resigning from the post.

"No, I mean - I am -I do work on philanthropy too, separately. But, these issues are very important," he said, when asked if he has considered resigning at all.

"We have also worked on a lot of hard problems over the last 14 years in building Facebook. I mean, it started in a dorm room and now it's this unprecedented community in scale and I am very confident that we're going to be able to work through these issues," he said.

Zuckerberg would testify tomorrow before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. The next day, he would appear before another joint hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

He has, however, refused to appear before any other foreign committee so far, including that of the UK.

Facebook has acknowledged that information of as many as 87 millions of its users were compromised in the third party data breach by UK-based Cambridge Analytica, which used the information to influence the 2016 US presidential elections for the Trump Campaign.

"Well, I certainly feel very bad, and I am sorry that we did not do a better job of finding the Russian interference during the 2016 election," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg said he is looking for guidance everywhere to address this challenge. His company has already taken several measures to address the privacy issues.

Referring to the upcoming elections in countries across the globe, including India, Brazil, US and Pakistan, Zuckerberg announced the formation of an independent election commission for research.

Well, I think what we need to do is be more transparent about what we're seeing and find ways to get independent and outside experts to be able to come in, and contribute ideas on how to address these issues, like things that might be problems, Zuckerberg said. And then hold us accountable for making sure we do it, he said.

Given the importance of these elections, especially 2018 with major elections in the United States, India, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Hungary coming up soon we just thought that that wasn't enough, he said.

"That's exactly why we are trying to create this independent election commission for research, because we think that getting this right for the elections starting in 2018, and after that, is just such an important thing," the Facebook CEO said.

Facebook, he said has taken two steps. First, it will require the individual owners of the largest Facebook pages to verify their names by providing the company with a copy of their government IDs. It will also make them respond to a letter in the mail.

We will physically mail a code to where you say you are, and you have to be able to access that code that we mail to you in order to be able to run an ad, said Zuckerberg.

"I think that will be quite effective at preventing someone in Russia, for example, from lying and saying that they are in the United States and able to advertise in the election here," he was quoted as saying by the report.
Ranchi: At least eight members of a marriage party were killed and eight more injured after the pick vehicle they were travelling in crashed into a bridge. The incident took place in Jharkhands Simdega on Monday.

The vehicle was coming back from Kamdara Gumla to Simdega. The accident happened near Adharma Kolebira police station.

Those injured were rushed to the Sadar Hospital in Simdega, said Simdega SDPO Amit Kumar Singh.
KHANDALA, MAHARASHTRA: At least 18 labourers, including several woman, died after the tempo they were travelling in overturned and hit a barricade on Pune-Satara highway near Khandala on early Tuesday morning. More than 20 people were injured in the incident.

The accident occurred on the Pune-Satara Highway after the Khambatki Tunnel in the Khandala ghats, said official.

The vehicle, carrying at 36 labourers from Karnataka's Bijapur, was heading towards Pune. The driver reportedly "dozed off" and lost control of the vehicle while managing a difficult 'S' turn, leading to the accident, claim police.

"After crossing the Khambatki ghat section, there is a difficult turning of 'S' shape. It is an accident-prone spot. The truck driver probably dozed off and lost control over the wheels, as a result of which the vehicle hit a barricade and overturned," Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil told PTI.

The labourers were carrying construction equipment. Due to the weight of the equipments, the tempo was thrown into a wayside ditch with great force.

"They were carrying some sharp and heavy equipment in the truck. When the vehicle overturned, the equipment fell on the labourers. Many of them died due to head injuries caused by the equipment," the SP added.

Several people, including the driver, died on spot. Those injured have been rushed to Satara Civil Hospital.
New Delhi: Shares of Axis Bank today surged over 5 percent, adding Rs 7,212 crore to its market valuation, a day after its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma's tenure was shortened.

The stock soared 5.43 percent to end at Rs 546 on BSE. Intra-day, it jumped 6.10 percent to Rs 549.50.

At NSE, shares of the company surged 5.17 percent to settle at Rs 546.15.

Led by the rise in the stock, the company's market valuation grew by Rs 7,212.03 crore to Rs 1,40,133.03 crore.

The stock was the biggest gainer among the bluechips on Sensex and Nifty.

In terms of equity volume, 11.98 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 2 crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day.

The Axis Bank board has curtailed the fourth term of its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma to seven months following an unusual request from her that she be relieved in December 2018, 29 months ahead of the scheduled term.

The board's decision came amid RBI raising questions over her re-appointment for the fourth term as MD and CEO of the third largest private sector lender in the wake of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs).

Sharma, who would complete her third term on May 31, 2018, has been heading the bank since 2009.

The Axis Bank board accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from June 1 to December 31, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the bank said in a regulatory filing yesterday.
New Delhi: Online retail giant Amazon India is hosting a week-long iPhone Fest where customers can avail exciting deals on the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 and more.

HDFC card holders can get instant discount with the banks's debit and credit cards, on purchase of a new iPhone SE, 6, 6s, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8 and 8 Plus. The Offer is valid from April 10, 2018 to April 16, 2018 (both days inclusive). The customer can avail a maximum discount of Rs 5000 per card. Instant Discount against each model are thus:

Check out the top deals on iPhone Fest

iPhone SE

Starting at Rs 17,999

Extra Rs 1,000 instant discount

iPhone 6

Starting at Rs 23,999

Extra Rs 1,250 instant discount

iPhone 6S

Starting at Rs 33,999

Extra Rs 1,500 instant discount

iPhone 6S Plus

Starting at Rs 37,999

Extra Rs 2,000 instant discount

iPhone 7

Starting at Rs 41,999

Extra Rs 2,000 instant discount

iPhone 8

Starting at Rs 54,999

Extra Rs 3,000 instant discount

iPhone 8 Plus

Starting at Rs 65,999

Extra Rs 3,000 instant discount

iPhone X

Starting at Rs 79,999

Extra Rs 5,000 instant discount

Apart from iPhones the fest also offers Apple Watches at good discount. Check out deals.

Apple Watch Nike+ GPS 38mm Smart Watch

Rs 32,470.00 (Prime members deal)

Apple Watch Series 3 GPS 38mm Smart Watch

Rs 29,900.00

Apple Watch Series 3 GPS 42mm Smart Watch

Rs 31,900.00 (Prime members deal)

Apple Watch Series 3 GPS 42mm Smart Watch

Rs 34,400.00 (Prime members deal)



Apple Watch Series 3 GPS 42mm Smart Watch

Rs 30,900.00 (Prime members deal)



Apple Watch Nike+ GPS 42mm Smart Watch

Rs 34,400.00

Apple Watch Nike+ GPS 38mm Smart Watch

Rs 32,470.00 (Prime members deal)
New Delhi: Ace comedian Kapil Sharma is currently in troubled waters. More so because on one side his new show 'Family Time With Kapil Sharma' has failed to hit the mark and on the other hand, his recent abusive Twitter rant against a journalist has shocked his fans.

It did not stop there, Kapil filed a complaint against the news agency and its editor along with his former managers Preeti and Neeti Simoes. He tweeted the copy of his legal document, claiming that these people are trying to tarnish his image and pull him down. However, Preeti clarified her stand and in a shocking statement revealed that she is afraid that Kapil is suffering from depression and requires immediate medical help.

Several celebrities, who have worked with Kapil in the past such as Krushna Abhishek, Bharti Singh backed him and suggested that he needs a break and needs to get back in good shape.

However, Kapil's close friend and 'Firangi' filmmaker Rajiev Dhingra has a different story to tell. When asked about the ongoing fiasco in Kapil's life, Rajiev told Mumbai Mirror, Kapil and I come from a small town of Punjab, we are not manipulative like these girls. Preeti is responsible for driving Kapil into depression, she harassed me as well and tried to instigate him against me. As soon as she learnt that he was marrying his girlfriend Ginni (Chatrath), she vowed to destroy him and turn his friends against him. All the controversies in Kapils life happened only in the last one year after Preeti vowed to destroy him.

Bharti Singh told Preeti about Ginni and she would tell him that he is a star and deserves someone better than Ginni, a small-town girl, he says. Rajiev adds that Sunil Grover was also used as a pawn towards that goal. We friends have been trying to help Kapil stay positive, he further added.

Well, with so much happening around the ace comedian-actor, it's best to give him the much deserved space he needs right now.
New Delhi: Telugu actress Sri Reddy, who recently hogged the limelight for stripping outside the film chamber's office in Hyderabad has made some startling revelations about the film industry. In an interview with India Today.in, she claimed that a top Telugu film producer's son sexually exploited her.

She alleged that the person used to call her to the studios on the pretext of work and then forcefully have sex with her. She told IndiaToday.in, "Studios are the safest place to use for sex. Big directors, producers and heroes use studios as brothels. It's like a red-light area. And it is the safest place because no one will come inside; police also will not check, and the government is not taking this as a big issue."

Meanwhile, after her stripping act, the apex body of Telugu film industry has ruled out giving membership to an aspiring actress citing her behaviour, according to PTI. "Because of her behaviour, the actress (Sri Reddy) cannot be given a membership," Movie Artistes Association (MAA) office-bearer Sivaji Raja said.

Refuting her claims, Raja and other office-bearers stated that application for the membership was given to her earlier but she did not fill it up properly.

Reddy stripped in public and protested outside the film chamber's office alleging that local artistes were not being given enough opportunities in the industry. She had also alleged that the association did not give her membership.

Police have booked the actress under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (obscene acts in public place).

(With PTI inputs)
Los Angeles: Amber Heard, who promised to donate to American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) in 2016, has donated over USD 1 million to the charity from Johnny Depp divorce settlement.

On the CHLA's Imagine 2017 Annual Report, posted on the hospital's website, "Ms. Amber Heard" made the list of "Honor Roll of Donors."

According to the report, Heard donated between USD 1 million to about USD 5 million from the time period of July 2016 to June 2017.

"We are honoured to acknowledge our extraordinary donors for their generosity during fiscal year 2017. On behalf of all the children and families whose lives you have impacted, and everyone at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, we offer our sincere thanks," the report stated.
LUCKNOW: Amid the ongoing controversy in the Unnao gang rape case, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday directed the Home Department to ensure that a special investigation team (SIT) visits the place on Wednesday and submit its first report by evening.

The Chief Minister had earlier sought a report into the death of the victim's father who allegedly died in police custody. Calling the incident unfortunate, Adityanath had said, "ADG Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault, whoever they might be, will not be spared."

The man - father of the Unnao gang-rape victim who has alleged rape by BJP Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar - had on Monday died in died in police custody. Postmortem report blamed "shock and septicemia" as the cause of the death.

The woman's father, aged around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail last night and died during treatment, officials said. He was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act, they added.

On Sunday, the woman - who has accused the MLA - had even tried to immolate herself along with her family outside Adityanath's office.

A defiant Sengar, however, claimed innocence and dismissed the charge as a conspiracy by his opponents and said the complainant belonged to a "low class". "There is no allegation against me, I am open to any kind of investigation. Strict action should be taken against the real culprit," said the BJP MLA.

The woman has alleged that Sengar and his associates raped her and that authorities had refused to register her complaint. She said she had been running from pillar to post for over a year, but that authorities had not paid her any heed. She attempted to set herself on fire twice - first outside Adityanath's residence, and then outside the Gautam Palli Police Station.
LUCKNOW: The deceased father of Unnao gang-rape victim could have been saved, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) SP Chaudhary told Zee News in an exclusive interview. He had 14 injuries on his body, at different places, said Choudhary, adding, If medical assistance was given on time, he could have been saved.

The injuries that led to his death were five-days-old, said the medical officer on Tuesday.

According to reports, the Unnao gang-rape victim's father was kept in police custody from April 3 to 8.

On 8th (April), he was brought in. By that time, his health has already deteriorated due to the impact of injury, said Choudhary.

The Unnao gang-rape incident came into the limelight after the victim tried to set herself ablaze in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence. A day later, the victim's father died in police custody.

Earlier on Tuesday, the postmortem report of the deceased attributed shock and septicemia as the cause of the death. Moreover, the deceased's ultrasound report, reportedly done before he was taken into police custody, indicates no internal injury.

Postmortem report states 'Cause of death shock and septicemia due to peritonitis and ascending colon perforation', Anand Kumar, ADG Law and Order told ANI on Tuesday.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe all the allegations, added Kumar.

Atul Sengar, brother of alleged rape accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, was also arrested. Three others have also been arrested in the case.

After his arrest, the victim stressed on the fact Kuldeep Singh is yet to be arrested.

"Kuldeep Singh (Sengar) isn't being arrested. I don't know if his brother is arrested. I demand that they be hanged till death. They've made my life miserable. I want justice. They killed my father," she said.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Sengar rejected all the charges and called the entire incident a 'conspiracy' by opponents. He added that the complainant belonged to a "low class" family. "They belong to a low-status family (nimn star ke log hain)...This is a conspiracy by my opponents," said Sengar.

Meanwhile, CM Adityanath ordered a high-level probe into the matter. Reports of the BJP MLA being summoned by the CM also emerged
LUCKNOW: Postmortem report of the alleged Unnao gang-rape victim's father, who died in police custody, has attributed shock and septicemia as the cause of the death. Moreover, the deceased's ultrasound report, reportedly done before he was taken into police custody, indicates no internal injury.

Postmortem report states 'Cause of death shock and septicemia due to peritonitis and ascending colon perforation', Anand Kumar, ADG Law and Order told ANI on Tuesday.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe all the allegations, added Kumar.

Earlier, Atul Sengar, brother of alleged rape accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, was arrested. Three others have also been arrested in the case. The development comes a day after the victim's father allegedly died in police custody.

Frustrated over inaction by authorities and law enforcement agencies, the victim has tried to set herself ablaze outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office on Sunday.

After Atul Sengar's arrest, the victim stressed on the fact Kuldeep Singh is yet to be arrested.

"Kuldeep Singh (Sengar) isn't being arrested. I don't know if his brother is arrested. I demand that they be hanged till death. They've made my life miserable. I want justice. They killed my father," she said.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Sengar rejected all the charges and called the entire incident a 'conspiracy' by opponents. He added that the complainant belonged to a "low class" family. "They belong to a low-status family (nimn star ke log hain)...This is a conspiracy by my opponents," said Sengar.

Hours after the death of the victim's father, Chief Minister Adityanath ordered a high-level probe into the matter. Reports of the BJP MLA being summoned by the CM also emerged.

"ADG Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault, whoever they might be, will not be spared." Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh said that the accused mentioned in the FIR will be arrested and necessary action will be taken following the investigation.

Later, six policemen were suspended.
NEW DELHI: In the latest twist in the Unnao gang rape case, the brother of the victim's father said that they had family relations with BJP Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is the prime accused. According to victim's uncle in September 2017, a police officer had allegedly said that they cannot work under pressure from the administration and government. The police officer even advised the family to move court.

On Monday, the father of the 18-year-old woman died in custody, prompting her to put the blame on Kuldeep Singh Sengar. The woman's father, aged around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail Monday night and died during treatment, officials said. He was arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act, they added.

The news of his death spread like wildfire with the opposition and the civil society slamming the government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Under fire, Adityanath sought a report into the custodial death. Calling the incident unfortunate, Adityanath said, "ADG Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault, whoever they might be, will not be spared."

On Sunday, the woman who has accused the MLA had even tried to immolate herself outside Adityanath's office.

A defiant Sengar, however, claimed innocence and dismissed the charge as a conspiracy by his opponents and said the complainant belonged to a "low class". "There is no allegation against me, I am open to any kind of investigation. Strict action should be taken against the real culprit," said the BJP MLA.

The woman alleged that Sengar and his associates raped her and that authorities had refused to register her complaint. She said she had been running from pillar to post for over a year, but authorities had not paid her any heed. She attempted to set herself on fire twice - first outside Adityanath's residence, and then outside the Gautam Palli Police Station.

However, police said there is more to the allegations than meets the eyes. "On further probe it was found that both parties are in a dispute for the last 10 to 12 years," Rajiv Krishan, ADG Lucknow had said. "Allegations can be proved only after a thorough probe," he had added.

(With inputs from agencies)
LUCKNOW: Atul Sengar, brother of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, has been arrested in connection with the Unnao gang-rape case. The development comes a day after the rape victim's father allegedly died in police custody on Monday. Three more persons have also been arrested in the case.

Reacting to the development, the victim stressed on the fact Kuldeep Singh is yet to be arrested. "Kuldeep Singh (Sengar) isn't being arrested. I don't know if his brother is arrested. I demand that they be hanged till death. They've made my life miserable. I want justice. They killed my father," she told news agency ANI.

The victim has named both the Sengar brothers as her rapists.

Frustrated over authorities inaction, she tried to set herself ablaze outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office on Sunday.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Sengar rejected all the charges and called the entire incident a 'conspiracy' by opponents. He added that the complainant belonged to a "low class" family. "They belong to a low-status family (nimn star ke log hain)...This is a conspiracy by my opponents," said Sengar.

Hours after the death of the victim's father, Chief Minister Adityanath ordered a high-level probe into the matter. Reports of the BJP MLA being summoned by the CM also emerged.

"ADG Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault, whoever they might be, will not be spared." Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh said that the accused mentioned in the FIR will be arrested and necessary action will be taken following the investigation.

Later, six policemen were suspended.

Speaking to news agency ANI, sister of the alleged rape victim said, My father has already died and now they say that action will be taken. I just want that FIR be written against Arun Singh and Kuldeep Singh and they be arrested. I want justice.
LUCKNOW: Results of UP Board Class 10 and Class 12 are likely to be announced within five days, ie. April 15. Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) or the Board of High School and Intermediate Education Uttar Pradesh will announce the results on the official website upresults.nic.in. Over 66.37 lakh students took the board exams this year.

Candidates can also check the results at upmspresults.up.nic.in, results.nic.in, indiaresults.com and examresults.net.

The UP Board exams for Class 10 was held from February 6 - February 22, while that of Class 12 from February 6 - March 12.

Earlier, this month, the UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma had informed that the Uttar Pradesh Board results will be declared in April while the new academic session will commence on April 16.

It is for the first time that CCTV cameras have been installed in all the 8,549 exam centres. Of these 2,087 centres have been red flagged as sensitive of which 566 centres have been identified as very sensitive while 1,521 are sensitive in terms of copying mafia being active there.

While 29,81,387 students are appearing for the Class 12 exam, 36,55,691 will be taking the Class 10 exam. Class 10 exams are scheduled to end on February 22 and Class 12 exams are due to end on March 12.

UP Board exams are the biggest in the world. The UP Secondary Education Board has been conducting these exams since 1923 and officials pointed out that in the first exams, there were 5,655 students appearing for the High School (Class 10) and mere 89 for the intermediate (Class 12) exams.
New Delhi: Police are investigating a matter in which a woman's hands were allegedly broken by her husband after she gave birth to their third daughter.

The incident was reported from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district where the man allegedly assaulted his wife after she gave birth to a baby girl. Initial investigation has revealed that the man was frustrated that his wife could not bear him a son and he vented his anger by breaking her hands. It is suspected that the woman's in-laws also helped in the dastardly act.

The matter was reported to the local police who apprehended the man and have begun questioning him.

Uttar Pradesh has one of the worst sex ratios and one of the highest crime rates in the entire country.

(With inputs from PTI)
On Monday morning, passersby and those inside the car in Maryland's Baltimore had the shock of their lives  thanks to the naked jogger.

A man  sans clothes and shoes  jogged blissfully with headphones in downtown Baltimore. The chilly winds, not a deterrant.

Witnesses claimed that the man didnt seem lost or confused.

Attorney Nicholas Panteleakis, who stopped at the traffic light, said, He literally was 5 to 10 feet from me, adding, buck naked, reported the Baltimore Sun.

Soon, the news of the naked jogger spread like wildfire with people stepping out to wave. People clicked photos, shot videos and called him out on the streets.

Later, post 911 calls, officers turned up. But the naked jogger was long gone.

Is he going to do it again tomorrow? I dont know, Monroe said. If he does, well be out there.

The man could be charged with indecent exposure.
WASHINGTON: The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday raided the offices and home of U.S. President Donald Trump`s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, law enforcement sources said, in a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving close Trump associates.

Cohen`s lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said that U.S. prosecutors conducted a search that was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating whether members of Trump`s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia during the U.S. presidential election. Trump has called the probe a "witch hunt" and denied any collusion.

The raid could increase legal pressure on the president, because it involves the records of his longtime attorney and indicates a second centre of investigations in Manhattan, alongside Mueller`s Washington-based probe.

Cohen has been at the centre of a controversy over a $130,000 payment he has admitted making shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said that she had sex once with Trump in 2006 and was paid to keep quiet about it.

Trump reacted with unusually harsh language to news of the raid.

"It`s a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time," Trump said at the opening of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria.

Asked whether he would fire Mueller, Trump said, "Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens."

Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, but he could order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel`s probe, to end it, or Trump could fire Rosenstein if he refuses.

In a Tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against interfering.

"If @realDonaldTrump is thinking of using the FBI raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: dont," Schumer said.

Under federal regulations, if Mueller comes across information that is not directly related to his Russia-focused investigation, he must confer with Rosenstein. Rosenstein could direct Mueller to either investigate the issue himself or refer it to another law enforcement authority.

The raids were first reported by The New York Times.

POSSIBLE BANK, TAX FRAUD

"Today, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients," Ryan said in a statement.

"I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller," Ryan said.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violation in connection with the Stormy Daniels payment, and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to Trumps 2016 campaign, a second source familiar with the investigation said.

The New York Times reported on Monday evening that Mueller is investigating a $150,000 payment made in September 2015 by a Ukrainian billionaire, Viktor Pinchuk, to Trump`s charitable foundation in exchange for a 20-minute video appearance by Trump at a conference in Kiev.

Cohen solicited the Pinchuk donation, the Times reported, citing three sources it said were briefed on the matter, although it was not immediately clear if Monday`s raids sought information on that issue.

Trump had declared his candidacy for president in June 2015.

Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters for a request for comment on the raids. A spokesman for Mueller had no comment.

Cohen has said that he paid the $130,000 settlement money to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from his own pocket through a personal home equity loan. Trump, in comments to reporters on Air Force One last week, said that he did not know about the payment.

According to a person familiar with the matter, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the New York offices of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs on the 23rd floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Cohen has an office.

The agents went there about 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and worked for several hours, the person said.

A source familiar with the investigation said the raid was conducted without prior warning.

Federal agents also raided a room at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where Cohen has been staying while his apartment is being renovated, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed person.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney`s office on Monday also sought any emails between former White House communications director Hope Hicks and Cohen about a false and misleading account that Trump helped prepare of a June 9, 2016, meeting between Trumps son Donald Trump, Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians who had promised "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the first source familiar with the investigation said.

Such emails would not be covered by attorney-client privilege, this source said, because Cohen did not represent Hicks.

Ryan, in his statement, called the search warrants executed by the U.S. Attorney`s office in Manhattan "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients," he said.

Attorney-client privilege is intended to encourage open communications between lawyers and their clients, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice.

But the privilege is not absolute, and there is an exception for communications made to further a crime.

"The crime-fraud exception means the privilege does not apply to communications between the client and the attorney, if they are evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud, not just a past crime or fraud," said Christopher Slobogin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School specializing in criminal procedure and evidence.

A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs said in a statement that its arrangement with Cohen is ending.

"The firms arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement," the statement said. "We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation."

Ryan said that Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscow`s alleged efforts to influence the U.S. election.
Read original article at 112.ua

Security and defense forces



These are Ministry of Defense, National Security Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Guard, National Police, State Border Service, State Migration Service, State Service for Emergency Situations, Security Service, State Security Administration, State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection, State Special Transport Service, NSDC Staff, intelligence agencies, central executive authority for military-industrial policy, other bodies.



The coolest, of course, is the post of president, because he is the supreme commander-in-chief, directs all the security and defense forces: declares war and introduces martial law / emergency, decides on general or partial mobilization, issues orders, directives on defense issues, security and appoints and dismisses the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and his deputies, appoints / dismisses the High Command of the Armed Forces (following the recommendations of the Commander-in-Chief) and many other common affairs.



Last September, Petro Poroshenko put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council "On the Supreme Commander's Headquarters." The HQ is an emergency organ of the highest military command or the place from which the supreme commander-in-chief is leading the country during the war. It was established in 1941 during the Second World War; it was almost immediately led by Stalin and included well-known commanders and military commanders. Dont be confused with the General or Operational Headquarters, this is different. But since the decree of Petro Poroshenko is "for official use" and "top secret", you can learn little about the headquarters.



Ministry of Defense



Nothing much will change here, at least in 2018. The Ministry, as before, must deal with the preparation of the state for defense, military and military-technical policy, defense planning, take care of the allocation of resources. However, we also repeatedly told in our articles that the Defense Minister will be a civilian (not a military) and his deputies too. Now it will be spelled out in the law.



"The Ukrainian Defense Minister is appointed to the post by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the proposal of the President of Ukraine from among civilians. The First Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine and the Deputy Defense Ministers of Ukraine are appointed from among civilians," reads Article 15 of this document.



Therefore, the final provisions said that this law on national security comes into force on the next day of its publication, except Article 15 on the appointment of a civilian defense minister and his deputies, - these provisions come into force on January 1, 2019. That is, one more year the Minister of Defense of Ukraine will be a serviceman, and it is obvious that this is Stepan Poltorak.



Also in the bill, it was registered that a whole 16 article on the restructuring of the Armed Forces and the General Staff came into force on January 1, 2021. Today Victor Muzhenko is both the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. These posts should be divided - separately the commander-in-chief and separately there will be a chief of the General Staff.



The Commander-in-Chief will be the highest military official subordinate to the president and defense minister, he will be entrusted with all the full powers to lead the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He will be subordinate to the General Staff of the Supreme Armed Forces, the Joint Operational Headquarters of the Armed Forces, the command of the individual combat divisions, forces, other military command and control agencies that are not related to the types (separate forces) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Actually, this will come into force in 2021.



It is also interesting how the actual Joint Operational Headquarters of the Armed Forces will operate. It will be headed by the commander of the united forces (appointed/dismissed by the president), he obeys the commander-in-chief. His responsibilities include planning the application and management of the combined forces, is responsible for acquiring capabilities in the field of management, communications and information processing, participating in the implementation of the policy of deployment of forces. "



The idea of using joint forces in operations is approved by the president.



In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nothing has changed. The only thing to note is that in peacetime, the National Guard performs law enforcement functions, and in wartime, it is part of the defense forces and reports to the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.



Democratic civilian control



The Ukrainians will be able to control their Armed Forces or other power structures through the public organizations which they are members of, through deputies of the representative bodies they choose, or through the media, forming a public request for information. That is, the democratic nature of control is automatically laid down in the right to choose those who will directly realize this control - the parliament and the president.



Then everything is simple. Civilian control is called so because it is exercised by civilians (not military) who are in office as president, in the parliament, in the NSDC, in the Cabinet and local government bodies, and in 2019 as defense minister.



Who is authorized to exercise control over the defense sector? These are the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, other bodies of executive power and local self-government, courts and the public. To say briefly, the president controls the entire security and defense sector through the NSDC and the Council Secretary. The Verkhovna Rada adopts laws and, in particular, the defense budget, that is, regulates expenditures and their use. Also, the parliament can create temporary commissions to investigate or control issues of public interest. Control over the observance of human rights and freedoms in the defense sector is carried out by the authorized human rights institution of the Verkhovna Rada. The military ombudsman is not yet expected.



The Cabinet provides this control to all law enforcement agencies.



And a little about the media. Spoiler: nothing for media work will change. The law "On Democratic Civil Control over the Military Organization and Law Enforcement Agencies of the State" (2003) stated that "the media" contribute to enhancing the prestige of the service of defenders of the Motherland, strengthening public confidence in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other components of the Military Organization of the State, law enforcement agencies." The new law does not provide this, because such orders can exist for any state body, but not for journalists!



Planning



Let us recall once again that a fundamental change should occur in the approaches to planning, taking into account changes in the security environment (within the country, on its borders and the situation with neighboring countries) and Ukraine's economic and financial capabilities. Long-term planning (more than 5 years, in the old law - for 12 years), according to the law, should be in the form of the following documents:



The National Security Strategy, the Strategy for Military Security, the Strategy for Public Security and Civil Protection (developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, concerns warnings for civilians and their prevention), the Defense Industry Development Strategy (represented by the Central Executive Authority, which provides the formation and implementation of the state military-industrial policy) and the National Intelligence Program (responsible coordinating body for intelligence matters).

***



Recently, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis called on the Verkhovna Rada to pass a law on national security as soon as possible, "it will provide a firm legal basis for defense reforms to support a secure and democratic Ukraine." Why does the Pentagon's head think of the Ukrainian law and the timing of its adoption? The answer is - Americans want to see where their money is going to and how Ukraine uses the US aids. This is possible only with the introduction of democratic civil and public control, as well as internal one. Is there any guarantee that the law will be able to reduce the level of corruption in the defense sector at least a little? No. This is a human factor, as people remain the same.



The law is designed to clearly delineate the powers of the law enforcement agencies and even the powers of each body within these departments. To avoid duplication of functions and incomprehensibility, who is responsible for what, who obeys whom. It is important.



And the last. Ukraine aspires to become a member of NATO; this is one of the priority national interests, that is, the adoption of the standards of the alliance in preparation, provision, and command. The laws must also be adapted accordingly. And not just the law "On National Security" itself, but many reasonably drafted security strategies and military doctrines, well, and their timely implementation.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany announced the negotiations of the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France that should take place in Aachen in May 2018. She claimed this during the joint briefing with Petro Poroshenko as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

Ukrainian president will be in Aachen. Possibly, there will be a meeting. President Macron and I also will be there. Of course, it will be not a Normandy Format. The Russian president will not be present in Aachen but the three of us will exchange opinions. The further steps will be made but they cannot be called Normandy Format, Merkel noted.

The meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Normandy Four countries did not take place during the Munich Security Conference as it was planned. The negotiations should take place on February 16.

Leaders of the Normandy Four negotiation group claimed it will consider possible ways to speed up the implementation of Minsk agreement provisions on March 29.
All the weapons were sent for examination, the owner will face imprisonment of up to 7 years

Police found about 1,500 cartridges and two grenade launchers in a non-residential building in the Donetsk region. This was reported by the press service of the National Police of Ukraine.

"Sloviansky police department received information that the local resident found the cache of ammunition at the territory of household in Sviatohirsk. The woman said she was looking after the house and last time she was in it on April 4. When she visited this time, she found foreign traces, and arms in the shed," the message says.

All the objects seized by law enforcers will be sent for examination.

The police is looking for the owner of an explosive arsenal.

This incident was registered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations as illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives. The sanction of the article provides for up to 7 years of imprisonment.

As it was reported earlier, the militants shot at Ukrainian positions 18 times from the beginning of the day on April 9. As a result of the shooting, three Ukrainian soldiers were injured. Militants used 122-mm artillery arm in Donetsk sector near Shyrokyne and Lebedynske, and 120-mm mortars near Vodiane (Donetsk region).
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's President, said that due to the fact, that there is no progress in peace talks, we need the UN peacekeepers to be introduced in Donbas conflict zone

The absence of the progress in the peace talks is behind the introduction of the UN peacekeepers in Donbas, as Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko said at the joint briefing with Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, the Presidents press-office reported.

We do not have any common coordination centre and control of Russian representatives on the occupied territory, which could easily provide the ceasefire. We do not have any progress concerning the talks on the Minsk process. We hope that the proposals which are presented by France, Germany, Ukraine, the USA under the draft conclusion of the UN Security Council concerning the introduction of the peacekeeping mission, which will not be an escort for the UN observers, but a full and large-scale operation to disarm illegally armed formations, to protect people, who live on the occupied territories and start the political process of local elections, Poroshenko said.

Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, stated the absence of the progress in the fulfilment of Minsk Agreements. She also believes that the dialogue should be prolonged, despite its complexity.

Though it will be hard, we must not terminate (negotiations), as it is all about the people, soldiers, who lose their lives and about Ukrainians, who live on those territories (occupied), Angela Merkel said.

She assured that Ukraines partner states under the Normandy format and will support Ukraine in setting the peace.

Earlier, Poroshenko stated about the progress concerning the introduction of the peacekeeping mission in Donbas in the interview for Handelsblatt, a German newspaper.

As we reported earlier, Poroshenko in his speech at the Munich Security Conference stated that Russia had a chance to show its readiness to the compromise and agree to the peacekeepers on the entire territory of the occupied Donbas. Earlier, Kurt Volker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, said that Russias draft resolution, which provides bringing the peacekeepers to Donbas only along the confrontation line is unacceptable for the USA and the UN, as it will not ensure security, but only exacerbate the conflict.

Earlier, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Turkey and Finland stated that they were ready to bring the peacekeepers to Donbas.
The President also spoke about results of the tender on 4G mobile service, which has brought around $307.7 million into the state budget.

The President of Ukraine said that the reforms that are currently underway in the nation are aimed at improving the countrys investment climate. He spoke on the issue in an interview with the German media outlet Handelsblatt. The press service of the Ukrainian President published parts of the interview on Monday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

We are decisively introducing reforms in order to considerably improve the investment climate. Dont take my, the Presidents, word for it, just look at the analysis by the World Bank. Before I became President, Ukraine ranked 137th in its Doing Business ranking, last year we climbed all the way to 76th. No other country has exhibited such dramatic growth. We do everything in our powers in order to get within the top 50 in the nearest future, - Petro Poroshenko said.

According to the President, the government has introduced a comprehensive tax reform, as well as an education, healthcare, pension reform and a revolutionary reform of the banking sector. Also, Ukraines energy sector has been transformed in what pertains to state order and privatization. All of these measures are very unpopular, but extremely necessary, - the President stressed.

Along with that, the President spoke of results of the tender on 4G mobile service, which has brought around $307.7 million into the state budget, as opposed to the expected $192 million.

What matters most is the investors position, and many influential corporations have begun operations or returned to Ukraine, - President Poroshenko summed up.
Open source

The top management of the German consortium Siemens AG, along with the German government have assured Ukraine they plan to prevent the launch of four Siemens turbines unlawfully delivered to the occupied Crimea by legal and political means, the Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

We have petitioned to the German government numerous times, as well as to the European Union, and directly to the Siemens corporation. I had a meeting with the companys management and we agreed to coordinate our efforts in order to achieve this by filing relevant litigations. Siemens continues these lawsuits in order to prevent the launch of turbines that were shipped to the territory of the occupied peninsula by fraud, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said during an hour of questions to the countrys government in the Parliament on Friday, answering the question asked by Refat Chubarov.

The Siemens management, as well, as leaders of the German government, have told me they would continue to act by both political and legal means in order to prevent the turbines from being put into operation, Pavlo Klimkin said.

The German corporation requested that the agreement from 16 October 2015 on the supply of turbines to LLC VO Technopromexport to be used in Crimea be deemed invalid and to apply the consequences of invalidating the deal. Siemens is accusing Technopromexport of unlawfully transferring four turbines to Crimea. The turbines were supplied for the construction of power plants in the Taman region. Following the sanctions, the corporation banned the use of its turbines for electricity production on the peninsula.

The European Union introduced sanctions against three Russian corporations and three individuals over the shipment of the turbines to the occupied territory of Crimea.
Ukraine has earlier announced its plans to boost coal imports to 5,668,500 tons in 2018.

Ukraine imported 5.746 million tons of coal and anthracite (foreign business code 2701) between January and March of the current year. This demonstrates an increase of 57.6% in annual terms, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

According to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, the imports of coal were accumulatively worth $760.468 million, which represents 33.5% over the same period in the previous year, when it stood at $569.63 million.

The Russian Federation supplied most of the imported coal (62.12%), worth $472.4 million. The rest of the imports originated from the United States of America (28.92%) and Canada (6.36%).

Nevertheless, in the period between January-March 2018, Ukraine exported 43,338 tons of coal and anthracite, worth $7.8 million. Particularly, $4.6 million worth of coal were shipped to Russia, whereas $3.2 million worth of coal went to Slovakia.

Ukraine has earlier announced its plans to boost coal imports by 11.3% (or 573.9 tons) against the 2017 figure, up to 5,668,500 tons. This would include 4,881,500 tons from Russia, 664,000 from the United States, and 123,000 from South Africa.
It is expected to be completed by the end of the current year.

The largest private power producer in Ukraine, DTEK, and the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) said on Friday they had agreed upon a joint project to build one of the largest solar energy generators in Europe, UNIAN reports.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $282 million. The solar power station will be built in the Dnipropetrovsk region (central Ukraine). Its planned capacity of 200 megawatts (MW), which would make it the third largest in Europe in terms of potential output, according to Reuters.

The construction of the station is expected to be completed in a very short space of time  by the end of the present year, the chief executive officer of DTEK Maksym Tymchenko said during a signing ceremony in Kyiv with the chairman of the CMEC Zhang Chun.

The project is going to be funded by both DTEK money and a loan from the CMEC. However, the amount of the loan has not been announced yet. DTEK is relatively new to the field of solar power generation, as it launched its first solar project  Tryfonivska Solar Power Plant with 10 MW capacity  last August.

The energy sector of the country is still heavily dependent on conventional fossil fuels and nuclear power. Last year, renewable sources of energy accounted for about 1% of total energy. DTEK intends to boost its renewable capacity to 1,000 MW in 2019, according to Tymchenko.

The Chinese corporation led a record 157 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity added throughout the globe in 2017, over double the amount of new generation capacity from fossil fuels, a report published on Thursday revealed.
According to Vladislav Surkov "Russia's epic journey toward the West" is over

Open source

A top adviser to Vladimir Putin Vladislav Surkov said on Monday that Russia has abandoned its centuries-long aspirations of integrating into the West and is bracing for a new era of "geopolitical loneliness." Surkov wrote this in an article for Russia in Global Affairs magazine released April 9, 2018.

Surkov wrote in the piece for Russia in Global Affairs that "Russia's epic journey toward the West" is over, marking an end to its "repeated vain attempts to become part of Western civilization" over four centuries.

Russia-West ties have sunk to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other issues, most recently the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain that triggered mass expulsions of diplomats.

Surkov, a longtime Putin aide who served as his top strategist for many years and currently works as the presidential adviser on Ukraine, wrote: "Loneliness doesn't mean complete isolation," but added that Russia's openness would be limited.

Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine triggered U.S. and European Union sanctions that together with a slump in global oil prices sent the Russian economy into a two-year recession.

A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped reduce the scale of the hostilities in eastern Ukraine, but regular clashes have continued.

Surkov, who held several rounds of fruitless talks on the Ukrainian crisis with U.S. counterpart Kurt Volker, said 2014 marked a watershed that in his view launched "a century (or perhaps two or three centuries) of geopolitical loneliness."

"Russia, without doubt, will engage in trade, attract investments, exchange know-how and fight wars ... compete and cooperate, cause fear, hatred, curiosity, sympathy and admiration," Surkov wrote. "But without false goals and self-denial," Surkov wrote.

As it was reported earlier, Vladislav Surkov coordinates militants in Donbas occupied territories, determines internal and personnel issues in the so-called "LNR" and "DNR."

Surkov has banned entry to the United States and EU countries since March 2017 over his possible involvement in the planning of the annexation of Crimea.
Ukraine will impose sanctions against the number of the Russian oligarchs soon. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine claimed this on April 10 during the joint briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

A few days ago I ordered SBU, government and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council to prepare the proper decision project that will be submitted to the NSDC session in the nearest days and the sanctions will be imposed, Poroshenko noted.

He added that the sanctions will be maximally harmonized with the decision of the U.S. government.

Certainly, Mr. Deripaska and other oligarchs will be attracted to the sanctions as they are the key figures of the Russian processes, including active work in Crimea and weapons supply to Russias Armed Forces. Ukraines response will be strong and urgent, Poroshenko emphasized.

As we reported the US imposed new sanctions against several Russian oligarchs and companies on April 6. It is noted that the new sanctions concern a possible Moscows intervention in the U.S. elections in 2016.

Russian businessmen and entrepreneurs, whose wealth is more than $1 billion are on the sanctions list. Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and Aleksandr Zharov, the Head of Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications, - ed.) appeared in the sanctions list as well.
Open source

Donald Cook Destroyer of United States has set off from Larnaka port in Cyprus and to the Syrian port Tartus where Russian sea base is located. This was reported by Hurriyet agency.

According to the agency, the destroyer is 100 km away from Syrian port. It is noted that the ship is equipped with 60 Tomahawk-type missiles.

At the same time, it is noted that Russian unmanned aerial vehicle four times flew over the military ship at a low altitude.

As it was reported earlier, United States Permanent Representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, at an emergency meeting of the Security Council, accused Russia of using chemical weapons in Syria, including during a recent chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma.

She also said that there are soldiers of Iran and Russia in Syria, and Russia's authorities undoubtedly sponsor the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

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So far, twenty-eight nations have sent home more than 140 Russian diplomats and spies in a coordinated response to the Russian nerve agent assassination attempt in Salisbury, England. Symbolically, this unprecedented expulsion of Russian officials constitutes an important show of unity, but its practical impact in terms of hindering Russian subversion operations is limited. With the exception of the United States and Britain, which expelled 60 and 23 Russians respectively, most countries expelled four individuals or feweran insufficient number to deliver a meaningful hit to Russian spy networks.

Meanwhile, Putins Russia continues ravaging Ukraine, where more than 10,000 Ukrainians have died defending their country since 2014. It is still supporting or even orchestrating massive atrocities in Syria, and it is behind increasingly audacious cyber and disinformation attacks globally.

While Western military deterrence has so far stopped Russia from physically attacking NATO countries, allied deterrence in the non-kinetic sphere is failing spectacularly.



Putin is not afraid to continue targeting the West with ever more aggressive tools and tactics, hacking elections and buying off Western politicians and public figures. There is only one reason why Russia can continue down this path: because the West has not issued proportionate punishment for any of these aggressive acts. History has repeatedly taught us that appeasement of dictators doesnt work and that bullies must be stopped with force. If the Western response only involves the expulsion of a few diplomats and intelligence officers, Russias leadership will be affirmed in its view that the West lacks the political will to engage a forceful pushback.

There are five things Western democracies should do immediately to increase the costs of Russian subversion and pressure Putin to reevaluate his aggressive behavior.

First, every Western democracy should establish its own parliamentary investigative committee to map hostile foreign influence activities within its borders. Relevant activities include disinformation campaigns, covert intelligence operations, co-optation of local politicians, exploitation of local extremist groups, and economic pressure to realize geopolitical goals.

Congress has several committees investigating this threat in the United States, which has contributed to considerable growth in public awareness as details of Russian subversion activities have been brought to light. A similar parliamentary effort has just been launched in the British House of Commons, where it is already yielding major revelations about the work of Cambridge Analytica in conjunction with various Russian actors. Every European parliament should instigate a similar course of investigatory action since national lawmakers have the highest level of credibility when it comes to national security.



Second, dirty Russian money is the Achilles heel for Kremlin-linked oligarchs. While European countries have been reluctant to pursue this agenda, Americans have again stepped up to the plate, hitting the Kremlins friendliest oligarchs with a new round of sanctions that has seriously frightened supporters of the Russian leadership. While London is the most prominent nexus of dirty Russian money, other European cities such as Zurich and Berlin have also been harboring Putins oligarchs, their relatives, and their money. Now is the time to get tough on those who prop up the Russian regime and enable its destructive machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere.



Third, if Europe wants to stop Russian aggression, it cannot systematically provide funding for Putins regime. Given the lack of diversification of the Russian economy, Moscow relies almost exclusively on revenue from energy exports. For this reason, the Kremlin has developed Nord Stream-2, a controversial gas pipeline that would connect Russia directly to Germany, bypassing Eastern European countries. This project enables pure Russian political blackmail and must be stopped.



Not only will the completion of Nord Stream-2 increase German dependence on Russian energy, it will also provide the Kremlin with leverage for major strategic corruption known today as schroderization after the former German chancellor and current Putin ally. If Nord Stream-2 is built, it will become a funding tool for Putins elite in years to come. This is hardly how European energy security will be achieved. At the least, influence linkages in the lobbying for Nord Stream-2 must be thoroughly investigated. Even better would be the freezing of Nord Stream 2 construction until Russian occupying troops exit Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

Fourth, it is time for European governments to finally get real on countering pro-Kremlin disinformation. So far, only a few capitals are taking this threat seriously and dedicating resources and specialized personnel to study, map, and fight hostile information influence operations conducted by Russian entities and their local proxies. Most of the European research on this issue is still financed by US taxpayer-funded foundations and programs, with the United Kingdom also recently stepping up its game to counter Russian influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Although all major Western European allies have been hit by brutal disinformation attacks, there have not been any major policy shifts that would effect concrete pushback.



At the EU level, chief diplomatic and security bureaucrat Federica Mogherini has been sabotaging efforts to counter pro-Kremlin disinformation, despite numerous EU members asking her to reinforce and fund the specialist team stationed at the EU diplomatic body, the EEAS East STRATCOM Task Force. Incredibly, after three years of growing pressure, there are still only three EU specialists tasked with countering pro-Kremlin disinformation.



Fifth, every European country should adopt its own version of the Magnitsky Act. A legal instrument that sanctions major human right abusers is now in force in the United States, Canada, Britain, and the three Baltic republics. Other European countries may want to adopt such legislation in synchronization so that they cannot be easily singled out by Russian counter pressure. Meanwhile, other allies can lend support through collective action, should Russia retaliate with increased belligerence and subversive tactics.



We can win Cold War 2.0. First, however, we must recognize that we are facing a bellicose dictatorship that can only be reliably stopped with all the force the rule-based international order can bring to bear. At heart, this is what the Western liberal-democratic alliance stands for. Lets defend it.

As it was reported 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.

Read the original text at Atlantic Council.

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For now, it is known that the conflict occurred due to the question of the right on ownership of an apartment

The shooting took place in Kharkiv center, two people were injured as a result. This was reported by 057.ua.

For now, it is known that the conflict occurred due to the question of the right on ownership of an apartment.

According to the news agency information, the conflict started this morning, when the unknown came to evict Nataliya, Kharkiv resident, from the apartment which belonged to her ex-husband. After they got divorced, he sold it and the woman was not registered in the apartment.

Today people who introduced themselves as the representatives of the owner came to the apartment and started breaking the door.

It was informed that the representatives of the owner used firearms and injured two people.

Two people were firing from the guns, they injured my friends hand, and escaped afterwards. There were 30 of them, wearing tracksuits, Nataliya said.

The Kharkiv police reported that as a result of the incident two people were injured. The doctors examined a 33-year-old man and found injuries of upper lower limbs, a 48-year-old man got his face bruised and injured.

Seven people are taken to the police station. The investigators opened a criminal proceeding under the Criminal Code of Ukraine article on vandalism. The circumstances are being determined.
She noted that part of the gas will be transited through the Ukrainian territory

The German side took into consideration the position of Ukraine towards the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and thinks that it is necessary to keep gas transit through Ukraine. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany claimed this at the joint briefing with Petro Poroshenko as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

'We have already discussed this topic, we took into consideration the opinion of Ukraine's President on this issue. We also talked to the President of Russia and expressed the embarrassment of Ukraine. But, of course, the issue is about that the part of the gas will be transited through the Ukrainian territory, in other words, transit through Ukraine remains to be important. Of course, the political component of this issue must be taken into account, Merkel noted.

On April 9, Petro Poroshenko offered Germany an alternative to Nord Stream 2, claiming that the project is economically inefficient. He offered to supply the gas through Ukraine.

Poroshenko described Russia as an extremely non-reliable partner, adding that the implementation of Nord Stream II would lead to the economic and power isolation of Ukraine.

On the other hand, the politician said, the transit of the blue fuel via Ukraine will be much cheaper, and the respective supply mechanisms can be easily modernized. 'You can just ask us, instead of investing ten billion Euros into the construction of Nord Stream-2', he concluded.

Russias leading energy enterprise Gazprom and its partners intend to start implementing the Nord Stream-2 project worth almost 10 billion euros in April 2018. The 1,200-kilometers-long pipeline is to be laid through the Baltic Sea, linking Russia and Germany  bypassing Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States. The capacity will be twice larger than that of Nord Stream-1. The construction is to be complete by late 2019.
Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the President of Germany, discussed the peacekeeping mission in Donbas at the meeting in Berlin, as the press-office of Ukraines President reported.

The leaders have discussed the development of the situation in Donbas. They expressed disquietude due to the provocations of Russian militants. Ukraines President believes, that the deployment of a full UN peacekeeping mission on the occupied territory of Donbas will facilitate the stabilization in the region and provide an effective shift from constant Russian provocations to the peaceful settlement order, the message says.

At the meeting, they have also discussed a need to preserve and to intensify, if necessary, the anti-Kremlin sanctions.

Earlier, Poroshenko stated about the progress concerning the introduction of the peacekeeping mission in Donbas in the interview for Handelsblatt, a German newspaper.

As we reported earlier, Poroshenko in his speech at the Munich Security Conference stated that Russia had a chance to show its readiness to the compromise and agree to the peacekeepers on the entire territory of the occupied Donbas. Earlier, Kurt Volker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, said that Russias draft resolution, which provides bringing the peacekeepers to Donbas only along the confrontation line is unacceptable for the USA and the UN, as it will not ensure security, but only exacerbate the conflict.

Earlier, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Turkey and Finland stated that they were ready to bring the peacekeepers to Donbas.
Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk gave $150,000 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for Donald Trumps 20 minutes appearance through a video link to a conference in Kyiv

US special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's interference in the US presidential election in 2016, began investigating the donation of Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk to the Donald Trumps foundation. This was reported by The New York Times.

Investigators subpoenaed the Trump Organization this year for an array of records about business with foreign nationals. In response, the company handed over documents about a $150,000 donation that the Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, made in September 2015 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute appearance by Trump that month through a video link to a conference in Kiev.

Michael D. Cohen, the presidents personal lawyer whose office and hotel room were raided on Monday in an apparently unrelated case, solicited the donation. The contribution from Pinchuk, who has sought closer ties for Ukraine to the West, was the largest the foundation received in 2015 from anyone besides Trump himself.

The payment from Pinchuk is curious because it comes during a campaign and is from a foreigner and looks like an effort to buy influence, said Marcus S. Owens, a former head of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees tax-exempt organizations. He called the donation an unusual amount of money for such a short speech.

Mueller also ordered the Trump Organization to turn over documents, emails and other communications about several Russians, including some whose names have not been publicly tied to Trump, according to the three people, who would not be named discussing the ongoing investigation. The identities of the Russians were unclear.

As it was reported earlier, a team of the special counsel Robert Mueller's which is investigating Russias interference with elections in the United States has questioned Russian oligarchs who traveled to the US.

Mueller's team has also made an informal voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch who has not traveled to the US recently.

The investigators are asking whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump's presidential campaign and inauguration.

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PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia: Discover Opportunities forum will be held in the center of Geneva aimed at presenting Armenias investment attractiveness to Swiss businessmen.

The event, which will take place on April 12, is being implemented by the cooperation of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, Armenias Ministry of Economic Development and Investments and the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia and by the initiative and coordination of Armenias Trade Representative to Switzerland Hayk Hovhannisyan.

Hayk Hovhannisyan told ARMENPRESS that thanks to the advertising campaign launched by the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, they managed to collect so many participants a week before the event that they had to close the registration. Through the website of the Chamber, print magazine and online newspapers that are being distributed in Switzerland, many materials about this event were spread. As a result there were so many people registered a week before the event that the Chamber had to close the registration in their website. Its worth stating that there was a registration fee. We already have nearly 70 registrations from Switzerland and other countries, as well as Armenian and foreign businessmen who come to meet with the Armenian delegation consisting of 30 members, to get introduced on Armenias opportunities, Hayk Hovhannisyan said.

The Armenian delegation, which will include a number of businessmen and public officials, will be headed by President of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia Arsen Ghazaryan. The Swiss investors, consultants, medium and large distributors, other business circles will be introduced on Armenias overall economic attractiveness, financial-banking system, food and beverage industry, tourism, including ecotourism, as well as the countrys opportunities in winemaking, IT and renewable energy fields.

Presentations will be made by head of financial system development department of the Central Bank Ligia Ghazaryan, President of the State Tourism Committee Zarmine Zeytuntsyan, representative of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation Mariam Davtyan and etc.

The Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services and the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia will sign a memorandum of cooperation aimed at developing deeper and long-term cooperation. Another important agreement was reached over tourism. By the initiative of the State Tourism Committee we held talks with Baumeler large tourism agency and reached an agreement to launch an advertising campaign on Armenia travel attractiveness. We agreed that Baumeler will launch an online advertising campaign in ten days through Facebook, their online newspaper and Google search. We have already provided its finance from private sources. At the moment we are preparing the advertisement materials which will be available to several thousand potential Swiss tourists by the aforementioned information measures ahead of the tourism season. The Baumeler representative will attend our events, meet with Zarmine Zeytuntsyan to discuss the opportunities to further deepen the cooperation, the official said.

In addition, as there was a great interest towards the visit of the Armenian delegation, on the same day the Armenian delegation members will meet with Swiss businessmen at the Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva, will present their products, samples, marketing materials at mini-expo format, Hayk Hovhannisyan said.

In response to the question what are the expectations from the forum  to attract more investors or promote Armenian products in the Swiss market, Hayk Hovhannisyan stated: Taking into account that the forum will be attended by potential investors, as well as companies engaged in trade and business consulting, we will try to reach results at both directions, we are actively working on both paths. Hovhannisyan assured that the Armenian product can be competitive in Switzerland taking into account the taste and qualitative features. The Armenian goods are already somehow presented at the Swiss market, especially thanks to Armenian companies. According to Hayk Hovhannisyan, such events can make the Armenian names more recognizable and contribute to increase of sales.

The official reminded that Switzerland provides Armenia GSP privileged trade regime according to which several thousand product types are completely or partially exempt from import duties which is an additional impetus to promote exports.

As for tourism, Hayk Hovhannisyan said he sees a great opportunity in this field in connection with the overall interest of Swiss tourists. Swiss people like to travel, to visit countries they have not discovered yet. They like especially hiking, biking, historical tourism. They also can be very interested in Armenias rich Christian heritage.

He added that they agreed with the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services that they will organize the visit of the Swiss business delegation to Armenia in several months aimed at further strengthening the results of this business forum. The Chamber has a rich experience in developing international business ties. Recently the visits of business delegations to the US, Iran, Kazakhstan, Africa have been organized, and the organization works of the visit to China are in process.

Interview by Ani Nazaryan

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan






YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian parliament is debating the issue of ratifying the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership agreement with the European Union.

Deputy minister of foreign affairs Karen Nazaryan presented the agreement to the lawmakers for debates.

We believe that the effective actions of the executive body in the Armenia-EU relations should be accompanied with the support and trust of the legislative body. I believe that the cooperation agreement between Armenia and the EU is the result of this very support and trust, he said.

He mentioned that the agreement will strengthen political dialogue between Yerevan and Brussels, lay grounds for continuing economic and social reforms because the firm commitments for democracy, human rights and the rule of law are the foundation of the agreement.

With the agreement, stronger cooperation in the fields of energy, transportation and environmental issues will be created for the benefit of our people. The agreement marks a new era in the trade relations between Armenia and the EU. It will contribute to economic cooperation by improving the business environment, it will enable new opportunities to the businesses, for investments and jobs, Nazaryan said.

CEPA will guide the economic and political relations between Armenia and the EU to a higher level, he said.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenias deputy foreign minister Karen Nazaryan assures that there is no formulation in the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on closing the Metsamor nuclear power plant, reports Armenpress.

During the parliamentary debate of the CEPA ratification, the deputy FM, in response to the question of Vice Speaker of the Parliament Mikayel Melkumyan, stated that there is no talk on closure of the NPP in the CEPA, adding that after the release of the Agreement such reports were circulated ungrounded.

In the energy field we agreed with the EU to cooperate based on the principles of partnership, mutual interest, transparency and predictability. This partnership, in addition to other issues, must also include the early adoption of the road map or action plan for safe decommissioning of the Metsamor NPP. In other words, the talk is about early adoption of the road map, rather than about the closure of the NPP, the deputy FM noted.

He said according to the Agreement the sides agreed to take into account Armenias features, the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the EUs experience while cooperating in the field of nuclear safety. He said replacing the NPP with the new one is not their desire, but the main requirement of Armenias energy development strategy.

The deputy minister said the 42nd article of the Agreement mentions about the necessity of replacement of a new power plant bloc, as well as ensuring conditions for Armenias energy safety and sustainable development. The article is based on this fact, rather than on closure of the NPP after the signing of the Agreement. There is no such provision in the Agreement, Karen Nazaryan stated.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia hopes that the EU will soon provide the action program of launching the visa liberalization, deputy FM Karen Nazaryan said during parliamentary debates on ratifying the CEPA with the EU in response to a question from opposition Yelk faction.

This program represents a reforms process. The Armenian side didnt wait for the discussion of the elements of this action program and has already started several legislative changes which will be part of this program, he said.

He said that Armenia has already began implementing actions which are preconditions for launching dialogue over visa liberalization. The Deputy FM said he hopes that it will deserve a worthy assessment from the EU.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The European Union will increase financial assistance for Armenia for ensuring the effective implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), deputy foreign minister Karen Nazaryan said during parliamentary debates on ratifying CEPA.

Armenia will be provided the planned volume of EU assistance for 2017-2020, which will be approximately 170-175 million Euros, he said.

The deputy FM added that the EU has already approved the document on providing the aid.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. La Stampa Italian newspaper interviewed Serzh Sargsyan who paid an official visit to the Holy See and working visit to Italy as President of Armenia on April 4-6 (his tenure ended on April 9).

ARMENPRESS presents the full interview which is titled Its time for the Parliament of Italy to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Armenias President Sargsyan is in Rome on a working visit: I know that President Mattarella wants to pay tribute to the memory of the victims in Yerevan.

Today there is no progress in the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh because Azerbaijans expectations are unrealistic.

-Mr. President, what messages did you bring in terms of your institutional meetings and what responses did you receive on main topics relating to your country more than a quarter century later since independence?

-On Thursday, we together with the Pope participated in the inaugural ceremony of the statue of St. Gregory of Narek in Vatican who was proclaimed Doctor of the Church as an acknowledgement of efforts aimed at maintaining Christian values by the Armenian people. President Mattarella told me that he plans to visit Armenia. During the meeting with the representatives of the two chambers of the Parliament we highlighted the importance of developing inter-parliamentary relations, especially taking into account the fact that we have been inspired also by the Italian model in the process of transitioning to a parliamentary system.

-Did you also meet with the leaders of political structures?

-Of course, we had a chance to meet with the leaders of the parties. I am very happy to state that they also will visit Armenia in the near future. We are excited with the positions of these figures towards our country.

-President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan urged Italy, as an OSCE chairing country, to do what the previous chairing countries never did  to visit Nagorno Karabakh. What is your opinion on this matter?

-Nagorno Karabakh is a vital issue. I want to note that both President Mattarella and President of the Senate Casellati support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format. There is also the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed between Armenia and the European Union which includes the same formulations on Artsakh as used by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to respect the three main principles for the conflict settlement: non-use of force or threat of force, equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and territorial integrity of states. After the ratification this Agreement will become a law for all member states of the EU. Today there is no progress in the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh because Azerbaijans expectations are unrealistic. The EU must convince Baku to refrain from dreams, and in that case the Minsk Group will be effective. In this sense I asked President Mattarella to hurry up Brussels.

-Can it be the start of Artsakhs recognition process?

-Recognition, of course, supposes security, when it is established, we will first recognize the independence of Artsakh. Recognizing the independence now would mean halting the negotiations. The important is the recognition by Baku.

-It seems Aliyev is not inclined to cooperation, quite the contrary

-Its not the first time Aliyev makes aggressive statements, and he is not the first Azerbaijani president making such remarks. The former presidents as well were making the following statements: We will visit Stepanakert in a week to drink tea. Fortunately, this didnt happen. The politician should never set before him an insurmountable bar because by that way he hurts himself. When Aliyev announces that Armenias historical territory is Azerbaijans land, he should remember that Azerbaijan appeared on the political map for the first time just 100 years before, but we will mark the 2800th anniversary of capital Yerevan in autumn on 2018.

-Coming to the Genocide: World leaders plant trees in the Genocide Memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, for memory of the victims. Pope John Paul II, Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin planted trees here, but there is no name of any Italian president here. Why?

-Because during these 25 years no Italian president visited Armenia. I hope after the visit of President Mattarella one more tree will be planted in this park. This will be an important political message, but the decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide must be adopted by the Parliament. Italians had a great contribution to the humanity development, and the genocide is the opposite action of it.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Electricity production in Armenia in the past decade grew 27% - reaching 8 billion kWh / hr from 6 billion kWh / hr.

At the same time, Armenian electricity exports to Georgia and Iran grew 196%. In particular, Armenia produced and exported 10 billion kWh / hr electricity to Iran in 2010-2017 as part of a gas-for-electricity agreement with Iran.

The diversification of the energy system is a process which is implemented in a lengthy period of time under an interconnected principle. A process which has been implemented with noticeable success in the past decade, and which gave its result in the form of growth in exports and imports.

In 2010, the new power unit of the Yerevan TPP operated through a combined steam cycle was commissioned, with a rated capacity is 240 MW and Mechanical efficiency of 49%.

In 2008, the construction of the third high voltage power transmission line between Armenia and Iran began, with a total bandwidth of more than 1000MW.

114 small hydro power stations have been constructed in Armenia in 10 years. As of 2018, 184 HPPs operate in the country.

A latest example is the framework agreement signed between the government, Debet Hydro and Robins, an American company, on constructing a 76MW HPP (Shnogh) on the Lori province.

During this period, a new breath was given to the Armenian energy security giant. The nuclear power station no longer limits itself with annual maintenance.

In 2016, the unprecedented project of modernizing the power unit and extending its life cycle began. As result, the NPPs production capacity will increase 10% in 2019, and the lifecycle will be extended at least for 10 years.

Upon presenting results of negotiations with the Russian side, President Serzh Sargsyan had announced that they will also implement the phased introduction of new nuclear units also in the future.

Priviledges gas tariffs were set for greenhouse and reprocessing organization since 2017, and socially vulnerable families began benefiting from decreased gas and electricity tariffs.

Electricity supplies to consumers grew nearly 23% in 10 years.

Projects of modernizing the distribution networks are continuing.

In the coming 10 years, Electric Networks of Armenia will direct nearly 1 billion dollars for modernizing the countrys distribution networks and expanding the automated calculation system of substations.

As result, in 2028 Armenia will have no more than 6,4% loss level  an indicator in line with European standards.

As a result of President Sargsyans visit to France, Schneider Electric and Tashir Group of Companies opened a center of excellence in the national polytechnic university, enabling modern solutions for students.

An innovation center will be located with a state-of-the-art lab. Tashir charity fund plans to provide 6000 annual scholarships to students as part of the project.

Issues relating to energy balance are under constant attention. In this context, Armenia is adopting an entirely new  Smart approach, which is the key of the 2008-2018 state energy policy, the result being significant growth of diversification, and the density of energy from renewable sources in the structure of domestic consumption reached 42,5% from 20%.

4 industrial-scale solar power stations were commissioned in 2017. A number of companies launched solar panel production.

President Sargsyan said that Armenia has great potential for development of solar energy. With the purpose of creating an attractive field for investors, several legislative reforms were implemented in the past period, by using the best international experience.

In 2017, the ministry of energy infrastructures and natural resources signed a memorandum with Axioma Global S L on establishing 100-150MW wind power stations in Armenia. Monitoring substations have already been built.

An energy saving project was launched in 2012, with efficiency being tested on 160 buildings and 9 external lighting systems.

Nearly 2 billion dollar investments which have been implemented and are being implemented in 10 years have brought serious progress for ensuring energy security.

Investments include:

2009  Completion of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline  135 million dollars

2008-2010  Renovation of 17 substations with 110KW capacity  40 million dollars

2007-2010  First phase introduction of SCADA communication system  17,5 million dollars

2007-2010 - Yerevans combined steam cycle power unit construction  260 million dollars

2012  Completion of construction and modernization of Hrazdan TPPs 5th power unit  465 million dollars

2009-2014  Renovation of Gyumri 2 substation  14,6 million Euros

2013-2016  Construction of gas distribution network of Meghri and Agarak  2 million dollars

2013-2017  Construction of Hrazdan-Shinuhayr overhead electricity transmission lines  28,4 million dollars

2016-2018  Construction of Noyemberyan and Lalvar overhead electricity transmission lines  5,2 million dollars

2016-2018  Reconstruction of Haghtanak, Ashnak and Yerevan TPP and Vanadzor 1 substations  48 million dollars

2016-2018  Reconstruction of Agarak and Shinuhayr substations  15,9 million dollars

2017-2019  SCADA system expansion and construction of reserve regulation management center  12 million dollars

2015-2019  Construction of 400KW Voltage Iran-Armenia overhead power transmission line  107,9 million Euros

2018-2020  Construction of converter station and substations of 400 KW voltage Armenia-Georgia power line  180 million Euros

2015-2019  Extension of lifecycle of NPPs 2nd power unit  300 million dollar

A part of the investment projects with a total value of 2 billion 100 million dollars of the past decade are still in process. A wide circle of partners is selected, from Russia to US, from Iran to the EU.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
Armenian Armed Forces have unprecedented arsenal FILM

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. During the 10-year tenure of Serzh Sargsyan as 3rd President of Armenia, enormous actions have been carried out for acquiring new weaponry for the military and enhancing the countrys defense capabilities.

The Armenian Armed Forces have advanced weapons systems such as the Iskander ballistic missiles, Smerch, Tochka-U missile systems, which are capable of striking long range targets, even Baku.

The process of enhancing defense capacities is a continuous process, and in this context Armenian military industry is under great attention recently, which features quite promising production such as unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous systems etc.

President Sargsyans top priorities in office were ensuring the security of Armenia and Artsakh and strengthening the defense system. This was all greatly contributed by the fact that the Commander in Chief not only has great experience of working in security structures, but also had direct participation in the Artsakh War, and knows better than anyone both the price of peace and the significance of a powerful military.

The process of improving and developing the skills and capacities of the armed forces, as well as the modernization of the arsenal is under focus for realizing the vision of a powerful, intellectual and modern military.

It is noteworthy that the practice of military exercises has been elevated to a completely new level during these years, in terms of both scenarios and volume. Great attention has been given to international experience, which is contributed by various multilateral military exercises, where Armenia is involved as a CSTO member and NATO partner.

This decade also stood out by the fact that Azerbaijan adopted a conduct of exerting pressure on the Armenian side through border tensions, by failing to extort unilateral concessions from the Armenian side at the negotiations table. Naturally, this couldnt remain unanswered, and it was publicly stated that the reaction to the Azerbaijani provocations will be punitive in nature because only such tough actions can sober up Baku.

President Sargsyan has not once stated that Armenia doesnt want war, but at the same time it is ready to resist any challenge.

The culmination of the Azerbaijani adventurism was the April 2016 aggression against Artsakh, which was a serious challenge for the Armenian military.

As revealed later, Azerbaijan was planning to reach Stepanakert through a detailed premeditated blitzkrieg.

However, due to the bravery of Armenian soldiers and the literate actions of the commanding staff, Aliyevs plans to capture Artsakh through the use of weapons failed. President Sargsyan had a very significant role in this all also, because it was also due to his military experience and sober assessment of the situation that it was possible to stop the enemy and avoid public chaos.

The April War also became an occasion to raise the existing problems of the military and implement reforms for new realities and challenges.

The most noticeable part of the reforms which were implemented is perhaps the strengthening of all border positions, enhancement of reconnaissance measures, installment of video surveillance devices and night vision systems.

Despite the actions which were implemented, the leadership of the country had the realization of the need for more fundamental reforms in the security sector, which resulted in the introduction of the Nation-Army concept and the Maximum Result with Available Resources strategic concept.

At the instruction of the President, the 7-year modernization program of the military was developed and introduced, which is unprecedented both in terms of time and target. Essentially, the 2018-2024 modernization program is the roadmap for realization of the Nation-Army concept.

The program has all prerequisites for providing a leap development in the military and becoming a success. Moreover, several actions which have already been taken  relocating the Monte Melkonyan military college to Dilijan, introducing two new contractual service programs, the launch of Ditaket, a massive project of making the military more transparent, creation of the military insurance fund, developing a new social security package once again prove that a unique attitude exists for the Armenian Armed Forces, because it is the only guarantor of the security of Armenia and Artsakh.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Significant progress was recorded in the tourism field during the ten years of tenure of 3rd President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. If in 2007 the number of tourists visiting Armenia was 510.000, in 2017 this number reached nearly 1.500.000. Mainly people from Russia, Iran, Georgia, US and several European countries visit Armenia, and over the past years drastic increase in number of tourists from the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Japan, India, China and elsewhere was recorded. Its interesting to note that during these years the number of young people visiting Armenia also increased greatly, Armenpress reports.

In 2008, based on the achievements recorded in the tourism field, as well as on the existing challenges, Armenias government adopted a new tourism development concept which defined ambitious goals for the fields development and the action plan for reaching these goals was developed. Today we can already state that the concept already gave tangible results.

Not only the number of tourists visiting Armenia increased, but also the domestic tourism activated a lot. Compared to 2007, the number of domestic tourists tripled, exceeding 1.000.000 (this is mostly thanks to a state policy, as well as introduction of social packages).

The rapid growth of the field, as well as the favorable investment environment in the country promoted the drastic development of tourism infrastructures. Its worth to state that at the moment there are over 540 hotels in Armenia which surpasses the figure of 2017 by over two times. Moreover, 60% of hotels are located in the provinces and rural settlements.

The diversity of hotel facilities also contributes to tourism development  there are already more than 30 hostels, more than 250 rural houses in the provinces and rural settlements. Armenia became attractive also for world leading hotel networks, such as Radisson, Marriott, IBIS, Hilton and etc.

One of the main and the most important goals of the state policy in tourism field is tourisms decentralization  from Yerevan to provinces, restoration and maintenance of local traditions, boosting community economy.

The diversification of tourism result is also important: Armenia is presented as an attractive destination for religious, agro, eco, adventure, wine, spa tourism.

The traditional festivals covering nearly 30 topics develop by the state assistance and gradually become more recognizable in the international market. Its not a coincidence that for instance according to the statistics presented by National Geographic magazine, Armenia is included in the list of five leading countries as an interesting and affordable country in terms of cuisine.

Pope Francis visit to Armenia in 2016 had a significant impact on the development of religious tourism as his visit was titled Pilgrimage to the first Christian country.

In 2010, Wings of Tatev ropeway was constructed in Armenia. It was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest ropeway in the world that moves without stops.

Extreme tourism is actively developing. Yell Extreme Park several kilometers away from Ijevan operates in Yenokavan which is famous for its Zip lines, the longest of which is 750 meters, the flight is 200-300 meters high. In addition, works have launched for constructing the worlds longest Zip line which will be about three kilometers long.

Among other programs aimed at tourism development are the development programs of Gyumris Kumayri historical center, as well as the tourism development programs in nearly 60 villages being implemented in cooperation with the UNDP and the World Bank.

The open sky policy run by Armenia also contributed to development of tourism. At the moment 28 airlines operate regular flights from Armenia. In addition, as a result of facilitation of border passing procedures Armenia became more available for foreigners. The list of countries, for the citizens of which the visa requirement is eliminated, increased by more than 40.

Its worth stating that Armenia has become one of the two international educational centers of the worlds tour guides. Armenia is known to the world as a safe country for tourists as evidenced by foreigners visiting the country, as well as by the leading periodicals, and Gallup that included Armenia in the list of the safest countries.

At the end its necessary to state that Armenia will not be satisfied with the existing achievements in the future and will continue taking steps aimed at developing tourism. The evidence of this is the Governments 2017-2022 program which set a goal to at least double the achievements of this field, reaching the number of only domestic tourists at least 3 million. The State Tourism Committee of the ministry of economic development and investments and the Tourism Development Foundation of Armenia have been created for these ambitious purposes.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The World Congress on Information Technologies 2019 will be held in Armenia. During those days Yerevan will become the worlds IT capital, reports Armenpress. On the sidelines of the Congress Armenia will host more than 2000 businessmen, public officials, investors and renowned scientists. This Congress would be impossible to hold in Armenia without the state assistance and attention. In 2008 the Government adopted new, IT development 10-year strategy, setting main priority the development of the field, the strengthening of Armenias competitive potential and formation of leading information society. Staring from 2008 funds from the state budget were provided to respective state bodies coordinating the IT field.

The growth rates of the field were so fast that soon the ArmTec international forum was held. In line with development the DigiTec Expo is being organized in Armenia.

Over the past ten years a number of international agreements both with states (Egypt, India and etc.) and international leading companies (Microsoft, Alcatel, HP, INTEL, IBM, Simens, Oracl, Cisco) were signed. The Presidential Award was defined. Since 2010 this award is being bestowed to people whose investments in IT field led to information developments and positively affected the humanity. This award brought Armenia specialists such as Steve Wozniak, Mario Mazzola, Eugene Kaspersky. They not only visited Armenia, but also presented investment programs later in the future.

The President constantly awards distinguished students and school-children in the IT field. During 2016-2017 Armenia introduced the legislative package on state assistance to the IT field. Thanks to this law the tax privileges became available for new economic entities.

In 2014 Armat engineering laboratory establishment program launched by the initiative of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises and assistance of the government, local and international companies. There are already 220 laboratories in Armenia and Artsakh.

Thanks to the rapid growth of the field, the IT sector became among the fields in the labor market where the quantitative and qualitative demand of the labor force surpassed the supply by several times. Thanks to the development of the field Sam and Sylva Simonian founded the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies in 2011 which today has branches in Gyumri, Dilijan and Stepanakert.

It is accepted to say that Armenia is an exporting country in the IT field. More than 50% of products and services is being exported. Most of the exports, 60%, is directed to the USA, Canada, 18% to Europe, 16.6% to Russia-CIS.

The field of telecommunication also took the development path where there are 33 companies. In the recent years the number of jobs also increases annually by at least 10%, surpassing 15.000 in 2017. The average salary is over 1000 USD. The productivity also increased, reaching nearly 50.000 USD per employee in 2018 compared to 29.300 USD of 2008.

The ongoing active steps in the field already left their traces on the overall economy. Since 2008 20% growth in the average annual turnover was recorded in the field. In 2017 it reached 30%, surpassing 760.000.000 USD. In 2008 this number was just 111.300.000 USD.

The number of companies increases annually by 10%. The number of actively operating companies surpassed 600 in 2017, but their total number including the newly-established companies surpasses 1000. In 2017 only 110 new companies were registered.

Such IT growth also solves a serious demographic issue. The field not only provides new jobs to solve the daily issues, but also forms an intellectual middle class which can have its great contribution to the countrys development. The average salary of employees working in the field is 2000-2700 USD.

Among the Armenian IT achievements in international platforms was the deployment of Joomeg in Armenia which enables the worlds more than 300.000 publishers to create digital, interactive magazines, catalogs, e-books and etc. Picsart app today has more than 100.000.000 active users across the world. Soft Construct opened offices in 14 countries of the world, participates in more than 120 exhibitions annually.

Among the steps outlined for 2018 are to reach the computer equipment of educational institutions, state and local self-governance structures 100%, increase access to internet 90%, make the share of online services in services provided by state bodies 80%, the revenues of the IT field - 1 billion, exports  700.000.000 USD, involved venture capital  more than 700 million USD.

Future belongs to technological progress, and Armenia, judging from the aforementioned facts, is moving forward in the IT field.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Upon receiving the news from Artsakh about the massacre in the Maraga village on April 10, 1992, the Against Legal Arbitrariness NGO was the first to document the happening. Today, director of the NGO Larisa Alaverdyan is voicing the horrendous events and calls on to pay greater attention to the study of these events and legal processes relating to it, because crimes do not have an expiry date.

Its no coincidence that after two-three days of the events Baroness Caroline Cox visited the village. People were massacred in Maraga because they were Armenians, helpless and with no possibility of resistance  the slaughter was planned in these very conditions, Alaverdyan told reporters, adding that the massacres of Maraga differ from the genocidal actions in Sumgait, Baku, Ganja and other more than 300 settlements with one thing, that these events were committed by the newly independent Azerbaijan, whereas the others by the Soviet Azerbaijan.

Larisa Alaverdyan said Maraga was a very developed and wealthy village where no military operations took place.

Military operations of those times happened near Talish, Mataghis and other locations, but in case by understanding that there is a danger almost everybody was evacuated from Maraga, few were left, who didnt leave Maraga due to being ill or having small children. Azerbaijanis clearly saw this, and by understanding that helpless, ill people and women with small children can be there they planned these actions. This was a genocidal plan, she said.

Alaverdyan said that the organization had prepared a package already in 1996, taking testimonies and eye witness accounts about the massacres and handed it over to the government of Artsakh, who were able to find international organizations. The case was presented to the UN Human Rights Commission. One hearing on the matter took place in the commission.

We were further finding people who were taken hostage, the killings were done in an unspeakable manner  witnesses of the killings were developing mental issues and insanity after seeing it, she said.

Alaverdyan said it is about the killing of nearly 5 dozen people, 5 dozen hostages, as well as 19 people who are still missing. Detailed work was done with hostages.

This was committed by the modern Azerbaijan, this state is at least responsible to say what happened to these people. We once again decided that a legal package must be formed and taken to international organizations. This isnt amateur level work, it required experts of comprehensive group, who must work, and have the responsibility in the future to report to the people  what happened, she said.

Marina Grigoryan, author of the Ordinary Genocide project, added that massive work is being done in the information sector, however this is already a legal issue.

Azerbaijan never talks about Maraga, this is strange but reasonable  they confirmed that the Armenophobic policy of Azerbaijan doesnt have anything to do with who is in power  the policies and methods are the same. Azerbaijan is constantly reminding us about it  two years ago they almost repeated Maraga in Talish. Nuremberg is yet to come, and I am happy that our MPs and politicians are spreading this idea  that Azerbaijan must be subjected to a Nuremberg process, she said.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS/ARTSAKHPRESS. A brutal crime was committed in the Maraga village based on the policy of ethnic cleansing and occupying Artsakh without Armenians, Davit Babayan  spokesperson of the President of Artsakh, said commenting on the massacres committed by the Azerbaijani forces in Maraga on April 10, 1992.

Taking into account the impunity factor, we see how Azerbaijan becomes more hateful and fascist. The international community should condemn the crime committed in Maraga. Not condemning it will create new grounds for repetition of similar crimes in different parts of the world. Recognition of this massacre by the international community is one of our key and priority tasks, Davit Babayan said.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Armenia Tian Erlong has no doubts that Armenian-Chinese relations will continue to develop irrespective of the governance model, the Ambassador told the reporters after Armen Sarkissians swearing-in ceremony. I think this is a historical event when a country shifts to a parliamentary model. I am convinced that the friendly relations will be preserved and will develop further under the new conditions, ARMENPRESS reports Tian Erlong as saying.

Armen Sarkissian took the Oath of Office of President of Armenia midday on April 9 at a special session of the Armenian Parliament. Sarkissian was sworn into office by placing his right hand on the original book of the Constitution of Armenia and a 7th century Bible.

By assuming office of President of Armenia, I swear to be committed to the Constitution of Armenia, to be impartial during fulfillment of my powers, to be guided solely by state and pan-national interests and to contribute my entire strength for the strengthening of national unity. May God help me, Sarkissian said.

The swearing-in was followed by the national anthem of Armenia, and remarks and blessings from Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II.

April 9 marks Armenias transitioning to a parliamentary system, and the end of tenure of President Serzh Sargsyan.

In accordance to the Constitution, the government has resigned. Cabinet members will serve as acting ministers until a new government is formed.

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia showed by its own example that in practice developing relations in all directions is not senseless, and vice the versa, that policy is useful for the given country, ARMENPRESS reports Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a documentary film called The Patient Negotiator telling about the 10 years of the tenure of Armenias 3rd President Serzh Sargsyan.

Its not right to put a false choice in front of post-Soviet states  to be either with Russia or the West. Its a totally ideologized, politicized approach, and the fact that Armenia insisted on having such relations with the EU that accept Armenias rights and obligations in other integration processes was a right step, Lavrov said.

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
One day after the FBI raided the officesas well as the home and hotel roomof Donald Trumps personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, reportedly seizing documents related to Cohens hush money $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the feds now want more documents about the Daniels deal.

But this time, federal prosecutors are going straight to Trumps private business to get those documents, according to a report Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal. (Note that the Journal article is behind a paywall, but a summary of the report may be read online at this link.)

On Tuesday afternoon, NBC News reported that Daniels is now officially cooperating with federal investigators in their investigation of the hush money payoff.

Trump has denied that he was aware that Cohen made the payment and entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Daniels over the sexual relationship in which Daniels alleges she engaged with Trump in 2006.

But federal prosecutors in New York apparently are not fully buying Trumps denial, and have put in a formal request to the Trump Organization to hand over documents that may shed light on the Daniels payoff.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was appointed by Trump on an interim basis after Trump fired the previous U.S. attorney there, Preet Bharara. But Berman has been recused from the investigation into the Cohen investigation and was not involved in the decision to raid Coehns offices and homes, according to media reports Tuesday.

In addition to documents regarding the payment to Daniels, prosecutors also want the Trump Organization to turn over any records relating to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who also says that she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007. McDougal received a $150,000 payoff from the National Enquirer tabloid, owned by close Trump friend and loyalist David Pecker, to maintain her silence about the alleged affair.

In addition to suing Trump and Cohen to be released from her silence agreement, Daniels is also suing Cohen for defamation, saying that he called her a liar for claiming that she had sex with Trump. But on Tuesday, Cohen asked a federal judge in California to throw that lawsuit out of court.

But in his court filing Tuesday, Cohen claimed that his statement characterizing Daniels claims of the affair as not true was nothing but a figurative, hyperbolic expression.

The statement by Mr. Cohen is not defamatory as a matter of law, but rather is hyperbole, the court filing said.

Also on Tuesday, Daniels lawyer Michael Avenattiwho previously said that he would be releasing a forensic sketch of a man who allegedly threatened Daniels over the Trump story in a Las Vegas parking lotannounced that he will delay releasing that sketch in light of the raids on Cohens offices. He did not give a date for when he now planned to release the sketch.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
NANTERRE, FranceA lawsuit filed with the High Court in Nanterre alleges the late Prince Saud al-Faisal had porn films made for his private consumption, but never paid the bill before he died.

The lawsuit was filed late in 2017, but details of the case only came to light recently when evidence was submitted to the High Court. According to a report in Newsweek, the suit was filed by a French concierge company, SARL Atyla, and claims Prince Saud al-Faisalwho served as Saudi Arabia's foreign minister from 1975 to 2015commissioned adult movies featuring a Moroccan woman, with whom he enjoyed a close relationship, and a well-known French porn star. The names of the women have not been revealed. Prince Saud al-Faisal died on July 9, 2015.

The suit was filed after Prince Saud al-Faisals heirs reportedly refused to pay the 90,00 euros bill for the movies.

News of the lawsuit comes as Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on an official visit to France as part of his global tour to promote his cultural agenda. The lawsuit is not the only fly in the ointment, however, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans sister has a warrant for her arrest in France after she reportedly ordered a bodyguard in 2016 to beat up a worker at her Paris apartment.

As for the SARL Atyla lawsuit, The Locala French news agencyreports the company said it has not yet entered the films it created for Prince Saud al-Faisal into evidence, but could do so if the bill remains unpaid.
Nestle is launching a KitKat made with ruby chocolate in the UK next week.

Rolling out exclusively into Tesco, the four-finger KitKat Ruby is coated with ruby chocolate, which is sourced from ruby cocoa beans and described as having an intense berry-fruitiness taste without the addition of flavour or colour.

Ruby chocolate was unveiled last year by Barry Callebaut. The global chocolate supplier said it had taken years of work at its research & development centres and Germanys Jacobs University to develop a process to unlock the colour and flavour from the beans, which are sourced from around the world.

The KitKat Ruby was launched in Japan and South Korea as KitKat Chocolatory Sublime Ruby in January, and the UK is the first country in Europe to receive the product. Following its roll-out to Tesco stores next week, it will be launched across Europe and the Americas.

Ruby chocolate is a big innovation in confectionery and we are very proud that KitKat is the first major brand in the UK to feature this exciting new chocolate, said Nestles UK confectionery marketing director Alex Gonnella.

Barry Callebaut has said ruby chocolate can be used in a range of applications, including moulding and as an ice cream coating, but does not recommend bakery applications, as the colour would be lost. Callebaut added that mixing ruby chocolate with cream would also result in colour loss.

Beverley Dunkley, head of the Barry Callebaut UK chocolate academy, will be talking about sugar reduction at the British Society of Baking Spring Conference 2018 this month.
Waitrose has pledged to remove takeaway disposable coffee cups from its shops by this autumn.

The retailer is to initially remove disposable cups from nine branches from 30 April before axing them in all stores in a phased programme by the autumn. The initial nine stores are: Banbury, Billericay, Ipswich, Newmarket, Norwich, Sudbury, Wymondham, Upminster and the Little Waitrose in Fitzroy Street.

Waitroses move comes as use of disposable coffee cups is under scrutiny, with many businesses introducing discounts in a bid to encourage consumers to reuse cups. Earlier this year, the government was urged to introduce a 25p latte levy on disposable coffee cups, although this seems to have been temporarily abandoned.

We realise this is a major change, but we believe removing all takeaway disposable cups is the right thing to do for our business and are confident the majority of customers will support the environmental benefits, said Waitrose sustainability and responsible sourcing head Tor Harris.

It underlines our commitment to plastic and packaging reduction and our aim is to deliver this as quickly as possible.

Members of the supermarkets loyalty scheme, myWaitrose, will still be able to get free tea or coffee from their shops self-serve machine, but will be asked to bring reusable cup.

Waitrose recently pledged to not sell any own-label food in black plastic beyond 2019 and committed to make all own-label packaging widely recyclable, reusable, or home compostable by 2025.
Putting tougher restrictions on midwives and birth centers may raise costs without saving lives, advocates say

Impulsive legislative action over four infant deaths at a Cary natural birth center operated by midwives could limit access to a healthy, lower-cost alternative for expectant mothers, says one of North Carolina's top nurse midwives. We may fall further behind other states in access to midwifery as a result.said Suzanne Wertman, president of the N.C. Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives. The national organization has set midwifery standards for education and practice since 1929, emphasizing pregnancy, childbirth, and gynecologic and reproductive health.from the past 30 years, said Wertman, who is on the clinical faculty at UNC-Wilmington.The Lancet medical journal in a 2014 series on midwifery said global experts recommend increasing the use of midwives to improve maternal and newborn outcomes, reduce rates of unnecessary interventions, and reduce costs. Only 10 percent of U.S. births are attended by a midwife. In many other developed nations, the rate is between 50 and 75 percent, and they achieve better outcomes.The peer-reviewed PLOS|One study released in February ranked North Carolina worst among all U.S. states for taking full advantage of midwives' training and abilities.As states better integrated midwives in their health-care systems, they tended to have higher rates of spontaneous vaginal births, vaginal births after a cesarean delivery, and lower rates of premature birth, low birthweight, neonatal death, and interventions by obstetricians, such as the use of forceps or vacuum.All of North Carolina's birth centers are nationally accredited by the American Association of Birth Centers.Wertman said.But lawmakers and some medical groups have called birth centers' safety into question after four newborns died over a six-month span at the Baby+Co. site in Cary. The natural birth center has delivered 1,200 babies since it opened in October 2014.state Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, chairman of the House Health, and Health Care Reform committees, told the News & Observer of Raleigh. He asked the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to launch an investigation.DHHS spokeswoman Kelly Haight told Carolina Journal.Haight said.She provided a letter sent April 6 by Deputy Secretary for Health Services Mark Benton to Ste'Keira Shepperson, manager of Baby+Co.'s Cary center.Benton said.A two- to three-day review by three or more DHHS personnel would include examination of patient records and center policies, and interviews with staff and parents of the deceased babies. Files would be reviewed for all stillborn babies, and newborn deaths within 10 days of delivery over the past 12 months.Benton said no regulatory fines or penalties would be imposed, but a narrative summary of findings would be made public.Margaret Buxton, clinical director for Baby+Co., said in an email.said Buxton, who teaches at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Baby+Co. has other birth centers in Charlotte; Winston-Salem; Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee; and Wheat Ridge, Colorado.According to information provided by Baby+Co., its facilities operate in collaboration with leading health systems, and under direction of leading physician groups near the centers. Midwives and birth centers are supposed to deal only with low-risk pregnancies, and transfer care of patients if high-risk or emergency situations evolve.The Cary site is linked to WakeMed Health. The Charlotte and Winston-Salem sites work with Novant Health. The hospitals collaborate in the design ofthat are strictly maintained, according to the company.Risk screenings and safety drills are conducted, surveillance data are reviewed daily, weekly, and quarterly, and clear protocols are in place for transferring emergency patients to a hospital.Kate Bauer, executive director of the American Association of Birth Centers, told CJ the organization agrees birth centers should be regulated by state licensure, but based on best practices rather than onerous regulations. Restrictions going beyond that - such as requiring a birthing center to get a certificate-of-need from the state before it can open or expand - make birth centers needlessly expensive and less attractive for pregnant women or midwives.Bauer said regulation should be based on evidence and national industry standards that have been proven safe and effective.she said.Fetal deaths at birth centers, according to her organization's National Birth Center Study II, were 0.47 per 1,000 live births. Newborn mortality rates were 0.40 per 1,000 births. Both were comparable to low-risk hospital births, Bauer said. Only 1.9 percent of women or newborns developed complications during labor or after birth requiring an urgent transfer to a hospital.AABC also says deliveries at birth centers typically are roughly half the cost of deliveries at hospitals when there are no complications.Birth centers may not be licensed or regulated in North Carolina, but they face serious scrutiny when a problem occurs, Wertman said. Like hospitals and other health care settings, they conduct reviews, even for deliveries that are "near-misses."Wertman said.The American Association of Birth Centers can send experts to conduct reviews. Birth centers routinely bring in other outside experts.Wertman said. The federal Centers for Disease Control said there were 870 infant deaths in North Carolina in 2016. The CDC lists the state's infant mortality rate at 7.2 per 1,000 live births. That surpasses the national rate of 5.9. Only 11 states have worse rates than North Carolina.Wertman said while Baby+Co.'s story was a tragedy, deaths at hospitals are far more troubling. She suggests more fully integrating certified nurse midwives into the health care practice while eliminating regulations that push more costly care by doctors and hospitals.she said. Since she makes most of her deliveries in a hospital setting, she doesn't want to create an us-versus-them battle.Wertman says birthing centers are the correct model to deliver babies because it's their sole focus. Center have lower infection rates than hospitals, and don't have systemic issues large hospitals encounter, including
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Raleigh, NC 27699-2001

news@dhhs.nc.gov (919) 855-4840

RALEIGH Today the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released its Health Equity Report for 2018, which shows progress and areas for continued improvement for a healthier North Carolina.said Cornell Wright, executive director of the N.C. Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities.For example, the report highlights the infant mortality rate is 7.2 per 1000 births - well above the national average. Further, this topline number, itself disappointing, masks significant racial disparities, with African American and American Indian babies two to three times more likely to die than white babies.North Carolina has taken steps in recent years to address this gap and decrease the infant mortality rate. The state's collaborative Perinatal Health Strategic Plan focuses on improving healthcare for women and men, strengthening families and communities, and addressing social and economic inequities. Some key elements include supporting women and men to be healthier before and between pregnancies, including increased access to affordable healthcare and provision of tobacco cessation treatment and counseling, pregnancy intendedness through reproductive life planning and access to highly effective contraceptives, and addressing social determinants of health inclusive of institutional racism and its impact on families and communities.The cost of healthcare continues to impact minorities in North Carolina at a higher rate than whites. Overall, 15 percent of adults could not afford to see a doctor. This barrier to healthcare was most prevalent among Hispanics/Latinos (27 percent) and African Americans (18 percent), while affordability was an obstacle to 13 percent of whites.The report looks at opioid overdose and notes related emergency department visits doubled since 2009 to 5,722 in 2017. It makes the case for more focused attention on this crisis that is exacerbated by overprescribing of opioids and the escalating flow of synthetic narcotics, like fentanyl. More than 1,100 deaths in North Carolina were due to opioid-related causes in 2015, a 73 percent increase in the past 10 years. Heroin use and overdose in communities of color has been an issue for decades, the report states.These are just some of the topics covered in the full report, available online . DHHS remains committed to working with its partners to understand and address disparities and to build a healthier state for North Carolina families.NC Department of Health and Human Services
Contact: Attila Nemecz

Attila Nemecz Attila.Nemecz@beaufortccc.edu

WASHINGTON, NC Beaufort County Commissioners met with the Beaufort County Board of Trustees on April 5 to discuss annual budget requests for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The college updated the commissioners on bond-funded projects and requested the addition of a police officer for the Beaufort County Early College High School (BCECHS), housed on the BCCC campus, along with some safety upgrades.BCCC President Dave Loope highlighted the benefits the college brings to the area, including putting 44 registered nurses and 19 practical nurses into workforce annually."Our graduates rank second among all the community colleges in the state for expected wage gains, and first in the northeast region, highlighting the benefit we bring to this area," said Loope. In 2014-2015, the mean annual wage of a BCCC graduate was $29, 220.Loope shared the completed accessibility project across campus, which included protected crosswalks, sidewalks, push-button doors and elevator upgrades. The emergency services training complex, including a driving pad and classroom building, are in the final stages of planning. These projects were funded through the state Connect NC bond.BCECHS was the focus of new requests. Of the 235 students currently enrolled in the high school, ninth, tenth and eleventh graders attend classes in Buildings 5 and 10. As Loope pointed out, these buildings were not originally intended to host high school students. Some of the classrooms in Building 5 started out as storage rooms.The security plan would replace interior doors, reinforce glass walls and add cardkey access. The plan also calls for hiring an additional police officer who would be assigned to only Buildings 5 and 10. Due to the open nature of the college campus, the additional security features would limit access to the high school classrooms.Other projects included replacing of outdated heating and air equipment with modern systems and converting exterior lights to LEDs. These projects would help reduce the energy use of the college. Projects such as these have helped the campus reduce its energy use by 30 percent over the last five years.The college also asked for a two percent cost of living adjustment for county-funded positions. While the majority of the positions at the college are state-funded, counties are responsible for maintenance and security for community colleges, including positions related to those roles.The Beaufort County Commissioners will consider these budget requests as they develop the budget for all county operations for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
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.
North Carolina Oyster Comeback

$500,000 to the Dept. of Environmental Quality to support the UNCW Shellfish Research Hatchery;

$1.1 million net appropriation for cultch planting;

$1.4 million net appropriation for the Oyster Sanctuary program;

$150,000 to the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory to develop a Shellfish Mariculture Plan.

State Water Infrastructure Grants

Contact: Beverly Boswell

Beverly Boswell beverly.boswell@ncleg.net

North Carolina oysters and the watermen who grow them hold a distinguished place in our State's rich coastal heritage and history. Building on the work of Senator Bill Cook to revitalize the state's oyster industry, we are doing our part by educating our colleagues in the State Legislature to better appreciate and support the incredible strength of the mariculture, commercial fishing industry in our State. During the 2017 legislative session, Senator Cook and I with the support of our colleagues, successfully secured the following, but not limited to, oyster revitalization funding:Due to multiple new oyster spawns in 2017, we resulted in oyster seed production increasing by over 65 percent. Over one-half million seed and 2 million larvae were sold to growers and another 50,000 seed and 1.75 million larvae were provided to researchers in 2017.As a result of our appropriation, the State hatchery continues to use these funds to expand and strengthen its selective breeding program to develop and increase production of lines of oysters that perform well (fast growth, high survival) in North Carolina waters.The State hatchery has been able to provide broodstock from three lines to a commercial hatchery and another line to Carteret Community College's hatchery. With the expansion of the demonstration site in early 2017 and expanded production in 2016, more oysters were grown, increasing their ability to select superior performers for the 2018 production cycle, which began last month. To date, their selected lines continue to show increases in the yield of market-sized oysters at 18 months.During this upcoming short session, I'll be sponsoring legislation continuing our efforts to promote long-term viability and production of the mariculture, oyster industry. Senator Cook and I have met with multiple stakeholders and associations, developing/crafting thoughtful legislation in order to implement a comprehensive plan to expand/increase fresh wild-caught and farm-raised oysters in North Carolina.In the Commonwealth of Virginia, oysters have become one of the many reasons Virginia is such a unique tourist destination. In fact, in 2016, the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) won a prestigious national award from U.S. Travel Association for its work promoting Virginia oysters and the Virginia Oyster Trail, a new tourism initiative connecting travelers with Virginia's oyster farms, raw bars, wineries, restaurants and artisans. To learn more about Virginia oysters and the Oyster Trail, click here Recognizing the substantial potential for oyster tourism in North Carolina, I believe we need the creation of a "North Carolina Oyster Trail" program and a North Carolina Oyster Festival. Agritourism in North Carolina is well-known and available year-round. Thus, North Carolina oysters could and will be an important factor in agritourism growth in the State.With over 3,00 square miles of open water, the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary is the largest estuarine complex contained in one state in the country. What lobster is to Maine, is equivalent to what I would to see oysters to North Carolina. There is no better place in the world for the oyster industry to grow than North Carolina.During the recent Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety, Rep. Michael Speciale (R-Pamlico) and I discussing the Committee agenda, which included a security operational assessment report on the Pasquotank Correctional Institution and Correction Enterprise. We must do all that we can to protect our hard-working and valuable public safety officers, law enforcement and first responders. We rely on our law enforcement professionals and first responders 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during holidays, good and bad weather. I cannot thank them enough for choosing a career in public safety and keeping all of us safe.Last month, the State Water Infrastructure Authority (SWIA) approved a total of $3.6 million in grants to local governments in Pamlico, Beaufort and Washington counties to address water infrastructure projects. Safe drinking water is critical to the health and well-being of everyone in North Carolina, and the N.C. General Assembly is committed to innovative solutions that address our community needs in Eastern North Carolina. These grants represent one of the many ways the State partners with communities to manage our water resources and protect public health. Included in our state budget for FY 2017-18, we increased our commitment to the SWIA, revising the net appropriation to $20.6 million. To learn more about this program, visit the SWIA website here . See summary below of the grants recently appropriated to Pamlico, Beaufort and Washington counties.Every North Carolina student deserves access to a quality education. It was a pleasure to meet and collaborate with local school Superintendents and Board of Ed. Members recently at a reception hosted by the Northeast Regional Education Services Alliance.
Contact: Luke Stancil

Luke Stancil luke@lookoutstrategies.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (April 9, 2018) The North Carolina Police Benevolent Association recently held a series of candidate interviews for those candidates seeking election for various offices. During the interview process, Beverly Boswell demonstrated why her experience and values make her uniquely qualified to represent the voters of North Carolina.Beverly Boswell also demonstrated to the North Carolina PBA that she is committed to making strong, effective law enforcement a priority in her campaign. That is why the NCPBA is proud to announce their support by endorsing Beverly Boswell for House District 6. Beverly Boswell is active in her community and continuously advocates for lower taxes.Upon notification of her endorsement from the North Carolina PBA, Beverly Boswell said: "From Manteo to Murphy, law enforcement officers all throughout our great state risk their lives every day to protect us from harm. I am honored to have received the endorsement of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association. We owe all of our law enforcement officers a sincere debt for their selfless service."President of the North Carolina Division Randy Byrd said: "We are proud to endorse Beverly Boswell in her re-election bid for House District 6. In her first term in the General Assembly she established a proven track record of standing with law enforcement officers and seeking prison reform. A vote for Rep. Boswell is a vote for the men and women of law enforcement and the citizens they serve."The North Carolina Police Benevolent Association is a division of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, Inc., a not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to improving the law enforcement profession. As the largest law enforcement association in North Carolina, the North Carolina PBA has been active in North Carolina for over 25 years. PBA members are full-time or retired employees of the various federal, state, county and municipal law enforcement and correctional agencies in North Carolina.This professional association, funded by membership dues and citizen contributions, provides legal, legislative, disciplinary and other representation to member officers as well as an accidental death benefit to members' beneficiaries. The North Carolina PBA is very active in the political process and is proud to have supported; had sponsored; or passed into law more law enforcement legislation than all other law enforcement groups combined. For more information, please visit our website at www.ncpba.org Click here to view the press release of the endorsement.
When Sugar Creek Charter School graduates its first 12th-grade class this year, all 30 members will head to college. That's not bad for a school that could have shut down in its infancy.Sugar Creek's most high-profile booster shared the school's story with state legislators last week. Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot helped start Sugar Creek two decades ago, not long after a 1996 state law first permitted publicly funded charter schools operating outside the control of traditional school districts.The new charter school aimed to help disadvantaged students who were struggling in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. But that outcome wasn't guaranteed.Vinroot recalls a conversation with school director Cheryl Turner in Sugar Creek's early years of operation.Vinroot said.Turner asked for another year to find an answer. Now, after two decades of operation, a school that started with about a quarter of its students meeting grade-level proficiency has boosted that total to 60 percent. "We've come a long way," Vinroot said.he added, pointing to another charter school that has achieved student proficiency of close to 90 percent. Noting that 94 percent of Sugar Creek's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, Vinroot highlighted positive statistics tied to Sugar Creek student performance.In 2016-17, 59.3 percent of Sugar Creek's African-American students demonstrated proficiency, compared to 46.6 percent of African-Americans in the CMS system and 40.3 percent statewide. For Hispanic students, Sugar Creek's 69.2 percent proficiency rate topped the 50.3 percent CMS mark and the 48.4 percent rate statewide. Among all economically disadvantaged students, Sugar Creek's 65.4 percent proficiency compared to 46.9 percent in CMS and 44.2 percent statewide.Vinroot identified no "secret sauce" that accounts for Sugar Creek's success. "I don't know of any particular thing that we're doing, other than we have a great principal, we have a great faculty, and we won't take no for an answer. And it's working."Parental choice plays a positive role, Vinroot added.he said.Parents of 1,600 current students have chosen Sugar Creek, with another 500 students sitting on a waiting list.Vinroot didn't cite it, but the prospect of Sugar Creek shutting its doors almost certainly played a role in its later success. Had supporters not raised concerns about the lack of early progress, it's hard to imagine a stepped-up effort to boost student achievement.Traditional district schools rarely close. That's especially true when their students perform at the same level as peers in similar settings.In contrast, charter schools can - and should - close if they aren't meeting their expectations. Vinroot explained that Sugar Creek's early struggles prompted Turner to travel the country looking for new ideas. The school changed the operating plan it had used to secure its initial state charter.Pressure to innovate led to innovation.The school continues to make improvements, Vinroot said. Teachers have shared with him one of the characteristics they like best about Sugar Creek.Changes have continued at Sugar Creek, even after the school satisfied its most ardent supporters that the program was worth preserving. For example, what was once a K-8 school eventually added high school grades.Vinroot explained to lawmakers.For years, students advancing past Sugar Creek's eighth grade typically returned to the traditional school district for high school. But some never wanted to leave, Vinroot said.Students who reach high school grades work with five full-time counselors. Counseling sessions build upon the character education that Sugar Creek incorporates into its K-8 program. But that's not all. "They also talk about college and career exploration, college planning, financial literacy, and so forth," Vinroot said.Now the first graduating class will send each of its members to college.Vinroot said.Meanwhile, Sugar Creek's program is slated to change again.Vinroot said.No one argues that Sugar Creek is perfect. No one claims its program could be duplicated throughout North Carolina.But it's hard to argue that this choice has turned out to be anything other than good for students who will head from Sugar Creek to college classrooms in the fall.
From eight scholars in 1872, the University of Arkansas has grown to more than 27,000 students and over 4,500 faculty and staff. That growth spiked over the past seven years when the university added more than 10,000 students and its reputation for a great education at low cost began to attract more students from outside the state of Arkansas. The universitys IT department saw that it needed to provide more services and support without a commensurate budget increase.

Our stated goal for our support services is anytime, anywhere, any device, said Stephen Herzig, director of enterprise systems at the University of Arkansas. Many of our students are nontraditional. They may live off-campus or may be juggling family and work. Its really important to us that students have access to all the applications they need, wherever they are, or on whatever device they have.

Better App Access and Mobility Level the Playing Field

Virtualization turned out to be the right path for this university to lower IT costs and provide simpler, mobile access to apps and data. Theres a philosophy here that individuals have applications and data, and they want access to their data in the applications, to manipulate the data, said Jon Kelley, the universitys associate director of enterprise innovation. VMware had that vision laid out, and we saw it the same way. Thats the way we and this university community want to work.

The University of Arkansas is piloting components of VMware Secure Digital Backpack to help students access the applications they need from their mobile devices.

The University is also using VMware Workspace ONE to securely deliver applications to student devices. After a successful trial run of 1,000 students in August 2017, more than 4,000 students and faculty are now using Workspace ONE with plans to extend access to the whole university community. Students can use applications ranging from statistical software to photography tools, all easily accessible through single sign-on from any device. Faculty can take advantage of the cross-platform capabilities of Workspace ONE to manage coursework on any device independent of the operating system, even when using apps that require a specific OS. This will be particularly valuable for faculty who use a Mac but must use PC only administrative applications.

Were here to provide an exceptional learning experience for students, opportunities for the faculty, and to allow IT resources across campus to focus more on high impact activities. VMware solutions have given our community tools to help them be more successful. Stephen Herzig, Director of Enterprise Systems, University of Arkansas

One Platform, Any Device, Securely

The university uses VMware Horizon and VMware App Volumes as its platform for virtual desktops and applications. We are able to use the Blast Extreme protocol in Horizon. This was really important for us to deliver to mobile devices, laptops, and thin clients, said Kelley. It allows a lot of flexibility. We can deliver to anything with a browser, even deliver individual applications to an endpoint.

VMware NSX for Horizon is being deployed for the purpose of securing the universitys virtual desktops with granular security policies that follow individual desktops. Kelley noted that hes looking beyond NSX micro-segmentation to larger uses such as cloud connectivity and research computing. We see an opportunity to bridge some of our research computing platform with other computer platforms, to be able to share resources. NSX may be a good conduit for that, using VXLAN tunnels and endpoints.

Hardware and Software Accelerations for Better App Experiences

The universitys Horizon implementation uses virtual graphics processing units (GPUs) from NVIDIA. Said Kelley, Every desktop experience we deliver is GPU accelerated, from engineering software to Windows 10. In Windows 10, we prefer the way the graphics and the text render with GPU acceleration, as well as how videos play better.

The Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge R730 and R630 servers are the main components of the universitys virtualization implementation. They employ Intel AES New Instructions (AES NI) chipsets. The university also uses Intel storage for its VMware vSAN implementation. Kelley added that the university benefits from Intels efforts with DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) and the AES-NI instruction set for our software-defined network and storage, from a speed and encryption perspective.

Toward a More Mobile Future

Mobile access to applications and services is important to students. The university is deploying VMware Workspace ONE powered by AirWatch, extending mobile device management capabilities to Windows 10 computers.

Stay tuned for updates on VMware Horizon by subscribing to our blog, and following us on Twitter and Facebook.
Police officer John Flinn of Gloucester Township, NJ has been charged with simple assault for hitting a 13-year-old girl twice in the head while handcuffing her.

From NJ.com:

John Flinn, 27, and other officers were dispatched to investigate a disturbance on March 8 and encountered the girl. Flinn can be seen hitting the girl twice on the side of her face in footage from a responding officer's body-worn camera. The prosecutor's office said the girl was struck while complying with police instructions.

Criminal charges were never filed with the girl.
Kern County, California has the highest rate of killings by cops in the United States, and now we can see why. A just-released video from 2006 shows the county's current sheriff, Donny Youngblood (I kid you not), saying that it is "better financially" to kill people rather than simply injure them.

"You know what happens when a guy makes a bad shooting on somebody and kills them? Three million bucks and the family goes away after a long back and forth," Youngblood says. "Which way do you think is better financially  to cripple them or kill them  for the county?"

A man offscreen answers, "Kill them."

To which Youngblood responds, "Absolutely. Because if they're crippled we get to take care of them for life. And that cost goes way up."

According to The Guardian:

Kern county was the subject of a Guardian series after 13 people were killed there by law enforcement officers during 2015. During the same period, nine people were killed by the NYPD in all of New York City, which had almost 10 times as many residents and about 23 times as many law enforcement officers.

Youngblood has been Kern County's sheriff for over a decade, and is running for re-election this year. Why disgraceful people like this are even allowed to run for sheriff  or any position  is beyond me.
During the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, Sir Earnest Shackleton was the man, or at least one of them. Other explorers of his day may have gathered more renown, but Shackleton's relentless drive and reputation for being cool under pressure made him a legend.

During his career, Shackleton made four trips to the then mysterious continent. The first? Kind of meh. The second time around, he and three fellow explorers came home as a pack of bad asses, having traveled further into the Antarctic's interior than anyone else at the time and, while they were at it, scaling Mount Erebus.

The third trip, which took place in 1915, didn't go so well. His ship, The Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed, forcing Shackleton and his crew to abandon the ship. Despite his disastrous third sortie to the south pole, in 1921 Shackleton planned what would be his last trip to the frozen continent. But he never made it there: he died of a heart attack en route.

Close to 100 years later, Shackleton's misadventure on the Endurance are still capturing the imaginations of readers, explorers and scientists. So much so that, next year, an international team of scientists will do their damnedest to discover the ship's final resting place.

According to The BBC, in January and February of next year, a team of scientists will be studying the Larsen C ice shelf, near the area where the ship was noted by surviving members of the crew as having sunk. Given their proximity to where The Endurance sunk, the opportunity to search for for it was too much to resist:

"It would be a shame not to," said Prof Dowdeswell, the director of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge. "In our study of Larsen, we will be operating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). But if we can get them in range of where Endurance is thought to be, we will send them under the ice to do a survey. "They are fitted with downward-looking multi-beam echosounders, which can map out on a grid the shape of the seafloor. You look at that for any signs of the ship and then focus in with cameras if you find something interesting."

The 45-day expedition will be operating from on board SA Agulas II. Here's hoping that the ship fares better than The Endurance did.

Image: Unknown  Item is held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland., Public Domain, Link


Since the passage of the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, "Warranty Void if Removed" stickers and other policies that put restrictions on third party repairs have been unenforceable in America, but that doesn't stop companies from putting deceptive tamper-evident stickers on their equipment in an effort to trick or intimidate their customers into going to a manufacturer-authorized service depot.



Now the FTC has sent a warning to six companies (unnamed, but they "market and sell automobiles, cellular devices, and video gaming systems in the United States") ordering them to end the practice of using these stickers.

This is important because while the FTC is able to extract titanic fines or even shut down a business that engages in bad commercial practices, it is not allowed to do so until it has sent the companies a written warning that is subsequently denied.



The companies have 30 days to update their websites and comply with U.S. federal law before the FTC takes further action. The commission hasn't enforced warranty law with an electronics manufacturer yet, but it has used MMWA as a hammer in court before. In 2015, it settled out of court with BMW when the car manufacturer forced consumers to use authorized dealers to get repairs on its MINI line of automobiles.

FTC Says 'Warranty Void If Removed' Stickers Are Bullshit, Warns Manufacturers They're Breaking the Law [Matthew Gault/Motherboard]

(Image: Eirik Solheim, CC-BY-SA)
British Adventurer Nick Griffiths sustained severe frostbite in three of his toes while mucking about in the Canadian Yukon a couple of months ago. He'd been competing in the Yukon Arctic Ultra race when exposure to the damp, extreme cold of Canada's far north did to him what it does. Despite the time he'd taken to convalesce from his injuries, Griffiths was told by doctors in England that they would have to amputate three of his toes to stave off infection. Griffiths asked to keep his dismembered digits and his surgeons were happy to comply. They gave Griffiths his three detached little piggies, preserved in liquid-filled bottles.

The question of what to do with the toes was an easy one for Griffiths to answer. According to the CBC, the adventurer has offered to donate them to Dawson City's Sourdough Saloon to be served up in cocktails for punters with a taste for human feet.

As any Canadian will tell you (I'm pretty sure they include the fact on our citizenship test), the Downtown Hotel serves up a unique cocktail: The Sourtoe. The ingredients of a Sourtoe Cocktail are simple, but kind of hard to come by: a shot of whisky and a severed human toe. Once the drink has been downed, it's tradition that the toe be returned to the Sourdough Saloon's bartender to be reused. But that doesn't always happen. People have run off with one of the toes in the past and, in 2013, some tool decided to swallow it along with his booze.

So, for the having more than one toe, um, on hand at any time, is a win.

When the hotel heard of Griffiths' offer, they gratefully accepted. All that remains is for Griffiths to figure out a way to legally send his severed digits from England to Canada.

Adam Jones, Ph.D.  Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
After World War Two, the balance of wealth shifted dramatically: the super-rich lost so much capital during the two wars and the interwar period that their grip on power slipped, creating the space for a welfare state and other reforms.



One major part of this shift was the creation of a monied class of technocrats  engineers, doctors, scientists, and, eventually computer programmers and other people whose power came from the acceptance of an existence of an objective reality that could be exploited and developed to create wealth and power.

The traditional rich  the people who got rich by owning things and charging rent on them, rather than making things  have always been suspicious of the "reality-based community" (as GW Bush's coterie called them), treating technical people as a specialized kind of servant, to be hired when needed and fired when they started running their mouths about the uselessness of cutting taxes to stimulate growth, or the certainty that the Earth was more than 5,000 years old, or the absurdity of the claim that one had "good blood" and "breeding" and that was the source of your wealth and power.

But as Thomas Piketty's data shows, everything started to change in the mid-70s, as the wealth owned by the rentier class reached a tipping point that let them start controlling policy, arrogating more power and money to themselves. Much of the power and money that the 1% seized since then came from poor people, but technocrats had more money and power to steal, and so they have been particular losers in this fight.

This, Jon Schwarz argues in the Intercept, is the other class war we're seeing now, often pitched as "the middle class vs the 1%." The reality-based community has been steadily squeezed out of conservative circles, leaving the right with less and less claim to intellectual legitimacy, fewer and fewer glib persons who can couch the Divine Right of Kings in terminology that seems at home in this century.

Schwarz blames this shortage of intellectual firepower in conservative circles for the hiring and firing of the violent misogynist Kevin Williamson at The Atlantic.



Movement conservatives spend most of their lives complaining that they're underrepresented in the mainstream corporate media and academia. And if you just count these institutions' minions  as opposed to their owners and trustees  they're right. But it could never be any different. The media and academia are in theory based on Enlightenment principles. It's true they often do a bad job of acting on them in practice, and the principles themselves have many weaknesses. Nevertheless, both institutions see their jobs as using basic tools of rationality to study and then describe reality. That's the core of their self-image, so it's always going to be hard to wedge people into them who reject everything about the Enlightenment. This clearly feels unfair to today's movement conservatives. But it's no more so than the fact that an outspoken atheist who constantly slams Catholicism will have a hard time becoming Pope. Williamson could be hired by The Atlantic precisely because he is not a movement conservative: He's one of America's few remaining right-wing writers who appears to accept Enlightenment methods as legitimate. For instance, he is willing, kind of, to acknowledge that global warming and evolution are real. When he attacked Barack Obama, he did so by making claims that were within shouting distance of reality (and then wildly hyping them) rather than proclaiming Obama was a secret Sharia Muslim.

What's Really at Stake in the Battle for "Ideological Diversity" at Elite Media Outlets [Jon Schwarz/The Intercept]
2016 wasn't Cambridge Analytica's first rodeo; in 2014, they worked for Republicans in races across the country.

Cambridge Analytica worked on five successful Colorado Senate campaigns in 2014; campaigns that delivered a majority to state Republicans; the Colorado GOP insists that they didn't sanction the use of Cambridge Analytica in these races and blames the company's involvement on the "Senate Majority Fund," a GOP fundraising organization.

Cambridge Analytica also worked on the US Senate campaign for North Carolina's Thom Tillis and a state senate race in Oregon.

In addition to Cambridge Analytica's dirty/illegal use of data, the company may have violated campaign laws by giving authority to direct campaigns to its employees, who are mostly foreign nationals from Canada and the UK. Speaking as a Canadian with British citizenship who lives in America, I can authoritatively say that this was a bad idea.



In Colorado, the firm helped Republicans target five state Senate districts: 16, 19, 20, 22 and 24, according to The Washington Post. The GOP candidate won in three of those five races (16, 19 and 24), effectively flipping the Senate back to GOP control. Denver Channel 7 reported that the firm took more than $444,000 in payments from Colorado campaign organizations that year. According to Channel 4 News in Britain, there is still a cache of campaign data floating around containing information about 136,000 Coloradans leftover from those races. Similar information exists for residents of Oregon, according to the news organization. The information was inappropriately mined from Facebook and contains data about individual users' likes, dislikes, interests and personality characteristics. The firm's work in Colorado started with then-Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, who ascended to Senate President when the party recaptured the majority in 2014.

Cambridge Analytica Fallout Spreads to State Legislatures [Natalie Delgadillo/Governing]
Actor T.J. Miller, who played Erlich Bachman in HBO's Silicon Valley, was arrested last night at La Guardia airport for calling in a fake bomb threat from an Amtrak train. He was released today on a $100,000 bond.

On March 18, Miller called 911 and said he was on an Amtrak train traveling from Washington DC to Penn Station, New York. He claimed he was with a woman who was carrying a "bomb in her bag."

According to CNN:

Amtrak officials stopped Train 2256 at Green's Farms Station in Westport, Connecticut. Passengers were told to detrain before bomb squad members boarded and searched the train. An investigator then called Miller back, according to the DOJ press release, and he gave a different description of the woman. Miller is alleged to have also claimed the woman "kept checking her bag without taking anything out; kept asking the first-class attendant what the next stop was, and seemed to want to get off the train and leave her bag behind.

Passengers who had been sitting near Miller said he seemed "intoxicated" and that he'd been "in hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row from him in the first-class car."

If convicted, Miller faces up to five years in the big house.

Image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America  T. J. Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Welcome Ed Piskor back to Boing Boing (previously), where he'll be offering an annotated page-by-page look at the first part of X-Men: Grand Design, his epic retelling of how Marvel comics' pantheon of heroes came to be. Here's page 2; read page 1 first  Eds.

Director's Commentary

My goal with X-Men: Grand Design is to take the thousands of pages that make up Uncanny X-Men issues 1-281 and try to make a complete, concise, and satisfying 240 page story which includes all the most important elements, but none of the fat, redundancy, or deus ex machina from the series .

The X-Men and mutants, in general, are the quintessential marginalized underdogs of the Marvel Universe.I wanted to use this page to give readers the scoop on how mutants work in my version X-Men because it is slightly divorced from what's been established in the classic run.

The Marvel comics of the early '60s grew out of the Atlas comics of the '50s which were the product of a post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki '40s. The Atlas magazines used nuclear, atomic energy and mad-science as a McGuffin to explain the creation of many of their monsters. It's no stretch to imagine these ideas seemed to factor into the X-Men origin. The two best-known X-Men writers, Stan Lee and, Chris Claremont suggest that mutants were the 20th century product of nuclear testing, fallout, etc. I like the idea that mutation has always been a part of our world. Where would evolution be without it?

Since mutants have always existed in my version of the X-Universe,I needed something more than simple physical aesthetics to act as a catalyst for the tremendous fear that "normal" humans have for them in our modern times. Something major was needed to get the hate-machine rolling or else why wouldn't mutants have been violently and strategically selected out of the gene pool thousands and thousands of years ago if the prejudice has always been aggressive and reactive? When Marvel decided that Namor, The Submariner was a Mutant it made sense that I could use the events in Human Torch #5 (1941) to create some major anti-mutant hysteria. Of course, in the conservative fashion of those old comics, all the people in NYC were able to evacuate before Namor's tidal wave hit the city. That doesn't fly in my comic. Lots of casualties.

I think it's a good idea to firmly root the X-Men into the wider Marvel Universe as much as possible because I never want you to forget that it's a magical place where almost anything can happen. It'll help ease you into the far-out intergalactic stuff that will come up in the future. If you can buy a single mutant sinking New York, then you can buy a Phoenix Force adorning the shell of Jean Grey, but that's getting ahead of myself. More on that later.

The first X-Men Grand Design collection is now available for purchase on Amazon! Stay tuned for another strip this time next week.

You can pre-order X-Men: Grand Design, Second Genesis on Amazon today.
Suffolk County District Judge Robert Cicale is facing up to 15 years in prison after he was caught breaking into the home of a neighbor and stealing a 23-year-old woman's dirty underwear; the judge says he was gripped by an "urge," and his lawyer assured the press that his client's "reputation throughout the court is stellar. Every judge, every lawyer respects him."



Judge Cicale admitted to stealing the young woman's underwear on several occasions but has pleaded not guilty in the burglary of his neighbor. The woman whose underwear he stole once worked with him as an intern at the Islip Town Attorney's Office, before Cicale was a judge.



Cicale was taken into custody after an incident that happened around 9 a.m. Thursday, when the young woman was alone. Prosecutors said she was sleeping but woke up when she heard the door open. She called out, "Hello?" and that's when she saw Cicale at the doorway. Authorities say he turned around and ran away, and the victim closed and locked the door and called her mother, who called 911. Responding officers say they saw Cicale walking up to a different house and pretending to knock on the door. They approached him because he matched the description of the person the victim described. They reportedly found several pairs of soiled women's underwear on him, which the victim identified as her own.

New York district judge apologizes, admits he's serial underwear stealer [ABC 7]

(via Lowering the Bar)
News / National

by Staff reporter

The European Union is ready to work with the new Zimbabwe Government in formulating policies that will enable it to turn around the country's economic fortunes.This was said by visiting EU International Development Commissioner Mr Neven Mimica who met President Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa offices yesterday.Mr Mimica is the first high- ranking EU official to visit Zimbabwe since 2009."We discussed at the highest political level after 2009 but this demonstrates that EU would like to be a reliable partner of Zimbabwe in the process of (this) historic political, democratic transition," Mr Mimica said."This is a process that the EU would like to engage on, to support and to accompany Zimbabwe's authorities. We discussed it with the President and we agreed that this process should start first with fair and free elections in order to legitimise the whole reform processes in front of Zimbabwe," said Mr Mimica."We look positively to the period in front of us and we would like to support Zimbabwe along the lines of the reforms that would actually open space for a new Zimbabwe, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe in the future."Acting Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister, Simon Khaya Moyo said the meeting was productive as the EU had shown willingness to re-engage with Zimbabwe."The discussions were very productive. It is quite clear the EU is aware that the new dispensation is very serious about the matters of re-engagement and certainly the trips which His Excellency has undertaken to the Sadc region, the AU, to Abidjan and recently to the People's Republic of China are clear indications that Zimbabwe is open for business at all levels," Minister Khaya Moyo said."I can assure you that the discussions centred on a number of political, economic and other relations between us and the EU and in the end it was clear that the EU delegation is impressed by what is happening in the country and what efforts the new Government is making," he said."They will be sending another delegation later on; obviously this would be to focus on specific areas in terms of economic cooperation," he said.He said President Mnangagwa had explained events leading to the launch of Operation Restore Legacy that ushered in the new Government."The President took the opportunity to explain the entire situation right from the day Operation Restore Legacy came into focus and the transitional measures which have been undertaken since then. The entire delegation was very impressed by what is happening in the country."We also touched on the coming elections and the President was very clear that these are going to be credible. We want to have elections which are free and fair and the delegation was invited to meet anybody they wish to meet in the country because we have nothing to hide."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Government paid US$1,3 million to hire a private jet for President Mnangagwa's trip to China last week, contrary to reports in some sections of the private media that the trip gobbled US$2,3 million.Presidential Press Secretary Mr George Charamba yesterday explained the rationale behind hiring the plane ahead of Air Zimbabwe, saying using the national flag carrier entailed that the President was supposed to leave earlier as it would make a stopover in Singapore.He said the hired private jet was a long-haul plane that covered the distance to China in one stretch.In line with President Mnangagwa's commitment to run a transparent Government, Mr Charamba showed journalists receipts and invoices of the amount paid to Comlux by Government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.The invoices showed that Government paid US$1, 396, 000 and attached to the invoice was a note acknowledging the payment from Comlux by its Charter Sales manager Harilal Mohanan."The President perfectly understood the basis of the criticism and wondered where the figure of US$2,3 million had come from," said Mr Charamba."There is an apparent element of disgruntlement on the part of some officials from Air Zimbabwe who have always read the President's travel as an opportunity to get travel and subsistence allowance."Really, people have been making some financial rewards from accompanying the President? Except, that is only possible in circumstances where Air Zimbabwe is kitted to be able to do the stretch where the President will be covering and in this particular case it would have meant the President would have to do a stop-over in Singapore and make a second whoop to China."By that, it would have meant leaving much earlier. So, what you save by way of contracting an Air Zimbabwe plane you still incur by the length of travel and then the two checkmate each other."Not even to talk about the convenience and security issues which come with whooping and stopping and whooping again."Mr Charamba said the hired private jet was even cheaper than Air Zimbabwe and another airline approached by Government which had quoted them over US$2 million and slightly below US$2 million respec- tively."Incidentally, the first plane which we had got would have cost us an upward of US$2 million," he said. "Air Zimbabwe also did its own quote which was also slightly below US$2 million, but still very high."We went about knocking from other people from the private sector who are fairly familiar with various airlines and then it emerged that it was possible for us to get a much cheaper plane with long haul which would cover China in one stretch."The private media last week was abuzz with reports that Government had spent US$2,3 million to hire a "luxurious" plane for President Mnangagwa and his delegation.
News / National

by Staff reporter

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has described her engagements in China during the five-day State Visit to that country as fruitful and quite progressive.She accompanied President Mnangagwa on the State visit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The delegation returned home at the weekend. The First Lady had a full programme that ran parallel to the President's.In an interview yesterday, the First Lady said she took the opportunity to advance her work and to draw lessons from China's First Lady Peng Liyuan on how she could best serve this country.The two held meetings where they discussed the plight of women and vulnerable children, emphasising on orphans and those infected and affected by HIV and Aids, among other issues.Madame Peng is an ambassador for HIV and Aids."I can confidently say it was mission accomplished for me. China is a very big country with a large population so my desire was to learn from the work that Madame Peng was doing so that I could draw lessons from her. She is experienced and has a big portfolio, but she opened up to me, we were like sisters. To my surprise she said she was following the work I was doing here and she encouraged me to continue working hard. We shared notes on the functions of a first lady and I must say I learnt a lot from her," she said."A major point we spoke and agreed on was that the work of the First Lady is non-partisan. A First Lady is a mother to everyone," she said.China has a deliberate women policy to ensure women's economic empowerment through the provision of subsidised loans to women. Through this, women only repay the principal loan while the State assumes repayment of the interest obligation.More than 60 million women have benefited from this initiative."It is unfortunate that in this country we do not have enough resources presently, but my desire is to ensure that women, including those in rural areas are empowered," she said.On health issues, the First Lady was briefed on China's cervical and breast cancer screening programme which has seen about 90 million women being screened. The country is targeting to screen a further 60 million women by 2020.The First Lady is running a countrywide campaign on cervical awareness and screening.She said child marriages were not a challenge in China."China has no child marriage problems because all the girls get married at the appropriate time, but here in Zimbabwe that problem is rife. We spoke about it at length and I implore traditional leaders, their wives, churches and all community leaders to help in the fight against child marriages."She said such marriages deprived Zimbabwe of tomorrow's leaders because a girl in such a set up would either stop going to school completely or would slacken in her studies.She also had meetings with the All China Women's Federation where she was briefed on the outcome of the 19th National People's Congress and on the re-election of President Xi. They discussed the plight of women, children and the vulnerable. The women's federation shared experiences with regard to their advocacy activities on the status of women, gender equality and gender mainstreaming into all spheres of life.Zimbabwe drew lessons from the inclusion of rural women into the working committees within their communities.The First Lady also visited the Shijitan Cancer Hospital in Beijin, one of the oldest and largest hospitals in China.She highlighted that cancer was now a worse scourge than HIV and Aids and that Zimbabwe had a lot to learn from China on how they are managing the killer disease.She was briefed on the different ways the hospital treats its patients using western medicine, Chinese traditional methods and the acupuncture treatment. She welcomed the idea of sending local health personnel to receive acupuncture skills training in China.The First Lady has been invited to attend a conference of first ladies to discuss the treatment and care of children affected by HIV and Aids. It will be held on the sidelines of FOCAC meetings scheduled for Beijing in September. "I will be going there in September and its such an honour. In the meantime I have to work hard. My desire is to serve my country well," she said.
News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Zanu PF-aligned student's body, Zimbabwe Congress of Students' Union (Zicosu), has defended the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) authorities for allegedly refusing to release a bus to ferry students to an MDC Alliance rally.Students belonging to the Zimbabwe National Students' Union (Zinasu) on Saturday toldMDC-T leader Nelson Chamisa that NUST had denied them use of the university bus.Zicosu treasurer-general Godknows Madari yesterday said Nust could not risk to hire out its bus to MDC-T supporters."On the issue of the bus and State resources that they say we denied them . . . yes, we couldn't allow, they should win SRC elections to enjoy such benefits. Zinasu, and the MDC, in particular, have lower levels of approval and more negative evaluation on how State resources operate. But even as one group becomes more satisfied with government outcomes, others become less so and as Zicosu we couldn't allow for the release of the bus as we were of the understanding that 'Bullet trains' were already in place to ferry students," he said.The Zicosu leadership has embarked on a massive campaign programme to drum up support among students at tertiary institutions to vote for the ruling Zanu PF.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Thomas Mapfumo, who fled the country at the height of political repression, has reportedly said that he won't be getting involved in politics, as he prepares to return home after more than 10 years.Mapfumo has not set his foot in the southern African country since 2004, when he settled in the United States. Jailed by the country's former white rulers over his protest music, he later was hounded by the black government that succeeded them."I don't want to be involved in politics I am just here for the people. I am here for everyone. I just belong to the poor people, that's where I come from," BBC quoted Mapfumo as saying.Mapfumo announced in a video message in January that he would perform in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, on April 28, according to Associated Press.His spokesperson Blessing Vava confirmed the gig at the time and said that the new government had assured the 72-year-old musician of his safety.
News / National

by Staff reporter

In a stunning development, many long-serving Zanu-PF stalwarts have fallen by the wayside in the party's selection of candidates who will participate in this year's watershed elections, the Daily News reported.This comes as dozens of other party heavyweights, who include serving and former Cabinet ministers, will also have to contend with newcomers who include the youths in primary elections across the country which have been set for May.The looming elections will be the first in the past two decades not to feature ousted former president Robert Mugabe and the late popular opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.Such has been the interest generated by the elections among Zimbabweans that a number of opposition leaders are also set to contest President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presidential plebiscite.The emergence of Nelson Chamisa in particular, as the new MDC leader, appears to have energised opposition supporters, especially the youths, who see him as a viable alternative to Mnangagwa.The Daily News established yesterday that long-serving Zanu-PF politicians, Edna Madzongwe and Webster Shamu, are among the biggest causalities of the Zanu-PF provincial pruning process that was held at the weekend to choose candidates for the party.Madzongwe apparently threw in the towel during the Mashonaland West provincial co-ordinating committee (PCC) meeting, where Shamu's bid to retain Chegutu East constituency was punctured by the province's youth chairperson Vengai Musengi who will not be contested in the primary elections.Shamu, a war veteran and former broadcaster - whose tumultuous political career drew comparisons with the proverbial nine lives of a cat because of his stunning comebacks from previous party challenges - had been expected to contest in the primary elections unopposed.This was especially so after he was surprisingly retained by Mnangagwa when the new president announced his maiden Cabinet after assuming power at the end of last year.Then, Shamu had been in his position as Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister for less than a month, after Mugabe had previously recalled him from the wilderness following the 2014 ruling party purges which led to the expulsion of former vice president Joice Mujuru and several other Zanu-PF bigwigs.On the other hand, Madzongwe had held many high posts both in Zanu-PF and in government since 1984. She is currently the president of the Senate.The veteran politician was touted as one of the senior Zanu-PF politicians at some point who could have replaced Mujuru, but eventually lost out to Mnangagwa.At the height of the party's ugly factional wars which pitted Mnangagwa against the Generation 40 (G40) faction, Madzongwe's name was also often mentioned as one of the women candidates likely to be the beneficiary of the quota system that was being agitated for by the women's league then led by Grace Mugabe.Officials who claimed to have been frustrated by the regional PCC yesterday accused Mashonaland West provincial chairperson and Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi of pursuing vindictive politics."All aspiring qualifying candidates who wanted to contest  were disqualified on trumped up allegations, disloyalty to the party among others being on top of the list."War veterans and all affiliates' CVs were put in the bin together with all the rejected but worthy candidates, ready for dispatch to the national elections," one of the disgruntled party bigwigs told the Daily News.He also alleged that the provincial leadership bore grudges from the time of Zanu-PF's ugly factional ructions which ended with the G40 being vanquished.Similarly, former Mines minister Walter Chidakwa was also left out in the cold at the weekend, as his CV was not even taken into consideration.However, Ziyambi told the Daily News that his executive had only made recommendations to be submitted to the national elections directorate, which is headed by the ruling party's political commissar Engelbert Rugeje."There was no favouritism at all. I don't do those things. My job is to just compile a list according to the rules of the party. I just look at the CVs and then refer them to the national elections directorate."All the CVs are there. But Madzongwe is not contesting. She just withdrew from the race," Ziyambi said.Ziyambi himself will not be contested in Zvimba West, while Tourism minister Prisca Mupfumira has no challenger as well for the senatorial post in Makonde.Keith Guzah (Hurungwe West), Dexter Nduna (Chegutu West), Philip Chiyangwa (Zvimba South) and Christopher Mutsvangwa will also all not be contested after their potential challengers were allegedly kicked out.Meanwhile, the province's former chairperson, now an Independent MP for Norton, Temba Mliswa, warned that the alleged shenanigans of the Mash West party leadership could cost Mnangagwa in the elections - further predicting another "Bhora musango" scenario."MDC Alliance is gaining momentum whilst Zanu-PF plots its implosion. When talking about this we're labelled Chamisa fans but they're scoring own goals, Bhora musango!"We're nearing a 2008 scenario where this time the junta'll be powerless & under pressure for free, fair & credible elections," Mliswa said on micro blogging site Twitter."People like Marian Chombo & (Bright) Matonga were left out after being asked to rejoin the party. Thank God I'd the foresight & God's wisdom to avoid the embarrassment of rejoining the party only to be sidelined. They wanted to humiliate me but I remain standing. ED's in trouble in Mash West."Whilst EDM has them at heart, Zanu-PF is no longer for the WVs (war veterans). Even in the fiscus, Chinamasa excludes them and they are still paupers. It is only people such as myself, and some in the opposition like Chamisa and Masihairabwi," Mliswa added.Mliswa is set to slug it out with Mnangagwa's special adviser and chairperson of the war veterans, Mutsvangwa, in the Norton constituency in the coming elections.It is well known that there is no love lost between the two men, who last month traded barbs over who would win the constituency in the forthcoming elections.In Mashonaland East, Sydney Sekeramayi, who at one time was touted as Mugabe's successor, is also facing a testing time to his political career.He will have to prove his mettle against war veterans provincial chairperson Daniel Sigauke and Philemon Mutongi for the Senate seat.Defeat for Sekeramayi, who was a Cabinet ever-present since Zanu-PF came to power in 1980, would almost certainly mark the end of his long political career.Sekeramayi presided over some of the most key ministries in Mugabe's successive governments - including being Defence minister and State Security minister three times each in the two portfolios.But Mnangagwa overlooked him in Cabinet and the only recognisable post he now holds is that of being a Senator.The provincial executive there, led by Biggie Joel Matiza, also allegedly wrote damning recommendations against perceived allies of former vice president Joice Mujuru or Mugabe - who is reportedly the brains behind the National Patriotic Front (NPF) that is led by retired brigadier-general Ambrose Mutinhiri.Uzumba legislator Simbaneuta Mudarikwa, Maramba's Washington Musvaire, Felix Mhona of Chikomba Central, Jeremiah Chiwetu (Marondera East), Lawrence Katsiru (Marondera Central), Beata Nyamupinga (Goromonzi) and Tendai Makunde in Murewa North all face uncertainty as their names have been linked to the annihilated G40 faction.While Matiza confirmed that his executive had made its recommendations to the national elections directorate, he said these were confidential."We do not give the final say as a province. We only recommend to a higher office, but what recommendation we made remains confidential. So, you might say so and so has been disqualified only to be accepted by the national office," he said.In Chikomba East, incumbent MP Edgar Mbwembwe will be contested by State media columnist Sekai Nzenza, while Mhona - who is accused of being a Mujuru ally - will battle it out with youth league secretary for science and technology and central committee member Edmore Kandira and Alfred Pedzisa respectively.In Marondera Central, Chiwetu faces a tough test against Patrick Chidhakwa, the chairperson of Marondera Rural District Council.In Seke rural, incumbent Phineas Chihota's political life hangs in the balance as he will face Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's mother in-law, Helga Mubaiwa, who is also wife to Dynamos chairperson Kenni Mubaiwa.In Masvingo Province, at least all legislators in Chiredzi, including former provincial chairperson Kallisto Gwanetsa are battling for survival after they were given adverse recommendations by the provincial executive led by Ezra Chadzamira."The process is going on very well. There is no one who has been disqualified so far because the process is still ongoing. What we have just done is to make recommendations based on one's track record," Chadzamira said.
Opinion / Columnist

Elections are soon to be held again in Zimbabwe in 2018 and perhaps for the ninth time opening pages of active democratic choices without fear of victimization from Zanu or her imagined innuendos through regrouping and redirecting violence. History has it on records that all other elections were won by Zanu using the mixture of both fear through force of violence and brutalisation. There is one exception though and that is the 2008 election when the world sheepishly conceded that Zanu had cheated and stolen an election. An agreement to run a Government of National Unity (GNU) for five years was internationally arranged to save the face of Robert Mugabe by the international community through her team of world Elders.Needless to say that the same actors of the November 2017 military coup had successfully arranged to save Zanu from being walloped in an election and also prepared their future rise to power. The international community including the Chinese who now have a substantial say on the African continent had worked with America and the rest of Europe to work on the Government of National Unity (GNU) as though to say Mr. Mugabe was the salvation of Zimbabwe when the opposite is true.Is Zimbabwe engagement of Americans or vice versa a reflection on good international diplomacy or sheer nauseating mimicry for the west to protect her interests? Are Zimbabweans quite conversant with the ball game going on? Has the experience of the country gone in vain in the last thirty-eight years? Leadership in Zimbabwe Politics for fear that their crimes on overseas accounts may be revealed if not by disenchanted governments or individuals they used to create these huge account abroad they commit the country to meaningless diplomacy that unfairly raise the expectations among the nationals.Records are clear for example on those actually involved in committing Gukurahundi genocide and how the British government covered it up. Similarly the British government know how Mr. Mugabe, rigged in particular the 2008 elections, with the help of the Israel Nikuv election Projects Managing Company. The British also knew how pressure was building on the Zanu government to eliminate the architectures of the November 2017 military intervention. Intelligence must have been shared to save military intervention group and give them victory instead. No doubt America, Britain and China have a role on Zimbabwe elections in the next few months of 2018. It is naive to assume they are innocent.How come, it can be asked, Americans are shuffling diplomacy the way they did not do in 2008 on ZDERA and how they are prepared to cooperate and get rid of sanctions totally? The question is what has really changed in Zimbabwe other than that Mr. Mugabe seats in his huge house lamenting why his wife failed to be the next ruler in Zimbabwe. The country king pin to election rigging Mr Tobaiwa Mudede the government registrar while long over sixty-five years of age can neither be retired nor would you hear current the President Mnangagwa talking of retiring him. There is too much game of dishonesty if the truth be told.Strategically the retired General Constantine Chewenga is now more powerful than when he was only Commander of the army because he now commands the direction and logistics of military intelligence work in mapping out how they cannot be pushed out of power watching. The complex politics of Zimbabwe like that of any post liberation struggle country and much deeper, is that the war veterans and the army locked up a position in never to allow their power eroded. There has to be a real presence of physical inspection and strength to intervene, if need be militarily, to stop President Mnangagwa come back to power again this time round. Remember this will not be the first time it's done and that the west has nothing new she does not know.Zimbabweans know what they want and are tired of being cheated but the opportunity was robbed when instead of pushing for really change Zanu military architectures seized the chance to kill the already dead person Mr. Robert Mugabe appearing as though they were saviors of the situation by contrast. The best chance for Zimbabwe to change is support from South Africa not America, not Britain or the United Kingdom. It was Thabo Mbeki and then Jacob Zuma successively who became a stumbling block to MDC claiming their election victory in 2008.Perhaps Cyril Ramaphosa may be persuaded to think differently. Otherwise Zanu without strong push from either within or outside will not give up power without an attempt even to shade massive blood. They have talked of changes but reality reveals they are prepared to conceal much and keep changes to the minimum if not totally avoid it.The ordinary peasant knows changes necessary to transit the country from one era to good governance wise, so are the middle class people, and the workers, but not the Zanu artificial petite Bourgeoisie. The ruling elite are a matured petite bourgeoisie inclusive of the army, police intelligence crew and the corruption driven wealth accumulation spree cabal. Tanzania president, for example, is able to make real changes in the country because the army is truly national interest driven and not political card holder for the ruling party unlike in Zimbabwe. The heart and mind set of the army personnel is Zanu Chimurenga oriented which in time appear far removed from being people focused. That makes a great and big difference.Russia and China relations has been made stronger on the continent of Africa and their covet operations are no more covet but that African leadership is moving east. This is all just strategic than it can help Africa except Africa works on her strengths and leverage into global politics. Zanu has a very poor chance of changing anything in the next five or ten years. She can only entrench herself into power at the expense of the country economy and masses. Zimbabwe needs new thinking guided by national interest not on dogmas of party ideologies. Mr. Mugabe and his incompetent cohorts including majority of those who comprise of Zanu power movers have served Mr. Mugabe well and loyally. If changes come they will revert to Mr. Mugabe without shame at all. Can they be relied upon for change? It is unlikely and what would be the motivation anyway.None can argue that opposition would find it easy to bring change as well, but hopefully that people will be able to talk strong against the ills of a new government than to an established dictator with a history of butchering people in day light. It is hoped too that the plan of aligning government with the army will be a thing of the past since Zanu may critically threaten to come back again using the claim for liberation struggle. Zimbabwe can emerge better as a country if she takes to pure rule of law and uphold the constitutional law.
Opinion / Columnist

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess, let us all agree on that! Unemployment has soared to 90%,  of our people are living on US$1.00 or less a day, millions of our people are in the diaspora as economic and/or political refugees, etc., etc. If that does not spell a very serious economic mess, then I do not know what does!Why is the country in this mess and, more pointedly and urgently, how are we ever going to get out of this mess? Is the question that has occupied the nation's mind.When it comes to addressing our national problems, we have blundered from pillar to post; which explains why we have fallen from our perch as one of the top five rich countries in Africa to the poorest in 38 years! We have clearly learned nothing in these last 38 years, because we are still blundering from pillar to post!"No matter how pessimistic you are, you cannot tell me that nothing will come out of this. President Xi of China is at the moment the most powerful man in the world. He is heading a country with the most powerful economy right now. Even UK, France and Germany are queuing to work with him, so why not Zimbabwe?" Wrote Eric Knight, according to a Zimeye report."Listen, I don't really care what Party you support, it is your choice and your right. I am talking about my country. What kind of a person would be angry when efforts to change our economy are being put? Are you normal!?"A normal person, Sir Knight, would go where the evidence leads him or her and not blunder blindly. It was none other than former President Robert Mugabe himself who has called China Zimbabwe's "all weather friend" and for the last 20 years the country has pursued its "Look East" policy, to underline the special relationship. And yet that has not stopped Zimbabwe sinking into this economic mess.President Mugabe signed many "mega deals" with China, Russia and many other nations and nothing has come out of those deals; that is a historic fact.Meanwhile, China has benefited greatly from its close relationship with Zanu PF taking full advantage of the political and economic chaos that has ensued under this Zanu PF dictatorship. The Chinese have been at the centre of the wholesale looting of Marange and Chiadzwa diamond, for example.Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because for 38 years the nation has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime that rigged elections to stay in power. Guess which foreign nation has played the biggest role in helping Zanu PF rig the elections  the Chinese.The most important deal President Mnangagwa signed with the Chinese during his recent state visit is between Zanu PF and Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP will be giving Zanu PF the financial and material support to rig this year's election to guarantee another Zanu PF landslide victory.Everyone, including President Mnangagwa himself, knows that Zimbabwe's economic recovery will dependent on Zimbabwe being able to attract foreign and local investors and getting financial assistance. "Zimbabwe is open for business!" is President Mnangagwa's clarion call to underline this point. He has also acknowledged that Zimbabwe needed to end its image as a lawless nation to attract investment and capital and hence his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.It is one thing promising free and fair elections and another delivering on one's promise, especial for when it is almost certain that Zanu PF will lose such election. For President Mnangagwa and his junta who had risked all to stage the November coup to lose power hardly a year later was clearly out of the question.Everyone, especially the West's investors and financial donors, could see that the junta was not going to hold free and fair elections. All the claim that Zanu PF had changed after the coup was a lie. The country was still ruled by thugs and no investor wants to do business with thugs.The flood of investment and capital the Junta had hoped for with the "Zimbabwe is open for business!" call has failed to materialise. By the time ED went to China, last week, he knew and so too did the Chinese, that Zimbabwe's hopes of reviving its economy by renewing investor confidence was dead in the water. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, had no choice but to turn to the Chinese and hope they will not give him the same run-around they gave Mugabe.The Chinese signed more mega deals with Mnangagwa than they signed with Mugabe but, as before, most have strings attached and will never materialise. Opposition leader, Joice Mujuru, has dismissed most of the mega deals as "MOU (memorandum of understanding) and not MOA (Memorandum of Agreement)".The only MOA China signed was one to help Zanu PF rig this year's elections which will slam the door shut to Western investors and financial help. Zimbabwe has always enjoyed good relations with China and has even signed a string of mega deals with the Asian economic giant but that has not stopped Zimbabwe's economic decline. It is naive to believe that things would be different this time when nothing has changed!If we are serious about ending Zimbabwe's economic mess, then we must start by ending the Zanu PF dictatorship that has left the nation stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime all these last 38 years! We need to make Zimbabwe attractive to investors and for that we must hold free and fair elections.China has exploited a corrupt and impoverished Zimbabwe and it is helping Zanu PF rig the elections to ensure we remain in its sphere of influence for its continued benefit! Those who think China will bankroll Zimbabwe's economic recovery are day dreaming!"If you are one of them, then you have a BIG problem, we can't help you. Well done Team Zimbabwe for the efforts. We need friends and funds! Its coming. God is not a fool!" concluded Eric Knight.No, God is not a fool! But you and many others out there are! Zimbabwe's economic recovery will come from meaningful democratic change to ensure competent and accountable governance and not from Chinese bankrolling a corrupt and wasteful, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship.
Opinion / Columnist

People printed their own flyers and posted and in support of Mr Sibanda all illegally confiscated by MDC T Chamisa officials. This is a human rights violation and its illegal. Reporters must question if this is the party of excellence. When chamisa gets into power , he may as well kill those who oppose him if they're doing this. Speak not or be killed. Express yourself after spending your own money to print of be killed. MDC T must Refund the money of these flyers and yield to the people's demands.I believe Mafa Sibanda is now under siege from top executive because people demand and shout his name in matebeleland. Remember the days when people supported Lacoste's and it caused Emmerson Mnangagwa to nearly lose his life from Ice cream poisoning and eventually walking 30 km into Mozambique after eventually being fired from the government as Vice President . Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda loves the party and the people love him . Please ask MDC T to honor the wishes of Bulawayo and matebeleland and large.Here is Nelson Chamisa number at havest house. Please leave chamisa a message now on his cell. Tell Him to appoint Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda now and stop Harassing the Mandebele people and the Mashona people and the rest of the people in our region.We are devastated. People are angry and at Chamisa unless he follows the wishes of the people.Movement for Democratic Change is a party in Zimbabwe that's fighting the remnants of Mugabe regime and yet they employed the same tactics to help quash the freedoms of their own party members.We are ashamed and the young leader is failing to lead. How can they do this Mugabe tactics. They have now banned campaigning so help themselves cherry pick their friends ins strategic positions. Our party is imploding unless they recall Chamisa is he is failing to lead and he is caught in many lies. We call for Mwonzora to call for the extra congress before it's too late. Our candidate is flawed and we can't win like this.Musha Mukadzi of Busted.
Opinion / Columnist

I have been following reckless and misguided statements by Emmerson Mnangagwa especially soon after taking charge of Zimbabwe's highest office. In his inaugural speech as the new president of Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa promised to usher Zimbabwe into corrupt free society with equal opportunities for all. To my surprise ED has not yet dealt with corruption within the Zanu pf inner circle.Zimbabweans are peace loving people to the extent that the truth is always hidden under the carpet. Vice President Constantine Chiwenga led the coup that removed the ailing Robert Mugabe from power in the name of removing criminal elements surrounding the First Family. To the surprise of many Zimbabweans same criminal elements are dining with Mnangagwa and Chiwenga daily. If Obert Mpofu and Supa Mandiwanzira to mention only a few for now are still dining with ED and Chiwenga then Mnangagwa is preparing to fail because he is protecting the most corrupt individuals.During the coup Chiwenga used masses of Zimbabweans with the help from the Mutsvangwa to legitimise the Mnangagwa grab of power. Mnangagwa rose to power protect the most corrupt including himself. The 2017 coup in Zimbabwe was necessitated by the need to have access to resources and personal fights in Zanu pf. If Mnangagwa is preaching about removing criminal elements in government it will be welcome for him to resign first since he is guilty as charged.Mugabe had overstayed his welcome but Mnangagwa and Chiwenga will never preach about good governance since they have been part of the Zanu pf machinery for the past 37 years. Giving Mnangagwa a vote in the upcoming elections is killing the future generations and endorsing corruption as a way of governance.It is public knowledge that Mnangagwa and Chiwenga where part of the first coup in 2008 after Zanu pf was humiliated by MDC-T under the guidance of late Icon of democracy Morgan Tsvangirai. Chiwenga and his cronies in the army declared that they will never salute someone without liberation credentials which is totally against the constitution of Zimbabwe.Those statements are tantamount to a coup .Fast-forwarding to our the current predicament it will never happen if Chiwenga is still controlling army that corruption will be uprooted in Zimbabwe since he has been a machinist for abuse of power under the influence of his God father Robert Mugabe who has become their scapegoat today. ED and Chiwenga resemble a failed generation of power grabbing despots only devouring on poor, peace loving Zimbabweans.Trust Vimbayi MukambaJournalist based in South Africa
Opinion / Interviews

President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived back home from a five-day state visit to China yesterday amid optimism that his campaign to woo investors is paying off.Mnangagwa met Chinese president Xi Jinping and business leaders from the Asian economic giant, as well as companies that expressed keen interest to invest in Zimbabwe.However, some critics back home were not happy with Mnangagwa's large entourage.They were also sceptical about the "mega deals" signed by the two countries, saying it was a repeat of former president Robert Mugabe's modus operandi.Our reporter Obey Manayiti (OM) asked presidential spokesperson George Charamba (GC) to explain benefits of the trip and other controversial issues that arose during the visit.Below are excerpts from the interview.OM: Critics have accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of repeating former president Robert Mugabe's mistake of embarking on fruitless foreign trips. They say Mnangagwa's foreign trips are now too many. What is your reaction to that?GC: He embarked on courtesy calls in the region. Outside that he then went to Rwanda to sign a continental free trade agreement of the AU [African Union].Then he went to Cote d'Ivoire to drum up support for investment because it was a CEOs forum.This time around he has gone to China, a country whose outbound investment capital is put at $300 billion.When you take away courtesy calls, you find there is a very clear strategy, very clear method to situate Zimbabwe in the Sadc context and to find the resources for his mantra of Zimbabwe is open for business.The focus must remain on what follows from that effort. The president is also carrying forward his commitment to re-engage with the world so he is motivating FDI (foreign direct investment) and breaking the isolation of Zimbabwe.When you look at these areas, even his most tried critics are hard placed to say which trip was not useful and it is a bit unfair to draw simplistic analogy between the former president and the execution by the current president of a plan, which is meant to get Zimbabwe out of the rut.OM: Since 2014, there have been a lot of mega deals signed between Zimbabwe and China, but according to critics, there is nothing tangible taking place on the ground to show for it.GC: That is a fair comment from a people, a nation that has been turned despondent with the previous dispensation.That is a fair comment, but except you need to look at the current effort against three considerations, which are happening back at home.Firstly, we are drumming up for external support in an environment where Zimbabwe has turned into pro-business.This means that the negative environment that existed from November 3 is now changing.This is why you notice, without travel of the president, we have calls of businesses that are trooping to Zimbabwe simply because of that change of environment.The second factor has to do with reforms initiated by the government.I have described the November 3 conduct of government as arthritic, nothing happened and we were labouring under a giant seizure of inertia.There was no activity in bureaucracy and decisions were not being taken, let alone being implemented not even within time frames.You noticed that soon after taking over, a key ingredient of the present leader's strategy has been to break that inertia because as investors came in or as you got out to drum up for investment, the make-or-break consideration is the readiness of the intercession structure to play host to those investments and this new tempo will then mark a difference between what happened between November 3 and what happens henceforth.Let me give you a simple example that happened yesterday [Friday]. We had a meeting with a company mining chrome at Selous and that company wants to develop a steel plant arguably the largest on the continent. This is on the strength of the resource endowment of Zimbabwe, but that investor has been knocking at various ministerial doors from as far back as four years ago.OM: So, it's true that at some point investors were shunning Zimbabwe, including China, over bureaucratic inertia?GC: That is the point that I am making that the state of affairs was arthritic/anthracical.When you talk about investors, it's neither European nor Chinese. We are talking about a person who wants to bring in capital and geography doesn't matter.That investment that was supposed to give us a steel plant, by the way this is a Chinese investment, was put on hold.After being given assurances that he would get all the raw materials and the power [coal] to set up his steel plant, the president said should you have any difficulties with any of my ministers please come and report to my office.I am raising these matters because you can see a new evolving ethos, which is meant to break that inertia that was to stop those deals from being a reality on paper and not on the ground.Quite a number of Chinese investors spoke of a litany of frustrations they were facing.The third component that was happening in the country is the crackdown on corruption.Corruption was affecting the ease of doing business, the cost of doing business before you even factor in archaic laws and bureaucratic sloppiness and when you factor in those three, you will realise that Zimbabwe is another country in which case you can't judge it on the face of the previous dispensation or cynicism that arose from there.OM: Would you describe the recent China trip by the president as successful?GC: I would actually look for a more superlative term to describe that trip because successful is an understatement and I will explain why.China took a decision to upgrade its relations with Zimbabwe to a comprehensive strategic partner.This is an upgrading of economic relations to pave way for capital and investment, loans and grants by way of support.You will also take into account technology and skills transfer. We have now seen for the first time a redefinition of relations between Zimbabwe and China in the direction of a market base, not that of political solidarity only.The second aspect is that the conferment of a comprehensive strategic partnership with Zimbabwe means Zimbabwe now enjoys a preferred status with the second largest economy in the world and with that kind of status, it is very difficult to regard Zimbabwe as still isolated.The third aspect has to do with market access. The Chinese said you have had your land reform programme, but land does not trade internationally, it is a national asset and what trades are agricultural products from the use of that land so we are opening our agricultural markets to your own produces beyond tobacco.They were very insistent that they want fruits from Zimbabwe and they are ready to help us up production on our land so that we can supply them.It means we can now do contract farming around specific crops for supply to the huge Chinese market.The last point, which is close the hearts of Zimbabweans, has to do with money.Two things happened on that trip and China said they are now delinking our debts, meaning all along the language was that until you service your debts we will not give you loans, but there is now that delinkage and the issue of getting loans is now independent of our indebtedness.To that end, we are looking at getting a billion from the Chinese and this is over and above direct cash injection by way of grants.These are really measurable concrete deliverables from that trip.OM: There are complaints over the size of the delegation and some faces who appeared on that trip.GC: I don't know who did that census. That trip was a result of a joint commission between China and Zimbabwe.It focused on energy development, infrastructure development, finance, investment and tourism  five key sectors of our economy  and these and China were interacting and that meant we needed many ministers and officials to have full comprehension of the work to be done.We had people who went before the president, the second batch of people travelling on their own who are basically the businesspeople and the president's delegation.When you look at the needs of this country and what we wanted to accomplish, you will begin to appreciate the need for the delegation that was there.I think we must avoid simplistic judgements. You can have your president staying at home with consequences and a person who travels with tangible inflows, which will allow us to retool and transform our economy.OM: Let's talk about the planned meeting between Mugabe and Mnangagwa. We understand it has been dragging for long, when is it finally happening?GC: The meeting between the former president and the current one has been a matter between two characters.To our surprise, we saw this issue becoming a matter for political debate but also an issue of a political structure reportedly linked to the former president.It was also an issue of G40 people in exile who fear a meeting between the former president and his successor.In their calculation, which is rather foolish, they want to appropriate the symbolism of Mugabe and use it to relaunch themselves politically, therefore, they don't want any meeting to take place.The current president made a second overture to the former president just before he left for Abidjan and before the meeting could take place, another ruse was invented and it was supposedly an invasion and break-in at Mazowe where computers were allegedly stolen.The idea was to spoil the atmosphere for the meeting. Now they are talking about a break-in at Zimbabwe House, except that someone is not telling the country that the former president still holds the keys for that house.The current president hasn't set foot at Zimbabwe House, but how do you keep the keys to the property when there is someone who must come in?OM: So you mean this might have been stage-managed?GC: I doubt, therefore, that the incidents are real. The idea is to make sure that the meetings don't take place. They are also abusing him because of old age.There is also something that is so provocative that happened just before Mnangagwa was supposed to leave for China: the G40 cabal tried to make the former president go to China the same day that the president left.The ostensible reason was that he wanted to buy tiles for his house.They were going to leave for China and then Singapore for a genuine medical check-up.Originally, the president was supposed to visit Singapore as well, but there were budgetary constraints.This means the G40 cabal had planned to have the two leaders in China and Singapore at the same time and how would you expect to manage the two leaders in the same country at the same time?As it stands, there are no reasons to make the two leaders go to same countries at the same time.In fact, the former president is leaving for Singapore today for a medical check-up.They also wanted him to travel to Equatorial Guinea with the hope that the country might fund their political activities, but the Equatorial Guinea government refused.There is a real push to create a situation of conflict between the former president and Mnangagwa for selfish gain.Unfortunately, in their naivety, the G40 people don't realise they are hiding in a desert and at an appropriate time and in an appropriate environment, the two leaders will meet.
By Agustinus Beo Da Costa JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia, acting on a request from Interpol, has seized a fishing boat carrying 600 illegal gillnets that can stretch up to 30 km (18 miles) after it evaded capture in several countries, the Fisheries Ministry said. The vessel, the STS-50, had targeted Antarctic toothfish, the ministry said, a cod species that plays an important role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Gillnetting, which uses walls of finely meshed nets, has been banned in Antarctic waters since 2006 and is described by Australia as posing a huge risk to "almost all marine life". Officially stateless, the STS-50 evaded authorities by flying eight different flags at different times, including those of Sierra Leone, Togo, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Micronesia and Namibia, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Interpol contacted Indonesia last week with a request to investigate the vessel, Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said in the statement. "Navy ship Simeuleu conducted a 'stop, investigate and detain' operation on Friday and successfully seized the vessel," Pudjiastuti said. The vessel had earlier been detained by China but had escaped and was later detained in the port of Maputo in Mozambique before fleeing again, Pudjiastuti said. Prior to its capture off the Indonesian island of Weh in the northwestern province of Aceh, the vessel had also operated under several other names including Sea Breeze, Andrey Dolgov, STD No. 2 and Aida, the statement said. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows the 54-metre, 452-ton vessel was built in 1985. At the time of its capture, the STS-50 had 20 Indonesian and Russian crew, the statement said. It was not immediately clear what would happen to the crew. Navy deputy chief of staff Achmad Taufiqoerrochman was quoted in the statement as saying the Indonesian crew lacked travel documents and had been at sea for a long time without pay, indicating they may have been victims of trafficking. Fishing for Antarctic toothfish is governed under the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which forbids gillnet fishing and imposes strict rules on catches in the Southern Ocean. "We want this to be an example for the world to not compromise with illegal fishing," Pudjiastuti said. Indonesia has destroyed hundreds of foreign illegal fishing boats since 2014 in an effort to protect domestic fish stocks and fishermen. In 2016, Indonesia assisted Interpol in the landmark capture of a giant Chinese-flagged vessel that had evaded Argentina's navy and fled into international waters after it was suspected of illegal fishing there. The same year, Indonesia blew up a giant illegal toothfish fishing vessel that had operated under 12 different names and flown flags of at least eight different countries. (Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The Ontario government is making a controversial change in the fight against opioid overdoses by asking bystanders to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to victims, CBC News has learned.

The move is stirring up an ongoing debate in the medical community about whether rescue breathing helps or harms overdose victims.

The Paramedic Association of Canada's executive director, Pierre Poirier, pushed for the change through his work on Ontario's opioid emergency task force.

During an opioid overdose the brain no longer reminds the victim to breathe, and in some cases their tongue also falls back and blocks their throat, Poirier said.

Without mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, overdose patients could be at risk of brain damage or worse because of a lack of oxygen, he said.

"The danger of not doing rescue breathing is that somebody will die," said Poirier.

'We don't actually know if rescue breathing helps'

However, not all experts agree.

Researcher and emergency physician Dr. Aaron Orkin said science shows rescue breathing is difficult to perform properly and may get in the way of a more effective option: chest compressions.

"We don't actually know if rescue breathing helps," said Orkin, who works at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

"Withholding chest compressions in someone who has no signs of life is withholding their only chance of survival."

Mouth barriers soon to be included in overdose kits

Ontario faced a spike in opioid-related deaths for much of last year. There were 1,053 fatalities from January to October 2017, compared to 694 during the same time period in 2016.

Until now, the government advised bystanders to follow the same model as the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada: perform chest compressions before giving naloxone.

The Ministry of Health confirmed to CBC News it's changing those recommendations after consulting with the opioid emergency task force, which includes public health officials, first responders, harm reduction workers and opioid users.

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New instructions will be included in all publicly funded naloxone kits in the next couple of weeks, advising people who come across suspected opioid overdose victims to give them naloxone, then perform rescue breathing and/or chest compressions.

The kits will also include a plastic mouth barrier so people are less hesitant to perform rescue breathing.

Health units and pharmacies will also provide training on the new changes.

Poirier told the task force that opioid overdoses are a breathing problem, not a heart problem.

"Chest compressions are really directed toward somebody who is having a cardiac event," said Poirier. "That would be an obese 50-year-old male who has cardiac disease."

Opioid deaths involve cardiac arrest

Orkin said the vast majority of people dying of opioid overdoses in Ontario often have complex health issues, including heart or lung problems and chronic diseases, and that cardiac arrest is a factor in opioid overdoses.

"You simply cannot die from opioid overdose without going into cardiac arrest," Orkin said.

Orkin works extensively with people who use drugs in shelters and was part of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. That extensive review of research led to the development of guidelines adopted by groups including the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Available evidence shows that whenever a person is unresponsive, whether due to an opioid overdose or something else, the most important intervention is chest compressions, Orkin said.

He would never tell someone not to perform rescue breathing, but does say it's difficult to perform properly, even for experts such as himself. It's best to keep the steps as simple as possible for untrained bystanders or they might freeze, he said.

"Expecting the general public to take on [rescue breathing] in order to address an epidemic that is sweeping across our communities, is I think really quite an overwhelming challenge," Orkin said.

Push for Ontario to adopt B.C. model

The Paramedic Association of Canada said Ontario's new recommendations don't go far enough. It's asking the province to go a step further and learn from British Columbia  the epicentre of the opioid crisis.

The BC Centre for Disease Control recommends opening the victim's airway and giving a rescue breath every five seconds, even before administering naloxone.

Michael Nolan, chief of the County of Renfrew Paramedic Service, said his team is already teaching families of known drug users in his community to perform rescue breathing first.

He wants Ontario to follow suit over concerns that while bystanders wait for the naloxone to reverse a victim's breathlessness, there could be brain damage.

"Those are precious seconds and, in many cases, minutes where the person is still going without the oxygen they need," said Nolan. "By not providing them rescue breathing in advance of the [naloxone] or in combination, they may well go for minutes without oxygen circulating to their brain."

In an emailed statement, Ministry of Health spokesperson David Jensen wrote that naloxone should be provided before rescue breathing because some people can't provide rescue breathing, and because naloxone reverses overdoses.

"There is, in the ministry's view, evidence to show that responding bystanders (who are not paramedics) may not be capable or willing to provide resuscitation in an opioid overdose situation," Jensen wrote.

"Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that can reverse an opioid overdose. It is important that someone experiencing an opioid overdose in the community receive naloxone as quickly as possible."
Developer Andrew Marquess has accused Coun. John Orlikow of being "an avowed opponent" of the development of the Parker lands, throwing the planning process for the residential development into disarray.

Marquess and his company, Gem Equities, want to build residential towers, townhouses and single-family homes on a triangle of Fort Garry land sandwiched between the next leg of the Southwest Transitway and the Canadian National railway line south of Taylor Avenue.

On Monday, the developer accused Orlikow, who's both the area councillor and chair of council's property committee, of being biased against the project, attempting to force the sale of some of the land and siding with protestors who occupied part of the site last summer.

"This opposition began in 2009 and continues to this day, which is a period of nine years," Marquess told Orlikow in a registered letter distributed to reporters by Kevin Toyne, a litigation lawyer who works for Marquess.

"This clearly demonstrates you can not be impartial on this matter as a sitting member of the decision-making bodies hearing the applications regarding this development."

The accusation came as council's property committee was about to hear Marquess and Toyne appeal a city decision to prevent the developer from proceeding with a plan for the development, which Marquess calls Fulton Grove.

When Toyne asked Orlikow if he would step away from the meeting, the appeal hearing was adjourned to a later date.

"We were simply following established legal practice to ask Coun. Orlikow to recuse himself, and there was absolutely no reason to delay the hearing today," Toyne said to reporters.

Orlikow said he will check with the city clerk, city legal staff and possibly the city's integrity commissioner before he decides how to proceed.

But he rejected any claim of bias against either Marquess or the development of the Parker lands.

"I find it unfortunate they feel that and that's their opinion. I feel it's quite unfortunate they made that public today," Orlikow said, suggesting the accusations are tantamount to defamation.

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"The threats that have been coming forward have been quite intense for quite a while," the councillor said. "We really work hard in the department to make sure we're always above reproach."

The accusation against Orlikow is the latest conflagration in a nine-year Parker lands saga that began in 2009, when the city transferred the unserviced industrial property to Marquess.

The land exchange, made public only days before a city council vote, was assailed in 2014 by an external audit of City of Winnipeg real-estate transactions, whose authors concluded the swap was a "rush job" conducted without proper appraisals of either of the properties.

The Parker land swap also outraged several longtime Parker-area residents, sparking a campaign against the development, originally on an environmental basis.

The scope of the protests expanded in 2017 to include Indigenous concerns that development was proceeding without consideration of the traditional uses of the land.

The city and Marquess also became embroiled in a dispute over land expropriation.

But the latest dust-up followed a city decision that planning, property and development director John Kiernan described as a simple matter of following process.

Kiernan said city planners are not opposed to what Marquess has planned for Parker. Rather, a number of city departments are still reviewing Gem's plan for the Parker neighbourhood, Kiernan said.

Gem jumped the gun by attempting to rezone the industrial land right now, before the overall plan is ready, Kiernan said.

"We're not rejecting it based on content. We're simply saying it's premature," he said.

Marquess, however, said he's frustrated with his dealings with the city.

"We've been at this process for a long period of time," he said. "We've done 24 drafts of the secondary plan. We had three different planners assigned to the project.

"It's just strange when something you think would benefit the city would be met with such opposition."
Israeli troops opened fire from across the border, killing at least nine Palestinians and wounding 491 others in the second mass border protest in eight days. The deaths brought to at least 31 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since last week.

[IDF officer at the scene:] There were armed cells among the protestors that wanted to break through the fence to set it on fire, to kidnap soldiers and perhaps break into one of the kibbutzim. There are several people within the crowd, members of Hamas elite Nukhba force, who are hiding guns, knives, explosives under their clothes. Their intention was to turn into a fighting force.



Nineteen or 20 Palestinians were killed on the first Friday, I said.



One-third of the dead are armed terrorists, one of the officers said. Another 40 percent are members of the organizations, including a Nukhba company commander. Most of the others were identified as key instigators. The first person who was killed was a farmer. It was a misidentification by a tank.



The orders received from the General Staff are clear. A soldier is allowed to fire in three cases: If he is in a life-threatening situation, if he detects damage to state infrastructure [the border fence] and if he spots key instigators. In the last case, he must receive approval from a commander. First, he fires into the air, and only then he shoots towards the persons body.



Lets assume that 400 people had broken through the border fence, one of the officers said. We would have had to stop them with fire. At least 50 of them would have been killed. It would have been a strategic event. They would have had to retaliate. We would have had to retaliate. In fact, we are preventing war through our surgical activity.

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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..Abu Yehuda..09 March '18..I talked to an American friend yesterday. She is well-educated and interested in current events, and she was concerned about what was going on at the border with Gaza. She read me an AP news account that was in her local paper (probably this one ) which explained in the second paragraph thatWhat is the picture that this evokes?If I didnt know better, I would see a bunch of people peacefully holding signs, singing we shall overcome, when suddenly a machine gun opens up and mows them down at random, men women and children. The article mentions that the area was engulfed by thick black smoke from protesters setting tires on fire, but it is only in the ninth paragraph that we are told that the [Israeli] military said that the protesters threw firebombs and explosive devices under cover of the smoke, and that several attempts to cross the fence were thwarted.Lets analyze some of this.Are they protesters and if so, what are they protesting? Some of them are civilians who are sympathetic with Hamas, or who are young people with nothing more exciting to do, who have taken the free buses provided by Hamas to eat the free lunch provided there. Participants are encouraged to try to break through the border fence, and Hamas is paying them from $200 to $500 if they are injured, and $3000 to families of anyone who is killed.The civilians are generally not the ones who are getting shot. Most of those who did are members of the al-Qassam brigades or other military organizations associated with Hamas or other terrorist factions, who a trying to damage or penetrate the border fence, or injure or kill Israeli troops on the other side.Here is a description from an article by Nahum Barnea , an Israeli journalist who is a bitter enemy of Israels present government, and anything but a right-winger:People in Gaza have much to be unhappy about. Media sympathetic to Hamas usually blame Israel, citing its blockade of Gaza. But the blockade is very selective, and does not prevent Gaza from importing food, medical supplies and even construction materials intended to rebuild homes and infrastructure damaged in recent wars. Hamas taxes all imports heavily, and appropriates what it wants for its own purposes. Cement and rebar imported for construction of buildings, for example, is diverted to use in attack tunnels dug under the border to Israel, which are intended to infiltrate terrorists and to kidnap Israelis.The biggest problems for Gaza residents today are the lack of electricity, mostly because of a dispute with the Palestinian Authority, and the availability of clean water and sewage treatment facilities. International donors have provided money and equipment, but resources are consistently diverted to Hamas for military purposes.But these are not the things they are protesting. The protest is called The Great March of Return, and it is on behalf of a right of return of the descendents of Arab refugees from the 1948 war to land that has been under Israels control since then. Rhetoric is very aggressive . Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said that the event marks the beginning of their return to all of Palestine, especially Jerusalem, which they say US President Trump had no business recognizing as the capital of Israel.As everyone knows, the return of the millions who claim refugee status would be the end of the Jewish state (and probably the start of a civil war that would rival the one in Syria). In other words, what they are protesting is the very existence of Israel on land that they want for themselves.I told my friend that Israel had few options. Could they fail to defend the border, close to Israeli communities (as close as 100 meters in some cases)? Palestinian terrorists have on countless occasions showed that they are capable of horrific violence, even slitting the throats of babies in their cribs.Some commentators have gone as far as to accuse Israel of deliberately massacring Palestinians. What they dont explain is what advantage Israel would gain by doing so. Israel is extremely conscious (too much so, in my opinion) of maintaining an image of a progressive, humane society, and would consider mass or indiscriminate killing of Palestinians a public relations disaster as well as a moral one. The view that IDF soldiers in general would seize an opportunity to kill Palestinians out of sheer hatred  which is apparently assumed by those who suggest that there has been a massacre  is a manifestation of the campaign of demonization that Israel and the IDF have been subjected to, and even of a pervasive anti-Jewish worldview.Hamas, on the other hand, benefits greatly from civilian casualties, which support its narrative of victimization and provide its supporters with fodder for lawfare against the IDF and diplomatic sanctions against Israel.I have recently read several articles which argue that the situation is very complicated and we shouldnt place all the responsibility on either side. I agree that it is complicated. There are numerous players with influence here, including Israel and Hamas of course, but also the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and notably Iran, which is financing Hamas and sees violence in Gaza as in its interest.But it isnt complicated in a moral sense. I have no problem saying that one side is defending itself against invasion, and the other is committing an act of aggression while at the same time victimizing its own people.Its a shame that important parts of the American media dont get this  or dont want its consumers to get it.______________* For those too young to remember, see Kent State Massacre
Student Success

Pilot Linking Degrees and Earnings Gets First Try at U Texas

The first-year median earnings for an undergraduate who received his or her degree in health and physical education/fitness at the University of Texas at Austin is $39,441. The median debt for that individual is $24,306. After 10 years, the earnings reach $70,262. For an undergraduate who majored in computer and information sciences, the median income for year one is $85,334; the median debt is $27,644. By the tenth year the CS major would have a median income of $117,418.

That's the kind of detailed information that prospective students and their families would find helpful in sorting through college choices. Yet, a federal ban on student-level data collection has until now prevented close scrutiny of specific degree programs or majors as students move out of their original states.

The ban, legislated by Congress in 2008, was ostensibly meant to address privacy concerns related to the federal capture of student data on an individual level. In reality, some institutions  especially those that are members of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents more than 1,000 private nonprofit institutions  have blocked the idea of developing a nationwide database of student outcomes. According to an issue brief by NAICU, comparing colleges based on "monetary measures of value" can't "present a full or accurate representation of an institution's mission and character."

The ban hasn't stopped some university systems from creating a proximate version of that kind of reporting. For example, officials in the U Texas system set up their own reporting of graduate earnings. "SeekUT," as it's called, has been in use since 2014, tapping data obtained through partnerships with various state agencies as well as the National Student Clearinghouse and the Employment Projections program at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More recently, the university system began working with the U.S. Census Bureau. The agreement, signed in September 2016, is expected to give both organizations a bigger, more accurate picture of degree attainment and how it affects labor market outcomes. Through the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program, seekUT now presents information about post-college outcomes for UT graduates living across the country  not just in Texas  thereby circumventing that federal ban.

The Census Bureau has also released two sets of data for public use as a beta project. Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) data provides earnings and employment outcomes for college and university graduates from UT by degree level, degree major and post-secondary institution. The various statistics are generated by matching university transcript data with a national database of jobs, using "state-of-the-art confidentiality protection mechanisms" to secure the underlying data.

A second release by the Census Bureau, scheduled for later this year, will cover students within the Colorado Department of Higher Education. And the agency said it was working on adding additional colleges and universities to the database.

With these pilots, the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics program "addresses a major gap in the federal statistical infrastructure for education statistics," said John Abowd, chief scientist and associate director for research and methodology at the Census Bureau, in a prepared statement. "Up until now, individual states could only measure earnings and employment outcomes for persons who worked in the same state where they were educated. Thanks to this pilot, states, universities and prospective students have the opportunity to see employment outcomes by program of study by region and industry."

The statistics focus on the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile of earnings at one, five and 10 years after graduation  expanding UT's seekUT program, which only provided one-year and five-year in-state data. The number of graduates in each of these groups will also be published. The Census Bureau said it would update the statistics for future graduation cohorts as they become available.
Data & Analytics

RIT to Host National Data Hackathon for Undergrads

The Rochester Institute of Technology will host DataFest, a national undergraduate data hackathon, for the second consecutive year later this week.

Sponsored by the American Statistical Association, the competition asks teams of students from any major and at any point in their data science education "to tackle what's probably the richest, most complex dataset you've seen so far provided by a real-life organization," according to information on the RIT DataFest site. Teams will get 48 hours April 13-15 to use the data to find a solution to a real-world problem.

Prizes will be awarded for best in show, best visualization and best use of external data.

Founded in 2011 at the University of California Los Angeles, the inaugural event asked participants to fight crime through analysis of every arrest record in the Los Angeles Police Department from the previous five years. Each year, student participants are joined by roving consultants who may be industry professionals, faculty members or graduate students.

"By hosting DataFest for the second year in a row, RIT is making it clear that it is serious about playing a leading role in the shaping and the development of the emerging field of data science," said Ernest Fokoue, associate professor at RIT's School of Mathematical Sciences, in a prepared statement. "It makes RIT a hub of data science in the greater Rochester area."

For more information, visit rit.edu.
As I was growing up, I remembered asking my parents at various occasions whom they loved more  my brother or me. To which both my parents would answer consistently without wavering, they loved us both, neither one more than the other.

My brother and I had our own ideas though; we came to our own conclusion that dad loves me more while mum loves him more. We could come up with endless reasons which supported our claim that they loved one more than the other.

My brother had new toys while I had hand-me-downs. I had birthday parties while my brother did not. I mean, if they loved us both, neither one more than the other, surely we would both receive the same things and everything should be equally shared between us.

It is impossible to love equally

I carried this belief with me that it was impossible for my parents to love us equally. After all, we were of different age and gender and there was no way my parents could love us equally. Surely Mum loved the firstborn son more as she had him first. Surely Dad loved the younger daughter more as he was the protective father figure.

The problem with this philosophy of loving equally lies in the fact that my brother and I are different people. We are two separate individuals with personal likes and interest. This means that even providing us the same things isnt exactly loving us equally. Technically speaking, they just cant love us equally, no parent can.

We can love our children wholeheartedly

When I had my second child, Michael, I realised that I love each of my children, neither one more than the other. I love them both as a parent but it isnt equal. It isnt equal in the sense that everything has to be equal halves for both of them now that I have two children.

I didnt have to halve my love to divide it between my two boys. Just because I had another son in no way signifies that my love for my firstborn was cut down by 50 percent because I had to give the same amount to his brother. Quite the contrary, instead of both having equal halves or amounts, almost everything is different for them, be it the time spend together or the things they have.

When Michael was a newborn, I spent much more time with him than with my firstborn, John. This was because at that stage, I was nursing Michael and he was more reliant on me than his older brother who was already attending kindergarten. On the other hand, John and I will play board games and have snacks which we keep away from his little brother who is still too young for these treats.

My love for each of my sons is portrayed in different ways according to their age and interest yet I love both of them, neither one more than the other. While these do not measure up to be equal in the terms we know, any parent will still be able to identify with me that we do love each of our children wholeheartedly despite the 'measurements not adding up'.

God loves his children uniquely

As a parent loves their children, how much greater is the love God has for us his children. Lisa Bevere, in her book Without Rival records her eye-opening conversation with God where he explains to her his immeasurable love for us,

Equal implies my love can be measured, and I assure you  it cannot. Same would mean my children are replaceable or interchangeable, and they are not. My heart is not divided into compartments. No one could take the place of or displace another in my heart. For you see, I dont love my children equally, I love them uniquely

We have a Father who loves us uniquely for who we are without comparing us with others. Likewise we too can love ourselves uniquely as we live out the life that only we are called to live. There will never be a better me than I can be.

Let us love purposefully

So I dont love my children equally and neither does God loves us his children equally. There is no guilt in not loving our children equally; there is no need for yearning to be loved by God equally.

Instead, I have found that as I love my children wholeheartedly and uniquely, I begin to love them purposefully  to build them up for who they are without comparison  even as I myself come to the realization of the purposeful love our Father has uniquely for each of us regardless of the successes or failures of people around us.

As Psalm 139, verse 14 goes, I confess Thee, because that with wonders I have been distinguished. Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul is knowing it well.

Esther Koh is a stay-at-home mum living in Wellington with her husband and two sons. She loves people and has a passion for helping others find their purpose for living.

Esther Kohs previous articles may be viewed at

http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/esther-koh.html
Commissioner Ken Russell announced that more than $1 million in funding will be going into the Village West to improve housing, jobs, health and education for local residents. He will announce this formally, Wednesday, April 11 at 10:30 am at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 3515 Douglas Road.





The funding, directed by Ken from various local and federal programs, aims to begin to make up for decades of official neglect of the neighborhood.





"I represent the wealthiest, fast-growing district in this city, but growth doesn't mean much if we don't invest in all of our communities," said Commissioner Russell. "The West Grove was Miami's first community and we cannot let it be paved over by progress and forgotten. We must give the families who have lived there for generations a fighting chance to prosper and own their own neighborhood."





The funding includes money to fix up the homes of low-income families, elderly and veterans, expand education and job training programs, provide small business grants, youth programs, a new playground and much more. It represents a first wave of community-focused investment and economic development in the fast-gentrifying neighborhood.





Ken plans to invest millions more dollars in the next few years by expanding the Omni CRA into the neighborhood, a concept that was unanimously endorsed by the City Commission earlier this year. The CRA would invest a portion of the taxes from growth in the neighborhood back into infrastructure an economic development in that area, concentrating the impact.





"I have lived here most of my life. We are elated that this is happening because it's very needed in our community," said resident and local business owner Barbara Mills. "I applaud Commissioner Russell and his staff extensively for all their efforts and initiatives. He is finally doing something that others have not prevailed to do for decades."
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On New Years Eve, as the world prepared to ring in 2018, Congolese journalist Edmon Izula was being repeatedly hit with a rifle and threatened at gunpoint by a member of the state security forces. Iluza was one of at least three journalists harassed by authorities that day, in a scenario that has become common during months of protests in the DRC.

CPJ has documented at least 27 cases in recent months of security forces briefly detaining, threatening, or assaulting journalists as they covered violence and protests calling for President Joseph Kabila to step down. Kabilas second five-year-term was scheduled to conclude at the end of 2016, but his failure to relinquish power or hold elections that had been due in 2017 has led to a political crisis and protests.

During the same period, journalists ability to cover unrest and other events were further hampered by the DRC Telecommunications Ministry repeatedly ordering the shutdown of internet and telecommunication services.

For three days [Cas-info] was not able to publish any information, even though there was a lot, Izula told CPJ, referring to one of the outlets for which he is a correspondent.

In response to the attacks and harassment, CPJs Emergency Response Team issued a series of safety information cards that offer tips and recommendations for journalists working in the DRC, including on how to protect recorded content or use digital tools to help them report safely.

Several of the journalists harassed or detained by security forces said their equipment was confiscated, and recordings or images deleted.

Emmanuel Elameji wa Kabedi, a journalist with the U.N.-backed Radio Okapi, told CPJ that when police in the eastern city of Bukavu arrested him on November 30, they seized two phones, an audio recorder, and US$140. Elameji wa Kabedi was among at least six Congolese journalists detained covering countrywide protests that day, according to CPJ research. Similarly, CPJ documented how at least three of the 18 journalists detained on July 3 had photographs or recordings deleted.

When asked for comment about journalists being harassed or detained at protests, 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.

Other DRC journalists with whom CPJ spoke said they often face harassment. Journalists are always intimidated during the exercise of their profession, especially during protests, Delphin Mupanda, a reporter with the community station, Radio Television, Rwanzururu-Beni (RTR), said.

Elameji wa Kabedi added, [Authorities] only want praise, but when there is criticism from the media, they respond with threat and intimidation.

Willy Akonda, a reporter with the privately owned news outlet Actualite, said that agents of the Congolese military intelligence service (DEMIAP) threatened him when he was arrested for taking photos that allegedly compromised Kabila on January 23. The person in charge of that DEMIAP office identified only as Major threatened me with death and said that he could shoot me without any problem because he only responds to the president, Akonda told CPJ at the time. The DEMIAP head, Delphin Kahimbi, said the agency will take action against the officers, according to reports.

Aside from arbitrary detentions and equipment being confiscated, journalists have been affected by authorities consistently ordering internet access to be shutdown.

Since December 30, authorities shutdown internet and telecommunications on at least three occasions corresponding to nationwide public demonstrations, CPJ has found. Many journalists with whom CPJ spoke said the shutdowns increased risks associated with their reporting and heightened their concerns that the government could more easily surveil their communications. Without access to internet-based encrypted communication services, journalists had no choice but to use regular phone lines, which they believed the government monitors.

The government listens to all the conversations, a Kinshasa-based journalist, whose identity was withheld for safety reasons, told CPJ. The journalist added that their belief that authorities could surveil them means encrypted apps like WhatsApp have become essential to their reporting.

Internet shutdowns have also restricted journalists ability to upload recordings or publish online. Lambert Mende Omalanga, the Minister of Communication, acknowledged in a phone conversation with CPJ that the shutdowns affected the countrys press. Many media [outlets] use internet to work. So, when you cut the internet of course there is impact, Mende said.

CPJ emailed Telecommunications Minister Emery Okundji to request comment about the repeated shutdowns and their effect on press freedom, and the journalists claims of government surveillance. CPJ received email confirmation that the questions were received from one of Okundjis advisers, in which the minister was ccd; but as of April 3, CPJ had not received a further response.

CPJs safety cards for Congolese journalists are available in English and French and include information on how to protect recorded information, communications, and sources contact details, as well as information on how to cover protests safely, and how to use digital safety tools.

[Additional reporting by Jonathan Rozen, CPJ Africa Program Research Associate]
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Iran Human Rights (Apr 9, 2018): Sina Dehghan (Dehqan), who has been sentenced to death for insulting prophet Muhammad, has requested a retrial and his lawyer hopes the request will be approved.





According to a close source, Sina Dehghan, who has been sentenced to death for insulting the prophet and his verdict has been approved by the Supreme Court, has requested a retrial.





Mehdi Shakibafar, a lawyer who has accepted Sina Dehqans case, told IHR, Sina Dehqans case was processed by a judicial authority in Arak who issued the ruling. Afterward, the defendant objected to the ruling and his family appointed me as their sons lawyer. I requested a retrial after reading the case, and now its being studied by the Supreme Court. We hope to achieve the desired result.





He continued, Sina Dehqan and Mohammad Nouri are serving time in Arak Central Prison, so we hope the execution sentence will be rejected.





Sina Dehqan, a resident of Tehran, was arrested on October 21, 2015, by Ministry of Intelligence agents from the city of Arak. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Dehqan was only 19, and he was reportedly just finishing up his mandatory military service at a base in Tehran operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.





Before his arrest, Sina Dehqan along with Mohammad Nouri, Sahar Elyasi, and an individual under the age of 18 used the messenger app "Line" to share content that the judicial and security authorities in Iran consider offensive to Islam.





Branch 1 of the criminal court in the Markazi province, presided by Judge Mohamad Reza Rahmati, reportedly sentenced Sina Dehqan and Mohammad Nouri to death and Sahar Elyasi to seven years in prison. The individual under the age of 18 has reportedly not received a sentence yet and was released on bail.





In February 2017, Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences for Sina Dehqan and Mohammad Nouri and reduced Sahar Elyasi's sentence to three years in prison. Additionally, these three individuals were sentenced by a Revolution Court to 16 months in prison on the charge of insulting the Supreme Leadership.





IHR has not been able to contact Mohammad Nouris lawyer or his family so far. We ask those who are in touch with his family to contact us.

Medieval death sentences for free speech

Iranian courts have sentenced three individuals, including a woman, to death for the expression of their opinion.





Iran Human Rights (MAR 27 2017): Three prisoners by the names of Sina Dehghan, Mohammad Nouri and Marjan Davari have reportedly been sentenced to death by Iranian courts based solely on opinions or beliefs they expressed.





"Verdicts like the ones issued to Sina Dehghan, Mohammad Nouri and Marjan Davari are reminiscent of the ones issued in the medieval times. The international community must speak out about their death sentences. We call for global condemnation," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for Iran Human Rights.





According to close sources, Sina Dehghan, a resident of Tehran, was arrested on October 21, 2015 by Ministry of Intelligence agents from the city of Arak. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Dehghan was reportedly just finishing up his mandatory military service at a base in Tehran operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Close sources say that prior to his arrest, Sina Dehghan along with Mohammad Nouri, Sahar Elyasi, and an individual under the age of 18 used the messenger app "Line" to share content that the judicial and security authorities in Iran consider offensive to Islam.





Branch 1 of the criminal court in the Markazi province, presided by Judge Mohamad Reza Rahmati, reportedly sentenced Sina Dehghan and Mohammad Nouri to death and Sahar Elyasi to seven years in prison. The individual under the age of 18 has reportedly not received a sentence yet and was released on bail.





In February 2017, Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences for Sina Dehghan and Mohammad Nouri and reduced Sahar Elyasi's sentence to three years in prison. Additionally, these three individuals were sentenced by a Revolution Court to 16 months in prison on the charge of insulting the Supreme Leadership.





Sina Dehghan was reportedly physically beaten at the time of his arrest. And when he was held in Arak's Ministry of Intelligence detention centre, he was reportedly mistreated and subjected to torture and pressured to give forced confessions.





"Sina Dehghan, who is 21 years old, is currently held in a ward with prisoners charged with dangerous crimes, and he is experiencing many challenges there," a source close to Mr. Dehghan tells Iran Human Rights.





MARJAN DAVARI





Marjan Davari was reportedly arrested on September 24, 2015 in Karaj by Ministry of Intelligence agents for holding a class and translating a book about "Eckankar". She was sentenced to death by branch 15 of Tehran's Revolution Court, presided by Judge Salavati, on the charge of "Spreading corruption on earth".





"In order to issue the Corruption on earth charge, the court cited the topics that Ms. Davari translated and the lecture she gave - in addition to using the following accusations against her: apostasy, illegitimate relationships, gathering and colluding against the state, and membership in Eckankar," a close source tells Iran Human Rights.





Marjan Davari was detained in Ward 209 of Evin Prison where she was not allowed any contact with her family or lawyer for four months. She is currently held in Gharchak Varamin Prison located in the city of Rey (Tehran province). In February 2017, she was transferred to this prison from Evin's women's ward.

 | 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
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico's Supreme Court is weighing whether the state's two remaining death row inmates still can be executed after the state's abolition of capital punishment.





Oral arguments were scheduled for Tuesday in the appeal of death sentences against Robert Fry and Timothy Allen for convictions in two brutal killings.





New Mexico repealed the death penalty for future murderers without canceling death sentences against Fry and Allen.





Attorneys for Fry say the execution no longer fits his crimes, while the state attorney general's office says it still is appropriate.





The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 2014 on whether the sentences against Fry and Allen are constitutional.





The court ordered further briefings on whether execution is disproportionate to their crimes.





New Mexico's last execution was in 2001 against child-killer Terry Clark.

 | 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



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!





"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Mumbai: Acclaimed film director Taika Waititi has accused his home country of New Zealand as a racist country.

"It is the best place on the planet, but it's a racist place," the 'Thor: Ragnarok' director told a magazine, as reported by The Guardian.

"People just flat-out refuse to pronounce Maori names properly."

Waititi, who lives in Los Angeles with his family, added that people in Auckland in particular are "very patronizing" for praising how well he has done "for one of his people".

"There's still profiling when it comes to Polynesians. It's not even a colour thing - like, 'Oh, there's a black person.' It's, 'If you're Poly then you're getting profiled.'"

Waititi, last year, fronted a campaign for New Zealand Human Rights Commission, helming a video against racism.

"Racism needs your help to survive," he said in the video. You may not be in a position to give much to racism, but whatever you feel comfortable giving will make a huge difference."
We dont want to create any kind of political ambiguity here in the EU that Ukraine is not a reliable transit country, a Naftogaz official says.

Ukraines state-owned energy firm Naftogaz will go to court to seize Gazprom assets in Europe, but not touch Russian gas transits, for not paying after an international tribunal found in its favor, the companys deputy chief said.

For us, its clear that they wont do that (pay) so we will start arresting their gas and other assets of Gazprom in Europe, not in Ukraine. We will go to courts in Europe, Naftogaz deputy chief executive Yuri Vitrenko told Reuters.

However, Naftogaz would not seek to seize gas transiting through Ukraine to European clients after a Stockholm arbitration court ordered Gazprom to pay it more than $2.5 billion.

Read alsoNord Stream 2 might provoke full-scale Russian offensive on Ukraine  Parl't SpeakerWe dont want to create any kind of political ambiguity here in the EU that Ukraine is not a reliable transit country, he said.

Vitrenko said he expects talks with the Russian gas giant later this week to be the last before Naftogaz files fresh complaints with the Stockholm court.

He added that it was likely Gazprom would seek to entirely stop transits through Ukraine after its gas transit contract with Ukraine expires at the end of 2019.
In an interview with DW's Zhanna Nemtsova, Kobolyev says the project is "against the interests of Europe."

For decades Ukraine has been a major transit route for Russian gas to Western Europe, but the country's role in the supply line is diminishing. Since President Vladimir Putin came to power, Russia has pushed for alternatives, including the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany. The planned Nord Stream 2 project would put Russia in the position to reduce the flow of its gas through Ukraine to the minimum level required.

"By any means, the Russian Federation wants to circumvent Ukraine," Andriy Kobolyev, the CEO of the Ukrainian state oil and gas company, Naftogaz, told DW's Zhanna Nemtsova in an interviewed scheduled to air on Tuesday. "We understand the logic behind this project as being partly geopolitical, partly military." Kobolyev warned of possible grave consequences for his country. "Russia needs to remove transit from Ukraine for a very simple reason: because transit makes full-scale military aggression against Ukraine a very costly exercise," he said. A war would disrupt Russia's gas supplies to Western Europe through Ukraine for a long time. That would "cost the Russian state a lot, reputationally and financially," Kobolyev said.

Despite the growing danger of a military conflict, Ukraine would also bear significant economic costs by losing the annual fees that Russia pays to pump gas through Ukraine. Kobolyev put the figure at more than $3 billion (EUR 2.4 billion), which he said would naturally be a substantial amount for Ukraine's economy.

Read alsoPoroshenko: Nord Stream 2 "political bribe" for Germany's loyalty to Russia

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to discuss the issue with Angela Merkel during his visit to Berlin on Tuesday. It will be his first meeting with after the chancellor since the formation of her new coalition government in March. In an interview published in the Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday, Poroshenko called Nord Stream 2 "a political bribe for loyalty to Russia" and warned of "massive" negative consequences for Ukraine. He has suggested modernizing Ukraine's gas pipelines as an alternative.

In his interview with Nemtsova, Kobolyev acknowledged that Germany would profit from Nord Stream 2, but said the country could also face long-term negative consequences. "Germany will lose its ability to appeal to the concept of solidarity," he said. "For example, on such important issues as migrants, I heard this from many Central European countries, saying: 'Look, Germany is asking us to follow the principle of solidarity when we talk about migrants, but when we talk about gas this principle is being forgotten.'" By selling cheaper gas to Germany and thus making German businesses more competitive, Russia would try to use "divide and conquer tactics" against its rivals in Europe. This, he said, is one of the reasons why Ukrainian officials believe that "the project is against the interests of Europe."

The project has been criticized by the governments of some Central European countries, as well as the United States. The German government considers Nord Stream 2 a private commercial project and recently gave it the green light.
Russia's appeals court confirms Siemens claim over turbine transfer to Crimea rejected

The German concern filed a lawsuit demanding that two contracts for the supply of four turbines to Russia be recognized null and void.

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Ukraine estimates losses from Russia's Kerch bridge at tens of millions of hryvnias

Ukraine's infrastructure and justice ministries are preparing international lawsuits against Russia over the illegal construction, the official said.

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UIA's CEO Yuriy Miroshnikov said Ryanair has started selling tickets for flights at Kyiv's Boryspil airport without getting permission for the timings.

Ukraine's largest air carrier, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) may launch new legal action over the entry of Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair into the market if its complaints over airport slots are not addressed.

Read alsoUkraine's infrastructure ministry in talks with Ryanair on flights from KhersonUIA launched legal action against the government last year and Ryanair walked away from talks saying Ukraine was "not yet a sufficiently mature or reliable business location". Ryanair returned after more negotiations backed by the president, Reuters reported.

In his first interview since Ryanair announced its entry on March 23, UIA's CEO Yuriy Miroshnikov said Ryanair has started selling tickets for flights at Kyiv's Boryspil airport without getting permission for the timings.

"Slots which they are expecting to receive are all occupied by Ukraine International flights, transit flights, where the connecting times are very important, where we know, we already understand that airport infrastructure in these peak times is a bottleneck for us," he said.

"I can have only one explanation: They (Ryanair) hope and believe that under pressure from various sources the issue somehow will be resolved (in their favor)," he said. "And they don't care."

"If that solution will damage Ukraine International, yes we definitely will protect our interests in the court," he said, without specifying whom UIA would take to court.

"Ryanair's schedule has been constructed outside of Kyiv Boryspil's peak slot times and we will continue to work closely with the airport on all planning," Ryanair said in emailed comments to Reuters. "Hysterical utterances from the high fares UIA are just another example of their desire to block competition rather than giving Ukrainian customers the low fares they really want."
World Bank expects 3.5% economic growth in Ukraine in 2018

WB envoy says modest 2.5% growth of the country's economy in 2017 is bad news.

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Journalistic probe suggests corruption in licensing development of huge lithium ore deposits amid electric cars boom

With a 1% share of lithium in the ore, the cost of the deposit is estimated at over $2.5 billion.

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Every second land purchase permit in Poland granted to Ukrainians in 2017

In order to purchase land plots, including forest and agricultural land, citizens of non-EU states need to obtain permission from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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Russian ruble plunge not to affect Ukraine's forex market - experts

The negative effect is possible if a full-scale crisis unfolds in Russia.

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Another lawsuit filed against Gazprom: Naftogaz set to enforce debt

Naftogaz seeks compensation from the Russian company for damages inflicted by the Russian monopoly's failure to fulfill the Stockholm arbitration awards in favor of Ukraine.

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Ukraine arrests Russian ship for sand extraction off Crimea coast for Kerch bridge construction

The vessel is now being held in the port of the city of Yuzhyi, Odesa region, and belongs to a Russian violator company.

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What can we tax next? is the repeated refrain from spend-happy state and local politicians. Trendy sin taxes on products we dont like have been in vogue for decades now, with taxes on alcohol and tobacco expanding to sodas, blueberries, and yes, playing cards. At best, these taxes disproportionately punish the working poor, whose consumption spending is a higher share of their income. At worst, excise taxes fuel black market activities and pad the pockets of criminal syndicates. These unintended consequences of fun fees, however, have not deterred public officials always on the lookout for a fast buck.

The junk food tax has been implemented in several countries over the past decade. Proponents claim that, in addition to being administratively feasible, taxes on fatty and sugary snacks and drinks can curb obesity. But a closer look at these claims shows that supporting studies are shoddy and actually undercut the argument that junk food taxes work. Instead of punishing low-income shoppers for their purchases, taxpayers and consumers should punish politicians for reckless spending that bleeds coffers dry.

As with many in-vogue policy ideas, the case for the junk food tax was born abroad. Researchers looked to the cases of Hungary and Mexico, which implemented taxes on snacks and beverages with high fat, sodium, and sugar content. Faced with low life expectancies, high per-capita salt consumption, and a majority-overweight population, officials in Hungary implemented a targeted tax on unhealthy eats in 2011. Products in certain categories deemed to have excessive levels of salt and sugar were slapped with a 4 percent tax. The stated two-fold aim was to encourage healthier choices and raise money for public health. Mexico put a simpler program in place in 2014, charging an 8 percent tax on packaged products with at least 275 calories per 100 grams, which included some healthy foods.

As several years have passed since these reforms, researchers have attempted to measure the effects on waistlines and reported habit changes. In summarizing the results of the Hungarian experience, the World Health Organization concluded in a research brief that people bought fewer unhealthy products because their price was higher. This, however, is simply not consistent with the evidence. In fact, statistics from the Hungarian government show that unhealthy food consumption actually increased in the couple of years since the introduction of the tax.

Researcher Aniko Biro at the University of Edinburgh dove deeper using regression analysis, and found evidence that expenditures of untaxed sweets went up in the aftermath of the tax. In other words, customers are simply removing taxed products from their baskets and adding untaxed products that arent necessarily any healthier. But any sort of analysis trying to isolate the effect of one policy on bottom-line results inevitably runs into trouble. Even if researchers could reasonably claim to have evidence of changing behavior after 2011, they would also need to account for the drastic price increase of imported sugar around that time.

In the case of Mexico, concurrent policy changes put strict limits on junk food advertisements on television. The main examination of Mexicos efforts fails to take this into account, and makes no attempt to measure any sort of substitution away from targeted, packaged foods. Could Mexicans have responded to the 2014 tax by frequenting stands on the streets more often? Given Mexicos reliance on mom-and-pop food vendors, this possibility needs to be accounted for in the research.

Public health researchers cannot simply assume that sin taxes work as advertised. There are too many complicating factors with accompanying unintended consequences. According to some research, taxes on unhealthy food may lead to decreases in exercise, as individuals and families are nudged to spend more time preparing food. The world is often a more complicated place than we believe, where even the simplest top-down schemes are liable to go awry. Instead of chasing after half-baked schemes to raise revenue, elected officials should put the taper on rampant wasteful spending.

Cutting down on expensive website redesigns and streetcar ventures, for instance, can free up funds for essential public services such as emergency response and road repairs. Instead of asking what they can tax next, politicians should work with taxpayers to build a simpler, less burdensome government, and cut the fat from wasteful government expenditures.

Ross Marchand is the director of policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

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The United States welcomes the recent signing in Warsaw of an agreement concluding Phase I of Polands purchase of the Patriot missile defense system, worth 4.6 billion dollars.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert noted in a statement that this includes a brand new, state of the art command and control system for Polands air and missile defense.

Polands President Andrzej Duda called the weapons agreement an extraordinary, historic moment that will allow his country to modernize its defense capabilities. He said, Its a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price.

Poland, in view of its geography and history, has always taken its security needs seriously. It already meets NATOs Wales and Warsaw Commitments to spend at least two percent of GDP on defense and at least twenty percent of that on procurement and infrastructure. Poland is in the process of a multi-year, multi-billion dollar defense modernization effort.

After Russias illegal occupation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine, Poland stepped up its drive to modernize and fortify its defenses.

Poland is a NATO ally and a member of the European Union. Spokesperson Nauert said the signing of the Patriot system agreement will strengthen the security and capabilities of the United States, Poland and NATO along the Alliances Eastern Flank. It reflects Polands investment in sharing the burden of collective defense through its ongoing defense modernization program to which Poland devotes more than 20% of its defense budget, and is the culmination of commitments made in conjunction with the meeting between Presidents Trump and Duda in Warsaw in July 2017. It also creates jobs in both the United States and Poland, she said.

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Paul Jones called the signing of the Patriot agreement a milestone for Poland and NATO, and noted that negotiations on Phase II of the agreement dealing with radar, additional missiles and batteries will take place in April. Ambassador Jones emphasized that Poland and the United States are allies forever.
It's been one hundred years since British poet and infantryman Wilfrid Owen described a soldier suffocating on chlorine gas during World War I: I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight. He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

In remarks to the Security Council April 4th, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley pointed out that World War I was the first time chemical weapons were used in modern conflict. The horror of the suffering such weapons caused drove the world, first, to ban their use, and then to ban their production and stockpiling too. We dared to believe that we could banish the threat forever, Ambassador Haley said.

But Syrias Bashar al Assad is a man with other goals. In 2013 Assad used sarin gas against his own people on the outskirts of Damascus. The pictures of hundreds of dead men, women, and children shocked the world. In response, as Ambassador Haley recounted, the UN adopted Resolution 2118 mandating the destruction of the Assad regimes arsenal of chemical weapons. In 2015, the UN established the Joint Investigative Mechanism to identify anyone who used chemical weapons in Syria.

But one member of the Council, Russia, shielded the Assad regime from any consequences; then blocked the Security Council from renewing the Joint Investigative Mechanism, noted Ambassador Haley. The world, she said, is a far more dangerous place because of it. The Assad regime keeps dropping chlorine bombs on innocent men, women, and children.

When there are no consequences for such actions, others take note, Ambassador Haley declared, as the use of nerve agents in Salisbury and Kuala Lampur proves.

Speaking to the Council on the one-year anniversary of the Syrian regimes dropping of chemical bombs on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing scores of civilians, Ambassador Haley challenged the Council to continue to fight to rid the word of chemical weapons and to hold to account anyone, anywhere who uses them.

Let us use this meeting as the start of a renewed partnership and a renewed commitment to put an end to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, she said. Even with all of the profound divisions on this Council, the United States refuses to believe that we cannot come together once again to stop chemical weapons. Not just to protect the Syrian people, but to protect us all.
Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Heather Nauert expressed the profound gratitude of the American people for all Bangladesh has done and continues to do to provide support to Rohingya refugees fleeing Burma.

The close bonds between our two countries have never been more essential  and Bangladeshs leadership more vital  than during this tragic humanitarian crisis, said Acting Under Secretary Nauert.

The United States government, in close coordination with the international community, has provided nearly $110 million in humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh since last August, Ms. Nauert said. We will continue to work hand in hand with [Bangladesh] on this issue, not only through the provision of aid, but through sustained support for the voluntary, dignified, and safe return of Rohingya to their homes in Burma.

Our cooperation in responding to this crisis is the fruit of a strong bilateral relationship that we seek to enhance even further, she said. Decades of U.S. development assistance and private-sector investment have fueled Bangladeshs extraordinary social and economic progress, and U.S. exporters are well positioned to help take Bangladeshs economy to the next level, by delivering the highest quality goods and services in the world.

Ms. Nauert noted that the U.S.  Bangladesh security partnership has yielded many benefits, including increased regional maritime security, counter-terrorism cooperation, and strengthened UN peacekeeping.

It is encouraging to see Bangladesh play an important, growing role in training and supporting international peacekeeping forces, including by hosting the recent Shanti Doot 4 training exercises in Bangladesh last month, she said, which brought together over 1,000 participants from more than 30 countries, including 50 U.S. service members.

Our shared belief in the potential and value of all of Bangladeshs people is a central pillar of our partnership, said Acting Under Secretary Nauert. And as we prosper together through trade and investment, we have faith that you will continue to champion the cause of peace and freedom throughout the Indo-Pacific and across the world.
BEIRUT, April 10 (Reuters)

The top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday described a strike on a military air base in Syria as "Israel's crime" and said it would "not remain without response", the Lebanese al-Mayadeen channel reported.

Ali Akbar Velayati was speaking on arrival in the Syrian capital Damascus, reported al-Mayadeen, which is well-connected in government-held parts of Syria.

Seven Iranian military personnel were killed in the strike on the Tiyas, or T-4, air base near Homs, the Iranian Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.

Syria, Iran and Russia have accused Israel of being behind the attack - something Israel has neither confirmed nor denied.

However, Israel has carried out numerous strikes in Syria, with some intended to stop Iran and allies including the Lebanese group Hezbollah from gaining strength near its borders.

Iran's military help has been crucial for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against rebel groups since 2011, and Velayati also visited Syria in November.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest external foe and has called Hezbollah the biggest threat on its borders.

The enmity between Israel and Iran has threatened to escalate as a result of their competition in Syria. In February, Syrian anti-aircraft fire brought down an Israeli F-16 jet that was attacking the positions of Iran-backed forces in Syria.

On Monday, the U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura referenced the air base strike along with other recent events in Syria in a briefing to the Security Council, warning against a "situation of uncontrollable escalation".
A prominent Iranian economist says 33 percent of the countrys population live in absolute poverty, and six percent are starving.

A family of four living in an urban area with a monthly income below forty million rials (roughly $1000) is living in poverty, Hossein Raghfar told state-run Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) April 7.

Families in rural parts of the country with an income of less than 20 million rials per month live in poverty, Raghfar added.

While Irans Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare sets the poverty level income bar much lower at seven million rials (roughly $160) per month for a family of five, Raghfar says this amount is not even enough to feed the family. His calculation takes into account the cost of all necessary commodities, not just food, when setting the poverty line.

These contradictory approaches to measuring the poverty line in Iran have made the task of setting official poverty level income figures elusive in the past.

Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. ---The concept, therefore, fails to recognize that individuals have important social and cultural needs, wrote the Financial Tribune published in Iran, on January 21. This, and similar criticisms, led to the development of the concept of relative poverty, which defines poverty in relation to the economic status of other members of the society. As per this concept, people are poor if they fall below prevailing standards of living in a given societal context.

Two years ago, Hossein Raghfar estimated that 30 million Iranians were living in relative poverty and twelve million in absolute poverty. Now, based on current statistics presented by Raghfar, 33 percent of Irans population, i.e. nearly 26 million people, are suffering from absolute poverty, and six percent, or five million people, are not even able to buy enough food. These people, Raghfar pointed out, also have other expenses like housing, transportation, and clothing.

Parviz Fattah, the president of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (IKRC), said March 5 that the number of applicants seeking assistance from the charity has gone up nearly 50 percent Since when? Compared to when?. But he also insinuated that not all those seeking assistance were genuinely in need.

IKRC is a tax-exempt state institution launched by the order of the Islamic Republics founder, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, to assist people incapable of making ends meet.

Fattah, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander and energy minister under President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, also said, The IKRC has nearly five million clients, of whom three million are directly covered and receive monthly allowances, while two million are receiving assistance according to their needs.

According to an October 2017 report by the World Bank, Iran is the second largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after Saudi Arabia, with an estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016 of $412.2 billion---Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas reserves and fourth in proven crude oil reserves. Economic activity and government revenues still depend to a large extent on oil revenues and therefore remain volatile.
Tehrans city council accepted former Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafis resignation at an April 10 meeting, and appointed his deputy, Samiollah Hosseini Makarem, as acting mayor, Iranian news agencies reported.

According to Fars News Agency, Makarem was voted acting mayor by the council with 14 out of 21 votes in his favor.

Tasnim news agency says Makarem is an economist who worked before as deputy mayor for investment and deputy chairman of Irans Cultural Heritage Organization, and director-general for budget at the Ministry of Education.

This was Najafis second attempt to resign as mayor.He sent a letter of resignation to the city council in mid-March, but his resignation was rejected by the council at their April 8 meeting. He resigned for a second time April 9 after hardline Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri blatantly threatened him in the press, stating Resign and you wont be prosecuted.

Although Najafi has always maintained he was stepping down due to a recently diagnosed illness, some council members insisted that the mayor was being forced out by his political opponents.

Now pressures are being exerted on the mayor openly, said council member Zahra Sadrazam Nouri following Montazeris promise that the mayor could avoid prosecution by stepping down.

Several Iranian news websites have also reported that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence organizations were pressuring Najafi to resign.

If true, the allegations that Najafi was pressured to resign by the IRGC and judiciary would be in line with traditional political rivalries between Irans two main political factions, the hardliners and the reformists.

All the 21 members of the Tehran City Council are reformist figures, and Najafi is a member of the centrist Executives of Construction party, which is part of the reform camp. Najafis main opponents are from the hardline-controlled judiciary.

During his seven months in office as Tehrans mayor, Najafi repeatedly spoke about widespread illegal actions carried out under the conservative former Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Najafi and other members of the city council reported about billions of dollars in city debt, corruption and illegal transfer of city rela estate to individuals.

Tehrans hardline Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi then challenged Najafi to present his evidence to the prosecutors office immediately.

Then, the judiciary began pressuring the mayor. Dolatabadi summoned Najafi to court in mid-March after a video was released on social media showing Najafi at an International Womens Day ceremony where young girls were performing a dance as part of the festivities.

Council members including Morteza Alviri and Zahra Sadrazam Nouri said the prosecutors office treated Najafi inappropriately.

I kept silent in the face of threats and insults in order to reform a corrupt system, Najafi said at an April 8 city council meeting, adding, most of the attacks targeted me, and finally one of those hit me hard.

Irans conservatives controlled the Tehran City Council for 14 years between 2003 and 2017. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first Tehran Mayor elected by a conservative council in 2003. He took over as the countrys president within two years.

Qalibaf, who was defeated in the 2005 presidential election, took over as Tehrans mayor in 2005, although he kept trying his luck as a presidential candidate in 2013 and 2017. His term as mayor came to an end with reformist factions overwhelming victory in the council elections in March 2017, and Najafi replaced him in August.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

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 April 10.

Armenians were using large-caliber machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The time has come for key international actors, particularly the US and the EU, to press for a settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by beginning the process of returning occupied lands to Azerbaijan, Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC said in his article published in Washington Times.

Twenty-five years of international mediation to resolve the conflict and return the territories to Bakus jurisdiction have proved unsuccessful. Four resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993 regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which confirm that Azerbaijan territories are occupied by Armenian armed forces, remain unimplemented, said the author in his article titled Why Azerbaijan matters for the West.

The time has come for key international actors, particularly the US and the EU, to press for a settlement by beginning the process of returning occupied lands to Azerbaijan, enabling displaced people to return to their homes, and demilitarizing a region where dozens of soldiers and civilians from both sides perish in skirmishes each year, the article reads.

Bugajski believes that in the current regional climate, with an unresolved long-term conflict within its territory, an ongoing crisis between neighboring countries, with the danger of regional terrorism and Islamic radicalization, Bakus primary goal must be to maintain national independence and regional stability

Further the author pointed out that Azerbaijan has become a bridge between several regions as well as an energy and transportation hub, important for Europe, Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and the United States.

Azerbaijan is at the heart of Europes gateway to Central Asia and a critical transportation and over-flight zone for NATO supplies in its military operations in Afghanistan. With the newly developed transportation corridors, Azerbaijan will have a central position in the Silk Roads between China and Europe, said the article.

The author pointed out that Azerbaijan has been a source of attraction for American business. U.S. companies, including, Exxon, Unicol, Amoco, Chevron, McDermott, Halliburton and Boeing earned billions of dollars in the country benefiting from favorable economic conditions during the years of independence.

AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan) has organized visits by these companies for several years and supported cooperation with local business, he added.

Next year, Azerbaijan will start the first deliveries of natural gas to Europe, launching the Southern Gas Corridor from the Caspian Sea to Italy via Georgia, Turkey, and the Balkans, thus making an essential contribution to Europes diversification of gas supplies. The $40-billion investment in three major pipelines that form the Southern Gas Corridor was made possible because of the strategic vision of Azerbaijans government and the commitment of its business partners, first of all BP, the article reads.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

Cambodia supports the UN Security Council resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia Ouch Borith said during the political consultations between the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Cambodia, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told Trend.

Having welcomed the delegation of Cambodia, Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov expressed hope that this visit will be useful for strengthening political dialogue and expanding business relations between Azerbaijan and Cambodia and will create the necessary ground for further expansion of cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

Noting wide opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the political, economic, humanitarian, agricultural, medical, energy and other spheres, Khalafov stressed the importance of developing contractual and legal framework for the bilateral relations.

During the meeting, Khalafov informed the guest about large-scale transport and energy projects implemented on the initiative and with the participation of Azerbaijan, and added that the North-South and the East-West transport routes create favorable opportunities for the Asian countries to enter the European market.

Talking about Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan and the fact that 20 percent of the country s territory is under occupation of Armenia, the deputy minister said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is still a serious threat to peace, stability and comprehensive development of the region.

Khalafov thanked the Cambodian side for supporting Azerbaijans fair position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and expressed hope that Cambodias support will be permanent.

In turn, Borith said that Cambodia is interested in developing cooperation with Azerbaijan in all spheres. He thanked the government of Azerbaijan for the high level of organization of the Mid-Term Ministerial Conference of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM).

Stressing that the exchange of visits of high-ranking government officials is important for the development of bilateral relations, the Cambodian diplomat stressed the need to continue the political dialogue between the two countries.

He also said that Cambodia is interested in further development of cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries.

Borith thanked Azerbaijan for the opportunities created for the education of Cambodian students in Azerbaijan in the Soviet era, and noted that Cambodia intends to continue cooperation in the field of education between the two countries.

Noting that Azerbaijan has rich experience in the field of energy and has highly qualified specialists, the guest stressed importance of implementing various exchange programs between the two countries in this sphere.

At the meeting, the sides also discussed issues of cooperation as part of international organizations, creation of a joint intergovernmental commission for the development of trade and economic relations and the issues of holding political consultations on a long-term basis.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

Members of the mission of international observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries (TurkPA) arrived in Baku to observe the presidential election to be held in Azerbaijan on April 11, the TurkPA reported April 10.

TurkPA mission consists of Berik Ospanov, member of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Duishon Torokulov and Salaidin Aydarov, members of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, Haluk Ipek and Ceyhun Irgil, members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Moreover, TurkPA mission members are expected to hold meetings with Chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament Ogtay Asadov, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev and Chairman of the Central Election Commission Mazahir Panahov today.

On the election day, TurkPA observers will visit polling stations in Baku, Sumgait and Absheron district to monitor the voting process.

On April 11 evening, TurkPA mission members are expected to disclose the preliminary results of their observation work. On April 12, both TurkPA and Turkic Council observation missions will make a joint statement on the results of the election.

The pre-election campaign for the presidential election has completed in Azerbaijan and a "day of silence" has been announced today.

Eight people were registered as candidates in the presidential election in Azerbaijan.

On the voting day, 5,426 permanent polling stations and 215 temporary polling stations in 125 constituencies will operate in the country.

The election will be observed by 871 international observers and 57,373 local observers.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

A citizen of the Republic of Yemen, a blogger, Nada Ahmed Ali Al-Nahdi addressed a letter to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry asking for not including her name to the List of foreign citizens illegally visited occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the ministry said in a message on April 10.

In her letter, Al-Nahdi reaffirmed her full respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders, its laws, and regulations, according to the ministry.

Stressing that she was not aware of the consequences of an illegal visit, Al-Nahdi said that her visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia in no way served for the promotion of illegal regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

The ministry noted that she expressed her apology to the government and people of Azerbaijan for an unauthorized visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.



Al-Nahdi also attested that she would refrain from such visits to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in the future without the consent of the government of Azerbaijan, the ministry said.

The Azerbaijani ministry considered Al-Nahdi's appeal and made a decision no to include her name into the List of foreign citizens illegally visited occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

Head of the State Protocol Department at the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Parvin Mirzazade has received the Charge d'Affaires of Croatia in Azerbaijan Refik Sabanovic, the Foreign Ministry said in a message on April 10.

Sabanovic handed over to Mirzazade a note by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia informing about creation of the Embassy of Croatia in Baku.

To date, Croatia's accredited embassy in Azerbaijan has been operating on a non-resident basis and Croatia has been represented by a temporary office.

Mirzazade said that raising the diplomatic representation of Croatia in Azerbaijan to the embassy level will give impetus to further expansion and promotion of cooperation and friendship between the two countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Seven countries will send representatives to observe the general parliamentary elections in Malaysia, the press service of the Malaysia Election Commission (EC) said in a message.

Malaysian EC revealed that Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan have ratified their participation in the country's parliamentary elections.

Previously, the EC also announced that election observation would be conducted only in a reciprocal manner, by inviting countries that had previously invited Malaysia as an observer to the elections.

The invitations to participate in Malaysias elections were sent to 14 countries. Myanmar, Australia and Kazakhstan declined the invitation, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan and New Zealand have not yet responded.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

The election experience of the young and independent Azerbaijan is a role model for a number of countries, Jason Katz, an American expert to monitor the presidential election in Azerbaijan, head of Tool Shed Group, told the Election 2018 Independent Media Center.

Katz noted that he monitored the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan back in 2015.

Then, I was an observer actively participating in the electoral process. I talked to the people and got in touch with them. I monitored all the processes. No violations were registered at the polling stations that we monitored, Katz said.

He said the current electoral process is also organized at a high level.

Katz expressed his confidence that the election will be held in a free and democratic atmosphere this time too.

The election experience of the young and independent Azerbaijan is a role model for a number of countries. Particularly, other countries may also benefit from the experience of installing web cameras at the polling stations. Based on my observations, I can say that the people will freely vote for their candidates tomorrow on the election day, Katz said.

Eight candidates were registered for the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan.

On the voting day, 5,426 permanent polling stations and 215 temporary polling stations in 125 constituencies will operate in the country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 11

By Ali Gasimov - Trend:

Armenian officials turn into political speculation the paragraph of the agreement signed between the EU and Armenia concerning the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Karen Nazaryan expressed hope today in the Armenian parliament that the European Union will also note this position in the agreement with Azerbaijan.

Armenian officials at various levels are trying to speak on behalf of the European Union and turn into political speculation and propaganda the agreement signed between Armenia and the EU, Hajiyev said.

Hikmet Hajiyev firstly noted that the EU does not have a mandate and authority to deal with the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Despite the groundless claims of the Armenian side, the principles noted in the preamble of the cooperation agreement between the EU and Armenia referring to the Helsinki Final Act do not have the nature of a legal obligation. The official EU message to the Azerbaijani side notes that according to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the preamble of the above agreement does not bear a legal obligation. Thereby, the EU only once again confirms that Yerevan is one of the sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he said.

Hajiyev stressed that the EU has repeatedly, at a high level, expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within the framework of internationally recognized borders and the sovereignty of the republic.

President of the Council of the European Union Donald Tusk in February 2017 in Brussels during a joint press conference with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stressed that the EU supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Azerbaijan. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, at a press conference held with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov in the framework of the 15th meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan Cooperation Council in February this year in Brussels, noted that the EU fully supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Azerbaijan, Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev noted that the joint declaration of the EU Eastern Partnership Summit held in Brussels on November 24, 2017 once again expresses unequivocal support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the countries of the Eastern Partnership.

It should be specially emphasized that the Joint Declaration refers to the EU's Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, where the territorial integrity of EU member states and their neighbors is noted within the internationally recognized borders. In another paragraph of the Joint Declaration it is emphasized that all conflicts that have occurred in the territory of the Eastern Partnership countries should be resolved on the basis of norms and principles of international law. The resolution of the European Parliament adopted in 2013 notes that the occupation by one country of the Eastern Partnership of the territory of another member country violates the fundamental principles and objectives of the Eastern Partnership and stressed that the conflict must be resolved on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions No 822, 853, 874 and 884. So, both in the statements of high-ranking EU officials and in the EU documents, the full and unequivocal support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan was repeatedly stressed, Hikmat Hajiyev said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

Foreign citizens visiting Azerbaijan spent 99,798,809 manats in January, 91,128,890 manats in February and 190,927,699 manats in total via their bank cards, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism told Trend.

The ministry said that foreign citizens spent 31,565,965 manats or 20 percent more via their bank cards as compared to the same period of 2017.

In 2017, foreign citizens visiting Azerbaijan spent 1,022,036,752 manats via bank cards.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani citizens spent 179,521,339 manats in foreign countries in the first two months of 2018. The money spent by foreign citizens in Azerbaijan is 11,406,360 manats more than the money spent by Azerbaijanis abroad.
Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and EY company signed a Cooperation Agreement. The signing ceremony gathered BHOS rector Elmar Gasimov, Managing Partner of EY in Azerbaijan Ilgar Veliyev, other representatives of the company management, and staff members and students of the Higher School.

Opening the ceremony, rector Elmar Gasimov highly praised activities of EY in Azerbaijan in delivering assurance, tax and advisory services and the prospects of strengthening cooperation between BHOS and this worldwide known multinational company. In his words, within the framework of the partnership, BHOS students will have an opportunity to participate in the training courses on sustainable development arranged by EY. In addition, the company will participate in preparation of the Higher Schools Sustainable Development Report, he said.

In his turn, the Managing Partner of EY in Azerbaijan Ilgar Veliyev emphasized the importance of enhancing the mutually beneficial cooperation. He also expressed his satisfaction regarding strong interest shown by BHOS students in the training cources organized by the company.

EY Cleantech and Sustainability Senior in Azerbaijan Gunel Farajova presented certificates of participation to those fourth-year and fifth-year Higher School students who attended a three-day workshop on Climate Changes and Sustainability conducted by Gunel Farajova at BHOS recently.

Then BHOS rector Elmar Gasimov and Managing Partner of EY in Azerbaijan Ilgar Veliyev signed the Cooperation Agreement. After the signing ceremony, HR Associate Director of EY in Azerbaijan Samira Shabanova and HR Senior Associate Vusala Hasanova made a presentation about the company activities, employment policy and procedures, and career and professional development opportunities for EY staff members. Then they answered numerous questions from the students.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijan is a magnificent country, Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency, Lina Vaitkeviciene said at a meeting with foreign journalists who came to the country to cover the April 11 presidential election.

I am very happy to be in this country, she noted. Before going to the point, I would like to say that I and my family are very happy for the possibility to live in such a beautiful and fully safe country. I am from Lithuania and have been living for almost 3 years here and we feel very comfortable here. It is safe here, there are no prejudices on national or religious grounds, and this is really a country of multiculturalism, where democratic principles prevail, and eastern and western values coexist peacefully and complement each other. This is actually a very beautiful country, she said.

My friends, who came to visit Azerbaijan, said they have heard about tremendous developments of the country, but they did not expect to see such beauty. I know, you are here to follow and to write about the presidential election, but I really hope you will have the opportunity to see developments of the country, to taste delicious food, and, of course, to see the beauty of Baku city and the districts, added Vaitkeviciene.

She informed the guests about the agencys activities.

The deputy director general said she was amazed by the fact that there are media of such scale in Azerbaijan, news products of which are in demand all over the world.

Trend is a significant achievement of Azerbaijan in the media sphere. The agency is among transnational media outlets, admitted to the supply of information materials to absolutely every authoritative international news aggregator, which in itself is a unique achievement for the media of the former USSR republics.

Speaking about the agencys activities, Lina Vaitkeviciene noted that Trend provides public news, as well as paid products for its customers.

We do have 14 specialized newsletters. They are in English and Russian languages and offer an insight view into areas covering such sectors as politics, business, oil and gas, transport and logistics, finance and banking in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and others. Our news cover the South Caucasus region, Central Asia, the countries of the Caspian region, she noted.

We sell news via the our internet terminal, as well as to customers with whom we conclude contracts directly, said Vaitkeviciene.

She noted that Trends products are bought by such companies as Mitsui Corporation, Lukoil, Petronas, Statoil, Chevron, BP, SOCAR and others.

Among our clients are well-known consulting companies such as Ernst & Young and Deloitte. At the same time, we can mention the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector and others, she added.

The meeting was attended by US political scientist Raoul Lowery Contreras, independent journalist living in the US, Nurit Gringer, journalists from Italy, Lello Stelletti and Domenico Letizia, as well as Jason Katz, founder of the strategic communication company Tool Shed Group LLC (US).
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

Germany is ready to further support measures to diversify Azerbaijans economy, Tobias Baumann, director executive of the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, told reporters in Baku April 10.

There is decline in trade turnover between Germany and Azerbaijan, he said.

However, Azerbaijan continues large-scale reforms related to economic diversification aimed at creating new industries, he noted.

In this process, Germany provides support to Azerbaijan by supplying high-quality equipment, in particular for the food, polymer and textile industries, he added.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Germany amounted to about $314 million for the first two months of 2018, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.
On 10 April 2018, the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK Azerbaijan) held the German-Azerbaijani Business Forum on "Medical Tourism" in the Hyatt Conference Centre, Baku.

The Business Forum was organised on the occasion of the visit of Berlin clinics specialised in cardiology, neurosurgery and oncology in cooperation with the Berlin Partner for Business and Technology GmbH.

The event was officially opened by the Executive Director of AHK Azerbaijan, Mr. Tobias Baumann. After the briefing on the event, Economic Attache of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mrs. Heike Mockel mentioned opportunities for cooperation between Germany and Azerbaijan in the medical tourism sector and Germanys readiness for passing on its knowledge and expertise to the Azerbaijani counterparts. The Board Member of AHK Azerbaijan and Director of Sahhat clinic, Mr. Malik Karimov made a speech on Germanys support to Azerbaijan in the health system and joint projects and SES (Senior Expert Services) implemented with German companies.

Following the official opening of the Forum, Director of Public Health and Reforms Center of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Jeyhun Mammadov informed the participants about the current reforms, state programmes and future projects implemented in the medical tourism sector in Azerbaijan. Mr. Mammadov expressed his confidence that this Forum will contribute to making Azerbaijan medical tourism destination for foreign tourists.

Afterwards, the Chairman of Azerbaijan Health and Thermal Tourism Support Association, Mr. Ruslan Guliyev presented opportunities for German-Azerbaijani collaboration in medical tourism. He also mentioned the willingness of Association to support the works of the AHK Azerbaijan in this sphere.

The Forum was followed by the presentation of the German delegation, delivering information about the activities of German clinics and medical institutions as well as the implementation of digital technologies in health and medical tourism. At the end of the event, B2B meetings were held between the German and Azerbaijani companies involved in the medical tourism sector.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

The production of Hyundai trucks will be set up in Uzbekistans free economic zone "Kokand", Uzbek media outlets reported.

The project is worth at least $130M The initiative of the new production was set by the Korean companies Evergreen Motors and Posco Daewoo.

The production of Hyundai trucks was previously discussed during the visit of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Seoul. The preliminary investment in the project is estimated at $200 million.

The free economic zone "Kokand" was created by the decree of the Uzbek president on January 12, 2018. The decrees major points include attraction of direct investments of foreign and local investors and creation of scientific and production centers for standardization, certification and labeling of products in accordance with international standards.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijan's SOCAR exported about 480 million cubic meters of gas to Georgia in January-March 2018, a source in the state oil company told Trend.

"As of April 1, SOCAR exported to Georgia about 480 million cubic meters of gas, while average daily export rate hit about 5.3 million cubic meters," the source said.

In 2017, SOCAR exported 1.38 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

The company supplies its own gas to Georgia via the Hajigabul-Gazakh-Gardabani pipeline. The pumping capacity of the gas pipeline after its modernization exceeds 3.5 billion cubic meters per year.

SOCAR operates gas distribution networks in various regions of Georgia via SOCAR Georgia Gas.

According to Georgias gas balance for 2018, in general, the countrys natural gas demand will stand at more than 2.689 billion cubic meters.

Meanwhile, Georgia plans to obtain 2.679 billion cubic meters (99.65 percent) of gas from Azerbaijan, including 1.866 billion cubic meters from the state oil company SOCAR and 813 million cubic meters, produced as part of development of the Shah Deniz field.

The remaining part (9.41 million cubic meters) will be provided thanks to local production.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Maksim Tsurkov, Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Azerbaijan continues oil pumping via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, a source in the country's oil and gas market told Trend on April 10.

Oil pumping through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline continues normally. There could have been a short-term suspension, the source said.

Earlier, Reuters reported with reference to the Russian company Transneft that oil pumping from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline was suspended.

SOCAR delivers the oil produced at its own fields as well as the oil from joint ventures and operation companies working at Azerbaijans onshore fields to Novorossiysk.

The oil is delivered to the port via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline operated by SOCAR.

SOCAR exported 1.5 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2017, compared to 1.3 million tons in 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijan presented data on its daily oil production in March 2018 to the OPEC Joint Technical Committee as part of the Vienna Agreement, Azerbaijani Energy Ministry told Trend on April 10.

Daily oil production stood at 794,000 barrels in March 2018, of which 740,000 barrels accounted for crude oil and 54,000 barrels for condensate.

Meanwhile, 629,600 barrels of crude oil, 54,000 barrels of condensate and 10,600 barrels of oil products were exported per day.

In January 2018, daily oil production stood at 814,600 barrels, and in February 2018  at 806,000 barrels.

Azerbaijans average daily oil production stood at 781,900 barrels in 2017 under the OPEC agreement to curb daily crude output by 834,000 barrels, said the ministry.

OPEC Joint Technical Committee was created to monitor the implementation of countries commitments to cut oil production.

OPEC and several other non-OPEC producers, including Azerbaijan have reached an agreement to extend the production deal for a further nine months. This would shift the expiration date of the agreement from March to the end of 2018. The agreement is on the same terms as those agreed in November 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

A number of hotels in Baku have launched a "WokiFi" service, which allows tourists to rent portable 3G / 4G Wi-Fi routers for universal access to the Internet, Azerbaijan's company Simbrella told Trend on April 10.

The project is implemented jointly with the mobile operator Azerfon (Nar), the Azerbaijan Convention Bureau with the support of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Azerbaijan, according to the company.

Presently, WokiFi service is offered at Sultan Inn Boutique Hotel, Seven Rooms Boutique Hotel, Sahil Hostel & Hotel, Boulevard Side Hotel and Excelsior Hotel & Spa Baku.

"The internet traffic that we receive from Nar, is distributed to hotels through our software and hardware. Each hotel has the right to independently form its own pricing policy for this service and offer various packages. For example, now the hotels are practicing three tariff plans cost $3, $5 and $10, offering 300 megabytes, 500 megabytes and one gigabyte of internet traffic, respectively. The offered packages are valid for one day," the company said.

A tourist when connecting to the internet through a router is automatically redirected to the hotel page, where he/she can choose the necessary tariff package. Furthermore, the cost of the ordered packages is included in the total cost of living in the hotel.

"The advantage of the WokiFi service is that tourist has access to the Internet wherever he/she goes inside the country, while up to 10 people can connect to each device," the company said.
TOP-10 official internet resources of state structures

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9. mfa.gov.az.az 10. scwra.gov.az 1. idmantv.az 2.azal.az

3.edu.gov.az

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10. bpqmi.gov.az

TOP-5 internet resources of local executive bodies

For the number of visits For the number of unique visits

1.binegedi-ih.gov.az 2. quba-ih.gov.az 3. qebele -ih.gov.az 4. khatai-ih.gov.az 5. qazax-ih.gov.az 1. binegedi-ih.gov.az 2. lachin-ih.gov.az 3. qebele-ih.gov.az 4. agcabedi-ih.gov.az 5. khatai-ih.gov.az

TOP-10 countries in terms of the number of visits to official information resources of state structures
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 6

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

Deployment of the production of lithium-ion batteries in Azerbaijan requires resolution of issues of legal regulation, Director of the High Technologies Park of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Vugar Babayev told Trend.

He said that it's necessary to regulate the issue of their transportation and utilization, which is the subject of negotiations with the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Azerbaijan.

"As is known, lithium-ion batteries, as well as lithium-polymer batteries pose a danger to the environment. So the matter of their utilization requires special attention. It is necessary to obtain appropriate licenses for transportation and utilization of lithium-ion batteries. An appropriate legislative base is needed so that we can establish their production in the country," Babayev said.

This issue, according to him, is currently being considered for economic expediency.

The production of lead-alkaline batteries has already been launched on the basis of the Technopark. In addition, the Technopark together with the country's scientific society is considering the possibility of deploying the production of LED lamps.

The High Technologies Park of ANAS is located in the territory of the ANAS pilot plant in the Ahmedli settlement of Baku. The goal of the Technopark is to provide support for innovative ideas untill their full implementation in the final market product and subsequent commercialization.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Azerbaijani government has made developing tourism a priority, says the article, published on the website of the Pakistan Observer.

The article says that the country has all natural and geographic potential of a tourism destination, and the inhabitants of the country are hospitable and welcoming.

Azerbaijan enjoys nine of the worlds 11 climate zones, adding to the range of destinations on offer, says the article.

The Shirvanshahs palace, which has been inscribed in list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Maiden Tower, Baku Boulevard (officially called Seaside National Park), Mud Volcanoes, Ateshgah Fire Temple, and many more worth-seeing spots located in vicinity of Baku attract tourists.

New tourist facilities are being built in the regions, and cultural and historical reserves are being set up or restored. The state has undertaken to create infrastructure in the regions. Tourism can help to tackle the serious problem of unemployment in the country, and has a positive impact on development of all sectors, says the article.

The Pakistan Observer also touched upon the modern architecture of Azerbaijan, recommended for tourists to visit.

In particular, the Heydar Aliyev Center which is considered as one of the main attractions for tourists and has also become a symbol of modern Azerbaijan and modern Baku, was noted in the article.

The Museum [located in the Heydar Aliyev Centre] describes history of Azerbaijan and different stages of Heydar Aliyevs life and work. The exhibition hall demonstrates the cultural heritage and history of Azerbaijan, noted the author.

One of the most important features of Museum is that it describes all periods of the history of Azerbaijan and displays items related to different areas of Azerbaijani culture. For instance, one can see unique samples of ancient crafts, in particular the Azerbaijani carpet weaving school, says the article.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

A state tourism registry may appear in Azerbaijan in 2018, Ruslan Guliyev, head of the Medical Support and Thermal Tourism Association of Azerbaijan, president of the Global Healthcare Travel Council (GTHC), told reporters on April 10.

He said the creation of the registry will help improve coordination in this area, facilitate the monitoring and control over the activities of tourism entities.

The creation of the registry will not in any way contribute to bureaucratic obstacles. The collected statistics will help coordinate the activities in this field more rationally, Guliyev said.

The state tourism registry is being created upon the presidential order dated Sept. 1, 2016 with the aim of developing tourism in Azerbaijan and expanding the possibilities of using modern information and communication technologies in this field.

Companies and tourism entities will be able to enter information about themselves in this registry. In turn, the Culture and Tourism Ministry, together with the relevant public structures, will check the information entered by companies, hotels, or people in the system. The companies included in the registry will also be involved in all international events, programs to improve education and improve services.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

The number of foreign citizens visiting Azerbaijan increased by 12.6 percent in the first three months of 2018 as compared to the same period of 2017, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a message April 10.

During the period, 627,835 foreign citizens visited Azerbaijan (185,913  in January, 166,161  in February, 275,761  in March) that is 70,207 tourists more than in the same period of 2017.

Russia ranks first (171,814 citizens) in terms of the number of citizens visiting Azerbaijan, and is followed by Georgia (138,909), Iran (99,158) and Turkey (72,733).

Moreover, there were 29,317 citizens from the United Arab Emirates, 11,847 citizens  from Ukraine and 11,112 citizens  from Iraq, who visited the country during the period.

Most foreigners, who arrived in Azerbaijan in the first three months of 2018, account for the share of the CIS and Georgia (342,457 people or 54.5 percent), Middle Eastern countries (166,976 or 26.5 percent) and European countries (93,122 or 14.8 percent).
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

Turkey and Kyrgyzstan signed joint documents as a result of an official visit of Kyrgyzstans President Sooronbay Jeenbekov to Turkey, the Kyrgyz presidents press service said in a message.

In particular, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey and the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency of Kyrgyzstan, the Agreement on Cooperation in Physical Culture and Sport between the Government of Kyrgyzstan and the Government of Turkey, the Agreement on Cooperation between the Government of Kyrgyzstan and the Government of Turkey in Agriculture, the Agreement between the Government of Kyrgyzstan and the Government of Turkey on mutual promotion and protection of investments, the Social Security Agreement between the Government of Kyrgyzstan and the Government of Turkey, the Protocol on Cooperation between the Government of Kyrgyzstan and the Government of Turkey in the field of media and information.

President Jeenbekov arrived in Turkey on an official visit on April 9.

During the visit, Sooronbai Jeenbekov met with Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a narrow and extended format, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Speaker of the Great National Assembly (Turkish parliament) Ismail Kahraman.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

The delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea led by the Foreign Minister Li Yong Ho will pay an official visit to Tajikistan, the press service of the Tajik Foreign Ministry said in a message.

"The visit of the delegation is scheduled for April 13-15. Lee Yong-ho will hold a meeting with Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Aslov to discuss issues of trade, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation, as well as issues related to security in the world," the message said.

In addition, the Korean minister plans a number of visits with other Tajik officials.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 10

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Chairperson of the Turkmen Parliament Gulshat Mamedova and Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly Valentina Matvienko discussed strengthening of the Turkmen-Russian interparliamentary relations in a phone conversation, the Turkmen government said in a message.

During the conversation, an invitation was made to Mamedova to take part in the 47th Plenary Session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), to be held April 12-13 in Russias St. Petersburg.

It was noted that particular importance in the development of interstate dialogue is given to regular contacts and meetings at the highest level.

At the same time, the sides expressed interest in continuing interparliamentary contacts and sharing law-making experience.

Russia holds a leading position in the ranking of the biggest foreign trade partners of Turkmenistan.

About 190 companies with Russian capital operate in Turkmenistan. ARETI International Group (former ITERA) has been operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea on the basis of a production sharing agreement since 2009.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

The Foreign Minister of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius will pay an official visit to Uzbekistan in May 2018.

The date of the visit was revealed during the discussions between the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan and the Lithuanian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Remigijus Motuzas.

The sides also discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as the organization of the visit of the Lithuanian FM to Uzbekistan, and agreed to consider the possibility of holding the next, fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission in 2018 in Tashkent.

Lithuania and Uzbekistan established diplomatic relations in August 1992. Since 2013, the interests of this Baltic country in Uzbekistan are represented by the Lithuanian Embassy in the Russian Federation.

In 2013, The countries established a group on inter-parliamentary cooperation, which plays a major role in expanding ties in the sphere of parliamentarism.

Uzbekistan exports plastic and plastic products, petrochemical products, mechanical equipment, cotton fiber, black metal, fruit and vegetable products to Lithuania.

The list products imported from Lithuania to Uzbekistan includes vehicles, dairy and confectionery products, sugar, chemical fiber, rubber, furniture.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Tehran City Council has agreed with the resignation of the capital citys mayor, Mohammad Ali Najafi.

Earlier on Monday, the city council rejected Najafis first resignation but the mayor on Tuesday resigned once again.

Njafi had mentioned illness as the main reason for his resignation but some of the council members said on Sunday that he had resigned under political pressure.

Najafi was summoned to court after a video was released on social media in mid-March showing him at a Womens Day ceremony where young girls were dancing.

Najafi has accused the former conservative Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf over his widespread illegal actions at the Tehran Municipality.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

The governor of the Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif has said that lack of trust, social media (including the Telegram messaging app) as well as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the reasons behind the weakening national currency, rial.

We are not in the ordinary situation and our enemies are continuing to plot, Valiollah Seif told Iranian parliament on Tuesday.

Iranian rial hit an all-time low against the US dollar on Monday and fell to 6,460 by afternoon on the unregulated currency market.

The country is in a balanced situation and these crises which are created by our enemies in the social media should not make us worry, he added.

The governor further blamed the social media for publicizing the market news and prices.

First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri on Monday evening announced the government's decision to unify the countrys official and open market exchange rates.

Jahangiri, after an emergency cabinet meeting, appeared on TV to announce that from Tuesday the price of the US dollar would be 42,000 rials in both markets, and for all business activities.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Azer Ahmadbayli  Trend:

Threatening to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement, increasing pressure around Syria and imposing new sanctions against Iran and Russia, the United States throws Tehran and Moscow into each other's arms.

Last week, presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Ankara to adopt a common position on the future order in post-war Syria and the preservation of Iran's nuclear deal.

This week, the speakers of the parliaments of Iran and Russia signed the regulations of the inter-parliamentary cooperation commission, which will, in particular, increase trade and investment cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy, agriculture, construction of infrastructure in the Caspian Sea.

Meanwhile, the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Iran are finalizing an agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone. Addressing the Russian-Iranian Business Forum in Tehran, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said a result will hopefully be obtained within the next month.

The Iranian speaker said the development would remove the customs obstacles in trade with Iran. The aim is to lower customs tariffs with the EEU member states and to encourage increase of the trade volume.

Last year, trade turnover between the two sanctioned countries made only $1.7 billion.

Russian speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who took part in the business forum, noted: Irans share in Russias foreign trade turnover amounted to 0.4 percent, whereas Russias share [in Irans foreign trade turnover] is 2.5 percent. But the potential is much higher, and we need to unleash it. If the planned projects are implemented, the volume of Russian investments may amount to billions of dollars.

The last US sanctions, imposed on April 6, got down the Russian stock market. Bloomberg notes that the sharp decline in business indices is a record-breaking for the last two years.

The Russian currency has also been depreciating rapidly for the second consecutive day against investors stampede from ruble-denominated assets due to the worsening of geopolitical risks.

In a situation where many Russian companies are about to be denied access to foreign markets, attracting Iran with its 80 million population into the orbit of EEU looks absolutely logical.

The same also applies to Iran.

The current situation in Iran is anything but calm. Continuous external pressure, signs of discontent in the Iranian society, periodic popular bursts such as in the Arab-populated province of Khuzestan, and continuous depreciation of the Iranian currency over the past several months, which, by the way, has sharply worsened within the last two days  all of this pushes Iran to rely on a powerful northern neighbor.

Despite Tehran's traditional drive for the European market, for the time being it has no choice but to stay close to the less complex and mature economic space of EEU, to buy Russian SSJ-100 passenger aircraft and to use the payment cards of the Russian Mir national payment system.

The EU has not yet joined President Trump's tough stance on Iran, but Tehran has to prepare itself immediately for the worst-case scenario.
Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili is participating at the eight edition of the Annual Investment Meeting being held in Dubai from April 9-11, Agenda reports.

This year the editions theme is Linking Developed and Emerging Markets through FDI: Partnerships for Inclusive Growth & Sustainable Development.

Kumsishvili delivered a speech at the conference where he talked about Georgias recent successes in international ratings, which in his words confirm that in fact, there are no obstacles for business in Georgia.

The minister also accented the recently implemented as well as planned reforms that would further improve the business climate in Georgia.

"If you dont have proper communication with the private sector  and if you dont follow up with the private sector, you cannot be successful, said Kumsishvili.

"What we did in our country is we created the Investors Council [which includes many private-sector businesses and associations]. We have regular meetings quarterly and all business associations can put problems the private sector has on the table. I can advise such a platform to all governments as this platform is really very efficient, he added.

The Annual Investment Meeting is considered as the world's leading and most established gathering of the international investment community, leading academics and experts showcasing up-to-date information, strategies and knowledge on attracting foreign direct investments.

The event offers a truly knowledge-based forum with cutting edge information on the latest developments in foreign direct investment and related issues. It serves as a unique platform to meet, network, and exchange experiences, explore business opportunities and sign cooperation agreements and partnerships.
Georgia is seeking to establish a free trade agreement with the countries of the Gulf to access their markets and facilitate increased bilateral business and trade, Agenda reports.

Future free trade agreement with the Gulf countries was one of the main and important issues discussed at the meeting with Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili and the Minister of Economy of United Arab Emirates Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansuri.

"We have talked about the increase in trade volume between the two countries, as well as the amount of investments that comes from the United Arab Emirates, said Kumsishvili.

"As of today, this figure exceeds $800 million and we hope that investments will continue in the future. The number of visitors transported by air companies - Fly Dubai and Air Arabia (which brought more than 325,000 visitors to Georgia last year), is also of utmost importance, he added.

Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansuri underlined the development of relations between the two countries in recent years.

"I am fascinated and appreciate the changes that are being implemented in your country and your country's openness to attract investments, he said.

Kumsishvili is visiting the United Arab Emirates where he is meeting high officials and business society representatives.

Kumsishvili yesterday also met Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al Qassimi, ruler of the Emirate Ras Al Khaimah. The sides agreed to launch ceramic production in Georgia and in general to develop the industry in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that the country would take all necessary measures to prevent cross-border attacks by Daesh militants in Syria, Sputnik reported.

In late 2017, Iraq has declared the final defeat of the Daesh terror group after years of fight against militants. The victory was celebrated with a military parade held in Baghdad's Green Zone.

The same year was also victorious for Syria  the country's armed forces declared victory over Daesh, citing the liberation of the last town in Syria from the jihadists and the end of their three-year reign in the region.
On its third vote of the day, the United Nations Security Council voted against Russian's draft resolution to support the fact-finding mission in Syria's Douma, where an alleged chemical weapon attack recently claimed the lives of innocent civilians, Sputnik reported.

"The draft resolution has not been adopted, having failed to obtain the required number of votes," said UN Security Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is considered the world's leading watchdog agency on the use of such weapons.

Russia, China, Bolivia, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia voted in favor of the resolution, while France, the United States, Britain and Poland voted against it. Other members of the 15-member council abstained from voting.

Earlier in the day, two resolutions to reconstruct the UNSC's mechanism for investigating alleged deployment of chemical weapons failed. The US drafted one of the resolutions, while Russia drafted the other.

To clarify, the OPCW is already on its way to the relevant area of Syria, as supported by the UK and Russia on Monday. The Russian envoy offered for Syrian and Russian forces to escort the investigators to the site.

Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, said it was a "frustrating day" for diplomats at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on the second day of his official visit to France on Tuesday, Al Arabiya reports.

On Monday, Prince Mohammed dined with French President Emmanuel Macron at Pariss Louvre museum on Sunday after arriving for a three-day visit.

On Tuesday, around 18 memorandums of understanding in energy, agriculture, tourism and culture are set to be signed at an official Saudi-France CEO Forum.

Among the deals made was a Franco-Saudi deal to develop Al Ula, a Saudi city richly endowed with archeological remnants, which was a central highlight of the visit. The agreement calls for the creation of a dedicated agency modeled on the lines of the French museums agency, which spearheaded the setting up of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.

The Crown Prince is also considering a visit to the Paris-based tech start-up campus Station F, the Arab World Institute and a concert in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence.

French President Macron confirmed that Saudi Arabia is a key ally to France, and agreed with the crown prince to issue a strategic document before the end of the year.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will dispatch a special mission to the city of Douma located in Eastern Ghouta to verify reports on the alleged use of chemical weapons, the organization said in a statement posted on its website, TASS reports.

"Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been gathering information from all available sources and analyzing it. At the same time, OPCWs Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu, has considered the deployment of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations," the statement reads. "Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment."

Some NGOs, including the White Helmets, claim that chemical weapons were used in Douma, a suburb of the Syrian capital on April 7. According to the statement uploaded to the organizations website on April 8, chlorine bombs were dropped on the city to kill dozens and poison other local civilians who had to be brought to hospital.



The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed that as fake news. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the White Helmets were an unreliable source, notorious for disseminating falsehoods. The Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides on April 9 examined Douma to find no traces of chemical weapons. Earlier, various official Russian agencies repeatedly warned that preparations had been in the works around different parts of Syria for provocations and simulations of chemical attacks that would be blamed on Damascus.
Preparations for French President Emmanuel Macrons May visit to Russia are still underway, French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Tuesday, TASS reports.

"The official visit has not been thrown into question so far," he told the Europe 1 radio station when asked whether recent developments in Syria could affect the French presidents visit to Russia. "There is the need to hold talks if differences arise, which is in line with the principle of multilateralism," Griveaux added.
Italy has broken up a criminal ring that smuggled migrants from Tunisia to Sicily on speedboats less than a year after a similar racket was dismantled, magistrates said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Prosecutors in Palermo issued arrest warrants for 13 people  seven Tunisians, five Moroccans and an Italian woman  suspected of people smuggling and trafficking in contraband cigarettes, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.

Phone intercepts showed migrants paid between 3,000-5,000 euros ($3,700- $6,160) for the high-speed trip that brought them surreptitiously to Italy in just a few hours, allowing them to avoid being taken to refugee centers and finger-printed.

We cannot rule out that dangerous people might have taken advantage of this system, although we do not have any precise information about this, said Palermos head prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi.

In one intercept, a man is heard telling the organizer of a migrant crossing that he planned to travel onto France to carry out dangerous work from which he might not return, the prosecutors said in a statement.

In a similar case last June, Palermo magistrates arrested 15 people who were suspected of organizing at least five crossings between Tunisia and Sicily, earning an estimated 40,000 euros for each trip.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday the new gang made between 30,000-70,000 euros for each crossing.

More than 600,000 migrants have come to Italy since 2014, but most of them pay far less to Libya-based smugglers (usually between $800 and $1,300) to board overcrowded and unseaworthy boats for a voyage that often ends in tragedy.

An estimated 521 migrants have died this year trying to reach Italy, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), while some 6,894 people made it there safely and were then registered in Italys official immigration system.
An El Al plane carrying around 130 passengers made an emergency landing at Ben Gurion Airport Tuesday afternoon shortly after taking off from there for Vienna, when smoke was spotted in the cabin, Times of Israel reports.

There was smoke in the planes galley, one passenger told the Ynet news site. The crew ran to the galley and after a few moments they said there was smoke and we were going back because there was a problem.

The plane landed safely. It was met by ambulances and paramedics at the airport.

There were apparently no injuries in the incident. The cause of the smoke was not immediately clear.

Earlier Tuesday another El Al plane, headed for Milan, was forced to return to the airport shortly after takeoff due to an issue with its landing gear indication system.
An aid worker was killed in South Sudan when gunmen shot at his agency vehicle, the United Nations said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Armed men fired at the vehicle marked with logos of the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid as it traveled on a road near the town of Bentiu on Saturday and one of the workers died, the United Nations said.

I strongly condemn the targeting of aid workers and demand that those responsible for these acts be brought to justice, Alain Noudehou, the U.N.s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan said in a statement.

Nearly 100 relief workers have been killed in South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011 and spiraled into civil war two years later.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war initially fought between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against rebels under former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer. Violence has spread throughout the country and now involves most of the nations ethnic groups.

The United Nations did not say which armed force carried out Saturdays attack. Staff from another aid group, CARE International, were robbed at gunpoint while traveling in the vicinity on the same day, according to the statement.

Both rebels and the government forces stand accused of targeting humanitarian workers and sometimes deliberately blocking access to relief and hijacking food and other aid.

Noudehou called for the release of seven other aid workers detained by rebels since March 25 when they were detained in the Central Equatorial region, near the Uganda border.

The staff from a local aid group, the South Sudan Health Association, were detained as they were delivering supplies to health centers serving thousands of people, the U.N. said.

Lam Paul Gabriel, a spokesman for rebel group SPLA-IO, said the group had detained the workers because some of them were government spies.

We are willing to release them (aid workers) but not all of them, those found to be (government) agents will be detained.
Russia, Iran and Turkey have no agreed position yet on the assessment of the reports of chemical attacks in Syria and Moscow considers it necessary to thoroughly investigate these incidents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, TASS reports.



"So far, I cannot speak about an agreed position and so far you see the reaction of the Russian side," Peskov said, replying to a question about whether it was possible to speak about the allies agreed position.



"No one has exhaustive information. There have been neither preliminary nor other investigations on this theme so far. It is totally wrong to make conclusions without any check, without any investigation," the Kremlin spokesman said.
Russia supports the idea of establishing an independent mechanism to probe into alleged chemical attacks in Syria, Russias Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said, TASS reports.

"As for an independent investigative mechanism, we also support this idea," Nebenzya said at a meeting of the UN Security Council convened over Saturdays alleged chemical attack in Douma.

"I would like to remind you that our draft resolution stipulating the formation of such mechanism is pending voting (in the UN) and we are ready to pass it (the resolution) any day," Russias UN envoy said.

Some non-governmental organizations, including the White Helmets, earlier claimed that chemical weapons had been used in the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta on April 7.

In a statement posted on its website on April 8, the White Helmets alleged that chlorine bombs were used during the towns bombing, which killed dozens of people while others were taken to hospitals with the signs of poisoning.

Russias Foreign Ministry rejected the allegations as fabricated information while the Defense Ministry of Russia said the White Helmets was known for its fake news.

Despite this, US President Donald Trump who commented on Sunday on reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syrias Eastern Ghouta again blamed Russia and Iran for the support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Tuesday that new U.S. sanctions imposed against some Russian companies have created uncertainty for all investors, Reuters reports.

Dvorkovich said it was important for Russia to minimize this uncertainty.

The United States imposed major sanctions on Friday against Russian businessmen, companies and government officials.
Russian citizen Yulia Skripal has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital on Monday and "taken to a secure location," TASS with reference to the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Yulias father Sergei Skripal, a 66 year-old former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for Great Britain, still remains hospitalized but his "strength is growing daily."

According to London, Sergei and Yulia Skripal suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdoms accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia.

On April 3, Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead told Sky News that British experts had been unable to identify the origin of the nerve agent used to attack Skripal and his daughter.

However, in the wake of the Salisbury incident, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats and announced other restrictive measures against Moscow without presenting any evidence of its involvement in the incident. In retaliation to the UKs steps, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats, closed the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg, while the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia. The United Kingdom was later requested to reduce the number of its diplomatic staff in Russia so that it would match the number of Russian diplomats in Great Britain.
There are no particular plans on a meeting between the Russian and US Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, now, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, TASS reports.

"There are no agreements on this, and there are no special contacts now," Peskov told reporters, denying rumors that the summit may take place in April. "We are waiting now," he said. "Probably, we need to wait until the US Secretary of State is confirmed," he said.

"There is an agreement between Putin and Trump that they will order the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State to work on the timeframe and venue of holding this meeting," he recalled.

According to the Kremlin press service, on March 20 Trump congratulated Putin on winning the presidential election. The two leaders called to develop practical cooperation in various areas and also agreed to give instructions on considering the issue of holding a meeting.

A week before the phone conversation, Trump announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been dismissed and Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, would replace him.

Officially, Tillerson's tenure ended on March 31, now the duties of the Secretary of State are performed by his first deputy, John Sullivan.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing to consider Mike Pompeo to become new Secretary of State on April 12. If Pompeo is approved, his candidacy is put to the vote to the entire upper house of the Congress.
Israels envoy to Moscow was summoned by the Russian foreign ministry Tuesday regarding an airstrike the previous day on a base in Syria attributed to Israel, Times of Israel reports.

Gary Koren was set to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

Israels Foreign Ministry said the meeting was part of regular talks between the countries.

Ongoing discussions are constantly held with the Russians and therefore the ambassador will today meet with Deputy Minister Bogdanov, the Foreign Ministry said.
Russia is prepared to provide security guarantees to OPCW experts to investigate the alleged chemical weapons incident in Syrias Douma, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, TASS reports.

"Any references to security concerns [for OPCW experts] are unlikely to be serious. Douma has been completely freed from militants and is controlled by government troops. The Russian military police has been deployed to the area," Lavrov said. "If security guarantees for OPCW inspectors are required, such guarantees will be provided."

According to him, Moscow invited OPCW experts to make a visit to Douma in order to figure out what had happened there. "We have not received a response yet," Lavrov said.

"We have heard statements from The Hague that they have launched an investigation into the Douma incident," the Russian top diplomat said. "However, the use of chemical weapons has not been confirmed yet. Members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and Russian representatives to the relevant agencies visited the site of the alleged attack in Douma but did not find any traces of chemical weapons," he added.

"We cannot take the results of remote investigations for granted anymore," Lavrov went on to say. "This is what happened in Khan Shaykhun, when a remote investigation resulted in a flimsy report containing expressions such as highly possible and highly likely," he noted.

"We know the true price of such expressions and will never again take them for granted," the Russian foreign minister concluded.

Russia on Tuesday will propose a draft resolution of the UN Security Council on an investigation to be conducted by OPCW specialists into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syrias Douma, he added.

"We will propose a draft resolution of the UN Security Council to enable the OPCW to comply with its liabilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention, conduct an investigation, including on-site inspection and proper safe-keeping of all samples taken along the transportation route to the laboratory, and ensure everything should be transparent and fair. The draft resolution will require precisely this sort of inquiry in response to a direct invitation of the Syrian government, which is prepared to receive experts in the field already now," Lavrov said.

He promised that Moscow was prepared to guarantee the security of OPCW experts who would be investigating the Douma incident.

"Any lame excuses, such as doubts over the safety [of OPCW experts] will be hardly serious. Douma has been cleared of militants and is under the control of government forces. The Russian military police are in place, too," Lavrov said. "If OPCW experts need security guarantees, such guarantees will be provided."

"If those who wish to indulge in speculations over the chemical issue for pushing ahead with their anti-Syrian, Russophobic policies prevent experts once again from examining the scene on the pretext there are no security guarantees, that will be tantamount to a verdict," Lavrov said. "In fact they will acknowledge their real plans and thereby confirm that they are not interested in establishing the truth either in this case, or in Khan Shaykhun, or in the Skripal affair or anywhere else, whenever they try to groundlessly accuse Russia."

Some non-governmental organizations, including White Helmets, claim that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta on April 7. According to the statement uploaded to the organizations website on April 8, chlorine bombs were dropped on the city to kill dozens and poison other local civilians who had to be brought to hospital.

The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed that as fake news. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that White Helmets were an unreliable source, notorious for disseminating falsehoods. The Russian center for the reconciliation of conflicting parties on April 9 examined Douma to find no traces of chemical weapons. Earlier, various official Russian agencies repeatedly warned that preparations had been underway in different parts of Syria for provocations and simulations of chemical attacks that would be blamed on government forces.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey is not after seizing Syrian territories, the Turkish media cited the countrys Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag as saying April 10.

The presence of the Turkish Armed Forces in Syria is not the occupation, it is aimed at ensuring the security of its borders and the fight against terrorism, he said.

Bozdag also stressed that Turkey understands that there are a number of problems in Syria that need only political solution.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

On Aug. 24, 2016, Turkish Armed Forces, with the support of the Syrian opposition, launched the Euphrates Shield Operation against the IS militants and liberated the city of Jarabulus as well as the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stands for extension of the emergency state in Turkey, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said, Turkish media reported on April 10.

He said the emergency state in Turkey is a necessity for ensuring the country's security.

He noted that there is still the threat of terrorist organization Hizmet (the movement of Fethullah Gulen) in Turkey.

Earlier the Republican People's Party (CHP) demanded the government to abolish the state of emergency.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag has said that the state of emergency will be extended in Turkey.

But it was also reported that the emergency state in Turkey, which was introduced after the military coup attempt, will be canceled in February 2018.

The state of emergency was introduced in Turkey after the military coup attempt in 2016.

On July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

The death toll as a result of the coup attempt stood at 250 people, and more than 2,000 people were wounded.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 347 PKK members were killed in the operation of the Turkish Armed Forces against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the north of Iraq, Turkish media reported on April 10.

Erdogan said that Turkey will continue military operations in the north of Iraq until the destruction of the last remaining terrorist.

The Turkish Air Force resumed operations against the PKK fighters in the north of Iraq on April 7.

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.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A school bus overturned in the Turkish province of Siirt, as a result of which 18 schoolchildren were injured, according to preliminary data, Turkish media reported on April 10.

Reportedly, all the victims were taken to hospitals. The health state of the children is assessed as extremely severe.

No other details reported.

In February 2018, 60,800 road accidents were recorded in Turkey, in which 343 people died, according to a report of the Turkish police.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
President Donald J. Trump spoke on the phone with with President Emmanuel Macron of France, said the White House.

The White House added that the two leaders agreed to continue their coordination on responding to Syrias atrocious use of chemical weapons on April 7.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he will make the decision about the US response to the suspected chemical attack in Syrias Douma in 24 to 48 hours, TASS reports.



"It was an atrocious attack, it was horrible," the president said. "We will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours," he added.

On April 7, a number of NGOs, including the White Helmets, alleged that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta. According to the statement published on the organizations website on April 8, chlorine bombs had been dropped on the city, killing dozens and poisoning many locals who had to be brought to the hospital.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerbergs No. 1 mission during his appearance before U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday will be to defend against calls to regulate internet-based companies, Reuters reports.

The prospect of new laws that restrict Facebook and other internet companies, however, is extremely unlikely not only because of a lack of political will and the effective lobbying of technology companies but because few lawmakers want to grapple with the sheer complexity of the technical issues involved.

Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees.

Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said on Monday that while he believed new regulation was needed in the face of Facebooks twin scandals, he did not expect anything substantive to happen.

He attributed that in part to the format for Tuesdays joint hearing before the Senates Commerce and Judiciary committees that will give Zuckerberg an advantage, saying it would favor spectacle over thoughtful dialogue.

How in the world can you have 44 senators do a hearing that has a lot of substance when each senator only has four minutes? Nelson asked reporters on Monday.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters after speaking with 33-year-old Zuckerberg, that he was a very nice young man who obviously knows what hes doing and has a very pleasant personality.
U.S. President Donald Trump will skip his first Latin America trip to stay in the United States to "oversee the American response to Syria," the White House said on Tuesday, XInhua reported.

Trump was scheduled to pay a visit to Peru and Colombia this week, during which he would attend the Summit of the Americas in the Peruvian capital city of Lima.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the region instead, according to a White House statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump is encouraged by Chinese President Xi Jinpings promise to further open its economy, but will continue pushing for concrete changes to Beijings trade policy, the White House said on Tuesday.

Certainly we are encouraged by President Xis kind words but at the same time, we want to see concrete actions from China. Were going to continue moving forward in the process and in the negotiations until those happen, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 10, 2018 - 16:30 | World, All

Family members of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago said Tuesday they were promised by U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty that he will ask President Donald Trump to raise the issue at an upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"I felt instinctively that the ambassador is a very good person, and he has a strong belief in taking action on this issue," Shigeo Iizuka, the head of a group representing abductees' families, told reporters after meeting Hagerty at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

The summit, which Trump said Monday will take place in May or early June, will be the first between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea.

"We asked (Hagerty) to convey the voices of the families to President Trump, and said that this is a unique chance to bring the abductees back," Iizuka said.

"He told us he would definitely pass it on, and although many years have elapsed without a resolution, I have hope that something will finally get moving," said Sakie Yokota, the mother of Megumi Yokota. The abduction of Megumi at age 13 in 1977 has made her a symbol of the Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to hear from each of you today, personally, your stories so that I can share your experience with President Trump next week when I'm with him," Hagerty told the group at the embassy.

The families have made a similar appeal to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who plans to visit the United States next week to hold talks with Trump. Abe has pledged to ask Trump to put the abduction issue on the agenda with Kim.

(Photo taken in Tokyo on March 30, 2018, shows Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) receives a statement from Shigeo Iizuka (C) and Sakie Yokota (front L) )

Tokyo officially lists 17 of its citizens as having been abducted by North Korea, and suspects the country's involvement in other disappearances.

Five of the 17 were returned to Japan in 2002, but North Korea maintains eight have died and the other four were never in the country.
By Prangthong Jitcharoenkul, KYODO NEWS - Apr 10, 2018 - 12:48 | World, Feature, All

The Orang Asli indigenous people have lived in seclusion in the rainforests of southern Thailand since ancient times, but more than a few of them have lately changed the way they live because forest food has gradually grown scarce.

In hopes of a more secure future, Pise, a man in his 50s, and 11 of his family members have decided to abandon their jungle lifestyle and work in a rubber plantation to earn a living.

(An Orang Asli woman wears flowers as earrings.)

Talking to Kyodo News through a translator, Pise said cassava, the main food of the Orang Asli people, was easily found in the past, but the forest's ecology has gradually changed after Bang Lang Dam on Pattani River was built and completed in 1981.

Orang Asli, or Asli in short, are indigenous people living deep in the Hala rainforest, situated near the Thai-Malaysian boundary in Yala Province.

They are very discrete and will instantly relocate their huts if they spot any "outsider" nearby their areas. They find it hard to trust people outside their ethnic group and still blame the angry forest spirits when bad things happen to them.

Pise used to hunt small wild animals for food with bamboo blowpipes that spit poison darts, but he no longer wanted to do this when he realized the forest food is not as abundant as it once was.

"I miss living in the deep forest, but it is not easy to find sufficient food anymore. The food is in decline while our population is growing day by day," Pise said.

The Orang Asli communities number about 300 in Yala and Narathiwat, Thailand's two southernmost provinces long known as hotbeds of insurgency.

(Pise, an Orang Asli man, smokes a self-rolled cigarette.)

Another 300 are scattered in the other Deep South provinces of Phatthalung, Trang and Satun, where they are known as the Mani people.

Unlike the Orang Asli, ethnic Mani people have been given Thai identity cards and Thai surnames for their civil registration.

The Orang Asli population in Thailand is forecast to rise. However, the total number is still far behind that across the border in Malaysia, which is home to more than 170,000 Orang Asli people.

Yet, working from Monday through Friday for 1,000 baht ($32) a week does not allow Pise and his family to stave off hunger.

His family and other Orang Asli people, therefore, greatly rely on the border patrol police, who care for them by delivering clothes, packages of raw rice, instant coffee, cans of fish, and other foodstuffs.

Paramin Nathornjaroensuk, a 46-year-old border patrol police officer, said the Orang Asli in the two southernmost provinces now have access to healthcare services after initially having difficulty to gain this basic right because they lacked Thai ID cards.

"We raised the issue with the state agencies to grant them the right. Now they are able to receive medical treatment when needed, free-of-charge," Paramin said.

Orang Asli people are generally healthy and rely on herbal plants to heal their ailments. Still, toothaches are a common problem for them due to poor oral hygiene, according to the border patrol police.

In exchange for clothes, food and painkillers to treat toothaches, the Orang Asli people give the border patrol police things gathered in the jungle such as honey and tongkat ali, an herb that has long been used in Southeast Asia as a general health tonic and libido booster.

"Orang Asli people never take anything from us for free. If we refuse to take their stuff, we insult them," Paramin said.

(People in the Orang Asli ethnic group watch a documentary film at a military base in Hala-Bala Rainforest in Yala province in March 2018.)

Because of their existence in well-known literature like the folktale "Sung Thong," composed by King Rama II and "Ngoh Pa", written by King Rama V, Thai people are familiar with their curly hair and dark-skinned features.

But Paramin dispelled misconceptions among most ethnic Thais that it is okay to refer to the Orang Asli people as Sakai, a label meaning "slave" that stems from past centuries when they were subjected to slave raids by Malay and Batak forces, causing many to retreat further inland and to avoid contact with outsiders.

"The term Sakai can provoke this indigenous group," Paramin explained, adding that its members consider it strongly offensive.

To Paramin, the Orang Asli people play a great role in guarding the forest as they have alerted authorities to the presence of armed poachers and illegal loggers entering the forest.

"I was scared to death when the poachers threatened to kill me if I informed an officer, but this forest is my home," an elderly Orang Asli man said.
By Miya Tanaka, KYODO NEWS - Apr 10, 2018 - 07:45 | All, Japan

The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force has marked a historic milestone through the launch of its first dedicated amphibious fighting unit, long deemed to be too offensive to possess under the country's postwar defensive security policy.

"Our goal is to become the world's top-class amphibious operation unit," Maj. Gen. Shinichi Aoki, who leads the brigade, boasted at a press conference on Saturday following a ceremony to mark the launch of the new unit based in the southwestern port city of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture.

(A ceremony in Sasebo, Nagasaki Pref., to mark the inauguration of Japan's first amphibious fighting force)

But the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, modeled after the U.S. Marine Corps, still seems to be a fledgling force facing challenges to enhance its readiness to defend Japan's remote islands in the southwest in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

Until around 10 years ago, the development of amphibious tactics for landing troops on enemy-held shores was seen as a "taboo" in Japan under the pacifist Constitution, which has limited the capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces to the "minimum necessary level."

But China's accelerating maritime expansion and tensions linked to its claim over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islets in the East China Sea have pushed Tokyo to beef up its defense for its southwestern islands -- extending over 1,000 kilometers from the southern Japanese main island of Kyushu toward Taiwan.

"I believe the presence of the amphibious forces will work quite well against countries with any intention to make advances toward our territory," Koichi Isobe, a retired lieutenant general of the GSDF, said, adding that the "deterrence effect" is likely to be bolstered through the collaboration between the Japanese and U.S. Marines.

During Saturday's ceremony held at GSDF Camp Ainoura in Sasebo, Japanese troops in camouflage face paint impressed the audience in a demonstration exercise carried out on a grass field, showing off skills to slide down a rope from a helicopter and carry out attacks, rushing out from newly acquired Amphibious Assault Vehicles-7 to successfully "retake" the island.

But actual operations may not go as smoothly as seen in the 20-minute demonstration, with their success largely hinging on whether enough troops and the necessary equipment can be swiftly transported to an island that has fallen into enemy hands.

(A demonstration exercise of Japan's first amphibious fighting force)

While Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft are expected to play a key role in ferrying Japanese troops to the island, the government has yet to win local consent for the planned deployment of the V-22 fleet at Saga airport in Kyushu as safety concerns were heightened after a GSDF helicopter crashed into a house in Saga Prefecture in February.

The government is considering tentatively placing the Ospreys at a GSDF camp in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, a government source has said, but the plan would apparently be a compromise as it would create a 1,000-km journey to Camp Ainoura where the amphibious force is based.

To storm a beach, the brigade also needs its amphibious assault vehicles to be brought to waters closer to the island by the Maritime Self-Defense Force's transport ships. But the combined capacity of the three existing ships falls short of loading the entire fleet of 52 vehicles which is to be supplied, according to a person familiar with the matter.

If loaded fully with the armored assault vehicles, the MSDF vessels would then be left with no room to carry the large hovercrafts that are intended to transport troops, tanks and other armored vehicles.

"I hope we have an amphibious assault ship (like the United States to boost our transport capacity)," a GSDF member said, but he added that the MSDF may not be on the same boat as it sees more significance in devoting resources to destroyers and submarines tasked to prevent the island from being invaded in the first place.

Isobe, also a senior fellow at Tokyo-based think tank Asia Pacific Initiative, said the "reinforcement of seaborne transport capacity is essential" for actual amphibious operations, along with an increase in the number of transport aircraft that can quickly mobilize GSDF troops from other parts of the country.

He also highlighted the need to secure an exercise area in the southwestern islands for the new brigade to hone their skills, with members not having many chances to conduct large-scale amphibious training in a beach area unless traveling to the United States.

Japanese Self-Defense Forces launch 1st amphibious fighting unit

Meanwhile, Robert Eldridge, an American expert on Japan's SDF and other security issues, was skeptical that the rather "feeble" amphibious force is the solution to the Senkaku dispute, arguing that the Japanese government should do more to demonstrate its clear control over the uninhabited islets by setting up civilian infrastructures such as ports and lighthouses.

"I think the government is placing too much burden on the SDF (to defend the islets)," he said.

But Eldridge said Japan's moves to possess amphibious capabilities are still "important" as they can also be useful for disaster relief, such as in situations when ordinary transport vessels cannot operate, and to deal with possible attacks by armed groups or terrorists.

The former official of the Marine Corps Installations Pacific in Okinawa said that in order to become "Marine-like" the SDF members may also need more experience "in the field," given that the SDF have never engaged in actual combat since their inception in 1954 under the war-renouncing Constitution.

"The SDF have joined various overseas missions over the past 25

years (including U.N. peacekeeping operations), through which they must have gained valuable experiences. While the current Japanese government appears largely reluctant in sending troops overseas, I think they should continue to grow in those experiences," Eldridge said.

As the GSDF seeks to explore its new role in national defense, falling public confidence in the organization is likely to be the last thing it wants.

With the GSDF facing fresh accusations over an alleged coverup of activity logs for an overseas mission, less than a year after a defense minister resigned over a coverup scandal related to different GSDF activity logs, Eldridge indicated that "transparency and accountability" are the key for the Japanese troops to continue to operate based on public support.
Kerala's COVID-19 death toll to cross 32,000 mark as 8,000 more to be added

The deaths which had been left out from the list for various reasons till June 14 will now be included in the official list
MONTREAL, April 9, 2018 - Chronic focal encephalitis, or Rasmussen's encephalitis, is a rare and devastating inflammatory brain disease that can lead to the destruction or removal of a part of the affected child's brain. Through experiments on humanized mice, a team of researchers from Universite de Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine and Universite de Montreal Hospital (CHUM) research centres has recently proven what scientists had already suspected: the disease is autoimmune, which means that it attacks patients using their own immune system.

"Several treatments have been proposed to slow the progression of the disease in affected children; however, these treatments have produced contradictory results, particularly in the long term," explains the study's co-author, Dr. Alexandre Prat, a professor of neuroscience at Universite de Montreal and researcher at the Centre de recherche du CHUM. "In addition to shedding light on the autoimmune origins of the disease, we have proven that experimenting on humanized mice allows for a more precise diagnosis. This is especially helpful since there are no biological markers for Rasmussen's encephalitis, which makes diagnosing it difficult in certain children. These mice could therefore be useful for testing various treatments and determining the best one for each individual patient. We call this 'personalized' or 'precision' medicine."

Discovered by Theodore Rasmussen (1910-2002), a neurosurgeon who specialized in treating epilepsy, chronic focal encephalitis is a degenerative affliction that most often develops in children. Its causes are unknown. The disease is characterized by recurring epileptic seizures that resist conventional antiepileptic treatments. In more serious cases, the frequency of the seizures can only be reduced by disconnecting the two hemispheres of the brain or by removing one of them and dealing with the neurological consequences. As the disease progresses, it triggers cognitive decline and severe learning disabilities. In Canada, up to two cases of Rasmussen's encephalitis are diagnosed each year.

Using humanized mice to study rare diseases

This is where Elie Haddad and Lionel Carmant, professors in the Department of Pediatrics at UdeM and researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine, take centre stage. "Rasmussen's encephalitis is one of those diseases that are so rare that scientists are unable to find enough patients to study it and conduct clinical trials," Dr. Carmant explains. "What's more, no animals are known to suffer from it, so researches can't look there for answers either."

However, thanks to advances in research, NSG mice, a type of humanized mice, are helping researchers, and may soon help children with Rasmussen's encephalitis. First developed in laboratories in 2000, humanized mice lack an immune system. They are used to study the human immune system and illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, HIV and sometimes certain allergies and inflammatory diseases.

In his lab at the Centre de recherche du CHU Sainte-Justine, Dr. Haddad uses humanized mice to research cancer and immunotherapy treatments, offering a promising lead in the fight against cancer. Dr. Carmant called upon Dr. Haddad's expertise and together they came up with the idea to use these valuable humanized mice to study chronic focal encephalitis.

"We introduced immune cells from patients with Rasmussen's encephalitis into the mice; because these rodents don't have an immune system, they are unable to reject the cells," Dr. Haddad explains. "We then observed the mice, who developed violent convulsions and brain necrosis, just like their human counterparts. Biopsies of the mice's brains revealed immunological damage that was practically identical to that in human patients, which proves the disease's immunological origins."

A hope for better lives for affected children

The hope inspired by this research on humanized mice stems from the newfound possibility of using these animals for making diagnoses as early as possible and selecting the best treatment for each sick child. If patients receive the proper treatment early, it is possible to avoid the cognitive decline brought on by the disease and forestall the need for brain surgery (hemispherectomy).

"The next step is to use NSG mice to design a standardized diagnostic protocol that can be used in pediatric hospitals," says Dr, Prat. "These mice will become patient surrogates for making diagnoses and establishing personalized treatment protocols."

###

About the study

Hania Kebir, Lionel Carmant et al., "Humanized mouse model of Rasmussen's encephalitis supports the immune-mediated hypothesis", Journal of Clinical Investigation, April 9, 2018.

This study was funded by the RE Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

About Universite de Montreal

Universite de Montreal and its two affiliated schools, Ecole Polytechnique (engineering) and HEC Montreal (business), are amongst the world's top universities, according to international rankings. Founded in 1878, the campus today has over 67,000 students and 2,700 professors, making Universite de Montreal the second largest university in Canada. Its students are drawn to the university by its deep roots in cosmopolitan Montreal and in consideration of its tenacious dedication to its international mission. umontreal.ca/English

About Universite de Montreal Hospital Research Centre

The Universite de Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) improves the health of adults through a high-quality academic research continuum which, by improving our understanding of etiological and pathogenic mechanisms, fosters the development, implementation, and assessment of new preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The CRCHUM provides a training environment to ensure the development of new generations of researchers committed to research excellence.

About CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre

CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre is a leading mother-child research institution affiliated with Universite de Montreal. It brings together more than 200 research investigators, including over 90 clinicians, as well as 350 graduate and post-graduate students focused on finding innovative means of prevention, faster and less invasive treatments, and personalized approaches to medicine. The Centre is part of CHU Sainte-Justine, which is the largest mother-child hospital in Canada and second most important pediatric hospital in North America.
Health IT

After botched acquisition, Coast Guard joins Pentagon electronic health record system

After sinking nearly $60 million into an electronic health record system procurement with nothing to show for it other than a few painful oversight reports, the Coast Guard now plans to adopt the same commercial EHR system as the Department of Defense.

Coast Guard and DOD officials announced plans April 9 to move to the MHS Genesis system, undergirded by Cerner software. Tech integrator Leidos is the prime contractor on the effort.

On a call with reporters, Stacy Cummings, program executive officer of the Defense Healthcare Management Systems, said the Coast Guard will be joining the DOD's existing 10-year, $4.3 billion contract, rather than issuing a separate solicitation.

"They will be joining our program office and contract," she said, adding how this affects the price tag remains to be seen.

Coast Guard Director of Acquisition Programs and PEO Rear Adm. Michael Johnston declined to offer a cost estimate, but he did note that "the Coast Guard is about 2 percent the size of the DOD from a service member perspective." About 6,000 Coast Guard members receive care in DOD hospitals or clinics.

"This is the best way forward, and everybody's looking forward to it," he said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also plans to use Cerner as its electronic health care record software, but that acquisition is being held up amid turnover in the agency's executive ranks.

Cummings said she anticipates the Coast Guard will eventually integrate into DOD's deployment schedule, but that she was unsure the exact timeline.

As far as a timeline for rollout goes, Cummings said that because of the software that's already been developed and the lessons learned from DOD's initial rollout in the Pacific Northwest, "I don't anticipate it will take as long" as the DOD's two-year process.

"My anticipation is they'll integrate into our deployment schedule" after conducting appropriate testing and readiness procedures in order to help limit costs, she added.

Johnston said the Coast Guard could begin testing as soon as DOD begins deploying the "next wave or the wave after that."

At its initial operating capability sites, the DOD has had some latency issues, with users reporting some slowness. Cummings attributed those issues to DOD cybersecurity requirements slowing down the log-in process, adding that DOD has since "cut that down significantly."

"Coast Guard has already started looking at their infrastructure to make sure they're meeting the minimum needs" for infrastructure required by the commercial software, she said.

The Coast Guard makes the move after investing seven years into developing an electronic medical records management system -- blowing past the initial five-year, $14 million estimate and using 25 different vendors -- before it abandoned the plan altogether without any reusable equipment or software, forcing the service to revert back to its previous paper-based process.

At a January House Transportation Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee hearing, lawmakers -- including subcommittee Chair Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) -- pushed the Coast Guard to adopt the MHS Genesis system. Director of IT Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office Dave Powner also voiced support for adopting the solution chosen by DOD.
People

Bossert out as homeland security adviser

White House Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, shown here at a December 2017 press briefing, is stepping down.

Tom Bossert stepped down as White House Homeland Security Advisor April 10 in another major shake-up of Donald Trump's homeland and national security team. Cybersecurity was a key part of Bossert's portfolio.

The resignation came one day after John Bolton started as national security advisor and the same day that Department of Homeland Security officials kicked off a three-day exercise meant to test how federal agencies, state and local governments, private sector companies and critical infrastructure entities coordinate and respond in the face of a major, nationwide cyberattack.

Rob Joyce, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, will take over on an acting basis, according to multiple media reports. Joyce, a 2018 Federal 100 award winner, is a former National Security Agency official who had leadership roles in both the offensive and defensive sides of the spy agency.

"The President is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," said White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "Tom led the White House's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."

Bossert often acted as the face of the administration during high-profile cyber incidents and has been instrumental in shaping the White House's cybersecurity strategy during the first year of Donald Trump's presidency.

Over that time, the U.S. has become more active in combatting the threat of nation state hacking groups and shoring up federal cybersecurity through executive orders and IT modernization efforts.

Bossert also oversaw coordination with intelligence agencies to identify countries behind major cyber attacks like WannaCry (North Korea), NotPetya (Russia) and implementing "name and shame" tactics paired with economic sanctions to bring international pressure down on malicious actors.

This is bad news," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said. "Bossert was a knowledgeable professional and the best person in the administration on cyber security. Cyber security ought to be an area for bipartisan legislative progress; it is urgently needed. Bosserts departure makes that even less likely.

"Over the last 15 months I have enjoyed working with Tom on a range of current and emerging threats to our nation -- particularly in cyber security and disaster response," said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in a statement.

The administration has also been criticized by cybersecurity experts and members of Congress for failing to articulate a comprehensive, unified cyber doctrine to guide the various agencies responsible for defense and offense of federal networks, the private sector and critical infrastructure.

Trevor Rudolph, a former Obama administration cybersecurity official, tied the decision to Bolton's hiring and said it offered the NSC an opportunity to hit the reset button when it comes to holding nation states accountable for cyber campaigns directed against the United States.

"It's clear to me that Tom Bossert and John Bolton had divergent strategic views regarding cyber deterrence and other national security topics," said Rudolph. "In my view, the current and former administrations have struggled to impose significant costs on foreign actors for malicious cyber activity. Tom Bossert's resignation provides an important opening to National Security Adviser, John Bolton, and his allies who would like to ratchet up those costs."
When the U.S. is a tech laggard

In Sweden this last week for a friends funeral, I got to be present in Stockholm for the listing of Spotify, the Swedish company that is the worlds biggest music streaming platform, on the New York Stock Exchange. (The amount of stock put up for sale was too much for Stockholms exchange to handle.)

Spotifys unique position as the only major public-facing tech platform that comes from Europe highlights American dominance. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have an enormous presence in Sweden; there are no Swedish (or other European) competitors. Indeed, Facebooks recent problems have been a big story in Sweden just as in America.

Most Americans would probably not be surprised to hear this. We tend to think that, with our startups, our entrepreneurial culture and our venture capital, we of course dominate tech.

But look right next door, so to speak -- from consumer platforms based around communication of words, pictures, ideas and music to those for financial transactions between individuals and businesses or other individuals. Come to Sweden, and you will see a different picture of the new tech world -- one that the U.S. does not dominate.

Start off with the role of cash in everyday life. Cash has basically disappeared from everyday life in Sweden. While I was there, I asked all the friends I saw whether they use cash to buy anything. The answer was no  none of them even carried cash in their wallets.

What do they do? Well, many do what a lot of us also do in the U.S. -- they pay by credit card. There are two differences, however.

One is that while many Americans pay for a lot by credit card, far more Swedes do so. Some stores have signs saying they dont accept cash, which helps keep robbers away. In what might sound like a joke if it werent true, many banks carry no cash on their premises.

Second, people use credit cards for very small purchases, such as a candy bar or a banana bought at one of Swedens ubiquitous small stores that began as newsstands and have expanded outward.

The stampede from cash was accelerated by two changes. One is that credit card companies eliminated earlier requirements for the minimum payment that could be charged to a card, which they earlier had applied because of the high costs of processing small amounts. That opened the way for buying a banana with a credit card. The second was a new government policy that allowed people a large tax deduction for payments made for housecleaning and other household services. That new deduction made it less expensive for people to make such payments on the books rather than in cash, as many previously had done. A significant use of cash thereby disappeared.

Additionally, Sweden has now introduced a new contactless payment technology using RFID. Originally developed in the United Kingdom, this technology makes credit card payments easier, especially for small transactions. For payments under 200 crowns (about $20), you just wave your card over the terminal at the point of sale, and the technology takes the transaction from there. There is no need to place the card manually in a chip reader and wait, as has now become common in the U.S. as we move to card chips for security reasons. (For larger transactions, you still need to enter a PIN code in Sweden, but you dont need to put the card into a machine.)

This is now available at most, though not all, stores, with a symbol in the checkout area signaling its availability. The U.S. is behind -- this technology is still uncommon, though it seems to be slowly spreading. Interestingly, one of the first large-scale uses, scheduled for late 2018, will be in the public sector, as the New York City subway system starts to accept contactless cards to buy tickets.

Sweden is also ahead of the U.S. on mobile payments -- financial transactions done directly using a smartphone. Several years ago a group of Swedish banks rolled out a platform called Swish. Using Swish, one enters on a smartphone screen the account number for the person one wishes to pay, and the amount to send. The system automatically transfers the money from your linked bank account to the recipients.

Swish is mostly used for payments between individuals -- the most-common use cited to me was as a convenient way to split restaurant bills so that one person pays on a credit card and everyone else has their share transferred via Swish. More recently, Swish has spread to transactions between sellers and customers, especially in small outdoor markets (e.g. selling produce) where merchants dont have credit card readers; it is generally expected that such a use for Swish will be expanding rapidly.

When I was in Sweden and asked people whether they used Swish, almost everybody said they did, including friends in their seventies. In the U.S., there is a similar system called Venmo, but it is used mostly by young people.

Next month I will go to China to teach for a few weeks, and get to observe a payments system that not only leaves the U.S. but also Sweden in the dust. Many of us still imagine that China is great at making inexpensive umbrellas and swag handed out at conferences, but little that is advanced or innovative. We have thought that the state-dominated Chinese economy, unlike the US world with its many startups, and the overall lack of freedom in China, would inhibit the Chinese from getting much further. But over the past year or two, that picture has begun to change significantly, as we see Chinese tech innovation and startups, mostly privately owned, that have grown to giants.

A dramatic example of this is that over the space of just a few years, high-tech smartphone-enabled mobile payments have become the dominant form for financial transactions among individuals and businesses in China. The system actually bypasses credit cards, which never really took off among Chinese; it is sometimes noted that China went directly from cash to smartphone payments.

The Chinese approach to mobile payments, developed inside China, is based on QR codes -- a two-dimensional barcode system invented in 1993 in Japan to aid in tracking vehicles and parts in auto manufacturing (QR stands for quick response). For Chinese mobile payments, the customer waves his or her smartphone, where a unique QR code appears on the screen, at the recipients QR code, and money is then immediately transferred from the payer to the recipient. Mobile payments dominate restaurant transactions, retail sales, taxi rides and take-out/home delivery ordering. Many beggars have a QR code and accept this form of payment as well.

The Chinese mobile payments market is dominated by two firms, WeChat (part of Tencent) and Alipay (part of Alibaba). Both started small not so long ago.

WeChat started as a social media platform that had some capabilities that went beyond U.S. platforms, especially the ability to dictate messages to friends who heard your voice. (So the system is not the same as voice recognition software, which produces text rather than a verbal message, and is of course prone to errors.) Alibaba started as an online market connecting businesses and consumers, and businesses and businesses, where distribution was decentralized to third-party vendors rather than being mostly centrally managed as Amazon is.

Both are now huge companies with market caps that actually rival the biggest U.S. tech firms, and they have branched into many new areas, including mobile payments. For WeChat, the first transition from social media to mobile payment use came in connection with a widespread Chinese custom of distributing what are called red envelopes -- red-colored envelopes (red is a lucky color in China) given as wedding or Chinese New Year gifts. WeChat came up with the idea of using the platform to give electronic red envelopes. This became wildly successful, and was the entryway to the system that then developed.

Where is the U.S. on mobile payments? Not too far along. Apple introduced Apple Pay in 2014. It has users, but use is limited by the fact that you need a contactless credit card to use it (which most people dont have) and that by no means all merchants have signed up for it. Google Pay and Samsung Pay are also on the market now. Eventually we will get there, but again we are a laggard.

What conclusions do I draw from all this? First, other countries edge over us is sometimes due to technology developed first outside the U.S., sometimes to quicker user adoption (something that would probably surprise most Americans), and sometimes to a greater ability to make non-tech organizational adjustments, such as eliminating minimum transaction values on credit cars, to get the tech to work better. Second, there are clearly efficiency benefits to the new technologies -- think only of the decline in hold ups in stores and bank robberies thanks to the disappearance of cash. But there are also benefits in terms of the general social climate for innovation.

Finally, we need to understand were not always as good as we imagine ourselves to be. That in fact may be the hardest message to accept.
Lufthansa flights at Frankfurt airport were disrupted Lufthansa flights at Frankfurt airport were disrupted (AFP Photo/Arne Dedert)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Tens of thousands of air passengers were stranded Tuesday as workers at airlines Lufthansa and Air France staged strikes that crippled traffic at several major European airports.

Germany's biggest carrier Lufthansa was forced to cancel 800 out of 1,600 scheduled flights, including 58 long-haul flights.

German public sector workers including ground crew and airport firefighters walked out at 5:00 am with the strike due to last until 6:00 pm (1600 GMT).

Tuesday's "warning strike" hit Germany's biggest airport Frankfurt as well as other regional hubs such as Munich, Cologne and Bremen.

Other airports such as Hamburg, Leipzig and Hanover were hit with knock-on effects.

Half of the flights at Munich were delayed or cancelled according to the union Verdi, national news agency DPA reported.

Beyond airports, local transport, kindergartens, rubbish collection and hospitals were also affected, as civil servants walked out to demand a 6.0-percent pay raise for the 2.3 million people working for Germany's federal, state and local governments.

Given the country's economic strength, "when if not now should there be significant pay increases for workers, including those in the public sector?" asked Verdi leader Frank Bsirske in an appearance at Frankfurt airport.

"We're determined to achieve this."

But the ADV airport operators' association accused unions of "lacking all proportionality", with the strike disrupting tens of thousands of journeys -- 90,000 at Lufthansa alone -- and costs they said would run into the millions.

Airport operator Fraport said Tuesday afternoon that service should return to normal in the early evening.

"It will take about 45 to 60 minutes for all the positions to be manned again and then we'll go back to normal service," a spokesman told DPA.

- Beer at 8:00 am -

Travellers had plenty of notice of upsets to their plans, avoiding scenes of chaos at Frankfurt airport, but some could not avoid travelling Tuesday.

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Sybille Metzler, who was due to travel to Amsterdam for a meeting, turned up at the hub despite warnings from the operator that her flight had been cancelled.

"I knew, but I wanted to see if I can still get there, because it won't work with the train," the 41-year-old management accountant told AFP.

Some passengers who faced disruption were understanding of the walkout.

"It's fair enough. Hope they get it," said Ashley Gillham, 40, a manager in the auto sector, of the strikers' pay demands -- despite having to switch to rail for part of his journey from New Zealand via Frankfurt to Mallorca.

"This way we get to have a beer at 8:00 am," he joked.

- Sixth walkout at Air France -

In unrelated industrial action in France, air traffic was also severely disrupted as the country's biggest airline Air France was forced to cancel one in four flights, in the sixth round of strikes launched by its employees since February.

Around 65 percent of long-haul flights will depart as planned, the carrier said, with higher proportions on schedule among medium- and short-haul services from Paris and other French airports.

The group said the strikes between February 22 and April 11 were estimated to cost the company 170 million euros ($210 million).

Several Air France unions have called four further days of industrial action in April as they also seek a 6.0-percent pay raise.

Managers say the company is not growing solidly enough to justify such salary boosts, which they reckon would cost 240 million euros per year.

Air France's labour woes come at the same time as disruption for French state rail operator SNCF.

Workers are staging repeated walkouts in protest at the French government's plan to reform the company and change the special status its employees enjoy.
Axis Bank's logo is seen next to ATM machines at its corporate headquarters in Mumbai, India July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

By Devidutta Tripathy and Suvashree Choudhury

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Axis Bank Ltd said on Monday that its long-time Chief Executive Shikha Sharma will step down at the end of 2018, days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was reported to have expressed concerns about the lender giving her a three-year extension.

India's banking sector has been facing increased scrutiny amid record-high bad loan levels within the banking system, the discovery of a $2 billion scam at state-run Punjab National Bank and a slew of other issues.

In a surprise regulatory filing late on Monday, Axis said Sharma, who has been the CEO of the third-biggest private sector Indian bank by assets since 2009, had asked the bank's board to shorten her next term that is set to begin on June 1.

Axis Bank's board has accepted Sharma's request, pending approval from India's central bank, the lender said.

Last July, Axis said it had re-appointed Sharma as CEO for a three-year period starting June 1, 2018.

Recent Indian media reports, including in The Times of India and The Economic Times, have said the Reserve Bank of India had asked the bank's board to reconsider Sharma's three-year reappointment citing concerns over the bank's asset quality among other reasons.

Axis Bank gave no reason for Sharma cutting short her term and a bank spokesman declined to comment when asked if the decision was connected with the recent media reports.

Sharma herself made no comment in the regulatory filing.

Under Sharma, Axis has seen its gross bad loans jump more than six times over the last three years to 250 billion rupees ($3.85 billion) as of end-2017.

Last year, a central bank audit also unearthed 56.33 billion rupees more in bad loans at Axis than it had originally reported for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

Saswata Guha, a financial sector analyst at Fitch Ratings, said Sharma's decision to seek a shortening of her term was not "entirely unexpected" given the media reports on the RBI move.

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"There is eight-nine months time for a smooth handover, so from an operational perspective, the chances of disruption seem to be low," Guha said, adding the bank has a capable second-and-third order management line.

He added that the rating agency would closely watch any future mismatch between Axis's reported bad loan numbers and the RBI's audit.

Axis Bank shares closed 3.8 percent higher in Mumbai trading before the news.

($1 = 64.9500 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Adrian Croft and Euan Rocha)
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven people employed by the sex ad website Backpage.com, including its founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, were charged in a 93-count indictment unsealed on Monday that included among the accusations knowingly facilitating prostitution. The indictment, which also includes money laundering charges, was made public after Backpage.com and its affiliated websites were seized on Friday by U.S. federal law enforcement authorities and taken off the internet. Attorneys for Lacey could not be immediately reached, and the public court docket had not yet listed any counsel for Larkin. For far too long, Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. But this illegality stops right now." Lawmakers and law enforcement officials have long been working to crack down on the website, which was used primarily to sell sex and was the second largest classified ad service in the United States after Craigslist. Backpage and some advocacy groups have argued that the ads on the site were free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution. The unsealed indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Arizona, lays out details concerning 17 alleged victims, including both adults and minors as young as 14 years old, who were trafficked on the site. In one case, a customer murdered one of the victims and attempted to burn her corpse, an official from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona said. Later, when the victim's father tried to have his daughter's pictures and ads taken down, the website did not immediately comply, according to the official. In addition to charging Larkin and Lacey, the indictment also charged Backpage.com's executive vice president Scott Spear, its chief financial officer John "Jed" Brunst, its sales and marketing director Dan Hyer, operations manager Andrew Padilla and its assistant operations manager Joye Vaught. The court records did not yet list any attorneys for Spear, Brunst, Hyer or Padilla, and an attorney for Vaught could not immediately be reached. In the indictment, the U.S. Justice Department accuses Backpage of earning $500 million in prostitution-related revenue since its inception in 2004, and of money laundering that entailed routing funds through seemingly unrelated entities, wiring money in and out of foreign accounts and converting it into and out of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Backpage associates were also actively involved in editing ads and advising on how they should be worded, according to the indictment. Prosecutors also alleged that the website's employees sought to actively mislead the public about its sincerity of efforts to prevent prostitution ads. The indictment said that in private, Lacey "bragged about the company's contributions to the prostitution industry, writing in one internal document 'Backpage is part of the solution.'" The indictment relies on the same law used in a similar case in California several years ago against the founder of MyRedbook.com, who pleaded guilty to charges that the website hosted ads largely posted by prostitutes. A Justice Department official said the case against Backpage does not rely on sex trafficking charges, but rather on charges connected to prostitution, which are easier to prosecute. To prove sex trafficking, prosecutors would need to show each individual ad either involved a minor, or featured an adult who was selling sex through force or coercion. Last month, Congress passed legislation that makes it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue website operators that facilitate online sex trafficking. The bill, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law this week, amends the Communications Decency Act, which largely shielded website operators from state criminal charges or civil liability if they were facilitating sex ads or prostitution. Efforts to get that law changed were featured prominently in a Netflix documentary called "I am Jane Doe." (This version of the story corrects the first name of Vaught in paragraph 10) (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Prices of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies plunged on Tuesday

Investing.com  Prices of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell on Tuesday, while a report by Bank of America gathered some attention as it called crypto the greatest bubble in history.

Bitcoin was trading at $6,770.0 by 10:30PM ET (02:30GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, down 5.2% over the previous 24 hours.

Ethereum, the worlds second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down 3.1% at $398.48 on the Bitfinex exchange.

Ripples XRP token fell 4.4% to $0.48432 on the Poloniex exchange.

Meanwhile, Litecoin lost 6.0% to $114.53

A report by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was in focus on Tuesday, as the second biggest US bank called Bitcoin the greatest bubble in history, and that it is popping.

The virtual currency is following the trend of the other massive asset-price bubbles in history, analysts lead by Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note. Bitcoin has fallen more than 65% since peaking in December at $19,511.

In February, Bank of America warned in its annual filing with the SEC that it could face substantial costs as it deals with digital coins, and included warnings about the technology among the risk factors for investors for the first time.

The widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services, the bank said.

The document also said cryptocurrencies could make it more difficult for the bank to comply with regulations by impairing its ability to track the movement of customer funds

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BP plc BP along with its partner, Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production LLC, has agreed on the development of Ghazeer, the second phase of the massive Khazzan gas field in Oman.



Following the successful commissioning of Khazzans first phase of development, BP intends to make the final investment decision (FID) for Ghazeer. Khazzan commenced production ahead of schedule and expenses related to it were below budget. Currently, it is producing at planned capacity of about 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcf/d) and condensate of about 35,000 barrels per day.



Ghazeer, BPs first project FID of 2018, is projected to come online in 2021. It is intended to provide an additional 0.5 bcf/d of gas and more than 15,000 bpd condensate production. Appraisal drilling on Ghazeer was completed in 2017. Drilling on the first three development wells has commenced. Initial construction at Khazzan to accommodate a third gas train and related infrastructure has already begun.



Cumulatively, the Khazzan and Ghazeer developments are projected to deliver total production of 10.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas and about 350 million barrels of condensate by the end of concession, projected by 2043.

BP, the operator of Block 61, holds a stake of 60%, while the remaining 40% is held by Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production.



The initial exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) for the development of the Khazzan Project for Block 61 was inked in December 2013. In 2016, the company inked an agreement with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman to revise the EPSA for Block 61. This added another 1,150 square kilometer to the south and west of the development, which spans 2,800 square kilometer.



BPs presence in Oman dates back to 2007. Currently, the company is developing more than 5.5 million barrels per day of oil and gas production throughout the Middle East along with its national oil company partners. Moreover, BPs expertise will help in sustaining Omans energy requirementsfor many decades to come.



Price Performance



BPs shares have lost 2.9% in the last three months, compared with the industrys 6% decline.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks



BP carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



A few better-ranked players in the same sector are Continental Resources, Inc CLR, Northern Oil and Gas Inc NOG and SunCoke Energy Inc SXC. All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Continental Resources is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. It delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 64.9% over the last four quarters.



Northern Oil and Gas, based in Minnetonka, MN, is an independent energy company. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 175% during the same time frame.



SunCoke Energy produces metallurgical coke in the United States. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 130.6% in the last four quarters.



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When considering valuation metrics, price-to-earnings ratio has always been the obvious choice as calculations based on earnings are easy and come in handy. However, price-to-sales has emerged as a convenient tool to determine the value of stocks that are incurring losses or are in an early cycle of development, generating meager or no profits.



While a loss-making company with a negative price-to-earnings ratio falls out of investor favor, its price-to-sales could indicate the hidden strength of its business. This underrated ratio is also used to identify a recovery situation or ensure that a company's growth is not overvalued.



A stocks price-to-sales ratio reflects how much investors are paying for each dollar of revenues generated by the company.



If the price-to-sales ratio is 1, it means that investors are paying $1 for every $1 of revenues generated by the company. So, it goes without saying that a stock with a price-to-sales below 1 is a good bargain, as investors need to pay less than a dollar for a dollars worth.



Thus, a stock with a lower price-to-sales ratio is a more suitable investment versus a stock with a high price-to-sales ratio.



Price-to-sales is often preferred over price-to-earnings as companies can manipulate their earnings using various accounting measures. However, sales are harder to manipulate and are relatively reliable.



However, one should keep in mind that a company with high debt and low price-to-sales is not an ideal choice. The high debt level will have to be paid off at some point, leading to further share issuance and a rise in market cap and ultimately a higher price-to-sales ratio.



In any case, the price-to-sales ratio used in isolation cant do the trick. One should also analyze other ratios like Price/Earnings, Price/Book and Debt/Equity before arriving at any investment decision.



Screening Parameters



Price to Sales less than Median Price to Sales for its Industry: The lower the price-to-sales ratio, the better.



Price to Earnings using F(1) estimate less than Median Price to Earnings for its Industry: The lower, the better.



Price to Book (common Equity) less than Median Price to Book for its Industry: This is another parameter to ensure the value feature of a stock.



Debt to Equity (Most Recent) less than Median Debt to Equity for its Industry: A company with less debt should have a stable price-to-sales ratio.



Current Price greater than or equal to $5: They must all be trading at a minimum of $5 or higher.



Zacks Rank less than or equal to #2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment.



Value Score less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a Value Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 offer the best opportunities in the value investing space.



Here are seven of the 16 stocks that qualified the screening:



United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI is the leading distributor of natural, organic and specialty food and non-food products in the United States and Canada. The company offers more than 1,00,000 high-quality natural, organic and specialty products, consisting of national, regional and private label brands in six product categories. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 and a Value Score of A. Also, the 3-5 year EPS growth rate for the stock is estimated at 8.2%.



Universal Forest Products Inc. UFPI engineers, manufactures, treats, distributes and installs lumber, composite wood, plastic and other building products. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 and a Value Score of B. The 3-5 year EPS growth rate for the stock is estimated at 5%.



Rocky Brands Inc. RCKY is a manufacturer and seller of footwear and apparel in the United States, Canada and internationally. It sells products under the Rocky, Georgia Boot, Durango, Lehigh, Creative Recreation and Michelin brands. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 and a Value Score of A.



Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal MT is the worlds leading steel and mining company. With a presence in more than 60 countries, it operates a balanced portfolio of cost competitive steel plants across both the developed and developing worlds. The company has a 3-5 years EPS growth rate of 13.4% and a Value Score of A. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



People's Republic of China-based Daqo New Energy Corp. DQ manufactures and sells polysilicon and wafers in the People's Republic of China. This Zacks Rank #1 company has a 3-5 years EPS growth rate of 7% and a Value Score of A.



Cabot Corporation CBT is a specialty chemicals and performance materials company that offers carbon black and rubber blacks. It also provides compounds of carbon black and rubber primarily for tire applications; and cesium formate, a drilling and completion fluid for use in high pressure and high temperature oil and gas well construction. This Zacks Rank #2 company has a Value Score of B. The 3-5 year EPS growth rate for the stock is estimated at 10%.



Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corporation NTTYY is a provider of fixed and mobile voice related services, IP/packet communications services, telecommunication equipment, system integration, and other telecommunications-related services in Japan and internationally. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and a Value Score of A. Also, the 3-5 year EPS growth rate for the company is estimated at 7.8%.



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The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your trial to the Research Wizard today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.



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Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.



Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.



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A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. In the past, Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (TSX:KML) has returned an average of 4.00% per year to investors in the form of dividend payouts. Does Kinder Morgan Canada tick all the boxes of a great dividend stock? Below, Ill take you through my analysis. Check out our latest analysis for Kinder Morgan Canada

5 checks you should do on a dividend stock

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?

Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?

Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?

Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

TSX:KML Historical Dividend Yield Apr 10th 18

How well does Kinder Morgan Canada fit our criteria?

The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for KML is 113.40%, meaning the dividend is not sufficiently covered by its earnings. Going forward, analysts expect KMLs payout to reduce to 99.74% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 5.62%. However, EPS should increase to CA$0.6, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock youre eyeing out is reliable in its payments. The reality is that it is too early to consider Kinder Morgan Canada as a dividend investment. It has only been paying out dividend for the past one year. Generally, the rule of thumb for determining whether a stock is a reliable dividend payer is that it should be consistently paying dividends for the past 10 years or more. Clearly theres a long road ahead before we can ascertain whether KML one as a stable dividend player. Relative to peers, Kinder Morgan Canada produces a yield of 4.03%, which is on the low-side for Oil and Gas stocks.

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Next Steps:

Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in Kinder Morgan Canada for the dividend. On the other hand, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still be offering some interesting investment opportunities. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the companys fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. Below, Ive compiled three relevant aspects you should further examine:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for KMLs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for KMLs outlook. Valuation: What is KML worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, its not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether KML is currently mispriced by the market. Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.



To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
Brewer and distiller Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) has only paid a dividend since 2015, but on average it has increased the payout by 33% each year. Its latest dividend hike of 42% was its biggest increase yet, and there's one very good reason why Constellation Brands has been able to post such impressive numbers.

An old country music song called "I like beer" may as well serve as Constellation's theme song, because ever since acquiring from Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) the U.S. rights to Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, in particular, its Corona brand, Constellation has seen beer sales soar.

Friends drinking beer at party

Image source: Getty Images.

Keeping the beer flowing

It was a timely acquisition, as the taste for imports really took off at the same time and still today shows no signs of going flat. Anheuser-Busch needed to satisfy antitrust concerns when it acquired the Modelo family of beers, and selling the U.S. rights to Modelo, along with its Piedras Negras brewery and its 50% stake in Crown Imports, which gave Constellation complete, independent control of its beer business, fit the bill.

Constellation Brands hit the ground running with beer sales in 2014, jumping 12% and accounting for 53% of total revenue. The next year they were up over 13% and accounted for 55% of sales, and in 2016 they were up almost 17% and represented 58% of sales. While beer sales last year only rose 10%, they accounted for 61% of the company's total and represented a 20% increase in operating income.

The beer and wine distributor's beer portfolio was the top growth contributor to the U.S. beer market, with all of its import-brand families achieving record volume levels. The Modelo family exceeded 110 million cases and saw depletion growth of 18%. Depletions are shipments by distributors to retail customers and are considered by the industry as a proxy for consumer demand.

There's more where that came from

This is a remarkable achievement. According to the Brewers Association, the trade group that represents the craft beer industry, U.S. beer sales volume was down 1% in 2017 to 196.3 million barrels. Craft beer sales volume, on the other hand, was up 5% this year, while imported beer as a whole rose 3.2%. It's clear much of the growth that was achieved came as a result of Constellation Brands' efforts.

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Modelo brand beer

Image source: Modelo USA.

Constellation is now the third-largest brewer in the country behind Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, the U.S. distribution subsidiary of Molson Coors.

While heady beer sales have given Constellation Brands the financial wherewithal to continuously expand its dividend, the downside is that its dividend yield isn't nearly as frothy as other well-established brewers and distillers. Constellation's yield of 0.9% is well below those of Anheuser-Busch at 3.7%, Brown-Forman at 1.2%, Diageo at 2.5%, and Molson Coors with 2.2%.

Yet a good case could be made that Constellation Brands makes up for yield with the rapid hikes it has instituted. The payout has now already more than doubled since it was first initiated, and investors can expect the dividend to continue rising. There are three reasons why:

1. Free cash flow growth: Constellation Brands grew free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital expenditures) by 10.8% last year, but forecasts it will achieve anywhere from 37% to 49% growth in free cash flow in the current fiscal year.

2. A low payout ratio: With the dividend increase, Constellation Brands increased its dividend payout ratio target to 30%, a very low rate and one that leaves lots of room for future growth. The payout ratio is a way to assess the sustainability of the dividend; a lower rate is better.

3. Healthy earnings growth: The brewer and distiller is forecasting earnings growth of anywhere from 8% to 11% this year and, with planned expansion of its Mexico beer operations, is calculating it will realize long-term benefits and growth from the sector.

Investors who chase yield will likely miss a rare opportunity in Constellation Brands. Others willing to take the time to dig deeper may find the brewer and distiller an excellent dividend stock to own.

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Rich Duprey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. The Motley Fool owns shares of Molson Coors Brewing. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Last year, Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) subsidiary Alaska Airlines jumped four places to take the top spot in the annual Airline Quality Rating report. Its score of negative 0.39 just edged out Delta Air Lines' (NYSE: DAL) score of negative 0.40. (Numbers closer to zero indicate better performance.) Alaska Airlines took over the No. 1 spot from Virgin America, a former rival that its parent company had just acquired.

Alaska Airlines retained its No. 1 ranking in the 2018 Airline Quality Rating report, which was released this week. However, Delta Air Lines crept even closer to its Seattle-based rival. Indeed, Delta appears to be on pace to overtake Alaska Airlines in the 2019 report.

A rendering of an Alaska Airlines plane flying over clouds

Alaska Airlines topped the Airline Quality Rating rankings again this year. Image source: Alaska Airlines.

What the Airline Quality Rating study measures

The annual Airline Quality Rating report is in its 28th year. Researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Wichita State University compile official data from the 12 largest U.S. airlines related to four different quality criteria. The scores reflect a weighted average of the airlines' performances across these four metrics.

The four criteria measured in this study are (1) the percentage of flights arriving on time, (2) the percentage of passengers involuntarily "bumped" from their flights, (3) the percentage of mishandled (i.e., lost) bags, and (4) the percentage of customers who filed official complaints with the U.S. Department of Transportation. These four factors were selected because they represent objective measures of quality, and every large airline is obliged to report them publicly.

Alaska Airlines pulls off another victory

Alaska Airlines' score deteriorated slightly on a year-over-year basis in the 2018 Airline Quality Rating report (which covers the 2017 calendar year), falling back to negative 0.437 from negative 0.39. Delta also saw a modest reversal in this year's report, scoring negative 0.442, compared to negative 0.40 a year earlier. The scores were so close this year that the authors had to include an extra decimal place to determine a winner.

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In the 2017 report, Alaska Airlines outperformed Delta in terms of on-time arrivals, baggage handling, and customer complaints. This more than offset its significantly higher rate of involuntary denied boardings.

In this year's study, Delta leapfrogged Alaska Airlines in on-time performance and maintained its advantage in terms of involuntary denied boardings. Meanwhile, the two carriers' baggage performance was virtually identical. The sole reason for Alaska's victory was a sharp spike in customer complaints at Delta, from 0.68 per 100,000 passengers to 0.92 per 100,000 passengers.

Why Delta is the clear favorite for the 2019 report

Delta Air Lines may have come up short this year, but it has a good chance to reach the top spot in the 2019 Airline Quality Rating study for two reasons.

First, Delta's 2017 results were skewed by a poor April performance. The carrier's largest hub in Atlanta was hit by an unprecedented multiday wave of severe thunderstorms, which forced Delta to cancel thousands of flights.

The result was a reduction in on-time performance, and a severe increase in the mishandled-bag rate and the number of customer complaints. Excluding the month of April, Delta would have scored negative 0.39 in this year's Airline Quality Rating report, giving it a clear victory over Alaska. Delta's subpar April score of negative 1.14 prevented it from reaching the top spot.

A Delta Air Lines plane landing on a runway

But for a bad April, Delta would have surpassed Alaska in this year's report. Image source: Delta Air Lines.

Second, Alaska Air will retire the Virgin America brand later this month. As a result, all of the company's mainline operations will be reported under the Alaska Airlines brand going forward. Virgin America took a big step backward in this year's report, falling to seventh place in the rankings, with a score of negative 0.76, down from negative 0.50 a year earlier. Had Alaska Air's two brands been treated as a single airline for the 2018 Airline Quality Rating study, Delta Air Lines would have seized the top spot by a comfortable margin.

To be fair, Alaska Air's management has been working to improve performance at the former Virgin America operation. These efforts have already started to bear fruit: Virgin America's monthly scores were much better in the second half of 2017 than in the first half of the year.

Even so, Delta Air Lines would have outscored a combined Alaska Airlines-Virgin America operation in every single month during the second half of 2017. Barring a sharp trend change at either Alaska or Delta -- or a stunning improvement by another airline -- Delta is likely to reach the top spot when the 2019 Airline Quality Rating study is released next spring.

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Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Alaska Air Group and Delta Air Lines. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Older, white, educated voters are trending toward Democrats in such numbers that their ballots could tip the scales in tight midterm congressional races.

These voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel cited robust fund-raising and said the party would field strong campaigns in battleground states.

Older, white, educated voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Now, they are trending toward Democrats in such numbers that their ballots could tip the scales in tight congressional races from New Jersey to California, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll and a data analysis of competitive districts shows.

Nationwide, whites over the age of 60 with college degrees now favor Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a 2-point margin, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling during the first three months of the year. During the same period in 2016, that same group favored Republicans for Congress by 10 percentage points.

The 12-point swing is one of the largest shifts in support toward Democrats that the Reuters/Ipsos poll has measured over the past two years. If that trend continues, Republicans will struggle to keep control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, in the November elections, potentially dooming President Trump's legislative agenda.

The real core for the Republicans is white, older white, and if they're losing ground there, they're going to have a tsunami, said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who closely tracks political races. If that continues to November, they're toast.

Asked about the swing, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel cited robust fund-raising and said the party would field strong campaigns in battleground states. "We are not taking a single vote for granted, she said in a statement.

John Camm has been a Republican since the Nixon Administration, but the 63-year-old Tucson accountant says he will likely support a Democrat for Congress in November. He is splitting with his party over access to health insurance as well as its recent overhaul of the nation's income tax system. He also supports gun control measures that the party has rejected.

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"I'm a moderate Republican, and yet my party has run away from that," Camm said. "So give me a moderate Democrat."

Camm is not alone in his worries about healthcare. The number of educated older adults choosing "health care" in the Reuters/Ipsos poll as their top issue nearly tripled over the past two years, from 8 percent to 21 percent. The poll did not ask respondents precisely what their concerns about health care were.

Typically though, voters' concerns are varied. Some fear the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama's signature effort to offer subsidized health insurance to millions of Americans and expand healthcare to the poor. Others cite high prescription drug costs and the high cost of healthcare in general.

Gray vote magnified

The potential impact of any swing to Democrats is magnified given that older, educated adults are reliable voters. They also make up a sizeable portion of the voting population in many districts where elections are close.

How they vote could decide elections in as many as 26 competitive congressional districts where Democrats have a shot at winning a seat. A Reuters analysis of U.S. Census data shows highly educated older voters make up about 5-10 percent of the population in those areas. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to win control of the House of Representatives.

More broadly, older white Americans, regardless of their level of education, are still more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats, but the Republican advantage with this group has been trimmed by about 5 percentage points when comparing the first quarter of 2018 with the first quarter of 2016.

Disproportionate power

Older, educated voters have even more clout in the Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, where John Camm lives.

They make up about 10 percent of the population there, the analysis shows. Adjacent to the University of Arizona Tucson campus and including some of Arizona's few liberal pockets, it is Arizona's most competitive district, said Paul Bentz, an Arizona strategist and pollster who has worked on numerous Republican campaigns.

Older voters in the 2nd district - both with and without college degrees - were 40 percent of voters in the 2016 election that kept Congress in Republican hands and brought Trump to power, Arizona voter data reviewed by Reuters shows.

Bentz said the shift toward Democrats in the Tucson area could be enough to determine the outcome, but he cautioned against reading too much into the increased concern about healthcare. He said Republicans could still win voters with arguments focusing on immigration and support for the military.

Older, educated voters are also nearly 10 percent of the adult population in northern New Jersey's hotly contested 11th Congressional District, three hotly contested Southern California districts, and highly competitive seats in Illinois, Texas and Virginia's 10th.

Rising anxiety

Nationally, Democrats plan to campaign strongly for older voters, focusing on issues such as taxes, health care, and the economy as campaigns heat up later this year, party strategists said. Republicans, meanwhile, are touting the benefits of their tax cuts and the improved economy.

In an ad that began rolling out last week in Indiana, Priorities USA Action, the largest Democratic Party fundraising group, highlights increases to the federal deficit caused by Republican tax cuts. "Now there's a plan to cut Medicare to pay for it," the ad says, a line designed to raise older Americans' anxiety about the government healthcare program for over 65s.

Priorities spokesman Josh Schwerin said it plans to spend $50 million on such ads in several states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Voters between the ages of 60 and 65 are particularly worried about healthcare, said Brigid Harrison, a political scientist at Montclair State University in New Jersey, because they are paying ever higher private health insurance premiums and are not yet eligible for Medicare.

Kenneth Johnston, 82 and a registered Republican who was shopping with his wife on a recent day at a Sprouts Farmers Market store in Green Valley, south of Tucson, said he is unhappy with his party and has mixed feelings about Trump.

But he hasn't yet decided how he's going to vote. "I'm worried about healthcare, but sometimes I just worry about everything," he said. "I'm old."

The Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll provides a snapshot of public opinion by surveying more than 65,000 adults during the first three months of 2016 and 2018, including more than 15,000 people over the age of 60.





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(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp is in talks with Qatar over a possible deal that could see the country investing in the company's U.S. shale gas resources, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal could take the shape of a joint venture in which Qatar, through state-owned Qatar Petroleum , could partner or invest in future wells with Exxon's XTO Energy subsidiary, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said no deal had been finalized yet and talks could collapse. The newspaper did not say how much Qatar was planning to invest in XTO Energy.

If the deal takes shape as described, it would be the first time a Middle Eastern country invested significantly in a U.S. shale-related project.

Exxon, which is targeting Qatar for additional investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, already partners with Qatar Petroleum in Cyprus and Brazil.

Exxon spokeswoman Rebecca Arnold declined to comment on the newspaper's report. A representative for Qatar Petroleum was not immediately available to comment.

Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, Qatar's minister of energy and economy, declined to comment on the newspaper's report when asked by Reuters at an industry event in India.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday.

The shale revolution in the United States has not only seen a huge rise in crude production, but also in gas output. Exxon, already the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, said earlier this year it is aiming to triple production in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico to 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2025.

For Qatar, which is locked in a dispute with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, the move could help broaden its investments outside the Middle East.

Qatar is one of the smallest producers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and also one of the most influential players in the global LNG market due to its annual production of 77 million tonnes, cementing its position as the world's largest LNG supplier.

Qatar Petroleum is majority owner of the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Texas, with Exxon and ConocoPhillips holding smaller stakes.

(Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston, Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Phil Berlowitz)
You probably dont think about it on a daily basis but the Sun is pretty darn important. Without it, we wouldnt be here, and our friendly little star has been powering life on our planet for a long, long time. NASA has studied it at a distance for a long time, but actually getting up close and personal with a giant volatile ball of incredibly hot plasma is a tricky thing. The Parker Solar Probe, named after scientist Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of solar wind, aims to be the first manmade tool to touch the Sun, as NASA says, and it just reached a big milestone.

Just days ago, the probe, which is slated to launch on July 31, 2018, made a midnight trip from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center to the Joint Base Andrews, both located in Maryland, and was then flown to Florida to continue testing. Assuming all goes according to plan, final assembly of the spacecraft will take place at Astrotech Space Operations, and then it will await its fateful trip skyward.

Don't Miss: The popular device that lets you control your garage door with your phone just got a price cut

Parker Solar Probe and the team received a smooth ride from the Air Force C-17 crew from the 436th, Andy Driesman, the project manager of the Parker Solar Probe, explained in a statement. This is the second most important flight Parker Solar Probe will make, and were excited to be safely in Florida and continuing pre-launch work on the spacecraft.

At the end of July, the probe will be launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and from there it will begin a seven-year mission to make observations of our star and hopefully answer some burning questions (pun maybe intended) that have perplexed scientists for decades. Ultimately, data gathered from the mission could help improve forecasting of space weather, which is still a rather inexact science.

All told, the mission will cost $1.5 billion, and the probe will make 24 passes of the Sun as it orbits. At its nearest point, it will reach a distance of 3.9 million miles, at which point the temperatures it will be subjected to will be hot enough to melt steel. Thick carbon shielding will prevent the probe from being destroyed as it gathers its data, and hopefully delivers some neat images at the same time.

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FILE PHOTO: The London Stock Exchange Group offices are seen in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

By Kit Rees and Helen Reid

LONDON (Reuters) - Recovering mining stocks boosted Britain's top share index to its highest in six weeks on Tuesday, as concerns around global trade continued to ease.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) index was up 1 percent at 7,266.75 points at the close, with mid-caps (.FTMC) also up 1 percent.

Energy and materials sectors drove gains as easing concerns over global trade underpinned commodities prices.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and BP (BP.L) rose 1.3 to 1.6 percent, adding 17 points to the index as oil broke above $70 a barrel.

Miners recovered following some large losses in the previous session when stocks with exposure to Russia were hit after the United States unveiled new sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs and their companies.

Glencore (GLEN.L) rose 2 percent after the mining giant suspended a deal to swap its shares in Russian aluminium producer Rusal (RUAL.MM) for Global Depository Receipts in EN+ due to the sanctions.

Both Rusal and EN+ (ENPLq.L) were targeted by the U.S. measures.

"Glencore shares were hit, but we think that the market has overreacted  in a worst-case scenario the foregone business from Rusal volumes is worth around 0.9 percent of 2018 (estimated) EBITDA, whilst if the Rusal stake on the balance sheet ($933m) is worth zero, this would be around 1.3 percent of Friday's market cap," wrote Bernstein mining analyst Paul Gait in a note.

Miners Anglo American (AAL.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L), BHP Billiton (BLT.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.L) gained. Sanctions on Rusal boosted aluminium prices to a more than six-week high.

EN+ shares rose 7 percent but were nowhere near recovering their dramatic losses. The stock has halved in value since Friday's open.

Shares in Evraz (EVRE.L), a Russian steel producer which plunged 14.5 percent in the previous session, also recovered slightly to trade 1.1 percent higher.

FTSE 250 miners Polymetal International (POLYP.L) and Ferrexpo (FXPO.L) gained 7.1 percent and 5.6 percent.

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Last week risky assets were hit by an escalation in tensions between the United States and China, with investors worried that the tariffs would leads to a full-blown trade war.

However, a promise from Chinese President Xi Jinping to lower import tariffs on products such as cars helped soothe market nerves.

"President Xis speech overnight appears to have struck the right tone, providing some relief for investors who have been buffeted by the recent war of words between Trump and China over trade," said Rebecca O'Keefe, head of investment at Interactive Investor.

Elsewhere, shares in Burberry (BRBY.L) rose 1.4 percent, buoyed by a well-received first quarter sales update from French luxury peer LVMH (LVMH.PA).

The utilities and consumer staples stocks that investors had rushed into during market stress fell back. United Utilities (UU.L), Severn Trent (SVT.L) and National Grid (NG.L) lost between 1 and 2.9 percent.

National Grid said it expected low demand for electricity this summer.

British greeting card retailer Card Factory (CARDC.L) topped the gainers among mid cap stocks (.FTMC), its shares jumping 12.6 percent after reporting a rise in annual sales and saying it plans to declare a special dividend in September.

(Reporting by Kit Rees and Helen Reid; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
When Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) decided to bring its Master Limited Partnerships (MLP) back into the company and trade as one stock, in 2014, analysts cheered.

It didnt turn out that way. Since the structure change became final, KMI has lost more than 60% of its value, despite a continuing stream of dividends that currently yield 3.26%.

Meanwhile Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) was among those which kept the MLP structure through the downturn and, while it hasnt exactly prospered, the stock is down only 20%. Its dividend now yields nearly 7%.

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But is this all about corporate structure, or is something else going on?

The Structure Story

It helps if you understand the difference between a corporate structure like that of Kinder Morgan and the MLP structure of Enterprise Products.

A MLP is just what it sounds like. Youre a partner. That means profits flow directly to you, but so do losses. It also means you must file additional papers with the IRS every year, namely a complex K-1 form.

In a corporate structure, like that of Kinder Morgan, the corporation can hold the losses, and choose to distribute profits, or not. KMI originally chose this route to control cash. But when things go bad, as they did in 2015, it is scant protection for shareholders. During 2015, the height of the oil crash, KMI cut its dividend by 75%, and the stock just hasnt recovered. EPD cut its dividend before KMI, but has since been delivering a rising dividend, 42.5 cents per share during the last quarter.

Since MLPs are required to pay out 90% of their income as dividends, they must also fund capital projects with debt, which increases their risk. EPD, for instance, has more debt than equity on its books, and thats not unusual. KMIs continuing investment in its network means it also has a lot of debt as the equity has kept falling even while it has tried to reduce debt, by $6 billion since 2015.

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KMI Still Essential

One reason you dont see big headlines about bomb trains in 2018 is because falling demand for oil in the middle of the decade moved crude into cheaper, safer pipeline networks, which also condition (pre-heat) the product to extract volatile, valuable liquids. KMI is the biggest pipeline owner around. And its called a midstream company because its facilities are between oilfield developers and refiners. The liquids can also be used to make crushed bitumen, the oil sands of Alberta, transportable by pipeline.

In addition to running crude and natural gas liquids, KMI also runs gas pipelines and product lines. These deliver refined gasoline from refineries to terminals from which trucks take it to stations.

Right now, KMI is all over the news again because it wants to expand one of its crude lines, the Trans Mountain line that runs from Albertas oil sands to refineries and terminals in British Columbia. Alberta wants the new line, but British Columbia does not, and KMI has halted work while the country decides what to do, exerting political pressure.

Assuming the work is resumed, KMI shareholders will benefit, both from the increased volumes and the use of liquids for use in transport.

The Bottom Line for Kinder Morgan

Once it gets past the political rough patch, Kinder Morgan should have strong cash flow. Its current lack of profitability is due mainly to low natural gas prices, which have run below $3 per mcf for three years now.

The hope is that export terminals like that of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:LNG) will soak up excess supply and allow for a rebound in prices. Assuming it happens, Kinder Morgan will benefit more than most, and the stock will recover.

Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romance The Reluctant Detective Travels in Time, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn. As of this writing he owned no shares in companies mentioned in this story.

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By Jamie Freed

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines has indicated that it may be interested in buying 20-30 widebody jets from either Boeing Co (BA.N) or Airbus SE (AIR.PA), a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Such a deal could either expand or replace a previous non-binding agreement with Boeing that was reached during a high-profile U.S. visit by the country's prime minister last year, the source told Reuters.

Its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Boeing to buy eight long-range 787 jets, valued at $2.25 billion at list prices, had come as a surprise given that the national carrier already had an all-Airbus widebody fleet.

For a carrier of Malaysia Airlines' modest size to operate similar-sized planes from both manufacturers would tend to reduce efficiency and add to costs. While the Boeing 787 is included in the airline's latest request for information for the 20-30 jets, it has also listed the Airbus A330neo and A350 for consideration, the source with knowledge of the request for information told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

In a statement after the initial version of this story  which referred to a tender process - was published, Malaysia Airlines described it as "speculative and erroneous." It said there is "no such tender process as alleged" and the MoU with Boeing remains in place. It said the airline will not be commenting on the matter further.

In the airline industry a request for information is sometimes regarded as the beginning of a tender process.

A Malaysia Airlines spokeswoman had earlier said in answer to questions from Reuters about whether it was reconsidering the Boeing MoU and if it was in talks with Airbus about fleet plans that it was "too premature" to comment.

"As an airline, we constantly engage with our partners to review scenarios and options with respect to our network and fleet as a matter of course," she said. "Malaysia Airlines will update once something material develops." The carrier's new CEO, Izham Ismail, last month told Malyasian media the company had issued a request for information for new generation widebody planes, without specifying the number or model type, or indicating that a purchase of Airbus planes was possible.

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Boeing Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific and India Sales Dinesh Keskar last month told media it was up to the government and the airline to take the lead on firming up the 787 deal.

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment further.

The provisional Boeing deal was announced during Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's U.S. visit in September.

The visit was important for Najib as a way to show he was welcome at the White House despite a criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department into a fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad that he founded.

U.S. President Donald Trump had praised Malaysia's Boeing deal but steered clear of publicly commenting on the 1MDB probe.

Malaysia's election commission on Tuesday set May 9 as the date for a general election. Najib announced the dissolution of parliament on Friday, paving the way for a tough campaign where he faces off against rival Mahathir Mohamad, who last year questioned the merits of the Boeing deal in a blog post.

Malaysia Airlines has been trying to transform its operations and return to profitability as it recovers from two tragedies in 2014, when flight MH370 disappeared in what remains a mystery and flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. The 787 MoU was signed by the previous Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew.

"They have flexibility to not convert the 787 MoU to a firm order if they decide it makes sense to go with Airbus for the full requirement," CAPA Centre for Aviation Chief Analyst Brendan Sobie said.

"It's best if they limit their number of widebody types as their fleet is not that big to begin with and having just six or eight aircraft of a particular type is subscale." The carrier already has A330s and A350s in its fleet.

An Airbus spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE; additional reporting by Liz Lee and Praveen Menon in KUALA LUMPUR and Aradhana Aravindan in SINGAPORE; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Martin Howell)
Out of all the different pieces of NASA hardware floating around our Solar System, the Juno spacecraft probably has the best gig in terms of pure eye candy. The orbiter regularly snaps almost-too-good-to-be-real photos of the gas giant and its swirling cloud tops and sends them back to eager scientists and skywatchers back on Earth, and its latest batch of high-flying photos is just as good as weve come to expect from the reliable probe.

NASA, which regularly shows off some of Junos best work, took the time to highlight a particularly cool-looking photo of Jupiters iconic cloud patterns that was snapped back on April 1st. As with many images of the planet that weve seen in the past, the photo almost looks like an antique watercolor painting, and its hard not to lose yourself in the surreal sight.

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See intricate cloud patterns in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter in this new view taken by NASAs Juno spacecraft, NASA says of the image. The color-enhanced image was taken on April 1 at 2:32 a.m. PST (5:32 a.m. EST), as Juno performed its twelfth close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 7,659 miles (12,326 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a northern latitude of 50.2 degrees.

NASA makes it incredibly easy for the general public to see what the Juno spacecraft is observing via its JunoCam web portal. Here, raw images are uploaded without any additional processing, and citizen scientists have the opportunity to enhance them by emphasizing the colors and contrast. This particular photo was processed by Kevin M. Gill. You can view the photo at its full resolution here.

The Juno spacecraft is currently nearing the conclusions of its original mission timeline, having over six years and eight months of its planned seven-year mission. However, as with many of NASAs spacecraft, the probe is likely to get a new lease on life with extended mission goals that will allow it to deliver awesome photos like this one for a while longer.

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MANILA, April 10 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's election victory in 2016 did not rely on information bought from anybody and his campaign team did not hire political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Britain-based Cambridge Analytica is at the centre of a controversy over harvested personal data about users of Facebook , which was used to target voters in the U.S. presidential election and Britain's 2016 referendum on European Union membership.

A report last week in the South China Morning Post newspaper said that Cambridge Analytica's parent firm, Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), had made the claim that it helped put Duterte in office.

But presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that was far from the case and Duterte's win was "fair and square". He said his then campaign treasurer and current finance minister, Carlos Dominguez, had assured him no transactions had taken place with Cambridge Analytica.

Duterte's victory should not be undermined with "unsubstantiated allegations", Roque said in a statement.

British legislators have questioned Alexander Nix, the suspended Cambridge Analytica chief executive, over his role in harvesting data from millions of Facebook users.

Outside the United States, the largest amount of user data acquired by Cambridge Analytica was from the Philippines.

The country's National Privacy Commission, citing information it was given by Facebook, said it had data from 1.17 million Filipino accounts.

In a statement posted on its website on Monday, Cambridge Analytica said it did not "hack" Facebook and that a research company "licensed the data to us, which they legally obtained via a tool provided by Facebook".

"To be clear: Cambridge Analytica did not illegally or inappropriately collect or share data with anybody else," it said.

The South China Morning Post report said Nix had dined in Manila a year before the election with Jose Gabriel "Pompee" La Vina and Peter Tiu Lavina, who played key roles in Duterte's campaign, which relied heavily on social media, mainly Facebook, to get him elected.

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Recent research has shown Filipinos spend more time on social media than people of any other country.

La Vina described the newspaper report as "not entirely accurate" saying he met Nix during lunch served at a May 2015 news conference, but had not since been in contact. The newspaper included what it said was a photograph of the meal.

Jose Joel Sy Egco, currently an undersecretary at the presidential communications office, confirmed that Nix was in Manila in May 2015 as guest speaker at a media forum his group organised on the role of information technology in elections.

"That was the first and last time that I met Nix," Egco told ANC news channel.

The Philippines' National Privacy Commission said it was seeking updates from Facebook on measures taken to mitigate the risks that ensued from the controversy. (Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty)
President Trump Is Angry About How China Treats American Automakers. But the U.S. Is Actually Winning

President Donald Trump railed on Monday about Chinese tariffs on cars  pointing out the American cars are charged a 25% duty in China but Chinese-made cars are only subject to a 2.5% tariff in the U.S.

When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%, Trump wrote on Twitter early in the morning. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE  going on for years!

Its the second time the idea of Chinese car imports have crossed the presidents Twitter feed during his ongoing trade dispute with China  Americas largest trading partner. Trumps tweet seems to mirror complaints Tesla CEO Elon Musk made last month about Chinese tariffs on U.S.-made cars.

But Trumps focus on cars actually highlights one of the sectors where the U.S. maintains a large trade surplus with China. It is perhaps no wonder that China has threatened to add automobiles to the list of American products that could face even greater tariffs in the fact of a trade wars.

When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2018

The U.S. imported 58,000 passenger cars from China worth $1.5 billion last year, according to the International Trade Administration, a federal agency within the Department of Commerce. That was a fraction of the number of cars the U.S. exported to China: 267,000 passenger vehicles worth $9.9 billion.

Chinese-made cars made up just 0.76% of the $191.7 billion in new automobiles and light trucks that the U.S. imported in 2017, according to the International Trade Administration data. Canada, Mexico and Japan were the top exporters of cars to the U.S.

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Volvo and General Motors both make cars in China and export them to the U.S. Ford plans to assemble some Focus sedans there, as well, Bloomberg reports. Those manufacturing plants have caused Chinese car exports to the U.S. to surge nearly 2,000% since 2013.

I am against import duties in general, but the current rules make things very difficult. Its like competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2018

And despite Trumps repeated calls for reciprocal tariffs  nations charging each other the same percentage for the same goods  Alan Deardorff, a professor of international economics at the University of Michigan, told Fortune that international trade has never worked that way.

Theres nothing in trade law or trade customs to suggest that countries should have the same size tariff for each others exports of the same good, Deardorff said. That is not something that has ever been a guideline or standard in international trade.

Tariffs are a result of trade negotiations that take place multilaterally, he added. [Countries] negotiate a range of such reductions. They dont try to keep their tariffs equal to one or another.

Trump tweeted on Sunday that him and China President Xi Jinping will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. But given Trumps increasingly hostile rhetoric towards Chinese trade policies, U.S. markets have been increasingly jittery over fears of an all-out trade war.

Countries the U.S. exports the most cars to

Canada  912,00 vehicles for $23.3 billion China  267,000 vehicles for $9.9 billion Germany  166,000 vehicles for $5.7 billion Mexico  160,000 vehicles for $3.4 billion Saudi Arabia  59,000 vehicles for $1.7 billion

Countries the U.S. imports the most cars from
(Adds Venezuela's Maduro saying he too pulling out of regional summit)

By Roberta Rampton and Mitra Taj

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump canceled his first official trip to Latin America, the White House announced on Tuesday, triggering a mix of relief and criticism from a region he has repeatedly disparaged over immigration, narcotics and trade.

Trump wants to focus on his response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, and will send his Vice President Mike Pence to the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, in his place, the White House said. The announcement comes as Trump rails against a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid on the offices and home of his personal lawyer.

Trump's participation in a gathering of heads of state from across the Western Hemisphere had been expected to be tense because of his divisive rhetoric and fraught relationships with leaders such as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

"We're going to miss him," said Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, who is expected to talk about efforts to update the North American Free Trade Agreement with his counterparts from the United States and Canada.

The cancellation prompted at least once regional leader, Bolivian President Evo Morales, to reconsider attending.

"I wanted to meet the U.S. president face to face to debate economic and social policies," Morales, a critic of Trump, said in a televised comments at a public event.

The cancellation marked a new first for the United States under Trump, who has relished bucking White House traditions since taking office in January 2017. Every Summit of the Americas has been attended by a U.S. president since the first in 1994.

Richard Feinberg of the University of California, San Diego, who led Latin America policy in the Clinton White House, called the change in plans a "shocking abandonment of U.S. leadership in our own hemisphere" and said it "leaves a leadership vacuum that others will rush to fill."

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Trump had planned to use the summit to urge Latin American leaders to work with the United States and not China on trade, and to adopt a tough stance on Venezuela, according to a U.S. official last week.

A Peruvian diplomat who asked not to be named said it might be easier for regional leaders to tackle tough issues ranging from corruption to Venezuela without Trump looming over the talks. "You have the awkwardness out of the picture," said the diplomat, who cited Trump's unpopularity across Latin America.

For many in Latin America, however, Trump's decision to skip the summit deepened the view that he does not care about the region. "Predictable," Juan Jimenez, a former Organization of American States official who is also a former Peruvian prime minister, said on Twitter.

Ana Quintana, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Trump made the right decision to focus on the more pressing issue of Syria.

Trump has vowed to take strong action after a suspected chemical weapons attack Saturday night on the Syrian town of Douma that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others. Syria and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence that a chemical weapons attack took place and proposed that international inspectors visit Douma to see for themselves.

Last year, Washington bombed a Syrian government air base after a chemical weapons attack.

Democrats slammed Trump's decision to skip the summit as a sign he was not up to the challenge of heading U.S. foreign policy.

"If the President of the United States is indeed the leader of the free world, that person should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," Eliot Engel, a ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.

MORE CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMIT

Trump had planned to stop in Bogota, Colombia, but that visit was canceled altogether.

This will be the second trip to the region for Pence, who met with leaders in Colombia, Argentina and Panama in August.

Mark Feierstein, who led Latin American policy for former Democratic President Barack Obama, said Pence's attendance could make the summit more constructive.

"With Trump, there is always the risk of the stray comment about the FBI or other domestic matter which detracts from the issue at hand. Pence is a more disciplined and serious figure," Feierstein said.

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Pence, said the vice president would work with regional allies to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ahead of the country's election next month, which has been dismissed by the opposition and regional leaders as a sham.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri also said Venezuela would top the agenda in Peru. "We're not going to accept the result of the May 20 election," Macri told a press conference.

Peru uninvited Maduro from the summit earlier this year as it condemned the election. Maduro's main rivals are barred from standing against him as he seeks re-election despite a crushing economic crisis and foreign sanctions.

Maduro had initially vowed to gatecrash the summit, saying he would travel to Lima by "air, land or sea," but on Tuesday announced he too was pulling out.

"Last night I decided that Im not going to the Americas summit in Lima and that Ill stay here with the Venezuelan people," Maduro told a cheering crowd. This summit is a real waste of time. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Mitra Taj in Lima, Additional Reporting By Marco Aquino in Lima, Luc Cohen in Buenos Aires, Adriana Barrera in Mexico City, Danny Ramos in La Paz and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)
(Updates with international comment, Iran casualties)

* Russia, Syria: Israeli planes attack air base near Homs

* Trump warns of "big price" over suspected gas attack

* Syria denies Saturday gas attack

* At least 60 killed in Douma - medical relief group

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN, April 9 (Reuters) - Syria and its main ally Russia blamed Israel for carrying out an attack on a Syrian air base near Homs on Monday which followed reports of a poison gas attack by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on a rebel-held town.

Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour's seven-year-old civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria by its arch foe.

The strike took place after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Douma which, according to one Syrian aid organisation, killed at least 60 people.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned of a "big price to pay" after the initial reports of the poison gas attack, although the Syrian government and its main ally Russia have denied involvement.

Trump referred in a Tweet to "Animal Assad" and criticised Russia and Iran for backing the Syrian leader, directly naming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons international watchdog said it had opened an investigation to determine what exactly had happened in Douma.

U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday raised the possibility of military action against Syria if it was proved to have carried out a chemical weapons attack.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called it "reprehensible" and said if the Assad government was found to be responsible, it would be held to account.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such allegations were false and a provocation. Lavrov said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development.

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The latest incidents in Douma and Tiyas demonstrated the complex and volatile nature of the Syria war, which started in March 2011 as an anti-Assad uprising and now involves a number of countries and a myriad of insurgent groups.

RED LINES

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed in Monday's air strike on the T-4 base, including foreign fighters - a reference to Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia members, mostly from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran fighting alongside the Syrian army.

Iran's Fars news agency said three Iranians were killed.

Syrian state TV initially said the United States was suspected of carrying out the attack on T-4. Washington denied this, and France, which in February had said it would strike in the event of a chemical weapons attack on civilians by Syrian government forces, said its forces were not involved.

The Russian military, whose support for Assad turned the war in his favour, said two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out the strike. Interfax news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying Syrian air defence systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired.

Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a military source, carried a similar report. "The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land," it said.

The Israeli government had no immediate comment.

Israel has accused Damascus of allowing Iran to set up a complex at the T-4 base to supply arms to its ally, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and in the past its forces have hit convoys and bases of Iranian-backed militias that fight alongside Assad's troops.

Defence analysts say a number of Russian troops are also based there and jets fly regular sorties from T-4.

Israeli opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid told Army Radio: "Israel will not accept an Iranian military presence in Syria and will not accept Iran's creeping entrenchment in Syria and this has costs."

Housing Minister Yoav Galant, while also not confirming that Israel had carried out the attack, said: "We have clear interests in Syria. We laid down red lines there, which said that we would not allow Syrian land to be a springboard for game-changing weaponry to Lebanon, we would not allow the building of an Iranian army in Syria and we would not allow the opening of another front on the Golan Heights.

"In this context we are taking action with all means, over time."

FOAM AT THE MOUTH

As international officials worked to try to confirm the suspected chemical attack on Douma, a Syria medical relief group said at least 60 people had been killed there and more than 1,000 injured in several sites.

"The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge," said the Union of Medical Care Organizations (UOSSM).

The Syrian opposition blamed the suspected attack on government forces, who launched an air and ground assault on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta district, on Friday.

One video shared by activists showed bodies of about a dozen children, women and men, some with foam at the mouth. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The United States fired missiles on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town in northwest Syria, blamed on Assad.

U.S. government sources said Washington's assessment of Saturday's attack was that chemical weapons were used. The European Union also said evidence pointed to the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday following rival requests by Russia and the United States.

U.N. war crimes investigators had previously documented 33 chemical attacks in Syria, attributing 27 to the Assad government, which has repeatedly denied using the weapons.

UOSSM said doctors could not determine the origin of Saturday's suspected chemical attack. Dr. Muhammad, a doctor in Ghouta, said patients were coughing blood, a symptom not seen in previous chemical attacks.

Despite the potential reprisals, the attack appears to have brought Assad closer to victory in the military campaign for eastern Ghouta launched by his Russian-backed army in February.

The rebel group Jaish al-Islam has given way to a Syrian government demand that it accept safe passage out to rebel-held areas at the Turkish border.

In Washington, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Trump and his administration to destroy Assad's air capabilities, enforce safe zones inside Syria, and target Assad directly.

"This president has the chance to do exactly the opposite of (former U.S. President Barack) Obama - send a strong signal that there's a new sheriff in town and America's back," Graham told Fox News in an interview.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Ellen Francis, Maria Kiselyova, Dan Williams, John Irish, Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
For decades oil producing companies dumped toxic materials in Peruvian rivers, causing slow poisoning of water resources and health issues (AFP Photo/HO)

Vienna (AFP) - Shallow wells dug for drinking water in the Amazon basin in order to avoid polluted rivers contain up to 70 times the recommended limit of arsenic, researchers warned Tuesday.

Samples taken from 250 sites along the Amazon -- the first systematic analysis of the region's well water -- also revealed hazardous levels of manganese and aluminium, they reported at a conference in Vienna.

"Faced with polluted rivers, many rural communities rely on groundwater as a source of drinking water," lead researcher Caroline de Meyer, a scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, told AFP.

"In parts of the Amazon basin, groundwater contains these trace elements in concentrations that are potentially harmful to human health."

"Contamination should not be underestimated -- all our data point in the same direction," she added.

Levels of manganese were up to 15 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) limits, while aluminium exceeded WHO standards by up to three-fold.

The elements detected occur naturally, and do not come from industrial pollution, the researchers said.

Chronic exposure to arsenic is linked to cancers of the liver, kidney and bladder, as well as heart disease. It is also thought to contribute to miscarriages, low birth weights and poor cognitive development in children.

In Bangladesh, where arsenic in well water has been a known health hazard for decades, the element is blamed for some 40,000 premature deaths each year.

Manganese poisoning can cause permanent neurological damage, while the impacts of sustained exposure to aluminium are less well understood.

Rural communities in the Amazon basin traditionally rely on rivers and rain to meet freshwater needs.

But with increased pollution from mining, logging and industrial activities, they have also turned to digging wells.

- Toxic 'hotspots' -

"We sampled wells that are more than 20 years old, and some that were only a couple of weeks old," de Meyer said ahead of a press event Tuesday at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union.

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The field work, carried out with researchers from Peru and Brazil, focused on measuring chemical concentrations and did not examine health impacts.

"At this time, we cannot say how many people are affected," de Meyer said.

Much more data is needed to identify "hotspots" where levels of toxicity are especially high, and areas that rely heavily on wells for drinking water, she said.

The health consequences of arsenic in groundwater can take years, even decades, to become apparent.the

Unsurprisingly, awareness of the problem remains very low in the region.

By a chemical quirk of fate, the degree of poisoning has probably been blunted by the fact that water contaminated with arsenic also often contains iron.

Because iron causes water to turn reddish-brown, people often let it stand so that particles -- including some of the arsenic -- can settle to the bottom.

De Meyer first uncovered dangerous levels of arsenic in groundwater drawn for drinking at a couple of sites in the Peruvian Amazon, leading her to suspect the problem was more widespread.

The new findings are preliminary, and will be fleshed out in a peer-reviewed publication, probably later this year, de Meyer said.

The Amazon basin, drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries, covers some 7,500,000 square kilometres (2,900,000 square miles) and is spread across eight countries.
TripAdvisor: The most affordable times to visit luxury destinations, from the Caribbean to Hawaii

Want to travel luxuriously, but don't have the budget to back up your expensive tastes? Book strategically, and you just might just be able to afford that dream vacation.

TripAdvisor Rentals  TripAdvisor's vacation rentals booking arm  crunched the numbers on 11 of the priciest destinations around the world, identifying the most affordable (and most expensive) times to visit in 2018. For its report , the median weekly rental rates are based on 2018 pricing for all two-bedroom rentals on TripAdvisor.

Here's when to get a deal on some of the most amazing spots around the world.

Saint James Parish, Barbados

Pricey Saint James Parish is nestled on Barbados' " Platinum Coast ," known for its massive mansions and expensive resorts.

TripAdvisor found that the most expensive time to visit this idyllic part of the Caribbean island is the third week of December, when the median weekly rental rate is $3,154. Instead, booking for the second week of June, which TripAdvisor says in the most affordable time to visit, can mean a 28 percent savings with weekly rental rates dropping to $2,259.

Wailea, Maui, Hawaii

Hawaii has long been a dream vacation spot. If you're planning a vacation to Wailea, a luxurious area on Maui, TripAdvisor says peak travel season is the last week of December. During that time, you'll find a median weekly rental rate of $5,001.

But in September, the median weekly rental rate is $2,908, reports the travel booking site, which is a 42 percent in savings. Bonus: Travel + Leisure reports that rainfall is at its lowest in Hawaii from April through September.

St. Martin / St. Maarten

This dual-governed, French and Dutch island is known for its two distinct cultures and its beautiful coastlines  U.S. News & World Report ranked it sixth on its Best Caribbean Beaches list.

TripAdvisor found that the most expensive time to visit is the last weekend of December, when the median weekly rate for rentals is $3,736. However, during the most affordable time to visit, in August and September, that rate decreases to $2,504. Opting for a late summer getaway can save you 33 percent.

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Beaver Creek, Colorado

This picturesque ski town serves as a popular but pricey winter getaway. During peak travel time, which is the last week in December, TripAdvisor says the median weekly rental rate is $7,421.

But travelers can save 36 percent by booking a trip for mid-May, which the site says is the most affordable time to travel to Beaver Creek, when the weekly rental rate drops to $4,769.

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

Located in the Turks and Caicos archipelago and known for its white sand beaches, this paradise comes at a cost. TripAdvisor data reveals that the most expensive time to visit this area is the last week of December, when the median weekly rental rate is $5,275.

However, the cheapest time to visit is the second week of October, when that rate drops to $3,821, a 28 percentage in savings. U.S. News & World Report also recommends April and May as a good time to travel to this spot, for its pleasant weather and lower prices.

St. Barthelemy

As the priciest destination included in TripAdvisor's survey, Caribbean island St. Barthelemy  also know as St. Barts  has been described by U.S. News & World Report as being "in vogue with the moneyed set." Stars that have visited the island include A-listers like Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Derek Jeter. Expect stretches of white sand beach, designer shops and lots of yachts.

Its peak travel time is the first week of January, according to TripAdvisor, with the median weekly rental rate at an astounding $11,793. However, you can pay less than half (51 percent off), if you book for the second two weeks in October, which the site says is the most affordable time to visit with a median weekly rental rate of $5,755.

However, Travel + Leisure notes that the St. Barts rainy season runs from September through November, and many establishments may close, so it can be a trade-off.

Catalina Island, Avalon, California

Catalina Island off California's southern coast, has amazing ocean views, rocky cliffs  and a hefty price tag. But you can get almost half off your vacation rental in the winter months. Catalina reportedly experiences mild, dry weather throughout the year, so it shouldn't deter your travel plans.

The peak time to travel to Catalina, according to TripAdvisor, is the second week in July, with a median weekly rental rate of $3,457. But you could save 46 percent in January and February, when the median weekly rate drops to $1,864.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai screams extravagance with towering skyscrapers, lavish shopping and glistening sand dunes. It's also pretty expensive: TripAdvisor found that at peak  in the third week of January  the median weekly rate for a rental is $5,892.

Instead, TripAdvisor found the most affordable time to visit Dubai is the second week in February, when the median weekly rate for a rental drops to $2,474. That's a 58 percent savings.

Aspen, Colorado

This ski town is known for being the go-to vacation spot for the wealthy  like Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey  who want to hit the slopes. But if you're planning a holiday trip, be prepared to pay. TripAdvisor data found that the last week in December is the most expensive time to visit Aspen, with a median weekly rental rate of $4,455.

The second week in October, however, is more financially feasible: You can score a 37 percent in savings with a median weekly rental rate of $2,807. You might not have snow, but you'll still find pretty fall foliage .

Santorini, Greece

This honeymoon hot spot in Greece boasts beautiful blue skies and water, but it doesn't come cheapespecially in the third week of August. That's the most most expensive time to visit, according to TripAdvisor, with a median weekly rental rate of $4,191.

Instead, TripAdvisor found that you can save 25 percent by vacationing the second week of November, when the median weekly rental rate drops to $3,129.

However Travel + Leisure reports its off season (November through March) can mean chilly temperatures and rain and many restaurants and hotels shutter their doors, so keep that mind. But there are things to do beyond the beaches, like wine-tasting at the island's numerous vineyards or visiting the Museum of Prehistoric Thira, according to T+L.

Ka'anapali, Hawaii



Another pricey, Hawaiian area that made TripAdvisor's ranking is Ka'anapali, also located on Maui.

Avoid the last week of December, with its median weekly rental rate of $5,777, according to TripAdvisor, and instead go the second week in November. That's when the median weekly rental rate drops to $3,553, yielding 38 percent in savings, reports the booking site.

Don't miss: Now is one of the best times to book a cruise  here's how to get a great deal

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WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will not attend the Latin American summit this week in order to focus on the Syria crisis, the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump was scheduled to arrive in Peru on Friday to attend the summit and then visit Colombia.

"At the presidents request, the vice president will travel in his stead. The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  April 10, 2018  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Pioneer Natural Resources Company PXD, Chemours Company CC, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX and Timken Company TKR.

Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog:

Bet on These Sector Stocks for Q1 Earnings

The Q1 earnings season has kicked off with a few major banks set to report this week. Earnings for the S&P 500 index are expected to grow 16% from the same period last year on 7.4% higher revenues. Earnings growth is much higher than the Q4 growth of 13.5% and represents the highest quarterly earnings growth in seven years (read: 5 Ultra-Cheap Growth ETFs for a Large-Cap Play This Spring).

Additionally, the revision trend has been impressive with earnings estimates moving up from 10.9% growth at the start of the period. In particular, estimates for 13 of the 16 Zacks sectors have gone up with basic materials, energy, construction, and industrial products sectors witnessing the most positive revisions in percentage terms. And thus, these sectors are likely to be the strongest contributors this earnings season.

Like the last three reporting cycles, energy remained at the top spot and has the strongest growth projection of 60.2% for Q1. This is followed by earnings growth of 42.2% for basic materials, 18.8% for construction, 23.9% for industrial products and 20.7% for technology.

Given this, we have highlighted one ETF and one stock from some of these sectors that could make great plays as the Q1 earnings season unfolds. Each of these ETFs and stocks have a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). For stocks, we have added the extra flavor of a positive Earnings ESP. This is because stocks with this combination have a 70% chance of beating estimates when their earnings are released, and a VGM Style Score of B or better.

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You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Energy

Pioneer Natural Resources Company: This independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the United States explores for, develops, and produces oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and gas. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the yet-to-be reported quarter has been revised upward from 85 cents to $1.48 over the past 90 days and has an expected growth rate of 492%. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an Earnings ESP of +3.71%. The stock delivered a positive earnings surprise of 66.92% for the last four quarters. It is scheduled to report earnings results on May 2.

Basic Materials

Chemours Company: This company provides performance chemicals in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an Earnings ESP of +2.72%. The stock saw solid earnings estimate revision of seven cents over the past three months for the to-be-reported quarter and has an expected earnings growth rate of 64%. It also delivered average earnings surprise of 21.47% for the last four quarters. The company is slated to release earnings results on May 3. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Construction

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation: This company manufactures building materials and engineered wood products in the United States, Canada, Chile and Brazil. It has a Zacks Rank #1 and an Earnings ESP of +4.51%. The stock saw solid earnings estimate revision of 21 cents over the past 90 days for the first quarter, representing whopping growth of 103.03%, and delivered a positive earnings surprise of 4.61% for the past four quarters. The company is slated to release earnings results on May 4 (read: Why Housing Stocks & ETFs Can Have a Spring in Their Step).

Industrials

Timken Company: This company engineers, manufactures and markets bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, belts, chain and related products, and offers a spectrum of powertrain rebuild and repair services. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an Earnings ESP of +4.03%. The stock saw solid earnings estimate revision of 12 cents for the yet-to-be-reported quarter in the past three months and has an expected growth rate of 47.27%. For the last four quarter, the positive earnings surprise is 9.61%. The company is slated to release earnings results on Apr 25.

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PRESS RELEASE : REGULATED INFORMATION10 April 2018, 07:00 CEST

Invitation to Annual Shareholders' Meeting

Biocartis to propose new board composition

Mechelen, Belgium, 10 April 2018 - Biocartis Group NV (the 'Company' or 'Biocartis'), an innovative molecular diagnostics company (Euronext Brussels: BCART), has the honor to invite its shareholders, warrant holders, directors and statutory auditor to its annual shareholders' meeting that will be held on Friday 11 May 2018 at 2:00 p.m. CEST ('AGM') at the offices of the Company at Generaal de Wittelaan 11B, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium.

The agenda of the AGM includes the proposal for a new board composition based on the appointment of five new independent board members and the re-appointment of three board members whose current mandates will expire at the closing of the AGM. The proposed board composition will allow for a transition towards a board of directors consisting predominantly of independent directors.

Subject to the AGM approving the proposed resolutions, the board of directors will be composed as follows as from the closing of the AGM:

Five new independent board members: CRBA Management BVBA, represented by Christian Reinaudo (candidate chairman of the board), Ann-Christine Sundell, Harry Glorikian, CLSCO BVBA, represented by Leo Steenbergen, and Luc Gijsens BVBA, represented by Luc Gijsens. Additional information on the proposed new board candidates is included in the explanatory note prepared by the board of directors which can be found on the Company's website.

Four existing board members: Herman Verrelst (CEO) and the re-appointment of three board members, i.e. Peter Piot (independent director), Hilde Windels BVBA, represented by Hilde Windels (non-executive director) and Roald Borre (non-executive director).

The board mandates of Gengest BVBA, represented by Rudi Marien (current chairman of the board), Valetusan Ltd., represented by Rudi Pauwels, Be@dvised BVBA, represented by Renaat Berckmoes, and Shaffar LLC, represented by Mark Shaffar, will expire at the closing of the AGM. Furthermore, Citros vof, represented by Hilde Eylenbosch, has indicated that she will resign from the board with effect as from the closing of the AGM. She will remain active within Biocartis as chief commercial officer.

In order to be admitted to the AGM, the holders of securities issued by the Company must comply with Article 536 of the Belgian Companies Code and the articles of association of the Company, and fulfill the formalities described in the convening notice. The convening notice and other documents relating to the AGM can be consulted on the website of the Company.

--- END ---

More information:

Renate Degrave

Manager Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

e-mail rdegrave@biocartis.com

tel +32 15 631 729

mobile +32 471 53 60 64

About Biocartis

Biocartis (Euronext Brussels: BCART) is an innovative molecular diagnostics (MDx) company providing next generation diagnostic solutions aimed at improving clinical practice for the benefit of patients, clinicians, payers and industry. Biocartis' proprietary MDx Idylla(TM) platform is a fully automated sample-to-result, real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) system that offers accurate, highly reliable molecular information from virtually any biological sample in virtually any setting. Biocartis launched the Idylla(TM) platform in September 2014. Biocartis is developing and marketing a rapidly expanding test menu addressing key unmet clinical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. These areas represent respectively the fastest growing and largest segments of the MDx market worldwide. Today, Biocartis offers fourteen oncology tests and two infectious disease tests in Europe. More information: www.biocartis.com. Press Photo Library available here. Follow us on Twitter: @Biocartis_.

Biocartis and Idylla(TM) are registered trademarks in Europe, the United States and other countries. Biocartis trademark and logo and Idylla(TM) trademark and logo are used trademarks belonging to Biocartis. This press release is not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in any jurisdiction where to do so would be unlawful. Any persons reading this press release should inform themselves of and observe any such restrictions. Biocartis takes no responsibility for any violation of any such restrictions by any person. Please refer to the product labeling for applicable intended uses for each individual Biocartis product. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities in any jurisdiction. No securities of Biocartis may be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Forward-looking statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Biocartis expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release, except if specifically required to do so by law or regulation. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
ANAHEIM, CA, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioCorRx Inc. (OTCQB: BICX) (the Company), a developer and provider of advanced solution in the treatment of alcohol and opioid addition, today announced that the Company will have a tabletop exhibit at the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) 49th Annual Conference on April 12th through the 15th, in San Diego, California. ASAM is the leading addiction medicine professional society in the U.S. representing over 4,300 physicians, clinicians and professionals with a focus on addiction and its treatment.

The ASAM Addiction Medicine conference is widely recognized as the essential primer for physicians and other healthcare professionals who are preparing for a career in addiction medicine, as well as for primary care providers who wish to increase their skills in identifying and managing patients who medical problems are cause or exacerbated by substance use disorders.

Brady Granier, CEO, President, and Director, stated, We are looking forward to attending ASAMs 49th Annual Conference this week. Physicians, healthcare professionals and primary care providers are continuing to look for the latest and most innovated ways to help their patients that suffer from substance abuse. The BioCorRx Recovery Program is an ideal match for primary care physicians who are entering the field of addiction medicine. This program enables these professionals to treat patients in their office with medicine like naltrexone, while providing outpatient behavioral therapy through our turnkey program. The event will also give us the opportunity to talk to many of the top addiction medicine providers about BICX102, our naltrexone implant for which we are seeking FDA approval.

About BioCorRx

BioCorRx Inc. (OTCQB: BICX) is an addiction treatment company offering a unique approach to the treatment of substance abuse addiction. The BioCorRx Recovery Program, a non-addictive, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program, consists of two main components. The first component of the program consists of an outpatient implant procedure performed by a licensed physician. The implant delivers the non-addictive medicine, naltrexone, an opioid antagonist that can significantly reduce physical cravings for alcohol and opioids. The second component of the program developed by BioCorRx Inc. is a one-on-one counseling program specifically tailored for the treatment of alcoholism and other substance abuse addictions for those receiving long-term naltrexone treatment. The Company also has an R&D subsidiary, BioCorRx Pharmaceuticals, which is currently developing injectable and implantable naltrexone products for potential future regulatory approval. For more information on BICX, visit www.BioCorRx.com .

Safe Harbor Statement



The information in this release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "estimate," "become," "plan," "will," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties. Although the Company believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS: " We are in total support of a fair and immediate investigation, when they ask for it. However, when the investigation is intended to come at a predetermined point - that is, it was done by Assad with Putins support - there are no grounds for a serious discussion."

US President Donald Trump earlier attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the suspected chemical attack.

Trump tweeted: "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price. To pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!."

The White House issued a statement where it said that Trump spoke to President Emmanuel Macron of France and both the leaders condemned the attack.

The statement said both the leaders agreed that the Assad regime must be held accountable.

"Both leaders strongly condemned the horrific chemical weapons attacks in Syria and agreed that the Assad regime must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses. They agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response," read the statement issued by the White House.

A chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held stronghold near Syria's capital, Damascus, has killed at least 70 people and affected hundreds, rescue workers have told Al Jazeera.

Image: Wikimedia Commons
The harsh criticism of the Iranian regime is typical of the White Houses tone since Trump took office last year, whereas the inclusion of Russia appears at odds with the Presidents early expressions of interest in working with his Russian counterpart to resolve tensions between the former Cold War adversaries. It remains to be seen whether the current flare-up over contrasting visions for Syria threatens that reconciliation project over the long term. But if it does, it may encourage Russia and Iran to gravitate closer together, in the context of mutual antagonism of the US and its Western allies.

The chemical attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma took place after last weeks meeting in Ankara between representatives of the Turkish, Iranian, and Russian governments intended to establish an agreement for a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Various reports regarding that meeting suggested that it was indicative of expanding relations among the three intervening questions, even though questions lingered as to whether those relations would have any bearing on the substance of a trilateral agreement.

Although Turkey, alongside the US, backed pro-democracy rebels at the height of the Syrian Civil War, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lately become fixated on confronting the Kurdish forces that have been empowered by the war and are purportedly affiliated with separatist groups inside Turkey. Meanwhile, President Trump has expressed interest in pulling out of Syria altogether, a potential move that Russian media described as an acknowledgement that Russia and Iran now control the future of Syria.

Some reports indicate that Trump already asked for the 2,000 US troops in Syria to be removed, but was dissuaded by his advisors, who alluded to the need to plan for the safety of those troops during the pullout. His eagerness on this point has opened the president to criticism from some of his own supporters, who fear that the lack of an American presence would allow the worst Iranian influences to proliferate, thereby enabling further chemical weapons attacks as well as other measures aimed at destroying moderate rebel groups in their entirety, to clear the way for the Assad regime to retain power in perpetuity.

Tehran has been described as being far more committed to such a course of action than Moscow. Accordingly, Iranian-backed forces have been blamed for violations of previous ceasefire agreements that were negotiated among Iran, Russia, and Turkey and then consistently enforced by Russia.

Whereas Russian military establishments in Syria could theoretically be secured even in Assads absence, Iranian fortunes in the country are more explicitly tied to the ruling family. To the extent that Iran-backed militias have taken precedence over the Syrian military in the past few years, Syria has been drifting ever closer to the status of a satellite state serving Irans well-recognized imperial ambitions. And prominent among those militias is the longstanding proxy for Iran in Lebanon, namely Hezbollah.

This situation makes the Iranian role in Syria especially concerning to Israel, which further complicates Trumps position on full withdrawal. This was the focus of an article published by NBC, which described the apparent Israeli strike on Syria that took place on Monday. The article quotes Iranian hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami as saying that Hezbollahs capabilities have reached the level of being able to raze Tel Aviv and Haifa. And although this is certainly a rhetorical exaggeration, it underscores NBCs observatio

that unchallenged Iranian influence in Syria is a nightmare scenario for Americas foremost ally in the Middle East.

Although Israeli officials did not comment on Mondays strike, it was presumably intended to send the message that the Jewish state will act unilaterally to prevent further expansions by Iran and Hezbollah. According to Irans own media, three Iranians were among the 14 individuals killed in the strike. A series of Israeli strikes in February also destroyed Iranian targets in Syria, following a reported incursion into Israeli airspace by an Iranian drone.

The White House reportedly responded to the strike only in order to acknowledge that Israel had contacted Washington before launching it, and to add that the US is not engaging in any similar actions. It was, however, not immediately clear how the administration would respond to further such actions, or whether the threat of them would impact Trumps views on the removal of American troops.

Whether or not the White House moves forward with that plan, it seems very likely that current developments in Syria will help to further sharpen the lines of division between allies and adversaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a reversed mirror image of the Trump administrations admonishment of Russia, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took the opportunity on Monday to welcome a representative of the Russian Assembly and to urge the continued expansion of Iranian-Russian relations.

While Rouhanis comments made reference to a number of different fields of endeavor, they also identified the Syrian Civil War specifically and said that cooperation between Assads two chief supporters should continue there until full security is established. Irans own Mehr News Agency reported upon the meeting and suggested that the Iranian president has also highlighted the potential for Russian-Iranian cooperation to be expanded so as to include other countries in and around the Middle East.

Intentionally or otherwise, such reporting recalls attention to longstanding warnings about Irans imperial ambitions and, more broadly, to concerns about a possible eastern bloc focused on Iran, Russia, and China, and dedicated to countering Western interests on a global scale.

Russia and China, notably, are members of the P5+1 group of nations that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, and they have been representing the interests of the Islamic Republic in that area. The other members  the US, Britain, France, and Germany  have been negotiating over potential means for addressing Trumps demands to fix the flaws in the agreement in order to prevent him from re-imposing sanctions or formally halting American participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

On Monday, Rouhani reiterated Iranian threats of retaliation against any such action by the United States. At a ceremony for Irans Atomic Energy Day, at which 83 supposed domestic achievements in that field were unveiled, Rouhani said that Irans nuclear tech has developed at a faster pace since the nuclear deal, making the country capable of enriching uranium to the 20 percent level on short notice. Al Jazeera noted that one representative of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran even put the timeline for this enrichment at just two days.

Trump and other opponents of the nuclear deal hope to restore international leverage over Tehran to elicit more concessions. But Iranian officials have variously claimed to be preparing for the loss of Western business and the return of sanctions, by attempting to expand their political and economic relations in other areas of the globe, including, of course, Russia and its non-Western allies.
After freeing Syria from ISIS occupation, the US should not allow Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies enjoy the effects of Americas war there, which may occur if

America pulls out, as Trump suggested earlier in the month.

Bloombergs Eli Lake notes that a US declaration of a no-fly zone  and at least implicit guarantees of other action if needed  would simply be a repeat of the first President George Bushs action after the first Gulf War, when he declared similar protection for Iraqi Kurdistan. That move allowed the Iraqi Kurds build a free society outside Saddam Husseins grasp, and positioned them to help the United States in the Second Gulf War. Lake warns that by completely pulling out, Trump will be leaving the people who were liberated from ISIS to be slaughtered and displaced. He will be helping Iran complete its land bridge to the Mediterranean Sea. He will have committed American blood and treasure to advance the strategic aims of Americas enemies.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham said on ABCs This Week that the chemical weapons attack that killed dozens in Syria is a defining moment for President Trump to show his resolve in standing up against Bashar al-Assad. Well, its a defining moment in his presidency, because he has challenged Assad in the past not to use chemical weapons, Graham said. We had a one-and-done missile attack. So Assad is at it again. They see us, our resolve, breaking. They see our determination to stay in Syria waning. And its no accident they used chemical weapons.

On Sunday, Trump, blamed Russia, Iran and former President Barack Obama for not stopping Animal Assad in a tweet. Last week, Trump suddenly announced that he intends to pull US troops out of Syria very soon.

According to Graham, If it becomes a tweet without meaning, then hes hurt himself with North Korea, and if he doesnt follow through, hes going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran. He added, You need to follow through with that tweet.

The South Carolina lawmaker said withdrawing now would be an utter disaster. He said, Have we learned nothing when what happens when you leave too soon? We pulled our troops out of Iraq. ISIS came back.

On CNNs State of the Union GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine said, I think the president is going to have to reconsider his plan for an early withdrawal in light of what has happened. She said the attack also gives Trump reason to put pressure on Moscow. Last time this happened, the president did a targeted attack to take out some of the facilities that may be an option that we should consider now, but it is further reason why it is so important that the president ramp up the pressure and the sanctions on the Russian government because, without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office, Collins said.

Calling the chemical attack an unacceptable practice White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said on ABCs This Week that Trump could punish Syria. I wouldnt take anything off the table. These are horrible photos, were looking into the attack at this point.  However, he added that the international community is going to have to step in to help the United States police dangerous places like Syria. American troops arent going to fix the six or seven different ongoing conflicts and wars going on in the Middle East or in Syria at this stage, he said. We need regional partnership increased and we need US presence decreased.
Ahead of Donald Trumps likely withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in May, the Regime announced 83 new nuclear projects  double the number from 2017.

Although none of these projects violates the letter of the deal, it is clear that the Regime wished to make the West uneasy, with projects like transferring yellowcake uranium and improving the Regimes enrichment program and reactors.

After all, the Regime has already been threatening about the speed that they could restart their nuclear programme if Trump reimposes sanction.

President Hassan Rouhani said: If the deal breaks, they will witness the fallout in less than a week.

He also said that under his presidency, the nuclear programme is moving faster than ever before.

While, Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has threatened that there will be a special surprise for the US if Trump pulls out of the deal and that Iran could resume uranium enrichment up to 20% in just four days if given the word.

While an AEOI spokesperson said that Irans Fordow plant contains 1,600 operational centrifuges  a direct contradiction to the International Atomic Energy Agencys February report  that only need a gas injection to restart enrichment.

How the holiday started

This unusual holiday began in 2006 under president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after Iranian scientists reached a significant point in their uranium enrichment work. It has mostly been used to threaten the West by revealing advancements  sometimes true, sometimes false  in their nuclear programme.

In 2007, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had mastered industrial-scale uranium enrichment. In 2009, he opened a nuclear fuel manufacturing plant and in 2010, when the West was discussing new sanctions on Iran, Ahmadinejad revealed a third-generation centrifuge.

This stopped following the 2015 nuclear deal, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the holidays focus shifted to the benefits that the nuclear industry provided to the Iranian public, but this couldnt last and now the Regime is back to making threats again.

However, Omer Carmi, a Middle East intelligence expert, wrote on The Washington Institute that this could backfire on Iran as the Iranian people may see these nuclear festivities as a farce, given that the expensive new projects do not benefit the people or the economy.

This could well inspire more protests and bring regime change.
Well, its now 39 years later and the Iranian workers are still waiting for these reforms. Trade unions are banned, sometimes violently, and that means that workers are seeing great delays in payments and being forced to work in unsafe conditions.

Mehdi Kouhestaninejad, a Canada-based Iranian labour activist, explained that the labour movement was only allowed to flourish during the first two years of the Regime, but the Regime leaders became scared of giving its people even the most basic of rights.

He said: When the Islamic regime intensified its brutal crackdown on the opposition in the early 1980s, workers activists and unionists were not exempt from the horrendous suppression.

Now, Iranian workers have basically no rights under the Regime and the labour councils are made up of loyal workers who will not rebel against the bosses. Any true unionist movement in Iran is repressed with violence and strikes are impeded by security forces, riot police and the militia, according to the 2017 International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Global Rights Index.

The Iranian Regime is basically stealing from the Iranian people, especially when you consider the fact that many Iranian workers are being consistently paid their wages late  sometimes by months. This is due to incredible corruption amongst the powerful and the Revolutionary Guard Corps who run the economy.

Many businesses have seen strikes and protests over late payment of wages, like at the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Plantation and Industry Company, but these are often broken up by Irans suppressive security forces.

The Haft Tapeh workers went on strike in December demanding long overdue wages and despite significant abuse from the Regime, the company finally paid their dues after two months of strikes and protests

However many union leaders in Iran, like Esmail Abdi of the Iran Teachers Trade Association and Reza Shahabi of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, have been sent to prison on intentionally vague national security charges (i.e. organising a protest). Others, like Mansour Osanlou, have been forced to leave Iran altogether and some, like Shahrokh Zamani of the House Painters Workers Union, has died in prison due to neglect by the authorities.

Amnesty Internationals Iran researcher Nassim Papayianni decried this treatment of labour activists and called on Iran to end these wrongful imprisonments and allow for trade unions.

Papayianni said: Without question, workers rights are human rights. By criminalising peaceful trade union activities and banning the formation of independent trade unions, the Iranian authorities are flagrantly violating their human rights obligations under international law.
Law enforcers introduced the Siren interception plan across the region.

A group of perpetrators, who remain at large, ambushed a service vehicle of the Ukrposhta state postal service team, robbing them of UAH 200,000 in cash.

The money was supposed to cover pension payments to citizens, according to the press service of the Kyiv region's Police Department.

"A cynical robbery and assault on the head of the mobile post office of Ukrposhta and a driver who transported money to pay pensions to citizens were carried out by a group of unidentified armed men. The incident was reported earlier today near the village of Hostra Mohyla in Stavyshchensky district," the report said.

Read alsoUkraine cyberpolice bust phishing scammer in KyivIt is noted that the robbers cut off the Ukrposhta vehicle on a motorway and tear-gassed postal workers, taking about UAH 200,000 from the scene.

After that, they set fire to one of their cars and fled. The Ukrposhta vehicle was also burned down.

Law enforcers introduced a Siren interception plan across the region's roads.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on April 3 in Kharkiv, perpetrators blew up an ATM, stealing all cash from it.
United States President Donald Trump has criticized U.S. trade relations with China.

The president expressed opposition to what he called stupid trade relations with China. His comments appeared Monday on the Twitter social media service.

"When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%," Trump said on Twitter. "When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!" he wrote.



His tweet comes after the U.S. and China have each announced lists of imported products that will face new taxes.

Earlier Monday, Chinas foreign ministry said that trade talks under the current conditions were not possible.

However, on Sunday, Trump tweeted that he believed trade disputes with China would be solved. He said, China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do.

Trump added that he believed taxes on trade between the two sides would become reciprocal. He also said he believed that there would be a deal on intellectual property that would be good for the future of both countries.

The U.S. leader called Chinese President Xi Jinping a friend no matter what happens in the trade dispute.

Sides trading tariffs

Last week, China announced tariffs on more than 100 U.S. products, including vehicles and plastic goods. The list also includes agricultural products, such as soybeans, wheat, corn, beef and tobacco. The new tariffs would affect $50 billion worth of American products.

The move followed a Trump administration announcement that it plans to impose tariffs on about $50 billion dollars in Chinese exports. A list of products has yet to be identified. However, after China announced its latest measures on Thursday, President Trump suggested that he might impose additional tariffs. He said those taxes might affect $100 billion in Chinese goods.

The suggestion added to growing tensions over trade.

Speaking to CBS News Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, while there is a risk of a trade war, he does not believe one will take place.

Our expectation is that we dont think there will be a trade war. Our objective is to continue to have discussions with China. I dont expect there will be a trade war, he said.

Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that American businesses could be hurt if China sets up more tariffs on U.S. goods.

Gary Hufbauer is with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He told VOA that the president and Trump administration officials recognize that tariffs would be very damaging to both economies.

Hufbauer noted that, The short-term impact would be highly adverse. Both sides have a lot to gain by negotiations rather than actually implementing a tariff war, he said.

Im Mario Ritter.

Ken Bredemeier reported this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted his report 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

tariffs  n. taxes on imported or exported goods or services

reciprocal  adj. a situation where each side agrees to do something similar for the other

intellectual property  n. property that come from invention or ideas, which is protected by patents or copyright agreements

matter  n. something that is being done or talked about

impose  v. to put a rule, law or tax officially into effect

adverse  adj. not good, unfavorable

implementing  v. causing some plan or policy to happen or take place
Federal investigators in the United States have raided the office of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The New York Times reported that agents seized documents, including those related to Trump's reported sexual relationship with actor and director Stormy Daniels.

Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, called the search completely inappropriate and unnecessary." He said the investigators received legal permission for the search after a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump condemned the raid, saying that federal agents "broke into" Cohen's office. Trump also called Mueller's investigation "an attack on our country."

The Times reported the agents seized communications between Cohen and Trump.

Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Daniels says the payment was for her silence about a relationship she says she had with Trump beginning in 2006.

Trump has said he did not have a sexual relationship with Daniels and that he did not know about the payment.

Some legal experts argue that the payment may have been illegal campaign support.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

VOA News reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English with additional materials from the Associated Press. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

inappropriate - adj. not right or suited for some purpose or situation : not appropriate or suitable

referral - n. the act of sending someone to another person or place for treatment, help, advice, etc.
National Guard members have started arriving at the United States border with Mexico. More of the reserve military members are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

The governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico have promised 1,600 National Guard troops to serve at the border.

President Donald Trump requested the troops to increase border security. He has called the illegal immigration and drug trafficking situation in the area a crisis. A proclamation on the issue notes the lawlessness that continues at our southern border.

California has not announced whether troops from the states National Guard will take part. Californias Governor, Jerry Brown, has often disagreed with Trumps immigration policies. Brown is a member of the Democratic Party.

A spokesman for Brown, Evan Westrup, said California officials are still considering Trumps request for troops.

The president said last week that he wants to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard members to the border.

Trump administration officials have said immediate action is needed to deal with the increasing number of people caught at the border. The number of people trying to cross the border illegally has sharply increased in recent weeks, in part because of warming weather.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama also deployed National Guard members to the border during their terms in office.

Governors send troops for deployment

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey spoke to Guard troops on Monday. He said that their mission is about providing manpower and resources to support border control agencies.

The Associated Press reported that Ducey said he did not consider the deployment a political issue.

You show me somebody who is for drug cartels or human trafficking or this ammunition thats coming over a wide-open and unprotected border here, he said.

Speaking to a local radio station, Texas Governor Greg Abbot said his state would provide about 300 troops each week, for a total of at least 1,000 troops. He said some Guard members will be armed if they are deployed to a possibly dangerous place. However, he added that is not the main purpose for their deployment.

Abbot, who is a Republican, also said there was no time limit for the deployment.

New Mexicos governor Susana Martinez said more than 80 Guard members would deploy this week. She said they will be the first of about 250 troops from New Mexico to serve on the border. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster also offered to deploy troops to the border. Martinez and McMaster are both members of the Republican Party, like Trump.

The Defense Department has approved the deployment of up to 4,000 National Guard troops through September.

Mexico unsure of cooperation

Mexicos secretary of foreign affairs said his government is considering its cooperation with the United States.

Luis Videgaray told local media on Monday that he will give the results of a study on the situation to President Enrique Pena Nieto in the coming weeks.

Mexicos Senate passed a resolution calling on the government to suspend cooperation with the United States on illegal immigration and drug trafficking. The measure, which is said to be an answer to Trumps border actions, is non-binding.

Videgaray said no action had been taken. No decision has been taken to reduce or suspend any mechanism or cooperation, he said.

Im Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter adapted this Associated Press story for VOA Learning English . Ashley Thompson 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

reserve adj. a military force in addition to the regular force

governor n. a person who is the leader of the government of a state, province, etc.

proclamation n.(presidential) a statement by the president on an issue of policy

mission n. a job or task given to a person or group

cartel n. a group that agrees to fix prices and control trade in a product or industry

mechanism n. a process or system used to get a certain result
For thousands of years, the Yup'ik people of Alaska have depended on cultural traditions for their way of life. From one generation to the next, Yupik community leaders passed on their knowledge and skills to younger members of the tribe.

Now, some of these traditions may prove helpful to fighting substance abuse, depression and suicide within the Alaska Native community.

Knowledge from tradition

Over the years, the lives of the Yupik people centered around the qasgiq, a house where many men lived and worked. Community celebrations were often held in the qasgiq. Most importantly, this also is where community leaders passed on their knowledge to the next generation.

"Our ancestors and grandfathers were like psychologists," said Billy Charles, a fisherman and former mayor of Emmonak, a rural town in southwestern Alaska.

"They had a system of early childhood development in place, and with every teaching, they'd say, It may not apply to you now, but later on in life when you meet the challenge, you'll know what to do.'"

Today, Charles serves as a researcher in the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Center for Alaska Native Health Research. He works to prevent health problems, such as drug abuse and suicide, in native communities.

Problems tied to colonization

Research shows that Alaska Native youth have a greater risk for drug and alcohol abuse than any other population group in the state. In 2015, more children died from suicide than any other cause.

The reasons have been linked to the shock of colonization. Russia established colonies in Alaska in the 18th century. In 1867, the United States purchased the territory from Russia.

As with Native American children in other parts of the U.S, the government removed Alaska Native children from their families and placed them in Christian schools. There, the boys and girls were required to give up their language, culture or religion.

Today, Alaska Native communities face a number of problems: poverty, poor housing, under-employment, drug abuse, violence and mental health issues.

The location of villages is also an issue, noted Evon Peter, an administrator for rural, community and Native education at the university. Peter is a Neetsaii Gwich'in and Koyukon Native from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska. He told VOA that most Alaskan villages are very rural, and not connected by roads.

"For me to travel from Fairbanks to some of our villages, it's two days of travel and at least three different plane rides, sometimes costing as much as $2,000, Peter said. He added this creates many difficulties for people to find work or receive medical or behavioral health care.

Climate change also creates problems for some communities, said Stacy Rasmus of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research.

"Alaska Native people are still very subsistence-based, very dependent on land-based food," Rasmus noted. She added that communities that hunt whales are finding it more dangerous to travel through ice, and some villages are having to move because they are losing land to rising ocean levels.

New solutions from the past

However, Rasmus said not all Native Alaskans are at risk of drug addiction or suicide. Earlier research has shown that Natives who are more connected to their traditional culture and language are less likely to take their own lives.

Rasmus and Charles have developed a cultural-based training and teaching guide called the Qungasvik, the Yup'ik word for "toolbox." Traditionally, Qungasviks were wooden boxes Yup'ik men used to keep tools and tobacco. They are designed to help young people build resiliency.

The book, available online, has 36 activities based on Yup'ik traditions. One of them involves recreating the qasgig to provide young people a way to connect with older community members. This can help them learn about their culture and history, develop life skills and take part in community life.

"Our elders instruct us that... we must gather together, hold hands and form a circle around our youth, sheltering them from evil," said Josie Edmund, in a video that is part of the Qungasvik.

"The point is to communicate to children that you are valuable members of our community, and therefore, have much to live for."

This month, tribal representatives and mental health experts met with University of Alaska researchers for the first Statewide Gathering to Celebrate and Support Community Strengths. The goal of the meeting was to have experts come to share success stories and develop the best ways for improving mental health in native communities.

Im Phil Dierking.

Cecily Hilleary reported this story for VOAnews.com. Phil Dierking adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Do you have cultural traditions that you use for mental or physical health? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

apply - v. to have an effect on someone or something

challenge - n. something that is hard to do

elder - n. a person who has authority because of age and experience

instruct - v. to teach (someone) a subject, skill, etc. 

psychologist - n. a scientist who specializes in the study and treatment of the mind and behavior

subsistence - adj. where people produce food to eat themselves rather than to sell.

tobacco - n. a plant that produces leaves which are smoked in cigarettes, pipes, etc.
Astronomers say the center of our galaxy has plenty of strange, super gravity objects.

For years, scientists believed that circling the center of galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, were not only stars, but lots of stellar black holes. These are stars that have collapsed, creating gravity so strong even light does not get out.

But scientists had yet to find evidence of black holes at the center of the Milky Way until now.

Astronomers studying old x-ray observations have found signs of at least 12 black holes in the inner circle of the Milky Way. And since most black holes cannot be found that way, they believe that there are likely thousands of them there.

In fact, a study suggests there may be more than 10,000 black holes in the center of our galaxy. The findings appear in the journal Nature.

Chuck Hailey is an astrophysicist at Columbia University in New York. He was the lead writer of the report. He told the Associated Press, Theres lots of action going on there.  The galactic center is a strange place. Thats why people like to study it.

Scientists already know about a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. They call it Sagittarius A.

Supermassive black holes are the largest kind of black hole, being between a million and billion times bigger than others. This latest research shows that the newly discovered stellar black holes are in addition to Sagittarius A and they do, in fact, circle it.

The newly discovered black holes are within about 31 trillion kilometers from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. So there is still a lot of empty space and gas among all those black holes. But Hailey noted that if you looked at the amount of space around Earth, there would be zero black holes, not thousands.

Our planet is part of a spiral arm circling the Milky Way. It is about 3,000 light years from its center. In the rest of our galaxy, scientists have only identified about 60 black holes to date, Hailey added.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb was not part of the latest study. He called the findings exciting, but noted that they confirmed what scientists had long expected.

The newly confirmed black holes are about 10 times the mass of our sun. In comparison, Sagittarius A has the mass of 4 million suns.

The recently discovered black holes are also only the kind that are binary, meaning they are partnered with another star. Black holes partnered with other stars produce large amounts of x-rays as the black holes pull in the stars outer layer. Those x-rays are what astronomers observe.

When astronomers look at closer binary black hole systems, they could then compare what is seen with what is too weak to be observed from far away. Using that information, Hailey believes that there must be 300 to 500 binary black hole systems.

Binary black hole systems are likely only five percent of all black holes, he added. So that means there are really thousands of them.

Hailey said there are good reasons the Milky Ways black holes are usually in the center of the galaxy. First, their mass most often pulls them to the center. But mostly the middle of all those stars is the perfect place for black hole formation, with lots of dust and gas.

He said it is sort of like a little farm where you have all the right conditions to produce and hold on to a large number of black holes.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

Seth Borenstein reported this story for the Associated Press. Pete Musto adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. What else do you think scientists will find at the center of our galaxy? How many more black holes do you think are out there? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story



galaxy  n. any one of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe

stellar  adj. of or relating to the stars

x-ray  n. powerful invisible rays that can pass through various objects and that make it possible to see inside things, such as the human body

spiral  n. a circular curving line that goes around a central point while getting closer to or farther away from it

light year(s) - n. a unit of distance equal to the distance that light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers

layer  n. an amount of something that is spread over an area
Facebook says it will begin informing users as to whether their personal data may have been wrongly shared with a British research company.

Beginning Monday, Facebook said users who may have had private data shared with Cambridge Analytica will receive a message about it in their News Feed.

The company believes up to 87 million people might be have been affected. Facebook says most of them are in the United States. It says there were about a million users affected each in the Philippines, Indonesia and Britain.

Facebook says the information Cambridge Analytica got was first collected by a researcher at Cambridge University. The researcher gathered the data in 2013 through an app that asked users a series of questions for what was described as a personality test.

The users used Facebook to sign into the app. Facebook says information may have also been shared on people who did not sign into the app, if they were Facebook friends with users who did.

Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted the company made mistakes in dealing with Cambridge Analytica. The company says it is continuing to investigate the incident. Zuckerberg apologized and said the social media service is already taking steps to prevent misuse of user data in the future.

Facebook has also created a link that shows all users what apps and websites they used Facebook to sign into. From the link, users can remove ones they no longer want connected to Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica uses a research method that involves psychographs. The method aims to use data it collects to predict personal behaviors.

Cambridge Analytica data was used during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The company worked for then-candidate Donald Trump. A Trump campaign official has said the campaign did not use Cambridge Analytica for voter information.

Zuckerberg has been called to testify before several Congressional committees beginning on Tuesday. He is expected to speak about the Cambridge Analytica situation and discuss Facebooks privacy policies.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on information from Facebook and reports from the Associated Press and Reuters. Caty Weaver was the editor.

Do you think Facebook is handling the situation with Cambridge Analytica correctly? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

app  n. computer program that performs a special function

personality  n. set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people
President Donald Trump has condemned the most recent suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria. Trump said he would make "major decisions" within 24 to 48 hours about how the United States would react.

The president told his cabinet that the U.S. would learn who was responsible for the attack, whether it was Syria, Russia, Iran or "all of them together."

"We're looking at that very strongly, very seriously," he said.

At least 40 people were reported killed in the suspected attack Saturday. It happened in a rebel-held area near Damascus.

Russia said there is no evidence Syria carried out such an attack.

Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States is not ruling out military action against Syria.

Mattis spoke to reporters Monday during a meeting with Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Defense Departments headquarters, near Washington.

Mattis said that the U.S. is working with our allies and partners from NATO to Qatar and elsewhere, we are going to address this issue." He said the U.S. and its allies want to know why chemical weapons use continues after Russia guaranteed the removal of all such weapons from Syria.

Syrias government has denied using chemical weapons throughout the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011.

Sunday night, the Trump administration reported about a telephone call between the president and French President Emmanuel Macron. It said the two leaders strongly condemned chemical attacks in Syria. They reportedly agreed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government "must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses."

The U.S. president has blamed the Syrian leader for the attack. On Sunday, Trump also criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin. He wrote on Twitter that "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible" for their support of, in his words, "Animal Assad."

Also, Syria and Russia say two Israeli military airplanes carried out an attack Monday morning on an air base in central Syria. They said the planes were operating in Lebanese air space.

Israel's military did not comment on the report.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed 14 people, including Iranian forces.

On Saturday, medical emergency crews said they found families suffocated in their homes and shelters near Damascus. They said the victims had foam on their mouths. Workers said more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers. They all had difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning eyes.

The Civil Defense and Syrian American Medical Society said the patients gave off a chlorine-like smell. It noted that some had blue skin  evidence of a lack of oxygen.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Chris Hannas and Ken Bredemeier reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted their report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

address  v. to communicate directly; to speak of

accountable  adj. required to explain actions or decisions

suffocate  v. to die from being unable to breathe; to die from a lack of oxygen

foam  n. a soft material made from many products; a thick liquid that is made of many small bubbles
Vietnamese activists and independent media groups say Facebook policies on restricting content could increase government censorship.

More than 50 individuals and groups sent an open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It expresses their concerns about how the social media service is operating in Vietnam. The U.S.-based human rights group Viet Tan released the document Monday.

The letter says Facebooks system of removing material if enough people protest about it could silence human rights activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam.

The groups say they have worked with Facebook officials in the past to make sure content is not wrongly removed. In the letter, they say this worked well until 2017. But, they write, that year account suspensions and content takedown increased.

Facebook has said its policies on content restrictions are necessary to prevent false news and enforce Facebook rules.

We will remove content that violates these standards when were made aware of it, a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters. The spokeswoman said the companys policies are the same in Vietnam as in other countries where it operates.

There are also times when we may have to remove or restrict access to content because it violates a law in a particular country, even though it doesnt violate our community standards, the statement added.

Last year, Facebooks head of Global Policy Management, Monika Bickert, met with Vietnamese officials to discuss policies for operating in Vietnam.

At the time, the two sides agreed to directly cooperate to limit illegal or offensive material, according to Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications. Facebook also promised to remove false accounts and false information on the site about top government officials, the ministry said.

Vietnam is among Facebooks top 10 users by numbers, with more than 55 million people using the service. It is especially popular with activist groups and citizen journalists.

But Vietnam has a history of restricting public comments that are critical of the government. In the past, Vietnamese police have arrested people for posting anti-government messages online.

The letter said many accounts and pages of well-known citizen journalists were recently blocked on Facebook before and during a major trial of Vietnamese activists.

In the case, Vietnam sentenced a longtime human rights lawyer and activist to 15 years in prison on the charge that he aimed at overthrowing the peoples administration. Another six activists were sentenced to seven to 13 years.

The letter sent to Zuckerberg says the Vietnamese government employs a 10,000-strong cyber army to spread misinformation and silence dissent. The groups say this organization  called Force 47 - has misused Facebook policies to purposely publish false reports about activists and independent media organizations.

The letter said the groups support Facebooks efforts to fight disinformation for the community. However, they fear the companys current restriction policies are putting severe limitations on the very audience that you are trying to serve.

The letter came the day before Zuckerberg appeared before several U.S. Congressional committees in Washington. They questioned him about Facebooks involvement in sharing user data with British research company Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg also discussed Facebooks policies on users privacy.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn adapted this story for VOA Learning English, based reports from Reuters and Agence France-Press. 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

censorship  n. to block or remove material such as writings, film, videos which are not approved by the government

account  n. an arrangement in which a person uses internet or service of a particular company

standard  n. level of quality

aware  n. to know about something

access  v. way of getting near something

particular  n. kind of something

offensive  adj. causing someone to feel upset or hurt

cyber  n. relating to electronic communications, especially the Internet

audience  n. people watching a performance or taking part
Rogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, text messaging, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 10.9 million subscribers. It also provides Internet and WiFi services; smart home monitoring services, such as monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through a smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; 4K television programming; and televised content on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; calling features, such as voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol, and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; IT and network technologies; and cable access network services. The company also owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 55 AM and FM radio stations. Rogers Communications Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Nidec: A/O Ansaldo VEI, ANA IMEP S.A, Advanced D.C. Motors GmbH, Advanced Motors & Drives. Inc, Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali GmbH, Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali RO S.r.l., Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali S.p.A., Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali SA, Anselectric LLC, Answer Drives S.r.l., Arisa S.A, Asi Industrial Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., Avtron Industrial Automation Asia Ltd., Avtron Industrial Automation Hong Kong Ltd., Avtron Industrial Automation Inc, Brilliant Manufacturing Ltd., CIMA S.p.A., Canton Elevator Inc, Changzhou Dongyu Automobile Appliance And Motor Co. Ltd, Changzhou Kinetek Motor Master Co. Ltd., Compania de Motores Domesticos S.A. de C.V., Controles Electromecanicos de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Copal Optical and Electronic Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Copal Yamada (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Copal Yamada Corporation, DESCH Antriebstechnik GmbH & Co. KG, Dalian Chengyue Automobile Component Manufacturing Corporation, E.C.E. S.r.l., E.M.G. Elettromeccanica S.r.l., Embraco Whirlpool Corporations Compressor Business, Emerson Electric Co, Emerson Venezuela C.A., FIR Electromeccanica S.r.l, Foshan Kinetek Commercial Trading Company Limited, Fujisoku Corporation, Genmark Automation Inc., Gerate- und Pumpenbau GmbH Dr. Eugen Schmidt, Globa Sales Co. Ltd., Globa Service Inc., Guangzhou Kinetek Jinghe Machine Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Keming Electronics. Ltd., Honda Elesys Co. Ltd., Japan Servo Motors Singapore Pte Ltd., KB electronics Inc., Kinetek Asia Holding Inc., Kinetek Asia Holdings II Inc., Kinetek Asia Holdings III Inc., Kinetek Asia Holdings IV Inc., Kinetek Asia Hong Kong Limited, Kinetek CMM Hong Kong Limited., Kinetek De Sheng (Foshan) Motor Co. Ltd., Kinetek Electronics Systems Group Inc., Kinetek Elevator Import Export & Mfg LLC, Kinetek European Holdings LLC, Kinetek Group Inc, Kinetek Holdings Corp., Kinetek Industries Inc., Kinetek Italian Holdco 1 S.r.l., Kinetek Italian Holdco 2 S.r.l., Kinetek JH Hong Kong Limited, Kinetek Luxco GP S.a.r.l., Kinetek Luxco GP S.a.r.l. & Partners S.C.S, Kinetek Luxco S.a.r.l., Kinetek UK Ltd., Kinetek ZX Hong Kong Limited, Kinetek de Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., LGB Elettropompe S.r.l., LuzCom Inc., MCE International LLC, MCE Turkey LLC, MS-Graessner GmbH & Co. KG, Mallory Automotive Motors and Controls LLC, Merkle-Korff Industries Inc -dba Kinetek Advanced AC Solutions, Merkle-Korff Industries Inc., Merkle-Korff de Mexico S.A. de C.V, Metal Forming Group LLC, Minster Machine Company, Minster Machine Corporation, Minster Machine GmbH, Mitsubishi Materials C.M.I. Corporation, Motion Control Engineering Inc., Motores Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Motores U.S. de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Motortecnica s.r.l, NMA Property Verwaltungsgesellschaft, NTK Capital Inc., Nidec (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Nidec (Dalian) Ltd., Nidec (Dongguan) Ltd., Nidec (H.K.) Co. Ltd., Nidec (New Territories) Co. Ltd., Nidec (Shanghai) International Trading Co. Ltd., Nidec (Shaoguan) Ltd., Nidec (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Nidec (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec ASI Japan Corporation, Nidec ASI S.p.A., Nidec America Corporation, Nidec Automobile Motor (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec Avtron Automation Corporatio, Nidec BMS (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Nidec BMS Pte. Ltd., Nidec Component Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Nidec Component Technology (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Component Technology Bangpa-In Co. Ltd., Nidec Component Technology Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal, Nidec Copal (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Nidec Copal (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal (U.S.A) Corporation, Nidec Copal (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Electronics (Korea) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Electronics (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Electronics (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Electronics Corporation, Nidec Copal Electronics GmbH, Nidec Copal Electronics Inc., Nidec Copal Electronics Singapore Pte. Ltd., Nidec Copal Hong Kong Co. Ltd., Nidec Copal Philippines Corporation, Nidec Copal Precision (Vietnam) Corporation, Nidec Electronics (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Electronics GmbH, Nidec Global Service Corporation, Nidec India Private Ltd., Nidec Kaiyu Auto Electric (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Nidec Kinetek Corporation, Nidec Korea Corporation, Nidec Laminaciones de Acero S.A. de C.V., Nidec Logistics Consulting (Pinghu) Corporation, Nidec Logistics Corporation, Nidec Logistics Singapore Pte. Ltd., Nidec Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nidec Machinery (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Machinery (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec Machinery Corporation, Nidec Management Shanghai Corporation, Nidec Motor (Qingdao) Corporation, Nidec Motor Canada Corporation, Nidec Motor Colombia SAS, Nidec Motor Corporation, Nidec Motor Holdings Corporation, Nidec Motor Philippines Corporation, Nidec Motors & Actuators, Nidec Motors & Actuators (Germany) GmbH, Nidec Motors & Actuators (Mexico) S. de R.L. de C.V., Nidec Motors & Actuators (Poland) Sp.Z o.o., Nidec Motors & Actuators (Spain) S.A., Nidec Motors & Actuators (USA) Inc., Nidec Nissin (H.K.) Co. Ltd., Nidec Philippines Corporation, Nidec Precision (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Precision Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Nidec Precision Philippines Corporation, Nidec Read (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec SR Drives Ltd., Nidec SR Drives Manufacturing Ltd., Nidec Sankyo (Dalian) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo (Dongguan) Precision Corporation, Nidec Sankyo (H.K.) Co. Ltd., Nidec Sankyo (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Sankyo (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo America Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Electronics (Dongguan) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Electronics (Shanghai) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Electronics (Shaoguan) Co. Ltd., Nidec Sankyo Electronics (Shenzhen) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Europe GmbH, Nidec Sankyo Music Box Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Service Engineering Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Singapore Pte. Ltd., Nidec Sankyo Taiwan Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Tohoku Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Vietnam (Hanoi) Corporation, Nidec Sankyo Vietnam Corporation, Nidec Seiko Corporation, Nidec Seimitsu (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., Nidec Seimitsu America Corporation, Nidec Seimitsu Corporation, Nidec Seimitsu Motor Technology (Dongguan) Co. Ltd., Nidec Seimitsu Motor Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Nidec Seimitsu Singapore Pte. Ltd., Nidec Seimitsu Vietnam Corporation, Nidec Servo (Changzhou) Corporation, Nidec Servo (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., Nidec Servo (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nidec Servo Corporation, Nidec Servo Europe B.V., Nidec Servo Hotaka Corporation, Nidec Servo Vietnam Corporation, Nidec Shibaura (H.K.) Ltd., Nidec Shibaura (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nidec Shibaura (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Nidec Shibaura Electronics (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Nidec Singapore Pte. Ltd., Nidec Sole Motor Corporation S.R.L., Nidec Sole Motor Hungary K.F.T., Nidec Subic Philippines Corporation, Nidec Taiwan Corporation, Nidec Techno Motor Corporation, Nidec Tosok (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nidec Tosok (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Nidec Tosok (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec Tosok Akiba (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Nidec Tosok Corporation, Nidec Tosok Precision Vietnam Co. Ltd., Nidec Tosok Uogishi (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec Total Service (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec US Holdings Corporation, Nidec Vietnam Corporation, Nidec-Kyori (Shanghai) Machinery Corporation, Nidec-Kyori (Zhejiang) Machinery Corporation, Nidec-Read (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec-Read Corporation, Nidec-Read Korea Corporation, Nidec-Read Taiwan Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo (H.K.) Co. Ltd., Nidec-Shimpo (Shanghai) International Trading Co. Ltd., Nidec-Shimpo (Zhejiang) Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo America Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo India Sales & Trading Private Ltd., Nidec-Shimpo Korea Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo Philippines Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo Taiwan Corporation, Nidec-Shimpo do Brasil Importacao Exportacoa e Comerico de Equipamentos Ltda., Niigata Nidec Copal Corporation, Ningbo Minster Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd., OMRON Automotive Electronics Co. Ltd, P.T. Nidec Indonesia, P.T. Nidec Sankyo Precision Indonesia, PT Pacific Coatings Batam, PT. Japan Servo Batam, PT. NAGATA OPTO INDONESIA, PT. Nidec Component Technology Indonesia, PT.Nidec Seimitsu Batam, Press Masters LLC, Roboteq Inc., Rotores S.A. de C.V., SC WADO Co. Ltd., SC Wado Component (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., SCD Co. Ltd, SCD Co. Ltd., SR motor drive business of China Tex Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Ltd, SV Probe Pte. Ltd, Secop GmbH, Selin Sistemi S.r.l, Sermed S.a.r.l.., Shimpo Drives Incorporation, Systeme + Steuerungen GmbH, T.E.A International S.r.l, Taima Casting Sdn. Bhd., Tammy Corporation, The Imperial Electric Company., Tundra Equipment Company., U.S.E.M. de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Valmark Industries Inc., Vamco International Inc., Wuxi Zhongxiu Kinetek Elevator Technology Co. Ltd., Xpert GmbH, and home appliance motor business of Appliances Components Companies S.p.A.
For some reason Google has two different smart TV platforms. You can buy a $35 Chromecast and plug it into your TV to stream music, videos, and other internet content, but youll have to use your phone, tablet, or computer as a remote control and navigation device. Or you can buy a device that runs Googles Android TV software if you want a physical remote control and a graphical user interface that runs on your TV.

A new device that showed up at the FCC website this week looks like it blurs the lines. Its about the same size as a Chromecast, but seems to run Android TV software. Its also got a big G logo on the top, leading some folks to speculate that this could be some sort of official Google product, maybe a Chromecast Pro?

I doubt it. But it does look like a pretty nice little Android TV device.

Under the hood, this little HDMI dongle features an Amlogic S905X processor, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of eMMC storage. Those are basically the same specs you get with a Xiaomi Mi Box Android TV device, but the new model is even smaller.

It supports HDMI 2.0A and HDCP 2.2 and can handle 4K video playback at up to 60 frames per second for videos encoded using H.264, H.265/HEVC, or VP9 Profile 2.

The user manual posted for the device shows that it runs what looks like Android TV software and it comes with a remote control that has a dedicated button for triggering Google Assistant, allowing you to control the media player by voice, ask questions, or perform other voice actions.

So why do I think this isnt an official Google device?

It was submitted to the FCC by Shenzhen SEI Robotics Co., Ltd. Theres no confidentiality request, which means all the photos and other documents are visible.

Update 4/11/2018: I spoke too soon. The pictures and user manual have all been removed from the FCC website. That could mean this is an official Google device. Or it could mean that Google and/or SEI Robotics saw all the articles about the device spreading around the web this week and someone decided to request the FCC pull some of those documents from view.

While its possible that Google could have tapped a relatively unknown Chinese manufacturer to produce its next media streaming device, I find it highly unlikely that the companies would have been careless enough to allow the FCC to make the user manual and photos visible to the public before the device was officially launched.

That said, while weve seen a number of cheap Chinese media streamers that run Android software in the past few years, most havent had access to the official Android TV software or Google Assistant. If this model truly does have both of those features, it could be a nice alternative to existing media streamers. But if Shenzhen SEI Robotics is somehow faking it by slapping an Android TV lookalike user interface over stock Android software and failing to deliver the true Google Assistant experience, then you might be better off looking elsewhere.

via /r/AndroidTV

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Xiaopeng Motors, which counts Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Foxconn Technology Group among its investors, plans to raise 17 billion yuan (USD2.7 billion) in funds this year as the Chinese car startup seeks to take on rivals in the worlds biggest market for electric vehicles.

The company plans to start pre-sales of its first model, the G3 crossover, by the end of this month, founder He Xiaopeng, said in an interview at the Boao Forum in China. He didnt elaborate on the fundraising plans.

Xiaopeng is among startups striving to become Chinas Tesla Inc. and reshape the auto industry as the Asian country promotes new-energy vehicles in an effort to clean up the environment and cut its reliance on oil imports. Already the biggest EV market, China accounted for more than half of worldwide sales last year. Sales of all vehicles grew at a monthly clip of more than 20 percent in 2016 and 2017, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Alibaba and Foxconn led a round of fundraising by Xiaopeng, investing 2.2 billion yuan, the carmaker said in January. That put the total investment as of end-January at 5 billion yuan, according to the company.

The investment marked Alibabas latest move in the automotive industry, as the Internet giant bets connected cars will generate new revenue. The Hangzhou-based group has developed its own car operating system.

Xiaopengs He said the company will collaborate with Alibaba in maps and cloud products in a non-exclusive alliance, adding the companys focus is on ensuring quality of production ramp-up.

Xiaopeng supports Chinas plan to allow foreign automakers greater ownership in joint ventures as this will spur real competition and ensure the quality of cars made in China, He said. Bloomberg
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history. In an email to USA Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the profits are all based on the users info, but the users get none of the profits back. Wozniak says hed rather pay for Facebook. He says Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you.

New Deutsche Bank boss says tough decisions lie ahead

Deutsche Banks new CEO is telling employees that Germanys biggest lender faces tough decisions as it works to return to profit. Christian Sewing, who has worked for Deutsche Bank for all but two years since 1989, was appointed on Sunday night to replace John Cryan after three years of losses. Sewing acknowledged in a message to employees released yesterday that Cryan led us through an extremely difficult period and many greatly appreciate him. Sewing said that we want to and have to become profitable again. He added that there may sometimes have been good reasons for missing cost and revenue targets but it was damaging to the bank. He wrote: The new leadership team will not accept this anymore. Well have to take tough decisions and execute them.

ECB weighs emergency cash injections

The European Central Bank is considering a new policy tool that would allow it to inject cash into banks that are being rescued from the threat of insolvency, tackling a gap in rules for dealing with troubled lenders. The proposal would allow the ECB to fund viable parts of a lender as they are spun out of a failing financial institution, according to a confidential document obtained by Bloomberg News and based on a March 21 presentation to the ECBs Governing Council. The suggested framework for Eurosystem Resolution Liquidity (ERL) lays out conditions including a far-reaching public guarantee to safeguard against central-bank losses.
China has banned exports to North Korea of electronics and other goods that can be used in making weapons, tightening U.N. sanctions imposed over Pyongyangs nuclear and missile development.

The ban covers dual use industrial components, metal alloys and other materials that can be used in both civilian products and weapons, according to a Commerce Ministry statement issued over the weekend.

The U.N. Security Council has steadily tightened trade restrictions as leader Kim Jong Uns government pressed ahead with nuclear and missile development in defiance of foreign pressure.

Beijing was long Pyongyangs diplomatic protector but has supported the U.N. sanctions out of frustration at what Chinese leaders see as their neighbors increasingly reckless behavior.

China accounts for nearly all of the isolated Norths trade and energy supplies.

The latest ban includes components, software and tools for aircraft manufacturing, carbon fiber, high-voltage and high-temperature equipment, and tools for mixing and measuring chemicals.

Beijing previously imposed limits on oil sales and cut deeply into the Norths revenue by banning purchases of its coal, textiles and seafood. North Korean businesses in China were ordered to close and migrant workers were sent home.

Despite the loss of almost all trade, the impoverished North has pressed ahead with weapons development that Kims regime sees as necessary for its survival in the face of U.S. pressure.

China has steadily increased economic pressure on Pyongyang while calling for dialogue to defuse the increasingly acrimonious dispute with U.S. President Donald Trumps government.

Chinese leaders have resisted previous U.S. demands for an outright oil embargo but went along with imposing limits. AP
A 36-year-old man is being accused of sexually assaulting against a woman, aged 25, after a house party.

The incident occurred at around 4 a.m. on Sunday after a house party held by the victim, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson announced at a press conference yesterday.

The accused, a non-resident worker from the Philippines, had been invited to attend the party, which started at around 10 p.m. on Saturday in the apartment where the woman, also a non-resident worker from the Philippines, currently resides. A total of six people were present, most of them also residents of the same housing unit.

The group admitted that they consumed several alcoholic drinks at the gathering and were all intoxicated when the party finished in the early hours on Sunday.

The suspect asked to stay overnight in the hosts apartment. She acquiesced and went to bed herself in a room where the victim, her cousin, and her cousins boyfriend were also sleeping.

During this time, the man allegedly climbed to the upper deck of the bunk bed where the victim was sleeping and attempted to perform sex acts on her. The case was discovered and reported initially by the victims cousin, who was sleeping on the lower bunk and was awoken by cries from the victim, at which point they called the police.

In a separate case, the PJ received two similar reports from two local victims, both women, who had been informed by their banking institution of suspicious online transactions. Both had been targeted with four such transactions for products or services paid for in British pounds. The first womans transactions totaled MOP6,404 and the second womans came to MOP8,830.

Both informed their bank that they had not authorized any of those transactions and filed complaints with the PJ for suspected stolen credit card data.

In another case of swindling, a man from India claimed to have been scammed by another Indian in a scheme to find a job in Macau.

The victim said that in January this year he found an advertisement for Macau jobs in a local Indian newspaper. He replied to the ad and came into contact with the suspect.

The suspect then requested that the man pay a fee equivalent to MOP10,000 in order to travel to Macau to start the job, which he accepted.

On February 11 the two men traveled together to Macau. Upon their arrival, the suspect asked for more money totaling MOP45,000.

After the victim paid the amount, he lost contact with the suspect and has been searching for him ever since.

On April 4, the victim finally located the suspect in Macau and attempted to take the money back so he could return home.

The suspect refused to return the money, after which the victim filed a case against him with the PJ.

Smugglers attack Customs officers following detention attempts

Six smugglers were detained on Sunday after trying to resist orders given by the Macao Customs Service (Customs).

The incident took place at midnight last Sunday. The mainland Chinese marine police reported to Macau Customs that a motorboat suspected of being engaged in illegal activities was quickly approaching the sea in front of the Macau Airports runway.

Customs then dispatched officers to seize the boat. When officers arrived at the scene, they showed their identification and requested the boat stop its movement for inspection.

The boats drivers ignored the request and tried to escape by accelerating towards the Customs boat, which damaged the government vessel. One smuggler attacked the Customs officers with a bamboo pole but failed to injure them.

Two of the smugglers on board then attempted to jump off the boat to escape, but were later detained together with the four people who remained on the boat.

In total, five men and one woman have been arrested, all aged between 23 and 45 years old. The woman and four men are from mainland China, while the sixth individual is a man from Macau.

The two boat operators, along with the Macau resident, have already been transferred to the prosecution authorities. The other three, who are illegal immigrants, have been transferred to the Public Security Police Force.
Gulfstream, the maker of the G650 business jet, is at risk of losing its dominance in China because of a worsening trade spat with the U.S.

Chinas proposed 25 percent tariff on U.S.- made aircraft would leave Gulfstream at a disadvantage against competitors from Canada and France. Of the 431 private aircraft based in the country, Gulfstream jets account for 42 percent followed by 24 percent for Montreal- based Bombardier Inc. and 9 percent made by Frances Dassault Aviation SA, said consultant Rolland Vincent.

They have been the most successful of the manufacturers in penetrating the Chinese market with new aircraft, Vincent said of Gulfstream, a unit of General Dynamics Corp. Theres potentially a market-share benefit for Dassault and Bombardier if this tariff goes in.

The tariffs, outlined by China as part of a USD50 billion retaliation against duties on Chinese goods proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, would add to the hurdles of selling private jets in an already sputtering market. Sales have been under pressure in China in the last couple years after President Xi Jinping began an anticorruption campaign, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group. People said, wrong time for a business jet,  Aboulafia said.

ESCALATING TENSIONS

The new restrictions on U.S. aircraft have yet to take effect, and theres a chance they never will if the U.S. and China reach a truce. But tensions escalated Friday as the nations traded more threats. Trump ordered his administration to consider another $100 billion tariffs against China, which prompted the Asian nation to vow it would defend its interests to the end, and at any cost.

China already has a 17 percent value-added tax on private aircraft plus a 5 percent duty on foreign jets, according to the International Trade Administration. The 25 percent tariff on large Gulfstream models would probably be added to that, said Vincent, who puts out a widely read industry forecast with partner Jetnet called Jetnet iQ.

WEIGHT RANGE

The duties would be applied to U.S. aircraft weighing between 15,000 kilograms (33,000 pounds) and 45,000 kilograms. All Gulfstream models except for its smallest aircraft, the G280, fit in that weight range. Some models of the Boeing Co. 737 would also be affected.

China deliveries made up 10 percent of the 80 large aircraft that Gulfstream shipped last year, Vincent said. The company has an even bigger share of planes hit by the tariff. Gulfstream accounts for 112 of those jets, including the G650 and G550, compared with 41 Bombardier jets in the same category and 28 for Dassault.

Gulfstream is expected to begin deliveries this year of two new large aircraft  the G500 and the G600  that fall in the weight range for the tariff. Heidi Fedak, a spokeswoman for Gulfstream, declined to comment.

The extra levy would have an immediate effect of curtailing potential sales, said Steve Varsano, founder of the corporate aircraft brokerage The Jet Business. Although private jets can be registered in one country and used in another, operators in China discovered that authorities frowned on attempts to circumvent the existing 22 percent tax-and-tariff combination.

It was a hardship to pay, Varsano said in an email. But if you didnt and were a regular user in China, they made life difficult to get landing slots and parking availability.

Business-jet manufacturers will be in Shanghai less than two weeks from now for the annual Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition. Thomas Black, Frederic Tomesco, Bloomberg
The New Macau Association (ANM) submitted a letter to the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) yesterday, urging the bureau to investigate the unfinished project at 15 and 17 Rua dos Pescadores.

The pro-democracy group is criticizing a dispatch of the Secretariat for Transport and Public Works for approving the resumption of the construction. They raised several concerns including the amendment of the land-granting agreement and the calculation of premiums.

ANM believes that corruption was involved in the original grant process and that the present amendment has failed to comply with the original planning approvals.

Speaking to the press, Sulu Sou stressed that the premium of the plot is waived, with the government explaining that a payment was already made in 1996, and the total floor area has diminished compared to that which was initially granted in 1996.

I think ANM and the public cannot accept these explanations because the price has increased a lot during these 18 years, so we urge the CCAC to check this point, Sou said.

The group recalled that the contractor had even promised to construct basic community facilities nearby.

Another concern that the association wanted to pursue was the expired and undeveloped nature of the plot and the avoidance of the Law of Urban Planning.

The statement pointed out that the plot has experienced numerous amendments regarding the granting agreement, with the term of usage specified during each amendment. However, the contractor has reportedly failed to perform its duties in each instance.

The company did not fulfill its promise on the document to develop this land. According to the land law, it is a reason for government to take the land back, Sou said.

ANM questions whether the administration has given up its power to reclaim land plots whose contractor has repeatedly failed to comply with its duties for the term usage under the Land Law.

Although Sou added that ANM is yet to conclude that the matter is a consequence of actions by the former Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Ao Man Long, he expressed the belief that the trial has raised public criticism of the governments mismanagement.

According to the urban planning law, it has a mechanism to have public consultation about the developing project and should also take to the urban planning committee to discuss, but this project skipped this mechanism and the procedure, Sou argued.

We think the CCAC has the responsibility to investigate more of the details of what happened during these 18 years. I think the public is also concerned about the land problem in Macau. This project is also related to the Ao Man Long case and it raises public concern, he added.

ANM believes that, however, five years after the amendment of the Land Law, and over two years after the release of the CCAC report, the present administration still has [made] no progress in reforming the land management system, the association said in a statement.

In the long run, the shadow cast is still long over the land of the MSAR, the association concluded.
The first edition of the Lusophone Highlight market has concluded after six days of promotion, tasting and sales of products from Portuguese-speaking countries.

The initiative of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the Macao Association for Promoting Community Economic Development has attracted over 30,000 visitors to the market located in the Inner Harbor area (Rua de Cinco de Outubro) where several exhibitors promoted a number of products, mostly related to food and beverages.

According to a statement from IPIM, the participating companies praised the initiative and saw a sales increase of 10 to 20 percent.

A total of 22 Macau companies responsible for the import, distribution and sale of Portuguese products were present at the event, which took place over the Easter holidays. Examples of products included biscuits, candies, jams, fruit juices, gelatins, milk-based drinks, wine, beer and handcrafted items.

Quoted by IPIM, Su, an exhibitor involved in the wholesale of canned fish products from Portugal, said that his participation in the market saw a sales increase of over 20 percent, well above his expectations.

Other exhibitors stated that they expected this market to expand and include new purchase channels.
Sands Chinas commitment to supporting local Small and Medium Enterprises has significantly benefited a number of local enterprises as the company continues to foster relationships with local firms in response to the call of the government.

The pioneering long-term initiative of the gaming operator was the first program of its kind in Macau, benefiting hundreds of its partner enterprises. It has facilitatedmany local firms in growingtheir revenues.

Chao Pak Kei  a three-generation local business  has been supplying disposable products for Sands China since 2003  successfully creating a new source of revenue.

At the beginning of operations, the companys products only included paper bags and groceries. It then expanded to paper products including paper cups and plastic disposable forks.

Current general manager, Stephen Chow, who inherited the business in 1999 began to incorporate more disposable products such as paper cups, tableware and plastic bags into its portfolio, continuously increasing product choices and improving their quality.

At the moment, we sell over 600 products and are the exclusive agent for six brands, said Stephen.

The expansion has allowed the company to secure partnerships with the citys gaming enterprises  including Sands China where it initially managed monthly orders of over MOP100,000.

With Sands China boosting its efforts and initiatives to support local SMEs, Chao Pak Kei managed to significantly increase its sales revenue with Sands China, obtaining up to nearly 10 times its initial business with the gaming operators.

The number of its employees has increased from 10 to 18, with delivery vans increasing to seven.

This month, Chao Pak Kei will be moving to its new warehouse prompted by a growing demand in products and services.

Sands China has expressed its commitment to supporting local enterprises as part of the companys corporate responsibility, valuing local SMEs and viewing them as its strategic partners.

The commitment is part of Sands Chinas supplier relationship management strategy, which guides the companys long-standing efforts to support local suppliers.

In 2017, Chao Pak Kei received a Sands Supplier Excellence Award in the category of small and medium-sized enterprise due to its excellent product offerings and customer service.

The Sands Supplier Excellence Award is a global initiative of Sands Chinas parent company, Las Vegas Sands Corp to recognize outstanding cooperation and service by its suppliers.

According to Stephen, a long history should not mean a conservative approach to business, and companies should constantly innovate and incorporate new products, adding the need enhance company competitiveness in order to seize opportunities and grow over the long term.

The general manager noted that the supplier awards encourage local SMEs to continue to exert effort in providing high-standard products and services to their clients.

These initiatives act as an acknowledgement and encouragement to local SMEs. At least we know that we are on the right trackand its a good way for SMEs to promote themselves to other enterprises as it enhances a firms reputation, said Stephen.

The local firm also partners with other gaming operators in the city, so Stephen hopes that the awards would encourage large firms in the region to source supplies from his 60-year old company.

Currently, Chao Pak Kei delivers goods to Sands Chinas properties on a day-to-day basis, excluding Sundays, expressing its confidence in providing a quality service to the gaming operator.

Our main advantage is our local service, said Stephen, recalling that Sands China used to acquire similar items from companies in Hong Kong.

We can do logistics, we have our own warehouse and we just keep expanding our warehouse. Thats one of the most important factors to explain how we have been able to deal with Sands China for so long, he added.

Commending the flexibility and service of Sands Chinas procurement team, the general manager lauded the team for assisting them in improving their products and services by offering feedback.

The procurement team in Sands China is the most efficient and organized in Macau, praised Stephen.

Currently, the local firm distributes high-end disposable products and is continually working with other brands from abroad to ensure that they provide quality products for local needs.

Chao Pak Kei has Sands China as its largest client  supplying over 300 different items to the gaming operator  and hopes to continually extend their business relationships.

The local firm is also working on entering the digital marketplace where it will showcase products online for clients to have easier access to the company.

In recent years, we have seen that the demand in the market is changing. They are looking for some more high- end products; thats why we have distributorshipsfrom some companies in Europe and US well, Stephen explained.

Sands China has witnessed the local firms ability to keep up with the times with high levels of adaptability, responding promptly to the needs of the gaming operator.

Sands China sees it as its responsibility to assist the development of local SME suppliers. As the property continues to expand, it aims to bring local firms along with its growth.

Hundreds of SMEs have greatly benefitted from the series of programs that Sands China has launched, including its initiatives to hold roadshows in the back- of-house areas of its properties.

These roadshows offer more business opportunities to local SMEs, micro-enterprises, young entrepreneurs, and Made-in-Macao enterprises, and are part of Sands Chinas commitment to supporting local procurement and SME growth.

This article was sponsored by Sands China Ltd.
The Northern Ireland peace talks have ended with an historic agreement.

The accord  dubbed the Good Friday Agreement  was reached after nearly two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.

Negotiations on the final day dragged on more than 17 hours after the deadline for an agreement passed.

The agreement is a triumph for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Republic of Irelands leader, Bertie Ahern, who have succeeded where all their predecessors failed.

Speaking at a news conference after the deal was announced Tony Blair said he hoped it marked a new beginning.

Today I hope that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from our shoulders, Mr Blair said.

Bertie Ahern said he hoped a line could now be drawn under the bloody past .

The proposals in the agreement include plans for a Northern Ireland Assembly, new cross-border institutions involving the Irish Republic and a body linking devolved assemblies across the UK with Westminster and Dublin.

A copy of the proposals will be posted to every household in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and then put to a referendum in May.

The chairman of the talks, former US Senator George Mitchell, paid tribute to all those who had taken part.

But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said there was still a huge gap of distrust between nationalists and unionists.

It must be bridged on the basis of equality. We are here reaching out the hand of friendship, he said.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble added: I see a great opportunity for us to start a healing process.

The peace agreement was also welcomed by the UDP and PUP parties, which represent loyalist paramilitary groups.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

A referendum held in May 1998 on both sides of the Irish border, returned a resounding yes vote for the Good Friday Agreement.

The first three years of the agreements implementation saw accusations and counter-accusation from both sides.

Unionists said the republicans had not complied with the spirit of the agreements requirement for the decommissioning of arms.

Disagreement over decommissioning and policing led to three suspensions of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In October 2002 it was also suspended after allegations of IRA intelligence gathering inside the Northern Ireland Office.

Devolved power was restored to the Assembly on 8 May 2007. DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Feins Martin McGuinness  age-old opponents  took office as first and deputy first ministers ending five years of direct rule.
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EXPLAINER: Why coffee could cost more at groceries, cafes

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP)  As if a cup of coffee wasnt expensive enough, a confluence of factors is driving up farmers' costs to grow the beans and it could begin filtering down to your local cafe before

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Credit: University of California, San Francisco

A study that involved combing through more than 50 years of data to assess the link between asthma and daycare and preschool attendance may provide welcome reassurance to working parents. Early child care does not boost children's risk for developing this common respiratory disease, according to the study led by researchers at UCSF and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco.

In fact, attending a child care facility is protective of asthma in children ages 3 to 5, lowering their odds of developing asthma by 34 percent, the authors concluded in the study publishing April 9, 2018, in the Journal of Asthma.

However, the results weren't all good news, noted senior author and pediatrician Michael Cabana, MD, MPH, chief of the UCSF Division of General Pediatrics. While early child care did not increase asthma risk in children aged 6 to 18, its protective effect was not sustained in this age group. Additionally, in tots aged 2 and under, child care was associated with nearly twice the odds of wheezing, the whistling or rattling sound when breathing that may be due to the smaller airways of very young children in combination with a viral infection.

In the meta-analysis, Cabana and first author Alicia Swartz, a Ph.D. candidate in the UCSF School of Nursing, assessed 32 peer-reviewed studies published from 1964 to 2017. The papers looked at the incidence of asthma and wheeze as reported by parents and/or medical providers of children attending child care, defined as any out-of-home program offering care and education in the pre-kindergarten years.

'All that Wheezes is Not Asthma'

"The early benefit of child care exposure can potentially be explained by the hygiene hypothesis," said Cabana. "This theory suggests that lack of exposure to infectious diseases commonly found in child care settings may decrease the risk of allergic diseases, including asthma."

The increase in wheeze in children ages 2 and under may not be of particular concern, Cabana said. "There's a saying that 'all that wheezes is not asthma.' Wheeze is a common presentation of viral airway infections that is seen frequently in young children in child care. Bronchiolitis, for example, is found in up to one third of children 2 and under. But it doesn't necessarily lead to asthma."

While asthma may be suspected in tots and preschoolers, the disorder is not usually diagnosed until after age 5, due to the similarity of symptoms with other childhood conditions.

The study's results affirm some earlier studies and contradict others. "While it would not be accurate to describe the findings of this meta-analysis as definitive due to the heterogeneity of the studies reviewed," said Swartz, "we hope it will provide some reassurance to working parents."

The number of children in child care is rising. In 1993, 52 percent of preschool-aged children were enrolled in a child care, according to the United States Census Bureau, versus 61 percent by 2011.

Asthma affects approximately 8 percent of children and teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Explore further Eczema plus family history can mean a longer hospital stay for kids with asthma

More information: Alicia Swartz et al. The effect of early child care attendance on childhood asthma and wheezing: A meta-analysis, Journal of Asthma (2018). Alicia Swartz et al. The effect of early child care attendance on childhood asthma and wheezing: A meta-analysis,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2018.1445268
Frailty is common in elderly people. Credit: oneinchpunch/Shutterstock

Frailty is common in elderly people with cardiovascular disease and goes along with elevated mortality. However, no consensus exists on the definition of frailty. Many scores have been developed to assess frailty and to make predictions on disease and mortality, but there is no gold standard. Dr Gloria Aguayo from the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and co-workers examined the predictive ability of 35 frailty scores for cardiovascular disease, cancer and all-cause mortality using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The analysis, recently published in a special issued of PLOS Medicine on cardiovascular disease and multimorbidity, reveals that all frailty scores are associated with future mortality, and that some are linked to cardiovascular disease but none to cancer. The study underscores that the comparative evaluation of strength of associations between health outcomes in elderly people provides a solid evidence base for researchers and health professionals.

Dr Gloria Aguayo, scientist at the Epidemiology and Public Health Research Unit in LIH's Department of Population Health, and her collaboration partners analysed 35 frailty scores on their ability to predict mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The study used data from 5,294 adults aged 60 years or more, and followed up over a period of seven years within the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

The researchers observed that all frailty scores were associated with all-cause mortality, while some were also associated with the incidence of cardiovascular disease. But none were associated with cancer events. In models adjusted for demographic and clinical information, 33 out of 35 frailty scores showed significant added predictive performance for all-cause mortality. Certain scores outperform others with regard to all-cause mortality and cardiovascular health outcomes in later life. The authors specify that multidimensional frailty scores may have a more stable association with mortality and incidence of cardiovascular disorders.

"This study addresses one of the most relevant issues in healthcare and research on aging populationshow to diagnose and assess frailty, given the availability of many different frailty scores and the lack of a gold standard," says Dr Aguayo. "Our study provides a direct comparison of the most complete list of frailty scores examined to date, using an advanced and reproducible methodology, in a well-characterised cohort representing the general elderly population."

The study highlights the vast heterogeneity in the composition and performance of existing frailty scores. Dr Aguayo believes that the findings of the study will help clinicians in choosing the most appropriate instrument to assess frailty and associated health outcomes for their purpose. Notably, this research work is the first to compare the performance of frailty scores with respect to cancer incidence.

Explore further Frailty associated with failure to rescue after inpatient surgery

More information: Gloria A. Aguayo et al, Comparative analysis of the association between 35 frailty scores and cardiovascular events, cancer, and total mortality in an elderly general population in England: An observational study, PLOS Medicine (2018). Journal information: PLoS Medicine Gloria A. Aguayo et al, Comparative analysis of the association between 35 frailty scores and cardiovascular events, cancer, and total mortality in an elderly general population in England: An observational study,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002543

Provided by Luxembourg Institute of Health
Some new parents are deleting phone apps that give advice on looking after their babies because they make them feel guilty and inferior, new research says.

The British Sociological Association's annual conference in Newcastle heard today [Tuesday 10 April 2018] that parents' "early and enthusiastic use of a range of apps to monitor and track the care and development of their new baby" led eventually to "guilt, pressure and social comparison".

Dr. Kate Orton-Johnson, of the University of Edinburgh, spoke to 20 parents who had been heavy users of mobile phone apps to record their new baby's feeding and sleeping patterns but had now stopped using them.

Dr. Orton-Johnson told the conference that though the parents found the apps useful at first, they came to feel that recording their baby's development put pressure on them.

A father told her: "I went from being all about the gadgets to just wanting to escape the routines and not worry if milestones were being met or the right amount of weight was being gained or whatever."

A mother told her: "The switch for me was just realising that she [the baby] wasn't something I could control or monitor and as a mother I shouldn't want to. Stopping using them [apps] helped me let go of the idea that if something, sleep or weaning, was going wrong I could solve it. I've let myself go with the flow and let things happen much more, it's a relief."

Another mother told her that she was guilty about the time she spent on the apps: "I feel like I've done a complete turn around. I loved the apps but somehow this doesn't fit with how I was imagining myself as a mother. We're so bombarded with ideals of motherhood and it's hard enough without adding in guilt that I'm not present enough because I'm Instagramming everything."

One mother said: "I had to stop when I found myself actually going back and filling in entries for naps or feeds that I'd forgotten to fill in at the time. Who does that? Why was I bothering? It was about me and not at all about [the baby]"

Dr. Orton-Johnson said: "The use of apps seemed to exacerbate feelings of guilt, pressure and social comparison that shaped how they experienced parenting in ways that felt uncomfortable and undesirable.

"The respondents felt strongly that their use of technology was intruding into a domain  parenthood and motherhood in particular  where surveillance and monitoring was inappropriate and undesirable.

"The parents faced a love-hate relationship with the apps they used, feeling that they gave a sense of structure and security when tired, frazzled and vulnerable, but also that they exacerbated feelings of pressure, comparison and guilt.

"The respondents described feelings of liberation and freedom following their rejection of baby tracking apps. They described being released from a techno anxiety about their activities as parents and felt positive about no longer inhabiting parenthood through digital media."

The findings come at a time when parenting apps are taking off. "Parenting apps for smartphones and other mobile devices are an increasingly popular source of information and advice for new parents," Dr. Orton-Johnson told the conference.

Explore further Apps to keep children safe online may be counterproductive
Credit: Imperial College London

Researchers have discovered a new class of drug that has the potential to help cancer patients who no longer respond to existing therapies.

The drug may not become available to patients for a number of years yet, but researchers believe that if clinical trials are successful, it could be used to tackle a variety of treatment-resistant cancers.

Patients with breast cancer for example frequently become resistant to existing hormone-based treatments, leading to the disease becoming fatal.

In a bid to come up with new forms of treatment that work in a distinct way from established ones, chemists, biologists and clinicians at Imperial College London collaborated on creating a new drug, the properties of which are reported in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

The team of scientists at Imperial was funded by Cancer Research UK. The drug was then developed by Imperial, in collaboration with Emory University in the USA.

Early lab-based tests of ICEC0942 were successful in targeting resistant breast cancers and indicated minimal side effects. ICEC0942 was then licenced to Carrick Therapeutics, who developed it into a molecule named CT7001, which they have taken to early-stage clinical trials in less than two years.

The first patient was given the drug in November 2017 as part of Carrick's a Phase I clinical trial to assess its safety and how well it can be tolerated. The trial is still ongoing, so results are not available yet.

Professor Charles Coombes, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, said: "Treatment-resistant tumours represent a significant threat for patients, as once a cancer stops responding to treatments there is increasingly little clinicians can do.

"Drugs such as these could help to shift the balance back in favour of the patients, potentially providing a new option to patients for who existing treatments no longer work."

Professor Tony Barrett, from the Department of Chemistry, said: "This work is the result of extensive collaboration between chemists, biologists and clinicians, which has helped to bring a new treatment from discovery to clinical testing in record time, streamlining the process."

The drug targets an enzyme called CDK7, involved in directing cells through their lifecycle, which consists of growth, DNA replication and cell division. CDK7 is also involved in the process of transcription, a vital step in gene expression - the creation of proteins to carry out cell functions. Particular cancers, such as treatment-resistant breast cancers, have a unique dependence on transcription, meaning targeting CDK7 may be particularly effective.

By inhibiting transcription, ICEC0942 shuts down the ability of the cancer to spread. As well as breast cancers, cancers such as acute myeloid leukaemia and small-cell lung cancer are particularly transcription-dependent, so ICEC0942 may work well for these too, especially where they have become resistant to other treatments.

The discovery of the drug was spurred by an initial meeting between Professor Anthony Barrett, from the Department of Chemistry, and oncologist Professor Charles Coombes from the Department of Surgery & Cancer.

Professor Simak Ali, also from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, was working on understanding the action of CDK7 in treatment-resistant breast cancer. Professors Coombes and Ali suggested CDK7 as a drug target, leading the collaboration to attempt to design a molecule that would inhibit its action.

From early attempts, a large collaborative team was eventually founded for drug discovery from 'bench to bedside', directed by Dr Matthew Fuchter in the Department of Chemistry. Possible compounds for CDK7 inhibition were modelled using computational drug design, aided by collaboration with Emory University.

Ultimately, a candidate molecule called ICEC0942 suppressed tumour growth in a wide range of cancer types in lab tests. In addition, laboratory studies showed ICEC0942 worked better in combination with traditional hormone therapies for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells, which have not yet become resistant. It is this molecule, in oral pill form, that was taken forward by Carrick as CT7001 and is currently in Phase I clinical trials. If the Phase I trial proves successful, the compound must pass further stages of trial over the next few years before it becomes available to patients.

Early funding for the study came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and a major contribution of whole-project funding was from Cancer Research UK. Licensing of the technology to Carrick Therapeutics was led by Cancer Research UK's Commercial Partnerships Team and Imperial Innovations, the Technology Transfer Office of Imperial, with support from Emory University.

Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK's executive director of research and innovation, said: "It's exciting to see how Cancer Research UK's partnerships with both academia and industry are bringing urgently needed new tests and treatments to patients.

"Drug resistance continues to be a major challenge across many cancer types so it's vital that we explore new ways to tackle tumours that have stopped responding to standard therapies. We hope that this promising new class of drug will offer more options to patients who have few left available to them, and help more people survive their cancer."

Explore further Study sheds new light on mechanism of breast cancer treatment resistance

More information: Hetal Patel et al, ICEC0942, an Orally Bioavailable Selective Inhibitor of CDK7 for Cancer Treatment, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (2018). Journal information: Molecular Cancer Therapeutics Hetal Patel et al, ICEC0942, an Orally Bioavailable Selective Inhibitor of CDK7 for Cancer Treatment,(2018). DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-16-0847
Credit: University of Michigan

The child welfare system is more likely to intervene in households in "less neighborly" neighborhoods and in which parents spank their kids, a new study shows.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University conducted analyses on nearly 2,300 families from 20 large U.S. cities who responded to surveys and interviews. Participating families had a child who was born between 1998-2000.

They found that living in neighborhoods with strong social cohesion and trustwhere neighbors are willing to help each other and generally get alongprotects families against getting involved in the child welfare system.

In addition, Child Protective Services is less likely to intervene in households where kids are rarely spanked.

Other factors, such as poverty and mothers feeling depressed, also increase the odds of CPS involvement after controlling for neighborhood risk and spanking.

In the study, mothers reported the neighborhood conditions in which they lived, such as supportive relationships between neighbors and whether they spanked their 3-year-old child within the past month. The moms also reported contact with CPS when their child had been 3-5 years.

"Our findings suggest that promoting caring, neighborly relationships among residents that support the needs and challenges of families with young children can help ensure children's safety," said study co-author Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, U-M associate professor of social work.

About 57 percent of the 3-year-olds in the sample had been spanked by a parent or parental figure in the past month. CPS investigated 7.4 million children for suspected maltreatment during 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Unlike previous research that only factored spanking and neighborhood conditions separately as precursors of child maltreatment, the current study examined these factors simultaneously, said study lead author Julie Ma, assistant professor of social work at UM-Flint.

"Both the types of neighborhoods in which parents choose, or are forced, to raise their children and parents' decisions about whether they spank their children influence the chances of CPS involvement," she said. "Programs and policies should address strategies for building supportive resident interactions in the neighborhoods, as well as nonphysical child discipline to help reduce maltreatment."

The study, whose other author was Sacha Klein of Michigan State University, appears in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

Explore further Spanking babies is surprisingly common

More information: Julie Ma et al. Neighborhood collective efficacy, parental spanking, and subsequent risk of household child protective services involvement, Child Abuse & Neglect (2018). Journal information: Child Abuse & Neglect Julie Ma et al. Neighborhood collective efficacy, parental spanking, and subsequent risk of household child protective services involvement,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.019
(HealthDay)Pregnant women who take certain antidepressants may unknowingly compromise the brain development of their child, researchers suggest.

The concern is based on a new analysis of brain scans involving nearly 100 newborns, some of whom were born to mothers who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) while pregnant. Some examples of SSRIs are Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa and Prozac.

The scans indicated that SSRI exposure in the womb was associated with an increase in the size of gray matter found in two parts of the brain: the amygdala and the insula. Maternal SSRI use was also linked to an increase in white matter connections between the two regions.

Animal research has linked such increases to a higher risk for developing anxiety and depression, explained study author Jiook Cha, an assistant professor in the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

What's more, the changes Cha and his colleagues saw were "much greater than the brain changes or abnormalities associated with psychiatric disorders that we usually observe in children or adults," he said.

Still, Cha noted that the study "does not demonstrate cause and effect." And he added that his team "did not test long-term consequences of the brain changes associated with prenatal exposure to SSRIs."

But Cha stressed that the association "may make it difficult to think prenatal exposure to SSRIs may have no impact on fetal brain development."

Generally speaking, gray matter facilitates most of the brain's signaling and is central to sensory perceptions, while white matter is largely nerve fiber bundles that enable communication between brain regions. The specific brain regions in question are critical to the processing of emotions.

All the mothers in the study were between the ages of 18 and 45 while pregnant between 2011 and 2016. Nearly a third were white, a quarter Hispanic, and a quarter black.

Most of the mothers had been examined for depression before, during and after pregnancy, and those prescribed an SSRI during their pregnancy were assigned to the "SSRI group."

All of the newborns had brain scans at an average age of just 1.5 weeks.

The scans revealed that babies in the SSRI group had "significant" increases in the size of amygdala and insula gray matter, compared with those born to mothers who had been diagnosed with depression but not given an SSRI and those born to moms without depression.

SSRI group infants also had "a significant increase" in white matter connections between those two regions, relative to the other groups.

Cha noted that while maternal depression (with or without SSRI treatment) was accounted for, the study did not examine other critical factors that could affect fetal development, including a family history of depression.

He also said more and larger investigations will be needed to see how fetal brain changes linked to maternal SSRI use might translate into mental health difficulties later in life.

In the meantime, what should pregnant women struggling with depression do?

"Unfortunately right now, based on the study, we cannot advise mothers and their doctors on whether to start or continue SSRIs through pregnancy," said Cha. "For now, each mother and their team of doctors should discuss the pros and cons of medication, and choose the option that makes the most sense for their particular situation."

But Dr. Nada Stotland, past president of the American Psychiatry Association and a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago, characterized the finding as "interesting, but extremely preliminary." She was not involved with the study.

"Implying this association between fetal brain region development with how a child is going to behave for the rest of his life is very premature," she said. "And it's something we never hear said about other medications that pregnant women take all the time for asthma, or heart disease or diabetes.

"Of course, no medication can ever be proven to be absolutely safe for the unborn child," Stotland acknowledged. "But we do know that untreated depression is a risk for the pregnancy, the fetus and the newborn. So this doesn't belong in the public sphere, because it will alarm people unnecessarily."

Explore further Maternal use of SSRIs associated with fewer depressive symptoms, delayed fetal head growth

More information: Jiook Cha, Ph.D., assistant professor, division of child and adolescent psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; Nada Stotland, M.D., M.P.H., past president, American Psychiatry Association, and professor, psychiatry, and obstetrics/gynecology, Rush Medical College, Chicago; April 9, 2018, JAMA Pediatrics, Abstract/Full Text Jiook Cha, Ph.D., assistant professor, division of child and adolescent psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; Nada Stotland, M.D., M.P.H., past president, American Psychiatry Association, and professor, psychiatry, and obstetrics/gynecology, Rush Medical College, Chicago; April 9, 2018, There's more on SSRIs and pregnancy risks at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Journal information: JAMA Pediatrics

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: University of Minnesota

Over the past decade, how patients receive their care in clinics has been transforming, from traditional primary care to patient-centered medical homes. These "homes" focus on team-based, coordinated, and whole-person care instead of short-term, episodic, or fragmented care seen earlier in primary care. While research has shown patient-centered medical homes can lead to improved care, University of Minnesota researchers set out to discover why that might be the case.

"Although we can look for whether changes to clinics are responsible for better outcomes, we need to know how those improvements might happen," said Nathan Shippee, an assistant professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health.

Using data provided by MN Community Measurement, researchers looked at how being certified as a patient-centered medical home by the state of Minnesotapart of the state's Health Care Home initiativehelped patients get better asthma care, compared to other primary care clinics.

"With asthma care, we had measures that allowed us to break down the quality of care into different pieces and test the relationship between clinic organization, care management and patient education, and health outcomes. This helps us understand howand not just whetherwe might obtain better outcomes in Health Care Home clinics," said Shippee.

The researchers' study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, shows that Health Care Homes had better asthma outcomes than other primary care clinics, and that asthma care management (patient education with an asthma action plan) made up a sizable piece of that. The study found that better rates of asthma education with an action plan made up 16- to 35-percent of the total Health Care Home clinics' benefit for asthma health outcomes. However, most of the benefit of Health Care Homes was due to other factors.

Explore further Asthma management tools improve asthma control and reduce hospital visits

More information: Assessing Medical Home Mechanisms: Certification, Asthma Education, and Outcomes American Journal of Managed Care. www.ajmc.com/journals/issue/20  ucation-and-outcomes Journal information: American Journal of Managed Care Assessing Medical Home Mechanisms: Certification, Asthma Education, and Outcomes
A traffic jam in Brussels

The EU admitted Tuesday it is unlikely to hit its target of halving road deaths by 2020, saying that efforts to improve safety reduced fatalities by just 300 last year.

A total of 25,300 people were killed on EU roads in 2017, and 135,000 were seriously injured.

The bloc has poured money into its plan to make the continent's roads safer but the number of deaths has barely fallen from the 26,000 seen in 2013.

The EU's transport commissioner Violeta Bulc acknowledged the target of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020 was no longer realistic.

"At this rate we will be struggling to reach our goal of halving road deaths by 2020," Bulc told reporters.

Road deaths in the EU fell from 54,900 in 2001 to 31,500 in 2010 but the decline since then has slowed considerably, stagnating in 2013-14 and even rising slightly in 2015.

As a proportion of the population, there were 49 deaths per million EU inhabitants in 2017, down from 50 the year before, but there is a gulf between the safest and most dangerous countries.

Sweden with 25 deaths per million population and Britain with 27 were the top performers, way ahead of Romania on 98 and Bulgaria on 96.

The European Commission, the bloc's powerful executive branch, will come out with new proposals next month to improve safety.

Full details have not been announced but Bulc said there would be a push to improve road infrastructure, targeting investment at known accident black spots to make them safer.

Explore further Traffic deaths considerable compared with leading causes of death

 2018 AFP
The results of an international clinical trial for a new system of diagnosing heart transplant rejection and injury will be presented publicly for the first time at the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) annual meeting, which will take place on April 11 and 12 in Nice, France.

Led by Dr. Phil Halloran and his team at the Alberta Transplant Applied Genomics Centre (ATAGC) at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, the INTERHEART study developed a molecular system for reading heart transplant biopsies through the use of microarrays, commonly referred to as gene chips. The system promises greater accuracy in determining heart rejection and predicting future heart failure.

"Heart biopsies are conventionally read by microscopes, but there is extensive disagreement between doctors reading the biopsies, and therefore, errors," said Halloran, Muttart Research Chair in Clinical Immunology and a professor of medicine at the U of A. "The ATAGC team believes that biopsies should be read by their molecules, and has developed a 'molecular microscope' method to do just that."

The method uses gene chipssimilar in some ways to computer chipsto interpret the molecules in biopsies. In the molecular microscope system developed by the ATAGC, software converts the chip readings into diagnoses automatically.

"Unlike conventional microscopes, the molecular assessment can also detect other serious injuries that are not rejection but can be confused with rejection," said Halloran. "The molecular microscope results suggest that unrecognized injury has been confused with rejection in many cases by conventional methods. This emerges as a major opportunity to improve care."

The molecular system diagnoses rejection of two types: by T cells and by antibodies. Molecular microscope readings require less tissue and ATAGC research indicates that it is more precise and accurate than conventional methods.

The clinical trial was supported by an international team of co-investigators in North America, Europe and Australia. The next step is to use the readings to guide therapy for better outcomes. The molecular microscope system is also being developed for lung transplant, with the goal of changing care for those patients as well.

Explore further Q&A: Life after a heart transplant
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A new way to rapidly assess levels of consciousness in people with head injuries could improve patient care.

The new score - based on the Glasgow Coma Scale - could also help doctors assess the health of the patient's central nervous system in cases of serious trauma or intensive care.

Using it could improve the way doctors around the world care for patients in a coma from brain injury.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which was created at the University of Glasgow and the city's Southern General Hospital in 1974.

The 13 point scale - covering the patient's ability to open their eyes, speak and move - has revolutionised the care of brain injured patients worldwide.

The original GCS team joined forces with researchers at the University of Edinburgh to improve the scale by adding a simple score for pupil response.

Using health records from more than 15,000 patients, they showed that the new score, known as the GCS-Pupil (GCS-P), would have improved doctors' ability to predict a patient's condition in the six months following a brain injury.

A major advantage of the GCS-P is its simplicity and it could be adopted into hospitals easily, allowing doctors to quickly assess prognosis, experts say.

There are almost 350,000 hospital admissions involving damage to the brain in the UK per year, equating to one admission every 90 seconds.

Dr Paul Brennan, who co-led the study from the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, said: "The importance of the Glasgow Coma Scale to medicine cannot be overstated and our simple revision really improves its predictive ability and usefulness.

"Making major decisions about brain injured patients relies on quick assessments and the new method gives us rapid insights into the patient's condition. Our next step is to test the GCS-P more widely on large data sets from Europe and the US."

Professor Sir Graham Teasdale, Emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow, who first developed the GCS and co-led the study, said: "This has been a very successful collaboration. It promises to add a new index to the language of clinical practice throughout the world. The GCS-P will be a platform for bringing together clinical information in a way that can be easily communicated and understood. "

Explore further Personal View looks back on 40 years of the Glasgow Coma Scale
On-site testing of 'party drug' pills could reduce the harms caused by drug use and potentially save lives, according to an independent review of Australia's National Drug Strategy, published in the open access Harm Reduction Journal.

Dr Andrew Groves at Deakin University, Australia, examines evidence in support of pill testing to reduce fatalities caused by 'party drugs' such as ecstasy and methamphetamines, at festivals, clubs and raves. Pill testing involves party-goers having a sample of their drugs tested on-site by scientists and drug experts. They then receive information about what is in their drug, with the option of keeping the drug or anonymously handing it over.

Dr Andrew Groves, corresponding author, said: "The most surprising finding of our research is that the evidence has clearly identified the inadequacy of existing punitive, zero tolerance strategies across several countries, and yet such policies often remain embedded in government legislative action. While we still need further evaluation of how best to implement pill testing and other harm reduction initiatives, the evidence suggests that they are useful and there is widespread support from the community and practitioners in the field. The debate must be about harm, rather than criminality."

In the review, the author evaluated examples of drug policies around the world, including Portugal, where the government has implemented pill testing, as part of much broader policy reforms including the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs. This led to drug use being viewed as a public health concern, rather than a criminal issue and reduced problematic drug use and its related harms.

The researcher analysed another example of pill testing: Austria's chEckiT project. In this project, users were presented information on the quality or purity of their drug. If presented with a negative result, two-thirds of users reported that they would not consume their drugs and would also warn friends against taking them. A similar project in the Netherlands found that pill testing did not increase the use of party drugs, which is often perceived as a risk of such initiatives.

Dr Groves said: "Although considered radical at the time, these measures have been effective in reducing the harms associated with illicit drug use, and problems for drug users and the wider community. The examples evaluated in this study support the idea that party-drug use requires pragmatic, evidence-based initiatives, such as pill testing, rather than criminal justice responses."

In data from recent literature, the author found evidence of increased consumption of more potent forms of 'party drugs' such as MDMA and 'ice'. The author suggested that, in addition to the surveillance and monitoring efforts carried out under the current National Drug Strategy in Australia, pill testing could provide further data on the quality and content of the drugs people use and that it could be useful for monitoring changes in the drug market. Pill testing data could provide more accurate information than current techniques, such as wastewater analysis, which could inform users on how to reduce drug-related harms and help authorities to influence the drug market. For example, the Netherlands' Drug Information and Monitoring System, which used data from pill testing to accurately identify drug content, purity and potency, informed national warning campaigns, which has pushed dangerous, low-quality substances out of the market.

Dr Groves said: "We are calling for further collaboration between law enforcement and healthcare providers to ensure that they take appropriate action to reduce the harm caused by drugs. It is important to focus on prevention, public awareness campaigns and education to shift cultural attitudes, so that use of party drugs is identified as a public health issue rather than a criminal one."

The author stressed that although pill testing cannot eliminate the harms of drug use, and cannot be used as a stand-alone solution, it could be a vital part of wider harm reduction strategy. The author noted that there is a need to ensure evidence-based approaches that are targeted, appropriate and cost-effective, and that will lead to reduced harms associated with illicit drugs.

More information: Andrew Groves, 'Worth the test?' Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia, Harm Reduction Journal (2018). Andrew Groves, 'Worth the test?' Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12954-018-0216-z
The findings highlight the importance of follow through care of nursing home patients after hospital discharge. Credit: University of New South Wales

An intervention approach that involves structured visits to healthcare professionals for nursing home residents after hospital discharge halves their chance of readmission and visits to emergency rooms, according to new research by UNSW.

A collaborative study between researchers at UNSW Medicine's Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), the Department of Aged Care, St George Hospital and Calvary Health Care has developed an intervention for nursing home residents following hospital discharge which has resulted in almost two thirds fewer hospital readmissions.

The findings, which were published in the March issue of JAMDA, highlight the importance of follow through care of nursing home patients after hospital discharge, an aspect of care generally neglected in this group.

Lead author on the paper and senior lecturer at UNSW and senior staff specialist at St George and Calvary Hospitals, Dr. Nicholas Cordato, said that re-hospitalisation of nursing home residents is frequent, costly, potentially avoidable and associated with poor survival and diminished quality of life.

"Lack of specialist clinical input within facilities is a key factor," said Dr. Cordato.

Mindful of these issues, the collaboration developed the Regular Early Assessment Post-Discharge (REAP) intervention of coordinated specialist geriatrician and nurse practitioner evaluation and management of nursing home residents who have been recently discharged from hospital.

The intervention consists of seven regular monthly conjoint geriatrician and nurse practitioner nursing home visits of nursing home residents for the first six months following hospital admission. The randomised-controlled study examined the effectiveness of the REAP intervention, with researchers identifying significant benefits associated with the implementation of REAP.

Co-author on the study and co-director of UNSW's Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, Professor Henry Brodaty, said that the findings were extremely positive with almost two thirds fewer hospital readmissions and half as many Emergency Department visits compared with controls.

"Importantly, the total costs were 50% lower in the REAP intervention group, with lower total hospital inpatient and total emergency department costs," said Professor Brodaty.

According to Dr. Cordato this research intervention has significant implications on the way in which health care is delivered to this vulnerable subset of our society.

More information: Nicholas J. Cordato et al. Management of Nursing Home Residents Following Acute Hospitalization: Efficacy of the "Regular Early Assessment Post-Discharge (REAP)" Intervention, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (2018). Journal information: Journal of American Medical Directors Association Nicholas J. Cordato et al. Management of Nursing Home Residents Following Acute Hospitalization: Efficacy of the "Regular Early Assessment Post-Discharge (REAP)" Intervention,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2017.12.008
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The study aimed to investigate the short and longer-term impact of a 45-min delay in school start time on sleep and well-being of adolescents.

Singapore leads the world in the Programme for International Student Assessment rankings, which measures international scholastic performance in 15-year-olds. East Asian students live in a culture where the importance of academic success is deeply ingrained. This drive for academic achievement leads to high attainment in international academic assessments but has contributed to the curtailment of nocturnal sleep on school nights to well below the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep, putting students at risk of cognitive and psychological problems.

In Singapore, school typically starts around 7:30 AM, which is one hour earlier than the 8:30 AM or later start time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep deprivation among Singaporean adolescents is rampant, and the average time in bed on school nights is 6 and a half hours.

In July 2016, an all-girls' secondary school in Singapore delayed its start time from 7:30 to 8:15 in the morning by restructuring its schedule in a way that did not delay school end time. Researchers investigated the impact of starting school later on students' sleep and well-being one month and nine months after the institution of the start time delay.

The sample consisted of 375 students in grades 7-10 from an all-girls' secondary school in Singapore that delayed its start time from 7:30 to 08:15 in the morning. Researchers assessed self-reports of sleep timing, sleepiness, and well-being (depressive symptoms and mood) before the school made the schedule change, and evaluated the measures again at approximately one and nine months after the delay. Total sleep time was also measured.

Later school start times have been shown to benefit sleep and well-being in Western cultures, but its usefulness in East Asian countries where students are driven to trade sleep for academic success is less clear. Most studies on later school start times have been conducted in Western countries. These studies have consistently found increased sleep duration on school nights with later start times. However, the sustainability of sleep habit improvement is not as well characterized.

Researchers wondered if students would continue to get more sleep if schools delayed their start times; the gains may not be sustained if students gradually delay their bedtime. For example, one study found that the sleep gained two months after a 45-minute delay in start time was no longer observed after another seven months, due to a delay in the sleep period. Delaying bedtimes, partly as a result of mounting academic workload, is a pressing reality in most East Asian households. Compounding this erosion of sleep time in East Asian societies is the resistance to changing the already packed school schedules. For example, recently, a secondary school in Hong Kong agreed to delay its start time, but only by 15 minutes. Nevertheless, a four-minute increase in time-in-bed on weekdays was found, together with gains in mental health, prosocial behavior and better attentiveness in class and peer relationships.

The results of this new study indicate that after one month, bedtimes on school nights were delayed by nine minutes while the times students got up were delayed by about 32 minutes, resulting in an increase in time in bed of 23 minutes.

Participants also reported lower levels of subjective sleepiness and improvement in well-being at both follow-ups. Notably, greater increase in sleep duration on school nights was associated with greater improvement in alertness and well-being.

Critically, with a later school start time the percentage of participants whose self-reported sleeping time on weekdays was at least 8 hoursthe amount generally considered appropriate for adolescentsincreased, from 6.9% to 16%. Total sleep time increased by about 10 minutes at the nine-month follow-up.

"Starting school later in East Asia is feasible and can have sustained benefits," said the paper's lead researcher, Michael Chee. "Our work extends the empirical evidence collected by colleagues in the West and argues strongly for disruption in practice and attitudes surrounding sleep and wellbeing in societies where these are believed to hinder rather than enhance societal advancement."

Explore further CDC: Many school children are not getting enough sleep

More information: "Sustained Benefits of Delaying School Start Time on Adolescent Sleep and Well-being" Sleep, academic.oup.com/sleep/article  10.1093/sleep/zsy052 Journal information: Sleep "Sustained Benefits of Delaying School Start Time on Adolescent Sleep and Well-being"
Since ancient times, humans have used opium and its derivatives to block pain. Yet in all that time, no one has found a solution to two main side effects of opioidsaddiction and overdose.

Opioids block pain signals by stimulating opioid receptors in the spinal cord and brain. But they don't work for all types of chronic pain, says Stephen Waxman, M.D., Ph.D., the Bridget M. Flaherty Professor of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven. Many patients with neuropathic painthe result of nervous system injury or dysfunctionget little or no relief.

Neuropathic pain, says Waxman, is "a very important unmet medical need." It can occur after nerve injury or shingles; in association with diabetes; or as a response to chemotherapy.

"For all of these diseases, a common thread is that we need better therapies," Waxman says. He's working to develop such therapies, and he's found a new targetnot opioid receptors but sodium channels, which neurons need to fire.

For several years he's been testing painkillers that block sodium channels in patients with a rare genetic disorder that sends their pain neurons into overdrive. Waxman hopes to find treatments that will not only ease common types of chronic pain but also reduce opioid use.

Atomic-level model of the Nav1.7 sodium channel, which is a master switch for pain. This model is permitting scientists at Yale to advance toward precision, genomically guided medications for pain, which will not have such side effects as sleepiness or confusion, and will not have the potential for addiction. Credit: Prof. S. Waxman, Yale School of Medicine

His search for non-opioid painkillers began at the dentist's office. Lidocaine, Novocain, and all of the "-caine" drugs in dentists' needles are local anesthetics that stop neurons from transmitting pain signals by blocking their sodium channels. But in pill form, those drugs would have such unacceptable side effects as double vision, seizures, sleepiness, and confusion, all a consequence of blocking sodium channels in the brain. A "holy grail of pain research," Waxman says, is to find a sodium channel that is essential to the function of peripheral nerves that lie outside the brain and spinal cord, but that does not play a major role in the brain. Exploiting such a channel, he says, could block pain without leading to side effects or addiction.

In the 1990s, scientists found such a channel, Nav1.7, and Waxman's lab began to study it. But drug companies wouldn't pursue drugs targeting that channel without proof that it had an important role in human health. In 2003 Waxman began scouring the world for people with inherited neuropathic pain, in hopes of linking pain disorders to their particular mutations, genes, and proteins.

He was still searching when a lab in China reported in March 2004 that mutations in a gene, SCN9A, which encodes Nav1.7, were the likely cause of the rare genetic disorder inherited erythromelalgia (IEM). "Mild warmth triggers intense burning pain, and many patients keep their hands and feet on ice, to the point of getting tissue damage, sometimes even gangrene," Waxman says of the disorder, also known as man-on-fire syndrome. At first Waxman thought that the Chinese lab had beaten him to the punch. But although the Chinese scientists had linked the sodium channel to the disorder, they had not shown how the channel works or how damage to the sodium channel causes IEM. The Waxman lab began investigating and later that year published their results. The mutations in SCN9A, says Waxman, "make the Nav1.7 channel overactive. And that makes pain-signaling nerve cells shriek when they should be whispering." Soon, Waxman's lab received a grant from The Erythromelalgia Association and what Waxman calls "a much bigger gift"access to a community of families with erythromelalgia who have shared their DNA and medical histories and participated in clinical trials.

In 2009 Waxman and colleagues reported that patients with a particular SCN9A mutation responded well to carbamazepine, which blocks all sodium channels. Later, they used computer modeling of the sodium channel to predict that people with IEM who had a different SCN9A mutation might also respond to the drug. A 2016 study at Yale confirmed their hypothesis. Waxman hopes to use genetics and computer modeling in a "precision medicine" approach to predict drug responses in patients with other variations in their genes.

In 2016, Waxman collaborated with Pfizer to test another drug that, unlike carbamazepine, targets only the sodium channel Nav1.7. Three of the five study participants responded to the drug in at least one of two trials, and two participants responded to the drug on both trials. In general, patients reported a three-point reduction in pain on the 10-point scale. Waxman cautions that the number of patients studied was small. Nevertheless, "That's a fairly large improvement," Waxman says.

The scope of this research extends beyond IEM. Waxman hopes that work on sodium-channel blockers will lead to the development of non-opioid medications to treat many kinds of chronic pain. Already the British company Convergence Pharmaceuticals, recently acquired by Biogen, has tested one Nav1.7 blocker as a treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, which causes attacks of facial pain. Waxman is collaborating on that study, and early results are promising, he says. Eventually, Waxman believes, these opioid alternatives will be tested as treatments for back pain, diabetic neuropathy, and more. "We need to do a lot more work, and the numbers will tell the story, but I am hopeful."
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Many young women and their doctors remain uncomfortable talking about sexually transmitted diseases, and these patients often underestimate their risk, according to a new report by a major health services provider.

Poor patient-doctor communication and false beliefs about STD risks may be among the factors contributing to the nation's record high rates of STDs, says the study, released Monday by medical laboratory testing giant Quest Diagnostics.

The Quest-commissioned national survey queried females ages 15 to 24, mothers of females in that age group, and physicians.

STD cases exceeded 2 million in 2016, the highest rates ever reported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half were in young people.

According to the study by Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest, 51 percent of the young survey respondents who acknowledged being sexually active said they do not want to talk about sex or STDs with their doctors, and 27 percent said they do not always tell their doctor the truth about their sexual history.

Some of the youngest patients may be most at risk of not being diagnosed. Of the sexually active teenagers ages 15 to 17 who were questioned, 43 percent said they were not always truthful with their health providers. In addition, these teenagers said their clinicians were less likely to ask if they wanted to be tested for STDs than the respondents to a similar Quest survey done two years before.

The new survey results also suggest some doctors may be part of the problem.

Although the CDC recommends annual testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea for all sexually active women under 25, 49 percent of the young women said their doctor or nurse had never asked them if they wanted STD testing.

In addition, about one quarter of the doctors questioned said they were "very uncomfortable" discussing sexually transmitted infection risk with their female patients. A third said they rely on symptoms to diagnose STDs, and about a quarter said they wouldn't order chlamydia or gonorrhea tests for females who were sexually active but had no disease symptoms. The study notes the CDC has advised that STDs do not always cause symptoms, and that people can have infections without knowing it.

The study results also indicate that young women harbor many misconceptions about STD risk.

Of those who said they were sexually active, 56 percent said they had been tested for a STD. The reasons the young women gave for not getting tested were thinking they were not at risk62 percentand not having symptoms55 percent.

Only 39 percent said a condom was used the last time they had sex.

"Our findings suggest that discomfort with frank conversations about sexual activity and false beliefs about risk are key barriers to STD testing, and could be driving some of the increase in STD cases of young women," said Damian P. Alagia, Quest's medical director of women's health.

"Our hope in sharing this survey's findings with clinicians and the general public is that it prompts open dialogue about reproductive health and STD risk," Alagia said, "which is absolutely critical to reversing the trajectory of high STD rates in the United States."

2018 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Photo of Dr. Zheng Dong, cellular biologist, Regents' Professor and Leon Henri Charbonnier Endowed Chair in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy lab at the Medical College of Georgia. Credit: Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University

When you have diabetes then get an acute kidney injury there is a multiplier effect that can worsen your prognosis and destroy your kidneys.

Now scientists have evidence that at least part of the problem is that diabetes impairs the ability of kidney cells to consume the garbage they generate in the process of filtering more than 100 quarts of your blood daily.

It's called autophagy, and it helps kidney cells operate at a premium and that's where the problems occur, says Dr. Zheng Dong, cellular biologist, Regents' Professor and Leon Henri Charbonnier Endowed Chair in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at the Medical College of Georgia.

In diabetes, hardworking kidney cells must work even harder to handle high levels of glucose, which produces even more garbage, while autophagy activity is down. An acute kidney injury on top of that further heightens the trash and the damage.

Dong is principal investigator on a new $2.2 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that is helping parse just how autophagy is hampered in diabetes and finding targets to bolster autophagy and help patients and their kidneys better survive diabetes and recover from an acute kidney injury.

An acute kidney injury is mostly what it sounds like: when kidney function deteriorates in a few hours or days. It can result from a literal blow to the kidney, in a fall or car accident, or from dehydration in an overzealous student athlete. In the face of general good health, most patients recover fully and quickly, Dong says.

But acute kidney injury mostly occurs in people who already have another medical problem like diabetes. In fact, most are in the hospital when it happens, with problems like bleeding or shock, failure of other organs like the heart, even an overdose of over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories for problems like the cold or flu, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Despite these typically heightened scenarios, there aren't any targeted therapies for acute kidney injury, says Dong, rather supportive therapies like hydration, possible short-term dialysis and addressing the injury cause.

Even without an acute kidney injury, the heavy burden of glucose and inflammation that comes with diabetes causes related kidney damage in about a third of patients in about 15 years of living with the disease. The ceaseless filtering and reabsorption work of the kidney gets overwhelmed with the extra glucose, which can increase oxidative stress, prompt sugars to start binding to proteins, which can reduce their function, and inflammation becomes chronic and destructive.

In fact, diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of kidney failure in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Dong's team has evidence that diabetes makes people more susceptible to an acute kidney injury from which they don't recover well, which ties back full circle because an acute injury also increases the chronic kidney disease risk.

The bottom line is that in this so-called "comorbid" state, patients are at heightened risk for significant kidney damage, even kidney failure.

His team focuses on the acute injury piece of this interrelated health dilemma and the reality that treatment for acute kidney injury hasn't really improved after a half-century search for good therapies, Dong says. That's why he is looking for targets and therapeutic agents.

Blood enters the kidneys through clusters of small blood vessels called glomeruli. We have more than a million of these filtering units that each connect to a collecting tube called a tubule, which passes waste along to the bladder for elimination. Tubular cells also daily resorb nearly 50 gallons of usable items, including salt and glucose the kidneys filter from the blood. They typically resorb 80-90 percent of the glucose.

In their effort to maximize autophagy in the face of higher glucose, Dong and his team are delineating how diabetes reduces autophagy with the idea of restoring this innate ability when a patient is also bombarded with an acute kidney injury. They have their sites on some of our smallest RNA.

They have evidence that activity of ULK1, an enzyme and key initiator of autophagy, is reduced in the kidney both in diabetes and also by putting a lot of glucose directly on kidney cells.

MicroRNA, or miRNA, generally suppress expression of their target genes, and Dong's team also has evidence that in diabetes, expression of at least one miRNA is increased, which, in turn, decreases ULK1 expression and autophagy. Right now they don't know a lot about its functions, but high levels are associated with overgrowth of tubules and thickening and scarring of the kidney.

Also up in diabetes is p53, a known tumor suppressor that can help assess damage to a cell, help drive its repair if possible and its suicide if it's not. In a healthy cell, p53 levels are low.

Higher levels of p53 are associated with lower levels of autophagy and Dong has shown p53 is even more highly activated with an acute kidney injury, likely to help kill off freshly injured cells.

"Autophagy is generally a protective mechanism, so as this protective mechanism goes down, an injury mechanism goes up," Dong says of this inverse relationship.

He thinks his miRNA is essentially the middleman with p53 signaling for it to reduce autophagy and it responding by turning down expression of the ULK1 gene. That pivotal role makes the miRNA a likely and probably amenable drug target, he says.

"We need to find a way to make it go down," Dong says. "Maybe if we can normalize autophagy a little better we can help kidneys survive this period."

The new grant is enabling them to sort the details of how p53 induces the miRNA in diabetic kidneys, how it, in turn, suppresses ULK1 and autophagy and, finally, how reduced autophagy makes the kidneys more vulnerable to injury.

This shift is likely what makes a patient with diabetes more vulnerable to acute kidney injury. Another thing they are exploring further is what happens to cell death rates, but Dong has already watched tubule cells become less efficient and die. He's also now exploring the relationship between reduced autophagy and increased inflammation.

Diabetes is a common, chronic stressor of the kidney, Dong says. And he expects other common stressors, like the all too common hypertension, make some of the same unhealthy adjustments to tubule cells. In fact, he is collaborating with China's Central South University with the idea of delineating the autophagy pathway in a hypertension model as well.

Dong's research on kidney injury has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2000.

A study published in 2009 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that 49 percent of patients with chronic kidney disease who had a severe acute kidney injury were in renal failure within 30 days after leaving the hospital compared with 1.5 percent in those who did not experience the acute injury.

Explore further Caffeine found to reduce incidence of acute kidney injury in neonates
The New York Mets pitching staff has allowed 24 runs through their first nine games, tied for the fifth fewest runs allowed through nine games in franchise history.

This helped them to take home MLB.coms Bullpen of the Week honors for March 29 through April 8, which was announced Monday.

The team posted a 1.31 ERA through Sunday (five earned runs in 34.1 innings) and chipped in three more scoreless on Monday nights 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins.

According to MLB.com, heres how a panel of experts including Bill James grades a teams bullpen:

The Mets logged a score of 170. For reference, a weekly score of 100 is considered outstanding:

 Add 1.5 points for each out recorded

 Add 1.5 points for each strikeout

 Add 5 points for a save

 Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed

 Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed

 Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed

 Subtract 1 point for each walk

 Subtract 5 points for a blown save

New York has seen grand contributions from all their relievers, and especially from the duo of Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo, who have combined to allow just one run in 11.0 total innings to begin the year.
" " Soldiers' wills have followed a circuitous and interesting path throughout history, but there's not much difference between military and civilian wills today, aside from how they are validated. ullstein bild/Getty Images

In the 1888 book "Camp-fire Chats of the Civil War," C.F. Matteson, a former Union soldier from the 17th Illinois Infantry, recounted the story of a comrade named "Bob," who was gravely ill with measles in a camp in Missouri and wanted to give his last will and testament orally to him. But instead of deciding who got his personal property, Bob instead dictated the precise manner of what was expected to be his imminent burial. He wanted to be interred face down, with his head pointed eastward and a clam shell in each hand. Matteson felt compelled to ask why. The seemingly dying soldier explained to him that in the event that the angel Gabriel suddenly decided not to blow his horn and summon him to the hereafter, he wanted to be in a position where he could tunnel under the Mississippi River and come up in his home state.

Fortunately Bob  whom Matteson recalled as a bit of a joker  managed to recover from his illness, and survived combat to return to Illinois without the need to tunnel out of his grave. But the notion of a soldier or sailor making a last-minute, informal last will and testament on the battlefield or at sea  perhaps spoken, or else scribbled hastily on whatever scrap of paper was handy  actually was a thing that combatants in peril once did. There's a long tradition of countries giving military service members leeway to leave behind informal wills that courts often accepted, even though they didn't conform to the usual formalities expected of civilian wills.

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Ancient Roman Beginnings

As this vintage University of Chicago Law Review article details, informal soldiers' wills actually date back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar was the first to exempt his legions from having to follow the strict requirements of Roman law for wills. The assumption was that soldiers and sailors were more familiar with weapons and fighting than with the law. The Romans, though, did require at least two witnesses to a military will, and the document was only valid if a man died within a year of being discharged from service.

Over the centuries, other rulers and governments often followed the Roman example. During World War I, many British soldiers carried handwritten wills with them into battle, tucked into their pay books. This 2013 BBC News story describes the testament of a private named Joseph Ditchburn, who left his clothes and his bicycle to his mother. "It is a very nice machine and worth a lot of money, and I have paid for its repair, and if there is any extra to pay, pay for it," he instructed. Ditchburn was shot in the abdomen during fighting along the French-Belgian border in October 1914, and died from his wounds in a hospital. (This British government website allows users to search for and request the wills of soldiers who died between 1868 and 1996.)

But while that arrangement benefited those who hadn't had the opportunity to get to a courthouse to bequeath their money and personal property or specify other last wishes, it also had its downside. Because the documentation of military members' informal wills sometimes was scant, it could be tough to document whether they really reflected the person's last wishes.

In the U.S., where individual states had their own rules concerning military wills, things could get complicated. As this 2003 article on military wills details, military lawyers often were called upon to draft wills for large numbers of soldiers before they were deployed, and the sheer volume made it difficult to make the wills conform to the requirements of a service member's particular state. As a result, after a December 1985 air crash in Newfoundland that killed 248 U.S. soldiers, it was discovered that some of the deceased service members' wills turned out not to be valid.

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The Military Testamentary Instrument

In 2000, as part of a defense authorization bill, Congress recognized a special type of will for service members called a military testamentary instrument, which is exempt from individual states' varying requirements of "form, formality and recording." Instead, the law specified some clear-cut basic requirements for a military will. It has to be signed in the presence a military lawyer, for example, and two witnesses who don't have an interest in the will are required. There's a self-proving affidavit at the end, in which the service member attests that the will follows all those rules.

The law is intended to prevent potential messes that might ensue if, for example, a court in Vermont rejected a soldier's will because it wasn't backed up by the three witnesses normally required there.

"A will meeting the requirements of this section will be valid in all states even if the will does not meet the requirements imposed by a particular state," Gerry W. Beyer, the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professor of Law at Texas Tech University and an expert on estate planning, explains in an email.

Beyer, who co-authored the 2003 article on military wills mentioned above, says that the law was modified slightly in 2016, to enable civilian paralegals serving in military legal assistance offices to execute military testamentary documents.

Aside from how military wills are validated, Beyer says that there's really not much difference between those documents and civilian wills. "A military will under the statute would meet the requirements of almost all states if not all of them," he says.

The new law doesn't necessarily preclude all challenges to a will's validity. As detailed in this Department of Defense press release issued after the law took effect, it's still possible to contest a military will on grounds such as undue influence or prior revocation.

Now That's Interesting After Germany's defeat in World War II, Hitler's last will and testament was found hidden in a well on a farm on the outskirts of Munich, by a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent named Arnold Weiss, according to the Washington Post.
Cool Ideas is making waves in the South African market, and under the leadership of cofounders Paul Butschi and Andre Jooste has shown excellent growth.

The company recently moved into its new offices in Rosebank and is aggressively growing its subscriber base.

Being in charge of a multi-million-rand business is a long way from where Butschi started  as an employee at an Internet cafe in Sandton.

He could not recall the pay at his first job, but said it was per hour and not much.

Butschi started to work at Dial a Nerd as an onsite support technician at the same time, which strengthened his understanding of the consumer IT market.

How Cool Ideas was started

Butschi said he and Jooste had the idea of starting a hosting company, which highlighted the problem of connectivity for their customers.

We started offering FTTB via DFA, then when Vumatel came to Parkhurst where I live we saw it as an opportunity to get into the FTTH space, he said.

He said the success of Cool Ideas is a combination of a good opportunity and years of hard work.

Butschi said the rapid growth of Cool Ideas comes with long hours and lots of stress, but it is worth it to watch their idea grow into something of substance.

Butschis tech and business choices

MyBroadband also asked Butschi about his business and technology choices.

Which smartphone do you use?

Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Which laptop do you use?

Dell Inspiron 14-inch.

What is the best gadget you have ever bought?

An Amazon Kindle.

What is the worst gadget you have ever bought?

I cant think of the worst gadget. I generally research a lot before buying anything tech related.

What Internet connection do you have at home?

1Gbps Vumatel fibre.

What is the best investment you have ever made?

Starting Cool Ideas.

What is the worst investment you have ever made?
Reshaad Sha has been appointed as CEO of Liquid Telecom South Africa, effective from 1 June 2018.

Sha previously served as CEO of IoT network operator SqwidNet and chief strategy officer and executive director of Dark Fibre Africa.

He has also worked for a various global technology and telecoms companies, including Cisco and LogicaCMG.

As Liquid Telecom South Africa CEO, Sha will oversee the growth of digital services and the rollout of enhanced network services for enterprises and consumers across the country.

Were delighted to have found such a talented and skilled individual to fill this role, said Liquid Telecom Group CEO Nic Rudnick.

Reshaads entrepreneurial spirit and dynamic leadership make him the perfect addition to the Liquid Telecom Group as we continue to deliver on our vision of building Africas digital future, he said.

Shas appointment follows former CEO Kyle Whitehill leaving the company at the end of his contract.

Kyle has decided to return home to be with his family who remained in the UK during his time in South Africa, Rudnick said at the time.

Whitehill was set to depart the company on 20 March 2018.

Liquid Telecom Managing Executive of New Business Development Garth Schooling was appointed as interim CEO after Whitehills departure.
Netflix has revealed its ISP Speed Index for March, with Cool Ideas retaining top spot.

South Africas ISPs achieved an average speed of 2.6Mbps, slightly down from last month, and SAs overall rank slipped three places to 50 out of 59 countries.

The index is a measure of prime-time Netflix performance on particular ISPs, and not a measure of overall performance of the networks.

Netflix said it calculates the average bitrate of Netflix content, in Mbps, streamed by its members per ISP.

We measure the speed via all available end-user devices. For a small number of devices, we cannot calculate the exact bit rates, and streaming via cellular networks is exempted from our measurements, said Netflix.

Netflix recommends a 5Mbps connection for full HD streaming, which may explain why the average speeds are all below the 5Mbps mark.

Fastest ISPs for Netflix

The top 10 ISPs for prime-time Netflix streaming in South Africa are listed below.

March 2018 Rank ISP Speed Previous Speed Change 1 Cool Ideas 3.86 Mbps 3.85 Mbps  2 Vox 3.34 Mbps 3.27 Mbps  3 Cell C 3.29 Mbps 3.16 Mbps +2 4 Vodacom 3.24 Mbps 3.18 Mbps  5 MTN 3.21 Mbps 3.20 Mbps -2 6 Afrihost 2.64 Mbps 2.64 Mbps  7 Cybersmart 2.54 Mbps 2.51 Mbps +1 8 Telkom 2.45 Mbps 2.56 Mbps -1 9 MWEB 2.17 Mbps 2.26 Mbps  10 Neotel 1.89 Mbps 1.72 Mbps 

Now read: How much data watching a 4K Netflix series uses
Amazon introduces home robot of its own production

French authorities close 650 Islamist propaganda centers since 2017

Newspaper: Motions filed with court to arrest Armenia ex-defense minister and weapons supplier

Slovenia terminates vaccination with Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after death of 20-year-old girl

30 prisoners killed in Ecuadorian prison

Armenia court to examine appeal against decision on arrest of ex-Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan

Armenia minister, Kazakhstan Ambassador consider prospects for cooperation in space technology

Karabakh representative: Armenia citizens who hosted families from Artsakh received financial assistance

Date of Requiem Service for Armenian singer, Honored Artist of Armenia Hayko announced

EU calls on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through dialogue

Working consultation over to-be-established patrol service in Armenia's Gyumri, attended by Deputy PM

Georgia, Azerbaijan sign several agreements

Newspaper: Armenia army official: National Security Service summons Armed Forces General Staff's deputy chief

Ukraine, Turkey sign memorandum on construction of UAVs maintenance center

US and EU to begin consultations on technical regulation, trade and China

Newly appointed Ambassador of France presents copies of credentials to Armenia FM

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of 4 Armenian servicemen found in Jrakan

Armenia ex-president Robert Kocharyan expresses condolences over death of singer Hayko

US Ambassador on Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs' talks in New York, normalization of relations with Turkey

Garibashvili says he had 'wonderful' meeting with Aliyev

Putin-Erdogan meeting in Sochi lasts nearly 3 hours

Over 40% of Americans are in favor of reducing US military presence in world

To-be Ambassador of United States to Turkey announces intention to recognize Armenian Genocide

Armenia Deputy PM, Iran Ambassador discuss situation created on Goris-Kapan motorway

Digest: Armenian soldier wounded in Azerbaijan provocations, 3 Armenia soldiers bodies found

Armenian analyst: Azerbaijan's offensive resources were almost used up on November 9, 2020

Armenia Embassy in Georgia: There are accumulations of trucks in detour section of Tbilisi

Armenia Revenue Committee chief on question whether Azeris will stop Armenian truck drivers or not

Artsakh representative to Armenia: Armenian statehood cannot have prosperous future without Karabakh

Armenia Public Services Regulatory Commission chair: There will be some increase in water fee

Hraparak: Armenia ex-defense minister detained

Azerbaijanis launch construction in Vorotan section of Armenia's Goris-Kapan motorway

Armenia President expresses condolences over untimely death of singer Hayko

Dollar rising in Armenia

3,626 foreigners granted Armenia residence status in first half of 2021

Peskov says Putin and Erdogan won't discuss Crimea during talks in Sochi

Man, 81, dies of coronavirus in Karabakh

Erdogan is certain that peace in Middle East depends on Turkey-Russia relations

Taliban rise to power in Afghanistan drives up opium prices on the black market

Azerbaijan President and Georgia PM meet in Baku

Armenia FM receives Bulgaria Ambassador

Putin: Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring center on Armenian-Azerbaijani border is guarantee for regional stability

Erdogan's spokesperson states the case when Turkey will normalize relations with Armenia

Yerevan State University holds event in memory of its students killed in 44-day war (PHOTOS)

Biden's aide meets with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

PM: Hayko was one of bright representatives of contemporary Armenian art of music

Military expert: What happened a year ago is terribly dangerous game against Armenias ally Russia, friendly Iran

Armenia FM, Red Cross delegation head discuss issue of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Karabakh representative to Armenia: Artsakh historical, cultural heritage under Azerbaijan occupation is under threat

Artsakh representative to Armenia: Initial damage from war is about 42m AMD

Karabakh representative to Armenia: Azerbaijanis killed 80 Artsakh civilians during 44-day war

North Korea tests newly developed hypersonic missile

Silvio Berlusconi turns 85

Armenia national detained in Georgia for selling counterfeit excise stamps

Lava from erupting volcano in the Canary Islands reaches ocean

Armenia Iranologist: Azerbaijan faces a number of challenges

Trump urges Congress to investigate circumstances of US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan

896 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Sergei Parajanov's son, director Suren Parajanov, dies aged 63

Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh conduct comprehensive exercise to prevent possible violations

Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander compares Azerbaijan president to small child

Man, 61, jumps from Yerevan bridge

World oil prices dropping

Georgia PM hopes to contribute to normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations

Newspaper: Armenia PM terrified again

Newspaper: Armenia new ambassador to US cannot find common ground with local Armenian community

WHO chief expects China collaboration in 2nd phase of studies into coronavirus origins

Aliyev rules out possibility of granting any autonomy to Armenians of Karabakh

TRT Haber: Erdogan and Biden to meet on sidelines of G20 Summit in Rome

France and Greece announce signing of nearly 3 billion-euro defense deal

Armenian opposition MP to UK Ambassador: Azerbaijan's encroachments on Armenia's territory are inadmissible

Armenia justice minister meets with students of Yerevan State University, discusses justice reforms

Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijan bears liability for injuring Armenian serviceman in Kut village today

Deputies of opposition "Armenia" faction meet with UK Ambassador

Karabakh emergency situations service: Azerbaijan transfers remains of 3 servicemen to Armenian side in Shushi

Armenia Security Council Secretary receives US Ambassador

Armenia Investigative Committee launches case on soldier wounded from Azerbaijani army's gunshot in Kut village

Digest: PACE adopts report on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, 125 Armenian POWs reportedly detained in Baku

Aliyev says he is ready to meet with Armenia's Pashinyan and work on a peace treaty

Azerbaijan MOD receives new commander of Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh

Armenian analyst: Armenia's recognition of Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan isn't in Moscow's favor

Head of Armenia's Verin Shorzha village: Fire set by Azerbaijanis was put out this morning

Dollar goes up in Armenia

Freedom House concerned about criminal case against Facebook user who insulted Armenia PM in a comment

Armenia Deputy PM, US Ambassador discuss situation regarding Goris-Kapan motorway

Judge deprives the lawyer and the client to exercise their rights to defense

Uzbek soldier dies on border with Afghanistan

Legislature opposition factions petition to Armenia President

Armenia MOD: Soldier wounded by shot fired by Azerbaijan army

Brazilian president says idea of creating nuclear weapon is utopian

Armenia parliament majority member: Work of committee investigating 44-day war circumstances will begin soon

Georgia PM to leave for Azerbaijan

Armenia's My Step Foundation has new executive director

9-year-old Victoria - youngest victim of 44-day Karabakh war

Armenia ex-deputy PM, current opposition MP Armen Gevorgyan has 2 new advocates

Person killed in front of Yerevan park was daughter of well-known businessman in Armenia

Russias Putin, Turkeys Erdogan to discuss situation in South Caucasus

Armenia soldier wounded after Azerbaijan provocation

Lavrov: Minsk Group Co-Chairs reached agreement with Armenia, Azerbaijan to resume working trips to Karabakh

Azerbaijan and Turkey reach new gas agreement
Saudi Arabia is to use French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra under an agreement signed Monday that underlined the modernising agenda of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman as he began his official trip to Pari, Galf News reported.

The deal will see the Paris opera company help the kingdom produce its own classical music and shows, a further sign of Prince Mohammads desire to change the image of his homeland.

He has already announced the lifting of a ban on women driving, the re-opening of cinemas for the first time in over three decades and new mixed-gender concerts.

The kingdom revealed Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes cinema festival for the first time and send an official delegation to the celebration of often edgy and subversive silver-screen art on the Riviera this May.

Speaking with her Saudi counterpart, French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen said she had also discussed the importance of translating books in both directions, from Arabic into French and French into Arabic.
US President Donald Trump on Monday complained yet again about "STUPID TRADE" with China, doing little to calm investors anxious about the escalating trade conflict between the two economic superpowers, Fox News reported.

In a tweet on Monday morning Trump said that when a Chinese-made vehicle is sent to the U.S., the tariff is only 2.5 percent, while American cars exported to China are slapped with a 25 percent tariff.

Trump asked, "Does that sound like free or fair trade." Then answered, "No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE."

"When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!" Trump tweeted.

China charges total duties of 25 percent on most imported cars -- a 10 percent customs tariff plus a 15 percent auto tax. Since December 2016, Beijing also has charged an additional 10 percent on "super-luxury" vehicles priced above 1.3 million yuan ($200,000).
La Stampa Italian newspaper interviewed Serzh Sargsyan who paid an official visit to the Holy See and working visit to Italy as President of Armenia on April 4-6 (his tenure ended on April 9). ARMENPRESS presents the full interview which is titled Its time for the Parliament of Italy to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Armenias President Sargsyan is in Rome on a working visit: I know that President Mattarella wants to pay tribute to the memory of the victims in Yerevan.

Today there is no progress in the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh because Azerbaijans expectations are unrealistic.

"Mr. President, what messages did you bring in terms of your institutional meetings and what responses did you receive on main topics relating to your country more than a quarter century later since independence?

On Thursday, we together with the Pope participated in the inaugural ceremony of the statue of St. Gregory of Narek in Vatican who was proclaimed Doctor of the Church as an acknowledgement of efforts aimed at maintaining Christian values by the Armenian people. President Mattarella told me that he plans to visit Armenia. During the meeting with the representatives of the two chambers of the Parliament we highlighted the importance of developing inter-parliamentary relations, especially taking into account the fact that we have been inspired also by the Italian model in the process of transitioning to a parliamentary system.

Did you also meet with the leaders of political structures?

Of course, we had a chance to meet with the leaders of the parties. I am very happy to state that they also will visit Armenia in the near future. We are excited with the positions of these figures towards our country.

President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan urged Italy, as an OSCE chairing country, to do what the previous chairing countries never did  to visit Nagorno Karabakh. What is your opinion on this matter?

Nagorno Karabakh is a vital issue. I want to note that both President Mattarella and President of the Senate Casellati support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format. There is also the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed between Armenia and the European Union which includes the same formulations on Artsakh as used by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to respect the three main principles for the conflict settlement: non-use of force or threat of force, equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and territorial integrity of states. After the ratification this Agreement will become a law for all member states of the EU. Today there is no progress in the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh because Azerbaijans expectations are unrealistic. The EU must convince Baku to refrain from dreams, and in that case the Minsk Group will be effective. In this sense I asked President Mattarella to hurry up Brussels.

Can it be the start of Artsakhs recognition process?

Recognition, of course, supposes security, when it is established, we will first recognize the independence of Artsakh. Recognizing the independence now would mean halting the negotiations. The important is the recognition by Baku.

It seems Aliyev is not inclined to cooperation, quite the contrary

Its not the first time Aliyev makes aggressive statements, and he is not the first Azerbaijani president making such remarks. The former presidents as well were making the following statements: We will visit Stepanakert in a week to drink tea. Fortunately, this didnt happen. The politician should never set before him an insurmountable bar because by that way he hurts himself. When Aliyev announces that Armenias historical territory is Azerbaijans land, he should remember that Azerbaijan appeared on the political map for the first time just 100 years before, but we will mark the 2800th anniversary of capital Yerevan in autumn on 2018.

Coming to the Genocide: World leaders plant trees in the Genocide Memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, for memory of the victims. Pope John Paul II, Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin planted trees here, but there is no name of any Italian president here. Why?

Because during these 25 years no Italian president visited Armenia. I hope after the visit of President Mattarella one more tree will be planted in this park. This will be an important political message, but the decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide must be adopted by the Parliament. Italians had a great contribution to the humanity development, and the genocide is the opposite action of it," Armenpress reported.
Home | News | General | Buharis declaration: Southeast will have brighter opportunity to produce 2023 president - APC chieftain

- Ebonyi state APC chieftains declare their support for President Buhari

- They said the presidents decision to run was a welcomed development

- The party chieftains said it would facilitate an Igbo presidency in 2023

Two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi state have applauded the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari to run for second term saying that the decision would benefit all Nigerians.

The chieftains noted that the outstanding performance of the President qualified him to run for re-election to consolidate on the achievements recorded in his first term.

READ ALSO: We are going to support Buhari in 2019 - Shettima

The chieftains spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abakaliki.

Dr Paul Okorie, a governorship aspirant in the 2019 election said the decision was welcome.

He hailed Buhari for his courage and decision to present himself for a second term and urged party faithful and Nigerians to support the President for the re-election bid.

Okorie who served at various times as Commissioner for Works and Transportation and Environment said the re-election of Buhari would deepen democracy and enhance economic growth and development.

He listed among the achievements of the president, the growth of the foreign reserve from $30 billion to about $47 billion, road infrastructure, anti-graft campaign, job creation, youth empowerment, defeat of Boko Haram and fiscal discipline.

Though he has performed creditably well in his first term, more needed to be done and four years obviously is not enough for him to fully accomplish his programmes and policies.

Again the South-East will have brighter opportunity to produce the next Nigerian President by 2023.

The decision is a wise decision and I commend Mr President for taking the selfless and patriotic decision,  Okorie said.

Another chieftain and Acting chairman of the party in Ebonyi, Mr Eze Nwachukwu said that the declaration has put an end to uncertainties on whether the president would offer himself for a second term.

He praised the president for taking the bold decision, saying that the second term of Buhari would stabilise security concerns, enhance political, economic and industrial growth in the country.

He said that the government had fought corruption and had redeemed the countrys image previously battered by corruption.

Corruption in public service has reduced while fiscal discipline and responsibility are strictly adhered to in public procurement.

The president may have his short coming as a human being but his administrations programme and policies indicate that he is committed to building more virile and strong Nigeria.

As a party, we commend the decision and pledge to mobilise Ebonyi and the whole of South-East to vote the President for second term in 2019,  Nwachukwu said.

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He urged all eligible voters in the state, who have not yet registered in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), to ensure they register to avoid disenfranchisement during the election.

NAIJ.com had reported that President Buhari on Monday, April 9, in Abuja declared his intention to seek re-election in 2019.

Malam Garba Shehu, the presidents senior special assistant on media and Publicity confirmed this development in a statement in Abuja on Monday. He said that the president made the declaration at a closed-door meeting of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.

The presidential aide quoted President Buhari as saying that he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to re-contest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give the NEC, the honour of notifying them first.

Should President Buhari seek re-election in 2019 - (Nigerian Street Interview)

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Source: Naija.ng

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President Muhammadu Buhari says he is seeking re-election because of the clamour by Nigerians.

His media office, in a statement, said while addressing a closed-door meeting of the national executive council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday, Buhari gave the reason behind his decision.

The President said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to re-contest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honour of notifying them first, Garba Shehu, his media assistant, said in the terse statement.

Shortly before making the declaration, the president presented a speech on the report submitted by the APC national executive technical committee.

Below are Buharis remarks to the committee.

I am delighted to welcome you all to this very important meeting in the affairs of our party and our country. I want to specifically thank members of the Technical Committee for a job well done within the limited time frame.

It shows a great sense of commitment to the ideals of our party with a view to consolidating and positioning the party to continue delivering good governance in the overall interest of Nigerians.

With the present state of the party and based on the report submitted by the Technical Committee, It is important to focus on how to move the party forward by avoiding actions detrimental to the interest of the party. Considering that politics is a game of numbers, we must not be a house divided against itself and must try to note, appreciate and accommodate our differences as far as the law permits.

Upon my review of the Report, my position is to ensure that the party tows the path of unity, legality and cohesion and not that of division.

Therefore, I am stressing that we should strengthen our internal democracy by organising the Partys Congresses and Convention where election of National Executive Committee members would be held. This will automatically end the cases filed by members seeking orders of Court compelling the party to hold its Congresses.

I also believe that the current executives should be free to vie for elective positions in the party if they so wish as permitted by our Party constitution.

However, considering the provision of Article 31(1)(iii) of the APC Constitution which requires any serving officer desirous of seeking re-election to resign from office 30 days before election, I am not sure of the practicality of present serving officers ability to meet this condition.

Accordingly, the party may consider granting waivers to party executives at all levels so that they are not disenfranchised from participating in the elections should they wish to do so, provided this does not violate our rules.

Necessary waiver(s) should also be extended to executives at the Ward level whose tenures may have elapsed, and indeed to anyone knocking at our doors from other political parties. This is in the spirit of the Right to Freedom of Association guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

In this circumstance, the party should officially issue a statement on the above Waivers so that our house may be full. We all must not be ignorant of the times, and the journey that is ahead of us.

Just like our party symbol, the Broom, which typifies strength in unity, let us strive to remain united in our purpose. Victory is sure by the Grace of God, and together we must continue to sanitize Nigerias political environment.

Once again, I welcome you all to this meeting with the hope that we will, in our deliberations today, conduct ourselves without rancour and promote the highest interest of the party and the nation.

Thank you.
Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo has described President Muhammadu Buharis declaration on Monday to run for a second term, as a response to a clarion call from Nigerians of goodwill.

Buhari, while making his decision public in Abuja, urged Nigerians to score him based on his performance.

Reacting to the declaration in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, in Owerri on Monday, Okorocha said that the President had performed very well in his first tenure.

He said that Buharis second term bid was a right choice in the right direction.

He said that the presidents declaration would end cheap blackmail from the opposition over his silence towards his ambition in 2019.

The Imo governor expressed optimism that APC would win the presidential election in 2019 and urged all party members across the country to work very hard to ensure victory.

He further said that APC had no apology to render to Nigerians, considering the bad shape it met the country when it took over in 2015.
Home | News | General | Top 18 list of commissioners in Edo state

In the previous year, Governor Godwin Obaseki presented a list of commissioners in Edo State. It was proclaimed during the first Executive Council meeting in the state where all candidates were appointed to the 18 ministries. Lets take a closer look at the people who were appointed to serve the people of Edo!

Review of Edo State

The capital of Edo State is Benin. The entire population of the state consists of eight million people which is quite a large number. Its made up of four main ethnic groups in the state, like Etsako, Owan, Esan, and Edo.

The Benin Capital holds the main portion of the population from the state. The major languages of the state are English, Okpamheri, Esan, Etsako, Edo, and Igarra. This state is home to many ethnicities, like Ijaw, Email, Igbanke, Akoko-Edo, Ora, Afemai, Esan, Okpe and Edo. Therefore, its one of the most versatile states in terms of ethnic groups.

READ ALSO: Why do we study economics?

This state was created in 1991. It occupies the total area of 17,802 square kilometers. In the area, this state takes the 22nd place out of 36 in Nigeria. The Senators from the state are Francis Alimikhena, Ordia Clifford, Urhoghide, and Aisagbonriodion. The governor of the state is Godwin Obaseki from All Progressive Congress.

Godwin Obaseki

Its the current governor of Edo State. He was born in Benin in 1959. Godwin Obaseki acquired the post of the governor in 2016. He got the postgraduate degree in Finance and International Business, today, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers. He also serves as a board member of several private companies, like Afrinvest.

Godwin Obaseki announced all names from the list of current commissioners on the first Executive Council meeting. According to his vision, he created a good team which will lead the state only forward!

Top 18 list of present commissioners in Edo State

Yekini Idaiye - Energy and Water Resources

Paul Ohonbamu - Communication and Orientation

Emmanuel Agbale - Science and technology

Emmanuel Usoh - Wealth Creation, Cooperatives, and Employment

Magdalene Ohenhen - Women Affairs and Social Development led

Osahon Amiolemen  Infrastructure

Joseph Ughioke - Minerals, Oil, and Gas

Mika Amanokha - Youth and Special Duties

Osagie Inegbedion  Finance

Hajia Maryam Abubakar  Budget

Edorodion Oye Erimona - Physical Planning and Urban Development

Professor Yinka Omorogbe  Justice

Osaze Osemwegie-Ero - Arts, Culture, and Diaspora

Monday Osaigbovo - Agriculture and Natural Resources

Dr. Christopher I. Adesotu  Education

Hon. Reginald Okun - Environment and Sustainability

Dr. David Osifo  Health

Jimoh Ijegbai - Local Government and Community Affairs

What do we know about the people appointed by the governor?

There is not much information about the list of Godwin Obaseki commissioners. Still, some information about them can be visible through their previous deeds.

Hon. Emmanuel Usoh, Commissioner for Wealth Creation, Cooperatives and Employment managed to provide some good news for Benin. Together with the official of Mahindra Group, they managed to create a prototype of an industrial park in Benin city. Obaseki expressed confidence that this industrial park will become a catalyst that will provide more jobs for the citizens of Edo State.

Osahon Amiolemen, who is a commissioner of infrastructure disclosed the information about the long-term Public-Private Partnership cooperation. This cooperation will help Benin to reconstruct the major parts of the state capital infrastructure and provide ultra-modern bus stations. The new bus parks will help to create new jobs and create better infrastructure.

Hon. Mika Amanokha appeared in several conferences connected with Youths and Special Duties for her state. Her main concern about the youth in modern Nigeria is the providing of jobs for the young specialists. Therefore, she always goes with initiatives to create additional job places for young people and especially in the technical sphere.

Hon. Erimona Edorodin Oye provided a new idea of the building approval for the development of the state. According to her idea, the approval for the plan of building should last no more than three months. Its enough time for a permit to be provided to a building company.

Hon. Osaze Osemwegie-Ero introduced the idea to open tourism information desk at the Benin Airport. This information desk should ensure the development of arts and tourism into the state. Moreover, its the first step towards recognition of local investments to tourism and other attractions of the states. It can also be another good step to acquire new jobs for the state.

Therefore, there are a lot of ideas that can be brought to life by the commissioners in Edo State, they have already provided enough material so that people could evaluate their efforts.

READ ALSO: Biggest country in Africa by population

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The National Chairman of Nigerias ruling party, APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, says he has had to endure virulent media attacks over the controversy on tenure extension for party officials.

Mr. Odigie-Oyegun, addressing the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party including President Muhammadu Buhari, narrated how the tenure extension proposal came about.

He explained that the NEC had initially approved the one-year tenure extension for federal and state officials of the party before a request by Mr. Buhari for a reversal.

Read the full text of Mr. Odigie-Oyeguns speech below.

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, it is my pleasure to welcome you and all members of the National Executive Committee of our party to this important meeting.

Members will recall that at the meeting of February 27, we requested the NEC to approve a timetable for congresses and the convention ahead of the expiration of tenure of the current executive. However, rather than approve the timetable, members expressed concern that if we embarked on the congresses as planned, the process could precipitate a series of rancour, which might be difficult for the party to manage ahead of the coming general elections. It was therefore resolved with a near unanimous votes of 104 to 4 that the current executives of the party at all levels be allowed to continue in acting capacity for a period not exceeding twelve months starting from June 2018.

However, at the subsequent meeting held on March 27, Mr. President informed NEC that he had had the opportunity to review the decision of February 27 and had become convinced that the decision taken by NEC, to the effect that party executives at all levels be allowed to continue in acting capacity at the expiration of their tenure was neither supported by the constitution of our party nor that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Even as he canvassed this position, Mr. President graciously announced that he was open to alternative viewpoints and refused to foreclose further debate on the matter. Given this opportunity, NEC unanimously agreed that a committee be inaugurated to further examine the issue and advise the party on the way forward so as to ensure that whatever decision that we take will not only be in the best interest of the party, but will also be seen to comply with extant provisions of our laws. The committee was duly constituted under the leadership of His Excellency, Simon Lalong, Governor of Plateau State. I am happy to inform NEC that the committee has concluded its assignment and we are now in a position to report back to NEC.

Your Excellencies, distinguished members of NEC, let me seize this opportunity to thank Mr. President for his rare act of graciousness and humility. By allowing further consideration of the subject matter even after announcing his preference, Mr. President has proven to be a true democrat and a genuine party man indeed. Where he could have imposed his will, Mr. President has exhibited true leadership by allowing himself to be open to alternative opinion, regardless of his personal interest, so far as they are consistent with the rule of law. Mr. President, we thank you.

In the past days, I have read news reports and all manner of comments and opinions that have tried to frame the majority decision of NEC as an attempt to primarily secure tenure elongation for Oyegun and the NWC. This is quite unfortunate because nothing could be further from the truth.

We are looking for ways to minimize rancor in the party ahead of the next general elections, and we are looking for ways to save the party from potential legal booby traps. These are both valid considerations. The challenge that we have faced has been how to reconcile the two in the best interest of the party.

On a personal note, I have had to endure virulent media attacks, malicious insinuations and outright character assassination. However, the responsibility imposed on me by my position as the National Chairman of the party, demand that I rise above my personal pains and refuse to yield to the temptation to react in a manner that potentially complicates the situation for our party. However, I will like to urge everyone else to remember that regardless of our ambitions and personal interests, the party is greater than all of us.

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, distinguished members of NEC. The experience of the last few days has made clear to us the enormous task in our hands as we go into the elections next year. If the progressive ideology that we stand for must be an enduring political order in Nigeria, we who occupy this space now, as founding fathers, must be willing to make real sacrifices to lay a solid foundation for generations to come. These sacrifices require of us to discipline our personal ambitions and selfish interests. If we do this, it would be easier for us to forge consensus and reach compromise, even on issues that appear to divide us.

I must say that disagreements, debates and contentions are the hallmarks of progressive politics. Therefore, let no one tell you that our party was about to collapse only because we disagree. Our strength however will continue to rest on our ability to forge consensus even from apparently irreconcilable issues. If anything, what our experience in the last few days has confirmed is that we can disagree without being disagreeable; and that our party may be young, but we remain the bastion of progressive politics in Nigeria.

Therefore, as we settle down for the business of today, we should bear in mind these principles and be ready to accept alternative viewpoints, just as Mr. President has done, even when these viewpoints do not immediately reflect our preferences.

Once again, I welcome everyone and wish you all successful deliberations.
An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Bayelsa, Mr Austin Febo, said President Muhammadu Buharis declaration to seek re-election should not stop presidential primaries in the party ahead of 2019 polls.

He told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone shortly after the presidents declaration was announced that it was good and welcomed as it had ended speculations on the issue.

Buhari announced his intention to seek a second term at a closed-door meeting of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party on Monday in Abuja.

Febo, who was a governorship aspirant in Bayelsa in 2015, said it is expected that the president will like to complete the projects before him.

However, his declaration should not close the door for some people who will like to contest the position of the president on APC platform in 2019.

It is good that the APC keeps its doors open as this will be a demonstration of democracy at work.

It will also provide a level-playing ground as much as promote stability of the party.

There are people who may want to test their popularity; so, the declaration should not shut them out.

Let the party conduct its primaries in spite of this declaration by the president to seek re-election because this will foster fairness and create room for fairness.
Home | News | General | Weeks after her appointment by WHO, Toyin Saraki receives high level delegation from global body

- Regional director, World Health Organisation, Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti visited Mrs Toyin Saraki today, Monday, April 9

- Mrs Saraki, wife of Nigeria's Senate president, is the founder-president of the Wellbeing Foundation (WBFA)

- She was recently appointed by Dr Moeti as a special adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO)

The wife of Nigeria's Senate president, Mrs Toyin Saraki, today, April 9, received the regional director, World Health Organisation, Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, in her office in Abuja.

Mrs Saraki, who is the founder-president of the Wellbeing Foundation (WBFA), was recently appointed by Dr Moeti as a special adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO).

Dr Moeti speaking during her visit to WBFA founder-president, Mrs Toyin Saraki. Photo credit: WBFA media team

READ ALSO:Toyin Saraki celebrates 1st birthday of Abuja triplets

NAIJ.com gathered that the visit was part of a strategic plan for health development within the African region.

More importantly, the overall objective of the courtesy visit is to discuss the terms of partnership for implementing health strategies within Africa, and sharing learning and advisory for improvement and scale-up of existing programs.

WBFA has been on the forefront of providing accessible healthcare for all, especially though its mamacare antenatal and postnatal education classes, which takes important health education to expectant mothers irrespective of where they are located within states in Nigeria, wherein the program is being implemented.

Speaking during her visit, Dr Moeti stated that WHOAFRO is elated to be in partnership with the WBFA, and are particularly interested in strengthening midwifery education in Nigeria.

She particularly hailed WBFA's partnership with midwives, stressing that they are very key to solving the issues of maternal mortality.

We are amazed at the work you are doing and we want to engage your foundation in the work that you do and we seek a partnership to address the shortcomings.

She lamented that Africa's health systems are not up to the task with no adequately trained and qualified attendants in the health sector, but expressed optimism that the proposed partnership with WBFA will promote affordable health insurance for low income earners.

Part of our responsibility is to look for what works, and have it adopted to mirror what we hope to achieve. We'll like to document your best practices, she said

Responding, Mrs Saraki said she used the opportunity of her trips to several countries across the world to model good health initiatives working in those countries and adopted it in Nigeria.

She noted that she observed that training given to doctors and senior health workers was not trickled down to midwives and nurses, hence WBFA's focus on them.

We hope you will be honest with us to call our attention to areas that need improvement in our work.

We are hungry to adopt the best practices in countries under your purview, she said.

READ ALSO: Saraki celebrates women on international womens day

Last month, Mrs Saraki was named Health-for-All Champion and one of four women making waves in global health by Devex, the international development media platform and social enterprise.

Upon receiving the accolade, Saraki canvassed for improving health outcomes as well as reducing poverty, driving economic growth and promoting gender equality around the world.

N1,500 for health of Nigerians on NAIJ.com TV

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Suspected thugs broke into the Atiku Abubakars Presidential Campaign office along Dandagoro road, Batagarawa local government area of Katsina state, during the weekend, destroying vehicles parked inside the premises.

The suspects reportedly attacked supporters of the former vice-president whom they met in the office.

Jacob Dickson, spokesman of Atikus campaign in the north-west geopolitical zone, said items worth

hundreds of millions of naira were destroyed during the attack.

Aliyu Abbas, chairman of the Atiku Care Foundation Chairman, said it was barbaric for the thugs to have attacked the office and innocent supporters who were celebrating there.

A witness was quoted as saying the thugs came in three tricycles, spy on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members before launching the attack.

We (supporters of Atiku) went to the PDP northwest zonal rally that took place at the partys secretariat in Katsina and returned to celebrate the colourful outing in our befitting campaign office refurbished in support of Atikus candidature ahead of the forthcoming general elections in 2019 when the Armed bandits and Armed thugs stormed and attacked us, the witness reportedly said.

Initially, they came in to spy on us before going back to pick up their arms to launch the attack. They smashed windscreens, mirrors and bodies of vehicles parked within the premises of the campaign office with cutlasses, sticks and others they were carrying on their hands.

They damage our fence, brought down our party flags erected round the fence and went away with some of the party flags.

We have reported the case at the Divisional Police Office in Batagarawa and the DPO with his men have swung into action immediately.
The National Youth League of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis declaration to seek a second term in 2019.

The youths described Buharis declaration as a dead on arrival project and display of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians.

The party in a statement signed by Honourable Inioribo Tamunotonye, the National Coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party National Youth League , questioned the reason the President was seeking for another term after an abysmal performance.

They said they would disgrace Buhari and send him packing from Aso Rock come 2019 .

The statement reads; It is preposterous that President Buhari has decided to score another low by disregarding common sense to declare interest for a fresh mandate after his abysmal performance and betrayal of trust of the Nigeria people.

President Buhari that came to power through the change mantra and his overbloated promise of improved economy, security and prosecuting the war against corruption, turned out to reward Nigerians with a very hostile economy and even worsened the security condition of our dear country. Buhari has given Nigerians the negative change and his administration has become the most corrupt in the history of Nigeria.

Despite the epic failure of the administration, we are shocked that the President that is supposed to surrender himself to the nearest prison for crimes against the Nigeria people after May 29, 2019, has the guts to seek for a fresh term in office.

We are disappointed in this new low of President Muhammadu Buhari and we assure him of the determination of Nigerians to disgrace him at the poll and unceremoniously send him packing from Aso Rock.

Buharis declaration for a fresh term is simply an exercise in futility, a dead on arrival project.
Home | News | General | EFCC arrests man with fake $400,000

- EFCC has arrested a man identified as Samson Otuedon, with fake $400,000

- Wilson Uwujaren, the commission's spokesman, said that Otuedon was arrested in Nasarawa state

- The anti-graft agency said the suspect would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it has arrested a suspected fraudster, Samson Otuedon, with over $400,000 (N144m) fake notes.

NAIJ.com gathered that the EFCC said in a statement by its Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, that the suspect was arrested at Masaka, Karu local government area of Nasarawa state.

READ ALSO: 5 top Nigerians who didn't want Buhari to run in 2019

Otuedon, who specialised in counterfeiting foreign currencies, was apprehended following an intelligence report on the activities of a syndicate of fraudsters duping unsuspecting victims in the Masaka area of the state.

EFCC arrested a suspected fraudster, Samson Otuedon, with over $400,000 (N144m) fake notes

The commission, upon the receipt, of the report swung into action by putting the area under surveillance, an action that led to the eventual arrest of the suspect on Saturday.

The statement added, While being interrogated, Otuedon admitted that the fake dollars were given to him by other members of his syndicate based in Lagos. Otuedon, who confessed to the crime, also admitted that the syndicate uses fake dollars for money doubling.

The anti-graft agency said the suspect would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Lagos zonal office, has arrested 13 suspected Internet fraudsters for conspiracy, possession of fraudulent documents and obtaining money under false pretence.

The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | You are alone on this- Ondo lawmakers disown Akeredolu on hike of Adekunle Ajasin University fees

- The Ondo state House of Assembly says it is not part of the fee hike in the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA)

The House also blames the executive arm of government headed by Rotimi Akeredolu for not considering the economic status of people across the country

- The lawmakers want a review of the tuition hike

The members of the Ondo state House of Assembly have reportedly declared that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is acting alone on the recent 500 percent increase in tuition fees for the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA).

Premium Times reports that the lawmakers said this while the students of the institution were demonstrating in Akure on Monday, April 9, against the state government.

READ ALSO: Why I am running for second term - Buhari

Speaking concerning the issue, the chairman of the House committee on information, Fatai Olotu, who spoke on behalf of the assembly, noted that the action of the state government did not correspond with the submissions made at the meeting with the management of the institution.

While condemning the schools management for not being sincere with information given to the leadership of the House at the stakeholders meeting where the pro-chancellor said everybodys interest would be considered, Olotu was quoted as saying: The Ondo State House of Assembly will not be part of a policy or decision that would bring untold hardship on the people of the state.

The House asked the executive arm and the management of AAUA to review the decision to hike the school fees which was against the interest of the people and in keeping with the tenets of democratic practice.

The report said the House rejected the schedule of fees and argued that it was on the high side, especially considering the current economic hardship across the country.

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According to the report, the new schedule of fees shows an increase from N25,000 to between N120,000 and N200,000.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that Adekunle Ajasin University students, on Monday, April 9, blocked roads in in Akungba Akoko to protest the sharp increase in school fees which was recently announced.

The report said the students marched through the Oba Adesida road to Alagbaka in Akure, hampering the flow of traffic through the city and armed with placards bearing various inscriptions.

What does Nigeria need right now? (Nigerian Street Interview) | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Top Nollywood actress celebrates 3 years of being born again, see the expensive phone she gave a lucky fan (photos)

Controversial Nollywood actress Tonto Dikeh popularly known as Radical for Jesus, is celebrating three years of being a born again Christian.

The actress on Monday, April 9, took to her Instagram handle to share pictures of the brand new iPhone 6 she was giving out to a lucky fan. Dikeh also urged everyone to join her in celebrating her anniversary.

She said she decided to give out the phones in because she was feeling extra generous.

READ ALSO: What is going on? Davido posts several cryptic messages about some women online

Dikeh shared the picture of the iPhone 6 with the caption: Feeling Xtra generous. As my Spirit leads I will choose a very loyal fan to win this new iPhone 6 (Abeg make una manage economy d shake). Write an Essay about me using a beautiful picture of me, post it and tag me using the hash tag #KINGTONTO #MAMAKING #RADICAL4JESUS. May the best win pls join me in celebrating 3 years in the body of Christ. Today marks the best day of the rest of my life. Celebration of a new life, celebrating being BORN AGAIN. HAPPY BORN AGAIN DAY to me. Winner will be announced by the end of the week.

See post below:

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The actress also announced her first winner which happens to be one of the persons handling her fan page. She shared the post with the caption: You are welcome honey. Thanks for being a great support system cant wait to meet you someday @ilovemamaking #WINNER OF THE 1st GIVE AWAY.

See post below:

Nice one!

I will impregnate my house help if my wife doesn't cook for me - Babe De Baba - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Home | News | General | 2019: Kogi govs media aide cautions youths against political thuggery

Lokoja  As the 2019 general elections get closer, Mrs. Petra Onyegbule, Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, has advised youths against offering themselves to be used as thugs by desperate politicians.



Onyegbule said on Monday in Lokoja that youths should resist the temptation to be used as tools for destruction by politicians that would dump them thereafter.

The youths must see themselves as tools of unity and development; they should be interested in a better tomorrow and be ready to plan for it.

They must be able to detect evil from afar and resist it, no matter how it is coloured, she said.

She reminded the youths that election was not war, pointing out that life would continue long after the elections were gone.

Onyegbule said that Kogi had become a model in youth participation in governance, saying that youths constituted a majority in Bellos cabinet.

The media aide challenged other governors to emulate the Kogi example by engaging more youths in leadership, noting that the youths had the zeal, zest and the know-how to get the right things done appropriately.

Onyegbule urged public support for efforts to stamp out corruption and insecurity so that Nigeria can become a save haven for investments.

With massive investments into the country, there will be jobs and youths will be positively engaged, she said. (NAN)

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Home | News | General | Delta launches nonstop flight from Lagos to New York-JFK

By Lawani Mikairu

DELTA Airlines has launched a new nonstop service from Lagos to New York-JFK, linking the financial capital of Nigeria to the financial capital of the world. The New York-JFK route complements the airlines existing flight to Atlanta, providing a daily departure and more travel choice to the US than ever before.

The New York-JFK flight will operate three times weekly, with Deltas existing services to Atlanta departing on the other four days. Customers flying to Deltas New York-JFK hub will benefit from more connections across the US to destinations including Washington DC, Baltimore and Chicago.

Speaking about the new route , Mr. / Corneel Koster, Deltas senior vice president, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India said: With the U.S. the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, this new route underscores our commitment to the market by facilitating trade and commerce between our nations.

Were proud of Deltas 10-year history in Nigeria and that we are the only airline to offer daily nonstop flights, bringing benefits to Nigerian business travellers while also providing more opportunities to reunite with families and friends across the United States.

Deltas New York-JFK and Atlanta flights from Lagos are operated using 234-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Offering an elevated onboard experience in every cabin. It also has fully flat-bed seats in Delta One that extend to 64 in length and offer greater privacy through their angled configuration.

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Home | News | General | Presidency denies Buharis approval of $1bn for military equipment

Ita Enang, the senior special assistant to the President on national assembly matters on Monday said that Buhari has not approved the release of $1 billion from the excess crude account.

He said the approval given to the federal government by the national economic council was undergoing the normal legislative process before the national assembly.

Recall that the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, had on Wednesday disclosed the release of $1 billion for procurement of security equipment to fight insecurity in the country after a three-hour meeting Buhari had with service chiefs and heads of other security agencies.

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, also said those criticising Buharis approval of $1 billion for security fund are playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.

However, Enang has issued a statement denying President Buharis approval of the fund. It read:

In response to several issues raised about Security Fund sourced for at source from Excess Crude account to combat Security challenges in the country and the several misreadings attending same, may l state as follows:

That the said sum has not and cannot be approved for spending by Mr. President.

That in accordance with best practices, Mr. President, having received approval of sum from National Economic Council made up of all the Governors, now had a meeting with the Minister of Defence, Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, among others to collate the need of each of the Services and the money available for appropriation

That Mr. President and the meeting having collated the need of each Service and the amount involved may now present same to the Federal Executive Council for detailed Consideration, or in exercise of Presidential powers may communicate same to the National Assembly for appropriation.

That this may be done as usual upon Mr. President Consulting prior with the Leadership of the National Assembly through the whole body of principal officers or the presiding officers of each chambers only, before originating the communication to the National Assembly

That as at now, the process of approving the money for use is inchoate and still undergoing Executive standard operating procedure before laying same before the National Assembly for appropriation.

That the processes now being worked on is to fast-track this procedures so that it may be forwarded to the National Assembly while it is still considering the 2018 Appropriation Bill (Budget) for incorporation as Mr. Presidents supplementary request under the 2018 Budget, or if completed, after the 2018 Budget, it may be forwarded as supplementary Appropriation Bill

That succinctly stated, Mr. President has not approved the sum for any release of this procurement or application howsoever

In any case, before any Sum is released from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, there must be

A. Appropriation Act

B. Vote of Charge

C. Warrant which is legally predicated on appropriation authorization Sub-head under the Act

That the Executive is conscious of the provisions of the Section 80 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution which states:

No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorized by an Act of the National Assembly.

No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.

We are also conscious of the provision of Sections 4 and 5 of the 2017 Appropriation Act (relating to Excess crude Account) and would not take any action in breach thereof.

Just as the Legislature in processing legislation starts with conceptualizing, drafting, scrutiny of the draft, gazzetting, First reading, 2nd reading, committal to appropriate committee, public hearing, consideration of the Report by Committee of the whole or supply, passage and 3rd reading in plenary, so also does the Executive have and maintain standard operating procedure, or due process or due diligence in all actions. And at this stage, the matter is ongoing these processes.

Therefore, the matter of the Security fund is still undergoing standard processes for laying before the National Assembly for appropriation.

In summary, ladies and gentlemen, the said Sum can only be spent upon, and in the manner as shall be approved by the National Assembly, and Assented to in Appropriation Act or supplementary Appropriation Act.

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Several Nigerians have taken to social media to express their opinion about the news of the official declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to run for second term.

Buhari, a few hours ago at the National Executive Council meeting, made known his intention to contest the presidency again in 2019

A social media aide to the President, Bashir Ahmad, broke the news earlier on Monday (today) via his social media page with the hashtag #PMBForNigeria 2019.

Reactions to Buharis declaration are swift, as Nigerians greet the news with different reactions.

Read some of the comments below:

 Kayode Ogundamisi (@ogundamisi) April 9, 2018

It is within the president's right to seek re-election. It is also within the right of the citizens to say NO to incompetence and bad leadership.  /smolfrd/ (@samoalfred) April 9, 2018

...seeking re-election for doing nothing in 3years? That's corruption!  orji Emmanuel (@andyorji) April 9, 2018

African Leaders dont know when to step down, from a position of power Even if it means coming to office in a wheelchair with an IV drip!  BOKETTO (@KingSanda) April 9, 2018

Affliction will never rise the second time says the Lord Almighty!  THE TRUTH ONLY (@FACT_UNDISPUTED) April 9, 2018

Retweet if you prefer Aso Rock is empty than seeing President Buhari in power again and like to see him return...Lets endorse a stat.  I_Follow_Back_Instantly (@Gov_jay) April 9, 2018

My Monday was rolling on a positive note, now Buhari has spoilt it with this yeye declaration. Who did this to us Nigerians?  Joe Oko Odey (@JoeOdey) April 9, 2018
Home | News | General | Peter Moyanga joins Board of Africa Franchise Center

FAST rising Africa Franchise Center, AFC, presently has in its Advisory Board, the Former Chairman of the Franchise Association of South Africa, FASA and one of Africas most notable names in the area of franchising and small enterprise development, Mr. Peter Sipho Moyanga.

Peter Moyanga

AFC is a private sector-led initiative to increase prosperity and support the growing businesses by promoting franchising as a business development model. The Africa-wide initiative was launched in Lagos in November 2017 at a ceremony attended by franchise business leaders and commercial diplomats from US Embassy and many African countries.

Reputed to be an expert in the field of franchising, property and business development, Moyanga is known to have done pioneering work in the development of franchising across Africa , leading workshops and training sessions in partnership with African Development Bank and other development agencies.

Moyanga has been involved with McDonalds Corporation in South Africa since 1995 having been one of their first employees when the corporation entered that market.

In 20103 he left corporate life to become an owner operator (franchisee) and he currently own many McDonalds outlets in South Africa, through his company, Moyanga Family Foods.

Mr. Moyanga joins an Advisory Board of AFC which already has such known names as Mr. Brent Omdhal, US Commercial Counselor to Nigeria; Mr. Anayo Agu, former Senior Commercial Specialist at the US Commercial Service in Nigeria.

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Islamabad, April 10 (APP):The Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today said the deliberate and unprovoked ceasefire violations by India along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary could escalate dangerously if not put to an end.

He was talking to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of BOAO Forum for Asia.

According to a press release from the PM Office, Abbasi said that the violations by India were moving towards a dangerous escalation resulting in martyrdom of innocent civilians.

Abbasi conveyed grave concern over the use of pellet guns by Indian forces in IHK and said, Pakistan seeks a just and peaceful resolution of the dispute, reflecting the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions.

The premier said that the UNSG must play its part in highlighting Indian atrocities being inflicted upon Kashmiris in IHK.

The PM also said Pakistan followed zero tolerance policy for terrorism and had achieved significant success in wiping terrorist elements from its soil.

Pakistan has rendered huge sacrifices in the war against terrorism, that the world must take note of.

Prime Minister also expressed grave concern at the plight of Rohingya Muslims.

The UN Secretary General acknowledged Pakistans efforts towards counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance to the Afghan refugees and the UN peacekeeping operations.

He maintained that he had been advocating the need for a serious dialogue on the Kashmir issue.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Interior, Planning, Development & Reform Ahsan Iqbal, Ambassador Masood Khalid and senior officials were also present during the meeting.
Home | News | General | 5 Nigerians who didn't want Buhari to run in 2019

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, April 9, declared his intention to seek re-election during 2019 presidential election.

NAIJ.com reported that he made the public declaration while meeting with the national executive committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.

The president said he is seeking re-election because of the clamour by Nigerians.

READ ALSO: PDP reacts to Buharis declaration for presidential re-election in 2019

According to the Cable news, prior to the president's public declaration, some Nigerians publicly canvassed against the presidents re-election bid.

Here are five of the figures who left no stone unturned in driving home their message against Buharis presidency come 2019.

1. Olusegun Obasanjo

The former president could have been instrumental to the election of Buhari in 2015 through his unbridled endorsement, but that has not stopped him from wielding his lethal letter writing skills against the president.

On January 23, Obasanjo wrote a strongly-worded letter to Buhari, asking him to forget about the 2019 election. In the, the Owu chief said the president had performed below expectation.

He wrote: The lice of poor performance in government  poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed  if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality  are very much with us today.

2. Ayodele Fayose

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, is a foremost critic of Buhari and he would never hold back his emotions when it comes to criticising the president. Some see him as the strongest voice of the opposition.

While reacting to Obasanjos letter to Buhari, Fayose described the letter writer and its recipient as expired leaders and that both leaders have outlived their usefulness to Nigeria. At another time, he said those who voted for the president in the 2015 general election ought to beg God for forgiveness.

3. Ibrahim Babangida

The former military president asked Nigerians to co-operate with President Buhari until his tenure ends  but vote for a new generation of leaders in 2019.

On February 4, in a statement titled Towards a national rebirth, he said the 2019 elections offer a unique opportunity for Nigerians.

Babangida, who overthrew Buhari in 1985 and ruled till 1993, said: In the fullness of our present realities, we need to cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to complete his term of office on May 29th, 2019 and collectively prepare the way for new generation leaders to assume the mantle of leadership of the country. While offering this advice, I speak as a stakeholder, former president, concerned Nigerian and a patriot who desires to see new paradigms in our shared commitment to get this country running.

4. Ango Abdullahi

Abdullahi, spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has described as corrupt act the recent endorsement of the president for a second term by the APC governors.

On March 24, he led a coalition of northern groups to pass a vote of no confidence on President Buhari and other northern politicians, saying they have failed the region.

5. Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie

In January, the archbishop emeritus of the Catholic archdiocese of Lagos, advised Buhari to respect himself and retire quietly.

The fiery cleric who has rated the current administration low said it is an insult to Nigerians for the president to be talking about 2019 election. He advised Buhari to be thinking of finding solutions to the problems confronting Nigerians.

He said: What has he done in the years he had been in the saddle? He has performed woefully; thats the verdict of Nigerians.

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Let the president respect himself and retire quietly. Coming out to talk of 2019 is insulting not only to those who voted him to power but to all Nigerians. There are so many problems confronting the people and he should be thinking of what to do about them. For second term, he must be a joker.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, April 9, in Abuja declared his intention to seek re-election in 2019. Malam Garba Shehu, the presidents senior special assistant on media and Publicity confirmed this development in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

President Buhari on 2019 presidential election: will you vote for him? | - on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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5 Nepali women rescued from Indian brothel

Five Nepal women have been rescued from a brothel in India. They were rescued at the initiatives of Maiti Nepal and support from Indian police and human rights activists. Four other Indian women were also rescued from the brothel.
Home | News | General | Herdsmen crisis: Council reveals serious consequence for Nigeria if ranches are not established

- The National Food Security Council has stated that the herdsmen/farmers clashes would worsen by next year, if ranches are not established

- It further urged President Buhari to quickly approve the establishment and training of agro-rangers to check the clashes

- The minister of agriculture also echoed the councils warning, as he pointed out that ranches need to be set up

The National Food Security Council has warned that if efforts are not intensified to create cattle ranches or provide better security against rustling in the country, the deadly clashes between farmers and herdsmen could worsen by 2018.

According to The Nation, the warning was given on Monday, April 9, during a meeting at the Presidential Villa which was chaired by the Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu.

READ ALSO: We have degraded Badoo in Lagos - CP Imohimi

NAIJ.com gathers that the Council urged President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly approve the establishment and training of agro-rangers who would serve as a special unit to assist security agencies check the clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

The minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, was also present at the meeting; including Governors Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), and Simon Lalong (Plateau).

After the meeting, Ogbeh told newsmen: "We have to move the cattle to the good old grazing reserves and we just have to create environment for them; clusters of ranches where they have water, grass and security against rustlers.

For nearly 40 years we didnt do much about cattle, we also forgot that cattle contribute six percent to GDP. The cheapest way of rearing cattle is by roaming around with them as you see now.

If you go into a ranch it is not cheap and government cannot subsidize cattle rearing like they do in Europe, where they subsidize every cow with 6 which is about N2,400. We cannot afford that.

So, the thing is to create those ranches and the herdsmen are prepared to pay tax to support the programme. If we dont do it, next year will be worse than this year I assure you.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state stated that herdsmen must embrace cattle ranching in order to put an end to their incessant clashes with farmers.

The governor made his comments while interacting with the management and students of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti. He also appealed to Nigerians to stop attaching ethnic sentiments into the killings by suspected herdsmen in the country.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Source: Naija.ng

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Home | News | General | Mixed reactions trail Buharis 2nd term declaration

Buhari deserves second termAnyim

He should tell us what he has achievedUwazuruike

Its his rightObiogbolu

By Vincent Ujumadu, Anayo Okoli, Levinus Nwabughiogu & Ugochukwu Alaribe

ENUGUNEWS of President Buharis decision to contest another term in office was received yesterday, with mixed feelings across the country.

While many people interviewed by Vanguard said it was the right of the president to contest, others said his frail health and alleged poor performance during his current tenure were enough to warrant his stepping down for another candidate in his party.

President Buhari

Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abia State in the 2015 general election, Dr. Nyerere Anyim, while reacting to Buharis declaration said the president deserved a second term in office to correct what he described as PDPs 16 year mistake in Nigeria.

Anyim said the president has done well if one takes into account the poor state of affairs when he came into power.

He said: Anyone assessing Buharis performance should take into account the state in which PDP landed Nigeria in the 16 years it held power. Corruption was at its height. But now, it is no longer business as usual. People are now afraid of dipping their hands into the public treasury. Security has improved.

The dilapidated federal roads under PDP are being addressed, the issue of power is getting attention. You now have steady power at Ariaria market; its the achievement of the APC government. You also know that the PDP in the South East has been claiming Buhari and APCs projects as their own, but we are not worried.

He called on the South East to support Buahris re election, describing it as the easiest way for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in 2023.

Ndigbo should support Buhari to win in 2019 and hand over to an Igbo son in 2023, he added.

Buhari hasnt achieved anythingUwazuruike

In his reaction, former President of Aka Ikenga, the punching arm of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike challenged President Buhari to tell Nigerians what he has achieved to merit re-election in 2019.

The former Ohanaeze scribe who is also a legal practitioner queried Buharis delivery on his campaign promises in 2015 to seek the renewal of his mandate from Nigerians.

He however acknowledged that it was his right under the constitution to contest election, insisting that the president had some explanations to make.

He said: The constitution guarantees the right to contest for elections. The contestant makes some basic promises. But the basis for recontesting is to continue the good work. In other words, President Muhammadu Buhari will tell us what he has achieved!

He listed three major areas: corruption, security and the economy. He should tell us where his achievements lie in these three areas. He can say I have fought corruption without fear or favour.

That the charges of nepotism and cover up of corruption against his men is not true. He should tell us that the insecurity we felt before has been eliminated.

He must tell us how human rights are respected, how court orders are obeyed. The president has to tell us how investors are trooping in and where they are now.

Its the presidents right to seek re-electionObiogbolu

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the partys governorship aspirant in last years governorship election in Anambra State, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu said while it is the right of the president to seek re-election, it is left for the Nigerian electorate to decide who the countrys next president would be.

He said: The president has the right to contest and continue in office but I believe Nigerians will ultimately decide who will be the next president.

Nigerians have seen his performance and are now in a better position to compare him with PDP. My concern is that my party, PDP, should get its acts together and present a good candidate that can defeat APC.

Its worst thing to happen to NigeriansMASSOB

But the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB wondered how a leader it described as the worst President the nation had ever had deemed it necessary to declare to recontest when his present tenure has choked Nigerians to death.

MASSOB however said that the declaration did not bother its members as Buharis declaration was for those who still believe in Nigeria.

The announcement of his ambition may sound so much pleasant to APC but it is full of hopelessness and Fulani interest, MASSOB said in a statement signed by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu.

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Bhutanese refugees urge govts at all levels to resolve their problems

Bhutanese refugees living in the camps in Jhapa and Morang districts have requested the governments at all three levels to swiftly resolve their problems.
A House of Representatives member, Rep. Aminu Shagari (Sokoto-APC), on Monday said President Muhammadu Buharis intention to seek re-election in 2019 was a good development for the All Progressives Congress party (APC).

Shagari told News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja that since no one had come out openly in the party to announce interest for the presidency, it was good that Buhari declared his intention.

He said that a second term for the president was good because he means well for Nigerians.

It is a good thing for the president to say he is running in 2019.This is because if you look at it, in the APC, no one has come out openly to say he is going to contest against him.

So, for him to come out now is a good thing for the party.

On his achievements, the president is a truthful person and means well for Nigerians which is one of the important things any leadership can have.

Once people can trust you, the economy or wealth of the nation can be safe and that confidence is what matters, he said.

On areas Nigeria needed improvement, Shagari said that there was no clear cut vision on where we are heading to and that is where he should get experts to help.

The president should get experts that will sit down and chat the way forward for the nation and that is the most important thing he should do when he comes back in 2019.

One of the things people are complaining about is the cabal surrounding him, I will advise him to allow some intelligentsia to come close to him and tell him what is going on.

On corruption, the lawmaker said that the president was doing well as he had good intentions to end the vice for a better country.

His zeal and intentions are there to fight corruption and I thought that he would have started with the police.

Once the police are put in place, 90 per cent of the fight against corruption would have been achieved.

I expect that in 2019 the police would be put right and the war against indiscipline should also be re-introduced, he said.

However, he advised the president to take things easy and try to make the 2019 electioneering campaign less vigorous.
Home | News | General | Islamic group renews call for Zakzakys release

The Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria on Tuesday urged the U.S. to prevail on the Federal Government to release their detained leader, Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky.

The group staged a peaceful protest at the U.S Embassy in Abuja and said that it had become expedient for the government to release the Islamic leader because of his failing health.

Leader of the protesters, Malam Abdullahi Musa, told Newsmen that the protest was the 91st the group was embarking on since Zakzaky was detained in 2015.

Recent medical check-up carried out by concerned Nigerians and medical professionals show that the only remaining eye of Sheik Zakzaky which was affected with glaucoma was deteriorating.

An urgent surgery is needed abroad as no hospital in Nigeria can handle his situation successfully.

It has also been confirmed that Sheik is still suffering from the impact of stroke he suffered from some weeks ago and bullet injuries, such that he is still ill and in urgent need of medical attention abroad.

His wife, Zeenah, suffers from increasingly frequent stomach pains due to bullets and other harmful particles that are in her stomach.

She also suffers from cartilage problem (osteoarthritis) which makes it difficult for her to walk and is in dire need of medical attention abroad, he said.

Musa said that Zakzaky had been shot at close range, but Allah kept him alive from the barbaric attack of December, 2015.

He said that Allah was with the cleric, who was attacked because of his stance against injustice, corruption, crime against humanity, disunity of the people and imperialism.

We will not be satisfied until Sheik Zakzaky is free from tyrannical detention, until all those that are involved in the killing of over 1, 000 innocent people in Zaria and other places are brought to book.

No official of the U.S embassy came out to address the protesters who sang and chanted other things for about 20 minutes.

The embassy security personnel cordoned off the area, forcing the protesters to depart in frustration at about 1.15 p.m.

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Home | News | General | Minna residents say Buhari needs second term to consolidate on achievements

Residents of Minna have expressed support for President Muhammadu Buharis bid for a second tenure, with some saying that he would use the fresh term to consolidate on his achievements.

Some of them, who spoke with Newsmen on Tuesday, said that the additional four years would enable Buhari to consolidate on his achievements in the area of security.

Buhari

They listed other areas to include the economy and the fight against corruption.

Alhaji Kabiru Bawa, a trader, said that the four more years were crucial to entrenching the Buhari legacy and his ideals of a corrupt-free Nigeria.

Buhari has succeeded in pulling Nigeria out of economic recession. He has also taken practical steps to diversify the economy. We need to ensure these measures are deeply rooted, he said.

Alhaji Abdullahi Bosso, a politician, said that Buharis obsession for justice had changed the psyche of Nigerians.

Buharis administration has tried to protect everyones right. We need to keep him longer in government so that we can enjoy these privileges, he said.

He also commended Buharis commitment to ending insurgency, saying that many parts of the country were now safe.

Alhaji Ahmed Dogara, former Chairman of Chanchaga Local Government Area, said that

Buhari would use the second tenure to complete ongoing projects he initiated.

He said that Buhari was transparent, honest, committed to progressive change, and had a deep concern about the yearnings and aspirations of poor Nigerians.

Dogara, however, urged Buhari to be more decisive in his fight against corruption so as to rid the nation of the menace.

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Home | News | General | Group condemns recurring sexual abuse among girls-child

Girls and Youth Re-integration Network (GYRIN), an NGO, has decried the recurring sexual abuse among girl-children in the country.

It described such abuse as sad and a total deviation from the norms.

Ms Kehinde Awujoola, Founder of the NGO, said this while speaking with Newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.

She noted that the ugly trend of the girl-child abuse must be arrested forthwith, adding that a nation with such menace will degenerate and alter the future of the girl-child.

Awujoola canvassed for capital punishment for perpetrators of such dastard act, suggesting that anyone caught with such act should be

sentenced to 10 years imprison with hard labour.

She condemned the recent abuse of a school-girl by her teacher in a school in Lagos State, stressing that such people posed threat to the country and their activities inimical to the teaching environment.

The founder of GYRIN called for vigilance in and around schools across the country, adding that many children have fallen victims of

such acts without the boldness to expose them.

She recommended measures to curtail such abuse, including thimperative to teach and talk to children about body at their

formative stage.

Awujoola said that the girls must be taught that some body parts are private and a no-go area for the opposite sex, which must not be

touched.

She said that the girl-child should know that no one should take pictures of their private parts including their relatives.

She called on parents to be vigilant and quickly respond when they notice any changes in their girl-child, advising that parents to take

up the responsibility of checking up their children and wards often.

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Boao Forum for Asia 2018 kicks off in China

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) may be Chinas idea but its opportunities and outcomes are going to benefit the world.
Home | News | General | Censors Board boss wants BBNaija show hosted in Nigeria

Mr Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director, National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), says the next edition of the Big Brother Nigeria (BBNaija) reality show should be hosted in the country.

Thomas, in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, said this while expressing displeasure on why a Nigerian show was being held in South Africa.

The BBNaija which was introduced in 2006, is a special Nigerian version of the continental show Big Brother Africa.

The 2018 edition is its second consecutive running year as it had previously suffered a 10-year hiatus after holding its first edition in 2006.

He said: If it is Big Brother Africa, they can host that anywhere, but the one for Nigeria, should be hosted in Nigeria.

Nigeria has what it takes to host the show, after all, there are many Multinational /Telecommunication companies hitherto operating hitch free in the country.

If the organisers are talking about lack of available infrastructure as an excuse, then how is MTN operating successfully 24/7 in this same country.

If MTN, a similar South African company has been surviving in this country, then I dont think anybody has an excuse for not hosting BBNigeria in Nigeria.

They are making a lot of money from Nigerians here, so, we want them to host it here, he said.

On the criticism in some quarters that the show was not healthy for younger viewers, Thomas said it was the responsibility of parents to check what their wards watch.

He said the programme is rated 18+ adding, a couple of the scenes are adult content and that is where parental guidance comes in.

Parents can always block the watching of some scenes within a particular period or in totality.

It is not Governments responsibility to assume the parental roles of moral upbringing of children in their homes, he said. (NAN)

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Home | News | General | FG making giant strides in assets recovery, says AGF

Mr Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, said on Tuesday that the Federal Government has made significant progress in assets recovery.

Malami spoke at a press conference in Abuja, where he also announced that Nigeria had been elected into the global steering committee of Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Abubakar Malami (SAN)

The minister was represented by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Dayo Apata.

Newsmen report that the global OGP Steering Committee is the executive decision making body of the OGP, tasked with developing, promoting and safeguarding the values, principles and interests of OGP.

The Nigerian government joined the OGP in 2016, to further deepen the reforms initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle corruption and block leakages of resources.

The minister said that as part of recognition for Nigerias efforts in assets recovery, stakeholders had described the co-monitoring of the expenditure of the Abacha loot as a model for other countries to follow.

According to him, a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the co-monitoring of the expenditure of Abacha loot repatriated from Switzerland, has been described by stakeholders as a model for other countries to adopt.

This is in line with our deliberate policy to have clear transparent guidelines for managing all recovered assets in line with the anti-corruption commitments in the National Action Plan (NAP),he said.

The AGF added that another area that the country was making progress is the ongoing effort to establish a public register of beneficial owners.

He said that government was hopeful that the establishment of beneficial owners register would end the era of anonymous company ownership, that aided capital flight and illicit financial flows.

The Nigeria Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), is working closely with the government of the United Kingdom and Open Ownership to develop ownership data standards to achieve this goal.

A new legislation that will ensure that data is available to the public is already in the parliament and should become enforceable before the end of 2018,he said.

He noted that as the only African country that would be on the OGP steering committee during its tenure, Nigeria would uphold the ideals of open government through regular sharing of experiences and cross fertilisation of ideas with other countries.

Newsmen, report that Nigeria will serve alongside France, Argentina and Romania for a period of three years, beginning in October.

NAN

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Home | News | General | We are capable of protecting Nigerians  Inspector General of Police

The Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, has given assurance that the police will do everything possible to provide the much-needed security to Nigerians.

He gave the assurance on Tuesday during the inauguration of a Mobile Police Squadron in Takum, Taraba.

Idris stressed that the police, in collaboration with other sister security agencies, were more determined, better equipped and trained to detect as well as diligently prevent crimes.

Mr. Ibrahim Idris

The police boss further urged Nigerians to be conscious of security issues in their communities and report any suspicious activity.

According to him, the timely report of such threats is necessary to enable security personnel to forestall the activities of criminals in the society.

The IGP, however, enjoined officers and men of the force to rededicate themselves to their constitutional duty of protecting lives and property of Nigerians and foreigners resident in the country.

Idris also called for diligence among the personnel to enable them to effectively fight crimes to their barest minimum.

He further described police job as one of the best in the world.

He, however, said that the job could also be hazardous, sometimes.

 if the officers and men of the force were genuinely busy protecting lives and property of other people in the larger society without getting involved in unwholesome practices, God would also bless and protect such members, as well as their families.

Idris, therefore, advised them to further rededicate themselves in the service of their fatherland, exhibit discipline, be upright in their official conduct and obey lawful orders.

 You should always be courageous, prayerful, shun unwholesome acts capable of tarnishing your names, families and that of the Nigeria Police.

Be loyal to the country and constituted authority and make sure you always obey lawful orders and be prayerful at all times for Allahs protection and blessings.

Gov. Darius Ishaku, represented by his deputy, Alhaji Haruna Many, commended the IGP for steps taken to address some security challenges in the state.

According to him,  provision of helicopter for 24 hours air surveillance, 3 additional mobile units and establishment of Mobile Squadron in Takum are highly appreciated.

NAN

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Home | News | General | IPI world congress: we need to change how Nigeria is perceived - Iredia

Mr Tonnie Iredia has underscored the need for a change in how Nigeria is being portrayed and perceived by the international community and the rest of the world.



Iredia, Chairman, Committee on Publicity, for the upcoming International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress, said this when he led the committee members on a visit to the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Bayo Onanuga, in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the upcoming IPI World Congress scheduled to hold in June would be a perfect opportunity to help change the negative mindset of the international community towards Nigeria and the whole of Africa.



Iredia, former Director-General of the NTA, said the whole of Africa had been continuously portrayed in the negative light, whereas they failed to report positive things. 

He noted that many positive things existed in Nigeria such as being our neighbours keepers, citing examples of the help Nigeria rendered to Liberia, Cape Verde, among others which were not propagated.



Iredia called on the Managing Director of NAN to continue to help sensitise Nigerians to the upcoming IPI World Congress and the need for Nigerians to portray herself in good light. 



The people coming are coming with apprehension because of the negative things they have heard about Nigeria.

We are particularly interested in making Nigerians realise the gains of the conference because if the delegates from all over the world come to Nigeria they will get to know things they have never known about us.

They will get to know positive things because all they know is negative things; so it is like image making for Nigeria.

That is why we want Nigerians to appreciate it, to support it and welcome the delegates warmly.

He appealed to the NAN MD to increase reports going out on the IPI Congress and monitor to ensure the message was being received by people.



Iredia thanked the MD for his professional contribution to the agency and his logistic support towards the Congress.

Responding, Onanuga agreed with the committee that Nigeria was indeed being portrayed in bad light, which was not the case in reality.

He said he was sure the delegates coming for the congress would see a lot of good things about Nigeria, that its citizens should not be shy of showcasing.

I am happy we are hosting the congress, sometimes as a Nigerian you do not feel happy about the way we are perceived outside but I tell people that Nigeria is not as bad as we are being perceived. Nigeria is a great country and good people.



There is something about our country that attracts you as a Nigerian, to return home when you leave the country.

It is not better outside, things are better here. I believe if you have tasted outside, Nigeria is a much better country than other countries. 

You see people coming to this country to serve for several years and they do not want to go back because they feel this country is a much better country but we do not appreciate what God has given us except a few patriots.



Onanuga assured the committee of NANs availability to publicise the pre and post conference stories and materials.



NAN reports that the IPI World Congress is scheduled to hold in Abuja from June 21 to 23.

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Home | News | General | Nigerians Reacts After Lagos Big Boy Reduced A Policeman To An Errand Boy At A Wedding In Imo State

A police officer has been tongue-lashed on social media after he was spotted serving as an errand boy for a rich Lagos Big Boy. The police officer serving as an

errand boy . Nigerians have reacted angrily after a Lagos big boy reduced a policeman to the level of an errand boy at a traditional wedding held in Mbaise, Imo state on Saturday.

Nigerians who expressed disgust at the manner the police officer willingly offered himself to be used by the rich, remarked that such scenario brings disrespect to the force. At the wedding, the police officer could be seen holding a bag of money while following the man sheepishly as if he was a mere servant.

Many believe the photos depict how the police force has been reduced itself to nothing before the public. Nigerians also faulted the top echelon of the force for prioritizing the security of a few wealthy people while the poor masses who are in need of protection from robbers are left unattended. Nigerians have called on the Federal Government to do something urgently to avoid a repeat of such incident.

Recall that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, had in March ordered the immediate withdrawal of police officers attached to VIPs, political and public officers across the country. Idris noted that a memo would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval, which would serve as a guideline or template for deployment to VIP, political and public officers in the country.

It is not yet known if the police has restructured things to make its personnel more available to serve the people instead of a few rich Nigerians

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Home | News | General | No one was injured - Police reacts to report of shooting protesting students

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The Ondo State Police Command has denied a report that its officers shot at protesting students on Monday, April 9, in Akure.

The commissioner of police in Ondo state, Olugbenga Adeyanju, told newsmen on Tuesday, April 10, in Akure that only minimal force was used during the protest.

He described the report of shooting as uncalled for, saying no body had yet turned up with gunshot injuries.

READ ALSO: N-power addresses participants

To the glory of God, with the cooperation of my command and the good people of Ondo State, we have managed the crisis very well.

If anyone was shot as claimed by the students, you journalists who are closer to the public would have confirmed it.

I was there personally and even the whole command closed down since the start of this protest so as to put the situation under control. Nobody was shot and no one was injured, he said.

The commissioner, however, said he ordered the use of the tear gas, which he described as minimum force, to disperse the students.

Naturally, it is minimum force. I claim the responsibility. I ordered that tear gas should be used to disperse them, I gave the instruction.

There was a pregnant woman who was on her way to the hospital to deliver a baby, she was bleeding profusely and she was blocked from moving.

We have to clear the road to enable her get to the hospital before its too late.

People who are coming from the bank and those going into the bank were prevented from doing so and as security officers, it behoves on us to clear the road for them, hence the need for the minimum force, he said.

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Adeyanju enjoined residents of the state to go about their legitimate duties, assuring that the command was in control of the situation and would prevent any breakdown of law and order.

In a previous report by NAIJ.com, Adekunle Ajasin University students on Monday, April 9, blocked roads in in Akungba Akoko to protest the sharp increase in school fees which was recently announced.

Students of the institution are expected to pay 500 per cent higher than previous fees.

Ijanusi Olawale, the students union president said the protests would be held in various states such as Oyo, Osun, Lagos and many others, Premium Times reports.

Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? on NAIJ.com TV.

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Home | News | General | Enugu police arrest notorious armed robber, cultist

- A suspected notorious armed robber has been arrested by Enugu state police

- The criminal has been terrorising members of Ibagwa Nike community of Enugu east local government area

- He was arrested by operatives attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the command on April 9

The police command in Enugu state has arrested a suspected notorious armed robber and cultist who had been terrorising members of Ibagwa Nike community of Enugu east local government area.

The suspect, Sopuruchukwu Anike, 24, also claimed to be from Ibagwa Nike community.

The commands spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday in Enugu.

READ ALSO: Former Katsina governor docked for alleged N11.5bn, pleads not guilty

Amaraizu said that a single barrel gun which the suspect and his cohorts used in unleashing mayhem on their victims was recovered during the operation

He said the suspect was arrested by operatives attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the command on April 9.

Amaraizu said that the suspect and his cohorts usually robbed their victims at gunpoint and dispossessed them of their telephones, money and other valuables.

He said that the suspect also confessed to being a member of the Aye confraternity.

The police spokesman said that the suspect said he bought the gun from one of his cohorts, Ikenna, who is currently in prison custody.

He said that the suspect joined the cult in 2016 and thereafter, dropped out from school in Senior Secondary one.

Amaraizu said that a full scale investigation had commenced into the incident.

NAIJ.com had reported that the police have arrested a herder with one AK-47 Riffle and 7.62 ammunition in Isigwe Ugbawka community in Nkanu east local government area of Enugu state.

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The commands spokesman, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said in Enugu on Saturday, April 7, that the suspect was arrested on April 4 at a farmland in the community.

Amaraizu noted that the arrest was made possible because of prompt response to a distress call and intelligence information received from the residents of the community.

Herdsmen attacks: Benue's Attorney-General explains anti-grazing law | NAIJ.com TV

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Boy, 12, steps on electric trap dies

Police are investigating into the death of a 12-year-old boy who died after stepping onto an electric wire allegedly set up by hunters to trap animals at Shivashakti Community Forest in Dhangadhi, Kailali.
Home | News | General | Buhari must go! - Protesters chant in front of Abuja House in London

A group of Nigerians in solidarity on Tuesday, April 10, staged a protest outside the residence of President Muhammadu Buhari calling for him to go.

The protesters were seen carrying placards with inscriptions such as "They can't kill us all", "Protect lives not cows", "Herdsmen are boko haram members released by Nigerian government" and chanting Buhari must go.

President Buhari had departed Abuja for an official visit to the United Kingdom where he is expected to hold discussions with the British Prime Minister, Prime Minister Theresa May.

Below is a short clip of the protest shared on Instagram by Charles Oputa, aka Charly boy:

A statement by presidential spokesman Garba Shehu says the Nigerian leader is headed to the United Kingdom on an official visit ahead of the Commonwealth Head of Governments meeting (CHOGOM).

The personal assistant to the president on new media, Bashir Ahmad, in a tweet on Monday, April 9, said the discussion between Buhari and Theresa May will focus on Nigeria - British relations.

NAIJ.com had earlier reported that a presidency source confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria for London on Monday, April 9, to commence his annual leave.

President Buhari left early to enable him rest before participating in the 25th commonwealth heads of government meeting, also known as CHOGM 2018, which is to be held at the Buckingham Palace, St Jamess Palace, and Windsor Castle.

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Meanwhile, President Buhari had announced that he would seek reelection in the 2019.

The development was made public by the president's personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmed.

President Buhari on 2019 presidential election: will you vote for him? | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | World | Africa | Lovemore Moyo forms Movement for Devolution

Former MDC-T national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo who abandoned the party last month has formed a political party - United Movement for Devolution (UMD).

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Moyo said the party was formed following a meeting that was held on 4 April in Bulawayo.

"Various stakeholders such as the church, civil society, the students movement, traditional and cultural stakeholders, and the ordinary Zimbabweans, converged on Bulawayo where they took a critical look at the Southern region as well as Zimbabwe's socio-economic and political situation. From that meeting emerged an urgent need to come up with a response to the myriad of problems the Southern region and the nation at large is facing," he said.

Mr Moyo said the party's principles and values were premised on the aspect of the devolution of power. Mr Moyo said stakeholders who attended the meeting agreed that UMD would be futuristic in its programming and planning of activities.

"Our bigger plan is to prepare Zimbabwe for a bigger UMD brand in the very foreseeable future. However, the delegates agreed that while we plan for the future, UMD will, with regard to the forthcoming 2018 general elections, allow members to contest under its banner. Our modus operandi will be that we will support any of our members who declare interest in contesting in a particular constituency for the House of Assembly or ward for the local government elections," he said.

"It was further agreed that the party shall use the three Matabeleland provinces, namely Matabeleland North, South, and Bulawayo, as the initial administrative devolution structures. A review of progress will then be made on how these three have fared, following which a final decision will be made going forward. This, delegates noted, enables the party to focus on strengthening the provinces' capacities to deal with the agenda of devolution," he said.

Mr Moyo jumped the MDC-T ship pointing out that the party has lost its direction after the appointment of Advocate Nelson Chamisa as president following the death of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.

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Communist rule has begun in the country: Shekhar Koirala

Nepali Congress central leader Shekhar Koirala has remarked that a typical communist rule has begun in the country.
China's rise as an economic superpower has been a major investing theme over the last decade. Whether discussing the growth prospects for manufacturers of water heaters or smartphones, the world's most populous country represents untapped potential that cannot be ignored. And the same can be said for the nation's energy consumption.

The International Energy Agency predicts that China's energy consumption, already at the top of the global leaderboard, will more than double between now and 2040. While growth is expected from nearly every energy source, many investors have focused on the country's investments in nuclear power as the key to its energy future. After all, atomic energy is largely seen as a direct replacement for dirtier coal, and could help to alleviate air pollution concerns.

However, the home-grown nature of China's nuclear industry and poor market fundamentals for uranium result in very few opportunities for individual investors. That's why those looking to cash in on rising energy demand in the market should focus on companies cashing in on liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead of nuclear power. Here are a few stocks you should consider.

Steam rising from cooling towers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why China's nuclear growth is difficult to invest in

On paper, the expansion of atomic energy in China appears to be an incredible opportunity. The country has 38 nuclear reactors in operation today and 20 under construction according to the World Nuclear Association. That represents 35% of all reactors under construction globally. When all reactors are online the nation will own some 88 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity.

It's exactly the catalyst many investors have been looking for to boost the prospects of the world's largest publicly traded uranium miner, Cameco (NYSE: CCJ), which has been reeling from greatly reduced uranium demand following reactor closures in Japan, the United States, and Germany. The company's shares are down 34% in the last three years despite efforts designed to lower operating costs and wait out the storm, such as closing major mines and reducing output at others.

Story continues

Unfortunately, China's nuclear growth may skip over Cameco. That's because the country is sourcing most of its uranium supply from Kazakhstan, the world's leading supplier. Kazakhstan has a long history of oversupplying the market, and with all of its increased future production going straight to China, there may not be much upward pressure on global selling prices.

That puts investors in a tough spot. Aside from Cameco, there aren't really any reputable stocks allowing investors to tap into the global uranium or nuclear industries, and certainly not China's atomic energy growth. The country is developing its own reactors and nuclear power infrastructure supply chains, which it then expects to export globally.

Long story short, there's just not a great entry point for individual investors in this much-discussed trend. That's why investors should instead turn their focus to China's LNG imports instead.

An LNG carrier loading supplies at an export terminal.

Image source: Getty Images.

LNG presents better opportunities for investors

Most analysts predicted eye-popping growth for global LNG in recent years as new production capacity came online, but reality has trumped even the most bullish projections. In 2017 global LNG trade outpaced projections by 26%. The main catalyst: Chinese imports, which came in just shy of 40 million metric tons (mtpa) last year. That compares to just 10 mtpa in 2010 and 20 mtpa in 2015.

To be fair, some of the incredible increase was driven by an unusually cold winter in the country's north, which hints that investors shouldn't necessarily expect a repeat in 2018. But gas demand in China has grown every year this century. And until the country's own shale gas production can begin contributing in meaningful volumes, China will continue to rely heavily on LNG imports, which accounted for over 20% of total gas consumption last year.

A column chart drawn on a chalk board showing growth.

Image source: Getty Images.

That's good news for investors, who will find no shortage of opportunities in the country's growing appetite for LNG, unlike China's ambitious plans for nuclear power.

LNG pioneer

Some of the largest energy companies in the world have invested heavily in LNG, which is expected to be one of the fastest growing energy sources over the next several decades. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B), which began commercializing LNG in the 1960s, is well positioned, with major projects dotted across the globe. That includes Australia, the world's second-largest LNG exporter, which is also among the closest major LNG sources to the coveted Asian market. If projects there can keep costs low, then it's a no-brainer supply for Asian countries.

Royal Dutch Shell is nearing the start of its majority-owned Prelude project, which is a floating LNG project located about 125 miles off the coast of Australia. At full tilt Prelude will produce about 3.6 mtpa of LNG, which could supply all of Hong Kong's annual natural gas demand. That's relatively small for a liquefaction facility, but the company's total global liquefaction capacity totaled an impressive 30.9 mpta at the end of 2016. Every little bit helps.

The oil supermajor also operates over 90 LNG carriers, representing about 20% of the global fleet. Simply put, investors looking to own a piece of the booming LNG market can't go wrong with Royal Dutch Shell.

A drawing of a big fish about to eat many smaller fish.

Image source: Getty Images.

Buying its way to the top

Already a leading LNG market force, Total SA (NYSE: TOT) recently made a splash by agreeing to acquire LNG upstart Engie. The move will make the French energy giant the world's second-leading LNG company ranked by expected 2020 capacity. It also included an equity stake in the Cameron LNG facility on the American Gulf Coast, which will sport a total capacity of 15 mtpa with its first three trains. The site could support further expansions to 25 mtpa. There's also an equity stake in Driftwood LNG, which is earlier in development, but could eventually export over 27 mtpa after beginning operations in 2023.

Assuming the acquisition closes, it will play a large role in Total's long-term global LNG strategy. It should also treat shareholders pretty well: integrated LNG operations are expected to deliver $3 billion in operating cash flow by 2020. That's supported by liquefaction capacity sprinkled across the globe, from the United States to the West Coast of Africa to Australia to the Persian Gulf.

America's undisputed LNG champ

The early leader in American LNG is Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT: LNG), which could own over half of the country's 9.5 billion cubic feet per day of export capacity by the end of the decade. Suffice to say, it should remain king along the Gulf Coast for the foreseeable future.

As a leading global exporter of LNG, it was only a matter of time before Cheniere Energy cozied up to the Chinese market. In early February 2018 it did just that by announcing a long-term supply agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The deal calls for shipping 1.2 mtpa to China from 2023 to 2043 from the company's currently operating Sabine Pass facility, and later from its Corpus Christi liquefaction plant, which is still under construction. Shipments will begin this year.

The deal underscores the predictability in Cheniere Energy's business model, which relies on having the great majority of its export capacity committed in long-term supply agreements at mostly fixed prices. That will be sorely needed to pay down its giant debt load (LNG terminals are incredibly expensive to build), but with a time horizon spanning decades, that is unlikely to be a major problem for shareholders.

A natural gas processing facility.

Image source: Getty Images.

LNG is the real opportunity in China's energy growth

Despite all of the discussion surrounding China's nuclear ambitions and how the nation's investments in atomic power could lead to the long-awaited nuclear renaissance, the opportunity is unlikely to trickle down to individual investors. Luckily, China's LNG imports are growing even more quickly than its nuclear capacity as the country seeks to replace coal-fired industrial energy consumption and meet growing demand for residential heating. Throw in a dearth of investing opportunities in atomic energy, and it's easy to make the case that investors eager to cash in on China's long-term energy growth should turn their attention to the supercooled gas instead.

More From The Motley Fool

Maxx Chatsko has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool is short shares of Cameco. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Istanbul (AFP) - The Turkish spy agency has flown three suspected members of the movement blamed for the 2016 failed coup back to Turkey from the African state of Gabon in a covert operation, state media said Tuesday.

As part of a secret mission carried out by the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), the men were brought back to Turkey on a private plane from Libreville, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The suspects are accused of belonging to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says orchestrated the bloody July 15 coup bid two years ago, aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara calls his group the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) but Gulen insists he runs a purely peaceful movement and denies any link to the failed plot.

The latest MIT swoop comes on the heels of the controversial expulsion of six alleged Gulen group members from Kosovo in a similar operation.

Gulen's group had built up huge influence in Turkey but also abroad -- notably in Africa, the Balkans and Central Asia -- in particular through an education network.

In the Gabon operation, one of the suspects was a school principal in Libreville and an education coordinator of Gulen schools operating across Kenya.

The second suspect was also a school principal, while the third was director general of Gulen schools in Gabon and steered the group's money transfers from Europe to Africa, according to Anadolu.

The news agency reported some high-ranking Gulen movement members were detained on March 23 in a raid by the Gabon security forces.

But there was no immediate information on Libreville's role in the operation.

Gabon is ruled by President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the son of Omar Bongo Ondimba who governed the oil-rich nation for more than 41 years until his death in 2009. Ali Bongo Ondimba held talks with Erdogan in Ankara in 2015.

In March, five teachers and a doctor, all Turkish nationals alleged to be Gulenists, were flown back to Turkey from Kosovo in a hugely contentious operation carried out by the Pristina interior ministry and MIT.

Story continues

The operation sparked a crisis in Kosovo, with both the prime minister and president protesting that they were not informed.

The government said its intelligence agency had brought back from abroad a total of 80 suspected members of the Gulen movement, without elaborating further on the countries.

Erdogan has vowed to hunt down Gulenists inside and outside Turkey, saying on Monday: "We will never allow those vile people to walk freely."
Facilities spruced up at TIA

Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu has undergone a dramatic makeover from the disaster zone described by various inspection reports.
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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LOL

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amazing first comment

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Still not convinced any of this will lead to getting rid of Trump, feels like we'll be stuck with him forever

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Came in to say basically the same thing.

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That's probably gonna be the case as long as Congress is in the hands of Republicans.

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anything could happen. it might take 84 years but if they could scare him into submission i'd be satisfied

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this is me all the time

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Probably bit at the same time, just knowing how pissed off and scared Trump is brings me endless joy. He is shitting himself and for that, I am content.

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lmao this is me over every-fucking-thing Donald Trump related ever since this started. Everyone's whooping and hollering and I'm like, "yep... he's still going to be here for the rest of his term."

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Ia tbh

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I agree,but then again I tend to be very pessimistic. Pessimistic or realistic? Idk.

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my issue is that even if trump resigned tomorrow (yeah, right) this administration has already done so much damage. irreparable damage, in some ways. ppl aren't exaggerating when they say that the past year and some months have set this country back decades. it's nauseating to think about it.

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Yup. At this point I feel like Trump could literally murder people in broad daylight and remain in office

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he basically did murder someone by being too cheap to put fire sprinklers in his building

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I feel the same.

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I'm genuinely amazed he's still alive.

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Exactly this

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Sadly I feel the same way 

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mte it seems like that asshole is made of teflon

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He will basically never see the consequences of his actions.

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Even more reason to register to vote and vote the straight Democrat ticket in the Nov. mid-terms. If he's still around by then. This raid today is much bigger than you think. Mueller is about 100 steps ahead of Trump.



By bringing in the Federal Southern District in NY into this, he's insured that even if he's fired, they have access to Trump's files via his attorney, and that could include his tax records and any pay offs he's made in his real estate dealings in NYC.



This is officially the second criminal investigation of Trump. It's not going to end well for him.

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if the Dems take back the government in Nov, then we will actually have a legitimate chance. which is why I am hoping Mueller is dragging his feet.

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Ditto. I get excited every time I hear something is happening with this but then nothing really comes of it.

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same i screamed omg

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lol right??? That's just an evergreen sentiment!

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my favorite tweet of the post

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same lmaooo

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That tweet was the visual equivalent of when you start speaking in a normal tone but your emotions come at you fast so you're shouting passionately at the end lol. He didn't even need capslock, just those three exclamation points. "and fuck Roseanne!!!"

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I love that it was at The Regency

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LOLOL

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Why are you doing this to me...







Question mark

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LOL

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lmao bitch nooooooooooo

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I saw this on the news and burst out laughing.



What in the actual fuck America?

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I've been asking myself this same question since November 8, 2016, but instead of laughter it's been anxiety and blood pressure medication

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why does the post say michael flynn

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Embarrassing brain fart typo. I fixed it!

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op, it was michael cohen. michael flynn was lieutenant general, who pleaded guilty already

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Brain fart typos happen easily when every other man in the world seems to be named Michael :P



I fixed the title!

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it gets confusing!!!

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shit's getting real and I love it!



please let Kushner be next!

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I would take a day off work just watch the news all day if Kushner was brought down.

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This is how I feel if Trump ever gets impeached. Im for sure calling in sick and going out that night drinking.

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This is such a time capsule comment tbh, e-framing it for posterity





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Everyone involved needs to go down.

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"I've got the worst fucking attorneys" has never seemed more appropriate right now.

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He may have committed some...light....treason.

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Apparently the paps were stationed outside of the hotel because that's where Conor McGregor is staying and they didn't even notice all of the FBI agents going in and out for hours 

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I'm impressed at that, they ain't playin.

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Screaming

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LOL

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Quite clear that Trump is afraid from how he responded. It may not be Russia, but its gotta be years of shady shit.

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I read somewhere else that part of it has to do with Michael Cohen being the one to try to organize the negotiation w putin's people to build trump tower moscow, but it never happened.

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oh no it has EVERYTHING to do with russia. cohen facilitated a lot of shit with them. plus we might finally get to see trump's taxes!

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I am LIVING. Almost went off my diet I was so gleeful.

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Tomorrow's cover: Trump slams FBI raid on lawyers office, calls Mueller probe an attack on our country https://t.co/owh45NEk9r pic.twitter.com/pA0EHaew6I  New York Post (@nypost) April 9, 2018





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The entire Trump empire is fixing to go down because of a one night stand and a failed $130,000 payment. Get 'em, Stormy!

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The irony of Stormy Daniels taken him down since he is such a Clinton family hater will not be lost on me.



Edit: The fact that he can be sued by here while is thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in the Paula Jones case.



Edited at 2018-04-10 03:05 am (UTC)

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You can always count on the Post for a classy headline :P

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She should keep at least 1million for all the bullshit she has gone through because of Johnny depp.

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True but sadly she had to fight so hard against that "gold digger" B.S. that she'd get crucified had there not been record of a donation. Personally I wouldn't keep a single cent from that monster but she definitely deserved every penny and more.

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Same. Obviously I would have donated some, but the rest I would keep for pain and sufferring.

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she really can't win lol everyone in my family is convinced she's a gold digger and when I remind them she donated the settlement money, they say "ugh, what a show off - trying to look charitable!" rme

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i know i'll be crucified for this but, she got 7 million, so she did keep some. not saying she's a gold digger for it though.

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A considerable amount of that went to attorney's fees and costs.

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She also said she was donating to various women's/dmv charities. This is likely just one of the donations she made.

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But she's a gold digger!

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Hope she finds some peace and happiness.

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So does this mean Depp ended up shelling out $14 because of that stupid stunt he pulled where he tried to donate directly to charity instead of giving her the money like he was fucking supposed to?

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lol what a fucking idiot

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Thats a bad b, damn

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IDK, it still baffles me how people came so hard for her, when she was so brave to speak out.



On another note, I watched All The Boys Love Mandy Lane last night and my goodness, she is gorgeous.



Edited at 2018-04-10 03:18 am (UTC) I wonder if all this stuff had come out during this #MeToo movement, if she would have received the same amount of backlash, more support or people would have actually paid more attention, then blowing it off right away because Johnny Depp was her abuser.IDK, it still baffles me how people came so hard for her, when she was so brave to speak out.On another note, I watched All The Boys Love Mandy Lane last night and my goodness, she is gorgeous.

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I love that movie so much.

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that movie is everything. i added sealed with a kiss (the somg at the end) to my playlist bc it always makes me think of her in the jeep



Edited at 2018-04-10 03:51 am (UTC)

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I think people love Johnny Depp so much it would've worked out the same way regardless. It was easy to say "fuck off" to Weinstein and Spacey because a) no one gaf about producers, Weinstein is a known asshole to gossip fans and b) Spacey, likewise, is a known prick and is mostly associated with playing bad guys so people don't find it as hard to believe he is one irl.



But people fuckin LOVE Johnny Depp. Like, LOVE. He is legit lionized by a lot of people - either they grew up watching his movies so he's a beloved symbol of their youth, or love him because "he used to visit kids in hospitals!" or they remember how hot he used to be. Either way, they refuse to see him for what he really is.

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I was one of those people who grew up watching him, who thought he was hot, who loved all his movies, all of the above. It all changed when I saw that video of him, even if he didn't touch her, he still verbally abused her and acted like a complete, drunk, destructive mad man to his wife, who also said he abused her behind closed doors and had proof. That's all it really took for me. I guess someone people just don't care when it comes to their crush.

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I have a friend who loves Depp, we were shopping a while ago and saw his ad for whatever that cologne is and she was like "He's so hot!" I said gurl, he's an abusive piece of shit, but it just didn't matter to her. She also loves Chuck from Gossip Girl, I really don't get it.

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I liked Johnny Depp a lot and I loved PotC but I cant watch the first PotC (which I used to know by heart) anymore and have considered giving my DVDs away. I dont judge anyone who still enjoys the old movies. I wish I could.



I see enough comments on facebook when Netflix posts about HOC about how they should have kept Spacey on and how the show is ruined now and it was all hersay anyway and so on. Disgusting:

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yup this is exactly it. i think a lot of people associate him way too much with his roles (like they think he essentially is jack sparrow irl). i don't get it.

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that was me when I was 13. but that obsession was very brief. still, when I heard the news of their splitting up and they (his people) were painting her to be the bad guy, my brain of course started giving him the benefit of the doubt. but no doubt my opinion of him changed irrevocably once I saw those pictures of her face. and the video? final nail in the coffin. he's trash and my love for his work on ed wood and edward scissorhands has been tainted for me ever since. honestly, whenever I see him now I shiver and feel sick now that we know what he did to her.



but on a positive note, seeing amber and how courageous she had been and she handled everything really made me into a fan and made me respect her. team amber

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omg that's her?? i loved that movie and her character!

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I dont think the year or so wouldve made a difference. Even with #metoo , a lot of shit peoples first instinct is to victim blame in a domestic violence case, I think especially when there is money involved (plus the whole but hes Jack Sparrow/Edward Scissorhands shit that idiots cant separate from real life)

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I was never a fan of her acting, but man was I pissed at how shitty people were towards her when she came out with the abuse allegations. And it's not like Johnny Depp is some kind of saint. He basically spent the 90's drinking and fighting with people. He had gotten into physical altercations with photographers. He clearly has a violent streak, so it blew my mind that so many people were acting like he could never have done such a thing. He's already done shit like that!

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I love that movie!



Honestly, seeing how hard people came for her when they split REALLY made it evident why and how so many domestic abuse victims continue to suffer in silence. It was heartbreaking but not at all surprising when she kept handing over receipt after receipt and people still came after her when they should've been coming for him.



I know I said this before, but seeing her and how she handled it really made me respect the hell out of her and made me into a fan. she's great.

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She deserves tbh. Fuck him.

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She is such a hottie and Johnny Depp did not deserve her. I hope she will have a better career and life

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I was talking about movies with one of my new coworkers (the one I pretty much talk to outta everyone) and she brought up Jack Sparrow, and she was like "I lovee him." And before I even alluded to anything else, she said, "Everyone always tells me about what he did to her, blah blah, I don't care about his personal life~ He's great as Sparrow and I will enjoy him." Okay girl, forget in his personal life he's an abusive pos

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I don't get it tbh. Like yeah, I love his characters too. Doesn't mean I have to love him. Middle school me had a 7ft Johnny Depp poster on my wall that I got for my birthday LOL! But now that I know what he is? Yeah, I will love those characters and those movies but the man himself can fucking rot. You can enjoy the art he participated in without enjoying the man himself.

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what's wrong with what she said?



she likes jack sparrow. so what? she didn't defend johnny depp himself.

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People do the sae shit with Chris Brown and R Kelly and I dont fcking get it. Like I dont believe in sperating the artist from their art because by paying and seeing/hearing them you are contributing to their lifestyle.

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i guess its easier to do it with actors cos they didn't write/produce the role/movie, where as with musicians, thats all of their own (or mostly their own) words and their work is more ~personal.

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But anyway, good on her. She seems sweet (Ayn Rand stanning aside). Hopefully she can find someone who will treat her right (or at least, love herself enough to stay away from assholes)

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I've heard so much shit about her being a gold digger. like. why are people so fucking defensive of this washed up alcoholic abuser? christ.



good on her. hope she escapes him, and musk T B H.



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Can't even look at JD the same way anymore. Amber is a Queen for all she's put up with. People suck.

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Fearless leader

This year marks the eighth death anniversary of Girija Prasad Koirala, former prime minister and president of the Nepali Congress (NC). GP was born in 1924 in Tedi of Saharsha district in Bihar state in India where his father, Krishna Prasad Koirala, was living in exile.
no overseas guests? so none of her friends and family from America??

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i guess. that tweet wasn't worded properly.

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I think they just mean no politicians.

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LOL, that means no official overseas guests like the Trudeaus and other foreign royalty. Only people Harry and Meghan personally know will be attending.

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I think they maybe just mean no overseas world leaders?

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......was 45 even invited? lol

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they probably invited him so he wouldn't throw a tantrum.

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I highly doubt it.

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brits already looked down on amerikkkans before Tramp imagine their disdain now



prince harry wouldn't touch the current administration with a 1000km pole tbh

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Sadface @ Nobamas. I was looking forward to the inevitable twitter meltdown from 45

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Same

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I'm kinda sad the Obamas aren't going but it's likely so the other one won't throw a temper tantrum. But apparently, Harry and Meghan are going to visit the Obamas at some point so that's exciting!

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Not surprised that the Obamas arent attending and obviously Trump was a non starter. Im a little surprised that May wont be there. I guess it goes to show that unlike Will and Kates wedding this isnt a state event.



So Im guessing the only foreign royals that will be there are the more closely related ones. So.... probs just the Greeks.

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Darn, so no Princess Madeleine. I still can't believe she wore a tiara and heels to her brother's wedding, two days before giving birth. No bold colors from Princess Takamado or Princess Lalla Salma (if she's even a royal anymore...)

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The Swedish Royals confirmed weeks ago they hadn't been invited.

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the british royal family rarely ever interacts with the continental royals, aside from edward and sophie. aside from prince george, the duke of kent's marriage, they've been isolationists ever since 1917. i'm not surprised they didn't invite any foreign royals.

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I hope Prince Seeiso has been invited. Maybe somebody from the Norwegians, but I don't imagine Harry is close with any of them, so probably not.



I wouldn't expect monarchs or heirs, but it would be nice to see a few of them.

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not surprised, but sad.

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i didn't think there would be any way the trudeaus weren't going. and i wanted the obamas there. mulroney's parents might be there, but they've been out of office.

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Ugh I hope brian Mulrooney isn't there. He destroyed the federal pc party and paved the way for Harper and the conservatives

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bOring wedding will be boring no one likes us

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The bloated, decaying orange that is inexplicably being allowed to rot away in the Oval Office won't be there because it's actually a kid free wedding and they don't want to risk him ruining things by throwing a tantrum on Twitter, which has pretty much become a daily thing for him at this point. Plus he'd probably just spend the night telling anyone who will listen that his weddings were much more extravagant.



Of course they're not inviting anyone (politicians) from the U.S. We're like that friend who won't dump her horrible boyfriend so everyone has to agree to stop hanging out and supporting their relationship in any way until she finally ditches him.







Edited at 2018-04-10 04:29 pm (UTC)

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I wouldn't invite him because I'm a WOC and 45 is a racist POS.



Also, with all the things happening with him and discoveries, I would be somewhat afraid he'd get arrested during my wedding. I know it's a royal wedding, but times are weird.

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Good, why should anybody give a fuck about this inbred family? They're totally useless and just a painful reminder that Britain didn't have the balls for a proper revolution.





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New Team. New Threats. Get ready for a new thrilling season of @QuanticoTV Thursday, April 26 on ABC! #Quantico pic.twitter.com/3b1eYajDJr  PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) April 2, 2018



priyanka better be the maid of honor. get that free quantico promo!

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ive never seen a promising show jump the shark as quickly as this one

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Ive struggled to find the words to descrive my feelings about this show and I think youve nailed it.

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Agreed. I don't know how it's managed to get renewed.

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who cares about those hoes? was sophie ellis-bextor invited?

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Sucks for them that they cant invite legit friends for political reasons. I mean for regular people the invite list can be messy af as well but imagine having to be concerned about pseudo dictators throwing tantrums

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i imagine that with security already being as expensive as it was, inviting the obamas was a no-go from the start.

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Yeah I have a feeling thats a big reason why they didnt invite the Obamas. Didnt want the ridiculous drama coming from the Trump camp.

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The   were invited? Side-eyeing Meghan and Harry if they invited the morally bankrupt Dotard family.

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President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his speech during the opening ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 at the BFA International Convention Center in Boao, Peoples Republic of China on April 10, 2018, invites responsible businesses to invest in the country as he assures the investors that the government is strengthening the policy framework for businesses to thrive. SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte is among the country leaders who were invited to deliver a message at Tuesdays opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in China.

The president boasted of the administrations campaign against corruption and the changes in the peace and order in the country.

To me, along with the illegal drug trade and terrorism, corruption is a pernicious and rotten social disease that devours my country, he said.

According to the president, infrastructures through the Build, Build, Build program of the government will help in achieving economic growth.

He added that the administration targets to reduce poverty from 22 percent in 2015 to 14 percent in the year 2022.

President Duterte assured the continued cooperation of the Philippines with Asian countries.

Philippines will remain committed to interconnectivity, both in functional terms and in political engagement and cooperation with friends and neighbors, he said.

Partners in economy and fight vs terrorism

The president also highlighted the countrys partnership with China in various aspects.

Bilaterally, the Philippines is showing how complex relations are but not a bar to a positive and mutually beneficial engagement, he said.

With China, we stand together in the war on criminality and the illegal drug trade. We are shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. Make no mistake: there can be no progress without stability in Asias lands and waters, Duterte added.

The Boao Forum serves as an opportunity for the president to present the countrys economic growth to encourage more foreign investors to the Philippines.  Nel Maribojoc | UNTV News & Rescue

The post Duterte assures continued cooperation with Asian nations appeared first on UNTV News.
The towering hulk of the Ryugyong Hotel, a vast and unfinished edifice that has loomed over Pyongyang for decades, was lit up on Monday night. Lights mounted near the top of the 105-storey structure depicted a red, white and blue North Korean flag, while the edges of the building were illuminated in yellow and multicoloured lights beamed out from over the entrance. The display was visible for less than an hour but will intensify speculation about the ill-fated hotel. Construction began in 1987, when North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung still ruled the country. It stopped in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union dried up funding from Moscow. For decades the structure stood full height but incomplete, its empty rooms looking out ominously over the city, earning it the nickname 'Hotel of Doom'. It is reportedly the world's largest unoccupied building. Egyptian firm Orascom, the majority shareholder in North Korea's Koryolink cellphone network, was obliged to spend millions of dollars to glaze the structure as part of its deal to enter the country, and the exterior was completed in 2011. Swiss luxury hotel chain Kempinski held discussions about opening in the building, but pulled out in 2013, with a spokeswoman telling AFP: "Market entry is not currently possible." No recent work has been seen being carried out. But speculation has mounted that some parts could finally be put to use, after walls around it were removed last year to reveal roads towards its entrance, and the occasional night-time light was spotted. Under current leader Kim Jong Un, the founder's grandson, a series of urban development projects have changed the Pyongyang skyline. Even so there has been no official word on any plans for the hotel -- although this weekend's 106th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth could be the occasion for some kind of unveiling.
Brazil's former president Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday called for "international solidarity" with her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was jailed over the weekend on a corruption conviction. Lula, 72, remains the leftist Workers' Party candidate for Brazil's October presidential election though his incarceration casts doubts on whether he can legally run for office. He remains the comfortable favourite in voter surveys heading toward the October election. "We need international solidarity," Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for allegedly falsifying public accounts, told a conference in Madrid. She warned that "Brazilian democracy is at risk" because of the "parliamentary coup" which led to her impeachment and replacement as president by her conservative vice president Michel Temer. Lula has so far received the support of the leftist governments of Cuba and Venezuela. While in Spain Rousseff met with leaders of the far-left party Podemos who have also expressed solidarity with Lula. Rousseff, a 70-year-old former Marxist-guerrilla fighter of Bulgarian roots, reiterated that she believed Lula is innocent and that the Workers' Party would not drop him as its candidate for president. "We don't have a Plan B. We maintain Lula's candidacy," she said, adding the party would fight in court to ensure he can stand in the election. Lula is set to be declared ineligible in August after having his conviction upheld once again by an appeals court. But he and his party are gambling that he could be released from prison before then and go on to contest the election. Many in Brazil revere the former trade union leader for lifting tens of millions out of poverty during his 2003-2010 time in office. But many others see him as emblematic of the graft that plagues Brazilian politics. He was found guilty last year of accepting a luxury seaside apartment from a construction group that picked up government public works contracts. Brazil's Supreme Court is currently considering the laws that have put Lula behind bars while his lawyers are still pursuing appeals. A vote by the court's justices could take place on Wednesday. If it goes ahead, Lula could be released -- for now -- or remain in his cell.
FILE: (Left-Right) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation at Yanqi Lake International Convention Center in the northern suburb of Beijing, China on May 15, 2017. (PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines The West Philippine Sea issue will be tackled by a special panel during the annual Boao Forum in China on April 10.

Members of the panel include diplomats, experts and representatives from academe in South East Asia.

There is a special panel in the South China Sea issue that will be conducted. Its a topic every year. Again, its how to discuss the issue and to look for ways on possible solutions, areas of cooperation, Philippine ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana said.

A bilateral meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected on the sidelines of the forum.

Some of the agreements will be signed which include the opening of opportunities for Filipino English teachers.

We have final loan agreement on Chico Dam project. There some minor details iron out, but if everything works, the agreement to open to hire more Filipino-English teachers, said the ambassador.

However, Romana said there will be no signing of an agreement on West PH Sea joint exploration.

There will be no agreements signed this time on joint exploration. I think the talks are ongoing. We are trying to find a suitable legal framework that will be acceptable to both sides, said the ambassador.  Nel Maribojoc | UNTV News & Rescue



The post West PH Sea issue to be tackled in Boao Forum appeared first on UNTV News.
Phuket  9 April, 2018: JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spas Ginja Taste restaurant hosted A Taste of Malaysia food festival during 5  8 April, menu crafted by Guest Chef Mohd Shawal Basry, from award winning restaurant Bijan in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Cooking for over three hundred diners Chef Mohd Shawal worked alongside with JW Marriott Phuket culinary team and created a tremendous 5-course dinner and Malaysian buffet night over the weekend. The highlight of the degustation 5-course menu was Malaysian leaves salad with sambal dressing and assorted fried crackers; Steam seafood mousse; Tossed fresh young mango & herbs in tangy coconut milk served with sliced smoked duck breast and salad; Clear broth of cattle bone marrow with mixed spices served with toasted Hailam bread pieces; Pan seared Malabar snapper fillet with spiced tomato coulis and apple dressing served with brunoise vegetables and fermented durian sauce; Slowly cooked beef rib eye in black thick sauce served with rainbow rice and kerabu; and steamed palm sugar sponge cake served with caramelized palm syrup and a scoop of homemade coconut ice cream.
Mitochondrial DNA stress (in red) triggers the inflammatory response in mouse muscle cells devoid of Opa1 (nuclei in green). Credit: Aida Rodriguez, IRB Barcelona

The link between mitochondria and inflammation is still unclear. But it is known is that the accumulation of defective mitochondria that should have been removed causes inflammation. Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by Antonio Zorzano have demonstrated that the removal of a single mitochondrial protein in mouse muscle leads to severe inflammation throughout the body, causing the premature death of the animal. This study has been published today in the EMBO Journal.

Opa1 and inflammation

Opa1 is a mitochondrial fusion protein. It serves to fuse the internal membranes of mitochondria. Although present in all cells and tissues (except white blood cells), mitochondria are particularly abundant in muscle and liver, and their main function is to convert the energy in food into energy for cells. Mitochondria are highly dynamic; they join and separate, and grow and shrink constantly. These processes are known as mitochondrial dynamics.

Mitochondrial dynamics is one of the research lines addressed in Antonio Zorzano's Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria Lab. To study this process, the scientists examine the proteins involved in mitochondrial membrane fusion, namely Mitofusin 1 and 2, and Opa1.

Authored by 24 researchers from various centres and involving a significant contribution by Aida Rodriguez-Nuevo, Angels Diaz-Ramos and Eduardo Noguera from Zorzano's lab, this study focuses on the protein Opa1. To examine its functions, the researchers generated a mouse deficient in Opa1 only in skeletal muscle. "It was surprising to see how small they were and that they died after only a few months," explains Zorzano.

The article describes the animal phenotype and explains that the removal of Opa1 exclusively from skeletal muscle fibre triggers a severe inflammatory process that spreads from the muscle fibre throughout the body. The inflammatory response halts growth and shortens the lifespan of the animal. The scientists also describe the main molecular components of the cell signalling pathway that activates the inflammatory response in muscle.

"This is the first time that we've seen that the lack of a muscle mitochondrial protein triggers an inflammatory response of this magnitude, and these observations give us further information on the relation between mitochondria and inflammation," says Zorzano.

The head of the study explains that these results are of biomedical relevance. There is a set of diseases known as inflammatory myopathies, of unknown origin, in which patients show chronic muscle inflammation accompanied by muscle weakness. "The results of this study suggest that mitochondrial alterations may underlie inflammatory myopathies. More research is now needed to address this possible link," says the scientist.

Explore further Scientists identify a promising target for the treatment of heart failure

More information: Aida RodriguezNuevo et al, Mitochondrial DNA and TLR9 drive muscle inflammation upon Opa1 deficiency, The EMBO Journal (2018). Journal information: EMBO Journal Aida RodriguezNuevo et al, Mitochondrial DNA and TLR9 drive muscle inflammation upon Opa1 deficiency,(2018). DOI: 10.15252/embj.201796553
Scientists spent a month in Denali National Park in 2013 drilling ice cores from the summit plateau of Mt. Hunter. The ice cores showed the glaciers on Mt. Hunter are melting more now than at any time in the past 400 years. Credit: Dominic Winski.

Glaciers in Alaska's Denali National Park are melting faster than at any time in the past four centuries because of rising summer temperatures, a new study finds.

New ice cores taken from the summit of Mt. Hunter in Denali National Park show summers there are least 1.2-2 degrees Celsius (2.2-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than summers were during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The warming at Mt. Hunter is about double the amount of warming that has occurred during the summer at areas at sea level in Alaska over the same time period, according to the new research.

The warmer temperatures are melting 60 times more snow from Mt. Hunter today than the amount of snow that melted during the summer before the start of the industrial period 150 years ago, according to the study. More snow now melts on Mt. Hunter than at any time in the past 400 years, said Dominic Winski, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and lead author of the new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The new study's results show the Alaska Range has been warming rapidly for at least a century. The Alaska Range is an arc of mountains in southern Alaska home to Denali, North America's highest peak.

The warming correlates with hotter temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to the study's authors. Previous research has shown the tropical Pacific has warmed over the past century due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers drill an ice core at their camp on the summit plateau of Mt. Hunter. Credit: Dominic Winski.

The study's authors conclude warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean has contributed to the unprecedented melting of Mt. Hunter's glaciers by altering how air moves from the tropics to the poles. They suspect melting of mountain glaciers may accelerate faster than melting of sea level glaciers as the Arctic continues to warm.

Understanding how mountain glaciers are responding to climate change is important because they provide fresh water to many heavily-populated areas of the globe and can contribute to sea level rise, Winski said.

"The natural climate system has changed since the onset of the anthropogenic era," he said. "In the North Pacific, this means temperature and precipitation patterns are different today than they were during the preindustrial period."

Assembling a long-term temperature record

Winski and 11 other researchers from Dartmouth College, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire drilled ice cores from Mt. Hunter in June 2013. They wanted to better understand how the climate of the Alaska Range has changed over the past several hundred years, because few weather station records of past climate in mountainous areas go back further than 1950.

One of the ice cores taken from Mt. Hunter in June 2013. The bands of dark ice represent times when glacier snow melted and refroze in past summers. Credit: Dominic Winski.

The research team drilled two ice cores from a glacier on Mt. Hunter's summit plateau, 13,000 feet above sea level. The ice cores captured climate conditions on the mountain going back to the mid-17th century.

The physical properties of the ice showed the researchers what the mountain's past climate was like. Bands of darker ice with no bubbles indicated times when snow on the glacier had melted in past summers before re-freezing.

Winski and his team counted all the dark bands - the melt layers - from each ice core and used each melt layer's position in the core to determine when each melt event occurred. The more melt events they observed in a given year, the warmer the summer.

They found melt events occur 57 times more frequently today than they did 150 years ago. In fact, they counted only four years with melt events prior to 1850. They also found the total amount of annual meltwater in the cores has increased 60-fold over the past 150 years.

The surge in melt events corresponds to a summer temperature increase of at least 1.2-2 degrees Celsius (2.2-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) relative to the warmest periods of the 18th and 19th centuries, with nearly all of the increase occurring in the last 100 years. Because there were so few melt events before the start of the 20th century, the temperature change over the past few centuries could be even higher, Winski said.

Connecting the Arctic to the tropics

The research team compared the temperature changes at Mt. Hunter with those from lower elevations in Alaska and in the Pacific Ocean. Glaciers on Mt. Hunter are easily influenced by temperature variations in the tropical Pacific Ocean because there are no large mountains to the south to block incoming winds from the coast, according to the researchers.

They found during years with more melt events on Mt. Hunter, tropical Pacific temperatures were higher. The researchers suspect warmer temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean amplify warming at high elevations in the Arctic by changing air circulation patterns. Warmer tropics lead to higher atmospheric pressures and more sunny days over the Alaska Range, which contribute to more glacial melting in the summer, Winski said.

"This adds to the growing body of research showing that changes in the tropical Pacific can manifest in changes across the globe," said Luke Trusel, a glaciologist at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey who was not connected to the study. "It's adding to the growing picture that what we're seeing today is unusual."

Explore further West Greenland Ice Sheet melting at the fastest rate in centuries

More information: Dominic Winski et al, A 400-year ice core melt layer record of summertime warming in the Alaska Range, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (2018). Journal information: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres Dominic Winski et al, A 400-year ice core melt layer record of summertime warming in the Alaska Range,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/2017JD027539
Backpage.com was shut down by the US authorities and two co-founders and top executives indicted for enabling prostitution and money laundering

Two co-founders of Backpage and top executives of the classified advertising website have been indicted on charges of enabling prostitution and money laundering.

Backpage was abruptly shut down by the US authorities on Friday and the indictments, by a federal grand jury in the southwestern state of Arizona, were unsealed on Monday.

"For far too long, Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

"But this illegality stops right now," Sessions said. "It can no longer be used by criminals to promote and facilitate human trafficking."

Among those indicted were Michael Lacey, 69, and James Larkin, 68, who launched the site in 2004 along with another individual identified in the indictment only by the initials "C.F."

Although the pair sold their interests in Backpage in 2015, the indictment said they had since "retained significant control over the website," receiving tens of millions of dollars.

Also indicted were Backpage executive vice president Scott Spear, 67, chief financial officer John Brunst, 66, sales and marketing director Daniel Hyer, 49, operations manager Andrew Padilla, 45, and assistant operations manager Jaala Joye Vaught, 37.

The seven are residents of Arizona and Texas.

The 93-count indictment included charges of conspiracy to facilitate prostitution, conspiracy to commit money laundering and concealment of money laundering.

"This website will no longer serve as a platform for human traffickers to thrive," FBI Director Christopher Wray said. "Whether on the street or on the internet, sex trafficking will not be tolerated."

Backpage has been accused of being the biggest website for prostitution in the world, with its classifieds used to promote paid-for sex with minors and victims of human trafficking.

The US Congress passed a bill last month that allows victims of sex trafficking to seek justice against website owners who knowingly promote or facilitate the practice.

Supporters hailed the passage of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) as a major victory.

But the measure is not without its criticssome say it would undermine a basic underpinning of the internet which enables websites to host information from third parties without liability.

Explore further Feds seize Backpage.com, websites in enforcement action

 2018 AFP
Two male cheetahs eat a kill. Credit: Anne Hilborn

Cheetahs in the Serengeti National Park adopt different strategies while eating to deal with threats from top predators such as lions or hyenas. A new study in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology shows that male cheetahs and single females eat their prey as quickly as possible. Mothers with cubs, on the other hand, watch out for possible threats while their young are eating in order to give them enough time to eat their fill. The research was led by Anne Hilborn of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment in the US.

Cheetahs are medium-sized carnivores that live alongside large carnivores such as lions and spotted hyenas. These large carnivores are known to not only attack cheetah cubs, but also steal prey in an act called kleptoparasitism. Cheetahs do not have the strength to haul their kills up trees to keep them safe from scavengers as a leopard does, nor can they physically defend themselves against a lion. They therefore tend to hunt when larger predators are away or less active. Hilborn and her colleagues studied 35 years of observations from more than 400 hunts involving 159 cheetahs in the Serengeti in northern Tanzania to find out how cheetah behavior while eating is altered by threats from larger predators.

The researchers established that the tactics cheetahs use depend on which type of threat they face from large carnivores. The primary threat to male cheetahs and single females without cubs is having their kill stolen. They therefore spend little time watching out for attacks, and instead eat their prey as quickly as possible before it can be snatched away from them.

Mothers with cubs must first ensure the safety of their offspring and that they get enough to eat. Cubs can eat quite slowly because of the size of the cubs' mouths and their tendency to take regular breaks to rest or play.

"Instead of speed, mothers use vigilance to minimize risk," explains Hilborn. "They spend more time paused before eating, perhaps also to catch their breath, and are more vigilant. This increases the amount of time they spend eating, which in turn increases their overall handling time."

The research team believes that the behavior of a cheetah after a hunt depends on the territory it finds itself in. Cheetah mothers might, for instance, be less vigilant in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Kalahari region of South Africa and Botswana, where lion densities are three times lower and spotted hyena numbers are 100 times lower than in the Serengeti.

Explore further Can big cats co-exist? Study challenges lion threat to cheetah cubs

More information: Anne Hilborn et al, Cheetahs modify their prey handling behavior depending on risks from top predators, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2018). Journal information: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Anne Hilborn et al, Cheetahs modify their prey handling behavior depending on risks from top predators,(2018). DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2481-y
Fed secretariat recommends Yogi and Phuyal

The Federal Parliament Secretariat on Monday recommended two names to the Presidents Office for the positions of secretaries of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the National Assembly (NA).
Uber has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who accuse it of dodging costly regulations

The EU's top court on Tuesday dealt another blow to US ridesharing giant Uber by backing the right of France and other member states to ban an illegal taxi service without notifying Brussels regulators.

The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of a French ban of the UberPop service that links amateur drivers with customers through a smartphone application, four months after taking a similar decision over a case in Spain.

The Silicon Valley firm has been left with its UberX service, which uses licensed professionals, in France and Spain as well as most other European Union countries.

In a conciliatory tone, Uber said it is "appropriate to regulate services such as Uber" and pledged to "continue the dialogue" with authorities in European cities where it has met fierce opposition from taxi drivers.

The Brussels-based European Court of Justice rejected the firm's contention that France should have notified the European Commission about legislation under which it faced criminal charges.

"Member States may prohibit and punish, as a matter of criminal law, the illegal exercise of transport activities in the context of the UberPop service, without notifying the Commission in advance of the draft legislation," the court ruled.

The Commission, the 28-nation EU executive, sets broader policy on the burgeoning digital economy and on other issues.

Uber France has argued that French authorities were required to notify Brussels about the criminal legislation under which a case was brought against it, claiming it was a technical regulation of an online service.

But the Luxembourg-based court of justice said the French case resembled one in December when it ruled that Uber was an ordinary transport company instead of an app and should be regulated as such.

"In the Court's view, the UberPop service offered in France is essentially identical to the service provided in Spain," the court of justice statement said.

The Spanish case was brought by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, where belief runs high that Uber is a taxi company that should be subject to rules governing such vehicles.

Uber had fought criminal proceedings in several courts in France based on a 2014 French law before dropping in 2015 its UberPop service linking customers with non-professional drivers using their own vehicles.

'Unjustfied measures'

A court in the northern French city of Lille then sought the opinion of the court of justice to determine if the French government had acted in line with EU law.

Uber, the biggest name in the growing gig economy, claims it is a mere service provider, connecting consumers with drivers in more than 600 cities.

Uber has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who say this allows it to dodge costly regulations such as training and licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles.

Recent protests were staged in capitals Athens and Brussels.

Uber appeared to take the ruling in its stride.

"As our new CEO (Dara Khosrowshahi) has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe," an Uber spokesperson told AFP.

Services by non-professional Uber drivers only continue in Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.

In contrast, the Brussels-based Computer and Communications Industry Association called the ruling a blow to the EU's efforts to promote innovation and build a cross-border digital economy.

The association's Jakob Kucharczyk regretted to see "the Commission's effective oversight powers" being curtailed by the court.

"The court has given member states more room to thwart the Digital Single Market through restrictive, disproportionate and unjustified measures at national level," Kucharczyk said in a statement.

Explore further Uber returns to Barcelona with licensed service

 2018 AFP
Aquaculture and fish farms must adapt to the changing sea conditions of climate change. Credit: Ferit Rad from Mersin University

Aquaculture, or fish farming, is one of the world's fastest growing food sectors, providing about half of all the fish we eat. As it stands, climate change is altering our ocean's environment, causing the seawater to become warmer and impacting the marine ecosystems profoundly. How will these changes affect marine species, consumers and industries that rely on them?

Europe is the fourth largest producer of fish in the world, according to Eurostat, with about 6.4 million tonnes of fish and shellfish caught or harvested by the European fisheries and aquaculture industry in 2015. Approximately 80% of European aquatic food production comes from wild fisheries, while around 20% comes from aquaculture, or fish farms.

But at the same time, climate change is altering the productivity of this sector and threatening biodiversity and habitats. The temperature of Europe's seas due to climate change is increasing faster than in global oceans, according to the European Environment Agency, and Mediterranean species like bluefin tuna and anchovy, attracted by warm waters, are moving northwards to be observed in some cases, as far north as the North Sea.

'We have been witnessing the effects of climate change on fish and shellfish around the world for some time now and these effects are predicted to become larger in the future. It is critical to understand how Europe's aquaculture industry and EU policy will need to adapt to foster Blue Growth in light of climate change,' said Professor Myron Peck from Universitat Hamburg in Germany, referring to the EU's long term economic strategy for a sustainable marine sector.

As part of a project known as CERES, Prof. Peck and his colleagues are looking at the most high-value fish and shellfish populations across European waters, and how climate change will impact them, their habitats and economic activities in the future. The project, named after the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility, also works closely with both wild and farmed sectors to examine how they can adapt to these adverse changes, as well as potentially benefit from them.

'CERES offers the opportunity to build strong relationships between scientists studying climate change and the leaders of Europe's aquaculture industry. We employ business-proven methods, such as risk assessment, to create what we hope will be actionable sciencescience that is fit for purpose and can be used by policymakers and the aquaculture industry,' said Prof. Peck, who is also the coordinator of the project.

Reshuffle

It is important to know what effect climate change will have on different species because there may be a reshuffle, in which some species could decreaseor even become extinctand new ones could appear.

This will help policymakers set limits on how much target species fishermen can catch, or open up new fisheries, and fish farmers can invest in species that are still viable, disease-free and suitable in their area. Already, the CERES team has created maps of future changes in key environmental factors affecting fish and shellfish from the North Sea to the Mediterranean.

Diagram shows how rise in temperatures affects phytoplankton production, a key element in the aquaculture ecosystem. Projected for NE Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea by the year 2100, based on the IPCC high emissions scenario RCP 8.5. Credit: CERES

In the case of aquaculture, for example, where small marine parasites called sea lice can devastate farmed salmon populations, a warmer future could increase the potential for sea lice infestation in farms further north in Norway, where sea lice are not currently a major issue, explains Prof. Peck. On the contrary, we could see a decrease in winter disease or syndrome in seabream in the Mediterranean, he says.

'Although climate change is clearly a negative and unwanted effect of humans on our planet, some aquaculture industries in some regions will likely indirectly benefit from the physical and biological changes that will occur due to future climate change,' said Prof. Peck.

His intention is to create easy-to-use online tools that will help fish and shellfish farmers see the potential effects of climate change on their product, in their region, and help them decide what to grow and where.

'Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues and our climate science has advanced to the point where it is ready to be put to work, so to speak, to promote Blue Growth,' said Prof. Peck.

Aquaculture

Other European Union projects are also working towards sustainable growth in future seafood production. ClimeFish is aimed at identifying the consequences of climate change for European fisheries and aquaculture in 25 different fish and shellfish species.

Professor Michaela Aschan from University of Troms - The Arctic University of Norway, who is also project coordinator of ClimeFish, explains the need for projects focusing on sustainable food production. 'The demand for healthy, protein-rich food is growing along with the world's population,' she said. 'Wild fish stocks are declining, climate change will severely reduce the outcome from agriculture, and aquaculture is predicted to become the main supplier for food in the future. However, climate adaptation plans in this sector is lacking and there are still large knowledge gaps.'

She and her colleagues are forecasting the future growth for 16 different case studies, including the most productive and the least resilient species used for seafood in Europe. They are also developing new tools to ensure that all those involved will be able to tackle both risks and opportunities emerging from climate change in the future. This may save costs and avoid potential extinction of species that are already under threat.

'We want to evaluate the challenges climate warming introduces, but also see the opportunities arising from a warmer climate in order to prepare and adapt as good as possible. This goes for both fish and shellfish production,' explained Prof. Aschan.

ClimeFish forecasting will be based on climate change scenarios from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and results will provide recommendations for a sustainable practice and management.

Explore further Warming world will affect fish size and fisheries
US farmers and beef producers have joined forces to convince the government to prevent the "meat" label to be used on anything that is grown in a lab, rather than on the hoof

A major US agriculture lobbying group on Tuesday threw its weight behind an effort to keep the "meat" label off of lab-created products, including ones that employ animal cells.

The National Farmers Union backed a petition by the US Cattlemen's Association calling on the US Department of Agriculture to bar the term "meat" for alternative meat products.

"We are concerned with the recent introduction of foods composed of alternative protein sources that are being labeled and marketed as 'meat,'" said Roger Johnson, president of the NFU.

He said his organization "embraces new opportunities... including further development of markets for plant-based and insect-based proteins."

"However, we believe all food products should be clearly labeled in a manner that helps consumers make informed decisions and allows producers to differentiate their products."

Products grown in labs using animal cells are "not derived from animals born, raised, and harvested in a traditional manner, and should not be permitted to be marketed as 'meat,'" Johnson added.

The cattlemen's association's petition, dated February 9, noted that some major US meatpackers and companies in other countries were investing in synthetic products grown in labs using animal cells and known as "in vitro" meat, "bio meat," "clean meat" or "cultured meat."

"Alternative products, such as those described above should thus not be permitted to be labeled as 'beef,'" the petition said.

Anything called meat, "is understood to be derived from animal tissue or flesh for use as food," the cattlemen's petition said.

Explore further Belgium says investigating 'significant' meat fraud

 2018 AFP
Aerial image of the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, part of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Credit: SKA

When stars reach the end of their main sequence, they undergo a gravitational collapse, ejecting their outermost layers in a supernova explosion. What remains afterward is a dense, spinning core primarily made up of neutrons (aka. a neutron star), of which only 3000 are known to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. An even rarer subset of neutron stars are magnetars, only two dozen of which are known in our galaxy.

These stars are especially mysterious, having extremely powerful magnetic fields that are almost powerful enough to rip them apart. And thanks to a new study by a team of international astronomers, it seems the mystery of these stars has only deepened further. Using data from a series of radio and x-ray observatories, the team observed a magnetar last year that had been dormant for about three years, and is now behaving somewhat differently.

The study, titled "Revival of the Magnetar PSR J16224950: Observations with MeerKAT, Parkes, XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR," recently appeared in the Astrophysical Journal. The team was led by Dr. Fernando Camilo  the Chief Scientist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)  and included over 200 members from multiple universities and research institutions from around the world.

Magnetars are so-named because their magnetic fields are up to 1000 times stronger than those of ordinary pulsating neutron stars (aka. pulsars). The energy associated with these these fields is so powerful that it almost breaks the star apart, causing them to be unstable and display great variability in terms of their physical properties and electromagnetic emissions.

Whereas all magnetars are known to emit X-rays, only four have been known to emit radio waves. One of these is PSR J1622-4950  a magnetar located about 30,000 light years from Earth. As of early 2015, this magnetar had been in a dormant state. But as the team indicated in their study, astronomers using the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia noted that it was becoming active again on April 26th, 2017.

At the time, the magnetar was emitting bright radio pulses every four seconds. A few days later, Parkes was shut down as part of a month-long planned maintenance routine. At about the same time, South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope began monitoring the star, despite the fact that it was still under construction and only 16 of its 64 radio dishes were available. Dr. Fernando Camilo describes the discovery in a recent SKA South Africa press release:

"[T]he MeerKAT observations proved critical to make sense of the few X-ray photons we captured with NASA's orbiting telescopes  for the first time X-ray pulses have been detected from this star, every 4 seconds. Put together, the observations reported today help us to develop a better picture of the behaviour of matter in unbelievably extreme physical conditions, completely unlike any that can be experienced on Earth."

After the initial observations were made by the Parkes and MeerKAT observatories, follow-up observations were conducted using the XMM-Newton x-ray space observatory, Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). With these combined observations, the team noted some very interesting things about this magnetar.

For one, they determined that PSR J1622-4950's radio flux density, while variable, was approximately 100 times greater than it was during its dormant state. In addition, the x-ray flux was at least 800 times larger one month after reactivation, but began decaying exponentially over the course of a 92 to 130 day period. However, the radio observations noted something in the magnetar's behavior that was quite unexpected.

While the overall geometry that was inferred from PSR J1622-4950's radio emissions was consistent with what had been determined several years prior, their observations indicated that the radio emissions were now coming from a different location in the magnetosphere. This above all indicates how radio emissions from magnetars could differ from ordinary pulsars.

Artists rendering of an outburst on an ultra-magnetic neutron star, also called a magnetar. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This discovery has also validated the MeerKAT Observatory as a world-class research instrument. This observatory is part of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), the multi-radio telescope project that is building the world's largest radio telescope in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. For its part, MeerKAT uses 64 radio antennas to gather radio images of the Universe to help astronomers understand how galaxies have evolved over time.

Given the sheer volume of data collected by these telescopes, MeerKAT relies on both cutting edge-technology and a highly-qualified team of operators. As Abbott indicated, "we have a team of the brightest engineers and scientists in South Africa and the world working on the project, because the problems that we need to solve are extremely challenging, and attract the best."

Prof Phil Diamond, the Director-General of the SKA Organization leading the development of the Square Kilometer Array, was also impressed by the contribution of the MeerKAT team. As he stated in an SKA press release:

"Well done to my colleagues in South Africa for this outstanding achievement. Building such telescopes is extremely difficult, and this publication shows that MeerKAT is becoming ready for business. As one of the SKA precursor telescopes, this bodes well for the SKA. MeerKAT will eventually be integrated into Phase 1 of SKA-mid telescope bringing the total dishes at our disposal to 197, creating the most powerful radio telescope on the planet."

When the SKA goes online, it will be one of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world and roughly 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. Along with other next-generation ground-based and space-telescopes, the things it will reveal about our Universe and how it evolved over time are expected to be truly groundbreaking.

Explore further First image released from world's super radio telescope

More information: F. Camilo et al. Revival of the Magnetar PSR J16224950: Observations with MeerKAT, Parkes, XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR, The Astrophysical Journal (2018). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal F. Camilo et al. Revival of the Magnetar PSR J16224950: Observations with MeerKAT, Parkes, XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR,(2018). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aab35a
a - seismic activity from 2004-2015 along the Philippine Sea slab, b - relocated earthquakes, c - cross section along sample area (a-b), d - frequency magnitude distribution. Credit: Junichi Nakajima at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Nature Geoscience

Megathrust earthquakes are the most powerful type of earthquake, occurring at subduction zones where one tectonic plate is pushed beneath another. By contrast, slow slip events (SSEs) release seismic stress at a lower rate than large earthquakes, re-occurring in cycles across months to years. These processes can take place along the megathrust and other planes of weakness in response to loading, releasing low frequency seismic waves. Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Tohoku University have considered the fluid drainage processes that can occur from SSEs and their impact on seismic activity.

Scientists believed fluid drainage during megathrust earthquakes occurred when the megathrusts opened up new pathways for fluid drainage through deformation. But little is known about whether such fluid movements occur as a result of SSEs. Professor Junichi Nakajima at Tokyo Tech and Associate Professor Naoki Uchida at Tohoku University have suggested that fluid drainage resulting from slow slip may be an additional contributor to megathrust seismic activity.

The team investigated the relationship between SSEs and seismic activity, while analyzing a rich dataset of seismic events around the Philippine Sea Plate. As shown in their recent publication in Nature Geoscience, the scientists analyzed waveform data from beneath Kanto, Japan, dating from 2004 to 2015 (as shown in Figure 1). They traced the boundary of the plate to indicate when repeating earthquakes occurred in time, while correlating seismic activity with estimated slip-rates (as shown in Figure 2). They infer, through their analysis, that seismic activity above the megathrust of the Philippine Sea slab varied in response to SSEs, through episodic cycles. The scientists estimated intensive draining processes during SSEs, repeating at one year intervals; accompanied with fluid transport into the overlying plate.

The number of supra-slab earthquakes, b- average slip rates on the megathrust, c- cross-correlation between supraslab seismicity and megathrust slip rates. Credit: Junichi Nakajima at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Nature Geoscience

In their publication, they discuss how pore-fluid pressures play a role, emphasizing that areas of slow slip tend to have extremely high pore fluid pressures, and thus have a high potential to release fluids into other portions of the rock bodies. It is suggested SSEs could cause the movement of fluid into overlying rock units (if there were enough fracture or pore space to do so), inducing weakness in these areas and triggering seismicity.

Based on this idea, the scientists speculate that if the overlying plate were impermeable (with no suitable spaces for fluid to move into), then fluid would be forced to travel through the mega thrust itself (rather than surrounding rock pores or fractures). This could in turn, help to trigger megathrust earthquake events as a result. Therefore, slow slip could catalyze seismic activity in megathrusts. While stress modulation are important contributors to megathrust-induced seismic activity, fluid transfer by episodic SSE may play a greater role than previously thought.

Explore further Above and beyond megathrustsdraining pore fluids dampens earthquake tremors

More information: Repeated drainage from megathrusts during episodic slow slip, Nature Geoscience (2018). Journal information: Nature Geoscience Repeated drainage from megathrusts during episodic slow slip,(2018). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0090-z
This artists impression shows the first interstellar asteroid: `Oumuamua. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

A telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to listen to a mysterious cigar-shaped object that entered our Solar System late last year.

The unusual objectknown as 'Oumuamuacame from another solar system, prompting speculation it could be an alien spacecraft.

"So astronomers went back through observations from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope to check for radio transmissions coming from the object between the frequencies of 72 and 102MHz similar to the frequency range in which FM radio is broadcast.

While they did not find any signs of intelligent life, the research helped expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) from distant stars to objects closer to home.

When 'Oumuamua was first discovered, astronomers thought it was a comet or an asteroid from within the Solar System. But after studying its orbit and discovering its long, cylindrical shape, they realised 'Oumuamua was neither and had come from interstellar space.

Telescopes around the world trained their gaze on the mysterious visitor in an effort to learn as much as possible before it headed back out of the Solar System, becoming too faint to observe in detail.

Tile 107, or the Outlier as it is known, is one of 128 original tiles of this SKA precursor instrument located 1.5km from the core of the telescope. Lighting the tile and the ancient landscape is the moon. Credit: Pete Wheeler, ICRAR

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the MWA team did not initially set out to find 'Oumuamua.

"We didn't set out to observe this object with the MWA but because we can see such a large fraction of the sky at once, when something like this happens, we're able to go back through the data and analyse it after the fact," Professor Tingay said.

"If advanced civilizations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, we can speculate that they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and that these spacecraft may use radio waves to communicate."

"Whilst the possibility of this is extremely low, possibly even zero, as scientists it's important that we avoid complacency and examine observations and evidence without bias."

The MWA is located in Western Australia's remote Murchison region, one of the most radio quiet areas on the planet and far from human activity and radio interference caused by technology.

Credit: ESA

It is made up of thousands of antennas attached to hundreds of "tiles" that dot the ancient landscape, relentlessly observing the heavens day after day, night after night.

Professor Tingay said the research team was able to look back through all of the MWA's observations from November, December and early January, when 'Oumuamua was between 95 million and 590 million kilometres from Earth.

"We found nothing, but as the first object of its class to be discovered, `Oumuamua has given us an interesting opportunity to expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence from traditional targets such as stars and galaxies to objects that are much closer to Earth.

"This also allows for searches for transmitters that are many orders of magnitude less powerful than those that would be detectable from a planet orbiting even the most nearby stars."

'Oumuamua was first discovered by the Pan-STARRS project at the University of Hawaii in October.

Credit: ESO, M. Kornmesser, L.Calcada. Music: Azul Cobalto

Its name loosely means "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past" in Hawaiian, and is the first known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System.

Combining observations from a host of telescopes, scientists have determined that `Oumuamua is most likely a cometary fragment that has lost much of its surface water because it was bombarded by cosmic rays on its long journey through interstellar space.

Researchers have now suggested there could be more than 46 million similar interstellar objects crossing the Solar System every year.

While most of these objects are too far away to study with current technologies, future telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will enable scientists to understand more about these interstellar interlopers.

"So once the SKA is online, we'll be able to look at large numbers of objects and partially balance out the low probability of a positive detection."

More information: A Serendipitous MWA Search for Narrow-band and Broad-band Low Frequency Radio Transmissions from 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua. A Serendipitous MWA Search for Narrow-band and Broad-band Low Frequency Radio Transmissions from 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua. arxiv.org/abs/1802.09276

Provided by ICRAR
Failing to match the educational achievements of one's parents can be as distressing for men as having ethnic minority status or being divorced, new research says.

University of Oxford researchers analysed survey data on over 50,000 people in the UK and 27 other European countries to compare their psychological state with their educational achievements.

Dr. Alexi Gugushvili told the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Newcastle today [Tuesday 10 April] that while exceeding parents' education was linked to decreased psychological distress in men, falling short was linked to an increase.

The researchers also found that women were not affected by failing to keep up with their parents' educational attainment.

The researchers divided parents' and their children's educational attainment into three categories of attainment, and compared this with an overall score for their psychological distressed based on their feelings of being depressed, lonely, or sad. In Britain the top level equated to a degree, the middle to A-levels and the bottom to GCSE or lower.

Men whose educational level was at the bottom level, and whose parents were in the top, were more than twice as likely to be among the top 10 percent most psychologically distressed group of individuals than those whose educational level matched their parents'. This effect was comparable to the gap between those who were divorced and those who were not, and the gap between those in an ethnic minority group with the ethnic majority.

Men whose educational level was in middle category when their parents were in the top level were 75 percent more likely to be psychologically distressed than those whose level was the same as their parents.

Men whose educational level was at the top level, and whose parents were educated at the bottom level, were 50 percent less likely to be psychologically distressed than men whose level was the same as their parents.

Dr. Gugushvili, who worked with Dr. Yizhang Zhao and Dr. Erzsebet Bukodi, told the conference: "Getting a higher educational achievement than one's parents is associated with a reduced level of psychological distress, even after the direct effect of individuals' and their parents' education and other conventional explanations of distress are accounted for.

"On the contrary, falling short of one's parents' education tends to raise the distress level, and a big disparity is especially harmful for men's psychological health status.

"For men, parents' educational achievement and intergenerational mobility retain an important influence on their psychological health after accounting for individuals' social class and other explanations of distress, but no effect is observed for women's distress.

"The reason for this could be that men are more likely than women to attribute success and failure by pointing to their own merits, abilities and effort, rather than factors they have no control over."

He said that the findings had contradicted earlier research suggesting that surpassing one's parents' education did not make people happier.

The researchers analysed data from the 2012-14 waves of the European Social Survey on 52,773 people aged 25-65 in 27 European countries and in Israel and used the cutting edge statistical methods to explain how the psychological state of individuals is affected by a discrepancy between their own and parental educational attainment.

Explore further Genes account for half of differences in social mobility
Credit: National Physical Laboratory

An international collaboration, including researchers from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Royal Holloway, University of London, has successfully demonstrated a quantum coherent effect in a new quantum device made out of continuous superconducting wire  the Charge Quantum Interference Device (CQUID).

This research is an important milestone towards a robust new quantum standard for the electric current, and could be capable of disseminating the new definition of the ampere, which is expected to be decided on by the global measurement community as part of the redefinition of the international system of units (SI) later this year.

As reported in Nature Physics, the device acts in the opposite way to the better-known superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), used as an ultrasensitive sensor for magnetism. Instead of sensing a magnetic field via its influence on the current flow (moving charge) like a SQUID, the CQUID works seemingly in the opposite way, sensing charge as a result of quantum interference due to the flow of magnetic flux.

Developed throughout the last few decades, the SQUID has gone onto be commonly used in a variety of fields, from medical imaging, geological prospecting to sensors of gravitational waves. With further research, it is envisioned the CQUID will have a similar broad range of applications in the future as well.

The CQUID demonstrates, for the first time, interference of coherent quantum phase slips (CQPS) in a device made out of more than one CQPS junction. This fundamental quantum circuit element is the dual and opposite to the Josephson junction  based on the Noble Prize winning Josephson effect  and underlines the CQUID's potential.

The CQPS junction is realised in the circuit by embedding a superconducting nanowire in a very high-impedance electrical environment. The team looked to state-of-the-art nanofabrication technologies to demonstrate the device in practice. A superconducting film made from niobium nitride with a total thickness of only 3.3 nanometres was deposited one atomic layer at a time. The film was then patterned into narrow wires just a few nanometres wide.

Sebastian de Graaf, Senior Researcher at NPL and lead scientist of the study said:

"The duality between the CQUID and SQUID devices originates from the fundamental relationship between charge and phase in in quantum mechanics, made possible in these devices with superconducting materials. We can think of it as the charge and magnetic flux, or the superconductor itself and the vacuum (insulator) around it, suddenly having the opposite roles.

"This opens up the potential for a new broad range of technologies, with the interchanged roles of electrical current and voltage in a CQPS circuit compared to a Josephson junction, leading towards an equally precise and robust standard for current as the fundamental quantum standard for voltage, which today is realised by arrays of Josephson junctions."

Oleg Astafiev, Professor of Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Visiting Professor at NPL, concludes:

"The results also show that the materials we are using can now be made with high enough precision and reproducibility to allow for multiple, nominally similar, CQPS junctions in the same device. This has been very challenging in the past, but with modern nanofabrication technologies this has now become possible. This is very promising for the development of sensors and metrology dual to that which already exists today based on the Josephson junction."

Explore further Long predicted but never observed: A new kind of quantum junction
Gray Rybka of the University of Washington, co-spokesperson for the ADMX collaboration, adjusts a dial on the ADMX experiment. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington

Forty years ago, scientists theorized a new kind of low-mass particle that could solve one of the enduring mysteries of nature: what dark matter is made of. Now a new chapter in the search for that particle has begun.

This week, the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) unveiled a new result, published in Physical Review Letters, that places it in a category of one: It is the world's first and only experiment to have achieved the necessary sensitivity to "hear" the telltale signs of dark matter axions. This technological breakthrough is the result of more than 30 years of research and development, with the latest piece of the puzzle coming in the form of a quantum-enabled device that allows ADMX to listen for axions more closely than any experiment ever built.

ADMX is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and located at the University of Washington. This new result, the first from the second-generation run of ADMX, sets limits on a small range of frequencies where axions may be hiding and sets the stage for a wider search in the coming years.

"This result signals the start of the true hunt for axions," said Fermilab scientist Andrew Sonnenschein, the operations manager for ADMX. "If dark matter axions exist within the frequency band we will be probing for the next few years, then it's only a matter of time before we find them."

One theory suggests that the dark matter that holds galaxies together might be made up of a vast number of low-mass particles, which are almost invisible to detection as they stream through the cosmos. Efforts in the 1980s to find this particle, named the axion by theorist Frank Wilczek, currently of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were unsuccessful, showing that their detection would be extremely challenging.

ADMX is an axion haloscopeessentially a large, low-noise radio receiver, which scientists tune to different frequencies and listen to to find the axion signal frequency. Axions almost never interact with matter, but with the aid of a strong magnetic field and a cold, dark, properly tuned, reflective box, ADMX can "hear" photons created when axions convert into electromagnetic waves inside the detector.

"If you think of an AM radio, it's exactly like that," said Gray Rybka, co-spokesperson for ADMX and assistant professor at the University of Washington. "We've built a radio that looks for a radio station, but we don't know its frequency. We turn the knob slowly while listening. Ideally we will hear a tone when the frequency is right."

This detection method, which might make the "invisible axion" visible, was invented by Pierre Sikivie of the University of Florida in 1983, as was the notion that galactic halos could be made of axions. Pioneering experiments and analyses by a collaboration of Fermilab, the University of Rochester and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, as well as scientists at the University of Florida, demonstrated the practicality of the experiment. This led to the construction in the late 1990s of a large-scale detector at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that is the basis of the current ADMX.

It was only recently, however, that the ADMX team has been able to deploy superconducting quantum amplifiers to their full potential, enabling the experiment to reach unprecedented sensitivity. Previous runs of ADMX were stymied by background noise generated by thermal radiation and the machine's own electronics.

Fixing thermal radiation noise is easy: a refrigeration system cools the detector down to 0.1 Kelvin (roughly minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit). But eliminating the noise from electronics proved more difficult. The first runs of ADMX used standard transistor amplifiers, but after connecting with John Clarke, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Clarke developed a quantum-limited amplifier for the experiment. This much quieter technology, combined with the refrigeration unit, reduces the noise by a significant enough level that the signal, should ADMX discover one, will come through loud and clear.

"The initial versions of this experiment, with transistor-based amplifiers, would have taken hundreds of years to scan the most likely range of axion masses. With the new superconducting detectors, we can search the same range on time scales of only a few years," said Gianpaolo Carosi, co-spokesperson for ADMX and scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

"This result plants a flag," said Leslie Rosenberg, professor at the University of Washington and chief scientist for ADMX. "It tells the world that we have the sensitivity, and have a very good shot at finding the axion. No new technology is needed. We don't need a miracle anymore, we just need the time."

ADMX will now test millions of frequencies at this level of sensitivity. If axions are found, it would be a major discovery that could explain not only dark matter, but other lingering mysteries of the universe. If ADMX does not find axions, that may force theorists to devise new solutions to those riddles.

"A discovery could come at any time over the next few years," said scientist Aaron Chou of Fermilab. "It's been a long road getting to this point, but we're about to begin the most exciting time in this ongoing search for axions."

Explore further Physicist suggests new experiments could make or break axion as dark matter theory

More information: N. Du et al. Search for Invisible Axion Dark Matter with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters N. Du et al. Search for Invisible Axion Dark Matter with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.151301
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from the U.K., Australia and the U.S. has found evidence that suggests genetic influence on social outcomes is greater in meritocratic than in communistic societies. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes their study of people living in Estonia before and after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the impact it had on social outcomes.

Everyone knows that genetics plays a role in what becomes of people in various societieshard-driving, smart people, for example, tend to do well in their careers, whereas those born with less intelligence and drive might not fare so well. But what happens when inheritable traits are compared between different types of societies, such as one based on merit versus one based on communism? The researchers with this new effort theorized that genetics would play a more prominent role in meritocratic societies than in communist ones. This is because people living in a society based on merit, who inherit skills that lead to success, likely would have more trouble doing so in a society that places more value on group success. To find out if this might be the case, the researchers looked at educational attainment and occupational status of people living in Estonia raised before and after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Prior to the breakup, the people in that country lived under the heavy hand of Soviet communismafter the breakup, the country gained independence and modeled itself on many countries in the West, and became capitalist.

The researchers genotyped 12,500 people living in Estonia and looked at their educational and career achievementsthey then compared the group raised under communism with those raised under capitalism. They report that they found a significant difference. They found, for example, that approximately 2 percent of the variance seen in educational success was due to differences in genetic factors during the Soviet era. That number jumped to approximately 6 percent after independence. The researchers contend that such numbers suggest very strongly that their theory was correctgenetics does play a more prominent role in a society where individual success is based on a given person's unique attributes than in societies where other factors are at play.

Explore further Social status and measuring reproductive success in the modern nonindustrial man

More information: Kaili Rimfeld et al. Genetic influence on social outcomes during and after the Soviet era in Estonia, Nature Human Behaviour (2018). Kaili Rimfeld et al. Genetic influence on social outcomes during and after the Soviet era in Estonia,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0332-5 Abstract

The aetiology of individual differences in educational attainment and occupational status includes genetic as well as environmental factors and can change as societies change. The extent of genetic influence on these social outcomes can be viewed as an index of success in achieving meritocratic values of equality of opportunity by rewarding talent and hard work, which are to a large extent influenced by genetic factors, rather than rewarding environmentally driven privilege. To the extent that the end of the Soviet Union and the independence of Estonia led to an increase in meritocratic selection of individuals in education and occupation, genetic influence should be higher in the post-Soviet era than in the Soviet era. Here we confirmed this hypothesis: DNA differences (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) explained twice as much variance in educational attainment and occupational status in the post-Soviet era compared with the Soviet era in both polygenic score analyses and single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability analyses of 12,500 Estonians. Our results demonstrate a change in the extent of genetic influence in the same population following a massive and abrupt social changein this case, the shift from a communist to a capitalist society. Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour

 2018 Phys.org
GMR offers Upper Karnali power for 10 cents per unit

GMR Energy, the Indian developer of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, has made an offer to Bangladesh to sell energy from the plant at 10 cents per unit, a government official said.
Understanding scientific complexities of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at the Hanford Site could guide cleanup efforts. Credit: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

One of the nation's enduring scientific challenges has been to find effective ways of remediating millions of gallons of chemical and radioactive waste remaining from Cold War activities. Now a team of experts has combed through more than 100 studies to determine what is known of the complex chemical and rheological aspects of the waste and identify scientific issues that must be resolved to finally reach the end goal of cleanup.

Scientists and engineers have worked decades to find solutions, particularly for chemical and radioactive waste in underground storage tanks at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington state. While the origins of the waste have been well documented, tank-to-tank transfers, mixing, and previous remediation attempts have complicated the chemistry and physics of the material. A thorough understanding of underlying scientific issues provides a stronger foundation for engineering solutions, giving decision makers more confidence to move forward with fewer delays.

Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, cleanup contractor Washington River Protection Solutions, and Washington State University scoured scientific literature to identify research that has informed current understanding of tank waste. Much has been accomplished, including beginning the construction of a vitrification plant to solidify this waste for safe storage. Perhaps the greatest remaining challenge is to develop the scientific underpinnings of the complex particle interactions that will occur when waste is removed from the tanks and pumped through pipes for further treatment and vitrification.

Previous work at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy user facility, helped develop an empirical model of the materials inside the tanks, but more work is needed to predict how the waste will behave during processing. Recent advances in aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, in situ microscopy, and theoretical modeling across scales show promise. Information from such studies, coupled with the ability to transport radioactive materials to EMSL and use its atom probe tomography, could allow scientists to build robust predictive physics-based models to inform and guide cleanup efforts.

More information: Reid A. Peterson et al. Review of the Scientific Understanding of Radioactive Waste at the U.S. DOE Hanford Site, Environmental Science & Technology (2017). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Reid A. Peterson et al. Review of the Scientific Understanding of Radioactive Waste at the U.S. DOE Hanford Site,(2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b04077
The SQUID-based amplifier, which is about a millimeter square, is supercooled to be sensitive to faint signals from axions, should they convert into a microwave photon in the ADMX detector. Credit: Sean O'Kelley image

Thanks to low-noise superconducting quantum amplifiers invented at the University of California, Berkeley, physicists are now embarking on the most sensitive search yet for axions, one of today's top candidates for dark matter.

The Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) reported results today showing that it is the world's first and only experiment to have achieved the necessary sensitivity to "hear" the telltale signs of dark matter axions.

The milestone is the result of more than 30 years of research and development, with the latest piece of the puzzle coming in the form of a quantum device that allows ADMX to listen for axions more closely than any experiment ever built.

John Clarke, a professor of physics in the graduate school at UC Berkeley and a pioneer in the development of sensitive magnetic detectors called SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), developed the amplifier two decades ago. ADMX scientists, with Clarke's input, have now incorporated it into the ADMX detector at the University of Washington, Seattle, and are ready to roll.

"ADMX is a complicated and quite expensive piece of machinery, so it took a while to build a suitable detector so that they could put the SQUID amplifier on it and demonstrate that it worked as advertised. Which it did," Clarke said.

The ADMX team published their results online today in the journal Physical Review Letters.

"This result signals the start of the true hunt for axions," said Andrew Sonnenschein at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, the operations manager for ADMX. "If dark matter axions exist within the frequency band we will be probing for the next few years, then it's only a matter of time before we find them."

A cutaway rendering of the ADMX detector, which can detect axions producing photons within its cold, dark interior. Credit: ADMX collaboration

Dark matter: MACHOs, WIMPs or axions?

Dark matter is the missing 84 percent of matter in the universe, and physicists have looked extensively for many possible candidates, most prominently massive compact halo objects, or MACHOs, and weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. Despite decades of searching for MACHOs and WIMPs, scientists have struck out; they can see the effects of dark matter in the universe, in how galaxies and stars within galaxies move, but they can't see dark matter itself.

Axions are becoming the favored alternative, in part because their existence would also solve problems with the standard model of particle physics today, including the fact that the neutron should have an electric dipole moment, but doesn't.

Like other dark-matter candidates, axions are everywhere but difficult to detect. Because they interact with ordinary matter so rarely, they stream through space, even passing through the Earth, without "touching" ordinary matter. ADMX employs a strong magnetic field and a tuned, reflective box to encourage axions to convert to microwave-frequency photons, and uses the quantum amplifier to "listen" for them. All this is done at the lowest possible temperature to reduce background noise.

Clarke learned of a key stumbling block for ADMX in 1994, when meeting with physicist Leslie Rosenberg, now a professor at the University of Washington and chief scientist for ADMX, and Karl van Bibber, now chair of UC Berkeley's Department of Nuclear Engineering. Because the axion signal would be very faint, any detector would have to be very cold and "quiet." Noise from heat, or thermal radiation, is easy to eliminate by cooling the detector down to 0.1 Kelvin, or roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. But eliminating the noise from standard semiconductor transistor amplifiers proved difficult.

They asked Clarke, would SQUID amplifiers solve this problem?

Listening for dark matter: How ADMX employs cold cavities and SQUID amplifiers to find the elusive axion. Credit: University of Washington, Seattle

Supercold amplifiers lower noise to absolute limit

Though he had built SQUID amplifiers that worked up to 100 MHz frequencies, none worked at the gigahertz frequencies needed, so he set to work to build one. By 1998, he and his collaborators had solved the problem, thanks in large part to initial funding from the National Science Foundation and subsequent funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The amplifiers on ADMX were funded by DOE through the University of Washington.

Clarke and his group showed that, cooled to temperatures of tens of milliKelvin above absolute zero, the Microstrip SQUID Amplifier (MSA) could achieve a noise that was quantum limited, that is, limited only by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

"You can't do better than that," Clarke said.

This much quieter technology, combined with the refrigeration unit, reduced the noise by a factor of about 30 at 600 MHz so that a signal from the axion, if there is one, should come through loud and clear. The MSA currently in operation on ADMX was fabricated by Gene Hilton at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, and tested, calibrated and packaged by Sean O'Kelley, a graduate student in Clarke's research group at UC Berkeley.

The ADMX team plans to slowly tune through millions of frequencies in hopes of hearing a clear tone from photons produced by axion decay.

"This result plants a flag," said Rosenberg. "It tells the world that we have the sensitivity, and have a very good shot at finding the axion. No new technology is needed. We don't need a miracle anymore, we just need the time."

Clarke noted too that the high-frequency, low-noise quantum SQUID amplifiers he invented for ADMX have since been employed in another hot area of physics, to read out the superconducting quantum bits, or qubits, for quantum computers of the future.

Explore further New result draws on 30 years of research and development and begins the definitive search for axion particles

More information: N. Du et al. Search for Invisible Axion Dark Matter with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters N. Du et al. Search for Invisible Axion Dark Matter with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.151301
The small size of StimDust can be seen in comparison to a dime. Credit: Rikky Muller

In 2016, University of California, Berkeley, engineers demonstrated the first implanted, ultrasonic neural dust sensors, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time. Now, Berkeley engineers have taken neural dust a step forward by building the smallest volume, most efficient wireless nerve stimulator to date.

The device, called StimDust, short for stimulating neural dust, adds more sophisticated electronics to neural dust without sacrificing the technology's tiny size or safety, greatly expanding the range of neural dust applications. The researchers' goal is to have StimDust implanted in the body through minimally invasive procedures to monitor and treat disease in a real-time, patient-specific approach. StimDust is just 6.5 cubic millimeters in volume and is powered wirelessly by ultrasound, which the device then uses to power nerve stimulation at an efficiency of 82 percent.

"StimDust is the smallest deep-tissue stimulator that we are aware of that's capable of stimulating almost all of the major therapeutic targets in the peripheral nervous system," said Rikky Muller, co-lead of the work and assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley. "This device represents our vision of having tiny devices that can be implanted in minimally invasive ways to modulate or stimulate the peripheral nervous system, which has been shown to be efficacious in treating a number of diseases."

The research will be presented April 10 at the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference in San Diego. The research team was co-led by one of neural dust's inventors, Michel Maharbiz, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley.

This graphic details the simplicity of the StimDust design. The components of StimDust include a single piezocrystal, which is the antenna of the system, a 1-millimeter integrated circuit and one charge storage capacitor. Credit: Rikky Muller

The creation of neural dust at Berkeley, led by Maharbiz and Jose Carmena, a Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, has opened the door for wireless communication to the brain and peripheral nervous system through tiny implantable devices inside the body that are powered by ultrasound. Engineering teams around the world are now using the neural dust platform to build devices that can be charged wirelessly by ultrasound.

Maharbiz came up with the idea to use ultrasound for powering and communicating with very small implants. Together with Berkeley professors Elad Alon and Jan Rabaey, the group then developed the technical framework to demonstrate the scaling power of ultrasound for implantable devices.

Early engineering work by D.J. Seo, a Berkeley Ph.D. student who was co-advised by Alon and Maharbiz, followed by experimental validations by Ryan Neely, another Berkeley Ph.D. student, advised by Carmena, set the foundations of the neural dust vision. In the years since neural dust's invention, ultrasound has proven to be among the most promising technologies for powering and communicating implantable devices.

Muller came to Berkeley in 2016 and has been a key driver of neural dust innovation. Her research group specializes in bidirectional electronic interfaces with human body, specifically in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Her team has been working on ways to use the power that can be transmitted to neural dust. In StimDust, her lab has taken the neural dust platform and built a more effective stimulator that can wrap around a nerve cuff and can also record, transmit and receive data. They did this by designing a custom integrated circuit to transfer ultrasound charge to the nerve in a well-controlled, safe and efficient way.

StimDust fitted onto a live mouse sciatic nerve via a cuff. Credit: Rikky Muller.

StimDust is about an order of magnitude smaller than any active device with similar capabilities that the research team is aware of. The components of StimDust include a single piezocrystal, which is the antenna of the system, a 1-millimeter integrated circuit and one charge storage capacitor. StimDust has electrodes on the bottom, which make contact with a nerve through a cuff that wraps around the nerve. In addition to the device, Muller's team designed a custom wireless protocol that gives them a large range of programmability while maintaining efficiency. The entire device is powered by just 4 microwatts and has a mass of 10 milligrams.

After testing StimDust on the benchtop, the research team implanted it in a live rodent to test it in a realistic environment. Through a cuff around the sciatic nerve, the research team was able to control hind leg motion, record the stimulation activity and measure how much force was exerted on the hind leg muscle as it was stimulated. The researchers then gradually increased stimulation and mapped the response of the hind leg muscle so they could know exactly how much stimulation was needed for a desired muscle recruitment, a kind of sophisticated analysis required of medical devices.

Muller hopes that her work can lead to applications of StimDust to treat diseases such as heart irregularities, chronic pain, asthma or epilepsy.

"One of the big visions of my group is to create these very efficient bidirectional interfaces with the nervous system and couple that with intelligence to really understand the signals of disease and then to be able to treat disease in an intelligent, methodical way," Muller said. There's an incredible opportunity for healthcare applications that can really be transformative."

Explore further Wireless, implantable sensors the size of a grain of sand could have wide use in body monitoring
The new study involved examining the distinct paths clouds take before they produce snow at Summit Station, a longstanding research station located in the middle of Greenland. Credit: CLAIRE PETTERSEN

The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting, discharging hundreds of billions of tons of water into the ocean each year. Sea levels are steadily rising.

To better understand and anticipate changes in sea level rise, scientists have sought to quantify how much snow falls on the ice sheet in any given year, and where, since snow is the primary source of the ice sheet's mass. This has proven to be a challenging problem.

However, a new study from a team of researchers led by University of WisconsinMadison Space Science and Engineering Center scientist, Claire Pettersen, describes a unique method involving cloud characteristics that could help answer some big questions about the Greenland Ice Sheet and its snowfall. The study is published today [April 9, 2018] in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

"There are a lot of theories about how the precipitation processes over the ice sheet will change in the future," says Pettersen. "Will it gain more as a result of increased precipitation or will it gain less due to decreasing precipitation?"

Pettersen's approach involved studying the types of clouds that result in snow on the ice sheet, and examining the distinct paths these clouds take before they produce snow at Summit Station, a longstanding research station located in the middle of Greenland.

Regions of higher elevation on the ice sheet do not receive an abundance of precipitation, and Summit Station tends to be drier still. However, the precipitation it does receive is critical, Pettersen says, "because it is the only available source for building up mass on the ice sheet."

Left, the surface height of Greenland, created using measurements from the IceBridge campaign. Surface winds from the Summit NOAA meteorological data are shown in a-c: (a) shows all surface winds from 20102016 for all times; (b) shows surface winds for the ice cloud snow cases; and (c) shows surface winds for the mixed phase cloud snow cases. Credit: CLAIRE PETTERSEN

Greenland is more than twice as large as Texas and if the entire ice sheet melted, scientists estimate global sea levels would rise roughly 24 feet.

Pettersen and her team developed a tool that aggregated and processed five-year's worth of data from the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit (or ICECAPS) experiment, relying on an array of ground-based, remote sensing instruments  from Doppler radar to an ice particle imaging camera  to collect atmospheric information.

Pettersen took advantage of a wealth of data from an instrument typically used to measure characteristics like temperature and humidity, called a microwave radiometer, and from it gathered information about cloud liquid water and ice within clouds above Greenland.

She discovered that precipitation at Summit came from two distinct cloud types. The first, mixed-phase clouds, hold water vapor, supercooled cloud liquid droplets, and ice particles. They are common across the Arctic.

The second type, ice clouds, contain only ice crystals and no cloud liquid water. These clouds tend to be deep, with cloud top heights reaching as high as 10 km above sea level, Pettersen explains.

Snow-producing mixed-phase clouds originate along the southwest coast of the Greenland Ice Sheet, where the upward slope to Summit is gentle and unimpeded. Pettersen found they produce 51 percent of the snow accumulation observed at Summit.

The Big House, one of the permanent structures at Summit Station, a research site on the Greenland ice sheet. Credit: CLAIRE PETTERSEN

Ice clouds, on the other hand, are a feature more common to the southeast coast of Greenland, where they face a unique obstacle: To reach Summit Station from the North Atlantic, they must overcome a steep ridge.

"If you have a strong storm system, it can generate enough uplift to pull moisture from near the ocean's surface up over the ridge, and traverse the high plateau of the central Greenland Ice Sheet," Pettersen explains.

Though a rather intense process, it is an effective way to transfer moist ocean air into the center of Greenland, she adds. The team found these types of clouds account for 35 percent of the snow that builds up at Summit.

Together, these two processes  from two different directions that follow distinct northern-bound tracks  help provide key mechanisms to account for snowfall at this region of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The atmospheric dynamics responsible for the distinct snow types could be an important piece of the Arctic climate puzzle, says Pettersen.

Unlike prior studies, which relied on models or indirect data, her team was able to use observations gathered directly from the study region, yet they are consistent with earlier findings. Pettersen is hopeful that, with more data analysis over longer periods of time, researchers will find more answers yet to account for the melting ice sheet and the subsequent sea level rise that has already had an impact on regions across the planet.

"Understanding the processes that create precipitation at Summit Station will help us to further understand the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is directly tied to changes in sea level rise," says Pettersen.

Explore further Algae, impurities darken the Greenland ice sheet and increase melting

More information: Claire Pettersen et al. Precipitation regimes over central Greenland inferred from 5 years of ICECAPS observations, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2018). Journal information: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Claire Pettersen et al. Precipitation regimes over central Greenland inferred from 5 years of ICECAPS observations,(2018). DOI: 10.5194/acp-18-4715-2018
Are you over social media? Are you disillusioned with a seemingly relentless pace of change? Does the future really, really worry you? You're not alone.

We're living in interesting times.

For the past 20 years, we've seen one major cluster of transformative technologies: the internet, social media and smartphones.

But in the past, say, 2 years, we've seen a multitude of transformative technologies start to hit the mainstream. From artificial intelligence (AI) to virtual, mixed and augmented reality (VR/AR/MR) to driverless cars to bitcoin and blockchain.

For many of us, it may feel like a certain vision of the future is inevitablea vision where the future is almost unrecognisable to humans of today.

In this future, electric driverless cars will be pervasive, helping the environment by putting all truck and taxi drivers out of work. In fact, in this future vision, automation will replace 40% of all jobs. And then, eventually, work itself would become obsolete thanks to AI. We'll all live somewhere in between the virtual and the real, with our everyday lives continually mediated. With social media, augmented reality and the internet of things being all pervasive, privacy will be a thing of the past. Our daily activities always tracked, predicted and manipulated, for better or for worse.

In some versions of this future, everything is fine. Initiatives like basic income would ensure that everyone would have the means to live in a workless future. For others, including Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk, an AI future is scary indeed.

But some unexpected things have been happening that may disrupt this future. Things that are increasing mainstream concern about the trajectory in which humanity is heading. Things that may actually signal a shift in what appears to be our current trajectory.

Techlash

This shift in thinking about technology is widely being described as techlash. It describes the increasing unease about the impact that companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are having on everyday life.

There's widespread concern about the role these companies are playing in fake news, social media depression and addiction and the polarisation of communities. People are worried that the democratic process is being undermined. They're worried about a future where no one has a job thanks to automation and AI.

Even technologists are getting on board the techlash, as the mood at this year's SXSW in Austin Texas suggested. As one of the top global technology conferences, SXSW is usually very ra ra for new technologies. But this year, commentators noted that the mood was decidedly sceptical about the current technology climate.

In fact, this techlash is so significant that it's worrying Wall Street.

How did we get to this moment? And what does it mean for the future?

Let's have a look at some key moments that have contributed to our current state of affairs.

Diversity (or lack thereof)

In February 2017, ex-Uber employee Susan Fowler penned a 3000-word blog post about her year working for the company. During this year, she experienced ongoing sexual harassment that management were aware of but refused to do anything about. Fowler's post went viral and resulted in the firing of 20 employees. It also saw a management shakeup that saw the resignation of Uber founder Travis Kalanick.

In August 2017, Google employee James Damore penned an anti-diversity manifesto. In it, he argued that the cause of gender inequality in the tech industry is due to biology. Women, he argued, are naturally passive and neurotic and are not interested in technical roles.

March 18 2018 saw the first ever automated vehicle fatality. Credit: ABC NEWS

But what was perhaps most concerning was that the memo went viral within Google, with many Googlers seeming to agree with its contents. The memo inadvertently revealed a toxic anti-diversity culture within Google.

While Silicon Valley has had a diversity problem for years now, it appears that we are no longer willing to accept it. The reaction to these incidents signals a key shift and created the foundation for the growing techlash.

Autonomous fatality

Building on this foundation was a cluster of incidents early this year.

On 18 March 2018, a tragic milestone was reached in the history of driverless vehicles. On that day, a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, was struck and killed by a driverless car owned by Uber. As it approached the pedestrian, the car showed no signs of slowing down. It's widely being called the industry's first ever fatality.

The incident has had widespread repercussions for the autonomous car industry. It calls into question the widespread claim that autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers. Both Uber and Toyota have since halted all their driverless testing programmes.

With humans already having little trust in driverless cars, the incident is yet another data point for those concerned about the future.

The end of Facebook?

But what perhaps tipped techlash into the mainstream was what happened the day before.

On 17 March 2018, the news broke that Cambridge Analytica had attempted to influence the political process in the US and the UK using data obtained from 50 million Facebook accounts. Despite the firm's claims to the contrary, Facebook had known about the risks posed to its users for at least 2 years but failed to act.

Reaction to the revelation was widespread and negative. Facebook's shares tumbled, losing $60 billion from its valuation. Sonos and Mozilla announced they'd be suspending advertising on the site for a week. Space X and Tesla deleted their Facebook pages. #deletefacebook began trending on Twitter.

The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal comes on the heels of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announcing its launch of a potentially precedent-setting investigation into the possible misuse of user data by Facebook and Google.

And with that, techlash is now most definitely a thing.

So, what comes next? What could a new, post-techlash vision of the future look like?

Post-techlash

One possible future is one not unlike the dreams of the early internet pioneers. One where power becomes decentralised and shifts to increasingly self-sufficient individuals and communities. Where we focus on humans before technology. A future powered by movements like intentional communities and co-living and enabled by technologies like blockchain. One such example can be seen in Western Australia's White Gum Valley, where experimental housing is being built that combines intentional communities, sustainability and blockchain-distributed solar power.

This decentralisation is already happening with social networks on a grander scale. Individuals (especially young people) are leaving Facebook for smaller, more intimate spaces and groups.

Techlash is making it possible to rethink our future, to open up new possibilities. If you don't like where the future is headed, now is the time to do something about it.

Explore further Waymo chief says his tech would have averted fatal Uber crash

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.
Hunting for that elusive magnetic signal. Credit: European Space Agency

The magnetic field is arguably one of the most mysterious features of our planet. ESA's Swarm mission is continually yielding more insight into how our protective shield is generated, how it behaves and how it is changing. Adding yet another string to its bow, Swarm is now tracking changes in the magnetic field produced in the oceans in more detail that ever before.

New results from the trio of Swarm satellites are wowing this year's European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria. This week-long event draws scientists from all over the world to share discoveries about our planet.

Today, the spotlight is firmly on Swarm, and a particular highlight is how the mission is tracking one of Earth's more elusive sources of magnetism.

While the magnetic field is created largely by an ocean of superheated, swirling liquid iron in the planet's outer core, other factors, like magnetised rocks in the crust and the flow of the ocean, also affect the field.

We wouldn't normally think of seawater as being a source of magnetism, but it does make a tiny contribution.

When salty ocean water flows through Earth's magnetic field, an electric current is generated, and this, in turn, induces a magnetic signal.

However, the field generated by tides is tiny and extremely difficult to measure  but Swarm has done just this in remarkable detail.

The animation above shows how the tidal magnetic signal changes over 24 hours.

When salty ocean water flows through Earths magnetic field, an electric current is generated, and this in turn induces a magnetic signal. However, the field generated by tides is tiny  and extremely difficult to measure, but ESAs Swarm mission has done just this in remarkable detail. Swarm has been used to measure the magnetic signals of tides from the ocean surface to the seabed, which offers a global picture of how the ocean flows at all depths. The magnetic tidal signal measured by Swarm is important for ocean and climate modelling, and is used to determine the electrical properties of the Earths lithosphere and upper mantle. Credit: Planetary Visions (credit: ESA/Planetary Visions)

Nils Olsen, from the Technical University of Denmark, said, "We have used Swarm to measure the magnetic signals of tides from the ocean surface to the seabed, which gives us a truly global picture of how the ocean flows at all depths  and this is new.

"Since oceans absorb heat from the air, tracking how this heat is being distributed and stored, particularly at depth, is important for understanding our changing climate.

Swarm is ESAs first constellation of Earth observation satellites. The three identical satellites are designed to measure precisely the magnetic signals that stem from Earths core, mantle, crust and oceans, as well as its ionosphere and magnetosphere. Carrying a host of sophisticated instruments, the constellation is key to measuring and separating the different sources of magnetism and to making models in unprecedented detail and accuracy. The fact that Swarm is a constellation also means that, for the first time, mantle conductivity can be mapped in 3D from space. The satellites also offer a new way of studying the effect that solar particles have close to Earth. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab

"In addition, because this tidal magnetic signal also induces a weak magnetic response deep under the seabed, these results will be used to learn more about the electrical properties of Earth's lithosphere and upper mantle."

As well as shedding this new light on magnetic tides, Swarm has also yielded a new map of the magnetic field generated by Earth's crust.

Explore further Magnetic oceans and electric Earth
Insider trading

Insider trading is about the buying or selling of securities by someone who has information that is not available to the public.
WASHINGTON -- As Azerbaijani citizens head to the polls to vote in a snap presidential election on April 11, the Azerbaijani Service website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) remains under a government ban.

Our job is to provide independent news coverage for the people of Azerbaijan  not least in connection with such important events as presidential elections, said RFE/RL President Thomas Kent. This ban obstructs our mission, deprives Azerbaijanis of their fundamental right to access information freely, and violates the governments international obligations to respect the role of a free press.

In a scathing April 6 statement that referred to the ban and other attacks on the country's independent media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Azerbaijan's authorities had cleansed the political landscape of "virtually all formal avenues of expressing dissent" ahead of the election.

The ban dates from May 2017, when a Baku district court approved a request by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technology to block access to the Azerbaijani Services website, known locally as Radio Azadliq, together with the websites of the nongovernmental Azadliq newspaper, Meydan TV, and the online Turan TV and Azerbaycan Saati TV channels. It followed an earlier order by the Prosecutor Generals office that blocked the sites, claiming they pose a threat to Azerbaijans national security and promote violence, hatred, or extremism, violate privacy, or constitute slander."

Prior to the Prosecutor Generals order, RFE/RLs Azerbaijani Service had, together with the Sarajevo-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, reported on financial activities linked to members of the presidents family and close associates. It had also investigated costs associated with the September 2016 referendum that extended the term of the presidency from five to seven years, and created the post of Vice President, to which President Ilham Aliyev has since appointed his wife.

RFE/RLs English-language website has been periodically blocked in Azerbaijan since January 2018.

Azerbaijani authorities raided and sealed the Baku bureau of RFE/RLs Azerbaijani Service in December 2014, alleging tax violations and financial abuses that were overturned in court for lack of evidence in a case that RFE/RL has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

Despite the closure, the service continues to function as an essential source for news, deploying local reporting networks and a vigorous digital strategy to inform and connect with an online and satellite audience that numbers in the millions. In 2017, the service earned nearly 90 million video views on its YouTube and Facebook channels, and maintains an active presence on Instagram, Twitter, and Odnoklassniki.

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News

Azure Active Directory Login Design Change Coming in June

Microsoft gave advance notice this month that it's planning to change the user interface for carrying out Azure Active Directory logins, yet again.

In essence, the sign-in interface is getting simplified with a more "centered" look. It'll be losing the "Back" button that's part of the current experience. In addition, the badge icon that tells users it's a work account, rather than personal account, will be going away. The new experience will show up "on all authentication flows," including screens to change passwords and screens with multifactor authentication requests.

The design changes will appear gradually in phases. In early May, users will see a "notification banner," namely a pop-up box, telling them that the sign-in experience will be changing. In mid-May, the notification banner will have a link to preview the new design (see image). After clicking it, end users will be able to switch back to the old experience, if wanted.

[Click on image for larger view.] New design for Azure Active Directory logins. (Source: April 4 Microsoft blog)

However, in mid-June, Microsoft plans to finalize this design. It'll be at the "general availability" product stage for all Azure AD tenancies.

The announcement promised that the design change wouldn't be disruptive for organizations:

This is solely a visual UI change with no changes to functionality. Existing company branding settings will carry forward to the updated UI.

That last sentence likely is a welcome assurance. Last year, Microsoft pulled back on an Azure AD login design change that was intended to fix the business-to-business "logic" of the sign-in experience. Instead, some organizations apparently complained that the changes had wrecked their branding and customizations. They had been taken by surprise by its arrival, as well. In response, Microsoft promised to give a 30-day advance notice regarding any "disruptive" changes to the Azure AD sign-in dialog box.

On top of the new design changes coming for Azure AD tenancies, organizations that use Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), a Windows Server 2016 role, are getting some help to enable the new sign-in experience. To that end, Microsoft published a new style sheet at the GitHub repository.

Organizations can use this ADFS style sheet to get the same "centered login page" experience that Microsoft is creating for its Azure AD tenancies. They can use it to customize the login screen and have "a consistent look across federated sign-ins," according to Microsoft.

Based on comments associated with Microsoft's announcement, some organizations aren't too happy with Microsoft's plan to scrap the work account icon. End users get confused between their work and personal Microsoft accounts, and then they call IT for support, it was said.

Another comment was positive about the coming changes, suggesting that the new interface looks like Google's design.
Ever heard of crowdfunding or came across this term somewhere, but at the same time you are unsure of what EXACTLY is it? Crowdfunding is a term that should be known throughout the startup and entrepreneur industry. Below is what you will find if you were to hit up the Dictionary under Googles search results.





Source: Google  Dictionary

If you were to decipher and breakdown the words separately into (Crowd + Funding), it is pretty self-explanatory.

Crowd  A big group of people from the public + Funding  Money provided to fulfill a purpose. 



There has been a noticeable pattern seen in Singaporeans or those who reside in Singapore to adopt anything that is viral, trendy, or successful online, or offline. There is no exception when it comes to the entrepreneur industry where the term Crowdfunding is one of the many avenues where startups are able to source and raise money for their ventures, projects, products or a service.

But not many are sure of what entails crowdfunding, the risks, rewards, repayments, what to expect and what not based on the categories of the respective crowdfunding types. Today, be it looking to fund a project or an idea, or even get funded for a product, you have to know how to differentiate the several kinds of crowdfunding if it is not being explained or broken down in the crowdfunding campaigns. Fundraisers should also take note the different types of crowdfunding in order to entice and increase the success rate of your crowdfunding campaign.

Common Types of Crowdfunding

Donation Crowdfunding

Treat donation crowdfunding like any other typical charity function, where the amount that is being raised does not entail any form of risks or returns. People who fund this kind of project, movement, or an idea are passionate supporters who has strong beliefs.

Reward Crowdfunding

Reward crowdfunding resembles donation crowdfunding, where money is being raised for an advertised project or product that they truly believe in. But in return, the fundraisers will reward those who funded their project in a form of a reward or something that is non-monetary.



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Debt Crowdfunding

In this form of crowdfunding, it involves a formal business transaction where there could be one or more investor/lender loaning out money to a startup/business. In return, the business repays the interest which was previously mutually agreed between both parties through the crowdfunding platform.

Equity Crowdfunding

Simply by briefly reading off the title, an equity crowdfunding is where investors would buy into the company, having certain amount of shares/equity of a company, typically having the title of a shareholder along with the rewards any shareholder would expect; dividend payouts and capital appreciation if the company/product were to be successful.

In short, these are the current types of crowdfunding that startups or companies use to raise funds under a projected timeline. With a keen eyesight and some luck, you might be funding for the next Facebook, Grab, or products such as a smart charging cable where almost everyone with a smartphone would have these days.

Asking yourself which role are you in is also important, because you would most probably be categorized under one of the following:

An Investor

Someone who contributes money, expecting returns in the form of equity, dividends, shares or interests.

A Firm Believer (Contributor)

Someone who truly believes that this product/movement/project would be the next big thing, or it could potentially solve a pressing issue that you can relate to, having a massive belief in it without expecting anything in return, just seeing the product/project come to fruition would be your goal. 

A Fundraiser/Crowdfunder

A collective group of people or a company coming together, sometimes it may also be just single individual who needs to raise money for a purpose, a project, a movement, a product. 

Every individual, startup/company or even contributor has something they want to see at the end of the tunnel, be it a prototype product that will eventually be available everywhere, being part of a movement to advocate awareness of something important, or being a shareholder in the next Grab/Airbnb.

Numerous question marks would have already begin surfacing by now if you are one of the following above. For instance, you have a novel product or a really unique idea that requires some fund to be raised, or as much money as you can get your hands on under a short period of time. The next question is, would it be easy to source for the right audience or the right group of people to hear you out, let alone worry how big this particular group of people is? Where should you start? Who should you approach?

Here are a couple of popular sites that you are able to view the current projects that are available for funding, or start a campaign to raise your own funds today!

FundingSocieties.com





Funding Societies is Southeast Asias leading peer-to-peer financing platform, and the first to crowdfund more than SGD 130 million, the largest crowdfunded SME loan amount in the region in about 2.5 years.

With Funding Societies, one can invest with an amount as low as $50. Credit-worthy SMEs that require funds may secure business loans from $5,000 up to $1.5 million.

In 2015, Funding Societies became the first debt crowdfunding platform in Singapore to engage an independent trustee to manage the investor funds, unlike the practice adopted at that point in time by most platforms. This was done even before any regulatory mandate. It was an expensive but necessary decision to ensure that investors monies are handled professionally and safely.

FundedHere.com





Source: fundedhere.com

GoGetFunding.com





Source: gogetfunding.com

Global Reputable Crowdfunding Websites

Indiegogo.com





Source: Indiegogo.com

Kickstarter.com





Source: Kickstarter.com

It is always good to do some prior research and read up on crowdfunding, or even the websites that you were being referred to, or interested in before committing into any of these crowdfunding websites especially when money is involved. Recently, there has been an increase in crowdfunding platforms who want a piece of the pie. Hence, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will be stepping in with to facilitate this whole process, having say in areas where money is involved, so that donors or even investors would have the ease of mind when contributing to an idea or product. Always be sure to keep a look out when making your donation, or starting a crowdfunding campaign. . Ensuring that the company is being licensed by the MAS is important because we all want to know that our money is safely being funded for the intended purpose rather than a case of fraud or scam with fake crowdfunding campaigns ongoing.





Crowdfunding sites such as CoAssets have their License Number displayed at the bottom of their website else it can be found under their About Us. It is recommended to only use a platform that is being licensed to prevent any misuse of funds. If the company/platform does not display their license number, be sure to ask for it and counter check against

If you need more information or official updates from the MAS regarding crowdfunding, do always check into the MAS media releases or simply search up the name of the company under Capital Markets to see if they are .

(By Lionel Lau)

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- Crowdfunding for real estate investment? Heres what you need to know.

- Crowdfunding sources for startups
Kapilvastu to become self-reliant in fish

Kapilvastu district is on track to becoming self-reliant in fish production, with annual production of fish topping 1,200 tonnes in the last fiscal year.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while speaking during a news conference. (Photo: Getty Images)

By Ditas Lopez and Andreo Calonzo

China will have a chance to showcase warmer ties with the Philippines if it wins a contract to rebuild a city ravaged by Islamic State-inspired terrorists last year, a cabinet member said.

The contract for rebuilding Marawi, the countrys only Muslim-majority city, is expected to be finalized by the end of May, as the two nations seek to improve relations strained by a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

President Rodrigo Dutertes government initially chose a group led by China State Construction Engineering Corp. to help in the 72 billion-peso ($1.4 billion) effort to rehabilitate the city. Among the five groups that submitted unsolicited bids, four are Chinese and one is Malaysian.

It will be a status symbol for China if they get this project, Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said in an interview in his office in Makati City, citing the warming relations between the two countries. They would like to showcase to the Philippines that they are here to help.

The Philippines has shifted toward China under Duterte, and officials from both countries have been discussing boosting trade and investment while setting aside territorial disagreements. Duterte, who is in Hainan province for the Boao forum for Asia this week, is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

No Strings

The worlds biggest construction and engineering firm, CSCEC offered to rebuild roads, schools, public buildings and utilities in the most damaged part of the city for 17 billion pesos.

Repayment for 40 percent of the cost is interest-free for one year, and 80 percent of the workers would be hired locally. China is also giving the Philippines a 1-billion-peso grant to rebuild structures and help provide a livelihood to Marawi residents.

Should the company come to a final agreement with the government, theres a target start date of June, with the aim of completing the project before Dutertes term ends in 2022.

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Brushing aside concerns about the impact Chinas offer might have on the nations competing claims on South China Sea, Del Rosario, 61, a retired army general, said the Philippines relationship with China was even better than with the U.S. They dont set conditions, he said. A true friend is willing to help you without strings attached.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ditas Lopez in Manila at dlopez55@bloomberg.net; Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net; Linus Chua at lchua@bloomberg.net; Jason Koutsoukis

 2018 Bloomberg L.P
The village of Vik is the southernmost village in Iceland. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

A Singaporean was killed and two others injured in a fatal car accident while on holiday in southern Iceland last Wednesday (4 April), said media reports.

According to Iceland Magazine, three 24-year-old Singaporeans  two men and a woman  were travelling outside the South Icelandic village of Vik when the driver lost control of the car, causing it to roll over several times before landing on the side of the road.

While the cause of the accident remains unclear, the report said that the vehicle appeared to be travelling at significant speed. According to the South Iceland police, all three were wearing seat belts at the time.

The driver suffered critical injuries and had to be airlifted by an Icelandic Coast Guard rescue helicopter to the National University Hospital in the countrys capital of Reykjavik, where he was pronounced dead.

The two other Singaporeans, who were not critically injured, were taken to the hospital via ambulance.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore has rendered consular assistance to the Singaporeans involved in the accident and their families.

Iceland Magazine said the incident was the fourth fatal road accident in South Iceland this year. All four have involved foreign nationals, three foreign travellers and one foreign national who lived in Iceland, it added.

Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to the South Iceland police for comment.

In January, a family of four Singaporeans were killed in a multi-vehicle road accident in Port Dickson, Malaysia.



In December alone, at least seven Singaporeans were killed in fatal traffic accidents overseas. On 22 December, a family was on the way to the Grand Canyon in Arizona when their sedan collided with a mini-van. Three out of the four family members in the vehicle were killed.

Related stories:

Singaporean family of four killed in Port Dickson crash

Car crash along Arizona highway kills three Singaporeans
Tens of thousands of air passengers were stranded Tuesday as aviation giants Lufthansa and Air France were hit by strikes that crippled traffic at several major European airports. Germany's biggest carrier Lufthansa was forced to cancel 800 out of 1,600 scheduled flights, including 58 long-haul flights, as German public sector workers including ground crew and airport firefighters walked out between 5:00 am and 6:00 pm (0300 and 1600 GMT). Tuesday's "warning strike" hit Germany's biggest airport Frankfurt as well as other regional hubs such as Munich, Cologne and Bremen. Half of the flights at Munich were delayed or cancelled according to the union Verdi, reported national news agency DPA. Beyond airports, local transport, kindergartens, rubbish collection and hospitals were also affected as civil servants walked out to demand a 6.0-percent pay raise for the 2.3 million people working for Germany's federal, state and local governments. Sybille Metzler, who was due to travel to Amsterdam for a meeting, turned up at Frankfurt airport despite warnings from the operator that her flight had been cancelled. "I know, but I wanted to see if I can still get there, because it won't work with the train," the 41-year-old management accountant told AFP. In an unrelated industrial action in France, air traffic was also severely disrupted as the country's biggest airline Air France was forced to cancel one in four flights in the sixth round of strikes launched by its employees since February. The group said the strikes between February 22 and April 11 are estimated to cost 170 million euros ($210 million). But several Air France unions have called four further days of industrial action in April as they seek 6.0 percent of pay raise.
The arrest of a former FARC negotiator on US drug charges has brought Colombia's landmark peace deal to its "most critical point," the former rebel group warned on Tuesday. Jesus Santrich, a senior member of rebel-group-turned-political-party who had been slated to take a seat in Colombia's Congress in July, was arrested on Monday in Bogota. Prosecutors in New York accuse him of conspiring to ship 10,000 kilograms of cocaine to the United States while serving as a senior member of the FARC leadership. They are pushing for his extradition along with three others who are also allied with the group. The partially-sighted 51-year-old, whose real name is Seusis Pausivas Hernandez, was a member of the FARC's peace negotiating team in Cuba, with the group warning his arrest posed a "genuine threat" to the deal. Government peace commissioner Rodrigo Rivera also said the agreement was facing its "most grave, most serious and most delicate" challenge. US prosecutors allege that between June 2017 and April 2018, the four worked together to produce and distribute approximately 10,000 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to the States and elsewhere. "These defendants conspired to ship thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to the streets of the US," said Manhattan attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in a statement, which identified the other three as Marlon Marin, 39, Armando Gomez, 70, and Fabio Younes Arboleda, 72. "They are now under arrest and face significant criminal charges." All four are facing one count of conspiring to import cocaine, and two counts of attempting to import it into the US. If convicted, they could face life behind bars. - 'Twisted US justice' - Santrich's arrest was swiftly denounced by the FARC, with a spokesman warning it could deal a damaging blow to the 2016 peace deal. "With the capture of our comrade Jesus Santrich, the peace process is now at its most critical point, faced by a genuine threat," C said in a statement. The group accused Colombia's prosecutors of colluding with a plan "orchestrated by the US government" describing it as yet another display of "twisted US justice." But Marquez also called for calm, urging supporters "not to be provoked." The arrest was also denounced by the ELN, Colombia's last active rebel group, which said the move was "a slap in the face for the agreements made with FARC." Although the FARC's leaders have ruled out any return to the conflict, there are fears that many former rebels could take up arms again. - Pivotal situation - Speaking to AFP, Colombian Senator Ivan Cepada, who acted as a consultant for the Cuba talks, agreed the situation was on a knife-edge. "A false accusation could be very serious, even devastating and a threat to the peace process with FARC, but if it is true, it will be a lesson," he said. "There is absolutely no chance that the victims or the state will put up with being mocked if this really is a case of drug trafficking." Under the peace accord, repentant FARC fighters were required to confess their wartime crimes and pay reparations to victims to avoid jail. But they could still be arrested for any crimes they committed after the deal. Despite the November 2016 peace agreement signed between the FARC and Santos's government, which ended half a century of bloodshed, the conflict still drags on parts of the country, financed by drug money. Since then, the FARC has disarmed and transformed itself into a political party, swapping its crossed-rifles emblem for a red rose. Ten of its members, including Santrich, were given seats in Congress. US President Donald Trump was to have visited Colombia over the weekend, but canceled his maiden trip to Latin America Tuesday to oversee the US response to an alleged gas attack in Syria. burs-hmw/ia
A set of books that run counter to the dominant national narrative on Operation Coldstore. (Left to right): The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew, The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore  Commemorating 50 Years, Comet in Our Sky  a collection of essays on secretary-general of Barisan Sosialis Lim Chin Siong, and Living In A Time of Deception by ex-Coldstore detainee Poh Soo Kai

The recent media spotlight on Operation Coldstore has shown that one of the darkest chapters in Singapores history remains a sensitive topic to broach more than 55 years after it took place.

Coldstore, carried out by the police and Special Branch officers in the wee hours of 2 February 1963, was at the centre of a six-hour long exchange between Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam and historian Thum Ping Tjin at the hearing of the Select Committee of Deliberate Online Falsehoods in Parliament House on 29 March.

Central to the sometimes terse exchange was Thums assertion that Coldstore, which saw the arrests of more than 100 people including leaders of opposition party Barisan Sosialis, was motivated by political considerations rather than a justifiable security operation to thwart a conspiracy by the communists to seize power in Singapore.

Thum said in his written submission to the committee, Beginning with Operation Coldstore in 1963, politicians have told Singaporeans that people were being detained without trial on national security grounds due to involvement with radical communist conspiracies to subvert the state. Declassified documents have proven this to be a lie.

But Shanmugam slammed Thum for his work into Coldstore at the hearing, pointing out for instance that his research ignored critical circumstances leading to the arrests and accounts given by leaders of Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), such as then Secretary-General Chin Peng.

You ignore and suppress what is inconvenientIm suggesting to you, based on what you have said to us, what we have seen is not scholarship, but sophistry, said Shanmugam.

The exchange and the discussions that followed underscored Coldstore as Singapores most historically sensitive event. It was just one of many occasions over the years that government leaders have sought to debunk the revisionist version of Coldstore. Any accounts that run counter to the dominant national narrative  specifically by those deemed as revisionist historians  could undermine the standing of the leaders behind the decision to execute Coldstore and call into question the political legitimacy of the Peoples Action Party (PAP) government back then.

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In late 2014, there was a flurry of statements from top government leaders and officials who spoke at length about the communist threat, and related public education activities were also held.

At the launch of the reprint of the Battle for Merger book  a compilation of talks delivered by Singapores first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in late 1961  Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean spoke about the critical steps taken by the then authorities to crush the communist movement. Teo said, The wrong decision, and it would have gone the other way and Singapore would have turned out very differently. An accompanying exhibition on the same topic was held at the National Library.

After attending the exhibition, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a post on his Facebook page, Their first person (CPM leaders) accounts, like the British documents (UK government archives), confirm the extent of the Communist united front in Singapore, and leave no doubt that the Barisan was formed at the instigation of the CPM, and that Lim Chin Siong was a Communist cadre.

Give greater access to Coldstore secret files

The historians, however, are still divided on many key issues surrounding Coldstore, particularly on the arrests of senior leaders of Barisan Sosialis, a party formed by a breakaway faction of the PAP. Was the security sweep partly a calculated move to deny the Barisan Sosialis a chance to secure power through the ballot box in 1963? Were Lim Chin Siong, secretary-general of Barisan Sosialis and co-founder of the PAP, and his party members avowed communists who were conspiring as part of the Communist united front to overthrow the government through an armed struggle if necessary? Was the CPM already a spent force years before Coldstore or did it have considerable sway on Singapore politics and trade unions even after it was defeated during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960)?

Given that Coldstore will continue to be a subject of intense debate and speculation in the years to come, there should be new and bold approaches to shed further insight into the event so that Singaporeans can make an informed choice on which competing versions of history to believe in.

The most important step that should be undertaken is for the government to open the files on the event archived in the Internal Security Department. Currently, only a few academics have gained access to the files including Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, who has written several articles published in The Straits Times and other media outlets to reject Thums findings.

One argument against allowing greater access to the files is that it would lead to cherrypicking of evidence and biased interpretation by some historians to reinforce a prior narrative on Coldstore. Others, however, brush aside such concerns, saying that transparency in the field of historical research is par for the course.

Thum said in a post on Facebook, As a historian, I would be happy to modify my arguments based upon the government archives. Its unwillingness to do so weakens its own case. Please declassify the archives and let us know the truth once and for all. I would be delighted by this even if it proved me wrong. The truth is what matters.

Another area that can help facilitate wider discussion is for the relevant authorities overseeing the creative fields, such as the Info-communications Media Authority of Singapore and the National Arts Council (NAC), to loosen the regulations that are curbing works perceived to be inimical to the established narrative.

Filmmaker Tan Pin Pins To Singapore With Love film, about Singapores political exiles including those who had escaped from the Coldstore dragnet, was not given any film rating by then Media Development Authority when it was released in 2013. Rejecting Tans appeal for classification, the Film Appeal Committee said the film would pose a serious risk to Singapores national security by condoning the use of violence and subversion as a means to achieve political ends in Singapore.

Nonetheless, the authorities have adopted a more accommodating approach towards revisionist books that are focused primarily or partly on Coldstore. For example, books like The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore  Commemorating 50 Years, which compiles the writings of academics and former Coldstore detainees, Living In A Time of Deception by Coldstore detainee Poh Soo Kai, and the award-winning The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by comic artist Sonny Liew, probably would have been banned during the Lee Kuan Yew era, but are available for sale in the bookshops.

This is a step in the right direction and authors who are looking to mine Coldstore for their future works should be allowed to have unfettered space to release them so long as they do not breach the relevant laws.

Singapores history Secondary Two textbook

One acceptable version of history?

In the area of secondary school education, students should be exposed to the works of historians on Coldstore beyond what is described in the approved history textbook. Being able to read widely on the different historical perspectives is a step towards the broader goal by the education ministry to encourage students to develop critical thinking skills.

There should be open and rigorous debate in the classroom on sensitive topics, be it on Coldstore, the move towards merger with Malaya, and Operation Spectrum, otherwise known as the 1987 Marxist Conspiracy, which saw the arrest of 22 people for allegedly being involved in subversive activities.

In the secondary two history textbook, there were mentions on Coldstore and several of the detainees including Lim and his fellow Barisan Sosialis leader Fong Swee Suan. Lim was arrested during an anti-communist raid and was detained for his suspected links with the CPM, according to the textbook. A separate section described those who were detained during Coldstore were believed to be under communist influence and that they were accused of trying to sabotage the formation of Malaysia and planning to launch an uprising in Singapore.

Shortly after the NAC withdrew its grant for Charlie Chan, which drew inspiration partly from Coldstore, a teacher spoke about the saga during a talk organised by Liews publisher Epigram Books in 2015. He said that the NAC was aware that while its action would create a Barbara Streisand effect and boost sales of the book, its broader intention was to signal to educators that a line had been drawn on what was the acceptable version of history.

Rival proponents of the history of Coldstore should be able to hold public debates in places such as schools, institutes of higher learning and libraries without having to navigate through red tape or fear of repercussion.

The historians whose research into the event converged with the governments account should go beyond publishing their views in the mainstream media and academic journals and challenge their revisionist peers such as Thum and Hong Lysa in front of an audience, with both sides subject to scrutiny from members of the academia and the public. The two sides should be wary of taking intransigent positions on Coldstore when new evidence is available, and bear this advice from Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan who said, We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.

Finally, the validity of Coldstore research should not be conditioned upon the imprimatur of the present-day authorities. They must step aside from sanctifying what ought to be the truthful version of history and leave it to the historians to conduct research and publish works that are subject to systematic reviews by their peers in Singapore and overseas. The first-hand accounts of the key players behind Coldstore and the detainees  who are either dead, exiled or living their twilight years in Singapore and elsewhere  should assume primacy over the views of the authorities for the purpose of research.

Singapores modern history is not a simple, linear progression of the dominant narrative. It requires nuanced interpretations at times of crucial junctions such as Coldstore based on dispassionate analysis of a myriad of sources. To let a single narrative set the course of historical research and mainstream education is to eviscerate a discourse on an event central to understanding the countrys tumultuous path towards nationhood.

Related stories

COMMENT: Truths, half-truths and the Singapore story

K Shanmugam: Serious allegations about Lee Kuan Yew by Thum Ping Tjin on Operation Coldstore

Shanmugam, historian Thum Ping Tjin spar over communist activities in 1950s-1960s
NUS campus at Kent Ridge Crescent (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

Following the fatal fall of a foreign student from a residential hall block, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has taken measures to ensure that its dormitory doors do not automatically lock when they close.

This was heard during a coroners inquiry on Tuesday (10 April) into the death of 18-year-old foreign student Jung Haelin, who had fallen from the seventh floor of NUS Sheares Hall on 28 October last year while trying to climb into her dormitory room after unintentionally locking herself out.

Following a review of the incident, NUS set up a review to help prevent such falls from happening in the future. Residential hall doors now require students to tap their cards on a card reader to both lock and open them  as opposed to the previous system in which the doors locked automatically.

The university has also communicated to students what they should do if they are locked out of their rooms, which includes seeking help from Resident Fellows on duty.

Jung, a South Korean who was a first-year student at NUS, had left her matriculation card inside her room while heading to discard some rubbish. The card was needed to unlock the rooms door.

Police investigating officer Muhamad Arfiezan Abbass told the coroners court that Jung had attempted to re-enter her locked room by climbing out of a window from the pantry, which was next to her room.

CCTV footage from the corridor of Sheares Hall showed Jung leaving her room at about 11.15am, then walking back to it and discovering that the door was locked. She is then seen knocking on the doors of neighbouring units but did not receive any response.

She was then seen walking in and out of the pantry twice. She then entered the pantry for a third time and did not re-emerge.

In CCTV footage showing the exterior of the Sheares Hall block, Jung is falling to the ground feet first at 11.18am. About six minutes later, a passerby walks past her but did not attend to her.

At 11.27am, another student Jung, who was breathing heavily and foaming at the mouth. Soon after, another student alerted the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to the incident.

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SCDF personnel performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on Jung, who went into cardiac arrest while she was in the ambulance heading to the National University Hospital (NUH). Attempts to resuscitate Jung continued when she arrived but she died without regaining consciousness.

The police did not find any suicide notes in her room, or any incriminating content in her phone or laptop. An autopsy report said Jung had suffered multiple injuries consistent with a fall from height.

According to testimonies of residents at Sheares Hall, students locked out of their rooms usually sought help from the hall masters or fellow residents. Some were also known to climb from a neighbouring ledge to enter their rooms by a window if they were locked out.

Representatives from the South Korean embassy were also present at the hearing. Jungs parents were not in attendance.

State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam will deliver her verdict on 2 May.

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Malfunctioning plug led to teenagers fatal electrocution in shower

1 Singaporean killed, 2 injured in Iceland car crash: reports
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) at College des Bernardins in Paris, France, April 9, 2018. Picture taken April 9, 2018. Ludovic Marin/Pool via Reuters -

By John Irish and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer.

Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back arms support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are leading the coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to ease the crisis.

Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a YouGov poll found. Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.

"Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, France has adopted a very specific process whereby all sales of military equipment are analysed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations," Macron said at a news conference alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

France is the world's third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers.

Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defence and economy ministries.

Details of licences are not public and, once approved, are rarely reviewed.

Stressing concerns over the humanitarian situation, Macron said he would host a conference in the coming months to see what more could be done, although he backed the Saudi-led coalition's actions in Yemen.

"France's position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and strong humanitarian demands on civilian populations," Macron said.

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A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed in France, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said his country was working to modernise its rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties, but said that in "military operations throughout history, whatever the country, there were mistakes."

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Michel Rose and Mark Potter)
Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife.
HONG KONG, April 10 (Reuters) - Chinese sportswear retailer Pou Sheng International (Holdings) Ltd said its parent's plan to take the company private had been cancelled as more than 10 percent of shareholders had voted against the proposal.

Its parent firm, Taiwan's Pou Chen Corp had proposed taking Pou Sheng private in a deal valuing it at $1.4 billion.

Shares in Pou Sheng fell nearly 36 percent in early Tuesday trade on the news.

As part of the deal, group firm Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd had agreed to sell its 62 percent stake in Pou Sheng and to distribute a special dividend to its shareholders on completion of the deal.

There would now be no special dividend, Yue Yuen said in a separate statement, sending its shares sliding 11 percent.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has asked judges to rule whether she can open a probe into the mass deportations of the Rohingya people from Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands of the stateless Muslim minority have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in recent months to escape a bloody military crackdown. The violence has left a trail of torched villages in its wake, amid allegations of murder and rape at the hands of troops and vigilantes. In an unprecedented move late Monday, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda contended that "consistent and credible reports ... indicate that since August 2017 more than 670,000 Rohingya, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh." She asked judges to rule "whether the court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation". Opening a preliminary probe into the Rohingya's plight is legally complicated for the tribunal as Myanmar is not a member of the ICC. Bangladesh is, however. "This is not an abstract question, but a concrete one," Bensouda said in her filing to judges late Monday. Set up in 2002 in The Hague, the ICC is the world's only permanent war crimes court and acts to prosecute the worst abuses including genocide in places where national tribunals are unwilling or unable to act. Bensouda argued her office did have authority to investigate the situation, saying such a move "would be consistent with the legal framework" of the Rome Statute, which underpins the court's work as well as "well-established principles of criminal jurisdiction". She likened deportation to "a cross-border shooting", arguing the crime "is not completed until the bullet (fired in one state) strikes and kills the victim (standing in another state)". Bensouda asked the tribunal to set up a special chamber to examine and rule on her request, urging that it be dealt with in an "expeditious" manner. The Myanmar army in the mainly Buddhist nation has denied any allegations, saying its campaign has been a legitimate response to Rohingya militant attacks on August 25 last year that killed about a dozen border guard police. Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal in November but not one refugee has returned so far.
aA Japanese man has been freed after being lured to Manila and kidnapped as part of a complex plot organised by a business partner he had fallen out with, the Philippines' police chief said Tuesday. Philippine police rescued the 32-year-old victim on April 5 and arrested two Filipinos and a Japanese fugitive who had been holding him in a house outside the capital, national police chief Director-General Ronaldo Dela Rosa said. The unnamed victim, a Tokyo resident, arrived in the Philippines in March with a Japanese business partner, senior police official Glenn Dumlao told reporters. "During the investigation we conducted, we found he was tricked by his friend. They were business partners and allegedly, they had a rift in their business," he said, without elaborating on the men's ties. Shortly after arrival in Manila the business partner returned to Japan and the victim was met at his hotel by two Filipinos, who asked him to come with them. The victim was initially reluctant, but agreed to accompany the men after being instructed to do so by the business partner. The two Filipinos, along with a Japanese national took the victim to a house and held him while his family in Japan was contacted. The Japanese embassy in Manila, acting on the request of the kidnapped man's family, sought the help of the local police who rescued the victim and arrested the suspects, Dela Rosa said. The Japanese suspect, who had his passport cancelled in 2015, is also facing fraud charges in Japan, police said. Dumlao said he could not elaborate on any ransom demands as the negotiations were carried out with victim's family in Japan and it was Tokyo's policy not to divulge such details. The Japanese police were still looking for the victim's business partner, he added. The Japanese embassy in Manila declined to comment on the matter. Kidnapping for ransom gangs are known to be active in the Philippines, sometimes targeting foreigners with the assistance of their countrymen.
Mining.SG shifted to a new 14,000sqf space early March as part of its expansion plans and now has the capacity to hold 1,300 rigs. From left to right: Chief technology officer Dexter Ng, business partner Gerard Della Porta and chief marketing officer Syahrein Ritzwan. (PHOTO: Wong Casandra/Yahoo News Singapore)

With the digital currency fever taking Singapore by storm, companies that host computing mining rigs have been popping up over the island, some even as recent as last month.

Mining rigs  fashioned out of various gaming computing components  solve complex mathematical problems to obtain cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin.

To run these, however, require space, and more importantly, immense electricity supply.

As such, many rig owners or miners have turned to renting industrial spaces shared privately between a few friends, or relying on hosting companies that manage mining farms.

Hosting companies charge a monthly rental fee  typically paid in six-month to one-year contracts  for storing, running their customers rigs along with often around-the-clock maintenance and support.

Mining.SG chief technology officer Dexter Ng quipped, Now the (Singapore) market has a lot of people who own rigs. At the same time, a lot of customers complain that there are no place to put them at home.

The company has sold over 1,000 ready-made mining rigs, ranging from $3,499 to $9,349 each, since it started in August last year. Last month, it branched out to providing hosting services for such rigs.

A cryptocurrency mining rig. (PHOTO: Wong Casandra/Yahoo News Singapore)

Ng, an IT graduate from Republic Polytechnic, himself started dabbling in rig-making as a hobby in January last year. The 30-year-old then kept six rigs running in the five-room HDB flat where he lives with his parents and two sisters. A seventh rig that he set up even tripped the entire house.

Due to the huge electricity consumption, the heat generated by the rigs at home was unbearable.

The house was hot, just like a kitchen when someones cooking. My parents were complaining about the heat, said Ng. His electricity bill also tripled to $900, up from the usual $300 per month.

With three friends, he later rented a space for $2,000 a month to run 12 to 15 rigs.

His own experience, along with the increasing demand in the market, spurred him and his business partners late last year to take a serious look at providing customers with rig hosting options.

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Having shifted into a new 14,000sqf space at Tuas Bay Drive early March as part of its expansion plans, Mining.SG now has the capacity to hold 1,300 rigs, up from 40 at its headquarters. Hosting rates vary from $199 to $219 per month, depending on the rigs configuration  the more powerful the computing specifications, the more energy is required to run the rig. To date, they have hosted 150 rigs.

Selling and hosting thousands of rigs

Mining Rig Club CEO and co-founder Leon Lim was inspired by his own negative experience with rig-buying and cryptocurrency mining to enter the business.

The 29-year-old self-professed geek  and Business Administration graduate from National University of Singapore  had blown about $40,000 on six rigs that were of shoddy computing quality; only one remained functional less than a year on.

In November last year, Lim decided to start up Mining Rig Club. The firm, like Mining.SG, sells ready-made rigs  restricted to one model per batch  and hosts them.

We did not want to come to a point where friends and family members say mining in Singapore is a scam. We also conduct free masterclasses every other week to educate people on what to look out for in building rigs, said Lim. Although we dont make money from it, at least people can sleep better at night.

Six months and three batches on, the company has sold thousands of rigs and has a total capacity to host 12,000 of them across locations in Singapore, Kazakhstan  a war bunker in the middle of nowhere  and Georgia. The company is currently in talks to work with partners in Norway and Ontario, Canada.

Its space at Tai Seng Drive alone has a capacity of 4,000 rigs, where over one eighth of the slots have been taken up while 6,000 rigs are hosted in Kazakhstan and Georgia. Monthly rates across the different countries range from $160 to $249 per rig, with a rigs life span depending on the environment.

(Mining Rig Clubs co-founder Leon Lim (left) and marketing executive Joshua Zhou. PHOTO: Dhany Osman/Yahoo News Singapore)

You can save $20 to $50 a month hosting the rig in a not-so-good environment, but it lasts one to three years instead of it lasting three to five years (in a better environment), Lim added.

Based on Lims own estimates, it takes a customer 10 to 18 months to break even for a $7,200 rig.

About half of Lims clients are based in Singapore. For Ng, about 30 per cent of his clients hail from countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Dubai, while the rest are based in Singapore.

The bulk of their customers mine Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, and they run the gamut from tertiary students, working adults to semi-retired businessmen.

Our youngest customer was a 13-year-old who came with his father, and brought the rig home, said Ng.

Another interviewee, an owner of a rig mining business who only wanted to be known as En, observed that smaller companies  those that host less than 100 rigs  started appearing around June last year. Chinese companies began coming to Singapore after stricter regulations were imposed on cryptocurrency trading in China in November, the 29-year-old said.

The regulatory approach to rig mining

The business of cryptocurrencies is still shrouded in regulatory fog around the world with many authorities urging investors to be cautious.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore itself had in December advised the public to act with extreme caution and understand the significant risks they take on if they choose to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Nonetheless, the local authorities have allowed both foreign and local rig miners to operate here.

Rows of cryptocurrency mining rigs. (PHOTO: Wong Casandra/Yahoo News Singapore)

According to En, apart from Mining.SG and Mining Rig Club, there are at least three big companies with rig farms hosting more than 400 rigs each in Singapore. Two of them are from China while the other one is from Indonesia  these bigger companies typically keep their locations a secret and have a showroom for clients to visit.

Singapore is one of the more crypto-friendly countries; the general sentiment is that Singapore (authorities) are waiting it out rather than making the first move, he said. While it is expensive to mine in Singapore due to rental and power cost, the stability of our internet and security are large pull factors.

According to a Bloomberg report in January, at least five shops in Sim Lim Square have also jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon to sell rigs.

There are no statistics available on companies that hosts rigs in Singapore as they are currently broadly classified under Singapore Standard Industrial Classification, or SSIC, as data centres. Similarly, businesses that sell ready-made rigs are broadly classified under wholesale or retail sale of computer hardware and peripheral equipment (except cybersecurity related hardware and peripheral equipment).

We are presently monitoring such activities (among others) and will incorporate the activities into the SSIC where appropriate, said the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Both Ng and Lim remain positive about the ubiquitousness of cryptocurrency in Singapore over the next few years.

(Cryptocurrency trading in) Singapore is starting to pick up. One customer said he will pay for their childrens overseas university education with 10 rigs, said Lim. Another 71-year-old male customer said to us, If I die, can I pass the wallet to the grandson?

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Rights groups on Monday urged President Emmanuel Macron to pressure visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the war in Yemen, warning that Riyadh may be using French weapons in the conflict. "France is potentially an accomplice to serious violations of humanitarian laws by selling weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, given what we know is taking place in Yemen," said Aurelie Perrier, coordinator for Yemen and Saudi Arabia at Amnesty International France. "We want to ask President Macron to stop arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and to lift the blockade on Yemen," she told AFP at a protest under the Eiffel Tower as Prince Mohammed kicked off his visit to Paris. Two other groups, the Weapons Observatory (Obsarm) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said the sheer volume of French weapons exports to Saudi pointed to the likelihood that they have been deployed in Yemen. The groups said French exports included types of equipment reported to have been used in Yemen, including Leclerc tanks and Caesar howitzers, while "confidential testimony" also pointed to the presence of French arms on the ground. "If these indicators do not constitute proof, they throw serious suspicion on the massive presence and use of French military equipment in Yemen," they said in a statement. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing and blockading Yemen since 2015 in a conflict that has left 10,000 people dead. A combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the Unirws Nations to call it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's office insisted last month that French land weapons sold to Riyadh were "defensive" and being used in Saudi Arabia to deter cross-border attacks. He added that "surveillance measures" to track the use of French weapons had been "strongly reinforced in recent months". Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Monday there was a "clear interest for French industry" in continuing arms exports to Riyadh. "It's an important part of our diplomacy," he said, while adding: "That doesn't mean turning a blind eye." - Human rights concerns - As the 32-year-old crown prince continues an international charm offensive that has included stops in the United States, Britain and Egypt, rights groups urged Macron to pressure his guest on human rights violations. "Saudi Arabia remains one of the worst countries in the world in terms of its human rights record," Perrier said. The prince has used his tour to project his reforms -- including the historic lifting of a ban on women driving, the revival of cinemas and tolerance for mixed-gender concerts -- as part of his pledge to return the kingdom to moderate Islam. Prince Mohammed "considers himself a revolutionary, but if so, then he has to end the institutionalised oppression that has continued to build even after he came to power," said Amnesty France director Sylvie Brigot-Vilain. "Especially regarding voices that oppose the regime, who increasingly find themselves behind bars."
Ofo to launch trial in Singapore for users to ride and mine cryptocurrency

Chinas bike-sharing start-up Ofo is venturing into blockchain technology with plans to launch a rewards system in Singapore where users will receive cryptocurrency tokens for riding.

Users can mine Global Sharing Economy (GSE) tokens, issued by GSELab, when they ride Ofos bicycles. For now, GSE tokens cannot be traded or mined by other means. The supply is limited to 10 billion and GSE isnt listed on any cryptocurrency exchange, according to Etherscan, an analysis website.



The goal of launching this campaign is to encourage more users to adopt environmentally friendly way to get around, said an Ofo spokeswoman. Ofo will keep focusing on innovative technologies including blockchain in future.



Ofo has chosen to try out the reward system in Singapore because the environment for cryptocurrency is more friendly compared with China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Singapore has so far adopted a hands-off approach toward cryptocurrency, with the government saying it was assessing developments in the industry.

Take stock, but bitcoin has a future, says crypto exchange founder

As of now, there is no strong case to ban cryptocurrency trading here, Singapore's deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in February in a written answer to questions from members of Parliament.

For now, the nature and scale of cryptocurrency trading in Singapore does not pose risks to the safety and integrity of our financial system, he said.

Ofo is holding the cryptocurrency trial in Singapore as it faces a potential escalation in competition with its main rival, Mobike, which was acquired by Meituan-Dianping, Chinas biggest provider of on-demand services.

Can start-ups remain independent among Chinas tech giants?



Ofo founder and CEO, Dai Wei, has personally invested into Tron, a cryptocurrency trading platform, according to Trons official website. But launching the Ride and Mine campaign is the first official attempt Ofo made in the blockchain area.

Story continues

Its a signal to the market that Ofo wants to tap into the cryptocurrency world, said Katt Gu, managing director of iBlock, the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaigns incubator for blockchain-related innovations.

GSE needs to go to the exchange market someday, otherwise there will be no exchange value of the GSE tokens, said Gu.

This article Ofo to launch trial in Singapore for users to ride and mine cryptocurrency first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday lawmakers must "fast-track" the impeachment of the nation's top judge, further stacking the odds against her staying in office. Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is one of several high-profile critics who have found themselves in legal trouble after battling with Duterte over his deadly anti-drug crackdown. "I'm putting you (Sereno) on notice that I am now your enemy and you have to be out of the Supreme Court," Duterte told reporters before flying to China for an economic forum. "I held my temper before because she's a woman. This time I'm asking the congressmen and the Speaker: 'Do it now. Cut out the drama, or else I will do it for you'," he added. A committee in the legislature's lower chamber the House of Representatives last month found "probable cause" to impeach Sereno, in a move which critics allege is part of wider efforts by Duterte to destroy foes and usher in one-man rule. If lawmakers in the full House support the finding, Sereno would face a US-style impeachment trial in the Senate or upper house. Congress is currently in recess and is due to reconvene May 14. The Supreme Court is set Tuesday to hear a separate petition to unseat Sereno from the country's highest tribunal. She has been accused of failing to pay about two million pesos ($40,000) in taxes as well as falsifying and tampering with court resolutions. She is also alleged to have spent excessively on "opulent" hotels and a luxury official vehicle, as well as flying business or first class. Until Monday Duterte had repeatedly denied having anything to do with the moves to sack Sereno. He called on House Speaker and key ally Pantaleon Alvarez to "kindly fast-track the impeachment" of Sereno. "If it calls for your forced removal I will do it," Duterte said, referring to Sereno. Duterte and Sereno first clashed in 2016 when she criticised his order that judges whom he linked to the illegal drugs trade turn themselves in as part of his crackdown. Police say they have killed roughly 4,000 drug suspects who fought back during arrest since Duterte launched the war nearly two years ago. Rights groups allege the actual number is three times higher. Other Duterte critics have also been ousted, punished or threatened including detained Senator Leila de Lima, the Commission on Human Rights, and an anti-corruption prosecutor who investigated allegations Duterte has hidden wealth.
Nepal-India pipeline likely to be completed in 2020

The construction of a Nepal-India cross-border oil pipeline is expected to be completed by June 2020 with both countries agreeing to rush the project.
A man stands on rubble of damaged buildings in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 30, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

MOSCOW/BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Rebel fighters began leaving the devastated Syrian city of Douma on Sunday in the first phase of a Russian-sponsored deal to evacuate thousands of rebels from the besieged enclave, state media said.

A bus carrying dozens of fighters and their families left the city en route to opposition-held areas in northern Syria in an arrangement expected to take several days.

Almost simultaneously, a first batch of freed hostages held by the rebels in Douma arrived at an army-controlled crossing, state television showed. They received a euphoric welcome from hundreds of relatives waiting for them before being whisked away to a reception centre.

Both developments were part of a Russian-sponsored deal sealed on Sunday that grants safe passage to thousands of rebels from their biggest remaining bastion near Damascus in return for rebel group Jaish al-Islam releasing hundreds of hostages and prisoners of war.

The agreement will be enforced by Russian military police, who will enter the city, opposition negotiators said.

The deal brought President Bashar al-Assad one of his biggest victories over the rebels since driving them from Aleppo in December 2016, though they remain entrenched in significant areas of northwestern and southwestern Syria.

It follows a seven-week government offensive to capture the towns and villages on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, in which more than 1,600 people have been killed, according rescuers and a monitoring group.

Medical aid groups reported that dozens of people were killed by poison gas in Douma on Saturday in an attack the rebels say was carried out by Damascus. The government has denied carrying out any such attack.

Under the agreement, Jaish al-Islam fighters will evacuate Douma and move to the northern city of Jarablus, near the border with Turkey, within 48 hours, state media quoted an official source as saying.

Russian news agency RIA, citing a security source, said Jaish al-Islam rebels will leave Douma in two batches in the coming hours.

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Commercial crossing points into the besieged city are to be opened under the supervision of Russian military police, who will also enter the city, opposition negotiators said.

Russian military police have played a similar role in some Syrian towns and villages but this would be first such deal in a city the size of Douma.

Opposition negotiators said the deal would allow those fighters from Jaish al-Islam who do not wish to leave to make peace with the Syrian authorities without being pursued by the security forces.

The deal includes a six-month reprieve for those wanted for military conscription, negotiators told Reuters.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme in Beirut,Polina Ivanova in Moscow, Suleiman al Khalidi in Amman and Kinda Makieh in Damascus; Editing by Tom Perry, Larry King and Adrian Croft)
Saudi Arabia's crown prince was set for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday at the end of a three-day trip that has seen the two men discuss war and crisis in the Middle East as well as sources of friction between themselves. Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old heir to the Saudi throne, will wrap up the visit with a gala dinner at the Elysee Palace and formal discussions with Macron on Tuesday evening that are expected to cover the war in Syria. On Monday evening, the Saudi heir held a surprise meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well Moroccan King Mohammed VI, which was revealed in a tweet by Hariri showing the three leaders smiling and dressed casually. "No comment," read the caption. It appeared designed to send a message of reconciliation after Hariri was allegedly pressured to resign by the Saudi royal during a trip to Riyadh last November, causing a crisis which Macron helped defuse. "This period of ambiguity and confusion is now behind us thanks to the efforts from all sides and the personal implication of President Macron," Moueen Merhebi, an MP in Hariri's party, told AFP in Beirut on Tuesday. Macron's role in helping mediate in the Lebanese leadership crisis, which led Hariri to travel to Paris and then rescind his resignation, was seen by analysts as exposing the limits of Prince Mohammed's authority. This sequence -- as well as Macron's planned trip to Iran, Saudi Arabia's arch-regional rival -- is thought to have come up during a first round of talks between Macron and his Saudi visitor on Sunday night. The pair met for nearly three hours Sunday at the Louvre museum, where they visited an exhibition by 19th century painter Eugene Delacroix, creator of the famous "Liberty Leading The People" painting. The painting features a bare-breasted woman holding the French tricolour, an image that would be banned in Saudi Arabia for its nudity and its subversive political message. Delacroix's work was inspired by the 1830 July Revolution that saw protestors overthrow the inept French royal king Charles X. - Music and cinema - But the gallery tour and dinner at the Louvre also underscored one of main themes of the visit so far, namely deepening cultural ties that will see Saudi officials call on French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra. The kingdom also revealed on Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes film festival next month for the first time, a further sign of Prince Mohammed's mission to modernise his country. The two leaders plan to work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said. Talks between the men on Tuesday are also expected to cover the war in Syria, where Macron and US President Donald Trump are threatening military action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad over alleged chemical weapons attacks. The prince's delegation was also attending a forum on Tuesday with French business leaders, which is expected to lead to a host of agreements pledging future economic deals. - Rights abuses - The prince's visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of Saudi Arabia, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology. After Paris, he will head to Madrid, before travelling home ahead of the next Arab League summit meeting, on April 15 in Riyadh. Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners are also mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country. The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the UN to dub it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Three out of four French people believe it is "unacceptable" for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll. burs-ac-adp/kjl/bmm
Ruma Rasah, a restaurant serving halal Indonesian cuisine at Bay Hotel Singapore, has created crispy chicken rendang. (PHOTO: Rumah Rasa/Facebook)

A restaurant in Singapore has come up with crispy chicken rendang amid the culinary storm whipped up last week by judges on cooking show MasterChef UK who dared to suggest the existence of such a dish.

And before you brush off the creation by Rumah Rasa at Bay Hotel Singapore as merely fried chicken doused in rendang sauce, the recipe is more complex than that.

Rumah Rasas dish calls for chicken thigh to first be infused with herbs and spices by marinating it in the restaurants own rendang paste and left overnight. It is then steam-baked before being deep-fried, and cooked in rendang sauce again before serving.

The crispy delight, priced at $10.90 per portion, will be served with nasi lemak telang (blue rice nasi lemak), ikan bilis, belinjau crackers and sambal sauce.

Rumah Rasa, which serves modern Indonesian cuisine, will offer the crispy chicken rendang from 10 April until 30 April. Reservations must be made at the restaurant.

For those who still prefer their rendang in the traditional style, they can order the traditional beef rendang at the restaurant.

Follow Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore on Facebook.



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Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir addresses supporters during his visit to the war-torn Darfur region, in Bilal, Darfur, Sudan September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

(Corrects vice president to prime minister in paragraph 3)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of all political prisoners held in the country, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The decision came in response to calls from political parties and groups that have participated in the country's ongoing national dialogue to grant detainees the opportunity to engage in the political process, SUNA reported.

Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989 when he came to power in an Islamist and military-backed coup, has said he will not stand in elections expected in 2020 and appointed a prime minister last year for the first time.

"The release of political prisoners comes to strengthen the spirit of reconciliation, national harmony and peace created by the national dialogue" and as part of "steps to prepare a permanent constitution for the country," SUNA said.

Since 2015 Bashir has held ongoing meetings with opposition and rebel groups under the banner of a national dialogue, in part to end longstanding conflicts in warring regions such as Darfur.

Many groups have boycotted the initiative however, demanding that Bashir first repeal what they describe as repressive security and press laws and free political detainees.

SUNA did not specify how many political prisoners the decision would affect or the names of any of those set to be released.

Last month Bashir ordered about 80 political detainees released, weeks after they were arrested amid countrywide protests over soaring food prices and ongoing austerity measures.

Opposition groups have said about 50 political detainees remain in prison, including prominent politician Mohamed Mokhtar al-Khatib, the leader of Sudan's communist party.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Bermaz Auto Philippines, the exclusive distributor of Mazda vehicles and parts in the country, formally welcomes its 20th Mazda dealership in the Philippines to provide full sales, service and spare parts facilities.

Managed by MGM Motors Mindanao, Inc., Mazda Butuan is located along KM3 of the National Highway in Baan, Butuan City. It is the third Mazda dealership under the Autohub Group to serve the island of Mindanao after its branches in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Davao. The only authorized Mazda dealership in Agusan del Norte has a floor area of 1,230 square meters and can showcase up to six brand-new cars in its expansive showroom.

Mazda Butuan is also equipped with 10 work bays giving the dealership the capability to provide Preventive Maintenance Service (PMS), general job repairs as well as body and paint services. It is also equipped with Quick Service Stations which are designed to provide 30-minute turnaround times for basic maintenance services. Patrons will also enjoy the dealerships cozy customer lounge as they watch their vehicles undergo servicing.

Mazda Butuan aims to serve the vibrant market of Mindanao, shares BAP president and CEO Steven Tan. Together with the Autohub Group, Mazda remains committed to provide the best products and the highest levels of quality service the people of Mindanao deserve. Over the years, Butuan has been known to be Mazda Country because of the brands active participation in the development and growth of the city. It is an honor for us to be with the people of Butuan once again as we move forward to be one of the main catalysts of growth in the Caraga region.

Willy Tee Ten, president of the Autohub Group, likewise shares his upbeat optimism for the Mazda brand in Mindanao. I am proud to open another Mazda Dealership in the south, says Tee Ten. With the performance of Mazda Davao & Mazda Cagayan de Oro last year, I know we can make Mazda a very popular brand in Mindanao. Thank you Bermaz Auto Philippines for entrusting us another Mazda dealership. Congratulations to

my Mazda Butuan Team for all the hard work. But of course, the real challenge is just about to start. Together, we can do this.

Mazda Butuan is now open to serve Mazda customers as well as accept servicing jobs for Mazda vehicles. The showroom may be reached through mobile number +639985862762, or via email at mazdabutuan@authohubgroup.com.

The post Third Mazda Dealership Opens in Mindanao appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
Todays top tech news, April 10: Vietnam orders Grab to prove it is not a monopoly post-Uber deal

Also, Vietnam activists say Facebooks system could be suppressing dissent, and more

Grab Vietnam ordered to prove it has not become a monopoly after the Uber deal [DealStreetAsia]

Grabs Vietnam operations has been ordered to prove to the countrys antitrust regulators that it has not become a monopoly after it acquired Ubers Southeast Asia assets.

Grab Vietnam submitted a letter to Competition and Consumer Protection Department (CCPD) explaining that Grab and Ubers combined market share in the country is less than 30 per cent, and therefore, it does not have to inform the competition authority before proceeding and completing transactions in Vietnam.

CCPD has rejected this response, though, and saying that adequate evidence has not been provided. It has asked Grab to evidence and evaluate its market share.

Grab Vietnam may also be required to pay Ubers outstanding taxes in the country, which is VND53.3 billion (US $2.33 million), according to CCPD.

Grab Vietnam has rejected that claim, saying that it acquired only Ubers Southeast Asia business, and not its legal entities, and therefore it has no obligation to foot the bill.

Vietnam activists says Facebooks systems may be suppressing dissent [Reuters]

Activists in Vietnam say that Facebooks system, which automatically takes down content if enough people flag it, may be suppressing dissent in the country. They have written a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to highlight this issue.

The Vietnamese government is working with the social media giant to root out fake news and illegal content. It also has a 10,000-strong cyber warfare unit called Force 47 to monitor and eradicate wrong views on the internet.

Also Read: Ex-Facebook execs think social media is destroying society, but is it really?

The letter, which was signed by nearly 50 human rights and independent media groups called Force 47 state-sponsored trolls for using Facebook to spread fake news about the activists and quell opposing voices.

Story continues

Mark Zuckerberg apologises for misrepresenting Facebooks response to sectarian violence in Myanmar [The New York Times]

Last week, Myanmar activists sent a letter toFacebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, criticising him for misrepresenting Facebooks response to the ongoing sectarian violence in Myanmar in an earlier interview in an interview with Vox.

He had claimed that Facebooks executives detected that members on each side of the conflict were using the Facebook Messenger to spread sensational messages, such as warnings of an uprising and a call to arms, and were able to stop them from going through.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responded to these activities via his personal to email to apologise for his flub, and said that the company has boosted its Myanmar-related team, including dozens of Burmese language content reviewers to monitor reports of hate speech. It is also working on tools that will help reduce violence.

SGInnovate invests in Singapore medtech startup NDR Medical Technology [e27]

Singapore medtech startup NDR Medical Technology has raised an undisclosed seed funding from SGInnovate.

Combining artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and computer vision for surgical procedures, NDR has developed a proprietary smart robotic guiding system for surgeries known as Automated Needle Targeting (ANT).

The system helps surgeons visualise the 3D location of the target lesion in the patients body by using AI and image processing. Combined with the surgeons skills and dexterity, the technology helps them achieve greater accuracy for needle alignment and positioning to target lesions

Singapore mobile chat app Consentium raises US$10 million [e27]

Consentium, a mobile chat app that also allows multi-digital currency transfer between users, today announced that it has raised US$10 million in additional funding via ICO, taking its total fundraise from private sales to US$20 million.

Early last month, the Singapore startup secured US$10 million from its private ICO sale.

Consentium allows peer-to-peer (P2P), multi-digital-currency transfers between users. The fintech platform also offers a transactional fee redistribution programme as an incentive to create and cultivate strong in-app communities. Consentium uses a reward system based on creation of quality community groups, comprising both amount of users and on-app reputation of users.



Image Credit: hanoiphotography / 123RF Stock Photo

The post Todays top tech news, April 10: Vietnam orders Grab to prove it is not a monopoly post-Uber deal appeared first on e27.
The White House insisted Tuesday that Donald Trump has the power to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, stoking fears that the president may try to kill an investigation inching ever-closer to the Oval Office. After months of denying Mueller's removal is under consideration, the change in tone came as Trump reacted furiously to an FBI raid of his private lawyer's offices on Monday. Special counsel Mueller was appointed in May to investigate Russian efforts to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor. Over the last year, he has increasingly dug into evidence of alleged money laundering, fraud and obstruction of justice inside Trump's inner circle. Four Trump aides -- including his 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort and former national security advisor Michael Flynn -- have already been indicted or pleaded guilty. Now, Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen -- who holds secrets about many of the president's personal and financial dealings -- is in the crosshairs. "We have been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of the possibility to remove Mueller. "I think that the president has been clear that he thinks that this has gone too far." Trump hunkered down at the White House, canceling a first trip to Latin America that was due to start Friday and stewing on a move that could throw America into a constitutional crisis. At the same time, Trump faced a momentous decision about whether to carry out military strikes in Syria. - 'TOTAL WITCH HUNT' - Trump has pledged to decide by the end of Tuesday how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, blamed on the Syrian regime and its allies. But while much of his national security team debated whether strikes would be effective in deterring future chemical attacks, and how to limit the risk of escalation, Trump met his lawyers Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb to discuss the Cohen raid. His anger showed no signs of abating. "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" the president blasted on Twitter amid news that FBI agents had seized documents pertaining to his dealings with Cohen. "Attorneyclient privilege is dead!" In a phone call with CNN, Cohen admitted the raid was "upsetting to say the least." Asked if he was worried, Cohen said: "I would be lying to you if I told that I am not. Do I need this in my life? No. Do I want to be involved in this? No." On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers urged Trump to allow Mueller to do his work. Democrats wanted to go one step further and pass legislation protecting the Republican former FBI director. "If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don't," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said. "The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue." Trump's fellow Republicans said that would not be necessary, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley stating it would be "suicide" for the president to fire Mueller. The raid on Cohen's offices came amid allegations he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the election to keep a tryst with Trump quiet. After months of silence, Trump last week offered a flat "no" when asked if he knew about the payment. - Plans dashed - Trump's decision to scrap his trip to Colombia and Peru surprised even some White House staff. "The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," Sanders said. Trump had already cut the visit short -- from five days, to three and, finally, to none. The combative US president had been expected in Peru for the Summit of the Americas, where he was likely to face protests and awkward meetings with leaders who have bristled at his repeated portrayal of Latino immigrants as rapists and thugs. Vice President Mike Pence will represent the United States in Lima instead, his aide Jarrod Agen said, adding that he would also meet Venezuelan dissidents. Trump is still expected to travel to his Mar-a-Lago holiday home in Florida on Monday, where a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will go ahead.
The UN Security Council weighed whether to hold a vote Tuesday on a US proposal to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting up a clash with Russia, which could decide to veto the measure, diplomats said. The United States put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action. US Ambassador Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, even though Russia said it contained "some unacceptable elements." Russia put forward its own proposal in January that has been rejected by Western powers who say it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory. "The United States is pushing for a vote tomorrow," said a Security Council diplomat. "The US position was that they were negotiating in good faith, but the world is watching for the council to act." Experts were meeting to discuss the draft resolutions, but no vote was formally requested by late Monday. The US push for a new inquiry came amid heightened tensions over possible US military action in Syria, with Trump saying "major decisions" would be taken within 48 hours. "From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following an emergency council meeting. Trump -- who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base after sarin was used in the town of Khan Sheikhun -- warned after the latest accusations that there would be a "big price to pay." - Grave repercussions - During a stormy council meeting, the Russian ambassador warned that a US military strike against Syria could have "grave repercussions" and stressed that the use of chlorine or sarin had not been confirmed in the attack. Haley urged the council to take action, but warned that the United States was ready to respond, with or without the United Nations. "We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley said. "History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. "Either way, the United States will respond." The Russian envoy said Moscow had told the United States that it would not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk. "Armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions," Nebenzia said. Moscow and Damascus have fiercely denied that chemical weapons were used in Syria. - Bait for the Russians - A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted and no vetoes from the five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Russia has used its veto power 11 times at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally. "The US resolution is pretty obviously a bait for the Russians, who will have no choice but to veto it," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert from the European Council on Foreign Relations. "That will give the US and possibly France an excuse for military action," said Gowan. "All sides know what is going on, and the Russians have actually been predicting US military action over Ghouta for some time. We just have to hope that Moscow will not overreact when the strikes come." Russia killed off a previous UN-led probe in November by vetoing the renewal of its mandate. The United States is proposing to establish the new panel for one year to work with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks.
US and North Korean contacts, in secret talks about the time and place of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Koreas Kim Jong-un, are at odds on at least one critical question.

The North Koreans, in unpublicised meetings with the Americans, are saying they want Trump to see Kim in Pyongyang. The Americans, of course, do not want Trump visiting North Korea, where Kim would be in the role of a head of state receiving the American guest as a supplicant seeking his approval.

Instead, in conversations via the CIA, the Americans are pressing for the talks to be held in the capital of a third country or in the truce village of Panmunjom on the North-South line, 60km north of Seoul. Thats where South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet Kim on April 27, and the Americans see no reason why Kim cannot go to Panmunjom for his summit with Trump, tentatively agreed upon to take place in May.

The Americans see the idea of Trump going to Pyongyang as another attempt on the part of Kim and his team of strategists to create obstructions to any serious attempt at negotiating an end to the Norths nuclear programme. It might seem inconceivable that Trump would go to Pyongyang to meet Kim, but what if North Korea refused to budge?

Would the result be no summit  and North and South Korea both blaming the US for refusing to accommodate North Koreas demands? Or would North Korea, if sincerely interested in a summit, accept other suggestions?

One possibility that has come up lately is Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. That would be an extremely interesting setting since Mongolia has, in recent years, been adopting a carefully contrived position between its huge neighbours to the north and south  Russia and China  and also looking for close ties with other Asian nations, notably Japan, as well as the US and European Union.

The US, if there were no better choice, would accept Panmunjom even though the Joint Security Area evokes memories of a number of nasty confrontations. The worst was in 1976, in which North Korean troops beat to death two young US army officers who were leading a mission to trim a tree that obstructed their line of sight.

Story continues

So far, however, the talks between the Americans and North Koreans on a Trump-Kim summit have been going on with few details publicly announced. All we know for sure is that the North Koreans have told the Americans they are willing to talk about giving up their nuclear programme. That confirmation comes from the White House, not North Korea, which has not publicly committed to denuclearisation, and had said not one word publicly about meeting with the US until Tuesday.

Sources in Washington have let it be known that the Central Intelligence Agency has been having secret meetings with North Koreans at which theyve been talking over possible arrangements for a Trump-Kim summit. At the same time, the State Department has had emissaries talking to members of North Koreas United Nations mission in New York.

The driving force on the American side is Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, whos in line to become secretary of state once the Senate confirms his appointment. Trump named Pompeo as successor to Rex Tillerson, whom he had come to distrust for a relatively soft position, even though Tillerson had said clearly that the era of strategic patience, as enunciated during the presidency of Barack Obama, was over.

Trump presumably will adopt a firm position in whatever he has to say to Kim. At his side will be the new national security adviser, John Bolton, who has come to be regarded as an extremely hawkish hawk, while insisting the US should never stop demanding that Kim agree to nothing short of complete verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation. Pompeo is also a hardliner who, while serving as a member of the US House of Representatives, called for regime change in North Korea as the best way to counter Kims nuclear ambitions.

Neither Trump nor any members of his government are talking about a pre-emptive strike against the Norths nuclear and missile facilities, but they do say sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and the US have to remain in place until the North makes a deal that would mean the end to its nuclear ambitions. The Americans and North Koreans, as any talks are sure to reveal, have very different ideas about denuclearisation  North Korea is not likely to agree to any deal for doing away with the 20 or so warheads that its already got but might promise not to go on producing them.

The North would be sure to demand, however, that the US pull most of its troops out of South Korea and give up its bases. That would be impossible, however, because the US is in the process of completing its new base at Camp Humphreys, southwest of Seoul, for most of its forces.

As of now, some 30,000 people are on the base at Camp Humphreys, including soldiers, civilian employees and their families. Besides training facilities and barracks, the base features a modern shopping centre, schools and other facilities. In addition, theres a 2,500-metre airstrip mainly for transport planes. Osan Air Base, a few kilometres to the east, meanwhile, has a 3,000-metre airstrip from which a full range of warplanes regularly take off on training and surveillance missions.

Considering this enormous investment, it would seem unlikely that the US is preparing to give it up in a grand bargain with the North Koreans or, for that matter, the Chinese. The base, by now Americas largest overseas facility, is there to stay, both for defence against North Korea and deployment of forces elsewhere. Yes, its outside North Korean artillery range but still a target, in theory, for a missile or nuclear attack that will hopefully never happen if North Korea comes to terms with South Korea and the US.

Donald Kirk is the author of three books and numerous articles on Korea

This article US-North Korea talks have many obstacles to overcome  starting with where to meet first appeared on South China Morning Post

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A group of 50 Vietnamese activists and rights organisations have written an open letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg suggesting his company may be colluding with communist authorities to scrub out online dissent. Vietnam ranks among Facebook's top 10 users by numbers and the site is hugely popular among dissidents in a one-party state where independent media is banned and blog sites are routinely removed. The letter to Zuckerberg comes amid deepening controversy at Facebook over privacy and security lapses after the revelation that British firm Cambridge Analytica -- which worked with Donald Trump's campaign -- hijacked data on millions of users. The social media giant has also faced criticism in recent weeks for being slow to crackdown on posts inciting hatred or violence towards Muslims in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. But democracy activists in Vietnam say they face an opposite problem. The Vietnamese letter to Zuckerberg was signed by 50 organisations, activists and bloggers who said they have seen an uptick in "account suspensions and content takedown" since last year. Vietnam's government said in April 2017 that Facebook agreed to remove "bad and malicious" content that violates local laws, including fake news and imposter accounts, but made no explicit mention of anti-regime material. "It would appear that after this high-profile agreement to coordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of account suspension and content takedown has only grown more acute," said the letter published late Monday. "We urge you to reconsider your company's aggressive practices that could silence human rights activists and citizen journalists in Vietnam," it added. The group said that several Facebook posts were censored last week during a high-profile trial of six democracy activists who were handed heavy sentences for on charges of attempting to overthrow the state. Facebook did not deny the allegation, saying in a statement that it has global policy to "remove or restrict access to content" that breaks local laws. "We have a clear and consistent government request process, which is no different in Vietnam to the rest of the world," a Facebook spokeswoman told AFP by email Tuesday, adding that the firm remains committed to a set of 'Community Standards' that outline safe and respectful discourse. Vietnamese officials did not immediately reply to requests for comment. - Military cyber force - Internet in the country is classified as "not free", according to web watchdog Freedom House, the worst in Southeast Asia and second only to China in all of Asia. Political activist Le Van Son, who signed the letter, told AFP his Facebook page is frequently censored and was taken down temporarily last week after he posted in support of the activists on trial. "My Facebook account reflects my critical opinions and enables my right to talk about democracy, press freedom and freedom of expression in Vietnam," said Son. "I have never violated regulations by posting racy pictures, false information or humiliating others with curse words." Vietnam announced last year a 10,000-strong military cyber force tasked with fighting "wrongful views" online. Activists have said the online brigade, dubbed 'Force 47', has flooded their sites with pro-government commentary and harassment. Unlike in China, Vietnam does not employ a Firewall to block major social media sites, although Facebook access is sometimes interrupted during protests in the country.
Olis unilateral decisions irk ministers

Ministers representing CPN (Maoist Centre) have urged Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to raise the issue of arbitrary transfers of secretaries without consulting all stakeholders.
To the casual outside observer, it might seem hard to understand why the closure of this place and its skatepark-out-the-back AKA The Merrics has caused such heartbreak.

Yes, the park was by no means Olympic in scale but there was something about the simplicity of the super smooth floor, the moveable beginner-friendly layout and, most importantly its friendly and 100% skater staff, that made it feel more akin to going street skating than to visiting an indoor skatepark.

Over the years, all manner of events have taken place inside its roller shutters, from chaotic games of SKATE, to charity fundraisers, to demos, to regular after-hours sessions composed of heads from many of the nearby Yorkshire cities who also called this place home.

In short, it was no Tampa but it was ours.

So with the above in mind, please allow us the self indulgence of a little ode to this now off-limits, shiny floored paradise via a selection of choice memories from over the years.

All photos are by local and staff member Brendan Brenna Harrap and were shot at the final session held on March 31st 2018.

Brotherly encouragement from Joe to Harry Townend. Photo: Brenna
Theres a joke that every startup is answering the question What is my mom no longer doing for me? (Giving me a ride, doing my laundry, you get the idea.) Subtext: Silicon Valley is teeming with young men in various stages of arrested development trying to recreate their carefree high school years.

A new crop of businesses suggests venture capital is amenable to winding the idea clock back even further, toward childhood, where startup founders brainstorming over apple juice and Goldfish might have come up with this proposal: Everyone rides scooters and bicycles everywhere.

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That is whats happening in cities like Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Washington, where an enormous amount of money is being spent to distribute electric scooters and bicycles, bookable via smartphone, all over town. And while this sounds like something Tom Hanks would have engineered in Big, it may do nothing less than reinvent short-distance transportation in the American city.

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On Monday, Uber announced it would purchase Jump, an electric bikeshare startup, for a price said to be as high as nearly $200 millionmore than $13,000 a bicycle. Since January, Uber has offered rides on Jumps pedal-assist bicycles (meaning the electric motor gives your peddling legs some extra oomph) through its app in San Francisco and will now make the option available in other cities.

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Meanwhile, Santa Monica, Californiabased Bird, which raised a $100 million funding round last month, has announced plans to offer its electric scooters in 50 cities by the end of the year. And the dock-less bike-share company LimeBike has debuted an electric scooter called the Lime-S. A colleague in D.C. recently rode one back from lunch. It cost a little more than a dollar to ride two miles. The Lyft he took to lunch was $15.

These new modes of transportation represent the collision of a number of trends. Both the electric motor and the battery that power them are smaller, cheaper, and more powerful than they used to be. Smartphone penetration has reached nearly all Americans age 18 to 44, and 88 percent in the general population. Venture capital money is sloshing around looking for moonshots.

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And, of course, the way we handle short trips in American citiesby car, by and largehas long been expensive, slow, inefficient, and environmentally irresponsible.

You can see why Uber would want to move as many riders out of cars and onto bikes as possible. While the companys $4.5 billion loss in 2017 was received as good news, Uber continues to spend the same 80 percent of revenue on driver payouts and rider subsidies year after year.

Transferring shorter trips to a cheaper mode could be a windfall. Shorter trips by bicycle would allow the company to get by with fewer drivers. Less traffic makes rides go faster. More importantly for the rest of us, Uber can serve as a way to introduce the electric bicycle to skeptical consumers. Bird has already prompted some users to go and buy their own electric scooters.

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Jump has said it buys e-bikes for $1,000 a piece. The service costs $2 for 30-minute ride, and 7 cents a minute afterward. In San Francisco, each Uber-Jump trial bike has gotten six to seven rides a day. At that rate, a bike pays for itself in three months. (That does not include the costs of maintenance, charging, and distributiontwo issues the companies are struggling with.)

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One of the big promises associated with shared autonomous vehicles is the possibility of right-sizing, or making sure that each vehicle is perfectly suited to the task at hand. Today, many Americans buy SUVs because they anticipate family vacations or other edge cases where theyll need a small truck at their disposal. But in reality, most cars, most of the time, are driven alone, no matter their size. If riders are paired with smaller cars for solo trips, researchers estimate energy usage in transportation could fall by 20 to 40 percent.

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But what if those trips arent made with cars at all? Cars are to us what books are to Amazon, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at a conference in February. And while the company has made few serious forays beyond four wheels and an internal combustion engine so far, the rapidly evolving electric vehicle industry has clearly caught Khosrowshahis eye.

Over the last two years, Jump founder Ryan Rzepecki wrote on Medium after the purchase was announced, the bike share industry shifted from a slow-moving government contracting business to one of the most well-capitalized and competitive consumer technologies in the world. That transformation began in China, where the explosion of dock-less bikes has caused the bicycles share of total travel mileage in Chinese cities to spike from 5.5 to 11.6 percent in just two years, and cut car travel in Shenzhen by 10 percent.

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Those companies and others are now trying their hand in the United States, with mixed results. Challenges in the American city include big distances, cold weather, NIMBYism, and unsafe streets. But at least with the first of those, electric vehicles can help.

Theres a massive market of people who want to make shortish trips without driving cars.

In the fall of 2014, an enterprising data nerd wrote about his experience driving for Lyft in San Francisco, determining that the average ride distance in October was 3.35 miles. The median must be quite a bit lower. And that means that quite a number of trips fall within the sweet spot for alternative transportation, less than two miles. In New York, more than half of taxi trips are less than two miles. This trend persists outside urban areas, and for private cars, as well: The 2009 National Household Travel Survey found that 43 percent of car trips were three miles or less.

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In short, theres a massive market of people who want to make shortish trips without driving cars. For Uber in San Francisco, the average Jump trip was 2.6 miles, which is a similar distance to the average cab ride, the company told the New York Times. Traditional, manually powered bike share will retain its appealbut in other ways, it functions as a gateway drug to a newer, more powerful mode.

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The moment is reminiscent of Ubers initial rollout, when the new mode was caught between eager consumers, defensive incumbents, and wary city governments. As you might expect, the companies have faced opposition from planners and residents who object to the perceived disorder of scooters and bicycles littering the right of way. Its true that the debuts have been a little chaotic, though the companies are now taking a more heavy-handed approach to ordering their waresJump bikes must be locked to a pole or rack; Bird has launched a Save Our Sidewalks responsible scooter-parking campaign. But if more people are leaving their cars at home to ride bikes and scooters, thats without a doubt a good thing for citiesnot least for the people who still do want to drive.
Tiffany Haddish is having a big month, popping up everywhere from HBOs offices to a Drake video, so it was no surprise to see her on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday night. But it was kind of unexpected to see her appear on Seth Meyers recurring segment Jokes Seth Cant Tell, in which the host brings out writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel to deliver jokes that wouldnt work coming from a straight white male. The pre-Haddish highlight was this joke from Hagel, a simple but perfectly constructed bit of comic misdirection:

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A library in Chicago will host an exhibit next month called Gay Is Good. Its expected to be unpopular with Trump voters because its in a library.

Hagel also got the biggest gasps from the audience for this joke, though she clarified afterward that, in the tradition of Jokes Seth Cant Tell, she got to deliver the punchline because she is Catholic:

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The Vatican recently refused to host an International Womens Day Conference because one of the speakers was a lesbian. And because theyre too busy hosting a 2,000-year-long pedophile convention.

Haddishs joke wasnt the best, but the segments close is a nice bit of ensemble comedy from Ruffin, Meyers, Haddish, and Hagel in which the women encourage Seth to deliver one of the punchlines, then turn on him once he does. In a different context, it would probably be pretty bad news for a late-night anchor to yell, Black women and lesbians are liars! into the camera, but in this case its really the only place for the segment to go. Meyers also pulls the old abruptly cut from an on-camera disaster to cheerful music, as though someone at the network pulled the plug trick thats served Kent Brockman so well. Film editing has its own sort of comic timing, and here, its executed perfectly.

Its not the greatest thing Haddish has done, but its a nice little stopgap while the world waits breathlessly to see if The Kitchenin which Haddish, Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Margo Martindale play the wives of gangsters in the 1970scan possibly live up to its incredible cast and premise.
Campaigning for Mexicos upcoming presidential election, on July 1, has officially begun. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing candidate and former mayor of Mexico City is the clear front-runner with an 18 percentage point lead. The two candidates from the mainstream parties that have dominated Mexico for decades., Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling PRI party and Ricardo Anaya of the opposition PAN have had difficulty gaining traction with voters in an anti-establishment mood.

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A longtime fixture in Mexican politicsthis is the third time hes runningAMLO, as hes known, has benefited from growing tensions with the United States under President Donald Trump, which have only grown more acute since Trump ordered troops to the border and began raising fears of a caravan of migrants passing through Mexico. In contrast to Mexicos recent presidentsincluding the current one, the dismally unpopular Enrique Pena Nietowho have defended NAFTA and security cooperation with Washington, he has pledged to take a harder line with the U.S.

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Lopez Obradors rivals paint him as a left-wing potential authoritarian in the mold of Venezuelas Hugo Chavez, but this time around, running under a newly formed party, he has taken steps to portray himself as a more moderate figure.

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Slates Spanish-language political podcast, El Gabfest en Espanol, recently spoke with Carlos Bravo Regidor, director of Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas in Mexico City and a perspicacious observer of Mexican politics and MexicanU.S. relations. In the following excerpt from their conversation, which has been translated from Spanish and edited for length and clarity, Bravo Regidor speaks with host Leon Krauze and panelists Janet Rodriguez and Fernando Pizarro about the state of the election and AMLOs prospects.

You can read an abridged version of the conversation below, or stream or download the full discussion and episode via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, the Google Play store, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Janet Rodriguez: What needs to happennow that we know Trumps attitude toward Mexico and that Mexico is going to have important elections this yearwhat can be done to return stability to the U.S.Mexico relationship?

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Carlos Bravo Regidor: Well, look, its not that I want to sound like a pessimist, but I think it will take a long time. Even if we had a scenario where Donald Trump lost the [Republican] majority in Congress, was the subject of [Muellers] investigation, or was not re-elected, what Trump has done has already been so disruptive of the relationship. Because Trump has made Mexico a sacrificial lamb in domestic U.S. politics. Right? The whole topic of the wall, the criminalization of Mexicans, of migrants, the deportationshes shown himself in a way thats very sad and very worrisome, but very effective in electoral terms. I mean, the social base of Trumpism responds so well to the agitation of anti-Mexican sentiment, to the anti-immigrant sentiment, which is so aptly symbolized by the border wall. The uncertainty that Trump has introduced in the [Mexican] election is not a passing phenomenon. Its here to stay, at least for the medium term. What can be done is to try to mitigate it, try to contain it, try to do damage control. One of the best strategies Mexico has adopted in that respect is to try and make the topics, say, of NAFTA or deportations, into topics of domestic U.S. politics, that they not be huge topics of the bilateral relationship, because its clear that Donald Trump doesnt see Mexico as an equal negotiating partner with the U.S..

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Fernando Pizarro: How do you interpret the polls giving Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a big lead? Is this just a rejection of [the currently ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party]? Is it also a rejection of Trumps discourse? How is Trump influencing the political debate in Mexico?

Bravo Regidor: I think in the first placeas you saidits a reflection on the negative evaluation the Mexican public has of Enrique Pena Nietos six-year term, in particular with respect to three topics.

The first is corruption. There have never been so many corruption scandals in Mexico as there are now. Which doesnt necessarily mean that there is more corruption than at other times. Its that we know much more. Before, well, there wasnt even that much investigation into the topic. But corruption has become, well say, the central theme of Pena Nietos government.

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The second is the increase in violence. At the end of Felipe Calderons term [in 2012] and the beginning of Pena Nietos, it seemed at last that the rate of homicides was beginning to go down again. But the second half of Pena Nietos term saw the rate change directions and go up once more. According to various indicators, 2017 was the most violent year ever registered, lets say, in recent history in Mexico. Every day, similar to the corruption scandals, were learning about executions, disappearances, and mass graves. Its a pretty sad landscape, pretty lurid and worrying. And so Pena Nieto, even though he was never as vocal on the topic of organized crime like Felipe Calderon was, has basically seen it become the main topic of his six years in government. Its now also his war on drugs, and he hasnt found a solution to this violence either.

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And the third topic is without a doubt the economy. Economic growth is very unsatisfactory, very mediocre. And the fact that poverty might not have increased enormously; well, it hasnt gone down either. The improvements during his six years in government have been very marginal; Id even say circumstantial. So, corruption, violence, and disappointment in the economywell, the electorate is very angry at the government.

In the previous campaigns in 2006 and 2012, Id say the predominant sentiment regarding Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was fear. I think the Mexican electorate was afraid of a Lopez Obrador who seemed, well, he seemed very radical, he came off as very angry, as very extreme. And the disappointment and anger with Enrique Pena Nieto has coincided with an Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who has very deliberately tried to move to the center, show himself more conservative, and more conciliatory. So put this all together, and the anger that people feel at Enrique Pena Nieto is gravitating and articulating itself around the candidature of a Lopez Obrador who, compared to 2012 and 2006, seems pretty moderate.

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Leon Krauze: The lead Lopez Obrador has over the other candidates is considerable. Is the election over? Or do you think things could still change and there could be another result in July?

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Bravo Regidor: Youre asking me a very difficult question. Im still scarred from the 2016 elections in the U.S., which we had all thought was resolved in favor of Hillary Clintonand what a surprise! So right now Im particularly wary of giving a resolute response to this question. The Mexican electorate is very volatile; its an electorate with few strong or fixed loyalties, unlike the U.S. electorate which is pretty stable in terms of its preferences.

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If one observes the history of elections in Mexican democracy, the majority of the electorateor at least a significant portionchanges its party preferences according to the circumstances. So in that sense we know already that the electoral campaigns in Mexico can make a big difference. That was the case in 2006 when Felipe Calderon, a figure who was less well-known at the time, who had little national relevance, ended up beating Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was the clear leader and the clear favorite.

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In 2012, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may have lost the election, but in terms of the achievements he made in the campaign, he won. He was in a faraway third place and ended up more or less in a close second. Does that mean that the Mexican election is still up in the air? To a certain degree. The problem is that the candidates in second and third place might not be able to catch up. I saw a poll recently that asked people who they wanted to vote for and if they feel certain of their vote or not. The candidate with the greatest percentage of secure votes in that question was Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with 40 to 45 percent.

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And Ricardo Anaya and Jose Antonio Meade barely reached 20 percent of secure votes. So not only is Lopez Obrador the front-runner, but he has also consolidated a more or less secure or loyal vote, and it will be hard for the other candidates to steal those votes. At this point its not only about convincing the undecided voters, but also about taking votes away from the other candidates. To me it seems like those who have decided on Lopez Obrador wont be too willing to give their vote to Jose Antonio Meade or Ricardo Anaya. There might be a percentage that might, but in principle that seems a little complicated.

You can listen to a new episode of El Gabfest en Espanol every Thursday. This week, we check in with a conservative Latino voice in Washington to gauge the way Republican Latinos feel about President Donald Trump and his policies.

This conversation was translated by Paulina Velasco.
Adding to the list of Trumps questionable financial dealings, Robert Mueller is investigating a $150,000 donation to Trumps foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate, the New York Times reported Monday. The donation was made by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk in return for the then-GOP candidate delivering a 20-minute address via video link to a conference in Kiev. The timing of the transaction in September 2015 raises questions about whether the money was, in essence, a thinly veiled alternative campaign donation in an attempt to curry favor with the Republican frontrunner for president.

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Muellers reported interest in the transaction jibes with the special counsels reported focus on Trumps murky foreign financial links, even those beyond Russia. Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen orchestrated the payment for the appearance to the pro-Europe Yalta European Strategy conference. The Guardian, reporting on the event in Kiev at the time, described it as a bizarre appearance by Trump. Trumps video link was subject to a delay of several seconds, which appeared to confuse Trump, according to the Guardian. The audience, who were enjoying a four-course dinner during the video link, occasionally broke into laughter at his responses. Trump repeatedly paused during the remarks in an apparent effort to allow for a translation, before he was informed midstream: You need not wait for any translation. The awkward back and forth was, in part, due to technical difficulties. At one point, Trump said he was having trouble hearing. The sound system is terrible because there is a huge delay and feedback, he said.

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The $150,000 donation made by Pinchuk, the son-in-law of former president of Ukraine with a questionable record on corruption was the largest donation to the Trump foundation in 2015, other than money Trump contributed, again raising questions about the charitable organization, which during the campaign appeared to be little more than a piggy bank for Trump to collect other peoples money in the name of charity and distribute it in his own name. Mr. Pinchuk, who has been accused by steel makers in the United States of illegally dumping steel on the American market at artificially low prices, drew more scrutiny during the campaign for his ties to Hillary Clinton and her family foundation, according to the New York Times. He has donated more than $13 million to that organization since 2006.
A bizarre dispute between a property formerly managed by the Trump Organization is now threatening to fulfill the warnings of ethics watchdogs, as for the first time lawyers representing the Trump business have sought the intervention from a world leader, apparently leveraging their companys connection to the U.S. president.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that attorneys representing the former Trump Hotel in Panama City sent a letter on March 22 to President Juan Carlos Varela to URGENTLY request influence in relation to a commercial dispute regarding the Trump hotel.

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The letter, which was written in Spanish by the Panama-based law firm Britton and Iglesias and copied to Panamanian Cabinet officials and the presidents of the Supreme Court and National Assembly, warned that the way the Trump Organization was being mistreated by the Panamanian justice system, which sided with the hotels majority owner in the dramatic dispute, threatened to violate a 1983 treaty between the two countries, according to the Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the letter. It warned that the situation could have repercussions for the countrys reputation.

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We appreciate your influence in order to avoid that these damages are attributed not to the other party, but to the Panamanian government, the letter said. According to the Post, the letter never explicitly mentions Donald Trump or any concrete repercussions.

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The lawyers defended the action as a common and routine tactic and said they didnt consult with the Trump Organization before sending the letter.

According to the Post, a spokesman for the Panamanian president said that Varela has seen the letter and is evaluating the issue but has not yet taken any action. Others who received the letter told the Post they did not feel they had a role to play in the dispute. It is a letter that urges Panamas executive branch to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch, Foreign Secretary Isabel de Saint Malo said. I dont believe the executive branch has a position to take while the issue is in the judicial process.

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The situation has only worsened for the company since the letter was sent, as later in March, an international arbitrator declined to reinstate the Trump Organization as manager of the hotel.

The conflict began last year when the investor Orestes Fintiklis became majority owner of the luxury high rise and immediately began accusing the Trump Organization of mismanagement that drove down the hotels occupancy. He also blamed the presidents brand for warding off potential customers and tried to fire the Trump business. The Trump Organization argued that their contract was good to the year 2031 and Fintiklis had no valid reason to break the contract. The two sides took the dispute to an arbitrator.

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The conflict came to a head in early March, when Fintiklis tried again to evict the Trump Organization employees from the building and Fintiklis security guards tussled with Trump Organization security guards. After Panamanian police broke up the fight and one Trump guard was arrested for blocking an officers attempt to enter the hotels administrative offices, Fintiklis entered the hotel, tried to fire nine Trump employees, couldnt find them, and walked over to the piano to play Beethovens Fur Elise on the lobby piano, to a round of applause from his employees.

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Finally, armed agents evicted the staff, and a low-level Panamanian judge ruled on the side of Fintiklis. The hotel was renamed The Bahia Grand Panama. According to the Post, the hotel bar has drinks called the Stormy Jack Daniels and the Fire and Fury.

The possibility that Trump properties in other countries could influence diplomacy and international policy caused ethics watchdogs to call on Trump to divest from his business. In a move that failed to satisfy them, he put his sons in charge of the business but remained an owner, meaning he can still withdraw money from the business at any time.
The Impeach-O-Meter is a wildly subjective and speculative daily estimate of the likelihood that Donald Trump leaves office before his term ends, whether by being impeached (and convicted) or by resigning under threat of same.

JUST IN: President Trump says the FBI raid of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is a real disgrace, its an attack on our country, and calls the investigation a "total witch hunt https://t.co/tKhp8GSMjz pic.twitter.com/FaBP49jDTY  CNN (@CNN) April 9, 2018

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The FBI raided President Trumps longtime personal attorney Michael Cohens office, home, and hotel room Monday, seizing documents as part of a probe into possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations, the Washington Post reports. According to the Wall Street Journal, the searches related to Cohens payment to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels and an investigation into its legality by the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan in coordination with special counsel Robert Muellers team.

On Monday, even Trump, himself, seemed somewhat shaken by the proximity of the raid. Cohen, while not a member of the Trump administration, is still a part of the Trump familys inner circle, putting his demeanor as an Atlantic City pit boss to use doing the unseemly dirty work of cleaning up the effluent spewing from Trump Inc. During his brief remarks to reporters before a meeting with military advisers, Trump seemed unable to muster even the semi-coherent bluster needed to offer a plausible distraction to the potential seriousness of the development, particularly given the raid may have netted communications between Trump and his longtime henchman.

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So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man and its a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch-hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time, Trump began, appearing ready to launch into a classic Trump diatribe. But Trump looked hesitant and uncharacteristically unsure of who to blame this time around. Slower on his feet than normal, Trump offered up half-hearted rebukes of Attorney General Jeff Sessions (!), James Comey, Hillary Clinton (obviously), and Barack Obama.

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This didnt feel like the spirited, righteous defense of an innocent man defending himself, this felt like someone who was going over a mental checklist of what they could have found in his head while speaking. Here are some highlights of what Trump came up with by way of a response:

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 They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, were talking about a lot of serious things with the greatest fighting force ever and I have this witch-hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now and actually much more than that.

 Its a disgrace, its a real disgrace. Its an attack on our country in a true sense. Its an attack on what we all stand for so when I saw this and when I heard it, I heard it like you did, I said that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness.

 So this has been going on, I saw one of the reporters who is not necessarily a fan of mine, not necessarily very good to me, he said in effect that this is ridiculous, this is now getting ridiculous.

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 This is the most biased group of people, these people have the biggest conflicts of interest Ive ever seen.

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 They only keep looking at us so they find no collusion and then they go from there and they say well, lets keep going and they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think its a disgrace.

 The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have used aput a different attorney general in. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country but youll figure that out.

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Ive been president now for what seems like a lengthy period of time, Trump said at one point. It may have been the only genuine thing Trump muttered during his remarks. But how much longer? Who knows! But were getting out the jumper cables and dusting off the ole Impeach-o-Meter just in case!
A version of this piece first appeared on the blog Impeachable Offenses.

On Monday, FBI agents executed a search warrant on the Manhattan office of Donald Trumps longtime attorney, Michael Cohen. The man known as Trumps personal fixer has assumed particular prominence lately because of his role in arranging a pre-election $130,000 payment to adult film performer Stormy Daniels designed to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump immediately labeled the raid a disgrace and a witch hunt. We dont know precisely what the FBI was looking for and what it might have found. What is clear is that federal searches of lawyers offices are extremely unusual and, under Justice Department rules, require extraordinary justification and multiple layers of internal approvals. And then the warrant application must be approved by a federal judge.

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Moreover, the Cohen warrant was reportedly sought not by special counsel Robert Muellers office but by the office of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, acting on a referral from Mueller. It has been reported that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman (a Trump appointee) recused himself from the Cohen investigation, but the warrant would still have to have been approved by a senior career supervisor in his office. In short, before the application even reached the judge who signed it, it garnered the approval of Mueller and a senior career prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Moreover, DOJ procedures for approving such a warrant would require the concurrence of Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division John Cronan. And the New York Times reported on Tuesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved the raid. Any suggestion that this search was a frivolous fishing expedition by an uncontrolled special counselor, in the presidents tirelessly repeated phrase, a witch huntsimply wont wash.

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Trumps statement on Tuesday that Attorneyclient privilege is dead! is similarly nonsensical. The Department of Justice is acutely conscious that communications between attorneys and their clients enjoy special status under the Sixth Amendment and the common law attorney-client privilege. Except in rare circumstances, attorney-client communications may not be seized for use in investigations or introduced in court to prove a crime. There are exceptions, such as when an attorney gives a client advice about how to commit a future crime, but judges are exceptionally protective of the attorney-client relationship and tend to construe such exceptions very narrowly.

Judges review an application to search a lawyers office with infinitely more care than a warrant for virtually any other location.

Therefore, any law enforcement search of an attorneys office will always be a ticklish business. Even when a search is authorized by warrant, merely locating the material covered by the warrant will almost inevitably involve inspecting documents that contain attorney-client communications for clients other than the one who may be the subject of the warrant. And once the batch of material related to the client at issue is found, there are very likely to be some communications covered by the privilege commingled with material that has no attorney-client communications or communications that are unprivileged.

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The likelihood of encountering commingled privileged and unprivileged material creates a special problemif the searching agents see privileged matter and accidentally or purposely convey such material to the agents and prosecutors who ultimately charge and prosecute the case, the privileged matter may taint the rest of the evidence and could require suppression of some evidence or even dismissal of the entire prosecution.

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For all these reasons and more, the Justice Department has special detailed procedures for authorizing and conducting attorney searches. Before a warrant can even be presented to a federal judge for approval, the following internal steps must be taken:

1. The prosecutor contemplating an attorney warrant must consider whether the material sought can be obtained by any less intrusive means, such as a subpoena. U.S. Attorneys Manual 9-13.420(A).

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2. Any attorney search warrant must be approved by the U.S. attorney in the district where the warrant is sought. U.S.

Attorneys Manual 9-13.420(B).

3. A prosecutor seeking an attorney warrant for material concerning representation of a client must also obtain prior approval of the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division in Washington, using a specific and highly detailed application form. U.S. Attorneys Manual 9-13.420(C).

4. Because of the risk of taint, DOJ rules require that an attorney warrant application specify procedures for guarding against it. DOJ rules state: Procedures should be designed to ensure that privileged materials are not improperly viewed, seized or retained during the course of the search.  [I]n all cases a prosecutor must employ adequate precautions to ensure that the materials are reviewed for privilege claims and that any privileged documents are returned to the attorney from whom they were seized. U.S.

Attorneys Manual 9-13.420(D).

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5. Those anti-taint procedures will customarily involve a separate team of agents and lawyers charged with executing the search and reviewing the materials found in order to limit the material seized to matters that (a) are covered by the warrant, and (b) are not privileged. Those agents and lawyers will be strictly barred from communicating to the main prosecutorial team any documents or information deemed privileged or outside the scope of the warrant.

Often, the final privilege determination will be made by submitting material about which there is question to a judge or special master.

The procedural and logistical difficulties in seeking and executing a warrant for an attorneys office have the practical effect of making such searches extraordinarily rare. When permission to seek judicial approval of such a warrant is sought, you can be assured that the highest levels of the Justice Department have been satisfied on two critical points: First, the information sought is of very high importance to a case of genuine significance, and second, the evidence supporting issuance of the warrant is very solid.

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Moreover, a judge may not authorize any warrant without finding probable cause that a crime has been committed and that evidence of the crime will be found at the place to be searched. And judges review an application to search a lawyers office with infinitely more care than a warrant for virtually any other location.

These general observations would likely be triply valid in the case of the presidents personal lawyer.

We cant yet know what the FBI was searching for or what they found. But we can be absolutely sure the Department of Justice had darn good reasons to look for it.
Within the context of a political career whose lowlights include describing Islamist terrorist organizations as friends, associating with a Holocaust denier, and earning thousands of dollars for appearances on Irans state propaganda network, Jeremy Corbyns recent Facebook post expressing support for an anti-Semitic mural in East London is far from the worst of the indictments on his now-lengthy charge sheet.

In 2012, local authorities in London removed a mural designed by the Los Angelesbased artist Mear One, which depicted anti-Semitic caricatures playing monopoly on a board held up on the backs of the poor. Tomorrow they want to buff my mural Freedom of Expression. London Calling, Public art, Mear One wrote on Facebook, to which Corbyn replied, Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller destroyed Diego Vieras mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.

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When the media uncovered this post last month, Corbyn bungled his response. First, the party itself tried to claim, Jeremy was responding to concerns about the removal of public art on the grounds of freedom of speech. But in a second statement put out by the leaders office, he claimed, [T]he defence of free speech cannot be used as a justification for the promotion of anti-Semitism in any form and said that the problem, in fact, was that he did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on.

For the leadership of Britains Jewish community, enough was enough. The communitys representative body, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the Jewish Leadership Council co-published a letter, submitted to the Labour Party, that stated, 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 condemned a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism within Labour and organized a rally outside the Houses of Parliament.

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It did not help Corbyns case that, at around the same time, it emerged that he had been a member of several pro-Palestinian and far-left Facebook groups, whose posts included anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and material related to Holocaust denial. Corbyns team claimed he did not follow the content of these groups and was not an active participant in them, but he subsequently and quietly deleted his private Facebook account nonetheless. These revelations only seemed to validate the board and JLCs initial complaint.

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We conclude that [Corbyn] 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 board and JLC said, arguing that time and again he has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews. At worst, this suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy.

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Since Corbyn became the leader of the Labour Party in September 2015, Jewish communal leaders have felt as if what the sociologist and campaigner against anti-Semitism David Hirsh has called Corbyns history of anti-Semitic politics has not been properly addressed. Corbyn has largely sidestepped or found excuses for his past associations with, among others, the Islamist leader Raed Salah (He did not at any stage utter any anti-Semitic remarks to me), the Holocaust denier Paul Eisen (I have no contact now whatsoever with [him]), or extremist political activist Dyab Abou Jahjah (I have no recollection of him). The British novelist Howard Jacobson wisely warned Corbyn, Mix less often with bombers and fanatics in places where bombers and fanatics are bound to congregate, and the ones you do meet might linger longer in your mind.

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Neither has Corbyn been seen to understand nor deal with anti-Semitism within the Labour Party or among his supporters. To his credit, under his leadership Labour has become a party of relative mass membership once more, topping out at more than 550,000 members after the general election in June, compared with about 200,000 in 2015. With his leadership, however, have come supporters who believe that Jews were the chief financiers of the slave trade, engage in abusive behavior online while throwing around the term Zio, share articles arguing that there is a Jewish question that must be addressed, and accuse Jewish MPs of engaging in conspiracy with national newspapers.

There are only so many statements one can issue condemning anti-Semitism and all forms of racism before people begin to take them with a pinch of salt. As Hirsh previously told me, What Corbyn has done is he has allowed the whole thing to be treated as if its just a few bad apples in the barrel, and if you find the bad apple, just kick it out. The inquiry Corbyn set up to investigate Labours anti-Semitism problem, led by the human rights advocate Shami Chakrabarti, was largely seen as a whitewash when she received a seat in the House of Lords shortly after her report was published.

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Indeed, just as Corbyns dispute with the board and JLC was reaching boiling out, Christine Shawcrofta director of the pro-Corbyn Momentum grouphad to resign from Labours National Executive Committee, when it was revealed she had opposed the suspension of a candidate for local government who allegedly claimed the Holocaust was a hoax. And the future of former London Mayor Ken Livingstonewhose Labour membership was suspended in 2016 for arguing that Adolf Hitler was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jewsremains unresolved.

The feeling that Corbyn simply doesnt care about anti-Semitism has not been helped by a total failure to reach out to the very institutions hes alienated. It took an unprecedented protest to get the Labour leader to agree to a meeting with the board and JLC, the terms of which were finally agreed upon on Wednesday. This was not before Corbyn worsened relations by spending the third night of Passover with the radical, irreverent group Jewdas, known for its non-Zionism and satirical critiques of British Jewish leadership. Jewdas has been incorrectly tarnished with the brush of anti-Semitism, but still, from a political standpoint if the task at hand is for Corbyn to show Jewish communal figureheads his seriousness, it perhaps was not the wisest appointment to have taken.

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Similarly, having refused and ignored its interview requests for months, Corbyn only just acquiesced to a sit-down interview with the London-based free newspaper the Jewish News. All the while, pro-Corbyn left-wing newspapers and websites have perpetuated the view that accusations of anti-Semitism are part of an elaborate smear campaign against Corbyn, promoting counternarratives that, for example, anti-Semitism has in fact decreased within Labour under Corbyns leadership. Allies of Corbyn, while claiming an interest in smashing anti-Semitism, are engaged in tit-for-tat arguments in order to show that the Conservatives are racists, too (as if that helps). Expelled members of the party, including Jackie Walker of the aforementioned slave trade theory, have founded Labour Against the Witch-Hunt, which seeks to fight those who promote the false anti-Semitism smear, who conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, and who promote the myth of left anti-Semitism.

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Jews seem to be the only minority group in contemporary Britain who are not entitled to define the terms of the prejudice and discrimination they experience.

The line that any criticism of the actions of the state of Israel is now immediately conflated with anti-Semitism has become the standard defense of Corbyn and his supporters. It would be one thing if we were dealing with so-called legitimate criticism of Israel. But how the words of Walker and Livingstone or Corbyns associations with Holocaust deniers and Islamist fanatics constitute a fair-minded critique of Israels occupation is anyones guess. When Labour members are found to have posted links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israels involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks and the training of Islamic State fighters, and conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family in closed Facebook groups, unless the nuances are somewhat hidden, it does not exactly seem as if they are concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people all that much.

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Momentum founder Jon Lansman was right when he spoke recently of those who possess an unconscious bias when it comes to anti-Semitism, minimizing or dismissing it in a way while treating similar reports of racism or Islamophobia with the utmost seriousness. It has gotten to the point now where nearly 80 percent of Labour members believe that, to some extent, accusations of anti-Semitism are being hyped up or deliberately exaggerated to damage Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, or to stifle criticism of Israel. In such an atmosphere, Jews seem to be the only minority group in contemporary Britain who are not entitled to define the terms of the prejudice and discrimination they experience.

Though British Jewish voters have tended for economic, social, and class reasons to lean Conservative in recent elections, they also have a deep historic and contemporary relationship with Labour. The Jewish Labour Movement has been associated with the party since 1920, as an association that promotes democratic socialism and equal rights for Jews in Britain while supporting Labor Zionism as the movement for self-determination of the Jewish people within Israel. Labour Friends of Israel was formed in 1957 and, at least until the Six Day War, the partys ties with Israel were generally comradely and supportive.

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It is also true, however, that since 1967 an anti-Zionist tendency emerged within the Labour Partyone which, as Dave Rich explains in The Lefts Jewish Problemthat views Israel as a product of Western colonialism [and] that Zionism is a racist ideology, worthy of the same opprobrium as apartheid South Africa. On this New Left, Rich argues, Jews are defined as white and thereby excluded from anti-racist politics, with other groups replacing them as the new Jews.

Corbyn is a product of this New Left and though there is no suggestion that he himself is an anti-Semite, when Lansman spoke of an unconscious bias on the far left, he might as well have been referring to Corbyn. The Labour leader understands anti-Semitism, Rich concludes, only as a far-right phenomenon. He opposes it to the extent that he opposes all forms of racism and xenophobia, as well as fascism and racial inequality overseas, including apartheid. But he is also trapped by the false perception that because he and the wider left are anti-fascist and anti-racist, they cannot be guilty of anti-Semitism in turn.

Both supporters and detractors will say, for what its worth, that Corbyns views have been consistent throughout his political career. The problem with such stubbornness is that if Corbyn has still not been convinced of the view that anti-Semitism is manifest on the wing of politics he has called home for more than three decadeseven when it is staring him in the face in the form of an evidently anti-Jewish muralhe isnt going to change his mind now. Though the link between Labour and British Jews can outlast one leader, the relationship between Corbyn and communal institutions is likely fundamentally and irreparably broken. Dyed in the wool, Corbyn is never going to be able to give as much as the Jewish community needs for its own reassuranceand thus the divide shall remain.
Practising democratic values key to better human rights: President

Protection of human rights can be achieved only by internalising democratic values, President Bidya Devi Bhandari has said.
The FBI raided Michael Cohens office and hotel room on Monday, and what we know about who did the raid is just as important as the information we have on why they did it.

The raid was by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, and not directly by Robert Muellers special counsels office. Muellers team referred the case to the U.S. attorney, but the U.S. attorney sought the search warrant and received it only after establishing probable cause. In searches of such high-profile and sensitive subjects, U.S. attorneys usually need approval higher up in the Department of Justice.

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Why might this U.S. attorneys office have been involved? One answer is the most basic: a raid of at least two locations simultaneouslyoffice and hotelrequires a lot of bodies and coordination. If you need that many FBI agents, you already need to coordinate with the local office for it to go smoothly. Former prosecutors say that Mueller might have referred this raid to the Southern District for logistical reasons alone. But he still chose to refer the investigation to this U.S. attorneys office rather than simply use their logistical support.

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What else might this move tell us about Robert Muellers thinking? First, remember that Mueller has learned that Trump has already tried to fire him, and the person who reportedly stopped himWhite House counsel Don McGahnis rumored to be on his way out of the administration.

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The Post is reporting that the subject of the Cohen warrant was an investigation into possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations, possibly related to a hush money contract with adult film performer Stormy Daniels. Mueller probably could have made a claim that Cohen already fell under his jurisdiction, which is to investigate Russian election interference, links between the Trump campaign and Russia, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. But it has been reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the call to involve the U.S. attorney, and perhaps Rosenstein made a strategic calculation about Trump, or they agreed together. It seems, though, that both men know they need to spread Muellers work around as a hedge against his firing, and maybe even to try to deter Trump from firing him.

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In comments after the raid, Trump attacked Mueller, Rosenstein, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, hinting ominously about what he might do next. Mueller and Rosenstein may have anticipated that this raid might have been the last straw for Trump, triggering their firings as they get closer and closer to Trumps inner circle and any potential personal criminal liability. Once other prosecutors offices are involved and have gathered evidence of crimes, though, Trump receives less benefit from firing Mueller, and at an increasing cost. And even if Trump fires Mueller, more prosecutors can carry on the work, with access to some of the same material. Trump should not be able to fire Mueller under the DOJs rules or under the Constitution, but Mueller and Rosenstein understand they need to have an emergency backup for a president who does not care about those rules.

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Second, Muellers move also suggests that he trusts some prosecutors to cooperate, that he trusts Rosenstein to keep up his supervision, and that he at least has sufficient hope that Sessions will stay out of the way. Sessions firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe did not inspire confidence that he would recuse himself fully from the Russia investigation, but Mueller must have some assurances from Rosenstein that the investigation can proceed in the DOJ.

Third, Mueller may be thinking about politics and legitimacy. The right-wing pundits and Fox News commentators have been complaining that Mueller has exceeded the scope of the Russia investigation. (They did not seem to mind when special counsel Kenneth Starr moved from a land deal to a blue dress.) Anyone who has followed Cohens career knows there are obvious connections to the Russia investigation. Even if these conservative attacks are not legally sound or morally consistent, they nevertheless might give Trump cover to fire Mueller, and they might give Republicans cover to tolerate his firing with just enough handwringing and finger-wagging but no real action.

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So, Mueller may be engaging in a political strategy: Mondays raid does not fit the right-wing narrative of a deep-state Inspector Javert out of control, but instead, it involves more traditional law enforcement officials and even more Trump appointees. The Southern District is the most establishment prosecutors office in the country, which might still open up attacks on the deep state from the fringe right and the Trump dead-enders, but mainstream Republicans know better. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman is viewed as a reliable nonpartisan professional who served in Republican administrations. Sessions appointed Berman as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District after Trump interviewed him. It would be ridiculous to attack Berman as a Democratic mole. [Update, April 10: ABC News has reported that Berman is recused from the investigation.]

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If Mueller himself led the raid, the right-wing media could have more plausibly accused him of crossing a red-line if he seemed to be pursuing such Stormy seas. Mueller did not push this Starr-crossed envelope, though. He kept his ship in calmer waters and shored up his legal and political legitimacy with other legal institutions signing on.

Fourth, this raid involved not only the U.S. attorneys office, but also a federal judge or magistrate judge signing off on the search warrant on the presidents lawyer after finding probable cause of criminal acts. Thats a big deal. A magistrate is not a federal judge, but they are appointed by federal judges, and they are not going to mess around in such a high-profile case. The prosecutors had to show not only probable cause of a crime, but they probably also had to persuade the magistrate that attorney-client privilege did not protect against the raid. Prosecutors likely had to convince the magistrate that at least some of the evidence would fit the crime-fraud exception to the privilege, and that bar is usually set very high. In such cases, it is important to have a separate team of investigators examine the evidence to separate protected communication from unprotected, which is another reason to involve the U.S. attorney, because the office is probably better able to provide two separate teams to honor the attorney-client privilege.

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Fifth, Mueller may simply realize that his team already has too much work to prosecute Cohen for campaign finance felonies. That case seems relatively straightforward: Cohen allegedly made an illegal campaign donation willfully. When John Edwardss campaign did something similar, the DOJ prosecuted. Let the DOJ handle this aspect of the Stormy case quickly, and meanwhile, Mueller is free to speak with Cohens attorneys and see if he might want to make a deal on the more direct Russia investigationthough given his loyalty to Trump, this seems like a long shot. But maybe Cohens documents will be enough, without Cohens active cooperation.

Finally, anyone who has been following this investigation knows that Michael Cohens involvement is more than just hush-money for his clients sexual adventures. Various journalists, such as Josh Marshall, have shown that Cohen is deeply implicated in Trumps business in Russia and potential financial crimes over many years. If Putin has kompromat on Trump, it may actually be evidence of such financial crimes. If Cohen knows where the bodies are buried, Mueller may be one step closer to knowing, too. And significantly, more prosecutors offices may be closer to knowing, as well.
The biggest unknown for Facebook right now isnt what lawmakers will ask CEO Mark Zuckerberg when he heads to Capitol Hill for two grillings this week, first in a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday, then in a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday. What they should really be wondering is: What will Congress do once Zuckerberg leaves?

Right now, there is no existing piece of legislation on the table that would significantly restrict Facebooks very lucrative mass data collection and ad-targeting business. There is the Honest Ads Act, which would place important restrictions on political ads purchased on Facebooks ad platforma worthwhile step that addresses a very small part of the controversies that have dogged Facebook as Americans have become more alarmed about the potential for foreign manipulation and violations of privacy on the social network. Will Congress go further? Zuckerbergs interaction with elected officials this week will be revealingbut we also have some clues now.

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Unlike most other issues in Congress, annoyance at Facebook seems to be a bipartisan feeling. Both Republicans and Democrats who will question Zuckerberg this week told me in interviews on Monday (which you can hear in this weeks installment of Slates tech podcast, If Then) that they think there is room for the government to somehow step in and force Facebook to get its act together. That could happen through increased oversight (perhaps through the Federal Trade Commission), a new comprehensive digital privacy law, or even through the formation of a new regulatory agency made specifically to keep Americans safe online.

Or Congress could be swayed by Facebooks inevitable promises to self-regulate more in order to prevent future Russian disinformation campaigns, tamp down fake news, and keep a tighter lid on user data to avoid a repeat of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook has already promised to do most of these things, particularly in a wave of new initiatives announced in the last week. I want to see the response from Mr. Zuckerberg. I want to see if he is truly committed to [fixing these problems] or not, said Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. And the message to him is going to be quite simple: If you dont fix this, were going to fix it for you. I dont think he wants this, and personally, I dont want to have to do that. The less government, the better government in my mind. But at the same time this is very, very serious, and I want to make sure he understands that.

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If Zuckerbergs interlocutors arent satisfied with what he saysor if they are but want to show themselves doing somethingthey could easily move forward with the Honest Ads Act.

Sponsored in the Senate by Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner and Republican John McCain, it would require Facebook and other online platforms to list who paid for political ads online (an ostensible fix for some of the political ads surreptitiously bought by Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign) in the same way political ads on radio, print, and television do, and impose fines on websites that dont comply. Facebook announced support for that bill last week, although Zuckerberg told Wired in an apologetic interview last month (after news of the Cambridge Analyica scandal saturated headlines) that he doesnt expect the bill to pass. But the winds may have shifted in the bills favor since.

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Although the Honest Ads Act currently only counts 15 co-sponsors in the House and 18 co-sponsors in the Senate, every representative, both Democrat and Republican, whom I spoke with said that the bill sounded like a good idea. If the bill moves forward, it would be a fairly uncontroversial act that legislators on both sides of the aisle could get behind.

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I think a piece of [legislation] could come about through the Honest Ads Act, said Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican from Pennsylvania, which I dont think Ive co-sponsored yet, but I support that. I think that thats needed.

Costello told me he also thinks that the Federal Trade Commission, the regulatory agency that acts as a consumer protection watchdog, has a stronger role to play here. Right now, the FTC is investigating whether Facebook violated a decree the company had with the agency requiring it to gain explicit permission from users before sharing their datasomething it now suspects Facebook didnt do. For years, Facebook allowed app developers to not only scrape profile data from people who downloaded their apps, but also data on all of those peoples friends. This allowed developers like Aleksandr Kogan, who made an app on behalf of Cambridge Analytica to scrape Facebook user data, to obtain profile data on as many as 87 million Facebook users, even though only about 270,000 people downloaded his app. Facebook ended that policy in 2014three years after the FTC slapped it with a consent decree.

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When it comes to regulating Facebook, members of Congress from both parties may find common ground.

But the FTC doesnt generally make new regulations: It usually fines companies who break its existing rules. If Costello and other representatives would prefer an expert agency do something about Facebooks data collection and sharing policies, theyll likely have to clarify the FTCs role on such matters. Thats why one member I spoke with, Democratic California Rep. Jerry McNerney, is hoping to gain support for his Managing Your Data Against Telecom Abuses Act (or My Data Act, for short). Basically, what the My Data Act does is it gives the FTC the authority for rulemaking so that it can respond to events on the ground. It provides both for data security and privacy, so consumers will be more empowered in the future, McNerney told me in an interview. So if senators and representatives are dubious of Congress flat-out regulating Facebook but still want to see the company reined in, empowering the FTC to take stronger action might be an appealing route. The FTC is also the agency responsible for policing potential antitrust violations, a level of scrutiny Facebook has so far dodged, and both conservative and liberal commenters have signaled strong concern over the companys potentially anti-competitive practices and market dominance.

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Bipartisan cooperation doesnt come easy, of course. But when it comes to regulating Facebook, members of Congress may well find common ground. I would not organize this along party lines, at all, Costello told me (admittedly, he wont be around after this year, since the congressman announced he doesnt plan to run for re-election). I think that if anything the very conservative and very liberal strands of the party probably, or my sense, is that they are much more critical.

If theyre really willing to work together, theres another idea for constraining Facebook: creating a new expert regulatory agency that focuses specially on digital privacy, perhaps an internet equivalent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We should consider starting discussions on a digital data consumer protection agency, one that will take a comprehensive look clear across different industries to make sure that were all safe said Rep. Raul Ruiz, a Democrat from California, who will be questioning Zuckerberg on Wednesday.

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All the members I spoke with said they are deeply concerned with data privacy and think that something needs to be done, pointing to problems with Facebooks collect-it-all business model and how long Facebook stores peoples data and whom Facebook shares user data with. And lawmakers from both parties agreed in interviews that federal agencies should play a stronger role when it comes to regulating Facebook, especially considering Congress isnt quick on its feet when it comes to passing new laws.

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Clearly, we see a lot of holes in the current state of affairs with Facebook, said Ruiz. So, are we going to allow that to continue or will we create stronger consumer protection and transparency with collaboration with different federal agencies so that consumers can have a better peace of mind knowing that their data isnt going to be used by third parties for bad actions?

Before they do any of this, lawmakers will surely let Zuckerberg have it. After that, well see if their tough questions lead to any tough actions.

Read more from Slate on Cambridge Analytica.
There are 535 people in Congress with the power to constrain Facebooks business, should CEO Mark Zuckerberg fail to persuade them this week that his company can be trusted to regulate its own behavior. But theres another, much larger audience that Zuckerberg will be trying to appeal to at the same time: his own 25,000-plus employees, and the tens of thousands more whom the company might hope to recruit and retain in the future.

From the start, a key to Facebooks success has been its ability to attract, motivate, and inspire some of the worlds most talented engineers, designers, product managers, and business minds. Its commonly understood within Silicon Valley that tech companies success depends in large part on winning the war for top coding talent, in particular. Lavish salaries, benefits, and perks are part of the equation, but they arent enough when youre competing against the likes of Apple, Google, and countless startups. You also have to convince employees and potential hires that youre working on something big, important, and world-changingpreferably in a good way.

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While Facebook has always faced some mistrust from the media and the public, it has maintained a reputation inside the tech world as one of those mission-driven companies where your work can influence society for the better. Facebooks recruiting slogan in job ads reflects that: Best place to build and make an impact. If tech workers start to see Facebooks impact on the world in a negative light, some might stay (or take jobs there) for the money, but the most coveted employees will go elsewhere in search of both money and a sense of meaning. And even those who stay are unlikely to voluntarily pour their late nights and passion into their work for the company.

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A poor performance from Zuckerberg on Capitol Hill might irk lawmakers enough to ramp up their efforts to regulate the company in various waysperhaps with new rules regarding advertising transparency or data protection. But from a Congress that just last year struck down Obama-era privacy rules restricting internet service providers, the sort of sweeping legislation that would really cripple Facebooks business is nowhere in sight.

A backlash on the part of Facebook users is unlikely to pose a real threat to the companys future either: Its already too big a part of most peoples lives for them to give up on it. Zuckerberg said last week that the #DeleteFacebook campaign has had no meaningful impact on the social networks active user base.

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On the other hand, if Zuckerberg sweats through Congress questions and delivers evasive, unconvincing, or embarrassing answers, the effect on employee recruitment and retention could be significant.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that many Facebook employees are so far standing by their company: They view the Cambridge Analytica scandal as overblown and think the media is making Facebook a scapegoat. Thats good news for Facebooks future, provided the company can sustain that sense of pride and common purpose.

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Then again, Facebooks existing employees have plenty of incentive to downplay concerns about the companys image. The ones Facebook will be trying to hire for years to come have no such vested interest in defending it. And in fact, the Journal reports:

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There are some signs the crisis is having an effect on luring talent: Since the disclosures, more candidates for jobs in some units at Facebook have withdrawn from consideration than during any other period in memory, according to a person familiar with the companys recruiting.

The story also notes that a small number of employees have left the company, citing moral objections to its impact on society and politics. And several early Facebook employees, including investors Sean Parker and Chamath Palihapitiya, have recently denounced it publiclya sign that it isnt just the East Coast media bubble that has grown disenchanted with the company.

In other words, some damage to Facebooks reputation has already been done. So while Zuckerberg this week will be speaking directly to members of Senate and House committees, hell also be indirectly addressing the concerns of Facebook users, employees, and skilled coders around the world. And his ability to control the damage on those fronts might be the most critical of all.

Read more from Slate on Cambridge Analytica.
As a small business owner with big goals, youre willing to spend money to make money. But you still make it a priority to spend smartly, so investing in something like advertising takes consideration. Once you make the decision to advertise, youll want to make sure youre getting the best results for your money from your advertising spend.

When your marketing and sales pipelines are running smoothly and you know your customers, online ads are a great way to accelerate customer acquisition and revenue. Research from Wordstream indicates that Google search ads drive average conversion rates of around 3.75%, so the opportunity is indeed real.

But if you dont know what youre doing and arent willing to learn, these campaigns can be a quick drain on your marketing departments resources, from ad spend to work hours wasted tweaking campaigns with no hope.

Success in online advertising involves multiple factors. You need to optimize how much your advertising brings in, how much it costs and what other resources it consumes. And you need to juggle this all consistently, all at the same time.

How do you balance and improve all these factors in tandem? The following advertising spend tactics will help you in multiple areas. Consider prioritizing them in your ad strategy.

Retarget Warm Leads

One of the best ways to make the most of your advertising spend is to retarget people whove already interacted with your brand. This could be audience members who have interacted with but not converted from other ads, website visitors referred by your social posts, or anyone else whos visited your pages or clicked on your links, depending on the ad platform.

This gives you a second opportunity to win over leads who are warm but havent converted. It often takes more than one try to bring someone into your sales funnel, and retargeting provides your second chance, third chance and so on.

[Image source ]

Depending on how you accomplish your retargeting, you can use ads for a variety of different goals. For example, its an effective way to get a paid campaign back in front of someone who didnt convert the first time and maximize its ROI. But it can also be used with platforms such as Facebook ads and custom audiences to show your existing website or social media audience a paid campaign.

Retargeting is an especially great use of your ad spend because it helps you focus on your best prospects, those whove already shown some interest in you. Think of it like Paretos Principle for advertising.

By focusing more of your advertising spend on higher potential prospects, you can get a higher return. This is how Lumension was able to increase lead volume by 81%, even while cutting their PPC budget by 30%.

Track Your Entire Funnel

If youre testing multiple points in your marketing funnel and retargeting people to bring them back into it at multiple touchpoints, youll need to be able to accurately track that impact on your business.

Yes, you have your ad campaign data, but thats not enough to understand how the conversions play out long-term. For example, if a lead generation campaign involves a follow-up sequence once an email lead is generated, youll need to tie the results from those email marketing efforts to the PPC campaign that originally acquired the lead.

Once a customer is in that state between having clicked on an ad and fully becoming a customer, you need to look to other tools to get a better view of your audience in the whole process of becoming a customer.

With Google Analytics, you can easily set up goal tracking and a conversion funnel to watch the bigger picture performance from your ads. Because theyre both Google products, its easy to aggregate your AdWords performance data to Analytics. But what about Facebook, Bing and other platforms?

By using a data consolidation tool (like SuperMetrics), you can save time managing the metrics of it all by automatically updating all PPC data in your Google Analytics reports. Supermetrics offers several data consolidation solutions, including integrations with Tableau, Excel and Google Data Visualizer, but if youre already used to comparing your referrer data in Analytics, this is the way to go.

Look at how all your marketing channels work together here to get the best understanding of how different channels like advertising contribute to the whole. Double down on whats working well, and kill what isnt.

Test Your Campaigns

One of the easiest ways to start improving your ad campaigns and capitalize on your advertising spend consistently is by testing new changes, methods and strategies often.

Always having a test going means always seeking ways to improve your campaign, getting better results. That might mean a lower ad spend, it might mean higher click-through rates or conversions, and it often means both. Thats why testing is so important to prioritize.

Running A/B and multivariate tests in your marketing allows you to try out new tactics in a controlled manner. Basic A/B testing focuses on testing two versions against each other, while multivariate testing looks deeper at different combinations and variations of campaign elements.

Theyre an opportunity to continuously fix underperforming campaigns and turn them around, or even find new opportunities for improvement inside already successful funnels.

You can test virtually any element of your campaign, from audience targeting and ad copy through to your landing page or an offers post-conversion page. The closer a test is to the conversion, the quicker you may be able to see results. For example, ComScore was able to increase conversions by almost 70% by testing product pages directly.

With so many ways to test, you can start with the areas of your campaign most in need of improvement to make the biggest impact. Once improved, move on to plug another leak.

Get the Most From Your Advertising Spend

When you get serious with your advertising spend, you wont want to set campaigns live and just let them be. Instead, to get maximum results, youll want to improve your chances of converting any way you can, from testing for improvements to retargeting warm leads.
Slovak photographer ended third in FEP competition

Tomas Hulik got a bronze statuette of a camera from a professionals competition in Dublin.

The Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP) gave an important award to Slovak photographer Tomas Hulik, his agent reported at the end of March.

An international jury of 14 professional photographers (presided over by Danish Jrgen Brandt who has exhibited in Bratislava) awarded him third place in the category Wildlife for a series of five photographs.

In 2018, more than 200 professionals of 25 countries took part in the competition, with almost 2,000 works in ten categories.

Tomas Hulik, an ambassador of the Nikon brand, is a photographer, documentary filmmaker and natural scientist. The Bratislava-based artist graduated from environmental studies at Comenius University and has made several famous and interesting documentary films featuring wildlife. He regularly works for GEO, National Geographic, Universum, and Lide a Zeme.

Hulik's perception of nature and photography

I perceive this award not just as a matter of professional prestige but also as a reminder of the deeper sense of my work, Tomas Hulik said after having received the prize in Dublin. He added that he was focused mostly on wildlife photography, and that taking pictures is a lifestyle for me, love and livelihood at the same time  as well as an enormous passion.

Nature offers innumerable opportunities for a photographer; it is varied and colourful, Hulik opined. It is a manifold field in which a photographer can apply his skills to the maximum, Hulik explained. Apart from wildlife photographs, I also like landscape photography and I like to take pictures of people as well.

10. Apr 2018 at 1:40 | Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovska
Via Bona laureate: A big company always has big responsibility

Slovenska Sporitelna believes that the prosperity and the future of the country are in our hands.

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Category: Main Award for a Responsible Large Corporation

Winners 2017: Slovenska Sporitelna

2016: Kia Motors Slovakia

2015: Heineken Slovensko

As we use to say, every Slovak village has a post office, church, and a Slovenska Sporitelna branch, says Barbara Henterova, head of the banks events and sponsoring department, with a smile.

Slovenska Sporitelna is the biggest commercial bank in the country. It has a full foreign exchange licence and permission to offer mortgages to its clients. At the same time, it has the biggest share in the market with deposits, the biggest network of branches and a dominant position in the issuing of payment cards.

The bank believes that a company with such importance and size needs to act responsibly, not only towards its clients, but also its employees, business partners, competition, communities, and regions.

We realise that the prosperity and the future of Slovakia is in our hands, said Peter Krutil, chair of the board of directors and CEO of Slovenska Sporitelna.

The banks responsible business strategy is based on its effort to contribute to a better life, prosperity and the development of civil society in Slovakia. This is the reason why they are helping people improve their lives, either by their activities in core business or welfare activities.

We think that to be a responsible member of the community means to feel responsibility for the society we are living in, Henterova explained, adding they always take this into consideration.

Focus on social banking

One of the activities to achieve this goal is social banking.

The basis is to provide banking services, financial education and counselling to target groups not targeted by any other bank in Slovakia, like starting entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations and low-income groups, Henterova explained.

The bank is contributing to solutions to problems like poverty, weak financial literacy or limits for starting small entrepreneurs to finance their activities via a bank loan. Its idea is that social banking activities should be economically sustainable and feasible, both without losses and profits. At the same time, they want to affect thousands of people in Slovakia.

As for the support to starting entrepreneurs, Slovenska Sporitelna is mostly offering them education, part of which is the scrutiny of the risks and their financial and business plan. Moreover, it offers them banking services, like financing, which is hard to acquire in other Slovak banks, as well as mentoring.

Statistics prove that if somebody is working with starting entrepreneurs, the chances of their business surviving are almost three times higher, Henterova explained.

Moreover, the bank provides non-profit organisations with education, banking services, including financing, and mentoring.

We have seen many non-profit organisations that have fully or partially transformed into sustainable social companies, Henterova said, adding they help their clients survive the time between receiving payments from state or grants and invest into the long-term sustainability of their activities.

Another target group are people who found themselves in a difficult situation while paying off their loans. In addition, the bank offers financial education.

Employees are important, too

Another idea pursued by Slovenska Sporitelna is that responsible companies need to create an employee-friendly environment. One way to achieve this is favourable working environment and benefits.

Henterova says their employees are very satisfied with the benefits offered. People mostly appreciate managerial skills training, badminton after work and the opportunity to reset their minds.

The system of benefits has recently changed. The bank is trying to reward their employees with, for example, an above-standard medical check, a day of volunteering that usually takes place during working hours, allowing people to help their communities, as well as massages, development lectures, workshops and various discounted offers.

A group of benefits is offered via HydePark, a special area created at two of the banks headquarters: in Bratislava and Banska Bystrica. It usually offers discussions with various interesting guests as well as workshops on both serious and less serious topics. Employees can discuss homelessness, ethics in society, a healthy lifestyle or make their own chocolate pralines.

We organise about 50 such events every year, Henterova said.

The events are also open to employees who can propose their own activities or lectures. For example, some of them have conducted their own yoga or karate classes. Similar events are held in regions under the name Wandering HydePark. Usually there is a different topic in a different region.

10. Apr 2018 at 22:27 | Jana Hvozdovicova
Via Bona awards: Companies can behave responsibly

The award celebrates companies pursuing responsible and fair business, inspiring others to do the same.

Helping to increase interest in original Slovak literature, running an electric taxi service, reminding young people about the revolution in 1989, or improving the health conditions in Roma communities. These are only a few examples of the projects with which companies active in Slovakia voluntarily help their neighbourhood, employees or the business environment. For their achievements, they have received the Via Bona Slovakia awards for 2017.

In contrast with the current situation in our country, it is excellent to see that it is still possible to do things in a responsible and fair way," said Lenka Surotchak, executive director of the Pontis Foundation, during the award giving ceremony in Bratislava on April 10. "Companies can change Slovakia for the better by how they behave towards their employees, environment, suppliers or local community. Sometimes, a small thing is enough to bring a big change. This is what this year's winners of Via Bona awards show us."

The ceremony took place in Stara Trznica in the Old Town and was also was attended by Wendy Luers, founder of the Foundation for Civil Society, the predecessor of the Pontis Foundation. President Andrej Kiska, who is on an official visit to South Korea, greeted the audience via a video speech.

In total, 48 small, middle-sized, and large companies submitted a project in the 18th year of the competition.

Main Award for a Responsible Large Corporation

Main Award for a Responsible Small/Middle-Sized Company

Green Award

ExcellentEmployer

Fair Player in the Market Award

Good Community Partner Award

Prize for Social Innovations

Family, Gender Equality, and Equal Opportunities-Friendly Employer

Award for a Contribution to Meeting Sustainable Development Goals

E-taxis aim to reduce noise

Category: Green Award 2017: GO4

Impact Futuristics (honourable mention) 2016: 2brothers 2015: JRK Waste Management (small company)

GreenCoop Druzstvo (big company)

The GO4 company became involved in courier services, and supported the Svihaj Suhaj project, delivering consignments by bike.

Now it is active in taxi services, using vehicles with purely electric engines. As a result, they do not produce any CO2 emissions and dust particles.

We decided to promote e-mobility in a slightly different way and add some fresh air to it, said Marcel Lukacka, executive director of GO4.

The project, launched in June 2017 with seven e-taxis, has already seen positive results.

We managed to reduce emissions, noise and dust particles in Bratislava and its surroundings, said Jozef Petras, project manager at GO4.

Listening to employees is important

Category: Excellent Employer 2017: Lidl Slovenska Republika 2016: IKEA Bratislava 2015: Bitunok HSH

I dont work in a grocery store, I work for Lidl is one of the mottos used in the campaign retailer Lidl launched in 2016 to strengthen ties with employees and improve the position of its brand in the market.

The new strategy under the slogan Im Lidl too was created following interviews with employees on how they view the company.

Subsequently, 11 concrete employees were chosen to represent the company on billboards situated across the country.

To see their colleagues unafraid of providing their face to promote the Lidl brand was very motivating for our employees, said Maria Potankova of Lidl.

Reminding young people about the revolution

Category: Fair Player in the Market Award 2017: O2 Slovakia 2016: METRO Cash&Carry SR 2015: PayLess Consulting

Young people today can hardly imagine being banned from travelling to, for example, Austria or being stopped at a heavily watched border. Most of them do not even know why November 17 was declared a national holiday, and become more vulnerable to accepting extremist and racist opinions.

To change current trends, telecommunications operator O2 Slovakia launched a project presenting the November 1989 revolution and its achievements.

Im convinced that companies are no longer just the providers of services or products, but a brand with opinions they can further share, said Peter Gazik, head of O2 Slovakia.

With this in mind, they created a symbolic Iron Curtain on November 17, 2016. Customers browsing foreign websites could read: Warning, state border, access denied, which gave them a glimpse of what life was like before November 1989.

In addition, customers crossing Slovakias borders received a special text message, informing them that such move was considered a crime before 1989.

Health assistants help outside Slovakia, too

Category: Good Community Partner Award 2017: GlaxoSmithKline Slovakia 2016: Nosene 2015: Obnova (small company)

Vychodoslovenska Energetika Holding (big company)

High sickness rates and low hygiene standards inspired GlaxoSmithKline Slovakia (GSK) to join forces with the Association for Culture, Education and Communication (ACEC) and launch a project to improve the health conditions in Roma communities in 2008. It started in two eastern Slovak villages: Svinia and Jarovnice.

Since then, they spread to other localities as well, one of which is Kosices infamous neighbourhood Lunik IX, which has the highest density of Roma inhabitants in Slovakia.

Our health assistants are inviting them to preventive medical checks, treating injuries and raising awareness, said Miriam Kejzlarova of GSK.

They also help people with chronic diseases, measure blood pressure, and supervise the taking of prescribed medication.

The project has spread to other countries like Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria. GSK is collaborating with relevant non-governmental organisations.

Programming in the Star Wars environment

Category: Prize for Social Innovations 2017: Accenture 2016: Jem ine SK

IT company Accenture is increasing the interest of children, especially girls, in studying IT. Through its unique project it shows teachers how children can learn to programme in an entertaining way. The pupils can, for example, programme in an environment that interest them, like Star Wars.

The project was initiated by companys employees, who attended the Hour of Code global movement. They soon realised it is not enough to teach one lesson on informatics in schools to increase the interest of pupils in this field.

We decided to move this initiative to another level, says Alena Kanabova, director of the corporate responsibility department at Accenture.

Their free training has been attended by more than 230 teachers so far.

Apart from that, Accenture is focusing on girls, encouraging them to study IT. Their interest often drops at secondary schools, where they are affected by various prejudices. To reverse this trend, they try to explain what it means to work in IT and show some concrete examples of successful women working in this field, Kanabova said.

Family benefits for LGBTI employees

Category: Family, Gender Equality, and Equal Opportunities-Friendly Employer 2017: Accenture 2015: SPP (Family-Friendly Employer)

IBM International Services Centre (Equal Opportunities-Friendly Employer)

IT company Accenture believes that diversity helps achieve better results. To keep people from various groups, they try to improve the environment they work in. This is also true for LGBTI employees.

Accenture offers these employees family benefits, and removes potential prejudices towards the community.

By supporting inclusion, were supporting our colleagues who want to come out, said Alena Kanabova, technology delivery lead senior manager and corporate citizenship lead for Slovakia at Accenture.

The LGBTI employees receive family benefits even though the Slovak legislation lacks any provisions supporting them.

The company also organises lectures to improve the position of LGBTI people at work.

Food for the needy

Category: Award for a Contribution to Meeting Sustainable Development Goals 2017: Tesco Stores SR

Pure Junk Design (honourable mention)

Food retailer Tesco was one of the first firms to respond to the 2015 call of the Netherlands to create a coalition to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

In the V4 region, we throw away 1.5 percent of food from our shops, said Veronika Bush of Tescos communications department. This number may seem low, but since we have 13 million customers a week, the number amounts to more than 49,000 tonnes a year.

The retailer fights waste by offering food that has passed its expiration date but is still good for consumption to people in need.

The retailer joined forces with the Food Bank of Slovakia, to which it donated 313 tonnes of food by September 2017.

It also contributed to the purchase of a vehicle that is delivering the food, and covers some logistics costs.

Moreover, the retailer launched the Perfectly Imperfect project, which offers selected fruit and vegetables whose shape does not meet store standards for a discounted price.

We are taking vegetables and fruit from our suppliers that do not meet usual visual standards with the aim of reducing waste, Bush said. Last year, they sold 450 tonnes of this foodstuff.

10. Apr 2018 at 22:29 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Orban's victory is toxic for Visegrad

Orban might inspire the buds of autocracy in other politicians who also dream about ruling without end and without political scruples.

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Viktor Orban took everything he could in the elections. Those who hoped that the voters would hold him accountable for his corruption scandals were disappointed. A large part of the country believe that the imaginary army of a foreign enemy is a greater threat to the country than corrupt oligarchs who have latched on to Orban in recent years.

He is dragging them along the road to the fortress of absolute power that he is building from the fear, frustration, and hatred of the voters. But that construction will necessarily topple onto its own constructor. After he crossed the Rubicon of democracy, he has lost all his scruples.

10. Apr 2018 at 5:50 | Beata Balogova
Along with Beethoven, wild garlic is another attraction of the manor house in Dolna Krupa

People pick the wild garlic which is recommended for a spring detox.

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Dozens of people visit the manor house in the western-Slovak village of Dolna Krupa near Trnava, known for visits by prominent musician Ludwig van Beethoven, to pick wild garlic in its park. Administrators of the manor house do not close its gates to such visitors, rather the opposite.

They can come each day with baskets of any size, said Michal Zak, administrator of the manor house, as cited by the TASR newsire, calling on them to be respectful of the surroundings. A large portion of the park is covered with the wild garlic and there is enough for everybody.

Wild garlic (Source: TASR)

The manor house with its 17-hectare park now serves as the Music Museum of the Slovak National Museum. Its exhibition presents original relics and facsimiles of sources on the life and work of Beethoven who, according to oral tradition, visited the manor house and composed his Moonlight Sonata there.

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Popularity of wild garlic or ramson has increased in Slovakia over the last few years. It is used in salads, for making pesto, soups and other things.

Austrian herbalist Maria Treben has promoted it as an excellent herb for spring detoxication as well as for curing stomach problems.

Popularity of wild garlic in Slovakia is increasing. (Source: TASR)

Wild garlic grows in deciduous forests as it likes humidity. It is considered at its best before it starts blossoming.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

But nature conservationists warn that it is prohibited to pick wild garlic in nature parks and reserves with three and higher degrees of protection.

10. Apr 2018 at 5:34 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Have you seen the new Slovak Spartan?

The second military cargo aircraft has already arrived in Slovakia.

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The second of two Spartan C-27J military cargo aircraft for the Armed Forces has already arrived in Slovakia. It landed at the airbase in Kuchyna, Zahorie region in western Slovakia, on April 9. Defence Minister Peter Gajdos (SNS) welcomed it in person along with other representatives of the Defence Ministry and Slovak armed forces.

This aircraft, as with the first one, is prepared to fulfil tasks linked with domestic as well as international crisis management, said Gajdos, as cited by the TASR newswire.

The first Spartan, delivered to Slovakia in late 2017, has already been used for the transportation of material and outfits for the Slovak contingent operating within the UNFICYP peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.

The price of each aircraft is 35.8 million ex VAT. The delivery of the first Spartan by the Italian supplier was delayed but they compensated for this with a discount, meaning a saving for Slovakia of 879,000. The second aircraft was delivered on time. .

The purchase of the two Spartan planes dates back to 2008 when the supplier was selected in a public competition but the agreement was not signed until 2014. Part of the contract includes logistics support, TASR wrote.

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The original plan to buy the planes came in the wake of the crash of an An-24 military aircraft close to the Hungarian village of Hejce.

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10. Apr 2018 at 5:25 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Proposal on declaring Bhaktapur as capital

A proposal has been registered at Province 3 secretariat on declaring Bhaktapur as the provincial capital.
New interior minister Drucker rejects accusations of murky land deals

Opposition politician claims that Druckers wife has acquired lucrative land in western Slovakia significantly under price.

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Interior Minister Tomas Drucker (Smer nominee) has rejected allegations levelled by opposition OLaNO leader Igor Matovic that his wife acquired lucrative land near Trnava significantly under price. Drucker claims that his wifes business is built strictly on market principles and that her business cannot be linked with any of his public office posts in any way.

Tomas Drucker fundamentally rejects the fabricated stories and interpretations involving land purchase links and speculation on revenues from the purchase, wrote Druckers ministry in a statement cited by the TASR newswire, adding that the minister is ready at any time to go through the deliveries provided by the Rempo company to the Slovak Post Office during the time when Drucker served as chairman of its board of directors.

Rempo has been supplying the Post Office as well as many other public-sector organisations and private companies with a wide range of goods for decades. Tomas Drucker utterly rejects such spurious links between Rempos business, his person and his wifes business, wrote the ministry.

The business of Druckers wife in the village of Spacince near Trnava was carried out for the purpose of residential construction for commercial purposes.

The land in Spacince was acquired by the Logaro company at the end of 2016 for 8.94 per square metre, said Drucker. During 2017 preparatory work was carried out on these plots of land and during the process another development company expressed interest in buying it. The purchase price represented 37 per square metre at that time and the entire area, including the land owned by Logaro, was sold off at the end of 2017.

Earlier on Monday, April 9, Matovic accused Drucker and his wife Lucia of obtaining plots of land in and around the city of Trnava for one tenth of their market value, saving up to 1.38 million, which ended up in the couples wallet. He called on Drucker to publish all the documents containing the information about how he acquired the land.

Matovic claims that Druckers wife managed to obtain land worth 1.5 million for only 120,000. He suspects that this was done as compensation for granting state commissions worth millions of euros to a company called Rempo during the time when Drucker headed the state-owned Slovak Post Office.

[The company] used to gain tailor-made commissions, and it often competed with itself in tenders, said Matovic, adding that Rempo has been the preferred supplier not only for the Post Office but also for then ministers Robert Kalinak, Jan Pociatek and Martin Glvac (all Smer).

10. Apr 2018 at 5:15 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Jaguar Land Rover will drive Slovakias foreign trade later this year

February trade balance figures no surprise to analysts.

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The February foreign-trade figures were no surprise, with the trade-balance surplus continuing to slacken year after year, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia analyst Lubomir Korsnak said when commenting on the latest data released by the Statistics Office on Monday, April 9.

The foreign-trade balance was no real surprise, said Korsnak, as cited by the TASR newswire. In line with market expectations, the year-on-year growth rate slowed down on both sides of the balance, chiefly as a result of the base effect. After seasonal adjustments, both exports and imports posted a moderate improvement from January, thus confirming expectations for a gradual revival of industrial growth along with the automotive industrys resurgence.

Strong domestic demand, chiefly for imported technologies for a new automotive plant, later joined by higher industrial orders before the start of production itself, should press imports forward for most of the year, stated the analyst.

However, the slackening of surpluses could slow down, as it might be partly compensated by stronger exports, said Korsnak. These should be driven by the ongoing cyclical recovery in Europe, which the domestic [already established] automotive industry [modernisation of VW Touareg and a new model of Audi Q8] should finally start to benefit from at the beginning of the year.

In the second half of the year, chiefly near the end of it, and into next year, trade-balance surpluses might start significantly growing again under the influence of the countrys fourth carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, transitioning from the investment stage into production.

The Foreign-trade base in general remains favourable, said Slovenska Sporitelna analyst Katarina Muchova. The contribution of foreign-trade to the GDP growth should be even higher this year, fuelled by demand from our European partners. A new carmaker should also launch production near Nitra in late 2018, which will contribute to the growth of exports. Our estimate of Slovakias GDP growth this year remains at 3.9 percent.

Slovakias foreign trade produced a surplus of 140.8 million in February 2018, which is a drop of 151.6 million year-on-year. Total exports amounted to 6.249 billion, up by 4.9 percent y-o-y, while total imports increased even more - by 7.9 percent - to reach 6.109 billion, the Statistics Office reported.

10. Apr 2018 at 5:04 | Compiled by Spectator staff
The number of Slovaks returning from abroad rises

The last time Slovakia registered a positive migration balance was in the crisis year of 2009.

The number of people arriving in Slovakia exceeded the number of those leaving in 2016. Thanks to migration Slovakias population increased that year by almost 6,000 people. In 2017 it further increased to 15,000. The economic think tank, the Financial Policy Institute, running under the Finance Ministry came to this conclusion when analysing the data of health insurance companies.

The last time we registered a positive migration balance was in the crisis year of 2009, Tomas Rizman and Kristina Sacherova wrote in their analysis.

The number of returning Slovaks has been increasing along with the arrival of new foreigners.

One in three arrivals to Slovakia in 2016 was a foreigner. The share of migrants from other countries coming to Slovakia over the past four years has increased by almost one-half. Most of them are citizens of the Ukraine and Serbia, and from non-European countries they mainly come from Vietnam, China and South Korea.

Without the arrival of citizens from other countries, the migration balance would still be negative. However, the trend is improving. While between 2010 and 2015, approximately 28,000 Slovaks returned home each year, this figure went up to 32,000 in 2016. The following year it again decreased slightly to 30,200.

Nevertheless, the number of people in the age group 18-28 leaving Slovakia is still slightly higher than the number of those who arrive.

10. Apr 2018 at 4:56 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Budgetary council estimates 61 percent of Slovak employees received bonuses

The timing of bonuses being paid differs between the private and public sectors.

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While employers in Slovakia pay most bonuses at the end of the year, the private sector pays the highest bonuses in the period after tax returns are filed, and the public sector at the end of the year. This stems from a commentary drafted by the Budgetary Responsibility Council and published April 9.

According to our estimate, 61 percent of all employees received bonuses in 2017, The Council writes, as quoted by the SITA newswire. If we take this into account and look only at the people and months when the bonuses were paid, we will find that the average level of bonuses for all 2017 was 530.

In the private sector, higher bonuses are paid throughout the year, an average of 570, whereas in the public sector the average is 413.

Reason for the differences

This may also be related to the fact that there are no professions that include sales in the public sector where the bonuses are part of the remuneration system, the Budgetary Responsibility Council explained, according to SITA. Most bonuses are paid at the end of the year, in both the private and public sectors. So employers reward their employees for their years effort, bonuses fulfilling a stimulating and motivating function.

10. Apr 2018 at 13:39 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Kosice explosion and fire investigated by police

The Sunday explosion and fire that claimed one life is being investigated as public threat.

The house that suffered explosion and fire on Sunday 8 in Kosice. (Source: TASR)

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On April 8, the inhabitants of Obchodna Street in Kosice witnessed an explosion and fire in their block of flats. A dead man's body was found in the flat at the epicentre of the explosion; the identity is being checked by the police, regional police spokesperson Jana Mesarova told the TASR newswire.

The police launched the investigation and a criminal prosecution, citing public threat as the main charge.

The reasons have not been determined so far, Mesarova added. The falling debris of the windows damaged several cars and motor vehicles parked next to the block, she said, adding that later, the fire spread from one flat to the corridor and the outer walls of the house, and the space was full of smoke.

One day later, police were still searching the crime site, with experts from the Criminal and Forensic Institute of the Police Corps, hoping to find a clue.

The explosion took place around 21:30 on April 8, all inhabitants immediately evacuated. Four of them suffered health issues caused by smoke inhalation.

30 firefighters and nine vehicles were deployed.

10. Apr 2018 at 13:43 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Accident at STU was not a fire but smoke

The alleged fire on the technology university's roof that alarmed Bratislavans was smoke created during research activities.

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The fire reported on the morning of April 10  shortly before 9:00  on the roof of the Slovak University of Technology (STU) in Kollarovo Square in Bratislava was a false alarm in the end, the Fire- and Rescue Corps (HaZZ) in Bratislava informed the TASR newswire. The information stating a fire has not been confirmed.

A greater amount of smoke arose during research in the laboratories of one faculty, and the smoke was sucked through the vents, from the roof to the outside air, STU spokesperson Andrea Settey Hajduchova reported. These were the inorganic technology laboratories where scientists develop new metal materials.

Firefighters arrived and searched the area, the interiors, and tried to find the origin of the smoke, HaZZ informed. They also checked the presence of dangerous substances in the air. 34 firefighters and nine vehicles were deployed.

Lessons and other work activities at the faculty duly resumed right after the fire brigade checked the building, Settey Hajduchova added.

10. Apr 2018 at 13:47 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Protests connected to journalist murder continue Sunday

Organisers of the For Decent Slovakia protest meetings argue their demands have not been met yet, and are planning two more simultaneous events.

The For Decent Slovakia initiative has arranged two more gatherings in Bratislava and Humenne, for Sunday, April 15. The protests will begin at 16:00 in both cities, the Sme daily wrote on April 10.

Why Sunday?

Organizers opted for Sunday because it is the most appropriate day for people to travel to protest sites.

With the agreement of all organisers of meetings around Slovakia, we are going to meet again in the east, in Humenne, and in the west, in Bratislava, organisers told the daily. In this way, we want to symbolically express the unity across all Slovak regions from the beginning to the end of the country, they explained.

Demands behind the protests

The demands of protesters remain the same and organizers believe their fulfillment should restore the trust of people in the state.

Almost six weeks have passed since the murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, organisers said, as quoted by Sme. Despite politicians promises of structural changes and taking personal responsibility, no real changes have been made, especially at the Interior Ministry, they noted, adding that instead, they keep hearing excuses and they perceive the threat of looming normalisation from both politicians and the top management of the public-service broadcaster, RTVS.

Gaspar and Kovacik to go

Organisers are requesting the dismissal of Police President Tibor Gaspar, the establishment of an independent police inspection, and a change in the selection method of police corps management.

Moreover, they want Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik to resign, and a change in the election of the person for this position.

Police and the Special Prosecutors Office are institutions that ignore corruption scandals which the murdered journalist and his colleagues had written about, they argue.

At the meetings, the organisers also want to talk about further steps of the initiative. Meetings are prepared in cooperation with organisers of meetings in other Slovak cities. They also send a message to the Slovak public, saying that they should not mistake decency for lack of resolution and perseverance, Sme wrote.

10. Apr 2018 at 22:22 | Compiled by Spectator staff
US presents F-16 aircraft in Bratislava

If the offer is accepted, the first fighter planes should arrive in Slovakia by the end of 2022.

Representatives of the US aerospace, defence, security, and advanced technology company, Lockheed Martin, presented an offer to sell F-16 aircraft to Slovakia on April 10. If Slovakia accepts the offer, the first F-16 fighter jets could arrive in the country by the end of 2022, they said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The need to replace obsolete Russian MiG-29 aircraft with more modern fighter jets has been an issue in Slovakia for a long time. Buying American F-16 fighter jets like the BLOCK 70 is one option, while another is a Swedish Gripen aircraft.

The proposed F-16 aircraft deal will be able to compete with the Swedish Gripen aircraft and will form part of a package that includes training and weaponry, the US arms producers representative, Michael Kelley, told TASR. He did not want to specify on the sum, as the sale is still under negotiation.

Kelley declined to specify the cost of a flight hour, either. He only said that although the cost of Gripens might be lower, their service life would be less than those of F-16s.

2022 at the earliest

The aircraft would not be supplied to Slovakia earlier than 2022 as the necessary infrastructure in Slovakia must be prepared first. Delivery is scheduled for late 2022, Kelley said, adding that the first four planes should be delivered to Slovakia at that time.

The deal should also include a programme of pilot training. Its difficult to set an exact time for the training, as the sale process is at the resolution stage at the moment, said Craig Dalle, a former US air force pilot who flew F-16s, as cited by TASR. Based on his own experience, he estimated that the training will take three years. He stressed that the technical staff set to be involved in maintaining the aircraft need to be trained as well.

F-16 BLOCK 70 aircraft are currently in operation in 25 countries, including Italy, Norway and Poland. According to Kelley, F-16s are the most successful jet fighters in the world that have also been tested in combat. The modernisation of their construction guarantees that F-16s will fly until at least 2045, he said.

Possible future steps

Based on a request from the Slovak Defence Ministry, the US Congress on April 4 began dealing with a Letter of Offer and Acceptance related to an offer of F-16 aircraft to Slovakia for a total amount of $2.91 billion.

If the US Congress approves the offer, it will not mean that the ministry leadership has already decided to purchase this type of fighter aircraft, the Defence Ministry pointed out.

After considering offers from both the USA and Sweden, Defence Minister Peter Gajdos will submit what he thinks is the most effective solution to the Slovak cabinet by June 29, 2018.

10. Apr 2018 at 22:33 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Vermont Students Model State History with 3D Printers

Students in Vermont recently took part in 3D Vermont, a competition that asks students to use 3D printers and other technology to bring their state's history to life.

Hosted by the Vermont Agency of Education and Vermont Technical College, the competition brings middle and high school students together around a giant map of the state. Students then place models of historical buildings, that they've designed and 3D printed to scale, on their appropriate locations around the map. Students often include environmental features or artifacts from inside the buildings that they've also printed or otherwise produced to put the buildings in the appropriate historical, cultural or environmental context. Students are expected to include a label or QR code on the bottom of their models that may link to websites or other resources students have created to explain the historical relevance of their buildings and line up around the competition venue to show off their research in person, as well.

"Buildings included libraries, post offices, hotels, prisons, churches, schools and homes," according to a blog post about the event. "Students had to research the site, which meant digging into primary source materials (period blueprints, journals, newspapers, letters), reading into secondary sources (books, articles, web documents), interviewing people (building owners, historians, architects), and exploring the site directly (an interesting number of students never got inside their objects)."

Students used tools such as TinkerCad, SketchUp, Fusion 360 and SolidWorks, along with an array of different printers to create their models. Participants also used a range of technologies to present their research, including Google Presentations, websites, photo and primary document displays and, in one case, a virtual reality tour.

In the middle school division, this year's first place winner was a team from Castleton School. St. Albans City and Town School took second and Mater Christi Middle School came in third.

Among the high school competitors, Windsor High School took first place, Enosburg Falls High School took second and Montpelier High School won honorable mention.

More information is available at 3dvermont.org and bryanalexander.org. Visit createmakelearn.blogspot.com for images and video from the event.
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.

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Province ministers request for foreign labour offices

Social development ministers from different provinces have requested the government to set up foreign employment offices in all seven provinces.
The following companies are subsidiares of BP: 200 PS Overseas Holdings Inc., 563916 Alberta Ltd., ACP (Malaysia) Inc., AE Cedar Creek Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Wind Farm LLC, AE Power Services LLC, AE Wind PartsCo LLC, AM/PM International Inc., ARCO, ARCO British International, ARCO British Limited, ARCO Coal Australia Inc., ARCO El-Djazair Holdings Inc., ARCO Environmental Remediation L.L.C., ARCO Exploration Inc., ARCO Gaviota Company, ARCO International Investments Inc., ARCO International Services Inc., ARCO Midcon LLC, ARCO Oil Company Nigeria Unlimited, ARCO Oman Inc, ARCO Resources Limited, ARCO Trinidad Exploration and Production Company Limited, ARCO Unimar Holdings LLC, Actomat B.V., Advance Petroleum Holdings Pty Ltd, Advance Petroleum Pty Ltd, Air BP Albania SHA, Air BP Brasil Ltda., Air BP Canada LLC, Air BP Croatia d.o.o., Air BP Finland Oy, Air BP Iceland, Air BP Limited, Air BP Norway AS, Air BP Sales Romania S.R.L., Air BP Sweden AB, Air Refuel Pty Ltd, Allgreen Pty Ltd, AmProp Finance Company, American Oil Company, Amoco (Fiddich) Limited, Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Company LLC., Amoco Bolivia Petroleum Company, Amoco Bolivia Services Company Inc., Amoco Canada International Holdings B.V., Amoco Capline Pipeline Company, Amoco Chemical (Europe) S.A., Amoco Chemicals (FSC) B.V., Amoco Cypress Pipeline Company, Amoco Destin Pipeline Company, Amoco Environmental Services Company, Amoco Exploration Holdings B.V., Amoco Guatemala Petroleum Company, Amoco International Finance Corporation, Amoco International Petroleum Company, Amoco Leasing Corporation, Amoco Louisiana Fractionator Company, Amoco MB Fractionation Company, Amoco MBF Company, Amoco Main Pass Gathering Company, Amoco Marketing Environmental Services Company, Amoco Netherlands Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Exploration Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Oil Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company Limited, Amoco Norway Oil Company, Amoco Oil Holding Company, Amoco Olefins Corporation, Amoco Overseas Exploration Company, Amoco Pipeline Asset Company, Amoco Pipeline Holding Company, Amoco Properties Incorporated, Amoco Remediation Management Services Corporation, Amoco Research Operating Company, Amoco Rio Grande Pipeline Company, Amoco Somalia Petroleum Company, Amoco Sulfur Recovery Company, Amoco Tri-States NGL Pipeline Company, Amoco Trinidad Gas B.V., Amoco U.K. Petroleum Limited, Amprop Illinois I Limited, Amprop Inc., Anaconda Arizona Inc., Arabian Production And Marketing Lubricants, Aral Aktiengesellschaft, Aral Luxembourg S.A., Aral Services Luxembourg Sarl, Aral Tankstellen Services Sarl, Arco Mediterraneo Inversiones S.L., Areas Noriega S.L., Areas Singulares Reyes S.L., Aspac Lubricants (Malaysia) Sdn. 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Ul., BP Portugal -Comercio de Combustiveis e Lubrificantes SA, BP Poseidon Limited, BP Products North America, BP Products North America Inc., BP Properties Limited, BP Raffinaderij Rotterdam B.V., BP Refinery (Kwinana) Proprietary Limited, BP Regional Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd, BP River Rouge Pipeline Company LLC, BP Russian Investments Limited, BP Russian Ventures Limited, BP SC Holdings LLC, BP Scale Up Factory Limited, BP Senegal Investments Limited, BP Services International Limited, BP Servicios de Combustibles S.A. de C.V., BP Servicios territoriales S.A., BP Shafag-Asiman Limited, BP Shipping Limited, BP Singapore Pte. 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Ltd., Dome Beaufort Petroleum Limited, Dome Wallis (1980) Limited Partnership, ECM Markets SA (Pty) Ltd, Elektromotive Limited, Elite Customer Solutions Pty Ltd, Elm Holdings Inc., Energy Global Investments (USA) Inc., Enstar LLC, Estacion de Servicio Alto Campoo S.L., Estacion de Servicio Ganzo 10 S.L., Estacion de Servicio Reocin 9 S.L., Estacion de Servicio Santillana II S.L., Estacion de Servicio Sardinero S.L., Estonian Aviation Fuelling Services, Europa Oil NZ Limited, Exomet Inc., Expandite Contract Services Limited, Exploration (Luderitz Basin) Limited, Exploration Service Company Limited, FWK (2017) Limited, FWK Holdings (2017) LTD, Finite Carbon, Flat Ridge 2 Holdings LLC, Flat Ridge Wind Energy LLC, Foseco Holding Inc., Foseco Holding International B.V., Foseco Inc., Fosroc Expandite Limited, Fotech Solutions Ltd, Fowler Ridge Holdings LLC, Fowler Ridge I Land Investments LLC, Fowler Ridge II Holdings LLC, Fowler Ridge III Wind Farm LLC, FreeBees B.V., Fuel & Retail Aviat ion Sweden AB, Fuelplane- Sociedade Abastecedora De Aeronaves Unipessoal Lda, GOAM 1 C.I S. A .S, Gardena Holdings Inc., Gelsenkirchen Raffinerie Netz GmbH, Grampian Aviation Fuelling Services Limited, Guangdong Investments Limited, Highlands Ethanol LLC, Hosteleria Noriega S.L., IGI Resources Inc., Insight Analytics Solutions Holdings Limited, Insight Analytics Solutions Limited, Insight Analytics Solutions USA Inc., International Bunker Supplies Pty Ltd, Iraq Petroleum Company Limited, Jupiter Insurance Limited, Ken-Chas Reserve Company, Kenilworth Oil Company Limited, Kingbook Inversiones Socimi S.A., Latin Energy Argentina S.A., Lebanese Aviation Technical Services S.A.L., Limited Liability Company BP Toplivnaya Kompania, Limited liability company Setra Lubricants, Lubricants UK Limited, Lytt Limited, Manormaker (Nominee No. 1) Limited, Manormaker (Nominee No. 2) Limited, Manormaker GP Limited (99.90%) 11 Black Horse Lane, Mardi Gras Transportation System Company LLC, Markoil S.A., Masana Petroleum Solutions (Pty) Ltd, Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development, Mehoopany Holdings LLC, Mes Tecnologia En Servicios Y Energia S.A., Minza Pty. Ltd., Mountain City Remediation LLC, No. 1 Riverside Quay Proprietary Limited, Nordic Lubricants A/S, Nordic Lubricants AB, North America Funding Company, OMD87 Inc., OOO BP STL, Omega Oil Company, OnSight Analytics Solutions India Private Ltd., Orion Delaware Mountain Wind Farm LP, Orion Energy Holdings LLC, Orion Energy L.L.C.b, Orion Post Land Investments LLC, Oyambre 1 S.L., PRODUITS METALLURGIE DOITTAU, PT BP Petrochemicals, PT Castrol Indonesia, PT Castrol Manufacturing Indonesia, PT Jasatama Petroindo, Pacroy (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Peaks America Inc., Pearl River Delta Investments Limited, Petrocorner Retail S.L.U., Phoenix Petroleum Services Limited, Pozuelo 4 S.L., Prospect International C.A. (In liquidation), Puente Arce 4 S.L., Remediation Management Services Company, Richfield Oil Corporation, Rio Corvo 2 S.L., Rolling Thunder I Power Partners LLC, Romax Insight Korea Ltd., Ropemaker Deansgate Limited, Ropemaker Properties Limited, Ruhr Oel GmbH, Rusdene GSS Limited, SOFAST Limited, SRHP, Saturn Insurance Inc., Sherbino I Holdings LLC, Sherbino Mesa I Land Investments LLC, Sociedade de Promocao Imobiliaria Quinta do Loureiro SA, Societe de Gestion de Depots d'Hydrocarbures - GDH, South Texas Shale LLC, Southeast Texas Biofuels LLC, Southern Ridge Pipeline Holding Company, Southern Ridge Pipeline LP LLC, Sp/f Decision3 (GreenSteam) Company, Standard Oil Company, Standard Oil Company Inc., Standard Oil of Ohio, Stryde Limited, Sunrise Oil Sands Partnership, TISA Education Complex LLC, TJKK, Taradadis Pty. Ltd., Telcom General Corporation, Terre de Grace Partnership, The Anaconda Company, The BP Share Plans Trustees Limited, The Burmah Oil Company (Pakistan Trading) Limited, The Standard Oil Company, Toledo Refinery Holding Company LLC, Torrelavega 7 S.L., Union Texas International Corporation, Vastar Pipeline LLC, Veba Oel AG Veba Oel, Verenium, Viceroy Investments Limited, Villacarriedo 8 S.L., Warrenville Development Limited, Water Way Trading and Petroleum Services LLC, Welchem Inc., West Kimberley Fuels Pty Ltd, Westlake Houston Development LLC, Whiting Clean Energy Inc., Windpark Energy Nederland B.V., and Winwell Resources L.L.C.
Wall Street analysts have given Greencore Group a "Buy" 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 Greencore Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Iraqi Col. Ali Sabah, displays ancient artefacts Iraqi Security Forces discovered in 2008, during two raids in northern Basra. Source: Wikimedia

Global outrage at the looting did lead to immediate action. One of the most successful programs was an amnesty granted by authorities that saw almost 2,000 items returned by January 2004, and a further thousand items seized by Iraqi and US investigators.

Initial returns were largely local. One early success was the famous Lady of Warka, dated to around 3100 BC; she was recovered by investigators at a nearby farm following a tip off.

Others have come home following international investigations (a large number of objects seem to have travelled through London and New York in the aftermath), such as a statue of Assyrian king Argon II seized in New York in 2008 and returned to the museum in 2015.

Likewise the heaviest item stolen, a headless statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash was recovered in New York in 2006 with the help of an art dealer. Interpol and the University of Chicago have fastidiously maintained databases for objects looted from museum.

Demand increasing

While destruction and looting of cultural heritage has been a by-product of war for thousands of years, the scale of the looting of the Iraq Museum was staggering. Particularly frustrating were the neglected warnings that such an incident could happen, and the immediate response from the Bush administration that stuff happens.

The museum looting should have been a clarion call for the need for better protection of antiquities in conflict zones, both from combatants and local populations. Sadly, this has not been the case. There has been subsequent destruction of archaeological sites and museums in Syria and Libya, ISIS selling antiquities to finance weapons, and increases in thefts from both private and public collections and from archaeological sites.

Part of the problem with halting the illegal global trade of stolen antiquities is the scale of the market. In late 2017, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal presented the sobering assessment that over 100,000 antiquities are offered for sale online daily, of which up to 80% are likely to be faked or looted.

The industry is estimated by Neil Brodie of the University of Oxford to have a turnover of US$10 million a day. Todays antiquities black market is using social media platforms and messenger apps to reach buyers in a way that would have been inconceivable to looters in 2003. There has been a surge in antiquities originating in Syria available online since the outbreak of the civil war.

In order to halt looting, it is essential that private collectors and institutions only purchase antiquities with a legal provenance to dry up the demand.

Ironically, centuries after many of the remains of these ancient cultural entities were looted by European colonial forces in order to fill grand national museums, we are seeing a 21st century version of cultural colonialism. Private collectors are enabling an entire economy of illegal activities.

The loss of these sites and artefacts is disastrous for humanity. The Baghdad looting has shown that in times of conflict, not even a museum can necessarily provide a sanctuary, without meaningful policies of protection. Sadly, it appears we have not learnt the lessons of April 2003.
Stone hurled at Bharatpur Metropolis-10 ward chair

An unknown group hurled a stone at Ward Chairman of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-10 Arunpidit Bhandari. He was attacked in the busy Sahidchok of Narayangadh market in Chitwan at around 4 pm on Tuesday.
The tiger and the farmer

In his memoir The Soul of the Rhino, the pioneer conservationist Hemanta Mishra describes his first sighting of rhinos in the wild: Ugly and vicious, yetthey radiated an undeniable appeal.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Two NC leaders divided over outcome of PMs India visit

The main opposition Nepali Congress seems divided over the outcome of the state visit of Prime Minister KP Oli to India that concluded on Sunday.
Chipmaker Broadcom has announced that efforts to redomicile itself from Singapore to the United States had been successfully completed. Prior to the acquisition of Broadcom by Avago of Singapore in 2016 Broadcom was an American firm. Plans to redomicile had been announced last year in November.

The completion of our redomicilation to the United States marks an important milestone in our companys history as Broadcom has been an American company in every respect but our legal domicile, said Hock Tan, the chief executive officer and president of Broadcom.

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Exchange of shares

According to the chipmaker all Broadcom Ltds share were exchanged for newly issued ones of Broadcom Inc on a basis of one-for-one. The stock of Broadcom will continue to trade under the old ticker.

While San Jose in California has been a co-headquarter it will now become the sole headquarters of Broadcom Inc. The redomicilation will likely not have any impact on employees or the day-to-day operations as the chipmaker was already being run from San Jose.

In the United States Broadcom has a presence in over 35 states where it employs more than 8,300 workers. Broadcom intends to invest approximately $3 billion on a yearly basis in research and development and an additional $6 billion in manufacturing.

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

The redomicilation to the U.S. could now allow the chipmaker to acquire U.S. firms without having to be scrutinized by CFIUS  Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The CFIUS has powers to halt deals which are likely to pose a threat to the national security of the United States.

Broadcoms move to the U.S. comes less than a month since the chipmaker was blocked by U.S. President Donald Trump from acquiring Qualcomm on national security grounds. While issuing the order Trump also prohibited the candidates that Broadcom had proposed to stand for election as directors of Qualcomm. Earlier the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had expressed concerns over the deal.

Besides the potential threat to national security the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States also gave other reasons why the deal should be halted including a reputation Broadcom has gained of reducing spending on research and development. Thus according to the committee if Broadcom were allowed to acquire Qualcomm it would slash the latters R&D budget and consequently give countries such as China an advantage with regards to the development and mass rollout of crucial technologies such as 5G.
Equity Issues

Research: Students Who Benefit Most from Charter Schools Are Least Likely to Apply

The students most likely to benefit from attending charter schools rather traditional public schools are less likely to actually attend charter schools, in part because of the way charter school enrollment is structured, according to new research from a University of California Berkeley economist.

Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, those with lower academic achievements and students who are not white are the most likely to benefit academically from attending a charter school, according to Christopher Walters, associate professor of economics at Berkeley. But those same students are less likely to apply to charter schools in Boston Public Schools (BPS).

"Instead," according to a UC Berkeley news release, "BPS charter applicants tend to have higher socioeconomic status and fewer academic problems than students who do not apply to charters, are less likely to qualify for subsidized lunches, to have special education status, or to be classified as limited English proficient."

"In the literature on school choice programs, it is often assumed that higher-benefit kids will be more likely to opt in to these programs," Walters said in a prepared statement, "either because they may be less satisfied with the effectiveness of their other schooling options or because they have some information about whether the program is a good match."

That mismatch between need and attendance may be explained, at least in part, by a decentralized application system for charter schools in the district, according to Walters. In Boston and many other cities, lists of school preferences are centrally maintained for traditional public schools, but students interested in more than one charter school must apply to each school individually. The scattershot application process erects a logistical and bureaucratic barrier that leads to submission of a single application for most charter school hopefuls.

Walters suggested that more outreach to the students most likely to benefit and changes to institutional processes could lead to more representative student populations at charter schools.

"In 2010," according to information released by Berkeley, "Massachusetts passed a law allowing some Boston charter operators to expand to new campuses. As part of this law, schools were also required to increase recruitment efforts for high-need students, as measured by special education, subsidized lunch status and other factors."

Those expansion campuses are more representative and just as effective as their parent schools, according to other research from Walters that has yet to be peer reviewed.

"There is convincing evidence that conditions in early life can affect kids' long-term economic outcomes," Walters said, "so the education system is an area where changes in public policy may have particularly important impacts on inequality. There are also a variety of interesting recent policy experiments in this area and good data sets that can be used to study their effects."

Walter's paper, "The Demand for Effective Charter Schools," will be published in the Journal of Political Economy.
Electronic commerce in Vietnam has grown significantly in recent times and is expecting its heyday in several years ahead, presenting fresh opportunities for online retailers.

Vietnams ecommerce growth rate for 2017 was over 25 percent and is likely to remain stable or even become higher between 2018 and 2020, according to an e-business index report formulated by the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), a non-profit founded in 2007.

The rate was ranked amongst the highest worldwide, said Mai Thi Lan Van, marketing director of Adayroi, a local online retailer.

E-commerce tends to form online marketplaces which gain the greatest shopping trust from customers, she added.

Non-traditional enterprises have reaped substantial benefits from the upswing.

The number of orders and sales of products from Lazada in the Vietnam market each surged by a massive 100 percent last year, said a representative of the firms branch in the country.

Vietnam is a market that no international business giants can afford to miss, commented Tran Ngoc Thai Son, CEO of Tiki, a major Vietnamese online retailer.

VECOM recorded a healthy rise of 62 percent to 200 percent in the turnover of delivery services nationwide.

The associations figures also showed that several affiliate marketing enterprises  those receiving commission for selling products of other firms  achieved an impressive growth rate between 100 and 200 percent.

E-commerce in Vietnam has long been common as a concept but only started developing about three years ago as an activity, when capital from large companies poured in, noted Nguyen Ngoc Dung, VECOMs vice-director.

Some famed brick-and-mortar businesses have made forays into e-commerce by introducing their own websites as an adaptation to the new type of selling.

A deliveryman from Adayroi, an online retailer, hands a package to customers at a luxurious apartment building in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

But the burgeoning electronic trading scene also includes home-based, mostly self-employed individuals who thrive financially.

Hien, a Vietnamese woman with two children, has been able to raise her family only from online trading over the past four years.

She fills orders for foreign products from customers by placing orders on websites of overseas companies, earning around US$2-10 for each item.

Mai Chi, owner of a clothes shop chain, said she has been working with online channels and selling on the Internet, even though she already has stores across Ho Chi Minh City.

Sellers have recently capitalized on flourishing e-commerce by hiring beautiful young women with verbal skills for live-streamed sales.

Over one million Vietnamese pursue online selling as a second job, according to VECOM.

Such people may be considered effective partners and formidable competitors for domestic online channels.

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Vietnams mobile carriers are allowing subscribers to submit their portraits online to complete account registration, as per a new regulation taking effect later this month, instead of the widely condemned option of doing so by physically visiting a store.

Under Government Decree 49, coming into effect on April 24, all mobile subscribers in Vietnam have to register for an account with accurate information, including their name, ID number and a portrait.

While users have long been required to register for a mobile account using their real personal information, few have completed the photo requirement.

Subscribers now have less than a fortnight to submit their portraits, or risk having their accounts blocked from making phone calls or sending messages.

All mobile carriers in the Southeast Asian country have previously been criticized for insisting that users complete the photo-taking task at their stores and offering no option to do it via the Internet.

Subscribers have questioned regulators as to why mobile carriers still need that extra photo when they have already submitted a scanned copy of their ID card, which includes a photo, during registration.

People have also whined that it is a waste of time for them to skip work to visit transaction spots of the mobile companies to have their photos taken.

People are seen at a Mobifone outlet in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

In the wake of such a groundswell of criticism, leading carriers said on Monday that users can now do it online or via their respective apps.

Vinaphone said besides visiting its stores to complete registration, users can send their photos via email, cskh@vnpt.vn, or using the companys app, MyVinaphone.

The mobile carrier also said on its verified Facebook page that subscribers can send all required information, including a scanned copy of their ID card and portraits, via the social networks messaging feature to complete registration.

Similarly, Mobifone subscribers can either visit the company's transaction spots countrywide, or add their photos via its website, while Viettel asserted that users can do so via its app, My Viettel.

The military-run Viettel will put together mobile working teams to assist customers, especially the elders who have difficulty visiting its stores.

New SIM cards of different mobile carriers are seen in this photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Requiring users to register for a mobile account with accurate personal information plus their portraits is meant to help customers protect their mobile phone numbers and allow the network carriers to better manage their data and fight against improperly-registered SIM cards, according to regulators.

SIM cards used to be as easy to buy as candy in Vietnam, enabling individuals and organizations to effortlessly bombard others with spam text messages.

While subscribers support the tightened rule on mobile account management, they demand that mobile carriers find ways to make the registration as easy and convenient as possible.

As the April 24 deadline is drawing near, mobile carriers have been notifying their users of the new rules and urging them to complete registration in time.

A man has his portrait taken at a Vinaphone store in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A Vinaphone call center employee told Tuoi Tre News on Monday that only subscribers who receive a reminder message should be worried about their account registration.

If you dont receive this message, it means your account is adequately registered and you dont need to take any further step, she said.

Asked how Government Decree 49 will affect foreign subscribers who reside in Vietnam, the Vinaphone employee told Tuoi Tre News that they are supposed to register using information on their passport, and have to take the photo as per regulations.
The administration of a region in Vietnams Central Highlands has planned to create packaging for its own famous type of vegetable with a view to helping buyers differentiate its product from the counterfeit Chinese one, and safeguarding local farmers business.

Lam Dong Province is expected to deliver hundreds of thousands of packages to farmers of Da Lat potatoes  those grown with high quality in the provincial capital of Da Lat  in a bid to protect the reputation of the produce.

Emblazoned on the wrapping material are the trademark, distinctive colors and the slogan Da Lat  Wonderful essence from fertile land, which has been used for local produce and handicrafts since late last year.

The packages are designed to contain two to five kilograms of potatoes each.

A farmer shows potatoes grown in Lam Dong Province, Vietnams Central Highlands. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The Lam Dong administrations move is to respond to the licensed influx of Chinese potatoes, hundreds of tonnes annually, to the province, where many Vietnamese sellers give them a deceptive strong resemblance to the native vegetables.

The foreign potatoes, with dark yellow skin, are cleaned with water and covered with the red earth typical of the arable soil in the area.

To ordinary consumers eyes, the transformed vegetables look very similar to Da Lat potatoes, which have red skin or light yellow.

Before masquerading, Chinese potatoes fetch prices four or five times lower than those of Vietnamese ones, proving immensely lucrative for unscrupulous traders.

Da Lat potatoes have had a good reputation for a long time. Now when they have their own packages, buyers can recognize and choose them without hesitation, said Lai The Hung, an official from the provincial department of agriculture and rural development.

He was implicitly referring to the tendency that Vietnamese people keep an alert eye on any products made in China.

Chinese potatoes dominate the local market in the rainy season, when Vietnamese ones reach the bottom in production, noted Nguyen Hong Phong, director of a company in Lam Dong.

Consumers are unwilling to buy potatoes whenever news spreads that Chinese potatoes pervade the market. We then take care of our potatoes in the fear that buyers wont support us, said Tran Huu Tho, a farmer growing potatoes in Da Lat for many years.

The government said they set their sights on cracking down on any attempt to put Chinese potatoes in packages meant specifically for the native vegetables.

Chinese potatoes (yellow) are transformed to bear a superficial resemblance to Da Lat potatoes. Video: Tuoi Tre

A man handles a bag of Chinese potatoes. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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WASHINGTON -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday raided the offices and home of U.S. President Donald Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen, law enforcement sources said, in a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving close Trump associates.

Cohens lawyer, Stephen M. Ryan, said that U.S. prosecutors conducted a search that was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating whether members of Trumps 2016 campaign colluded with Russia during the U.S. presidential election. Trump has called the probe a witch hunt and denied any collusion.

The raid could increase legal pressure on the president, because it involves the records of his longtime attorney and indicates a second center of investigations in Manhattan, alongside Muellers Washington-based probe.

Cohen has been at the center of a controversy over a $130,000 payment he has admitted making shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said that she had sex once with Trump in 2006 and was paid to keep quiet about it.

Trump reacted with unusually harsh language to news of the raid.

Its a disgraceful situation. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time, Trump said at the opening of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria.

Asked whether he would fire Mueller, Trump said, Well, I think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens.

Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, but he could order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsels probe, to end it, or Trump could fire Rosenstein if he refuses.

In a Tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against interfering.

If @realDonaldTrump is thinking of using the FBI raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: dont, Schumer said.

Under federal regulations, if Mueller comes across information that is not directly related to his Russia-focused investigation, he must confer with Rosenstein. Rosenstein could direct Mueller to either investigate the issue himself or refer it to another law enforcement authority.

The raids were first reported by The New York Times.

Possible bank, tax fraud

Today, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients, Ryan said in a statement.

I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, Ryan said.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violation in connection with the Stormy Daniels payment, and perhaps other matters having to do with foreign support to Trumps 2016 campaign, a second source familiar with the investigation said.

The New York Times reported on Monday evening that Mueller is investigating a $150,000 payment made in September 2015 by a Ukrainian billionaire, Viktor Pinchuk, to Trumps charitable foundation in exchange for a 20-minute video appearance by Trump at a conference in Kiev.

Cohen solicited the Pinchuk donation, the Times reported, citing three sources it said were briefed on the matter, although it was not immediately clear if Mondays raids sought information on that issue.

Trump had declared his candidacy for president in June 2015.

Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters for a request for comment on the raids. A spokesman for Mueller had no comment.

Cohen has said that he paid the $130,000 settlement money to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from his own pocket through a personal home equity loan. Trump, in comments to reporters on Air Force One last week, said that he did not know about the payment.

According to a person familiar with the matter, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the New York offices of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs on the 23rd floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Cohen has an office.

The agents went there about 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and worked for several hours, the person said.

A source familiar with the investigation said the raid was conducted without prior warning.

Federal agents also raided a room at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where Cohen has been staying while his apartment is being renovated, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed person.

The FBI and U.S. Attorneys office on Monday also sought any emails between former White House communications director Hope Hicks and Cohen about a false and misleading account that Trump helped prepare of a June 9, 2016, meeting between Trumps son Donald Trump, Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians who had promised dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the first source familiar with the investigation said.

Such emails would not be covered by attorney-client privilege, this source said, because Cohen did not represent Hicks.

Ryan, in his statement, called the search warrants executed by the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients, he said.

Attorney-client privilege is intended to encourage open communications between lawyers and their clients, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice.

But the privilege is not absolute, and there is an exception for communications made to further a crime.

The crime-fraud exception means the privilege does not apply to communications between the client and the attorney, if they are evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud, not just a past crime or fraud, said Christopher Slobogin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School specializing in criminal procedure and evidence.

A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs said in a statement that its arrangement with Cohen is ending.

The firms arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the statement said. We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation.

Ryan said that Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscows alleged efforts to influence the U.S. election.
The Hwasan Lee Memorial Park will be constructed in Bonghwa District, Gyeongsangbuk Province in eastern South Korea, a three-hour bus ride away from Seoul.

Choi Hyung-seok, marketing director for Gyeongsangbuks tourism department, said the project would cost around US$38 million, with the aim of developing the area into Koreas own Vietnam Town.

The Hwasan Lee clan in South Korea was founded nearly 800 years ago by Ly Long Tuong, a royal prince of the Ly Dynasty that ruled in Vietnam between the 11th and 13th century.

Following the collapse of the Ly Dynasty in 1225, Ly Long Tuong was exiled to Goryeo, an ancient name for Korea, the following year.

The Vietnamese prince later helped defend Goryeo against Mongolian invasions and became the founder of the Hwasan Lee clan in Korea.

The upcoming Hwasan Lee Memorial Park is a tourism complex built in honor of Ly Long Tuong and his descendants, who can still be found in Seoul, Incheon and other parts of Korea.

According to Gyeongsangbuks tourism department, the project will break ground in 2019 and open to visitors in 2023.

The park is expected to help strengthen Vietnam-Korea ties and bring more tourists to Gyeongsangbuk, especially those from Vietnam, Choi Hyung-seok said.

Choi Hyung-seok (L), marketing director for Gyeongsangbuks tourism department, presents a Vietnamese tourist with some souvenir. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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Here are todays leading news stories:

Society

-- Nguyen Thanh Nam, chairman of the Peoples Committee in Van Thanh Commune in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa, was probed on Monday for his management oversight that led to serious deforestation in Van Phong Bay.

-- Authorities in Can Gio District, Ho Chi Minh City revealed on Monday that the express boat C3, which was traveling from Vung Tau City to the metropolis on Sunday morning, had had its propellers broken after hitting an object, resulting in its sinking. Officers are still unable to identify the object.

-- Police in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho have arrested a group of suspects, including a Cameroonian and a Nigerian, for appropriating VND1 billion (US$44,000) with their online scams via social media platforms.

-- The Department of Police in the northern province of Phu Tho on Monday began legal proceedings against four new suspects, three of whom were also captured, in the large-scale online gambling ring which involved several senior policemen. Officers have initiated legal procedures against 88 suspects so far, of whom 40 have been arrested.

-- A doctor and his intern at a general hospital in the north-central province of Ha Tinh were assaulted by the father of a patient on Sunday night, resulting in multiple injuries on their heads and faces.

-- Authorities in Hanoi have submitted a document to the Ministry of Transport, proposing the collection of fees from vehicles that enter frequently congested areas in the city, which is aimed at alleviating traffic jams.

-- Residents in Hanh Thien Commune in the central province of Quang Ngai joined hands to hunt for a group of dog thieves on Monday, forcing the suspects to leave behind seven dogs they had stolen in order to escape.

Business

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with farmers across the country at a meeting held in the northern province of Hai Duong on Monday, during which he addressed multiple questions and listened to requests on how to improve the agricultural sector.

-- Following recent high demand, China is expected to become the main market of the Vietnamese pangasius fish in 2018 and 2019, according to the Vietnam Pangasius Association.

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Authorities in Hanoi have proposed the collection of fees from vehicles that enter frequently congested areas across the capital, as part of the efforts to alleviate traffic jams.

Vu Van Vien, director of the municipal Department of Transport, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the agency had submitted a document to the Ministry of Transport regarding the proposal.

Vehicles that enter a congested zone will be required to pay a fee, which is aimed at easing gridlock in the capital city, Vien said.

The plan has been listed in Resolution No. 4 on reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution, which was previously approved by the Hanoi Peoples Council in July 2017, the official elaborated.

However, this type of fee has not been included in the current law, thus the transport ministry has been asked to review the plan and pass it to the central government and National Assembly for official approval, he continued.

Traffic congestion in Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre

This solution is considered necessary given the increasingly serious congestion across the city as well as the current conditions of infrastructure, Vien stressed.

According to an official from the Ministry of Transport, such a measure has been applied in many countries.

It can also be carried out across Vietnam as long as there is a specific law that supports the fee collection, he added.

The ministry will review the plan and gather feedback from relevant agencies before submitting it to the government and legislative body, the official stated.

Aside from the proposition, authorities in Hanoi are also set to implement additional measures, including adjusting parking fees depending on certain times and locations, and encouraging local schools to carry their students by shuttle bus.

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Officers in the northern Vietnamese province of Phu Tho have begun probing four business leaders for their participation in a large-scale online gambling ring that involves several senior policemen.

The provincial Department of Police initiated legal proceedings against four new suspects, three of whom were then arrested, on Monday for involvement in the illegal operation masterminded by Phan Sao Nam and Do Van Duong.

Nam was chairman of the VTC Online Telecommunications Company, while Duong was chairman of the Hi-Tech Security Development and Investment Company (CNC).

On Saturday last week, Phan Van Vinh, who retired as director general of the Police General Department in 2017, was taken into custody for four months for an investigation into his role in the gambling ring.

Major General Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former head of the hi-tech crime prevention division under the Ministry of Public Security, was arrested on March 11 and is accused of organizing gambling relating to this case.

Both Vinh and Hoa also had their Peoples Public Security Officer title revoked by State President Tran Dai Quang.

Le Anh Tuan (L) and Nguyen Dinh Chien are in this photo provided by police officers.

Among the four new suspects, Chau Nguyen Anh, 39, CEO of VNPT Electronic Payment JSC (VNPT EPAY), and Pham Quang Minh, 34, business development director of VNPT EPAY, are probed for organizing gambling and selling illegal invoices.

The other two, Nguyen Dinh Chien, 42, chairman of the TNC Technology JSC, and Le Anh Tuan, 35, the firms director, are investigated for the illicit sale of invoices.

Anh, Minh, and Chien are in custody, while Tuan is not, but he is required not to leave town.

The four suspects were in charge of offering recharge services for online gambling activities via the website Rikvip/Tip.club, as well as conducting the illegal trade of invoices to legalize the money they had pocketed via the unlawful operations.

Officers have also searched their houses in Hanoi to collect relevant documents.

Luu Thi Hong, general director of CNC, and another woman named Le Thi Lan Thanh were previously nabbed for their primary roles in the sale of invoices.

Competent authorities have initiated legal procedures against 88 suspects so far, of whom 40 have been arrested.

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Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump Monday reacted angrily to news that the FBI has raided the offices of his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, calling it a "disgraceful situation" and "a total witch hunt."



At a meeting Monday evening with senior military leadership at the White House, Trump described the raid as a break-in.



"I just heard they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys - a good man," he said.



Trump called the raid "an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for."



"That is really now on a whole new level of unfairness," Trump said.



The story about the raid on Cohen's home and offices was first reported by the New York Times just hours before the meeting, where it was expected that Trump would focus any remarks on the situation in Syria.



Trump lamented to reporters that "here we are talking about Syria and I have this witch hunt constantly going on."



Following his extensive complaints about the Russia investigation, reporters in the meeting asked the president why he wouldn't just take the next step and fire special counsel Robert Mueller, a step Republicans have repeatedly warned Trump against taking.



Trump didn't rule out the idea.



"Why don't I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens," Trump said. "Many people have said you should fire him."



Unprompted, Trump railed against Mueller's investigative team, saying it's made up of the "most biased group of people."



"These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen," Trump said. "Democrats all or just about all. Either Democrats or a couple Republicans that worked for President Obama. They are not looking at the other side."



When asked if he is concerned about what federal investigators might find in the raid, the president responded sharply: No.



Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump not to fire Mueller.



If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: dont.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Watch out

Savings and credit cooperatives that have made speculative investments in stocks in the hopes of making quick bucks are on the verge of going bust as share prices have plunged in the last few months.
The assailant had complained about not being served first despite having arrived earlier than the female diner.

The victim, 33-year-old Tran Thi Quynh Nhu, is still recovering from multiple injuries at the General Hospital of Da Nang.

Nhu was assaulted on Sunday while having dinner at an eatery on Pham Cu Luong Street in Son Tra District.

When she arrived at the eatery, which sold banh xeo, or crispy Vietnamese pancakes, her assailant was already inside waiting for his meal.

It was pretty crowded at the time, and the owner must have been confused because I was served before the man despite coming later, Nhu recalled.

An eatery in Da Nangs Son Tra District where an assault took place on April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

When the man loudly complained about it, Nhu politely went over to his table with her dish and told him you can have mine if youre hungry.

No sooner had Nhu turned around than she received a violent kick to her back, which made her fall to the ground.

The man than repeatedly kicked Nhu on her body and head, leaving her with a bruised eye, broken teeth, and a sinus fracture among other flesh injuries.

The attacker even threatened Nhu that he had relatives who work in the police force so it was no use for her to call police officers.

Local police later identified the assailant as Nguyen Tran Vinh Khang, 22, a resident of Cam Le District.

Khang has been summoned by police for questioning and investigation into the assault.

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The Australian Film Television and Radio School has launched Media Lab, a free online resource for primary and secondary teachers.

AFTRS has developed our knowledge and resources over more than 40 years and we want to share this in a way that has a real impact on young Australians  to equip the next generation with the essential tools to inspire creativity and entrepreneurialism, said AFTRS CEO Neil Peplow.

We want to make sure that Australian primary and secondary students have the storytelling and technical skills to be part of this new world.

AFTRS consulted with a range of teachers in developing the resources, which include lesson plans, student worksheets and video content to deliver learning on each topic, in either sequential or mix-and match format. The initial resources target skills in filmmaking, documentary, podcasting, stop motion and screenwriting.

Outreach to primary and secondary students is an essential component of the AFTRS five-year plan, Future Vision 2021, launched last year, which established that a priority for the School is to reach a wider and more diverse audience, and develop the next generation of screen storytellers.

The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) is the nations leading screen and broadcast school that delivers future-focused, industry-relevant education, research and training.

Media Lab: Key Features

Free of charge to primary and secondary teachers and their students

Specifically targeted at Australian teachers and students.

Use as either sequenced or mix-and-match resources

Stand-alone worksheets for in-class or homework exercises

Australian examples that are copyright checked

Instructional videos and FAQs

Accessible nationwide through an online platform

Teacher Feedback

Very easy to follow, simple, good online resource, relevant to students. It didnt drag out the elements too much. The short activities kept the kids engaged but werent too hard to organise either.  Haley, Years 9 & 10 Media Arts teacher

I found the information great and students found this very engaging. The forms were very useful as handouts.  Tammy, Year 7 Drama teacher

This is brilliant  I now know what Im doing with students in Term 3.  Mira, Year 8 English teacher

My students didnt want to leave the classroom for lunch break!  Rachel, Year 4 Science teacher

Courses for teachers

AFTRS also runs a number of short courses throughout the year that are relevant to primary and secondary teachers for professional development. These include 5-10 week online courses and 1-day to 3-week on campus courses.

For more info http://www.aftrs.edu.au/short-courses/schools-courses

https://medialab.aftrs.edu.au/

Disclaimer: AFTRS advertises at TV Tonight.
The Wire creator David Simon is in early development on a new drama, A Dry Run.

The series will follow members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion who came to Spain from the U.S. to fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War.

The show is so far conceived as a six-hour miniseries, though that could change according to early reports.

The series will follow the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington Battalions, both part of the International Brigade that fought in the Spanish Civil War, from their arrival in 1937 and first bloody battle in the Jarama Valley until their departure in 1939. The show offers a compelling and tragic narrative, Simon said, adding that the Spanish struggle against fascism and the misuse of capitalism as a bulwark to totalitarianism represent the preeminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still.

Simons current show, The Deuce, is advancing toward a second season on HBO.

Mediapro (The Young Pope) will produce the new series.

Source: Variety
Sex for rent adverts aren't a new fad and have been around on websites like Craigslist for years now. Some are purposely dubious offering rent in exchange for benefits or keeping me company whilst others are less subtle - free accommodation in exchange for an erotic arrangement" yet there have been no convictions in the UK yet.

Whilst the majority of offers are for accommodation in London which is notorious for extortionate rent prices, the issue is rapidly rising throughout the country with many saying that this is a by-product of the British housing crisis.

Many are unable to afford shelter in the dysfunctional housing market of today which demands exorbitant sums and as a result, rogue landlords tend to exploit some of society's most vulnerable woman such as students, the homeless and domestic abuse survivors although it isn't women alone who are affected. Indeed, 250,000 women across the UK say that they have been offered free or discounted rent in exchange for sexual favours in the past five years, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the housing charity Shelter with 190,000 of them saying that they have been propositioned by prospective landlords in the last year.

Is sex for rent illegal?

Contrary to popular belief, such arrangements are illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which states that a crime is committed when a person causes or incites someone to become a prostitute, an offence which can carry a sentence of up to seven years in jail, according to Justice Secretary David Lidington.

Although prosecutions are difficult as many women, especially those trapped in abusive relationships, are unlikely to go to the police. With no one being convicted by the court yet, charities are exposing the issue as sexual abuse and exploitation. Tenants' campaign group ACORN's organiser Nick Ballard said "Make no mistake, this is sexual abuse if not rape in the legal sense" whilst Shelter said: "This isn't just in bad taste or 'creepy'.

It is a dangerous attempt to establish deeply exploitative relationships off the back of homelessness."

How do the perpetrators get away with it?

Meanwhile perpetrators claim to be doing nothing wrong with many believing it's not illegal, some simply turning a blind eye to it and one saying that it was a win-win situation as everyone goes into it "with their eyes wide open" and rejecting claims that it is sexual exploitation by comparing people working in jobs that they do not like as a form of prostitution.

However, Andrew Wallis, of anti-slavery charity Unseen, said that the trouble is that when a vulnerable person becomes exploited, the concept of choice disappears. One woman told the media that after being touched inappropriately, she was "grateful" that she hadn't been raped adding that the idea of consent gets "mashed up" because a woman thinks she has to give a man this for shelter.

Is it illegal to post such adverts online?

Although asking for sex in exchange for rent it is not illegal for websites to post such listings with a BBC investigation revealing that there were 100 legal, sex for rent listings on Craigslist on one day alone. Paul Noblet, from homeless charity Centrepoint, suggested website owners could consider a voluntary code under which they could monitor and remove such adverts.

What has the government response been to this?

However Labour MP, Peter Kyle, said last July that websites should be forced by law to crack down on the problem by making such adverts illegal and prosecuting rogue landlords, saying that if they didn't he would push for legislation to do it for them. When this was brought up in the House of Commons by the Hove MP, Liz Truss who was Justice Secretary at the time said she agreed and would look into the scandal however the issue took a back seat as Theresa May's snap general election was overtaking the headlines.

Welsh Assembly Member Dawn Bowden has also called for action to stop the practice which she has called "inherently immoral" comparing the arrangements to modern-day slavery and saying that her "greatest concern" was that the practice would become more prevalent unless action was taken to put a stop to it.

The SNP conference in Glasgow last year also heard calls for tougher legislation after the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "horrified" to read reports of landlords offering rent-free accommodation in return for sex and said that the Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart had already written to websites in question and said that the SNP backed a new law making it an offence to solicit sex in exchange for providing accommodation. She also noted along with Green Party MP, Patrick Harvie, that not all cases involved a registered landlord and she struggled to see how anyone uploading such adverts would pass the "fit and proper person" test.

What do campaigners want to be done now?

Almost a year on from #SexForRent that was making waves on Twitter and exposing the issue, little has been done to stop it.

With Brits spending at least half of their income on rent and the housing market unlikely to stabilise anytime soon. Any forced sexual acts are traumatic and leave emotional scars long after they take place and as a result, without the new primary legislation which campaigners are asking for, it is likely that this issue will continue to snowball in yet another case of the exploitation of vulnerable women by society.
Amber Rudd managed to look as incompetent as Boris Johnson, when she decided to claim that the rise in violent crime in London was not the result of the fall in police numbers. Whilst she may be theoretically correct by not pinning all of the blame on police cuts but she fails to recognise the profound affect the police cuts have had and would have no doubt have contributed to the rise crime.

The latter has now been confirmed after a leaked Home Office report categorically states that the fall in police numbers has had a detrimental affect on crime rates.

However, Mrs Rudd firmly placed her head back into the sand by claiming she hadnt seen the report.

Is the Home Office Rudderless?

The individual who runs the Home Office claims she hasnt seen, what looks to be a pretty important report, that states that government cuts to the police have had a negative effect on crime rates in London. By claiming she had no knowledge of the report indicates a number of possibilities, firstly, that she is just incompetent, secondly, she has wilfully decided to try and mislead the public to make it look like policies first enacted by the now Prime Minister and herself, look far better than they actually are, or there is the distinct possibility that she doesnt have much say in the actual running of the department.

Labours Angela Rayner raised an important point about the government cuts and the direct links to the rise in crime, because a lot of those involved in the Violent Crimes are younger gang members. However, Mrs Rayner said on the Andrew Marr program "We've seen cuts to youth services, education, children's services and all these wrap around services that we know support our young people," a point which is important.

Whilst police cuts have shown to have had a significant impact on the rise, it cannot be taken away that the cuts to youth services and other programs that helps young people get off the streets.

This wouldnt be the first time the Home Office has been criticised, it was reported at the end of March that the department was warned that it had a considerable amount of work to do to make necessary improvements, because in the most critical report, on how the immigration service fails to protect the interests of unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

Furthermore, another inspection questions the governments immigration inspectors, Border Force and whether they were effective in being able to spot potential victims of modern slavery or any other kind of forced labour.

Council tax increases

These kids will be demonised by the ruling elite and they will be branded violent delinquents by many people but lest not forget that this is the direct result of government cuts that leave families and children more vulnerable than they have been for a long time. London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has responded by increasing the policing precept fund on council tax by 12 a year, overall the increase in council tax will be the maximum before a public referendum of 5.1% but many are obviously unhappy with this and claim he should be doing more.

Unfortunately, the system works so that the government controls 70% of Met funding.

In recent years, the met has been forced to save 600 million and still has to make more savings of hundreds of millions by 2021/22. Around 30% of police staff posts have been lost along with 65% of community support officers. There have also been losses of around 120 police buildings and most of the capitals police station front counters have been removed. Sadiq Khan managed to raise approximately 25. Million last year for the Met through the increase of police element of council tax but the continued government failures are making it difficult for Mr Khan to act accordingly.
On 10 April 1998, the parties in Northern Ireland together with the Irish and British government signed the Good Friday Agreement which paved the way for the establishment of new government structures for Northern Ireland. In the lead up to reaching this historic deal, the US administration along with the Irish and British government had spent many years finding common ground between the opposing parties in Northern Ireland. At that time, Northern Ireland was marred by violence from both the IRA and Protestant paramilitaries like the UDA and the UDF.

Both prime ministers of the time, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, dedicated an enormous amount of time to bring the parties together. Bill Clinton had sent a special envoy, George Mitchell, to support this drive. When the Good Friday Agreement was finally signed, twenty years ago today, all parties involved were aware that it would pave the way for a peaceful Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly was subsequently established, allowing power-sharing between the parties and delivering self-governance to Northern Ireland.

2017 Suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly

But why isn't the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running now? Since early 2017, the Northern Irish parties have been unable to restore the Assembly.

It collapsed when the late Martin McGuiness resigned as deputy first minister, following what he called "crude and crash bigotry" against his party by the DUP. The then First Minister, Arlene Forster, had refused to step aside for an investigation into the controversial "Renewable Heat Incentive" nick-named "cash for ash" to be carried out.

Since then, talks have been fruitless, with Sinn Fein insisting on Irish language rights as well as moves toward marriage equality. Ever since the DUP stepped in to prop up Teresa May's government, Sinn Fein has been critical of the British government's role as an independent broker. The Good Friday Agreement legally obliges the Irish and British government to act as an independent intermediary between the Nationalists and the Unionists.

After the deal between the Tories and the DUP had been struck, the Sinn Fein leadership stressed that the coalition deal was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement.

Brexit adds further tensions over the border issue

As Brexit negotiations between Britain and the EU continue, the Irish Border issue remains one of the most difficult hurdles. Despite assurances from both governments that there will never be a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, many believe that the British government has so far failed to come up with a viable solution. According to the Guardian, sources have stated that current proposals are very similar to those tabled last August. These included technological solutions and were dismissed by the EU as "magical thinking." Difficulties remain over border checks, tariffs, and regulatory issues in relation to agricultural, pharmaceutical, and food products.

Suggestions made by the EU that Northern Ireland could remain in the Customs Union were categorically dismissed by Teresa May.

George Mitchell, who was instrumental in brokering the Good Friday Agreement, has spent the last few days in Ireland and Britain to mark the 20th anniversary of this historic deal. According to the Times, he has urged the British and Irish government to remember what is at stake during Brexit negotiations.

"It's the future of their economies, it's the possibility of resumption of conflict or of a reversion back to a time nobody wants to go back to, except for a very thin fringe element on both sides. I think that means that they have to come up with reasonable and acceptable compromises." - George Mitchell (The Times)
Yadav, Thakur Delhi-bound for medical check-up

Two leaders of the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N), including coordinator of the presidium Mahantha Thakur, are heading for New Delhi for medical check-up.
Viktor ORBAN and the party alliance of Fidesz-KDNP have won the Hungary general election. This has significant reverberations across Europe and within the EU. Furthermore, the neo-Nazi party of Jobbik came second. The supermajority won by Mr Orban for his third term means that he will be able to place key allies in powerful positions and overhaul judiciary positions without the support of the opposition, plus, he will be able to change the fundamental laws at will.

The UKs esteemed Foreign Secretary took to Twitter to congratulate Mr Orban on his win but is facing a backlash.

There are no mistakes about it, but Mr Orban and his party alliance are neo-Nazis and openly congratulating them and calling for close relations isnt particularly good.

The bumbling colonial fascist

The National Socialist ideology created by Adolf Hitler is having a form of rebirth, although, I will point out that Nazi ideology has very much the same things in common as British colonial fascism and can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxons (that is a topic for another time). Boris Johnson is a figure that harks back to the good old days of colonial rule and oppressive regimes, he once said that colonisation was a good thing and that India benefitted from British intervention.

But Mr Johnsons remarks also strike a certain chord of hypocrisy because Viktor Orban and Fidesz-KDNP ran their campaign almost entirely on anti-immigration sentiment.

They openly attacked Islam by calling them Muslim Invaders and not only was their campaign full of anti-Islam rhetoric but anti-Semitic rhetoric as well. Given that the Conservatives and the media have been throwing anti-Semitic accusations at Jeremy Corbyn for commenting on artwork in 2012 on Facebook, that may or may not be anti-Semitic - it depends on the interpretation by the individual.

Along with the fact that the street artist came out and said it was about wealth inequality. Surely, openly supporting a current anti-Semitic regime means that there will be demonstrations by the same people and organisations?

Furthermore, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticised the conduct seen during the Hungarian election campaign, saying there was intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing.

The bodys preliminary report found the electoral process was characterised by a pervasive overlap between state and ruling party resources, undermining contestants ability to compete on an equal basis. No Doubt the media will largely try to find a way to excuse Mr Johnson of his blatant Nazi/colonial-tendencies because they fit within the remit of those with power.
THE SYRIAN WAR has taken yet another turn after dozens of people were killed in a chemical weapons strike in the rebel-held town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. Donald Trump responded quickly condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and attacking Russia for assisting them. Washington have stated that if evidence confirms that Assad was involved, they would demand an immediate international response.

The Syrian government denied its forces had launched any Chemical Attack as reports began circulating on Saturday night. The government said rebels in Douma were collapsing and spreading false news.

UN and Israel

Russia rejected a new US proposal at the United Nations on Monday to set up an investigation to identify the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The United States put forward a draft resolution to the Security Council following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people.

France will retaliate against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if evidence emerges that it was behind a recent suspected chlorine gas attack in a rebel-held enclave, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Tuesday. The prime minister's spokesman said it was clear that those responsible must be held to account and that the prime minister would raise the issue during meetings with counterparts in Sweden and Denmark on Monday.

Shortly after the chemical attack, Israel launched a raid on an airbase in Syria. But why would they choose this moment to attack? There are several reasons but whilst the world is reeling and debating the chemical attack, they can quietly position themselves in Syria to contain Iran. Leila al-Shami, the co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, said that the attack was due to Israel's own internal security considerations rather than the massacre in Douma.

Al-Shami told the Middle East Eye, "Most of the time Israel has been involved [in Syria] it has been to do with their security priorities," she said. "Assad being in power has, by and large, been useful for Tel Aviv as it has been quiet on Israel's border.

Israel moving in on territory has always been about the protection of their plans for a greater Jerusalem and Iran pose an outside threat.

Russia havent necessarily been allies of Israel but they have been in agreement with them over Syria and the Israel have benefitted from Russia being involved within the region. But this move does make it look like that they no longer believe that Russia are going to be able to keep Iran in check. There is a possibility that Israel carried out the chemical attack to distract the world from their own moves.

Knowledge that Trump would immediately jump on Assad and Russia, along with the UK using this to continue to launch their attacks on Russia. But that is merely speculation and highly unlikely, however, it is important to keep an open mind whilst evidence is lacking.
Iceland has pledged to remove palm oil from all of its own-label foods amid concerns huge swathes of tropical rainforests in South East Asia are being destroyed for its production.

The impact on global climate and wildlife has prompted industry efforts to promote "sustainable" palm oil which is not environmentally damaging.

But Iceland managing director Richard Walker said the company did not believe there was verifiably sustainable palm oil on the mass market and so would remove it altogether.

Palm (Shenzhen: 002431.SZ - news) oil is found in more than half of all supermarket products from biscuits, breakfast cereals and chocolate to soap.

But a survey of 5,000 people commissioned by the supermarket found 35% of consumers are unaware of what it is.

After being informed about palm oil and its effects on the environment, 85% said it should not be used in food products.

Iceland will be removing the product from 130 of its food lines, which will reduce demand by more than 500 tonnes per year, it said.

It has already been replaced with alternatives such as sunflower oil and butter in half of them.

The company told Sky News other branded goods that contain palm oil would remain on its supermarket shelves.

Mr Walker said: "Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying 'no to palm oil'.

"We don't believe there is such a thing as verifiably 'sustainable' palm oil available in the mass market, so we are giving consumers a choice for the first time.

"Having recently been to Indonesia and seen the environmental devastation caused by expanding palm oil production first hand, I feel passionately about the importance of raising awareness of this issue - and I know many British consumers share my concern and want to have a real choice about what they buy.

"This journey has shown me that, currently, no major supermarket or food manufacturer can substantiate any claim that the palm oil they use is truly sustainable, as the damage being caused to the global environment and communities in South East Asia is just too extensive."

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A study published in the journal Current Biology earlier this year found that the population of Bornean orangutans had fallen by 100,000 between 1999 and 2015 due to logging, deforestation or industrialised plantations.

Acccording to the World Wildlife Fund, the species' habitat has been reduced by at least 55% over the past 20 years.

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said Iceland's move was a direct response to the palm oil industry's "failure to clean up its act".

He said: "As global temperatures rise from burning forests, and populations of endangered species continue to dwindle, companies using agricultural commodities like palm oil will come under increasing pressure to clean up their supply chains.

"Many of the biggest consumer companies in the world have promised to end their role in deforestation by 2020.

"Time (Frankfurt: A11312 - news) is running out not just for these household brands but for the wildlife, the climate and everyone who depends on healthy forests for their survival."

In January, Iceland revealed it had developed paper and pulp alternatives for 1,000 of its lines and planned to remove plastic from its own brands within five years .
Thousands of acres of rainforest in Indonesia has been cleared for palm oil plantations (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

Iceland is to become the first UK supermarket chain to ban palm oil from all of its own-brand products.

The company aims to remove all traces of the oil from its products by the end of the year.

Palm oil production, it said, is to blame for the loss of thousands of acres of tropical rainforest across south-east Asia which has seen the devastation of natural habitat for orangutans.

MORE: Iceland vows to go plastic-free on own brands within 5 years

The news won pretty much universal support on social media, including from the likes of comic actress Jennifer Saunders, TV naturalist Chris Packham and celebrity chef Gino DAcampo.

Iceland said: Palm Oil is one of the worlds biggest causes of deforestation and poses a significant threat to a number of species already facing extinction.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, where palm oil and wood pulp plantations are the biggest drivers of deforestation, many species are being threatened with extinction, including the orangutan.

MORE: Waitrose to ditch disposable coffee cups from all stores by autumn

The orangutan population has more than halved in the last 15 years and is now critically endangered with only 70,000 to 100,000 individuals remaining.

The orangutan population has more than halved in the last 15 years (Getty)

Palm oil has become pervasive in a raft of supermarket products  from biscuits to soap, cakes to peanut butter, and shampoo to chocolate spreads.

Its often seen as a cheaper alternative to rapeseed oil or sunflower oil but environmentalists say the impact of intensive planting and growing is having a huge impact on rainforests particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The ban will apply to only Icelands own-brand products  so other products containing palm oil may well continue to be sold by the chain.

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Nevertheless, managing director Richard Walker said: Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying no to palm oil.

We dont believe there is such a thing as sustainable palm oil available to retailers, so we are giving consumers a choice about what they buy.

MORE: Plastic bottle deposit return scheme gets green light  so how could it work?

Superb news ! Pioneering vision and determination from my new favourite supermarket . Now we have a choice and the native people and wildlife of Sumatra May have a future . https://t.co/yobqpL8jwt  Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) April 10, 2018

Iceland says it has already found alternatives to palm oil for half of its own-brand products.

Products will be labelled with a No Palm Oil sticker featuring the face of a young orangutan.

This is the latest step by Iceland to respond to apparent growing public concern about the environment and the impact of what we buy has on the world. It pledged in February to go plastic-free on its own products within five years.
By Serena Chaudhry

LONDON, April 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British supermarket chain Iceland said on Monday it would remove palm oil from its own-brand food by the end of 2018 as part of efforts to stem deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia and help species under threat of extinction.

Iceland, which trades from 900 stores and which specializes in frozen food, said cutting palm oil would lower demand for the edible vegetable oil by more than 500 tonnes a year.

"Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying 'no to palm oil'," Iceland managing director Richard Walker said in a statement.

"We don't believe there is such a thing as 'sustainable' palm oil available to retailers, so we are giving consumers a choice about what they buy."

The company said it had already removed palm oil from half of its own-brand products.

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, mainly due to clearing for palm oil and other plantations or mills.

In the last half century more than 74 million hectares of Indonesian forest - an area twice the size of Germany - have been logged, burned or degraded, according to environmental group Greenpeace.

The rapid expansion has also resulted in a loss of habitat for many species, including Bornean orangutans, which are among the world's most imperiled great apes.

"It's a real wake up call to the industry to say you need to clean up," Alison Kirkman, a press officer with Greenpeace UK, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) said companies needed to work towards a clean palm oil supply chain, and drop traders causing deforestation.

The $62 billion palm oil industry has been plagued by concerns about deforestation and rights abuses in countries such as Indonesia, the world's biggest producer. Palm (Shenzhen: 002431.SZ - news) oil is used in products from snacks and soaps to cosmetics and biofuels.

In January, privately-owned Iceland pledged to eliminate plastic packaging from its own-brand products by the end of 2023 - a first by a major British grocer. (Reporting by Serena Chaudhry, Editing by Robert Carmichael. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) , that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
The find could rewrite the history of mankinds journey out of Africa

A fragment of a human finger bone dating back up to 90,000 years has been found in the Saudi Arabian desert  and it could rewrite the history of mankinds journey out of Africa.

The bone fragment, around an inch long, has been undiscovered for up to 90,000 years, in an area which was once a grassland teeming with wildlife.

Scientists previously believed that humans left Africa in a single migration 60,000 years ago  but the new find challenges that.

Researcher Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany says, This supports a model not of a single rapid dispersal out of Africa 60,000 years ago, but a much more complicated scenario of migration.

This handout image obtained from the University of Oxford/ Max Planck Institute shows fossil finger bones of Homo sapiens from Al Wusta, Saudi Arabia, a discovery that suggests modern humans had penetrated deep into Arabia already 85,000 years ago

This find, together with other finds in the last few years, suggests  Homo sapiens is moving out of Africa multiple times during many windows of opportunity during the last 100,000 years or so.

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Petraglia said that the find shows that people were crossing the interior of the land, not along the coast.

University of Oxford archaeologist Huw Groucutt said, The big question now is what became of the ancestors of the population to which the Al Wusta human belonged.

We know that shortly after they lived, the rains failed and the area dried up. Did this population die out? Did it survive further south in Arabia, where even today there are mountainous areas with quite high rainfall and coastal regions which receive monsoonal rains?

Or did the drying environment mean that some of these people were pushed further into Eurasia, as part of a worldwide colonisation?
It is deeply ironic that as Northern Ireland marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to worst of the sectarian violence known as the Troubles, it is more fragile than it has ever been.

Chance played a role in delivering a set of circumstances that made the agreement possible. And a set of chance factors have intervened to start unravelling it. These factors include Brexit, a weak government majority in Westminster that empowers and emboldens the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the breakdown of power-sharing at Stormont, and the death of Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness in March 2017.

More predictably destabilising though has been the failure to progress healing and reconciliation in society despite the political gains made since 1998. Civil society has not taken ownership of the peace process by continuously or systematically tackling sectarianism or promoting reconciliation. The churches are the largest civil society grouping in Northern Ireland and this failure is partly theirs.

For more on the 20th anniversary of peace in Northern Ireland, listen to The Anthill podcast on the Good Friday Agreement.

Institutions and mavericks

It has long been understood that during the conflict the churches failed to show prophetic leadership. Both Catholic and Protestant church leaders were highly constrained in what they felt able to do, while a number of mavericks and independents on the ground had a strong prophetic presence and did a great deal to bring about peace.

The work of some of these mavericks was sensitive and so highly secret during the peace process. Now we know for example, that Alec Reid, a Redemptorist in Belfasts Clonard Monastery, helped facilitate talks behind the scenes between the leader of the Social and Democratic Labour Party, John Hume, and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in the 1980s. These talks opened the door for Sinn Fein and, ultimately, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), to engage with the British and Irish governments at a time when talking with terrorists was anathema. Adams famously told Reid that only representatives of the Catholic Church could have facilitated these developments within nationalism.

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Other mavericks understood their work as a public ministry to change hearts and minds. One of the most effective examples was the Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland (ECONI). The organisation was formed in the mid-1980s as an explicit alternative to the way the then-DUP leader Ian Paisley mixed religion and politics. Paisley, a Protestant minister, used evangelicalism to bolster Ulster Protestant identity over and against Catholic nationalists. Instead, ECONI challenged the sins of its own community, which created opportunities for relationships with Catholics. It produced educational resources that reached deep within Protestantism, asking hard questions that the institutional churches often ignored.

In defence of the institutional churches, they were not trained experts in conflict resolution. Pastoral care and parish management were their skills, not conflict resolution. However, as society emerged out of conflict, the churches should have come into their own.

Absent from public debates

As people learn to live together in tolerance, the skills needed are precisely those possessed by churchmen and women in abundance. Northern Irish society needs debates in the public square about the meaning of forgiveness, mercy, justice, healing, reconciliation, compassion, grace and empathy. These are qualities and skills which the churches can rightly claim as their own.

Sadly, however, the churches remain as absent from public debates as they were during the conflict. Having earned no legitimacy for their active leadership in the peace process, the churches have not been able to lead the debate in the post-conflict period. Meanwhile, anti-clericalism has expanded as a result of church involvement in institutional child and sex abuse. Religious practice in Northern Ireland is declining as fewer people attend church regularly and they become more liberal in the beliefs they hold.

In the decade after the Good Friday Agreement, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church both attempted to implement anti-sectarian peacebuilding programmes throughout their congregations. But the resources were used primarily by people who were already enthusiastic about reconciliation. When the funding from external sources ran out after a few years, the programmes were quietly dropped.

The Irish Churches Peace Project, a partnership between the four largest churches and smaller denominations affiliated with the Irish Council of Churches in 2013-15, suffered a similar fate. Again, rather than convincing more ministers and churchgoers that Christians have much to offer a society transitioning from conflict, these programmes appealed to people already engaged in peacebuilding. Instead of making peacebuilding mainstream, then, these programmes have tended to marginalise the mavericks who thought the churches had something wider to say about forgiveness, mercy and empathy.

Outside the institutional churches, a few mavericks carry on. The ecumenical Corrymeela community, Northern Irelands oldest reconciliation organisation, has expanded its educational programming and is tackling contemporary issues such as Brexit and LGBTQ rights, as well as anti-sectarianism. For the last six years, the 4 Corners Festival in Belfast has encouraged people to attend events in all parts of a segregated city with the aim of inspiring them to cross boundaries in their everyday lives.

It is these groups and the individuals who drive them who are striving not only to frame public discourses about reconciliation  but also to convince the institutional churches to join them in this work. This may prove to be the more difficult task.

In the years following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland is a less religious society. As institutional churches are turning inward to preserve and protect the piety of their remaining believers, this limits their engagement with the tenor and spirit of the agreement  to their detriment.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Gladys Ganiel receives funding from the Irish Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Research Council. She is affiliated with the 4 Corners Festival.

John Brewer has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust.
LANY, Czech Republic (Reuters) - The Czech president has advised Prime Minister Andrej Babis to try to negotiate a new government with two fringe parties after coalition talks with the Social Democrats collapsed, Babis said on Tuesday.

President Milos Zeman recommended that Babis, a billionaire businessman who leads the ANO party, should revive his previous attempts to form a coalition with the Communists (KSCM) and far-right, anti-European Union SPD party.

Babis won an election last October but has yet to muster enough support to win a parliamentary confidence vote. Talks with the Social Democrats, who led a previous coalition government that included ANO, fell apart last week in a row over ministries.

"The president recommended to me to continue negotiations with KSCM and SPD," Babis told reporters after meeting Zeman at the presidential retreat in Lany, 40 km (25 miles) west of Prague.

A number of parties have shunned Babis mainly due to criminal charges which he is facing over an alleged fraud of EU subsidies worth 2 million euros ($2.5 million) a decade ago. He denies any wrongdoing.

However, the two fringe parties are problematic as the Communists want the Czech Republic to leave the NATO defence alliance and SPD has called for the country to quit the EU, pushing for a referendum similar to when Britons voted for Brexit in 2016.

Babis said the ANO leadership will meet probably on Thursday to decide how to proceed.

His minority government lost a confidence vote in January and has been ruling in a caretaker capacity since then.

Financial markets have largely shrugged off the protracted political stalemate - which is not unusual in Czech politics - with the economy roaring ahead and public finances in surplus.

(Reporting by Petra Vodstrcilova; Writing by Robert Muller; editing by David Stamp)
Whoops.

On Friday afternoon, a demolition of a 53-metre high silo in Vordingborg, Denmark took place, as had been planned for months. What workers didn't expect is for the silo to fall the wrong way.

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Instead of landing on a clear site intended for its remnants, the silo landed on a neighbouring library and cultural centre, leaving a crowd of onlookers a-gasp.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the mishap, Sydsjllands and Lolland-Falsters police told Danish television station TV 2.

"We had not imagined it would be so bad," Kenneth Wegge, who led the silo's explosion, told the station. "We still do not know what went wrong. We are currently investigating."

Vordingborg municipality posted photos of the damage done to the building on Facebook, with the library's staff able to access the site to view the havoc.

The glass, dust, and gravel inside the building will have to be cleaned away before the collection can be attended to.

Mayor Mikael Smed said he's "very pleased" no one was injured, and said investigators will assess how damaged the structure is in order to determine its future.
: Ian Cartwright/Michael Petraglia/Palaeodeserts Project

The Arabian Peninsula is a vast landmass at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia. Yet until the last decade almost nothing was known about early humans in the area. In the last few years the team I work with have made many remarkable discoveries in Saudi Arabia, but one thing was always missing: fossils of ancient humans.

This changed when we discovered a small bone with big implications in Saudi Arabias Nefud Desert two years ago. As my colleagues and I explain in a new paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution, this 90,000-year-old Homo sapiens finger bone fossil shows human migration into Eurasia occurred earlier than previously thought. And it also highlights the role of climate change in our early expansions.

For the past several years I have been conducting research in Saudi Arabia, as a co-investigator and field director of the international Palaeodeserts Project. In 2014, we discovered the site of Al Wusta, close to another established archaeological site in the north-west of the country, and began serious research there in 2016.

We very soon found hundreds of animal fossils and human-made stone tools. Then we found a small fossil, one of the best preserved from the site. It had the characteristic shape of a part of a human finger bone, but could it really be that after so many years of looking, we had finally found an ancient human fossil?

Julien Louys/Michael Petraglia/Palaeodeserts Project

We used a technique called uranium series dating to determine that the finger bone was 90,000-years-old. This involved measuring how much of the tiny amount of uranium naturally found in the fossil had decayed into radioactive thorium and working out how long this must have taken.

The next challenge was identifying the species to which the fossil belonged. Was it a human or was it a Neanderthal, the only other hominin known in south-west Asia in this time period? It turns out that the finger bone belonged to our own species, Homo sapiens.

The part of the finger bone we had found, the middle section or intermediate phalanx, is very different in humans and Neanderthals. In basic terms, ours are longer and thinner while Neanderthals are shorter and squatter. We also CT-scanned the Al Wusta fossil to produce a 3D computer model. We then used a technique called geometric morphometrics to compare the fine details of the fossils shape with the same part from many humans, extinct hominins and non-human primates to confirm it really was from an ancient human.

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New history

This finger wasnt just an interesting find in its own right. It could also help change our understanding of when humanity first spread out from its earliest homes. According to the old textbook view, our species evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Despite a brief, failed expansion to the edge of Eurasia about 100,000 years ago when humans first tried migrating to the lands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean (the Levant), we only successfully spread out of Africa around 60,000 to 50,000 years ago.

Recent evidence suggests that much of this narrative is wrong. Findings in Africa, such as from the site of Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, suggest that Homo sapiens appeared early, more than 300,000 years ago. Our origin does not seem to have occurred in only one small area, but across much of Africa.

Findings from the Levant, most recently the dating of a maxilla (upper jawbone) from Misliya Cave in Israel, suggest our species repeatedly expanded into the winter-rainfall fed, forested area just outside Africa. We dont yet know if people survived long term in the Levant, which is a very small area. It seems more likely that there were repeated migrations from Africa.

But what about the areas beyond the Levant? Recent findings suggest that our species got to East Asia and Australia much earlier than had been thought. But determining the hominin species present and the age of these sites have proven challenging.

Klint Janulis/Michael Petraglia/Palaeodeserts Project

Our finger fossil gives us a more specific time range to work with, which correlates with other evidence. Stone tools from Al Wusta are similar to those from the Middle Palaeolithic (Stone Age) period in the Levant and north-east Africa. They suggest that our early spread into Eurasia was not associated with some kind of technological breakthrough, such as the invention of projectile technology as some have suggested.

Together, these findings show that Homo sapiens had spread beyond the Levant much earlier than traditional accounts would have it. The Al Wusta phalanx is the oldest directly dated fossil of our species beyond Africa and the Levant and so represents a crucial reference point in understanding this topic.

The challenge for the future is working out what became of the population to which the Al Wusta human belonged. The Al Wusta human lived in a very different landscape from the current desert in which it was found. The kinds of animal fossils and features of the sediments show that the site was once a freshwater lake in a grassland environment.

How did these ancient humans respond to the dramatic environmental change which dried out lakes such as that at Al Wusta? How did they relate to other populations? A single discipline alone  be it archaeology, genetics or palaeontology  cant robustly explain the evolution and spread of our species. But by working together, I am confident that we can make major inroads into understanding our origins over the coming years.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Huw Groucutt receives funding from the British Academy.
Tourists in South Carolina are facing a hefty fine after being accused of harassing an alligator by throwing vegetables at it.

Fripp Island Resort Activity Center said on its Facebook page it was searching for tourists who threw carrots at a large alligator in an act that was described by the center as a new level of stupid.

The center has a description of the tourists and announced they would be facing a $200 fine per carrot thrown if apprehended, and could also face 30 days in jail over the incident, in accordance with state law, the Associated Press reported.

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Today some visitors threw carrots onto a big alligator, the center wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.

This is a new level of stupid. We know some of Fripp's wildlife is amazing, but this is not how appreciation, respect, or admiration work. By giving these awesome prehistoric predators space we can live alongside them, the post continued.

This behavior will not be tolerated. Fripp Island Security has a description of the people responsible and is on the lookout. The fine for harassing an alligator is $200... That's $200 per carrot in this case. Y'all, make good choices. Don't be stupid. This is not how Fripp treats its wildlife, it added.

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According to Fripp Island naturalist Jessica Miller, the tourists were lucky the alligator did not react as they pelted it with vegetables, and later slunk back into the water once the sun started going down, she told The Island Packet.

But, this gator could have interpreted the tossed items as food and learned people are a source of food, Miller added. Once that behavior is observed, the gator has to be caught and put down before that nuisance behavior turns into an attack on a person. 

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Wynford Hodge owned Parsonage Farm and Caravan Park in Wales (Picture: Google)

A millionaire landowner left nothing in his will to his partner of 42 years, only for a judge to overturn it.

Wynford Hodge died last year aged 94, but left nothing to his partner, Joan Thompson, 79.

However, a judge at the High Court in Cardiff said Mr Hodges belief that she would be fine financially was a mistake.

Mr Hodge, who suffered from prostate cancer, owned Parsonage Farm and Caravan Park near Amroth in Wales and was worth more than 1.5 million when he died.

His partner had lived with him for 42 years before his death. However, he said he did not want her or her children to inherit any of his money.

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He had made ten wills before his death, the High Court heard.

In his final will, he left all of his wealth to his tenants, Karla Evans and Agon Berisha, who worked at his properties.

He said Ms Thompson was financially comfortable and didnt need any of his money.

Judge Milwyn Jarman pointed out she had only been left with savings of about 2,500.

The judge ruled that Mr Hodge failed to meet his responsibilities to his partner and awarded Ms Thompson a cottage on the estate worth 225,000.

Ms Thompson will also receive almost 190,000 to pay for the renovation of the cottage and to give her financial security.

Ms Thompson moved into a caravan at the farm with her son in the 1970s and was Mr Hodges main carer when his health deteriorated.
The ship was crushed by pack ice and lost (Picture Getty)

A new scientific expedition will use autonomous underwater vehicles to search for the Endurance, the lost ship of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Shackletons ship sank in 1916, after a disastrous journey which saw the ship trapped in pack ice and crushed.

Shackleton and his crew camped on the sea ice, then launched lifeboats on a daring 800-mile journey to the island of South Georgia where they were rescued.

Now scientists led by Professor Julian Dowdeswell are to search for the wreckage of the Endurance where it sank in the Weddell Sea.

Ernest Shackleton (Picture Getty)

Dowdeswell and his team are investigating the Larsen C ice shelf  but aim to use autonomous underwater vehicles to search for the Endurance.

Professor Dowdeswell says, It would be a shame not to.

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In our study of Larsen, we will be operating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). But if we can get them in range of where Endurance is thought to be, we will send them under the ice to do a survey.

They are fitted with downward-looking multi-beam echosounders, which can map out on a grid the shape of the seafloor.

British scientists will now search for the Endurance (Picture Getty)

You look at that for any signs of the ship and then focus in with cameras if you find something interesting.

After leaving Plymouth on August 8, 1914 only days after the First World War had started  the ship became stuck in ice the following February.

The crew of 28 men camped in freezing conditions for more than a year hoping that ice floes would either take them to safety or the thaw.

It did not  and eventually Endurance began to sink with the men still stuck on the ice  so Shackleton decided to launch their three lifeboats.

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In April 1916, they crammed into 22ft-long open vessels and spent seven days at sea in temperatures as low as 30C before reaching Elephant Island.

But the island, which lies 150 miles northeast of the Arctic Peninsula, was still extremely frigid, uninhabited, rarely visited by whalers who might help rescue them.

So Shackleton and five other volunteered to take the James Caird lifeboat on an 800-mile trip to South Georgia, which remains a British territory.

They braved hurricane winds and took 16 days to get there  before spending a further 11 days trekking over the remote and mountainous island to get help on the other side.

Shackleton then sailed back round to where they had first landed to pick up his three sick crewmates before heading back to Elephant Island to rescue the other 22.
Niculae Ion (l) and Niculae Avram (r) stole thousands from airport passengers (SWNS)

A pair of professional pickpockets who stole more than 40,000 from airport passengers have been jailed.

Romanians Niculae Ion, 21, and Niculae Avram, 46, targeted travellers at Luton and Heathrow Airports, stealing a travel wallet containing over 3,000 from a businessman and a credit card from a female passenger.

An investigation was launched by Bedfordshire Polices Airport Policing Unit in October 2017 following a number of high-value thefts.

The pair were arrested after arriving at Luton Airport (Wikipedia)

PC Niall Hamshere was able to identify two suspects and circulated images of Ion and Niculae nationally, which resulted in them being identified at Heathrow Airport.

Both had left the United Kingdom and returned to Romania  but they were subsequently detained at London Luton Airport after re-entering the UK on February 27.

The pair have previous convictions for similar offences in the UK, with Avram also having convictions in Germany and Ion having convictions in five other European countries.

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They both pleaded guilty to six counts of theft at Isleworth Crown Court on March 28 and were jailed for three years and four months.

Speaking after sentencing, PC Hamshere said: We are obviously glad that both have been given custodial sentences for their offences: this is the most substantial sentence either man has received in any country and it reiterates our commitment to bringing such offenders to justice.

These men are highly skilled pickpockets, with none of the victims having any idea where or when they had been targeted.

Ion and Avram pleaded guilty to six counts of theft at Isleworth Crown Court (Google)

They had deliberately targeted transport hubs where their victims were vulnerable to their skills.

We always urge vigilance against pickpockets, particularly in busy areas such as airports, and would ask anyone who thinks they are a victim of a similar offence to get in touch with us.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Russian Embassy in London said it would consider any secret resettlement of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the former Russian double agent and his daughter who were poisoned last month, as an abduction of its citizens.

If the pair were secretly resettled, the opportunity to hear their version of events would be lost, the embassy said.

"The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation," the website said.

Yulia Skripal was discharged from hospital earlier on Tuesday more than a month after she was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent together with her father.

(Writing by Sarah Young; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
The second child in just five months was found safely inside a northwest Indiana fire department's "Safe Haven Baby Box" Sunday evening.

The newborn child, nicknamed "baby Grace" by staff, was placed in the baby box at 7:05 p.m. Sunday, Assistant Chief Warren Smith of the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department told The Times of Northwest Indiana. Lieutenant Chuck Kohler was the first to arrive on the scene after motion detectors notified firefighters and 911 that a baby is placed in the heated drawer.

The baby was found on the tiny foam mattress inside the warm box with its umbilical cord still attached, according to firefighter Mick Pawlik.

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Indiana is currently home to the only two baby boxes in the country. In addition to the built-in devices to notify authorities, the box can only be opened from the inside once the child is enclosed.

LaPorte County Emergency Medical Services and the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office also responded to the fire station alerts, although Smith said Kohler was able to arrive within one minute of receiving the page and heard the child crying. Smith told local reporters that the infant appeared to be in good health and was taken to Franciscan Health in nearby Michigan City, Indiana.

"We are excitedanother life saved," Smith told reporters, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana. "We just have to thank the mother for doing the right thing. Any time I think about this, I smile."

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The creator of the baby boxes, Monica Kelsey, said the second and only other safe method of abandonment for mothers is located at a Woodburn fire station near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Kelsey, who is president of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., said she plans to install a third box in Ohio on April 26. Kelsey told The Times of Northwest Indiana that she herself was abandoned at a hospital in Montpelier, Ohio in 1973 just several hours after she was born.

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I want to thank the mom for doing the right thing, and having the courage to find a safe place for her newborn, and surrendering it under the Safe Haven law, Kelsey told WBBM-TV.

Since the box was installed, the baby box at the Coolspring Fire Station has been used twice. In November 2017, a baby girl the firefighters named "Hope," was left in the box a few days before Christmas.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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A seven-month-old boy died after he was attacked by his familys dog in Germany.

The animal reportedly bit the baby on his head late on Monday night while the family was at home in the town of Bad Konig in Hesse, The Local reported.

His father contacted emergency services and he was taken to a clinic where he died the same evening.

Attack  the attack took place in the German town of Bad Konig in Hesse, The Local reported (Picture: Rex)

The cause of the attack, as well as the dogs history of aggression, is unknown.

But the animal, reportedly a mixed-breed, was taken to an animal shelter following the attack, where police described it as displaying aggressive behaviour.

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According to The Local, prosecutors said the babys parents are in a state of shock following the attack.

(Top picture: Getty)
The demolition of a 53-meter-tall silo went badly wrong in Vordingborg, Denmark, on April 6 when the structure fell the wrong way, damaging a library.

Nichlas Hansen recorded this footage of the demolition.

The local mayor, Mikael Smed, said he was pleased no one was hurt and that an investigation had begun into what went wrong. Credit: NH Luftfoto & Video via Storyful
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of all political prisoners held in the country, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The decision came in response to calls from political parties and groups that have participated in the country's ongoing national dialogue to grant detainees the opportunity to engage in the political process, SUNA reported.

Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989 when he came to power in an Islamist and military-backed coup, has said he will not stand in elections expected in 2020 and appointed a prime minister last year for the first time.

"The release of political prisoners comes to strengthen the spirit of reconciliation, national harmony and peace created by the national dialogue" and as part of "steps to prepare a permanent constitution for the country," SUNA said.

Since 2015 Bashir has held ongoing meetings with opposition and rebel groups under the banner of a national dialogue, in part to end longstanding conflicts in warring regions such as Darfur.

Many groups have boycotted the initiative however, demanding that Bashir first repeal what they describe as repressive security and press laws and free political detainees.

SUNA did not specify how many political prisoners the decision would affect or the names of any of those set to be released.

Last month Bashir ordered about 80 political detainees released, weeks after they were arrested amid countrywide protests over soaring food prices and ongoing austerity measures.

Opposition groups have said about 50 political detainees remain in prison, including prominent politician Mohamed Mokhtar al-Khatib, the leader of Sudan's communist party.

(This story corrects vice president to prime minister in paragraph 3.)

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Dominic Evans)
A Taiwanese Navy warship arrives at the Corinto port A Taiwanese Navy warship arrives at the Corinto port, Nicaragua April 9,2018.REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwanese naval "Friendship Flotilla" of warships dropped anchor in Nicaragua on Monday just weeks after China urged Taiwan's dwindling diplomatic allies to ditch the self-ruled island in favour of Beijing.

Three ships, carrying around 800 crew, arrived in El Salvador on Friday and will visit other allies in Central America, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said.

China claims Taiwan as its sacred territory, part of "one China", and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it considers to be a wayward province under Chinese control.

Taiwan now has formal relations with only 20 countries, many of them poor nations in Central America and the Pacific. Panama cut its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of Beijing in June last year.

"Visiting our diplomatic allies is something the Friendship Flotilla has been doing for years. It helps to continuously strengthen the relationship with our allies," Taiwan Defence Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said on Tuesday.

This was the sixth time Taiwan's navy had visited Nicaragua. The whole trip will take two to three months, Chen said.

China and Taiwan have tried to poach each other's allies over the years, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations, although Taipei struggles to compete with an increasingly powerful China.

In response to a question about the visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that there was widespread consensus globally that there is only one China.

"We have faith that all nations in the world will come to accept this consensus and embrace the current trend," he told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing.

China's hostility towards Taiwan has risen since the election of President Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in 2016.

It suspects Tsai wants to push for formal independence, a red line for Communist Party leaders in Beijing, although Tsai has said she wants to maintain the status quo and is committed to ensuring peace.

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Japan on Tuesday met the families of people abducted by North Korea decades ago to train its spies, just a week before Japan's prime minister is expected to raise the emotive topic at a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The issue is a top domestic priority for premier Shinzo Abe, whose support has been undermined by scandals over suspected cronyism and cover-ups.

But Japan worries it could take a back seat to nuclear and missile issues in a series of summits planned with North Korea.

North Korea admitted in 2002 it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train as spies, and five of them returned to Japan. Abe has said he will not rest until all 13 have come home, making the issue a keystone of his political career.

In an apparent nod to Japan's concerns, U.S. Ambassador William Hagerty and his wife met abductees' family members, such as Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was snatched from a beach as a teenager 40 years ago.

Trump, who met Yokota among other relatives of abductees when he visited Japan in November, has incorporated the story of Megumi into his attacks on Pyongyang.

"Even today, as we speak, we don't know where they are, what life they are pursuing," Yokota said. "We haven't even seen one single photograph of them.

"The only thing we are asking for is to help our children who were kidnapped ... captured on their way back from school, and forced upon ships and taken away to a land they did not know."

Hagerty told them their plight had not been forgotten, pledging to convey their stories to Trump ahead of the summit.

"We're deeply saddened by the misery these family members have endured," he said after a meeting of roughly an hour at his residence in central Tokyo.

"I know that this issue is high on the list of priorities for both President Trump and Prime Minister Abe," he told reporters.

Story continues

Trump was the third president met by Yokota and the others. In the past, they have expressed frustration at how long their struggle has lasted, and appealed for action.

"That there has not been a result is very tough for us, who have suffered by not having any chance to meet our loved ones for such a long time," said Shigeo Iizuka, whose sister, Yaeko Taguchi, was taken in 1978, leaving behind two infants in a creche.

"We ask for your personal contribution to tell President Trump that he must demand that North Korea give back the Japanese victims."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Vanuatu and China on Tuesday denied a media report that Beijing wanted to establish a permanent military presence in the Pacific island nation.

Australia's Fairfax Media, citing unnamed sources, earlier on Tuesday reported that preliminary discussions to locate a full military base on Vanuatu had been held.

The prospect of a Chinese military outpost so close to Australia has been discussed at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington, Fairfax said.

Vanuatu's foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, rejected the report, however.

"No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," Regenvanu told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarization, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country."

In Beijing, China's defence ministry said the Fairfax report "completely did not accord with the facts", while a foreign ministry spokesman described it as "fake news".

Fairfax said Chinese naval ships would dock to be serviced, refuelled and restocked at a Vanuatu port, with the agreement eventually leading to a full military base.

"We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbours of ours," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Brisbane.

Vanuatu, around 2,000 km (1,200 miles) east of northern Australia, was home to a key U.S. Navy base during World War Two that helped beat back the Japanese army as it advanced through the Pacific towards Australia.

Any future naval or air base in Vanuatu would "give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the U.S. and its base on U.S. territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis," Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said in a report for the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.

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China opened its first overseas military base in August 2017 in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Beijing describes it as a logistics facility.

Djibouti's position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fuelled worry in India that it would become another of China's "string of pearls" military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

China has also become increasingly active in the South Pacific, undertaking infrastructure projects and providing aid and funding to small, developing island nations.

That has stoked fears that Australia's long-time influence there is being eroded.

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had earlier acknowledged heightened Chinese interest in the Pacific.

"It is a fact that China is engaging in infrastructure investment activities around the world," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said.

China has also faced criticism over its activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has been building artificial islands on reefs, some with ports and airstrips.

(Reporting by Colin Packham; Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)
A crash-test dummys life is full of ups and downs. That is perhaps even truer for the dummies NASA has enlisted.

The space agencys Langley Research Center in Virginia has given shed some light on the experiences of these abused figures, including footage of the devastating crashes they endure in the name of science.

Researchers have to use crash test dummies to evaluate the likelihood of injury when theyre either coming back to the ocean or theyre going to be coming back to land, Martin Annett, a structural impact dynamics engineer, said in the NASA video.

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The they he refers to are astronauts returning from a space mission, but crash-test dummies are used to investigate more than just spacecraftthey could be used to make airplanes safer too, for example. The dummies are rigged up to deliver data from the crashs impact to a computer, and the researchers analyze that data to find out if safety equipment like helmets, suits and chairs are effective and what sort of impacts would cause human injury.

It can be a tricky process.

Everything that you really want to know about injury occurs in anywhere from one-tenth to four-tenths of a second, Annett said. So we have to be able to capture a lot of data within that timeframe.

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The video includes wince-inducing footage of dummies smacking to the ground inside small planes, an astronaut crew capsule and a piece of a fuselage.

NASA uses dummies of different shapes and sizes to understand how maneuvers impact both men and women, large and small. They also drop the dummies and their test vehicles at different angles and speeds to get various views of the impacts.

According to officials, the inanimate victims are the same kind automobile companies use on their own crash tests, although those involve more forward and backward movements than vertical drops.

Story continues

crash-test-dummies

Screenshot

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Africa-focussed energy and resource company Kibo Mining confirmed on Tuesday that it has received commitments to raise 1.5m before expenses via a placing of 28,571,428 ordinary shares, at a placing price of 5.25p per share.

The AIM-traded firm said the placing was arranged by its UK broker, SVS Securities, and Novum Securities.

Novum was set to be appointed joint corporate broker with SVS on Tuesday, following completion of the placing.

The board said the funds from the placing would go towards general working capital and expediting ongoing advanced feasibility studies at the Mabesekwa independent coal-to-power project in Botswana, as well as strengthening its financial position ahead of the start of further work at the Mbeya coal-to-power project following the signing of the power purchase agreement, which is expected shortly.

This remains an exceptionally busy and exciting time for Kibo, said CEO Louis Coetzee.

The placing enables the company to expedite the feasibility studies of the Mabesekwa project in Botswana as well as strengthening the company's financial position, providing it with sufficient cash resources to conclude the funding and financial close process on the MCPP, as the latter heads strongly towards finalizing the PPA.
Premier African Minerals has appointed seasoned geologist Wolfgang Hampel, the former chief operating officer of Tantalus Rare Earths, as a director of the company with immediate effect.

This came as John Stalker, a member of the board since December 2012, stepped down from the role of director in order to lighten his workload after taking up the positions of chief executive officer and president of LSC Lithium back in September 2017.

As a result of his appointment, Hampel - who has 27 years of experience in lithium, rare earth elements and precious and base metals - now holds options to subscribe up to 8m ordinary shares of no par value in the company.

George Roach, Premier's chief executive, said: "Mr Stalker has made a valuable contribution to the development of the company over several years. On behalf of the company and the board, I would like to express my appreciation and wish him well in future endeavours, and his goal of reducing his current workload.

"At the same time, I welcome Mr Hampel to the board. Mr Hampel is a widely experienced seasoned geologist and has overseen Premier's exploration projects in Zimbabwe since 2014. His knowledge and experience in pegmatite ore bodies and rare earth elements is significant as we look to progress Zulu Lithium to definitive feasibility study and with re-emerging interest in rare earth elements, revitalise our exploration of the Katete rare earth carbonatite complex."

As of 1100 BST, shares had declined 3.76% to 0.16p.
AIM-listed stem cell research company ReNeuron has appointed Richard Beckman as chief medical officer, replacing Julian Howell, who has left to pursue other opportunities.

Beckman, who has more than 25 years of executive and consultancy experience in drug and device development, will be based in the group's recently-established US office in Boston, where he will lead the clinical and medical affairs team.

Before joining ReNeuron, Beckman was the chief medical officer of several innovative biotech and device firms, including Clearside, Ophthotech and Neurotech. Prior to that, he held leadership roles at Alcon, Lux Bio, Becton Dickinson and Allergan.

Chief executive officer Olav Helleb said: "I am delighted to welcome Rick to the company's management team. His many years' experience in medical practice and industry in the US will be invaluable to us as we build out our Boston team and increase our clinical activities in the US.

"I would like to express my sincere thanks on behalf of the company to Julian Howell who has led our clinical and medical team so skillfully. We wish him well in his next endeavour."

At 1340 BST, the shares were down 1% to 81.20p.
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Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has agreed a $1.1bn deal with Google in order to expand its operations.

While Google will not take a stake in the tech firm, it will take on a number of staff from HTC and a licence for HTCs intellectual property as it aims to boost its own hardware operations.

Despite promising beginnings, HTC was unable to sustain its competition of smartphones from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Google senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh said in a blog post on Thursday that it was still "early days" for the tech giant in terms of its hardware, but after launching the Google Pixel phone last year he hopes to delve further into the market.

Thats why weve signed an agreement with HTC, a leader in consumer electronics, that will fuel even more product innovation in the years ahead, said Osterloh.

With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks weve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we're excited to see what we can do together as one team.

Shares in the Taiwanese company were suspended on Wednesday following reports of the deal with the Alphabet-owned firm.
Talks between China and the US to resolve Washington's concerns about Beijing's practices on foreign trade fell apart last week, according to Bloomberg News.

Citing a person familiar with the situation, negotiations broke down following a demand from Washington for the Asian country to curb support for high-technology industries.

That person also said that Liu He, a Chinese vice premier overseeing economics and finance, had told some officials that Beijing had refused a US request for it to stop subsidising industries related to its 'Made in China 2025' industrial plan.

According to Washington, Beijing has been using the policy to force firms to transfer technology in areas such as robotics, aerospace and artificial intelligence.

Beijing had however offered to cut its trade surplus with the States by $50bn through increased purchases of liquified natural gas, agricultural products, semiconductors and luxury goods, the same source said.

On Monday, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry had said it was "even more impossible" to carry out trade talks under current conditions.

Significantly, Bloomberg also reported it was Liu who traveled to Washington in February - before the White House said it would consider boosting its trade tariffs against China by a further $100bn - and who was leading the response to the US administration's moves on trade.

In the background, in a speech delivered overnight Chinese president Xi Jinping had sought to quell concerns that Beijing was set on reshaping the current multilateral framework in order to suit its purposes.

"Regardless of the extent of development, China will not subvert the current international system, nor will it seek to establish spheres of influence. China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order."
"Xi's goal appears to have been twofold. First, portray China as a responsible actor and defender of globalism and free trade. Second, convince foreign firms and governments that China is entering a "new phase of opening up". Neither of these narratives are entirely convincing. It is true that Trump sparked the latest flare up in trade tensions. But the broader backdrop is that despite gradually opening up in recent decades, China retains much higher tariffs barriers than both the US and EU. It also ranks far worse on measures of openness to foreign investment. Meanwhile, hopes that Xi would make major new reform announcements were disappointed. " - Capital Economics

"We expected a very conciliatory tone, but the details heighten our conviction that China and the US will produce a grand bargain and avert the imposition of any significant tariffs this year. Our reservations over the longer term, however, persist.

"[...] We noted the comment that China holds the world's largest FX reserves, but aggressive UST sales as literally incredible. In any case, this was one veiled threat amid a speech littered with superlatives on the speed and necessity of opening." - Pantheon Macroeconomics

"Equities reacted positively to the tone of the speech with the Nikkei, Hang Seng and Chinese stock markets all up while S&P futures are higher by 1.4%. However, the reality seems to be that the speech contained very little new material and was largely a rehash of a speech given by Xi at Davos in January 2017." - Rabobank

"No doubt the world will be watching China closely. However, we are cautiously optimistic that China will follow through on its words, as reforms have moved to the top of the agenda. Xi Jinping has a strengthened mandate and more power to push through the reforms he has outlined for some years." - Danske Bank

"President Xi has succeeded in batting the ball back into the US court, so we now watch and wait for a response  a firm negative will send equities tumbling back down, but if Mr Trump nods his approval of this first step towards negotiation we might see stock markets edge up once more. Now is not the time to chase equities, particularly with earnings season just days away, but those who bought into last weeks lows will be keeping their fingers crossed that this bounce has a bit more life in it yet." - IG
Stocks on the Continent have begun the morning trading higher, helped by what some analysts labeled constructive remarks from Chinese president Xi Jinping in a key speech delivered overnight.

That was despite a volatile session on Wall Street on Monday, with a sharp early rebound in stocks apparently snuffed out after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of US president Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen.

"[Xi's] pledges to open up China's economy and lower import tariffs, while nothing particularly new, sent Asia markets higher and are likely to translate into a positive European open this morning.

"Whether they translate into anything other than words is another story but for now they appear to signal a willingness for China to move forward the discussions on trade with the US," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

In the background, speaking to Bloomberg TV the president of the Dallas Fed, Robert Kaplan, said he was "hopeful" than in one or two years' time one would be able to look back and see that few if any tariffs were implemented.

However, he added that: "But I do think the rhetoric, if it goes on for long enough at this level, is having somewhat a chilling effect."

Against that backdrop, as of 0945 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was rising by 0.53% or 1.96 points to 377.26, alongside a gain of 0.93% or 114.31 points to 12,376.84 for the German Dax and an advance of 0.28% or 65.10 points to 23,119.09 for the FTSE Mibtel.

The year-on-year rate of French industrial production accelerated to 4.0% for February (consensus: 4.7%), which was up from a 1.4% clip in the month before, according to INSEE, but economists pointed out a 0.6% in factory output excluding that of machinery and construction, labelling it disappointing.

Similarly, Italian industrial production fell by 0.5% month-on-month in February, ISTAT said, which was wide of economists' projections for an increase of 0.9%.

Meanwhile, in corporate news, America's Department of Justice gave the 'green light' to Bayer's proposed $62.5bn acquisition of Monsanto.

Germany's Verdi labour union said it would step-up strikes at Deutsche Telekom on Tuesday, ahead of a salary negotiations the next day. In parallel, air travel via Frankfurt and Munich was to be hit by a strike by public sector workers.

Elsewhere, Malaysia Airlines had reportedly launched a tender process for as many as 30 wide-body jets from Airbus.
UK ministers are looking into banning junk food advertisements on social media and television in a plan to fight youth obesity.

As implementation of new regulations could hurt broadcasters' advertising revenues, the government is considering separate regulations for social media and television channels' online platforms like ITV Player and 4oD, according to The Times.

At present, unhealthy food advertisement is not allowed during childrens programs but the government wants to spread this regulation to family programs such as X Factor that are not regulated since they are aimed at adults and are broadcast after 9pm.

Another option being considered is to identify young users on social media and target the advertising ban for those profiles.

Ministers are also looking to label menus and food at restaurants as unhealthy to raise awareness in the fight against obesity.

According to Liverpool University, currently children are seeing as many as 12 advertisements for junk food within an hour while watching family television shows.

Professor Mary Fewtrell, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said on the matter: Children are very impressionable and need protection from the hundreds of millions of pounds spent each year on junk food advertising, much of which is within the family viewing hours of 6-9pm.
BT has been fined 42m by regulator Ofcom for cutting compensation payouts to rivals for delays in providing high speed broadband.

The company will now have to pay 300m in compensation, the watchdog added.

The fine includes a 30% discount for BT admitting its liabilities. It was also ordered to pay 0.3m for failing to provide information.

Ofcom said BT's Openreach unit, which installs broadband lines misused the terms of its contract to cut payments to other providers between January 2013 and December 2014.

The company was supposed to pay out compensation after failing to deliver ethernet high-speed services to other, smaller providers in adequate time.

"Ofcom has taken enforcement action because BT breached rules that address the companys significant market power. This market power comes from the fact that most telecoms companies rely on access to BTs network to provide services such as broadband to their customers," the regulator said in a statement.

BT has 12 months to compensate all of the telecoms providers who faced financial loss because of its conduct.

BTs budget-oriented retail brand Plusnet was last week fined 0.88m by Ofcom for continuing to bill more than a thousand ex-customers.

An investigation started in May last year found the company broke what Ofcom called a fundamental billing rule by continuing to charge a group of customers for landline or broadband after they had cancelled their service.

Analyst George Salmon at Hargreaves Lansdown said BT was "on the naughty step" as this misdemeanour follows the accounting scandal in Italy and the enforced separation of the Openreach business.

"As a result the demands on BTs cash flow are adding up, in the short term at least," he said.

"Whats more, net debt and the pension deficit each stand at over 9.5bn, and more cash could be needed to plug that pension shortfall after a review later this year. With BT targeting dividend increases of at least 10% this year and next, the pressure is increasingly on the consumer facing divisions to generate continued growth.

Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Ofcom-accredited broadband advice site Cable.co.uk, says the decision offered insight into "some of the factors contributing to Ofcom's decision to split BT and Openreach into two separate entities".

"Clearly, being the sole owner of shared infrastructure has given rise to precisely the sort of conflict of interest of which BT has long been accused," he said.

"Customers must never be allowed to become collateral damage in the battle to gain the upper hand in the market. Fines such as this, painful though they are for those on whom they are levied, are vital in maintaining a fair, competitive marketplace in which business can thrive."
Capita was on the front foot on Tuesday as the outsourcer announced that its 11-year customer service contract with Volkswagen UK has been extended by two years.

The company, which began working with VW in 2006, will continue to provide customer service for the car maker's brands in the UK, including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, through its customer service support centre.

This includes delivering customer care and technical services via phone, social media and the online service.

Mike Barnard, executive director of Capita Customer Management, said: "The extension of our partnership demonstrates the continued success of our work with Volkswagen Group over many years. We have always sought to deliver innovative and increasingly digital services that exceed customers expectations. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship and delivering a consistent and comprehensive service to customers."

At 1330 BST, the shares were up 5.9% to 139.95p.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson has called on nations across the world to condemn the actions of North Korea , after Pyongyang claimed to have launched an intercontinental-ballistic missile on Tuesday.

Kim-Jong-uns regime carried out the missile test on the eve of the US holiday of Independence Day, saying that it had delivered a "package of gifts" for the country on its day of celebrations.

Experts are undecided on whether the weapon launched by North Korea had as large a range as the regime claims, but the US has responded firmly in any case.

"All nations should publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to their pursuit of nuclear weapons," Tillerson said in a statement.

Russia and China, one of the isolated states only allies, joined forces on Tuesday to call on all sides to sign up to a de-escalation programme.

Chinas ambassador to the United Nations had called for a de-escalation in tensions between North Korea and the West just hours before the missile was launched.

If tension only goes up... then sooner or later it will get out of control and the consequences would be disastrous, Liu Jieyo said.

The increased risk surrounding the actions from North Korea have pushed safe haven markets stronger.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: The overnight trading session was dominated by a decent risk-off sentiment after the North Korean President Kim Jong-un said to be firmly determined to test an ICBM that could hit the US within this year.

The North Korean missile threat boosted the appetite in safe haven assets. Capital flew into the yen and gold.
The outcome of an inquiry into the personal conduct of Sir Martin Sorrell could be published as early as next week as potential successors for the top position at WPP continue to emerge. WPP, the worlds largest advertising agency, hopes that publishing the findings of an investigation into its long-serving chief executive next week will draw a line under a scandal that has left the group and Sir Martin vulnerable. - The Times

Tough new punishments are on the way for bad or dishonest auditors in an effort to crack down on shabby performance in an industry wracked by scandals. Seriously poor audit work will land big four auditors with fines of 10m or more, the Financial Reporting Council said. - Telegraph

Criminal cyber-attacks on UK businesses increased last year, according to the annual report of the National Cyber Security Centre. Firms face a growing threat from ransomware, data breaches and weaknesses in the supply chain, according to the report, published on Tuesday. Emerging threats include theft from cloud storage, which the NCSC argues too many businesses put their faith in.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has issued a veiled warning to Donald Trump as the threat of a trade war with the US simmers, calling on other countries to refrain from seeking dominance and reject power politics, adding that arrogance ... will get [you] nowhere. The Chinese president did not directly address his countrys ongoing tit-for-tat tariff dispute with the US on Tuesday, but said that those who ignored the trend of the times toward openness would be left behind and assigned to the dustbin of history. - Guardian

Britain may leaving but the European Union has provided UK businesses with the most revenue and the highest growth of anywhere in the world over the past two years, according to a survey of 800 leading directors. A report by the Institute of Directors said 63 per cent of business leaders that it surveyed said the EU was the largest source of revenue for their company of any global market, while 43 per cent said the bloc had provided the greatest growth for their business since the start of 2016. - The Times

British businesses are shrugging off concerns about Brexit uncertainty, with almost three quarters expecting to see trade increase over the coming year as they capitalise on the cheaper pound and rising overseas demand. A survey by HSBC of more than 6,000 companies operating in 25 markets around the world found that 72 per cent of UK companies expect trade volumes to increase over the next 12 months. - The Times

Junk food advertisements would be blocked on social media under plans being drawn up in the fight against obesity. Ministers are also looking at whether to force restaurants to label unhealthy foods as they finalise a strategy before the summer. - The Times

More than 4.3m was wiped off the value of Mothercare as the troubled retailer desperately battles to survive. The struggling baby goods retailer is reportedly looking to enter into a company voluntary arrangement  a type of insolvency that allows it to stay in business  to avoid having to close its doors. The move could see it close up to 50 of its 143 stores and negotiate down the rents on others in a bid to slash its costs. - Mail

Iceland is the first British supermarket to pledge a crackdown on palm oil by removing the environmentally devastating food ingredient from its own-brand food. The frozen food specialist said it had made an ethical decision to reformulate 130 food products to completely remove palm oil from its list of ingredients by the end of the year. - Telegraph

Tens of thousands of men will be recruited to take part in a 75 million boost to prostate cancer research ordered by Theresa May to close the funding gap with breast cancer. The prime minister will acknowledge today that the disease is still identified too late for patients to be saved as she promises funds for better diagnosis and treatment. - The Times

Facing a watershed week for Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has shouldered the blame for failing to prevent damaging misuse of the social media network that he co-founded. In written testimony released yesterday before what is expected to be two days of gruelling testimony to Congress starting today, the chief executive of Facebook tried to highlight the constructive role that he said the company had played in society. - The Times

A top City banker at Goldman Sachs has been sacked after allegedly threatening his pregnant boss during a row over his performance. The vice president  who is in his mid-30s and worked on Goldmans operations team  is said to have been out of control during a meeting with her and another woman, according to a leaked letter from the bank. - Mail
Miners and the oil services sector were the top risers on Tuesday, while utilities were hit by profit taking.

Crude oil prices were up more than 2%, lifting Brent above $70 per barrel. Oil engineers as a sector benefited most, with the likes of Wood Group, Petrofac, Hunting and Lamprell all in the black, while oil producers such as BP, Shell and Tullow were gushing too.

Some traders commented that comments from Chinese presidents Xi Jinping boosted oil prices on hopes that the trade tensions between the US and China, the two biggest crude oil consumers, will start easing.

Metals prices were also boosted by Xi's comments and US dollar weakness, lifting Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Glencore and Rio Tinto.

Industrial metals were lifted by a rebound for Glencore, which took a beating the previous day on the back of US sanctions against Russia. The Swiss-based commodities giant rose as it said chief executive Ivan Glasenberg has resigned as a director of Russian aluminium producer Rusal, in which it holds a stake of just under 9%.

Russian steel producer Evraz also bounced back after heavy losses in the previous session.

The utilities were in the red as Centrica-owned British Gas said it would bump up prices for customers on its standard variable tariff by 5.5% from next month as it bemoaned rising wholesale and policy costs, adding that similar pressures were cited by Ofgem when they increased the pre-payment meter cap by just over 57 on 1 April.

National Grid, United Utilities and Pennon were all lower, as profit taking took affect the day after the sector stood among the top risers on the first day of the week.

Top performing sectors so far today

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution +3.01%

Mining +2.99%

Industrial Metals & Mining +2.03%

Electronic & Electrical Equipment +1.90%

Industrial Engineering +1.90%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Gas, Water & Multiutilities -1.92%

Electricity -1.20%

Tobacco -1.20%

Personal Goods -0.52%

Real Estate Investment Trusts -0.41%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,248.93 0.75%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,633.95 0.77%

techMARK (TASX) 3,358.21 0.90%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 1,687.80p 4.81%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 947.80p 3.97%

Pearson (PSON) 768.40p 3.09%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,427.60p 3.06%

Glencore (GLEN) 348.10p 2.64%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,689.50p 2.47%

Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,023.00p 2.25%

Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,175.50p 2.13%

Just Eat (JE.) 708.80p 2.04%

Smith (DS) (SMDS) 488.10p 1.94%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

United Utilities Group (UU.) 708.40p -3.14%

Severn Trent (SVT) 1,850.50p -2.37%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,644.00p -2.07%

National Grid (NG.) 820.70p -1.57%

Shire Plc (SHP) 3,654.00p -1.47%

SSE (SSE) 1,281.50p -1.39%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 264.40p -1.34%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,256.00p -1.22%

DCC (DCC) 6,595.00p -1.20%

Centrica (CNA) 141.88p -1.17%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Polymetal International (POLY) 639.00p 8.12%

Card Factory (CARD) 204.60p 7.68%

Capita (CPI) 141.30p 6.96%

Ferrexpo (FXPO) 228.50p 5.11%

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,242.00p 4.85%

Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 895.40p 4.24%

Hunting (HTG) 687.50p 4.09%

Weir Group (WEIR) 2,013.00p 4.08%

Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 539.40p 3.93%

Greencore Group (GNC) 140.85p 3.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 251.00p -4.27%

Provident Financial (PFG) 658.20p -4.22%

Ascential (ASCL) 405.00p -3.62%

Diploma (DPLM) 1,141.00p -2.56%

Sanne Group (SNN) 622.00p -2.20%

Pennon Group (PNN) 641.20p -2.17%

Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 1,112.00p -2.11%

Sophos Group (SOPH) 465.60p -1.69%

Workspace Group (WKP) 1,008.00p -1.66%

Marston's (MARS) 100.00p -1.57%
The newest jewel in the University of North Georgia (UNG) crown of buildings, the Convocation Center on UNGs Dahlonega Campus, is the setting for three commencement ceremonies for graduates from all UNG campuses on May 4-5.

The 103,000-square-foot, 3,600-seat multiuse facility opened earlier this spring. A total of 1,250 graduates are anticipated to participate in commencement ceremonies.

Three speakers, Gen. Stephen Townsend and Bill Mitchell, both UNG alumni, and Yvette Daniels will serve as keynote speakers.

Stephen Townsend, a four-star general, is the keynote speaker for the College of Arts & Letters commencement ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, May 4.

Townsend is commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Previously, Townsend was the commanding general of XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He also commanded the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, New York.

From August 2016 until September 2017, he served as the commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force  Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR). During his command of CJTF-OIR, Townsend oversaw the liberation of 1.6 million people and 40,000 square kilometers of Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL)-held territory, including Mosul, the ISIL capital in Iraq. Townsend also had multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Townsend earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from UNG in 1982 and has two master's degrees. He has a number of awards and decorations, including the Combat Infantryman Badge (with star), Combat Action Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, and Ranger Tab.

Townsend is only the second four-star general to have graduated from UNG; Gen. William "Lipp" Livsey, for whom the drill field at the Dahlonega Campus is named, was the first.

Yvette Daniels, director of university relations for the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), will be the keynote speaker for the commencement ceremony for graduates of the College of Education, College of Health Sciences & Professions, and University College at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 5.

In her current role, Daniels is responsible for establishing effective college and university relationships through the promotion of public health programs at the state and local level.

She previously served as the director of Health Promotion for DPH, overseeing maternal and child health, health promotion and disease prevention, the Volunteer Health Care Program, and the Office of Health Equity. Prior to that, Daniels was the deputy director of Legislative and External Affairs, where she was responsible for the development and direction of the legislative goals and agenda for areas impacting public health. She also served as the director of legislation and policy for the Division of Public Health during its tenure in the Department of Human Resources, and also served as legal services manager.

Before joining DPH, Daniels was an assistant state attorney with the State Attorney's Office in Jacksonville, Florida. In that role, she was assigned to the Sexual Assault Unit with responsibility for prosecuting sex offenses against children and women. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Georgia and her juris doctorate from the University Of Georgia School of Law.

The commencement ceremony for graduates of the Mike Cottrell College of Business, College of Science & Mathematics, and the Lewis F. Rogers Institute for Environmental & Spatial Analysis will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday. Bill Mitchell, the former president of Dunkin Brands International, will be the keynote speaker.



Prior to Dunkin Brands International, Mitchell served as president of Baskin-Robbins U.S. and Canada. He also worked for Papa Johns International for 10 years, serving as president of global operations for the $3 billion dollar company with 3,400 restaurants in 29 countries.

Mitchell held various operations roles with AFC Enterprises Inc., which owns Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Church's Chicken, including the role of senior director of operations.

Earlier in his career, Mitchell worked for the RM Restaurant Group as vice president of operations and for PepsiCo as part of the KFC national management team.

Before entering the restaurant industry, Mitchell served as a captain in the U.S. Army.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree from UNG in 1986.

Tickets are required by guests for all ceremonies; each graduate will be allotted 7 tickets. Students who met the application deadline for spring graduation can pick up graduation packets, which include their allotment of tickets, at their home campus bookstore the week before graduation.

Graduates should read through all information and instructions given in the graduation packets, and arrive 45 minutes prior to graduation to prepare and line-up for the ceremony. Graduates and guests should also allow extra time for traffic and parking when arriving for ceremonies and should note the change in venue.

Guests and graduates are asked to share their success via social media using #UNG18grad; posts and photos using the hashtag can be viewed before, during and after the weekend's ceremonies on the UNG commencement website.
One of the biggest foreign policy questions hovering over the United States is what the country should do with Syria. In his latest tweets, Donald Trump put the blame on former President Barack Obama while finally calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

Trump on Putin

For the better part of the last two decades, Bashar al-Assad has ruled in Syria, creating turmoil and instability in the region as the pressure mounts on other nations to make a move.

In recent years, the Assad regime has also been accused of war crimes, including the murder of Syria civilians who have attempted to flea the country to save their own lives. One of the country's top supporters has been Russia, putting the Donald Trump administration in a bind due to their alleged collusion with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election.

....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

The latest headline out of Syria has accused Bashar al-Assad and his government of using a chemical attack to kill at least 70 civilians, including children, which resulted in a series of tweets by Donald Trump on April 8.

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," Trump tweeted. "Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world," he added, before tweeting, "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad."

....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

"Big price to pay.

Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!" Donald Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet. In his third and final tweet on the matter, the president pointed the finger of blame at Barack Obama. "If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago!" Trump wrote, while concluding, "Animal Assad would have been history!"

Twitter backlash

After Donald Trump's tweets on Syria, he was quickly called out by critics.

"So now, you will probably not serve Putin dinner on the good China!!!" one tweet read.

Ah, your friends Putin and Assad have a way with chemicals, don't they?  Christopher LaValle (@lavallecd) April 8, 2018

So now, you will probably not serve Putin dinner on the good china!!!  Josiebe11e (@Josiebe11e) April 8, 2018

Obama's family was a model of mutual respect and support. Your family is a mire of venality and debauchery.  Canis Vexillum (@canisvex629) April 8, 2018

"What happened to your eye? Is it sharia? An eye for an eye? Oh you sustained it in one of jihady escapade! You should be arrested! Fool!" a Twitter user wrote. "Ah, your friends Putin and Assad have a way with chemicals, don't they?" one tweet added.

"Ooooooh. A rare Putin call out. But President Putin? Why no nickname? Pudgy Putin? Poison Putin? Penisface Putin? Nicknames only for Democrats and Kim Jong-un?" another tweet stated.

Ooooooh. A rare Putin call out. But President Putin? Why no nickname? Pudgy Putin? Poison Putin? Penisface Putin? Nicknames only for Democrats and Kim Jong-un?  Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger) April 8, 2018

If there would be anyone who needs to have a good backbone(as in support), it's Donald Trump.  Ambrish Saxena (@AmbrishSaxena12) April 8, 2018

Too bad that our troops are going to the Mexican border instead.   The GOAT (@TheAdamMatt) April 8, 2018

"Obama's family was a model of mutual respect and support. Your family is a mire of venality and debauchery," a social media user wrote. "If there would be anyone who needs to have a good backbone(as in support), it's Donald Trump," a follow-up tweet read.
The biggest story over the last 24 hours has revolved around the FBI raid of Michael Cohen over his alleged "hush money" payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in regards her reported affair with Donald Trump. Despite Trump's anger over the issue, one host on Fox News decided to split from his support of the president and explaining why the FBI was right for their actions.

Fox News on Trump

The FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen on Monday afternoon, seizing emails, tax documents and other records as it pertains to his payment to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump.

Cohen is now under investigation and could face charges of bank fraud and campaign finance violations, with time behind bars being a possible outcome. In response, Trump was not pleased, going as far as referring to the raid as a "witch hunt" that was a "disgrace" to the country.

Fox legal analyst defends Cohen raid  and seconds later Trump explodes in hysteria over Muellers witch hunt https://t.co/tWwcH0UumJ  Raw Story (@RawStory) April 10, 2018

The issue was highlighted during the April 10 edition of "Fox & Friends" where fellow Fox News host and contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano broke from his usual support of the president to defend the FBI's decision to raid the office of Michael Cohen.

"Muellers people stumbled onto proof of evidence of bank fraud on the part of Michael Cohen," Napolitano said, before explaining that the FBI is legally allowed to use the documents obtained in Cohen's office "in a courtroom or in a prosecution what they were looking for."

Double down

Andrew Napolitano then speculated that Michael Cohen has committed bank fraud, a serious charge that could put further heat on the White House.

"If he had to tell the bank what he was using (hush money) for and he misled the bank, thats a problem," he noted. "If they indict him for bank fraud, they are going to try and squeeze him about what he knows about Russian collusion," Napolitano predicted, before explaining "it's unethical for a lawyer to pay a client's bills." Following the segment on Fox News, Trump fired off two tweets about the alleged "witch hunt" of the FBI, as his administration does their best to come up with a new defense and talking point.

Moving forward

As the pressure continues to mount on Donald Trump in the fallout of his alleged affair with Stormy Daniels, the adult film star is set to pose for Penthouse magazine, while giving additional details about her time with the former host of "The Apprentice." With Michael Cohen faces potential criminal charges, only time will tell how it all plays out.
Kailyn Lowry is in love! The "Teen Mom 2" star recently revealed that she had fallen in love and she's telling fans all about it. This is great news for Kail now that her ex-husband Javi Marroquin has moved on yet again. After he split from Briana DeJesus, rumors got pretty intense about Kail and Javi getting back together but that didn't happen. He ended up going back to Lauren Comeau and the couple have been posting pictures on social media again. As for Kail, she ended up going on vacation.

Kail goes to Jamaica with her kids

Kailyn Lowry packed it all up and headed to Jamaica with her three sons.

She shared a lot of her trip with fans via Instagram and it looks like they all had an amazing time.

Apparently, Kail's time in Jamaica had her feeling great. She posted several photos of the trip and in many of them, she was topless. Fans gave mixed reviews of Kail's shirtless photo. Some loved her curvy, tattooed physique while others begged for the "Teen Mom" star to cover it up. In the last shot, Kail even captioned it, "Jamaica had me feeling free!"

It was obvious that Kail loved the family trip to Jamaica. It was pretty obvious by her huge smile in every single picture. And who could blame her? The island is beautiful and there were plenty of things to keep them all busy.

Kail even posted a touching tribute to her oldest son Issac.

She gushed about her firstborn and talked about the special time they got to share together, a rarity when raising three kids by herself. Kail really got to bond with all of her boys and the spring break trip was a smashing success.

Kail is in love

The trip was so amazing for Kailyn Lowry that she even tweeted that she 'Fell In Love in Jamaica" That got her fans going as they speculated about who she might be in love with.

After all, she has been flashing a pretty cheesy love grin in all of her pictures from the trip.

Some even teased her to be careful not to get pregnant with baby number four while she was on vacation. Kailyn laughed it off.

Footage of baby 4 and Lux next year pic.twitter.com/3N38YiRkNq  ella blaine (@ella_b2007) April 8, 2018

Now if Kail fell in love with another person, she sure didn't give any clues during her trip.

However, it does look like she fell in love with Jamaica. It isn't the first time Kail has teased about a relationship that wasn't actually real either. Remember when she teased about taking a flight with her "love" on Instagram a while back?

Don't be too surprised if Kail heads back to the island for another getaway soon. She stayed in a resort in Negril and told her fans that it was a great place for family. She even warned "Teen Mom" fans looking for a party spot not to pick her hotel since it was more family-oriented.

Do you think Kail Lowry was talking about someone special? Or did she just fall in love with Jamaica during her spring break trip with the kids?
Lala Kent was blasted by Randall Emmett's former wife, Ambyr Childers, on Instagram over the weekend as the couple enjoyed a romantic getaway in the Bahamas with his two kids. As some may have seen, Childers took to her page on Saturday, and after sharing a screenshot of messages sent to her, via text, from Kent, she labeled the "Vanderpump Rules" star as her ex-husband's "mistress."

In the text messages, Kent had said Childers was talking badly about her to one of her and Emmett's children, who then informed Kent of what she had been told. Kent then fired at Childers, suggesting the actress is jobless and can't keep a man.

She even targeted Childers for getting engaged to her current fiance Jeff Tinsley just two weeks after her divorce from Emmett was finalized.

In the caption of her screenshot, Ambyr Childers wrote, Be kind to unkind people. They need it the most. Even the mistress.

Lala Kent responds to Ambyr Childers' Instagram diss?

After returning home to Los Angeles from the Bahamas, Lala Kent appeared on her own Instagram page, where she seemingly fired back at Childers for her shocking post. Along with a photo of herself and Randall Emmett sharing a hug, the "Vanderpump Rules" star labeled the movie producer as her soul mate and vowed to keep him, and their family protected.

"Ill protect you and our family through everything," Lala Kent wrote on April 9.

"Keeping things sacred, knowing our real life will never be up for grabs," she continued. Thank you for loving my crazy a**. I know it aint easy, daddy. You mean the universe and more to me."

Lala Kent has denied being Randall Emmett's mistress in the past

During her sophomore season of "Vanderpump Rules," the series' fourth season, Kent was accused of dating a married man but insisted that she wasn't doing so.

Then, after it was confirmed that her boyfriend of two years was Emmett, who wasn't officially divorced until December of last year, she did her best to downplay the mistress title.

On Twitter months ago, Kent explained that while she and Emmett were dating when he was married, his former wife, Ambyr Childers, had also moved on from the relationship with someone else.

To see more of Lala Kent and her co-stars, including Lisa Vanderpump, James Kennedy, Kristen Doute, Stassi Schroeder, Scheana Marie, Jax Taylor, and Brittany Cartwright, don't miss new episodes of "Vanderpump Rules" season six on Monday nights at 9 PM on Bravo TV.
Elizabeth Creamer, professor of educational research and evaluation in the School of Education in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, has been conferred the title of professor emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The emeritus title may be conferred on retired professors, associate professors, and administrative officers who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive an emeritus certificate from the university.

A member of the university community since 1982, Creamer was the principal investigator of more than $3 million in National Science Foundation grants focused on the recruitment of women to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She has authored or coauthored more than 80 books, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reviews.

A faculty member in both the gender studies and educational research and evaluation programs, Creamer served as head of the latter and of the interdisciplinary studies program.

Creamer received her bachelors degree from Northwestern University, a masters degree from Colorado State University, and an Ed.D. from Virginia Tech.

Related Link:

Researchers awarded $2.4 million to engage females in information technology careers
From local soil to a global database, new viruses have been uncovered, analyzed, and recorded by undergraduate researchers in Virginia Techs College of Science.

The University Libraries is showcasing achievements from the Phage Hunters course in the Department of Biological Sciences. The exhibit, located on the fourth floor of Newman Library near the Graduate Study Lounge, displays the Phage Hunters coursework, comprised entirely of undergraduate research that has impacted the biological sciences field at an international level.

The Phage Hunters class gives each student ownership of their own phage discovery and research, something that is found in few teaching lab settings. Phage Hunters also gives students the understanding and skills to move forward in undergraduate research outside the classroom, said Kristi DeCourcy, one of the course instructors from the Fralin Life Science Institute.

A phage, or otherwise known as bacteriophage, is a virus that infects and consumes bacteria. Phage therapy is becoming more widely considered as an alternative to antibiotics in treatment of bacterial infections. This class introduces students to the basics of discovering new phages and sharing their findings through public databases.

"Students in the Phage Hunters class discover a novel phage through wet-lab research and continue studying the phage at the genome level with bioinformatics, said course instructor Stephanie Voshell. The ability to follow the same organism from discovery to genome publication is a unique opportunity that gives students experience with two very different, yet interconnected fields of research."

Visitors to the exhibit are able to walk through visual descriptions of the phage location and lab isolation processes, as well as see the equipment used by the researchers and photographs of each researchers original phage.

Exhibit program manager and learning environments librarian Scott Fralin said the public research display can be inspirational for aspiring student researchers. First, I think it can be inspirational to other students, especially undergraduate students, when they see that other undergrads are conducting real scientific research, said Fralin.

Second, I think it is important to the students conducting the research to have their work shown publicly. It adds another level of thought and preparation for the students when they have to prepare their work for a public audience instead of only for their professor and classmates, Fralin added.

In the first part of the two-semester course, students locate and isolate undocumented bacteriophages from Virginia Techs campus soil. These original phages are then sent to a lab for genetic sequencing. Upon the sequences return, students annotate them using a specialized computer software to describe the phages unique genetic material and functions.

Sequence annotation is important because when a genome is sequenced, it is the annotation that makes sense of it. Those results can provide clues that lead to insights on how a particular organism functions, explained student researcher and phage hunter Stephanie Williams.

I came into the bioinformatic portion of the class, which was the second semester, never having done genome annotation before. So I learned a lot from that experience. It really gave me an appreciation for this process because of how complex it can be and the patience that it demands, added Williams.

The final reports of these annotations are then published in the Actinobacteriophage database at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as GenBank, a genetic sequencing database operated by the National Institutes of Health.

The Phage Hunters exhibit accomplishes interdisciplinary engagement by sharing the research of students in the biological sciences with the diverse library population of students, faculty, and community visitors.

The Phage Hunters exhibit will run through July 29, 2018.

Written by Alec Masella






Getty Images

En espanol | According to a new AARP survey, more than three-quarters of Americans over age 65 know little or nothing about the federal governments initiative to replace their Medicare cards. And that makes them susceptible to scammers intent on taking advantage of the confusion.



Individuals new to Medicare are receiving the updated card, which displays a unique combination of 11 letters and numbers rather than a beneficiarys Social Security number (SSN). Current beneficiaries will begin receiving their replacement cards next month.

AARP found that 60 percent of those surveyed mistakenly believe they might have to pay for the revamped cards. The new cards are free. And more than half of respondents said they might not be suspicious if they received a call  supposedly from Medicare  asking them to verify their SSNs as a prerequisite to getting a new card. Medicare officials have emphasized that they will never call beneficiaries about the cards, which are being mailed out by the Social Security Administration.

The new Medicare cards are a step forward for fraud prevention, but con artists are working overtime on new ways to scam seniors, says Nancy LeaMond, AARPs chief advocacy and engagement officer.

Scammers posing as Medicare representatives have already been calling beneficiaries demanding a processing fee. Other fraudsters are telling beneficiaries that they are owed a refund from transactions on their old card and then asking for bank account information to process the reimbursement. Medicare will never ask an enrollee for a bank account number, and no refunds are owed.

AARPs telephone survey reached 800 respondents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

AARPs Fraud Watch Network provides more prevention tips and advice on card-replacement and other types of scams. Consumers can also sign up for Watchdog Alert emails to get regular updates on new scams.
Two suspects fleeing from a stolen vehicle fired at police officers southwest of Downtown in the valley area command Monday afternoon, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.

Simon Drobik said no officers were injured and they did not return fire.

After an hourslong SWAT standoff, the suspects surrendered and were taken into custody. APD said five people, four men and a woman, were arrested in connection with the incident. State Police had said six suspects were in custody.

Drobik said around 4:20 p.m. APD and State Police officers on the auto-theft suppression multi-jurisdictional task force spotted a stolen vehicle with four people inside. He said the driver rammed the vehicle into a state police cruiser and then all four got out.

Two of the suspects were arrested immediately and the other two fled, firing at officers as they ran, Drobik said.

He said those two men hunkered down in an apartment complex near 11th and Coal SW and SWAT teams were called out to arrest them.

Drobik did not identify the suspects.
SANTA FE  The Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday will consider a proposal that would allow city employees to take out short-term loans from city government so they dont have to borrow from companies that charge exorbitant interest rates.

The resolution, which calls for the city manager to issue a request for proposals to create an employee loan program, was unanimously approved by the councils Public Works Committee on Monday despite a lack of details.

City councilors on the committee had several questions about the program  such as whether theres a demand for the program from city employees, if it would be open to temporary employees, and what would happen if an employee took out a loan and was then fired  that couldnt be answered by staff.

Councilor Mike Harris said answers to those and other questions could later be included in the actual RFP. He said it might be a good idea to bring it back around for committee review once the RFP was drafted, as other legislation has been in the past.

The proposed resolution brought forward by Mayor Alan Webber states that Santa Fe residents, including city employees, are often forced to resort to payday loans to cover basic financial needs on a regular basis. A loan program would reduce the risk of falling victim to predatory lending by providing loan options.

Legislation approved by state government last year allows loan companies to charge up to 175 percent interest.

The staff report states that, Traditional payday lending companies charge often exorbitant rates that can result in a debt trap that is difficult to overcome. By offering this program to employees, the City can mitigate a financial hardship that might impact workplace productivity and employee retention.

At least one company is already offering such a program to local governments in the state. Susan Mayes of the New Mexico Association of Counties said Dona Ana County contracted with TrueConnect about a year ago, and Bernalillo, Catron, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Socorro and Taos counties have recently approved offering loan programs to employees through TrueConnect. She said the loans are only offered to full-time employees. Employees can take out loans to between $1,000 and $3,000 in $500 increments at an annual percentage rate of 24.99 percent. Employees have one year to pay back the loan, through automatic deductions from their paychecks. The money thats loaned does not come out of the counties coffers, but from a participating bank or credit union.
SANTA FE  Bill Overmier doesnt want people to forget what he and thousands of others went through.

During World War II, the Albuquerque resident and National Guard veteran spent three-and-a half years as a prisoner in Yokohama, Japan. He built warships there after being liberated from Corregidor, an island off the Bataan Peninsula in the Phillipines.

On Monday, Overmeir was the only Bataan veteran present at the annual ceremony in Santa Fe commemorating the fall of the peninsula and the deadly Bataan Death March that followed in 1942.

About 1,800 New Mexican National Guardsmen helped fight the Japanese for four months while stationed in the Phillippines. After the fall of Bataan, more than 75,000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers were forced to walk 65 miles to prison camps in what is now known as the death march. Hundreds of Americans and thousands of Filipinos died during the forced march.

Overmier, who turned 98 this year and attended the ceremony alongside his wife, Ann, describes attending memorial events like Mondays as an emotional experience, but something he still does because he likes engaging with people who can relate to his experience.

I like to meet people who have gone through the same thing I have, said Overmier at the Bataan Memorial, a block or so from the state Capitol.

If they had similar experiences overseas, Weve got something in common. he said. And thats what is important.

Including Overmier, about 900 of the 1,800 New Mexicans who fought over Bataan returned home after being taken prisoner. Today, about 11 survivors remain.

Though Overmeir was the only survivor present Monday, the family members of about a dozen veterans attended the ceremony. Three Bataan veterans who died in the past year were also honored: Trinidad Martinez, Pedro Gonzales Jr. and Julio T. Barela.

Its certainly no accident that you survived and are here with us today, New Mexico National Guard Adjutant General Kenneth Nava said to Overmier during the ceremony.

God had a plan for you. Part of that plan was to help shape and mold the current generations of the New Mexico National Guard, myself included. Part of that plan was to remind us how precious the freedom we enjoy really is.

The tremendous suffering of the Bataan veterans reminds everyone that freedom is not free, Gov. Susana Martinez said as the keynote speaker.

We will never treat their sacrifices lightly and we will always, always remember them, she said.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron could have another high-profile job in her future.

New Mexico State University regents on Monday named Damron one of five finalists to replace Garrey Carruthers as the institutions chancellor. Carruthers retires July 1 at the end of his contract.

Damron, who has served in Gov. Susana Martinezs Cabinet for three years, was also a candidate for the recent presidential opening at the University of New Mexico, though she was not among the finalists. As with the UNM opening, Damron said she only considered the NMSU position after others pursued her and nominated her.

(University leadership) was never in my career plans  both of these were people coming to me, soliciting me and nominating me, she said, noting that Carruthers was among those who offered encouragement.

An oncology nurse, Damron is an associate professor in UNMs College of Nursing. She has been on leave without pay while serving in state government. She said she has never applied for any university president/chancellor job beyond UNM and NMSU  despite having been approached by other institutions outside of the state.

Im only interested here in New Mexico, she said in an interview Monday, citing her positive relationships within the states higher education community and with the Legislature, the Martinez administration and all candidates currently vying to succeed Martinez as governor.

NMSU appealed to her, she said, both for its land grant mission and the opportunity to work on student success measures.

Other NMSU chancellor finalists are:

 Dan Arvizu, retired director of the U.S. Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

 John D. Floros, Kansas State Universitys College of Agriculture dean and director of K-State Research and Extension.

 Robert J. Marley, Missouri University of Science and Technologys provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.

 Brian J.R. Stevenson, former president and vice-chancellor of Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada.

NMSUs regents plan to pick the new chancellor in May, after each candidate makes a campus visit.
WASHINGTON  There are few sympathetic characters in the landmark lawsuit between Marquette University and a suspended professor thats heading later this month to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The professor, John McAdams, is suing the university for indefinitely suspending him without pay, allegedly in violation of a contractually binding guarantee of free speech and academic liberty. McAdams, 72, was first suspended after he posted on his blog a graduate student-teachers name and a link to contact information, along with a mocking critique of her having allegedly stifled a class discussion of same-sex marriage.

This characterization, much publicized by conservative media and discussed on legal forums, isnt entirely accurate. Details, the sort revealed in pre-trial discovery, are devilish little things that in this instance tell a larger tale of ideological warfare on todays college campuses.

The case, which was dismissed by a lower court, has catapulted to the highest court in the state in a legal maneuver that essentially asks the court to develop and explain the laws governing academic freedom. This seems a bad enough idea on its face. Ironically, its being forced by conservatives, who usually protest the calumny of legislating by legal fiat.

Briefly, McAdams blog posting went viral, with a little help from McAdams, who drafted conservative talk radio hosts to help tell his version of the story. As a result, the student-teacher, Cheryl Abbate, received harassing emails and at least one death threat, prompting the university to provide a security detail.

Her alleged offense  blocking the classroom discussion  was, in fact, a confrontation after class that was initiated by a student, JD, who was associated with a conservative activist group that encourages students to secretly record liberal professors, according to the Faculty Hearing Committee that recommended suspending McAdams. Apparently, McAdams also encouraged students via his blog to record liberals, according to Marquette President Michael Lovell, with whom I recently spoke by phone.

Before Abbate became suspicious that she was being taped, which JD at first denied, she made several regrettable, nay, preposterous statements  one, that debating same-sex marriage was homophobic, and, two, that such a debate might cause gay students to feel uncomfortable. P.S.: Nowhere is it written that a person shall never feel uncomfortable.

Besides, this was nowhere near the point.

As Lovell explained to me, the class in question was discussing philosopher John Rawls Equal Liberty Principle and whether victimless activities should not be illegal. Abbate was going down a checklist of contemporary issues students had suggested might be applicable, including mandatory seatbelt laws, marijuana smoking, and same-sex marriage.

When, after class, JD objected to the latter, Abbate said the issue was settled  meaning that it fit Rawls no-harm-to-others definition and, therefore, was not up for discussion. JD pursued Abbate, apparently as part of a pre-meditated plan to get her liberalism on record. JD then took his tape to another faculty member and at least one dean, but went unheeded.

Finally, he went to McAdams and, voila: A hotly contested issue was born.

Abbate, though apparently wronged, isnt exactly sailing the Good Ship Lollipop. During discovery, she was found to have made several disparaging remarks about McAdams, calling the Harvard Ph.D. a moron  and worse. Shouldnt those charged with teaching our best and brightest demonstrate at least a passing familiarity with civility?

The universitys position is that McAdams first responsibility is to the students, even if it means occasionally censoring himself. Thrusting Abbate, then in her mid-20s, onto the stalkers block for ridicule and potential harm was, thus, an abdication of his professorial role, the university claims.

McAdams, a conservative who identifies himself as a debunker by temperament, has insisted he was merely trying to help a discouraged student, JD, and airing his personal grievance against political correctness run amok. He also has made much ado over Marquettes alleged demand for a public apology  when hell freezes over, he said on Milwaukees Charlie Sykes radio show.

No public apology was demanded, according to Lovell. The president asked only for a personal letter to him, with McAdams expressing admission, regret and a commitment to future prudence. McAdams interpreted this as tantamount to promising to not think and speak freely. He wants his job back, no strings attached.

So: How does one render a distilled, pristine legal judgment in such a chaotic, ideologically driven mess? At a much earlier point on the timeline, a declaration of mistakes were made might have sufficed to resolve the issues and provided an opportunity to explore the matter at a higher level of enlightened debate. For now, alas, the only certainty is that Rawls no-harm-to-others principle is NA  non applicable. Too much foul, too much harm.
WASHINGTON  Trump administration officials consulted with global allies Tuesday on a possible joint military response to Syrias alleged poison gas attack, as President Donald Trump canceled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Trump spoke with other world leaders, and other U.S. officials said the U.S., France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week. None of the three countries leaders had made a firm decision, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss military planning by name.

A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syrias political and military support from Russia and Iran.

President Emmanuel Macron said France, the U.S. and Britain will decide how to respond in the coming days. He called for a strong and joint response to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which Syrian activists and rescuers say killed 40 people. The Syrian government denies responsibility.

The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the U.S.-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Multiple IS attacks have targeted French soil, including one last month.

Trump suggested Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence. Officials suggested such evidence was lacking, or at least not yet at hand. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which U.S. intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of Sarin gas. Trump responded by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

One official said the U.S., France and Britain were considering military options that would be more extensive than the punitive, one-day strike last April. That strike did not appear to have had the desired effect of deterring Assad from further use of chemical agents. So the three countries are discussing a range of options, including preventing Assad from conducting future attacks by striking military capabilities involved in carrying out such attack, the official said.

Asked whether France would take military action, Macron said his country will continue discussing technical and strategic information with U.S. and British allies and in the coming days we will announce our decision. He said any action would target chemical weapons stocks. Under a 2013 agreement for which Russia was a guarantor, Syria was to have eliminated all its chemical weapons, but it has used chlorine and perhaps other chemicals since then.

Trump spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May. A British government statement said the two agreed the attack in Syria was utterly reprehensible and that the international community must respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. Trump met at the White House with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who told reporters that he and Trump see eye to eye on the Syria problem.

We cannot tolerate with a war criminal, the emir said, adding, This matter should end immediately. Qatar hosts the United States main air operations center for the Middle East, which would coordinate any American air attack in Syria.

A watchdog agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, announced that it will send shortly a fact-finding mission to Douma, after receiving a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers to investigate the allegations. It was not immediately clear whether that visit would delay or avert U.S. or allied military action.

The Russian military, which has troops in Syria, said on Monday that its officers had visited the site of the alleged attack and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis canceled plans to travel to California this week, indicating his focus on Syria. He was expected at a White House meeting Wednesday for further consultations on Syria.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, or travel to Bogota, Colombia, as planned. She said he will stay home to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

The presidents new national security adviser, John Bolton, urged Trump to skip the trip, an official said. This reflects a view in the White House that deeper Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria have complicated calculations about a response to any U.S. military attack, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Moscow has cautioned the U.S. not to launch a military attack.

Amid the tough talk from the White House, the U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order. A Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, got underway in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday after completing a port call in Cyprus. The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.

Also, the Navy said the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled deployment to Europe. The Navy does not currently have a carrier in the Persian Gulf.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Edith M. Lederer in New York and Jill Colvin, Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  An avalanche of campaign cash is flowing into New Mexicos gubernatorial race, setting the stage for what could end up being one of the states most expensive elections ever.

In campaign reports filed Monday, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, and Steve Pearce, a Republican, each reported having raised more than $1.4 million during a recent six-month period.

Nearly half of the campaign cash reported by Pearce  a total of $783,767  was a transfer from his congressional campaign account. Pearce won a court order in November that allowed him to transfer his federal war chest despite a state cap on campaign contributions.

With Gov. Susana Martinez set to leave office at the end of this year because of term limits, both Lujan Grisham and Pearce are vacating their congressional seats to run for governor.

Pearce is the lone GOP candidate in the race, while Lujan Grisham is vying with former Albuquerque media executive Jeff Apodaca and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces for the Democratic nomination for governor.

While Lujan Grisham has outpaced her Democratic rivals in fundraising, Cervantes gave his campaign a boost this month in the form of a $1 million loan that was reported Monday. Candidate loans are not subject to the states campaign contribution limits and Cervantes, an attorney who comes from a prominent southern New Mexico family, had already loaned $400,000 last year to his campaign.

We realized were going to have to compete with the national money thats pouring into the congressional candidates campaigns, Cervantes told the Journal, while also pointing out that, as a legislator, he was barred from soliciting contributions during this years 30-day session. Its a true investment in a state we love.

In addition to his latest loan, Cervantes reported getting nearly $55,000 in outside donations during the reporting period.

Lujan Grisham reported raising $1.4 million during the six-month period that ended April 2 without any loans, including matching $5,500 contributions from Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She also received contributions from actors Wes Studi and Nancy Stephens, union groups, pueblos and medical cannabis dispensaries.

While Lujan Grisham now has about $1.8 million in her war chest, her campaign said about 77 percent of the contributions she has received were for $100 or less.

Im proud of the vast support our campaign has earned since I announced more than a year ago, Lujan Grisham said. Our campaign is being fueled by grass-roots donors who are ready to turn the Governors mansion blue in New Mexico.

Pearce, for his part, reported taking in more than $1.6 million during the reporting period, which includes the transferred funds. He now has nearly $2.1 million in his state campaign account.

Pearce received hefty contributions from individuals in the agriculture and oil and gas industries, particularly in southeast New Mexico, and also got a $5,500 contribution from Stanley Hubbard of Minnesota, who is a broadcast executive with a history of donating to Republican candidates.

As this race comes into focus, voters will have a clear choice between a tested leader with plans to improve the lives of all New Mexicans vs. a career politician who will raise taxes and put special interests above bipartisan results, Pearce campaign spokesman Kevin Sheridan said.

As for Apodaca, he reported taking in nearly $254,000 in donations over the six-month period and has roughly $323,000 in available campaign cash. Apodaca has already launched television campaign ads and has outspent all his rivals except Lujan Grisham.

Contribution limits

New Mexico political races have become increasingly expensive in recent years, even though the campaign contribution limits were enacted in 2010. The maximum contribution to a statewide candidate for the 2018 cycle is set at $5,500  for both the primary and general elections.

Martinez, who is barred from seeking a third consecutive term, spent more than $8.7 million on her 2014 re-election bid  a figure that does not include spending by outside political committees on her behalf.

With seven months left until this years general election, the more than $9.1 million raised so far by New Mexico gubernatorial candidates is already more than the annual budget for the Secretary of States Office, which is in charge of overseeing state elections.

Meanwhile, in other statewide races with contested primaries:

 Democratic state Sen. Howie Morales of Silver City raised $103,000 in cash donations over the past six months  more than his two Democratic rivals for lieutenant governor combined. Dona Ana County Commissioner Billy Garrett raised about $52,000, and former state Rep. Rick Miera of Albuquerque reported about $26,000.

Michelle Garcia Holmes is the lone Republican candidate in the race.

 Democrat Garrett VeneKlasen of Santa Fe appeared to lead the fundraising for his partys nomination as land commissioner, reporting having raised about $135,000 over the last six months with about $83,000 in cash on hand.

Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-White Rock, reported about $56,000 in donations and about $30,000 in cash on hand. Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, had not yet filed his report with the Secretary of States Office as of late Monday.

Whoever wins the three-way primary would face off against former Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, a Republican, in the general election.

 In the race for the Democratic nomination for state auditor, Brian Colon, an Albuquerque lawyer, raised somewhat more in cash donations than his opponent, state Rep. Bill McCamley of Las Cruces.

Colon raised about $76,000 in cash donations during the reporting period and has roughly $74,000 available. McCamley raised about $66,000 in donations and gave his campaign about $45,000 in loans. He has about $125,000 in cash on hand.

Current state Auditor Wayne Johnson, a Republican who was appointed to the job by Martinez, reported taking in more than $42,000 in contributions and has $36,758 in his campaign war chest. He faces no primary opposition.
Q: I am a parent and a gun owner. What is the best way to safely store my firearm at home?

A: While it would be safest for your children to not have a gun in the home, there are many things you can do to safely store your firearm. Always store your firearm unloaded and locked. Use a gun safe or lock box to which your children do not have access to the combination or key. Store the ammunition separately, and use a trigger lock. Just like wearing your seatbelt, get in the habit of locking up your gun every single time.

Just as you want to keep your kids safe in your home, it is important to keep them safe when they are playing at a friends house or staying with relatives. There is a great campaign that is a collaboration between the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) called ASK, Asking Saves Kids. The goal of the campaign is to encourage parents to ask, Is there an unlocked gun in your home? before allowing their child to go over to play. While this may feel like a difficult question to ask, 93 percent of parents reported being okay with being asked. About one in three families with children have guns in their home, and 40 percent of those keep them unlocked. In fact, 25 percent of those households keep the gun loaded. Up to 75 percent of kids ages five to 14 know where the family gun is kept and 22 percent of kids had handled the parents firearm without their knowledge. These statistics point to the fact that many families have guns that are not stored safely, and that the kids know where they are. Children are curious and telling them not to play with guns is not enough. Asking about safe gun storage before your child goes over to play is important to address, just as you might discuss car seats, food allergies and any special health issues before dropping your child off for a play date. If they do report having a gun that is not stored safely, have the kids come over to your house to play instead.

Safe storage of firearms is incredibly important. The Brady Center reports that over 17,000 American children and teenagers are injured or killed every year due to gun violence. This equates to 46 every day, including seven fatalities. Eighty percent of unintentional firearm deaths in kids younger than 15 occurred in a home. Children as young as three may be strong enough to pull a trigger, so safe storage is important from the beginning. In New Mexico, there were 211 deaths due to firearms in children aged 0-18 between 2006 and 2016 (as reported by the Centers for Disease Control). Additionally, firearm injury is one of our states leading causes of nonfatal injury. Suicide by firearm is increased by a factor of 17 in homes with guns. If there is someone in your home suffering from depression or mental illness, the safest thing to do is remove the gun from your home.

While statistics are important and useful, it is knowing the actual stories of children who have died from accidental firearm injury that I find most compelling in discussing safe storage of firearms with families in my office. I will never forget that day in my training when the pediatric service was called to the trauma room in expectation of a very young gunshot wound victim. Unfortunately, there was nothing that we could do as the child died before arriving at the hospital. While any unexpected death is very difficult to handle, this was especially difficult when we learned that he died because his older brother accidentally shot him. This event changed his familys life forever. They lost a child. The older brother now had to live with the knowledge that his younger brother died by his hand. This story is not unique; it has occurred many more times than it should have. This was entirely preventable.

Thank you for asking about the safe storage of firearms. As a pediatrician and a parent, my goal is to do everything I can to keep kids healthy and safe. At my practice, this is something we ask about and address at every wellness visit, just as we discuss nutrition, development, and many other areas of safety and preventive medicine. I will close with a motto from a grassroots organization working toward preventing accidental firearm injury and encouraging the use of gun locks. Love our kids, lock your guns.

Melissa Mason is a general pediatrician with Journey Pediatrics in Albuquerque. Please send your questions to her at melissaemason@gmail.com.
SAN DIEGO  Heart and brain activity are routinely measured through the skin with adhesive electrodes. But diagnosing gastric diseases may require patients to endure a tube stuck through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach.

Scientists led by UC San Diego researchers say they have a better option for these patients. Theyve invented a stomach-monitoring device worn like a fanny pack.

The prototype picks up the stomachs electrical signals through 10 electrodes stuck to the belly. Stomach activity changes with meals, sleep and other daily routines. Interruptions of these patterns can signal disease.

Because it can be worn for up to 24 hours, patients can go about their day without being confined to a hospital or doctors office. Its paired with a smartphone app so wearers can record their activities to associate with the devices readout.

More work is being done to refine the device, said Todd Coleman, a UCSD bioengineering professor. This perhaps could be done by licensing it for commercialization.

Children who wouldnt tolerate getting a tube through their nose without sedation are prime subjects for this technology, said Coleman, who led the study with Armen A. Gharibans, a bioengineering postdoctoral researcher in Colemans lab.

The device was tested on 11 children who had undergone monitoring via a catheter inserted through the nose, and one adult. The wearable device yielded useful and reliable data on stomach activity, the study found. Published March 22 in Nature Scientific Reports, it can be found at j.mp/stomachmonitor.

Adults can also benefit from the continuous monitoring the device provides, he said.

A lot of these disorders are transient, Coleman said. Pains are not always there, and likewise for nausea.

In addition, it may not be easy to tell if gastrointestinal problems are what they appear on the surface, or a manifestation of mental stress.

Is this basically a brain problem manifesting in the gut? Or do you have something fundamentally wrong with your gut? Coleman said. We think that our technology has the potential to disambiguate that, which is huge because the treatments are very different.

Doctors and engineers

This marriage of engineering and medical specialists was necessary to make a workable prototype, Coleman said. Working side by side, engineers and physicians can identify and overcome obstacles to developing solutions to medical problems, he said.

Personal motivation also made the project possible, said Coleman, whose father died of pancreatic cancer.

It turns out he lost his mother, who passed before I was born, to stomach cancer, Coleman said.

That motivation also fueled research funder Larry Smarr, a prominent UCSD physicist-futurist and father of Benjamin Smarr. The elder Smarr underwent a resection of his colon in 2016, having first assisted his surgeon by developing a high-resolution map of the region.

Coleman said he had bonded with Smarr over the years, sharing a common interest in applying data and engineering principles to medicine, and the gastrointestinal system in particular.

When I first got to UCSD, a lot of people looked to me as a person who builds these miniaturized sensors, Coleman said.

Larry came to realize that my original background is really data science and data analytics. And so when he saw some of the innovative things that we were doing, he and I just realized that were two birds of the same feather.

Meeting challenges

Starting around 2012, Coleman researched previous attempts to develop noninvasive gastrointestinal monitoring. Knowledge of why these attempts failed helped solve pitfalls, Coleman said.

While the GI system is controlled by detectable electrical impulses, they are far fainter than the hearts electrical signals. That makes readouts prone to interference by the bodys other electrical signals. So extracting enough usable data proved to be a challenge.

Armen Gharibans was a new Ph.D. student in my group and I made him aware of this high risk, high reward idea of trying to modernize assessment of the gut by monitoring its electrical rhythms, Coleman said.

He also said he had a hunch that previous efforts had failed because there was no cohesion between engineers and physicians. A seamless team encompassing those disciplines might address the problem.

Keep in mind that at the time, this was not a sexy research area  . I applaud Armens willingness to nonetheless take this risk, congratulate him on his outstanding work, and am relieved that the bet paid off, said Coleman.
PHOENIX  A man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting two people on the Gila River Indian Community south of Phoenix.

Federal prosecutors say 28-year-old Philip Anthony Osife was sentenced last Friday.

Osife had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the case.

Prosecutors say Osife shot one victim twice in the face and a second victim in the neck on March 23, 2017.

He then took the car of one victim and left the two dead persons near a canal bank.

A passing motorist found the victims two days later and called tribal police.
BEIRUT  The international chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it was sending a fact-finding mission to the Syrian town where a suspected chemical gas attack took place over the weekend, following a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers that appeared to be aimed at averting punitive Western military action.

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement would delay or prevent a U.S. strike in Syria. President Donald Trump has vowed to respond forcefully to Saturdays attack on civilians in the town of Douma, and warned that Russia  or any other nation found to share responsibility  will pay a price.

In a statement, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a fact-finding mission was preparing to deploy to Syria shortly, though it did not give a more precise timetable on when the inspectors would arrive.

Trump on Tuesday cancelled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the response to the events in Syria. The White House said he later spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May and the two agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.

Trump also discussed Syria with French President Emanuel Macron, who said Tuesday that France would decide in the coming days on a strong and joint response with the U.S. and Britain to the suspected attack.

The incident has sparked international outrage and ratcheted up tensions in the already volatile Mideast, raising the specter of possible imminent American retaliation amid Russias warnings against any such action, and denials that any chemical weapons attack took place.

Adding to the tensions, Iran, a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, threatened to respond to an airstrike on a Syrian military base on Monday that the Syrian government, Russia and Iran blamed on Israel.

Seven Iranians were among the estimated 14 people killed in the missile strike, and a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus said the attack will not remain unanswered. Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Irans supreme leader, spoke upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.

The Syrian air base was struck by missiles a little more than 24 hours after the alleged chemical attack. Israel does not typically comment on its operations in Syria, and it is unclear whether the missile attack was linked to the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Iran is one of Assads strongest backers and has sent thousands of troops and allied militiamen to support his forces.

Syrian government forces were on high alert and taking precautionary measures Tuesday at military positions across the country amid fears of a U.S. strike in the aftermath of the attack near Damascus.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution that would have condemned the suspected gas attack and established a new body to determine responsibility for Syrian chemical weapons attacks. The vote Tuesday in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, with Bolivia joining Russia in voting no, and China abstaining.

Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds of people since the start of Syrias conflict, with the U.N. blaming four attacks on the Syrian government and a fifth on the Islamic State group.

The OPCW, in its statement, said its technical Secretariat has asked the Syrian government to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of a fact-finding mission. The group is the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, which has been signed by 192 member states.

Syria became a member in 2013 as part of a deal brokered by the U.S. and Russia after a chemical attack in eastern Ghouta killed hundreds of people. That attack was widely blamed on government forces, who denied responsibility.

Syrian opposition activists and paramedics said more than 40 people were killed in last weekends suspected chemical attack and blamed the government. The Syrian government and its Russian backers strongly deny the allegations, and questioned whether a chemical weapons attack even took place.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he was outraged by the reported attack, and that the use of chemical weapons would be a violation of international law. He also reaffirmed his support for an OPCW investigation.

A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Moscow is willing to help arrange an OPCW visit to the site of the suspected attack. Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defense committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia is eager for the OPCW to finally start carrying out the functions it was created for.

Thousands of opposition fighters, along with tens of thousands of civilians, are still in Douma. The rebels agreed to surrender the town to government forces after the suspected gas attack, and have been evacuating in batches to rebel-held areas in the north. Russian military police have since entered parts of the town.

Asked in Berlin about the Russian proposal that OPCW experts visit Douma, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded unenthusiastically, saying that the evidence that chemical weapons were used there is very, very clear.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian government troops were on a 72-hour alert and were fortifying their positions. The Observatorys chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organization, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group had evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near the Iraqi border, which was recently retaken from the Islamic State group.

___

Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Carenet Healthcare Services, a Texas-based health care support company, is expanding to Albuquerque with plans for 244 jobs over the next five years.

The San Antonio-based firm will also invest $3 million in the former Bank of America building at 303 Roma NW. The sum includes a 10-year lease, tenant improvements, furniture, fixtures and equipment, according to information provided by Albuquerque Economic Development Inc.

Gov. Susana Martinez, at a news conference Tuesday, called the Carenet announcement a positive result of the reforms implemented to grow and diversify our economy.

Mayor Tim Keller said the city is ready to work with Carenet to expand our innovative economy while creating quality jobs in Albuquerque.

John Erwin, Carenets CEO, said the company plans to move downtown within three months and will begin hiring pretty quickly. Among the positions the company is looking to fill are those for registered nurses and data analysts.

The company will receive $636,566 from the states Local Economic Development Act and is expected to apply for reimbursement through the Job Training Incentive Program. Albuquerque will act as the fiscal agent for the LEDA award.

In addition, Carenet will receive $150,000 from the citys Local Economic Development Act fund, the first city LEDA investment of the Keller administration.

Administration officials have said they want the citys economic development policies to emphasize local businesses over out-of-state recruitment. But Synthia Jaramillo, director of economic development, said the Carenet investment does not represent a departure from that goal.

Here at the city, we are committed to making sure that companies that do business here, thrive here, said Jaramillo in a statement emailed after the press conference. That includes offering the same type of tools available to out-of-state companies to our homegrown entrepreneurs who need that extra boost. We dont have to choose between helping an out of state company over our local companies. At the end of the day, were grateful to anyone bringing quality jobs to Albuquerque.

Albuquerque Economic Development President Gary Tonjes told the Journal that Carenets 10-year lease was one of the variables that allowed the company to qualify for economic development funding from the city, which has different requirements than the LEDA programs offered by the state or its counties.

At the press conference, Matt Geisel, secretary of the states Economic Development Department, said about 70 percent of the companies supported by the states incentive programs under Martinez are homegrown, New Mexico companies.

A department spokesman said the percentage refers to the number of companies participating in JTIP and LEDA, not the dollar amount of the incentives allotted to each firm.

Carenet is unrelated to Care Net, the organization behind several anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers in the greater Albuquerque area.
The body of a hunter reported missing in northern New Mexico last November has been found.

Stanley Vigils body was found around 2 p.m. Saturday by an off-duty New Mexico State Police officer fishing in the Pecos Wilderness, State Police said in a news release. The body was discovered in the Pecos River.

The body was taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, where it was positively identified using dental records.

At this time State Police has no indication that there was any foul play involved, the news release reads. The location where Mr. Vigil was recovered was approximately 9 miles south of where he was reported to have gone missing.

State Police said 50-year-old Vigil was last seen on Nov. 7 while hunting with family near Barillas Peak, east of Pecos.

The cause of his death remains under investigation, the agency said.
Renault, the number one European automotive brand in India, has announced a Category First Warranty - 4 years or upto 100,000 KM (whichever is earlier) along with Road side assistance on Renault KWID. This includes Standard Warranty of 2 year/50,000 Km and Extended Warranty of 2 year/50,000 Km. It further enhances Renault Kwids value proposition, providing an end-to-end seamless brand ownership experience to customers.

Renault KWID has been a true game-changer and volume driver for Renault India, selling more than 2.2 lakh vehicles since the start of sales. The global launch of the Renault KWID was a progressive step by Renault to pursue its strategy of accessible mobility for all and was a step forward in its international growth strategy. With the Renault KWID range comprising of the 0.8L, 1.0L MT, 1.0L AMT and CLIMBER, Renault has made its intent clear of keeping pace with global innovations and at the same time launching products to suit the local needs with a strong product lifecycle plan.

Furthermore, Renault India has also introduced an attractive offering on its Renault SECURE program (Extended Vehicle Warranty and Road side Assistance). Customers can now extend the warranty coverage upto 5 Years or 100K Kms (whichever is earlier) along with Road side assistance on all Renault India cars including Captur, Kwid, Duster, and Lodgy at a nominal cost.

Over the last few years, Renault has focused on establishing a strong base in India. Together with a strong product offensive strategy led by KWID and the recently launched stylish SUV, CAPTUR, Renault has been continuously undertaking strategic measures across all key business dimensions, ranging from product, network expansion, pioneering customer oriented activities and several innovative marketing initiatives to ensure unmatched customer satisfaction.

Renault India has undertaken many first-of-its-kind after-sales initiatives to offer a seamless brand ownership experience to its customers. These include - Renault SECURE, Renault ASSIST, Workshop on Wheels (WoW), Passion on Wheels (PoW), customer apps and regular customer service camps. With a strong India-centric product strategy, Renault has robust plan to keep pace with evolving customer preferences and welcome more customers into the Renault family, reflecting its long-term commitment to the Indian market.
Here is some great news for Indian TV producers! One of their own will soon be speaking at the at the worlds largest TV and digital content gathering - MIPTV in Cannes. Siddharth Kumar Tewary, one of the best producers of Indian television with shows like Mahakaali - Anth Hi Aarambh Hai and Porus to his name, will soon be featured in a session titled  Asia: new Producers to Watch. Siddharth is one of the top three producers from Asia who have been invited to speak at the session.

The producer has broken grounds in India TV. Be it cracking innovative deals with broadcasters for his productions, owning the IP ownership of his show magnum opus Porus or just the sheer pace of his progress in the industry, Tewary seems to have become a favourite in the industry.

His Swastik Productions has been in the TV business for over a decade now. The production house, which employs over 2,000 people and houses its own production facilities including staggering sets, edit & VFX studios, continues to operate as a leading producer of premium content.

With such phenomenal success in India, Siddharth is also contributing to the global content industry through his venture, One Life Studios, created in 2017. Under this new international brand, Siddharth promises to showcase Indian stories to the world, including his most epic production to date, Porus. One Life Studios brings with it a program catalogue in genres including factual shows, dramas and telenovelas, as well as new series in development for 2018 and beyond.

Tewary is elated to be part of the panel. We at One Life have been producing historical series for some time. But what many dont know is that we have a slew of affiliations with other producers who we are partnering under the One Life/Swastik umbrella. Finally, we have also turned distributor and have been representing a clutch of producers in India for international syndication sales. Hence, telling the story from both a creative and business growth perspective will be quite interesting, he says.
Campaigns from Royal Caribbean International, Adidas, and Nissan are among the 21 from around the world that have been shortlisted for the WARC Awards Effective Innovation category. The Effective Innovation category recognises innovative thinking that has transformed a business or disrupted category conventions to deliver tangible results.

Countries with the most shortlisted entries are the US with seven (including North American campaigns); India with four; Thailand and the United Arab Emirates have three each.

Among agencies, BBDO Bangkok leads the shortlist with three entries. With two apiece, Manning Gottlieb OMD and TBWARAAD follow. MullenLowe also have two entries by from separate offices in the US and UK.

The panel of 15 innovation judges, chaired by Christopher Yu, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Innovation and Technology at US Bank, has selected campaigns from around the world with papers from the US, the EU, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, India, and Australia.

In India, sportswear giant Adidas launched a campaign to support disabled athletes during the 2016 Brazil Paralympics by producing pairs of shoes for amputees  either with two rights or two lefts  to eliminate waste. The Adidas Odds campaign has been done by Taproot Dentsu.

The Wombs campaign for Saregama Carvaan has also been shortlisted for WARC Awards Innovation Category. The agency collaborated with the client to create a viral product, Carvaan, that created a new substantial revenue stresm for Saregama India to cash in on its old assets.

The Bank in a Box campaign done by McCann Worldgroup for IDFC Bank has also made it to the shortlist. The campaign used an intuitive understanding of rural India to design an effective, ergonomic and socially viable tool as an alternative to the bureaucratic banker.

Zapr Media Labs created a TV campaign for Club Mahindra Holidays that was aimed at upwardly mobile Indian professionals who planned extensively for holidays but often shelved their vacation plans. The campaign used enticing visuals to trigger a vacation planning impulse with call to action using the viewers mobile phones.

One of the shortlisted entries from the US, by holiday company Royal Caribbean International, used social media to broadcast rarely seen underwater locations to promote its holidays as an adventure into the unknown to US consumers.

Elsewhere, car manufacturer Nissan showcased the capabilities of its new SUV model in the UAE by creating a new measurement for desert conditions: Camelpower. Along with the official effort to establish the new metric, the brand also produced an 11-minute documentary to tell the story; year-on-year sales of all Nissan off-road models increased.

The aim of the WARC Awards Effective Innovation category is to recognise innovative thinking that delivers tangible results. There is $10,000 prize fund for the best papers and the winners will be announced in late May.
With the rapid march of digital and growing adoption of technology tools like Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Big Data Analysis, et al, there are increasing debates now in the advertising industry as to whether technology will, in the not too distant future, take over all functions of brand interactions, creativity, communications, etc.

Refuting such a scenario, Wain Choi, Chief Creative Officer, CJ K-Valley, maintains that technology for technologys sake in meaningless. According to him, It should mean something for the consumer. Whether its knowing your customers as people, solving problems for them or even using simple ideas for innovation, brands need to be more human.

Choi put forth his thoughts in a Knowledge Session presented by Jagran at the recently concluded Goafest 2018, in conversation with Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman and CEO FCB Ulka, where they discussed about why brands need to adopt a people first technique.

Answering an audience question about whether machines will take over the role of creativity, Wain said that while 90 per cent of the work meat and potato can be replaced AI, the top 9-10 per cent work that is seen at events like Goafest and Cannes will continue to be people.

In a brief chat on the sidelines of the festival Wain Choi - Chief Creative Officer at CJ K-Valleyabout Tec V/S Creativity, things that he likes about India Ad Agencies, things that he doesnt like and some insights on Influencer marketing.

When asked whether creative ideation today was being done keeping technology at its core, Choi emphasised that ideas should be relevant and resonate with the people, irrespective whether of the technological vicinity. There was time when I judged Indian creatives, and that moment I realised that most of the creative ideas were from a human mind, it was mind-blowing to see them. The ideas generated and executed by a human mind are at par with the technologies that we use, he maintained.

Since Choi is familiar with Indian creative work, we asked him about the two things that he found great about the work done by the India ad agencies. To this, he replied, For me, India is a young country with lots of creative young minds. Its a very beautiful country with diversity in language, culture and ethos. The creatives that come out from their side should touch all the 29 states and people speaking different languages and for that, we need creativity. Its my request to all the young creative minds to be in India and work for India instead of moving to the US.

At the same time he was also saddened by how people in India discriminated against each other on the basis of economic standards. I believe that nobody here is poor or rich. Everyone has unique ideas and thats what matters a lot. So, stop judging people on their standards, but consider them on their ideas, he added.

Choi also called for giving women equal status in the country. Its never a question of gender  that I am a man and you are a woman  but its always something about how good your idea is, he affirmed.

Talking about influencers, he felt that one should not just depend on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and get influenced by that person. He cautioned against getting influenced by somebody who has a 1,000 views on YouTube, and instead said that one needs to consider those who are really doing something for others in a great manner.

To Read More Visit Here.

Being Human

Echoing Wain Chois views on the human face of advertising was Samuel Akesson, Art Director, Forsman & Bodenfors. In a Knowledge Seminar by WION, Akesson highlighted the unique and different way in which Forsman & Bodenfors functions  it doesnt have any hierarchy and works as a collaborative team.

Akesson mentioned, What we do is human mostly...Perhaps theres a lack of humanity in advertising, which is why sometimes advertising is bad at making people feel anything. He went on to explain the three pillars that are believed in and followed to the hilt at Forsman & Bodenfors, making it an award-winning and successful agency:

Responsibility  Theres no hierarchy. Everyone is responsible for the work they do. If you do the work youre responsible for the work. This gives a strong sense of freedom as well as ownership.

Trust  At the agency as many people see your work as possible. More minds tend to be better than few. You have to trust everyone in the agency to look at your work and understand it and give feedback. You have to trust others because they trust you too.

Courage  The trust and responsibility make us courageous. You have the support you need to execute your conviction.

At the same time, he also admitted that Very often we have experienced failure and mishaps. But in this structure of work, you feel like a part of a strong community. We face such situations together, which makes us feel stronger.

Elaborating further on Forsman & Bodenfors human approach to creativity, Akesson told Adgully, I think it comes down to the end result, where human stories connect with humans. And I realise that to that point, we will have to start at the very beginning  in the way we organise and structure our agency. So, by behaving in that way, we organise ourselves that way and thats the only threat that goes all the way. What makes us different from other agencies is our holistic point of view towards creativity.

When asked about the advantages of following such an approach, he pointed out that it is reflected in the quality of work the done. We have a great output of work that connects with people, and the human connect that I keep talking about, it all shows in our work and also shows some kind of understanding of how human beings relate to stories, he added.

Akesson observed, It is surprisingly difficult that advertising is led by massive corporate positions, and we also talk about technological innovations today. All these things tend to marginalise the essence of creativity, which is basically all about being human. This is sort of sitting in front of a person and talking and telling stories; its like an ancient way of human behaviour that we tend to lose track of a little bit in advertising today.

To Read More Visit Here.

When asked how advertising agencies can take the creative ideation process from average to wow, Akesson had one practical piece of advice, Most agencies have a fixed team for creative ideation, for instance, art director and copywriter work together, almost like a married couple. I think we need to break that. We dont work that way. For every different project we have a different constellation, which means that your work day or work week is in several different constellations. This means that immediately all the ideas and work start to cross breed and everyone starts to engage in each others work and the quality of the work just steps up. Then you realise that people have begun to collaborate rather than compete.

(With Inputs from Mansi Jhingan)
The Aiken City Council took its first step to increasing water and sewer rates Monday night, albeit with some contention.

City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance, by a 5-2 vote, that would increase water rates 2 percent and sewer rates 11 percent. Ordinances require two readings before going into effect.

City Council members Ed Woltz and Lessie Price voted against the potential raises.

Woltz said he had efficiency, cost reduction and engineering questions that had still gone unanswered.

City Council's April 9 meeting packet The full agenda and related documents for Aiken City Council's April 9 meeting.

"I really think we need to look at it again," Woltz said of the increases, later suggesting a supplementary meeting be held between the first and second readings.

"I don't think we have enough information to move this forward," Woltz said.

Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon  who voted in favor of the increases  agreed with Woltz's sentiments. A work session to further discuss the water and sewer rates will be scheduled.

The increases, according to City Council documents, equate to 24 cents more for water and $3.13 more for sewer every month for the average residential customer. An average customer is defined as consuming 800 cubic feet of water a month. The same goes for sewer.

If the raises are eventually approved, it could signal the beginning of five more years of sequential rate increases: According to City Council documents and Finance Director Kim Abney, 2 percent raises for both water and sewer could be installed every year through fiscal year 2024.

That, too, was a point of issue for Woltz, who at one time suggested a larger upfront increase as to not unnecessarily draw out the raise in rates.

The water and sewer rate increases are products of necessity, basically, according to interim City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh.

In August 2016, Clay Killian, the Aiken County administrator, sent a letter to the city manager's office regarding the financing of a $50 million regional treatment plant upgrade.

The letter notified the City of its soon to be collected, starting July 1, payments. The City will be paying slightly more than $1 million a year for the plant renovations. The City is just one of several entities  others include the City of North Augusta  chipping in, according to Bedenbaugh.

The interim city manager said 9 percent of the City's sewer hike is attributable to the $50 million upgrade.

On March 30, the County also notified the City of a 2 percent wholesale increase to treatment rates.

Osbon, on Monday, described the prospective water and sewer rate increases as handing down and absorbing the recent bumps.

Bedenbaugh said because the City's water and sewer is financed via an enterprise fund  an account that is devoted to a specific use, and associated revenues are used to bankroll that use further  it is critical to stay afloat and stay current with demand.

"Running it as an enterprise fund, we want to capture all costs," Bedenbaugh said.

A recent City water and sewer rate study also concluded rate adjustments were necessary.

During a March 26 work session, Daryll Parker of Willdan Financial Services told City Council the rates needed fixing, mainly because they did not comply with the American Water Works Association's accepted standards.

Woltz also publicly questioned that reasoning Monday night.
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As Libya continues to reel under the brunt of division that left it with three governments, namely the Government of National Accord (GNC), the interim Libyan government and the rescue government formed by the General National Congress, it remains unclear when elections will next be held in the country. To identify the most important challenges facing the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), which was formed to complete the electoral process called for by UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, Al-Monitor interviewed elections commission head Emad al-Sayeh on April 1, the day Libya closed registration of overseas voters. Sayeh explained the challenges facing the commission and showed how political differences, division and the multiplicity of governments could affect the electoral process in Libya.

Salame had called for presidential and parliamentary elections and a constitutional referendum by the end of this year in order to unify the ruling institutions in Libya.

The text of the phone interview follows:

Al-Monitor: Would it be better to hold the legislative or the presidential elections first? Why?

Sayeh: I think it would be better to hold the parliamentary elections first so that the executive power could keep preparing for the presidential elections. Holding the parliamentary elections first will ensure the continuation of the current government, which is helping the HNEC prepare for the presidential elections.

Al-Monitor: Are there any foreign or internal parties obstructing the elections?

Sayeh: There are countries that have interests in Libya. And while there are countries that support the holding of the elections, others just dont. International interference is linked to interests, and it certainly affects the electoral process in Libya.

Al-Monitor: What are the main challenges facing the HNEC?

Sayeh: Lack of funding is the main challenge facing the HNEC. We have considerable difficulty obtaining the necessary funds for the elections to be held this year. Without funding, the HNECs plans will not be implemented. The presidential council of the internationally recognized GNC finances the HNEC. But this council includes several members, each of whom has a different viewpoint on the electoral process in Libya. This very divergence of views within the council obstructs the funding process.

Al-Monitor: What measures have been taken by the HNEC to fight electoral fraud?

Sayeh: For the HNEC, accepting the electoral results is an important factor, so we must protect the electoral process against any appeals by fighting electoral fraud. We are seeking to resort to technological means in the polling mechanism in order to limit human interference.

Al-Monitor: Why did you say that refraining from holding the elections would eventually lead to splits?

Sayeh: Thats true. Not holding the elections would only lead to deeper division in Libya. Political splits would surface at all levels. If the Libyan elections are not held this year, then the Libyan political scene in 2019 would witness political divisions and splits.

Al-Monitor: But splits could surface and armed confrontations could erupt as soon as political parties object to the results of the elections to be held.

Sayeh: The international community and the United Nations must oblige all parties to accept the results, and whoever has an objection in this regard must resort to the judiciary.

Al-Monitor: Have any local or international bodies declared their desire to monitor the elections? Are you facing problems in this regard?

Sayeh: Parliament has not issued an electoral law yet. Once we have an electoral law, we will invite all international institutions to monitor the process and we will start accepting requests from local organizations wishing to do so. The local organizations suffer from poor performance and lack of expertise, so the role of the international organizations would be to train these organizations. But the HNEC has no objection to any monitoring, and we will take all the necessary measures to ensure that the elections are transparent.

Al-Monitor: Do you think that the participation of the military elements in the Libyan armed forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter in the voting process would raise doubts about the neutrality of the elections, especially as these members will be responsible for establishing security during the elections?

Sayeh: Such argument would prevent any statesman from participating in the electoral process. It is an exclusionary argument. Every Libyan citizen has the right to vote regardless of the job they have. And it is only when military men wish to run in the elections that they must resign.

Al-Monitor: Is there a timetable for the constitutional referendum and the presidential and parliamentary elections?

Sayeh: There is no timetable because no law has been issued yet, but as a commission we want the electoral law to be issued in September so we get enough time to prepare for the electoral process.

Al-Monitor: Is there some kind of coordination between the HNEC and the conflicting Libyan parties, such as the GNC, the interim Libyan government, the Libyan armed forces and the parliament?

Sayeh: There is high-level coordination with the GNC, and there is constant communication with its Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. There is also coordination with the interim government, the Libyan armed forces and the parliament.

Al-Monitor: Does the political dispute in Libya affect the work of the HNEC?

Sayeh: It definitely does. And the most important result of this dispute is the weak funding plaguing the HNEC, especially considering that it is an independent institution.

Al-Monitor: How do the elections affect the current situation?

Sayeh: All the Libyan parties outside the authorities support the political elections. The Libyan community needs the elections, and the evidence is the high number of people who registered on the electoral roll. Libyan citizens feel these elections are a way out of the Libyan crisis.

Al-Monitor: Did you expect 2,432,502 domestic voters and 6,267 overseas voters to register on the electoral roll?

Sayeh: We did not expect such a strong turnout. We were expecting only half a million, but this is an indication that Libyans are ready to strongly take part in the electoral process as voters and candidates.

Al-Monitor: What guarantees are in place to ensure the integrity of the elections abroad?

Sayeh: The Libyan community abroad is limited, and only about 6,000 voters have registered on the current electoral roll, but the HNECs duty is to secure a voting mechanism across the Libyan embassies. We will be applying the same mechanisms both at home and abroad in order to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
A prominent Iranian member of parliament's recent statement about a significant outflow of capital from the country has raised eyebrows. Commenting on the foreign exchange fluctuations in March, parliamentary economic commission head Mohammadreza Pourebrahimi said some $30 billion of capital had fled Iran in the final months of the last Iranian year, which ended March 20. To assess such a phenomenon, it is necessary to grasp the parameters that lead to capital flight and their impact on the Iranian economy.

Within a theoretical framework, there are several key causes of capital flight in national economies: exchange rate misalignment; political and economic instability; general policy shortcomings in the protection of investments; financial and capital account deficits; corruption; and major foreign debt. With the exception of foreign debt, the current state of the Iranian economy offers all of the above, and these factors, especially political instability and corruption, can motivate economic players to move their capital abroad. However, one needs to be careful with classification of all flows in Iran as capital flight.

Though the mentioned $30 billion capital outflow cannot be deducted from official data, one can identify an overall pattern in the Central Bank of Irans data on net capital account deficit. According to Central Bank of Iran data, in 1395 (the year ending March 20, 2017) there was a net capital account deficit of $18.3 billion and in the first six months of 1396 a deficit of $6.3 billion. These are high figures considering that in previous years, the country had a positive net capital account balance. As such, it seems that capital flows have gone in the wrong direction after the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in January 2016. But why?

The first fact to consider is the push toward transparency in how statistics are captured, processed and presented. It has been established that past and present statistics fail to reflect some of the facts about the shadier aspects of the Iranian economy. Indeed, according to Shargh Daily, during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), some $100 billion to $200 billion of dirty money fled the country. Some of these funds, such as the $3 billion embezzlement case in Bank Melli, became very public. All signs are that the flight of capital that has been accumulated through corrupt practices  that is, via smuggling, sanctions busting, administrative or financial corruption  is still prevalent in Iran, though the real volume of such capital flight is very difficult to gauge. In many cases, such funds flow in other forms, such as gold  a phenomenon that explains why Iran remains a large market for gold, despite the gradual normalization of banking relations. Another form of shifting capital outside the economy is in exports, where the financial proceeds never return to Iran. This has compelled the government to consider the reintroduction of financial guarantees to be signed by exporters.

Another aspect to understanding the mechanism and volume of capital flows is the movement of funds within the existing hawala system in Iran. This system is used by foreign exchange bureaus and relies on parallel flows of funds through a trustee system. In essence, when a transaction happens through the hawala system, initially no money flows across borders. This means that at some point in the process, funds have to actually flow across borders to correct the balance of payments. Consequently, some of the capital movements that seemingly look like capital flight are just corrections to balance the flow of payments.

Past sanctions on Iran consolidated the hawala system as a main platform for transactions  a fact that needs to be understood in the current fluctuations in the currency market. For example, First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri once commented that under the previous [Ahmadinejad] government, within 18 months, some $22 billion left the Iranian economy under the pretext that they wished to sell hard currency in Dubai and Istanbul to control the domestic exchange rate. Such capital movements happen in both directions and they are neither foreign investment nor capital flight  rather, they serve to balance the credits and debits of foreign exchange bureaus in a time-lagged manner.

Evidently, the Hassan Rouhani administration had hoped that a normalization of banking relations would make the financial flows more transparent and also reduce the need for the wide-ranging operation of foreign exchange bureaus. However, continued bottlenecks in the banking sector, in addition to domestic and foreign restrictions and a flawed two-tiered exchange rate system, have rendered the interaction of the Iranian economy with the global financial sector into a very opaque and complex structure.

In addition to the opaque structure, one also needs to appreciate the reasons why, at the current juncture, economic players in Iran wish to move some of their capital outside the country. The most obvious ones are economic and political uncertainties due to domestic and external unpredictability. At the same time, some merchants and businesses will opt to keep some funds outside Iran to facilitate their future imports. Furthermore, many importers in Iran have no choice but to prepay for their imports, which means that as long as banking relations are not normalized, funds will leave the Iranian economy before goods enter, so an imbalance in transactions would be acceptable. Another Iran-specific reason is the fact that many companies had previous debts from the sanctions years that they have settled in the meantime, that is, an abnormally high outflow of funds to balance old debts that accumulated during the sanctions years.

Looking beyond commercial transactions, private citizens also contribute to the current imbalance. Evidently, concern about future economic development and a desire to hedge investments have compelled many citizens to look for investment opportunities abroad. This trend has been amplified by the desire of middle-class families to have a second residence outside Iran, preferably in Western countries. Many European jurisdictions have started offering financial schemes, such as property or commercial investments, as a basis for immigration. It is very difficult to gauge the precise volume of such transactions, but it can be reasonably assumed that large amounts of foreign currency have fled the country to serve as a basis for this form of migration.

Though the motivations for capital flight are diverse, it remains a damaging phenomenon in the Iranian economy. Economist Abbas Hoshi blames the dominance of the governmental and semi-governmental sector as the main reason and believes that the restrictions on private sector investment lead to capital flight. According to Aliollah Hamedani, adviser to the Association of Industrial Managers, one of the reasons for capital flight is the weak business climate that has turned companies into welfare organizations rather than profit-making enterprises. Consequently, Iran needs a concerted effort to improve the business climate, including a unification of the dual exchange rates as an important step in reducing the potential of corruption in dealing with foreign currencies. While the governments April 9 announcement that it has unified the rates closes one of the main platforms for corrupt practices, it needs to make hard currency available at the unified rate. Otherwise there will be a black market and a lot of anxieties among economic players.

There is no doubt that the negative capital account balance will undermine Irans economic plans. The country is in need of domestic and foreign investment, but is experiencing capital flight. The sad fact remains that strong political forces are opposed to the countrys modernization and development and hence interested in causing capital flight, both in terms of financial capital as well as human capital.
The unspeakable horror of the massacre in the Syrian town of Douma has overshadowed the violence along Israels border with the Gaza Strip in recent days. The roughly 30 Palestinian deaths in Gaza are nothing more than a statistical blip compared with the number of Syrians killed in their countrys seven-year civil war, which stands at half a million and counting.

Indeed, compared with the mass murder being perpetrated across from Israels northeastern border, the daily killings along its southern border seem like nothing more than a training mishap. True, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) do not spray nerve gas over residential neighborhoods. They only fire at unarmed protesters on the border of the worlds largest prison. Nonetheless, it is unclear what made Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman reiterate the cliche that the IDF is the most moral army in the world when referring to the latest Gaza border incidents. To which army is he comparing the IDF? And how is the term moral even remotely compatible with Israels military control over millions of people for over 50 years?

Liberman announced that anyone trying to approach the fence risks their life. Even shooting dead a Palestinian journalist operating a camera drone 350 meters (383 yards) from the fence does not begin to scratch the IDFs moral image. Not a single commander questioned the live-fire rules of engagement handed down to the troops ahead of the planned Palestinian demonstrations. Not one Knesset member stood by the call of the human rights organization BTselem, urging IDF soldiers to refuse to fire at unarmed civilians engaging in nonviolent resistance. Disobeying orders was never an option. I will try to explain why.

Israels history of conscientious objection is as old as the state. In June 1948, several pilots, one artillery officer and eight soldiers refused an order to bomb and intercept the Altalena, a ship carrying weapons for Israels Etzel underground. In late October 1956, Israeli border guards killed 43 Israeli Arab citizens, among them nine women and 17 children and youths, in the fields of the village of Kafr Kassem. However, seven of the eight company commanders at the scene avoided carrying out the order given by the battalion commander to shoot in order to kill any Arabs found outside their home after the curfew imposed by the military on Arab villages. Responding to the massacre, Israels vaunted poet Natan Alterman wrote, Such an incident must strike every human society as a terrifying nightmare, shake the seats of the supervisors and commanders, both direct and indirect, challenge entrenched concepts, alarm military instructors, and generate a moral reckoning and search for those responsible.

In the landmark 1958 verdict handed down against participants in the Kafr Kassem massacre, Judge Benjamin Halevy wrote, The hallmark of manifest illegality is that it must fly like a black flag over the given order, a warning that says: 'forbidden!' Not formal illegality, obscure or partially obscure, not illegality that can be discerned only by legal scholars, is important here, but rather, the clear and obvious violation of law  Illegality that pierces the eye and revolts the heart, if the eye is not blind and the heart is not impenetrable or corrupt  this is the measure of manifest illegality needed to override the soldier's duty to obey and to impose on him criminal liability for his action.

The concept of disobeying a manifestly illegal order was upheld years later by the Supreme Courts verdict against Ehud Yatom, a senior operations officer of the Shin Bet found complicit in the killing of two Palestinian terrorists who hijacked an Israeli passenger bus in 1984. The justices ruled that the order given by the head of the Shin Bet to kill the two appeared manifestly illegal and Yatom should have refused it. Military law recognizes a soldiers right to refuse an order on the grounds of conscientious objection only when the order is patently illegal and its execution violates the principles of basic human morality. A military tribunal even ruled that a soldier is duty bound to disobey an order of this kind.

After 16 Palestinians were killed March 30 along the Gaza border on the first day of the Great Return March, law professor Mordechai Kremnitzer wrote that the use of live fire against protesters for nearing the fence with Israel was illegal. Even when it marks a border, a fence is not more sacred than human life, wrote the jurist, who served until recently as deputy president for the study of democracy in the Israel Democracy Institute.

Kremnitzer and organizations such as BTselem constitute a negligible minority in Israeli society and have no representation in the government. Right-wing politicians and pundits dub them a fifth column and accuse them of consorting with the enemy.

On the other hand, the current coalition includes politicians who pander to the rabbis who urged soldiers to refuse to evict Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip during the 2005 disengagement. The rabbis viewed the orders given at the time as manifestly illegal and in violation of Jewish law. And what was the punishment meted out to those who disobeyed the armys orders? Three of the 163 soldiers who refused to carry out their orders were indicted, one of them was sentenced to jail; 65 soldiers were brought up on disciplinary charges, with 46 of them sentenced to terms ranging from six to 56 days. Other action, such as a reprimand or removal from a command position, was taken against 49 officers and soldiers. Truly deterrent punishments.

The response at the time to the Gaza withdrawal strengthened the view that the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank would face mass disobedience by troops and officers, even verging on civil war.

On the other hand, only a handful abide by the approach advocated by professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the iconoclastic Israeli thinker. Leibowitz argued that objection by several hundred young people to serve in what he termed the Israeli occupation army could shock the public and pave the way for a political moral-spiritual upheaval. Sadly, not a single IDF sniper rose up in recent days to say, Sorry sir, but directing live fire at unarmed people is immoral, illegal and un-Israeli; I refuse the order.
Israeli security authorities are breathing a sigh of relief. After stormy protests on March 30 in which 19 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured, the number of Gaza residents heeding Hamas call to a second demonstration at the border fence with Israel dropped significantly. Despite the Palestinians sense of triumph at having challenged the Zionist enemy, which fears a mass Palestinian march to its border, only some 10,000 demonstrators showed up at the fence on April 6, according to assessments by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In other words, despite the organized busing and repeated calls for Palestinians of the besieged enclave to come out en masse to protest Israel's blockade and to support a return to Palestine, the number of those who showed up plummeted by 75%. According to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, 40,000 Gazans turned out for the March 30 march.

The high number of casualties during the first demonstration may have kept many Palestinians away from life-threatening clashes the second time around. The event Hamas has dubbed the Great Return March appears to be a resounding failure given that Hamas' leaders had expected 100,000 of Gazas 2 million residents to show up for the first demonstration and fewer than half that number actually took part.

The photos speak for themselves, a source in Israels civil administration for the Palestinian territory told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity. The number of worshippers at the fence during [Friday] noon prayers was far smaller than on the first week of the protests, and that is significant.

The source also said that fear of a violent confrontation with Israeli troops was not the only reason Hamas had failed to drum up a larger crowd. Although Hamas supposedly succeeded in drawing international and Arab attention to the Gaza issue once again, it turned out the movements leaders themselves are coming under harsh criticism by residents of the Strip, he said. The situation in Gaza today is the worst it has been since the blockade was imposed, and many in Gaza blame Hamas, too, for the terrible state of things.

According to the source, encouraging results can be found on Al-Munaseq, the Arab-language Facebook page of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories and its head, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai. The page, designed to provide a platform for direct contact with the Palestinians, has more than 250,000 followers, the source noted, adding, Theres no doubt the message is getting through. He cited, for instance, Israels repeated claim that Hamas is stealing electricity from residents and investing money in building tunnels through which to attack Israel rather than putting it toward easing the dire plight of Gazans.

Still, Palestinians in Gaza hardly need an Israeli internet campaign to grasp their grim predicament. The humanitarian crisis is severe, and they have identified those responsible. A human rights activist told Al-Monitor that Palestinians undoubtedly blame Israel and the chokehold it exerts over its population every hour of every day for the shortages and poverty reminiscent of the poorest neighborhoods in Africa or Asia. They also, however, blame Hamas and its leaderships misguided priorities. They are afraid to say so out loud for fear of reprisals, the source said, but every adult and child in Gaza, whether a Hamas supporter or opponent, knows the organizations priorities are skewed and that it takes care of its activists, leaders and the movement itself, neglecting other residents.

The border fence protests began as a private, civilian-led initiative by Mohammed Abu Artema, a human rights activist. Abu Artema had pondered on Facebook what would happen if hundreds of thousands of Gazans were to march to the Erez border crossing and protest against the siege. His initiative drew enthusiastic responses from many young Palestinians, and Hamas saw in it an opportunity to be exploited for its own ends. Abu Artema had hoped for a nonviolent protest, but Hamas decided to turn it into a series of marches under its sponsorship in the hopes that they would help the movement extricate itself from its diplomatic and economic plight. After only one week of mass demonstrations, it transpired that the protest against the Israeli siege was also directed against Hamas and its rule.

The situation in Gaza is terrible, another human rights activist told Al-Monitor, speaking on the condition of anonymity. We find ourselves in situations we would never have believed possible. Society is breaking down, hunger is rampant, and businessmen who came to symbolize Gazas wealth are now in prison because they failed to meet their obligations. He attributes the dire straits to the siege and cruelty of the occupation. That said, he further stated, Hamas is not helping residents to the extent it is able.

Yes, we blame you, your army, your government, your citizens, who know that people are dying here but dont care, he remarked. But we are also complaining against our leadership in Gaza. The activist also mentioned one phenomenon that has yet to make headlines  girls in Gaza engaging in prostitution for a pittance to buy necessities for themselves and their families.

With Hamas taking credit for the events at the border, many of the demonstrators who showed up on the first week for a civil, nonviolent protest stayed away the second week. There are many people in Gaza who no longer care about dying, he said. It doesnt scare them. They live like the dead. They didnt come to the demonstration, not because they were afraid of death, but because they did not want to serve Hamas.

Israel now believes that the protests at the fence, which were planned as a campaign of attrition lasting until May 15, the day Palestinians mark the Nakba, the catastrophe of Israels independence, will fail to achieve the goals set out by Hamas. Still, one goal has already been achieved. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had planned to impose new sanctions on Gaza and Hamas following the March 13 attempt on the lives of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majid Faraj. The renewed international interest in Gaza and the high number of casualties caused by Israeli fire have led him to reconsider. The plan has been shelved, for now.
Recent statements by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have created lots of talk that OPEC is considering a long-term agreement with Russia and possibly other non-OPEC members. However, the future of a potential pact between Russia and OPEC is quite unclear.

Russia is considering a contract of 10-20 years, rather than its current annual agreement. The present deal is part of the so-called OPEC-plus arrangement that allows non-OPEC members to participate in oil production cuts designed to increase oil prices and stabilize the international market.

So far, the OPEC-plus partners have managed to boost oil prices. Nevertheless, Moscow prefers to be very cautious when discussing the future of Russian-OPEC/Russian-Saudi cooperation in the hydrocarbon market. Thus, when commenting on Mohammeds statements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would say only that Russia discusses many issues with Saudi Arabia, including oil sector development. He avoided discussing the topic of a long-term agreement itself.

One factor Russia is no doubt mulling over is the potential for contradictions between Moscow and Riyadh. While believing in the necessity to cooperate and control the oil market, each country sees the prospects of this control in a slightly different way. The Russian experts Al-Monitor interviewed believe the Saudi kingdom might have no upper price limit at which it would want to curb production. Or, at least, the maximum Saudi price is much higher than that set by Russia, which is about $70 per barrel. Riyadh is expected to seek the highest maximum price possible to facilitate the future initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, fund Saudi economic reforms and finance Mohammeds adventures in Yemen, where Saudi proxies are fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Russian oil producers would like to avoid higher oil prices, which would benefit their rivals in countries that haven't joined the OPEC-plus deal. Also, as argued by Russian market analysts, any income generated by high oil prices will be consumed by additional taxes and excise duties imposed by the government. Oil experts told Al-Monitor that, under current legislation, Russian oil companies will realize their maximum benefit when oil prices range from $50-$60 per barrel.

In general, Russian businesses seem to be against extending their obligations to decrease oil output beyond 2018. First of all, before it joined OPEC plus, Russia could profit when oil prices rose without being restricted by OPEC's binding agreements to cut production. Second, OPEC's influence doesn't extend to many of the factors affecting international oil prices, such as oil consumption in India and China, or oil production in the United States. Consequently, it doesn't make sense to work with an organization that cant fully affect the market. Third, if Russia agreed to adhere to OPEC production limits beyond 2018, it would definitely backfire on Russian corporations' plans to bring new oil fields online. On March 23, Lukoil presented its new development strategy, which calls for annual production growth of 1% until 2027. Rosnefts plans call for 2% production growth annually until 2022, and Tatneft plans 2.4% annual growth until 2025.

In addition, Russian business and market analysts believe the OPEC-plus deal is becoming too fragile and dependent on external factors. Thus, they are convinced that some of the participants in the proposed long-term deal, such as Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Iraq and potentially even Venezuela, might either violate the agreement or abandon it completely to regain market share they lost due to a variety of reasons, such as US sanctions, economic and political crises, civil war and the Islamic State.

The Kremlin, however, does not share Russian companies' negative views of the OPEC-plus deal or their concern over high oil prices. This is quite understandable: Higher oil prices would ensure higher revenues in the Russian budget. Yet, given the current informal power structure in Russia, where the heads of oil corporations are also politically influential, the Kremlin cant ignore their opinions. Thus, the director of the Russian National Energy Security Fund, Konstantin Simonov, predicts that to extend Russian participation in OPEC plus, Moscow would need either to provide further perks to oil companies or change the system of taxation after 2018. So far, the Russian leadership is leaning toward not renewing the OPEC-plus deal at the end of 2018 and instead gradually beginning to exit the agreement after Russia considers the oil market to be stable. Russia expects global reserves to decrease to the desired level by August or September so, starting in October, Moscow might declare that it wants to disengage from the deal beginning in January.

This doesn't mean Russian leadership has made a decision. So far, Russian officials haven't made any clear statements in this regard. Moreover, they are reserving space for maneuvering by saying it's too soon to make a final decision.

A long-term contract could deepen Russia's presence in the Middle East and there is still a chance Moscow will stick with an OPEC pact while demanding less-strict conditions for itself. The Kremlin isn't interested in cutting off its OPEC relations completely, as this could damage its relationship with Saudi Arabia. However, Moscow also doesn't want to be a part of a full-fledged consortium that, on one hand, can only affect international oil prices to an extent, but at the same time is able to limit Russias right to determine its volumes of oil exports and production. Under these circumstances, Moscow seeks a platform for OPEC-plus participants to discuss emerging challenges and potential investment projects. It's not clear whether Saudi Arabia and other OPEC-plus participants will support this idea: A forum format can't affect market behavior. Instead, some of the non-OPEC members of the "plus" partnership (that list includes Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Oman) will probably insist on forming a new cartel  which is also not in Russia's best interests.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday rejected a call by Moscow to hand control of Afrin province to the Syrian government, saying Ankara would withdraw its forces when it felt the time was right.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an April 9 news conference that Moscow expects Turkey to relinquish Afrin to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after having driven out the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in March. He asserted that Erdogan had never said that Turkey wants to occupy Afrin.

We always proceed from the fact that the easiest way to normalize the situation in Afrin, now that Turkish representatives say that the main goals they set there have been achieved, would be to return the territory under the control of the Syrian government, Lavrov said.

Speaking to reporters, Erdogan called Lavrovs remarks a very wrong approach. We know full well to whom we will give back Afrin. He added, We will personally hand over Afrin to the people of Afrin when the time is right. But the timing of this is up to us. We will decide this, not Mr. Lavrov.

The exchange highlights fissures in Turkeys relations with Russia, even as the two sides have grown closer in recent years and are working together to find a solution to the seven-year Syrian civil war. During the first week in April, Erdogan hosted his Iranian and Russian counterparts at a summit in Ankara to discuss their joint effort to stabilize Turkeys southern neighbor.

For the campaign against the YPG in Afrin, dubbed Operation Olive Branch, Ankara needed Russia's acquiescence to send its fighter jets into Syrian air space to bomb the Kurdish forces. It also needed assurances that Assads forces would not intervene in the operation, which Ankara launched in January.

Despite Turkey and Russia's political cooperation, they have deeply conflicting interests in Syria. Russia supports Assad, and Turkey backs rebels fighting him. A suspected chemical weapons attack on April 7 against Assads opponents may expose these differences in sharper relief.

Erdogan has also clashed with the United States, its NATO ally that has armed and trained the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization because of its links to the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. Erdogan has vowed to extend his armys operations beyond Afrin to defeat Kurdish militants who control large swathes of northern Syria, including areas where US troops have a presence, as well as parts of northern Iraq.

At the Ankara summit with Russia, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had also said that Afrin should be relinquished to the Syrian army. After the meeting, one Turkish opposition politician criticized the lack of Syrian input in Afrins fate. Sezai Temelli, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, said, It should be Syrians who are discussing Syria. It sounds like an anecdote: A Turk, a Russian and an Iranian are sitting around talking about Syria.

The daily Cumhuriyet reported that Lavrovs call has angered Turkish officials. Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli claims that predominantly Kurdish Afrin still poses a threat to Turkey and has said that its forces will remain in the region until the risks are completely gone, and we will continue to remain there until our work is finished, indicating that Turkey wants to see a political resolution of the war before withdrawing.

Once the threat of terrorism is removed throughout the entire region and a central government is formed following elections, we will hand over [areas held by Turkey] to the government, Canikli said.

Meanwhile, after a Cabinet meeting on April 9, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said that Turkey will return Afrin to the local inhabitants and will support the administration they form. The Turkish Armed Forces are not occupiers in Afrin, and they are not there permanently, he added.

In late March, Erdogan said that Turkey would appoint a governor for Afrin and help form a local administration as well as begin reconstruction efforts. Turkeys military already provides security and backs a local administration comprised of Assad opponents in the Syrian town of Jarablus, where it intervened in 2016.

Erdogan condemned the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed at least 60 people in Douma, a rebel-held city in eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus, but stopped short of blaming Assad. The United States and other Western governments have pointed to Assad as the culprit, while Russia has said the rebels staged the attack. The Kremlin acknowledges that Turkey, Russia and Iran have no agreed position on the assault.

Whoever carried out this massacre will pay a heavy price, Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party at the parliament April 10. Citing presidential sources, newspapers reported that on April 9, Erdogan had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin to express his uneasiness over the assault in Duoma and to urge him to work with Turkey to prevent civilian deaths and to allow aid to reach victims.

Back on the Afrin front, sporadic clashes continue, despite Turkey's declaration of victory in March after the YPG withdrew from the city of Afrin. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported that the YPG has targeted Operation Olive Branch forces in recent days. Erdogan raised the death toll from the conflict, announcing on April 10 that Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army forces aligned with them had killed 4,071 terrorists since January. The Syrian Observatory puts the count lower, at 1,511 SDF fighters.

Assads government condemned the Turkish incursion as a violation of its sovereignty.
Russia might be indirectly encouraging Turkey to advance toward Syrias northeastern town of Manbij while further sidelining Washington from the Syrian scene after President Donald Trump voiced his plans to withdraw US troops from Syria, sources familiar with the situation hinted after a summit on Syria last week in Turkey.

All eyes were on the tripartite Syria meeting that gathered the top leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey on April 4 in Ankara, where they met to discuss how to end the war in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have somehow maintained an unlikely alignment for the past year and a half despite their diverging end games in Syria.

Turkey wants to keep Iran at bay, limit its influence in Syria and has long wanted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be ousted. Russia wants closer ties with Turkey, but also needs the current Syrian regime in place to maintain its military bases, dominate the eastern Mediterranean and control Syrian airspace. Iran also needs Assad in place to maintain its supply lines to Islamist militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and establish a secure corridor to Lebanon via Iraq and Syria, and thus wants to keep Turkey away from the latter two.

Yet at their meeting last week, the trio united on opposing Washington.

Russian-Turkish relations have been going well for the past two years. Indeed, Erdogan and Putin officially met eight times and had 29 phone conversations in 2017, according to pro-government Turkish media outlets. This indicates the personalized nature of the relationship and shows the rapprochement between Ankara and Moscow is a top-down process.

However, it remains to be seen if they can translate their fledgling strategic bonds into long-term cooperation in Syria, as Assad's future is unclear, as is the Kurds. It's also uncertain how developments between the United States and Turkey will unfold.

So what were the outcomes of the Ankara summit?

According to Kerim Has, a Moscow State University lecturer, the most concrete and clear result of the summit was the emphasis of all sides on Syrias sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. It's clear that neither the negotiators nor the forces on the ground will accept the creation of a sovereign patch in Syria under Ankaras control.

This emphasis attracted attention both in their joint press briefing and in the joint statement they issued. Turkey has thus renewed its commitments to Syria. I believe both Moscow and Tehran wanted Turkey to reaffirm its commitments following the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations [Turkey's military incursions in Syria], Has told Al-Monitor.

The situation in Syria's Idlib was also an important issue at the summit. Idlib is one of the last major rebel hotspots; just yesterday, April 9, it was rocked by a deadly explosion. Early reports said the blast of undetermined origin killed at least 11 people and wounded 80-110.

Idlib has a significant strategic value for Russia, which would like to wrap things up there so it can declare mission accomplished for its military operations.

At the summit, leaders discussed Ankaras commitment to set up 12 observation posts to supervise the cease-fire, including one in Idlib. Russia has been pushing Turkey to accelerate its work, and Ankara announced last week it had completed an Idlib de-escalation station.

Why is Russia insisting on de-escalation outposts in that area? Although not said in so many words, no doubt Russia wants to keep an eye on pro-Iran Shiite militias that are trying to expand their presence from southern Aleppo toward Idlib and thus fill the power vacuum in parts of the region that emerged after the influence of radical Salafist-jihadi groups waned.

Meanwhile, Turkey would like to "liberate" Manbij from the People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a Kurdish terrorist group. Although Moscow doesn't necessarily want to see further escalation in that area, sources say Russia might be nudging the Turkish military to enter Manbij to disrupt Ankara's ties with Washington and NATO. The United States has special operations units in Manbij, and there is a risk of direct confrontation. The United States has repeatedly warned Turkey not to advance toward Manbij.

As for the summit, Has noted that Moscows priority is to achieve a political settlement in Syria via peace talks in Astana and Sochi  which would then be ratified in Geneva. The role of the Syrian Sunni opposition and the fates of militants still determined to fight the regime until the end are not matters Moscow could cope with alone simply by enlisting Ankara and Tehran, he said. In other words, peace will require cooperation among all Syrian parties.

The summit itself did nothing to clarify ambiguity over whether the Astana and Sochi processes will produce a settlement that includes the Syrian Kurdish groups closely allied with Washington. The joint Ankara declaration published after the summit didnt mention Syrian Kurds, a telling sign that Ankara hasn't been able to persuade Moscow and Tehran to align with Turkeys views on the issue. Putin, on the other hand, very clearly expressed the day before the summit that he believes the moderate Kurds have a place at the negotiating table.

"We are convinced that the Kurds are part of Syrias multiethnic people and have the right to take part in all political processes, to find their place in future Syria," Putin said, according to a report from the Russian-owned Tass news agency. Naturally, we are convinced that any such processes should continue with maximum coordination between all the parties concerned."

The summit did confirm that Turkeys Operation Olive Branch has reached its southern limits, as there is no further YPG threat from that direction.

Contrary to Erdogans recent statement that the Turkish army will take control of the Tell Rifaat region, in his post-summit remarks he said Turkey will work with Russia and Iran, indicating that Moscow and Tehran have not given the green light for Turkey's army and its ally the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to expand south of Afrin city.

In Turkey, which has entered a critical election process, it's essential for Erdogan to consolidate his conservative and nationalist power bases and continue with the operations in northern Syria for the sake of domestic political consumption, enabling him to grab votes even from opposition parties. And after the Ankara summit, Turkey doesnt have another option but to expand Operation Olive Branch to the east to Manbij and then east of the Euphrates River.

I believe Moscow has indirectly encouraged Ankara to advance toward Manbij by influencing Turkeys strategic decision-making process.

Northern Syria is likely to be the hottest region of that country this summer, when Turkish troops and the FSA will be looking to the east toward Manbij  where US and French troops are currently patrolling  and not to the south toward Tell Rifaat, which is currently under the control of Assad's forces and Russia's close monitoring.
Guns and bullets to train two companies of Libyan soldiers are gathering dust in a German warehouse as the Donald Trump administration holds off on delivering the weapons to the violence-plagued North African country.

The Defense and State departments previously authorized some $23 million to train and equip Libyan special operations forces and secure the countrys vast borders, under a 6-year-old plan to carry out security and counterterrorism training and rule of law programs in a handful of vulnerable countries. Expenditures under the Barack Obama-era Global Security Contingency Fund, however, have been frozen since mid-2016, according to congressional notifications reviewed by Al-Monitor, with just $220,000 out of $15 million in border security funding obligated.

Due to Libyas evolving political and security landscape, this project remains on hold, according to the Global Security Contingency Funds annual report to Congress.

The report say the United States moved equipment and training ammunition for the special forces program from Morocco back to Germany, home of US Africa Command, in August 2016. The fund was renewed in this years defense authorization bill through September 2019, but expenditures for Libya remain in limbo. A State Department official told Al-Monitor that the equipment remains in storage and that the United States is legally prohibited from moving forward with the border security project until we can implement as notified to Congress.

Overall, Libya has received nearly $130 million in US security assistance since the 2011 overthrow of the Moammar Gadhafi regime, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Security Assistance Monitor in Washington. But military officials acknowledge that the ongoing civil war has left the weak UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj unable to unify police and military forces, complicating Americas ability to provide assistance and throwing presidential and legislative elections later this year into doubt.

It's very difficult to characterize Libya, but I'd have to say [its] a fragile state, the commander of the US Africa Command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told a Senate hearing last month. He said UN plans for presidential and legislative elections later this year wouldnt serve any purpose unless the security is there.

The European Union, meanwhile, recently renewed its mandate for a $21 million effort to secure Libyas borders.

US Libya policy under Trump appears focused almost exclusively on trying to expel the Islamic State (IS) from the country, with The New York Times reporting last month that the Pentagon had launched more drone strikes than it has publicly acknowledged.

I do not see a role in Libya. I think the United States has right now enough roles, Trump said in April 2017. I do see a role in getting rid of [IS].

The United States has also struggled to deal with Libyas warring factions. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have allegedly violated a UN arms embargo to support Sarrajs chief antagonist, Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Hifter.

Its unclear if reconciliation between Hifter and Sarraj can achieve a political settlement and whether they have enough influence to establish order. A spokesman for Hifter recently told Al-Monitor that the Egypt-led process produced an agreement in December to reunify and restructure Libyas military, but talks stalled over determining a commander.

Even the more limited counterterrorism policy, former US officials say, has been hampered by a thinning of the State Departments diplomatic ranks. Since the 2012 attacks on the US compound in Benghazi, Washington has left only a residual American presence across the border in Tunis.

Theres nothing wrong with the policy, theyre just not very energetic about it, said Jonathan Winer, the State Departments special envoy to Libya under Obama. Theres no special envoy; theres no ambassador.

The Trump administration has appeared to nominally get behind the UN-backed effort to push for elections. After Trump met with Sarraj at the White House in November, then-US Ambassador to Libya Peter Bodde and Waldhauser headlined the first high-ranking US delegation to travel to the war-torn country since 2014.

Implementing security assistance in Libya generally has been extremely difficult, said former State Department Libya desk officer Lydia Sizer, due to limited US contacts there after we evacuated our embassy in 2014.
In part six of series on North Korean defectors, Al Jazeera speaks to Lee Min-bok, head of North Korea Balloon Group.

Seoul, South Korea  Around 31,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Almost 71 percent of those defectors are female, most in their 20s and 30s.

Only a few take the most dangerous route through the Korean Demilitarized Zone that a North Korean soldier took late last year.

Most of North Koreans defect via the long and expensive journey that takes them into China after crossing the Yalu River.

The journey takes them to Chinas southern border into Vietnam and Laos before they arrive in Thailand, from where they are often flown into South Korea.

Some even opt to go to the US, according to Liberty in North Korea, an NGO based in the US and South Korea.

But their arrival into South Korea does not signal an end to their worries and problems.

Part 1  Korean government doesnt treat defectors as people

Part 2  I wish I can go back to North Korea for a day

Part 3  North Korean defector describes life at home through cartoons

Part 4  North Korean defector: If you have money, you can do anything

Part 5  North Korean artist: I would never go back home

In part six of the series, Al Jazeera speaks to 58-year-old Lee Min-bok who is head of the North Korea Balloon Group and sends balloons across the border from the South.

I come from a place where there was no radio or internet. Seventeen years ago, I saw a South Korean flyer and thats when I decided to defect and do this from across the border.

I left North Korea in 1990 and it took me five years to arrive in the South. I left my sisters and mother behind. I havent heard from them since then. I tried several times, but no luck.

I found out that the South Korean government was sending balloons into the North and my involvement was limited to giving suggestions and opinions.

After the inter-Korean summit in 2000, they stopped sending those flyers. In 2003, I developed my balloons and became the first civilian to do so.

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Through the balloons, I send over what I call true news to demystify the lie that the Korean War was instigated by South Korea and the USA and the lie that South Korea needs to be liberated from imperialists.

I dont have a group as such. There are one or two experts who fly the balloons and the rest are sponsors. In order to fly the balloons, you need a licence to transport gas, a station for the balloons and a vehicle that passes safety regulations.

The exact location where the balloons are sent depends on the wind. Most are sent from the DMZ area during the summer. The last time we sent the balloon was in November 2017. The wind isnt that good in the winter, so we are just planning our next round for now.

We are able to track the balloons as the technology allows us to attach GPS and estimate the wind direction and volume. I heard from a defected soldier that the furthest a balloon reached was Ryanggang province which is in the northeast of North Korea.

Because of my work, Ive been subject to terror from the North Korea government. I was attacked with poisoned needles, so the South Korean government hired six bodyguards to be with me at all times and a CCTV everywhere I go.

Now, I have a family here in South Korea  a wife and three children  and they help me send the balloons out.

As told to Faras Ghani and Hae Ju Kang
Brazils oligarchy will do everything in its power to sabotage any attempt to abolish its privileges.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the most popular president in Brazils history, surrendered himself to federal authorities on April 7 to start serving a 12-year prison sentence. While Lulas conviction is purportedly about fighting corruption and impunity, it, in fact, aims to teach the poor a lesson: the presidential legacy of a mixed-race worker, with little formal education, will be undone by the countrys elites; the poor mustnt delude themselves they have an actual democratic say or a share in the countrys prosperity.

Last Thursday, Brazilians woke up to the Supreme Court ruling that Lula could be sent to jail while appealing his conviction on corruption charges, and went to sleep knowing that Sergio Moro, the federal judge overseeing the Operation Car Wash cases, had ordered Lula to surrender. All of us who have been following the legal proceedings knew they were rigged and believed Lula should resist. Confronted with the need to make a decision, Lula headed to his political home: the headquarters of the Metalworkers Union in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where his political life began, which became the hub of one of the biggest workers parties in the world. #OcupaSaoBernardowas became the top trending Twitter topic in Brazil, as thousands of supporters travelled to the Unions headquarters and remained there in vigil.

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As the political turmoil continues to polarise the country, it is abundantly clear to Lula supporters that his imprisonment is effectively an attempt to destroy a democratic agenda that sought to undo Brazils oligarchical political system and replace it with a democracy that works for the many, not just the rich and powerful few.

Throughout the five republican constitutional regimes before 1988, the right to vote in Brazil had been highly restricted, if not suppressed altogether. The disenfranchisement of the illiterate has been the marker of an oligarchical regime that was democratic in name only.

While women and soldiers gradually gained the right to participate in this most elementary democratic mechanism, the exclusion of the countrys illiterate from electoral participation ended only very recently, with the 1988 constitution. In a country where education has historically been tied to social class and race, the denial of the right to vote based upon literacy meant that a large mass of poor people, the majority of Brazils population, has been banned from participating in democratic life for most of the countrys history.

Participation rates in presidential elections in Brazil clearly illustrate this: While only 20 percent of the population participated in the 1960 democratic presidential elections  the last one before the 1964 military coup  this number more than doubled in the 1989 elections  the first presidential elections after the return to democracy and the adoption of the 1988 constitution.

Since then, the majority of Brazilian voters gave their vote to the political project Lula represents in four out of the countrys seven presidential elections. During the Workers Party time in office, poverty was reduced by 55 percent and extreme poverty by 65 percent; the minimum wage raised by 76 percent, unemployment reduced at unparalleled rates and inequality shrunk markedly.

Those who defend the legitimacy of Lulas imprisonment argue that he has been convicted in a fair trial, which was further upheld on appeal. However, anyone who has closely followed the proceedings of Operation Car Wash knows full well that not all politicians facing corruption charges were dealt with in the same fashion.

The prosecution of Lula was unprecedentedly fast for a judicial system notorious for its tardiness. His conviction is based on evidence that falls far below the minimal threshold accepted by any judicial system working under the rule of law and basic human rights principles. Moreover, the trial judges bias has long been apparent in what many have called a political persecution.

Judge Moro not only released wiretapped conversations between Lula and then President Dilma Rousseff, which were crucial in the political plot to impeach her, and made several statements in social media concerning the proceedings and Lulas defence strategies, but also created a media spectacle when he forcefully brought Lula in for questioning although the former president had declared he would report voluntarily.

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According to all polls, Lula is the leading candidate in the upcoming October presidential elections. His imprisonment now, when other political figures  who are facing much more severe corruption charges  remain free, including unelected president, Michel Temer, comes as a clear message to the Brazilian poor: the oligarchy will do everything in its power to sabotage any attempt to abolish its privileges.

However, after seven consecutive experiences of participating in democratic elections, the poor might no longer quietly accept their exclusion.

In the headquarters of the Metalworkers Union in Sao Bernardo, they are chanting Lula is each of us! In the 1980s Lula was imprisoned for being the president of this very same union, leading workers strikes and fighting for the countrys democratisation. Either as farce or tragedy, history seems to be repeating itself.

And yet, despite all attempts to undermine democracy, the people stand for Lula and his vision of social justice, equality and an inclusive Brazil.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
FBI raided the office and residence of Trumps personal lawyer, seizing records on Cohens clients and other documents.

US President Donald Trump has criticised the FBI, saying that the raid on the office and home of his personal lawyer is disgraceful.

Trumps comments on Monday came after the FBI raided Michael Cohens New York office, hotel and residence earlier in the day, seeking documents on his clients and personal finances.

Cohen is under investigation for alleged crimes related bank fraud and campaign finance violations, the Washington Post reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Cohens lawyer said in a statement that federal prosecutors obtained a search warrant for the raids, which were first reported by the New York Times, on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential elections.

I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Its a disgraceful situation, he said, describing the raid as an attack on what we all stand for.

According to US media, documents seized in the raid included those regarding a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential elections.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had sexual relations with Trump in 2006 and was paid to keep quiet about it.

Cohen admitted he made the payment to Daniels, which watchdogs say could be in violation of campaign finance laws. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and said he is unaware of the payment made by Cohen.

Stephen Ryan, Cohens lawyer, said the FBI seized privileged communications between Cohen and his clients.

In a statement, Ryan called the raids completely inappropriate and unnecessary.

Many have said you should fire him

The raids do not appear to be directly related to the Mueller investigation, but based on information he obtained as part of the probe.

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After criticising the raids, Trump continued his repeated attacks on the special counsels Russia investigation.

When asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump said: We will see what happens  Many people have said you should fire him.

Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, but can order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to end the probe or fire Rosenstein himself.

According to regulations, Mueller must consult Rosenstein, who oversees the probe, when he comes across information that is not related to the investigation. Rosenstein can then order Mueller to investigate or refer the matter to other authorities.

Trump also repeated past criticisms of the probes staff, accusing it of political bias.

Muellers team did not immediately respond to the accusations.
Xi Jinping addresses US trade concerns after China files complaint at WTO over duties imposed by Washington.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pledged to lower car tariffs, improve intellectual property protection and open up the Chinese economy, addressing United States complaints in an escalating trade dispute.

Xi made his remarks on Tuesday at the Boao economic forum on the southern island of Hainan. He did not mention US President Donald Trump directly.

Chinas door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider, Xi said in his first public speech since the outbreak of trade tensions between China and the US.

Also on Tuesday, it emerged that China filed a complaint against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over steel and aluminium products tariffs imposed by Washington.

A document published on the trade bodys website showed that China had requested 60 days of consultations with Washington over the duties, which China believes are in breach with international trade rules.

The US announced import duties on steel and aluminium products of 25 and 10 percent respectively in March, prompting fears of a trade war between the worlds biggest economic powerhouses.

Last week, the US and China exchanged trade penalties in quick succession.

On April 3, Trumps administration threatened to slap tariffs on $50bn in Chinese imports across 1,300 categories of products, ranging from industrial robots to locomotives.

China announced 25 percent tariffs on critical American exports, including soya beans, aeroplanes and cars the next day.

Late on Thursday, Trump struck back again by instructing trade officials to consider tariffs worth an additional $100bn on Chinese imports.
Jesus Santrich was arrested in Bogota on charges of planning to smuggle $320m worth of cocaine to the US.

A former top FARC leader has been arrested in Colombia on charges of planning to smuggle 10 tonnes of cocaine to the United States, potentially putting Colombias peace process with the rebel group under heightened pressure.

The surprise arrest of Seuxis Hernandez, better known as Jesus Santrich, at his Bogota residence on Monday came at the request of the US.

Santrich and three co-conspirators who were also detained were indicted by a New York grand jury for allegedly planning to traffic a cocaine shipment with a street value of $320m to the US.

He was accused of meeting cocaine buyers in his Bogota residence on November 2 to discuss the shipment.

The 51-year-old was one of the negotiators of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during peace talks in Havana, Cuba, which led to FARC transforming itself into a political party.

Santrich was due to take one of 10 seats in Congress that were guaranteed to the FARC political party as part of the peace deal in July.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a televised address that his hand wouldnt shake at the authorisation of his extradition if irrefutable proof for the allegations exists, in order to protect the integrity of the peace deal signed in November 2016.

Under the agreement, FARC fighters who demobilise and confess to war crimes would be spared jail time and extradition, but this protection does not extend to crimes committed after the peace deal was ratified.

Disastrous demoralising message

This is the worst moment that the peace process has gone through, the former rebel leader and chief peace negotiator known as Ivan Marquez said, according to The Associated Press.

Former rebels and FARC sympathisers gathered outside the prosecutors bunker on Monday demanding Hernandezs release.

This is extremely serious, because it sends a very disastrous demoralising message that creates a lot of uncertainty, Chucho Narinho, a FARC regional leader, told reporters. Its a very bad message for the Colombian people, for the former combatants and for the peace that our country so badly needs.

The peace deal, which put an end to a civil war that lasted more than half a century and killed more than 220,000 people, has been under pressure as many Colombians think it was too lenient towards former rebels who have committed atrocities.

Conservative parties which were opposed to the peace deal came out ahead in parliamentary elections in March.

FARC performed poorly in the election, garnering less than 0.4 percent of the vote for Senate and less than 0.3 percent in the lower house.

Ivan Duque, who was against the peace deal, is leading polls for a presidential election set to take place on May 27.
Ex-Brazil President Dilma Rousseff calls for international solidarity in Spain after imprisonment of former leader Lula.

Ex-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has kicked off an international tour in support of her predecessor and political member Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who recently began serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption.

Addressing a conference in Spains capital, Madrid, Rousseff on Tuesday called for international solidarity and denounced what she described as a politically-motivated decision to jail the leftist politician by the countrys right-wing ahead of presidential elections.

Democracy in Brazil is at risk because of a parliamentary coup, she said at Casa de America, a consortium created by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to strengthen ties between Spain and the Americas.

Rousseff also said that the Workers Party (PT) in Brazil will continue to fight all of the judicial processes so Lula could remain its candidate in Octobers elections, according to local reports.

We dont have a Plan B. We maintain Lulas candidacy, said Rousseff, who was stripped of the presidency in 2016 over allegations of violating fiscal laws.

Her supporters repeatedly refer to her impeachment by the Senate as a coup.

Podemos meeting

Lula on Saturday began serving a 12-year prison sentence for passive corruption and money laundering.

The 72-year-old maintains his innocence, stating the conviction against him is a political witch-hunt to bar him from participating in the presidential race.

Polls suggest that if allowed to run, Lula would win.

Rousseff, who is expected to hold several talks and lectures in Spain and the United States, also met with leaders from with the left-wing Spanish political party, Podemos.

Pablo Iglesias, general secretary of Podemos, condemned the attack on democracy in Brazil and requested Lulas immediate release, according to local media.

Corruption in Brazil

In 2014, a federal police investigation in Brazils capital, Brasilia at a car wash revealed extensive networks of corruption across the country.

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The case, known as the car wash operation, is still ongoing. More than 100 people, including politicians, have been convicted and dozens remain under investigation.

[Lulas] verdict does not change anything for Brazil, it does not solve the problem of corruption, which is endemic, said Brazilian Journalist William de Lucca to Al Jazeera.

Brazilian democracy is fragile and it needs to be built on a constant basis, which has not been happening, he added.

On Thursday, Rousseff will give further talks in Barcelona before travelling to the US on Saturday.

Pablo Villaca, a Brazilian academic and film critic, explained Rousseffs influential role following her departure from Brazils presidency.

After she [Rousseff] was deposed, she went back to her roots, fighting power and shes very good at that, said Villaca, adding that she has an international voice.
Here are the questions the Facebook CEO will likely be asked as he makes his first appearance in Congress.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before two joint US Congress committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, to discuss how the social network is handling user data.

During the hearings, Zuckerberg is expected to talk about what the company is doing to protect its users privacy following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the private data of more than 87 million people was collected illegally.

Zuckerberg will also be asked questions about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections and what role the social media platform played.

In his opening statements to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which were released on Monday, Zuckerberg will apologise for not taking a broad enough view of our responsibility.

Its clear now that we didnt do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm, as well, the prepared remarks read.

That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and Im sorry.

It is not the first time the usually quiet Zuckerberg has apologised for Facebooks role in the Cambridge Analytical incident.

His prepared remarks also dig deeper into the actions Facebook has taken so far in an attempt to stop any similar user data leaks happening.

Despite the apology and plans to combat the same issue from happening, a lot of questions still remain for Facebook users and members of the US legislature.

Here are some of the questions Zuckerberg will likely be asked as he testifies in front of a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week:

1. What is Facebook doing to protect user privacy and data?

The biggest issue that arose from the Cambridge Analytica scandal was one that has been brought to attention by privacy advocacy groups before.

It is unclear what data Facebook has exactly about its users.

Facebooks business model is based on selling advertisements, and serving its ad-buyers as best as possible, through user-data.

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However, for users and governments, it is hard to know how much data Facebook actually collects.

Social media has revolutionised the way we communicate, using data to connect people from around the world, South Dakota Senator John Thune, who is the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

With all of the data exchanged over Facebook and other platforms, users deserve to know how their information is shared and secured, he added.

This hearing will explore approaches to privacy that satisfy consumer expectations while encouraging innovation.

The hearings will more than likely also touch on what plans Facebook has to improve the amount of information that gets shared with third-party apps.

The social network has announced some changes already, including how much info third-party apps can get and making it easier for users to disconnect apps they once give access to personal information.

However, the amount of data Facebook collects is still opaque, and members of the committee will probably ask Zuckerberg about what plans the company has to increase transparency.

2. What was Facebooks role in the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections?

The controversy regarding Facebook has not only been about the data leak of tens of millions of Facebook users, but also about its alleged involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.

According to indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller, at least one Russian-based company, the Internet Research Agency, was involved in buying advertisements and running pages that were aimed at influencing American citizens.

This was done by showing advertisements and spreading misinformation on the social media platform, which was then shared with a large number of Facebook users.

Although Facebook has since closed several pages linked to the Internet Research Agency, it is still unclear how much Facebook knew and what larger role the social media platform played before and during the US elections.

Zuckerberg will likely get questions about what Facebook knew, when it knew it and what actions it eventually took.

3. Why did Facebook not act sooner in the Cambridge Analytical scandal?

In his statement released in advance of the hearings, Zuckerberg said the company had made several changes to its policy regarding data collection by third-party applications and how that data could be used.

In 2015, when The Guardian alerted Facebook to the misuse of private information by Aleksandr Kogan, the researcher who provided user data on tens of millions of Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, Facebook demanded Kogan and Cambridge Analytica delete all the information they had gathered.

It did not, however, follow-up on whether the data collected was deleted. It also did not alert government officials or its users about the breach.

One of the questions that the committees will likely ask is why Facebook never alerted its users about the fact their data had been leaked to a company that might use it in nefarious ways.

4. How many other similar cases have there been?

Cambridge Analytica and the Russian interference in the US elections are the two most prominent cases in which Facebooks user data were misused, but it is still unclear how many similar cases there might be.

Facebook has been blamed for creating chaos in Myanmar as hate speech circulated on the platform at the beginning of the Rohingya crisis. Cambridge Analytica also claimed it used Facebook user data to influence several other major events including the Brexit referendum, as well as the 2017 presidential elections in Kenya.

There are many other companies who do work comparable to Cambridge Analytica, and because of Facebooks lack of transparency, it is unclear what data they have and how that data is being used.

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in his statement this question will be raised during at least one of the committee hearings.

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Our joint hearing will be a public conversation with the CEO of this powerful and influential company about his vision for addressing problems that have generated significant concern about Facebooks role in our democracy, bad actors using the platform, and user privacy, the statement read.

5. What is Facebook doing to ensure this does not happen again?

In his prepared remarks, Zuckerberg listed several measures already taken by the company to improve transparency for users.

The company has also limited the amount of information third-party apps will be able to gather from Facebook profiles, which aims to prevent similar breaches like that in the Cambridge Analytica scandal from happening again.

With regards to election interfering, the remarks mention the removal of several accounts linked to Russia and Facebook working directly with the German government before the countrys 2017 elections.

However, Zuckerberg said last week it will take several years to fix Facebook, which has raised the question about how much the newly announced efforts will improve the current issues.
Facebooks Zuckerberg to testify over data breach

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will head to Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday to answer for his companys recent troubles.
Online privacy has dominated international headlines in recent weeks in the wake of the wide-reaching Facebook scandal, but protecting personal data is just one of the several larger threats faced by internet users.

Thats the conclusion of the Internet Health Report 2018, which was released on Tuesday by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit group promoting an open and inclusive online experience.

The study, published as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to appear before US Congress to discuss user data breaches and the social networks role in the 2016 US presidential elections, focuses on five major issues: privacy and security, openness, digital inclusion, web literacy and decentralisation.

When I think about health of the internet, I think about what we use it for socially, for business, for governance, Solana Larsen, editor of the report, told Al Jazeera.

According to Larsen, what issue poses the biggest threat depends on who the users are and the circumstances that they are in.

If youre in a country with a repressive regime that censors or blocks the internet, then openness is a problem, but if youre a minority or woman using social media then digital inclusion, which includes online harassment, might be what worries you the most, Larsen said.

However, Larsen was quick to stress that its hard to look at one issue and ignore the others.

They are all linked, she said.

When we look at the issues we have outlined for the report, all these issues overlap and intersect in different ways, Larsen said.

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One such issue is the security of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), which ranges from baby monitors that can be checked via smartphone apps to internet-connected refrigerators.

Securing the IoT is important to protect against threats such as Distributed Denial of Services attacks (DDoS) aimed at taking down websites or services. Unsecured cameras could also be used to spy on people, as well as to violate their privacy.

Not only should companies provide devices that are properly secured, but also people who buy them should use proper password security to ensure heir connected machines are harder to hack.

Were not without responsibility, said Larsen.

As consumers, we have to think about what we buy, what we use, how we use it, what we are willing to accept.

Tech giants

The report also focuses on the role tech giants play, and how only a handful of companies, mostly from the United States and China, have most of the power.

Google and Facebook account for more than 80 percent of all online ads outside China, while inside the Asian country, Tencent is the number one player in the online realm.

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You end up with companies that end up with an enormous concentration of power and wealth, and it becomes hard to challenge them in any way  either for consumers but also for competing companies, Larsen said.

They know so much about us as individuals; its a power that extends into our personal lives.

But Larsen also noted that, despite their concentration of power, these companies could play a positive role.

Were mad at Facebook sometimes because of their attitude towards privacy, but they also allow us to connect to people, talk to people. They have also played important roles for activists, so we cant dismiss their importance either, she said.

The same stands for governments, which have the ability to spy on people or shut down the internet to quell dissent, but can also draft laws to protect at-risk communities from hate speech or to protect net neutrality.

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Reining in the power of these big tech companies, I think governments are part of that as well, especially when looking at monopolistic behaviour.

Even though the report appeared to give a bleak outlook on the future of the internet, Larsen said it is especially important to focus on the positive points, adding there are ways to combat the threats mentioned in this years study.

The silver lining is that there are ways to make things better, and that there are people and organisations that are trying to make a difference, she said.

There is so much goodness on the internet and with the internet, and that is something we can never take for granted, Landers added.

Because life without the internet is not as good as life with the internet.
Malaysia is set to hold a general election on May 9, the Elections Commission said, in what could be the toughest test of the ruling coalitions 61-year grip on power.

Embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak is under pressure to deliver an emphatic win for the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, as he struggles to appease Malaysians unhappy with rising costs and a multi-billion dollar scandal at a state fund he founded.

The 64-year-old is expected to retain power due to the BNs firm grip on Malaysias weakened institutions, and what critics claim are efforts by the government to rig the election through gerrymandering and other forms of cheating.

But he faces a tough challenge from his old mentor and the countrys most seasoned campaigner, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Announcing the poll date, which falls on a weekday, the Election Commission on Tuesday set an 11-day campaign period, shorter than the 15 days allotted for the 2013 polls.

It said 14.94 million people are eligible to vote, including 1.7 million new voters.





The combination of the election being held on a Wednesday  the first time in almost 20 years that a Malaysian election has been set for a weekday  and the shorter campaign has fueled concerns over low voter turnout.

Not only is the campaign period only the minimum 11 days, but polling day is on a Wednesday, a working day and a school day, said Bersih, an electoral reform group.

We can now expect to see even lower voter turnout and further hardship for all voters, the group said.

Unfair elections

The opposition has said previously that it expects the election to be unfair after parliament approved plans to redraw electoral boundaries and pushed through an anti-fake news bill, changes critics say will favour Najib.

The government and the Election Commission have rejected these accusations. The commission said on Tuesday it had appointed 14 international observers and 14 local observers.

Mahathir said his party was confident of a win, despite the unusual weekday polling, which meant that Malaysians abroad might not be able to return home to vote.

We think we will be able to defeat Barisan Nasional in this election, he told a news conference.

But analysts said unseating Najib will be tough.

We have democratic institutions, but we also have practices that border on authoritarianism, said Ibrahim Suffian, an analyst at the polling firm Merdeka Centre.

And the ruling party has been in power so long that theyve mastered the art of managing the competition, and working with the rules, he told Al Jazeera.

But having said that, elections are still fairly competitive.

Ultimate survival test for Najib

A strong victory is pivotal for Najib ahead of year-end party elections in his United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, the linchpin of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.

I would consider this election the ultimate test of survival for Najib, said Rashaad Ali, research analyst with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

If Najib fails to deliver a strong result, voices of dissent within UMNO will surely grow louder, making his position as leader untenable. If he does well in the election, it would be the biggest consolidation of his position, he told The Associated Press.

Najib has overseen a growing economy buoyed by a recovery in global crude oil prices and increased trade and infrastructure investment from Malaysias largest trading partner, China.

But he has been plagued by reports of alleged financial mismanagement at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), including that $681m was deposited into his personal bank account.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing in connection with 1MDB, but the scandal created a rift with Mahathir, who has become the prime ministers harshest critic.
Russian embassy congratulates daughter of Russian spy for being discharged from hospital after attack blamed on Russia.

The Russian embassy to the UK has congratulated Yulia Skripal on her recovery from a nerve agent attack that Britain and an array of Western allies blamed on Russia.

Yulia Skripal, 33, was released from hospital on Tuesday after she and her father, a former Russian double agent, were poisoned in Salisbury in southern England last month.

In a message posted on Twitter, the Russian embassy stressed the need for urgent proof that what is being done to her [Yulia] is done on her own free will.

We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

Doctor Christine Blanshard of Salisbury District Hospital said Yulia Skripal left the premises late on Monday after responding exceptionally well to treatment, adding that her father had made a slower recovery but would be discharged in due course.

Skripal herself issued a statement last Thursday in which she said her strength was growing daily.

I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received, she said.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4 following exposure to Novichok, a nerve agent.

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Britain has maintained that Russia was responsible for the attack  an allegation Russia has denied.

At a UN Security Council meeting last Thursday, Russias ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said Britain was playing with fire by blaming Moscow for the poisoning.

Many Western countries have sided with the UK by expelling Russian diplomats, prompting Russia to respond by also expelling several diplomats and their families.

Last week, a Russian proposal for a joint investigation into the poisoning was rejected in a vote at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence, was convicted of selling Russian state secrets to Britain in 2006.

Skripal arrived in the UK four years later as part of a spy swap, which resulted in four prisoners being released by Moscow.
Rival draft resolutions by the United States and Russia to set up a new expert body to probe chemical weapons attacks in Syria have both failed to pass at the United Nations Security Council.

The votes on Tuesday came amid an escalating war of words between Washington and Moscow and a looming threat of Western military action following a suspected gas attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma on Saturday.

Russia first vetoed a US-drafted text to create a mechanism that would have the authority to assign blame for chemical attacks in the war-torn country.

Twelve council members voted in favour, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting against, and China abstained.

In order to pass, a resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the five permanent members: Russia, China, France, Britain or the US.





Russia contended it could not support the US proposal because it believed that it would lead to bias, and that it was aimed at undercutting what Moscow says is the democratically elected Syrian government, said Al Jazeeras Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York.

This was the 12th time that Russia has used its veto power at the Security Council to block action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a major ally.

Later, a rival Russian bid to create a new inquiry also failed after the proposed resolution only received six votes in favour.

Seven members voted against and two abstained.

Moscow proposals had been around for a number of months now, but had never gained traction, said Hanna.

He noted that those opposing it believed that the proposed mechanism would not be independent, as its members would have been appointed by Russia, and that the body itself would not be able to apportion blame or identify perpetrators.

The Russian draft would have required investigators to report to the Security Council, which could then ascertain responsibility.

Douma attack

Syrias government and Russia have denied a chemical attack took place in Douma, but rescuers and medics said that dozens of people, including many women and children, were killed.

The US has threatened a forceful military response to the attack, while Russia has warned of grave repercussions if military action against Syria is launched.





Addressing the Security Council, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said the Washington-drafted resolution is the bare minimum that the council can do to respond to the attack.

Her Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, hit back by saying: Why do you need this mechanism when you have already appointed the guilty party before the investigation?

A third resolution, also drafted by Russia, backing the sending of investigators from the global chemical weapons watchdog agency to the site of the suspected attack in Douma also failed to pass later on Tuesday.

The UN still has nobody that can actually provide accountability for chemical attacks, said Hanna.

There is the fact-finding mission, which is able to determine whether an attack has taken place or not but does not have the mandate to apportion blame.
Speaking at a meeting in the Pentagon, Sheikh Tamim and James Mattis hailed countries strength of relations.

Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has praised the bilateral relations between Qatar and the United States and pointed out the importance of coordination between the two countries, especially in the field of combating terrorism.

Speaking at a meeting with US Defence Secretary James Mattis on Monday, the Emir hailed the strength of relations between the two countries.

We are very proud of this expanding relation, Sheikh Tamim said, speaking at the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense headquarters in Virginia.

We are working together in the face of terrorism and we are looking at ways to develop this relationship, he continued, adding that Qatar hosts more than 10,000 US soldiers at an army base.

For his part, Mattis said that Washington and Doha are discussing ways of enhancing military cooperation between the two countries.

You certainly know that we see you as a long-time military partner and friend in the region, he told Sheikh Tamim.

Mattis also stressed that Washington was seeking to cooperate with Qatar in order to achieve peace in the Middle East on several fronts, such as combating terrorism, defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), and undermining Irans activities in the region.

I look forward to building on the momentum of this meeting, where we will discuss opportunities to strengthen our cooperation in the future, Mattis said.

I want to stress here Qatars position in support of the US commitment to regional security, which includes information exchange and counterterrorism efforts.

Mattis praised Qatars hosting of the Al Udeid airbase, which he said provides key support for military operations against ISIL, in addition to backing NATO in Afghanistan.

We are very grateful to Qatars investment in the Joint Air Operations Center and its offer to expand the important facilities at the army base, he said.

The meeting was part of Sheikh Tamims official visit to the US, which began last Friday in Florida where he met a number of military and civilians officials there.

The White House earlier said that Trump would meet Sheikh Tamim on Tuesday to discuss ways to advance joint security and economic priorities between the US and Qatar.
Tensions mount as Trump warns of forceful response after suspected chemical attack in rebel-held town of Douma.

The Syrian government has put its forces on high alert amid the looming threat of a US military response following Saturdays suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town near Damascus.

US President Donald Trump has described the apparent chlorine barrel bomb attack on Douma as atrocious and pledged to respond forcefully.

Syrias government and its ally Russia have denied the chemical attack took place, but rescuers and medics said that dozens of people, including many women and children, were killed.

Trump met both his cabinet and top generals on Monday and promised major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours, in response to the attack.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump would not travel to Latin America, as planned, and would instead remain in the US to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.





Meanwhile, James Mattis, US defence secretary, did not rule out any military action against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The DPA news agency reported on Tuesday that the Syrian army had put all military positions on alert, including airports and all bases, for 72 hours.

It said the alert included all army positions and bases in the southern province of Sweida, Aleppo province, Latakia and Deir Az Zor province.

Separately, the pro-government Al Masdar news website reported that the Russian Navys Black Sea fleet had also been placed on high alert after a US warship reportedly left Cyprus for Syrian waters.

There was no official response from Russia on the announcement.

But the news comes as at least one US guided-missile destroyer set off for the coast of Syria after Trump stated the possibility of a military response.

Vladimir Shamanov, a former commander-in-chief of the Russian Airborne Troops, vowed that Russia would take all political, diplomatic and military retaliatory measures if the US carried out any attacks in Syria.

The politics of double standards have hit rock bottom. And here, the United Russia party conscientiously states that all political, diplomatic and military measures if necessary will be taken, Shamanov told a plenary meeting of the State Duma.

Similarly, the Russian foreign ministry warned against military intervention under far-fetched and fabricated pretexts.





There will be a response

The United States, France, and the UK have ramped up pressure on Syrias government by pledging strong reactions to the alleged gas attack on Douma, the last town still held by rebels in their former bastion of Eastern Ghouta.

France warned on Tuesday it would retaliate against Assad if evidence emerges that the red line of chemical weapons had been crossed in Douma.

Speaking to Europe 1 radio, French President Emmanuel Macron said intelligence shared with Trump in theory confirms the use of chemical weapons.





On Monday, US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council that Washington was ready to respond to the attack regardless of whether the Security Council acted or not.

Meanwhile, Theresa May, the British prime minister, said that the Syrian government and its backers, including Russia, must be held to account if it is found to be responsible for dropping chemical weapons on Douma residents.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned that making any deductions is wrong and dangerous, suggesting that rebels could have staged the attack themselves to pin the blame on Damascus.

Sergey Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, said Russian specialists had found no trace of a chemical attack on Douma.

The heated exchange of remarks also came after missiles struck a Syrian airbase in Homs province earlier on Monday, state media reported, with Russia and Syria blaming Israel for carrying out the attack.

Two Israeli fighter jets, using Lebanese airspace, fired eight missiles at the T-4 military airbase, the Russian military said, but offered no further information.

The attack at the airbase, located 40km west of Palmyra, killed and wounded several people, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military source.

Since February 18, the Syrian governments Ghouta offensive has killed more than 1,600 civilians.
US president welcomes Qatari emir to the White House, as months-long Gulf diplomatic crisis enters 11th month.

US President Donald Trump has praised his countrys ties with Qatar as he welcomed the Qatari emir to the White House for talks on a number of issues, including the months-long Gulf diplomatic crisis.

Speaking to reporters alongside Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Trump said on Tuesday that the US and Qatar have been great friends in so many ways and are working very well together.

We are working on unity in that part of the Middle East and I think its working out very well; there are lot of good things happening, added the US president.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain  all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Doha on June 5, 2017, and imposed a land, sea and air embargo, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Qatar, also a GCC member, has repeatedly denied the allegations.

I had great talks with President Trump. We discussed strategic and regional issues including the grave situation in Syria, and as for the GCC rift, we both agreed it should be resolved by dialogue as its doing unnecessary harm and impeding the fight against terrorism. pic.twitter.com/UtnzDbGb2o     (@TamimBinHamad) April 10, 2018

For his part, Sheikh Tamim hailed Trumps role in trying to find a solution to the ongoing Gulf rift.

I would like to thank the president for him being involved personally in solving the GCC crisis, said Al-Thani.

Hes been very helpful, hes been supporting us during this blockade and I would also like to thank the American people for being very supportive.

And his [Trumps] role is very vital to end this crisis in our region, Sheikh Tamim added.

The two leaders also discussed the Syria war and Qatars role in combatting groups that sponsor terrorism.

We do not and we will not tolerate people who fund terrorism, said Sheikh Tamim, adding that the two countries were cooperating to stop funding terrorism around the region.





Sheikh Tamim and Trump last met in September 2017 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Washington, DC, said Tuesdays meeting was crucial for both leaders.

Its an opportunity for the emir of Qatar to press ahead for the immediate end to this crisis, he said

The White House meeting comes after Sheikh Tamim met US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Monday and hailed the strength of relations between the two countries.

We are very proud of this expanding relation, Sheikh Tamim said, speaking at the Pentagon.

We are working together in the face of terrorism and we are looking at ways to develop this relationship, he continued.

Qatar is a long-standing military ally of the US and host to the largest US airbase in the Middle East.

The US has approved a $300m sale of guided missiles to Qatar.

Crucial meeting

Trump has offered to play a mediating role in trying to find a diplomatic solution to the GCC crisis, and some analysts believe that the US attitude towards Doha has changed in recent months, with a dramatic shift in recognising Qatar as a major ally.

There is more trust in Qatar as an ally, and the position of the US administration is much more in favour of the Qatari position in the crisis, said Majed al-Ansari, professor of political science at Qatar University.

But there are also concerns that the US failure to solve the crisis could increase regional instability.

What we have seen so far is that the crisis has brought in external actors such as Russia, Turkey and Iran into the region, which makes it even more dangerous because the instability there would increase if the US is perceived to lose influence and unable to solve the crisis within the GCC itself, said Sigurd Neubauer, Middle East analyst.

A meeting between Gulf leaders was scheduled in the US for next month, but it is now expected to take place later this year.
Somalia said on Sunday it had seized almost $10m from a Royal Jet aeroplane that arrived at Mogadishu airport.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has denounced the seizure of what it described as a civilian aircraft carrying nearly $10m by Somali authorities at Mogadishu airport.

The government of Somalia said on Sunday it had seized several bags of money containing $9.6m in cash from a plane arriving from the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

According to a statement carried on Tuesday by WAM, the UAE state news agency, the sum was intended to support the Somali military and trainees.

Money allocated to support the Somali army and trainees was seized at gunpoint by Somali security personnel, who disrespected some members of the UAE forces, it said.

The money was found in three unmarked bags on a Royal Jet plane, according to the Somali interior ministry, and its seizure resulted in an hours-long standoff between airport officials and UAE embassy staff in Mogadishu.

Royal Jet is an airline based in Abu Dhabi, servicing the luxury market between the UAE and Europe.

The seized money is worth $9.6m. Security agencies are currently investigating where the money came from, where it was going, the individuals involved and the reason for bringing money worth this amount into the country, Somalias interior ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.

Relations between Somalia and the UAE have been frosty since June last year.

Mogadishu resisted Emirati and Saudi pressure to cut ties with Qatar following a dispute between the Gulf neighbours. Somalia said it was neutral in the Gulf diplomatic rift.

Last month, Abu Dhabi agreed to train security forces in Somaliland  a region in northern Somalia seeking to secede from the country. The UAE has also signed with Somaliland a 30-year concession to manage Berbera Port in the semi-autonomous region. It has also started building a military base in the port city.

Somalia dismissed the agreement between Abu Dhabi and the northern Somali region as non-existent, null and void and called on the United Nations to take action.

Speaking at the UN Security Council last month, Abukar Osman, Somalias ambassador to the UN, said the agreement between Somaliland and the UAE to establish the base in Berbera is a clear violation of international law.

Osman called on the Security Council to take the necessary steps to put an end to these actions.

The Federal Government of Somalia strongly condemns these blatant violations, and reaffirms that it will take the necessary measures deriving from its primary responsibility to defend the inviolability of the sovereignty and the unity of Somalia, he said.
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In the age before cable, there was an iconic sci-fi program called The Outer Limits whose opening featured a series of test patterns; flickering screens; and a narrator who solemnly intoned, "Do not attempt to adjust your television set. We will control all that you see and hear." Today, that is a chilling reality as social media giant Facebook censors what fans of social media icons Diamond and Silk, aka Lynette Hardaway and her sister Rochelle Richardson, see and hear from this dynamic pair of black conservative women on Facebook.

Racism is a term too easily bandied about these days, particularly by social progressives seeking to silence conservative thought and opinion which they deemed inherently racist in their chants of "white privilege." Yet it is precisely the term liberals would use if, say, Michelle Obama or the likes of Maxine Waters were treated this way, their words censored because they were deemed "unsafe" to the community." Indeed, Diamond and Silk themselves haVE raised the possibility that racism might be afoot here:

You are talking about two people here when you say Diamond and Silk. We are the brand. So, when you say things like we are 'not safe' for the community what are you trying to say? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to demonize us into something? Are you stereotyping us? What are you trying to do here? Because this doesn't feel right. This here feels like racism. The left always cries racism. I see racism right here.

The lamestream media, which now can be said to include Facebook and Twitter, which routinely "shadowbans" conservatives, restricting what they can say and who gets to hear it, treat black conservatives like unicorns, mythical creatures that can't possibly exist. Black conservative women are invisible to those who constantly claim that Republicans are racist and sexist.

The reason for censorship of these two black conservative Trump-supporting women should be the first question Mark Zuckerberg gets asked when he testifies before Congress. As bad as the selling of our personal data is, Zuckerberg's selling out of the First Amendment is more of a threat to our democracy than any amount of ads he sold to Russians during the 2016 election cycle.

Diamond and Silk have their own list of questions for Zuckerberg, which they included in a post asking for some explanation for their being censored and their posts being restricted: On Friday, Diamond and Silk posted on their Facebook page that the social media platform labeled their content "unsafe to the community." "Diamond And Silk have been corresponding since September 7, 2017, with Facebook (owned by Mark Zuckerberg), about their bias censorship and discrimination against D&S brand page," they wrote. "Finally after several emails, chats, phone calls, appeals, beating around the bush, lies, and giving us the run around, Facebook gave us another bogus reason why Millions of people who have liked and/or followed our page no longer receives notification and why our page, post and video reach was reduced by a very large percentage." "Here is the reply from Facebook. Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:40 PM: 'The Policy team has came to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community.'" ... 1. What is unsafe about two Blk-women supporting the President Donald J. Trump? 2. Our FB page has been created since December 2014, when exactly did the content and the brand become unsafe to the community? 3. When you say "community" are you referring to the Millions who liked and followed our page? 4. What content on our page was in violation? 5. If our content and brand was so unsafe to the community, why is the option for us to boost our content and spend money with FB to enhance our brand page still available? Maybe FB should give us a refund since FB censored our reach. 6. Lastly, didn't FB violate their own policy when FB stopped sending notifications to the Millions of people who liked and followed our brand page?

Okay, Kamala Harris and Maxine Waters, let's see you rise to the defense of these two black women. Oh, but wait...they're not supporters of Hillary Clinton. They want to re-elect and not impeach 45. They are not yelling "fire" in the crowded theater. Rather, they are shouting truth in a world of deception; lies; and, yes, fake news. They are exploding the stereotypes imposed on black conservatives and black conservative women by those who say they compose stereotypes.

What exactly does being "unsafe to the community" mean? Have Diamond and Silk jeopardized the safe spaces liberal like to hide in when confronted with ideas that threaten their groupthink? Is Zuckerberg trying to transform Facebook into one big safe space for liberals? If so, he should say so, not pass of Facebook as a forum for the free exchange of ideas.

Yes, it is his sandbox we play in, but it is our sandbox, too. Time was when the gatekeepers of three major TV networks and two major national newspapers sought to control what we see and hear. Then cable news and social media showed us the men behind the curtain and shattered their monopoly on news and information. But then, as people became more reliant on social media for news and information, liberals like Zuckerberg saw an opening, a means to re-impose their control of what many see and hear.

Zuckerberg needs to answer their questions:

They posed several questions to Facebook management, including, "What is unsafe about two Blk-women supporting the President Donald J. Trump?" ... What is the objection? What is it about them exactly that makes them "unsafe" to the "community"? "They gave us no rationale," said Richardson on Fox and Friends Sunday morning. "The only thing they told us was that it was unsafe for the community," she said. "We are two women of color," she added, pointing out that she and her sister "don't sell drugs" or belong to a gang. "It's offensive, it's appalling!" Richardson exclaimed. She posed a question for Facebook. "Why are you censoring two women of color  two black women?" she asked. "Why are you not allowing our ... followers and likes to view our content because YOU deem it unsafe and you can't even give us an explanation as to why?"

Selling our private information is a threat to our privacy. Censoring the free flow of information is a threat to our democracy. The Russians aren't interfering in our democracy. Mark Zuckerberg is.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
For the past few weeks, Puerto Rico has been subjected to a multitude of actions by our political class and the oversight board related to the handling of our current debt and fiscal crisis that would make left-wingers such as Nicolas Maduro proud. The actions being undertaken are a response to the current policy clash between the government of Ricardo Rossello and the Fiscal and Oversight Management Board about the host of fiscal plans to be adopted by the commonwealth. As the island heads to its next fiscal year, and the island is still recovering from the disaster of Hurricane Maria, the actions undertaken raise an important question. Does the obvious problem in governance in the commonwealth require an extreme action like repealing Law 600 and Congress imposing direct rule?

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico currently is indirectly ruled by Congress. The 114th Congress approved the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, better known as PROMESA, which imposed an unelected seven-member panel to oversee the adoption of a fiscal plan that returns the government of Puerto Rico to fiscal health. However, the vision of PROMESA acting as the legal remedy for the crisis has been dampened by events  delays in adopting a credible and reliable fiscal plan, the continued legal fights in the courts, and the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Many believed that the Oversight Board would bring transparency and trust to actions related to Puerto Rico's fiscal and debt problems. However, the board is thinking of approving a fiscal plan without a reliable baseline, such as the lack of audited financials since fiscal year 2015. The board also has continued its practice of no transparency, withholding important documents and information from the public at large, particularly regarding to the crafting of the commonwealth fiscal plan. Board actions such as not negotiating with bondholders in good faith, taking most of the government entities through bankruptcy procedures, and its refusal to include more debt service in the new fiscal plan have damaged the trust that Congress, bondholders, the private sector, and many in Puerto Rico had in the board.

While criticisms of the indirect rule of the board are long and continuing, the actions of the government of Puerto Rico, particularly under the administrations of Alejandro Garcia Padilla and Ricardo Rossello, is the most worrying.

The default position of the government of Puerto Rico during this crisis has been its outright refusal to pay or even negotiate with bondholders. Gov. Padilla's famous words of dismissal to rating agencies  "me vale"  set the tone. The current Rossello administration came to power promising to bring the island to fiscal health and pay bondholders. But words and actions, particularly those of last week, once again showed the world and Congress that this is not the case.

Last week in the Senate of Puerto Rico, members of all political parties voted unanimously, 25-0, to end commonwealth funding to the oversight board. This vote clearly violates Sec. 107 (b) of PROMESA. Whether it passes the House and gets signed by the governor is another story. But do the politicians who voted for this understand the possible consequences? If this bill becomes law, the board will surely go to court and probably will win. Will Puerto Rico then refuse to release the funding? Will Puerto Rican politicians risk the court taking over state bank accounts? No more money for the board means no money for the bankruptcy Title III proceedings keeping the island government operational.

This cheap political action has been the standard ever since Congress approved Law 600, allowing Puerto Rico to adopt a constitution for self-government. Indeed, one might argue that allowing Puerto Rico more autonomy indirectly permitted the indebtedness and questionable policies that led to the crisis we are in at this moment. Moreover, with the fiscal board adopting actions right from the island playbook, like refusing to pay and lack of financial transparency, there is a complete breakdown in direct local and indirect federal governance in the island.

Last week, a friend who is a liberal arts college professor on the island, in response to my tweet arguing for congressional direct rule, wrote to me that he made the same argument to his students. The majority of liberal arts students are left-wingers, and he told me nobody said a word in response, knowing full well what his argument meant. Frustration has set into the minds and hearts of every Puerto Rican to the extent that such an argument solicits no response even from the most ardent left-wingers in college.

In the ancient Roman republic, in times of crisis, the Roman Senate took the extraordinary step of appointing a temporary Praetor Maximus, or dictator. Maybe, in this continued chronic failure of governance, an equivalent action is needed for the enchanted island.

Ojel L. Rodriguez, AKC (@ojelrodriguez) is a freelance writer and graduate from King's College London.
College continues to get more interesting. One young man who missed 15 out of 28 days of school explains that he and "his ex-girlfriend just had a baby." When asked who would take care of the baby, the boy (also a product of a single-mother household) said his mother and the girl's mother needed to work this out. Although he admitted that his girlfriend had used birth control for two years, by the "third year, it didn't seem that necessary." While he was happy about the baby, the young man also explained that he wasn't even sure the baby is his, so he was scheduled to have a DNA test soon.

Nothing like common sense, fidelity, and future planning!

But did you know that in the inverted world of education today, if a student has a baby, then more financial aid is available? Indeed! Consequently, students are being told by their college advisers that they should get pregnant. Even some of the students are appalled at this suggestion. But then there are those who proclaim that "the money comes from the government," implying that it is not really problematic. Deliberately unschooled in how things actually work, and already the recipients of financial assistance, these students see government as the ultimate security blanket. There is no connection to the idea that government comprises taxpayers.

What a wonderful idea  to have a money tree somewhere pumping out financial aid ad infinitum!

Should we be surprised, given what has been documented in the booklet titled "Leftist Indoctrination in Our K-12 Public Schools" by Sara Dogan and Peter Collier? In Edina, Minnesota, the Highlands Elementary School students write poems that link "the anti-police and racially divisive Black Lives Matter movement with peace." The principal reproduced Black Lives Matter's own website, which states that its members "are committed to disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and villages."

Then there is the book titled A is for Activist, which features "C is for Creative Counter to Corporate Vultures, E is for environmental justice, T is for Trans. X is for Malcolm. As in Malcolm X." It is billed as an "ABC board book written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives[.]"

In Ithaca, New York, the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School students sat through a presentation featuring Bassem Tamimi, who videos his own children sharing a message that "we [Palestinians] don't like that Israel kill [sic] us, kill Gaza, kill Palestinian[.]" Actual facts be damned.

Moreover, "beginning in kindergarten, students will be taught about the many ways to express gender. Gender expression education will include information about the manifestations of traits that are typically associated with one gender. Fourth graders will be expected to 'define sexual orientation' and taught that they can choose their own."

Reading, writing, and 'rithmetic that used to produce coherence and clarity  not so much.

Cell phones are now the bane of any instructor. Even when an instructor politely asks, "John, are you checking a word in the phone's dictionary?" hoping the student will be ashamed at being caught texting and might, therefore, put the phone away, it makes no difference. But rest assured when they do poorly, they beg for extra credit and trot out an unfounded "racist" charge in order to intimidate a teacher.

Instructors who believe that education is about teaching students how to think, not what to think, are bewildered, dismayed, and disheartened. They are bombarded with surveys about student engagement and performance as well as mid-semester grading reports. Is it not absurd that progress reports are issued to college students? Can't they figure out their own averages without it being documented on a computer program?

What a silly question  we need to infantilize the college student as much as possible. Businesses complain that their biggest issue with the workforce is that they cannot find people who have the job skills necessary to do the work  oh, you mean like being responsible, coming on time, taking the initiative, asking appropriate questions, and following guidelines and rules?

Many of these young people are actually quite pleasant, but individual responsibility and future planning are not high on their list of critical attributes. While they do work an excessive number of hours at jobs in order to pay for school and books, they do not actually have a sense of where they are going. Many of them are exceptionally thin-skinned and take offense at the slightest thing  either misunderstanding what is taught, because they have never learned or cannot fathom the art of nuance or inference  or they are just plain mad at the world. Directions are repeatedly ignored, and when this is pointed out, a frustrated and angry student asserts, "If I come out of character, you are not going to like it" to a college instructor.

Furthermore, students simply cannot comprehend what plagiarism entails. But why should they? They have never been taught to understand that articles come from journals or magazines, not the cell phone. They do not know where to find the New York Times magazine section because they have never actually held a print copy of a newspaper.

They do not know what "ISBN" stands for. They cannot decipher what a volume or issue number refers to. They don't understand what publishers do or what an anthology is. So explaining that a Works Cited page needs to be accompanied by parenthetical citations within the text is actually a foreign concept, no matter how many times it is taught. But white privilege  and Islamophobia are what they are being force-fed.

On the one hand, we have the articulate but misguided David Hoggs of the world. On the other hand, we have the less fortunate in the acquisition-of-ideas department who sit in a classroom dazed and frustrated and who assert that "for any child and even adults, school is a burden, a death sentence which we want to avoid as much as possible. Though college is guaranteeing me a better future, I hate it more than anything."

Happily, people like Mike Rowe offer alternatives to college, and it would best serve those decent young people to go the vocational route, but only if they are "ready to work smart and hard."

And charter schools, while understandably offering an alternative, are not the panacea. It should be remembered that some of the greatest minds of the last century were educated in New York City public schools. Success was evident because educators had not yet become the tool by which leftists could literally dumb down young minds.

It is child abuse, and it is totally preventable. Get the left-wing indoctrination irrevocably removed. Go back to phonics. Eliminate such useless ideas as "whole language" and "flip teaching" where homework is done in school and vice versa. Teach grammar so that one does not have to wade through alleged sentences such as "On their own, people would be forced to live based merely on their own subjective perspectives leaving them bound to repeat mistakes they have overlooked and never develop into the best versions of the [sic] themselfs [sic] as a result."

It will be a disservice to the young people, to the educators who truly want to bring out the best in their students, and to the country at large if a major sea change does not occur in the field of education. And it cannot take another generation to get started. By then, it will be much too late. We are already at the precipice.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.
Harriet Hageman, running for governor of Wyoming, began learning to drive when she was four years old. She would steer the family pickup across open ranchland, avoiding holes, bumps, and ditches, while her dad stood in the back, throwing out bales of hay for the cattle.

Hageman grew up differently from how most Americans did. Her childhood had more freedom, more responsibility, and more hard work. It harks back to an earlier century. These are real Wyoming credentials. They are also values the country needs, and needs badly.

Hageman's belt is notched with victories fighting the feds on behalf of the little guy. As a land and water rights lawyer going up against EPA and Forest Service overreach, she won precedent-setting victories for embattled ranchers, farmers, and businesses, protecting their rights over their own private property. Now she is aiming for political victory as a principled conservative going up against overspending and overregulation.

Wyoming is a peculiar state. It is one of the largest states in the nation, the emptiest and most wild  and most regulated. Half the state is owned by the federal government  Forest Service, BLM, and national parks. Mining and ranching, the mainstays of the economy, require federal permission of some kind for much of what they do.

Wyoming is the kind of flyover country the elites ignore but couldn't survive without. It is one of the top ten states crucial for our national prosperity. Wyoming is our number-two energy powerhouse, right behind Texas. It produces more coal than the next six coal-mining states combined. Wyoming's Powder River Basin is one of the greatest coal fields in the world, but Americans have never heard of it. If Wyoming stopped producing coal, natural gas, and uranium, 30 states would go dark.

America needs Wyoming's voice. It needs to hear from Wyoming on energy, on how to win free from federal overregulation, on Wyoming's lived principles of helping neighbors and taking care of one's own family. America needs more of Wyoming's old-fashioned individualism. Hageman has the potential to be that voice on the national stage.

Her message is based on solid underpinnings from the life she has lived. She knows that less control and more freedom and responsibility are as necessary to good government as they are to a good life. These Wyoming values are central to every person in her audience.

I heard Harriet give her pitch last summer, before it was official, and came away excited that the Republican Party was about to get another spine implant from a political outsider.

Hageman is smart  really smart, not ordinary smart. Even more important, she is a fighter. When she stood up to the EPA, she won by going on offense instead of defense. She was famous for her unconventional warfare  surprise attacks on the shadow government of left-wing environmental groups. She forced them to play by the rules, and she won her cases.

Hageman is exceptionally tough and hardworking, evidence of her ranch childhood. Since announcing she is running for governor, she has been a human dynamo across the state, talking to pillars of the community, to miners and ranchers, to small businessmen who need capital to grow, to people with problems they want her to know about  problems with health insurance, elderly parents, addiction, education, jobs  problems that existing government programs are just making worse.

While she has not run for office before, Harriet is not exactly a political neophyte. Her father served for 24 years in the state legislature, and as a water and land rights lawyer, she has advised and won cases for individuals, cities, and counties across the state. Everywhere she goes on the campaign trail, she is known and appreciated.

Hageman is an attractive woman with a million-watt smile, with a signature look of stunning Indian jewelry. She is not self-conscious about being a powerful personality or having a brilliant mind  her focus is on the job to be done. She expects her audience to share this attitude of rolling up your sleeves to get down to the hard work of drilling into the problems before us.

This approach was lighting up the audience the evening I heard her speak. Hageman was racing through a 61-slide presentation packed with hard-hitting statistics, as she lectured on what she calls "Regulation without Representation." The audience was nodding and at times groaning or laughing out loud.

You can easily see her as a formidable opponent. You wouldn't guess Hageman grew up outside a town of 350 people a hundred miles north of Cheyenne. Her family met the normal challenges of ranch life  a mountain lion killing stock, her father bucked off his horse and breaking his back. In other ways, her family was exceptional. Hageman tells me:

[My parents] sent all six of their children to college, they adopted or took legal guardianship of three other children, and they took in over 40 foster children over a 25-year period. They believed in public service and instilled their beliefs in all of us. I'm eternally hopeful and optimistic. We can solve these problems if Wyoming can pull our constitutional rights back from the feds to control our own destiny. My message  why launder money through D.C. when we can improve things right here at home for our own citizens? Washington does not have Wyoming citizens' interests in mind. If we could keep even 30% of the money Washington takes from our state in taxes and fees, we could do a better job than the feds. We have to get away from a central planning model.

It remains an open question if Hageman is savvy enough to learn how to play and win in the dirty arena of politics. She's good at fighting bad laws and bad government in the courts. Can she put across a compelling message of what to fight for? If the answer proves yes, Wyoming could end up with a great conservative governor, and America with a new political leader.

The Republican field for governor of Wyoming is wide open at the moment. No one is blocking Hageman's way to the statehouse. This is one to keep an eye on.
1. Yes. The district should offer a virtual learning option, even in a modified format.

2. Yes. The bill limits the number of students who use it, but it does provide state funds.

3. No. Its too late in the year for the district to try to rework its teaching platforms.

4. No. The bill only allows 10% of students to access it, and also has other restrictions.

5. Unsure. It seems like a half-measure, but it may be worth pursuing.

Vote

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Early Monday morning, it became clear that the Associated Press had made a significant mistake in an article that, upon close examination, is hard to see as anything other than another example of the Fake News phenomenon that has come to characterize much MSM reporting of late.

The AP's original article, without an author byline, was titled "Fox News mistakenly posts graphic showing it lags in trust." (A cached version of the original AP article as published by the Chicago Tribune is currently here.) The story consisted of only five short paragraphs. It focused on a moment during the weekly news analysis program Media Buzz on the Fox News Channel on Sunday, during which the host, Howard Kurtz, was discussing fake news with his guest, pollster Frank Luntz. At one point early in the segment, a graphic came on the screen showing the results of a Monmouth University opinion poll that claimed that Fox News is the least trusted of the three major cable news channels. When the graphic appeared on screen, Kurtz quickly said, presumably addressing the control room, "That is not the graphic we are looking for. Hold off. Take that down, please."

The AP story ended there. The implication was that the wrong graphic  an embarrassment to Fox News  was inadvertently shown, at which point Kurtz ordered it to be taken down. The story failed to mention that the same graphic was shown again less than one minute later as Kurtz's discussion with Luntz evolved. The truth was that the graphic had not been suppressed at all.



Screen shot of the second use of the graphic on Media Buzz that the AP story implied had been pulled from the show at Kurtz's request.

Here is the entire segment, with the graphic appearing at the wrong moment and then being fully shown, via Grabien:

Mediaite's story about this event, titled "Howard Kurtz Torches the Associated Press For 'Dishonest Piece' on Fox News Graphic," also includes video of the segment of Sunday's Media Buzz.

At 10:34 A.M. EDT on Monday morning, Kurtz tweeted that moments earlier on his Facebook account he had "just called for the AP to issue a correction for an embarrassingly distorted story about my program, compounded by a failure to ask for comment." Kurtz's Facebook post is titled "A JOURNALISTIC DISTORTION" (emphasis original):

The Associated Press should be embarrassed by a story that utterly distorts what happened yesterday on my program "Media Buzz." And its dishonest piece was made worse by the fact that the wire service didn't bother to contact me or Fox News for comment.

Kurtz went on from there at some length to detail the abuse he believed he and his program had been subjected to by the AP, and at the end, he requested a "correction" from the news service.

At 12:23 P.M. EDT, Kurtz added an update to his tweet that the AP had run a correction.

For close observers, however, the story does not quite end there, as some serious questions remain. The "corrected" story, which replaced the original one, as it was posted at U.S. News, among hundreds or thousands of other AP client publications, was retitled "Fox News Host: Graphic Posted at Wrong Point of Show." The article was completely rewritten and it said at the end:

The Associated Press earlier reported that Kurtz ordered the graphic be taken down, but did not note that it was used again. This story has been corrected to show that the graphic was taken down because it was used during the wrong segment, and was used again on the show.

This turn of events is strange, however, because the premise of the now exposed as false story that the original AP article was based on had, by late Monday morning, totally evaporated. Would a TV news program's minor production error, on a channel other than Fox News, involving a graphic having been "posted at wrong point of show," merit a story by the AP in the first place? That is extremely doubtful. So why didn't the AP just retract its first article and issue an apology for its error  rather than sticking with an article, albeit one that was retitled and rewritten, that was not news? It's a good question that so far remains unanswered.



Howard Kurtz on Media Buzz, April 8, 2018.

As a footnote, on Monday at 1 P.M. EDT, a search at Google dot com for the AP article using its original title, which linked to the revised version of it at most major MSM sources, maintained as its cached version the original incorrect article.

The Associated Press, founded in 1846, is the largest news agency in the United States. It was formerly known as a wire service, having started in the era of the telegraph. Its stories are distributed widely to media outlets in the United States and around the world. At its website, the AP defines its "News Values and Principles":

We are The Associated Press. We have a long-standing role setting the industry standard for ethics in journalism. It is our job  more than ever before  to report the news accurately and honestly.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.
The virulence and inflexibility of illegal immigration activists and their Democratic Party allies, as well as their refusal to answer the simple question of whether the U.S. should have any borders or say-so on who gets into the country, does come across as an...ideology.

This is why a seminal essay on the matter by Victor Davis Hanson, who is close to ground zero of what illegal immigration actually means in Central California, is so well worth reading.

Hanson shows the scope in his opener:

Illegal immigration has become so deeply embedded for so long within contemporary power politics, demography, and cultural change, so charged with accusations of racism, nativism, and xenophobia, that we have forgotten its intrinsic contradictions. We saw a glimpse of reality with the recent "caravan" of Central Americans. With a strong wink and nod from their Mexican hosts, the travelers assumed an intrinsic right to march northward into the United States. Had they done so, they would have confirmed the impression, advanced during the last administration, that the border is porous and that a sovereign United States and its citizenry have scant legal right to secure it.

He then elaborates on the scope and implications of this new ideological addition.



Illegal immigration activists. Credit: Fibonacci Blue via Flickr.

He's circling what the real problem is as illegals come front and center in the U.S. public debate.

He does point out that elites of Latin countries do indeed benefit from shipping millions of their least educated and least productive people to El Norte to take care of, and then benefits from their cash remittances shipped back home, turning burdensome people who are otherwise likely to revolt against them into fountains of cash.

There are other beneficiaries worth noting, and both are ominous as well.

One is the cartels and drug dealers who take migrant money to smuggle people into the U.S. for a tidy profit. The recent surge of migrants into the U.S. after an initial drop-off, noted in this Federalist piece, suggests that. Smugglers profit from illegals, and they don't like their money cut off. Make no mistake: they are playing a role in encouraging illegal immigration for profit's sake.

As Hanson notes, there are massive contradictions involved, including in this aspect of the illegal immigration transaction. How is it that someone who is supposedly fleeing gangs can go up to the gang that is supposedly bothering him, hand them $6,000 or $10,000 for the smuggling journey, and then set up shop in a Central American neighborhood brimming with more gangs and their violence? This doesn't sound like someone really serious about fleeing from gangs. Yet the gang flight argument is always used as ideological grounds for the U.S. admitting more illegals.

Here's another contradiction based on ideology. The Central American countries the biggest waves of illegals are fleeing are all officially democratic countries. These are recognized democracies, and people have the right to vote and the right to vote for change. Yet the claims from the open borders lobby are that the illegals they support are migrating north only because they are fleeing oppression? What's really going on is that these voters sell their votes for bags of beans and believe every populist promise about Bad Gringo being the source of all their poverty and ills instead of their local elites. They then vote socialists into power, dislike the result, and head to El Norte for the free stuff they had expected earlier in the home country that never materialized. It's never brought up in the press that the countries being fled from are democracies with rights to vote.

Don't think there isn't an explicitly ideological basis for that. At an illegal alien protest I attended in Murrieta, Calif., I got a chance to listen to the other side in the matter: a pro-illegal immigrant activist leader, who was an older guy covered with gang tats on his arms and who told me he had been a former Salvadoran communist guerrilla. Why was he advocating for illegal immigration to the land of the hated yanqui imperialista? He calmly explained to me that it was part of the ideology: to punish gringo by shipping millions and millions of illegal migrants to the U.S. from places the U.S. had unfairly colonized (his logic, not mine). It was to force the U.S. to atone for its errors. Hence the ease with which he supported illegal immigration.

There is an ideology from illegal immigration, and it's a multi-headed hydra of contradictions. What it isn't is one set of laws for everyone to obey. That makes it a threat to democracy, and don't think a former Salvadoran guerrilla wouldn't know what he was talking about in the matter of destroying a democracy.
A spokesman for the Iranian nuclear program claimed that, if given the go ahead by senior leadership, they could restart the process of enriching uranium in 4 days.

The threat comes as US and their European allies are working to agree on how to fix the obvious flaws in the nuclear deal negotiated by President Obama with the Iranians. There is a May deadline to recertify the deal and it is widely believed that unless substantial and meaningful changes can be made to the deal, the US will walk away from it.

The Iranian threat to "restart" their nuclear program exposes one of the biggest flaws in the deal; they never stopped in the first place.

Washington Free Beacon:

Mark Dubowitz, a nuclear expert who has advised the White House and Congress on the Iran issue, told the Free Beacon that Iran's latest enrichment threats expose critical flaws in the Iran deal that the Trump administration is seeking to address. Iran's "threats confirm that the Iranian regime never gave up on its atomic weapon ambitions," said Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think-tank. The nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, "merely hit the pause button temporarily on those aspects of Irans nuclear program that it had already perfected  and, as [Salehi's] threats underscore, could be easily restartedwhile leaving Tehran with the time and space to develop technologies that it hadn't perfected such as advanced centrifuges and missiles," Dubowitz said. "His threats reveal what many deal skeptics have long argued: unless the JCPOA is fixed, Iran has pathways to dozens of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking U.S. forces, U.S. allies, and eventually the U.S. homeland." Trump administration insiders who spoke to the Free Beacon about the matter warned that Irans threats can be backed up with action should the Islamic Republic decide to abandon the deal and buck Trump. "This is exactly what President Trump means when he says the Iran deal is the worst agreement ever negotiated," said one Republican foreign policy adviser who is close to the White House. "The Obama administration gave away the store, literally sending Iran billions and billions of dollars, but the deal left Iran with the ability to reverse their concessions in a couple of days," the source said. "We gave away too much for too little, and every day the deal stays in place Iran gets more and more benefits from sanctions relief. No wonder the president is leaning toward getting us out." Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser and expert on rogue regimes, noted that while international inspectors have had access to some of Irans nuclear sites, it has not been permitted to inspect secret sites, including underground facilities that could have continued to serve as a nuclear research hub for Iran since the deal was implemented.

The entire inspection regime was flawed from the start. In essence, there would never be any surprise inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities, and as the article mentions, there were several sites that were believed to harbor nuclear research facilities that have never been inspected at all.

Iran has been permitted to continue its improvement of centrifuges so that when they start up those machines again, they will be several times more efficient at enriching uranium. This means the window for an Iranian nuclear weapon is narrowed from several months to a matter of weeks.

The president is particularly concerned that the nuclear deal did not include any restrictions on Iran's ability to build ICBMs that could threaten the US and Europe.

In fact, there is so much wrong with this deal and so many areas that the US would like to see revisions that it is highly unlikely Iran will agreee to most of the changes being contemplated.

That means the deal is likely dead. No doubt, our European allies will find an excuse not to do anything about Iran restarting its nuclear program. Obama's famous line about sanctions "snapping back" in place if Iran violated the agreement is a pipe dream. Russia and China will never allow the UN Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran and our allies are too busy trying to make money in Iran to care.

It's too late to take back the tens of billions of dollars Iran received as part of the deal and used to fund terrorism and rebuild its military. But we can prevent them from getting any more of that cash and that might be worth scuttling the nuclear deal in its entirety.
You can judge for yourself by watching the two-and-a-half-minute video below of President Trump responding to the news of the raid on his lawyer, Michael Cohen, but I saw a man deeply angered but fully in control of himself. Given his tendency to shoot from the hip and employ colorful language, many people have worried about the wisdom of his speaking with Special Counsel Mueller. Those concerns probably now can be set aside, as the likelihood of cooperation is gone down to near zero. Attorney Cohen cooperated fully with the special counsel inquiry, and it got him a no-knock raid on his office, his home, and the hotel room where he was staying with his family while the apartment was being renovated.

I am almost certain that the president's legal team will be seeking to remove the confidential files from the FBI's custody and put them in the hands of a federal magistrate to determine what is and is not protected. The FBI's integrity, alas, is questionable.

See what you think about the president's words yesterday:

Rush transcript via Grabien:
See also: Mueller, FBI, DOJ go thermonuclear in efforts to bring down Trump; The raid on Trump's lawyer: The pretext

In the absence of any public statements from Robert Mueller's team or the FBI or DOJ  just leaks to pet media outlets  we can only speculate as to the motives for a thermonuclear escalation of tactics being used against President Trump in the effort to reverse the presidential election of 2016. They have extended the fishing expedition to include seizure of protected communications between the president and his lawyers, now in the hands of the FBI, the same agency that has been stonewalling congressional investigation into its behavior in launching the surveillance of the Trump campaign on charges of collusion with Russia. It should be noted that no evidence whatsoever of such collusion has been developed and made public, which has to be a deep embarrassment at a minimum.

Update: President Trump was negotiating conditions for his interview with the special counsel that were restrictive as to what could be asked. Perhaps Mueller determined that it was unlikely to be productive. This raid now virtually precludes such an interview being agreed to. This will enable Mueller to seek a grand jury subpoena, which would lead to free questioning of the president with no counsel present. Trump can be expected to decline to honor such a subpoena, which would set off a constitutional crisis and help along the impeachment movement.



Michael Cohen.

Now the FBI that is embarrassed and potentially criminally liable for its behavior in the FISA warrant application has free rein to examine the private and legally protected communications between Trump and his lawyer and to fish for further lines of inquiry, even if legally constrained from using evidence that is legally protected. The president and the public are supposed to trust that a separate group of FBI agents specially trained in examining protected attorney-client communications will fully safeguard the interests of the president and his counsel.

"Trust us," the FBI says, even as its stonewalls congressional inquiries into its own potentially criminal behavior investigating the president.

Timing is everything here. The long awaited DOJ inspector general's report is coming any day now. We don't know what it will say, but in all likelihood, it will move the national conversation in a direction unfriendly to the interests of the Deep State.

A friend who lives in a wealthy suburban New York neighborhood deeply hostile to Trump emails a telling vignette on the public being targeted by this raid:

I was sitting at the train station watching CNN with people declaring even the Republican Congress has to consider impeachment at this point, blah, blah, blah. The one thing I would think is that anything found re Trump can't be used against him because of attorney-client privilege but that doesn't mean they won't make it public and destroy him that way. If only leftists cheering this on understood what it means more broadly.

There is an election in four-plus months, in which control of the House of Representatives and the Senate is at stake. Even if the evidence developed out of the raid is thrown out of court in any resulting prosecution, that is irrelevant. What is important is the ammunition to be developed and leaked to pet media outlets that can be used to sway voters to elect an impeachment Congress.

My strong suspicion is that, having failed to find anything related to his mandate, Robert Mueller is baiting the president to fire him. By stepping over the line and fishing for evidence in confidential and privileged attorney-client relations, he is misbehaving, but doing so through a cut-out, the U.S. attorney in New York. He wants the firestorm that would result to push control of Congress into Democrat hands.
Donald Trump is seriously considering a military response to the poison gas attack on civilians in Douma and has pledged "forceful" action against Syrian president and "animal" Assad.

Reuters:

The United States is weighing a multinational military response to the suspected Syrian poison gas attack, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, as experts listed several key facilities that could be viable targets. U.S. President Donald Trump promised forceful action on Monday, saying a decision would be made soon following the suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday in the Syrian city of Douma that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others. ... U.S. intelligence officials said they believed a chemical attack did take place but that Washington was still gathering information. Trump said he was getting clarity about who precisely was responsible for the attack, but did not elaborate. Experts speculated that the retaliatory strikes, should they happen, would likely focus on facilities linked to past reports of Syrian chemical weapons attacks.

Last April, the U.S. launched a missile strike against a Syrian air base where it was believed that a poison gas attack on civilians originated. This response, if there is one, is shaping up to be much more devastating.

Sebastian Gorka, Trump's former national security adviser, appeared on Hannity's show last night and said the U.S. must respond in order to deter all states in the region from using chemical weapons on civilians.

Will a military strike really deter anyone from using poison gas on civilians? Conventional wisdom says yes. But the dynamics in the region are so complex that, apart from the cathartic release of hitting an evil bully like Assad, we have to ask what good it will do.

It won't help civilians still trapped in rebel-held areas. It certainly won't help the rebels looking to overthrow Assad. They are already defeated and can only annoy Assad and his Russian-Iranian allies. It won't help regional stability, and it won't help Israel, nor will it help our Arab allies who worry about Iran gaining strength and influence in Syria.

Gorka has a point about not letting Syria get away with gassing its own people  if, indeed, it was Assad who ordered the attack. But even a coordinated, international response to the gas attack will amount to little more than a pinprick. President Assad has Vladimir Putin in his corner, which means there is little likelihood of a large-scale attack that would severely damage Assad's military. Putin is Assad's regime change guarantee  even if that were our goal in striking Syria, which it's not going to be.

Trump is already frustrated with Syria. He will probably be a lot more frustrated after an attack on Assad.
As a committed free trader who knows both the benefits of free trade and the dangers of the absence of free trade, I'm impressed. Far from being a protectionist, President Trump is effectively creating conditions for more free trade.

It's a possibility that's been rather ignored by the shuddery markets that have been tumbling on fears of a trade war. The Chinese, in fact, are caving in to our president's demands that they open their economy. Contrary to the statements of Chinese business leaders (who need to please President Xi Jinping or else), Trump's threatened tariffs are going to hurt China more than they hurt the U.S., and China is acting. Never seen a U.S. president accomplish this, and the effect could be revolutionary.

Here's what the Chinese had to say about it:

Mr. Xi highlighted areas where China was willing to give, including pledging to ease restrictions on imported cars by the end of the year as well as repeating open-ended promises to give foreigners greater access to the country's financial markets  promises officials have made in [the] past. He also pledged to strengthen intellectual property rights, addressing one of Mr. Trump's main complaints. His comments struck a tonal contrast with the more combative language coming from Mr. Trump and his administration. "We should respect each other's core interest and major concerns and follow a new approach to state-to-state relations, featuring dialogue rather than confrontation," he said. "We live in a time with an overwhelming trend toward openness and connectivity."

I have been very concerned about the Chinese capacity for retaliatory tariffs targeted at rural areas in the U.S. in response to President Trump's 1,600 proposed tariffs on Chinese exports in the next 60 days. But the news that other foreign buyers are snapping up U.S. agricultural products in place of China is pretty well getting the point home that it's the Chinese who are getting more of the stick.

Meanwhile, on the China side, it's obvious that its economy has its vulnerabilities, and China has quickly announced tariff cuts on U.S. auto imports. With Xi taking the step to become dictator for life, it's not a sign of things going well.

The New York Times worries that China may be all talk and no action on these pledges to reform. Maybe. But with fear the motivator and the Chinese not wanting to tangle with Trump, they may follow through on a lot. The key here is whether Trump will keep the pressure on. Anyone want to bet he won't?
Was the chlorine gas attack on civilians in Douma a false flag operation by rebels to draw the U.S. into the Syrian civil war?

On his show last night, Tucker Carlson raised that possibility:

CARLSON: Trump has to take action in Syria. Everyone nods sagely that ought to make you nervous. Universal bipartisan agreement on anything is usually the first sign that something deeply unwise is about to happen. If only because there is nobody left to ask skeptical questions. And we should be skeptical of this. Starting with the poison gas attack itself. All the geniuses tell us that Assad killed those children, but do they really know that? Of course they dont really know that they are making it up. They have no real idea what happened. Actually, both sides in the Syrian civil war possess chemical weapons. How would it benefit Assad using chlorine gas last weekend? Well it, wouldnt. Assads forces have been winning the war in Syria. The administration just announced its plans to pull American troops out of Syria. Having vanquished ISIS. Thats good news for Assad. And about the only thing he could do to reverse it and hurt himself would be to use poison gas against children. Well, did he it anyway, they tell us. Is he that evil. Please. Keep in mind this is the same story they told us last April. Do you remember that? It was almost exactly a year ago. The new administration announced it was no longer seeking to depose Assad from power. Regime change was no longer our policy. The usual war chorus in Washington starting yelping and he used sarin gas. There was video. We bombed a Syrian air base in response to that. At the time this show asked the obvious question are we really sure Assad did that seems weirdly timed and counter productive to him. Shut up, they explained of course we are sure. What an unpatriotic question. But, of course, they were lying two. Months ago the secretary of defense admitted that actually we still have no proof that Assad used use sarin gas.

Tucker is right to be skeptical. Indeed, the possibility exists  and it isn't a remote one  that Syrian rebels are responsible for the chlorine gas attack on Douma.

The U.N. suspects that the rebels have already used chemical weapons, including sarin gas. The al-Qaeda-linked terrorist militia Al-Nusra may also have acquired chemical weapons.

Theo Padnos, an American journalist held hostage in Syria, had some interesting insights:

>> We saw the pictures so something happened. One of the first questions is the Assad regime the only group in the region that possesses these weapons?

>> Of course not. We have videos. And I have been in conversation with these people. Lived with them for two years. I know what their goals are in life. They are interested in carrying out an ex  a war of extermination against their enemies, particularly the against the Syrian, against the Syrian government, they are more than willing to use any weapon whatsoever. Anything it takes to rid themselves of their enemies. Im quite per situated that situate  P persuaded their goal is annihilation of. Ambition to exterminate the enemy. I have no doubt this is something that they desire. Its their dream. They believe they own this land that god gave it to them and that they should kick the other people out. Kill them.

Should we wait for months while experts carefully go over the evidence to determine exactly who is responsible for the attack? Any U.S. response at that point would be useless. The eyewitness evidence gathered to date suggests that the attacking planes were from the Syrian air force. But can we really trust those reports, given the history of this civil war?

Tucker's question about why Assad would use poison gas now is a good one. But Assad is following his own logic, and part of his calculations in the war is his ironclad belief that Vladimir Putin has his back. Knowing that, he may well believe he can get away with anything.

I don't think Trump's desire to get out of Syria played a role in Assad's decision to gas civilians  if he did. Assad is probably not very worried about a U.S. response, given his alliance with Russia and Iran. If he did gas civilians, it's nothing he hasn't done before, as several independent investigations have confirmed. He may well have believed that the world would not make a big deal out of this attack, either.

It is good to view events in Syria with a skeptical eye. Each side stands to gain by lying about the other, and the propaganda war is as fierce as the fighting in the field.

The truth lies somewhere in this murk. Perhaps we have other intelligence that points the finger at Assad. Orders to carry out the attack may have been intercepted by our intelligence people. Maybe we have a source inside Assad's government that can confirm he gave the order for the attack.

It's nearly impossible to make an informed decision when so much of what is happening is hidden from view. So the question is, whom do you trust? In this case, we must trust the president and his people to do the right thing and protect U.S. interests.
As we watch the drama escalate in the effort to undo the 2016 presidential election, consider the case of another chief executive elected at the same time, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. A Republican, Governor Greitens was indicted in February for felony invasion of privacy by allegedly photographing his former lover, K.S., without her knowledge or permission.

Governor Eric Greitens (source)

The indictment was sought and is being prosecuted by Circuit Attorney (the Missouri name for a district attorney) Kim Gardner, a Democrat who was elected as the first black Circuit Attorney in St. Louis.

Official portrait of Kim Gardner (official portrait)

Since then, the case has fallen apart, with no photograph produced, and with the revelation yesterday that the accuser K.S. has admitted under oath that she may have dreamed the incident. Thats right, a sitting governor prosecuted by a Democrat on the basis of something that was literally dreamed up by the purported victim of the alleged crime.

Gardner recognized some time ago that she was out of her depth, and recruited to the prosecution outside counsel, a clinical professor at Harvard Law School. It was subsequently revealed that taxpayers could be paying $120,000 for the services of Professor Rondald S. Sullivan, Jr. in prosecuting the dreamed-up case.

Clinical Professor Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. (source: Harvard Law School)

Some observers believe that cosmic justice may eventuate in the form of prosecution of Gardner. Dave Grossman writes at The Federalist:

An indictment with dubious origins and few facts has led to a trial with almost unbelievable moments of legal comedy. There was the initial hearing, when the prosecution admitted to the judge that they dont have evidence to win the trial. Then there the moment when the prosecutors had to tell the defense that they didnt have the photo that is supposedly the reason for the indictment in the first place. And last, but most certainly not least, there was the moment when the prosecution allegedly broke the law by bringing on a prosecutor who was serving elsewhere as a criminal defense attorney. Yep, thats a crime in the state of Missouri, and the prosecution allegedly committed it. Whoops. (snip) The slipshod work by the prosecution led one high-level member of law enforcement in the state of Missouri to call this a clown show prosecution, and that opinion is widely shared in legal and law enforcement circles in Missouri. Obviously, Gardner probably didnt think it would go this way. She was probably thinking this case against a high-profile, popular, sitting Republican Governor would make her name. Now it might ruin her career. Heres why: Its almost certain, at this point, that the case will either be thrown out by the judge or that the governor will be found innocent. But there might be more fallout to come  for Gardner, that is. What if the Greitens team files a civil suit against Gardner, one that could cost her millions in damages? What if citizens in the city of St. Louis file complaints with the police or Missouris attorney general about Gardners conduct, leading to a criminal investigation? Ironically, a case that began on illegitimate grounds could end with the quite-legitimate investigation of the prosecutor who started it.

There is much more. Read the whole thing, and contemplate the lessons that might be drawn. The relative silence of the national media on this overtly sensationalistic case tells us a lot.
Sony appears to be done with the 3.5mm headphone jack for the time being, as suggested by a new certificate spotted in the database of the United States Federal Communications Commission. Shortly after announcing the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact, its first high-end Android devices lacking that conventional audio port, the company appears to have started preparing to launch another such device in the near future, having already submitted it to the stateside telecom regulator for testing. The FCCs latest certificate reveals little about the smartphone itself and doesnt even reference its model number, though it does confirm that the audio interference testing performed by the agency was conducted using a pair of Sony-made headphones sporting a USB Type-C connector instead of a 3.5mm one, adding that the phone lacks a traditional audio jack.

The certified device supports standard 4G LTE connectivity and an unspecified Bluetooth standard, as well as NFC, with the latter feature indicating the handset in question is at the very least a mid-ranger given how NFC capabilities are still rarely seen in the entry-level segment of the market. The FCC started testing the Sony-made product in late February, even before the Xperia XZ2 line debuted at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, yet the newly discovered unit is believed to be an unannounced offering given how both the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact already became available for pre-orders in the U.S. before the FCC even certified the device under the designation of PY7-70663E.

Rumors of the Xperia XZ2 Premium being in the works have been circulating the industry for weeks now, though Sony suggested it wont be following up on its 2017 Android flagship this spring shortly after its MWC 2018 conference. Even if the company ends up releasing a direct sequel to the Xperia XZ Premium, that device is unlikely to feature a headphone jack which Sony claims it had to remove in order to make its new phones beautiful.
The bxActions application allows users to remap the Bixby button on a number of Samsung Galaxy devices, and it can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store. Through the app, users can remap the Bixby button to any one of more than 30 different actions, including triggering the Google Assistant, switching between different sound profiles, launching applications, taking screenshots, or turning on the flashlight. On the apps listing, the developers further noted that users have the option to set different actions depending on whether or not the phone is locked or unlocked. In addition, the application enables users to skip tracks by pressing the volume buttons of the smartphone while the handsets screen is turned off.

In order to utilize the application, owners of Samsung Galaxy devices should first download the bxActions app from the Google Play Store. The application does not show advertisements, although users have the option to donate to the developer through an in-app purchase option. After installing and opening the bxActions app, users will have to grant several permissions which enable the application to remap the Bixby button. The application also informs users that they should first finish all the steps of the Bixby app setup process before they could remap the Bixby button. For people who have previously disabled the Bixby button, the app also reminds them to re-enable the button before using the application. Once all the necessary permissions are granted, users will then be able to remap both the Bixby and the volume buttons through the application. Users also have the option to temporarily stop the application on the apps user interface.

The developer of the bxActions app further added several reminders on the applications listing on the Google Play Store. According to the developer, users should first verify if the bxActions app is compatible before they update the Bixby app or the smartphones firmware. This is important since Samsung may choose to block the application in future operating system updates in order to prevent users from remapping the Bixby button. Moreover, people are also advised by the developer to quickly press the Bixby button in order to properly trigger the action.
B&H Photo has taken $50 off of the Lenovo Star Wars: Jedi Challenges AR Experience, bringing the price down to $149 right now. Thats a pretty good price, and its actually the lowest price it has been since it launched last year.

The Lenovo Star Wars: Jedi Challenges AR Experience is a great product for any Star Wars fan out there. Youll be able to awaken your inner Jedi and master the power of the force. You can also use the lightsaber against Star Wars villains, command rebel troops against invading Empire forces and much more. Included here is the Mirage AR Smartphone Headset, along with a Lightsaber Controller and a tracking beacon. That tracking beacon is needed to track you while you move around while playing the Jedi Challenges. To get started, youll need to install your smartphone into the headset  it is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones. Then you can launch the free companion app to get started. Lenovo does include all of the required cables and batteries, to get started playing. This is augmented reality, so youll see villains in real life in front of you, instead of you moving into a virtual world, like in virtual reality. Lenovo is still updating the Jedi Challenges experience here, so you can expect more features to come in the next few weeks or months.

At B&H Photo, you do get free expedited shipping, and if you purchase before 4PM EST today, it will ship from its New York City warehouse today. Those that live closer to the State of New York will get it sooner, but it should arrive within two business days. Theres no taxes being collected unless you reside in the state of New York or New Jersey.
Google is making its Phone app for Android devices available for open beta testing to anyone with an eligible smartphone, the Alphabet-owned company said Tuesday. The experimental channel is presently also being updated with a new Spam Filtering feature meant to combat potentially unwanted calls, the tech giant confirmed. Becoming a Phone beta tester is as simple as referring to the banner below, signing into the program with your Google account, and leaving the app to update itself to the latest pre-release build. Anyone enrolled in the program can exit it at any time by visiting the main Google Play Store listing of the app and clicking or tapping the corresponding option. There are no limits on the number of times users can opt into and out of the program and Google also hasnt imposed a limit on the number of beta testers that the service can have at once.

The Mountain View, California-based firm is asking all users eager to try the latest Phone features to send feedback so as to assist it in development and ultimately help make the app better for everyone. Pledging to give feedback still doesnt appear to be a requirement for becoming enrolled in the beta program. Spam Filtering is the first functionality meant to be tested in such an open manner, with Google being yet to provide a firm timeline for a stable release of the solution, having only said it intends to launch it on a global level in a matter of weeks, presumably by the end of spring. The system itself is described as being highly automated in nature, with Google devising a service that should be able to detect likely spam calls automatically and send them to voicemail without allowing them to ring your device. Such filtered calls will be displayed in a separate section of the Phone apps call history but wont result in notifications about missed calls or pending voicemail messages, Google said.

Phone beta testers willing to critique the app and provide Google with suggestions on how to make it better can do so from the Help & Feedback section of the More menu, the same option thats also present in the stable build of the Android app. Running both an experimental and stable version of the service isnt possible, as is the case with all beta tests powered by the Google Play Store.
The LG G7 ThinQ will be a feature-rich smartphone, powered by AI

Following this weeks reveal of an official LG G7 ThinQ render, AndroidHeadlines can now share significantly more details on LGs upcoming smartphone. These details have been provided by a reliable source and verified by internal LG documentation seen by AndroidHeadlines. To protect the identity of the source, we will not be publishing any images of the documentation. Although some of these details have already been suggested before, all of the information presented here has been taken directly from the seen documents and is not based on other rumors or reports.

A notch for everyone

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Lets start with what is likely to be one of the most contentious issues with the G7  the notch. LG is acutely aware notches are not for everyone and the company will look to circumvent this issue through software as the LG G7 will come with the ability for users to choose whether to make use of more of an edge-to-edge design or opt to hide the notch. To clarify this, hiding the notch will result in less display space as a bar will be artificially generated along the top of the display emulating a bezel, and in doing so, blacking out the notch. Naturally, it will still be there as that is where the front-facing camera and earpiece speaker are located but the artificial bar will mask the visibility of the notch. In other words, while LG will market the notch as an optional feature  it is not. This is a notch-equipped smartphone in every sense of the word.

AI, AI, and more AI

LG is positioning artificial intelligence (AI) at the core of the G7. This is, in fact, why the company has opted to use the ThinQ moniker. While it might not be the most attractive name, it is one which has been specifically chosen to reflect the intelligence underlying the LG G7. As that intelligence goes well beyond just what the smartphone can do for you  in terms of the provision of contextual information  with the AI experience having been very tightly integrated with other elements on the G7 such as the camera, another major selling point of the upcoming Android flagship.

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AI + Camera = AI Cam

As was the case with the recently released V30S ThinQ, LG will market the tight AI and camera integration on the G7 as AI Cam. With LG focusing on how the G7 can process what it sees and offer recommendations to get the most out of photos captured with the phone. Specifically, AI Cam will offer four enhanced filter options which will provide different levels of optimization based on aspects such as color, contrast, and saturation. The LG G7 will also offer the ability to offset against direct sunlight by adjusting the exposure, as well as the easy ability to switch to wide-angle mode when needed. The last two points are effectively an extension of the first as the phone will know when it is better to adjust the exposure or use the wide-angle mode, and will provide those recommendations to the user. Likewise, the level of recommendation smarts will also make the LG G7 capable of identifying the subject in view (person, animal, landscape, and so on) and determine the best settings and provide recommendations based on those findings. On a related note, LG will also promote the included Google Lens support during the G7 launch.

Forget pixels, the LG G7 is all about superpixels

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Sticking with the cameras, a superpixel selling point will be used by LG to promote the ability of the G7 to see better in low-light conditions. This will be encountered at the user level through the G7s Bright Mode, which once again is an intelligence-based solution that automatically identifies when an environment is dark and reacts by combining pixels together to form a superpixel. According to LG, this will result in the G7 being far more capable in extreme low-light conditions compared to the LG G6, as well as the V30 and V30+. In fact, the G7 will be marketed as capable of capturing four times brighter images and videos compared to the G6 and V30 lineups.

LGs best dual-camera setup to date

Speaking of pixels, AndroidHeadlines can confirm the LG G7 will feature two 16-megapixel cameras on its rear plate. This marks a step up from the twin 13-megapixel camera setup included on the LG G6, as well as an improvement compared to the V30 lines 16-megapixel and 13-megapixel camera combo. Like those previous options, however, the dual-camera setup will be broken down to include one standard camera and one wide-angle module. As mentioned already, users will be able to switch between the two with ease and even have the system recommend which is the better option to use. The wide-angle camera will feature a 107-degree field-of-view, while the standard camera features a glass lens with an f/1.6 aperture. The standard camera will also feature 10-bit HDR compatibility for greater color capturing  just like the LG V30. Speaking of HDR compatibility, the G7 is a wholly HDR10-compatible phone, meaning it not only records HDR10-quality video but can also play back HDR10 videos on its display.

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3D Camera stickers, Live Photo, Portrait Mode, and a new version of Graphy

If the typical intelligence features on offer with the cameras are not for you, then this is only the start of what the cameras offer, as the G7 is going to be packed to the brim with additional camera software tweaks. For starters, 2D and 3D camera stickers will be available, allowing the user to paste over photos with various animated stickers. Following on from the V30s introduction of Graphy, the G7 will boast an updated version of the service in the form of Graphy 2.0. At present, it is not quite clear how the new version will fundamentally differ from the previous one, although like with the V30, G7 owners will be able to choose from a selection of images and have many of the settings (ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and so on) ported over to the G7 camera when in Manual Camera mode. Adding to its feature-rich repertoire, Live Photo will be offered on the G7 so users can capture additional photos both before and after the main photo is captured. The result of which can then be viewed and/or shared as a short video, or just used as a means to select the best shot from a variety of shots. With this being a dual rear camera phone, Portrait Mode is also included for good measure. This one likely needs little introduction as it is where the background of an image can be blurred to help isolate the focus on the subject. Although LGs implementation will not only allow the user to activate the feature before taking a shot but will also offer the option to blur the background of a photo after it has been taken  a la Samsung. LG will look to differentiate its option by drawing on the wider field-of-view offered through the G7s rear camera setup. Lastly, Portrait Mode is not only resigned to the rear cameras, as like the Pixel 2 line, the G7s front-facing camera also supports Portrait Mode.

A display that is brighter, more colorful, consumes less power

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The two things LG will want consumers to know about the cameras (besides the AI) is that they can capture more color and brighter images. These will also be the two main points used to promote the LG G7s display. Although unlike the cameras where each of these aspects (color and brightness) are the result of different underlying improvements, the displays improvements in these areas stem from the same single change  more white pixels. LG explains the G7 includes significantly more white pixels than its previous phones, which results in a display that is twice as bright as the LG G6 and significantly more colorful. In spite of these clear improvements, they do not come at the expense of power consumption due to the G7 making use of the companys M+ technology. This is a feature typically found on new LG TVs and one which looks to provide the same greater white pixel count offered with the G7. Most of this occurs through the use of a unique algorithm which once again highlights LGs continued use of intelligence-based revisions on the G7.

LG wants you to hear the G7 and the G7 to hear you

LG has included what it refers to as a Boombox Speaker to the G7. On a more technical level, this means the G7 is capable of acting in the same way as a resonance chamber  LG actually claims it is one  and this means the G7 bounces audio signals internally before the signal is outputted to the listener, with the end result being a more booming sound overall. This is even more apparent as LG has outfitted the G7 with a larger speaker than what was included with the G6. So sound is not only louder through the construction of the phone but also through the physics associated with a larger driver in general. The takeaway  the LG G7 is built for bass.

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When it comes to the G7 hearing you, LG has equipped the G7 with far-field voice recognition. This will mainly apply to voice assistant usage and means the G7 will be capable of hearing the user from a further distance than what was offered with the G6. According to LG, the G7 will now be able to pick up voice commands (and comply with them) from as far as seventeen feet (5.18 meters) away from where a command is given.

Google Assistant but not quite as we know it

The LG G7 will feature Google Assistant. This in itself is unlikely to be much of a surprise. However, the documents seen by AndroidHeadlines clearly detail the Assistant experience on the G7 will be more integrated than it is on other phones equipped with the same voice assistant. This is due to LG seemingly having struck a deal with Google to include LG-exclusive device-specific tasks on the G7. The documents do not specifically go into detail on these tasks, although it is stated there will be 32 available in total. While it would seem likely a number of these might be more relevant to the ThinQ ecosystem  considering the name of the device  they all wont be. With two examples of the G7-exclusive actions including the ability for Google Assistant to perform a visual search and take a wide-angle selfie.

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Summary

The LG G7 ThinQ is going to arrive as an all-singing, all-dancing smartphone. AI, cameras, and the two together are going to be some of the primary selling points, although even with the AI elements removed from the equation, the G7 will remain a feature-packed phone. Audio will also be a factor more catered to with the G7 and this seems to suggest the G and V lines are becoming much closer to one another  with both now focusing on photography and audio above other aspects. The LG G7 will include a notch which can be hidden from ones view when needed, will boast two 16-megapixel cameras, and will support Portrait Mode with both the front and rear cameras. On one last note, AndroidHeadlines can confirm the LG G7 will launch running on Android 8.0 (Oreo).
LG has just confirmed that its upcoming flagship will be called the LG G7 ThinQ, as our sources indicated quite recently. Having said that, the company has also confirmed that the phone will be announced in New York (Manhattan) on May 2, while its launch in South Korea (I-Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul) will follow a day later, on May 3. The LG G7 ThinQ will include some features that are also included on the LG V30S ThinQ, like Vision AI and Voice AI.

Having said that, weve exclusively shared an image of the upcoming handset yesterday, and that image reveals not only the design of the phones front side, but also all of its color options. The LG G7 ThinQ will ship in Aurora Black, Moroccan Blue, Moroccan Blue (Matte), Platinum Gray, and Raspberry Rose color variants. The phone will include a display notch, and a really thin chin below the display, while a vertically-aligned dual camera setup will be included on the back of the device. Below the phones main camera snappers, you will notice a fingerprint scanner, while the companys branding will be included on the back as well. The phones back side will be curved, well, at least its sides will be, while the device itself will be made out of metal and glass. The phones display will ship with rounded corners, and even though we do not have access to some credible info regarding the phones spec sheet, the LG G7 ThinQ specs have surfaced a couple of times thus far.

If rumors are to be believed, the LG G7 ThinQ will sport a 6.1-inch QHD+ FullVision display, along with 4GB / 6GB of RAM and 64GB / 128GB of expandable storage. The 6GB RAM variant of the phone could end up being called the LG G7 ThinQ Plus, but were only guessing, anything is possible. Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor will almost certainly fuel the LG G7 ThinQ, while the device will include a 3,000mAh+ battery on the inside, were still not sure what size exactly, but it will either be a 3,000mAh or larger battery pack, which will support fast charging. Wireless charging will also be a part of the package, while Android 8.1 Oreo will probably come pre-installed on the phone, along with LGs custom skin. The LG G7 ThinQ will probably be IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, while most people are also expecting to see stereo speakers on the phone.
Mobile Google Search shows a more results button for some users as the company is currently testing the new method for wading through search results with a select number of people. Googles Danny Sullivan, who confirmed on Twitter earlier that Google is testing the new button, states that it has already been testing the button for a little while and that it rolled the new interface tweak out to more users recently. Sullivan also mentions that this will be a change that will only be coming to mobile at this time.

To be clear, Sullivan doesnt explicitly state that the more results button is never going to come to the desktop interface, but when asked whether or not it would be available on desktop too, the response given was only on mobile, with no follow-up statement of whether or not that means for good. All that aside, the new more results button replaces the buttons for moving to the next page when you have opened up Google on mobile and searched for something. What this does is get rid of loading a separate page on a mobile browser and instead swaps it out for an infinite scroll effect, as hitting the more results button will simply load additional results below the ending of the others.

This should speed things up when sifting heavily through all the results that one can find after inputting a search query, and thats likely part of the reason for the implementation. Without having to load new pages, users will also have all the results on one single, continuously scrollable page, which should also make it a lot easier to go through all the results that pop up. Though Google is testing this new button with more people now, its unclear how long it will be before it rolls out to all users.
T-Mobile and Sprint opened their third merger talks in four years, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the development. The negotiations are understood to be in a relatively early phase and the exact terms presently being discussed by the duo remain unclear. The two wireless carriers already agreed to consolidate in principle late last year but ended up walking away from the tie-up after neither of their parents was convinced by the other to cede control of a hypothetical combined entity. The deal crumbled just over five months back but some of the terms discussed as part of the previous talks may speed up the newly opened ones.

Its currently unclear which party pushed for the negotiations to be restarted and what prompted it to do so, with the wireless industry not changing much in recent months, at least not in any obvious way that would help a potential merger of the third and fourth largest mobile service provider in the United States. Despite the current political leadership almost entirely consisting of members of the Republican party thats historically friendlier toward big businesses than the Democratic one, Washington presently doesnt appear to be particularly keen on major tie-ups, especially ones in the wireless sector, having recently started its courtroom battle with AT&T over its proposed acquisition of Time Warner, a vertical merger that the Department of Justice is trying to use to create a precedent for blocking such deals that dont take out any competition from the market like a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint would.

T-Mobile will soon celebrate three years of being the third largest wireless carrier in the country, a title that it took from Sprint in August of 2015. Shares of both companies soared following the report of rekindled consolidation talks, with T-Mobile rising seven-percent and Sprint seeing its market capitalization boosted by 20 percentage points as of Tuesday morning PST. Neither telecom giant commented on the matter in any capacity and isnt expected to, with both previously describing the failure of their last merger talks as an unfortunate but unavoidable development and stating such a consolidation idea may still be revisited in the future.
Xiaomi could be looking to expand its smartphone portfolio in India by introducing two new devices in the entry-level and the mid-range segment. According to recent reports, the Mi A2 and Redmi Y2 names have been discovered in the source code of Xiaomis website. The photos provided below mention names of some cases for the two devices without providing any other information on the matter. While Mi A2 is expected to succeed the Mi A1 Android One smartphone launched last year and the Redmi Y2 should be positioned in the budget segment since it is directly succeeding the Redmi Y1 device announced last November. The two devices could be launched in India later this spring, as indicated by the new development.

A number of previous leaks have already provided enough details about the upcoming Mi A2 which is expected to be advertised as the Mi 6X in China. Like its predecessor, Xiaomi might launch the Mi A2 under the Android One program with a stock version of Android 8.1 Oreo for a wider rollout outside China. The new device is expected to feature a 5.99-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio offering a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080 pixels. It will come powered by the Snapdragon 626 chipset from Qualcomm paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, as per previous rumors. The dual-camera setup of the handset will likely be retained from its predecessor which boasted a 20-megapixel and 8-megapixel sensor along with f/2.0 and f/1.8 lenses, respectively. While the device will sport a 2,910mAh battery, it will still carry the Mi 6X moniker in China where it will probably be running Xiaomis MIUI, recent rumors suggest.

Launched late last year, the Redmi Y1 is an entry-level smartphone from Xiaomi that features an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor and has a 5.5-inch HD display. The phone includes a 3,080mAh battery supporting up to 32 hours of talk time on a single charge and has a fingerprint scanner placed on its back. It is currently available in India at Rs. 8,999 ($139) and its next iteration allegedly called the Redmi Y2 should also be priced around the same point. Along with the Redmi Y1, Xiaomi has also previously announced the Redmi Y1 Lite, an even cheaper variant of the Y1, making the Redmi Y2 Lite another possibility this year.
By Evonne Chiu and Benedict Alibasa at Grapevine Asia Partners

Economic Growth Under Duterte

In spite of President Rodrigo Dutertes controversial war on drugs and his acerbic language towards his critics, the Philippine economy continues to register robust growth. Latest economic data show that the Philippines gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.7% in 2017, marking the seventh straight year of GDP growth of more than 6%. Although the 2017 GDP growth was slightly below the 6.9% growth recorded in 2016, the Philippines remains one of Asias fastest-growing economies, only trailing behind Chinas 6.9% and Vietnams 6.8%.

The 6.7% growth of last year was partly anchored by the governments increased public spending. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that public construction posted a 12.6% growth in the third quarter of 2017. A primary driver of growth in public spending is Dutertes Build, Build, Build program. Improved public spending was also driven by higher utilization of cash allocation by government agencies.

Public spending is expected to grow further under the Duterte administration with the upcoming rollout of big-ticket infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Mega Manila Subway, expansion of existing railway systems connecting Metro Manila to nearby provinces, and expansion of several airports across the Philippines, among others. The governments infrastructure push is expected to benefit both local and foreign investors in the construction of these public facilities, which are expected to spur economic activity across business sectors.

Opportunities

As the Philippines economy continues on its growth trajectory, investment opportunities in the country are likely to open up across various sectors. Opportunities particularly abound in the infrastructure sector with as much as PHP 8 trillion worth of projects up for grabs for consultants, contractors, and developers. The demand for foreign expertise is expected to rise in the fields of technology, operations management, and funding of infrastructure development across the country. Transport infrastructure is at the center of the governments development efforts, particularly in the capital Metro Manila, where transportation systems are decrepit, poorly maintained, and overburdened by ever-increasing congestion.

Also at the top of the Duterte governments priorities is the development of the countrys telecommunications services, which is said to be one of the slowest and most expensive in the world. To spur the sectors development, President Duterte has vowed to introduce a third, foreign-backed industry player to challenge the duopoly enjoyed by local industry giants Philippine Long Distance Telecommunications (PLDT) Co. and Globe Telecom. Local firms are reportedly seeking foreign partners from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and India to invest in the countrys telecoms sector to stir up competition and improve broadband and mobile internet services. Bidding for the countrys third telecom franchise is expected to open in July this year.

Contrary to initial concerns of a potential exodus of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms amid protectionist pronouncements of US President Donald Trump and President Dutertes anti-US rhetoric, the Philippines BPO industry remains one of the worlds most vibrant and flourishing industries. Reports indicate that there are about a hundred international firms in talks with Philippine BPOs as they look to outsource their services not just in Metro Manila and Cebu, but also in Tier 2 and 3 cities such as Davao and Iloilo where new opportunities are emerging. BPO players move outside main urban centers is anchored by the governments decentralization push, which should unlock land values in areas outside of Metro Manila and stimulate business activity in the countryside.

Real estate is likewise expected to benefit from the governments infrastructure push. With the development of the countrys airports, seaports, and roads, increased access to suburban areas are likely to prompt businesses and people to move to these areas where real estate is relatively cheaper. Access to existing and emerging tourist spots would likewise be easier for both local and foreign tourists, which would consequently increase the demand for hotel rooms and other tourism-related businesses and services. Already, real estate developers have been active in constructing new developments in Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro.

RELATED: Pre-Investment and Market Entry Advisory from Dezan Shira & Associates

Risks

Like other developing countries, however, the Philippines can be a challenging market for project owners and their foreign partners. This is especially the case in dealing with infrastructure projects, which involve government regulations, funding and interfaces with numerous agencies and departments. Compared with four other major ASEAN countries, the ease of doing business in the Philippines is ranked the lowest. The business operation environment in the Philippines is notably more challenging than the more mature ASEAN economies of Malaysia and Thailand. The Philippines ranks especially low in the areas of dealing with construction permits, securing credit and enforcing contracts. Difficulties in these areas will certainly pose great challenges and risks to those taking part in infrastructure projects.

Identifying local partners can likewise be risky if proper due diligence is not exercised. As in most emerging markets, many businesses in the Philippines are owned and managed by influential families that often have ties with the government. Such ties can be particularly risky for foreign partners that are bound by their home countries laws against foreign corrupt practices. The intertwining of business and politics in the Philippines is especially common in lucrative industries such as infrastructure, trade, and natural resources. It is also not uncommon for local enterprises in the Philippines to conceal and misrepresent information to secure overseas funding and investments. With bribery still prevalent in many government agencies, companies could easily circumvent local regulations and obtain bogus certifications. Hence, it is crucial for investors to have local insights on their local business partners backgrounds and interests as these could determine the success and failure of their investments in the country.

Although the Philippines boasts a competitive talent pool, hiring locals across all levels could still be a challenge from entry level positions to senior and executive roles. The main risk in employing locals is the veracity of the information declared in their CVs. As it is the case in most developing countries, counterfeit diplomas, certifications, and even identities are widely accessible in the Philippines, putting at risk the quality of a companys manpower and exposing its operations to potential fraud.

Crime also remains a serious risk in many parts of the Philippines with theft, physical assault, and robbery most commonly reported to local authorities. Carjacking, robberies, and violent assaults also occur sporadically. Kidnapping is likewise a real threat in the country, with kidnap for ransom groups targeting both locals and foreigners. The risk of kidnapping of expatriates and locals is considered to be high, especially in the countrys restive areas. The risk levels of crime incidence in the Philippines, however, do vary in different places hence the importance of profiling a local areas safety and security profile.
Skinners practice covers the full range of employment law, including matters that arise from commercial transactions, restructurings, and receiverships. She is also an expert in industrial relations matters, including enterprise agreements and industrial disputes and Fair Work Ombudsman audits, investigations, and prosecutions.

Maree has an outstanding reputation as a leading employment law practitioner and will be a great addition to what is already a well-respected team, said Bruce Heddle, who heads Maddocks employment, safety, and people team in Sydney. I have worked alongside Maree at previous firms and I have seen first-hand the level of skill, service and care she brings to her client relationships.

Maddocks CEO Michelle Dixon said that one of the reasons for the firms growth has been its targeted recruitment of partners, who bring with them technical excellence and outstanding client service.

Maree is a great fit for us on both accounts, Dixon said.

Maddocks recently appointed a partner and special counsel from a global firm in Sydney. In January, the firm also welcomed a special counsel in Melbourne.
Fixed to the rear deck in three points and spanning almost the entire width of the car, the wing is complemented by a dual-pipe exhaust system and an imposing aerodynamic diffuser. A handful of minor changes were made to the rear-bumper design as well, but thats not all the 2019 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ has to offer.Focus your sight on the air intakes located between the rear wheels and doors, and youll notice theyre much larger than the ones on the Aventador S . The lateral air intakes also happen to benefit from two vents per piece, located right next to the rear wheels. More intakes/vents can be noticed behind the rear quarter windows, which goes to show how much the Aventador SVJ relies on downforce.The front bumper, obviously enough, sits lower to the ground and benefits from a lot of crazy design elements, all penned in the name of aerodynamic performance. Similar to the Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva on the Huracan Performante , the ALA of the Aventador SVJ employs sensors and computers to vary the aero load from high downforce to low drag, depending on the driving scenario and vehicle speed.Remember the oversized intakes mentioned beforehand? Theyre essential to how the 6.5-liter V12 engine delivers that sweet, sweet suck-squeeze-bang-blow. With the Centenario tuned to develop 770 horsepower, its natural to assume the SuperVeloce Jota churns out in the ballpark of 800 horsepower of the metric type.With the Aventador SV limited to 600 examples and the Aventador SV Roadster produced in 500 units, you can also bet that Lamborghini wont manufacture too many SVJs. And the price? When it was released in the United States in 2015, the SV in fixed-head coupe flavor retailed at $493,095 including the gas-guzzler tax. So yeah, this super-bull here will surpass the $500,000 threshold, and then some.
Seventy years after that moment, Land Rover, the company, outlined a Defender of its own, this time on the snowy peaks of the French Alps. The goal of this particular drawing is to kick off the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the Defender.The drawing in the snow has been crafted by snow artist Simon Beck. The drawing sits 9,000 feet (2,743 meters) up on La Plagne in the French Alps, and it measures 820 feet across (2250 meters). To create the snow picture, the artist had to travel, on foot, some 10 miles (16 km) to the location.Making my snow art requires endurance, accuracy, and strength  all attributes shared with the Defender. Its iconic shape is so simple and recognized across the world; this must be the most recognizable piece of art Ive ever made, Beck said.Land Rover announced that it would officially celebrate the Defender s anniversary on April 30. In the U.S., the celebration will take place at the companys new headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, where products of historical significance for the brand will be present. In the UK, celebrations will be transmitted via an online broadcast.The Land Rover Defender was introduced on April 30, 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show. In June, the car was launched on the market and had a production run of 67 years, before being discontinued in January 2016.In early 2018, Land Rover announced the Defender Works V8 , a limited, 150 units run that quickly became sold out. Plans are, sources say, for a completely new Defender to be introduced in the following years.
What better way to learn how to fly than in a taildragger Cub? Thats the idea behind a new organization called Kids Fly Cubs, which is working to set up learn-to-fly promotions using Legend Cub serial number 1 loaned by American Legend, the Texas-based company that has been manufacturing updated Cubs for more than a decade.

The organizations director, Daryl Hickman, told AVweb at Sun n Fun this week that kidsflycubs.org will use Legends first production airplane as a test bed for the new program, which they hope to eventually roll out nationally. Hickman, in this podcast recorded at Lakeland, said many schools actually have modest aviation programs and although many of the kids enrolled in these courses have an interest in aviation, just as many have actually never flown in a light airplane. He says KidsFlyCubs will give them an opportunity to fly for the first time with a loggable flight lesson. You can find out more at the groups website.
Arizona colleges are prohibited from awarding in-state tuition rates to young immigrants who are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the states Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday.

Why it matters: The decision will reportedly affect more than 2,000 Dreamers at Arizona public colleges, who are legally allowed to study in the U.S. In 2016, Arizona voters approved a measure that mandates state-funded services and benefits, such as in-state tuition and financial aid, to those who have legal status.
Bank of America's vice chair Anne Finucane said Tuesday that the bank will no longer lend money to clients who manufacture military-style assault weapons for civilians to purchase, such as the AR-15-style rifles that have been used in several recent mass shootings.

The details: Finucane told Bloomberg TV that the move, which is part of an effort to help reduce mass shootings, was met with mixed response from clients, which she didnt name. Per CNBC, BofA  the countrys second-largest bank  lends money to Vista Outdoor, Remington and Sturm Ruger. In the wake of the Florida high school mass shooting, Bank of America told Axios it is reexamining its relationship with banking clients who make AR-15s.
One big fear about President Trump's tariff fight with China is that Beijing would retaliate by resurrecting its campaign of stealing patents, manufacturing processes and other trade secrets from U.S. companies. The Obama administration mostly shut that down in 2015.

Reality check: But Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of CrowdStrike, says China didnt wait for the latest controversy to revive its intellectual-property hacking program  it has already been ramping up efforts ever since Trump took office. Weve seen China expand its hacking for IP throughout 2017, Alperovitch said.

The big picture: Until 2015 Chinas state-sanctioned U.S. hacking operations regularly stole trade secrets to benefit its businesses.

At that time, tech IP theft cost the U.S. economy $300 billion annually  with China responsible for 80%, according to testimony from Michelle Van Cleave of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The Obama administration countered the threat by indicting the Chinese military hackers leading the charge in 2014 and threatening sanctions in 2015. Finally, in September 2015, China formally agreed to stop hacking the U.S. for economic espionage.

It never went entirely away, but the reductions were significant, said Alperovitch. The current uptick, he added, appears to target tech companies, law firms and medical manufacturers.

The numbers (then): FireEye, a competitor of CrowdStrike, saw a continuous decline in attacks throughout the Obama effort. Before the indictments in 2014, the company saw around 60 attacks a month targeting IP from China. After the indictments, that number dropped to under 40. With the threat of sanctions, it dropped to under 10 a month.

But, said Alperovitch, Obama may have benefited from a reorganization in China underway at the time. China was physically relocating its hackers to centralize them, and also cracking down on government corruption  which may have given officials additional incentives to promote the hacking.

The bottom line: Trump's tariffs are meant, in part, to counter intellectual property theft, but Alperovitch thinks the best response would be targeted sanctions. What Xi really feared from Obama was sanctioning the companies that benefitted from the theft, he said. Thats still an option.
NEW YORK  Bob Murray, CEO of coal producer Murray Energy, likened global oil and gas companies to prostitutes, arguing they sell whatever it takes in global markets.

Why it matters: The eyebrow-raising comment reflects the combative nature of Murray  who is close to President Trump  in the face of coals increasingly weak position compared to natural gas and renewable energy in the U.S.

They're international corporations. They sell their products around the world. And its expedient for them to latch onto to whatever it takes in whatever countries to sell whatever their selling. Theyre prostitutes. They are latching onto policies of other countries to sell things in world markets.

 Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy

The big picture: Murray made the comments to Axios on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference in New York Tuesday after he delivered a speech to hundreds of executives working in industries mostly benefiting from coals decline, such as wind, solar and natural gas.

Im probably the only coal guy in this room, Murray said on stage, prompting muted laughter from the crowd. He said afterwards no one has approached him to talk other than the sponsors.

One level deeper: Murray named ExxonMobil, BP and Shell as companies that fit the prostitute mold. Unlike Murrays company, which he privately owns, these publicly traded traded oil and gas companies are among corporations facing increasing pressure from investors to more readily acknowledge the risks climate change and carbon regulations pose to their bottom lines. BP and Shell are also investing more in renewable energy.

For the record: Spokespeople for Shell and BP declined to comment. An Exxon spokesman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Go deeper: The Washington Examiner has more on Murray's speech, where he implored the Energy Department to approve an emergency order keeping open economically struggling coal and nuclear power plants. Acknowledging that the department rejected a similar plea his company asked for last year, Murray told Axios afterwards that "the options are becoming fewer."
A showdown with rail workers is shaping up as a make-or-break moment for French president Emmanuel Macron, with another wave of crippling transport stoppages hitting France yesterday, per France 24. Rolling strikes are due to continue through June.

The backdrop: Macron is targeting France's state-owned railway company, citing job-for-life guarantees, automatic pay increases and early retirement as the sorts of privileges for economic insiders that need to be trimmed.

Why it matters: Because his proposal would only affect new hires, this particular fight is more about symbols than substance for both sides, the FTs Anne-Sylvaine Chassany writes. But failure could scuttle Macrons wider economic agenda, as a similar fight doomed Prime Minister Alain Juppe in the mid-1990s.

Because his proposal would only affect new hires, this particular fight is more about symbols than substance for both sides, the FTs Anne-Sylvaine Chassany writes. But failure could scuttle Macrons wider economic agenda, as a similar fight doomed Prime Minister Alain Juppe in the mid-1990s. Where things stand: Public opinion on the strikes is narrowly in Macrons favor. And while his popularity has slumped below 50%, Macron still commands a large parliamentary majority. As the Guardian notes, the strikers believe momentum is on their side.

Go deeper: Macron on how AI will shape the future, and threaten democracy.
Seven Myanmar soldiers were sentenced to "10 years in prison with hard labor in a remote area" for the massacre of 10 Rohingya men in September, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested for reporting that story, and are now facing up to 14 years in prison. Per Reuters, the military said on Tuesday that the 10 men who were killed "belonged to a group of 200 militants who had attacked security forces," but witnesses tell Reuters there was no large attack, and that soldiers "plucked the 10 from among hundreds" of people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in security consultations on Monday that he thinks there is high probability President Trump will order a military strike in Syria in retaliation for the recent chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma, a senior Israeli official told me.

The latest: The official said Israel published a formal statement blaming the Assad regime for the attack on Monday night as a consequence of this assessment by Netanyahu. The official said the purpose was to give diplomatic support for possible U.S. military action against Syria and also for possible U.S. diplomatic action against Syria at the UN Security Council.

The statement by the Israeli foreign ministry said:

"Israel strongly condemns the chemical weapons strike carried out by Syria on April 7The Syrian regime continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity in using these outlawed weapons. The latest attack joins a long series of similar attacks using chemical weapons perpetrated by the regime since Assad undertook to disarm from such weapons. The attack shows clearly that Syria continues to possess lethal chemical weapons capabilities and even to manufacture new ones. In so doing Syria is grossly violating its obligations and the decisions of the international community in this matter".

The Prime Minister's office declined to comment.
Russia has been jamming some U.S. drones over Syrian airspace, seriously impacting military operations, four U.S. officials told NBC News Courtney Kube. Russia reportedly began jamming other, smaller U.S. drones weeks ago after suspected chemical weapons attacks in eastern Ghouta.

Why: The Russians were concerned the U.S. would retaliate in response to the attacks, and tried jamming U.S. GPSs to prevent an attack, per Kube.

What the Pentagon is saying: Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon would not reveal whether military operations were affected, citing operational security. Pahon said the Pentagon maintains sufficient countermeasures and protections to ensure the ability of our manned and unmanned aircraft, and our forces to carry out their assigned missions.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday his agency will soon decide whether to approve a request to boost economically struggling coal and nuclear power plants.

Between the lines: His remarks dampened prospects that the Trump administration will move to keep a string of these plants open in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

[The request] may not be the way that we decide is the most appropriate, the most efficient way to address this. Its not the only way."

 Perry at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Future of Energy Summit in New York

Why it matters: The approval of an emergency order request by utility FirstEnergy Solutions matters for two reasons:

Its unprecedented in the history of the arcane Energy Department provision Approving the order would be an explicit way President Trump can show hes reviving the coal and nuclear industries, a campaign promise.

Whats next: Bob Murray, the CEO of privately-held coal producer Murray Energy, will speak at the same conference on Tuesday at noon ET. The Energy Department denied a similar request by his company last year. Expect fireworks on this topic and more, given Murray will be in a crowd of executives whose companies are largely built around the evolution away from coal.
Russia has vetoed a resolution at the U.N. Security Council that would further investigate and determine responsibility for the chemical attack in Syria over the weekend. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, told the Council that "Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people."

The bottom line: This is not the first time Russia, which backs the Assad regime, has stood in the way of investigations into chemical attacks in Syria. But it comes as President Trump is considering strikes to retaliate over the attack, which would escalate tensions with Russia.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia "will be present" in the response to the chemical attack in Syria "if our alliance with our partners requires it," Reuters reports.

The big picture: Both France and the U.K. have said they support a response to the attack, which killed dozens of civilians. With President Trump warning that forceful action is coming, Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer told Axios' Mike Allen Monday that the smart move would be to form a coalition. Now, it appears that coalition could include Saudi Arabia.
The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have increased the number of National Guard troops they will deploy to the southern border to assist with security operations. The increases are part of President Trumps recent plan to work with border-state governors to combat what he called a growing threat of unauthorized immigrants and drug trafficking from Central America.

By the numbers: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state would boost the number of troops from 250 to at least 1,000, up from 250, per the AP. And Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted that 338 troops will be dispatched, up from 113.
At the start of a meeting with senior military leadership Monday night, President Trump blasted the FBI's raid of his personal lawyer's office, calling it a "disgraceful situation" and an "attack on our country in a true sense ... an attack on what we all stand for."

The big picture: This is a consistent response from Trump, who has accused the probe of unfairly targeting him and who has lashed out against his attorney general for failing to restrain its spread.

Key quotes, per White House pool reports:

"It's a total witch hunt. I've been saying it for a long time. I've wanted to keep it down. I've given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel.

"They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we're talking about a lot of serious things ... and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. Actually it's much more than that. You could say right after I won the nomination it started."

"This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I have ever seen ... Either Democrats or a couple of Republicans who worked for President Obama. They're not looking at the other side  Hillary Clinton ... They only keep looking at us. "

Trump also criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation: "[H]e made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But you'll figure that out."

And he went after James Comey: "Well I turned out to do the right thing [firing former FBI Director James Comey.] If you look at all of the things he's done and the lies, and you look at what's going on at the FBI ... turned out I did the right thing."

He also said a response to Syria is coming as soon as tonight: "We're going to make a decision tonight or shortly thereafter ... We can't let that happen in our world, especially when we're able to  because of the power of the United States  we're able to stop it."

Watch:

Go deeper: FBI raids office of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

Get more stories like this by signing up for our daily morning newsletter, Axios AM.
President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled. At the Presidents request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

 White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders

Why it matters: Trump yesterday said during a meeting with military leaders that he's preparing a response to reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria. "We have a lot of options, militarily. And we'll be letting you know pretty soon," he said.

Go deeper: Trump's options for striking Syria
The Summit of the Americas this Friday and Saturday in Peru was to be the centerpiece of President Trump's first visit to Latin America, and the first time he met many of the region's leaders. Now, Trump has suddenly announced he won't be attending after all  he's staying in D.C. to focus on Syria and sending Vice President Pence in his stead.

Why it matters: Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council's Latin America Center, says Trump's decision is a "significant blow" to the chances of improving relations with the region and with those leaders, many of whom are wondering what "America first" means for them.

"He's missing an opportunity to establish a rapport" with key strategic and economic partners, while "ceding an opportunity to the Chinese," Marczak says.

Context:

This is the 8th Summit of the Americas, and the first time the U.S. president has declined to attend. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all attended multiple summits.

and the first time the U.S. president has declined to attend. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all attended multiple summits. Trump is deeply unpopular in Latin America. A Gallup poll sticks his approval across the region at 16%, and views of the U.S. have slumped more in South America than on any other continent since he took office.

A Gallup poll sticks his approval across the region at 16%, and views of the U.S. have slumped more in South America than on any other continent since he took office. China is making massive investments in the region, passing the U.S. as the top trading partner for several countries, including Brazil, in recent years. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also visited multiple times, Marczak says.

Between the lines: Latin America hasn't been a top U.S. priority for years, and that hasn't gone unnoticed in the region. But under Trump things seem to be reaching a new low, at a time when the U.S. can no longer take its influence in the region for granted.

Worth noting: Trump's excuse is not an unreasonable one. Things in Syria could escalate quickly.
President Trump told reporters at the White House this morning that he would make a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours on how to respond to the "heinous" chemical attack over the weekend in Syria's eastern Ghouta region. This is about humanity and it cant be allowed to happen," he said.

The big picture: Trump had previously promised that there would be a "big price to pay" regarding the attack in a series of tweets yesterday, which featured him calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin by name. This morning, Trump continued with his harsher rhetoric against Russia, saying that Putin "may" be responsible and any response would be "very tough." He added, If its the Russians, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out.
Officials in Turkey, which has taken in more than 3 million Syrians fleeing the civil war next door, have begun "urging refugees to go home," the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: As has been clearly illustrated in the last few days, the situation in Syria is no where near calming down. As the Post puts it: "Turkish military victories in northern Syria have opened the possibility that refugees could go back to their homeland, but many are wary of returning to a country wrecked by a war that is not yet even finished."

The details: Per the Post, almost 500,000 Syrian children attend public school in Turkey, and "an additional 230,000 study at accredited 'temporary education centers.'" But the public has turned on refugees, believing they "receive preferential access to public services and assistance."

The anti-refugee wave in the public is becoming so intense that children in school "are bullied and face discrimination," and teachers say Syrian kids "act out in class or on the playground."

David Milliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, told Axios that since 2011, Turkey has "has made itself home for more than 2.5 million people, in a remarkable display of openness," but now "is the not the time to send people back into harms way."

that since 2011, Turkey has "has made itself home for more than 2.5 million people, in a remarkable display of openness," but now "is the not the time to send people back into harms way." A State Department official told Axios: "As weve said before, all refugee returns must be voluntary and safe. While the majority of refugees wish to eventually return home, we emphasize that conditions inside Syria are not yet safe for return."

What to watch for: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is up for re-election next year, and he's honed in on this outcry from the public. He said in February that it's time for the refugees to go home, but hadn't taken any explicit action to make that a reality.
President Armen Sarkissian has heaped praise on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and said he will seek to bolster Armenias already close relations with Russia, describing them as a strategic alliance.

Sarkissian gave an interview to the official Russian TASS news agency hours after being sworn in as Armenias new and largely ceremonial head of state on Monday.

Taking this opportunity, I sincerely wish Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who won a convincing victory in recent presidential elections in Russia, new great successes in his efforts to further develop his countrys economy and increase the well-being of its citizens and Russias role in the international arena, he said.

As president of Armenia, I certainly regard as a priority the further strengthening of the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance, friendship between our peoples and expansion of people-to-people contacts, he added.

That alliance has a firm historical base which needs to be preserved, enriched and constantly multiplied, said Sarkissian.

Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Sarkissian on being elected president by the Armenian parliament on March 2. He expressed confidence that Sarkissian will contribute to a further development of Russian-Armenian ties.

The new Armenian president told TASS that he hopes to visit Moscow very soon. Armenias leaders have traditionally paid their first officials visits [abroad] to Moscow, he said.

Sarkissian, who has lived in Britain for nearly three decades, described Russia as a brotherly country. For many generations in Armenia and me in particular, Russian culture, art and literature has been and remains a source of inspiration, said the 64-year-old. It has played a role in the formation of my worldview.
By Laman Ismayilova

German-Azerbaijani Cultural Center Kapellhaus will host the 9th Festival of Handicrafts on April 20-21.

Talented artists and fine crafters will gather under the same roof to show the power of their imagination.

Various samples of arts will be put on display. Visitors will be also able to enroll in various creative groups and a master class on marbling, a kind of painting, that needs immense practice, skill and creativity.

Marbling or ebru is the art of creating colorful patterns by sprinkling and brushing color pigments on a pan of oily water and then transforming this pattern to paper.

Turkey remained the center of marbling for many centuries.

Entrance is free.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Laman Ismayilova

NarimanFilm studio is looking forward three jury members aged 13+,16+18+ years for Giffoni Experience, to be held as part of Giffoni International Film Festival.

Giffoni International Film Festival has a history of half a century and is a unique festival where group of judges consist of children from various countries.

This year festival will be held during the summer vacations on July 20-28.

Festival will be held in Salerno city, located on the shore of Tirren sea on the South part of Italy.

Some 3,000 kids from all over the world will watch more than 100 movies (dubbed in English) during this period and evaluate them.

Kids will discuss the movie after each session and defy the winners. Additionally, during the festival there will be various trainings and workshops. During these workshops kids will have a chance to have a discussion with professional director, actors, and other professional of the industry and meet with kids from all over the world in their age groups. This event will be a valuable experience for kids, increase their world outlook, let them feel the multicultural spirit and increase their interest in cinema and cinema industry.

During the festival, there will be also extensive cultural program which will be interested for kids of various age groups.

Throughout the festival kids will live in Italian families. The knowledge of Italian or English is mandatory.

Contacts:

Narimanfilm studios

Adress: Ziya Bunyadov str, 65, Baku, Narimanov district

Phone: + 994 12 491 63 79

E-mail: [email protected]

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic.

President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of Ivica Dacic`s participation in the Mid-Term Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Hailing successful development of the bilateral relations, the head of state said Serbia is a friendly and partner country for Azerbaijan.

The two countries support each other in international organizations, the president of Azerbaijan said.

The head of state said Ivica Dacic`s visit also opens a good opportunity for discussing prospects of bilateral ties, expressing his confidence that Azerbaijan-Serbia relations will continue to develop.

Ivica Dacic extended Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic`s greetings to the head of state. Describing Azerbaijan as a friendly country for Serbia, Ivica Dacic hailed relations between the two countries.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for Aleksandar Vucic`s greetings, and asked Ivica Dacic to extend his greetings to the Serbian president.

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By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan and Cambodia have wide opportunities for cooperation in the political, economic, humanitarian, agricultural, medical, energy and other spheres, Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said on April 9.

He made the remarks at the meeting with Ouch Borith, Secretary of State for Cambodias Foreign and International Cooperation Ministry, within the political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Azerbaijan and Cambodia.

Having welcomed the delegation of Cambodia, Khalafov expressed hope that the visit will be useful for strengthening the political dialogue and expanding business ties between the two countries, and will create the necessary ground for further expansion of cooperation in various fields. He stressed the importance of developing a contractual and legal framework for relations.

The deputy FM informed Borith about large-scale transport and energy projects implemented on the initiative and with the participation of Azerbaijan, and added that the North-South and East-West transport routes create favorable opportunities for the Asian countries to enter the European market.

Talking about Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan and the fact that 20 percent of the country is under Armenian occupation, Khalafov said that the conflict is still a serious threat to peace, stability and comprehensive development of the region.

He thanked the Cambodian side for supporting Azerbaijans just position on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and expressed the hope that this position of Cambodia will be permanent.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

Borith, in turn, said that Cambodia is interested in developing cooperation with Azerbaijan in all spheres. The secretary of state noted that his country supports the peaceful settlement of the conflict and the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Noting that the exchange of visits by high-ranking government officials is important for the development of bilateral relations, the Cambodian diplomat stressed the need to continue the political dialogue between the two countries.

He added that Cambodia is interested in further development of cooperation between the countries parliaments. Borith also thanked Azerbaijan for the opportunities created for the education of Cambodian students in Azerbaijan in Soviet times and mentioned that Cambodia intends to continue the cooperation in the field of education.

Noting that Azerbaijan has rich experience in the field of energy and has highly qualified specialists, the Cambodian diplomat stressed the importance of implementing various exchange programs between the two countries in this direction.

The meeting also discussed the Azerbaijan-Cambodia cooperation within international organizations, the establishment of a joint intergovernmental commission for the development of trade and economic relations, as well as the holding of political consultations on a long-term basis.

Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Cambodia have increased in recent times. Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral consultations between the countries was signed in 2014 -- the year which marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan intends to expand cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and to raise it to a qualitatively new level, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on April 9.

He made the remarks during a meeting in Baku with the delegation led by the SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov.

Thanking the secretary general for the support provided in the development of ties between the SCO and Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov noted the friendly relations and relations of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the SCO member countries at bilateral level.

The minister noted that the East-West, North-South and South-West transport corridor projects implemented with the participation of Azerbaijan open wide opportunities for cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Alimov, in turn, said that Azerbaijan is a dialogue partner of the SCO, and positively assessed the active participation of Azerbaijan in the cultural and social events held within the organization.

The secretary general expressed gratitude for the conditions created for monitoring the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and noted fruitful meetings held in this regard, direct familiarization with the pre-election environment and the necessary preparatory measures for monitoring the elections.

The meeting also touched upon the raising of the awareness of the Azerbaijani public about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the implementation of projects of public and diplomatic orientation.

The SCO, established in 2001, is a strategically important political, economic and military organization that has a geographic sweep stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf.

Currently, the organization members are Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia and Belarus are the observer countries, and Azerbaijan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Nepal and Armenia are dialogue partners.

The SCO is primarily centered on its member nations security-related concerns, often describing the main threats it confronts as being terrorism, separatism and extremism.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Trend

Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers has banned construction of hospitals, schools, residential buildings that exceed three floors, industrial and agricultural buildings and any public facilities (subject to public risk criteria) near the main export pipelines.

This is stipulated in the "Rules on defining areas of consultation and protection of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline named after Heydar Aliyev, the South Caucasus Pipeline and the extended branch of the South Caucasus Pipeline" approved by the Cabinet.

According to the rules, construction of such facilities is prohibited at a distance of 385 meters in all directions from the central axis of the South Caucasus Pipeline, 420 meters in all directions from the central axis of the extended branch of the South Caucasus Pipeline, and 120 meters in all directions from the central axis of the main export pipeline Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan.

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By Trend

Russia supports the idea of establishing an independent mechanism to probe into alleged chemical attacks in Syria, Russias Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said, TASS reports.

"As for an independent investigative mechanism, we also support this idea," Nebenzya said at a meeting of the UN Security Council convened over Saturdays alleged chemical attack in Douma.

"I would like to remind you that our draft resolution stipulating the formation of such mechanism is pending voting (in the UN) and we are ready to pass it (the resolution) any day," Russias UN envoy said.

Some non-governmental organizations, including the White Helmets, earlier claimed that chemical weapons had been used in the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta on April 7.
By Kamila Aliyeva

Afghanistan will supply its products to China through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

This was discussed during the talks with Afghan Minister of Transport Mohammad Hamid Tahmasi in Tashkent. The leaders of Uzavtotrans JSC, Urta Osiyo Trans JSC, Uztrade JSC and Uzsanoatexport JSC attended the meeting.

Participants mulled issues of practical implementation of agreements reached during the state visit of the Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to Uzbekistan on December 4-6, 2017.

The sides agreed on using the new Tashkent  Andijan  Osh  Kashgar automobile corridor for supplying Afghan products from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kashgar by transit through Uzbekistan.

The new transport corridor Tashkent - Andijan (Uzbekistan) - Osh - Irkeshtam (Kyrgyzstan) - Kashgar (China) is the shortest automobile route from the Fergana Valley to China. In late October, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China successfully organized the first pilot caravan of nine cars that passed along this route.

The Afghan side intends to send its cargoes from Mazar-i-Sharif along the already established railway up to Andijan, then load them onto trucks going through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar.

To create additional conveniences for consignors and consignees in the Andijan region, a multimodal transport and logistics center has been created on the basis of the terminal of the station of Akhtachi, allowing cargo to be transported from all corners of Uzbekistan to Andijan by rail and then to China by road.

In addition, the sides agreed on equipping the international logistics center Termez Cargo Center with sorting and packing lines for processing and exporting fruit and vegetable products of Afghanistan enterprises to the third countries.

During the negotiations, issues of development of cooperation in trade-economic and transport-communication spheres, in particular, the timely implementation of trade contracts and other activities aimed at bringing bilateral trade to $1 billion in the coming years were discussed. The importance of continuing work on expanding the potential of the two countries in the sphere of transit was also noted, according to the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Trade.

The countries also intend to continue the active work on construction of the Mazar-i-Sharif - Herat railway. The need for timely preparation of the feasibility study of the project for further attracting appropriate financing was noted.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Kamila Aliyeva

Activity of Kazakhstans residents in the housing market increased 0.3 percent in in January-March 2018.

The number of deals for purchase and sale of housing in Kazakhstan in January-March was 50,895, thus showing an increase of 0.3 percent compared to the same period in 2017, according to the Committee on Statistics under the Kazakh National Economy Ministry.

At the same time in March of this year the number of registered transactions for the sale of housing amounted to 16,764 and compared to the previous month decreased by 5.6 percent.

In 2017, 239,600 deals for housing purchase and sale were concluded in Kazakhstan.

At the same time, the average cost of 1 square meter of new housing in Kazakhstan amounted to 263,098 tenge ($823.05) in March 2018 showing an increase of 1 percent compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, prices in construction sphere increased by 4.9 percent in March 2018 compared to December 2017.

In particular, prices for construction and installation work have increased by 5 percent since the beginning of the year, machinery and equipment - by 4 percent, other works and costs have risen by 5.8 percent.

Increase in prices for materials, parts and structures purchased by construction companies since the beginning of this year amounted to 0.7 percent.

Previously, Kazakhstan has experienced a sharp decline of the real estate market due to adverse external conditions. Devaluation of the national currency, along with a decrease in real wages and purchasing power affected the demand side, while slight overinvestment and high exposure to currency risks shocked the supply.

The Kazakh government is committed to resolving current issues on the real estate market with massive programs, which aim to provide affordable housing, including rental, refinancing foreign currency mortgages and stimulating construction of infrastructure for individual housing construction.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Kamila Aliyeva

Tajikistan is gradually reducing the import of flour, and increasing the import of wheat, which is subsequently processed by the republic itself, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

In the first quarter of this year, flour imports decreased by 8,000 tons in comparison with the indicators of 2017, while the import of wheat increased by about 36,000 tons.

At the same time, in the first quarter of this year, 7,100 tons of flour worth $1.6 million was received by the republic, which is 8,000 tons less than in the same period last year.

During this period, an increase of 35.900 tons in the volume of wheat imports compared to last year's indicators was noted. In January-March 2018, almost 222,000 tons of wheat was imported to the country for $39.2 million. Kazakhstan remains the main supplier of flour and wheat to the Tajik market.

To date, more than 90 percent of Tajikistan's domestic demand for flour is met through domestic production. The country has significantly increased the volume of grain processing, especially wheat, which led to a decrease in flour imports.

Over 1 million tons of wheat (at an average price of $195 per ton) was imported by Tajikistan last year, which is 1.9 percent more than in 2016. During this period, about 54,600 tons of flour was imported (at an average price of $248 per ton), which is almost 38.4 percent less than in 2016.

Flour alongside wheat was mainly imported from Kazakhstan. Last year, the volume of flour production at domestic enterprises was over 647,500 tons, which is 11.3 percent more than in 2016.

In 2017, the country produced more than 1.4 million tons of grain, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of Tajikistan.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Rashid Shirinov

The state register of tourism can appear in Azerbaijan in 2018, Ruslan Guliyev, Chairman of the Association for Support to Health and Thermal Tourism in Azerbaijan and President of the Global Healthcare Travel Council, told journalists on April 10.

He noted that the creation of the register will help improve coordination in this area as well as facilitate the monitoring and control over the activities of tourism entities.

The creation of the register will in no case contribute to bureaucratic obstacles. The collected statistics will help us coordinate the activities in this area more rationally in the future, Guliyev said.

The tourism register is being created based on the order of President Ilham Aliyev dated September 1, 2016, with the aim of developing tourism in Azerbaijan and expanding the possibilities of using modern information and communication technologies in this sphere.

Companies and tourist facilities will be able to enter information about themselves in the register. Culture and Tourism Ministry together with the relevant public structures, in turn, will check the information posted in the system by companies, hotels or people.

Companies included in the register will also be involved in all international events as well as education and service improvement programs.

Thanks to the wonderful climate of Azerbaijan, its culture, cuisine, nature, attractions, and diversity, more and more tourists visit the country every year. Also, hospitality of Azerbaijani people, the capital with its super modern and ancient buildings draw the attention of all tourists visiting this South Caucasian country. The tourists mainly visit the most popular destinations  Baku, Gabala, Guba and many other cities.

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, 25 hostels and 92 apartments for tourists operate in Baku.

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.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Rashid Shirinov

The number of foreign citizens arriving in Azerbaijan increased by 12.6 percent in the first three months of this year as compared to the same period of 2017, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a message on April 10.

During this period, 627,835 foreign citizens visited the country, which is 70,207 people more than in the same period last year.

As for the countries whose citizens visited Azerbaijan in the three months, Russia was the first (171,814 people), followed by Georgia (138,909), Iran (99,158) and Turkey (72,733). Moreover, 29,317 people were citizens of the UAE, 11,847 of Ukraine and 11,112 of Iraq.

The majority of foreigners who arrived in Azerbaijan in this period accounted for the CIS and Georgia (342,457 people or 54.5 percent), Middle Eastern countries (166,976 people or 26.5 percent) and European countries (93,122 people or 14.8 percent).

The ministry also noted that for the first two months of 2018, foreign tourists made operations in the amount of 190,927,699 manats ($111,981,005) through bank cards. Thus, they spent 20 percent more funds compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the funds spent by Azerbaijani citizens abroad for the two months amounted to 179,521,339 manats ($105,291,060).

Azerbaijan, the popular destination for many tourists, attracts millions of visitors every year. The country is popular both for many archaeological and historical sites, and for modern tourist facilities created in Azerbaijan for the convenience of tourists.

The country views tourism development as a priority in its efforts to diversify the non-oil economy.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. In general, for the past 10 years, the number of tourists visiting the country increased five-fold.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
On 7 May 2018 the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Public limited liability company Novaturas, code 135567698, registered at A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter, the Company), is being convened (hereinafter, the Meeting) upon the initiative and decision of Board of the Company.

The place of the Meeting  hotel Radisson BLU Lietuva, conference room OMEGA, Konstitucijos ave. 20, Vilnius 09308, the Republic of Lithuania. The Meeting commences at 3 p.m. (registration starts at 2.00 p.m. and ends at 2.45 p.m.).

The Meetings accounting day  27 April 2018. The persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of accounting day of the General Meeting of Shareholders or authorized persons by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the Meeting.

The Board of the Company initiates and convenes the Meeting, which on 10 April 2018 approved the following agenda of the Meeting:

1. Election of 2 (two) members of the Supervisory council of the Company.

2. Provision of authorisations to the Manager of the Company.

The total number of the Companys shares of EUR 0.03 par value each and the number of shares granting voting rights during the general meeting of shareholders is the same and amounts to 7,807,000.

ISIN code of the Companys shares is LT0000131872.

The Company shall not provide the possibility to participate and vote in the Meeting through electronic communication means.

Draft resolutions on agenda issues, documents to be submitted to the Meeting and other information related to the exercising of the shareholders rights are available on the website of the Company www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors. This information will also be available for the shareholders at the head office of the Company (A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania) on business days from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m.

The shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the Meeting by providing the draft resolution on each additionally proposed issue or in case no resolution is required  the relevant explanation. The proposals to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days or by sending them to its registered mail address, A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, LT-44245 Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania. The proposals submitted via e-mail shall be sent to gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt. The proposals to supplement the agenda with the additional issues shall be received in the Company till 22 April 2018, 4 p.m. In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented the Company will notify on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same manner as on convening of the Meeting.

Each shareholder holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes at any time before the general meeting of shareholders or during the meeting shall have the right of proposing draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders, as well as the additional candidates to the members of the Supervisory Council of the Company (if elected). The proposed draft decisions must be presented in writing sending them by registered mail or providing them against signature at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice.

The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to the issues of the agenda of the Meeting to the Company in advance in writing. The shareholders shall present the questions not later than 3 business days before the Meeting via electronic mail to gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt. The Company undertakes to respond to the submitted questions via electronic mail till the Meetings day, except the questions related to the Companys commercial (industrial) secret, confidential information, as well as if the questions will be received in the Company later than 3 business days before the Meeting.

Responses of a general character shall be posted on the Companys website www.novaturasgroup.lt. The Company will not respond personally to the shareholder if the respective information is posted on the Companys website.

Each shareholder shall have a right in the manner established by the laws to authorise other (natural or legal) person to attend and vote at the general meeting of shareholders on his/her behalf. At the general meeting of shareholders an authorised person shall have the same rights as would be held by the shareholder represented by him/her, unless the authorized persons rights are limited by the power of attorney or by laws. The authorized person must provide a power of attorney certified in the manner established by laws. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by laws.

Shareholder shall also have the right to authorize through electronic communication means another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the Meeting on shareholders behalf. Such authorization shall not be confirmed by the notary public. The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through electronic communication means by e-mail gytis.smolskas@novaturas.lt no later than on the last business day before the Meeting by 4:00 p.m. The power of attorney and notification shall be issued in writing. The power of attorney and notification to the Company shall be signed with the electronic signature but not the letters sent via e-mail. By submitting the notification to the Company the shareholder shall include the Internet address from which it would be possible to download free of charge software to verify an electronic signature of the shareholder.

Each shareholder or representative thereof shall have the right to cast his/her vote in advance in writing by filling in a general ballot paper. The form of a general ballot paper is provided on the Companys website www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors. Upon a written shareholders request, the Company no later than 10 days before the Meeting shall send a general ballot paper by registered mail or hand it in person against signature. The general ballot paper filled shall be signed by the shareholder or his/her representative. In case the ballot paper is signed by the shareholders authorized representative, such person together with the filled ballot paper shall submit the document confirming the voting right. The ballot paper filled and the document confirming the voting right (if required) shall be submitted in a written form to the Company by its registered mail address, A. Mickeviciaus st. 27, LT-44245 Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania, or by submitting it to the Company. Valid will be dully filled-in ballot papers, received in the Company until the Meeting.

The shareholders could get familiarised with the following information and documents at the address of Company or on the website of the Company www.novaturasgroup.com on the menu item For investors:

 notification on convocation of the Meeting;

 total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares with voting rights on the convening day of the Meeting;

 draft resolutions on each agenda issue and other documents to be submitted to the Meeting;

 general ballot paper form.

Additional information is provided by Investor Relations Manager Gytis Smolskas, +370 37 321264.

Attachments:

Draft decision of the general meeting of shareholders;

General voting ballot of the general meeting of shareholders;

CV of the candidate Piotr Nowjalis;

CV of the candidate Franz Josef Leitner.




Founded in 1898, the Limerick-based MIC is a coeducational Catholic college, accredited by the University of Limerick, that serves nearly 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students on two campuses. MIC consistently educates 40 percent of Irelands elementary school teachers.



Like Boston College, MIC seeks to foster in its students a spirit of justice and compassion in the service of others, grounded in the vision of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy who believed that all individuals, and particularly the most marginalized, are entitled to an education.



"We're very pleased to reach this agreement with Mary Immaculate College," said Wortham. "They share our commitment to enhancing the human condition by helping their students develop as whole human beings in the service to others. We already have plans for student exchanges, and we look forward to working with them over the coming years."



Professor Ana M. Martinez Aleman, the Lynch School's associate dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, will oversee and coordinate the collaboration on behalf of Boston College.



It's anticipated the activities and programs likely to emerge from this agreement range from student exchanges, faculty-led study visits, and joint Master's and Ph.D.-level online programs, to mutual faculty exchanges and the possibility of an international Master's degree in Education.



MIC has significantly expanded since it enrolled 75 female students in 1901 for the purpose of professionally training female teachers for the national Catholic primary school system. In 1969, it became the first co-educational Irish College of Education and in 1974, the first to offer a three-year bachelor of Education degree. In 1998, it was the first Irish College of Education to confer Master's degrees in Education. In addition to a rapidly expanding student population, in 2016 MIC incorporated St. Patrick's College, a County Tipperary-based institution focused on preparing high school teachers, and re-named it MIC St. Patrick's Campus, Thurles.



Phil Gloudemans | University Communications


The Jasper family found guilty of fraud and theft for illegally diverting hurricane relief money for their own use will be sentenced next month.

According to court records, Walter, Anita and Rosie Diggles will be sentenced on May 22 in Lufkin.

Walter Diggles, the former executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, was convicted in August of 16 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and theft. His wife, Rosie, was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering. The couple and their daughter, Anita, were each also convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Diggles, a pastor at the Lighthouse Church in Jasper, funneled federal money intended for hurricane relief and recovery through DETCOG to the non-profit he ran, Deep East Texas Foundation, and then to the church's accounts for his family's personal use, according to court documents.

Rosie and Anita had control over one of the church accounts, federal prosecutors allege.

Evidence during the August trial showed that the family fraudulently overbilled for more than $1.3 million for workers' wages, transportation and recreation services "that bore no relation to reality."

According to a preliminary order filed in court in January, the family will be required to pay back nearly $1 million.

Prosecutors have asked the court to order Walter Diggles to forfeit $521,059.81, and Anita and Rosie to each forfeit $225,041.88.

The preliminary order will be finalized at the sentencing. If the family is not able to pay back the money in cash, the U.S. Attorney's Office can instead require them to forfeit property to fulfill the order.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitz
Fresh seafood could be on the menu for Port Arthur, with pier-elevated restaurants on Lakeshore Drive, fitted with a wraparound deck for outdoor dining and a pedestrian bridge connecting visitors to the boardwalk, under an ambitious, upgraded city plan in the works.

Before any visionary changes, though, improvements will have to be made to drainage and roadways to

accommodate the city's future central business district.

"We have to improve infrastructure that's on the ground and under the ground so we can encourage developers to return to downtown," said Ronald Burton, city planning and zoning director.

Port Arthur native and project manager Shad Comeaux said the new plan highlights the community's vision: "an inclusive community in a place that whatever your age is, you'll be able to have something to do."

The comprehensive plan hasn't been updated since 1989, but Burton said the new plan will set the direction of future growth for at least the next decade.

A final draft will be presented to Port Arthur City Council today, with the city

set to adopt the plan on May 8, Burton said.

The 200-page plan includes everything from new dining options and parks to upgraded residential neighborhoods and office spaces.

"We are looking ahead to the future as to what are the areas that are presently undeveloped and the potential it holds for development," Burton said.

The idea, he said, is to attract future developers to do business in Port Arthur.

"Developing access to the renovated downtown Port Arthur, that's what is going to be key," said Bill McCoy, president of the Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce. "You have to be able to get there before you want to build there."

A draft of the plan addresses problems of access and mobility through drainage and roadway repairs.

McCoy cited Texas 73 as a "definite barrier" dividing the city. North of the state highway is a lot of retail, McCoy said, while south of the highway is an industry-heavy, older portion of Port Arthur.

"You have to get people to cross 73 and go on down to Procter. You can't entice them to drove over potholes and through a hundred stop signs and redlights," McCoy said.

Several roadway extensions are recommended in the city plan, some of which would entail expanding roads from two to four lanes. In other cases, more repairs are necessary, Comeaux said.

Infrastructure will be completed phase-by-phase and financed through the city's capital improvements fund, Burton said. The plan includes $13 million in waste and wastewater capital improvement projects. Depending upon the project, Comeaux said grant funding could be sought. Private-public partnerships would be another option.

Port Arthur received more than 40 inches of rain during Tropical Storm Harvey, but "even before Harvey, drainage was a top priority," Comeaux said.

Port Arthur has a lot of promise, said Comeaux, who highlighted Pleasure Island, the city's coastal location and refineries as some of the city's assets.

The plan "looks at what's existing versus what could potentially happen in the future," Comeaux said, with a revitalized downtown as one of the city's "largest assets for future development and investment."

The comprehensive plan proposes six "catalyst projects," totaling $43 million, to go with a Downtown Revitalization Plan developed in 2015.

As the core of Port Arthur's downtown revitalization, the projected $10 million Central Business District will include 30,000 square feet of mixed office space, 4,000 square feet of retail space and a park just under three-quarters of an acre.

An "urban-style streetscape," with street trees and sidewalk landscaping, "would encourage a walkable environment for residents and users of the retail and office space," according to the draft.

A new buildling across from the Economic Development Corporation office on 501 Procter Street could feature office spaces for energy companies or residential lofts on the upper story, while the ground floor could make use of retail and restaurant space, according to the plan.

While the draft highlights Port Arthur's potential, McCoy said infrastructure is just the beginning.

"Government cannot do it. They can do pieces of it, but until you get free enterprise interested in helping you rebuild and invest in downtown Port Arthur, it's going to be a long battle," McCoy said.

An additional 18,000 square feet of commercial and office space is planned for the intersection of Procter Street and Charleston Avenue near the Lamar State College-Port Arthur campus. With student-oriented shops like a deli or a bookstore, the plan's 55 new townhome units on Fourth Street could cater to young professionals, Lamar faculty or retirees.

Burton said the plan "will not adversely affect existing development," and residents who live in planned project zones have nothing to worry about.

"We cannot just go and demolish people's houses," he said.

"Look at Lamar State College in Port Arthur and you see what our city could be," McCoy said, referring to the campus's renovated buildings and landscaping.

"Planning is detail and it's complicated, but the implementation is where you find out what you're made of," McCoy said. "Are you going to do it, or are you going to talk about it?"

Phoebe.Suy@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/PhoebeSuy
When it comes to gangs in Texas, four criminal organizations sit at the top of the heap for violence and lawlessness.

That's according to a report released by the Texas Department of Public Safety earlier this year. The agency rated gangs in Texas by threat level, categorizing the largest groups into three different tiers.
Berlin, Md.-based Atlantic General Endoscopy Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Sussex Countian reports.

Here's what you should now.

1. The center opened in March 2008.

2. Since opening, the endoscopy center has performed more than 36,000 cases.

3. The center has a patient-reported satisfaction score of 99 percent.

4. The center will participate in the 25th anniversary of its parent organization Berlin-based Atlantic General Hospital May 8.
Credit card networks American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa are set to end the policy of requiring signatures to authenticate a person's identity, reports The New York Times.

Here are six things to know.

1. The four credit card networks plan to no longer require credit card signatures to complete transactions, effective later in April.

2. More specifically, American Express will eliminate the signature requirement globally on all cards, while Mastercard is nixing the requirement in just the United States and Canada, according to the report. Discover is eliminating the signature requirement in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. As for Visa, The New York Times reports signatures will be optional in North America for retailers where customers can use chip cards.

3. However, the publication states retailers will still have the option of collecting signatures if they choose to do so. At least one retailer  Target  plans to get rid of signatures in April. Additionally, Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said in the report the company still records signatures on some transactions but plans to completely eliminate them soon.

4. Mark Horwedel, the chief executive of the Minneapolis-based Merchant Advisory Group, a trade group of merchants, said he anticipates 75 percent of MAG members will no longer require signatures by the end of 2018, according to The New York Times.

5. Credit card networks at least partially attribute the elimination of signature requirements to the commonality of adding computer chips to cards. The chips generate distinct codes for each transaction and are used as a fraud prevention measure.

6. With the elimination of credit card signatures, only certain instances, such as a large transaction like a house purchase, would require handwritten authentication, notes The New York Times.

Read the full report here.

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The University of Chicago Medicine will open a level 1 adult trauma center in its emergency department May 1, after receiving final approval from the Illinois health department, according to CBS Chicago.

While UChicago Medicine already has a level 1 pediatric trauma center, this marks the first time in 27 years the South Side of Chicago will have a hospital with a level 1 adult trauma center.

Without this trauma center on the South Side, trauma victims have been forced to travel up to 10 miles to receive trauma care at hospitals such as Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital or Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill.

South Side activists have been urging UChicago to add an adult trauma care center for several years. In September 2015, the university initially announced plans to team up with Chicago-based Sinai Health Systems to open a trauma center at its Chicago-based Holy Cross Hospital, but many critics argued it would still leave parts of the city's South Side lacking trauma care  leading the hospital to abandon the plan. In December 2015, the university decided instead to add a trauma center to its campus as part of a larger expansion project, which included constructing a new ED.

The Illinois Department of Public Health gave final approval to the university to begin its level 1 trauma care program April 9. The trauma center designation indicates that the hospital has the proper resources and staffing necessary to care for patients suffering from major injuries.
The Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare spending will grow to $1.2 trillion by 2028, according to its Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028.

This year, CBO estimates Medicare spending will grow by 3 percent, which is much slower than previous years. CBO attributes the slow growth to higher premium revenue, and anticipates Medicare enrollment to increase by 2.7 percent this year, compared to 2.6 percent last year.

However, that won't be the case from 2019 to 2028, CBO said. The office anticipates Medicare spending to climb an average of 7 percent each year during the time period. The change is "driven by the rising per-beneficiary costs of medical care," CBO said. Specifically, cost growth reflects nearly 5 percentage points of the increase. Growing enrollment only accounts for the remainder.

Medicaid is also expected to cost the government more due mostly to increasing per capita costs. After this year, CBO projects Medicaid spending will grow at an average rate of 5.5 percent per year. Just 1 percent of the spending reflects an uptick in enrollment, while nearly 5 percent is due to cost.



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CCS Oncology in Amherst, N.Y., a private oncology practice that is under federal investigation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 2, according to The Buffalo News.

Here are four things to know.

1. CCS Oncology and its affiliated companies owe $18.1 million to CCS' 20 largest unsecured creditors. Most of the debt is owed to Bank of America. The bank sued CCS Oncology after its owners defaulted on more than $16 million in loans, according to The Buffalo News.

2. CCS filed for bankruptcy following a raid by FBI agents in late March. The agents were gathering information related to an ongoing investigation into possible billing fraud at the practice, according to The Buffalo News. Company officials have denied any wrongdoing and no charges have been filed against CCS or its executives.

3. CCS' bankruptcy filing also came shortly after a federal judge issued an order allowing Bank of America to seize the company's assets. The bankruptcy filing places the Bank of America proceedings on hold, according to The Buffalo News.

4. CCS told The Buffalo News the practice will continue to serve oncology patients during the restructuring process. "We are now undertaking financial restructuring, through which we expect to achieve long-term financial sustainability and the flexibility to serve the community," the company said in a statement to The Buffalo News.

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Retired Army Col. Lawrence Connell is no longer acting director of the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center, according to an email sent to medical center staff by Raymond Chung MD, acting director of the VA Capitol Health Care Network.

Dr. Chung noted Mr. Connell's "temporary detail as acting director expired as scheduled April 7." The plan was for Mr. Connell to continue as director permanently, however "issues regarding technical aspects of his initial appointment as acting director have arisen making it impossible at this time."

Dr. Chung stated the move had "absolutely nothing to do with [Mr. Connell's] performance, which has been phenomenal."

Mr. Connell assumed the director role at the D.C. VA hospital in April 2017. CNN reported late last month the VA's Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection had launched an investigation into his appointment. A memo obtained by CNN alleges several protocols may have been violated when Mr. Connell was appointed as acting director. Mr. Connell was a senior adviser to former VA Secretary David Shulkin and worked on President Trump's transition staff. The memo notes, "we cannot conclude this selection was free from political influence or other impropriety."

Additionally, Stars and Stripes reported many of the sanitation issues that had plagued the hospital in April 2017 have not yet been mitigated. According to inspection records reviewed by Stars and Stripes, unsanitary conditions still exist at the facility, including a hospital blood bank refrigerator that wasn't working as recently as March.

Charles Faselis, MD, will take over as acting director of the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center. Dr. Faselis most recently served as chief of staff at the medical center. He was initially named acting director of the medical center in April 2017, before VA changed tack and named Mr. Connell.

Mr. Connell will return to VA's central office and serve as a senior advisor to the VA secretary for healthcare.
Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic reportedly offered "voluntary separation packages" to at least 400 medical transcriptionists, according to the Post Bulletin.

"This is part of a national trend in health care. New tools are reducing the need for transcription services. As a result, the need for medical transcriptionists to convert dictation into written reports is also declining," Roshy Didehban, chair of practice administration at Mayo Clinic, told Becker's Hospital Review April 6. "We've had honest, ongoing conversations with our staff about this change and are taking steps to help reduce the effect of this change on our staff, including offering individuals considering alternative career paths the option to receive a voluntary separation package."

Mayo Clinic offered separation packages to staff at all three of its main campuses. Officials reportedly told transcriptionists during a mandatory Skype meeting they had until May 19 to decide whether to take the buyout offer, the report states.

The staff changes come as the health system prepares to transition to Epic's EHR, which includes a voice-transcribing feature created by M*Modal. Mayo Clinic's facilities in Rochester are scheduled to transition to Epic May 5.

"The reduction in transcription volumes is a national industry trend not specific to Epic. In response to this trend, Mayo Clinic is looking at ways to manage the transcription workforce, which is why we offered this voluntary separation package to transcription staff who may be interested in leaving Mayo Clinic and/or pursuing other opportunities," A Mayo Clinic spokesperson told the Post Bulletin.

To aid those affected by the staff changes, the spokesperson told the publication Mayo Clinic offered select remote employees the chance to pursue other job opportunities at its various locations.

The health system previously cut or outsourced 188 transcriptionists in Wisconsin in 2014, and 82 transcriptionists in 2013, the report states.

To access the Post Bulletin report, click here.
Greenfield, Mass.-based Baystate Franklin Medical Center is urging the union representing about 200 hospital nurses to hold a contract vote and potentially avert a planned strike.

Nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association are scheduled to strike April 11. However, Baystate Franklin sent out a news release April 9, calling on the union to let nurses vote on contract proposals. Hospital officials said current proposals include a 4.9 percent salary increase over the duration of the contract, health insurance options requested by the union, written staffing commitments and various other benefits.

"Based on the strength of our proposed contract terms, particularly in offering a staffing model that the MNA has previously accepted in other hospitals, we are respectfully requesting that the MNA bring these contract terms to their members for a vote," said Baystate Franklin Interim president Ronald Bryant. "Doing so will allow our hospital to move forward and continue our important healthcare mission."

If nurses vote in favor of the proposals, the strike could be avoided. Still, the hospital is preparing for a potential strike. Baystate Franklin officials said the hospital will be open and operational during the strike, with exceptions such as the cardiac rehab unit, preadmission clinic, tuberculosis clinic and intensive care unit. They noted ICU patients will receive care at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.



Additionally, Baystate Franklin is bringing in experienced temporary nurses, who will begin work at 7 p.m. April 10 and finish shifts at 7 p.m. April 13. Striking nurses will not be able to return to work until the temporary nurses leave due to the hospital's contract terms with the temporary workers.

Donna Stern, RN, senior co-chair of the Baystate Franklin RN Bargaining Committee, took issue with the hospital's plans.

"Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurses want to be inside our hospital caring for our patients with the resources they need and deserve," she said in statement April 9. "Instead Baystate is forcing us to strike for 24 hours to advocate for safe patient care.

"On top of that, Baystate is using public money to lock our own nurses out before our strike and for two days afterward. Executives will be paying replacement nurses from around the country instead of allowing our nurses, who know our patients and our community, to provide care at our hospital."

Both sides have been in negotiations since November 2016.

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The former CEO of Blairsville, Ga.-based Union General Hospital, along with two physicians, were indicted for illegally prescribing and obtaining thousands of doses of prescription pain medications, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Michael Gowder, DDS, former CEO of Union General Hospital, and David Gowder, MD, the hospital's former emergency room director, conspired to illegally obtain oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam, according to officials.

The second physician, James Heaton, MD, is charged with illegally prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances to Dr. Michael Gowder and his family members, along with others.

Dr. David Gowder, who allegedly unlawfully obtained medications from hospital patients, is accused of illegally issuing prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam in the names of his and Dr. Michael Gowder's family members, existing hospital patients and patients who did not exist.

Dr. David Gowder reportedly directed hospital employees to fill these prescriptions at local pharmacies, providing cash to pay for the drugs and return them to him, according to officials.

"These defendants allegedly abused their positions as medical professionals to obtain illegitimately thousands of doses of prescription pain medications and now face serious federal charges," U.S. Attorney BJay Pak said.

The three men appeared in federal court in Gainesville, Ga., April 9 for arraignment, according to the report.
As of April 9, the Illinois Department of Public Health has received reports of 107 cases, including three deaths, linked to synthetic marijuana laced with a pesticide that causes severe bleeding.

Although the majority of the cases were in Illinois, including the three deaths, several cases were found in Indiana, Maryland, Missouri and Wisconsin, according to a CDC alert to clinicians released April 5.

The patients are believed to have been exposed to brodifacoum, a pesticide widely used as rat poison that causes severe bleeding.

The bleeding symptoms may not appear until days after the drugs are ingested, physicians said, according to The New York Times. Patients can be treated with vitamin K, which works to counteract the blood thinner's effects.

The CDC is sending a team to Illinois to help with the investigation, said Renee Funk, MD, associate director for emergency management for the CDC, according to The Times.

Michigan health officials issued a warning to the public to be aware of the cases. The Wisconsin Division of Public Health reported its first case in the state April 5 and warned emergency room physicians to watch for more, The Times noted.

The CDC is suggesting healthcare providers screen patients who enter ERs with unexplained bleeding and potential history of using this synthetic marijuana. The CDC also recommends providers report suspected cases associated with synthetic marijuana to their local health department.
A historic teacher strike in Oklahoma may hurt the state's blood supply, since 20 percent of blood donations come from high school blood drives, reports KTUL.

Tens of thousands of Oklahoma teachers launched a walkout last week to protest education funding cuts. Kids across Oklahoma have been out of school for five days, and many schools are expected to remain closed this week, according to The Washington Post.

These school closures are complicating blood collection for many blood banks. The Tulsa Red Cross has already canceled four blood drives amid the walkout. The Oklahoma Blood Institute moved its drives from schools to other locations, like community centers, which has hurt donations. Murry Estabrook, a teacher who oversees blood drives at Claremore (Okla.) High School, says the blood bank usually collects about 150 units during a normal drive at the school. However, the organization only collected 66 units of blood at a drive they were forced to move off-campus last week.

"If the other schools are struggling to get the numbers, that's gonna really hurt what we have in the blood banks," Mr. Estabrook told KTUL.

The Oklahoma Blood Institute said current blood supplies are steady due to a drop in demand last week. However, employees are closely watching supplies as the walkout continues.
A spotlight on opioid abuse is burning brighter as opioid-related deaths continue to plague the nation. In October 2017, President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. More than 350,000 people died from overdoses involving opioids between 1999 and 2016, according to the CDC.

With keen focus on curbing adult opioid dependency, Baltimore-based Kennedy Krieger Institute is ensuring children with chronic pain don't suffer the same fate.

"We want kids to be regular kids, even if they have chronic pain. A regular kid is never on opioids," says pediatrician Suzanne Venoski Rybczynski, MD. "At Kennedy Krieger Institute, our goal is to treat children and adolescents with chronic pain without the use of opioids." Dr. Rybczynski serves as medical director of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute and as an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Kennedy Krieger's pediatric pain rehabilitation program offers outpatient, intensive day treatment and intensive inpatient rehabilitation. The Institute takes a holistic treatment approach, bringing pediatric anesthesiologists, pediatric rehabilitation physicians and pediatricians together with physical therapists, occupational therapist and a host of other team members to solve patients' pain problems. Additionally, Kennedy Krieger sets up patients with behavioral psychologists to teach skills and coping methods for children with chronic pain.

Dr. Rybczynski says they often treat pediatric patients recovering from spine procedures for idiopathic scoliosis or neuromuscular scoliosis, with the goal of weaning them off opioids as quickly as possible.

Complex regional pain syndrome is another common condition among patients at Kennedy Krieger. "These kids that are at risk for ending up on opioids if a physician isn't aware of that condition," says Dr. Rybczynski. "We think the interdisciplinary group treatment helps a lot for that subgroup of orthopedic chronic pain."

The institute offers a variety of treatment options that don't include opioids, helping both the patients and their families cope with the burden of chronic pain:

Biofeedback

Sleep hygiene

Behavioral psychology

Exercise: yoga, riding bikes, walking on treadmills

Massage and acupuncture

Aquatic therapy

Animal-assisted therapy

"Typically four weeks, the inpatient treatment gives the child and family new skills to cope with pain," adds Dr. Rybczynski. "We never promise the pain will go away 100 percent." Dr. Rybczynski says the key is to get children on a routine and to distract them from the pain.

"I think that children want to just be kids," says Dr. Rybczynski. "We want to get them back to doing their regular things without having to rely on [opioids]." She notes that children are often motivated to get better and dislike being on medication, so removing opioids from their treatment plans is usually easier than it is for adults.

And it helps that pediatricians are generally more reluctant to prescribe any medications, Dr. Rybczynski adds.

"We are more comfortable saying no because we are used to having parents coming in asking for antibiotics inappropriately," she explains. "In that respect, pediatrics is in a better place than adult medicine."

Dr. Rybczynski is hopeful the opioid epidemic will slow, due to the heightened awareness in the media and Congress prioritizing it.

"People are more aware and hopefully physicians won't be swept up in the prescribing of opioids," she concludes.
Intu, which owns shopping centres around the UK and in Spain, said it will add new shops, new places to eat and an 80-bedroom hotel, as well as landscaping improvements (stock picture)

Shopping centre giant Intu has announced a 50m investment in Sprucefield Park in Lisburn with the creation of around 500 jobs.

The site was formerly linked with department store John Lewis during a long controversy over planning, with the result that the retailer gave up any interest in the location.

And Martin Breeden, development director at Intu, yesterday confirmed that it is not in talks with John Lewis.

Intu, which owns shopping centres around the UK and in Spain, said it will add new shops, new places to eat and a 80-bedroom hotel, as well as landscaping improvements.

It would bring over 200 construction jobs and over 300 retail jobs.

The park is home to retailers including Sainsbury's and Next Home. A Toys R Us store on the site is to close.

Intu is subject to a potential takeover by UK rival Hammerson, which owns Abbey Retail Park.

Mr Breeden said: "We want to transform Sprucefield Park into an exciting place to shop, eat and relax to complement Lisburn's city centre offering.

"Our plans will deliver 13 retail units for the site, the largest of which will be 6,412 sq m over two levels. We are talking to a number of quality retailers but John Lewis is not currently one of those."

But he would not give any details about the identity of the "quality retailers".

"Not at the moment as our discussions are at a very early stage."

And he said the company was not fearful of the consequences of ploughing investment into out of town retail at a time when major chains such as Toys R Us have gone into administration after a long practice of trading from warehouse-style units.

He said: "Retail is a dynamic industry and people will always want great places to shop, eat and meet. This location is perfect and we already have interest from quality retailers. That's why we intend to invest 50m and are so excited by its potential."

But he refused to comment on whether the new plans involved revamping the sites occupied by its existing tenants, or on whether a new occupant had been found to take over the Toys R Us site.

"As we've said, we want to transform Sprucefield Park and complement Lisburn city centre by bringing new shops, new places to eat and a hotel with at least 80 bedrooms, as well as landscaping improvements, to create an exciting place to shop, eat and relax."

Sprucefield Retail Park is a separate development to Sprucefield Centre, home to retailers including Next, Marks and Spencer and Boots.

Intu had been the subject of a 3.4bn takeover bid by rival Hammerson, which owns Abbey Retail Park. But in a twist, Hammerson itself received a surprise 4.8bn 'cash and shares' approach from European rival Klepierre. It has until Monday to make a formal offer.

Intu announced its plans as a report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG found that the cold weather in March kept people away from the streets.

The report said the period was volatile, as the run-up to Easter helped to offset the impact of the "seemingly endless" cold weather on sales.

It said UK retail sales increased by 1.4% on a like-for-like basis compared with March 2017, when they had decreased 1% from the preceding year.
Sir Billy Connolly has described himself as the least patriotic man in the world and said he dislikes people who write England off because theyre Scottish.

The Scottish actor and comedian, also known by his moniker The Big Yin, will be seen in the first episode of Sky Arts series Tate Britains Great Art Walks, where he joins Gus Casely-Hayford on a walking tour which will focus on the influences of English painter Stanley Spencer.

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Asked about his choice of doing the programme which focuses on a British painter, as a Scotsman, he told Radio Times: Im the least patriotic man in the world. I do love Scotland, but if the love for your country is all you have, youre in a desperate state.

I dislike people that write England off because theyre Scottish. Its unfair and brutal.

The Glasgow-born star, 75, who has enjoyed a successful acting career alongside his life in comedy, revealed in 2013 that he was being treated for the initial symptoms of Parkinsons disease.

He was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2017 and said being given the honour was a big bit nerve-racking.

He told Radio Times: You dont want to make an arse of it. You think, Oh God, dont trip. Or worry you might make a rude noise.

Since Ive got Parkinsons, Im a bit dodgy getting down on one knee  I dont do it all that well. And then I had to walk backwards to a certain point, but I managed it fine.

Im sure Prince William will think Im a mentally ill person. I answered his questions in the most stupid fashion just though nerves.

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Sir Billy, who has been married to Pamela Stephenson for 28 years, said there was no secret to it all when asked about their marriage.

He added: If you listen to the song The Glory of Love: Youve got to give a little, take a little/Sometimes let your poor heart break a little/Thats the story of, and thats the glory of love. Its all in there.

He revealed the couple watch the Oscars ceremony annually and he makes macaroni and cheese. Its a ritual.

 Read the full interview in this weeks Radio Times.
Here is a timeline of events in the years before and after the Good Friday Agreement.

1988

January  Talks get underway between Gerry Adams and his main nationalist rival, the SDLP leader John Hume, to see how a political settlement in Northern Ireland could be achieved.

September  The Hume-Adams dialogue breaks down.

1991

January  Martin McGuinness takes part in British Government approved secret talks with MI6s Michael Oatley about ending the conflict.

1993

April  John Hume and Gerry Adams resume their dialogue.

October  The SDLP and Sinn Fein leaders pass proposals to Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds on how to end violence and secure a permanent peace. Two months later, Mr Reynolds and Prime Minister John Major produce the Downing Street Declaration, setting out their vision for securing peace.

1994

August 31  The IRA announce a complete cessation of military activities, to be followed 43 days later with a similar ceasefire announcement by the main loyalist paramilitaries.

1995

May 10  First official meeting in 23 years between Sinn Fein and a British Government minister.

1996

February 9  The IRA ends its 17-month ceasefire with the bombing of Londons Docklands and the killing of two innocent civilians. Government breaks off links with Sinn Fein.

1997

May 16  Within days of becoming Prime Minister, Tony Blair delivers a keynote speech in Belfast, warning republicans: The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train.

July 20  The IRA reinstates its ceasefire to enable Sinn Fein to take part in talks.

September 17  As Sinn Fein enters the talks at Stormont chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell, the DUP and other hardline unionists walk out. David Trimbles Ulster Unionists remain.

1998

April 10  The Good Friday Agreement is signed and is endorsed a month later in a referendum by 71.12% of the people of Northern Ireland.

June 25  The Northern Ireland Assembly Elections see the Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP emerge as the largest parties.

July 1  David Trimble and SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon are elected First and Deputy First Minister at the Assemblys first meeting. However, the UUP refuse to form a devolved government until the IRA disarms.

August 15  The Real IRA bomb in the Co Tyrone market town of Omagh is the single deadliest atrocity in the history of the Troubles, claiming the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

1999

November 29  After much wrangling the Assembly finally meets and nominates executive ministers  only to be suspended the following February by Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson because of the IRAs failure to decommission.

2000

May 29  Unionists agree a return to Stormont on the basis of the arms issue being dealt with.

2002

October 14  Devolution again suspended as power-sharing falls apart over allegations of an IRA spy ring gathering intelligence at the heart of government.

2003

November 26  Fresh Assembly elections see Rev Ian Paisleys Democratic Unionist Party emerge for the first time as the largest party and Sinn Fein as the major voice of nationalism.

2005

July 28  The Provisional IRA announces a formal end to its armed campaign, orders units to dump arms and pursue goals through exclusively peaceful means.

2006

October 13  Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern lay the foundations for a new devolution deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

2007

March 6  Following Sinn Feins decision to endorse the police in Northern Ireland, the province goes to the polls and returns both the DUP and Sinn Fein with increased numbers of seats.

May 8  The Rev Ian Paisley becomes First Minister and Martin McGuinness is appointed Deputy First Minister at the head of the new power-sharing Executive two months after their parties triumph in an Assembly Election.

2009

March  Police investigate the murders of soldiers Mark Quinsey (23), from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar (21), from London, by the Real IRA at Massereene Barracks in Antrim, and the murder of PC Stephen Carroll (48) by gunmen from the Continuity IRA in an attack in Craigavon.

June 18  It emerges that the Ulster Volunteer Force has carried out a significant act of decommissioning.

2010

January 6  The UDA announces that it has decommissioned all its weaponry.

2012

A vote at Belfast City Council in December to limit the days the Union flag flies from Belfast City Hall leads to street protests across Northern Ireland by Ulster loyalists.

2013

The flag protests continue. Tensions between Sinn Fein and the DUP are heightened when the DUP withdraws backing for a Peace and Conflict Resolution Centre on the site of the old Maze Prison. Richard Haass, the former US envoy to Northern Ireland, is brought in as an independent chairman of an all-party group set up to deal with divisive issues such as parades and protests. Months of talks break up at Christmas without agreement.

2014

A crisis over welfare threatens to bring down power-sharing when Sinn Fein refuses to implement reforms demanded by London. Following 11 weeks of discussion, the Stormont House Agreement is reached in December.

2015

Devolved government again faces possible collapse over a fresh welfare reform row between DUP and Sinn Fein. Devolution is already hanging by a thread after the murders of two former IRA men in Belfast in August. The chief constable George Hamilton, says individual Provisional IRA members were behind the killing and the organisation still exists. Crisis talks lasting 10 weeks result in the Fresh Start Agreement, a deal between the British and Irish governments and Northern Irelands two largest parties to find a way forward.

2016

June  Allegations emerge of a multimillion-pound cash for ash scandal in relation to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) eco-scheme.

December 16  Martin McGuinness calls on Arlene Foster  the minister in charge of the department at the time RHI was set up  to stand aside as First Minister while the cash for ash scandal is investigated. Mrs Foster replies that she will not be stepping aside.

2017

January 9  Martin McGuinness resigns as Deputy First Minister in protest at the DUPs handling of the RHI scandal.

January 23  Michelle ONeill is named as new leader of Sinn Fein in the north.

March 21  Martin McGuinness dies from a rare heart condition aged 66.

2018

February 14  Sinn Fein and DUP talks fall apart on Valentines Day over disagreements about Irish language legislation.
Seamus Mallon has recalled how he went to the houses of two lifelong friends killed by loyalists and vowed to seal the Good Friday Agreement.

Philip Allen, a Protestant, and Damien Trainor, a Catholic, were shot dead in the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass in Co Armagh on March 3, 1998, just weeks before the signing of the peace deal.

Mr Mallon, a future Deputy First Minister, joined then Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in consoling grieving families who a judge later said suffered one of the most heinous events in the history of the Troubles.

The SDLP man, now 81, said: "It certainly strengthened my resolve about getting an agreement."

He added: "The symbolism of David Trimble and myself together was a stark reminder for ourselves and for everyone else that what we were involved in in the talks was essentially to prevent that ever happening again.

"It had an effect on the decision-making in that it provided a stark reminder of what we had to deal with and it brought a very, very potent urgency to what we were doing."

Mr Trimble went on to become First Minister in the power-sharing Executive at Stormont alongside Mr Mallon. The closing days of the Agreement negotiations were "frenetic", Mr Mallon recalled, once having to sleep on a table.

Issues like the release of paramilitary prisoners were largely decided between the UK Government and Sinn Fein. He only realised at the very end that the dialogue had convinced the SDLP and UUP to reach agreement and said respect was essential for political opponents to work together.

Mr Mallon recalled: "In my dealings with the Ulster Unionist Party and particularly by David Trimble, there was no animosity, we respected each other's position. We knew where each of us was vulnerable and we respected that."

Relations were tested by the reform of policing. Mr Mallon sought radical reappraisal, unionists wanted to protect the honour of the RUC. It was solved by the use of the unbiased outsider Lord Chris Patten to recommend change.

Mr Mallon was the SDLP's former Newry and Armagh MP, an area that suffered greatly during the 30-year Troubles, and said an opportunity was missed after the deal.

He said: "It is an absolute shame that so much time and opportunity has been wasted by two parties (the DUP and Sinn Fein) who were not working the very essence of the Agreement, which was inclusivity and had the remit to create co-operation and reconciliation.

"Instead, they set up their two political silos, they looked after what they would have regarded as their own and made no advances at all, or no effort in terms of creating a reconciled community in the north of Ireland. For them politics was about victory, it became a 'them or us' political Executive.

"The main objective of each of those two large political parties was not to work the Agreement for the people of Northern Ireland, but to work it for their own party political advantages. In doing so they have demeaned the Agreement which we reached."
Remains of the van in which seven workmen were killed in an IRA landmine explosion in Teebane, Co.Tyrone. 18/01/92. Pacemaker Press

Remains of the van in which seven workmen were killed in an IRA landmine explosion in Teebane, Co.Tyrone. Pacemaker Press

Politicians have swept the victims' issue under the carpet, a teacher whose husband was badly injured in an IRA bombing said.

Jan Crawford's partner Gary, 50, lost his trade as a joiner when his left side was "shattered" by the attack on a minibus at Teebane crossroads in Co Tyrone in 1992.

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Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement, Mrs Crawford, 52, said they had been given the runaround by politicians unable to agree on measures to address Northern Ireland's toxic past.

She said: "It is very miserable, there is not much humanity in any of that, I could not do that to someone but seemingly they can live with that and they get paid for doing nothing.

"I don't know how they live with their consciences, they need to dig deeper into themselves."

Some measure of agreement on dealing with the past was found during recent sets of political negotiations. However, the deal foundered on calls for an Irish language act.

Eight died and six were injured at Teebane. The firm was targeted because it carried out work for the security forces.

Mrs Crawford voted against the Good Friday Agreement because she felt it was built on "sinking sand" but, in retrospect, believes there was no alternative.

"I just find that too many politicians are working from their own agenda and are refusing to see the bigger picture, and I also feel they have put the victims on the back burner, they want us to go away - it is almost like sweeping all the problems under the carpet."

Northern Ireland's Victims' Commissioner Judith Thompson has said the Agreement is a huge piece of "unfinished business".

She understood Mrs Crawford's frustration at the lack of progress. Twenty-six years after her husband Gary was severely injured and left unable to work for the rest of his life, they are still waiting for a pension that is blocked by political disagreement.

While thousands of lives were saved by the 1998 accord, around 1,700 deaths have not been properly dealt with by the justice system, she said.

Mechanisms to reinvestigate unresolved Troubles deaths, information recovery and hold inquests has not been delivered because Stormont power-sharing has stalled.

There have been 150 Troubles-related deaths since the Agreement was signed.

Northern Ireland has the highest level of post-traumatic stress disorder in Europe following the Troubles.

Some provision had been made for healthcare, 55 voluntary and community groups exist to support those harmed and 13 million of public funds a year is devoted to it.

Ms Thompson said the legacy of the past: "Has been kicked down the road ever since the Good Friday Agreement and we have learned that it is not a can they are kicking, it is a snowball and the further you kick it down the road the bigger and more corrosive it gets."

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable George Hamilton has said they cannot police the past and the present, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan has called for more money for Troubles inquests and prosecutors have raised workload concerns.

Ms Thompson said the justice system was losing goodwill because of outstanding reforms.

The Agreement was still: "Unfinished business for our peace process, unfinished business not just for victims and survivors but for all of us."

Around 1,700 deaths have not been properly dealt with by the justice system.

Ms Thompson said those included bereaved families from across all of our community.

"We have all those issues which are desperately painful and difficult, they cause ongoing grief and anger."
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton (R) along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (L) speaks while alongside Lord John Alderdice at a panel discussion event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: In this handout photo provided by Press Eye, singers perform at a ceremony held this evening in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. (Photo by William Cherry/Presseye via Getty Images)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald sits alongside vice president Michelle O'Neill as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton holds (R) hands with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

DUP leader Arlene Foster during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

(back row left to right) Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen, (front row left to right) Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

(back row left to right) Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen (obscured), (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Senator George Mitchell attends an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

(Top L-R) Former first minister of Northern Ireland Bertie Ahern, former leader of the Ulster Unionist party Reg Empey, former Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy (bottom L-R) former Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, former US special envoy George Mitchell and former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams pose at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Senator George Mitchell (right) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Jonathan Powell and Senator George Mitchell (left) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney speak to the media at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

(back row left to right) Jonathan Powell, Lord John Alderdice, Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen and (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Senator George Mitchell during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Lord David Trimble at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Lord John Alderdice (left) and Peter Robinson during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye

Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell.

Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Micheal Lawson as he reads 'Ceasefire' by Michael Longley

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Josh Burnside singing 'One More'

Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye

A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. Pic William Cherry Presseye

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton

A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council.Pictured Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall

Ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members.

Ceremony held in historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell.

(L-R) Jonathan Powell, Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, Paul Murphy and Gerry Adams pose for a photo on the 20th Anniversary of the signing of The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on this day 20 years ago. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Former US President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell have been made Freemen of the City of Belfast in a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, with the Lord Mayor of Belfast telling them "our home is your home".

The two were instrumental in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement which marks its 20th anniversary on Tuesday.

George Mitchell was President Clinton's US special envoy to Northern Ireland who chaired the negotiations for the 1998 Agreement.

The SDLP proposed the conferring of the honour to the two men, however, the Ulster Unionist Party was against the council motion, branding it a "gimmick and stunt".

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President Clinton said: The people of Belfast and Northern Ireland have a special place in my heart, and it remains one of the great privileges of my life that I could be part of their journey toward peace.

An honour Ill cherish as long as I live. Bill Clinton

The 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement are a testament to peoples determination to put the past behind them and move into the future together. Receiving the Freedom of the Cityespecially alongside Senator George Mitchellis an honour Ill cherish as long as I live.

"The honour of the peace, however, belongs to all the people of Northern Ireland, including the women and young people who pushed to end the violence, the courageous leaders who took the risks to forge peace, and all those who have strengthened it since.

Northern Ireland experience changed my life. George Mitchell

Senator Mitchell said: It is an honour for me to receive the Freedom of the City of Belfast, especially in the company of President Bill Clinton. It was he who asked me to come to Northern Ireland as his representative when I retired from the US Senate; the resulting experience changed my life.

"After chairing three separate sets of discussions in Northern Ireland, over a span of five years, I then had the privilege of serving as the Chancellor of Queens University for 10 years. As a result, I have come to know and to greatly admire the people of Northern Ireland. To receive this honor from them is very moving and gratifying to me.

We do not underestimate or take for granted the fragile nature or power of peace. Belfast Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister

Lord Mayor of Belfast, councillor Nuala McAllister, said the two men had made a "very significant contribution to peacebuilding" at the special ceremony in the Ulster Hall saying their place in history had been assured.

"Today, we reached an important milestone in our history for the city of Belfast and Northern Ireland," she told the audience of invited guests.

"In the 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement a generation of young people have grown up in a different world devoid of violence and instead full of hope, opportunity and above all- peace.

Twenty years ago today, the Good Friday Agreement, in Seamus Heaneys words, cleared a space for the miraculous. I hope the people of Northern Ireland will continue to fill it, with an enduring peace, a strong democracy, and a growing economya truly shared future.  Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) April 10, 2018

"Aged just nine , I was unaware of the symbolic and mammoth task of bringing together such an agreement. However, I heard my parents; neighbours and teachers talk of the word peace'. Whilst not fully understanding the complexities, I understood that word. Peace."

She continued: "For my generation and for the many young people you see in the room this evening, we do not underestimate or take for granted the fragile nature or power of peace. Nevertheless, we do expect that along with it must come aspirations, opportunities and consistent progress. I hear this everyday as Lord Mayor, I hear from people who like me, are proud to call Belfast home.

"And, I am thrilled to be Lord Mayor of Belfast during this anniversary year. It is a privilege to show-case a city that is open, welcoming and inclusive. A Belfast buzzing with tourism, a Belfast brimming with culture, a truly vibrant and confident city.

"Tonight we recognise all the men and women who worked tirelessly to lay the foundations to ensure peace - helping to lead the way for this transformed city. We honour two men, who along with the many other grassroot peacebuilders helped to bring our communities together established the beginning of a path towards a shared future for generations to come. We thank you for your affection towards the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland, and the role you played to secure peace.

"Your place in our history is assured by receiving this honour. President Clinton, Senator Mitchell - our home is your home."

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Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Ceremony held in historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council.Pictured Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. Pic William Cherry Presseye William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Micheal Lawson as he reads 'Ceasefire' by Michael Longley William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Josh Burnside singing 'One More' William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry Presseye William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. William Cherry / Presseye / Facebook

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DUP leader Arlene Foster has welcomed a joint statement from three loyalist paramilitary groups supporting the rule of law and suggesting that members involved in crime could be expelled.

The UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando made their pledge on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at a Press conference in Belfast's Linen Hall Library. It is their first joint statement since the 1994 loyalist ceasefire and followed lengthy discussion with three Protestant church leaders.

But many parties responded cautiously to the statement. The Ulster Unionists insisted the paramilitaries would be judged by their actions.

TUV leader Jim Allister described their claim to support the rule of law as farcical because they were proscribed organisations. Sinn Fein said it was time for all armed groups to leave the stage.

In their joint statement, the three groups said: "We fully support the rule of law in all areas of life and emphatically condemn all forms of criminal activity.

"Individuals who use criminality to serve their own interests at the expense of loyalist communities are an affront to the true principles of loyalism.

"We reject and repudiate as unacceptable and contrary to loyalist principles any criminal action claimed to have been undertaken in our name or attributed to any individual claiming membership of one of our organisations."

The statement continued: "We further declare that any engagement in criminal acts by any individuals within our organisations will be regarded as placing those persons outside the memberships.

"This has been collectively agreed. We cannot allow criminals to hinder transformation and the ground in which such people stand is now shrinking."

Former Presbyterian Moderator Norman Hamilton, former Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and all-Ireland Primate Alan Harper, and former Methodist President Harold Good - who played a key role in verifying decommissioning - attended the Press conference.

DUP leader Mrs Foster said the loyalist statement stood "in stark contrast to Gerry Adams' latest justification for violence".

She said it was time "for those who use criminality to get off the backs of their communities" and she supported the police in "putting them out of business and behind bars once and for all".

Mrs Foster said the DUP would "continue to help those who want to transition into politics" and she commended "those who are leading and working hard to help move their communities forward". UUP leader Robin Swann said the paramilitary groups' statement would be measured by the difference it made to the lives of people in loyalist communities.

"It is long past time that those who continue to threaten and exert control over communities here were gone. They must pack up and get off the backs of our people, or face the inside of a jail cell," he added.

Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said: "What people wanted to hear this morning was that these groups are leaving the stage rather than the same recycled statement of intent to end criminality.

"There is no place for any armed groups in our society in 2018, 20 years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement."

Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said: "Alliance gives this statement a guarded welcome, but it will be actions that will determine the scope and sincerity of this new commitment.

"It is disappointing that 20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement these discussions are still happening."

The PUP welcomed the loyalist statement, which placed "considerable emphasis on a commitment to peace... in an era of pernicious and polluted politics".
Clinton on the steps of Stormont in 2000 with Prime Minister Tony Blair and First and Deputy First Ministers David Trimble and Seamus Mallon

Former US President Bill Clinton during his speech at University College Dublin on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

Former US President Bill Clinton has warned that unless the parties in Northern Ireland resolve their differences they risk languishing in purgatory or returning to hell.

Last night, he delivered the keynote address to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement at the George Moore Auditorium in University College Dublin's O'Brien Centre for Science.

The milestone of the Agreement's signing comes amid the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and concerns that Brexit could see the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The turmoil at Stormont has led some to question the sustainability of the Good Friday Agreement.

President Clinton warned of the sclerotic and corrosive impact inertia can have on a people.

He made three appeals, to avoid undermining the work of the Good Friday Agreement and democracy being eroded.

"So my first plea is this thing has lasted, don't let it go," he told the crowd.

"One of three things is going to happen in the North.

"The whole thing will fall apart and you will go back into the hell that now people have forgotten from the Troubles.

"Or, two, you can stay in purgatory, where you got denied dreams and broken hopes and you'll just rock along, caught on a sea of lost chances.

"If you do that, slowly you will begin to lose a democracy in the North.

"Or three, everybody can rear back, settle down and make a new beginning.

"Whatever compromises have to be made to minimise the damage of Brexit, to keep the markets as open as possible, and share the Government.

"It is so easy to underestimate the fragility of the situation you have come to take for granted"

He added that the key to moving forward was compromise.

He said: "You have to be willing to give. Compromise has to become a good thing, not a dirty word.

"And voters have to stop punishing people who make those compromises.

"And start rewarding them."

He said that the most important thing "is that the peace is held and nobody has questioned democracy".

"There is a limit imposed by constant paralysis because even if the economy stays static, the politics don't," he added.

"That is the challenge that every one of us faces today who cares about this.

"There is simply a limit to how long people can go on.

"It is about the people who live there and their kids and grandkids."

Mr Clinton continued: "There is a limit to the elasticity of inertia, of paralysis.

"So my position on this is pretty certain, I basically believe that you should celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, not for what happened but for what can happen."

He said that when society is given no sign of the prospect of mobility and moving forward, extremism prevails.

"The only thing that will be calamitous is if you consigned yourself to a purgatory of paralysis or go back to hell instead of moving forward," he told the crowd.

President Clinton considers Northern Ireland's peace process his greatest foreign policy achievement and said it broke "like thunder across the world".

He said: "The Irish peace was born out of weariness of children dying and of lost chances, the further you get away from that the easier it is to take the absence of bad for granted and to live in this purgatory where we are now. It's a big mistake."

He also spoke of the value and importance of compromise and not creating a society based on 'Us vs Them'.

"Inclusive decisions are always better than homogeneous ones or lone genius," he said.

He recalled staying up to 2.30am on the eve of the Good Friday Agreement and speaking to Gerry Adams, Ian Paisley, John Hume, George Mitchell, Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, and David Trimble.

He said that the situation in Northern Ireland reminds him that "there are no final victories or defeats".

He concluded: "In his Nobel Prize speech Seamus Heaney also said of WB Yeats that his intent was to clear a space in the mind and the world for the miraculous.

"Twenty years ago tomorrow, 17 hours late, everybody impatient, some brave people cleared a space for the miraculous - you should fill it."

Mr Clinton visits Belfast today to receive the freedom of the city alongside his former special envoy to Northern Ireland, George Mitchell.
The Attorney General has ordered a new inquest into the death of one of the children at the centre of Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

John Larkin QC has requested a second inquest into the circumstances leading to the death of nine-year-old Claire Roberts at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1996.

Claire's parents, Alan and Jennifer, who have campaigned tirelessly to uncover the truth about their daughter's tragic death, welcomed "the decisive and definitive action taken by the Attorney General".

Mr Roberts said that between 2004 and 2006, false and misleading information had been supplied to the coroner.

He continued: "The role of the coroner is to establish the correct cause of death, something we as parents have been denied for more than 21 years.

"It will be for other agencies, in turn, to explore the efforts of medical professionals to conceal the truth about Claire's death.

"We, as parents, are more determined than ever that the truth shall prevail, those responsible made accountable and that justice is served."

The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust declined to comment on the latest development.

The chair of the Hyponatraemia Inquiry, John O'Hara QC, was heavily critical of the then associate medical director of the Royal Group of Hospitals, Peter Walby, for his actions relating to the original inquest into Claire's death which was held in 2006.

In this report published at the end of January, Mr O'Hara said Mr Walby, who was also in charge of litigation for the trust, "appears to have been more concerned with the interests and reputation of the trust than with the lessons to be learned".

He continued: "Mr Walby was in the unusually influential position where he could decide whether some witnesses provided statements to the coroner or not and furthermore where he could and did, edit, correct and partially redraft their statements.

"He was so placed that he could protect the interests of the trust at a time when his duty was first and foremost to assist the coroner.

"The trust should not have allowed the potential for such conflict to arise."

Mr Roberts met with Mr Larkin following the publication of the long-awaited report to impress on him the importance of a second inquest into Claire's death.

Meanwhile, the PSNI has set up a team to examine the findings of the inquiry report.

The inquiry was set up to examine the deaths of five children in Northern Ireland hospitals that were linked to hyponatraemia - a condition that occurs when there is a shortage of sodium in the bloodstream.

It found that the deaths of three of the children were preventable and the result of medical negligence.

Mr O'Hara revealed he was planning to write to the head of the Coroner's Service, Mrs Justice Keegan, to warn coroners to "probe more carefully and more deeply when they receive information from hospitals about the care of patients in hospitals".
The former US special envoy to Northern Ireland who chaired the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement has called on politicians to come up with new answers to fresh problems.

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, George Mitchell said it would be useful for everyone to reflect on the significance of the historic Agreement 20 years on, at a time when Stormont remains collapsed and the possibility of a hardened Irish border looms..

"The tragedies of the past have left a deep and profoundly regrettable legacy of suffering," he said.

"We must never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families - but we can best honour them through a fresh start".

The former US senator, who has formally been awarded the Freedom of the City of Belfast along with President Bill Clinton for their instrumental role in ending the conflict, has called on political leaders in Belfast, London and Dublin to "rekindle the spirit of partnership and mutual respect" that led to the 1998 Agreement.

Mr Mitchell also urged the British and Irish governments, along with the political parties here, to "recall and heed the powerful and moving words" of those who supported the establishment of the peace process two decades ago.

They include former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his predecessors Albert Reynolds and John Bruton, along with former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his forerunner, John Major.

Mr Mitchell also praised Bill Clinton, who made securing peace here a top priority of the US administration's foreign policy goals, but he said the people and leaders of Northern Ireland were the "real heroes" who changed the course of history.

"The people supported the effort to achieve agreement and afterward they voted overwhelmingly to ratify it," he said.

"Their political leaders, in dangerous and difficult circumstances, after lifetimes devoted to conflict, summoned extraordinary courage and vision and reached agreement at great risk to themselves, their families, and their political careers."

The US lawyer, author, businessman and former politician reiterated his total opposition to the use or threat of violence in pursuit of any political aims and said the Agreement's role in "ending the sectarian violence that plagued Northern Ireland for so much of it's history" should not be overlooked in ongoing Brexit negotiations.

"The UK Government and the European Union have publicly committed themselves to a Brexit outcome that does not re-establish a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," he said.

"We must accept and support and insist on that outcome."
Twenty years ago the Government of the United Kingdom, the Government of Ireland, and eight Northern Ireland political parties declared their support for the Agreement that has come to be known as the Good Friday Agreement, and also as the Belfast Agreement. In the current difficult political climate in Northern Ireland I think it useful for all to recall and to heed the powerful and moving words by which the Governments and the parties pledged their support for the Agreement.

The tragedies of the past have left a deep and profoundly regrettable legacy of suffering. We must never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families. But we can best honour them through a fresh start, in which we firmly dedicate ourselves to the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance, and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all.

We are committed to partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships within Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between these islands.

We affirm our total and absolute commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues, and our opposition to any use or threat of force by others for any political purpose, whether in regard to this agreement or otherwise.

For 20 years, the Agreement has accomplished the important purpose of ending the sectarian violence that plagued Northern Ireland for so much of its history.

But in the life of a society, as in the lives of individuals, new challenges emerge and new answers are needed. In Northern Ireland these new challenges can be met if the current leaders of Northern Ireland, the UK, and Ireland, can rekindle the spirit of partnership and mutual respect that led to the Agreement in 1998.

Much has been said and written about the long and difficult road that led to that Agreement. Many have deservedly received credit for their work: Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and his predecessors Albert Reynolds and John Bruton; and Prime Minister Tony Blair and his predecessor, John Major.

They and their governments laid the foundation for the negotiations and then brought those negotiations to a successful conclusion. They were ably assisted by a brilliant group of career officials.

Bill Clinton was the first American president to make peace in Northern Ireland a central objective of his administration, and he embraced that effort with energy and perseverance.

But the real heroes of the Agreement were the people of Northern Ireland and their political leaders. The people supported the effort to achieve agreement and afterwards they voted overwhelmingly to ratify it. Their political leaders, in dangerous and difficult circumstances, after lifetimes devoted to conflict, summoned extraordinary courage and vision and reached agreement, at great risk to themselves, their families, and their political careers.

Throughout the Western world it is fashionable to demean, to insult, to ridicule political leaders. Certainly, much of it is deserved. But we don't pay enough attention, or tribute to those political leaders who do dare greatly and succeed. In Northern Ireland these were ordinary men and women. But after 700 days of failure they joined in one day of success and they changed the course of history.

The current problems in Northern Ireland are difficult and serious, and must be resolved. While we should not underestimate the current challenges, neither should we overlook the enormous progress that has been made. Northern Ireland today is a much different, much safer, much better place than it was 20 years ago.

I hope that as they today reflect on their responsibilities, the current leaders of Northern Ireland, of Ireland, of the United Kingdom, and of the European Union will look back 20 years to what their predecessors did. In that effort they deserve and should receive the full and unstinting support of the people they represent.

But, at the same time, we should not hold Northern Ireland to a higher standard than we apply to others. Every society, including the US, the UK and Ireland, has social and political problems. What we must do is to reaffirm to the people and the leaders of Northern Ireland our continuing involvement, our strong and unwavering encouragement and support, our trade and tourism.

The UK Government and the European Union have publicly committed themselves to a Brexit outcome that does not re-establish a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. We must accept and support and insist on that outcome. And the governments of both the US and the UK must avoid any decisions that cost jobs and create hardship.

I am an American, and very proud of it, but a large part of my heart and of my emotions will forever be with the people of Northern Ireland. They deserve peace, prosperity, and reconciliation.

Senator George Mitchell was US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland and chaired the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement
Gerry Adams has described the trepidation he felt as he faced republicans, two days after signing the Good Friday Agreement.

The then Sinn Fein leader travelled to Carrickmore in Co Tyrone to speak at an Easter commemoration service.

He was put at ease after a hug from the mothers of two dead IRA men who gave their approval to the political achievement.

"It was Good Friday, there was snow, there was a huge pile of media," he recalled.

"And on Sunday I went to Carrickmore to speak. It was a big story of course, but you were always in a wee bit of trepidation about how would the republican base respond?

"And I was reconciled ... I was reassured by the fact that the mothers of two volunteers who had been killed immediately came up to me and embraced me and told me that we'd done a good job."

Former US senator George Mitchell, who had travelled to Northern Ireland to help broker the talks, warned that the hard-fought negotiations were likely to pale in comparison to the challenge of putting the agreement into practice.

"(He) said to myself and Martin (McGuinness), he may have said it to everybody else as well, 'Well, that's the easy bit done; the hard bit's implementing it'. And he was absolutely right," Mr Adams added.

The months and indeed years leading up to the final agreement had been spent preparing the grassroots, said the 69-year-old, who retired as Sinn Fein party president in February after 34 years at the helm.

"In terms of the strategy and the general thrust of what we were trying to do we kept very, very close to our activists and to the wider republican constituency." He added: "It wasn't just something that came out of the blue, it was part of a continuum."

After that, he and Mr McGuinness faced down threats from dissidents opposed to the peace process, a difficult but necessary stance to take, he said. "We wouldn't give them an inch. And that was a dangerous thing to do and probably still remains a dangerous thing to do." He rejected criticism that the agreement, amid the absence of government here following the collapse of power-sharing and the uncertainty around the Irish border issue, may have had its day.

"It doesn't pretend to be a settlement," he said. "It is an agreement on a journey, without agreement on the destination."

Governance by way of anything other than mandatory coalition could only happen in a "new Ireland", he said, speaking confidently of the party's ultimate aim of all-island unity.

"Until we get to the destination the only arrangement that I think that can work is power-sharing, based on tolerance, based on the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, and that includes the all-Ireland architecture."
The father of an IRA murder victim has lost a High Court battle to have perjury charges brought against a west Belfast man for denying he was the top British agent Stakeknife.

Frank Mulhern challenged the Public Prosecution Service's alleged failure to have Freddie Scappaticci face criminal proceedings.

But judges dismissed his bid to secure a judicial review after ruling that a continuing police investigation into dozens of murders linked to the spy will also examine the perjury claims.

Mrs Justice Keegan said: "We consider that it would arguably be a breach of the (prosecutorial) code to pre-empt the outcome of Operation Kenova and make a decision without being fully informed whilst that investigative work is ongoing."

The case centred on an affidavit sworn by 72-year-old Scappaticci back in 2003 during his own failed attempt to force the British Government to state publicly that he was not the Army's highest-ranking mole inside the IRA.

Mr Mulhern's legal team contended that the PPS acted unlawfully when it originally decided in 2006 not to prosecute on the basis of that statement.

Even though that decision was later set aside, they argued that the continued failure to charge Scappaticci with perjury cannot be justified.

Counsel claimed there was enough evidence to potentially meet the test under the prosecutors' code.

He also questioned how the alleged agent could mount a defence to any charge by relying on a claim of acting out of necessity based on fears for his life.

Earlier this year Scappaticci was reportedly arrested, questioned and released on police bail as part of a major and ongoing outside investigation into Stakeknife's activities.

Expand Close The IRA murdered Joseph Mulhern in 1993 / Facebook

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Whatsapp The IRA murdered Joseph Mulhern in 1993

Codenamed Operation Kenova, the probe headed up by Bedfordshire Chief Constable Jon Boutcher is looking into a catalogue of IRA murders linked to the undercover agent - including the killing of Mr Mulhern's son in 1993.

Joseph Mulhern, 23, was abducted, interrogated and shot by the IRA, who accused him of being a police informer.

His body was dumped on a remote hillside near Castlederg, Co Tyrone.

In an affidavit lodged as part of his challenge, Mr Mulhern claimed to know who was behind his son's death.

He stated: "It has been widely reported that he was killed by the so-called 'Nutting Squad', a group within the Provisional IRA which was responsible for internal discipline.

"At the time of my son's murder, Freddie Scappaticci was not only a senior member of the Provisional IRA, he was also an agent of the British Army, known as agent Stakeknife."

Scappaticci left Nothern Ireland in 2003 after being named in the media as the spy.

Before quitting his home, however, he vehemently denied being the agent while in charge of the IRA's internal security team.

Counsel for the PPS resisted the legal challenge due to Operation Kenova's continuing inquiries.

He argued that the proceedings were an attempt to compel the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take a decision before an investigation which is also examining the perjury claims is completed.

Mrs Justice Keegan, who heard the case with Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, backed the PPS assessment.

She said: "Insofar as the public interest is engaged we observe that this investigation is a critical step in the search for truth in relation to the activities of agent Stakeknfe."

The judges also held that the DPP has been open and transparent in public pronouncements about the issue.

"Accordingly, we do not consider that any irrationality or unreasonableness can be attributed to the proposed respondent in relation to this decision-making process," Mrs Justice Keegan added.

"It cannot be characterised as unlawful."
Officers from the PSNI Public Protection Branch arrested a man and woman in relation to an investigation into allegations of serious historical sexual child abuse in the Co Down area.

The 58-year-old man is from Belfast and the 39-year-old woman from Downpatrick were arrested on Tuesday.

They were taken to Antrim Police Station to assist police with their enquiries before being released on police bail pending further investigation.
A family have been left traumatised and frightened after an arsonist attacked while they were asleep in their Co Antrim home.

David Mooney (41) woke in the early hours of Saturday to find his car had been set on fire outside his house in Crumlin.

After alerting his wife and daughter, who were also asleep, Mr Mooney rang the emergency services.

It was already too late as the vehicle was engulfed in flames, which were starting to spread to the property.

Fire crews extinguished the flames but Mr Mooney's car, which he had bought two weeks previously, was destroyed.

Mr Mooney said he believed he knows who carried out the attack and is frightened his family will be targeted again.

He said: "At 3.45am on Saturday I woke up after I heard a noise outside. It just didn't feel right to me, so I got up and went to check the house and the minute I opened the living room door I could see the car was totally ablaze.

"The window of the living room was on fire too.

"Panic started to set in, but I called to my wife Tracy and 17-year-old daughter Lara to get out.

"The Fire Service came so fast and did a fantastic job, but the car is a total write-off.

"My priority was to get my wife and daughter out, but I can say I was really scared and we have all been left traumatised by this, especially my daughter, who is getting ready for her A-levels.

"This is our home but it is also where I work, so there is no question of us leaving, but we are scared that there will be another attack."

The PSNI said: "Police are investigating the circumstance of a car fire in the Crumlin area at the weekend.

"At around 3.50am on Saturday police received a report that a white-coloured Ford Kuga that was parked outside a house in the Glenavy Road area was on fire.

"Police and the Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene.

"The vehicle was destroyed in the blaze, which also caused damage to a window and window frame of the house.

"Police enquiries are continuing and we would appeal to anyone who was in this area prior to, or around the time of the incident was reported to police and may have noticed any suspicious activity, to contact police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 215 of 07/04/18."
It was a day that would define Northern Ireland's future. And for those who turned 18 in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement referendum, their first vote would be a crucial one.

On May 22, 1998, nearly a million people here headed to polling stations to cast their verdict on the peace deal.

For many it was just another trip to the ballot box, but for first-time voters it was a hugely significant day that would shape their future.

Belfast man Neil Robertson (38) was in the midst of his A-levels when the referendum was called.

"I was very preoccupied with studying; however, I was studying politics so had more than a passing interest," he recalled.

"Everything I remember was hugely positive, apart from the DUP and Ian Paisley's 'Vote No' campaign.

"I remember asking my teacher and parents why they (DUP) were so opposed and no one was able to give me a viable and understandable answer.

"I got the impression they didn't want to explore peace and were being dissenters just because everyone else was voting for it."

Neil remembers how his plans to vote were overshadowed by exam worries.

"I actually had an exam on the morning of referendum day so I was more concerned with getting that over and done with," he added.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close (L-R) Jonathan Powell, Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, Paul Murphy and Gerry Adams pose for a photo on the 20th Anniversary of the signing of The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on this day 20 years ago. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Ceremony held in historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council.Pictured Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. Pic William Cherry Presseye William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Josh Burnside singing 'One More' William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Micheal Lawson as he reads 'Ceasefire' by Michael Longley William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Lord John Alderdice (left) and Peter Robinson during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Lord David Trimble at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Senator George Mitchell during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (back row left to right) Jonathan Powell, Lord John Alderdice, Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen and (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney speak to the media at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Jonathan Powell and Senator George Mitchell (left) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Senator George Mitchell (right) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (Top L-R) Former first minister of Northern Ireland Bertie Ahern, former leader of the Ulster Unionist party Reg Empey, former Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy (bottom L-R) former Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, former US special envoy George Mitchell and former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams pose at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Senator George Mitchell attends an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images (back row left to right) Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen (obscured), (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (back row left to right) Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen, (front row left to right) Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA DUP leader Arlene Foster during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton holds (R) hands with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald sits alongside vice president Michelle O'Neill as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: In this handout photo provided by Press Eye, singers perform at a ceremony held this evening in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. (Photo by William Cherry/Presseye via Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (L) speaks while alongside Lord John Alderdice at a panel discussion event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton (R) along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp (L-R) Jonathan Powell, Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, Paul Murphy and Gerry Adams pose for a photo on the 20th Anniversary of the signing of The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on this day 20 years ago. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

"But once I got home my parents made quite a big deal of going to vote, as it was my first time in such a major event.

"I voted yes. I had no notion of voting no as at the time I couldn't see any downfalls. I remember watching television most of the following day waiting for the results to come in and all the coverage it got both locally and around the world.

"I felt it was a monumental and defining day. It almost felt surreal, to be honest, after so many years of conflict and harm inflicted by all involved, that we were on the path to settle the differences and see a brighter future for everyone."

Twenty years on, he is certain he made the right decision.

"I would definitely vote yes again," he added.

"History has proved that fighting solves nothing and as long as all sides involved agree to the fact that they're going to have to compromise, I believe that anything is achievable."

Roisin Shanks (37) from Ballymagorry in Co Tyrone voted on what was her 18th birthday.

"I was going through my A-levels and remember registering to vote as soon as practically possible in the knowledge that the referendum was going to be held on my 18th birthday," she said.

"I remember we were sent a video, possibly by the NIO, to instruct first-time voters.

"Whilst I was aware the first IRA ceasefire had failed, I remember thinking that it felt that everyone who was important was putting their weight behind the agreement.

"The DUP didn't represent anyone I knew (or so I felt then), and the baying of Ian Paisley was nothing out of the ordinary, and I didn't feel that there was any way that 'the people' wouldn't support the Agreement."

Two decades later, Roisin recalls the day clearly.

"I remember going to the polling station early as my parents were going before work," she explained.

"It was held in a primary school in the nearby village of Artigarvan. I felt pretty euphoric as I came out of the polling station, but also with a strange sense of disappointment that it was a blunt pencil that I had to use to cast my vote."

She voted in favour of the Agreement, and said she would "unquestionably" vote the same way again.

She added: "I felt it was a chance for everyone to publicly reject violence and validate the political leadership of the time. I never thought it wouldn't be accepted, because it just made sense."

Others were far from convinced, though.

Omagh-born Clive McFarland (left) opposed the Agreement, and the former DUP councillor said that, given the chance today, he would vote no again.

"I felt that the issue of prisoner releases was a problem, that it was wrong," he said.

"Whilst there was a guarantee that prisoners would be released, the wording around decommissioning was much looser. The fear, quite rightly, was that it could be exploited.

"If I could vote again, I would still vote no.

"Ultimately, some of the bigger ticket issues - the prisoner releases, the changes made to the police and the removal of the (RUC) name - were wrong then and would still be wrong now."

Ryan Feeney (38) from Faughanvale was a "proud" yes voter.

He recalls being more worried about missing out on free tickets for a special concert supporting the yes vote than the poll itself.

"There was a real sense of optimism," he said.

"Everyone was talking about the agreement and the opportunity it afforded. The picture of Bono with David Trimble and John Hume at the Waterfront Hall captured most of the media attention in the days before the referendum.

"My friends and I didn't discuss the vote itself that much, just the disappointment that we didn't get to go to the concert with U2 and Ash.

"I was fascinated by the campaign and constantly watched the TV coverage and read the papers. It was a simpler time - no social media."

Ryan said he voted at Faughanvale Primary School in the early evening for the first time alongside his father.

"There were campaigners from both sides outside the school gates trying to canvass for votes," he remembered.

"The voting process itself was a slight anti-climax and when we walked out of the school after voting I asked my father: 'Is that it?'. To which he responded: 'What did you expect, George Mitchell, Tony and Bertie to walk in and personally thank you'.

"I proudly voted yes and I would do again.

"I remember feeling that it was a defining day. I remember my parents and older family members being emotional that the yes vote was so high. I can't remember any cynicism at that stage of the peace process, all I can recall was a real sense of hope."

Tyrone-born Colin Dardis (38), who voted yes, said he felt Northern Ireland was at a real turning point around the time of the referendum.

"I remember it was quite exciting," he said.

"It really felt that the country was on the cusp of a breakthrough after so long, that politics had finally won. Although amidst this, there was a great worry in case the Agreement was voted down: what would happen then?

"It didn't feel like there was any real alternative future besides the Agreement."

Colin had a genuine interest in politics, even as a teenager.

"Beforehand, I remember copies of the Agreement being sent to every home," he said.

Someone bought one into school, and we sat around the lunch table debating it.

"I doubt any of us had read it cover to cover, but we watched the news and read the papers; we knew what promise and potential it beheld.

"I voted yes on the day and I would absolutely vote that way again.

"I felt this was a turning point after being stuck in the quagmire of violence for decades. I think the turnout on the day reflects this.

"For those older than myself, who had seen far worse than I ever did, it must have seemed like a miracle."

Derry mother-of-two Orla Kelly (39) said she was glad she voted yes in the referendum, for the sake of her children who were to be born years later.

"I don't think I realised the importance of the Good Friday Agreement at the time," she said.

"I grew up just outside the Bogside and it was more what was happening to the people every day on the streets and in their homes that I remember.

"I grew up with my home being raided at least once a week and that's probably the only difference I saw. That stopped.

"I've always voted for Sinn Fein in the hope that Catholics would be given a voice and I see that happening more so in the last few years.

"I'm glad the Good Friday Agreement happened as I'm a mother and I'd never want my kids go through the things we did.

"I look forward to Stormont finally getting back up and running."
It isn't just the Good Friday Agreement that is marking an important milestone today.

Caolan Maxwell was born 20 years ago on the day the deal was signed.

Arriving into the world as pen was put to paper on the Agreement that ended a long and brutal conflict, he symbolised the birth of hope and optimism for Northern Ireland.

Now as a young adult studying mechanical engineering at the North West Regional College, Caolan, from Londonderry, says being born on such a historic day has always been a bit strange.

But he is disappointed that instead of celebrating a monumental achievement, his generation feels we are "stuck".

"To be born at such a pivotal moment in Northern Irish history is quite a surreal feeling," he said.

He added: "My family were directly impacted as a result of the Troubles - as one would expect growing up as nationalists in Creggan at a time, when routine stop and search would have been carried out and the constant unrest in the area.

"I only really heard about the Troubles second-hand through people in the family talking about it.

"It wouldn't have been a big part of my life.

"I suppose the first time I would have heard of the Troubles would have been from news reports looking back.

"I am, of course, grateful to have grown up in a country at peace."

He said young people today had the chance to shape their future in whatever area they chose.

"We can get the opportunity to do this uninhibited by the impact that war has on communities and countries," he added.

"There are so many benefits my generation have been afforded because of the Good Friday Agreement. The most important of which is, basically, we are not caught up in the middle of a war.

"We have also been able to bear witness to the fact that bridges can be built and that the two people can move forward regardless of the fact that they were fighting for many years.

"We have seen them stop and say that it's better for everyone to move forward. It gives a good light that we can pass on.

"If they can do it, why can't we."

The journey towards peace ran alongside Caolan's childhood.

His many milestones - first tentative steps, a nervous first day at school - coincided with the new Northern Ireland making taking uncertain steps towards a better future.

But he says that, despite great progress being made, we still have a long way to go.

"I think Northern Ireland today still shows some signs of a divide, such as the peace walls throughout Belfast," he explained.

"However, as a country we have developed massively in the last two decades.

"There's much less of an 'us and them' mentality and more of a 'we're in it together to do the best we can for the younger generation'."

Yesterday a survey revealed that 51% of people here are still more likely to make close friends with people of the same religion. And 30% said that half of their close friends were of the same religion as them.

It is something Caolan is very conscious of.

"Growing up, I didn't really have any Protestant friends," he said.

"I only really made friends with Protestant people when I went to college around four years ago.

"I didn't know their religion, they didn't know mine. We just became friends.

"It was never the kind of thing you would think to ask someone.

"What concerns me most now about Northern Ireland is that we don't have a sitting government at Stormont.

"It seems that all the work that was done just got stopped coming up to the 20th anniversary."

And he added: "It should have been something that they were celebrating, moving even further forward instead of going back to a political stalemate."
Prosecutors are to review a decision not to bring charges against former police officers implicated in a loyalist paramilitary killing.

The development was confirmed during a High Court challenge mounted by the murder victim's father, Belfast man Raymond McCord.

His 22-year-old son, Raymond McCord Jnr, was beaten to death before his body was dumped in a quarry on the northern outskirts of the city in November 1997.

The killing was at the centre of an explosive report by former Police Ombusdman Nuala O'Loan which found collusion between a north Belfast UVF gang and their Special Branch handlers.

Earlier this year Gary Haggarty, a former commander of the terror unit-turned supergrass, was jailed after confessing to hundreds of paramilitary offences.

His catalogue of crime extended over 16 years, from 1991 to 2007, and included five murders - but not that of Mr McCord Jnr.

The 45-year-old pleaded guilty as part of a controversial state deal that offered a reduced sentence in return for providing evidence on other terror suspects.

As a consequence his prison term was slashed from 35 years to six-and-a-half years due to the assistance provided to police.

Under the terms of the agreement he supplied information on scores of loyalist killings and attempted murders.

Despite Haggarty implicating 16 people in serious crime, only one man currently faces prosecution for murder using his evidence.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Barra McGrory announced last year that his claims alone were insufficient to prove allegations made against the other suspects.

Mr McCord then issued judicial review proceedings against the Public Prosecution Service for failing to review the decision not to bring charges against former police officers implicated in the alleged failure to prevent his son's murder.

His lawyers claimed the position was unlawful, unfair and "deprecated" the weight which could be given to Haggarty's evidence and his general credibility.

In court today, however, counsel for the PPS confirmed that a review of the decision not to prosecute the former police officers will now be carried out.

Following the hearing Mr McCord's solicitor, Ciaran O'Hare of McIvor Farrell law firm, said his client had left been dismayed by the original stance.

"He was devastated that after many years, not one of those implicated in the murder of his son, one of the many dark and particularly heinous crimes in our troubled history, would face the rigour of a prosecution," Mr O'Hare said.

"The decision not to prosecute the former police officers implicated in the murder of his son was based on the evidence submitted from the Police Ombudsman's Office and thereafter the Director of Public Prosecutions concluded that none of the cases concerning the police officers referred for prosecution on the basis of the evidence submitted had a reasonable prospect of conviction."

Mr O'Hare added that an inquest into the murder of Raymond McCord Jnr has been on hold for years pending the outcome of the investigations into Haggarty.

"Now after all these years, my client is of the view that the systems designed to prosecute those responsible for his son's murder have failed."
The council-owned park has been the centre of controversy since it was named after Raymond McCreesh in 2001

SDLP MLA Claire Hanna has said that the name of the Raymond McCreesh Park in Newry should be changed.

Speaking on Twitter South Belfast MLA Hanna said "it was and is wrong to name a kids playground for anyone linked to Kingsmill".

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A challenge to change the name of the controversial park was defeated in Newry, Mourne and Down District Council on Monday night.

Instead councillors passed an amendment to wait until a process - agreed in December - concludes on what should happen to the park's name.

Unionist councillors stormed out of the meeting in protest.

When the park was first named, several SDLP councillors on the former Newry and Mourne Council supported the McCreesh name.

This was criticised by the SDLP's senior leadership at the time and again in 2015 when only one member of the party attended a vote to change the name and abstained.

Sinn Fein and the SDLP had already voted to leave the name in place until a review of council playgrounds is carried out later this year with the potential of ownership being transferred to the Ballybot community.

Ms Hanna said that she was saddened by the result "particularly in a week reflecting on the (Good Friday) Agreement and celebrating the values in it.

"This wasn't a time for whataboutery and rushing to repeat mistakes of the past," she said.

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The park, located in Ballybot, has attracted much controversy after it was named in honour of the former IRA man, with unionists and victims calling for the name to be changed.

@sdlplive Claire Hanna will never understand the commitment and courage of Raymond McCreesh. Therefore she will never understand the respect he and his family have in his home place. How could she? It is easier to fall into a lazy, false narrative.  Raymond McCartney (@RaymondMcCartn1) April 10, 2018

An SDLP Spokesperson said that the party does not support the naming of public spaces after those involved in the violence of the past.

"The SDLP party conference at the weekend unanimously reaffirmed this position," the spokesperson said.

"This childrens play park should never have been named in this way. A cross party consensus was reached at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to follow a process to delist the play park.

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"The councillors' assessment of the actions by the DUP last night was that this was political opportunism and they decided to vote to stick with the agreed process to resolve the issue once and for all.

"The SDLP leadership is crystal clear that this naming was wrong and has caused hurt to victims. The councillors are in no doubt from the leadership that if the matter is not resolved in coming weeks via the process parties agreed to, then they should bring a motion to rename."

McCreesh, from Camlough in Armagh, was reportedly in possession of a rifle used in the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre killings when he was captured later that year.

10 people were killed in the attack.

McCreesh was one of seven IRA prisoners who died in the 1981 Maze Prison hunger strikes.

His convictions included attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possession of firearms with intent to endanger life and IRA membership.

Last week a banner was hung on a fence on the park declaring McCreesh "our hero".
Police at the scene of the Tynedale attack.

Shots have been fired in a north Belfast residential area.

It happened in the Tyndale area off the Ballysillan Road on Tuesday evening.

It is understood a gunman opened fire toward an individual close to Ballysillan Drive at around 9pm.

Witnesses have reported hearing multiple shots.

There are no reports of any injuries.

Police have not released details of the incident, however, officers have been making door-to-door enquiries and cordoned off part of the area.

Belfast DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst lives on the street.

"Shocked and sickened," he said in a Facebook post, "that a shooting has occurred in the street I live in and care for my elderly grandmother.

"Right outside her door. Entire street cordoned off. These days should be long gone!"

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph he said: "Those responsible for this gun attack just need to stop it.

"The people in the area just don't want it. It is coming up to the marching season and people are looking forward to that and all the celebrations - a street party is being planned for the first time - and they just want to get on with their lives.

"This is repulsive - a stray bullet could have gone through a window and injured or killed.

"Given the recent positive steps made by paramilitaries this is just repulsive and those behind it need to go away. Those considering reprisals should just cease it - no one wants this."

The attack comes just a day after loyalist paramilitaries issued a joint statement rejecting violence and criminal activity.

PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnson said a lot of people were dismayed at the "violent incident".

"I am relieved that there has been no injuries but this has sent shockwaves through the community.

"Given the day that it is, the distance that we have travelled in the past 20 years there are still guns on our streets.

"While I'll reiterate my condemnation I also want to emphasise my unwavering desire to move beyond the dark days of the past and get guns off our streets."

She added: "People are also asking why, so I would appeal to the police to put some information out there to get some clarity around what has happened.

"Whilst there is considerable speculation it is at this stage to early to determine the community denomination of the perpetrator or perpetrators. Well wait for more information from the police before commenting further."
Tony Blair making a speech in Coleraine in 1998 in front of his handwritten pledge to people of Northern Ireland

Tony Blair has said meeting victims of the Troubles as he wrestled with his conscience over the early release of paramilitary prisoners was the most difficult aspect of striking the Good Friday peace deal.

Reflecting on its 20th anniversary, the former Prime Minister said weighing the contrasting views of the bereaved was an onerous task.

The deal that largely ended 30 years of Troubles included a provision to facilitate the early release of around 500 paramilitary prisoners within two years.

It was a concession that almost torpedoed the accord in the final frantic hours prior to its signing on April 10, 1998.

Mr Blair, who cites the April 1998 Agreement as one of the most important achievements of his decade in power, explained how he thought through the issue of letting killers go free.

"Some of the most difficult meetings I had as Prime Minister were with the families of the victims of the Troubles," he said.

"They actually fitted into two categories of people.

"One group of people said: 'How can you be sitting down with murderers, making and deal with them or releasing people who have committed horrendous crimes against innocent people, and my family were victim of this appalling violence?'. And then there would be other people who would say: 'You've got to make sure this works because I don't want other people to go through what I've been through'.

"This is where, in the end, as a political leader, you've got to decide what you think is right. These rights require choices that are difficult for the leader but they are even more difficult for the people who have been victims of the trouble.

"Of course, you could make the case as to why you should never release people who are engaged in acts of violence but, the fact is, if we hadn't had the prisoner release we would never have had the peace agreement."

The deal struck between the UK and Irish Governments and the main Stormont parties, with the exception of the DUP, paved the way for a return to devolved government.

It also saw the creation of a number of cross-border political bodies, a commitment to reform policing and an undertaking from paramilitaries to decommission their weapons.

It enshrined the principle of consent - that Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK would only ever change if a majority in the region voted for it - while at the same time offering provisions that legitimised nationalist aspirations to strive for a united Ireland. Mr Blair said he did not believe the current problems besetting power-sharing, including an impasse over the Irish language, should herald the demise of the deal and insisted that power-sharing remained the best way to deliver devolved governance to the region.

"I can't believe we can't find a way through this if we really wanted to," he said.

"My strong advice to the Prime Minister and Government is just work at this until you sort it out, because from what I am reading I can't see anything which is an absolute barrier to sorting it out.

"People have just got to throw their minds back to what it was like during the Troubles.

"I do find it extraordinary sometimes when people say has life really improved. Well, I think, yes, it has. I remember going to Northern Ireland, long before I became Prime Minister in the 1980s, and being shocked.

"Thinking I am going into a part of my country that is completely different from any other part of the country and is differently regarded by the people there and by the people outside.

"Every day you would end up with death, violence, sectarian acts of hatred and terrorism - every day. So the comparison is not between what we have now and what, ideally, we want to have - the comparison is between what we have now and what we had then, and I think if people keep their mind focused on that, they will be focused on the right thing."

Mr Blair said the three days he spent ensconced in Castle Buildings, Stormont, as he attempted to clinch the deal were some of the most extraordinary of his 10 years in power.

"It was a unique few days because we were involved in this incredibly complicated and difficult negotiations which were see-sawing between success and failure throughout the three days," he said.

"What was at stake was of immense magnitude, to try to put an end to the violence in Northern Ireland that has disfigured the lives of people and cost the lives of people for many years, and it was an event which required extraordinary focus, and literally, for those three days, I think we managed six hours sleep over the whole of the time.

"We were literally camped in rooms, shuttling to and fro, bringing people in, bringing them out, trying to make sure we were working on the detail of various documents at the same time as having quite high-level discussions, snatching something to eat when you could, going to the loo when you could. I'll never forgot those three days.

"I remember when I actually finished it and we announced the Agreement, I had to go abroad for an engagement in Spain.

"I remember getting on the plane, and the first thing that happened was I was passed a mobile phone and the Queen was on the other line - which was literally the only time that ever happened to me - to offer her support and congratulations on the Agreement.

"Then I remember actually, just as we were taking off, falling asleep and not waking until we landed."
UUP councillor Chris Smyth has been selected to represent the party at the West Tyrone by-election.

The Ulster Unionists have nominated Omagh councillor Chris Smyth to contest the upcoming West Tyrone by-election.

The West Tyrone seat has been vacant since Barry McElduff resigned in January.

He stepped down over a video he posted on social media in which he posed with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.

Sinn Fein has selected Carrickmore solicitor Orfhlaith Begley to contest the by-election. The party is defending a 10,000-plus majority from the 2017 Westminster vote in the overwhelmingly nationalist constituency.

The Omagh town councillor said he accepted the nomination with "mixed emotions".

"I am immensely proud of the faith my party has put in me, but I am nonetheless disappointed that a lack of engagement from other parties has meant that a non-partisan, non-party, cross community candidate was not found, to demonstrate that the disrespect shown to victims of terrorism will not be tolerated.

I was too young to remember the hope and optimism of the Belfast Agreement, but I know it was short lived. I firmly believe the political stalemate is destroying the country I love so much.

The UUP stands for a unionism which embraces reconciliation, tolerance, partnership, respect and mutual trust and we offer an alternative to the perpetual brinksmanship, deadlock and inaction of the current two largest parties.

It would be a huge honour to represent the area I was born and raised in.

"The people of West Tyrone both need and deserve to have a voice at Westminster and have been denied one for too long. If elected, I will be that voice.

Party leader Robin Swann MLA said: This by-election is taking place due to the complete disrespect shown to victims by the areas previous Sinn Fein MP.

I am confident that councillor Chris Smyth is an excellent candidate who possesses all the attributes necessary to represent the people of West Tyrone at Westminster with the dignity and respect that has hitherto been sadly lacking, and I look forward to joining him on the doorsteps in his campaign.
Voters in Northern Ireland have to stop punishing politicians who compromise, former US president Bill Clinton has said.

He linked political paralysis to the rise of authoritarianism and warned that the 15-month stalemate at Stormont would eventually reach its limit.

The ex-president said it was easy to under-estimate the fragility of the system following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which he helped create.

He told a Dublin audience: No one will drop off the face of the Earth with any of the reasonable compromises that have been discussed.

The only thing that would be calamitous would be to let the whole thing die. To confine ourselves to purgatory or go back to hell instead of going into a future.

Voters have to stop punishing people who make those compromises and start rewarding themBill Clinton

Mr Clinton conjured an image of a political purgatory of broken hopes, and a sea of lost chances.

If you do that, slowly you will begin to lose your democracy in the North.

He added everybody could step back and make a new beginning.

You have to be willing to give.

Compromise has to become a good thing, not a dirty word and voters have to stop punishing people who make those compromises and start rewarding them.

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Mr Clinton said inclusive groups made better decisions than homogeneous ones and too much paralysis meant voters began to elect those who would be the best boss, an allusion to the strongman dictatorships in other parts of the world.

The most important thing is that the peace is held and nobody has questioned democracy.

There is a limit imposed by constant paralysis because even if the economy stays static, the politics dont.

That is the challenge that every one of us faces today who cares about this.

There is simply a limit to how long people can go on. It is about the people who live there and their kids and grandkids.

Mr Clinton has bolstered peacemaking in places like Colombia.

Drawing on lessons elsewhere, he added: There is a limit to the elasticity of inertia, of paralysis.

You should celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement not for what happened but for what can happen.

Mr Clinton visits Belfast on Tuesday to receive the freedom of the city alongside his former special envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell.

He recalled staying up into the small hours the night the deal was struck, getting only a couple of hours sleep as he conversed with his special representative in Belfast.

He concluded: In his Nobel Prize speech Seamus Heaney also said of WB Yeats that his intent was to clear a space in the mind and the world for the miraculous.

Twenty years ago tomorrow, 17 hours late, everybody impatient, some brave people cleared a space for the miraculous  you should fill it.
Marchers calling for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment (Niall Carson/PA)

This is a once in a generation opportunity for people in Ireland to have their say on the Eighth Amendment, Amnesty International said.

The referendum will not be about politicians or slogans, executive director Colm OGorman said.

He took the campaign for repeal to Dublins Moore Street where they canvassed the views of stallholders ahead of the May 25 polling day.

Mr OGorman said: It has taken 35 years, seven governments, a European Court of Human Rights ruling, the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and the suffering of countless other women and girls,

Ireland being repeatedly hauled before the UN, a massive civil society campaign, a Citizens Assembly and a special Joint Oireachtas Committee to get us to this referendum.

This is it. Now is the time to decide what kind of a country we want Ireland to be.

Terminations are not permitted in cases of rape, incest or foetal abnormality.

Many women travel abroad for procedures every year.

The eighth amendment acknowledges the right to life of the unborn.

Health Minister Simon Harris said a Yes vote in the referendum was the only way to treat women with compassion and respect.

Unless we remove the Eighth Amendment from our constitution, we will continue to force thousands of women and girls in this country to go abroad to access abortions and thousands more to use abortion pills in their own homes and without proper medical supervision.

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The shame, the isolation, it is time to talk about the reality of that and to change it.

Independent Senator Lynn Ruane said powerful elites had blocked womens access to abortion and reproductive healthcare for decades.

She added: This referendum is about working-class women, it is about women everywhere.

We need a conversation that is inclusive of all our communities.

We cannot be airbrushed out or dismissed. This referendum is about us too.
Irish senator Aodhan O'Riordain has apologised for a tweet he sent in the aftermath of the acquittal of two Ulster and Ireland rugby players in a Belfast rape trial.

Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding, along with two friends, were found not guilty of all charges against them on March 28.

However, lawyers for Mr Jackson issued High Court defamation proceedings after a tweet posted by Mr O'Riordain, a Labour senator, on the same day.

The Twitter post was subsequently deleted.

Mr O'Riordain took to Twitter again yesterday to apologise.

He wrote: "My tweet of 28 March concerning the Belfast rape trial was not designed or intended to suggest that either Paddy Jackson or any of the other accused men were guilty or that the jury got it wrong.

"I apologise for any suggestion to the contrary. I accept that I was not privy to all the evidence put before the jury during the trial. I will not be making any further comment."

At the end of March, police revealed they had questioned two people for allegedly naming on social media the female complainant at the centre of the rape trial. Files were passed to the PPS to determine whether any action will be taken.

The PSNI said yesterday that "no-one else has been interviewed" in relation to the female complainant's identity being revealed online.

A PSNI spokesperson said: "There is an ongoing police investigation and two people have been interviewed in relation to an offence under section five of the Sexual Offences Amendment Act 1992. Two files have been forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service for consideration."

The Belfast Telegraph made repeated attempts to contact Mr Jackson's legal representatives yesterday, but did not receive a response.

Previously, Mr Jackson's legal representatives at KRW Law said they had no option but to issue a Notice of Intention to sue Mr O'Riordain "for defamatory comments".
A shadow cabinet minister has described a key Labour Brexit policy as bollocks, according to reports.

Barry Gardiner dismissed the partys demands for the exact same benefits afforded by membership of the single market after Britain leaves the European Union.

The shadow international trade secretary has already had to issue an apology over controversial comments he made during the same event in Brussels about the Irish border row.

In the latest remarks to emerge, Mr Gardiner was discussing the six tests Labour has set for the Brexit deal.

In a recording obtained by the BBC, he reportedly said: Well lets just take one test  the exact same benefits. Bollocks.

Always has been bollocks and it remains it.

We know very well that we cannot have the exact same benefits and actually it would have made sense  because it was the Tories that said they were going to secure the exact same benefits  and our position should have been to say they have said they are going to secure the exact same benefits and we are going to hold them to that standard.

Mr Gardiner apologised on Tuesday morning after a recording of a question and answer session at a think tank event in March emerged where he suggested the Good Friday Agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland is outdated.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later issued a statement saying the accord must be cherished.

Mr Gardiner had been criticised by a Labour former Northern Ireland Secretary after a recording of the comments emerged.

The Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.



My full statement here: https://t.co/9XCLTqOltB  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 10, 2018

Lord Hain told the Press Association the shadow international trade secretary was unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible.

Labour former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith said the remarks were reckless.

Former prime minister Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I dont know how anyone can say that.

Its the only basis upon which youre going to have peace.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.

The row comes on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Gardiner was heard in a recording suggesting the Brexit row over the border issue and the accord had been played up and he described the deal as a shibboleth, a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated.

Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 10, 2018

In the recording, obtained by The Red Roar website, he was heard saying: We must also recognise there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement.

That is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure there is no tariff and no external border there.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Gardiner said: Labour is completely committed to the agreement and opposed to any return of a hard border between north and south.

We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.

I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point  in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of pass word or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Mr Corbyn said the Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.

He added: There must be no return to a hard border between north and south, and no return to the horrors of the Troubles. All of us on both sides of the Irish Sea have a responsibility to maintain hope for the future.

The history of Ireland is a great teacher of oppression and brutality, imagination and poetry. For Irish communities everywhere  including in my own constituency  the Good Friday Agreement will always embody their hopes for peace and justice. We must cherish and learn from it for the future.
A shadow cabinet minister has apologised after suggesting the Good Friday Agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland is outdated.

Barry Gardiner insisted the deal is a vital part of the relationship between the UK and Republic of Ireland after a backlash and said he was deeply sorry his remarks had led to a misunderstanding.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later issued a statement saying the agreement must be cherished.

Mr Gardiner had been criticised by a Labour former Northern Ireland Secretary after a recording of the comments emerged.

The Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.



My full statement here: https://t.co/9XCLTqOltB  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 10, 2018

Lord Hain told the Press Association the shadow international trade secretary was unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible.

The Good Friday Agreement has delivered 20 years of peace now being relentlessly undermined by the Tory Government dogmatists putting a hard Brexit before that peace, he added.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close (L-R) Jonathan Powell, Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, Paul Murphy and Gerry Adams pose for a photo on the 20th Anniversary of the signing of The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on this day 20 years ago. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Ceremony held in historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council.Pictured Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. Pic William Cherry Presseye William Cherry / Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured President Bill Clinton & Senator George J Mitchell at the Ulster Hall sign the Freedom document in front of Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and elected members. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Josh Burnside singing 'One More' William Cherry / Presseye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye A ceremony has been held this evening (Tuesday) in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. Pictured is Micheal Lawson as he reads 'Ceasefire' by Michael Longley William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held in Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. William Cherry / Presseye Ceremony held on Tuesday in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th April 2018 - Photo by William Cherry/Presseye William Cherry / Presseye Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Lord John Alderdice (left) and Peter Robinson during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Lord David Trimble at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Senator George Mitchell during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (back row left to right) Jonathan Powell, Lord John Alderdice, Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen and (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney speak to the media at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Jonathan Powell and Senator George Mitchell (left) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Senator George Mitchell (right) at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (Top L-R) Former first minister of Northern Ireland Bertie Ahern, former leader of the Ulster Unionist party Reg Empey, former Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy (bottom L-R) former Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, former US special envoy George Mitchell and former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams pose at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Senator George Mitchell attends an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images (back row left to right) Lord David Trimble, Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen (obscured), (front row left to right) Professor Monica McWilliams, Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams, at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA (back row left to right) Sir Reg Empey, Lord Paul Murphy of Torfaen, (front row left to right) Seamus Mallon, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Senator George Mitchell and Gerry Adams at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former US President Bill Clinton at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA DUP leader Arlene Foster during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 10, 2018. See PA story ULSTER GoodFriday. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton holds (R) hands with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald sits alongside vice president Michelle O'Neill as they attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and former US president Bill Clinton attend a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast on April 10, 2018. Twenty years after Northern Ireland's landmark peace agreement, former British premier Tony Blair has recalled how close talks came to collapse -- and warned it risks being undermined by Brexit. "I did not know if we were going to get an agreement until literally minutes before it happened," Blair said, ahead of a visit to Belfast to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday accords. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: In this handout photo provided by Press Eye, singers perform at a ceremony held this evening in the historic setting of the Ulster Hall to confer the Freedom of the City of Belfast on former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Senator George J. Mitchell on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two American politicians were in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and took to the stage in front of hundreds of guests to accept the honour from Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister on behalf of members of Belfast City Council. (Photo by William Cherry/Presseye via Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (L) speaks while alongside Lord John Alderdice at a panel discussion event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 10: Former US President Bill Clinton (R) along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queens university on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event, 'Building Peace: 20 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement' has been organised by the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp (L-R) Jonathan Powell, Monica McWilliams, Lord John Alderdice, Seamus Mallon, Lord David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, Sir Reg Empey, Senator George J. Mitchell, Paul Murphy and Gerry Adams pose for a photo on the 20th Anniversary of the signing of The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on this day 20 years ago. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on this agreement and was a major part of the 1990's peace process. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Labour former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith said the remarks were reckless.

Former prime minister Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I dont know how anyone can say that.

Its the only basis upon which youre going to have peace.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.

The row comes on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Gardiner was heard in a recording suggesting the Brexit row over the border issue and the accord had been played up and he described the deal as a shibboleth, a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated.

Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 10, 2018

The shadow international trade secretary said it was hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure there is no external border.

In the recording of an event in Brussels in March, obtained by The Red Roar website, he was heard saying: We must also recognise there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement.

That is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure there is no tariff and no external border there.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Gardiner said: The Good Friday Agreement is a vital and essential part of the relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and has been central to the two decades of peace it has brought about.

Labour is completely committed to the agreement and opposed to any return of a hard border between north and south.

We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.

I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point  in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of pass word or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Mr Corbyn said the Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.

He added: There must be no return to a hard border between north and south, and no return to the horrors of the Troubles. All of us on both sides of the Irish Sea have a responsibility to maintain hope for the future.

The history of Ireland is a great teacher of oppression and brutality, imagination and poetry. For Irish communities everywhere  including in my own constituency  the Good Friday Agreement will always embody their hopes for peace and justice. We must cherish and learn from it for the future.
Campaigners said they were completely elated after a West London council voted to ban protesters from demonstrating outside an abortion clinic, and were hopeful this was just the beginning.

Ealing Councils cabinet voted unanimously in favour of allowing a Public Spaces Protection Order to create a protest-free safe zone outside a Marie Stopes clinic in the west London borough.

The council has spent months exploring a range of options on how to prevent intimidation, harassment and distress for women using the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane following a petition set up by local women.

Cabinet members have tonight taken the decision to implement the first UK Public Spaces Protection Order around an abortion clinic. https://t.co/Knds3Scvws  EalingCouncil (@EalingCouncil) April 10, 2018

Pro-choice demonstrators, including the group SisterSupporter, cheered and applauded as the cabinet members voted the proposal through.

But the meeting almost had to be adjourned when two distressed women walked up to the cabinet members, urging them to reconsider.

I cannot give up on this, one of the women told the members.

Please go back and review what you have done just here.

Expand Close Pro-choice demonstrators gathering outside the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane (John Stillwell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Pro-choice demonstrators gathering outside the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane (John Stillwell/PA)

Anna Veglio-White, co-founder of SisterSupporter, said she was completely elated and overjoyed that the council recognises there is a huge imbalance of human rights at Mattock Lane and theyve taken the necessary steps to address that.

Its pretty incredible, we just hope we see the effect of this all over the country, she added.

John Hansen-Brevetti, clinical operations manager at the clinic, said women had been told the ghost of their foetus would haunt them, had been told mummy mummy dont kill me, had holy water thrown on them and rosary beads thrust at them.

He said: Were absolutely thrilled, we think the council, SisterSupporter theyve all shown such leadership and bravery on this and we cant wait for the PSPO to come into effect so that our patients can finally access the clinic free from intimidation and harassment after two decades.

Were also so hopeful that this is just the beginning, that other councils are watching and taking note, that Parliament itself, the Home Affairs Select Committee, will continue to look at this issue and find a solution that works not just for Ealing but for the whole of the UK.

Expand Close Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Marie Stopes clinic (John Stillwell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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One by one, councillors gave their reasons for voting for the safe zone to be put in place.

Leader of the council Julian Bell said he felt the cabinet had done absolutely the right thing.

He said: I believe that this is something thats long been needed, so it feels good that we are actually breaking the ground with this and leading the way.

So Im proud that we are doing it.

He added: Weve always been clear that thats what this was about. It wasnt a debate for or against abortion.

The order will be reviewed in six months to see whether we had the outcomes we are hoping, Mr Bell added.

It will probably come into place on April 23 after a cooling-off period, he said, adding that the council had notice there may be a legal challenge.

Alina Dulgheriu, a representative for campaign group Be Here For Me, decided not to have an abortion after being handed a leaflet by a woman outside the clinic.

The 34-year-old said she was offered financial, practical and moral help, as well as accommodation, and now has a beautiful six-year-old daughter.

She said the safe zone would remove life-saving help when its most needed.

I was given a real choice by the woman at the gate, she added.
Donald Trump has said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be met forcefully hours after Russia warned US military action could cause grave repercussions.

The US president met with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night to discuss the response to the horrible attack on Douma, saying a decision would be made tonight or very shortly thereafter.

Mr Trump did not give a time frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because we are able to stop it.

We are the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

We are making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met forcefully, and when Im not saying because I dont like to talk about timing.

The presidents comments came after Moscows ambassador to the UN warned of the potential consequences to Western intervention in Syria.

Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria could lead to grave repercussions during heated exchanges at the UN Security Council.

Expand Close Mr Trump conducts the meeting with senior military chiefs (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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US ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia of having the blood of Syrian children on its hands after Mr Trump said that nothings off the table in dealing with the alleged outrage.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as fake news as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Ms Haley urged the UN to take action, but stressed whether it acts or not either way, the United States will respond.

She added: Meetings are ongoing. Important decisions are being weighed, even as we speak.

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK was considering what action was necessary in response to the barbaric attack which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Asked if the UK would join any US-led military action in Syria, Mrs May said during a visit to Sweden: What we are currently doing is working urgently with our allies to assess what has happened here.

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We  are working urgently with our allies to asses what has happened. But, we are also working with our allies on any action that is necessary.

Mrs May sidestepped a question on whether Parliament would be recalled from recess to debate any military intervention.

Everybody's going to pay a price - he will, everybody willDonald Trump on Vladimir Putin

Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague said he had little doubt that if he was still in office he would recommend military action in Syria.

Lord Hague, who was foreign secretary when then prime minister David Cameron lost a Commons vote he wanted to back action in Syria, said the aftermath of the defeat left the UK enfeebled spectators of one of the most destructive conflagrations of our time.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed Government minister urging the PM to take direct action rather than risk a new Commons vote, saying: Why would we want to open that Pandoras box again? Theres no need to go to there, the Prime Minister should take direct action then go to Parliament afterwards.

Mr Trump said the US is still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the apparent strike on Douma.

If its Russia, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out, he said.

He added of Russian president Vladimir Putin, everybodys going to pay a price  he will, everybody will.

Theresa May describes the suspected poison gas attack in Syria as reprehensible during a press conference in Copenhagen pic.twitter.com/bbNGAjRqSU  Harriet Line (@HarriLine) April 9, 2018

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assads regime if there is fresh incontrovertible evidence he has used chemical weapons against his own people.

Mr Johnson discussed the situation with acting US secretary of state John Sullivan twice on Monday.

The US State Department said Mr Johnson and his Washington counterpart had discussed potential further steps the US and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners.

The attack in Douma occurred late on Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.

A #WhiteHelmet expresses his grief with a heart and message of love and solidarity reading #Douma In My heart in the wake of the heinous chemical massacre on Douma. #Assad_Bombing_Douma_Chemical pic.twitter.com/HPxfDOGzGK  The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 8, 2018

Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.

Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths.

Reports suggested more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centres with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, and burning sensations in the eyes.

The attack comes almost exactly a year after a chemical atrocity in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

That attack prompted the US to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian military airport on Monday that reportedly killed at least 14 people.
Boris Johnson has criticised Russia after it vetoed an American-drafted resolution at the United Nations to create a new body to determine responsibility for the suspected Syria chemical weapons attack.

The Foreign Secretary described the move as hugely disappointing and accused Russia of holding the Syrian people to political ransom.

It came after Theresa May agreed in telephone conversations with Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron that the international community needed to respond.

Mr Johnson tweeted: Hugely disappointing that Russia vetoed the proposal at the UN for an independent investigation into Syrian chemical attacks.

Russia is holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting a regime responsible for at least 4 heinous chemical attacks against its people.

Hugely disappointing that Russia vetoed the proposal at the UN for an independent investigation into Syrian chemical attacks. Russia is holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting a regime responsible for at least 4 heinous chemical attacks against its people  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 10, 2018

Karen Piece, the UK ambassador to the UN, said it was a sad day for the Security Council and for the people of Douma.

Ms Pierce told the Security Council: By vetoing, Russia has crossed the line in the international order and worse, if possible, history is repeating itself one year on from Khan Shaykhun.

Russia was joined by Bolivia in voting no at the Security Council in New York on Tuesday afternoon, while China abstained.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister spoke to the US and French presidents on Tuesday, and they agreed to continue working closely together to ensure those responsible were held to account.

The United States is looking to the UK and France for support as it finalises its response to the assault on the rebel-held town of Douma.

President Trump and his French counterpart Mr Macron had already agreed to co-ordinate a strong, joint response after talks by telephone.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mrs May held separate calls with the two leaders and that they agreed the reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were utterly reprehensible.

They agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.



Mrs May sidestepped questions about whether Britain would be involved in military action during a visit to Cambridge earlier on Tuesday.

She said: This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

If this is the responsibility of Assads regime in Syria then its yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people that they show.

I spoke this morning to President (Emmanuel) Macron, I will be speaking later today with President (Donald) Trump and the National Security Council meets regularly, and Ill be chairing a meeting of the National Security Council later today, and well be working with our allies as I say, crucially, to make an assessment of what has happened on the ground.

The National Security Council brings together relevant intelligence and defence chiefs and Cabinet ministers for top level briefings.

President Trump has said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be met forcefully and held talks with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night.

Mr Trump did not give a time-frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because we are able to stop it.

The presidents comments came after Moscows ambassador to the UN warned of the potential consequences of Western intervention in Syria.

Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria could lead to grave repercussions during heated exchanges at the UN Security Council.

US ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia of having the blood of Syrian children on its hands after Mr Trump said that nothings off the table in dealing with the alleged outrage.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as fake news as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the attack, which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Theresa May describes the suspected poison gas attack in Syria as reprehensible during a press conference in Copenhagen pic.twitter.com/bbNGAjRqSU  Harriet Line (@HarriLine) April 9, 2018

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assads regime if there was fresh incontrovertible evidence he had used chemical weapons against his own people.

Mr Johnson discussed the situation with acting US secretary of state John Sullivan twice on Monday.

The US State Department said Mr Johnson and his Washington counterpart had discussed potential further steps the US and UK governments might take in co-ordination with other partners.

The attack in Douma happened late on Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.

A #WhiteHelmet expresses his grief with a heart and message of love and solidarity reading #Douma In My heart in the wake of the heinous chemical massacre on Douma. #Assad_Bombing_Douma_Chemical pic.twitter.com/HPxfDOGzGK  The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 8, 2018

Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.

Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths.

Reports suggested more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were taken to medical centres with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes.

The attack comes almost exactly a year after a chemical atrocity in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

That attack prompted the US to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian military airport on Monday that reportedly killed at least 14 people.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, pictured during a visit to Belfast, have invited members of the public into the grounds of Windsor Castle to enjoy their wedding day (Niall Carson/PA)

Soon-to-be royal wedding guests have told of their disbelief at being invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markles big day  with one saying she thought it was a belated April Fools prank.

Members of the public chosen to attend the Windsor wedding next month include a teenager who campaigns to raise awareness of difficulties for deaf people, and a mother who uses the arts to help people with mental health issues.

Schoolgirl Amelia Thompson, who was caught up in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing last year, is also on the guest list, with the 12-year-old planning to take a grandmother who lost a loved one in the terrorist attack.

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Pamela Anomneze said she felt excited and overwhelmed to be one of the chosen guests.

She said: I got an email informing me, and I thought it was an April Fools prank.

The mother-of-three described the honour as truly unbelievable, saying the engaged pair are the worlds most beautiful couple.

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The 52-year-old, from Haringey, London, will take her 15-year-old son Jude Anomneze-Collins as her plus one, after he made a heartfelt plea to attend alongside her.

He used to watch Suits. When I came home and informed him of the invite he was down on his knees begging to go. He said Oh mum, just to get a glimpse of Meghan Markle!

She said she may wear a colourful outfit traditional to her native Nigeria, but will leave the decision up to her colleagues at the Studio 306 Collective, a social enterprise which helps people with mental health problems.

The couple has asked that 1,200 people, from all corners of the UK be selected by Lord Lieutenants, include young people who have shown strong leadership and those who have served their communities. pic.twitter.com/aIraJiXg6B  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 2, 2018

I want to think about what to wear and seek advice from my team. I want the Collective collectively to advise me, she said.

Amelia Thompson said she was speechless when she saw the message saying she was going to the wedding.

The 12-year-old from Dronfield Woodhouse, near Sheffield, has spent a year recovering from the trauma she suffered after she witnessed the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Now she has decided to give her other ticket to grandmother Sharon Goodman, whose 15-year-old granddaughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy died in the attack.

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The youngster said: I was speechless. I could not respond I was so excited, and she is now looking forward to buying a dress.

Kensington Palace announced in March that 1,200 members of the public would be among the crowds allowed into the grounds of Windsor Castle to share in the atmosphere of the May 19 wedding at St Georges Chapel.

Prince Harry & Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill they have received since their engagement, & have asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion of their wedding considers giving to charity, instead of sending a gift. https://t.co/lzfrRmoeUv pic.twitter.com/nxrTZtIKBY  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

The lucky group were nominated by the nine regional Lord Lieutenant offices after Harry and Meghan asked for those picked to come from a broad range of backgrounds and ages, including young people who have shown strong leadership, and those who have served their communities.

On Monday, the couple appealed for donations to charity, rather than wedding gifts, from well-wishers and nominated seven good causes.

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Fourteen-year-old Reuben Litherlands school support worker in Derby did not believe him at first when he informed her he would be among the congregation at the wedding, his mother said.

The Saint Benedict Catholic Academy pupil, who is deaf and has set up a lunchtime sign language club at school, is still coming to terms with the news, she said.

Jacinta Litherland, who will attend the wedding with her son, said: He is very excited, and probably a bit bewildered. Its just not quite sunk in.

She said she was very proud of her sons achievements, which include campaigning for deaf friendly cinema screenings, at such a young age.

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He is raising awareness of the difficulties and struggles that deaf children face, and hes doing it very well, she said.

The pair will miss Ms Litherlands brothers birthday as it clashes with the wedding.

He will understand  but he will have something to say about it, she joked.

Zoe Ardunell will be lucky enough to see the couple for a second time, having met them during a recent visit to Cardiff Castle.

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The 20-year-old from Penygraig in Wales described that as a very happy day and said Harry told her she was definitely a role model for her work with the Valley Kids charity which helps disadvantaged children and families.

She will take as her guest her 62-year-old grandmother Pat Churches, who she said loves the royals.

Ms Arundell said she was relieved to see she had no plans that weekend, but quickly added: I think if I did have any plans they would be changed straight away!

Entrepreneur Rosie Ginday, 34, who set up the social enterprise and baking business Miss Macaroon in Birmingham in 2011, said she was delighted to get an invitation, after impressing Harry and Meghan with some of her trainees macaroons during their visit to the city in March.

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Her sweet treats organisation reinvests profits into developing disadvantaged young peoples potential, training them as chefs, and offering them real world experience.

The qualified pastry chef and former English teacher said: Harry and Meghan came to Millennium Point (Birmingham), and got to taste our macaroons which was really fun.

They were both so passionate about meeting all the young girls there and took a real interest.

Theyre accessible as well, and its great to have a younger generation of royals showing they do care and they are invested in what young people can do.

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Ms Gindays organisation has worked with care-leavers, the homeless, lone single parents and those with mental health problems, introducing them to working life, at the firms ship and bakery, and even giving some the chance to work at Michelin star restaurant Purnells.

Another wedding guest was Rashid Bhayat, 38, who founded and runs Coventrys Positive Youth Foundation, which offers youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds opportunities in areas like music and sports.

He described his wedding invitation as a glowing testament to work of the youth organisations volunteer trustees and staff who give up days, evenings and weekends, providing and running activities.

In January, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited and saw their work first-hand.

Speaking of his invite, he said: I feel honoured to go and represent  its not for me, but for all the people who have driven and keep driving the organisation forward.

He added: I will be using the opportunity to raise the profile of our young peoples work and the value of reinvesting in our youth.
Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned along with her former double agent father Sergei in Salisbury last month, has been discharged from hospital.

The 33-year-old Russian national had spent more than a month in hospital after coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

She is reported to have been released on Monday and taken to a secure location.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire town on March 4.

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On Friday, doctors at Salisbury District Hospital said Mr Skripal, 66, was responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition.

But the Foreign Office has said the pair are likely go have ongoing medical needs.

Moscow has denied being responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals but the incident has plunged diplomatic relations between Russia and the West into the deep freeze.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used a Sunday Times article to accuse Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of lending false credibility to Moscow by not blaming the Russian state unequivocally over the incident.

Mr Johnson said the Kremlin had released a torrent of absurdity following the attack.
Smoke rising after Syrian government air strikes hit in the town of Douma (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

Syrian government forces and their allies are on alert and taking precautionary measures at military bases and posts amid fears of a US strike in the aftermath of a suspected chemical weapons attack, Syrian war monitors said.

The measures come as President Donald Trump vowed to respond forcefully to Saturdays suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians near Damascus and warning that Russia  or any other nation found to share responsibility  will pay a price.

Syrian opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday nights alleged chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion just outside of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

.@POTUS Trump condemns the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. #Syria pic.twitter.com/qiEahlL3Ah  Department of State (@StateDept) April 9, 2018

The opposition blamed President Bashar Assads forces for the attack, accusations the government and its Russian backers strongly deny.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions.

The observatorys chief Rami Abdurrahman said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organisation, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near Iraqs border.

A Lebanese politician with close links to the Syrian government confirmed that precautionary measures are being taken throughout Syria.

The politician added that the atmosphere and American statements hint of a possible strike but there are no indications on the ground so far.

The politician said the Syrian government was expecting a limited strike, similar to the one on Shayrat air base last year, referring to last years US attack on the central air base of Shayrat in the central province of Homs following a chemical weapons attack on northern Syria that Washington blamed on the government.

In Moscow, a senior Russian politician said his country is willing to help arrange a visit this week for experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to the site of the suspected poison gas attack.

Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defence committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia is anxious for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to finally start carrying out the functions it was created for.
A medical worker gives a toddler oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

Syrian government forces and their allies are on alert and taking precautionary measures at military bases and posts in government-held areas across the country amid fears of a US strike in the aftermath of an apparent chemical weapons attack, war monitors said.

The measures came as a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus warned that Israels air strike on a Syrian air base on Monday that killed several Iranians will not remain unanswered.

Irans semi-official Tasnim news agency put the number of Iranians killed in the attack at seven.

It said the victims have been transferred to the Iranian capital Tehran and that funerals will be held in the victims cities of origin across the country.

Russia and the Syrian military blamed Mondays pre-dawn strike, which reportedly killed 14 people, on Israel.

There has been no comment from Israel on the strike on the T4 air base in Syrias central Homs province.

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The suspected poison gas attack in the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma, just east of Damascus, and Mondays air strike by US ally Israel have escalated tensions in the already volatile Middle East and raised the threat of possibly imminent American retaliation.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Irans supreme leader, issued his stark warning upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday. He was quoted by the countrys state-run news agency IRNA.

Iran is one of President Bashar Assads strongest backers and has sent thousands of Iran-backed gunmen to back his forces.

President Donald Trump has been threatening a military strike against Syria, vowing to respond forcefully to Saturdays apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Douma, warning that Russia  or any other nation found to share responsibility  will pay a price.

Syrian opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday nights chemical attack in Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion just outside of Damascus.

The opposition blamed Assads forces for the attack, accusations the government and its Russian backers strongly deny.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was outraged by Syrias apparent chemical weapons use against civilians.

If confirmed, the use of such weapons would be a violation of international law, Mr Guterres said in a statement.

Mr Guterres also said he reaffirms his support of an investigation into the alleged attack by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

I am outraged by the recent reports of use of chemical weapons in Syria. They require a thorough investigation by the @OPCW, without any restrictions or impediments. I encourage the Security Council to redouble its efforts to agree upon a dedicated mechanism for accountability.  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 10, 2018

A senior Russian politician said that Moscow is willing to help arrange a visit for experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to the site of the suspected poison gas attack.

Asked in Berlin whether she supports the idea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded unenthusiastically, saying that the evidence that chemical weapons were used there is very, very clear.

Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom dismissed the idea of military retaliation on Tuesday, saying its the role of the Security Council first of all to advocate a non-violent resolution to this, to avoid escalation.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions.

The observatorys chief Rami Abdurrahman said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organisation, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near Iraqs border.

A Lebanese politician with close links to the Syrian government confirmed that precautionary measures were being taken throughout Syria.

The politician said the atmosphere and American statements hint of a possible strike but there are no indications on the ground so far.

The politician said the Syrian government was expecting a limited strike, similar to the one on Shayrat air base last year, referring to last years US attack in the central province of Homs following a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that Washington blamed on the government.
Twenty years of Good Friday Agreement 'peace'? I've mixed feelings and I suspect that's true of many people. The past two decades have not been plain sailing, joy, happiness or - as the very first page of the Agreement called for - a time of true reconciliation with our neighbours.

Yet we are changing, albeit tortuously. One minute embracing change, the next clinging to old tribal certainties even more fiercely. Sometimes our 'reconciliation' has been through gritted teeth, with a manic gleam in our eye.

When I think back to 1998, it's the personal that's foregrounded. My dad was still alive. I'd no idea what was upstream - losing other relatives, seeing friends fall ill and die young. Good times too, both personally and professionally.

I do remember the feelgood factor that heralded the Agreement. To quote our Poet Laureate of the time, 'Mama told me there'd be days like this...'

But that didn't include interviewing an RUC widow, sitting in her kitchen surrounded by photos of her late husband and once happy family occasions, listening to her anger at the proposed deal. And all the relatives of the innocent dead, from both sides and none, many of whom could not believe the orphan and widowmakers were about to walk out of prison.

So, optimism, yes - but also a palpable sense of hurt and betrayal.

And the strangeness of it all: this is how 30-plus years of hatred, murder and mayhem ends? With a glossy brochure shoved through your letterbox and Bono triumphantly holding up the arms of a rather embarrassed David Trimble and John Hume?

It was a time of emotional confusion, of hope and unreality, of sadness, sorrow and bitterness.

And, in many ways, it still is. They say comedy is commonsense moving at a faster speed so perhaps it was inevitable that a comedian should forensically uncover the truth about our peace process. Patrick Kielty's documentary, My Dad, The Peace Deal And Me, captured rather brilliantly the aftermath of our peace.

Twenty years after the Agreement and 30 years after his father Jack was gunned down at his building business by a UVF/UDA gang, the programme didn't shirk the central issue: reconciling ourselves to the things we did to each other in the past in order to let go of that past.

Kielty accepts that, for the peace, his father's killers had to be released from prison but he doesn't - and can't - forgive them.

He didn't 'preach' about his own view nor talk down others. He sympathised and empathised with those who see it all rather differently.

The section that showed him talking with Arlene Foster in a small rural Fermanagh graveyard and looking at the headstones of friends, family, neighbours 'murdered by the IRA' - as the words etched out in granite stated - while serving in the RUC or the UDR, was a powerful reminder that it is hard to write off justice simply as the collateral damage of peace.

Kielty implicitly understood this. As he understood the chilling fact that loved ones were set up and possibly even gunned down by someone they knew.

Talking about his dad's murder, he recalled how "there was someone from the village involved, someone who knew him, and who met him and who decided he was next. I find that strange after all this time".

That is no small thing to demand from the bereaved just so the rest of us can 'move on'.

I'll be honest: these days I watch programmes about the Troubles or political debates about Northern Ireland only because it's vital for my job. Left to my own devices, no matter how fine the journalism - and the Kielty documentary was the BBC at its best - I wouldn't always switch on. It's not easy to watch former paramilitaries in the guise of moral philosophers, accepting 'responsibility' but not 'guilt' (or perhaps it's the other way round).

In much the same way as being sorry that rain falls from the sky, they will admit that they are sorry about the situation that forced them to do the things they did and tell us that we have to understand the context of the times.

In war, they say, terrible things are done by, er, the people who do them. Finally, for good measure, they throw in that, in the final analysis, they claim they did what we wanted them to do.

In other words, anything other than remorse, anything other than shame.

But, as Kielty's film devastatingly illustrated, this may indeed be precisely the price we have to pay for peace - having to listen to the self-justification of killers.

Kielty's willingness to listen to those who could try to justify shooting his father, to take on board the views of people he could quietly not only dismiss but actively hate, meant that, at the very least, we owed him our attention.

Kielty watched his father's killers walk free. He knew that - as happened on both sides - they were given a heroes' welcome.

That knowledge is not a small thing either. It would, on its own, be enough to send a person out looking for futile revenge.

That such things rarely happen here is another tribute to the values Kielty articulated so well and so honourably.

The Good Friday Agreement was, at best, a sketchily-drawn roadmap that would always, at some point, lead up blind alleys and pointless cul-de-sacs. Like many journalists back then, I started many days at work by heading out to knock on the door of the latest families to have been visited by sectarian horror. I was an onlooker at countless funerals.

It's impossible not to walk with the dead.

I remember my photographer's whispered words to a little boy, whose hairdresser father had been shot dead hours before on the Falls, as we stood in the living room while his mother looked for photographs: "You be a brave boy for your mummy."

Or the church-going man on the Shankill who refused, at gunpoint, to give a terror gang the keys of his car so they could exact revenge for a bomb: "You may shoot me, son. I know where I'm going."

We spend a lot of time, rightly, mourning the dead of the Troubles. We may need to spend even more time doing that before we're finished with that traumatic period. But we should also take time right now to remember all those who didn't die over the last two decades.

How many lives were saved by the Agreement? A hundred? Five hundred? Three thousand?

Look around - they are beside you in coffee shops, shopping centres, your workplace, your church.

The people who didn't get caught up in the bomb blast, who weren't shot leaving work, who didn't wander into the wrong street, who didn't end up as legitimate targets or handy messages to the other side.

They could be you and me.

That is not a small thing either.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble (centre) leads Jeffrey Donaldson and Reg Empey into talks with the British and Irish Governments at Stormont in June 1999

The lead-up to the referendum on the Belfast Agreement in 1998 was an interesting, challenging and difficult time for the people of Northern Ireland.

One when emotions, hopes, fears and aspirations were all running high, fuelled by the weight of expectation from many sources whether internal and external, local and international.

At the time I personally had difficulty with proposals contained within the Agreement - specifically around prisoner releases. But such was the range and depth of the Agreement that nobody would be happy with the document in its entirety.

It is also no longer possible to simply look back and exclusively categorise people as pro or anti-Agreement, as the arguments were complex then and remain complex now.

Once the referendum took place and the result was overwhelmingly in favour, I supported David Trimble and what he was trying to achieve. I knew that he wanted a Northern Ireland we could all be proud to call home, a Northern Ireland that would attract inward investment and a Northern Ireland that we could all share with a set of power-sharing institutions that had partnership at the heart of them.

The challenge and the goal was to make the Belfast Agreement and Northern Ireland work for everyone.

I believe that if the Belfast Agreement had been given the space to evolve at the pace of society - as was intended - then we would not be facing the political stalemate that we are today. Instead, its core principles were compromised and building a truly shared society took second place to party politics.

The main example being how some revelled in claiming that they had rewritten the Belfast Agreement at St Andrews.

In its 2007 manifesto, the DUP boasted: "The DUP has succeeded in rewriting the 1998 Belfast Agreement and making fundamental changes in the way in which we would be governed in Northern Ireland." Such claims are not only lamentable but have also been proven to have been very short-sighted.

The changes made at St Andrews totally corrupted the partnership model that was at the heart of the Belfast Agreement. The 1998 Agreement had given the most visible concept of power-sharing through the joint nature of the First and Deputy First Minister posts. This allowed for a joint office elected by the Members of the Assembly, to demonstrate it was a partnership, representing everyone, with both communities having their hands on the steering wheel.

St Andrews changed that to allow the largest party of the largest designation to appoint a First Minister and the largest party of the next largest designation to appoint the Deputy First Minister with the expectation that both could share an office. This has since led to every Assembly election following it becoming a sectarian headcount over who you want - or rather, don't want - as First Minister.

This may be fine for two parties who thrive on such elections, but it is not so easy to reconcile society.

Following the European referendum it has been frustrating to hear the Belfast Agreement heralded as being both a threat to and the saviour of Brexit, when neither is actually true.

The Belfast Agreement secures Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom so long as the majority of people wish this to be the case through the principle of consent.

It is welcome to hear many who opposed the Belfast Agreement at the time now cite the principle of consent every time they take on the Irish Government over its position on Brexit.

Although it must be recognised that if all unionists had taken their position in 1998 of standing outside the gates during the negotiations, then there would have been no principle of consent to rely on!

It is also the case that those who now say that the Belfast Agreement has failed - both here and in Westminster - need to be aware that any threat or dissolution of the Belfast Agreement also risks removing that core protection, and with it our security as an integral part of the UK.

It was never imagined, nor should it have been envisaged, that the Belfast Agreement in itself would be the solution to all of Northern Ireland's problems.

It was a crucial and critical step, but it was one that should have been followed by further steps that gave strength and security to our devolved institutions and confidence and reconciliation for our society.

Twenty years on the Belfast Agreement is not something that should be taken for granted.

It needed to be nurtured and nourished to allow it to grow, not abandoned to wither.

My party and I still believe in its principles - those of reconciliation, tolerance, partnership, respect and mutual trust. I believe in its vision for devolved institutions allowing the people of Northern Ireland to have locally elected politicians making decisions on the things that affect us directly.

I believe devolution and power-sharing are not beyond saving and should not be allowed to drift any further. But it is the case that we need to return to those core principles and focus on the relationships at the heart of politics, which is where we have fallen down.

This week offers a chance to reflect on how far we have come. Life is undoubtedly better now than it was in Northern Ireland 20 years ago. But we must also acknowledge that we are not where we could have been.

The Belfast Agreement presented an opportunity for hope and I believe we have a duty not to remove that hope from future generations.
Bangladeshi students yell slogans during a protest calling for the removal or reform of a quota system in government jobs in Dhaka, April 9, 2018.

Clashes erupted for a second night inside the campus of Dhaka University after a police crackdown on thousands of demonstrators protesting a lack of job opportunities caused hundreds of injuries, students said early Tuesday (local time).

Videos from the scene that were posted on social media showed unidentified young men armed with machetes entering the campus area, people being beaten and crowds running through darkened streets.

I saw two people who were beaten mercilessly by a group of young people, an eyewitness, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews. Their heads were smashed against the concrete [road].

A student also described seeing the violence while walking out of the university campus about 10:30 p.m. Monday.

I saw a group of people with helmets and sharp weapons in hand, the student told BenarNews in a phone interview.

Its unclear which group was responsible for the latest violence, which took place after police clashed with thousands of students at an intersection adjacent to the Dhaka University campus on Sunday evening.

The students were protesting what they called discriminatory quotas for government jobs.



Earlier, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said police had been instructed to identify those who started the violence.

The culprits will be detected from the video footage, Quader told reporters. No innocent person will be detained.

Politics of demolition

On Monday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said at least 27 students had been detained on suspicion of participating in the protests, which started Sunday.

The protests spread across the country by Monday morning as students from state-run and private universities in other Bangladeshi cities, including Chittagong, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar, Mymensingh, Kushtia and Sylhet, blocked roads and expressed solidarity with the Dhaka University students.

Police inspector Bacchu Mia told reporters on Sunday that more than 100 people were injured, but protest leaders later said at least 217 students suffered injuries in the clashes.

Meanwhile, the universitys vice chancellor, Mohamad Akhtaruzzaman, said Monday that unidentified men had barged into his residence, vandalized furniture and torched two cars outside his home.

Those who came to my house were wearing masks Akhtaruzzaman told reporters. They came to do the politics of demolition.

Bangladeshi students set up roadblocks and burn bamboo poles during a protest calling for the removal or reform of a quota system in government jobs in Dhaka, April 9, 2018. [Monirul Alam/BenarNews]

Employment quota

Since 1972, the Bangladeshi government has set aside a quota for employment in government jobs. In most cases, 56 percent of civil service positions are set aside for the families of disadvantaged minorities and families of freedom fighters, those veterans who fought in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

As a result, protesters say, only 44 percent of the jobs are left for candidates who are mostly university graduates in the country where, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 48.2 million people, including 1.4 million with college degrees, were unemployed last year. The countrys unemployment rate stood at 4 percent last year, according to the World Bank.

The latest clashes took place hours after Bipasha Chowdhury, one of the protest leaders, announced on the campus on Monday morning that the demonstrators had agreed to give the government a May 7 deadline to consider their demands.

The government will examine the demands of the protesting students by May 7. Until then (the protesting students) have assured us they would postpone their demonstrations, Quader, the road transport minister, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party, told reporters after holding talks with 20 protest leaders.

But another group vowed to continue the protests unless their demands were met.

We do not accept the decision to postpone the protests, Bipasha Chowdhury told reporters.

We will continue boycotting classes at all public and private universities until our demands are met.
The Philippine military launched fresh air and ground assaults against pro-Islamic State militants in southern Maguindanao province on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of families to flee in fear of getting caught in the crossfire.



But the target of the military offensive, identified as Kagi Karialan, is believed to have escaped rocket and mortar fire that landed on his base on the outskirts of Maguindanao, local army spokesman Capt. Arvin Encinas said.



Karialan is a ranking commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF, an offshoot group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a southern insurgent force that signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014.

There were reports from civilians about their presence in the area so we launched our combat operations and its ongoing until now, Encinas said.

Numbering in the few hundreds, BIFF is composed mostly of fighters who have vowed to carry on with their separatist fight after MILF agreed to the deal on regional autonomy. The 12,000-strong MILF is now helping the armed forces go after BIFF and other armed militant groups that are seen as potential spoilers to peace in the southern Philippines.



BIFF has pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State, but did not send fighters to Marawi, a city in the south held for five months last year by a group of IS affiliates led by Isnilon Hapilon.



There were reports from civilians about their presence in the area so we launched our combat operations and its ongoing until now, Encinas said.



In Maguindanao, more than 400 families were evacuated from their homes, with local officials assisting them and providing with relief, he said.



Encinas said there were no reported casualties on the government side, but the military was still checking reports about deaths among the enemy.



We are checking if Karialan was injured in the air strike, he said.



Military sources said Karialan reportedly surrendered to the MILFs chief peace negotiator , Mohaqher Iqbal, who has refused to either confirm or deny the report.



But Abu Misri Mama, Karialans comrade and spokesman for BIFF, confirmed that his colleague met senior leaders of the MILF and negotiated the terms of his supposed surrender.



A trusted lieutenant of the late BIFF founder, Ameril Umra Kato, Karialan is wanted for a string of crimes, including murder, extortion and roadside bombings against military personnel and civilians in Maguindanao.



Also on Tuesday, the military reported that troops had overrun a firearms factory controlled by BIFF at a remote site also in Maguindanao. Two soldiers were injured when they were hit by gunfire by escaping militants.



Mark Navales in Cotabato City contributed to this report.
Residents drive past an armored personnel carrier carrying Philippine marines in the southern province of Maguindanao, where fighters of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) are known to operate, Dec. 24, 2015.

Police on Tuesday identified an Indonesian man arrested last month in the Philippines as an alleged terrorist bomb maker engaged in recruiting fighters for pro-Islamic State (IS) militants in the southern city of Marawi.

Mushalah Somina Rasim (alias Abu Omar) was captured March 10 in the town of Palimban in Sultan Kudarat province, about 149 km (93 miles) south of Marawi. The 32-year-old is being held by the immigration bureau in preparation for being deported, officials said.

At the time of his arrest, Rasim was believed to be spearheading a recruitment drive to boost the ranks of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines (AKP), a small militant group that has pledged allegiance to IS.

AKP is also referred to as Khalifa Islamiyah Mindanao, and its members are believed to have received training on bomb making from Indonesian and Malaysian militants who slipped through Mindanaos porous borders.

Police are ready to respond to any IS recruitment, regional police chief Marcelo Morales said, acknowledging that there are still reported remnants and supporters of AKP who fled during law enforcement operations.

Morales said he believed that Indonesian nationals were likely the ones spreading terrorist ideology in the region. But he did not elaborate.

To prevent the influx of foreign fighters, Morales said, regional security officials have intensified patrols in coastal areas of Mindanao, the countrys second largest island and home to a majority of 6 million Muslim Filipinos.

We still have follow-up operations to accomplish more and we will intensify naval patrols, he said.

AKP leader Jaafar Sabewang Maguid (alias Tokboy) was killed in a firefight with police in January 2017.

Maguids group was blamed for a 2015 grenade attack that killed a police officer and wounded dozens of civilians in the southern town of Maasim.

During Rasims arrest, authorities recovered ATM cards, as well as Philippine and Indonesian currencies.

Police said he stayed for about a week in the southern city of General Santos, a kickoff point to launch meetings with Filipino militants from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

BIFF is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the countrys main Muslim separatist force that signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

Last year, militants led by Isnilon Hapilon  the acknowledged Filipino leader of IS Philippines  took over the southern city of Marawi and engaged security forces in five months of vicious fighting. Military officials said he was backed by an undetermined number of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern fighters.

Hapilon along with several Filipino pro-IS leaders were killed in a clash in October, ending the siege that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them militants.

Froilan Gallardo in Cagayan de Oro City contributed to this report.
For Immediate Release, April 9, 2018 Contact: Patrick Donnelly, Center for Biological Diversity, (702) 483-0449, pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org

Shaaron Netherton, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, (775) 324-7667, shaaron@nevadawilderness.org

Brian Beffort, Sierra Club, (775) 848-7783, brian.beffort@sierraclub.org Forest Service Reopens Comment Period for Fracking in Nevada's Ruby Mountains Public Encouraged to Submit Stories, Photographs ELKO, Nev. The U.S. Forest Service has reopened the comment period for oil and gas leasing on public lands in Nevadas Ruby Mountains after receiving overwhelming public opposition. The Forest Service is proposing to lease out 54,000 acres of the Ruby Mountains for oil and gas development. The Ruby Mountains are the crown jewel of Nevadas Great Basin, a rugged mountain wilderness of trout-filled creeks and scenic alpine terrain, teeming with wildlife such as mule deer, bighorn sheep and greater sage grouse. Drilling and fracking in Nevadas most iconic mountain range are wildly unpopular, said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director at the Center for Biological Diversity. We applaud the Forest Service for acknowledging the significant controversy generated by this proposal and allowing the public additional time to comment. A coalition of environmental groups submitted detailed comments on the proposal, noting the potential for significant harms to Nevadas wildlife, water and wildlands if fracking is allowed in the Ruby Mountains. The groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Western Watersheds Project, Basin and Range Watch, Great Basin Resource Watch, Nevada Conservation League, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the Wildlands Network. In addition to conservation groups, more than 10,000 people submitted comments to the Forest Service opposing the plan. Conservation groups are encouraging members of the public to share personal stories and experiences in the Ruby Mountains with the Forest Service. The Center is compiling photographs and stories for submission to the Forest Service before the deadline. They can be sent to RubyMountains@biologicaldiversity.org by April 22. We want the public to share their personal experience of this special mountain wilderness, said Shaaron Netherton, executive director at Friends of Nevada Wilderness. Hikers, hunters, mountain bikers, fisherman, birdwatchers and other public-lands users all have important stories to tell. The Forest Service should consider this as they decide whether to turn the Rubies into an oil patch. The Rubies are one of the most inappropriate place in all of Nevada to drill for oil, said Brian Beffort, director of the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club. Theyre an iconic emblem of the Silver States wild and indigenous heritage, and we cant let them be ruined for corporate profits.
Contract services and 2017 regulations igniting growth in Thailands pharma economy, with the event to annually switch between the two largest regional markets.

CPhI South East Asia  organised by UBM  has announced that from 2019 onwards it will alternate its annual location between the regions two largest pharma economies, Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2019, CPhI South East Asia will take place at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) in Bangkok, Thailand (12-14 March) before returning to Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) in Indonesia in 2020 (4-6 March). CPhI South East Asias strategic move to Thailand will further strengthen the events appeal within the region. Organizers anticipate a significant growth in new visitors from more diverse locations with the new venue, catering to attendees that were previously unable to participate.

The events first visit to Thailand comes at a significant time for the country, as pharma sales are expected to grow by 8.4% in 2019, with multinational corporations increasingly looking to partner with local contract manufacturers in order to expedite and streamline market access. According to data from BMI Research, by 2021 the pharmaceutical market is forecast to reach a value of THB209.7bn ($6.3bn), experiencing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% in local currency terms and 6.8% in US dollar terms. Over the extended forecast period, medicine sales will experience a 10-year CAGR of 5.5% and 6.3% in local currency and US dollar terms respectively, reaching THB275.2bn ($8.4bn) by 2026.

This is very much a natural progression for the CPhI South East Asia and the region, opening even greater opportunities to meet new partners and expand pharma sales. Collectively, these two countries account for over 50% of the regions sales. Our research shows there is large opportunity, in particular, for contract services and ingredients, and by annually switching location we will increase the depth and quality of regional partners available. Not to mention, we attract a wider perspective of visitors, all of which will ultimately accelerate ASEANs Pharmaceutical harmonisation and cross-border collaborations. added Chris Kilbee, Group Director, Pharma at UBM.

In fact, according to PhRMA's Special 301 submission for 2017, Thailand was once again designated as a 'Priority Watch List Country'. Notably, only India and Indonesia share this status in the entire Asia Pacific region. Additionally, the country is set to benefit from amendments to the Patents Act 2017  which enables an expedited Thai patent application for companies with existing patents from Australia, China, the EU, Japan, South Korea and the US  further cementing international interest.

Kilbee added: The 2019 edition will open increased international opportunities for domestic manufacturers in Thailand that have not yet had the capacity or partners to expand regionally. Plus, with MNCs looking to capitalise on regulatory changes this year, we expect many new international attendees

CPhI South East Asia, which just celebrated its 7th year, will co-locate in 2019 with FDF, ICSE, P-MEC, InnoPack, and the returning LABworld South East Asia  following a hugely successful opening year. UBM forecasts the inaugural edition in Bangkok will host more than 6000 attendees and 270 exhibitors. Executives will come from across the regions fastest growing industries including pharma ingredients professionals, packaging experts, machinery providers and contract manufacturing, as well as nutraceutical companies and laboratory specialists  facilitating a collective environment that is designed to stimulate the next stage in the ASEAN pharma expansion.
The prohibition is based on the observation that serological testing is not practical for routine diagnosis of the acute form of the disease because of the time required to develop the antibody.

The Union Health Ministry has banned the use of antibody detecting rapid diagnostic tests for routine malaria diagnosis due to concerns over the practicality of the approach.

The antibody detection for malaria is carried out through an indirect fluorescent antibody test in patients infected with Plasmodium, which is the known causative organism of the disease.

The prohibition is based on the observation that serological testing is not practical for routine diagnosis of the acute form of the disease because of the time required to develop the antibody.

The testing is attributed to the persistence of antibodies even after clearance of an active infection and evidence suggests that serology only measures past exposure but does not identify existing infection.

While the antibody detecting rapid diagnostic tests are preferred for their low cost and free availability, they are reported to have led to a high false positive rate in endemic areas.

The ban will not impact the diagnosis of malaria sufferers as the most common tests used in diagnosis are antigen detecting rapid diagnostic tests and blood smear examination.
Ambedkar Jayanti 2021: Birth Anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Pulse oi-Staff

In the decade of 1890s, a poor schoolboy, belonging to the Mahar caste, was made to sit outside the class. He was not allowed to sit with the others. He would carry his gunny sack used for sitting, from home to school every day. Not only this, if he wanted to have water, the peon would pour the water from a height in his cupped hands. This was the level of untouchability that was followed in that decade.

How could an innocent child from the so-called lower caste, grow in such an environment? What impact would these situations have left on his mind? What impressions would he have made about himself? How would it have affected his self-esteem? No doubt the questions are many.

But there was one strong boy who not only survived these mental atrocities but also uprooted them and gave others like him a better place to live and a healthier environment to grow in. It was none other than B R Ambedkar, today is known as 'the father of the Indian Constitution.

Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, also known as Babasaheb, was born on 14th April, in the year 1891, in Madhya Pradesh. His family was of a Marathi background. His father Ramji Maloji Sakpal was Subedar in the British Indian Army, and his mother's name was Bhimabai.

For his education, he attended the Elphinston High School, Elphinston College, Columbia University and the London School of Economics.

Though he had earned many scholarships as a student, yet during a few years in his career, he had to make a living as a private tutor, as an accountant and then even started an investing consultant business. However, he was not much successful in these because of being untouchable. Later, he became a professor of politics in Mumbai. Though he became popular among his students there; however, he had to face discrimination by the fellow teachers in the name of untouchability again.

Ambedkar used to often ponder over eradicating untouchability; however, it was only by 1927 that he had finally decided to launch movements against evil. He launched movements to get the public drinking water opened for the untouchables, a movement for the right of the untouchables to enter the temples and various other movements as well. By now, he had earned a massive following. In 1930, he launched the Kalram Temple Satyagraha.

The Reservation For The Scheduled Castes And Tribes

In 1932, the British government proposed a separate electorate for the so-called lower castes. However, Gandhiji then thought that such an action might divide the Hindu community and he discussed the same with Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malaviya. After a prolonged thought and relevant discussions and proposals before the British government, they succeeded in getting the seats reserved for the depressed classes. The number of seats now became 178, which would otherwise be 70 according to the proposal from the British government.

After India's independence, Ambedkar was invited as the first law minister. He then was made the Chair Person of the drafting committee of the constitution. That is why, he is today also known as the father of the Indian Constitution.

While the constitution guarantees various rights and provisions for the individual citizens, Dr Ambedkar ensured the reservation of seats in the civil services, schools and colleges for the scheduled castes and tribes also.

The constitution was adopted on the 26th of November, 1949, by the Indian constituent assembly.

The Reserve Bank of India was also based on his ideas given to the Hilton Young Commission.

Ambedkar's Conversion To Buddhism

In the year 1950, he turned his attention towards the Buddhist religion. In 1955, he established the Bharatiya Buddha Mahasabha and then in 1956, he completed his book 'The Buddha and his Dhamma'.

Ambedkar passed away on 6th December 1954, in sleep while he had been bedridden. He was posthumously given the Bharat Ratna in the year 1990. His memorial is established at his house in Delhi at 26 Alipur Road.

He became an asset for the nation and a messiah for the then called untouchables. Otherwise, who knows until when the innocence of kids in school might have kept being snatched away in the name of untouchability and caste?
Baisakhi 2020: Why This Day Is Celebrated Festivals oi-Staff

One of the most celebrated occasions for the Sikh community is that of Baisakhi, also known as Vaisakhi. This year, Baisakhi will be celebrated on 13th April, as the Solar New Year day. It is popular among the people of Punjab and Haryana, mainly because these are the agriculture dominated states. Even the majority of the Sikhs also live here only.

While for the farmers, this day marks the end of the rabi season and the beginning of a new year, for the Sikh community, the day is known for the establishment of the Khalsa Panth. The day is celebrated in both Haryana and Punjab; however, the spirit of celebration is remarkably high in Punjab.

Vaisakhi is known by different names in other states as well, such as 'Rangoli Bihu' In Assam, 'Nabha Baarsha' in Bengal, 'Puthandu' In Tamil Nadu, 'Puram Vishu'' In Kerala And 'Vaishakh' in Bihar.

Astrologically, this is the day when the Sun enters the Mesh Rashi. Therefore, it is also known as 'Mesh Sankranti'.

Importance Of The Day For The Sikh Community

The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb wanted only Islam to prevail in the nation and hence imposed relevant rules. Worried about the disappearing existence of other communities, especially the Sikhs, the 9th Sikh Guru, Guru Arjun Dev took to working even harder for the propagation of Sikhism.

Seeing him as a threat to his aims, Aurangzeb beheaded him publicly. Then, Guru Arjun Dev's son, Guru Gobind Singh, took his place and continued the purpose of the community. It was this tenth Guru, who established the Khalsa Panth on the day of Baisakhi in 1699. This is how, the day is of chief importance to the Sikh community.

Sikhs all over India celebrate the day with the same zeal. Early morning, they take a bath in a holy river and worship their deity. While most of them visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar or the Anand Sahib, the place where Khalsa Panth was pronounced, others may visit a Gurudwara in their area.

After offering the morning prayers, a religious ceremony is held in which they give a bath with milk and water to the holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. There were 'Panch Pyaras' who were the five beloved disciples of Guru Gobind Singh.

They had recited the holy chants at the ceremony, when the Khalsa Panth was started. Similarly, five priests do the same chanting in their name. 'Amrit prasad' is then distributed among the devotees. People participate in cultural activities in the Baisakhi fair.

Dressed in their cultural attires, they can be seen enjoying the Bhangra and Giddha, the folk dances of Punjab, at the beats of dhol. Later in the day time, they take lunch as prasad in 'lungar'.

Importance For The Farmers

For the farmer community also the day is started by taking a holy bath. They too offer their prayers and the dishes made with seasonal items, to their deity. Since it is a day of gratitude for the farmers, they thank the almighty for the last year's harvest and pray for a prosperous harvest in the next year ahead again.
The worlds big four accounting firms will face potential fines of 10m (11.5m) or more, in the UK, for serious rule breaches from June, writes Huw Jones.

That figure is double the record penalty to date.

Britains Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said that it has accepted the findings of a study carried out in November by former judge Christopher Clarke, which recommended much bigger fines for serious misdeeds by the worlds biggest accountants.

Larger fines are part of the FRCs push to bolster its credibility after being heavily criticised by lawmakers for being too slow to take on the big accountants caught up in company scandals.

Under the councils disciplinary procedure, it sets out a case against an auditor or individual accountant at an independent tribunal before asking the tribunal to set a fine at a specific level.

The record amount agreed by a tribunal so far is 5.1m (5.8m) for PwC over its audit of accountancy multinational RSM Tenon.

Mr Clarke has recommended an increase in fines to 10m (11.5m) or more for seriously poor audit work from a big four accounting firm  meaning PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte  who check the books of most international blue-chip companies.

The FRC also accepted other recommendations from Mr Clarke to make greater use of non-financial penalties and to exclude dishonest auditors from the accounting profession for at least 10 years.

However, fines will be discounted in line with the level of co-operation during an investigation to encourage early settlement, the FRC said.

A 10m (11.5m) fine is still small compared with penalties imposed by Britains Financial Conduct Authority for breaches of financial rules.

Britains Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales accounting industry body has already warned that exacting retribution through big fines could harm the marketplace.

It said such action could end up prompting some firms to quit auditing.

Reuters
More than 550 overseas buyers are due to attend some 5,000 meetings with 185 Irish food and drink companies in the RDS Dublin on Thursday as part of the Bord Bias Marketplace event, writes Joe Dermody.

The week-long food and drink showcase got underway yesterday, with 300 of the international visitors embarking on the first of 28 different three-day group itineraries organised and hosted by Bord Bia. The event is expected to deliver 40m in new business for Irish food companies.
Irish-owned bottled water producer Celtic Pure is targeting significant expansion in Asia in the short-term, with a view to generating 1m in annual revenues from China by 2020, writes Geoff Percival.

The Co Monaghan-based company  owned and run since 2000 by husband and wife team Padraig and Pauline McEneaney  has invested 12m on expanding the company since 2015.

That has seen it upgrade its offices and warehouse facilities and significantly increase bottling capacity.

Celtic Pure produced around 118m bottles at its Corcreagh headquarters last year. That total is expected to rise to between 150m and 160m this year and hit 250m bottles by 2020.

While Ireland remains the companys core market, it is slowly growing overseas and has firm intentions to increase its international reach.

Outside of Ireland, Celtic Pure sells into the UK and has a small presence  via one customer  in the US.

It is planning to introduce value added-water products to its range  which will include vitamins and flavourings later this year.

On the back of that, the company will look to enter mainland European markets  the Netherlands and Germany, in particular  and Scandinavia later this year.

Celtic Pure already has a presence in China, via one distribution agreement. That distributor is due to take delivery of 24 container loads of product this year, meaning the Co Monaghan company will generate revenues of around 225,000 from China in 2018.

Those container load orders are set to rise to 100 next year and to 250 in 2020, by which time China should be a 1m revenue market for the Irish company.

The McEneaneys are also looking to further grow sales in Ireland despite already selling into the foodservice sector and supplying most of the major supermarket, convenience store and discounter multiples and forecourt operators across the country.

Mr McEneaney said he is concerned and worried about the impact Brexit may have on the business, given how much raw materials Celtic Pure buys from Britain and how much finished product it exports there.

However, he said it remains too early to know what the full consequences may be and the company is still in the unknown regarding the issue.

Celtic Pure saw total revenues rise by 30% last year and is tentatively targeting sales growth of at least 20%-25% this year and next.

Mr McEneaney said the prospect of people drinking less carbonated drinks, on the back of the impending sugar tax, could deliver an additional 5% to 7% boost in sales.
Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker which employs 1,600 people in Ireland, has agreed to acquire AveXis for $8.7bn (7.1bn) to gain a promising drug to treat a rare disease that afflicts infants, hastening a shift towards gene therapy and precision medicines.

In Europe, Novartis employs 600 people at a plant in Ringaskiddy in Cork making ingredients for its cancer, respiratory and skin disease drugs, and has 350 workers at its Alcon subsidiary in Cork city where it makes eye care products.

It also has 350 people at a business centre in Dublin.

The transaction is Novartiss second deal to advance in gene therapy this year and the first led by new chief executive Vas Narasimhan.

The drugmaker is redeploying some of the $13bn in proceeds from the sale of its stake in a consumer-health joint venture to partner GlaxoSmithKline to gain more firepower in prescription medicines before some of its existing best-sellers lose patent protection.

Our goal is to build on a core of medicines as a medicines company powered by data and digital, said Mr Narasimhan in a conference call with investors. A deal like this fits right in that sweet spot, he said.

AveXis is developing a product to treat spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a defect in a single gene, which shows the potential to become a blockbuster, according to Novartis.

In buying AveXis, the Swiss drugmaker is also gaining a product to address a rare disease. Like gene therapies, such treatments command high prices that have sparked interest even from unexpected players in the industry.

Last month, Takeda Pharmaceutical said it was considering a bid for Shire, a leader in rare diseases, which would rank as the Japanese companys biggest takeover ever. Shire has significant facilities in Co Meath and Dublin.

AveXis also has valuable manufacturing and research capabilities that would give its Swiss buyer a platform alongside its research in cancer to advance a growing pipeline of gene therapies across therapeutic areas, said Mr Narasimhan.

Novartiss Kymriah won US regulatory approval in August, making it the first drug approved from a new class of treatments that have been heralded as a promising approach to treating and potentially curing cancers as well as genetic conditions such as blindness.

Like other gene therapies, it is used only once on a patient, and carries a high price tag, $475,000, in the case of Kymriah. Avxs-101 helped a small group of babies with spinal muscular atrophy hit development milestones at a rate previously unseen, a study showed in November.

Bloomberg. Additional reporting Irish Examiner
Samsung Securities is set to be included in a probe into the "overall stock markets system" in South Korea after it accidentally issued more than $100bn worth of shares to its employees.

The stock-trading arm of the Samsung conglomerate and one of the country's largest brokerages causes chaos last week after an employee accidentially issued 2.8 billion shares to staff.
Earlier this year, Aoibhin Garrihy announced the news that she and husband John Burke and expecting their first child this June.

Over the weekend, the actress, who is seven months pregnant, posted a photo of her and John at the top of Irelands highest mountain, Carrauntoohil.

While the majority of the comments underneath the post remained positive, there were a few that criticized her decision to take on the climb so late into her pregnancy.

The mum-to-be hit-back at the comments explaining that John is an experienced climber and safety was paramount for them.

Im afraid Ill have to disagree with you. As my husband is an experienced climber, safety has always been paramount for us she began.

Everyones body and capabilities are different especially during pregnancy but on a fine day with no wind and great support I took my time and to be honest I cant think of a nicer way to spend the day7 months pregnant!

The couple set up health and wellness charity, the Elevate Foundation in April 2017 and run Beo health and fitness events around the country.

John became the first Clare native to conquer Mount Everest in May.
- By Louise Roseingrave

Pathology staff were unable to determine why a man died just hours after a routine bronchoscopy at a Dublin hospital. Patrick Dennison (57) from Artane in Dublin 5 collapsed and died on August 22 2016.

Earlier that morning, hed been to Beaumont Hospital for the procedure to check his airways, which doctors described as uneventful.

Family members said the man was in pain following the bronchoscopy, during which a flexible camera is inserted down through the vocal chords and into the airways.

Mr Dennison, who had a smoking background, had a nodule on one of his lungs and had been called in for a number of tests to determine if it was cancerous.

Consultant Respiratory Physician at Beaumont Hospital Mr Ross Morgan said bronchoscopy is a routine test, around six procedures per day are conducted at Beaumont Hospital, between 1,200 and 1,500 annually.

Medication is administered to prevent discomfort and patients are observed for a number of hours following the procedure, which takes around ten minutes. The process for Mr Dennison that day was uneventful, Dublin Coroners Court heard.

Mr Morgan said Mr Dennison had no risk factors that would make the bronchoscopy more dangerous.

He was not a higher risk, Mr Morgan said, adding that he had never experienced a death in these circumstances during his 11 year career.

It was very unexpected, Mr Morgan said. He appeared to have no complications from the procedure itself.

The sedatives used are short acting and wear off after around 45 minutes, the court heard. Mr Dennison was given something to eat and drink before he left the hospital around midday.

He collapsed later that day and returned to the emergency department where medics tried to resuscitate him for an hour in a bid to save his life.

Pathology staff found no reason for the mans sudden collapse. There was no anatomical cause identified and nothing in toxicology reports that could account for the mans death.

Sedative medication was present in sub-therapeutic levels in keeping with doses administered in hospital earlier that day. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane was told that cases where the cause of death is undetermined account for between 2% and 3% of autopsies.

Dr Cullinane returned an open verdict.

All efforts were made by the pathologists to see if they could explain what caused the sudden collapse, but the cause of death was undetermined.

"Unfortunately its very difficult for the family in this situation. This was a rare and tragic death, the coroner said.
Days after the first anniversary of David O'Sullivan's disappearance his mother Carmel has said that she does not believe her son will be found alive but she will continue the search until he is found.

David, who was 25-years-old at the time he went missing, had travelled to California in the US to undertake a popular long-distance hiking trail called the Pacific Crest Trail.

The trail is featured in a book called, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The memoir by Cheryl Strayed, which was later adapted into a film starring Reese Witherspoon, describes a woman's journey of self-discovery as she hikes the trail.

Having read the book a few years ago, David had decided to undertake the 2,500-mile hike.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio 1 this morning, Carmel said that just before David left for California they sat and watched the film together.

"I suppose I didn't know much about it," said Carmel. "Initially I was saying 'No, no, no, no, you can't do it' but...he was 25 and I couldn't stop him."

Davids parents Carmel and Con OSullivan.

Having compeleted a media course as well as a degree in English and Philosophy in University College Cork, David saved money from his job working in a local garage in Midleton to fund his trip.

"What he thought was, when he came back he would probably go back to college and do a Masters or something and he'd never have an opportunity...if he got older and he met somebody and got married and had a mortgage, he'd never be able to take six months off work to do this, he thought.

"So this was his ideal opportunity, it was the right time for him."

In the months leading up to his trip, David trained. He hiked often, hiking the carrauntoohil mountains with weights and even transformed his parent's garage into a "mini-gym".

However, conditions on the Pacific Crest Trail can be snowy and this would not be something that David was used to.

On April 5, 2017, David arrived in a town called Idyllwild around two-and-a-half weeks into his hike.

He stayed in a hotel in the town and left on the morning of April 7. This was the last time that Carmel heard from her son and he has not been seen since.

The group of volunteer searchers who have searched for David.

"We had a few false sightings, some were definitely genuine mistakes and unfortunately we had one up in Washington back in August or September...and we were delighted with the news and he said that he had met him but unfortunately we had it checked out and he was just fooling us really," Carmel said.

Speaking about life since David's disappearance, Carmel told Ryan, "There isn't a moment in my day when I'm not thinking of David and where he could be and where is he and what happened to him and how it happened.

"I need to find him. I really need to know what happened."

Carmel and her husband, Con, have travelled over to the US to take part in searches several times over the past year and are due to go over again to take part in another major search including the outreach in San Diego at the end of this month.

When asked whether Carmel believed she would find her son alive, she responded: "No, I'm afraid I don't.

"He's a year gone, there is no activity in his bank account...he is a very loyal child...he wouldn't do this to us."

She believes that he may have suffered a fall or possibly hypothermia.

You can donate to the search fund to help to find David here.

Listen to Carmel's full interview below.
By Sarah-Jane Murphy

The jury at David Drumm's conspiracy to defraud trial, which has been underway at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court since January, has been told that proceedings are likely to conclude in June.

Today, Judge Karen O'Connor told the 10 men and four women in Court 19 that she was very hopeful the trial of the former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank will conclude at the beginning of June.

The jury begun hearing evidence on February 9 following days of legal argument which took place after they were empanelled.

On the opening day of the trial Mr Drumm's barrister, Tessa White BL, told the jury that the defendant accepts that multi-million euro transactions took place between Anglo and Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) in 2008, but disputes that they were fraudulent or dishonest.

Today Peter Geisel, former directory of treasury at Anglo, gave his evidence on day 51 of the trial.

He told Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, that in the summer of 2008 Credit Suisse, an international bank, rejected Anglo's request for a back to back deal.

The trial has previously heard that a back to back deal is a reciprocal loan between banks or financial institutions.

The jury listened to a phone call of September 23, 2008 between Mr Geissel and Jerome Henrion of Credit Suisse.

Mr Geissel told the French banker that Anglo was looking to increase its corporate deposits coming up to year end. When describing the proposed transaction, he said Anglo would place funds with your bank entity and then take a deposit from your corporate entity.

Mr Henrion asked if the funds could come from a bank.

No, a non-banking entity, Mr Geisel told him.

The witness agreed with Mr OHiggins that Credit Suisse later informed Anglo they would not engage in such a transaction.

During cross examination, Brendan Grehan SC defending, asked Mr Geisel if he agreed that he was a balance sheet specialist and a highly proficient accountant.

That's flattering but I don't understand the term balance sheet specialist, he said.

But you'll take the highly proficient accountant, Mr Grehan quipped.

David Drumm (51) of Skerries, Co Dublin (pictured below), has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2bn larger than they were.

The former Anglo Irish CEO has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

The trial is now in its tenth week and continues before Judge O'Connor and a jury.
Dublin City Council has voted in support of a boycott and economic sanctions against Israel.

The motion passed by councillors last night, also calls for the council to discontinue business contracts with Hewlett Packard.

Supporters of the motion claim the company provides technology used to support the occupation of the West Bank.

The Mayor of Dublin Micheal MacDonnacha is travelling to the Palestinian Territories today for a conference on the future of Jerusalem.

He said: "We really need a message of peace, but also justice in Palestine.

"I also think it's appropriate that I travel out on today, the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement."

A spokesperson for HP said: "Allegations that HP is complicit in human rights violations are untrue. The technology services described have never been offered by HP Inc. HP is committed to socially responsible business practices and abides by stringent policies that respect human rights in every market in which we operate."

- Digital Desk
By Louise Roseingrave

A 16 year old suffered fatal head injuries after he was struck by a vehicle outside his home, an inquest has heard.

Dane Loakman of The Beeches, Sallins, Co Kildare died on November 28 2017 and the inquest into the teenagers death heard that a Garda investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Dublin Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane was told that the garda investigation is almost complete. The young man was struck by a passing vehicle outside his home and rushed to Naas General Hospital.

He was later transferred to the Richmond Unit at Beaumont Hospital which specialises in head injuries.

The young mans mother, Alison Loakman formally identified her sons body following his passing at the hospital to Garda Sarah Prendergast.

Pathologist Dr Francesca Brett conducted an autopsy and in her report gave the cause of death as traumatic head injuries due to a road traffic collision.

Dr Cullinane commended the family for their decision to donate their loved ones organs.

In the aftermath of her sons death, Alison Loakman said her son was waiting to cross the road when he was struck by the passing vehicle.

The coroner adjourned the inquest for further mention until October 4 2018.
The jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering another man in Co Waterford has been discharged.

37-year-old Tadhg Butler with an address at Seafield in Tramore has pleaded not guilty to killing Michael ODwyer in Waterford in January 2014.
The architects of the Good Friday Agreement will gather in Belfast later.

Former US president Bill Clinton, ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will be among those marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark deal at Queen's University in Belfast.

It largely ended the 30-year sectarian conflict which claimed more than 3,000 lives and was codified by the British and Irish Governments with the agreement of most of the major Stormont parties with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionists.

Speaking at UCD to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, President Bill Clinton tells students that their generation needs to take an active role to ensure democracy doesnt falter. Picture Jason Clarke.

The accord included the early release of around 500 paramilitary prisoners within two years even though IRA arms had not yet been destroyed.

Prisoner releases almost torpedoed the agreement in the final frantic hours prior to its signing on April 10 1998 - Good Friday.

The deal also covered the re-establishment of devolved power-sharing at Stormont, establishment of cross-border political bodies with the Republic, and led to the root and branch reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Paramilitaries undertook to destroy weapons and the IRA did so in 2005.

It enshrined the principle of consent - that Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK would only ever change if a majority in the region voted for it - while at the same time offering provisions that legitimised nationalist aspirations to strive for a united Ireland.

The Agreement won the overwhelming support of a majority following referendums on both parts of the island and served as a blueprint for how to solve conflict around the world.

Twenty years later a ministerial Executive at Stormont has not sat for more than a year in a dispute over the status of the Irish language.

The chairman of the 1998 talks US envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell, former Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell, ex-Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and former Ulster Unionist leader Lord David Trimble will also be present at Queen's University on Tuesday.

Later, Mr Clinton and Mr Mitchell will receive the freedom of the city of Belfast in a special ceremony at City Hall.

On Monday Mr Clinton urged compromise and warned that stalemates could continue for only a limited period.

Mr Mitchell said peace should not be taken for granted.

Mr Blair said the most difficult meetings he had were with the victims as he wrestled with his conscience over the early release of paramilitary prisoners.

 President @BillClinton arrives at UCD to give keynote address to mark 20th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement pic.twitter.com/1xCLm9i6HQ  University College Dublin (@ucddublin) April 9, 2018

Mr Clinton said: "No one will drop off the face of the Earth with any of the reasonable compromises that have been discussed.

"The only thing that would be calamitous would be to let the whole thing die.

"To confine ourselves to purgatory or go back to hell instead of going into a future."

- PA
By Natasha Reid

A Waterford murder trial has heard that emergency services found a blood-soaked man on the ground outside the accused mans house, which was also covered in blood and littered with alcohol cans.

A garda and a paramedic gave the evidence to the Central Criminal Court today in the trial of a 37-year-old man, charged with murdering another man in Co Waterford more than four years ago.

Tadhg Butler, with an address at Seafield in Tramore is accused of murdering 25-year-old Michael ODwyer on January 10, 2014 at a location in the county. He has pleaded not guilty.

Denis Vaughan Buckley SC opened the trial for the prosecution. He told the jury that the deceased had been stabbed in his chest at the accused mans address. His heart and left lung had been injured, and he had died in hospital a couple of hours later.

I think therell be no issue in this case but that the accused had a knife, which did cause the death of the unfortunate deceased, he said.

The prosecutor also explained that Tadhg Butler had previously been called Thomas OGrady, but had changed his name by deed poll.

Theres nothing wrong whatsoever with changing your name by deed poll, he remarked. A lot of people do that.

A garda photographer explained that the front door of the house had been forced in by gardai when he arrived. Detective Garda Eoin Conway also testified that the entrance and the living room floor were covered in blood.

Bringing the jury through the crime scene photographs, he said that there was also quite a number of cans and empty bottles in the house.

The floor is littered with cans, he added.

Referring to an off-licence receipt for 48.50, he confirmed that it appeared that drink had been ordered and delivered in the box to which it was attached.

Under cross examination by Michael Bowman SC, defending, he agreed that it was clear that a very considerable amount of alcohol had been consumed in the very recent past in that property.

A paramedic testified that he was called to a stabbing at that address and arrived to find a man lying on the ground outside the front door.

Michael Fanning told Tony McGillicuddy SC, prosecuting, that a garda was holding a bandage to the mans chest. There was a lot of shouting and commotion, he added.

His colour was pale. He was covered in blood and his clothing was blood-soaked, he recalled. There was no attempt by him to breathe and no response. His eyes were fully dilated and there were no signs of any pulse.

He put the patient on advanced life support and took him by ambulance to hospital in Waterford, where he died within hours.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of six men and six women. The jurors were told that they were the second jury sworn for this case, the first jury having been discharged due to one member having a difficulty.
By Gerard Cunningham

Former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan told a Fine Gael TD that garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe was not to be believed or trusted, the Charleton Tribunal has heard.

The tribunal is looking at allegations that senior gardai were smearing Sergeant Maurice McCabe to politicians, journalists and others.

Fine Gael TD John Deasy told the tribunal that Mr Callinan was the senior garda he had talked about during an RTE Prime Time appearance as having made derogatory comments to him about Sgt McCabe.

Mr Deasy said that Mr Callinan made those comments to him before the then commissioner's appearance at the Public Accounts Committee in January 2014.

"The only person I remember being in proximity would be former Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan," Mr Deasy said. He said that it was a loud room and Mr Callinan had his back turned to Ms O'Sullivan, so it was unlikely she would have heard the conversation.

Mr Deasy said he thought that Sgt McCabe was "someone who was an honest actor and was just trying to do his job."

He said he later told Taoiseach Enda Kenny that Sgt McCabe was being treated very badly and would be vindicated.

Mr Deasy said his own grandfather was a garda and that it was very derogatory to say a serving officer should not be believed or trusted.

The tribunal has heard previously that the DPP directed no prosecution after an historic allegation was made against Sgt McCabe in 2007, saying that the Garda investigation found no evidence that a crime had been committed.

Mr Micheal P O'Higgins on behalf of Mr Callinan, put it to him that his client had spoken to him about inaccuracies highlighted in a report into Sgt McCabe's complaints by Assistant Commissioner John O'Mahoney. Mr Deasy said he did not recall this.

Mr Deasy said that he believed senior gardai had "lost the narrative by the time they came in to the Public Accounts Committee".

"It was kind of a last gasp to prevent him from challenging their authority directly," Mr Deasy said.

Earlier, the tribunal heard that Brian Purcell, the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, sent a text message to Mr Callinan asking him how he "got on" at the meeting with John McGuinness TD in a Dublin hotel car park.

The meeting took place in the car park of Bewley's hotel at Newlands Cross, Dublin, the day after Mr Callinan appeared before the PAC, chaired by Mr McGuinness.

The tribunal heard that Mr Purcell's text to Mr Callinan, read "Martin I know you are en route to Dundalk, can u call me if possible, just wondering how u got on with JMcG. Brian."

The previous day, Mr Purcell had sent a text to Mr Callinan reading: "Well done, exceptional performance under fire', Brian" after the then commissioner had appeared before the public accounts committee.

Mr McGuinness told the tribunal that the former commissioner told him at the meeting not to trust Sgt McCabe, and that the sergeant was being investigated over child sex abuse allegations.

Garda Paul Hynes told the tribunal that Mr Callinan travelled from Dundalk, where he had attended a press conference, to the meeting in the car park of the Bewley's hotel at Newlands Cross, Dublin, and then returned to Dundalk for another event that evening.

Garda Hynes, who was driving Mr Callinan's vehicle, said that the meeting lasted about 20 minutes and the then commissioner did not discuss what happened afterwards.

"He keeps his thoughts to himself," Garda Hynes said.

Mr Callinan attracted controversy at the public accounts committee where he said that the actions of garda whistleblowers were "disgusting".

Mr McGuinness told the tribunal that he was not aware of the texts from Mr Purcell to Mr Callinan, and said "That's an interesting relationship."

Under cross-examination by Mr O'Higgins, Mr McGuinness said he did not call former Garda John Wilson "a fucking header" in the aftermath of the meeting of the public accounts committee.

Mr Callinan said that this had happened when he asked if Mr Wilson would be called to give evidence to the Oireachtas committee.

Mr McGuinness said that Mr Callinan did not discuss data protection issues in the car park, or a proposal to have a senior garda investigate complaints by Sgt McCabe.

Mr O'Higgins said his client was not stationed in Pearse Street in 1983, and was not aware of an incident that year when Gda Wilson took a horse into Garda custody.

Mr McGuinness replied that he had not said that Mr Callinan was stationed in Pearse Street at the time.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton, the tribunal chairman, asked Mr O'Higgins if his client was seriously suggesting he had never heard about the incident, which was a well-known story of Garda "heroics" from the 1980s and had led to Gda Wilson being given the nickname "Jockey". "The only thing that's missing is the name of the horse," Mr Justice Charleton said.

Mr McGuinness also said he did not know if Michelle Taylor, wife of former Garda Press Officer Superintendent David Taylor, was a member of Fianna Fail. He added that he did not go around asking people about their membership of political parties.

Mr McGuinness said that after the Public Accounts Committee meeting, Supt Taylor "was there in that company. Whether he heard it or not I don't know."

Mr McGuinness said that he found it difficult and upsetting to have to ask Sgt McCabe about the allegations being made about him.

Asked by his own counsel, Darren Lehane BL, if he made up the story about the horse to discredit Mr Callinan, he said "In hindsight, you couldn't make it up."

Mr McGuinness also said a notebook entry about his meeting with Mr Callinan was not fabricated later, and he was not part of a conspiracy with others to do down Mr Callinan.

The tribunal resumes tomorrow.
By Gerard Cunningham

A Fianna Fail TD has revealed he was shocked to have "rumours" and "tittle tattle" about Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe confirmed by the then garda commissioner.

John McGuinness TD told the Charleton Tribunal that then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan confirmed these rumours in a meeting in a hotel car park in January 2014.

The tribunal is looking at allegations that senior gardai were smearing Sgt McCabe to politicians, journalists and others. The tribunal has heard previously that the DPP directed no prosecution after an historic allegation was made against Sgt McCabe in 2007, saying that the Garda investigation found no evidence that a crime had been committed.

Micheal P O'Higgins SC, on behalf of An Garda Siochana and Martin Callinan, spent the morning cross-examining the TD about what he was told at the meeting, which took place in the car park of the Bewley's hotel at Newlands Cross, Dublin, on 24 January 2014.

Mr McGuinness, a former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said Mr Callinan told him not to trust Sgt McCabe, and that McCabe was being investigated over child sex abuse allegations.

"I was deeply concerned over what was said to me by the commissioner. It put me in a position where I believed I could be completely wrong about this and about Maurice McCabe," Mr McGuinness said.

Mr McGuinness said he took what he was told in the car park meeting much more seriously than a comment made the day before after a meeting of the Oireachtas public accounts committee where Mr Callinan described Sgt McCabe as "a kiddie fiddler".

The TD said the then commissioner had made this earlier remark about the whistleblower after the PAC meeting.

"This was a meeting arranged by the commissioner. Things can be said in the heat of the moment. Here was a commissioner, making a decision away from that meeting, requesting a meeting with me. That is entirely different," Mr McGuinness said.

Mr McGuinness previously told the tribunal that there were rumours circulating in Leinster House about Sgt McCabe.

"What was new was that it was being suggested to me was that there was a file, a live file, and that was ongoing," Mr McGuinness said.

Mr McGuinness said the allegation that the abuse involved family members was also new information to him.

"It was no longer a rumour, it was not tittle tattle, it was something that was being presented as fact. That was quite different," Mr McGuinness said.

Mr McGuinness said that after the car park meeting he was in a "fearful" state.

"When he laid this information before me I was quite shocked and I wasn't in a position to take on the commissioner, as it were, by questioning his authority. He gave me that information as if he knew for a fact that that was the position. That's what caused me the worry and the fear," Mr McGuinness said.

In a statement to the Tribunal, former Commissioner Callinan agrees the meeting took place but says he only raised his concerns about data protection, and that it was John McGuinness who brought up Maurice McCabes motivation.

Mr McGuinness denied that he had given contradictory accounts of the car park meeting in media interviews afterwards. He said that he didn't recall speaking to Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin about the meeting until after he saw a statement which Mr Martin made to the tribunal.

Mr McGuinness said he approached Mr Martin "to thank him for his bravery in supporting Sgt Maurice McCabe" after he spoke about the whistleblower in the Dail in February 2014. He added that at this time he also told him about the car park meeting with Mr Callinan.

Mr McGuinness said that he had spoken to Sgt McCabe about the allegations, and that the sergeant had assured him they were false.

"I find the whole thing absolutely disgusting that these rumours were circulating in Leinster House without any foundation whatsoever," Mr McGuinness said.

The Dail deputy said he believed that Sgt McCabe "was an honourable individual who was dealt with improperly by the State."

He said he "felt embarrassed and upset to have to ask Sgt McCabe about his family affairs."

Mr McGuinness said that he had told Richard Crowley in an interview on RTE's This Week programme that he had no detailed notes or a transcript of the car park meeting because he had only made "short snappy notes".

Mr McGuinness said the car park meeting was "trying to discredit Maurice McCabe", and he was " not going to allow myself to be used by Commissioner Callinan to spread the type of rumour and information that I was given.

He said that it was "a break" that Leo Varadkar had called Sgt McCabe "distinguished not disgusting" after the whistleblower was criticised by the garda commissioner for giving penalty points files to the public accounts committee. Mr McGuinness revealed he did not think that Mr Varadkar had "stolen a march" when he said this.

Mr McGuinness said he was "deeply disturbed" after the car park meeting. "It took me that day and two days more running these matters through my head to decide that Maurice McCabe was an honourable man whose family had been devastated by the accusations made against him and deserved to be defended," he said.
By Conor Kane

A man who admitted providing funding to the terrorist organisation Islamic State is due to be sentenced in June.

Hassan Bal (26), formerly of OConnell Street, Waterford, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two terrorist-related offences and was remanded in custody in January.

He was brought back before Waterford Circuit Court today and Judge Eugene OKelly was told that a report from an expert on radicalisaion, requested by the defence, is not yet ready. However, it should be finalised by the time the current court sessions are over in June.

Noel Whelan BL, prosecuting, asked that the case be adjourned to May 30 with a view to fixing a date in June for sentencing.

Judge OKelly agreed to this request, on consent by Conor Roberts BL, defending. He remanded Hassan Bal in continuing custody, to May 30, when a date will be set for sentencing.

Hassan Bal pleaded guilty in January to unlawfully transferring 400 by means of an An Post/Western Union transaction to a Stevo Maksimovic in the Bosnian city of Brako on October 2 of 2015.

This was done with him intending or knowing that the money would be used in whole or in part for the benefit of the terrorist group, Islamic State.

He also pleaded guilty to communicating by phone with an intermediary in London on October 23 of 2015, in an attempt to collect or receive cash for Islamic State, from a person known to him as Omar Abu Azid, at an address at Geron Way, London.

The charges are contrary to Section 13 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act of 2005. The maximum sentence is 20 years imprisonment.

Hassan Bal was in court today for the brief hearing, wearing a dark suit, dark tie and white shirt, but was not called upon to speak.

He is originally from the UK and moved to Ireland with his family when he was 12 years old. He lived initially in Wexford and moved to Waterford in 2007. He holds an Irish passport and was training to be an electrician at the time of his arrest in April of last year.

His defence team asked in January for a report to be carried out by Dr Daniel Koelher of the German Institute of Radicalisation and De-Radicalisation Studies. This report, it was heard in January, should ask why Hassan Bal became associated with such activities and if he has since been de-radicalised.

They also asked for Mr Koelher to be given access in prison to Mr Bal for the purposes of his investigation, and that he should be available to give evidence at the sentencing hearing.
Leo Varadkar has told the Disclosures Tribunal that he first heard rumours about garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe from then Road Safety Authority CEO Noel Brett. But he disregarded innuendo about the garda and the rumours did not relate to the penalty points scandal, he has said.

In a letter and correspondence to the tribunal, Mr Varadkar has said:

With regard to innuendo and rumours, I was informed of these by Noel Brett, the CEO of the Road Safety Authority, which fell under my remit as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I don't recall the exact detail of the rumours but I do recall they related to his character and motivations, that he was untrustworthy and had other grievances unrelated to road safety.

The letter and correspondence sent by Mr Varadkar to the tribunal concerns his period as transport minister.

It was in March 2014 that Mr Varadkar, as minister, described garda whistleblowers as "distinguished" as opposed "disgusting", a controversial term used by former garda commissioner Martin Callinan to describe their actions previously.

Nonetheless, the Taoiseach tells the tribunal by letter that he did not take the rumours around Sgt McCabe seriously. He adds in correspondence, signing off as Taoiseach:

"While I was aware of innuendo and rumours circulating about Sgt McCabe, I did not believe them to be true and in any case they did not take away from the evidence-based case he was making in relation to penalty points having been "squared"."

The tribunal is investigating whether there was a campaign by garda management to discredit Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Former PAC chairman John McGuinnes stood by his evidence today that he was shocked by claims by former garda commissioner Martin Callinan that Sgt McCabe was a child sex abuser and that he was not be trusted.

This allegations, the TD, says were made at secret meeting at hotel car park on the Naas Rd.

Mr Callinan denies this claim and says it was Mr McGuinness who raised the sex abuse allegations and that it was him who mentioned the issue of a file on Sgt McCabe.

Lawyers for Mr Callinan quizzed Mr McGuinness today, questioning his recollection of events and asking if he was confused about conversations.

The TD denied he was and stood by his claims that there were efforts to stop a PAC investigation into the penalty points investigation and that the former garda chief was trying to discredit Sgt McCabe. The tribunal continues.
By Ann O'Loughlin

A violent criminal who alleges he was failed by the State as a child when put in foster care has launched a High Court action.

The 30-year old man who is currently in solitary confinement in prison, and who has in the past been jailed for violent attacks, has claimed he was physically and sexually abused while in foster care and never treated properly for his ADHD condition, despite being in the State care system since he was four years old.

His senior counsel Hugh O'Keeffe SC told Ms Justice Bronagh O Hanlon the man was first taken in to care when he was four years old due to the neglect of his mother and it was their case that there has been an "abject failure of the State" in his case.

The judge directed the identity of the man bringing the case not be revealed. The man is to give his evidence by video link from prison after the court previously granted the State application for the link after it submitted his presence may pose a threat to others and several prison officers would be required to be with him in court.

Ms Justice O'Hanlon told the man the court will listen carefully to his evidence and give it careful consideration.

The 30-year old has sued the Ministers for Justice and Health, the Attorney General, the HSE and the Irish Prison Service for alleged negligence and breach of duty and claims he was allegedly sexually abused while in foster care, which began when he was four years old.

He has claimed for a period of 10 years he was in the foster care of a family where he alleges he was assaulted, battered, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused.

He further claims he was beaten with fists, assaulted with sticks and was in a constant state of fear. At age nine he says he attempted to hang himself and on one occasion he alleged a rope was placed around his neck and he was tied up to a bed.

He further claims when he was 14 years old when he left the foster care, he was allegedly not provided with a safe environment in which to live and was allegedly given drugs and raped. Since he was 17 years old, the man has spent most of his time in prison and and has been incarcerated at various prisons where it is claimed his various conditions were not diagnosed or treated as they should have been.

It is further claimed there was an alleged failure to implement any or any suitable or adequate code of ethics or rules of good practice for foster parents and an alleged failure to take any or any adequate steps by means of screening, inquiry or character assessment before appointing the boy's foster family.

The State claims the case is statute-barred and should be dismissed. The State denies all the claims and further contends some or all of the injuries alleged were caused by the man's own acts by behaving aggressively and violently and engaging in criminal activity.

Opening the case Mr O'Keeffe said it was the man's case the State had failed him, in relation to his placement in foster care and also in allegedly failing to treat him.

"Who is to say how he would have turned out (if) given to a different foster family?" Counsel asked. He said the man has been in solitary confinement for committing terrible acts of violence and while they were not saying he was destined for a perfect life, it was their case had his ADHD been treated, "we would not be where we are today".
On this week's episode of Paramedics, an air ambulance team is dispatched to a farm in the North East where a farmer has suffered a neck injury.

Athlone based air ambulance Advanced Paramedic Paul Traynor is deployed to the farm where a half tonne hay bale has fallen on top of a farmer in his tractor.

When the bale hit him, the man heard a crack and immediately knew that he should not move and would require assistance.

As he began to feel numbness and a loss of sensation in both of his arms, he knew that he was in trouble.

Arriving on the scene the crew quickly realise that the patient has suffered neck injuries and must move fast to remove him, as further hay bales hang precariously over their heads.

Also featuring in this week's episode, the team at the National Ambulance Service Emergency Operations Centre talk about the difficult situation of talking expecting mothers and bystanders through delivering babies over the phone.

In these situations the team are dealing with two patients, stressed and panicked parents and are relying on others to carry out their instructions.

One of the team recalls an occasion where the baby was in such a hurry that it did not even wait for the call to be answered.

Tune in to Irelands Paramedics on TV3 on Thursdays at 9pm.

Digital Desk
The Good Friday Agreement was the "work of genius" and a "precious gift", former US President Bill Clinton has said.

Speaking at a major conference in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the historic 1998 peace accord, he urged the people of Northern Ireland to "inspire" the world again.

He said: "The Good Friday Agreement is the work of genius that's applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy.

"Because it called for a real democracy, majority rule, minority rights, individual rights, the rule of law, the end of violence, shared political decision-making, shared econpmic benefits, shared special relations, maintained the relationship with the United Kingdom, expanded the relationship with the Irish Republic and then let the future take its course."

Mr Clinton, who was later given the Freedom of Belfast, shared an hour-long panel discussion with former UK prime minister Tony Blair and Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern - among the architects of the historic agreement - at an event at Queen's University Belfast.

He told an audience that included current political leaders, dignitaries and schoolchildren not to underestimate the work done by people of different persuasions.

"These people gave you a gift," he said. "People who lost loved ones and bore scars; the women's groups; everybody, they gave you a gift. Make the most of it. It is a precious gift.

"In the process, remind the world that democracy is better than dictatorship. Remember you inspired the world 20 years ago, you can do it all over again because the rest of the world continues to do foolish things. You do smart things."

Meanwhile, Mr Blair described Brexit as a "profound mistake" and warned of challenging consequences.

He said: "Let me make it clear, we are going to overcome that challenge and we should overcome it because preserving this agreement is really, really important.

"But those people who are either disdainful of the challenge or dismissive, this is going to require real focus and hard work because we cannot return to a hard border between north and south, it would be a disaster for the agreement and for the relationship between the Republic and the UK, and therefore for the people of Northern Ireland."

The chairman of the 1998 talks, US envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell, former Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell, ex-Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and former Ulster Unionist leader Lord David Trimble were also present at the event in Whitla Hall.

The Good Friday Agreement largely ended the 30-year conflict which claimed more than 3,000 lives. It was codified by the British and Irish governments with the agreement of most of the major Stormont parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionists.

The accord included the early release of about 500 paramilitary prisoners within two years even though IRA arms had not yet been destroyed.

Prisoner releases almost torpedoed the agreement in the final frantic hours before it was signed on April 10 1998 - Good Friday.

The deal also covered the re-establishment of devolved powersharing at Stormont and establishment of cross-border political bodies with the Republic, and led to a root-and-branch reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Paramilitaries undertook to destroy weapons and the IRA did so in 2005.

It enshrined the principle of consent - that Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK would only change if a majority in the region voted for it - while at the same time offering provisions that legitimised nationalist aspirations to strive for a united Ireland.

The agreement won the overwhelming support of a majority following referendums in both parts of the island and served as a blueprint for how to solve conflict around the world.

Twenty years later a ministerial executive at Stormont has not sat for more than a year in a dispute over the status of the Irish language, gay rights and dealing with the legacy of the past.

Senator Mitchell recalled to the packed auditorium how Mr Clinton had played a pivotal role during the negotiations, fielding 3am phonecalls.

Mr Clinton added: "By creating that space for the identity, and the interest and value of all the people involved in a framework which protected democracy and let future demographic, political and economic changes take Northern Ireland wherever it would go, it was a work of genius.

"In a world today where there are people who are aggressively trying to destroy the very idea of popular democracy, it embodied everything that I believe works best.

"Do not underestimate the value of the fact that this was done by people from different parties, of different persuasions and not one damn time in the whole process did anyone ever suggest that democracy itself should be abandoned; that the results of elections should not be respected, that some people's votes should be denied, discredited or that facts were not facts."

-PA
A husband who killed his wife with a hammer in Dubai is appealing for his 10-year jail sentence to be reduced, the victim's family has said.

British newspaper editor Francis Matthew was found guilty in the Emirate of killing his 62-year-old wife Jane Matthew on July 4 last year.

Matthew initially told police that robbers had broken into their villa and killed his wife of 30 years, but during a later interrogation, he allegedly said there had been an argument over money.

He was reportedly convicted of assault leading to death, and not of murder, following representations by his lawyer.

The family of Jane Matthew said in a statement that they were "very upset" that her husband was appealing against the sentence, and that women should be "deeply worried" by the case.

They want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict in a bid for a harsher sentence.

Matthew, who is the former editor of the English-language Gulf News, and who had lived in east London with his wife before emigrating to Dubai, was sentenced in March.

He had allegedly told police officers that his wife had grown angry with him because they were in debt and needed to move, and his temper rose when his wife called him a "loser" and told him "you should provide financially".

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.

In a statement, the victim's family said: "Jane's family is very upset that Francis Matthew has appealed to further reduce his sentence after he killed Jane with a hammer.

"We want the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict.

"Women, in particular, should be deeply worried.

"This verdict says that, just by having a common domestic argument with her husband, Jane was responsible for provoking her own death.

"The court's finding is also deeply unfair to Jane because, while Matthew has apparently had his defence of provocation considered by the court, he has at the same time benefited from having ensured Jane couldn't defend herself against his claims."

They said they were concerned that Matthew's sentence should not be reduced further.

The statement continued: "The court also seems to be saying that Jane's death was unintentional.

"But of all the items that Matthew could have picked up during the alleged argument, he chose a hammer.

"By his own description, he collected the hammer in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors of the house to the bedroom.

"Why would he do that?

"It is also not believable that Matthew, who is over six feet tall, did not think he would kill Jane if he gave her two very hard blows to the face with the hammer."
Facebook will investigate "tens of thousands" of apps to discover if any other companies have accessed data in a similar way to Cambridge Analytica (CA), Mark Zuckerberg has told US politicians.

The social network says it is in the process of letting up to 87 million users know that their information may have been accessed by CA, and in a packed room on Capitol Hill, Mr Zuckerberg repeated his admission that the company "didn't do enough" to stop its tools "being used for harm".

Speaking to the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees, the tech entrepreneur apologised that Facebook had not taken a "broad enough view" of its responsibility for people's public information.

"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here," he said, in words from a prepared statement.

Mr Zuckerberg said its audit of third-party apps would highlight any misuse of personal information, and said the company would alert users instantly if it "found anything suspicious".

When asked why the company did not immediately alert the 87 million users whose data may have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica (CA) when first told about the "improper" usage in 2015, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook considered it a "closed case" after CA said it had deleted it.

"In retrospect it was clearly a mistake to believe them," he said.

CA insists it deleted the data harvested by Professor Aleksandr Kogan's personality quiz app as soon as it was informed it breached Facebook's terms of use.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock will meet Facebook representatives in London on Wednesday.

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face multiple lawsuits over alleged misuse of personal information with at least five law firms in the UK and US investigating claims for compensation.

On the subject of fake news, Mr Zuckerberg said "one of my greatest regrets in running the company" was its slowness at uncovering and acting against disinformation campaigns by Russian trolls during the US election.

He said the Russian campaign of disinformation had been discovered "right around the time" of the US presidential election, and said the company had developed "new AI tools" to identify fake accounts responsible.

But he said: "They are going to keep getting better at this and we need to invest in keeping on getting better at this too."

After two-and-a-half hours of the hearings, Facebook shares were up around 4.5% on the start of the day, in an apparent signal of investors' view on Mr Zuckerberg's performance.

PA
Strikes by German public sector workers and French airline staff have forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in Europe as unions demand better pay.

The planned walkouts in Germany also affected public transport, nursery schools and municipal administrations.

The walkout has forced German airline Lufthansa to cancel some 800 flights and is expected to paralyse traffic in many of the country's western cities.

Affected airports include Frankfurt, which is Germany's biggest, as well as Munich, Cologne-Bonn and Bremen.

Three flights from Dublin Airport to Germany have been affected by the strike action today.

The ver.di union said Germany's healthy economy is filling public coffers with record tax income and public workers deserve a cut.

It wants a 6%, or at least 200 per month, pay rise for some 2.3 million public sector employees.

Workers who stand to gain include airport ground crews, bus drivers, hospital staff, daycare employees and other municipal employees.

Further strikes are planned in the coming days.

In France, a quarter of Air France flights were cancelled today as pilots, ground staff and others went on strike, also demanding a 6% pay rise after years of salary freezes.

It was the sixth such Air France strike since February, and unions plan further walkouts in the coming weeks alongside French train worker strikes over President Emmanuel Macron's economic reforms.

- Digital Desk and Press Association
1.20pm: The Russian embassy said that the possibility of the Skripals being given secret new identities overseas would be seen as "an abduction of the two Russian nationals".

A statement, in the form of a Q&A, said:

"Q: How do you assess the recent reports on the possibility of Sergey Skripal and Yulia Skripal to be resettled to the USA, Australia, Canada or New Zealand and offered new identities?

"A: This would be another gross violation of international law. Since the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal the United Kingdom has not complied with its international obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the bilateral Consular Convention by not allowing consular access to the Russian citizens and not providing any verifiable information on their wishes in that respect.

"The explanation regarding the rejection of Victoria Skripal's visa application, who intended to meet her relatives in Britain, was absurd and farfetched.

With a secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal all opportunities to hear their version of the events of 4 March will highly likely be lost forever. The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation."

Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation.https://t.co/UuTxgZGKig pic.twitter.com/Ow3d61T3ni  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 10, 2018

Earlier:: Asked for her reaction to news that Yulia Skripal has been released from hospital, Prime Minister Theresa May said: "Well, obviously I welcome the fact that Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital and I wish her the best for her continuing recovery, and I'd like to say a huge thank you to all the staff at the hospital in Salisbury who have looked after her and her father so well."

Salisbury District Hospital medical director Dr Christine Blanshard also vpaid tribute to the staff at the hospital where the Skripals have been receiving treatment.

"The past few weeks have been enormously testing for all our staff. They have pulled together not just to deliver outstanding care for the individuals caught up in these terrible events, but to all our patients, as they do day in and day out.

"Both our clinical staff and our staff behind the scenes have been a credit to our hospital, to the NHS, and to the city of Salisbury," she said.

Dr Christine Blanshard, Medical Director, and Lorna Wilkinson, director of nursing, make a statement outside Salisbury District Hospital today. Photo: Ben Mitchell/PA Wire.

8.10am:Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned along with her former double agent father Sergei in Salisbury last month, has been discharged from hospital.

The 33-year-old Russian national had spent more than a month in hospital after coming into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

She is reported to have been released on Monday and taken to a secure location.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire town on March 4.

- PA
Olympian Oscar Pistorius has finally run out of options to appeal against his 13-year prison sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, legal experts have said.

South Africa's highest court dismissed Pistorius's request to review the prison sentence on Monday, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the man who was once one of the world's most celebrated athletes.

"There is nothing they can do," said Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law expert at the University of Cape Town.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled Pistorius's six-year sentence for the murder of Ms Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model who he shot four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine's Day 2013.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, and the court called the initial six-year sentence "shockingly lenient".

The double-amputee runner, who is 31, claims he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

Pistorius was originally convicted of manslaughter, which was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court.

He has also tried and failed to appeal against his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court.

ConCourt order, dismissing Oscar Pistorius' application for leave to appeal. pic.twitter.com/VeV4lE0bKK  Bulelwa Makeke (@BulelwaMak) April 9, 2018

"Oscar Pistorius has exhausted his legal avenues in terms of the criminal process," said Luvuyo Mfaku, from the National Prosecuting Authority.

Pistorius must serve at least half of his 13-year sentence before he can be considered for parole.

- Digital Desk and Press Association
Spanish authorities have detained seven people in Catalonia as part of a crackdown on disturbances associated with the region's attempts to secede from Spain, saying one of those arrested is suspected of terrorism.

The Guardia Civil said it arrested a woman believed to be a leader of Catalonia's so-called Committees for the Defence of the Republic - a grassroots group that organises protests.
A shadow cabinet minister has described a key Labour Brexit policy as "bollocks", according to reports.

Barry Gardiner dismissed the party's demands for the exact same benefits afforded by membership of the single market after Britain leaves the European Union.

The shadow international trade secretary has already had to issue an apology over controversial comments he made during the same event in Brussels about the Irish border row.

In the latest remarks to emerge, Mr Gardiner was discussing the six tests Labour has set for the Brexit deal.

In a recording obtained by the BBC, he reportedly said: "Well let's just take one test - the exact same benefits. Bollocks.

"Always has been bollocks and it remains it.

"We know very well that we cannot have the exact same benefits and actually it would have made sense - because it was the Tories that said they were going to secure the exact same benefits - and our position should have been to say they have said they are going to secure the exact same benefits and we are going to hold them to that standard."

However, Labour insisted Mr Gardiner "fully supports" the party's position on Brexit despite reports that he called a key policy "bollocks".

A Labour Party spokesman said: "Labour has set six tests for the final Brexit deal. Those include holding the Government to its own commitment to deliver the same benefits as the single market and customs union.

"We have been clear that, if those tests are not met, Labour will not back it in Parliament. Barry Gardiner fully supports that position."

Mr Gardiner apologised this morning after a recording of a question and answer session at a think tank event in March emerged where he suggested the Good Friday Agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland is outdated.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later issued a statement saying the accord must be cherished.

The Good Friday Agreement was a defining moment in Irish history which allowed peace to prevail.



My full statement here: https://t.co/9XCLTqOltB  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 10, 2018

Mr Gardiner had been criticised by a Labour former Northern Ireland Secretary after a recording of the comments emerged.

Lord Hain told the Press Association the shadow international trade secretary was "unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible".

Labour former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith said the remarks were "reckless".

Former prime minister Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't know how anyone can say that.

"It's the only basis upon which you're going to have peace."

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: "Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond."

The row comes on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Gardiner was heard in a recording suggesting the Brexit row over the border issue and the accord had been "played up" and he described the deal as a shibboleth, a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated.

In the recording, obtained by The Red Roar website, he was heard saying: "We must also recognise there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement.

"That is because it is hugely in the Republic of Ireland's economic interest to make sure there is no tariff and no external border there."

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Gardiner said: "Labour is completely committed to the agreement and opposed to any return of a hard border between north and south.

"We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.

I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point - in particular, that my use of the word 'shibboleth' in its sense of 'pass word' or 'test of membership' gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.

Mr Corbyn said the Good Friday Agreement was a "defining moment in Irish history" which allowed peace to prevail.

He added: "There must be no return to a hard border between north and south, and no return to the horrors of the Troubles. All of us on both sides of the Irish Sea have a responsibility to maintain hope for the future.

"The history of Ireland is a great teacher of oppression and brutality, imagination and poetry. For Irish communities everywhere - including in my own constituency - the Good Friday Agreement will always embody their hopes for peace and justice. We must cherish and learn from it for the future."

- Digital Desk and Press Association
President Donald Trump has called the federal raid on the offices of his personal lawyer "a disgrace".

On Monday, federal agents searched the office of Michael Cohen, seizing records on topics including a $130,000 (105,600) payment made to a porn actress who says she had sex with Mr Trump more than a decade ago.

The move ignited the president's anger, with Mr Trump calling it a "disgrace" that federal agents "broke into" the office of his personal lawyer. He also called special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation "an attack on our country".

Mr Trump called the probe a "witch hunt," suggesting it was a distraction from serious issues, such as the consideration of a military response to Syria's apparent use of a chemical weapon on civilians over the weekend - which was a subject of his Monday evening meeting with the defence secretary, the joint chiefs of staff and US combatant commanders.

Instead, Mr Trump opened with an unprompted four-minute critique of Mr Mueller's investigation. "I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man," Mr Trump began, referring to the agents who had obtained search warrants from a federal judge.

The raid on Mr Cohen's office was done by the US Attorney's office in Manhattan and was based at least partly on a referral from Mr Mueller, according to Mr Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan.

"The decision by the US Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Mr Ryan said in a statement.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

The raid creates a new legal headache for Mr Trump even as he and his lawyers weigh whether to agree to an interview with Mr Mueller's team, which in addition to investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign is also examining whether the president's actions constitute obstruction of justice.

The law enforcement action will almost certainly amplify the public scrutiny on the payment to the actress, Stormy Daniels, which was made just days before the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Trump told reporters last week that he did not know about the payment.

Still, the existence of a referral from Mr Mueller's office to the Manhattan US Attorney suggests that the matter is not related to Russia.

Under Justice Department regulations, Mr Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when his investigators uncover new evidence that may fall outside his original mandate.

Mr Rosenstein then will determine whether to allow Mr Mueller to proceed or to assign the matter to another US lawyer or another part of the Justice Department.

A spokesman for Mr Mueller's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the US Attorney's office also had no comment. The New York Times first reported on Monday's raid.

Mr Ryan did not elaborate on the documents that were taken from Cohen's office but said he has cooperated with investigators, including meeting last summer with politicians looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Cohen has more recently attracted attention for his acknowledgement that he paid ms Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket just days before the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Cohen has said neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment.

Several former officials at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) have said the payment appears to be a violation of campaign finance laws, and multiple Washington-based groups have filed complaints with the FEC, urging it to investigate.

There have been few signs that Mr Mueller was interested in investigating the payment, though. One Mueller witness, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, recently connected the special counsel with the payment, saying in an interview on MSNBC last month that prosecutors had asked him about it.

Mr Trump answered questions about Ms Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Mr Cohen and he did not know where Mr Cohen had got the money. The White House has consistently said Mr Trump denies the affair.

Ms Daniels has said she had sex with the president in 2006. She has been suing to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement she signed before the election and has offered to return the 130,000 she was paid in order to "set the record straight".

Ms Daniels argues the agreement is legally invalid because it was signed by only Ms Daniels and Mr Cohen, and was not signed by Mr Trump.

Last month, Ms Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, sent letters to the Trump Organisation demanding the business preserve all of its records relating to the $130,000 transaction.

The letter demanded they preserve all emails by Mr Cohen that mention Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, as well as any emails and text messages related to the alleged relationship. He sent similar demand letters to two banks - City National and First Republic - asking they preserve documents connected to the transaction.

Mr Avenatti also enclosed an email showing Mr Cohen had used his Trump Organisation email address in correspondence with a representative from First Republic. In the email, the representative said funds had been deposited in Mr Cohen's account.

Federal agents searched Mr Cohen's office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, where he had been working as part of a "strategic partnership" with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

On Monday, the firm said in a statement that its relationship with Mr Cohen had "reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement".

"We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr Cohen," the firm's statement said. "These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation."

- PA
Update 10.19pm: Mark Zuckerberg has admitted the misuse of users' data was a "big mistake" as he gave testimony to Senate committees in Washington.

The founder of Facebook is answering questions from senators in light of revelations that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to influence US voters.

Mr Zuckerberg said that Facebook will take a more "proactive position" when it comes to dealing with apps in future.

Earlier: Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to US senators over the scandal which has seen the personal details of 87 million users being shared.

The Facebook boss started two days of questioning by committees in Washington after be

ing called to testify.

It is after UK firm Cambridge Analytica got access to data from Facebook users.

Zuckerberg: ~"I hope what we do with data is not surprising to people." When I explain to people what Facebook does with the data and also how it collects and aggregates data on people, people's jaws are on the floor. Smart, educated people, too. It's all very obscure.  zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) April 10, 2018

The social network has been sending messages to those people who have been affected.

In his opening statement, Mr Zuckerberg took personal responsibility for the scandal.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake and it was my mistake and I'm sorry.

"I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here."

- Digital Desk
Giant US pension funds and local institutions are jostling for a slice of the potential multi-millions of dollars of compensation that may flow to investors from the money-laundering scandal embroiling Commonwealth Bank.

As Matt Comyn this week settles in as CBA's new chief executive, Melbourne law firm Phi Finney McDonald said it was planning to launch a class action against the bank over its disclosure of alleged breaches of anti-money laundering laws.

CBA may face a second shareholder class action over its money laundering compliance scandal.

Any lawsuit would pit Phi Finney McDonald against rival litigator Maurice Blackburn, which launched a separate class action in October. The latest action is expected to allege misleading and deceptive conduct and breaches of continuous disclosure rules between June 2014 and August 2017.

In a sign of the rivalry between local class-action law firms, Phi Finney McDonald director Odette McDonald said her firm had been approached by the large US investors seeking a competitive funding offer for the action. The terms of the funding - provided by Therium Group - were "some of the most competitive we have seen in the Australian market", she said.
The former operator of two Brisbane 7-Eleven stores has been fined almost $200,000 after ripping off 21 workers to the tune of more than $30,000.

Jason Yuan ran two franchises in the CBD through his two companies until the middle of last year.

Jason Yuan's companies no longer operate 7-Eleven stores in the Brisbane CBD. Credit:Glenn Hunt

His stores were two of 20 outlets targeted in surprise night-time 7-Eleven visits by the Fair Work Ombudsman in September 2014, resulting in legal action against 11 operators.

Inspectors found workers at the Adelaide and George Street stores were paid flat rates for all hours, robbing them of penalties for night work, overtime and shift rates.
The Australian sharemarket is expected to open flat after Wall Street stocks handed back earlier gains following a report of an FBI raid on the office of Donald Trump's lawyer.

1. Wall Street: In the US, stocks pared back earlier gains after a report that the FBI had raided the New York office of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, upon a referral by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The FBI reportedly seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

2. US: Trump's new economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC that the president may be open to forming an international coalition to grapple with trade issues involving China. The US budget deficit will surpass $US1 trillion by 2020, two years sooner than previously estimated, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

3. China: President Xi Jinping is set to make a much-anticipated speech today. While Xi is not expected specifically to address the widening trade rift between the US and China, he is expected to expound on how China is opening its doors and its markets at a time when the Trump administration is pursuing protectionist policy.
Bill Cosby's defence lawyer has told a jury that accuser Andrea Constand is a "con artist" out to extort money from the famed comedian, saying she concocted a false story of sexual assault to pay for her education and set up a business.

"She was madly in love with his fame and money. She's now a multimillionaire because she pulled it off," defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau said of Andrea Constand, 44, who won a $US3.4 million settlement from Cosby in a civil lawsuit in 2006.

The 80-year-old entertainer, once known as the wise and witty father in the 1980s television hit The Cosby Show, is facing his second trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand in 2004. Last year his first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.
Toback's "bad" reputation with women saw almost 40 accusations surface in an investigation by The Los Angeles Times.

In the days and weeks after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last year, one of the highest-profile scalps it claimed was that of director James Toback.

Just five became criminal investigations in California - two via the Los Angeles Police Department and three from the Beverly Hills Police Department - but today the Los Angeles County District Attorneys office confirmed none of the five would proceed.

The reason is one of legal complication rather than exoneration: the allegations fall outside the statute of limitations, the legal line in the sand which effectively places a cap on the time period in which a charge can be made after an offence is alleged to have occurred.

Given the media attention that was placed on the Toback accusations in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, the decision is not just bruising to the #MeToo movement, but also a dramatic illustration of the difficulty an accuser has of seeing his or her day in court.

The three cases investigated by the Beverly Hills Police Department related to incidents in which Toback was alleged to rubbed up against women and masturbated.

In two of the three cases - one incident at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1993 and a second at a private screening in 2008 - the District Attorney's office found that Toback may have committed sexual battery but that the one-year statute of limitation had expired.
April 9

As Canadian violinist James Ehnes reached the final bar of Bachs D minor Chaconne, the Murdoch Hall audience rose to give a  for once  totally justified ovation. It was the least we could have done for a performer who has given us memorable nights of music-making since he started visiting Melbourne.

Following the insightful demonstrations of his craft over the years through accounts of the Elgar and Barber Violin Concertos, Ehnes' all-Bach recital involving the last three of the unaccompanied Six Partitas and Sonatas was an engrossing accomplishment.

These works each have a kind of operating fulcrum. For the first offering, the E Major Partita No. 3, the succeeding dance movements follow a joyous Preludio, a semi-study in rapid semiquavers that were articulated with brilliant regularity. There were no personality-intruding pauses or look-at-me dynamic intrusions; just a chain of seamless phrases, followed by a sequence of character-pieces, all serving to underline the flawless technique of his bowing arm.

In the C Major Sonata No. 3, the stately Adagio leads into an exceptionally demanding, lengthy fugue where Bach piles on his formidable, contrapuntal wizardry to tax the player.
Billy Elliot, the global hit musical, will return to Sydney next year for a 10th anniversary tour.

The show, which tells of a British coalminer's son who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer, had its Australian premier at the Capitol Theatre in 2007.

Elton John with the original Australian cast in 2007

Herald reviewer Bryce Hallett called that production "near-seamless" and "joyously entertaining".

It will open at the Lyric Theatre in October before travelling to Melbourne in 2020 and then Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
American actor T.J. Miller has been charged after the 36-year-old former Silicon Valley star called through a false bomb threat from a train.

Miller, whose full name is Todd Joseph Miller, was arrested in Queens, New York.

The charge  intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device  relates to an incident aboard an Amtrak train which was travelling between Washington D.C. and New York City on March 18.
Emma Alberici's controversial story on corporate tax contained nine errors or omissions of fact, according to documents given to a Senate standing committee.

The ABC has formally responded to several questions on notice after a fiery Senate estimates in February.

According to responses from the ABC tabled with the Senate's Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, a number of elements in Alberici's story were "misleading".

The responses come after managing director Michelle Guthrie said the ABC had "clearly failed" by publishing a news story and subsequent analysis piece by chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici.
Its the company that is perhaps the most widely owned on the Australian Securities Exchange, in no small part thanks to a public relations blitz that hadnt been seen before, or since. Telstras privatisation is so deeply ingrained that T1 and T2, as the first couple of tranches were known, are still easily recalled by Australian investors, even now. Just not always in welcome tones.

Telstra is one of the most widely held stocks thanks to the T1 and T2 public floats. Credit:James Alcock

T1 was the first run, with shares priced at $3.30 each, in 1997. Then, caught up in the dotcom boom, T2 was rushed out the door in 1999 by a thankful government at $7.40 per share. (Such was the subsequent environment - and so scarred were T2 investors - that T3 was bequeathed directly to the Future Fund, rather than having to face being sold to investors who were underwater on that second tranche.) And here we are, two decades from the midpoint of those first two sales, with a share price that sits a few percentage points below T1, at around $3.10.

The 16 per cent fall in the share price doesnt tell the whole story, of course. Dividends were paid in the intervening period, turning a negative share price return into a 200 per cent gain over the last couple of decades. Of course, that pales in comparison to a tripling of the ASX 200 since the turn of the century - but its better than the share price alone would suggest. Thats all in the past, though not too distant - it was the decision of the company to take the scalpel to the article-of-faith dividend that largely resulted in the share price slumping about a quarter, from over $4, earlier this year.

But here we are. And the question on the minds of many shareholders - and would-be shareholders - is a simple one: is Telstra good value or a value trap?
Paul Hoskins and Jonathan Lyon relax after paddling to the Carillon. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

Canberra's temperature reached a one-in-10-year high on Monday, topping 30 degrees in a month normally known for a sudden drop in temperatures.

Monday's high was 30.7 degrees, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. It happens only once every 10 years, on average.

In April, over the course of 10 years, on average one of those days is over 30 degrees, meteorologist Craig Ryan said.
ACT police did not begin a search and rescue effort for a missing 61-year-old man until 29 days after he walked out of Calvary Hospital where he was being treated for alcohol withdrawal symptoms, a court has heard.

A coronial inquest into the death of Canberra man Tahadesse "Tad" Kahsai heard on Tuesday that two months after the Australian Federal Police suspended a four-day search of bushland around the hospital, students found his remains nearby in an area officers had overlooked.

Coronial investigator Matthew Callaghan told the ACT Coroner's Court that multiple issues prevented police deploying search and rescue teams sooner in 2015, and recommended changes to Australian Federal Police and Calvary Hospital procedures to stop a repeat of the incident.

Earlier, the lawyer representing Mr Kahsai's family, Brodie Buckland, said they were in the court "not seeking vengeance but vindication".

"Essentially he was a very vulnerable person allowed to slip through the cracks either through policy error or human error and the family wants to know why," he said.
Israel Folaus tweet that gays will go to hell unless they repent of their sins and turn to God is causing a storm in the Twittersphere with critics accusing the Australian rugby player of being insensitive and homophobic.

Such is the adverse reaction that Rugby Australia has scheduled a meeting with Folau later today in an attempt to limit the adverse fallout. And the latest controversy follows Folaus statement last year that marriage should only ever involve a woman and a man.

Israel Folau is in hot water over his remarks about gay people. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The attacks on Folau for expressing his views about homosexuality, including the possibility of Qantas withdrawing its rugby sponsorship, highlight the way political correctness is stifling free speech and victimising those daring to question cultural-left orthodoxy.

As a result of the cultural-lefts long march through the institutions (in addition to Qantas you can add the ABC, universities and much of the media), political correctness involving identity politics, privileging victimhood and virtue signalling dominate public policy and debate.
Its been a rite of passage for schoolkids across Australia - a visit to Canberra with a stop-off at the National Gallery of Australia.

Many such kids wont return to the gallery until something in adulthood compels them, but Nick Mitzevich, soon to be the institutions new director, wants to change this trajectory.

Newly appointed National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich standing in front of the works Red on blue and white by Tony Tuckson. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Learning doesn't just have to be for schoolkids - we're all hungry to know more, and we're trying to create both formal and informal ways of learning about art, he said, following the announcement of his appointment.
Frustrated at the difficulty of sourcing reliable, comprehensive information about science fiction's history, he decided to do the job himself. The result was his groundbreaking 1979 work, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

He believed in Good Art and Bad Art, he had opinions, and for the next 50 years he made them known.

Imaginary worlds had always served as a commentary on our real one, and Peter argued that for millennia before the "realist" literary novel, fantastic literature was the mainstream.

Amid the fun, Peter took his role seriously. He commissioned and edited the essay collection Science Fiction at Large (1976), with original contributions from Ursula le Guin, Philip K Dick and others. Peter saw science fiction as a broad tent, and pitched its canvas over The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tempest and Frankenstein  the last, in his opinion, the first modern science-fiction novel.

Peter persevered with his unusual role as science fiction's ambassador to academe, and with an aggressive self-confidence that masked a self-professed colonial anxiety he launched himself into the bohemian world of the 1970s London literary scene. He became well-known in science fiction circles for his witty reports of the scandalous behaviour of authors at conventions, behaviour that he happily indulged in himself. He made friends and enemies, often combined in the same figures, and carried out colourful public feuds in the pages of the New Statesman.

Like a modern Diderot, Peter drew together the traditions of fantastic voyages, political utopias, scientific romances and modern science fiction, and presented them as a unified literature of ideas. With almost 3000 full entries, the encyclopedia was the first academically rigorous attempt to overview the entire field, and quixotically aimed to cover every proto- and modern author and film in the Western tradition.

Peter soon found that science fiction was "bigger on the inside", but the encyclopedia's theme entries, written largely by himself, helped codify the archetypes of the genre. In the words of his collaborator John Clute, Peter used narrative simplicity, a deceptively simple A-Z structure and an astonishing breadth of knowledge to create an "engine of weaponised thought" that has lasted until the present day.

The Encyclopedia won a Hugo award, the highest honour in the science fiction world, in the newly-created Best Non-Fiction category. It was the first time the Hugo had gone to an Australian. Peter followed it up with Fantastic Cinema and The Science in Science Fiction, before co-producing a second edition of the Encyclopedia in 1994 that brought the word count up to a million and a half, and garnered another Hugo for Peter and co-editor John Clute.

During his time in London, Peter had another child, Tom, with partner Janet Pollak. He later married second wife Clare Coney, with whom he had two more boys  Jack and Luke. Returning with Clare to his native Melbourne in 1988, Peter became a larger-than-life figure on the Australian science fiction scene.

His output slowed after the mid-90s, but as the subject of the 2002 documentary feature, The What-If Man: The Science Fictional Life of Peter Nicholls, he enjoyed a return to the limelight and the opportunity to restate his case for science fiction. In the film he said: "Science fiction is so entertaining and so silly on the one hand, and so deeply serious on the other, and you cannot separate the two." He might well have been describing his own life.
Brisbane house prices have increased about 299 per cent in real terms since 1986, driven by the cost of land rather than the quality of housing.

Brisbane was second only to Sydney in terms of increases, and above the average of Australia's eight capital cities.

Since the 1960s, there has been a sustained rise in house prices in all capital cities, in contrast with the previous 70 years, in which real house prices did not increase in Sydney and Melbourne, and generally internationally. Credit:Glenn Hunt

However, Queensland's real prices had changed little since 2009 and outside of the south-east, they generally fell.

The findings were made in a staff research paper into housing affordability by Matt Geck and Sean Mackay, released by the Queensland Productivity Commission.
Brisbanes only landfill site will be full in about the next 10 years, but Brisbane City Council will not reveal the site of the citys next dump.

Lord mayor Graham Quirk said the Rochedale landfill site on Gardner Road would be full "during the 2020s".

Raw waste being loaded at Willawong - a transfer station about 16km south of Brisbane CBD. Credit:Mark Solomons

Cr Quirk said tenders and contracts had been awarded for a new dump.

When asked if he would reveal a location, Cr Quirk said no, Im not going to go into those details, but thanks for asking.
A woman has died after she was run over on a Sunshine Coast driveway.

Emergency services including a rescue helicopter were called to a Witta property after reports a woman in her mid-70s had been hit by vehicle about 8.20am on Tuesday.

Paramedics attempted to revive the woman but she died at the scene.

A police spokesman said it was understood a man had been attempting to drive the vehicle onto a portable car ramp when "for whatever reason" the vehicle accelerated and struck the woman, "trapping her under the vehicle".
Highly sensitive medical equipment used to treat cancer patients at a world-leading cancer centre may be affected by the construction of the Metro Tunnel.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre radiotherapy may be affected by vibrations from the works. A centre spokesman confirmed they had been in talks with the Metro authority and the state government about potential impacts.

The centre operates the clinical services and manages the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre building in Parkville.

Vibrations from tunnelling are expected to affect hospital wards, intensive care units and other facilities in the VCCC and Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Parkville precinct for up to nine days, according to the project's environment effects statement.
Fremantle chef Benjamin French has died in Royal Perth Hospital after suffering a severe brain injury when he crashed his moped in Thailand last month.

Mr French's family released a statement, saying he passed away at 3am on Tuesday.

"We cannot find the words to thank people enough for the support they have given Ben and our families during this difficult time," the statement said.

"Thank you to all the people who have given generous financial support to bring Ben home to be with his family in Perth. Without this support we would not have been able to bring Ben home.

"We also thank the people who have supported us emotionally through this time, through kind words and by expressing their love for Ben.
Hundreds of employees will be back-paid close to $100,000 after almost half of randomly selected businesses in WA's South West and Perth's south ignored workers' rights.

In one case, it was found three staff members at one south-west winery had been underpaid a total of $8750 after being denied penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work.

Fair Work inspectors investigated 147 businesses across Albany, Denmark and Manjimup and 148 businesses in Armadale, Kwinana and Rockingham and found around 45.5 per cent of businesses were non-compliant with Australian workplace laws.

A spokesman for the Fair Work ombusdman said the level of non-compliance was "concerning".
The ACT government is unlikely to act on an election loophole that allowed the CFMEU to almost double its political campaign spending during the 2016 poll.

Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay tabled the government's response to a Legislative Assembly committee's inquiry into the 2016 election on Tuesday, showing the government only "noting" the committee's recommendation to act on the loophole.

ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay has tabled the government's response to an inquiry into the 2016 territory election.

The CFMEU used the loophole, created just before the 2016 poll, to exceed the $40,000 spending cap, by channelling $35,000 through its own coffers and a further $38,000 through its training arm, Creative Safety Initiatives.

While the committee last year urged the government to tighten the loophole to prevent such things recurring, both government members of the committee, Bec Cody MLA and Tara Cheyne opposed the recommendation.
The Barr government has postponed the introduction of legislation to create a prescription monitoring scheme in the ACT .

Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris was due to introduce a bill to enable the tracking of the prescription of drugs across Canberra on Tuesday.

Paul Fennessy died of an overdose of prescription medication in 2010. Credit:Rohan Thomson

But the government decided to pull the legislation at the last minute.

It's understood the bill has gone back to the ACT Health Directorate to iron out issues with how the system would operate.
Barnaby Joyce's eyebrow-raising Christmas deadline, by which he says the PM should step down if he hasn't righted the ship, signals a dangerous new mood of abandon in intra-government dynamics.

As do the frank admissions from a trio of Turnbull-loyal cabinet ministers (Peter Dutton, Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison) that each harbours ambitions for the top job should the current leadership teeter.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after announcing he would challenge Tony Abbott in 2015. Credit:Andrew Meares

Coming so closely on the back of Joyce's extraordinary contribution to the government's woes, the former Nationals' leader is perhaps the last person to be lecturing others on the delivery of unspectacular line-and-length governance. Joyce, let's not forget, had fumed when Liberals reflected on Nationals' leadership issues. He promised never to do so regarding the Liberals. Now he's set the timer on Turnbull's term.

But we must look past such contradictions. Each of these forays, which are coincidental with Malcolm Turnbull's 30-Newspoll losing streak, attests to the plausibility of a future leadership collapse.
When astronomers using WA's giant Murchison telescope first detected a mysterious cigar-shaped object in our solar system they thought it must be a comet or asteroid.

But after further study they realised it came from another solar system, prompting speculation it could be an alien spacecraft, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research reveals.

Interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua. Credit:Artitst's impression

Researchers using the Murchison telescope, which is about 800 kilometres north of Perth, had been searching for radio transmissions coming from the object since late last year but did not find any signs of intelligent life.

They did however say that the research conducted helped expand the search for extraterrestrial intelligence from distant stars to objects closer to home.
Washington: A fossil finger bone dating back about 90,000 years that was unearthed in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert is pointing to what scientists are calling a new understanding of how our species came out of Africa en route to colonising the world.

Researchers said on Monday the middle bone of an adult's middle finger found at site called Al Wusta is the oldest Homo sapiens fossil outside of Africa and the immediately adjacent eastern Mediterranean Levant region, as well as the first ancient human fossil from the Arabian peninsula.

The excavations at the Al Wusta archaeological site in Saudi Arabia in 2016. The ancient lake bed (in white) is surrounded by sand dunes of the Nefud Desert. Credit:AP

While the Nefud Desert is now a veritable sea of sand, it was hospitable when this individual lived - a grasslands teeming with wildlife alongside a freshwater lake.

Our species first appeared in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago. Scientists previously thought Homo sapiens departed Africa in a single, rapid migration some 60,000 years ago, journeying along the coastlines and subsisting on marine resources, said anthropologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.
Boao, China: Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to considerably reduce tariffs on foreign cars sold in China this year, meeting a key demand of Donald Trump.

The olive branch was offered in a keynote speech at the Boao Forum, considered by many the Davos economic forum of Asia, after days of escalating rhetoric between the US and China over trade.

Xi Jinping applauds ahead of delivering his speech at Boao on Tuesday. Credit:Bloomberg

Mr Xi said China would also reduce restrictions on foreign investment in automotive and aircraft manufacturing, among a raft of market opening measures, many of which have been previously flagged.

Cutting the 25 per cent tariffs on US cars was a major demand from Washington, as Mr Trump ramped up his threat to impose $US150 billion ($195 billion) in punitive tariffs against Chinese goods.
New York: Russia and the United States tangled at the UN Security Council over Syria as they blocked attempts by each other to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in the war-ravaged country.

The United States and other Western powers are considering taking military action over a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held Syrian town that long had held out against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Russia vetoed a US-drafted resolution to create a new inquiry to ascertain blame for such attacks. The US and other countries then blocked a rival Russian bid to set up a different probe that would require the Security Council to attribute responsibility.

Moscow opposes any Western strike on its close ally Assad. Russian US Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Washington's decision to put forward its resolution could be a prelude to a Western strike on Syria.

"The United States is again trying to mislead the international community and is making yet one more step toward confrontation," Nebenzia told the 15-member Security Council. "It is clear that the provocation step has nothing to do with a desire to investigate what happened."
Latest News MyState makes strongest play yet for broker channel with two key hires 30-year channel expert and ex-NAB and St George exec to bolster broker offering in NSW and Victoria

Meet Coposit, the start-up that could revolutionise how first home buyers save for a deposit The traditional method of getting onto the property ladder might be about to be seriously disrupted

The value of approved apartments halved over the last month, according to new data from CoreLogic.

While apartments represent the highest value construction segment in new projects for March, they valued at $3.6billion, compared to $6.1billion the month before.

The total number of new projects recorded by CoreLogic for the Cordell Construction monthly report over March was 1,707. This is 4% higher than in February and 4.6% lower than the five year monthly average of projects.

The construction value of all new projects over March was $12.8billion, up from $12.6billion in February.

However, the number of projects moving into construction stages reached a two year low, with 597 projects. The five year monthly average is 1,009.

CoreLogic commercial research analyst Eliza Owen said: Most of the loss in the value of works moving into construction was attributable to a $1.4 billion decline in the value of apartment and unit commencements, however, the losses were partially offset by increased commencement value in industrial, commercial and community starts over the month.

Focusing on apartments as the highest value construction segment for March, she added: The continued strength in the apartment development space comes from a combination of long-term confidence in east coast cities, particularly close to the inner city suburbs and calls for more housing to address a reported under-supply, particularly in social and affordable housing.

As an example, Meriton has purchased the City of Sydney council depot site in Zetland. The 1.1 hectare site has the potential to accommodate around 300 apartments. The group also acquired the City Ford site in Elizabeth Street last year, demonstrating a steady confidence in the Sydney unit market.

Owen also said joint venture projects and state government participation in housing is starting to rise in an effort to deliver affordable housing in the cities.

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services is currently seeking expressions of interest from the social housing sector and private developers to participate in joint venture property development, but selection of a development partner is still in progress. The partnership will enable delivery of affordable, mixed housing on vacant, state owned land throughout Victoria. The program will start with 52 vacant sites that run from Melbournes western suburbs to Geelong.

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Authorities since 2012 dealt roughly 2,000 violations  hundreds of which were criminal  to the private-carting company with a history of recklessness at the wheel that the city pays millions in taxpayer dollars to haul trash, records show.

Most of the 1,998 penalties officials issued to New Jerseybased Action Carting  which raked in $104,286,930 from contracts with the city over the past decade, during which its truckers hit and killed five people  are for employees blowing red lights, driving in bike lanes, and pumping the gas in school zones, where some drivers are allegedly known to fall asleep at the wheel as kids are walking to class, according to workers.

And 342 of the infractions were for unspecified criminal violations, which often require a court appearance along with paying a cash fine, according to the records from Jan. 8, 2012 through March 20, 2018, which the Brooklyn Paper obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request.

But mysteriously absent from the citations is the summons cops said they handed to the Action driver who hit and killed cyclist Neftaly Ramirez in Greenpoint last July. Authorities claimed to slap now-retired trucker Jose Nunez with a violation for driving his massive big-rig without the proper license on Nov. 10, 2017  almost four months after he fatally plowed into the 27-year-old  but none exists within the nearly 60 pages worth of records.

A Police Department legal-bureau spokesman couldnt explain the absence of the summons, instead only noting that none of the total 4,209 moving violations and criminal-court summonses that city officers issued on Nov. 10, 2017 were made out to Nunez.

Also missing from the list of hundreds of Action-perpetrated violations this newspaper received are 27 criminal summonses that officials dealt to the firm on Feb. 8, 2018, which this reporter instead discovered when searching the state court systems online public records.

Police spokesman Sergeant Jordan Mazur again could not explain why those violations werent included among the others. And a state-court rep also couldnt explain why they were not among the received records, saying the glut of same-day infractions could either be the result of a municipal employee incorrectly entering them all on the date in question, or of an Action-facility inspection on that day.

A spokeswoman for the garbage company did not respond when asked if any of its facilities were inspected on Feb. 8, 2018.

Action Carting only increased its rule-breaking over the years, according to the records, which show that authorities issued its drivers just 26 criminal summonses in 2012, but more than 90 in 2016 and 2017 each. There are no 2018 criminal summonses listed in the documents.

And the companys other violations similarly increase in frequency. In 2012, Action received 182 so-called A-summonses for minor infractions such as double parking, compared to 275 in 2017, according to the records, which show the business racked up 41 through mid March of this year.

But the malfeasant firm isnt the only one whose workers carelessness results in casualties  the number of crashes caused by drivers for the citys 20 most-active private-carting companies totaled 67 since March 2016, up from 35 between March 2014 and February 2016, according to a report released Monday by several organizations working to reform the notoriously dangerous industry, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Transportation Alternatives Alliance for The Alliance for a Greater New York, and Transform Dont Trash NYC.

Five of the 67 collisions that occurred since March 2016 were fatal, and two of the 35 that happened between March 2014 and February 2016 resulted in deaths, according to the survey  which shows that city sanitation employees have not killed anyone while behind the wheel since 2014.

And officials banished more than half of the trucks belonging to the citys 20 most-active private carters from local streets since 2016, after those vehicles failed federal inspections, the report shows.

Action Cartings hundreds of violations, however, are below the industry average, according to its spokeswoman, who said company bigwigs are working to cultivate a less-hazardous culture by implementing weekly safety sessions and modernizing its fleet with upgrades including the installation of protective bike guards beneath its trucks that block pedestrians from rolling under them.

A rep for Mayor DeBlasio again did not respond to a request for comment about why the city continues to conduct business with Action Carting despite its history of deadly crashes and violating traffic laws.
A four-fold increase in the number of clients in the demonetisation year, 2016-17, has put the spotlight once again on Nirav Modi. Did his clients have an inkling of what's in store on November 8, 2016? From a mere 86 high networth individuals buying the Modi diamonds in 2015-16, to 340 the next year, the taxmen are investigating much more than the fugitive businessman's PNB scam of Rs 13,600 crore.

India Today TV has accessed a list of over 650 of India's Who's Who, many of whom bought crores worth of jewellery without a PAN card or couldn't explain the source of money when the taxman came knocking. In fact, as per an analysis done by the Income tax department, the unaccounted funds made up the majority of purchases done by the rich and the famous. A year before demonetisation, in 2015-16, Modi's clients bought jewellery worth nearly Rs 8 crore in white money and over 38 crore in black.

One of the high networth clients of Modi, Lawyer and Congressman, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had denied that he bought jewellery worth Rs 6 crore using black money. Singhvi says he bought jewellery worth only Rs 1.6 crore making a cheque payment and not Rs 6 crore as is being made out. India Today TV spoke to several more of these high networth individuals, most of whom denied that they bought jewellery using unaccounted funds.

However, CBDT officials told India Today, "It is going to be difficult to ascertain whether Modi actually sold the jewels to these individuals since we don't have a statement by Modi. Notices have been sent to all those who did not have a PAN or used their black money. So while an exercise is being done of issuing notices, it may not result in much."

Jewellery worth Rs 12.85 crore was bought in cash in 2014-15 alone by the daughter in law of a senior Congress minister in the Siddharamiah government. She is the biggest purchaser of jewellery in cash from Nirav Modi and beats the mother of a business tycoon and one of the richest people in the world. The tycoon's mother bought jewellery worth a mere Rs 4 cr crore in cash between 2013-15. In fact, her daughter, who is married into the Nirav Modi family bought jewellery worth over Rs 17 crore in cash.

The list includs an Ahmedabad-based realtor bought nearly Rs 9 crore worth of jewellery of which nearly Rs 6 crore was bought in cash during 2014-15. A 2.5 USD billion technoforge major bought the Nirav Modi jewels for over Rs 5 crore in cash. The family of the promoters of a two-wheeler giant bought diamonds worth over Rs 4 crore between 2014-17 in cash.

On many occasions, the family has not quoted a PAN number. The promoters of a Punebased realty firm bought jewels using unaccounted funds to the tune of nearly Rs 3 crore in six years up to 2017. One of the promoters told India Today, "We got a notice last month and we can say that all funds are accounted for. But since the IT has slapped a notice we will most probably pay up because litigation is a long drawn process and requires that we deposit 50 per cent of the amount in question first. It's easier to pay than to litigate."

Amongst those not taxed in India is His Highness, The Aga Khan's name figures amongst those who bought jewellery worth over Rs 2 crore, all in cash.

A Congress leader on question of anonymity said, "The investigation was done by the Income Tax office in Mumbai over a year and a half ago. Why are notices being sent out after Nirav Modi has fled. What was the government doing all this while. In fact, there was a raid on the firm in 2011 as well and a huge discrepancy was revealed in the actual stock and the books. Had this been acted upon then, the scam would not have happened."
Two weeks after the civil aviation ministry came out with the preliminary information memorandum (PIM) on Air India's strategic disinvestment, the nays seem to be coming faster than any expressions of interest. IndiGo dropped out of the race last week, and this week it's reportedly Jet Airways' turn to announce that it won't be bidding for the flag carrier. Then, every time the media speculates about the entry of a foreign player - think Swiss Aviation Consulting and Qatar Airways - official denials follow quickly thereafter.

That's pretty bad news for the government hoping to maximise the bidding competition, as civil aviation secretary R.N. Choubey had previously put it. Nonetheless, according to The Financial Express, the ministry has ruled out any extension in the May 14 deadline for interested bidders to submit their initial proposals.

"We are going very, very fast with the disinvestment process. We are not looking at that option (of extending deadline). We wouldn't like to do that," Choubey said on Monday, on the sidelines of the CII Annual Session 2018 - belying media rumours that the government may relax the timeline if prospective bidders needed more time for their due diligence processes. "We will see what pre-bid suggestions we get. Extension of deadline is not on the cards," he reiterated.

When asked if his ministry was open to the idea of selling Air India separately-domestic and international-as expressed by IndiGo, the aviation secretary said: "Presently, we are not looking at the option of splitting Air India's operations". Last week, Aditya Ghosh, IndiGo's president and whole time director, had said in a statement that "From day one, IndiGo has expressed its interest primarily in the acquisition of Air India's international operation and Air India Express. However, that option is not available under the government's current disinvestment plan for Air India." Jet Airways, too, reportedly cited the PIM's terms as the reason for pulling out of the bidding process.

According to Choubey, the request for proposal (RFP) for the beleaguered airline will be out in two months. The RFP, which is the second stage of the disinvestment process after the government receives initial proposals, is likely to spell out details about the government's stand on the Air India board and employee protection measures, the debt/liabilities situation, et al. The report added that consultations on the RFP have already kicked-off, with the airline's CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola meeting the employee unions.

The aviation secretary also reportedly waved off concerns regarding a dearth of suitors for the Maharajah, saying, "There is a lot of interest for Air India around the globe". But he remained evasive when asked if there has been any formal request from any national or international bidder.

Who's left in the running for Air India? At a press conference in January, Vistara CEO Leslie Thng had said that the airline's promoters - Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines - were keeping "an open mind" about it. David Lim, the head of the Singapore Airlines' India business, too, used the same words earlier this month about throwing its hat in the ring.

With PTI inputs
Private sector lender Axis Bank Ltd on Monday said its board of directors have accepted a request from Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma to shorten her reappointment period till the end of December 2018. In July 2017, well ahead of the end of her current term, the board had reappointed Sharma as CEO for three years starting June 1, 2018.

Axis Bank has in a statement to the stock exchanges said the board has accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from June 1 to December 31, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India. Sharma would be completing her third term as MD and CEO of Axis Bank on May 31.

The board will now begin the process of finding an appropriate candidate for the top job. The RBI has asked the Axis Bank board to reconsider the fourth three-year term it gave to CEO Shikha Sharma last year, said several people aware of the development. They said it could presage a tightening of scrutiny on the appointment of bank CEOs by the regulator. The regulator addressed the letter to Axis Bank chairman Sanjiv Misra and gave its reasons for a review. These included the bank's performance and its deteriorating asset quality.

The private sector lender's NPAs jumped by over five-fold over two years.The gross NPAs worth Rs 4,110 crore at the end of March 2015 surged to Rs 21,280 crore at the end of March 2017. During the same period, the lender's net profit halved from Rs 7,357.8 crore to Rs 3,679.2 crore. Axis Bank has seen its gross bad loans ratio rise to 5.04 per cent as of March 2017 up from 0.96 per cent in March 2009, when Sharma took charge.

The Axis Bank filing on Monday did not elaborate why Sharma wanted her fourth term to be curtailed to seven months from three years. The bank statement said that the board forwards its recommendations to the regulator as required and added that the "process is currently in progress."

However, according to some analysts if the RBI does not want her to continue it remains to be seen whether it will approve her term which expires on May 31, for another 7 months till December 31. Shikha Sharma took over as the chief of Axis Bank in June 2009 from PJ Nayak, despite some reservations from the outgoing chief who preferred that an internal candidate be promoted to the top job.

The RBI had earlier this month dropped Axis Bank from a list of banks it has cleared to import gold and silver during the current financial year that began on April 1.

The RBI published the list of 16 banks which have been allowed to import the precious metals on its website, wherein Axis Bank is excluded. Axis Bank was one of the leading importers for gold and silver among all the 19 lenders which were given the licence last year. The 16 banks which have been given the licence to import gold and silver for 2018-19 also include the scam-hit Punjab National Bank reeling under a nearly Rs 13,000 crore fraud created by from the gems and jewellery sector itself.

Other top private sector banks figure on the list, including Axis Bank's larger rival ICICI Bank which is fighting allegations of conflict of interest or quid pro quo by its chief Chanda Kochhar, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Federal Bank and Yes Bank. Other banks dropped for the current fiscal include the Southfocused private sector lender Karur Vysya Bank and South Indian Bank.

The bank also came under a cloud during demonetization when some of its officials were arrested for money laundering. During the currency exchange program, the Enforcement Directorate had arrested two Axis Bank managers for alleged illegal conversion of demonetised notes. In December 2016, the bank said that it has temporarily suspended accounts of top bullion dealers to counter concerns around alleged money laundering.
Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma has had an illustrious career in banking, regardless of the rough patch that's hogging the headlines lately. Known for her calm and composed disposition, Sharma is not new to tough times. Her entry into Axis Bank in May 2009 was nothing but dramatic.

Her first day in office was at the bank's 15th annual general meeting (AGM) in Ahmedabad. Axis Bank (erstwhile UTI Bank), the country's third largest private bank, was going through a turmoil of sorts as outgoing Chairman & CEO PJ Nayak pitched hard for an internal candidate to steer the bank instead of hoisting an outsider like Sharma.

When Sharma took charge of one of the biggest private lenders in the country after the global financial crisis, the news of global banks going belly-up hit the headlines every now and then.

Sharma, a self-confessed Shiva devotee, had told Business Today that she never missed fasting for Lord Shiva on Monday ever since she started her career. Sharma wanted to make banking simple for people in terms of product features, design and service delivery. "People have enough complexity in their life. We don't want banking to add to that complexity," Sharma had said.

With a balance sheet of Rs 6 lakh crore-plus, Axis Bank is the seventh largest bank in the country. Under Sharma's stewardship, Axis Bank concluded the acquisition of investment banking arm of Enam Securities for Rs 2,067 crore and the 'strategic' takeover of digital payments platform Freecharge for Rs 385 crore.

However, in the last 2 years, Axis bank has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. There was a spike in the bank's NPAs in the last few years. While it was partly because of the slowdown in the economy and key infrastructure sector not doing well, the bank saw a huge rise in its gross NPAs as compared to other banks. Axis Bank was the first to slip amongst the private bank, though other banks like ICICI Bank joined in later. The net NPAs were at 2.31 per cent in 2016-17. The gross divergence in NPAs were at 129.06 per cent in the same period.

Bad loans are not the only problem for Axis Bank. Its net profit fell from Rs 2,175 crore in December 2015 to just Rs 597 crore in December 2016. However, a year later in December 2017, the net profit made a marginal jump to Rs 726 crore.

Axis Bank was also in the eye of the storm soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move. Axis Bank officials at various branches across the country were arrested for allegedly converting old currency notes into new. The rot run deep, so much so that it had to hire KPMG to conduct a forensic audit for enhanced due diligence and building more safeguards.

With her chequered stint at Axis Bank, it seems that Sharma is now making a graceful exit. The former ICICI banker has requested the board to reconsider the period of her re-appointment as the MD & CEO for a period of seven months from June 01, 2018 to December 31, 2018. In July last year, the Axis Bank board had reappointed Sharma as CEO and MD for another three years until 2021. Sharma's third term would end on May 31.

Sharma began her career with the ICICI group in the early 80s and went on to set up insurance venture ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Ltd. Sharma was actually among the top two contenders at the ICICI Bank to succeed KV Kamath. But when the baton was passed to Chanda Kochhar, who is also in the eye of storm, Sharma left the ICICI Group to join Axis Bank.

The bank had come under the RBI radar, following which the central bank approached the bank's Chairman to reconsider Sikha Sharma's fourth term. In a letter to Axis Bank Chairman Sanjiv Misra, the central bank had cited the bank's performance and its deteriorating asset quality as grounds for its objection to Shikha's re-appointment.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is all set to file its first chargesheet by the second week of May against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others in the Rs 13,700-crore PNB fraud case.

The complaint would have investigation details with the annexure of evidence that includes the copies of fraudulent Letter of Undertakings (LoUs), the complex structure of web companies, a complete modus operandi of diverting bank money from India to abroad and back, the details of dummy directors and shareholders created to manage these shell companies and inflatory import-export bills used to seek bank loans.



The complaint would include the statements of the main accused Nirav Modi's close confidante Shyam Wadhwa and PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty, directors of Firestar Diamond International/Gitanjali Gems and employees of group companies. Also, it will include the statements of Sunil Mehta, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of PNB, and other bank officials.



In the next few days, the agency may also take the remand custody of Rajesh Jindal, General Manager Credit at PNB's head office in New Delhi, to record his statement. Shetty had confessed before the ED officials that it was Rajesh Jindal who directed him to issue the first fraudulent LoUs to Nirav Modi's companies for the first time in 2010.



Besides, the final valuation report of seized diamonds, pearls and gem stones is likely to come out by the next one week. The report would indicate the real/fake price of diamonds sold to consumers. Earlier, the ED had announced the seizure of diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,700 crore from Nirav Modi's showrooms and properties.



The complaint would also consist of the quantum of attachment and seizures of Modi's and Choksi's movable and immovable assets such as flats, apartments, luxury cars, higher end watches, paintings, bank accounts (cash worth Rs 100 crore) in India and abroad (two accounts in Belgium), stocks/shares, worth Rs 2,000 crore.



"The first prosecution complaint would be full of evidence to nail Modi and Choksi under the money laundering act," the ED source told Business Today. The agency has already traced a money trail of around Rs 6,000 crore, which was laundered with the help of shell companies registered in Hong Kong.

Also read: Gokulnath Shetty confesses he issued all LoUs; alleges Modi, Choksi blackmailed him
The Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Mr Pat Breen, will today attend EU Digital Day 2018 where he will sign a number of political Declarations, including one on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This one-day event in Brussels is organised by the European Commission and will bring together high-level stakeholders in the fields of digital technology and telecommunication with the aim of putting Europes digital future in the spotlight.

The purpose of Digital Day is to facilitate discussion on priority issues on the digital agenda. The event is structured around initiatives to reach joint commitments related to the digital future of Europe in order to encourage investment in European digital technologies and infrastructures.



At the event, Minister Breen will sign up to political Declarations on Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Innovation Radar on behalf of Ireland. These Declarations set out areas where agreement was reached by Member States for future cooperation. Minister Breen will also participate in the Digital Day session on Artificial Intelligence.



Speaking ahead of the event, Minister Breen said, "Irelands engagement at the forefront of initiatives at EU level to progress the digital transformation agenda is essential if we are to maximise the benefits arising from technological developments. Through our long-term Enterprise Strategy, Enterprise 2025, we have committed to developing an ambitious vision and strategy for Irelands digital economy, that will drive a coordinated, cross-government approach to deliver on a range of inter-related policies, encompassing International and EU developments and developments at both the business environmental level and firm level."



He added, "Ireland already has a burgeoning Artificial Intelligence ecosystem driven by a cohort of technological multinational and indigenous SMEs and supported by our third level sector. We are putting further support measures in place to support this industry base."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Chinese conglomerate Fosun International has signed a deal with Austrias famed Vienna Boys Choir to open kindergartens offering musical training in China, the company announced over the weekend.

Fosun has secured the rights to the existing Friends of the Vienna Boys Choir (FVBC) kindergarten brand in China, and will launch joint Chinese-Austrian music training and development centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, Fosun said in the announcement on its official WeChat account Sunday.

Fosun did not reveal how much it is paying to use the brand in China, though the agreement is part of 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of deals signed last week during Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellens state visit to China, according the official Peoples Daily.

Nearly 250 trade and cultural representatives accompanied van der Bellen, in what German news service Deutsche Welle called the largest delegation in Austria's diplomatic history.

As part of the deal between Fosun and the Vienna Boys Choir, the two parties will also set up a fund for supporting international music exchanges and research on music education, Fosun said.

The world-class culture, education and arts intellectual property of the Vienna Boys Choir is highly aligned with Fosuns mission to create a healthy, happy, and rich life for customer families around the world, Fosun Executive Director and Senior Vice President Gong Ping said in the companys statement.

The Austrian choir, founded in 1498, has a strong following in China, where the group of 10- to 14-year-old singers has made frequent world tour stops and appeared on state broadcaster CCTV. There are currently chapters of the Friends of the Vienna Boys Choir  a society of music enthusiasts supported by the choir and Chinas Chorus Association  in Beijing, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Shandong, as well as affiliated choirs in a number of Chinese cities.

The Friends of the Vienna Boys Choir opened its first FVBC kindergarten in Shanghai in August. The Vienna Boys Choir also runs a school located in the Austrian capital, which offers music-focused training at kindergarten to middle school levels.

The Fosun deal is part of a wave of foreign education collaborations sweeping China, as middle-class parents become increasingly eager and able to invest in arts education for their children. A Tianjin branch campus of New Yorks renowned Juilliard School is currently under construction, and is expected to take in its first students in 2019. The Vancouver Film School and New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts have also established footholds in China in recent years, with both institutions offering training in Shanghai.

Contact reporter Teng Jing Xuan (jingxuanteng@caixin.com)
Modified On Apr 10, 2018 02:29 PM By Raunak for Toyota Fortuner 2016-2021

The Diamond edition will strike the right chord with those who are looking for a more premium cabin and features

Toyota recently introduced the Diamond edition of the Fortuner in the Latin American market (The Fortuner is known as SW4 there). The Diamond version comes with a few aesthetic updates inside out and additional features over the existing variants.

Whats new in the Fortuner Diamond?

Rides on exclusive 18-inch dual-tone machine-cut wheels

Features front bumper add-on with faux silver skid plate

Beige leather upholstery in place of burgundy

The cabin gets bronze-finished highlighters and the faux wood inserts have been replaced by premium glossy black ones

Packs a premium JBL sound system with 10 speakers and 1 subwoofer

Features a white and bronze key with Diamond branding

Should it come to India?

We feel that the Diamond edition should be introduced in the Indian market. Why? First off, it features a beige-black cabin, whereas the current variants offer a darker all-black layout with burgundy upholstery. Many people like a lighter cabin setup as it makes the interior feel airier.

Pictured: Toyota Fortuner

More importantly, the Fortuner Diamond comes with a premium sound system (JBL), which is sorely missing from the standard Fortuners equipment list. The Fortuner presently offers a 6-speaker sound system while even a Tata Tiago pleases you with a Harman-sourced 8-speaker system. Its arch-rival, the Ford Endeavour, packs a standard 10-speaker system with active noise cancellation tech that delivers a better output than the Fortuners unit. These full-size body-on-frame SUVs have already breached the Rs 30 lakh mark and certainly warrant a premium sound system. The Endy already offers it, now its about time the Fortuner should feature one too. Toyota already offers a similar JBL system with the Camry Hybrid in India.

Check out: Toyota Fortuner vs Ford Endeavour: Comparison Review

The Fortuner is currently priced in the range of Rs 26.20 lakh - 31.99 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi).

Read More on : Fortuner Automatic
Indian Air Force has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the posts of LDC, MTS and more. 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 81100. The last date to apply for the government job is Apr 19, 2018.

Defence Jobs 2018: Indian Army Recruitment For Officers

Indian Airforce Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Draughtsman, Lower Division Clerk, Hindi Typist, Coppersmith, Carpenter, Painter, AC Mechanic, Instrument Repairer, Tailor, Cook, Laundryman, Mess Staff, Housekeeping Staff, Fireman Organisation Indian Air Force Educational Qualification Class 10 and class 12 graduates Age Limit 18 to 27 years Skills Required Technical skills Salary Scale INR 19900 to INR 81100 Job Location India Industry Defence Experience Freshers can apply Application Start Date Mar 18, 2018 Application End Date Apr 19, 2018

Also Read: Civil Service Jobs 2018: Check Out The Fresh Vacancies In Various States

How To Apply For Indian Airforce Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Indian Airforce Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:
Step 1

Log on to the TNPSC exam official website.

Step 2

Click on the One Time Registration button.

Step 3

Choose the option to register as a new user.

Step 4

The registration form will be displayed on the screen. Fill your particulars in the fields provided.

Step 5

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the declaration box.

Step 6

Enter the captcha code.

Step 7

Click Save & Continue and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Step 8

Go back to the notifications page.

Step 9

Against Civil Judge recruitment link, click Apply.

Step 10

Enter your credentials on the login page.

Step 11

Enter the captcha code.

Step 12

Click Submit.
None of the children tested across Plateau state in May of 2017 were found to have signs of lymphatic filariasis. (Photos: The Carter Center)

The finger-prick blood tests are part of a rigorous process the World Health Organization requires to demonstrate that parasite transmission has been reduced below sustainable levels with drug treatment.

Herded outdoors by their teachers, bright-eyed children chatter, their blue-and-white school uniforms gleaming in a sharp but wiggly queue. Their excitement ebbs just a bit when they reach the front of the line and get a finger pricked by an adult wearing surgical gloves.

The momentary pain of these schoolchildren in central Nigerias Nasarawa state portends significant gain for themselves, their families, and their country. Carter Center-trained researchers from the state Ministry of Health are testing the childrens blood for signs of lymphatic filariasis, a tropical infection that can cause painful, permanent, debilitating enlargement of the legs and other extremities.

No such signs will be detected, demonstrating through hard data the success of a pioneering program to eliminate the disease as a public health problem in Nasarawa and adjacent Plateau state through mass administration of the drugs albendazole and Mectizan (donated by GSK and Merck, respectively).

"Over the past two years, we have tested more than 14,000 children ages 6 and 7 throughout the two-state area, and not one of them was found to be infected," said Dr. Gregory Noland, epidemiologist at The Carter Center, who helped train the testing teams. "In human terms, these children will never have to worry about being disabled by lymphatic filariasis."

Lymphatic filariasis is caused by microscopic worms that are transmitted by mosquitoes. The parasites impair the bodys lymph system, often resulting in enormous, irreversible swelling known as elephantiasis, which brings secondary infections and fevers. It also can cause hydrocele, a massive swelling of the scrotum. In addition to pain and loss of mobility, people with lymphatic filariasis often experience stigma, and their families and communities suffer lost productivity.
The crossover segment in India is slowly gaining popularity in the country. Hyundai s popular selling crossover, the i20 Active will soon face stiff competition from its newest rival, the Ford Freestyle . Here below we have the Freestyle Titanium+ and the i20 Active SX, the top spec diesel variants of both the cars. Lets take a look at how these two cars stack up against each other.

Exterior

- The Freestyle gets basic halogen headlamps while the i20 Active wins hands down with the automatic projector headlamps with cornering lamps and LED DRLs and positioning lamps.

- Stylish body cladding is common between both the cars, however the i20 Active gets additional chrome elements.

- Both the cars get turn indicators on the ORVMs and stylish roof rails.

- The Freestyle additionally offers customisation options in the form of body stripe kit and roof wrap, while the i20 Active is available in dual-tone body shade for an addition Rs 24,000.

- The Freestyle sits on 15-inch alloy wheels while the i20 Active gets 16-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels.

Interior

- The Freestyle gets a charcoal black interior with dual tone seats in sienna and black. The i20 Active on the other hand offers interior colour pack in optional shades of brown, satin red and alps blue.

- The Freestyle gets pretty modest interior while the i20 Active offers a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear knob.

- The Freestyle gets an important feature like distance to empty, while the i20 Active misses out on the same.

Engine

- The Freestyle is available with a 1.5-litre diesel engine that generates 99bhp/215Nm. The i20 Active on the other hand is powered by a 1.4-litre CRDi diesel that generates 89bhp/220Nm.

- Although the Freestyle churns out an additional 10bhp over the i20 Active, it surprisingly gets a five-speed manual, while the latter gets a six-speed manual transmission.

- Both the cars offers 40 litres of fuel tank capacity

American car manufacturer Ford is known to offer a host of safety features. Supporting claims, the top-end Titanium+ boasts of six airbags, anti-rollover prevention system, HLA (Hill launch assist), ESP (Electronic Stability Program) and TCS (Traction Control System). Then, there's emergency assistance too, which in the event of an accident shuts down the fuel supply and automatically shares your GPS location with emergency services. The Hyundai i20 Active SX on the other hand offers four-airbags and EBD in the i20 Active SX. The crossover from Hyundai also gets impact sensing auto door unlock and speed sensing door locks for safety.

Prices for the Ford Freestyle are yet to be announced. Meanwhile the Hyundai i20 Active is priced at Rs 9.80 lakhs. Pricing will be the key determining factor for the success of the Freestyle in India, as it gets a modest set of features and a slightly more powerful engine.
Photo: The Canadian Press

President Donald Trump on Sunday condemned a "mindless CHEMICAL attack" in Syria that killed women and children, called Syrian President Bashar Assad an "animal" and delivered a rare personal criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting the Damascus government.

As Washington worked to verify the claim by Syrian opposition activists and rescuers that poison gas was used, Trump said there would be a "big price to pay" for resorting to outlawed weapons of mass destruction. A top White House aide, asked about the possibility of a U.S. missile strike in response, said, "I wouldn't take anything off the table."

Just over a year ago, Trump ordered dozens of cruise missiles to be fired at a Syrian air base after declaring there was no doubt Assad had "choked out the lives of helpless" civilians in an attack that used banned gases. White House advisers said at the time that images of hurt children helped spur the president to launch that air strike, and television new shows on Sunday aired similar depictions of suffering young Syrians.

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," Trump tweeted. "Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"

Saturday's attack took place in a rebel-held town near Damascus amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce. Syrian activists, rescuers and medics said a poison gas attack in Douma killed at least 40 people, with families found suffocated in their houses and shelters. The reports could not immediately be independently verified.

The developments come as Trump has moved to dramatically scale back U.S. goals in Syria, pushing for a quick military withdrawal despite resistance from many of his national security advisers. Trump has given no formal order to pull out the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria or offered a public timetable other than to say the U.S. will withdraw as soon as the remaining Islamic State fighters can be vanquished.

But Trump has signalled to his advisers that, ideally, he wants all troops out within six months.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Assad heard Trump's signal that he wanted to withdraw from Syria and, "emboldened by American inaction," launched the attack. In a statement, McCain said Trump "responded decisively" last year with the air strike and urged Trump to be forceful again to "demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes."

Images released by the Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets, a volunteer organization, show children lying on the ground motionless and foaming at the mouth. The Assad government, in a statement posted on the state-run news agency SANA, denied responsibility.

Trump was briefed about the attack by his chief of staff, John Kelly, officials said. Trump's homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, noted the timing of the suspected chemical attack  almost a year to the day of the U.S. missile strikes.

"This isn't just the United States. This is one of those issues on which every nation, all peoples, have all agreed and have agreed since World War II, it's an unacceptable practice," Bossert said.

Asked about the potential for an American missile strike in response, Bossert said: "I wouldn't take anything off the table. These are horrible photos. We're looking into the attack at this point."

Trump was to meet with his senior military leadership on Monday, the same day his new national security adviser, John Bolton, assumes his post. Bolton has previously advocated significant airstrikes against Syria.

Vice-President Mike Pence on Sunday deemed it a "likely chemical attack" and reiterated Trump's threat that consequences would be coming for those responsible.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the assault on innocent lives, including children," Pence tweeted. "The Assad regime & its backers MUST END their barbaric behaviour."

Trump's decision to single out Putin in a tweet appeared noteworthy because Trump long has been reluctant to personally criticize the Russian leader. Even as the White House, after some delay, imposed tough new sanctions on Russia in the wake of its U.S. election meddling and suspected poisoning of a former spy on British soil, Trump left it to others in his administration to deliver the rebukes to Moscow.

Last month, Trump called Putin and, against the counsel of his advisers, congratulated the Russian president on his re-election and invited him to the White House. On Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Trump to "ramp up the pressure and the sanctions on the Russian government, because, without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office."

Trump also invoked Iran in his series of tweets, further challenging Tehran while signalling he may scuttle its nuclear deal with the West. The president has often laid some blame on his predecessor, Barack Obama, for Assad's continued grip on power after years of civil war.

Obama said in 2012 that Syria's use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would change his decision-making on intervening in the war and have "enormous consequences." After such an attack in 2013 killed hundreds outside Damascus, American ships in the Mediterranean were poised to launch missiles. But Obama pulled back after key U.S. ally Britain, as well as Congress, balked.

He opted for a Russian-backed proposal that was supposed to remove and eliminate Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles.

"If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!" Trump tweeted from the White House.

Questions about the administration's possible response reverberated throughout Washington in the hours after the attack.

"It's a defining moment in his presidency" that comes as Assad sees the U.S. "determination to stay in Syria waning," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,

"If he doesn't follow through and live up to that tweet, he's going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran," Graham said. "You need to follow through with that tweet. Show a resolve that Obama never did to get this right."

Graham and Bossert were on ABC's "This Week," and Collins appeared on CNN's "State of the Union."
Photo: CTV

A porn actress who says she had an affair with Donald Trump renewed an effort Sunday to get the president to answer her attorney's questions under oath.

An attorney for Stormy Daniels filed the motion in federal court in Los Angeles. Michael Avenatti is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and adding that he didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair and Cohen has held that he made the payment out of his own pocket, without involvement from the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign.

Cohen did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Sunday.

Avenatti filed a similar motion over a week ago, which a judge deemed premature. He refiled after Trump asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in the case. Trump and Cohen filed papers last week asking a judge to rule that the case must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. Avenatti opposes private arbitration.

In the filing, Avenatti says he wants to question Trump and Cohen for "no more than two hours." He says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the settlement agreement and if he "truly did not know about the $130,000 payment." He also asks if Trump was involved in any effort to "silence" Daniels.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said in a recent interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that she was threatened by an unidentified man to keep quiet about the affair. Avenatti tweeted a photo Sunday that he said showed Daniels sitting with a forensic sketch artist to develop an image of the person she says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter.

That interview prompted a lawyer for Cohen to demand that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting Cohen was involved in her intimidation. Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.

Avenatti did not say Sunday when the photograph had been taken, or when a sketch may be released.

If this legal move is successful, this would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women.

___

Balsamo contributed from Los Angeles.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The speech was written. A cast of relatable Americans with emotional stories was standing by to reinforce the message. But President Donald Trump was in no mood to play along.

"The hell with it," Trump said, recounting the scene with his aides to a West Virginia crowd last week. Trump tossed the staff-prepared remarks on tax cuts in the air and ducked as the paper fluttered to the floor. "I said, 'This is boring, come on.' Tell it like it is."

This president has never been one to stick to a script, but that abandoned speech illustrates a new phase in Trump's presidency. He is increasingly at odds with his staff  and growing wise to their tactics.

One favoured staff strategy: Guide the president to the right decision by making the conventional choice seem like the only realistic option. Except now, 14 months into his administration, Trump is on to them, and he's making clear he won't be boxed in.

That was the message that an irritated Trump delivered to his national security team last week in a classified meeting about U.S. involvement in Syria.

Trump's advisers, among them Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, were advocating for an ongoing U.S. military presence to provide stability. They aimed to rely on the same playbook they used last year in persuading Trump to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan indefinitely. They would paint a dire picture of a pullout, of regional chaos benefiting Russia and Iran, and the potential resurgence of the Islamic State group.

But even before they could begin their pitch in that meeting Tuesday, Trump headed them off, saying he wanted to remove U.S. troops immediately. The ensuing heated argument put new distance between the president and his team and left the military with a mandate, if not a formal order, to remove U.S. troops from Syria within six months.

The episode stood in sharp contrast to the earlier meeting on Afghanistan, when Trump went along with his advisers despite his instincts to pull out completely.

More than 10 current and former White House officials and outside advisers spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to describe such internal discussions.

The shift has as much to do with changes in personnel as changes in the president's attitude. Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, for one, was viewed as a person Trump could trust to be an honest broker and make sure that all options were being faithfully presented to him.

During the Afghanistan meeting, aides went out of their way to make it appear that they were considering Trump's perspective with an even hand. But with Syria, aides said, Trump felt he was being steamrolled and lashed out.

Managing a boss who despises being managed is a difficult game. And those who have succeeded have proceeded carefully. Some aides, convinced that Trump puts more stock in what he sees on TV than in his own aides' advice, regularly phone prominent commentators and news hosts to provide talking points on everything from tax policy to Syria in hopes of influencing Trump. Similar strategies have also been embraced by foreign governments and outside groups trying to sway the president's thinking.

Stall tactics were favoured by Trump's first chief of staff, Reince Priebus. He often told Trump that staffers needed more time to work on a proposal or that it would be better put off until the next week, hoping Trump would change his mind or forget.

Indeed, as Trump considered the impact of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and on some imports from China, his free-trade-supporting aides hoped they could wait him out.

But Trump, fed up with aides who were pleading for more time on tariffs, blew up.

In the chaotic aftermath of Porter's departure, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and hawkish trade adviser Peter Navarro encouraged Trump to take protectionist action. Aides including Treasury Steve Mnuchin and then-National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, whose actions some aides compared to "hiding the ball," were suddenly left scrambling to devise a rear-guard action. Cohn resigned days later when it became clear that tariffs were imminent.
With poor performance, the Botafogo It was only a tie in 0 a 0 Such as win over, which is...
Diamond Cement Ghana to work with government on Keta Port

10 April 2018

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Diamond Cement Ghana Ltd, to build a port at Keta, Volta region, Ghana.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's New Patriotic Party (NPP) government guaranteed that it would build a port as part of its manifesto and site preparations will start in June.

Published under
Moroccan cement market contracts 15% in March

ICR Newsroom By 10 April 2018

Moroccan cement demand declined 15.1 per cent YoY in March 2018 to 1,124,152t from 1,324,221t in the third month of 2017, according to the latest data from the country's Ministry of Housing and Urbanisation.



The Casablanca-Settat market, the largest in the country, saw its requirement in March decrease by 19.1 per cent YoY to 236,503. However, dispatches to the Marrakech-Safi area saw a 7.9 per cent YoY increase to 176,785t while in Rabat-Sale-Kenira, they were down 19.5 per cent to 129,680t. Tanger-Tetouan noted a 27.7 per cent fall in deliveries to 118,030t. The decline in the Oriental market was more modest at 8.1 per cent to 115,069t. With a demand of 111,778t, Souss-Massa deliveries fell by 12.4 per cent.



For the first three months of the year, consumption fell 6.9 per cent YoY as domestic sales were reported at 3,308,935t, compared to 3,554,711t in 1Q17.

Published under
OJSC Holcim (Azerbaijan) records net profit in 2017

10 April 2018

OJSC Holcim (Azerbaijan) returned to profit within the full-year 2017 period, recording a net profit of AZN1.7m (US$1m).

The proceeds from cement sales increased 37.1 per cent YoY, to AZN107m from AZN77.9m. Furthermore, the operating profit of the company tripled to AZN15.8m, according to Turan Information Agency.



The shareholders have not decided on the profit distribution. As of 1 January 2018, the company has AZN87.8m of undistributed profit.

Published under
The state of Indiana has adopted a new law that essentially grants personhood to unborn children.

Relevant Magazine reports that Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has signed a bill into law that allows suspects to be charged with murder if they harm a pregnant woman who then loses her unborn child.

Pro-life supporters are championing this bill, as it acknowledges the personhood of unborn children. The law, however, does not apply to legally obtained abortions.

The law also brings to mind the Old Testament passage which says:

Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely. If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the womans husband demands and the judges approve. But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life (Exodus 21:22-23).

This law was brought to the attention of the states lawmakers by a woman whose 11-months-pregnant daughter was shot and killed. The woman felt it was unjust that the killer could not be tried for the death of the unborn child as well as the death of her daughter.

The law will go into effect in July 2018.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: April 10, 2018
Syria is one of the oldest countries in the world, with cultural artifacts in the region dating to 10,000 BC. It is also one of the newest countries in the world, achieving autonomy from occupying French troops in 1946.

This war-torn country is making headlines again with reports of a horrific chemical attack against civilians. According to this mornings New York Times, President Trump could order airstrikes in retaliation as soon as today.

What do you need to know about Syria? How can you pray in response?

Who is fighting? Why?

Hafez al-Assad became the Syrian ruler in a 1970 coup. After his death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected president (he ran unopposed).

Peaceful protests, as part of the 2011 Arab Spring, were repressed by the Syrian army. The ensuing civil war has involved the Syrian Arab Republic (Assads government), the North Syria Federation (primarily the Kurds), the Free Syrian Army (supported by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, and Germany), Tahrir al-Sham (composed of al-Qaeda supporters and other jihadists), and the Islamic State.

Russia became engaged in 2015, lending crucial support to the Assad regime. Moscow seeks to protect its air base in the western province of Latakia and its naval facility at the Syrian port of Tartus (the sole Mediterranean base for its Black Sea fleet).

Iran is also a major supporter of the Syrian government, using the country as its main conduit to the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US has supported anti-Assad rebel groups and led an international coalition bombing ISIS targets since 2014. And Turkey is involved in Syria primarily to block Kurdish territorial gains.

A barbaric act

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during this protracted war and claims it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by Russia and the US.

However, a UN investigation concluded that the Assad regime unleashed chemical weapons against civilians a year ago, targeting opposition forces. Last Saturday, Assad apparently used chemical weapons again, this time against a rebel group in Douma, northeast of Damascus.

Local activists told NBC News that they saw dozens of dead bodies, many of whom were children, in underground shelters across the city. One said he saw at least forty bodies in a basement and smelled very strong gas, adding that it was definitely a chemical attack.

The Syrian American Medical Society said more than forty-two casualties were found in their homes. It added that more than five hundred cases were brought to local medical centers with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent. Most of the victims were women and children.

President Trump has denounced the attack as a barbaric act and met late into Monday evening with senior military officers and national security officials as they plan a response. Yesterday, Israel reportedly targeted a Syrian air base with missile strikes. The United Nations Security Council met yesterday to discuss the chemical weapons attack; US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russias hands are covered in the blood of Syrian children.

What can we do now?

What should be our first response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria? Dr. A. J. Gordon: You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.

So, how can we pray for Syria?

One: Pray for true peace.

Albert Einstein: True peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, of law, of orderin short, of government. Pray for justice in Syria. Pray for wisdom for the worlds leaders as they respond. Pray for an end to this horrific violence and for lasting peace in this war-torn country.

Two: Pray for the victims and those who serve them.

As of March 29, more than 5.6 million refugees have fled Syria. As many as 400,000 people have died in this civil war. Pray for those affected by this crisis and for churches, ministries, and relief agencies as they seek to help them.

Three: Pray for God to use you to answer your prayer.

In Matthew 9:38, Jesus asked his disciples to pray earnestly for the Lord to send out laborers into his harvest. In Matthew 10:1, Jesus called his disciples to be such laborers. Clearly, the Lord made them the answer to their prayer.

Thousands of Syrian refugees have come to the US. One way God wants to redeem this tragedy is by using it to demonstrate his compassion for them and others in crisis.

You and I are the hands and feet of Jesus today (1 Corinthians 12:27). Have you asked your Lord how you and your church can extend his love and grace?

Gods word succinctly summarizes Gods expectations for Gods people: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).

What does the Lord require of you today?
Alastair Campbell on Good Friday Agreement: Brexiteers will give up anything to leave Europe, even peace in Northern Ireland

Twenty years ago today, something miraculous came together and the Good Friday Agreement was born.

Securing peace in Northern Ireland was incredibly difficult, but it ranks as one of the greatest and most important achievements of the last Labour government.

Almost from the day Tony Blair took office, Northern Ireland became a priority, and it never stopped being a priority. Building on work that had begun under John Major, we were convinced a peace once described as impossible was there for the taking, provided we got the different sides to agree to certain principles, then leave the rest to hard work, commitment and negotiation.

There were moments in the months and years after when it still felt like everything could fall apart, but a remarkable group of people on all sides of the debate, with support from around the world, was determined to prevent that.

Now, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Agreement, at a time the political process remains fragile and the institutions in abeyance, there is the terrifying prospect that Brexit could turn back the clock and put at risk the peace and prosperity that all that hard work helped deliver. Terrifying not least because it is clear that to the Brextremist ideologues no price is too high to get out of Europe, and that would include an Agreement that to them, today, is more of an irritant than an essential building block of peace.

To hear Jacob Rees-Mogg say that the solution to the unsolved border issue is for Ireland to follow the UK out of the EU, or Daniel Hannan say that the Agreement was a consequence not a cause of peace is to realise not merely how little they understand the issues at stake, but how little they care alongside their blinding passion for Brexit at any cost. It is one thing, however, to have hard right anti-European ideologues paying so little heed to the dangers to the Agreement. It is quite another when the Prime Minister, her embarrassment of a Foreign Secretary, and her Brexit ministers, are playing the same dangerous game.

There is a good reason why both sides of the negotiations are struggling to find a solution to the border issue. There isn't one. Theresa May has said it can be like the border between Canada and the US? Has she been there? How does that square with her acceptance that there can be no border infrastructure, because there is infrastructure aplenty in North America? Others say it will be like the German, French and Italian borders with Switzerland. I drove over two of those borders - out of France, into Italy - last week. The huge queueus of lorries at both was evidence that this model doesn't allow for the 'frictionless' border the Brextremists claim technology or some other fantasy can deliver.

How, when we are out of the EU, and Ireland remains in, (we can be assured they will not be heeding the Rees-Mogg advice) can the only land border between two separate political and economic entities be free of any border infrastructure, or 'frictionless'? There is no answer to that question. And if a solution is found to prevent a border on the island of Ireland, it effectively moves to the Irish Sea - with huge implications for Scotland.

Mrs May and the Brextremists who drive her strategy are hoping that simply by agreeing to the desire not to have such a border, they can get us out by March 2019, and leave the detail to the transition period. But that is playing with fire. For us to leave, without knowing exactly how these new border arrangements will work for new times, would be reckless, irresponsible and dangerous. It is one of the many reasons why the deal she brings back should be put to a People's Vote, given even the Cabinet cannot agree on what Brexit Means Brexit actually means.

In any event, the Good Friday Agreement wasn't about cameras and trade, but a political settlement that recognised the rights of both unionists and nationalists, and the importance of economic and cultural links between the North and the Republic. That there are people willing to undermine that is deeply troubling.

I find it incredible that Theresa May is prepared to risk going down in history as the Tory Prime Minister who not only undid Margaret Thatcher's project of completing the Single Market, but also undermined John Major's achievements in Northern Ireland.

But while the Tories are the architects of Brexit, as things stand it is the Labour opposition which history will write as its handmaiden. Jeremy Corbyn is not in power. But he does have power, not least given the Parliamentary arithmetic that followed Mrs May's doomed attempt to win landslide support for hard Brexit. Yet he seems reluctant to use that power to shift the government's course. Indeed he seems as hellbent on Brexit at any price as she does. He prides himself on being the most leftwing leader Labour has ever had. So why has he done so little to challenge the drift to this hard right hard Brexit that the Johnsons, Goves, Duncan-Smiths, Redwoods, Rees-Moggs and Farages have forced on Mrs May?

Having dared to speak up for the millions of voters who remain anxious and fearful about Brexit, and those who want to put the final Brexit deal to a people's vote, not least because they do not trust this government and this Parliament to do the right thing, Owen Smith was sacked by Jeremy Corbyn.

The party's Brexit spokespeople in Westminster and Holyrood, Keir Starmer and Neil Findlay, refuse even to contemplate the possibility that the deal may be so bad for Britain that it will be worth revisiting the basic In or Out decision. Whatever the deal. Whatever the cost. It leaves one wondering whatever is the point of an Opposition if we are just echoing the government on the biggest question facing the country for a generation?

Keir Starmer has set out six tests against which he says the Brexit deal should be judged. They barely figure in the debate, but we need to remind Labour of them again and again.

1. Does it ensure a strong and collaborative future relationship with the EU? We don't yet know what that future relationship will look like, but by definition it will be weaker and less collaborative than now.

2. Does it deliver the 'exact same benefits' as we currently have as members of the Single Market and Customs Union? No  the only way to do that is to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union, as advocated by the Scottish Labour for the Single Market campaign.

3. Does it ensure the fair management of migration in the interests of the economy and communities? Highly unlikely, and there are many parts of the UK  not least Scotland  where migration is vital for the economy.

4. Does it defend rights and protections and prevent a race to the bottom? Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and their Brextremist allies have no interest in defending the rights that British workers enjoy as a result of being in the EU.

5. Does it protect national security and our capacity to tackle cross-border crime? It certainly won't be easier, and the recent international action against Russia was clearly helped by Theresa May's ability to be in the same room as our European neighbours.

6. Does it deliver for all regions and nations of the UK? No. And the government's own impact assessment papers make that perfectly clear, with cities in Scotland such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen likely to be among the hardest hit.

Corbyn claimed in February that negotiating a new UK-EU customs union would help to avoid any need for a hard border in Ireland. It would go some way towards that, certainly, but only if coupled with membership of the Single Market can we avoid any physical border checks. In any event, unless Labour stands up to the deal currently envisaged by Theresa May, it will be too late even for that.

The Brexit deal does not meet the tests set out either by May or by Starmer, yet Emily Thornberry, Barry Gardiner and others continue to make clear they expect that MPs will end up backing May when it comes to a vote this autumn. We really are in the most extraordinary position where most MPs, left to their own devices, would vote against what the government is proposing, by a considerable margin, but the frontbenches of two main parties are locked in a deadly embrace to deliver something they both acknowledge will damage our lives and living standards. It is madness.

There are millions of people in Scotland and across the UK who share that view, that this is madness. Why are there so few in Parliament speaking up for them? And why are the leaders of the main parties so scared of the details of the deal - when we will know what Brexit meaning Brexit really does mean - being put to a People's Vote?

A version of this article was first commissioned by www.scottishlabour4singlemarket.org
Another Catholic priest killed in DRC after kidnapped priest released

A Catholic priest has been killed by armed men in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The death is the third killing of a priest in the DRC's North Kivu province and it comes as another kidnapped Congolese priest has been released from captivity.

Fr Etienne Sengiyumva, the parish pastor of the North Kivu region, was shot and killed by unidentified armed assailants on Sunday.

'After celebrating the Mass at Kyahemba, a district in his parish, around 3pm, Fr. Etienne was meeting with his parish staff, when an armed man, accompanied by others, entered the meeting room and shot the priest point blank in the head, killing him instantly,' Bishop Theophile Kaboy Ruboneka of the Goma diocese told Agenzia Fides yesterday.

'The murder happened so quickly that those present couldn't take note of how many people had entered the room to kill Fr Etienne,' he added.

The Bishop said the identity of the armed group was unknown. 'Fr Etienne is the third priest killed in the area', he said.

'Investigations on the perpetrators of these deaths never lead to anything. On our behalf, we will do everything to identify Fr. Etienne's murderers. In these cases, the witnesses fear for their lives and that of their loved ones and hardly offer useful information'.

The bishop said there was no connection between the killing of Etienne and the release of Congolese pastor Celestin Ngango, parish priest of Karambi, who was freed from captivity on April 5.

The priest was kidnapped by armed individuals after celebrating Mass on Easter Sunday, and his captors demanded a ransom of US $500,000 for his release. He was returned to his family on April 5, reportedly unharmed and in good health; the Goma diocese has not specified the circumstances of his release.

Ruboneka said: 'In our region there are so many armed groups that it is difficult to understand who commits the action. Here in North Kivu we live in total chaos. The situation in my diocese of Goma, like that of Butembo-Beni, is incredible. We are completely abandoned by everyone; we live only thanks to Providence.'

DRC has suffered decades of war and unrest, driven by inter-communal tensions, poor leadership, corruption and the involvement of surrounding nations eager for a share of its natural resources. The UN reported in March 2018 that 2 million children are at risk of starvation.
Bishop and senior clergyman join calls for Church of England to lose equalities exemptions

The Church of England should lose its protections under the Equalities Act that allow it to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexuality, a bishop and senior clergyman have said today.

Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, and David Ison, the dean of St Paul's Cathedral, both backed Jeremy Pemberton, a gay priest who was blocked from being a hospital chaplain after marrying his partner.

They are supporting the Ozanne Foundation, a charity launched on Monday campaigning against discrimination within religious institutions.

The Church of England is exempt from equality laws meaning it can discriminate on the basis of religion, requiring candidates for certain roles to be Christian. However it can also disrcriminate over sex, sexuality, marital history and gender identity.

'We want to ask the churches to answer the question  if we mean what we say about opposing homophobia, if we believe what we say about wanting to include everyone, if we believe that God made every one they are, then what does that imply for our public polices?,' Bishop Bayes told Christian Today.

'We will advocate for a greater openness and the implication of that is we may have to reexamine the prohibitions that are there in law at the moment,' he said, adding it was 'unfortunate' Pemberton had been forced to step down.

'I hope for a future whereby people like Jeremy can feel that their ministry can be exercised and that they can love the person they love freely,'

He added: 'I don't think we should just ignore what the government has done and I certainly don't think the government should tell the Church what to do. But I do think we should continue to advocate for greater freedom and in the end who knows what that will mean? It may mean that one day it will be possible for people in a same-sex relationship to have that relationship affirmed in a way that is now illegal and in that case we would have to change the law.'

David Ison, dean of St Paul's Cathedral, when asked whether he thought the Church should hold onto its protections in the Equalities Act, said: 'No.'

He told Christian Today: 'We've have to got to come to terms with the reality of the world we're in and we're not doing that. That is why we're becoming disconnected from society.

'My view is that if there is a price to be paid for what you believe in conscience then you should pay that; you should not make other people pay the price for your conscience. That applies to abortion, to issues of sexuality and gender and right across the piste. If it is legal, decent and honest but you don't believe it is right, then you have to deal with it.'

Jayne Ozanne, an LGBT member of the CofE's ruling general synod, launched the foundation which said it would look 'to create opportunities for meaningful encounters with LGBTI people of faith with those of a more conservative mindset'.

She told Christian Today the Church's equalities exemptions were 'wrong' and needed changing.

'A growing number of people recognise that,' she said. 'It is part of that whole welcome and support that the archbishop talks about. We need to look at how we discriminate. That is a very form which has caused a lot of upset and heartache to a lot of LGBT people like myself.

'I believe the Church should take the initiative, to see the error of our ways. We should be going to the government and saying we wish it to be changed.'

It comes after Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, said the Church must lose its exemptions to stamp out 'deep structures of abuse, homophobia and sexism'.
Bishop calls for #MeToo type movement for unborn children to deter abortion

A bishop from Rhode Island believes there should be a #MeToo movement for unborn children in order to deter abortion. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin shared his sentiments on social media and also called out Catholic political leaders to take seriously their obligation to do something about the problem of abortion across the world.

In a post on Twitter, the bishop said that abortion is a "capital punishment for babies and [an] exploitation of vulnerable women." Tobin said that despite abortion being immoral, there's not a lot of discussions about the "right to end the life of the unborn child."

He alluded to the #MeToo movement that raised awareness and highlighted abuse cases and sexual harassment in Hollywood. Victims often use the hashtag when sharing their stories and experiences online.

Tobin also criticized Catholic politicians in a separate tweet last March. He said that followers of Christ could never support abortion.

The bishop describes himself as "ardently pro-life" in his Twitter profile. He also campaigned to vote pro-life during the 2016 elections.

He shunned candidates who were for abortion and even criticized the Democratic candidate, Tim Kaine, a known Catholic, who supported abortion and same sex marriage. Tobin also denied communion to Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy in 2009 because of his support for abortion.

A study showed that 2,636 abortions took place daily in the United States in 2014. Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider of abortions in the country, reported it carried out 321,384 abortions in 2016.

Abortion continues to be a hot topic in U.S. politics and other Western countries. Some states continue to push for the defunding of abortion providers, or limit the services, or ban the process altogether.

President Donald Trump mentioned in his campaign that he would like to defund Planned Parenthood. Proponents, however, have been staunchly fighting for abortion to be recognized as a basic right for women, and that the rights of the mother should trump that of the unborn baby.
Christian TV producers Mark Burnett, Roma Downey look to God as son Cameron struggles with unknown health condition

It is never easy for parents to see their children getting sick or hurt, so Hollywood couple Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are drawing strength from God as their son, Cameron, battles an unknown health condition.

Burnett, who is the executive producer of "The Voice," posted a photo of his 20-year-old son on Instagram (@markburnett13). In it, Cameron was holding up his shirt to reveal the medical wires attached to his chest.

"Cameron Burnett. In every challenge, you have the toughest mental attitude I've ever seen. Stoic, thoughtful, grateful and affirmative all at once and every day. Seriously, son, you are amazing. The Holy Spirit is always with you," Burnett captioned the photo.

His wife, Roma Downey, did the same as she requested for prayers for Cameron. The "Touched By An Angel Star" wrote on Instagram (@romadowney), "Dear friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your prayers for our son Cameron. You all responded so fast and Mark and I are so appreciative of your kindness and prayer support. Please keep those prayers coming today so we can get him safely home from hospital and restored to perfect health. Thank you God for making a way. In Jesus name. Amen."

The couple shared their son's condition back in 2014 when he underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor, according to The Christian Post. The reason for his recent hospitalization remains unknown to the public.

In the work front, Downey is actually busy as she is slated to star in the family drama, "The Baxters." The series is based on the book series by Karen Kingsbury, according to Variety. The show will be executive produced by Will Packer and Jaime Primak Sullivan of Will Packer Media in addition to Roma Downey, LightWorkers Media, and Kevin Mann and Brendan Bragg of Haven Entertainment.

"By making it ourselves it gives us a creative freedom we wouldn't have elsewhere," Downey said of her new project. "These characters are sincere in their faith, and that sets them apart from other stories."
Donald Trump proclaims 'Second Chance Month' for prisoners to 'reach God-given potential'

President Donald Trump has proclaimed April as "Second Chance Month" for individuals with criminal and prison records to be given opportunities - a second chance - to become productive members of society.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois) and Republican Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) sponsored the resolution to declare April 2017 as "Second Chance Month."

"This month, we celebrate those who have exited the prison system and successfully reentered society," Trump stated in his proclamation. "We encourage expanded opportunities for those who have worked to overcome bad decisions earlier in life and emphasize our belief in second chances for all who are willing to work hard to turn their lives around."

Following the announcement, Prison Fellowship lauded Trump for giving attention to prisoners and their families. James Ackerman, the president and CEO of the largest Christian non-profit organization that has been helping prisoners, cited Trump's decision as a "bold move."

Ackerman said over 135 other organizations will benefit from the president's acknowledgment of prisoners, who often face challenges, prejudices and stereotypes because of their criminal records.

Currently, Prison Fellowship seeks to help Americans who have criminal records find their way back to society through education, jobs, housing and other basic needs.

"This proclamation gives us hope in our work to help people with a criminal record reach their God-given potential in life," Craig DeRoche, the senior vice president at Prison Fellowship also said.

Prison Fellowship, which evangelist Chuck Colson founded nearly 40 years ago, helps link convicts to churches once they get out. Some former convicts who have successfully regained their second chance in life have said that they needed to find a sense of community to get themselves back on track and such an environment of support is ripe in churches.
India's faith leaders unite to condemn hateful nationalism and religious discrimination

Faith leaders representing the six main religions in India have united in a joint statement condemning hateful political division, state coercion of individuals and violent discrimination against faith groups.

Leaders of the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Muslim and Sikh faiths met in Goa, western India, on April 5 in a gathering addressing national tensions ahead of the country's 2019 general election, according to World Watch Monitor.

In a joint statement, the leaders expressed 'deep worry and concern at the way forces of hate and division are striving to polarise the Indian Polity.

'We are deeply distressed at the communal tensions that we have seen in recent days in West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan and other states. We strongly condemn those who are seeking to inject the portion of hatred into our society.'

Non-Hindus have reportedly claimed increasing social discrimination and restriction since the Indian nationalist BJP party won a landslide election victory in 2014.

The statement affirmed the right of every Indian to eat, marry and study as they wish, and to 'practice whatever faith one wishes to profess' free from coercion. It added: 'We take strong exception to anyone taking control of these individual decisions be it on the part of the State or by so called cultural organizations. No one is to be categorized as anti-national or non-patriotic based on his religion, region or belonging to a community.

'We condemn all violence, lynchings and killings and request the authorities to take strong and speedy action against those involved in anti-social acts. We are very concerned about attacks on educational institutions and places of worship. We denounce in unequivocal terms the attacks this week on three Catholic Churches in Rourkela, Onssa at a time when the peaceful Christian Community was celebrating their feast of Joy, Easter.'

The statement denounced mob violence and vigilantism, and lamented the continued oppression of the Dalit caste through India's long-standing caste system.

'We emphasise that the rights of the tribals, the marginalized, the workers, and the poor be upheld and protected,' the statement said.

'We call upon all men and women of goodwill to stand up for social harmony. Our country cannot progress simply with slogans and promises. A nation can progress only when its people live with each other as brothers and sisters, where egoism gives place to selflessness, hate gives way to love, peace replaces violence. We wish to promote the way of love for as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. only love can do that."'

The statement's sentiments were echoed in an open letter published April 9, by the National Council of Churches in India. The letter from Bishop Thomas K Oommen, the moderator of the Church of South India, expressed 'the fear my people have under the rule of a Government that has become a nightmare to the poor and the minorities in India.'

It warned against the 'corporate-fascist ideology' of extreme Hindu nationalism, describing 'corruption' as 'a hallmark of this government'.
Japanese museum tells story of Nagasaki's Hidden Christian martyrs

A museum telling the story of Japan's brutal persecution of its 'Hidden Christians' has opened within the premises of the country's oldest standing church in Nagasaki.

The facility, which is located in a former seminary and bishop's residence, forms part of the Catholic Oura Church, and has been renovated, World Watch Monitor reported.

The exhibition recounts the introduction of Catholicism, its violent suppression in the early 1600s, and the period of more than two centuries during which Christians were forced to hide their faith from the authorities.

Among the items on display is the Maria Kannon, a Buddhist figure representing the Virgin Mary, which underground Catholic Christians used for worship.

'I thought Christianity had once been completely wiped out in Japan. I was surprised to learn that people in Nagasaki continued to uphold the faith,' 29-year-old Natsumi Sator, one of the first visitors to the museum that opened on April 1, told the Japan Times.

In 2017, Japan's era of 'hidden' Christianity was dramatised in the film Silence, which was nominated for several Academy Awards in the US.

In 2015, Christian Today reported on how the country's 'Hidden Christians' were recognised in a separate exhibition showcased by the Vatican Library and Secret Archives contain testimonies of Christians who between the 16th and 19th centuries lived under violence and humiliation.

Collected by Fr Mario Marega, a missionary to Japan in the early 20th century, letters and documents written on fragile rice paper were restored by the Vatican archives and library.

The Hidden Christians story begins when Christianity was first brought to Japan in 1549. A thriving Church grew up. However, persecution broke out under the ruling Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was alarmed by the report of a Spanish captain whose vessel was shipwrecked. In an effort to impress the Japanese, the captain claimed that the missionaries were there to prepare the way for a European conquest. On a winter's morning in February 1597, 26 Christians were crucified.

Hidyoshi's successor Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to eliminate Christianity from Japan altogether. A Protestant English trader, Will Adams, told the Shogun about the religious wars that were ruining Europe and laid the blame on the Catholic priests. In 1614 an edict of expulsion declared that 'the Kirishitan band have come to Japan...longing to disseminate an evil law, to overthrow true doctrine, so that they may change the government of the country and obtain possession of the land' (CR Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan). At this point there were an estimated 300,000 Christians in the country, with Nagasaki described as 'The Rome of Japan' for the number of Christians there.

Under Iemitsu, appalling cruelty was used against Christians. One English witness described seeing 55 people including women and children burnt alive. Christians among the spectators sang hymns and psalms as they burned. Seeing that martyrdom was embraced by Christians, Iemitsu turned to torture.

A favourite method was to hang Christians in a pit half full of excrement, leaving one arm free so that the sign of recantation could be made; most survived only a day or two, though one young woman lived for two weeks. In 1632 the Christian cause suffered a heavy blow when the Portuguese Provincial missionary, Christovao Ferreira, apostasized after six hours in the pit and began to collaborate with his former persecutors.

Imietsu forbade missionaries to return to Japan. Some tried, including a group of 10, captured in 1643 and tortured into denying their faith. A Dutch eyewitness wrote that they were 'looking exceedingly pitiful, their eyes and cheeks strangely fallen in; their hands black and blue and their whole bodies sadly misused and macerated by torture'.

Among methods used to determine whether someone was a Christian was the 'fumie', a picture of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on which suspected Christians were ordered to trample. If they refused or were hesitant it was taken as sign of guilt. Many are preserved at the Ueno Museum in Toyko, rubbed flat by the trampling of thousands of feet. The fumie is at the heart of Shusako Endo's famed novel Silence.

Up to 6,000 martyrs may have died between 1614-1640 alone, and for many years the Church was presumed extinct. However, in 1865, after Japan had been forced to open its borders to foreign trade and foreign residents, villagers from a village near Nagasaki visited a new Catholic church built by the Paris Foreign Missions Society. They told the priest that they and their families had maintained Christian worship in secret for 250 years. Their prayers contained smatterings of old Portuguese and Latin and they had preserved old rosaries that belonged to their martyred fathers.

It was later found that tens of thousands of believers survived. Pope Pius IX called it a miracle.
New Hampshire church hosts active shooter drill amid rise in mass shooting incidents

A church in New Hampshire has hosted an event to train people in how to survive an active shooter situation amid the rising number of mass shootings in the U.S.

Over 120 people attended a roughly two-hour session at the Grace Episcopal Church in Manchester on Sunday to learn how to deal with active shooter situations.

Terry Choate, co-founder of Hancock-based Blue-U Defense, argued that people should take a proactive approach rather than the passive, lock-down approach to shooter drills because in most situations, police and first responders do not arrive until after the suspect has inflicted considerable damage.

"When an incident like this happens there's going to be no one there to help you or save you except yourselves," Choate, a former team commander at the Monadnock Regional Special Response (SWAT) Team, said, according to the Concord Monitor.

During the seminar, Choate and his colleague, Joe Hileman, played back an audio from emergency responders in the 1999 Columbine school shooting and also examined people's responses to other past mass shootings.

Hileman, who is also a former Monadnock SWAT team member, noted that there has been an increase in interest around active shooter seminars following the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas last year. The massacre left at least 26 people dead, with victims ranging in age from 5 to 72-years-old.

"To see something like that happen in a rural part of Texas, people were like, well, actually, that could happen here," he said, according to Concord Monitor.

He noted that people attending the seminars in churches always ask if ushers should start carrying weapons.

Hileman and Choate told the attendees at Grace Episcopal Church that allowing ushers to have guns is an option, but the church may encounter potential legal problems associated with insurance and criminal liability.

The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Gerbracht-Stagnaro, the church's rector, said that she invited Blue-U to hold the seminar after she attended a session at a Nashua church.

"I think when you're an inner-city church, people are a lot more responsive to this sort of event," she said, as reported by Concord Monitor.

She narrated a recent incident in which a son of a parishioner was escorted out by police after he disrupted a service at the church. She said that while no one was hurt, the incident likely prompted many church members to attend the training seminar.

"And even though you're never really sure if you're ever going to be involved in a violent event, the reality is it's better to be prepared, mentally, spiritually, physically," she added.
Number of Christians in Gaza plummeting, warns Catholic priest in the Strip

The number of Christians in the Gaza Strip has plummeted from 4,500 to just 1,000 in the past six years, due to the harsh conditions there, according to the pastor of the territory's sole Catholic church.

Fr Mario da Silva told ACI Prensa, sister outlet of the Catholic News Agency, that Gazans 'live like it's an open air prison since we can't leave. We can't visit relatives, look for work, medicine or good hospitals on the outside'.

Gaza, a 141 square mile area of Palestine, is home to 1.8 million people, many of whom have never left because of an Israeli-imposed economic blockade since 2007, since when it has been ruled by Hamas.

Fr da Silva, a priest with the Institute of the Incarnate Word, told the agency that when he arrived in Gaza in 2012 'the situation was already very difficult. Over time, you would hope the situation would get better, but it's only gotten worse'.

He underlined the fact that inhabitants have only three hours of electricity a day, and there is a shortage of drinking water.

The priest added that most Gazans are unemployed, and those who do work live on 'about $150-200 a month'.

Fr da Silva said: 'It's really a prison. People don't have any money and the situation is terrible. There is widespread poverty.'

He explained that despite many not being able to leave, there has been an exodus of Palestinian Christians taking advantage of occasional opportunities to get out by visiting holy sites in the region, notably Jerusalem.

'Every year Christians have one permit to leave and visit the holy places on Easter and Christmas,' and a many of them never return, he said.

In order to encourage Christians to stay, Fr da Silva's Holy Family parish is working with 12 religious sisters, of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, the Missionaries of Charity, and the Sisters of the Rosary congregations, he explained. 'We're doing two things: first, preaching Christ and the importance of Christians in the Holy Land; preaching the importance of forgiveness and of carrying the cross is what we most try to do.'

He also seeks to help with material aid. 'For example, with the help of institutions such as the Pontifical Mission or the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Church tries to give work to more that 30 young people so they won't leave, because they are mainly the ones who leave.'

The parish also cares for non-Christians. 'The Christian community is very small and there are 2 million Muslims. They are also in great need. We have always opened the doors of our schools or our church during times of war to take in those seeking refuge,' he said.

The priest explained that Christians are not heavily threatened  so far  in the Hamas-run Strip. 'There is not a very great persecution of Christians,' he said. However, he added: 'Though there is now a lot of fear with the news that the Islamic State has arrived, coming from the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt ... There have already been threats. There is also fear of the Salafist groups who are coming in from the south.'

He added: 'In fact, when we have problems with Muslims who want to do something against the church, we've asked the government to protect us and they have done so.'

This Easter, there was a decrease in the number of permits given by Israel for Palestinian Christians to visit holy places in its territory. Fr da Silva added: 'It was also very sad because Israel always gives permission for Christians so they can visit the holy places for Christmas and Easter,' but this year they only gave 300 permits instead of the 700 normally granted. These permits were 'for children and the elderly, who are really the people who can't go out by themselves. Very few people actually went,' he said.

However, he said 'there was joy because Christ has risen and because our salvation comes from that, which is much more important than our material life; but on the human level it was a very sad Easter...Pray much for this, which is what we mainly ask for, because only God can change the situation we're going through in these countries here in the Middle East.'

Donald Macintyre, the author of Gaza: Preparing for Dawn, told Christian Today: 'I have met Fr De Silva in Gaza; as a parish priest he is very conscientious, as are the sisters he works with. One significant aspect of the tiny Christian community in Gaza is how strongly they identify with and of course share the sufferings of most Muslim Gazans, though of course with the added fears of being threatened by a small minority of Salafist extremists who are at odds with with the large majority of Palestinians in Gaza, including, to be fair, the de facto Hamas authority in the Strip.'
'We do God, we just don't talk about it': Peter Stanford on bringing faith back to the fore

Corrupt, regressive, dim-witted or just irrelevant, 'faith' doesn't always conjure positive connotations in contemporary conversation. In his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About Faith (Hodder & Stoughton, 14.99), journalist Peter Stanford courts a host of famous faces in his project to put 'faith' back on the table. He spoke to Christian Today about the awkwardness of faith, the fury of Twitter trolls and the vital need for religious dissent.

'Religion, in general, is variously regarded as: the cause of all conflict in the world; hopelessly corrupt; a regressive, paternalist, anti-women, anti-gay force; or a form of illness. These prejudices have come to exert what can at times feel like a stranglehold on debate.'

So says Stanford, whose book, a compendium of interviews the journalist has undertaken across his career, is hoped to rejuvenate the faith conversation. His subjects are wide-ranging, including TV's familiar faces like Dermot O'Leary, Delia Smith or Fern Britton, and diverse faith leaders like Desmond Tutu, George Carey or Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. Then there are provocateur-priests, politicians and rock icons to boot.

He tells Christian Today that the book centres on 'faith' since not all his subjects profess belief in God, and 'faith', he says, suggests something a little broader than 'belief' (the book's title is a play on Raymond Carver's book What We Talk About When We Talk About Love).

But even the less religiously inclined among his interviewees seem to assent to an ambivalence about faith. For example, the lapsed Catholic novelist Wendy Perriam, told Stanford she 'wanted to believe in God but couldn't'.

See also Jimmy McGovern, creator of the 2017 hit BBC drama Broken, which centred on the life of a Catholic priest labouring for his deprived inner-city parish. The acclaimed show was 'suffused by faith', Stanford says. It 'showed the role of organised religion...in that community in all its struggles. When communities are completely let down by everyone else it is still there for them.

'But then he [McGovern] says to me "I've lost my faith. I don't believe in God anymore. It's gone."

'And you think "how can it be gone if you've written what you've written?" He also tells me how much he's yearning for that to come back...how does that work?' As for his own 'relatively doubting' Catholic faith, Stanford says: 'Obviously I've had peaks and troughs of belief or not belief in my life, but I could never imagine switching it on and off like that.'

Reflecting on his own life, Stanford sees religion as playing a decisive role, though it wasn't quite a Damascus Road experience. Rather, as he puts it, 'completely by accident' he got a job at the Catholic publication The Tablet after he 'sort-of lied' about knowing Italian.

But the job, through which he met many figures from religious communities, strengthened his own faith. Without that role, he says, 'I wonder if I would have drifted away entirely...is that me being guided in a sort of way?'

He's wary of that language since 'It's like saying I'm important and I'm not', but it is 'interesting. it makes you think...the basic point of the book is "let's talk about these things. Let's talk about them between ourselves, with other people of faith, and talk about them in a broader context."'

It's a conversation that's been muted he says, because 'we live in a self-avowedly secular society', where surveys frequently declare declining religious attendance and identification.

'I think what the secular orthodoxy has decided is that no one's interested in these things anymore and therefore they are to be dismissed,' he says.

He cites the famous remark of Alastair Campbell interrupting an interview with Tony Blair, when the then-Prime Minister was quizzed on faith: 'We don't do God'.

'He's saying it would make you unelectable, it would put the public off you to talk about God,' Stanford explains. It's a popular political mindset: he notes that he once sought to quiz vicar's daughter Teresa May on her religion, but May's faith advisor told Stanford: 'She doesn't like to talk about that, it's a private thing'.

The 'biggest muddle of all' was, Stanford posits, that Tony Blair was devout and religiously motivated, he did 'do God'.

'Faith does shape the way people operate...we do God. We just don't talk about it.'

Subsequently, Stanford is 'really suspicious of those figures [of supposed decline], I think if you asked most people of they had a "spiritual sense" or "if they felt there was more to the world than meets the eye"' a more positive response would be heard. He adds: 'one of my favourite figures is that one in six atheists believe in angels...none of it is as clear cut as people think. Faith is still a powerful force in people's lives.'

Stanford insists that this book is as much about challenging his own unease about 'faith' as that of others. 'People say "oh you're very religious", and I say "oh no not really. Moving on..." and that's really bad. So there's a self-castigating aspect to this book. We just need to not be so embarrassed.'

Of course, a public reticence to talk about God may also be, as Michael Gove told Stanford, because leaders are wary of declaring a divine mandate for their positions. And of course, great wrongs have been done in the name of faith  embarrassment isn't always inappropriate.

'I'm very embarrassed that I'm a member of a church where abuse has taken place and been covered up, where same sex relationships are condemned,' Stanford says.

'[It's] appalling and not in my name, but it doesn't mean that I don't have to talk about faith then, and that I can't talk about the good things.'

Such 'good things' include the capacity of faith to inspire works of charity and social justice  advocates of which are prominent in his book. He puts it bluntly: 'Take me to a foodbank that's been set up by the humanist society.'

What does the journalist make of ever-advancing social media and its impact on faith conversations? Stanford won't be found on Twitter, but says that his other experiences of social media, such as internet comments sections, 'have not been wholly happy'.

He recounts writing an obituary for Christine Keeler, the model involved in the Cold War-era Profumo affair.

In his 'incredibly nice' obituary for The Guardian, he merely described Keeler as the 'biggest victim of all' in the scandal.

'For some reason', he says, he decided to read the comments below, 'and they were just vitriolic about me, they said: "typical Catholic, prim, moralistic judgements, people like this shouldn't be able to say anything at all..."'

When these and similar  or worse  comments were reported to the site moderator, it was apparently remarked that the online abuse was 'fine with Catholics really'.

Remarkably, Stanford even got abuse for writing something as innocuous as The Telegraph's Sunday weather column.

'I just got all this abuse from people saying "we just looked this man up. What does he do, does he go outside and pray and wave his hands in the air to God to work out what the weather's like?" And you think "No, I just look on the Met Office site like everyone else!"

Frequently the dialogue online, he says, is simply 'not a conversation. They're not listening to what you say.'

But division isn't the exclusive preserve of social media, as this books documents well, it's been prevalent throughout the church. It's not often clear that the 'conversations' that happen between the polarised wings of the church are taking it any closer to unity or good disagreement. In light of the conversations he's been part of, does Stanford have hope for the church?

Belonging and shared bonds are essential for religious unity, he says, but 'there's a balance there between community but not letting community ossify.'

'Communities die', Stanford says, when they become exclusive clubs where disagreement is banned. Hence he's tried to host the voices of unorthodox 'outsiders' in his book.

'Religious institutions have only ever moved forward through dissent. So let's give a voice to the dissenters.'

He recalls that after publishing an interview with controversial Bishop Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, he received a letter from a cardinal saying: 'you shouldn't be telling people what she says.'

'Why shouldn't we?' the ever-animated Stanford remarks. 'Let them make their own mind up. That gives me hope, that we can do that, no one's stopping us. It's not like Putin's Russia.'

What We Talk About When We Talk About Faith is on sale now. You can read Christian Today's review of the book here. You can follow @JosephHartropp on Twitter
White House Bible study group bars women from leading sessions

Every Wednesday night, a Bible study takes place at the White House with high-ranking government officials in attendance, such as Mike Pence (Vice President), Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State), Betsy DeVos (Education Secretary), Jeff Sessions (Attorney General) and Rick Perry (Energy Secretary). Ralph Drollinger serves as the pastor of the group, however, reports have claimed that the group disallows women from leading the Bible study sessions.

Drollinger, a Republican conservative, founded the Capitol Ministries in the 1990s and became prominent as a preacher in government offices in 2010. Initially, 50 members from the House of Representatives attended his Bible studies and later on, senators also joined in the meetings.

When President Donald Trump came to office, his cabinet decided to also hold a Bible study group at the White House. The pastor believes, however, that no women should lead or teach in these meetings, in the same way that he disallows women from leading in his ministry.

"There is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church," Drollinger told the BBC. "And those are clear in scripture...it doesn't mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. It's just that they have different roles".

The report also revealed that President Donald Trump is not part of the White House Bible study group. Instead, he receives the weekly transcripts from Drollinger and writes notes to send back to the pastor.

Drollinger also posts the topics that the White House Bible study group tackles on his website. In it, Drollinger, a Republican conservative, expresses Biblical views against homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Strong views are also noted against environmental activists.

Drollinger told the BBC that he doesn't tell the White House Bible study group what policies they should focus on. He hopes, however, that they use the Bible studies as a guide or blueprint for their lives in governance.
Who is Agabus in the book of Acts and what can we learn from him?

The early church had a cast of characters that teach us many important things. Some of them were great missionaries, some simple servants who cared for the neglected, and some were simple followers of Christ who were there to pray and seek the Lord together.

In this article we'll take a look at one of the men in the early church whose life gives us insight as to how the Holy Spirit works. His name is Agabus.

Who is Agabus?

The man named Agabus appears twice in the book of Acts, in Acts 11:27-28 and in Acts 21:10-11. In both instances he gave prophecies as he was a prophet from Jerusalem.

Some say that Agabus is probably one of the seventy disciples whom the Lord Jesus had sent out according to Luke 10:1-12. While we will delve into this, it is important for us to know that he is recognized as a prophet from Judea.

What did he do?

Agabus prophesied in the two instances he appears in the book of Acts.

In Acts 11:27-28, we read him prophesying about an upcoming famine.

"And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar."

By the Spirit's enabling, Agabus foretold that there is an upcoming famine that will affect everyone around the world. Because of this, the believers in Antioch were able to send help to the believes in Judea:

"Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." (Acts 11:29-30)

In Acts 21:10-11, we read him prophesying the terrible things that will happen to the apostle Paul should he proceed to Jerusalem:

"And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'""

The believers, after hearing Agabus' words, sought to discourage Paul from proceeding, but he was bent on going all the more.

"Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."" (Acts 21:13)

We later read in the book of Acts how Paul suffered persecution from the Jews, how he ended up in prison, and later, how he ended up in Rome.

What can we learn from him?

Agabus' short appearances give us proof of how the Holy Spirit works.

First, we see that the Holy Spirit knows the future.

Second, we see that the Holy Spirit reveals the future to prophets.

Third, we see that when the Holy Spirit's message is received, it causes believers to respond.

Fourth, not all prophetic utterances are pleasant to hear.

Fifth, the Holy Spirit is very personal and works with people surrendered to God.

There are also a few more things we learn from Agabus:

Prophets continued to exist after John the Baptist (contrary to what others claim).

It takes boldness to speak bold declarations (especially unpleasant ones).

Prophets are mere men who listen to the Spirit of God.

In closing

Friends, Agabus might have had a short appearance, but he's proof that the Lord is working among His people.
Live like a Rockefeller  Odalisque couchee aux magnolias by Henri Matisse

Christies Global President Jussi Pylkkanen looks at one of the greatest Matisse paintings ever to come to the market  plus a short film that documents its tour of the world

Great paintings invite you in and dont let you go, says Christies Global President Jussi Pylkkanen of Henri Matisses Odalisque couchee aux magnolias, painted in Nice in 1923. This is a picture that completely captivates you. In 1923 Matisse was at the height of his powers, Pylkkanen continues, and here he entrances us with a sumptuous painting of his favourite model, Henriette Darricarrere, basking in bright sunlight, reclining in the luxurious surroundings of his Nice studio. When you see it, youre seduced by the radiant colours and the perfect balance and proportion of the composition. It is an iconic painting which describes Matisse at his very best. It is a picture that we all recognise immediately from our art-history books, and which captivated me from the moment that I first saw it at the Rockefellers Hudson Pines home just outside New York. It hung in the sunny living room, where Henriette looked very much at home. She seemed as relaxed as perhaps the many visitors had felt in that beautiful space. It was a moment I will never forget.

Henriette Darricarrere was among the most striking and elegant models in art history. She adopted these extraordinarily sculptural poses, which define her as one of the most recognisable models of the 20th century: many of Matisses greatest sculptures are based on Henriette, and I would argue that his greatest paintings of her retain this sculptural quality, Pylkkanen says. Darricarrere represented for Matisse the ideal subject for the type of painting he wanted to execute when he moved to the south of France from Paris in 1921. He wanted to create great sensual paintings, full of colour, full of light, Pylkkanen explains. But he also wanted to create canvases that had a good pictorial structure, so he would spend a huge amount of time looking for props to use in his studio, whether it be the screen hes set behind the odalisque, the chaise longue, the striking magnolias or the bowl of vibrantly coloured oranges. By the early 1920s, too, Fauvism had played its course. Colour had been liberated. After the First World War theres a sense of return to order. Matisse, for his part, like Picasso, created a new visual vocabulary involving colour, structure and form  but most of all balance and serenity. This picture has all of that, Pylkkanen notes.

Odalisque couchee aux magnolias by Henri Matisse hanging in the living room of the Rockefellers Hudson Pines home  Succession H. Matisse/ DACS 2018

At the time that he painted Odalisque couchee aux magnolias, Matisse was possibly at his happiest, Pylkkanen suggests: He was working very freely, with an incredible expressiveness. The canvas of the Odalisque is painted from one corner to the other, and theres a great sense of plasticity. The paint is unvarnished, too; Matisse intentionally kept the pigment chalky in order to mimic the raw, synthetic surface of the cloth and textiles that he was depicting. When he acquired Odalisque couchee aux magnolias from Leigh Block, the great Chicago-based modernist collector, David Rockefeller was in a position to acquire the best works by Matisse that were on the market. And in his friend and adviser Alfred Barr, he had arguably the greatest judge of what that particular period of Modernism represented, and what it was that one should be looking for, Pylkkanen stresses. Barr spoke very highly of this work in 1951 prior to its acquisition in 1958, and doubtless David Rockefeller made its purchase a priority. Among the many statements made by Barr about Matisse, he spoke of the complexity and brilliance of this composition. What might have been explicit eroticism in the image seems diffused into a luxurious, generalised sensuality, intimate yet objective, he noted.
No foul play is suspected in the mysterious death of a 23-year-old Google software engineer, whose body was found floating in a drainage canal off a hiking trail in Sunnyvale last December, officials said Monday.

Chuchu Ma, of Mountain View, was found Dec. 7, 2017 in the water of a drainage canal along the Bay Trail. Her body was recovered by a dive team from the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office.

Ma died of drowning, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said in a statement, but the manner of death remains undetermined following an autopsy.

Based on the departments investigation and the autopsy from the Santa Clara County medical examiner, it has been determined Chuchu Ma died of drowning, officials said. There is no evidence to indicate foul play and because intent cannot be unequivocally determined, the medical examiner has ruled the manner of death to be undetermined.

Ma was reported missing by her boyfriend the day her body was found. Capt. Shawn Ahearn, of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, said that the boyfriend was not a suspect in the case at any point.

There were no suspects in this case, Ahearn said. We were investigating a death, and we did a very thorough investigation.

Google praised Mas work at the company following her death.

Chuchu was an excellent software engineer in our developer product team, a Google representative said in a statement at the time. We are devastated to learn of her passing, and our deepest condolences are with her family and friends.
Spencer Platt, Staff / Getty Images

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump acknowledged Monday that farmers could be adversely affected by the escalating tariff dispute with China, but promised to make it up to them, saying they will be better off than they ever were.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Trump addressed the Chinese threat to slap tariffs on soybeans and other agriculture staples grown in rural America, a move that could hit Midwestern farmers, many of whom are strong supporters of the president.
BEIJING  Four popular Chinese news apps have been temporarily removed from the Android store in China following an order from regulators to tighten control over the spread of information, state media reported Monday.

Toutiao, Phoenix News, NetEase News and Tiantian Kuaibao suspended their downloading services before 3 p.m. on Monday, the Beijing Daily newspaper said on its microblog.
A cyberattack that U.S. natural gas pipeline owners werent required to report has lawmakers taking a closer look at how the industry is handling such threats, raising the prospect of tighter regulation.

In website notices to customers this week, at least seven pipeline operators from Energy Transfer Partners to TransCanada Corp. said their third-party electronic communications systems were shut down, with five confirming the service disruptions were caused by hacking. But the companies didnt have to alert the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the agency that oversees the nations more than 2.6 million miles of oil and gas conduits in addition to providing security at airports.

Though the cyberattack didnt disrupt the supply of gas to U.S. homes and businesses, it underscores that energy companies from power providers to pipeline operators and oil drillers are increasingly vulnerable to electronic sabotage. It also showed how even a minor attack can have ripple effects, forcing utilities to warn of billing delays and making it more difficult for analysts and traders to predict a key government report on gas stockpiles.

These attacks are a wake-up call that addressing our aging energy infrastructure needs to be a priority, Rep. Robert Latta, a Republican from Ohio who serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in an emailed statement last week. Bad actors are looking at any way to weaken the American energy sector.

This isnt the first time hackers have had oil and gas pipes in their sights: The Congressional Research Service reported intrusions targeting pipeline communication systems back in 2012. A web attack could disrupt pipeline service and cause spills, explosions, or fires  all from remote locations, the service said in a report.

The electronic systems that were targeted in the recent cyberattack help pipeline customers communicate their needs with operators via a computer-to-computer exchange of documents, such as contracts and invoices. The attacks didnt affect operational control of the pipelines.

Even before the most recent pipeline web attack, there were signs that the government was intensifying its focus on web-based energy threats. Last month, the TSA issued a 27-page report on pipeline security that included a section on cybersecurity. In the report, the agency urged pipelines to take measures including establishing a cybersecurity plan, limiting network access and changing default passwords.

But TSA doesnt require operators to report web intrusions, and its not clear whether the agency would have jurisdiction over an attack on a third-party communications provider. TSA requests voluntary notifications of security incidents that are indicative of a deliberate attempt to disrupt pipeline operations or activities that could be considered precursors to such an attempt, according to the report last month.

TSA will continue to work with the pipeline industry to assess any vulnerabilities associated with this incident, Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email Friday. TSA, in consultation with cyber experts, will make recommendations, as appropriate, to the pipeline industry to mitigate concerns.

The American Gas Association, an industry group that represents more than 200 gas supply companies, supports voluntary reporting of cyberattacks, said Dave McCurdy, the associations president. Mandatory reporting could be counterproductive because it may set the bar too low and create a false sense of security, especially in an environment where cyber threats evolve quickly, McCurdy said.

Just asking for reporting and requirements is not the answer, he said. We need to understand the nature of attacks. Every industry in a critical area receives attacks mostly daily.

In February, Energy Department Secretary Rick Perry announced the department would use $96 million in funding to create an office to address cyber threats to energy. Though Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, has the legal authority to oversee energy cybersecurity, DOE works closely with the sector on cyber security and threat information sharing, Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement.

But some lawmakers say its not enough.

At a congressional hearing in March, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told Perry that budget cuts could make it more difficult to shield the energy sector from cyber intrusions.

Our energy infrastructure is under attack, Cantwell said. A year ago, I called for a comprehensive assessment of cyberattacks to our grid by Russians. We dont need rhetoric at this point  we need action.

The threat appears to be widespread. Two years ago, the Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., said its firewall system blocks 25,000 cyberattacks a day.
Baytown police caught three men who were accused of burglarizing a Target pharmacy Tuesday morning before they led officers on a chase to northeast Houston. One man is still on the run.

Police got a call around 2:45 a.m. about a burglary in progress at a Target in the 4500 block of Garth in Baytown, said Lt. Steve Dorris of the Baytown Police Department.
West University Place Councilwoman Kellye Burke, accused of screaming at a group of teenage girls in public over a Trump t-shirt, said she was advised to skip Monday night's council meeting due to security concerns.

Burke said while she made some inappropriate comments directed at a group of teenaged girls, she will continue to serve the citizens who elected her.

Burke was charged with disorderly conduct on April 4 following an incident March 31 at Tinys Milk & Cookies where she reportedly screamed at the teenagers because one of them was wearing a "Trump: Make America Great Again" T-shirt.

According to the father of one of the girls, Burke screamed, "Grab em by the [expletive] girls!" and then went on to repeat, "MAGA, MAGA, MAGA!" which is the acronym for Make America Great Again.

According to Burke, the incident was escalated by one family's choice to share what had happened on social media and by encouraging the West U police department to press charges. The information went viral and was broadcasted both locally and nationally. Burke said she and her family had to leave her home for security reasons.

Many of the comments were untrue, Burke said.

"Pundits, opponents and their media outlets have portrayed me as an unremorseful, callous individual who did not apologize or take responsibility. That is entirely untrue. I have made every effort to sincerely apologize in person. I was born and raised in Goliad, Texas-the daughter of two loving parents who expected me to work hard, be joyful in hard times and do right by God. I've done my best to live up to that standard of grace, but sometimes I make mistakes. When that happens, as my parents would say, I have to "take my lumps" by acknowledging hurt and doing my best to make amends."

Burke had previously said in a written statement that she realized quickly after the incident that she had made a mistake.

"While standing with my family at a popular neighborhood cookie shop, I made an irreverent, off-handed comment that was inappropriate," she said. "My delivery, although in poor judgment, was not threatening. I immediately recognized that I shouldn't have said it."

Burke said that the parent of one of the girls had reached out to her via a Facebook message by 8 a.m. the next day and that she "responded immediately and apologized effusively" and that the two women agreed to meet later that day. She said she reached out to the other families, and asked the original parent for contact information so that she could mail them handwritten notes apologizing and gift cards. She also sought further guidance but received no response.

She said much the negative commentary has come from individuals outside of the West U community and even Texas. Although Burke acknowledges her wrongdoing, she said she intends to continue her duties on the city council.

"I will not be stepping down from my elected position. Instead, I will continue to do the work that I've always done. I will provide leadership and voluntary service to the West U community. I will continue my work with Houston's public health providers to give them the tools necessary to protect children from gun violence. I will advocate for infrastructure that protects our neighborhood from extreme flood events and weather conditions that endanger our community."

She said she hopes the West U community will see her ongoing work as more valuable than one unfortunate encounter.

"I believe that actions speak louder than words. I hope that my community will recognize the consistent positive contributions I have made, rather than focus exclusively on the one regrettable incident that has been mischaracterized, exaggerated and exploited," Burke said.
The head of China's largest natural gas importer believes the country's energy ties with the U.S. are set to deepen, despite trade conflict between the world's two largest economies that has roiled financial markets.

"There is more room for cooperation than confrontation between China and the U.S.," China National Petroleum Corp. Chairman Wang Yilin said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the tropical island of Hainan, where he was attending the Boao Forum for Asia. "I hope our cooperation with U.S. partners won't be negatively affected by the trade disputes, I'm confident our cooperation will only get better and closer."

China last week proposed slapping tariffs on liquefied propane and petrochemicals from America, signaling it can strike the country's energy industry if the dispute intensifies. Both the U.S. and China proposed tariffs on $50 billion of goods and President Donald Trump instructed his administration to consider levies on an additional $100 billion of Chinese products.

CNPC signed the first long-term deal to import liquefied natural gas from the U.S. in February in a deal that commits Cheniere Energy Inc. to sending 1.2 million metrics tons a year of the fuel to China through 2043. The contract helps underpin an expansion of the gas export terminals in the Texas port city of Corpus Christi, the first phase of which may start later this year or 2019.

"We currently have great cooperation with many U.S.-based companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips," said Wang. "Economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend."

China, the world's biggest energy user, is growing more reliant on overseas crude as its domestic reserves dwindle and economic growth spurs higher demand. CNPC and the country's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp., were said to be in talks to invest in the initial public offering of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Bloomberg News reported in March last year.

CNPC is closely following preparation for a listing by the Middle East nation's state oil producer and "evaluating how to deepen our cooperation through the process," Wang said.

Other details from the interview:

A pipeline that will bring Russian natural gas into China is on schedule to start in 2019 as planned and both sides are accelerating construction, Wang said. Russian gas prices should be competitive with other suppliers that send gas to China, said Wang, who didn't provide details on the pipeline pricing formula. Settling oil trades in China's currency is gradually receiving recognition by CNPC's trading partners and has the company's full support, Wang said.
Oil jumped to the highest since 2014 as China struck a conciliatory tone on trade and Saudi Arabia was said to seek higher prices.

Futures in London jumped by almost 4 percent on Tuesday as equities also climbed. Chinese President Xi Jinping said zero-sum mentalities were "out of place" and backed dialogue to resolve disputes, dissipating fears of a trade spat with the U.S. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is said to want to get prices near $80 to fund spending and support the valuation of its state oil giant's initial public offering.

"It's a risk-on type day," said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York. "The biggest correlation is to the equity markets."

In two days, the oil market dispelled the pessimism of two weeks largely dominated by concerns over U.S.-China tensions and a buildup of stockpiles at America's largest distribution hub in Oklahoma.

Brent for June settlement climbed as much $2.69 to $71.34 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, the highest since December 2014, after settling at $71.04.

West Texas Intermediate for May delivery rose $2.09 to settle at $65.51 a barrel, the highest in two weeks, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

'Opening Up'

The Chinese leader pledged a "new phase of opening up" in a long-planned speech that was closely watched by traders for any response to U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to hit hundreds of Chinese products with duties. Following Xi's speech, Asian stocks and U.S. futures jumped.

In conversations with OPEC delegates and oil market participants, Saudi officials had been careful to avoid pinpointing an exact price target. Yet people who have spoken to them said the inescapable conclusion from the conversations was that Riyadh is aiming for $80.

"The day-to-day price action that we've seen is really about risk appetite and not so much fundamentals," said Michael Wittner, the head of commodities research at Societe Generale SA in New York.

The S&P 500 Energy Index climbed as much as 4 percent, the biggest intraday advance since November 2016. The best performers include Devon Energy Corp., TechnipFMC Plc and Newfield Exploration Co., all posting gains of more than 6 percent.

In the U.S., crude inventories probably fell by 1.25 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of government data that will be released on Wednesday. That would follow a surprise decrease of 4.6 million barrels a week earlier. Stockpiles held at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, pipeline hub likely rose by 2 million barrels last week, a forecast compiled by Bloomberg showed.

The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly tally of inventories later on Tuesday.

Other oil-market news:

Gasoline futures rose 2.9 percent to settle at $2.0409 a gallon, the highest level since August. U.S. crude production is set for a swing higher next year, according to the Energy Information Administration, which raised its average output forecast for 2019, yet lowered it for this year, reiterating that crude production would still top 11 million barrels a day in October. Saudi Arabia to keep crude exports below 7 million barrels a day in May, the Energy Ministry said in an emailed statement.
An altercation Sunday resulted in the death of an Anahuac man and a first-degree murder charge against 25-year-old Nicholas Cole Fregia of Liberty.

According to the Chambers County Sheriffs Office, Fregia and Justin E. Berry, 46, of Anahuac, were customers at The Crawfish Place, 5809 SH 61, in Anahuac, when an argument broke out between the two men.

DEADLY ATTEMPTED ROBBERY: No bond for teen charged with capital murder

Shortly after the first altercation, Fregia approached Berry from behind and struck Berry on the right side of his head. Berry fell to the ground, unconscious, where he remained for several minutes, the sheriffs office reported.

Fregia reportedly fled the scene while Berry was transported by ambulance to Bayside Community Hospital in Anahuac. When his condition worsened, he was taken by air ambulance to Hermann Memorial Hospital in Houston, where he later died.

Detectives made contact with Fregia who stated several times during the day that he was willing to surrender himself to the Chambers County Jail. However, Fregia eventually ceased all contact and his movements suggested he had no intention to surrender, the report continues.

He was tracked to a motel in Cleveland where was arrested with the assistance of Cleveland Police Department.

Bond is set at $200,000 and Fregia is ordered to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of his release.

Sheriff Hawthorne would like to thank the Cleveland Police Department and the Liberty County Sheriffs Office for all of the assistance and cooperation they provided throughout the day and during the eventual arrest, bringing this incident to a peaceful close, the report states.
A man died Monday evening after jumping off the Fred Hartman Bridge in La Porte, police said.

Authorities said a passerby called 911 to report the jumper around 6:30 p.m. Monday evening. Police responded to the area and found the man dead, according to La Porte Police Department Sgt. Bennie Boles.

The bridge does not have any special fencing to prevent pedestrians from climbing over the guardrail, Boles said.

REWARD: $5K reward offered for help finding two drivers hit, killed motorcyclist

"It's not designed for pedestrian traffic at all," Boles said. "There are no fences."

The bridge is normally patrolled by Harris County Precinct 8 Constable's Office, Boles said, but his department is normally on scene quickly because of La Porte's proximity to the bridge's south entrance.

There are a few people who successfully jump off the bridge each year, Boles said. However, La Porte police officers are trained in crisis intervention and have successfully talked people out of jumping, Boles said.

BUST: Undercover deputies break-up illegal massage parlor

Authorities with the Port of Houston Authority and Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences are also assisting in the investigation.

At its peak, the bridge is about 440 feet above the water, although authorities did not say from where on the bridge the man jumped.

His identity was not immediately available.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.
Houston's Better Luck Tomorrow may not be a big operation but it has managed to make some giant news in the food and beverage realm. The "neighborhood bar with food," as its owners call it, has been named one of the best restaurants in the country by Food & Wine.

The publication announced Tuesday morning that Better Luck Tomorrow is among the 2018 Restaurants of the Year, a feature that will appear in the May issue of the magazine. BLT is the only restaurant in Houston on the list and one of only two in Texas (Kemuri Tatsu-Ya in Austin is also on the list of 10 new restaurants named in the magazine's annual canvasing of the country's best restaurants).
Southwest Airlines announced on Monday, April 9 that the airline has officially added 11 new nonstop flights to its schedule, with more to come.

Among the new flights is a direct route from Houston's William P. Hobby Airport to San Jose, California, adding to the already extensive list of nonstop flights out of Hobby.
A freshly painted B-25 Mitchell, "Devil Dog," will arrive in Houston for the 16th annual Warbird Weekend April 14-15 at the West Houston Airport.

Ground tours will be available, and rides can be purchased for flights Friday through Sunday, April 15. Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Houston Wing hosts the event at the CAF Houston Wing museum at the West Houston Airport, located at 18000 Groeschke Road, Houston, TX 77084.

The PB-1J Devil Dog and the Vietnam era CH-46 helicopter from the Military Museum of Texas will be on display. Our Houston Wing aircraft will be on display and available for rides. There will be several visiting aircraft, which is subject to weather and availability.

The U.S. Marine Corps used B-25s - designated as "PBJs" - for "night heckling," anti-shipping missions or close air support of beachheads and landings.

As most of the missions were performed at low altitude, there was not much need for the glass nose/bombardier position. It was replaced with a solid nose and armed with up to eight .50 caliber machine guns. Nine PBJ squadrons made it overseas before the war ended in the Pacific. The Devil Dog memorializes the number 3 ship of the VMB 612 squadron which was declared missing on July 27, 1945, off Hachija Jima.

For the past 16 years, Warbird Weekend (formerly known as Open House) has emerged as the most entertaining annual World War II and 1940s theme event in Houston in the spring. It is a can't-miss experience for anyone who enjoys nostalgia, historic aircraft and military vehicles, antique cars and featuring reenactors from the 6th Cavalry in authentic uniforms with restored ground vehicles and the anti-aircraft gun mount from the Battleship Texas.

Local artist Maria Thorne will perform Big Band standards from the 1940s both days.

Warbird Weekend has become an excellent way to honor the heroes of the Greatest Generation and educate all ages about the WWII experience and the science of aviation.

More Information About the Commemorative Air Force The Commemorative Air Force is a non-profit organization dedicated to flying and restoring World War II aircraft. Based in Dallas, Texas, the organization has more than 13,000 members and has a fleet of more than 175 World War II aircraft. About the CAF Houston Wing Warbird Museum The CAF Houston Wing, based in Houston, was founded in 1987. One of most active units of the Commemorative Air Force, the unit maintains and flies five WWII aircraft including the only authentic flying Lockheed C-60A Lodestar, North American AT-6, Vultee BT-13, Naval Air Factory N3N and the Fairchild PT-19. The unit, composed of more than 130 volunteers, is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. www.houstonwing.org. See More Collapse

Advance tickets are available for $10 per car www.houstonwing.org or Facebook and $15 at the gate. Proceeds from the event help fund operation of the museum, restoration and operation of the Houston Wing fleet.
AUSTIN  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that the state will boost its National Guard troops being deployed along the border with Mexico to up to 1,400 total to answer President Donald Trump's deployment order to ramp up border security.

The new number is almost six times the 250 troops that Texas National Guard officials initially said on Friday that they planned to send to the border, as an advance team was deployed from Austin.

On Monday, Abbott said about the state will add about 300 additional troops per week during coming weeks for what could be a long-term commitment along Texas' approximately 1,000-mile border. His aides said the number would grow to 1,000, with a total assignment up to 1,400 troops possible in coming months.

In his deployment proclamation, Trump said between 2,000 and 4,000 troops will eventually be sent as part of the deployment to the United States 1,900-mile border with Mexico.

We may be in this for the long haul, Abbott told Fox News, his aides said, echoing comments he made earlier in the day in an interview with KTSA radio in San Antonio.

We want to downplay any notion that would be misinformed that our National Guard are showing up with military bayonets, trying to take on anybody who's coming across the border because that is not their role," Abbott said on the Trey Ware Morning Show.

Officials said the additional troops are being deployed with aircraft, vehicles, surveillance gear and other assets necessary for them to provide support for ramped-up border enforcement operations being overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Just over 250 Texas Guard troops had arrived on the border by Sunday night, and officials said more were on their way on Monday.

Officials said the new troops are being assigned to points along Texas' entire border with Mexico.

Before the current activation, 100 Texas Guard troops had been deployed along the border under the state-initiated Operation Secure Texas support operation ordered two years ago by Abbott, an activation that was costing state taxpayers just under $1 million a month. Beginning last Friday, the federal government will pick up the entire tab.

Matt Hirsch, Abbott's deputy chief of staff, said that as the Texas deployment numbers were increased on Monday, the governors of South Carolina and Arkansas had offered to help support the Lone Star State with their own troops, if needed.

Last Wednesday, Trump signed a memorandum dispatching the Guard to the U.S. border with Mexico, a development that followed his increasing calls for more border security as a large caravan of U.S.-bound migrants was said to move northward through Mexico.

Many of those in the caravan, which had dropped to about 800 people as of Friday, are from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Organizers have said the caravan will end in Mexico City.

Insisting in the memorandum that the security of the United States is imperiled by a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border, Trump said the troops would work with federal agents and state police already assigned to the border.

During the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the National Guard provided support for efforts to secure our southern border, the memo states. The crisis at our southern border once again calls for the National Guard to help secure our border and protect our homeland.

Immigration advocacy groups have criticized the move, and complained of what they said was a militarization of the border. Mexican politicians condemned Trump's decision. According to the Associated Press, the Mexican Senate approved a resolution calling for the suspension of that country's cooperation with the United States on immigration and drug trafficking operations in retaliation.

The small contingent of Guard troops already deployed along the border, as part of a two-year, $800 million state initiative to curb smuggling and illegal border crossings, support federal agents and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Abbott was among the first to applaud the president's call for a troop surge.

For months, border crossings have been historically low despite a spike last month that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials was being closely monitored. Other officials suggested it a seasonal uptick.

A DHS study last fall had determined the border was the most secure it had been in years.

Trump has directed top federal officials to compile a report within the next month outlining steps that can be taken quickly to combat an increase in crossings, and to curb a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border.

Like Abbott, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has welcomed the deployment. He said Monday he has committed 338 Guard troops from his state, an increase from his initial commitment last week.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said she will deploy 250 Guard troops from her state,

Monday's increased deployment of Texas Guard troops marks the largest such presence in eight years.

President Barack Obama sent 1,200 troops to the border in 2010 at a cost of $500 million. Four years earlier, in 2006, President George W. Bush send 6,000 troops to Mexican border as part of Operation Jump Start, which lasted two years and cost $1.2 billion.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry spent millions of dollars in 2014 to send troops there to back up his criticism that federal officials were lax on border security, just as he ramped up his unsuccessful presidential campaign.

After the initial deployment on Friday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he supported Trump's move and said he hopes the troops stay for the long term as a way to curb illegal border crossings that have plagued Texas for years.

I hope they'll stay there until hell freezes over, until that wall is built. We need the wall, Patrick told Fox News.
A former city council member in Lucas, a small town 31 miles north of Dallas, was found dead in his home along with his disabled daughter Sunday evening.

Donald Zriny, 58, hanged daughter Amanda Zriny, 26, then hanged himself, Collin County Sheriff's Lt. Nick Bristow told Chron.com Tuesday morning. The motive behind Zriny's actions remains unknown, Bristow added.

The father and daughter were found in a room inside their home on Ingram Lane, the sheriff's office added on Facebook.

POLICE: Snapchat video shows man shooting gun wildly from moving car

Zriny served on the Lucas City Council from 2005 to 2012.

"It is truly sad when anyone loses their life," Lucas Mayor Jim Olk said in a news release. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the family in this time of loss."

Councilwoman Kathleen Peele remembered Zriny fondly. She ran into Zriny and his daughter, who suffered from a severe physical and mental disability, at Wendy's a few weeks ago.

"He was a very caring, loving father," Peele told Chron.com Monday afternoon. "His daughter was always kept neat and clean. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors. We don't know the quiet desperation or depression that people may feel."

Peele remembered Zriny as being a big supporter of Lucas residents' retaining the right to have farm animals on their property.

"He was a valuable part of council during that time," Peele said.

Zriny decided not to run for re-election in 2012 and instead focused on his career. According to LinkedIn, Zriny worked as a network architect for Nokia.

This story will be updated as more details become available.

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @fernalfonso.
AUSTIN  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that his state will expand its National Guard troops along the Mexico border to up to 1,400 troops to answer President Trump's deployment order to ramp up border security.

The new number is more than seven times the 250 troops that Texas National Guard officials said Friday they planned to send to the border, as an advance team was deployed from Austin.

On Monday, Abbott said about the state will add about 300 additional troops per week during coming weeks for what could be a long-term commitment along Texas' approximately 1,000-mile border.

in his deployment proclamation, Trump said between 2,000 and 4,000 troops will eventually be sent as part of the deployment.

"We may be in this for the long haul," Abbott told Fox News, his aides said, echoing comments he made earlier in the day in an interview with KTSA radio in San Antonio.

"We want to downplay any notion that would be misinformed that our National Guard are showing up with military bayonets, trying to take on anybody who's coming across the border because that is not their role," Abbott said on the Trey Ware Morning Show.

Guard officials said the additional troops are being deployed with aircraft, vehicles, surveillance gear and other assets necessary for them to provide support for ramped-up border enforcement operations being overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

They said the new troops are being assigned to points along Texas' entire border with Mexico.

Before the current activation, 100 Texas Guard troops had been deployed along the border under the state-initiated "Operation Secure Texas" support operation ordered two years ago by Abbott, an activation that was costing state taxpayers just under $1 million a month.

Beginning last Friday, the federal government will pick up the entire tab.

Matt Hirsch, Abbott's deputy chief of staff, said that as the Texas deployment numbers were increased on Monday, the governors of South Carolina and Arkansas had offered to help support the Lone Star State with their own troops, if needed.

Last Wednesday, Trump signed a memorandum dispatching the Guard to the U.S. border with Mexico, a development that followed his increasing calls for more border security as a large caravan of U.S.-bound migrants was said to move northward through Mexico.

Many of those in the caravan, which had dropped to about 800 people Friday, are from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Organizers have said the caravan will end in Mexico City.

Insisting in the memorandum that "the security of the United States is imperiled by a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border," Trump said the troops would work with federal agents and state police already assigned to the border.

"During the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the National Guard provided support for efforts to secure our southern border," the memo states. "The crisis at our southern border once again calls for the National Guard to help secure our border and protect our homeland."

Immigration advocacy groups have criticized the move, and complained of what they said was a militarization of the border. Mexican politicians condemned Trump's decision. According to the Associated Press, the Mexican Senate approved a resolution calling for the suspension of that country's cooperation with the United States on immigration and drug trafficking operations in retaliation.

The small contingent of Guard troops already deployed along the border, as part of a two-year, $800 million state initiative to curb smuggling and illegal border crossings, support federal agents and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Abbott, who has maintained a dwindling Guard presence along the border, was among the first to applaud the president's call for a troop surge.

For months, border crossings have been historically low despite a spike last month that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials was being closely monitored. Other officials suggested it a seasonal uptick.

A DHS study last fall had determined the border was the most secure it had been in years.

Trump has directed top federal officials to compile a report within the next month outlining steps that can be taken quickly to combat an increase in crossings, and to curb "a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border."

Like Abbott, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has welcomed the deployment. He said Monday he has committed 338 Guard troops from his state, an increase from his initial commitment last week.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said she will deploy 250 Guard troops from her state,

Monday's increased deployment of Texas Guard troops marks the largest such presence in eight years.

President Barack Obama sent 1,200 troops to the border in 2010 at a cost of $500 million. Four years earlier, in 2006, President George W. Bush send 6,000 troops to Mexican border as part of Operation Jump Start, which lasted two years and cost $1.2 billion.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry spent millions in 2014 to send troops there to back up his criticism that federal officials were lax on border security, just as he ramped up his unsuccessful presidential campaign.

After the initial deployment on Friday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he supported Trump's move and said he hopes the troops stay for the long term as a way to curb illegal border crossings that have plagued Texas for years.

"I hope they'll stay there until hell freezes over, until that wall is built. We need the wall," Patrick told Fox News.

He said federal border patrol agents and other law enforcement agencies can help while Guard troops do "behind-the-scenes" work and surveillance support.

"Their very presence will send a strong message, as it has before," he said.

Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, covers Texas politics and the Governor's Office and the Executive Branch, along with criminal justice and ethics issues. Read more of his stories here. Follow him on Twitter @ChronicleMike and send him story tips at Mike.Ward@Chron.com.
Regarding Official says dominatrix blackmailed him (Page A3, Friday), the story details the surprising theft by Gregory Lueb, first assistant at the Harris County Treasurers Office, of $35,000 from the Harris County Credit Union through a check-kiting scheme.

Hopefully it was District Attorney Kim Oggs lack of knowledge of accounting procedures exercised over Harris County funds that caused her to sound the alarm and strongly infer that Lueb, because of his position at the Harris County Treasurers Office, was also capable of stealing county funds. Ogg stated such a theft was possible because Lueb had extraordinary access to taxpayer dollars of every agency.

Thankfully Harris County taxpayers have no reason to worry about the propriety of the operations at the Harris County Treasurers Office. The treasurer together with the county auditor maintain stringent multiple internal controls over the management of county funds.

As a CPA and long-ago bank auditor, I do wonder how the Harris County Credit Unions procedures allowed Loeb to withdraw deposited funds before they could be verified. Banks have long had procedures to protect against this occurrence.

Don Sumners, former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector

Exit Syria

Regarding Is Trump repeating Obamas mistakes in Syria? (Page A17, Friday), columnist Marc Thiessen believes the sky will fall if President Trump carries out his threat to pull out of Syria. But he fails to address the real issues: How long does the United States need to stay there? And what is the exit strategy?

He seems to think that the 2,000 troops we have there now are the only thing standing in the way of several disastrous consequences. But ISIS is not going away because its followers permeate the entire Middle East, not just Syria. Same for al-Qaida. And al-Qaida has lots of havens besides Syria.

As for Iranian influence, the reality is that Iran will always be influential in the region simply because that is where it is located. Although a war with Israel is possible, Israel has proven it can take care of itself.

The Middle East has been riven with conflict for centuries, and the idea that the United States can change that is the height of arrogance. Im not generally a Trump supporter, but in this case he is right.

David McMillin,

The Woodlands

People change

Regarding Bullying accusation put Katy in spotlight (Page A1, Sunday), hardly a week goes by without me remembering the bullying I endured in high school back in the late 1960s. That kind of experience stays with you, and I assure you that while the perpetrators may not remember the subjects of their attacks, the victims remember each and every name and face of their tormentors. But even though it still affects me, Ive never let it define me nor them.

I hope those students that tortured me matured and became good citizens, as it appears by all accounts that Lance Hindt has done. People can and do change and should earn a chance at forgiveness when showing remorse for their actions. But if I had the occasion to confront an alleged past offender as Greg Barrett did, Id demand that the bully own up to it and ask for forgiveness. Lance Hindt has not done that and that is unforgivable.

David Kelly, Spring
Canadas 2018-2020 immigration plan is a step in right direction, but more work is needed Canadian Immigration Summit 2018 will focus on ways to make Canada's immigration system stronger

Canadas 2018-2020 immigration plan is a step in right direction, but more work is needed Canadian Immigration Summit 2018 will focus on ways to make Canada's immigration system stronger

Canadas 2018-2020 immigration plan is a step in right direction, but more work is needed Canadian Immigration Summit 2018 will focus on ways to make Canada's immigration system stronger CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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By Kareem El-Assal, Senior Research Associate, Immigration

The Conference Board of Canada

In November 2017, the federal government tabled just the second multi-year immigration plan in Canadian history. In a forthcoming Conference Board of Canada study, we find that the 2018-2020 immigration plan puts us on the right track in terms of helping Canada mitigate the negative economic and fiscal impacts of its aging population and low birth rate.

The plan will see Canada up its intake from some 290,000 newcomers last year to 340,000 by 2020. Our new report shows that immigration will become increasingly important to Canadas economic growth. In 2017, Canadas economy grew by an impressive three per centlargely driven by strong consumer spending, a hot housing market, and the fastest employment growth in a decade. The situation has brought Canadas unemployment rate to the lowest level on recordaccelerating the fundamental labour market challenges related to retiring baby boomers.

Our current demographic trends suggest that immigration will account for an estimated one-third of Canadas real GDP growth by 2030. If not for immigration, Canadas population growth would slowly erode. Our natural increase, calculated by subtracting the number of deaths from births, is forecast to turn negative by 2034. This situation has already materialized in Atlantic Canada which has resulted in difficult economic and fiscal prospects for the region.

Growing Canadas labour force essential

It is important to note, however, that population growth is not the key objective to supporting a flourishing economy. Rather, an important goal is to grow the labour force to have enough workers to keep our economy moving and pay the taxes we rely upon to fund important social priorities such as education and health care. Labour force and productivity growth are the two components that allow Canada to increase its economic output and living standards. In recent years, immigration has accounted for 90 per cent of labour force growth and will soon account for all of it as more baby boomers exit the workforce. We project that Canada will need to up its intake to some 400,000 immigrants annually around 2034 (when natural increase turns negative) to help sustain healthy labour force and economic growth.

But, the relationship between immigration and economic growth is not so simple as more is better. More important is to ensure the success of new Canadians in the workforce. In a 2016 study, we found that immigrants lose up to $12.7 billion in wages each year due to employment barriers. We must tackle this challenge to ensure better outcomes for immigrants and our economy.

Fortunately, Canada has taken positive steps on this issue. The Express Entry application management system is more dynamic which allows employers to hire immigrants overseas and bring them to Canada in six months or less. Its quick processing standard encourages employers to use the immigration system and attaches immigrants to jobs in their field. The Provincial Nominee Program has grown in prominence since becoming permanent in 1998 and helps match immigrants with the employment needs of Canadas provinces and territories.

Other promising developments include more pre-arrival information and settlement supports for newcomers, and Canada facilitating more immigration pathways for temporary residents such as through the Quebec Experience Programresearch shows that international students and temporary foreign workers integrate very well into Canadas economy.

Improving labour market performance of immigrants

Nonetheless, we have much more work to do. For instance, employers continue to report challenges using the immigration system so we need to identify how we can make it easier for them. We can, for example, introduce a trusted employer program to expedite the selection process. We are already doing this on a smaller scale through the Atlantic Immigration Pilot and Global Talent Stream. We also need to encourage Canadian employers to give immigrants a fair shot. It is understandable why some may be hesitant to hire immigrants but it is critical for us to help them appreciate that immigrants are skilled, motivated, and can provide employers with a competitive edge.

Canadas immigrant intake has been the subject of intense scrutiny throughout our countrys history and remained a hot topic leading up to the November 2017 announcement. But, the actual number of new Canadians that we welcome is not as important as the key issue: what we do with them. We must place more focus on improving their labour market performance so that the rising inflow produces greater economic benefits for immigrants and Canadians alike.

Join us at the Canadian Immigration Summit 2018

Join us in Ottawa on May 30-31, 2018, to explore how we can make our immigration system even stronger. Featured speakers include the Hon. Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration, the Hon. Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration for Nova Scotia and Corinne Prince St-Amand, Director General for Settlement and Integration Policy with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

CanadaVisa.com is a proud sponsor of the Conference Boards 4th annual Canadian Immigration Summit.

Register for the Canadian Immigration Summit 2018.

Kareem El-Assal is Senior Research Associate, Immigration, with the Conference Board of Canada

Kareem El-Assal manages the Conference Boards immigration research and annual Canadian Immigration Summit. Kareems research covers various areas including permanent resident selection, settlement and integration, temporary foreign worker programs, refugees, international students, intergovernmental relations, and entrepreneur and investor programs. He often shares research findings with the media.

 2018 CICNews All Rights Reserved
If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.
It probably doesnt come as news that airline companies pay pilots more than cabin crewbut according to the dogma of the gender wage gap, were supposed to find this fact troubling. The British government now requires companies to report their raw gender gapthat is, the difference in the median hourly wages earned by their male and female employees. Ignoring occupational differences, seniority, employment history, hours worked, or any of the countless other factors affecting salaries, these data are misleading at best. Nevertheless, when budget airline EasyJet reported a 51 percent pay gap between its male and female employees, the company knew that its reputation perched on the edge of a PR abyss.

And thats the whole point of the exercise: simplify statistics to shock people at the seeming injustice done to women and shame companies into action; refuse to compare similar job functions; ignore the fact that, like every other airline, EasyJets pilots are disproportionately male, while their cabin crews skew female; forget that almost all carriers compete for the same 4 percent of the worlds female pilots; and whatever you do, dont mention that the EasyJet CEO, who was in charge of this bigoted organization and also its highest-paid employee until retiring earlier this year, was a woman. The company should be branded with a scarlet 51 percent until it . . . does what? Cuts pilots pay? Hikes the salaries of female cabin crew? Hires male attendants instead of female? Goes bankrupt?

The United States does notyetuse such a travesty of a reporting system, but it does maintain the same illusion that a gender wage gap is, by definition, proof of injustice. Activists have declared April 10 Equal Pay Day, to protest the approximately 20 percent pay gap between men and women, which, as in the EasyJet example, tells us more about the activists false ideology of gender equivalence than about whether women are being treated fairly in the labor market.

The idea that innate (average) differences between men and women affect their (average) labor market outcomes is dangerous to express in some circles, as former Google engineer James Damore discovered when he found himself without a job after writing a speculative memo on the topic. But a new Stanford study, in which three economists examine male and female earnings at the ride-hailing service Uber, appears to back up some of Damores musings. Uber is an ideal subject for a wage-gap analysis because it uses an automatic pay formula based on the time and distance of a trip, with drivers assigned blindly to customers by an algorithm dependent entirely on their proximity. Among driversthe corporate offices may be another matterthere is no old-boy network, no salary negotiation, and no possibility that sexual harassment affects trip assignments. Uber also offers scheduling flexibility, a perk found particularly attractive to female workers. With information on 1.8 million drivers from January 2015 to March 2017 made available to the researchers, the study is particularly robust. The authors discovered no evidence that riders preferred male drivers; women and men got the same number of cancellations and similar ratings from customers.

With all factors appearing equal, Uber should be a female workers paradise. Yet male Uber drivers still make 7 percent more per hour than female drivers. Half of this gap could be explained by the fact that men choose to drive in more lucrative pay areas and to do so for more hours per week. That second part is consistent with what we already know about a pervasive gender-hours gap: in every country and in most industries, men log more time on the job than women. The reason for the remaining 50 percent of the gap, however, might have come from a list of Google-banned gender stereotypes: men drive faster. The difference in speed isnt hugeonly 2 percentbut its enough for men to complete more rides and accumulate more experience. Call it female risk aversion or male bravado; the upshot is that Uber-men are more productive than Uber-women. Ergo, men earn more.

Of course, driving speed is irrelevant to performance at most jobs, and risk-taking is a mixed bag, leading to innovation and big bucks in some cases and havoc in others. Another paper released this winter, by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has much broader implications for womens earnings. Like the Uber study, it shows the wage gap to be a poor proxy for either sexism or womens well-being. The authors analyzed the work histories of the Danish population between 1980 and 2013, and found that womens labor-force participation, work hours, and wages plummeted after the birth of a first child, while mens continued on the same trajectory. Over the course of their career, women earned 20 percent less than menif they were mothers. Childless women earned about the same.

During the decades studied, the overall wage gap shrank, as women got more education and moved into more managerial and professional positions. But the child penalty didnt budge. There used to be many different reasons for gender inequality [in Denmark], Princeton economist Henrik Kleven, one of the studys three authors, told Slates Jordan Weissman. Many of those are disappearing over time. Children is the one that isnt changing. Heres the kicker from the paper itself: Even with perfectly equal pay for equal worka zero gap in standard decompositionsour analysis would still show large child-related gender inequality.

Remember, were not talking about the United States or Italy, countries whose family-welfare policies are relatively modest. Denmark offers 52 weeks of paid leave for new parents and heavily subsidized child care once they return to work. Like other Scandinavian countries, it has a proud tradition of gender equality. Danish women rank near the top globally in educational attainment, and theyre almost as likely to be in the workforce as men. Feminists have long promised that stronger social policies would bring about gender equality. On the evidence of the study of Denmark and of other family-friendly countries, they do not. The average woman cuts back when her kids are born, regardless of whether her country offers family cheap child care.

Two caveats are necessary in any discussion of the reasons for the gender gap. As the #MeToo revelations make clear, discrimination continues to limit womens opportunities. And companies can do more to provide flexibility in work hours and less sexually charged work environments. Taken together, however, the Uber and Danish studies provide yet more insight into the reality of male-female differencesdifferences that the practitioners of outrage theater, from the UKs gender-gap reporting to Americas Equal Pay Day, do their best to evade. 

Photo: tsvibrav/iStock
In an industry where supporter engagement is vital, nurturing the right environment to be creative and innovative is essential. Our ideas, products and campaigns must stand out and reach our audience.

Innovation doesnt necessarily mean re-inventing the wheel or creating something totally new. For us, it is about staying true to our brand values and knowing our audience inside out.
What form does the campaign take and how does it raise funds?

The Wear Purple fundraising campaign run by the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) is about having fun and raising awareness of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). People raise funds through non-uniform days at school or in the workplace.

Wear Purple is designed to involve everyone from children and families to schools and workplaces and asks those participating to wear purple and organise fun activities. The campaign takes place on the Friday of the first full week in June  this year it will be held on 8 June.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have selected seven charities that the public can donate for in celebration of their wedding.

The couple, who have no affiliation with the seven charities selected, say they do not want presents, and would prefer donations to the seven organisations, which they say reflect their shared values.

In a statement, the Royal household said: Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit.

"The couple have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to charity, rather than sending a wedding gift.

Prince Harry will marry Markle, an actor and humanitarian, on 19 May at Windsor Castle.

The charities chosen by the couple are:

The Childrens HIV Association (CHIVA)

Crisis

Myna Mahila Foundation

Scottys Little Soldiers

StreetGames

Surfers Against Sewage

The Wilderness Foundation.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, said: We are hugely grateful that Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are asking the public to support Crisis as they celebrate their wedding.

Homelessness is one of the most urgent issues of our time, but at Crisis we know what it takes to end it. Donations will help us to support more people to leave homelessness behind through our housing, employment, education and advice services across the country, and to campaign for the changes needed to solve the homelessness crisis once and for all.

Surfers Against Sewage is a national marine conservation and campaigning charity, which inspires, unites and empowers communities to take action to protect oceans, beaches, waves and wildlife.

Hugo Tagholm, the charitys chief executive, said: Surfers Against Sewage is thrilled to be one of the charities chosen to benefit from donations marking the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle.

Our work as a national marine conservation charity empowers tens of thousands of volunteers annually to protect beaches for everyone. We are currently focused on tackling plastic pollution and this support will help us move towards our vision of Plastic Free Coastlines.

Following the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, more than 1m was donated to charity by members of the public in celebration of the occassion.

For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here.
What will happen to Facebook? Todays hearings on Capitol Hill might give us some insight into the remote possibility of how the social media companys activities will be curtailed in small ways, like stricter limits on political advertising, or big ways like wide-ranging limits on personal data use. But the policy theater of Mark Zuckerberg, be-suited and contrite, is likely to be more arresting than any regulatory formulation that follows. We are more likely to learn just how futile the Facebook founders supposed political ambitions are than we are to hear that there is plan to break up the Standard Oil of the information age.

There is no one in government who seems in a desperate rush to dismantle the communications apparatus, which apparently delivered them an unlikely presidency, with or without Cambridge Analyticas misuse of voter data. The 500-strong communications department at Facebook has awoken from its self-induced coma to start issuing statements, interviews, policies, and a rolling apology for Facebooks carelessness. A large research initiative for independent researchers backed by major foundations, further restrictions on third party developer access to data, backing for the Honest Ads Act creating accountability for political advertising.

ICYMI: Mark Zuckerberg seems genuinely peeved during a recent interview

The question of what might fix Facebook is circular; its answers range from things that Zuckerberg has already offered, such as transparency and authenticity when it comes to buying political advertising in the future, to the ultimate sanction of breaking the company upthe least likely option from the anti-regulatory Trump administration. Every lawmaker who questions Zuckerberg will be acutely aware that their own campaigns will still likely depend on Facebooks targeted advertising.

Nothing annoys governments like being made to feel there is something more powerful than them.

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For Zuckerberg, his appearance ought to be an important business lesson that in cases of corporate negligence, the cover-up is almost invariably worse than the offense itself. Had the company been more diligent about its own image, (let alone its own data) in 2015 when it was first alerted by The Guardian to the potential misuse of profile information from the platform by third parties, the Cambridge Analytica scandal might have stalled at the gate. (Disclosure: The author sits on the board at the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian.)

The ferocious interest in Zuckerbergs appearance has echoes of June 2011, when Rupert Murdoch and his son James appeared before the UKs parliamentary select committee of the Department of Media Culture and Sport to answer questions about phone hacking. The tableau of the octogenarian media mogul fielding questions from lawmakers who at the time included Conservative MP-turned-Twitter-conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch was made infamous by the appearance of a random pie-thrower who was swatted away with a lunge by Murdochs then-wife, Wendi Deng.

Although there is no suggestion that the problems Facebook allowed to proliferate on its platform are deliberately criminal in the way phone hacking was, there are plenty of parallels that Zuckerberg might learn from. The first is that although Murdoch and his company survived that dark episode in the companys history, it was never quite the same again. Even the swift closure of the offending newspaper The News of the World did not fully stop the rot. This was at least in part because the business model which had encouraged the use of phone hackingthe selling of sensational celebrity gossip to large audienceswas already in decline thanks in part to Facebook and other social media platforms. A second lesson is that however above the law globalized business success might make you feel, nothing annoys governments like being made to feel there is something more powerful than them.

But the most important lesson for Zuckerberg is already that in political and cultural arenas optics and opinion matters every bit as much as the hard skills of engineering: Two months after Murdochs testimony before the parliamentary committee, Murdochs News Corporation split into two companies in order to shield its valuable TV and film assets from association with the phone hacking scandal. Facebook is a company which is in a painful cultural transition, and Zuckerbergs testimony today will provide us with some insight into how that is going. Form more substantive outcomes, we will have to wait for some time.

RELATED: The Facebook Armageddon

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Emily Bell is the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School.
A developer listed as a defendant in lawsuits over a 2016 fatal building collapse in downtown Sioux Falls has alleged the company never owned the structure.

Legacy Developments also asked a judge for a change of venue to Aberdeen, arguing the company cant get a fair trial in Sioux Falls. Legacy is one of several defendants in three lawsuits filed after the Dec. 2, 2016, collapse of the Copper Lounge building that killed construction worker Ethan McMahon.

Legacy alleged it never had a role in hiring or overseeing those involved in the construction work, the Argus Leader reported .

The media coverage gave the public a false impression that Legacy owned the property, hired the contractor, was culpable in the collapse and at fault for the death and injuries that followed, and should be punished for the same, the company said in its request for a trial location change.

Boomerang Investments bought the Copper Lounge from CLP Investments with a transfer fee recorded a day before the collapse, according to Minnehaha County records. Both entities share a Sioux Falls address, which matches Legacy Developments address.

Boomerang and CLP both have listed their sole manager and president as Norm Drake, who is the CEO of Legacy.

The company assigned with remodeling Copper Lounge at the time of collapse, Hultgren Construction, was run by Aaron Hultgren, who was also Legacys director of development and operations.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Insurers often require an insured to attend an examination under oath  a formal proceeding where insurers ask questions about a loss that may affect coverage  related to first party property insurance claims. During a recent Combined Claims Conference panel on the subject, Brian Mizell a California-based partner at McDowell, Shaw, Garcia & Mizell, explained some common questions that arise.

Three factors govern an EUO:

The insurance policy which grants the insurer the authority to conduct the EUO.

Case law that supports the basis for conducting EUOs: Hickman v. London Assurance. Corp.(1920) 184 Cal. 524, West v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. (9th Cir. 1989) 868 F.2d 348, Fine v. Bellefonte Underwriters Insurance Co., 725 F.2d 179, 183-84 (2d Cir. 1984)

Statutory law.

The most common questions related to EUOs include:

1. Does the insured have to comply before he/she gets paid?

Yes. Case law to support it is Brizuela v. California Ins. Co. (2004) 116 Cal. App. 4th 578.

If the insured refuses to cooperate, Mizell explained the typical process is the insurer will send out two EUO notices. The notice may be sent certified and regular mail to confirm receipt. He suggested emailing the notice if the insured has been responding to emails.

2. Can multiple insureds sit in on EUOs together?

They dont have to, according to Mizell. He cited the case of State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Tan, 691 F. Supp. 1271 (S.D. Cal. 1988) that supports separate EUOs of multiple insureds is allowed.

Rather than scheduling both, he recommended stating that the second EUO will commence as soon as the first is finished.

3. Do you have to give a copy of the recorded statement to insured before EUO?

No; however, Mizell said there is sometimes a disconnect between the special investigations unit and the litigation handler when SIU sends it out to the policyholder.

You have the right to withhold the statement, you dont have to give it to them, Mizell said, citing the Brizuela case.

4. Can you call insured and tell him or her to come in tomorrow for EUO?

Mizell said its all about a reasonable time. While an adjuster can contact an insured to schedule a last minute EUO, the adjuster cant force them to attend. California Insurance Code Section 2071.1 (a) relates to the insured and carrier rights and duties.

Mizell emphasized that a copy of this code must be sent out each time a notice of an EUO is sent out on California claims.

5. Does a public adjuster have a right to sit in on an EUO?

According to Mizell, the answer is maybe. This issue must be considered on a case by case basis. He suggested the possibility of taking both EUOs. Section 2071.(4) of the California Insurance Code states the insured may be represented by counsel.

6. Does the insured have a right to record the EUO?

Section 2071.(4) of the California Insurance Code states the insured may record the EUO. Mizell recommended that the recording be turned off during breaks. There is no requirement by either side to advise that the EUO will be videotaped.

Some carriers routinely videotape all EUOs.

7. What if the insured is underage, 16 or 17?

Mizell recommended separating parents and kids during their EUOs.

8. Does the insurer have to pay for the EUO transcript copy for the insured?

Yes, according to California Insurance Code Section 2071.1 (5) have to provide it free of charge within 10 business days.

9. What if the insured pleads the fifth on every question?

Mizell recommended continuing the EUO to get it on the record.

10. Can the insured object to questions?

Yes, according to California Insurance Code Section 2071.5 (6), they may assert any objection; however, Mizell noted their responses could affect the coverage determination. Lastly, can point out California Insurance Code Section 2071.5 (7) which outlines that there are criminal and civil penalties for fraud.

Read California insurance code provisions.
For the second time in less than two years, Dollar Tree Stores Inc., faces stiff fines for workplace safety violations at two of its stores. The company faces $306,000 in state penalties.

The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) cited and fined the Virginia-based employer after inspections at the companys Bonney Lake and Kelso stores found willful violations, the most severe. The L&I inspector found the stores were knowingly exposing employees to workplace safety hazards. Dollar Tree stores in Aberdeen and Chehalis were cited for the same violations in 2016.

We are seeing the same safety violations at Dollar Tree stores over and over again in Washington, said L&I Division of Occupational Safety and Health Assistant Director Anne Soiza. Its concerning because this is a national problem as well. Employees, and sometimes customers, are being put at risk even though the fixes to these safety problems are simple.

L&I initiated the recent inspections after getting complaints about safety hazards at the two stores. A customer at the Bonney Lake store contacted L&I to express concerns for the store employees safety because boxes crowded and blocked pathways and emergency exit routes. Many boxes were also stacked precariously and so high that they could easily have fallen on employees or even customers in some instances. All of the willful violations are serious, but the blocked pathways and emergency exits are the most concerning.

Bonney Lake store cited for dangerous stacks of boxes and obstructed exits

At the Bonney Lake store, the company was cited for three willful safety violations. The first was for not ensuring that exit routes were free of obstructions. At the time of the inspection, merchandise blocked several aisles and passageways. Employees did not have clear paths from the breakroom and other areas to emergency exits and could be trapped in a fire or other emergency. Because of the employers history, this violation carries the maximum fine of $70,000.

The second willful violation cited was for storing merchandise in a way that created a safety hazard. The stockroom was packed with boxes of merchandise in stacks and piles. Heavy boxes were on top of light ones, some had fallen from the stacks, and there were uneven and leaning stacks more than nine feet high. This violation also carries the maximum penalty of $70,000.

Improperly stored merchandise can fall on employees causing serious injuries or even death if the boxes cause an employee to fall and strike their head on the floor. Lifting heavy boxes onto nine-foot stacks is also likely to cause strains and sprains or serious back injuries.

A third willful violation with a penalty of $26,000 was cited for not installing protective guarding or covers over light fixtures that could be struck and broken by the stacked merchandise, which could cause eye injuries or cuts from falling glass.

Kelso Dollar Tree cited for similar safety violations

At the Kelso store, the company was cited for two willful violations with maximum penalties of $70,000 each. The violations were similar to those cited at the Bonney Lake store and previously at the Aberdeen and Chehalis stores. Merchandise was crowded into a storeroom with uneven stacks as high as eight feet, and exit routes were blocked or obstructed with boxes of merchandise.

Dollar Tree has appealed the citation.

Penalty money paid as a result of a citation is placed in the workers compensation supplemental pension fund, helping injured workers and families of those who have died on the job.

Source: Washington Department of Labor & Industries
Chinese commandos take part in an extreme training exercises at an anti-terror military training base in Korla, China on March 25, 2018.

China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence on the tiny Pacific island, Australia's Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday, a plan that would likely stoke regional tensions.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said no formal proposal had yet been made, but preliminary talks have been held about locating a full military base on Vanuatu. It added that the prospect of a Chinese military outpost so close to Australia has been discussed at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Tuesday said she had been assured by Vanuatu officials that there was no formal proposal from Beijing, but she stopped short of addressing whether there had been any unofficial talks.

"The government of Vanuatu has said there is no such proposal, but it is a fact that China is engaging in infrastructure investment activities around the world," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatu's strategic partner of choice," she said.

A spokesman for Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment, telephone calls to the Vanuatu High Commission in Canberra were not answered, and the Chinese Embassy in Canberra did not comment.

The Fairfax Media report said the preliminary discussions involved an initial access agreement, under which Chinese naval ships would dock to be serviced, refueled and restocked, and that would eventually lead to a full military base.

Such a plan would mark an expansion of China's military aspirations beyond its controversial activities in Asia, particularly the South China Sea, where it has been building artificial islands on reefs, some with ports and airstrips.

Several international nations have accused China in recent months of seeking to buy influence in the South Pacific through international aid, stoking fears that Australia's long-time influence in the region is being eroded.

China opened its first overseas military base in August 2017 in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. It is China's first overseas naval base, but Beijing describes it as a logistics facility.

Djibouti's position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fuelled worry in India that it would become another of China's "string of pearls" military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

China has boosted its naval power in recent years to check U.S. dominance of the high seas and increase its projection of power around the globe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans on Tuesday to open up the Chinese economy, including lowering tariffs for autos and other products and enforcing the legal intellectual property of foreign firms.

Xi's comments come amid escalating trade tensions between China and the U.S. as the world's two largest economies take turns announcing punitive trade measures against each other.

The World Trade Organization said Tuesday that China filed a complaint challenging President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. It said China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute. If that fails, Beijing could request a ruling from a panel of trade experts, The Associated Press reported.

In a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual summit that's been dubbed the "Asian Davos," Xi said China will take the initiative to expand imports this year and "work hard" to import products that are required by the population.

"China does not seek [a] trade surplus. We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," Xi said, according to a translation of the speech.

Beyond that, he described China as a country upon which other nations had imposed unfair trade penalties: "We hope developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable trade of high-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China," he said, not naming any specific country.

In his speech, the Chinese president sold a vision of China as a benevolent leader of the global economy, emphasizing that open systems are the best course of action for the world.

"We must refrain from seeking dominance and reject the zero-sum game, we must refrain from 'beggar thy neighbor' and reject power politics or hegemony while the strong bully the weak," Xi said.

Instead, he said, countries should "stay committed to openness, connectivity and mutual benefits, build an open global economy, and reinforce cooperation within the G-20, APEC and other multilateral frameworks. We should promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, support the multilateral trading system."

"This way, we will make economic globalization, more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all," he added.
Oil prices rose on Tuesday, extending strong gains from the previous day, as investors grew more optimistic that a trade dispute between the United States and China may be resolved without greater damage to the global economy.

Brent crude futures were up rose 3 percent at $70.73 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 2.9 percent to $65.28 a barrel.

The oil price has risen by nearly 4.5 percent in the last two trading days.

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday promised to open China's economy further and lower import tariffs, in a speech that struck a conciliatory tone on the trade tensions between China and the United States.

Equities and industrial commodities rose, while perceived safe-havens such as gold and U.S. Treasuries came under pressure, reflecting confidence among traders and investors that a trade war is increasingly unlikely.

"It's not so much 'risk on/risk off', as it is 'trade war on/trade war off' and, at the moment, we're 'trade-war off'," London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler said.

"There's a lot of political motivation in the tariffs in the United States, but ultimately, they won't want a trade war, there is a general desire to boost the U.S. economy."

Concerns of a prolonged trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies and uncertainty over the supply and demand balance of global oil markets have made for volatile trading in the last few weeks.

Oil briefly rose above $70 two weeks ago, after Saudi Arabia vowed it would keep an agreement in place to limit supply into next year. But the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods a week later sent the price to a two-week low.

Oil markets have been supported by healthy demand and supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

However, soaring U.S. crude production, which has jumped by a quarter since mid-2016, threatens to undermine OPEC's efforts.

The American Petroleum Institute will publish storage data later on Tuesday while the U.S. Energy Information Administration releases its monthly report on U.S. production.

"Todays monthly report from the EIA is likely to confirm that the supply situation is set to ease, primarily on the back of growing non-OPEC production," Commerzbank said in a note.

"It is doubtful whether this will pressure the price, however, as the most recent price drivers were for the most part not fundamental in nature."
Toy maker Mattel announced on Monday that it is closing its New York office, as part of a previously announced $650 million cost savings plan.

The closing, which will take place in phases through the rest of the year, will affect roughly 100 employees.

The office was not a strategic location for the company, a spokesperson told CNBC. Most or all of the employees will be relocated to one of its other principal locations in the U.S., he said. They include: Los Angeles, East Aurora (its Fisher-Price store), Middleton, Wisconsin (its American Girl store) and London (its Thomas & Friends store).

It had announced a cost savings program in October, with the goal to eliminate $650 million over two years, one-third of which it expects to achieve this year. It also suspended its quarterly dividend.

The toy company has had a tough year, deeply impacted first by the bankruptcy  and now the liquidation  of Toys R Us.

Toys R Us was Mattel's second-largest customer and retailer of many of its exclusives. Without its chain of stores to showcase its products, it will need to resort to Amazon and profit-squeezing big box stores.

"Our fourth-quarter performance reflects a tough quarter as part of what was a difficult and extraordinary year for Mattel," Mattel CEO Margo Georgiadis recently told analysts at a company earnings call.

Mattel saw net sales drop 11 percent for the year, and reported an adjusted loss per share of $1.08.
That was the largest contribution that the foundation received in 2015, besides money from Trump himself, the Times reported. In exchange, Trump made a 20-minute appearance in September 2015 through video at a conference in Kiev, Ukraine , according to the report.

Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel magnate, paid the sum to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in September 2015 when Trump was vying for the Republican Party's nomination for president, according to the report.

Special counsel Robert Mueller (2nd L) leaves after a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee June 21, 2017 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.

Trump was approached by Pinchuk, who was seeking "closer ties for Ukraine to the West," the Times reported. Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, solicited the donation, it added.

The Trump Organization, Pinchuk and Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, didn't immediately reply to CNBC's email request for comment on the report.

The Times quotes a statement from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation saying it engaged with Trump and others to "promote strengthened and enduring ties between Ukraine and the West." According to the Times, the foundation said its donation was "a specific request of Mr. Trump Foundation in September of 2015 when there were multiple candidates for the Republican nomination for president and it was by no means assured that Mr. Trump would be the Republican nominee in 2016."

Mueller, in investigating Russian interference in U.S. politics, subpoenaed the Trump Organization earlier this year for records about its business dealings with foreign nationals. The company then turned over documents about the $150,000 from Pinchuk, the Times said.

The subpoena adds to signs in recent months that Mueller's team is probing interactions that Trump and his associates had with foreigners beyond those from Russia.

For more on the $150,000 donation, see the article in The New York Times.
President Donald Trump vented at his Justice Department, his Cabinet members and his former political opponents in searing remarks Monday evening.

The remarks came during a round-table discussion at the White House that was intended to discuss the administration's response to a suspected chemical weapons attack carried out by the government of Syria against its own people.

But in remarks to the press before the meeting's business, Trump spent more time ripping special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"It's a disgraceful situation, it's a total witch hunt," Trump said of recent reports that the FBI searched the office and residence of Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer, after receiving a referral from the special counsel.

"I have this witch hunt constantly going on for 12 months now," Trump said. "It's frankly a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country in a true sense."

Trump also spoke against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who became a regular target of the president's ire in public and private after recusing himself from the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions' command of the special counsel was ceded to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

"The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this," Trump said of Sessions. Had Sessions let Trump know he was planning to recuse himself over failing to report contacts with a Russian ambassador in congressional testimony, "we would have used a  put a different attorney general in."

Asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump said the investigation is a "disgrace."

"Many people have said, 'You should fire him.' Again, they found nothing," Trump said of Mueller and his team.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
A cargo ship is loaded with shipping containers at the Port of Long Beach, Calif. Harriet Taylor | CNBC

The U.S. ports and shipping sector are bracing for potential impacts from the ongoing trade dispute with China that some economists warn could lead to layoffs and a drops in container traffic. "What this has done in the immediate term is raise the level of nervousness within the container shipping industry," said Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research for Drewry, a U.K. maritime consulting company. "The burden will across a number of sectors, not just in container shipping." The impact could be felt especially hard in agriculture-related cargo since it is worth billions of dollars annually to major West Coast ports and is also significant to the East Coast and Gulf Coast seaports. Barge operators that haul bulk targeted by China and railroads could be affected, too.

A U.S. flag flies above barges filled with soybeans on the Kaskaskia River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, at Gateway FS in Evansville, Illinois, U.S. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China slapped a 25 percent tariff on American pork along with a new 15 percent duty on other kinds of agricultural products, including fresh fruit, almonds, dried fruit and wine. China has also threatened new duties for soybeans, cotton, wheat, corn, sorghum and beef. On Monday, President Donald Trump sought to downplay the talk of a trade war with China and calm fears in the agricultural sector. "If during the course of negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me, I wouldn't say that's nice," the president said in remarks at the White House. "But I will tell you, our farmers are great patriots. These are great patriots and understand that they're doing this for the country, and we'll make it up to them." Overall, U.S. agricultural exports to China represent almost $20 billion annually for American farmers. Last week, the Chinese announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 25 percent on 106 American goods, including soybeans. It came on the heels of the Trump administration proposing duties on more than 1,300 imported products in China's machinery, electronics, aerospace and robotics sectors. Trump also suggested last week an additional $100 billion in tariffs on China could come on top of what already was announced.

Based on total dollar value, the top two states with the most exports to China are Washington and California, according to U.S. Census Bureau and WISERTrade data. But it's tied to electronics and aircraft, not agriculture. Regardless, if there's a reduction in trade activity at U.S. ports, the longshoremen, truckers and other workers tied to the ports could suffer. In particular, Southern California stands to suffer since so much of its trade volume is tied to China. "Fifty percent of all U.S. maritime trade with China goes through the ports of L.A. and Long Beach," said Jock O'Connell, an international trade adviser at Beacon Economics, a California economic consulting firm. If the threatened tariffs are implemented over the course of the next several months, it would have "a very grave impact upon operations at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach," O'Connell said. Observers say a decline in trade between the world's two largest economies would impact those workers and businesses in the supply chains that service the Southern California ports. There are more than 14,000 dockworkers at Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex and thousands of other workers in trade operations and commerce as well as truckers involved in the movement of goods in and out of the ports. Experts say there could be layoffs in some of those operations if trade begins to slow. "The thing that we're really looking at and concerned with is what happens when there's less exports leaving the country to these longshoremen who obviously rely on a daily basis to be able to move containers," said Michael Smith, director of international trade at the World Trade Center Los Angeles. "But in general, I think this is more of a political tit-for-tat game than anything affecting economies in a deep and profound way." That said, there have already been reports of some trade getting canceled following the new Chinese tariffs, including at least one shipment of California wine. Also, one agricultural executive in the fruit industry said Monday he's heard of some impacts on orders and it's possible loads slated for China will be redirected to South Korea and Japan or renegotiated for a lower price. "The West Coast ports are the most exposed," said Dustin Braden, a data analyst at IHS Markit. But he said the widening of the Panama Canal and the West Coast ports labor disputes in previous years also has led to more cargo going through the East Coast ports so the impact could be less than it might have otherwise been. At the same time, some high value U.S. fruits such as berries use airfreight so that sector also could see some shipments curtailed.
According to the World Economic Forum, women around the world are not expected to reach full economic parity with men until 2234  or roughly 217 years from now. That means that a future that might once have seemed like an episode of the Jetsons could be reality before true gender pay equality is. Futurist Glen Hiemstra, an innovation expert and founder of Futurist.com, tells CNBC Make It that in 200 years, we should expect a largely robotic workforce, driverless air taxis and the spread of indoor farming, to name just a few changes. Hiemstra is optimistic that the global gender wage gap will close sooner than WEF's current prediction: "The further out you look, the more choice you have to create a future you prefer, rather than merely adjusting," he tells CNBC Make It. In the meantime, here are 10 enormous ways the world is predicted to change, before the gender wage gap closes:

1. Space tourism will be common

For $250,000 a person, Richard Branson's space travel company Virgin Galactic plans to send tourists to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere aboard the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity. As of Branson's last estimation, he hopes to personally travel to space in sometime this year, with regular customers to follow soon after. For the price of a plane ticket, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also plans to transport passengers from New York to Paris in 30 minutes and almost anywhere on earth in under 60 minutes using his rockets. Though Hiesmtra says achieving commercial space flights in 10 years may be too optimistic, we can expect early settlers on Mars in 20 years, with larger numbers of settlers in 40 years.

2. Mars will be colonized by humans

3. Communication through telepathy

4. Flying cars

For  499,000 (or about $616,953) you can buy a two-person flying car from Dutch firm PAL-V, which is now taking pre-orders. PAL-V will be the first company in the world to make flying cars anyone can buy, though only 90 first-editions will be up for sale. Uber meanwhile announced plans to start testing driverless flying taxis by 2020, and expects to officially offer flying cab service by 2023.

5. Driverless vehicles

By 2040, 95 percent of the new vehicles sold will be fully autonomous, according to tech analyst Gene Munster. Though safety questions persist, driverless cars are expected to save lives, reduce traffic and improve the efficiency of society, especially as people are expected to live into their 80s, 90s and 100s, Maven Ventures founding managing partner Jim Scheinman says.



6. Cryptocurrency will replace cash

7. Food will be healthier and more sustainable

Clean meat and plant-based meat  such as those made by billionaire-backed Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat  will make up the majority of meat purchases by 2050, according to Good Food Institute policy director Jessica Almy. Bugs will also be a source for high protein snacks by 2026, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has said. These food alternatives will result in reduced animal farming, which will cut carbon dioxide emissions. Indoor farms, which have been supported by the likes of food entrepreneur Kimbal Musk and Ikea, will also allow for fresher, locally-sourced food.

8. Robots will dominate the workforce

An Oxford-Yale survey determined that by 2060, A.I. will be able to do any job that a normal human can do, and just as well. Robots will outperform humans at folding laundry by 2022, writing bestselling books by 2049, work as surgeons by 2053 and perform math research by 2059. The World Economic Forum predicts 5 million jobs will be lost to robots by 2020, but on the flipside, research by PwC shows robotics and A.I. will also create a new types of jobs. "In 200 years, a largely robot workforce for production of non-artisan goods seems very likely, thought it will take much of the 200 years to get there," Hiemstra says.

9. Zoos filled with extinct and endangered species

Safari rides in 2017 may feature long-dead species, such as the wooly mammoth and the dodo, thanks to animal cloning. Research out of the University of Central Lancashire finds that animal cloning can help drive food tourism, sport hunting tourism and safari-zoo tourism for educational purposes. At the beginning of 2018, Chinese scientists cloned monkeys and broke a technical barrier that could potentially lead the way to human cloning.

10. Major cities around the world will be underwater

Climate change predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Agency show that rising sea levels will leave hundreds of U.S. towns and cities underwater by 2100, including Atlantic City, New Orleans, and Miami. A report from the non-profit organization Climate Central estimates that 275 million people around the world will be affected by rising sea levels, with Asian cities to be the worst affected.

But there's still time to close the gap sooner
Extensive research demonstrates that the gender pay gap exists, but there are many skeptics who still think otherwise. According to the Institute for Women's Policy and Research (IWPR) and the American University of American Women, U.S. women working full-time earned just $0.80 for every dollar earned by a man in 2016. At this rate of change, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059. The wage gap widens even more when broken down by race. Black women make $0.63 for every dollar, while Latina women earn $0.54 cents. For women of color, the timeline for pay equity is even longer; the IWPR found that Latina women would have to wait until 2233 and black women until 2124.

But even with statistics like these, some deny that the gender pay gap exists, or downplay its consequences. According to Ellevest, an woman-focused online investing platform, only 61 percent of men believe that men earn more than women for doing the same job. The other 39 percent of men either do not believe the gap is real, or chose not to answer the survey question. But women view things differently: 83 percent of women surveyed say they believe there is a gender wage gap. In honor of Equal Pay Day, the annual date that symbolizes when women's earnings finally catch up to what men earned the year prior, we've compiled a list of the top six arguments against the gender pay gap, and how to counter them.

1. Women leave the workforce to have kids

It's not that women want to leave their jobs to take care of their children, it's that they're forced to. "One problem is that a lot of men and women in the United States don't have paid family leave," says Kevin Miller, a senior researcher at the AAUW. Although women will take unpaid family leave, men won't, says Miller, which is due in part to gender norms. "Research has found that men in particular refuse to take family leave if it's not paid," explains Miller. "We expect women to take leadership in a way that we don't expect men." One solution to this problem is to offer all employees paid family leave. However, Miller notes that even when companies do offer paid family leave, men are still less likely to use that benefit. Discrimination against mothers also plays an important factor, says Miller. Research shows that, overall, when women in the workforce have children, they experience a pay cut. But when men have children, they receive an increase pay, which experts refer to as a "fatherhood bonus." "We see statistically that when men and women make the same choices, like having kids, that it has a different impact in that men's wages actually go up," says Miller. He also points out that rearing kids isn't a valid explanation as to why women as a whole earn less than men, because many women opt not to have children. "Even when women stay in the workforce 100 percent of the time, never have kids, never leave the workforce  we're still experiencing a pay gap," says Miller.

2. Men work harder and longer hours

While it's true that women are more likely to work part-time jobs, this doesn't play a role in the overall statistics, because the data looks at full-time workers, explains Miller. Citing the American Time Use survey, Miller notes that women spend more time doing care work, such as taking care of kids and older family members, and housework. While women are at home taking care of the domestic work, men are able to have longer continuous work hours, which research shows is given a pay premium in the workforce.. "So this unpaid second shift that women are doing," says Miller, "is subsidizing men's work." Industries that laud working long hours, such as investment banking, exemplify this pay gap. Miller notes that these industries are the ones with the highest salaries, and the highest gender pay gaps.

3. Men are more educated than women

"This is absolutely not factual," says Miller. "Women have been earning more college degrees than men for decades now." Today, women earn about 56 percent of all bachelor's degrees in the United States. In fact, women are also surpassing men in the number of earned master's degrees and doctorates, says the researcher, and they're almost reaching equity for medical and law degrees. In 2016, women earned the majority of doctoral degrees for the eighth consecutive year and they outnumber men in grad school 135 to 100, according to the American Enterprise Institute, citing a Council of Graduate Schools' report. "With a few exceptions, obviously in engineering and STEM fields," explains Miller, "women are massively more educated than men at this point." While this increase in women earning advanced degrees plays a role in shrinking the gap as a whole, says Miller, the gap is even larger when you compare men and women's earnings at the same level of education.

"These sorts of people with college degrees and advanced degrees are often in fields where there isn't really a ceiling on pay," he says. "And so men are rewarded disproportionately for the same jobs [and] for the same credentials as women."

4. Women aren't skilled negotiators

Research shows that women are less likely to negotiate job offers  and for good reason. Studies have found that when women ask for raises or try to negotiate their salary, they are viewed unfavorably and can be penalized. "Women are more likely to see a blowback to being assertive and for demanding what they're worth," explains Miller. When women ask for a raise, they are seen as high maintenance and too demanding. Conversely, when men ask for a raise they are seen as "getting what [they] deserve," says Miller. The researcher points to programs like the AAUW's salary negotiation workshop, which trains women on the skills needed to make a pitch for a raise or a promotion. However, he says that this isn't going to be the "silver bullet" to combat the pay gap, since women can't negotiate their way past gender bias and discrimination.

Sean Gallup | Getty Images

5. Men pursue higher paying careers

This one is a bit complicated, says Miller. The issue isn't that women are deliberately setting out to find lower paying jobs, but rather the jobs that women do are often valued less than men's. An analysis between 1950 and 2000 of the average salaries and occupations found that when women enter a field, the wages drop, even for men in that field, because the career is considered less valuable when more women do it. The study shows that when a large number of women became designers, wages occupation wide fell by 34 percent. When they became biologists, wages fell by 18 percent. A more recent study by Cornell University found that the difference in occupations and job types between men and women is the "single largest cause" of the gender pay gap, the New York Times reports. "It's not so much that men and women are choosing higher and lower paid fields and that's just the end of the story," explains Miller. "But when women do a job it's valued less, and when men do a job it's valued more."

6. $0.20 barely makes a difference
Check out the companies making headlines after the bell:

Analogic stock plummeted over 12 percent in the extended session. The health care and security technology company agreed to a $1.1 billion acquisition by Altaris Capital on Tuesday afternoon. Analogic will be taken private as a result of the acquisition.

Shares of Twenty-First Century Fox dropped as much as 1 percent after hours. European Commission investigators raided the company's London office on Tuesday. Fox said it is cooperating fully with the inspection.

Facebook stock gained 0.4 percent post-market. CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress Tuesday afternoon. Facebook shares had their best day in 2 years during Tuesday's session as investors appeared pleased with Zuckerberg's responses.
An employee scans a quick response (QR) code displayed on the Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay app, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding.

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial is looking to raise $9 billion in a private funding round, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.



Ant Financial owns one of China's largest payment platforms called Alipay.

The funding round could value Ant at close to $150 billion, according to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter. This valuation would make Ant Financial the most valuable private tech company in the world, ahead of Uber.

A spokesperson for Ant Financial declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

The $9 billion funding round ups a previous target of $5 billion. The last time Ant Financial raised money in the form of equity was in 2016, when it secured $4 billion, giving it a valuation of $60 billion, a source told CNBC at the time.

Ant Financial has been expanding aggressively outside of its home market of China into Europe and other parts of Asia. In Europe, Ant has struck deals with major institutions like BNP Paribas to help more merchants accept Alipay, mainly for Chinese visitors abroad.

Part of its expansion has meant investing and acquiring companies. Ant has previously invested in Paytm in India and recently bought helloPay in Singapore. In the U.S., Ant Financial announced it was buying cross-border payment service MoneyGram for $1.2 billion, though the deal eventually fell through.

Read the full WSJ story here.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in Washington D.C. Tuesday to testify before Congress about customer privacy, this after it was revealed in March that research firm Cambridge Analytica gained access to the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users. The scandal and resulting fallout have made privacy an issue of immediate concern for the wider tech industry. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently reiterated his views on the subject, taking a strong stance. "We care about the user experience. And we're not going to traffic in your personal life," Cook said of Apple. "I think it's an invasion of privacy." Cook made the comments during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Recode's Kara Swisher, which was taped in late March and aired April 6. "Privacy to us is a human right. It's a civil liberty," he said. "[I]n something that is unique to America, you know, this is like freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and privacy is right up there for us." Cook said Apple has always protected the data of its customers: "This is not something that we just started last week, when we saw something happening. We've been doing this for years."

Apple has opted to prioritize privacy in controversial situations. For example, in the wake of the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Apple resisted the FBI's request to unlock the iPhone of one of the terrorists. "The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand," Cook said in a letter to customers at the time. "The implications of the government's demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data." Ultimately, the FBI found a third-party to unlock the iPhone and the case was dropped. In the recent interview with Hayes and Swisher, Cook said Apple's stance on privacy costs the company money. "The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer. If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money," he said. "We've elected not to do that. Because ... our products are iPhones and iPads and Macs and HomePods and the Watch, etc., and if we can convince you to buy one, we'll make a little bit of money, right? "But you are not our product," said Cook. "You are our customer. You are a jewel."
Dordon Brack, pulls a semi-automatic AR-15 off the rack, that is for sale at Good Guys Guns & Range on February 15, 2018 in Orem, Utah.

Bank of America is backing away from companies that make military-style assault rifles for civilian use.

The second-biggest U.S. bank is a lender to Vista Outdoor, Remington and Sturm Ruger. During an interview Tuesday on Bloomberg television, Bank of America Vice Chairman Anne Finucane said the bank has let its gun-maker clients know "it's not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms."

In February, after 17 students and teachers died in a shooting at a Florida high school, Bank of America said it was "engaging" with its gun-maker clients "to understand what they can contribute" to stopping such violence.

On Tuesday, Finucane said, "We have had intense conversations over the last few months. And it's our intention not to finance these military-style firearms for civilian use." She said the reaction has been mixed.

"These are clients we have enjoyed a relationship with," she said. "There are those I think will reduce their portfolios and we'll work with them and others that will choose to do something else."

The move is part of a renewed national groundswell of action to prevent further gun violence, inspired by the student activists who survived the Florida shooting. Finucane is Bank of America's head of environmental, social and governance efforts and responsible for the bank's strategic positioning, according to her company biography.

Last month, Citigroup said it would bar companies with which it does business from selling guns to people under 21 years old and ban clients from selling high-capacity magazines and accessories that make guns fire bullets more rapidly.

It isn't always clear what "assault rifle" means. Many people have called for stricter limits and even outright bans on rifles such as the civilian AR-15, the gun used in the Florida shooting and other mass killings. But firearms proponents say the AR-15 is not defined as an assault rifle. Versions of the weapon are produced by several gun makers.

Major retailers that sell guns in some of their stores, including Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods, said they will restrict sales to those over 21 years old and make other changes to their policies. And several airlines, car rental companies and hotel chains have dropped rewards or discounts programs for National Rifle Association members.

BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, has said it could use its position as the biggest shareholder of some gun makers to vote against directors or support shareholder proposals. The fund company is the biggest holder of Sturm Ruger, with 16 percent, and American Outdoor Brands, with 10.5 percent.

This year, a group of nuns is leading a proposal on Sturm Ruger's shareholder proxy asking the company to do a report on what efforts it is making to research and produce safer guns and also to assess gun violence-related risks to its reputation and financial position. The company is recommending shareholders vote no on the matter.

"Like many companies, we receive proposals from well-meaning stockholders. Many are commendable, and their objectives often are aligned with our values," Sturm Ruger says in the proxy. "As evidenced by our track record of safety innovation, we believe that firearms safety is a laudable and appropriate goal. However, we also believe that adequate safety practices and procedures are available."

Jeff Cox contributed reporting
U.S. government debt yields rose on Tuesday after Chinese President Xi Jinping alleviated some trade war fears and producer price data came in hotter than Wall Street expectations.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was higher at around 2.795 percent at 4:03 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was slightly lower at 3.014 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Concerns over a potential trade war between the U.S. and China have been alleviated somewhat after Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed plans Tuesday to further open up the country's economy, with measures including lowering import tariffs on autos, enforcing legal intellectual property of foreign groups and reducing duties on other consumer products.

Xi's address appeared to boost market sentiment Tuesday, with markets in Europe and Asia trading higher during their respective sessions. U.S. futures also posted sharp gains.

U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in March, buoyed by rising health care costs and airline fees, suggesting a buildup of wholesale inflation.

The Labor Department said on Tuesday its producer price index for final demand rose 0.3 percent last month after increasing 0.2 percent in February. The so-called core PPI that excludes food, energy and trade services rose 0.4 percent last month.

Core PPI increased 2.9 percent in the 12 months through March, the biggest increase since August 2014, according to Reuters.

It was "generally a healthy print which shows price pressures at the producer level," wrote Aaron Kohli, interest rate strategist BMO Capital Markets. "What remains to be seen with tomorrow's CPI is if such gains are yet being passed onto consumers or whether such effects are mostly being absorbed by producer margins."

The Labor Department's consumer price index is due tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in New York.
One of Wall Street's leading authorities on Asia sees a trade war against China as the biggest threat to U.S. markets.

Yale University senior fellow Stephen Roach cites the dilemma as a major reason why economic fundamentals aren't as good as Wall Street believes.

"It's a negative. No one wins from this. It won't create jobs. It'll raise prices, and it will have a potential impact on our export business," Roach said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "This is just a question of how far this goes and the nature of the retaliation from the Chinese and then our own retaliation from the retaliation and so forth."

Roach, who was chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia for five years, spoke before Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans on Tuesday to open China's economy, including lowering tariffs on imported autos. Also Tuesday, the World Trade Organization said China filed a complaint challenging President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

Roach contended that stocks are in a danger zone with or without a trade war.

"The market is vulnerable to being too complacent here, and I think when the volatility settles down, we'll be working our way lower," Roach said.

He warned last December that if the right steps weren't taken, a market shock could occur. Since then, the Dow has dipped into correction territory three times.

Roach isn't calling for a full-blown recession, but he predicts a showdown between the two countries could hurt the U.S. more than China.

"The U.S. needs China for three reasons. One, cheap goods for income-constrained American consumers. Two, China is our third-largest most rapidly growing export market," he said. "Three, China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasurys."

Roach's 2014 book "Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China" depicted a fictional trade war unfolding between the U.S. and China. He notes the scenario has an "eerie resemblance" to what's happening now.

"We have a very unstable rhetorical framework coming out of Washington  on again and off again multiple times a day," Roach said. "This is one of those red-line issues for President Trump. He's been anti-China for most of his adult life. I think he would have a hard time backing down."
The stunning FBI raid that seized documents held by President Donald Trump's personal lawyer led reporters to ask Trump whether he will fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating people close to him. "Why don't I just fire Mueller?" a seething Trump said Monday, after the raid on his lawyer Michael Cohen's office and residence that was sparked by a referral from Mueller to federal prosecutors in New York. "Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens," Trump said. "Many people have said, 'You should fire him.'" That's a lot easier said than done.

Donald Trump Olivier Douliery | Pool | Getty Images

And it also might be hard for Trump to duck criminal charges if Mueller or another prosecutor finds that the president also broke the law, given events that occurred during the Watergate era and the tenure of President Bill Clinton. Here's a set of questions that will be on the minds of many people in Washington and elsewhere as Trump's battle of wills with Mueller plays out.

Can Trump fire Mueller?

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Trump "certainly believes" he has the power to fire the special counsel. But a former Watergate prosecutor has a different answer to the question. "No," said Jill Wine-Banks, who worked on the Watergate investigation of President Richard Nixon and his subordinates. That is, Trump can't fire Mueller directly. The law that created the position of special counsel allows only the attorney general of the United States or someone else with the authority of that position to fire Mueller, Wine-Banks noted. The president cannot do it. Related: How financial markets would react if Trump fired Mueller In this case, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from issues related to Mueller's probe. Therefore Mueller can only be fired by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is acting AG for the purposes of the investigation. That investigation was originally looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by Trump campaign officials with Russians, but since has expanded into other areas. "Only he can do it, and he can only do it for cause," Wine-Banks said of Rosenstein. To compare, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre" on Oct. 20, 1973. Cox had refused to drop his subpoena of Nixon's taped White House conversations. Richardson resigned rather than fire Cox, and so did his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. The third-ranking Justice Department official, Solicitor General Robert Bork, obeyed Nixon's order to fire Cox. That didn't stop the Watergate probe, which was taken over by Bork's appointee, Leon Jaworski. Wine-Banks said Trump could get rid of Mueller in the same fashion, even if Rosenstein resigned  or was fired himself  after being told to dismiss the special counsel. "Eventually, you could get somebody who would do anything the president would ask," Wine-Banks said. "It would be wrong. There would be mass protests in the streets."

What would happen to the federal government if Mueller is fired?

"I believe impeachment proceedings will commence" against Trump, said Harry Rimm, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the president would be impeached. "Even though Republican senators have suggested that firing Mueller would be suicide and create a constitutional crisis for Trump, it is unclear if there are sufficient votes for impeachment, as the House has the sole power of impeaching and the Senate has the sole power to try impeachments," Rimm added. Wine-Banks agreed. "In normal times, under normal political conditions, they would, of course, start impeachment proceedings immediately," Wine-Banks said. But "this is not normal," she added, pointing out the reluctance of most GOP lawmakers to challenge Trump, as well as the lack of the kind of bipartisan working relationships seen during the Nixon era in Congress.

Can Trump be charged with crimes without being impeached?
Xi Jinping, China's president, speaks at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao, China, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged a more open China on Tuesday, during a speech at a business forum in Boao on the southern island of Hainan. Markets in Asia were encouraged by Xi's softer tone in the brewing trade war between the U.S. and China. Here is a quick recap of what investors need to know:

The Promises

Xi highlighted action that Beijing would take to "break new ground" on opening up the Chinese economy. He promised that the new measures would turn into reality sooner rather than later. These include: Raise foreign equity limits in securities, insurers and banks

Lower auto tariffs

Ease restrictions on foreign ownership in manufacturing (ships, aircraft and autos)

Empower a new state agency to enforce intellectual property rights protection.

The Winners

There was some good news for American companies, however. Tesla is seen as the biggest potential winner. The electric vehicle (EV) company depends on imports for its sales in China, where the tariff on imported cars is 25 percent. If that tariff were to drop significantly, it could be a "game changer," Michael Dunne, founder of Automotive Resources Asia, said.

Unlike other American car-makers, Tesla does not have factories in China. Xi didn't provide any clarity on whether foreign automakers would be able to set up manufacturing facilities without Chinese joint venture partners entirely, but since Beijing wants to dominate EV technology and develop its own EV supply chain, some in China's auto industry have speculated that Tesla could receive favorable treatment. Elsewhere, J.P. Morgan and BlackRock are both looking to expand their asset management businesses in China, said Peter Alexander, founder of Z-Ben Advisors. "Among U.S. managers, the likes of JPM, Blackrock and Invesco are currently the best positioned. They've been strategically adept  more than others  and have multiple platforms to access the China market," he said. Met Life has its toe in the Chinese market and could also benefit, said Sam Radwan, CEO of ENHANCE International. He added that the life insurance industry would likely see changes first.

The Promise Fatigue

However, there's a reason why so many American business executives in China were underwhelmed by Xi's pledged reforms. The decision to lift foreign equity caps was announced at the end of 2017 and the mechanisms to achieve this are already underway. Other policies, such as the lowering of auto tariffs, are not seen as meaningful since most U.S. cars that are sold in China are made in China.
As the averages bounced back on Tuesday after a late-Monday decline, CNBC's Jim Cramer noticed a particular commodity roaring with them: oil. "I've been telling you repeatedly that we need to be more cautious on fossil fuels in general as there's a whole new generation of money managers who views all these companies as kind of the moral equivalent of tobacco," the "Mad Money" host said. "But there's no denying that crude oil is doing very well here as the Middle East heats up." To make sense of the action and find the best investments in the energy space, Cramer turned to technician Bob Lang, the founder of ExplosiveOptions.net and part of TheStreet.com's Trifecta Stocks newsletter team.

Oil

Cramer warned that the top energy investments were not obvious: while energy giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron performed strongly on Tuesday, they have lagged the sector for months, partially due to their exposure to natural gas. "When you look the next tier down, though, in terms of size, there are some real nice Cramer winners here [like] Anadarko as well as ConocoPhillips," Cramer said, noting that each stocks is up over 10 percent since the start of 2018. Lang started by looking at the daily chart of Anadarko, one of the market's top big-cap oil stocks. He liked the series of higher highs and higher lows the stock has made since its February lows, particularly since the moves have been backed by a high volume of investing activity. "Don't forget, for technicians, volume is like a polygraph: it lets you know when a move is telling the truth," Cramer explained. "To Lang, this is a clue that big institutional money managers are buying Anadarko here  always a positive sign." Better yet, Lang noticed that the moving average convergence divergence line, a key indicator that helps predict changes in a stock's direction before they occur, is about to make a bullish crossover. That could push the stock above its $63 ceiling and take it to $70 a share, Lang said. Lang also had a rosy outlook for the stock of ConocoPhillips. Shares of the oil and gas play recently made a W-shaped bottom, hitting a low and successfully retesting it. During the retest, Lang noticed the MACD indicator sending a "buy" signal. Since then, the stock has taken off. Better yet, the Chaikin Money Flow oscillator, which tracks the level of buying and selling pressure on a given stock, turned positive a few weeks ago, a sign that institutional investors were buying in. And while Lang expects ConocoPhillips' shares to stall after their run higher, he could see the stock running from its $62 level to the $70s.

Solar

"Now, when oil gets its groove back, the pin action also extends to other parts of the market," Cramer said. "When oil's expensive, there's a lot more demand for alternative energy sources, hence why the solar stocks broke down when oil collapsed in 2014 and why they've been making a monster comeback of late." The daily chart of First Solar supported this theory. After a jump higher in March, shares of the solar energy play have been consolidating on low volume, which Lang interpreted as a sign that institutional buyers are staying in the stock. "The fact that First Solar put up this kind of trajectory during a difficult month makes it stand out to chartists like Lang," Cramer said. "After First Solar spends some more time trading sideways, Lang expects it to rally past this ceiling of resistance. The stock's currently at $70, he sees it going to the $80s before too long." The "Mad Money" host added a caveat: "This is Lang's favorite name in the space, but it's run up a lot, more than doubling. I say stay calm. Be a little cautious." Lang also liked the daily chart of Solaredge Technologies, another renewable stock that has doubled in just the last seven months. Like First Solar, shares of Solaredge have been consolidating lately on low volume, suggesting that the big money is not yet ready to sell. Better yet, after a major surge in late February and March, the Chaikin Money Flow oscillator has ebbed, but is still in positive territory  also a bullish sign as the stock digests its gains. "Bottom line? The charts, as interpreted by Bob Lang, suggest that some of the better performing oils and solar stocks could have more room to run," Cramer said. "Anadarko, ConocoPhillips, First Solar and Solaredge all managed to at least partially defy the gravitational pull of the averages  Lang's betting these winners will keep on winning. I think he makes a compelling argument, although I'd be more selective. I say stick with long-term Cramer-faves Anadarko and old friend First Solar."

WATCH: Cramer's charts bullish on top oil and solar stocks
The stock market might be up even more Tuesday if it weren't for the shock FBI raid of the office of President Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday.

"I don't think people realize [that] this doesn't happen," said Cramer, who holds a law degree from Harvard. "I don't think people are saying how incredible it is."

"You typically do not raid a lawyer's office," Cramer told "Squawk on the Street." "When you go in and raid a lawyer's office, well it takes the highest part of justice, not [Robert] Mueller. You have to have the Justice Department check off on this. This is a rather amazing thing, it's what every lawyer fears."

Prosecutors in New York obtained a search warrant and on Monday raided Cohen's office and home, following a referral from Mueller, the special counsel in charge of the Russia probe.

Cohen is being investigated for crimes possibly related to bank fraud and campaign finance violations, according to The Washington Post. The FBI is seeking evidence related to the payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.



"The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Stephen Ryan, Cohen's lawyer, said Monday. "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients," Ryan said.



Cramer, host of "Mad Money," said it's a "dicey decision" as to whether the raid was a violation of attorney-client privilege. "If you have anyone involved in this investigation you are frightened."

On Tuesday morning, Trump fired back in a tweet that "attorney-client privilege is dead."

@realDonaldTrum: Attorneyclient privilege is dead!

Investigators must clear a high legal standard if they want to secure a search warrant for a lawyer's office, according to Justice Department guidelines.

 CNBC's Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
Deutsche Bank's outgoing CEO John Cryan was taking too long to revamp and revive the German lender, according to the bank's chairman. The German bank decided Sunday to appoint a new chief executive officer, Christian Sewing, its fourth leader in six years. Deutsche Bank has been struggling over the last few years, posting a 497 million euro ($612 million) loss for 2017, compared to the 290 million euro loss that Reuters analysts had estimated. This marked the third consecutive annual loss for the bank. Paul Achleitner, the chairman of the bank's supervisory board, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung late Monday that Cryan had undoubtedly made a name for himself with Deutsche Bank and made many big decisions. But, he added that the speed at which the board made decisions and enforced them was hindered during his tenure. Achleitner stated that the bank announced a capital increase a year ago when the share price was about 17 euros. Last week, the share price was temporarily below 11 euros, he added.

Questions on future of investment banking

Deutsche Bank's investment unit, in particular, has struggled over the last couple of years against increased market competition, in both trading and deal advising. However, the decision to appoint Christian Sewing  an expert in commercial banking  has raised doubts as to whether Deutsche Bank will reduce its investment banking activity.

John Cryan, CEO of Deutsche Bank Daniel Roland | AFP | Getty Images

Deutsche Bank is the "only German bank, truly German bank, which is able to play in both fields, so it's something like a bridge from Germany into the international capital markets," Hans-Peter Burghof, professor of banking at Hohenheim University, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Tuesday about the bank's commercial and investment sides. "But playing both is somehow a conflict of culture, they never get over this conflict," he added.

According to Burghof, the commercial side of the bank blames the bad performance of the investment side for its losses. However, the investment unit brags that in good times it is responsible for any stellar profits, he added. If Sewing were to concentrate just on the retail side, then "the bank will become too small and not special anymore," Burghof said.

'Who would like to do it?'
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (C) leaves the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) after meeting with Feinstein on Capitol Hill on April 9, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Facebook is desperately trying to mend its damaged reputation following the continued fallout of a massive data scandal. Alongside London-based elections consultancy Cambridge Analytica, the social media giant is at the center of an ongoing dispute over the alleged harvesting and use of personal data. The allegations have heightened concerns over whether such data was then used to try and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit vote. Ahead of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, CNBC takes a look at exactly how the tech behemoth ended up in the midst of a media firestorm.

April 21, 2010  Facebook launches Open Graph

In April 2010, Facebook announced the launch of a platform called Open Graph to third-party apps. This update allowed external developers to reach out to Facebook users and request permission to access a large chunk of their personal data  and, crucially, to access their Facebook friends' personal data too. If accepted, these apps would then have access to a user's name, gender, location, birthday, education, political preferences, relationship status, religious views, online chat status and more. In fact, with additional permissions, external sites could also gain access to a person's private messages. Less than five weeks after Facebook launched Open Graph API version 1.0 for developers, Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he vowed to resolve users' concerns about how their personal information was being managed. He said: "We have also heard that some people don't understand how their personal information is used and worry that it is shared in ways they don't want. I'd like to clear that up now."

2013  'Thisisyourdigitallife'

Cambridge academic Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research created an app called "thisisyourdigitallife" in 2013. The app prompted users to answer questions for a psychological profile.

Signs for company Cambridge Analytica in the lobby of the building in which they are based on March 21, 2018 in London, England. Getty Images

Almost 300,000 users were thought to have been paid to take the psychological test  with the app then harvesting their personal data. It also gathered data from their Facebook friends, which reportedly resulted in Kogan having access to the data of millions of Facebook profiles.

2014  Rule changes

In 2014, Facebook adapted its rules to limit a developer's access to user data. This change was made to ensure a third-party was not able to access a user's friends' data without gaining permission first. However, the rule changes were not retroactively imposed and Kogan did not delete the data thought to have been improperly acquired.

December 11, 2015  Ted Cruz

In late 2015, The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica was helping Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. The report suggested the Republican candidate was using psychological data based on research spanning tens of millions of Facebook users in an attempt to gain an advantage over his political rivals  including Donald Trump.

Republican presidential candidates businessman Donald Trump (L) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz shake hands before the start of the Republican Presidential Debate in Las Vegas on Dec. 15, 2015. Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

In response to the story, Facebook said that when it learned about the data leaks, it sought to ban Kogan's app and legally pressured both Kogan and Cambridge Analytica to remove all of the data they had improperly acquired. The social media giant claims both Kogan and the London-based elections consultancy firm certified that the data had been deleted.

2016  Donald Trump

Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Trump's campaign team began investing heavily in Facebook ads. The move involved the help of Cambridge Analytica and  during an undercover sting operation  the company's managing director, Mark Turnbull, told Britain's Channel 4 News that the firm was responsible for the "Defeat Crooked Hilary" video campaign on Facebook.

March 17, 2018  Expose

In an explosive expose published in mid-March, The Guardian and The New York Times initially reported that 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested for Cambridge Analytica in a major data scandal. This number was later revised to as many as 87 million Facebook profiles. The articles sought to outline how the data of millions of Facebook users ended up being given to Cambridge Analytica.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie on March 26, 2018, in London, England. Dan Kitwood | Getty Images

Christopher Wylie, a co-founder of the political data analytics firm, revealed the alleged practices to both newspapers. Wylie claimed the data sold to Cambridge Analytica was then used to develop "psychographic" profiles of people and deliver pro-Trump material to them online. Cambridge Analytica has since denied any of Kogan's data was used in connection to the Trump campaign.

March 20, 2018  FTC launch inquiry

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into whether Facebook had violated a settlement reached with the U.S. government agency in 2011 over user privacy protections. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers urged Zuckerberg to testify before Congress.

March 21, 2018  Zuckerberg breaks his silence

In a Facebook post published several days after the initial reports, Zuckerberg eventually responded to the continued fallout over the data scandal. He said: "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you. I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Getty Images

Zuckerberg also announced the social media giant would no longer allow app developers to access its users' data after three months of inactivity and it would reduce the amount of information people are required to hand over to third parties. Facebook would also look to audit all apps with access to large amounts of data before 2014, he added.

March 25, 2018  'Sorry we didn't do more'

Around two weeks after the reports were published, Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in a number of British and American newspapers to apologize for a "breach of trust." "I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to ensure this doesn't happen again," he said in ads appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal in the U.S., as well as in the U.K.'s The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express and The Sunday Telegraph.

April 10, 2018  Time to testify
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg needs to thread the needle this week by answering lawmakers' questions without "hanging himself," online privacy advocate Michael Fertik told CNBC on Tuesday.

Fertik, founder and executive chairman Reputation.com, pointed out that Facebook could in theory face more than $2 trillion in fines if the Federal Trade Commission were to conclude the Cambridge Analytica data scandal violated the consent decree the social network signed with the agency seven years ago.

However, few industry watchers, including Fertik, believe any potential fines would reach anywhere near that level.

In 2011, Facebook agreed to settle charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on the platform private, and then allowing that data to be shared and made public, according to the FTC at the time. The deal called for levies of $40,000 per violation.

Facebook has denied any violation of its agreement with the FTC, which said it's investigating the matter.

"One of the things we have not discussed enough is whether this $40,000 per violation penalty that could be levied against Facebook," Fertik said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "It may reflect heavily what Facebook has to say, what Mark Zuckerberg has to say today because he may [want] ... to make sure he's not hanging himself." Fertik's firm, Reputation.com, helps businesses earn better ratings and reviews across the social web.

The number of Facebook users whose information was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica was initially estimated at 50 million, which multiplied by $40,000 would by $2 trillion. On April 4, Facebook said up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook shares closed at about $185 per share on March 16, just before the Cambridge Analytica matter broke. Since then, Facebook has lost 14.5 percent as of Monday's close. But it still has a stock market value of more than $450 billion.

Zuckerberg goes before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday and the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, speaking with "Squawk Box" before the hearing, said he's not rushing to regulate Facebook. But he said he asked Zuckerberg in a meeting on Monday how consumers can meaningfully consent to long and complex privacy agreements. Thune, who represents South Dakota, is the Senate's third-ranking Republican.

Fertik took it a step further, appealing to Zuckerberg to "get past the myth that a click to consent" on a 1,000-word document means consumers understand what they are agreeing to. Fertik also called for "privacy controls in really plain English, all in one place, right in the middle of your feed when you log in."
Over the course of the last month, the chatter around the technology sector has largely centered around one story: Facebook.



The Cambridge Analytica data scandal broke in mid-March, when the tech space and the broader market were already under pressure amid a sector rotation. The social media giant's privacy scandal weighed further on the group, sending the S&P 500 technology sector skidding into correction territory and just bouncing back to lead the market in Monday trading.



Facebook stock has actually outperformed its social peers in one month's time. While Facebook shares have tumbled 15 percent in the last month, Snap and Twitter shares have dropped 21 percent in the same time.



Max Wolff, chief economist at The Phoenix Group, told CNBC's "Trading Nation" that this pattern is about to end as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg readied his congressional testimony for Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are his reasons why.



 While it may make sense to see Facebook stock slammed as hard as it has been, it is less intuitive to think Facebook shares would not be the biggest loser since its privacy scandal came to light. But Facebook hasn't slid as much as Snap and Twitter.



 It is likely that congressional committee members will ask tough questions of Zuckerberg as they relate to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the company's handling of private information, which would in turn raise uncomfortable questions for the entire social media landscape.



 There may be some specific concerns about when and how disclosures around Facebook's privacy scandal came to light, which would in turn further weigh on Facebook shares.



Bottom line: Though Facebook shares are in a correction, the stock is still outperforming Snap and Twitter in one month's time. That will likely end, according to one economist.
Shares of U.S. automakers jumped Tuesday after China's president unveiled a plan to "open" the country's economy.

Tesla rose 5.2 percent while Fiat Chrysler climbed 2 percent. Ford Motor rose 1.8 percent and General Motors gained 3.3 percent. China is a key market for U.S. automakers. European automakers also rose, with BMW climbing 3 percent.

GM sold more than 4 million cars in China last year for the first time, while Tesla doubled its revenue from China to $2 billion in 2017.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said his plans include "significantly" lowering import tariffs on foreign autos and decreasing duties of other products.

"We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," Xi said at the Boao Forum for Asia, according to a translation of the speech.

Xi's comments come amid increasing trade tensions between the U.S. and China. In response to U.S. tariff plans, China announced fresh levies last week on 106 U.S. products, which then saw President Donald Trump threatening more duties.

The U.S. softened its tone slightly against China this weekend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CBS on Sunday he does not expect a trade war between the U.S. and China to take place.

Meanwhile, Trump said in a tweet Sunday: "President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do."

Tweet
The FBI raids conducted against President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney have sent shockwaves through Republican leadership ranks as Democrats look to flip both houses of Congress in November's midterm elections.

Political operatives close to congressional GOP leadership are shaken after the FBI raided the office and residence of the lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Monday. These external advisors spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity as they are heavily involved with the elections.

Republican political advisors think the issue could push voters away from the GOP agenda and give Democrats a big boost in the midterms.

"Among strategists, concern is at an all-caps level," said one Republican strategist who is close to Senate leaders.

The reason for the fear, this strategist said, comes from uncertainty about how the president may react, including possibly firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who reportedly made the referral leading to the Cohen raid, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who reportedly signed off on the raids.

Trump on Monday called the investigation "an attack on our nation."

There also appears to be a concern, the strategist said, about potential charges being brought against Cohen, who is one of Trump's closest confidants. Cohen is known to have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump Organization.

"Most operatives are monitoring the situation closely with the hope for some sign of relief," the strategist said. "I don't think anybody knows what to expect. To us, the unknown is the scariest part."

Another strategist close to GOP leaders shared similar concerns  and called for Republicans to distance themselves from the situation before it hurts them in November.

"I imagine people are watching closely while trying to stay as far away as possible," the GOP operative told CNBC.
Add the Republican governor of Texas to those expressing optimism that negotiators for the U.S., Mexico and Canada will succeed in reworking the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who's running for a second term, said Monday on CNBC: "There were tensions early. But there's been great work that's been accomplished. It looks like we will cross the goal line in a way to make NAFTA even better."

Those tensions came in the form of President Donald Trump blasting NAFTA and threatening to rip it up ever since the 2016 campaign. In countless speeches and tweets Trump said he's willing to pull the U.S. out of the agreement if a better one can't be reached.

"We export almost $100 billion of goods and services every single year to Mexico, for example. Canada is our second-largest trading partner," Abbott told "Squawk Box." "Texas has a lot on the line. U.S. has a lot on the line. I think we will negotiate a deal that will be beneficial to everybody."

Asked whether he believes NAFTA needs to be reworked, Abbott said it "had to be updated" due to challenges presented by new technology and thorny intellectual property issues.

Negotiations to overhaul NAFTA began last year after Trump took office. In the latest round of talks in Washington last week, trade officials said progress has been made. But sources told Reuters a deal in principle is unlikely to be announced at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru.

Trump won't be attending the Friday and Saturday summit, as originally planned. Vice President Mike Pence will go instead. The White House announced Tuesday the president will remain in the U.S. to monitor the situation in Syria.

Abbott spoke to CNBC before Trump canceled his trip to the summit.

 Reuters contributed to this report
laid out plans for several key areas to make the domestic economy more accessible to foreign businesses.

In a wide-ranging speech Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out plans for several key areas to make the domestic economy more accessible to foreign businesses. His remarks at the Boao Forum for Asia alleviated market fears about a U.S.-China trade war and U.S. stocks soared with the Dow Jones industrial average closing more than 400 points higher. While Xi has addressed these areas of reform previously, Tuesday's comments contrasted with defensive statements from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce last week in the wake of escalating trade tensions with the U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he is "very thankful" for Xi's "kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers ... also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers." Here are some of the highlights of Xi's remarks, and some U.S. industries or companies that may benefit:

Increasing imports

"China does not seek [a] trade surplus. We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," Xi said, according to a translation of the speech. The Chinese president also highlighted the first China International Import Expo, set to take place in Shanghai in November, and said it will be an annual event. Boosting imports helps Beijing in its yearslong effort to transition the country from being manufacturing base dependent on exports into a consumption-driven economy. Macquarie's China economist, Larry Hu, expects the country could import more medicine, energy and large aircraft. "Note that China only put smaller planes on its retaliation list to the U.S. but excluded the 747 and other big planes," Hu said in a Tuesday report.

Autos

Beijing will significantly lower tariffs on imports of automobiles, and also loosen restrictions on foreign ownership in the auto sector, Xi said. Less than 24 hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that China's 25 percent tariff on U.S.-made cars versus a 2.5 percent tariff on Chinese-made cars in the U.S. was "stupid trade." China is a key market for major U.S. automakers, and shares of GM and Ford climbed nearly 3.3 percent and almost 1.8 percent Tuesday, respectively. General Motors said in January that China was its largest retail market for a sixth straight year, benefiting from record domestic sales by the Cadillac, Buick and Baojun brands. GM and its joint ventures sold more than 4 million vehicles in China for the first time in 2017, an increase of 4.4 percent. Ford announced in December that it plans to grow its China revenue by 50 percent by 2025 versus 2017. China is Tesla's second-largest source of revenue after the U.S., and sales in the Asian nation doubled to $2 billion in 2017 from the prior year, according to a 10-K filing. Shares closed nearly 5.2 percent higher.

Financial services

China will speed up its efforts to open up the insurance industry and ease restrictions on the establishment of foreign financial firms domestically, Xi said. The country will also open up more areas of cooperation between Chinese and foreign financial markets, he said, according to an English-language report by Xinhua state media. Xi also reiterated that China will allow greater foreign investment in banking, securities and insurance. "We will ensure that these measures are materialized," he said, according to a translation. The statements come as China has been slowly opening up its historically closed financial markets to global investors. Franklin Resources, BlackRock and Invesco top UBS' list of U.S. asset managers best positioned to operate in China, according to an April 4 report. Among the major U.S. investment banks, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi have an edge over their peers, the UBS report said.

Protecting intellectual property rights

Xi said China will step up enforcement of intellectual property rights protection and significantly raise the cost for offenders. "We encourage normal technological exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and protect the lawful IPR owned by foreign enterprises in China," he said, according to an English translation by Xinhua state media. The latest annual survey released in January from the American Chamber of Commerce in China found that more than half of member respondents said they still believe intellectual property leakage and data security threats are higher in China than other parts of the world. "U.S. industries that could benefit from positive enforcement action by China are aviation, AI/machine learning, sensors, semiconductor manufacturing and design, and perhaps copyrighted software," David Pratt, managing director of M-CAM International, said in an email. M-CAM maintains an archive of documents related to patents and other intangible assets from many countries. "As China makes advances in artificial intelligence, sensor technologies, aviation manufacturing and semiconductor fabrication among other sectors, its stake in effective IP enforcement has been growing," Pratt said.

WATCH: Xi renews pledge to open economy
If the client is not the client, then there are no confidences or secrets to protect. In the case of then Mr. Trump's and now President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen, whose residence and office were the subject of a search warrant executed by the FBI, if Mr. Trump did not know then, that Mr. Cohen was acting as his attorney in resolving the Stormy Daniels matter with a payment of $130,000, then there is no attorney-client relationship.

And therefore no privilege. Mr. Cohen can be asked about the payment because the client didn't know about it.

The rules say that the attorney is supposed to advance the client's objectives, which means the client has to give the instructions  the guidance. If Mr. Cohen acts without Mr. Trump's knowledge, then Mr. Cohen is not advancing the client's objectives and the rule has been broken. If Mr. Cohen goes ahead and settles a case and pays the money for the settlement without Mr. Trump knowing about it, he has not followed the client's directives. The rule has been broken.

The rulebook says that the communications between an attorney and his client are supposed to be confidential. So, if someone else is present for the conversation who is not an attorney or has not been engaged by the attorney to help the client legally, then the privilege is destroyed. And apparently, if Mr. Trump was not present for any of the conversations, how can they be privileged in the first place?
A top Republican senator said Tuesday he does not necessarily want to pass legislation regulating Facebook amid concerns about user privacy.

"I'm not rushing to do that," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

His comments came ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Tuesday afternoon testimony before Thune's committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Zuckerberg will face questions about the revelation that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica may have misused the personal information of up to 87 million people. He will also likely get grilled about the use of his platform on Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

Thune, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said he hopes to find out at the hearing how far-reaching the misuse of personal data is. The South Dakota senator also wants to find out what Facebook is doing on its own to prevent the abuse of user information.
Shares in LVMH hit record highs on Tuesday and the rally extended to its luxury goods rivals, after the owner of fashion labels like Christian Dior signaled strong momentum for the sector with better-than-expected first-quarter sales growth.

The upbeat start to the year for LVMH, the industry's biggest company, sets an encouraging tone for peers and points to enduring demand from Chinese consumers, which sustained strong earnings at many luxury firms last year.

LVMH, which derives the biggest slice of sales from its mega-brand Louis Vuitton, reported a 13 percent sales rise from a year earlier on a like-for-like basis, which strips out currency swings and sales and acquisitions.

That beat expectations for an increase of around 9 percent in the January-to-March period.

LVMH shares were up 5.2 percent in early session trading, touching record highs.

The shares of its French rival Kering, owner of Italian fashion brand Gucci, also briefly touched record highs and were trading 3.3 percent higher, while Britain's Burberry also climbed 1.7 percent.

"LVMH's results confirm the ongoing strong underlying trends in the market," analysts at Berenberg said in a note.

Rebounding Asian appetite for luxury goods, especially from a younger generation of shoppers comfortable with buying big-ticket items online, is a major motor for the industry.

But headwinds still lurk and investors have been seeking reassurance that the sector's revival was not running out of steam, especially as earnings comparisons against a strong 2017 may not be as favorable.

A strong euro is still a disadvantage, as it can put off foreign shoppers and can hurt sales made in other currencies and converted back into euros.

Currencies had a 10 percent negative impact on LVMH's sales in the first quarter, more than some analysts had expected, although some added that the company should be able to mitigate this risk in future by hiking prices.

Trade tensions between the United States and China, meanwhile, could have a knock-on effect on the sector if they hurt Chinese consumer sentiment, analysts at BNP Paribas said earlier this week.
The aging presidential helicopter fleet just got closer to its much-needed $1 billion-plus upgrade, as test models are now on track for government testing this year.

"We just completely installed the interior this week, and so those two test aircraft will get to the government this year for testing," Sikorsky program director Spencer Elani said Monday during a briefing at the Sea-Air-Space conference, the largest maritime expo in the United States.

The latest step is a "key milestone," Elani said. The test helicopters would not be able to undergo advanced test flights without an interior.

The first of the six new helicopters for the fleet is slated to enter service in 2020, and production of all the aircraft is expected to finish in 2023.

The current fleet is composed of 19 helicopters, the oldest of which were built around 1975  making them older than President Donald Trump's grown children.

Sikorsky, a unit of Lockheed Martin, is under contract to deliver the next set of helicopters, which are referred to by their military designation, VH-92A, and are known as Marine One when the president rides in them.

Much like their sister aircraft, Air Force One, little is known about Marine One helicopters and the pilots tasked to fly them.

"It's carpeted, and there are 12 seats for the president and other passengers," Elani told CNBC when asked to share more details.

The helicopters, dubbed "white tops" for their signature paint job, are flown by pilots from the Marine Helicopter Squadron One, better known as HMX-1 or "Nighthawks."

They are equipped with ballistic armor, secure communication lines to the White House and Pentagon, and antimissile defenses.

"It's also very quiet, so much so that you can have a conversation," Elani said, noting that the helicopter is "a smooth and comfortable ride."
There will always be a version of Facebook that users can access without paying, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in congressional testimony on Tuesday. But his phrasing suggests the company has at least considered a paid version.

"Yes, there will always be a version of Facebook that is free," Zuckerberg said during a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees.

Zuckerberg testified in Congress on Tuesday in the first of two hearings over Facebook's data privacy issues. The company is facing questions following reports data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the personal data of as many as 87 million Facebook users through a quiz app.

In an interview with "Today," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said allowing Facebook users to opt out of sharing their information with advertisers would require a paid model but didn't say that any such change was forthcoming. Zuckerberg did not deny the company was looking at a paid options, but emphasized the company always wants to offer a service accessible to everyone.

"I think what Sheryl was saying is in order to not run ads at all we would need some sort of business model," he said. "To be clear, we don't offer an option today for people to pay to not show ads. We think offering people an ad-supported service is the most aligned with our mission of trying to connect everyone in the world, because we want to offer a free service that everyone can afford. That's the only way we can reach billions of people."

When asked how Facebook funds its free platform, Zuckerberg said the company relies on advertising.

"Senator, we run ads," he said.

Shares were up 5 percent during Zuckerberg's testimony.

Note: NBC's "Today" and CNBC share parent company NBCUniversal.
Ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli arrives at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in June, 2017.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered "pharma bro" scammer Martin Shkreli to immediately pay a defrauded hedge fund investor about $388,000 in restitution, roughly half of what the investor asked for.

The order comes a month after Judge Kiyo Matsumoto sentenced Shkreli to seven years in prison for defrauding that investor, Richard Kocher, and a number other people, as well as for conspiring to manipulate stock shares.

In addition to his prison sentence, Matsumoto also imposed a fine of $75,000 on the 35-year-old Shkreli and ordered him to forfeit almost $7.4 million in assets to the federal government.

Kocher, a New Jersey builder, was the only one of Shkreli's investors to seek restitution for damages from the crimes.

Those crimes were related to Shkreli misleading Kocher and other investors about key details of his two hedge funds, sending them phony financial performance statements and refusing to redeem their investments when they asked.

Both funds effectively went belly up after Shkreli's purported stock picking acumen turned out to be a charade.

But the investors ended up getting back their original investments, and even more money, after Shkreli paid them off with a combination of stock and cash from a new pharmaceuticals company he had founded, Retrophin.

Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, had argued that given that fact, none of the investors were entitled to restitution under the law.

But Kocher, who had originally invested $200,000 in Shkreli's fund, claimed he was entitled to nearly $779,000 in restitution.

That claim was based on the fact that Shkreli delayed, for months, repaying Kocher his investment stake when Kocher told him in early 2013 he needed it to finance a real estate deal in New Jersey.

Kocher said that because he was not able to get his money back from Shkreli when he needed it, he was forced to take on a partner in the transaction.

And when the deal came to fruition, Kocher has said, he had to pay that partner $769,477 as a share of its profits.

"Had Mr. Shkreli not defrauded Mr. Kocher, Mr. Kocher would have been able to use his own money as funding for the real estate investment, and would not have had to take on a partner," Matsumoto noted in her order Tuesday.

Kocher asked Matsumoto to order Shkreli to pay him what Kocher had to give his partner for the deal. He also wanted Shkreli to cover the legal costs he incurred in trying to redeem his MSMB hedge funds investment and more than $200 in costs related to his testimony at Shkreli's trial.

Matsumoto, however, said Shkreli would have to pay Kochher only $388,336.49.

That amount, the judge noted, represents Kocher's lost profits from the real estate deal and his legal costs related to the hedge fund fraud, less the value of the $390,421.14 in Retrophin stock and cash he previously got as a settlement from Shkreli.

A message left at Kocher's office requesting comment on Matsumoto's order was not immediately answered.

Shkreli's lawyer Brafman declined to comment on the order.

Brafman last month filed a notice of appeal of Shkreli's conviction.

That appeal will play out while Shkreli remains locked up in federal custody in a Brooklyn, New York, jail, where he has been since last September.

Shkreli landed in jail when Matsumoto revoked his $5 million bail after saying he represented a threat because of his offer of a $5,000 bounty for each strand of hair from the head of Hillary Clinton provided to him by his Facebook followers.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has yet to disclose where it intends to send Shkreli to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Brafman has asked for Shkreli to do his time in a minimum security federal camp adjacent to the U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in northeastern Pennsylvania, or another such facility near New York City. Matsumoto has endorsed Brafman's request, but her recommendation is not binding.

Shkreli gained notoriety in 2015 while heading another drug company, then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, and raising the price of its drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent. The drug is used to treat a parasitic condition found in pregnant women, babies and HIV-infected people.
Questions surround the work of U.S. Attorney John Huber, who is playing a key role in one of the multiple investigations surrounding President Trump and the Justice Department.

Known as a no-nonsense prosecutor whose primary experience is fighting violent crime, the U.S. attorney for Utah is an appointee of President Obama whose job was saved by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) when Trump asked state attorneys to resign so that he could field a new slate of professionals.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions quietly tapped Huber  apparently last fall  to work in tandem with the Justice Department's inspector general to determine whether conservative allegations of abuse at the FBI and the Justice Department merit investigation.

More from The Hill:

Top Trump security adviser Tom Bossert resigning

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It's an unusual arrangement, and one that fall short of demands from the right that Sessions name a second special counsel. That idea has generated controversy, with critics saying the second appointee would inevitably impede the work of special counsel Robert Mueller.

The administration has provided few public details about Huber's assignment beyond a lengthy message from Sessions to Congress in which he argued that his appointment should be sufficient to address the concerns raised by GOP lawmakers.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on his budget or what Sessions meant when he said that Huber is working "in cooperation" with Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Horowitz's office also declined to comment.

White House officials see Huber as a second special counsel in everything but name because he has the authority to prosecute, a task the inspector general has to refer to a U.S. attorney.

But outside the White House, there is less certainty about his role. Some of the more vocal conservative advocates of appointing a second special counsel aren't mollified. One former senior Justice Department official called the appointment "window dressing  more aimed at placating Congress than anything else."

Brett Tolman, who was the U.S. attorney for Utah prior to Huber and a former counsel in the Senate Judiciary Committee under Hatch, also said the appointment is "form over substance  to pacify those that might be clamoring for [a second special counsel]."

"If there's a means to justify John Huber and it's being touted as a special prosecutor, then why not appoint a special prosecutor? And if there's not, then why not let the [inspector general] handle this, which is the traditional and historical avenue for dealing with investigation of DOJ and the FBI?" he said.

Both critics and supporters of Huber's appointment say that they can think of no precedent for the arrangement. While it's not unusual for an inspector general to work with a U.S. attorney if there is potentially criminal activity, notes former U.S. Attorney John Wood, it is usually in the district where the conduct occurred.

The benefit of the Sessions arrangement, said legal scholar Jonathan Turley, is that it could allow for the expedition of any criminal inquiries at a point in the inspector general investigation where Horowitz would normally need help from a U.S. attorney. (Turley is an opinions contributor for The Hill.)

Supporters of the arrangement say that the selection of Huber  as a U.S. attorney appointed under two administrations working outside of the Beltway  will inject confidence in whatever conclusions he reaches about the need for further investigation or prosecution.

"I think it's an inspired choice," said Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who both heard cases that Huber was prosecuting and later litigated against Huber as an attorney. "However this thing comes out, one side or the other will be convinced that the fix was in. You need to find somebody that has respect from both parties and someone who is outside the ordinary political process."

But, he said, "This is not some kind of a feel-good exercise. I think this a serious request to a serious prosecutor to take a serious look at this situation and give his assessment of it."

Huber is not unfamiliar with Washington. He raised eyebrows when he appeared at a White House podium last year to tout a pair of House bills that would have bolstered elements of Trump's immigration agenda; Sessions has promoted that agenda heavily at the Justice Department. Critics said the appearance showed an inappropriate closeness between the Trump White House and the Justice Department.

Afterwards, Huber took a leadership position on an influential committee of U.S. attorneys that advises Sessions. (He was originally appointed to the panel by Obama-era Attorney General Loretta Lynch.)

"In a lot of respects, I think John Huber has become one of [Sessions's] go-to men," Tolman said.

One key difference between Huber and a special counsel is the level of autonomy  and presumably resources  he has. According to Sessions, Huber provides him with regular updates about his work.

Sessions did not close the door on appointing a second special counsel if Huber recommends it  although he has repeatedly indicated misgivings about such an appointment.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have all called for a second special counsel to investigate a variety of different conservative allegations related to the Obama-era Justice Department.

Republicans have urged the Justice Department to investigate putative wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation, as well as the 2010 sale of a Toronto-based uranium company with U.S. holdings to a Russian state-owned firm  a sale Trump has also repeatedly highlighted.

They have also demanded a probe into how the Obama Justice Department handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State. Horowitz is expected to issue a report in his investigation into the matter as soon as April.

More recently, Republicans have pushed for a probe into allegations of surveillance abuse raised by a controversial memo authored by staff for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

The inspector general announced last week that he is launching a separate investigation into those allegations.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari visits Ebonyi State in the south east of the country to commission projects on November 14, 2017.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is to contest his party's nomination for next February's presidential election, leading to a rather downbeat reaction on the Nigerian stock exchange.

Stocks in Lagos dropped over 1 percent after his announcement Monday, Reuters reported, hitting a three-month low. Sentiment remained subdued Tuesday as stocks hovered around the flatline.

In fact, Nigeria's stocks have been on a downwards trajectory for over a month.

Buhari's leadership of late has been subject to speculation over his health, for which he sought treatment in London for several months last year. The president, 75, has not disclosed the reason for the treatment.

He is currently in the U.K. for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in London next week.

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In 2015, Buhari was the first Nigerian opposition leader to win an election. Representing the center-left All Progressives Congress (APC), he beat then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan. Buhari previously ruled Nigeria in the 1980s as head of a military regime.

But, Nigeria has struggled on both its economic and security fronts since Buhari's landmark election victory.

In late March, it emerged that Nigeria's national budget announcement, initially planned for January, had been pushed back to the end of May.

The country experienced its first full-year recession in 25 years in 2016, with its economy hit by low oil prices. Economic growth remains sluggish, expected by the International Monetary Fund to be 1.9 percent for 2018, well below the emerging market average of 4.9 percent.

But, there has been some economic positive news. Nigeria's state revenue for February edged up by 19 billion naira ($53 million), thanks to higher crude oil exports and prices.

Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa, and with over 180 million inhabitants is the continent's largest population. In its manifesto, the APC pledged to create 1 million new jobs per year.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram continues to threaten the security of civilians in the northeast of the country. Meanwhile, militant attacks also continue in the Niger delta region, the country's oil production hub.
But future U.S. involvement in the Middle East could interrupt crude supply chains and make it difficult for producers to ship overseas, sparking a bid for oil on Tuesday. Adding to the tensions, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Tuesday that the country could be a part of an international response to the Syrian violence, Reuters reported.

The president met with military officials in the White House Monday to discuss the administration's response to an alleged chemical weapons attack carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad 's government against its own people.

Geopolitical concerns elevated crude prices on Tuesday after President Donald Trump canceled his scheduled trip to multiple South American countries to focus on the U.S. response to developments in Syria.

Brent crude futures rose $2.56 to $71.21 a barrel, a 3.7 percent gain, by 3:12 p.m. EDT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $2.09 to settle at $65.51 a barrel, a 3.3 percent gain.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled at two-week highs while Brent crude futures hit their highest levels since 2014 as Wall Street grew increasingly concerned over possible military actions in the Middle East.

"There are headlines of a U.S. carrier group heading to the Middle East, the Saudis are looking for $80 Brent crude, and this is ahead of API inventories," said Roberto Friedlander, head of energy trading at Seaport Global Securities. The "market [also] bounced this morning after the Chinese president's more dovish comments on the trade war."

Shares of major energy stocks surged alongside crude. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) traded nearly 3.9 percent higher, on pace for its best day since Nov. 30, 2016.

President Xi Jinping promised on Tuesday to open China's economy further, lower import tariffs on cars and better enforce international laws governing intellectual property. Xi's comments likely sought to temper growing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, which have been announcing tit-for-tat tariffs over the past two weeks.

Both equity and oil markets rallied after the speech, while supposed safe havens such as U.S. Treasurys and gold slipped, supporting Wall Street's thesis that a trade war between the economic superpowers is increasingly unlikely.

Oil prices also traded higher Tuesday amid a report from Bloomberg News, which said that Saudi Arabian officials were seeking $80 a barrel on Brent crude to support the valuation of its energy giant, Aramco, before its initial public offering.

Also helping were comments from Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, who said oil cartel OPEC will continue to steward the market. The minister said he would seek an extension to the OPECRussia deal, which expires in December.

The report comes a week after Crown Prince Mohammed first told Time magazine that he expected Aramco's public launch to coincide with higher oil prices.

"We believe oil prices will get higher in this year and also get higher in 2019, so we are trying to pick the right time," the prince told Time in reference to the IPO. While Riyadh initially targeted the IPO for the second half of 2018, the Saudis are now forecasting the launch for 2019.

 CNBC's Patti Domm & Gina Francolla contributed to this report.
Procter and Gamble, one of the world's largest advertisers, is putting several of its agencies together to work as one team in a pilot that it hopes will eliminate bureaucracy and lead to better advertising. The team behind Tide detergent, which has the largest piece of the U.S. laundry market by far, will work together under P&G's North America Fabric Care (NA FC) Marketing Director Vedran Miletic and Andrea Diquez, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi New York. P&G has already trialed this approach with its Tide Super Bowl campaign "It's a Tide Ad," which starred "Stranger Things" actor David Harbour sending up typical ads for cars, beer and perfume in a spot that had more than 5 million views on YouTube. Having a small, multi-agency team work on the campaign helped P&G in "eliminating unproductive day-to-day transactions and distractions," according to its Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, in a summary of his remarks at an industry conference this week, which were emailed to CNBC.

Pritchard was taking part in a panel discussion at 4A's Accelerate, an ad agency event held in Miami. He added that agencies including media experts, influencer marketing companies and those that specialize in store promotions would work closely together. The "NA FC Agency" is expected to be operational from July 1. Brand clients such as P&G and agencies work together on ad campaigns in a process that often begins with the client briefing a lead agency, usually its advertising agency, giving information including business targets and the type of audience they want to reach. The agency then turns that information into a brief that will inspire creative teams  typically made up of an art director and a copywriter  to come up with imaginative ideas. People with roles such as account planner, a strategic thinker who brings in consumer research, and account manager, who looks after the relationship with the client, will also be involved in a process that can take several weeks or even months before any ideas are shown to a client. But in a world where technology means people can make and distribute their own videos or photos in minutes, this process is antiquated, and Pritchard wants to get to good creative ideas much more quickly.

P&G's Marc Pritchard at Cannes Lions in June 2016 Christian Alminana | Cannes Lions
Investors in Puerto Rico's bonds argued in court Tuesday over which group has a claim on sales-tax revenue that could be used to recoup their money.

In Manhattan federal court, Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is overseeing the record $70 billion bankruptcy-like proceedings for Puerto Rico, heard about four hours of oral arguments from attorneys representing the dueling creditor groups. Both believe they have first right to the money for bond payments.

The matter is a key issue as the island restructures its debt. Puerto Rico first defaulted on its general obligation bonds in July 2016, when it failed to pay roughly $1 billion owed to its creditors, and hasn't made any payments since.

The general obligation bondholders, including a number of U.S. hedge funds, say the sales tax receipts, an important source of cash, are legally theirs first under the commonwealth's constitution. Opposing them are bondholders of Puerto Rico's Sales Tax Financing Corporation (or "COFINA," for its acronym in Spanish), who say they have the first claim.
Less than a year after it said it wanted to buy as much as 10 percent of American Airlines, the world's biggest carrier, Qatar Airways is thinking very small.

The Doha-based carrier has taken a minority stake in JetBlue-backed private jet company JetSuite Inc., Qatar Airways said Tuesday. JetBlue is also increasing its investment in the private jet company, JetSuite said.

Legacy U.S. airlines have long-alleged that Qatar Airways and two other Middle East carriersEmirates and Etihadreceive illegal state subsidies that have created an unfair playing field. Qatar Airways disclosed its surprise interest in American Airlines last June. American's CEO, Doug Parker, called it "puzzling."

"We aren't particularly excited about Qatar's outreach," Parker said at the time.

Qatar Airways later dropped the plan. The Trump administration has stepped into the fray and Qatar agreed earlier this year to disclose its financial information to try to smooth its relationship with the U.S.

The JetSuite investment is a new tack for Qatar Airways, which has snapped up stakes in a host of foreign carriers, including Cathay Pacific and LATAM. JetSuite operates private jets, and its sister company JetSuite X offers scheduled charter flights on 30-seat aircraft on the West Coast.

JetBlue, which took a stake in JetSuite in 2016, has partnerships with the Gulf carriers, including Qatar Airways, that its large U.S. rivals have complained about. JetSuite is planning to move to the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the summer.

Alex Wilcox, JetSuite's CEO, declined to provide the size of the investment but called it "substantial" and said it would help the company expand.
President Donald Trump during a roundtable discussion on the MS-13 gang in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 6, 2018 in Washington, DC.

RBC Capital Markets trimmed its year-end target for the to 2,890 from 3,000, as it sees a tougher road for the market to post gains.

"The list of political obstacles for stocks has continued to pile up and seems unlikely to improve anytime soon," Lori Calvasina, the investment bank's head of U.S. equity strategy, wrote in a note Tuesday. Calvasina noted some of the obstacles include the potential for greater regulation in tech, a Democratic sweep in the November midterm elections and a trade war with China.

Tech is down nearly 7 percent over the past month, after a scandal in which political research firm Cambridge Analytica was able to gather personal information from millions of Facebook users without their consent. Cambridge Analytica has denied any wrongdoing.

The news raised worries that the government would start keeping a closer eye on how Facebook  and other major tech companies like Google-parent Alphabet  deal with the data collected from users.

Tech has been the best-performing sector of the past year, surging nearly 30 percent. Calvasina downgraded the sector from market weight to underweight, noting high stock valuations and "fading leadership on fundamentals and earnings."

"To be clear, both still appear positive for the sector, but Tech is no longer the leader of the pack on either front, something that was a key underpinning of the bullish narrative on the sector in recent years," Calvasina said.

The decline in tech has contributed to the broader market's pullback. The S&P 500 is down more than 5 percent in the past month.

The midterm elections in November also pose a risk for stocks, Calvasina said. An RBC survey of stock investors found only 8 percent think Democrats taking control of both the House and Senate would be good for stocks.

Republicans maintained control of both chambers of Congress after the 2016 election. They also got control of the White House for the first time in eight years, helping them pass measures like lower corporate taxes. A reversal in government leadership could hinder the GOP's ability to pass similar legislation.

Lastly, Calvasina said the chance of a trade war between the U.S. and China is also a risk for stocks. The S&P's decline in the last month reflects Wall Street's concern about this possibility. On Tuesday, however, stocks rose sharply after Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed plans to further open the country's economy to foreign businesses.

To be sure, Calvasina's lower target on the S&P 500 still represents a gain of 8 percent for 2018. "We expect 2018 to be a good year  but believe returns will be less robust than those seen in 2017."
Mark Zuckerberg testified at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday, in the first of two congressional hearings this week for the Facebook founder and CEO.

Watch the live stream of Zuckerberg's testimony here.

Zuckerberg faced tough questions on user privacy, foreign meddling on the site and abuse of social media tools in the wake of reports that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the personal data of as many as 87 million Facebook users.

Read the heated exchange between Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Zuckerberg on Facebook's prominence in the tech field below.

GRAHAM: Thank you. Are you familiar with Andrew Bosworth?



ZUCKERBERG: Yes, Senator, I am.



GRAHAM: He said, "So we connect more people, maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. The ugly truth is we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people often is 'de facto' good." Do you agree with that?



ZUCKERBERG: No, Senator, I do not. As context, Bosworth wrote that internally -- that was an internal note. We have a lot of discussion internally. I disagreed with it at the time he wrote it.

If you looked at the comment on the internet discussion, a vast majority of people did too.



GRAHAM: Did you do a bad job as a CEO of communicating displeasure of such thoughts? Because if he understood where you were at, he would have never said it to begin with.



ZUCKERBERG: Well, Senator, we try to run our company in a way where people express different opinions internally.



GRAHAM: This is an opinion that disturbs me, and if someone that worked for me said that, I'd fire them. Who is your biggest competitor?



ZUCKERBERG: We have a lot of competitors.



GRAHAM: Who is the biggest?



ZUCKERBERG: Do you want just one? I don't know that I can give one, but I can give a bunch.



GRAHAM: Yes.



ZUCKERBERG: There are three categories I focus on, platforms like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.



GRAHAM: Do they provide the same service you provide?



ZUCKERBERG: In different ways, in different parts, yes.



GRAHAM: If I buy a Ford, it doesn't work well, I don't like it; I buy a Chevy.

If I'm upset with Facebook, what's the equivalent product I can go sign up for?



ZUCKERBERG: The second category that I was going to talk about --



GRAHAM: I'm not talking about categories, is there real competition you face? Car companies face a lot of competition: they make a defective car, it gets out in the world, they stop buying that car and buy another one. Is there an alternative to Facebook in the private sector?



ZUCKERBERG: Yes, Senator. The average American uses eight apps to communicate with friends and stay in touch with people.



GRAHAM: The same service you provide?



ZUCKERBERG: We provide a number of services.



GRAHAM: Is Twitter the same thing you do?



ZUCKERBERG: It overlaps with what we do.



GRAHAM: You don't think you have a monopoly?



ZUCKERBERG: Doesn't feel like that to me.



GRAHAM: It doesn't? You bought Instagram. Why did you buy Instagram?



ZUCKERBERG: They were very talented app developers who were making good use of our platform and understood our values.



GRAHAM: It was a good business decision. My point is that one way to regulate a company is through competition, through government regulation. Here's the question that all of us have to answer: What do we tell our constituents, given what happened here, why should we let you self-regulate? What do you tell people in South Carolina that, given all the things we discovered here, it's a good idea for us to rely upon you to regulate your own business practices?



ZUCKERBERG: Well, Senator, my position is not that there should be no regulation, I think the internet is increasingly-



GRAHAM: You'd embrace regulation?



ZUCKERBERG: The question is, as the internet becomes more important in people's lives, what is the right regulation, not whether there should be or not.



GRAHAM: You, as a company, welcome regulation?



ZUCKERBERG: If it's right, yes.



GRAHAM: Do you think the Europeans have it right?



ZUCKERBERG: They get things right.



GRAHAM: That's true. Would you work with us in terms of what regulations you think are necessary in your industry?



ZUCKERBERG: Absolutely.



GRAHAM: Okay. Would you submit to us proposed regulations?



ZUCKERBERG: Yes, and my team will follow up with you to have the discussion across categories where I think this discussion needs to happen.



GRAHAM: I look forward to it. When you sign up for Facebook, you sign up for the terms of service, are you familiar with that?



ZUCKERBERG: Yes.



GRAHAM: Okay. It says the terms govern use of Facebook and the products, features, apps, technologies, software we offer, Facebook produce or products, except where we expressly state separate terms and these do not apply. I'm a lawyer and I have no idea what that means. When you look at terms of service, this is what you get. Do you think the average consumer understands what they are signing up for?



ZUCKERBERG: I don't think the average person likely reads that whole document, but there's different ways we can communicate that and have responsibility to do so.



GRAHAM: Do you agree with me that you better come up with different ways because this ain't working?



ZUCKERBERG: Well, Senator, I think in certain areas that is true and I think in other areas lie the core part of what we do. But think about just the most basic level, people who come to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, about 100 billion times a day to share content or a message with a specific set of people, and I think that that basic functionality, people understand because we have the controls in line every time, and given the volume of the activity and the value that people tell us that they are getting from that, I think that that control in line does seem to be working fairly well. Now, we can always do better and there are other services that are complex and more to it than just, you know, go and post a photo, and so I agree that in many places we can do better. But for the core of the service, it actually is quite clear.
Research suggests that in the most rarefied circles, women might actually earn more than men. In 2017, the annual Equilar/Associated Press CEO Pay Study found that the median compensation for female CEOs was $13,093,444, and the average was $14,488,643. Meanwhile, male CEOs had a median compensation of $11,376,284 and an average of $12,648,010. The study included S&P 500 companies that filed a proxy statement for the fiscal year 2016 and looked at median and average compensation of CEOs who had served in their same position for two consecutive, full fiscal years. But of the 346 total CEOs included in the study, only 21 were female, compared to 325 males  it can be hard to draw meaningful conclusions from such a small sample size. As Fortune's Kristen Bellstrom writes, data like this can also give the false sense that "America's biggest corner offices are a haven for gender equity  which does not appear to be the case." And when comparing the top paid female on the list with the top male, the difference is hard to ignore. The highest paid CEO on Equilar's list was Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, who earned total compensation of nearly $99 million. Meanwhile, the highest paid female CEO included in Equilar's study was Virginia Rometty of IBM, with compensation just a little over $32 million.

Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, one of the companies in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion alliance Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Other top-earning female CEOs included in the study were then-CEO of Yahoo Marissa Mayer with compensation of over $27 million and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, with just over $25 million in compensation. Those numbers may seem enormous but they're a drop in the bucket when you consider that the second-ranked male CEO, Leslie Moonves of CBS, had total compensation of over $68 million, and Robert Iger of Walt Disney took in nearly $41 million. Among companies in general  not those just limited to the behemoths in the S&P 500  the CEO wage gap actually favors men. The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) looked at recent earnings data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and found that for full-time chief executives, women's earnings were 79.5 percent of men's. Women CEOs' median weekly earnings were $1,920, compared to men's median weekly earnings of $2,415. "When you look at all CEOs, all people who describe themselves as CEOs, there actually is a wage gap," says Ariane Hegewisch, the program director for employment and earnings at the IWPR. Hegewisch argues that the heightened attention on companies like the S&P 500-level firms that make up Equilar's study may actually contribute to that favorable pay gap, while the BLS data includes private and smaller companies that might not be required to share their pay information. In other words, companies that know they'll be required to disclose their compensation data may pay women more fairly. "Transparency helps women," Hegewisch says. "And it's also likely that the women who made it through the barriers we know are there for women are really, exceptionally great."

Rising to the top of the ranks as a woman is no easy feat, as the shockingly small number of women CEOs in the S&P 500 makes clear. And once you're there, getting paid your fair share also presents a unique set of challenges, says Andrea Johnson, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center. "When you're talking about these higher level, professional employees," Johnson says, "the way pay is set for them, there's a lot of opportunities for bias to enter into that. There's performance evaluations and how women are perceived in their ability to do their job versus men, there's less of a standardized process for determining that CEO pay. So you start to see more bias come in, because of the discretion that's allowed in setting the pay." Further, Johnson points out, "the wage gap has been largely stagnant for the last decade." "Greater pay transparency is a thing we need to focus on to close these gaps, and I think that's true for all workers," she says. "I think it's helpful to make clear what CEOs across companies are being paid and where women fall and where men fall so we can really think about what are the justifications for these differences." Don't miss: Only 61 percent of men believe a wage gap exists, new study finds
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally signed off on raids of the office and residence of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing sources.

Trump, who on Monday evening vented his frustration about the raid and the special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe of potential collusion between his campaign and Russia, deliberated over whether to fire Rosenstein later that evening, the Times reported.

The Times reported that Rosenstein was not necessarily required to sign off on searches carried out by law enforcement offices that are separate from the special counsel.

Multiple outlets reported Monday that Rosenstein approved Mueller's referral to Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for New York's southern district.
President Donald Trump, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos attend a meeting of the American Technology Council in the State Dining Room of the White House June 19, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Cassidy's bill doesn't specifically mention China or Amazon, but comes at a time when the president is aggressively going after both.

Those fees are currently set by the U.N.'s Universal Postal Union (UPU), which determines how much each of its member countries pays for the delivery of international mail. In general, the system is set up so that wealthier countries pay more than poorer nations, but in recent years the UPU has provided a huge opening for foreign manufacturers, particularly those in China, to cheaply get products into U.S. online marketplaces like Amazon.

Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, proposed the Ending Needless Delivery Subsidies (ENDS) Act, which would force the U.S. Secretary of State to negotiate the end to all foreign subsidies of international postal shipments by Jan. 1, 2021.

Following President Donald Trump's attacks on Amazon in recent weeks and his promise to impose tariffs on goods from China, Senator Bill Cassidy introduced legislation on Tuesday that could make it harder for Chinese manufacturers to compete on U.S. marketplaces.

"The current system costs American jobs at the expense of American taxpayers," Cassidy told CNBC in a statement. "American taxpayers should not be subsidizing Chinese companies mailing items to the U.S., competing with our businesses."

The bill plays into two of Trump's favorite issues: It bolsters Trump's clampdown on what he decries as the uneven trade balance between China and the U.S. and it connects Chinese trade to Amazon, which has opened the floodgates to cheap Chinese products and counterfeits.

On Twitter, Trump has accused Amazon of costing the Postal Service "massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy" and criticized a system that makes "Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer." (The Post Office actually profits from its deal with Amazon, but loses money overall.)

tweet

Trump recently announced tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, and last week asked U.S. trade officials to consider another $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods. China's commerce ministry has promised to "fight back," and the country has already placed tariffs on U.S. corn and soybeans.

The UPU disparities have been a source of tension for U.S. lawmakers and businesses for several years. In 2015, a Congressional subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the market distortions caused by the inequitable fee structure. Even Amazon supported reforms, with a company vice president telling members of Congress that "the clear losers are American businesses selling to American consumers."

In Tuesday's statement, Cassidy cited a 2015 case study from the USPS, which claimed that low-cost items sent from China are 27 percent cheaper to ship than similar items sent from one U.S. city to another.

However, the problem isn't entirely the result of the UPU. In 2011, In 2011, the USPS started a program with Hongkong Post called ePacket to let businesses in China and Hong Kong send packages to the U.S. at very low rates.
Rocket Lab's second test launch rocket "Still Testing" lifts off from the launchpad at the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand.

The space industry started the first quarter of this year the way it ended the last  with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of private funding flowing into commercial space companies.

There were 20 deals worth nearly $1 billion in the space industry in the first quarter, according to investment firm Space Angels  though $500 million of that was a single deal: A big investment from Fidelity Investments in Elon Musk's SpaceX to develop its constellation of 4,425 broadband satellites.

Small rockets  typically priced between $2 million to $5 million per launch  have been a dominant theme this year, especially thanks to Rocket Lab's first orbital launch of its Electron vehicle in January. With Vector and Virgin Orbit also pushing to reach orbital launch this year, these rocket builders are hoping to seize a part of the premium market to launch small satellites.

"We see the entry of small launch vehicles as a specialization within the sector and an indication that commercial launch is maturing," Space Angels CEO Chad Anderson wrote in the report.

Companies focused on building and operating launch vehicles dominated first quarter investments, accounting for more than 72 percent with about $700 million, due to SpaceX's heavy fundraising. With its recent $35 million round, Relativity Space also stands out as it works to manufacture orbital rockets with massive, custom-built 3-D printers. Likewise, World View Enterprises closed a $26.5 million round of funding to further develop its technology to send equipment to the edge of space using high-altitude balloons.

While much of the launch fundraising was in later stage investments, there have been 11 early stage deals (also known as seed and Series A funding rounds) so far this year, including the $15 million round of Australian satellite company Myriota.
CNBC can confirm reports that Sprint and T-Mobile have restarted deal talks, according to sources.

Shares of Sprint surged more than 20 percent Tuesday after it was reported that the telecom company has resumed merger talks with industry peer T-Mobile.

The stock was halted twice in the 20 minutes following the report and jumped as much as 25 percent. Shares of T-Mobile were up nearly 7 percent immediately following the report.

It's the latest update in an ongoing merger attempt for the companies. The companies ended talks in November, saying they couldn't reach a deal. The companies were not immediately available to comment on Tuesday's reports of revived talks.

Talks have been complicated in the past by tensions between German company Deutsche Telekom, which owns 63 percent of T-Mobile, and Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank, which holds 85 percent of Sprint.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that merger talks had resumed. The latest negotiations are still in the preliminary stages, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources. Reuters later confirmed the revived talks.

T-Mobile and Sprint are the country's third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers, respectively, but lag significantly behind industry leaders AT&T and Verizon. A tie-up would lend each company the scale necessary to compete.

The combined company would also likely consolidate cell towers, sending cell tower stocks Crown Castle International and American Tower down roughly 4 percent each following the report.

 CNBC's David Faber contributed to this report.
Dom Detore is tough. He's commercial and residential building contractor who has lived on Staten Island for 21 years.

On Staten Island, an often forgotten borough of New York City known for its working class hustlers and a sometimes rough reputation, you have to be tough to get things done.

As the boss at 2D Construction , Detore, star of CNBC's new show, " Staten Island Hustle ," which premieres April 11, is in charge of negotiating deals for projects in New York and New Jersey that can top nine figures. He even worked on the construction for "Shark Tank" star Daymond John's Manhattan co-working space, Blueprint + Co .

Over the years, he's perfected the art of closing the deal. Whether you want a raise, a good price on a car, or anything else, Detore says there's one trick you need to know.

"Negotiation is a very simple thing," Detore tells CNBC Make It. "You just stop talking. You get your point across, what you're willing and able to do, and stop.

"When I go into a negotiation, I speak what I want and I stop," he explains. "I'll say 'Listen, all I want to do is pay you $10,000,' and I stop talking."

The reason? "[If] you keep on bringing it up and going over and over it again, it gives the person time to think of how they can get out of it," Detore says.

Instead, let the other party talk as much as they'd like. "I'd let you talk for an hour and a half, I'd just sit there," Detore says.

He's right, according to negotiation expert Steve Gates.

"The more you talk, the more you are likely to make a concession," writes Gates in "The Negotiation Book." "The unnerving consequence of silence is that the other party continues to talk, and ultimately make unplanned concessions. At the very least, they often provide you with more information than they intended."

Detore also always stands firmly behind the initial terms he sets.

For example, when working with suppliers in the construction industry, Detore says his negotiations can go something like this:

First, "You tell me it's a dollar, and I say, 'No, I'm going to pay 90 cents,'" he explains.

Then, "They send me the invoice for a dollar. I send them 90 cents. They call me up and they say, 'Dom, didn't you say it was a dollar?'

"I say, 'No you said it was a dollar. I said it was 90 cents.'"
Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25.

Daniels has said that Cohen paid her the money in exchange for her agreement to keep quiet about an affair with Trump that she claims began in 2006, shortly after the birth of his youngest son.

Multiple reports have indicated that investigators are looking into Cohen for much more than just the $130,000 payment to Daniels.

The probe of Cohen, a longtime attorney and confidante of Trump's, is being overseen by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

News of Daniels' cooperation with investigators came a day after FBI agents raided the New York City office and residence of Cohen, and seized documents related to the payment to the actress.

Porn star Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal authorities investigating the $130,000 hush-money payment President Donald Trump 's lawyer Michael Cohen paid her just before the 2016 election, NBC News reported Tuesday.

Cohen has admitted personally paying the money to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, but has not explained what it was for.

The White House has denied that Trump had sex with Daniels, and Trump has said he was unaware of Cohen's deal with her at the time it was executed.

Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti did not immediately return a request for comment from CNBC.

Avenatti is representing Daniels in a lawsuit against Trump that seeks to void the non-disclosure agreement she signed with a company set up by Cohen on the grounds that Trump himself never signed it.

Last month, Avenatti pointedly declined to answer when asked if he had been contacted by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

"I'm not at liberty to answer that question one way or the other," Avenatti told CNBC last month

Cohen on Monday told CNBC he would later return calls for comment on his case, but has not done so yet.

The New York Times on Tuesday reported that in addition to seeking information about the payment to Daniels, the search warrants for Cohen's files also were seeking information about a $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has also claimed she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors have also asked for documents related to the payment to Daniels from the Trump Organization, where Cohen is general counsel.

And CNN said that in addition to the payments to Daniels and Douglas, the search warrants for Cohen's files sought records related to his ownership of medallions for New York City taxi cabs.

On Monday, Avenatti told MSNBC: "Mr. Cohen has been placed in the crosshairs by Mr. Trump. And he has been set-up to take the fall."

"In my opinion, an enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on his shoulders and I do not believe he has the mettle to withstand it. If I am correct, this could end very, very badly for Mr. Trump and others," Avenatti said.

Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possibly collusion with Russians by the Trump campaign.

The raids on Cohen's office and residence Monday was spurred by information Mueller's investigation came across, which Mueller referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

After news of the raids broke, Trump angrily lashed out at federal investigators during a White House event.

"It's a total witch hunt," Trump fumed.

He called the raids, which were approved by a federal judge and by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, "an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for."

Asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump replied, "We'll see what happens."

"Many people have said you should fire him."
U.K. supermarket Iceland is to stop using palm oil in its own label food by the end of this year.

The frozen food specialist said Tuesday that palm oil had already been removed from half of its "own label range" and that 130 products would be reformulated by the end of 2018. Iceland said it had brought out 100 new lines without palm oil so far this year.

Used in both cosmetics and food, palm oil is a controversial ingredient. Environmental pressure group Greenpeace has warned that tropical rainforests and peatland in Southeast Asia are being "destroyed" in order to free up space for palm oil plantations. This, it said, is a disaster for both biodiversity and local communities.



Iceland said that it had made what it described as an "ethical" decision to stop using palm oil to demonstrate to the food industry that it was possible to lower demand for palm oil "whilst seeking solutions that do not destroy the world's rainforest."



Iceland's pledge on palm oil follows its decision in January to remove plastic packaging from its own label products by 2023.



"Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying 'no to palm oil,'" Richard Walker, the supermarket's managing director, said in a statement. "We don't believe there is such a thing as guaranteed 'sustainable' palm oil available in the mass market, so we are giving consumers a choice to say no to palm for the first time."



John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace U.K., welcomed Iceland's decision. "As global temperatures rise from burning forests, and populations of endangered species continue to dwindle, companies using agricultural commodities like palm oil will come under increasing pressure to clean up their supply chains," he said. "Many of the biggest consumer companies in the world have promised to end their role in deforestation by 2020."



Iceland's decision to stop using palm oil came on the same day that upmarket U.K. grocery store Waitrose said it would ban all takeaway disposable coffee cups in its shops by the fall.



Members of its loyalty scheme, who are entitled to a free cup of tea or coffee when they shop, will soon be asked to bring reusable cups to stores rather than use the currently available disposable ones provided in-store. Waitrose said its move would save 52 million cups annually.



"We realize this is a major change, but we believe removing all takeaway disposable cups is the right thing to do for our business and are confident the majority of customers will support the environmental benefits," Tor Harris, Waitrose's head of sustainability and responsible sourcing, said in a statement.
Even if trade disagreements subside, the United States and China may have already found the next sticking point in their relationship. President Donald Trump has warmed to Taiwan via a series of recent actions including arms sales, the appointment of National Security Advisor John Bolton  who has taken a strong pro-Taiwan stance in the past  and encouraging visits between U.S. and Taiwanese officials. That has angered Beijing, which claims Taiwan under a policy known as "One China." China opposes other countries pursuing ties with the self-ruled island. The matter could affect trade negotiations between the two superpowers, which are threatening to tax one another's imports.

Beijing will put more pressure on U.S. companies in China to abide by the one-China policy  that is, not acknowledging Taiwan as a separate country  at the risk of their operations being shut down or fined ... Eurasia Group

Trade friction and Taiwan are two separate issues, but if Washington continues to build closer ties to Taiwan, it could become difficult to de-link the two, analysts at political consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a Monday note. "The U.S. administration's new approach to Taiwan will substantially complicate U.S.-China ties and make it much harder to an agreement on trade," the firm said. "A debate in Beijing is currently ongoing whether the U.S. is hoping to use Taiwan as leverage on trade issues or whether this is a fundamentally different U.S. approach to Taiwan," the note said. The matter could also influence the situation in North Korea, because Washington still needs Beijing's help reigning in the nuclear armed state.

Bolton and Taiwan

Washington has approved the license required for American manufacturers to sell technology to Taipei that would enable it to build its own submarines, Taiwan's national news agency reported on Saturday. Beijing opposes the move, demanding the U.S. "halt all forms of military links" with Taiwan, Reuters reported on Monday, citing an official statement. Bolton, who started his new job this week, is widely expected to ramp up engagement with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's government.

Bolton has "advocated for use of the 'Taiwan card' against China by upgrading the status of the American Institute in Taiwan, inviting Taiwan's president to the U.S. and ultimately restoring full diplomatic recognition," Eurasia Group analysts said. The American Institute in Taiwan operates as a non-profit organization with de facto embassy functions. Washington cut off official diplomatic links with Taipei in 1979, a necessary condition to establishing Sino-U.S. relations. The institute's new office is scheduled to open later this year, and Bolton may attend the event, according to Thomas Shattuck, research associate at the Foreign Policy Research Institute: "It's a good opportunity for him to show off his Taiwan chops (and anger China) and have a good PR visit early in his tenure." Eurasia Group analysts don't believe Bolton's recommendations will gain much traction, but they still believe the 69-year-old will "likely use his new post to put Taiwan directly on Trump's agenda." Meanwhile, Randall Schriver, who was appointed assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs last year, is expected to push for expanded defense links, including arms sales, according to Eurasia Group.

Taiwan Travel Act

A law signed by Trump in March marks another major development. The Taiwan Travel Act, which ended decades of restrictions on official travel between U.S. and Taiwanese government officials, triggered a scathing response from the Chinese embassy in Washington, which said the law violated "the political foundation of the China-U.S. relationship." Washington sent two officials to Taiwan shortly thereafter, with footage of Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Wong from the State Department's East Asian and Pacific Affairs bureau appearing publicly with Tsai just as Trump announced tariffs on Chinese products, Eurasia pointed out.

Other friendly U.S. gestures include Trump's December 2016 phone call with Tsai and Trump's signing of the National Defense Authorization Act late last year, which seeks to re-establish port of call exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwanese navies and invite Taipei to participate in military exercises. Trump may next push for the island-nation's participation in an upcoming meeting of the World Health Assembly, the the World Health Organization's decision-making body. The U.S. has supported Taiwan's inclusion in the past, but with Trump's pro-Taiwan team in place, "it is not unreasonable to see a more vocal and stronger effort this time around," said Shattuck.

How China could retaliate
More than 2 in 10 Americans are waiting until April 17  Tax Day  to file.

cmannphoto | Getty Images

If you still haven't filed your taxes, here's a bit of good news: You may still have a shot at saving money. A recent survey from Pollfish revealed that 21 percent of Americans are waiting until April 17  the day by which filers must submit their returns and pay Uncle Sam  to file their taxes. The IRS predicts it will receive more than 155 million returns this year. If you're biding your time until the absolute last minute, you'll need to get cracking. "The strategies for reducing your tax bill for 2017 revolve around claiming all of the deductions and tax credits you legally deserve," said certified public accountant Debbie J. Freeman, director of financial planning at Peak Financial Advisors in Denver.

Jamie Grill | Getty Images

"Focus your attention on three separate items: deductions for adjusted gross income, tax credits and itemized deductions," she said. Here are a few savings opportunities that are worth another look, according to Freeman.

Deductions for everyone

These breaks are best because they're accessible to all filers, regardless of whether they itemize. Health savings account: If you're eligible, make a tax-deductible contribution to your HSA by April 17. HSAs have a triple-tax benefit: Contributions are either tax deductible or pretax, savings grow on a tax-free basis and users can make tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical costs. You can save up to $6,750 in this account if your family is covered in a high-deductible health plan. Contribution limits for self-only coverage is capped at $3,400. IRA: You can put away up to $5,500 a year in your IRA ($6,500 if you're over 50) and snag a deduction, provided you meet certain income requirements. Single filers with a modified adjusted gross income of up to $62,000 ($99,000 for married filing jointly) may deduct up to the amount of their contribution limit. Beyond those thresholds, filers with a modified adjusted gross income of up to $72,000 if single ($119,000 if married) may collect a partial deduction. SEP IRA: Put away as much as $54,000 into your SEP IRA if you run your own business. Be aware that the amount you can deduct for your own SEP IRA contribution will vary based on your net earnings. You have until April 17  Oct. 15 if you file an extension  to make a contribution and have it count for 2017.

Insurance premiums: If you're an entrepreneur, you may be eligible to deduct premiums for health and dental insurance coverage. This is known as the self-employed health insurance deduction. Student loan deduction: If you've paid at least $600 in interest on a qualified student loan, you may be eligible to deduct up to $2,500. Be aware that this break is subject to limits: It begins to phase out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income over $65,000 ($135,000 for married filing jointly). Moving costs: If you moved, you may be able to deduct these expenses, provided you pass a three-part test. Your move must relate to the start of work.

Your new workplace must be at least 50 miles farther away from your old home compared with the distance between your old job and old dwelling.

Finally, if you're an employee, you must work full time for at least 39 weeks during the first 12 months after your arrival. Self-employed individuals must meet this time test, and they must work full time for at least 78 weeks during the first 24 months after arriving at their new location.

Tax credits

Hero Images | Getty Images

Child and dependent care costs: This break is designed to help working parents with child-care costs. This credit can be worth up to $1,050 for one child under age 13 or $2,100 for two kids under 13. You'll need your care provider's tax identification number and other information in order to grab this credit. Saver's credit: If you stashed up to $2,000 into an IRA or a 401(k) plan, you may receive a credit of up to 50 percent of your contribution. Joint filers with adjusted gross income over $62,000 can't grab this break, and neither can single filers whose AGI exceeds $31,000. You have until April 17 to make a contribution and have it count for 2017. Educational credits: If you have a child in college, consider the American opportunity tax credit, which offers a maximum annual credit of $2,500 per eligible student. There's also the lifetime learning credit worth up to $2,000 per tax return. There's also the deduction for qualified tuition costs, which Congress revived for 2017: You may be able to deduct tuition, books and supplies for your studies by up to $4,000.

Itemized deductions

Thomas M. Barwick | Getty Images

Medical: Gather your receipts, including info on long-term care insurance premiums paid. You may be able to deduct medical costs to the extent they exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. "Don't forget medical miles driven," said Freeman. "You'll need documentation of it." The medical rate is 17 cents per mile.
If U.S. stock investors believe Chinese President Xi Jinping's latest speech will significantly tone down the escalating trade dispute, some geopolitics analysts think otherwise.

"There was nothing new in that speech. ... What was included was incremental steps to expand market access," said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"President Xi could have made much more significant offerings in the speech if he wanted to, without paying a domestic, political cost. But I think [Beijing's] impression is the Trump administration can be bought off with some market adjustments in China without constraining Chinese industrial policy," Kennedy said. "It's part of a dynamic that suggests this is going to be a long, drawn-out contest."

In his speech Tuesday at the Boao Forum for Asia, Xi emphasized Beijing's plans to move forward with previously announced goals of making domestic markets more accessible to foreigners. Xi did not explicitly address the escalating trade dispute with the U.S., in which both the Trump administration and China's Ministry of Commerce last week proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from the other country.

In contrast, Xi said Beijing will increase imports, significantly lower tariffs on automobiles and increase enforcement on intellectual property protection. "In short, China will enter a new phase of opening up," he said, according to a state-backed media translation.

U.S. stock index futures soared. The closed 1.67 percent higher Tuesday, and shares of Ford and General Motors climbed nearly 1.8 percent and nearly 3.3 percent, respectively. China is GM's largest retail market.

"We interpret [Xi's] tone as giving a strong sense of urgency relative to previous statements," Goldman Sachs' Beijing-based chief China economist Yu Song and a team of Hong Kong analysts said in a Tuesday report.

"If implemented swiftly and in full, we believe these moves will not only help alleviate trade tensions, potentially avoiding a full scale trade war, but will also improve China's growth potential over the longer term," the report said.

Other market analysts and traders generally cheered Xi's speech in morning notes, but analysis from geopolitical research and consulting firm Eurasia Group took a far cooler view.

"Xi proposed actions which were previously promised and none address the reciprocity issues in U.S.-China relations," Eurasia Group's Managing Director Evan Medeiros and Asia Director Michael Hirson said in a note. "We assess that nothing in the speech will deter the U.S. from moving forward with tariffs."

Reduced automobile tariffs "will not dramatically change the fortunes of U.S. car companies," while "bland and generic commitments on IP protection fell short of what would have been a true gamechanger: an explicit announcement that China will address concerns over the Made in China 2025 initiative and other industrial policies," the report said.

"Made in China 2025" is Beijing's push for domestic companies to become leaders in high-tech industries such as robotics.

In a separate report Tuesday, Hirson said Beijing's retaliation strategy focuses on exploiting divisions within the U.S., deterring U.S. allies "by occupying the moral high ground" and limiting "blowback to China's own economy and strategic interests."

Stocks have swung wildly in the last few weeks as traders worried about a trade war between the world's two largest economies. But markets globally rallied following Xi's speech, which did contrast with the defensive stance of China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday. The German DAX gained 1.1 percent, the Shanghai composite rose more than 1.5 percent and the Nikkei 225 closed roughly half a percent higher.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he is "very thankful" for Xi's "kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers ... also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!"

Also Tuesday, the World Trade Organization said China filed a complaint challenging Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. It said China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute. If that fails, Beijing could request a ruling from a panel of trade experts, The Associated Press reported.

Kennedy, who is director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at CSIS, said the increasingly tense situation is largely due to the leaders of both countries and could be resolved.

But he expects that companies will end up having to re-envision China's place in their global supply chains and no longer depend on a stable relationship between the world's two largest economies. "This is a new normal for the relationship companies and investors need to adapt to."
Called New Clark City, the urban project is planned to be smart, sustainable and resilient to disasters.

The Philippines wants to build its own version of the city of the future

The Philippines, home to Manila's standstill traffic jams, is aiming to become known for the "city of the future.' Called New Clark City, the urban project is planned to be a high-tech green city promising science-fiction-worthy technology, from robots to drones to self-driving vehicles. It's located 120 kilometers outside the Philippine capital, and its investors hope it will be the first of its kind in the country: smart, sustainable and resilient to disasters. Of course, many countries are aiming to build their own version of the city of the future, and the Philippines still has a long way to go in its economic development, so the project's financial future is not a certainty. According to its lead developers, the project is mainly funded through public-private partnerships  a move necessary for the cash-strapped country.

A depiction of the plans for New Clark City in the Philippines. Courtesy Surbana Jurong

The development could one day take some pressure off congested capital Manila, according to Singapore-based urban planning firm Surbana Jurong, one of the partners in the project. The smart city aims to tap on up-and-coming technologies that would tackle issues arising from the increasing population density in the Southeast Asian country. "Driverless cars probably would be introduced into there, and therefore requirements for car parking will be lessened," Surbana Jurong CEO Heang Fine Wong told CNBC's "Street Signs." The new urban space would become a "twin city" to Manila, he said. "You'll gradually see Manila becoming a different type of city, maybe more financial to support the New Clark City, and in New Clark City you'll see new technology companies coming through," he explained. Attracting customers who would be willing to relocate to New Clark City from the country's capital will likely be a challenge. The Philippine government recently announced it is committed to moving some offices to New Clark City, but the main goal plan is for foreign investors to set up operations there, according to Wong.

Construction in New Clark City in the Philippines. Courtesy Surbana Jurong
Blood testing start-up Theranos has laid off most of its remaining workforce, leaving only two dozen or fewer employees, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes announced the layoffs at an all-employee meeting at Theranos' offices in California on Tuesday. The layoffs were part of a last-ditch effort to avert or at least delay bankruptcy, sources told the Journal.

News of the recent layoffs comes less than a month after the company settled fraud charges for $500,000.

Holmes was charged with massive fraud in March after raising more than $700 million while deceiving investors. The start-up made it appear as if Theranos has successfully developed a commercially-ready portable blood analyzer. In reality, the technology could only perform a small number of tests advertised.

The company had about 800 employees as recently as 2015. An investigation by The Wall Street Journal exposing Theranos' efforts to mislead investors and the public about its technology led to layoffs bringing the head count down to 125. The most recent layoff brings the head count of the failing company down to two dozen or less.

Theranos did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

Read the full report here.
Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Getty Images

Earnings to the rescue. Traders are relieved that there is finally a chance to change the conversation from the chaos of trade wars to the calm of revenue and profit. "Unless something goes badly awry, companies are really looking strong this year," Christine Short from Estimize told CNBC. The numbers are phenomenal: Earnings estimates for the first quarter were already strong at the end of the third quarter  analysts were forecasting an increase of 10.6 percent for Q1  as the U.S. and global economy continued to expand. But once the tax reform bill passed at the end of December, analysts' earnings expectations blasted higher.

S&P 500: Q1 earnings estimates

Oct. 1: up 10.6 percent Jan. 1: up 12.2 percent Monday: up 18.4 percent Source: Thomson Reuters Earnings for the entire almost doubled in six months. This is pretty rare. Earnings estimates tend to go down, not up, as the quarter progresses, and certainly not almost double. And they went up in the sectors that matter the most, which is to say technology (25 percent of the S&P) and financials (15 percent), the two biggest sectors. Estimated earnings more than doubled for financials in a six-month period, and almost doubled for technology.

Estimated sector 1Q gains

Technology: up 23.4 percent Financials: up 24.4 percent Source: Thomson Reuters Traders will be listening to hear what corporations will be doing with their new-found money from the tax cuts. Early signs are encouraging. Bank of America looked at the announced spending plans of 150 companies about a month ago, and found a mix of one-time bonuses, expanding buybacks and dividends and more capital spending.

Tax reform: Who's doing what
President Donald Trump has canceled his scheduled trip to multiple South American countries originally planned for this week, the White House said Tuesday.

In a statement, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president "will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled."

Vice President Mike Pence will make the trip in Trump's stead, Sanders said.

The White House said Trump will stay in the U.S. in order to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world."

The surprise change to an event scheduled for later this week came amid Trump's continued effort to negotiate trade deals  and his continued anger over the special counsel's Russia probe and a recent raid on his personal lawyer's residence and office.

Trump met with military officials in the White House Monday evening to deliberate over the administration's response to an alleged chemical weapons attack carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's government against its own people.

In comments to the press before the round-table meeting began, however, Trump focused much more on the warranted search of lawyer Michael Cohen's office and residence that morning by the FBI, which had reportedly received a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump called the raid "disgraceful" and "a total witch hunt" in his remarks, and said the entire special counsel's probe of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is "an attack on our country in a true sense."

Asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump said: "Many people have said, 'You should fire him.' Again, they found nothing."

Trump's invective for the FBI's search of Cohen  who is being investigated for crimes possibly related to bank fraud and campaign finance violations, the Washington Post reported  carried over to Twitter on Tuesday morning.

trump Attorneyclient privilege is dead!
The circumstances aren't as simple as the president suggests, however. The question of attorney-client privilege came up almost immediately after reports surfaced Monday that the FBI raided Cohen's office and residence. Investigators must clear a high legal standard if they want to secure a search warrant for a lawyer's office, according to Justice Department guidelines .

President Donald Trump fired back on Tuesday after the FBI raided the New York office and residence of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the U.S. opioid crisis, at Manchester Community College in Manchester, New Hampshire, March 19, 2018.

Another key exception for attorney-client privilege is when a lawyer and his or her client collude on potential crime or fraud.

"The purpose of this exception is to assure that the secrecy between lawyer and client does not extend to obtaining advice in furtherance of contemplated or ongoing criminal or fraudulent conduct," attorney and MSNBC contributor Danny Cevallos wrote in a legal analysis for NBC News.

Cohen is reportedly being investigated in a probe related to bank fraud and campaign finance violations. The FBI is seeking evidence related to the payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

The raids came after federal prosecutors in New York obtained a search warrant following a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, Cohen's lawyer said.

Trump's tweet came on the morning after a White House event at which he ripped into the entire special counsel investigation, his own attorney general and what he described as a lack of focus on former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton, calling it a "disgraceful situation."

He also appeared to entertain the notion of firing Mueller. "Many people have said, 'You should fire him.' Again, they found nothing," the president said of the special counsel and his team.

"It's a total witch hunt," Trump added. He repeated the sentiment in another tweet Tuesday morning.

TRUMP WITCH HUNT TWEET

 CNBC's Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump's homeland security advisor, Tom Bossert, is stepping down, the White House announced Tuesday.

The administration did not give a reason for Bossert's departure, which came as a surprise while the president pushes to ramp up border security.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNBC that the move "seems like a natural turnover with a new [National Security Council] director." John Bolton, a foreign policy hard-liner, started as Trump's national security advisor Monday, succeeding H.R. McMaster.

The official said that they were not aware of any points of difference between Bolton and Bossert.

Still, the action indicates Bolton is moving to put his own stamp on White House personnel. When a CNBC reporter pointed out that Bossert was seen as one of the most effective people in the Trump administration, another White House official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, responded: "That was likely the problem."

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement on Bossert's resignation:

"The President is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country. Tom led the White House's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."

Bossert's resignation came two days after he took to the television airwaves to defend Trump's decision to send National Guard troops to the border with Mexico.

"We've got a leaking boat on our border. And we're all quibbling with how much water's in the boat and how fast we're bailing it out," Bossert told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "I think at this point the president's been pretty clear, enough is enough, fix the actual problem and stop that leak."

Bossert also served in the administration of President George W. Bush and worked as a homeland security advisor during Trump's transition period before taking office.

Last year, Bossert was reportedly tricked into giving up his personal email address by a prankster pretending to be Jared Kushner.
(R-L)Sandeep Kataria, Director Commercial Vodafone India; Reed Hastings, Co founder and CEO, Netflix and Himanshu Patil , COO Videocone d2h Limited at Netflix's Multi-Platform Parterships Annoucement on March 6, 2017 in New Delhi, India.

Netflix shares will rise as the streaming giant will generate strong growth in its international markets, according to Morgan Stanley.

The firm raised its price target to $350 from $275 for Netflix shares, citing the company's proven ability to successfully launch in new countries. Morgan Stanley also reiterated its overweight rating for the company's shares.

In a similar move, J.P. Morgan raised its price target to $328 from $285 and reaffirmed its overweight rating for Netflix shares Tuesday, predicting the company will report "strong" first-quarter financial results.

"We believe Netflix is still in the early stages of global adoption," Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "While there remains a big opportunity in many of Netflix's older markets, as evidenced by continued strong growth in the US, Asia is perhaps the largest untapped opportunity and likely its most challenging one to capture."

Netflix shares rose 2.1 percent Tuesday after the report.

The company's stock is the third best-performing name in the S&P 500 so far this year with a 51 percent gain through Monday.

Swinburne said Netflix has about 120 million global subscribers in a total market of more than 600 million global broadband households outside of China. He predicts the company can grow to more than 300 million subscribers by 2028.

"We believe share performance is highly dependent on increasing global membership scale," he wrote. "Proven success in the US and initial int'l markets provides a roadmap to success in new markets, and scale should allow NFLX to leverage content investments and drive margins."

 CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this story.
Volkswagen plans to replace CEO Matthias Mueller as the German automaker takes another step to move past the lingering effects of its 2015 diesel emissions scandal, according to sources familiar with the automaker's plans.

Mueller will be replaced by Herbert Diess, who currently runs the Volkswagen brand, CNBC has learned. Diess, 59, joined Volkswagen in July 2015, after previously working at BMW.



Volkswagen issued a statement saying, "...the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen is currently in discussions with certain members of the Supervisory Board and of the Board of Management. Mr. Matthias Muller showed his general willingness to contribute to the changes."



Mueller's departure represents an attempt to make a clean break from the diesel emissions scandal and shows the automaker's struggles as it has tried to move beyond it, sources said. While Mueller was never charged or formally linked to the scheme to rig the emissions of certain diesel engines, there has been plenty of speculation in Germany that Mueller and other executives were slow to act as the public started to learn about the scandal. Those questions, along with Mueller's inability to lay out a clear vision for Volkswagen's future, have been two issues hurting his tenure as CEO.



Meanwhile, Diess has been praised for his public stance that Volkswagen needs to change and evolve. Since taking over the VW brand in late 2015, Diess has not been afraid to take on powerful labor unions in Germany as he has pushed the automaker to cut costs.



"He's been able to articulate how Volkswagen moves forward," said one VW executive who talked with CNBC on the condition he not be named.



Diess has overseen a steady rise in Volkswagen brand sales. In the first quarter, VW brand global sales hit a record high of 1.52 million vehicles, including growth of 8.3 percent in China, the brand's biggest market.
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The White House will take reporters' questions on Tuesday afternoon  the first such briefing since President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer saw his office and residence raided by the FBI.

Trump already sounded off on the raids in remarks on Monday evening, ahead of a round-table meeting with military officials on the U.S. response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Trump said the raids of Michael Cohen's residence and office, carried out through a search warrant by FBI officials who reportedly received a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, were "a disgraceful situation" and a "total witch hunt."

The president also described the special counsel itself, which is tasked with investigating links between the Trump campaign and Russia, as "an attack on our country in a true sense."

The New York Times reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein signed off on the raid.

The Times also reported that investigators were looking for information about two women who allegedly received payments from Cohen as part of hush deals barring them from discussing separate affairs with Trump.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning the White House confirmed that Trump will not be traveling to South America as was originally planned for this week.

"President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the countries in Trump's place, she said.

"The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," Sanders added.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for his meeting with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in the Hart Senate Office Building on Monday, April 9, 2018. Zuckerberg is on Capitol Hill to testify before the House and Senate this week.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going to be hammered with questions from lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington. If he can keep the conversation focused on data privacy, he'll emerge a winner.

That's because Facebook's real bugaboo isn't privacy at all. The biggest potential threat to Facebook  along with Alphabet  would be if Congress focuses on how much those two dominate the modern-day advertising market. The two companies accounted for 73 percent of all U.S. digital advertising in the second quarter of 2017, according to a December note to clients from Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser.

That's probably not healthy for competition as digital advertising explodes. It is estimated to be at $300 billion by 2020 as half of all global ad dollars are spent online.

Virtually every other social media company has failed to break out as a threat to Google and Facebook because of their stranglehold on the advertising market. And Facebook has been quick to acquire threats, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Any drastic actions against Facebook would come from federal antitrust enforcers, not legislators, including bringing a monopolization case against the company. So, keeping the conversation on data privacy should be Facebook's priority, said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next.

Discussing privacy may be fine at first, but it could open the door to a much more uncomfortable conversation for Facebook, which is their dominance around the data model, said Kint. "Regulation isn't that scary to Facebook, because if they find ways to simply regulate their data collection, they maintain their power," he said.

"Facebook's business model is what's causing all of these scandals," said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute. "How they make money is actually the problem. Keeping this focused on consumer privacy gets rules written that will actually entrench their dominance."

Zuckerberg will be addressing Congress to discuss the ways his company can better limit "fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech" from the Facebook platform, according to prepared remarks published by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He'll also be examining ways Facebook can improve data privacy after up to 87 million users unknowingly had their data obtained by political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

Privacy concerns have long hung over Facebook, which took in more than $40 billion in revenue in 2017, largely from targeted advertising based on user data. But it's unclear if users, en masse, really care that their data is being sold to third parties.

Zuckerberg said last week Facebook hasn't seen any meaningful impact on usage or ad sales in the wake of a data privacy scandal. As Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Box," wrote in a New York Times column on Tuesday, "The reality is that when it comes to privacy, the trade-off has already been made: We decided long ago to give away our personal information in exchange for free content and the ability to interact seamlessly with others."

What could actually hurt Facebook's future is if Congress started to beat the drum that Facebook's digital presence is simply too large and anti-competitive. While breaking up the company may be difficult  and new legislation is not likely to come anytime soon  separating core Facebook from some of the applications it has acquired for additional growth, including Instagram and WhatsApp, could severely hurt Facebook's prospects. Instagram's audience skews younger than Facebook's and has a lot of runway left for international growth, with a growing user base of about 1 billion compared with Facebook's 2 billion.

"There was intense legislative attention on the gasoline companies in the 2000s, and it caused the companies to exercise restraint due to the political scrutiny," said William Kovacic, professor of global competition law and policy at George Washington University and director of Competition Law Center. "Legislative scrutiny can cause companies to pull their punches."

And, similar to Amazon, simply discussing Facebook's potentially harmful marketplace presence may cause Zuckerberg to slow future acquisitions that could expand the company's digital footprint. The Open Markets Institute recommends Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp be split into three different companies. Facebook should also have a five-year moratorium on other acquisitions to prevent further social media consolidation, Stoller said.

There's evidence of recent bipartisan attention addressed at questioning if Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are too powerful. Regulators from several states have called for more oversight on antitrust grounds.

So Zuckerberg would be wise to dodge questions about Facebook's advertising dominance and embrace how privacy can be improved.

Improving data privacy only helps Facebook in the long run. Breaking its business model doesn't.
With less than two weeks until taxes are due, there's a good chance that some procrastinators haven't filed their return simply because they owe money to Uncle Sam. If you're among those taxpayers and know with certainty that there is zero chance of coming up with the money by the time it's due  April 17 this year  it's important that you do not become immobilized. "People get afraid and then don't file their return," said Ed Slott, a certified public accountant and founder of Ed Slott & Co. in Rockville Centre, New York. "That's a big mistake." The IRS expects 155 million tax returns to be filed this year. Last year, the agency issued 111.9 million refunds worth a collective $324 billion. The average amount of refund per taxpayer was $2,895.

For those who owe, the IRS imposes a steep penalty if they don't file their return: 5 percent of the unpaid balance for each month it's late, up to a maximum of 25 percent of the amount due. So if you owe, say, $1,000 and do not file, that penalty alone could reach $250 after five months of not filing your return. "Even if you can't pay anything, it makes sense to file on time to avoid these costs," said certified financial planner Misty Lynch, a financial consultant at John Hancock in Boston.

Refund data 2016 2017 Total returns received 152.5 million 152.2 million Refunds issued 111.1 million 111.9 million Total refund amount $317.6 billion $324 billion Average refund amount $2,860 $2,895

By comparison, if you file your return even if you cannot pay the full amount due, the penalty is far less: Generally 0.5 percent per month of your unpaid taxes. After five months, assuming you had paid none of the hypothetical $1,000 due, you would have accrued 2.5 percent in interest, or $25. And if you can put any amount toward the bill by April 17, the penalty only applies to the remaining balance. "File and pay what you can," Slott said. "The IRS will send a bill for the rest." Also be aware that requesting a six-month extension generally does nothing to delay the failure-to-pay penalties from accruing; only the failure-to-file charges are affected. "It's only an extension to file your return, not to pay what you owe," Slott said. "If it were an extension to pay, everyone would do it."

Of course, at some point the IRS begins to lose patience. If repeated efforts to collect taxes due don't work, the agency could turn to other methods to get what you owe, including freezing your bank account or garnishing your wages. This is why it can make sense to work with the IRS in advance if you know you will struggle to pay your bill in a timely fashion. The agency allows taxpayers to apply for a payment plan. "These are subject to approval, so plan ahead and file on time to improve your [approval] chances," Lynch said.

When the IRS determines what matters most in your budget, you can bet that taxes will outrank keeping your most prized possessions or paying other creditors. Misty Lynch Financial consultant at John Hancock
The CEO of Chinese tech company Xunlei said Monday there was no basis for the multiple class action lawsuits his company received from investors.

That followed an announcement from the firm last year that it would use blockchain technology and cryptocurrency for its cloud computing services. The lawsuits allege that Xunlei  which is publicly listed in New York  knowingly participated in unlawful initial coin offerings (ICOs), and made false statements about the legitimacy of those activities that had an impact on the stock price, according to a report from CoinDesk.

The company sells a device called OneThing Cloud that lets users share idle computing resources such as bandwidth and storage in exchange for a digital token called LinkToken. Those digital assets can be redeemed for other services from the company, it says.

Xunlei uses the spare bandwidth and storage to create enterprise-level cloud computing services that are sold to other firms. The company claims its model means cloud services at a relatively lower cost.

The Chinese tech company announced its cryptocurrency project last October after Beijing banned firms from raising new funds by issuing virtual coins.

Xunlei CEO Lei Chen told CNBC's Akiko Fujita and Martin Soong that his company did not break any rules with the cryptocurrency project.

"We didn't make a public offering of a coin," Chen said at the annual Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday. "By making a public offering, really you need to use it to raise money. We have never used a coin to raise any money at all, that's never our intention."

He explained that the digital token would allow transparent bookkeeping for the computing resources that users share on the company's cloud platform.

"We are a small capital company, so our stock price does fluctuate, but I don't think there's any basis for the lawsuit because we're operating in China and it is the Chinese law and regulations that we need to observe," Chen said.

"So the definition of ICO has to be interpreted in the Chinese market," he added.

Xunlei's board also said in an open letter last year that it would require the real identities of participants in its cryptocurrency project and measures would be taken to stop illegal transactions, according to local media reports.

But plaintiffs in the lawsuits allege that the tokens are like an ICO because the company requires users to first buy the hardware before they can receive the tokens, according to the CoinDesk report.

Still, Xunlei's stock price has suffered: Shares fell nearly 21 percent in March.
Yulia Skripal, who along with her father, an ex-Russian spy, was poisoned with a nerve agent in Britain last month, is being discharged from hospital, Sky News reported on Tuesday.

On Friday, doctors said the health of Yulia, 33, and her father Sergei Skripal had improved rapidly in the last few weeks after they were found unconscious on a bench on March 4 in the southern English city of Salisbury.

Britain says they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and has blamed Russia for the attack. Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident which has plunged its relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

Last week, Yulia Skripal issued a statement to say her strength was growing daily while her 66-year-old father is no longer in a critical condition.

Sky said unnamed sources had said Yulia Skripal had been due to be discharged from the hospital in Salisbury on Monday but could not confirm it had happened. It said a statement from doctors was expected later on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment.
The CEO of China's largest restaurant group didn't always work in food retail, let alone the retail industry. More than a decade ago, Joey Wat at Yum China, was given the chance to take on a massive career challenge that had a high risk of failure  and her decision led Wat into the role she has now. Rewind to the mid-2000s: Wat had just spent seven years in management consulting and had been promoted to head of strategy at Watson in Europe. Today, A.S. Watson Group is seen as the world's largest international health and beauty retailer, but back in the 2000s, one of its brands was showing signs of struggle: Savers  and Wat had been offered an opportunity to help rescue it. "Most of the stores were not making money  a very significant portion, and there was an opportunity for me to take this role, but it was very challenging," Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China, said when speaking to CNBC's Akiko Fujita last month. "To be honest, the failure rate could be quite high. If I made the change from my strategy role to the managing director role of this health and beauty business, I could fail."

A Savers shop in the UK Credit:  A.S. Watson Group 2017

So Wat had a decision to make. Speaking at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, the newly-appointed CEO of Yum China described the opportunity of becoming Savers' managing director as "scary", but admitted that there were two aspects that helped her decide: how much of a learning process it would be, and how many jobs were at stake. "If the business cannot turn around, there's a high chance that a few thousand people might lose their jobs. So if I give it a go, if it didn't work, we still would have the same result. If it worked, then we might save a few thousand people." As Wat explained, a "significant portion" of the U.K. discount health and beauty chain's stores weren't making enough money. However, fast forward to the present day, and Savers has more than 400 stores across the U.K., with over 3,000 people employed. And Wat was seen as a big part of the turnaround success. "Of course the downside of (it is) my career might be impacted, but that's the moment that I thought  'It's time to do the right thing'. Sometimes the right thing, is not the easy path."
Microgrids: These are zones where energy can be managed autonomously. University campuses, industrial plants, and factories, are common examples. A microgrid can manage resources within its perimeter. These might include generation units  such as wind turbines, solar panels, and traditional fossil fuel generators  and energy storage. The microgrid weaves these power units into a single manageable whole. Power from the outside can be balanced with internal production. If needed, microgrids can run on an optional "islanded" mode, disconnected from outside power sources.

The rise of the 'Prosumer'

Microgrids keep electricity flowing no matter what conditions or events are at play. Demand is also an important part of the equation and can be managed by new digital technologies. A microgrid monitoring system, such as Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor, ensures that decisions can be made according to real-time conditions. It is possible to know when to generate power, when to store it and when to buy it. Stability, power quality and the financial outcome are all improved as a result. Renewable credentials can also be boosted since a microgrid makes it feasible to blend alternative power generation with traditional sources. Consumers of power can now be producers too. They can feedback to the grid which allows these independent 'prosumers' to make significant savings.
I'm currently on the graphics desk. I've also been an assistant city editor and a reporter on the community and education beats. You can reach me by email at oliviagarrett@mail.missouri.edu or on Twitter @_oliviagarrett.

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Types of obituaries

The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries  family obituaries and life stories.

A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries

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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
Syria 1) May says Assad and Russia will be held to account as allies call for Britains support in military strike

She condemns barbaric attack  Guardian

And refuses to rule out military response  Daily Express

Shes under domestic and international pressure to join any action  Daily Telegraph

UK Armed Forces are drawing up options  Daily Mail

Meanwhile, Corbyns response is criticised by his MPs  Daily Telegraph

Syria 2) Wallace: The part our appeasement has played in the nightmare

Theresa May was under pressure from ministers and allies to join a US-led military strike against the Assad regime as France set the pace for retaliation against a suspected chemical attack. The prime minister said that President Assad and Russia would be held to account . . . if they are found to be responsible for the barbaric attack in Douma, Syria, in which at least 40 people including children died. As Britain prepared options including the use of Tomahawk missiles, senior figures warned that it risked losing influence in Washington to France if it turned down a request by President Trump to join a retaliatory strike. Yesterday Mr Trump promised to respond forcefully to the use of a chemical thought to be chlorine.  The Times

You will probably have experienced some of the pictures from Syria. Perhaps you have seen the heartbreaking ones  of crying children, being hosed down or strapped with oxygen masks  that newspapers are able to print. Or maybe you have discovered the sickening ones  of corpses, big and small, grey and bloated, glassy-eyed and foam-flecked  that they cannot. Even the former are revolting. The latter are, frankly, nightmarish. They are horrific, and they are our fault, at least in part. Because the bodies of all those people, killed by poison gases that sank into the cellars where they were sheltering from the bombs of Assad and Putin, are the grim fruits of appeasement.  The i

Heres what we should do  Johnny Mercer, The Sun

How much do we care?  David Miliband, The Times

We should join America in action, if we can  William Hague, Daily Telegraph

Corbyns stance is no surprise  Hugo Gye, The Sun

Editorials

Any military action should be carefully calculated  The Times

Russia is also to blame  Daily Express

Corbyns alliances are deeply worrying  The Sun

Brexit 1) Davis says he knows 80-90 per cent of where well end up in negotiations

He says theyre going broadly as expected  The Sun

Brexit 2) Gove says all options open regarding improvements to livestock welfare

The senior Tory minister was speaking with retired US Army General Stan McChrystal, who leads McChrystal Group leadership consultancy, and confirmed divorce negotiations were proceeding broadly as expected. He commented on the progress in negotiations, saying: Some of it Im not so certain on, but If I wrote on an envelope to give it to you now I could probably tell you 80-90 per cent of where well end up. Mr Davis also sounded optimistic about the issues which remain outstanding: I could specify the ten per cent I dont know. There are a few known unknowns.  Daily Express

The export of live sheep and cows for slaughter abroad could be banned after Brexit following a call for evidence on the issue by the government today. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said all options for improving the welfare of livestock during transport were being considered, including a ban on live export of animals destined for foreign abattoirs. The governments farm animal welfare committee has also launched a review into the existing welfare standards for animals during transport. Animal welfare groups say long sea and lorry journeys are stressful for animals and some foreign abattoirs have lower standards and may not stun animals before cutting their throats.  The Times

Including potential ban of live exports  The Sun

Brexit 3) Danish PM in favour of enhanced trade agreement between EU and UK, but warns of costs

Brexit 4) Clinton speaks of the fragility of the system following the GFA, twenty years on

Theresa Mays plans for a Brexit deal that delivers frictionless trade with the EU have been dealt a blow by a key European ally who has said there will be more bureaucracy after leaving the bloc. The Danish prime minister, Lars Lkke Rasmussen, said after talks with his UK counterpart in Copenhagen that there would be an inevitable price to pay for Britain leaving the single market. Following a bilateral meeting with May, he told reporters at a joint press conference: We should avoid too many changes in our relations and I am totally in favour of an enhanced trade agreement between the EU and UK.  Guardian

Voters in Northern Ireland have to stop punishing politicians who compromise, ex-US president Bill Clinton has said. He linked political paralysis to the rise of authoritarianism and warned the 15-month stalemate at Stormont would eventually reach its limit. Mr Clinton said it was easy to underestimate the fragility of the system following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which he supported. At a talk to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the agreement, he told an audience at University College Dublin (UCD) on Monday night: No one will drop off the face of the Earth with any of the reasonable compromises that have been discussed.  Belfast News Letter

Is Ireland now the Brexit battleground?  Daily Mail

Davis claims Varadkar allowing republican sentiment to play Brexit role  The Times

Comment:

How the agreement helped me  Conor McGinnn, The Times

What we can learn for Brexit from it  Janan Ganesh, FT

Editorial:

The country is a better place thanks to peace  Guardian

More from rest of UK

Sturgeons advisers point out costs of state energy firm  Herald

More Brexit

May says migration target will remain in place after we leave  Daily Telegraph

More fishing problems?  Daily Telegraph

Mills says voters want Britain to get on with Brexit  Daily Express

Comment:

Our resolve holds  Asa Bennett, Daily Telegraph

The left should learn from Orbans success  Tibor Fischer, Daily Telegraph

Heres our answer  Yanis Varoufakis and Benoit Hamon, Guardian

>Today: John Ashworth in Comment: The Government must not betray fishermen and coastal communities in the Brexit talks

>Yesterday: International: The presence of people like Orban in the EU club should worry Brussels far more than the prospect of Britain leaving it

May to pledge 75 million for prostate cancer research

At-risk groups will be targeted for testing  FT

Home Office admits police failing to record knife crime properly

Tens of thousands of men will be recruited to take part in a 75 million boost to prostate cancer research ordered by Theresa May to close the funding gap with breast cancer. The prime minister will acknowledge today that the disease is still identified too late for patients to be saved as she promises funds for better diagnosis and treatment.  Too many people endure the loss of a loved one because cancer diagnosis comes too late in the day, Mrs May said. Our cancer treatments are world-class and survival rates are at a record high but prostate cancer still claims thousands of lives every year. I know we can do more. Thats why I am setting out new plans to help thousands of men get treated earlier and faster.  The Times

The true extent of knife crime could be worse than previously thought because police are failing to properly record it, the Home Office has admitted. The Governments Serious Violence Strategy, which was published on Monday, discloses that police forces in England and Wales do not measure violent knife crime in the same way as other offences such as robbery and burglary. It means that the true scale of violence involving knives may have gone under-reported for almost a century, after experts confirmed that officers had been measuring other crimes in more detail since 1927.  Daily Telegraph

HO document shows violent crime strategy relying on tactics affected by cuts in police numbers  The Times

The row intensifies  Guardian

PCC calls for Rudd to resign  The Sun

Comment:

My thoughts on Rudd and the knife crime crisis  Rachel Sylvester, The Times

Rudd should face the truth  Zoe Williams, Guardian

>Today: ToryDiary: WWGD

More government

Ministers considering further junk food restrictions  The Times

Scandal continues as Corbyn hits back at Lipman after she says hes an antisemite

All this while Corbyn launches London council campaign  The Times

The latest in the Labour anti-semitism row  Daily Mail

Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at actress Maureen Lipman after she said his failure to tackle anti-Semitism made her a Tory. The film star, who is Jewish, joined a demonstration outside Labours London headquarters at the weekend to demand tougher action to root out the abuse. She said she could never return to Labour while it has an anti-Semite at its head and that she agreed with a placard reading Corbyn made me a Tory. But speaking today the Labour leader hit back at the star  saying a Tory-led country meant more poverty and austerity.  Daily Mail

>Yesterday:

Last-minute push leads to full slate of Conservative council candidates in Manchester

The Tories are standing a full slate of candidates in this years Manchester council elections after a huge last-minute push to find hopefuls  but the Liberal Democrats are fielding nobody at all in some northern parts of the city. The official list of candidates, published on Monday afternoon, also shows just four people running for Ukip. Manchester will see an all-out election on May 3 due to boundary changes, meaning every one of the citys 96 seats will be up for grabs  instead of the usual 32. Last week the website Conservative Home reported that due to atrophy of the local party, the Tories were experiencing real difficulties finding candidates. It appears that in some wards there is a genuine risk that people might find there is no Conservative candidate to vote for, it said, adding that officials from Conservative party headquarters had been drafted in to persuade at least one person to stand in each ward.  Manchester Evening News

>Yesterday: Local Government: Dont let Kingston return to the dark days of Lib Dem rule

>Today: Local Government: Birmingham is a key test  perhaps the most important one  for the Tories in the local elections

More Conservatives

Badenochs apology over hacking accepted by Harman  Guardian

>Today: Simon Clarke in Comment: Teesside is experiencing an industrial renaissance  with Conservative optimism driving out Labour gloom

News in Brief
Birmingham is a key test  perhaps the most important one  for the Tories in the local elections

While London has been hogging the attention of the media for the local elections on May 3rd let us remember that Englands second city, Birmingham, also has all it council seats up for election. It is Englands largest local authority  with over 30,000 employees it spends over 3 billion a year. Newcastle and Manchester (where the Conservatives currently have no seats) also have all their seats being contested. As does Leeds (where there are currently 58 Labour councillors to 19 Conservatives).

But Birmingham is the biggest prize.

The general election result last year was discouraging for the Conservatives and that reflected a trend over many years. While Sutton Coldfield is a safe Conservative seat, the other nine constituencies in the city are held by Labour. Seats that the Conservatives won in the Thatcher era  Edgbaston, Hall Green, Northfield, Selly Oak and Yardley  are now held by Labour often with big majorities.

In terms of local government Labour also starts out in a dominant position. They have 79 councillors with 29 Conservatives and 10 Lib Dems. While the Conservatives led the Council as recently as 2010 that was in coalition with the Lib Dems. It is true that Andy Street was elected the Mayor of the West Midlands last year. but he did not win a majority in Birmingham. His victory was secured by big majorities in Solihull, Walsall, and Dudley which more than offset his deficit in Birmingham (and Coventry, Sandwell and Wolverhampton).

On the other hand Labour will not be in a position to capitalise on Brexit. Birmingham voted very narrowly in favour of leaving the EU. So that will have surely included a significant chunk of Labour voters.

Then we have the matter of Labours dismal record running the city. Last year saw the bin strike in the city. Rubbish was piled high in the streets for months. The Labour council leader resigned after a motion of no confidence was passed by his colleagues. The whole crisis was handled in a weak and chaotic manner. In the end the Council gave in to the unions  after spending millions on agency staff to collect the rubbish.

That followed the Trojan Horse scandal where the Council was condemned for ignoring evidence of Islamic extremism.

Last month a Labour council candidate was deselected after an anti-semitic Facebook post.

The Council is in a financial mess  with overspending, Council Tax rises and poor services.

Cllr Robert Alden, the Conservative opposition leader, has written for us about the positive and energetic campaign that he and his colleagues are running.

So if local issues have anything to do with it, the Conservatives should be looking to make gains. That is encouraging in a way. But is also means that there is no excuse for losing seats. If the Conservatives cant make gains in these circumstances it is hard to see what would prompt a revival for them in the city of Joseph Chamberlain.
James Gray is a member of the Joint Committee on National Security, Chairman of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust, and author of Who Takes Britain to War? He is MP for North Wiltshire.

Theresa May will need political support for whatever she does in reaction to the vile use of chemical weapons in Syria. If she gets it wrong, she will pay a heavy political price. However, any call for a Commons vote on the matter prior to any such military strike against Assad would both risk losing  as happened to David Cameron in very similar circumstances in 2013  and would also abdicate the heavy responsibility for taking that kind of decision which ultimately must be hers and hers alone.

And were she were to seek political cover from a vote in the Commons on the matter, she would also effectively be emasculating the right and ability of Parliament to scrutinise and criticise what she has done. She and the Cabinet must act as they see best  and Parliament will then have plenty of opportunity to discuss and criticise it. However, if backbenchers have been whipped into supporting that action then we are giving up the right to hold the Government to account after the event.

When Cameron failed to persuade the Commons to endorse his plan to bomb Syria in 2013, it was the first time in history that Parliament rejected a Prime Ministers war-making intentions. For hundreds of years prior to that, acting under the ancient Royal Prerogative, military action had been a matter for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with Parliament subsequently holding them to account for their actions. Parliament was informed and advised of their military decisions rather than being consulted on them. Yet in 2003, by a clever piece of Blairite Parliamentary emasculation, the then Prime Minister used his whips (and ours) to persuade a reluctant Commons to approve his pre-set plans, thereby preventing us from questioning or criticising them thereafter.

Now of course there will be self-styled democrats and parliamentarians who will argue that such votes have great merit in strengthening Parliament against the Executive. How can it be, they ask, that that most important of all decisions  to go to war  should be decided not by the tribunes of the people, but by the Prime Minister acting under devolved powers from the Monarch? David Cameron and William Hague had been at the forefront in making exactly that point, which is no doubt why the then Prime Minister felt it so necessary to take the putative Syria action to a vote.

Yet the truth is that if use of military force is allowed to be political (which it must be, if it needs a majority in a possibly marginal House of Commons), then it cannot be strategic. Should the Prime Minister be doing what is right for the peace and the people of the world? Or should he have primary concern for its popularity in Parliament?

Giving Parliament the final say over warfare politicises the war in question; it means that possibly sensitive intelligence has to be made public; it removes any element of surprise, delays decision making, and in a host of other ways makes the effective conduct of military force extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible. Now even if you think that this may be a good thing, I hope that you agree it also has a devastating impact on our ability to project power for the good of the world. Diplomacy without arms is like music without an orchestra.

In other words, would it not be perfectly reasonable for the Prime Minister to authorise air strikes against Assad, and to have to inform Parliament of it, and answer our questions and criticism afterwards? Should Parliaments job not be to hold the Prime Minister and Executive to account for what they have done rather than becoming a party to it?

In the longer term, should we not be setting the brains of the best constitutional lawyers to work to square the circle of giving the Prime Minister the necessary freedom to act militarily while still ensuring the primacy of Parliamentary decision making? Would it not be better for the Royal Prerogative, which Prime Ministers relied on so effectively in dozens of wars over hundreds of years, to be replaced by a Parliamentary Prerogative. Parliament would write into law the acceptable reasons for military action, the ways in which wars should be fought, and the ways in which they should be concluded. (The three parts of the old philosophy of the Just War). Such a Statute would then allow the Prime Minister to act as he always done. He would be doing so with the full authority of Parliament, yet removing the necessity to consult we backbenchers in detail about the proposed military action.

But for now, lets us hope that the Prime Minister will have the courage to do what she believes to be best  for humanity, for Syria and for the world; to do so without seeking any kind of vote in Parliament; but then of course being ready to justify what she has done immediately, and in full.
John Ashworth has worked in the fishing industry since the 1960s. He ran the Save Britains Fish campaign for over a decade, and is a former Conservative Constituency Chairman.

On 26th March, our Prime Minister gave a statement to the House of Commons concerning the previous weeks European Council meeting, in which she stated:

Although 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.

No doubt Theresa May was referring to the fishing industry, as strong representation had been made by fishermen as to why this proposed period of time was so damaging.



So why are fisherman unhappy about the 21-month implementation period?

Up until March of this year, all key Government players in Brexit and fisheries were saying we were coming out of the Common Fisheries Policy at 11pm on 29th March 2019, and that the UK would be in full control. The coastal communities were ecstatic and, after years of neglect, had at long last hope for the future.

But on 19th March, with the release of the draft withdrawal agreement, the points agreed highlighted in green shown by Michel Barnier said we would not take back control of our waters until 1st January 2021. One can only presume that in order to secure a 21-month deal, fishing had been sacrificed. Now we get the assurance that one just has to wait 21 months and the prize awaits, but will it? Coastal communities are wary  having given way so easily now, surely a trade deal will be bartered for fishing access in UK waters, as the European Parliament has suggested.

It is a simple fact that faith and trust have gone. These communities have been bitten more than once.

The fisheries section of the draft withdrawal agreement comes under article 125, in four sections. At a first casual glance it looks straightforward, until you study every word, when it becomes apparent that power and control rests with the Commission to do what they want.

Bearing in mind the EU treaties and regulations cease to apply after 29th March 2019, the UK loses the protection of the derogation giving us exclusive rights in our six- and 12-nautical-mile zones. So from the low water mark out to the 200-nautical-mile/median line zone would all be under EU jurisdiction.

EU fishermen, free of previous zonal conditions of access would love to come inshore and take our non-quota species such as squid and cuttlefish. Why buy it from the British when you can catch it yourself? These inshore grounds keep our fleet viable; take them away and they will go bankrupt. The Government will deny this because of the Withdrawal Bill bringing the EU acquis into domestic legislation, claiming the rules and laws are the same before and after Brexit. This is a serious mistake  yes, the rules can be the same, but certainly the laws are not.

The one saviour could be the two-year notice given on 3rd July 2017 to leave the 1964 London Fisheries Convention. If this is upheld, it will mean no EU vessel can come inside our 12-nautical-mile zone, but if surrendered will result in a further decimation of our fleet. That will be a severe test for the Government.

Another problem commencing on 1st January 2019 is the implementation of the final stages of the discard ban. Discarding is a very serious problem, but the present system is not the way to solve it. What will happen is if you have quota for several species, and as soon as you have caught the lowest one, you have to stop fishing for the rest of the year, even though you have plenty of quota left on other species. If enforced, the Governments own department estimates 60 per cent of our vessels will go out of business. The Government is determined to see the discard ban fulfilled.

Come the end of 2020 we could see a large reduction in UK catching capacity, and if we do take back control of our waters then it means by international law we are in serious trouble, because under Article 62 of UNCLOS 3, if a coastal state has not enough catching capacity, the excess you cant catch goes to your neighbour  the EU.

Brexit could give us the potential to rejuvenate our coastal communities. We could become world leaders in marine management, as we should be, because around the British Isles is the finest marine resource of anywhere in the world, which belongs to the British people. To meekly follow the Common Fisheries Policy management, which is politically driven, would be a disgrace, when government has been handed on a plate a new fisheries plan that would create far superior scientific data. Bring scientists, fishery officers, and fishermen together to work with each other, rather than in conflict as at present. All we ask is to trial this new system. Alas, someone is blocking it.

Extending taking back control by nearly two years could well result in not having enough people around to rebuild, resulting in no improvement for coastal continuities and what is left of the UK Industry belonging to large companies, the very opposite of what we wanted.

It would be wrong to blame the EU for this mess. You have to admire them for standing up for their industries. We should be doing the same, but  come the trade deal  the EU will demand the same again.
Simon Clarke is the Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.

Teesside in the 19th Century should be thought of as the Victorian equivalent of modern China. A combination of pioneering technology, favourable geography and huge inward migration to power first the steel and then the chemical industry caused a population explosion  so much so that William Gladstone, then Chancellor, branded Middlesbrough Englands infant Hercules in 1862.

The boom times continued deep into the 20th Century, with enduring legacies like the Sydney Harbour Bridge standing proud today. However, with a lack of investment in new technology and confronted by the chill winds of foreign competition, throughout my lifetime Teesside has grappled with a legacy of high unemployment, and poor education, health and welfare outcomes.

All this makes for a rather unlikely political battleground, yet the Tees Valley will play a crucial role at the next General Election. My own seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, which I gained from Labour in June 2017 by just over 1,000 votes, sits next to a string of wafer-thin Labour marginals  Stockton South, Darlington and Bishop Auckland. The latter is particularly striking. In 1997, the Labour majority was over 21,000. Today, it is just 500.

What explains this? Brexit, in part. My constituents voted to Leave by two to one, and Labours increasingly desperate attempt to pretend it is simultaneously honouring the wishes of people in Middlesbrough and Muswell Hill will ultimately have to be resolved by a final vote for or against our Brexit deal. People dont trust Labour to deliver what they voted for in the referendum.

However, a more subtle dividing line locally comes down to faith in the future, with Labours declinism standing in stark contrast to Conservative ambition for Teesside.

Just before the disastrous General Election manifesto struck last summer, Ben Houchen was elected as the first Mayor of the Tees Valley  an extraordinary success for a Conservative in an area where all five local authorities are Labour-controlled. Since his election, Ben has focused relentlessly on making a success of the South Tees Mayoral Development Corporation, which is centred on the site of the former SSI steelworks and represents the most exciting regeneration project in the UK today.

In the Budget, the Chancellor allocated 123 million to remediate the steelworks site and allow the private sector to move in. There have been over 60 expressions of interest from companies large and small, and the vision is to create 20,000 skilled jobs over the next 25 years. The first major announcement is expected this spring.

The response of local Labour MPs to this regeneration investment could hardly have been more grudging. Rather than welcome the most significant investment on Teesside in a generation, they queued up to pour cold water on it, prompting Robert Cuffe, Trinity Mirrors North East Managing Director, to tweet:

Breaking News. Yesterday Teesside was at risk of an outbreak of optimism and hope. Families wondering if potentially good news had broken out. Thankfully Loyal Labour Forces came out quickly with Party Gloom Blankets to try and extinguish the hope.

For too long it has quite suited many in the Labour Party to maintain a downbeat narrative about Teesside, even when that is transparently inaccurate and harmful to inward investment. People are now noticing this  real people who arent political obsessives, but care deeply about the future of their area and have a fierce pride in Teesside. They notice it both because it contrasts with their hopes for the future, and with their own lived experience.

This really crystallised for me when I appeared on the BBCs Victoria Derbyshire show a few weeks ago to discuss life in the area. The film about Redcar and Cleveland played to every conceivable stereotype of life being grim up north, and was captioned Former Steel Town Faces Bleak Future. Chi Onwurah, Labours Shadow Business Minister, joined the chorus of woe, as did Sue Jeffrey, the Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, who talked about the opportunities others see happening elsewhere.

The reality is a steady renewal of manufacturing strength is taking place on Teesside. We are the only net exporting region of England. The North East recently set a new record with is highest-ever level of employment, creating jobs more quickly than anywhere else in the UK other than Northern Ireland last autumn.

There are other reasons for optimism. Just down the road from my constituency, Sirius Minerals new Woodsmith Mine will open in 2021, creating well over 1,000 jobs and joining Cleveland Potashs mine at Boulby as the only place in the world where the new wonder ingredient for fertiliser, Polyhalite, can be produced.

Meanwhile, local Conservatives are fighting to make a reality of the excellent proposal that Teesport should become the first Free Port in the UK. Free Ports, popular in much of the rest of the world, are deemed to be outside the country for customs purposes. This means that goods can enter and then leave a port without incurring import duties, providing a huge boost to domestic manufacturing and reshoring jobs. While some moderate Labour MPs are in favour, this is the kind of upbeat, pro-enterprise thinking that their Party has long since stopped delivering, and which it is impossible to see Labour implementing in Government.

These are the new battle lines. In the North East, Labour now embrace the politics of things can only get worse. We Conservatives know things are getting better.
Christians sometimes ask What would Jesus do? We have no intention of misattributing sinlessness or divinity to the Environment Secretary. But other Ministers should sometimes ask: What would Gove do?

This isnt because he is always right. Indeed, Mark Wallace recently questioned where his combativeness has gone. Further to the point, one might divide Gove, like some old master of the visual arts, into Early Gove, the man who couldnt enter a classroom without picking a fight with the teacher, and Late Gove, the man who cant leave a dew pond before cuddling a great crested newt, and assuring it that he feels its pain. But he is unquestionably the Cabinet Minister who most sets the pace in his department  whether mulling a ban on live animal exports, ordering CCTV into slaughterhouses, proposing tougher sentences for animal cruelty, backing a ban on bee-harming pesticides or introducing a bar on the ivory trade.

So let us apply the WWGD question to knife and gun crime. The first place that it takes one to is to the Serious Violence Strategy launched yesterday by Amber Rudd. As Peter Walker wrote on this site last weekend, there are people who look for simple alternatives  none of which hold. Yes, the use of stop and search is essential. But its reduction by the Metropolitan Police was followed by a fall in stabbings and shootings. Yes, there must be enough police officers to carry it out effectively. But a fall in police funding under the Coalition was mirrored by a fall in crime. And in any event the Met has a high officers-to-people ratio compared to other forces.

Walker pointed to the success of the Violence Reduction Unit in Glasgow, and the reduction of knife crime in the city: no young people died as a result of such crimes last year. This is exactly the sort of early intervention model that the Home Secretarys strategy looks to follow. Home Office ministers worry about similar trends abroad, and rising demand in the crack cocaine market. There is talk of hosting an international summit.

Neither is it the case that Rudd has rushed out a strategy to meet media demands (it has long been pencilled in for this week, before the local government elections really get going), or instead dithered for several days before producing one (ditto). None the less, the issue first cropped up on our site post-Easter exactly a week ago, when James Frayne wrote in his weekly column that violence is set to become a mainstream political issue in London. He was probing the previous weekends Sunday Times report that Londons murder rate now rivals New Yorks (itself a claim that demands a bit of statistical attention).

So the best part of a week passed between a head of steam gathering about violent crime in the capital  and elsewhere  and the publication of the Governments strategy. One view is that this doesnt matter: that Ministers are too easily pushed around by the media, Government is too responsive to it, and a welcome development of the post-Cameron, May Government era is that it tends to run to its own timetable. None the less, it is worth asking, if only as a thought experiment, WWGD.

Here is a list of what he might have done. Some of the ideas are arguably not very good; as a whole, they are self-contradictory, and he would almost certainly not have done all of them, were he running the Home Office. But here we go.
CORNWALL, Ontario  The two English language co-terminus boards of Eastern Ontario signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday, March 29, 2018 to exchange school properties.

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) will be acquiring the old General Vanier Secondary School building from the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) which will be buying Immaculate Conception Catholic School from the CDSBEO.

The two school boards did not disclose how much General Vanier or Immaculate Conception were being sold for, only stating that it was for fair market value.

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario and the Upper Canada District School Board have successfully completed a memorandum of understanding which will be signed today, said CDSBEO Chairman Todd Lalonde. It is a testament to our commitment to the betterment of our students and parents.

General Vanier, which is currently the primary site for the UCDSBs TR Leger program, will be used by the CDSBEO to house the JK to Grade 6 students from Sacred Heart and St. Columbans Schools, which they are closing. The new amalgamated schools will also house the Grade 7 and 8 students from St. Annes and Bishop MacDonell Catholic schools as well as the 7-8 students at St. Joes.

The CDSBEO received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education to acquire General Vanier. The school will be receiving a $2.2 million make over, also funded by the Ministry.

The money will be used to add, among other things, four new kindergarten classrooms, new bathrooms and a new bus loop. The renovations are schedule to start in May.

The students who are currently at St. Columbans and Sacred Heart will be moved into the old General Vanier site in Sept. 2018, when the memorandum comes into effect.

The elementary school side of the site will be renamed to Sacred Heart Catholic School.

Immaculate Conception will be the new home of the TR Leger program. Director Stephen Sliwa said that he expected minimal disruption to the program.

General Vanier Secondary School is attached to the CDSBEOs main high school in Cornwall, St. Joes, and that connection symbolizes a partnership that goes back decades.

There are many times that I would remind the Ministry of the long partnership weve had, said UCDSB Chair Jeff McMillan. Especially at this school. Weve been partners for more than 30 years.

McMillan went on to state that this partnership will continue as both boards work to meet their communitys needs.

We are here to serve our community and we are here to serve our young people, McMillan said. Lets set the example of how two school boards can work together for the betterment of their community.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Cornwall City Council gave its endorsement of a food truck in Legion Park at their meeting on Monday, April 9, 2018.

Not only good for the ball park, but also good for the waterfront and the marina, said Councillor Andre Rivette who made the motion.

I support it too, anything we do to make our waterfront more public friendly, said Councillor Elaine MacDonald.

Mark Currier, one of the owners and operators of the proposed food truck was at the meeting and was happy with Councils endorsement. Currier will be the chef and is partnering with Gilles Gagnier and Nancy Kelly who he says have been incredibly supportive.

His new food truck will be a 24-foot Kitchen Trailer placed in Legion Park near the ball fields called the Farm and Forest Food Experience.

Were going to work with local farmers and in area forests to bring local ingredients to our ballpark, said Currier.

Currier is a forager, and says that there are delicious, quality ingredients right in the Citys backyard if you know where to look for it.

I believe it is important to be accountable and responsible for where your food comes from, he said.

He explained how he plans to have a compost partnership with local farmers to create a cycle from his kitchen to the soil and back again.

Food that will be served in Legion Park includes poutine, duck confi pogo with wild mustard, pattys and buns all made from scratch.

The food truck aims to be open the second week of May, and will be open from around 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, but Currier said that there will be a learning period at first where things might change.

He hopes to have the food truck open until the end of October.
With new cloud and virtual appliance options, Cisco Systems is pushing its Tetration security and analytics platform into new markets and firmly reiterating its commitment to "open" software solutions.



"We could have easily picked to take a closed approach, but open is the new game in Cisco," Yogesh Kaushik, Cisco senior director and Tetration product manager, told CRN. "We've heard it loud and clear for a few years now. As we've realized that we want to be a software and subscription-based company and expand this opportunity, we want to decouple our software pieces from our hardware pieces."



That decoupling comes with the new Tetration virtual appliance, known as Tetration-V. The system requires VMware's bare metal ESXi hypervisor, but is delivered on-premises on customers' existing hardware, whatever it may be.

Kaushik explained that the virtual appliance is aimed at smaller-scale commercial customers that deploy fewer than 1,000 workloads or customers looking to do a quick proof-of-concept. "They don't have to buy hardware anymore," Kaushik said. "They can buy the software from us and run it on the hardware they already have."



[Related: New Riverbed CEO Mountford On Turning The Page On A Cisco-Style Channel Strategy And The Huge Opportunity For Partners In Software And Services Revolution]



The SaaS version allows customers and partners to introduce themselves to Tetration without laying out large amounts of cash. It is fully delivered and managed by Cisco and does not require any hardware, and customers can start with as few as 100 licenses.



Tetration-V is available now. Tetration SaaS will be available in May.



Jon Duren, data center networking practice manager at World Wide Technology, a large St. Louis-based Cisco partner, said the new buying options for Tetration considerably broaden its appeal, especially among customers concerned about moving to the cloud in an efficient and cost-effective way.



"This brings the ability for some customers to repurpose some of their hardware," Duren said. "A lot of their workloads are moving to the cloud, so there's hardware that's become available and the customer is trying to find ways to leverage that and reuse those assets, and this gives one more avenue."



Tetration-V and Tetration SaaS also drive the platform to customers for whom the initial version was out of reach, Duren said.

"When it was the big, monolithic setup, the customers really had to put a serious justification behind it, and had to understand exactly what it was going to do in every case before they could even attempt to buy it," he said. "With these other offerings, we have customers beginning to look at it from the angle of how can this solve different issues, even on a temporary basis where we bring up a system and it can go away at the end, if needed. That's not an option when you're buying $1 million-plus in gear."



World Wide Technology's Tetration-V and Tetration SaaS strategy emphasizes installation, deployment and customization services, as well as ensuring customers are getting the reporting they need out of the system. "To some extent, this is a big data system with a lot of insights about their network," Duren said. "Tuning that reporting to something that makes sense to the customer and his environment is where we can offer a lot of assistance."



When it was launched about 18 months ago, Tetration was an on-premises-only offering delivered as a large appliance requiring three dozen Cisco servers, as well as several Cisco switches. It was aimed at large enterprise and federal government customers and carries a seven-figure price tag. Since then, the San Jose, Calif.-based company has rolled out a smaller, six-server version, but wanted to offer more options for smaller customers and multi-vendor environments, Kaushik said.



"Everything has to stand on its own feet," Kaushik said. "We believe our hardware can compete on its own merit, and software doesn't have to pull it through."



The Tetration virtual appliance is available on a one-, three-, or five-year subscription. The SaaS version is available in one- and three-year blocks. Subscriptions start at a street price of about $15,000, Kaushik said. Both versions are included in Cisco's VIP channel incentive program and are part of the Cisco ONE software portfolio.



The Tetration platform analyzes information from hardware and software sensors using machine learning and big data analytics. The company said the open source-based system is used for application dependency mapping, network performance monitoring and security policy enforcement.



"This is the cloud generation, and new consumption models are what customers and partners have been asking for," said Kent MacDonald, senior vice president at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based Cisco partner that has begun working with Tetration. "They don't want to pay up front just to start the transition [to cloud]. They want to pay as they move."



Cisco, MacDonald said, understands that customers need all the tools and management necessary to transition to the cloud, but that they want to make that transition "organically." Cisco's consumption strategy around Tetration-V and Tetration SaaS "very much aligns with how the world and the industry is moving," he said. "Otherwise, it's going to be a barrier to customers that want to move to the cloud."
Palo Alto Networks plans to bolster its data collection and visualization capabilities on the endpoint through its agreement to purchase emerging vendor Secdo.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based network security titan said its plan to acquire New York-based endpoint detection and response (EDR) vendor Secdo will enhance Palo Alto Networks' ability to rapidly detect and stop stealthy attacks.

"With Secdo's EDR capabilities as part of our platform, we will accelerate our ability to detect and prevent successful cyberattacks across the cloud, endpoint and network," Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

[Related: Palo Alto Networks To Buy Evident.io For $300M To Fortify Cloud Services Infrastructure Capabilities]

Palo Alto Networks stock is up $3.52 (1.87%) to $191.44 in pre-market trading Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Palo Alto Networks didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The deal is expected to close by the end of this month.

Secdo's thread-level approach to data collection and visualization goes far beyond traditional EDR methods, which Palo Alto Networks said only collect general event data. As a result, security operations teams are hamstrung as they try to reconstruct each step of an attack and distinguish between malicious and normal activity, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Once integrated with Palo Alto Networks' Traps advanced endpoint protection offering, the data from Secdo will feed into the logging service and give applications running in the framework greater precision to visualize, detect and stop cyberattacks. Secdo's engineers will also complement the deep security expertise inside the Palo Alto Networks research and development organization, the company said.

"We founded Secdo to dramatically increase visibility for security operations teams to reduce the time it takes to detect and respond to an alert," Shai Morag, co-founder and CEO of Secdo, said in a statement. "The combined capabilities of Secdo and Palo Alto Networks will provide customers the capabilities they need to swiftly and accurately detect and respond to cyberattacks."

Secdo was founded in 2015 and currently employs 68 people, according to LinkedIn. The company has raised $10 million in two rounds of outside funding, according to CrunchBase, with the most recent investment coming in May 2017 from O.G. Tech Ventures, a venture capital practice investing in early growth tech startups.

The company has expanded very rapidly around the globe, setting up shop in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, Gil Barak, Secdo's CTO and co-founder, told CRN in November. Secdo initially started by going direct, but has expanded the share of its business going through channel partners to 80 percent, Barak said.

Secdo's technology can be used from a defensive and offensive standpoint, Barak said in November, and is focused on helping security operations centers (SOCs) and MSSPs automate. Barak described the company's offering as "BDR on steroids."

This is the second announced acquisition in two months for Palo Alto Networks, and comes less than a month after the company's proposed $300 million purchase of cloud security vendor Evident.io. Evident.io's technology will make it easier for enterprise cloud users to ensure their deployments are compliant and secure, Palo Alto Networks said at the time.

Secdo's unique data collection capabilities will be very helpful since one of the primary ways organizations figure out they've been breached is by looking at the logs and seeing what transpired, according to Tom Turkot, vice president of client solutions for Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Arlington Computer Products.

The Traps offering is a perfect, hand-in-glove fit with Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewall, leveraging zero-day threats identified by the WildFire malware analysis service to cover the endpoint better than most, Turkot said. And acquisitions like Secdo will only provide further long-term enhancement to the company's platform, according to Turkot.

"People aren't looking for a point solution these days," Turkot told CRN. "Anything they do to enhance the overall package is great."
John McGirl, chief operations officer at The World, has been named president of the Marine Hotel Association (MHA), the group announced at its 33rd annual conference and trade show taking place this week in Orlando. The World is the only privately owned residential cruise ship.

As president, McGirl joins other cruise line executives and vendors on the MHAs board of directors.

McGirl is a highly regard cruise line executive and before his current role at The World, held key positions at Royal Caribbean Cruises, as vice president of human resources, and also at Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, as senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

He has also held posts with Seabourn and Cunard Line.

McGirl was born and grew up in a town called Sligo in western Ireland. He went to school and college in Galway, where he graduated from hospitality school. His first job was working as a porter in a hotel in his hometown.

There was a lecturer at the hotel school who had worked for many years aboard the QE2 and shared stories from around the world with the students. The result was that McGirl set his goal to work aboard the famous liner. He said he applied immediately out of school, but was not accepted, so he continued to apply until he was.

Joining Cunard in 1987, he started out as an assistant purser on the QE2, meaning he did mostly entry level administrative jobs, but he had his foot in the door.

That was all he needed. Spending 15 years with the company, McGirl rose to vice president of human resources (HR) based at Cunards New York headquarters.

He left in 2004 to cofound People2Strategy, a consulting company, which is still active today, although McGirl no longer plays a part. He ran the firm together with its cofounder Patricia Sadar for three years, working with Royal Caribbean International as one of its clients, before joining the cruise line as vice president of HR.

After five years at Royal Caribbean, McGirl joined the Naples Community Health Center. His main role there was as the chief patient experience officer.

Then followed a brief stint as senior vice president and chief HR officer at Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings before joining The World in April 2015.

McGirl takes over the MHA president role from Holland America Lines John Peijs.
Oceania Cruises announced ti is adding 16 new cooking classes for the 2018 European season aboard the 1,250-guest Marina and Riviera.

The new programs were developed by longtime Director of Culinary Enrichment, Chef Kathryn Kelly, and will debut with the first European sailings of the year this April and May the company said.

Classes take place in the ship's Culinary Center.

As the only foodie-focused cruise line, we strive to provide out guests with one-of-a-kind, hands-on culinary experiences that immerse them in the culinary cultures of the world, stated Bob Binder, President and CEO of Oceania Cruises.

Among the highlights is Mastering Chef Knife Skills, where guests will get a chefs look at a complete pantry of knives and enjoy the chance to try out a few chef knives to discover the best option. Theyll also learn how to sharpen and maintain this essential kitchen tool, practice various knife cuts and discover how to safely use the mandolin slicer. At the conclusion of the class, all participants will receive a special Knife Skills certificate along with a savings voucher for their favorite Zwilling Company knives.

There's also The Nordic Kitchen class, with regional specialties such as Estonian fish soup, Nordic salmon rillettes, gravlax cured in the traditional Scandinavian spirit and hearty meatballs with a Swedish flair.

In The Culinary Center, guests cook under the instruction of faculty members who are experienced chefs and restaurateurs who have apprenticed under a whos who of renowned chefs, said Chef Kelly. We continue to add new classes to keep things fresh for our repeat guests and this year were thrilled to present our most diverse array of classes, including the first-ever knife-skills-only class to be offered at sea.

Full Roster of Classes:

Pucker Up  Celebrating the diversity and splendor of lemons in Mediterranean cooking

Ancient Cuisines  showcasing the magical dishes of Morocco and Turkey

All Things Roman  Celebrating the greatest dishes of the ancient Roman Empire

Brunch Comforts  Classic brunch dishes and entertaining tips

Cooking Fresh  Healthy, fresh, and flavorful dishes including Canyon Ranch Spa Cuisine favorites

Essential Pasta  The fundamentals of pasta preparation, cookery, and sauces

Greek Tonight  Our facultys favorite recipes from Santorini, Rhodes, Crete, Corfu, and Athens

Grill School  Grilling is more than technique, its an art form

If it Swims  Mastering the basics of fish cookery: searing, baking, shallow-poaching, deep-poaching, and curing

In the Kitchen with Jacques  Celebrating the glorious career of our Executive Culinary Director and world-renowned Master Chef through knife skills, the secrets of emulsion, and a selection of Jacques favorite dishes from his sixty-year career

Most Requested Red Ginger  Mastering the skills and most popular recipes from our acclaimed Asian restaurant

The Sicilian Kitchen  A celebration of pasta, fish, and rice dishes from the home kitchens of our faculty and crew

Viva Espana  Spanish cuisine has helped transform the culinary world and this class showcases traditional tapax and pintxos along with new and modern favorites
Verizons 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is out, and companies of all sizes and industries need to take note of the results.

In a summary of its findings, Verizon noted that 73 percent of the breaches were perpetrated by outsiders, 50 percent were conducted by organized criminal groups, 28 percent involved insiders, 12 percent involved nation-state or state affiliated actors, 2 percent involved partners, and another 2 percent involved multiple partners.

Yet human error was responsible for one in five breaches. Examples included misconfiguring web servers, sending email to the wrong person and failing to shred confidential information. Humans are the weak link, and companies are about three times more likely to be breached by humans falling for social attacks than by security vulnerabilities.

Of the cases involving the weak human factor, 96 percent started with email as the main entry point. Verizon noted, You have 16 minutes until the first click on a phishing campaign. The first report from a savvy-user will arrive after 28 minutes.

Pretexting is on the rise when being social engineered, having increased over five times since the 2017 DBIR. The two most prevalent scenarios involved pretexting that targeted employees in human resources or those who work in finance. Often finance employees get email impersonating the CEO or another executive, while W-2 information is the most coveted data to pry from HR.

The most common types of breaches

The largest percent of breaches, or 48 percent, involved hacking, 30 percent included malware, 17 percent were social attacks, 17 percent of breaches had errors as causal events, 12 percent involved privilege misuse, and 11 percent involved physical action.

When it comes to malware being behind a breach, ransomware is the most common. It was found in 39 percent of malware-related breaches and impacted business-critical systems, as well as desktops. Put another way, cyber thugs can put in less work yet obtain bigger payouts by demanding higher ransoms after encrypting databases or file servers.

The 11th edition of Verizon's DBIR is based on analysis of 53,308 real-world security incidents and 2,216 confirmed data breaches. Over 700 of the security incidents involved ransomware; its doubled since the 10th DBIR edition.

Ransomware remains a significant threat for companies of all sizes, said Bryan Sartin, Verizons executive director of security professional services. It is now the most prevalent form of malware, and its use has increased significantly over recent years. What is interesting to us is that businesses are still not investing in appropriate security strategies to combat ransomware, meaning they end up with no option but to pay the ransom  the cyber criminal is the only winner here! As an industry, we have to help our customers take a more proactive approach to their security. Helping them to understand the threats they face is the first step to putting in place solutions to protect themselves.

Companies most affected by breaches

As for who is getting hammered, 58 percent of the victims were small businesses, 24 percent of breaches affected healthcare organizations, 15 percent involved food and accommodations services, and 14 percent were breaches of public sector entities.

In the education industry, 11 percent of attacks are motived by fun instead of financial gain. Yet 20 percent of attacks are aimed at highly sensitive research with espionage as the motive.

Healthcare is the only industry where insider threats are higher than outside threats with human error noted as a major contributor to healthcare risks.

In the public sector, 43 percent of breaches are motivated by cyber espionage.

Detecting breaches and protecting your systems

In terms of the time it took to discover a breach, 87 percent of compromises took minutes or less, but 68 percent took months or more before they were discovered.

Verizon encourages people to be proactive to keep organizations from becoming victims: patch ASAP, encrypt sensitive data, use two-factor authentication, check logs, train staff to identity warning signs, keep data access on a need to know basis, and remember physical security.
3 1 of 3 Contributed Photo / ST Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The board of Genesee & Wyoming approved for its chairman and CEO a one-time, $2.7 million retention award in the form of stock, contributing to a 45 percent increase in his pay last year.

Jack Hellmann made $7.4 million in 2017 leading Genesee & Wyoming, which operates more than 120 short-line railroads throughout North America and in parts of Australia and Europe, employing about 8,000 people.
The Hearst Movie & A Martini group will see the 1947 Robert Mitchum classic Out of the Past at the Avon Theatre.

The film noir thriller was one of a series of late 1940s hits that made Mitchum into a top movie star. Although he played the hero of the tale, the man searching for a missing woman (Jane Greer) gets into a moral quagmire where it is hard to tell the innocent from the guilty. Greenwich film noir expert Michael Kovner will speak after the movie.
Contributed Photo / Stamford Police Department / Contributed Photo

STAMFORD  City cops extradited a New Jersey man suspected of being involved with a phone scam that defrauded a 90-year-old Stamford woman out of $9,000.

On Tuesday, the Stamford police went to Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, N.J., and took custody of Luis A. Hiraldo-Fernandez, 31 and returned him to Stamford, where he was charged with second-degree larceny.
BRIDGEPORT  Two city men who, police said, were planning to commit arson at a Bridgeport business and harm the owner were charged after a pursuit with officers.

Police filed criminal charges against Luis Mercado, 51, of Charles Street in Bridgeport, and Dominick Gonzalez, 27, of Soundview Avenue in Bridgeport. The two were charged with criminal possession of a firearm, weapons in a motor vehicle, carrying a pistol without a permit, reckless endangerment and interfering with an officer.

The two had bonds set at $50,000.

Mercado was also issued a misdemeanor summons for motor vehicle charges of engaging police in a pursuit and a tail light violation. He was issued an additional complaint ticket for possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana.

Around 1:30 a.m. on April 2, a patrol unit in the area of the West Side saw a Toyota Corolla on Elmwood Avenue that was driving without its taillights on, according to an incident report.

The officer attempted to make a motor vehicle stop, to which the driver of the Toyota did not oblige and instead led the officer on a pursuit throughout several city streets.

During the pursuit, the officer noticed  and called in  that the driver of the Toyota, later identified as Mercado, threw a clear plastic bag out the window. Additional officers responded to the area and found a plastic bag with 10.5 grams of marijuana in it.

The passenger of the vehicle, later identified as Gonzalez, was also seen tossing shiny, metal-like objects out the window during the pursuit. Officers that responded to that location found a fully-loaded firearm and a magazine holding seven rounds.

Additional officers found another firearm that had been discarded in the 100 block of Park Avenue.

Mercado finally stopped the Toyota on Park Avenue near McKinley Avenue. Mercado and Gonzalez were immediately placed in handcuffs. The officer who wrote the incident report said the two had on gloves when they were arrested.

In the Toyota, police found a black ski mask, a pair of binoculars and a container filled with gasoline.

A police sergeant that responded to assist in the arrest said he received information Mercado and Gonzalez were plotting to commit arson with the gasoline officers found in the Toyota, the incident report said.

The sergeant said he received information that the two were going to commit arson at a Bridgeport business and harm the owner of that business.

When Mercado and Gonzalez was taken to booking, they were found to be convicted felons, the incident report said. Neither of them had a permit to carry a pistol.

As the investigation was wrapped up, the incident report said, police received information that would lead them to make three additional arrests related to this investigation in Milford.
SHELTON - A 76-year-old retired Shelton teacher has been arrested after allegations that he sexually assaulted a male juvenile he was mentoring.

On Tuesday, police arrested David Munson charging him with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury with a minor.

Munson, who lives on Sharon Court in Shelton, was named Teacher of the Year in 1988.

The arrest stems from an investigation, which began last October, where the male complainant, came forward to police to report that he was sexually assaulted, while attending Shelton Intermediate School years earlier, said Detective Chris Nugent.

The investigation revealed that from 2005 to 2007 the male juvenile was enrolled in Shelton Intermediate School mentoring program, where Munson was assigned to the mentor the juvenile male. The victim reported being sexually assaulted by Munson on or around school grounds during the time that he was being mentored.

Munson retired in 1999 from the Shelton Board of Education after 34 years of teaching.

At the time of the reported incidents from 2005 to 2007, Munson was acting in the capacity of a youth mentor and was also on the Board for the Shelton Youth Bureau. Munson was immediately suspended from his involvement in the Youth Bureau when the complaint was brought forward to police, Nugent said.

Munson posted a $100,000.00 bond and is scheduled to appear in Derby Superior Court on Wednesday.
SHELTON  A fatal collision on River Road, the second over the weekend, has left several families shattered.

Briana Torres-Carter, 23, of Bridgeport, was seven months pregnant when she died on Sunday. Her family and friends had thrown her a baby shower on Saturday.

Now her family and friends will be attending the funeral of her and her unborn daughter, Luna Rose, on Thursday at Funeraria Luz de Paz in Bridgeport.

Torres-Carters best friend, 18-year-old Shalymar Herrera, of West Haven, was also killed in the crash.

Herrera recently graduated from Bridgeport Military Academy with honors, her uncle, Albert Benejan, said. She was living with her parents and younger brother in West Haven at the time of her death.

She was my only niece. She was my everything, my princess, Benejan said. She was very friendly, she had a good heart. Everyone loved her.

Benejan said his sister, Herreras mother, called him around 9 p.m. on Sunday after the crash, and family and friends gathered at St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport. Herreras parents were still making funeral arrangements, he said.

My sister, she doesnt know what shes going to do without her daughter, my niece, Benejan said.

Benejan described Herrera as a lover of life and a positive person, something echoed by former classmate Kelly Martinez.

She always welcomed you with open arms and was the first to talk to you if you were new, and she always knew how to light up the room in just seconds, Martinez said.

Torres-Carter and Herrera were passengers in a Mini Cooper along with 19-year-old Jessie Abrams, of Bridgeport, driven by Torres-Carters husband, Lawrence Carter Jr., 19, of Bridgeport.

Police said the Mini Cooper was traveling southbound on River Road when it and a Saturn sedan carrying members of a popular local band traveling northbound collided around 7 p.m. Sunday.

Carter is in the hospital in critical condition and Abrams is being treated in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the Saturn, Caitlin Kalafus, 25, of Pennsylvania, and her 22-year-old sister Carly Kalafus, and Paul Valleau, 26, also of Pennsylvania, were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Kalafus sisters front the band Like Violet.

The road, also known as Route 110, was closed for several hours between Rocky Rest Road and Murphys Lane, to allow the Shelton Police Traffic Division Reconstruction Team to investigate.

Shelton police are asking witnesses or those with information to call the traffic division at 203-924-1544.

The victim of a single-vehicle fatal Stratford accident also has been named, 20-year-old Dawaan Edwards of Bridgeport.

Edwards was the passenger in the vehicle when it crashed into a tree while driving westbound on Lordship Boulevard near Access Road about 12:30 a.m. Friday, according to Stratford police Capt. Frank Eannotti.

Eannotti said the vehicle failed to negotiate a slight curve in the roadway, drove off the road and struck a tree near the intersection, Eannotti said.
BRIDGEPORT  A male shot in the city Tuesday suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, police responded to the East Side on the report of a male that was shot, police spokesman Av Harris said. Initially, officers responded to Arctic and Harriett streets but were unable to find him.

Minutes after 2 p.m., police found the gunshot wound victim, Harris said. He told officers he was shot blocks away, in the area of East Main and Maple streets. The victim had non-life-threatening injuries.

Harris said there was no further information at this time.
HARTFORD  A bill approving self-serve alcohol machines at Connecticut bars and restaurants won a thumbs up from the House on Tuesday.

Championed by David Arconti, D-Danbury, the bill would allow people 21 and older to buy beer, wine and cider at the self-dispensing machines with a card obtained from the bartender. Consumers would be limited to 10 ounces of wine or 32 ounces of beer from the machine.

Self-pouring technology helps support a booming industry of craft beer in our state, Arconti said.

Some 110 representatives voted in favor of the measure with Arconti, while 34 opposed and six did not vote. Several lawmakers voting no said they thought the bill might result in job loss for bartenders. Others worried the machines would allow intoxicated people to purchase alcohol.

We have a big enough problem of intoxicated drivers on the streets, said Rep. Tom Delnicki, R-South Windsor.

I dont see this in any way contributing to more drinking than the current law, said Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury.

He said bars and restaurants would employ trained staff to ID consumers and monitor the machines. They would be subject to the same penalties if they sell alcohol to underage people.

Last year, a similar bill for alcohol dispensing machines passed the House, but was not approved by the Senate, Arconti said. This years proposal passed the House with less debate, so Arconti said he is hopeful it may clear the other chamber.

The Danbury House delegation is interested in the issue because a self-serve bar that would use the machines is hoping to open in a downtown Danbury, Arconti said.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
ANSONIA  The 26-year-old man who robbed a bank in Ansonia last week told police he did it to impress singer Taylor Swift, an incident report said.

Bruce Rowley, of Derby, told police he drove to Taylor Swifts house and threw some of the money that he stole from the bank over her fence, the report said. Swift has a residence in Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

Last Wednesday afternoon, a man walked into the Webster Bank on Division Street in Ansonia and demanded money from a teller. He did not show a weapon. The teller gave him an undetermined amount of money. Police shared images of the man, captured by surveillance cameras, on social media.

In a police car following his arrest, Rowley confessed to the crime  but gave the wrong street name.

The day after the robbery, police learned Rowleys identity and got a search warrant for his Jeep and his residence in Derby. Police entered Rowleys Jeep into a nationwide database as wanted.

Last Thursday, Rhode Island State Police saw Rowleys Jeep on Interstate 95 south and tried to stop the car.

Rowley refused to stop and engaged the Rhode Island State Police in a pursuit that eventually entered Connecticut. Troopers from the Connecticut State Police Troop E in Montville joined in the pursuit, said Ansonia police Lt. Patrick Lynch.

The pursuit ended at exit 89 on I-95 in Mystic after troopers used spike strips to flatten the tires on Rowleys Jeep. While being taken into custody a Rhode Island State Police K9 bit Rowley in the arm.

Rowley told police, while being taken to Ansonia Police Department for processing, that he had a crush on Taylor Swift and wanted to impress her so he robbed the bank, the incident report said. He also told police he tried to contact Swift, but she wasnt home.

But Rowley apparently also planned to give some of the money to police.

During the transport back to Ansonia PD, Rowley spontaneously uttered that he planned on donating some of the money that he stole from the bank to the Ansonia PD, the incident report said.

Rowley was charged with second-degree robbery and forth-degree larceny. His bond was set at $100,000. Court documents indicated he was not released from custody. His next court date is at 10 a.m. on May 8.
Last week, RadioShack announced that it will close about 20% (or roughly 1,100) of its under-performing brick-and-mortar stores  a move that USA Today described as "an effort to remake itself for a more competitive era of electronics retailing." This is in line with the chain's noteworthy (and very expensive) ad that it ran during the Super Bowl, in which 1980s icons like Dee Snider ransacked the store, transforming it into a contemporary haven that sells things like "sexy products from Samsung and Beats."

But while RadioShack is trying to shed its old image and join the fray of vendors that shill cool electronics, there may be a problem: Shoppers don't seem to be buying it, according to a recent DealNews survey.

RadioShack Caters to DIY Techies & Last Minute Shoppers

We wanted to better understand what people are currently, actually buying from RadioShack, so we polled 2,021 of our readers to find out. And what we discovered is that, in the past year, they overwhelmingly turned to RadioShack for decidedly un-sexy product purchases.

The vast majority of shoppers either purchased small accessories (like chargers, memory cards, and cables) or what we like to call "hobby electronics" or DIY components (such as resistors and capacitors). These are not hip, buzzy tech items, to say the very least.

Moreover, we asked the people who didn't buy something at RadioShack in the past year what they thought people purchase there, and they overwhelmingly also selected accessories and DIY electronics. So, few people are actually buying "sexy" products from RadioShack, and no one seems to view those items as something that's in line with the brand's image, either. That will be a tough hurdle for RadioShack to clear.

The Retailer Will Close 1,100 Stores, But No One Is Shopping Online

A large part of being competitive in the modern retail landscape for electronics entails having a healthy, developed online presence. And regardless of whether RadioShack's ecommerce site is user-friendly and efficient, it appears as if no one is using it. A whopping 90% of people who bought something from RadioShack in the past year did so in-store.

Given the overall trend for retailers to lose in-store purchases to the internet, why would RadioShack experience the opposite to such an extreme degree? The key might be in what people are actually buying: accessories and hobby parts.

Shoppers Buy Accessories at RadioShack When They're in a Bind

A full 57% of people who purchased those aforementioned accessories described the purchase as "last minute" or an "emergency." (For example: You're on vacation and suddenly you realize that you forgot your phone charger  and the only option is to buy something in-store, even if it's more expensive than something you could find online.) Moreover, most people also perceive RadioShack shoppers as those who make last-minute purchases, too.

Conversely, buyers of hobby electronics were less likely to describe their purchase as last minute, but RadioShack has a long-standing reputation for these types of items (as you can see from the myriad comments we received from our readers here); that has apparently served the store well, perhaps earning it loyal customers for this niche category. But one has to wonder, with sites like Newegg becoming increasingly popular for DIYers on a budget, how long will that last?

RadioShack's Deals Don't Stack Up to Competitors

Perhaps the most damning thing we learned from our survey, however, is this: The number one reason why people don't shop at RadioShack is because they believe the prices are too high. That's not surprising when you consider the deal landscape; in 2014 thus far, we've seen more than 57 times as many deals from Best Buy than we have from RadioShack. Today's consumer has an overwhelming desire for discounts, so it seems unlikely that RadioShack will be able to capture a deal-savvy tech crowd without some changes to its pricing strategy as well.

Readers, what do you think of RadioShack's latest rebranding strategies? Would you shop there more if Hulk Hogan was involved? Sound off in the comments below.

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Under Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli the undercurrents of India-Nepal ties will remain troubled despite his just-concluded visit to India.

In the wake of his electoral success, Oli has been rather upfront publicly about his vexed feelings towards India even when greater discretion would have served him and future ties with India better.

His interview to a Hong Kong-based newspaper after assuming office contained themes that portended continuing tensions with India, be it his determination to revive the $2.5 billion (Rs 16,200 crore) Budhi Gandaki project (allotted to China) that the preceding Nepali Congress government had cancelled, increasing infrastructure connectivity with China in order to lessen Nepals reliance on India and updating relations with India in keeping with the times, including a possible correction of the longstanding practice of Gurkha recruitment to serve in the Indian army, and so on.

China connections

He has waxed eloquent about China extending its railway network in Tibet to Nepal and connecting it to Nepals east-west rail project, which he felt could revolutionise China-India trade, with Nepal in the middle, unmindful that such talks back Chinas strategy of entrenching itself more deeply south of the Himalayas and ignores Indias security concerns.

Olis interviews to the Indian press before his arrival were needlessly combative and contentious. He insisted that Nepal wanted only friendship from India, implying that India has not been friendly towards Nepal. He has harped on Indias interference in Nepals internal affairs. He has asked for the revision the 1950 treaty that hurts and pinches the Nepalese people because of its unequal nature, making light of the enormous advantages that Nepal derives from it.

His assurance to his people before departing for India that he will not sign anything against the interest of the nation, and reiterating it in his interview to the Indian press, suggested gratuitously that India seeks to pressure Nepalese leaders to sign agreements against their national interest.

He has unfairly thrown the blame for the non-implementation of the Pancheshwar and Mahakali projects exclusively on India. His vision of Nepal connecting to the seas through India and China lacks realism. Because of the constraints of its own geography China wants access to the Indian Ocean through Pakistan and Myanmar, but here is Oli dreaming of access to the Pacific Ocean through China!

Oli dismisses the danger of Chinas infrastructure building in other countries carrying the risk of debt entrapment as an Indian perception born of India-China rivalry, ignoring that US, Japan, France and the EU have expressed such concerns too. He asserted that he would not make any agreement against Nepals national interest.

Such over-confidence in the capacity of the Nepalese political class, financial experts and bureaucracy in dealing with Chinas methods and allurements seems misplaced, especially when the US and Europe are unable to handle Chinas predatory economics. His position on holding the SAARC summit disregards that of India. Oli talks of the ballooning deficit with India, conveniently overlooking the fact that Nepals trade deficit with China is 44:1, whereas with India it is 10:1.

Expanding ties

India is willing to engage with Oli, however grating his views may be. Modi has reportedly spoken to Oli three times since he won the elections. Sushma Swaraj has visited Nepal in February with a message of cooperation. Olis decision to visit India on his first trip abroad after assuming office is a positive gesture, but not too much should be read into it.

He could well view this gesture as according him space to expand ties with China. It would seem from the rather bareboned joint statement issued on the occasion of Olis visit that while in private talks between him and Modi the air may have been cleared and some mutual confidence built, no breakthrough in relations has occurred.

A new partnership in agriculture, a project to connect Raxaul to Kathmandu by rail, and a new connectivity with Nepal through inland waterways have been announced. These are long gestation projects which when implemented would tie the two countries and economies closer, but in the immediate, they will have limited impact on the overall quality of bilateral relations or the pro-China proclivities of the Oli government.

Political offensive

If Oli establishes the rail links with China, our Raxaul-Kathmandu rail project will only help him achieve his vision of connecting China and India with Nepal in the middle. If the Budhi-Gandaki project is revived and India refuses to buy power from any project in Nepal not built by Indian companies, we will come under attack for impeding Nepals development.

Some of Olis statements at the civic reception in his honour at Delhi show that his political offensive against India continues. He spoke of obstructing the free movement of goods, services and people as having no place in todays interconnected world, overlooking Pakistans denial of such movement from India to Afghanistan as a SAARC country, as well as Chinas obstruction of Outer Mongolias truck traffic as punishment for its decision to inviting the Dalai Lama

In sum, our relationship with Nepal will remain difficult. We have to manage it as best as we can because of Nepals acute sensitivity over issues of sovereignty and deep-seated suspicion about our interference in its internal affairs. Nepal has played the China card against us for decades irrespective of which political party has been in power in Kathmandu. This will continue.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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The Ministry of Defence intends to procure fighter aircraft for the IAF that are made in India. A request for information (RFI) was issued by the Indian Air Force on April 7, 2018.

The proposal is to procure approximately 110 fighter aircraft. The procurement should have a maximum of 15 per cent aircraft in flyaway state and the remaining 85 per cent will have to be made in India by a strategic partner/Indian production agency.

The aircraft are intended as day-and-night capable, all-weather multi-role combat aircraft. The new RFI has been issued to the six contenders of the scrapped MMRCA project. These are F/A-18 "Super Hornet", F-16 (Block To), Gripen-E, Mig-35, Eurofighter and Rafale. The project cost will be over $206. RFI response must be sent by early July 2018.

Thereafter, request for proposal (RFP) is expected to be issued within six-eight months. The initial delivery of the aircraft in flyaway condition from the original equipment manufacturer would commence within 36 months and the entire delivery will have to be completed within 60 months from contract signing.

The development follows an abandoned plan to buy 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The the original equipment manufacturers will have to specify the scope of depth and range of technology transfer.

Here's my assessment following informed discussions:

 The number of 110 (fighter aircraft) was reached at basically to keep it less than 126 aircraft. This is to avoid going to the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) for approval again. The DAC has already approved procurement of 126 aircraft.

 The IAF will retire 11 squadrons of Mig-21 and Mig-27 aircraft by 2022. This corresponds to approximately 200 aircraft. From 2027 to 2032, nine squadrons of Mig 29 and Jaguars will be retired. This would correspond to approximately 162 aircraft (one squadron has 18 aircraft). In effect, the IAF would need 362 (162 plus 200) aircraft, by 2032. These numbers would be required to retain the present strength of 32 squadrons. The IAF has pitched for 42 squadrons to face a "collusive threat" from Pakistan and China. This is not likely to be accepted by the government due to cost implications.

 It is probable that the government will clear another urgent procurement of 36 Rafale. This would be due to cost factor reduction to only 60 per cent of the first batch of Rafale aircraft. Maintenance facilities have been initially procured for two bases. The same would be sufficient to support another two squadrons (36 aircraft).

 The overall picture is as follows. The IAF will need a total of 362 fighter aircraft by 2032, to maintain the present strength of 32 fighter squadrons. These numbers would consist of 76 Rafale plus 110 (fresh RFI) in addition to 176 indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA). The figures are broad-based but indicative of likely accruals.

 The previous MMRCA evaluation (from 2007 to 2012) for five years will be the base for fresh evaluation.

 The RFI will be utilised to establish the minimum QR.

 No evaluation for Rafale and Eurofighter, which had passed selection during the last MMRCA selections.

 "Delta Evaluation" norms will be followed. This implies that items in which they had failed earlier will be reassessed.

 Gripen E was not evaluated and only the C and D versions were assessed. F-16 block to will be evaluated. F/A 18 is the same as offered earlier.

Mig-35 does not seem to be in the competitions

 The procurement will follow the G2G process.

 The IAF will give the choice of aircraft and the government will select the "strategic partner".

 Price will be an overriding factor.

 There is no constraint of single or twin engine. The QR will be the prime consideration. The selection could be of a single engine or twin engine or both.

 Finally, considering the overall factors, including pricing and QR criteria, in my view, the Gripen E and F/A  18 Super Hornet could be the front-runners. The Indian Navy is also inclined to favour the F/A  18 for deck operations. Their requirement is for 50 aircraft.

 The flying evaluations will only be on paper as they have already been completed during the MMRCA selection. This would reduce the selection process time considerably.

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Federated Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals, banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, and registered investment advisors. Through its subsidiaries, it manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, balanced and money market mutual funds along with separate client-focused equity, fixed income, money market, and balanced portfolios. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies. The firm makes its fixed income investments in ultra-short, short-term, and intermediate-term mortgage-backed, U.S. Government, U.S. corporate, high yield, and municipal securities. It employs both fundamental and quantitative analysis to make its equity investments. Federated Investors, Inc. was founded in 1955 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with additional offices in New York City and London, United Kingdom.

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Wall Street analysts have given North American Palladium 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 North American Palladium wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Roper Technologies: 3089554 Nova Scotia ULC, AC Analytical Controls B.V., AC Analytical Controls Holding B.V., AC Analytical Controls Services B.V., Acton Research Corporation, Acumen PM LLC, Aderant CM LLC, Aderant CRM LLC, Aderant Case Management LLC, Aderant Company, Aderant CompuLaw LLC, Aderant DoD LLC, Aderant Enterprise Holdings Inc., Aderant FM LLC, Aderant Holdings Inc., Aderant Imaging LLC, Aderant International Holdings Inc., Aderant Legal (UK) Limited, Aderant Legal Holdings (AUS) Pty Ltd, Aderant Legal Holdings (NZ) ULC, Aderant Legal Holdings Inc., Aderant North America Inc., Aderant Parent Holdings Inc., Aderant RainMaker LLC, Aderant Redwood LLC, Advanced Sensors Limited, Alpha Holdings of I LLC, Alpha Holdings of II LLC, Alpha Technologies B.V., Alpha Technologies GmbH, Alpha Technologies LLC, Alpha Technologies Services LLC, Alpha Technologies U.K., Alpha Technologies s.r.o., Alpha UK Holdings LLC, Amot Controls Corporation, Amot Controls GmbH, Amot/Metrix Investment Company Inc., Amphire Solutions Inc., Amtech Systems LLC, Amtech Systems Limited, Amtech World Corporation, Ascension Technology Corporation, Atlantic Health Partners Inc., Atlas Healthcare Software Private Limited, Austria, Avitru LLC, Axium Holdco Inc., C/S Solutions Inc., CBORD Holdings Corp., CIVCO Medical Solutions B.V., Cayman Islands, Centurion Research Solutions LLC, Civco Holding Inc., Civco Medical Instruments Co. Inc., CliniSys Group Limited, Clinisys Scotland Limited, Clinisys Solutions Limited, Compressor Controls (Beijing) Corporation Ltd., Compressor Controls Corporation, Compressor Controls Corporation B.V., Compressor Controls Corporation Middle East, Compressor Controls Corporation S.r.l., Compressor Controls Ltd., Compressor Controls Pty Ltd., ConstructConnect Inc., Cornell Pump, DAP Technologies Corp., DAP Technologies LTD, DAT Solutions LLC, DCMH Group Holdings Inc., DCMH Group Holdings LLC, DCMH Holdings Inc., DI Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., DI Dutch Holdings LLC, DI Limited, Dash I Inc., Data Innovations Cooperatief U.A., Data Innovations Europe S.A., Data Innovations LLC, Data Innovations Latin America Ltda, Data Innovations Ltd., Dawning Technologies LLC, Deltek, Deltek Ajera Inc., Deltek Asia Pacific (HK) Limited, Deltek B.V., Deltek Belgie BVBA, Deltek Danmark A/S, Deltek GB Limited, Deltek GmbH, Deltek Inc., Deltek Nederland B.V., Deltek Norge AS, Deltek Pty Ltd., Deltek SAS, Deltek Sverige AB, Deltek Systems () Inc., Deltek Systems (Philippines) Ltd., Deltek Systems ) Inc., Deltek WST LLC, Dominion I Inc., Dynamic Instruments Inc., Dynisco, Dynisco Enterprises GmbH, Dynisco Enterprises LLC, Dynisco Europe GmbH, Dynisco Holding GmbH, Dynisco Holdings Limited, Dynisco Instruments LLC, Dynisco Instruments S.a.r.l., Dynisco Parent Inc., Dynisco S.r.l., Dynisco Shanghai Sensor and Instrument Co. Ltd., Dynisco Viatran LLC, Dynisco Viatran (M) Sdn Bhd, Dynisco-Viatran Instrument Sdn Bhd, FMS Purchasing & Services Inc., FSI Holdings Inc., FTI Flow Technology Inc., Fluid Metering Inc., Foodlink Holdings Inc., Foodlink IT Private Limited, Foundry, Gatan GmbH, Gatan Inc., Gatan Service Corporation, Gatan U.K. Limited, GeneInsight Inc., Getloaded Corporation, Guangzhou MEDTEC Medical Device Co. Ltd, HRsmart Czech Republic, HRsmart Germany, HRsmart GmbH, HRsmart Inc., HRsmart International, HRsmart International Holdings LLC, HRsmart Mexico, HRsmart SA (Pty) Ltd., HRsmart SAS, HRsmart Talent Management Solutions Europe Limited, HRsmart Ventures LLC, Handshake Software Inc., Hansco Automatisering B.V., Hansen Technologies Corporation, Hansen Technologies Europe GmbH, Harbour Holding Corp., Hardy Process Solutions, Horizon Software International LLC, INPUT Inc., IPA Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., ISL Finance SAS, ISL Holding SAS, ISL Scientifique de Laboratorie - ISL S.A.S., IT Holdings LLC, Innovative Product Achievements LLC, Inovonics Corporation, Input S.A.R.L., Instill Corporation, Integrated Designs L.P., IntelliTrans Limited, Intellitrans AB, Intellitrans LLC, Intellitrans Ltd., Job Access LTDA, K/S Roper Holding, K/S Roper Investments, Link Logistics Holding LLC, Logitech Limited, Louis U.K. Limited, Lumenera, MED Professional Services LLC, MEDTEC Inc., MHA Long Term Care Network Inc., MIPS Austria GesmbH, MIPS CZ s.r.o, MIPS Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, MIPS Deutschland Holding GmbH, MIPS Nederland B.V., MIPS Sarl, MIPS Schweiz AG, MIPS Software Iberica SL, MPR Readers Inc., Managed Health Care Associates Inc., Marumoto Struers K.K., Media Cybernetics Inc., Medical Information Professional Systems GmbH, Medical Information Professional Systems NV, Medina Acquisition LLC, Metrix Instrument Co. L.P., NDI Europe, Navigator Group Purchasing Inc., Neptune Technology Group () Co., Neptune Technology Group Inc., Neptune Technology Group S.de R.L. de C.V., Neptune Technology Group Services Inc., Neptune Technology Group Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Nippon Roper K.K., Northern Digital Inc., Off-Campus Advantage LLC, Omega Legal Systems Inc., PAC (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PAC ApS, PAC GmbH, PAC Instruments (Thailand) Company Limited, PAC Instruments Asia PTE. Ltd., PB Bidco Limited, PB Holdco Limited, PB Midco Limited, PB Topco Limited, PGP UK Limited, Petroleum Analyzer Company L.P., Phase Analyzer Company Ltd., PowerPlan, PowerPlan Holdings Inc., PowerPlan Holdings LLC, PowerPlan Inc., PowerPlan Intermediate Holdings Inc., PowerPlan Operations ANZ Pty Ltd, PowerPlan Operations Ltd., PowerPlan ULC, Project Cobalt Acquisition Corp, Project Diamond Intermediate Holdings Corporation, Project Torque Intermediate Holdings Inc., QSC 1208 Limited, QSC 1209 Limited, Quantitative Imaging Corporation, RF IDeas Inc., RI Marketing Private Limited, RIL Holding Limited, RMT Inc., RT Merger Sub Inc., Rebate Tracking Group LLC, Redlake MASD LLC, Roda Deaco Valve Inc., Roper Brasil Comercio E Promocao De Productos E Servicos LTDA, Roper Capital Deutschland GmbH, Roper DK Sub Sarl, Roper Engineering s.r.o., Roper Europe GmbH, Roper Finance S.a.r.l., Roper GM Holdings ApS, Roper GmbH, Roper GmbH & Co. KG, Roper Holdings Inc., Roper Holdings LP, Roper Holdings Limited, Roper Holdings S.a.r.l., Roper Industrial Products Investment Company, Roper Industries ApS, Roper Industries Deutschland GmbH, Roper Industries Inc., Roper Industries L.P., Roper Industries Limited, Roper Industries Ltd., Roper Industries Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Roper Industries UK Limited, Roper International Holding Inc., Roper LLC, Roper Lux Sub S.a.r.l, Roper Middle East Ltd., Roper NL1 UK Limited, Roper NL2 UK Limited, Roper Pump Company, Roper S.a.r.l., Roper Scientific B.V., Roper Scientific GmbH, Roper Scientific Inc., Roper Scientific SAS, Roper Scot LP, Roper Southeast Asia LLC, Roper Swiss Finance GmbH, Roper UK Holdings S.a.r.l., Roper UK Investments Limited, Roper UK Limited, Roper UK Ltd., Roper-Mex L.P., Ropintassco 1 LLC, Ropintassco 2 LLC, Ropintassco 3 LLC, Ropintassco 4 LLC, Ropintassco 5 LLC, Ropintassco 6 LLC, Ropintassco 7 LLC, Ropintassco Holdings L.P., SHP Group Holdings Inc., SIRA LLC, Scotland, Shanghai Roper Industries Trading Co. Ltd., Singapore, Sinmed Holding International B.V., Societe de Distribution de Logiciels Medicaux, SoftWriters Inc., Softwriters Holdings Inc., Sohnar Pty Ltd, Spain, Star Purchasing Services LLC, Strata Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., Strata Decision Technology Holdings LLC, Strata Decision Technology LLC, Strata Parallel II Inc., Strategic Healthcare Programs Blocker 2 Inc., Strategic Healthcare Programs Blocker LLC, Strategic Healthcare Programs Holdings LLC, Strategic Healthcare Programs L.L.C., Struers (Shanghai) International Trading Ltd., Struers A/S, Struers GmbH, Struers Inc., Struers Limited, Struers SAS, Student Advantage LLC, Sunquest Europe Limited, Sunquest Holdings Inc., Sunquest Information Systems, Sunquest Information Systems () Private Limited, Sunquest Information Systems (Europe) Limited, Sunquest Information Systems (International) Limited, Sunquest Information Systems Inc., Sunquest Information Systems Pty Ltd, Switzerland, TLP Holdings LLC, Taupo Holdings Inc., Technolog Group Limited, Technolog Holdings Ltd., Technolog Limited, Technolog SARL, Tennessee, Thailand, The CBORD Group Inc., The Management Group Inc., The Tidewater Healthcare Shared Services Group Inc., Torque Acquisition Holdco Inc., Transcore Atlantic Inc., Transcore CNUS Inc., Transcore Holdings Inc., Transcore ITS LLC, Transcore LP, Transcore Link Logistics Corporation, Transcore Nova Scotia Corporation, Transcore Partners LLC, Transcore Quebec Corporation Inc., Trinity Integrated Systems Limited, UHF Purchasing Services LLC, Union Square Software (International) Limited, Union Square Software Inc., Union Square Software Limited, Union Square Software Pty, Uson L.P., Uson Limited, Utilitec Limited, Utilitec Services Limited, Utility Data Services Limited, Verathon Holdings Inc., Verathon Inc., Verathon Medical, Verathon Medical (Europe) B.V., Verathon Medical (UK) Ltd., Verathon Medical Limited, Verathon Medical Pty Limited, Verathon Medical SARL, Verathon Medical ULC, Viastar Services LP, Viatran, Walter Herzog GmbH, Wisconsin, WorkBook APAC Ltd., Workbook Software A/S, Zetec (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zetec France, Zetec Inc., Zetec Korea Inc., Zetec Rental LLC, Zetec Services Inc., iPipeline, iSqFt Holdings Inc., iSqFt Parent Corporation, iSqFt Sub Inc., iTradeNetwork Inc., iTradenetwork Limited, and mySBX Corporation.
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.
Cellcom Israel Ltd. operates and maintains a cellular mobile telephone system in Israel. It operates in two segments, Cellular and Fixed-line. The company offers cellular communications services, such as basic cellular telephony services comprising voice mail, cellular fax, call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification, and conference calling; text and multimedia messaging; and cellular content and data services. It also provides international roaming services; value-added services, such as short message and multimedia messaging; cloud backup; and content services, including Cellcom Volume music, Cellcom TV, and other applications. In addition, the company sells handsets, tablets, streamers, smart watches, and home security cameras, as well as offers repair services. Further, it provides internet infrastructure and connectivity services, over-the-top TV services, international long distance services, and landline telephony and transmission services; transmission and data services through fiber-optic infrastructure and complementary microwave links; IP switchboard services; and cloud services and data protection products, as well as operates and manages business telecommunication systems to selected business customers and telecommunications operators. As of December 31, 2019, the company had approximately 10.6 million cellular subscribers. Cellcom Israel Ltd. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Netanya, Israel.

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Foresight Energy LP engages in the development, mining, production, marketing, transportation, and sale of thermal coal primarily in the eastern United States and internationally. As of February 27, 2019, the company operated two longwall mining complexes with three longwall mining systems in Williamson and Sugar Camp; one continuous mining operation in Macoupin; and the Sitran river terminal on the Ohio River. It controls approximately 2 billion tons of coal reserves in the Illinois Basin. The company sells its coal to electric utility and industrial companies. Foresight Energy GP LLC acts as a general partner for Foresight Energy LP. The company was formerly known as Foresight Energy Partners LP and changed its name to Foresight Energy LP in April 2014. Foresight Energy LP was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..
United Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider (ISP). It operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. The company offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. It also provides ad-financed and fee-based application products for consumer and business customers, including domains, Websites, Web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, and e-shops; personal information management applications, such as email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and group works, online storage, and office software. The company offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, winSIM, maxim, simplytel, DeutschlandSIM, PremiumSIM, and 1&1 versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, Strato, 1&1 IONOS, Fasthosts, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, it offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management under the Sedo brand; and online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name. The company has operations in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico. United Internet AG was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.

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Travel + Leisure Co. is a membership and leisure travel company, with a portfolio of nearly 20 resort, travel club, and lifestyle travel brands. The company provides outstanding vacation experiences and travel inspiration to millions of owners, members, and subscribers every year through its products and services: Wyndham Destinations, the vacation ownership company with 230 vacation club resort locations across the globe; Panorama, the membership travel business that includes the vacation exchange company, industry travel technology, and subscription travel brands; and Travel + Leisure Group, featuring online and print travel content, online booking platforms and travel clubs, and branded consumer products. Travel + Leisure Co. is a membership and leisure travel company, with a portfolio of nearly 20 resort, travel club, and lifestyle travel brands. Travel + Leisure was founded on July 31, 2006 and is headquartered in Orlando, FL.

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ConocoPhillips engages in the exploration, production, transportation and marketing of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and liquefied natural gas on a worldwide basis. It operates through the following geographical segments: Alaska; Lower 48; Canada; Europe, Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Other International. The Alaska segment primarily explores for produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Lower 48 segment consists of operations in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment is comprised of oil sands development in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta and a liquids-rich unconventional play in western Canada. The Europe, Middle East and North Africa segment consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya. The Asia Pacific segment has explorations and product operations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The Other International segment handles exploration activities in Columbia and Argentina. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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Wall Street analysts have given Renren 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 Renren wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Longrun Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Picolabs Inc., Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Chromo G.A. SAS, CisBio US Inc., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio Group SAS, Cisbio KK, Cisbio.com, DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, EUROIMMUN (Hangzhou) Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN (South East Asia) Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN (Tianjin) Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L.U., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics (China) Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa (Pty) Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Spolka z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Discovery, Immunodiagnostic Systems, Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, ManCell SAS, Nexcelom Bioscience, NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Immunotec, Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin Elmer de Mexico S.A., Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer Instruments (Philippines) Corporation, PerkinElmer (Hong Kong) Ltd., PerkinElmer (India) Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer (Ireland) Ltd., PerkinElmer (Schweiz) AG, PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer (UK) Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer Analytical Solutions B.V., PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BVBA, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences (Australia) Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS (Germany) GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS (UK) Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V., PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa (Pty) Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Sweden Health Sciences Holdings AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments France SASU, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments Italia S.r.l., Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Solus Scientific Solutions Inc., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.
Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.

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Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN.

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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.

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Shauna Bulman is completing a double major, involved in student politics and about to spend a semester studying abroad  all thanks to her strong instinct to explore.



It's so cool to look at the academic calendar and see how many courses there are, she says. You can work on a degree in Microbiology and still take a course in Indigenous rights. Its amazing. I think that coming to university allows people to broaden their horizons and that makes us better citizens.



Though Shauna came to Dal with a specific goal, that all changed when she got here and realized theres more to university than just getting a degree. For her, the ability to follow her curiosity and learn about new things  to get outside her comfort zone, is the true value of a university education.





When we go to university we think we're supposed to fit ourselves into a box, she says. But Im taking something in the arts and something in the sciences, and the mesh between the two helps me be a bit more. Its a multipotentialite sort of thing. I don't just want to do one thing.



So, shes not.



Double duty



Currently a double major in Neuroscience and Spanish, Shauna is choosing to use university to broaden her scope instead of narrowing her focus. Its working for her.



I find that doing both allows me a break during the day, she explains. I go from my Cellular Biology class to Spanish Literature and it just uses such a different part of the brain, it has you think a different way, and even when you're studying that gives you a mental break.



The choice to major in a new language has also given her a fresh perspective. As Shauna says, learning another language allows you to look at things a little bit differently. But perhaps the most compelling benefit is that she gets to travel. The program offers the option to study abroad and Shauna is planning to take advantage of that during the 2018 fall semester when she heads to Salamanca, Spain.



Communicating research



When it comes to the science side of things, Shaunas discovered that what grabs her interest is communicating science. As she explains, I want to be the person between the researcher and the public, simplifying and conveying the important information.



Her interest in this work has led Shauna to pursue the Certificate in Science Leadership and Communication offered by the Faculty of Science  the only program of its kind in Canada. Its focused on giving science students the skills theyll need to effectively and confidently represent science for the benefit of society.





It's fantastic, she says. It encourages people to do more: to explain their research so it doesn't get lost in translation.



Building community



When shes not busy splitting her time between two majors, Shauna is President of the Dalhousie Science Society (DSS). With Shaunas leadership, the DSS, which represents all students in the Faculty of Science, is working to create a stronger sense of community among science students.



We all come to Dal as Science students  you don't have a major yet, you don't have anything decided yet. So, to build that community in the first year and allow it to carry forward would be really fantastic.



Though she wasnt interested in student politics in high school, shes discovered its a valuable addition to her university experience. Before her term as DSS president, she was the science representative to the Dalhousie Student Union. She found that experience really opened her eyes.



I learned a lot about advocacy. I got to see the issues in person on that council and I got to hear the things that people were facing that I wasn't, she admits. I discovered that the more you can mix with people who are doing different things or who don't look like you or don't move physically like you do helps you understand where other people are coming from.

Leading to something new





When she looks back at the path shes taken, Shauna realizes its not typical but she wouldnt have it any other way.



I think a lot of people are afraid of changing their plan as they go but there's nothing wrong with that. Allowing yourself to kind of get lost, to take a course that by accident leads you to love something new. That's the key.
4:30pm 6:30pm

The inaugural Rule of Law lecture will feature a keynote address by A. Wayne Mackay on The Rule of Law in Pandemic Times followed by a panel with Hon. Thomas Cromwell and Sherry Pictou.
Flipkart is betting big on IoT-powered devices like wearables and smart home solutions and is working with large Indian and global brands to expand these niche categories.

New Delhi: E-commerce major Flipkart is betting big on IoT-powered devices like wearables and smart home solutions and is working with large Indian and global brands to expand these niche categories.

"Home automation category is at a nascent stage in India. For the category to scale up, we need big brands... We are working with brands across these niche categories to bring them to customers in the country, Flipkart Head of Private Labels and Electronics Adarsh Menon told PTI.

The company has partnered tech giant Google to exclusively sell online the latter's 'Home' and 'Home Mini' voice-activated speakers.

"We will work with Google to see how Flipkart's services can be integrated with Google Home. These are work in progress," he said.

He said the wearables category (fitness bands and smart watches) has been growing at a strong pace for Flipkart and it expects to sell 2.5 million such units in the ongoing fiscal.

"Fundamentally, online share of wearables in India, is a whopping 80 per cent and Flipkart commands almost 50 per cent share of this market...We plan to sell around 2.5 million units of wearables between April 2018 to March 2019," Menon said.

The e-commerce major, however, does not plan to launch any wearable as of now under its 'Billion' brand and instead would sell and showcase IoT products from various brands till the market is of a larger scale.

"There is traction in other smart product categories also, like smart lighting, smart surveillance products and smart locks. We expect these to also grow well in the coming days," he said adding that the company is working on bringing new products and brands for the customers.

The executive said there is a need to educate customers about the use cases of many of these smart products, which it is working on.
Online search giant Google has filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against a judgment from Indias competition watchdog.

New Delhi: Online search giant Google has filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against a judgment from Indias competition watchdog that found it guilty of search bias, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters.

The appeal was filed on Monday, one of the sources said.

In February, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a 1.36 billion rupees ($20.95 million) fine on Google, saying it was abusing its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets.

Google, the core unit of U.S. firm Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

A CCI official said that its judgment was robust and that the competition watchdog plans to defend its verdict at the NCLAT.

Google was found to be indulging in practices of search bias and by doing so, it causes harm to its competitors as well as to users, the CCI said in its 190-page judgment.

The Indian watchdogs judgment is the latest antitrust setback for the worlds most popular search engine. Last year, The European Commission imposed a record 2.4 billion euro ($3 billion) fine on the company for favoring its shopping service and demoting rival offerings. Google has appealed against the verdict.

In India, the Commission found that Google, through its search design, had placed its commercial flight search function at a prominent position on the search results page to the disadvantage of businesses trying to gain market access.

The CCI ruling brought to an end a probe first started by the watchdog in 2012 on complaints filed by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not-for-profit organization, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).
Bank's board has stood firmly behind Chanda Kochhar, saying no wrong was committed by her. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry is of the view that it is not their role to look into the affairs of private lender ICICI Bank but the RBI as a regulator could look at allegations heaped against the bank's CEO Chanda Kochhar, official sources said.

It is for the RBI to decide if Kochhar should continue to be the CEO and Managing Director of the bank, sources said, adding the regulator or ICICI Bank board is competent to take a decision on continuation of the incumbent CEO in the office.

There are allegations of nepotism against Kochhar putting a question mark on the bank's corporate governance.

According to the reports, Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar had formed a joint venture with Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot for a business dealing in renewable energy and there were a string of transactions later, which gave him full control of the venture after the exit of Dhoot.

Late last month, the bank admitted that Kochhar did not recuse herself from a credit committee meeting which decided to give a Rs 3,250 crore loan to diversified Videocon Group in 2012.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the matter to check any wrongdoing, while other agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED), are also investigating the case.

However, the bank's board has stood firmly behind Chanda Kochhar, saying no wrong was committed by her, and the committee was headed by the bank's then chief K V Kamath.

There are reports that a section of the bank's board is against the idea of Chanda Kochhar continuing in her role.

Global ratings agency Fitch on Monday said it is doubtful about the strength of corporate governance at ICICI Bank.

The ratings agency said allegations against ICICI Bank are coming against a backdrop of high non-performing assets in the banking sector, some of which have been linked to fraudulent lending.

It warned that regulatory sanctions are also possible, depending on the outcome of investigations by the law enforcement agencies and there is also a risk of financial penalties and legal action.

The ongoing investigations will undermine investor confidence in the bank, and have potential implications for funding costs and liquidity in an extreme scenario, it warned, conceding that as a systemically important entity, the state will chip-in with support.
Cabinet gave the go-ahead last year to sell Air India after successive governments spent billions of dollars to keep it solvent.

Aviation advisory firm Swiss Aviation Consulting (SAC) on Monday denied it has expressed interest in buying the debt burdened state-run carrier Air India.

SAC has never expressed interest in acquiring Air India or parts of it, or has acted as a front for some other stake holder, the company told Reuters in an email.

Earlier, the Economic Times newspaper quoted a senior aviation ministry official as saying that SAC has shown interest in bidding for Air India, although the report added that the Swiss company may only be scouting for clients.

The advisory firm said it has not been in contact with Indian government officials or Air India representatives regarding bidding for the carrier.

SAC offers services including aircraft asset management, sales and consultancy services on acquisitions, according to its website.

Last week, top Indian carrier Interglobe Aviation Ltd, owner of the IndiGo brand, said was opting out of buying Air India because the terms set by the government were unfavourable. Tata Group and Turkeys Celebi Aviation Holdings, have expressed interest in buying some of Air Indias operations.

The Indian government, which fully owns money-losing flag carrier Air India, put the company on the block late last month, seeking to sell a 76 per cent stake.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis cabinet gave the go-ahead last year to sell Air India after successive governments spent billions of dollars to keep it solvent, but its debt load of about $8 billion and a bloated cost structure have made a sale difficult.
Since the rollout of inter-state e-way bill movement of goods from April 1, more than 63 lakh such bills have been generated till Monday. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: E-way bill for movement of goods within the state will be rolled out from April 15, starting with 5 states including Gujarat, UP and Kerala.

From April 1, the government had launched the electronic-way or e-way bill system for moving goods worth over Rs 50,000 from one state to another.

The same for intra, or within the state movement, will be rolled out from April 15, finance ministry said in a statement.

The five states which would form part of the first phase are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

"With the roll-out of e-way bill system in these states, it is expected that trade and industry will be further facilitated insofar as the transport of goods is concerned, thereby eventually paving the way for a nation-wide single e-way bill system," the ministry said.

Trade and industry and transporters located in these states may obtain registration/enrolment on e-way bill portal, it added.

Since the rollout of inter-state e-way bill movement of goods from April 1, more than 63 lakh such bills have been generated till Monday.

Karnataka is the only state which had rolled out e-way bill system for intra-state movement of goods from April 1.

The GST council, last month, had decided on a staggered rollout of the e-way bill starting with inter-state from April 1 and intra-state from April 15.

Touted as an anti-evasion measure and would help boost tax collections by clamping down on trade that currently happens on cash basis, the e-way bill provision of the goods and services tax (GST) was first introduced on February 1.

However, its implementation was put on hold after the system developed glitches in generating permits. With several states also starting to generate intra-state e-way bills on the portal, the system developed a snag.

Since then, the platform has been made more robust so that it can handle load of as many as 75 lakh inter-state e-way bills daily without any glitch.
Geneva: Beijing has requested dispute consultations with the United States at the World Trade Organization over US tariffs slapped on imports of Chinese steel and alumium products, according to a WTO document published Tuesday.

China's representative to the world trade body has requested "consultations" with Washington over its decision to impose "additional ad valorem rate of duty on imports of certain steel and alumium products," according to the document, which stated that the complaint was filed on April 5.
The SBI has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

London: The SBI has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

India's largest state-owned bank, which celebrated the new subsidiary with a special event in London on Monday, becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.

SBI said that the ringfencing and subsidiarisation of the retail franchise SBI UK, the bank's largest overseas operation, offers UK customers "stability and reassurance" amidst continuing uncertainty around the UK's decision to leave the European Union (EU).

"We are extremely proud of how far the bank has come from the first time it opened its doors to UK residents in 1921," said Sanjiv Chadha, Regional Head of SBI UK.

"The launch of our UK subsidiary shows our commitment to operate in the UK market. Many banks primarily see the UK as the gateway to Europe and are fazed by the impact of Brexit. Our calculus is different. We see London as the ideal launch pad for a global presence and have full faith that, despite Brexit, London will remain the premier international financial centre," he said.

The UK subsidiary of the SBI has been launched with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) wants foreign banks to establish UK subsidiaries to protect depositors in the UK from uncertainties in foreign markets.

It is aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial crisis, by ensuring that banks have enough capital to support their business.

The costly move has caused an industry uproar, leading many existing foreign-owned bank branches to reassess their presence in the UK.

However, SBI UK says it has chosen to view the restructuring as an endorsement for London as a financial capital of the world, despite uncertainty triggered by the Brexit.

Charles Bowman, Lord Mayor of the City of London, said: "The move is a reflection of the continued strength of UK-India ties, particularly in financial and professional services. I look forward to further building on our 100-year relationship with India's largest bank." SBI UK, as the largest Indian bank in the UK, said it is confident that London will continue to remain the pre-eminent financial capital for institutions seeking a "gateway to a global presence".

The new subsidiary, which came into effect on April 1, means that all retail branches of SBI in the UK will fall under a new UK-incorporated banking entity instead of their previous status as overseas branches of the Indian entity.

"The UK market is one of tremendous interest and promise to us and that is unchanged regardless of Brexit. London is the best place for us to base our international business in, we find the regulatory climate proportionate and supportive," Chadha said.

SBI operates seven branches in London and five each in Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Coventry  all cities with a large concentration of Indian diaspora population.

The bank says that while the Indian-origin customer base will remain at the heart of its operations, it will use its expansion to cater to the wider UK market as a competitive local bank.
Outflow has razed the asset under management (AUM) of gold funds by over 12 per cent in the just concluded financial year.

New Delhi: Investors remained bearish on gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as they pulled out Rs 835 crore from the instrument in 2017-18, making it the fifth consecutive financial year of outflow.

The outflow has razed the asset under management (AUM) of gold funds by over 12 per cent in the just concluded financial year, according to latest data available with Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

"Barring couple of months, India has seen net negative flows in gold ETFs from February 2013. Even in terms of inflows, from triple-digit crore of inflows until 2012, it has now dwindled to low single-digit and almost nil in some months. Domestic gold's annualised returns is lower than even savings bank rate today," said Vidya Bala, head of mutual fund research at Fundsindia.com.

In addition, investors are now shifting from traditional asset classes such as real estate and gold to financial asset class like equities.

Trading in gold ETF segment has been lukewarm during the last five years. It witnessed an outflow of Rs 775 crore, Rs 903 crore, Rs 1,475 crore and Rs 2,293 crore in 2016-17, 2015-16, 2014-15 and 2013-14, respectively.

However, the segment had witnessed an infusion of Rs 1,414 crore in 2012-13. On the other hand, equity and equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS) saw an infusion of Rs 1.7 lakh crore in the last financial year.

The asset base of gold funds dropped to Rs 4,806 crore at the end of March 2018 from Rs 5,480 crore crore at the end of March 2017.

Gold ETFs are passive investment instruments that are based on gold prices that invest in gold bullion. There is a complete transparency on the holdings of an ETF because of its direct gold pricing.

The mutual fund sector has 14 gold-based schemes, which have been in the market since 2006-07.
Mumbai: Salman Khan was released on bail from the 1998 blackbuck poaching case, which happened during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain.

While the actor is back to shooting for the remaining portions of Race 3, it appears that theres no relief for him just yet.

His co-actress Kunickaa Sadanand has been troubled post her interview, where she is now receiving death threats and lewd messages by the Bishnoi community, who were eyewitnesses in the case.

In an interview to Bombay Times, Kunickaa said, "During television debates on the blackbuck poaching case, I was advocating that instead of punishing Salman, the Bishnoi community should use him as an example and not oppose the bail. Ideally, he should be made to do some work for the community, like breeding black bucks, adopting a jungle, etc. On one such panel discussion last week, I said that even Bishnois are hunters. I wanted to add that just like there are non-vegetarians in vegetarian communities, likewise but I was interrupted by the anchor."

Following this, she mentioned receiving numerous angry phone calls. "A person called Santosh Bishnoi called me and wanted me to apologise for what I had said on television and I agreed, as I had no proof about Bishnois being non-vegetarian; I had only heard about it from a man in Kota. However, the phone calls did not stop, there were messages on Facebook, too. They threatened to file a case against me. By then, I'd had enough and I posted a video online, apologising for my statement. I also talked about the harassment," she said.

Kanickaa had to then file a police complaint and let the law handle it. "I filed a case under Section 507 against the Bishnoi community. I handed over all the details, including the numbers from which I received the calls, and screenshots of the lewd messages. They have leaked my address and phone numbers on social media and violated my privacy. I have got police protection, now it is up to them to take action," she concluded.
Sri Reddy during strip protest in front of the Film Chamber in Film Nagar on Saturday.

Mumbai: Tollywood Me Too campaigner Sri Reddy stripped off her clothes in front of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) office on Saturday.

Following the act, the MAA instructed all its 900 members not to work with her, along with withholding her membership.

The protest has now gone to such an extent that the budding actress has been asked to vacate her flat in Humayun Nagar area of Hyderabad.

Informing about the same, Sri Reddy posted on her Facebook page, My (house) owner called me and told to vacate the housewhat a great person. He works as an IAS officer.

She also owns a web page called SriLeaks, which promises to expose the alleged exploitation of women in Tollywood.
Pranitha Subhash, who was last seen in Brahmotsavam, has signed her next project in Telugu opposite Ram Pothineni in his under-shoot film Hello Guru Prema Kosame, directed by Trinadha Rao Nakkina.

If sources are to be believed, Pranitha is all set to surprise the audience with her performance in the romantic comedy, which also features Anupama Parameshwaran. The films producer Dil Raju feels that Pranithas expressive side and her performance will bring credibility to the role.

Although the actress was getting several offers of late, she was waiting for a substantial character, and hence agreed to do Rams film. The Attarintiki Daredi actress has already started prepping for her role and is expected to join the sets soon.
Sleep deprivation has been associated with a number of health issues. Now a new study has found loosing just one night of a good sleep increases your risk of Alzheimers disease, the Daily Mail reported.

One sleepless night is all it takes to raise the levels of a toxic protein that is linked to the condition. Researchers discovered lack of sleep increased the beta-amyloid protein in the brain by 5% in 20 participants.

The study also found:

* Beta-amyloid was 21% more in people who suffer mild memory loss

* Beta-amyloid was 43% high for Alzheimer's disease patients

This is the first study to show a direct link between one sleepless night and Alzheimer's disease. Sleep is essential to clear out the beta-amyloid, which has a negative impact on memory.

The study's results add to growing evidence of a link between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer's disease. "This very small study suggests that one night of sleep deprivation can raise levels of the hallmark Alzheimer's protein amyloid, strengthening suggestions that sleep is important for limiting the build-up of this protein in the brain, Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at the charity at Alzheimer's Research UK, told the Daily Mail.

What is not clear is if the effects are long-term or short-term. "The increase in beta-amyloid we saw in the brains of people who were sleep-deprived is likely to be a harmful process,"lead author of the study Dr Ehsan Shokri-Kojori, from the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, told the Daily Mail. Adding, "A reasonable prediction based on these results would be that poorer sleep habits create a risk for Alzheimer's disease."
A direct link between cancers and flying time has not been established, but the increasing incidence of cancers among those engaged in the profession may point to it.

Hyderabad: High levels of stress, gruelling work schedules, shift-work-sleep disorders and also working in low oxygen zones are some of the major reasons that flight attendants are found to suffer from respiratory disorders, infectious diseases and also cancers. A recent study published in BMC Public Health states that there is increasing evidence of malignant melanoma, breast cancer and reproductive cancers in flight attendants along with psychological disorders and alcoholism.

A direct link between cancers and flying time has not been established, but the increasing incidence of cancers among those engaged in the profession may point to it. Says Dr Dilip Gude, senior critical care specialist, The increase in both physical and mental illness is being attributed to the exponential increase in cosmic radiation exposure and the thinning of atmosphere at such heights. Also, hormones like cortisol and several other stress hormones are found to surge from long and odd work-hours resulting in a cycle of stress for the body. Severe dehydration has also been noted in this category of people as they are in a closed cabin for long hours.

It has been found that stress hormones see an increase during long flights due to low pressure and gruelling schedules which affects the immune system and increases the risk and also incidence of infections. The air circulation mechanisms on board may also cause respiratory disorders and flu. The airline is one of the major reasons for the transfer of bacteria, virus and also mosquitoes from one zone to other. Dr B.K. Raju, senior critical care specialist, believes that clothes also play role in the poor health of flight attendants.

There is decreased lung capacity due to the constant wearing of tight-fitting clothes. The industry norms mandate that flight attendants have a perfect and ideal body outwardly. Hence, most of them suffer from deficiencies and have to be put on supplements. A medical check-up is done annually, and weight has to be maintained as required, which can be stressful. The job also calls for odd hours for meals and high intake of canned, processed and junk food which affects digestion. The psychological pressure caused from being away from family for many days can also take a toll.
Chennai: In an attempt to spread awareness on blood donation, 33-year-old Kiran Verma from New Delhi took an initiative to walk 15,000 km across the country. Starting his journey from Lal Chowk in Srinagar, Kiran has travelled more than 10 states across the country and is currently in Chennai.

I walked more than 3,500 kilometres till Bangalore in last 2 months. I have met more than 3 lakh people across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. The mission is to encourage at least 10 people every kilometre to take a pledge to donate blood at least once in their life. If this happens then this 15,000 kilometres of the journey is going to save at least 1,50,000 potential lives through blood donation, says Kiran.

The voluntary awareness campaign led by Kiran is not restricted to India, but also neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan. Kiran shares his thoughts on blood donation with students in colleges, universities, public places like malls, restaurants, railway stations, bus stands etc.

Kiran lost his mother due to cancer at the age of seven. He donated blood for the first time for his teacher, who was suffering from some kidney ailment and has donated 40 times by now.

I wanted some extra marks from my teacher, he jokingly said. However, I was completely moved when my teachers son was thankful to me for the help. It became a major turning point in my life and I realised how every drop of blood counts in saving the lives of the people, says Kiran.

Kiran Verma is the founder of Simply Blood - Worlds First Virtual Blood Donation Platform and First Social Media Platform for Blood Donation, which is an initiative by Change With One Foundation to encourage blood donation. The organization also has a smartphone application as a platform to seek or volunteer to donate blood.

Every day more than 12,000 people die in India due to lack of blood and more than 6 lakh units of blood is being wasted every year due to lack of coordination between blood bank and hospitals. The idea of the journey is to sensitise people on a way of giving back to the society by donating blood and also informing them of Simply Blood App or website, which is a platform through which anyone can seek or donate blood using at zero cost to the donor or seeker, said Kiran.

In last one year 2,000 potential lives have been saved in 11 countries on our app.

This is absolutely free on our app and Simply Blood charged nothing from either donor or seeker, he adds.

Kiran Verma can be contacted at 9810670347.
Seven charity organizations have been selected by the couple for their well wishers to send in their donations. (Photo: AP)

Washington DC: With only 39 days to go for the Royal Wedding, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have asked their well-wishers to donate to charity organisations instead of showering them with lavish gifts.

"Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit," read an official release published by Kensington Palace on April 9 .

The release stated further read, "The couple, have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to charity, rather than sending a wedding gift."

Seven charity organizations have been selected by the couple for their well wishers to send in their donations.

E! News reported that the chosen organisations include CHIVA (Children's HIV Association), Crisis, the Myna Mahila Foundation from Mumbai, Scotty's Little Soldiers, StreetGames, Surfers Against Sewage and The Wilderness Foundation UK.

"Prince Harry and Ms. Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen," the official release mentioned.

"The couples have chosen charities, which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women's empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces. Many of these are small charities and the couple is pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work."

The couple will tie the knot on May 19 in England's Windsor Castle.
One needs to keep going back to school to stay relevant, believes Xavier Augustin, who has recently graduated from the Harvard Business School. Xavier, who always aspired to study at Harvard, found in the Owner/President Management (OPM) Programme a chance to refresh his management knowledge and stay on top of contemporary business values.

Explaining how he got selected for the programme, the founder and CEO at Y-Axis Overseas Careers says, There is a strict criteria to be able to be accepted in the programme  what counts is the companys annual revenue, ones personal and professional profile which will add to the diversity, and the overall value of the group that heavily relies on networking and sharing information.

The OPM programme is offered for three weeks at a time over three consecutive years to CEOs and entrepreneurs at the Harvard campus in Boston. It helps one learn not only from the best professors but also from fellow CEOs and entrepreneurs from around the world.

Upon graduation, I am wondering if there is any other learning opportunity in the world for busy CEOs and entrepreneurs like the Harvards OPM. Where in ones busy life can one expect to befriend CEOs of powerful and extraordinary businesses, almost like friends from school or childhood? Those who apply for the OPM are of a certain nature  gung-ho, amiable and optimistic about life and the future. The professors, the course content and the networking creates a magic potion that adds a new vigour to our lives. OPM has certainly sharpened my basic business concepts, expanded my horizon with new ideas, motivated me to transform my life and work and make a difference. What is important for a CEO is to be able to reflect and stay relevant. This programme does that in an effective way, says Xavier.

Interestingly, there were 136 CEOs from nearly 40 countries along with Xavier, who says that the classrooms and the living area were always abuzz with lively activities. My classmates from India included the chief executives of Nilkamal, Luxor, TCI, MicroMax, Vikram Solar, Zuari Agro, Jaipur Living and GVK Hotels. Other interesting classmates included an investor in Spotify which went public last week, a Nigerian who literally owns a private navy, another who runs a regional airline, another who is the worlds largest exporter of basmati rice and another who is the largest exporter of human hair from India. Quite a of few of my classmates and now friends are serial entrepreneurs who have already sold their businesses and are preparing for the next new opportunity, he reveals.

Some of the professors who taught the OPM group were Professor Ananth Raman who taught operations, Professor Deepak Malhotra who taught negotiations, Professor Lynda Applegate who enlightened students about entrepreneurship, Professor Boris Groysberg who educated students about leadership, Professor Ramon who taught the need for a strategy, Professor Frank Cespedes who showed them how sales must always match the strategy and Professor Josh Lerner who taught how to raise funds from angels and private equity.

Xavier says that the course is now helping him transform Y-Axis in many ways and is helping him create a clear strategy for the company.

Talking about the prestigious graduation ceremony that he was part of, Xavier concludes by saying, The graduation ceremony was a time when we got to meet the families of the CEOs who flew in from around the world and it was a wonderful cultural experience. It was made memorable with an interesting keynote speaker, Ian Carson, who is an ex-OPMer and now a politician in Australia and founder of Second Bite which saves food from restaurants and supermarkets from being wasted.
Hyderabad: An unidentified body found on the railway tracks was identified after a missing complaint was lodged. However after analyzing the injuries on the body and the spot, the cops found out that the man did not die in a train accident but was murdered a few meters away from the spot and was then dumped on the tracks. To their utter shock, investigating officials realised that the deceaseds wife was behind the brutal murder and her paramour had executed it with hired killers, to whom they had paid Rs 2 lakh.

Sanath Nagar police solved the suspicious death mystery of the 43-year-old driver Mohd Khaja and arrested his wife Saleha Begum, her paramour Mohd Tabrez Qureshi and four others who were involved in the murder.

After the body was found on the railway tracks on February 21, the railway cops started a probe. A week later, when Saleha lodged a missing complaint at the SR Nagar police station, the railway police alerted the SR Nagar police, who identified the body as that of Khaja.

Detailed checking at the spot revealed a pool of blood near the tracks, blood-stained boulders and a blood trail leading to the tracks. The case was then transferred to the Sanathnagar police.

On inquiry, the Sanathnagar police verified the CCTV cameras in different parts of the city and zeroed in on a wine mart at Madhapur, where Khaja was seen consuming alcohol with a few others. They were identified and on inquiry, they revealed the shocking facts of the murder.

After Khaja came to know about the illegal affair, he warned Saleha to stay away from Qureshi. Angered, they planned to kill him. Tabrez approached Syed Mujeeb and offered him Rs 2 lakh to kill Khaja. Mujeeb along with Ayaz, Akbar Baig and Shaik Zaheer agreed to the offer.

On February 20, Khaja and Mujeeb consumed liquor and purchased more liquor and came to the railway tracks at Borabanda, where Ayaz, Akbar and Zaheer joined them. After Khaja got heavily drunk, Mujeeb and Ayaz throttled Khaja and then smashed his head with boulders. They later dragged the body to the railway tracks and fled from the spot. The arrested persons were sent to judicial remand.
According to cops, Vamshi Krishna went to the school where the boy was studying, told the staff Chandus mother had met with an accident and fled with the boy.

Hyderabad: Police of Wanaparthy district in a joint operation with Pune police rescued an 8-year-old kidnapped boy, Chandu Nayak, from Pune within 17 hours and nabbed the kidnapper, Vamshi Krishna, an auto-rickshaw driver.

According to cops, Vamshi Krishna went to the school where the boy was studying, told the staff Chandus mother had met with an accident and fled with the boy. When the boy did not return home, his family registered a case.

While the investigation was in process, Vamshi called Wasif Baba, husband of Chandus maternal aunt and demanded that he send her to him as he was in love with her. He also demanded that she be sent to Pune by train.

With this information, cops came to Nampally railway station and found Vamshis auto-rickshaw and later travelled to Pune along with Wasif baba and his wife Narsamma. Wasif made him believe that they were coming to Pune to hand over his wife. Meanwhile, teams collected his photograph and details and shared the same with Pune police and the railway police. When the train reached Sholapur, Vamshi noticed the RPF teams on check and got off at Sholapur and called Wasif Baba and said, Why are you sending the police after me? I am going to take a bus to Pune.

Seeing police presence at bus stations too, Vamshi boarded a local train and reached Pune station where he was apprehended and the boy was rescued. He was shifted to Wanaparthy on a transit warrant and produced before court.
Hyderabad: Vemula Mangamma, 48, who was set ablaze by her drunk husband in a locked room while she was asleep in Kapra, succumbed to burns in the wee hours of Tuesday.

She had received 90 per cent burns after her husband Mallesham emptied a kerosene can and set her on fire. Their two sons, asleep in the next room, could not come to her rescue as Mallesham had locked the door from outside. Hearing her loud cries, neighbours rushed in and even freed her sons, but by then she was totally burnt.

Jawaharnagar police who had earlier booked a case for attempt to murder altered the charges to murder. Teams are on job to nab the suspect, Inspector V.V. Chalapathi said.

Mallesham Goud and Mangamma had been married for the last 32 years and shifted to the city from their native at Yadadri district and settled at Jammigadda in Kapra along with sons Naresh and Mahesh.

Mallesham who was an alcoholic had been torturing Mangamma for the past many years. He would often beat her in an inebriated condition. A few years ago, he went back to his native place, while Mangamma stayed back with her sons.

A year ago, Mallesham returned and had then assaulted Mangamma and injured her right hand, after which he went back to his village.

He came back recently and had since then been regularly consuming liquor and harassing his wife.

Early on Monday, he locked the room where his sons were asleep and came to Mangammas room. He emptied a kerosene can on her and set her ablaze and fled the scene. Based on Nareshs complaint, police booked a case and the body was handed over to the family after autopsy.
The truck, carrying construction labourers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Mumbai: At least 18 labourers were killed and 15 others injured when a speeding truck overturned in western Maharashtra's Satara district in the early hours of Tuesday, the police said.

The truck, carrying construction labourers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway passing through the district, around 250 km from Mumbai, Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said.

The driver apparently lost control over the wheels at an accident-prone stop near Khambatki ghat.

As a result, the vehicle rammed into a barricade and then overturned, he said.

On being informed, the Khandala police rushed to the spot and took all the victims to a nearby hospital, he said.

The police were trying to ascertain the exact reason of the accident, the official said, adding that they suspect the accident occurred due to the driver's lack of concentration as he had been constantly driving and was deprived of sleep.

The bodies were sent for postmortem and the process to identify the deceased was on, the police added.
The new bulletproof jackets will provide '360 degree protection' to the soldier in combat, including from hard 'steel core' bullets. (Photo: File | AP)

New Delhi: The nine-year long wait for the Indian Army has finally borne fruit, with the government signing the contract for the procurement of 1.86 lakh bulletproof jackets after successful field evaluation trials, the Indian Army said on Monday.

With this the soldiers of the Indian Army will see finally acquire the life-saving bulletproof jackets that they require during intense operations.

The Defence Ministry on Monday signed a contract with a defence firm for procurement of 1.86 lakh bulletproof jackets for the Army at a cost of Rs 639 crore.

The Army in a statement said, "A major contract through capital procurement route, for procurement of 1,86,138 bulletproof jackets (BPJs) has been signed. The impending requirement of the Indian Army for effective BPJs, has been met after successful conduct of stringent field evaluation trials."

The contract has been bagged by indigenous defence manufacturer SMPP Pvt Ltd, a small Delhi-based company which has a Research and Development Centre in the Okhla Industrial Area. It is the biggest order SMPP have ever signed.

The new BPJs will provide "360 degree protection" to the soldier in combat, including from hard "steel core" bullets.

The case was processed under the 'Buy Indian' category of the defence procurement procedure. "The provision of these new BPJs was done by Indian manufacturers who were successful in the trials. This has given an impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative of the government," the Army said.

"These bulletproof jackets will have boron carbide ceramic which is the lightest material for ballistic protection. This makes SMPP BPJs the best of the class and will be able to provide ballistic protection at the lowest possible weight," Chairman and Managing Director of SMPP S C Kansal said.

The Army, which has struggled to acquire body armour for its soldiers because of an oppressively slow procurement system, says the new jackets have modular parts which provide "immense protection and flexibility to soldiers operating in different operational situations ranging from long distance patrolling to high risk room intervention scenarios". The jackets are designed to sustain the impact of even the latest hard steel core bullets in saving the lives of soldiers in operations.

The Defence Ministry said the new BPJs will boost the confidence of soldiers and the indigenously developed BPJs will give new impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative of the government and provide confidence that Indian industry is capable of fulfilling the requirements of the armed forces.

The year 2009 saw the government accept an Army requirement of 1.86 lakh bulletproof jackets. However, the order fell through after vendors could not clear trial rounds conducted by the army.

(With inputs from PTI)
After its debacle in the previous elections, the Congress did not recover in AP till now. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: For the ensuing general elections, battle lines have been cleared by political parties in Andhra Pradesh but in Telangana, it is not yet clear.

In Andhra Pradesh, for the first time, Telugu Desam is going to fight alone in the next elections. There will be multi-corner fight among TD, YSRC, BJP, Congress and Jana Sena with the Left parties but the main fight will be between the TD and the YSRC.

After the emergence of Telangana Jana Samiti, floated by TJAC chairman Prof. Kodandaram, a new political alliance is expected to fight with the TRS in Telangana.

After snapping ties with the BJP and Jana Sena Chief Pawan Kalyans decision to contest in the next election on its own, the ruling TD has been forced to fight alone in the next elections. In the previous elections in 2014, the TD had an alliance with the BJP and Pawan Kalyan had supported the BJP and TD alliance.

Main Opposition YSRC, BJP and Congress will also fight alone. The Left parties  CPI and CPM  have decided to sail with the Jana Sena in the next elections. CPM and CPI will have seat adjustments with the Jana Sena.

After its debacle in the previous elections, the Congress did not recover in AP till now.

Due to the state bifurcation, the Andhra Pradesh people expressed their anger on the Congress and it did not won even a single Assembly seat in the previous elections. BJP has no strength to fight on its own in all 175 Assembly seats.

Jana Sena and Left pa-rties combination will gi-ve a fight in some Ass-embly segments. Particularly in the Kapu belt areas, mostly in East and West Godavari districts, Jana Sena and Left parties will give a competition to the TD and the YSRC. In these areas, there will be triangle fight among the TD, YSRC and Jana Sena and in other areas, there will be a straight fight between the TD and YSRC.

In Telangana, the TRS will fight alone and there will be a multi-corner contest in the state. In Hyde-rabad city, TRS will have an understanding with the MIM. However, the main fight will be between the TRS and the Congress.

The Left parties have decided to go with the Jana Sena in Telangana also if it contests in the state. Otherwise, the Left parties may prefer to go with Telangana Jana Sa-miti or the Congress.

Compared to AP, the BJP has some strong pockets in Telangana. Some political parties want to form a grand alliance comprising the Congress, Left parties and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) to fight with the TRS.

Political circles say that the alliance between the TJS and Congress is not possible as both want power. Seat adjustment between these two parties is really difficult.
Badaun: A day after the damaged statue of BR Ambedkar - the iconic leader who drafted India's constitution - was rebuilt and painted saffron and covered in marigold garlands, it has now been repainted blue.

The statue at Badaun's Dugraiyya village was rebuilt after it was vandalised on Saturday.

Ambedkar is usually depicted in a black or blue coat in statues across the country.

The statue didn't stay saffron for long. Workers said to be from Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) went to the spot and repainted it blue.

The statue, with Ambedkar wearing a saffron sherwani, triggered howls from Dalits. The saffron statue was painted blue allegedly by BSP leader Himendra Gautam, news agency ANI reported.

Though the statue had nothing to do with the state government, several buildings in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow have been painted saffron since Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Yogi Adityanath has often said, "Saffron represents purity... can someone deny the existence of the sun which is also saffron... people questioning all these are narrow-minded."

In March, a number of statues were vandalised after a Lenin statue was pulled down in Tripura after the BJP defeated the Left with a thumping majority.

Security around statues in Uttar Pradesh was increased due to Bharat Bandh called by those opposed to quota in jobs and education.

#WATCH Badaun: The damaged statue of BR Ambedkar which was rebuilt and painted saffron, re-painted blue by BSP Leader Himendra Gautam. pic.twitter.com/Tntf7shNAN  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

(With inputs from ANI)
KOCHI: Kerala has been at the receiving end of the priorities of Finance Commissions for quite long. The political class in the state, however, has been soft peddling the issue despite timely warning by economists about the perilous situation. Dr K.K. George, a former professor of Cochin University of Science and Technology and current chairman of the Kochi-based Centre Socio-economic and Environmental Studies, has been arguing that the Finance Commissions needed to regain their constitutional identity for more than a decade. Dr George has pioneered a study in the subject from the 12th Finance Commission Dr George initiated a study into the workings of the Finance Commission and its adverse impact on Kerala in 2006 after the release of the 12th Finance Commission report.

The working paper, which he co-wrote with K.K. Krishnakumar and V.K. Praveen, titled Twelfth Finance Commissions Award; what it foretells for Kerala,details the pitfalls contained in the recommendations for getting adequate central funds to the state. The paper found that the award of the 12th finance commission resulted in the state losing Rs 6,088 crore during the five-year period from 2005-2010. The study also found out that the sharp fall in the percentage of the central transfer to the state has adversely impacted Kerala.

According Dr Georges paper, during the 11th Finance Commission the share of Kerala in total Central transfers to all states came down to 2.8 per cent from 3.4 per cent under the award of the Tenth Finance Commission. The fall resulted in the state losing `3,664 crore in the five year period from 2000-2005. The Twelfth Finance Commission reduced Keralas share still further to 2.6 per cent. As a result, during the period, 2005-10 covered by its award, Kerala will be getting Rs 6,088 crore less than what it would have got under the award of the Tenth Finance Commission, the working paper pointed out.

Erosion of the Role of Finance Commission

Dr George and Krishnakumar revisited the subject with another working paper in 2008 titles Regaining the Constitutional Identity of the Finance Commission: A Daunting Task for the Thirteenth Commission. The paper was an attempt to delineate the pattern in the erosion of the functional autonomy of the Finance Commissions over the years.

The study also drew attention to the fact that the Finance Commissions have become a handmaiden for the Central Government cutting down the financial autonomy of the states. The Finance Commission is appointed by the President in every five years or earlier under Article 280 of the Constitution. Conceived as a semi-judicial entity the commission has been entrusted with the twin responsibilities of apportioning Central Government revenues between the Centre and the States on the one hand and among the individual States on the other.
Referring to Hadiya's father contentions, the top court said he may feel there was 'enormous transgression' of his right to protect the interest of his daughter but his viewpoint cannot be allowed to curtail her fundamental rights. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside the Kerala High Court verdict and restored the inter-faith marriage of Hadiya and Shafin Jahan, saying the former had "absolute autonomy over her person."

Observing that the faith of a person was intrinsic to a person's meaningful existence, the top court said that choosing a faith is the substratum of individuality and sans it, the right of choice becomes a shadow.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, which gave two separate but concurring verdicts, said the "expression of choice in accord with law is acceptance of individual identity".

"Faith of a person is intrinsic to his/her meaningful existence. To have the freedom of faith is essential to his/her autonomy; and it strengthens the core norms of the Constitution," the bench said in its detailed verdict which was uploaded on the apex court's website on Monday.

The Supreme Court had on March 8 set aside the high court verdict which had held as null and void the marriage between Jahan and Hadiya, who had appeared before the court and had categorically stated that she had converted to Islam and married him of her own free will.

Read: Kerala 'love jihad': SC restores Hadiya's marriage, scraps High Court order

Referring to Hadiya's father contentions, the top court said he may feel there was "enormous transgression" of his right to protect the interest of his daughter but his viewpoint cannot be allowed to curtail her fundamental rights.

"Therefore, the High Court has completely erred by taking upon itself the burden of annulling the marriage between the appellant and the respondent no.9 (Hadiya) when both stood embedded to their vow of matrimony," it said, adding that the freedom was both a constitutional and a human right.

"Deprivation of that freedom which is ingrained in choice on the plea of faith is impermissible," it said.

The top court said the realisation of a right is more important than the conferment of the right and such actualisation indeed ostracised any kind of societal notoriety and kept at bay the patriarchal supremacy.

"It is so because the individualistic faith and expression of choice are fundamental for the fructification of the right. Thus, we would like to call it indispensable preliminary condition," the chief justice, who penned the verdict for himself and Justice Khanwilkar, said.

The bench said that non- acceptance of Hadiya's choice would simply mean creating discomfort to the constitutional right by a Constitutional Court which is meant to be the protector of fundamental rights.

"Such a situation cannot remotely be conceived. The duty of the court is to uphold the right and not to abridge the sphere of the right unless there is a valid authority of law. Sans lawful sanction, the centripodal value of liberty should allow an individual to write his/her script. The individual signature is the insignia of the concept," it said.

Justice Chandrachud, who wrote a separate concurring order, said that choice of a partner whether within or outside the marriage lies within exclusive domain of each individual and intimacies of marriage "lie within a core zone of privacy, which is inviolable".

"The right to marry a person of one's choice is integral to Article 21 of the Constitution. The Constitution guarantees the right to life. This right cannot be taken away except through a law which is substantively and procedurally fair, just and reasonable," he said.

Also Read: Kerala 'love jihad': The curious case of Hadiya aka Akhila

Justice Chandrachud also said the strength of Indian Constitution lay in its acceptance of plurality and diversity of culture and courts were duty bound not to "swerve" from the path of upholding the pluralism and diversity as a nation.

"Intimacies of marriage, including the choices which individuals make on whether or not to marry and on whom to marry, lie outside the control of the state. Courts as upholders of constitutional freedoms must safeguard these freedoms," he said.

He said that interference by the state in such matters has a seriously chilling effect on the exercise of freedoms and others were dissuaded to exercise their liberties for fear of the reprisals which may result upon free exercise of choice.

"The chilling effect on others has a pernicious tendency to prevent them from asserting their liberty. Public spectacles involving a harsh exercise of state power prevent the exercise of freedom, by others in the same milieu. Nothing can be as destructive of freedom and liberty. Fear silences freedom," he said.

Justice Chadrachud said the high court had transgressed limits of its jurisdiction in issuing a declaration annulling their marriage in the course of hearing of a habeas corpus petition.

"The schism between Hadiya and her father may be unfortunate. But it was not part of the jurisdiction of the High Court to decide what it considered to be a 'just' way of life or 'correct' course of living for Hadiya. She has absolute autonomy over her person," he said, adding that the high court had entered into a domain which was alien to its jurisdiction in a habeas corpus petition.

The top court clarified that the National Investigation Agency, which was earlier asked by the court to probe into the matter, might exercise its authority in accordance with the law but validity of the marriage shall not form the subject matter of the probe.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Contrary to the wholehearted support given to "Bharat Bandh" on April 2, the ruling CPM in Kerala adopted a confrontational stand towards the hartal called by dalit outfits in the state on Monday to protest against dilution of atrocities act and killing of 11 persons. The dalit leaders alleged that the DGP was given clear direction from the political bosses to take stern action against hartal supporters. This was evident from the arrest of over 100 activists across the state. Similarly, KSRTC which suspends its operations even in the wake of hartals by insignificant organisations, was under orders to operate all services.

The dalit leaders alleged that this could not have been possible without the blessings of political leadership. "Scores of activists were taken into preventive custody reminding of Karunakaran era. I was doing Facebook live after cops refused to rush an activist who complained of chest pain, to hospital. Soon I was whisked away by the police," said activist Purushan Eloor. "It was a hartal against BJP led Centre's anti-dalit stand. While CPM may have its own political limitations considering it has its own organisations like Pattikajathi Kshema Samithi (PKS) and Adivasi Kshema Sabha (AKS), we never expected the government to use police and other administrative measures to crush the hartal," said Dalit activist Dhanya Raman.

However, CPM leader Anavoor Nagappan said there was no deliberate attempt from LDF to defeat the agitation. "I don't claim that all arrests were justified. But police may have to act in certain circumstances. KSRTC may have tried to operate services on its own. There was no direction from the government," he added. The CPM leader said his party backed the dalit agitation against dilution of atrocities act and killing of 11 persons during bharat bandh.

PKS president and CPM Rajya Sabha MP K. Soma Prasad denied the charge that police force was misused. "We had expressed our solidarity with the issues raised by hartal supporters," he said. But the dalit organisations doubt the CPM intentions. They say the anti-hartal stand of Left parties had in fact given dalit outfits to prove their independent strength. "Unlike other hartals, this one was truly political. It triggered a huge debate on dalit issues on the social medial and news channels. That is the biggest take away of the protest," said Mr Purushan. The dalit outfits are now gearing up for the next leg of their protest on April 14 which is also Ambedkar Jayanti.
A group of lawyers had tried to prevent police from filing a chargesheet against seven accused in alleged rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad girl in a court in Kathua district on Monday. (Photo: Agencies)

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against a group of lawyers who had come in its way and tried to prevent it from filing a chargesheet against seven accused in alleged rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad girl in a court in Kathua district on Monday.

The Crime Branch of J&K Police filed the chargesheet against the accused including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a police Sub-Inspector and a Head-Constable in the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJMs) court in spite of resistance by local lawyers. Ironically the judge had also shown reluctance in accepting the chargesheet initially.

The victim, went missing while grazing horses in Rasana village of Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua on January 17. A week later, her body was found in woods near her village. The alleged rape and murder of the minor evoked widespread outrage in Jammu and Kashmir.

Read: Jammu SPO investigating rape, murder of 8-yr-old, arrested for crime

The officials said that the Crime Branch which has been probing the gory incident on Tuesday filed a separate chargesheet against another accused in the case, who was earlier said to be a juvenile, in the Kathua court.

The rape and murder incident took a political and communal colour after the Crime Branch laid its hands on SPO Deepak Khajuria, the main accused, with voices being raised by local Hindu community that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A group of local people, including the relatives of the accused, are currently on fast-unto-death in support of the demand.

J&Ks DGP Shesh Paul Vaid alarmed over the situation turning uglier had appealed to people not to give the incident a political or religious colour and assured the culprits would not be spared but brought to book. The J&K police is not going to compromise on any angle, he had said.

But the incident took a strange turn later when large number of people of Kathua took to the streets, waving the national flag and demanding unconditional release of Khajuria. The photographs of the protest march went viral on social media and Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, shocked over the abuse of the national flag hit out at the protesters and reiterated that the law will take its own course.

Also Read: Appalled at protesters using Indian flag in Kathua rapist's defense: Mehbooba

In huge embarrassment to the Chief Minister, two of her senior ministers from ally BJP Chander Prakash Ganga and Chowhary Lal Singh also joined the protesters to seek investigations into the rape-and-murder case instead of the Crime Branch of the J&K police by CBI on the plea the local people had expressed lack of faith in police investigation. But the Chief Minister out rightly rejected the demand.

DGP Vaid confirmed that FIR has been registered against lawyers of Kathua Bar Association for preventing the Crime Branch from filing a charge sheet against the accused in the court of CJM Kathua. The bizarre act by the lawyers had shocked various sections of the society and had evoked sharp criticism by various political and social organisations.

Kathuas SSP Seleiman Choudhary said that the FIR has been registered against the Kathua lawyers under sections 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint) of Ranbir Penal Code.

Former Chief Minister and opposition National Conference (NC) working president, Omar Abdullah, welcomed the polices move against lawyers and taking to Twitter he said, Good. Lawyers who have no respect for the law deserve to have the full weight of the law books crash down on them.

Reacting to remarks made by two BJP ministers in support of accused, he said that mob was emboldened by their words. He tweeted While appreciating action by @JmuKmrPolice against the Kathua mob masquerading as lawyers lets not forget the mob were emboldened by the actions/words of two BJP ministers in @MehboobaMuftis cabinet. What about action against them?

Jammu High Court Bar Association (JHCBA), the main organization of Jammu lawyers, is on strike since Thursday in support of various demands including handing over the Kathua rape-cum-murder case to CBI and eviction of Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees from Jammu as it considers them a security threat. It has called for a Jammu bandh on Wednesday.

However, JHCBAs call on Tuesday received a setback when Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) disassociated itself from it saying that the Chamber and other important organizations were not taken into confidence before announcing the shutdown call.

Rakesh Gupta, president of JCCI said, JCCI has always considered the JHCBA as an elderly body but we are not supporting Jammu Bandh announced by the Bar Association.

He said that JCCI was first to raise Rohingya issue but now it is sub-judice in the Supreme Court and that the Union Home Ministry has issued a direction and restricted fresh settlement of Rohingyas in J&K so there is no logic to agitate over this.

On the rape and murder of eight-year-old girl, he said that the investigation of Crime Branch was being monitored by the High Court and the charge sheet has also been filed so it is also sub-judice.

The sections of lawyers in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu region too have dissociated themselves from the shutdown call saying the Crime Branch should continue to investigate the rape and murder case and that the lawyers of Jammu may contest the charge sheet in the court instead of coming on roads.

The chargesheets have been filed few days after DNA test confirmed that the victim was held captive inside Rasanas Deasthan temple before being strangulated after rape. Among the accused is a former revenue official and the alleged conspirator and custodian of the temple Sanji Ram (60) who surrendered before the Crime Branch on March 20 after his son Vishal Kumar was taken into custody by the police in Uttar Pradesh.

The Crime Branch officials said that they had received the forensic test reports which confirmed that the girl was held hostage at a temple premises, drugged and raped several times before being murdered by a SPO Khajuria.

According to the Crime Branch officials, the viscera report of the deceased has established that she was drugged by the accused so that she would not cry for help. The viscera report is positive for clonazepam. This means that the victim was drugged by the accused, they said adding that the medical reporthas also revealed that the cause of victims death was asphyxiation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will observe a day-long fast on Thursday April 12, over disruptions during Budget session of parliament. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will work on Thursday while he keeps a day-long fast along with other BJP MPs in protest against disruptions in parliament. BJP national president Amit Shah will also join the protest, but he will be in Karnataka, where the campaign is on in full swing for the upcoming assembly elections.

Amit Shah will sit on 'dharna' (demonstration) in Karnataka's Hubballi on April 12, over disruptions during Budget session.

The BJP has blamed the Congress and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the disruptions that meant that the budget session of parliament was a lost cause.

"The Prime Minister will work in his office but will not eat," NDTV quoted a BJP leader saying.

BJP lawmakers from across the nation will join the fast in what is being seen as an attempt to turn the tables on the Congress, a day after it held a symbolic fast at Rajghat in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the opposition of doing divisive politics and announced that BJP MPs will observe a fast on April 12 to protest the impasse in Parliament, for which he blamed the Congress.

With opposition parties targeting the government over Dalit protests, PM Modi said BJP MPs and other leaders will spend a night between April 14 and May 5 in over 20,844 villages with over 50 per cent population of scheduled castes and tribes to inform the masses about the Centre's various measures aimed at their welfare.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi led a Congress fast at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat to highlight communal harmony and what the party called the government's failure to control violence during Dalit protests.
Nirav Modi and his jeweller uncle, Mehul Choksi, are accused of defrauding the PNB to the tune of around Rs 12,700 crore. (Photo: File/PTI)

Mumbai: A special CBI court in Mumbai on Monday issued a judicial request to be sent to the UK after the central probe agency moved a petition, seeking to attach a bank account of beleaguered diamond trader Nirav Modi, a key accused in the Rs 12,700-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

CBI counsel Om Prakash told the court that Modi's Barclays bank account in the UK had about 12,79,517 pounds (about Rs 12 crore) and USD 1,244 (over Rs 80,000).

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said its probe had revealed that the bank wanted to terminate its relationship with the Nirav Modi Ltd and was set to pay the money back to the billionaire diamantaire.

Om Prakash said the agency believed the money in the account was proceeds of crime. After hearing the agency's plea to attach the account, special CBI court judge SR Tamboli allowed it and issued a Letter Rogatory (LR) to the UK.

A judicial request, also known as a Letter Rogatory, is issued by courts on the request of an investigating agency when it wants information from another country.

Once a court issues such a request, it is delivered, through diplomatic channels, to the competent court in that country, from where the agency seeks information.

Modi and his jeweller uncle, Mehul Choksi, are accused of defrauding the PNB to the tune of around Rs 12,700 crore.

The CBI has arrested 19 people so far in connection with the fraud. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also conducting an independent probe into the scam.

It is alleged that LoUs (letters of undertaking) and LCs (letters of credit) worth close to USD 2 billion were issued fraudulently to the companies of the uncle-nephew duo from the PNB's Brady House branch in south Mumbai through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messages.

Several bank employees have been booked for collusion in the case, CBI and ED officials have said.

A LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to the Indian banks that have branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to the credit-giving bank, along with interest.

Both Choksi and Modi have been booked in two cases each related to the bank fraud, which came to light in February. The uncle-nephew duo had fled the country in the first week of January, days before the PNB detected the fraud.

The government has claimed to have tracked Modi in Hong Kong. It has sent a request to Hong Kong for the diamond trader's provisional arrest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bihar on Tuesday morning to partake in the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha and to address the Satyagrah se Swachhagrah event. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Motihari (Bihar): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off of India's first all-electric high-speed locomotive, developed at Madhepura's Electric Locomotive Factory. The train is the first big Make-in-India project completed by Alstom of France.

The electric locomotive, with a 12,000 horsepower engine, will have a maximum speed of 120 km per hour, according to Alstom.

This will be the first of 40 locomotives expected to roll out of the factory by the end of March 2020.

Under the agreement with Alstom, India will get 800 high horsepower electric locomotives over the next 11 years, at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore.

According to Alstom, the all-electric locomotives will aim to bring down operating costs for the Railways and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Prime Minister was at Motihari in Bihar to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

Modi also laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km) along with flagging off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi.

The Prime Minister also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in February 2018, the two sections -- Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar -- are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar.

The train will run bi-weekly - Tuesdays and Fridays - covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum.

The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.

Addressing the gathering of about 20,000 cleanliness ambassadors from different parts of the nation who have converged at Motihari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Rs 6,600 crore worth projects launched today will be a boon to Bihar and Champaran. Projects worth Rs 3,000 crore have been approved to prevent waste dumping in Ganga."

The Prime Minister lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi for the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the state. "Bihar was the only state where the scope of hygiene was less than 50 per cent. But after a week's Swachhagraha campaign, Bihar broke that barrier," Modi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Bihar is the state that transformed Mahatma Gandhi into 'Bapu'.

"Hundred years ago, people from across the country came to Champaran and worked under the leadership of Gandhi. Today, enthusiastic youngsters are working shoulder to shoulder with cleanliness workers," the Prime Minister added.

Congratulating the people of Bihar, 'Swachhagrahis' and the state government, the Prime Minister said, "In the last one week, more than 8,50,000 toilets have been constructed in Bihar. This is a great achievement."

(With inputs from PTI)
MANKAPUR (ADILABAD): Adivasis of Telangana will liberate themselves from the direct ruling of the state government fr-om the day of formation of Telangana on June 2.

The Adivasi leaders alleged that KCR neglected them as they had only 10 lakh votes against Lambadas having above 20 lakh votes.

The Adivasis of old Adilabad, Warangal, Ka-rimnagar and Khammam will continue their agitation programmes. The Adivasis declared that they will not allow the government officials into their gudems and will not extend their cooperation to the government machinery.

The self-rule is popularly known among the Adivasis as Mava Nate Mava Raj .. Mava Nate Mava Sarkar (Our rule in our village.. our government in our village) .

The Adivasis will govern themselves under self-rule of provision given for scheduled areas under the 5th schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Adivasis will unanimously elect their Sarpanches in the local body elections irrespective of party affiliation.

Already, the Adivasi Hakkula Porata Samiti (Thudumdebba) gave June 1 as the deadline to the State Government to resolve their demand ie. removal of the Lambadas from the STs list.

Adivasi writer and research scholar Mypathi Arunkumar questioned the double standards of Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao and asked him why he was not talking about the illegal migration of Lambadas from other states and their exploitation while reminding that KCR had talked much about the illegal migration of Andhra people into Telangana and their exploitation during the Telangana agitation.

Mypathi Arunkumar said KCR has forgot everything he had talked, after becoming the Chief Minister with the help of the Telangana agitation and asked KCR why he did not apply the same rule to Andhra people and the Lambadas.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the proposal to install drinking water fountains across the city, the corporation has yet not acted on it. Experts opine that drinking water fountains or water dispensers, as an alternative to packaged drinking water, will be effective in curtailing the plastic menace. Water coolers that once adorned places like LMS have also disappeared and now they are limited to railway station or indoor facilities.

"We have proposed drinking water fountains in 10 places in the city under Smart City project. New ones will come up at Gandhi Park, Thampanoor," said Corporation health standing committee chairman K. Sreekumar. Several Indian cities have explored the scope of getting sponsors for water kiosks. Recently, the city corporation had replaced a faulty water kiosk with a 'water maker' sponsored by a private company.

Meanwhile, corporation health official said that the menace of mounting used plastic water bottles will be addressed. "Plastic bottles have a resale value. We will provide a system where PET bottles could be exchanged for a small sum. We hope rag pickers and students will utilise such a scheme to earn quick bucks," an official said.
The principal of the Madrasa, Hafiz Nazre Alam, noted that being a modern establishment under the Uttar Pradesh Education Board, languages like Arabic are being taught as well. (Photo: ANI)

Gorakhpur: India is a land of linguistic diversity with each region and community having its own language and dialects, and Uttar Pradesh, which is the largest state in terms of population, is the centre of languages like Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu. Although, languages find themselves restricted to regions, communities and sections in the state, this seems to be changing now.

An initiative has been taken up by Gorakhpur's Darul Uloom Husainia Madrasa where students are being taught Sanskrit in addition to Hindi, English and Urdu.

Students said they have enjoyed learning the subject so far, and are being taught well by their teachers and students.

"We feel good to learn Sanskrit. Our teachers teach and explain things very well. Even our parents help us in learning," a student told news agency ANI.

Meanwhile, the principal of the Madrasa, Hafiz Nazre Alam, noted that being a modern establishment under the Uttar Pradesh Education Board, languages like Arabic are being taught as well.

"Subjects like English, Hindi, Science, Maths, Urdu and Arabic are taught here. Sanskrit is now being taught to all students above Class 5. The parents of the students are also very happy and have never raised any objection to this," he added.

He also said that the curriculum at madrasas across the state is also being upgraded.

Education in Madrasas has been modernised in the recent past for the benefit of those studying there.

In October 2017, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said NCERT books are being introduced in Madrasas across the state, as per suggestions made by the state Madrasa Board.

Currently, there are about 19,000 recognised and 560 aided madrasas operating in the state.

(With ANI inputs)
Rumours are rife that former Congress leader SM Krishna, who had joined BJP a year ago, is thinking of going back to the Congress party. (Photo: File)

Bengaluru: Rumours are rife that former Congress leader SM Krishna, who had joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a year ago, is thinking of going back to the Congress party.

Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, however refused to comment on the speculations.

"I don't know," he told news agency ANI when asked about Krishna's change of heart.

Another Congress leader, K Rahman Khan said, "All are welcome but we do not have any information on this."

SM Krishna hails from Karnataka and was the state chief minister from 1999 to 2004. In 2017, the Income Tax (IT) department raided offices and residence of his son-in-law VG Siddhartha, who owns the popular Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) and allegedly concealed income to the tune of Rs 650 crore.

Speaking about the reports of Krishna's re-joining the Congress party, BJP spokesperson S Prakash rubbished the reports, calling it desperation of the Congress.

"It is a planted story by the desperate Congressmen, who have now realised the worth of SM Krishna. When he quit the Congress party, they made all kind of allegations against him," he told the media.

"At last now those ungrateful characters are remembering SM Krishna," he added.

SM Krishna, who had been in Congress for decades, joined BJP in 2017. He is regarded as an influential leader in the politics of Karnataka, which will go to polls on May 12 to elect its representatives for the 225-member assembly. The results will be out on May 15.
Lucknow: Atul Sengar, brother of BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar who was charged with rape, has been arrested by the police, early on Tuesday morning.

Atul Sengar has been accused of beating up the rape survivors family and her father who died in police custody on Monday. Atul Sengar had reportedly beaten up the girls father and other family members on April 3 when they refused to withdraw their rape complaint.

The father was later arrested on charges of assault and he died on Monday morning.

The postmortem report of the survivors father, Surendra Singh a.k.a. Pappu Singh, showed that he died of shock and septicemia. The report said that there was bleeding and perforation in his lower intestines (probably due to injury).

ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar told reporters that a special investigation team has been set up to probe the Unnao rape case and also the death of the rape survivors father.

The ADG refused to admit any negligence on part of the police and said that the deceased had been brought to the police station on April 5 in an injured condition.

A lawyer, M.L. Sharma has also filed a PIL in Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the case and also compensation for the family.

DGP O.P. Singh said on Tuesday that there were sufficient grounds for the arrest of Atul Sengar. Four other accused in the case  Sonu, Baua, Vinit and Shailu  named in the FIR registered on April 4 for beating up Pappu Singh had also been arrested.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday expressed anger at the Hyderabad Police for not taking action against the persons responsible for crushing female foetus with hands during abortions in a private nursing home in the city through unqualified persons.

The court directed the authorities to ensure that the nursing home does not operate till further orders.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a PIL by R Sandeep Yadav, a resident of Amberpet, challenging the illegal abortions of female foetus in Gayatri Nursing Home in Singareni Colony in Saidabad.

Questioning the inaction of the police in taking action against the management of the nursing home, the bench pointed out that you did not hesitate to book a case against the petitioner when the management lodged the complaint, but now you are dodging the action against the management despite the video footage furnished by the petitioner which shows the crushing of foetus.

The petitioner had submitted that they had furnished video clippings and photos of illegal abortions being carried out in the nursing home along with the affidavit.

While asking the police why they have not found the woman who is crushing foetus with hands, at one stage the bench was preparing to summon the city police commissioner to seek reasons for not taking action against the nursing home.

K Srikanth, counsel for the home department, told the court that they initiated action. The court granted a weeks time till April 17 for the city police to file the action taken report.
Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister K T Rama Rao held a review meeting of the GHMC on Tuesday. The GHMC is planning to construct rail under bridges (RuB) at Anand Bagh, Sanathnagar-Moulali by pass, RuB at Venkatapuram, Alwal, pedestrian subway between Nature Cure hospital and Begumpet station, RuB and drainage system at Bollaram railway station, RuB near Manikeshwari Nagar between Sitaphal Mandi and Arts college railway station, re-modelling of storm water drain from Dayanandnagar railway station to Banda Cheruvu and re-modelling of storm water drain from Haimpet to Gundla Cheruvu. It has been brought to the notice of the Minister that these development works have been proceeding at a snail's pace.
HYDERABAD: Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh said that the newly devised terror techniques of using large vehicles to mow down civilians and lone wolf attacks pose a serious challenge to the country. He asked Special Forces such as the NSG to prepare them to deal with these threats. Mr. Singh was speaking at the inauguration of the 28 Special Composite Group (SCG) of the elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) at Vinobanagar in Ibrahimpatnam in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

The minister said the terrorist minds keep on devising and adopting new tacticsto unleash death and mayhem. We have seen across the globe that a big vehicle is being used by such elements to mow down people as also lone wolf attacks being carried out by them to wreak death and destruction, he said. He further added that the terrorist are adopting the cruel and barbaric techniques and it poses a serious challenge.

Special Forces like the NSG should prepare themselves to tackle these emerging threats, Singh said. Singh said instances of civilians being taken as shields by terror elements have also been noticed and the elite counter-terror force should enhance its technical capabilities and capacities in this context. Post the 26/11 (2008 Mumbai terror attacks), every agency needs to work round-the-clock and be vigilant to ensure that peace is not breached, the ministersaid.
TIRUPATI: People may continue to face cash shortage for some more time as bankers claim RBI is not releasing fresh supply of currency notes.

Whenever currency chests request from currency notes, RBI officials seek to know how the previously issued money was used. But I fail to understand how can we explain about its utilisation, said a bank official at currency chest, who did not want to be named.

According to bank officials, people are withdrawing money from banks but they are not depositing the cash in equal measure.

The withdrawals are huge compared to the deposits. This is why most of the ATMs are shut. The currency crunch is observed here from the time of demonetisation.

Most ATMs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are unable to dispense cash.
Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leaders are puzzled by the recent decisions of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in postponing activity relating to the formation of the Federal Front, postponing the public meeting scheduled on April 27 on the occasion of TRS Formation Day, and his last-minute decision not to attend the southern finance ministers conference.

The decision not to attend the finance ministers conference held in Thiruananthapuram on Tuesday was particularly surprising.

Recently, Mr Rao had strongly criticised the attitude of the Centre in allotting funds to southern states and commented that the Centre is not doing any favour to the states.

Yet when it came to joining forces with other southern states, he said it is not good and will divide the South and North.

A senior leader of the TRS said that they are not in a position to say what decisions Mr Rao will take because he does not consult senior party leaders before taking a decision.

The Tamil Nadu government also did not attend the finance ministers meeting.
Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to withdraw a case of abduction and rape against former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand.

The case was lodged against the Swami seven years ago in 2011 in Shahjahanpur.

The FIR against him was lodged on the complaint of a girl who stayed in his ashram. The girl had alleged she was kept at an ashram in Haridwar and raped by the former minister. The rape victim had further alleged that besides rape, Chinmayanand had threatened to get her killed if she dared lodge complaint against him.

The girls father had lodged the complaint but the Swami obtained a stay on his arrest from the high court. The case has been pending since then.

According to sources, the Shahjahanpur administration wrote a letter to the prosecution officer for withdrawal of the case.
According to prosecution, Vijay Pratap Singh of Allahabad was working as a head constable in the atomic power plant.

Chennai: The Additional District Court, Chengalpattu, has awarded triple life sentence to a Central Industrial Security Force personnel on charge of shooting three persons to death at Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam four years ago.

According to prosecution, Vijay Pratap Singh of Allahabad was working as a head constable in the atomic power plant. On October 8, 2014, he reported for work in the small hours. He collected his rifle, walked to the first floor of the barracks and shot CISF head constable Mohan Singh, 57, of Jahangirpur in Rajasthan. He also opened fire at CISF personnel preparing for the morning shift.

He also killed an assistant sub-inspector R Ganesan, 58, of Salem, and head constable A Subburaj, 54, of Madurai. Other personnel Pratap Singh, and head constable Govardhan Prasad Singh, of Jammu and Kashmir, sustained injuries in the shootout.

When the matter came up for hearing before the Additional District Court, Chengalpattu, on Monday, the Additional District Judge, Dr K. Ramanathan, said the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt. The judge awarded three life sentences for killing three personnel. The judge also slapped him with a total fine of `15,000. Vijay Pratap Singh was lodged at Puzhal prison.
Bengaluru: Kannada swalpa swalpa gothu (I can understand some Kannada), said Lim Boon Hui from Penang, Malaysia, who will be awarded the highest number of gold medals (four) at the 20th Annual Convocation of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) scheduled to be held on Thursday.

Scoring 81.31% marks as the varsity topper for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Dr Boon graduated from College of Dental Sciences, Davangere. Internship days offered me the best moments while being at India for my studies. Luckily, I had a group of friends who hail from Karnataka and they helped me bridge the communication gap I had while interacting with patients, he said.

The young dentist is now working with the Malaysian government at a dental unit in Penang and is all excited to fly to the city to attend his convocation. Building interest and working hard towards chasing ones dreams is the greatest winning mantra, he said.

MBBS topper Shweta Sridhar scored 80.5% to be eligible to win two gold medals and a cash prize. Graduating from M.S. Ramaiah Medical College in the city, the young doctor is now planning to pursue her higher studies to specialise in general medicine, psychiatry or dermatology.

I have decided that Ill pursue my higher education only in India and thereafter practice only in India. Contributing back and serving my co-citizens has always been a priority set in my mind, she told Deccan Chronicle.

Shweta, who secured CET Rank 168 to get into the city college, said the first year results when she emerged second in college encouraged her to push harder for the rest of the examinations. Being dedicated to what you signed up for, and focusing on academics with constant revision helped me master my studies, she said.

Renu Mahajan from Brite College of Nursing emerged topper in B.Sc Nursing (82.15%), while Bhawana Thapa from NET Pharmacy College Raichur scored 86.59% to top the B. Pharm examination.

A total of 84 gold medals will be given away to 79 graduates from various PG and UG programmes, out of which 63 are women.
HYDERABAD: Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has issued a warning about Artificial Intelligence and said that it has power to rule mankind forever. Comparing AI to an evil dictator, Musk said that it would live forever. Musk has always been critical of AI and demanded strict set of laws for technology.

He said that an immortal, robot-like dictator could rise from scientific research if strict regulations are not put in place. The entrepreneurial billionaire went on to say that if Artificial Intelligence has a goal and humanity just happens to be on the way, it will destroy humanity in the matter of course without even thinking about it. No hard feelings, he said in a documentary titled Do You Trust this Computer?

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The Google Home will only be available in the White body in India.

After months of rumours and leaks, Google has finally launched the Google Home and Home Mini smart speakers in India. The Google Home is priced at Rs 9,999 while the Google Home Mini costs around Rs 4,499. They can stream directly from Google Play Music, YouTube, Netflix, Saavn, and Gaana.

The Google Home will only be available in the White body in India. The base comes wrapped in a fabric cover which can be customised. The top has LEDs that provide visual feedback when the Home recognises Hey Google  so you know when it's listening. The Google Home features a touch surface on top, which can be used to control the media channels. The speaker weighs about 477 grams. On the hardware front, the speaker comprises of two 2-inch driver and dual 2-inch passive radiators. It comes equipped with 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi.

As for the Google Home Mini, it offers 360-degree audio with a 40mm driver. Home Mini is a compact version of Google Home and has four LED indicators on top, which indicate operational functions. It weighs a mere 173 grams and is 42 mm in height. It at least requires devices running on Android 4.4 KitKat and iOS 9.1 for smartphone compatibility. The Mini comes in three colours variants  Chalk, Charcoal and Coral; however, it comes with swappable soft fabric cover.

Both Google Home and Home Mini are capable of listening to voice commands and are powered by the Google Assistant. The smart speakers can also control other smart devices connected via smart-hubs. Moreover, Google has implemented a 'Voice Match' feature, which can identify different voices and give them relevant answers. The speakers also allow hands-free calling functionality.

Both the devices will be Flipkart exclusive and will be available thorugh offline stores as well. Additionally, buyers will get 6 months of free subscription to Google Play Music.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

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Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie previously estimated that more than 50 million people were compromised by a personality quiz that collected data from users and their friends. (Photo: Pixabay)

Facebook said it would begin notifying users Monday if their data has been swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, although it appears to be taking its time.

The 87 million users who might have had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica were supposed to get a detailed message on their news feeds starting on Monday. Facebook says more than 70 million of the affected users are in the US, though there are over a million each in the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK.

As of 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, however, there were no signs that any users have yet received that notification or a more general one Facebook said it would direct to everyone on its service. Associated Press reporters around the world have been surveying users, none of whom have reported seeing anything from Facebook. There appear to be no social media reports of notifications, and Facebook had no immediate comment on the matter.

Reeling from its worst privacy crisis in history  allegations that this Trump-affiliated data mining firm may have used ill-gotten user data to try to influence elections  Facebook is in full damage-control mode. CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that he made a huge mistake in failing to take a broad enough view of what Facebooks responsibility is in the world. Hes set to testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In prepared remarks released by a House committee, Zuckerberg said the company has notified all users affected in the scandal. Since the remarks are for Wednesday morning, this means everyone who was affected should see a message by then.

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie previously estimated that more than 50 million people were compromised by a personality quiz that collected data from users and their friends. In an interview aired Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press, Wylie said the true number could be even larger than 87 million.

That Facebook app, called This is Your Digital Life, was a personality quiz created in 2014 by an academic researcher named Aleksander Kogan, who paid about 270,000 people to take it. The app vacuumed up not just the data of the people who took it, but also  thanks to Facebooks loose restrictions  data from their friends, too, including details that they hadnt intended to share publicly.

Facebook later limited the data apps can access, but it was too late in this case.

Zuckerberg said Facebook came up with the 87 million figure by calculating the maximum number of friends that users could have had while Kogans app was collecting data. The company doesnt have logs going back that far, he said, so it cant know exactly how many people may have been affected.

Cambridge Analytica said in a statement last Wednesday that it had data for only 30 million Facebook users. Facebook has also suspended two more apps in recent days because they might have misused peoples data, adding to a growing list of firms being investigated by the social media company.

Facebook said CubeYou, a firm associated with the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre, will be suspended after CNBC notified Facebook that CubeYou was collecting information about users through quizzes.

According to CNBC, CubeYou labeled its quizzes for non-profit academic research then shared user information with marketers. CNBC says CubeYou denies misusing data.

On Saturday, Facebook said it suspended AggregateIQ, a Canadian political consulting firm, amid media reports it had ties to Cambridge Analytica.

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Apple acknowledged in December that its software sometimes deliberately slows phones with weak batteries.

Israels consumer protection bureau has said that it was investigating Apple over a failure to disclose to consumers that its software could slow performance in some iPhones.

The Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority said in a statement it had questioned the head of Apple in Israel, Rony Friedman. A spokesman at the Authority said it had the power to levy significant fines in civil proceedings, but that it was too early to discuss such a possibility. A spokesman for Apple in Israel declined to comment.

Apple acknowledged in December that its software sometimes deliberately slows phones with weak batteries. It apologised and cut the price of battery replacements for affected phones.

Critics say Apple has obfuscated the fact that a worn-out battery not only fails to hold a charge but also degrades the phones performance - and that this lack of transparency has pushed people to buy a new phone rather than a new battery.

Government agencies in countries ranging from Brazil to France and Italy to South Korea are also investigating Apple following complaints.

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A volunteer holds an oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday promised quick, forceful action in response to a deadly suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, appearing to suggest a potential military response.

Trump told a meeting with military leaders and national security advisers he would make a decision by Monday night or very shortly thereafter on a response, adding that the United States had a lot of options militarily on Syria.

But we cant let atrocities like we all witnessed ... we cant let that happen in our world ... especially when were able to because of the power of the United States, the power of our country, were able to stop it.

The suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people, with more than 1,000 injured at several sites in Douma, a city near the capital, Damascus, according to a Syrian aid organisation.

Initial US assessments have been unable to determine conclusively what materials were used in the attack and could not say with certainty that Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government forces were behind it.

Trump said, however, that Washington was getting more clarity on who was responsible for the attack.

US officials said that Washington was weighing a multinational military response. For the second time in less than 24 hours, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone to coordinate their response, the White House said.

Macron and Trump had again reiterated their desire for a strong reaction from the international community, Macrons office said.

Asked at a cabinet meeting earlier on Monday if Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility for the attack, Trump said: He may, yeah, he may. And if he does, its going to be very tough, very tough.

On Sunday, Trump, who had sought warmer relations with Russia, criticised Putin by name on Twitter as he castigated Russia and Iran for backing Animal Assad.

The US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Washington will respond to the attack regardless of whether the UN Security Council acts.

Moscow said it warned the United States of grave repercussions if it carried out an attack against Syrian government forces. The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in the attack.

Shocked the conscience'

Britain and the United States agreed on Monday that the attack bore the hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by Assads government, but neither country gave details of what kind of chemical might have been used or how the attack was staged.

The images, especially of suffering children, have shocked the conscience of the entire civilized world, White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said. Sadly, these actions are consistent with Assads established pattern of chemical weapons use.
Yulia and her father were found unconscious on a bench on March 4 in the southern English city of Salisbury. (Photo: Facebook)

London: Yulia Skripal has been discharged from a British hospital, the BBC reported on Tuesday, just over a month after being poisoned with a nerve agent along with her father Sergei, a former Russian double agent.

The Skripals were found unconscious on a bench on March 4 in the southern English city of Salisbury and they were in a critical condition for weeks until their health began to improve rapidly.

Britain says they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and has blamed Russia for the attack. Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident which has plunged its relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

Yulia, who Russias RIA news agency had reported was seeking political asylum in Britain, was taken to a secure location after being discharged from hospital late on Monday, the BBC said.

On Friday, doctors said both Yulia, 33, and her 66-year-old father had got much better and last week Yulia Skripal issued a statement to say her strength was growing daily.

A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment.
Author and historian Wallace Stegner, who sought to capture places in his writing that spanned the entire American West, died 25 years ago this spring. For Utah readers of the Pulitzer Prize winner, some details from seven decades of creative writing, essays and interviews on a region so vast might seem familiar, even personal.

That's because despite all the places he'd been, Stegner's time in Utah as a teenager and University of Utah student, then professor, was never far from his mind.

Read: The Deseret News remembers Wallace Stegner

Stegner experienced both happiness and despair in his 14 years in Utah (1921-30 and 1934-37), according to the U.'s Wallace Stegner Center. Teenage years lived in Salt Lake City provided "images for a lifetime of nostalgia," but complicated family matters from his youth made his memories of some of the city's places "bleak," the center noted.

The Deseret News reported in 1995 how Stegner called Utah "home" in his essay "At Home in the Fields of the Lord" despite spending most of his adult life away:

"I have always envied people with a hometown.  That is why I have been astonished, on a couple of recent trips through Salt Lake City, to find a conviction growing in me that I am not as homeless as I had thought. At worst, I had thought myself an Ishmael; at best, a half stranger in the city where I had lived the longest, a Gentile in New Jerusalem. But a dozen years of absence from Zion, broken only by two or three short revisitings, have taught me different. I am as rich in a hometown as anyone. "

Although not all quite as poignant, Stegner's other Utah-related musings found in the Deseret News archives (particularly the nonfiction collection "The Sound of Mountain Water") touched on cornerstones of living in the state  from conservation to Mormonism to art's place in Utah and, broader, the West.

Twenty-five years after his death, here are some of Stegner's memorable observations about the Beehive State.

Salt Lake City

Stegner's adulthood returns to Utah's capital included conversation on the political and physical changes since the early 1900s. In fact, his novel "Recapitulation" sees the protagonist  a young diplomat who comes back to Utah after years  "thinly disguised" as Stegner.

The author "selected" Salt Lake City as his hometown in part due to the "comfortable, old-clothes" feel, the Deseret News noted.

An East High graduate, Stegner studied literature and creative writing at the U. He also wrote his first short story, finished his first novel and "fell in love for the first time and was rudely jilted for the first time" in the city, he wrote in "The Sound of Mountain Water."

Stegner opined in the same book that few cities transition "so naturally and easily into fine free country" as Salt Lake City.

"Up in the Wasatch is another world, distinct and yet contributory, and a Salt Lake boyhood is inevitably colored by it," he wrote.

Early Utahns

Stegner wove the history of Mormon pioneers who settled Utah into larger points on the West.

Elder Marcus B. Nash, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, quoted the author during a 2013 observance of the annual Days of 47 celebration.

Explore: The Deseret News' archives on Stegner

The Mormon pioneers "differed profoundly from the Oregon and California migrations," Nash quoted from Stegner:

"These were not groups of young and reckless adventurers, nor were they isolated families or groups of families. They were literally villages on the march, villages of sobriety, solidarity and discipline unheard of anywhere else on the western trails."

In "The Sound of Mountain Water," Stegner wrote that the Mormons were the first settlers in the West to understand that "people live on water as much as on land."

He explains "how the Mormons were another kind" further in the book's introduction.

"On their very first day in Salt Lake Valley they made their peace with one of the West's inflexible conditions  they diverted the water of City Creek and softened the ground for a potato field, and thus began Anglo-American irrigation on this continent, admitting what Indian and Spaniard had already had to learn."

The folklore of the early West was "comically at odds" with what it took to build thriving communities in the frontier, Stegner wrote in "The Sound of Mountain Water." So he admired the "suffering, endurance, discipline, faith, brotherly and sisterly charity" of pioneers on the trek to, and the early days in, Utah.

Mormons

The Deseret News noted that while Stegner, a non-Mormon, wouldn't shy away from criticizing the LDS Church, he held a "fondness and nostalgia for the Mormon culture and admiration of its pioneers."

Stegner respected one subset of early Mormons in particular.

"Especially their women. Their women were incredible," Stegner wrote in the book "The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail."

"That I do not accept the faith that possessed them does not mean I doubt their frequent devotion and heroism in its service," Stegner wrote.

Literature in Utah, the West

A Deseret News interview with Stegner yielded numerous observations and predictions on the state of literature in Utah and the West at large.

Read more: Some words of wisdom from Wallace Stegner

"The luck of the draw" and Westerners feeling "inferior and unappreciated" might've had something to do with the lack of first-rate Mormon novelists at the time of the interview (1980), Stegner told the publication.

But what would LDS fiction look like when it emerged?

"My guess is when Utah fiction arrives at its full stature, it may be less orthodox than some in authority would like. But I don't expect decadent fiction. This is a very moral state and even in its rebellion it's going to be moral  but fiction, by the kind of truths it has to get at, has to risk a lot. And when you're working from within a faith, you have to be willing to risk a little bit."

Stegner continued that "family quarrels" and "discontents" generally make strong fiction and those would be the themes, rather than epic writing.

Conservation

Among the list of Stegner's titles was conservationist.

According to The Wilderness Society, Stegner joined the conservation movement while fighting the construction of a dam on the Green River in the 1950s; a letter he penned in 1960 on the "importance of federal protection of wild places" was used to introduce the 1964 Wilderness Act.

And he rarely abandoned the topic as an author.

The collection "The Sound of Mountain Water" is packed with vivid passages on the scenic side of Stegner's Western journeys  but lines of grave reflections about human-nature collisions were also prominent.

"The Sound of Mountain Water" includes descriptions of the "serenely beautiful" Glen Canyon (located in southeastern Utah) of the past. Then in 1963 the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam created Lake Powell  raising the water level several hundred feet to flood Glen Canyon.

Stegner acknowledged the impressiveness of the structure and the accessibility to the public it provided; however, "in gaining the lovely and the usable, we have given up the incomparable," he wrote.

Utah places

Compelling passages on well-known  and obscurer  places in Utah appear throughout Stegner's work.

The author called Antelope Island the "only oasis on the Great Salt Lake."

Stegner also wrote of a "love affair" with Heber Valley in a Vogue magazine article:

"I did not know it then, but the Wasatch takes second to no place in America, even Vermont, in the splendor of its fall colors. The slopes of Snake Creek Canyon were a wash of yellows from lemon to red-gold, sometimes on the same tree, but always in great masses from the aspen's habit of growing in groves. Light came off the shimmering leaves until the very air was gold."

Stegner described a dirt-road pass in south-central Utah en route to Salina as a place "that in the late mountain spring was so paved with flowers that a man could walk twenty miles and never set his foot down without trampling them" in "The Sound of Mountain Water."

Starting a trip in Mexican Hat was to "start off into empty space from the end of the world," Stegner wrote in the same book.
RIVERTON  The citys Historic Preservation Commission has been awarded a $4,250 grant from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office to compile the documentation needed to submit nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

As the commission began researching historic sites in Riverton, we realized we could use some help, Andy Pierucci, chairman of the commission, said in a statement. The grant provides us with the resources to hire a professional historic preservation consultant who will assist us with the complex process of submitting a multisite nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

The only site in Riverton currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places is City Hall.

The commissions primary goal is to identify, preserve, protect and enhance historic buildings, sites and monuments that are deemed to be historically significant. Anyone interested in recommending a building or site to be considered for nomination within Riverton's boundaries can contact Pierucci at andypierucci@gmail.com.
SALT LAKE CITY  Members of Utah's all-Republican congressional delegation called Monday for a U.S. response to the apparent chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians as President Donald Trump was weighing his options.

This chemical attack is just the latest example of the barbarism and cruelty of the Assad regime," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said of the attack Saturday that killed at least 40 people, including children, in the Middle East country torn by civil war.

Hatch said he has "full confidence" that Trump's response "will show (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and his backers that the United States is serious about stopping such atrocities and ensuring that its perpetrators pay a price.

The president, who was expected to announce what action the United States will take as soon as Monday evening, said "everybody's going to pay a price," including Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Assad's strongest supporters.

Rep. John Curtis said he is "appalled by the shocking images of men, women and children choking and foaming at the mouth." He said the Assad regime "has once again violated international law by using chemical weapons on its own people."

Curtis said as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he believes "our government must keep all of our options open to strongly respond to this horrific, heinous, and illegal attack on innocent civilians.

Both Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Mia Love made it clear they believe Congress has to have a role in any military response.

The use of chemical weapons absolutely requires a response from the United States, Lee said. "But if that response is going to include military force, the president of the United States should come to Congress and ask for authorization before military force is used."

Love said that "notably, Congress must take the lead in crafting, and approve of, any military involvement going forward."

She called the news out of Syria "absolutely heartbreaking. I shudder to think of what Bashar al-Assad and his backers in Iran and Syria may have done had Israel not destroyed Syria's nuclear facility in 2007."

Love said with more than 200 chemical attacks against civilians documented in Syria since 2012, the United States "must act decisively in leading international efforts to prevent further slaughter and work with and strengthen our allies such as Israel."

Rep. Rob Bishop did not respond to requests for comment. Rep. Chris Stewart is out of the country and unavailable.
SALT LAKE CITY  With self-driving cars, unmanned drones and an explosion of internet-connected devices and appliances expected to soon add tens of thousands of new devices  every minute  to an already taxed wireless system, a new test bed in Salt Lake City could help pave the way for a faster, and safer, wire-free future.

Officials from the National Science Foundation, University of Utah, Rice University and the wireless industry jointly unveiled the Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research (POWDER) Monday at an event at the University of Utah.

When completed, the "living laboratory" will be the size of a small city and overseen by a partnership of academics, private industry and government entities.

U. President Ruth Watkins said the project continues the school's legacy of being a leader in high-tech development and innovation.

"The University of Utah has a long history as a tech hub and innovation hub," Watkins said. "Things like Atari, Pixar and Adobe  and we look forward to POWDER being the next in this succession."

The hardware and infrastructure to power up the network will cost $27.5 million and take around three years to complete, with financing coming from a $100 million budget that's half-funded by the National Science Foundation and half-funded by a consortium of private companies that comprise the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research group.

The 26-node network will cover about 2 square miles of the U.'s campus, a 1.2 square mile block of downtown Salt Lake City and a 2-mile corridor between the two quadrants. While it will be capable of handling a large volume of data at very fast speeds, it won't be accessible to, or used by, the general public.

The network will, however, be accessible to academic researchers, industry researchers and potentially private sector product developers to help create the next generation of wireless service provision, devices and hardware. Erwin Gianchandani, National Science Foundation deputy assistant director for Computer and Information Science Engineering, said the collaborative and inclusive nature of the project aims to corral the collective power of all who make use of it.

"Its about convening all of these stakeholders to try and do bigger and better than any of us could do individually," Gianchandani said. "We really belive that platforms like POWDER  will have profound implications for science, for society and for our net national economic competitiveness and security for years and years to come."

U. professor Kobus Van der Merwe said one of the main challenges of building a test network of this scale is ensuring it is flexible enough to be useful to a wide range of researchers, who may be working on innovations in disparate areas like hardware, software or network solutions.

"We dont really know yet exactly what (the research questions) are going to be, which makes this a really big challenge," Van der Merwe said. "This will be a very, very flexible platform that can be one thing today and something else tomorrow."

That's accomplished, Van der Merwe explained, by creating a completely programmable network with hardware that can be manipulated and modified easily by the open-source software that controls it. Also, the design allows for "bring-your-own-device" compatibility, so different research teams with their own hardware needs will be able to plug into the network.

Technology developed by a team from Rice University will help power the whole network, and super-high speed connectivity will be aided by the deployment of a large number of input/output antenna clusters within the test area. Whereas a typical cell tower my have just a handful of antennas, some of the nodes in the Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research test bed will be outfitted with scores of antennas.

Rice University professor Ashu Sabharwal, who helped developed the technology, said the approach will help turbo-charge the work of academic and industry innovators.

"Instead of four or eight antennas you see on typical cell towers, well have hundreds of antennas," Sabharwal said. "Many orders of magnitude better than what we have today  and fully programmable and observable."

While speakers at Monday's event hesitated to offer predictions about specific research that may take place on the test bed, all noted that current technological developments like autonomous vehicles, unmanned drones and a growing plethora of wirelessly connected devices and appliances will only continue to advance with wireless technology that has the capacity and speed to keep up.

Also, the Salt Lake network, along with a similar test bed that will be installed in New York City, will offer the only at-scale testing environments that provide both realistic size, and conditions, for researchers to thoroughly vet new innovations.

Industry representative James Kimery from National Instruments said researchers have long been relying on simulations or small-scale test beds and expect the new, large-scale networks to be a game-changer.

"Being able to see concepts work in real world situations, in real world scenarios, are things that could not be accounted for in a simulation," Kimery said. "This is at-scale  and one of the critical parts of this test bed."

Gianchandani said he and his National Science Foundation colleagues were excited to see how the innovations seeded by the Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research network testing area will impact the future of technology.

"We cant wait to see how this platform benefits the residents of Salt Lake City and the residents of this nation," Gianchandani said. "As we  continue to make our nation the innovation engine of the world."
SALT LAKE CITY  A week from Tuesday, the Salt Lake City Council is scheduled to consider implementing a half-penny sales tax hike for roads, transit, housing and police. So far, city leaders say the message from the public is clear: Vote 'aye.'

"It's been overwhelmingly supportive," City Council Chairwoman Erin Mendenhall told the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards on Monday. "And we take that public comment very seriously."

In fact, Mendenhall said some residents have even encouraged council members to activate a bigger sales tax hike, even though legally that's not an option.

The 0.5 percent sales tax hike is permitted (pending City Council approval) thanks to a law the Utah Legislature passed in 2015 that provided the sales tax option to offset the impact of the relocated state prison.

But city leaders say the tax hike could benefit the whole city, with roughly $33 million in new money that could put a huge dent in millions of dollars in repairs for 64 percent of the city's roads  which are rated as poor, or worse  and fund other priorities such as increased transit service, affordable housing and neighborhood policing.

The sales tax is part of a package of two tax increases Mayor Jackie Biskupski proposed in her 2018 State of the City Address.

The other tax hike would be an $87 million general obligation bond that voters would weigh in on this November, if city leaders decide in August to place it on the fall ballot. If approved by voters, the bond would result in an estimated increase of $5 a year in property taxes for the average Salt Lake City homeowner, but replace two bonds approved by voters 20 years ago.

"People want us to address air quality. They want to see police officers in their neighborhoods. They want to be able to ride the bus without it costing more than driving their car," Mendenhall said, calling the sales tax hike an "incredible opportunity" to address needs that have faced Utah's capital for years.

And most of the sales tax revenue would not even come from residents' pockets, said Mayor Jackie Biskupski, noting that about 60 percent of the money would come from the thousands who commute to Salt Lake City.

"We know that every day our population doubles in size during the week as people commute into the city for employment," Biskupski said, so a sales tax hike would "make sense to us as a community."

Mendenhall said there's "cohesive agreement" between the mayor's administration and the council "that this needs to happen, that this opportunity is really what the state's prosperity calls for cities to do, which is plan for growth and act on it."

With one last public hearing set to go next week, the evening the City Council is scheduled to vote, Mendenhall said that so far there has been "an incredibly clear message of support that residents want to see this happen."

"So we will look for a vote on April 17," she said.

The final public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Salt Lake City-County Building, 451 S. State Street.

As of Monday, most participants in the city's online survey, available at fundingourfutureslc.com, supported the two tax hikes. Of about 1,600 responses, roughly 59 percent supported both hikes, according to Matthew Rojas, Biskupski's spokesman. In response to separate questions about the tax hikes, about 69 percent supported the sales tax hike and 69 percent supported the bond.

In a public hearing last week, most participants also spoke in favor the tax hikes.

Salt Lake City leaders are prepared to ask for the hikes, Biskupski said, after her administration has spent the last two years drafting plans to address the city's needs: Growing SLC, a five-year housing plan to close the city's 7,500-unit affordable housing gap, and the city's Transit Master Plan, a plan to increase citywide transit service.

The city's needs include at least $5 million a year to implement the city's new affordable housing plan, $12 million a year to pay for 50 new police officers for neighborhood policing, $8 million a year to increase city transit service, and $20 million a year to bring the city's overall road system to at least fair condition and to properly maintain roads into the future.

But what's stopping future city councils or mayors from shifting the money into other priorities in the future? City leaders must be specific about spending for bonds, but there's nothing legally stopping future leaders from spending the sales tax money elsewhere  unless the city bonds with the sales tax money, Mendenhall said.

"That's a way we can lock up the spending," she said, adding that the council is "absolutely considering" doing that.

Biskupski said she would also want to transform the Funding Our Future website into a "dashboard" so residents can track how the funding is being spent.

"I want to make sure that this funding is being spent on exactly what we're asking voters (for)," Biskupski said.

But the proposed sales tax hike also comes at the same time as Salt Lake County's chance to revive the failed Proposition 1, which would raise nearly $58 million in sales taxes for the county, Utah Transit Authority, and cities for transportation projects.

There's "never a perfect time" for raising taxes, Mendenhall said, but she noted the $20 million is "really the minimum threshold we should spend" to better position the city for road maintenance.

"So we would welcome any additional transportation dollars to help," Mendenhall said.
LONDON  The fussiest of historians would find it difficult to overstate the importance to Mormon history of England, the first stop this week on President Russell M. Nelson's inaugural international trip as the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By 1850, more than 34,000 Mormons lived in England. That was nearly three times the number in the United States  12,000. President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once called the faith's meteoric growth in the United Kingdom "one of the most powerful gifts that ever blessed this church."

History collides with modernity over the next two weeks as President Nelson kicks off his eight-country ministry in London on Thursday, then travels on to Jerusalem, and later, the LDS church's modern LDS growth center  Africa.

Today, the United Kingdom is home to more than 185,000 Mormons in 333 congregations. It remains a strength, a place where some senior church leaders spent formative years as missionaries and others have spoken in parliamentary group sessions in recent years.

"There are actually dozens of congregations in England that have been in operation since the 1840s and 1850s," said Matt Martinich, who studies LDS Church growth. "In the mid-19th century, it was a very productive field for the church."

Meanwhile, Africa now has more than half a million church members.

"Africa is where the church is growing the fastest, by far," Martinich said.

President Nelson and his wife, Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, depart Tuesday for London with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Patricia Holland. They will speak to church members on Thursday. The meeting will be broadcast to church meetinghouses in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The next day, the group will travel to Jerusalem, followed by Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; Bengaluru, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Hong Kong; and Honolulu, Hawaii. They will meet with members, missionaries and others in all these areas.

His announcement of seven new temples during the closing minutes of the faith's international general conference on April 1 placed renewed focus on temples as one noteworthy part of his ministry tour.

The church has 159 temples in operation worldwide, with operating temples in or near three of the trip's stops  London, Hong Kong and Honolulu. Temples previously had been announced in another three cities on the tour  Nairobi, Harare and Bangkok.

And among the seven new temples announced April 1 is one planned for another city he will visit  Bengaluru, India.

"We want to bring temples closer to the expanding membership of the Church," he said. "My dear brothers and sisters, construction of these temples may not change your life, but your time in the temple surely will."

He has emphasized temple worship repeatedly in recent years and in talks since he became the church's 17th president in January.

The new temple announced in India is a major landmark. India has 17 percent of the world's population and is expected to surpass China in size soon.

"Before President Nelson's announcement, 48.5 percent of the world's population lived in a country where there was a temple, where one was under construction or where one had been announced," Martinich said.

"After the announcement, 67.8 percent of the world's population lives in a country where there is a temple, one under construction or one announced."

Correction: A caption in a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Chelmsford 2nd Ward is located in Sussex, England. Chelmsford is, in fact, located in Essex, England. Also, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that there is an LDS temple in Honolulu, Hawaii. The temple is instead located in Laie, Hawaii.
SALT LAKE CITY  Utah Gov. Gary Herbert met Monday with Mexico's Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, establishing a working group to advance energy cooperation.

The meeting was part of a weeklong trade mission to Mexico City by Herbert and key staffers to promote the business relationship between the two.

The working group will be made up of leaders across government, industry and education to promote greater energy cooperation. As a first step in collaboration, Coldwell was invited to participate in the Governors Energy Summit on May 15 in Salt Lake City.

Our conversations to initiate a deeper energy cooperation with Utah are encouraging, as we intensely work in North America toward the integration of reliable energy markets and infrastructure, investment promotion in the energy sector, and development of new talent and technologies, Coldwell said.

Mexico is in the midst of transforming its energy sector through reforms that are constitutionally guaranteed. Opening the energy sector represents $200 billion in investments and could translate into 800,000 jobs.

Coldwell spoke about the reforms at an industry conference last month in Houston.

Herbert hopes to build on his 10-year Strategic Energy Plan with its cornerstones of market based regulation, innovation and infrastructure that drive energy development.

Utah, he added, is in a unique position to strengthen its partnerships with Mexico.

"We both share regions rich in natural resources, we are connected through the Western Energy Grid, and we are actively exploring port access and other development opportunities," he said.

The working group will be led by Mexicos Ministry of Energy and the Utah Governors Office of Energy Development, and is expected to take shape in the coming weeks.

We are proud to work in partnership with Mexicos Ministry of Energy to advance mutually beneficial energy opportunities across research, innovation and investment, said Laura Nelson, the governor's energy adviser.
A Mexican federal judge has agreed to review America Movils legal challenge against the regulators demand for the operator to spin off its fixed-line unit.

Earlier this year, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) asked the market leading operator to split its fixed-line business Telnor from its mobile business Telmex. The request resulted from a review of the impact of telecoms reforms imposed in Mexico in 2014, which were largely aimed at reducing America Movils dominance of the market.

IFT noted at the time that the new fixed-line units would be obliged to offer local network services, and would require a separate board of directors to America Movil. The new units are also prohibited from using any current or previous brands associated with the operator, including Telmex, Telnor and Telcel.

Upon receiving the request, America Movil vowed to appeal against the decision, with the filing being made last week. The operator is arguing that its proposed price structure for offering new services was ignored, and claims that the regulated prices for the services that its new units will offer are substantially lower with respect to international benchmarks.

The split is already underway and will continue while the appeal is reviewed under the order of federal judge Silvia Ceron in order to adhere to the two-year deadline imposed by IFT. This month will see Telmex submitting constitutional by-laws for the new units.

America Movils appeal against the split will be heard at a constitutional hearing on 16th May. It is unlikely to be resolved swiftly; an investigation could take up to a year, and the case could even be heard by the Supreme Court.
Thai regulator NBTCs 2015 proposal to relax the payback terms for the 4G licences issued to Thailands two largest operators - AIS and True Move  is being abandoned after it drew strong criticism.

The proposal submitted by the regulator recommended allowing the Thai prime minister to use Article 44  an executive order  to grant the operators an additional five years to pay for their 900MHz spectrum licences. Both operators owe the government around THB60 billion ($1.9 billion), with the current deadline for payment falling in 2019.

However, the recommendation was met with outcry from third-placed dtac, which demanded to have its payment terms relaxed for an upcoming spectrum auction. Additionally, Thailand Development Research Institute chairman Somkiat Tangkitvanich commented on the strange logic of the decision given that neither AIS nor True Move is in any ostensible financial trouble.

Nonetheless, in September 2017, both operators petitioned the National Council for Peace and Order [NCPO] to relax the terms for paying their licence fees. Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, the True groups co-president, noted that the winning prices for 900MHz had been six times higher than the reserve prices. This has been a continuing issue in Thailand, with the countrys 2015 auctions seeing the highest winning prices in Asia, and the second highest globally after the US.

In November 2017, the NBTC drew criticism from operators and analysts for setting reserve prices at a similar level to those from 2015, with a 10MHz block of 850MHz spectrum set at THB37.98 billion, and a 30MHz block in the 1.8GHz band costing THB37.45 billion  notably higher than typical international levels.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said: The state must decide if the measure is in the publics interest. The NCPO and the government must decide if they agree with the arguments against the planned assistance.
Today, Panasonic India announced two new mirrorless cameras in the entry and mid-level segment called the Panasonic Lumix G7 and Lumix G85. The G7 was originally launched in 2015 while the G85 (a rebranded version of the G80) was originally launched in 2016. At first glance, one can't help but wonder why Panasonic would launch such old cameras in the Indian market today, but their decision makes sense on various accounts. For starters, the two cameras are the only mirrorless cameras in their price bracket that can shoot 4K video internally. Also, technologies that enable 4K video playback such as TVs, monitors and even internet bandwidth to upload and stream 4K content have just started to become more mainstream in the country. So, the timing makes sense and since there isnt anything comparable from a competitor, there really was no need for Panasonic to release newer models. What is, however, interesting is that the G85 was originally the successor to the G7. Also, the G85 is what the camera is called in India, but when it was released in 2016, it was called the G80 for American and European markets. After handling the cameras for some time, here is my first impression. Mind you, I say handling because the units I got to play with were production units and were hence missing the battery and a memory card, so no samples were shot. As of today, Panasonic now has three video-centric mirrorless cameras in the market, including the recently launched Panasonic Lumix GH5s.

Specifications

For the most part, the G7 and G85 share a very similar specification set. They both have a micro four-thirds imaging sensor, however, only the G85 comes with in-body image stabilization. In fact, Panasonic says that the Lumix G85 actually comes with something they call Dual Image Stabilisation, a feature where the cameras 5-axis image stabilization works in conjunction with the image stabilization of the lens to provide better results. Both the cameras are capable of shooting 4K video internally, which is pretty much the highlight for both of them. At the event, Panasonic chose to speak more about the G85, positioning it towards YouTubers and bloggers. The Lumix G85 also comes with weather sealing, a feature missing on the G7. They both have a 2.36 million dot OLED viewfinder along with a 3 inch fully articulating touchscreen on the back. The presence of a 3.5mm microphone port cements the belief that both the Lumix G7 and G85 are designed more as film cameras than for stills.

Build and Ergonomics

It was a little unnerving to see two cameras with notably different capabilities come in bodies so identical. Neither of them carries the model number emblazoned anywhere except on the base plate, which carries other compliance information as well. The only distinctive feature between the two cameras is the top plate, which is slightly more raised on the G85 while the G7 is flatter on the top. There is also the fact that the G7 has its memory card housing integrated into the battery compartment while the G85 has a dedicated SD Card slot. Other than that, the two cameras are almost identical. The cameras are extremely easy to hold and operate with one hand. The grip is generously deep and the fully articulated screen means you can exploit odd-angles as much as you would like. It is nice to note that despite the G7s lack of weather sealing, the buttons press with just enough force so that there isnt a lot of accidental change in functions. However, the buttons on the D-Pad at the back do feel flimsy on both cameras, but I wouldnt worry about them falling out.

Features

While the two cameras may feel pretty standard on the hardware front, the software capabilities on both of them do have unique things to offer. With the Panasonic Lumix G85, shooters will get in-camera focus stacking, a feature which allows you to take photos with multiple points of focus and combine them into one, fully focused image. Typically, this is a painstaking process for photographers involving meticulous shooting and post-production techniques. Theres also the ability to refocus your photo after it's been taken. This isnt like what Lytro was doing, instead, it again shoots multiple photos and you can pick the one you want to keep. The Panasonic Lumix G7 doesnt have any of these features, but it does have a 4K Photo mode (as does the G85) where the camera will shoot a 1 second burst of video at 4K, but instead of compiling it into a video file, will allow you to select a frame that you can save as JPG. This feature is great for the spray-and-pray situations but would have been even better if the camera was able to deliver RAW output.

In Closing

Panasonics launch of the Lumix G7 and the G85 comes at an opportune time when the mirrorless segment is really starting to pick up steam. Jumping into the various price segments before Nikon or Canon come rushing in, Panasonic is working hard to establish its niche as a video-centric camera maker. This isnt to say that their cameras dont do good stills, they do, but where else can you get 4K video in 4:2:2 with a 100megabit data stream? Which other company is giving you the ability to record HDR video in a consumer-friendly budget? Let's not forget that the Panasonic GH5, a wholly photography-centric camera does a marvellous job at capturing moments. While it could be said that Panasonic would have been better served had they launched the G9 in India instead of the G85 or even the G7, but in reality, the G9 is anything BUT a budget-friendly camera. For now, the Panasonic Lumix G7 and Lumix G85 are to be the 4K friendly camera systems for YouTubers and bloggers, but I would say you hold off on your purchase till the cameras have gone through our rigorous testing.
A bezel-less Blackberry phone which goes by the name Ghost may launch this quarter. Blackberry licensee Optiemus which is designing and manufacturing the phone for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, said that the company is planning to launch two new Blackberry phones this quarter. The two phones will have the same robust security features as well as the Blackberry Hub as part of the features.

Noida-based Optiemus which snagged the deal to design and manufacture phones under the Blackberry moniker in 2016 is eyeing a 10-12 percent market share in the price segments it plans to launch the devices. Apart from the two models this quarter, the company will also launch more Blackberry devices in the coming quarters at various price points, the company said.

We are going to come out with a whole range of models starting with two this quarter. And during the year, we have more models planned out in the coming quarters. We have a strong pipeline of models which we will be bringing in and they will be at various price points, Hardip Singh, Executive Director at Optiemus told Digit.

Renowned tipster Evan Blass had given an early peek into the design of the phone back in February. Based on the render he released, the Blackberry Ghost seemed to have a taller 18:9 display with a bezel-less design. The second device that Mr. Singh hinted at could be the Ghost Pro which seems to have a wider and shorter form factor in leaked renders, indicating a traditional 16:9 display.

While the hardware specs of the device are not known, Mr. Singh said all the upcoming devices will come with the DTEK app which monitors the security of the device in real-time as well as the Blackberry Hub that brings all communication in one place.

Surprisingly, the devices did not seem to sport the QWERTY keyboard which was the highlight of the KEYone (review) which was the first Blackberry device to come out under the new licensing deal. The KEYone was made by TCL and Optiemus tweaked the design a little and boosted the RAM and storage to make it more market-friendly in India. The KEYone carried a price tag of Rs 39,999 when it launched back in August 2017.

Speaking about the premium that Blackberry devices seem to fetch in a competitive market like that of Android phones, Mr. Singh said, You cannot analyse a Blackberry device based solely on the specs. We feel that the specs that we are putting into the phone are optimum for it. You cannot single out a specific hardware choice and state the device is overpriced. It doesnt work like that. Blackberry, being Blackberry will always fetch a premium." He further went on to elaborate that "the cheapest Mercedes will still sell for Rs 25 lakhs and not at the price of a Maruti. Similarly, you cant expect a Blackberry to come at a really cheap price, because there are some basic things we need to do to make a Blackberry into a Blackberry. 

The reason that Blackberry devices are priced higher is that of the basic Blackberry DNA  Privacy, security, and convenience. These three are a given in any Blackberry device. Even if the price is Rs 20,000 or Rs 40,000, he added.

Few of the security features that Blackberry devices running on Android come with are unique to them. For instance, it is impossible to root the devices. It monitors app activity in real time notifying users every time an app is accessing the location, contacts, messages, etc. in the background. In the wake of the Facebook scandal, paying a premium for additional security isnt such a bad idea after all.
Steve Wozniak, or Woz, the brains behind the worlds first personal computer said during a recent visit to India that Indians lack creativity. Study, work hard, get an MBA and you will have a Mercedes, but where is the creativity? Woz was right in his observation, but not entirely. While there is indeed a tradition of rote-learning in the country, there is an ongoing attempt to change the system. The startup ecosystem, for instance, is one such example in the country where even a decade back, hordes of students would get into Engineering colleges to follow a set-path to success. While the giant corporates would swoop in and hire a bunch of students, only to make them do the same routine work year after year, a small group of students stayed away to do their own thing. The results are the Flipkarts, Paytms and Olas of India that have taken the global competition head on.

These startups not only want to succeed, but also want to give back to the society. Ola regularly ties up with government bodies to tackle pollution, while Flipkart empowers small-scale entrepreneurs to achieve success on their own. Paytm, too helped ease the process of demonetisation by expanding its platform to facilitate digital payments.

Theres something more Paytm is doing though. Through an initiative named Build For India, the popular payments app and now a bank in itself is trying to introduce a Silicon Valley-like culture in the country where students and professionals can openly share knowledge and dabble in productive applications to further increase their knowledge.

What is Build For India?

Paytms Build For India is an open source incubator to promote open source projects in the country. Through the initiative, Paytm wants to provide a bridge between the youth, industry, government and institutions. It is also Paytms way of addressing the existing democratic dividend where majority of the workforce will be youngsters, by helping the youth to channelise the energy to solve the countrys problems.

With support from more than 80 mentors within the startup ecosystem, the initiative aims to promote an open source ecosystem of software, hardware, content and education. By allowing individuals to learn from each other, it is also a way to educate the youth and get them ready for the job market.

The initiative, headed by Saurabh Jain, Head, Paytm-Build For India, is now in its second month. It works through conducting meetups, hackathons and contests from time to time. I happened to attend two of these meetups and was taken aback by the buzzing energy of the place. Hundreds of youngsters from schools, colleges and even professionals interacting with mentors and experts to advance their projects. Yes, each individual attending the meetup has an idea in their mind which they want to turn into reality and Paytms team of mentors will be guiding them.



A Build For India meetup at full swing

Saurabh, who had his own startup before joining Paytm realised the learning happened much faster. Things he couldnt learn in school and college, was easily absorbed while working to make his startup successful and that is the model Jain chose to prepare the youngsters for the job market.

In a Medium post, he wrote, The youths face the problem of employability. Industry does not provide relevant projects to youth during the college and school days but expects the youth to be employable from day one. Industry sometimes does provide class room training to new recruits but there is paucity of cutting edge projects for college and school students in general.

That is fundamentally the problem Paytm wants to solve through the Build for India initiative.

An open source incubator

Theres incentive for the creators as well. Once their projects reach a commercially viable stage, Paytm will work to connect the project team with people and organisations that can fund them  Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists and the likes.



Saurabh engaging with the students

Working as an open source incubator, the initiative lists down the steps to start the open source, the areas which the project can explore, the tools to use  all the way to becoming a full-fledged startup. In the final stage which Saurabh calls The Problem Solution Fit, the teams will get support to publicise, high-level interactions with the Paytm senior team, priority access to internships and job interviews at Paytm and Rs 25,000 Paytm money as seed fund.

Once the project is formulated into a formal startup, Paytm will provide opportunities to network with angel investors, VCs and a six month-long support from the Build For India team to secure funding and scaling up.

Promote a Silicon Valley Culture in India

India has that culture of slacking. An engineer doesnt want to design. A designer will not code. We want to change this thought process. I did some research and as part of it, I started one of Indias first maker-space for kids. Through that I realised that the problem starts at home. Marksheets and degrees dominate a students life, but in reality they hardly matter. Industries want people who can think creatively, come up with something original, Saurabh said.

To change that thinking, Saurabh thinks India should follow Bay Areas steps. In the valley that houses Apple, Google and Facebook that influence the world over, fortunes are made by nerds who think orginally and creatively without the pressure of a marksheet. That is fundamentally the culture Saurabh wants the youth to immerse in.

But Silicon Valley did not turn into a creative powerhouse overnight. There was a conscious encouragement towards leveraging technology to solve problems. A fair instance of it would be the historic Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group for computer nerds to meet up and discuss. A lot many successful engineers, inventors and prodigal personalities came from its ranks, including the founders of Apple. Similar knowledge sharing forums were there across the valley which gathered enough momentum to result in the giant tech companies that are now all around us.

The Build For India initiative also emulates the same model. Through engaging meetups, hackathons and mentorship, Saurabh and his team are planting the seeds of innovation. In a typical meetup, I saw hundreds of enthusiastic individuals, each with their own unique projects logging heads to push the boundaries. And Paytm is only happy to help. Senior executives of the company, including the founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma routinely engage and interact with the participants, take questions and give advice.

While its still early days for the initiative to bear fruit, theres already a couple of projects that have been getting some attention. A blockchain-based car data system that has a grand vision of incorporating car ownership data on the blockchain to regulate prices of second-hand car ownership; a book-reccomendation engine bot for Facebook and Alexa; an open source networking platform, and more.

Its evidence that the initiative is shaking up the ground, and individuals with ideas are starting to crawl out of their isolated caves. College students are getting their hands dirty on real, productive projects while engineers stuck in an IT company are finding ways to use their knowledge creatively  All contributing to building a treasure trove of viable open-source projects.

After the conclusion of a recently held hackathon by Paytm in partnership with NASSCOMM, the Github repository maintained by Saurabh and his team now has over 100 individual open-source projects. Anyone interested can simply join in on the fun and contribute towards making it a success. Its how known entities like Firefox, Linux, Wordpress and more came into existence.



Fingers coding away at the Paytm 'Women in Technology' Hackathon

Hordes of students and professionals gathered inside NASSCOMs headquarters in Noida to code away Indias problems. Surely, there was a prize money involved and winners and runners up were selected by a panel of judges.

But, the real winner was the database of projects that Build For India now has in its disposal, projects that it can now encourage others to take part in, and work it towards attaining its vision. Instead of helplessly watching Indians chase the Silicon Valley dream, Saurabh and his team at Paytm is trying to bring the Silicon Valley dream to India.

Disclosure: Digit is the media partner of Paytm ''Build For India' initiative
Apple says now globally powered by 100% renewable energy

Apple today said its global facilities are powered with 100 per cent clean energy, as part of its commitment to combat climate change.

This includes retail stores, offices, data centres and co-located facilities in 43 countries  including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.

The company also announced nine additional vendors have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 per cent clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23.

Were committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work were proud to have reached this significant milestone, said Tim Cook, Apples CEO. Were going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.

Apple's renewable energy projects



In China, solar panels are mounted high off the ground to let sunlight shine through, so grass can grow  and local yaks can eat it

Apple said that it and its and its vendors are building new renewable energy projects around the world, improving the energy options for local communities, states and even entire countries.

In China, solar panels are mounted high off the ground to let sunlight shine through, so grass can grow  and local yaks can eat it.

Apple said it creates or develops, along with utilities, new regional renewable energy projects that would not otherwise exist. These projects represent a diverse range of energy sources, including solar arrays and wind farms as well as emerging technologies like biogas fuel cells, micro-hydro generation systems and energy storage technologies.

Apple currently has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world, totalling 626 megawatts of generation capacity, with 286 megawatts of solar PV generation coming online in 2017, its highest ever in one year.

It also has 15 more projects under construction. Once built, over 1.4 gigawatts of clean renewable energy generation will be spread across 11 countries.

Apples new headquarters in Cupertino is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, in part from a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation.



Apples new headquarters in Cupertino is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, in part from a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation

Since 2014, all of Apples data centres have been powered by 100 percent renewable energy. And since 2011, all of Apples renewable energy projects have reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) by 54 per cent from its facilities worldwide that prevented nearly 2.1 million metric tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere.

Apples renewable energy projects include:

Apple Park, Apples new headquarters in Cupertino, is now the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America.

It is powered by 100-per cent renewable energy from multiple sources, including a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation and four megawatts of biogas fuel cells, all controlled by a microgrid with battery storage.

It also gives clean energy back to the public grid during periods of low occupancy.

Over 485 megawatts of wind and solar projects have been developed across six provinces of China to address upstream manufacturing emissions.

Apple recently announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data centre in Waukee, Iowa, that will run entirely on renewable energy from day one.

In Prineville, Oregon, the company signed a 200-megawatt power purchase agreement for an Oregon wind farm, the Montague Wind Power Project, set to come online by the end of 2019.

In Reno, Nevada, Apple created a partnership with the local utility, NV Energy, and over the last four years developed four new projects totalling 320 megawatts of solar PV generation.

In Japan, Apple is partnering with local solar company Daini Denryoku to install over 300 rooftop solar systems that will generate 18,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy every year  enough to power more than 3,000 Japanese homes.

Apples data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, is supported by projects that generate 244 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy a year, which is equivalent to the energy used by 17,906 North Carolina homes.

In Singapore, where land is scarce, Apple adapted and built its renewable energy on 800 rooftops.

Apple is currently constructing two new data centres in Denmark that will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one.

Supplier Commitments



Ibiden, a component supplier outside Nagoya, Japan, maintains a floating solar photovoltaic facility to power 100 percent of its manufacturing

Ibiden, a component supplier outside Nagoya, Japan, maintains a floating solar photovoltaic facility to power 100 per cent of its manufacturing.

To get to 100 per cent renewable energy for its own facilities, the company worked to set an example for others to follow.

Apple also announced today that 23 of its suppliers are now committed to operating on 100 percent renewable energy, including nine new suppliers.

Altogether, clean energy from supplier projects helped avoid over 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted in 2017  the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road.

In addition, over 85 suppliers have registered for Apples Clean Energy Portal, an online platform that Apple developed to help suppliers identify commercially viable renewable energy solutions in regions around the world.

New supplier commitments include:
Facebook in new initiatives to tackle Cambridge Analytica fallout

Facebook has started telling its users if their information had been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a research firm hired by US President Donald Trump during the elections.

The users have also started getting notifications relating to protecting their information. The social network has been facing huge opposition since the Cambridge Analytica scam surfaced. A #DeleteFacebook movement has taken shape and the company is battling it continuously.

It has announced a new initiative to help provide independent, credible research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more generally. It will be funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

A group of scholars will define the research agenda, solicit proposals for independent research on a range of different topics and manage a peer review process to select scholars who will receive funding for their research, as well as access to privacy-protected datasets from Facebook which they can analyse.

According to Facebook, this is an important new model for partnerships between industry and academia. The last two years have taught us that the same Facebook tools that help politicians connect with their constituents - and different communities debate the issues they care about - can also be misused to manipulate and deceive, said the company.

It claims to have made real progress since Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election in fighting fake news, as well as combating foreign interference, in elections in France, Germany, Alabama and Italy.

But there is much more to do - and we dont have all the answers, says a Facebook release. This initiative will enable Facebook to learn from the advice and analysis of outside experts so we can make better decisions - and faster progress.

Importantly, the goal is to understand Facebooks impact on upcoming elections in India, Brazil, Mexico and the US midterms, and to inform its future product and policy decisions.
Alibaba's Jack Ma urges Facebook to fix issues at the earliest

Facebook should not be killed because of the problems confronting it, but founder Mark Zuckerberg should fix the issues immediately, advised Jack Ma, Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire.

We should not kill the company because of these problems, said the Alibaba chief. He admitted that 15 years ago, Facebook never expected to grow so rapidly and did not realise these problems would surface.

But he urged Zuckerberg to take the matter really seriously and fix it immediately.

Ma, who was addressing the Boao Forum for Asia in China's southern Hainan province, also referred to other issues including the threat of a trade war between the US and China.

According to him, instead of his company being able to generate a million new jobs in the US, as promised by him, a lot more American jobs would be lost if relations with China worsened.

Facebooks shares have tumbled over the past month after it disclosed that personal data of millions of its users had been given to embattled Cambridge Analytica, a research firm that had been hired by US President Donald Trump and is now facing problems,

Users have now set up a #deletefacebook campaign. Zuckerberg meanwhile will be appearing before the US Congress to address the issues raised in the Cambridge Analytica leakage of data and also its failure to tackle foreign interference in elections and hate speeches.

Facebook is supporting a proposed legislation that requires social media sites to reveal the identity of buyers of online political campaign ads.
Uber acquires bike-sharing service provider Jump Bikes

Uber is acquiring Jump Bikes, an electric, dockless bike-sharing service, which allows customers to rent online electric pedal assist bikes. The dockless bike means customers do not have to return it to a specific place.

We're committed to bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app  so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you're going, whether that's in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more, said Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief of Uber.

The company has been testing Jump Bikes in San Francisco. Our hometown pilot is off to a very strong start, with riders enjoying a convenient and environmentally-friendly way to cruise up and down our trademark hills, he added.

Being focused on championing smart technology for smart cities, Uber today helps tens of millions of people get a ride at the tap of a button, said Khosrowshahi. But our ultimate goal is one we share with cities around the world: making it easier to live without owning a personal car. Achieving that goal ultimately means improving urban life by reducing congestion, pollution and the need for parking spaces.

Jump Bikes, which was set up about 10 years ago, has bike-sharing schemes in 40 cities in about half a dozen cities. Its e-bikes cost $2 for the first 30 minutes and then seven cents a minute.

While the two companies did not reveal the price at which the deal was signed, estimates are that Uber shelled out nearly $200 million.

Unlike other regular bike hiring services, dockless bikes can be returned anywhere, not necessarily to designated racks or stations.
Auction of Unitech assets nears as SC orders public notice

The Supreme Court on Monday took note of all the unencumbered assets of ailing real estate major Unitech Limited and ordered that a public notice be issued inviting objections for auctioning them to realise the dues of home buyers.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked amicus curiae Pawan Shree Agrawal to issue a public notice in all leading newspapers inviting objections to the sale of its land parcels across the country. The cost of notice will be borne by Unitech. The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked amicus curiae Pawan Shree Agrawal to issue a public notice in all leading newspapers inviting objections to the sale of its land parcels across the country. The cost of notice will be borne by Unitech.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs75 lakh on Omshakhty Agencies (Madras) Pvt Ltd for its submission that it cannot deposit Rs90 crore with the apex court registry towards purchasing Unitechs property near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

The company had earlier said it was going to purchase the land of Unitech Ltd and deposit the money with the apex court, which in turn would have disbursed it to the home buyers who want their money back.

The bench also considered the submission of senior advocate Ranjit Kumar that a Bangalore-based company has taken over one of the subsidiaries of Unitech and would be paying about Rs100 crore, which will be deposited with the apex court.

Unitech Ltd also said it was going to dispose off its 26 acres land near Bangalore and asked the court to allow it to enter into the sale agreement with the purchaser.

The court had earlier restrained the real estate company from selling or alienating its properties. On Monday, the bench modified the order and allowed the company to go ahead with the sale of land in Bangalore.

The apex court considered the submission that several civil courts and tribunals have been taking coercive steps against the company and its jailed director Sanjay Chandra.

No court or authority shall take further coercive action against Unitech Ltd or its subsidiaries, it said, adding that the criminal courts can proceed with their matters against them.

The bench posted the matter for hearing on 2 May.

Earlier, the court had asked Unitech Limited and its managing director Sanjay Chandra to give a list of its unencumbered properties in India and abroad and made it clear that they would be auctioned to clear dues of home buyers.

The bench had granted the real estate firm and its incarcerated MD time till 26 March to give a list of its unencumbered properties in India and abroad.

A total of 4,688 homebuyers are claiming a refund of Rs1,865 crore from Unitech. They have booked units in various projects undertaken by the company.

The apex court had on 30 October last year said that its Chandra would be granted bail only if the real estate group deposited money with its registry by December-end.

The top court had also directed the jail authorities to facilitate Chandras meeting with his company officials and lawyers so that he could arrange money to refund the home-buyers as well as complete the ongoing housing projects.

Chandra is seeking interim bail from the apex court after the Delhi High Court on 11 August last year had rejected the plea in a criminal case lodged in 2015 by 158 home-buyers of Unitechs Wild Flower Country and Anthea Project situated in Gurgaon in Haryana.
Wells Fargo faces massive fines over lending, auto insurance abuses

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering fining Wells Fargo & Co hundreds of millions of dollars for its mortgage-lending and auto-insurance abuses, following up on a threat by President Donald Trump of aggressive action against the bank.

The agency is in talks with the San Francisco bank over penalties for the problems, Reuters reported on Monday, citing three unnamed people with knowledge of the plans. CFPB acting Director Mick Mulvaney is pushing for fines as large as $1 billion, Reuters said.

A CFPB spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment from media including The Los Angeles Times. A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment.

Mulvaney, the White House budget chief, has been critical of how aggressively the independent agency was run under the Obama administration.

But the large fines would align with Trump's public vow in December that Wells Fargo would face stiff penalties for charging fees to certain homebuyers to secure low mortgage rates. Trump said on Twitter that regulators would "make penalties severe" when companies are "caught cheating."

The penalty would be the first issued by Mulvaney, whom President Donald Trump tapped in November to head the CFPB.

The fine would fulfil Trumps vow to come down hard on the countrys third-largest lender, which has been grappling with a sales practices scandal since September 2016.

The CFPB is readying sanctions alongside the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the day-to-day regulator for lenders such as Wells Fargo. The agencies are ready to sanction Wells Fargo for layering extra insurance on drivers and collecting commissions on those policies, Reuters reported last month.

Both agencies have also been investigating the bank for wrongly levying fees on mortgage borrowers.

Mulvaney is eyeing a penalty that would settle both those matters and dwarf the $100 million the CFPB fined Wells Fargo in September 2016 to settle its phony accounts scandal, said the sources familiar with the talks. That 2016 fine had been the CFPBs largest ever.

Settlement terms have not been finalised but Mulvaney is pushing for a figure as high as $1 billion, said three people with knowledge of the discussions.

A stiff penalty against Wells Fargo could burnish Mulvaneys image as a tough regulator even as his agency has dropped cases against at least two payday lenders.

Mulvaney has said the CFPB has gone too far in policing industry in the past but that abuses do exist.

I think youre being naive if you think there arent folks out there who are breaking consumer financial protection laws, Mulvaney told an industry meeting last month.

Lawmakers will get a chance to question Mulvaney about the settlement talks at two separate hearings in Congress on Wednesday and Thursday. Wells Fargo is due to report earnings on Friday and some officials hoped to have a deal by then.

Mulvaney was asked about the Wells Fargo matter at an industry event on Monday and declined to comment.

In the case of Wells Fargo and auto insurance, agency lawyers have raised concerns about how different customers received different treatment from the bank.

Drivers who financed a car through a dealer could be pushed into insurance if Wells Fargo suspected a policy had lapsed. Drivers who went directly to the bank for a loan were not subject to such force-place insurance after 2011, the bank has said.

The bank has also said it did not monitor insurance for borrowers with high credit scores. Borrowers with lower credit scores could get pushed into force-placed insurance.

Lawyers are debating whether the bank should pay a higher fine for the uneven treatment of customers, the sources said.

Trump had pledged tough penalties for Wells Fargo after Reuters reported in December that Mulvaney put the mortgage-lending abuse sanctions on ice.
US regulator approves $62.5 bn Bayer-Monsanto merger

German pharmaceutical and pesticides major Bayer AG has won approval in the US to buy agricultural giant Monsanto, a development that Americas family farmers say might mean higher prices and lesser choices for the farmers and the consumers.

The US Department of Justice on Monday approved the German pharmaceutical and chemical group's bid to buy the US seed giant for around $62.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The US Department of Justice on Monday approved the German pharmaceutical and chemical group's bid to buy the US seed giant for around $62.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The DOJ reached an agreement in principle with Bayer and Monsanto after the companies agreed to sell more assets, the Journal said late on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

With Bayer agreeing to sell off additional assets to alleviate anti-trust concerns raised by DoJ, the blockbuster deal between Bayer and Monsanto appears to be moving ahead.

But US farmers are worried about what the consolidation might mean for them and their future business.

The Organisation for Competitive Markets, which has fought on behalf of US family farmers to block the mega-merger, issued the following statement:Todays news makes it clear that our anti-monopoly laws are completely worthless and the US Department of Justice merger review process is pointless. Economists have well established that there is a strong likelihood of market abuse when four companies control 45 per cent of the market, and the fact that DOJ has now allowed one company to control 77 per cent of all seed corn, 69 per cent of all seed traits and 58-97 per cent of the markets in cotton, soybeans, and canola, means DOJ has just authorised a monopoly.

Americas family farmers will pay the price for this action, and consumers will see fewer choices in the market. Where is the justice in the Department of Justice?

Bayer and Monsanto had in September 2016, announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which Bayer will acquire Monsanto for $128 per share in an all-cash transaction. Based on Monsantos closing share price on 9 May 2016, the day before Bayers first written proposal to Monsanto, the offer represents a premium of 44 per cent to that price.

The combined business will benefit from Monsantos leadership in Seeds & Traits and Climate Corporation platform along with Bayers broad Crop Protection product line across a comprehensive range of indications and crops in all key geographies.

Together, the combined companies will have leading innovation capabilities and R&D technology platforms, with an annual pro-forma R&D budget of approximately 2.5 billion.

However, an overwhelming majority of farmers are concerned about the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger and believe it will have a negative impact on independent farmers and farming communities, a poll released today has found.

According to the poll, of the farmers who responded 93.7 per cent are concerned about the proposed merger of Bayer and Monsanto (82.8 per cent are very concerned / 10.9 per cent somewhat concerned); 93.7 per cent of farmers are concerned that the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger will negatively impact independent farmers and farming communities (83.9 per cent are very concerned / 9.8 per cent somewhat concerned).

The farmers top three concerns of the merger are 91.9 per cent of farmers are concerned that the merged company will use its dominance in one product to push sales of other products (79.6 per cent very concerned/12.3 per cent somewhat concerned); 91.7 per cent of farmers concerned that Bayer/Monsanto will control data about farm practices (79.5 per cent very concerned / 12.2 per cent somewhat concerned); 89.0 per cent of farmers think the merger will result in increased pressure for chemically dependent farming (77.1 per cent very concerned / 11.9 per cent somewhat concerned).

The poll also found a high level of concern amongst farmers surveyed that the merged company will control data about farm practices, will increase prices, diminish quality, choice and seed varieties, including availability of regionally adaptive seed, which farmers identified as critical given increasing climate variability.

The new poll, fielded by a coalition of farm groups, comes as the US Department of Justice is reviewing the merger between chemical giant Bayer and agrochemical giant Monsanto. If the Bayer-Monsanto merger is approved, the new company would be the worlds largest vegetable seed company, worlds largest cottonseed company, worlds largest manufacturer and seller of herbicides, and the worlds largest owner of intellectual property/patents for herbicide tolerant traits.

A white paper, prepared by the Konkurrenz Group, examines why the US Department of Justices Antitrust Division should not accept Bayers proposed divestiture and behavioral remedies. Relying on the survey findings and other evidence, the white paper examines why the likely complex behavioral and structural remedies will not likely restore competition in the seed, trait, and pesticide industries.
In the exhibition Decoding Design, there a sense of confidence playing and joking with different cultural traditions, as designers from three nationalities redesign traditional objects from each others cultures: the Jewish menorah, the German cuckoo clock and the Chinese pagoda. Automobile designer Yan Huang transformed the almost tacky German cuckoo clock into a simplified organic form that automatically lays eggs, bringing attention to the loss of native habitat and immigration policies in Germany, to ask if itis becoming overwhelmed. The Chinese pagoda is treated with similar irreverence by being turned into an air purifier  a reference to Chinas notorious air pollution problem.

In these ways, Melbourne Design Week upset our assumptions about design as means of reinforcing European culture. As a platform to showcase these unique ideas and projects, which range from one off experiment to commercial production, it represents Melbourne as a crossroad of different cultural approaches. These Indigenous, settler-colonial and immigrant approaches intersect, contest and combine in new ways, providing new directions in design and a heterogenous Australian identity.
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Donegal Airport at Carrickfinn has been voted the worlds most beautiful landing spot.

This time last year, Donegal Airport came in second in the poll conducted by private jet booking service PrivateFly.

However, news that it is now considered the most beautiful landing spot in the world will come as a major boost, not just to the airport itself, but to tourism in the county.

The news was revealed at todays Municipal District meeting in Donegal town by a delighted Barney McLaughlin, the head of tourism with Donegal County Council.

The Caribbean island of Saba topped the poll last year. However, Carrickfinn Airport is now No. 1, ahead of Barra Airport in Scotland, which came second, and Nice Airport in France which came in third.

Anne Bonner, Managing Director of Donegal Airport said: Having been voted in the top ten in the last two years we are delighted to have been voted No. 1 airport landing in 2018. It is indeed a great endorsement from the travelling public and aviation/travel experts putting Donegal firmly on the map of the worlds places to visit."Donegal as a location was also chosen by National Geographic in 2017 as the coolest place on the planet and what better way to explore Donegal than to fly into the Worlds most scenic airport.

Global stage

Pauline Sweeney, Marketing Manager of Donegal airport, said:

I am delighted with the result and proud to have Donegal Airport on the global stage; a big thank you to everyone who took the time the votes.

In addition to our regular customers who avail of the twice-daily service to Dublin with Aer Lingus Regional, and up to five weekly flights to Glasgow with Loganair, multiple votes came in from across the globe.

I am sure many of our own diaspora helped make the airport this years No 1. For returning emigrants the airport approach gives them a first sight of home and the best views in the world.

A total of 112 different airports received nominations and for Donegal Airport to reach #1 is amazing news for us and proves what a unique and special location the airport enjoys.

Donegal was already cited as the Coolest Place on the Planet (National Geographic) and now has been voted as the most scenic in the world.

This incredible honour will generate a considerable amount of global Publicity for the airport and for Donegal located on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Extraordinarily beautiful

Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly and an experienced pilot, said: The top 10 is an annual bucket list for travel fans, a fascinating mix of global descents to fly in your lifetime. From tiny runways like last years winner Saba (the worlds shortest commercial runway) and Barra in Scotlands Outer Hebrides; to the major cityscapes offered up by London City or Miami International.

Donegal is extraordinarily beautiful and deservedly sits in the top spot this year. Its rugged coastal landscapes were a location for the recent Star Wars movies, and its not hard to see why. Whether youre in the Millennium Falcon; on a commercial airliner; or on a private jet, coming into land here feels like an otherworldly experience.

One voter commented in support of Donegal: You fly in low...and sweep out over an emerald sea with the perma-white froth of the Wild Atlantic Way, lashing the many tiny rocky islands in a turquoise sea. Another praised the spectacular views of the Atlantic coastline, the beautiful Mount Errigal and a beach which is the most stunning in the world.

PrivateFly teamed up with a panel of travel experts to form the shortlist for the public vote, including aviation writers Rohit Jaggi and Miquel Ros; and travel influencers Henry Conway and Bonnie Rakhit.

The 2018 top ten is as follows:

1. Donegal (Ireland)

2. Barra (Scotland)

3. Nice (France)

4. Queenstown (New Zealand)

5. Saba (Dutch Caribbean)

6. Orlando Melbourne (USA)

7. Toronto Billy Bishop (Canada)

8. London City (England, UK)

9. St Maarten (French/Dutch Caribbean)

10. Miami (USA)
With the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo race taxi we are turning electric mobility into a tangible experience for our customers and guests as part of the Formula E races  in the middle of the worlds metropolises, says Peter Mertens, head of Audi R&D, adding, We are expanding our gathering of valuable experience also in extremely demanding conditions.

Audi has so far confirmed three battery propelled e-tron models: the e-tron quattro, the e-tron Sportback and e-tron GT.

The e-tron quattro, a Telsa Model X rivalling SUV, and e-tron Sportback, a high riding five door liftback, are planned to be produced at the companys plant in Brussels, Belgium, with the former set to go on sale during the second half of 2018.

The more exclusive e-tron GT is set to roll from a dedicated production line being established at Audi Sport divisions showcase Boellinger Hof factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, with the first customer deliveries planned for 2020.

Backing up claims that the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo could one day see production are comments from senior Audi officials that it represents more than a mere concept.
What will it look like?

A source recently told British outlet Autocar that the Giulia Sprint will land in 2018 and come in two flavours, similar to the Veloce and Quadrifoglio sedans.

But with two less doors the coupe will be svelte and bring updated design elements over the current Giulia. A sharper front fascia with more aggressive styling is on the cards as well as some interior tweaks.

Sporting a two-plus-two seat arrangement the Sprint could also carry the GTV name, an ode to previous Alfetta and Alfa Romeo Gran Turismo Veloce models that had a 2+2 layout.

Following historic Sprint nomenclature, the models could be simply named the Sprint Veloce and Sprint Quadrifoglio Verde.

A drop-top spider will likely follow later.

Whats new?

The already strong performance-topper Giulia QV engine will continue on but the 2.9-litre V6 twin-turbocharged mill is tipped to be supplemented by a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) derived from the same technology used to temporarily provide a boost of power to F1 vehicles.

Ferrari and Magenti Marelli co-developed a similar hybrid system for the Ferrari LaFerrari.

In the QV it would equate to around a 100kw boost, providing up to 470kW total output and eclipsing rivals such as the 386kW M4 CS, 375kW C63 S and 331kW RS5, even surpassing the 427kW Porsche 911 Turbo S.

The system is also reported to be mated to the smaller 2.0-litre Veloce engine but it's hard to see how the high cost could be justified on the entry-level vehicle, which leaves room for a three-variant performance range consisting of the Veloce, QV and QV Hybrid.

Whats on the wish list?

Something the Giulia QV never got  a manual transmission, which would feel especially slick behind the lighter and revvy 2.0-litre Veloce, and bring a point of difference over the Audi and Mercedes rivals.

The QV sedan features a terrific sounding race mode with one of the meanest six-cylinder barks going around, but the same mode disables traction control. A bi-modal exhaust switch would be a welcome addition in the wet.
On Friday, 20th April, Tesco stores in Louth will host a Great Irish Bake to raise funds for their national charity partner, Temple Street.

Now in its fourth year, Tesco Irelands 150 stores nationwide will be hosting Great Irish Bake cake sales with the aim of raising 100,000 for the hospital to buy much needed medical equipment. This year, money raised will be used to purchase Speech and Language equipment which is used in the treatment of children with cleft palette.

All across Ireland, customers will enjoy a sweet treat or two on the day, prepared by the dedicated Tesco colleagues, as well as taking part in fun in store activities while supporting the little heroes of Temple Street. Its more than baking  its raising dough!

Tesco Ireland, who recently extended its partnership with Temple Street for a further two years, has fundraised over 3million for the hospital to date, helping it to buy much needed life-saving equipment. As part of its renewed partnership, Tesco colleagues across the country are aiming to raise 5 million in 5 years, before the end of 2019.

In 2017, Tesco stores in Louth successfully raised 3,200 for the little heroes of Temple Street as part of the Great Irish Bake and are aiming to beat that figure this year.
DHAKA  Judges at the High Court in Bangladesh have instructed the nations government not to extend the jurisdiction of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh beyond May 31 until further notice.

While this decision could prove just a stumbling block in the path of the Accord extension, the legal proceedings also unearthed alleged miscommunications regarding agreements which had been publicly announced and once again raises doubts over the future of safety regulations in the Bangladeshi garment sector.
In its continued efforts to "combat climate change and create a healthier environment," Apple announced Monday that its global facilities are now powered with 100 percent clean energy.

All of the tech giant's retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries use renewable energy sources, upping the ante from 93 percent two years ago.

"We're committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we're proud to have reached this significant milestone," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.

"We're going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it."

To be clear, it's just Apple's own operations that are running on 100 percent renewables. Its entire global supply chainwhich makes parts and accessories for Apple's productsis still working on it. However, the company said it has convinced 23 total manufacturing partners to make the transition.

Additionally, it's not like every single Apple Store generates its own green electricity from, say, a solar rooftop. These stores are usually connected to a municipal power grid, and it's not possible to ensure the electricity is entirely free of fossil fuels.

But the tech titan is able to claim its "100 percent renewable" accolade because it purchases Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from green-energy producers and has built its own renewable energy facilities around the world, totaling 626 megawatts of generation capacity. Last year, 286 megawatts of solar PV generation came online, its most ever in one year.

Apple also has 15 more projects down the line. Once complete, over 1.4 gigawatts of clean renewable energy generation will be spread across 11 countries.

Solar panels mounted high off the ground in China allows yaks to eat the grass growing underneath. Apple

The iPhone maker has also created an energy subsidiary in Delaware called Apple Energy LLC to sell surplus electricity generated by its various renewable energy projects.



"Since 2011, all of Apple's renewable energy projects have reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) by 54 percent from its facilities worldwide and prevented nearly 2.1 million metric tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere," the company touted.

A number of IT corporations have taken major strides in reducing their carbon footprint. Last month, Microsoft announced the single largest corporate purchase of solar power ever seen in the U.S. Google also announced last week that toward the end of 2017, it reached its goal to run on 100 percent renewable energy.

Former Vice President Al Gore, a member of Apple's board of directors, celebrated the news.

"Apple is proving the business case for reducing greenhouse emissions and simultaneously reducing energy costs," he tweeted. "All of its facilities are now powered by 100 percent clean energy!"
By Clara Chaisson

In the summer of 2013, I was changing into pajamas when an irritated blotch of skin caught my eye. My rib cage looked like a miniature advertisement for Target: There was a near-perfect circle of red, a smaller, concentric ring of clear skin, and then a red dot right in the middle. Bull's-eye.



In medical jargon this distinctive rash is called erythema migrans, and it's the calling card of Lyme disease. Fittingly enough, I was spending this particular peak tick season in Old Lyme, Connecticutwhere it was first discovered in 1975. Luckily, I knew to be on the lookout for this exact symptom, and a course of antibiotics knocked it out of my system. I experienced no further problems.

But cases of Lyme disease aren't always so straightforward. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), somewhere around a quarter of infected people never get the bull's-eye rash, and other early signs, like headache and fatigue, can be easy to misinterpret. If Lyme progresses untreated, it can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system, sometimes triggering problems like meningitis, arrhythmias, or Bell's palsy. Later stages of the disease can cause symptoms that are more difficult to treat, like arthritis and memory loss.

Worryingly, more and more people are experiencing Lyme's ravages as environmental conditions help Borrelia burgdorferi, the disease-causing bacterium carried by ticks, spread into new areas.

"It's a huge problem, it's growing, and we really are concerned about the lack of prevention tools that are available," said C. Ben Beard, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.

Unlike the tiny ticks that carry the troublesome bacteria, Lyme's rise is easy to spot in the CDC's incidence maps from the past couple of decades. Since the early 1990s, the annual number of officially reported cases of Lyme has tripled to 30,000, but studies suggest the actual number is 10 times higher than that. Climate change, suburban land development, and habitat change are creating conditions that not only allow the ticks to thrive, but also put more people into contact with them and their harpoon-like mouthparts.

Black-legged ticks (also known as deer ticks) feed exclusively on blood and need three meals over a two-year period to complete the four stages of their life cycle; otherwise, they starve to death (good riddance). As winters warm, milder seasons are giving the bloodsuckers a larger window of opportunity to find hosts to dine on, allowing them to survive in greater numbers. Meanwhile, higher temperatures are enabling the ticks to spread to parts of the map that have historically been too cold to sustain them. (These arachnids also depend on a high baseline of relative humidity, which explains why residents of drier regions of the country don't have to worry about the disease.)

A black-legged tick's four stages life Pamela Freeman

Climate change isn't the only thing humans are causing to make the environment more hospitable to these parasites. Forest fragmentation is giving a boost to populations of white-footed mice, the primary carriers of B. burgdorferi, and suburbanization puts humans into closer contact with these and other tick-hosting wildlife like chipmunks and deer.

Almost half of all U.S. counties reported the presence of black-legged ticks as of 2015, up 45 percent from 1996. Still, Lyme is mostly a regional threat95 percent of confirmed cases occur in just 14 states in the Northeast and upper Midwest. And within those states, Lyme is sickening more and more people. The upsurge is especially pronounced in the Northeast, where the number of counties with high incidence of the disease increased 320 percent between 1993 and 2012.

As Lyme moves into new communities, residents often don't know how to protect themselves, and local doctors aren't always familiar with the symptoms and best treatment practices. On top of that, bad advice on how to treat Lyme is swirling around on the Internet. According to one study, more than 30 untested alternative therapies are marketed to Lyme sufferers online, including drinking urine, sleeping on a bed of 70 magnets, and blowing gaseous ozone into the rectum. Yup. (Just to be crystal clear: Do not try any of this at home ... or anywhere else.)

"The misinformation persists at almost all levels of the Lyme epidemic," said Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

Richard Ostfeld tags a white-footed mouse as part of field research on the ecology of Lyme disease. Pamela Freeman

Combine inadequate prevention with seriousbut sometimes enigmaticsymptoms, widespread misinformation, and a steady creep into new areas, and you've got a recipe for a population increasingly vulnerable to a Lyme epidemic. "I would characterize our preparedness as very poor," said Ostfeld. "And that needs to be rectified."



So, what can be done? A lot, actually. Beard said the CDC is working to educate health care providers in Lyme-prone areas on how to recognize the symptoms. The National Institutes of Health is also supporting research into more rapid diagnostic tests. The current approach detects antibodies that the immune system produces in response to the bacteria, but the antibodies can take a few weeks to show up.

Ostfeld thinks diagnosing Lyme will remain difficult for some time, and avoiding infections in the first place through tick checks, proper clothing, and potential vaccines may still be the best strategy. "What if we lived in a world in which [diagnosis] was less important because we were preventing so many potential cases of tick-borne disease?" he asked.

Last summer, the FDA fast-tracked the approval process for VLA15, a potentially safe and effective Lyme disease vaccine. (A pharmaceutical company discontinued an earlier vaccine, introduced in 1998, after some recipients claimed it gave them arthritis. Clinical data did not support these claims; the same vaccine is now used to protect dogs from the disease.)

Ostfeld, along with his research partner and wife, Bard College ecologist Felicia Keesing, is leading the Tick Project, a five-year study to see if environmental interventions can protect communities from Lyme disease. A thousand households (and their pets) in 24 neighborhoods in Dutchess County, New York, have signed up to participate. The researchers began deploying two tick control methods last summer: bait boxes that apply a small dose of fipronilthe main ingredient in Frontlineto small animals like chipmunks and mice, and a fungal spray that kills ticks. Over the next few years, they hope to find out whether these methods can effectively lessen a neighborhood's exposure to Lyme.

On a larger scale, it will be critical to curb climate change and the other forces that drive Lyme disease and other vector-borne illnesses, like the Zika virus and malaria, into new areas.

"We absolutely need to be pushing our leaders at all levels of government to cut carbon pollution," said Juanita Constible, senior advocate for climate and health for NRDC's Climate and Clear Energy program. "We're setting up the backdrop for ticks to take over parts of the country where they never were before."

Constible speaks from the heart. She lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, a Lyme hot spot, and has had the disease three times in the past six years. And though she has made a full recovery after each bout with Lyme, the experiences have left their mark on her work. "It makes it a lot more deeply personal for me, and it heightens the urgency to do something about climate change," she said. "I certainly don't want my friends and family and coworkers to face this."
American Rivers released its America's Most Endangered Rivers report Tuesday identifying ten rivers under imminent threat.

The annual report, now in its 33rd year, is unique in its spotlight on the Trump administration and industry-friendly members of Congress pushing policies that directly harm the iconic rivers.

"In our many years of issuing the America's Most Endangered Rivers report, we've seldom seen a collection of threats this severe, or an administration so bent on undermining and reversing protections for clean water, rivers and public health," said Bob Irvin, president of the national river conservation organization, in a statement provided to EcoWatch.

"This is the kind of destruction that will be difficult and, in some cases, impossible to reverse. If the Trump administration and its supporters in Congress succeed in rolling back bedrock environmental protections and handing over our rivers to polluters, the health, well-being and natural heritage of our nation's families and communities will be impoverished for generations to come. We cannot let that happen."

American Rivers

Topping this year's list is Mississippi's Big Sunflower River, home to a rich diversity of wetlands, fish and wildlife. The river is under threat from a measure that retiring Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) inserted into the Senate's 2018 Omnibus bill that would revive the Yazoo Backwater Area Pumping Plant, or Yazoo Pumps project.

The $220 million proposal to build the world's largest pump, which proponents say is necessary for flood control and would help the local economy, has been gestating since 1941. But it has long been opposed by environmentalists and even Sen. John McCain of Arizona who called it "one of the worst projects ever conceived by Congress" back in 2004. The project was vetoed in 2008 by President George W. Bush's EPA under the Clean Water Act.

American Rivers said, "In reality, this is an agricultural drainage project that would benefit highly subsidized big agribusiness while increasing flood risk downstream and harming low income communities that depend on the area's natural resources (i.e., subsistence fish and/or wildlife)."

The group warns the Yazoo Pumps project could damage more than 200,000 acres of wetlands in the Big Sunflower River watershed in the heart of the Mississippi River Flyway. More than 450 species of fish and wildlife, including the Louisiana black bear, rely on the wetlands habitat that would be drained by the project.

"The Yazoo Pumps are a boondoggle of the worst kind," said Collin O'Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, in a statement. "Why would anyone want to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to destroy an astonishing 200,000 acres of vital fish and wildlife habitatjust to benefit a few landowners? This project is pure folly that falls apart under the slightest scrutiny."

Big Sunflower isn't the only river directly impacted by actions in Washington. Rivers of Bristol Bay in Alaska (No. 2 on the list), home to a $1.5 billion salmon fishery, is at risk from a open-pit mine project that has stalled for years but has moved forward under the Trump administration. The Lower Rio Grande in Texas (No. 4 on the list) is threatened by President Trump's controversial border wall that would block people from accessing the river, exacerbate flooding, and destroy wildlife habitat.

Here are the ten rivers on this year's list:

1. Big Sunflower River, MS

Threat  Army Corps pumping project

At Risk  Critical wetlands and wildlife habitat

2. Rivers of Bristol Bay, AK

Threat  Mining

At risk  Clean water, salmon runs, indigenous culture

3. Boundary Waters, MN

Threat  Mining

At risk  Clean water, recreation economy

4. Lower Rio Grande, TX

Threat  Border wall

At risk  River access, public safety, wildlife habitat

5. South Fork Salmon River, ID

Threat  Mining

At risk  Clean water, salmon habitat

6. Mississippi River Gorge, MN

Threat  Dams

At risk  Habitat, recreation opportunities

7. Smith River, MT

Threat  Mining

At risk  Clean water, recreation

8. Colville River, AK

Threat  Oil and gas development

At risk  Clean water, wildlife

9. Middle Fork Vermilion River, IL

Threat  Coal ash pollution

At risk  Clean water, Wild and Scenic River values

10. Kinnickinnic River, WI
Monday, the Washington Department of Ecology sided with Center for Food Safety and numerous other community and conservation groups, and denied shellfish growers a permit to spray imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid, on shellfish beds on Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, in southwest Washington. The requested permit would have allowed shellfish growers from Willapa-Grays Harbor Oyster Growers Association to spray this neurotoxic insecticide into water for the first time, in order to kill native burrowing shrimp.

"Center for Food Safety applauds the Washington Department of Ecology for making the right decision this time around and saying 'no' to the use of neonicotinoids in Washington bay waters," said Amy van Saun, staff attorney in Center for Food Safety's Pacific Northwest office."The state followed the laws requiring protection of this crucial aquatic ecosystem, the wildlife that depend on it, and the public from a dangerous plan to continue the chemical legacy of the industrial shellfish industry."

"We are pleased to see that after taking a hard look at the science that Ecology reached the inescapable conclusion that there must be a better way to find a balance within Willapa Bay that will allow oyster growers thrive while protecting this unique and fragile place," said Andrew Hawley with the Western Environmental Law Center.

After initially granting a request to spray imidacloprid, one of the oldest and most toxic neonicotinoids (the pesticides that are extremely harmful to pollinators, aquatic invertebrates and birds), the Washington Department of Ecology withdrew the permit in 2015 due to public outcry, especially from Seattle chefs. But the Growers Association again applied to spray imidacloprid, never before approved for aquatic use, onto shellfish beds to kill burrowing or ghost shrimp, a native species the growers say loosens the substrate and causes oysters and clams to sink. The Washington Department of Ecology completed a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to evaluate the new science on imidacloprid and neonicotinoids' impact on the aquatic environment, concluding that the use of imidacloprid in Willapa Bay/Grays Harbor would have various harmful impacts, including:

Significant, unavoidable impacts to sediment quality and benthic invertebrates.

Negative impacts to juvenile worms and crustaceans in areas treated with imidacloprid and nearby areas covered by incoming tides.

Negative impacts to fish and birds caused by killing sources of food and disrupting the food web.

Concern about non-lethal impacts to invertebrates in the water column and sediment.

A risk of impacts from imidacloprid even at low concentrations.

Increased uncertainty about long-term, non-lethal and cumulative impacts.

Center for Food Safety, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Environmental Law Center, commented on the SEIS, urging the Washington Department of Ecology to consider all the latest science pointing to the extreme danger posed by water contamination with neonicotinoids and not to grant the permit based on both data gaps and the disturbing evidence of harm from neonicotinoids, including to aquatic species like Dungeness crabs, a commercially-valuable species.

"Dumping imidacloprid, or any other pesticide, into state waters depended on by so many plants and animals, including people, was never a good, long-term solution," said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's environmental health program. "It's important that we find sound, sustainable answers to the challenges Washington oyster farmers are facing that help balance, rather than poison, the environment we all share."
Conservation groups are calling on the Trump administration to cancel plans to lease thousands of acres of federal public lands for oil and gas development near western Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park and Blanca Peak without fully analyzing environmental or cultural harms.

WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Rocky Mountain Wild, San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, Sierra Club, and Wild Connections, submitted extensive comments Friday on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's proposal to auction off 21,000 acres of public lands in Colorado in September. Of the lands nominated for auction, 18,000 acres are located near Great Sand Dunes National Park and Blanca Peak. In the comments, the groups noted that the Bureau of Land Management conducted little to no analysis on the potential harm from drilling and fracking to Colorado's air, water, night skies, wildlife habitat, cultural resources or the national park.

"The area near Great Sand Dunes National Park is uniquely beautiful and very susceptible to the harms from drilling and fracking," said Becca Fischer, a climate guardian with WildEarth Guardians. "Once BLM leases these lands, it cannot close the door to noise pollution, light pollution, and threats to our clean air and water. Yet, the BLM failed to conduct a meaningful analysis of these impacts."

"This fracking plan would ruin some of Colorado's most scenic, remote and valuable wildlife habitat," said Diana Dascalu-Joffe, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unfortunately nothing is more important to the Trump administration than fossil fuel industry profits."

Last month, in response to intense public pressure from conservation groups and others, Zinke removed public lands in New Mexico near Chaco Canyon National Historical Park and in Montana near Yellowstone National Park from the auction block based on cultural and environmental concerns.

The pace of public lands approved for leasing by the BLM continues to drastically increase in 2018. In 2017 the BLM auctioned off more than 1 million acres of public lands for fracking in six western states. The BLM's proposed lease sales for the first half of 2018 in those same states already total almost 1 million acres.

Oil and gas leasing on federal public lands is a major contributor to global warming in the U.S. Leasing opens the door for oil and gas drilling and fracking, and more fossil fuel burning. Reports indicate that 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. can be traced back to fossil fuel development from federal public lands and waters.

"We should not be sacrificing these places, the wildlife there, history and opportunities to an outdated vision of energy independence," said Kimberly Pope, Sierra Club's Our Wild America organizer in Colorado. "We have an obligation to leave great natural places for others to experience."
A sperm whale found dead in southern Spain was killed after ingesting 64 pounds of mostly plastic garbage, a necropsy of the marine mammal recently revealed.

The 6-ton, 33-foot-long juvenile male beached near a lighthouse in Cabo de Palos in the region of Murcia in February.

Region de Murcia

An examination of its digestive tract uncovered items such as plastic bags, raffia sacks, ropes, pieces of nets and even a plastic jerry can, authorities said Friday.

Experts at Murcia's El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center, which carried out the necropsy, said the whale was unable to expel or digest the trash, causing it to die from peritonitis, or an infection of the abdomen.

Sperm whales, which can measure up to 67 feet long, are listed as "vulnerable" to extinction.

This grisly death has prompted the government of Murcia to launch a new campaign to combat ocean plastics.

According to Spain's English publication, The Local, the program encourages Murcia residents to responsibly dispose of their garbage and to volunteer for beach clean-ups along the coast. It also involves new research programs to help monitor the extent of plastic waste off the coast and its effect on marine life.

"The presence of plastics in seas and oceans is one of the biggest threats to the conservation of wildlife in the world," Consuelo Rosauro, Murcia's regional government's environment minister, said of the initiative.

"Many animals get trapped in the rubbish or ingest great quantities of plastics, which end up causing their death," she added.

"The Murcia region is no stranger to this problem that we must tackle by way of clean-up actions and, above all, awareness of citizens."

About 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans each yeara major threat to marine life and marine ecosystems. Last month, the UK government released a startling report warning that plastic pollution in the world's seas is projected to increase three-fold within seven years unless action is taken.

The good news is many local and national governments are waking up to the scourge of ocean plastics and introducing legislation to stem its flow.

For instance, fees on single-use plastic bags have led to a 30 percent drop of plastic bags in the seafloor around Norway, Germany, northern France and Ireland, a 25-year study from the UK government recently revealed.
(Photo: REUTERS / Rupak De Chowdhuri)Catholic nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, the global order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, take part in a mass service to mark the 104th birth anniversary of Mother Teresa in Kolkata August 26, 2014. Teresa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who died in 1997, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 at the Vatican.

Leaders of India's Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Muslim and Sikh communities have come together and condemned the use of religion to disrupt dialogue and social harmony.

Leaders of six major religions in India came together on the first weekend of April and called for an end to branding people as patriotic or unpatriotic based on religion, region or community, Vatican News reported.

They further denounced in unequivocal terms the attacks this week on three Catholic churches in Rourkela, Odisha "at a time when the peaceful Christian community was celebrating their feast of joy  Easter," The Times of India reported.

Their call came at a time when Hindu extremists in India face accusations of continuous and increasing attempts to exploit religious sentiments for political gains.

The leaders gathered on April 5 in, Margao in the western state of Goa to express their dismay at communal tension building in states such as Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Odisha, ahead of crucial elections.

"We strongly object to anyone taking control of individual decisions. No one is to be categorized as anti-national or non-patriotic based on his religion, region or community," said a joint statement issued at the end of a meeting,

It was titled "Collective Action for Dialogue and Social Harmony" and was sponsored by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), in collaboration with the Agnel Region of the Society of Pilar and Bharatiya Sarva Dharma Sansad and others in Goa.

The faith leaders singled out the attacks the previous week on three Catholic churches in Rourkela, in the eastern state of Odisha.

The statement said that "every Indian has his dignity and respect and the night to decide what one eats, to marry the person of one's choice, to choose the education one selects and the freedom to practice whatever faith one wishes to profess."

This alluded to pro-Hindu groups imposing restrictions on Christians, Muslims and socially poor Dalit groups.

"We take strong exception to anyone taking control of these individual decisions be it on the part of the state or by so-called cultural organizations," they said.

"We vehemently denounce mobs that go around taking law and order into their hands and appeal that the Constitutional norms and articles be respected and implemented in letter and spirit. Dalits be given their rightful place in society," they said.

The faith leaders also demanded that the "rights of the tribals, the marginalized, the workers and the poor be upheld and protected."

India is preparing for general elections in April 2019 as reports emerge of religion-based tensions in the crucial states of West Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan.

Local reports suggest tensions are politically engineered to divide people on the lines of religion and caste as rival political parties project themselves as champions of sectarian interests.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has released a policy guide for school officials that lays out how they can protect students from immigration enforcement on school grounds.

The guide details the steps school officials should take if federal immigration agents try to detain someone on campus or if a childs parents have been detained or deported. It also instructs schools on how to shield the immigration status of students and their family members and illustrates the kinds of court records federal officials must present before entering campuses.

The policies are the result of a new state law that was passed to safeguard undocumented immigrants from President Donald Trumps call for increased deportations.
After every school shooting, we ask how the horrific tragedy happened and whether anything could have been done to prevent it. In the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., shooting, it came to light that law-enforcement officials had not followed up on a tip they received in January about accused perpetrator Nikolas Cruzs concerning behavior. We are not asking the right questions soon enough. Did anyone see warning signs? Could anyone have taken action?

For every tragedy, there are many more instances of averted school violence that dont make the news beyond the affected school district. The higher ratio of averted vs. successful acts is known as the near miss concept. For many years, incident prevention has informed best practices in the reduction of aviation, fire, and medical injuries and fatalities.

Thats why the Police Foundation, a national nonprofit organization with a mission to improve policing through innovation and science, began tracking incidents of averted school violence in a national database. The project began in 2015 and is funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which are both housed in the U.S. Department of Justice. Through careful study and analysis of a sample of averted incidents, the foundation has identified valuable lessons in attack prevention. This work should prompt schools to revise safety policies, procedures, and training to respond more effectively when the threat of an incident arises.

To date, the foundation has collected 51 averted-incident reports over the last year and a half, the majority identified from open-source news and court documents. As three individuals who work closely with the database project, we believe many more incidents go unreported, particularly those that dont gain public attention or result in criminal prosecution.

By being proactive, contributors can both improve safety in their school district and help to protect other schools across the country."

Not only do the foundations experts record averted incidents, anyone who has been involved in a near-miss incident can also enter information anonymously into the database. The good news is that people, especially law-enforcement and school officials, are increasingly doing so. Those reporting an averted incidentdefined as a planned violent attack on school grounds prevented before injury or loss of life occurredcan do so at any point after it occurs, even years later. Each report lists information about the school and its security, the averted attack plans and attempted execution, the perpetrator, prevention mechanisms, and lessons learned.

What have we learned that can help prevent school violence? Here are five actions teachers and school leaders can take to improve school safety:

 Train students to monitor and report suspicious behavior. In more than half of the open-source incidents we studied, students were the first to discover another students violent plan. Students who hear threats of violence from their classmateswhether in person or on social mediashould take them seriously and report them immediately to parents, law enforcement, or school authorities. Potential perpetrators of violence frequently use online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to discuss their plans or to express disdain for their school or classmates.

Educators and parents should let students know that they must pass along anything that gives them pause, including signs of suicide or depression in a peer, even if they dont have solid evidence. An indirect reference or a disturbing comment could be a significant warning sign. Adults should also seek to assure students that their privacy will be protected if they make a report, and they will face no personal consequences for acting in good faith.

 Make a staff plan of action for timely communication of incidents to parents. Communication with parents can be difficult to navigate in high-stress situations, but prompt messages about what has happened or is happening are important. This is especially true in todays world, where messages from students will likely outpace official school communication. Schools need to communicate accurate information to avoid rumors and panic from spreading.

 Develop personal relationships with students. All staff and school resource officers should strive to maintain a comfortable rapport with all students. This allows staff to be aware of students who are bullied or feel excluded and depressed, and may help detect when students are dealing with troubling feelings. In turn, students who feel close to trusted adults in the school may be able to talk with them about their feelings before its too late.

 Direct safety concerns through a team for review. Schools should not limit responsibilities of school safety monitoring to one person. School leaders, teachers, and staff that monitor building entrances, as well as school resource officers and other law-enforcement officials, should meet regularly as a case-management team to discuss any reported problems, concerns, and observations. This also includes notifying all school staff when students are suspended or expelled. School staff should be informed of the reasons for the suspension or expulsion to the full extent permitted by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). As a general rule, those students should not be allowed on campus the same day as the suspension or expulsion.

 Develop well-defined and practiced active shooter and emergency plans. Law enforcement should develop active-shooter plans in collaboration with schools. As part of this work, all school administrators, teachers, and staff should be trained in CPR and basic lifesaving skills for traumatic injuries.

As acts of senseless violence continue to ravage our schools, we encourage school administrators, teachers, law-enforcement officials, and mental-health professionals who have been involved in averting an attack to submit their experiences anonymously to our online database. By being proactive, contributors can both improve safety in their school district and help to protect other schools across the country.

In this way, we hope to ask important questions about warning signs and possible interventions. Its one prong in what should be a multifaceted approach to protecting the lives of our children.
Teachers have long been told to praise students effort, rather than simply saying they are smart, as a way to encourage them to think of their intelligence as something that can grow over time.

But teenagers can be a prickly, contrary bunch with a finely tuned skepticism for adults, and a new review of research in the journal Child Development suggests that just praising the effort of middle and high school students to boost their growth mindset can have the opposite effect, with those adolescents praised becoming less likely to believe their work can improve their intelligence or skills.

It seems to have this backfiring effect, said Jaime Amemiya, a University of Pittsburgh psychology researcher who co-wrote the article with Ming-Te Wang, a University of Pittsburgh associate professor of psychology and education.

Prior research has suggested educators can encourage students to have a growth mindset by praising their process rather than ability. Process includes both students effort and the successful strategies they use. The strategies part is really important, because that gives kids information on what they did correctly and what they can keep improving. ... But it seems like the effort praise is what has been reaching parents and teachers the most and seems the most intuitive to do, Amemiya said.

David Yeager, an associate psychology professor and mindset researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, agreed. In his own national study of students learning mindsets, he said when teachers reported preferring to praise students effort alone, students werent especially likely to think teachers had a growth mindset themselves. In fact, Yeager and Carol Dweck, the Stanford University researcher who first coined the term growth mindset, have come to consider a focus on effort praise alone to be a false growth mindset.

Afiya Fredericks, a program-implementation manager for Mindset Works Inc., a group co-founded by Dweck that works with schools to educate students about mindsets, said some practitioners have oversimplified the concept in trying to develop tools for teaching, so praising good effort just becomes a replacement for saying good job. It becomes sort of mindless and its less meaningful.

Problematic Culture?

Thats particularly a problem in middle and high school, when many students move to bigger schools with more academically tracked classrooms and social cliques. Students become aware of class rankings, and schools are more likely to promote academic stars.

Theres a shift in the environment at this time. Effort isnt seen in such a positive light as we get older, especially in the American culture, Amemiya said. We really admire people who are effortless achievers; they just get math or get science without having to work too hard.

In forthcoming research, Yeager also found that older students are less likely to believe teachers who tell them they can make a difference in the world unless the teacher first builds trust with them.

When told to try harder, adolescents may read between the lines and wonder, How come other people dont have to work so hard? At some level, we shouldnt be surprised if teenagers get offended by what adults say even when theyre not trying to be insulting, Yeager said. But its easy to forget that, with teachers, what goes unsaid can, many times, be louder than what was said explicitly.

In particular, schools can undermine their work to promote growth mindset if they also allow academic or other policies that disproportionately affect certain groups of students, such as having advanced courses that disproportionately include white or wealthier students.

The type of feedback you may give some students, or opportunities you may give one student to learn and achieve that you dont give to othersolder students are quicker to pick up on that, Fredericks said.

More Holistic Approach

Mary Murphy, an associate psychology professor and mindset researcher at Indiana University, was not involved with the article but concurred with its findings, noting that students of all ages can lose trust in adults who praise them for effort without specifying what was effective about it. She suggested educators can give adolescents a better foundation for a growth mindset by, among other measures:

 Providing opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning. This allows teachers to act as facilitators and provide constructive feedback to the students to gauge their development, said Bobby Dodd, the principal of Gahanna Lincoln High School in Ohio.

 Highlight mistakes in the everyday practice of learning. Tell students, I dont want to know what you found easy, I want to know what you got wrong because thats where the learning will be,  Murphy said.

 Use group work where peers discuss what they each struggled with and explore individual strengths of different students.

Saluda High School in rural South Carolina adopted self-paced curricula and personalized learning in part to encourage growth mindset among its students. Teachers celebrate differencesdifferent learning styles, different preferences, different speeds. And thats OK, because theyre all eventually going to show mastery of the standards in the end, said Sarah Longshore, Saludas principal.

The move improved school culture, she said. Students accept personal responsibility, are self-motivated, and feel empowered. Thats growth mindset in a nutshellthe idea that persistence eventually pays off.
Day Six: Badminton - Li defeats Chongo Mulenga

Tue, 10 Apr 2018

Team Isle of Man's Benjamin Li beat Zambia in the Badminton Men's Single Preliminary match at the Carrara Sport and Leisure Centre on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old defeated Chongo Mulenga 21-10, 21-19.

Ben told Energy FM: "I just really wanted to win. When I played in Glasgow, I didn't win a match so that was my goal and that pressure. I really wanted to play well.

"I didn't know very much about Chongo and I watched him a bit in the team event. In the first few hits I was trying to get a sense of how he played. He's really strong and fast so I was trying to negate that."

On the difference between his performance his experience at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: "I'm a lot more experienced now and I understand my own game a lot more, whereas before I just did whatever my opponent would do and now I play it my way."

On his preparation for GC2018: "My preparation has definitely changed. I recently took four months to train in Bath University, which has been really beneficial, their setup is amazing and has been really helpful for me.

"Being out in Australia, I've been here about four weeks now and the acclimatisation has really helped. If anything it feels too cold now rather than too hot. Having done that I don't need to worry about the climate I can just focus on my game."

On playing Lee Chong Wei (MAS) in the second round of the men's singles: "What an experience. When the draw comes out and you see that, you've got to admit it's in the back of your mind.

"That'll be a great experience. I've got nothing to lose and I'm just enjoying it now. I'll be able to focus on my shots."
Chicago, April 10, 2018 - "NIA-AA Research Framework: Towards a Biological Definition of Alzheimer's Disease" was published today in the April 2018 issue of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. First author Clifford R. Jack, Jr., M.D., of Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN and colleagues propose shifting the definition of Alzheimer's disease in living people - for use in research - from the current one, based on cognitive changes and behavioral symptoms with biomarker confirmation, to a strictly biological construct. This represents a major evolution in how we think about Alzheimer's.

Understanding and effectively treating Alzheimer's disease and other dementias may be the most difficult challenge for the medical/scientific community this century. The field has experienced monumental challenges developing new and effective drug therapies, not the least of which was the discovery that - until recently -clinical trials were conducted where up to 30% of participants did not have the Alzheimer's disease-related brain change targeted by the experimental drug.

"With the aging of the global population, and the ever-escalating cost of care for people with dementia, new methods are desperately needed to improve the process of therapy development and increase the likelihood of success," said Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association chief science officer and a co-author of the new article. "This new Research Framework is an enormous step in the right direction for Alzheimer's research."

According to the authors, "This evolution of the previous diagnostic criteria is in line with most chronic diseases that are defined biologically, with clinical symptoms being a ... consequence." They say, "the goal of much of medicine is to identify and treat diseases prior to overt symptoms. The [NIA-AA Research] Framework is intended to provide a path forward to ... prevention trials of Alzheimer's disease among persons who are clinically asymptomatic."

Other areas of medicine have used this approach to define disease processes using biomarkers, for example: bone mineral density, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes are defined by biomarkers. Therapies that address these biomarkers have been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing fractures, heart attacks and strokes.

The authors, "take the position that biomarker evidence of Alzheimer's disease indicates the presence of the disease whether or not symptoms are present, just as an abnormal HbA1C indicates the presence of diabetes whether or not symptoms are present."

In 2011, the Alzheimer's Association (AA) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health convened experts to update the diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. The landmark publications designated three stages of Alzheimer's - preclinical (before symptoms affecting memory, thinking or behavior can be detected), mild cognitive impairment and dementia. In bringing together global leaders again in 2017 to review advances in the field and update the guidelines, a profound shift in thinking occurred to define Alzheimer's disease biologically, by pathologic brain changes or their biomarkers, and treat cognitive impairment as a symptom/sign of the disease, rather than its definition.

According to Dr. Jack, once validated in diverse global populations, this new definition will create a powerful tool to speed and improve the development of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

The authors envision that defining Alzheimer's disease as a biological construct will enable a more accurate understanding of the sequence of events that lead to the cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease, as well as the multiple causes of the disease. This will enable a more precise approach to therapy trials including focusing more specific targets and including the appropriate people.

In an accompanying editorial, Ara S. Khachaturian, Ph.D., Executive Editor, and the editorial staff of Alzheimer's & Dementia, "commend the effort within the Research Framework to create a common language that may lead to new thinking for the generation of new testable hypotheses about the conceptual basis for Alzheimer's disease. Such a language is a critical and essential element in addressing the ongoing challenge of developing more intricate and comprehensive models of Alzheimer's disease ... for the identification of new interventions and diagnostics."

In their "Editorial comment to the 'NIA-AA Research Framework: Towards a Biological Definition of Alzheimer's Disease,'" Nina Silverberg, Ph.D., Cerise Elliott, Ph.D., Laurie Ryan, Ph.D., Eliezer Masliah, M.D., and Richard Hodes, M.D., of NIA point out that the Framework - in addition to improving early detection and the development of new therapies - could potentially "allow more precise estimates of how many people are at risk [for or living with] Alzheimer's disease, how best to monitor response to therapies, and how to distinguish the effects of Alzheimer's disease from other similar pathologies."

Anticipating questions on the impact of the NIA-AA Research Framework on research funding, they add that, "The NIH will consider research applications using the Framework as well as proposals using alternative schemes when designing experimental approaches. The NIH continues to welcome applications where biomarkers may not be appropriate."

In the article, the authors say they, "appreciate the concern that this biomarker-based Research Framework has the potential to be misunderstood and misused. Therefore, we emphasize: First, it is premature and inappropriate to use this Research Framework in general medical practice. Second, this Research Framework should not be used to restrict alternative approaches to hypothesis testing that do not employ biomarkers ... biomarker-based research should not be considered a template for all research into age-related cognitive impairment and dementia."

That said, the authors believe that Framework applies to the entire Alzheimer's disease research community. In the drafting of the document, "we were careful to include ... representatives of the Industry and the Food and Drug Administration in addition to government and non-governmental organizations. Finally, the Framework was vetted with numerous stakeholders at several meetings as well as posted for months for public comment."

"It is called a 'Research Framework' because it needs to be thoroughly examined - and modified, if needed - before being adopted into general clinical practice," Dr. Jack said. "Importantly, this Framework should be examined in diverse populations."

The authors recognize that the current form of the NIA-AA Research Framework is designed around only the biomarker technology that is presently available. They point out that the proposed biomarker scheme (see the attached fact sheet) is expandable to incorporate new biomarkers, as they are developed and verified.

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About Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association:

The mission of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association is to bridge knowledge gaps across a wide range of bench-to-bedside investigations. The journal creates a forum for rapid communication of new findings, ideas and perspectives; increases knowledge in diverse disciplines to promote early detection/diagnosis and/or interventions; and provides the scientific impetus for new initiatives or public policies concerning research on prevention and new models of health services. Visit http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com.

About the Alzheimer's Association The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research; provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. Visit http://www.alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

NOTE: Media are directed to a news release by the National Institute on Aging at the U.S. National Institutes of Health on this topic.

Disclosures: Alzheimer's Association staff members Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer and Heather Snyder, Ph.D., Senior Director of Medical and Scientific Operations are co-authors on "NIA-AA Research Framework: Towards a Biological Definition of Alzheimer's Disease."

"NIA-AA Research Framework: Towards a Biological Definition of Alzheimer's Disease"

Fact Sheet

What It Is

In the NIA-AA Research Framework, Alzheimer's disease is defined by its underlying pathologic processes that can be documented by post-mortem examination or in vivo by biomarkers.

In a research setting, diagnosis is not based on the clinical consequences of the disease (i.e. symptoms/signs).

It shifts the definition of Alzheimer's disease in living people from a syndromal (a group of symptoms that consistently occur together) to a biological construct.

The AT(N) Biomarker System

AT(N) nomenclature represents a conceptual framework that is based on the past decade's observations of relationships between markers of amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration. o "A" refers to A as measured either by amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of amyloid plaques or in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as A42 or the A42 to A40 ratio. o "T" refers to tau pathology as measured by CSF phosphorylated tau (p-tau) or tau PET imaging of parenchymal neurofibrillary tangles. o "(N)" refers to neurodegeneration or neuronal injury and dysfunction, as measured for example by hippocampal volume, cortical volume/thickness, or CSF total tau (T-tau). While "A" and "T" are considered to have diagnostic specificity for Alzheimer's disease, "(N)" is not specific for Alzheimer's disease diagnoses. The AT(N) system was designed with both a CSF and an imaging biomarker in each of the three biomarker groups. Complete AT(N) biomarker characterization of research participants is possible using either imaging or CSF biomarkers alone. Some groups may prefer a mixture of imaging and CSF biomarkers. The AT(N) system does not imply a specific order of events nor does it imply causality. It is a system for grouping biomarkers and classifying research participants on the basis of biomarker profiles.



Applications of AT(N) in Clinical Trials

Selecting participants for Alzheimer's disease dementia or MCI trials based on the AT(N) scheme would enrich the trial with persons with the greatest likelihood of decline in the time frame of a clinical trial.

Perhaps the greater advantage afforded by the AT(N) Framework is that it could enable more precise staging of individuals along the Alzheimer's disease continuum. This would allow future proof-of-concept trials to be conducted in biologically-defined (in addition to clinically-defined) target populations, and to more directly investigate whether modulation of a specific target interferes with a specific component of disease pathologic change.

Innovative clinical trial approaches that have proven successful in other disease areas such as oncology (e.g., platform trials, umbrella and basket designs) might be employed with stratification of subjects by AT(N) profile, enabling a data-driven approach to identify the biological stage of disease in which an intervention has maximal treatment effects.

If successful, trials in biologically defined populations could address uncertainties that have thus far stymied Alzheimer's disease drug development: Is amyloid a trigger or driver of downstream neuropathology? What is the latest biological stage of Alzheimer's disease at which secretase inhibition slows progression? At what stage will tau-directed therapies be effective in slowing progression of tau pathology?

Why It's Better than What We Have Now

[T]here are two enormous pitfalls with using symptoms to define Alzheimer's disease; they are neither sensitive nor specific for the neuropathologic changes that define the disease, and they cannot identify individuals who have biological evidence of the disease but do not (yet) manifest signs or symptoms.

The most rational framework with which to discover interventions that prevent or delay the initial onset of symptoms is a biologically based definition of the disease that encompasses both the clinical and the preclinical phases.

Thus a Framework suitable for interventional trials should be founded on a biologically based definition of Alzheimer's disease; and, it is only rational that the Framework is harmonized across interventional and observational research.

The notion of providing a common language with which researchers can communicate consistently is important.

Because clinical trials are a multinational effort in the 21st century, developing a common language for biomarker designations in the Alzheimer's disease spectrum is critical for harmonization across the international roster of clinical trial sites and investigators.

If one research group defines Alzheimer's disease as  amyloid plaques and pathologic tau while a different group defines Alzheimer's disease as the presence of amnestic dementia then findings from the two groups point to different entities and conclusions are not directly comparable.

Personalized medicine: The AT(N) system moves Alzheimer's disease research in the direction of personalized medicine by coding pathologic change in three categories for each research participant and allows for future flexibility by adding other biomarkers as they are discovered and validated.

This level of granularity in biomarker classification, combined with genetic and clinical information, will presumably be useful in tailoring treatment to the individual when appropriate specific treatments become available.

New Language and Labels
WASHINGTON D.C. -- Glaciers in Alaska's Denali National Park are melting faster than at any time in the past four centuries because of rising summer temperatures, a new study finds.

New ice cores taken from the summit of Mt. Hunter in Denali National Park show summers there are least 1.2-2 degrees Celsius (2.2-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than summers were during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The warming at Mt. Hunter is about double the amount of warming that has occurred during the summer at areas at sea level in Alaska over the same time period, according to the new research.

The warmer temperatures are melting 60 times more snow from Mt. Hunter today than the amount of snow that melted during the summer before the start of the industrial period 150 years ago, according to the study. More snow now melts on Mt. Hunter than at any time in the past 400 years, said Dominic Winski, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and lead author of the new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The new study's results show the Alaska Range has been warming rapidly for at least a century. The Alaska Range is an arc of mountains in southern Alaska home to Denali, North America's highest peak.

The warming correlates with hotter temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to the study's authors. Previous research has shown the tropical Pacific has warmed over the past century due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

The study's authors conclude warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean has contributed to the unprecedented melting of Mt. Hunter's glaciers by altering how air moves from the tropics to the poles. They suspect melting of mountain glaciers may accelerate faster than melting of sea level glaciers as the Arctic continues to warm.

Understanding how mountain glaciers are responding to climate change is important because they provide fresh water to many heavily-populated areas of the globe and can contribute to sea level rise, Winski said.

"The natural climate system has changed since the onset of the anthropogenic era," he said. "In the North Pacific, this means temperature and precipitation patterns are different today than they were during the preindustrial period."

Assembling a long-term temperature record

Winski and 11 other researchers from Dartmouth College, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire drilled ice cores from Mt. Hunter in June 2013. They wanted to better understand how the climate of the Alaska Range has changed over the past several hundred years, because few weather station records of past climate in mountainous areas go back further than 1950.

The research team drilled two ice cores from a glacier on Mt. Hunter's summit plateau, 13,000 feet above sea level. The ice cores captured climate conditions on the mountain going back to the mid-17th century.

The physical properties of the ice showed the researchers what the mountain's past climate was like. Bands of darker ice with no bubbles indicated times when snow on the glacier had melted in past summers before re-freezing.

Winski and his team counted all the dark bands - the melt layers - from each ice core and used each melt layer's position in the core to determine when each melt event occurred. The more melt events they observed in a given year, the warmer the summer.

They found melt events occur 57 times more frequently today than they did 150 years ago. In fact, they counted only four years with melt events prior to 1850. They also found the total amount of annual meltwater in the cores has increased 60-fold over the past 150 years.

The surge in melt events corresponds to a summer temperature increase of at least 1.2-2 degrees Celsius (2.2-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) relative to the warmest periods of the 18th and 19th centuries, with nearly all of the increase occurring in the last 100 years. Because there were so few melt events before the start of the 20th century, the temperature change over the past few centuries could be even higher, Winski said.

Connecting the Arctic to the tropics

The research team compared the temperature changes at Mt. Hunter with those from lower elevations in Alaska and in the Pacific Ocean. Glaciers on Mt. Hunter are easily influenced by temperature variations in the tropical Pacific Ocean because there are no large mountains to the south to block incoming winds from the coast, according to the researchers.

They found during years with more melt events on Mt. Hunter, tropical Pacific temperatures were higher. The researchers suspect warmer temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean amplify warming at high elevations in the Arctic by changing air circulation patterns. Warmer tropics lead to higher atmospheric pressures and more sunny days over the Alaska Range, which contribute to more glacial melting in the summer, Winski said.

"This adds to the growing body of research showing that changes in the tropical Pacific can manifest in changes across the globe," said Luke Trusel, a glaciologist at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey who was not connected to the study. "It's adding to the growing picture that what we're seeing today is unusual."

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The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing 60,000 members in 137 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our other social media channels.

Notes for Journalists

This research article is available for free for 30 days. A PDF copy of the article can be downloaded at the following link: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2017JD027539.

Journalists and PIOs may also order a copy of the final paper by emailing a request to Lauren Lipuma at llipuma@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.

Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Paper Title: "A 400-year ice core melt layer record of summertime warming in the Alaska Range"

Authors: Dominic Winski, Erich Osterberg, David Ferris, Mark Baum, Adriana Bailey: Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.A.;

Karl Kreutz, Seth Campbell, Sean Birkel, Douglas Introne, Mike Handley: Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, U.S.A.;

Cameron Wake: Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, U.S.A.

Contact information for the authors: Dominic Winski: Dominic.A.Winski.GR@dartmouth.edu, +1 (207) 263-8861.

Video link: https://youtu.be/swQfsIFzaGs

AGU Press Contact:

Lauren Lipuma

+1 (202) 777-7396

llipuma@agu.org

Dartmouth College Press Contact:

David Hirsch

+1 (603) 646-9130

David.S.Hirsch@dartmouth.edu
Experts in pediatric kidney disease have published a new staging system to help doctors better predict the length of time until a child with chronic kidney disease (CKD) will need to undergo a kidney transplant or start receiving dialysis. Although this type of prognostic guide exists for adults, this is the first such tool specific to children.

"We designed a clinically useful, data-driven tool for doctors and nurses to advise parents and plan treatment, based on when a child's kidney disease is likely to progress to the need for transplant or dialysis," said study leader Susan L. Furth, MD, Chief of Nephrology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Furth and colleagues published their study today in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Healthcare providers currently rely mainly on their own clinical experience to estimate when their patients' condition will progress to end-stage renal disease. "Having the proper amount of lead time is important," said Furth. "One key factor is evaluating living donors who intend to donate one of their kidneys for transplant." The donor's workup needs to be current, within a year of the transplant, stressed Furth. After a year, another full workup is necessary.

The researchers drew on two large multicenter study consortia of children with chronic kidney disease. The Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKid) study gathered data on 891 patients from North American centers, while the ESCAPE (Effect of Strict Blood Pressure Control and ACE Inhibition) study was a European clinical trial with data from 378 pediatric patients.

The study team concluded that a combination of three factors provide the best predictors for estimating disease progression: glomerular filtration rate (which measures how efficiently the kidney filters waste products from the blood), proteinuria (the presence of protein in the urine), and whether the CKD is caused by a glomerular or nonglomerular etiology. In glomerular kidney disease, inflammation in the glomeruli, the kidney's filtration units, impairs normal filtration. In nonglomerular disease, more common in children than adults, structural abnormalities or inherited conditions disrupt kidney function.

The study team found that children with glomerular disease had a faster disease progression than those with nonglomerular disease--a 43 percent shorter interval. Accounting for all three risk factors, the researchers divided children with CKD into 6 staged, color-coded groups, ranked from best to worst prognosis.

Each group carries an approximate time estimate of how soon a patient will progress to the need for renal replacement therapy (RRT)--either kidney transplant or dialysis. (In children, more so than in adults, dialysis is usually considered a temporary bridge until a transplant can be done.) For instance, the median time period from baseline to RRT ranges from over 10 years for the lowest-risk group to about nine and a half months for the highest-risk group.

The new stages, said Furth, are not intended to affect how patients are ranked on organ donation lists, but instead offer a new tool to assist clinical decision-making, and to provide families a better sense of their child's kidney disease timetable. She added, "Follow-up studies in other patient cohorts should be done to validate this tool, but this provides a risk continuum system that we didn't have before."

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Funding for the CKiD and ESCAPE studies that informed this research came from the National Institutes of Health (DK66143, DK66174, DK082194, and DK66116), the Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung, the European Commission, the Kuratorium fur Dialyse und Nierentransplantation, and the Baxter Extramural Grant Program.

Susan L. Furth et al, "Estimating Time to ESRD in Children with CKD," American Journal of Kidney Disorders, online date here, 2018. http://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2017.12.011

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 546-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu
Life expectancy and health outcomes worsen the more deprived an area or population is, new research from Cass Business School has found.

The researchers discovered that men are more adversely impacted by deprivation and the southeast of England is less deprived than the rest of the country - with the five most deprived districts all in the north of England.

The research paper Inequalities matter investigated the impact of deprivation on demographic inequalities in England, forecast to 2030. It was conducted by Cass for the International Longevity Centre - UK (ILC-UK).

The researchers used the government-preferred Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) to measure deprivation. The IMD is based on 37 separate indicators including income and are grouped into seven domains, each of which reflects a different aspect of deprivation across the lifespan including education, health and crime.

They found that although life expectancy is increasing overall and the life expectancies of men and women are converging, any improvements are slower paced in more deprived areas, with the net gap between rich and poor slowly worsening over time.

Men tend to be more adversely impacted by deprivation than women, with the gap in life expectancy at age 30 between the top and bottom one per cent of deprived neighbourhoods at 10.9 years for men and 8.4 years for women.

Men are 4.4 times more likely to die at the age of 44 in the most deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods, when compared to the 10 per cent of least deprived neighbourhoods.

The researchers confirmed that deprivation in England is heavily skewed towards urban areas, with the top five districts of deprivation in Northern England - Middlesbrough, Knowsley on Merseyside, Kingston-upon-Hull, Liverpool and Manchester. By contrast in London, only Tower Hamlets, Haringey and Hackney fall into the top 50 deprived districts.

Lead researcher Professor Les Mayhew, Cass Business School, said many of the differences in life expectancy between districts can be explained by unhealthy lifestyles and a lack of social mobility and investment.

"The causes of ill health are increasingly lifestyle related and rooted in the cultures of different socio-economic groups - think smoking, excessive drinking, obesity, drug abuse and mental illness. Efforts are being made to improve health outcomes in deprived areas but more resources need to be provided for preventative measures, training and education. Policy tools aimed at changing behaviour using financial incentives including taxes have shown to be successful and should also be considered."

Professor Mayhew said a positive finding from the report was the gradual reduction in inequalities across the lifespan between men and women.

"This will lead to fewer years of female isolation in later life and longer working lives for women which will have a positive impact on their retirement savings and general health and wellbeing," he said.

However, Professor Mayhew said the gap between rich and poor is widening and the fact that particular districts were more adversely impacted by deprivation was a cause for concern.

"The geographical pattern of deprived districts in England is well established and the reputation of these districts as undesirable places to live tends to go before them, making them unattractive places to invest in. If Government is serious about redressing inequalities, creating attractive job opportunities for the young and investing in training and education is one way do this."

Baroness Sally Greengross OBE, Chief Executive, ILC-UK, said the report had important implications for policymakers and civil society alike.

"The report's call for greater targeted investment in public health is welcome, but sadly echoes calls made by the International Longevity Centre and other experts that have gone unheeded for far too long. If the UK is to realise the potential of our rapidly ageing population and all that could mean for our society, we must ensure that the benefits of longevity are shared by all."

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Media enquiries: Amy Ripley, Senior Communications Officer, Cass Business School, M: +44 (0) 7794 053 384 E: amy.ripley@city.ac.uk

The report was written by Professor Les Mayhew, Professor of Statistics, Cass Business School, City, University of London, Dr Gillian Harper, Queen Mary, University of London and Dr Andres M. Villegas, School of Risk and Actuarial Studies, UNSW Business School, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Scientists have decoded faint distortions in the patterns of the universe's earliest light to map huge tubelike structures invisible to our eyes - known as filaments - that serve as superhighways for delivering matter to dense hubs such as galaxy clusters.

The international science team, which included researchers from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, analyzed data from past sky surveys using sophisticated image-recognition technology to home in on the gravity-based effects that identify the shapes of these filaments. They also used models and theories about the filaments to help guide and interpret their analysis.

Published April 9 in the journal Nature Astronomy, the detailed exploration of filaments will help researchers to better understand the formation and evolution of the cosmic web - the large-scale structure of matter in the universe - including the mysterious, unseen stuff known as dark matter that makes up about 85 percent of the total mass of the universe.

Dark matter constitutes the filaments - which researchers learned typically stretch across hundreds of millions of light years - and the so-called halos that host clusters of galaxies are fed by the universal network of filaments. More studies of these filaments could provide new insights about dark energy, another mystery of the universe that drives its accelerating expansion.

Filament properties could also put gravity theories to the test, including Einstein's theory of general relativity, and lend important clues to help solve an apparent mismatch in the amount of visible matter predicted to exist in the universe - the "missing baryon problem."

"Usually researchers don't study these filaments directly - they look at galaxies in observations," said Shirley Ho, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and Cooper-Siegel associate professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University who led the study. "We used the same methods to find the filaments that Yahoo and Google use for image recognition, like recognizing the names of street signs or finding cats in photographs."

The study used data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, an Earth-based sky survey that captured light from about 1.5 million galaxies to study the universe's expansion and the patterned distribution of matter in the universe set in motion by the propagation of sound waves, or "baryonic acoustic oscillations," rippling in the early universe.

The BOSS survey team, which featured Berkeley Lab scientists in key roles, produced a catalog of likely filament structures that connected clusters of matter that researchers drew from in the latest study.

Researchers also relied on precise, space-based measurements of the cosmic microwave background, or CMB, which is the nearly uniform remnant signal from the first light of the universe. While this light signature is very similar across the universe, there are regular fluctuations that have been mapped in previous surveys.

In the latest study, researchers focused on patterned fluctuations in the CMB. They used sophisticated computer algorithms to seek out the imprint of filaments from gravity-based distortions in the CMB, known as weak lensing effects, that are caused by the CMB light passing through matter.

Since galaxies live in the densest regions of the universe, the weak lensing signal from the deflection of CMB light is strongest from those parts. Dark matter resides in the halos around those galaxies, and was also known to spread from those denser areas in filaments.

"We knew that these filaments should also cause a deflection of CMB and would also produce a measurable weak gravitational lensing signal," said Siyu He, the study's lead author who is a Ph.D. researcher from Carnegie Mellon University - she is now at Berkeley Lab and is also affiliated with UC Berkeley. The research team used statistical techniques to identify and compare the "ridges," or points of higher density that theories informed them would point to the presence of filaments.

"We were not just trying to 'connect the dots' - we were trying to find these ridges in the density, the local maximum points in density," she said. They checked their findings with other filament and galaxy cluster data, and with "mocks," or simulated filaments based on observations and theories. The team used large cosmological simulations generated at Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), for example, to check for errors in their measurements.

The filaments and their connections can change shape and connections over time scales of hundreds of millions of years. The competing forces of the pull of gravity and the expansion of the universe can shorten or lengthen the filaments.

"Filaments are this integral part of the cosmic web, though it's unclear what is the relationship between the underlying dark matter and the filaments," and that was a primary motivation for the study, said Simone Ferraro, one of the study's authors who is a Miller postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley's Center for Cosmological Physics.

New data from existing experiments, and next-generation sky surveys such as the Berkeley Lab-led Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) now under construction at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona should provide even more detailed data about these filaments, he added.

Researchers noted that this important step in sleuthing the shapes and locations of filaments should also be useful for focused studies that seek to identify what types of gases inhabit the filaments, the temperatures of these gases, and the mechanisms for how particles enter and move around in the filaments. The study also allowed them to determine the length of filaments.

Siyu He said that resolving the filament structure can also provide clues to the properties and contents of the voids in space around the filaments, and "help with other theories that are modifications of general relativity," she said.

Ho added, "We can also maybe use these filaments to constrain dark energy - their length and width may tell us something about dark energy's parameters."

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Shadab Alam, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, U.K.; and Yen-Chi Chen, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, also participated in the study. The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of High Energy Physics, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the European Research Council, and the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at UC Berkeley.

NERSC is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

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.
Brazilian researchers have identified seven biomarkers that could be used at the time of the primary diagnosis to show which glioma patients will tend to progress to a more aggressive form of the disease.

In an article published April 10th in the journal Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) describe a biomarker panel that could tell physicians which patients diagnosed with glioma, a type of brain cancer, will tend to progress to a more aggressive form of the disease in the event of relapse.

According to principal investigator Houtan Noushmehr, a professor at USP's Ribeirao Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP), between 80% and 90% of patients diagnosed with brain cancer develop a second tumor after surgical removal of the original lesion.

In most cases the epigenetic profile of the tumor cells remains the same, meaning that gene expression is not altered. This suggests a favorable prognosis with good longevity. In 10% of patients with tumor relapse, however, the cancer cells acquire a more aggressive phenotype, reducing their overall survival.

"At the time of the primary diagnosis [discovery of the first tumor] our biomarker panel could show whether the patient is among these 10% who tend to progress to a more severe condition. This knowledge would help the physician decide whether more aggressive treatment is appropriate in order to prevent progression of the disease," Noushmehr said.

With support by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP, the study was based on an analysis of 200 samples of glioma, a type of cancer that originates in glial cells (such as astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia), which mediate immune responses in the central nervous system (CNS) and support the functioning of neurons. The work was carried out during the postdoctoral research of Camila Ferreira de Souza, partly conducted in the United States at the Henry Ford Hospital, thanks to a FAPESP scholarship for a research internship abroad.

Gliomas are the most common group of CNS tumors, accounting for some 80% of cases, with a mortality rate of about 92%. The degree of histopathological aggressiveness (based on tissue characteristics) ranges from 1 to 4. The higher the number, the worse the prognosis.

"We analyzed samples from 77 patients, from both the primary tumor and the first and second relapse, or even the third in some cases. This is the largest case series survey ever of primary and recurrent gliomas from the same patients," Noushmehr said.

Some of the samples analyzed were collected from patients treated at FMRP-USP and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit (USA). The rest of the data was obtained from studies published in the last three years.

Analysis of the samples focused on epigenetic mechanisms, the chemical processes that modulate genome functioning (to adapt to environmental stimuli) and hence cell phenotype by activating or deactivating gene expression.

More precisely, in this study the group chose a specific epigenetic regulation mechanism known as DNA methylation, a chemical reaction that adds a methyl group (made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms) to the DNA base cytosine, potentially altering the expression of certain genes.

Glioma subtypes

In an article published in the journal Cell in 2016, the group led by Noushmehr had identified seven different glioma subtypes on the basis of tumor epigenetic profiles - among them a more aggressive profile, which they called subtype G-CIMP-low, and one with a more favorable prognosis called G-CIMP-high.

"What we show in this new paper is that only 10% of patients who develop a second tumor progress from subtype G-CIMP-high to subtype G-CIMP-low," Noushmehr explained.

The group analyzed DNA methylation in the 200 tumor samples by microarray, a methodology that can identify and characterize millions of sites and functional genomic elements simultaneously.

As the authors explain, the process whereby a methyl group is added to DNA typically occurs in the base cytosine that usually precedes a guanine (dinucleotide CpG). Microarray analysis shows whether the CpG regions studied, including genes and regulatory elements in the genome, are more or less methylated.

The microarray datasets were processed with the aid of machine learning algorithms, a form of artificial intelligence. These algorithms sift through masses of data using advanced statistical techniques in search of patterns on which to base determinations or predictions.

"In this way we identified seven genomic sites where the level of DNA methylation serves as a biomarker of the risk of evolution from the G-CIMP-high phenotype to the G-CIMP-low phenotype. This is how we produced the biomarker panel," Noushmehr said.

Today, he added, all patients diagnosed with glioma are prescribed practically the same treatment. "You have to wait for the cancer to return, undergo another operation and find out whether it has progressed," he said. "If we know from the outset whether there's a risk of progression to the G-CIMP-low phenotype, we can plan treatment accordingly."

For Souza, the development of personalized therapies for glioma patients is "suboptimized".

"This is due in part to the fact that diagnosis is based mainly on traditional histopathological criteria, meaning the degree of tumor malignancy," she said.

The present study, she added, identified epigenetic vulnerabilities that serve to stratify with high levels of sensitivity and specificity phenotypes associated with recurrent gliomas and with distinct clinical prognoses that could not be predicted merely by neurohistopathological grading of tumor biopsies.

"We expect the panel of clinical biomarkers identified to pave the way for a refinement of our current clinical classification scheme," Souza said. "This will help guide future therapeutic decisions before recurrent malignant gliomas become symptomatic. It will also avoid unnecessarily exposing patients with gliomas that are not highly aggressive to toxic radiation therapy and chemotherapy protocols."

Noushmehr and Souza stressed, however, that the biomarker panel must be validated in a clinical trial and that completion of this process typically takes several years.

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About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. For more information: http://www.fapesp.br/en.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--April 10, 2018--Over a decade ago, Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi made a discovery that would revolutionize biomedical research and trigger the field of regenerative medicine. They learned how to reprogram human adult cells into cells that behave like embryonic stem cells. Scientists were shocked that something so complex could be done so simply, and they had thousands of questions.

The reprogrammed cells are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Researchers can create iPSCs from a patient's blood or skin cells, and use these patient-specific cells to study diseases or even create new tissues that could be transplanted back into the patient as therapy.

Initially, Nobel Laureate and Gladstone Senior Investigator Yamanaka, MD, PhD, and Staff Research Investigator Takahashi, PhD, identified four genes--abbreviated as O, S, K, and M--that cause cells to transform into iPSCs. The genes O, S, and K were known to help the cells become pluripotent, which allows them to produce any other cell type in the body.

The role of gene M (short for MYC), however, was unclear. They knew that by adding MYC, they could reprogram cells 10 percent more efficiently. But they didn't know why.

Twelve years later, Yamanaka and Takahashi finally defined the role of MYC in this important reprogramming process, answering several lingering questions. Their findings are published today in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

They discovered that MYC helps cells get around a significant roadblock in the process. They also found that, in some instances, MYC isn't actually needed for adult cells to successfully transform into iPSCs.

The Power of Three Discoveries

To reprogram cells, scientists typically add four genes (O, S, K, and MYC) to a dish containing adult cells. This allows the cells to start multiplying, which is a distinctive feature of stem cells. But after three days, the cells suddenly encounter a roadblock and stop multiplying, or proliferating. Then, on day seven, the cells start multiplying again and go on to become iPSCs.

If the researchers don't add MYC to the dish, the cells go through the same process, but they never overcome the obstacle, so they cannot successfully convert into iPSCs.

"We realized that MYC seems to help cells get around this roadblock, and that this needs to happen for adult cells to turn into iPSCs, but we still didn't quite understand how MYC did that," explained Takahashi. "Interestingly, we were able to figure it out thanks to three discoveries that happened independently in the lab, while people were working on different things."

The first discovery helped them find an early indicator of a cell's potential to finish reprogramming. It also allowed them to easily identify when the roadblock would occur, providing a valuable time reference for the subsequent findings.

The second discovery stemmed from a separate project on a protein called LIN41. The scientists found that if they replaced MYC with LIN41 in the cocktail of genes involved in reprogramming--meaning if they used O, S, K and LIN41--they could convert adult cells into iPSCs with the same efficiency.

"This was strange because it meant that, contrary to what we believed, MYC isn't necessary for cells to reprogram efficiently," said Tim Rand, MD, PhD, staff scientist at Gladstone and a first author of the study. "It turns out that adding LIN41 altogether avoids the onset of the roadblock that prevents cells from converting into iPSCs."

The team found that when they use the combination of O, S, K, and LIN41, the adult cells don't stop proliferating after the third day. Instead, they continue to multiply as if nothing happened and successfully complete the reprogramming process. This is because LIN41 blocks another protein, called p21, which causes the roadblock.

The third discovery proved to be even more astonishing. It showed that, in a particular cell line, neither MYC nor LIN41 are needed to enhance reprogramming.

The scientists went through the same process using tumor-derived cells that continuously multiply. Then, they removed LIN41, and nothing happened. Puzzled, they tried to remove MYC and, once again, nothing changed.

"That result was very shocking to me," said Rand. "Given everything we thought we knew about MYC and LIN41 at the time, we couldn't comprehend how these genes were so beneficial in somatic cell reprogramming, but absolutely useless in tumor reprogramming. Eventually, when we realized how it fit in, it was such useful information. It made us realize that certain cell types can fortuitously accomplish the role of MYC and LIN41 during reprogramming--to disable the p21 response. If I could relive that day over again, I would make sure it was a big celebration."

Rand and the rest of the team realized that without p21, there is no roadblock, so LIN41 is not needed to avoid it. They also showed that MYC is mainly useful because it activates LIN41. So, without the p21 roadblock, MYC isn't needed either.

Bringing Clarity to a Complex Process

Through these multiple discoveries, the Gladstone scientists noticed that the reprogramming process involves many genes and proteins important for cancer biology. In fact, they believe the roadblock trying to prevent cells from multiplying is the same one that tries to prevent cancer from spreading.

"When cancer biologists add certain factors to a cell that should drive it toward cancer, the cell panics and, to protect itself, it stops multiplying," said Takahashi. "We think the same thing is happening here, because cells are reacting to reprogramming as if it were cancer. It's not that they're trying to block the cells from transforming into iPSCs, but they've simply never been exposed to this process before and don't know how to react."

The new study explains many important activities involved in cellular reprogramming, and debunks certain leading theories about the role of MYC in this process.

"For a long time now, the entire field was collecting data on MYC, LIN41, and other genes and proteins without knowing what most of it meant," said Yamanaka, who is also director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University, and professor at UC San Francisco. "Our study finally allows us to clearly understand all the data and address questions about the roles and importance of many of these elements."

With a clearer picture of the reprogramming process in hand, the field of regenerative medicine can now build upon these findings to answer the next set of burning questions.

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About the Research Project

The paper "MYC Releases Early Reprogrammed Human Cells from Proliferation Pause via Retinoblastoma Protein Inhibition" was published by Cell Reports on April 10, 2018: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)30402-9.

The other first author of the study is Kenta Sutou from CiRA. Other scientists who took part in the research include Daeun Jeong and Emi Tomoda from Gladstone; Masaki Nomura, Fumiyo Kitaoka, Megumi Narita, Michiko Nakamura, Masahiro Nakamura, Akira Watanabe from CiRA; and Koji Tanabe and Eric Rulifson from Sanford University.

This research was funded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Japan Foundation for Applied Enzymology; CiRA; and Gladstone. The study also received private support from Hiroshi Mikitani, Marc Benioff, the L.K. Whittier Foundation, and the Roddenberry Foundation.

About the Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, the Gladstone Institutes) focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impact--unsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.
FRANKFURT. In the pre-industrial age, twilight was a dangerous time for humans since they were at risk of encountering nocturnal predators. Anyone still able to recognise things despite the weak light was at a clear evolutionary advantage. As neuroscientists at Goethe University Frankfurt have now discovered, the human brain prepares for dawn and dusk by shutting down resting activity in the visual cortex at these times so that weak visual stimuli do not disappear in the brain's background noise.

The transition from night to day, light and dark, has a greater influence on perception that we realise. The time of day has a particularly significant impact on the quality of visual signals around us. In the course of evolution, our visual system has adapted perfectly to light conditions during the day. It has, however, also developed a strategy for twilight: Evidently it allows our inner clock to predict these periods and prepare our visual system for times when the quality of visual signals deteriorates.

"Whilst the cogs of our inner clock have already been studied in depth, it was not known to date which mechanism optimises visual perception at times when poor signal quality can be expected," explains Dr. Christian Kell from the Brain Imaging Center of Goethe University Frankfurt. That is why Lorenzo Cordani, his doctoral researcher, examined how 14 healthy test persons reacted to visual stimuli at six different times of the day in the framework of a complex fMRI study.

The main idea of the study was to relate the perception of sensory signals to the brain's resting activity. There is namely a certain "background noise" in the brain even in the complete absence of external stimuli. The international team led by Christian Kell, Lorenzo Cordani and Joerg Stehle was able to show that the body independently downregulates resting activity in the sensory areas during dawn and dusk. The more resting activity was reduced, the better the test persons were able to perceive weak visual signals when measured afterwards.

This means that humans can perceive weak visual stimuli during dawn and dusk better than at other times of the day. In other words: During twilight, the signal-to-noise ratio in the sensory areas of the brain improves. Since resting activity during twilight decreases not only in the visual but also in the auditory and somatosensory regions of the brain, the researchers assume that perception sharpens not only in the visual system. An earlier study already showed that weak auditory stimuli during twilight were perceived better. The mechanism now discovered, which was published in the latest issue of Nature Communications, could therefore represent a key evolutionary advantage that ensured survival in the pre-industrial era.

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A telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to listen to a mysterious cigar-shaped object that entered our Solar System late last year.

The unusual object--known as 'Oumuamua--came from another solar system, prompting speculation it could be an alien spacecraft.

So astronomers went back through observations from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope to check for radio transmissions coming from the object between the frequencies of 72 and 102MHz --similar to the frequency range in which FM radio is broadcast.

While they did not find any signs of intelligent life, the research helped expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) from distant stars to objects closer to home.

When 'Oumuamua was first discovered, astronomers thought it was a comet or an asteroid from within the Solar System. But after studying its orbit and discovering its long, cylindrical shape, they realised 'Oumuamua was neither and had come from interstellar space.

Telescopes around the world trained their gaze on the mysterious visitor in an effort to learn as much as possible before it headed back out of the Solar System, becoming too faint to observe in detail.

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the MWA team did not initially set out to find 'Oumuamua.

"We didn't set out to observe this object with the MWA but because we can see such a large fraction of the sky at once, when something like this happens, we're able to go back through the data and analyse it after the fact," Professor Tingay said.

"If advanced civilizations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, we can speculate that they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and that these spacecraft may use radio waves to communicate."

"Whilst the possibility of this is extremely low, possibly even zero, as scientists it's important that we avoid complacency and examine observations and evidence without bias."

The MWA is located in Western Australia's remote Murchison region, one of the most radio-quiet areas on the planet and far from human activity and radio interference caused by technology.

It is made up of thousands of antennas attached to hundreds of "tiles" that dot the ancient landscape, relentlessly observing the heavens day after day, night after night.

Professor Tingay said the research team was able to look back through all of the MWA's observations from November, December and early January, when 'Oumuamua was between 95 million and 590 million kilometres from Earth.

"We found nothing, but as the first object of its class to be discovered, `Oumuamua has given us an interesting opportunity to expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence from traditional targets such as stars and galaxies to objects that are much closer to Earth.

"This also allows for searches for transmitters that are many orders of magnitude less powerful than those that would be detectable from a planet orbiting even the most nearby stars."

'Oumuamua was first discovered by the Pan-STARRS project at the University of Hawaii in October.

Its name loosely means "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past" in Hawaiian, and is the first known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System.

Combining observations from a host of telescopes, scientists have determined that `Oumuamua is most likely a cometary fragment that has lost much of its surface water because it was bombarded by cosmic rays on its long journey through interstellar space.

Researchers have now suggested there could be more than 46 million similar interstellar objects crossing the Solar System every year.

While most of these objects are too far away to study with current technologies, future telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will enable scientists to understand more about these interstellar interlopers.

"So once the SKA is online, we'll be able to look at large numbers of objects and partially balance out the low probability of a positive detection."

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Original Publication:

'A Serendipitous MWA Search for Narrow-band and Broad-band Low Frequency Radio Transmissions from 1I/2017 U1 `Oumuamua', published in The Astrophysical Journal on April 10th, 2018. Available at http://www.icrar.org/interstellar

More Information:

The MWA

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a low frequency radio telescope and is the first of four Square Kilometre Array (SKA) precursors to be completed.

A consortium of partner institutions from seven countries (Australia, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and China) financed the development, construction, commissioning, and operations of the facility. The MWA consortium is led by Curtin University.

ICRAR

The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with support and funding from the State Government of Western Australia.

Multimedia:

Images and video available from http://www.icrar.org/interstellar

Contacts:

Professor Steven Tingay (ICRAR / Curtin University)

Ph: +61-401-103-635

E: Steven.Tingay@icrar.org

Pete Wheeler (Media Contact, ICRAR)

Ph: +61-423-982-018

E: Pete.Wheeler@icrar.org
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- "White flight" from the city to the suburbs has long been identified as producing racially segregated communities. Some scholars have argued the behavior is motivated not by race but by a desire to live in more stable and prosperous neighborhoods.

But new research from Indiana University Bloomington casts doubt on that explanation. Examining population trends in racially mixed suburbs, sociologist Samuel Kye finds that white flight occurs when nonwhite residents move in, regardless of socioeconomic factors.

"White flight is actually more likely to occur in middle-class neighborhoods rather than in poor neighborhoods," he said. "Once a community has a large enough percentage of African-American, Hispanic or Asian residents, white flight is more likely."

The article, "The persistence of white flight in middle-class suburbia," was published in the journal Social Science Research. Kye is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences.

The study uses census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010 to examine the changing racial makeup of suburbs in the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. It defines white flight as what happens when an area loses at least 100 white residents and at least 25 percent of its white population over 10 years.

While previous research has examined white flight, he said, it has been difficult to untangle racial dynamics from a tendency for people to move to more attractive neighborhoods. Race could serve as a proxy for family income, neighborhood stability, school reputation and other quality-of-life factors.

But the development of so-called ethno-burbs, suburbs with large African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic populations, opened the door to a closer look. Over half of nonwhite residents of large metropolitan areas now live in suburbs such as predominantly Asian areas near Los Angeles and San Francisco, Arab-American enclaves near Detroit and African-American-populated areas near Washington, D.C.

The growth of ethno-burbs, and the fact that some are middle-class and others are poor, created the conditions for a natural experiment, Kye said. If race were a proxy for poverty, white flight should be greater in poor suburbs. In fact, it has been greater in middle-class suburbs. Overall, areas that saw white flight lost, on average, 40 percent of their white population over a decade.

"If you look at the trend curves, once the nonwhite groups become 20 to 25 percent of the population, that's when it flips," Kye said. "Whites are willing to tolerate a certain level of diversity, but once it crosses a threshold, white flight becomes likelier to occur."

The findings matter, Kye said, because other studies have shown that living in stable, racially integrated neighborhoods is associated with improved outcomes in education, health and other factors. And those who live among other racial and ethnic groups are less likely to give in to prejudice and stereotypes.

If there's good news from the broader body of research on white flight, Kye said, it's that young white people -- those in their 20s and early 30s -- have migration patterns that produce more integrated neighborhoods rather than replicating white flight. But it remains to be seen, he said, whether that trend will continue as they build families and think more about schools and neighborhood safety.

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Bottom Line: The pervasiveness of malnutrition and anemia among Rohingya children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh exceeds emergency thresholds.

Why the Research Is Interesting: Nearly 700,000 ethnic minority Rohingya people crossed the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh after violence escalated in Rakhine State in Myanmar in August 2017. They joined an estimated 200,000 who had fled in earlier waves since the 1990s. The populations of two refugee camps and surrounding makeshift settlements have more than doubled and concerns have been raised about the nutritional status of the Rohingya children.

Who and When: 269 children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years in the Kutupalong refugee camp in October 2017

What (Study Measures): Weight-for-height and height-for-age scores were calculated to assess malnutrition; anemia screening also was done

How (Study Design): This was a population-representative survey.

Authors: Eva Leidman, M.S.P.H., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and coauthors

Study Limitations: A small sample size was used to provide rapid results in the context of an emergency; nutritional outcomes may differ in other refugee camps.

Study Conclusions: The pervasiveness of global acute malnutrition and anemia exceeded emergency thresholds of 15 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in a sample of Rohingya children in the Kutupalong refugee camp.

For more details and to read the full study, please visit the For The Media website.

(doi:10.1001/jama.2018. 2405)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

# # #

Link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2018.2405

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Charlottesville, VA (April 10, 2018). The University of Glasgow's Sir Graham Teasdale, co-creator of the Glasgow Coma Scale, has teamed with Paul M. Brennan and Gordon D. Murray of the University of Edinburgh to create new assessment tools that build on the Glasgow Coma Scale in order to provide greater information on injury severity and prognosis in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) while still offering simplicity of use. These tools are described and evaluated in two companion papers published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Background

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was first introduced in 1974 by Bryan Jennett and Graham Teasdale to assess coma and impaired consciousness. The scale describes variations in three clinical features: the patient's eye, motor, and verbal responses. The authors assigned numerical scores to each feature depending on the quality of the response. GCS total scores (including eye + motor + verbal responses) range from 3 (deep coma) to 15 (full consciousness). The scale is used throughout the world by physicians, nurses, and emergency medical technicians.

Other researchers have designed methods to evaluate patients with TBI and predict outcomes based on a variety of factors, but many of these methods have been complex and have not been readily accepted in the clinical setting. The arrival of a patient with TBI at an emergency department requires rapid injury assessment that is readily communicable to other healthcare workers. The tools offered in these articles provide just that.

The Present Studies

In this paper, Brennan, Murray, and Teasdale describe the development of the Glasgow Coma Scale-Pupils score (GCS-P), a simple but elegant tool that extends the information collected by the GCS score on the severity of TBI. The authors examined the relationships between GCS scores and pupils' reaction to light as well as the relationships between these factors and patient outcome 6 months after injury. To do this, they examined data from CRASH[1] and IMPACT[2], the two largest databases containing information on individual patients with TBI.

To create the GCS-P, the authors first established a pupil reactivity score, which represents the number of nonreactive pupils (0, 1, or 2). This number is subtracted from the GCS score (3-15), resulting in the GCS-P (1-15).

The authors state that pupil reactivity and the GCS score are the two clinical features that provide the most information about prognosis in head-injured patients. Combining the two together provides greater information about injury severity and prognosis than using the GCS score alone, particularly in cases of severe head injury (GCS scores 3-8), in which nonreactive pupils are more common.

Brennan, Murray, and Teasdale point out that adoption of assessment tools works better if the tools are simple and user friendly. Nevertheless, they examined other, more complicated models of combining the GCS score and pupil reactivity to see if those models yielded more predictive information about outcomes in patients with TBI. The authors found that the simple arithmetically derived GCS-P performed almost as well as other, more complex methods. Plus it has the advantage of being simple to apply and easy to communicate to others.

In this paper, Murray, Brennan, and Teasdale show how other factors can be added to the Glasgow Coma Scale-Pupils score (GCS-P) to further increase predictive information on patient outcome. The clinical features comprising the Glasgow Coma Scale, pupil reactivity, patient age, and computed tomography (CT) findings have all separately been found to have bearing on patient outcome after neurological trauma. These factors have been validated in earlier studies to be the most important prognostic characteristics in head-injured patients.

Again the authors sought a way to combine patient features into a more comprehensive assessment tool that would be simple to apply and whose information yield could be easily communicated to others. Using CRASH and IMPACT data, Murray, Brennan, and Teasdale combined the patient's early GCS score, pupil reactivity, age, and CT findings, and developed a series of graphic representations that clearly display the risks of death and probabilities of favorable outcomes in patients with brain injury.

First, the authors observed the additive effect on outcome that occurs when age is added to the patient's admission GCS-P. The risk of death after TBI increases as patient age advances, and at all ages the risk of death increases as the GCS-P decreases. The probability of favorable outcome is greater in younger patients and in patients with higher GCS-Ps. The authors created two prediction charts based on the GCS-P and patient age stratified into 5-year increments (GCS-PA charts): one chart clearly shows risks of death and the other chart probabilities of favorable outcomes in patients 6 months after TBI.

Following this, the authors added information obtained from CT scans when available. They were able to simplify three different abnormal CT findings into scores based solely on the number of abnormalities. They then created two sets of three predictive charts based on the GCS-P plus patient age and number of CT abnormalities (GCS-PA CT charts). One set of charts follows probabilities of death 6 months after injury, while the other set follows probabilities of favorable outcome at the same time point. These charts can be used by clinicians in decision making and in communicating predictive information to other clinicians, patients, and caregivers.

The authors state that these methods of assessing injury and potential outcomes in patients with TBI should not be used alone when managing an individual case. Individual patients all have unique characteristics, which together influence outcome. Nevertheless, the GCS-P and predictive charts that also include age and CT findings provide important objective information that is simple to apply and can be used to assist decision making and communicate risks to others.

When asked about these important studies, the authors responded, "Decisions about patient care in the immediate aftermath of a head injury are influenced by physician perceptions of the patient's likely outcome, so it's important that assumptions that underlie these decisions are correct. Working together between Glasgow and Edinburgh, we have developed the GCS-P and associated prognostic charts. These simple and easy to use tools provide reliable estimates of outcomes at 6 months and will support clinician decision making in neurotrauma."

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[1] Corticosteroid Randomisation After Significant Head Injury.

[2] International Mission for Prognosis and Clinical Trials in Traumatic Brain Injury

Brennan PM, Murray GD, Teasdale GM: Simplifying the use of prognostic information in traumatic brain injury. Part 1: The GCS-Pupils score: an extended index of clinical severity. Journal of Neurosurgery, published ahead of print April 10, 2018. DOI: 10.3171/2017.12.JNS172780.

Murray GD, Brennan PM, Teasdale GM: Simplifying the use of prognostic information in traumatic brain injury. Part 2: Graphical presentation of possibilities. Journal of Neurosurgery, published ahead of print April 10, 2018. DOI: 10.3171/2017.12.JNS172782.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in these two studies or the findings specified in these papers.

For additional information, please contact: Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager, Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group, One Morton Drive, Suite 200, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Email: jaeliason@thejns.org; Phone: 434-982-1209.

For 74 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery has been recognized by neurosurgeons and other medical specialists the world over for its authoritative clinical articles, cutting-edge laboratory research papers, renowned case reports, expert technical notes, and more. Each article is rigorously peer reviewed. The Journal of Neurosurgery is published monthly by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include Neurosurgical Focus, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. All four journals can be accessed at http://www.thejns.org.

Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 10,000 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org.
When you have diabetes then get an acute kidney injury there is a multiplier effect that can worsen your prognosis and destroy your kidneys

AUGUSTA, Ga. (April 10, 2018) - When you have diabetes then get an acute kidney injury there is a multiplier effect that can worsen your prognosis and destroy your kidneys.

Now scientists have evidence that at least part of the problem is that diabetes impairs the ability of kidney cells to consume the garbage they generate in the process of filtering more than 100 quarts of your blood daily.

It's called autophagy, and it helps kidney cells operate at a premium and that's where the problems occur, says Dr. Zheng Dong, cellular biologist, Regents' Professor and Leon Henri Charbonnier Endowed Chair in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at the Medical College of Georgia.

In diabetes, hardworking kidney cells must work even harder to handle high levels of glucose, which produces even more garbage, while autophagy activity is down. An acute kidney injury on top of that further heightens the trash and the damage.

Dong is principal investigator on a new $2.2 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that is helping parse just how autophagy is hampered in diabetes and finding targets to bolster autophagy and help patients and their kidneys better survive diabetes and recover from an acute kidney injury.

An acute kidney injury is mostly what it sounds like: when kidney function deteriorates in a few hours or days. It can result from a literal blow to the kidney, in a fall or car accident, or from dehydration in an overzealous student athlete. In the face of general good health, most patients recover fully and quickly, Dong says.

But acute kidney injury mostly occurs in people who already have another medical problem like diabetes. In fact, most are in the hospital when it happens, with problems like bleeding or shock, failure of other organs like the heart, even an overdose of over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories for problems like the cold or flu, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Despite these typically heightened scenarios, there aren't any targeted therapies for acute kidney injury, says Dong, rather supportive therapies like hydration, possible short-term dialysis and addressing the injury cause.

Even without an acute kidney injury, the heavy burden of glucose and inflammation that comes with diabetes causes related kidney damage in about a third of patients in about 15 years of living with the disease. The ceaseless filtering and reabsorption work of the kidney gets overwhelmed with the extra glucose, which can increase oxidative stress, prompt sugars to start binding to proteins, which can reduce their function, and inflammation becomes chronic and destructive.

In fact, diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of kidney failure in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Dong's team has evidence that diabetes makes people more susceptible to an acute kidney injury from which they don't recover well, which ties back full circle because an acute injury also increases the chronic kidney disease risk.

The bottom line is that in this so-called "comorbid" state, patients are at heightened risk for significant kidney damage, even kidney failure.

His team focuses on the acute injury piece of this interrelated health dilemma and the reality that treatment for acute kidney injury hasn't really improved after a half-century search for good therapies, Dong says. That's why he is looking for targets and therapeutic agents.

Blood enters the kidneys through clusters of small blood vessels called glomeruli. We have more than a million of these filtering units that each connect to a collecting tube called a tubule, which passes waste along to the bladder for elimination. Tubular cells also daily resorb nearly 50 gallons of usable items, including salt and glucose the kidneys filter from the blood. They typically resorb 80-90 percent of the glucose.

In their effort to maximize autophagy in the face of higher glucose, Dong and his team are delineating how diabetes reduces autophagy with the idea of restoring this innate ability when a patient is also bombarded with an acute kidney injury. They have their sites on some of our smallest RNA.

They have evidence that activity of ULK1, an enzyme and key initiator of autophagy, is reduced in the kidney both in diabetes and also by putting a lot of glucose directly on kidney cells.

MicroRNA, or miRNA, generally suppress expression of their target genes, and Dong's team also has evidence that in diabetes, expression of at least one miRNA is increased, which, in turn, decreases ULK1 expression and autophagy. Right now they don't know a lot about its functions, but high levels are associated with overgrowth of tubules and thickening and scarring of the kidney.

Also up in diabetes is p53, a known tumor suppressor that can help assess damage to a cell, help drive its repair if possible and its suicide if it's not. In a healthy cell, p53 levels are low.

Higher levels of p53 are associated with lower levels of autophagy and Dong has shown p53 is even more highly activated with an acute kidney injury, likely to help kill off freshly injured cells.

"Autophagy is generally a protective mechanism, so as this protective mechanism goes down, an injury mechanism goes up," Dong says of this inverse relationship.

He thinks his miRNA is essentially the middleman with p53 signaling for it to reduce autophagy and it responding by turning down expression of the ULK1 gene. That pivotal role makes the miRNA a likely and probably amenable drug target, he says.

"We need to find a way to make it go down," Dong says. "Maybe if we can normalize autophagy a little better we can help kidneys survive this period."

The new grant is enabling them to sort the details of how p53 induces the miRNA in diabetic kidneys, how it, in turn, suppresses ULK1 and autophagy and, finally, how reduced autophagy makes the kidneys more vulnerable to injury.

This shift is likely what makes a patient with diabetes more vulnerable to acute kidney injury. Another thing they are exploring further is what happens to cell death rates, but Dong has already watched tubule cells become less efficient and die. He's also now exploring the relationship between reduced autophagy and increased inflammation.

Diabetes is a common, chronic stressor of the kidney, Dong says. And he expects other common stressors, like the all too common hypertension, make some of the same unhealthy adjustments to tubule cells. In fact, he is collaborating with China's Central South University with the idea of delineating the autophagy pathway in a hypertension model as well.

Dong's research on kidney injury has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2000.

A study published in 2009 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that 49 percent of patients with chronic kidney disease who had a severe acute kidney injury were in renal failure within 30 days after leaving the hospital compared with 1.5 percent in those who did not experience the acute injury.

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A DNA test method called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) allowed New York City health officials to identify the source of a Legionnaires' disease outbreak within hours of specimen collection and should be considered in all Legionnaires' outbreak investigations, researchers say in the April issue of the Journal of Environmental Health.

Their study describes the outbreak response and innovative use of PCR rather than the standard method of bacterial culture, which generally takes five to 10 days for a lab to detect the presence of Legionella bacteria, said co-author Christopher Boyd, who led the city's response to the 2014 Legionnaires' outbreak as then-assistant commissioner of environmental sciences and engineering.

"In an outbreak investigation, the ability to identify and mitigate possible sources of exposure is critical to preventing more people from becoming infected. By using PCR, we were able to mitigate risks days earlier than if we had relied on traditional culture methods," said Boyd, who is now general manager of Building Water Health at NSF International, an independent, not-for-profit public health and safety organization.

"Our approach likely helped prevent more people from getting sick, because we were responding much sooner."

Legionnaires' disease, a severe form of pneumonia that occurs from inhaling water droplets from manmade water systems contaminated with Legionella bacteria, is the leading cause of death from waterborne outbreaks. An estimated 8,000 to 18,000 cases a year in the United States require hospitalization.

With a PCR test, fragments of DNA are run through a machine called a thermocycler, which heats and cools the sample repeatedly to produce multiple copies of these DNA fragments, amplifying them for analysis in just a few hours.

Boyd, who co-authored the study with Isaac Benowitz from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other researchers, said while PCR can confirm the presence of Legionella bacteria in a water sample, it cannot reliably tell whether those bacteria are alive or dead (like a bacterial culture can). Only live Legionella bacteria can make people sick.

But since PCR can be completed in one day, Boyd said the test is a valuable tool during a Legionnaires' disease outbreak. In late 2014, he and his team at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene suspected the outbreak of eight Legionnaires' cases was caused by a building's cooling tower; a PCR water sample from the tower confirmed the presence of Legionella in a single day and the city ordered the cooling tower shut down and disinfected. Days later, results from a bacterial culture of the water came back to show the Legionella bacteria in the cooling tower were, in fact, alive. Further testing showed these bacteria were the cause of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak.

Boyd and his team in New York City would use PCR successfully during a much larger outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in summer 2015 that killed 16 people and sickened more than 100. Another cooling tower was confirmed as the source. The local health department's investigation and response to that outbreak is discussed in another recent study co-authored by Boyd in the journal Public Health Reports.

In addition to PCR testing, Boyd said health departments should have a detailed strategy to deal with Legionnaires' disease outbreaks, including knowing the location of cooling towers. Following the 2015 outbreak, New York City instituted rules for the registration and oversight of all cooling towers.

"Very often in these outbreaks, health officials don't know the source of exposure that is making people sick," Boyd said. "It is critical that public health officials have an inventory of significant sources of risk and detailed response plans to speed the response to an outbreak."

For their part, building owners and managers should have a comprehensive water safety plan for managing pathogens such as Legionella. Boyd and other experts in water safety and public health will discuss these key issues May 9-11 at Legionella Conference 2018 in Baltimore, sponsored by NSF International and the National Science Foundation.

With proper planning and management of building water systems, Legionnaires' disease outbreaks are almost completely preventable, experts say. A recent CDC report, in fact, found that nine in 10 outbreaks can be prevented with more effective water management. But unfortunately, preparing for and managing Legionella in many cases continues to be an afterthought in American society, Boyd said.

"In the United States, we have a very low tolerance for engineered systems to kill people," he said. "We don't allow elevators to fall and we expect fire sprinkler systems to work. So why is it that we continue to accept that failures in the maintenance of engineered water systems are addressed only when public health officials respond to significant increases in Legionnaires' disease cases? There needs to be a paradigm shift among building owners, facility managers and public health officials - these outbreaks are preventable and the trigger for corrective action should no longer be sick and dead people."

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Almost 50 percent suffer from cognitive decline during chemotherapy and up to one year post-treatment; 30 percent continue to experience the condition a year after treatment

More support is needed to help breast cancer patients and survivors manage 'chemobrain' symptoms, such as memory loss, short attention span and mental confusion, according to a study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The study involving 131 female breast cancer patients in Singapore revealed that almost half had suffered from cognitive decline at some point during treatment and up to one year post-treatment. Close to 30 per cent had reported some degree of cognitive impairment one year after undergoing chemotherapy.

"Cognitive impairment among breast cancer survivors is an important issue now because early stage breast cancer is treatable. Knowing when patients experience these cognitive problems, and how long the symptoms persist, can aid the development of suitable screening and clinical management measures," said research team leader Associate Professor Alexandre Chan, who is from the Department of Pharmacy at NUS Faculty of Science.

Cognitive challenges affecting breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among Singaporean women. Between 2010 and 2014, more than 1,800 women in Singapore were diagnosed with the condition each year.

While current treatments convey excellent survival benefits - with more than 90 per cent of patients surviving beyond five years - many patients acquire cognitive toxicities known as chemobrain. These toxicities can dramatically affect patients' quality of life.

"Early treatment for breast cancer patients usually involves intensive therapy - this means that patients are exposed to high levels of chemotherapy drugs, and they are also at higher risk of long-term side effects. After treatment, we need to manage survivorship issues. However, the clinical presentation of cognitive toxicities remain poorly understood," explained Assoc Prof Chan.

To examine the impact of chemobrain on breast cancer patients, Assoc Prof Chan and his team studied patients with Stages I to III breast cancer. The patients were evaluated at four time points - prior to the start of chemotherapy; six weeks after chemotherapy started; 12 weeks after chemotherapy started; and approximately 15 months after the start of chemotherapy.

Both subjective and objective measures were used to assess cognitive decline. For the former, patients were asked whether they faced difficulty in areas such as concentration, memory, multitasking and verbal fluency, using a validated questionnaire. The patients were also evaluated on their attention, memory, mental processing speed and speed of response using a computer-based software.

The researchers found that almost half of the respondents suffered from some degree of cognitive impairment during treatment and up to one year post-treatment. About 30 per cent complained of cognitive impairment one year after chemotherapy. In addition, a year after undergoing chemotherapy, 15 per cent of the participants were objectively assessed to suffer from memory challenges, and close to 10 per cent experienced issues with response speed. These results were first reported in the journal Psycho-Oncology earlier this year.

Breast cancer survivor Ms Chan Yoke, who is a graphic designer, can attest to cognitive impairment as a result of chemotherapy. In 2015, Ms Chan went through 16 sessions of chemotherapy, along with radiotherapy, as part of her treatment for breast cancer. She said, "I became forgetful after chemotherapy started. I would walk from the kitchen to a room to get something, but once I reached the room, I would not able to recall what I wanted."

About three years after the start of her chemotherapy, Ms Chan still grapples with the after-effects of her cancer treatment. She shared that her memory did not go back to what it was like before she had cancer, and her thought processes are also slower than they were prior to the start of her chemotherapy treatment.

Early screening and intervention programmes needed

The results of this study draw attention to the difficulties faced by breast cancer survivors after completion of active treatment, when they begin to resume their societal roles. The findings also highlight the importance of raising awareness about cognitive impairment among breast cancer patients, so that they can be better prepared for the changes they will experience during treatment and survivorship.

"A well-rounded holistic survivorship programme will be very useful for cancer patients and survivors. More importantly, we should actively screen and manage patients at risk of cognitive impairment. This is extremely important as we are expecting to see an increasing number of cancer survivors in Singapore, and cognitive impairment can bring significant negative impact to survivors' quality of life," said Assoc Prof Chan.

Researchers from the National Cancer Centre Singapore and KK Women's and Children's Hospital also contributed to the study, which was conducted from 2011 to 2017.

Building on the knowledge gained from this study, Assoc Prof Chan and his team are studying the biomechanisms behind post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. The researchers will also evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions for managing chemobrain symptoms.

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Beta blockers have become a prescription drug staple for recovering heart attack patients. However, these blood pressure-reducing medications cannot be tolerated by many patients who are at higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, the elderly, and diabetics. As seen in the March 26 issue of Thyroid, researchers at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) now pose a new treatment for patients with beta blocker intolerance: thyroid hormone therapy.

Formally known as "beta-adrenergic blocking agents," beta blockers came to prominence in the 1960s, when deaths from myocardial infarction (MI), the clinical term for heart attack, were very common. The drugs work by blocking the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, from binding to receptors in the heart. Consequently, when the effects of the neurotransmitters are impeded, heart rate and blood pressure are lowered, allowing the heart to beat with less force and more easily deliver circulation to the body.

During MI, increased adrenaline raises pressure in the arteries and increases heart rate to compensate for the sudden loss of contractile tissue. Unfortunately, this places added stress on surviving myocardium, the heart's muscular tissue. Muscular damage to the heart sustained during infarction may cause the organ to be less effective in pumping blood to the rest of the body, a condition that can eventually lead to heart failure and death.

Since beta blockers are known to improve chance of survival, patients unable to tolerate beta blockers may then be at greater risk for heart failure than those able to withstand the drugs. However, the NYITCOM researchers suggest that the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3), which controls many aspects of cardiovascular function and is also a powerful regulator of beta receptor function, may offer an alternative therapy.

"While beta blockers have been viewed as the gold standard in MI treatment for years, a significant population at risk for heart failure is unable to tolerate these drugs. If given beta blockers, these patients' conditions can, in fact, worsen -- heart rate may fall too low and heart function could deteriorate," said Martin Gerdes, Ph.D., chair, Biomedical Sciences, NYITCOM, and senior investigator in the study. "Preclinical studies have shown thyroid hormone treatment to be a safe and effective method for managing cardiovascular disorders, and may offer a better option for these patients."

To investigate this option, Gerdes' team, which included experts from China's top cardiovascular center, FuWai Heart Hospital, compared the effectiveness of T3 and metoprolol, a commonly prescribed beta blocker, in female laboratory rats. Immediately following MI, the rats were provided either a low dose of T3 or the beta blocker in their drinking water for a total of eight weeks. At the end of that period, thyroid hormone proved to be as good, if not better, than metoprolol at improving heart function and reversing expression of detrimental genes linked to heart failure, providing all the benefits of the beta blocker plus some additional benefits unique to thyroid hormones, such as improved expression of genes related to better contraction and relaxation of the heart.

"Both treatments provide comparable results and similar long-term benefits, including improved function in the left ventricle, an area often damaged during heart attack, as well as reduced infarction size and improved vessel function," said Gerdes, who has studied the cardiovascular benefits and effects of thyroid hormone treatment for more than a decade. "Overall, these results suggest that T3 is capable of providing a safe alternative for beta blocker intolerant patients following MI."

The researchers will continue studying the effectiveness of thyroid hormone after MI and encourage clinical researchers to consider examining low dose T3 treatment of MI patients who cannot tolerate beta blockers.

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For more information about NYITCOM, visit nyit.edu/medicine.

About NYIT

NYIT (New York Institute of Technology) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 10,000 students in programs and campuses in New York (Manhattan and Old Westbury, Long Island) and Arkansas as well as China, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. NYIT sponsors 13 NCAA Division II programs.

NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. More than 100,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit nyit.edu.
A new study in SLEEP, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that delaying school start times results in students getting more sleep, and feeling better, even within societies where trading sleep for academic success is common.

The study aimed to investigate the short and longer-term impact of a 45-min delay in school start time on sleep and well-being of adolescents.

Singapore leads the world in the Programme for International Student Assessment rankings, which measures international scholastic performance in 15-year-olds. East Asian students live in a culture where the importance of academic success is deeply ingrained. This drive for academic achievement leads to high attainment in international academic assessments but has contributed to the curtailment of nocturnal sleep on school nights to well below the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep, putting students at risk of cognitive and psychological problems.

In Singapore, school typically starts around 7:30 AM, which is one hour earlier than the 8:30 AM or later start time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep deprivation among Singaporean adolescents is rampant, and the average time in bed on school nights is 6 and a half hours.

In July 2016, an all-girls' secondary school in Singapore delayed its start time from 7:30 to 8:15 in the morning by restructuring its schedule in a way that did not delay school end time. Researchers investigated the impact of starting school later on students' sleep and well-being one month and nine months after the institution of the start time delay.

The sample consisted of 375 students in grades 7-10 from an all-girls' secondary school in Singapore that delayed its start time from 7:30 to 08:15 in the morning. Researchers assessed self-reports of sleep timing, sleepiness, and well-being (depressive symptoms and mood) before the school made the schedule change, and evaluated the measures again at approximately one and nine months after the delay. Total sleep time was also measured.

Later school start times have been shown to benefit sleep and well-being in Western cultures, but its usefulness in East Asian countries where students are driven to trade sleep for academic success is less clear. Most studies on later school start times have been conducted in Western countries. These studies have consistently found increased sleep duration on school nights with later start times. However, the sustainability of sleep habit improvement is not as well characterized.

Researchers wondered if students would continue to get more sleep if schools delayed their start times; the gains may not be sustained if students gradually delay their bedtime. For example, one study found that the sleep gained two months after a 45-minute delay in start time was no longer observed after another seven months, due to a delay in the sleep period. Delaying bedtimes, partly as a result of mounting academic workload, is a pressing reality in most East Asian households. Compounding this erosion of sleep time in East Asian societies is the resistance to changing the already packed school schedules. For example, recently, a secondary school in Hong Kong agreed to delay its start time, but only by 15 minutes. Nevertheless, a four-minute increase in time-in-bed on weekdays was found, together with gains in mental health, prosocial behavior and better attentiveness in class and peer relationships.

The results of this new study indicate that after one month, bedtimes on school nights were delayed by nine minutes while the times students got up were delayed by about 32 minutes, resulting in an increase in time in bed of 23 minutes.

Participants also reported lower levels of subjective sleepiness and improvement in well-being at both follow-ups. Notably, greater increase in sleep duration on school nights was associated with greater improvement in alertness and well-being.

Critically, with a later school start time the percentage of participants whose self-reported sleeping time on weekdays was at least 8 hours--the amount generally considered appropriate for adolescents--increased, from 6.9% to 16%. Total sleep time increased by about 10 minutes at the nine-month follow-up.

"Starting school later in East Asia is feasible and can have sustained benefits," said the paper's lead researcher, Michael Chee. "Our work extends the empirical evidence collected by colleagues in the West and argues strongly for disruption in practice and attitudes surrounding sleep and wellbeing in societies where these are believed to hinder rather than enhance societal advancement."

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The paper "Sustained Benefits of Delaying School Start Time on Adolescent Sleep and Well-being" will be available at: https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsy052

Direct correspondence to:

Michael W.L. Chee

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Duke-NUS Medical School

8 College Road

SINGAPORE 169857

michael.chee@duke-nus.edu.sg

To request a copy of the study, please contact:

Daniel Luzer

daniel.luzer@oup.com

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Michael "Miki" Amitay, the James L. Decker '45 Endowed Chair in Aerospace Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has received a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study the phenomenon of flow separation on aircraft wings, which could lead to improved aerodynamic performance in future-generation air vehicles.

As lead investigator on the project, Amitay will use the three-year, $894,000 grant to study "Flow physics and control of 3-D separation on 3-D swept wings," along with co-investigators Vassilis Theofilis of the University of Liverpool, UK, and Kunihiko Taira of Florida State University.

The goal of the project is to clarify and classify the origins of unsteadiness and turbulence in the presence of 3-D large-scale separation structures on a swept wing surface by performing fundamental theoretical, numerical, and experimental research, and to develop physics-based flow control methodologies aimed at the alleviation of adverse wing performance effects associated with those separation phenomena.

"Flow separation can degrade the aerodynamic performance of vehicles and their components at various phases of vehicle motion and, as such, has been the focus of intense efforts to understand and control this phenomenon since the early decades of last century," said Amitay.

Current work employing experimentation, large-scale computation, and analysis mostly focuses on 2-D separation. However, according to Amitay, configurations exist, notably aircraft swept wings and fins in flight, in which separation is an essentially 3-D phenomenon. For instance, flow unsteadiness on modern unmanned aerial vehicles featuring finite aspect ratio swept wings is linked with the formation and instability of large-scale 3-D pockets of flow separation.

"Our investigations are designed to achieve an enhanced physical understanding of 3-D separation physics and effective strategy for its control," said Amitay.

An internationally recognized expert in fluid dynamics and flow control, Amitay is the founding director of the Center for Flow Physics and Control (CeFPaC) at Rensselaer, which was established in 2012. The center's two main thrusts are the aerodynamics of aerial, ground, and underwater vehicles, and wind energy, including smart wind turbine blades. The center's facilities include a water tunnel and wind tunnels, which Amitay will use to test theoretical predictions devised as part of this project.

Amitay received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. For the past 30 years he has performed leading-edge research related to experimental aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, and flow control. His research has been sponsored by the Department of Defense and other federal and state agencies, as well as industry.

His published works include nearly 160 archival and conference publications, four book chapters, and four U.S. patents (with three pending). In addition, three of his conference papers were awarded "best technical paper," two by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and one by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Based on the work of Amitay's group, Rensselaer won the Boeing Performance Excellence Award (silver level) in 2011 and 2012, and the prestigious Boeing Supplier of the Year award in the Technology category in 2011.

Miki Amitay's work exemplifies The New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and research at Rensselaer that uses advanced technologies to enable fresh collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and regions, in order to answer the global challenges of our day. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.

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About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America's first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 86 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as 6 National Medal of Technology winners, 5 National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century--to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to http://www.rpi.edu.

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TORONTO, April 9, 2018 - Existing gender gaps in academic medicine may have a negative impact on workplace culture and organizational effectiveness, but there are simple, systems-based solutions, suggests a new study.

Published today in BMC Medicine, the study led by Dr. Reena Pattani and Dr. Sharon Straus analyzed interviews conducted with female and male faculty members at the University of Toronto and its six fully-affiliated hospitals. Interviews with frontline staff uncovered that the gender gap in academic medicine has a negative impact.

"We identified three key themes that the gender gap fuels: social exclusion of female colleagues, reinforced stereotypes, and unprofessional behaviour," said Dr. Straus, director of the Knowledge Translation Program at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital. "Interestingly, instead of just focusing on the issues, the study's participants also offered system-based solutions to close the gap."

Several opportunities to mitigate the gap emerged from this research, said Dr. Straus, who is also interim physician-in-chief at St. Michael's. The participants suggested more streamlined recruitment, hiring, and promotions processes and simple amendments to the work environment, such as unconscious bias training for leaders and holding meetings during work hours so that all faculty members can attend. Formalized mentorship and consistent monitoring of the gender gap were also offered as solutions.

"These are solutions at the level of the institution, rather than at the level of the individual," said Dr. Pattani, a physician at St. Michael's. "The advice historically given to women has been about how they can change their own personal behaviours. That overlooks some of the systemic factors holding women back. We need to ensure that institutions can create a more inclusive environment for all."

This work builds on previous research conducted by Dr. Straus, which found that a significant gender gap existed across the research institute at St. Michael's Hospital. Since then, steps have been taken to reduce the gender imbalance. Across the University of Toronto's Department of Medicine, search guidelines, transparent promotions processes, and a formal mentorship program have also been implemented, and a biennial faculty survey helps university and hospital leadership monitor trends of the gender gap over time. At St Michael's Hospital, the Department of Medicine has also been hosting networking opportunities for female trainees.

"These are inspiring measures to promote equity. We can work together to institute more system-based approaches like these ones, which are low cost and easy to implement," Dr. Pattani said.

The researchers acknowledge that there are also other factors beyond gender that impact workplace culture, which were not studied in this paper. Further research is needed to understand how sexual orientation, race and ethnicity play a role in the representation gap, Dr. Straus said.

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This study was funded by the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

About St. Michael's Hospital

St. Michael's Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care professionals in more than 29 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, care of the homeless and global health are among the Hospital's recognized areas of expertise. Through the Keenan Research Centre and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Centre, which make up the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, research and education at St. Michael's Hospital are recognized and make an impact around the world. Founded in 1892, the hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Media contact

For more information, please contact:

Ana Gajic

Senior Communications Advisor, Research

St. Michael's Hospital

Phone: 416-864-5960 or 416 458 0629

Gajica@smh.ca

Inspired Care. Inspiring Science.

http://www.stmichaelshospital.com

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WASHINGTON -- Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common hormone condition among young women, are prone to mental health disorders, and their children face an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

PCOS affects 7 percent to 10 percent of women of childbearing age. It costs an estimated $5.46 billion annually to provide care to reproductive-aged PCOS women in the United States, according to the Society's Endocrine Facts and Figures report. PCOS is the most common cause of infertility in young women, and the elevated male hormone levels associated with the condition lead to many other emotionally distressing symptoms like irregular periods, excessive facial and body hair, weight gain and acne.

"PCOS is one of the most common conditions affecting young women today, and the effect on mental health is still under appreciated," said one of the study's authors, Aled Rees, M.B.B.Ch., Ph.D., F.R.C.P., of Cardiff University in Cardiff, United Kingdom. "This is one of the largest studies to have examined the adverse mental health and neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with PCOS, and we hope the results will lead to increased awareness, earlier detection and new treatments."

In the retrospective cohort design study, researchers from the Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute at Cardiff University assessed the mental health history of nearly 17,000 women diagnosed with PCOS. The study leveraged data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), a database containing records for 11 million patients collected from 674 primary care practices in the United Kingdom.

When compared with unaffected women, matched for age and body mass index, the study found that PCOS patients were more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and eating disorders.

Children born to mothers with PCOS were also found to be at greater risk of developing ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. These findings suggest that women with PCOS should be screened for mental health disorders, to ensure early diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately improve their quality of life.

"Further research is needed to confirm the neurodevelopmental effects of PCOS, and to address whether all or some types of patients with PCOS are exposed to mental health risks," said Rees.

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Other authors of the study include: Thomas Berni, Christopher Morgan, and Ellen Berni of Cardiff University in Cardiff.

The study, "Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is associated with Adverse Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes," will be published online, ahead of print.

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world's oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
Matthew Becker, W. Gerald Austen Endowed Chair of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at the University of Akron (UA), was inducted today by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) into its College of Fellows. Becker was honored for developing novel families of degradable polymers for use in additive manufacturing, regenerative medicine and drug delivery. Becker is a widely recognized scholar and innovator in organic polymer chemistry and biomaterials.

Becker was elected by peers and members into the College of Fellows, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top 2 percent of medical and biological engineers in the U.S. for their significant contributions to the field.

Two degradable polymer platforms from Becker's lab, developed for regenerative medicine and 3D printing, were recently exclusively licensed by 21MedTech from the University of Akron Research Foundation. At its onset, the deal represents one of the most significant licensing arrangements by the University in its 148-year history.

Becker's pioneering research at UA into America's deadly opioid epidemic was awarded $2 million in December from the state of Ohio's Third Frontier Commission. UA is working with 21MedTech and pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. to commercialize a non-opiate degradable polymer mesh designed to control post-surgical pain while helping patients avoid potential addiction to pain pills.

The College of Fellows consists of two Nobel Prize winners, 10 Presidential Medal of Science winners and eight Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation winners as well as more than 200 members of the National Academies of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences.

A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE annual meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. April 9, 2018. Becker was inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2018.

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About the University of Akron

The University of Akron (UA) is the region's most influential public research university, contributing to the resurgence of the local economy, providing a highly skilled workforce and known for an innovative approach to higher education. With more than 22,000 students and 300+ associate, bachelor's, master's, doctorate and law degree programs, UA offers career-focused and experiential learning. From polymers and psychology, to engineering and communications, to business and education, UA brings together distinct fields of study in ways that provide students with valuable real-world learning opportunities. To learn more, visit http://www.uakron.edu.

About AIMBE

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Stream restoration efforts along the coast of Central California are unevenly distributed, with activity more likely to occur in areas that are more highly populated and dominated by residents who are "whiter, wealthier, and more educated," according to an analysis by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In addition, coastal stream restoration is heavily concentrated in Santa Cruz, Morro Bay, and southern Santa Barbara County, creating "restoration deserts" with virtually no activity, said lead author Bronwen Stanford, a doctoral candidate in environmental studies.

"Restoration projects were really unevenly distributed, and a lot of the Central Coast had no projects at all," said Stanford. "This disparity is troubling for social and ecological reasons. It begs the question, are we overlooking certain communities or certain types of ecological sites?"

Stanford's paper, "Where and why does restoration happen? Ecological and sociopolitical influences on stream restoration in Coastal California," appears in the May issue of Biological Conservation, which is online now.

Ecological and social drivers

Stanford's study looked at 699 sites of publicly funded stream restoration projects between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara counties that were completed between 1983 and 2017.

Stream restoration projects benefit ecosystems by improving fish habitat, water quality, and riparian habitat--the interface between land and rivers or streams. Human-oriented benefits include improved recreational access, flood protection, and educational outreach and training.

Stanford's analysis found that restoration projects target many areas of ecological need. The presence of native fish was the biggest ecological factor driving the distribution of restoration sites, with steelhead present in 95 percent of sites. Water quality and riparian conditions were other environmental drivers.

On the social side, Stanford found that stream restoration occurred most frequently in a particular type of community: those with higher percentages of residents who are wealthy, non-Hispanic white, and have college degrees. Stanford identified three mechanisms that could explain the distribution pattern:

First, communities with higher incomes could be better able to provide matching funds required by most restoration grants.

Second, wealthier residents with higher levels of education might be more adept at securing a disproportionate share of restoration funding.

Third, local demographics may influence the location of restoration organizations, which in turn may influence site selection. Stanford found that restoration is often dependent on the existence of a local organization, and they are more likely to be present in areas with wealthy, white, and educated populations.

The results suggest that not all residents are benefitting equally from public funds spent on restoration projects, and not all areas of ecological need are getting attention, said Stanford.

"Most restoration was hyper local--happening within 12 miles of a restoration organization's office--so we might be missing some really important sites that aren't right next to an office," said Stanford.

The social disparities didn't surprise coauthor Erika Zavaleta, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

"We know that other environmental benefits, like clean air and water, are not equitably distributed in California to even greater degrees," said Zavaleta. "Whatever the cause of this inequity, the outcome is a relative lack of restoration investment in lower-income communities with larger populations of color and with less college education. Environmental quality is foundational to health and well-being, and disadvantaged communities need more investment, not less."

Conservationists, she said, can and should be looking for opportunities to restore sites and take on other environmental projects in communities where these investments are lacking. "They could be social, as well as ecological, game changers," she said.

Stanford, like Zavaleta, suggests a more diverse conservation workforce would help benefit more types of communities, and she called for a regional approach to environmental planning.

"We need to think regionally, because we are missing places," she said. "Areas like the Salinas River watershed are important for fish and other wildlife. They are highly impacted by human activities, and yet had relatively few restoration projects. A regional approach would help us focus on areas of highest need, rather than just communities that are good at applying for funding."

Ross Clark is director of the Central Coast Wetlands Group at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, which performs restoration work from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara with a focus on the Salinas Valley. He agrees that a regional approach is desirable

The challenge of how to distribute state funding more equitably is complicated, in part because funding waxes and wanes, and priorities shift, he said. "Preferential selection" for state-funded water projects that benefit disadvantaged communities will help. "But there are still huge hurdles to overcome," said Clark. "To develop a project--to apply for and administer grants--requires a significant amount of infrastructure, staff, programs, and coordination among local agencies and nonprofits. Lower-income areas just don't have the same levels of support to get these projects."

Clark favors an approach that integrates environmental objectives into long-term water-management efforts that currently tend to be focused on storm water management and water quality, rather than ecological restoration.

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Adam Millard-Ball, assistant professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, is the third coauthor on the paper.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a genetic screening tool that identified two key factors that allow the influenza virus to infect human lung cells. The technique uses new gene editing tools to create a library of modified cells, each missing a different gene, allowing scientists to see which changes impact their response to flu. This in turn could identify potential targets for antiviral drugs.

"Our current treatments for flu are limited. Vaccines have variable efficacy, and the virus has a propensity to mutate so that antiviral drugs don't work as well," said Julianna Han, a graduate student in microbiology at UChicago and lead author of the study, published April 10, 2018 in Cell Reports. "The next wave of antiviral treatments will be in part directed toward the host, so our work helps us get a better understanding of what proteins and pathways are utilized by the influenza virus."

Han and Balaji Manicassamy, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology at UChicago and senior author of the study, used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tools that allow scientists to selectively knock out, or turn off, specific genes. They created a library of modified human epithelial lung cells, the cells that line the airways and are the first to be infected by the flu virus. Each cell was missing a different gene, creating nearly 19,000 different genetic variations of the cell.

The researchers then exposed the cells to the H5N1 flu strain, a type of influenza A virus commonly known as the bird flu. If the virus was able to infect and kill one of the host cells, that means the gene and the proteins it produces didn't play a role in the virus' ability to replicate. If the cell survived, that means its modified genome somehow made it resistant to the virus--it was now missing a pathway that the virus relied on to replicate and do its dirty work.

After five rounds of exposing the cells to the H5N1 virus, Han and Manicassamy were left with a set of cells that were pretty resistant to the flu. When they examined what these hardy survivors had in common, two genes stood out. One, SLC35A1, encodes a protein that helps create a receptor for the flu on the surface of the cell. This makes sense--if you knock out SLC35A1, there's nothing for the virus to latch onto and infect the host.

The second gene, CIC, is more intriguing. It's a negative regulator of the innate immune system, meaning it helps shut down the cell's default immune response to foreign invaders. When CIC is turned off, other genes that produce antiviral and inflammatory responses are allowed to fire up and fight off the virus, which is why the test cells missing it were resistant to the flu.

But you couldn't just knock out a gene like CIC permanently as a means to fight the flu. The body needs mechanisms to shut off the immune system once an infection is gone. If not, it could go into overdrive and damage the body's own cells, which is what happens in autoimmune disorders. On the other hand, certain cancers can exploit a negative regulator like CIC to suppress immune responses while tumor cells run rampant.

"By turning off CIC, we now allow for expression of antiviral genes that are able to respond to the flu infection," Manicassamy said. "But it's also probably regulating inflammatory gene expression in autoimmunity and some cancers. It's a new twist that may be broadly applicable to other diseases besides the flu."

Once they identified the two key genes involved in H5N1 response, Han and Manicassamy exposed the cells to other pathogens to spot any more commonalities. CIC was also important for all strains of flu and several RNA viruses, or viruses containing RNA genomes. These included respiratory and non-respiratory viruses, highlighting CICs broad effect.

The new genetic screening process could be used to find other host genes relevant to different viruses that infect epithelial lung cells. Then, researchers could look for any currently available drugs that target those pathways and see if they can be repurposed as antiviral treatments.

Ultimately, Han is working to understand exactly how CIC regulates other antiviral and inflammatory genes. How does the host turn CIC on or off? And what happens when it malfunctions?

"It's either through mutations in CIC itself or through aberrant regulation," she said. "If we can further pinpoint what is involved, we can try to figure out how CIC is being misregulated in cancer and autoimmune diseases."

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The study, "Genome-Wide CRISPR/Cas9 Screen Identifies Host Factors Essential for Influenza Virus Replication," was supported by the University of Chicago, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Additional authors include Jasmine Perez, Cindy Chen, Yan Li, Matheswaran Kandasamy, and Jorge Andrade from UChicago; Asiel Benitez and Benjamin tenOever from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Yoontae Lee from Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.
Most people recognize that there is a relationship between cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease. But new research from Copenhagen University Hospital and University of Copenhagen shows that a certain kind of cholesterol might affect our health differently, that is, through a role in the immune system.

In brief, the concentration of HDL cholesterol -- which is often called the "good" cholesterol -- seems to matter with respect to getting infectious diseases, such as gastroenteritis or pneumonia.

"Surprisingly, we found that individuals with both low and high HDL cholesterol had high risk of hospitalization with an infectious disease. Perhaps more importantly, these same groups of individuals had high risk of dying from infectious disease," explains professor and chief physician at University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital Brge Nordestgaard.

The results were based on data from 100,000 individuals from the Copenhagen General Population Study who were followed for more than 6 years using national Danish health registries, and have just been published in the highest ranking journal within cardiovascular disease -- European Heart Journal.

Possible role in the immune system

"Numerous studies in animals and cells indicate that HDL is of importance for the function of the immune system and thereby the susceptibility to infectious disease, but this study is the first to examine if HDL is associated with the risk of infectious disease among individuals from the general population," explains one of the authors PhD-student and physician Christian Medom Madsen from University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital.

The authors cannot based on this study conclude that very low or very high HDL is the direct cause of the increased risk of infectious disease, but conversely they cannot rule out a direct causal relationship either, as data from the genetic part of the study indicates that this might be the case.

"Our findings indicate that, in the future, research into the role and function of HDL should not narrowly focus on cardiovascular disease, but rather focus on the role of HDL in other disease areas, such as infectious disease," says Brge Nordestgaard.

Facts

The 21% of the population with the lowest concentrations of HDL cholesterol and the 8% of the population with the highest concentrations of HDL cholesterol had high risk of infectious disease.

Individuals with very low HDL cholesterol had a 75% higher risk of infectious disease as compared to the reference group and the risk was 43% higher in those with very high HDL cholesterol.

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Scientific article:

Madsen CM, Varbo A, Tybjrg-Hansen A, Frikke-Schmidt R, Nordestgaard BG. U-shaped relationship of high-density lipoprotein and risk of infectious disease: two prospective population-based cohort studies. Eur Heart J 2018.

Contact:

Brge G. Nordestgaard, Clinical Professor

Mobil: +45-3028-7263

Email: Boerge.Nordestgaard@regionh.dk

Press Officer Mathias Traczyk

+45-93565835

Mathias.traczyk@sund.ku.dk
A new way to rapidly assess levels of consciousness in people with head injuries could improve patient care.

The new score - based on the Glasgow Coma Scale - could also help doctors assess the health of the patient's central nervous system in cases of serious trauma or intensive care.

Using it could improve the way doctors around the world care for patients in a coma from brain injury.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which was created at the University of Glasgow and the city's Southern General Hospital in 1974.

The 13 point scale - covering the patient's ability to open their eyes, speak and move - has revolutionised the care of brain injured patients worldwide.

The original GCS team joined forces with researchers at the University of Edinburgh to improve the scale by adding a simple score for pupil response.

Using health records from more than 15,000 patients, they showed that the new score, known as the GCS-Pupil (GCS-P), would have improved doctors' ability to predict a patient's condition in the six months following a brain injury.

A major advantage of the GCS-P is its simplicity and it could be adopted into hospitals easily, allowing doctors to quickly assess prognosis, experts say.

There are almost 350,000 hospital admissions involving damage to the brain in the UK per year, equating to one admission every 90 seconds.

Dr Paul Brennan, who co-led the study from the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, said: "The importance of the Glasgow Coma Scale to medicine cannot be overstated and our simple revision really improves its predictive ability and usefulness.

"Making major decisions about brain injured patients relies on quick assessments and the new method gives us rapid insights into the patient's condition. Our next step is to test the GCS-P more widely on large data sets from Europe and the US."

Professor Sir Graham Teasdale, Emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow, who first developed the GCS and co-led the study, said: "This has been a very successful collaboration. It promises to add a new index to the language of clinical practice throughout the world. The GCS-P will be a platform for bringing together clinical information in a way that can be easily communicated and understood. "

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The study, published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, was supported by a Muriel Cooke bequest to the University of Glasgow.

For further information, please contact: Kate McAllister, Press and PR Office, Tel 0131 650 6357, Email Kate.McAllister@ed.ac.uk

For interviews with Sir Graham Teasdale please the University of Glasgow Communications and Public Affairs Office on media@glasgow.ac.uk or 0141 330 3535.
A new state-of-the-art Cryo-EM facility that will advance the understanding of the processes of life is being officially opened at the University of Leicester.

The facility will be opened by Dr Richard Henderson, from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who was one of three scientists to win the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution." He will launch the Midlands Regional Cryo-Electron Microscope (Cryo-EM) Facility - hosted at the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology - on Tuesday 10 April at the University.

The Cryo-EM facility brings cutting-edge research technologies to the Midlands and represents another successful collaboration within the Midlands Innovation partnership. The University of Leicester led the successful bid, in collaboration with the Universities of Warwick, Nottingham and Birmingham, to establish the facility.

The total investment exceeds 6M with 3.7M from the Medical Research Council (MRC). The four partner Universities provided the remaining funds with a major contribution from the University of Leicester (1.8M).

Professor John Schwabe, Director of the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, led the region-wide bid to the Wellcome Trust-MRC initiative to establish the new facility at Leicester. He said: "There is currently a revolution in using Cryo-EM for research in structural biology. It is very exciting to be opening this facility which will keep the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology at the forefront of the field. The timescale for the project was extremely tight but it is a testament to all those involved from across the University (scientist, estates, contractors etc.) that this flagship facility has been delivered on time and we are launching today."

The revolution in Cryo-Electron Microscopy has been driven by developments in the microscopes themselves, the camera systems, and in the computational methods used to process the images. This has allowed the latest generation of Cryo-EMs, such as the one in Leicester, to generate 3 dimensional structures of bio-molecules in exquisite detail. This enables scientist to understand the mechanisms through which molecular machines in our cells perform the key functions of life fit. This can lead to understanding disease processes and how best to address them.

The facility is centred around a state-of-the-art 300kV cryo-electron microscope, with the latest generation of direct electron-detecting cameras. Alongside this is the High Performance Image Processing Facility which boasts the state of the art computational infrastructure (based around powerful GPU's) necessary to process the very large (>1TB /day) amounts of data generated by these instruments. A second "feeder" microscope is based at the University of Warwick.

Professor Paul Boyle, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, said: "The University of Leicester is delighted to see the success of this exciting collaborative project with our Midlands Innovation partners. Such developments exemplify the University's strategic ambitions."

Professor Iain Gillespie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Enterprise at the University of Leicester, said: "The Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology is one of our flagship Research Institutes. The opening of this facility is testament to the strength of the Institute and the University's investment in this area."

This regional facility will establish a Midlands Cryo-EM 'ecosystem' that will enable the sharing of equipment and expertise and will help to strengthen existing and establish new scientific collaborations across the region.

Professor Philip Baker, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology at the University of Leicester, said: "The College has a long history of research strength in structural biology and this new technology will enable our researchers to accelerate their study of medically important protein complexes."

Dr Nathan Richardson, Head of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the MRC, said: "This investment in new cryo-EM facilities - awarded to the universities of Leicester, Glasgow, and Oxford - is an important commitment, showing our full support for structural biology during this technological revolution. We're delighted to be able to provide this investment to the University of Leicester, supporting their exciting plans to use this cutting-edge technology to tackle the important biological questions that will help advance human health."

Over the past four decades, European researchers - including MRC-funded researchers in the UK - have played a pivotal role in developing increasingly sophisticated and super-powerful cryo-electron microscopes. This microscope is one of several that was announced in July 2017, as part of 11.3m government funding to boost structural and cell biology research.

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More information on the facility here: https://www2.le.ac.uk/institutes/liscb/facilities-1/facilities-2/copy_of_electron-microscopy/history-and-development-of-the-microscope

Notes to editors:

The Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology (LISCB) is a cross-disciplinary entity that brings together internationally renowned research in structural biology and chemical biology at the University of Leicester into a single world-leading unit.

For more information contact Prof John Schwabe (email js336@le.ac.uk) or Dr Peter Watson from the Leicester Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology (email pjw17@le.ac.uk)

Midlands Innovation is a world-class research and innovation partnership, combining the collective excellence of eight leading universities in the heart of the UK - Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick. It unites the power of university research with the unique strengths of Midlands industry to drive cutting-edge research, innovation and skills development. Midlands Innovation has had a long-standing focus on equipment sharing and research efficiency establishing the first regional equipment database. For more information contact Dr Helen Turner, Midlands Innovation Director (email: h.turner@midlandsinnovation.org.uk)
ANN ARBOR--The child welfare system is more likely to intervene in households in "less neighborly" neighborhoods and in which parents spank their kids, a new study shows.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University conducted analyses on nearly 2,300 families from 20 large U.S. cities who responded to surveys and interviews. Participating families had a child who was born between 1998-2000.

They found that living in neighborhoods with strong social cohesion and trust--where neighbors are willing to help each other and generally get along--protects families against getting involved in the child welfare system.

In addition, Child Protective Services is less likely to intervene in households where kids are rarely spanked.

Other factors, such as poverty and mothers feeling depressed, also increase the odds of CPS involvement after controlling for neighborhood risk and spanking.

In the study, mothers reported the neighborhood conditions in which they lived, such as supportive relationships between neighbors and whether they spanked their 3-year-old child within the past month. The moms also reported contact with CPS when their child had been 3-5 years.

"Our findings suggest that promoting caring, neighborly relationships among residents that support the needs and challenges of families with young children can help ensure children's safety," said study co-author Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, U-M associate professor of social work.

About 57 percent of the 3-year-olds in the sample had been spanked by a parent or parental figure in the past month. CPS investigated 7.4 million children for suspected maltreatment during 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Unlike previous research that only factored spanking and neighborhood conditions separately as precursors of child maltreatment, the current study examined these factors simultaneously, said study lead author Julie Ma, assistant professor of social work at UM-Flint.

"Both the types of neighborhoods in which parents choose, or are forced, to raise their children and parents' decisions about whether they spank their children influence the chances of CPS involvement," she said. "Programs and policies should address strategies for building supportive resident interactions in the neighborhoods, as well as nonphysical child discipline to help reduce maltreatment."

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The study, whose other author was Sacha Klein of Michigan State University, appears in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.
PHILADELPHIA - The longer a patient with a positive screening result waits for diagnostic testing, the worse their cancer outcomes may become, according to a literature review of breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung studies in the journal CA led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

After a patient receives a positive cancer screening result, the next recommended step is a follow-up evaluation with diagnostic testing, a CT scan for example, which is key to confirm the absence or presence of cancer(s) and the severity of any that may be present.

The authors, an interdisciplinary team of cancer experts from the Population-Based Research Optimizing Screening Through Personalized Regimens Consortium, urge patients who receive a positive screening to schedule a diagnostic test as soon as feasible. Articles considered were published between January 1998 and December 2017, conducted in an average-risk population, except in lung cancer, and used study designs that provided empirical evidence and evaluated the key question.

Although the findings of this research follow the longstanding conventional wisdom, this literature review backs up this message with patient outcome data. The authors make clear that each patient's cancer trajectory is different and there is no established timeframe that is OK to wait before a diagnostic test without risk of cancer progression.

"To ignore these findings is not patient-centered," said lead author Chyke Doubeni, MD, chair of Family Medicine and Community Health. "The longer a patient waits, the less likely they are to get the diagnostic testing done. There is also the risk that precancerous or early tumors will become more advanced cancers that are more difficult or impossible to cure."

The paper offers suggested targets for each of the four cancers within which diagnostic testing should be performed. The targets range from 60-90 days, but were not able to ascribe a certain number of risk points based on exactly how long a patient waits. For example, on average, cervical cancer takes longer to progress than lung cancer does, but the authors caution against ascribing a safe period to wait or saying it's safe to wait a little longer if you have cervical cancer vs another type based on the limited body of knowledge to date.

The National Academy of Medicine has identified improving the timeliness and patient-centeredness of care as an important unmet health priority. Screening is proven to reduce the risk of death from some cancers and is currently recommended at grade A or B by the US Preventive Services Task Force in eligible persons for breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancers, which enables full coverage of those services under the Affordable Care Act.

Future research will aim to identify the appropriate data to identify time intervals during which it is potentially safe to wait before undergoing diagnostic testing.

Doubeni and his colleagues note that prompt diagnostic testing may also reduce mortality risk, and may also reduce worries about uncertainty about the procedure. Additionally, sooner is better, as provider or system delays in follow-up may increase the likelihood that diagnostic testing may not occur at all, such as changes in patient contact information or insurance coverage changes.

Based on the few direct studies cited, overall, there is evidence that if you wait longer than 60-90 days, generally cancer will progress. This is not surprising biologically, but the paper provides guidance on how to set metrics to measure improvement. Next steps for the research will seek out the most effective interventions to reduce the time to diagnosis for vulnerable and minority populations, and any patients who have barriers to timely follow up.

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In addition to Doubeni and authors from other institutions, Penn co-authors on the research include Nicole B. Gabler, Mitchell D. Schnall, Anil Vachani, Shivan J. Mehta, and Katharine A. Rendle.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $405 million awarded in the 2017 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital - the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, a leading provider of highly skilled and compassionate behavioral healthcare.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2017, Penn Medicine provided $500 million to benefit our community.
TU Wien and Sandoz GmbH have successfully implemented a real-time computer simulation of the complex growth behavior of penicillin-producing organisms; this simulation now helps to keep the production process under control

For thousands of years, micro-organisms have been used to facilitate chemical reactions - in beer brewing, for example. However, biochemical processes are incredibly complex, with a multitude of reactions taking place simultaneously and influencing one another. There are countless parameters that play a role, not all of which can be directly measured.

Despite the difficulties involved, researchers at TU Wien are now working on examining these processes in detail. Now, in cooperation with pharmaceutical manufacturer Sandoz, TU Wien has succeeded in analysing and comprehensively replicating a penicillin production process using a computer model. This process has even enabled researchers to determine parameters that cannot be measured directly. Sandoz is now making use of these findings to keep a full overview of the processes in the bioreactor at all times, ensuring optimum quality.

Black box replaced by in-depth knowledge

Many chemical reactions are easy to understand: if hydrogen is burned with oxygen, water is produced - in a clearly predictable manner and in a volume that can be precisely calculated beforehand. But how can you calculate how quickly a fungus will grow and proliferate under the constantly changing conditions in a bioreactor?

"For a long time, processes like this were seen as a 'black box' that cannot be understood and that can only be effectively exploited with a lot of experience," says Prof. Christoph Herwig, who leads the research group for bioprocess technology at TU Wien's Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering. "Our approach is somewhat different: we want to analyse the chemical processes in a bioreactor in detail and determine the equations that describe these processes." The aim is to produce a mathematical model that accurately replicates these processes within the bioreactor.

"Many parameters that are vital to the process simply cannot be directly measured, such as the growth rate of the micro-organisms," explains Julian Kager, who is working with Sandoz GmbH as part of his dissertation. "This is precisely why a comprehensive mathematical model is so useful: we use accessible data from the production process in real time, such as the concentration of various substances in the bioreactor, and use our computer model to calculate the most probable state of the process." The parameters that can't be measured can therefore be calculated.

The model information can be used to optimise the nutrient supply to the cultivated cells while the process is ongoing.

The system of equations used to mathematically describe the bioprocess is as complex and multifaceted as the process itself. "The system of equations describes a non-linear dynamic system. Even the smallest variations in the starting conditions can have a huge impact," explains Kager. "This means it's not really possible to simply work out a solution by hand; instead, relatively elaborate computer simulations are required to obtain the needed results."

The process model and algorithms developed at TU Wien are now being used by Sandoz GmbH for its penicillin production process. "We are very pleased that our basic research has been adopted for use in industry so quickly and that our approach of biochemical modelling is now being used to facilitate the automated control of pharmaceutical production processes," says Julian Kager.

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Contakt:

Dipl.-Ing. Julian Kager

Institute of Chemical Engineering

TU Wien

Gumpendorfer Strae 1a, 1060 Vienna

T: +43-58801-166478

julian.kager@tuwien.ac.at
Swiss gamekeepers have had to put down a badly injured Eurasian lynx that was hurt during efforts to catch him. The animal was supposed to start a new life in a country with too few lynx.

The authorities of the canton Appenzell Outer Rhodes announced on Tuesday that the lynx died on Sunday, a few hours after people noticed the unwell animal crouching in a woodshed at the edge of a small town called Gais.

The lynx was malnourished and his wounded forepaw still had parts of the snare on it. It was the same animal that hunting authorities in neighbouring canton St Gallen had tried to catch in mid-March as part of an international resettlement project.

Despite search efforts with a canine team, the hunters were unable to find the lynx.

Apparently the lynx was injured so badly in the escape that he couldnt hunt properly afterwards, so he had to be shot, explained the statement from the Appenzell authorities.

The Centre for Fish and Wildlife Medicine in Bern is examining the corpse, and the incident is under investigation.

Formerly extinct in Switzerland, the Swiss lynx population has made an impressive recovery over the past 40 years. The current population is estimated at about 300 animals  enough that Switzerland is able to share some of its big cats with Italy, Austria and Germany.
Brazil's former president Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday called for "international solidarity" with her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was jailed over the weekend on a corruption conviction.

Lula, 72, remains the leftist Workers Party candidate for Brazils October presidential election though his incarceration casts doubts on whether he can legally run for office.

He remains the comfortable favourite in voter surveys heading toward the October election.

We need international solidarity, Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for allegedly falsifying public accounts, told a conference in Madrid.

She warned that Brazilian democracy is at risk because of the parliamentary coup which led to her impeachment and replacement as president by her conservative vice president Michel Temer.

Lula has so far received the support of the leftist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

While in Spain Rousseff met with leaders of the far-left party Podemos who have also expressed solidarity with Lula.

Rousseff, a 70-year-old former Marxist-guerrilla fighter of Bulgarian roots, reiterated that she believed Lula is innocent and that the Workers Party would not drop him as its candidate for president.

We dont have a Plan B. We maintain Lulas candidacy, she said, adding the party would fight in court to ensure he can stand in the election.

Lula is set to be declared ineligible in August after having his conviction upheld once again by an appeals court.

But he and his party are gambling that he could be released from prison before then and go on to contest the election.

Many in Brazil revere the former trade union leader for lifting tens of millions out of poverty during his 2003-2010 time in office. But many others see him as emblematic of the graft that plagues Brazilian politics.

He was found guilty last year of accepting a luxury seaside apartment from a construction group that picked up government public works contracts.

Brazils Supreme Court is currently considering the laws that have put Lula behind bars while his lawyers are still pursuing appeals.

A vote by the courts justices could take place on Wednesday. If it goes ahead, Lula could be released  for now  or remain in his cell.
David Simon, the creator of "The Wire", is working on a new television drama series about the Spanish Civil War, the producers told AFP Tuesday.

Simon has teamed up with thriller writers Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos, who both worked with him on the American series, widely regarded one of the best ever made.

Barcelona-based Mediapro confirmed that Simon was developing the new series called A Dry Run, which follows the mostly American members of the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington battalions who volunteered to fight on the Republican side during the bloody conflict.

The project is still at a very early stage of development. We can confirm that they are working on a series of about six hours but that could change, said a spokeswoman for Mediapro, the makers of the hit series The Young Pope starring Jude Law.

The US battalions fought as part of the International Brigade of volunteers from all over the world who flocked to Spain to combat the rise of fascism.

They were used as shock troops and suffered particularly heavy casualties. The Lincoln Battalion alone lost two-thirds of its strength in the Battle of Jarama in 1937.

They also took part in the Ebro offensive before having to flee Spain in 1939 after the Republicans were defeated by the Nationalists led by the dictator General Francisco Franco.

Simon said their story is a compelling and tragic narrative which became a dry run for the maelstrom to come in World War II.

The Spanish struggle against fascism and the misuse of capitalism as a bulwark to totalitarianism represents the pre-eminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still, the writer told the trade daily, Variety.
A woman was arrested Tuesday for "rebellion" and "terrorism" in a probe of pro-independence activists in Catalonia who have staged protests such as road blockades, the interior minister said.

There is one arrest, a woman, Juan Ignacio Zoido told Spanish television.

But the operation is still ongoing, and its true they are accused of rebellion and terrorism.

It was the first arrest for terrorism of a member of the radical pro-independence activist groups called he Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) which formed last year before an independence referendum on October 1.

Spains National Court, which deals with major cases including those that are terror-related, is in charge of the probe, said the minister.

Spains public prosecutors office said the investigation targeted a man and a woman but police had so far only arrested the woman.

The CDR reacted angrily on Twitter, calling for demonstrations on Tuesday evening, saying solidarity is out best weapon.

Zoido said the CDR started to wage violent acts before and during the (independence) process.

On the day of the vote, which went ahead despite a court ban, hundreds of activists posted themselves in front of polling stations. Police dislodged them, sometimes violently.

In recent weeks, the groups have protested against the jailing of more pro-independence leaders and the detention of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in Germany. The leaders have been prosecuted over their role in a failed bid to secede from Spain last October.

At the end of March, the protesters blocked major roads in Catalonia and tried to occupy the central governments representative office, heavily guarded by police, on several occasions. The resulting clashes left dozens injured.

Puigdemont criticised the arrest by tweeting a definition of terrorism as being a political movement that uses terror based on violence as a means of pressure.

The operation was also criticised by nigo Errejon, a lawmaker with the far-left party Podemos, who said it was not appropriate for anyone to trivialise the charge of terrorism.

In Spain, we know well, unfortunately, what terrorism is, he tweeted in a reference to the Basque separatist ETA which is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in its long campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque homeland.

Puigdemont and others have already been charged with rebellion, which carries up to 30 years in jail.

The use of this charge has raised controversy as it implies violence took place, which independence supporters and several judges and lawyers say didnt happen.

In Germany, a court ruled that Puigdemont would not be extradited to Spain on a rebellion charge.
The average person around the world spent nearly three hours a day in front their television last year, according to a report released Monday.

Eurodata TV Worldwide said that television viewing was holding up despite more and more people watching online platforms like Netflix and Amazon.

Americans and Canadians are the biggest TV addicts, said the report, watching four hours and three minutes on average daily.

European viewers came next watching three hours 49 minutes a day in 2017, just ahead of Russia and Brazil, the data gathered from 95 countries showed.

The length of time people watch television is holding up despite the growing availability of online content, said its vice president Frederic Vaulpre as the report was presented at MIPTV, the worlds biggest TV market in Cannes, France.

There was a slight fall in TV viewing in North America and Asia, but it is still growing in South America and in Europe it is maintaining historically high levels, he added.

Asians watch less TV than any of the other major markets, spending two hours 25 five minutes in front of the box. In China that drops to two hours 12 minutes.

 TV is not dead 

But viewing habits were also changing, the report found.

Replay services on average added an extra eight percent to audiences in the 35 countries where they were measured.

And millennials and young adults were spending more time on their mobile phones, often catching up with programmes that way.

In Sweden, one of the most digitally advanced countries in the world, young adults watched slightly less than two hours of TV a day.

Eurodata TV found that most young people who watched programmes on the Internet and on replay services were logging on for shows aimed specifically at them.

These included reality shows and youth dramas whose audiences were sometimes more than twice as big on the internet as they were for broadcasts.

The US and Britain remain the worlds two biggest exporters of TV programmes and formats, ahead of France, Germany and Turkey, whose family-oriented soaps have been big hits across the Middle East, South America and the Balkans.

But the report found that there were fewer big international blockbuster shows like The Voice than in the past.

Local productions always go down best in most markets, said Avril Blondelot of Eurodata TV.

She said the big trend was for producers and TV channels to create content aimed a particular niche audiences (young people, women or older people) rather than look for something that tried to take in a mass cross-over audience.

Paul Youngbluth of the TAPE consultancy told MIPTV delegates that there was a lot of fake news about the death of TV and insisted that consumption is not decreasing.

New US shows like The Good Doctor and Roseanne show that linear (traditional) TV can still draw very high live audiences, he added.

tsz/fg/ser
President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France agreed with Saudi Arabia on the need to curb Iranian "expansionism" in the Middle East, while also announcing a conference to boost humanitarian support for Yemen, where Riyadh is waging a bombing campaign.

Speaking alongside Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a press conference as the de facto Saudi leader wrapped up a three-day official visit, Macron called for greater efforts to limit Irans ballistic activity and regional expansionism.

This strategic vision means reducing all the projects of expansionist political Islam which could feed other forms of terrorism and destabilise the region, Macron said of Riyadhs regional rival.

On Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has led an international military coalition since 2015 and waged a blockade that has sparked widespread condemnation, Macron stressed the need for respect for international humanitarian law.

We will continue to be extremely vigilant on this point, he said, while adding: It is obvious that we will not tolerate any ballistic activity that threatens Saudi Arabia.

After a trip which has seen France and Saudi sign up for major cultural exchanges as well as discussions of war in the Middle East, companies from both countries signed draft deals worth a total $18 billion (14.5 billion euros).

The memoranda of understanding cover sectors including petrochemicals, water treatment, tourism, health, agricultural and cultural activities, the French-Saudi business forum said in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday hosted Morocco's King Mohammed VI, yet to return home following heart surgery in Paris, for unscheduled talks notably on the Middle East, royal sources said.

Macron received the king just prior to welcoming visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Elysee Palace as part of the latters ongoing official visit.

The French leaders talks with King Mohammed were not in his official diary.

According to a Moroccan official statement, Macron and the king discussed at length the situation in the Middle East as well as regional and international issues, noting a widespread convergence of views on the subject.

Monday had seen the Saudi heir hold a surprise meeting with Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well as Moroccos monarch.

Hariri tweeted a picture of the trio smiling and dressed casually accompanied by a caption of no comment.

The meeting appeared designed to send a message of reconciliation after Hariri was allegedly pressured to resign by the Saudi royal during a trip to Riyadh last November, causing a crisis which Macron helped defuse.

The three of them are friends and our countries are very much aligned so it made a lot of sense to do this, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told AFP.

King Mohammed had heart surgery in Paris on February 26 for an irregular heart beat but Moroccan sources said at the time he would soon resume normal activities without any restriction.

Prior to appearing with Macron and the Saudi heir Mohammeds absence had sparked wild rumours on social media with some web posts suggesting the monarch, who succeeded his father Hassan II in 1999, had died.

Moroccos 360 website had in mid-March commented that the monarch, who regularly visits France, was in good form and spending every waking hour attending to matters of state.

Macron has met with the king several times, most recently at the One Planet Summit in Paris.
France did not carry out a missile strike on a Syrian government air base early Monday that reportedly killed several people, the French army said.

It was not us, armed forces spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger told AFP.

The US also denied staging the strike.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the Tayfur air base was hit by several missiles that left a number of dead and wounded, without giving exact casualty numbers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said at least 14 fighters were killed, including Iranian forces allied to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The assault came after the US and France vowed a strong, joint response to a suspected chemical attack at the weekend that left dozens dead in Syrias rebel-held town of Douma.

In a phone call Sunday US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron condemned the horrific attack and said the Assad regime must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses, according to the White House.
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The Algarves tourist board has launched the "Algarve Walking Season" brand to promote the hiking festivals that the region will host and which aim to promote nature tourism and to help do away with the old bugbear, seasonality.

The new brand follows a strategy that first was defined five years ago, to focus on nature tourism as a product that would generate an alternative reason to visit the region, according to Joao Fernandes, the vice president of the tourism body and contender for the job of president, if he can oust Desiderio Silva this May.

The Algarve Walking Season brand was presented in Alcoutim, at the launch of the Alcoutim Hiking Festival, one of the initiatives included in the new brand.

In order to increase awareness of the destination for contact with nature, there already are two very interesting initiatives: the Ameixial Festival and the Alcoutim (pictured) Hiking Festival, which we sought to support, stimulate and later create synergies. From this came the idea of ??creating a calendar of hiking festivals in the Algarve that happen outside the high season and take place inland areas, added Fernandes.

In addition to these two events, there is the Lagos Walking Festival, organised by Almargem.

With this triology we managed to create a calendar of hiking festivals throughout the year, said Fernandes, stressing that each one is a thematic festival that relies on local identity, traditions and typical cuisine.

The official blurb reads as follows:

The AWS  Algarve Walking Season is a regional project to promote a calendar of walking festivals in the Algarve, an initiative from QRER Cooperative in partnership with the Algarve Tourism Bureau.

It is a regional bet to promote in an integrated and cooperative way, the festivals in the Algarve, namely the Walking Festival Ameixial- the first of its kind to be held in the Algarve, and perhaps in Portugal  and the Alcoutim Walking Festival and a third festival to be held in November.

AWS  Algarve Walking Season 2018 calendar is promoting:

Alcoutim Walking Festival | April 6th to 8th

Walking Festival Ameixial | April 27th to 29th

Lagos Walking Festival | November 1st to 4th

The project manager is QRER  Cooperative for the Development of Low Density Territories, with the sponsor from the Algarve Tourism Bureau, and in partnership with the Alcoutim Municipality and Almargem NGO.

The initiative was approved under a support line from Portugal Tourism Bureau / Algarve Tourism Bureau.

http://www.algarvewalkingseason.com/

 algarvedailynews.com

The above content produced by swissinfo.ch is not intended for commercial use and may not be republished by third parties either wholly or in part.
Russia's special envoy on Syria Alexander Lavrentiev visited Iran on Tuesday for an unannounced meeting, Iranian state media reported, with both sides criticising Western reactions to an alleged chemical attack.

Western countries have accused Syria of launching a chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus on Saturday that killed more than 40 people.

If there is a claim about the use of chemical weapons, we want this issue to be legally investigated, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a senior aide in Irans foreign ministry, said after the meeting according to state news agency IRNA.

Syria and its allies Russia and Iran deny the attack and have called for an investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Lavrentiev reportedly held extensive discussions on the situation in Syria with Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Irans Supreme Council on National Security, and other officials.

Ansari said Western powers were using the alleged chemical attack as an excuse to undermine the Syrian regimes recent success on the ground.

Any time there is an important victory in confronting terrorists in political and field developments, we face a coordinated game and tactic from terrorist groups and foreign players, said Ansari.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Moscow will propose a UN resolution to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, after Russia rejected a similar move from the US.

Lavrov said Russia would propose a transparent and honest investigation with the involvement of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Russian-backed Syrian regime forces could ensure the safety of OPCW experts if they were to travel to the scene, he said.

If, under the pretext of a lack of security guarantees, those who employ anti-Russian arguments to pursue their Russophobic aims do not allow experts to come, then it will be a verdict on their true plans and show that they have no interest in establishing the truth.

The United States put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action.

Moscow has insisted there is no evidence for a chemical attack and Lavrov previously said Russian experts had visited the scene.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, even though Russia said it contained some unacceptable elements.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comments that the Syrian town of Afrin, seized from Kurdish militia by Ankara, should be handed over to Damascus.

This is a very wrong approach, Erdogan was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.

We know very well to whom we will give Afrin, he said. We will give Afrin back to its inhabitants when the time comes but we will determine the time, not Mr Lavrov.

The comments were among the toughest yet by Erdogan against Moscow since Turkey and Russia formed a fragile alliance aimed at bringing peace to Syria, a long-time ally of Moscow.

Turkey in January launched an operation into Syria to root out the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia in the Afrin enclave and drove the group from the city on March 18.

Many analysts said at the time the Turkish offensive could not have gone ahead without consulting Russia because it required the Turkish air force to enter Syrian airspace.

Russian air support for Damascus has been a keen factor in driving back rebel forces.

At a press conference on Monday, Lavrov said the simplest way to normalise the situation in Afrin would be for the territory to be returned to the control of the Syrian government.

He noted that Erdogan believed that the United States had started to flirt with Kurdish militia was a threat to Turkeys interests. But he added: Erdogan never said Turkey wanted to occupy Afrin.

Turkey and Russia are on opposite sides in Syria, with Moscow remaining the chief ally of President Bashar al-Assads regime and Ankara backing rebels seeking his ouster.

However, both countries have worked closely in recent months despite their differences to achieve a political solution.

In a further source of tension, Erdogan on Monday expressed concern to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over attacks in Eastern Ghouta after an alleged chemical attack there killed dozens of people.

Erdogan last week hosted Putin and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, another ally of the Syrian regime. The three presidents vowed to work for a lasting ceasefire in Syria.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg accepted personal responsibility Tuesday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an "arms race" against Russian disinformation during a high-stakes hearing with US lawmakers.

In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive answered questions for nearly five hours as he sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the networks two billion users.

Under mounting pressure over the hijacking of its user data by a British political consultant, Zuckerberg reiterated his apology for the historic breach, before being grilled over how Facebook collects and protects peoples personal information.

It was my mistake, and Im sorry, Zuckerberg said about the improper sharing of 87 million peoples information by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

I started Facebook, I run it and Im responsible for what happens here.

He added that Facebook fell short in protecting the platform, noting: That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.

The 33-year-old CEO spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere.

There are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other internet systems and other systems as well, he said.

So this is an arms race. Theyre going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too.

Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the social network failed to do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation during the last US presidential race.

The Senate hearing, ahead of another appearance in the House on Wednesday, featured several tense and some friendly exchanges on Facebooks security, hate speech and other topics.

Of the hundreds of questions he faced, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbins pointed query about where he slept the previous evening.

Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night? Durbin asked.

Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred.

Um, uh, no, he said.

And if youve messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people youve messaged? the Illinois Democrat persisted.

Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.

Perhaps more than any other senator during five hours of questioning, Durbins everyman tactic put a finger on the crux of the issue surrounding Facebooks handling of its users private data.

 Open to regulation 

Zuckerberg said he was open to regulation, but cautioned against complex rules that might impact emerging social media firms.

I think the internet is becoming increasingly important in peoples lives and I think we need to have a full conversation about what is the right regulation, he told the hearing.

You need to be careful (a new regulatory policy) doesnt cement in the current companies that are winning.

Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is cooperating with the US special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 vote.

Our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure in an open session I dont reveal something thats confidential, he said.

Zuckerberg said he had personally not been contacted, and that he was not specifically aware of any subpoena of Facebook data.

I believe there may be (a subpoena), but I know were working with them, he said.

Swapping his customary T-shirt for a business suit and tie, the Facebook chief appeared somber as he fielded tough questions over Cambridge Analyticas massive data breach.

Weve been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesnt happen again, he said in his prepared remarks.

But the show of contrition fell short for several lawmakers.

Weve seen the apology tours before, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told Zuckerberg.

And so, my reservation about your testimony today is that I dont see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road.

 Paid-for Facebook? 

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Congress before the hearing wearing Zuckerberg masks and #DeleteFacebook T-shirts.

Inside the jammed hearing room, activists from the Code Pink group wore oversized glasses with the words STOP SPYING written on the lenses, and waved signs that read Stop corporate lying.

Testifying was a new step for Zuckerberg, who started Facebook as a Harvard dropout in 2004, and built it into the worlds largest social media company worth more than $450 billion.

During questioning, Zuckerberg rejected the suggestion that the social media giant, with over two billion users worldwide, has exclusive control over its market.

The average American uses eight different apps to communicate with their friends and stay in touch with people, ranging from texting apps to e-mail, he said.

Zuckerberg also said the company believed in an ad-supported business model, but appeared to leave open the possibility of a paid version.

There will always be a version of Facebook that is free, Zuckerberg told the hearing.
Israel's Labour party said Tuesday it was suspending relations with British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of showing hostility to the Jewish community and allowing anti-Semitic statements and actions.

Israeli Labour leader Avi Gabbay sent a letter to Corbyn informing him of the decision. The suspension applies only to Corbyns office and not the party as a whole, it said.

Both Gabbay and Corbyn are in the opposition in their respective countries.

It is my responsibility to acknowledge the hostility that you have shown to the Jewish community and the anti-Semitic statements and actions you have allowed as leader of the Labour Party UK, Gabbay wrote.

This is in addition to your very public hatred of the policies of the government of the state of Israel, many of which regard the security of our citizens and actions of our soldiers  policies where the opposition and coalition in Israel are aligned.

Allegations of anti-Semitism have been a problem for veteran socialist Corbyn since his improbable leadership win in 2015.

In late March, a high-profile resignation in Britains Labour over its handling of multiple anti-Semitism allegations pitched the party into crisis.

Scores of party members have been suspended, expelled or forced to resign for making anti-Semitic statements since Corbyn became party leader, but he and his far-left supporters have been accused of a complacent approach to the problem.

Corbyn has apologised for pockets of anti-Semitism in the party, but it was rebuffed by British Jewish leaders who accused him of siding with anti-Semites.

Corbyn supporters say that the accusations levelled at Labour are politically motivated.
From: Ad Council For Immediate Release: Dateline: New York , NY Tuesday, April 10, 2018







Tips on Social media through the lens of words that power it.

Upon returning from a

Yes, we got the best tips for Facebook post length. We got the insider tricks to becoming famous on Instagram. (One Instagram tip: post pictures with people! They perform 68% better than other photos.) We learned the freshest optimizations out there, we experienced AI demos, and we even got Guy Kawasaki  the man who invented brand evangelism at Apple!

But the theme I found wasnt related to any of that. It was a focus on making content meaningful again. A shift from we need content to what does our audience need from us. Driving that shift was the language we use to talk to our audience. Whether its a tweet, an insta, a snap story or a Facebook post, the words we use dictate how our audience feels about us.

Oh, the humanity! Ive got a huge secret to let you in on audiences know that humans are behind companies. Shh, dont tell anyone.

On second thought, tell everyone you can. Be human! Its the easiest thing you can do. Remove the layer of seriousness that is pervasive in business and relish the moments of imperfection. Find humor in your mistakes and share that with your audience. People relate to individuals more than they do to nameless brands. By humanizing your company, you can create genuine moments with the people who are just waiting to become your most powerful brand advocate.

What. A. Tear-jerker. Alright, youre being human when you make a mistake, but youve still got a business goal here.

One of the biggest things you can do for your brand is moving away from a salesy mindset to a creative mindset. Social media is an arena where people connect with other people and strive to create community through authenticity and shared interest. People share feelings of joy, surprise, disgust, sadness, anger, and fear the most. These are human emotions and ones rarely relished by brands. By thinking more like a screenwriter, you can create content that impacts and moves people to share with their circle, creating a wider audience for you with each post.

Putting pen to paper. Or keyboard to digital text box as we operate now.) You know what your audience needs, but how do you tie this all together? Ask yourself one question: Who is your one-man audience?

When youre writing, think about one person, have one goal, and focus on the present. Write to Alex, who has three dogs and needs that thing youre offering. Dont cloud your writing with too much info or try to accomplish too many things at once. Write in the second person, and use active verbs while peppering in words that evoke our five senses.

The sum of this all is simply to say: if youre being serious on social, please stop. Be human, be emotional, be evocative. Itll pay off in the end.



The post

Tips on Social media through the lens of words that power it.Upon returning from a conference on social media, I found a common theme lingering in my notes from the talks.Yes, we got the best tips for Facebook post length. We got the insider tricks to becoming famous on Instagram. (One Instagram tip: post pictures with people! They perform 68% better than other photos.) We learned the freshest optimizations out there, we experienced AI demos, and we even got Guy Kawasaki  the man who invented brand evangelism at Apple!But the theme I found wasnt related to any of that. It was a focus on making content meaningful again. A shift from we need content to what does our audience need from us. Driving that shift was the language we use to talk to our audience. Whether its a tweet, an insta, a snap story or a Facebook post, the words we use dictate how our audience feels about us.Ive got a huge secret to let you in on audiences know that humans are behind companies. Shh, dont tell anyone.On second thought, tell everyone you can. Be human! Its the easiest thing you can do. Remove the layer of seriousness that is pervasive in business and relish the moments of imperfection. Find humor in your mistakes and share that with your audience. People relate to individuals more than they do to nameless brands. By humanizing your company, you can create genuine moments with the people who are just waiting to become your most powerful brand advocate.Alright, youre being human when you make a mistake, but youve still got a business goal here.One of the biggest things you can do for your brand is moving away from a salesy mindset to a creative mindset. Social media is an arena where people connect with other people and strive to create community through authenticity and shared interest. People share feelings of joy, surprise, disgust, sadness, anger, and fear the most. These are human emotions and ones rarely relished by brands. By thinking more like a screenwriter, you can create content that impacts and moves people to share with their circle, creating a wider audience for you with each post.Or keyboard to digital text box as we operate now.) You know what your audience needs, but how do you tie this all together? Ask yourself one question: Who is your one-man audience?When youre writing, think about one person, have one goal, and focus on the present. Write to Alex, who has three dogs and needs that thing youre offering. Dont cloud your writing with too much info or try to accomplish too many things at once. Write in the second person, and use active verbs while peppering in words that evoke our five senses.The sum of this all is simply to say: if youre being serious on social, please stop. Be human, be emotional, be evocative. Itll pay off in the end.The post Social Speak: Reclaiming the Power of Words appeared first on AdLibbing.org


Boeing has won a contract to bring F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets to San Antonio for upgrades starting next year.

The initial work on the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft at its sprawling South Side facility will extend the life of the aircraft another 3,000 flight hours and later include modernizing the fleet, company spokesman Justin Gibson said.

San Antonio will receive a handful of planes in 2019, but when production is fully ramped up, it could split the work on up to 40 planes with Boeings St. Louis facility.

The value of the San Antonio contract isnt clear  it will depend on how much work comes to the facility, Gibson said.

But the initial Navy contract for similar work being done in Missouri and California provides a hint of the value. The Navy said Feb. 28 that Boeing would be paid $73.2 million to modernize four F/A-18 E/F aircraft and extend their service life from 6,000 flight hours to 9,000 flight hours. Three-quarters of that work would be performed in St. Louis, with the other quarter in El Segundo, California.

The U.S. Navy fleet operates 568 Super Hornets.

A $24.1 million renovation at Hangar 375 of the Boeing facility at Port San Antonio is for the F/A-18 E/F modification work and unspecified future jobs, Boeing San Antonio spokesman Felix Sanchez confirmed. The renovation is expected to finish in December.

The massive hangar  next to the runway that was part of the former Kelly AFB  and surrounding facilities currently serve as the depot for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster military transport plane, among other aircraft.

The first few Super Hornets will be worked on to extend their life to 7,500 hours, Gibson said, and later to 9,000.

The spokesman for Port San Antonio could not be reached for comment Monday.

The U.S. Naval Institutes news site reported Friday that the first Super Hornet had arrived in St. Louis.

Ward Carroll, a former naval aviator and director of outreach for the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, said the F/A-18 E/Fs reached the end of their service life prematurely due to delays in the rollout of the Lockheed Martin F-35 and demands from increased U.S. global military operations during the 2000s and 2010s.

Its pretty serious. Basically they will rebuild the basic structural integrity of the jet, Carroll said. Then you get 3,000 more hours, and thatll give you, depending on operation tempo, five to eight years of service life.

Boeings San Antonio facility also does work on the KC-135 air refueler and received a contract for maintenance of the two Boeing 747s that are used as Air Force One, the presidents long-range air transport.
For the past 128 years, the Christopher Columbus Italian Society in San Antonio has been known for many things: Homespun spaghetti dinners at its Italian Hall; charitable works; a beautiful, historic downtown church.

Another was its strictly all-male membership.

Sure, there was the Ladies Auxiliary  after all, that spaghetti didnt make itself  but to truly become a member of the society, you had to have a Y chromosome.

That all changed Sunday when the CCIS inducted almost 30 women members after a revision to its bylaws that was a dozen years in the making, the head of the heretofore fraternal organization said.

It had to be voted on and approved by a two-thirds majority of the membership, and that took some doing, President Richard Granato said. Several years back, we missed it by one vote.

The reason for opening the group to women was simple: The society has seen membership decline over the years as families moved away from neighborhoods surrounding the hall and church and as existing members continued to age and die.

Plus, its the 21st century and its time to move on, Granato said. When (the society) was formed, womens rights hadnt come into play. We need the support, we need the help.

One of the women proudly stepping up at Sundays formal induction service and Catholic Mass was Dawn Brooks Baamonde, whose great-grandfathers in 1927 helped build the Church of San Francesco di Paola, just east of the Interstate 35/10 junction at West Martin Street.

The society opened its Italian Hall, the first one in Texas, on the same tract of land in 1928.

Baamonde said she received an invitation to join three weeks ago. It included an application with various questions  about her family history, other groups she belonged to, a list of references and what she could contribute to the society.

It was such a big deal for me, to be asked, said Baamonde, 63, who grew up visiting the hall with her mother and attending Mass at the church.

On Sunday, after a lasagna lunch, the group of male members adjourned upstairs to vote, Baamonde said. When they came back down, the men declared that the women had been voted in. As a group, the new members ascended the stairs to the previously all-male meeting room and took an oath to support the society and the country.

One of (the male members) said they wanted to apologize to all us ladies, for dismissing us all these years, said Baamonde, her voice quavering, It was so precious and sweet.

The society, which got its charter in 1890, was created as a way to help immigrant Italian families adapt to a new home and language. The society donated a statue of Christopher Columbus, made in Italy, to the city in 1957. It stands in Columbus Park.

The society performs a range of charitable works each year, including at the nearby Childrens Hospital of San Antonio, St. PJs Childrens Home and the Carmelite Day Care Center.

All the women inducted into the society are Italian, and most have family connections with the organization going back decades.

Another female inductee was Jennifer Guido, 64, whose mother, Agnes Tootsie Adamo Guido, is first cousin to Baamondes mother, Genevieve San Marco Brooks.

Guido, whose grandfather was a past president of the society and whose construction company helped build the church and hall in the late 1920s, said she was thrilled to be asked to join.

I have deep ties to the church, she said. My parents were married there. I was baptized there 

A graduate of what was known as Lee High School who works in customer service, Guido said she and her mother attended a concert last Christmas of three tenors at the Italian Hall and then a dinner afterward.

Its so wonderful just knowing we can be part (of the society) now, knowing what we can bring to the table as women in this organization, she said.

At the induction ceremony, Guido said, some men joked that their fathers were likely spinning in their graves.

I imagine my grandfather did, too, she quipped.

Guido knew about half the inductees, many of whom have husbands who were already members, she said. She added that it was way too soon to start talking about any changes the new female members might bring to the time-honored, Catholic-affiliated organization.

Baamonde, a Churchill High School graduate who ran a catering company with her sister, Lisa Brooks, for 20 years in Alamo Heights, recently returned from living in New Orleans since 2010. Active in the local charity circuit, especially with the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, Baamonde, who will serve as the mistress of ceremonies at this years Cornyation, said being asked to join the society brings a feeling of completion.

To be able to join a society dominated by men for over a century and to be able to have a voice ... she said, trailing off.

The new female members bring the roster of the group to about 150, Granato said. In addition to its charity work, the society offers free classes in Italian language, music, dance and cooking.

In keeping with the groups changed bylaws, female members are able to become officers and to potentially serve as president of the organization, he said.

Women make up more than half the population, he said. We need to keep moving forward, to not become stagnant. Women bring new blood, new ideas. Thats the objective.
AUSTIN  Authorities have concerns about releasing a confession recorded by the suspect in a series of deadly package bombings in Texas capital city because they dont want to inspire copycats, an FBI agent said Monday.

When you look at past active shooters or mass murderers, what we find is they study the previous events, said Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBIs San Antonio Division. We are concerned that it could inspire other people to do other acts. The subject in the audio confession says a number of statements that concern us, and we just dont want that to live forever on the internet.

Combs was among authorities at a news conference to answer questions about the case, including a partly unsealed affidavit regarding suspect Mark Conditt of Plugerville, who died last month as police closed in and a device detonated in his vehicle.

Conditts death came after two people were killed and several others injured by exploding packages.

The newly released affidavit outlined some details of the crimes  including some components of the explosives  and details that officials used to support their plan to arrest Conditt.

Authorities dont plan to release the recording by Conditt while the case is ongoing.

But Combs suggested there is a debate about whether to ever release the recording, which he described as a videotape that contains only audio.

How do we meet the publics desire to know versus the public safety concerns that we have? Combs said. Theres a debate going on right now.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said last month that Conditt recorded the confession before he died, talking about challenges in his life but not saying how he chose his victims.

I know there is a great public interest in this tape  . We have a history of being transparent with our community, Manley said Monday. At the appropriate time, we will weigh the interest of the community versus the public safety concerns.

Conditts death ended a spree in which packages exploded after being found at the front doors of three homes in East Austin and a FedEx facility in Schertz, and a device connected to a tripwire detonated in a Southwest Austin.

One of the packages that exploded may have been addressed to a neighbor of the home where it was left, according to the affidavit released Monday, which cited communication from the injured victim.

Also according to the affidavit, the suspect used PVC pipe casing, enclosing a metal pipe surrounded by shrapnel, in a package that was recovered before exploding at an Austin FedEx facility.

That package, which was rendered safe after being X-rayed, was designed to be ignited by a trigger when a flap of the package was opened.

The components were pretty consistent throughout the explosive devices, said Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of the Houston field division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The affidavit was released by local and federal authorities as they dismissed a lingering federal charge pending against Conditt.
Texas crisis of pregnancy-related deaths is not nearly as bad as previously reported, according to a new study.

The new data, calculated by state health officials and published in a journal Monday, found that the actual number of maternal deaths is less than half that reported in a 2016 study that drew national attention to the issue in Texas.

Study authors who reviewed the cases said dozens of women erroneously were identified on their death certificates as being pregnant at the time of death, a misclassification that occurred because doctors, medical examiners and coroners selected the wrong option in the electronic reporting system. Such information was the source for the high-profile 2016 study.

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who authored 2017 legislation to extend a task force investigating the issue, used the new study to praise the Legislatures approach to the issue.

It is clear that Texas does not have the worst maternal mortality in the developed world and that previous reports were grossly inaccurate, Kolkhorst said. We as a state can and are doing more to improve maternal health outcomes.

The new data, published Monday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found 56 pregnancy-related deaths among Texas residents in 2012, compared with the 147 the health department previously supplied to national databases. As a result, the 2012 rate becomes 14.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, significantly down from the the previous rate of 38.4.

Under the old data, the 2016 study found a doubling of the number of deaths in just two years that its lead author said was hard to explain in the absence of war, natural disaster or severe economic upheaval. Some observers attempted to link the increase to the closure of some womens health clinics at the time, but state officials noted that the closures did not occur until after much of the spike already had occurred.

The study nevertheless made headlines around the country and globe and put pressure on Texas legislators to address maternal mortality.

Sonia Baeva, a Texas health department maternal mortality and morbidity epidemiologist and the lead author of the new study, attributed the erroneous death certificate information to an increase of more than 40 percent in the the proportion of death certificates that were submitted electronically from 2010 to 2012. On a drop-down list in the electronic system, the pregnant at the time of death option is directly below the not pregnant within the past year option.

We encourage death certifiers to double-check the pregnancy status assigned before submitting electronically, Baeva said. This rather small-scale type of error can have a significant effect on statistics. Simply increasing awareness of this error can result in better public health data for our state.

Baeva said it is unclear how Texas maternal mortality problem compares with other states because their unexamined data may reflect the same erroneous information.

Dr. Lisa Hollier, a Texas Childrens Hospital obstetrician-gynecologist, head of the state task force and a co-author of the new study, said her sense is that Texas is now probably in the middle of the pack, as opposed to being near the top nationally.

She added, however, that a significant number of the deaths are preventable. She said the better data illustrates the importance of having the task force carefully review cases, a necessary step to better understanding the causes and contributing factors so the state can implement the best solutions.

Kolkhorst alluded to the task forces work, saying the Legislature has been taking a smart approach on maternal mortality  instead of overreacting to sensationalized reports in the media, we directed better data collection in order to develop targeted, evidence-based strategies to more effectively improve the lives and health of mothers in Texas.

Pregnancy-related deaths have emerged as an issue around the nation in recent years. The Texas task force has found that excessive bleeding, high blood pressure, drug addiction and sepsis are the most common causes of death.

Texas health officials have begun ramping up efforts to reduce the numbers. In December, the state joined a national program focused on improving the safety and care of pregnant women through the use of standardized plans and instructions to use when patients have severe pregnancy complications, such as hemorrhaging or high blood pressure. The guidelines have been credited with reducing the number of mothers dying during childbirth by up to 22 percent in other states.

Hollier also drew attention to the fact that even with the new numbers, black women still face the highest risk. The new study found that the rate of black mothers dying during or within 42 days of pregnancy in 2012 was 27.8 per 100,000 live births, compared with 13.6 for Anglo mothers and 11.5 for Hispanic women.

Marian MacDorman, a professor at the University of Maryland Population Research Center and author of the 2016 study, called the work of the task force laudable, necessary and appropriate, given the state of Texas vital statistics data, in an editorial accompanying the study.

The Texas study is important in that it provides a more accurate estimate of 2016 Texas maternal mortality and also provides important insight into the nature and magnitude of errors in Texas vital statistics data, she wrote. However, as the study examined data from only a single year, questions concerning the maternal mortality increase in Texas in the critical period from 2010 to 2012 remain unanswered, as do questions about more recent trends.

MacDorman in a January 2018 study wrote that efforts to curb Texas maternal mortality problem were undermined because the data was so bad. She acknowledged in the study that the previous estimates of the problem were inflated but did not provide new numbers.

Baeva said the researchers will be reviewing cases after 2012 but said that it was not feasible to look at the cases before.

The Texas health department is implementing legislation aimed at improving the quality of death data by developing best practices for investigating and reporting maternal deaths and creating new training for those who certify death certificates. A new registration system being developed will prompt such officials to confirm the pregnancy status before allowing a death record to be submitted.
When County Commissioner Paul Elizondo filed for re-election in mid-November, he said theres a lot of scalps all over the place from three decades of winning elections for his Precinct 2 seat.

But since an early 1990s round of redistricting strengthened partisan advantages in some precincts, Elizondo, 82, in reality has had hardly any scalps to go after.

This year, however, he may be at his most vulnerable since the redistricting shift with a May 22 runoff looming.

In his Democratic precinct, Elizondo has won every general election contest since 1994 without a Republican opponent, and with an average primary victory margin of 38 points.

That trend largely extends across Commissioners Court: In the past 44 years, incumbent county judges and commissioners have lost just five elections, winning back their seats at a 90.7 percent rate.

No sitting county judge has lost re-election since at least 1974, as far back as Bexar Countys election data goes. And in recent years for which campaign finance data is archived, sitting commissioners have come into every race with a cash-on-hand advantage.

Most of the incumbents do their homework of maintaining their influence within the community, and certainly within their power base, said Jim Lunz, a longtime San Antonio GOP strategist. When somebody challenges one of them, the newcomer has a lot to make up for to begin with. For the most part, unless the incumbent has been in trouble, the powers that be will go along with them.

Nearly half the time, county judges and commissioners have been able to preserve campaign funds because they didnt face an opponent. Since 1974, court members have run unopposed in primaries and general elections 45 and 46 percent of the time, respectively.

And when commissioners face challengers, their opponents often cant compete financially, lack governmental experience or run as third party candidates  or a combination of the three. Data show incumbents have won re-election by more than 10 points, in primary and general election challenges, 78 percent of the time when contested.

Sitting county judges and commissioners have won by an average margin of nearly 24 points in contested primaries, and almost 26 points in the general.

Incumbency in that court is powerful, said Henry Flores, a political science professor at St. Marys University. They have access to a lot of resources, and a lot of fundraisers are willing to give them money simply because theyre already the incumbents.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and Elizondo face re-election challenges in 2018, and at last count they had a combined $1.06 million cash on hand, to their opponents combined total of about $4,600. Elizondo received 45 percent of the vote in the March 6 primary, putting him in a runoff  for the first time as an incumbent  with the countys veterans service officer, Queta Rodriguez.

She remained bullish about her chances in the runoff, typically a low-turnout affair with a different voting population than in the first round of the primary.

If you take a look at what we were able to accomplish with so little  we were able to reach the community with very little money, Rodriguez said.

Shes noted that more than half the voters chose candidates other than Elizondo on the ballot.

Asked about the countys lack of fundraising restrictions, allowing her opponent and others to take in unlimited donations even from people seeking contracts from the county, Rodriguez said: The commissioners playing with the rules that are in place. But as a leader, its our responsibility to set the example.

Elected officials enjoy incumbency advantages at all levels of politics, including Congress, where members are typically re-elected at rates north of 90 percent despite the overall bodys poor approval rating.

Unlike in Congress, Democrats have held a majority on Commissioners Court since 1998, and an alliance between Elizondo and Wolff has put them firmly atop the court since Wolffs appointment as judge in 2001. With only five court members, Wolff and Elizondo can form a voting majority with just one of three commissioners approval.

In any office, the power of incumbency is there. But its even stronger for county commissioners, even more so than City Council members, said Christian Archer, Wolffs chief campaign strategist. As you look at how Bexar County has grown over the last two decades, its becoming more and more powerful. Their jobs are more and more powerful. You dont have a lot of turnover, nor do you want a lot of turnover. You want people who can see a few years down the line and have consistency.

Elizondo Rodriguez Bravo Tie No Votes

Elizondo indicated the coalition hes formed with Wolff is part of whats kept him around for so long. He said that while higher office has beckoned at times, I'm at the right place, politically.

I wound up with Nelson 16 years ago, and hey, you know, what's been happening has been fulfilling, Elizondo said. Things are getting accomplished. We've changed the whole face of the county government.

Only one sitting commissioner has lost re-election since Wolff became county judge: Precinct 1 Commissioner Sergio Chico Rodriguez knocked off 13-year incumbent Democrat Robert Tejeda in 2004.

During the race, Tejeda sought campaign help from a former city councilman indicted on federal bribery charges, and some campaign staffers quit his campaign because they thought he had aligned himself with too many shady characters. Though Tejeda outraised him, Rodriguez received sizable contributions  and name recognition  from his brother, then-U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez.

In 1986, Elizondo beat incumbent Andy Casias to reclaim the seat hed given up for an unsuccessful county judge bid. In 1982, then-state Rep. Lamar Smith beat John Steen Jr., a Democrat appointed months before the election to a solidly Republican district that overlapped heavily with Smiths state House district.

In the past 44 years, Tejeda remains the only commissioner with more than one term of experience to lose a re-election challenge.

In Precinct 4, Commissioner Tommy Calvert took over when his predecessor Tommy Adkisson challenged Wolff in 2014. In Precinct 3, Kevin Wolff  a former city councilman and Nelson Wolffs son  decisively won an open election after then-Commissioner Lyle Larson ran for Congress.

Larson, a Republican now running for re-election in his District 122 state House seat, said commissioners should be limited to certain contribution amounts.

He floated the idea of a $2,700 threshold for individual donations, the current federal limit. He also supports the idea of term limits, which hes proposed at the state level  and encouraged Wolff and Elizondo to do the same.

This is the perfect time to institute those changes at the end of their long-standing careers, Larson said. That would be something that wouldnt have an impact on them, because youve got two of the members and maybe more that arent going to serve, and then going forward in 2020 those could take hold.

But any such move would require commissioners to pass a resolution requesting the Legislature institute the change, Larson said, which then likely would be carried out in a narrow-minded bracket bill.

Asked about instituting term limits, Elizondo echoed the same message then-Gov. Rick Perry made when Larson supported the idea at the state level in 2013. Elizondo said term limits are called elections, and people can vote out commissioners they dont like.

Wolff and Elizondo each have faced accusations from their opponents of using the countys lack of campaign finance regulations to allow potential contractors to buy influence on the court.

Elizondos previous primary opponent, Mario Bravo, first raised the issue, citing campaign finance reform as a top issue. Queta Rodriguez has noted that small business owners often have complained to her about not getting a fair shake from the commissioners on various contracts, but she didnt want to reveal which owners had expressed the sentiment, at risk of retaliation.

People are afraid. There is a sense of fear of retribution, she said. Any type of negative comment would negatively impact their ability to obtain a contract.

Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff, Wolffs Republican opponent, has alleged Commissioners Court is running a pay-to-play scheme, even outlining a nexus of supposed corruption flowing through Wolffs political action committee in a flowchart.

Wolff has dismissed the accusations as typical Trump lies, and Archer called them reckless.

Elizondo, regarded as the courts leader on budgetary matters, explained that commissioners are uninvolved in the competitive bidding process, and the court votes on staff recommendations for contract awardings.

Judge Rickhoff is making those big, huge accusations. In Bexar County, we don't get to see the actual proposals, Elizondo said. We are not part of the selection process.

But Elizondo does sit on the purchasing board, along with Chico Rodriguez and a few district judges, that appoints a purchasing agent to independently supervise competitive bidding.

Queta Rodriguez said she supports some version of campaign contribution restrictions, though has not gone as far as accusing Elizondo of pay-to-play activity.

Of course youre going to be able to accept larger donations from people that have a vested interest in also making money. And thats not necessarily a bad thing. Im not saying we shouldnt allow it, she said. But we need to make sure theres not an unfair advantage, and the people profiting from incumbency is not just a small, specific group.

Jasper Scherer is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jscherer@express-news.net | @jaspscherer
AUSTIN  Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, is the new chairman of the Texas Hispanic Caucus as the state heads into the 2018 elections.

When I look at issues that are critical to the Latino community, the real issues are important to all Texans, said Menendez.

As chairman, he plans to focus on improving education for children statewide and increasing the number of minority-owned businesses competing for state contracts, he said.

Allowing every child to maximize their potential, regardless of what neighborhood they live in, thats critically important, he said.

The 11-member caucus, which was formed in 1987, is meant to promote legislative initiatives for improving the states Hispanic community, according to its website. Menendez is taking over for Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who is running for a U.S. Congress seat in a left-leaning district and is poised to be among the first Latinas Texas sends to Congress.

Menendez, who isnt up for re-election this year, joined the Senate in 2015 after serving in the Texas House and on the San Antonio City Countcil.

He takes over the chairmanship a few years before the state is set to begin redrawing political districts after the 2020 census. The current maps are still at the center of a years-long legal battle, with arguments set before the U.S. Supreme Court later this month. Plaintiffs accuse the districts of being drawn to dilute minorities voting power, while Attorney General Ken Paxton has defended the political boundaries.

Menendez said political maps should be redrawn to respect existing communities.
Months before hundreds of armed activists descended on Olmos Park to protest the municipalitys police department this past weekend, a confrontation between one officer and one activist in particular showed what is likely at the root of the entire ugly spectacle: inadequate police training.

The activist, Joanna Castro, has alleged in a federal lawsuit that the officer, Albert Salinas, pointed a rifle at her on the night of Feb. 20 as she was filming the arrest of another activist, then shoved her and tried to break her camera.

A video posted on YouTube appears to confirm the allegations.

You reach for that weapon, you will be shot! Construe that as a threat! an officer yells at the second activist, Jack Miller, who is seen in the video standing on a sidewalk on McCullough Avenue with his hands up and a rifle slung over his chest.

Another officer approaches from the opposite direction.

Get on the ground now! that officer yells, training his rifle on Miller before swinging his weapon toward the filmmaker. About six people were standing behind Castro at the time, according to the lawsuit.

You! Get back. Put the camera up. Get back, the officer says.

Rather than approach the armed activist, the officer closes ground on the filmmaker. With his rifle pointing back at Miller, he shoves her and tries to slap a camera from her hand. (Castro was not armed at the time. The officers use of force bruised her left breast, according to the lawsuit.)

We are dealing with a man with a gun, he chides her.

In that case, Salinas should have kept his attention on the man with the gun. In any case, an officer should never use force against an unarmed citizen exercising her right to film police in a public space.

Joanna Castro films other activists that seek to expose police officer misconduct and constitutional violations, the lawsuit states. She has filmed several police-citizen encounters to gather information about police departments violating citizens civil rights. Mrs. Castro films to ensure the safety of the activists that interact with the officers.

The lawsuit identifies Miller as a Second Amendment activist exercising his right to open carry in Olmos Park.

The MO of these activists is clear: Provoke police into overreacting to lawful activity. The reason such demonstrations have proved successful lately in Olmos Park but not in, say, San Antonio is a matter of training.

These days, San Antonio police are trained to disregard a city ordinance that prohibits anyone other than an officer from carrying a long gun in public. The ordinance contradicts a state law that allows the open carry of long guns.

It does contradict, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told me last month. We conform with state law in this case. We dont enforce the city code. We enforce the state law.

(San Antonio police learned this lesson in 2014 when the same group of activists staged a protest at a police substation over the tasing of a man carrying a long gun.)

If police are truly concerned about citizens in Texas toting assault rifles in public, they should train their sights on the Legislature, not the citizens themselves. It might be a bad law  but it is the law.

Another law (and a good one): U.S. citizens have a constitutional right to film or photograph anything plainly visible from public spaces, including police carrying out their duties. The municipal government of Olmos Park, though, seems to nurse a disdain for the First Amendment.

That would include Mayor Ronald Hornberger, who has said he doesnt speak to the media. Likewise, Police Chief Rene Valenciano has repeatedly ignored requests for comment. (Valenciano did not return a message Monday.)

Late Monday, Olmos Park City Attorney Frank Garza said he could not answer questions about police training, and he stressed that no one has filed a complaint with the city over the lawsuits allegations.

We have not investigated it, Garza said. Were looking into it.

At this point, someone in Olmos Park should answer at least one basic question:

How do you train your officers?
President Gerald Ford visited San Antonio on April 9, 1976, rattling the swords of peace in front of the Alamo, according to the San Antonio Express-News lead story, and took the Alamo by storm, according to another on the front page.

His speech was no doubt memorable as he told a crowd of about 18,000 people in front of the Alamo, We rejoice that this day finds no American in combat anywhere on the face of the earth. He adapted his speech to the Alamo in several references. Yet, we know that in peace, as in war, we must stand ready to defend liberty, he said.

But what many longtime San Antonians may remember more vividly from his visit during Americas Bicentennial year (the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that July), was the Great Tamale Incident. Or more accurately in this city with a lot of Spanish speakers, the great tamal incident. (Merriam-Webster may define tamale as the thing we recognize sitting next to a couple of enchiladas on a good Mexican plate, but many locals prefer tamal, the Spanish spelling for the singular of tamales.)

Related: Evangelist wowed HemisFair Arena crowd during halftime at Spurs game in 1974

Ford toured the Alamo that morning and went to a reception given by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

The president, noticing a plate of tamales, took one and began to eat it, shuck and all, said a story by reporter David McLemore. A vigilant DRT stopped the president before it was too late, the story added. Ford reportedly laughed as his hostess removed the corn wrapper, and returned his tamal, which he finished off.

Read more: President Wilson launched U.S. into Great War in April 1917

Three photos of the presidential visit ran on the front page: one of Ford biting into a tamal (bottom of the page), one with Mayor Lila Cockrell and another of two young students with signs welcoming him.

Placards in the crowd supported Ford, saying, Ford has a better idea, and Jerry, we love you. School bands from Central Catholic, Lanier and Burbank entertained the crowd, along with the Nueva San Juan mariachi band while a salesman hawked genuine Bicentennial flags on Alamo Plaza. But some signs arriving late in the morning criticized Ford for the recent layoffs at Kelly AFB, saying, Heaven help us, because Ford cant. Demonstrators were described as quiet and peaceful.

Ford, who spoke to the Alamo crowd for only about 10 minutes, also visited Kelly during his stop. He said Congress, not him, was responsible for the layoffs. The newspaper described his San Antonio stops, including a luncheon with Republican backers at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, as geared to his campaign to defeat Ronald Reagan in the Texas Primary in May and win the November election against the Democratic challenger.

That November, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, won Texas with 51 percent of the vote (getting all 26 electoral votes) and won the White House. That was the last time a Democratic candidate for president carried Texas.
Often during mud season I wish I lived elsewhere. The snow is gray, the slush is everywhere and aside from some hopeful buckets collecting sap from maple trees, this fifth season is drab.

But wait, its not all bad! I am celebrating mud season for two reasons. Ridgefield (where I live) has been voted (once again) as the safest town in the entire USA and miraculously the best doughnuts in the land are a mile from my house.

The best doughnuts are to be found at Uncle Leos Not Just Coffee & Donuts, a popular local spot. Uncle Leos has been in the Georgetown section of Redding for more than a year. When it first opened I popped in and chalked it up to yet another place to grab a cup of coffee and an egg-and-cheese sandwich.

Uncle Leos is on Main Street. Main Street is always in flux; restaurants come and go quickly, the local fire department holds its fair here every summer, and the best scenery is the old Gilbert and Bennett wire mill, which is still waiting for its debut as something other then a crumbling old building, both majestic and sad.

If you grew up in Connecticut, you are possibly unaware that doughnuts are a major New England obsession. Living here, one just takes them for granted. Like pizza, I could make a case for our state having the best of the best. The problem is that every 5 feet there is a Dunkin Donuts, and where there isnt a double delta, there are the tricked-up new places that lure millennials in with rococo doughnuts frosted like wedding cakes and stuffed with discordant elements like bacon and peanut butter.

So hosannas for Uncle Leos where there are not a million same-tasting choices and over-the-top weirdness is not the signature. The doughnuts made here are classic New England style: plain, cinnamon sugared, yeast risen, chocolate and cream filled. Not only is the kitchen at Uncle Leos not out to prove how clever they are, but I can honestly say that the lack of silliness and super-high quality makes these the best I have eaten.

If I had to invent a genre for them, I would say they are workingman doughnuts, as honest and timeless as the old mill across the street. They are designed to be eaten when bought (not pumped full of preservatives) and have no taste of old frying oil, a fate that some of the once-great doughnut emporiums in Fairfield County have suffered.

In addition to doughnuts, Uncle Leos has good egg sandwiches. It is hard for me to get worked up over an egg sandwich, which is why I ignored the place for so long. When I went in for my doughnut fix, the man in front of me on line said, I would like a Heart Attack. What? I perked up and followed his lead and ordered my own Heart Attack. An Uncle Leo heart attack is not for the lean-cuisine crowd, it gets its morbid name from the fact that it is a cardiologists nightmare. Eggs and cheese and sausage and bacon in close proximity on a bun.

I was surprised that sausage and bacon proved such a brilliant combo; I thought they would cancel each other out, but I was wrong. I am no longer a single pig meat girl; I like sausage and bacon together.

If you do not want to start your day with a Heart Attack, there are a dozen other breakfast sandwiches available, including a breakfast stromboli, a table of crust into which is tucked your meat of choice.

More Information Uncle Leo's Not Just Coffee & Donuts 19 Main St., Redding 203-587-1050 See More Collapse

Veering away from breakfast I tried the lunchtime daily special soup chicken gumbo. It was sturdy and well made, as was the warm roast beef on a roll with a container of au jus for dipping. There are numerous cold-cut sandwiches and daily hot meals offered, nothing cutting edge or super fancy, just good plain food.

If you have lived in Georgetown for any length of time (or are a member of the local fire department like I am) you will probably know most of the other customers there. It truly is where the locals eat.

Inside the cafe are three little tables that fill up fast. Most diners take their food to go. In nice weather, it is easier to get a seat; there is a pleasant, spacious patio with tables and chairs to sit at.

I am delighted to see Uncle Leos as popular as it is, because nobody goes down Georgetowns Main Street accidentally. You go down Main Street because you already know what is there. It is a hidden-away street at once folksy and mysterious. Georgetown has changed only slightly since I first moved here.

Decades back, I remember an astonishing numbers of bars and liquor stores on Main Street. There was also an old-style barber shop and a TV repair shop that would replace the blown-out tubes in your old set. It took weeks to get the TV fixed, and lugging the TV in its heavy mahogany cabinet was a chore. This all seems as outdated as the Old Wire Mill.

The legendary Georgetown Saloon is closed and I see only one liquor store now, but the blue collar charm of the town is still there. Ignore the expensive steakhouse with valet parking next door to Uncle Leos and treat yourself to Connecticuts humble pride: great doughnuts.
One Toke Over the Line has taken on new m eaning here in Connecticut.

In less than three months Massachusetts will become a major marijuana dealer. Outlets selling weed for recreational purposes will open all over the Bay State on July 1 and will begin offering it to anyone over 21, regardless of residency. This will make The Hub the hub of the legal marijuana trade in New England.

One can get to Massachusetts in about 90 minutes from anyplace in Connecticut, unless, of course, your route involves I-95, in which case you can be there in 90 minutes or a couple of days. As columnist Dan Haar pointed out last month, once Massachusetts opens for business, Connecticut becomes a recreational marijuana state.

Just how many Connecticut residents will be driving to Massachusetts to score is yet to be determined, but if I were an entrepreneur Id be seriously looking into opening a chain of junk-food kiosks on the border. Once Connecticut is enveloped in this interstate cloud of smoldering doobies, one wonders what effect it will have.

The 1936 movie, Reefer Madness, asserted that marijuana smoking inevitably leads to manslaughter, suicides, assault, hallucinations and, yes, eventually madness. Although Reefer Madness is the most mocked movie in recorded history  with the possible exception of Showgirls and The Godfather Part III  some of the more strident pot opponents in the Connecticut Legislature tend to view it as a documentary.

Anyway, what effect will the coming stoner age have in Connecticut? My worry is not that there will be murder and mayhem in the streets. My major concern is that it will create an appetite for 1960s and 1970s marijuana nostalgia.

Consider some of the horrifying consequences:

Fashion: Hippie style will, of course, be the rage. Tie-dye shirts, bell bottoms, beads, headbands, fringe, floppy hats, granny glasses, medallions, peace symbols. It will be like Halloween 24/7.

Language: Far out will make a big comeback, as will cool, man, right on, rip off, heavy, Bogart, bummer, freak out, narc, the man, fuzz, hip, heads, booking, peace, psychedelic, stash and flashback. Groovy, a word that I had hoped we had finally heard the last of, will also probably return in force. It would be almost worth building a wall along the Mass border to keep groovy at bay.

Mood: There will be a noticeable shift in the collective mood. We will steadily become more laid-back, more mellow. If it werent for the weather, you would think you had been transported to Woodstock or Wesleyan.

Humor: What tickles our funny bone will become noticeably different. People will tend to laugh hysterically at something that is either not funny or really, really stupid, or both. Giggling will replace the guffaw. Snickering will be out.

Munchies: Grocery lists will change. Organic, leafy, fruity and healthy will give way to food that actually tastes good and can be consumed in mass quantities. Among the new staples will be Twinkies, Oreos, Cheez Wiz, Pop-Tarts, Fritos, Ding Dongs, Goldfish, potato chips and occasional hits of whipped cream straight out of the can.

Music: The usual suspects will return for an encore: Marley, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, The Doors, The Stones, Dylan, Hendrix, Moody Blues, Janis, et al. With the past on a continuous loop, songs will get stuck in your head and you will find yourself chasing rabbits, even though you know youre going to fall, and skipping the light fandango. He who has not thrown away his old LPs will be sitting on a gold mine.

Yeah man, come summer its going to be like, you know, like a trip, man, if you catch my drift, man. Not much we can do about it, I guess, but keep on truckin.

Jim Shea is a lifelong Connecticut resident and journalist who believes the keys to life include the avoidance of physical labor and I-95. He can be reached at jimboshea@gmail.com and on Twitter @jimboshea.
GREENWICH  Greenwichs Commission on Aging envisions a future where the whole town is dementia- and age-friendly.

Now it is jumping at the opportunity to partner with Dementia Friends USA to spread awareness through a collaboration between the commission and the Southwestern Connecticut Agency on Aging.

Tuesday they set the scene for this future.

If you saw someone living with dementia, would you recognize the signs? said a video playing on the big screen with a gentle piano in the background. Would you be uncomfortable, would you avoid them, would you be frustrated, would you do nothing?

The video showed an elderly man sitting at a diner, looking at a menu and shaking his head. A woman with white hair and a cane stood confused in the middle of a grocery store, looking around.

Or would you be a friend? the video said. Would you engage them and empower them to get through their day? Would you welcome the opportunity to help them feel like a part of your community, would you take even the smallest step to make their day less frightening and confusing?

In the video, a boy walking a dog approached a confused-looking man on the sidewalk and said, Its Tuesday, arent you going to the store? Ill walk with you.

The video showed that dementia is not a normal part of aging and not everyone develops it. It is caused by diseases in the brain, most commonly Alzheimers, and its not just about memory problems, but also about thinking, communicating and doing everyday tasks, said Katie Regan from the Southwestern Connecticut Agency on Aging.

Regan also said, however, that it is possible to enjoy a good quality of life with dementia. Theres more to a person than dementia, she said, and people with dementia are still valuable parts of their communities.

A community in Japan, uses the lemon as a symbol for age-friendly establishments, Commission on Aging Director Lori Contadino said after the information session at Town Hall.

And anywhere you went and saw this particular lemon, you knew it was a safe place  the people at the bakery were dementia friends, she said.

This is what Contadino said she wants Greenwich to look like as an age-friendly and dementia-friendly town.

One attendee, Mary Hyson, 88, took notes carefully throughout the presentation. A close family member lives with dementia, but she was also interested in sharing her thoughts on how the town accommodates the elderly.

Everyone at a certain age has trouble with a step, Hyson said. The sidewalks have a ramp on the corners so Ill just say thats made people a little more aware with helping. I have no idea how many people have helped me there, or at CVS with my carriage. I appreciate the Greenwich feeling for it.

Theyre concentrating this here on dementia, but I see this as an attitude of the town, she said. People have absorbed it.

But Mia Sambo, a local elder care provider, said that she doesnt always see this and that she wants to make sure the elderly are not invisible.

Its awesome that they have this training here in Greenwich, Sambo said. You dont see that in people. In rich communities, in places like Greenwich, they go through their life, get out of their fancy car  theyll see an old person struggling to open the door. But theyre on the cellphone going to get a cappuccino and wont even notice them.

This person reached there before you, but you will be there one day, too, she said. Wont you want the same respect?

Central Middle School eighth-grader Megan Young, 13, was also at the information session. She came with her mom, a Cos Cob middle school teacher, to get information for her Capstone project on Alzheimers disease.

We choose something in our community that we care about, Megan said. My grandmother and grandfather had Alzheimers.

Her grandfather died about five years ago, and her grandmother has lived at Parsonage Cottage, the Greens on King Street and is now at the Waveny Care Center in Darien. Megan said her grandmother may soon be moved soon to Nathaniel Witherell.

I was doing research with the Alzheimers Association, she said. It says over 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimers, by 2020 its going to be something like 5,000 more.

According to Contadinos numbers, 10,000 people turn 65 every day  and have been since January 2011. That aging trend is expected to continue for another eight years. Concerns are mounting about issues linked to aging  including dementia, she said, as efforts continue to make communities friendly and open for everyone.

Dementia Friends was created by the Alzheimers Society in 2013, and 13,750 Americans have been registered as Dementia Friends since the initiative came to the U.S. in early 2017.

Greenwich, the first town in Fairfield County to get involved, is on track to be the first town in Connecticut to get the age- and dementia-friendly AARP designations.

Becoming a Dementia Friend is an incredible step forward for the town of Greenwich, Contadino said. Its reminded each of us that we all can play a role, not only in the town of Greenwich, but in all of our everyday interactions.

The next step is to set up a Dementia Champion Training session in the fall for anyone interested in spreading awareness to others and working toward making Greenwich more dementia-friendly. More information can be found at www.dementiafriendsusa.org and on the Commission on Aging section of the Town of Greenwich website.

Its long overdue for the nation to have something like this in place for the elderly, said Sambo. Im so excited for this to launch  it does start with the information and awareness, and I will be at every training.
BRIDGEPORT  Millie Navarro collects cats.

There are five cats in her house, a mix of rescues and adoptions. Theres a revolving door of neighborhood stray cats that come onto her Shelton Street property, looking to be fed. She obliges.

Im an animal lover, the 55-year-old said.

One thing thats difficult is managing medical costs of all those animals. Spaying and neutering  which keeps pets from reproducing  can cost anywhere from $35 to $300, depending on the animals gender, species, size and other characteristics. So, when Christopher Keith came knocking on Navarros door offering free veterinary services, she was intrigued.

Keith is community outreach manager for Pets for Life, a program created by the Humane Society of the United States to offer free veterinary care in communities with limited or no access to pet wellness resources.

Keith is based at the Nutmeg Spay and Neuter Clinic in Stratford, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost spaying and neutering services for cats and dogs in Connecticut. The clinic received a grant from the Humane Society to bring Pets for Life to Bridgeport. Its the 35th Pets for Life program nationwide.

Since the national program launched in 2011, Pets for Life has served more than 151,000 pets, performed over 95,000 spay/neuter surgeries, and provided over 386,000 medications, supplies and services throughout the United States.

It addresses the inequity and lack of access to pet resources in certain areas said Jason Schipkowski, mentor and training manager for the national Pets for Life program.

He said, just as there are food deserts that have a dearth of places where residents can buy nutritious food, there are also pet deserts, where there arent enough veterinarians and other resources for people with pets. Thats unfortunate, Schipkowski said.

Love for a pet transcends socioeconomic factors, he said.

The program run through Nutmeg Spay and Neuter is the first one in Connecticut. As part of the grant the clinic received, Keith and Nutmeg Director Clara McCabe identified the nearby ZIP code most in need of free pet services. They landed on 06608, which stretches roughly from Boston Avenue to Steel Point. The program may expand at some point but, McCabe said, right now they are focusing on this high-need area.

Were helping as many as we can in this ZIP code, she said.

Relationship building

Since the program started in February, Keith has been canvasing the neighborhoods, knocking on doors and offering those with pets a free package of services that includes spaying or neutering, vaccinations, flea treatments and other basic services.

He has provided help for some of Navarros cats, and she is grateful. Veterinary care, she said, is so expensive. She said, at some point, she would like to get help paying for pet food. Keith said that could be part of the program at some point but Nutmegs Pets for Life initiative is still in its infancy.

You have to get friendly with the neighbors, Keith said. Theyre not going to trust you immediately.

The key, he said, is to get a few residents, like Navarro and her husband, Chico Gavillan, to trust him, use the programs services, and then spread the word to others.

Though Navarro and Gavillan were receptive, there are some houses Keith has yet to crack.

On the same street as Navarro, there is a house that is overrun with cats. Its front and back yards are covered in garbage, including discarded containers of pet food. Keith said he has been knocking on the houses door for weeks, and gotten no answer. He has heard the person who lives there has had health problems and is living at a care facility.

At some point, Keith said, the city of Bridgeport might need to get involved. But, for now, he knocks, looking for someone to answer.

Keith mentioned other houses where he knows there are pets that need care, but whose owners wont let him in. But he is patient, walking the blocks, knocking on doors, offering spaying, neutering and other services.

Most of this job is relationship-building, he said, adding that people wont accept help if they dont know who you are.
STAMFORD  A hotly debated plan to finalize the citys public schools calendar has reached an amicable conclusion.

Stamford seniors will don their caps and gowns June 22, but wont be collecting their diplomas until June 25.

At a special meeting Monday night, the Board of Education voted to forgive the 181st day of school and have the last day of classes for students on June 25. The last day for staff will be June 26.

The board approved a proposal to hold the graduation ceremonies earlier to allow seniors who have plans the last week of June to participate. Graduating seniors will not receive their diplomas until June 25 when the principals at each school will certify the students. State law prohibits graduates from receiving their diplomas before the 180th day of school.

Stamfords three public high schools will hold their graduation ceremonies June 22. Times for the ceremonies have not been determined.

Although its departing from past practice where weve had three staggered graduations, well go with a single graduation early enough on Friday so families can go to their graduation ceremonies, have a nice family gathering and go home before religious obligations kick in, Superintendent of Schools Earl Kim said.

Kim said staggering the ceremonies over two days would have interfered with final exams, which are scheduled for June 18 to 20 with a makeup day on June 21.

Dates for moving-up ceremonies for the middle and elementary schools will be announced after April vacation.

The school year needed to be extended after a series of March noreasters increased the districts snow days to seven, the most since 2013-14.

More for you Stamford vets oppose holding classes on Memorial Day

Kim initially suggested having a half-day of school on Memorial Day, but the idea was criticized by local veterans, parents and faculty. A survey revealed many staff members would take a personal day if there was school on the holiday.

Archie Elam, state officer with the Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he wants to take steps so holding classes on Memorial Day is not even an option in the future.

Im glad that they took the feedback from many quarters and thought through the wider impacts and got to a good decision, Elam said after Mondays meeting. I hope this is the last time. Ive given serious thought to recommending they change general statute so we dont have to go through that again. I think we have to work hard at connecting the consciousness of our veterans and their loved ones to our community. I think one of the roots of this is that connection is uneven.

Elam, who had spoken out against having school on Memorial Day since it was proposed, said he hopes this begins a conversation in the community about the importance of veterans.

But Matthew Wilden, an Army veteran and Stamford parent who attended the meeting, said he isnt holding his breath.

This is a much deeper conversation in my opinion, Wilden said. The general population doesnt give the topic as much discussion as it deserves. The way it played out here is representative of who we are as a country. Its a huge military and civilian divide. Most people dont understand what serving means.
Update: The case against Ian Landis has been sealed for accelerated rehabilitation.

FAIRFIELD  A gun-wielding Fairfield high school student was arrested for allegedly sending a threatening Snapchat message, according to police.

Noah Michael Landis, 18, of Melville Avenue, allegedly sent a message of himself holding a MAC-11 subcompact machine pistol Friday to a student at Cooperative Educational Services (CES) in Trumbull, police said.

The student, who Landis said was a fellow gun enthusiast, responded with his own message: Dont shoot up the school now (laughing with tears emoji), to which Landis replied, LMAO no promises.

The CES student alerted a school counselor, who then contacted Fairfield police. Police responded to Fairfield High Schools Walter Fitzgerald campus, where Landis was interviewed by officers and the school psychologist. Police said no weapons were found in Landis possession.

Landis told police that he did not own a gun, but admitted to sending photos of himself holding firearms to other gun enthusiasts. The photo that aroused concern, Landis claimed, was six months old, though the student who received the message refuted that claim, according to the report.

After being interviewed, Landis was charged with disorderly conduct and second degree threatening and was transported to Fairfield police headquarters.

Landis made a $1,000 bond and is due in court April 16.
By Susan Crowell / editor@farmanddairy.com

Theres a well-known quote attributed to President Harry Truman. Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say, on one hand, then but on the other hand

The idea is that many economists are often loath to take a firm position because an economic impact depends on a lot of variables.

On one hand, one economist I read this week says there is a glimmer of hope that the tariffs proposed by China against U.S. pork may not be all bad news.

Bad news, yes, but Michael Swanson, chief ag economist for Wells Fargo, tempers the news in that recent commentary.

Swanson looked at the numbers to assess the potential damage, and found  at least when it comes to the pork market  the U.S. exports about 22% of its domestic pork production. Of that, about 17% goes to China and Hong Kong, a sizable share, yes, but Swanton writes, it isnt anywhere near critical.

Although pork producers would beg to differ, Swanson continues to explain that China will simply look elsewhere for pork, and other buyers will look to the U.S. for deals. Overall, he says, the pork market will sort itself out quickly.

Its a little different, but some of that is already happening in the soybean market, as buyers purchased a sizable order of U.S. soybeans, headed to an as-yet undisclosed location. A Reuters reporter who talked to trading insiders says the speculation is the beans are headed to processors in the Netherlands and Germany.

If China implements the tariffs and isnt buying U.S. beans, theyll need to buy them somewhere (oh, hey, Brazil). A lower price on U.S. beans will make them more attractive to buyers other than China. Key adjective, though, is lower. (Although soybean futures are up at this writing, as the presidents trade rhetoric shifted in a speech Monday.)

On the other hand, though, there is a long-term shake-out to consider if the tariffs are implemented.

Ohio State University ag economist Ian Sheldon reminds us that China accounts for the bulk of global soybean imports  two-thirds of the total. U.S. exports make up about a third of that, making soybeans the United States second-most valuable export to China after varieties of airplanes, he writes.

Losing that market hurts. A lot.

And the U.S. stands to lose that market share to Brazil, the No. 2 exporter of soybeans, and U.S. farmers may not be able to grab that market share back, Sheldon warns.

Of course, all of this may or may not ever happen.

Ultimately, theres the added frustration of farmers being used as a pawn in the global chess game between the U.S. and China. Naturally, China would target agricultural goods for tariffs because most farm states supported President Donald Trump, and the foreign government knows those farmers will be pretty vocal to get the president to back off his tit-for-tat trade negotiations involving agriculture.

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of As the World Turns.

* * *

(Commentary by Farm and Dairy Editor Susan Crowell)
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New data shows rural crime cost the UK 44.5m in 2017, with the future trend showing a rise in this form of crime as thieves become more brazen as they target the countryside.

Every year rural crime costs millions of pounds and causes untold anxiety across the UK countryside.

Farmers are having to increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment and stock with many farms being turned into fortresses, where thieves are repeatedly targeting quads, tractors and power tools.

This is also causing high levels of anxiety amongst farmers who know their rural location makes them vulnerable to attacks.

According to NFU Mutual, the shocking crime figures are the highest level in four years.

Every year, the rural insurer publishes a detailed report on rural crime trends in August which provides detailed analysis including county statistics and information on changing patterns of theft.

'Brazen criminals'

This year, widespread concern in rural communities has led NFU Mutual to issue an early warning to farmers and country dwellers to increase security.

Tim Price, NFU Mutual Rural Affairs Specialist explained: From the South East of England to the North of Scotland were seeing brazen criminals stealing cars, 4 x 4s, tractors, quad bikes and tools.

Were especially concerned that criminals are becoming more sophisticated and are overcoming electronic security to steal expensive vehicles of all types.

With police facing huge challenges  including budget cuts and extra workload  forces are finding it hard to resource rural policing and this may be one of the reasons for the rise in thefts we are seeing.

'Geo-fencing'

Farmers have been told to adapt simple security measures. Fitting gates to prevent easy access to farm yards and drives is one of the most effective measures.

High-tech security such as movement detectors, infra-red cameras and geo-fencing, which triggers an alarm if a farm vehicle moves off the premises, can also play their part.

Mr Price continued: Social media is fast becoming the new eyes and ears of the countryside and keeping in close touch with neighbours and police through local farmwatch schemes can play a significant role in identifying suspicious activity and bringing thieves to justice.

The steepest rises regionally in the cost of theft claims were in Wales, the Midlands and South East England.

Only one region, the north East of England recorded a significant fall in the cost of theft claims.
Defra Secretary Michael Gove has launched a call for evidence for a potential ban on the live export of animals for slaughter once the UK leaves the EU.

The call for evidence will also look at higher welfare standards for live animal movements.

Taking action on live animal exports forms part of the governments programme of reforms for the UK agricultural industry once the UK leaves the EU. It also forms part of Mr Gove's pledged 'Green Brexit'.

The Farm Animal Welfare Committee has also launched a review into the existing welfare standards for animals during transport, and this is being complemented by research commissioned by Defra from Scotlands Rural College and the University of Edinburgh.

The government has already announced raising the maximum sentences for animal cruelty to five years and introducing mandatory CCTV in abattoirs.

Mr Gove said: "With all options being considered, I am keen to hear from industry, the devolved authorities and charities on all possible options and evidence on this vital issue."

Potential ban

The call for evidence, which will last for six weeks, seeks views from across industry, devolved authorities, charities and the general public on how the government might raise standards of animal welfare during transport after the UK leaves the EU.

All options are being considered, including a potential ban on the live export of animals for slaughter.

Latest figures, from 2016, show that each year over four thousand sheep are transported from the UK to continental Europe for slaughter.

The National Sheep Association (NSA) has pledged to "robustly defend" what is a "legitimate and important" activity for the sheep industry as the prospect of a live export ban nears.

Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive, said the NSA remains opposed to any ban on live exports.

We cannot see how it could operate, as it would go against all government policy on trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Mr Stocker explained.

The suggestion that movements across water should be banned, rather than all live exports, is similarly illogical as sea transit causes no welfare problems and ending it would decimate essential UK trade and devastate many island communities.

Mr Stocker said a "more intelligent solution" would be the proposed industry assurance scheme for live export routes.

'On hook, not hoof'

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) said it welcomes the call for evidence.

President John Fishwick said: We believe that production animals should not be transported long distances to the abattoir but should be slaughtered as near to the point of production as possible.

Animals should be transported on the hook, as meat, not on the hoof, as live animals.

It is vital that we maintain the UKs current high standards of animal welfare post-Brexit and seek opportunities to improve them. We look forward to contributing to this call and seeing the results once the evidence has been collected.

The Governments full manifesto commitment in this area is as we leave the European Union, we can take early steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter.
Bioethanol plant Vivergo has reopened after a four-month shut-down period following unfavourable trading conditions.

The UK's biggest bioethanol producer, which supports 900 farms, halted production at its East Yorkshire plant last year.

The company says trading conditions are part driven by "government inaction" on the future of renewable fuels and current market conditions.

Over the coming months, Vivergo says conditions may improve as a result of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) being passed through Parliament in March.

This will come into effect later this month, increasing the use of renewable fuels in transport from 4.75% to a target of 9.75% by 2020.

E10 fuel

The bioethanol industry is now calling for the Government to introduce E10 fuel by the end of the year.

E10 is a more environmentally friendly blend of 10% renewable bioethanol with petrol which can lower emissions from vehicles.

It is commonly used across North America, Europe and Australasia and introducing it in the UK would be the carbon emissions savings equivalent to taking 700,000 cars off the road.

The restart of Vivergos plant is particularly welcome news for the agricultural community, as many farms in the region who supplied the plant were directly affected by the shutdown.

In addition to providing a market for their feed wheat that would have otherwise been exported at a lower price, Vivergo supplies farms in the UK with high-protein animal feed.

'Recommence'

Mark Chesworth, managing director of Vivergo Fuels, said the company is pleased to see the RTFO pass through Parliament.

This step, combined with the completion of maintenance work, has prompted us to recommence production after being offline over the winter period," Mr Chesworth said.

However, there is much still to do if we are to sustain production and maintain this significant industry in the UK.

Whilst we value the recent government commitment to the RTFO, it is vital that we now progress this through the rapid introduction of E10."
Sheep farmers are being urged to take cover against the potential financial losses incurred by sheep worrying after the latest spate of distressing attacks reported across the country.

The graphic images and noticeable increase in reports of sheep worrying over recent weeks once again brings to the fore the constant challenge farmers face in educating the public of the potential impacts their actions can have on livestock.

Leading rural insurer NFU Mutual recently revealed that the cost of claims related to livestock worrying has reached a record level of 1.6 million across the UK.

The figures follow the release of a report by the All Party Parliamentary Animal Welfare Group which shows more than 1,800 farm animals have been killed by dog attacks in the space of four years.

However, social media is proving an effective tool to educate dog owners on the importance of keeping dogs under control around livestock.

It focuses not only on the devastation that can be caused for the farmer, but also to the dog owner if the animal is shot, or later put down

While dog attacks on livestock are no new thing, police are now reporting a sharp rise in incidents across the country, says Charlotte Wilson of agricultural insurance broker Farmers & Mercantile (F&M).

We have certainly seen an escalation in the number of claims. While the first step should always be to educate the public, other steps do need to be taken to protect farmers from what now, unfortunately seems almost like the inevitable, she added.

Chances have increased

With the increasing number of houses being built in rural areas, and farm diversifications into camp sites, the chances of an attack have rapidly increased.

With the unfortunate likelihood that the culprits will not be caught and brought to justice, Ms Wilson said livestock farmers should be looking at making sure their insurance protects them.

Although there is no protection for emotional losses, by having sheep worrying cover on your farm insurance policy, the loss of income from the incident is at least negated, added Ms Wilson.

Cover for sheep worrying is available as an extension to a standard livestock policy, and will apply regardless of whether animals are being grazed on a farmers own land or a rented field.

It is frustrating for farmers that they are having to pay for this additional protection, but if insured correctly, the extra premium paid for this extension of cover will be nominal in the bigger picture, she added.
The Netherlands is the most expensive country to buy farmland, according to official EU figures by Eurostat.

The information comes from a new set of statistics on agricultural land prices and rents from 2016, which covers most of the EU Member States.

On average, the Netherlands recorded the most expensive purchase price of one hectare of arable land in the EU in 2016 at 63,000 (54,800).

(Source: Eurostat)

Indeed, the price of arable land in every region of the Netherlands was above all other available national averages in the EU.

However, among the EU regions for which data are available, the most expensive price for arable land was in the Liguria region of Italy, at 108,000 (94,000) per hectare.

The UK comes in at fourth most expensive, with the purchase price of one hectare estimated at 25,742 (22,405).

Arable land was cheapest in Romania, with a hectare costing an average 1,958 (1,704). At the regional level, a hectare of arable land cost least in the Yugozapaden region of Bulgaria, at an average of 1,165 (1,015).

The level of land prices depends on a number of national laws, regional factors such as climate, proximity to networks and localised factors, such as soil quality, slope, drainage, as well as the market forces of supply and demand.

From the data available, the strongest growth in land prices of arable land between 2011 and 2016 was in the Czech Republic (a three-fold increase), Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Hungary (a two-fold increase). Prices rose in other Member States too, albeit at much lower rates.
A new service has been launched in Wales to support groups of farmers wanting to apply for grants up to 700,000 to improve management of natural resources.

The Sustainable Management Scheme (SMS) offers grants of up to 700,000 for collaborative groups looking to improve the management of natural resources.

The support service will be delivered by Menter a Busnes under the flagship Farming Connect Programme on behalf of the Welsh Government Rural Communities  Rural Development Programme 2014  2020, which is funded by the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

Fifteen facilitators have been selected to provide support for groups of farmers to develop their ideas and to submit their expression of interest to Welsh Government.

If groups are successful at the EOI stage and invited to submit a full proposal, the facilitator will be available to provide further support.

Eirwen Williams, Menter a Busnes Director said: This service will provide farmers with guidance and information as they develop their project ideas. Sometimes the process of applying for funding can seem rather daunting but with this service a facilitator will be at hand to provide continued support.

Examples of successful projects in the past are the Eden Catchment programme which is a farmer led project centred on the improvement of the river Eden catchment by planting and managing native deciduous trees.

Another example includes the Fferm Ifan project, a cooperation of 11 farmers who are implementing new targeted land management actions which will also deliver socio-economic benefits.
Northern Irelands future food supply runs the risk of "serious disruption" because the UK government is "neglecting" the issue in Brexit talks, according to a new report.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) and City, University of London joint report warn there has been no planning for how food trade will fit into any changes to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The report shows why a frictionless border is vital to the important food trade into, out of and through Northern Ireland.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is currently, in effect, invisible. The report warns that any future deal which requires border checks and infrastructure raises serious food safety, standards, crime and fraud risks.

New arrangements could increase food prices, reduce access to healthy food, cause transport delays and harm agri-food businesses and farmers.

Indeed, the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) says the movement of goods and access to labour across the border after Brexit are key concerns for farmers and dairy processors.

UFU dairy chairman William Irvine said Northern Irelands unique situation and the complexities of what will be a land border between the UK and EU are well recognised.

A large number of dairy farmers here are members of co-ops in the South. Clearly, there are strong links between farmers here and processors south of the border, and indeed vice versa, Mr Irvine explained.

'Food Brexit'

The report sets out four ways in which either the current arrangements can be guaranteed or any future border can be truly frictionless.

It says the UK could stay in the Customs Union and the Single Market, or reach a mutually agreed future customs arrangement between UK and EU that achieves the same thing.

The report also suggests that the whole of the UK commits to future regulatory alignment. Or, simply, a set of unique arrangements is developed for Northern Ireland.

The authors urge the UK Government to publish plans for what food Brexit will look like for Northern Ireland, and call for the UK, the EU and the Republic of Ireland to come together to overcome the issues.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays commitment to a frictionless border cannot be fudged over food, said report co-author Professor Tim Lang, of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London.

The Northern Ireland food system urgently needs some clear decisions to be taken by all sides in respect of food Brexit. This important issue is not, at present, receiving the attention that it deserves, and this failure of food governance should not be allowed to continue.

'Criss-cross trade'

The report argues that food is central to the economy of Northern Ireland, and the continuing supply of safe, high-quality, healthy food is currently dependent on the absence of border controls between Northern Ireland, EU member state the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and the rest of the EU.

It cites figures that show hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food criss-cross these borders annually, free from inspection because of shared, underpinning EU single market regulation.

Northern Ireland exports 1.15 billion worth of food to the EU, about 70 per cent of which goes to or through the Republic of Ireland.

Great Britain is the biggest single market for the Northern Ireland food and drink processing sector, and Northern Ireland also depends on substantial food imports, especially of fruit and vegetables.

Nearly 40 per cent of the UKs beef exports go to Republic, while 50 per cent of Irish beef exports are marketed in the UK.

In terms of sheep, the fact that over 40 per cent of Northern Irelands lambs are processed in the Republic of Ireland and 90 per cent of the UKs lamb exports are destined for the European market show that there is a lot hanging on achieving a progressive free trade arrangement.

The Northern Ireland agri-food sector employs 100,000 people, with the food and drink sector the countrys most important manufacturing industry.

Border technology

The report also dismisses the vague and unrealistic the idea that technology could be used to check food crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Gary McFarlane, co-author and the CIEHs Director in Northern Ireland, said: Technological solutions may or may not be possible in the future, but they do not exist at present. Furthermore, technological solutions cannot replace the need for food inspection by qualified and competent food professionals.

Proper food inspection requires someone to look inside lorries and make judgements about critical food safety and standards.

The authors say there is little contingency planning being done for Brexits impact on food in Northern Ireland and the preparation that is being done is being undertaken by public health officials, which they say is unacceptable.

Tony Lewis, co-author and Head of Policy at the CIEH, said: Port health officers, customs officers and other trade and health-related professionals cannot resolve political difficulties, nor should responsibility for resolving practicalities be placed at their door.

The responsibilities of such professionals are to the common good, including the publics safety and health.
Take part in research for Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme

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Kunickaa Sadanand Further Commented!

"On one such panel discussion last week, I said that even Bishnois are hunters. I wanted to add that just like there are non-vegetarians in vegetarian communities, likewise but I was interrupted by the anchor."

Started Receiving Lewd Calls After The Interview!

"A person called Santosh Bishnoi called me and wanted me to apologise for what I had said on television and I agreed, as I had no proof about Bishnois being non-vegetarian; I had only heard about it from a man in Kota."

The Harassment Did Not Stop!

"However, the phone calls did not stop, there were messages on Facebook, too. They threatened to file a case against me. By then, I'd had enough and I posted a video online, apologising for my statement. I also talked about the harassment."

Kunickaa Went Ahead & Filed A Complaint!

"I filed a case under Section 507 against the Bishnoi community. I handed over all the details, including the numbers from which I received the calls, and screenshots of the lewd messages."

Invaded Her Privacy, Leaked Personal Details!

"They have leaked my address and phone numbers on social media and violated my privacy. I have got police protection, now it is up to them to take action."
Ailing Air India and its group entities are up for grabs. However, almost every suitor named by Indian media so far has been quick to issue a denial

Ailing Air India and its group entities are up for grabs. However, almost every suitor named by Indian media so far has, either pulled out of the race to acquire the national carrier, or has been quick to issue a denial, raising questions about who would be a worthy suitor for the Maharaja? The latest denial came on Tuesday, from Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways.

Jet became the latest major Indian airline to rule out a bid for the debt-ridden national airline, dealing a new blow to the government's ambitious privatisation plan.

"We welcome the government move to privatise Air India. It is a bold step. However, considering the terms of offer in the information memorandum and based on our review, we are not participating in the process, " Jet Airways' deputy chief executive, Amit Agarwal told the AFP.

SAC denies it bid for AI

On Monday, Swiss Aviation Consulting (SAC) said it never expressed an interest in acquiring Air India or parts of it. Nor did it act as a front for some other stakeholder. The denial followed a report that said the Swiss firm was interested in putting down a bid for Air India.

SAC told Reuters that it had not been in contact with Indian government officials or Air India representatives regarding a bid for the carrier.

Jet and SAC are among several airlines named as potential suitors.

IndiGo opts out

Last Friday, budget carrier IndiGo, which had initially evinced an interest in acquiring Air India's international operations, was compelled to opt out as such an option was not available under New Delhi's disinvestment plan for Air India.

But the government wishes for IndiGo to return to the negotiation table. Civil Aviation Secretary R N Chaubey said the government intended to expedite the divestment process, but made it clear that Air India's operations would not be split in the bidding process.

"From day one, IndiGo has expressed its interest primarily in the acquisition of Air India's international operation and Air India Express. However, that option is not available under the government's current disinvestment plan for Air India. Also, as we have communicated before, we do not believe we have the capability to take on the task of acquiring and successfully turning around all of Air India's airline operations," President and Whole Time Director Aditya Ghosh said in a statement on 5 April.

So is the Air India disinvestment plan, put forth by the government, unattractive for bidders? Will the government dilute bidding criterion to attract a buyer?

We have the procedure in place. If there are multiple bidders, we go ahead with it. If theres only one bidder, the civil aviation ministry will take a call on that. If there are no buyers, we will have to see what we can do, a government official involved in the sale process told Quartz on Monday.

Earlier, on 28 March, the Ministry of Civil Aviation pushed out a so-called preliminary information memorandum on Air India's strategic disinvestment, which laid down the ground rules for a deal.

However, media speculation kicked-in well ahead of the publication of the memorandum.

Qatar Airways, Air France & Delta

On 21 March, Qatar Airways had to deny reports that it was in talks to bid for Air India. "Qatar Airways firmly denies it is involved in any talks regarding the acquisition of Air India," it said in a statement, after reports stated the airline could float a consortium to bid for Air India.

On 11 March, a Jet Airways spokesperson said the airline would not like to comment on speculation that the Mumbai-based carrier could partner Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines to table a bid for Air India.

Interestingly, Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube had a decade-long career at Delta Air Lines prior to joining the Indian carrier in 2017. He served as Senior Vice President (Asia-Pacific) at the American airline.

An early bird

Last year, aviation services provider Bird Group reportedly expressed an interest in acquiring Air India's ground handling subsidiary, Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL).

Ground rules

According to the government's memorandum, the Narendra Modi regime will offload 76 percent of the national carrier, surviving on taxpayer monies at present, and transfer management control. The government will sell Air India, its low-cost arm Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd, an equal joint venture with Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

New Delhi has also appointed Ernst & Young LLP India as the transaction adviser for the strategic disinvestment process.

With inputs from agencies
Jet's announcement comes days after IndiGo pulled out of the race to acquire Air India's operations. The Centre now has no clear front-runner in the sale campaign.

Jet Airways, on Tuesday, became the latest major Indian airline to rule out a bid for debt-laden national carrier Air India in a new blow to the government's privatisation plans. The announcement came just days after rival IndiGo pulled out of the race to acquire Air India's operations meaning the government now has no clear front-runner in the sale campaign.

"We welcome the government move to privatise Air India. It is a bold step," Jet Airways' deputy chief executive, Amit Agarwal said in a statement emailed to AFP. "However, considering the terms of offer in the information memorandum and based on our review, we are not participating in the process," he added.

Once the country's monopoly airline, Air India has slowly lost market share to new low-cost private players in one of the world's fastest-growing airline markets. Air India ran losses for nearly a decade after a botched merger in 2007 and has debts of around $7.67 billion, according to government figures.

It has received $5.8 billion in bailout funds from the government but needs even more working capital to turn it around, experts say. The Indian government recently said it wanted to sell a 76 percent chunk of the struggling carrier. New Delhi released bid documents on what would be one of the country's highest-profile asset sales in decades, showing it wants the prospective buyer to take on all of Air India's operations.

IndiGo, India's largest airline, withdrew on Friday, saying it was interested only in Air India's international routes and not its domestic operations.

India has the world's fastest-growing passenger airline industry, expanding at an annual rate of around 20 percent. About 100 million of its 1.25 billion people took to the skies in 2016 and airlines have embarked on huge purchases of new jets in expectation of new growth.
Axis Bank gave no reason for Sharma cutting short her term and a bank spokesman declined to comment when asked if the decision was connected with the recent media reports. Sharma herself made no comment in the regulatory filing.

Mumbai: Axis Bank Ltd said on Monday that its long-time Chief Executive Shikha Sharma will step down at the end of 2018, days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was reported to have expressed concerns about the lender giving her a three-year extension.

The country's banking sector has been facing increased scrutiny amid record-high bad loan levels within the banking system, the discovery of a $2 billion scam at state-run Punjab National Bank and a slew of other issues.

The Axis Bank board has accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from 1 June to 31 December, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the bank said in a regulatory filing. Last July, Axis said it had re-appointed Sharma as CEO for a three-year period starting 1 June, 2018. Sharma would be completing her third term as MD and CEO of Axis Bank on 31 May.

In a surprise regulatory filing late on Monday, Axis said Sharma, who has been the CEO of the third-biggest private sector Indian bank by assets since 2009, had asked the banks board to shorten her next term that is set to begin on 1 June.

"In this connection kindly note that Smt Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank has requested the Board to reconsider the period of her re-appointment as the Managing Director and CEO of the Bank to be revised from June 1, 2018 up to December 31, 2018," the bank said.

The filing did not elaborate why Sharma wanted her fourth term to be curtailed to seven months from three years.

Recent reports in the media have said the Reserve Bank of India had asked the banks board to reconsider Sharmas three-year reappointment citing concerns over the banks asset quality among other reasons.

Axis Bank gave no reason for Sharma cutting short her term and a bank spokesman declined to comment when asked if the decision was connected with the recent media reports. Sharma herself made no comment in the regulatory filing.

The private sector lender's NPAs jumped by over five-fold in recent financial years. The gross NPAs worth Rs4,110 crore at the end of March 2015 surged to Rs 21,280 crore at the end of March 2017. During the same period, the net profit halved from Rs 7,357.8 crore to Rs 3,679.2 crore.

Saswata Guha, a financial sector analyst at Fitch Ratings, said Sharmas decision to seek a shortening of her term was not entirely unexpected given the media reports on the RBI move.

There is eight-nine months time for a smooth handover, so from an operational perspective, the chances of disruption seem to be low, Guha said, adding the bank has a capable second-and-third order management line. He added that the rating agency would closely watch any future mismatch between Axiss reported bad loan numbers and the RBIs audit.

Axis Bank shares closed 3.8 percent higher in Mumbai trading before the news.

(With inputs from agencies)
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump has canceled his scheduled trip to South America, the White House says, citing growing tensions in Syria as the reason.



Press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Tuesday that The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.



Trump was scheduled to attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru this Friday and Saturday. Vice President Mike Pence will travel in his place.



The president isnt the only official canceling travel this weekend. Defense Secretary James Mattis was scheduled to travel to Nevada and San Francisco this weekend but has since canceled his trip, the Pentagon says.



Mattis will still travel to New York Thursday evening as previously scheduled.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The Axis Bank board on Monday curtailed the fourth term of Shikha Sharma to seven months following an unusual request from her that she be relieved on December 2018, 29 months ahead of the scheduled term

New Delhi: Shares of Axis Bank on Tuesday rose as much as 4 percent in morning trade on the bourses after its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma's tenure was shortened.

The Axis Bank board on Monday curtailed the fourth term of Sharma to seven months following an unusual request from her that she be relieved on December 2018, 29 months ahead of the scheduled term.

Following the announcement, shares of the company opened on a bullish note at Rs 523.10, then surged to a high of Rs 540, up 4.26 percent from its previous closing price.

On NSE, the stock opened at Rs 523, then jumped to a high of Rs 540, a rise of 3.98 percent from its last close.

The board's decision came amidst RBI raising questions over her re-appointment for the fourth term as MD and CEO of the third largest private sector lender in the wake of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs).

Sharma, who would complete her third term on 31 May, 2018, has been heading the bank since 2009.

The Axis Bank board accepted her request for a shorter seven-month term (from 1 June to 31 December, 2018), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the bank said in a regulatory filing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration is likely to approve a proposal to pay around Rs 55 ($0.84) for every tonne of cane sold to the mills, two government sources said, seeking anonymity in line with government policy.

New Delhi: The government is likely to provide financial support to cane farmers for produce sold to sugar mills, two government sources said, in a rare move to subsidise the industry which is reeling under a glut and struggling to export because of low global prices.

India, the worlds biggest sugar consumer, last month scrapped a 20 percent export tax and made it compulsory for mills to export at least 2 million tonnes of sugar. But mills said they would incur a loss of at least $150 a tonne because global prices were near a two and a half to 2-1/2-year low.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration is likely to approve a proposal to pay around Rs 55 ($0.84) for every tonne of cane sold to the mills, two government sources said, seeking anonymity in line with government policy.

Although India is not planning any direct incentive for sugar exports, rival suppliers such as Brazil, Australia and Thailand could still lodge complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying such support will help Indian industry to sell overseas.

Brazil, the worlds biggest sugar producer, has already expressed concerns over the policies that support overseas sales of the sweetener from India and neighbouring Pakistan.

Government officials insist Indias plans to directly pay cane growers would not contravene WTO rules.

But it will boost the prospects of 50 million cane farmers, an influential political lobby, and 524 mills struggling with massive mounds of sugar.

While the government plans to pay Rs 55 a tonne to cane farmers, mills would pay the rest of the state-set price, sources said.

Every year, the federal government fixes the price that mills must pay to cane growers, but Uttar Pradesh state, the biggest producer, usually raises the rate to placate farmers.

For the 2017/18 season, the federal government fixed the cane floor price at Rs 255 per 100 kg, while Uttar Pradesh raised the rate to Rs 315 per 100 kg.

While cane prices have risen sharply, sugar prices have nosedived, making it very difficult for most mills to pay cane growers, said Abinash Verma, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, a producers body.

India, also the worlds biggest sugar producer after Brazil, is likely to churn out a record 30.3 million tonnes of the sweetener in the 2017/18 season that ends on 30 September, up from 20.3 million tonnes in the previous year, hammering local prices down by more than 15 percent in the past six months.

Mills say a sharp fall in sugar prices erodes their profitability, making it difficult for them to pay cane growers on time.

Sugar mills now owe Rs 170 billion ($2.62 billion) to farmers. Of late, restive farmers have taken to the streets to protest against meagre incomes, forcing some state governments to write-off billions of dollars in farm debts.
Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said the Central government is taking necessary steps to address the airport capacity requirements to handle increasing volume of air traffic.

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has put the "necessary ecosystem" in place in terms of the infrastructure, licencing and regulatory regime which has enabled the civil aviation sector to grow at 20 percent, a senior official said on Monday.

At a session on "Soaring Heights for Indian Aviation" organised by CII during its Annual Session 2018 here, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said the Central government is taking necessary steps to address the airport capacity requirements to handle increasing volume of air traffic.

He said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is coming up with a long-term road map for augmenting airport capacity all over the country.

"Under the Nabh Nirman scheme funding is being explored for greenfield and brown field projects. The government is also in dialogue with the state governments for partnering and making available land available for the new airports," Choubey was quoted as saying in a CII statement.

According to Choubey, in addition to existing 75 airports, 50 more airports will be added under UDAN scheme. Citing the successful 'City Pair Prorgam' (CPP) model of the US, he urged private players to revisit their own commercial model on the same lines.

On the issue of high Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices, he informed that to give fillip to the aviation sector, the state governments are willing to "bite the bullet in their finances".

"States like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have announced the reduction in value-added tax (VAT) on ATF from 16 percent to one percent. Many other state governments such as Delhi, West Bengal and Maharashtra who are in an effort to boost regional connectivity have rationalised the surcharges for regional flights," he said, as per the statement.
As the finance ministers of the southern states met on Tuesday, representatives of Tamil Nadu and Telangana decided to skip the event

Finance ministers of just three southern states and one union territory met on Tuesday in Thiruvananthapuram, at a conference convened by Kerala, to discuss the concerns surrounding the 'Terms of Reference (ToR)'' of the 15th Finance Commission. The meeting, which aimed to host representatives from across southern India, failed to draw the finance ministers of Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Representatives of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, along with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were present at the meeting.

Speaking at the event, Andhra Pradesh finance minister Y Ramakrishnudu said that without asking any state governments, the Centre arbitrarily decided the ToR which, according to him, are against the laws of the land.

"We've to see that more power is given to [the] states. 80 percent of development will be done by states & only 20 percent by the Centre," Y Ramakrishnudu was quoted as saying by ANI.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram also voiced concerns over the ToR, terming them "seriously flawed". He said the ToR would adversely affect the better-performing states.

Expressing his disappointment to reporters on Monday, Kerala finance minister TM Thomas Isaac said the changes in the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission, that would adversely affect the southern states, must become a debate in the country.

"The objective of the conference was to highlight the issue and make it a national agenda for debate", Isaac said. Slamming the Centre, he said the ToR was against the federal co-operative structure of the country. "We will not allow to destroy the federal co-operative structure of the nation', he said.

Earlier, Chidambaram had said the central government has "lit a fire" and it should be doused before the southern "flames scorch the federation". Better-governed and better-performing states have already lost crucial fractions in their shares, he had said.

The former finance and home minister had pointed out that the Finance Commission shall use population data from the 2011 Census and not the 1971 Census that was used hitherto. "Structurally, the Constitution gives more powers of taxation to the Centre and more responsibilities of expenditure to the states. Hitherto, the population data was taken from the 1971 Census. The freeze' was agreed upon to protect the states that had done well in stabilising their population," he said.

According to The Indian Express, this isn't the first time that states are protesting against the ToR of the Finance Commissions. Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik raised similar concerns in 2013, saying the ToR would impact as many as 11 states.

With inputs from agencies
Facebook-owned WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging service with over 200-million active users in India, is looking for a country head.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging service with over 200-million active users in India, is looking for a country head.

According to the information released on Facebook, the position is full-time based with the company's partnership team at its offices in Mumbai. The WhatsApp India head will report to WhatsApps Chief Operating Officer in California.

This is the first full-time hire for WhatsApp in India, according to The Economic Times. The position has been lying vacant for long.

The company is looking for a candidate with at least 15 years of experience in product-driven companies and at least five years of experience with payment technologies in India.

The following are the requirements and responsibilities for the 'ideal' candidate :

Responsibilities Deeply understand and regularly influence product direction and specific product decisions

Represent WhatsApps product strategy in country and drive alignment with partners and stakeholders

Lead partnership efforts in market, acting as a cross functional leader across WhatsApp and Facebook teams.

Build relationships with key partner, and other constituents at senior levels

Represent WhatsApp generally in country as needed
At least 20 children from a private school in Himachal Pradesh were killed when their school bus skidded off the road and fell into a 100-feet-deep gorge in Kangra district

Thirty persons, including 27 children, were killed on Monday when a private school bus fell into a gorge in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.

The school bus skidded off the road and fell into a 100-feet-deep gorge in Kangra district, police said. Superintendent of Police Santosh Patyal confirmed the deaths. All the dead students were below the age of 10. The bus driver and two teachers were also among the dead.

Around 45 students of Wazir Ram Singh Pathania Memorial Public School were returning home when the bus skidded off road and fell into the 100-feet deep gorge near Gurchal village on the Nurpur-Chamba road, some 300 km from the state capital.

The death toll could rise as students were still trapped in the mangled body of the bus, the police said, adding that rescue operations are on.

Local villagers had begun rescue operation even before officials could reach the spot, eyewitnesses told IANS.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur announced Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the deceased, ANI reported.

"I have spoken with the chief secretary, DG and the deputy commissioner," Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur told ANI. He added that the NDRF had been deployed immediately on the location. Thakur has also ordered a magisterial probe into the accident.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kishan Kapoor along with local legislator Rakesh Pathania and Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar have reached Kangra to supervise rescue and relief operations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths in the accident. "I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident," Modi tweeted.

I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 9, 2018

Governor Acharya Devvrat and Union Health Minister JP Nadda also condoled the deaths in Kangra.

Teams of local administration and the National Disaster Response Force were involved in the rescue and faced a tough time in pulling out the victims from the damaged bus. Some of the injured were referred to hospitals in Pathankot in Punjab.

Eyewitnesses said the driver probably lost control over the vehicle which skidded into the gorge. SP Santosh Patyal also corroborated with this, saying, "Prima facie, negligent driving and over-speeding are the main reasons for the accident."

With inputs from agencies
Following the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) advisory, states across India have beefed up their security in wake of the Bharat Bandh call by several groups opposing caste-based reservations.

Several groups opposing caste-based reservations have called for a Bharat Bandh on Tuesday, following which the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) issued an advisory to all states across India to beef up the security.

According to ANI, a clash broke out between two groups in Bihar's Arrah on Tuesday morning. Gunshots were also heard. In the same city, the protestors also halted a train.

#WATCH: Clash between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/s0RUA4KP2B  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

Protests against caste-based reservations in jobs and education: Visuals from Bihar's Arrah where protesters have stopped a train pic.twitter.com/N6wePxP0tQ  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

The shutdown comes a week after groups opposing the dilution of some provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act organised a nation-wide shutdown on 2 April. The protests had led to the death of eight persons and had left scores injured.

Though the call for bandh has not been endorsed by any major outfit, the MHA has asked all states to take adequate security measures and directed them to ensure prevention of any untoward incident. In its advisory, the ministry also said the districts magistrates and SPs will be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have put elaborate security measures in place.

Over a dozen people were injured after a violent clash erupted in Bihar's Arrah town on Tuesday morning. Supporters, mostly upper castes youths, blocked roads and forcibly enforced the nation-wide shutdown.

Despite the country-wide shut down, the life remained by and large normal in Uttar Pradesh. There was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon during the ongoing 'Bharat Bandh. However, India Today reported that the internet services have been suspended in Saharanpur. Schools, colleges, and private offices are functioning without any hinderance.

In Jaipur, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed. Mobile internet service has also been blocked for 24 hours in the city as a precautionary measure. In the wake of IPL match to be organised in Jaipur on Thursday, adequate police force has also been deployed in and around Sawai Mansingh Stadium Stadium.

An official told PTI that the Bharat Bandh call has only been made on social media and no organisation has so far come forward to support it. "Therefore, for the last four-five days, police have held meetings with all the main organisations, market associations, transport organisations, political organisations and other groups in all the districts asking them to maintain law and order," Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order NRK Reddy said.

"This is running on social media with no ownership and no responsibility but it has been made clear that strict action will be taken if anyone tried to disrupt peace," he said.

The 2 April shutdown, too, had seen no particular outfit claim responsibility for it. Jai Bhagwan Jatav, chief patron of Bhim Army, had called it a leaderless agitation as it was "a people-led movement" , although several organisations, including his own, had participated.

In Rajasthan, range IGs, district SPs, and police commissioners have been given clear instructions to take prompt action against any activity related to the shutdown. Additional policemen and battalions of RAC have been provided to various district. BSF and CRPF battalions are also being deployed as per requirements of districts in the state. Madhya Pradesh had witnessed widespread violence during the Bharat bandh on 2 April.

Officials said that they had been paying particular attention to messages being circulated on social media platforms.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Bhopal, Dharmendra Dubey said that social media messages were being monitored and warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked under Section 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ajatshatru, Divisional Commissioner of Bhopal said that prohibitory orders under Section 144 had been clamped in the city for Tuesday but services including schools, government offices and banks would operate as usual.

Sudhir Lad, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Chambal range said that curfew would be effective in Bhind from 9 pm on Monday to 6 pm on Tuesday to avoid any untoward incident. Four people had died in Bhind in violence during the 2 April shutdown. Internet services had been blocked in the Chambal region in order to prevent rumour mongering.

Bhind collector Illayaraja T added that six companies of the Rapid Action Force, a specialised riot control unit of the CRPF, and the state police's Special Armed Force had been deployed currently.

Section 144 had been imposed in Sagar district and curfew would be in place in Morena on Tuesday, officials said. Internet services have also been blocked in Gwalior city, where three people were killed during the protests on 2 April.

With inputs from agencies
A nationwide anti-quota bandh call on Tuesday received mixed reactions with shops remaining closed in some parts of states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan amidst heavy security arrangements.

Bhopal/Jaipur/Lucknow: A nationwide anti-quota bandh call on Tuesday received mixed reactions with shops remaining closed in some parts of states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan amidst heavy security arrangements, while internet services were restricted in a few sensitive areas.

Reports from Bihar showed attempts to block trains, while some schools suspended their bus services in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which was the worst hit during the 2 April nationwide bandh called by Dalit groups with at least eight people being killed in violent protests.

Officials in Madhya Pradesh said the call for Tuesday's bandh was given on social media and no organisation had come forward so far to claim responsibility for it.

In Rajasthan, which was also hit badly during the Dalit-convened bandh, the state government has issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and blocked mobile internet services in the state capital as a precautionary measure.

The police chiefs and collectors of districts across the state have been asked to take prompt action if any nuisance is created, officials in Jaipur said.

On Monday, the Union home ministry had issued an advisory to all states to beef up security and prevent violence during the Bharat Bandh against caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said the districts magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs) would be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The directive came a week after a similar protest saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of at least 11 persons.

The situation in Rajasthan is peaceful, ADG (Law and Order) NRK Reddy told PTI.

He said that companies of paramilitary forces, including BSF and CRPF, have also been deployed at sensitive areas of different districts in the state.

Markets in the walled city area of Jaipur as well as in the areas such as Bajaj nagar, Barkat Nagar and nearby places were not open on Tuesday.

However, no demonstration or rally has taken place and the situation is quite peaceful. Private schools were closed and transport vehicles are plying normally.

The authorities in Bhopal have announced daytime curfew in Morena and Bhind, besides enforcing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incidents.

"We are monitoring the situation. There has been no impact of the alleged bandh so far. The state police is also keeping a watch on the social media," Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh told reporters.

The internet services too have been blocked in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering, officials said.

Bhopal range Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary had said on Monday that the social media messages were being monitored.

He had warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked under the Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for disobedience to order promulgated by public servant.

In Uttar Pradesh, life remained by and large normal and officials said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon.

Tuesday's anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against "dilution" of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, entailing massive violence in different parts of the country and leading to the death of nine people.
The 'Bharat Bandh' called by some groups opposed to the caste-based reservations evoked a partial response in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

Bhopal: The 'Bharat Bandh' called by some groups opposed to the caste-based reservations evoked a partial response in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, with some shops remaining closed in Bhopal during the morning hours.

The schools in the state capital remained open even as some of them suspended their bus services, sources said.

The authorities had announced a daytime curfew in Morena and Bhind, besides enforcing prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Gwalior, Bhopal, Sagar and some other sensitive towns of the state to avoid any untoward incidents. "We are monitoring the situation. There has been no impact of the alleged bandh so far. The state police is also keeping a watch on the social media," Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told reporters.

The security arrangements across the state have been beefed up in the wake of a shutdown call reportedly given by the groups opposed to caste-based reservations. The officials said the call for the bandh was given on social media and no organisation had come forward so far to claim responsibility for it.

The internet services too have been blocked in the Gwalior-Chambal region to prevent rumour-mongering. Bhopal range Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary had said on Monday that the social media messages were being monitored. He had warned that those spreading the hate messages would be booked under the Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for disobedience to order promulgated by public servant.

DIG, Chambal region, Sudhir Lad said that curfew was imposed in Bhind from 9 pm Monday and would continue till 6 pm Tuesday. "Internet services in the Chambal region too have been blocked to prevent rumour-mongering," he said.

Bhind's collector Illayaraja T earlier said six companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a specialised riot control unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and the state police's Special Armed Force have been deployed.

Section 144 of CrPC had been imposed in Sagar district and curfew was clamped in Morena tomorrow, the officials said. "Curfew will be in place from 7 am to 9 pm today in Morena. We have no information about the organisations that have given the call for the bandh. The night curfew that started on 2 April continues," Morena's collector Bhaskar Lakshakar said. The internet services had also been blocked in Morena, he said.

The state had witnessed widespread violence during the 'Bharat bandh' on 2 April called by Dalit outfits protesting against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It had led to the death of eight persons in Gwalior- Chambal region and had left scores injured, including 54 policemen.
Dr Saurabh Rai an Indigo passenger on flight no. 6E 541 from Lucknow to Bengaluru was forcibly offloaded after he complained of mosquitoes in the aircraft

A Bengaluru-based surgeon, Dr Saurabh Rai, was forcibly offloaded from an Indigo Airlines flight (6E-541) from Lucknow to Bengaluru on Monday at the Lucknow airport after he complained of mosquitoes onboard the aircraft, according to reports.

Dr. Saurabh Rai, the offloaded passenger, says he was called a terrorist by Indigo and was forced to write an apology letter after he complained of mosquitoes in the plane. pic.twitter.com/bjjXjcjlbY  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

Meanwhile, the civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has tweeted that he has ordered an enquiry into the matter.

I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by Indigo at Lucknow Airport  Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) April 10, 2018

According to Deccan Chronicle, fellow passengers claimed that Dr Rai, who was seated on seat number 22 C, was manhandled by the staff members and forced to offload the plane and take another flight for Bengaluru. They did not even provide him with a transport to go back to the airport lounge, the report said. Though the Indigo staff at the Lucknow airport refused to talk about the incident, according to News18, the airline tweeted about the incident on Monday saying: "Rai was offloaded from 6E541 for unruly behaviour. Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitos on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language," "...Keeping in mind safety protocols, as well as the passenger's unruly behaviour, the pilot-in-command decided to offload Mr Rai."

Clarifying the incident, @IndiGo6E tweets | Mr. Saurabh Rai was offloaded on from 6E541 for unruly behavior. Mr. Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitos on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language. pic.twitter.com/3dwWXGaskX  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

The tweet is no longer available on Indigo's twitter handle. Rai, meanwhile, told CNN-News18 that the matter escalated after the Indigo authorities, after deboarding him from the plane, went further to ask him for a written apology for his behaviour.He said that he is now planning to lodge an official complaint against the airline. In what seems to be a separate incident, ANI reported that passengers aboard a Jet Airways flight in Lucknow met with a similar incident as a video shot by a passenger onboard the flight showed passengers swatting mosquitoes.

#WATCH A video shot by a passenger at Lucknow airport on a Jet Airways flight shows passengers swatting mosquitoes (8.4.18) pic.twitter.com/vVh3LbrMJk  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

Jet Airways issued a statement after the video surfaced.

We have taken this up with our cabin appearance team for review. We sincerely regret the inconvenience: Jet Airways statement on passengers seen swatting mosquitoes on a jet flight at Lucknow airport pic.twitter.com/BqQN0CTQGA  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

Not a first for Indigo

This is not the first time that Indigo airlines has come under scrutiny for manhandling its passengers. In November 2017, Indigo had to apologise to its passenger, Urvashi Parikh Viren, after she fell off her wheelchair while being assisted by its staff at Lucknow airport. The Airports Authority of India had rapped the airline's staff for gross negligence in servicing its customers.

Similarly, in October 2017, the airline came under media ire after a video showed its ground staff beating a passenger while blocking his way as he tried to board the transit bus. At first, the airline issued a four-page statement defending its staff, saying that they were only acting in self-defence but later IndiGo chief Aditya Ghosh offered his "personal apologies" on the incident citing deflection from the Indigo culture.

It is interesting to note in the light of these incidents that a parliamentary committee report on flier satisfaction, submitted in January 2018, specifically advised IndiGo to adopt a consumer-friendly approach while dealing with passengers.

The committee had also pulled up the Indigo chief for suggesting that his the staff members from tier-II and III cities were often untrained in soft skills and unable to speak fluent English, as many of them went to government schools. The report also criticised the aviation industry as a whole, saying that of all the customer complaints, 30.5 percent flyers had poor customer service experiences.
The CBSE announced that the Class X and Class XII examinations that were postponed in Punjab due to the 'Bharat Bandh' on 2 April will now be conducted on 27 April

New Delhi: The CBSE on Tuesday announced that the Class X and Class XII examinations that were postponed in Punjab due to the 'Bharat Bandh' on 2 April will now be conducted on 27 April.

At the request of the state government in view of the bandh called by several Dalit organisations against the alleged dilution of the SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had postponed the exams scheduled on 2 April.

It has been decided to conduct the cancelled examination in Punjab on 27 April. The roll numbers and examination centres already allotted to the students will remain the same, said KK Chaudhury, controller of examinations, CBSE.

While Class XII students were supposed to appear for the Hindi exam, language exams of French, Sanskrit and Urdu were scheduled for Class X on that day.

The board had then said that it had received a letter of request, dated 1 April, from the director general (school education) of the Punjab government to postpone all its examinations scheduled to be held on 2 April, on account of apprehensions of law and order problems and other disturbances in the day during the 'Bharat Bandh'.

The Punjab government had also taken a decision to keep all schools shut for the day, the CBSE had said referring to the former's letter.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat said simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha, legislative assemblies and other bodies could be held, provided necessary amendments were made to the Constitution.

Indore: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat on Monday said simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha, legislative assemblies and other bodies could be held, provided necessary amendments were made to the Constitution and a sufficient number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were made available.

He also stressed the need for other logistics to be in place before such a system could be introduced in the country.

"The government had sought the Election Commission's opinion in 2015 on holding the elections to the Lok Sabha, legislative assemblies and other bodies together.

"We had sent a detailed reply to the government, telling them that this new system would require amendments in the relevant paragraphs of the Constitution and certain sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951," Rawat said, while addressing the foundation day function of the Indore Press Club.

He added that once the requisite amendments were made and the legal framework was ready for holding simultaneous polls, the Election Commission would need an adequate number of EVMs and other logistics.

"If all these requirements are met, then the Election Commission does not have any problem in holding elections simultaneously," the CEC said.

He added that EVMs were required for 10 lakh polling booths across the country.

"If the elections to the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas and other institutions are to be held together, the requirement of EVMs will obviously go up.

"As far as the merits and demerits of implementing the new system are concerned, the political parties, lawmakers and citizens will have to brainstorm," the CEC said.

He pointed out that in several countries, different elections were held together and once the results were out, the political parties forgot the bitterness and moved forward towards the development of their countries.

Dismissing the doubts over EVMs, Rawat said transparency and credibility of the election process had increased with the introduction of the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines with EVMs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged the NDA constituents to start a debate on the need for "One Nation, One Election".
The government launched a massive crackdown against corruption last month, directing ministries to identify sensitive posts for a fresh review.

New Delhi: The government launched a massive crackdown against corruption last month, directing ministries to identify sensitive posts in the central departments for a fresh review. The sensitive posts in the government organisations are defined as the ones which offer scope for corruption to the babus. The government also gave a clear direction that all the officers occupying sensitive posts for more than three years should be transferred immediately and the release orders in the ministries must be issued by 30 April, 2018.

The anti-corruption sweep is being monitored at the highest level. The ministries have also been told to launch a review of officers under section 56 (j), which gives the appropriate authority absolute right to return officers who have completed 50 years in public interest. The central departments have been asked to review their manual and make amendments to take decisions in sync with the government's directive, a top government source told Firstpost.

The government also wants immediate action against corrupt officers by the vigilance wing of each organisation in order to follow the prescribed time lines. The ministries have been asked to review the corruption cases pending between 1 and 3 years, and 5 and 10 years. There has to be zero pendency by end of April, the source further added.

Since 2015, the Ministry of Personnel  that comes under Prime Minister Narendra Modi  has been sending reminders to the Ministries to frame a transfer policy in all cadres. The Ministry is of the view that the rotational transfer policy should harmonise objectives of institutional memory, avoid development of vested interests, and provide exposure to employees of working in different organisations. The corruption watchdog Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) too has been pitching in, suggesting the ministries identify the sensitive posts and staff working in these posts and ensure that they are strictly rotated to avoid developing vested interests.

The CVC in its directive 004/VGL/090 said: The commission in the superintendence of vigilance administration over the years has observed that such transfers are not effected in many organisations due to which officials continue to remain in the same posts for long periods. Such overstay and continuous postings afford scope for indulging in corrupt activities, developing vested interests, which may not be in the interest of the organisation. The Commission would, therefore, emphasise that periodical rotation of officials holding sensitive posts needs to be ensured. As such, officials should not be retained in the same place for long by the Ministries, Public Sector Undertakings and Banks.

Officers working in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Cabinet Secretariat, Offices of Solicitor General, Attorney General are exempted. They are to be transferred only after consulting these offices, keeping in view the willingness of the officer concerned.

Measures for anti-graft campaign

In the last three years, the ministries told the CVC that over 39,000 departmental inquiries, including cases of financial mismanagement, were instituted against babus. The CBI has registered 139 cases against IAS, IPS, IRS and IFS officers during 2014-17.

According to the Ministry of Personnel, it has taken several measures to steps up anti-corruption drive and making the governance more seamless with less officer-public interface. It has cited digital transactions, moving towards less cash economy for citizen-centric service delivery and transparent financial transactions as some of the tools. Wherever required, systematic improvements and reforms have been undertaken to provide transparent services and reduce corruption. These, inter alia, include establishment of Jan-Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile (JAM) platform, disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the government in a transparent manner through the direct benefit transfer initiative, and introduction of e-governance and simplification of procedure and systems.

Simultaneously, the CVC has also launched the Integrity Index Project as a tool of preventive vigilance with an objective to motivate the organisations to focus on and nurture transparency and integrity of all their processes. The Integrity Index is aimed at helping organisations identify areas where there is a scope for improvement.

In the first phase, 25 organisations from 14 sectors have been selected for the index. Scam-hit Punjab National Bank is also part of the list. Other sectors include oil and gas, power, coal, steel, transport, mining, defence, heavy industries, commerce and textiles, social sector (Food Corporation of India), urban development and local bodies, and Central Board of Direct Taxes.
News emerged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit China next month for a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping, in addition to his scheduled appearance in June for the SCO summit.

Two recent developments have added more texture to Indo-China bilateral ties. On Monday, China indicated that it has no objection if Hong Kong accedes to India's request to arrest and transport fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi: A hot button political issue in India.

On the same day, news emerged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit China next month for a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping, in addition to his scheduled appearance in June for the SCO Summit.

In less than a year, we seem to have travelled quite a distance away from Indian troops staring down the People's Liberation Army at Doka La and Chinese media promising to "teach India a lesson".

In strategic and policy circles, the word 'reset' is being thrown around increasingly frequently when it comes to defining India's relationship with China. Is it really a 'reset'? If so, is it a capitulation, a pragmatic course-correction on India's part, or an attempt to increase space for greater engagement? In other words, are the recent moves undertaken by the Modi government 'net positive', or 'net negative'?

Before we tackle these questions, a quick recap is in order of recent developments indicating a thaw in a relationship that had sunk into the nether regions of intractability. India's move to back China for a leadership position in global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), careful calibration on Tibet and a series of planned and executed high-profile visits from Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman capture the conciliatory tone from New Delhi.

On its part, China let 'iron brother' Pakistan be grey listed at FATF, made some mollifying noises on the need for "elephants and dragons to dance together", released some feel-good stories in Chinese media on Bollywood and yoga's popularity among the Chinese and renewed stress on continuing with the dialogue mechanism. To a query on Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou's recent trip to New Delhi, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: "China and India have sound momentum of exchanges and close cooperation. It is not strange to have such kind of cooperation".

What's more, China also played down skirmishes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). It previously raised the issue of Indian troops "transgressing" into the strategically sensitive Asaphila area in Arunachal Pradesh during a border personnel meeting on 15 March. Which led to India forcefully refuting Chinese claims and asserting sovereign rights over Arunachal Pradesh.

However, China on Monday appeared to back off its earlier stand and told reporters during the briefing that there was no need to "hype up" such issues, and even denied knowledge of any information of Chinese complaint. "As for the situation on the India-China border, I am not aware of the detailed information Pending the resolution of the issue, we hope the two sides can abide by the agreements and instead of hyping up relevant issue", said the foreign ministry spokesperson, reposing faith in the dialogue mechanism.

A similar tone of conciliation was evident on the issue of Nirav, who could be hiding in Hong Kong. VK Singh, MoS external affairs, told Parliament last week that "the ministry has sought the provisional arrest of Nirav Deepak Modi by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the People's Republic of China".

Spokesperson Geng said on Monday: "According to the one country, two systems (policy) and basic law of the HKSAR, under the assistance and authorisation of the central government, the HKSAR can make arrangements on judicial mutual assistance with other countries If India makes a relevant request to the HKSAR, we believe the HKSAR will follow the basic law and relevant laws, and under relevant judicial agreements with India, on relevant issue."

India has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong. The authorities, however, have refused to comment on whether any action is being taken against the fugitive Indian billionaire. An official told India Today: "The Department of Justice does not comment on individual cases."

There's always the danger of reading more than is intended in such manouvers. However, an effort from both sides to clip the irritants and reduce the political distrust in ties is evident. In this context, Modi's reported move to add an extra visit to his China schedule is significant. According to a report in The Quint, the bilateral meeting may have on its agenda "policy announcements" and "deep focus" on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on which India has, so far, not budged from its position.

To quote from Rajeev Sharma's article: "Chinese officials and diplomats have been trying their hardest for months to bring India on board, and have been assuring New Delhi that its concerns on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and other issues will be addressed. Beijing will be hopeful that India makes positive announcements on the BRI for the first time. The matter is being currently discussed through back channels in complete secrecy".

For India, the prospect of any "reset" with China is trickier than it is for Beijing given the power differential between the two sides. New Delhi might easily walk into a trap if it is led by a belief that Beijing will respect and reciprocate on its core concerns if it allows some concessions on issues that are high on Xi's priority list. The value system that governs the Middle Kingdom's actions is different from the one that governs democracies.

Beijing has scant regard for international rules-based order. It frequently undermines the framework through its actions and yet it quotes from scripture whenever the rules-based order works to its advantage.

For instance, China refused to comply with The Hague Tribunal on South China Sea and fished out a nine-dash line from the pages of its revisionist history. Yet, it saw no irony in preaching free-trade rules to the US after blatantly undermining rules since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001.

This heightens the degree of difficulty for India. If we are to allow some concessions on BRI's connectivity projects in the hope that China will respect and uphold our concerns on CPEC, what are the odds that China will not read it as a unilateral concession and raise the bar in the future? We may end up losing further our strategic space. On the other hand, if the bilateral relationship moves towards greater intractability, it places India on a path of escalation and direct conflict. Given the power differential, that is a problematic space.

There is a case for argument, however, that India enjoys greater leverage against China than it perhaps is ready to believe. The connectivity projects in BRI, on which Xi has placed such a huge amount of premium, are likely to take off in South Asia only if India becomes a part of it. That might be due to many reasons, including India's regional clout, geographical expanse and the size of its market.

In his column for The Indian Express, C Raja Mohan wrote, "Persistent competition and conflict between India and China on regional connectivity would make many projects of both countries less efficient. Political distrust between Delhi and Beijing, which has sharpened in the last two years, would seem to make a reconciliation on the BRI near impossible. But quite clearly, there are ways around the impasseThe NDA government might be quite open to a substantive dialogue with China on BRI if Xi is prepared to address Delhis concerns on sovereignty and sustainability".

It is pertinent to remember that India's reluctance to do business with China on projects is less ideological and more political.

While it has reiterated its position on BRI and refused to join it citing concerns on sovereignty, territorial integrity, debt-structure, skill development and ecological balance, India has been an enthusiastic participant in China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), where it has emerged as a top borrower.

Bank data revealed 28 percent of the money lent by AIIB in first two years of operation has gone to projects in India, according to a report in South China Morning Post. This isn't an anomaly in India's position. New Delhi's chief worry with the BRI lies in the fact that it is an example of Beijing's unilateralism, though Xi has been at pains to showcase it as a multilateral project. The way BRI projects have been funded seem to bear out India's concerns.

As Tanvi Madan, director of India Project, Brookings Institution, noted in a piece, "This is a crucial reason why India pushed for a provision in the charter of AIIB (that is expected to fund some OBOR projects) that requires project financing in disputed territory to have the agreement of the disputants".

Given these structural concerns, it remains to be seen what concessions China is ready to offer to take India on board. Keeping money in pocket instead of betting on it might be a better idea.
Disparate attacks on Dalits read with the SC's recent ruling, have had Opposition jump to very facile conclusion: because the RSS is anti-Dalit.

Disparate attacks on Dalits over the last three years read with the Supreme Courts recent ruling switching off the automatic arrest of an accused in an Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Atrocities Act complaint, have had Opposition parties and political commentators jump to very facile and specious conclusion: that this is hardly surprising because the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is anti-Dalit by its very nature of being an upper-case Brahmin-led organisation.

Rahul Gandhi, recently, branded Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally as anti-Dalit using some twisted logic he has derived from letters of caution and concern addressed to Modi by some of his partys Dalit MPs. While it is par for the course for political opponents to stick whatever labels on RSS, BJP and Modi that might give them a perceived electoral edge, it is surprising how political commentators are jumping in to bolster this questionable character sketch of the RSS and dismiss Modi's exhortation to his party men to spend two nights in Dalit homes as useless gimmickry.

Such an analysis suffers from a lack of understanding of the very mission statement of the RSS and its Hindu-unity ideal, necessitating a journey into the past. The first monograph on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, 'Militant Hinduism in Indian politics: A study of the RSS' by JA Curran (1951), has an interesting anecdote of a conversation between RSS founder Dr K B Hegdewar and Dalit icon Dr B R Ambedkar at an RSS shakha in the year 1936.

Currans monograph notes:

"When Dr Ambedkar, the famous outcaste leader, today minister of law in the government, presided over the Sangh celebration of the Hindu festival Makharsankranti in 1936, he is alleged to have asked Dr Hedgewar who was present at the ceremony, if all the RSS members were Brahmins. The doctors answer was that when swayamsevaks were spreading their ideals and recruiting new members  i.e. using their mind  they were Brahmins. When they were performing their daily exercises, they were Kshatriyas (warriors); whenever they handled money and other matters for the Sangh, they were Vaishyas; and when they did the sanitation work at their various camps and branches, they were Shudras. In other words, by naming the four traditional castes into which the Hindu society is divided, Dr Hedgewar made the point that the RSS was attempting to demonstrate that caste meant nothing."

In effect, what Dr Hegdewar meant was that Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra were professions.

Every Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra is a Hindu and every Hindu could be a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra by the nature of the work they did at any given moment. It would be tempting to dismiss Currans anecdote as a clever formulation of the conventional response of the defenders of the caste system in Hinduism (because, while the Brahmin can become a Shudra at her/his choosing, the converse is nigh impossible) but it gives interesting insights into the manner in which the Sangh leadership has dealt with the caste conundrum in Indian society.

This well-researched document gives a unique glimpse of the formative years of the RSS, as well as insights about its ideological foundation. And Curran was unambiguous that the RSS social conduct and programmes were inclusive in nature in order to consolidate Hindu society. The RSS' Hindutva project invariably included Dalits as its essential component right from the beginning. In its initial phase, the RSS emerged as an attractive proposition for young men from scheduled castes in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh precisely because it effectively demonstrated the lack of caste discrimination.

It was not without reason that a year after the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders held a meeting at Hanuman Garhi in the temple town, a portrait of Dr Ambedkar was placed along with those of Hindu gods. The RSS on its part included Ambedkar as a social icon of high significance who is to be remembered every morning ('pratahsmaraniya') for his contribution. This was followed by the then VHP chief Ashok Singhal and a retinue of VHP leaders lining up outside the residence of Dom Raja of Varanasi who presides over funerals at the ghats in the holy city.

The Sangh Parivar with its prime objective of consolidating the Hindus has grappled with caste conflicts within the society in its own way. Given its own image of being dominated by Brahmin leadership, its attraction to social elites, particularly upper castes, was far greater than to social underdogs. But that does not nullify the consistency with which the Sangh Parivar tried to expand its social base.

This is particularly significant in today's context when a section of intellectuals tends to interpret some sporadic violent protests by Dalit organisations on the issue of the Supreme Courts direction on the SC/ST Act as a sign of the Sangh Parivars anti-Dalit credentials. This wilful misinterpretation of the Sangh politics is not only flawed but deeply prejudiced.

Take the manner in which the BJP evolved itself from its earlier incarnation, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). While BJS was known to be a party with a bias towards the social elite, particularly Brahmins and Banias, the BJP is now largely represented by a huge group of OBC leaders  including Prime Minister Narendra Modi  who are deeply immersed in the RSS' discipline and values. And not surprisingly most of these leaders from the OBC background represent far more aggressive Hindutva than that of Syama Prasad Mukherjee or Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Kalyan Singh was the BJPs OBC face when the Babri mosque was demolished. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan pursues the Hindutva line that is quite consistent with the RSS overview of society and politics. In sharp contrast, Vajpayee, LK Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat more often than not fell out of line to adhere to political pragmatism.

In recent elections  especially the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, Uttar Pradesh Assembly election of 2017 and the last four Assembly polls in Gujarat  the BJP support has expanded among the Dalits. The party has also been giving more and more representation to the Dalits, as seen in the spike in the number of MLAs and MPs from this segment.

The saffron brotherhood is seriously constrained by the fact that it has still not produced a scheduled caste or schedule tribe leader of stature like Kalyan Singh or Narendra Modi (among the backwards). But at the same time it must be borne in mind that the BJP has of late cultivated a large group of young SC/ST leaders who are rigorously trained in the Sangh Parivars school of thought. And as in the case of the emergence of the backward Narendra Modi as the most acceptable political face of the Sangh Parivar thus far, a similar emergence of a Dalit leader with Hindutva ideology cannot be ruled out in the future, even if that future might seem distant now.

It was in 1979 that Charan Singh, who was rebelling against the then prime minister Morarji Desai, famously told L K Advani (then Information and Broadcast minister) who went to broker peace: Arre, Advani, you are a Sindhi. You dont understand the play of caste in Indian politics. If you step out of line, the RSS will dump you, but if Vajpayee does that, nothing will happen."

Charan Singh was telling Advani that he (Advani) as a Sindhi, a caste that has no heft within the RSS, was dispensable while Vajpayee, a Brahmin, was not. Advani saw Charan Singh's prophecy come true in 2005 when he called Jinnah a secularist during his visit to Pakistan. He was dumped. But nine years later, Charan Singhs theory got busted as well when Narendra Modi, a backward strode to national limelight and became prime minister with the full backing of the RSS.

If one goes by the RSS history and evolution of the Sangh Parivar, a Dalit head of the BJP (Bangaru Laxman has already been there) or a Dalit prime minister of the Hindu fold would mark the completion of the Hindutva project. And the RSS would not be averse to this idea. Perhaps those who take solace in sporadic protests of Dalits and see that as a challenge to Hindutva hegemony are blissfully oblivious to the gathering storm.
An FIR was registered against lawyers who tried to block the presentation of a chargesheet in court in the rape and murder of a minor girl

Jammu: An FIR was registered against lawyers who tried to block the presentation of a chargesheet in a court in Jammu and Kashmir in the rape and murder of a minor girl, police said on Tuesday.

"The FIR has been lodged into the incident wherein some lawyers tried to obstruct the presenting of the chargesheet by the Crime Branch in the court of a Chief Judicial Magistrate at Kathua on Monday. Action under law will be taken against those found involved in the incident," Director General of Police S.P. Vaid told IANS. The chargesheet against seven accused was finally filed in the court after police intervened to control the lawyers' protest.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who criticized the lawyers who tried to prevent the filing of the chargesheet, welcomed the registration of the FIR. "Good. Lawyers who have no respect for law deserve to have the full weight of the law books crash down on them," the National Conference leader tweeted.

Good. Lawyers who have no respect for the law deserve to have the full weight of the law books crash down on them. https://t.co/XHb6FBbSUj  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 10, 2018

An eight-year-old girl was abducted, raped and murdered in Rassana village in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district in January. The body of the girl from the Bakherwal community was recovered from Rassana forest in Kathua on 17 January, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.
Finance ministers of southern states will meet in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday at a conference convened by Kerala to discuss the concerns on the 15th Finance Commission

Thiruvananthapuram: Finance ministers of the southern states would meet in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday at a conference convened by Kerala to discuss the concerns and views on the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission.

Talking to reporters, Kerala finance minister TM Thomas Isaac said the changes in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission, that would adversely affect the southern states, has not become a debate in the country.

"The objective of the conference was to highlight the issue and make it a national agenda for debate", Isaac said.

Slamming the Centre, he said the ToR was against the federal co-operative structure of the country.

"We will not allow to destroy the federal co-operative structure of the nation', he said.

The ToR has recommended using the 2011 census to calculate population for allocation of union tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by previous Finance Commissions.

This would adversely affect the southern states, he said.

There was uncertainty over the incentives to be given to states, he added.

There were several issues that have to be discussed at the national level. The meeting would be a first step towards that, Isaac said.

The Centre should provide freedom to the 15th Finance Commission to hear the states, he said.

Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has confirmed participation in the conference, which would be inaugurated by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, he said.
At least 17 labourers were killed and 15 others injured when a speeding truck overturned in western Maharashtra's Satara district.

Mumbai: At least 17 labourers were killed and 15 others injured when a speeding truck overturned in western Maharashtra's Satara district in the early hours on Tuesday, the police said.

The truck, carrying construction labourers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway passing through the district, around 250 km from Mumbai, Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said.

The driver apparently lost control over the wheels at an accident-prone stop near Khambatki ghat. As a result, the vehicle rammed into a barricade and then overturned, he said.

At least 17 labourers died on the spot, while 15 others sustained injuries, he said.

On being informed, the Khandala police rushed the spot and took all the victims to a nearby hospital, he said.

The police were trying to ascertain the exact reason of the accident, the official said, adding that they suspect the accident occurred due to the driver's lack of concentration as he had been constantly driving and was deprived of sleep.

The bodies were sent for postmortem and the process to identify the deceased was on, the police added.
The RTI reply said that a total of 19,88,234 accounts in nationalised banks have been approved, and a total of Rs 7,766.55 crore has been provided to the nationalised banks.

Mumbai: Responding to an RTI query by activist Anil Galgali, the Maharashtra government informed that it doesn't have district wise division of beneficiary farmers who are eligible for the loan waiver disbursement scheme.

Almost nine months after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted on 30 June last year announcing the historic farmer loan waiver scheme for 89 lakh farmers worth Rs 34,022 crore, 50 percent of the beneficiary farmers have still not got a single penny from the government. The state has till date disbursed Rs 14,388 crore to 46.52 lakh farmers under the Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanmaan Yojna (CSMSSY).

Galgali's RTI query dealt with questions on the total number of beneficiary farmers, complete information on total approved and non-approved applications, names of banks involved in the process and district wise distribution of total disbursed amount. The state's Ministry of Cooperation, Marketing and Textiles public information officer DM Rane informed that district wise distribution of the total amount of funds deposited in banks is not available with the government. The officer also informed that the state doesn't have information on village wise data in Vidarbha region from 36 districts from where a total of 56,59,159 application were received under the CSMSSY. The highest number of waiver applications was received from the Ahmednagar district at 3,34,920. Rest 14,797 applications have been classified as others while 1,620 applications are from Mumbai suburbs and 23,715 applications are from Mumbai city.

The RTI reply said that a total of 19,88,234 accounts in nationalised banks have been approved, and a total of Rs 7,766.55 crore has been provided to the nationalised banks. These banks have disbursed Rs 7,589.98 crore out the amount received as above. Further 26,64,576 accounts have been approved in DCC Banks, for which Rs 6,770.19 crore has been provided and out of which, Rs Rs 6,797.75 crore has been disbursed to the beneficiaries. In 33 nationalised banks and 30 DCC Banks 46,52,810 accounts have been approved and Rs 14,536.74 crore have been provided to these banks and they have disbursed Rs 14,387.73 crore to the beneficiaries up till now.

Talking to Firstpost Galgali said that a huge amount has been disbursed by the government and the non-availability of district and village wise details is a major lapse on the part of the government. "Due to this lapse it has become impossible to verify that actual beneficiaries of the villages have been benefitted by the loan waiver disbursement," he said.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that as many as 50 lakh farmers have been excluded from the ambitious loan waiver scheme.

"In the first place, the loan waiver scheme was not announced by the government willingly. The pressure from the farmers forced the government to announce it. The government is just killing time and excluding names of farmers whose names had been sent to the verification committees," Sawant said.

He also produced documentary evidence that corroborated the charges levelled by him against the government. Initially it was said that the scheme would benefit around 90 lakh of the 1.32 crore farmers across the state. However, of around 59 lakh applications received by the government 23 lakh were sent for the verification process and rejected without giving valid reasons, the Congress spokesperson said.

The information made available by the government shows that the money disbursed to the farmers has come down by a whopping Rs 5,000 crore over the past couple of months, Sawant said.

The government had much touted the one-time settlement scheme (OTS) for farm loans. But, that scheme too has failed as only about 7-8 percent farmers have availed the benefit of the scheme. On the other hand, the government is trying to exaggerate the number of beneficiaries of the loan waiver scheme by adding beneficiaries of other schemes like the OTS, he said.

To sort out the confusion over the unavailability loan waiver beneficiary names with banks, now the state government decided to directly intimate eligible farmers across 36 districts, 358 taluka and more than 40,000 villages about their status of loan waiver scheme. The state government took the decision last month after complaints against banks that they were not intimating eligible farmers whose names along with the amount has been cleared by the state government.

Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh informed the Assembly in the last Budget Session that the state government has already cleared the names of 49 lakh farmers and Rs 23,000 crore for the loan waiver. But there is a lack of communication between the banks and farmers who are eligible for the loan amount, Deshmukh said.

"Instead of depending on nationalised and DCC, it has been decided to communicate the loan waiver to each and every eligible farmer through the administrative means like the collector and cooperation department," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the state government has extended the deadline for filing online application till 14 April for CSMSSY. Earlier, the last date for filing the application was 31 March.

"We have extended the date for online submission of applications by the farmers for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana from March 31 to April 14, 2018. Extension also given for availing benefits of One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme under the CSMSSY up to June 30, 2018," Fadnavis had said in a tweet.

The decision was taken in order to allow the remaining eligible farmers to file their online applications and avail the benefits of the scheme. The first deadline for filing application for the loan waiver scheme was 15 September. Since then the state government has been extending the deadline time and again.
Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to treatment in US for advanced pancreatic cancer and will return from abroad by next month.

Panaji: Ailing Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to treatment in the United States for advanced pancreatic cancer and will return from abroad by next month, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Sadanand Shet Tanavade said on Tuesday.

"He is responding well to treatment and is likely to be in Goa by May," Tanavade said on the sidelines of a media interaction at the state BJP headquarters in Panaji.

Parrikar is admitted in a New York hospital. He was hospitalised earlier at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and then at Goa Medical College in Panaji after he complained of stomach pain on 15 February. The chief minister was subsequently diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. However, his office has maintained that Parrikar is suffering from "mild pancreatitis".

Earlier, Goa Assembly speaker Pramod Sawant had said, "Parrikar has appealed the people of Goa not to believe in rumours about his health, which are being spread by vested interests."

Meanwhile, Goa's art and culture minister Govind Gawade said on Thursday that the Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC), formed to guide the state administration in absence of the chief minister, is "not in a position to handle the situation". "It is obvious that we are feeling his absence. The Cabinet Advisory Committee is not in a position to handle the situation", he said. Gawade added that said the situation would be 'normal' only after Parrikar returned to Goa and took over the reins of the government.
The Defence Ministry signed a contract with a defence firm for procurement of 1.86 lakh bulletproof jackets for the Indian Army at a cost of Rs 639 crore

New Delhi: The defence ministry on Monday signed a contract with a defence firm for procurement of 1.86 lakh bulletproof jackets for the Indian Army at a cost of Rs 639 crore.

In a statement, the ministry said the contract was finalised after "successful" field evaluation trials.

The contract has been bagged by indigenous defence manufacturer SMPP Pvt Ltd.

"A major contract through capital procurement route, for procurement of 1,86,138 Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJs) has been signed," it said.

It said the new BPJs will provide "360 degree protection" to the soldier in combat, including from hard "steel core" bullets.

"These bulletproof jackets will have 'boron carbide ceramic' which is the lightest material for ballistic protection. This makes SMPP BPJs the best of the class and will be able to provide ballistic protection at the lowest possible weight," Chairman and Managing Director of SMPP SC Kansal said.

The company said the size of the contract is Rs 639 crore.

The defence ministry said the new BPJs will boost the confidence of soldiers.

It said the indigenously developed BPJs will give new impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative of the government and provide confidence that Indian industry is capable of fulfilling the requirements of the armed forces.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 12,000-horsepower freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory, a joint venture between the Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom

Madhepura (Bihar): The first high-power electric locomotive was on Tuesday rolled out from the railway factory in Madhepura, over 10 years after the project was approved.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 12,000-horsepower freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory, a joint venture between the Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, remotely from Bihar's Motihari.

He also flagged off the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi, and laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of railway tracks in Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar (109.7 km) sections.

The prime minister was in Motihari to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He said the Madhepura factory was important for two reasons. "Firstly, this is a glowing example of 'Make in India' and second, this factory is becoming a medium of generating employment in this area," he said.

The Madhepura rail factory was approved in 2007, but the work had been pending for eight years, he said.

"Three years before, the NDA government at the Centre started working on it and now the first phase is ready," he said.

The loco factory has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways have set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.

The prime minister flagged off the Champaran Humsafar Express commemorating the centenary of the Champaran Satyagraha. The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to the common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly  Tuesdays and Fridays  covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

"I am getting this opportunity to start a new train on the occasion of 100 years of the Champaran Satyagraha. This train has been specially named Champaran Humsafar Express. Complete with modern amenities, this train will make travelling between Bihar and Delhi extremely easy and comfortable," he said.

The track-doubling project will have a huge impact on local movement and cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections  Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar  are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore.

The project will ensure higher speeds, reduce delays, enhance safety by allowing more time for block maintenance and provide additional capacity for future increase in traffic, officials said.

It will also decongest the entire route from Gorakhpur to Muzaffarpur. The project is also expected to generate about 50.47 lakh man-days direct employment during construction of the line.

The doubling will also boost sugar, jute, forest-based and other industries and extended market to their products. The faster connectivity for the people of the area to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi will also enhance trade and commerce with Nepal as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bihar on Tuesday to address 20,000 'Swachh Bharat' volunteers in East Champaran district's Motihari town.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bihar on Tuesday to address 20,000 'Swachh Bharat' volunteers in East Champaran district's Motihari town and launch key development projects. He was received by Governor Satyapal Malik and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and several senior BJP leaders in Patna.

Modi reached Patna in an Indian Air Force aircraft and will go to Motihari by a helicopter, IANS reported.

"The foundation stones for key development projects will be laid and vital projects will also dedicated to the nation. This includes the Motijheel Project, the Bettiah Nagar Parshid water supply scheme under AMRUT among others," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted on Monday.

Important development works relating to River Ganga will also be inaugurated.

Patna: PM Narendra Modi arrives in Bihar, he will lay foundation stone for various projects in the state and speak at a Swacch Bharat Abhiyan event. He was received upon arrival by Governor Satyapal Malik and CM Nitish Kumar pic.twitter.com/y3MC7kw0Hc  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

The prime minister's visit and address to the 'Swachhagrahis' (ambassadors of cleanliness) is a part of the concluding celebration of Champaran Satyagraha centenary launched by the Bihar government in April, 2017. He is expected to make the speech at 1 pm on Tuesday. Mahatma Gandhi had set off on his Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 in protest against atrocities on Indigo planters. From Motihari, Modi will also will lay the foundation stone for four sewerage projects in Patna. The sewerage projects are worth Rs 1,111.56 crore. "These four projects together will create new sewage treatment plant (STP) capacity of 60 million litres per day and lay the sewer network of 376.12 kilometre in Saidpur and Pahari sewerage zones of Patna," the release said. The expected sewage load for Patna by 2035 is estimated to be 320 million litres per day. Modi will flag off a new bi-weekly train Humsafar Express connecting Katihar to New Delhi, launch electrification work of Motihari-Muzaffarpur rail line and doubling of Muzaffarpur-Narkatiyaganj railway track. The prime minister will also flag off India's first 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive, a collaboration between India and France, in Madhepura.

Tomorrow, the first phase of the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory will be dedicated to the nation. The Champaran Humsafar Express and the first 12,000 HP freight electric locomotive will also be flagged off on the occasion.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 9, 2018

A sprawling tent-city, 'Swachhagram', has been set up to accommodate the volunteers from other states. The theme of the centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagrah is "Satyagrah se Swachhagrah".

With inputs from agencies
Modi on Tuesday flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar

Motihari: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off a train between Katihar and Old Delhi, dedicated to the nation a loco factory in Madhepura and laid the foundation of a track-doubling project in Bihar.

The prime minister was in Motihari to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

He laid the foundation stone of a project for doubling of Muzzafarpur-Sagauli (100.6 km) and Sagauli-Valmikinagar sections (109.7 km), flagged off the first run of the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi and the first 1200 hp freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory. He also dedicated the first phase of the factory to the nation.

Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February 2018, the two sections  Muzzafarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmikinagar  are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,401 crore and will cover districts of Muzaffarnagar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

The Champaran Humsafar Express will facilitate faster, safer and comfortable journey experience to common man of North Bihar. The train will run bi-weekly  Tuesdays and Fridays  covering a distance of 1,383 km, according to an official statement.

The loco factory in Madhepura, a joint venture between Indian Railways and French manufacturing firm Alstom, has a capacity to manufacture 110 loco per annum. The railways has set a target of manufacturing 800 locos (five assembled and 795 manufactured) over a period of 11 years.
Ahead of the Press Council of India meeting, eight media bodies have sought Narendra Modi's intervention to defer the meet of the 'truncated' council, alleging that the PCI chairman has adopted 'arbitrary' procedure to reconstitute it

New Delhi: Ahead of the Press Council of India (PCI) meeting on Tuesday, eight prominent media bodies have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to defer the meet of the "truncated" council, alleging that the PCI chairman has adopted "arbitrary" procedure to reconstitute it.

In a letter to the prime minister on Monday, they alleged that the procedure adopted for reconstitution of the 13th PCI was "arbitrary" and said if not reversed, it would "gravely" impact media freedom and access to information critical to democracy.

"The reconstitution...undertaken by Chairman Justice (retired) CK Prasad has overlooked precedent and adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates. His action has cast serious doubts over the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI, mandated to preserve and protect the freedom of the press," they said in the letter.

The letter was signed by representatives of Indian Newspaper Society (INS), Indian Journalists Union (IJU), All India Newspaper Editors Conference (AINEC), Working News Cameramen Association (WNCA), National Union of Journalists (India) (NUJ (I)), Hindi Samachar Patra Sammelan, All India Small and Medium Newspapers Federation and Press Association.

It said the PCI chairman has called a meeting of the reconstituted press council on 11 April with only eight members  five MPs and three official nominees  out of 28 members, leaving out representatives of the print media organisations whose names were yet to be notified.

Maintaining that the PCI reconstitution was still underway, the media bodies said holding a meeting of such a "truncated PCI was unfair" and goes against the spirit of the Press Council Act.

"We request you to immediately intervene, as you did on the 'fake news' order, to have the meeting deferred till the full council is reconstituted and restore the credibility and sanctity of the PCI. This will go a long way in protecting and preserving the freedom of the press, vital to democracy," the letter said.

The PCI had on Monday refuted allegations that its chairman had adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates from the selection process while reconstituting the panel, saying the names were drawn from those submitted by the notified associations.

In the letter, the media bodies also urged Modi to instruct the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to include representatives of journalist unions/associations who have been kept out of the recently-reconstituted Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) despite submitting required documents to the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

Last month, the I&B Ministry had announced that it has reconstituted the CPAC, making it leaner from a 22-member to an eight-member body.

Media bodies alleged that keeping out representatives of journalists unions/associations was a clear violation of the guidelines.

"The reconstituted CPAC with hand-picked journalists and organisations, ignoring the claims of representatives organisations, gives the distinct impression that it is meant to curtail access to sources of information and amounts to veiled censorship," they said in the letter.

In a press release, the organisations also rubbished the claim of the PCI chairman that selection of names from the panels were done according to the law, and reiterated their charge that the chairman kept out organisations such as Editors Guild of India and National Union of Journalists (I) on narrow interpretation of the rules and the act.

They said the PCI statement "cleverly blamed the associations of compromising the autonomy and neutrality of the PCI to evade the responsibility of the chairman for the sorry state of affairs".
The newly-devised terror techniques of using large vehicles to mow down civilians and lone wolf attacks pose a 'serious challenge' to the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said and asked special forces such as the NSG to prepare themselves to deal with these threats

Ibrahimpatnam (Telangana): The newly-devised terror techniques of using large vehicles to mow down civilians and lone wolf attacks pose a "serious challenge" to the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Ibrahimpatnam on Tuesday and asked special forces such as the NSG to prepare themselves to deal with these threats.

Singh arrived in Telangana on a day-long tour to inaugurate a 200-acre complex of the 28 special composite group (SCG) of the elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) in the Ranga Reddy district of the state. The campus is about 33-km from the Rajiv Gandhi international airport of Hyderabad.

Addressing the officers of the commando force and those from the state police, the minister said the terrorist minds keep on devising and adopting "new tactics" to unleash death and mayhem.

"We have seen across the globe that a big vehicle is being used by such elements to mow down people as also lone wolf attacks being carried out by them to wreak death and destruction," he said.

"The terrorists are adopting cruel and barbaric techniques like I mentioned. This is a serious challenge and special forces like the NSG should prepare themselves to tackle these emerging threats," Singh said.

He said the central government is also thinking as to how the NSG's role could be "enlarged" vis-a-vis security challenges faced by the country.

Singh said instances of civilians being taken as shields by terror elements has also been noticed and the elite counter-terror force should enhance its technical capabilities and capacities in this context.

"Post the 26/11 (2008 Mumbai terror attacks), every agency needs to work round-the-clock and be vigilant to ensure that peace is not breached," he said.

Singh lauded the forces for ensuring that no big terror incident has taken place in the hinterland, except in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The morale of the terrorists is down but they are always looking for chances. Hence, you should continuously keep evolving and enhancing your tactics," he said.

Terrorism, Singh said, is a threat to the entire mankind and it is posing new challenges globally.

The minister said it was being thought, post the Mumbai attacks and establishment of NSGs regional hubs, that the elite forces core competence will go down, but that has not been the case.

The NSG hub inaugurated on Tuesday by the minister is tasked with tackling any terror threat in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

The hub had been shifted from Begumpet to this town in the Ranga Reddy district a few years back and the facility has the infrastructure to house about 300 commandos and also to train them regularly.

The force has also stationed a small counter-terror and counter-hijack task force of commands at the Hyderabad airport.

During the event, NSG Director General (DG) Sudeep Lakhtakia said the force is continuously enhancing its techniques, tactics and strategies to render its special task.

The National Security Guard was raised in 1984 as a special federal force against terror incidents and attacks.
India donated $1 million to support Swaziland's national disaster management agency and expressed commitment to the developmental partnership to create local capacities in the country

Mbabane (Swaziland): India on Tuesday donated $1 million to support Swaziland's national disaster management agency and expressed commitment to the developmental partnership to create local capacities in the country and across Africa.

The commitment came as President Ram Nath Kovind addressed Swaziland's parliament, becoming the first visiting head of the state to do so.

The president said India was committed "to developmental partnership and India's approach is to create local capacities in Swaziland and across Africa.

Kovind arrived in Swaziland on Monday on the second leg of his three-nation tour which also included Equatorial Guinea and Zambia.

"To support the Swaziland National Disaster Management Agency, we have decided to donate $1 million as well as food grains... We invite Swaziland to join the International Solar Alliance as a partner country," the president said.

He said India was ready to help the country on issues of public health.

"India is the main source of affordable generic drugs including anti-retroviral drugs for fighting HIV. Swaziland has made remarkable progress in slowing the spread of HIV," he said.

India will establish a Centre of Agricultural Excellence in Swaziland for sharing its experience in the sector, Kovind said.

"I had the honour to inaugurate the IT Centre built with Indian assistance. We must also guard against cyber threats. India has offered to help in the construction of a Disaster Recovery Site for providing data backup at Swaziland's National Data Centre," he said.

India is keen to share its expertise and experience with Swaziland and with the whole of the African continent, Kovind added.

"The kingdom is a member of many regional economic groupings. I see good potential for Indian investors to leverage these advantages, and use Swaziland as a regional hub for manufacturing and services," he said.

India also announced concessional finance for constructing a new Parliament building in Swaziland.

However, no details of the concessional finance were provided.
'We are being befooled by the executive', was how a 'frustrated' Supreme Court said on Tuesday while ruing the fact that around Rs one lakh crore worth of funds meant to protect the environment and benefit the people, was being diverted for other purposes.

New Delhi: "We are being befooled by the executive", was how a "frustrated" Supreme Court said on Tuesday while ruing the fact that around Rs one lakh crore worth of funds meant to protect the environment and benefit the people, was being diverted for other purposes. Severely criticising the government, the apex court observed that it had "trusted" the executive, but the authorities do not work. And when the court says something, it is said that there is "judicial overreach and activism".

A bench, comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, made it clear that this huge amount of money, collected under various funds created on the apex court's orders for the protection of environment, was to be used only for environmental purposes and benefit of the people. "It is very clear that the amount was used for purposes, other than what it was entrusted. How far you want the court to go? We trusted the executive but they say they will do whatever they want," the bench said.

"First, we have to catch them that you have diverted the money and betrayed the trust. Are we policemen or investigating officers? We are not talking about a small amount," the bench said, adding, "It is very, very frustrating".

It said around Rs 11,700 crore was there in the Compensatory Afforestation Funds Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which was created under the top court's order, and the total amount lying in all such funds would come to around Rs one lakh crore. However, one of the lawyers told the court that around Rs 11,000 crore from CAMPA was already spent and the total amount in it would be around Rs 50,000 crore.

"What we are supposed to do? You people do not work. It is completely beyond imagination," the bench observed, adding, "when we say, it is said there is judicial overreach and judicial activism. We are being befooled by the executive".

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), said the court should tell the Union of India as to where and how these funds should be used and where it cannot be used. "It (money) cannot be used for civic or municipal purposes," he said.

The bench noted that there was around Rs 90,000 to Rs one lakh crore money which was lying with the Centre and the states under various heads consequent to the court orders and directed the secretary of MoEF&CC to make a compilation of all the funds, amounts lying in it as on March 31 this year. "Secretary of the MoEF&CC is further directed to give us some indication as to how amount of Rs one lakh crore is intended to be utilised and areas where it should not be utilised," the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing on 9 May.

The issue of usage of these funds for other purposes cropped up when the apex court perused an affidavit filed by the chief secretary of Odisha and observed that the money was being used for construction of roads, renovation of bus stands and science laboratory in colleges.

"This money is meant for the benefit of the people. It is to be utilised for that only and not as a part of your governance," the court told the counsel representing Odisha. "It is part of your job as a state. Construction of roads and installing streetlight is your job as a state. People's funds cannot be used for it. Your total expenditure for social cause is not even five per cent," the bench said, adding, "we cannot permit you to do this. This money is for benefit of people and not for benefit of the government".

An advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said the money collected under these funds were to be used for welfare of tribals in Odisha. The court allowed the request of Odisha's counsel for three weeks time to file further details and asked its chief secretary to remain present before it on the next date of hearing.

The bench also perused the affidavit filed by Meghalaya and pulled up the state for keeping the funds meant for welfare of the people only in the bank. It also took exception to the fact that Meghalaya's affidavit did not even clearly mention how much amount collected under these funds was lying in the banks and observed, "it is too much".

"This is turning out to be a joke," the bench said and termed it a "very badly drafted" affidavit.

It granted four weeks to Meghalaya to file a better affidavit and asked the chief secretary of the state to remain present before it on the next date of hearing. The court was also informed that Rs 1,301 crore amount has been collected in Delhi under the Environment Compensation Charge (ECC), which the apex court had earlier imposed on commercial vehicles entering Delhi in addition to the toll tax, and another Rs 70.5 crore was collected and lying with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the cent cess levied on the vehicles having engine capacity of more than 2,000 cc.

The bench asked the Delhi government and MoEF&CC to apprise it as to how this money would be utilised. The court was hearing a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta who had raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).
A day after the custodial death of Surendra Kumar, the father of the woman who levelled rape allegations against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the Unnao district administration seemed in a rush to fix accountability.

Unnao: A day after the custodial death of Surendra Kumar, the father of the woman who levelled rape allegations against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the Unnao district administration seemed in a rush to fix accountability.

The police arrested Sengar's brother Atul in connection with the case and suspended six personnel from Makhi police station. District Magistrate Ravi Kumar met the woman on Tuesday and assured her of all possible help.

The victim alleged that police did not cooperate in naming the BJP MLA in the first FIR she filed three months ago, and that her father was beaten by Atul and his cohorts in their presence on their way to court on 3 April. She said that instead of registering their complaint, Makhi Police arrested her father under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Her father was reportedly sick while he was in police custody for four days.

The victim, weeping, told this reporter: I was threatened by the goons of MLA Sengar. I am scared with what has been done to me and my family.

On Sunday, the 18-year-old tried to immolate herself in front of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanaths residence to protest police inaction. A special investigation team has been formed by the Uttar Pradesh Police to probe the rape allegation levelled against the MLA from Bangarmau.

Additional Director General (law and order) Anand Kumar said the postmortem, conducted by three doctors, showed the death occurred due to colon perforation. The doctors concluded that Surendra died of shock and septicaemia due to peritonitis and ascending colon perforation, Kumar said at a press conference. The viscera has been kept safe, he added.

The postmortem report accessed by Firstpost also mentions that victim's father had swelling on his arm and there were stitches on one of his eyebrows.

The district magistrate met the victim and her uncle along with his deputy and chief development officer. When asked about the custodial death and rape allegations, the district magistrate replied: The victims family is from socio-economically weaker section. We are chalking out what help can be given to the family. Kumar added he'd take the woman to Lucknow only if she wishes to meet the chief minister and speak on this issue.

Surendras widow was reported to have left with a bunch of papers to meet Adityanath in Lucknow on Tuesday afternoon. The state home department told Firstpost a probe has been ordered by Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh and stern action would be taken against anyone found guilty.

When questioned about the investigation into the rape allegations and the custodial death, Unnao superintendent of police (SP) Pushpanjali Devi said, Let the police do its work and wait for the outcome. We are doing what we ought to do. In connection with the death of Surendra Singh, a judicial inquiry will reveal things. Since the person died in police custody I will not speak anything on this.
A day after the father of a woman, who was allegedly raped by a BJP MLA, died in police custody on Monday, police arrested the lawmaker's brother on Tuesday

A day after the father of a woman, who was allegedly raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his accomplice in 2017, died in police custody on Monday, police arrested Sengar's brother Atul Singh on Tuesday in connection with the case, reports said.

#BREAKING -- Rape accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar's brother, Atul Singh arrested from Lucknow. Meanwhile, the body of Surender Singh, father of the rape victim, has been handed over to the family. Cremation will happen in some time. pic.twitter.com/r6HbLtDhBF  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

Singh was arrested along with three others in connection with the death, CNN-News 18 reported. The victim's body has been handed over to the family, and the cremation will take place shortly, the report said.

"Kuldeep Singh (Sengar) isn't being arrested. I don't know if his brother is arrested. I demand that they be hanged till death. They've made my life miserable  I want justice. They killed my father," the woman who levelled the rape allegations told ANI on Tuesday.

A day after the victim's father was brutally beaten up in front of his wife and daughter allegedly by Sengar's younger brother, an FIR was lodged on 4 April against the assailants. But Makhi police instead booked the father under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation), and also pressed Arms Act against him after registering a counter-FIR on the same day, a The Times of India report stated, following which he was arrested and sent to a 14-day judicial remand.

The woman's father was then sent to Unnao Jail, according to News18. He was later rushed to a hospital from the district jail on Sunday night on complaints of stomach ache and vomiting, and died during treatment early on Monday.

On Monday, two police officers and four constables were suspended after the death in police custody, following which Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath summoned the accused BJP MLA. This came only a day after the woman had tried to commit suicide outside the chief minister's residence in Lucknow on Sunday, saying no action has been taken against the accused yet.

Later on Monday evening, Sengar arrived at the secretariat to offer his explanation to the chief minister, but reportedly could not meet him. The state's home department said the girl had not named the MLA in her first complaint lodged last year. "It is an unfortunate incident. ADG (Police) Lucknow has been asked to probe the matter thoroughly. Those at fault  whoever they might be  will not be spared," Adityanath said.

Briefly addressing the media after meeting Adityanath, Sengar ruled out possibility of resignation. "Does one tender resignation upon being accused? Will you resign if your name comes up?" the MLA asked the reporters.

"There is no allegation against me  I'm open to any kind of investigation. Strict action should be taken against the real culprit," ANI quoted him as saying.

However, the woman had alleged that she was raped in June 2017 by Sengar, a BJP MLA of Unnao district's Bangermau constituency. She also accused the police in Unnao of not taking any action or registering a case on her complaint, Vijay Sen Singh, in-charge of the Gautam Palli police station, said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP-led state government in Uttar Pradesh over the death, taking a dig at the BJP's Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao slogan. "Save the girl, get yourself killed. A young girl accuses a BJP MLA of rape. The police, instead of arresting the MLA, take the girl's father into custody. Immediately after that, he dies in police custody."

"Meanwhile, the accused MLA is still moving around freely," the Congress president tweeted in Hindi.

Earlier, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that goonda raj still prevailed in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. "Gruesome & barbaric! Humanity gets shamed as the rape victim attempts suicide and her father is beaten & dies in police custody. Instead of arresting criminals, victims are arrested by UP BJP government goonda raj' prevails in UP, justice held to ransom as BJP leaders run a-mock," he tweeted.

Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also targetted the local government, questioning the state of law and order. "The death in 'police custody' of the father of the rape victim who tried to commit suicide in front of the chief minister's home is saddening. It should be investigated at the highest level in an impartial probe. The chief minister must take responsibility for women's safety and resign immediately," he said.

With inputs from agencies
Day after the a rape victim's father died in police custody in UP, police says post-mortem indicates colon perforation.

Hours after arresting the brother of the accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in relation to an alleged rape in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao, police said that the investigation is still underway and that the "toughest" sections under law would be applied once the probe concludes.

After the father of the victim died in police custody on Monday, Anand Kumar, ADG (Law and Order), said the death occurred was due to colon perforation. "The post mortem conducted by a panel of three doctors concluded that the cause of death was shock and septicaemia due to peritonitis and ascending colon perforation," he said.

#BREAKING - According to the post-mortem, the cause of death was due to colon perforation: Anand Kumar, ADG on Unnao custodial death pic.twitter.com/3k119lGoi1  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

When asked about the progress of the investigation, Kumar said a Special Investigation Team has been constituted, and taking all facts and accounts into consideration, appropriate and unbiased action will be undertaken under the direct supervision of Lucknow division's ADG.

Details of what led to the colon perforation is a matter of a judicial enquiry, the senior police officer said. "Section 176(1A) of the CrPC says that whenever a death occurs in police or judicial custody, a judicial enquiry will be done by the judicial magistrate. And therefore the judicial magistrate will factor in all these things in this case as well and take a position," Kumar said.

Sengar's brother Atul Singh was arrested on Tuesday along with three others in connection with the death. The victim's body has been handed over to the family, and the cremation will take place shortly, reports said.

A day after the victim's father was brutally beaten up in front of his wife and daughter allegedly by Sengar's younger brother, an FIR was lodged on 4 April against the assailants. But Makhi police instead booked the father under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation), and also pressed Arms Act against him after registering a counter-FIR on the same day, The Times of India reported, following which he was arrested and sent to a 14-day judicial remand.

The woman's father was then sent to Unnao Jail, according to News18. He was later rushed to a hospital from the district jail on Sunday night on complaints of stomach ache and vomiting, and died during treatment early on Monday.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Wednesday a plea of the BJP against the West Bengal State Election Commission's (SEC) decision to recall its order extending the deadline for filing of nominations for panchayat polls by a day.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea on Wednesday of the BJP against the West Bengal State Election Commission's (SEC) decision to recall its order extending the deadline for filing of nominations for panchayat polls by a day.

The West Bengal unit of the BJP moved the apex court hours after the state poll panel recalled its Monday's decision extending the last date for filing of nominations for May's panchayat election in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said the matter would be listed on Wednesday before the same bench which had passed the verdict on Monday.

Advocate Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the BJP, said that the apex court had passed the verdict asking them to give a representation to the State Election Commission with their grievances.

"They (State Election Commission) have extended the deadline for filing the nominations by one day, but on Tuesday they have recalled the order under pressure from the ruling Trinamool Congress," Bhati said.

She further said that the BJP filed an fresh Interlocutory Application (IA) seeking proper representation to the SEC and extension of the last date for filing of nominations.

Bhati said that due to recall of the order, BJP candidates were not able to file their nomination papers.

Though the last day for filing nominations for the rural polls slated for 1, 3 and 5 May was till Monday, the SEC had extended it till 3 pm on Tuesday on complaints that the Opposition candidates had been prevented from filing papers.

The top court had on Monday refused to interfere with the poll process, saying that with the 2 April notification of the State Election Commission, the poll election process had been set in motion.

The apex court had, however, said if any grievances were raised by any political party or any candidate in writing, then the SEC would ensure disposal of such grievance strictly in accordance with the law forthwith.

On Tuesday, the State Election Commissioner cancelled the poll panel's previous order extending the deadline for filing of nominations.

The SEC said that there was no specific direction by the apex court for extension of the nomination date.

According to the new notification, the State Election Commissioner received two letters, one from the special secretary of the state government and another one from the Trinamool Congress, citing legal infirmities in the previous order of the commission.
In BS Yeddyurappa, BJP has not only found a chief ministerial candidate who would clear the road for Narendra Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but also a fall guy if things go south

BS Yeddyurappa could not have asked for a better birthday present for himself. Not only did he have Prime Minister Narendra Modi by his side on Tuesday when he turned 75, the BJP leader also got an assurance from the party leadership that he will be chief minister of Karnataka for a full five-year term if BJP comes to power this May.

The announcement is significant because 75 is the unofficial cut-off age for ministers in BJP, both at the Centre and in the states where the party is in power, to call it a day. Union ministers Najma Heptulla and Kalraj Mishra stepped down after crossing the age limit. Veterans like LK Advani and MM Joshi were asked to take membership of the Margdarshak Mandal. Anandibehn Patel in Gujarat resigned three months before the D-day, citing the age factor.

So, is Yeddyurappa going to be a one-off case or is a precedent being set within BJP? More importantly, does the decision to give Yeddyurappa a five-year lifeline of political office suggest that BJP has no leadership options in Karnataka barring the former chief minister of the state? Or, is the move aimed at placating BSY, to tell him he will not be shortchanged at the victory post?

At another level, the move seems to imply an effort to compensate Yeddyurappa for the manner in which the Advani-influenced BJP in 2011 virtually abandoned him, forcing him to resign as chief minister. When Yeddyurappa subsequently quit the party to float his own Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), he pointed out that when he had resigned, he had been assured by then BJP president Nitin Gadkari that he would be reinstated in the post soon.

"The promises proved false. Advani had the intention to place Anant Kumar in the chief minister's post. The leaders of my own party leveled baseless charges against me," Yeddyurappa had said.

Though Yeddyurappa has been projected as the chief ministerial face of BJP in Karnataka, a whisper campaign about several ifs and buts have been doing the rounds. The most prominent of them being the number of candles on his birthday cake. The Lingayat community, the largest in Karnataka at 17 percent of the population, was apprehensive that BJP will dump him after securing the votes in his name. Yeddyurappa is seen as the tallest leader in the community and ensures that the Lingayats rally behind BJP. This move to publicly back him is to assuage the doubts among the Lingayats.

"Strategically, BJP, obviously, can't say that he (Yeddyurappa) will be the chief minister only for a year or two. It is quite possible that after the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, Yeddyurappa may be asked to hand over the baton to a leader of his choice. But if BJP wins now, it would be a great betrayal if someone else is made the chief minister," says political analyst Hemantha Kumar.

It is also meant to send a message to other leaders in the top-heavy Karnataka BJP. Over the past few months, with the likes of a rabble-rousing Union minister Hegde gaining traction, the Yeddyurappa camp was feeling a bit insecure. BSY tried to establish his credentials as the state boss when he made it clear that he did not approve of the communally incendiary remarks made by Hegde and ensured he was ticked off. Hegde has been a repeat offender, making several provocative statements including saying, "Until we uproot Islam, we cannot remove terrorism." The flip side is that these divisive remarks have helped him gain more traction in communally sensitive coastal Karnataka region.

Though it may seem like BJP has a problem of plenty, BSY remains the only leader with a pan-Karnataka appeal. And, therefore, strictly enforcing the 75-year-rule may prove counterproductive.

"The situation now is such that if BJP wins, the credit will go to Modi's charm and Amit Shah's election management. But Yeddyurappa will be the fall guy if BJP loses," points out political analyst Sugata Raju.

BJP's critics also point out that the Yeddyurappa of 2018 is not the Yeddyurappa of 2008. His body language with Yogi Adityanath during the Parivartana Yatra where it was obvious who was the boss did not show the Karnataka strongman in a flattering light. Then his tweets alleging Rahul Gandhi ate chicken before visiting a temple in Koppal did not behove well for a leader of his stature. The attack could have been mounted by a junior functionary of the BJP.

However, Kumar disagrees. "On the contrary, Yeddyurappa is far stronger now," says Kumar.

"In 2008, Yeddyurappa only harped on the betrayal by HD Kumaraswamy to get votes. But today, he is going to the people as the numero uno leader of the Lingayats. Two, ten years ago, BJP High command was not strong. But today, both Modi and Shah are backing him because a lot is at stake for them too."

The Davangere public meeting this week saw BJP pushing the Yeddyurappa card, making a connection between the Karnataka elections and the Lok Sabha polls next year. BSY in 2018, NaMo in 2019 is the war cry, asking the people to vote for new Karnataka and new India.
This in essence would mean that Kharge was invited to attend the meet 'without rights of participation, recording of opinion, and voting in the procedure,' which he said was a way to mislead the nation.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing his reservation about being called as a 'special invitee' to the meeting of Lokpal Selection Committee, and termed the move a mere eyewash.

In his letter, Kharge alleged that the government move to invite him, the leader of the single largest Opposition's party, as a 'special invitee' is a farcical move to scuttle the Opposition's voice.

He pointed out that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act for a special invitee to be a member of the selection panel.

He contended this would mean that he was invited to attend the meet "without rights of participation, recording of opinion, and voting in the procedure," which is a way to mislead the nation.

With the Congress winning less than the stipulated 10 percent of the seats in the 2014 general election, the party lost the status of the prime Opposition party as per set procedure.

The Centre had flagged two hurdles in implementing the Lokpal law as it exists, one of which was that it provides that the selection panel should have the Leader of Opposition (LOP) as one of its members, but there is no recognised LoP in the current 16th Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, anti-graft crusaders have been demanding a change in the Lokpal to allow 'leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha' to facilitate the participation of the Opposition's voice.

Kharge alleged that the government's 'double standards' on the issue were exposed as he was categorically denied the right to voice his opinion or vote in the process, and added that "the process of appointing a Lokpal would be vitiated" under such circumstances.

He'd also written a two-page letter to the Modi on 28 February outlining his reasons for backing out of the selection panel meeting. However, he lamented that not only did the previous letter go unacknowledged, the government still refused to address the important issues raised by him.

Kharge skipped an earlier meeting of the Lokpal selection committee called on 1 March following a Supreme Court directive on similar grounds.

"Notwithstanding your rhetoric to fight corruption, the BJP government has chosen to not appoint a Lokpal for nearly four years. For anybody familiar with BJP's record in not establishing and preserving Lokayukta in Gujarat, this wouldn't come as a surprise," Kharge added.
The BJP's income increased by 81.18 percent to Rs 1,034.27 crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14 percent to Rs 225.36 crore between 2015-16 and 2016-17.

New Delhi: The BJP's income increased by 81.18 percent to Rs 1,034.27 crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14 percent to Rs 225.36 crore between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a report released on Tuesday said.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, seven national parties  the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress  have declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore and expenditures of Rs 1,228.26 crore.

The report, based on the submissions made to the Election Commission, compared the total income of the BJP and Congress, their expenditure and sources of income. "Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18 percent (Rs 463.41 crore) from Rs 570.86 crore to Rs 1034.27 crore while the income of the Congress decreased by 14 percent (Rs 36.20 crore) from Rs 261.56 crore to Rs 225.36 crore," it said.

The BJP had declared expenditures of Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17 while Congress incurred Rs 321.66 crore  Rs 96.30 crore more than its total income.

The report said that both the parties have declared "donations/ contributions" as one of their three main sources of income. "The grant/ donations/ contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by the BJP forms 96.41 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.644 crore under revenue from issuance of coupons by the Congress forms top most income of the party, contributing 51.32 percent of its total income during the fiscal," it added.

The report said that the seven national parties collected a maximum of 74.98 per cent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17. Voluntary contributions accounted for 60 per cent (Rs 616.05 crore) of their income in the previous fiscal. These parties received Rs 128.60 crore income in bank interest in the same fiscal.

The release said that the due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was 30 October, 2017, but the BJP submitted its report on 8 February and Congress on 19 March. The ADR said the BJP, Congress, NCP and CPI have consistently delayed submitting their audit reports for the past five years.

It demanded the political parties to provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act as a step to strengthen elections and democracy. "Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI," the report said, adding that countries such as Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan have done so.

It said the Election Commission should ensure that no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank. The ADR said that a political party which does not submit its Income Tax returns on or before the due date should be given tax exemption and should be de-recognised.
The Jammu and Kashmir BJP on Tuesday criticised the National Conference for raising autonomy demand, saying it will lead to a disintegration of the state.

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir BJP on Tuesday criticised the National Conference for raising autonomy demand, saying it will lead to a disintegration of the state.

NC president Farooq Abdullah, addressing party workers at Balakote in Poonch district on Sunday, reiterated party's demand for restoration of greater autonomy to the state.

The greater autonomy, as ensured under Article 370 of the Constitution, has sown the seeds of disintegration of the state. The emphasis on the demand shall lead to the disintegration and there is nothing communal in it, BJP state spokesperson Virender Gupta said in a statement.

He said the clock cannot be reversed back.

The demand is only a political gimmick of the National Conference and even in the valley people do not take the demand seriously in the prevailing situation, he said.

The BJP leader also criticised Abdullah's statement on conversion of the LoC into line of peace, saying it amounts to undermining the integrity of the state and that of the Indian nation.

It is also against the will of the people of India which was expressed in the unanimous resolution of Parliament in 1994 of taking back Pakistan occupied part of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa, will contest from Shikaripura Assembly constituency, the party's Central Election Committee announced on Sunday

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Prominent nominees are the party's chief ministerial face BS Yeddyurappa from Shikaripura, KS Eshwarappa from Shivamogga, Jagadish Shettar from Hubli-Dharwad Central, Basavaraj Bommai from Shiggaon, CM Udasi from Hangal, KV Hegde from Sirsi and B. Sriramulu from Molakalmuru (reserved).

Among the candidates are many of the party's 48 sitting or outgoing legislators from the state's northern, central and southern region, including Bengaluru, which has 28 assembly constituencies.

The BJP on Sunday released its first list of 72 candidates to contest in the 12 May Karnataka Assembly elections for the 224 seats across the southern state.

Sashikala is re-contesting from the same seat, while Roopali is a former civic corporator in Bengaluru and Poornima is the party's women wing's secretary.

Only three women figure among the 72 contestants - Sashikala Jolle from Nippani assembly segment in the state's northwest region, Roopali Naik from Karwar in the coastal area and Poornima Srinivas from Hiriyur in central part.

He will be up against GT Deve Gowda of the JD(S). Gowda is the sitting MLA and also a one-time close associate of the chief minister. Siddaramaiah wants to pitch his decision to contest from his erstwhile constituency as the return of the prodigal son in what is being spoken of as his 10th and final electoral battle. But Gowda labels Siddaramaiah as someone who "abandoned" Chamundeshwari for Varuna after his skip-a-heartbeat 2006 victory.

With his desire to see his son, Yathindra take a plunge into electoral politics, Siddaramaiah has given up on his safe Varuna seat to risk it in Chamundeshwari. The odds are stacked against Siddaramaiah in this constituency that is named after the hilltop Goddess Chamundeshwari, the presiding deity of Mysuru.

G T Devegowda, the JD(S) MLA from Chamundeshwari constituency, said that Congress workers were not happy with Siddaramaiahs leadership and were defecting only because they intend to see HD Kumaraswamy as chief minister. JD(S)s claim may not prove to be a setback for the Congress, but it is bound to impact partys campaign strategy.

The Janata Dal (Secular) which holds the Chamundeshwari seat, is trying to dent his chances of victory by roping in Congress party workers. On Wednesday, the JD(S) announced that 20 Congress workers in the constituency, including block-level leaders like Kaling Naik, Angadi Manju, and MH Rajashekar were joining the party.

The RSS is also of the opinion that Modi is their best bet and he should lead the campaign against Congress.

PM Modi is our biggest weapon. We want him to create a Modi wave closer to the election. In Gujarat, he single handedly rescued the party from a certain defeat. The situation is not so favourable even here. We are hopeful that Prime Minister will do the magic, he said.

The state BJP has requested Modi to address at least 15 public meetings. According to a spokesman of the party, depending on the situation Modi may spare more time for Karnataka addressing over a dozen meetings.

Our campaign so far has been lacklustre. We have failed to put the Congress on back foot. Actually, they are setting the agenda and we are being forced to react to them. The party high command has taken a serious note of it and they seem to have decided to take direct charge of the campaign, said a senior state BJP leader.

The former chief minister also announced that he would file his nomination from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district on 19 April.

The BJP's Karnataka unit chief B S Yeddyurappa today said the second list of party candidates for the May 12 assembly election in the state was likely to be announced on 11 April.

Most of them are sitting legislators and a few of them also served as ministers in the past. Guttedar, a six-time MLA and OBC leader, had yesterday joined the party, hours before the first list was announced.

Those who have made it to the list include P Rajeev (Kudachi), A S Patil Nadahalli (Muddebihal), Basavanagouda Patil Yatnal (Bijapur City), Malikayya Guttedar (Afzalpur), Mallikarjun Khuba (Basavakalyana) and Dr Shivaraj Patil (Raichur).

Most of the party-hoppers, who joined the BJP ahead of the May 12 assembly polls in Karnataka, have made it to the party's first list of candidates. In the list of 72 candidates for the high-stakes contest to the 224-member Assembly that was released last night, at least 11 recently joined the BJP, including some who had deserted it earlier.

According to S Yogeshwar, returning officer of Yashwanthapura constituency, the incident occurred when a special drive in booth number 74 of the constituency was going on at a school.

Miscreants today snatched away about 450 applications pertaining to the addition, changes and deletion of names from the voter list at Yashwanthapura in Bengaluru.

JD(S) is not the BJPs B team as alleged by the Congress. On the contrary, leaders who were with Janata Pariwar migrated to the Congress and formed a B team, sidelining seniors like Mallikjarjuna Kharge and Parameshwara," he said.

Janata Dal (Secular) state president HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday sought to reply to Rahul Gandhi's charge that his party was in cahoots with the BJP. Terming both two sides of the same coin he said they share a one should beat and another would weep agreement, The Times of India reported.

"This is the work of one or two Swamijis and I am not at all bothered. Almost everyone in the community is with us and we are going to win about 150 seats and form the government," The Times of India quoted him as saying.

Yeddyurappa said that it is just a few of them who have made these statements, while the entire Lingayat-Veerashaiva community is with the BJP.

Gehlot, a former chief minister of Rajasthan, was recently appointed the AICC general secretary in charge of organisation and training of party cadres.

Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot has been appointed a member of the party's central election committee, the apex body for selection of candidates during elections.

BJP has also refused to field his daughter Shambhavi from Rajarajeshwarinagara Assembly seat in Bengaluru. Neither the state BJP, nor its national leadership is giving him any importance. He is actually a nobody in BJP. It has hurt him deeply. He has been sending the feelers to Congress for the past two months, a senior Congress leader told News18 .

State Congress sources claim that the former external affairs minister is now interested in rejoining the party as he is disillusioned with the BJP. He feels that the saffron party has humiliated him by giving no importance to him.

Senior politician and former Congress stalwart SM Krishna is considering returning to his mother party merely a year after he joined the BJP in a surprise move, calling the Congress a party in rapid decline.

"This has been mentioned in the divisional commissioner's report.. The report is under scrutiny," he added.

"The mother of the deceased person had earlier given some statement before some television channel, but she has changed her version now. She is now saying, neither has she received any cheque nor has she been given an assurance in this regard," he told reporters here.

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar today said the report on alleged violation of model code of conduct by BJP President Amit Shah for giving Rs five lakh to the family of a deceased party worker is under scrutiny.

The AICC secretary in charge of Karnataka and former MP Madhu Yashki Goud directly blamed the BJP IT Cell responsible for it. Threatening a criminal action against the BJP, he said that the saffron party had mastered the art of fake news to misguide the people".

The fake list not only showed Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge as a candidate, but had senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandis' signature. However, the makers of the list were perhaps unaware of the fact that Fernandes is unwell and is undergoing treatment in Delhi. He no longer is the authorised signatory for such lists.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said the Congress party had not yet finalised the list of candidates for the upcoming state assembly polls and that a "fake" list was in circulation to create confusion.

Each EVM consists of a control unit and a balloting unit. As of date, there are 89,206 balloting units and 76,192 control units in the state. "These units are enough for the 58,546 polling stations across 224 assembly segments in the state," Kumar added.

Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will be supplying these advanced election machinery to used in the city for the ensuing elections on a pilot basis. "The new machines, which will be used for the first time in the state, will be deployed in the constituencies of Bengaluru," Kumar said.

A total of 5,000 advanced EVMs and VVPATs which can automatically detect errors and any tampering with the vote will be used in Bengaluru for the May 12 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the state's Chief Electoral Official said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile BJP and Congress have been accusing each other of poll code violations. While Congress filed a complaint against Amit Shah for offering Rs 5 lakh to the family of a deceased BJP worker, the saffron party claimed that Siddaramaiah had given a "bribe" of Rs 2,000 each to two women who welcomed him during his visit to Chamundeshwari.

Freebies for voters worth over Rs 9.96 crore were also seized by the poll officials. About 10,500 litres of liquor valued at Rs 46 lakh was also seized by the state's Excise Department.

Since 27 March, when the Model Code of Conduct came into effect in Karnataka, Rs 4.69 crore cash has been seized in the state by the surveillance teams for violation of the poll code.

According to a report by The Times of India , reeling off statistics of Muslim population, leaders from the community say that the Muslim candidates can win as many as 28 seats with the support of a sizeable 12 percent population.

A group of Muslim leaders from Karnataka on Tuesday demanded that the Congress party reserve at least one constituency in each district of the state for Muslim candidates.

BJP president Amit Shah will tour northern parts of the state from Thursday on his sixth round of campaigning in poll-bound Karnataka, where the saffron party is going all out to unseat the Congress. During his two-day trip, the BJP chief will take part in campaigns, protests and meet Lingayat and Veerashaiva seers. Shah will hold a sit-in at Hubballi joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party MPs to protest the recent washout of the Budget Session of Parliament. Read more here.

Congress and BJP are all set to release the list of candidates on Sunday. While the Congress is expected to release its first list of candidates by 3 pm, according to sources, BJP will release its second list later on Sunday night.

"I made the comments in emotion. Let them (BJP) protest against me, but shouldn't Uttar Pradesh do something about the Unnao victim? Don't compare Yogi ADityanath to swamijis in Karnataka. They are respectable people." KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao told India Today in response to BJP's demand for an apology for his remarks on the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

"The EC squads and police authorities have so far seized cash over Rs 22.34 crore, besides 7.5kg gold valued at Rs 1.76 crore, unspecified amount of silver worth over Rs 12 lakh, 10 sarees and 160 laptops, among other items, for violation of the model code of conduct in force for the May 12 state legislative Assembly election," said CEO Sanjiv Kumar in a statement in Bengaluru. - IANS

The Election Commission's surveillance squads and police officials have seized over Rs 22 crore illegal cash since the model code of conduct was put in force on 27 March in poll-bound Karnataka, the state's Chief Electoral Officer said on Saturday.

BJP leader Prakash Khandre of Bhalki constituency in Bidar and his supporters called for a Bhalki bandh on 17 April after they suspected that Khandre would not be given a ticket. Input from Lakshmi Bhavge/101reporters

Congress MLA NA Haris from Shanti Nagar has not been given a ticket. A month before, his son Mohammad Nalapad, was arrested in connection with an assault case. - Input by Prabhu Mallikarjunan/ 101 Reporters

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday has announced its second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled for 12 May 2018.While the BJPs first list of candidates included seasoned politicians like five-time MLA S Angara, an MLA from Sullia, it has fielded new faces from other constituencies in the state. The party's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa is slated to contest from Shikaripura. ( Read more here )

The BJP's second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections on 12 May contains at least five names with a tainted past. The list, comprising 82 names, has candidates, who were acquitted in corruption, forgery, cheating and rape cases. At least two of them had spent quite some time in jail on charges of cheating and forgery.PTI ( Read more here)

Disgruntled with the party high command's first list of candidates in the upcoming Assembly Elections in Karnataka, Congress party workers took to streets on Monday to express their anger. Media visuals showed party workers chanting anti-Siddaramaiah slogans, burning tyres, effigies etc on the streets. ( Read more )

Congress MLA NA Haris from Shanti Nagar has not been given a ticket. A month before, his son Mohammad Nalapad, was arrested in connection with an assault case. - Input by Prabhu Mallikarjunan/ 101 Reporters

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday has announced its second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled for 12 May 2018.While the BJPs first list of candidates included seasoned politicians like five-time MLA S Angara, an MLA from Sullia, it has fielded new faces from other constituencies in the state. The party's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa is slated to contest from Shikaripura. ( Read more here )

The BJP's second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections on 12 May contains at least five names with a tainted past. The list, comprising 82 names, has candidates, who were acquitted in corruption, forgery, cheating and rape cases. At least two of them had spent quite some time in jail on charges of cheating and forgery.PTI ( Read more here)

Disgruntled with the party high command's first list of candidates in the upcoming Assembly Elections in Karnataka, Congress party workers took to streets on Monday to express their anger. Media visuals showed party workers chanting anti-Siddaramaiah slogans, burning tyres, effigies etc on the streets. ( Read more )

I have come to file my nomination & I am going to get a minimum lead of 30,000-40,000: BJP's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa before filing nomination from Shimoga's Shikaripura #KarnatakaElections2018 pic.twitter.com/ehwD9V8CUH

I urge you to provide an opportunity to @BSYBJP ji and he'll work towards making Karnataka no. 1 state: Shri @AmitShah https://t.co/Um6D19tMGF

While addressing a public gathering in Bagalkot, Amit Shah said that BJP will form a government in Karnataka and urged people to give an opportunity to Yeddyurappa.

Editor's Note: Voting in the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018 will take place on 12 May, with the results to be declared on 15 May. Three parties  Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular)  are in the fray. This live blog will attempt to collate major news breaks which are pertinent to the upcoming elections and get crucial information related to the state Assembly election on one page.

Karnataka Assembly polls 2018 Latest Updates: Congress party sources say that a final decision on the first list of candidates is only likely to come by 12 April. Meanwhile, BJP president Amit Shah will tour northern parts of the state from Thursday on his sixth round of campaigning in poll-bound Karnataka, where the saffron party is going all out to unseat the Congress.

BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa appeared unfazed despite Lingayat seers lending support to the Congress. He said that the community members remained firmly behind BJP and "only one or two swami jis" seem to have said such a thing. Meanwhile the Congress party has expressed confidence that Siddaramaiah will get a second run as Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa said that the party could release its second list of candidates by 11 April.

Yeddyurappa, will contest from Shikaripura Assembly constituency, the party's Central Election Committee announced on Sunday, as it released a list of 72 candidates for the high-stake contest.

Veteran state leaders Jagadish Shettar and KS Eswarappa will contest from Hubli Dharwad Central and Shimoga Assembly seats, respectively, it said. The BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, met earlier tonight to finalise the candidates for the polls.

Senior party leader JP Nadda released the list of 72 candidates following the committee's meeting. The BJP has also fielded its Lok Sabha MP B Sriramulu in the polls. The meeting, official sources said, delineated on probable candidates for over 140 seats and the names of remaining candidates are likely to be announced soon.

The elections to the 225-seat assembly are scheduled for 12 May. The BJP is pulling out all the stops to oust the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government from Karnataka, the only big state where the opposition party is in power.
BJP party leaders and workers are upset over the selection of people who have migrated from other parties in at least three seats for the 2018 Karnataka election.

The BJP on Sunday released its first list of 72 candidates in poll-bound Karnataka. The state will vote for representatives to its 224 assembly seats on 12 May.

The BJP state unit received the list with mixed reactions. Party leaders and workers are upset over the selection of people who have migrated from other parties in at least three seats  Chickpet in Bengaluru, Afzalpur in Kalaburgi district, and Basavakalyan in Bidar district.

Party workers slammed the national leadership for ignoring the recommendations of the district-level core committees and compromising on internal democracy. The cadres are especially shocked over the choice of Malikayya Guttedar, who switched over from the Congress just a week ago, in Afzalpur. There are more things than just power and money... a party member who toiled for the party for long years has been sidelined to make way for Guttedar, which is nothing but an autocratic tendency (of the BJP), said Dharmaiah Nayak, a BJP leader in Kalaburgi.

Most of the constituencies included in the first list fall in the heartland of the Lingayat-Veerashaiva communities, which witnessed clashes recently after the state government approved a separate religion status to Lingayats. But the BJP has gained ground in the region by ignoring all class and community considerations while naming candidates.

The move also shocked the Congress. It is a clever move by the BJP, which is underplaying the communal angle because its using BS Yeddyurappa as a trump card among Lingayats and Veerashaivas. Two more lists are expected and those will also include several pockets where the two communities reside, said professor Muzaffar Assadi, head of the postgraduate department of Political Science at University of Mysore.

The first list also included sitting MLAs in 10 of 18 constituencies in Belagavi. In Kudachi, the BJP has fielded P Rajeev, who contested for Sriramalus BSR Congress in the last election where he had defeated Congress candidate Shyam Ghatage with a huge margin. He joined the BJP about a year ago.

The same thing has happened in Bailhongal constituency. Here, the party has named Dr Vishvanath Patil, who had followed BJP's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa from the BJP to the KJP and back to the saffron party. Patil had contested the 2014 election as a KJP candidate from Bailhongal and won. Former Bailhongal MLA, BJP leader Jagadish Metgud expressed his displeasure over the choice.

In Haveri district, former minister and sitting MLA Basavaraj Bommai has been named in Shiggavi-Savanur, MLA UB Bankar in Hirekerur, and former minister CM Udasi in Hanagal constituency. All three are followers of Yeddyurappa: Banakar was elected from the KJP in the last election while Udasi and Bommai are dominant leaders in north Karnataka. Udasi also had the PWD portfolio during Yeddyurappas tenure as chief minister. Both will get Cabinet berths again if Yeddyurappa comes to power in this election. BJP MLA Somanna Bevinamarad, a strong candidate from Shiggavi-Savanur, has declared he will contest as a rebel candidate. Candidates of three other constituencies  Haveri (SC), Byadagi, and Ranebennur  will be announced later.

All sitting MLAs get tickets in Bengaluru but a couple of surprises thrown up

Of the 28 seats in Bengaluru city, the names of 16 BJP candidates have been announced in the first list. The immediate aftermath of this was a city spokesperson tendering his resignation. An upset NR Ramesh, a corporator who was promised the Chickpet Assembly seat, submitted his resignation amid high drama as one of his supporters attempted suicide.

This apart, all the sitting MLAs in Bengaluru have retained their seats. The BJP currently holds 12 seats, three each in the four Lok Sabha constituencies of Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Bengaluru Central, and Bengaluru Rural. Among the sitting MLAs who were renominated are SR Vishwanath from Yelahanka, S Muniraju from Dasarahalli, Dr CN Ashwathnarayan from Malleswaram, YA Narayanaswamy from Hebbal, S Raghu from CV Raman Nagar (SC), Aravind Limbavali from Mahadevapura (SC), former minister S Suresh Kumar from Rajaji Nagar, Ravi Subramanya from Basavanagudi, former deputy chief minister R Ashoka from Padmanabhanagar, BN Vijayakumar from Jayanagar, Satish Reddy from Bommanahalli, and M Krishnappa from Bengaluru South.

A surprise renomination has been Uday Garudachar who lost from Chickpet in the 2013 Assembly polls. He is the son of celebrated police officer BN Garudachar and has real estate interests  including the upmarket Garuda Mall. His Maverick Holdings courted controversy because of delays in the construction of flats for the economically weaker sections in Ejipura.

A new candidate, PM Muniraju Gowda, has been named from Rajarajeshwari Nagar. He had contested and lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Bengaluru Rural. Another inclusion has been member of legislative council V Somanna, who has been allotted the Govindaraja Nagar seat. The candidate for Anekal, A Narayanaswamy, has been a former minister in the BJP government.

There is no doubt that the sitting BJP MLAs have worked for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) election in 2015 and helped the party get 101 of the 198 seats, despite a Congress government being in place in Karnataka and losing 20 seats from the earlier tally. However, the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) cobbled together a majority as even MLAs, MLCs, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs votes are counted in the final tally. All this happened even as the BJP wrested all three city MP seats in the Rajya Sabha  represented by Union ministers DV Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North), Ananth Kumar (Bengaluru South), and PC Mohan (Bengaluru Central).

Citizens unite offline and on social media to take MLAs to task

This time, some of the sitting BJP MLAs such as Mahadevapuras Aravind Limbavali and CV Raman Nagars S Raghu (both two-term MLAs) are facing anti-incumbency, especially from vocal social media, civic groups and resident welfare associations.

A few hours before the seats were announced on Sunday, Limbavali had tweeted from @bjparvind, his official handle: Mahadevapura on top of the list in Infrastructure Development; The roads of Mahadevapura have seen a tremendous development in the last decade. Moreover, Mahadevapura constituency has seen decent roads, making Mahadevapura a well connected area.

His tweet was met with much derision with people trolling him with tweets like: You got to be kidding, Are you joking Mr, Maybe he is talking about Mahadevapura in some parallel universe. Whitefield Rising (WFR), a civic group, tweeted: Bad roads, even worse traffic, polluted waters and smoke filled air. Welcome to our world. WFR has been baiting the MLA for a long time and has threatened that the one lakh strong community in Whitefield will vote against him in a constituency with five lakh plus voters.

Has to be cause I aint seen no development. Bad roads, even worse traffic, polluted waters and smoke filled air. Welcome to our world!  Whitefield Rising (@WFRising) April 7, 2018

S Raghu too has been at the receiving end of criticism by IChangeIndiranagar, a federation of residents welfare associations from the area, which, a couple of days ago, decided to raise money on a crowdfunding site to fight in court against rampant commercialisation in the area.

Whether the average Bengalureans sympathy stays with the BJP or the party gets a jolt a year ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election remains to be seen.

Members of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters, contributed to this report
Congress is likely going to release its first list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly election on Tuesday, a day after the Congress screening committee met in New Delhi to finalise the party's candidates.

Congress is likely to release its first list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly election on Tuesday, a day after the Congress screening committee met in New Delhi to finalise the party's candidates.

According to The Times of India, the first list will comprise about 70-80 candidates, including prominent faces in the party and a dozen of their relatives. Though the party is likely to field all sitting MLAs, sources said they may exclude 5-6 MLAs, including Manohar Tahsildar (Hangal), BB Chimmankatti (Badami) and S Jayanna (Kollegal). Those left out may have been excluded due to age-related health issues, a party source said.

The screening committee did not want to interfere with the party's dynasty politics. Some names on the list could include Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiahs son Yathindra, Shamanur Shivshankarappas son SS Mallikarjuna and HC Mahadevappas son Sunil Bose.

The Congress screening committee met in Delhi on Monday, the same day the BJP released its first list of 72 candidates for the Karnataka polls.

Names of candidates, including the sitting 122 legislators, who have no challengers in their constituencies have been cleared, a party source informed The New Indian Express. The report also mentioned that the screening committee on Monday cleared the names of undisputed candidates for 130 constituencies.

"The screening committee is going through the applications to shortlist the candidates for the state Assembly elections. The list will be submitted to the party's Central Election Committee by Tuesday to finalise the names by 13 April," state party spokesman Ravi Gowda told IANS in Bengaluru.

Party President Rahul Gandhi had on 25 February set up a 43-member state election committee headed by Parameshwara to recommend names to the central committee for the selection of the candidates. The party's state leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, SR Patil, KJ George, DK Shivakumar, Ramalinga Reddy and Dinesh Gundu Rao have participated in the meeting, which will resume on Tuesday.

The screening committee is headed by senior leader Madhusudan Mistry, with party MPs Tamradhwaj Sahu and Gaurav Gogoi as its members.

General Secretary and state in-charge KC Venugopal is an ex-officio member of the committee along with state unit president G Parameshwara and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"The party's central election committee will meet on Wednesday and Thursday too to finalise all the 224 candidates," added Gowda.

With inputs from agencies

Click here to follow detailed coverage of the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018
BJP complained to the state poll panel's chief that the police were acting like the ruling Congress' 'puppet,' harassing and implicating its party workers in criminal cases in the run-up to the Assembly polls

Bengaluru: The BJP on Tuesday complained to the state poll panel's chief that the police were acting like the ruling Congress' "puppet," harassing and implicating its party workers in criminal cases in the run-up to the 12 May Assembly polls.

In its memorandum to Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar, the saffron party also complained of 'rigid and arbitrary" interpretation of the model code by poll panel's officials and said it was creating problems for them.

A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ananth Kumar and party general secretary P Muralidhar Rao, met CEC and submitted the party's memorandum to him.

Accusing police of harassing BJP workers and its others sympathisers, the memorandum said false cases were being lodged against them.

"The police department is acting as a puppet of the ruling Congress party, arresting several right-wing activists. No action has been taken against the biased officials," it said.

The BJP petition also referred to the implementation of the election code of conduct with "rigid and arbitrary interpretation."

It said the "Mushti Dhaanya" programme (collecting of fistful of food grains from farmers household), aimed at showing solidarity with farmers in distress, covering all 224 Assembly constituencies, was to conclude with sharing food with them at Yeddyurappa's residence.

The government officials, however, restricted the party leaders from holding the event.

The programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally recently.

"The programme had begun much before the announcement of elections. However, the Election Commission officials, under the guise of Model Code of Conduct, are restricting farmers from reaching the house of Yeddyurappa.

"It is beyond our imagination why the EC is creating obstructions to the smooth conduct of the in-house programme," the memorandum said.

It also alleged that officials were preventing party workers from holding bike rally, though BJP is a cadre-based party having a large base of workers who voluntarily want to participate in the programmes.

The party sources said the CEO assured the leaders that he would look into their grievances.

Click here to follow detailed coverage of the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018
With regional parties looking to ensure unity to take on the BJP, KCR's moves will only increase the trust deficit. For someone who aimed to lead the Federal Front, that will not be good news.

In March, K Chandrasekhar Rao dramatically unveiled his plan to float a Third Front, a coalition of regional satraps. He gave expression to resentment among states that too many powers are vested in the Centre, giving them little elbow room. The Telangana chief minister was peeved with having to constantly request Delhi for funds for different projects, making it a very unequal relationship. KCR was batting for a new form of cooperative federalism which envisages limited powers to the Centre and maximum powers to the states.

KCR followed it up with a high-profile visit to Kolkata to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. His decision to send his relative Santhosh Kumar to the Rajya Sabha was also seen as ensuring a trusted aide will be his point person in New Delhi, to facilitate his national ambitions.

Which is why KCR's decision not to send his finance minister to Thiruvananthapuram to attend a conclave of southern finance ministers on Tuesday has raised eyebrows. The meeting came on the back of Siddaramaiah, Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan and DMK leader MK Stalin expressing their displeasure at the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission. Their argument was that the southern states would be penalised for doing better on the population control front, as the 2011 population census will reflect. The meeting was attended by economists as well to give it the veneer of a non-political conclave.

States such as Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra feel more funds are devolved to the northern states at the cost of those in the Peninsula. Between 1971 and 2011, while the population in south India went up 85 percent, the BIMARU states in north India (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) went up by 144 percent. This will affect how funds are allocated if only the 2011 census is taken into account. Already in terms of every rupee it gave to the Centre between 2014-17, the south got back 52 paise while the north Indian states got Rs 3.25

Telangana was not the only one to stay away. Tamil Nadu finance minister O Panneerselvam too gave the meeting a miss. This was deeply ironic because according to Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac, if the 2011 population census is used as a reference, his state will lose Rs 20,000 crore between 2020-21 and 2024-25 while Tamil Nadu will lose Rs 40,000 crore.

KCR's decision to stay away was both political and strategic. According to a back of the envelope calculation by the Telangana finance ministry, the state expects to gain marginally even if the 2011 census is taken into account because of other parameters that will come into play. So the government found no rationale for Telangana to join the pressure group.

"The chief minister feels that there are multiple fora and opportunities for the state to voice its concerns and there is no need to do it at the conclave of south finance ministers", a senior bureaucrat in the finance ministry said. "One such meeting was held by the 15th Finance commission in Hyderabad on 9 February, where we put forth our concerns".

Sources say, more importantly, KCR was not convinced this was a North-South issue as the conclave sought to project. The apprehension was that this was turning into an anti-BJP club, more political than pure economics. KCR's domestic concern is also that this south India pressure group will strengthen the Congress hand given that both Karnataka and Puducherry are ruled by the party. That won't be good news for KCR since his principal rival in Telangana is the Congress.

Speaking in the Telangana Assembly earlier this month, KCR had spoken out against the North-South rhetoric: "Some states are talking about North-South divide and the Centre showing discrimination towards southern states. I do not encourage such things. This is not good for the nation or national integration or national interest. The Centre should take measures to prevent these kind of situations in the future".

Even though Telangana has other concerns, it is significant that it chose not to rub shoulders with its neighbours to make its point. A finance ministry official points out that external borrowings now come with too many conditionalities imposed by the Centre. Telangana feels the decision on how the money should be spent should be left to the democratically elected state government instead of New Delhi dictating terms.

KCR's decision has left a lot many confused. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi's decision to keep up the protests in Lok Sabha, along with the AIADMK, thereby ensuring the speaker could not take up the no-trust vote moved by the YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam, raised suspicions about their intent. It was felt that their deed was in effect, bailing out the BJP government.

With regional parties looking to ensure unity to take on the BJP, KCR's moves in the past two weeks will only increase the trust deficit. For someone who aimed to lead the Federal Front, that will not be good news.
Santosh Hegde slammed the Siddaramaiah government's decision to recommend the Centre of granting religious minority tag to Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community, saying the government has no business to recognise any community as a religion

Bengaluru: Former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde on Tuesday slammed the Siddaramaiah government's decision to recommend to the Centre, grant of religious minority tag to Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community, saying the government has no business to recognise any community as a religion.

In a scathing write-up, which has gone viral in the social media, Hegde, a former Karnataka Lokayukta, sought to know from Siddaramaiah "when he would divide himself as Sidda and Ramaiah."

"Sir, I am not a politician. I am not interested in who will win the next elections, but sir where will politics stop dividing us ordinary people?" he said in a poser to the chief minister.

Hegde also queried if Siddaramaiah would recognise either Digambar or Shwetambar as backwards, Shias or Sunnis as separate religions for recognition as backward, or Protestants or Roman Catholics as separate religions for offering backward status.

"Or which of left or right SC's as more backwards. Or which of Bunts or Nadavas as a different religion and amongst them who is more backward and among Brahmins who will it be Vaishnavas or Shiva's or will you divide Siddaramaiah to Sidda and Ramaiah?"

Speaking to PTI, Hegde said he would agree if the community wants itself to divide, but that the government had no business to recognise any community as a religion.

"We are having a government under the constitution of India, a secular government. No political party, no government has any business to interfere in the internal affairs of any community," Hegde said.

In a sarcastic remark to the chief minister, Hegde sought to know if a chief minister can interfere between a husband and wife.

"Can a chief minister say between husband and wife you divorce him and come and I will find a better groom for you? Yes, I am very much hurt... that's why I wrote. I have been a judge at the Supreme Court. I know my limitations. How low can you get in?" asked Hegde.

In a major political move ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls, the state cabinet on Monday decided to recommend to the Centre according religion status to the numerically strong Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.

The move was seen as an attempt by the Siddaramaiah government to cut into the vote bank of BJP, as Lingayats/Veerashaivas are considered its traditional supporters.
In Champaran, the renewed bonhomie between Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar, evident from their meeting, has loaded political significance ahead of 2019.

Exactly a year ago, when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had launched the year-long celebrations to commemorate 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah, he was leading the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) in the state with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.

Pictures of Nitish holding a padyatra with the then Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and other Congress ministers at the opening ceremony had made to the front pages of several newspapers in Bihar. Back then, Nitish was considered as the most credible challenger among Opposition ranks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A year later, at the closing ceremony of the year-long program, he sat on the dais in Champaran both as official host and an alliance partner to the Narendra Modi-led NDA. The grand event in Champaran stands as mute witness to the fact that politics is a dynamic business, where there are no permanent friends or enemies.

The program also stood testimony to the lost and found friendship between Modi and Nitish. The turn of events in Champaran showed that both the prime minister and chief minister had been a bit innovative in deciding the proceedings of the function  giving the contemporary developmental narrative to an event which otherwise could have remained restricted to eulogising a part of history.

So, if in 1917-18, Mahatma Gandhi led the indigo satyagrahis (non-violent protestors), Modi in 2018 was trying to motivate the vast mass of 'swachhagrahis' (cleanliness volunteers) to make new India clean and open-defecation free.

The renewed bonhomie between the two leaders was evident since the time Modi landed at Patna airport and then at Champaran, Motihari  both on and off the dais. It should also be noted that Modi's trip to Bihar and his decision to spend almost the entire day with Nitish has its own loaded political significance.

This was Modi's first visit to the state after reports of latent tension between Nitish's JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP on the one hand and BJP on the other  post the Ramnavami communal clashes in parts of the state. Senior BJP leader and union minister Ashwini Choubey's son Arijit was booked during the communal clash in Bhagalpur. There had also been no friendly statement or counter-statement exchanged between union minister Giriraj Singh (BJP) and Ram Vilas Paswans son Chirag Paswan on the origin and escalation of communal tension in the border districts of Katihar, Kishanganj and Araria.

On Tuesday, to exude camaraderie and unity in purpose and intent, all central ministers from Bihar from BJP and NDA were present at all the official functions.

Speaking ahead of Modi, Nitish used Mahatma Gandhi's commitment to peace and harmony to convey a message to his allies in the BJP, at least a section of those present on the dais. He said, "... from this land of Champaram, we are taking a resolve for cleanliness. We should also take a resolve to establish peace and harmony. We should respect each other, irrespective of which religion we follow or which community we belong to. The country can progress only with love and mutual respect for each other. The country can't progress if there is tension or confrontation. We have to be mindful of that."

On his part, Modi praised Nitish's administrative acumen and patience: "On this occasion, I want to hail Nitishji's patience and good governance... the way he is fighting against the corrupt and anti-social elements in Bihar, it's not an easy thing to do. He has full support from the Centre in his fight against the corrupt and his drive for cleanliness. The NDA government is working on the Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas mantra," Modi said.

Modi didn't name RJD directly in his speech but his references to the "corrupt and anti-social" elements in Bihar were not hard to decipher.

During his visit, the prime minister also inaugurated the Madhepura Electric Rail Locomotive factory, seen as an important milestone to forward the development narrative in Bihar. The factory was first announced when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister. Madhepura, called a bastion of Gope (Yadavas), had been represented by Lalu, Sharad Yadav and Pappu Yadav. But the project could never take off during the UPA regime.

Apart from making this locomotive factory functional during his reign, Modi took pride in announcing that it had produced one of the most powerful rail engines in the world  a 12,000+ horsepower capacity electric locomotive.

After this, several other developmental projects were also inaugurated or their foundation stones were laid  doubling of the Muzaffarpur-Sagauli (100.6km) and Sugauli-Valmikinagar (109.7km) railway tracks; the Champaran Humsafar Express between Katihar and Old Delhi was flagged off; the foundation stones for four sewerage projects worth around Rs 1,111 crore were laid.

The four plants  along with 29 other ongoing projects in Bihar under the Namami Gange scheme  once completed, will leave no untreated sewage water from Patna flowing into the Ganga. Sewer lines and sewage treatment remains one of the critical issues in Patna and the rest of the state. Then, a project to make villages around Ganga open-defecation free was also announced.

The development pitch for the state on show in Champaran is angled to build a narrative that Modi and Nitish together are ushering 'vikas' (development) in the state.
O Panneerselvam, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will skip the South Indian Finance Ministers conference called by Kerala government in Thiruvanthapuram.

Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will skip the South Indian Finance Ministers conference called by Kerala government on Tuesday in Thiruvanthapuram, said media reports. Confirming the development, a source told The News Minute that the meeting "was never part of his schedule. The Tamil Nadu government may send a bureaucrat to represent the state.

The AIADMK decided against sending Panneerselvam as the meeting was called by Kerala's LDF government and will be attended by governments which are against the Modi government at the Centre, reported DNA. A senior AIADMK leader said, "We have been maintaining a cordial relationship with the Centre. We are against the changes made in the Terms of Reference (ToR) and we have opposed it. We will continue to voice our opposition without joining any other groupings."

A Kerala government official told IANS that the information they got is that an official delegation from Tamil Nadu would be attending and almost all the Finance Ministers of the southern states, as well as that of Goa, have confirmed participation. He said the conference will discuss on the major issues faced by the southern states over the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission that would determine the share of states in the Central government's tax revenue.

The main contention of the Southern states is the usage of 2011 Census data as the reference point as against the 1971 data which would affect the Southern states that had controlled their population in the overall interests of the nation.

Meanwhile PMK leader S Ramadoss said Panneerselvam should participate in the conference and register Tamil Nadu's opposition to the ToR. By skipping the conference, the Tamil Nadu government fears the Central government will take note of its stand, he said, adding that the state would pledge its other rights with the Central government.

With inputs from IANS
Not for nothing then, Paswan is touted as India's most reliable weathervane, for the alliance which he joins almost always emerges as the winner.

Married couples tend to get afflicted by what psychologists call the seven-year itch, which is said to unduly strain their togetherness in the seventh year of their tying the knot. They either separate or divorce or cuckold their partners. Or they give a new footing to their relationship.

Union Cabinet Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, however, suffers from a five-year itch, because of which he has the distinction of serving each of India's last five prime ministers. Since 1996, he has been part of every Union Cabinet, except for the United Progressive Alliance-II in 2009. Not for nothing then, Paswan is touted as India's most reliable weathervane, for the alliance which he joins almost always emerges as the winner.

After having been mostly silent for nearly four years from May 2014, which was when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, Paswan has begun to speak as only he can. It follows a format - he lavishes praise on Modi, predicts he will return to power, and gratuitously offers suggestions to the BJP for scaling new heights of power. None in the BJP can fault Paswan, so correct he is in his articulation.

Yet, the BJP should feel nervous because Paswan's suggestions go against its ideological essence. For instance, over the last one month, he has repeatedly spoken about the BJP "suffering" from the popular perception that it is anti-minority (read Muslim). For a politician as savvy as Paswan, he can't but be aware that the BJP has deliberately opted for an anti-Muslim image to expand its Hindu vote-base.

His critical analysis of the BJP's image, therefore, becomes a coded message to its bosses. It can be read thus: "You all are growing because of your anti-Muslim image, but I am being adversely affected." Paswan is impacted because his support base in Bihar comprises Dalits and a segment of Muslims. The rash of riots in the state, known to have been triggered by Hindutva outfits, is bound to alienate Paswan's Muslim supporters from him.

Paswan's recent interview to Hindustan Times was yet another incontrovertible proof that the five-year itch has beset Paswan. After lauding Modi for getting the government to file a review petition in the Supreme Court on its recent judgement on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, he returned to harping on the BJP's image problem. The party, Paswan said, is perceived to be insensitive to Dalits. Worse, it has just a year to change its image, he said.

How? He listed a slew of proposals that could persuade young Dalits see the BJP in a new light - create model Dalit villages, grant reservation to them in the private sector, provide land to the landless among them, and establish an all-India judicial service to ensure they are represented in the judiciary. Asking the BJP to adopt all these measures - barring the establishment of model villages - is tantamount to asking the BJP to risk the wrath of the upper castes, the party's mainstay.

From here on, it will all depend on whether Paswan's five-year itch subsides or intensifies. It will subside in case the BJP reins the Hindutva hotheads from attacking Dalits, desecrating Ambedkar's statues, and triggering communal tension in Bihar. But this is unlikely to happen - if anything, the closer India inches to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the more frequent the social conflict will become.

Paswan's five-year itch is designed to intensify incrementally. His rhetoric will become a bit sharper in case the BJP fails to win Karnataka. The itch will turn for the worse if the BJP also loses two of the three states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh - in the Assembly elections of December. It is possible Paswan could then break away from the NDA.

But he will not hurry into choosing his side. A veteran who has witnessed the nation's mood change overnight, he might also wait till the election dates are announced to decide which ship - NDA, UPA or the Third Front - will help further the interests of his party - the Lok Janshakti Party.

For such an eventuality, the ground must be prepared in advance. It is very likely that Paswan will turn the proposals he listed in the Hindustan Times interview into his charter of demands. Impossible as it would be for the BJP to accept it, Paswan will cite that as a justification to quit the BJP-led alliance. Hindutva supporters will condemn him, in contrast to the jubilation with which they greeted his joining the NDA in 2014. But liberals will hail Paswan for remembering the tenets of secularism and ditching the NDA.

Unlike, say, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh, who is known to swing from one alliance to another, Paswan is always excused for his low fidelity quotient, for keeping company of rightwing nationalists for five years and then joining the left-liberals for another five. For instance, in 2003, Paswan quit the NDA over the 2002 Gujarat riots to join the UPA camp. Ten years later, he was trumpeting Modi's development model as a panacea for India's poverty.

Paswan is always excused because we all know his five-year itch is also a consequence of India's perverse political culture. Here is a veteran politician who can't dare think of contesting from a general seat. That is because the upper castes are unlikely to vote for him because he is a Dalit. He can't grow beyond a point in Bihar because its Dalits are not as assertive as their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh nor as numerous nor as prosperous, relatively speaking. Since Dalits can't provide protection to Muslims, the most important factor behind their voting decision, Pawan enjoys their goodwill that can never turn into a tide of support for him unless he aligns with a party representing a dominant social group.

So to remain effective, to have a bargaining power for himself and his community, he must change his allies to retain his relevance and clout. He has to ensure that not only does he end up on the losing side, but also that he is not taken for a ride. To end up on the losing side is to court oblivion for five years, a fate that befell Paswan in 2009.

That year he and Lalu combined to fight the BJP and the Congress in a triangular contest in Bihar. The NDA walked away with as many 32 out Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats. Much to his shock, Paswan was vanquished. It cost him a berth in the 2009 ministry of Manmohan Singh, whose party - the Congress - performed disastrously in Bihar but won handsomely elsewhere to form the government at the Centre.

Paswan did not think the UPA would lose in 2009. But the Congress, in its customary display of arrogance, demanded more Lok Sabha seats in Bihar than it deserved. It could only have been at Paswan and Lalu's expense. They thought they together could win a large chunk of seats in Bihar and then bargain hard for high-profile portfolios for themselves. Presumably, Paswan did not forget the lesson of 2009 while choosing his side in 2014.

Yet, to his credit, he waited and waited in 2014, hoping that the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal combine would allocate his party a number of seats that would be in consonance with his stature and his base. No such offer came. He feared he was being made to wait so that he exhausted the option of joining the NDA and would then have to accept a paltry number of seats as a fait accompli. So Paswan jumped ship at the offer of a sweet deal from the BJP.

When the seven-year itch surfaces in married couples, they are most likely to part ways when one of them has a suitor waiting on the sidelines. This is as true of Paswan. For instance, former minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who is considered close to Lalu, recently said that Paswan would align with the RJD before the 2019 elections. For a good measure, Singh pointed out, "When I had earlier claimed that Jitan Ram Manjhi would quit the NDA to join our alliance, there were denials and ridicule, but I stood vindicated."

Paswan, on his part, was contemptuously dismissive of Singh's prediction. Yet the BJP and Modi should worry, for his five-year itch has surfaced and there is a suitor waiting patiently for him. Paswan will remain in the NDA as long as the BJP continues to win.
The results of all polls that have taken place after the 2014 Lok Sabha election indicate that whenever the Narendra Modi-led BJP decides to hold the parliamentary elections, it's going to lose seats

This piece is not primarily about the recently concluded by-elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Nor, in fact, is it about the various Assembly by-elections and elections and parliamentary by-elections held in various states since this Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in May 2014. It is primarily about the next round of parliamentary elections, slated to be held a little over a year from now (though the possibility of it being brought forward exists) and secondarily the major Assembly elections that are to be held this year: in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

A couple of caveats are in order at the outset. First, though the focus is on the approaching elections, fairly extensive space will be dedicated to what has happened as background, without which the rest of this analytical excursion and prognostications will be incomprehensible. Second, this political commentator/observer is neither a psephologist nor a pollster, thus, what will appear in this article is personal analysis, albeit one informed by fact and, hopefully, a simulacrum of logic.

Lets begin with the latest round of by-elections, which no one will doubt is extremely significant. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP lost two parliamentary seats: Gorakhpur, held by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath (and the party for close to a quarter of a century); and Phulpur, held by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. Both the losses were incomprehensible to the party and, by and large, the commentariat.

Three causes were adduced, all specious, partial or vacuously true. First, it was argued that the low turnout, compared to 2014, was a major factor; second, most people, especially party functionaries, argued that it was the consolidation of the votes of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, not anticipated by BJP, which resulted in the fiasco; and, third, as a corollary, the consolidation of the Muslim vote (as far as BJP leaders go almost in an accusatory tone).

In Gorakhpur, the turnout fell by about 8 percent and in Phulpur by 12 percent. The main reason being attributed is an apathetic campaign not overseen by party president Amit Shah or much involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi but left to Chief Minister Adityanaths devices. That could be true; it could also be the case that the Uttar Pradesh governments performance and the BJPs general political and policy trajectories did not enthuse voters to turn up at the booths.

Similarly, as the pundits have noted, arithmetically adding Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party votes would not have overturned the huge margins achieved in 2014, when BJP polled almost 550,000 votes in Gorakhpur and 500,000 in Phulpur. The corresponding figures for Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party put together were 360,000 and 400,000. Given that Samajwadi Party polled correspondingly 456,513 and 342,922 votes this time, arithmetically the BJP should have cruised. Clearly, a significant section of BJP votes swung: it would not be a stretch to hypothesise that the non-Jatav Dalits and non-Yadav OBCs switched their allegiance, given BJPs attitude to especially the former, and especially in Uttar Pradesh.

Given an anti-BJP Dalit consolidation is happening on the ground, this is no surprise. Finally, a no-brainer: with Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party coming together an anti-BJP Muslim consolidation is something by way of a vacuous truth.

The Bihar results went more by the form book: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), shorn of the politically opportunistic baggage that goes by the name of Nitish Kumar, won the Araria parliamentary seat by a reduced margin, giving the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) no quarters, and the Jehanabad Assembly seat by an increased margin.

The BJP retained the Bhabua Assembly seat. Not too many theories have been doing the rounds in the Bihar case, except for the patently fatuous one that RJD leader Lalu Prasads incarceration generated a sympathy wave. To this writers way of thinking, its certainly possible that a lot of people in Bihar, especially the OBCs and extremely backward castes (EBCs) were seriously put off by the chief ministers repudiation of the mandate given to the alliance of Rashtirya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) alliance and the latters more than obviously orchestrated reconciliation with BJP. That, for Kumar, it was political suicide, is really his problem.

But let us also go back a bit  to election and by-election results since 2016 mainly, by which time Modi and his government had had some time to establish their bona fides, although I am putting in some additional data for greater contextual depth. First, let us take a look at the results of the state Assembly elections in the following table.

Table 1

Year State/Union Territory Winning Party 2014 Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra, J&K BJP in each state 2015 Bihar RJD-JD-U alliance, Delhi Aam Aadmi Party 2016 Assam BJP West Bengal Trinamool Congress Kerala Left Front Puducherry Congress Tamil Nadu AIADMK 2017 Goa BJP Gujarat BJP Himachal Pradesh Manipur BJP Punjab BJP, with BJP as an adjunct Uttarakhand Congress Uttar Pradesh, BJP BJP 2018 Meghalaya Alliance, with BJP as an adjunct Nagaland Alliance, with BJP as an adjunct Tripura BJP

One thing is obvious from this table: though the BJPs winning streak has only slightly been diluted  Bihar, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu  the character of BJPs victories has changed over time, quite apart from the fact that other than in Bihar and Delhi, it didnt have the slightest glimmer, to begin with. Just after storming to power with a single-party majority for the first time in 30 years, electoral matters began proceeding smoothly.

Thus, 2016 onwards, it won 10 out of 14 state elections. But the quality of the victories, the tactics used and the partys role in the governments that followed have become skewed. Of the 10 states won, only four count as significant: Uttar Pradesh most obviously; Tripura, because it was a Left bastion no one believed would be swept away the way it was; Assam, because it is the gateway to the North East and BJP has been trying to crack it for a while; and Gujarat, because it is Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state, which set the template for his particular brand of governance, with a subsequent accent on development and taking credit for developmental achievements when none was due (like developing Gujarat, which was one of the most developed states anyway under various, mostly Congress, regimes).

But then, Gujarat was not an unqualified victory, which is not to suggest that somehow BJP lost morally even though they won electorally. The bottom line is it won and formed a government, but that does not hide certain important indicators. Shah had claimed in the run-up to the elections, after its sundry attempts at subverting the Opposition, including the barely constitutional gambit of having the Election Commission postpone the announcement of dates even after notifying the elections so that the government could announce freebies for certain sections of voters, that it would win 150 seats. At least one exit poll put the figure at 116; almost all other pollsters predicted that the ruling party would increase its tally. In the event, the party got only 99 seats: there was a considerable shock and awe.

Two things the Oppositions unexpected showing proved, inter alia, were that Congress had started getting its act together and that the alliance with mass movements  mainly Hardik Patels Patidar movement and Jignesh Mevanis Dalit mobilisation could work.

More to the point, Gujarat showed that time has come when genuine mass movements can cross the border into the realm of elections and make a difference in the formation and conduct of governments (a sort of nav nirman redux, not really replicated in about half a century.

The other victories were hardly BJP victories, as the party piggy-backed on local formations, which usually prefer to ally with the party at the Centre, especially one with highly developed financial muscle: thus, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Nagaland. Goa was a similar case.

Before getting to the nub, lets take a look at another set of statistics, set out in the following table, relating to parliamentary by-elections, which are randomly selective and significant; for instance, the All India Trinamool Congress winning a by-election in West Bengal is not significant.

Table 2

Year Constituency/State Winning party 2016 Shahdol/Madhya Pradesh BJP, retained 2017 Chitrakoot/Madhya Pradesh Congress, retained Ater/Madhya Pradesh Congress, retained 2018 Gorakhpur/Uttar Pradesh SP, wrested from BJP Phulpur/Uttar Pradesh Araria/Bihar SP, wrested from BJP RJD, retained Ajmer/Rajasthan Ajmer/Rajasthan INC, wrested from BJP INC, wrested from BJP

So, let me sum up, BJP has made no gains in by-elections in key states; in fact, in the last three years, it has lost seats in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, while a status quo seems to prevail in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. This is not a comprehensive list, which would show that BJPs strength in the Lok Sabha (excluding the nominated members) has gone down from 282 to 273. This means that their single-party majority will be skating on thin ice until the parliamentary elections are held, which is scheduled about a year from now.

More trouble is brewing for BJP. The Telugu Desam Party has quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and tabled, following the YSR Congress, a no-confidence motion against the government. The motion is symbolic because NDA still has the numbers to sail through it  around 315.

The Shiv Sena with 18 seats has been restive for a while, sniping at BJP on a regular basis in its mouthpiece, Saamana, and other public platforms. It has also declared its intention to contest the 2019 parliamentary and simultaneous Assembly elections solo, but its members remain in the Union and the state council of ministers. With Shiv Sena, its difficult to figure out what exactly is going on, so this may just be a bargaining ploy. But it has clearly hinted it might abstain during a no-confidence vote, prompting Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to meet a Sena MP in camera to seek support during a no-trust vote.

Bihars Lok Janshakti Party, headed by Dalit leader and Cabinet minister Ram Vilas Paswan, which has six seats in the lower house is also not in a happy frame of mind. One of its MPs expressed concern about BJPs spate of by-election losses. A couple of smaller allies, including Bihar EBC leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, have also quit. All NDA allies have one complaint in common: that the ruling party ignores them, does not hold consultations with them and some feel that the BJP leadership treats them with disrespect.

It is in this context that the four impending state elections this year and, if schedules are adhered to, the parliamentary elections next year must be viewed. Karnataka will hold elections in a month or so. Most opinion polls suggest that the likely result is a hung Assembly, so the Janata Dal (Secular), predicted to make major gains, will get to pull the strings. At the end of the year, Rajasthan is almost certain to witness a regime change, given the by-election results, the chief ministers unpopularity even within her own party, a curious style of governance, and the fact that Congress organisation there has begun to cohere.

Madhya Pradesh will also hold elections at the end of the year. The results at this point are too close to call, but while Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has some kind of a track record, factors like the Vyapam scam and anti-incumbency may complicate the issue. But then the Congress organisation in the state is not in great shape either.

BJP has a greater chance of retaining Chhattisgarh, given Chief Minister Raman Singhs popularity, but there is no BJP wave and we must remember that in 2013 Congress gave Singh a good enough workout, and anti-incumbency will be a factor.

What has preceded is not just background, but its primary purpose is to try to figure out what will happen in the parliamentary elections in, say, 2019. My thesis is simple. To put it in one sentence, the BJP is bound to lose a substantial number of seats, exactly how many will depend on how political trajectories proceed. Ill pull out a few numbers presently. But the basic argument is that in 2014, the BJP maximised its returns from the states where it has real bases and can only lose seats; and the possibility that they will somehow make this up in new states is remote.

It is understandable that Shah reiterates the mission 400 claim. Part of his job, and that of other politicians, is making optimistic or absurd statements of intent, depending on how you look at it, to galvanise the party cadres (and leaders) and pull in voters. But it is incomprehensible that many media organisations have been saying till recently that BJP could reach 350 in 2019. So, lets take a look at the figures.

Let us assume, not unreasonably, that the BJPs core big states are in the north and the west. The number of seats the BJP won and the total number of seats in each of these states are presented in the following table:

State Total number of seats Seats won by BJP Bihar 40 22 Chhattisgarh 11 10 Haryana 10 7 Gujarat 26 26 Jharkhand 14 12 Karnataka 28 17 *Madhya Pradesh 29 27 Maharashtra 48 23 *Punjab 13 2 *Rajasthan 25 25 Uttar Pradesh 80 71

Disclaimer: Above table is based on data sourced from PRS India and Election Commission (*includes only those seats which were contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls)

Adding up the numbers, BJP won 242 seats out of 324 in its core areas. If you add two Apna Dal seats in Uttar Pradesh, which are BJPs in all but name, and those of its ally in Punjab  Shiromani Akali Dal (4)  and the Shiv Sena (18); and the substantial seats it got in an outlier like Karnataka, ie, Assam, where they got seven out of 14 seats, the numbers change to 273 out of 338.

The question is: how will the BJP increase seats in these areas? In Rajasthan and Haryana, it is bound to lose a majority of seats held, and a substantial number in Gujarat. It is difficult to see a replication in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, where again they are bound to lose seats. In Karnataka, they could increase a couple of seats at best; the bigger chance is BJP will lose a few.

The party could win a few seats in Punjab, but not much is on offer. Given that the ruling party is bound to lose out in the states mentioned above, the scale of the debacle will depend on its performance in three other states  Maharashtra, Bihar, and UP.

If the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance gels, as it did at an incredibly rapid pace in the two seats, BJP will be in big trouble. There is a lot of time to put it together; the only problem is that unlike the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, which involved an alliance between two parties with competitive caste bases (Yadavs and Kurmis), in Uttar Pradesh, a Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance will involve bringing together caste groups involved in social contradictions. That said, it can be pulled off.

In Maharashtra, if the Shiv Sena irrevocably decides to sever its connection with BJP and contests independently, BJP will be gasping for breath, given that Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have already started negotiating a fresh alliance. Bihar is difficult to call, but it is just about possible that a BJP-JD(U) alliance can pick up a few extra seats, though the recent byelections dont suggest that is a done deal.

Outside the core areas, BJP will pick up nothing substantial: in the east, all indications are that the bastions of Odisha and West Bengal will remain completely intact. And there is hardly room to grow seats in Assam (see figures above). The North East combined does not have enough seats for them to arithmetically make a difference, and the BJP wont win them anyway.

In the south, its much the same story. Which state will BJP break into? Its not going to make any headway in Telangana, Tamil Nadu or Kerala. It may pick up a few seats in Andhra Pradesh if there is a four-way contest, but dont bet on it. And in Karnataka, it is most unlikely to add to its 17 seats.

Everything taken together, whenever the ruling party decides to hold the parliamentary elections, its going to lose seats: it's simple arithmetic and simple arithmetic is usually right. I wont go so far as predicting a number, but I would be very, very surprised if BJP (as opposed to the NDA) gets within touching distance of 200 seats.
Indresh Kumar spoke to Firstpost about his take on triple talaq, Ram janmabhoomi, and politics. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) senior functionary, Indresh Kumar is vehemently opposed to the idea of a separate religion for the Lingayat community. He has criticised the Congress party, its president Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah for giving a go ahead to the move. After a group of Lingayat seers urged the community to support Congress in Karnataka elections, Kumar  a margdarshak of RSS-affiliate Muslim Rashtriya Manch  even questioned Rahul's authority to tinker with the religious system. "Who's Rahul Gandhi to decide on religion and Bharat's religious system?" he asked.

Speaking to Firstpost, Kumar  a Mechanical engineering graduate who chose to join the Sangh Parivar instead of working for Bhakra-Nangal Hydel project in early 1970s  termed the Congress party's move as 'divisive'. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview.

Q: What do you think of the Karnataka Congress' move to approve a separate religion status for Lingayat community?

This is nothing but divisive politics of the Congress party. There's no bigger crime than politicising religion to create fissures in our social fabric. Once Lingayats get a separate religion status, besides other sub-sects within Lingayats and our Hindu fold, the sects within other religions would also demand for separate religion status. There are priests in Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Pashupatinath Temple and other places, who belong to the Lingayat community. It's not just about Karnataka. This move will open a Pandora's box. Tomorrow another political party will try to give a separate religion status to some other sect for vote bank politics.

Moreover, who's Rahul Gandhi or Siddaramaiah to decide on our country's religious system? It's the Congress party that has for the first time indulged in such a crime by attempting to create a new religion to win election by dividing the voters.

Q: Similar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of 'New India by 2022', you too have spoken about 'New India' on various forums. Whats your idea?

The prime minister wants that everyone including the last man should get safety and security, employment, justice, education, and healthcare. Similarly, we too want a new India, where there shouldn't be any discrimination. There are 20 crore people in India who are involved in petty jobs, which others consider as low. Why can't we respect them and their vocation? Our economy thrives on these people. This mindset needs to be changed. We need to change our perception towards workers and labourers. If India has to progress, we've to bring change in the way we have been thinking. Instead of talking about problems, we should think about possible solutions. The dream of 126 crore Indians is to lead the world and we've to work towards it by inculcating values within ourselves.

Q: You have been a strong voice against the practice of triple talaq. But recently, a large number of Muslim women led by the women's wing of AIMPLB staged protests against banning triple talaq. Whats your take?

All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is anti-Islamic, unconstitutional and an illegal body. It doesn't have the recognition of Quran Sharif. It originated in India in 1975 with an objective to inculcate fanaticism within Muslims. According to Quran Sharif, the almighty (Khuda) himself has called talaq a sin. In Quran Sharif there's no reference of triple talaq; and according to the procedure recommended by it (90-day period), it's tough to get a talaq.

AIMPLB wants to confuse and divert Indian Muslims on this issue. It doesnt want that women should get respect at home or daughters should live peacefully after marriage. Therefore, the Supreme Court, after several hearings, asked the government to make a law in order to put a ban on instant triple talaq.

Triple talaq is against Quran Sharif and Rasul (God's messenger) and it's not a religious problem but a social evil. In the past, voices were raised against social evils, and those were never seen as a religious or caste issues. I have interacted with thousands of Muslims and through Muslim Rashtriya Manch we have created awareness against the 'evils of triple talaq'. We have tried to convince Muslim women about why the practice should be banned in the country. We have also initiated three schemes for women who have been the victims of triple talaq. First is a non-government pension scheme which will begin this year. Under this, 100 such Muslim women will get a pension for 10 years. Second, we will help 100 women in a year to get their daughters married. And third, we will help 1,000 children of these women to get education.

Q: Will Ram Mandir be finally built at Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya?

As there's one Vatican and several churches, one Mecca Medina and lakhs of mosques, similarly, there's only one Ram Janmabhoomi and a large number of temples of Ram. One thing needs to be very clear: There was no mosque at the place which is now being called a disputed site. In 1528, Mughal ruler Babur's commander Mir Baqi demolished the temple and built a structure known as Babri Masjid. In Islam, no mosque is named after any person, unlike this one. It was constructed in the name of Babur, which according to Islam is illegal because he elevated himself to the status of god. Like, Ravana and Hiranakashyap did in Hindu mythology.

Over the last one year, thousands of Muslims have started talking in favour of building Ram Mandir at Ram Janmabhoomi site, because they consider Bhagwan Ram as Imam-e-Hind or as Avtar  among 1.24 lakh paigambars (prophets). Their ancestors considered Ram as nabi (prophet). Therefore, both Hindus and Muslims should join hands to build Ram Mandir at Ram Janmabhoomi site. However, the Supreme Courts verdict will be final, which will be honoured.

Q: RSS has often been blamed by Congress and other Opposition parties for creating disharmony by spreading communal hatred

Such misconceptions have been spread by lobbies with vested interests, operating in the country and are being guided by foreign powers. It reflects perverse and deviant mindset. Such people have divided our society and have kept development away from the common man. They are sympathisers of foreign powers, who want to see Bharat and our society disintegrated. Sangh is a thought, an ideology and a movement. Despite allegations and mudslinging for decades, RSS will remain untarnished, blot-free. It's like the sun, which may get shadowed by clouds, but its light is the truth. Similarly, the nationalism and nationalistic thinking of the Sangh is eternal. No amount of abuses and criticism can tarnish its image.
Nimish Sawant

Google has finally brought in some competition in the smart speaker space, which has been dominated by Amazon in India. At an event held in New Delhi, Google launched its second generation Google Home and Home Mini smart speakers in India for Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,999 and they will start selling from 10 April onwards.

After the Chromecast streaming unit, Daydream headsets and the Pixel smartphones, this is another category of hardware that Google has brought to India. The smart speaker space is quite nascent in India with only Amazon offering competition with its Echo lineup of speakers, which have been selling since November last year.

Google Home will be competing with Amazon Echo. It comes in a cylindrical form factor measuring 233.4 x 96.3 x 142.7 mm in dimensions. The base comes with a fabric cover, which can come in different colours, and you can customise it according to your preference. The top portion is white in colour. On the sloping top edge, you have two microphones. It weighs in at 477 grams.

On removing the gray coloured fabric cover, you see the internals of the Google Home, which comprises two 2-inch drivers and two 2-inch passive radiators. It supports 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi. Four coloured LEDs and white-coloured LED rings denote the various operations of the Home.

The Google Home Mini is a compact version of the Google Home and can be considered as a direct competitor to the Amazon Echo Dot. The Mini comes in three colours, namely chalk, charcoal and coral, and it looks like the fibre cover comprises the majority of the Home Mini. There are four LED lights on the top, which indicate operational functions.

It weighs a mere 173 grams and is 42 mm in height. Just like the Home, the Home Mini also requires a power connection and connects to your Wi-Fi networks. Due to the size, the speakers housed inside the Mini arent that powerful, though it can do all the other voice-related tasks that a Google Home can do. Both the Home and Mini are compatible with Chromecast.

The new features on the new Home Devices include the ability to recognise people by their voices and to customise the experience for that user. Users can now use Google Home devices to initiate hands-free calling from their numbers. The device can initiate a call through the mobile number of that user, and if a person is mentioned, pull up the individual from the contact list of the user who made the request.

Google Home has expanded functionality that now allows you to preload a series of functions that get triggered by a single command. These are called routines, and saying good morning or good night can trigger a series of events.

For example, after you say "Good Morning", Google Home will pull out information from your calendar, set connected smart home devices to appropriate settings, read out the weather information and even play a "get out of bed" playlist.

The Google Home devices connect to over 1,000 smart home devices. A number of Google Home devices in various rooms can work together to, say, play the same music throughout the house. A broadcast feature triggers the routines in all the Google Home speakers in the home.
tech2 News Staff

LG G7 has been appearing in rumours more often, now that the smartphone is expected to come to the market soon. An earlier report suggested that the smartphone is to come with an iPhone X-like notch, a feature that has become common to most of the Android smartphones arriving this year. The phone is also expected to come with an advanced iris scanner that will not use an independent infrared sensor.

The images reported by AndroidHeadlines reaffirms that the smartphone comes with an iPhone X-like notch on the top of the display. The smartphone is called as "LG G7 ThinQ" instead of just LG G7. The report mentions that the LG G7 ThinQ is expected to come in five colour variants including Aurora Black, Platinum Grey, Moroccan Blue, Moroccan Blue (Matte) and Raspberry Rose colours. The smartphone will be officially launched on 2 May in New York and on 3 May in South Korea (Seoul).

Leaked images of the smartphone show a full screen display on the front with a narrow bezel at the bottom of the screen. The dual-camera setup on the rear side is vertically aligned and an LED flash lies on the left side of the camera. The fingerprint sensor lies below the vertically aligned dual-camera setup. Other report mention that the smartphone will come with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB or 64 GB of internal storage. It will feature 16 MP and 8 MP sensors on rear side of the smartphone.

A hands on video of the LG G7 was also spotted at MWC 2018.
AP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will apologize for his company's role in a data privacy scandal and foreign interference in the 2016 elections when he appears before Congress this week, saying the social network "didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility," according to prepared remarks released today.

Zuckerberg will appear before lawmakers today and tomorrow to try to restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulation that some lawmakers have floated.

His company is under fire in the worst privacy crisis in its history after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

In the testimony released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and foreign interference in the 2016 elections on his platform.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he says in the remarks. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees today and before the House panel tomorrow. Yesterday, he met privately with the leaders of the Senate committees.

After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced  and the company confirmed  that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users' data.

In the remarks, Zuckerberg said his company has a responsibility to make sure what happened with Cambridge Analytica doesn't happen again.

Zuckerberg is also expected to be asked about Russia's use of US social media during the 2016 elections  a subject of several congressional investigations and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference.

In the statement, Zuckerberg addresses Russian election interference and acknowledges, as he has in the past, that the company was too slow to respond and that it's "working hard to get better."

The company has said that as many as 146 million people may have received information from a Russian agency that's accused of orchestrating much of the cyber meddling in the election.

"We will continue working with the government to understand the full extent of Russian interference, and we will do our part not only to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, but also to give everyone a voice and to be a force for good in democracy everywhere," Zuckerberg continues.

In the testimony, Zuckerberg acknowledges that the questioning will likely be critical. "We face a number of important issues around privacy, safety, and democracy, and you will rightfully have some hard questions for me to answer," Zuckerberg says.

The prepared remarks do not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry  something he has done several times already  Zuckerberg outlines the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information.

He also says the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  something that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Zuckerberg met yesterday with Florida Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce panel. Nelson said afterward that Zuckerberg was "forthright and honest to the degree he could" be in the private, one-on-one meeting.

Nelson said he believes Zuckerberg is taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."

Democrats like Nelson have argued that federal laws might be necessary to ensure user privacy. Republicans so far have shown little appetite for such regulation, but that could change if there are future privacy scandals or Democrats gain control of Congress in this November's elections.

"I think he understands that regulation could be right around the corner," Nelson said. Zuckerberg was also scheduled to meet with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., ahead of today's hearing.

Separately, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post yesterday that the company is establishing an independent election research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy.

He said the commission will work with foundations across the U.S. to set up a committee of academic experts who will come up with research topics and select independent researchers to study them.
IANS

NASA is all set for its first interplanetary launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on 5 May with the Mars-bound InSight lander.

On board the 189-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will be NASA's InSight to spacecraft, destined for the Elysium Planitia region located in Mars' northern hemisphere to study the deep interior of the Red Planet and find traces of how it was formed.

InSight is planned for landing at Red Planet on November 26, NASA said in a statement on 10 April.

"If you live in Southern California and the weather is right, you'll probably have a better view of the launch than I will," said Tom Hoffman, Project Manager for NASA's InSight mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

In clear skies, the InSight launch should be viewable up and down a wide swath of the California coast.

Residents from as far north as Bakersfield to perhaps as far south as Rosarito, Mexico, may see the Atlas rocket rising in the predawn sky and then heading south, parallel to the coastline.

In a bid to study the deep interior of the Red Planet and find traces of how it was formed, NASA is all set to send a first-ever such mission to Mars.

It will also be the first NASA mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer, a device that measures quakes, on the soil of another planet.

InSight carries a suite of sensitive instruments to gather data and, unlike a rover mission, these instruments require a stationary lander from which they can carefully be placed on and below the Martian surface.

Looking deep into Mars will let scientists understand how different its crust, mantle and core are from Earth.

Several European partners have contributed instruments and key components to the InSight mission.
AFP

A new round of talks on the use of so-called killer robots reopened at the United Nations on 9 April, with a focus on defining the characteristics of autonomous lethal weapons. The world body hosted the first-ever killer robot negotiations last year and agreed to move forward, even if a treaty governing the use of such weapons remains a distant prospect.

Activists say time is running out before weapons are deployed that use lethal force without a human making the final kill-order and have criticised the UN body hosting the talks  the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW)  for moving too slowly.

But they still praised the resumption of the UN talks.

"It is a much more focused discussion now," said Richard Moyes, co-founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

Nations "are getting down to the business of describing the level of human control that is needed over (lethal weapons) systems," added Moyes, also a member of the 2017 Nobel Peace winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

For Moyes, it is crucial that states agree a human using any weapons "has to know where force is going to actually be applied and when force is going to be applied".

The number of states that have called for an outright killer robot ban has mounted, while concern in the private sector and academia has grown over the threat posed by weapons that entirely rely on machine intelligence in deciding what to kill.

But the states believed to have the most advanced autonomous weapons  notably the United States, China, Russia and Israel  have not committed to any form of binding mechanism restricting their use.

The CCW talks are being led by India's disarmament ambassador, Amandeep Gill, who said the two weeks of talks running through April 20 would focus in part on "the characterisation issue", meaning working on a definition of autonomous weapons.

He acknowledged that the pace of the talks had proven frustrating to some.

"We are struggling and we are struggling for a good reason because these are complex issues," he told reporters last week. "But I think the important point is that the UN system is making a deliberate, conscious effort," Gill added. Moyes conceded that nothing concrete would likely emerge in the April meeting but activists hope that with two more sessions scheduled this year nations would agree to move on to formal negotiations on a binding treaty.
China warned against military action in Syria after Trump vowed to respond 'forcefully' to the latest alleged chemical atrocity in the country's bloody civil war

Beijing: China on Tuesday warned against military action in Syria after US president Donald Trump vowed to respond "forcefully" to the latest alleged chemical atrocity in the country's bloody civil war.

As he opened a cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday, Trump pledged "major decisions" to come within the "next 24-48 hours" after what he called a "heinous attack on innocent" Syrians in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people.

The Syrian regime and its ally Russia have rejected claims of a chemical attack, with President Vladimir Putin warning against any "provocation and speculation on this matter".

Trump  who in 2017 launched a missile strike on a Syrian regime air base after another alleged chemical attack  warned Sunday that there would be a "big price to pay".

The crisis was discussed Monday at an urgent UN Security Council meeting, while the US also circulated a draft resolution for a new independent inquiry of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said his country was "opposed to the wanton use of force or threat of force".

Before a "comprehensive, impartial and objective investigation" had been conducted into the incident, no party should "prejudge the results and come to conclusions randomly," he said.

"Military means will lead us nowhere."

China depends on West Asia for its oil supplies but has long taken a back seat in the region's disputes, only recently beginning to expand its role, hosting high-level delegations from both the Syrian government and the Opposition.

It consistently says the crisis needs a "political solution" but has numerous times vetoed UN Security Council measures aimed at addressing the conflict  including an investigation of war crimes in the country.
Hundreds of university students across Bangladesh blockaded roads on Tuesday in the third day of protests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs. Students took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere despite assurances from the government that it would review the controversial quota system.

Dhaka: Hundreds of university students across Bangladesh blockaded roads on Tuesday in the third day of protests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs. Students took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere despite assurances from the government that it would review the controversial quota system.

The mass protests roiling campuses across the country have been among the biggest faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

At Dhaka Universitywhere more than 100 were injured in clashes with police in recent daysstudents vowed to stage sit-ins until the government reform the quota system.

"We'll continue our agitation until the authorities accept our demands," said Rahat, one of the roughly 500 students camped out at the university's main square.

The protest was largely peaceful, with no repeat so far of the tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police to disperse crowds.

But outside the camps, traffic was brought to a standstill as protesters blocked roads in the nation's capital.

The protests also spread to private campuses for the first time since the demonstrations erupted on Sunday, drawing hundreds to the streets.

Demonstrators want the share of top government positions set aside for minority groups and the disabled significantly reduced.

They are also particularly irate that 30 percent of government positions are reserved for descendants of veterans from Bangladesh's independence war in 1971.

The government promised to review the system on Tuesday, but that caused a rift among demonstrators, with some accepting the assurance and others resisting it.

A pro-government faction of the student movement had postponed its protest action but left-leaning groups pledged to keep up the fight.

Hasinawhose father was the architect of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistanhas in the past rejected demands to slash the quotas.
Chinese president Xi Jinping defended his ambitious multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying China has no 'geo-political calculations'.

Beijing: Chinese president Xi Jinping on Tuesday defended his ambitious multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying China has no "geo-political calculations" and the project will benefit the world.

Touted as Xi's pet project, the BRI has become a major stumbling block in India-China relations as the controversial $ 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been listed as its "flagship project".

In a key speech outlining his vision at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) at the Chinese city of Boao, Xi said the BRI may be China's idea but its opportunities and outcomes are going to benefit the world.

"China has no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocs and imposes no business deals on others," he said in an apparent reference to apprehensions that the BRI in which China is investing billions of dollars in port, road and rail connectivity projects all over the world is aimed at furthering China's influence.

The BRI focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe. India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and boycotted a high-profile Belt and Road Forum organised by China in 2017.

At the BFA meeting attended among others by Pakistani prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Xi said, "It must be pointed out that as the BRI is a new initiative, it is perfectly natural that there will be different views on cooperation."

"As long as the parties embrace the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, we can surely enhance cooperation and resolve differences," he said.

"This way, we can make the BRI the broadest platform for international cooperation in keeping with the trend of economic globalisation and to the greater benefit of all our peoples," Xi said.

This is the first major speech by Xi after he began his second five-year tenure in March.

He is widely expected to continue in power for life as China's Parliament has removed the two-term limit for the president through a constitutional amendment.
More than a dozen girls fled a second-story dance studio onto a balcony as a roaring fire engulfed their building, some dropping or jumping to the pavement as bystanders tried to rescue them with ladders.

More than a dozen girls fled a second-story dance studio onto a balcony as a roaring fire engulfed their building, some dropping or jumping to the pavement as bystanders tried to rescue them with ladders.

The rescue efforts were captured in a video that shows the screaming children either falling into the arms of their rescuers or hitting the ground before being pulled away from the flames Monday night.

#BREAKING : children screaming as they jump down and fall to safety in an Edgewater NJ building fire. 5 people suffered non life-threatening injuries. Were LIVE on @CBSNewYork and @CBSPhilly this morning with more of this: pic.twitter.com/Q8d3Q2dtXt  Marc Liverman (@MarcLiverman) April 10, 2018

About 15 girls were treated for minor injuries, Mayor Michel Joseph McPartland said.

Ilker Kesiktas, who shot the video, said Tuesday that he grabbed a fire extinguisher when he saw flames climb the side of the row of businesses, including a restaurant he and his friends frequent, in Edgewater, a town on the Hudson River just north of New York City.

But the flames were already too high and quickly approaching the dance studio where the girls were having class. Kesiktas and a friend joined several other people in rescuing the girls, setting up ladders and, when the flames got too high, encouraging them to jump from a second-story balcony to safety.

"I was the one who called the fire department. It was... I don't want to think about it. I had trouble sleeping last night. It was crazy," Kesiktas said.

"We got a fire extinguisher, and we just started blowing it, but it was just doing nothing." Business owner Tony Nehmi told NJ.com he and a police officer helped some of the girls down before the ladders fell during the fire. McPartland told NBC New York it was "one of the bravest things I've ever seen."

The cause of the fire at the building, which also houses a hookah lounge and auto body shop, was under investigation.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with US president Donald Trump.

Seoul: North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported on Monday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with US president Donald Trump.

At the meeting of party officials on Monday, Kim delivered a report "on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula", including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later in April, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Kim "made a profound analysis and appraisal of the orientation of the development of the North-South relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue", it said, referring to the North by its official acronym.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on 27 April.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit as soon as the month of May. However, Pyongyang has never officially confirmed its offer of denuclearisation talks to the White House, which was delivered by a South Korean envoy.

Kim's remarks on Monday did not specifically refer to a summit with Trump.

But following multiple reports of secret talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump told reporters on Monday he planned to meet Kim in "May or early June".

"I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said.

"Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years."
Kim Jong-un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with Donald Trump.

Seoul: North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported on Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed in March to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North  which would be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader  but no specific dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang's participation.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the "development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue", the official KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym. He delivered a report "on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula", including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later in April, it said.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South's president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on 27 April. Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearisation as soon as May.

But the North had remained publicly silent on the US summit since its leader's invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean officials in March. As officials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North's willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

Kim's remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a "summit" with Trump.

Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in "May or early June". "I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said. "Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years."

Diplomatic activity

North Korea's recent frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fire multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.

Since sending a high-profile delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing  his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

The North's foreign minister Ri Yong-ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics. Ri also paid a visit in March to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.

If the summit does take place, many remain sceptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed. It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings. No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple reports. Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington's long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearisation  a very high bar.

The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington  an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.
After KP Oli's visit, India must keep its commitments to Nepal meet & schedules as far as possible to reverse its reputation for big talk and nothing else.

The triumphant return of Prime Minister KP Oli to power in Nepal has been dutifully recorded by the media in his home country as 'historic', as indeed it was. This time around, New Delhi exerted itself to make sure there were no overtones of patronage in its welcome to the newly elected prime minister of a small but vitally important country.

Signals of a warm welcome to Oli were evident when aid projections for Nepal were increased by more than 43 percent in the recent budget to reach Rs 650 crore, even while overall allocations of aid to South Asia as a whole fell considerably. Nepal is also to be the beneficiary of India's own belated connectivity project, with rejuvenated rail and road connections and eventually, a waterway connection.

Days earlier, the Integrated Check Post at Raxaul was inaugurated. Here's the problem. That check post was recommended all of ten years ago and a Lands Port Authority was set up in 2008 to implement the setting up of such posts across India's borders to facilitate movement of goods and people, together with facilities for money exchange, and all the paraphernalia that goes with it. It's not that planners haven't foreseen what is needed. The problem is that we take almost a lifetime to get these projects off the ground even after it has been decided positively on from the very top.

By all logical processes of thought, Indian policymakers should have prioritised a range of highways and rail networks to link neighbours into our large economy and through it to other destinations beyond. The Janakpur railway line, for instance, was originally set up by the British in 1937, to bring in much-needed timber, even while it facilitated the movement of small traders. The colonial era rails finally fell into disuse and there were talks of a tie-up between the Indian Railways and the Nepal Railway Corporation.

Again, there were reports of misuse of funds and materials by contractors, and as the joint statement between the two sides noted, while one section  the Jayanagar to Janakpur/Kurtha and from Jogbani to Biratnagar Custom Yard  is to be completed in 2018, the rest is designated as being 'on priority'. Don't hold your breath.

None of this implies that India does not give aid. India gives generously and well, and almost always with prioritisation done by the host country. This means quite realistically, that politicians and leaders of the recipient country get to score points on where they allot aid and when.

That in itself is no bad thing, as long as it gets adequate publicity among the people of that country. A good example was the building of the Afghan Parliament  which was to be completed by June 2013  which provides New Delhi with a kind of everlasting public positive profile. But it is also necessary that Indian priorities get tied in, so that we shift from simply aid to 'aid and trade'.

Bangladesh, for instance, is also a recipient of Indian aid, with Rs 175 crores sanctioned in this year's budget. Some part of this should go towards improving border facilities at Benapole, where container consignments are reported to be forced to wait for more than two weeks to overcome congestion.

Bangladesh is the ninth largest importer of Indian goods, but bilateral trade is only at $7.5 billion, which incidentally is the rise after it dropped precipitously in previous years. The obvious sea route was only recently opened up, with an agreement for direct shipping signed in late 2015. The first direct ship followed a year later. Earlier, and surprisingly, direct shipping was via Colombo or Singapore. Remember the Cholas? They were sailing out of India into these waters in the third century. Somewhere, we lost our way.

And finally, there is nothing at all remiss in advertising our aid and assistance to friends and neighbours alike, especially so when the glamour of the Belt and Road Initiative is turning heads around us. Information on Indian assistance is meagre and frustratingly outdated and vague.

For instance, a power point presentation 'hidden' cunningly in the Indian Embassy website informs us that the Government of India disburses Nepali Rupees 2,000 crore every year in pensions for 125,000 Nepalis ex-servicemen. That's nice to know. The problem is that there is no indication as to which year this refers to. Nor is there any precise data on the status of ongoing projects and the Indian grant component.

If this is sensitive, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may like to provide at least a single figure for grants or concessional loans for each country. Next time Beijing comes along with a loan offer, analysts of a recipient country will be able to showcase a few comparative figures to Delhi's advantage. And finally, at the absolute very least, keep the Embassy/High Commission websites updated. Our embassy in Afghanistan is doing sterling work. Try uploading some of it for a current year.

The commitments to Nepal must be kept, and schedules met as far as possible to reverse our reputation for big talk and nothing else. It is inevitable that plans for five rail cross-border rail links will be beset by disputes over land, financial sanction, tendering processes, delivery of aid, and all the rest that paralyses anything we do, including the physical movement of a file from ministry to ministry.

A suggestion for those wanting this to move into the fast lane. Push the project file online, so that its movement can be tracked by top officials. Where there's nothing to hide, throw the doors  or windows  open. Now that's a connectivity to strive for.
Malaysians will go to the polls in May with the long-ruling and scandal-tainted ruling coalition facing one of its toughest ever challenges from Mahathir Mohamad.

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysians will go to the polls in May, officials announced on Tuesday, with the long-ruling and scandal-tainted ruling coalition facing one of its toughest ever challenges from veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power for six decades, has seen its popularity wane in recent years, a slide further compounded by a multi billion-dollar scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB.

Najib is still tipped to win due to BN's firm grip on Malaysia's weakened institutions, and what critics claim are efforts by the government to rig the election through gerrymandering and other forms of cheating. But he faces a tough challenge from Mahathir, 92, who was Malaysian premier for over two decades but has come out of retirement to take on his former protege Najib at the head of the opposition.

The poll date announced by the election commission  May 9  sparked fury among the opposition who claimed a weekday election was deliberately chosen to keep turnout low, favouring Najib. It is the first time in almost 20 years that a Malaysian election has been set for a weekday. "I am very, very angry," opposition candidate Maria Chin Abdullah told AFP. "This move by the election commission is obviously to ensure victory for the ruling party."

Najib is under pressure from allies in his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main coalition party, to score an emphatic victory after the government lost the popular vote in at the last election in 2013.

Voters had become increasingly disillusioned over recurring graft scandals, divisive racial politics in the multi-ethnic country, and the rising cost of living.

Massive financial scandal

The 1MDB scandal has only added to Najib's woes. Billions of dollars were allegedly looted from the fund in an audacious campaign of fraud and money-laundering which is being investigated in several countries, and it is claimed that large sums ended up the personal bank accounts of Najib.

Najib, who has been prime minister since 2009, and the fund deny any wrongdoing. The 64-year-old has so far weathered the scandal by sacking critics in government and launching a crackdown that has seen opponents arrested on various charges. His prospects at the election have been helped by a robust domestic economy while he has vowed to protect the country's Muslim majority, a key vote bank for BN.

As the polls approached, the government has taken steps critics say are desperate efforts to cling on to power  the BN-dominated parliament voted to redraw constituency boundaries in a manner analysts say favours the ruling coalition. MPs also voted in favour of a law banning "fake news" that could see offenders jailed for up to six years, which some fear could be used to crack down on dissent.

Victory is however less certain due to the comeback of Mahathir. In a stunning volte-face, he was named the prime ministerial candidate in the opposition coalition Pact of Hope, which is filled with parties he crushed during his time in power. Mahathir has long championed the Malay cause and the opposition hopes he can win over Muslim voters disillusioned with BN, to bolster their support base of urban voters and ethnic minorities, particularly the Chinese.

The government lost a two-thirds parliamentary majority, needed to amend the constitution, in the 222-seat parliament at the 2008 election and is hoping to win it back.
Zuckerberg, making his first formal appearance at a Congressional hearing, will seek to allay widespread fears ignited by the leaking of private data on tens of millions of users to a British firm working on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

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Both are seeking class-action status. Lawyers in the Delaware case say they are aware of about a dozen similar suits. Facebook had no comment, but referred to previous statements that called Cambridge Analytica's actions a breach of trust.

A Delaware case filed Tuesday contends Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. It also names Cambridge Analytica and its business partners as defendants, alleging they committed fraud by using the social network to obtain personal data on at least 80 million Facebook users without their knowledge and consent.

Facebook faces two new federal lawsuits for allegedly violating the trust of the millions of users whose personal data was shared with the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.

ICYMI, Yes, Mark Zuckerberg will wear a suit. Though best known for his "uniform" of jeans, sneakers and a fitted gray T-shirt  adding a hoodie if the weather demands  the Facebook CEO will don a suit and tie when he testifies before Congress this week. He already did Monday, when he met with lawmakers ahead of Tuesday's and Wednesday's grillings.

Zuckerberg, however, has been apologizing for not doing better on privacy for 11 years. In the current crisis, neither he nor chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg have clarified exactly how Facebook developed such a huge blind spot, much less how it can prevent history from repeating itself.

Zuckerberg controls 59.7 percent of the voting stock in Facebook. He is both chairman of the board and CEO. He can't be fired, unless he fires himself. "At the end of the day, this is my responsibility," he told reporters last week. He also admitted to making a "huge mistake" in not taking a broad enough view of Facebook's responsibility in the world.

Mark Zuckerberg is going to get uncomfortable in this hot seat

Sandberg told Today's Savannah Guthrie that given Facebook's ad-driven business model, you can't currently avoid data mining of your public profile information. Allowing that, Sandberg said, would effectively require Facebook to turn into a "paid product" that charges users.

Who owns what is a difficult question to answer, and Facebook clearly hasn't been good at explaining it. While you can download everything the company knows about you, it doesn't really allow you to take "your" data to a rival.

Facebook collects data on its own (your likes, which ads you click on, etc.); keeps data you share yourself (photos, videos, messages); and correlates data from outside sources to data on its platform (email lists from marketers, and until recently, information from credit agencies).

Comey testified for 3 hours, Hillary Clinton for 11 hours; how long will Facebook testimony last?

John Mulholland, editor of the Guardian US, tweeted in March that Facebook had threatened to sue to stop publication of its story that broke the Cambridge Analytica scandal in mid-March. Neither the Guardian nor Facebook have commented further. This is likely to come up today.

So, what's the official name for Zuckerberg's grilling in US Congress?

The much-awaited and eagerly watched testimony is about to go Live - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has already taken responsibility and apologized to lawmakers in a prepared written statement yesterday. So we are not expecting any surprises from that angle. What remains to be seen is whether he will offer any concrete changes and implementations to Facebook to stop or at least stem the breach of users' data from being harvested by third parties. Also of interest will be his body language. The 7th richest man on the planet is also very young - how will he take the heat from lawmakers and who are expected to ask some tough questions.

Meanwhile, Facebook has begun alerting some users that their data was swept up in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

We're a few minutes away from the starting line. A total of 44 members of the US Congress will question Zuckerberg.

The floor is already teeming! There are even protesters lining the walls and on the floor! Media, attendants to lawmakers and I'm sure lawyers for every word that gets said or not said. User privacy, fake news, data breach - nothing will not be asked of him. Is Cambridge Analytica the only harvester of Facebook data or are there many more out there - Zuckerberg is going to be grilled - well-done for sure!

The heat is on, Senators are coming here will all guns blazing

In testimony released Monday, Zuckerberg apologizes for the privacy scandal and for not recognizing Russian interference sooner.

Senators are expected to also ask him about Russian interference on his company's platform in the 2016 election.

Zuckerberg is testifying in the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday. He agreed to testify after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

Zuckerberg is looking nervous! Ready for his opening statement. But before that Chairman Grassley is going over the Committee rules and regulations. Nearly half of US senate is here in one room! Tough for anyone in the best of times.

Hmmm. Normally everyone is. Kind of a mystery. Senator Thune, republican from South Dakota, is addressing him directly. Tough words from him. He is basically telling him as it is. Diana Feinstein, ranking member of Senate Judiciary Committee among others, is next.

Meanwhile, a stone's throw from the Facebook testimony, breaking news from Trump's residence: The White House says Trump has power to fire special counsel Robert Mueller as legal pressure mounts on the President.

Lawmakers stumbling over social media words - Cambridge Analytica is especially tongue-twisting for a few - just a side glimpse into how far we as society has come but at the same time there are laws and rules and regulations run by these feisty older gentlemen and women. Zuckerberg looks like a kid in trouble who's called into the Principal's room! Let's see if he's going to be a respectful and contrite kid or brings in a sturdy defense for himself and his giant company.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley noted that the crowd was not big by the standards of the gargantuan social network platform. But the hearing room was filled, with a line of hundreds of people waited down the hall and into the next office building. Zuckerberg is testifying in the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday.

A person wearing a blue and green pointy wig, aiming to look like a Russian troll, watched from the back of the room as the Senate kicked off its hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The person wore a red and blue Russian flag around his neck.

"It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I'm committed to getting it right," Zuckerberg told lawmakers.

Reading from his written testimony, Zuckerberg repeated a statement he had previously made, saying the misuse of data "was my mistake, and I'm sorry."

Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg offered an apology to US lawmakers Tuesday as he made a long-awaited appearance in a congressional hearing on the hijacking of personal data on millions of users.

Zuckerberg's opening statement does not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry, Zuckerberg outlined the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Lawmakers say they are "shocked", Zuckerberg sticks to his script

Watch for the performance of the lawmakers themselves. A few of them are up for reelections come November 2018. Bill Nelson, democratic senator from Florida who is facing a tough race against Governor Rick Scott, is expected to be tough on the privacy issue.

Zuckerberg is apologizing, as he has in the past, and says he is "responsible" for what happens on Facebook. Zuckerberg is also reiterating that the company is in the process of investigating apps that had access to user data. He says the company is investigating "many apps," in the tens of thousands.

Zuckerberg said in his opening statement Tuesday that Facebook didn't do enough to prevent its tools from being used for harm. This, he says, goes for fake news, foreign elections interference, hate speech and data privacy.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing 44 senators as part of a rare joint committee hearing to address how his company handles user privacy and other issues. He has just said moments ago that Facebook helped Trump sales team in 2016.

Zuckerberg said the company considered the data collection "a closed case" because they thought the data had been deleted. He said they would handle it differently today.

A former employee of Cambridge Analytica, a London-based data-mining firm with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, said the company collected the Facebook information of tens of millions of users without their permission. The firm got Facebook information through an app in order to build psychological profiles on a large portion of the U.S. electorate.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says "it was clearly a mistake" to believe the data-mining company Cambridge Analytica deleted Facebook data it had gathered in an attempt to sway elections.

And yes, Mueller's team has been in touch with Facebook. Zuckerberg realised he may have goofed up big time saying this in a public testimony.

This is the real thing. It's just beginning, 4 pm EST.

And now - the R word. Are you ready for regulation?

Zuckerberg almost said yes but stopped just short.

The tough questions are coming from Senator Lindsay Graham. The gut punch came just now: "Is there a competitor who can do the same job you do?"

Answering searching questions from US lawmakers on the red line on privacy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says company is working with special counsel Robert Mueller in Russia probe. After saying it, he realised he may have goofed but it was too late. Mueller has not yet spoken with Zuckerberg but has been interviewing Facebook employees.

Generally, though, Facebook is considered a "duopoly" with Google when it comes to the digital advertising market. It does have several competitors on other fronts, including by Twitter, Snapchat and various messaging apps around the world

Some critics who say Facebook is too big say it should be forced to spin off apps like WhatsApp and Instagram.

He says Facebook provides a "number of different services" and that the average person uses eight different apps to communicate with friends.

Zuckerberg is facing 44 senators in a rare joint committee hearing to talk about how his company protects user data and deals with elections meddling, among other issues. He says Facebook has many competitors and demurred at naming just one.

Asked by Senator Lindsey Graham if Facebook has a monopoly, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it "certainly doesn't feel that way to me."

"There will always be a version of Facebook that is free," Zuckerberg told the hearing, amid questions about the company's business model of not charging users but providing their data to advertisers to make money.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that the social media giant will always offer free services to users, as he addressed a US Senate hearing on mass abuses of personal data.

"There will always be a free version of Facebook"

Ted Cruz is trying very hard to keep it straight but it's hard to forget the Republican 2016 campaign. - "Do you consider yourself a neutral forum?" He is asking about why Facebook is biased to Republicans and Conservative pages. Zuckerberg is getting fed up - he brings up the foreign intervention angle back into the conversation to counter Cruz's political overtone.

Remember the 8 hours of questing that Hillary Clinton went through for the Benghazi Investigation? Zuckerberg took the break offered by Sen. Thun. He might have needed it after the amount of water he's been gulping since the hearings began! Each and every Senator has its own agenda as we just saw in Ted Cruz's line of questioning. A lot of these lawmakers are not able to comprehend what it will involve to rein in this monolith issue of privacy. They keep interrupting him and he keeps fencing with "I'll get back to you".

Facebook stocks end higher on Wall Street While the Zuckerberg testimony is on, Wall Street stocks finished solidly higher on Tuesday amid easing of US-China trade tensions and Facebook surged as the company's chief apologized to Congress over a data breach scandal.

Argenti said: "He's probably said 15 times, 'I'll have my people get in touch with you.' There's a formality about the way he's presenting himself."

Chapple said: "As far as I can tell the answers he's providing are accurate, he's being upfront about mistakes they've made in past and committed to correcting issues in the future."

Mike Chapple, a University of Notre Dame professor, said Zuckerberg was doing a good job overall.

Crisis-management experts say the Facebook CEO looks a bit shaky at points but is overall doing a fairly good job on appearing cooperative and forthright.

"I'll have my people get in touch with you"

He also says that advances in artificial intelligence mean companies like Facebook will have to think about proactively removing objectionable content, for example, not just reactively after someone flags it. This, he says, raises "moral and legal" obligation questions. Facebook already removes some content, such as suspected terrorist propaganda before anyone sees it. But as its systems improve, it'll likely be able to remove other content too.

That's a departure from how internet companies have traditionally viewed themselves  as neutral platforms generally not responsible for what people post and share on their services. But Zuckerberg, who is testifying before a rare joint congressional committee on Tuesday, says Facebook needs to take a "broader view" of its responsibility in the world.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is "responsible for the content" on its platform.

This is perhaps the best part of the questioning - what constitutes Hate Speech! Zuckerberg is stumbling and is honest to say this is one of the most difficult questions that Facebook faces when it comes to monitoring free speech. Violence, bullying are easy to identify but what about vigorous discussions on, say abortion? Would you censor that?

Facebook shares are still down about 11 percent since the scandal broke last month due to concerns about stricter regulation of social media companies.

About half the gain came early in the day as the broader market surged on signs of an easing in trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Facebook shares gained further as Zuckerberg took questions from senators seeking an explanation for how Facebook failed to prevent a data-mining company from gathering personal information on 87 million users and whether the company does enough to protect users' data.

Facebook shares rose 4.5 percent to $165.04, their biggest percentage gain in almost two years.

Investors are rallying around Facebook as CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears before Congress to answer questions about the social media giant's recent privacy scandal.

Associated Press is reporting that it's true that Facebook doesn't sell your data directly to third parties, but it clearly profits from it. Thanks to user data, Facebook made $40 billion in advertising revenue last year, second only to Google when it comes to the share of the global digital advertising market.

"We do not sell data to advertisers," the Facebook CEO testified during a Senate hearing. "What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach. And then we do the placement."

Mark Zuckerberg insisted once again Tuesday that Facebook doesn't sell your data, calling it a common misconception people have about Facebook.

Okay, Facebook does not sell your data but profits from it

Ted Cruz is trying very hard to keep it straight but it's hard to forget the Republican 2016 campaign. - "Do you consider yourself a neutral forum?" He is asking about why Facebook is biased to Republicans and Conservative pages. Zuckerberg is getting fed up - he brings up the foreign intervention angle back into the conversation to counter Cruz's political overtone.

Remember the 8 hours of questing that Hillary Clinton went through for the Benghazi Investigation? Zuckerberg took the break offered by Sen. Thun. He might have needed it after the amount of water he's been gulping since the hearings began! Each and every Senator has its own agenda as we just saw in Ted Cruz's line of questioning. A lot of these lawmakers are not able to comprehend what it will involve to rein in this monolith issue of privacy. They keep interrupting him and he keeps fencing with "I'll get back to you".

Facebook stocks end higher on Wall Street While the Zuckerberg testimony is on, Wall Street stocks finished solidly higher on Tuesday amid easing of US-China trade tensions and Facebook surged as the company's chief apologized to Congress over a data breach scandal.

Argenti said: "He's probably said 15 times, 'I'll have my people get in touch with you.' There's a formality about the way he's presenting himself."

Chapple said: "As far as I can tell the answers he's providing are accurate, he's being upfront about mistakes they've made in past and committed to correcting issues in the future."

Mike Chapple, a University of Notre Dame professor, said Zuckerberg was doing a good job overall.

Crisis-management experts say the Facebook CEO looks a bit shaky at points but is overall doing a fairly good job on appearing cooperative and forthright.

"I'll have my people get in touch with you"

He also says that advances in artificial intelligence mean companies like Facebook will have to think about proactively removing objectionable content, for example, not just reactively after someone flags it. This, he says, raises "moral and legal" obligation questions. Facebook already removes some content, such as suspected terrorist propaganda before anyone sees it. But as its systems improve, it'll likely be able to remove other content too.

That's a departure from how internet companies have traditionally viewed themselves  as neutral platforms generally not responsible for what people post and share on their services. But Zuckerberg, who is testifying before a rare joint congressional committee on Tuesday, says Facebook needs to take a "broader view" of its responsibility in the world.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is "responsible for the content" on its platform.

This is perhaps the best part of the questioning - what constitutes Hate Speech! Zuckerberg is stumbling and is honest to say this is one of the most difficult questions that Facebook faces when it comes to monitoring free speech. Violence, bullying are easy to identify but what about vigorous discussions on, say abortion? Would you censor that?

Facebook shares are still down about 11 percent since the scandal broke last month due to concerns about stricter regulation of social media companies.

About half the gain came early in the day as the broader market surged on signs of an easing in trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Facebook shares gained further as Zuckerberg took questions from senators seeking an explanation for how Facebook failed to prevent a data-mining company from gathering personal information on 87 million users and whether the company does enough to protect users' data.

Facebook shares rose 4.5 percent to $165.04, their biggest percentage gain in almost two years.

Investors are rallying around Facebook as CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears before Congress to answer questions about the social media giant's recent privacy scandal.

Associated Press is reporting that it's true that Facebook doesn't sell your data directly to third parties, but it clearly profits from it. Thanks to user data, Facebook made $40 billion in advertising revenue last year, second only to Google when it comes to the share of the global digital advertising market.

"We do not sell data to advertisers," the Facebook CEO testified during a Senate hearing. "What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach. And then we do the placement."

Mark Zuckerberg insisted once again Tuesday that Facebook doesn't sell your data, calling it a common misconception people have about Facebook.

Okay, Facebook does not sell your data but profits from it

Mark Zuckerberg is now living out every young person's worst nightmare: trying to explain how tech stuff works to the nation's elderly

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is all set for a fiery face-off on Capitol Hill at 2:15 pm Tuesday as he attempts to quell a firestorm over privacy and security lapses at the social network that have angered lawmakers and the site's two billion users.

Zuckerberg, making his first formal appearance at a Congressional hearing, will seek to allay widespread fears ignited by the leaking of private data on tens of millions of users to a British firm working on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

The scandal has sparked fresh talk about regulation of social media platforms, and Facebook in the past week has sought to stem criticism by endorsing at least one legislative proposal, which would require better labeling and disclosure on political advertising.

Senator Bill Nelson, one of the lawmakers who met privately Monday with Zuckerberg, said he believes the 33-year-old CEO is taking the matter seriously.

"I believe he understands that regulation could be right around the corner," the Florida Democrat said.

Other lawmakers were less clear about the need for new regulations.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said, "I'm not interested in regulating Facebook. I'm interested in Facebook regulating itself and solving the problems. I come in peace."

The huge social network has begun alerting some users about whether their data was leaked to the British firm Cambridge Analytica.

Notification is among several steps pledged by Facebook to fix pervasive problems on data security and manipulation of the platform used by some two billion people worldwide.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley said Tuesday's hearing is the first step in an "open dialogue about how we address growing consumer privacy concerns."

"The tech industry has a duty to respond to widespread and growing privacy concerns and restore the public trust. The status quo no longer works," Grassley added.

Suit and tie

On Monday, Zuckerberg ditched his trademark T-shirt for a somber dark suit and tie as he made the rounds on Capitol Hill and sounded contrite about Facebook's conduct.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry," Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by the House commerce committee.

"I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

In his written remarks, Zuckerberg called Facebook "an idealistic and optimistic company" and said: "We focused on all the good that connecting people can bring."

But he acknowledged that "it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

Zuckerberg said he has called for more investments in security that will "significantly impact our profitability going forward," adding: "I want to be clear about what our priority is: protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profit."

'Investigating every app'

Zuckerberg recounted a list of steps announced by Facebook aimed at averting a repeat of the improper use of data by third parties like Cambridge Analytica, and noted that other applications were also being investigated to determine if they did anything wrong.

"We're in the process of investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before we locked down our platform in 2014," said Zuckerberg.

"If we detect suspicious activity, we'll do a full forensic audit. And if we find that someone is improperly using data, we'll ban them and tell everyone affected."

Zuckerberg met behind closed doors with Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Dianne Feinstein of California, among others.

Backing 'Honest Ads'

On Friday, Facebook sought to quell some concerns over political manipulation of its platform by announcing support for the "Honest Ads Act" that requires election ad buyers to be identified, and to go further with verification of sponsors of ads on key public policy issues.

Zuckerberg said the change will mean "we will hire thousands of more people" to get the new system in place ahead of US midterm elections in November.

"We're starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months," Zuckerberg said.

On Monday, Facebook agreed to supply proprietary data for a study on its role in elections and democracy.

"The goal is both to get the ideas of leading academics on how to address these issues as well as to hold us accountable for making sure we protect the integrity of these elections on Facebook," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

"Looking back, it's clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections."
President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser Tom Bossert stepped down, in another resignation from the White House that has seen a series of high-profile departures in recent weeks.

Washington: President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser Tom Bossert stepped down, in another resignation from the White House that has seen a series of high-profile departures in recent weeks.

The announcement from the White House, which was expected, came as Trump has been reorganising his national security team in the last few weeks.

John Bolton, a former US diplomat, took over the role of National Security Advisor, yesterday. Trump had fired his National Security Advisor Lt Gen HR McMaster last month.

"The president is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"Tom led the White House's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defences, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well," Sanders said.

In March, one of Trump's longest-serving and trusted aides Hope Hicks resigned as the powerful communications director.

Also, White House's top economic adviser Gary Cohn resigned over his differences with Trump on trade policy. Trump last month also sacked Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and replaced him with CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Russian UN ambassador said that Moscow has warned the United States of 'grave repercussions' if it carries out an attack against Syrian government.

United Nations: Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that Moscow has warned the United States of "grave repercussions" if it carries out an attack against Syrian government forces over reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack.

"There was no chemical weapons attack," Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

"Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the US that armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria  where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed  could lead to grave repercussions," he said.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council that Washington "will respond" to the attack on a rebel-held town in Syria regardless of whether the United Nations Security Council acts or not.

"We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done," Haley told the council.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria," she said. "Either way, the United States will respond."

British UN ambassador Karen Pierce told reporters ahead of the meeting that Britain "would prefer to start with a proper investigation," but all options were on the table and London was in close contact with its allies the United States and France.

Nebenzia also said that investigators with the global chemical weapons watchdog should fly to Syria as early as Tuesday to look into accusations about the attack, offering them protection from Syrian authorities and Russian troops.

"The Syrian authorities and Russian troops will provide conditions to travel to the areas of the alleged incident for them to familiarise themselves with the situation," he said.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had opened an investigation to determine what exactly had happened in Douma.
Russia and Syria have invited a probe into the alleged chemical attack in Douma after Donald Trump threatened that there would be a 'big price to pay'.

United Nations: Russia and Syria have invited a probe into the alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma after US president Donald Trump threatened that there would be a "big price to pay".

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Russia's permanent representative Vassily Nebenzia denied that chemical weapons had been used in Douma and said Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide facilities for experts from the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the attack area.

According to the reports, the chemical attack on Saturday killed at least 49 people and injured 500 others, Thomas Markram, the deputy to the UN high representative for disarmament affairs, told the Council.

During a bitter clash at the Council, US permanent representative Nikki Haley said that the hands of the Russian "regime" were "covered in the blood of Syrian children" and warned that Washington would respond to the attacks even if the Council would not.

On Monday night, Trump met defence officials along with his newly appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton after warning that there would he would decide within 48 hours on a military response to the "barbaric" act.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon," he told reporters earlier on Monday.

Haley said those responsible for the attacks were "monsters", adding: "We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction."

With tensions between Russia and the West rising to Cold War levels, Nebenzia told the West: "We are not begging to be friends with you."

He objected to Haley referring to his government as a "regime" and warned that he would raise a point of order the next time she did that - a move that could disrupt Council meetings, a frequent happening during the height of the Cold War.

He said the "hawkish rhetoric" in the Council and threats to use force had gone beyond what had prevailed during the Cold War.

Britain's permanent representative Karen Pierce said the situation today was worse than that during the Cold War because then there was no such flagrant disregard of the universal prohibition against chemical weapons.

Nebenzia alleged that the anti-government forces had chemical weapons and could stage an attack.

But France's permanent representative Francois Delattre countered that only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability of developing the chemical and said that there was no doubt about who carried out the attacks.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: "While the UN is not in a position to verify these reports, the secretary-general notes that any use of chemical weapons if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation."

Guterres's speical envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Council via a video link from Geneva that the terrorist group Jaish al-Islam that was in control of Douma had asked for UN intervention, but the Syrian government did not respond to it.
Tehran's reformist mayor was replaced following claims he was threatened with arrest if he did not step down

Tehran: Tehran's reformist mayor was replaced following claims he was threatened with arrest if he did not step down. Mohammad Ali Najafi, who took power after reformists swept the council elections last May, said he was suffering from unspecified health problems that required extensive treatment. But his allies say he was under pressure after accusing his conservative predecessors of corruption.

Morteza Alviri, a member of the council and a former mayor, said on Sunday that Najafi was summoned one night to the prosecutor's office. "I'm informed he was summoned, not in a polite manner", Alviri said in a video posted on the reformist Khabaronline website. He said Najafi was woken while in bed. "I heard he was threatened with arrest", Alviri added.

Najafi had attracted criticism from hardliners last month after attending a show at City Hall for Iranian Women's Day in which schoolgirls performed a traditional dance. Islamic law in Iran prohibits public dancing, and prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the show included "acts against public morality" and Islamic tradition. Najafi resigned a few days later, citing health reasons he had not previously mentioned.

The council rejected his decision, prompting the prosecutor general to accuse them of playing "a political game" and calling on Najafi to submit a fresh resignation, which he did on Monday. The second resignation was approved by the council on Tuesday, and he has been temporarily replaced by a deputy, Samiollah Hosseini Makarm.

Najafi's supporters strongly criticised the prosecutor's involvement, and asked why he was not instead focused on the corruption allegations revealed by the mayor.

Reformists displaced the conservatives for the first time in 14 years in last year's municipal elections.

In January, Najafi presented a report on the previous administration, run by former police chief and presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, saying large sums had been diverted from council contracts into officials' pockets. The report said thousands were being kept on the payroll in non-existent jobs, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency, and an extra 13,000 added ahead of the election. "Inside the municipality, there have been many serious financial violations, but no one has been invited to explain these Aviolations," Alviri told Khabaronline.
British media report that Yulia Skripal, one of two Russians poisoned by nerve agent, has been released from the hospital.

London: British media reported that Yulia Skripal, one of two Russians poisoned by nerve agent, has been released from the hospital.

BBC News said Tuesday the 33-year-old Skripal had been discharged from hospital and taken to a "secure" location on Monday.

Britain's Press Association says hospital officials plan to make an official statement shortly.

The British government is likely to keep details about her location secret given the sensitivity of the case.

If she is well enough, she is likely to be extensively questioned by British security officials and police about her recollection of events leading up to her poisoning, which sparked a major confrontation between Britain and Russia that recalls Cold War tensions.

Yulia Skripal was in critical condition after the 4 March nerve agent attack, apparently aimed at her father, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

She had arrived on an Easter visit from Moscow the day before the attack.

Her father remains hospitalised but officials say he is improving rapidly.

The 66-year-old Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain.

He was imprisoned in Russia and eventually settled in England after a "spy swap."

Britain has accused the Russian government of masterminding the attack on the Skripals, who were found unconscious on a bench in the English city of Salisbury 4 March.

British officials say Russia had the means and the motive to attack Sergei Skripal, who was convicted of betraying Russia.

The British government maintains the Skripals were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent that could only have been made in Russia.

Russia has denied the allegation, but the anger of the incident has led to a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from countries aligned with Britain. Russia in turn retaliated by expelling diplomats from a number of countries that have sided with Britain.
The UN Secretary-General on Tuesday called for international investigators to have unfettered access after an alleged chemical attack in Syria.

Washington: The UN Secretary-General on Tuesday called for international investigators to have unfettered access after an alleged chemical attack in Syria.

Rescuers and medics in the town of Douma say more than 40 people died after the alleged poison gas attack in the last rebel-held pocket of the one-time opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.

"Any confirmed use of chemical weapons, by any party to the conflict and under any circumstances, is abhorrent and a clear violation of international law," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"The seriousness of the recent allegations requires a thorough investigation using impartial, independent and professional expertise," he said.

Guterres reaffirmed his full support for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and its fact-finding mission which "should be granted full access, without any restrictions or impediments to perform its activities," Guterres added.

US president Donald Trump was poised Tuesday to decide on possible military action against the Syrian regime, after vowing to respond "forcefully" to the latest alleged chemical atrocity in the country's civil war despite strong warnings from Damascus-ally Russia.

Russia, a major Syrian ally, said Tuesday it will propose a UN resolution to investigate the alleged attack.
Vanuatus foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu on Tuesday denied a media report that China wanted to establish a permanent military presence on the Pacific island nation.

Sydney: Vanuatus foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu on Tuesday denied a media report that China wanted to establish a permanent military presence on the Pacific island nation, easing fears of several regional countries concerned about Beijings rising assertiveness.

Australia's Fairfax Media, citing unnamed sources, earlier on Tuesday reported that preliminary discussions to locate a full military base on Vanuatu had been held.

The prospect of a Chinese military outpost so close to Australia has been discussed at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington, Fairfax said.

Regenvanu, however, rejected the report.

"No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort," Regenvanu told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation, we are just not interested in any sort of military base in our country."

Fairfax reported that Chinese naval ships would dock to be serviced, refuelled and restocked at a Vanuatu port, with the agreement eventually leading to a full military base.

"We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbours of ours," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Brisbane.

Vanuatu, around 2,000 kilometres east of northern Australia, was home to a key US Navy base during World War Two that helped beat back the Japanese Army as it advanced through the Pacific towards Australia.

Any future naval or air base in Vanuatu would "give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the US and its base on US territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis," Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said in a report for the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.

China opened its first overseas military base in August 2017 in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Beijing describes it as a logistics facility.

Djibouti's position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fuelled worry in India that it would become another of Chinas "string of pearls" military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

China has also become increasingly active in the South Pacific, undertaking several infrastructure projects and providing aid and financing to small, developing island nations in the region.

That has stoked fears that Australias long-time influence in the region is being eroded.

Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop had earlier acknowledged heightened Chinese interest in the Pacific.

"It is a fact that China is engaging in infrastructure investment activities around the world," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"I remain confident that Australia is Vanuatus strategic partner of choice," she said.

China has also faced criticisms over its activities in the disputed South China Sea, where it has been building artificial islands on reefs, some with ports and airstrips.
Speculation on the content of President Xi Jinpings speech at the Boao Forum for Asia was rife long before the event with media, diplomats and businessmen among others, wondering whether the Chinese leader would use the forum to announce new economic reforms.

Rarely has a speech by a foreign leader been awaited with such eagerness. Speculation on the content of President Xi Jinpings speech at the Boao Forum for Asia was rife long before the event with media, diplomats and businessmen, among others, wondering whether the Chinese leader would use the forum to announce new economic reforms. The forum is attended by representatives of some 29 countries, as well as chambers of business and commerce, not to mention international financial institutions, and is seen as the high watermark for economic policy makers who look to the forum as a window into the future on matters monetary.

Two issues made this year's meeting even more significant. First, that the meeting was being held against the backdrop of a corrosive trade war between the United States and China. Second, the newly strengthened presidentnow with a virtual lifetime tenure under his beltwas expected to announce the direction of Chinas economic destiny. Remember that Beijing used the forum in 2015 to announce the hugely ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that now has the world in a twist.

The presidents remarks were on the lines evident from the title of the forum this year which was An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity. On the face of it, there were significant concessions designed to lower the temperature of the trade war and also keep global business reasonably satisfied.

Among a host of proposals was a promise to broaden market access, open up the insurance and financial sector, and lower import tariffs on autos as well as on other products. He also affirmed stronger protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), with new measures to address the issue. The IPR issue has long been a sore point with not just the US but also other major manufacturing countries, who accuse China of siphoning off technology towards its own far cheaper production lines, and thereby undercutting foreign manufacturers.

Apart from a broad promise to open up further to the world, there was little in terms of significant economic reform. Manufacturing in China has only partially opened up, with restrictions likely to be lifted in select areas like automobiles and ships. Once among the top ship builders, this sector has been declining at an annualized six percent, hit by recession and overcapacity.

A revival of ship building is integral to the maritime BRI, with its tentaclesor corridors depending on how one is looking at itstretching well into the Indian Ocean. Xis speech was also peppered with statements designed to be taken with a pinch of salt; for instance that Beijing did not desire spheres of influence. However, with the IMF director Christine Lagarde taking notes from the front row, there is clearly enough in Xis speech for economists to ponder.

The issue at the heart of the trade war stems from the contours of the ambitious "Made in China 2025" which was announced in 2015. This was a programme aimed at increasing market innovation and boosting home grown products. Implementation guidelines by the State Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, assisted by some 20 state councils provided specific assistance to industry, to increase domestic market share of Chinese suppliers of basic core components and materials, first to 40 percent and then to 70 percent in 2025.

This is an ambitious plan given that significant sections of Chinese manufacturing are almost entirely dependent on foreign content. That programme began to worry European and American manufacturers who observed that state assistance would further hamper competitiveness in an already uneven playing field. In this speech, it is clear that even while China will retain the thrust of that plan, it is giving ground in some areas under US pressure.

As India faces the heat on tariffs as well , there is much to learn from China in terms of the precision with which it is forging ahead to implement its strategy. An expert analysis of the programme also reveals that Beijings weaknesses include lack of infrastructure and poor education standards. Prime Minister Narendra Modis own Make in India programme also treads the same path in its final objectives and is therefore likely to face the same headwinds.

Even as China and India work towards reducing the skewed trade deficit, it would be useful to look for complementarity in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of each in implementing their respective core programmes.

Which then brings matters back to the BRI, the key driver for Chinas future economic growth and which India opposes, as of now. Diplomatic circles in Russia and China have urged India to join the BRI so as to fructify its own infrastructure plans for the region.

Indias initial opposition to the BRI seemed to be primarily due to the fact that its flagship programme, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, (CPEC) made its entry into Pakistan through Occupied Kashmir. However, the formal statement by the Ministry of External Affairs just hours before the BRI Summit in May 2017 seemed to add other issues including a lack of consultation and transparency.

Unlike the Asian Infrastructure and Development Bank, which India joined after a period of dialogue and discussions with Beijing, it appears that the extent of the BRIand its implicationshave taken India by surprise.

China can very easily provide formal appropriate guarantees on its position on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and thus attenuate our concerns on the sovereignty and territorial integrity issue. A detailed dialogue on BRI will also probably be welcomed by the Chinese side. The issue, however, is also the overweening influence China is beginning to have in Pakistan, in what is truly a zero sum game: Chinas own power gains as against loss of Pakistans sovereignty in the face of massive Chinese investment and physical presence. Its rather like a bull mastiff taking a poodle for a walk.

A reduction in Chinas footprint in Pakistanincluding a complete cessation of assistance to its missile and nuclear installationsin return for a larger role in BRI is a thought.

It is complex, but a BRI a la carte that straddles the entire South Asian subcontinent, including Afghanistan, is no bad thing, particularly if India can work itself into it as a competitive manufacturing hub.

As the then foreign secretary S Jaishankar put it, China and Indias rise can be mutually supportive. All this requires is a Chinese respect for Indias red lines in the subcontinent, both on land and sea. Those red lines may not be seriously affected by recent reports of a possible Chinese military base in the Pacific island of Vanuatu. But they unquestionably reinforce the message of a threatening rise, which no polished speeches can assuage.
Kinder Morgan's (NYSE:KMI) Canadian subsidiary, Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (TSX:KML), announced this week that it had suspended all nonessential spending on its massive Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, due to legal disputes surrounding the project. In the interim, the company said it would work with key stakeholders until the end of May on potential paths forward. However, the pipeline giant made one thing clear: If it couldn't reach an agreement by that deadline, then it didn't see a scenario in which it could move forward with the project. It's an announcement that has significant ramifications for investors.

From slam dunk to suspect

Kinder Morgan initially applied to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline in December 2013. The Canadian pipeline, which is more than 900 miles long, stretching from the oil sands region of Alberta to the Pacific coast of British Columbia, has been in service since 1953. The 300,000-barrel-a-day pipeline has operated at full capacity for years because it's the only oil pipeline to the coast and, therefore, provides access to lucrative Asian markets via tanker.

Given the pipeline's long and successful operating history, analysts initially thought this 7.4-billion-Canadian-dollar ($5.8 billion) project to increase capacity to 890,000 barrels per day would easily win approval. Instead, the company has faced an uphill battle from day one due to growing climate change fears, which fueled opposition from environmentalists and locals, including the government of British Columbia. While the National Energy Board of Canada did finally approve the expansion in late 2016, Kinder Morgan has continued facing resistance to the project. Among the issues has been an inability to secure the rights of way and permits in British Columbia needed to start construction.

A hard-fought battle on both sides

In addition to hampering the permitting process, those opposed have battled Kinder Morgan in court. However, the company recently scored a key win when the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the case against the pipeline. However, that decision doesn't take Kinder Morgan closer to being able to start putting shovels in the ground, as the opposition appealed to Canada's Supreme Court. While it's a long shot that the court will hear the case, Kinder Morgan wants to permanently settle this dispute, which pits not only the company but the government of Alberta, supported by the federal government -- including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- against British Columbia.

The pipeline company has issued an ultimatum of sorts, pressing both sides to reach an agreement by the end of next month so that it can proceed with the project. The company wants two things: clarity on the path forward, including the ability to build in British Columbia, and protection for shareholders, since they're risking billions of dollars on this project and don't want to see that money go to waste. The company has already invested CA$1.1 billion ($860 million) developing the expansion to this point but doesn't want to spend one more dollar unless it has some guarantee that it will be allowed to finish the project. If that required agreement isn't reached by the end of May, it's "difficult to conceive of any scenario in which we would proceed with the project," said the company's chief executive.

What this means for shareholders

While Kinder Morgan could just be playing hardball to force action, the company seems as if it has reached the end of its patience with the process and is willing to move in another direction if it can't get the necessary guarantees to build this project. A decision to cancel this expansion would be a significant blow to the company since it's by far the largest project in its backlog, representing 48% of anticipated growth spending over the next five years. Furthermore, the expansion would supply a needle-moving CA$1.1 billion ($860 million) of annual earnings by 2021, which is more than half of the total earnings growth the company anticipates. Losing such a significant portion of that future incremental cash flow could significantly diminish the company's dividend growth prospects.

Yet canceling the project wouldn't be the end of the world for investors. While the company would need to take a loss on the amount it's invested in the project so far, it could reallocate future spending on new projects and acquisitions. Of course, it would take Kinder Morgan and its Canadian subsidiary time to fill in the sizable gap, and the replacements might not move the needle to the same extent as the Trans Mountain Expansion would. In spite of these issues, the long-term outlook for energy infrastructure in North America remains bright, even if the prospects surrounding this particular pipeline look dim.
The Aviation Double Seat was created on the basis of findings from the EU-funded project iSPACE (Innovative Systems for Personalized Aircraft Cabin Environment) and was developed by Gentherm. In addition to the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP in Valley, Germany, nine European partners from the aviation industry were also involved. As part of the project, the participants have worked on technologies that will enhance the comfort of passengers, enabling them to adjust their personal indoor environment as well as to adapt the temperature and airflow to suit their personal needs.



In 2016, there were 3.7 billion passengers in civil aviation worldwide. According to a survey by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, increasing prosperity, attractive travel destinations, the expansion of global trade relations and liberal travel agreements have increased passenger numbers year after year. The Fraunhofer IBP is constantly researching the subject of aircraft in order to bring all of these people to their destinations in a healthy, comfortable, as well as ecological and economical manner. The indoor climate in aircraft cabins occupies an important place in the research work of the institute.
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.
Motorola's 45th Anniversary Sale discounts on Amazon: Moto G5s, Moto E4 Plus, Moto X4 and more Features oi-Harish Kumar Motorola's anniversary sale discounts on moto smartphones on Amazon.

Motorola wants to celebrate its 45th anniversary in style by offering some of its Moto series smartphones at discounted prices through the e-commerce website Amazon. Phones such as Moto G5, G5S, G5 Plus, G5s Plus and Moto Z2 Play are among the ones that will come under special discount. The sale will run until April 11.

Besides, the company will also be offering exchange offers and EMI options. Amazon has also listed these Moto smartphones with exchange offers up to Rs 12,398. Users can also opt for EMI through Axis Bank, Citibank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

SEE ALSO: Discount on new smartphones: Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime 2, Oppo F7, Vivo V9, Honor 9 Lite and more

In March, Motorola also launched Moto Fest which was hosted by Moto Hubs and e-commerce giant Flipkart. The sale offered discounts on the Moto E4 Plus, Moto X4, Moto G5S Plus, and the Moto Z2 Play.

33% off on Motorola Moto G5s Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.2 Inch FHD Display

1.4GHz Snapdragon 430 Octa-Core Processor

4GB RAM With 32GB ROM

16MP Rear Camera With Dual Tone LED Flash

5MP Front Camera With LED Flash

VoLTE/WiFi

Fingerprint Sensor

Bluetooth 4.2

Water Repellent Coating

Turbo Charging

3000 MAh battery 13% off on Moto E4 Plus Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD 2.5D curved glass display

1.3 GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor with 650MHz Mali T720 MP1 GPU

3GBRAM

32GB internal memory

expandable memory with microSD

Dual SIM

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

13MP auto focus rear camera with LED Flash

5MP fixed focus front-facing camera with LED flash

4G VoLTE

5000mAh built-in battery with 10W rapid charging Moto X4 Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.2-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD LTPS IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass protection

2.2 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 508 GPU

3GB RAM with 32GB storge

4GB RAM with 64GB storage

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 7.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD)

12MP primary camera and 8MP ultra-wide angle secondary camera

16MP Front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Turbo Charging Moto Z2 Play First Impressions - GIZBOT 37% off on Moto Z2 Play Buy This offer on Moto Z2 Play

Key Specs 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection

2.2GHz GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 626 processor with Adreno 506 GPU

4GB LPDDR3 RAM with 64GB storage / 3GB LPDDR3 RAM with 32GB storage

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Single / Dual SIM

12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Turbo charging 36% off on Moto G5 Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection

1.4GHz Octa-Core 64-bit Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) processor with Adreno 505 GPU

3GB RAM

16GB internal memory

expandable memory up to 128 GB with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat)

Dual SIM

13MP rear camera with LED flash

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

2800mAh battery with rapid charging 14% off on Moto G5s Plus Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection

2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU

4GB RAM

64GB storage

expandable memory up to 128 GB with microSD

Android 7.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD)

13MP (RGB) + 13MP (monochrome) dual rear cameras with dual-tone LED flash

8MP front-facing camera with flash, f/2.0 aperture

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Turbo Charging 38% off on Moto M Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display

2.2 GHz Octa-core MediaTek Helio P15 processor with Mali T860MP2 GPU

3GBRAM/32GB internal memory

4GB RAM/64GB internal memory

expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD

Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD)

16MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash

8MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3050mAh battery with Turbo charging 38% off on Moto G5 Plus Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.2-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection

2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU

3GB RAM with 16GB storage / 4GB RAM with 32GB storage

expandable memory up to 128 GB with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat)

Dual SIM

12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Turbo charging 26% off on Moto Z Play Buy This offer on Amazon

Key Specs 5.5 Inch Super AMOLED FHD Display

2Ghz Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Processor

3GB ROM with32/64GB ROM

Moto Mods

16 MP Camera With Dual LED Flash

5MP Front Camera With LED Flash

USB Type-C

Bluetooth

NFC

Fingerprint

3510mAh Battery

Best Mobiles in India
Coolpad Mega 4A goes on sale for Rs. 4,299 News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Finally, the Coolpad Mega 4A has been made available for purchase in India.

Last year, Coolpad Cool Play 6 smartphone was launched in India at a price point of Rs. 14,999. Along with this smartphone, the company also announced the Mega 4A, which was supposed to go on sale in the last year itself. However, the device got delayed and it has been made available now for Rs. 4,299. Coolpad has taken to Twitter to announce that this smartphone will be an offline exclusive model.

The company has also revealed the key specifications of this budget smartphone in the teaser image on its official Twitter handle. Going by the same, the Coolpad Mega 5A boasts of a 5-inch HD 720p display and runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. The smartphone comes with 16GB of internal memory capacity, which can be further expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card. The device is revealed to arrive with the dual-SIM support as well. Notably, there is a dedicated microSD card slot on board the Coolpad Mega 4A.

While the other specifications of this budget Coolpad smartphone remain unknown for now, the teaser image shows that there is a single rear camera accompanied by dual LED flash. The other aspects revealed by the teaser are the presence of hardware navigation keys, a micro USB port, a single selfie camera, a rear-facing loudspeaker and volume buttons and power button at the right.

Back in March, it was reported that Coolpad is all set to launch new smartphones in India after a long pause. The report suggested that Coolpad will make a few launches in the first half of this year while the second half will be its prime focus as it is the festive season in the country, which will be the right time for product launches. The company also revealed that it will come up with accessories in India.

Google tango, the augmented technology AR - GIZBOT

In an attempt to ramp up its business in India, Coolpad is looking forward to join hands with the telecom operators in the country so that it can compete with the other budget smartphone players in the market. Furthermore, one of the recent reports suggested that the Coolpad smartphones will receive Amazon Alexa support in India.

Best Mobiles in India
Honor 10 leak: Key specs, China launch date, Twilight color and more News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Honor 10 is believed to be unveiled in China on April 19 and globally on May 15.

Late in March, the rumors and leaks regarding an upcoming smartphone dubbed Honor 10 started hitting the rumor mills. Following the same, a leaked media invite suggested that this smartphone with an AI camera might be unveiled at an event in London on May 15. A few days back, more details about the Honor smartphone have surfaced online in the form of a promotional image and also shed light on some of its specifications.

The fresh information regarding the Honor 10 is that the Honor 10 featuring dual rear cameras with AI support could be introduced at an event to be held in Shanghai, China on April 19. Also, the leaked press invite for the Chinese announcement of the smartphone on Weibo tips that Chinese actors Zhao Liying and Hu Ge have been roped in as brand ambassadors. They are also seen in the image spotted on Weibo as seen above.

The major highlight of the Honor 10 appears to be the new Twilight color variant, which we saw during the Huawei P20 announcement. The previous banner, which was leaked in the last week also showed the glossy Twilight 3D back panel.

Noticeably, the Honor 10 might not feature a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as one of the early leaks suggested that there could be a front-facing fingerprint sensor. The image also hints at the presence of a dual-camera setup at its rear and a selfie-focused camera with AI capabilities. In the previous invite for May 15 launch, the smartphone was teased to arrive with an AI camera.

In addition to this, another leaked image on Weibo shows a promotional material in a store revealing the key specs of the Honor 10. According to the image shown above, the Honor 10 might arrive with a 5.8-inch FullView display with thin bezels. The device is likely to make use of Huawei's Kirin 970 SoC as the flagship smartphone P20, which was announced recently. This processor is believed to be teamed up with 6GB RAM and a whopping internal storage capacity of 256GB.

Top features of Honor 7X

Given that the Honor 10 could be announced in China on April 19, we can expect the May 15 launch event to be meant for the international launch of the device. The company did the same with the Honor 7X and Honor View 10 smartphones too.

Best Mobiles in India

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OnePlus 6 Avengers Edition soon to be a reality; UK launch tipped News oi-Vishal Kawadkar OnePlus 6 soon to have an Avengers-themed edition.

OnePlus was earlier rumored to collaborate with Marvel to bring the Avengers-themed OnePlus 6 edition. Well, this might soon turn into reality. According to a report by Deadline, the upcoming OnePlus 6 will have an Avengers Infinity War Edition that will pack an 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage and will be powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC.

The report also suggests that the new edition will be available for the UK market sometime this year. Although there's no confirmation of the launch date of the device, it is expected to land sometime around the movie's release which is due on April 27.

This isn't the first time, we have seen reports surrounding the Avengers-themed OnePlus 6. Earlier, a video surfaced online that showed intercuts between the OnePlus and Avengers logo, and also showed the release date of the upcoming Avengers movie.

It is still unclear whether the device will make it to the Indian market, but since the Star Wars edition was available for the Indian consumers, the Avengers themed-device might also hit the subcontinent shores.

As far as the device is concerned, a lot of rumors have been floating around. The smartphone is said to sport a 6.28-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 2,2801,080 pixel resolution and will be powered by the zippy Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. It will be backed by 8GB of RAM and will offer 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage options.

On the photography front, the smartphone will boast the same vertically housed dual camera setup comprising of a 20MP and 16MP sensor, but there's no word on the front camera of the phone. A 3,450mAh battery will fuel the device and will support company's Dash fast charging functionality.

The device will also feature an iPhone X-like notch. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau recently shared the first official image of the notch, which wasn't taken very well by the fans. Later the company confirmed that it will release a software update that will allow users to hide the notch. A new feature will blacken either side of the notch to make it look like a conventional display.

Best Mobiles in India

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Samsung Dex Pad now can be pre-ordered in the US at $99 News oi-Sandeep Sarkar The Samsung Dex Pad will officially arrive in the US on May 13 and the interested user can pre-book the device for $99.

Samsung has officially announced the Dex Pad a few weeks back, now it is being reported that the device is available for pre-orders in the US. The Samsung Dex Pad will officially arrive in the US on May 13 and the interested user can pre-book the device for $99. Further, if a user purchases Samsung Galaxy S9 or the S9 plus from the Samsung's website he/she will get the Dex Pad without any charges.

For those users who don't have an idea about the Dex Pad, we would like to add that it is an upgraded version of Samsung's DeX dock. The Samsung Dex Pad can also be used as a trackpad when a phone is attached to it. The Dex Pad is said to work similar to wireless charging pads and the users will not need to dock their smartphones to it as it used to in the Dex station.

This accessory which converts the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ into a desktop without the necessity to dock the smartphones will definitely enhance the overall performance of the devices. However, the DeX Pad will not be bundled with the smartphones and users need not purchase the same by paying any additional cost.

The Dex Pad accessory could feature a slew of ports such as a full-size HDMI port, a USB Type-C port and two full-size USB ports. The one thing which seems to be missing in the upcoming accessory seems to be the Ethernet port that was there on the original DeX Dock accessory that went official last year with the Galaxy S8 smartphones. Given the widespread availability of Wi-Fi, the lack of the Ethernet port should not be a major concern for the users.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ First Impressions

As we mentioned above that the Dex Pad will be available with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ without any extra charges which could attract a potential number of buyers. Let's quickly have a look at what Samsung has in store for its users in terms of features and specifications:

The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus comes with dual aperture lens which is able to switch between various lighting conditions. The camera features F1.5 aperture mode, allowing maximum light to fall in to produce very sharp images even in low light conditions. The super slow-mo lets with setting the video to music or turn it into a looping GIF. The IP68 allows the submersion up to 1.5 metres for 30 minutes comfortably making it excellent waterproof. The device is available in Lilac Purple, Midnight Black, Titanium Grey and Coral Blue for 64GB variant, whereas for 256GB variant the device is available in Midnight Black. Read more here.

Best Mobiles in India

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Uber acquires E-bike sharing startup 'Jump' bikes News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Uber has recently acquired E cycle sharing startup Jump, for an undisclosed amount of money. However, as per some sources, the deal was closed at $200 million.

Uber has recently acquired E cycle sharing startup Jump, for an undisclosed amount of money. However, as per some sources, the deal was closed at $200 million. Jump the E-bike service provider made this deal in order to offer affordable and convenient ride options for the users as per their needs.

As per some reports from the Beebom, Uber CEO, Dara khosrowshahi said, 'Today I'm excited to announce we've entered into an agreement to acquire Jump Bikes, an electric dockless bike-sharing service we've already been testing in San Francisco'. With the acquisition, Jump now have made the plans to expand beyond the US shores and also is planning to expands its e-bicycle sharing service in certain European markets beginning from next year.

Book Ola or Uber Through Google Search from your Smartphones - GIZBOT

Also in one of our recent articles related to Uber, we covered that in order to encourage road safety awareness the ride-sharing firm Uber had joined hands with Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and under this initiative. Both Uber and the Ministry of Road Transport will be jointly promoting road safety messaging on its app and social media through ministry co-branded materials and mediums. Several advertisements and videos targeting prevention of drunk driving and promotion of rear seat belts and hands on the wheel among other themes will be prepared and disseminated across the country as part of this safety campaign. Read the complete story here.

We have also covered that Uber, announced the launch of a Driver Loyalty Program for its tenured driver partners. Uber A-ONE is a pilot project started in various Indian cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi and Chennai. With its aim to recognize the work and time that the driver partners commit to the company Uber has taken this initiative. Uber believes that the driver partners have played a major role in contributing to the future of Uber. This initiative awards and appreciates the most-tenured driver partners for their loyalty and support. Read the complete story here.

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Facebook now lets you know if your data was shared with Cambridge Analytica News oi-Karan This is how Facebook is telling its users, that their data was misused in the Cambridge Analytica scandal or not. Here is the detailed information.

Facebook has been facing a lot of trouble after the Cambridge Analytica's data breach has been reported. The report literally goes back to 2014, when a Russian origin academic at Cambridge University Aleksandr Kogan has created a Facebook app which use to pay the users for taking up a psychological test. That data which were collected by the test was later sold by Kogan to Cambridge Analytica, a voter profiling company in the UK.

The entire data scandal has been landed controversy and cost Facebook billions of dollar in market value. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook has recently disclosed that data of approximately 87 million people have been leaked in the data scandal.

The blog post also disclosed that data of nearly 5.6 lakh Indian users may have been "improperly" shared with Cambridge Analytica. However, Schroepfer added that Facebook is trying its best to improve the security.

However, Facebook is now informing users if their data has been leaked in the Cambridge Analytica infringement or not.

Users will be getting a notification on their Facebook News Feed about the data breach starting today. For example, if a user's profile was obtained by the Cambridge Analytica then he/she will receive a notification saying, "We have banned the website 'This Is Your Digital Life,' which one of your friends used Facebook to log into. We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica."

Cambridge Analytica is a company which is accused of collecting millions of data from people's profiles without their acknowledgement. According to CNBC, the company was working on Facebook ads with President Donald Trump's campaign. Moreover, the CEO of the company Alexander Nix was also caught on camera saying that the firm ran all the digital campaigns for Trump.

The social media giant Facebook now has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, and "we'll have more than 20,000 by the end of this year," read the blog post.

Google Home Unboxing and Setup process - GIZBOT

For better security concern, Facebook has introduced a new feature called "About this Article", which will show the source of the article when tapped on the 'i' icon. The company has added this feature to its platform to fight fake news. Right now, the feature is only available in the US, but we expect a wider rollout soon.

Best Mobiles in India
Health-conscious fast casual restaurant Skinny Pizza plans to launch its first Connecticut location Wednesday on Greenwich Avenue.

Near the top of the street, Skinny Pizza overtook a storefront formerly occupied by Greenwich Health Mart, which closed in April 2015. The new eatery offers a variety of pizza, pasta, salad and soup options with the pizza prepared in front of customers before baking in a wood stone gas-fired brick oven.

The company name refers to its specialized pizza recipe that includes extra thin crust and premium ingredients. Greenwich resident and Skinny Pizza franchisee Eleni Bouboulis and her husband first visited the restaurant three years ago. They were immediately hooked, Bouboulis said, and soon after decided to bring the concept home.

They hadnt been looking specifically to launch a business but thought the Greenwich market would like its creative twist on pizza pies, she said. Bouboulis is a Brooklyn, N.Y., native who grew up eating all sorts of New York-styled pizza. Eventually, she became more health conscious and found an exciting alternative in Skinny Pizza, she said.

We want this to be a place for families, where everyone can eat because they dont have to worry about not finding something healthy, she said.

Inside, customers find a contemporary take on a traditional pizza parlor with green booths and red checkered wallpaper. Heading into its grand opening, Bouboulis said theyve hosted friends and family, including her sons school friends and their parents. Many people have been stopping in lately to ask when the restaurant would open and find out more about the brand, she said.

When ordering, customers can choose between making their own or picking a Skinny Pizza signature pie. For Build with no guilt, customers choose between four crusts including cauliflower, gluten-free, original skinny and whole wheat. Sauce options range from alfredo and pomodoro to marinara and vodka with another handful of cheese choices, including a vegan mozzarella.

The Skinny Pizza menu includes a calorie count for its ingredients as well as signature pies that encompass regular combinations like margherita and Hawaiian as well as SkinnyArugula, SkinnyShrooms and SkinnyVeggie. A new addition to the menu is Skinny Pizzas baked wings.

The restaurant will host a ribbon cutting with the Greenwich Chamber on Wednesday morning before opening for regular business hours at 11 a.m.

Skinny Pizza is located at 30 Greenwich Ave.
Just days after we told you the Samsung J720F is arriving as Galaxy J7 Duo in India, we received a photo in our inbox from a sales training session, revealing all of the phones key specs. The new device is coming with a Super AMOLED display, dual cameras, latest OS and 4G capabilities.

A 5.5 Super AMOLED display with HD resolution means the phone will have standard 16:9 ratio screen. The camera on the back is similar to the 13 MP + 5 MP setup of the Galaxy C7 (2017), but with a less impressive f/1.9 aperture on the main sensor.

The octa-core 1.6 GHz processor is the CPU on the year-old Exynos 7870 Octa chipset, paired with Mali T830 GPU. The OS is listed as Android Oreo 8.0, meaning the Galaxy J7 Duo will have latest Samsung Experience 9.0 user interface.

The battery capacity of 3,000 mAh might not sound overly impressive, but weve already tested the Galaxy A5 (2017) with the very same chipset and same power cell. It had an excellent result of 95h endurance rating. The Galaxy J7 Duo should also offer a removable battery allowing you to care a spare if that's not enough.

The phone will arrive in Black, Blue, and Gold sometime in April.

Special thanks to our tipster!
This is certainly an interesting way for a smartphone to leak. Images of an unannounced ZTE smartphone have made their way to World Design Guide in the form of an entry to win a design award. iF World Design was founded by Germans who celebrated exceptional industrial design in aesthetic, ergonomics, and efficiency. ZTE entered a smartphone called the Iceberg to win an award under the "Product" discipline.

ZTE Iceberg

As everyone keeps arguing whether or not having a notch in a display is a functional design choice or aesthetic flaw, ZTE went ahead and made a smartphone with two notches in the display. Instead of wondering how to make an all-display smartphone, ZTE doubled the notch to maintain aesthetic symmetry. ZTE even managed to fit a front-facing loudspeaker into each notch.

Rather than having a metal chassis holding the front and rear glass together, another slab of glass seamlessly connects the front and rear glasses to make the phone feel like it's a "fragment of ice". This is where the "Iceberg" name makes total sense for the handset. The phone also has wireless charging.

The ZTE Iceberg uses a seamless glass connection technique to combine two pieces of glass as one unibody, which makes the phone resemble a fragment of ice. The four corners of the phone are transparent to reveal the essential beauty of the glass material. The effect if beautiful and mysterious.

As far as availability. the ZTE Iceberg is set to launch "after 2017", according to the design entry. Development time took 13-24 months and the phone is aimed for launch in Asian, European, and North American markets.

We'll be waiting to hear from ZTE about the Iceberg and will let you know when we find out anything new. The entry doesn't list any specs or dimensions. Check out the Source link to see ZTE's design entry.

Source  Via
Published on 2018/04/10 | Source

Added episodes 7 and 8 captures for the Korean drama "Shall We Live Together" (2018)

Advertisement

Directed by Yoon Chang-beom

Written by Park Pil-joo

Network : KBS

With Yoo Dong-geun, Jang Mi-hee, Han Ji-hye, Lee Sang-woo, Park Sun-young, Yeo Hoe-hyun,...

50 episodes - Sat, Sun 19:55

Also known as "Marry Me Now"

Synopsis

The story explores the relationships between generations in a family; between parents, parents and children, and all the process by which all of them learn to relate to each other.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2018/03/17

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Havre Police Department

Monday at 6:54 a.m. at the Havre Police Department, a summons was issued on a charge relating to a 24/7 Sobriety Program violation.



Brint Weston Mack of Havre, 26, was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and possession of drug paraphernalia after a caller reported a disturbance with her brother Monday at 11:58 a.m. on Third Street.



Monday at 12:46 p.m. on Second Street officers investigated a vehicle crash after the caller reported a hit and run happened during the night.



Tara Alice Jordan of Box Elder, 42, was arrested on a charge of obstructing a peace officer or other public servant Monday at 12:57 p.m. on First Street.



Monday at 3:35 p.m. on Ninth Street, Jonahs James Demontiney of Box Elder, 23, was arrested on charges of possession of dangerous drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, probation violation and criminal trespass to property.



Officers investigated a 12:06 a.m. report today of a fight in a Jefferson Avenue parking lot with seven or eight people and more coming out. A second caller reported that people were gathering around a white car that had bashed in windows.



Officers investigated a Tuesday 5:04 a.m. call from First Street West reporting a theft.

Hill County Sheriffs Office

Tara Alice Jordan of Box Elder, 42, was arrested on charges of possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia Monday at 2:09 p.m. at the Hill County Detention Center.

Havre Fire Department

Emergency medical personnel responded to one call Monday.



Fire crews responded to a 6:11 a.m. fire alarm today on the 10 Block of Third Street after food that was left on the stove smoked up an apartment. The fire department cleared the smoke and reset the alarm.

Havre Animal Shelter

This morning the shelter held four medium-hair cats whose sex is listed as unknown, three medium-hair male cats, one medium-hair female cat, and one female short-hair cat.



The shelter held this morning a 1-year-6-month-old male Labrador retriever-pit bull terrier cross, a 10-month-old male Australian shepherd, a 1-year-old male boxer-pit bull terrier cross, a 4-year-old female German shepherd-Labrador retriever cross, a 1-year-2-month-old male Labrador retriever-Boston terrier cross and a 5-year-old female Australian shepherd.

Birth Announcement

A boy was born Saturday, April 7, 2018, to Shannon J. Morin and Anthony J. McKay of Harlem.
Karen Vosen poses Friday with a quilt that she made which will be raffled off during the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation's "Building Havre's Heritage" tea Saturday, April 28.

April 28, community members will not only have the opportunity to attend a High Tea to support the H. Earl & Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation, but will also have a chance to win a quilt, showcasing the heritage of Havre.

The quilt, which will be raffled off at the tea was made by Karen Vosen. Vosen, who has been quilting for over 20 years and currently has a quilt in the International Quilt Festival, grew up in Minnesota but said she has been living in Havre for more than 50 consecutive years.

She said this is the third tea for the museum and also the third time a quilt she has made will be raffled off. Vosen said she decided to make a quilt for the first tea, which had a theme of "Downton Abbey," because she found a "Downton Abbey" quilt design online.

Vosen said she works on quilts most days because she enjoys doing handwork.

"I have also donated quilts to the Boys & Girls Club for many years," she said, and is happy her quilts were able to raise money for the club.

"Havre needs it." Vosen said about donating the quilts to raise money for the club. "I have two grandsons who go to the Boys & Girls Club." She added.

Vosen said she also likes to donate a quilt to raise money for the museum since there is limited seating for the museum tea and it is a good way to make extra money for the museum foundation.

This year the theme of the tea will be "Building Havre's Heritage," and Vosen said she wanted to make a quilt that would "honor buildings in Havre."

She said she decided to start her search by contacting Val Hickman, who works in Archives, Museum, Public and Technical Services at Montana State University-Northern's Vande Bogart Library. Hickman was able to find pictures of historical buildings in Havre.

Hickman said that Vosen gave her an idea of the kinds of buildings she wanted and then Hickman went through the library archives to find several pictures that Vosen could choose from.

Vosen said she "tried to implement the most important and prominent" historic buildings.

The buildings that Vosen chose for the quilt are:

 Havre post office - currently privately owned and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 Havre City Hall - built in 1908 and designed by Frank Bossout.

 McIntyre Opera House aka Lyric Theatre - a building that was built with wood when most buildings were of brick.

 Commanding Officers' Quarters (Fort Assiniboine) - built in 1879 and no longer standing.

 Carnegie Library - established itself with donated books and is now a privately-owned art gallery and residence.

 F.A. Buttery - became a chain store in the Pacific Northwest and housed the first Montana radio station, KFBB, in 1929.

 Sacred Heart Hospital - dedicated in 1912 and was later burned due to defective wiring.

 First Havre High School - distinguished by the front bell tower and was destroyed by fire in 1917.

 Havre Railroad Depot/Empire Builder Depot - built by James J. Hill in 1887 and brought many homesteaders to the Hi-Line.

 First Street Havre - the 1904 fire lead to rebuilding with Brick Buildings.

 Pershing Hall (Northern Montana College, now MSU-Northern) - Built with bricks taken from buildings from Fort Assinniboine, in 1934 the first graduation on campus was held in this building.

 St. Mark's Episcopal Church - completed in 1918 and was built of donated gray stone that was shipped to Havre, free of charge, by James Hill.

 Enlisted Men's Barracks (Fort Assinniboine) - these barracks were utilized as dorms for youth camps until 1954 when it burned down.

 Havre High School (white building) - served the community until 1964 when the present school opened.

 Hill County Courthouse - designed by Frank Bossout in Beaux-Arts Style of Kasota Stone.

 Masonic Temple, now the 305 Building - held its first lodge meeting in 1916 and is now privately-owned.

 Civilian Conservation Corps - held public work relief programs from young men from 1933-1942.

 Clack Grain Elevators - "an icon of the past" that played an important role in the Hi-Line.

After she chose the pictures, Vosen said, she struggled to find an inkjet printer that could print the Direct to Garment print that she needed for the quilt.

Havre Daily News/Ryan Welch

She said she was very happy then to find that fivehead's embroidery and screenprinting shop had a printer capable of printing to garment.

Derek Eldridge of fivehead's said to make sure the pictures printed clearly on the fabric, he had to resize the photos and make sure the print quality was good.

Vosen said she hopes that not only will people purchase tickets for the tea but also for the raffle. Tickets for the tea can be purchased at Brandon's Flooring or by calling Vosen at 262-2561. Raffle tickets are $5 a ticket or $20 for a book of five. Tickets for the raffle can be purchased at Brandon's Flooring, Clack Museum, at the door the day of the tea, or from various museum board members.
The stores were two of 20 7-Eleven outlets targeted by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) as part of a tri-State operation in September 2014.

The inspectors found that the workers at both stores were paid flat rates for all hours worked, except for public holidays where they received an additional $20 per hour in cash.

The FWO has taken legal action against 11 7-Eleven operators since 2009. 7-Eleven entered into a Proactive Compliance Deed with the FWO in late 2016, committing to a range of measures designed to ensure all its workers receive their lawful entitlements through strong accountability for all operators across its franchise network and supervision by the FWO.

The respondents were also penalised for failing to meet record-keeping and payslip requirements, including by failing to include information in respect of cash payments made to some of the employees.

Moreover, Judge Mercuri noted the FWO had previously issued Yuan with a letter of caution in 2013 after an investigation found that workers at the Adelaide Street store were not being paid applicable weekend and public holiday penalty rates.
It might be easier said than done. However, Andrea Thompson, HR Director - Health, AsPac, Serco, will be at the HR Summit Perth this June to share her tips on just that.

In the session Being a frank and fearless adviser in the C-Suite, she will explore the role of the HR Director as the honest truth-teller in a leadership team and discuss:
Vaccines containing inactivated versions of disease-causing germs are traditionally not as effective as live vaccines made with weakened pathogens. But new research from Weill Cornell Medicine scientists reveals how a molecule found in live vaccines produces a robust immune response, and adding it to an inactivated vaccine can create the same strong results.

These insights may provide a blueprint for engineering more potent inactivated or dead vaccines that can deliver strong immunity while overcoming concerns about the health risks of live vaccines.

There has been a reluctance in the general population to get vaccinated, but vaccines are the single most effective medical intervention proven to prevent disease, said senior author Dr. Julie Magarian Blander, a senior faculty member in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine, who was recruited as a professor of immunology in medicine. We have known that live vaccines provide better protection, often for life, in one dose, compared to dead vaccines that frequently require multiple doses or boosters over time.

In the study, published March 13 in Immunity, the scientists identified how a molecule called bacterial RNA signals the immune response to stimulate the generation of specialized immune cells, called follicular T helper cells. Those cells play a critical role to help another type of immune cell, called B cells, make antibodies, which are proteins that recognize and neutralize invading germs before they cause infections.

Making a follicular T helper response has been one of the Holy Grails in vaccine research, Dr. Blander said. We found that dead vaccines are not very good at generating follicular T helper cells, and adding bacterial RNA increased the numbers of follicular T cells and led to higher antibody titers.

The studys findings suggest a path for creating effective modified dead vaccines for bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus (which causes staph infections), Neisseria (which causes gonorrhea and bacterial meningitis), Shigella (which cause intestinal disease), Vibrio cholera, Listeria and Salmonella.

The findings may also help improve the performance of existing subunit vaccines, which contain only part of the pathogen, and salvage vaccines that may have been shelved due to inefficacy. Were excited that we identified the signal and the pathways, but bacterial RNA is very unstable, Dr. Blander said. The next step is to develop stable small compounds that target these pathways.

Dr. Blander and Dr. Gaetan Barbet, lead author on the study, collaborated with colleagues, including Dr. Iliyan Ilievat Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Leif Sander at Charite University Hospital in Berlin, and Dr. Andrea Cerutti at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona.

They are currently exploring how to modify a vaccine for the anthrax bacterium and expanding their sights to viruses, starting with H1N1 influenza, the strain responsible for the flu epidemic in 2009. Most commonly administered in an inactivated form, the flu vaccine is a high-interest target for improvement. Its effectiveness usually varies between 50 and 70 percent but can be as low as 36 percent, as seen in the 2017-18 season.

This study and the investigators were supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AI095245, AI127658, AI57653, AI95613, AI61093, U19 096187, AI123284, AI073899, DK072201, DK111862), the Crohns and Colitis Foundation, the European Research Council, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovation, Marie Curie, the German Research Council, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Weill Cornell Medicine
At Heifer International, we see repeatedly how powerful women become when they have the tools and resources to thrive. Receiving an animal gift is a good first step to economic sustainability, but its womens leadership thats building up communities around the world. Why? Because successful women help not only themselves, but also their families and other people in their communities. The power of women and community is a global universal. We are thrilled today to introduce you to an amazing, groundbreaking community leader as part of our Womens Empowerment Community Leader Series.



Todays Womens Empowerment Community Leader Spotlight is on Meredith Walker of Amy Poehlers Smart Girls. Walker began her television career producing Peabody and Emmy award-winning Nick News with Linda Ellerbee. Next, she served as head of the talent department at Saturday Night Live. Walker now serves as executive director of the organization she co-created, Amy Poehlers Smart Girls. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, she devotes her time to all things Smart Girls. By leading workshops, service days and Smart Girls volunteer teams, she makes sure that the mission of Smart Girls -- to help young people cultivate their authentic selves -- reaches around the globe.

Smart Girls Amy Poehler and Meredith Walker team up.

What was the pivotal moment that led you to create your community?

Amy Poehler and I created Smart Girls to help young women find their way in the world while hanging onto their own identities, rather than morphing for a false sense of belonging. Smart Girls has become a cyber-clubhouse, a safe haven for our community to engage in intelligent conversation and find the things that make them more similar than different. Our hope is to convey to our community members that it is their right to forge a meaningful life as they define it and to celebrate the multidimensional people they really are.



Can you share an example of a woman in your community who has done something amazing?

What I consider amazing is to hear about moments of authentic living inspired by Smart Girls. A woman in her 70s decided to start swimming every day because she learned from us to be someone who jumps in, instead of standing on the side endlessly discussing what it would feel like to jump in. We hear from students who discover more about what matters to them, what breaks their heart, what injustices they want to fight against. Whenever I hear from someone who is living according to her OWN beliefs and values and not being defined or limited by society, THAT is amazing.



We would love to hear about a woman who has empowered you! Who is someone who said yes to you or encouraged you to do more/do better for others?

Linda Ellerbee is the reason I am where I am today. As a woman, a journalist and a producer, Linda did the difficult things that opened doors for so many of us. As we navigate our way through efforts to undermine journalism and the very idea of objective truth, I am grateful for Lindas tough standards and honesty. For me, she exemplifies the art of being yourself. Thats why she is the godmother of Smart Girls. Linda mentored me. She taught me about fact-finding and attaching context and meaning to those facts. She taught me how to use media to tell the truth, and she taught me how to advocate for others by helping them share their stories.



A key way we help empower women is by providing resources and ongoing training to help them grow and then help others. What resources and types of training have best helped your community thrive?

We use our platform to address and change gender stereotypes by creating content that leads by example. Ranging from going live with young instrument engineer Christina Diaz at JPLs (Jet Propulsion Lab) Mars Yard, historical pieces profiling women often left out from history, or covering events that are galvanizing women such as the United State of Women Summit in D.C. or our own Fear of Failure Summit. We have held workshops, day camps and even a journalism boot camp. In that boot camp, the girls chose for themselves to learn more about and report on transgender issues. Helping young women learn how to seek the truth and seek perspectives other than their own is an important part of what we do.

Walker visits a dairy cow at a Heifer project in Malawi.

A big piece of Heifers work in womens empowerment and social capital is gender equity, teaching women and men that shared decision making and leadership is a good thing. This can be challenging in patriarchal communities. What do you think is one of our societys key challenges to help women close the equity gap?

In 2018 it is both exhilarating and disconcerting that women still have to confront a bias against them. It is exhilarating because the culture is obviously being challenged. There is more than a wakeup call taking place. Its disconcerting because so much still remains to unlock the great potential of women fully taking an equal place in a world that so desperately needs all the gifts and talents women can offer. Those who continue to put obstacles in the path of that progress need to be held accountable, need to be called out. It would be wonderful it those obstacle placers could simply have a change of heart to see all the good that can come from equity. If not, then we need to let them know that we are not walking away, not giving up or giving in. We wont let them hide behind token gestures in place of real substance.



We believe that the womens empowerment journey is universal, even if details differ depending on where a woman lives. What do you see as a key universal -- a thread that connects all women around the globe -- when it comes to women, leadership, and/or community?

My job at Smart Girls has afforded me the chance to spend time with young women around the world and witness the threads that connect us as human beings. Women everywhere deserve to be treated with respect. Women deserve to be taken seriously. Women and girls are pillars of their communities with voices that deserve to be heard and supported.



Which of Heifers women's empowerment programs is your favorite? Why?

Heifer International's Women's Self-Help Group. I know the power that comes from women rising together through participation. The Heifer International Womens Self Help Group offers that power. Women gather in support of one another while learning about business, their community and themselves. Because of these groups, communities are strengthened and lives are transformed.
On Easter Sunday, President Donald Trump expressed concern via Twitter about a caravan of emigrants walking north from Central America to the southern border of the United States.

As the week progressed, Trump doubled down on his original comments, saying the caravan had better be stopped before it gets to the U.S. border. The statements tie into Trumps position that we need stronger immigration laws, an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and a wall on the border.

We're looking too much at the symptoms and not enough at the causes.

Out of the nearly 1,200 people in the caravan, about 80 percent are from Honduras, a country where Heifer works. Trump also threatened to cut U.S. aid to Honduras if the immigration continued.

I understand that immigration is a complex issue, and people hold passionate opinions on how to approach those who enter the country through unofficial channels. But were looking too much at the symptoms and not enough at the causes.

Ive visited Honduras a couple of times to meet with Heifer project participants, and Im heading there again in a few days to do the same. Ive not met one Honduran who truly wanted to uproot his or her family from the only home theyve known and make the long, dangerous journey to the U.S. The Hondurans in the caravan are mainly fleeing political and gang violence. Many more people decide to leave the country because there arent enough economic opportunities, and they need to find a way to feed their families.

Im sure most Hondurans dont want to leave because there are a lot of great things about their home country. Its a vibrantly multi-ethnic place with roots in the Mayan culture. Theres plenty of natural beauty, and the food is deliciousIm pretty excited about eating pupusas and fresh corn tortillas all week.

On the trip, well be visiting Heifer farmers who are now enjoying stability in their lives after joining forces to form small businesses and cooperatives that produce coffee and chocolate. Im not a coffee drinker, but Honduran coffee wins me over every time. And I really enjoy having the experts teach me about where my chocolate comes from. La Esperanza #Honduras A post shared by Jason Woods (@jasonmwoods) on May 8, 2014 at 9:02pm PDT

The families Heifer works with are making a go of it economically, but unfortunately, not all families have the same opportunities. For Hondurans without land, capital and other resources, dire circumstances have forced them to leave. I hope we can all find the compassion to agree that we dont want people to live in fear and poverty, no matter the borders that surround them. And I hope we can find the common sense to realize that if we help people find opportunities and community at home, then we can really get to the root of the immigration issue.
Buckets of unseasonably late monsoon rains fell when I visited the office of Barogachi Womens Cooperative in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. I also came woefully unprepared, with no protection from the rain, so I readied myself to be damp the rest of the morning. Kindly, some of the cooperative members had anticipated my packing neglect and ran an umbrella out to me, saving the day.

Thats par for the course with these women. The members are very good at finding solutions to challengesmost of them much bigger than a guy showing up without an umbrella.

Since gaining legal recognition from the government in 2015, Barogachi has grown from 56 members to 383. The agricultural cooperative is the first co-op supported by Heifer Bangladesh.

The Barogachi Women's Group is dedicated to providing financial services to women and creating social change.

Bangladesh is a country known for gender inequality. According to UNICEF, girls are often considered to be financial burdens on their family, and from the time of birth, they receive less investment in their health, care and education.

Thats why Heifer helps form womens groups here. Financial soundness is a key part of the cooperatives vision. And while they also focus on ending poverty for member families and growing as an organization, Barogachi is dedicated to social change.

Before forming the cooperative, we felt alone, said Monira Begum, co-op president. We were scattered in different places. Banks would not open accounts for the women assuming they wouldnt get their money back.

In society, no one cared what we wanted or what we were doing, she said. No one cared about me because Im just one person. After forming the cooperative and getting government approval, we have power. In society, even the local government, everyone values us.

The present situation is use of the dowry system is down 50 percent, early marriage has been reduced 80 percent already. Abuse is down from 100 percent to 10 percent. Monira Begum, Co-op President

And its being reflected in their ledgers, too.

Last year, shareholders received a 55 percent dividend yield, and the cooperative netted a profit of nearly $4,000. Additionally, hundreds of loans were granted to members for agricultural activities.

But financial soundness is only part of the cooperatives vision. In addition to ending poverty for member families and growing as an organization, Barogachi is dedicated to social change.

Monira Begum said the organization uses education and awareness campaigns to prevent early marriage, domestic abuse and the dowry system. Early on, the success of the cooperative is striking.

The present situation is use of the dowry system is down 50 percent, Monira Begum said. Early marriage has been reduced 80 percent already. Abuse is down from 100 percent to 10 percent.

According to Monira Begum, the key is coming together to form a collective voice.

Now we are confident, she said.
Former US senator George Mitchell has warned that future generations will see Brexit as a mistake.

Mr Mitchell, who chaired the Good Friday negotiations 20 years ago, said the problems in Northern Ireland today are "difficult and serious".

Speaking at the Hugh Lane Gallery yesterday, Mr Mitchell remarked that the UK's withdrawal from the EU will negatively hit Ireland.

"I believe that as a democratically taken decision Brexit must be respected," he said. "But I also believe that history will prove it to be an unwise decision for the people of the United Kingdom.

"It will also have adverse effects in Ireland where people did not vote for it.

"There has to be provisions taken to respect and not cause undue harm to the people of Ireland."

The former senator said he hopes political leaders will reflect on what was accomplished 20 years ago by their predecessors.

"I think they should rekindle the spirit that led to the Good Friday Agreement and to do what's best for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.

"While we should not underestimate the current challenges, neither should we overlook the enormous progress that has been made.

"Northern Ireland today is a much different, much safer, much better place than it was 20 years ago."

He added that the British and the European Union must insist that Brexit will not lead to a hard Border.

"We who support the people of Northern Ireland should accept and insist that this commitment be kept," he said.

"We should not hold the people of Northern Ireland to a standard higher than what we hold others to, including the United States and the UK.

"The challenge is to move forward and not live in the past but rather prepare for the challenges of the 21st century."

With paramilitary-style "punishment" shootings and beatings surging again across Northern Ireland, Mr Mitchell agreed that some people are still stuck in the past.

Violence

"I come from the United States. We're plagued with the mass shootings of hundreds of our fellow citizens, including school children," he said.

"No society is free of violence. Some assume that they don't have to do anything and things will be alright.

"It takes strong, effective and committed leadership [for this to happen] - that's what I hope we're going to see in Northern Ireland.

"Do they have problems? Yes, of course. Do the people of Dublin have problems? Yes.

"I think we should look at the whole picture. Northern Ireland is a much better place thanks to the actions of the leaders 20 years ago.

"Problems remain, but problems are inevitable in every society."

Speaking to the Herald, Mr Mitchell said that we must honour those who died in the Troubles with a fresh start.

"The tragedies of the past have left a deep and profoundly regrettable legacy of suffering," he said.

"We must never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families. But we can best honour them through a fresh start, in which we firmly dedicate ourselves to the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all.

"The current problems in Northern Ireland are difficult and serious, and must be resolved.

"While we should not underestimate the current challenges, neither should we overlook the enormous progress that has been made.

"I am an American and very proud of it, but a large part of my heart and of my emotions will forever be with the people of Northern Ireland."

Endorsed

Twenty years ago today, the Good Friday Agreement was signed and endorsed a month later in a referendum by 71.12pc, paving the way for peace in the North.

Yesterday, Mr Mitchell helped open an exhibition at Hugh Lane, reflecting a visual record of the extraordinary events and people that led to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

'Keeper' is body of work, which stems from Amanda Dunsmore's time as artist in residence at The Maze prison.
Brian Kelly outside his pub with his car and insurance quote

A motorist was shocked when his annual motor insurance renewal quote rocketed to an incredible 19,000.

Meath publican Brian Kelly (48) rang Liberty Insurance to point out what he thought was an administrative error.

However, the company told him the policy price of 19,368.26 for his 2007 1.6-litre Toyota Avensis was correct.

The increase was more than 15,000 extra on his insurance costs for last year, and over 18,500 more than his 2016 insurance policy of 800.

Mr Kelly, who is a director of the suicide awareness voluntary group Save Our Sons and Daughters (SOSAD) was left scratching his head when Liberty told him that the huge premium was because of two outstanding claims against him.

"I'm in shock. Sure, who could afford to pay 19,000 for car insurance? You'd buy a new car for that," he said.

"I'm with Liberty Insurance 17 years and had nine years of a no-claims bonus intact.

Claims

"I've had two tips since Christmas 2016 on two separate occasions in Navan and Slane.

"I wasn't going at speed when I hit both from behind. I got out of the car and swapped insurance details. There seemed to be very little damage, if any, to the vehicles and the drivers got out and seemed fine. In one of the incidents, there was even a garda driving behind us who stopped for a few minutes but left us to sort everything out.

"When I heard there were two personal injuries claims against me pending, I was both gobsmacked and devastated."

Mr Kelly now has a month to seek new insurance cover but does not think that anyone else will insure him because of the incidents.

"I can't afford to pay 19,000, but I need my car," he added.

"I've been a director of SOSAD since 2009 and do a lot of fundraising. What am I going to do now? To be quoted 19,000 is ludicrous in itself. I know after the first incident in 2016, the premium went from 800 to 4,000 and I paid it.

"But this jump is completely out of the ballpark."

Mr Kelly has contacted the Financial Services Ombudsman to make a complaint.

"I hold up my hands to the accidents, but I just can't understand how a quote of over 19,000 can be justified.

"I believe that the claim culture in this country will literally drive us all off the roads and has to be looked at," he added.

Liberty Insurance did not repond to a request for comment.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is under pressure as developers change their plan for the Irish Glass Bottle site

Councillors are demanding action from Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy after it was revealed just one third of promised social housing units would be delivered at a landmark Dublin site.

Receivers of the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Poolbeg were granted permission to develop 3,500 housing units under the Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) scheme last May, in a deal made by then housing minister Simon Coveney.

The receivers of the land, Deloitte, agreed to allocate 900 of the planned 3,500 units to social and affordable housing following negotiations with the minister and Dublin city councillors.

However, Deloitte has made an appeal which would see it delivering just 350 units, or 10pc of the total development, for this purpose.

Under the SDZ scheme, there is a provision to have 10pc of the development delivered as social and affordable housing.

Last night, councillors expressed outrage at the appeal to An Bord Pleanala which would see the number of available homes cut by more than half, if it was successful, and insisted the minister should intervene.

Green Party councillor Claire Byrne, who raised the emergency motion, said it is not acceptable for the minister to renege on an agreement that was made in good faith.

Speaking to the Herald, Cllr Byrne said this was one of the most important promises made to tackle social housing in Dublin, and it would be in the minister's interest "not to roll back on that commitment".

"We need this because it is one of the biggest developments in the city. Overall what is happening in the city in terms of providing houses is really regressive.

"We've made promises to the citizens with this development," she added.

Fianna Fail councillor Frank Kennedy said councillors were "foolish" for accepting assurances by Mr Coveney that the development would be protected despite the lack of a binding contract.

Damaging

"It was the clear and absolute understanding of all the members of this council that we didn't need to worry about this," he said.

"What we have been left with tonight is a very damaging situation."

An Bord Pleanala is set to hold a public hearing this month in order to fast-track the development at the site in Ringsend.

Meanwhile, figures seen by the Herald reveal there are 519 properties lying vacant which are available for social housing, despite 4,000 homeless people in Dublin. The figures were obtained Independent councillor Noeleen Reilly.
A former garda commissioner described two whistleblowers as "f**king headbangers" and said one of them "fiddles with kids", the Disclosures Tribunal has heard.

Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness alleged Martin Callinan made the "headbangers" comment about former garda John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe after a meeting of the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on January 23, 2014.

He said he believed the second remark was a reference to Sgt McCabe, about whom false allegations had been circulating in Leinster House.

Mr Callinan denies the TD's account of what was said.

Disgusting

Mr McGuinness, then chairman of the PAC, went to shake hands with Mr Callinan following the PAC meeting, which examined the controversy over the abuse of the penalty points system.

During that meeting, Mr Callinan made his now infamous "disgusting" remark in relation to the activities of the two whistleblowers.

The TD said that as he arrived over to Mr Callinan, the then commissioner was in a group of people which included his eventual successor Noirin O'Sullivan and former garda press officer Supt Dave Taylor.

He said Mr Callinan told him a story that related to an incident on Grafton Street involving horses in 1983, which Mr Wilson had responded to when he was a garda.

He alleged Mr Callinan said Mr Wilson pulled a "k*****r off the horse".

"He confiscated the horse, mounted it and rode it back to the barracks where he tied it to the railings. And the other fella fiddles with kids. That is the type of f**king headbangers I'm dealing with," Mr Callinan is alleged to have said.

Mr McGuinness agreed with tribunal counsel Pat Marrinan SC that he had felt "outraged" by the remarks.

Michael O'Higgins SC, counsel for Supt Taylor, said his client had heard the "kiddie fiddler" comment.

Mr McGuinness said he was "deeply troubled" by what he heard, did not partake in the conversation and "just moved on".

At the time, the PAC was considering whether to take evidence from Sgt McCabe on penalty points abuses, something it ultimately did during a private session, despite opposition from Mr Callinan.

Mr Marrinan said Mr Callinan had a different account of what was said and read from a statement given by the former commissioner.

"I do recall that I inquired from Mr McGuinness as to whether former garda John Wilson would be called to give evidence. Mr McGuinness responded: 'You must be joking. Sure he's a f**king header'," Mr Callinan's statement said.

Mr McGuinness said Mr Callinan's account was "untrue" and that he had the greatest of respect for Mr Wilson.

The tribunal heard that the day after the PAC hearing, Mr McGuinness met Mr Callinan in the car park of a Dublin hotel at the commissioner's request.

"He [Mr Callinan] suggested he [Sgt McCabe] had sexually abused family and an individual, that he was not to be trusted and I had made a grievous error in relation to the Public Accounts Committee hearing because of this and would find myself in serious trouble," said Mr McGuinness.

Concerns

Despite what Mr Callinan had told him, the TD said he "made a judgment call" that the PAC should not be deterred from hearing from Sgt McCabe.

In his statement, Mr Callinan said much of the discussion in the car park related to concerns he had about data protection issues, arising from garda documents given to the committee.

Mr Callinan also alleged that it was Mr McGuinness, and not him, who had raised the issue of allegations against Sgt McCabe.

"I didn't at any point, as alleged, seek to discredit Sgt McCabe or undermine the workings of the Public Accounts Committee," Mr Callinan said.

However, Mr McGuinness rejected Mr Callinan's version of events.

"The account that I have given to the tribunal is absolutely true," the TD said.
Washington County Public Schools early dismissal policy under review

Washington County Public Schools has proposed changes to its policy for students who leave school early during the day
India and Nepal meet everywhere: Sovereigns to independence, democracy to pluralism, biodiversity to livelihood, folk tales to religious spaces and fossil fuel to pharmaceuticals. Their paths have encompassed freedom struggles, migration, disasters, transborder environmental injuries, hydrological flows, currency, yoga, sports, connectography, health and education.

However, in the last seven decades, we have often seen relations marred by issues such as domination, disregard for each others national security interests, brazen interference and micro-management. Meeting points are vast, deeper and objectively quantifiable, whereas points of discord and apprehensions are largely subjective and (mis)perception-based.

This relationship has been established in four distinct interactive terrains: people-to-people, civil society, business-commercial and government-to-government. These matrices, buttressed by an open border regime, make this relation unique and special, the main being the people-to-people contact. However, the nature of State formation, foreign policy orientation and governance structure and power echelons on both sides of the border somehow put the government-to-government relation at the forefront.

This overwhelming domination of governments, underplaying and even neglecting the other three core interactive terrains, invariably creates some sort of an awkward situation, bilateral imbroglios and economic blockades. The government-led relationship could work effectively in other geographies and countries but not between India and Nepal as the bilateral flows are historically so natural, smooth and unhindered.

The people-to-people exchanges are neutral to the government and political formations. They have remained unaffected even in acute conflict situations such as the Maoist movement. However, the discourse and debate have always remained government-driven and nation-centric. As a result, day-to-day-incidents and events tend to overtake the eternal and exemplary relationship, thereby making Nepal more India-obsessed and the later more narrowly engaged.

Therefore, when India and Nepal rethink and renegotiate their relationship, could the roles of these four interactive matrices be re-prioritised, and also firmly institutionalised? Except the fringe elements, its these three crucial stakeholders who have propagated and sustainably conserved and secured the national interest of both these countries. This means that people-to-people inter-dependence must lead the relationship along with civil society and business-commercial level interactions.

And let the government-to-government deliberations, negotiations and operational details be carried out to facilitate these other aspects. Let the three actors be the determinants in the relationship. This is where both India and Nepal can propagate a new policy of neighbourhood nirvana. This may look ludicrous to the status quoists but people want this out-of-the-box thinking to be operationalised.

This is where the conventionally dominant Delhi-Kathmandu axis could be substantially based on the new models like Indias cooperative federalism and Nepals newly-evolving constructive federalism. Nepals new provinces could now interact with the bordering Indian states more intimately and formally. Borderland physical and social infrastructures projects like universities, technical and professional institutions, hospitals, industries, trading centres, tourism, pilgrimage and training and skill-building centres could take the form of the Bhairawa-Gorakhpur-Delhi and Ilam-Darjeeling-North East India economic corridors.

After the Peace and Friendship Treaty was signed in 1950, India emerged as the first major donor country with grants, loans and technical cooperation for N epal. For decades, India remained the dominant development partner in fields ranging from highways, hydel projects, hospitals and airports, education, communications, industries, joint ventures to migration management and agriculture. Newer varieties of cross-border infrastructure projects such as the 400 KV Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar electricity transmission line and Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya cross-border oil pipeline have started.

Today multilateral agencies and non-governmental actors with diverse functional principles and actions make Nepal a complex and challenging development constituency. Their access to and deeper influence on the nations policy-making system along with projects such as Chinas Belt and Road Initiatives are bound to make this Himalayan republic a place of global interest. These could change the orientation of anerstwhile land-locked country and entice Nepal to renegotiate its historical equidistance philosophy based on strategic posturing with a more radical and practically gainful repositioning.

India is a regional pivot, and has to consciously move from its conventional role of providing economic assistance to generating adequate bilateral space for inter-dependence. Here Nepal must become a partner and not a hapless recipient.

Supporting Nepal in creating and building institutions is critical. Infrastructure pertaining to new federal units in terms of governance, revenue and income generation, employment creation and building and management of basic public amenities such as roads, communications, energy and water and environment are needed. Prime Minister Narendra Modis advocacy of Highways, Information Technology and Transmission lines (HIT) during his maiden visit to Nepal in 2014 resonates in Kathmandu.

Indias major foray should be in innovation and technology transfer, multidisciplinary dialogues, educational and technical institutions, local and global migration management and skills and capacity-building. Nepal could be the fountainhead of climate change knowledge and connect to Indias larger dynamics of the management of the ecology of hills and mountains.

Can India think of building a far-reaching institutional architecture, such a common market between the two countries? Can India formally include Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal in its Act East Policy and give them unhindered access to South East Asia through the Northeast? India and Nepal have to think big. They have to act bold and enter into a new special relationship. The older parameters, traditional variables and orthodox institutional thinking of the special relationship are now outdated and ineffective. They have become irritants in the designing of a 21st century relationship.

Mahendra P Lama is member of the Eminent Persons Group from India and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University

The views expressed are personal
The historian Dharampal has a wonderful anecdote about villagers in India in the 16th and 17th century. He said the archives revealed that whenever villagers were fed up with the king for the authoritarian way he treated them, they would abandon the kingdom and move to a new place. The king had to follow them and apologise for his behaviour if he wanted them to return.

Dharampals research points out that secession has always been a part of folklore. One realises that even the disciplinary structures of the nation-state have not quite changed this mentality. The emerging nation-state always flaunted the story of Sardar Patel`s attempt to tame erring principalities as a counter legend. In the initial years, the federal framework tames the secessionist imagination except in Kashmir and the North East. But today, as the BJPs centralism and the juggernaut of the RSS becomes more stark, some kind of secessionist statement is seen as part of an opposition identity.

Two events in recent times were extremely significant. The first was Chandrababu Naidus call for a federation of southern states to fight the BJPs onslaught. Naidu visualised it within the electoral framework but also as a way of giving the South both financial and political breathing space from the BJP. The second call, raised by the DMK leader Stalin that raised memories of linguistic secession, was the project of Dravida Nadu.

The idea in fact was proposed decades earlier by Periyars Justice Party. It spread from Tamil regions to embrace all Dravidian languages. By the 1950s, the dream of Dravida Nadu faded, though language was still a pressing issue. But today one sees a resurgence of southern and Tamil nationalism, centring on a feeling that the South is different. What once centred on language has burgeoned into a general dissatisfaction. One saw evidence of it when a younger generation argued for jallikattu. One sensed it in the manner in which Tamils have reacted to the way the Centre has responded to the Sri Lankan problem. In 2017, it acquired a new dimension with the notification banning the sale of cattle for slaughter. A Twitter war ensued in which Kerala refused to comply with the diktats. By 2018, what was a shopping list of dissatisfactions turned into a political battle over the Centre`s economic neglect of Southern states. Stalin and Naidu provided variations of this demand. On Tuesday, ministers and officials from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry met in Thiruvananthapuram to discuss the concerns and views on the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission. Telangana and Tamil Nadu did not take part in the conclave.

What one is witnessing here is not the old demand for secession. What one is seeing is a larger demand for autonomy, for states to be seen as political entities . Within the electoral framework, one wants a distance not from the general idea of India and being Indian but from the BJPs centralism. These are not alienated cries from politicians fighting for survival. These are acute political strategies by politicians who know the people on the ground. Instead of condemning this as unpatriotic or anti-national, the BJP must examine its own conduct. Democracy is based on negotiation and it is time the question of federalism comes in for a longer debate.

On the other hand, there is a temptation to read the idea of Dravida Nadu as a failed one despite being launched again and again. Kamal Haasan and Stalin were the latest to dwell on it. Yet one needs to understand that flagging the concept semaphores a set of ideas. First, the distinctness of culture and of region. Second, a sense of the arrogance of the North and its illiteracy about the South. Third, a sense that the South has been neglected when it comes to economic decisions. In each of these cases, one sees two tactics. It often expresses itself as a search for more autonomous states looking for special status or for a sense of the solidarity with the region. If the earlier moves were rhetorical, the new strategy seems more strategic. Tamil nationalism or southern regionalism becomes a bargaining chip one brings to the negotiating table, ever present in the psyche of the people. It is a force that can be tapped into.

These are warning signals which India needs to read. Present in it is a future sense that a centralised India run by majoritarian forces may not work. It is an appeal that India be plural in a many-faceted way and be seen as plural. The BJP may have to go back to the drawing board to rework its idea of the nation-state.

Shiv Visvanathan is professor, Jindal Global Law School and director, Centre for Study of Knowledge Systems, OP Jindal Global University

The views expressed are personal
Political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson described a nation as an imagined community, a coming together of people armed with a common cause to build a new identity. India, however, is a land of a multitude of identities, each with its own faiths, ideas, opinions and issues. Our country banks on its institutions for drawing together the ideas that adequately represent its people, and consequently, the nation. It is for this reason that the role of Parliament, the primary institution that enables and strengthens this relationship between the State and its citizens, is indispensable to a representative democracy such as ours. It is this hallowed institution that makes the laws that govern citizens, scrutinises every decision of the government, and holds it accountable for its actions. Most importantly, it provides a platform to elected representatives to reflect on what must the government do to fulfil the needs and expectations of citizens. As former President Pratibha Patil said: The Parliament of the country is the repository of the sovereign will of the people.

In our carefully crafted plural democracy, we endeavour to ensure that every identity is allowed a safe space for representation and expression. The identities of 1.3 billion people, spanning the length and breadth of the nation, all come together within the chambers of the Parliament. Of course, in any room with 545 conflicting views and ideas, there are bound to be differences and disputes. But that, in no way, means these are intractable or that they cannot be resolved through deliberation and discussion. And for this reason, the government of the day has always borne the responsibility of ironing out differences across party lines, both inside and outside the House.

However, throughout this budget session, agitated members of political parties flooded the well, raising their voices in protest, their demands ranging from Special Status for Andhra Pradesh to the formation of the Cauvery Management Board. But the government, instead of making efforts to allay fears, misused this ruckus to shield itself from debate on issues it deems inconvenient. In fact, it did not even attempt to mollify its ally. Meanwhile, since the beginning, the Congress maintained that a discussion on the Rs 13,000-crore Nirav Modi scam, the Central Board of Secondary Examination exam paper leak, and no-confidence motion against the government, among others, are imperative. Even so, the BJP has been wrongly accusing the Congress of disrupting the House  just another one of its manoeuvres to deflect attention from the governments failures. Its refusal to own up to its responsibility and make Parliament function led to a washout of the budget session.

It is unsurprising then that the last session has been among the least productive in almost two decades, not least because the Lok Sabha lost over 127 hours to disruptions, while the Rajya Sabha lost 120 hours. In fact, the government did not even deem it worthwhile to have a detailed discussion on its most important policy document, the finance bill.

But beyond this, it is regrettable that throughout the session, the government made no sincere attempt to find a way out of the impasse. It is widely known, and as widely accepted, that it is the incumbent governments responsibility to ensure the smooth functioning of the Parliament. So it is indeed unfortunate, that the parliamentary affairs minister, who is chiefly responsible for making Parliament run, did not initiate any communication with other political parties, either inside or outside Parliament: no dialogue, no all-party meeting and no attempt to reach out to allies or the Leaders of Opposition, let alone other party leaders.

It is worth noting that the prime minister and his council of ministers can remain in office only so long as they enjoy the confidence of the Lower House, seeing as they are collectively responsible to the House of the People. Throughout the session, the Lok Sabha has repeatedly expressed its lack of faith in this government through multiple no-confidence motions, throwing the governments legitimacy into question. When the government refused to admit the motions on the pretext of not being able to count numbers, we brought in placards to ease the process. And yet, the government dismissed each one of these motions and the serious debate they warranted, under the garb of din.

In the last one month, we have witnessed the ruling party openly aid and abet pandemonium in the Parliament to save itself from being held accountable by the nation. It is a pity that the government seems to have exclusively arrogated to itself the powers to decide what to debate, when to debate, and how to debate in Parliament, while the voices of over 450 other MPs have been disrespectfully dismissed. It seems the BJPs penchant for intolerance has successfully, but unfortunately, infiltrated the chambers of Parliament as well. This is, yet another in a long line of distinguished institutions including the Reserve Bank of India and educational institutions, that the BJP has appropriated in its bid to stamp out dissent. If this isnt an arbitrary and irresponsible misuse of power by the incumbent government, I cant imagine what is.

The blame game will continue, but how do we fix the problem? Well, in addition to the government shedding its intransigence, we could also look to other parliamentary democracies for a way out. The British Parliament, for instance, sets aside 20 days in each parliamentary session, dedicated solely to discussing the issues laid down by the Opposition. Canada has 22 per calendar year. This serves two purposes: first, it gives the Opposition an opportunity to raise and discuss issues that the government would much rather sweep under the carpet, and second, it gives smaller political parties an equal chance to play a role in setting the agenda.

Another alternative is to expand the scope of recorded voting (or a division), currently limited to Constitutional Amendment Acts. This would pave the way for greater accountability of the member to the electorate, and ensure that the government engages in discussion with members of other parties and works toward building a consensus and resolving conflict. It would also open up more laws, legislations and decisions to a wider debate, discussion and consensus-building, as witnessed during the passing of the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017. Eventually, the onus of the functioning of the Parliament is with the government, and it is crucial for those in power to treat this issue with the respect and urgency it merits.

Already, this episode has engendered a widespread fatigue, and worse, disdain for lawmakers in the country. We cannot continue to pride ourselves on being the largest, youngest democracy.

It simultaneously infuriates and disheartens me that the incumbent government has brought Parliament to this point of devastation. It has taken us 70 long years to build up trust and respect for this institution. We cannot allow our democracy to be subverted. We cannot allow this disenchantment with our most representative institution to take root among the citizens.

If we truly wish to hold on to our treasured democratic credentials, we cannot allow the faith of 1.3 billion people to be eroded like this. This is a time of despair and disdain for every responsible citizen of our nation. If we think order will be restored on its own, we are truly living in a fools paradise. In my capacity as an MP and as a citizen of India, I can only appeal to the government to leave behind its political tactics and make serious amends to resurrect the dignity of the temple of our democracy.

Jyotiraditya Scindia is the chief whip of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha and former Union minister

The views expressed are personal
Almost three years after Unfreedom was banned in India by the Pahlaj Nihalani-led Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), on the grounds that it would ignite unnatural passions, the film has been acquired by Netflix and can be watched by the streaming services subscribers. Directed by Raj Amit Kumar, the Adil Hussain and Victor Banerjee thriller reportedly features a lesbian love story and also has a terror angle.

After the film was refused certification by CBFC, the makers appealed at the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), only to be refused again.

Unfreedom: Film that Censor Board doesnt want you to watch

Later Kumar and his team ran a campaign for a year during which they did around 100 screenings of the film globally and received encouraging audience response in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Los Angeles and New York.

Talking about the films release by Netflix, director Raj Amit Kumar said in a press statement, I am glad that Unfreedom finds such a popular platform like Netflix after the ban in India and the efforts of censorship guardians in India to stop the film. It also exposes the hypocrisy and divide between reality and fantasy of censorship system in India. There is no way they can control and censor content in digital age, yet, they try their best to choke filmmakers like me who have something relevant to say that makes them feel threatened.

Elaborating on the films ban by the CBFC, Kumar said, The boldness of something is always defined by what you are allowed to say or not in a society. The boldness of an artist is always defined by what others artist around him have not said or what they are not allowed to express. Thus, it is not the content in my film per se that makes it bold, but it the context of a society in which it is told.

Film banned for showing religious fundamentalism: Unfreedom director

He added, I guess it is the boldest film ever because I did not give a damn about anyone or anybody. I didnt care and I dont think I will care in future as well. Unless artists take that approach and risk their well being, we will soon be living in a world where everybody is frightened to say anything truthful.

Unfreedom is based in a society torn apart by political, religious and sexual turmoils. Alternating between New York and New Delhi, the film combines two stories about religious fundamentalism and intolerance. One of them follows a Muslim terrorist, played Husain, attempting to silence a liberal Muslim scholar, essayed by Victor Banerjee. The other story is about a young woman Leela (Preeti Gupta), who defies her devout father Devraj (Adil Hussain) and escapes an arranged marriage because she is secretly involved in a lesbian romance with Sakhi (Bhavani Lee).

The films technical team comprises of Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty (Slumdog Millionaire) who has done the sound design for the film and was nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors 63rd annual Golden Reel Awards.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
2017 was Rajkummar Raos year. The 33-year-old actor won accolades for his performances in Trapped, Newton and Bareilly Ki Barfi. With his star rising in Bollywood, Rao says budgets have increased for his films and adulation on social media has gone up, but added that his focus is not on how much money his films make, but how well a day on set goes.

His first release this year, Omerta, sees him playing British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is currently in a Pakistani prison for the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Rao spoke to Reuters about his role in the film and why he shares his world view through films and social media.

Read: Baaghi 2 movie review: Goa bears Tiger Shroffs wrath and so do we

How do you approach playing a real-life character? Was this role tougher than Shahid?

With Shahid also, it was not really easy because there was not much available about him on the internet - hardly any pictures and no videos. My only access was through his brother. In the case of Omar, there was nothing. I didnt want to meet his family  its a very sensitive subject and they would not like to talk about it. My only reference was what has he done, where is he coming from and what are the things he was involved in. Everything else came from my mind and imagination. Of course with Hansal (Mehta) sirs help, I started learning the language, physically transforming myself and believe in what he was believing in  his ideologies, which as Raj, I dont connect with.

Was there any aspect of your performance that was difficult to navigate? Especially given the subject?

With this one actually, we didnt really worry about that. I just let go of myself. As an antagonist, there is no limit. When you are so full of power, you can cross any limit. That is the fun of playing an antagonist on screen. There are a couple of scenes which are very disturbing for me as an actor and for the audience. It is something they have not seen on screens and something I would have never imagined myself doing, but when you play somebody like him, you have to go through all that.

Read: Missing movie review: Slightly disoriented, but Manoj Bajpayee-Tabu make it work

How do you humanise someone like Omar?

He has his own ideologies and his own beliefs, and when I was playing him, I had to believe in those ideologies. Otherwise, I strongly condemn them. What he does is inhuman and you cannot justify them. But the fact is, he is the truth of todays world. Hes still living, hes got a family, he comes from a well-to-do family, he has a wife - everything which makes him human.

What does this film achieve cinematically?

It talks about boys this is happening even today. Young, intelligent boys who could have been something and participated in making society a better place to live in, chose this path and chose to be these evil minds and created so much violence in the world. Why do they do that? Even now we know that boys from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and India are joining various terrorist groups and getting brainwashed through WhatsApp messages, which is so scary. They are very gullible boys, very fragile. We as a society, as responsible citizens, have to do something about it.

Why do you think there are such few political films in the industry? You seem to be the only one doing them.

Its not a conscious decision. Maybe people see me as someone they can relate to and want me to be their voice. I just like these scripts and characters and I know this is the reality of our world. I connect with that.

How political are you? Does your politics or beliefs influence the kind of films you choose?

I am quite politically aware. There was a time when I was quite disturbed. disturbed about what was happening in the country. But then I told myself that I cannot be so involved that I stop working and I just keep thinking about it. It took me a while to be completely detached. But I try and put my point across whenever I can, through my films or social media. Because I believe what is wrong is wrong, you cannot justify it. You cannot justify violence. You cannot justify what Omar does, even if he has a motivation behind it. In the same way, you cannot justify violence happening in our country.

You are one of the few mainstream actors to have worked across mediums. Youve done a web series for Alt Balaji alongside films. Does the medium matter to you?

Films will always be my first love. Yeah, I have done a series, Bose, and we might do a season two next year. But I was happy doing it as it gave me a platform to do something that I would have never imagined myself doing. As long as the story is exciting, the medium doesnt matter.
Global carmakers from BMW AG to Toyota Motor Corp. got some good news from China after President Xi Jinping reiterated a pledge to reduce import tariffs on vehicles this year, heeding decades-long pleas from companies seeking better access to the worlds biggest auto market.

China will significantly lower car import tariffs and sincerely hopes to boost imports, Xi said in a speech at the Boao Forum in Hainan Tuesday. Xi also reiterated plans to loosen foreign ownership limits for car ventures and said the government will try to roll out the policies as early as possible. He didnt offer details.

Shares of local carmakers BAIC Motor Corp., BYD Co. and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. all slumped after the speech as lowering the current 25% import tariff would allow foreign carmakers to bring in more vehicles without being disadvantaged. Xis move to open up the car market comes amid a tit-for-tat trade war with the worlds largest economy, in which China last week proposed an additional 25% import tax on vehicles made in the US.

High-end autos, in particular, will feel the effects of a tariff cut, as less of their production has moved locally. Toyotas Lexus, in particular, stands to benefit as the only premium marque that doesnt manufacture in China or hasnt announced plans to do so.

This is a boon for the Chinese luxury auto market, Steve Man, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst in Hong Kong said.

Luxury sales leader Audi, part of Volkswagen AG, has been making cars in the country since 1996. General Motors Co.s Cadillac, which has relegated Lexus to fifth in the luxury-car rankings, opened a factory in Shanghai in 2016.

China imported 1.22 million vehicles last year, or about 4.2% of the countrys total sales of about 28.9 million automobiles.

Xi was reiterating a pledge by Chinese leaders to open up the nations auto sector. At the annual gathering of Chinas National Peoples Congress last month, Premier Li Keqiang said the nation will cut tariffs on imported cars this year.

Besides the tariffs, China requires overseas automakers to form joint ventures with local manufacturers in which the foreign companies stakes are capped at 50%. The governments aim when introducing the policy in the 1990s was for its then-fledgling auto industry to benefit from technology transfer by operating along with global giants including Volkswagen and GM.

Honda Motor Co., which produces cars locally at two joint venture, welcomes Chinas promise to open up its market, spokesman Teruhiko Tatebe said. The early signs are very encouraging, said Peter Fleet, the Asia chief of Ford Motor Co.

Any tariff cut could have a pretty big impact on local manufacturers, while relaxation of joint-venture rules may have a long-term effect on the Chinese auto industry, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of Chinas Passenger Car Association.
Jet Airways on Tuesday became the latest major Indian airline to rule out a bid for debt-laden national carrier Air India in a new blow to the governments privatisation plans.

The announcement came just days after rival IndiGo pulled out of the race to acquire Air Indias operations meaning the government now has no clear frontrunner in the sale campaign.

| Read: Wont bid for Air India, dont have capability to turn around ops: IndiGo

We welcome the government move to privatise Air India. It is a bold step, Jet Airways deputy chief executive, Amit Agarwal said in a statement emailed to AFP.

However, considering the terms of offer in the information memorandum and based on our review, we are not participating in the process, he added.

Once the countrys monopoly airline, Air India has slowly lost market share to new low-cost private players in one of the worlds fastest-growing airline markets.

Air India ran losses for nearly a decade after a botched merger in 2007 and has debts of around $7.67 billion according to government figures.

It has received $5.8 billion in bailout funds from the government but needs even more working capital to turn it around, experts say.

The government recently said it wanted to sell a 76% chunk of the struggling carrier.

It released bid documents on what would be one of the countrys highest-profile asset sales in decades showing it wants the prospective buyer to take on all of Air Indias operations.

IndiGo, Indias largest airline, withdrew on Friday, saying it was interested only in Air Indias international routes and not its domestic operations.

India has the worlds fastest-growing passenger airline industry, expanding at an annual rate of around 20%.

About 100 million of its 1.25 billion people took to the skies in 2016 and airlines have embarked on huge purchases of new jets in expectation of new growth.
Amid protests demanding closure of Vedantas Sterlite Copper unit in Tuticorin district, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Tuesday said it has rejected the companys application seeking renewal of consent to operate the plant.

TNPC Board norms were not properly fulfilled, by Sterlite, Mohammed Nazimuddin, TNPCB chairman said in an official release.

The Board has, therefore, rejected Sterlites application seeking renewal of consent to operate its existing plant, it said.The consent to operate accorded previously by the Board ended on March 31, 2018.

The development comes after about a two month long protest by locals against Sterlite over pollution and resultant serious health hazards to the people.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday, Vedanta said its application has been rejected for want of more clarifications. The company said it was evaluating a further course of action.

On March 27, the company had said as part of its regular maintenance programme, its smelting operations at Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) had undergone maintenance shutdown for about 15 days.

The company said the scheduled maintenance activities were supposed to be for a period of approximately 15 days from the said date (March 27, 2018).

It is now likely to be extended given the above development, the release said. The company shall update further developments from time to time, it added.

Residents of A Kumarareddiapuram village in Tuticorn district have been on a protest mode against the Sterlite plant for the last two months.

The protest was against both Sterlites expansion plan and its existing unit which found support from political parties, including the main opposition party, DMK .

On April 1, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan had expressed solidarity with the protest against Sterlite.

The expansion (of Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta) should not at all be allowed...if possible it will be good to close down this (existing) unit, he had said.

Recently, the state government had also said it was examining residents complaints against the unit.

A leading copper producer, Sterlite Copper represents the copper unit of Vedanta Limited, which operates a 400,000 tonnes per annum plant in Tuticorin.
The richest zip code in America is just as exclusive and elite as the people who live there. Fisher Island, located just off the coast of Miami, is accessible only by ferry or water taxi and is a haven for the worlds richest.

The 216-acre island has diverse residents, representing over 50 nationalities and professions ranging from professional athletes and supermodels to executives and lawyers.

The average income in Fisher Island, zip code 33109, was $2.5 million in 2015, according to a Bloomberg analysis of 2015 Internal Revenue Service data. Thats $1 million more than the second-place spot, held by zip code 94027 in Silicon Valley, also known as the City of Atherton on the San Francisco Peninsula. The areas neighbors include Stanford University and Menlo Park, home to Facebook and various tech companies. While the IRS data only provide the averages of tax returns, which can be skewed by outliers, Fisher Island is the only zip code in the Bloomberg analysis where more than half of all tax returns showed an income of over $200,000.

To no ones surprise, neighbourhoods in California and the New York tri-state area comprise a majority of the top 20 richest US zip codes. States with favorable tax structures like Florida and Wyoming are drawing the wealthy, too.

Two other zip codes in Florida -- Palm Beach (home of President Trumps private club) and Naples -- made the top 20. Suburbs of Seattle, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston also landed in the highest spots.

Tax write-offs

With high incomes come large tax write-offs. Fisher Island had an average of $448,100 in itemized deductions in 2015, according to IRS data.

For many high-net-worth individuals, charitable contributions make up the biggest share of tax deductions, according to Joseph Falanga, managing director of UHY Advisors, an accounting firm in New York.

The zip code that took the most advantage of tax deductions in 2015 was 94301 in Palo Alto, California, where the average deduction was $491,600. Fisher Island had smaller average deductions relative to its income size than other zip codes and thats likely because Florida has no income tax, so its residents cant take deductions from that category. On the other hand, California has a top marginal income tax rate of 13.3%, the highest in the country.

But deductions for the very wealthy could look a lot different this year because of the new tax cut legislation, according to Falanga.

Deductions for state and local income tax have been curtailed to a maximum of $10,000. Before the new legislation, these deductions were unlimited. Limits on charitable contribution deductions have increased to 60% of gross income from 50%. That is just for cash contributions and does not include foundations, stocks, or artwork, which have different hurdles, said Falanga.

Falangas clients include ultra-high-net-worth individuals and high-income people. He said he doesnt know how the recent tax legislation will affect them.

I havent seen them change, but they have been curious about whats going on, Falanga said. And to a certain extent, some of them will be paying more.

Will it change their lifestyle? Falanga doesnt think so.
To check forced migration from the hills, Uttarakhand would help augment farmers income by encouraging them to raise trouts (cold water fish) as part of an integrated farming project. The project is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, an official said.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate the Rs 2600-crore integrated farming project next month. Enhancing trout production would be one of the components of the mega project, said secretary, department of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries R Meenakshi Sundaram.

The integrated farming project aims at checking distress migration from the hills by augmenting farmers income, Sundaram said.

Besides trout farming, sectors such as horticulture, sheep & goat rearing, dairy farming, and mushroom cultivation are some other components under the mega integrated farming project. It will be implemented in collaboration with National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Sundaram added.

Giving details of the project, the official said that under the scheme, trout farming would be encouraged in a big way with an aim to augment the marginalised hill farmers income. We enlisted trout farming under the project because this sector has a tremendous income generating potential in the state, which is grossly underutilized, he said, adding trouts, being cold water fish, are found in abundance in the glacier-fed rivers originating from the region.

Besides, trouts are considered a delicacy and are in great demand in niche market especially among the people with high paying capacity, Sundaram said.

In Uttarakhand, the production level of trout, a fish endemic to the Himalayan states is, however, abysmal. As of now, per annum, only 40 metric tonnes of trouts are produced in the state as against the states total per annum production capacity of 2000 metric tonnes. Under the exclusive trout project to be launched soon, we aim to raise the production level of the cold water fish up to 1000 metric tonnes annually in the next three years, Sundaram said. Like this, we will move on to achieve the states full annual trout production capacity (2000 metric tonnes) in next few years.

According to the official, the blueprint to realise the states full trout production capacity has already been prepared. The best part is that we have in the central Himalayan region a plenty of glacier-fed rivers which form an ideally suited ecosystem for a cold water fish, Sundaram said.

However, the farmers would be encouraged to develop trout hatcheries in glacier-fed streams as the speed of their flow is slower compared to the rivers. These hatcheries would be developed in rivulets in areas above 4,500 metre altitude, where trouts are found, he said, adding a trout zone mapping of potential areas suitable for production of cold water fish had been carried out.

Under the project, farmers would create channels along rivulets. Water from these rivulets would be taken to the channels farmers will create before it flows back into the rivulets, Sundaram said. Also known as raceways, these channels, or, trout hatcheries, would be fenced on both ends with wire mesh. Such raceways will be created so that trout fingerlings remain inside hatcheries and are not washed away into the rivulets, the official said. Once those fingerlings develop into fish, they would be transported to five star hotels in Delhi and the National Capital Region and even Mumbai where they are in great demand.

The fish would also be transported to upmarket hotels in Western Uttar Pradesh besides Dehradun and Mussoorie. A cold chain will also be developed so that trouts could be transported to those areas in fresh condition, Sundaram clarified.
The Delhi Police has filed chargesheet against an Indian Air Force officer, arrested in February for alleged espionage.

The charge sheet was filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Shehrawat in New Delhi against Group Captain Arun Marwah, who was booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for allegedly leaking classified documents to a woman through WhatsApp.

The court has put up the final report for taking cognisance on April 24.

As per the complaint filed against Marwah by the Air Force, he was caught by the counter-intelligence wing after he was found carrying a high-end phone at the headquarters which are banned there.

Punishment under the Official Secrets Act entails a jail term of up to seven years.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich desert kingdom, landed in Paris on a two-day visit. He starts his European tour from France after spending about three weeks in the United States.

His engagements while in the US, from meeting Googles Sergey Brin to Apples Tim Cook to Virgin Groups Richard Branson, attempted to reinforce the image of the crown prince as a reformer. He even traded the traditional Saudi Arabian keffiyah (headdress) and bisht (gold-trimmed cloak) for a blazer and trousers.

If on the one hand, there is an attempt to change Saudi Arabia, on the other, Salman has to deal in a West Asia that is changing geopolitically and is thus unstable. A politically and militarily assertive Saudi Arabia has seen Riyadhs ties with Doha deteriorate and flashpoints with Tehran are being witnessed across the region, the most deadly being in Yemen.

Amid these tensions, there is a sliver of hope that Saudi Arabia-Israel ties might be improving. This was why Salmans interview to The Atlantic, in which he said, I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land, gave the impression of a breakthrough in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Of course it is important given that Salman is the first high-level Saudi Arabian official to make such a public statement, but what dampened the optimism is what he said next: But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations. With right-wing political voices getting increasingly hawkish in Israel and a crumbling Palestinian political order, a peace agreement is hard to imagine. Salman articulated what Saudi Arabia has been trying to achieve since 2002 through the Arab Peace Initiative  a two-state solution.

Salmans statement aligns with the views of the Trump administration. It adds to the paranoia in Washington of Iran as a rogue state  in the interview Salman compared Irans supreme leader to Hitler. It also diverts attention from the three-year war he is waging in Yemen  a conflict which the UN has referred to as the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time.

Protests have welcomed Salman in many western nations. They were seen in London when he was visiting in March. There were protests in many places in the US and now in France. Clearly, Salman will have to do more to change perceptions and bring peace to the region.
Celebrity appearances at colleges in Delhi University (DU) have become a common trend, and so has the madness that comes with it. Actor Varun Dhawans recent visit to DUs Lakshmibai College  to promote his upcoming film, October  was not an exception. After a two-hour long wait in the sun, all that the students got was 15 minutes with Varun. The visit was apparently wound up after students jumped over barricades and ran onto the stage.

Hum crowd control karte reh gaye, and couldnt get a picture with him.  Mobessira Khannam

Hum crowd control karte reh gaye, aur Varun ke saath picture bhi nahi le paaye

I think the crowd was mismanaged, and the arrangements werent good enough, said Indu, a second year student, about the event. Student coordinators, too, expressed their displeasure. Mobessira Khannam said, Dhakka-mukki shuru hui toh bahut gussa aaya. Hum crowd control karte reh gaye, aur Varun ke saath picture bhi nahi le paaye. (When the crowd became unruly, it angered us. We got busy controlling the crowds and couldnt even get a picture with Varun)

The students waited for the actor for around two hours in the heat. (Photo: Manoj Verma/HT)

Ye scheduled nahi tha aaj college mein but mera shoot delay ho gaya: Varun

Varun interacted with the students and sang along with the song Theher Ja from his film, which has been directed by Shoojit Sircar, while also belting out some moves. I love you guys! Ye bahut short notice tha. Mujhe pata hai ki ye scheduled nahi tha aaj college mein but mera shoot delay ho gaya toh I said, what better way to spend time than with you guys. I really appreciate ki aap log yaha heat mein mere liye khade hue ho (This happened on very short notice. I know that this wasnt scheduled for today but my shoot got delayed so I thought what better way to spend time with you. I really appreciate that you waited for me in this heat), he said, addressing the excited students.

If such a huge star comes to an off-campus college, such things are bound to happen.  Vaishali Prasad

And to some, his presence was enough. Varun Dhawan girls college mein aayega toh ye toh hona hi hai! (If Varun Dhawan visits a girls college, this is to be expected) And it doesnt matter how foolproof your arrangements may seem. If such a huge star comes to an off-campus college, such things are bound to happen, said Vaishali Prasad, a second year student.

The actor interacted with the students as well as danced and sang along to a track from his upcoming film. (Photo: Manoj Verma/HT)
Lets talk about the halter top. The back-baring, summer-perfect top is sure to stand out and get a strong showing in summer. And to help you get in on the trend is Malaika Arora. On Saturday at an event in Guwahati, the VJ-turned-reality-TV-judge paid homage to the 90s trend but still added modern details to her scarlet ensemble.

A post shared by Maneka Harisinghani (@manekaharisinghani) on Apr 7, 2018 at 11:46am PDT

Malaika, 44, looked smashing in fancy Amit Aggarwal separates -- a V-neck halter top and coordinated wide-legged trousers in what looks to be a plush satin or silky fabric. To modernise her clean, elegant, and feminine look, she opted for Viange earrings and tied the whole look together by pulling her hair in sleek top-knot.



We love the idea of halter tops in summer  theyre less revealing than most tanks, and great for women who arent afraid to show off their shoulders. It can instantly amp up your going-out wardrobe, whether youre attending a brunch with friends or hitting the dance floor on Saturday night.

A post shared by Malaika Arora Khan (@malaikaarorakhanofficial) on Apr 8, 2018 at 8:50pm PDT

Just remember, when reinventing the halter neck  both with tops and dresses  stick to solid colours and minimal cuts and accessorise with some seriously statement jewellery or heels or hairdo, as demonstrated by Malaika.

But thats not all, Malaika has been showing off an understated (well, barring this halter neck two-piece) yet chic collection of looks during her recent spottings. (Basically, every time she leaves her house).

A post shared by Malaika Arora Khan (@malaikaarorakhanofficial) on Apr 8, 2018 at 1:43am PDT

On Sunday, Malaika wore this cream and gold palazzo set by Ashley Rebello, which she paired with a grey net dupatta from Seema Khan. With the billowy bottoms, the look feels undeniably fresh and breathable, while the contrasting dupatta adds interest to the outfit.

A post shared by Maneka Harisinghani (@manekaharisinghani) on Apr 6, 2018 at 12:08am PDT

This Hass Idriss look Maliaka wore at an event in Delhi on Friday jolts you back to remember, This is Malaika Arora and she can pull off anything.

A post shared by Malaika Arora Khan (@malaikaarorakhanofficial) on Apr 8, 2018 at 5:33am PDT

Malaika wore this checked jumpsuit from Ashish N Soni with a statement black belt at a Mumbai event: Theres something so sexy and powerful about the look. Whether youre hitting the mall with the girls or going to a big event, this is a totally appropriate and stylish look.

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For decades, the tiara was, at best, a retro piece of costume jewellery. Yet this classic accessory has been showing up on fashion runways from the likes of Saint Laurent and Miu Miu, as well as binge-worthy television shows such as Game of Thrones and Victoria, not to mention The Crown. Even Wonder Woman wears a uniform that features a weaponised tiara.

British jeweller Garrard & Co. has noticed a resurgence as well. Long synonymous with royalty, the warrant-holder has been the official crown jeweller for almost 200 years, and it is the company that Prince Charles tasked with making the engagement ring for the late Diana, Princess of Wales. According to Claire Scott, Garrards soft-spoken head of design, the company has had a surge in private commissions for tiaras this year. People are also waiting to see which tiara Meghan Markle opts to wear for her wedding.

When I first started in the trade, there were tiaras being made  definitely some, but not as many as we see now, says Scott. Shes sitting on a sofa in the tony, all-beige store off Londons Bond Street; the atelier is upstairs. She estimates her team will work on 20 custom tiaras this year, which, in this rarefied air, counts as a huge uptick. Under Scotts direction, Garrard has introduced a large collection of ready-to-wear tiaras, too.

Part of the reason, Scott says, is that tiaras are unfailingly flattering. These mini-crowns tend to lengthen necks and straighten backs  the sheer weight of one will make even the slouchiest stand taller. It gives you a different feeling, a different posture, she says. Thats something people like. It surprises them.

Nothing has spurred the tiara revival more than the princess effect. (Instagram)

An additional benefit is that, in selfie culture, any jewellery worn on or around the face is appealing: who needs to filter a snap when youre wearing a tiara? They are also unabashedly status-making jewellery pieces. Historically, sporting a tiara was a tacit wealth-signaler, and the association with wealth and power has persisted.

What distinguishes the tiara from a mere headdress is one thing: the framework, which encircles the head and is hidden with ribbons and upswept hair. Its purely functional, allowing tiaras that could be cumbersome to sit more comfortably on the head. Traditionally, Scott says, tiaras were convertible. Maids could painstakingly unhook the gems from the framework, so the same piece could be worn as a necklace. Some of Garrards recent commissions offer this function.

...In selfie culture, any jewellery worn on or around the face is appealing: who needs to filter a snap when youre wearing a tiara? They are also unabashedly status-making jewellery pieces.

If youre buying a tiara, use this approximation to gauge perfect placement: With thumb and forefinger, measure the distance from the bridge of your nose  between the eyebrows  and your chin. Measure that distance from the bridge of your nose to the top of your head. Wherever it lands is where a tiara should sit. Etiquette has also been part of the tiaras aura. Royal ladies dont wear tiaras until theyre married, for instance.

Your first wearing of a tiara would be on your wedding day, Scott says. Among nobility, tiaras were usually heirlooms, pieces of family jewellery, so the family tiara would be passed down to a bride as part of her trousseau. In turn, that tiara was expected to be deeded to a daughter or daughter-in-law for use on her own wedding day after a fit adjustment by the jeweller who had made it.

Today, though, these mini-crowns are tailor-made for the young and glamorous. And nothing has spurred the tiara revival more than the princess effect  via Frozens Elsa, Kate Middleton, or the upcoming nuptials for Meghan Markle. After Princess Dianas death in 1997, there was a decade-long dearth of British royals able to wear tiaras, whether by age or inclination. But that has changed in the past five years: Soon, two married princesses will be able to rifle the royal dressing-up box.

When Kate Middleton married William, the prospective king, there was no family tiara for her to wear; instead, the Queen passed along a Cartier-designed mini-crown she had received for her 18th birthday. The big question now is which tiara Meghan Markle will wear on May 19. Perhaps it will be the Garrard-produced Lovers Knot tiara, a favourite of Princess Diana  the guest Prince Harry is most likely to miss at his wedding party.

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Hollywood actor Zoe Saldana has blasted out at her peers in Hollywood for looking down on Marvel films. The actor, who plays Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), says she is disappointed with the negative attitude industry insiders have towards superhero movies.

Ive been in rooms with people in this industry who are great at what they do, but theyre absolutely elitist and they look down at movies like the Marvel films or actors like myself. They think were selling out in some way. Every time they speak I feel so disappointed in them, because whenever you see pictures of people in this industry who donate their time to children in need, its these actors that live in the world that you feel is selling out, Saldana told Net-A-Porter.

Read: Missing movie review: Slightly disoriented, but Manoj Bajpayee-Tabu make it work

The 39-year-old actor believes the responsibility of playing a superhero is often overlooked. That actor takes time out of their life and sits down with that five-year-old and says, I see you, I hear you, and you matter,. Those elitists should be a little more cognizant about what playing a superhero means to a young child. Because youre not just dissing me, youre dissing what that child considers important in their world, she said.

Saldana said she is proud of her decision to join superhero movies as they inspire younger generations. I feel so proud to be living in space, to be playing green and blue aliens, to inspire, primarily, the younger generations. I remember what it was like to be young and to feel completely excluded out of the mainstream conversation of life because I was just little and unimportant and other , she said.

Saldana will next be seen playing Gamora in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday arrested Atul Singh Sengar, the brother of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA accused of raping an 18-year-old woman (when she was a minor) in Unnao last year, for beating her father to death earlier this week.

And with pressure building up on it to act, the state set up a special investigation team to look into the case.

The woman has alleged that BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides raped her last June. She also said the police did not investigate her allegations and failed to name Sengar in an official document that recorded her complaint.

The BJP MLA has rejected the charges as a conspiracy by his political opponents.

The woman alleges that when her family returned to Unnao from Delhi earlier this month to file a petition seeking Kuldeep Singhs name be included in the rape complaint, his brother and his aides assaulted her father. She also claimed that her father was killed at the behest of the BJP MLA inside the jail.

READ: All that has happened in Unnao rape case, a timeline

The woman says the family received several threats asking them to withdraw the complaint against the MLA.

Her father had earlier accused the legislator and his men of accosting him in Makhi, a town in Unnao, and threatening him.

The SIT will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident, ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar said in Lucknow.

The woman attempted suicide in front of UP CM Yogi Adityanaths residence on Sunday. Her father was allegedly assaulted by the MLAs men last week. He was arrested a day later and sent to judicial custody. He died on Monday after he collapsed in prison.

Police spokesperson Rahul Srivastava said on Tuesday that the MLAs brother, Atul Singh Sengar, was arrested for attacking the father on April 3. The police have added murder charges against him, said DIG (law and order) Praveen Kumar.

The fathers post-mortem report revealed he died of shock and septicaemia from the beating and had 14 injury marks on his body, the report said.

Dr Anand Prakash, a senior gastro surgeon at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, said such injuries suggest the victim had been badly beaten up, with possible blows to the abdomen.

The NHRC took suo motu cognizance of reports on the mysterious death of a rape victims father in judicial custody in Unnao and issued a notice to the UP government and the police chief, seeking a report in the case. It asked the authorities to ensure the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment.

The NHRC also said it expected an explanation from the UP DGP within 24 hours for not communicating the custodial death of the womans father.

Chief minister Adityanath has promised strict action and reprimanded Kuldeep Sengar.

A PIL was filed in the SC, calling for a CBI probe into the case. The PIL demanded compensation for the woman and her family.
A BJP MLAs brother has been arrested and two police officers and four constables suspended after the father of a woman, who accused the MLA and his aides of raping her last year, died in judicial custody.

Atul Singh Sengar, brother of BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of Unnaos Bangarmau constituency, was arrested for attacking the 18-year-old womans father on April 4 that allegedly caused his death later.

Heres what happened in the case after the alleged rape in 2017:

June 4, 2017: The girl alleges she was raped in the house of BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar. The girl said she had gone to meet him with a neighbour to seek his help in getting employment.

June 11, 2017: The girl goes missing. Her family lodges a complaint with the police.

June 20, 2017: She is recovered from a village in Auraiya and brought to Unnao the next day.

June 22, 2017: The police produces her before the court and her statement is recorded under Section 164 of CrPC. She alleges the police did not allow her to name the MLA in her statement.

READ: Father of woman who accused BJP MLA of rape dies in Unnao, probe ordered

July 3, 2017: She is handed over to the family members after 10 days. She leaves for Delhi alleging police harassment. She starts sending complaints to the CMs office and senior police officers seeking registration of rape case against the MLA and his brother Atul Singh.

February 24, 2018: The girls mother moves the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Unnao, seeking registration of FIR under Section 156 (3) of CrPC.

April 3, 2018: Court hears the mothers plea. The girls father comes down to Unnao with family for hearing in the case. The same evening, he is allegedly assaulted by Atul Singh and his aides in Makhi. The man is handed over to the police, which lodges a case under Section 25 (illegal possession of firearm).

April 5, 2018: The girls father is sent to jail after medical examination at the district hospital. The girls father alleges he was framed and beaten up by the MLAs brother. No action is taken on his complaint.

April 8, 2018: The girl attempts self-immolation at the CMs residence in Lucknow, demanding FIR against the MLA.

April 9, 2018: The girls father dies at the district hospital hours after he is shifted from district jail. Six policemen are suspended, magisterial probe ordered.
The passengers travelling out of Amritsar airport will continue to have their hand baggage tags stamped owing to sensitive security status of the airport, a Central Industrial Security Force official said.

The decision was taken considering the airports proximity to the Pakistan border and the two hijack incidents there  Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked and taken to Amritsar and later to Kandahar in 1999 and another IA flight from Delhi to Jodhpur was also hijacked and taken to the same airport in 1982.

We are confident of doing away with this practice at all the airport by the end of this year. However, due to the security concerns and location of Amritsar airport, it has been decided to keep it away from this practice. This will be an added security feature there, said MA Ganapathy, ADG (airport) of CISF.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides security to 59 airports across the country, has done away with the baggage tag stamping at 31 airports in a phased manner and trial has been successfully completed at another six. By the end of this year, the system will be discontinued at every airport under CISF cover except the Amritsar airport.

The CISF had started trial runs at seven metro airports in December 2016. Following this the stamping was discontinued at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Cochin airports.

The decision was taken after CISF pilot project showed it would save time and put an end to long queues at security check counters. They found the system could be dispensed with after certain modifications of security architecture in security hold areas of the airports and the installation of high definition CCTV cameras. These modifications were required to make sure that passengers could not access bags containing restricted items which are segregated by CISF personnel for checking.

Explaining the rationale behind such decisions, former Director General of CISF Arvind Ranjan said, It all depends on intelligence input at that time, if they are saying Amritsar airport is sensitive, we have to believe them. The Bureau for Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) must have done all the trials as they have strict standard. It will not compromise the airport security and aviation security in India is the best.
Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other state for the Bharat Bandh on Tuesday called by groups opposed to caste-based reservations, PTI reported.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said district magistrates and superintendents of police will be personally held responsible for any violence in their area of jurisdiction.

The missive came a week after a similar Bharat Bandh -- called by called by groups opposing the alleged dilution of SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order -- saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of about a dozen people.

In Uttar Pradeshs Firozabad, schools for Class I to 9 will remain closed, as a precautionary measure, in the wake of Bharat Bandh news agency ANI reported.

Section 144 will be imposed in Rajasthans Jaipur City and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

Jaipur police commissioner Sanjay Aggarwal, in a press conference, said that no procession or protest will be allowed on Tuesday and strict action will be taken against offenders. Internet services will remain suspended in the city from 12 midnight on Monday till Tuesday night, he said.

Ajatshatru, divisional commissioner of Bhopal, said prohibitory orders under Section 144 had been clamped in the city for Tuesday but services including schools, government offices and banks would operate as usual.

Here are the highlights:

1.10pm: The life in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow remained normal with traders opening their shops and vehicles plying on the roads.

11.45am: Supporters have blocked roads and forcibly enforced the nationwide shutdown in Ara town of Bhojpur district.

11.40am: Hundreds of youths opposing reservation to SC/ST and OBCs and supporting Bharat Bandh have blocked roads at several places, halted trains and forcibly closed markets in Patna, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Muzafffarpur, Bhojpur, Sheikhpura and Darbhanga districts.

11.35am: Over a dozen of people have been injured in a clash in Bihar during the Bharat Bandh called by various groups to protest against reservation policies, PTI reported.

10am: Security has been tightened in Madhya Pradesh.

Protests against caste-based reservations: Curfew imposed in Bhind and Morena. (Visuals from Morena) #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/Tg4Kink7Wu  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

9.10am: Protesters in Bihars Arrah have stopped a train during Bharat Bandh called by groups against caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

Protests against caste-based reservations in jobs and education: Visuals from Bihar's Arrah where protesters have stopped a train pic.twitter.com/N6wePxP0tQ  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

(With agency inputs)
The central government could base the scheme it has to come up with to distribute Cauvery waters on the Bhakra Beas Management Board, according to an official in the ministry of water resources.

It will take the form of an authority with a mix of both administrators as well as technocrats, said the official quoted above, as opposed to the recommendations by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal which had proposed a board run by technocrats.

The decision, according to the official, was taken a day after the Supreme Court granted the ministry of water resources the flexibility to formulate the scheme in consonance with the law (section 6A of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956).

We have been granted flexibility by the court to formulate the scheme, said the senior ministry of water resources official cited above who asked not to be named.

We had asked for two clarifications  whether the ministry had flexibility to form the scheme for distribution of the waters, and whether the board was to be set up according to the tribunals recommendations or we could change its administrative composition, the official added.

The distribution of Cauvery waters is a festering one between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

On February 16, the Supreme Court ruled on the case, based on appeals by the states to the 2007 order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, which also recommended the board. The SC order reduced the quantity of water Karnataka was asked to supply to Tamil Nadu by 14.75 tmc and was largely seen as fair. However, Karnataka, where elections are due on May 12 and which suffered a severe drought in 2017, isnt keen on it. Tamil Nadu wants the order to be implemented.

The court also ruled that the central government come up with a scheme to implement its order. Many, including Tamil Nadu took this to mean the creation of a board as recommended by the tribunal.

Karnataka is keen on a dispute redressal body, and Kerala wants the board to have both administrators as well as technocrats.

The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) was constituted under Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966 for the administration, maintenance and operation of works of Bhakra Nangal and Beas Projects.

The function of the board is to regulate the supply of Sutlej, Ravi, and . Beas water to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi as well as Chandigarh. The board also manages the distribution of power from Bhakra Nangal Beas Projects to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. BBMB has a nine-member board headed by a full time chairman and two full-time members, two representatives from the central government and four representatives from the states. The representatives can be either technocrats or bureaucrats.

The Cauvery board, as proposed by the tribunal, was to have only technocrats.

Meanwhile, the central government on Tuesday dismissed fears that Tamil Nadu might not get water for irrigation released due to the non-formation of the board.

Speaking in a press conference, Union water resources secretary UP Singh clarified that according to the recommendations of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, water for irrigation can be released only between June and January every year, while for the rest of the year the river needs water to maintain the environmental flow.

I want to clarify that during these four months water is to be released only for environmental flow, Singh told reporters.

He denied there was any urgency in release of water and said a supervisory committee is in place to look into issues and concerns regarding sharing of water.

The Supreme Court had on Monday pulled up the Centre for dragging its feet over implementing its order. The court ordered the centre to formulate the scheme and submit it by May 3 and asked the Cauvery basin states to maintain law and order.
The government on Tuesday ordered a probe into the incident of a doctor being allegedly manhandled and offloaded from an IndiGo flight at Lucknow airport after he complained of mosquitoes on-board even as the airline maintained there was no physical altercation.

In yet another incident of scuffle involving IndiGo staff, cardiologist Saurabh Rai has accused the airline of manhandling and deboarding him from the Bengaluru-bound flight on Monday and said he would take legal recourse against the no-frills carrier.

Against the backdrop of the civil aviation ministry deciding to probe the incident, IndiGo issued a long statement in the evening which was substantially different from the tweets issued by the airline on Monday.

I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by IndiGo at Lucknow Airport, civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu said in a tweet.

Sources said IndiGo is believed to have submitted a report about the incident to the ministry.

This is at least the second incident in six months of an untoward incident involving IndiGo staff. Last November, a video had surfaced of the airline staff allegedly manhandling a passenger on the tarmac in the national capital.

Recalling the incident, Rai said that as the cabin was full of mosquitoes, he repeatedly asked the airline staff if something can be done to remove them but the requests were not entertained.

After the aircraft door was shut, he asked whether the crew members can arrange some mosquito repellent but there was no response. After a few minutes, airline personnel rushed towards his seat and caught him by his collar before dragging him to the ramp, Rai claimed.

After that they deboarded me... then they told me that I can fly only if I tender an apology, he told PTI over telephone, adding that in the process the flight was also delayed.

According to him, the plane took off without him as he refused to tender an apology as demanded by the airline and was forced to buy a new ticket as well as delete all photographs from his phone that were taken inside the aircraft.

They manhandled me as well... It is a question of my dignity. I am going to write to the civil aviation minister, Prime Ministers Office and DGCA. I will also take legal recourse soon, he said.

Rai claimed that IndiGo staff also said that mosquitoes are all over India, let alone Lucknow, so will you leave the country?

Late evening, IndiGo said that at no point of time was there any physical altercation with the passenger.

In this background of his belligerent behaviour and on the concerns raised by other passengers, a decision was taken to deplane Dr. Rai from the aircraft to ensure the safe conduct of the flight, the airline said in a long statement with bullet points.

However, IndiGos statement was significantly different from its response on Twitter where the airline had also claimed that Rai even attempted to instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft.

In response to IndiGos claim of unruly behaviour, Rai said if that was the case then why was he allowed to travel in another IndiGo flight and that no police complaint was lodged.

Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitoes on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language including the word hijack. He also attempted to instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft, the airline said in a tweet on Monday.

Without mentioning about the word hijack in the statement, IndiGo said that in the presence of CISF, the airlines security staff explained the situation to Rai. In the meantime, some of the other passengers started complaining about him being on-board since they felt that he had already delayed the aircraft and behaved in an inappropriate manner, it added.

Citing its thorough investigation into the incident, the airline claimed that Rai was started aggressively demanding that the aircraft be sprayed again, even if it meant deplaning the passengers and delaying the flight.

On hearing this argument, some other passengers started questioning the delay and insisted that the flight depart without any further delay. However, Dr. Rai continued to insist that the flight not depart which was opposed by some other passengers. This resulted in a loud argument in the forward galley next to the cockpit door, the statement said.

Further, IndiGo said that as the altercation kept escalating, the captain informed ground security and who in turn sought help as per prescribed protocol from the quick response team of the CISF.

As Rai started complaining about mosquitoes inside the aircraft, the lead cabin attendant tried to pacify Rai and even showed the two used empty cans of the approved aircraft insecticide as well as the mosquito repellant patches, according to the airline.

Given the mosquito menace in some of the stations in hot weather every year, as the standard operating procedure, we spray the aircraft with an approved aircraft insecticide prior to boarding. In fact, on this aircraft, the aircraft insecticide was sprayed twice. We also put mosquito repellent patches under our aircraft seats, it added.

Rai also posted a video narrating about the incident on the social media.
The Isak-Muivah faction of Naga rebel outfit Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) ticked off Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju on Monday for his statement that it had dropped the issue of sovereignty in its political talks with Centre on a final solution to the Naga issue.

In a statement, the NSCN (I-M) which signed a framework agreement with the Centre in 2015, blamed Rijiju for creating a lot of confusion with his statements and accused him of vitiating the environment of the negotiation with his repeated immature statement on the ongoing Naga peace talks.

When the talk is progressing at the highest level, Mr Rijiju has no business to talk on political issues of which he is ignorant. We advice him to refrain himself from such repetition in near future in the interest of both the parties, the statement said.

The reaction came following Rijijus interaction with journalists here on Saturday where he stated NSCN-IM had dropped the issue of sovereignty in the peace political talks with the Centre.

It is unbecoming of Mr Rijiju to have made such statements through the local and national media of the on-going negotiation to which he is incompetent to comment, the statement said.

At no point of the negotiation have both the parties ignored important political issues, and the concocted statement of Mr Rijiju that, NSCN has dropped the stand of the Nagas on their sovereign right is a figment of his own imagination, it added.

Ending years of talks, NSCN-IM and the Centre had signed a framework agreement in August, 2015. The agreement laid the foundation for further talks on finding a final solution.

Since details of the agreement is not yet public, theres lot of speculation and fear in northeast on what would happen if the Centre agreed to the long-standing demand of Naga groups to create a Greater Nagalim encompassing Naga-inhabited areas in other states of the region.

Union ministers have repeatedly assured that the final solution with Naga peace groups wont affect territorial integrity of other states in northeast, but lingering doubts still remain.

Six more Naga rebel groups, which had not joined the talks earlier, started confabulations with the Centre towards the end of last year raising hopes that the nearly six-decade old issue would get sorted soon.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have filed an FIR against a group of lawyers for protesting and attempting to prevent Crime Branch officials from performing their duty of filing a chargesheet against eight persons in the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl.

The body of the girl, from the Bakherwal community, a nomadic Muslim tribe, was recovered from the Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.

The Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, probing the alleged rape and murder of the girl in Kathua district, filed the chargesheet against seven of the eight accused in the case at a court in Kathua, amid protests by local lawyers on Monday.

The case has become communally sensitive and various political parties have jumped into the controversy with allegations and counter-allegations over handling of the matter.

On Tuesday, the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, probing the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl, filed a separate charge sheet against a juvenile accused in the case at a court in Kathua district.

An FIR has been lodged against a group of lawyers who held protests and tried to prevent the Crime Branch officials from performing their duty, a senior police official told PTI.

He said that the lawyers have not been identified so far and their identification is part of the investigation.

Accompanied by the accused yesterday, a team of Crime Branch faced stiff resistance from the members of the Kathua Bar Association, who chanted slogans go back crime branch during filing of the charge sheet and held protests.

The Kathua Bar Association claimed that the Crime Branch was compelled to leave the premises without filing the charge sheet.

On January 23, the government had handed over the case to the Crime Branch of the state police which formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and arrested eight persons, including two special police officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destruction of evidence.

Among the accused, former revenue official and the alleged conspirator, Sanji Ram (60), surrendered before the Crime Branch on March 20 after his son, Vishal, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh.

All the members of the Bar have strongly agitated against the presentation of challan (charge sheet) by the Crime Branch in the Rassana case, president of the Kathua Bar Association, Kirty Bhushan Mahajan, said in a statement.

The agitation of the Bar proved successful and the Crime Branch was compelled to go back and the challan could not be presented in the court of chief judicial magistrate Kathua, he said.

He said the Bar is already on strike against the investigation of the case by the Crime Branch and strongly favours a CBI inquiry into the incident.

All the Bar members strongly condemned the conduct of the Crime Branch in dealing the issue. The state government has failed to deal the issue or understand the sentiments of the people. The agitation of the Bar shall continue and it has unanimously decided to keep the work under suspension till April 12, Mahajan said.
The Delhi high Court on Tuesday issued notice to the chartered accountant of Congress leader P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram on an Enforcement Directorate plea seeking cancellation of his bail in the INX media money laundering case.

The court has listed the matter for hearing on August 16.

The Enforcement Directorate has challenged the trial court order which granted bail to co-accused S Bhaskaraman on March 13. He was arrested on February 16 on charges of money laundering.

The agency alleged that Karti Chidambaram took money to facilitate a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.
India and China held the fifth round of the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Dialogue here against the backdrop of Beijing continuing to block New Delhis entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) citing proliferation issues.

The low-key bilateral dialogue is a platform for both sides  grappling with the NSG impasse and other nagging diplomatic problems  to find common ground on international disarmament issues.

The countries exchanged views on developments related to disarmament, non-proliferation, nuclear issues and the role of science and technology in international security, disarmament and outer space, the Indian embassy said in a statement.

Both sides underlined the importance of the bilateral dialogue as an important mechanism between the two countries for consultations on important issues, it said.

The statement was silent on Indias NSG bid.

The Indian team was led by Pankaj Sharma, joint secretary (disarmament and international security affairs) in the external affairs ministry while the Chinese side was led by Wang Qun, director general of the department of arms control at the foreign ministry.

The first dialogue under this mechanism was held in 2015 but there is little evidence of China diluting its stand on Indias entry into the 48-member club that controls global trade in nuclear material and equipment.

China has repeatedly said it will not support Indias entry to the NSG till the bloc evolves a universal formula to accept applications from countries that havent signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). China has suggested a two-step approach for such countries  evolving a universal formula and then taking up each countrys applications.

It is seen as an attempt by Beijing to tie Indias case with that of its all-weather ally Pakistan, which too has not signed the NPT. Analysts say China is keen that Pakistan joins NSG despite Islamabads suspect proliferation record.

India has in the past said that expect for China, all NSG members are in favour of its candidacy. India also has no plans to sign the NPT as a pre-condition to joining the NSG, the government told Parliament in March.

More bilateral visits are slated this month. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and national security adviser Ajit Doval are expected in China. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in the coastal city of Qingdao in June for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

India and Pakistan joined SCO, established in 2001 to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking to Afghanistan, last year. The bloc has since expanded to include trade and security.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj shelved a bilateral meeting with her Canadian counterpart later this month after relations turned frosty over a theory advanced by a senior official in Ottawa that rogue elements in the Indian government were involved in efforts to sabotage Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus February visit to India.

Swaraj had been expected to meet Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland in the last week of April for a dialogue after the latter invited her to Ottawa when they met in New Delhi on February 22, a day prior to a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Trudeau.

Highly placed Indian officials said the April meeting had been called off and no new date has been set.

In New Delhi, the external affairs ministry declined to comment, saying no meeting had been scheduled. An official involved in organising such meetings said, All high level meetings are decided through diplomatic channels. As and when such a trip is finalised, an announcement will be made.

The senior Canadian official had said rogue elements in the Indian government had planted Indo-Canadian Jaspal Atwal, convicted of terror-related charges, at a Canadian-hosted dinner to embarrass Trudeau.

The Indian government angrily rebutted the charge that it had any role in Atwals invitation to the formal dinner reception hosted for Trudeau at the residence of Canadas high commissioner. Atwal was imprisoned in Canada in 1987 on charges relating to an assassination attempt on a visiting minister from Punjab.

The rogue elements theory was advanced in briefings to the Canadian media by an unnamed senior government official, later revealed to be National Security Advisor Daniel Jean.

The Atwal affair may well continue to cast a long shadow on bilateral ties. A veteran Indian diplomat said relations had hit rock bottom after Trudeau himself supported that theory multiple times, including in the House of Commons.

Even as relations have come to a standstill, the matter continues to haunt the Canadian government. Jean has offered a classified briefing to Opposition leader Andrew Scheer and openly testified before the House of Commons public safety committee, according to the Canadian Press wire service.

The national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians will conduct a special review of the allegations that have been raised in the context of the Prime Minister's trip to India in February 2018, specifically those relating to foreign interference in Canadian political affairs, risks to the security of the Prime Minister, and inappropriate use of intelligence, according to a statement released by the committees secretariat.

The committee, which includes members of the House of Commons and Senate, will provide a special report to Trudeau and the foreign affairs and public safety ministers by the end of May, and an unclassified version of the document will be tabled in Parliament.
Police in Kerala on Tuesday arrested the prime accused in the murder of a 36-year-old former radio jockey from Thiruvananthapuram international airport with the help of Interpol after he fled to Qatar following the crime, officials said.

Rajesh, popularly known as Rasikan Rajesh, was hacked to death on March 27 in his studio on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram by a gang allegedly led by Ali Bhai.

Police said non-resident Indian businessman Abdul Sathar hired them to take revenge on Rajesh, who was very close to his former wife, a dance teacher in Qatar.

Their relationship soured after Rajeshs intimacy with his wife, who later filed a divorce plea. The plea infuriated Sathar and he hatched a plan to do kill Rajesh, they added.

Rajesh left his job in Qatar and set up a studio in Madavoor, his native place, but kept in touch with the woman. She was the first to alert Rajeshs friends after the attack.

Police said the assailants attacked him while he was talking to her on the phone. She later told reporters in Qatar that she overheard his cries, Dont kill me, I am innocent and I wont do any trouble to anyone during the attack.

The woman has expressed her willingness to appear before the police for questioning.

The special investigation team probing the case arrested a 22-year-old engineer from Bengaluru on Sunday for helping the two-member team, which reportedly came from the Middle East to carry out the crime.

Police have also arrested four people for helping the accused flee the country.
Eight organisations representing editors, working journalists and owners of media companies have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention in deferring a meeting of the truncated Press Council of India (PCI) on Wednesday.

The letter said names of representatives of print media organisations to the 28-member board of PCI are yet to be notified.

They have also said the PM should instruct the information and broadcasting minister to include representatives of journalists unions /associations in the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) , and claim this hasnt been done , in clear violation of the guidelines.

The PCI is a statutory, quasi-judicial body that addresses grievances about print media.

The procedure adopted for reconstituting the 13th PCI and the Central Press Accreditation Committee was arbitrary, which if not reversed, would greatly impact media freedom and access to information, critical to democracy. In both cases, the outgoing chairman of the PCI and the information and broadcasting minister, have chosen to brazenly do away with tradition and interpret the rules and guidelines, the letter says.

PCI chairperson Justice CK Prasad dismissed these allegations and said the meeting convened by him would be held on Wednesday. Whether any business will be transacted will depend on the members, he said.

Earlier, PCI put out a statement refuting allegations that the chairman had adopted a process to keep out certain media associations and candidates from the selection process while reconstituting the panel.

The eight organisations are: the Indian Newspaper Society, Indian Journalists Union, All India Newspaper Editors Conference, Working News Cameramen Association, National Union of Journalists (India), Hindi Samachar Patra Sammelan, All India Small and Medium Newspapers Federation, and Press Association.
A 60-year-old retired police inspector and his son were shot dead by unidentified men on Tuesday in Gorakhpur on Tuesday, police said.

The double murder triggered violence by a mob which set a police jeep on fire and pelted police personnel with stones.

The mob also blocked a road demanding arrest of the killers. Personal enmity is suspected to be the motive for the killings.

Jai Hind Yadav, the retired police inspector and his son Nagendra Yadav, 25, were returning home on their bike after attending a court hearing when they were shot in the Gobdaur area under Jangha police station. The court hearing related to the murder of Jai Hind s elder brother who was shot dead ago over personal enmity two years ago, police added.

Two men on a bike intercepted Jai Hind and Nagendra near Glykol Pulia.

They first opened fire on Nagendra, who was riding the bike, and then chased and shot Jai Hind when he attempted to escape.

Police faced villagers anger when they tried to send the bodies for post-mortem. District magistrate Vijyendra Pandian and senior superintendent of police Shalabh Mathur reached the site accompanied by reinforcements.

Mathur said the situation was now under control but police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel were deployed in the region as a precautionary measure.

Probe is on and the culprits will be arrested soon, said the SSP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday came down heavily on the opposition for trying to stonewall all initiatives of the government while he praised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for his fight against corruption and his efforts in the clean India campaign.

The Prime Minister was here to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

Addressing thousands of Swachhagrahis (cleanliness volunteers) from across the country at the Gandhi Maidan in Motihari, Modi said the culture of latkana (delaying) and bhatkana (misleading) to stall work was over.

He cited the example of the Madhepura electric locomotive factory project, which was approved in 2007 but kept on the backburner. It was the NDA government, which took up the project proactively and completed its first phase within three years, he said.

He also inaugurated schemes worth Rs 6,000 crore in Bihar. The PM dedicated to the nation the Madhepura electric locomotive factory, laid the foundation stones for the doubling of Muzaffarpur-Sagauli-Valmikinagar railway line and four sewerage projects in Patna, and approved of the renovation of Motijheel in Motihari. He also symbolically flagged off, using a remote device, a 12000 HP freight electric locomotive and the Champaran-Humsafar Express train from Katihar to Delhi.

Modi also announced that the Gram Swaraj campaign would be launched on April 14.He exhorted all MPs, MLAs and other elected public representatives to go to their respective constituencies and sensitise people towards cleanliness and making India open defecation free (ODF).

He also felicitated a few Swachhagrahis including one from Bihars Nalanda district and another from neighbouring Jharkhand.

Modi also complimented Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for his fight against anti-socials and corruption. Without mentioning the RJD-Congress combine, he said the Centre would whole-heartedly support the state in its effort to fight corruption and promote the clean India campaign.

He also appreciated Bihars effort to construct 8.5 lakh toilets within one week and lauded the leadership of the chief minister and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi in the state.

Modi expressed optimism that Bihar would be able to catch up with the national average on sanitation even as it was lagging behind at present.

Earlier, PM Modi began his speech in Bhojpuri and spoke about the historical importance of Champaran, where Mahatma Gandhi initiated his satyagraha movement for Indias independence on this day in 1917.

Stressing on respect for all, irrespective of caste and religion, Bihar chief minister Kumar said the country would not progress amid tension and confrontation, but did not elaborate.

He said the state has launched a rigorous ODF campaign and would strive to achieve the ODF target by Oct 2, 2019 - the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

But that may be a tall order. According to a UNICEF data of 2017-18, only 49.05% of total houses in rural Bihar have toilets. While only 48.72% of the total houses in Bihar (rural and urban) have toilets.
The NITI Forum for North East on Tuesday outlined five development missions for promoting sectors like horticulture, tourism and food processing in the region, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday.

Other missions will cover bamboo-based handicrafts and medium scale industries with focus on Make in North-East, he said.

Kumar said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modis vision to establish a regional NITI Aayog forum for the north eastern states, adding that a regional forum for Himalayan and Coastal states will be set up soon.

These regional forums will bring synergy among states and help them solve their problems which cannot be solved by one state, he noted.

There has been outflow of resources of North East to other parts of India, he said adding that states in the region must bring back not only its resources but also additional resources. For this, we will have to create more employment opportunities.

There is a challenge to bring North East region into mainstream and the central government is working to connect it to the rest of India, Kumar insisted.

To make North East more familiar in the rest of India, one emporium should be set up in all the districts of the country so that people can know about the products of the region, he suggested.

The focus of development projects in the region will be based on the concept of HIRA, as spelt out by the Prime Minister, he said.

The acronym HIRA stands for Highways, Internet ways, Railways and Airways, he said, adding that the emphasis will also be on education, health and skill development in the region.

The first meeting of the newly constituted NER forum here was organised by NITI Aayog and Ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER) and the North Eastern Council (NEC). It was co-chaired by Kumar and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for DoNER Jitendra Singh.

Singh said the government has focused on the development of a region which is more or less remained out of the mainstream for the last seven decades.

There has been a significant 21% rise in fund utilisation in the North East in the last three years, he said, adding that the central government has now committed full 100% funding for development projects in the region as against 90:10 ratio earlier, with state governments funding 10% of the total cost.

Singh also said the government has initiated talks with a private airline for connecting Agartala with Dhaka and Chittagong.

He also underlined the need for completion of the 15 km long Agartala-Akhaura rail link for improving connectivity between Tripura and Bangladesh.

The meeting also discussed the need to complete bridge on the river Feni in Sabroom which connects Chittagong and Tripura, he added.

After completion of the bridge on the river Feni at Sabroom in South Tripura district, the broad gauge railway track would be extended to Chittagong port, and Tripura would act as gateway for the North East, the minister said.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio pointed out that Kohima is the only state capital in the North East which does not have an airport.

He said the state government has acquired land for this purpose and at least one small airstrip at Kohima should be constructed for providing air connectivity to Nagaland under the UDAN scheme.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma said development is the solution to all socio-economic problems in the region and through infrastructure and connectivity, many development issues can be solved.

He said that the National Games-2022 will be held in Meghalaya, which will coincide with the 75th Anniversary of Indian Independence.

He further said that economic challenges of the NER can be met by removing the physical and economic barriers.

Chief minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb said the state borders Bangladesh from three sides and imports goods worth more than Rs 300 crore annually from that country, but its exports there amount to a meagre Rs 4.6 crore.

He said certain provisions prohibit export of rubber from Tripura, but is routed through West Bengal.

Deb said Tripura has immense potential in fisheries as the state has the worlds best climate suitable for aquaculture but this has not been exploited.

Representatives of all eight member states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura -- of the NER gave suggestions on moving towards making it a prosperous region.

The NITI Forum for North East was constituted in February 2018 with an aim to ensure sustainable economic growth of the North Eastern Region and periodically review the development status in NER.
A passenger has accused the staff of IndiGo of manhandling and forcibly offloading him from an aircraft at Lucknow airport after he complained about mosquitoes in the plane, a charge denied by the countrys biggest airline.

Saurabh Rai, a doctor with Narayan Hrudaylaya in Bengaluru, said he boarded the Lucknow-Bengaluru flight (6E-541) at 6.35am on Monday and found mosquitoes in the aircraft and reported the matter to the staff.

Rai said the staff misbehaved with him and forced him off the plane after manhandling him.

The staff termed me as a terrorist. They threatened me with dire consequences and pressurised me to write an apology letter, which I refused as I had done no wrong. They mistreated me. I had to arrange my next ticket for Bengaluru after a lot of hardship, alleged Rai.

Indias biggest airline by market share, however, said Rai was offloaded because of his unruly behaviour.

It said that Rai expressed concerns regarding mosquitoes on board prior to the take-off, but before the cabin crew could address his concerns, he aggressively expressed his annoyance and started using threatening language.

Rai also attempted to instigate other passengers on board to damage the aircraft and used words such as hijack, the airline said.

Such actions are absolutely unacceptable, and there is zero tolerance for such threatening language on board an aircraft. Hence, keeping in mind applicable safety protocols, the crew apprised the pilot-in-command, who decided to offload Rai from the flight, IndiGo said in a release.

Customer satisfaction is core to our business. However, the safety and security of our passengers as well as colleagues are of primary concern. Therefore, any untoward conduct of this nature is of serious concern to us, and as responsible corporate citizens we will take all necessary action to address this violation, it said.

Further, we would like to mention here that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has prohibited disinfectant fumigation in aircraft while passengers are on board. This order is currently being challenged by IndiGo before the NGT and the same is pending for adjudication, it added.

It was involved in a similar incident last year.

The incident took place on October 15 and surfaced only in November after a video showed passenger Rajiv Katyal being manhandled by the airlines security staff after an argument on the tarmac at New Delhi airport.

The video went viral, prompting the government to launch an investigation into the incident. IndiGos president and director Aditya Ghosh apologised for the incident and said an action was taken against the airline staff for manhandling the passenger.

IndiGo is owned by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd and flies about one in every two passengers in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dedicated to the nation the Madhepura electric locomotive facility and flagged off the first engine manufactured there through a remote device from Motihari.

A joint venture (JV) between French multinational company Alstom and Indian Railways, the electric locomotive facility marks a transformational change for rail freight movement in India as well as the region of Madhepura. Alstom has a 76% stake in the JV and Indian Railways has 24% stake.

The electric locomotive, WAG12 double section locomotive, is capable of hauling 6,000 tonnes, at a maximum speed of 120 kmph. The locomotive has 12,000 horsepower - allowing faster and safer movement of heavier freight trains across the country.

The locomotive factory spread over 250 acres of land at Madhepura, has been set up at an estimated cost of over Rs 20,000 crore and it would generate six lakh mandays of work for local residents and roll out 800 electric locos in the next 11 years.

In a press release on Tuesday, Alain Spohr, managing director, Alstom, India and South Asia, said, It is a matter of great pride and privilege for Alstom to have Prime Minister of India flagging off our first complete electric locomotive and dedicating the Madhepura facility to the nation. There can be no stronger endorsement of our efforts towards Make in India and skill development initiatives in the country. Alstom is proud to partner with the Indian Railways on this transformation journey towards a sustainable future in mobility in the country.

He added, This facility will also pave the way for the industrial development in Bihar and will act as a gateway of opportunities for the region.

The electric locomotives will now move to the testing and maintenance depot at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh before being introduced to the mainline network as part of the freight fleet.

The company plans to develop an ecosystem to enable local manufacturers to set up manufacturing units in and around Madhepura besides focusing on skill development and education which will prepare more than 5000 young minds for gainful employment.

The company also plans to adopt a local ITI to provide skill development to 840 students over the next 10 years. Of these, 300 students will be absorbed by Alstom for apprenticeship programmes within the facility.

Modi was in Bihar to attend an event to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagrah with an aim to spread the message of Swachh Bharat.

PM Modi also flagged off the inaugural run of a Humsafar Express between Katihar and New Delhi and laid the foundation stone for the doubling of the Muzaffarpur-Sugauli-Valmikinagar track.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join his party MPs day-long fast on April 12 to protest the Oppositions conduct in Parliament. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah will stage a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka on the same day.

The BJP blames Opposition parties for the washout of this years budget session of Parliament. The session ended on April 6 as one of the most dramatic, yet least productive in 18 years, leaving several key bills pending as the country heads towards the 2019 general elections.

The last full budget session before the election couldnt get to debate five no-confidence motions, and passed the budget and related bills without debate. Just two out of eight planned bills were introduced.

Modi had announced a fast by BJP MPs last week at a party meeting where he had accused the Congress of taking parliamentary proceedings to a new low with its conduct in the House.

The Congress had tried to preempt the BJP event by announcing that the party members would observe a fast on April 9 to promote communal harmony in the country.

Sources said while observing the fast on April 12, Modi will not disturb his daily official routine of meeting people and officials, and clearing files. All BJP MPs will also observe fast in their respective constituencies.

(With PTI inputs)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is clear that it is not a political entity, but understands the necessity of being involved in policy making, which affects its affiliates, says RSS watcher and author Walter Andersen, whose new book on the Sangh, RSS: A View to the Inside, co-written by co-author Sridhar Damle , will be released later this year.

Three decades ago, Andersen and Damle co-wrote The Brotherhood In Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, widely considered the most authoritative book on the organisation.

With unparalleled access to the Sangh and BJPs leadership, Andersen has continued to study Indian politics. Andersen has also served as chief of the US State Departments South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia. He has also been a special assistant to the ambassador at the US embassy in New Delhi.

In an interview to HT, Andersen, who serves as senior adjunct professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins University and is affiliated with Tongji University in Shanghai, said the RSS had emerged as the populist critic of the BJP government and intermittently, through public comments and decisions, affirmed it does not take orders from the party or the Prime Minister. Excerpts:

How do you perceive RSSs role in contemporary polity?

The RSS is a parivar (family) that is becoming increasingly big, there are 36 organisations that are formally linked to it, but there are hundreds more that have informal links.

RSS is at the centre of these broad range of groups, such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which also has different views from the BJP. Increasingly its role is that of a mediator. You will see it in a number of cases, for instance when Narendra Modi was nominated as the Prime Minister, it was the RSS that called on LK Advani and convinced him to go along.

Some in the RSS feel they should continue with their orthodox ideological stance; the younger ones want changes. What do you make of this dilemma?

It is a wrong assumption that RSS is a group that does not change, is unified and there is no internal debate. There are instances to show this, take the case of rebellion in Goa, when the RSS leader Subhash Velingkar took on chief minister Manohar Parrikar over the decision to continue supporting English-language Roman Catholic schools. Even though the RSS feels education should be in the mother tongue, in this case they bowed to political necessity, since the BJP in Goa receives Roman Catholic support.

Look at the issue of beef consumption in the North-East. The RSS has been silent on the issue, because that is not expedient. But there are three tensions that it faces.

What are those?

It is at a crossroads and one tension is how political should it be. There is a strong sense in the RSS that politics is for politicians. But here the tail wags the dog, almost all of its affiliates in some ways depend on working with the government; therefore, they have become more conscious of policy issues. A senior functionary told me we dont want to become the Ramakrishna Mission, it has no influence any more.

The second dilemma is Hindu vs Hindutva.

The RSS is against caste differences and wants to unite all Hindus, but that is diametrically opposed to the essence of much of what Hinduism is about: caste hierarchy. These differences come out in ironic ways, look at Ghar Wapsi (reconversion). You reconvert, but what caste do you reconvert to?

Also, are they willing to push the membership to give up caste? I havent seen that.

The third challenge is the linkages to the BJP. RSS has a liaison to the BJP and there are some government types who attend their meetings, the issue here is how intimate do you want that relationship to be. I dont think they have decided on that. Some feel they need to be more influential while others feel they undermine their essence if they do that.

How has the BJP-RSS equation evolved under RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Narendra Modi?

RSS asserts it is not the BJP. And in many way it is not the BJP. It survives because of what it offers ideologically and organisationally, and unlike the BJP does not need votes. We now see Amit Shah (BJP president) broadening the base of the BJP and getting for example the North-East, which was a success because of the wholesale migration from the Congress to the BJP. But this upsets some RSS people, because they see this as diluting the message while others recognise it as a political necessity.

The RSS looks ahead a hundred years. When Modi was nominated as PM, there was real fear of it happening that the RSS would be subsumed within the BJP. Both Bhagwat and Modi recognise they have a role to play and know the importance of the organisation, Modis is to win elections and providing backdrop for policies that are favourable to the affiliates and RSSs is to ensure support in these elections.

Bhagwat is a diplomat and he knows it doesnt serve anyones purpose, certainly not the organisations to have a contentious relationship. He has encouraged meetings to help people understand where people stand.

What can you tell us about the RSSs footprint abroad?

There is vigorous outward reach programme; when Hindus leave, they keep up contact with them. They have affiliates in 31 countries, they mostly go by the name of the HSS (Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh). In the US for example, they have family-organised Shakhas, with monthly and weekly programmes. HSS was instrumental in organising the public appearance for Modi in Madison Square. It was financed, organised and staffed by them and they did it for Modi, but it was an expression of loyalty for the motherland.

In their local shakhas they have had to change the focus a bit. They organise a lot of money for helping others, in Texas after the two hurricanes they sent several hundred people and doctors to help at their own cost.

The Opposition says the 2019 elections will very polarised on account of the ideology pursued by the RSS-BJP. What do you make of such comments?

They have a strong commitment to Hindutva.

Many in the far right feel empowered by their power and you get the beef controversy. Most of the cases I looked at, it is not the RSS or the BJP that have pushed for this (polarisation) to happen, but people on the far right.

There has been a certain caution on their part on how to respond to this; they know on the foreign policy front this is bad for Indias image. They have to respond in a way that they do not drive away the Muslims or their core constituency.
A nationwide anti-quota bandh call, given largely through social media, turned out to be a damp squib on Tuesday with virtually no impact on the ground amid heavy security arrangements.

Shops remained closed in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for a few hours and internet services were restricted in sensitive areas to check rumour-mongering, but normal life remained largely unaffected, officials said

The central government has sent 30 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)  the countrys largest paramilitary force  to various states to maintain law and order during the Bharat Bandh called on Tuesday.

Home Ministry officials said 14 of these companies have been sent to Uttar Pradesh, eight to Rajasthan, and four each to Madhya Pradesh and Bihar to prevent any untoward incident during the bandh called in protest against the countrys reservation policy.

The bandh, which has been called by various groups protesting against caste-based reservation to Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), affected normal life in several parts of the country.

Bihar

Over a dozen people were injured in a clash between Bandh supporters and a pro-reservation group in Ara town in Bhojpur district. Bandh supporters, mostly upper castes youths, reportedly blocked roads and forcibly enforced the shutdown.

More than a dozen people were injured in the clash between supporters of the Bharat Bandh and a pro-reservation group comprising OBCs and Dalits, a district police official said. There were also reports of firing between the two groups.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code were imposed at Ara following the clashes, a district police official said. Additional security was also deployed.

In Vaishali, Bandh supporters blocked National Highway 77. Protestors also clashed with policemen at Lalganj. In Patna, Bandh supporters reportedly forced closure of shops and blocked roads at some places. Many schools in Patna suspended classes as a precautionary measure. At Muzaffarpur, a group opposing the Bandh allegedly attacked a reporter of a local TV news channel.

Union minister Upendra Kushwaha claimed that he was attacked by miscreants near Hajipur while on his way to Motihari to take part in a programme to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Dubey said social media messages are being monitored and people have been warned that those spreading hate messages would be booked under Section 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. District officials have also imposed prohibitory orders in Bhopal until 6 am on Wednesday.

Madhya Pradesh bore the brunt of the April 2 violence leading to the death of eight people and injuries to scores, including 54 policemen.

Ajatshatru, Divisional Commissioner of Bhopal, said prohibitory orders under Section 144 had been clamped in the city for Tuesday, but services including schools, government offices and banks would operate as usual. Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code prohibits assembly of five or more people.

Sudhir Lad, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Chambal range, said curfew would be effective in Bhind from 9 pm on Monday to 6 pm on Tuesday to avoid any untoward incident. He said Internet services have been blocked in the Chambal region to prevent rumour mongering. Three people had died in Bhind in violence during the April 2 shutdown.

Section 144 had been imposed in Sagar district and curfew would be in place in Morena too, officials said.

Protests against caste-based reservations: Curfew imposed in Bhind and Morena. (Visuals from Morena) #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/Tg4Kink7Wu  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

Rajasthan

Section 144 has also been imposed in Rajasthans Jaipur and Bharatpur, and Uttarakhands Nainital, reports ANI.

In Bharatpur, prohibitory orders have been imposed till April 15 and Internet services suspended till 9 am. The district administration has put a complete ban on processions and warned of strict action against lawbreakers.

Prohibitory orders have also been imposed in Jaipur city. Mobile internet services have been blocked for 24 hours since Monday night as a precautionary measure, an official said.

For the last few days, police have held meetings with market associations, transport organisations, political organisations and other groups in all the districts asking them to maintain law and order, Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, NRK Reddy told PTI.

ANI reported that markets in Jhalawar remained shut, as protesters held a bike rally.

Rajasthan: Markets in Jhalawar shut during protests against caste-based reservations, protesters held a bike-rally. pic.twitter.com/PFSGDYKzgA  ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018

Uttar Pradesh

In Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, schools for students of classes I to IX remained closed on Tuesday, reports ANI.

Punjab

Tension prevailed in Punjabs industrial town of Phagwara as two groups came face to face during the bandh, but police intervened and defused the situation.

Better safe than sorry

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued an advisory to all states asking them to make necessary arrangements and issue prohibitory orders, if necessary. It had said district magistrates and superintendents of police will be personally held responsible for any violence in their areas of jurisdiction.

The missive came a week after a Bharat Bandh called by groups opposing alleged dilution of SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order saw massive violence in different parts of the country leading to the death of about a dozen people.

(With agency inputs)
Authorities in Silchar in Assams Cachar district deployed two platoons of the CRPF and two platoons of the BSF late Monday after communal clashes over the last two days pushed the town to the edge.

On Monday night, as rumours flew on social media with photos of injured people doing the rounds, an autorickshaw was set on fire by some miscreants at around 11 pm in the Rangikhari point area, the police said.

Earlier on Sunday night, a low intensity clash broke out at Kalibari Char area of Silchar when the two communities pelted stones on each other and vandalised houses. The town in the Barak Valley has been tense for almost a year now.

Reports say the area, barely 700 metres from the Silchar Police station, close to the Barak river, has seen stray incidents of stone pelting in the recent past. However, the situation came to a head on Sunday night leading to a clash.

More than 10 people were reported to be injured in Sundays clashes. Three of them, including Noor Islam Laskar, his wife Zamira Begum Laskar and daughter Ayesha Laskar, from the Kalibari Char area are recovering at the Silchar Medical College, the police said.

Two people have been detained in connection with the Monday night incident, Cachars superintendent of police, Rakesh Roushan said.

Three others are being questioned for the Sundays violence, Roushan added. He claimed that the situation is under control. Despite the clashes, prohibitory orders have not issued.

The district police chief said there seemed to be no immediate provocation for the clashes.

The situation in the area has been tough since last year when a Hindu girl eloped with a Muslim boy, Roushan said referring to the June 2017 incident which led to a communal clash in the town.

While there was a peace meeting between members of the both the communities and the district administration, a section of the local media also swung into action.

Since last night several provocative Whatsapp messages are doing rounds in Barak Valley, these messages are political agenda and we urge people not to react to these messages, Barakbulletin.com, a local news website wrote in an appeal published on Monday.
That is a tall order.

The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Wakf Board, which is battling the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for ownership of Taj Mahal, was on Tuesday asked by the Supreme Court to produce documents signed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to prove its claim over the monument.

The board has a week to produce the signatures of the emperor who died in 1666, almost 18 years after the monument he built in the memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, was completed.

Hearing a 2010 appeal filed by the ASI, the court directed the board to produce documents in support of its claim that none other than Shah Jahan declared the Taj a wakf property.

Who in India will believe it belongs to the wakf board? These kind of issues must not waste the time of the Supreme Court, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra told the board.

Wakf is an endowment of land or property by a Muslim for a religious, educational or charitable purpose.

In 2010, the ASI had petitioned the court against the wakf boards July 2005 decision ordering that the Taj be registered as the latters property. There is a stay on the order.

Appearing for the board, senior advocate VV Giri said Shah Jahan executed a wakfnama in favour of the board, a submission challenged by ASI. Then you show us the original deed executed by Shah Jahan. Show us the signature, the bench shot back, granting a weeks time on Giris request.

CJI Misra, however, had a few questions for the board.

How did he (Shah Jahan) sign the wakfnama? He was in jail and used to view the monument while in custody, the countrys top judge said.

Shah Jahan died in the Agra fort where he was put under house arrest by son Aurangzeb in July 1658 following a bitter war of succession.

The bench also reminded the board that the 17th century monument and other heritage structures built by the Mughals passed on to the British after the end of the Mughal rule. After Independence, the monuments vested with the government and were being managed by ASI.

ASI advocate ADN Rao said there was no wakfnama. Under the 1858 proclamation, the properties taken over from the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, by the British vested with the Queen. By the 1948 act, the buildings were taken over by the Indian government, he said.

The board had in July 2005 given the order on a petition filed by one Mohammad Irfan Bedar. Bedar had moved the Allahabad high court because the board delayed its decision on the petition he filed in 1998. It was on the high courts order that the board looked at his petition and claimed ownership of the Taj.
Government is considering a nationwide ban on the use of pet coke by various industries and a decision is likely to be taken within a month, the Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday.

Stating this, the Environment Ministry also told the top court that several key issues relating to steps to curb air pollution were under its active consideration and details have been sought from all states and union territories in this regard.

The ministry told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that on the issue relating to import of pet coke, they have received responses from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

MoPNG has said we should consult the DGFT. We have communicated to the DGFT and they have also responded. The MoEF has to take a view. Ban (on pet coke), if done, will be for the whole country, Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, representing the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), told the bench, adding that the exercise would take three to four weeks.

He said the MoPNG has suggested that the use of pet coke should be discouraged and the industries should be asked to switch over to alternate environment-friendly fuels.

The bench then listed the matter for hearing after six weeks while noting the submissions of the ASG, who also said that the matter is under active consideration of MoEF and information and statistics have been sought from all the states and UTs.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, raised several issues, including finalisation of pollution emission standards for five categories of industries.

The amicus said the Centre had earlier said that for five categories of industries, the emission standards would be finalised by March 31.

Regarding the issue of strengthening power distribution in the national capital region (NCR), Singh said there was power surplus in the region but the issue was of distribution. Besides, the use of generators was a cause of pollution.

The amicus also raised the issue of a comprehensive action plan for control on air pollution in other cities with high pollution.

However, the ASG said that several things have already been done and the remaining steps would also be taken soon.

The bench asked the ministry to file a comprehensive status report giving details of all the issues within three weeks.

The environment ministry had earlier told the apex court that a National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to comprehensively deal with the rising air pollution levels across the country would be finalised soon.

NCAP is a medium term national level strategy to tackle the increasing air pollution problem in a comprehensive manner and its overall objective includes evolving effective ambient air quality monitoring network across the country.

The court had earlier asked the Centre to look into the problem of air pollution on a nationwide basis and not confine it to Delhi-NCR only.

The court is hearing a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta who had raised several issues relating to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR.

This story has not been modified from its original version.
A Supreme Court-ordered inquiry by Haryana IAS officer Rajan Gupta into the legality of the actions of those responsible for illegally entertaining the applications of realtor, Uddar Gagan Properties, and release of acquired land to it during the Congress rule, had blamed the state government for assuming discretionary powers and its legal institutions like the office of the legal remembrancer (LR) supporting it by incorrectly interpreting the law.

The inquiry report, which did not fix the responsibility of any individual, has not been accepted by the state government. An undertaking in this regard was given by the state government before the apex court on March 16.

Volte face by govt

In a clear volte face, the state government last week appointed a retired high court judge, Justice RS Madan to conduct another inquiry into the matter, instead of a CBI inquiry announced by chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar in the assembly on March 13.

Gupta, who was a chief secretary-grade officer, concluded his inquiry stating: I consider it to be a failure of the system, a deliberate attempt by the state to assume discretionary powers; and using those powers at will. He further said it would be incorrect to presume that numerous individuals who dealt with this matter as well as scores of similar cases were not aware of the law of the land.

Revenue officials, the town and country planning officials, district attorney and the office of the legal remembrancer (LR) should be presumed to be fully aware of the law of the land. Their actions accordingly should have been guided to the law. However, they chose to interpret the law which conferred arbitrary powers on the state to acquire or release any piece of land at will and its own discretion.. The instant cases have also been dealt with the same manner and with the same frame of mind, incorrectly supported by the legal institutions of the state including the district attorney and the office of the legal remembrance (LR). The opinions of the legal advisors of the state government were not in accordance with the statute and the law pronounced by the high court which eventually led to a judicial review of the governments decision., the 69-page inquiry report said.

However, Gupta did not lay blame on any individual stating: For having done so for such a long time it may be inappropriate to pick one case out of the hundreds of cases and blame individuals for it. specific persons out of scores of officers and officials belonging to several wings of the state government cannot be pinpointed by attributing mala fides to them. No single individual or department took the decision at their own level. They all got support from the opinions of cross sections of institutions. It was a collective decision of several organisations.
By Ritah Kemigisa

Kampala City traders have temporarily suspended their strike which was meant to start this morning.

These had resolved to close their shops following governments alleged failure to intervene in matters like high cost of power, brutal arrest of traders by URA over trivial issues, and the pending bill meant to harmonise the tenant- land lord relationship.

According to Everest Kayondo the chairman Kampala city traders association, they have finally got positive responses from government, but they have to communicate the same to traders before taking a final stand.

He says they have now called a general members meeting to be held tomorrow to communicate the government responses to them and for a formal position to be taken.
It all began at a movie.

On a hot summer day on June 1, 1991, Rajendra Jatav and three of his friends had gone to a local cinema in Kumher, a town in Rajasthans Bharatpur district. But minutes into the show, they were allegedly asked to get off the benches and sit on the floor  a common practice where Dalits give way to the dominant castes.

But this time, they refused, triggering a scuffle. Hours later, they returned with a large crowd of Jatavs, a Dalit sub-caste, and protested. The administration later alleged they pelted stones at the hall.

Tensions had been rising in the region for months. That May, a wedding procession of a Dalit family had been blocked by dominant castes and an inter-caste marriage had ratcheted up hostilities. The cinema incident ignited a fire.

The following day, three Dalit men were beaten up, but no police complaint was registered. A day later, a group of Dalit labourers were thrashed and tied to a tree. Simultaneously, influential castes of society allegedly decided to cut off water supply to the Jatav colony and clamped a boycott.

This was a tumultuous time. Kumhers population was around 20,000 and it abutted Agra district, the cradle of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh. Throughout the previous decade, the Jatavs had painstakingly pulled themselves out of penury by assimilating themselves into the leather industry that flourished across the border. Moreover, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was gaining in strength and there was a buzz in the air that Mayawati could soon become chief minister, an extraordinary achievement for a community crushed for years.

But this new-found prosperity became an eyesore for dominant castes. They resented the confidence of the lowliest in their eyes, said PL Mimroth, who heads the Jaipur-based Centre for Dalit Rights.

Things came to a head on June 6, 1992. A hundreds-strong mob of Jat men marched into the Jatav colony, set several hutments on fire. In the ensuing carnage, 17 people were killed.

The media swooped, as did hordes of politicians, but on the ground, the Dalits struggled to get cases registered, even under the new SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Finally, 21 years after the massacre, a special court held seven people guilty while acquitting 19 in one case.

Dalits are today rising in front of communities that considered them lowly. (HT File Photo)

A second case, which deals with the main Kumher massacre, is still being heard. A third case, filed against Rajendra and others for the alleged attack on the cinema, was the first to be decided. They were sentenced to five years in jail.

When the judicial commission report came out, it recognised the upward swing of Jatavs as the cause of Jat jealousy but also identified another invisible reason, one that made the dominant castes insecure: The atrocities act.

A perceived dilution of this act is today the trigger of simmering Dalit anger that spilled on to the streets last week. The law, and its shoddy implementation, encapsulates many of the grievances that Dalit communities have nursed for decades and a failure of the promise that Independent India made to its most marginalised citizens.

The Anger

The Supreme Courts judgment uncorked years of bottled up resentment of Dalit communities. Kalpana Kannabiran, director of the Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, says this is because the judgment fed into dominant caste perspectives of the act being misused.

In this case, the complainants are always SC/ST, and all the accused are upper caste. Youre actually bringing out an argument that is stigmatising an entire community, she says.

The tipping point was coming. Seventy years of independence have changed little in casteist attitudes, which have morphed and taken new shapes in urban areas, while retaining their original macabre form in the rural.

The 2010-11 India Human Development Survey found that a third of the country practised untouchability. Data from the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies showed 95% of marriages continued to happen within communities. A telephonic survey conducted by four professors covering 40,000 households in six states and published in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) in 2016, found untouchability at a high in rural Rajasthan, where 66% of non-Dalit women and 50% of non-Dalit men admitted to the practice. When they were asked if they wanted a law to ban inter-caste marriages, more than half agreed. Amit Thorat, a professor at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University and one of the authors of the last study, points at these attitudes as the latent reasons for Dalit anger.

It is a historical anger of being oppressed and neglected. We only note the major acts of violence, not the everyday act of discrimination and bias, professor Thorat says.

He points at Ambedkarite movements across the country as key in increasing prosperity and education. As Dalits move away from traditional occupation and take up new jobs, get educated and move to cities, this creates resentment among other castes, who cannot transition from rural economy, Thorat adds. As Dalits get prosperous, caste hostility deepens. This anger comes out in violence. Rahul Singh, a lawyer with the Delhi-based National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, points out the importance of the SC/ST Act. The act represents a fundamental shift in power, especially in rural areas where even your labourer can now file a case against you. This is why the act is so reviled, and why its so important for Dalits and adivasis, he says.

A cocktail of reasons has fuelled the resentment. C Lakshmanan, a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, points to growing insecurity among Dalits, especially in recent years with a steady fall in conviction rates under the SC/ST act. Many local reasons have also contributed to the present scenario. For example, in Tamil Nadu, anti-Brahmin movements have failed to stop a rash of killings.

In Tamil Nadu, the movement was explicitly anti-Brahmin and implicitly anti-Dalit. Now it is implicit anti-Brahmin, explicitly anti-Dalit. No one is concerned about caste, he adds.

The explicit violence meted out to Dalit women also stokes anger. The rape, murder and trafficking of Dalit women is common because they are vulnerable and labelled by upper castes as impure, says Manjula Pradeep, a veteran activist from Gujarat.

The fight back

Dalits are today rising in front of communities that considered them lowly. Nowhere is this visible as much as back in Bharatpur, where the locals, despite being haunted by memories of their houses being torched but are forging ahead.

Four years ago, a 16-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly molested by two dominant-caste men at a tuition class. The familys repeated attempts to file a complaint were thwarted and the father of the victim intimidated, beaten up and ultimately allegedly murdered.

But the family refused to accept compensation, or be cowed by the threats. It contacted legal services in Jaipur, got a case filed, and when the police concluded the death was suicide, approached the high court to take over the investigation. During this time, the entire community rallied around, repelling the slurs and threats from the upper castes and utilising a network of Dalit lawyers, activists and professionals to demand justice and prevent a repeat of 1992. As Thorat says, the Dalits have had enough.
The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to withdraw a rape and abduction case lodged against former Union minister of state (home) Swami Chinmayanand, an officer in Shahjahanpur said.

The government has also initiated the process to withdraw 12 cases against BJP Agra MP Ram Shankar Katheria, another officer said. Katheria is chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

The twin moves come on the heels of the decision to withdraw 131 cases against accused in Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.

The move to withdraw the case comes when Shahjahanpur court has fixed May 15 for the hearing after the rape survivor moved an application, demanding arrest of the former minister.

The woman, a former disciple and manager of Mumuksh ashram run by Chinmayanand, had filed an FIR against him on November 30, 2011, alleging that she was held captive, raped and assaulted for several years.

Chinmayanand moved the Allahabad high court and got a stay on his arrest. The woman recorded her statement before the judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC, but no action was taken by the police.

On March 9, the additional district magistrate (administration), Shahjahanpur, Sarvesh Dixit sent a letter to the senior prosecution officer, directing him to move a petition in the court for withdrawal of the case, two weeks after Adityanath met Chinmayanand in Shahjahanpur on February 25.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe a womans allegations that Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator of the Bharatiya Janata Party, raped her last year.

The woman said the police arent probing her allegations and didnt name Sengar in an official document which recorded her complaint.

We have not given a clean chit to anyone--no one will be spared, said Anand Kumar, ADG Law and Order, Uttar Pradesh Police. All accused including the MLA will be questioned.

The NHRC also sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state police chief seeking a detailed report on the death of the father of the woman in judicial custody in Unnao, and has asked the authorities to ensure the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment.

The incident was reported to have happened a day after the alleged rape victim tried to immolate herself near the chief ministers residence accusing BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his aides of gangrape, the NHRC said on Tuesday.

The National Human Rights Commission observed that the allegations, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim family.

It has issued notice to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Uttar Pradesh, seeking a detailed report, including action taken against the delinquent police officials, who refused to register an FIR.

The NHRC also expects from the DGP, an explanation for not communicating the custodial death to the commission within 24 hours. All the reports, including health screening report of the deceased at the time of his admission in the jail and medical treatment provided by the jail authorities, are to be sent, the rights panel said in a statement.

They have been given four weeks to respond, it said.

The commission said it has also directed the chief secretary to look into the matter personally and ensure that the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment and humiliation by the opponents who appear to be resourceful persons of the locality.

He (chief secretary) is also directed to monitor and expedite the magisterial inquiry which is underway, it added.

The woman attempted suicide at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanaths residence in Lucknow on Sunday. A day later, her father died in a hospital in Unnao while under arrest.

Read| BJP MLAs brother arrested for assaulting Unnao rape victims father who died in judicial custody
The Sawai Madhopur airport was on Tuesday declared unfit for regular flight operations, a day before the first flight from Delhi was scheduled to land there.

The message was conveyed by Sawai Madhopur superintendent of police Maman Singh in a letter to the state intelligence chief on Tuesday. The district police chief wrote the airports boundary wall was broken at many places and there are babool trees all over the wall.

HT has a copy of the letter the SP sent to the additional director general of police (intelligence) on Tuesday.

Stray cattle move freely at the airport and people living in its neighbourhood use the airport as passage. Towards Chakchainpura village, the boundary wall is completely broken and farm houses and cow shelters have opened their gates into the airport, the SP has written.

In view of passengers safety, the airport in its present form is unfit for regular flights, although sometimes chartered flights operate from here, the letter said.

Sawai Madhopur district collector KC Verma accepted the boundary wall was broken and there were encroachments on the airport land. But we have got a budget for the repair of the boundary wall and will start work on that soon, he added.

Verma said there was a budget of Rs 311 lakh for repair and construction at the airport. We will take the civil work concurrently with the operation of flights, the collector said.

Air connectivity in Rajasthan has taken a big leap in last few months with flights starting from smaller cities such as Bikaner, Kota and Jaisalmer.

The Rajasthan government is launching flights from Sawai Madhopur to increase the footfall at the Ranthambore tiger reserve. At present, the nearest airport is in Jaipur, 170 km away.

Inter and intra-state air services between Kota-Jaipur-Delhi, Delhi-Kishangarh, Ganganagar-Jaipur-Delhi and Jodhpur-Ahmedabad too have been proposed. The Union civil aviation ministry is fostering regional connectivity through its UDAN programme.

An official of the states civil aviation department said Supreme Airlines will operate a 9-seater flight between Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur beginning April 11.

The Sawai Madhopur SP has also sought two platoons of Rajasthan Armed Constabulary for security arrangements at the airport. In the district police, 227 posts of constables/ head constables are vacant and the districts law and order situation is always sensitive because of communal and caste tensions. It is impossible to provide security at the airport from the district pool of police, the letter said as it demanded RAC officers.
Most Jaipur businessmen kept their shops shut on Tuesday to observe Bharat Bandh, which many say, was called by some groups opposed to caste-based reservations in education and jobs and in retaliation of the April 2 nationwide strike by Dalit groups to protest the alleged dilution of SC/ST Act.

Almost all shops remained closed for the first half while some shopkeepers started opening their shops in the latter half of the day. However, there were no rallies or processions by people from general and unreserved categories, who were behind the bandh on Tuesday.

On April 2, Dalit protesters were seen on streets of Jaipur in large numbers and also indulged in vandalism and arson at some places.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC were imposed and mobile internet services blocked in the state capital. District police chiefs and collectors have been asked to take prompt action in case of an untoward incident.

The shopkeepers said that there was no call for bandh on Tuesday and they voluntarily decided to keep the shutters down. The simple reason for todays market shutdown was to tell people that whatever happened on April 2 was wrong. I feel that the caste-based reservations should be done away with now, said Sunil Kumar, owner of a cloth shop in Chaura Rasta area.

He also supported the Supreme Courts March 20 interpretation of the SC/ST Act that banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the act. Earlier, a woman belonging to the SC/ST community could go to the police and falsely say that so and so winked at her and the person would be arrested. Was that fair? he asked.

There was resentment among people regarding what happened on April 2. Nobody asked them to shut the shops, said Anil Tambi, executive member of the Jaipur Jewellers Association.

Some shopkeepers said that they were not keen for the bandh but kept their shops closed expecting low footfall.

The situation in the state is peaceful, ADG (Law and Order) NRK Reddy said. Paramilitary forces, including contingents from BSF and CRPF, have been deployed in sensitive areas across the state, the police officer said.

Since there is no responsibility of the bandh call, it is likely that anti-social elements may try to disrupt peace. Therefore, tight security arrangements are in place today, the ADG said.

We have made elaborate security arrangements and the situation is quite normal. No incident has occurred so far. Prohibitory orders are in place and mobile internet services have been blocked in Jaipur, Jaipur police commissioner Sanjay Agrawal said.

With PTI inputs
The nationwide strike against caste-based reservations in education and jobs evoked a mixed response in Rajasthan and was observed in some parts of the state on Tuesday.

Tuesdays anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court.

Jaipur city, Jaipur rural, Jhalawar, Jalore town and parts of Alwar, Sikar and Dausa remained shut on Tuesday, said NRK Reddy, additional director general of police, law and order.

The state police were on its toes after an advisory issued by the home ministry on Monday ahead of the Tuesday Bharat Bandh calls doing rounds on social media. Reddy said that 36 companies of police and 30 paramilitary companies were deployed across the state to ensure peace.

We had not given permission to anybody to take out a rally or procession. Some 4-5 people in Baran, claiming to be from Shiv Sena, started saying theyll shut down the city. We rounded them up on Tuesday morning. One person was picked up in Jaipur on Monday night for the same reason, said Reddy.

Paramilitary forces including contingents from the BSF and the CRPF were deployed in sensitive areas across the state, the police officer said.

The paramilitary forces shall remain in the state till April 16, Reddy said.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC remained in place in parts of Jaipur, Pali, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur, Jalore, Barmer and Alwar. Furthermore, mobile internet services remained suspended through the day in Jaipur and Sikar.

The police administration tried to meet the organisers of the bandh, but no one came forward as its convener.

We made elaborate security arrangements and the situation is quite normal. No incident has occurred, Jaipur police commissioner Sanjay Agrawal said.

On April 2, Dalit groups had come out on streets and protested the alleged dilution of SC/ST Act in several parts of the state. Clashes occurred between the protesters and people from other castes as well as between the former and the police. One person was killed in police firing in Alwar and one policeman suffered a heart-attack while managing the situation in Jodhpur. He passed away at a hospital later.

A senior police officer requesting anonymity said that the security forces will be on alert for another week amidst murmurs of Dalit groups mobilising on Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14.
After suffering for 18 long years, Urma Bishnoi finally gathered the courage to approach the court to get her child marriage annulled.

Bishnoi, who was married when she was just a 10-month-old infant, received support from Dr Kriti Bharti, rehabilitation psychologist and managing trustee of Saarthi Trust, who challenged her child marriage in the family court-1 of Jodhpur on Tuesday.

Bishnoi, from Jambanagar of Kaparda village of Jodhpur, was married off to a boy from the same village in 1999.

After the 19-year-old became an adult she refused to accept the marriage. Bishnois in-laws started putting pressure on the family and also threatened with dire consequences like cutting their nose and ears. Certain caste panchs are also threatening the family of a social boycott if the child marriage is annulled. Bishnoi and her family are frightened.

I do not accept child marriage. I was married when I was just 10 months. I want to study. With Kriti didis help, I have filed the case and hope to get justice soon, said Bishnoi.

Bishnoi is under tremendous mental pressure due to her in-laws. A case has been filed in the court for the annulment of the child marriage, said Bharti.

Bharti of Saarthi Trust had got the first annulment of child marriage in India and in 2015 she got another two child marriages annulled in three days of court proceedings and created history. The trust has annulled 35 child marriages in India and also prevented thousands of child marriages.

According to a Supreme Court observation, there are 23 million child brides in India, the highest in the world.

National Family Health Survey (2015-16) data shows that 26.8% of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday. In Rajasthan, the percentage of such girls is 35.

Though boys are also married off early, it is the girls who are most affected. Health experts say early and forced marriages lead to early and unsafe motherhood, putting the lives of the girls at risk. According to the NFHS data, 7.9% women in the 15-19 age group were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey.
Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha said the biggest challenge the Indian Railways faced before the Narendra Modi-led government came to power at the centre was investment.

Prior to 2014, the investment in Indian Railways was 46,000-47,000 crore, which under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased to 1.40 lakh crore, said Sinha, while addressing the 63rd Regional Rail Week of North Western Railway at Birla Auditorium in Jaipur on Tuesday.

He said investment in the national highway sector increased by six times till 2014, but in the railways it was very low. Now, with increase in investment in Indian Railways, even the budget allocation for NWR has increased from 600-700 crore to 4,500 crore. Lots of ambitious targets have been taken such as electrification, gauge conversion works and others. NWR had more metre gauge lines, but now hardly any metre gauge line is left, and even if left, it will be converted soon. Priority has been given to electrification also, he added.

Sinha said, Last year was very challenging for railways, as a question mark was put on the working of Indian Railways after Khatauli rail accident. Taking immediate action, we started working on increasing faith of people on Indian Railways and gave top priority to safety.

He said challenges are many, but safety is top priority. Safety, security and punctuality are main and remaining (things) are cosmetic. If these aspects are taken care (of), then rest of the work automatically will be proper, he added.

Sinha also asked the railway employees to behave properly with passengers, as misbehaviour of a single person maligns the image of railways and no one has right to damage the image of the railways.

Praising the railway employees, he said Indian Railways has achieved a lot and its credit goes to the employees. The railway staff like army works throughout the year whether it is Holi, Diwali or Bakreed, as they take passengers to their destination, he added.

He said in the last 35 years, for the first time, last year the railway accidents were less than 100. In all, 73 accidents took place last year.

Earlier, NWR general manager TP Singh highlighted the achievements of NWR. Jaipur MP Ramcharan Bohra thanked the minister for various projects being carried out in the NWR region.

Sinha felicitated 71 officers and employees of the NWR for their good work and gave 13 group awards.

Later, Sinha also visited the railway exhibition at the Jaipur railway station.
Many Congress leaders in Rajasthan want the partys youth wing polls to be either cancelled or postponed, saying the exercise could bring factionalism to the fore and harm the partys prospects in the assembly elections due by the year-end.

The Youth Congress has just finished its membership drive, enrolling 5 lakh active and 20 lah primary members, said Jagdeep Sandhu, the pradesh returning officer. Scrutiny and nominations will take place in the first week of May and elections are slated for May-end or June.

It will be better if the Youth Congress polls are postponed, a former Congress MP said on the condition of anonymity. At a time when the Congress has a good chance to defeat the BJP in the assembly elections in Rajasthan, the Youth Congress polls would lead to internal strife and groupism.

Leaders feel that Youth Congress members would not work in a united manner for the assembly elections. Groupism was witnessed at a meeting in Barmer last year attended by Youth Congress Rajasthan president Ashok Chandna and IYC national president Amarinder Singh Raja. Jats boycotted the meeting because Barmer district president Thakraram Mali had defeated their candidate.

Chandna shares the leaders concern, saying it is the Youth Congress members who draw out voters during elections.

Those who contest the Youth Congress polls against each other tend to be divided in their groups. Those who lose will be demoralised and might not be motivated to bring out voters in support of party candidates, Chandna said.

So elections just five months prior to assembly polls could adversely affect the party at the hustings. He said senior leaders from Rajasthan should try to convince the party high command to postpone the polls.

Manoj Gurjar, a Youth Congress worker from Barmer, said the candidates at the district and state level seek help from the local Congress leaders. Those who are not helped by the leaders feel hurt and might end up boycotting that leader in the assembly elections.

The YC elections were set in motion by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in 2009 with the intention of increasing membership of the youth wing and giving talented people from non-political backgrounds a chance to enter politics.

Youth Congress leaders who contested in the elections from Bharatpur, Rajsamand, and Jaipur said senior Congress leaders encourage their proteges and dont let others, especially newcomers, rise.

The elections have encouraged those who are financially and politically influential, said Youth Congress members. Dynastic politics has been encouraged with kin of Congress leaders occupying most posts in several states, they alleged.

The YC president elections can cost between Rs 4-5 crore and at the district level the cost is between Rs 20-25 lakh. The elections were not meant to be a money game but to encourage new talent; now lakhs are spent on the elections, edging out those who cannot afford to make heavy financial investments, said a former YC president.

Several YC leaders are upset with Chandna who has been the president since 2013 when the last elections were held, though polls should be held every two years. Many members point out that despite there being elected members, Chandna made scores of nominated members.

Chandna said he did not nominate but gave promotions to those who worked. My tenure has been almost five years. I gave promotions to the deserving to keep the team motivated and active, he said.
School students contributing to the prevention of child marriages in Rajasthan will be felicitated at district and state level.

The idea behind the decision, taken by the Rajasthan State Legal Service Authority (RSLSA), is to motivate school students to extend their cooperation in checking child marriages

Rajasthan witnesses large-scale child marriages on Akha Teej, Peepal Poornima and other such occasions considered auspicious by the Hindu community. Many students studying in schools are also pushed into marriage at tender age against their wishes.

School students can play vital role in checking child marriages, as they can notice absence of student from class following his/her marriage near the auspicious dates, said Hanuman Sahay Jaat, the fulltime secretary of the District Legal Service Authority, Jhalawar.

The RSLSA has initiated a three-month-long campaign for creating public awareness among people, and school students in particular, against child marriages and checking them. The campaign will be run from April to June.

Some students in the country, who have contributed in checking child marriages in the past, had written to the National Legal Service Authority (NLSA) about lack of motivation to them for checking legal services, after which NLSA has instructed all state legal service authorities in the country to felicitate students who are coming forward in checking child marriages, Jaat said.

He said that the District Legal Service Authority would felicitate all those school students, who inform police or concerned authority about preventing child marriages or prevent child marriages in the district.

Students cooperating in inspirational and exceptional manner in preventing child marriages will be felicitated at state level ceremonies on Republic Day or Independence Day celebrations, he said. There is no restriction on the number of student to be felicitated under the plan.

Jaat said that Jhalawar district administration has also announced to felicitate 100 people who will help in preventing child marriages.
The man that accused Kampala socialite Brian Kirumira aka Bryan White of attempting to kill him has agreed to settle the case outside court.

Makindye Chief Magistrates Court that was presided over by Mr Elias Kakooza heard that Mr Kirumira had compensated his accuser, Mr Victor Bitwire.

State Attorney, Ms Happiness Ainebyona told the court that the case file was forwarded to the Directorator of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for further guidance since the two parties have reconciled.

She said the state intends to withdraw the charges as soon as the case file is brought back from DPPs office.

The hearing of the case was adjourned to April 24 for DPP to give a final decision on whether to proceed with the matter or not.

The socialite, jointly charged with his security guard, Thomas Okoth is facing charges of attempted murder in connection with the December 2017 shooting in Buziga, Makindye Division in Kampala District.

They were charged with attempting to murder, Mr Bitwire, a neighbor of Brian White in Buziga, Makindye Division, Kampala.
The affiliation of schools will be cancelled if they print their names on books, worksheets, and notebooks, said an order issued by Kota district collector Rohit Gupta.

The order aims at reducing the financial pinch on parents who end up paying more for books and school stationery.

The booksellers allege that schools charge a commission for recommending a specific publisher. The publisher factors this into the cost, and parents shell out more for the books. Commission is also charged on the stationery that is usually dumped on to parents.

Gupta has instructed the district education officer (DEO), secondary and primary education, to ensure that parents are not burdened financially in purchasing books and stationery.

The DEO has been told to seek lists of books from all schools  from the playgroup to Class 10 -- with publishers names, and provide them to the information science officer, Kota. He has been asked to put such lists on the education website, and the public relations officer tasked with publicising them.

The DEO will serve notice on the schools if they are found printing their names on books and stationery. The DEO will inform the action on schools to the additional chief executive officer of the zila parishad and the collector, Gupta said.

Instructions of the secondary education directorate, Bikaner on ensuring fair price on books will be complied with and reports against erring schools will be prepared by the DEOs in the state, he said.

If private schools were found violating the guidelines, cancellation of affiliation will be proposed to the secondary education board of Rajasthan, Ajmer, and Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, Gupta said.

The additional divisional commissioner of Kota will form a team for inspection of the schools to ensure compliance of the orders.

The CBSE, in a recent advisory, said action would be taken against schools that indulge in commercial activities, such as selling books, uniforms and stationery items, to students.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday pulled up BJP MLA from Bangarmau Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who has been accused by an 18-year-old woman of rape and harassment, an officer privy to the meeting said.

The move came as the womans father allegedly died in custody on Monday, leading to a major embarrassment for the state government. The chief minister told Sengar that police had started a fresh probe into the allegations of the woman and strict action will be taken against the guilty, said the officer.

In a press release, the chief minister said the additional director general (Lucknow) had been directed to probe the matter and take strict action against the culprit.

The offender will not be spared, he said. Secretary, home, Bhagwan Swarup and deputy inspector general of police (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said a judicial inquiry was ordered into the death of the womans father, who was in custody. A panel of three doctors has been constituted for the autopsy.

The IG (Lucknow range) has gone to Unnao to probe the allegation of rape and harassment against the MLA. The role of the district police will be also probed, the officers said, adding strict action will be taken against the culprit. Four people were arrested and the state government suspended four police personnel, including the Makhi station house officer (SHO), Kumar said. Asked why no action was taken against the MLA, Swarup and Kumar said, in her earlier complaint, as well as the statement recorded under section 164 of CrPc, the woman did not mention the MLAs name. The police have filed a charge sheet in the case and a court has fixed April 12 for the hearing. Action will be taken on the court order, the officers said.

The state home department has also sought a detailed report from the Unnao superintendent of police on the incident. The SP has submitted his report and SP crime has been directed to probe the application submitted by the girl and her family members on April 3 and 4.

Terming the girls allegation a conspiracy, Sengar said, I have demanded a high-level probe into the incident. Local criminal elements instigated the girl to lodge a complaint against me and my brother. They transported the girl and her family to the CMs residence on Sunday. On their direction, the girl tried to immolate herself. The police should probe into the call detail report (CDR) of the girls mobile. Mahesh Singh, a resident of Unnao settled in Delhi, is the mastermind in the case.
People of Birahimpur village wore smiles on their faces and had all the reasons to celebrate on Monday. Reason: Their over 70-year-long struggle for a bridge over Behta nullah finally ended as the state bridge corporation began construction of the bridge to enhance connectivity of this village with Malihabad town, 40 kms from Lucknow.

Bridge to be completed in 8 months It will take another eight months for us to complete the construction of bridge. We laid its foundation on April 2 and have now started raising the pillars, said AP Singh, project director, UP Bridge Corporation. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 8.9 crore, he said The Birahimpur bridge issue gained momentum in November 2017 after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court took suo motu cognisance of Hindustan Times report highlighting the plight of villagers in Birahimpur.

The construction of bridge has begun in Birahimpur village. It will take another eight months for us to complete the work. We laid its foundation on April 2 and have now started raising the pillars. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 8.9 crore, said AP Singh, project director, UP Bridge Corporation.

The Birahimpur bridge issue gained momentum in November 2017 after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court took suo motu cognisance of Hindustan Times report (dated November 13 and 17, 2017) highlighting the pilight of villagers in Birahimpur.

A division bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Abdul Moin had directed that the HT report published be registered as a PIL.

On the courts order, the state government released funds for the construction of the bridge.

Its a big relief for us. I am happy that our long pending plea is heard and the construction of the bridge has begun, said Vimal Kumar, village head, Birahimpur.

Birahimpur gram sabha in UPs mango belt, Malihabad, has two villages  Rampur Basti and Birahimpur with a total population of around 7,000. The demand for the bridge on Behta nullah that separates the village from the town was pending since the British era, but none of the governments paid any heed towards it, said villagers.

Some villagers said they had grown up hearing about the pending demand for the bridge from their fathers and forefathers. But nothing much was done to resolve the issue.

Shyamu Ram, a villager, said after the peoples plea went unheard, they pooled in their own resources to construct a bridge with bamboo and wood. But over the years, this bridge became dilapidated, posing threat to the lives of villagers.

For villagers, this bridge is still the shortest connecting route between Birahimpur and Malihabad town (2.5 km). However, the other route leading to Malihabad town is around 21 km (via Ataura and Pahadpur).

Commuting through the wooden bridge was a nightmare. Be it students or ailing people, all were forced to opt for this dangerous route as it was the shortest. There were many instances when villagers got badly injured after falling off the bridge, said Bhaiya Lal, another villager.

In the 2017 assembly polls, the villagers had decided not to vote, saying Pul nahi to vote nahi, sending a strong message to the political parties and their respective candidates. On polling day, the villagers preferred to stay indoors.

Vimal Kumar said villagers who had been demanding construction of bridge didnt vote. And it was perhaps the same reason that polling booth number 228 in the village remained deserted throughout the day. Officers on duty said only 54 voters turned up to cast their vote on the day whereas the population of the village is around 3,500.
Mother of the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim feels that only quick conviction can check growing crimes against women in the country. Depressed over rising crime against girls and the undue delay in the legal system , she emphasises on strict implementation of laws to improve the situation. In a talk with Richa Srivastava, she shared her case and offered some suggestions . Excerpts:

What do you think led to delay in your case?

In my case, the police were prompt and so the investigations were done timely. The lower court also made its decision within eight months and the case was finalised at the high court within a year. It took us three years at the Supreme Court to get the final verdict which was pronounced on May 5, 2017. What hurts the most is attending dates at the court. Often the day goes waste as there are no hearings. So a lot of time is wasted.

What do you think should be done to speed up conviction in cases of rape?

First and foremost, the police need to be really prompt and efficient in investigations. In my case, they were quick enough to submit their investigation reports but it is not so in other cases. Secondly, soon after the police do their work and the charges are framed, the court needs to speed up its working. Cases remain pending in courts for years, adding to the trauma of the families of victims. Thirdly, the role of the government too shouldnt be limited to making laws. Unless the law makers ensure the implementation of laws and strengthen the law and order situation, things will never improve in the country.

What suggestions would you like to give?

I strongly feel that the time has come when change needs to be initiated from home itself. I urge people to treat their sons and daughters alike. I urge them to empower their girls so much that they can fight all odds.I would also suggest to the government to act more strictly when it comes to ensuring safety of women. No laxity on safety should be tolerated.And the most important suggestion is for the judiciary. The courts must ensure that cases as gruesome as rape should be finalised as quickly as possible. There should be special fast track courts to deal with such cases and ensure quick conviction.

A number of laws were made after the Delhi gang rape. But things have not changed much at the ground level. What do you have to say?

Yes. Nothing has changed. I lost my daughter and the number of parents like me who mourn the death of their daughters after such brutal acts is only increasing. In the national capital alone, we hear about newborns getting raped. I had thought that the death of my daughter that had ignited the nation would not go in vain. But nothing seems to have changed . We see disappointed people in courts and also outside who await justice. Only quick conviction of culprits can send a strong message and improve things in India.
She was only 13 when six spoilt brats pulled her inside a car and raped her. Later, the boys, led by the nephew of a mafia-turned-politician, threw her on an isolated plot, thinking that she had died. But she survived. Daughter of a rag picker in Aashiana, she did not have any resources to fight back alone. But with the help of some social organisations, she began her battle. The long journey in quest of justice continued for more than a decade. But she never gave up.

How could I let him go free? I was only 13 years at the time but I remember every bit of the cruelty they unleashed on me in the moving car. They were drunk and took turns on me. They burnt me with cigarette butts. When I pleaded for mercy, they turned even more violent. I can never forget the pain they gave me, she recounts.

Fighting against five wasnt easy. But fighting against the prime accused Gaurav Shukla, kin of the mafia, was the toughest. It took almost a decade to prove that he was not a juvenile at the time of the crime. Shukla had claimed that he was a juvenile at the time to save himself of punishment under the IPC. He even fudged his age proofs. But the survivor managed to prove his real age in court.

The incident took place on May 2, 2005. Gauravs conviction came in April 2016. It took 11 long years for me to get justice. I do not remember the number of times I went to the court. So many times I was made to recount the horror in the court. There were many threats to me and my family. They tried to lure us with money also. But we only wanted justice, she said.

The battle was really tough for the family. Every time the court called for a hearing, the girls father had to compromise on his daily wage and be present. The girl lived in trauma all through these years.

Delay only adds to the trauma of the victim. I had almost stopped celebrating any festival and only longed for justice. I have felt the pain all these years and can say that the earlier the cases are decided, the sooner survivors can come out of the trauma and celebrate their life. After all, why should they suffer? In my case, Gaurav Shukla got married and had children in these 10 years. While I continued to struggle for justice, said the Ashiana gang rape survivor who is now studying.
A 20-year-old labourer was arrested from Bihar for allegedly killing a four-year-old girl in Bhiwandi.

Police said Abid Mohammed Ajmir Shaikh had borrowed money from the girls father, Mahadev Prasad, 30. When he told Prasad that he could not return the money, the latter had slapped him. Prasads daughter Payal laughed when her father slapped Shaikh, which upset him.

The police said the girl went missing on April 1 and the next day a kidnapping case was lodged with the Bhoiwada police station. On April 4, the police found her body in the bushes, around 300m away from her house. Her hands had been cut.

A police officer from Thane commissionerate said, We came to know that Shaikh had taken Rs1,500 from Mahadev and Shaikh was not able to return. A month ago, Mahadev and Shaikh fought over the money. Mahadev slapped Shaikh and the girl laughed at him. Shaikh then hatched a plan to kill the girl and teach Mahadev a lesson.

The police said Shaikh had been carrying a knife every day for the past one month.

Deputy commissioner of police from Thane commissionerate said Sunil Bhardwaj said, After the girl went missing, Shaikh continued going to work. He fled to Bihar after we found the body.

A police team was sent to Supaul in Bihar where Shaikh was hiding. Bhardwaj added, We have not found the girls hands and the weapon used to kill her.

Shaikh came to Bhiwandi three months ago in search of a job and had been working in a powerloom unit.

The girls mother, Sonidevi, is inconsolable. I have stopped letting my children go out and play.
After a recent test revealed that 98% edible ice samples collected were contaminated with the deadly E. coli  a bacteria which causes diarrhoea and urinary tract infection  public health officials have warned citizens against consuming chilled beverages from roadside stalls.

Out of 410 samples of edible ice collected from street vendors, shops and restaurants between March 1 and 31, 400 samples tested positive for E. coli.

The moment E. coli if detected, we term that sample contaminated and unfit for human consumption. During the survey, we also visited more 15 factories that manufacture and sell edible ice. Here too, most samples were found to be contaminated. We destroyed more than 14,700kg of ice, said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Doctors from public hospitals said contaminated ice, sales of which go up in summer, is a primary cause for increase in waterborne diseases.

Hot and humid climate is a major reason behind people opting for juices sold by roadside vendors. Drinking beverages using contaminated ice also causes serious gastrointestinal complications. The number of cases has increased significantly in the past one month, said a physician from KEM Hospital.

In May 2016, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)  countrys apex food regulator  issued a directive mandating state governments to take punitive action against people found using ice made from contaminated water. Earlier this year, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had asked ice manufacturers to dye inedible ice in blue, so it is not used in drinks.

Major issue is inability of the civic or state officials to regulate the ice factories since majority of them mushroom during four months of summer. Sheer number of the factories, makes it impossible to crack down on the source of contaminated ice, said a top FDA official.
Speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) foundation day rally in Mumbai on April 6, party chief Amit Shah made it a point to target Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar. He also made it known that Pawars efforts for Opposition unity were being watched closely by the ruling party. This marks a shift in the BJPs approach towards Pawar. In the past three years, the party has been soft on him, especially after the 2014 Assembly elections, when the BJP fell short of majority by just 23 seats in the Assembly and NCP extended unconditional support to the former. Over the next few months, the bonhomie between Pawar and the BJP leaders was visible. Now, barely a year before the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP leaders are back to criticising Pawar. Was it a just remark in a political rally, or was Shah sending a signal that the BJP top brass is not happy with Pawars bid for revival of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that lost several members after the 2014 rout?

Congress and Pawar

Pawars politics has always been close to the Congress ideology, but the top brass in the party was always suspicious of him because of his prime ministerial ambitions. Still the love-hate relation between Congress and Pawar continues.

In his political career spanning over half a century, Pawar has quit the Congress twice, last time in 1999, when he floated the NCP along with PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar after raising the issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin. Then, it was assumed that things would change in Maharashtra and there would be political realignment on Pawars home turf. However, in less than a year, NCP got into an alliance with the Congress to form the government after a fractured mandate in the Assembly polls. Ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar joined the Congress-led UPA and remained with it till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the UPA lost power. As an ally, NCP was never seen blackmailing Congress or creating problems till a series of scams broke out in Maharashtra and NCP leaders were in the dock. Most in the NCP were convinced that the whole thing was an outcome of then chief minister Prithviraj Chavans enmity with Pawar. Post-2014 Lok Sabha defeat of the UPA, Pawar wanted the Congress to replace Chavan with any other Congress leader as chief minister. As the Congress leadership refused to do so, Pawars party quit the alliance ahead of the Assembly elections that saw BJP emerging as the single largest party and forming the government. Pawar supported the government to avoid political instability in Maharashtra. The next two years saw PM Modi publicly revealing how Pawar was his political guru and the Maratha strongman was seen on a Pune street with a broom in his hand, symbolically supporting Modis Swachch Bharat campaign.

Now, barely a year to the elections, things seem to be changing. Pawar is a leading critic of the Modi government and trying to bring together Opposition parties to float a front with Congress as its anchor.

Suspicion about his motives

Notwithstanding the camaraderie on display, there are a significant number of Congress leaders, both in New Delhi and in Mumbai, who dont trust Pawar. For them, his ultimate aim is to be in power. They say that Pawar is close to several BJP leaders, and as such, his effort to bring together opposition parties would ultimately lead to creation of a non-BJP, non-Congress third front, which would turn out to be a helping hand for the ruling party.

Maharashtra Congress leaders, too, say it is too early to assume that alliance with the NCP is final. Not till we finalise the seat sharing agreement for Assembly and announce it in a press conference, remarked a close aide of state Congress chief Ashok Chavan. We also have a backup plan in place. If we suspect that the NCP is playing games with us, we will have to reciprocate. A few NCP legislators are ready to return to the Congress. Some former NCP leaders who went to the BJP ahead of Assembly polls are also keen to quit that party and come to us instead of going back to the NCP.

However, senior NCP leaders defend the partys moves and also point out that Pawar chose not to be a part of the BJP governments even when he had chancewhether it was in 1999 under then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee or in 2014 when Modi formed the government.

Post-2014, he could have got ministerial berth for daughter Supriya Sule or any other NCP leader but he chose not to do so. If he is taking efforts for an opposition unity, he means it. He is not BJPs Trojan horse in opposition camp, insisted a senior NCP leader.

Political analysts feel Pawars efforts seem to be aimed at reviving the UPA. It now appears that Pawar has decided to go with the Congress. He wont go with the BJP. It is true that he was friendly with BJP for a couple of years, but that phase seems to be over, said political analyst Pratap Asbe. The way the political scenario is changing in the country, Pawar seems to be convinced that Congress needs to bounce back. In fact, he is playing a significant role for the unity of the Opposition in the lead of Congress.

Situation on the ground

Pawars politics is based on his strength in Maharashtra, as his party has little presence outside the state. Although he shares cordial relations with Modi, there is no love lost between him and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is more comfortable with Sena as an ally than the NCP, say NCP leaders. Over the past three years, Fadnavis has been shrewdly trying to cut the NCP to size, especially in the cooperative sector where it is strong. In western Maharashtra, majority of NCP leaders owe their influence to their base in cooperative sector. As such, the party cant afford to lose its grip over it.

There is also a political compulsion behind the NCPs move. The party shares the same voter base as that of Congress. The two parties contesting separately would mean NCP losing a significant chunk of seats and hence an alliance could be the way forward to wrest power from the BJP.

Little wonder, over the past year, NCP is making efforts to change the perception that it is closer to the BJP. For the past six months, the party has launched the Halla Bol agitation against the BJP government. Pawars criticism of BJP and Modi has become sharper. He is not seen hobnobbing with BJP leaders now. In recent days, Congress president Rahul Gandhi met him at least twice at his Delhi residence. The background for a reunion is ready.

NCP leaders, however, insist that the partys move is aimed at countering the BJP. Reunion with Congress is a secondary issue. First, we are campaigning against the policies of Modi and Fadnavis. If Congress wants, we are open for an alliance with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP, said senior NCP leader Jayant Patil. We had not supported the BJP, but a stable government, since we did not want immediate elections. But, we are the only party that is constantly slamming the government whenever it is doing something wrong. It is clear from the BJP chiefs attack on us that they see us as enemy and not a friend.
The Bombay high court on Monday expressed the need for guidelines instructing police as to what they should do on rescuing pregnant minor girls.

There must be some instructions to the police as to what they should do, if they rescue some minor girl and her medical examination reveals she is pregnant, said the bench of justice Naresh Patil and justice Anuja Prabhudessai. It was hearing a petition filed by a 14-year-old rape survivor from Kalyan seeking permission to terminate her 24-week-long pregnancy.

The high court made the comment after advocate Deepa Chavan, appointed as amicus curiae, pointed out that precious time was lost in the case of the minor, who was rescued from Janpur in Uttar Pradesh and brought back to Kalyan on March 17, 2018. On the same day the girl was medically examined at Central Hospital in Ulhasnagar and found to be pregnant, but the police did not convey the fact to anyone  not even her family members.

Nobody appears to be aware of the existence of the Medical Termination of the Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 and the 20-week embargo on termination of pregnancies, Chavan said, urging the court to direct the state government to issue appropriate instructions to all police stations. It was only after some workers of NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan came to know about the unwanted pregnancy that things started moving, but by then precious time was already lost, she added.

The judges agreed with the necessity of having proper instructions in place, as they noticed the loss of time after March 17 resulted in advancement of the pregnancy and thus increased risk to the life of the 14-year-old in terminating her pregnancy. Precious lives can be saved by saving time in taking appropriate decisions in such cases, if police were appropriately instructed as to what they should do if they happen to rescue a pregnant minor, said the bench.

The court has now directed an assistant government pleader to take instructions in a week as to whether any instructions have been issued by any department as regards pregnant minors. It said it will itself frame appropriate guidelines for the police to follow in such cases and the state government has not issued any instructions to the police.

The court also permitted the 14-year-old to get her unwanted pregnancy medically terminated at JJ hospital in Mumbai, after noticing that a medical board of the state-run hospital has recommended termination of pregnancy, as its continuation would pose risk to the life of the minor.

According to the FIR lodged with Hill Line police station at Ulhasnagar, in July 2017, the girl was enticed away by a young labourer, also residing at Kalyan. Police succeeded in tracing the minor to Janpur on March 15 and two days later brought her back to Uhasnagar. Charges of rape were added to the kidnapping case, after the girl was found pregnant by doctors.
The gloves are off and the battle lines now seem fully defined. A 577 percent rise in the number of teas consumed by the chief ministers office might seem like a silly issue for a leader of Sharad Pawars stature to mock at, but the NCP president knew exactly what he was doing when he compared his own modest tea bills while in office as chief minister to Devendra Fadnavis. Pawar has finally made up his mind which side he will be on in 2019 and he will be playing the classic rural-urban divide by kicking up several storms in those innumerable teacups.

I believe there were two levels on which Pawar was targeting the Fadnavis government on its penchant for endless cups of tea. The NCP chief has always emphasised on the urban constituencies of most BJP leaders, mocking their lack of understanding of issues that affect farmers and drive their choices. Tea is one of them. Although it has become the national drink of much of India after the British introduced it to the nation in a big way, there remains a strong suspicion among many in the villages that tea is addictive (which it is), a stimulant (which it could quite be) and an intoxicant (which it most certainly is not). Many in the villages still prefer a glass of milk or lassi to tea or coffee, even in vast areas of south India which grow the leaves and beans that make up the beverages.

So a 577 percent rise in the amount of tea consumed by the CMO raises suspicion in the rural mind about the kind of decadence in play in high offices in the country and I wonder if the CM realises that Pawars finger pointing was not just aimed at alleged corruption but more. For, I believe, his next question to the villagers would be to ask them if they were ever invited to a cup of tea with Devendra Fadnavis. Tea is synonymous with caste discrimination in many rural areas of the country wherein tea vendors have two sets of tumblers for the consumers depending on the castes they may belong to. To break this habit of discrimination Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, in the early 20th century, had deliberately set up a Dalit as a tea vendor within the limits of his kingdom and made it a point to stop for tea at his shop in full public view.

But the fact that this kind of discrimination continues more than a century later in parts of India was starkly outlined when, as late as 2012, the Tamil Nadu government set cops upon its rural tea vendors to stop them using different tumblers and organised an early version of  yes! - chai pe charcha to get all communities to drink tea together out of the same set of tumblers. So I am presuming another seemingly frivolous question will follow  did Fadnavis ever treat you (the villagers) to tea? And, if so, were they paper cups or the same porcelain that he drank tea out of?

I believe Fadnavis is quite out of his depth on this one. For one must not forget Pawars uncharacteristic call to voters in 2014 to safeguard the state from slipping back into the hands of the Peshwas (read Brahmins) who were the most discriminatory rulers in Maharashtra. Pawars allusion was clearly towards Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari, the two tallest leaders in the BJP at the time, gaining the office of the chief minister. The Maratha morchas which called for the dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that sowed the seeds for the attempted humiliation of Dalits at Bhima Koregaon, wherein BJP ideologues have been identified as the provocateurs, has rendered the caste equations fragile and the BJP can clearly not win this one.

When Fadnavis attempted to threaten Pawar with consequences of fingering him on his tea consumption (the pointer was to Narendra Modis resounding victory after expelled Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar dismissed him as a mere chaiwala), he should have been thinking of more than a straightforward political response. Pawar is too wise and shrewd not to know the dangers of mocking any one on his or her humble origins. What he was actually doing was egging Fadnavis into a response that could be used to crucify him and his party in good time. Fadnavis almost fell into that trap and should have chosen to ignore Pawar rather than be drawn into a game he could only end up losing.
By Ruth Anderah.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Mike Chibita has withdrawn attempted murder charge against city socialite Brian Kirumira commonly known as Brian White after an out of Court settlement.

The withdraw form signed yesterday April 9th 2018 has been tendered in by state prosecutor Happiness Ainebyona before Makindye court Chief magistrate Elias Kakooza.

It was alleged that Brian White together with his body guard CPL Thomas Okoth who is attached to the polices Crime Intelligence Headquarters shot at Victor Bitwire on the night of December 13th 2018 at Brian Whites residence in Buziga Munyonyo.

However, the duos motive of attempting to take away Bitwires life has never been established.

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Hundred tourist buses were found illegally parked near the mangroves and water body along the new link road in Dahisar on Sunday, more than a year after action was taken against a similar encroachment at the same spot.

Encroaching upon or destroying mangroves is illegal under the rules for wetlands and is also in violation of the orders issued by the Bombay high court to protect the green cover.

A large number of mangrove trees and a water body have been destroyed to make way for these buses. The law, judiciary and government machinery are to blame for destruction of the wetland. Bus operators are profiting from it, said Harish Pandey, secretary of New Link Road Residents Forum that filed a complaint with the police, civic body and state mangrove cell on Monday.

Taking note of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Bombay Environment Action Group in 2005, the Bombay high court (HC) banned destruction of mangroves and construction within their 50-m periphery. NGO Vanashakti filed another PIL in the HC in 2014, leading to a ban on reclamation and construction on wetlands.

In March 2016, HT had reported that 1,000 mangroves have been cut to create space to park tourist buses along the new link road between Dahisar and Borivli. In another report in October 2016, HT reported that while the buses have been removed, the district collectors office has ordered an investigation into the incident.

According to officials from the mangrove cell, the site is a private land that falls under the jurisdiction of the district collector. Officials from the district collectors office said they have directed an investigation into the matter. We have ordered the Borivli tehsildar (revenue officer) to inspect the site and find out how buses were allowed to be parked there, said Babasaheb Pardhe, sub-divisional officer (SDO), Mumbai suburban.

Archana Mule, tehsildar, Borivli, said, With a hearing on a petition related to mangroves going on in the HC, the bench has directed all district administrations not to file cases directly with the police and submit their reports to the court instead. Our officers will visit the site on Tuesday. We will draft a panchnama on the alleged violation and submit it to the SDO. We will also check how the operators got the permission to park their vehicles in this area.
Doctors from the RN Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle, extracted multiple fibroids weighing 2.75 kilograms (kg), from the uterus of a 36-year-old woman, after a two-hour-long surgery on March 30.

Doctors said that the fibroids, had grown over a 26-week-period, and had made the woman, look like she was seven months pregnant.

Uterine fibroids is a common gynaecological condition where non-cancerous tumours originate in uterus. If left untreated, they can enlarge and put pressure on surrounding organs like bladder and bowels. Doctors said that symptoms of the condition vary from heavy menstrual bleeding, painful menstruation, irregular bleeding and painful intercourse. Further development of fibroids is known to cause infertility and recurrent miscarriages.

Doctors said the patient, who works as a domestic help, visited the Out Patient Department of the hospital during the last week of March. She complained of heavy menstrual bleeding since a year and a lump in the abdomen in last week of March. Heavy menstrual bleeding is a classic symptom of uterine fibroids.

The size of the lump was as big as a seven month old foetus, and the heavy bleeding led to severe weakness. The condition disrupted her personal life. Sadly, Indian women ignore their health complications, which eventually reach disastrous levels, said Dr Ganesh Shinde, the hospital dean and the gynaecologist who treated the patient.

Doctors said that the haemoglobin level of the patient was 4 grams (gm) % against the healthy 12gm% and an ultrasonography report showed 26-week multiple fibroids in the uterus, enlarged in size.

We removed the uterus and found it to be weighing 2.75kg, studded with multiple fibroids. Fellow doctors and family members were aghast when shown the specimen, Shinde said.

Due to minimal blood loss during the surgery, the women didnt need any blood transfusion and was stable post the surgery, said doctors.

The fibroids were putting pressure on the womans uterus, which, if she would have further ignored, could have led to kidney damage, Shinde said.

Having conducted several similar surgeries, Shinde decided to head the womans surgery on March 30. One of Shindes patients at Sion Hospital had got a 5kg uterine fibroid extracted.

The patient was discharged on Monday and Shinde, citing the case, appealed to women to avail immediate medical help if they experience similar symptoms, so that further damage to the internal organs can be reduced.

 Some women may not suffer from menstrual complications, but could go through chronic pain in pelvic region or could experience lump growth in abdomen and abdomen fullness. Ignoring these symptoms can result in severe complications in future, Shinde said.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police on Monday filed charge sheet against builder Dipesh Bhagtani of Jaycee Homes, in one of the biggest housing frauds of the city in recent years.

Police charged Bhagtani, who was arrested by EOW on January 11 for cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and under stringent Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act (MOFA) sections.

Dipesh along with his father Laxman Bhagtani and brother Mukesh allegedly cheated 446 homebuyers of around Rs51crore by promising them houses in Mira Road under the project Bhagtani Rio.

Dipesh is in judicial custody and is lodged at Arthur Road jail. His father and brother are also accused in all the cases and believed to be hiding in Dubai, EOW sources claimed.

The family has five FIRs registered against them for cheating around 2,500 homebuyers.

Deputy commissioner of police (EOW) Parag Manere confirmed that charge sheet has been filed against Dipesh in one case.

An EOW official said that during investigations it was found that the builder lied to investors saying that he through his firm JVPD private Ltd is constructing a housing project Bhagtani Rio on a land (survey 95, part 1) in Kashi village, Mira Road.

But, the land is the state governments property.

The builder also lied to investors through brochures, saying that he had taken permission from the civic body for construction work. He did not register the agreements with the investors and just gave them allotment letters.

He took an advance of Rs50.78crore from 446 investors but did not give them flats.

Investigating officer assistant inspector Pravin Bhagat filed a 1,200-page charge sheet against Bhagtani in 47th magistrate court on Monday.

The accused is charged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code and 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13 and 14 of MOFA.

The statements of 90 witnesses have been recorded and strong documentary evidences have been attached in the charge sheet, claimed the EOW.

During investigation, we found that homebuyers money was diverted to the personal accounts of accused builder and his family members and the funds diverted to other projects. Bank accounts linked to the accused have been frozen, said an EOW official.

Probe also indicated that there is a possibility that funds could have been diverted outside the country. Hence, the government has appointed a forensic auditor to trace the money trail. Enforcement Directorate is all making an enquiry if there was any money laundering.

The builder claimed to have refunded a part of the money to some homebuyers.
After the mess in Mumbai University (MU) over the delays in declaring exam results, the Maharashtra government has prepared a digital automation system called Integrated University Management System (IUMS), which is expected to be implemented from November  the second semester of the academic year. The government will start using the digital platform for a few courses in the beginning on a pilot basis and will gradually include the rest of the courses by the next academic year for a smoother transition.

The issue was discussed in detail in the joint board of vice-chancellors (JBVC) meeting headed by the governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Saturday. The JBVC also gave its approval to the plan. A presentation on IUMS was also made by SVR Srinivas, secretary, information technology (IT) department, said a senior official from state higher and technical education department. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present for the meeting.

IUMS has been prepared by the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT), which works under the state IT department as a solution to all the issues being faced by non-agricultural universities of the state, including MU. It will provide an end-to end solution to universities right from admission of students, conducting examinations, online assessment on answer papers, declaring results in a digital format. The system will also enable the state government to monitor functioning of these universities.

HT on September 27 last year had reported that the state is planning to introduce IUMS as an answer to the paper correction mismanagement and delay in declaring results at MU that had created chaos. The move had risked the future of thousands of students after MU chose to go for online assessment of answer papers using the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. The IUMS will also allow for online assessment but is an improvement over the earlier version technically.

The complete automation digital system will have different modules related to students, faculty, administration and academic issues. It will provide end-to-end solutions and most importantly, the architecture of the system has been designed in a decentralised manner for each and every university, said a senior official from the IT department.

The IT department has now suggested that the universities form working groups comprising representatives of students, teachers and others for each faculty of each university in the next 15 days to help the DIT identify requirements as per their needs and accordingly, additions or changes in the system will be made, he added.

Last year, exam results were delayed for more than five months as MU adopted the OSM system for online assessment of answer papers and it could not trace answer booklets. The same was repeated this year when MU conducted 402 exams for all final degree courses and it was found that around 2,000 answer booklets were untraceable. Later, MU clarified that the number of results held in reserve has now been reduced to hundreds.
When Sabir Ali Mansuri, 31, decided to travel to his village in UP from Palghar on Tuesday morning, he thought of taking the easier way out  he stole an MSRTC bus from the Boisar depot.

However, within minutes, he lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into a tree. The vehicle got stuck in a ditch on the busy Boisar-Tarapur Road.

According to the Boisae MIDC police, the man appears to be mentally unstable and has been arrested, while the MSRTC will be suspending the driver of the bus for leaving the cabin door unlocked.

Mansuri, a resident of Palghar, arrived at the Boisar ST depot at around 11:30am and saw the driver of the bus leave the cabin door unlocked.

A few passengers were present in the bus, which was to proceed from Boisar to Palghar. Mansuri then coolly opened the cabin door and started the ignition, much to the shock of the bewildered passengers, said police inspector Prakash Birajdar of Boisar MIDC police station.

However, the Mansuri was unable to control the heavy-duty vehicle, and as he drove the bus on the main road, he rammed into a tree, said police.

Locals then boarded the bus and pulled Mansuri out, and started thrashing him. Some police personnel, who were patrolling the area, then caught hold of him and brought him to the police station,said Birajdar.

We have arrested him under Section 379 (theft) and Section 511 (attempting to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and will be produced before the Palghar court soon, said police.

When we asked why he stole the bus, Mansuri said he wanted to go to his village in UP, so he decided to drive all the way. His family claimed that he was under medication for mental illness, but we will get him medically examined by a government doctor, said PI Birajdar.

MSRTC SPEAK

Abhijit Bhosale, CPRO, MSRTC, said, We will suspend the driver after a departmental inquiry is conducted. It seems that Rajput did not lock the cabin door of the bus, and went to report to his superior . Since all MSRTC buses have push-button start ignition, it was easy for Mansuri to drive the bus away, said Bhosale.
The Metropolitan Magistrate court has convicted three people for harbouring and aiding a Pakistani spy. The three convicts Sayyed Haidar Raja, Laik Ahmed Khan and Rajendra Misra have been sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

The three convicts had helped Azar Rafiq, a resident of Pakistans Punjab province, to obtain an Indian passport through forged documents. The trio had also made arrangements for Rafiq to stay in Mumbai.

The prosecution had told the court that the three had helped Rafiq to obtain the Indian passport by the name Sarang Ali Khan.

As per the prosecution, Khan had provided accommodation to Rafiq at his residence, while Raja employed him in his electronic shop. Misra, a teacher from Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, had helped Rafiq obtain fake school leaving certificate of Baba Tapasi Das Baleshwar Das Junior High School.

The prosecution claimed that on the basis of the school certificate, Rafiq had obtained a driving license and had also opened a bank account. Further, Rafiq managed to get his name entered as one of Khans sons in the ration card. Rafiqs name was also added in the voters list of Colaba constituency. On the basis of all these documents, he managed to get an Indian passport.

Advocate RY Suryawanshi, public prosecutor in the case, had exhibited all these documents and examined 13 witnesses. The prosecution had also questioned a teacher from the school from which Rafiqs fake school leaving certificate was made.

Read more: Pakistani spy held in Amritsar; police say ISI hired him seven months ago

The teacher told the court that, School leaving certificate No. 835 (number mentioned on the certificate used by Rafiq) was not issued by their school for any Sarang Ali Khan, as there never was a student by that name in their school. On the contrary, as per the schools register, a school leaving certificate with number 835 was issued to an individual named Shriram Ramshay Tiwari.

The judgement read, After scrutinising the evidences available on record from every angle, one thing becomes concrete, that in furtherance of their common intention, the accused aided Rafiq in getting all these forged documents for obtaining the Indian passport though they knew that he is the Pakistani national and had visited the cities of Kolkata and Ajmer on Bangladeshi passport with a different name, before coming to Mumbai.
The sessions court on Monday sentenced a man to lifetime imprisonment in a 4-year-old case, wherein he was accused of killing his wife by pouring kerosene and setting her on fire. The incident occurred following an argument the couple had over the husbands alleged extra-marital affair.

The court convicted the accused, Mohan Mali, a resident of Andheri, on the basis of his wife Madhvi Malis dying declaration and the April 2017 deposition of their daughter, who was 15 at the time. As per the prosecution case, the couple often fought over the Mohans affair. On October 12, 2014 also, Mohan physically abused Madhvi following a heated argument.

Madhvi, in her dying declaration, claimed that she had gone to sleep after their argument. She said she was awakened in the middle of the night, and found Madhav pouring kerosene on her. After this, he set her on fire.He then set her on fire, she claimed. She was rushed to Nair hospital by the neighbours and Mohan was handed over to the police.

As per the medical report, she had sustained 85 to 90% burn injuries and succumbed to them during the treatment. The couple had three children. According to the daughters deposition, the couple used to fight frequently because Mohan had an affair with a woman and would often bring her to the house. Two days before the incident, he had asked her to purchase two litres of kerosene.

The prosecutor, Shulabha Joshi, claimed that the kerosene purchased by their daughter was later used by the accused to set Madhvi on fire.

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An eight-year-old girl died after a bike she was riding pillion on was knocked down by a tempo driver in Bhandup on Monday afternoon.

Along with her school friend and her mother, the deceased, Nikita Yadav from Hanuman Nagar in Bhandup, was returning home from school. The woman was riding the bike, said Shrinivas Panhale, senior inspector of Bhandup police station. The girls were picked up from their school.

The accident occurred at a petrol pump on the busy Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) road on the northbound stretch. The police stated that Nikita fell from the bike and sustained grievous injuries.

Her friend and the woman escaped with minor injuries.While trying to flee the spot, the accused tempo driver, Santosh Dhanwate, 24, was nabbed by passers-by. The police arrested him.

Nikita was taken to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead. This is the second such incident in a fortnight at Bhandup in which a girl has been killed. On March 30, a nine-year-old girl died after a two-wheeler rammed into her, while she crossing a road at Bhandup (West).

The accident occurred around noon when Santosh Mahajan, 46, a resident of Jangalmangal Road near Abhudaya Bank in Bhandup (West), was crossing the road near his residence along with his daughter Asmita.

While the duo was crossing, she was dashed by the two-wheeler.

Asmita sustained grievous injuries on her head. The father and the accused the biker took her to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead. The accused was arrested and booked under section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
With the runways at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport shut for six hours for maintenance on Tuesday, an air ambulance carrying a comatose patient had to delay its landing in the city.

According to airport officials, the passenger was to leave Indores Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport around 10am and expected to land in Mumbai around 11.30am.

The two runways were shut between 11am and 5pm. The patient was brought to Mumbai for medical treatment only after the operations resumed, said an airport official.

The runways were shut from Monday for monsoon-related maintenance work, leading to cancellation of 225 flights on both the days.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said Mondays work had no cascading effect on the flights on

Tuesday morning.

We handed over the departure slots a little later than 11am, as more departing flights were to be sent. Flight operations will return to normalcy after midnight, said an AAI official, at the time of going to press on Tuesday.

Airport officials maintained that an average delay of 25 minutes. Officials said a Navy helicopter, Seaking 42B, made an emergency landing around 8.45pm. The aircraft and crew were reported safe.

Aloke Bajpai, ixigo CEO and co-founder, said, The temporary closure of the main runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai continues to affect travellers.

On Tuesday morning, the number of inbound flight delays increased to 6%, compared to 4% on Monday. The number of outbound flight delay was up by 10%, compared to 8% on Monday. The situation will normalise on Wednesday, said

Bajpai.
The Sakinaka police on Monday evening arrested two people for allegedly molesting a woman and misbehaving with her at a theatre in Andheri (East). According to police, the woman along with a male friend had gone to watch a 3:30pm show when the incident took place.

The woman was with her friend and after buying the tickets they were at the food court of the theatre before the show started at 3:30pm. One of the accused made a vulgar comment at the woman and her clothes. He was first staring at her, which irked the woman and her friend, said a source.

When the male friend objected to the lewd comment, an argument ensued. The prime joined by his friend physically manhandled the male friend and the woman, added the source.

The woman complained to the Sakinaka police and an FIR was registered against Nazir and Rizwan.
By Ssebuliba Samuel.

President Yoweri Museveni has hailed the late Winnie Mandela for sacrificing her life at a very tender age to liberate South Africa from apartheid.

While visiting South African commission this afternoon to sign a condolence book opened in her honor, Museveni said that when the late Nelson Mandela was jailed as a young man, his wife Winnie become the face of the African National Congress, inspiring other black people to fight for their country.

He says even though shes gone, Winnie Mandela she has left a legacy that will remain at the center of South African history.

Winnie Mandela who died last week will be laid to rest on Saturday.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the big fish involved in the irrigation scam would soon be behind bars.

Expressing confidence that BJP and Shiv Sena would contest the coming polls together, Fadnavis said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would have become chief minister had the two parties contested the 2014 Assembly elections together.

Fadnavis was speaking at a public interview conducted by Shiv Sena MP and Saamana executive editor Sanjay Raut at Lokmat Maharashtrian of The Year Award function.

Considering the fact that Raut is the harshest critic of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state and the hardline taken by Sena mouthpiece that he heads, it was expected that the interview would witness some tension. But, Fadnavis replied the tricky questions shrewdly and made it a point to show his willingness to take the Sena along. The so-called secular parties are coming together. It is time for the real secular parties believing in Hinduism to join hands, Fadnavis said.

Raut said it was the BJPs arrogance during the 2014 elections that had forced the Shiv Sena to snap ties. The CM said: We were ready to concede 147 seats but the Sena was insistent on 151 seats. Had the Sena accepted the offer, it could have won 120 seats, claiming the CMs chair. We would have won 105 seats by fighting on 127 seats. Uddhavji could have been the CM of the state, he said.

Fadnavis said the big fish in the irrigation scam would be arrested soon. Twenty-one first information reports have been registered. Charge sheets in three will soon be filed, he said.

Fadnavis said Senas treatment towards the BJP compelled them to take Narayan Rane in its fold. On whether the next stop in his career would be Delhi, Fadnavis said: I will obey what the party asks me to do. If I am asked to go to Delhi tomorrow, I will go. If I am asked to return to Nagpur, I will do that.
The administration of Step by Step School in Noida has asked students to carry their own food until further notice, as 190 fell sick after allegedly consuming the food served in the school last Thursday.

The services of the private canteen operator, Sodexo, had been suspended, school officials said. Meanwhile, the school has also sent an email to parents, answering their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and addressing concerns. The questions were compiled by a parents association after they received several queries from worried parents.

We are in the process of understanding the cause of the incident and keeping in mind the well-being of the children, we will review all necessary options for restarting food facilities once we have more clarity, an email sent by the school to the parents stated.

We appreciate the patience of the parents and our children and as always, will take a decision keeping the best interest of our children in mind, it read.

Parents said they received the email with 21 questions and answers around 3am on Monday.

The school has assured parents that necessary steps are being taken to investigate the matter and sanitise the school. Water tanks have been drained and flushed clean and refilled. The RO system has also been cleaned and flushed, the parents were informed.

The school has been cleaned and sanitised. We have also added extra medical staff to our team as students return, the email read.

It further stated,The school also immediately suspended the services of Sodexo and called upon its senior management to respond urgently with respect to the current situation.

While the health department and the district administration officials were unable to get food samples for testing, the school said that food samples are always maintained for 72 hours, for a quality check. Despite this claim, the samples were not provided to district officials. The school had earlier stated that it sent food samples to independent labs of international repute.

There is a two-step process on food quality assurance. Sodexo follows its own protocols, by which food samples were kept for 72 hours. In addition, the school also monitors and supervises the rations and stores daily, the email stated.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Sodexo said that food samples are available at the school for two-three days. However, the spokesperson said the company is unaware if food samples were handed over to the authorities.

The scope of our work includes providing access to food samples, which are readily available with the school administration at the site. We have launched an internal investigation into the matter led by our health and safety experts and expect an internal analysis by early next week, Sonal Shah, Sodexo spokesperson, said.
The Step By Step school in Noida has submitted a report to the district health department confirming that 190 students and staff had fallen sick after consuming allegedly contaminated food on Thursday.

This is much higher than the initial estimate of 25-30 affected individuals, officials said.

The detailed report, submitted by the school, mentions the name and class of students and the staff members, along with symptoms reported by them. According to the report, children of all classes, nursery to class 12, were affected. In addition, some staff members and their relatives also reported falling sick. Most people complained of vomiting, nausea and stomach ache.

As per the list submitted by the school, 51 children of the senior school (classes 6 to 12) were affected while eight from nursery and kindergarten classes, six staff members and four other employees had fallen sick. The maximum number of students who fell sick were from the junior classes. The school reported that 121 students of classes 1 to 5 fell sick.

Based on an initial assessment by doctors, it seems to be a case of food poisoning. As soon as we received the information, the school immediately suspended the services of Sodexo, the operator of the canteen, the report stated.

A copy of the report was also sent to the district magistrate, food and drug administration department and other departments concerned. Officials of the school said they are in regular contact with all parents and staff who fell sick and are taking stock of their health condition.

Officials of the health department said the school has apologised for not letting officials enter the school to collect food samples earlier on Thursday. The schools report will be analysed and sent to the state authorities soon, officials said.

We have spoken to some children and parents but have not visited the school. Well be visiting the school for an inspection in the next two days, Anurag Bhargava, chief medical officer (CMO), Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

Meanwhile, three hospitals  Max, Jaypee and Apollo  have sent written reports to the health department confirming the admission of 34 students last Thursday. All the hospitals stated students were suffering from food poisoning, with symptoms of vomiting and stomach ache, and that the children have been discharged. The department is waiting for reports from other hospitals and nursing homes where other students were admitted.
At least 18 people were killed and 19 others injured after a speeding truck carrying labourers and heavy equipment hit a barricade and overturned on the Pune-Satara highway in Maharashtra early Tuesday morning, the police said.

The deceased, mostly construction workers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, were heading to Pune from Satara when the truck overturned around 4:30 am after the driver lost control. The travellers included around six minors, thirteen women and 18 men. Of them, two minors, six women and 10 men are dead.

They all belonged to nearby areas in Tanda area of Bijapur in Karnataka and were travelling with labour contractor Vitthal Khiru Rathod, 40, and driver Mehboob Rajasab Atar, 55, both of whom died in the accident, said a senior police official.

It is quite apparent that had the driver made even a little bit of attempt to prevent the collision, he could have prevented the loss of lives. The safety wall along the road could have prevented the tempo from turning, said Amol Tambe, superintendent of police (traffic), highway safety patrol. The spot where the accident occurred, around 70 kilometres from Pune, is a S-shaped curve combined with steep slope and is prone to accidents.

Following the incident, officials of the local police, highway safety police (HSP) and regional transport office (RTO) officials from Satara inspected the spot.

The injured were taken to Satara civil hospital and Jogeshwar hospital in Shirval. Three of the 16 were in critical condition while nine of them had suffered head injuries, Dr Ulka Zende, chief medical officer (CMO) said.

At the turn on the spot, there is a slope. I suspect the driver lost control and drove into the safety wall along the slope. The tempo fell some 8-10 feet off the road, said assistant police inspector Pravin Randive of highway police.

One of the labourers was following the tempo on a motorbike and saw the incident. We are taking his statement for the complaint, said assistant police inspector (API) Yuvraj Hande of Khandala police station under Satara police jurisdiction.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem to Khandala rural hospital by the police. The police sent the bodies to their native place in four ambulances after a few people from their community identified the deceased.
Never say never. These are the words that 50-year-old Sukhwinder Kaur says echo in her mind when she looks at her newborn twins, after she went through the process of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Sukhwinder and her husband Mahinder Singh (65) from Raikot got married 34 years ago. The couple was elated when they were blessed with two sons, but destiny had a different plan.

Our world came crashing down when our sons died in 2010, says Sukhwinder as tears roll down her cheeks. While their elder son Gurdeep Singh (24) was electrocuted, his younger brother (21) died in a bid to save him. I lost both of them on the same day. It felt like that was end of my living. But I never lost hope, she adds.

To fill the void in their lives, Kaur wanted to start from the scratch. The couple visited many doctors and religious places, but to no avail. Doctors even told the couple that it will be impossible for Sukhwinder to conceive.

It was then that Sukhwinder says she decided to see an IVF specialist. Her joy knew no bounds when she learnt last year that they were expecting twins. The moment was awesome. When I conceived, we kept looking at the ultrasounds, she says with a spark in her eyes.

After a gap of eight years, happiness found its way back. Sukhwinder delivered two girls on April 2. Age is not a number. I wanted healthy kids, she says.

Mahinder Singh, father of the twins, is elated. It is magical to hear their voice fill the room. It is a marvellous experience.

Sukhwinders gynecologist says, The case was challenging because of age of the couple, but we are proud of the mother for the way she coped with the stress and strains of pregnancy and father for his support.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has donated 3,500 books and memorabilia from his personal library to Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh.

The university will make arrangements to transport books and memorabilia from New Delhi to the varsity campus.

Reeta Grewal, professor, department of history, said, The 3,500 books and memorabilia, which include photographs and paintings, will be housed in Guru Teg Bahadur Bhawan. Until the place is ready for the installation, books and memorabilia will be kept in the main library.

Grewal said that Guru Teg Bahadur Bhawan which is located inside PU-Institute of Social Science Education and Research (ISSER) was originally planned as a museum. It has three separate and interconnected floors. The area is beautifully designed to have natural light on all the three floors from above, as a typical archival structure.

She said, Guru Teg Bahadur Bhawan was built three years ago but it had been empty. Now it will be used to house Manmohan Singhs personal library and other such possible donations.

She added, Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) is working in association with PU to design the interior so that the originally personal library of Manmohan Singh is replicated here.

She further stated that it will be developed as a library where there would be a reading area where anybody can come and have a look at the material.

Manmohan Singh to deliver memorial lecture

The former Prime Minister, who is an alma mater of PU, will be delivering Prof SB Rangnekar Memorial Lecture on April 11 at the university. The topic of his lecture is The 70th anniversary of our independence  Strengthening the roots of our democracy. The security arrangements for it are under progress on the campus.

Singh was a student of Panjab University after the campus had shifted to India after Partition. He studied in the department of economics under Panjab University at Government College, Hoshiarpur, where he completed his masters in 1954. He has also been a faculty member of the university.
The sun is raining fire, but the crowd at the Jallianwala Bagh is unrelenting. At the entrance, the modest gallery is filled with hushed gasps. Its a sombre room full of words and photos on the massacre. The lines Its a tragedy of national importance that cannot be allowed to be forgotten jump at you from one wall as a girl asks her mother, How could they shoot without warning?

Next-door, Sukumar Mukherjee, bright in a yellow T-shirt, sits under the impassive gaze of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. A neat row of photos, mostly black and white, line the four walls. For Mukherjee, secretary of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, this is both home and office  his residence is a short flight upstairs.

MAKING OF A MEMORIAL The Jallianwala Bagh was owned by Himmat Singh, a noble in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who hailed from Jalla village near Fatehgarh Sahib. Area: 6.5 acre (26,000 m2) Resolution for buying the Jallianwala Bagh: 1919 Funds collected: Rs 5,60,472 Bagh acquired on: 1 August 1920 Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust set up: 1 May 1951 Flame of liberty cost: Rs 9.25 lakh Designed by: American Benjamin Polk Memorial inaugurated on: 13 April 1961, by President Dr Rajendra Prasad in the presence of PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Members of the memorial trust: PM is the chairman, and permanent members include the Congress president, Punjab CM, governor, Union culture minister and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Also Read | Part 2: Revisiting Jallianwala 100 years on: The horrible General Dyer

The Bangla connection

The 64-year-old with green eyes was born here, like his father Uttam Charan. The Mukherjees from the Hooghly district of West Bengal have been the caretakers of the Jallianwala memorial from its birth. Sukumars grandfather Sashti Charan Mukherjee, a homeopath practising in Allahabad, was deputed by Congress leader Madan Mohan Malviya to arrange a session in Amritsar in 1910. He never went back. Present at the bagh on the day of the 1919 massacre, Sashti Charan escaped death by hiding under the dais, and later moved a resolution for acquiring the bagh at the Congress session in Amritsar. This was followed by a nationwide appeal for fundraising by Mahatma Gandhi and a trust was set up with Malviya as president and Sashti Charan as secretary. The British, it is said, wanted to obliterate the signs of the massacre by setting up a cloth market here but the Indians managed to acquire the land in 1920. Miffed, the authorities arrested Sashti Charan, who had the land deed, but he remained resolute.

IN DISREPAIR The concrete staircase is slowly cracking open. Even the adjacent building, acquired in 2011 as it carried the bullet marks, is beginning to crumble. God forbid there is even minor quake, the entire structure will come crashing down, says a local. A few years ago, an expert committee estimated that the repairs will take around Rs 22 lakh. The sum was sanctioned by former PM Manmohan Singh, but it is yet to reach the trust. Namita Jaspal, a heritage conservator, who has been visiting the bagh frequently, says it needs a lot of work. The buildings are made of Nankshahi bricks, they must be strengthened without disturbing their original character. The gallery too needs an upgrade, its important to showcase original documents and photos in a way that they dont disintegrate. In the past, the trust enjoyed direct access to the Prime Minister, but now all requests are routed through the ministry of culture. The trust is running its salary account on the rent from a Punjab National Bank office, a part of the property, but there are little funds for maintenance, leave alone conservation. The light-and-sound show, for instance, is lying unused for want of repair. Outside the bagh, former Hall Bazaar councillor Sunil Sharma Konti, claims the memorial is facing neglect because of the perception that it is associated with the Congress. Well wishers feel a nominal entry fees of even Rs 1 can make the bagh self-sustainable as it receives around 50,000 visitors a day. This proposal was strongly supported by BJP doyen LK Advani, but nothing came out of it.

Ever since, the Mukherjees have been the caretakers of the memorial. Sukumar, the youngest of three brothers, quit his bank job to take up the mantle from his father Upendra Narayan when he died in 1988. I was appointed by then PM Rajiv Gandhi, says Sukumar. The bagh has seen a lot of development, he says, but people no longer accord it the respect it deserves. Most visitors treat it as a picnic spot, sometimes they dont even care to read its history, sighs Sukumar, who has seen a long march of VVIPs at the tall pink obelisk, called the flame of liberty.

Also Read | Part 1: Bloodbath on Baisakhi, the massacre that shook the British Raj

A memorable journey

Though the trust is headed by the prime minister himself, managing the memorial is no cakewalk. In 2011, Sukumar had goons following him when the Punjab and Haryana high court ordered an illegal occupant of a neighbouring building acquired by the trust to vacate it. Sukumar laughs as he recounts how the cops ran away and left him to fend for himself in the middle of the eviction process.

A few years ago, when the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) decided to set up a control room for a light-and-sound show on the massacre, someone spread a rumour that they were planning a mujra. Members of the Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha got together and damaged the stage and speakers. It took us one year to get the project back on track. During militancy, a group of youngsters with swords threatened to kill his father, saying they had seen people smoking in the bagh. Papaji was very gutsy, he said, kill me and they left.

Former President Dr Rajendra Prasad, ex-PM Jawaharlal Nehru, then CM of Punjab Partap Singh Kairon at the inauguration of the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Trust on April 13, 1961. (HT photo)

Complaints, howsoever frivolous, are commonplace. Last fortnight, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission shot off a notice to the trust, asking it to explain why the Sulabh Shauchalya on the premises was charging Rs 2 from women. Someone must have complained to them; but this is a charge imposed by the company, how do I explain it, Mukherjee wonders.

A life less ordinary

Living with a piece of history has its challenges. Kakali, Sukumars bubbly wife who came here as a young bride in the 1980s when militancy had gripped the state, remembers the siege during Op Bluestar. We couldnt step out for over a week, thankfully papaji (Upendra Narayan) had a habit of storing ration. It was due to the barter of onions and tomatoes that she came close to her neighbours during that period.

The galiara project for the beautification of the space around the Golden Temple has compounded the number of visitors to the bagh. We have a free 24-hour light and sound show, says Kakali. With the Golden Temple on one side and a small mosque on the other, they are treated to both gurbani and the call of the muezzin. I enjoy the kirtan, it very soothing, says Kakoli, who has learnt to speak and read Punjabi.

Lack of privacy is the first casualty of living here but the couple dont mention it. What Kakali does broach is lack of normal domestic life. Weve never had a weekend, those are reserved for VIP visits, she laughs as Sukumar tells you how hes never celebrated the birthday of his elder daughter Proshita as it coincides with the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

Sukumars two brothers have moved back to Kolkata, his three sisters too have married and left. After the couples two daughters Proshita, a banker, and Shreya, a designer, moved out due to jobs, Kakali has been dividing her time between Kolkota and Amritsar. Often, Sukumar is left alone with his 90-year-old ailing mother, who introduced Durga Puja to the holy city.

My daughters worry about my health and tell me Papa, youve done enough sewa, come stay with us, but I want to see the memorial through its 100th anniversary. Then, I will see, sighs Sukumar.

His eyes liquid, Sukumar is clear: I cant turn my back on this place. Its seeped by the blood of so many. I cant let them down.

Read Part 4 here
At least nine people were killed and four seriously injured in a road accident in Jharkhands Simdega district in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. All the injured are undergoing treatment at Simdega Sadar hospital, police said. One injured was brought to Rajendra institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

The accident took place near Agharma village under Kolebira police station when a mini van, carrying 15 members of a marriage party, crashed into an under-construction bridge.

Simdega deputy commissioner Jata Shankar Choudhary said the group went to attend a marriage ceremony from Kolia and Bangru villages of Simdega district to Kamdara block in Gumla district, around 70 km away.

They were returning at the dead of the night. Instead of taking a diversion, the driver chose the under-construction bridge, around 35 km away from Bangru village. We have asked police to probe if the driver was in an inebriated state, Choudhary said.

The injured passengers said the van was travelling at a high speed and the driver turned a deaf ear to their pleas to slow down. Since it was night, the driver could not see the under-construction bridge at the right time, they said.

Sub-divisional police officer, Simdega, Amit Kumar said the impact of the accident could be assumed from the fact that they had to cut the front body of the vehicle to bring out the passengers. He said the driver of the vehicle is also injured and undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Chief minister Raghubar Das has announced Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia to each of the deceaseds family. The Simdega administration would provide Rs 20,000 immediately to the families.

Jharkhand has seen a sudden spurt in road accidents this year. On January 13, 12 people were killed after a speeding truck ploughed into an auto-rickshaw on National Highway 43 in Gumla district. On January 21, eight men were killed in Dumka after a truck slammed into their SUV. The same month, five people died in a head-on collision between a truck and SUV at Siskaria More in Latehar district.
The Punjab government on Tuesday decided not to screen controversial film Nanak Shah Fakir in the state. Gurkirat Kirpal, the special principal secretary to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, confirmed the development on Tuesday afternoon. The decision came hours after the Supreme Court cleared the release of the film on April 13 and asked the state governments to ensure a smooth release.

The film has run into controversy with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh opposing the release of the film that depicts the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, in a human form.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued an order directing states to ensure a smooth release for the film that is based on the first Sikh guru. Directing state governments to ensure law and order, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud said the freedom of expression of an artiste cant be curtailed by a group of private people.

Film producer Harinder Singh Sikka approached the top court against an Akal Takht order calling for a ban on the film. Directing the states to maintain law and order, Chief Justice Misra said: "Once the CBFC grants the certificate, there can't be any kind of impediment for the exhibition of the film. It is well settled that once the CBFC grants a certificate, it is final.

On Monday, with a section of the Sikhs opposing Nanak Shah Fakir for its portrayal of the Sikh Gurus as living human beings, the Akal Takht announced a ban on its release.

The movie was earlier to be released in 2015, but it was shelved following the controversy.

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If the industry grapevine is anything to go by, popular Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui may make his Tamil debut in superstar Rajinikanths next project with Mercury director Karthik Subbaraj.

There is no confirmation yet about Nawazuddin having been signed on for the project. It is, however, learnt that Subbaraj pitched the story to him when the latter was in Mumbai last week to promote Prabhudeva starrer Mercury, slated for release this week.

According to reliable sources, an official announcement will be made soon.

Subbarajs film will be bankrolled by Sun Pictures and the team plans to commence shooting from July. Anirudh Ravichander has been finalised to compose music. Trisha Menon and Anjali are said to be in contention for the leading ladys role. There were also rumours that Deepika Padukone is also being considered but nobody could verify the reports.

On signing a project with Rajinikanth, the Pizza director had said: Even though Ive made four films in my career so far, I grew fascinated towards cinema because of superstar Rajinikanth sir. To get to direct him is the best moment of my life.

He also said he plans to wrap up the project this year itself. Asked if the project will be as ambitious as Sun Pictures produced Enthiran in terms of scale, Subbaraj said his film will be quite different from Enthiran. Itll be a proper Rajini film, he said. He also sees collaborating with the superstar will come with its set of expectations and high responsibility. I see it as an enjoyable challenge.

Rajinikanth currently awaits the release of Kaala, in which he has played a slum lord turned gangster. Produced by Dhanush, the film is gearing up for release on April 27.

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By Yasiin Mugerwa & Thembo Kahungu

President Yoweri Museveni has stopped the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) from demanding customer information held by respective banks.

According to cabinet sources, the presidents furious response was prompted by finance minister Matia Kasaija, who had sought cabinet discretion on how to proceed with the latest URA move.

The president however wondered who authorized the URA Commissioner General Doris Akol to demand confidential client information without clearance from cabinet.

Asked whether he knew about the directive, Kasaija told the president that as a political supervisor of URA he had not been consulted and that he had come to seek guidance.

Justice and constitutional affairs minister Kahinda Otafire told cabinet that some Ugandans had started withdrawing their cash from banks and keeping it under their beds.

While another female minister said the move would force Ugandans to open up bank accounts in foreign countries and hurt the economy in the process.

The Uganda Law Society has warned that the request by the Uganda Revenue Authority to have banks furnish it with their customers private information is likely to destroy the core of the banking industry which is premised on confidentiality.

The tax bodys requests of 16th, 19th and 29th March 2018 direct all banks and other financial institutions to furnish it with information on accounts held between 2016 and 2017, on the basis of section 42 of the Tax Procedures Code Act 2014.

However, in a statement, the newly elected president of the law society Simon Peter Kinobe says this provision should not be implemented at the expense of the constitutional right of privacy as enshrined in Article 27 of the constitution.
In 2017, Dhanush made an impressive directorial debut with Power Paandi aka Pa Paandi. It not only appealed to critics and audiences alike but also struck gold at the box-office. A heart-warming story of a 60-year-old, who goes on a self-exploration road trip, the film featured Raj Kiran in the titular role and also starred Dhanush in a cameo.

Revathi played a crucial role in the film. Reports have emerged that Revathi might reprise her own role in the Kannada remake of the film. However, the makers are in talks with actress-politician Khushbu Sundar for the same role. It has to be seen who will be finally signed on for the role.

Kannada superstar Sudeep has acquired the remake rights and he will be seen playing the titular role. Veteran actor Ambareesh will be seen playing Raj Kirans role of a former stuntman. The remake, which is still to get a name, will be directed by Nanda Kishore. The rest of the cast and crew are yet to be finalised. According to reliable sources, the project is expected to go on the floors soon.

Dhanush, who is busy wrapping up Maari 2, will work on his second directorial project later this year. This time, he also plays the lead in his film and rumours indicate that a popular Telugu star will also part of the cast. Not long ago, reports suggested that Akkineni Nagarjuna might share screen space with Dhanush in the film. However, theres been no official update from the makers to verify such speculations.

This year, Dhanush also awaits the release of Vetrimaarans Vada Chennai. The film chronicles three decades in the life of a carom champion turned gangster, played by Dhanush, from North Madras. The project, which will be made as a trilogy, marks Dhanushs third collaboration with Vetrimaaran after Pollathavan and Aadukalam.

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A day after the Akal Takht banned the movie, the Supreme Court has directed states to ensure that there was no opposition to the release of Nanak Shah Fakir - a film on the first Sikh guru which is set to release on April 13.

Directing state governments to ensure law and order, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud said the freedom of expression of an artiste cant be curtailed by a group of private people.

As Akal Takht now bans Nanak Shah Fakir, movie producer questions U-turn

Film producer Harinder Singh Sikka approached the top court against an Akal Takht order calling for a ban on the film.

Directing the states to maintain law and order, Chief Justice Misra said, Once the CBFC grants the certificate, there cant be any kind of impediment for the exhibition of the film. It is well settled that once CBFC grants a certificate, it is final. Once the certificate is granted (by CBFC), unless it is nullified by a superior authority, the producer has every right to exhibit the film in movie halls. Any obstruction has the potential to bring anarchy and cripple the right of freedom of expression, said the court.

On Monday, with a section of the Sikhs opposing Nanak Shah Fakir for its portrayal of the Sikh Gurus as living human beings, the Akal Takht announced a ban on its release. We have imposed a ban on the controversial movie... The film cannot be released (on April 13), Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh told the media in Amritsar. The Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of Sikh religion.

He said the religious sentiments of the community had been hurt over the portrayal of the Sikh masters.

The movie was earlier to be released in 2015, but it was shelved following the controversy.

HT Explainer: The unholy row over Nanak Shah Fakir

With a number of Bollywood and Punjabi movies running into trouble vis-a-vis Sikh organisations over the portrayal of community members and the Sikh Gurus, the Akal Takht also decided to constitute a Sikh Censor Board on the matter. In future, the Jathedar said, filmmakers will be required to seek the approval of the said board before starting a movie project in which Sikh religion or Sikhs were to be portrayed or highlighted in any manner.

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Telugu actor Sri Reddys nude protest against sexual harassment and casting couch in Telugu film industry has stirred a hornets nest, it seems. After her protest in front of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce in the plush locality of Film Nagar, Hyderabad, grabbed national headlines, a film body, Movie Artistes Association (MAA), has threatened that she would not be given its membership under any circumstance, reports Times of India. Moreover, the body also said action would be taken against any artiste who chooses to work with her.

Not only this, action will be taken against any artiste who decides to share screen space with her, said Sivaji Raja, president of MAA. He further said that Sri Reddys act was nothing but cheap publicity stunt.

Clearly Sri Reddy is not one to go down with a fight. She was quoted in the same report as saying, On what basis will they ban me? They have no right to do so. As a woman, I have the right to protest and to speak my mind. How dare they ban me and threaten other artistes?

Read: We can suspend Sri Reddy for her cheap gimmicks, says MAA; RGV offers his take

MAA president explained that there was no question of banning her as she was not even a member of the body. As per our by-laws, we have the right to tell our artistes not to work with Sri Reddy. We have already filed a police complaint against her and will be taking legal action. He added she was denied membership as she has shown utter disregard for the organisations rules.

Sri Reddy, meanwhile, asserted that the organization is sending out a message to all women that this is what will happen to them if they speak up about the harassment. Let them bring their lawyers, I will bring mine.

Caught on the wrong foot, MAA explained that they were open to listen to women and their grievances and had indeed solved many issues in the past. Sri Reddy, however, upped the ante by asking why was there no provision for Committee against Sexual Harassment (CASH) within the organisation.

Read: Rakul Preet, who drew flak for saying that she feels safe in Telugu cinema, clears her stance

Cornered, MAA president confirmed that the body was thinking on the lines of setting up CASH. We are in talks with our lawyers regarding the legal procedure and the committee will be set up. Until then, we are always here for women and they can feel free to approach us with any concerns they may have, Sivaji was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, in an interview to India Today, Sri Reddy revealed how a powerful Telugu producers son forced her to have sex with him in a studio. I am a victim. One of the producers sons used me in the studio. Studio belongs to the government; they have assigned the property to the guy. Why is the government giving studios? Sri Reddy asked.

She threatened to reveal the name but only when the time was right. I will provide photos also. That is my Brahmastra, she was quoted as saying.

Studios are the safest place to use for sex. Big directors, producers and heroes use studios as brothels. Its like a red-light area. And it is the safest place because no one will come inside; police also will not check, and the government is not taking this as a big issue, she further said.

In the same interview, she then aimed at female actors from North India, who have been ruling the roost in Telugu film industry for more than a decade now.

For the last 10-15 years, we are only watching North Indian girls as the heroine. Why not Telugu girls? A lot of people are saying that these North Indian girls who are coming from the other states, they will give them sexual favours and all. Thats the reason people are showing interest towards these North or other state women. That is the only reason they are getting roles; because they are flexible to everything, and Telugu women are not.

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Trudging up a caramel-hued cliff pocked with ancient tombs, guide Bandar al-Anazi gazed at the stunning view: a windswept desert landscape of pre-Islamic ruins at the centre of Saudi-Franco preservation efforts.

Al-Ula, an area rich in archaeological remnants, is seen as a jewel in the crown of future Saudi attractions as the austere kingdom prepares to issue tourist visas for the first time - opening up one of the last frontiers of global tourism.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to sign a landmark agreement with Paris on Tuesday for the touristic and cultural development of the northwestern site, once a crossroads of ancient civilisations.

A picture taken on March 31, 2018 shows a journalist taking a photo of a tomb at Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, near Saudi Arabia's northwestern town of Al-Ula. (AFP)

All of Al-Ula is an open air museum, Anazi said during a media tour just days before Prince Mohammeds trip, revealing a patchwork of rock-cut tombs containing niches for burials.

There is so much history here still waiting to be discovered.

The tombs, some containing pre-Islamic inscriptions and drawings such as hunting scenes, are a legacy of the Nabataean artistic tradition. The chiseled rock art forms could help unravel the mysteries of millennia-old civilisations on the Arabian Peninsula.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to sign a landmark agreement with Paris on April 10, 2018 for the touristic and cultural development of the northwestern site, once a crossroads of ancient civilisations. (AFP)

The area, roughly the size of Belgium, served as an important way station and bedouin watering hole on the trade route linking the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and India. It is home to the kingdoms first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Madain Saleh, built more than 2,000 years ago by the Nabataeans.

Every day something new is being discovered, Jamie Quartermaine, an expert from the Britain-based Oxford Archaeology group, told AFP.

The potential is endless. Look behind you, he said, pointing at ancient animal art depictions engraved on a rocky spur inside an Al-Ula hotel resort.

A picture taken on March 31, 2018 shows a Saudi man and journalist visiting the Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, near Saudi Arabia's northwestern town of al-Ula. (AFP)

Gift to the world

A helicopter tour of the area revealed a desert landscape that appeared like the top of a foamed latte, dotted with heritage sites and towering maze-like rock formations. The Saudi-Franco partnership is in part aimed at preserving the site from further erosion and vandalism it has faced.

At one archeological site called Al-Khoraiba, Anazi pointed at a bereft cistern. Photos taken by French explorers Jaussen and Savignac, who visited the area in the early 20th century, showed the same cistern once featured the statue of a deity.

The walled city of Al-Ula, with tightly packed mud-brick and stone houses that were inhabited until modern times, sits decaying under the scorching sun. But before a preservation plan is launched in collaboration with France, all archaeological treasures need to be accounted for, said Amr al-Madani, head of the Royal Al-Ula Commission.

A picture taken on March 31, 2018 shows a tomb at Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site. (AFP)

A massive two-year surveying programme began in March, which includes scanning via helicopters, satellites, drones and a remote sensing technology called Lidar, he told AFP.

This is a significant undertaking incorporating all levels of survey from aerial survey down to ground checking, said Quartermaine.

A Franco-Saudi deal to develop Al-Ula calls for the creation of a dedicated agency modelled on the lines of the French museums agency, which spearheaded the establishment of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi. At least one large museum is planned to be built in Al-Ula. Gerard Mestrallet, the former CEO of French electric utility company Engie, has been appointed special envoy of French President Emmanuel Macron for Al-Ula.

Al-Ula is expected to fully open up to global tourists within three to five years, launching the site as what Saudi officials describe as a gift to the world.

A picture taken on March 31, 2018 shows rose-coloured sandstone in Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site. (AFP)

Pride in our past

Al-Ula is among a hidden trove of Saudi archaeological treasures. Archaeologists last year used Google Maps to find hundreds of stone gates built from rock in a remote Saudi desert, which may date back as far as 7,000 years.

They also discovered evidence of 46 lakes believed to have existed in Saudi Arabias northern Nefud desert, which experts say has lent credence to the theory that the region swung between periods of desertification and a wetter climate.

Tourism is one of the centrepieces of the blueprint to prepare the biggest Arab economy for the post-oil era. Al-Ulas hotel infrastructure is currently inadequate, with only two facilities with a capacity of 120 rooms.

But the project is about reviving the glory of Saudi Arabias ancient past. There is currently scant information in Saudi history textbooks about Al-Ula.

This is about national pride in our own past, Anazi said.

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American president Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama will not attend the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19 as the couple have decided not to invite world leaders in their official capacities, US media reported today.

Harry, 33, fifth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, an American actor and humanitarian, are set to get married on May 19. The royal couple have decided not to invite world leaders and political figures in their official capacities, Kensington Palace said.

CNN reported that a White House official confirmed that Trump and first lady Melania were not invited; neither was British Prime Minister Theresa May, Downing Street said.

Read: Heres the scary trailer of Jason Stathams The Meg. Watch video

A royal source said Barack and Michelle Obama, who are close to the couple, will not be at the wedding, the report said. It has been decided that an official list of political leaders -- both UK and international -- is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markles wedding, a Kensington Palace spokesman said.

Her Majestys Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household.

Unlike the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, this royal wedding is not an official state occasion and is regarded as a private ceremony, so there is no onus on the couple to invite political leaders.

Read: Avengers Infinity War directors drop a big clue about Captain Americas fate

CNN said that some world leaders may be invited on the basis of their personal relationships with Harry and Meghan.

The ceremony, which will take place in St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, is being held in a much smaller venue than Westminster Abbey, where Harrys older brother, Prince William, married Kate Middleton.
An eight-year-old girl was burnt alive after being raped in Pakistans Punjab province, a brutal incident which triggered protests in the province.

A large number of people of Chichawatni, Sahiwal district, some 200-km from Lahore, held a demonstration and blocked the main GT Road for several hours to lodge their protest against the brutal incident.

After the assurance of police that claimed to have arrested a suspect, the protesters dispersed.

According to police, the grade-II student of the government girls high school Chichawatni went missing on Sunday after she left home to buy some sweets from a grocery shop. When she did not return after a while, her family members and neighbours held a search.

They found her in a deserted street in an unconscious state with burns all over her body. Initially she was shifted to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Chichawatni from where she was brought to Lahores Jinnah Hospital.

She succumbed to her burns today as doctors could not save her life despite efforts, Jinnah Hospital spokesman Dr Abdul Jabbar said.

He said the girl had received more than 70% burns.

Police official concerned Atif Ikram told reporters that police had arrested a suspect who is being interrogated. He said it was suspected that the girl was set on fire after being raped.

However, autopsy report would confirm it, he said, adding that an FIR has been registered against the suspected person(s).

There has been an upsurge in rape incidents especially in Punjab province this year. The murder of seven-year-old girl in Kasur district of Punjab earlier this year had shocked the whole nation.

(This story has not been modified from its original version)
President Donald Trump has blamed the poor American leadership of the past which allowed China to take advantage of the United States.

Updating his Cabinet colleagues on trade negotiations, Trump on Monday said the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) deal, currently being renegotiated with Canada and Mexico, was a horrible one.

China has been taking advantage of the US for many years; really, if you look at it, since the start of the World Trade Organization. And they have really done a number on this country, Trump said during the meeting at the White House.

And I dont blame China. I blame the people running our country. I blame presidents. I blame representatives. I blame negotiators. We should have been able to do what they did. We didnt do it; they did. And its the most lopsided set of trade rules, regulations that anybodys ever seen, he said.

Despite the growing fears about a potential trade war between the US and China, triggered by Trumps warning of tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese imports, the US president claimed to be on good terms with Xi Jinping.

I think we will maintain that relationship. Im very good friends with President Xi. I have great respect for President Xi. And as you know, I spent two days in China, the president spent two days with us at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and they were four great days, he said.

Trump said the US was strongly renegotiating NAFTA and was close to a right deal.

We will see what happens. But the US is strongly renegotiating NAFTA. Were fairly close on NAFTA. And if we dont make the right deal, we will terminate NAFTA, and we will make the right deal after that. But we have a chance to make a deal on NAFTA, he said.

Trump said the US had similar bad deals with South Korea and the EU.

If you look at the European Union, they have tremendous barriers -- trade barriers. We essentially have bad deals with everyone, he said.

Were close to finishing a deal with South Korea, which was a horrible deal. It was going to give us 200,000 jobs. Well, that didnt exactly happen. It gave them 200,000 jobs, he said, adding that the US had made a tremendous progress in that respect.

Noting that the North Korea and South Korea situation complicated it, Trump said the deal that the US was going to have with South Korea was going to be a very fair deal.

We want a fair deal, and we dont have fair deals, he said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters yesterday that Trump has worked with his team to determine how best to respond to Chinas attack on American farmers.

The president has asked the Department of Agriculture to protect farmers, and will present a plan on the specifics of that shortly, said Sanders.

In an op-ed in Financial Times, Trumps Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, Peter Navarro, said the Trump wanted a global trading system free of the imbalances and unfair practices that now hold growth back, not just in the US but around the world.

Navarro said Trump had given China every opportunity to end its unfair trade practices, which has only grown.

The US trade deficit in goods with China has grew from $347 billion in 2016 to $375 billion.

While the trade deficit balloons, China continues to steal US intellectual property and force American companies operating there to surrender their leading edge technologies in exchange for access to the Chinese market, Navarro said.

Navarro alleged that Chinas reaction to Trumps legitimate defence of the American homeland had been a Great Wall of denial  despite incontrovertible evidence of Beijings illicit and protectionist behaviour.

Instead, China is attacking American farmers with the threat of retaliatory tariffs in the apparent hope of rattling a key component of the coalition that put Mr Trump in office, said Navarro.
Burkina Faso said Saturday that a police officer had died from wounds sustained when militants opened fire on a restaurant in the capital Ougadougou, bringing the death toll from the attack to 19.

Defence Minister Jean-Claude Bouda said Sawadogo Yassia, a gendarmerie officer, had died of gunshot wounds from the August 13 attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant.

A security source told AFP the officer had died while being transferred to Tunisia for treatment.

Gunmen killed nine locals and nine foreigners as they dined on the terrace of the restaurant.

No group has claimed responsibility but Burkina Faso has witnessed a string of such attacks attributed to Islamist extremists, including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

A security source said the attackers most likely came from Mali, where jihadist fighters frequently ambush security forces.
North Koreas foreign minister held rare talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Tuesday, as Pyongyang moves to improve strained ties with its neighbours.

Ri Yong Hos visit came ahead of planned nuclear summits between the Norths leader Kim Jong Un and the presidents of South Korea and United States in the coming weeks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed Ri to Moscow on Tuesday morning, saying that Russia is as inclined as ever to develop good neighbourly relations with North Korea.

His North Korean counterpart said he hoped for further development of relations. After the meeting, Lavrov answered questions from journalists alone, saying the ministers examined in some detail the nuclear situation on the peninsula.

The Russian side confirmed that we welcome gradual normalisation of the situation, an end to mutual threats and readiness for contact between the two Koreas as well as between North Korea and the US, Lavrov said.

He said that upcoming talks should aim at denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but stipulated that Pyongyang must also receive cast-iron guarantees of its security. He added that he had accepted an invitation for a return visit to Pyongyang, without giving a date.

Covering its back

Alexander Vorontsov, a specialist on the Koreas from Moscows Oriental Studies Institute, said it was particularly important (for Pyongyang) to enlist support, including from Russia, to cover its back before further summits.

Ri visited Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a landmark trip to Beijing last month.

The leaders secretive three-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March was his first trip abroad since gaining power from his late father in 2011. China is North Koreas main trading partner.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a landmark trip to Beijing last month, meeting Chinese premier Xi Jinping. (AP/File Photo)

The visit was seen as a gesture of reconciliation after months of high tensions over the Norths missile and nuclear programmes.

Kim is due to hold a summit with South Koreas Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, in only the third meeting of its kind.

A landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump is planned to follow  although no specific dates or venue have been set.

Easing out N Korean workforce

On Monday Ri met the head of Russias security council, Nikolai Patrushev, and on Thursday is set to meet the Kremlins envoy to far eastern Russia, Yury Trutnev, Russian news agencies reported.

Moscow has backed United Nations Security Council resolutions over Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic missile tests. But Russia still has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border. Moscow also provides Pyongyang with some food aid, which Lavrov said on Tuesday would continue.

North Korea currently has some 35,000 of its nationals working as labourers in far-eastern Russia, particularly in timber felling, agriculture and construction.

Russia, however, is phasing out this programme in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution and began to send them home in February, although it refused to send them all at once and they are working out their contracts.
The UN Security Council weighed whether to hold a vote Tuesday on a US proposal to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting up a clash with Russia, which could decide to veto the measure, diplomats said.

The United States put forward a draft resolution Monday following alleged toxic gas use in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people and prompted President Donald Trump to indicate that a decision could be taken imminently on US military action.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told Security Council diplomats that the United States wanted a vote on the measure, even though Russia said it contained some unacceptable elements.

Russia put forward its own proposal in January that has been rejected by Western powers who say it would give the Syrian government an upper hand over investigations on its territory.

The United States is pushing for a vote tomorrow, said a Security Council diplomat. The US position was that they were negotiating in good faith, but the world is watching for the council to act.

Experts were meeting to discuss the draft resolutions, but no vote was formally requested by late Monday.

The US push for a new inquiry came amid heightened tensions over possible US military action in Syria, with Trump saying major decisions would be taken within 48 hours.

From what we hear now, I am afraid they are looking for a military option, which is very, very dangerous, Russias UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following an emergency council meeting.

Trump -- who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base after sarin was used in the town of Khan Sheikhun -- warned after the latest accusations that there would be a big price to pay.

Grave repercussions

During a stormy council meeting, the Russian ambassador warned that a US military strike against Syria could have grave repercussions and stressed that the use of chlorine or sarin had not been confirmed in the attack.

Haley urged the council to take action, but warned that the United States was ready to respond, with or without the United Nations.

We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done, Haley said.

History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria.

Either way, the United States will respond.

The Russian envoy said Moscow had told the United States that it would not allow its forces on the ground in Syria to be put at risk.

Armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions, Nebenzia said.

Moscow and Damascus have fiercely denied that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

Bait for the Russians

A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted and no vetoes from the five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Russia has used its veto power 11 times at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally.

The US resolution is pretty obviously a bait for the Russians, who will have no choice but to veto it, said Richard Gowan, a UN expert from the European Council on Foreign Relations.

That will give the US and possibly France an excuse for military action, said Gowan.

All sides know what is going on, and the Russians have actually been predicting US military action over Ghouta for some time. We just have to hope that Moscow will not overreact when the strikes come.

Russia killed off a previous UN-led probe in November by vetoing the renewal of its mandate.

The United States is proposing to establish the new panel for one year to work with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks.
Nobel Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and journalist P Sainath are among leading Indians participating in a series of events linked to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London and Windsor during April 16-20.

The event, which will see Britain take over as chairman of the grouping for the next two years, will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 52 heads of government. Modi will have a day of bilateral meetings with British leaders on April 18.

Satyarthi will launch a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on April 13 that focusses on the groupings sustainable development goal 8.7, which commits members to taking immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.

Speakers at the report's launch include Tariq Ahmad, minister for Commonwealth in Britains Foreign Office, and Sanjoy Hazarika, CHRIs international director. CHRI events include sessions on small states and pretrial detention issues in the Commonwealth.

Hazarika said: We also have a unique programme - the first-ever festival of Commonwealth films on human rights...It is not just about speaking truth to power and compassion for the vulnerable but working intensely to ensure the rights of the latter.

Before the sessions involving heads of government on April 19 and 20, CHOGMs theme of Towards a common future is explored through four umbrella forums: people, youth, women and business, in which India and Indian speakers will feature prominently.

Shobha Das, project manager of the peoples forum, said: All debates...amplify less heard voices. Narratives of people in the margins from around the world will be spoken, shown, seen and heard. Action will be demanded to address marginalisation, and delegates will remember that they do not walk alone in their struggles to create a better world.

Sainath will join a session on Just Economies, whose brief is: There is today an unquestioning global focus on economic growth, often at the expense of social protection and welfare. What are the consequences of this economic paradigm? What governance approaches could make the global economy more just?

Psychiatrist Soumitra Pathare will participate in the session on legislative reform, focusing on laws related to sexual offences and mental health, while educationist Asha Kanwar will join a session on inclusive education. Pragna Patel, founder of Southall Black Sisters, will focus on dissent as a core aspect of democratic values and principles.

Killings and attacks on journalists in the Commonwealth is the focus of a session on In defence of free media: What can the Commonwealth do?. A working group of the Commonwealth Journalists Association and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies will present its proposals in a document titled Commonwealth principles on the role of the media in good governance.
President Donald Trump is hosting the ruling emir of Qatar, the tiny gas-rich nation he once accused of funding terrorism.

Qatars Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will be at the White House on Tuesday. White House officials say theyll discuss strengthening ties, including security and economic issues.

Last summer, Trump took the side of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries in their ongoing diplomatic crisis with Qatar. He said Qatar had historically supported terror groups at a high level. Qatar denies that charge but has taken steps to address US concerns.

In a phone call last week, Trump credited the emir with working to counter terror financing and extremism. The White House says they also discussed concerns about Iran and the need to resolve the Gulf crisis.
Untold thousands of men, women and children are being held in horrific conditions in Libya by armed groups who subject them to torture and other abuses, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

Fresh findings from the UN rights office and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) found that Libya was plagued by widespread, prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention and endemic human rights abuses in custody.

Libya descended into chaos following the overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with dozens of armed factions filling the power vacuum.

Since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medical professionals, journalists and politicians, Tuesdays report said.

The report lays bare not only the appalling abuses and violations experienced by Libyans deprived of their liberty, but the sheer horror and arbitrariness of such detentions, UN rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein said in a statement. These violations and abuses need to stop, and those responsible for such crimes should be held fully to account.

The report, however, did not look at the widespread abusive detention of migrants in lawless Libya, which has long been a major transit hub for people from Africa and elsewhere trying to reach Europe.

Aid workers check up on illegal migrants at a naval base in Tripoli after they were rescued off Libya's coast. (AFP/File Photo)

Untold torture

According to the report, an estimated 6,500 people were languishing in official prisons overseen by Libyas Judicial Police, under the justice ministry, as of last October.

But it stressed there were no available statistics for facilities that fall under the ministries of interior and defence, nor for those run directly by armed groups.

Such facilities are notorious for endemic torture and other human rights violations or abuses, the report said.

It detailed how armed groups routinely hold people incommunicado and systematically subject them to torture, including beatings with metal bars, flogging on the soles of the feet, burning with cigarettes and use of electric shock.

Women detainees are at high risk of sexual abuse, the report warned, pointing out that in some facilities, women detainees are forced to strip and subjected to invasive cavity searches by male guards or under the gaze of male officials.

It also pointed to allegations of deaths in custody, with the bodies of hundreds of people taken and held by armed groups found on the streets, in hospitals and rubbish dumps, many bearing signs of torture or gunshot wounds.

The report called for the immediate release of all those detained arbitrarily in Libya, and urged authorities to ensure that all of those lawfully detained be transferred to official prisons.

It also called on authorities to unequivocally condemn torture, ill-treatment and summary executions, and to ensure that any perpetrators of such crimes be held accountable.
Pipeline

10 April 2018

Come May 2018, the quaint and cobbled streets of Old Town Vilnius will welcome a new design knockout in the form of Hotel Pacai. Set squarely in the center of Europe"s largest baroque Old Town, Hotel Pacai is poised to elevate Lithuania"s capital city with a culturally-rooted stay reflecting the virtues of this singular destination: historic, charming, and vibrant in spirit. Regarded as the most magnificent mansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th century, today"s incarnation will offer 104 spacious guest rooms, four conference spaces, a lounge bar, a bistro and fine dining restaurant headed by Claus Meyer, of Noma fame.

Occupying the Palace of Pacai, a former private mansion where some of the most influential Lithuanian families used to reside, Hotel Pacai arises as a sophisticated urban retreat. Blending authentic 17th century baroque grandeur with contemporary design, the treasured building was once owned by national legend and the cultural ambassadorof Lithuania, Kazimieras Mykolas Pacas (1624-1682). Consisting of four interconnected historical buildings which form an inner courtyard, the structure was converted by Lithuanian architect Saulius Mikstas who preserved historical details like original frescoes and statues from the 16thcentury and brought in sleek modernity in the form of ample marble and a fresh color story.

As the passion project of a team of local architects and designers, Hotel Pacai showcases deep ties to this fascinating destination. Here, on the main artery of the medieval Old Town, the striking classicist facade will house 104 individually design guestrooms, the 38-seat casual bistro and 43-seat "new Baltic" restaurant by Claus Meyer that will be destination in its own right, a full spa, a gym, and four state-of-the-art conference facilities. The center courtyard will showcase a series of artistic events, solidifying this new cultural beacon of the Baltic.
Supplier News

10 April 2018

HEDNA, the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, is pleased to announce the launch of two new white papers developed to help hotels leverage the plethora of content, diverse platforms, distribution channels and data to gain critical insights, optimize their distribution performance and operations. The insightful reports are a prelude to some of the topics that will be explored at the upcoming HEDNA Global Distribution Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

Hotel Descriptive Content White Paper

Presented by the HEDNA Content Working Group, the white paper titled, "Hotel Descriptive Content: Considerations for Sourcing and Exchanging Content," describes the current state of content today, including the various content API standards available. The report identifies different content usage scenarios, the key attributes typically applicable to each, and examples of companies that have implemented those scenarios. It also explores the critical questions to ask when evaluating your content needs and the solutions that are available  with a listing of content providers who are offering access to an extensive collection of chains and properties.

Highlights from the white paper:

Addressing the "content conundrum"

Available interface standards

Delivery methods  push and pull

Example usage scenarios

Addressing the challenges

Selecting a content solution

Content providers matrix

To download a complimentary copy of the Content Working Group white paper, visit https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/hedna.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/Publications/Content_Whitepaper-Mar2018.pdf

Hotel Distribution, Data Management, and Analysis White Paper

The HEDNA Hotel Analytics Working Group analyzed the results of one of the most abundant survey samples collected and published the outcomes in the white paper titled, "Hotel Distribution, Data Management and: A 2018 assessment on global and regional practices." The 20-part survey was released in October 2017 and over an 8-week period, generated 1,053 global responses, representing over 40,000 hotels and Management Companies. The Survey responders come from all major continents and represent hotels, management companies, and independents. The survey set out to quantify current practice in data collection, storage, and usages, as well as test respondents' overall data satisfaction. Next steps are for the Analytics Working Group to share best practice recommendations for the hotel industry.

Highlights from the white paper:

Objectives and methodology

A detailed breakdown of survey responses

Main takeaways from each specific segment (Chain, Independent, Management Company)

Addressing the challenges in data quality, timeliness, collection, and storage

Developing formal industry data management best practices

State of the industry and next steps

To download a complimentary copy of the Hotel Analytics Working Group white paper, visit https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/hedna.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/Publications/Analytics_Whitepaper-Mar2018.pdf

"With the significant amounts of hotel data and content generated every day, it is more important than ever for organizations to acquire the tools and technologies necessary to gain business advantage and shape the standards for our industry," said Sarah Fults, President of HEDNA. "Associations like HEDNA, offer the ideal forum and opportunity to facilitate active dialogue and collaboration between the suppliers and users of hotel technology. The goal of our working groups and these white papers is to set the stage for future discussions leading up to, and including, the upcoming Lisbon conference in June."

Registration is open for the HEDNA Global Distribution Conference in Lisbon, Portugal from June 4 to 6, 2018

The theme of the Lisbon event, 'A Conversation with Tomorrow's Guest,' encapsulates the engaging content that will be featured during the three-day conference which takes place at the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel. Hospitality professionals should participate in if they want to stay informed, understand and compete in the dynamic hospitality landscape. To learn more visit https://hednalisbon.com.

About Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA)

HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association) is a not-for-profit trade association whose worldwide membership includes executives and managers from the most influential companies in the hospitality industry. Founded in 1991, HEDNA's mission is to be the leading global forum for advancing hospitality distribution through collaboration and knowledge sharing. Its vision calls for HEDNA to be known for creating an environment that fosters strategic collaboration toward business development in the global hospitality industry. For more, visit www.HEDNA.org.

HEDNA CONTACT:

Ann Crampton

HEDNA Associate Director

529 14th Street, NW, Suite 750

Washington, DC 20045

T +1 202 204 8400

[email protected]
Press Release

10 April 2018

Saudi Arabia -- An exclusive report by TOPHOTELPROJECTS for The Hotel Show Saudi Arabia 2018 has identified Swiss-Belhotel International among the top ten most active brands in the Kingdom. The group currently has five projects featuring over 1200 rooms under development in KSA.

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Laurent A. Voivenel, Senior Vice President, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India for Swiss-Belhotel International, said, "KSA is a very significant market for us with 35% of our development pipeline concentrated in the Kingdom. Out of the six hotels opening this year, three are located in Saudi Arabia. Two of these will be in the capital city of Riyadh i.e. Swiss-Belboutique Tahlia Riyadh, a deluxe 4-star hotel featuring 60 rooms and Swiss-Belhotel Riyadh, a 4-star hotel featuring 112 rooms. Both hotels are owned by Jumaiah Group. In addition, we will be making our debut in the second half of 2018 into the Holy city of Makkah with Swiss-Belhotel Al Aziziya Makkah. Featuring 525 rooms, the upscale 4-star property is owned by Cardamom International Property Management LLC and is superbly located in the rapidly expanding hotel hub of Makkah only a few minutes' drive away from Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Al Aziziya".

Saudi hospitality sector is set to grow at 13.5% CAGR per annum up to 2022. Widespread investment in the Kingdom's tourism and infrastructure sector in pursuit of attracting 30 million visitors annually by 2030 is driving demand for quality accommodation. With 40,020 keys in 89 projects, the country at the moment has the most hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and North Africa.

Laurent stressed, "Saudi Arabia is a market that is currently under supplied in terms of hotels and is, therefore, projected to show strong growth over the next few years and we are extremely keen to take advantage of this massive opportunity. Our expansion in Saudi Arabia, like the rest of the region, demonstrates the confidence of owners in the strength of our brands. At Swiss-Belhotel International, with 14 well-established brands, we are well equipped to meet the needs of every segment of Saudi hotel sector. We believe our upcoming hotels will add tremendous value to our growing presence in the country".

Swiss-Belhotel International will be present at Arabian Travel Market from 22 to 25 April on stand 'HC1130' in Sheikh Saeed Hall in Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Supplier News

10 April 2018

Guestline to showcase award-winning technology at HITEC Amsterdam

Leading hospitality software business Guestline will be showcasing its award-winning technology solutions at HITEC Amsterdam this month, in addition to providing the latest updates on its product developments to visitors.

Guestline's attendance at the show will focus on the strong growth in both its partner network and product portfolio. This includes the recent launch of its Connect Partner Programme, developed to showcase the expanding range of integrated partner software solutions available to its hospitality customers. The new programme is designed to help hotels streamline operations, drive revenue, and deliver on guest journey expectations. Most recently, Guestline has partnered with Journey to deliver Websuite - a range of website solutions and digital marketing technology to its customers. The new combined product suite offers a website platform, online booking conversion tools, and dashboard fully integrated into Guestline's internet booking engine, distribution and property management platforms. It has been developed to enable hoteliers to increase website traffic and drive direct bookings.

The company has also continued to expand its European footprint with the growth of its team and expansion into Benelux and the German, Austrian and Swiss (DACH) markets. Supporting this expansion, Guestline has appointed Robert Vogt as director of business development for Benelux and Wolfgang M. Neumann has joined as strategic advisor for the DACH region.

As part of this growth, Guestline is celebrating a host of client wins including Pillows Hotels and Sandton Hotels - both part of International Hotel Management Group B.V. - based in Belgium and the Netherlands, which are now reaping the benefits of Guestline's cloud-based PMS, Rezlynx. The Bavaria Hotel, a 4-star luxury hotel based in Germany and part of the Karma Hotel Group, has also installed multiple modules of Guestline's software platform including Rezlynx PMS, Epos, Channel Manager and PCI.

As a leader in cloud-based hospitality technology, Guestline provides end-to-end property management, channel distribution and digital marketing solutions to hotel groups, independent hotels, serviced apartments and pub companies across the globe.

Guestline is exhibiting at HITEC Amsterdam 2018 (RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, 11-13 April 2018) on stand number 138.

For more information please visit www.guestline.com
Supplier News

10 April 2018

Stockholm -- ASSA ABLOY Hospitality, innovator of security technologies for the hospitality industry, announces the successful implementation of several of its advanced security and access solutions at KViHotel in Hungary. Located in Budapest, KViHotel has implemented ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access, VingCard Allure electronic door locks and the Visionline software platform to maximize security and enhance the overall guest experience. The new 40-room property is among the first smart hotels in Europe to offer a complete mobile experience through the use of its mobile app, TMRW Hotels, which as an ASSA ABLOY Hospitality certified partner includes the added feature of Mobile Access keyless entry.

After researching several locking system providers, KViHotel opted for the ASSA ABLOY Hospitality solutions based on excellent customer service and the company's ability to provide an all-encompassing solution to meet staff and guest demands. With the installation of ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access and VingCard Allure locks, guests can quickly and conveniently enter their room immediately upon arrival with a quick swipe of their mobile device.

"As a new hotel, we knew that a main focus of the design needed to reflect modern industry and guest trends through the adoption of innovative technologies," says Peter Palicz, general manager of KViHotel. "Keyless entry is undoubtedly evolving the hotel guest experience, and with ASSA ABLOY Hospitality's longstanding history of delivering exceptional service and its position as a leader in hotel security technology, we knew its Mobile Access solution was exactly what our hotel needed to appeal to today's tech-savvy guest expectations."

ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access is an advanced solution that allows guests to use their mobile device as a digital room key. Operating through secure Seos technology, an encrypted key is delivered securely to a guest's smartphone, which they then use to open their guestroom door, as well as accessing other onsite amenities and secured areas. Using advanced RFID technology, the VingCard Allure electronic lock features a unique interactive and customizable LED panel that is housed on the wall adjacent to the guestroom door, rather than on the door itself. An additional feature available to KViHotel guests is the ability to post 'do not disturb' or 'make up room' notifications to allow hotel staff to easily know when they are able to freely enter a guestroom for housekeeping and other services. Through the use of the Visionline system, hotel staff can remotely control who has access to certain areas on property and when.

Since the installation, KViHotel has experienced positive feedback from guests enjoying the benefit of being able to bypass the front desk and enter their room immediately upon arrival with their own smartphones. Hotel staff has also benefited greatly from ASSA ABLOY Hospitality's customer support, as the team was committed to ensuring that all needs of the property were met to create a streamlined and convenient service for hotel guests and staff.

For more information about ASSA ABLOY Hospitality and its comprehensive line of hotel security solutions, please visit www.assaabloyhospitality.com.
Supplier News

10 April 2018

Orlando, Fla. -- Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice command technology is infiltrating the hospitality landscape, with guests eager to enjoy its conveniences and hoteliers ready to capture new revenues and boost operational efficiencies. In two weeks, Intelity will hold a webinar titled "Say Hello to ICEvoice." Led by Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Gregg Hopkins and Chief Technology Officer Chris Grey, the online session will discuss how guests can use voice commands for requesting services and controlling the in-room environment, and how that translates into improved operational efficiency and revenues.

The webinar will be held on Wednesday, April 25th at 1:00 p.m. EST. To register, click here.

"We encourage all hoteliers interested in AI voice solutions to attend this event," Hopkins said. "During this 45-minute online class, participants willbe introduced to our new Amazon Alexa-powered solution, ICEvoice, and they'll learn how ambient technology offers solutions specific to the needs of hotels. It's sure to get people inspired to implement voice technology at their properties."

Here's what Webinar participants can expect:

Learn what integrations your hotel can employ with ICEvoice.

Understand how to connect, engage and service guests using ambient technology.

Discover best practices that will make communication with guests easier and more efficient.

Hear new ways that ICEvoice will generate revenue for your hotel.

Realize how ICEvoice will save your hotel money by creating efficient guest service.

"With ICEvoice at the forefront of technology, it will enable an easier, more accessible way to connect hoteliers to guests, thereby serving them better than ever before," Grey said. "Hoteliers will gain an understanding of how this new technology can help solve their unique hotel problems, while providing a fun and interactive tool that will keep guests engaged with the property and wanting to come back."

For more information about Intelity's solutions for the hospitality industry, click here.
Opinion Article

10 April 2018

The hospitality industry is one of the world's largest employers; the cruise sector is arguably one of the sub-segments which records one of the strongest growth rates (note: The Cruise Line Industry Association, CLIA, predicts 27 million passengers by the end of 2018). With that in mind, it is no surprise that everyone wants a piece of the pie. Although the market is dominated by just a few big players, new competition is muscling in.

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AETHOS recently assessed what it takes for one of those new competitors, the traditional lodging operator, to move into the cruise sector - looking predominantly, at human resources and talent management. One key decision that we have not yet discussed is the relevance of the country where a cruise ship is registered - does or does it not impact the ability to attract and retain talent? Could it have an adverse impact on employer branding?

The Flag of Convenience

During times in which a new generation of employees is increasingly conscious of 'doing the right thing,' as it pertains to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), could the common best practice of flying a flag of convenience be considered 'bad form?'

The flag of a cruise ship governs the rules, regulations and safety norms of a vessel; unlike common belief, an Italian cruise ship does not always fly the Italian flag nor does an American ship brandish the Stars and Stripes. What originated in the Americas of the 1920s, with companies wanting to circumvent the ban of alcohol by registering their vessels elsewhere, has continued to this day. Nowadays, organisations are predominantly seeking cost savings via lower fees and/or taxes. The term 'flag of convenience' was hence coined and these days the great majority of cruise ships are flying flags which are different to those of the brand's headquarters (92%).

Naturally, any savvy business leader will strive to maximize returns for its shareholders; it is their fiduciary responsibility and flying a flag of convenience holds financial appeal. Voices raised by third parties about operators who chose such a strategy in order to drive profitability are thus not of concern here, nor a point of discussion - at least not from a commercial business perspective.

Does Flying a Flag of Convenience Have Ramification When it Comes to Attracting Talent?

Flying a flag of convenience can be viewed by some as responding purely to the needs of investors - but does it have an impact, positive or negative, on some of the other stakeholders of a firm, e.g. the employees? The fact is that often, by outsourcing the flag, an operator is also subject to more lenient labour laws in the form of less stringent minimum wage and benefits requirements, inferior employment protection and limited ability for employees to form unions. Frequently, the environmental gold standards also differ from the home country. Moreover, flying a foreign flag can make it difficult for employees to bring cases of criminal activity on-board back to their home jurisdictions for legal action...seemingly, not the best of outlooks then for employees. But, do they care? Research shows that individuals today are clearly concerned about socially responsible behaviour and good business ethics (i.e. CSR). For example:

A study researching a potential correlation between a firm's Corporate Social Performance (CSP) and its reputation and attractiveness as an employer concluded that indeed the relationship is a positive one; i.e. results indicated that "a firm's CSP may provide a competitive advantage in attracting applicants" (Turban, D.B. & Greening, D.W. [2017]. Corporate Social Performance And Organizational Attractiveness To Prospective Employees. Academy of Management Journal,Vol 40, Iss 3.)

A research paper investigating a job seeker's perception of importance of CSP and its potential impact on an organisation's attractiveness as an employer found that, whilst some sub-segments within CSP were considered more important than others, what a firm does overall in the area of CSP does have a re-affirming effect on its employer brand / attractiveness (Backhaus, K.B., Stone, B.A. & Heiner, K. [2002]. Exploring the Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance and Employer Attractiveness. Business & Society, Vol. 41, Iss. 3.)

An AETHOS study investigating the career priorities of Gen X versus Gen Y concluded that Gen Y concerns itself with career choices and a sense of purpose and, interestingly enough, also about social consciousness (Houran, J., Kefgen, K. & Gold, N [2017]. What Millennials Want: The Real Career priorities of Gen X vs Gen Y. Hotel Yearbook).

However, as pointed out by the AETHOS study, attitudes are at times poor predictors of actual behaviour. In fact, the research paper found that, according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, "pragmatism trumps principle when faced with actual career decisions." In other words, at a high level, it seems that employees care about CSR. Yet, they do not always follow through and consider CSR when making key decisions as it relates to their career options. This bodes well for organisations who have opted to fly a flag of convenience - which, on paper, is at times at odds with what most would consider CSR best practice.At a time in which large companies such as Google, Facebook or Starbucks are scrutinised for where they pay taxes, and how much, will flying a flag of convenience become a potential HR liability? Could the very loud voices criticising (and accusing) the (merchant) shipping industry for flying flags of convenience negatively affect the reputation of the cruise companies who are doing the same?The clear answer to this should be a resolute "no." A cruise company's reputation as an employer of choice should remain intact as, although many of them do fly flags of convenience, they do a much better job than the shipping industry / merchant vessels in avoiding the HR pitfalls - precisely because they understand that '(brand) image' is key to their very own success. Reviewing the various corporate websites of the cruise operators reveals links and references to their HR best practices and the 'code of conduct and business ethics' as well as the 'modern slavery act' and the organisation's initiatives that address 'sustainability'. Yet, cruise companies and those organisations looking to move into the sector may be well advised to learn from other companies' mistakes. For example:

A study looking into the top 150 hotel companies in the world found "a large number of organisations reporting commitment to CSR goals, but a much smaller number of them providing details of specific initiatives undertaken to contribute to these goals and even less of them report actual performance achieved" (De Grosbois, D. [2011]. Corporate social responsibility reporting by the global hotel industry: Commitment, initiatives and performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management. Vol. 31, Iss. 3.).

A research paper investigating the transparency of hotel companies as it relates to their CSR best practices and testing the gap between CSR claims and actual practice concluded that official statements do not necessarily reflect actual operations. Larger hotel groups, for example, have comprehensive policies in place but are being let down by poor implementation (Font, X., Walmsley, A., Cogotti, S., McCombes, L & Haeusler, N. [2012]. Corporate Social Responsibility: The Disclosure-Performance Gap. Tourism Management, Vol. 33, Iss. 6.)

Cruise operators should thus engage in a more open dialogue, rectifying any potential misperceptions or grey-areas. Ultimately, potential employees will know that just because 'loop holes' exist (curtesy to some 'flags of convenience'), it does not mean that those are always being exploited. But not being able to compare 'CSR performance' might become a deterrent for some employees and senior industry leaders - particular in an age where even consumers have started to become much more conscious of CSR best practices, with a reported 2:1 cruise travellers preferring cruise operators with good CSR policies and best practices in place (Adams, S.A., Font, X. & Stanford, D. [2017]. All aboard the corporate socially and environmentally responsible cruise ship: A conjoint analysis of consumer choices. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 9, Iss.1).
In our last post, we ended with the question about how cleanliness impacts overall hotel performance. To answer that question, we can take a look at the CompIndex KPI. The CompIndex shows you how your hotels scores compare to the average scores of your competitors. It is basically a ratio, which if being over 1.0, means you are outperforming your competitors. We decided to look into the CompIndex for the Performance score to understand if there is a positive or negative trend in the last couple of years for hotels using TrustYou, in comparison to their competition, meaning the hotels that have been selected as competitors in the platform. The results were quite positive.
One of Tinker Hatfield's original Air Jordan 6 sketches will reportedly serve as inspiration for an alternate version of the sneaker, similar to the way Jordan Brand has released the limited edition "Tinker" Air Jordan 3 NRG.

While it's unclear exactly what to expect from the "Tinker" Air Jordan 6s, it's being reported that the kicks will make their retail debut sometime in October or November for the retail price of $190.

As of now, it looks like the 6s will release in the familiar "White/Infrared" color scheme, complete with grey accents and Nike Air branding on the heel. While Jordan Brand has not yet announced official release details, an early image of the "Tinker" 6s recently surfaced giving us a good idea of what to expect when they hit retailers later this year.

Check out the first image of the special edition 6s in the IG post embedded below, and stay tuned for more release details.
Cardi B recently did a cover story with GQ where she spoke in detail about her butt injections. She explained that she got them done in a basement in Queens for $800 and the whole scenario sounded painful and dangerous. "It was the craziest pain ever. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I felt a little dizzy. And it leaks for, like, five days," she said to the writer. According to a plastic surgeon, the procedure Cardi B went through could've led to her death.

A double board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Wright A. Jones, spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about Cardi B's butt injections. He said that it sounded like it was done in the black market with silicone which he says has potential negative repercussions on one's heath. If it enters the blood stream, it could lead to many negative side effects including death. He also said that the pain she experienced is something that's common with black market injectors due to the fact that they have don't have the proper anesthetics. As for her leaking, he said that it's also something that could be due to poor injection technique.

Jones later explained that people who go to black markets for the procedure often don't know what exactly is being placed in their body. In addition, they might not even be getting medical grade silicone. He also revealed that the body might not reject it initially and it could take up to 10-15 years to see an effect.

"It's likely that down the road she could need some medical care." He said. "She has to monitor everything closely and follow up with a board certified plastic surgeon."
Known mostly for her vulgar lyrics and raunchy videos, cupcakKe has grown a cult following since her come-up. Capitalizing on the recent trend of freestyling atop Three 6 Mafia's "Who Run It," cupcakKe laid down her own version, showing off her lyrical abilities and reimagining the flow. Many have tried to match G Herbo's energy in his now famous freestyle and while some have come close, none have exactly matched the popularity of his clip. Releasing a video alongside the track, cupcakKe uses a quick, hard-hitting flow to capture listener's attention on the track, keeping up with the pace of the beat.

The Chicago artist has recently spoken out about censorship on YouTube, talking about how her videos are often taken down because of their sexual content. Check out her freestyle and chime in on how it stacks up against the original.

Quotable Lyrics:

I'm always so prepared, I don't flinch, that's rare (you know it)

Them boys singing in Walmart, I won't move 'cause I'm never scared

Just know I ain't playing fair, I want a big wheel, no chair (that money)

So it's hard getting to the top, but it's easy going down like the stairs
Eric B. & Rakim, in the midst of their 20th anniversary tour for their classic album Paid In Full, hosted a very interesting special guest at their Irving Plaza show on Monday.

Cynthia Nixon, the former Sex and the City actress and current candidate in the running to become the new Governor of New York state, was introduced during the set.

Nixon announced back in March that she was running to replace current governor Andrew Cuomo back in March, to much excitement and some confusion. While she's best known for her role as Miranda on Sex and the City, she's been politically active for a while, lobbying for the legalization of same sex marriage and the improvement of public transportation. She even made an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show to discuss her support for the legalization of marijuana in New York.

With this endorsement from Eric B. and Rakim, it seems that Nixon is trying to promote herself to hip-hop fans in New York, of which there are a great many.

Her appearance at the show was partially recorded and uploaded to Instagram. In the video, Nixon acknowledges that while "Eric B. is the president," her aim is to become governor. She proceeds to tell the crowd about her life growing up in New York before the video cuts out.

Whether or not Eric B & Rakim's endorsement of Nixon pays off will have to wait until election day. Meanwhile, Cuomo might have to play catch up, maybe by making a video with 6ix9ine?
Ice Cube and the Big3 League have taken out a full-page ad in Tuesday's edition of the New York Times, urging President Trump to defend American athletes during his meeting today with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The message to Trump comes in the wake of Ice Cube's and Big3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz' $1.2-billion lawsuit alleging that Qatari investors withheld funds in an attempt to muscle them out of the league.

"Hey President Trump," the ad reads. "When you meet today with (Vladimir) Putin's new friend, the Emir of Qatar, please tell him not to threaten the BIG3 and American athletes!"

According to The Washington Post, the suit alleges that a Qatari group, including Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, the CEO of the state-run Qatar Investment Authority, only paid part of its agreed investment which ultimately cost the league millions of dollars and diminished the organization's ability to maximize its potential. Richard Morgan of the New York Post says the investors only put up one-third of the expected $20.5 million commitment. As a result, the Big3 is now seeking $1.2 billion in damages that would effectively provide each player with around $20 million.

Trump was scheduled to welcome the Emir of Qatar to the White House at noon Tuesday.
In 2007, Kanye West experienced one of the most tumultuous years of his life. Graduation was released to widespread acclaim, and also proved to be a resounding commercial success, selling 957,000 copies in its first week to beat out 50 Cents Curtis in the highly touted sales competition. The anthemic, stadium-rocking style of songs like Stronger and Cant Tell Me Nothing catapulted Kanye to newfound heights; itwas the final nail in the coffin for gangster rap, and the coronation of hip-hop's next superstar.

Yet as the year wore on, Kanyes life began to unravel. On November 10, his mother Donda West tragically passed away due to complications arising from cosmetic surgery. And a few months later, Kanye and fiancee Alexis Pfifer called off their engagement, bringing an end to their five year relationship. Lost and suddenly finding himself alone at the top, Kanye immediately turned to music to channel his emotional vulnerability. With the aid of a young artist from Cleveland by the name of Kid Cudi, Kanye would go on to create 808s & Heartbreak, the genre-defying release that altered the trajectory of contemporary hip hop.

Of course, Cudi wasnt the only one who had a hand in crafting the aforementioned pop art masterpiece. The ground-breaking use of 808s and auto-tune vocal effects would not have been possible without the combined creative efforts of individuals such as Jeff Bhasker, No I.D., and Plain Pat. Still, there can be no denying Cudis impact on the album. On July 17, 2008, he released his debut mixtape A KiD Named CuDi, an artistically liberating project that was handled by producers Emile and Plain Pat. The 17-track tape featured hit record Day n Nite, Cudis commercial debut single that reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

And while the Crookers remix of Day n Nite went on to dominate the blogosphere, more astute listeners were quick to pick up on Cudis knack for melodic self-reflection on tracks like Man on the Moon (The Anthem): I guess if I was boring they would love me more/Guess if I was simple in the mind/Everything would be fine. Cudis innate ability to convey emotion was profoundly relatable, and it attracted a great many fans who saw more than just a man rapping about being lost and misunderstood; the music was different, and as Cudi noted, that wasnt a bad thing. His seamless blend of styles and willingness to experiment caught the eye of Kanyes A&R at the time, Plain Pat, who met Cudi at a Def Jam meeting and picked up a copy of the aspiring artists demo. Eventually, the feel good melodies and stream-of-consciousness tunes made their way up to the founder of G.O.O.D. Music, ushering in a new era for the label and signaling the beginning of a remarkable partnership.

Kid Cudi - Day N Night

Man on the Moon: The End of Day is more than just an extension of the sound that Cudi and Kanye tapped into on songs off of 808s & Heartbreak such as Welcome to Heartbreak, Heartless, Paranoid, and RoboCop. Its an autobiographical concept album that delves deep into the mind of a man who is plagued by anxiety, night terrors, and the expectations of others. Whereas A KiD Named CuDi offers more of a birds eye view, Man on the Moon: The End of Day looks inward and beyond. Cudi brings his dreamlike imaginings to life on the album over the course of five distinct acts, each one with its own feel. Soundtrack 2 My Life is the vibrant opening to Cudis dreamland, as he raps about the work ethic of his mother, the death of his father, and the subsequent depression that came to consume him. Its a prelude of whats to come: the pain, the loss, the feelings of insignificance, and the boundless introspection. The unnerving paradise of Solo Dolo is a look into Cudis darkest nightmares: being alone and unable to escape due to poor decisions. Characterized by eerie strings, its a vivid, horror-esque examination of a particularly bleak chapter of Cudis life.

Day n Nite is the turning point of the album where Cudi pivots from the darkness of the past to the bright promise of the future. The upbeat, funky groove of Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part I) is a welcome reprieve, as Cudi launches into his psychedelic adventure. The Kanye West-produced Make Her Say (I Poke Her Face) is a playful and catchy track that flips Lady Gagas hook on Poker Face and turns it into a crude oral sex reference; it fits perfectly into the fantasy side of Cudis dream.

Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) is a melancholic return to self-examination from the perspective of an addict looking for their next hit. The happiness of the track is fleeting, confined within the limits of each high; its a glimpse into a search that seemingly will never come to an end. Cudi understands that the happiness of each addiction is only temporary and ultimately unsatisfactory, yet he cant manage to break free of the cycle that always seems to end in failure. The opening lines of the chorus that echo Shakespeare are sobering, but there remains promise for a new beginning.

Up Up And Away is the final track that brings the album to an uplifting and energetic close. Its a drug escapist anthem on which Cudi sets his sights on the happy thoughts that allow him to fly like Peter Pan. He is perfectly at peace, and content to move along a bit higher in an effort to further elude the troubling thoughts that race through his mind. Cudis realization that people are going to judge him regardless and that he may as well do whatever he pleases is a hopeful conclusion; it also seems to hint that the emotional rollercoaster voyage that he has dreamed of is only beginning.

Kid Cudi ft. MGMT & Ratatat - "Pursuit Of Happiness"

Cudis honesty about his mental health and use of hallucinogens on Man on the Moon: The End of Day was a novel approach for hip hop, and created the opportunity for artists such as A$AP Rocky, Chance the Rapper, Danny Brown, and Childish Gambino to further elaborate on such topics. In addition, his dedication to cross-genre experimentation was career-defining, and has informed how other artists choose to go about such collaborations. The inclusion of indie and electronic rock elements with the help of Ratatat and MGMT on Alive (Nightmare) and Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) werent Cudis first attempts at dabbling with other genres, but they are notable entries.

Drake, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott are a few of the most distinguished artists who have drawn inspiration from Cudis artistic approach on Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Drake needed the sounds that Cudi helped pioneerto create the cathartic So Far Gone, an intimate and emotional release that helped propel the Toronto rapper to unfathomable success. As for The Weeknd and Travis Scott, both of them latched onto Cudis transcendent melodies and the mental sanctuary that he carved out for himself on his debut album. In a 2015 interview with MTV News, Scott even went so far as to say that There would be no Travis Scott if it wasnt for [Cudi], before tearfully sharing the story of how they first met. Travis work on Owl Pharaoh and some of the more contemplative, drug-infused moments on Days Before Rodeo bear unmistakable resemblances to Cudis style.

Kanye saw in Cudi someone who was capable of helping him bring the sounds he desired to life, a man who was building a sonic universe of the kind that he too wanted to create. On 808s & Heartbreak, the two developed a brooding, striking sound that combined Kanyes vision and disillusionment with traditional hip hop with Cudis melodies and ability to fuse different styles. It was a project that shattered expectations and raised the bar for future releases within the genre. Without 808s & Heartbreak, there would have been no Man on the Moon: The End of Day. The sounds that Cudi first explored were carefully curated by Kanye; Cudi was the protege with raw, untapped potential, and Kanye was the maestro who helped that potential blossom into something that had never been heard before.

The foundation that Kanye laid on 808s & Heartbreak was exactly what Cudi needed to create his own experimental album. Cudi has always been unapologetically different, and Man on the Moon: The End of Day is the embodiment of everything that makes him so unique. He is the introvert who doesnt fit in, but he never panders or oversteps. Whereas 808s & Heartbreak is a self-pitying monologue that features Kanye as the judge, jury, and executioner of his own pain and anguish, Man on the Moon: The End of Day is without regrets, as Cudi faces his inner demons. The abstract nature of his music isnt condescending or isolating; instead, it is deeply personal and genuine in its focus. Rather than describing his external environment, Cudi looks inward in an attempt to make sense of the contents of his mind. His lyrics arent intricate, but his messages remain impactful. And while there are no witty punchlines or overarching metaphors, it is Cudis confessional style of delivery and spacey, atmospheric presentation of his music as a whole that make Man on the Moon: The End of Day so compelling.

Kid Cudi has inspired a generation of young artists to be unafraid to explore a wide array of emotions, and many have sought to adapt elements of Cudis music into their own. Never caring to fit into the conventional boundaries of music, Cudi became a voice for those who felt unrepresented and alone. His creativity on Man on the Moon: The End of Day is singular in its brilliance and innovation, and its influence continues to be felt both in hip hop and in popular culture.
The second the clock struck midnight on New Years, Nicki Minaj was no where to be found... atleast on social media. Over the past week, we've seen more of Nicki Minaj in the public than we have since the beginning on 2018. Reports said that she was holding off on social media until her album is done. Last week, she made her first public appearance as she was spotted at LAX. While that was enough to make fans excited, yesterday, she quickly tweeted and deleted, "4." While the first tweet didn't give much context, she may have just gave us another clue towards something.

Nicki Minaj, once again, sent another cryptic tweet out into the universe before swiftly deleting it. This time, it was the number "3." At this point, Nicki MInaj is counting down towards something. Whether it's the release of new music or her formal return to social media, it has people hella excited. However, whatever she's counting down towards isn't confirmed, it looks like we'll find out in three days.

Of course, the Twittersphere had their own conclusions to what this possibly meant. A lot of people are glad to hear from Nicki while others are convinced that we'll be getting new music from her, which doesn't seem far fetched at all. Either way, her social media activity is promising enough. Many are also citing that her countdown lands on Friday the 13th and tied together her bar from "My Chick Bad" by Ludacris. "Friday the 13th and guess who's playing Jason?"

Peep the screenshot and reactions below.
Warm weather is on the way for those of us who have to suffer through the winter time, but on Josh X's new track "All On Me", featuring Rick Ross, the mood is pure summer time.

The production of this track, with its rising horns and smooth baseline, reminds the listener of a late night cruise through Miami. Josh X's singing guides us through it, bringing the track to its highs without ever spoiling the sense of tranquility offered by the production.

If you have anything even resembling Miami, Rick Ross is the obvious choice of rapper to have featured on your song. Ross pulls a double duty here, contributing a verse while acting as Josh X's hype man. It's a satisfying combination.

What do you think about this new track?

Quotable Lyrics



I always hold her hands when she begin to cry

I swear it's heaven doors looking in her eyes

Pretty boys but we keep it militant

I'm 50 million on and I'm spending it
Even though Tay K is currently sitting behind bars at the moment awaiting trail for murder and robbery charges that he was allegedly involved in from June of 2016, thats not stopping the Houston rapper from shooting his shot at this years XXL Freshman class. In fact, Tay K decided to pen a lengthy letter to the news publication on Monday, trying to convince them of adding him to their annual Freshman list.

He wrote in good penmanshipIve been dreaming of being a XXL Freshman longer than I can remember. Now that I have your attention, I wanna use that to let you guys, along with the world, know why I feel like I deserve to be on the XXL Freshman. Well for starters Im 17 and I have your audience speaks for yourself. I was one of the souncloud artists to make the Billboard Hot 100 charts onto of that. I have 100 million views on my hit song The Race. Being a kid that came fro mnothing, I feel like that says a lot and motivates other unfortunate kids to dream big and reach for the stars, making your challenges temporary and your vision permanent.

The letter was shared on Tay Ks IG, along with the caption: NO MATTER IF TAY MAKES THE LIST OR NOT HE WANTED ME TO SHARE HIS LETTER HE WROTE TO @xxl I NEED ALL THE RUGRATS TO COMMENT #TAYK4XXL AND TAG @xxl TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR TAY #FREETAYK

Check out the full letter (below) and let us know if you think Tay K deserves a spot on this years list.
At the end of 2017, T.J. Miller was accused of sexual assault by at least two women. One of the accusers was an adult film star and another was a former classmate of his at George Washington University. After the allegations, his Silicon Valley stars exposed his apparent substance abuse problem and it looks like that same issue has just gotten him arrested.

TMZ has video footage of the actor getting arrested last night at New York's LaGuardia Airport for calling the police last month, reporting a false bomb threat. According to the publication, T.J. called 911 on March 18th while riding an Amtrak train from D.C. to New York saying a woman with brown hair had a bomb in her bag. An Amtrak attendant reportedly called T.J. back and he told them she kept checking her bag and was trying to leave it on the train.

The officer asked T.J. if he suffered any mental illness to which he responded: "This is the first time I've ever made a call like this before. I am worried for everyone on that train. Someone has to check that lady out." T.J. was later pulled from the train for being too intoxicated and after speaking with the woman, they came to believe the actor was holding a grudge against her and made the bomb call as a result.

The Deadpool actor caused 926 man hours-worth of delays and was released from custody this morning on a $100,000 bond.
The work Drake has put into his upcoming album has already taken a toll on him, as he joked in a recent Instagram post. "You can see the album hours under my eyes he wrote." With the release of "Nice For What," his brand new New Orleans bounce-inspired single, we can now see just what went into those dark circles. The track, which samples Lauryn Hill's ex-factor and features guest vocals from bounce legend Big Freedia, also comes complete with a video filled with influential women. Tiffany Haddish, Issa Rae, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, and more are found in the clip, which is directed by newcomer Karena Evans. It follows releases like "Diplomatic Immunity," "Look Alive," and "God's Plan," as something of a warm-up single for the impending as-of-yet-untitled album. While it's likely not all of the aforementioned songs will appear on the LP, "Nice For What" seems like a good place to start when predicting exactly what we might see and hear from the OVO rapper once the project does arrive. Watch the video below and read our thoughts on what this song in particular might tell us about Drake's fifth studio album.

Karena Evans is guiding the visual component of the album

The 22-year-old director's star-studded video for "Nice For What," is her second video for Drake, following the hugely successful "God's Plan." Based in Toronto, she studied under Director X, the city's most influential music video director behind Drake's "Hotline Bling" and "Started From The Bottom," not to mention some of the most recognizable rap and R&B videos of the 00s. Evans is new to directing videos for artists of such magnitude, but with "Nice For What," she's demonstrated her unique eye through gorgeous shots and themes. As a young black woman from Toronto, she seems like a perfect creative perspective to fill out the visual component of Drake's music. While she's already defined the look and feel of Drake's new era, it won't be surprising if she continues to consult on further video elements related to the upcoming album.

Drake's videos are getting bigger and better

There was a time where Drake was the furthest thing from a video artist. In fact, it wasn't until around Nothing Was The Same where he began to find his footing in the visual department. With the release of "Nice For What," it's now clear that Drake has mastered the art of the event video. Like "God's Plan," "Nice For What" immediately turned heads and got people talking. With two conversation-starting videos released for the project, it seems that this may be a conscious direction rather than a one-off.

He's aiming to uplift with his new material

Drake's music has always largely been about... well, Drake. Part of the Toronto rapper's appeal is the insular, personal perspective of his songwriting, but on "Nice For What," as well as "God's Plan," he seems to be reaching outward in a new way. Drake is hardly the center of either of his new music videos, and on "Nice For What," he's able to step out of the frame as he celebrates the inspiring, hard-working women of the world. The tense paranoia of If You're Reading This It's Too Late has had a varying presence in the rapper's music since its release, but it seems that with his next project, Drake may be ready to let go of those industry misgivings and look at the bigger picture through a more optimistic lens.

Drake is trying out new styles, but making sure the pioneers get their credit

From the dancehall inflections on Views, to his nods to grime on More Life, Drake has been widening his sound by pulling from styles that were not necessarily represented in North American popular music. With "Nice For What," the rapper has embraced New Orleans bounce, and he decided to go directly to the source to make sure the scene gets its credit. Big Freedia, an artist responsible for popularizing bounce, can be heard in the opening moments, legitimizing Drake's use of genre's conventions. BlaqNmilD, a legendary bounce producer, also worked on the instrumental, sending the song on an authentic dance tangent halfway through. There have been times when Drake has been criticized (sometimes justifiably, other time's not as much) for not giving credit where it's due. Expect the rapper to cite his sources on the new album.

Murda Beatz has entered Drake's inner production circle

Murda Beatz, the Niagra producer who initially made waves through his collaborations with Migos, first worked with Drake on 2016 collaborations like "Back On Road," "No Shopping" and "with You." He showed up again on More Life with "Portland" and "No Long Talk." However, "Nice For What" is the first major solo single from Drake that Murda has been a part of, and it suggests that the fellow Ontario kid is now very much a part of Drake's small collection of trusted beatmakers that includes Boi-1da, Noah "40" Shebib, and Nineteen85. Expect to hear a lot of "Murda on the beat so it's not nice" drops across the album.

Drake's music is as referential as ever

Apart from the bounce elements incorporated into the song, "Nice For What" continues Drake's tendencies to nod to other artists. The central sample comes from Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor," which, as one Twitter user pointed out, puts in a lineage that stretches back through the Wu-Tang Clan and Gladys Knight. Of course, that leads to a whole lot of credited songwriters. On top of that, he opens his verse with a reference to the Big Tymers' "Get Your Roll On," the Mannie Fresh and Birdman duo that is both an essential branch of the Cash Money family tree and an act that's taken influence from New Orleans bounce. Also mentioned by name is Fabo, the leader of D4L, a mid-00s group known for popularizing Atlanta snap, yet another dance-oriented movement from the south. The album should be filled with similar Easter eggs from throughout music history.

Expect Drake to run the charts this summer

"Nice For What" is already expected to make a top ten debut on the Billboard Hot 100 next week. There, it will join "Look Alive," Drake's Blocboy JB collaboration (currently at No. 5) and "God's Plan," which launched at No. 1, and has been holding the position for the past 11 weeks. Despite what anyone may have told you a few months back, fans were clearly ready for Drake to return with new music, and "Nice For What" proves that as long as he keeps up his current strategy, his songs will continue to perform well on the charts.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions Tuesday in a hearing with U.S. senators concerned about data from millions of users that may have found its way to political firm Cambridge Analytica.

The joint hearing, hosted by the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees, lasted five hours. Here are all the highlights.

4:18 p.m.: The hearing is almost wrapped up. Sen. Thune asks a final question about bias on Facebook.

"Overall, I want to make sure that we provide people with the most voice possible," Zuckerberg says. "I don't want anyone in our company to make decisions on the political ideology of the content."

"Overall a very informative hearing," Sen. Thune says.

Sen. Grassley says a CEO of a rival tech company he would not identify said he viewed himself as "more left than right" politically in a conversation Monday. "When there are suspicions that you're playing it one way or another ... bending over backward to protect political speech right or left, I'm not telling you how to do it, and I'm not telling you you don't do it, but we've got to do something to reduce the cynicism," the senator says.

Grassley urges Zuckerberg to do what he can to "reduce cynicism" and "enhance respect for government."

"Sorry you had to listen to me," says Grassley, as he thanks everyone. Additional written questions will be taken for 14 days.

The hearing is adjourned.

4:12 p.m.: Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, asks the "threshold question of what reasonable expectations of privacy users should have."

Young calls attention to the issue of different expectations of privacy on Internet access services and on applications like Facebook. To users, Young points out, it's all the Internet, and they don't really make a distinction.

Zuckerberg says Internet access providers  "the pipes"  should not be able to see any of the data. "When data is going over the Verizon network, I think that should be as encrypted as possible so Verizon is not able to look at it," Zuckerberg says. "For a service like Facebook or Instagram, where people want to share that, people want to access that from lots of different places," so it needs to be stored centrally, Zuckerberg says. That means expectations of what Facebook would "have knowledge of" will be different, he says.

Zuckerberg and Young conclude by agreeing to work on privacy issues.

4:06 p.m.: Sen. JonTester, D-Montana, thanks Zuckerberg for putting up with the "mental gymnastics" of the long hearing.

He asks: Besides taking reactive steps, what are you doing to make sure Cambridge Analytica ever happens again?

Zuckerberg says Facebook is restricting the amount of access to information developers have. He said in 2014, Facebook changed its rules that would have prevented the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Tester asks if Zuckerberg feels that its actions in 2014 will adequately protect Facebook users. Zuckerberg says yes.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is waiting on the audit and a U.K. investigation into Cambridge Analytica. Tester asks if the information is stored in another country besides the U.K. would Facebook be able to audit that? Zuckerberg says if he feels like the audit isn't enough, Facebook could take legal action.

4:00 p.m.: Senator Cory Gardner, R-Colo., asks if, when a user deletes his or her Facebook account, whether all the backups of the data get wiped.

"That is certainly been the way it is supposed to work," Zuckerberg said.

The senator asks if there been any instances of privacy violations on the scale of Cambridge Analytica that has occurred in the past. Zuckerberg says not that he has been aware of.

Gardner asks if there has been a breach of data, Zuckerberg says no. Gardner asks if there have been a hack, Zuckerberg says someone was able to install malware that was installed on employee devices but that it did not affect Facebook data.

3:55 p.m.: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, seems very fluent in Facebook's sharing tools, referring to things like "limited profile," a feature which restricts what content some users' friends can see.

She talks about the FTC consent decree and the commission's concerns about Facebook's sharing of data with third parties.

Zuckerberg says that Facebook established a robust privacy policy in response.

Cortez Masto says that it had to be something more specific than a privacy policy.

"Had you addressed those issues then, had you done an audit ... you would have known that this type of data information is being shared," says Cortez Masto. "That's our concern. It's time to make a change."

3:50 p.m.: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R. W. Va., asks Zuckerberg to bring high-speed fiber-optic Internet the next time he visits the state. She also asks for help dealing with the opioid crisis by enforcing policies against ads for illegal drugs.

Zuckerberg says he does have a team working on spreading Internet connectivity in rural areas and that his team will  you guessed it!  follow up.

3:44 p.m. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, seems to have read Facebook's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Risks disclosed in those statements include a decrease in user engagement, which concerns her because she feels too much time spent on social media could affect users' mental health.

Another risk is users opting out of certain types of ad targeting, she said.

"There is clearly tension between your bottom line and what's best for your users," Hassan said.

Zuckerberg says that the Cambridge Analytica scandal "has made it harder to achieve our social mission."

3:35 p.m.: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., asks how many users actually read Facebook's terms of service. Zuckerberg can't or won't give a number, but Johnson says "common sense" says most don't.

Johnson asks if users should be able to make money from their own postings and user data. Zuckerberg says, again, that he believes a free service is the right way to go. "The ads experience is going to be the right one," he says. "This aligns with our mission the best."

3:30 p.m.: Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., mostly retreads old ground, but there's one interesting bit: Zuckerberg reveals that Facebook believes Aleksandr Kogan sold data from his quiz app to companies besides Cambridge Analytica.

3:25 p.m.: Sen. Joe Kennedy, R-La., starts off with a greeting: "Mr. Zuckerberg, I come in peace." And then he lays in: "Your user agreement sucks." He tells the Facebook CEO to go back to his "$1,200-an-hour lawyers" and rewrite it in "English, not Swahili." His tone is like a teacher telling a student to go back and rewrite an essay assignment.

Kennedy says that he is disappointed with today's hearing. "I don't feel like we're connecting," he says. The senator says he doesn't want to vote to regulate Facebook, but he may have to.

"The promised digital utopia we have discovered, has a mine field," he says. "There are some impurities in the Facebook punchbowl and they got to be fixed and I think you can fix them."

Kennedy asks if he should be able to control and delete his Facebook. Zuckerberg says Kennedy already can do that. Kennedy asks if he can take his data elsewhere. Zuckerberg responds that he can already do that.

Kennedy asks Zuckerberg if someone can call him up and ask if they could see Joe Kennedy's file. Zuckerberg says he does not believe Facebook has the right to do that. It may have the ability to do that but he would consider that a breach.

3:20 p.m.: Sen. Kamala Harris, the junior Democratic senator from Facebook's home state of California, starts her questions.

"You've been asked several critical questions for which you don't have answers," Harris asks, rattling off issues like whether Facebook retains data, who Facebook's biggest competition is, and why Facebook didn't notify users about Cambridge Analytica's misuse.

"Were you part of a discussion, a decision not to notify users?" Harris asks?

"I don't remember a conversation like that," Zuckerberg says. "I can tell you the thought process of the company at the time. We banned the developer and demanded they delete all the data."

"In retrospect, we view that as a mistake that we didn't inform people and we did that because we thought the case was closed," Zuckerberg adds.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "Harris is trying to pin down Zuckerberg on whether there were individuals responsible for the decision not to notify users. He's not going to play that game."

3:15 p.m.: We're back from a break.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asks about whether the 2012 Obama campaign committed similar abuses by "sucking out the social graph" through an app. Amidst an amusing aside about avoiding "haters" on his Facebook page, Tillis says "bad actors across the political spectrum" need to be examined.

Tillis says he is a proud member of Facebook and says he got notified today is National Sibling Day. Zuckerberg smiles.

"If you don't want to share it, don't share it," Tillis says.

Tillis didn't actually ask Zuckerberg any questions. Instead, he's using his time to lecture the audience about how Facebook is a "free app" and people should use its privacy settings.

Zuckerberg is listening, his eyes blinking rapidly.

2:55 p.m.: Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., starts with remarks about Facebook's algorithmic News Feed and observes that people don't understand why they're being shown particular items.

Peters asks about rumors that Facebook targets ads by snooping on people's conversations with microphones in smartphones.

Zuckerberg says, "You're referring to the conspiracy theory that we listen to what's going on around your microphone and use that for ads. No."

Peters and Zuckerberg discuss artificial intelligence. "It's hard to understand how those decisions are arrived at," Peters observes. "Is your company developing a set of principles to guide that development?"

In an answer that is becoming a cliche of this hearing, Zuckerberg promises to have his team follow up on that.

2:50 p.m.: Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, says his daughter and six of his staff members received the notification that their data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Heller asks how many Nevadans were affected. Zuckerberg says his team will follow up.

Heller asks if Zuckerberg would ever draw the line in terms of selling data to an advertiser.

Zuckerberg says Facebook does not sell data, and that this is something that is "widely mischaracterized" about the service.

Heller asks if Facebook lets advertisers target ads to the contents of a phone call. Zuckerberg says Facebook does not monitor or store the contents of a call.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas writes: "Most senators have avoided major technical gaffes. Sen. Heller has probably done the worst in terms of demonstrating familiarity with how Facebook works."

Heller asks if Zuckerberg thinks he is a victim or if Facebook is a victim. Zuckerberg says no.

The senator asks if Zuckerberg considers the people who had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica are victims. Zuckerberg says yes.

"Even though we didn't do it, we have a responsibility to prevent that," Zuckerberg said.

2:45 p.m.: Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, asks if "self-certification" is the best way to prevent entities like Cambridge Analytica from misusing data.

"It's hard to review every single thing up front," says Zuckerberg. "In this specific case, I'm not happy with where we are."

Booker asks about law-enforcement organizations that use Facebook to "surveil" African American activist groups like Black Lives Matter. "Is this something you're committed to addressing?"

"Unless a law enforcement organization has a subpoena, we're going to push back against that across the board," Zuckerberg says.

2:40 p.m.: More discussion of the quiz that led to the Cambridge Analytica leak. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, asks if Zuckerberg is suggesting that the friends of the users who took Kogan's quiz consented to have their data shared.

Zuckerberg says he thinks that they did.

2:30 p.m.: Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) asks if Zuckerberg is going to come back to Washington and be an advocate to get the Honest Ads Act passed.

Zuckerberg says that he's speaking out publicly on the issue. "I don't come out to Washington, D.C. that often," Zuckerberg says.

2:25 p.m.: Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, points out that Zuckerberg started Facebook in a dorm room: "Only in America, right? ... You couldn't do this in China, what you did in 10 years?"

Zuckerberg hesitates. "Well, there are some very strong Chinese Internet companies."

"You're supposed to answer yes," Sullivan says, as the room breaks out in laughter.

Sullivan asks whether regulation could hinder smaller competitors. Zuckerberg more or less concedes the point.

"Part of the challenge with regulation in general is that when you add more rules that companies need to follow that is something that a company like ours have the resources to do, which may be harder for a company just getting started to comply with," Zuckerberg says.

Sullivan then asks a question Facebook gets asked a lot: Is it a tech company, or a publisher?

Zuckerberg says Facebook is a tech company.

"When people ask us if we are a media company or a publisher, the question they're getting at is whether we feel responsible for the content shared" on Facebook, Zuckerberg says.

2:20 p.m.: Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asks if Facebook would cooperate with ICE, if ICE told Facebook someone was going to commit a crime. In general, Zuckerberg says it would not cooperate. Facebook can cooperate with law enforcement if presented with a subpoena but if the subpoena is too broad Facebook will push back, Zuckerberg says.

2:15 p.m.: Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., asks about moderation and whether Facebook can hire enough people.

Zuckerberg says the senator is "right" that AI tools will be the way to address harmful content in the long term, but in the short tem, it is doubling the number of people reviewing content.

Flake asks if the Chinese government has harvested Facebook data.

Zuckerberg says it has an internal investigation and is committed to telling users affected when Facebook knows.

2:10 p.m.: Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asks whether "opt in" should be the standard and whether Zuckerberg will support a law that permission must be obtained before information is shared.

Zuckerberg says he would support that in principle, but the "details matter" and that his team would work with the senator.

Markey asks about a "bill of rights" for children's privacy. Zuckerberg says he looks forward to having his team flesh out the details. Markey is cut off as he runs over his time.

2:07 p.m.: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., says he thinks violence has no place on Facebook but adults need to engage in vigorous debates.

The senator asks Zuckerberg whether he, as a dad, worries about social media addiction among American teens. He asks about whether Facebook hires consultants to create "dopamine feedback loops." Zuckerberg says it does not.

1:58 p.m.: Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., asks if Facebook would let advertisers of diet products target teenagers struggling with their weight, and mentions the problems with discriminatory targeting of renters in housing ads.

"Policies aren't worth the paper they are written on, if Facebook doesn't enforce them," Coons says.

Coons also asks about a fake account created in his name "with a lot of Russian friends."

Zuckerberg is taking a sip of water.

"Isn't it Facebook's job to better protect its users and why do you shift the responsibility to users to flag content and take it down?" Coons asks.

Zuckerberg says Facebook started off in his dorm room and just because of the sheer volume of content and the main way is that people report things to us and his team reviews that. He says in the future, the content is going to flag before hand by artificial intelligence tools.

Zuckerberg says in 5-10 years, he thinks there are going to be more artificial intelligence tools.

1:53 p.m.: Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, struggles to articulate her questions in ways Zuckerberg can understand. She seems to be asking about what data Facebook stores.

"Senator, this is how the service works," Zuckerberg says.

"Is Facebook safe?" Fischer asks.

"Senator, I think Facebook is safe. I use it, my family uses it," says Zuckerberg.

1:49 p.m.: Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asks if he is emailing within WhatsApp, does that inform Facebook's advertisers?

Zuckerberg says Facebook systems does not see the content of messages sent through WhatsApp.

Schatz expresses skepticism that users don't really own their data because they don't get a cut of Facebook's revenue. Zuckerberg says users license their data to Facebook.

1:40 p.m.: Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asks if Facebook would "put its thumb on the scale" to influence which viewpoints are seen on Facebook.

Zuckerberg says the company tries to make sure Facebook feels safe, so bullying isn't allowed, for example. "In general, our goal is to have as much expression as possible," he says.

Lee asks if the free market gives social media companies an incentive to safeguard users' data. Zuckerberg agrees.

Zuckerberg says what we saw in the Cambridge Analytica example was that users agreed to share their information with Kogan's quiz, then Kogan chose to sell that data to Cambridge Analytica.

"Once it is out of our system it's hard for us to understand what is happening," Zuckerberg says.

Lee says "the real issue it comes down to me is what you tell users what you are going to do with the data and how you are going to use it."

"What I hope we do with data is not surprising to people," says Zuckerberg.

1:35 p.m.: Hearing is starting again. Zuckerberg says he wants to correct something that Sen. Leahy asked him. Zuckerberg says that Cambridge Analytica did start as an advertiser later in 2015, so Facebook could have banned them then and we made a mistake in not doing so.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, asks Zuckerberg about which entities and which people were banned in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. What if Cambridge Analytica opens up another entity?

Zuckerberg says Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica's parent company and firms associated with them.

Whitehouse asks if Facebook needs to look behind shell corporations "to find out who is behind the content."

Zuckerberg admits that Facebook could not determine that a company incorporated in Delaware was controlled by a Russian entity.

1:21 p.m.: After some jocular push-back from Zuckerberg, who offers to continue, the hearing goes into recess for a break.

1:16 p.m.: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas gets right into it: "Are you a First Amendment actor stating your views, or are you a neutral platform?"

Zuckerberg says some speech isn't allowed, like hate speech and nudity.

Cruz presses the issue: "Are you engaged in political speech?"

Zuckerberg says he's not familiar with the "specific legal language" and will have to get back to Cruz.

Cruz expresses concern about allegations of censorship of conservative views. Among other examples, he cites the blocking of the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Page.

The senator raises concerns about perceptions that Facebook employees are biased againstconservatives. Zuckerberg says he is trying to make sure that Facebook doesn't have bias. Cruz asks whether Zuckerberg knows about the political orientation of the roughly 20,000 people Facebook will soon employ to moderate content. Zuckerberg says he does not.

"Why was Palmer Luckey fired?" Cruz asks, referring to the founder of Oculus VR, who was revealed to support a conservative group that posted anti-Hillary Clinton memes, and left Facebook a few months afterwards.

At first, Zuckerberg says he can't comment on a specific personnel issue, but then says, "I can commit that it was not because of political views." Facebook has not previously acknowledged that Luckey was fired.

1:10 p.m.: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. says that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a "heedless and reckless" violation of Facebook's 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission over user privacy.

Zuckerberg disagrees.

Blumethal says: "I don't see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road ... Unless there are specific rules and requirements enforced by an outside agency, I have no assurance that these outside commitments will produce actions."

The senator says legislation may be necessary to set new "rules of the road."

1:09 p.m.: Sen. Thune suggests a break.

"We can keep going," Zuckerberg says. "Maybe 15 minutes?" Laughter from the room, and Zuckerberg cracks a goofy smile, perhaps the first real moment of levity.

1:04 p.m.: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asks about Facebook's "move fast and break things" mantra. Zuckerberg says the company changed it to "move fast with stable infrastructure," which he admits is "much less sexy."

Zuckerberg says the problem wasn't the company mantra, it was viewing the company's responsibility as "just building tools."

Cornyn asks whether companies that view themselves as "neutral platform" take responsibility for content shared through them.

"We are responsible for the content," says Zuckerberg.

Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "This is a big admission from Zuckerberg, who like other tech leaders has said users are responsible for content."

12:59 p.m.: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asks Zuckerberg if he would share the name of the hotel he stayed at last night. "I would not," says Zuckerberg. "Would you share the people you messaged with?" Durbin continues. "I would not," says Zuckerberg. Durbin is making a point about people's feeling about privacy.

Durbin asks about the controversy about Facebook's Messenger Kids app, which targets children between 6 and 12.

Zuckerberg says it heard feedback from thousands of parents that they want to stay in touch with their kids and they want to have complete control over that. That information is not going to be shared with third parties, Zuckerberg says.

12:54 p.m.: Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., starts with a folksy introduction about whether "Facebook friends" are really friends, and gives his grandson Charlie, an avid Instagram user, a shout-out.

Then he gets into it, asking about cross-device tracking, even when devices aren't used to access Facebook.

"There may be some data necessary to provide the service that we do, that's something that I would like to follow up with you on," Zuckerberg says.

Blunt seems surprised that Zuckerberg doesn't know the answer.

12:49 p.m.: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., starts with a statement comparing the Cambridge Analytica situation to someone breaking into her home, taking things  and learning that the apartment manager had given the thieves the key.

"I believe we need to have laws and rules that are sophisticated as the products you have developed here," she says.

She then asks about the Honest Ads Act. Zuckerberg says the company will work to help Congress pass the law regulating online political advertising.

Klobuchar asks if it's true that some Cambridge Analytica may be stored in Russia, as a former Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower has claimed. Zuckerberg says there's a government investigation ongoing in the United Kingdom.

Klobuchar asks about whether Facebook should be obliged to disclose a breach within 72 hours.

"That make sense to me," Zuckerberg says, and says his team will get back to the senator on the proposal.

A phone rings in the room, prompting glances from Zuckerberg's team.

12:43 p.m.: Sen. Lindsey Graham asks about a 2016 memo written by Facebook executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, which suggested that Facebook values growth and connection over everything else. Zuckerberg says he didn't agree with the memo but that he tries to run a company where discussion is encouraged.

Graham moves on to questions about regulation.

"You don't think you have a monopoly?" Graham asks?

"Certainly doesn't feel that way to me," Zuckerberg says. Laughter from the room.

"What do we tell our constituents given what's happen here, why we should let you self regulate?" Graham asks.

Zuckerberg says he would submit to Congress some proposed regulations.

Graham reads from Facebook's terms of service.

"I'm a lawyer and I have no idea what that means," Graham says.

"We think for the core of the service it's quite clear," Zuckerberg says.

12;41 p.m.: Leahy asks about Facebook's response to the situation in Myanmar.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is working on this problem, hiring more Burmese-language content reviewser and working with civil society in Myanmar to take down accounts involved with hate speech rather than specific content.

12:37 p.m.: Sen. Patrick Leahy asks if Facebook has received a subpoena from Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference. Zuckerberg says he personally has not, but that Facebook has been contacted by the special counsel's team but could not confirm whether it has been issued by a subpoena.

Leahy then asks about election interference. Zuckerberg points to Facebook's efforts to verify political advertisers.

12:33 p.m.: Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asks questions about Internet regulation and privacy, using insidery terms like "edge provider": "Do you think we need consistent privacy protections across the entire Internet ecosystem regardless of the entity doing the using or sharing?"

Zuckerberg says he supports net neutrality.

Wicker then asks about issues with Facebook accessing Android users' text messaages. Zuckerberg says users opt in to that feature.

Wicker says there have been reports that Facebook can track users activity even after they logged off of the Facebook platform.

Zuckerberg says that people use cookies on Internet and you could probably correlate activity between sessions. Zuckerberg says part of the reason they do this is to see if ads are effective. He also said his staff can get back to Wicker for more info on that.

12:25 p.m.: Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a politician with a background as a tech executive, asks pointed questions about Palantir and whether it scrapes Facebook data. Zuckerberg denies knowledge of that. She also asks if Facebook employees directly assisted Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg says his team will get back to her on that.

Note from Houston: Dwight Silverman observes that the senators have not made a major technical gaffe yet: "We have not yet had a 'series of tubes' moment from the committee, fortunately." That's a reference to then-Sen. Ted Stevens' 2006 reference to the Internet as a "series of tubes" in discussing net neutrality.

Dwight Silverman observes that the senators have not made a major technical gaffe yet: "We have not yet had a 'series of tubes' moment from the committee, fortunately." That's a reference to then-Sen. Ted Stevens' 2006 reference to the Internet as a "series of tubes" in discussing net neutrality. Note from San Francisco: Business editor Owen Thomas notes: "Cantwell is drawing blood with questions about Palantir. She doesn't spell it out, but Facebook board member Peter Thiel is also a backer of Palantir, a major data-mining company which does a lot of government work."

Cantwell says given the track record that Facebook has, some would say Facebook didn't act boldly enough.

She wants to know if the concerns around apps were discussed at Facebook board meetings.

"Do you have all the will to help us solve this problem?" Cantwell asks.

12:21 p.m. Sen. Orrin Hatch opens with a comment on how this is the most momentous hearing since the days of the Microsoft antitrust trial in the 1990s.

Hatch says the issue here is transparency and consumer choice. Do consumers know what they are agreeing to? And will Facebook always be free?

Zuckerberg says there will always be a version of Facebook that's free. "We have to offer a service that everyone can afford."

How will you sustain your business, Hatch asks. "Senator, we run ads," Zuckerberg responds after a brief pause.

12:15 p.m. Sen. Feinstein opens with a question about Russian election interference. Zuckerberg calls it "one of his biggest regrets."

"When did you identify new operations?" Feinstein asks.

"It was right around the time of the 2016 election itself," the Facebook CEO says. He shifts to talking about protecting the integrity of elections around the world in places like Pakistan and cites the company's performance in the French election and the Alabama special election.

He says the company has deployed new artificial intelligence tools that do a better job of detecting fake accounts. He says he detected 470 accounts detected to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian cybertroll operation, which interfered in the U.S. election, and 270 which recently tried to interfere in countries neighboring to Russia.

Feinstein asks Zuckerberg "why did you wait" before removing Cambridge Analytica.

The problem, Zuckerberg said, was that in 2015, the data-mining firm wasn't an advertiser or page operator, so there was nothing to remove.

12:10 p.m.: Sen. Thune cites Wired's history of Facebook's 14 years of apologies.

"We've made a lot of mistakes running the company," Zuckerberg says.

Thune asks a question about hate speech. Zuckerberg says hate speech can be challenging to detect in AI because it is "very linguistically nuanced."

"You need to understand what is a slur and whether something is hateful," Zuckerberg said.

He said AI efforts have been successful at detecting terrorist propaganda and that 99 percent of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda related content has been flagged by the AI systems.

12:09 p.m.: Zuckerberg says that it has been challenging for FB and others in the tech industry to make privacy policies simple enough for people to understand. "We understand that most people don't want to go through and read a full legal document," he says.

12:05 p.m. Sen. Nelson gives an example of communicating with friends about chocolate and then seeing ads about chocolate, and asks Zuckerberg if that can be turned off.

Nelson points out some comments that Sandberg said in an interview that mentioned the idea of having consumers pay to not have ads targeting them. "Are you actually considering to have Facebook users pay for you to not use that information?" Nelson asks.

Zuckerberg says that people have control over what ads they see today, including ones they don't find relevant but notes that there's currently no way to pay to turn off ads.

12:01 p.m.: Grassley asks a question about data transfers between developers. He asks if Zuckerberg knows of any other data transfers besides Prof. Kogan's quizthe quiz which Facebook said could have leaked 87 million users' data to Cambridge Analytica.

Zuckerberg says Facebook is doing audits of suspicious activity that happens on the apps. "If we find they do anything improper, we will ban them on Facebook and let users know," he says.

Zuckerberg implies by promising "a more proactive approach" in the future, that in the past Facebook was a passive player, relying on outside reports of "sketchy" activities.

Note from Washington: Carolyn Lochhead reports that Zuckerberg is sticking almost word to word for his written testimony.

11:57 a.m.: Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook not taking a broad enough view of its responsibility. "I'm sorry," he says, his voice breaking a little. "I started Facebook. I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."



"It's not enough to connect people, we have to make sure those connections are positive."

11:54 a.m.: And now Zuckerberg begins to speak. He opens with well-worn lines that Facebook has used throughout its response to the Russian election interference and Cambridge Analytica crises, citing the "hard questions" that Facebook faces and saying it is an "idealistic and optimistic company." Another familiar line: "We did not take a broad enough view of our responsibility."

11:50 a.m.: Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.: "Let me cut to the chase. If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore."

Nelson called Zuckerberg a "genuine" person and that he appreciated his conversation with Zuckerberg. "You want to enact reforms, we want to know if it's going to be enough," he says. "I hope that will be in the answers today."

11:45 a.m.: California Democrat Dianne Feinstein takes a softer stance toward Zuckerberg than GOP colleague John Thune. Feinstein says she hopes Zuckerberg's testimony will "indicate how strongly your industry will regulate and reform the platforms they control," suggesting voluntary self-regulation might continue.

Feinstein says this hearing is important: "I believe that Facebook through your presence here today and the words you are about to tell us will indicate how strongly your industry will regulate and or reform the platforms that they control."

Zuckerberg looks serious, taking sips of water.

11:42 a.m.: Thune says some of his colleagues in the past have deferred to tech companies to regulate themselves, but this may be changing. He pointed out how the Senate approved an anti-sex trafficking bill, which affected online platforms: "This should be a wakeup call to the tech community," Thune says.

Note from Houston: Dwight Silverman points out that Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm accused of misusing Facebook user data, did work for the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz is at today's hearing. More here.

Dwight Silverman points out that Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm accused of misusing Facebook user data, did work for the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz is at today's hearing. More here. Note from Washington: Carolyn Lochhead points out that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has called for the Federal Trade Commission to "thoroughly investigate" Facebook. Harris is also at the hearing.

11:36 a.m.: John Thune, chair of the Commerce Committee and member of GOP leadership, opens hearing with a hard line on Facebook, citing Zuckerberg's own admissions. Congress has "been willing to defer to tech companies efforts to regulate themselves. This may be changing."



He calls this hearing "extraordinary," pointing out that Zuckerberg  a single CEO  will face nearly half of the U.S. Senate today. Facebook has more than 2 billion people monthly users, more than 4 times the population of the U.S., he sai



"Facebook's incredible reach is why we are here today," Thune says. "Right now, I'm not convinced that Facebook users have the information they need to make meaningful choices.



11:33a.m. : "Although not unprecedented, this is a unique hearing," Grassley says. He says issues to be considered include data privacy, security, consumer protection and FTC enforcement. There are 44 members between the two senate committees. That may not seem like a large group by Facebook standards," he says.

11:32a.m. : Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, calls the meeting to order.

11:31 a.m.: Zuckerberg has walked over to his seat. He's wearing a suit with a purple tie, different from his typical T-shirt. Lots of photographers are crowded around him taking his photo.

Other developments Tuesday:

Zuckerberg says in a Facebook post that I will do everything I can to make Facebook a place where everyone can stay closer with the people they care about, and to make sure it's a positive force in the world.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., tweeted there are two fake Facebook accounts impersonating him. This is unacceptable, he says.

Nonprofit and advocacy group Common Sense Media, sent a letter to the FTC on Tuesday asking it to investigate if teens using Facebook were impacted by the Cambridge Analytica data sharing.

Facebook has created a way for users to check to see if their data was grabbed by Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg shared a post on her Facebook page by former company director Don Graham, who wrote that Zuckerberg was someone of great decency. Sandberg wrote that Graham was her reference check on Zuckerberg before she joined Facebook. Zuckerberg has also shared Grahams post.

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Facebook by people who have used Facebook and had their information shared with Cambridge Analytica. The lawsuit is seeking class action status. Another lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Monday.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote that tech companies need to do more to make it clear how consumer data is being used and what the companies are doing to protect that data. As social media further affixes to daily routine, the question becomes: Do users understand how much of our lives is unknowingly converted to profitable data points?

The Information Technology Innovation Foundation think tank says that if the U.S. adopted rules similar to Europe, it would kneecap the U.S. Internet economy and would significantly erode U.S. competitiveness and Internet innovation.

Check back at 11:15 a.m. to watch the hearing and see live commentary from Chronicle staff, or follow @techchronicle on Twitter to get an alert when the hearing starts.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will face tough questions from Democrats and Republicans during two days of congressional hearings this week, even as his company has taken steps that may defuse some of their frustration.

Lawmakers were unsatisfied with Facebook's response last year to revelations that Russian trolls had manipulated its network to meddle in the 2016 election. And despite promises to overhaul its business practices, Facebook is still struggling to rein in fake news, fake accounts and troll farms.

After his company spent years trying to minimize the extent of its privacy issues, Zuckerberg admitted Facebook still can't fully quantify how much of its users' data was improperly scooped up by research firm Cambridge Analytica -- or by others. Facebook said last week that data on most of its 2 billion users could have been accessed improperly through abuse of some of its features.

Zuckerberg admitted making mistakes during a conference call last week, and the company announced new actions to protect user data. It also came out in favor of a Senate bill that would require public disclosure of online political advertising.

He is scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. On Wednesday morning, he is to testify to the House Energy and Commerce panel.

Here are some of the questions Zuckerberg may face:

Regaining trust is arguably Zuckerberg's biggest challenge as he faces skeptical lawmakers who wonder if the company's business imperatives trumped its responsibility to the public.

Last week, the company said it removed a longstanding feature that let users enter phone numbers or email addresses into Facebook's search tool to find other people. That was being used by malicious operatives to scrape public profile information, it said. But lawmakers want to know why Facebook didn't have a better understanding of how its network and tools were being used -- or misused.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of what our responsibility was and that was a huge mistake. It was my mistake," Zuckerberg told a conference call with reporters. "We're broadening our view of our responsibility."

Lawmakers like Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa or Commerce Chairman John Thune of South Dakota will want more than a mea culpa. They'll demand assurances that they won't be right back in the same situation a year from now -- after another election.

"It may be the case" that regulation is necessary, Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said on Sunday, adding that Congress could consider whether users own their data, have the right to erase it, or must consent to its sale.

Zuckerberg has already said he doesn't know the answer to this question, and company officials have similarly responded in closed-door briefings with lawmakers, but that will be harder to brush off publicly before Congress.

"We're not going to be able to go out and find every single bad use of data, but what we can do is make it a lot harder for folks to do that going forward," Zuckerberg said last week. "I think we will be able to uncover a large amount of bad activity that exists."

A problem for Facebook: Even if they close the proverbial barn door allowing mass data harvesting, enormous databases are already out in the wild, and the company doesn't know for sure who has them.

Zuckerberg has said the company can try to make it harder for the wrong people to misuse data in the future, but expect lawmakers like Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut or Dianne Feinstein of California to press him for specifics.

Zuckerberg last week praised Europe's new privacy regulations and said he plans to implement them across his network. He also said Facebook now supports the Honest Ads Act proposed by Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia and Republican John McCain of Arizona.

Klobuchar and Kennedy were among the first senators to demand that Zuckerberg testify, and she has said legislation is needed to require a uniform standard for disclosure of online political ad spending. Klobuchar has also started to question whether Facebook and other social networks should continue to enjoy blanket legal protections from liability that other media organizations do not possess.

Zuckerberg will also likely be asked whether the company violated a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission intended to protect user privacy, though company executives have said they believe they did comply. The commission has said it's investigating the company's actions.

Reports surfaced back in 2015 that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign was using psychological data from Cambridge Analytica that had been harvested from millions of Facebook users without their knowledge.

Zuckerberg can expect pointed inquiries into Facebook's record-keeping and auditing practices and why it took the company three years and assorted news stories to act. In particular, lawmakers want to find out what company officials knew, when they discovered it and why didn't they disclose it earlier.

Company officials weren't able to satisfy House staffers with questions about this in closed-door briefings last month.

Facebook has disclosed details of deceptive ads and content promoted by a pro-Kremlin group in Russia called the Internet Research Agency during the 2016 election, but it's unclear whether other Russian troll farms were operating as well.

Democratic senators and House members have worried that Facebook hasn't fully examined whether other troll farms may have been involved in a Russian effort to aid Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. This has been of particular to concern to Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. The chairman of that panel, Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, hasn't said yet whether he will call Zuckerberg and other chief executives to testify before his committee.

As a company, Facebook relies on profits from precision targeting of ads and engaged users, which is hard to balance with demands to protect user privacy and stamp out content that's deceptive or false.

Zuckerberg told reporters that doing what's best for users in the long run is an easy decision for the company, but defended the targeting of advertising because users find relevant ads more useful.

This is at the core of a lot of questions Zuckerberg can expect. Kennedy, who wants to know more about the algorithms Facebook uses for what posts to show to its users, said Sunday he fears privacy issues and "the propagandist issue are both too big for Facebook to fix."

While the company has said it will notify people who interacted with Russian propaganda from the Internet Research Agency via likes or shares, a number of lawmakers have pressed the company to notify the much larger group of people who merely saw the content on their feeds.

The company has also said it will notify the 87 million people whose data it estimates could have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica.

Republican senators, including Cruz and fellow Texan John Cornyn, have voiced concerns that social media companies could increasingly silence or downgrade the visibility of conservative voices under the guise of a crackdown on fake news.

At an earlier hearing, Cruz pressed top lawyers for Facebook and other social media companies on concerns about bias and whether they consider themselves a neutral public forum -- or not.

Facebook is promising to take on government-scale responsibilities in trying to prevent abuse of its enormous network around the world. But its record in detecting such abuses has been spotty.

Zuckerberg has sole voting power for major decisions, raising questions about his accountability and ability to handle such responsibility.

Kennedy has previously said that Facebook has become so big it's more like its own country than just a company.

Even so, Congress may not be too keen on going down this particular road. Republicans have little interest in new regulations, while many Democrats tend to ally themselves with the tech industry.

--Bloomberg contributors: Sarah Frier, Billy House and Ben Brody
When the duck confit was set before my lunch companion at Maison Pucha, I waited until her head was turned before filching a thin disk of potato Sarladaise from the plate.

The skinny potato slices had been fried in duck fat so that they balanced neatly between the realms of crispness and silky softness, showing the best traits of both. Spangles of garlic and parsley made the flavors bloom. It was like eating some supernal almost-potato-chip.

One wasnt enough. I kept stealing disk after disk of the classic potato recipe from the Perigord region and then a forkful of tender, shreddy duck with a crunch of its skin, and then a clump of spiky frisee, the greens pale and pleasantly bitter beneath a bare cling of tart vinaigrette.

The dish was immaculate and expressive, qualities I have come to expect from chef Manuel Pucha. Ive admired his precise, understated style at Philippe and then at La Table, the exacting modern French restaurant that succeeded Philippe in the same Post Oak space.

Now he and his two brothers  pastry chef Victor and front-of-the-house specialist Cristian  have opened their own ambitious spot in the Heights, in the long, narrow room that has housed everything from the Bedford to Stella Sola to the more recent Black & White. Manuel is still creating stellar French food with American accents, as he did at La Table, but now he and Victor are bringing their Ecuadoran family heritage into play on the menu, too.

Its an exciting development that sets Maison Pucha apart, while suiting it well to the Houston palate. A pearlescent ceviche of big Gulf shrimp jumps with laser-thin slivers of serrano chile and mellower red espelette pepper that warms a lightly sweet-sour broth. Tiradito of sliced raw snapper basks in a lemon-lime bath electrified by aji amarillo, a South American chile, along with big white kernels of choclo, the Peruvian equivalent of hominy.

Hottish flavors and touches of tropical fruits weave through the dinner, lunch and weekend brunch menus. An inspired version of eggs Benedict arrives astride subtle, fluffy plantain cakes in a classic Hollandaise tinged with aji amarillo. Fat seared scallops on a sunset-hued piperade sauce get a pickly jolt of curtido, the South American slaw, to wake up the nutty sweetness of the shellfish. And they sit on a downy corn cake thats a dream.

For dessert, Victor Pucha serves a cloud-light black-and-white souffle made with deep, dark Ecuadoran chocolate; it comes with house-made vanilla ice cream and a remarkable creme anglaise just touched (rather than hammered) with passionfruit.

In between graceful, vibrant soups (a tingly gazpacho; a suave cream of butternut) and Victors desserts, scarcely a detail goes wrong. Service under Cristian and opening consultant Shepard Ross is both welcoming and personable. Ross has put together his usual interesting, suitable wine list and cocktail roster, and the drinks are well made.

More Information Maison Pucha Bistro Three stars 1001 Studewood, 713-637-4976 Hours: lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; dinner 5-9 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. & Sun., 5-11 p.m. Fri. & Sat.; brunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. & Sun. Credit cards: all major Prices: starters $9-$24; entrees $23-$45 (lunch $15-$29); desserts $10-$12 Must-orders: Ecuadoran shrimp ceviche; tiradito de pescado; steak tartare; gazpacho; Berkshire pork Wellington; Peking Duck; steak frites; duck confit with Sarladaise potato & frisee (lunch only); black & white Ecuadoran souffle; lemongrass creme brulee Reservations: Walk-ins welcome. Book by phone or opentable.com. Noise level: quiet to moderate Parking: valet at night; self-parking in rear lot Website: maisonpucha.com Star ratings Four stars: superlative; can hold its own on a national stage. Three stars: excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city. Two stars: very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind. One star: a good restaurant that we recommend. No stars: restaurant cannot be recommended. See More Collapse

Even the much-redone room looks like the most comfortable version of itself, soothed with slate-blue walls and soft-colored banquettes, with a small herd of old-fashioned upholstered armchairs that rank among the most comfortable restaurant seating in town. Los hermanos Pucha have retained the whitewashed timbers that rise to the lofty ceiling, along with the pewter bar stools and some sleek little midcentury-modern chairs, and it all knits together nicely  right out to the patio seating that was mobbed on a recent warm evening.

The most striking visual element of the revamped dining room is a fleet of silvery domes that glints all across the long pass-through to the kitchen. They are symbols of the old-fashioned service style, in which the hemispheres are whisked off in synchrony to reveal each dish. Those lovely soups arrive as carefully garnished shallow plates holding a leaf of fried sage here, a jot of cherry-tomato oil there. Then, with ceremony, the liquid is poured in.

Its a classic bit of dining theater for which one does not have to dress up, thanks to Maison Puchas nicely casual vibe. So is the tableside Wagyu steak tartare ritual for which the staff is well trained; I loved the spicy but well-measured thrill that hits of espelette, Dijon, Tabasco, Worcestershire, caper and cornichon added to beef smoothed to satin with egg yolk.

Just as traditional, and just as well-executed, was a steak frites escorted by a cone of well-bronzed fries and a Bearnaise in which the tarragon fairly popped. The beef was Wagyu hanger steak, grilled to specs and sliced. In a world of indifferent steak frites, it stood out.

So did an improbable-sounding Berkshire pork Wellington that is new to the menu. The tall round of pork is larded with dried apricot and garlic cloves before it is smoked  a clever Texas touch  clad in a pastry wrapper and served with a racy grain mustard sauce that brought the whole to life. I kicked myself for doubting the chef could pull it off.

A curiously named Peking duck dish won me over as well. It turned out to be rosy-rare wedges of applewood-smoked breast meat in a vibrant orange-ginger duck jus, plus squiggles of velvety parsnip mousseline of which I could have eaten a lot more. Its technique embraced France and Texas, with just a note of Chinese seasoning via the ginger root. Thats pretty much modern French cooking in a nutshell  at least as its done in Houston.

If I told you Manuel Pucha makes the best ranch dressing in the city, would you believe me? I dont even like the stuff, but his version had a sophisticated buttermilky tang that tempted me to lift the carafe from the table and drink from it directly. Instead, I poured it on a wacky salad involving a tall round iceberg slice decorated with a portobello cap, blue cheese crumbles, pomegranate seeds, orange wedges and whatnot.

That thing looks like its going to levitate, observed my friend Todd when it landed on the table. It was crazy fun, which is what I imagine the reality show based on the three brothers current life would be like. Theyre all living together right now, finally in the same city rather than scattered from Ecuador to Houston to New York, as they labor to get their new restaurant on its feet.

My complaints here have been few. The new spring menu would profit from even more of the lighter options: Like many local menus, it show signs of clinging to shanks and short ribs and coq au vin all through the hot months. I was puzzled by a peach melba dessert that seemed bogged down by too much squishy fruit and whipped cream, especially in contrast with a pristine creme brulee in which a note of lemongrass sang and the textures snapped.

I would love to see even more Ecuadoran touches come into play on the menu, too. I can imagine that happening in time, as the Puchas gain a sense of their audience here. Already its a mix of people from the surrounding Heights neighborhood and a worldly Spanish-speaking crowd, and I predict that with this kind of quality cooking and atmosphere, Maison Pucha will end up drawing diners from all across the city.

Maybe this is the restaurant that will finally stick in this space. I fervently hope so.
Many women will be wearing red on Tuesday for #EqualPayDay, which marks how far into the year most women have to work to earn the same as men did the previous year. The color symbolizes how far "into the red" women are on pay equity.

The National Committee on Pay Equity started Equal Pay Day to raise public awareness of the gender wage gap.

More than 20 years later, the pay gap between men and women remains wide, particularly for women of color.

In a decision issued Monday, in which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that employers can't pay women less than men because of what they earned at a previous job, the court noted in its opinion that the continuing gender pay gap is "an embarrassing reality of our economy."

So how big is the gap?

- In 2016, women were paid about 80 cents for every dollar men make, a slight increase from 79.6 cents the previous year, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity.

- At that pace, women will have to wait 100 years to make as much as men, according to the American Association of University Women.

- The gap for women of color is even wider than for white women: Black women earn just 63 cents and Latinas make 54 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men.

- Black women would have to work until Aug. 7 to make what white men earned in 2017. Latinas would have to work until Nov. 1.

- Women of color will also have to wait even longer for pay equity: 108 years for black women and 232 years for Latinas.

- One report found that wages for Latinas actually regressed between 2004 and 2014, the years of the Great Recession and economic recovery, declining by 4.5 percent  nearly three times as much as women's earnings overall.

There are some signs of progress.

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy is poised to sign one of the strongest equal pay laws in the country. The Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act, which has passed both houses of the state Legislature, would prohibit an employer from offering lower pay and benefits to women and minorities, who are considered "protected classes" under a state law against discrimination.

Four other states (Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and West Virginia) and Washington, D.C. have so-called "comparable worth" laws," which require employers to pay women an equal wage for equal work.
The playground of Roosevelt Elementary School is less than 700 feet from I-45. With the freeway's planned expansion, children will be playing even closer to traffic and the air pollution that accompanies it  approximately 200 feet closer.

Research has found that exposure to near-roadway traffic air pollution has been found not only to trigger asthma attacks but also to contribute to the development of asthma in children. Projects such as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, also known as the I-45 expansion project, should be required to include solutions to reduce exposure to air pollution that put children's health at greater risk.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to motor vehicle pollution tends to be highest within the first 500 feet of a roadway, what is known as the traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) zone.

Children are more vulnerable to the negative health effects of air pollution because their lungs are still developing, and they breathe more deeply than adults. On average, it is estimated that children spend about 1,200 hours at school each year, and often during peak traffic hours, putting them at an increased risk of exposure to and health impacts from air pollution.

INDUCED DEMAND: Adding lanes doesn't reduce congestion. So what is TxDOT doing?

The draft environmental impact statement for the project suggests that regional air quality will improve as a result of the expansion, a conclusion drawn from a number of problematic assumptions. For example, the draft environmental impact statement states that air quality will improve significantly in part because of the implementation of EPA rules requiring cars and trucks to be cleaner and more fuel efficient. The EPA recently announced efforts to reverse these rules. Furthermore, the draft environmental impact statement does not include an assessment of how the project will impact exposure to mobile sources of air pollution at the neighborhood level or within TRAP zones.

In 2013, the Chronicle reported that about 80,000 Houston-area children attend schools within TRAP zones. A number of schools are already located within these high-risk zones along certain segments of the project. Once completed, the expansion will put some schools even closer to the highway.

In 2017, a Houston Health Department and Rice University study identified some of these schools as high-rate zones for ambulance-treated asthma attacks.

The draft environmental impact statement does not include an analysis of the potential impact on these schools, nor does it propose any solutions that could be implemented to reduce air pollution exposure where children's health is already at higher risk.

ENVIRONMENTAL INEQUITY: Why your health can depend on where you live

Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle

Community environments shape opportunities for health. As Elena Marks, president of the Episcopal Health Foundation, recently highlighted in her op-ed, it is critical that we move beyond health care to improve community health. While health insurance and access to health care are critical for treating illness, opportunities for reducing the likelihood of illness and maintaining good health in the first place often occur outside of health care settings in the places where we live, work, learn and play.

Public policy and infrastructure decisions, such as the expansion of highways, create the conditions that can contribute to poor health outcomes.

Given the broad implications and well-documented community concerns of the project, TxDOT should perform a more robust examination of the project's potential impacts on public health. The agency should work in partnership with organizations such as Air Alliance Houston to conduct a health impact assessment to further inform the design of the project. A health impact assessment can be used to evaluate the potential health impacts of a plan, project or policy before it is built or implemented. Information gathered through this process is critical so that communities can be made aware of and consider strategies to address potential adverse public health outcomes.

AIR QUALITY: What happens when Texas stops watching pollution

As we promoted National Public Health Week last week and raise awareness of vast health disparities throughout National Minority Health Month, it is important that local decision-makers not only consider how public policy and infrastructure decisions influence health, but also consider the disproportionate adverse impact these decisions can have on people of color and low-income communities.

How we choose to move forward with this project is one of many critical decisions that will be made in the near future that will influence the health of our region for decades. Because of this, we have a responsibility to our children to consider how decisions today will impact their opportunities for good health in the future. Conducting a health impact assessment will ensure we are being diligent about protecting the health of our children.

Dr. Bakeyah Nelson is executive director of Air Alliance Houston.

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PANAMA CITY -- Lawyers representing President Donald Trump's company last month wrote directly to the president of Panama, asking him to intervene in a legal fight over the Trump International Hotel in the capital - and warning that the case could have "repercussions" for Panama's reputation.

The law firm, Panama-based Britton and Iglesias, wrote in Spanish to President Juan Carlos Varela on March 22 to "urgently request your influence in relation to a commercial dispute regarding the Trump hotel."

At the time, the majority owner of the Trump hotel - Cypriot-born investor Orestes Fintiklis - had kicked out the Trump Organization as the hotel's manager, after a ruling from a low-level Panamanian judge. The president's company was seeking to retake control.

The request was extraordinary: The U.S. president's company was asking the leader of a U.S. ally to intercede on its behalf, disregarding Panama's separation of powers.

It is the first known instance of the Trump Organization asking directly for a foreign leader's help with a business dispute since Trump was elected.

In their letter, the Trump Organization's lawyers did not say explicitly how they wanted the Panamanian president to help. Varela, through a spokesman, has said he has not yet taken any action.

The letter, obtained by The Washington Post, does not explicitly refer to President Trump or threaten any actions by the U.S. government. The letter refers to his company as the "well-known Trump Organization."

A spokesman for Varela, Vladimir Rodriguez, said that the president had seen the letter and was "evaluating the issue" but had made no decisions about whether to take action. Rodriguez said the issue is "in the hands of the corresponding authorities" but did not elaborate.

A spokesman for Panama's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told The Post that "this is about differences between businesses, a case already attended by the court. This is not a bilateral matter between governments and not even a political issue."

On Monday, Panama's foreign secretary, Isabel de Saint Malo, told the Associated Press that her office had also received a copy.

"It is a letter that urges Panama's executive branch to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch," de Saint Malo said. "I don't believe the executive branch has a position to take while the issue is in the judicial process."

The letter from the Trump Organization's lawyers was first reported in the United States by the Associated Press. At Britton and Iglesias, a staffer confirmed to The Post that the letter was legitimate.

The White House and the U.S. Embassy in Panama referred questions to the Trump Organization.

Late Monday evening, the Trump Organization released a statement on behalf of Britton and Iglesias, which said that the letter was a "common" and "routine" legal tactic for them.

In fact, they said, it was so routine that they had not sought the Trump Organization's approval before sending it.

"We categorically reject any assumption or assertion that the letter sought to 'pressure' the President of the Republic of Panama," or other officials, the firm said. It continued: "The authorization of Trump Organization for its delivery was not requested, and nobody at Trump Organization was aware [of] the letter until today."

Trump has said he gave up day-to-day control of the business when he took office, but he remains its owner and can withdraw money from it at any time.

The dispute in Panama began with struggles at the Trump hotel - a soaring building on the waterfront designed to resemble a billowing sail.

It opened in 2011. In the past year, it began to struggle, according to investors who owned its hotel rooms. Its troubles included an increasingly crowded hotel market in Panama. But owners also blamed the Trump Organization, saying the president's polarizing brand was driving away customers from Latin America.

"A financial bloodbath," one owner called it: Rooms that he had purchased as an investment were rented out less than 10 nights a month.

Then came Fintiklis, who bought a huge block of rooms last year and became the hotel's majority owner. Within weeks, he was seeking to fire the Trump Organization as manager, saying it was "attached to our property like a leech."

The Trump Organization had argued that its contract to run the hotel did not expire until 2031 and that Fintiklis had no legal cause to break it.

The dispute went to international arbitration. Then, though, Fintiklis simply showed up at the hotel in February, seeking to fire the Trump Organization in person.

After a multiday standoff, Panamanian Judge Miriam Cheng effectively handed control over to Fintiklis. Fintiklis renamed the hotel the Bahia Grand and added cheeky jabs at its past operator: At the hotel bar, there are drinks called the "Stormy Jack Daniels" and the "Fire and Fury."

In the letter to Panama's president, the Trump Organization's attorneys said Trump's company had been treated poorly by the Panamanian courts - so poorly, in fact, that its mistreatment violated a 1983 treaty between the United States and Panama governing investments.

In particular, the letter cites "irregularities" in decisions by Cheng. The lawyers say that Cheng had moved too quickly and had ignored an existing international arbitration case over the hotel.

"This situation is currently before the courts, but it has repercussions for the Panamanian state, which is your responsibility," said the letter, signed by attorney Eric Britton.

Since the letter was sent, the Trump Organization's prospects of regaining control of the Panama hotel have only declined.

In late March, an international arbitrator rejected a request by Trump executives that they be reinstated as the operators of the hotel. The arbitrator ruled that Trump's team should not have been evicted - but, now that it had been, he would not undo its ejection.

"The facts on the ground now militate against forcibly undoing the steps that have been taken," arbitrator Joel Richler wrote, according to the AP.

The arbitration case itself is continuing, as Trump's company and Fintiklis's company are still seeking damages from the other. Fintiklis declined to comment on Monday.

"What kind of position does that put the Panamanian government in?" said Don Fox, who was a top official at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics from 2008 to 2013. He said the letter would raise questions about whether the Trump Organization's requests were, in effect, requests by the U.S. government.

"You don't know how that may affect Panama's relationship with us going forward. What might they not ask for? You can't unring this bell."
A half-century of brick-and-mortar turned to rubble as a demolition crew began tearing down a historic southwest Houston synagogue on Monday, marking both the end of an era and the beginning of a new one for a congregation that saw its place of worship ravaged by three floods in three years.

The United Orthodox Synagogues, perched on the edge of a leafy neighborhood near Brays Bayou, has been forever altered once again, although this time by demolition equipment and not high water. The sanctuarys tan brick piled up at the front of the building in the morning as the crew clawed at its exterior.

Its really mixed emotions, Rabbi Barry Gelman said. On the one hand, it is our sanctuary and has been the center of our religious life and communal life for decades  And at the same time, were viewing it as the symbol of a new beginning.

As was the case with much of the area and neighboring Meyerland, Hurricane Harvey didnt spare the synagogue. After being inundated with seven feet of water during the storm, the modern Orthodox Jewish congregation voted in December to knock down the sanctuary, offices and school wing and make plans for a new building.

The sanctuary was built on 9001 Greenwillow St. in 1961, when three Orthodox synagogues in Houston came together as one. The history held within the building made the decision to demolish a conflicting one, Gelman said.

Events that used to be held at the synagogue will now take place at a next-door reception hall while the congregation figures out how to start again.

Sharon Grosman went to watch some of the demolition early Monday but left shortly after. She met and married her husband at the synagogue, which has always felt like a home to them, she said.

Weve had every occasion there, Grosman said. I went there to see [the demolition], and I left, because it was really hard, just remembering all these things.

Afterward, she went to see her father and showed him photos of the tear-down. He has been a member of the United Orthodox Synagogues since close to its formation.

I was in tears today when my daughter brought me pictures of it, Jules Borger said. All my kids were married there. My parents had their 50th wedding anniversary, were remarried there. All of our religious observances tie back to this synagogue, so you can imagine the emotion I have.

Hurricane Harvey was unrelenting toward the area along Brays Bayou and many of Houstons Jewish community living in the area. About one out of every 13 Jewish families here  an estimated 2,000 households  flooded during the storm.

Three of the city's largest synagogues, with a combined membership of 3,900 families, were damaged. The Jewish community center took on 10 feet of water. The Jewish senior home and day schools all flooded.

While the congregation ultimately voted for and supported the demolition of the United Orthodox Synagogues, the future is unclear for Grosman, Borger and the other 300 members who attend the sanctuary.

No decision has been made yet as to whether the synagogue will move to a new location or be rebuilt at the current location with a higher elevation, Gelman said. Leaders were working to preserve religious artifacts, stained glass and memorial plaques, however.

Like many, Dennis Halpin has deep roots at the synagogue, where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, mourned loved ones and married his wife.

My whole life has been associated with that synagogue, Halpin said. Im a civil engineer - I know how these things go. Its just harder when its personal.

Rebuilding the sanctuary could serve as inspiration for others who might be wary of staying in a flood-prone city, Gelman said.

Im hoping that its symbolic for the entire city, the rabbi said. We made the decision to stay and to build better and stronger. We hope that other people in the city can find and strengthen on that.

Business reporter Paul Takahashi contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to tell lawmakers on Tuesday that the social media giant is taking steps to protect users' privacy after revelations that Cambridge Analytica  a data mining firm employed by the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz  improperly accessed information from up to 87 million users.

The 33-year-old Internet entrepreneur, readying to face lawmakers for the first time since the privacy scandal erupted last month, submitted written testimony emphasizing the social benefits of connecting people on the web, including the #metoo movement and fundraising efforts for the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

But he also noted Facebook's downside of suspected Russian trolling, false stories, and the unauthorized use of people's personal information for commercial and political profiling by outside web developers and data mining firms. Among them was Cambridge Analytica, which was initially bankrolled by conservative fundraiser Robert Mercer, a top Cruz benefactor.

"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well," Zuckerberg said in his prepared testimony. "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

Zuckerberg, Facebook's billionaire founder, is expected to face skeptical questioning from Democrats and Republicans alike on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which includes Cruz and senior Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

He also is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released his prepared testimony on Monday as he met with some lawmakers.

Much of the furor surrounding the data mining revelations has focused on Cambridge Analytica's ties to the Trump campaign, but the firm also did an estimated $5.8 million worth of business with Cruz's presidential campaign, starting from its launch in March, 2015, until June, 2016, a month after he dropped out of the Republican primaries.

Cruz, facing reelection in November, has come under attack from Texas Democrats over his ties to Mercer and Cambridge Analytica. His political organization said last month that it was assured in 2015 that there was nothing illegal about the data his presidential campaign was being provided by the firm, which was also initially led by eventual Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Government officials are now looking into whether Facebook's role in the data collection violated a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission designed to protect users' privacy. Facebook has repeatedly denied it violated the deal.

Calls for a congressional investigation have focused on Zuckerberg and the company's relationship with outside developers who are sold or given access to Facebook's data. Critics complain that Facebook users are vulnerable to a variety of web designers and data mining companies like Cambridge Analytica.

Zuckerberg, long wary of calls for new government regulations, says his company is taking responsibility for its mistakes and working to ensure that they are corrected.

"Over the past few weeks, we've been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said in his prepared testimony. "We took important actions to prevent this from happening again today four years ago, but we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."

Zuckerberg says the company is investigating apps that had access to a large amount of Facebook user data before the company tightened its rules in 2014  though by then, a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan had already shared earlier Facebook data with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook didn't learn of the data sharing arrangement until 2015, according to Zuckerberg. Facebook has since demanded that Cambridge Analytica formally certify they deleted the improperly acquired data, which, he says, "they ultimately did."

Nevertheless, Zuckerberg also says that Facebook learned through press reports last month that Cambridge Analytica may not have deleted the data as they had certified. Those questions led to Cambridge Analytica being kicked off Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica still maintains it has deleted the data and has agreed to a forensic audit by a firm Facebook hired to investigate. Zuckerberg said Facebook also is working with the U.K. Information Commissioner's Office, which has jurisdiction over Cambridge Analytica through its British parent company.

Campaign finance records show that Cambridge Analytica was one of several data analytics firms Cruz used in his 2016 campaign. Sources close to the campaign said it made up only a small part of the campaign's data operation. They added that the bulk of the campaign's payments to the firm were for digital media buys, not voter profiles.

Using data analysis firms like Cambridge Analytica, combined with their own data work, the Cruz campaign was widely credited with running one of the most advanced data operations in the 2016 campaign. "Psychographic" models compiled from various lists and voter files allowed the campaign to micro-target digital ads by specific interests and regions and give field workers the tools to make individually-tailored campaign pitches to potential activists and supporters based on political, religious and personality traits.

As Facebook investigates Cambridge Analytica and a number of other firms for allegedly misusing data, the company itself is being subjected to increasing scrutiny by privacy advocates on both sides of the Atlantic.

With the privacy crisis undergoing a pair of high-profile congressional hearings, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak announced Monday that he is shutting down his Facebook account altogether.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak said Facebook "profits are all based on the user's info, but the users get none of the profits back."

Wozniak says he'd rather pay for Facebook, an idea that has gained increasing attention as users realize that when it comes to free social media web sites like Facebook, they are the product.
WASHINGTON - On paper, there is little to separate attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and writer-activist Laura Moser, the two Democrats vying in Houstons 7th Congressional District primary run-off battle next month.

Theyre both women who favor abortion rights, first-time candidates with deep roots in Democratic politics. Both grew up in Houston political families and attended St. Johns School, an elite college preparatory academy on the citys affluent west side.

But theyre sharply divided over how to unseat nine-term Republican John Culberson, presenting a contrast that serves as a microcosm of the divisions within the national Democratic Party as it looks to flip two dozen seats and wrest control of the House from the GOP.

In Houston, the fault lines became particularly jagged as Democratic leaders in Washington sought to blunt Mosers advance to the runoff. The intervention by national Democrats angered many Texas activists and added fuel to Mosers campaign at a critical point before the March 6 primary, which whittled down a seven-candidate field to two.

As the May 22 runoff approaches, the candidates have come to symbolize two opposing Democratic factions, separated less by their politics than by the tone and tactics of their campaigns, with Moser cast as the insurgent liberal populist to Fletchers centrist standard-bearer.

The choice is critical for Democrats because the 7th, a traditionally Republican district which Hillary Clinton won in 2016, offers exactly the sort of urban-suburban voter mix that Democrats believe they can win over in a midterm election that is expected to largely be a referendum on President Donald Trump.

Fletcher, accordingly, has sought to project a moderate face that could appeal to Democrats, centrists, and more independent or liberal Republicans. Moser, by comparison, is seeking to ride a wave of Democratic energy.

A similar dynamic is playing out in Democratic primaries in swing districts across the country as the establishment Clinton wing of the party comes under continuing assault from the progressive wing represented by 2016 Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders.

The divide has played out from New York to California, where U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a four-term Democratic stalwart, faces a slew of challengers appealing to a new generation of surge voters, including one from state Sen. Kevin de Leon.

Moser, in an interview, said she has no desire to relitigate the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, in which her husband, former Obama White House videographer Arun Chaudhary, played an active role in Sanders campaign.

Im not comfortable with any dichotomies within the Democratic Party right now, Moser said. There are too many of them.

But the central rift in the race broke into the open in late February, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) posted an unusual opposition research attack on Moser, who party leaders feared could not beat Culberson in the general election.

The DCCC attack piece played on Mosers decade-long residency in Washington, labeling her a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress.

The national party operation took it a step further, citing an article Moser in Washingtonian Magazine that shed sooner have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia than to move to her grandparents home in Paris, Tex. Moser and her backers argued that the town of Paris bears no resemblance to Houston, where she grew up before moving to Washington.

"We need to make sure we've got strong candidates in the general election across the country," said DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, a congressman from New Mexico. "The grassroots organizations have been working too hard across America not to have a strong candidate who can win in November."

By most accounts, that attack backfired.

A new Moser campaign strategy memo provided to the Chronicle plays up her status as the grassroots candidate not chosen by DC party insiders.

The memo also outlines her outreach as an authentic voice aimed at the partys progressive base.

Laura represents a break away from current political establishment politics and a return to the politics of the people of Texas itself, the memo continues. Her non-establishment status appeals to 2018 Democratic surge voters. Many folks are awakening to political activism for the first time.

Fletchers campaign rejects the establishment label, contrasting her lifelong legal career in Houston to Mosers move to Washington.

Lizzie has been living and working in this community all her life, representing Houstonians from all walks of life in the courtroom, fighting on the front lines to protect Planned Parenthood and quality education for the next generation, said Fletcher campaign manager Erin Mincberg.

Fletchers supporters point to her most recent fundraising, 80 percent of which came from donors in Houston. Moser has not detailed her most recent fundraising figures, but an earlier analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics showed that nearly 60 percent of her contributions came from out of state. Both campaigns have relied on Washington-based vendors and consultants.

Key issues

Little separates them on the issues.

Both support gay rights, gun restrictions, and public education. Both also are eager to take on Trump and Culberson, a low-profile Republican lawmaker who they criticize for failing to push harder in Congress for long-neglected flood control projects that could have helped limit the devastation from Hurricane Harvey.

One of their few differences on policy involves health care. Moser, like Sanders, has vowed to push for a single-payer Medicare for all system. Fletcher has emphasized the need to protect the Affordable Care Act against GOP efforts to undermine the Obama-era heath care law.

Some of their differences come down to strategy. While both support legislation to protect undocumented Dreamers from deportation, Moser said she was willing to shut down the government over the issue. Fletcher said she was not.

If you look at them on paper, they basically are 99 percent in alignment on all the issues, said Harris County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lillie Schechter, who disputes the establishment versus insurgent narrative that has grown up around the run-off.

But as the race heats up, the fissures in the traditional Democratic coalition in Houston have widened. While Moser has gotten crosswise with the DCCC, the campaign arm of the House Democrats, Fletcher remains on the outs with the Texas AFL-CIO, an important labor constituency that has endorsed Moser.

Some labor activists still bristle at a $7.8 million judgment Fletchers law firm won in 2016 against a union trying to organize janitorial workers in Houston. Fletcher has said she had nothing to do with the case  Professional Janitorial Services of Houston v. Service Employees International Union  but labor leaders argue that shes a partner in the firm that benefited from the award.

The jury found that the union, one of the largest in the nation, wrongfully disparaged the company because it refused to recognize the union without a secret ballot by the companys employees.

Zeth Capo, president of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, said the janitor case, along with the DCCCs intervention in the primary, has contributed to the sense of Fletcher being the establishment candidate, which he thinks will not help her mobilize rank-and-file Democrats in November.

We have to overcome voter apathy in Texas, Capo said, lambasting the DCCCs attack on Moser. We are not the DCCC. I have had no problem telling the DCCC lately that they need to stay the hell away from our office. We represent our members.

Former state appeals court Justice Murry Cohen, a Houston lawyer and consultant whose wife works on the Moser campaign, said hes puzzled by the schism with the DCCC, which he attributes to the older, moneyed wing of the Democratic Party.

But for those looking for where Democratic sympathies truly lie in the 7th, Fletchers backers note that Clinton outpolled Sanders in the district by a 65-35 percent margin in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

Eyes on the prize

Some Democratic strategists in Texas are urging a deescalation of tensions, noting that whoever wins the May 22 run-off will need the DCCCs financial and organization help to overcome the numerical advantage of Republican voters in the 7th District - at least judging from the March 6 primary, when nearly 5,000 more Republicans showed up to vote.

Its important that everybody keeps their eyes on the prize, said Colin Strother, a Texas strategist who has worked with the DCCC. This all-out assault on the DCCC for wanting to win in November, I just dont find it authentic, he said.

Strother said he understands that Democrats must find a candidate with cross-over appeal in a Republican-skewing district. At the same time, he said, statewide, Republican-Lite has not been a winning formula for us. The Republicans dont believe it, and the Democrats are not motivated by it.

Fletchers backers worry that an election strategy focused on the party base might work for Moser in a Democratic run-off, but not in a broader general election against Culberson.

As Democrats search for the winning formula, the central measure they have so far was an internal DCCC poll showing that in a head-to-head race, Fletcher, not Moser, could beat Culberson. That, more than any policy alignment, is what launched their opposition research dump on Moser in February.

Moser, for her part, argues that the data is outdated.

We have never had Donald Trump be president before, she said. Im sure they couldnt have modeled Hillarys win in the district. This is a wave election year. They do not have the data scientists who can tell us who is going to vote in this unprecedented year.
AUSTIN  Critics were quick to pounce on Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Monday in wake of revelations he appointed a maverick, troubled doctor to a rural health board.

Miller appointed campaign contributor and former physician Rick Ray Redalen to the Texas Rural Health Task Force in 2016, although three states had revoked his medical licenses, the Austin American-Statesman first reported. One state initially suspended Redalens license in connection to a perjury conviction in a case related to the former stepdaughter he married after his wife committed suicide, according to the paper.

Redalen also once married his 15-year-old former stepdaughter.

Really? Thats the best we can do as Texans? This is what we deserve or we should have? said Kim Olson, a retired Air Force colonel and Democrat running against Miller in the general election. No, Texas deserves better.

Miller, a Republican, did not respond to requests for comment.

EDITORIAL: How long will Texans have to put up with Sid Miller?

Redalen, who refers to himself as The Maverick Doctor, had his medical license suspended in Iowa shortly after marrying his teenage former stepdaughter in Tarrant County during a trip to Texas in 1988, the paper reported. Her mother committed suicide the year before, and in 1986, Redalen had pleaded guilty to assault for hitting his wife with the butt of a rifle and aiming a gun at law enforcement, according to newspaper reports.

After his return to Iowa following their marriage, Redalen was convicted of perjury for lying about her whereabouts, and his license was suspended. His medical license there was later revoked for failing to report a malpractice suit, according to news reports. In the 1990s, his license was revoked in Minnesota for psychiatric and drug problems and in Louisiana for alcohol and drug abuse, according to news reports.

The details from Sid Millers donor-turned-appointees past are repulsive, to say the least, said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa. This donors questionable and disgusting history should have rung an alarm, but instead, Sid Miller awarded him with a seat in our government. Its time we elect leaders with integrity and respect for our democracy.

Redalen is now in the telemedicine business and founded Quest Global Benefits, a company he said he launched to help businesses and people navigate the health care system under the Affordable Care Act. Calls to Redalen were not returned, but he told the Statesman that expanding access to telemedicine is his No. 1 priority on the unpaid panel that reports to the Texas Rural Health and Development Advisory Council.

Telemedicine, a growing industry, allows medical professionals to diagnose and treat patients remotely. Texas lawmakers passed a law to expand telemedicine here in 2017.

Medical care is a major issue in rural Texas, where some people have to travel more than 100 miles to reach the nearest hospital, according to the Department of Agriculture. Twelve hospitals in rural Texas have closed since 2012  64 counties have no hospital and 25 counties lack primary care physicians, according to the agency.

Appointing a campaign contributor who is pushing telemedicine to sit on a board that makes recommendations on rural health reeks of pay-for-play, said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group that tracks money in politics.

Redalen donated heavily to Millers campaign in 2016, giving the commissioner $5,000 in January and $12,000 in July. Miller appointed Redalen to the task force in December. That same month, campaign finance records show Redalen loaned Miller $100,000. Miller paid the full amount back one month later. The records also show Miller claimed an $80,000 in-kind contribution from Redalen for loaning the commissioner his motor home, although Redalen said he didnt understand why.

Redalen has another connection to the Miller campaign: Todd Smith, a lobbyist and longtime political strategist for Miller, reported making between $200,000 and $250,000 a year from Redalens company since 2015. Smith did not respond to requests for comment.

The public should be concerned because maybe the best person didnt get picked to represent the interest of Texans on this panel. Maybe the person who got picked, Dr. Redalen, got picked because of his political and financial clout, said McDonald. It looks like theyre trying to fill up the swamp instead of drain it.

Its hardly the first time the former rodeo cowboy has landed in an ethics mess in his first term in statewide office. His nearly three and one-half year tenure is punctuated by controversies, including using state taxpayer money to fund an out-of-state trip to Oklahoma to obtain a Jesus shot, said to cure all pain for life. He received the shot from John Michael Lonergan, who lost his medical license in Ohio when he was convicted of felony tax evasion, according to records.

Miller is up for election in November.
How many times does Sid Miller get a pass for doing stupid stuff?

Our states agriculture commissioner has stumbled his way through a series of scandals since he took office three years ago. Now comes news that he appointed to a state task force one of his campaign donors whose medical license has been yanked by regulators in three states.

Credit the Austin-American Statesman for uncovering the unpleasant history behind Rick Ray Redalen, who Miller appointed to the states Rural Health Care Task Force. The newspaper reports that Redalens license was first suspended in Iowa, when he was convicted of perjury in a case stemming from his marriage to his 15-year-old former stepdaughter. (Yes, you read that right.) Then his license reportedly was revoked for good because Redalen failed to report a malpractice suit. The Statesman found he also faced disciplinary actions in Minnesota and Louisiana for drug, alcohol and psychiatric problems.

EDITORIAL: When Texans see only party labels, we get pols like Sid Miller

What makes the case even more bothersome is that Millers appointee appears to have a conflict of interest. Redalens top priority on the task force is telemedicine, which happens to be a service marketed by a company he founded.

Add this to the growing list of self-inflicted wounds for a Texas politician who not only cant shoot straight with voters but also keeps shooting himself in the foot. After winning his job by posturing as a hard-core conservative, Miller showered state employees with more than $400,000 in bonuses, then infuriated farmers and business owners by raising a host of regulatory fees. He infamously blew taxpayer money on a trip to Oklahoma where he got a so-called Jesus shot for chronic pain. Then he charged the state for a trip to Mississippi where he wanted to participate in a rodeo.

Even a good many of the conservative activists who supported Millers original candidacy have grown tired of his shenanigans. Grassroots America We the People publicly announced rarely have we seen an incumbent statewide candidate so ill-equipped to answer the most basic questions about how his agency operates. Nonetheless, he still somehow won his Republican primary against a well-qualified opponent.

EDITORIAL: Texas' new ag commissioner needs to get his act together

If they really want to send a message about getting bad politicians out of government, traditionally Republican voters should do something radical and take a serious look at Millers Democratic opponent. Kim Olson is a fourth-generation farmer, a retired Air Force colonel, a former combat commander in Iraq and a candidate who has developed thoughtful positions about the issues facing the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Most important of all, shes not Sid Miller, whos time in office cant come to an end fast enough.
Steve Campbell, staff / Houston Chronicle

I have worked as a flight attendant for United Airlines and before that for Continental for a total of 28 years. Over the years, unionized flight attendants have fought hard for decent salaries, safe working conditions and respect. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of United Airlines employees here in Houston who are still living in poverty without safe jobs or respect at work.

More than 800 United employees work in the airlines Houston catering kitchen. Most of them are immigrants and people of color. Their work is just as important to United as mine. It is shameful that the company treats these workers differently than their other work groups and pays them much less. Maria Velasquez, for example, has worked for the company for nearly 30 years, yet she earns just over $11 an hour. Now, United is trying to prevent her from simply having the basic opportunity to cast a vote to have a union that I have.
On April 1, a company called Cloudflare launched a service that claims to speed up access to websites and provide privacy protection in the process. Cloudflare, which is the in business of boosting the performance and security of websites, released a consumer Dynamic Name Service offering called 1.1.1.1.

DNS, as it's more commonly known, is the essentially the contact list for the internet. Just as you tap on a name in your smartphone's contact list and it dials the number without you needing to know that number, the DNS system converts the name of an internet domain or website into its numeric address. For example, when you click on google.com, you're really going to 172.217.6.142.

The speed with which a DNS server can make this conversion can impact how quickly web pages appear in your browser. While the conversion typically happens in milliseconds, a laggy DNS can make your web surfing seem slower than it should be.

Better Wi-Fi: How to improve the Wi-Fi reception in your home

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This was a bigger deal in the early days of the internet, when most people had much slower connections than they do today. But a faster DNS can still make a noticeable difference.

Your internet provider has its own set of DNS servers, but typically they are not as fast as they could be. That's why it might be worth switching to a different service.

Cloudflare claims its 1.1.1.1 service is about 28 percent faster than top competitors, such as OpenDNS or Google's Public DNS. Cloudflare also makes some important privacy promises, saying it won't keep logs of what websites you visit for more than 24 hours (it says it needs them this long for troubleshooting purposes), and more importantly, it promises not to sell your data to third parties.

That's a big promise in the wake of a legislation passed last year that allows internet service providers and other online gateway businesses - including DNS operators - to sell browsing histories. And yes, quite a few DNS services sell the data they collect, including OpenDNS.

Cloudflare's service is also encrypted, so information about the sites you're visiting can't be read by prying eyes.

Roll your own: How to use your own modem and router with Comcast

I've been playing with Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 and it is indeed faster on my desktop and notebook computers, both noticeably and in tests. For example, accessing houstonchronicle.com with the Geektools Dig tool - which lets you check the performance of DNS servers - takes about 20 milliseconds using Comcast's DNS. With 1.1.1.1, it takes just 2 milliseconds. There are similar speed gains over Google's Public DNS and OpenDNS.

There are a couple of caveats, however. Your results may vary based on your internet provider, your location and other factors. And in some cases, switching from your internet provider's DNS settings may impact some other online services. For example, in the past, video streaming over Apple TV would lag when a third-party DNS was used, but I have not experienced that with Cloudflare's service.

Also: I didn't see noticeable gains when I setup 1.1.1.1 as the DNS on my iPhone 8 Plus.

Here's how to set up a Windows or Macintosh computer to use 1.1.1.1., adapted from Cloudflare's own instructions.

Windows

Go to the Control Panel, then click on Network and Internet. Click on Change Adapter Options. Right click on the Wi-Fi network you're on, then Properties. Click Internet Protocol Version 4, then Properties Chances are, your computer is set to "Obtain DNS server address automatically". Change to "Use The Following DNS Server Addresses." Enter the 1.1.1.1 DNS addresses Click OK, then Close. Restart your browser (but no need to restart the computer).

Chronicle screenshot

Mac

Launch the System Preferences app. In the search box, search for DNS Servers and select it from the resulting dropdown. Click the + button below the left box to add a DNS Server and enter 1.1.1.1 Click + again and enter 1.0.0.1 Click Ok, then click Apply.

Chronicle screenshot

To see how to set up 1.1.1.1 for an iOS or Android device, or to make it your home router's default DNS, go to the 1.1.1.1 setup instructions.

Update: If you're using AT&T's fiber-based internet service, you may find 1.1.1.1 doesn't work. That's because some providers have been using that IP address, which was previously unused, for non-standard uses. At least one AT&T router is set up that way. However, 1.0.0.1, the secondary Cloudflare DNS server, reportedly does work.

Dwight Silverman is the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle and the grillmaster for the TechBurger tech news site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Get more tasty tech news at TechBurger. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to the Chronicle for regular access to TechBurger stories and to be able to comment.
So rather than having a purely top-down approach, this is about our employees also leading the charge and allowing them the space to create a community and drive initiatives that support LGBTI inclusion in the workplace.

Moreover, over the past few years Medibank has participated in the Australian Workplace Equality Index.

We decided to benchmark ourselves against LGBTI inclusion best practice as a way of identifying areas where we could do better, she added.

One area that Medibank identified as in need of improvement was policy.

Our policies were not explicit in mentioning the inclusion of same sex couples in areas such as parental leave, said Saunders.
The research, published in the companys Getting to Equal 2018 report, looks at the most effective actions that business leaders can take to accelerate advancement and help close the gender pay gap.

We see this research as a powerful reminder that building a culture of respect for individuals is essential to achieving gender equality because people, not programs, are what make a company inclusive and diverse, said Easton.

The report grouped the core factors proven to influence advancement into three categories of bold leadership, comprehensive action and an empowering environment. The key findings in the three categories for Australia and New Zealand include:

Bold leadership: Women are more than twice as likely to be on the fast track in organisations where leadership teams are held accountable for improving gender diversity (75% compared to 36%).

Comprehensive action: Approximately three-quarters of employees work in organisations with a clear maternity policy in place and where women are encouraged to take leave. While fewer employees (50%) work in organisations where men are encouraged to take paternity leave.
Jan vd Brink Fotografie/Flickr

A woman doctor can't be debarred from joining the Army Medical Corps (AMC) just because she became pregnant during the course of the selection process, the high court in Punjab and Haryana ruled.

"Forcing a choice between bearing a child and employment interferes both with a woman's reproductive rights and her right to employment and such an action could have no place in modern India," according to the judgment. "Keeping the nature of employment in consideration, the government could grant maternity leave or keep a vacancy reserved which could be offered to a candidate after childbirth."

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In October 2009, the director general of armed forces had stopped a woman candidate from joining the AMC on the grounds that she had become pregnant between the period of her application and completion of final selection process. The court has called it illegal and unconstitutional.

The doctor, who is from Pathankot district in Punjab, was selected for Short Service Commission as Captain in AMC in June 2013, was asked to report Commandant of Military hospital in February 2014. Even though she had passed a medical fitness test at the time of her selection, the hospital administration did not allow her to join as they claimed that her pregnancy amounted to "deterioration in health", reportedThe Times of India.

This is despite the fact that married women are not required to take military training for the short service commission (SSC).

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Thailand fishermen strike over new regulations

by WASSANA NANUAM

April 10,2018 | Source: The Bangkok Post

More than a thousand fishing boats in Thailand yesterday went on strike against the government's stringent measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.



Boat operators from southern provinces such as Krabi and Satun sailed their vessels to Pattani Pier in order to put pressure on the government. They said the new legislation is impractical. Many fishery operators claimed they were now afraid of sailing out to sea for fear of violating the laws.



The regulations, they said, require every fisherman on board to wear a life jacket and employers to copy their payroll slips to be sent to Port In, Port Out (Pipo) centres, a process which operators claim is a burden.



Pattani Fisheries Association head Phubest Chantanimi said he wants the government to take care of fishermen troubled by stringent laws. "The operators have agreed to stop working indefinitely until the problem is properly addressed," Mr Phubest said yesterday, adding that representatives of fishery operators would hold a meeting with government officials at Government House today.



Responding to reports that fishermen would go on strike to oppose the government's harsh IUU-tackling measures brought against them, deputy prime minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, who oversees IUU simply said he doubted they would.



Deputy Prime Minister Prawit expressed no worries that the protest is being ramped up at a time when EU delegates are carrying out their survey of Thailand's fishing industry, and said the fishermen had already been invited for talks with relevant agencies.



Meanwhile, a European Union (EU) team surveying how the government has tackled the problem of IUU has praised the government's efforts.



Speaking after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Prawit at the Defence Ministry yesterday, Stefaan Depypere, the EU's director for international ocean governance and sustainable fisheries, said Thailand has made a lot of progress on the problem and provided a model for other countries to follow.



Mr Depypere, who is leading a team on a one-week survey trip, also urged the government to follow through various policies it has rolled out. He insisted that if everyone complies with the regulations, it would be a boon for the industry and fishermen's long-term livelihoods.



Success in tackling the IUU fishing, he stressed, would be beneficial to the Thai economy as a whole. The EU investigation trip will conclude tomorrow.



The European Union gave Thailand a "yellow card", or a final warning, in 2015 for its failure to effectively stop IUU fishing. A ban on the export of processed seafood to Europe was threatened if the country failed to adequately address the issue.



The government has announced an "IUU-free Thailand" directive.

 1996 - 2017 Bangkok Post Public Company Limited

Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.
30 Russian fishermen rescued after ice floe breaks off to sea

April 09,2018 | Source: The Moscow Times

Around 30 fishermen were left stranded on an ice floe in the northern Pacific Ocean in Russias Far East early on Monday.



The ice floe the men had been fishing from broke free from the land and reportedly floated more than 10 meters into the sea within an hour.



Interviewed experts could not say what the 30 people were counting on after venturing to sea despite warnings and common sense and finding themselves on a torn ice floe, the ministry wrote in a statement.



The Sakhalin regions Emergency Situations Ministry had warned last week to avoid the southeastern shore of the Sakhalin peninsula as winds have caused land ice to melt.



The Sakhalin.info news website reported that all the fishermen had been evacuated to shore by late Monday.



Interestingly, the last two remaining [fishermen] on the ice floe declined to get on the boat, arguing that the fish was biting, the site reported.

 1992-2017. The Moscow Times

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.
UK fishermen launch nationwide protests over Brexit

April 08,2018 | Source: Journal du Cameroun

British fishermen launched protests in ports around the country Sunday over perceived capitulation to the European Union in Brexit negotiations.



Organisers estimated as many as 200 vessels could participate in the day-long nationwide action, forming flotillas bearing flags and sounding horns as people also demonstrate on docksides.



Fishermen and fishing communities are enraged that the government has capitulated to Britain having to obey all EU law after Brexit, said the pro-Brexit organising group Fishing for Leave, in a statement.



Fishermen fear the EU will be able to enforce ill-founded rules to cull the British fleet and use international law to claim the resources the UK would no longer be able to catch.



Protests began in Newcastle, where a 15-boat flotilla assembled Sunday morning, before others mustered in Milford Haven, Wales, and Plymouth, southwest England, later in the day.



Further demonstrations were set for other sites, including Whitstable, Kent, where up to 40 vessels are expected and organisers plan to burn a disused boat in a shore-side bonfire during the evening.



I think this is going to draw attention  we want our voice heard, said Brendon Hall, 21, of Teignmouth, Devon, who followed his father into the industry four years ago and had sailed to Plymouth to protest.



The main part of the leave campaign was leaving the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) but were staying in with no veto and no say, he added, referring to the 2016 referendum that saw Britons vote for Brexit.



A draft deal struck with the EU last month will effectively keep Britain bound by the CFP  which ensures equal access to member states waters and sets quotas on catch  during a 20-month transition period following its formal departure from the bloc on March 29 next year.



Fishing for Leave spokesman Alan Hastings said the agreement was a death sentence for the industry, as the EU will be free to enforce and impose detrimental rules on us to cull whats left of the UK fleet.



A petition posted on the British parliaments website calling on the Government to abandon adopting the CFP post-Brexit has garnered more than 61,000 petitions.



After 100,000 signatures, a petition is considered for debate in the House of Commons.



The government has insisted Britain will be leaving the CFP when it departs the EU, and will negotiate a new fisheries policy independently from December 2020.

Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade.
China fisheries officials court Zanzibar

by Mark Godfrey

April 10,2018 | Source: SeafoodSource

China continues its diplomatic offensive to open up waters to its fishing companies, with a leading Chinese fisheries official recently leading a delegation of Chinese fishing companies to the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar with promises of increased cooperation in fisheries.



Zhang Xian Liang, who runs the fisheries management bureau at the Chinese agricultural ministry, met Zanzibar ministers of agriculture, fisheries, and natural resources. He was accompanied in meetings by Chinas consul general in Zanzibar, Xie Xiao Wu, who briefed Zhang on the current state of fisheries and opportunities for Chinese cooperation with Zanzibar, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. In 2017, Chinas commerce ministry funded a fisheries training program for Zanzibar officials, delivered by the Fujian Institute of Oceanography.



Chinese fisheries companies enjoy significant political support. In July 2017, Zhang Xian Liang led a delegation of fishing companies to Ghana, promising 2,500 jobs and lots of taxes for locals. A semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, Zanzibar is a strategic location for China, which has been keen to establish ports in the strategically important Indian Ocean.

 2018 Diversified Communications

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
Indian marine fisheries panel stresses on MSC certification; identifies 10 fish varieties

April 06,2018 | Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Observing that eco-labelling certification awarded by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is crucial for bolstering export value of Indian fisheries, a panel of stakeholders in marine fisheries sector has decided to take joint efforts to obtain the certification.



During a discussion at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Kochi, Kerala, under the leadership of the MSC, marine scientists, seafood exporters, fishermen representatives and retailers observed that unanimous efforts are required to implement fishery improvement projects (FIPs) prior to fulfilling the high bar standards for the MSC certification.



Considering the commercial importance, 10 fisheries were prioritised by the panel as the targeted fishery for getting MSC certification. They include blue swimming crab, shrimp, red ring shrimp, squid, whelk, flower shrimp, cuttlefish, lobster, skipjack tuna and Japanese threadfin bream. Fishery improvement projects will be developed for these fisheries.



Yemi Oloruntuyi, Head, Developing World Programmes of the MSC, said maintaining sustainability of fisheries is crucial to increase its acceptability among overseas markets. Today, it is increasingly a risky business to sell seafood products that are not sustainable. Sustainability provides competitive advantage creating opportunity for well-managed fisheries. Certification and eco-labelling helps to demonstrate sustainability, she said.



Sunil Mohammed, Principal Scientist of CMFRI, said the certification would bring in enhanced economic opportunities and market access for the fishing industry. The eco-labelling certification will boost Indias share of seafood exports and fetch a well-accepted markets in European and North African countries, he said.

 2018, The Hindu Business Line

Theme(s): Others.
Sweden is the home of many great innovations. The Scandinavian country brought us flat-pack Ikea furniture and streaming Spotify music. The country has even experimented with the six-hour workday.

While jamming to your Discover Weekly playlist and kicking back on your Klippan loveseat, get ready for the next Swedish trend to soon take America by storm.

It's oat milk. Yes, that's "milk" made from oats.

Oatly is a Swedish company that's been producing oat milk for its countrymen since the '90s. Here's how Oatly describes the beverage: "The company's patented enzyme technology copies nature's own process and turns fiber rich oats into nutritional liquid food that is perfectly designed for humans." Delicious! (No, really, it is. I'm drinking it right now.)

The packaging is delightful. The product is good. Even though it's vegan, one type of Oatly has a consistency similar to whole dairy milk and boasts a slight natural sweetness. Millennials and hipsters such as myself love the stuff. Just last month, there was an Oatly shortage. Not because the company ran out of oats, but because it couldn't make oat milk fast enough.

"We can't cut corners on how we make it," Oatly's general manager, Mike Messersmith, told Well and Good. "That's why it's hard to scale fast and meet demand--you can't make concessions on how the product is made."

Here's how Oatly emerged as a force to be reckoned with and is now poised to carve out a major chunk of the lucrative alternative-milk market.

Tapping into a $16 billion industry

About a year ago, Oatly began distributing its oat milk in the United States. To properly enter a new market, the company had to be smart. Though dairy alternatives are so hot right now, the American market is crowded. There's almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, cashew milk, and the utterly disgusting hemp milk. The global market for dairy alternative drinks is expected to reach $16.3 billion in 2018, according to Innova Market Insights.

Oatly had plenty working in its favor. Almond milk -- the plant milk preferred by many who don't drink dairy -- was having a rough go. It takes just over a gallon of water to produce a single almond, Mother Jones reported. Most almonds are produced in California, which was suffering from an intense years-long drought.

But that didn't mean Oatly could waltz right in and kick all the other alternative milks out. Though Swedes and Europeans have been drinking oat milk since the '90s, it's less known in the U.S.

A grocery store chain like Whole Foods might seem like a natural fit, but it's ridiculously hard to get shelf space there. It can take years to get into Whole Foods, and there's only so much space.

Oatly needed a different approach. It needed allies. Those whose opinions were trusted by consumers. To infiltrate the United States, the company needed influencers to get behind its product and brand. Oatly knew just the people: baristas.

Putting other plant milks to shame

Baristas were the perfect target to help launch Oatly in the U.S. market. Baristas tend not to like working with plant milks. "They are either too thin, too bitter, or contain a long list of artificial thickeners and preservatives: xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate," explains Food & Wine.

But Oatly works pretty well in coffee drinks. Unlike other alternative milks, it foams nicely. It doesn't curdle with heat. And it doesn't have those gross-sounding artificial ingredients.

So Oatly sent samples of its whole-milk alternative to baristas across America. It caught on somewhat like wildfire. The first company to place an order was Intelligentsia Coffee, Food & Wine reports.

"It's the first time my baristas have gotten behind an alternative milk in an intense way," Intelligentsia president and CEO James McLaughlin told the magazine. "We started stocking the liter cartons on our shelves because customers were like, 'I want to take this home.'" McLaughlin says Oatly quickly outpaced almond and soy milk in customer orders.

Other New York coffee shops followed suit. At first, just a dozen specialty coffee shops carried it. Suddenly, more than 200 did, coffee publication Sprudge reports. It quickly caught on in Los Angeles and Chicago -- other cities where coffee snobbery abounds.

Now, Oatly is available for purchase in the U.S. through the company's website -- that is, if it's not sold out. Or you can use the handy Oatfinder to see if it's available in a coffee shop or store near you. That's how I was able to snag a $4.39 quart of Barista Edition Oatmilk to add to my home-brewed coffee.
Clean energy doesn't seem to be a priority anymore for many institutions. The process of implementing clean energy technology is extremely complicated and frustrating for inventors, which can prevent their ideas from seeing the light of day. There are 1.2 billion people around the world lacking electricity--but the current energy finance structure leaves them in the dark.

But what if entrepreneurs could more actively participate in the process? What if there was a way to circumnavigate the bureaucracy impeding progress? That's what CEO Dan Bates says he is pursuing with his company ImpactPPA. I recently spoke with Bates about his mission to transform the entire global energy finance industry.

Can you elaborate on how non-governmental organizations and government agencies are impeding energy innovation?

Bates: NGOs and government agencies are mandated to follow certain guidelines, and unfortunately these guidelines create an often slow and inefficient process when it comes to funding new energy projects. From start to finish, it is not uncommon for NGO's or government agencies to take years to fund and complete an energy project. With ImpactPPA's project finance and energy management platform we are trying to cut that implementation time from years down to months and in some cases even weeks.

We believe that access to power is a right not a privilege, so we are striving to provide energy to the powerless 1.2 billion people on earth as quickly as possible.

Throughout your career, did legacy financial institutions create any particular hurdles in your path to spreading clean energy that you were especially frustrated with?

Bates: I have been personally involved with many projects that required institutional or NGO funding, and sadly were not able to move forward. Many of these projects were in Africa where there exists challenging processes for approval. Some of the hurdles that must be overcome include: a country's poor credit rating, risk profile, letter of credit, or sovereign guarantees. Many of these issues can be satisfied through creative endeavors that a more traditional bank would not be willing to undertake.

This is the main driver for our need to decentralize project finance and use creative financial solutions and tools in order to accelerate the installation of renewables to ultimately help communities in need.

How did you come to the conclusion that it is important for ImpactPPA to use blockchain technology?

First, it offers access to capital through the crowd using the tokenization of Renewable Energy. Now, for the first time, a crowd of like-minded individuals can be connected with projects that are in need of capital and have a clear path to social good and revenue recognition. With the funds raised from the crowd we will be able to self finance all of our energy projects and bypass legacy financing. This solution creates a much faster and efficient deployment of energy to folks who, at present, do not have any power.

We also use the blockchain to manage our data and payment collection. The end users, or energy consumers, will pay for energy using our GEN credits on their mobile phones. In order for the end user to have access to energy they will need to interact with our smart meter that is connected to the blockchain. Smart meters will be located on the home or business and the end user will select the amount of power that they want (on their phone) and submit the appropriate number of GEN credits to the smart meter. This transaction is then mined and verified on the blockchain; when all of these steps are complete they receive energy and we receive payment.

This is not only important because it provides a reliable, secure, and transparent method to collect payment, but it also allows us to collect invaluable energy consumption data for a population that has never had it before. An increased accessibility to data allows us to continually improve on our installations.

Additionally, as we collect data we are giving identity to a large population that prior to this access to energy may not have had a digital footprint. This brings millions of the unbanked into this new economy.

How does blockchain allow for investors to see how their money is spent? How does this hold developers accountable to finish projects thoroughly and on time?

All aspects of the project will be transparent on the blockchain and in our smart contracts. Project costing, timelines, third parties, local partners, and labor and revenue generation will be made available. It is our goal to make the deployment of renewable energy projects open and available for all to see for the first time.

What is the purpose of using two different cryptocurrencies, the MPQ Tokens and GEN Credits, instead of just one?

Our two cryptocurrencies serve different purposes; simply put, the MPQ Token is used for project financing and is what an investor would purchase, while the GEN Credit is what the end user will use to purchase energy.

The reason we have separate currencies is that the value of the MPQ token can change based on various conditions in the market, while the GEN credit has a fixed price per kilowatt hour that is predetermined in the SmartPPA and is unique to each installation. We do not want the price of energy for our end user to be tied to an exchange where it can move up or down -- it needs to be a fixed price.

Is ImpactPPA already working on installing finished projects?
Imagine the next time you got a great business idea launched, you felt confident you could raise money to scale it.

That's the world that 34 women investors, who represent several billion in investable capital, are calling into reality. Together, they just launched an organization called AllRaise. It's a nonprofit dedicated to normalizing what it looks like to raise money, especially for women.

In the last few years, the percentages of women funders and women founders has barely moved.

Research such as Morningstar's 2018 Fund Managers By Gender Report shows that women investors perform slightly better on average than male investors. Even so, the number of women investment decision makers is moving backwards. Morningstar's report reveals male fund managers captured nearly all new fund management roles in the U.S. in recent months. Meanwhile, the number of women starting tech companies is blossoming, but the number getting funded is flat.

AllRaise founder and Midas List investor Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures puts the problem succinctly on her blog,

"Women now receive more than half the engineering bachelor's degrees at schools like MIT and Dartmouth, and make up 49% of computer science majors at Harvey Mudd College, 48% at CMU and 39% at MIT (stick that in your 'pipeline problem' and smoke it). There is also much research quantifying how diverse teams make better decisions, and have better financial results. This data indicates where we could, and should be in the venture ecosystem."

Unfortunately, the venture capital industry is moving backwards when it comes to funding female founders and founders of color.

While some point to modest gains in the numbers of female-founded firms that get funded, the larger context is that there are also growing numbers of women and diverse founders. VC funding is sliding backwards on a percentage-of-founders-funded basis even as it celebrates "small wins" in percentages-of-capital.

At issue isn't the tech- or the talent- pipeline for female funders or founders. It's the connection to capital, as in connections to capital from institutions that back women-led funds and connections to capital to scale for diverse founders of tech firms. Harvard research shows that when men and women pitch the same ideas, men are more likely to be funded. Similarly, a team of Swedish researchers just showed VCs are often blind to their bias, making it easier to men to raise money even when business merits are equal.

While that seems unfair to women, this isn't a women's issue--it's an innovation crisis.

If only a small (and relatively shrinking) percentage of founders can capture capital, we're limiting the range of options our world has. Last year, in a world where 40% of new founders were women or minority according to Kauffman, 90% of venture capital went to white-male-led teams. What incredible cool stuff we did miss? By the numbers, a lot. If you love innovation, you love innovators--all of them. Enter AllRaise.

34 top women investors are tackling this issue directly on gender.

"For many years I thought it wasn't a big deal that peers, partners and entrepreneurs were bonding and comparing notes outside the office by going to games together, grabbing drinks, having dinners and going on fun trips without inviting any women. But what I didn't realize is this informal support network was very helpful behind the scenes," shares Lee.

AllRaise is fielding programs like #FoundersforChange and Female Female Founder Office Hours to convene action over conversation.

AllRaise has two metrics-driven goals:

To double the percentage of female partners from 9% to 18% at US tech venture firms with fund size >$25M by 2028

To increase the percentage of venture funding going to companies with a female founder from 15% to 25% by 2023

A study reported in Harvard Business Review shows both men and women investors today tend to hold stereotypes against female founders--and yet those stereotypes have no basis in fact. If AllRaise catalyzes change through its programs, the entire world would see more diverse innovation at a more rapid rate. And that's the plan.

"Success is having an industry that's diverse, collaborative and fair, when anyone with a great idea and a good work ethic can be successful," says Emily Melton, partner at DFJ and another AllRaise co-founder.

"I don't think this is a flash in the pan, no one's doing anything for optics," AllRaise cofounder Jenny Lefcourt, partner at Freestyle, commented to Forbes, "The data is too concrete that shows that diversity is correlated with positive company results--as well as on the flip side, ignoring diversity, ignoring culture, has the potential to be a downfall of an entire company."
Which habit you've adopted has done the most to improve your life? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Samantha Radocchia, Co-Founder at Chronicled, on Quora:

Personally, I'm not most productive when I'm sitting at a desk. I learn better when I'm in motion. Always have.

Luckily, our society is moving toward a new concept of work--one unconstrained by offices or desks. In 2016, 43% of U.S. workers said they spent at least some time working remotely. More employees are being given the leeway to work when and how they're most effective.

Which is great news, because I'm at my best when I'm up and moving.

That's why I spend time each day performing a very simple, yet powerful, exercise--walking.

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in grade school. And as I got older, I was placed in special classes that were designed to keep me up and moving. One of my math classes had us work outside so we could measure the area of a field, calculate distance, or experiment with basic physics.

That idea of hands-on learning--of movement intertwined with thought--has been a thread throughout my life.

I just think better while in motion, and I'm not the only one.

Being in motion helps you loosen up, ideate, communicate, and work through complex problems.

People operate on different frequencies throughout the day. We all recognize when we're not in an optimal state for work, deep thought, or creativity. When I feel stagnant, it's like I'm humming at a lower wavelength. I'm not as happy, active, productive.

But when I'm vibrating at a higher frequency, everything falls into place. I'm in a flow where ideas come easier and problems aren't as challenging. For me, walking is a way to initiate that flow state.

When I lived in San Francisco, I deliberately chose where I lived so I could be within walking distance of my office. But not too close. I wanted to be far enough that my morning walk would take about an hour.

That was my favorite part of the day. I got in motion, listened to music, and raised my frequency before I got to work. It energizes me and helps me work through issues and ideas. It's the simplest way for me to put myself in the proper state to solve a problem.

When you change your environment, you open yourself up to new ideas and encounters.

If you sit in the same environment all day, you're probably going to fall into your habits. You won't be stimulated to think differently or take a new approach. If you want to find a novel solution to a problem, you have to deviate from your standard line of thinking in some way.

I'll often take a walk if I'm stuck thinking through a problem or initiating something. The change in environment gets my brain moving and alters my perceptions.

I don't structure the walk--the walk is the structure. I'm taking a walk because I know there's something on my mind that I'm trying to work through. It's not a regimented process. I just try to be mindful of my intentions for the walk when I begin.

That's why it's good to leave a little room for creativity and serendipity. You don't have to set out by saying, "At the end of this walk, I'll have solved this specific problem." You're just trying to change your environment and open your mind to new possibilities.

Walking gives you the time you need to process information and choose the way you respond.

I really enjoy walking after an important meeting, because whether it went well or it went poorly, I still need to process and digest it.

Some people like to jump right into follow-up emails and action items from the meeting, but I think it's beneficial to take a step back. Or a few thousand steps.

Meetings are stimulating. They can get heated. Conflicts can arise. I find that it's a good idea to go for a walk afterwards and work through whatever just happened before I respond. It's the same concept as "sleeping on it." The goal is to give yourself some time and space between your initial reaction and your response.

Walk home after the meeting, go grab some tea, get moving while the information is still fresh and you can digest it.

I know this isn't going to be for everyone. There are plenty of people who don't work well in motion. They feel ungrounded. They like sitting in the same place and having the same routine every day. Everyone's different.

But if you do have the time and the flexibility in your day to "walk on it," then I would highly suggest taking that stroll.
Over the last year, I've gone through some serious personal and professional changes. I moved to a new city and bought a home, took on a different role at a company I co-founded, and shifted my focus to more creative pursuits. Throughout the process, I did a lot of soul searching and reflecting on what was important. Essentially, I began to rethink everything: My career, my ultimate purpose, my use of technology, and my connections to friends and family. I left no stone unturned.

From a cultural standpoint, I became fascinated with how technology is enabling all of these wonderful things while simultaneously robbing us of focus and human connection. What are the boundaries around devices, and how can we?as those in the tech industry?build products and machines that are "mindful" of humanity? Is it possible to have both efficiency and empathy?

In terms of companies that impact our our daily lives most people would probably name a major social media site like Facebook or the e-commerce giant that never seems to find its way out of the headlines: Amazon. But there are so many other companies that are nudging our lives in new directions for the better. They are helping us through our home-buying journeys, connecting us with people as we navigate new places, and encouraging us toward healthier ways of living.

Here are just a few I discovered during my own personal journey.

Omni keeps your life clutter-free

Essentially, Omni wants to help its customers simplify their lives by storing all the stuff they don't use, which keeps them from wasting money on a storage unit or being forced to get rid of things they may want to keep. So when I downsized prior to my cross-country move, I tapped Omni to help me store and then access those things.

Instead of requiring consumers to buy a fixed amount of space (much of which often goes unused), Omni allows them to store items individually for a much lower price. For example, "standard items" (such as books or small appliances) can be stored for just 50 cents per month, while larger items like bikes or a chairs can be stored for $3.00 per month.

Additionally, the company allows customers to rent their stuff out or have access to it elsewhere. You can put a surfboard in Omni, and it can meet you or a friend at the beach. When you're not using it, someone else can rent it for a small fee. In other words, Omni is offering the right "on-demand" service at the right time.

Porch alleviates the stresses of home ownership

Remember when a broken dishwasher or a malfunctioning water heater would force you to scour the yellow pages or ask your cantankerous uncle to stop by over the weekend to "take a look at it"? Those days are gone and they aren't coming back.

Porch is a unique offering that connects homeowners with a network of 250,000 professionals who can deliver over 1100 different types of services that happen in the home - from plumbing and HVAC to painting and window repair. From my personal experience, they are a great resource for everything from a local handyman to speciality pros like electricians.

Although the company is only five years old, it's clear that their technology-driven platform puts them toe to toe with incumbents like HomeAdvisor. This is for good reason: Their Home Assistant balances genuine human interaction with bot-based artificial intelligence. They offer personalized project assessments, detailed cost calculators, project guides and more, all of which gave me confidence throughout the process.

As a new homeowner in a new city, I had one hundred things I need to do, most of which were completely outside my wheelhouse. I was grateful for Porch and will definitely be enlisting them in the future as the whole homeownership things seems to be a never-ending journey.

Nextdoor keeps us connected with our neighbors

Ironically, feelings of isolation and loneliness are reported by an increasing number of people despite the fact that we live in a hyperconnected world. Far more Americans live alone in their households (that's me!) today than in 1950. While we may be making strides in many areas, feelings of loneliness aren't generally solved by most technological advancements.

While many social media platforms give us the ability to connect with people all over the world, Nextdoor encourages users to interact with folks who live right down the street. Users are required to provide their real names and verify their addresses, and networks only consist of people who live nearby.

But the most significant impact may be its potential to address a growing problem in the United States: Since Nextdoor was founded, it has expanded to more than 165,000 neighborhoods and it now has users in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. Perhaps this impressive growth tells us that people are desperate for relationships that don't just exist online.

By blending the ever-increasing popularity of social media with physical connections that people crave, Nextdoor is showcasing a business model that will likely be emulated.

Thrive Market delivers organic products to your door

When I finally got settled into my new home and neighborhood, I wanted to spend as much time as I could going out and exploring Nashville. Things like grocery shopping weren't necessarily at the top of my list, so upon suggestion from a close friend I joined Thrive Market. Not only do I believe in their mission of making organic food less pricey and more accessible to the masses, but it allowed me to skip the markups and hassles of traditional grocery shopping.

For $59.95 per year I have wholesale organic products delivered to my house - a model that some say is a marriage of Whole Foods and Costco.

As a Thrive customer, I can choose products that represent more than 70 different "values." Whether its pasture-raised beef, non-GMO, dolphin-safe tuna, or fair trade-certified chocolate, I can find products that reflect my individual ethical concerns.

By combining the ease of online shopping with an inventory of affordable organic products and a well-defined ethical core, Thrive has carved out a unique place for itself in the retail food market. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the company has 400,000 customers. Now make that 400,001.
After privately assuring senators that his company will do better, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is undergoing a two-day congressional inquisition that will be very public  and possibly pivotal for the massive social networking company he created.

Zuckerberg visited with senators in closed-door meetings Monday, previewing the public apology he plans to give Congress on Tuesday after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.

He's apologized many times already, to users and the public, but it is the first time in his career that he has gone before Congress. Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday and before a House panel on Wednesday.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg will not only try to restore public trust in his company but also stave off federal regulation that some lawmakers have floated. In prepared testimony released Monday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and Russian social media interference in the 2016 elections.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he says in the remarks. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."

After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced  and the company confirmed  that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users' data. In the remarks, Zuckerberg said his company has a responsibility to make sure what happened with Cambridge Analytica doesn't happen again.

Zuckerberg is also expected to be asked about Russia's use of U.S. social media during the 2016 elections  a subject of several congressional investigations and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference.

In the statement, Zuckerberg addresses Russian election interference and acknowledges, as he has in the past, that the company was too slow to respond and that it's "working hard to get better." The company has said that as many as 146 million people may have received information from a Russian agency that's accused of orchestrating much of the cyber meddling in the election.

"We will continue working with the government to understand the full extent of Russian interference, and we will do our part not only to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, but also to give everyone a voice and to be a force for good in democracy everywhere," Zuckerberg continues.

In the testimony, Zuckerberg acknowledges that the questioning will likely be hostile.

"We face a number of important issues around privacy, safety, and democracy, and you will rightfully have some hard questions for me to answer," Zuckerberg says.

The prepared remarks do not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry, Zuckerberg outlines the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information. He also says the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014  something that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Zuckerberg met Monday with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce panel. Nelson said afterward that Zuckerberg was "forthright and honest to the degree he could" be in the private, one-on-one meeting.

Nelson said he believes Zuckerberg is taking the congressional hearings seriously "because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation."

Democrats like Nelson have argued that federal laws might be necessary to ensure user privacy. Republicans so far have shown little appetite for such regulation, but that could change if there are future privacy scandals or Democrats gain control of Congress in this November's elections.

"I think he understands that regulation could be right around the corner," Nelson said.

Zuckerberg was also scheduled to meet with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., ahead of Tuesday's hearing.

Separately, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Monday that the company is establishing an independent election research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy. He said the commission will work with foundations across the U.S. to set up a committee of academic experts who will come up with research topics and select independent researchers to study them
The Duchess of Sussex is due to give birth in the coming weeks. While Kensington Palace has not yet confirmed where her delivery will take place, if she is to follow in the footsteps of the Duchess of Cambridge, it will be in the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital, London.

Responsible for delivering some of the countrys most high-profile offspring  George and Amal Clooneys twin daughters were born there in 2017  the esteemed maternity ward is one of the most exclusive around, but whats it like to give birth there?

One London-based mother has revealed all about the luxury ward as she experienced it when seven months ago when she delivered her daughter, Isla.

The couple praised the staff as absolutely fantastic (Hello Magazine)

Speaking to Hello Magazine, Katherine Filkins said she received the full royal treatment as a guest in the Lindo Wing.

The 38-year-old mother-of-two explained that no element of opulence goes amiss, with afternoon tea, post-delivery massages and champagne all included in the maternity package.

Recommended Princess Charlotte will make history when royal baby arrives

With prices starting at 5,900 per night, Filkins experience is obviously not one available to most people and is every bit as exclusive as youd imagine.

While the Canadian-born mother had originally booked a standard room, one wasnt available at the time she went into labour and she was therefore upgraded to a deluxe suit.

We were lead to believe is where the royals also stay, she tells the magazine.

Filkins endured 81 hours of labour before having a caesarean birth (Hello Magazine)

It was a very large room we could have all of our relatives there the next day we could have sat six people comfortably, she adds, likening the deluxe room to a hotel suite as it was kitted out with plush toiletries and an extensive food and drink menu.

Filkins also explained that her husband, Martin, was treated exceptionally well and was waited on hand and foot by the wards attentive staff.

There is also a supervised nursery in the wing, giving parents the option of having a little time away from their newborns, should they want a break.

Plus, the wards staff are under strict instructions to be discrete in order to make guests feel as comfortable and secure as possible, which will undoubtedly be appealing to high-profile guests.

The couple praised the staff at the Lindo Wing for their sterling service, adding that they were very chuffed to have the opportunity to give birth in the same wing as the royal family.
Poverty is an opportunity, at least for politicians. The release of the latest annual estimates of how many people in Scotland are living in poverty  a disturbing 20 per cent  provides yet another opportunity for politicians to blame other politicians for a problem. Holyrood blames Westminster, Westminster blames Holyrood  and those outside of government blame those who wield the power.

There are always people ready to embrace and celebrate poverty. Franciscan friars take a vow of poverty, and on occasion a media-hungry celebrity may choose a short period of living in poverty to make a point. And those reflecting on national sporting failings are prone to lament the lack of everyday poverty, which in the old days was the hunger that drove our sporting heroes to achieve.

But exceptions and distractions aside, poverty in the 21st century should be viewed as a national disgrace. It is pernicious  restricting opportunity, preventing people from reaching their potential and making life tougher and more fragile for those unlucky enough to encounter it. We should not forget that in these uncertain times of austerity, the UK is still one of the worlds largest economies, with some projections suggesting that it will remain a top ten global economy until at least 2050.

What then are we to make of the latest estimate that one million people in Scotland are living in relative poverty  that is, after housing costs, they are left with a household income that is below 60 per cent of the national median? Can the fifth annual increase in the number of people in Scotland who are living this way be viewed as anything other than a problem?

We could take an historical perspective and point to evidence that suggests that things are not as bad now as they were just before the turn of the millennium. The proportion of people in Scotland living in poverty has fluctuated at about 18 to 19 per cent for the last decade, whereas it ranged between 23 and 34 per cent in the 1990s. We might have just crept up over the one million mark according to the latest data, but we were always uncomfortably above one million at the end of the 20th century.

We could take a comparative perspective and point to evidence that suggests things are not as bad in Scotland as they are in the rest of the UK. On the same day that the Scottish government published its figures, the latest round of UK estimates were published by the Department for Work and Pensions. This shows that poverty is slightly lower in Scotland than in Wales, Northern Ireland and England as a whole  with only some parts of southern England outside London having comparable rates to Scotland.

But we still need a reality check. Better than bad is not good. A little bit less (in terms of numbers living in poverty) is nothing to celebrate. A staggering one-fifth of Scotlands population living below the poverty line is worth getting angry about.

Scotland plans to eradicate child poverty by 2030 (Alamy)

The upside about the one million living in poverty in Scotland is that the country is actively doing something about it. Reducing poverty is not being left to the fanciful notion that a growing economy will cascade financial wellbeing throughout the land  or the equivalent myth that increasing poverty must be accepted as a fact of life when the economic climate is tough.

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act received royal assent on 18 December 2017. Not so much an early Christmas present for Scotlands children, but more advance notice of one to come by 2030 when child poverty in Scotland is to be eradicated. Sound familiar? It should.

The UK had a similar goal until it was withdrawn in 2016 with the passing of the Welfare Reform and Work Act. When the UK government reneged on the Child Poverty Act 2010 with its goal of eradicating child poverty in the UK by 2020, Scotland dissented and set about introducing an equivalent goal for Scotland.

In advance of this Scottish Act being passed, a Poverty and Inequality Commission had already been established. It recently advised the Scottish government that making social security live up to its name, making work pay and reducing housing costs to the least well-off should be the key ingredients of a child poverty strategy. At the same time, it argued that steps to bolster the quality of life of children living with poverty should not be overlooked in the quest to reduce the numbers.

The Scottish government responded with Every Child, Every Chance, its first delivery plan for 2018/22, working towards achieving the 2030 goal of eradicating child poverty in Scotland. New action on work and earnings, reducing the cost of living, social security and new forms of partnership working are all outlined in a comprehensive programme.

John H McKendrick is a chair professor at Glasgow Caledonian University. This article was originally published on The Conversation (theconversation.com)
You know that feeling when something seems too good to be true  when it looks like a lot has happened in your favour recently, so it's suspicious?

Some people can't get over this feeling, and their good fortune takes a sinister turn in their mind.

People who have an irrational aversion to being happy suffer from something called "cherophobia." It comes from the Greek word "chairo," which means "I rejoice." It basically means that they are afraid to participate in anything fun.

It's not the activities that are scary, it's the fear that if you let go, and are happy and carefree, then something terrible will happen.

Cherophobia isn't widely-used or well-defined, and isn't in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which is the main resource for diagnosing mental health conditions. But according to Healthline, some medical experts classify cherophobia as a form of anxiety.

Someone who has cherophobia probably isn't sad all the time, they simply avoid events and activities that could bring them happiness. Some symptoms of the disorder, according to Healthline, are:

Anxiety when you're invited to a social gathering.

Passing on opportunities that could lead to positive life changes due to the fear something bad will happen.

Refusing to participate in "fun" activities.

Thinking being happy will mean something bad will happen.

Thinking happiness makes you a bad or worse person.

Believing that showing happiness is bad for you or your friends or family.

Thinking that trying to be happy is a waste of time and effort.

In a blog post on Psychology Today, psychiatrist Carrie Barron discusses some possible reasons for people developing cherophobia, or "hedonophobia," which is defined as the fear of pleasure.

"There is so much talk about the pursuit of happiness these days," she wrote. "It might seem unusual for someone to fear this positive emotion. If it is due to a happiness/punishment link in childhood, it could be more common than we think."

For example, it could stem from the fear of conflict with a loved one, or a bad experience you associate with a certain event. If you're used to something bad happening straight after a happy event, you might resist going again.

"If you are pleasure averse, it may be because somewhere along the way, wrath, punishment, humiliation or theft  you earned it and they had to have it  killed your joy," Barron added. "Now you are afraid to feel it because the bubble burst/brutality is coming."

In an interview with The Metro news site, blogger Stephanie Yeboah described what it's like to live with cherophobia.

"Ultimately, it's a feeling of complete hopelessness, which leads to feeling anxious or wary of taking part in, or actively doing things, that promote happiness as you feel that it will not last," she said.

"A fear of happiness doesn't necessarily mean that one is constantly living in sadness. In my case, my cherophobia was exacerbated/triggered by traumatic events. Even things such as celebrating a campaign win, completing a difficult task or winning a client make me feel uneasy."

Treating cherophobia can sometimes be mistaken for treating feelings of depression, which Yeboah said isn't particularly helpful.

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. 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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

"There's not really much I can do as there aren't many resources that are specific for cherophobia, so I just kind of get on with it and try not to think about it where possible."

Barron said a good place to start is digging into your past, so you can try and learn to have tolerance for wasting time, having fun, and happiness without fearing negative consequences.

In particular, she said treatments like insight-oriented psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are useful for understanding the causes and undoing the negative associations people have between pleasure and pain.

Ultimately, tackling cherophobia is changing the way you think. If you think you may have it, it's likely a defence mechanism that you've put up, that was built because of a past conflict or trauma.

It will take time to work through your problems, but with treatment, you may be able to get past it, enjoy happiness, and start living in the moment.

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Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
Iceland will stop using palm oil in its own brand food by the end of the year, the supermarket chain announced on Tuesday.

It said it was removing palm oil, which is linked to the destruction of swathes of rainforest, from 130 food products and replace it with more environmentally friendly alternatives such as sunflower oil. The move will reduce demand for palm oil by 500 tonnes, the company said.

Palm oil production results in widespread deforestation Indonesia and Malaysia, destroying habitats of many critically endangered species such as the orangutan and making a major contribution to climate change.

Demand for palm oil has increased rapidly for use in a huge range of foods and toiletries. It is now thought to be present in around half of all supermarket products, leading the industry to launch attempts to certify that it is sustainable.

Many companies that sell products containing palm oil have signed up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a self-regulating organisation which aims to guarantee minimum environmental standards, but campaign groups have criticised its efforts for not being robust enough.

Richard Walker, Icelands managing director, said the supermarket had decided to remove palm oil because there was none available on the mass market that could be verified as sustainable.

A survey of 5,000 people carried out by Iceland found that 35 per cent of consumers were unaware what palm oil is, despite its ubiquity in household products ranging from breakfast cereals to shower gel.

When informed about the oils negative effects on the environment 85 per cent said they did not believe it should be contained in food products.

Mr Walker said: Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying 'no to palm oil'.

Having recently been to Indonesia and seen the environmental devastation caused by expanding palm oil production first hand, I feel passionately about the importance of raising awareness of this issue - and I know many British consumers share my concern and want to have a real choice about what they buy.

This journey has shown me that, currently, no major supermarket or food manufacturer can substantiate any claim that the palm oil they use is truly sustainable, as the damage being caused to the global environment and communities in South East Asia is just too extensive.

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven, said time was running out for household brands to clean up their acts and for the forests and wildlife being destroyed by palm oil producers.

As global temperatures rise from burning forests, and populations of endangered species continue to dwindle, companies using agricultural commodities like palm oil will come under increasing pressure to clean up their supply chains, he said.

Many of the biggest consumer companies in the world have promised to end their role in deforestation by 2020."
Ultimo, the lingerie brand launched by Baroness Michelle Mone, is to cease trading in the UK due to the current challenging retail market.

Staff at Ultimo headquarters in East Kilbride, Scotland, retail partners, suppliers and other key stakeholders were informed of the decision today, and all 11 staff have now begun a formal redundancy consultation period.

A spokesperson for the company said: "The last few years have been extremely challenging for Ultimo, driven by increasing competition in the market and more cautious consumer spending due to the uncertainty surrounding the UK economy over the last 18 months.

"Having reviewed the business performance over the last three years as well as future prospects and considering the retail environment within which the business is operating; the board has, with regret, decided to cease operations of the Ultimo business in the UK.

While Ultimo UK operations will be wound up at the end of June, the company confirmed that Ultimo will honour all financial commitments with suppliers and partners, and the rights of consumers will also be unaffected.

Lady Mone founded Ultimo, along with her then-husband Michael Mone, in 1999.

She sold most of her stake in Ultimo to MAS Sri Lanka in 2014, and a year later resigned from the group's board.
Teachers have had heavy objects thrown at them by violent pupils, and have had their car brakes cut and their windscreens smashed, an education union has heard.

School staff are increasingly not reporting assaults on them and their colleagues as they believe it is just accepted and expected, the ATL section of the National Education Union (NEU) said.

Delegates at the unions annual conference in Liverpool raised concerns about growing levels of aggression and violence which, they claim, has increasingly found its way into schools.

Peter Shreeve, from the Isle of Wight, said he was personally aware of objects being thrown, heavy objects being slammed into bodies, and spitting.

He had also heard of car brakes being cut and a back windscreen being smashed on a home drive.

Mr Shreeve added: In my experience staff are often reluctant to report violence. Some believe its part of the job and being assaulted is accepted and expected. Some think reporting is not worthwhile, as there are no consequences or management is reluctant to act.

The motion  which noted that free schools and academies have no legal responsibility to report incidences of violence behaviour  called for all schools to report centrally at a local level.

Were calling for a reverse of austerity. Children now receive less support than they used to, staff have no time to deal with issues, hence an increase in anxious students lashing out, Mr Shreeve said.

The NEU passed the motion which called on the unions executive to investigate how violent behaviour is reported and collated and to encourage members to report acts of violence.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA 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

Emma Quinn, from Northern Ireland, described her school  which has a high number of pupils with special educational needs  as hell at times because of violence and aggression.

Corrie Rayner, who works as a science technician in an academy, said she had been pushed and tripped up by a group of students. Luckily, I was not delivering a tray of acid to the lab, she said.

She was also mock headbuttedm Ms Rayner added: You may say that these are only minor examples of the kind of aggression and violence that has increasingly found its way into our schools.

There are far more shocking cases of violence towards school staff including fatalities. Support staff are an easy target because we are often viewed as less important.
Prime minister Theresa May has announced an additional 75m in funding for earlier and faster diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, which kills more than 10,000 men each year.

The funding, announced to coincide with Male Cancer Awareness Week, will support 40,000 men to enrol studies of cutting edge treatment and new screening tools over the next five years.

It comes as a report by the charity Orchid revealed four out of ten cases are diagnosed late, at stage three or four where the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 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

The charity warned of a ticking timebomb in prostate cancer care, with stretched diagnostic and treatment services likely to be overwhelmed by a growing number of cases.

Too many people endure the loss of a loved one because cancer diagnosis comes too late in the day, the prime minister said. Our cancer treatments are world class and survival rates are at a record high, but prostate cancer still claims thousands of lives every year.

I know we can do more. Thats why I am setting out new plans to help thousands of men get treated earlier and faster.

Prostate cancer affects one man in eight and is currently the third biggest cause of cancer death in the UK, it has overtaken breast cancer and on current trends is predicted to become the biggest killer by 2030.

The new funding will be focused on the groups at highest risk of prostate cancer, including black men, men over the age of 50 and those with a family history of the disease.

Further details are expected to come out during a trip to Cambridgeshire on Tuesday, where Mrs May will talk with NHS staff abut a long-term funding deal for the NHS.

Since 2010 NHS funding has averaged just 1 per cent growth a year as result of Tory austerity policies, which have heaped on further pressure with cuts to public health and social care.

Recommended The rise in prostate cancer deaths is not down to gender bias

Throughout the NHSs history it has averaged a budget growth of around 4 per cent each year to keep up with demand.

Commenting on the news, Dr Iain Frame, director of research at the charity Prostate Cancer UK said: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and it is now the third most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK.

However, with increased research investment used wisely, over the next few years we can turn this around and make prostate cancer a disease men no longer need to fear. This is what Prostate Cancer UK is striving for through our ambitious research programme.

Todays announcement shows a very welcome and positive commitment from the Government to play a key role in getting men the early and accurate diagnosis and treatments for prostate cancer they deserve.

It at last shows recognition of what a huge issue prostate cancer is and the focus needed to stop it being a killer.

Prostate cancer does not normally cause symptoms until the malignancy has grown large enough to put pressure on the urethra, this normally results in problems associated with urination.

This makes proactive screening in at risk but symptom-free men crucial.
Northern Ireland is waiting.

Wait and see what happens, a family friend told me recently, but why would you stay here when things are like this? Its a depressingly familiar refrain often heard by people like me who came of age in a post-conflict Northern Ireland, but have seen little reconciliation since.

Job prospects and and a disillusionment with politics are among the issues still pushing many millennials, like generations before them, to move away. Except now, things are supposed to be different.

Recommended Brexit has the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement

Twenty years ago, on 10 April 1998, peace came to Northern Ireland. After 30 years of brutal sectarian conflict, in which more than 3,600 people were killed, political groups agreed to reject violence and work together to solve problems democratically. It was called the Good Friday Agreement.

A devolved assembly would be established for both sides to govern together and while unionists were assured of their British identity, a united Ireland was acknowledged as a legitimate political goal for republicans. Some 71 per cent of people in Northern Ireland voted to accept the agreement in a referendum, with the DUP being the only party to reject it.

David Trimble and John Hume were pictured on stage with Bono after brokering the Good Friday Agreement (AFP/Getty)

The years that followed saw continued political instability and fringe paramilitary activity but largely, the deal held. By 2003, voting patterns in Northern Ireland shifted considerably. While Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in 1998, their parties were gradually sidelined.

 Sinn Fein claim Theresa May was in 'direct breach' of Good Friday Agreement

Instead, the electorate moved towards more hardline options. The DUP, led by the formidable Rev Ian Paisley, with their staunch Presbyterian values, and unwavering loyalty to Britain overtook the UUP; and Sinn Fein, the unapologetically republican party with former IRA prisoners among its ranks, effectively replaced the SDLP.

And yet, they managed the unthinkable. In 2008, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness led the two parties into power sharing for the first time, and were seen not just working together, but laughing together.

(Getty (Getty)

But while violence faded from the streets, a cultural battleground began to open up politically  not just over the very narrative of the Troubles, but over parading, flags and language, with the DUP fighting for a retention of all things British, while Sinn Fein vouched for Irish culture to be given the equal weighting it was promised in the agreement.

Naomi Long is the leader of Alliance, a small, centre ground party with members from both communities. She says even at the height of the conflict, politics was not as starkly divided as it is now.

I think there has been a reliance on the use of the politics of fear, and using that as a rather lazy means to garner votes in elections, she explains. The big political parties essentially ask people to vote for them to keep other people out, rather than as a positive expression of what their ambitions and aspirations for the future might be.

Power sharing has now been suspended at Stormont in Belfast since January 2017 (Getty)

But whether the parties are setting the agenda from their offices at Stormont, or whether they are merely responding to the wishes of the people on the street, both the DUP and Sinn Fein are totally in step with their ever hardening bases.

One of the best litmus tests is The Nolan Show, the biggest show in the country broadcast every morning on BBC Radio Ulster. The impassioned, angry, and often downright bigoted views expressed by callers have made the very name of the show synonymous with sounding off.

A recent standoff heard a unionist man refuse to call Sinn Feins Mairtin O Muilleoir by his Irish name, because a previous republican caller refused to even call the country Northern Ireland. As they argued among themselves, Stephen Nolan spoke for many listeners when he muttered, This is pathetic.

The DUP have found themselves on the unfashionable side of social issues that Sinn Fein have championed, including LGBT rights (PA) (Press Association)

It would be pessimistic to suggest that the shows more colourful callers are representative of Northern Ireland as a whole, but it would be a blatant dismissal of the regions political stalemate to suggest it is not. Just as the callers cannot agree, increasingly, Sinn Fein and the DUP cant either.

On 9 January last year, Martin McGuinness resigned his position as deputy first minister over a political scandal that implicated DUP leader Arlene Foster  although she denies any wrongdoing. Declaring it the right time to call a halt to the DUPs arrogance, Northern Irelands mandatory power sharing coalition meant his resignation also removed Foster from her position as first minister, collapsing the assembly.

His statement, an astonishing swansong delivered two months before his death, also laid out a litany of claims against the DUP. After 10 years of working together, McGuinness concluded that, the equality, mutual respect and all-Ireland approaches enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement have never been fully embraced by the DUP.

Martin McGuinness resigned in protest against the handling of a botched energy scheme (Getty)

This brought everything crashing down, and in the election which followed, both the DUP and Sinn Fein increased their popular vote, but one side had clearly benefited. Unionism lost its overall majority for the first time ever, and Sinn Fein were suddenly just a hairs breadth behind their rivals.

To their detriment, the DUP have also found themselves on the unfashionable side of social issues that Sinn Fein have championed, including LGBT rights and abortion reform. The general election of June 2017 brought this to the attention of the British mainstream after their confidence and supply agreement with Theresa Mays Conservatives.

Talks to restore power sharing remain unresolved, with Sinn Fein requests for parity with the rest of the UK on language rights and marriage equality being rejected by the DUP.

Arlene Foster has been criticised for saying she would leave the country in the event of a united Ireland (Getty)

Michelle Gildernew was part of the first Sinn Fein delegation ever received at Downing Street by Tony Blair in 1997 and is now a Westminster MP. She doesnt feel her party is asking for anything more than what people are entitled to.

Were looking at rights that people have across these islands, she says, whether thats legacy rights, rights for LGBT citizens, for Irish, Scots, Welsh language speakers. There are rights for people everywhere across these islands, except for the six counties. I think that is a completely unacceptable situation. Im raising three children here and I want them to have the same rights as their friends and neighbours, wherever they are.

Talk to the average person on the street in Northern Ireland and theyll criticise politicians, for putting cultural issues and minority rights ahead of health, housing and education  budgets for which have all been squeezed during the impasse. But every election returns the same reality. People vote in huge numbers for the DUP and Sinn Fein to hold their corners.

Former Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern signed the Good Friday Agreement alongside Tony Blair, and maintains that bigger hurdles were overcome then.

The restoration of power sharing, as ingrained in the Good Friday Agreement signed by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, is vital (PA)

I think everybody has to compromise, he tells me. If you cast your mind back 20 years ago we were dealing with the big issues of prisoners release, decommissioning, a new criminal justice system  they were major issues. Now I dont want to trivialise the issues now and say theyre minor, but theyre certainly not at the magnitude of what we had to crack in 1998.

The fundamental problem is that while the war is over, unionists and republicans remain locked in a psychological battle for the very soul of Northern Ireland. Is its future still within the United Kingdom, or are we moving towards a united Ireland?

While the Good Friday Agreement acknowledged that Northern Ireland would remain a part of the UK, it was also agreed that when a majority of people in the north and the south of Ireland wanted to reunify, a referendum could be held, and the result would be honoured.

Republicans saw this as a starting gun for their goal of reunification, and while this angered some unionists, most seemed confident it wasnt of immediate concern  something leaders within the DUP and the UUP have felt the need to reiterate in recent weeks, with diminishing certainty.

Murals in Belfast serve as a reminder of Northern Irelands violent past (Getty)

For most of the past two decades, the public discourse has maintained that republicans cannot hope to win over a majority for a united Ireland because most centre ground voters are too well off in the UK  including many nationalists who are quietly accepting of the situation. But now that seems about to change.

If Brexit stunned the country, it shook Northern Ireland to its core, where 56 per cent of people voted to remain. The European Union served not just as a guarantor for the Good Friday Agreement, but accommodated a kind of harmonisation across Ireland that contented many nationalists. An invisible border allows people to move, live and work across the island, as if it were indeed united.

Gildernews Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency shares a great length of that border with four counties of the Irish Republic.

I cross it probably every day, she says. People cross it for work, for business, for school, for caring responsibilities, to visit family, even just to walk the dog. Weve spent decades trying to remove the border, not just the physical infrastructure, but in peoples hearts and minds, and any changes to that will be resisted by the communities on either side of it.

The invisible border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland allows people to move, live and work across the island, as if it were indeed united (Getty)

Indeed, the prospect of a border returning has also mobilised politicians in the south to take a stand, with taoiseach Leo Varadkar claiming that no Irish government will ever again leave Northern nationalists and Northern Ireland behind.

Its increasingly clear that by campaigning for a patriotic cause they probably never believed would have consequences, the DUP shot unionism in the foot. Suddenly, Sinn Fein were handed a card to play which made a united Ireland a plausible, realistic and economically sensible option.

It would be lazy to assume that the 56 per cent who voted remain would automatically want to remain within the EU by means of a united Ireland, but it has certainly made the option much more appealing.

In the past two weeks, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill has called for a unity referendum to be held within five years, while Arlene Foster was criticised after saying she would leave the country in the event of a united Ireland. The DUP were asked to provide comment for this feature, but neglected to put anyone forward.

Alex Kane is a former communications director for the UUP and believes there are strong arguments to be made for staying within the UK.

Even if there was a referendum, Im not convinced unionism would lose it at this point, he says. But I think there are more challenges for unionists now than there have been in my lifetime. I think its an existential challenge for unionism.

Michelle ONeill (left) wants a unity referendum to be held within five years (Getty)

Kevin Meagher is the author of A United Ireland: Why Unification Is Inevitable and How It Will Come About. He believes it could happen by 2022, as a result of a demographic shift in nationalisms favour, and quite possibly, Jeremy Corbyn in 10 Downing Street. He warns that the vote could be won despite the apparent polarisation of Northern Irish politics.

An agreed Ireland is not a precondition for a united Ireland, he stresses, and what Ive been saying to British politicians is if you think you can kick the can down the road until everybody gets on and everything is forgotten, youre not going to have that option. The reality is, by 2022 you could have an electoral majority who want a united Ireland, and youre going to have to facilitate that.

The ultimate irony is that by so flagrantly risking the interests of Northern Ireland to carry out the will of Little Englanders, the Conservatives have put Irish reunification further up the agenda than Sinn Fein ever could have done alone.

Unionists may see this as their worst nightmare, but Meagher  a former special adviser in the Northern Ireland Office  believes it wouldnt bother the British government much at all.

If presented with a way out that was reasonable and effective for British ministers of either party, frankly they would have had to take an option of Irish unity 20, 30, 40 years ago. Its been looming in British politics that this is the direction of travel.

Theresa May is promising no return to a hard border in Ireland (Getty)

As government predictions show the GDP of Northern Ireland would be reduced by 12 per cent under a no deal Brexit, economic safety within the UK is no longer a certainty. The Irish economy, on the other hand, is growing three times faster than any other European country. The question now shifts from whether people want to risk their livelihood by joining a united Ireland, to whether people can actually afford to stay in the UK.

As it currently stands, Theresa May is promising no return to a hard border in Ireland, which is pleasing nationalists, republicans, the Irish government and the EU. She is also promising no border down the Irish Sea, to keep the DUP happy.

And yet, she is carrying out the will of a British majority, whose primary concern in voting for Brexit was immigration

Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Show all 14 1 /14 Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Enda Craig, a member of the Loughs Agency Advisory Forum, holds a map of Lough Foyle in Moville, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Oyster farmer William Lynch puts on his wellington boots on his oyster farm on Lough Foyle in Culmore, Northern Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Women walk along the shores of Carlingford Lough with Northern Ireland seen across the lough in Carlingford Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A poster hanging on a wall of a house reads: "No to the ferry", referring to a proposed new car ferry that would run from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland through Carlingford Lough in Greencastle Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Skipper Shay Fitzpatrick (L) and boat owner Brian Cunningham navigate out of Warrenpoint harbour into Carlingford Lough in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A woman with flowers walks past an old fuel station in Carlingford, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A boat is seen at sunset on Carlingford Lough in Greenore, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A mandries off after swimming in Carlingford Lough in Omeath, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A derelict house is seen on the shore of Carlingford Lough in Omeath, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Skipper Shay Fitzpatrick dredges mussels from Carlingford Lough in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Bagged-up farmed oysters at a cleaning facility to get them ready for overseas shipping in Moville, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A man walks his dog in matching hi-vis outfits on Carlingford Lough in Greenore, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland Carlingford Lough and in the distance Northern Ireland are seen at sunset from Omeath, Ireland Reuters Loughs, Brexit and fishermen in Northern Ireland A sign that reads: 'In 1721 nothing happened here' is seen on the shores of Carlingford Lough in Carlingford, Ireland Reuters

. Will they really stand for the kind of soft or non-existent border the prime minister is promising Ireland? Someone, somewhere down the line, is going to be betrayed.

Deputy leader of the SDLP Nichola Mallon says its now time for May to deliver solutions of substance, not just empty rhetoric.

This for us is not an orange and green issue, its not about the constitutional question on the island, this is about ensuring we have the best deal for people across the island, and we believe this is best served by Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union and the single market, she says.

The prospect of a hard border returning has mobilised politicians in the south to take a stand (AFP/Getty)

So Northern Ireland is waiting; for a solution on the border, but also for a political landscape that works for everybody. Surely, after two decades, that isnt too much to ask?

I thought within 20 years, something is bound to be different other than the fact were not shooting each other, Alex Kane says, and thats good, but its not enough. Not killing each other is normal, but also normal is parties making decisions, going into government together, having choices. We dont seem any closer to that.

But the restoration of power sharing, as ingrained in the Good Friday Agreement, is a must. It may require unpalatable concessions from both sides, but a Stormont assembly is essential, whether you want to remain in a UK of devolved governments, or  as Bertie Ahern points out  if you are aiming for that referendum on Irish unity.

You have to have stable institutions and sustainable development going forward before you do that, he believes. The clause to have referendums is part of the Good Friday Agreement, so it doesnt seem logical in my view to be talking about a referendum when you dont even have the agreement fully in place.

The evidence suggests that the winds of change are blowing in favour of Northern Irelands nationalists, but the hard work of honouring the Good Friday Agreement is crucial to achieving a new Ireland of equals for all.
A jaw bone belonging to a gigantic underwater reptile has been identified as belonging to one of the largest animals ever.

Found by fossil collector Paul de la Salle in Lilstock, Somerset, the 205 million-year-old remains have now been analysed by an international team of palaeontologists.

They concluded it belonged to a type of fish-like predatory reptile called an ichthyosaur, and its discovery suggests other fossils found in the UK could belong to even larger creatures.

At 26 metres in length, the researchers noted the ichthyosaur was approaching the size of the blue whale  the largest animal to have ever lived.

Jaw bone of the giant ichthyosaur found in Somerset (Dean Lomax, The University of Manchester)

Initially, the bone just looked like a piece of rock but, after recognising a groove and bone structure, I thought it might be part of a jaw from an ichthyosaur, said Mr De la Salle.

He made contact with ichthyosaur experts Dean Lomax, of the University of Manchester, and Professor Judy Massare, of SUNY College at Brockport, who both expressed an interest in studying the bone.

They compared the fossil  an incomplete bone called a surangular from the lower part of the animals jaw  with several other ichthyosaur specimens.

Notably, they looked at the bone in relation to a specimen held at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada, belonging to a species called Shonisaurus sikanniensis.

Measuring 21 metres, Shonisaurus was a true monster, and the largest known ichthyosaur.

However, the palaeontologists analysis suggested the bone found by Mr De la Salle belonged to a similar animal that was even bigger.

As the specimen is represented only by a large piece of jaw, it is difficult to provide a size estimate, but by using a simple scaling factor and comparing the same bone in S. sikanniensis, the Lilstock specimen is about 25 per cent larger, said Mr Lomax.

Other comparisons suggest the Lilstock ichthyosaur was at least 20-25 metres.

Of course, such estimates are not entirely realistic because of differences between species. Nonetheless, simple scaling is commonly used to estimate size, especially when comparative material is scarce.

Life and skeletal reconstruction of Shonisaurus, the ichthyosaur the researchers compared their newly discovered specimen to (Nobumichi Tamura & Scott Hartman) (Nobumichi Tamura & Scott Hartman)

With the help of geologist Dr Ramues Gallois, the scientists were able to date the bone to the late Triassic period.

In their paper describing the discovery in the journal PLOS One, the scientists also suggested the new bone could be a sign that prehistoric Britain was home to many more of these enormous creatures.

Five additional bones discovered around Aust Cliff, Gloucestershire, in the 19th century were previously thought to come from dinosaurs.

Recommended Underwater volcanoes may have contributed to dinosaur extinction

However, the identification of the new giant ichthyosaur made Mr Lomax and his colleagues reappraise those bones.

One of the Aust bones might also be an ichthyosaur surangular. If it is, by comparison with the Lilstock specimen, it might represent a much larger animal, said Mr Lomax.

To verify these findings, we need a complete giant Triassic ichthyosaur from the UK  a lot easier said than done.
A London council has become the first in the UK to ban anti-abortion campaigners from protesting outside a clinic.

Ealing councillors voted unanimously to approve a safe zone to shield women from demonstrators at a centre run by the charity Marie Stopes.

It follows complaints that women using the west London centre were being harassed and intimidated by anti-abortion protesters, some brandishing large images of foetuses and shouting murderers.

Ealings three-year Public Spaces Protection Order bans groups congregating within 100 metres of the clinic, which carries out about 7,000 abortions a year. Demonstrators are also prohibited from shouting, displaying posters and playing recordings about abortion in the area. Anyone who breaches the order can be arrested and charged.

Pro-choice campaigners hailed the councils landmark decision, which they hope will pave the way for authorities elsewhere in the country to implement similar measures.

Richard Bentley, managing director at Marie Stopes UK, said: We are incredibly grateful to Ealing Council for recognising the emotional distress that these groups create, and for taking proportionate action to protect the privacy and dignity of women accessing our clinic in the borough.

This was never about protest. It was about small groups of strangers choosing to gather by our entrance gates where they could harass and intimidate women and try to prevent them from accessing healthcare to which they are legally entitled.

Ealing Council has sent a clear message that this kind of behaviour should not be tolerated, and that these groups have no justification for trying to involve themselves in one of the most personal decisions a woman can make.

Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane, Ealing (PA)

Pro-choice and anti-abortion campaigners each spoke before the vote an Ealing Council cabinet meeting.

Councillors considered months of evidence on events outside the clinic, as well as statements from women who used the centre and campaigners on both sides.

John Hansen-Brevetti, clinical operations manager at the clinic on Mattock Lane, said protestors had told some pregnant women the ghost of their foetus would haunt them. On other occasions, they cried mummy mummy dont kill me and threw holy water at women as they entered the clinic.

Mr Hansen-Brevett said pavement counsellors were outside the clinic every day, approaching every client on the way in and out.

He said: Thats how we know that this isnt just about providing information, however inaccurate that information might be, this is about making people feel shame and fear for the decision theyve made.

People come into our consultation rooms crying and shaking, sometimes we have to wait to take their blood pressure because theyre so anxious having been through that.

Anna Veglio-White, a co-founder of local pro-choice campaign group Sister Supporter, said she had seen anti-abortion protestors misdirect women away from the clinic so they miss their appointments and follow them to their cars to jam leaflets through the windows.

Sister Supporters counter protesters has been coming to the clinic every Saturday since Easter last year to try to create a human shield to protect the women.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA 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. 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Alithea Williams from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said there was no motive or reason for anti-abortion protesters to be intimidating, and argued implementing a safe zone would be authoritarian.

She said she had not protested outside the clinic herself but it would be a very dark day if councillors approved the safe zone.

Speaking after the decision, Elizabeth Howard, spokeswoman for anti-abortion campaign group Be Here for Me, said: Its what we expected, after really what can only be described as a sham consultation by the council. It was skewed right from the beginning.

Residents were asked whether we agreed with pro-lifers not being allowed to say murderer. Now no pro-lifer I know would ever call someone a murderer because were here to support women who maybe feel they dont have any other choice than abortion and dont want an abortion.

But council leader Julian Bell said he felt the cabinet had done absolutely the right thing.

He added: I believe that this is something thats long been needed, so it feels good that we are actually breaking the ground with this and leading the way. So Im proud that we are doing it.

Im, personally, a practising Christian myself and so I think its important to recognise that this is about protecting women from harassment and intimidation.

Weve always been clear that thats what this was about. It wasnt a debate for or against abortion.

The British Pregnancy Advice Service called on the government to now introduce legislation as a matter of urgency to create safe zones around all abortion clinics.

Spokeswoman Katherine OBrien said: The protests in Ealing are sadly not isolated incidents. On a daily basis, women across the country are being confronted by increasingly aggressive groups of protesters as they try to access safe, legal healthcare.

This isnt about the rights and wrongs of abortion  this is about the harassment of women. The government has a duty to provide all women with the same level of protection that will now be offered in Ealing.
Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital following treatment for exposure to nerve agent, doctors have said.

The 33-year-old was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei, a former MI6 double agent, in Salisbury in March.

The pair were left fighting for their lives after being found unconscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire city.

Ms Skripal said last week her strength was growing daily, and Mr Skripal, 66, is also no longer in a critical condition. He was responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition, doctors said on Friday. They now hope he will be able to leave hospital in due course.

Ms Skripal has been discharged but will require ongoing treatment, Salisbury District Hospitals medical director said on Tuesday morning.

Dr Christine Blanshard said: We have now discharged Yulia from Salisbury District Hospital. This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone.

Her father has also made good progress. Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.

She also praised hospital staff for their work during an enormously testing time.

The BBC reported on Tuesday that Ms Skripal been taken to a secure location.

Theresa May has accused Russia of being behind the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied. The military-grade nerve agent could only have been made in Russia, the UK says.

Mr Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain. He was imprisoned in Russia and eventually settled in England after a spy swap.

Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, suggested the UK could have carried out the attack on 4 March. Experts tell us that it may well be beneficial to the British special services, who are known for their ability to act with licence to kill, he said.

Boris Johnson said the Kremlin had released a torrent of absurdity in the weeks since the poisoning, which also affected a police officer.

Detective sergeant Nick Bailey left hospital on 22 March, and said his life would never be the same again.

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

Dr Blanshard added on Tuesday: Nerve agents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in the body which then stop the nerves from functioning.

This results in symptoms such as sickness, hallucinations. Our job in treating the patients is to stabilise them, ensuring they are able to breathe and blood can continue to circulate.

We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning.

We also used specialised decontamination techniques to remove any residual toxins. Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment weve been providing, but equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery.

Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were found in The Mill pub and Zizzis restuarant where the pair had eaten when Yulia Skripal came to the UK to visit her father.

Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house in in Christie Miller Road.

Authorities warned that hundreds of people may have been put at risk of some exposure to nerve agent.
The UK has moved towards a ban on exporting live animals for slaughter after announcing a major review of laws regulating their transport.

Environment secretary Michael Gove said that once Britain leaves the EU, the country could ban the export of thousands of live farm animals to mainland Europe.

The policy would enjoy support from campaign groups pushing for a broad ban, amid rising anger over animals suffering terrible health problems and death as they are taken in trucks across the continent.

It is also the latest move from Mr Gove to secure the environmental agenda for the Conservatives, following high-profile announcements to tighten animal welfare regulation and tackle plastic pollution.

Launching a six-week consultation on the exports ban, the cabinet minister said: All animals deserve to get the respect and care they deserve at every stage of their lives.

This call for evidence begins to deliver on our manifesto commitment which aims to control the export of live animals for slaughter once we leave the European Union.

Mr Gove said all options for future improvements of animal welfare during transport are being considered, including the potential ban on the live export for slaughter.

 Sheep forced into dire conditions aboard transit ship to Middle East

The Farm Animal Welfare Committee, which advises the government, has also launched a review into the existing welfare standards for animals during transport.

UK exports of live cattle, sheep and pigs have climbed in value in recent years, according to HMRC data.

Latest figures from 2016 show that each year more than 4,000 sheep are transported to Europe for slaughter, making up the majority of livestock taken abroad.

After a 2012 incident in which 45 sheep died on a vehicle going through Ramsgate, the High Court ruled the port could not ban live animal exports on the grounds of freedom of movement within the EU and existing UK legislation.

But ministers say Brexit could now create the opportunity to go further, while a cross-party group of backbenchers are already attempting to push a law banning exports through parliament  it set for its second reading at the end of the month.

Dr Marc Cooper, head of the RSPCAs farm animals department, said the charity had been calling for a ban on all live exports for decades, including on the transport of livestock for production or fattening.

 RSPCA release shocking puppy farm footage after government crack down

Its unacceptable and completely unnecessary that live animal are exported and transported over long distances for slaughter or further fattening, he said.

We would like to see live exports from the UK banned and a maximum journey time of eight hours introduced.

The EU reviewed its regulations in 2011 and found that while its measures had led to a positive impact, severe animal welfare problems persisted, with a lack of enforcement to blame.

An investigation by the BBC last year found widespread health issues among livestock being transported from the EU into Turkey, including respiratory problems, eye conditions and animals suffering from exhaustion or dehydration.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA 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

In one incident, a bull was found dead on the top deck of a transporter on the Turkish border while its driver collected customs papers.

Another truck carrying 500 sheep became stuck between checkpoints for four days in high temperatures without access to food and water, with at least one animal dying and others suffering dehydration.

British Veterinary Association president John Fishwick said: We believe that production animals should not be transported long distances to the abattoir but should be slaughtered as near to the point of production as possible.

Animals should be transported on the hook, as meat, not on the hoof, as live animals.

Labours shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said: This weak announcement only amounts to a call for evidence and is just the latest in a string of desperate attempts by the Tories to portray themselves as animal-friendly.

Over the past year the Tories have supported a free vote on bringing back fox hunting and overseen the largest number of badgers culled across England on record.

Labour is the party of animal welfare and our proposed 50 point plan goes much further and proposes a ban on live exports for slaughter or fattening.

Mr Gove has already announced animal welfare reforms including making CCTV mandatory in slaughterhouses and increasing the maximum prison sentence for animal abuse from six months to five years.

He has also spearheaded a push to tackle plastic pollution, including a pledge to eliminate plastic waste by 2042 and a plan for a deposit return scheme on drinks containers, also being consulted on.
A Labour frontbencher has said he is "deeply sorry" for claiming the Good Friday Agreement and the Irish border issue were being "played up" for economic reasons during the Brexit talks.

Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, described the historic peace deal as a "shibboleth" - a Hebrew term for a custom or belief distinguishing a particular group of people, often one that is considered as outdated - and played down fears that a hard border would reignite paramilitary activity on the island of Ireland at an event in Brussels last month.

However after his remarks prompted criticism, Mr Gardiner issued a statement saying he "absolutely" did not believe the agreement was outdated or unimportant.

The threat of a hard border after Brexit has proved to be a key sticking point in the talks, as negotiators struggle to find a way to curb the threat of violence and the need for regulations between the EU and the UK.

Mr Gardiner's comments emerged as leading political figures were due to gather in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1998 agreement, which helped to bring an end to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

It also came as senior political figures spoke out over the risks of a hard border of the island of Ireland, with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton declaring the "hand of history will be both heavy and unforgiving" if Brexit was allowed to undermine the peace process.

Mr Gardiner, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, originally said reports of his comments were "nonsense on stilts".

But a recording now emerged of his remarks, where the former Northern Ireland minister said: We must also recognise that there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday agreement.

"And that is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure that there is no tariff and no external border there.

And of course there are very good political reasons. Sinn Fein, who are members of this group and trusted colleagues, of course want to see the unification of Ireland and that is a political objective of Sinn Fein.

"But it doesn't mean that a normal border will bring back paramilitary activity."

He later issued a statement, saying the Good Friday Agreement was "a vital and essential part" of the relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland that has been "central to the two decades of peace".

"Labour is completely committed to the agreement and opposed to any return of a hard border between North and South," he said.

"We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.

"I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point - in particular, that my use of the word 'shibboleth' in its sense of 'pass word' or 'test of membership' gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not."

Former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith, who was sacked for urging the party to stay in the single market, attacked his Labour colleague for the remarks, which he described as "both reckless and plain wrong".

Mr Smith said: "I worked in Northern Ireland with Barry and it is remarkable that he can display so little understanding of the vital and continuing importance of the Good Friday Agreement, or of the essential need to avoid any hardening of the border in Ireland.

Labour members will be particularly shocked, but it should concern people in every party and none that there now seems to be a substantial group of senior politicians  from Daniel Hannan to Barry Gardiner  who are prepared to sacrifice the Good Friday Agreement in order to deliver Brexit.

Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who played a key role in securing the deal, said it was "not a shibboleth, it was absolutely fundamental to keeping the peace" in Northern Ireland.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't know how anybody could say that. It's the only basis on which you could have peace."

Meanwhile, five former Northern Ireland secretaries have penned a sternly-worded letter warning against a hard border, which they said could "threaten the very existence" of the peace deal.

In a joint letter to The Times, organised by the pro-Europe group Open Britain, Lord Mandelson, Lord Reid, Lord Hain, Lord Murphy and Shaun Woodward said: "We are concerned that the re-introduction of a hard border will lead to instability that could threaten the very existence of the agreement.

"Those who value the agreement and the peace it brought to Northern Ireland have a duty to speak up and make clear their opposition to the Government's Brexit policy. They should insist that the option of continuing in the customs union and single market remains open."

But former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Dublin could have to "play hard ball" with Britain over Brexit, as he insisted that any return to a physical border would be unacceptable.

He told Newsnight: "There never will be a border. There is not going to be a physical border across Ireland because if you tried to put it there you wouldn't have to wait for terrorism to take it down, people would just physically pull it down - the ordinary people."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA 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

Former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Blair and former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will be among those marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark deal at Queen's University in Belfast on Tuesday.

The agreement, which included the release of hundreds of political prisoners, was codified by the British and Irish governments, with the backing of most Northern Irish parties, except for the Democratic Unionist Party.
A commission on loneliness that was established by murdered MP Jo Cox before her death, has been wound up.

The organisation delivered a series of recommendations, backed by Prime Minister Theresa May, on how to tackle the isolation suffered by around nine million Britons.

Its work will now be continued through a parliamentary group led by Ms Coxs friend and fellow Labour MP Rachel Reeves.

The Jo Cox Loneliness Commission was set up by the MP for Batley and Spen before she was murdered by far-right terrorist Thomas Mair in 2016.

In January, the Prime Minister announced Tracey Crouch would become minister for loneliness on the back of the report.

The Tory MP met Coxs sister Kim Leadbeater to discuss taking her work forward.

A spokesman for the Jo Cox Foundation said the commission had done the work it set out to achieve and had been a success.

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. 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

It is understood the decision to wind it down was taken before Ms Coxs widower Brendan stepped down from two charities after admitting inappropriate behaviour at a previous job.

The spokesman added: The Jo Cox Loneliness Commission had the specific task of highlighting the challenge and proposing concrete steps for both government and the general public to do more to tackle the loneliness crisis.

That part of the work is now done and was a great success. The Government accepted the recommendations and created the first minister for loneliness, Tracey Crouch.
A Labour frontbencher has described a key part of his own partys Brexit strategy as b******s at an event where he also came under fire for calling the Good Friday Agreement a shibboleth.

Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, rubbished the idea that the UK could secure the exact same benefits after Brexit  one of Labours six tests if it were to support the final Brexit deal.

His remarks, which were caught on tape, emerged after the Brent North MP had to apologise for claiming the Good Friday Agreement had been played up during the Brexit talks for political and economic gain during the same event in Brussels.

In a new recording, obtained by the BBC, Mr Gardiner reportedly said: Well lets just take one test  the exact same benefits. B******s.

Always has been b******s and it remains it.

We know very well that we cannot have the exact same benefits and actually it would have made sense  because it was the Tories that said they were going to secure the exact same benefits  and our position should have been to say they have said they are going to secure the exact same benefits and we are going to hold them to that standard.

Mr Gardiners comments put him at odds with the Labour leadership, as the party has vowed only to support the governments final Brexit deal if the six key tests are met.

Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer laid out the demands last year, which include calls for fair migration, protecting workers rights and replicating the benefits of staying in the single market.

Sir Keir stood by these demands in an exclusive article for The Independent last month, where he insisted Labour was prepared to vote down any Brexit deal that fails to meet these standards.

A Labour spokesperson backed the under-fire frontbencher, saying: Labour has set six tests for the final Brexit deal. Those include holding the government to its own commitment to deliver the same benefits as the single market and customs union.

We have been clear that, if those tests are not met, Labour will not back it in parliament. Barry Gardiner fully supports that position.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted that Mr Gardiner had not denounced Labours Brexit policies, and that their recent conversations had been productive and very positive.

However, the remarks drew criticism from Labour former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, who said Mr Gardiners increasingly maverick behaviour was embarrassing for his colleagues.

Mr Leslie, a supporter of the pro-EU Open Britain campaign, said: It is time members of the shadow cabinet started speaking out for that and ended the sort of eccentric self-indulgence of the type shown by Barry Gardiner.

Ian Murray, co-chair of Scottish Labour for the Single Market, said his choice to trash Jeremy Corbyns Brexit policy was significant as it exposed faultl ines in Labours approach.

Mr Gardiner apologised on Tuesday morning after another recording from the event in March emerged, in which he suggested the Good Friday Agreement was outdated.

He originally said reports of his comments were nonsense on stilts, but the Corbyn loyalist was forced to row back when audio footage was published online.

Speaking at the event, Mr Gardiner said: We must also recognise that there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement.

And that is because it is hugely in the Republic of Irelands economic interest to make sure that there is no tariff and no external border there.

And of course there are very good political reasons. Sinn Fein, who are members of this group and trusted colleagues, of course want to see the unification of Ireland and that is a political objective of Sinn Fein.

But it doesnt mean that a normal border will bring back paramilitary activity.

He later issued a statement, saying the Good Friday Agreement was a vital and essential part of the relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland that has been central to the two decades of peace.

Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. 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 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. 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, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio  the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. 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 McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters

I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point  in particular, that my use of the word shibboleth in its sense of password or test of membership gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not, he said.

Former shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith, who was sacked for urging the party to stay in the single market, attacked his Labour colleague for the remarks, which he described as both reckless and plain wrong.

Former prime minister Tony Blair, who played a key role in securing the deal, also said it was not a shibboleth, it was absolutely fundamental to keeping the peace in Northern Ireland.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I dont know how anybody could say that. Its the only basis on which you could have peace.

On the 20th anniversary of the historic peace deal, five former Northern Ireland secretaries penned a sternly worded letter warning against a hard border, which they said could threaten the very existence of the peace deal.

In a joint letter to The Times, Lord Mandelson, Lord Reid, Lord Hain, Lord Murphy and Shaun Woodward said: We are concerned that the reintroduction of a hard border will lead to instability that could threaten the very existence of the agreement.

Those who value the agreement and the peace it brought to Northern Ireland have a duty to speak up and make clear their opposition to the governments Brexit policy. They should insist that the option of continuing in the customs union and single market remains open.

Former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Blair and former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern were among those marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark deal at Queens University in Belfast on Tuesday.

The agreement, which included the release of hundreds of political prisoners, was codified by the British and Irish governments, with the backing of most Northern Irish parties, but not the Democratic Unionist Party.
Theresa May has agreed with Donald Trump not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue in the wake of a suspected attack on civilians in Syria, the White House said in a statement.

In order to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons, Downing Street said the prime minister agreed with the US president and french leader Emmanuel Macron on the need for the international community to respond.

The White House added that Mr Trump and Ms May condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assads vicious disregard for human life.

The White House statement comes after Syrias foreign minister said it had invited a mission from the international chemical weapons watchdog to investigate the reported attack in the rebel-held town of Douma. At least 40 people, including young children, are believed to have been killed.

On Monday the US president vowed to retaliate forcefully to the suspected chemical attacks, adding his administration will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours.

After a phone conversation with Mr Trump and a separate discussion with Mr Macron, a Downing Street spokesperson said: They agreed that reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were utterly reprehensible and, if confirmed, represented further evidence of the Assad regimes appalling cruelty against its own people and total disregard for its legal obligations not to use these weapons.

They agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.

The White House press secretary added: President Donald J Trump spoke today with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom. Both leaders condemned Syrian President Assads vicious disregard for human life. The president and prime minister agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA 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. 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PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 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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

Earlier on Tuesday the prime minister sidestepped questions, during a visit to Cambridge, about whether Britain would be involved in any military action against Assad in the coming days.

But she added: This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack. Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

If this is the responsibility of Assads regime in Syria then its yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people.
Tony Blair has said Britain should support take military action against Bashar al-Assad in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The former prime minister said Theresa May should be prepared to support potential US strikes because non-intervention is also a policy with consequences.

Claiming that UK action against the Syrian regime is highly likely, Mr Blair said the government would not necessarily need to seek parliaments approval for air strikes against the Assad regime.

Talk of possible UK military action follows reports that chemical weapons were used in the formerly rebel-held town of Douma.

Medical agencies say dozens of people were killed in the attack, which has been widely blamed on the Assad regime.

In response, Donald Trump said the US cannot allow the use of chemical weapons against civilians and promised to make major decisions in the next 48 hours.

Nothing is off the table, he said. It will be met, and it will be met forcefully.

Mr Blair said the UK government should support US action. He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: If the US are taking action, we should be prepared to be alongside them.

Last year they took military action and that was supposed to deter these attacks. It obviously had some impact, but now we have another one of those attacks.

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

He added: Its important to realise that if we allow it to go unchecked and unanswered, then obviously the Assad regime and their outsider backers in Russia and Iran will feel emboldened to do more, so I think it is important that we react.

If the Americans are prepared to act and are going to act fast, I think ourselves  probably the French government will be in the same position  should be supportive, because its important that when chemical weapons are used in this way and the international community has taken a firm position against it, then you have to enforce it.

 Donald Trump: 'nothing is off the table' for US response to alleged Syria chemical attack

The US hit Syrian air bases with dozens of missiles last April after intelligence suggested the Assad regime was responsible for using chemical weapons in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province.

The latest attack also resulted in a strike against a Syrian base, which Russia and Syria claimed was carried out by Israel.

Mr Blair warned that failure to take further action against Assad would have consequences.

Its extremely difficult but the problem is non-intervention is also a policy with consequences, he said.

Iraq shows you intervention is extremely difficult but non-intervention, as we see from Syria, is also extremely difficult.

He added: If you say, Well suppose we do nothing, then you really are giving carte blanche to the regime to do whatever is necessary to retake opposition areas by force.

The Syrian government is winning the civil war in the country because their outside backers are prepared to intervene and to commit, and frankly we have not been able now, he said.

The attack in Douma took place on Saturday, as Syrian forces attempt to regain territory following the collapse of a ceasefire with the Army of Islam rebel group.

The Assad regime denies that chemical weapons were used, but videos shared on social media showed numerous dead children with foam on their mouths.

Reports suggest medics treated more than 500 people, most of them women and children, for symptoms including difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes.
An entire country was left without internet access for two days after an undersea cable was damaged.

Mauritania was left offline for 48 hours after the African Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable was severed, according to infrastructure analysts. Nine other west African nations were affected by outages.

The cable system stretches 10,500 miles (17,000 kilometres) from France to South Africa, helping to provide internet connection to 22 countries  mostly on Africas west coast.

Recommended Incredible map shows the undersea cables that keep the internet alive

A large part of the west of the continent was affected by outages, first reported on 30 March, after the cable broke near the Mauritanian capital Noukachott. It is thought to have been snapped by a trawler.

Mauritania, which relies solely on ACE to stay connected, was left offline for 48 hours, according to internet performance firm Dyn.

Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and the Gambia also experienced significant disruption, while Benin, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast all saw less serious problems.

The most significant, and longest-lasting disruption was seen in Mauritania, with a complete outage lasting for nearly 48 hours, followed by partial restoration of connectivity, said David Belson, senior director of internet research and analysis at Dyn.

He added: The differences in duration and severity may be related to the other international internet connections, via terrestrial cable or satellite, that the providers in these countries have in place, resulting in varying levels of reliance on the ACE cable system.

The director of networks and international services at Orange, which heads the consortium of 19 organisations which manage ACE, tweeted a picture of the severed cable taken by workers on a maintenance vessel sent to repair it.

Jean-Luc Vuillemin said a trawler raising the cable off the seabed and slicing through it was the likely cause of the major breakdown.

It is the first major outage since ACE became operational in 2012.

The head of the UKs armed forces last year warned of the vulnerability of undersea communication cables, which he said could be targeted by aggressors such as Russia.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the chief of the UK defence staff, said Moscows ability to interfere with deep-sea cables posed a potentially catastrophic threat to the internet and international trade.

Conservative MP Rishi Sunak also warned in a Policy Exchange report in December that terrorists could use grappling hooks attached the fishing trawlers to strike a crippling blow to Britains network.
Five park rangers and a driver have been killed in a gun attack in a wildlife sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A sixth ranger was also wounded in the shooting at Virunga National Park, home to critically endangered mountain gorillas.

No group has claimed responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on rebel militias that are active in and around the famed Unesco World Heritage site.

Recommended 14 UN peacekeepers killed and more than 40 injured in Congo attack

The park, in eastern Congo on the border with Rwanda and Uganda, is home to about half of the roughly 900 wild mountain gorillas left in the world.

The rare species is threatened by poachers and deforestation, caused in part by the charcoal industry.

More than 150 rangers have been killed protecting the gorillas over the last two decades, but Thursday mornings attack was the deadliest in the parks history.

The seven workers were ambushed and fired upon at about 6am local time (4am GMT) as they were travelling to a base near the Ugandan border, said national parks director Cosma Wilungula.

In a statement, park authorities said they were deeply saddened by the deaths, which came a week after another ranger was shot dead during a gun battle with rebels.

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. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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

Rangers are typically recruited from surrounding villages to protect the 3,000-square-mile park from rebel groups, poachers and local bandits who exploit the areas resources.

Gorillas bodies have been found after execution-style killings that authorities say are intended to intimidate park workers.

Congos dense forests near the Rwandan and Ugandan borders saw some of the fiercest fighting during civil wars that killed millions  mostly from hunger and disease  at the end of the 20th Century.

The region has been troubled by periodic insurrections since then.
A conservative commentator at a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned television station in St. Louis has resigned after a statement he made threatening to sexually assault David Hogg drew harsh criticism and sparked the beginnings of an advertiser boycott.

Jamie Allman, who hosts a nightly news show on KDNL, a Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate in St. Louis, as well as a morning FM radio show, wrote on Twitter that he was "hanging out getting ready," to sexually assault David Hogg with "a hot poker."

"Busy working. Preparing," read the March 26 tweet, which is too vulgar to print here in full, but was published as a screenshot by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as the remark begun to draw more scrutiny in recent days.

Advertisers, including Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, St. Louis health center Palm Health, and local real estate office the Gellman Team all announced they would stop advertising on Mr Allman's shows, spurred on by activists who took to social media to highlight the commentator's remarks, as well as Democratic state lawmaker Stacey Newman and others.

"We have accepted Mr Allman's resignation, and his show has been cancelled," said Ronn Torossian, the CEO of the PR firm 5W, who is acting as a Sinclair spokesman, said in response to questions sent to the media company by The Washington Post.

The anger generated by Mr Allman's remarks is reminiscent of the outrage after another conservative commentator, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, mocked Hogg after it was announced he did not get into some top colleges, only to face a fierce backlash from activists and advertisers. Advertising space for her show in the two days after the tweet fell by more than half and at least 18 advertisers have pulled out of her prime-time show.

And it represented the potential of yet another public relations crisis for Sinclair, which has come under harsh criticism in recent weeks after a video of dozens of its anchors reading the same mandated and seemingly Trump-esque script about "fake stories," went viral.

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Sinclair, the Maryland-based media company, is the largest owner of local television stations in the country with 173 stations in 81 broadcast markets. It has come under intense scrutiny as it awaits federal approval for a takeover of another media company, for injecting what many feel is a conservative bias into local news coverage. Its proposed buyout of Tribune Media, for which it needs approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice, would bring its coverage into the homes of as many as 70 percent of American households.

Compared to Ms Ingraham's remark, Mr Allman's statement, with the overt threat of sexualised violence, was an attack of a different magnitude, though he is not a national media figure like Ingraham.

Jeff Allen, the program director for FM NewsTalk 97.1, did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Entercom Communications Corp., which owns 97.1, did not respond to a request for comment sent to executive vice president and CFO Richard Schmaeling.

March for Our Lives  in pictures Show all 13 1 /13 March for Our Lives  in pictures March for Our Lives  in pictures Demonstrators chant during the protest for gun legislation and school safety AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Trevon Tre Bosley, 19, of Chicago, the brother of Terrell Bosley who was killed in 2006 in a case of mistaken identity, speaks during the rally AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr speaks at the rally AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors line the streets in Washington Getty Images March for Our Lives  in pictures People arrive for the March For Our Lives rally against gun violence in Washington, DC AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors carrying placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors hold up placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Schoolchildren wear targets ahead of the rally Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Attendees congregate in preparation for the march Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Students brought a host of innovative placards AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures The movements main demand is the banning of assault rifles Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Since the Florida shooting, students have called for urgent gun reform AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures In the wake of the Florida attack, President Donald Trump called for teachers to be armed AFP/Getty

Mr Allman's television show appears to fit neatly into the conservative-inflected programming for which Sinclair has become known. He often trumpets pro-Trump and conservative lines, assailing media coverage of the president, lambasting liberals and Democrats for seeming "to be all about one thing, shutting down people they disagree with." He has defended Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican who is awaiting trial on felony invasion of privacy charge after prosecutors said he tried to blackmail a former paramour with an illicit photo.

Mr Allman has gone after David Hogg, recently calling him a "big complainer," after Hogg criticised his high school's new requirement that students carry clear backpacks.

"He says you shouldn't have the right to have a certain kind of gun but I should have the right to have any kind of backpack I want," Allman said incredulously on one segment. "Trying to nail this down. Very confusing. But these are confusing times."

The Washington Post
A holocaust survivor says that he sees a lot of parallels between what is happening in American today and the atmosphere in pre-Nazi Germany that led to millions of people being murdered by the state.

Stephen B Jacobs, who has lived in the United States since being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, told Newsweek that the growing prominence of far-right voices since President Donald Trumps ascension to Americas highest office is worrying  and that things seem to just be getting worse.

Things just go from bad to worse every day, Mr Jacobs, a 79-year-old architect in New York who designed a memorial at his former concentration camp, said. Theres a real problem growing.

He said that it is not just that far-right demonstrators feel emboldened in the age of Trump, but also that their rhetoric and talking points have seeped into some areas of mainstream political discourse.

It feels like 1929 or 1930 Berlin, Mr Jacobs, who said he sees a direct parallel between 2018 America and the nascent days of Nazi Germany, said.

Things that couldnt be said five years ago, four years ago, three years ago  couldnt be said in public  are now normal discourse. Its totally unacceptable, he continued. We thought our country had change. In fact, it didnt. We were operating under a misconception. My god, we elected a black president in the United States! Look how far weve come! We havent.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Observers note that the divisive rhetoric of Mr Trumps campaign has carried over into his presidency, squashing previous hopes that he would become a unifying presidential figure once actually in office.

That has resulted in both tangible and symbolic developments: The Southern Poverty Law Centre  a civil rights advocacy group  saw a 4 per cent spike in the number of hate groups in the country, while a white supremacist rally resulted in the death of a counter-demonstrator being killed in Charlottesville last year  an incident that Mr Trump appeared hesitant to denounce in the days that followed.

Mr Jacobs told Newsweek that he does not think of the president as a fascist  youve got to know what fascism is. And I dont think he has the mental power to even understand it  but said that he knows the president personally from the New York real estate industry, and that he fears the worst.

Im involved with New York real estate, I know this man personally, he said. Trump is an enabler. Trump has no ideas. Trump is out for himself.
A Fox News legal analyst who has the ear of Donald Trump has explained why the FBI raid of Michael Cohens office should leave the president with significant cause for concern.

Mr Trump denounced the raid as a break-in and a disgraceful situation that was part of an attack on what we all stand for by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Agents carried out a search on Monday, seizing records on subjects reportedly including a $130,000 (92,000) payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had sex with Mr Trump.

But Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge, suggested it was the approval of the search warrants themselves that may spell the most trouble for the president and his lawyer.

Mr Napolitano told Fox News that under normal circumstances Mr Trump would receive attorney-client privilege over his communications with Mr Cohen, but that this would not apply if there is a serious allegation of unlawful activity, by the lawyer with the client.

There must be some evidence presented to a federal judge here in New York City sufficient to persuade that judge to sign a search warrant to permit the FBI in broad daylight to raid an attorneys office, particularly when that attorney has one client and it happens to be the president of the United States, Mr Napolitano said.

 Donald Trump rages over search of his lawyer Michael Cohen's office, describing it as a 'break-in'

That evidence would have to be such as to persuade a neutral observer, the federal judge, that it is more likely than not, that among these seized documents is evidence of crimes by Mr Cohen or Mr Cohen and the president.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Trump appeared to confirm his concern over the seizure of documents relating to his communications with Mr Cohen. He angrily tweeted "Attorney-client privilege is dead!", adding "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!"

Mr Napolitano speculated that the payment to Stormy Daniels could be at the heart of the FBI raid.

We know of course of the Stormy Daniels allegations, which is, where could this money have come from? he said. Would it be lawful if it didnt come from Donald Trump? And if it came from Donald Trump, why did the president not acknowledge it?

Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Show all 29 1 /29 Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump acknowledges the audience after taking the oath of office as his wife Melania (L) and daughter Tiffany watch during inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as the 45th president of the United States on the West Front of the US capital in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jim Bourg: "This photo was shot with one of two remote cameras. The cameras were monitored and triggered remotely and the pictures were transmitted to clients worldwide within minutes of being taken." Reuters/Jim Bourg Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Obama farewell address - 10 January 2017 US President Barack Obama wipes away tears as he delivers his farewell address in Chicago on 10 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "In his final days in office, Obama made a visit home to Chicago. As he spoke from the stage to his wife and daughter in the audience, he became emotional when he talked about what they had sacrificed during his time in office. I turned from photographing the Obama women embracing to find him onstage wiping away tears." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 A combination of photos shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (left) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009. Reuters/ Lucas Jackson/Stelios Varias Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Liberty Ball - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the Liberty Ball in honour of his inauguration in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "What I see when I look at this picture is the end of a very long day, not to mention weeks and months of preparation by many photographers, editors and network experts and the beginning of everything since." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception - 22 January 2017 US President Donald Trump greets Director of the FBI James Comey as Director of the Secret Service Joseph Clancy (L), watches during the Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House on 22 January, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "I have covered the White House for 16 years and normally either the President or the pool is in position when an event starts. In this case the President was not where anyone expected him to be. In fact, he was almost blocking the door when the pool came in. We had to scramble to find a position without bumping him or the furniture as he greeted and thanked members of law enforcement for their security efforts during the inauguration. Luckily, he greeted FBI Director James Comey a few seconds after the pool had made its way into the room." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Private phone calls to world leaders - 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump, is joined by his staff, as he speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on 28 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Very early in the Trump administration, weekends were as busy as weekdays. On Trump's second Saturday the official schedule said he would be making private phone calls to a number of world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin. I arrived early and, before sitting down at my desk walked up to Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office. He, too, was just taking his coat off. I gingerly made the suggestion that previous administrations had sometimes allowed photos of such phone calls through the Oval Office windows on the colonnade. To my mild shock, he didn't even think about it twice. "We'll do it!" he said. In truth, I really only expected the Putin call, but we were outside the windows multiple times throughout the day as the calls went on." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway - 27 February 2017 Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway (L) attends as US President Donald Trump welcomes the leaders of dozens of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office on 27 February, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "We're often asked how much access we have to the Trump administration, and the answer is we have an awful lot. President Trump himself is very comfortable in the spotlight, and his aides are similarly unfazed by cameras. In this instance, senior advisor Kellyanne Conway was so comfortable in our presence she seemed not to consider the optics of kneeling on a Oval Office sofa to take pictures with her phone." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Angela Merkel heads to Washington - 17 March 2017 Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on 17 March, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Chancellor Merkel made one of the earliest important visits of any US allies to meet Trump in his first months in office. When world leaders give joint news conferences they don't always tend to give each other their full attention - but Merkel watched Trump intently at several key moments, and here seemed particularly rapt." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump welcomes truckers to the White House - 23 March 2017 President Trump reacts as he sits on a truck while he welcomes truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting regarding healthcare at the White House on 23 March, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "The White House organised a listening session with truckers and CEO's of major American companies, regarding healthcare reform. An 18-wheeler tow truck was parked on the South Lawn of the White House and as Trump welcomed the truckers someone invited the him to come and sit in the driver's seat. Trump jumped into the cab and started yelling and pretending to drive - creating one of the most memorable pictures of the year. A lesson learned, always be prepared for the unexpected." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 6 April 2017 US President Donald Trump talks to journalists members of the travel pool on board the Air Force One during his trip to Palm Beach, Florida on 6 April, 2017. Carlos Barria: "During the many trips to President Trump's residence in Florida it is usual to see the president coming to the back of the plane to chat with journalists. During one of the trips to the so called 'Winter White House', Trump had a long talk with reporters while the Air Force One entertainment system was playing one of the latest Star Wars movies. As I was listening to Trump talk I was also looking at the movie waiting for a part of the movie to frame the mood of the day. Of the many scenes, I choose the one with Darth Vader." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House on 27 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "A day before President Trump's hundred days in office I was part of the team that interviewed the commander-in-chief in the Oval Office. I was only allowed to photograph Trump during the last five minutes of the interview. The time was very tight so I had to move fast as I had pictures in mind that I wanted to shoot. I walked into the Oval Office and saw that the President had printed maps of the country showing areas in red where he won. I raised my hands holding my camera as high as possible to get the best view of the scene using a 16mm wide angle lens." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump reacts as he arrives at Harrisburg international airport, before attending a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Pennsylvania on 29 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his hundred days in office with a victory rally. He was in friendly territory as he won with a big difference over his opponent Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, during the November elections. As usual when the commander-in-chief arrives local residents gather to greet him. This time a small group of military personnel attended the arrival. Surrounded by secret service agents Trump walked from the Air Force One and raised his hand in a sign of victory as the crowd cheered him on." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 2 May 2017 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (L) and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus watch as US President Donald Trump presents the U.S. Air Force Academy football team with the Commander-in-Chief trophy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on 2 May, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "Covering the White House does not just mean covering the President. White House staffers are an important part of the story and their relationship with the President and each other is an indicator of how things are going in the West Wing. The tendency is to focus exclusively on the President once an event starts but I always try to look around to see how people are reacting as things unfold." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Secret Service - 4 May 2017 Secret Service agents use a presidential limousine as cover from spraying water as US President Donald Trump lands via Marine One helicopter in New York on 4 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "The best part of any trip to New York City with the sitting US President is the helicopter ride into Manhattan. The ride out at night can be stunning. Here, Secret Service agents protect themselves from the spray from the East River as Trump lands on the helipad." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures NATO Summit - 25 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump wait the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron (unseen) before a lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels on 25 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "One of the best parts of travelling overseas for White House coverage is the chance to see the U.S. president in different environments and (literally) a different light. Here, Trump and his wife came out of the shadows to greet France's President Macron." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump meets Putin at G20 summit - 7 July 2017 US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on 7 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "On July 7, I witnessed one of the most important meetings of President Trump's first year in office. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany. The world's eyes were on these two leaders after speculation about Russian interference during the 2016 US elections. We entered the room for less than two minutes, where I took dozens of pictures. But there was this very interesting moment when Trump extended his hand to Putin for a handshake. Putin paused for a second and looked at Trump's hand. That was the picture that I was looking for, a little moment that seemed to say a lot." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures First lady - 8 July 2017 First lady Melania Trump chats with US President Donald Trump during their return from Germany at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on 8 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "After President Trump's trip to Germany he arrived back at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump said goodbye to Trump as she was heading off in a different direction that day. While chatting a breeze blew Melania's hair up in the air." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Made in America product showcase - 17 July 2017 Vice President Mike Pence laughs as President Donald Trump holds a baseball bat as they attend a Made in America product showcase event at the White House on 17 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "This summer the White House organized an event to showcase 'Made in America' products. All kinds of exhibitors brought their products as the President and Vice President toured the event. One of the companies was Marucci Sport, a manufacturer of baseball bats based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As Trump approached a table full of baseball bats, photographers at the event, including me, rushed to get a good angle hoping that he would pick up a bat. As we predicted, he did. He took one and joked around as though he was hitting something hard. The only thing closer to him right there, was the media." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 25 July 2017 Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says hello to reporters as he and White House advisors including Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci accompany President Trump for an event celebrating veterans at AMVETS Post 44 in Ohio, July 25, 2017. Jonathan Ernst: "The most visible person in any White House is naturally the President, followed by the press secretary. But there are also the staff who support them. For those of us covering the Trump administration, there seem to be more compelling figures in the West Wing than ever before. It's crucial to know who's who and why they're important. When I raised my camera and back-pedalled ahead of the group to take this image Lewandowski gave me a hello. I liked the photo, but had no idea it would go a little bit viral, especially since Scaramucci, who was the biggest mover and shaker that week, was hidden back in the pack. But I guess the image catches a glimpse of what it's like to be a West Wing staffer on the road." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Campaign rally - 3 August 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in West Virginia on 3 August, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Huntington for one of his usual campaign rallies. While members of his family spoke to the crowd he was waiting under a black curtain to be introduced. Suddenly he walked onto the stage, one of the first frames that I took was of his hand. I set my exposure for the light on the stage hoping to create this dark background and it worked." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Staring into the solar eclipse - 21 August 2017 Without his protective glasses on, US President Donald Trump looks up towards the solar eclipse while viewing with his wife Melania and son Barron at the White House on 21 August, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "On a day when everyone, and I mean everyone, was told not to look at the eclipse without protective glasses, Trump, President of the United States, couldn't help himself." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Harvey - 2 September 2017 US President Donald Trump poses for a photo as he and first lady Melania Trump help volunteers hand out meals during a visit with flood survivors of Hurricane Harvey at a relief centre in Houston, Texas on 2 September, 2017. Photohrapher Kevin Lamarque: "Trump, eager to deliver the image of a hands-on response to Hurricane Harvey, made this visit to a relief centre and obliged this woman with a selfie as Melania continued to work." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House - 15 September 2017 Donald Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House on 15 September. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the lawn, was invited to work for a day at the White House along the National Park Service staff. Frank was so focused on his task that he did not notice the President arrive to surprise him. He took his father jumping in to grab his attention and point Trump out. Photographer Carlos Barria said: The image of Trump shouting at a kid who is mowing his lawn might have many interpretations in today's politically polarized United States. But for me it was just a kid who loved what he was doing, to the point he almost appeared to ignore the President." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Take a knee - 27 September 2017 A man kneels with a folded U.S. flag as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes him after an event at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., September 27, 2017. In September, soon after Trump had made comments condemning NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, he made a day trip to a rally in Indianapolis. Jonathan Ernst managed to capture a man on one knee with a tri-folded flag and was able to use a portion of the sign on the building he was kneeling in front of to track the man down and tell his story in full. US Army veteran Marvin Boatright wanted to send a message against social injustice. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Maria - 3 October 2017 President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of local residents affected by Hurricane Maria as he visits Calgary Chapel in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 3 October, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "During an afternoon visit to Puerto Rico for President Trump to survey damage from Hurricane Maria and greet some of its victims, Trump made a stop at a church where food and supplies were being distributed. Among the items were paper towels and Trump, apparently caught up in the moment, decided to distribute some of the rolls." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Jared Kushner - 1 November 2017 White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner sits behind President Trump during a cabinet meeting in Washington on 1 November, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "The role of Jared Kushner has gone through a series of changes. He began front and centre as a high profile adviser, but as time has passed and issues surrounding him have surfaced, he has become more of a background figure." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump in China - 9 November 2017 Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 9 November, 2017. Photographer Damir Sagolj: "It's one of those "how to make a better or at least different shot when two presidents shake hands several times a day, several days in row". If I'm not mistaken in calculation, presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump shook their hands at least six times in events I covered during Trump's recent visit to China. I would imagine there were some more handshakes I haven't seen but other photographers did. And they all look similar - two big men, smiling and heartily greeting each other until everyone gets their shot. But then there is always something that can make it special - in this case the background made of US and Chinese flags. The first time it didn't work for me. The second time I positioned myself lower and centrally, and used the longest lens I have to capture only hands reaching for a handshake." Reuters/Damir Sagolj Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 10 November 2017 US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One to depart for Vietnam from Beijing Airport in Beijing, China, November 10, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "There is a Reuters photographer in the tight pool covering the US president for every appearance he makes 365 days a year. This was just one of 32 images of mine that were transmitted on the Reuters wire of President Trump visiting China and Vietnam that day. You never know when a sudden interaction, a gust of wind or a unique facial expression will lead to a striking image that grabs peoples' attention." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures ASEAN handshake - 13 November 2017 Donald Trump registers his surprise as he realises other leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, are crossing their arms for the traditional "ASEAN handshake" as he participates in the opening ceremony of the summit in Manila on 13 November, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Having covered a few ASEAN summits, I knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. Not everyone in the room knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. A lot was written about this unscripted moment, and what deeper meaning it might have. The simple truth is that sometimes in life there are unscripted moments." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

The former judge went on to reiterate the gravity of the situation, saying that for a federal judge to break attorney-client privilege, they must have been satisfied that its more likely than not that in those materials are evidence of crimes.

Mr Trump appears to respect Mr Napolitano's opinion and has repeatedly parroted them on Twitter. In February, the president quoted the legal analysts view that the Department of Justice had a treasure trove of evidence of criminality by Hillary Clinton.

He also echoed arguments Mr Napolitano made on Fox News condemning US government surveillance, and has reportedly met the Fox News employee on several occasions since becoming president.
The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Donald Trumps foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.

Investigators subpoenaed the Trump Organisation this year for an array of records about business with foreign nationals. In response, the company handed over documents about a $150,000 (121,000) donation that the Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, made in September 2015 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute appearance by Mr Trump that month through a video link to a conference in Kiev.

Michael D. Cohen, the presidents personal lawyer whose office and hotel room were raided n an apparently unrelated case, solicited the donation. The contribution from Mr Pinchuk, who has sought closer ties for Ukraine to the West, was the largest the foundation received in 2015 from anyone besides Mr Trump himself.

The subpoena is among signs in recent months that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is interested in interactions that Mr Trump or his associates had with countries beyond Russia, though it is not clear what other payments he is scrutinising.

Mr Mueller also ordered the Trump Organization to turn over documents, emails and other communications about several Russians, including some whose names have not been publicly tied to Mr Trump, according to the three people, who would not be named discussing the ongoing investigation. The identities of the Russians were unclear.

The payment from Mr Pinchuk is curious because it comes during a campaign and is from a foreigner and looks like an effort to buy influence, said Marcus S. Owens, a former head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organisations. He called the donation an unusual amount of money for such a short speech.

Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the president, did not return several messages seeking comment, nor did a lawyer for the Trump Organisation. When The New York Times revealed the existence of the subpoena in March, Mr Trumps associates played it down as a routine court order to ensure the Trump Organisation had handed over all the documents Mueller had demanded.

Mr Trump assailed the special counsel investigation on Monday as a witch hunt, reaching for a favoured insult in response to the seizure of Mr Cohens records. He complained that he had cooperated with the inquiry and viewed the warrant for the raid, obtained by federal prosecutors in Manhattan after a referral from Mr Mueller, as an extreme step.

Its a disgraceful situation, he told reporters at the White House. Its a total witch hunt. Ive been saying it for a long time. Ive wanted to keep it down. Ive given over a million pages in documents to the special counsel.

Mr Mueller has also examined a deal Mr Cohen was putting together with Mr Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Mr Trump said last summer that Mr Mueller should not look at his or his familys finances beyond issues related directly to Russia.

But the special counsels investigators have questioned witnesses about whether money from the Persian Gulf had been used to finance Mr Trumps political efforts and asked for information on Mr Pinchuk.

The inquiry into the Trump Organizations payments from foreign nationals underscores how diffuse Mr Trumps sources of income have been over many years. And the destination of Mr Pinchuks donation  the Trump Foundation instead of the presidents personal coffers  raised fresh questions about how the president handled the entity he set up to deal with charitable giving.

Mr Pinchuk is the son-in-law of a former president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, who from 1994 to 2005 led a government criticised for corruption, nepotism and the murder of dissident journalists. Mr Pinchuk, who has been accused by steel-makers in the United States of illegally dumping steel on the American market at artificially low prices, drew more scrutiny during the campaign for his ties to Hillary Clinton and her family foundation. He has donated more than $13m (10.5m) to that organisation since 2006.

Mr Trumps appearance was broadcast at the Yalta European Strategy conference, which promotes pro-European Union policies for Ukraine. Through his own foundation, Mr Pinchuk sponsors the affair, which typically attracts well-known former Western leaders like former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Bill Clinton. It was moved to Kiev after Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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 event, Mr Trumps first foray into global politics during the campaign, was set up by Doug Schoen, a veteran political consultant and pollster who works with Mr Pinchuk, according to a person familiar with how the speech was arranged. Mr Schoen, a frequent Fox News guest, has known Mr Trump for years and contacted him personally to set it up at the end of August 2015, according to the person.

Mr Trump did not raise the prospect of any payment. But the next day, Mr Cohen called Mr Schoen to solicit the $150,000 as an honorarium, the person briefed on the matter said. Mr Schoen, who had gotten to know Mr Cohen by running into him in the green room at Fox News, dealt with him and not Mr Trump directly, according to another person briefed on the exchange.

The Kiev talk received little attention, with the scant coverage focused on the awkward nature of Mr Trumps delivery. He repeatedly stopped speaking, apparently believing he had to pause to give translators time to relay what he was saying.

You need not wait for any translation, Schoen finally told him.

The New York Times
Donald Trump is said to be bouncing off the walls with fury after his personal lawyers offices were raided by the FBI, apparently after being tipped off about possible wrongdoing by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

In an angry appearance before television cameras as he prepared to meet with senior military officials to discuss Americas response to the suspected chemicals attack in Syria, Mr Trump raged against the disgraceful situation and witch hunt he termed the raiding of Michael Cohens New York offices.

Mr Trump followed up on Tuesday morning, with a pair of tweets, one of which was written in capital letters. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT, he wrote. Attorney-client privilege is dead.

But reports suggested Mr Trumps anger may be even greater than he has shown publicly.

What you saw of that spray of him with the poolers where he was venting about this as an attack on our country was him at his rawest that weve seen in public related to this investigation, Maggie Haberman, a well-sourced political reporter with The New York Times, told CNN.

It is a fraction of what he is saying in private. Hes bouncing off the walls, according to one source.

Referring to a comment the president had made a year ago about the circumstances in which he might be prepared to fire Mr Mueller if his probe into Russias alleged interference become too wide-ranging, she added: And both he and Cohen, according to two people I spoke to, see this as a clear violation of [the] red line, the president had set an interview with [three of the newspapers reporters] in the Oval Office last summer about the scope of Muellers inquiry.

That if it went beyond Russia and started tracking into the presidents personal finances or his familys finances, that that would be a problem.

 Former superior court judge Andrew Napolitano explains why Donald Trump will be concerned by FBI raid of Michael Cohen's office

Mr Trump, who triggered the appointment of a special prosecutor when he fired then FBI Director James Comey last May, has always denied his campaign in any way colluded with Moscow. Against the advice of his lawyers, who do not want him to sit down and be interviewed by Mr Mueller, Mr Trump has said he would like to be questioned under oath as he believes he would be cleared.

Mr Mueller has so far filed indictments against four former members of Mr Trumps campaign, one Dutch lawyer and 13 Russians who were accused of trying to subvert the 2016 election. Just as importantly, Mr Mueller has shown himself to be relentless, exhaustive and at the helm of an investigation that has proven itself to be virtually leak-free.

There has long been speculation, supported by Mr Trumps own comments, that Mr Mueller may wish to dig into the presidents finances as part of the probe, including the $130,000 (92,000) his lawyer Mr Cohen paid to adult actor Stormy Daniels to buy her silence on the eve of the election about an alleged sexual encounter with the billionaire a decade earlier. Mr Cohen has served as Mr Trumps personal lawyer for decades and has represented the billionaire and his businesses in a variety of issues.

I think its a combination of things, Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College in New York, told The Independent of Mr Trumps anger.

(Getty (Getty)

He does feel this is a witch hunt and that this has taken a toll on his administration. Its exhausting for staff, it can be very expensive for those that have to hire lawyers. And its distracting from everything theyre supposed to be doing.

In another signal of the constant turmoil within the administration, Mr Trumps homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, announced on Tuesday he was resigning. The president is grateful for Toms commitment to the safety and security of our great country, said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Mr Bosserts departure came a day after former UN ambassador John Bolton took up his position as national security adviser.

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

Ms Zaino said she believed Mr Trumps anger was genuine. But she said it also likely played well with his base of supporters, who may be willing to believe he is being unfairly targeted.

She said this could be very valuable ahead of Novembers midterm elections, when Republican candidates are expected to facing something of a Democratic wave.

The raid on Mr Cohens New York office was overseen by the US attorneys office in Manhattan and was based in part on a referral from Mr Mueller, said Mr Cohens own lawyer, Stephen Ryan.

The decision by the US attorneys office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, Mr Ryan said in a statement. It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.

The Associated Press said the raid created a new legal headache for Mr Trump as he and his attorneys weigh whether to agree to an interview with Mr Muellers team. It will also certainly amplify the public scrutiny on the payment to Ms Daniels, who says she had sex with Mr Trump in 2006 and received the payment days before the election.

In his first public comment on the issue, Mr Trump told reporters last week that he did not know about the payment.
Two Indian soldiers were killed in firing by Pakistani troops along the highly militarised frontier that divides disputed Kashmir between the two rivals, India's army said Tuesday.

Pakistani soldiers used mortars and automatic gunfire overnight to strike at Indian positions in Sunderbani sector along the Line of Control in violation of the cease-fire accord of 2003 between the nuclear-armed neighbours, said Indian army spokesman Col. Nitin Joshi.

Joshi called the Pakistani firing and shelling "unprovoked and indiscriminate" and said Indian soldiers retaliated "strongly and effectively."

There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan.

In the past, both countries have accused the other of initiating border skirmishes leading to casualties on both sides.

This year, soldiers from the two nations have been engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower-altitude 125-mile boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.

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 fighting earlier this year sent thousands of border residents to temporary shelters for days.

India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, a Himalayan territory claimed by both in its entirety. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region

Associated Press
Talks between the US and North Korea are not the potential breakthrough Donald Trump has suggested because Pyongyang has a different definition of denuclearisation, experts have warned.

Details about the proposed negotiations remain sparse after US officials said on Sunday that Pyongyang had delivered a direct message about its willingness to discuss the issue if and when Mr Trump meets Kim Jong-un.

The US has confirmed that Kim Jong-un is willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a senior administration official said. The Trump White House has long said that if the North Koreans were not ready to discuss halting their nuclear programme, the two countries could not negotiate.

There are questions, however, about how North Korea defines denuclearisation, which Washington and Mr Trump regard as Mr Kims regime abandoning its atomic weapons programme.

It means the removal of the threat posed by us, not them, according to Evans Revere, a former senior US State Department official.

Recommended Remains of US troops could return home from North Korea after 60 years

Mr Revere told The Washington Post: Its been defined as this for us on many occasions. My conclusion is this is not new.

Various outlets are describing this as a major breakthrough on North Koreas commitment toward denuclearisation. Its no such thing.

North Korea has said over the years it may consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the US removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

The US has maintained a significant military presence in the region for decades, with thousands of troops stationed in South Korea and further bases on Okinawa and Guam. It also uses its aircraft carriers to project power in the western Pacific.

Before the recent apparent thaw in tensions North Korea regularly lambasted joint US military exercises with Seoul and Tokyo as preparations for war.

The Post said US officials spoke with caution about the latest offer, which reportedly included no detail of Pyongyangs negotiating position.

James Edward Hoare, associate fellow of Chatham Houses Asia-Pacific programme and a former UK diplomat, told The Independent that weakening Washingtons foothold in the region may be Pyongyangs aim in the long, long term.

He added: Both sides want the impossible. The North Koreans will be prepared to make some sort of concessions, theres no doubt about that. Youre not going to get rid of it all. That may not suit Mr Trump or his administration. And what are you going to give us in return? will be the next question.

They want absolute security, as does the US, and no country has absolute security so everybody is bound to be somewhat disappointed.

Full denuclearisation in North Korea could be impossible to guarantee because you dont know whats there. Youre not going to destroy the knowledge that they have, he said.

 Donald Trump says he 'believes' North Korea leader Kim Jong Un about peace talks

In March Mr Trump said that a deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the world, having accepted on the spot an invitation to meet Mr Kim relayed by South Korean officials.

On Monday he told reporters the encounter would take place in late May or early June.

I think therell be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully well be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea, the US president said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting. Theyve said so. Weve said so, he added. Hopefully, itll be a relationship thats much different than its been for many, many years.

But a lack of preparation and regional expertise  with key officials missing from the State Departments roster  could hamper a US negotiating team going up against North Koreans with long experience, Mr Hoare told The Independent.

He said: They are tough negotiators. They will go through everything in fine detail and they are very legalistic. Youve got to know what you are doing.

I think the US is very convinced of its own power and its authority in the world, but the North Koreans have been playing great powers off against each other for a long time.

After watching the demise of Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, Pyongyang is unlikely to say OK, well trust you to the Americans, he said.

North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Show all 21 1 /21 North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Pukguksong-2 missile - 2 May 2017 A solid-fuel "Pukguksong-2" missile lifts off during its launch test in North Korea on May 22, 2017. They said that it was examining operational plans for attacking Guam, an angry reaction to UN punishment for previous North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a US suggestion about preparations for possible preventive attacks to stop the North's nuclear weapons program. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-12 -16 September 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. Kim vowed to complete North Korea's nuclear force despite sanctions, saying the final goal of his country's weapons development is "equilibrium of real force" with the United States, state media reported on September 16, 2017. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Donald Trump address South Korean assembly - 7 November 2017 President Donald Trump talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-In during their joint press conference at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul.Trump was the first US President to address the South Korean National Assembly since President Clinton in 1993. He addressed Kim Jong Un warning him to not underestimate the US and that for talks to materialize then Pyongyang would need to take steps into denuclearization. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Demilitarized Zone Haean-Myeon, is a small military town near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and border between North and South Korea, in Gangwon province. The zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula and was created after the 'Korean Armistice Agreement'. Any negotiations between the two countries tend to take place in this zone. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Declared state sponsor of terrorism by Trump - 20 November 2017 President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a cabinet meeting at the White House on November 20, 2017, where he officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea had previously been on the list, however was removed in 2008. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 The North Korean government launches it's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on November 29, 2017. It is supposedly capable of reaching all parts of the US. Korean Central News Agency via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un celebrating the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile on November 29, 2017. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Kim Jong-Un New Year's speech - 1 January 2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering his New Year's speech. He vowed North Korea would mass-produce nuclear warheads and missiles in a defiant New Year message on January 1 suggesting he would continue to accelerate a rogue weapons programme that has stoked international tensions. Korean Central News Agency via AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Intercontinental ballistic missile ice sculpture - 1 January 2018 Fireworks are seen above the Taedong River during New Year celebrations as visitors pose for a photo in front of an ice sculpture of an intercontinental ballistic missile at the Pyongyang Ice Sculpture Festival in Kim Il Sung Square in North Korea on 1 January, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures US-South Korean military drills postponed - 4 January 2018 South Korean President Moon Jae-in talks with US President Donald Trump on January 4, 2018 in Seoul. South Korea and US agreed to delay the annual "Foal Eagle" military drills until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in an effort to "de-conflict" the Games and "focus on ensuring the security" of the event. South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Vehicles transporting the South Korean delegation, led by South Korean Unification Ministrer Cho Myoung-Gyon, drive past a checkpoint on the road connecting South and North Korea at the Unification Bridge, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating them both on January 9, 2018 in Paju. They began their first official face-to-face talks in two years. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Members of the South Korea delegation (R) shake hands with members of the North Korean delegation (L) during their meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas on January 9, 2018. They focused on the forthcoming Winter Olympics after months of tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula - 16 January 2018 Foreign Ministers from twenty countries from North and South America, Asia, and Europe pose for a photo at the Vancouver Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, in Vancouver on January 16, 2018. The US urged an escalation in pressure on North Korea over its nuclear missile program, despite a more cautious tone from key US ally South Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, co-hosted the event with Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, and called for North Korean ships to be intercepted and for new punitive measures to be implemented every time Pyongyang tests new weapons. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea and South Korea to march together at Winter Olympics - 20 January 2018 PyeongChang 2018 Olympics President Lee Hee-beom, North Korea's Sports Minister and Olympic Committee president Kim Il Guk, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan and South Korea's National Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung join their hands as they pose during a signing ceremony at the Olympic Museum on January 20, 2018 in Lausanne. North Korea will send 22 athletes to the Winter Games in the South. The two nations will also march together at the opening ceremony. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea activists protest delegation arrival - 22 January 2018 Anti-North Korea activists burn a portrait of leader Kim Jong-Un during a rally Seoul Station as a North Korean delegation arrived to check out performance venues for the Winter Olympics on January 22, 2018. Protesters led by the Korean Patriots Party gathered and complained that the talks to encourage North Korea's participation is stealing the spotlight from their country to the benefit of the regime. Donga Daily via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Panmunjom - 7 February 2018 South Korean soldiers stand guard at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea on February 7, 2018. In a sign of thawing bilateral ties, North Korea today announced that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korean ferry arrives in South Korea - 6 February 2018 North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approaches a port in Donghae, South Korea, February 6, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea protest - 6 February 2018 A member of a conservative civic group tears a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea protest as the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approached. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea at the athletes village - 8 February 2018 A North Korean flag is seen hanging on a building at the Winter Olympics athletes village in Gangneung, South Korea. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Olympic Welcome ceremony - 8 February 2018 Democratic People's Republic of Korea Vice Sports Minister Won Gil-woo receives a gift from mayor of the Olympic Village Kim Ki-hoon during the welcome ceremony ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Games at the Olympic Village on 8 February, 2018 in South Korea. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Mike Pence meets Moon Jae-in - 8 February 2018 US Vice President Mike Pence shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in before their meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea on 8 February, 2018. REUTERS

Mr Trumps swift acceptance of the proposed meeting could also cause problems, Mr Hoare said. There is a danger of talking past each other in such circumstances. That is one reason why you normally set up such high-level meetings after an awful lot of preparation.

The two sides havent any idea what the bottom line would be for the other.

Another former US diplomat, Christopher Hill, who negotiated with the North during the George W Bush administration, told the Post that Pyongyang knows what the US wants.

He added: The question is when and how and what they want in return for it. If the notion is denuclearisation where you take all the forces that threaten them off the Korean peninsula, its not going to work.

If they have in mind the sorts of things on offer in 2005  energy assistance, economic assistance, cross recognition of states, a peace treaty  were in business. But at this point, we just dont know.

Colin Alexander, a political communications lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, agreed that a military draw-down by the US and its allies would be a key goal for North Korea, and a prerequisite for denuclearisation.

He told The Independent: A country like North Korea would rather not put so much of its national energies into the creation of nuclear deterrents as this results in the perceived need for significant state propaganda operations to continually convince North Korean citizens of the threats posed by the outside world and why their government must prioritise this rather than aspects of social welfare or economic development.

To this end, the only way that the Kim regime would consider denuclearisation would be if substantive guarantees were provided by the United States and its allies.

These would include, first, a guarantee of the security of the regime itself. Second, the decline of military intimidation by the US and its allies in the region. And third, the diminishing of the pro-capitalist rhetoric led by the US that North Korea considers to be imperialistic and an attempt to dilute the traditional Korean culture that has been the mandate of the Kim dynasty to protect.

Additional reporting by agencies
A French man has been charged with raping a British teenager on a popular Thai holiday island.

The alleged attack took place on the island of Koh Tao, a picturesque spot that draws divers and tourists from all over the world.

The area made headlines in 2014 when the bodies of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found on one of the islands beaches having been bludgeoned to death.

Two Myanmar migrant workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, were found guilty in 2015 of killing the pair.

Thailand remains a popular destination for travellers on a budget and tourism is a vital part of the economy, but a spate of crimes against visitors in recent years has raised questions about tourist safety in the country.

In the latest case, police said an 18-year-old backpacker, whose name has been withheld, reported she had been drugged and raped by a French tourist on 4 April.

Thai police identified the suspect as 26-year-old French national Yohan Michael Tunka Buaga. He was arrested on Saturday and charged with rape on Monday and is being held on the nearby island of Koh Samui.

The suspect has admitted to having sexual intercourse with the victim, but he said that it was consensual and not rape, police Lieutenant Colonel Piyapong Boonkaew of Koh Tao police told Reuters.

We are now investigating the case and waiting for forensic examination, Lt Col Piyapong said.

Reuters was unable to contact both the suspects and the victims lawyers.

The Foreign Offices travel guidance for Thailand includes warnings about the potential for sexual attacks in the area.

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 said: Violent sexual assaults and unprovoked attacks have been reported in popular tourist destinations, including in the Koh Samui archipelago and Krabi province.

These are particularly common during the monthly full moon parties and generally occur late at night near bars.

Drink spiking has been reported in tourist destinations around Thailand, with both male and female victims.

Be careful about taking drinks from strangers and at clubs and parties, or leaving your drinks unattended, particularly in Koh Samui, Pattaya and at the full moon party on Koh Phangan, where date rapes have been reported.

Additional reporting by Reuters

* Update Yohan Michael Tunka Buaga was subsequently released after police dropped the case. 22/11/18
A Japanese pensioner aged 112 years and 259 days has been certified as the worlds oldest living man.

Masazo Nonaka received the certificate from Guinness World Records at a ceremony in his home in Ashoro, on Japans northern island of Hokkaido.

The sweet-toothed supercentenarian, whose family has run a hot springs inn in northern Japan for four generations, celebrated the big news with an appropriately big cake.

Mr Nonakas family suggested he may owe his longevity to his penchant for soaking in northern Japans hot springs and indulging in cake and sweets.

Mr Nonaka was born at the turn of the 20th century, on 25 July 1905, shortly before Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity.

He was raised in a large family and his parents eventually handed over the inn for him to run. The inn, which has also stood the test of time and is now 105 years old, is currently being run by his granddaughter Yuko.

Mr Nonakas favourite hobby is soaking in the hot springs, but he also loves eating sweets  particularly cakes.

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

He has a fondness for samurai dramas and sumo wrestling, and spends his days watching TV. He also enjoys poring over the newspaper after eating breakfast every morning and spending time with his family at home or in their B&B.

He has outlived all seven of his siblings  as well as his wife and two of their five children.

Mr Nonaka still manages to move around by himself in a wheelchair, his family members say.

Wearing a grey kimono-style jacket and similarly coloured knitted hat, he cracked a smile as he posed for a group photo with his family.

According to Japans national public broadcaster NHK, he devoured the cake and branded it delicious.

Erika Ogawa, the Vice President for Japan for Guinness World Records, visited him at his home on Tuesday to present him with the certificate for his longevity.

He takes the title of worlds oldest man after Francisco Nunez Olivera from Spain passed away in February, at the age of 113.

Nonaka was born at the turn of the 20th century, and is 112 years old (Reuters)

Guinness World Records is currently looking into possible contenders for the title of the oldest living person, as no one has been recognised since Violet Brown of Jamaica died at the age of 117 in July last year.

A 117-year-old Japanese woman, Nabi Tajima (who is currently the oldest living person in Japan), is expected to be certified as the worlds new oldest person.

Japan is famed for the longevity of its citizens and has been home to a number of oldest title holders, including Jiroemon Kimura who died in June 2013 at the age of 116.

Last year the government said there are around 68,000 people aged 100 or older in the country.

Japan has one of the highest populations of elderly citizens anywhere in the world, and is increasingly feeling the strain of a rapidly ageing society.

According to a report by the University of Pensylvania titled The graying of Japan, those over 65 now account for roughly a quarter of the countrys population.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
Facebooks biggest Black Lives Matter (BLM) page was reportedly a scam run by a middle-aged white man in Australia.

Ian MacKay, a senior official with Australias National Union of Workers (NUW), allegedly helped set up and run the page titled simply Black Lives Matter, according to CNN.

The page, which has now been removed by Facebook, garnered almost 700,000 followers  more than twice as many as the official BLM page.

The page was allegedly used to solicit up to $100,000 in donations intended for BLM causes in the US, at least some of which was directed to bank accounts registered in Australia.

Mr MacKay denied involvement when contacted by CNN.

 Mark Zuckerberg admits my mistake as 87m Facebook users could have seen data accessed by Cambridge Analytica

Tim Kennedy, NUWs national secretary, said: The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report, and has suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation.

The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNNs story.

Fundraising campaigns associated with the Facebook page were suspended by companies including PayPal and Patreon, CNN reported, after they were contacted for comment.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Independent: We investigated this situation as soon as it was brought to our attention, and disabled the page admin for maintaining multiple profiles on the platform.

We continue to look into the situation, and will take the necessary action in line with our policies.

MacKay allegedly helped set up the 700,000-strong Facebook page (Facebook/NUW)

Mr MacKay also allegedly ran a series of websites linked to black rights, including blacklivesnews.com, blackkillingsmatter.com and blackpowerfist.com. Domain records showed the latter was registered using Mr MacKays union email address in 2015.

Archive records on the site said it was created by Black Lives Matter to share the news that mainstream media play down, and that it was not funded by any other BLM group, George Soros, Ford foundation or celebrity.

The fake BLM page was only removed by Facebook after it disabled an account called BP Parker, an administrator of the page. CNN revealed the BP Parker profile had shared a link to the blackpowerfist website the day after it was registered.

How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Show all 9 1 /9 How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Lock your profile down If you havent done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Limit old posts Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on whos able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Make yourself harder to find You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. Its also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address. At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Control access to your Timeline You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Block people When you block someone, they wont be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately. You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means theyll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Review tags One of Facebooks handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts youre tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. Theyll still be visible on the News Feed while theyre fresh, but wont be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Clean up your apps You can view a list of all of the apps youve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. Its worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information. If you dont want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Change your ad preferences You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks youre into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so wed recommend doing this on a computer. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Download your data Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts youve shared, your messages and photos, ads youve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. Its a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.

The revelations come amid a public backlash against Facebooks data sharing regulations, which has seen companies gain improper access to millions of users personal information.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg will tell Congress this week that addressing the data abuse scandal will significantly impact the companys profitability.

BLM has been contacted for comment.
A seven-month-old baby has died after being bitten in the head by the family's dog in southern Germany, police have said.

The incident took place in Bad Koenig, some 30 miles southeast of Frankfurt in Hesse state. Police said they were yet to establish why the dog attacked the child.

The dog has been taken to an animal shelter in nearby Michelstadt, according to Bild.

The breed of the dog remains unclear. A police spokeswoman described the animal as a Staffordshire mix while shelter staff referred to a boxer mix, acting "very aggressively".

A local news website, hessenschau.de, said the baby was bitten on Monday and taken to hospital, where its condition was stabilised, but that it later died on Monday night.

The incident took place almost a week after two people were killed by a dog in northern Germany.

A 52-year-old woman and her 27-year-old son were killed by a Staffordshire terrier they owned on April 3 in Hannover.
An American couple in their 60s have died after they were thrown from a pony and trap into a rocky ravine on a road in Killarney, Ireland.

The freak accident occurred after the pony reportedly bolted in the Gap of Dunloe beauty spot, a narrow mountain pass in County Kerry, south-west Ireland.

According to local reports the tourists were on holiday from Phoenix, Arizona, and had been travelling with the womans daughter, her daughters husband and two young children.

They were travelling behind but did not see the accident, the Irish Times reported.

The trap reportedly fell on top of the couple who had fallen at least 12ft onto the rocks in the ravine. The driver  a local man in his 40s  jumped clear and avoided serious injury but was treated by paramedics for shock.

The couple were pronounced dead at the scene. Police closed the road and the bodies were taken to University Hospital Kerry for postmortems.

Niall Kelleher, the mayor of Killarney, said the county was in shock over the accident.

The Gap of Dunloe is one of the most naturally beautiful places in the entire country but there is a very dark cloud overhead this evening as everybody tries to comes to terms with what has happened, Mr Kelleher said.

Superintendent Flor Murphy of Killarney Garda Station said the incident was being investigated as a road traffic collision as it happened on a public roadway, according to the Irish Times.

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 paper spoke to a local source who added: Its a freak accident and the tragedy is that if this happened, say, 50 yards down the road we wouldnt even be talking about it because the couple would have landed into soft boggy ground. Unfortunately it happened beside a rocky ravine and they ended up landing on the rocks.

The investigating officers are hoping to speak to the driver in the coming days.

The area is a popular tourist destination and horse and traps have been a common means of transport there for over a hundred years.
One of the most senior members of Spains ruling conservative party is facing calls to quit after accusations emerged that she had faked a masters degree in law.

Cristina Cifuentes, the president of the partys Madrid branch and tipped as a possible successor to prime minister Mariano Rajoy, has been a member of the Popular Party (PP) for nearly 30 years but has been forced to cancel a number of public appearances since the scandal emerged.

The 53-year-old is accused of manipulating grades and falsifying signatures on records of a postgraduate qualification she completed in 2012. The state prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into the reports, with the criminal offence of falsifying public documents carrying a prison sentence of up to six years in Spanish law.

The furore dominated the partys annual convention at the weekend in Seville, according to El Pais, yet Mr Rajoy did not defend or even mention Ms Cifuentes during his keynote speech on Sunday. The prime minister focused on tackling Catalonias independence and motivating the party to deal with the opposition, especially with Ciudadanos, its biggest rival.

On Monday, almost 500 people protested outside the King Juan Carlos University, where Ms Cifuentes received the allegedly fraudulent degree. Students, parents and teachers have expressed their outrage, demanding a fair and decent system.

The scandal began on 21 March, when a whistleblower contacted the universitys management saying Ms Cifuentes record had been manipulated. Two years after she graduated, someone changed two of her grades from absent to Bs, it was claimed.

The universitys faculty of law launched an investigation, and it has since been claimed that two out of the three signatures that validated Ms Cifuentes dissertation were forged.

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

Javier Ramos, the universitys vice-chancellor, announced on Friday that he could not certify the degrees authenticity. He claimed there were no official records that proved Ms Cifuentes successfully handed in and presented her dissertation in 2012.

Ms Cifuentes has admitted she did not attend any lectures or take exams at the university, but says she did complete coursework and her dissertation. She strongly denies the forgery allegations, saying she completed the degree and that her professors support her. I do not intend to resign, she said. I confirm that in everything I have told the truth. When asked to produce a copy of her completed dissertation, she is reported to have said she lost it while moving house.

Opposition parties, including Ciudadanos, called for Ms Cifuentes resignation on Monday. The same day, she was scheduled to deliver a conference at a university in Madrid, but the event was cancelled and any trace of it disappeared from her website. Since the scandal first emerged, Ms Cifuentes has cancelled various events and limited her public exposure.
Viktor Orbans right-wing populist party has vowed to would crack down on organisations helping migrants and refugees, in an announcement made just a day after it won an overwhelming election victory.

The autocratic prime minister portrayed himself as the saviour of Hungarys Christian culture against Muslim migration into Europe, an image which resonated with more than 2.5 million voters.

His Fidesz party won a two-thirds super majority in the countrys parliament, which would allow it and its small ally, the Christian democrats, to push through changes to constitutional laws.

It would also enable it to push through the so-called Stop Soros bill, said Janos Halasz, the partys parliamentary spokesman.

Mr Orban has claimed the opposition is collaborating with the United Nations, the European Union and the wealthy philanthropist George Soros to turn Hungary into an immigrant country.

The draft law targeting advocates for refugees could come as soon as May, the party said.

It could make it hard for groups working with asylum-seekers to continue their activities in Hungary.

 Twelve celebrities you might not know were refugees

The laws would force NGOs working with migrants and asylum seekers to get government permits, income received from abroad would be taxed by 25 per cent, advocacy groups could be banned from going closer than 8km (5 miles) from Hungarys borders - where asylum-seekers file claims - and foreigners without authorization to help refugees could be banned from Hungary.

Their activity would have to be approved by the interior minister, who could deny permission if he saw a national security risk.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which provides legal help for asylum-seekers, said it would not let the election results derail its mission.

The committee receives support from Mr Soross Open Society Foundations and is frequently identified by the government as one of the foreign agents supposedly working against Hungarys national interests.

Our association will continue its activities for as long as people in dire straits ask us for help, the group said. We are the same age as Hungarian democracy, established in 1989, of which there is less and less left.

The Helsinki Committee said it was clear Fidesz considers its power interests more important than the values of the state of law and democracy, human rights and the Constitution.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Before the election, Mr Orbans government had warned Hungary would descend into chaos should it become an immigrant country like France or Belgium, with funds meant for Hungarian families or the countrys underprivileged Roma minority diverted to migrants.

The government said the presence of migrants would weaken Hungarys security and increase its risk of terrorism.

He also warned the migrants would halt Hungarys economic development, would weaken government support for rural areas, would threaten the safety of women and girls, and would turn the capital Budapest into an unrecognizable city.

If the dam bursts, if the borders are opened, if immigrants set foot in Hungary, there will be no going back, Mr Orban had said at a final campaign rally on Friday.

Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, addresses supporters after the announcement of the partial results of parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary (Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images)

A spokesman the European Commissions president, Jean-Claude Juncker, would write to Mr Orban to congratulate him on his victory but emphasise defending democracy and values was the common duty of all member states with no exception.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said in a statement: During your renewed term as prime minister I count on you to play a constructive role in maintaining our unity in the EU.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, congratulated Mr Orban, a spokesman said, adding she would work with his new government despite their differences on migration.

The first leader to congratulate Mr Orban was Marine Le Pen, who heads Frances National Front.

Polands deputy foreign minister and envoy to the EU, Konrad Szymanski, hailed his victory as a confirmation of Central Europes emancipation policy.

Before the election, Hungary had already signalled it would be looking to expand co-operation on migrant policy with neighbouring Austria, the only country in Western Europe with a far-right group in government, as well as Italy, where the centre-left Democratic Party lost to anti-establishment and right-wing parties which campaigned hard against immigration.

Orban is implementing sustainable and correct policies for the people of his country... Hungarys voters have rewarded that once again, Austrias vice chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, said.

Mr Orbans victory could embolden him to put more stock in a Central European alliance against the EUs migration policies, working with right-wing nationalists in Poland and Austria, and further expose cracks in the 28-nation bloc.
Saudi Arabia's state oil giant Aramco, the most valuable energy company in the world, is to build a giant petro-chemical complex in the city of Jubail in partnership with French energy company Total.

The announcement came as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

The joint venture will exploit operational synergies and see $9bn (7.2bn) invested in the project in the Persian Gulf, the companies said after signing a memorandum of understanding.

The refinery will create 8,000 local direct and indirect jobs the statement said.

Aramco will hold the majority stake of 62.5 per cent to Totals 37.5 per cent.

Engineering and design work will begin late this year and when complete the plant will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of high value chemicals, a press release put out by Total said.

This project illustrates our strategy of maximizing the integration of our large refining and petrochemical platforms and of expanding our petrochemical operations from low-cost feedstock, to take advantage of the fast growing Asian polymer market," said Patrick Pouyanne, the chairman and chief executive of Total.

Furthermore, this project will enable us to strengthen our ties with Saudi Aramco, with whom we successfully operate our biggest and most efficient refinery in the world."

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

Jubail, on the eastern coast of Audi Arabia, has been inhabited by humans for at least 7,000 years and until 1975 remained a small fishing village. In 1933 it gained some fame for becoming the site at which geologists landed to begin searching for oil in Saudi Arabia.

In 1975 the Saudi government designated the town as the site for a huge new industrial city. The huge civil infrastructure project was boosted by an 11bn investment for expansion in 2014.

Crown Prince Bin Salman, who arrived in France over the weekend for an official visit lasting several days.

The two leaders are expected to discuss a future "strategic partnership" with further joint ventures thought to be announced during Mr Macron's trip to Saudi Arabia at the end of the year.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of attempting to cut off former British protectorate Qatar from international trade with plans for a new military base and nuclear-waste burial site close to its border.

Riyadh is said to want to build a new industrial and economic hub and excavate a waterway along Qatars sole land border, allowing shipping to bypass the emirate.

News of the plan has prompted fears that Qatar, which has large natural reserves of oil and gas, could be cut off and effectively turned into an island.

Qatar is at the centre of a crisis that has been deepening since June, after neighbouring countries cut off diplomatic, trade and travel ties with it and imposed a land, air and sea blockade.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain accuse Qatar of funding Islamist terrorism, supporting extremists and fostering ties with Saudis arch-rival Iran.

The Qatar-owned Al-Araby news website said: The canal project would appear to be an attempt to further tighten the blockade on Qatar and attempt to take trade away from the emirate.

Near-identical reports about the canal scheme appeared in two state-linked Saudi newspapers - Sabq and al-Riyadh - on Monday. An earlier report by Sabq online said the canal project would "turn Qatar into an island" and take just 12 months to complete.

They claimed the scheme would turn the area into a unique industrial and economic hub with a number of ports lining the waterway.

The planned new canal, under the authority of Riyadh, would be 37 miles long and 210 yards wide, allowing ships to navigate it, the Saudi news site Sabq online reported.

The site said the planned military base would be built on a 1km stretch of land that separates Qatars border from the Salwa water channel.

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The rest of the area would be converted into a waste dump for a planned Saudi nuclear reactor.

The project, which also includes new hotel resorts with private beaches, would be financed by the private sector and Saudi and United Arab Emirates investors. The proposal has not received official approval and would face many obstacles before it could be enacted in practice.

Egyptian companies with experience in digging the Suez Canal would create the new Salwa Marine Canal, Sabq 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

Saudi border guards would be posted to the area, replacing passports and customs offices from the Salwa border crossing between the two countries.

Sceptics said the area for development was chosen deliberately to isolate Qatar.

But Sabq online said: Geostrategic experts said that, once the project is carried out, Qatar will not be an independent island as it will be part of Salwa Island where Saudi Arabia will share the island with it through its military base.

Qatar has accused its larger neighbour of bullying both it and Lebanon.

Saudi Arabian and Qatari government spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The United Nations was deadlocked as the US and Russia voted against each other over an investigation into the recent suspected chemical attack in Syria.

Each country placed a resolution before the Security Council to vote on. The US text was vetoed by Russia while the Russian text was not adopted because it did not gain enough votes.

In what has become characteristic of these meetings, the US and UK traded diplomatic barbs with Russia over the countrys support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley accused of using chemical weapons. After the votes, she expressed disappointment, saying it showed our complete failure to protect the Syrian people.

The US resolution had proposed an independent mechanism for investigating the 7 April attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, where 60 people were killed and at least 1,000 injured in what appeared to be a chlorine gas attack. It also called for an attribution clause that would identify the perpetrator of the attack.

Russia, meanwhile, proposed that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres choose the investigators but that the results be reviewed by Russia for acceptance prior to making them public, according to Ms Haley. It also did not contain any clause to assign attribution of the suspected attack.

She said the US had worked with other Security Council members to ensure their concerns about establishing a truly independent, impartial and transparent investigation were taken into account  including provisions from Russia. However, she said the US then made common sense changes to the document that was put up for vote today. We accepted every recommendation that did not compromise impartiality, she said.

Youre either for an independent, impartial investigation or youre not, Ms Haley said, adding that Russias negotiation on the mechanism indicated they were only interested in protecting their ally in Damascus, not in actually finding out who carried out the alleged chemical attack.

She said the Security Council had been strung along for month after month by Mr Assads regime. His government avoided sanctions through its support from Russia and sometimes China, she said.

Russia chose the Assad regime again over the unity of this council, she added.

Russias Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, insisted the US resolution was just a means of justifying American military action against Syria. The US has simply been looking for a pretext to show in Washington, he said.

Bolivia agreed. Ambassador Sacha Llorenty said that he voted against the US resolution because Bolvia objected to bringing a resolution to vote that the US knew would not pass, and that it appeared to have been drafted as a way to warrant another US missile strike in Syria.

 Donald Trump: 'nothing is off the table' for US response to alleged Syria chemical attack

Both referenced the US missile strike last April after the suspected chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Mr Nebenzya forcefully insisted Russia was in Syria at the invitation of the legal government. Ms Haley and the US were trying to undermine the authority of the Security Council by bringing repeated resolutions against the regime in Syria that they know will not pass without a Russian veto, he added.

Britains Ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce, said Russia has crossed the line in international order and that its very credibility as a member of the Security Council was at stake over its continued support of Damascus.

Russia would rather cross the WMD [weapons of mass destruction] line than risk any sanctions against its ally in Syria, Ms Pierce said. UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson later tweeted that that Russia was holding the Syrian people to political ransom by supporting Mr Assads regime.

Ms Pierce pointed out that the Russian ambassador had repeatedly said there were no traces of a chemical attack despite footage and some evidence of chlorine gas cannisters in Douma, but asked no traces found by whom? She reminded the Security Council that Russia is not authorised to carry out its own investigations into the alleged chemical attack.

Ms Pierce accused Russia of having abused the power of a veto to protect the regime of Mr Assad.

The UK, she said, is against the concept Russia is pushing, which suggests sovereign states are above following international laws and norms.

In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: Children play underground in Syria In pictures: Children play underground in Syria A child plays in the ball pit at the 'Land of Childhood,' an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Abdulaziz, 10, plays in the 'Land of Childhood' underground playground in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Boys look through a show window inside the tunnel that provides a safe passage for children between the two basements that form the 'Land of Childhood' in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children play at the underground 'Land of Childhood' in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Two girls play at the 'Land of Childhood' underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children on the ride on a ferris wheel at the 'Land of Childhood', an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Seven-year-old Massa at the "Land of Childhood" underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children wait in line to buy sweets at the 'Land of Childhood,' an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was outraged by the continued reports of use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.

He added: I reaffirm my full support for the [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] and its fact-finding mission in undertaking the required investigation into these allegations.

US President Donald Trump has condemned the attacks as sick after pictures and video of several children suffering or dead from the alleged chemical attack surfaced. He also said nothing is off the table in terms of a possible US response. Mr Trump has cancelled an upcoming trip to South America to apparently focus on the situation in Syria.
Theresa May has not been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a government source has said.

Guests to the wedding on 19 May will be people who have an existing direct relationship with one or both of the couple, a royal source told Reuters.

An official spokesman for Prince Harry said: "It has been decided that an official list of political leaders - both UK and international - is not required for Prince Harry and Ms Markle's wedding. Her Majesty's government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household."

The government source said the wedding venue, St George's Chapel in Windsor, was notably smaller than Westminster Abbey where Harry's older brother Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 surrounded by a number of heads of government.

The source said there had been no expectation from Downing Street that the prime minister would be invited.

US president Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama are also believed to have missed out on an invite to the event.

There was speculation the Obamas might be invited because of their burgeoning friendship with Prince Harry. The royal interviewed the former president in a casual setting when he guest-hosted the Today programme in December. It would nonetheless have been diplomatically awkward to invite the Obamas but not the current first couple.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures Show all 55 1 /55 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2017 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada. The Invictus Games is an international sport event for wounded, injured and sick (WIS) servicemen and women, both serving and veteran. It was created by the Duke of Sussex and aims to use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding of all those who serve their country Invictus Games Foundation/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2017 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for a photograph in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace following the announcement of their engagement AFP/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2017 Meghan Markle shows off her engagement ring AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures December 2017 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene in King's Lynn Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan during a visit to Reprezent 107.3FM in Pop Brixton. The Reprezent training programme was established in Peckham in 2008, in response to the alarming rise in knife crime, to help young people develop and socialise through radio Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 Meghan Markle greets well-wishers on arrival at Cardiff Castle for a day showcasing the rich culture and heritage of Wales AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 The couple watching a dance performance by Jukebox Collective during their to Cardiff Castle AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk through the corridors of the Palace of Holyroodhouse on their way to a reception for young people in Edinburgh. The reception celebrated youth achievements, marking Scotlands Year of Young People 2018, an initiative that aims to inspire Scotland through its young people: celebrating their achievements, strengthening their voice on social issues and creating new opportunities for them to shine AFP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2018 Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William at the first annual Royal Foundation Forum in London. Under the theme 'Making a Difference Together', the event showcased the programmes run or initiated by The Royal Foundation Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2018 Prince William, Kate, Meghan and Prince Harry attend a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2018 Meghan Markle greets well-wishers after a visit to one of Belfast's most historic buildings, The Crown Liquor Saloon, a former Victorian gin palace, now run by the National Trust. It was the Royal couple's first joint visit to Northern Ireland AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures April 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet participants as they attend the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath AFP via Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Meghan Markle and her mother, Doria Ragland arriving at Cliveden House Hotel the night before her wedding to Prince Harry Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Royal fans sing for the television in Windsor the day before the Royal wedding AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, during her wedding AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stand facing each other hand-in-hand before Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during their wedding ceremony AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Prince Harry kisses the Duchess of Sussex, as they pass through the Cambridge Gate into the grounds of Windsor Castle at the end of their carriage procession AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 The newly married royals leave Windsor Castle after their wedding to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2018 Queen Elizabeth II sitts and laughs with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during a ceremony to open the new Mersey Gateway Bridge in the town of Widnes in Halton, Cheshire Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan return in a horse-drawn carriage after attending the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour' on Horseguards parade AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2018 Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as members of the Royal Family attend events to mark the centenary of the RAF Chris Jackson/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2018 Meghan and Prince Harry kiss after the Sentebale Polo event that was held at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures August 2018 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet the cast and crew of "Hamilton" backstage after the gala performance in support of Sentebale at Victoria Palace Theatre Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2018 Meghan meets 7-year-old Matilda Booth during the annual WellChild awards at Royal Lancaster Hotel in London Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan meet 98-year-old Daphne Dunne during a meet and greet at the Sydney Opera House during an official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan meet a koala named Ruby and its koala joey named Meghan after the Duchess of Sussex during a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry looks on as his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is hugged by student Luke Vincent of Buninyong Public School following the couple's arrival at Dubbo Regional Airport in Dubbo AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Harry and his wife Meghan watch aboriginal dances at Victoria Park in Dubbo AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet with lifeguards at South Melbourne Beach. BeachPatrol is a network of volunteers who are passionate about keeping Melbourne's beaches and foreshores clear of litter to reduce the negative impact of litter on the marine environment and food chain, and provide a safe environment for the public to enjoy their local beach Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan join a circle during a "Fluro Friday" session run by OneWave, a local surfing community group who raise awareness for mental health and wellbeing, at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach AFP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 The British royals kicked off their shoes and donned tropical garlands on Bondi Beach AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan visit an exhibition of Tongan handicrafts, mats and tapa cloths at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa, Tonga Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan laying a wreath at the National War Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and his wife Meghan visit Redwoods Tree Walk in Rotorua AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2018 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at a service marking the centenary of WW1 armistice at Westminster Abbey Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, visit the Kasbah of the Udayas near the Moroccan capital Rabat AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan speak on stage during WE Day UK 2019 at The SSE Arena in London Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2019 Meghan and Prince Harry react as they are presented with baby gifts by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Janice Charette, at Canada House, during an event to mark Commonwealth Day, in central London AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 A congratulatory banner message circling the BT Tower reading "Congratulations Harry and Meghan It's a Baby Boy!" AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Footmen Stephen Kelly and Sarah Thompson set up an official notice on an easel at the gates of Buckingham Palace on May 6, announcing the birth of a son to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Pround parents pose with their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle. The Duchess of Sussex gave birth at 5:26 on 6 May Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan walk away after posing for photographs with their newborn son AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan join the New York Yankees in their clubhouse and receive gifts for Archie ahead of their match against the Boston Red Sox at the London Stadium. The historic two-game series marked the sport's first games ever played in Europe and The Invictus Games Foundation was selected as the official charity of Mitel and MLB London Series 2019 Invictus Games Foundation/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan meet cast and crew, including US singer-songwriter Beyonce and her husband, US rapper Jay-Z as they attend the European premiere of the film The Lion King in London AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dance as they arrive for a visit to the "Justice desk", an NGO in the township of Nyanga in Cape Town, as they begin their tour of the region. Their first official family visit in the coastal city AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan pose with members of "Waves For Change" NGO at Monwabisi Beach outside of Cape Town. "Waves For Change" NGO fuses surfing with child-friendly mind and body therapy to provide mental health services to vulnerable young people living in challenging communities AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The royals arrive to visit the oldest mosque of Cape Town in Dorp Street in Bo Kaap district AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The Duchess of Sussex visits Auwal Mosque on Heritage Day with the Duke of Sussex during their royal tour of South Africa. Auwal Mosque is the first and oldest mosque in South Africa and for the Muslim community, this mosque symbolises the freedom of former slaves to worship Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan hold their baby son Archie as they meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah at the Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The British royal couple were on a 10-day tour of southern Africa -- their first official visit as a family since their son Archie was born AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan meet Graca Machel, widow of the late Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Duke last met with Mrs Machel during his visit to South Africa in 2015 Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2019 Meghan and Prince Harry attend a roundtable discussion on gender equality with The Queens Commonwealth Trust (QCT) and One Young World at Windsor Castle Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures December 2019 Prince Harry holding his son Archie. The photo was used on Instagram to wish their followers a happy new year SussexRoyal/PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2020 Duke and Duchess of Sussex depart Canada House in London after visiting to show thanks for the warm hospitality and support they received during their recent stay in Canada Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2020 Front page headlines, from UK daily papers, reporting on the news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, plan to step back as "senior" members of the Royal Family AFP via Getty

The Obamas congratulated the happy couple on their engagement back in Autumn: Michelle and I are delighted to congratulate Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on their engagement. We wish you a lifetime of joy and happiness together."

A decision not to invite political leaders to the wedding would break with precedent.

Then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher and opposition leaders Neil Kinnock, David Steel, and David Owen attended Prince Andrew - who like Prince Harry was a second son - and Sarah Ferguson's wedding back back in 1986.

Invitations to Prince Harry and the Suits actor's wedding were distributed to 600 guests last month, with 200 close friends also invited to a private celebration at Frogmore House after the ceremony at St Georges Chapel.

Kensington Palace recently revealed the big day would include 250 members of the Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed the Armed Forces would provide ceremonial support.

Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are pleased that members of the Armed Forces will play such a special role in their Wedding, the Palace said in a statement.

Units invited to take part will be ones that hold a special relationship with Prince Harry including servicemen and women from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force.

The Military, and these units in particular, hold a great significance for Prince Harry and the couple are incredibly grateful for their support," the statement added.

Prince Harry served in the Army for 10 years, joining The Blues and Royals in April 2006, serving under the Household Cavalry Regiment and carrying out two tours of Afghanistan during this time.

More than 100,000 visitors from around the world are expected to flood into Windsor for the highly-anticipated wedding next month.
The lobby is a ruckus: loud talking, movement, spirited laughs. Spaniards and native English speakers (mostly Americans, which explains the noise) are playing an icebreaker game. Find someone who has broken a bone, yells one of the leaders to get us going. Cue 15 minutes of racing round the lobby until a new sentence is shouted out.

This isnt some random multilingual gathering. In fact, were all here for a very real reason: intercultural and language exchange through Diverbo. Also known as Pueblo Ingles, its a week-long language immersion programme  at least, it is for Spaniards who come to do nothing but speak English.

For native English speakers, on the other hand, its a free holiday  volunteer and you get full board for the week. Theres just one catch: you have to talk. Endlessly, like youve never talked before. Preferably until your voice goes hoarse  and thats no exaggeration. Introverts need not apply.

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We meet in Madrid where a charter bus will take us to our destination: Candeleda, two hours west, in the province of Avila (there are five other Diverbo venues but this ones the closest to the capital).

Theres roughly one Spaniard for every native English speaker, and I have high hopes for my trip  Id heard about Diverbo through a friend whod done it, and credited it with instilling in her a fervent love for all things Spanish. Immediately, were encouraged to sit next to a Spaniard and just start talking to them. Full immersion is at the core of Pueblo Ingles  so the Spanish students can really hone their fluency.

Courses take place in sleepy Candeleda (Nneka M Okona) (Nneka M. Okona)

Candeleda is a town so remote and quiet, so unbuzzy, that in the mornings cows with bells around their necks act as my alarm clock. We stay at the rustic Hotel El Mirlo Blanco, where each person gets their own terracotta-roofed bungalow. Beyond the rooms, if youre attentive enough, you can see the outline of the Sierra de Gredos mountain range looming in the distance.

The daily schedule is packed: a mixture of one-on-one hour-long conversations on specific topics; rehearsed theatrical skits and icebreaking hand-holding; mini TED-style talks from the Spaniards on a topic of their choosing; and telephone exercises practised via the hotels conference call phone service, to have business-related talks.

All meals (which come with wine) are eaten together, and theres a no clique rule  youre urged to eat with different people throughout the week. The only lull in the schedule is after lunch for a few hours: siesta time.

Stuck in an office, the phone calls are very unlike a holiday  not least because the Spaniards seem most nervous about them. But otherwise, it doesnt feel much like work, and I start to look forward to the one-on-ones. You sit with your assigned partner wherever you like  by the pool, over a cafe con leche, with a drink from the hotel bar in hand, or on a walk. Although topics are preselected, we quickly veer off into more interesting chat. And it gradually begins to feel like youre chatting with a new friend in a no-pressure relaxed situation  and learning as much about yourself as you are about them.

Views from the bungalow accommodation (Nneka M Okona)

Its on a group caving excursion towards the end of the week to Las Grutas del Aguila  a kilometre-long cave system near Candeleda; the sole excursion of the week  that I realise Im gravitating towards some of the Spaniards. Theres the one I wandered over to after dinner to have a beer with; the one for whom I sacrificed my midday nap to chat about the differences between the US and Spain. Im making friends, I realise, without being aware of it, let alone trying.

And friendship, it turns out, is a huge part of Pueblo Ingles  not least because its practically impossible to part ways from people youve spent a week talking to without adding a few on Facebook. The bus ride back to Madrid has none of the anxious awkwardness we had on the way out. Instead, excited chatter fills the bus from back to front, along with promises to keep in touch via WhatsApp.

Im rightfully exhausted by the end of the week. But despite the effort its taken to talk nonstop for seven long days, its genuinely felt less like work and more about connecting. Both volunteers and Spaniards receive completion certificates at the end of the week, and its rewarding to see the transformation of some of them who were too timid to speak much on the bus, on arrival, having gained enough confidence to give presentations in English.

It may not have been a week of poolside relaxation, but as alternative holidays go its been a success.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Airlines flying to Madrid from the UK include Iberia, easyJet, British Airways and Ryanair.

Staying there

Native English speakers stay for free for a week on a full board basis. Transport from Madrid is also included.

More information

diverbo.com
The Simpsons has finally responded to the accusations that a well-known character, Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, is a fundamentally racist and outdated creation.

Lest we forget, Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolus documentary The Problem with Apu criticised the fact that the character, who speaks with a heavy Indian accent, is actually voiced by a white actor, and suggested that the Kwik-E-Mart owner was one of the many examples of the harmful stereotyping of South Asians in the American media.

The most recent episode of The Simpsons, which aired on Sunday night in the US, addressed the brewing controversy. In the episode, Marge reads Lisa a childrens book. Lisa comments that her mother is exhausted, and Marge replies: It takes a lot of work to take the spirit and character out of a book. The joke (if were generous enough to call it a joke) is that in making something inoffensive, we make it boring, incomplete and shallow.

Lisa Simpson, usually the go-to girl for moral consideration and introspection, becomes the incongruous mouthpiece for the shows agenda. She turns to camera after discussing the limited emotional journey available to a perfect character and laments: Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?

We then pan to a picture of Apu, inscribed with the shows catchphrase: Dont have a cow. Was this a limp joke about the fact that Hindus dont eat cows? Perhaps.

Many people, including Kondabolu himself, took to Twitter to express their disappointment about the shows response, and I can only agree with them. Not only did The Simpsons writers do their best to undermine a thoroughly legitimate accusation, they also showed their increasing cultural irrelevance by implying that politically correct narratives were fundamentally uninteresting.

Best moments from The Simpsons Show all 10 1 /10 Best moments from The Simpsons Best moments from The Simpsons 1.Spider Pig Homer's 'Spiderpig' in The Simpsons is arguably one of the best moments of the past 25 years of the show. The Simpsons Best moments from The Simpsons 2. Planet of the Apes: The Musical "He can talk! He can talk he can talk he can talk he can talk he can talk! I can siiiiiiiiiing!" YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons Mr Burns starves Springfield of electricity Featuring some of the best dance moves ever seen on the show. YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons 4. When Homer met God "God I gotta ask you something - what's the meaning of life?" YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons 5. The entirety of the Streetcar Named Marge episode Whatever would Tennessee Williams make of this. YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons 6. Homer reacts to Lisa's perpetual motion machine "In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons Ned Flanders plays the devil in Donut Hell "Homer...did you eat that donut?" YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons Homer reacts hilariously to Man Getting Hit By Football "Football... his groin...it works on so many levels!" YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons Kodos at the Democratic National Convention "Forward not backward! Always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom..." YouTube Best moments from The Simpsons "Happy birthday Lisa" It's Michael Jackson, singing Lisa Simpson 'Happy Birthday'. YouTube

In reality, quite the opposite is true. After decades of boring, stereotypical, one-dimensional portrayals of BAME characters, people are gagging for stories, written or performed by people of colour, that show people from minority ethnic backgrounds as interesting, multifaceted, strange, funny, unique and rounded individuals.

If we look at the Bafta nominations for scripted comedy, Chewing Gum and Timewasters should be enough to show us that political correctness does not equate to sterile, sanitised jokes and storytelling. Its not that characters of colour need to be perfect; its that weve reached a time when we expect, and demand, more than a half-arsed stereotype created by a white person.

It would be bad enough that Apu was a limited, problematic, portrayal of a South Asian man, if the part was at the very least creating a job for a South Asian actor. But, as we know, the white man Hank Azaria has been hiding behind the brown animation for almost three decades now.

Azaria commented on the controversy, defending the show on the basis that: The Simpsons over the years has been pretty humorously offensive to all manner of people: Republicans, Brazilians, presidents, high school principals, school principals, Italians, you name it.

But what Azaria and The Simpsons creators need to realise is that there is, quite obviously, a distinct difference between mocking figures of authority like presidents and principles and making jibes at marginalised ethnic groups.

Comedy has always been a great way to undermine hierarchy. As fools once lampooned kings, satire is an important weapon in a world full of power structures. Comedy at its best will challenge the notion that some people are innately superior to others. Comedy at its worst will try to entrench these ideas of superiority, intensifying and justifying oppression through ridicule.

But while The Simpsons can choose to obstinately ignore the fact that times are changing, the world is definitely developing an appetite for new jokes, new characters and new storylines. These will come with diversification, and will pave the way for a new generation of hilarity, born out of social awareness and fresh thinking, rather than cheap shots and racial stereotyping.
It was the first time I had been to Northern Ireland since my friend, Bridie, wet herself when a British soldier pointed a gun at her. A bunch of 10-year-olds on a school trip, our bus was searched at the border.

Five years after the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), I was in Belfast again for work. This time there was no border, no indignity and no fear. Hearing my Dublin accent, a man in his sixties asked, Are you Catholic or Protestant?

Neither, Im atheist! I said triumphantly.

Yes, but are you a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?

Religion in Northern Ireland is like the Hotel California, I was told. You can check out, but you can never leave.

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Having witnessed the horrors of the Troubles, I never take peace in the province for granted.

When I visited the region on a family holiday last year, children of all religious persuasions played together on the beach. By then, the GFA was firmly embedded and a shared European identity had taken hold. What preoccupied Catholic and Protestant parents alike was not religion, but how to safeguard the hard-won social cohesion and economic security amid increasingly reckless Brexit rhetoric.

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Despite the fact that the DUP were the only party that backed Brexit, this right-wing minority group is holding not just Northern Ireland but the entire UK to ransom. Neither Arlene Foster nor Theresa May has any mandate to remove Northern Ireland from the EU, to impose a hard border and rip up the Good Friday Agreement. To impose any of these would give grounds to trigger a unity referendum, provided for within the terms of the GFA.

 Good Friday Agreement: Tony Blair recalls 'incredibly complicated and difficult' Northern Ireland talks 20 years on

Its 14 months since the Northern Ireland executive became locked in political paralysis, exacerbated by the Tory-DUP deal to prop up Theresa Mays Government. Meanwhile, Brexit talks continue in Brussels and, while Scotland and Wales are represented at the table, Northern Ireland is not.

In March, Conservative MP and chair of Westminsters Northern Ireland committee, Andrew Murrison, warned Theresa May that the lack of a functioning executive was a democratic deficit, depriving the region of the opportunity to raise Brexit concerns.

The committee also published a report concluding that the Government has failed to produce evidence that an alternative to a hard border in the province can be avoided. The people on the island of Ireland, my family and friends, deserve better. They want to know what Brexit will mean for their livelihoods and their future and with just 12 months to go, Theresa May has yet to answer some fundamental questions.

If Northern Ireland leaves the single market, a hard border is inevitable. What will become of the cross-border collaboration enabling farmers on both sides to compete with their counterparts elsewhere in the world?

Twenty-five per cent of the regions raw milk goes south of the border to be processed and 40 per cent of Northern Irish lambs are processed in the Republic. A hard Brexit would impede that flow because of tariffs and customs checks. The burden of paperwork around traceability and standards would also be prohibitive.

Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. 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 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. 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, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio  the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. 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 McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters

What will become of patients from the Republic who receive radiotherapy in the North and the children who travel from Belfast to Dublin for heart surgery in the only all-island newly opened world class facility? How will emergency services continue to collaborate?

Northern Ireland already has the highest levels of unemployment and poverty in the UK and can ill afford to lose 3.5bn in EU subsidies up to 2020. How will the British exchequer fill that gap?

By getting into bed with the DUP and riding roughshod over the rigorous impartiality required by the Good Friday Agreement, the Tories are gambling with peace in the province. Despite them having no mandate to impose a hard border and promising there wouldn't be one, their continued inability to propose concrete alternative plans makes a hard border, and a return to sectarian violence, almost inevitable.
Rarely can a nation have put on such an unconvincing show of hurt bewilderment as Russia has. If the United Nations could dish out Oscars, then the Russian envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, would be a shoo-in for best actor in a supporting role (the bigger prize going to Vladimir Putin, of course).

Confronted with virtually incontrovertible evidence of its involvement in everything from the invasion of Crimea, to shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet over rebel-held Ukraine, to hacking the Estonian government, to attempting to murder its ex-spies and assisting the Assad regimes chemical weapons, the Kremlin simply shrugs, claims it is nothing to do with us, and invites the rest of the world to prove any claims.

Wild conspiracy theories and all manner of imposable false flag scenarios are offered up; games are played with words; the slightest flaw in what any Western figure says is seized upon and distorted to maximum effect. The Russians, at least since the dawn of the Soviet era, were adept at making up stories to cover up their crimes against human rights and their neighbours independence. Under Vladimir Putin, they are better at playing these games than ever.

So now that Yulia Skripal has been discharged from hospital, the Russians demand to exercise a nonexistent right to see her as a Russian citizen (she has shown no such interest in meeting them). While the evidence for Russian complicity in the chemical weapon attack in Douma is mounting, the Russians claim that someone else  anyone else  did it. They seem to think that the British themselves decided to unleash a deadly nerve agent in their own city of Salisbury, simply to make Russia look wicked. Clearly, that is bare-faced nonsense. Any trust that once was building between Russia and the West has been dissolved by toxicity, real and metaphorical.

Hence all the talk of a new Cold War. In many respects, the historical parallels are striking. In the real Cold War, the two sides played out their rivalries via proxy wars, using other people to fight them, invariably in poorer nations such as Korea, Vietnam, Angola and Afghanistan. Today the superpowers and their regional allies  such as Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia  are up to it again, this time in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. All these conflicts, old and new, were characterised by their barbarity, wholesale levelling of cities, cultural vandalism and routine war crimes.

 Yulia Skripal: Poisoned daughter of Russian former spy discharged from Salisbury hospital

Then, as now, there were strange episodes of spies being dispatched with unusual methods; the Bulgarians (then Soviet allies) killing an ex-Soviet agent in London with a poison tipped umbrella in 1978 being the most famous. There was also propaganda (fake news in todays terminology); interference in elections by the CIA and KGB alike; Russian vetoes at the UN; assassination of inconvenient foreign leaders; and periodic diplomatic expulsions.

And the Soviet Union, like Mr Putins modern-day Russia, was always keen on territorial expansion and securing military allies, bases or spheres of influence, especially in the traditional superpower playgrounds of Eastern and Central Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

Yet there are factors today that make a new Cold War more dangerous. There is the more normalised use of chemical weaponry, for example (though the American use of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam is an uncomfortable precedent).

More fundamentally, in the first Cold War there was an ideological factor. Both sides were competing to deliver prosperity and security for their peoples through radically different economic and political systems. We know which side lost, but it took decades to play out.

Today those ideological lines are far more blurred, and Russia seems to want power, territory and influence for its own sake  a more traditional nationalist motivation.

In the past, the ideological difference was a sort of key to unlock an easier relationship, a difference that could be conveniently parked or used as a kind of alibi. Thus, it seems difficult now to envisage another round of detente, such as was seen in the 1970s where both sides agreed to peaceful coexistence; or again in the 1980s, when Russia sued for peace, having been outspent in military and consumer spending by the United States, and looked forward to emulating the West. At these points, the two nuclear superpowers persuaded themselves and each other that the only thing dividing them was Marxist-Leninism; as we see now, there is more to the rivalry than that.

Indeed, the very adoption of a version of capitalism by the Russians  something unimaginable in the era of Stalin or Brezhnev  threatens the stability of the Russian state as it never could before. The USSR could always hide behind its isolated economy when it ran into a row with the West. Today a more open Russian economy is far more vulnerable. A fully convertible rouble can be made to crash, along with its bond and equity markets; Western investors can withdraw their money and their technology; economic sanctions can inflict harsh personal damage on oligarchs and rulers and the common people alike, as they could not so easily in the days of commissars and kolkhozes.

Recent weeks have seen such damage being inflicted on the Russian economy. Far from persuading Russia to own up to its sins or ease up on its aggression, it may simply make Putin and his gang seek refuge in a more Soviet-style self-sufficient, isolationist economy, with even less contact with the West. In the meantime, such destabilisation may make Russias leaders even more trigger-happy. The Wests new financial and economic leverage on Russia could actually make both sides less stable and secure. What, for example, if Russia simply reneged on its debts and nationalised assets belonging to the likes of Samsung, BP or General Motors? It has been done before.

Sooner or later, surely the West and Russia will need to start talking again, and to move on from where we find ourselves today. The alternative is the kind of permanent, unending and usually tense Cold War that endured for three decades or so after the Second World War. Russia  and particularly Putins circle  should certainly be sanctioned for its actions and made to pay an economic price for what it has done. The West should put a show of strength wherever Russia or its proxies probe Western defences or resolve  be it Syria or Estonia or Yemen. And when they use chemical weapons.

Yet the escalation, logically, has to stop at some point before the risks to the human race become extreme. Difficult as it may be, we may soon have to exert some extra caution over how we react to Russias aggression, lies and deceptions, in the hope of some reciprocal clam from the Kremlin. Backdoor diplomacy will again be needed to dial down the tension. The question is, though, whether paranoid Russia is also ready to cool it before our new Cold War turns even hotter, and more Syrians get gassed to death.
London has long been seen as the canary in the Conservatives electoral coalmine, and the party is becoming increasingly panicked about the prospect, on 3 May, of said canary revealing itself to have been dead for ages.

In a few weeks, London will go to the polls in local elections, at which turnout is not expected to be higher than 30 per cent, and which are expected to end with the Labour Party taking control of local councils such as Westminster, Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea. These are the wealthiest enclaves of already wealthy London, where until recently Conservative candidates did not even have to bother troubling the porticod doorsteps to be assured of victory.

Whatever happens a few weeks from now, those days are long gone, and its implications for Conservatives and Conservatism are bleak indeed.

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Why Labour is expected to make these dramatic gains is complex to the point of being almost unanalysable. And because virtually all the political media live in it, degrees of nuance and complexity are extended to it which are never available to anywhere else. The politics of Scotland and Catalonia can be understood easily enough in an afternoon or 700 words, whichever is shorter. Not so London.

At the launch of Labours local election campaign on Monday morning, Sadiq Khan introduced Jeremy Corbyn as the countrys next prime minister. Eighteen months ago he was telling party members: We cannot win with Corbyn, so I will be voting for Owen Smith.

When Corbyn appeared, he spoke for 20 minutes and served yet again as the lightning rod for all of the worlds ills.

We live in times that feel increasingly like the late 1930s, and yet there is no international outrage severe enough that all the UK wants to talk about is Jeremy Corbyns role in it. Two weeks ago, the most pressing question over the chemical poisoning of a Russian double agent on British soil was Jeremy Corbyns weak response to it. Now the same questions are asked about the chemical attack on Syrian children and Eastern Ghouta. That Corbyn and the Labour Party will not come out and blame Assad or Putin for the attack appears now to be the most fundamentally important aspect of this dreadful incident.

Those who would prefer not to give Jeremy Corbyn the benefit of the doubt say he is naturally inclined to take the side of Assad or Putin, because they, like he, are opponents of America and the West.

Those inclined to see Corbyns worldview in a more positive light say he is simply a pacifist. That military intervention always makes things worse. No matter the events, however horrific, he will not take even the tiniest tiptoe down any road that leads towards British military involvement. It is for this reason, for example, that Hilary Benn came perilously close to being sacked from the shadow cabinet in 2015, for arguing in favour of British air strikes on Syria, which have now been shown to have been instrumental in diminishing Isis.

But London doesnt greatly seem to care about any of this. Labour has been gaining MPs in London from 2005 onwards, even while losing elections overall. Two-thirds of its 72 MPs are Labour. Momentum activists are wildly overrepresented in London when compared with the rest of the country. London is young and ethnically diverse. It is either poor or prosperous but with a social conscience. It also, broadly speaking, hates Brexit.

On Monday morning, Corbyn made an impassioned plea to Britains EU nationals, whose rights only Labour will guarantee and the disgrace that they have been used as a bargaining chip.

That Jeremy Corbyn has been a hard Brexiteer for 30 years and would have triggered Article 50 on 24 June 2016, given the chance, a decision that would have had catastrophic implications for European nationals in Britain, is a subtlety too far for your average ballot box.

Demographic trends imply that politically, where London is will be where the country as a whole arrives in 20 or 30 years time.

Politics, as with the rest of life, never travels down the best lit path. The eminently foreseeable future is never that which arrives. But if Londons elections go as expected, something very unexpected will have to happen for Conservative values to last much longer into the future.
Gazas hospitals, already at breaking point, are running out of basic supplies, barely able to cope with the influx of casualties from Israels latest attacks. For the second Friday in a row, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered for their great return march. And for a second Friday in a row, Israeli forces cracked down with overwhelming lethal force, bringing the total casualty count to at least 30 dead, with nearly 3,000 injuries.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation. The call was echoed on Friday by UN human rights experts, who noted that Israels heavily armed soldiers showed no regard to the lives of Palestinian protestors, and reminding Israel that wilful killing or serious injury of the protected population amounts to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In other words, these are war crimes.

The concern was taken further on Sunday in an unprecedented statement by the International Criminal Courts prosecutor, warning that Israels armed violence against civilians in Gaza may be investigated as part of the courts ongoing preliminary investigation into war crimes, with criminal liability for Israels top officials.

Israeli officials unashamedly shrugged off calls for an investigation, and doubled down on their incitement to more violence, with Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that there are no innocents in Gaza and that Israeli soldiers involved deserve medals.

Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Show all 10 1 /10 Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters flee from teargas AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers stand as Palestinian protesters gather on the Israel Gaza border AP Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations A Palestinian is carried on a stretcher after being injured during the demonstration AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers take aim as they lie prone over an earth barrier along the border with the Gaza strip in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz as Palestinians demonstrate on the other side commemorating Land Day AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian paramedics evacuate an injured man on the Gaza side of the Israel-Gaza border Reuters Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians demonstrate with crossed-out posters depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, during a tent city protest near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip AFP/Getty Images Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters flee from teargas AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers shoot tear gas grenades towards the Palestinian tent city protest commemorating Land Day AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters take cover from Israeli troops AP Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians chant slogans as they attend a demonstration near the Gaza Strip border AP

Given the level of criminality at stake, and the brazenness with which Israel has refused to engage, its not surprising that UK MPs from across the political spectrum, including opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, have called for a review of UK arms sales to Israel that could be used in violation of international law.

In the past two years alone, the UK government has approved export of over 230m worth of arms and military technology to Israel. This includes components for large items such as F-35 jets, used in bombing campaigns over Gaza, and naval gunboats used in regular attacks on Palestinian fisher-folk.

It has also approved the export of smaller items, such as parts for armed drones, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers. It is exactly these types of weapon that Israel has used to attack unarmed protesters over the past weeks.

The UK frequently boasts about having the most robust export controls in the world. Arms export licence applications are considered on a case-by-case basis against a list of criteria, setting out that they should be refused if there is even a risk that the equipment would be used for internal repression, to assert by force a territorial claim, or in violations of international law.

These criteria provide a textbook description of core elements of Israels occupation and militarised repression of Palestinians. If these criteria were actually applied, it would result in a de facto arms embargo on Israel.

The continued licensing of arms export to Israel then, and failure to review them, means that the UK government is acting against its own policies, and knowingly providing what may be material support for war crimes.

The UK government statement on the latest attacks sets out that it must ensure that there is no repeat of what happened, with all sides committing to peaceful protest, restraint and international law. But the UK cannot pretend to be a neutral arbiter, watching from a distance and hoping for peace, when it is actively arming the perpetrator of violence and criminality.

With more Palestinian protests due in the coming weeks, the UK governments choice is clear: either suspend arms sales to Israel, or prepare to defend its complicity in the violence and war crimes surely to come.
The attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, resulting additionally in serious injury to both his daughter Yulia and Salisbury Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, is a despicable act. We have now received the good news that they are all recovering but the idea that this is only the second such action by Russia in the UK is risible, since BuzzFeed News has identified fourteen people who have been assassinated on UK soil, almost certainly by the Russians, at a steady rate of one a year.

Whether this has been approved by the president, Vladimir Putin, is surely unworthy of debate: if one Russian went rogue and caused diplomatic embarrassment to the Kremlin, he would have been reined in. By the time they got to the bakers dozen, heads would have rolled unless the nod had been given.

When I spoke to another potential Putin target in the US recently, he told me that the FBI had advised him not to travel to the UK. The Russians were, the feds thought, unconcerned with the origami paper tiger made up of Theresa May and Boris Johnson. While his jeopardy is real in the US, it is far greater in Britain, since the May government is regarded with derision in Moscow.

Britains challenge is, then, much greater than contemplated in the current debate, yet the political bluster in Whitehall obscures the true concern: the people in the Kremlin know that the west cannot complain too loudly, as they are assassinating people themselves.

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

Sadly, indeed, the Kremlin appears to have overtly used western laws to justify its dreadful practices. On 24 September 2001, the US adopted the authorisation for use of military force (the AUMF) which has provided the legal pretext for a policy triad that has jettisoned years of evolving human rights.

The US decided that torture was a good idea, notwithstanding the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture; they opened several law-free prisons, including Guantanamo Bay, despite the 1949 Geneva Conventions; and, while the US has long employed the death penalty, they adopted a policy of assassination, compiling lists of people who were subject to summary execution, without the formality of a trial.

Nobody would pretend that the Russians did not already trample on human rights before any of this happened but, on 6 March 2006, they used the AUMF as a pretext to enact a federal law on countering terrorism. Article 22 effectively gives three agencies  the FSB (Federal Security Service), the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service)  the authority to kill people who they accuse of committing acts of terrorism. Terrorism being very loosely defined, of course.

As is our wont, the British would like to pretend that we stand above such sordid matters. We (belatedly) deplored American torture (though we were complicit in it, as Ian Cobain demonstrates in Cruel Britannia); we (belatedly) condemned Guantanamo, though we dont actually do anything to help the 41 people who remain there.

Sad to say, of the terrible American-led triad, the only one Mays government has not yet condemned is assassination, even though it has been illegal since 1758, when Emmerich de Vattel wrote: "I give, then, the name of assassination to treacherous murder...and such an attempt, I say, is infamous and execrable, both in him who executes it and in him who commands it.

Recommended Yulia Skripal discharged from hospital

To the contrary, two ministers  Rory Stewart and Gavin Williamson  have recently announced that it is also British policy to kill those we suspect of terrorism, rather than even try to bring them to justice.

In Yemen and Pakistan, UK surveillance intelligence has been provided to US drone pilots to target suspects, sometimes based only on the location of a mobile phone, without even knowing who is holding it at the time. We at Reprieve assist a Yemeni man called Faisal bin Ali Jaber whose uncle and nephew, an anti-extremist preacher and a local law officer respectively, were killed by a US drone strike in 2012. They, like Yulia Skripal and DS Bailey, are parallel proof that, in addition to being immoral, an assassination programme is liable to kill the innocent and even the police.

There is apparently no limit to the right we assert to kill people without trial. For so long as we subscribe to this sordid business ourselves, the Kremlin will inevitably sneer at Boris Johnsons bluster.

Let us yield to nobody in our condemnation of both assassination and extremism. At the same time, we cannot breach one principle (against assassination) to protect another (the safety of our country). The reasons we should oppose such immoral folly are manifest: we cannot protect what we value by destroying it. Equally, if we sink to the level of those for whom we express distaste, we may as well invite them to assassinate people in Salisbury.

Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of the charity Reprieve and a prominent human rights lawyer
Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) for Ireland Helen Dixon during the second annual Data Protection Conference Dublin Data Sec 2018 in the RDS Concert Hall, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney, Collins

Facebook's transparency on where the data of its users go has been insufficient, the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has said.

DPC Helen Dixon said her office was supervising the changes that had been made by the tech giant following the Cambridge Analytica saga.

Ms Dixon said that the Cambridge Analytica case - which may have had a major political impact - had highlighted a number of issues with the social media site's app development platform up until 2014.

"In fact, it is the case that [there were] many apps that were operational on the Facebook platform up to 2014 where access to friend data in addition to user data was accessed," Ms Dixon said.

Last week, the office of the DPC warned that there would be a high number of Irish Facebook users who have had their data used by apps.

Ms Dixon was speaking at Dublin Data Sec 2018, the second annual data protection conference organised by INM Events.

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"We continue our oversight and our supervision of Facebook in terms of the corrective actions they're taking around this app developer platform. And they have announced a series of corrective measures and actions they are taking.

"We are overseeing that actively everyday with them."

Control

Ms Dixon said her office had issued guidelines in recent weeks designed to make Facebook users more aware of the control settings for their data on social media platforms.

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But she said Facebook, along with many other organisations, still needed to provide more information on data usage.

"It's necessary that they give transparent and clear information to users of their service, so that they understand the risks of their data being collected and the implications of the different control settings that are made to them," she said.

"Transparency has not been sufficient to date.

"And that's been clear ... from Facebook and from many other companies and in all sectors," she added.

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Asked whether Facebook users were aware of how to change their settings, Ms Dixon said there "certainly does seem to be a high level of engagement with the settings, but I think a lot more needs to be done."

The Irish Independent put the comments made by Ms Dixon to Facebook, but no response was forthcoming from the company at the time of going to print.

Commenting at the conference on the general data protection regulation (GDPR) changes which are due to come into effect EU-wide from May 25, Ms Dixon said she was both "excited and terrified".

The EU-wide regime updates and overhauls European data protection law.

All companies and organisations that process the data of EU residents are going to be obliged to comply with the new requirements.

"The GDPR is specifically structured to place responsibility on organisations," Ms Dixon said.

"Organisations now need to know that there will be a way of holding them to account if they do not shoulder responsibility."

On the subject of fines - businesses or organisations face fines of up to 20m or 4pc of annual global turnover for non-compliance with the regulation, whichever is the largest figure - Ms Dixon said they were necessary in order to "grab the attention of industry".
Under the deal, Bayer agreed to sell additional seed and treatment assets to BASF. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo

Bayer shares jumped nearly 5pc on Tuesday following a media report that the U.S. Justice Department will allow the German drugs and pesticides group to acquire Monsanto in a $62.5 billion deal.

The Justice Department reached an agreement in principle with Bayer and Monsanto in recent days after the companies agreed to sell more assets, the Wall Street Journal said late on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Under the deal, Bayer agreed to sell additional seed and treatment assets to BASF and agreed to make concessions related to digital agriculture, it said.

Baader Helvea analyst Markus Mayer said he expects the concessions granted to the Justice Department probably did not go far beyond asset sales already agreed with the European Commission.

The selling of these assets and the rights issue ... should start therefore soon and should be positive triggers for the stock, Mayer said, adding the rights issue should be smaller than initially expected.

Shares of Monsanto, the worlds biggest seed company, approached a four-year high on the news in New York on Monday, before closing up 6.2 pc at $125.15.

The takeover, one of a trio of major deals in the agribusiness sector in recent years, would create a company with a share of more than a quarter of the worlds seed and pesticides market. A souring global farm economy has spurred consolidation among the major players, triggering protests from environmental and farming groups worried about their market power.

The deal reduces competition for sales of seeds and chemicals to farmers struggling with low crop prices, raising the risk for price gouging, said Wenonah Hauter, executive director for Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group.

The Justice Departments paltry divestment approach does little to address the extreme control the merged firm will have over farmers data, genetics, biotechnology traits or the associated agrichemical industry, she said.

Bayer declined comment on the report, but said in a statement it still anticipated closing the Monsanto purchase in the second quarter.

BASF, Monsanto and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Last week, Monsanto said in a quarterly earnings report that it was confident the U.S. and other needed regulatory approvals would be secured within the second quarter. Monsanto did not host its usual conference call with analysts to discuss the earnings because of the pending merger.

The Justice Department said last month that it was still reviewing the deal and noted that genetically modified seeds are largely prohibited in Europe but widely used throughout the United States.

European Union antitrust regulators approved the deal in March after the companies agreed to sell a swathe of assets to BASF. China, Brazil and Australia have also approved the proposed merger.

The deal was preceded by a merger of Dow and Dupont and a tie-up of ChemChina and Syngenta.
About 14 years ago I travelled a few times a week for three months from the midlands to and from Dromcronath in north Meath, close to the border with Louth.

My visits began in March when the tillage fields were brown and tilled but as the months went on they changed to lush green and were turning golden when my path changed. I will always remember the fertility of the land and the industry of the farmers.

An 82ac residential holding with 6,100 in BFP at Killadden, Drumconrath will be sure to tempt local landowners.

The place is on the market by private treaty in an executor sale guided at 500,000. It currently has an offer of 445,000.

Located 27km north of Navan and 70km from Dublin, the property comprises good land, a fine farmhouse, a yard and sheds

According to Lisa Keenan of Keenan auctioneers, Kingscourt, the holding is in prime farming territory, and suitable for grazing, fattening and forestry.

The house is over 100 years old and was inhabited up to three years ago but now needs complete refurbishment.

A range of dated but useful buildings make up the farmyard and include a concrete apron, a silage pit, a bedded shed with a lean-to at either side, an old cow byre and various storage sheds.

The undulating land is laid out in about 10 fields divided by traditional hedgerow that needs tidying. The ground consists of a mix of good grazing land, heavier ground and an 8ac portion in forestry.

It is in three distinct lots and will be offered for sale as such. The first lot is made up of the entire property inclusive of the farmhouse, outbuildings and yard on 82ac. The second lot is a 51ac parcel with the house, yard and outbuildings, while the third lot consists of 31ac of land.
Farmers will get a short-term loan to compensate for difficulties brought on by the fodder crisis, under proposals to be brought to government by Fianna Fail tomorrow.

Under the scheme farmers would receive a payment to help fund extra feed costs brought on by the exceptionally wet weather.

Farmers would then pay off the loan through their single farm payment subsidies over a three year period.

Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill will make the proposal to Agriculture Michael Creed at a special Oireachtas Committee meeting tomorrow. He said the creation of such a scheme would be cost effective and prevent farmers having to work with banks to address the fodder crisis.

According to Cahill, the actual cost of buying fodder has not been addressed by the Government adding the vast majority of farmers do not have the cash flow at present to pay the upfront costs of additional fodder and concentrates.

In addition to fodder costs, farmers are purchasing concentrates to beef up the fodder to ensure that milk and beef quality is maintained.

The Government should make available to affected farmers low-interest loans to allow them purchase the fodder they need to feed their animals.

It has been estimated that many farmers are forking out an additional 1000 per week just to keep their animals fed.

The banks involved in this loan scheme must also be told not to make farmers jump through any unnecessary hoops when applying for these loans.

Farmers are under severe financial pressure; thats widely accepted and known, but what is not being spoken about is the severe mental health pressure that farmers are facing before of the current situation.

Minister Creed has taken an age to accept that there is a problem with fodder in this country; he cannot waste any more time in ensuring that farmers can access the credit they need to continue feeding their animals and ensuring that Irish consumers can continue to purchase Irish reared meat, concluded Cahill.

The Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Michael Creed announced last week that he has allocated 1.5m towards the introduction of a Fodder Import Support measure. 

In light of poor weather conditions and an evolving fodder supply challenge across the country, I am immediately introducing a support measure contributing to the cost of importing fodder from abroad.

The Minister said he welcome the moves to import fodder by the co-operatives and this measures supports this initiative.

This measure is being introduced with immediate effect to reduce the cost to farmers of imported forage (hay, silage, haylage etc.) from outside the island of Ireland.
Tributes are being paid to an honest and hard-working farmer who was killed in a farming accident in Moylough, Ballinasloe, Co Galway on Sunday.

Martin Gilmore, who was a dairy and beef farmer in his 60s was understood to have got in to difficulty when calving a cow on Sunday afternoon on his farm and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gardai confirmed the death occurred at approximately 2:40pm on April 8.

Fianna Fail Councillor Michael Connolly lives close by to Martins family home and said that the incident is tragic for Martins three sons and two daughters, extended family and the whole community.

I knew Michael all my life. He farmed up the road from me and was an honest, hard-working and forthright man. Hed been farming since he left school. Its so tragic, said Mr Connolly.

The HSA has said an investigation will take place into the cause of the accident. The death is the fifth farm death of 2018, after 24 people lost their lives in farming-related accidents in 2017, up three on 2016.

Teagasc survey

A just completed Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) farm accident add-on survey has revealed that farm accidents have risen by 13pc in the last five years.

Accidents involved livestock (in 42pc of cases), vehicles/machinery (25pc), trips and falls (19pc), and chainsaws/timber (7pc). By farm enterprise, the highest level of accidents in the last five years was in dairying (18pc), followed by tillage (12pc), sheep (11pc) and cattle enterprises (8pc). Almost all farm accidents (97pc) required medical treatment and 83pc led to loss of work time, with 30pc leading to 30 days or more lost.
The 2017/18 cropping season is being severely impacted by the current bad spell of weather and crop options have narrowed considerably but the possibility to grow fodder for livestock farmers should be strongly considered, according to Teagasc.

It says that given that stocks of fodder carried over to next autumn are likely to be very low and farmers should look at growing fodder especially as early indications around silage quality and yields are not positive.

The total area of tillage planted each year is a mixture of winter and spring plantings and generally where bad weather disrupts autumn plantings the land not sown in the autumn, is planted in the spring, it says.

However, to date, weather has disrupted both autumn (2017) and spring (2018) planting, as well as spring management of autumn sown crops.

Autumn plantings are estimated to be down by 10.2pc (Table 1), while little progress has been made with spring planting with many spring crop options now past their optimum (and in many cases profitable) planting dates.

Almost all spring crops will be planted later than normal this year resulting in a lower yield potential in these crops. Yields of winter crops may be reduced due to the wet soils and delayed applications of inputs at the correct timings. On average, winter crops are 10-14 days behind normal growth stages.

Ciaran Collins, Teagasc Tillage Specialist said: The wet autumn and spring means that very few crops are up to date with weed control, fertiliser and fungicide. A small proportion has received nothing to date. Winter barley, which has not received the first split of nitrogen, or had weeds controlled, will more than likely suffer a yield reduction.

Little or no spring planting has been done to date. Spring wheat, spring oats and beans are past their optimum planting date. Crops planted from now on will be lower yielding and will result in a late harvest, according to Shay Phelan, Teagasc Tillage Specialist.

This leaves a very narrow choice of crops. However farmers have to be mindful of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) regulations regards the 2 and 3 crop rule.

The Department is in talks with the European Commission to get some relief for farmers on the 3 crop rule. Watch this space carefully in the coming days, added Shay.

Growing premium crops such as malting barley will be more difficult to achieve this year due to the late planting and growers need to carefully assess the level of nitrogen applied.

Growers should err on the lower side of nitrogen applications to ensure specifications are achieved, reported Michael Hennessy, Head of Crops Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc.

There are opportunities for both tillage farmers and livestock farmers to co-operate successfully this year. Livestock farmers are conscious that forage feed stocks need to be replenished above previous levels.

Silage

The expectations are that first cut silage will be of lower yield and potentially lower quality this year, according to Teagasc and there are other forages which can be grown by tillage farmers and delivered to livestock farmers, but both parties need to plan these requirements now.

Tillage farmers are looking for rotational opportunities and there is still time to plant maize and beet for sale locally. However tillage farmers need to be confident a suitable arrangement is in place so that the fodder can be delivered and payment received.

"These crops will also help to spread the workload which is mounting on tillage farms at present, said Michael Hennessy. Putting in a payment plan for the costs of growing the forage, with stage payments through the summer and a final settlement when the forage is delivered, is an ideal way for farmers to work together, he said.

Farmers have been successfully using the inter-farm trading templates such as the one in the Teagasc Maize Guide, according to Tom ODwyer, Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc.

Tom O Dwyer added: Forages from tillage farms are an extremely useful solution on many farms, but in order to have a medium term sustainable solution inter-farm trading needs to be of benefit to both parties and integrated solutions such as the use of slurries to produce forages on these farms should be considered.
Bank of Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh has pledged to bridge the gender divide in the groups senior ranks by 2021 by introducing strict new employment measures to promote womens job prospects.

The reforms mean that within three years, all management and leadership appointments will follow a 50:50 gender ratio.

Ms McDonaghs efforts to create more opportunities for women in the upper reaches of Bank of Ireland comes as the group disclosed a hefty pay gap between men and women in its UK operations.

New rules force organisations that employ more than 250 people in the UK to disclose the pay discrepancies between men and women.

Bank of Ireland, which has two units in the UK that must provide this data, said the mean gender pay gap across the group as a whole stood at 35.7pc.

It blamed the difference on the high numbers of women occupying junior roles.

The report shows womens mean hourly rate is 24.6pc lower than mens  in other words, women earn 75p for every 1 that men earn. However, Ms McDonagh is attempting to reverse this trend by promoting greater gender diversity in the banks upper echelons.

The shift in strategy was unveiled yesterday at the launch of the banks Responsible Business report, which details its charity donations, sponsorship schemes and contributions to the Irish economy.

The fresh policy comes as Ms McDonagh also attempts to thin out the groups senior and middle management ranks, with plans to cut 200 jobs over the next few months.
A consultancy and investment firm established by Larry Goodman's son Mark made almost a 2.2m profit last year, according to accounts for the business.

MGI Marketing was established by Mark Goodman in 2004 and is owned entirely by him. Its activities are focused entirely on the Asia region. The firm had made a small loss in 2016.

One of its main investments is in the manufacture of safety equipment for meat factories, in conjunction with Shangyu Seeway, a Chinese company.

It manufactures cut-resistant gloves that are used in the meat processing industry as well as other sectors including construction and pharmaceuticals. It exports to almost 40 countries.

Mr Goodman founded MGI Marketing in 2004 when he was in college. He studied marketing at the Dublin Business School. He expanded the business after he first visited China in 2010. Mr Goodman is also managing director of the international division of food processor ABP, the business established by his father - one of Europe's largest beef processors which exports to countries all over the world.

Earlier this year, ABP secured the first contract to supply Irish beef to China since exports from Ireland to the country were blocked following the BSE crisis. ABP signed a 50m deal to supply Chinese restaurant chain Wowprime, which has more than 400 restaurants in China and Taiwan across 18 brands.

ABP said the contract would also extend to its joint-venture partners Slaney Foods, but it remains dependent on Irish beef gaining access to the Chinese market. Irish beef exports to China are expected to resume in the summer.
A businessman behind what was once one of Dublin's busiest bar and music venues has been banned from acting as a company director for five years, the Irish Independent has learned.

Dermot Doran, managing director of Eamonn Doran's Ltd, Temple Bar, received an outright five-year disqualification to act as a company director after the High Court found he had hindered the work of a liquidator appointed to investigate the firm's financial affairs.

The company went into liquidation owing just under 1m in 2009 but the case taken against the directors by the liquidator -- Myles Kirby of Ferris & Associates -- was heard last month.

Mr Kirby, who would not comment on the case yesterday, made a number of allegations against Mr Doran, including an accusation that he had destroyed the accounts and records of the company after it had vacated the premises in Temple Bar. He also said the directors continued to trade using money owed to the Revenue Commissioners even though the firm had said it was insolvent and they had refused him information on its financial affairs.

Mr Doran consented to the disqualification order and agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money.

Eamonn Doran Ltd went into liquidation at the end of 2009 owing 917,000, including 602,000 in unpaid debts.

Mr Doran did not wish to comment yesterday.
French billionaire Xavier Niel has completed his acquisition of a majority stake in Eir.

Eir's new chief executive, Carolan Lennon, said that she's confident the company can now build the "best fixed and mobile network in Ireland".

Mr Niel's acquisition of Eir placed a 3.5bn enterprise value on the business, which includes debt and equity. The equity element is about 1.4bn.

The telecoms entrepreneur, pictured, acquired 65pc of Eir via two companies, NJJ and Iliad. NJJ is Mr Niel's investment vehicle and now owns 32.9pc of Eir. Stock market-listed Iliad owns the remaining stake in Eir that has been bought. Mr Niel owns 52pc of Iliad. He's also now a non-executive director at Eir.

The acquisition of Eir is the telco's ninth change of ownership in the past two decades.

In its last financial year, Eir generated revenue of 1.32bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 520m. The figures were 1pc and 4pc higher respectively year-on-year.

Ms Lennon, who previously headed Eir's Open Eir wholesale business, was named as new chief executive in February. She succeeded Richard Moat. Mr Moat, a UK national, previously told the Irish Independent that he intended to seek a new role that will enable him to continue living in Ireland.

He has remained as a non-executive director of Eir, however.

Mr Moat and other senior Eir executives, including Ms Lennon, split about 100m from the sale of the telco.

Ms Lennon said she was "looking forward to managing Eir into the next phase of its development".

Eir's new management team includes non-executive chairman David McRedmond, the chief executive of An Post and a former boss of TV3.

Rose Hynes, the chairman of Shannon Group and of Origin Enterprises, is also a non-executive director. Fiona Tierney joins Eir as a non-executive director this summer. She's the outgoing chief executive of the Public Appointments Service.

Lawyer Padraig O Riordain is also a non-executive board member. He's former chairman of the DAA and was once on the board of Paddy Power.

He was recently appointed non-executive chairman of

Premier Lotteries Ireland, which operates the National Lottery.

Stephen Tighe has been appointed Eir's chief financial officer, succeeding Huib Costermans. Mr Tighe has been finance director for Eir's consumer division since 2013, and its interim chief commercial officer since last summer.
MORE than 350,000 people have visited Dublin's Jameson Distillery in the last 12 months, following its extensive 11m refurbishment.

The Bow Street tourist hotspot reopened in March 2017 after several months of construction, revealing a new-look centre where only the familiar whiskey bottle chandelier centrepiece remained.

Designed by Dublin-based TOTP Architects, the venue offers a fresh approach to the experience of whiskey enthusiasts with several types of tours and masterclass options to suit every taste.

Jameson Brand Homes managing director Claire Tolan said that the efforts of the teams have paid off.

"The new-look Jameson brand home has fast become the must-visit whiskey destination in the world," she said, revealing that the distillery has welcomed visitors from more than 70 countries in the last 12 months.

"In one year alone, we have taught 32,000 whiskey enthusiasts how to blend whiskey and create whiskey cocktails; served over 50,000 Jameson whiskey sours; sold 25,000 personalised distillery Jameson edition bottles and facilitated four marriage proposals in John Jameson's secret office."

The distillery has also announced that it has received an award for Outstanding Achievement in the Brand Experience category at the TEA Thea Awards ceremony in Anaheim, California.

Jameson owner Irish Distillers has previously stated that the substantial investment in the distillery's renovation would allow the company to expand visitor numbers to the Bow Street site by 2025.
AIB's efforts to re-introduce share bonus schemes for its top executives is likely to receive support from institutional shareholders at its annual general meeting later this month, after two influential investor advisory firms greenlighted the move.

But the proxy advisory firms - Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, whose recommendations are widely used by investors when deciding how to vote at AGMs - also highlighted a lack of transparency in the State-backed bank's proposed remuneration changes. Bonus payments to Irish bankers were stopped in late 2008. But as the economy recovers and the two pillar banks restart dividend payments, the boards of AIB and Bank of Ireland are pressing shareholders to approve performance-related pay schemes.

Both campaigns to revive motivational payments will be resisted by the Government, which owns 14pc of Bank of Ireland and 71pc of AIB. Last month, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said he had "no current intention to lift any of the remuneration restrictions that are in place for the banks".

While this stance is unlikely to shift in the near term, question marks remain over how long it can sustain that position.

Last year, AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne encouraged the Government to shed its remaining holding in the group while the share price conditions remain robust. Despite the political controversy surrounding bank bonus schemes, AIB will ask shareholders to vote on a deferred annual share plan at its AGM on April 25, with the awards payable in 2019 and based on this year's results.

However, Glass Lewis has cited a number of disclosure gaps in the new pay policy, including the lack of any guidelines on executive share ownership.

The firm also pointed out the bank failed to "provide assurance" it will limit equity-based awards to 10pc of AIB's issued share capital "over a 10-year rolling period". In its report to clients, Glass Lewis said "we believe the company should set and disclose such a policy, so as to assure shareholders that dilution will remain within a reasonable range".

Meanwhile, ISS raised concerns at the lack of service contracts for non-executive directors and said AIB has pledged to improve disclosure on this issue in "future years".
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York

Further US sanctions on Russian interests hit Europe-listed stocks on Monday, denting a recovery as investors became more hopeful a trade war between the United States and China could be averted.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended the day up just 0.1pc as sanctions that included a blacklisting of aluminium giant Rusal sent mining stocks spiralling lower.

Resilience among financials stocks was just enough to keep the market in positive territory.

Basic resources stocks sank 1.7pc, as a sector that has already seen sharp declines as a result of trade tensions hit its lowest level in four months.

"Everything gets sold off in this environment," said John Meyer, mining analyst at SP Angel. "The US list may not be the final list and it feels like there will be more sanctions so investors do not know which, if any, stocks to hold."

Stocks linked to allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered sharp declines. London-listed shares in En+ Group, which manages the assets of Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, sank 42pc after the US sanctions blacklist targeted the magnate whose business empire has a global footprint.

The stock has lost more than half its value since last Friday's open, with management saying the sanctions were "highly likely" to materially affect the business and prospects in an adverse way.

Shares in Swiss pump maker Sulzer and technology group Oerlikon were also sharply down, falling 8.5pc and 8.4pc respectively after their majority holder Viktor Vekselberg appeared on the sanctions list.

Companies with significant operations in Russia were also punished.
The Central Bank expects 14,000 homeowners in long-term mortgage arrears are set to lose their homes. (Stock picture)

Thousands of people in long-term mortgage arrears are failing to engage with their lenders, new Central Bank research shows.

The regulator said that four out of 10 borrowers who are more than two years behind on their mortgage have not engaged with their bank.

This meant these people had no sustainable solution in place.

The number of people in long-term arrears is also rising in the five main banks, the Central Bank research shows.

Being in long-term arrears is defined as being more than two years behind on repayments. Someone in this situation could have resumed payments but still have failed to clear more than 720 days of payments.

But the research paper says almost 40pc of those in long-term arrears are ignoring their bank, 10 years after the economic crisis erupted.

Some 44pc of mortgages that are classified as being in long-term arrears have notched up five years of missing payments.

The stark research shows that many of those in longer term arrears have ended up deeper and deeper in debt as they are failing to confront the issue.

David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, interpreted the report as indicating that the Central Bank expects 14,000 homeowners in long-term mortgage arrears are set to lose their homes.

This is based on a statement in the Central Bank research that says half of those in long-term arrears risk having to give up their homes.

The research paper points out that banks have had to be forced to tackle the problem loans, with the Central Bank introducing new rules.

These changes include restricting banks from moving quickly to repossess homes for those in arrears, in a bid to get them to do restructuring deals with borrowers in default.

But there is no mention of strategic arrears in the academic paper issued by the Central Bank.

This is where people who can pay something, or even all the monthly repayments, refuse to make any repayments.

Some 29,000 borrowers were in long-term arrears at the end of December, separate Central Bank figures show. However, this figure includes all lenders.

Central Bank deputy governor Sharon Donnery warned that the arrears situation appeared to be getting worse.
DATA is "like the new oil," according to the deputy legal adviser to former US President Barack Obama.

"Each country is saying "this is my data, you can't have it," said Michael Bahar, former general counsel to the US House Intelligence Committee.

Mr Bahar, now a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland, was speaking yesterday at the Dublin Data Sec 2018 conference at the RDS in Dublin.

"It is not just State versus State, it's banking system versus banking system, crucial infrastructure versus crucial infrastructure," said Mr Bahar, who specialises in cybersecurity and data protection issues, international law, and national security.

The Data Sec 2018 conference, an Independent News and Media event, was officially opened by Minister for State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen.

The conference's keynote speaker was Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner. She said that no organisation can afford to take the risk of not implementing the legislation the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation rules (GDPR) which come into force on May 25 next.

Under the regulations, businesses or organisations could face fines of up to 20m or 4pc of annual global turnover for non-compliance with the regulation, whichever is the highest figure, although the regulations also have a range of other measures for non compliance.

Ms Dixon said she is both "terrified and excited" in equal measure about the onset of (GDPR).

"The GDPR is specifically structured to place responsibility on organisations," said Ms Dixon, whose office is scoping out an investigation into a suspected data breach at INM.

"Sooner or later, failure to demonstrate and implement accountability will catch up with your organisation," said Ms Dixon.

Mr Breen, who travels to Brussels today for EU Digital Day 2018, said the new data regime will provide Ireland with the robust data protection framework that is "essential to realising the enormous potential that digital technologies offer to our economy and society".

"We know that the GDPR brings changes and challenges for organisations and businesses of all sizes, but it is important that it is not regarded with fear," said the Minister, who will today sign a series of political declarations on Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and Innovation Radar.

Mark Kellett, CEO of Magnet Networks, called on government assistance for small and medium businesses to help them cover the costs of implementing compliance with the legislation.

Sean Whelan, head of data protection at Paddy Power Betfair, told delegates that the bookmaker had been preparing for GDPR for more than a year.
China stepped up its attacks on the Trump administration yesterday over billions of dollars worth of threatened tariffs, saying Washington is to blame for trade frictions and repeating it was impossible to negotiate under "current circumstances".

The comments come after US President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted China would take down its trade barriers, and expressed optimism that both sides could resolve the issue through talks.

Chinese state researchers and media talked down the likely impact of US trade measures on the world's second-largest economy and described the Trump administration's posturing on trade as the product of an "anxiety disorder".

"Under the current circumstances, both sides even more cannot have talks on these issues," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular news briefing.

"The United States with one hand wields the threat of sanctions, and at the same time says they are willing to talk. I'm not sure who the United States is putting on this act for," Mr Geng said.

The trade frictions were "entirely at the provocation of the United States", he added.

Beijing did not want to fight a trade war, but was not afraid of one, vice-commerce-minister Qian Keming said at the Boao Forum for Asia in the southern province of Hainan.

The focus this week will be on the forum, with President Xi Jinping and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde delivering speeches on Tuesday.

The US move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $50bn in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of US intellectual property and forced technology transfers.

Beijing claims that Washington is the aggressor and is spurring global protectionism, though China's trading partners have complained for years that it abuses World Trade Organisation rules and practices unfair industrial policies that lock foreign companies out of crucial sectors with the intent of creating domestic champions.

Repeated pledges by Beijing to open up sectors such as financial services have yielded little substantial progress, and Mr Trump has said that the US will no longer let China take advantage of it on trade.

On Monday morning in Washington Mr Trump tweeted that China puts 25pc tariffs on cars imported from the United States, while cars it imports from China face 2.5pc duties.

"Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE," Trump said in his post.

"China's reaction to Mr Trump's legitimate defence of the American homeland has been a Great Wall of denial - despite incontrovertible evidence of Beijing's illicit and protectionist behaviours," White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said in the 'Financial Times'.

"Nothing less than the US's economic future is at risk from China's assault on American technology and IP, and its mercantilist bid to capture emerging high-tech industries," he said.

Chinese officials deny such charges, and responded within hours of Mr Trump's announcement of tariffs with their own proposed commensurate duties. The move prompted Mr Trump to threaten tariffs on an additional $100bn in Chinese goods. (Reuters)
Logo of drugmaker Novartis is seen at its branch in Schweizerhalle near Basel, Switzerland

Swiss drugmaker Novartis is moving further into gene therapy by buying AveXis for $8.7bn (7bn), adding a rare-disease treatment that could reap billions in sales.

The acquisition reflects a surge of interest in biotech dealmaking as large pharmaceutical companies seek promising new assets to boost their pipelines.

The $218-per-share cash deal announced yesterday represents a 72pc premium to AveXis's 30-day volume-weighted average stock price.

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, who took over on February 1, is flush with cash, having just agreed to sell his company's stake in a consumer healthcare joint venture to GlaxoSmithKline for $13bn.

Narasimhan is now counting on AveXis's main drug - AVXS-101, a treatment for deadly spinal muscular atrophy - as well as the Illinois-based company's gene therapy expertise and manufacturing capabilities, to bolster Novartis's neuroscience business, a focus for the Swiss company.

This is Novartis's second notable gene therapy deal this year, after it agreed to pay $105m upfront and up to $65m in milestone payments for rights to Spark's blindness treatment Luxturna outside the United States. "We believe the medicine would have a multi-billion dollar peak sales potential," Narasimhan told reporters. (Reuters)
Westmont College Orchestra will play a free concert at Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral in May

A US college orchestra comprised of 66 musicians will play a free concert at Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral on May 10.

The Westmont College Orchestra, from Santa Barbara in California, is an all-student ensemble from the colleges music department and is conducted by Dr Michael Shasberger.

Founded in 2006 the orchestra performs American orchestral repertoire including the commissioning of new works from contemporary American composers.

At Christ Church Cathedral, the orchestra will perform works including Lord of the Dance by Ronan Hardiman, Irish Rhapsody No 1 by Charles Villiers Stanford, Uilleann Sunrise by Sean OBoyle and Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin and A Norfolk Rhapsody by R. Vaughan Williams along with show-stoppers, The Magnificent Seven, Hoe Down and The Cowboys.

The orchestra is made up of 66 college students aged 18-21 from Westmont College who tour every year. Recent overseas tours have included Italy, China, Hungary and Austria. They have chosen Ireland this year for one of their international performances.

These tours offer the wonderful and overlapping purposes of opening up the world to our students, a creating a deep sense of community among the participants and giving our musicians an opportunity to focus deeply on their craft, explains conductor Dr Michael Shasberger.

This trip will add a unique chapter of collaborations with local musicians, cultural experiences and musical growth to the history of the orchestra, he adds.

Westmont College Orchestra will also perform at St Canices Cathedral in Kilkenny on Saturday, 12 May 2018 at 1pm  the concert is included in the usual entrance fee of 4.50, unreserved seating, to book in advance phone 056-7764971.

The Dublin concert, titled Three Rhapsodies, will kick off at 8.30pm on May 10. It is free but the event will be ticketed, so you must reserve your seats in advance at www.ChristChurchTickets.com
Pro-choice demonstrators gather outside the Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane, ahead of a vote by Ealing Council on whether to implement a safe zone outside the west London abortion clinic to protect women from being intimidated. Photo: PA

Local authorities in England are considering whether to ban protesters from outside abortion clinics.

Ealing Council cabinet will vote today on whether to implement a buffer zone outside a Marie Stopes clinic in the west London borough, via a public space protection order (PSPO).

The local authority has been exploring a range of options on how to prevent "intimidation, harassment and distress" of women using the clinic following a 3,500-strong petition.

Authorities in Birmingham, Manchester, Portsmouth and two more London boroughs have also discussed taking action.

In late January, Manchester City Council passed a motion to investigate reports of intimidation and harassment outside the Marie Stopes clinic in Fallowfield and, if necessary, to mimic Ealing Council's proposed plans.

The council described demonstrations outside the Marie Stopes Birmingham Centre in Edgbaston as "street harassment" and "a form of sexism against women".

Recently, Leeds City Council heard from representatives who felt the Marie Stopes centre and its clients would benefit from a PSPO. In south London, both Lambeth and Richmond councils have tabled similar motions.

However, Alithea Williams, communications officer at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said Ealing's move was "authoritarian" and "extraordinary".
The Together for Yes poster for the referendum was launched yesterday with the help of campaign co-directors Orla OConnor, Ailbhe Smyth and Grainne Griffin. Photo: Maxwells

Organisers of the Together for Yes campaign said they had raised 170,000 in their bid to fight for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment, more than a third of their 500,000 target.

But the pro-choice umbrella group denied that the 'No' side had stolen a march on them in the poster war ahead of the abortion referendum.

Together for Yes plans to blitz the country with 10,000 posters over the coming weeks and launched the first one yesterday. However, on the 'No' side one of the groups, Save the 8th, has been putting up posters for more than a week.

Save the 8th says it has erected 12,000 so far - including one putting the abortion rate in England as one in five pregnancies - and plans to put up 8,000 more.

Asked about the 'No' side's head-start, Together for Yes co-director Orla O'Connor said there were six weeks to go in the campaign and "people are only now really starting to engage in the discussion on the referendum".

The first Together for Yes poster reads: "Sometimes a private matter needs public support. Vote Yes."

Ms O'Connor said the message they were promoting was that the decision for a woman to have an abortion "should be between a woman and her doctor".

Ailbhe Smyth, another co-director, said: "We think our posters are very clear...what we're saying is this is private, this is personal. This is not about sloganeering."

On the prospect that Together for Yes may be outspent by the 'No' side, she said the group was "very confident" about its fundraising, adding: "It's not really for us to be adding up what the other side is doing."

Ms O'Connor said the referendum would be close, but added: "What we're hearing from all around the country is that people in Ireland are compassionate and that they do care about women and want to show their support in terms of removing this from the Constitution."

She said the stories of women who were taking abortion pills in secrecy would be important.
Former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan described two Garda whistleblowers as "f***ing headbangers" and said one of them "fiddles with kids", the Disclosures Tribunal has heard.

Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness alleged Mr Callinan made the "headbangers" comment about former garda John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe after a meeting of the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on January 23, 2014.

He said he believed the second remark was a reference to Sgt McCabe, about whom false allegations had been circulating in Leinster House.

Mr Callinan denies the TD's account of what was said.

Mr McGuinness, then-chairman of the PAC, went to shake hands with Mr Callinan following the meeting, which examined the controversy over the abuse of the penalty points system. During that meeting, Mr Callinan made his now infamous "disgusting" remark in relation to the activities of the two whistleblowers.

The TD said that as he arrived over to Mr Callinan, the then commissioner was in a loose group of people that included his eventual successor Noirin O'Sullivan and former Garda press officer Supt Dave Taylor. The story related to an incident on Grafton Street, Dublin, involving horses in 1983, which Mr Wilson had responded to when he was a garda. Mr McGuinness alleged Mr Callinan said Mr Wilson pulled a "knacker off the horse".

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"He confiscated the horse, mounted the horse and rode it back to the barracks where he tied it to the railings. And the other fella fiddles with kids. And that is the type of f***ing headbangers I'm dealing with," Mr Callinan is alleged to have said.

Mr McGuinness agreed with tribunal counsel Pat Marrinan SC that he had felt "outraged" by the remarks.

Michael O'Higgins SC, counsel for Supt Taylor, said his client had heard the "kiddie fiddler" comment.

Mr McGuinness said he was "deeply troubled" by what he heard.

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At the time, the PAC was considering whether to take evidence from Sgt McCabe on penalty points abuses, something it did during a private session, despite opposition from Mr Callinan.

Mr Marrinan said Mr Callinan had a different account of what was said and read a statement from the former commissioner. "I do recall that I inquired from Mr McGuinness as to whether former garda John Wilson would be called to give evidence. Mr McGuinness responded: 'You must be joking. Sure he's a f***ing header'," Mr Callinan's statement said.

Mr McGuinness said Mr Callinan's account was "untrue" and that he had the greatest of respect for Mr Wilson.

The tribunal heard that the day after the PAC hearing Mr McGuinness met Mr Callinan in the car park of a Dublin hotel at the commissioner's request.

"He [Mr Callinan] suggested he [Sgt McCabe] had sexually abused family and an individual, that he was not to be trusted and I had made a grievous error in relation to the Public Accounts Committee hearing because of this and would find myself in serious trouble," said Mr McGuinness.

Despite what Mr Callinan had told him, the TD said he "made a judgment call" that the PAC should not be deterred from hearing from Sgt McCabe.

In his statement, the former commissioner said much of the discussion in the car park related to concerns he had about data protection issues, arising from Garda documents given to the committee. Mr Callinan also alleged that it was Mr McGuinness and not him who had raised the issue of allegations against Sgt McCabe.

"I didn't at any point, as alleged, seek to discredit Sgt McCabe or undermine the workings of the Public Accounts Committee," Mr Callinan said.

But Mr McGuinness rejected Mr Callinan's version of events.

"The account that I have given to the tribunal, Mr Chairman, is absolutely true," the TD said.
A child witness in a court hearing was unable to carry his teddy bear into a video link room after the defence argued he could have used the toy to symbolise vulnerability.

Eve Farrelly, manager of the child accompaniment support service for Children at Risk in Ireland, told how the young witness who had asked to bring his teddy bear in to the room, was told to leave the teddy bear out of sight of the screen as the defence legal team had argued it could have been used to highlight the childs vulnerability.

In the end it was decided he had enough on his plate without managing where the teddy bear was placed, so it didnt go in, Ms Farrelly said.

She was highlighting how child victims are not dealt with in the most compassionate way by the Irish legal system at the opening of a conference on the EU Victims Directive, hosted by the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, the Bar Council and the Law Society in Dublin yesterday.

Ms Farrelly said lengthy delays within the court system were adding to the trauma suffered by child abuse victims.

She said only six out of 36 recent cases had started on the date they were set for. This had caused issues for families taking time off school and work and added to their emotional turmoil.

Among the reasons for delays were there was no judge on the day or the defence had raised a matter resulting in a delay to proceedings.

Ms Farrelly said one nine-year-old child who had been abused had waited two years for his case to be heard. The defendant was ultimately found guilty.

A girl also waited two years for a case to be completed. By the time she gave her evidence she was 19. Because she was no longer a minor, she was unable to give evidence by video link and had to sit close to the alleged offender, who was in the end found not guilty, Ms Farrelly said.

Maeve Lewis, chief executive of child abuse charity One in Four, told the conference 11 of 31 cases the charity supported complainants with, had resulted in not guilty verdicts.

She said last year the charity had assisted 31 sexual abuse complainants through the criminal justice system.

Some cases are still proceeding through court but 11 so far have ended with not guilty verdicts, while eight resulted in convictions and three resulted in guilty pleas.
Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness has rejected suggestions he was confused about what was said at a meeting where he alleges former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan told him penalty points whistleblower Maurice McCabe had abused his family.

The former chairman of the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was challenged on his account the meeting by counsel for Mr Callinan, Micheal P OHiggins.

Yesterday, Mr McGuinness said that at the meeting, which took place in his car in the car park of Bewleys Hotel on the Naas Road outside Dublin on January 24, 2014, Mr Callinan told him Sgt McCabe was not to be trusted.

The TD alleges Mr Callinan told him Sgt McCabe had abused family and an individual and that it would be a grievous error for the PAC to proceed with hearing evidence from the whistleblower.

Ultimately the PAC heard from Mr McCabe in private session.

Mr OHiggins said the TDs account of the conversation was disputed by Mr Callinan.

He said it was his clients position that he told Mr McGuinness he had concerns from a data protection perspective about documentation provided to the committee.

But Mr McGuinness did not agree that this had been discussed.

The TD said this issue had already been the subject to correspondence between the commissioner and the committee. The committees legal advice on whether the documentation could be used differed from the legal advice of the commissioner.

Mr OHiggins also put it to Mr McGuinness that his client proposed a solution which would have involved Sgt McCabes concerns being examined by a Garda chief superintendent as part of a new process.

However, Mr McGuinness said this proposal was never put to him by Mr Callinan.

I didnt reject the proposal. The proposal was not put in the first place, he said.

He went on to say that the normal process under which such a proposal could have been made would have been for Mr Callinan to write to the clerk of the PAC and for the matter to then be considered by the committee.

Mr McGuinness said that even if he supported such a proposal  and he insisted no such proposal was made  it wasnt for him but the committee as a whole to decide.

Mr OHiggins said his clients position was that he raised concerned about the appropriateness of Sgt McCabe giving evidence to the PAC in circumstances where it was Mr Callinan who was the accounting officer for An Garda Siochana.

But Mr McGuinness insisted Mr Callinan did not go into any of that with me.

At one point during what was robust cross-examination, Mr McGuinness said he was not confused in his recollection of events around the making of a note about the car park meeting and what he later told Sgt McCabe of the meeting.

He also insisted he had given his account to the tribunal as accurately as he could.

Mr McGuinness said after the car park meeting he spent two days considering what he had been told by the commissioner.

Ultimately he decided that Sgt McCabe was an honourable man who deserved to be defended.
A report by a German de-radicalisation expert will be central to the sentencing of a young man who admitted providing funding from Ireland for the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

Hassan Bal (26) had his sentencing before Waterford Circuit Criminal Court adjourned as Judge Eugene O'Kelly was told that an expert report on Mr Bal, sought by the defence and consented to by the State, is not yet ready.

Mr Bal, who had an address at OConnell Street in Waterford city, appeared in court wearing a dark suit, white shirt and dark tie.

He did not speak during the hearing.

Mr Bal has been in custody since he was arrested by Gardai at his rented Waterford home in April 2017.

He pleaded guilty last January to two counts relating to the funding and attempting funding of Islamic State.

Judge OKelly was told by Noel Whelan BL, for the State, that they now were seeking an adjournment in the matter until May 30.

Mr Whelan said the State would then be asking the court on May 30 to set a date for sentencing in June.

The court heard that sentencing in the matter would be ready to take place during the current sessions.

Judge O'Kelly was informed a European expert on radicalisation, Dr Daniel Koelher of the German Institute of Radicalisation and De-Radicalisaion Studies (GIRDS), is currently conducting a special report on Mr Bal.

While that report is not yet finalised, the court was assured it will be ready for the May 30 hearing.

Judge O'Kelly was told the report will be available for both the defence and prosecution.

Previously, defence counsel Giollaiosa O'Lideadha SC asked that Mr Koelher be given access to all interviews with Mr Bal and any associated documents including the Book of Evidence.

This will allow him provide a report on why Mr Bal became associated with such activities.

The expert will also offer his opinion on whether Mr Bal has been de-radicalised and whether he does not appear to support terrorist organisations like Islamic State any more.

He has made it clear he would be providing an expert opinion to the court and is very well aware of his obligations as an expert witness to be fair and clear and to report on the basis of his primary obligations to the court, Mr O'Giollaiosa said.

Mr O Lideadha stressed that his client was very well aware that the court would have access to Mr Koelhers report irrespective of what the conclusions are.

Conor Roberts BL, for Mr Bal, confirmed today the adjournment for a sentencing date in June was by consent.

Judge O'Kelly remanded Mr Bal in ongoing custody until May 30.

The accused was born in England.

However, he moved to Ireland with his family when he was 12 years old.

He was initially based in Wexford before he relocated to Waterford in 2007.

Mr Bal holds an Irish passport.

At the time of his detention last year, he was training to work as an electrician.

Mr Bal is married and a previous court hearing was told his wife was expecting their first child.

His wife was similarly born in England.

Mr Bal last January admitted unlawfully providing funds, to the amount of 400, using an An Post/Western Union money transfer, in Waterford on October 2 2015 to a Stevo Maksimovic in the city of Brako in Bosnia-Herzegovina, knowing or intending that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of the terrorist group known as Islamic State or 'Daesh'.

Mr Bal also pleaded guilty to unlawfully and wilfully attempting to collect or receive cash from a person known to him as Omar Abu Aziz, by means of telephonic communications and an intermediary at an address at 2 Geron Way, London NW2 6GJ, knowing or suspecting that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of Islamic State.

The second offence involves a date of October 23 2015.

The two charges were brought contrary to section 13 (3)(a) and section 13 (4) of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act of 2005.

Mr O Lideadha said it was a very unusual case."
Two Vietnamese men who were smuggled into Ireland to work in a cannabis grow house containing nearly 1.8m of drugs have been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

One of the men travelled to Ireland in a shipping container and thought he would be working on a farm, while the other thought he would be working as a chef, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court previously heard.

Ngog Toan Vu (54) and Thang Nguen Van (46) each pleaded guilty to one count of cultivating cannabis without a licence at a warehouse unit in Ballymount Drive, Dublin, on May 10 last year.

Their sentence was adjourned last December to allow for investigations to continue as to whether they were the victims of human traffickers.

Yesterday, James Dwyer BL, prosecuting, told the court the investigation had concluded that neither man was a victim of human trafficking.

However, Judge Martin Nolan said he considered both Vu and Van to be "desperate men".

"They seem to have had no rights and they were preyed upon, probably by their own," the judge said.

"Their moral culpability is low.

"They had little or no option but to participate in this crime."

Judge Nolan said he had no doubt both men knew what they were doing was wrong and he noted the value of the drugs was extremely high.

He handed down a two-and-a-half year sentence and backdated it to last May, when both men were taken into custody.

Because both men are illegal, they will most likely be deported after their release from custody.
A Supreme Court appeal with implications for proceedings aimed at disinheriting the late Catherine Nevin has been fixed for July.

Following Ms Nevin's death last month, the executrix of her estate is prepared to continue Ms Nevin's appeal concerning whether her conviction for the murder of her husband Tom can be used in the case brought against her by his brother and sister, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, was told on Tuesday.

Before her death, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear an appeal by Ms Nevin over a finding her conviction could be used in the Nevin siblings' civil proceedings aimed at disinheriting her and claiming damages for wrongful death.

Those proceedings, if successful, could affect the extent of the estate of the late Ms Nevin, who has left a will.

After the Chief Justice was told on Tuesday an application will be formally made for the executrix to replace Ms Nevin, he provisionally fixed the Supreme Court appeal for hearing on July 1st.

Catherine Nevin was jailed in 2000 after being convicted of her husbands murder at their pub, Jack Whites Inn near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, in March 1996. She lost appeals over her conviction along with a bid to have it declared a miscarriage of justice.

Tom Nevin died without leaving a will. His assets included the pub, jointly owned with his wife which she sold in late 1997 for IR620,000, two Dublin properties, a IR78,000 insurance policy and cash of IR197,000.

Patrick Nevin, Tynagh, Loughrea, Co Galway, and Margaret Lavelle, Ballinaghran, Craughwell, later brought a preliminary application to the High Court seeking to admit evidence of Ms Nevins conviction as part of their disinheritance case. Ms Nevin denied her husbands murder and claimed she was entitled to his assets, or part of them, by virtue of survivorship and the laws of intestacy.

The High Court in 2013 determined, as a preliminary issue, her murder conviction was admissible in civil proceedings as prima facie evidence of the fact that she committed such murder.

The Court of Appeal iin 2017 held the High Court had correctly decided admission of the conviction involved an exception to the rule against admitting hearsay evidence which was justified on grounds of necessity and relevance.

However, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said the High Court finding that proof of a conviction for murder with all appeals exhausted does not of itself meet the proofs required by Section 120(1) of the Succession Act 1965 dealing with disinheritance should not be regarded as a "final" determination.

The proper construction of Section 120 (1) had to be decided at a full High Court hearing, she said. She noted a difference in the wording of Section 120 (1) and Section 120 (4) of the 1965 Act.

Section 120 (1) provides a sane person who has been guilty of murder..shall be precluded from taking any share in the estate of that other but Section 120 (4) provides a person found guilty of an offence against the deceased punishable by imprisonment for a maximum period of at least two years shall be precluded taking any share in the estate as a legal right.

If it is decided proof of Ms Nevins murder conviction does not meet the requirements of Section 120 (1), the question whether the High Court correctly decided the conviction was admissible as prima facie evidence of the fact Ms Nevin was guilty of the murder may become relevant, the COA said.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal over the COA decision on the basis the issues raised are of general public importance and the relevant law and procedure requires clarification.
A toddler who was exposed to an aggressive care environment in a creche which featured on RTEs Prime Time Breach of Trust programme, was Tuesday awarded 25,000 damages for abuse and mistreatment.

The award was made by Judge Terence OSullivan in the Circuit Civil Court.

He said that while the settlement offer by The Links Creche, Abington Woods, Swords Road, Malahide, Co Dublin, may not be top value for the case it would be foolish of the court not to approve it.

Judge OSullivan heard that little Max Cottrell attended the creche while he was aged between one and four and his parents took him away from it after they had seen on the RTE programme how children had been exposed to unpredictable and aggressive care practices.

Barrister Siun Leonowicz, who appeared with Ciara Redmond of Coleman Legal Partners, told the court that in 2013 the creche was one of three selected by RTEs Prime Time for an undercover investigation into the standard of care provided by preschool services in the State.

Ms Leonowicz said an undercover news reporter who had got a job in the creche had witnessed staff handling children in an extremely rough and aggressive manner and shouting at them. As a result the reporter had handed in her notice, complained to management about care of children in the wobbler room and made a report to the HSE.

Judge OSullivan heard that two years later the creche was fined 1,000 on a single charge with seven others taken into account.

Max Cottrell, who is now aged eight, sued the creche through his mother Jennifer Breslin. The family live at Waterside Crescent, Swords Road, Malahide.

Ms Leonowicz said that after Max was withdrawn from the creche it was found he was rejecting his mother and, following behavioural difficulties, would not take manner correction well. He had attended a child specialist on several occasions for therapy. A number of other cases had been dealt with in the Circuit Civil court and 22 in all settled in High Court proceedings.

Recommending the courts approval of the 25,000 offer, Ms Leonowicz said she was aware of a similar case which had settled for 18,000.

Judge OSullivan ruled the 25,000 offer.
The Attorney General led a series of warm tributes to Mr Justice Michael Moriarty on his retirement as a High Court judge.

Attorney General Seamus Woulfe extended thanks on behalf of the State and people for the judge's 31 years of public service, including presiding over the "difficult and thorny" task of chairing the Moriarty tribunal from 1997 to 2010.

The tribunal concerned certain payments to politicians and its inquiries focused on the financial affairs of the late Taoiseach Charles Haughey and former Fine Gael government minister Michael Lowry. Issues addressed by it included the circumstances of the award in 1996 of the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone, a company of businessman Denis O'Brien.

The Attorney General said chairing the tribunal had partly presented a "poisoned chalice" and the years involved were long and, he was sure, "difficult" for Mr Justice Moriarty.

In his brief reply to the packed court, Mr Justice Moriarty warmly thanked his family, friends and colleagues and said he was "overwhelmed" by the kindness and solidarity shown to him.
Kerry Mountain Rescue arrive at Kate Kearney's to drive to the scene where two visitors were killed off a trap up the Gap of Dunloe Road on Monday Photo: Domnick Walsh  Eye Focus LTD 

A grandmother and her partner died while on a family holiday after a freak incident involving a horse and cart.

The two victims, an American couple in their 60s, were on a family day out when the tragedy occurred at the Gap of Dunloe, Co Kerry, yesterday afternoon.

They are understood to be of Irish extraction and had been living in Phoenix, Arizona.

They have been named locally as Rosalyn Joy Few (64) and her partner Normand Larose (62).

The deceased were part of a group of six, which included Ms Few, Mr Larose, her daughter, her son-in-law and her two grandchildren.

They had all travelled to Ireland at Easter for a family holiday and were staying in the Killarney area.

A Garda investigation has been launched into the tragedy, with officers still attempting to establish the exact cause of the crash.

A senior source last night told the Irish Independent that early indications are that the horse became startled and bolted.

As a result, the couple were thrown from the cart and fell 20ft down steep terrain, suffering catastrophic injuries.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, but the couple were pronounced dead a short time later.

The driver of the horse and cart, a local man and an experienced jarvey, escaped serious injuries but is said to be very distressed. He was treated for shock at the scene. The horse that was pulling the cart also died in the accident.

Gardai were last night continuing to inform the victims next of kin abroad about the tragedy and were liaising with the US Embassy in Dublin.

Ms Fews daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren were travelling in a separate cart and came across the scene moments after the accident.

A source last night said: The deceased are a couple from the US, and they were around 3km into their journey when the fatal incident occurred.

They were with another group who came across the scene in the immediate aftermath, and they are absolutely distraught as you can imagine.

It is understood that they began their day out at the popular Kate Kearneys Cottage, located around 3km from the scene of the incident.

The bodies of the two victims were transferred by hearse to Kerry General Hospital shortly before 6pm yesterday evening.

The Office of the State Pathologist has been notified and post-mortem examinations were due to be carried out today.

Gardai and emergency services at the scene of the tragedy were assisted by members of the Kerry Mountain Rescue teams, whose expertise was required given the steep nature of the terrain involved.

Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce expressed its sympathy to the family at the centre of the Gap of Dunloe tragedy. Chamber president Paul ONeill said the loss of two lives had stunned the entire Kerry community.

We are all shocked and saddened by this most tragic accident, he said.

The Gap of Dunloe is one Irelands most popular tourist destinations, a place that brings joy to tourists the world over and we are devastated that a visit to it by this couple would end in such tragic circumstances.

The people of Killarney extend our heartfelt sympathies to all affected by this tragedy and will do whatever we can to support the family during this very sad time.

Mayor of Killarney Cllr Niall Kelleher also expressed his condolences to the family.

The tragic accident has caused great shock and upset throughout the entire community, he said.

The Gap of Dunloe is one of the most naturally beautiful places in the entire country but there is a dark cloud overhead this evening as everyone comes to terms with what happened.
Measles is now striking people in their 30s and 40s as a number of areas of the country battle outbreaks of the disease.

The rate of infection has been highest among young children since the beginning of the year but a number of cases have been diagnosed in adults over 35 years of age.

Cases have emerged in all regions but the worst hit are the mid-west and parts of Dublin.

The reason why older age groups are becoming infected is due to them not being vaccinated with the MMR jab against the disease.

Children younger than five years of age and adults older than 20 years of age are more likely to suffer from measles complications.

It can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain and can, in rare cases, lead to a fatal disease of the brain which develops years after the infection.

Three measles outbreaks have been reported in Ireland since the beginning of 2018, the disease watchdog, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, revealed.

"The high number of teenagers and adults affected is of particular concern," said disease expert Suzanne Cotter.

There have been 41 cases of measles reported since the start of January in the mid-west, most of them in Limerick.

Another 15 people were infected in the east of the country, two in the south-east and one in the west.

The disease watchdog also said the first outbreak of the year was notified in Limerick after the patient who was exposed to measles abroad became ill on return to Ireland.

A majority of cases in the mid-west are aged 15 years or older, most of whom were never vaccinated or could not recall getting the jab.

In Dublin, one family outbreak of measles was reported after exposure to a visitor from overseas.

"Measles is highly infectious and transmission can rapidly occur within the community without known contact with a case," Ms Cotter said.

"Vaccination is the only way to reliably prevent measles and its complications."

Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90pc of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.

It is spread easily through coughing and sneezing.

The mortality rate from measles infection is 1-2 per 1,000 cases.

The HSE in Limerick has set up vaccination clinics.

For the duration of the outbreak, MMR vaccination is free of charge to the public from GPs. The HSE is paying for the vaccine and for the GPs to administer the jab.
Just one night of poor sleep can significantly increase levels of a toxic brain substance linked to Alzheimer's disease, a study has found. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Just one night of poor sleep can significantly increase levels of a toxic brain substance linked to Alzheimer's disease, a study has found.

Researchers used a radioactive tracer to measure the build-up of amyloid-beta peptide in the brains of 20 volunteers aged 22 to 72 over the course of two nights.

For one of the nights, participants were allowed a restful period of sleep. For the other, they were sleep deprived.

Positron Emission Tomography (Pet) scans were used to track the tracer. They showed that restricting sleep to as little as five hours led to a "significant increase" in amyloid-beta burden in two brain regions vulnerable to damage in Alzheimer's patients.

The hippocampus plays a key role in memory while the thalamus acts as a relay centre for motor and sensory nerve signals.

Amyloid-beta is a protein building block that accumulates in sticky "plaques" in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, leading to the destruction of neurons.

Sleep may play an important role in a natural "waste disposal" system that clears potentially harmful material including amyloid-beta out of the brain, scientists believe.

The new findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

US lead author Dr Ehsan Shokri-Kojori, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues wrote: "This study documents an effect of one-night sleep deprivation on amyloid-beta burden in the hippocampus, thus providing preliminary evidence that sleep, among other factors, could influence amyloid-beta clearance in the human brain.

"Our results highlight the relevance of good sleep hygiene for proper brain function and as a potential target for prevention of Alzheimer's disease."

Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at the charity at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "There is growing evidence of a link between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer's disease, but it is difficult to tease apart cause and effect to determine whether sleep problems might cause Alzheimer's brain changes or vice-versa.

"This very small study suggests that one night of sleep deprivation can raise levels of the hallmark Alzheimer's protein amyloid, strengthening suggestions that sleep is important for limiting the build-up of this protein in the brain."
Senior Garda officers will warn the Government today that a hard Brexit will at least quadruple the number of Border crossings and create "corridors" to be exploited by criminal gangs.

They want Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and his Cabinet colleagues to begin planning now to counteract the impact of Brexit in the Border region.

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And they say that unless the strength of the Garda force is dramatically increased, vast areas of the country will be denuded of a proper policing service to provide the numbers needed to patrol the Border counties.

The grim warning will be delivered today by the Association of Garda Superintendents at its annual conference in Naas.

Association president Noel Cunningham told the Irish Independent last night: "During the Troubles, the majority of cross-Border roads were closed with only the main roads remaining open.

"But as a result of the peace process, all of the roads are now open, at least quadrupling the number of crossings and that creates these corridors for criminals to travel".

He pointed out that if you travelled the Border from Donegal to Louth, most of the PSNI Border stations that existed during the Troubles were now shut and the current stations were located about ten miles back from the Border.

He said the significant reduction in policing presence in the Border region since the peace process began, created a new challenge with Brexit.

The gardai, Mr Cunningham said, had excellent co-operation with the PSNI at all levels, particularly on the ground, but it was a much reduced policing service on both sides at present and that was a factor that had to be taken into account.

It was vital that early planning and resourcing took place to ensure that a proper policing presence was provided in advance of March, 2019.

Mr Cunningham, who has 37 years experience, mainly in the Border region, pointed out that in the Monaghan district, in an area surrounded on three sides by three Northern counties, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh, there were about 26 Border crossings during the Troubles.

Now there were 160 roads currently open. Some were very minor but could still be traversed.

Garda numbers during the Troubles were at least three times the current levels and if those numbers were to be restored out of the current strength, it would mean denuding the big urban centres and other divisions of garda personnel.

"We would have to strip them of gardai. So we need to think about that during the current recruitment campaign and plan strategically for Brexit".

The additional personnel would need time to develop local connections and get to know the people as well as the geograph, he added.

The real test for policing was how efficient it could be and intelligence based policing was best and that meant making the on the ground connections between the gardai and the community.

Mr Cunningham said he hoped the reaction from the minister, due to address the conference along with Garda Commissioner Donall O Cualain this afternoon, would be positive.

He also called for EU assistance, financial and otherwise, for Ireland to help cope with the fallout from a hard Brexit as the nation would become the only EU member state with a land frontier with a non-EU country on the western side of the EU.

Mr Cunningham will also tell his members today that the Garda force, if properly resources, has the experience and expertise, to continue to be responsible for the security of the State.

The conference will also discuss a pay anomaly that has meant a garda inspector at the top of the pay scale receives 2,500 more a year than a newly promoted superintendent and this is seen as not only a disincentive for promotion but also not reflecting the reality that superintendents haver a lot of extra responsibility and have to be available 24/7.
Flowers at the scene where American tourists Roselyn Joy Few and Normand Larose from Phoenix, Arizona were killed after the horse and trap they were traveling in left the road near the Wishing Bridge on the Gap of Dunloe. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath

Flowers at the scene where American tourists Roselyn Joy Few and Normand Larose from Phoenix, Arizona were killed after the horse and trap they were traveling in left the road near the Wishing Bridge on the Gap of Dunloe. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath

Markings on the road at the scene Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath

Canadian Normand Larose (62) lost his life alongside his partner in a freak accident in Co Kerry

American Rosalyn Joy Few (64) was killed in a freak accident in Co Kerry

Kerry Mountain Rescue arrive at Kate Kearney's to drive to the scene where two visitors were killed off a trap up the Gap of Dunloe Road on Monday Photo: Domnick Walsh  Eye Focus LTD 

Normand Larose and his partner Rosalyn Joy Few died in a pony and trap accident in Kerry

A tourist who tragically died alongside his partner in a freak accident has been remembered as a "a very happy person who loved life."

Normand Larose (62) and Rosalyn Joy Few (64) were killed yesterday afternoon in an accident involving a horse and cart at the Gap of Dunloe in Co Kerry.

The couple had travelled from their home in Phoenix, Arizona to Ireland at Easter with Ms Few's daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren for a family holiday and were staying in the Killarney area.

Mr Larose, who is originally from Quebec in Canada, will be sorely missed by those who knew him, his niece Maude Larose told Independent.ie.

She said: "My uncle was a very happy person who loved life very much.

"He always took care of the people he loved, the whole family is shocked by this tragedy.

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"I know he would want us to remember him with his smile and his jokes."

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A Garda investigation has been launched into the tragedy, with officers still attempting to establish the exact cause of the crash.

A senior source last night told the Irish Independent that early indications are that the horse became startled and bolted.

Expand Close Markings on the road at the scene Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath / Facebook

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As a result, the couple were thrown from the cart and fell 20ft down steep terrain, suffering catastrophic injuries.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, but the couple were pronounced dead a short time later.

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The driver of the horse and cart, a local man and an experienced jarvey, escaped serious injuries but is said to be very distressed. He was treated for shock at the scene. The horse that was pulling the cart also died in the accident.

Gardai were last night continuing to inform the victims next of kin abroad about the tragedy and were liaising with the US Embassy in Dublin.

Expand Close Flowers at the scene where American tourists Roselyn Joy Few and Normand Larose from Phoenix, Arizona were killed after the horse and trap they were traveling in left the road near the Wishing Bridge on the Gap of Dunloe. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath / Facebook

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Whatsapp Flowers at the scene where American tourists Roselyn Joy Few and Normand Larose from Phoenix, Arizona were killed after the horse and trap they were traveling in left the road near the Wishing Bridge on the Gap of Dunloe. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath

Ms Fews daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren were travelling in a separate cart and came across the scene moments after the accident.

A source last night said: The deceased are a couple from the US, and they were around 3km into their journey when the fatal incident occurred.

They were with another group who came across the scene in the immediate aftermath, and they are absolutely distraught as you can imagine.

It is understood that they began their day out at the popular Kate Kearneys Cottage, located around 3km from the scene of the incident.

The bodies of the two victims were transferred by hearse to Kerry General Hospital shortly before 6pm yesterday evening.

The Office of the State Pathologist has been notified and post-mortem examinations were due to be carried out today.

Gardai and emergency services at the scene of the tragedy were assisted by members of the Kerry Mountain Rescue teams, whose expertise was required given the steep nature of the terrain involved.

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Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce expressed its sympathy to the family at the centre of the Gap of Dunloe tragedy. Chamber president Paul ONeill said the loss of two lives had stunned the entire Kerry community.

We are all shocked and saddened by this most tragic accident, he said.

The Gap of Dunloe is one Irelands most popular tourist destinations, a place that brings joy to tourists the world over and we are devastated that a visit to it by this couple would end in such tragic circumstances.

The people of Killarney extend our heartfelt sympathies to all affected by this tragedy and will do whatever we can to support the family during this very sad time.

Mayor of Killarney Cllr Niall Kelleher also expressed his condolences to the family.

The tragic accident has caused great shock and upset throughout the entire community, he said.

The Gap of Dunloe is one of the most naturally beautiful places in the entire country but there is a dark cloud overhead this evening as everyone comes to terms with what happened.
Then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and prime minister Tony Blair meet the media in 1998 after the bones of the Good Friday Agreement were laid out

Today marks 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed. Here is a timeline of the events leading up to the historic signing, and the challenges faced by the pact over it's lifetime.

1988

January - Talks get under way between Gerry Adams and his main nationalist rival, the SDLP leader John Hume, to see how a political settlement in Northern Ireland could be achieved.

September - The Hume-Adams dialogue breaks down.

1991

January - Martin McGuinness takes part in British Government approved secret talks with MI6's Michael Oatley about ending the conflict.

1993

April - John Hume and Gerry Adams resume their dialogue.

October - The SDLP and Sinn Fein leader pass proposals to Taoiseach Albert Reynolds on how to end violence and secure a permanent peace. Two months later, Mr Reynolds and UK Prime Minister John Major produce the Downing Street declaration setting out their vision for securing peace.

1994

August 31 - The IRA announced "a complete cessation of military activities", to be followed 43 days later with a similar ceasefire announcement by the main loyalist paramilitaries.

1995

May 10 - First official meeting in 23 years between Sinn Fein and a British Government minister.

1996

February 9 - The IRA ended its 17-month ceasefire with the bombing of London's Docklands and the killing of two innocent civilians. Government breaks off links with Sinn Fein.

1997

May 16 - Within days of becoming Prime Minister, Tony Blair delivers a keynote speech in Belfast, warning republicans: "The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train."

July 20 - The IRA reinstates its ceasefire to enable Sinn Fein to take part in talks.

September 17 - As Sinn Fein enters the talks at Stormont chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell, the DUP and other hardline unionists walk out. David Trimble's Ulster Unionists remain.

1998

April 10 - The Good Friday Agreement is signed and is endorsed a month later in a referendum by 71.12pc of the people of Northern Ireland.

June 25 - The Northern Ireland Assembly Elections see the Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP emerge as the largest parties.

July 1 - David Trimble and SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon are elected First and Deputy First Minister at the Assembly's first meeting. However the UUP refuse to form a devolved government until the IRA disarms.

August 15 - The Real IRA bomb in the Co Tyrone market town of Omagh was the single deadliest atrocity in the history of the Troubles, claiming the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

1999

November 29 - After much wrangling the Assembly finally met and nominated executive ministers - only to be suspended the following February by Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson because of the IRA's failure to decommission any of its weapons.

2000

May 29 - Unionists agreed a return to Stormont and resumption of devolution on the basis of the arms issue being dealt with while the Assembly continued to function.

2002

October 14 - Devolution again suspended as power sharing fell apart over allegations of an IRA spy ring gathering intelligence at the heart of government.

2003

November 26 - Fresh Assembly elections saw Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party emerge for the first time as the largest party and Sinn Fein as the major voice of nationalism. Mr Paisley warned he would not sit in Government with Sinn Fein while the IRA retained weapons.

2005

July 28 - The Provisional IRA announced a formal end to its armed campaign, ordered units to dump all arms and pursue their goals through exclusively peaceful means.

2006

October 13 - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern lay the foundations for a new devolution deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein. As part of the deal, Sinn Fein signs up in January 2007 to supporting policing on the understanding that that will lead to the DUP sharing power.

2007

March 6 - Following Sinn Fein's decision to endorse the police in Northern Ireland, the province went to the polls and returned both the DUP and Sinn Fein with increased numbers of seats.

May 8 - The Rev Ian Paisley becomes First Minister and Martin McGuinness is appointed Deputy First Minister at the head of the new power-sharing Executive two months after their parties triumph in an Assembly Election and then strike a deal to revive devolution. The pair's surprisingly warm relationship leads to them being referred to as the Chuckle Brothers.

2009

March - Police investigate the murders of soldiers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, by the Real IRA at Massereene Barracks in Antrim, and the murder of Pc Stephen Carroll, 48, by gunmen from the Continuity IRA in an attack in Craigavon.

Martin McGuinness branded the gunmen traitors to Ireland who had defied the expressed wishes of the Irish electorate which had endorsed the political structures born out of the Good Friday Agreement.

June 18 - It emerges that the Ulster Volunteer Force has carried out a significant act of decommissioning, with expectations that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) will follow suit.

2010

January 6 - The UDA announces that it has decommissioned all its weaponry.

2012

A vote at Belfast City Council in December to limit the days the Union flag flies from Belfast City Hall leads to street protests across Northern Ireland by Ulster loyalists. Most involve protesters blocking roads and some lead to riots. The vote to limit the flying of the flag increases tension between the two biggest parties.

2013

The flag protests continue. Tensions between Sinn Fein and the DUP are heightened when the DUP withdraws backing for a Peace and Conflict Resolution Centre on the site of the old Maze Prison, which housed paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from 1971 to 2000. Sinn Fein accuses Mr Robinson of caving in to hardline unionist opinion.

Richard Haass, the former US envoy to Northern Ireland, is brought in as an independent chairman of an all-party group set up to deal with divisive issues such as parades and protests, flags, symbols, emblems and related matters stemming from the past. Months of talks break up at Christmas without agreement.

2014

A crisis over welfare threatens to bring down power-sharing when Sinn Fein refuses to implement reforms demanded by London. Following 11 weeks of discussion, an agreement - known as the the Stormont House Agreement - is reached in December.

2015

Devolved government again faces possible collapse over a fresh welfare reform row between DUP and Sinn Fein. Devolution is already hanging by a thread after the murders of two former IRA men in Belfast in August. The chief constable of Northern Ireland, George Hamilton, says individual Provisional IRA members were behind the killing and the organisation still exists.

Crisis talks lasting 10 weeks result in the Fresh Start Agreement, a deal between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's two largest parties to find a way forward on paramilitarism and welfare reform.

2016

June - Press Association reports allegations of a multimillion-pound "cash for ash" scandal in relation to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) eco-scheme. In response, auditors confirm they are investigating.

December 16 - Martin McGuinness calls on Arlene Foster - the minister in charge of the department at the time RHI was set up - to "stand aside" as First Minister while the "cash for ash" scandal is investigated. Mrs Foster replies that she will not be stepping aside and "does not take her instructions from Sinn Fein".

2017

January 9 - Martin McGuinness resigns as Deputy First Minister in protest at the DUP's handling of the RHI scandal.

January 23 - Michelle O'Neill is named as the new leader of Sinn Fein in the north.

March 21 - Martin McGuinness dies from a rare heart condition aged 66.

2018

February 14 - Sinn Fein and DUP talks fall apart on Valentine's Day over disagreements about Irish language legislation. The two parties were reportedly close to a deal to restore powersharing, more than a year after the executive collapsed.

April 10 - 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
A prayer service was held for James Maguire on Sunday

James Maguire is being treated at Beaumont Hospital

James Maguire (inset) is being treated at Beaumont Hospital

A NEPHEW of celebrity chef Neven Maguire is in a serious condition in hospital after falling down stairs.

James Maguire sustained head injuries following the incident in Maynooth, Co Kildare over the weekend.

The NUI Maynooth student is being treated at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, where his devastated parents Kenny and Kate are understood to be by his bedside.

James is from Kilmacrennan, near Letterkenny in Donegal, where parish priest Fr Paddy Dunne said a prayer service for him on Sunday.

James is the son of Kenny, a brother of RTE presenter Neven. Neven retweeted a clip of the service on his Twitter account.

The video was captioned: "So beautiful, so peaceful, #PrayForJames thoughts & prayers with James and all the Maguire family as these times."

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Termon GAA's under-16 team - which James' younger brother Emmett plays for - also held a minute's silence before their match on Sunday.

Letterkenny County Councillor Michael McBride said that everyone is hoping that Marketing student James makes a swift recovery.

Cllr McBride told Independent.ie: "I know his parents quite well.

"Everyone is shocked for sure, they're a well-known family and a well-respected family.

"It's a tragic thing to happen, the thoughts of the whole community is with the family at this terrible time.

"It is a very difficult time for them and our thoughts and prayers are with them, we're all just hoping that he makes a full recovery."
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton hold hands an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Tony Blair attends an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Tony Blair wants to stop Brexit; as he sees it as a major threat to the UK, and the peace process.

To a rapturous applause from the auditorium as Queens University, Belfast on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the former UK Prime Minister said:

Expand Close Tony Blair and Bill Clinton hold hands an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne / Facebook

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Whatsapp Tony Blair and Bill Clinton hold hands an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Im passionately opposed to Brexit; I think it is a profound mistake.

And I hope it may still not happen, but that's for a different day", he said.

In the meantime, work diplomatic efforts require real focus and hard work, because we cannot return to a hard border", he said.

It will be disastrous for the agreement and for the relationships between the republic and the UK and therefore the people of Northern Ireland.

As one of the key negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement, Tony Blair poured scorn on Brexiteers who refused to recognise the challenge Brexit poses for peace and the future in the North.

People who are either disdainful of the challenge or dismiss it, come on!

We should our best to circumvent it, he said.

Several Tory MPs as well as senior figures like the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson have dismissed the idea that there would be a threat to the Good Friday Agreement because of Brexit.

Mr Blair also pointed out that relations between Dublin and London wont be as close, as the frequent meetings between government ministers and Taoiseach and Prime Minister which took place at various EU Council meetings in Brussels, will cease.

Brexit will pose a challenge because for the last 100 years, the Republic of Ireland and the UK has been in the same relationship with Europe all the time.

If Brexit goes ahead, from the end of next March we are going to be in a difficult relationship for the first time.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern agreed with Mr Blairs point, and said the regular meetings at Brussels-based events were crucial for Irish British relations.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is asking Fine Gael members to rate his ministers' performances on key issues including justice, health and housing.

A private polling company has been commissioned to carry out a wide-ranging review of the party's priorities, including whether it should contest a presidential election.

Mr Varadkar is also asking supporters whether the Government should focus on increasing pensions, social welfare, spending on public services or reducing income tax and USC ahead of the next Budget.

Amid growing talk of a potential general election, the survey instructions tell members that Fine Gael bosses want to use their "political judgment in looking at what you believe to be important in swaying public opinion".

A section of the study, compiled by CST International, asks how the Government and individual ministers are performing.

Respondents are asked to offer ratings between 'very poor' and 'very well' on topics including crime, healthcare, the Eighth Amendment, the cost of housing, and homelessness.

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The responses are likely to be closely monitored by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, Health Minister Simon Harris and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who are all in the Opposition firing line.

However, in an email Mr Varadkar assures members that their responses will remain confidential.

"I am asking you to complete the survey, because your opinion really matters.

"You are the heart and soul of our party, and, as someone who came up through the ranks, that is something I never forget."

He adds: "The survey is anonymous. Only the aggregated opinions of all respondents will be used; no individual responses will be identified.

"When the survey is analysed, we will write back to you summarising the most important and salient points."

In a section on party priorities, the survey sets a scale between 'not important' and 'extremely important'.

It questions whether Fine Gael should impose tougher sentences for convicted criminals, and if new steps should be taken to enhance children's safety online.

In recent days it has emerged that Mr Vardakar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe are keen for October's Budget to shift focus from tax cuts towards State-funded benefits for working families.

The questionnaire seeks to gauge the view of party members on how the Government should approach the Budget.

It asks if the Cabinet should do more to increase pensions, increase social welfare, increase spending on public services or reduce income tax and USC.

In an attempt to avoid a repeat of Fine Gael's ill-fated election slogan 'Keep The Recovery Going', Mr Varadkar has issued a series of questions about people's view of the economic revival.

He wants to know whether members believe the upsurge is being felt "across the country".

In his message, the Taoiseach says: "The feedback initiative is part of a commitment I made to create a more open and inclusive party, one that actively seeks out the opinions of its members and takes them into account when developing and implementing government policy."

CST International is a Dublin-based company which engages in brand research and customer experience analytics.

It has given Fine Gael members until later this week to reply through an online portal.

As well as national issues, the survey asks whether members are "proud to tell people I support Fine Gael", and if the party's selection conventions are viewed as being fair.
When you walk into a pizzeria to meet young men who were raised in an orphanage, all now third-level students and your eyes fill with tears, you know this is a special moment. That was me recently in Bryansk, 400km south-west of Moscow, when I was introduced to Alex, Andre, Pasha, Maxim, Vanya and Misha.

I'm an Irish Mammy of two strapping young men and I have always had a soft spot for boys as they grow up, find their feet and make their way in the world. When I opened the door of that restaurant and saw those 19-21-year-olds, with their shy smiles and gentle eyes, my heart just melted. I wanted to hug them all. I found myself visualising their early days of neglect in dysfunctional families and their formative years in an orphanage from which they emerged as the fine young men I saw standing before me. To say I was overcome with soppy, mushy, teary happiness for them is no exaggeration. Any mother would be proud of how they had turned out. Sadly some had been abandoned as children through alcoholism and drug addiction.

Of course, it wasn't just in any orphanage that these six lads grew up. They were in Khortolova, the orphanage where conditions so shocked Debbie Deegan when she visited in 1998 that she set up the charity To Russia With Love, renamed To Children With Love three years ago. She has worked tirelessly for the children there since then and Alex and his friends are, quite simply, a credit to her. Their bright, smiling faces, their healthy frames, their impeccable politeness and good manners belie their early years before being taken into state care and ending up in Khortolova where their lives were turned around by the love, care and vision showered on them by Debbie and TRWL. They realise they are the lucky ones. Statistics show that more than 65pc of orphaned boys in Russia end up in prison. Not so boys who grew up in Khortolova after TRWL entered their lives. Debbie told me that not one of "her boys has spent a day in prison". Some of them, however, have siblings, all of them have acquaintances who were not so lucky. They were placed in different institutions where conditions were basic and perfunctory, devoid of the warmth of human kindness and from which they emerged, sometimes as young as 16 years of age with no guidance as to the next step. Their stories don't have such a happy ending. Many succumb to crime and addiction and end up in prison or dead. Alex and his friends hit the jackpot when they were sent to Khortolova where they basked in the motherly love and genuine concern of Debbie Deegan and her team. They were well fed, educated, their talents identified and encouraged and they thrived. They left Khortolova with hope in their hearts and a plan for the future.

Their wellbeing continues to be monitored by the charity, even though they are now living in college hostels and taking responsibility for their studies and their future. They absolutely adore Debbie and want to do well to repay her for the opportunities TRWL/TCWL has afforded them. Alex told me he didn't want to leave the orphanage when he earned his place in agricultural college. For about a year he yearned to return to the security of Khortolova where he was reared on hugs, good food and discipline. He's 20 now, in his third year of studies, and he looks forward to these weekly pizza nights when he meets up with his former classmates from the orphanage and Sasha Tzukanov, the TCWL manager in Bryansk, who hears how they're getting on, checks their grades and exam preparations and encourages them in their independent living. The fact that Sasha is 30 and also a graduate of Khortolova means he can relate to these young leavers. He understands perfectly the trauma they suffered in their early years in homes where many were often cold and hungry. Because that was his story as well. He and two younger siblings were sent to Khortolova and Debbie delights in recounting that Sasha looked out for his two sisters from the day they all entered the orphanage. One of them is married now and the other is getting married this year, a credit once again to Debbie and to their big brother Sasha. He is a delightful, helpful, efficient manager and a caring role model for these young adults and for the children in his care in Bryansk.

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It is a privilege to celebrate the 20th anniversary of To Russia With Love, now called To Children With Love. It's an opportunity to reflect on the significance of this milestone in the life of the charity and the Dublin woman who started it all. We're talking 20 years of practical support for the most vulnerable children in this part of Russia, children who were handed over to state care and housed in orphanages for a variety of reasons. Some of these children were genuine orphans, but there is a term, "Russian Orphans" which refers to children abandoned by parents who can't provide for them. Some parents had their lives destroyed by alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, poverty, or perhaps mothers in new relationships where the partner refused to care for another man's child. Can you imagine the pain and heartache for those little ones, failed by people close to them and dependant on state care which provides them with food, clothes and a roof over their heads, basic requirements for physical survival but falling way short of the mark when it comes to compassion and love, essentials for a happy childhood and a confident transition to adulthood.

That's where Debbie Deegan comes in. In 1997 she and her husband Mick adopted a child from Khortolova, welcoming her into their family alongside their two young children, Sophie and Michael. Debbie promised this seven-year-old girl she would return to the orphanage to see her former classmates and to say that she was shocked by what she saw is an understatement. On her first visit to Khortolova, Debbie was greeted by grey concrete buildings, iron window frames, broken panes through which the wind whistled. She walked along dank, dark corridors: dark because the electric bulbs had burned out or were missing altogether, stolen by children to sell in exchange for cigarettes: smelly because children were afraid to go to the bathroom during the night for fear of the dark and the rats that scurried about. Other children, starved of affection, made pets of the rats. What do you do in a situation like that? Do you give what you can to the children you've met, tell them their friend is well and living in Ireland now and return home to shower love and compassion on your adopted daughter? Or do you adopt them all? In reality that is what Debbie Deegan has done. She vowed there and then to care for those children and that was when TRWL was born.

Twenty years later, thanks to Debbie's endless energy, commitment and big heart and thanks to the generosity and support of Irish people, she is back in Bryansk to celebrate with the young people who are now in their twenties and living a life they could never have dreamed possible were it not for the intervention of this Dublin woman, a mother who responded with love to the needs of vulnerable, abandoned, unloved children. If you ask Debbie, "why Russia?", when there are so many needy children closer to home, the answer is that is where her life path took her. She adopted a Russian child, visited Khortolova and saw the lost children. "I have seen first hand, many tragic situations in our world, but when a child has no one to love them, I think it is the saddest thing you can see. We would never turn our backs on abandoned children. We will stand by them until they are strong confident adults."

During this anniversary trip I accompanied Debbie to visit Olga and Valya, two of her "children" as she refers to all of the orphans who grew up in Khortolova since 1998. They are both 30 now, married with two children each and neighbours in a very modest, high-rise apartment block in a suburb of Bryansk. We were offered tea and cake by Olga who had given birth to her second daughter, Valentina, a week before our visit and who was visibly excited and proud to introduce Debbie to this little beauty. Valya, her neighbour and former classmate was there to offer her friend a helping hand. Valya remembers the filth, neglect, soaked mattresses and rotten food of Khortolova prior to Debbie's first visit in 1998. The toilets overflowed, girls were handed bits of rags when they had their period, there were regular outbreaks of scabies and headlice. When I asked Valya about her memories of life in that orphanage after 1998, her face lit up and she replied, "big smiles". She said she came to realise that life can be better. Another abiding memory of Debbie's first visit is of the perfume she wore. Turns out it was Eternity by Calvin Klein and Valya showed me a well worn and well-loved box from the perfume which she treasures. Debbie, for her part, continues to wear Eternity on every visit to Bryansk because of the good memories it evokes for those first TRWL children. Both young women came from homes where their parents were alcoholics. They are wives and mothers now and they are, to a woman, determined that their children will have a happy childhood, "with lots of smiles". Valya is a midwife and Olga is employed by TCWL as a mentor for teenagers as they leave Khortolova to embark on adult life. Debbie is proud of the fact that not one of her "children" has put their baby back into an orphanage or a shelter. The cycle has been broken. What a joy to be able to say that!

It's been an all-consuming 20 years for Debbie Deegan and she has more than fulfilled that promise, made when she welcomed a seven-year-old girl from Khortolova orphanage into her family all those years ago. That girl is an adult now, her classmates have left Khortolova and the focus of Debbie's work has changed. Three years ago the charity changed its name to To Children With Love and has expanded its portfolio to include working with vulnerable children in Ireland. The Rising Tide project is an example of the work TCWL undertakes in Ireland, where children in disadvantaged areas are helped to reach their full potential, be that an apprenticeship or entry to a vocational college or university. TCWL is there to advocate for them and the work of Rising Tide is modelled on the successful programmes Debbie and her team have been undertaking for 20 years in Russia .

Around the time TRWL became TCWL, Khortolova closed its doors to orphans as the state tries to phase out the era of the big institution. That's in line with Debbie's thinking. She has always had a good relationship with the Russian administration; the charity could not have done what they did without the help of many good Russian people. It was also a joy to witness the easy warmth and common purpose she shares with the people who run the smaller homes and shelters which the charity now supports in their work of finding caring foster parents for the children who continue to be abandoned in heartbreaking circumstances.

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We visited Zhukovka orphanage where TCWL has financed the playroom, filling it with equipment and furniture and opportunities for the children to enjoy life as they never have before. They are carefree youngsters now for the most part. Two little ones, 10 and 12 years old, stood out for me when they took my hands on a walk in the snow. Tanya and Misha are brother and sister. They are pale, incredibly shy but making good progress at the orphanage.

When they first arrived at Zhukovka, they kept their heads bent and they cowered in a corner together, timid and fearful. They are learning to respond to love, something they never knew before they came here. It was lovely to watch them read a book on cushions in their colourful playroom and play in the snow with the brothers and sisters they have now in their new family.

It's impossible to put a figure on the number of lives that Debbie Deegan has enhanced over the past 20 years. There are also lives that have been saved by TRWL/TCWL. Kirill was neglected as a child and taken into care. His mother was told she could have him back if she changed her lifestyle. Every May, for a number of years, Kirill stood at the gates of the orphanage in case his mother came to pick him up. She never did and Kirill remained in Khortolova. His behaviour was bad. He told me he was "the bad boy" of the orphanage and they wanted to get rid of him. Debbie, however, was having none of it and Kirill is adamant that she saved his life. He is 30 now, a panel beater in Bryansk. He plays pool, goes to the gym and designs websites and he recognises the fact that if it weren't for TRWL he would have gone the criminal route. I met Lena, whose mother sold her for a bottle of vodka, when she was three years of age. She grew up in Khortolova, has been sponsored by a Dublin family over the years and always attends the pizza gatherings with her former classmates from the orphanage. They all love Debbie and deeply appreciate the difference she has made to their lives.

She has shown that kindness, love and patience can change lives and that children in care deserve our respect and love every day. The work continues with To Children With Love, both in Russia and with the Rising Tide project here in Ireland. Debbie Deegan shows no signs of slowing down.

She is a powerhouse of energy, commitment and love and she needs our support.

Any donations to www.tochildrenwithlove.ie will be gratefully received and put to good use.
The interior of the new Ford Focus.

FORDs brand new Focus  just unveiled today - has joined the crossover club.

Among its line up of more conventional variants is a new Active crossover version based on the 5dr hatch.

The Focus Active is more a nod to Crossover than real-time SUV but it does have better ground clearance (30mm+), protective black-wheel-arch and rocker claddings, front/rear skid plates and its own front end design to let it look the part.

No doubt the level of demand for such a model was reflected in the extensive research the company carried out before it built the range from the ground up.

Thats why they are claiming  with unashamed hyperbolic fervour - that the new car introduces a new human-centric design philosophy that fuses emotional exterior styling with class-leading aerodynamics. Seriously.

Basically theyre saying the car will be even more about occupants than before. But the current one must be doing something right. It has been popular with Irish buyers for years and regularly features in the Top 10 best sellers. Up to now more than 16 million people around the world have bought a Focus since it was first introduced in 1998.

It is the first car globally to be based on Fords new C2 platform. The 5dr version is due here in August with other variants, including an estate, 4dr, Active and ST to follow.

Overall, its a more substantial, mature looking car  it could never be the dramatic departure its 1998 forefather was compared with the old Escort.

The front pillars are pushed back a bit for a more coupe look so there is a noticeably longer bonnet and strong front end. The wheelbase is up 53mm and there are short overhangs to highlight a sense of strength. They are also claiming a more spacious cabin, front and back. By the way the estate cargo area can comfortably accommodate a dog crate.

Engines include 1-litre EcoBoost and 1.5-litre petrols (including the first production-car cylinder deactivation of a 3cyl). There will also be 1.5-litre and 2-litre diesels as well as a new 8spd automatic transmission.

The 1-litre EcoBoost petrol comes with 85PS, 100PS and 125PS outputs while the 1.5-litre EcoBoost pumps 150PS and 182PS.

They expect the 5dr 1-litre EcoBoost will have emissions of 107 g/km with the 1.5-litre EcoBoost starting from 122 g/km or thereabouts.

The 1.5-litre diesel comes in 95PS and 120PS guise with emissions as lows as 91g/km for the 5dr. The 2-litre diesel (150PS) starts from an anticipated 112 g/km.

Standard on most will be the 6spd manual transmission. They claim a 10pc cut in emissions across the range.

Trim levels include Trend and Titanium, ST-Line, Vignale etc.

It is impossible at this remove to gauge what will be standard, trim specific or optional.

But among items on board, depending on your choice, will be a FordPass Connect embedded modem for connectivity on the move, a wireless charging pad, SYNC 3 with 8ins touchscreen etc. The wi-fi hotspot (up to 4G) includes complimentary wireless data trial expires after three months or when 3GB of data are used. After that you need a subscription to Vodafone.

Other items on the menu include: a first head-up display for a Ford model in Europe; Active Park Assist 2, Drive Modes, Continuously Controlled Damping, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Stop and Go, Speed Sign Recognition and Lane-Centring.

You can also go for Adaptive Front Lighting or Evasive Steering Assist  all self explanatory but likely to be on the more expensive models.

Finally:

*They anticipate a five-star safety rating for the new car.

*Normal, Sport and Eco driving modes make their debut in a Focus.

*The new B&O PLAY 675 sound watt system has 10 speakers.

The Focus sure has shifted a lot in 20 years.
Authorities in Venice have said they will prevent new holiday accommodation from opening up in its historic centre.

The proposed ban is the latest in a series of measures aimed at curbing runaway tourism in the iconic Italian city, where the few remaining locals feel increasingly marginalised.

Massimiliano De Martin, Venices councillor for urban planning, submitted the plan to the mayors office and described the measure as essential for the protection of the city.

He told local reporters that hotels were increasingly taking over residential buildings in the city, pushing locals out and running the risk of impoverishing the citys social fabric.

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In 2016, Venices population crashed to 55,000 inhabitants. According to local media, if depopulation were to continue at its current rate, the city wouldnt have a single resident by 2030.

This trend has put tourists on something of a collision course with Venetians, who have made their feelings clear by protesting against the influx of visitors.

Some angry residents have even used gondolas to block cruise ships from sailing down the Giudecca Canal.

Consequently, some operators, including P&O, have reduced the number of cruise liners they are sending to the city, which some fear will have a negative impact on the economy.

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Venice is losing passengers and ships, said Pino Musolino, the president of Venice Port Authority. That is not just a problem for our city but for other ports in the Adriatic as cruise ships are only visiting them on their way to Venice.

Despite concerns over falling tourism revenues, authorities look set to press ahead with a ban on new hotels. Its not an unprecedented move: Amsterdam introduced a similar measure to stop the city turning into Disneyland, as has Barcelona.

The Venetian authorities have also implemented other measures to mitigate the effects of mass tourism, including a locals first policy for its water buses and a ban on cruise ships over 96,000 tons (though the latter measure has since been overturned).

They have also banned new fast food restaurants from opening in the city in a bid to preserve its historic charm.

Around 22 million tourists visit Venice annually; that works out at more than 60,000 a day, which is greater than the population of the city.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Venice is not just for lovers - there's a world of family fun to be had just a short hop outside the city itself

Every year, the acqua alta floods the streets of Venice  a phenomenon caused by high tides and a warm scirocco wind blowing across the Mediterranean.

At a similar frequency, Italian government officials spout hot air about Venices tourism problem  prompting a flood of discussion across social media.

This week, the proposal came from Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who made curbing tourist numbers in the city a priority when he was elected in 2015.

In an interview with the city's Corriere del Veneto newspaper, he made the case for charging day-trippers entry into the floating city.

The solution is obvious: those who live, work or have a place to sleep in the city can enter, the others must stay away, he said.

The mayor must have power to close the city off on crowded days, he argued. Several ideas have been proposed to the government, we now hope they decide to help Venice.

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The statement comes after a busy Easter weekend, during which two Swiss tourists were reported to have been seen dancing naked at a fountain near Rialto Bridge.

More than 125,000 visitors visited Venice on Easter Sunday and just under 100,000 on Easter Monday.

This isnt the first time someone has suggested charging entry into the city. In 2014, Italys undersecretary of culture, Ilaria Borletti, said: "Venice is slowly dying of tourism, suffocated by summer tourists who eat and run, leaving little or nothing to the city.

"For this reason I think we have to protect this city. We should think seriously about the introduction of an entry ticket."

Alternative measures have been proposed. Last year, Venices councillor for urban planning, Massimiliano De Martin, mooted a plan to prevent new holiday accommodation from opening up in the city centre.

A handful of proposals to curb mass tourism have materialised, including a locals first policy for its water buses. Government officials also announced last year that large cruise liners will be diverted away from the World Heritage City and dock at a terminal in the industrial port of Marghera on the mainland.

Last year city authorities launched its #EnjoyRespectVenezia campaign, which  among instructions such as to not set up camp or ride a bike through the city centre  said that tourists were forbidden from standing without motivation.

In 2016 tempers flared in Venice when protesters took to the water in boats to prevent cruise ships from passing through the lagoon.

Relations between residents and visitors reached a nadir.

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Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Fresh scones. After sitting down with two Irish B&B owners in as many weeks, Ive been reminded of what lies at the heart of Irish hospitality.

Within minutes of both, we landed on the same glowing image  a plate of homemade scones, served to guests with a cuppa and a chat.

Scones arent sexy. Marketers wont be fast-tracking the scene to millennials. But whats happening here goes way beyond a simple bit of baking  its about an authentic, uncontrived human connection, and in our frenzied lives, thats a sought-after prize.

Ah sure, its a very easy thing, said Eileen Joyce of Springview House in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny (see our Fab 50 here). You wont find Springview on Airbnb or Twitter, but 90pc of her guests come from overseas.

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As we sat surrounded by a farmyard and family photos, it struck me that this is exactly what her visitors want. A real Irish house, a warm host and a slap-up breakfast.

There are over 1,000 B&Bs in Ireland, according to Failte Ireland. They account for just 5pc of Irish bed spaces, and many worry about passing the baton to a younger generation, but they havent fallen through the cracks.

Visits were up 18pc last year, according to B&B Ireland, and the other host I met  Ann Campbell from Seashore B&B near Ballysadare, Co Sligo  regularly welcomes guests from the US, Germany and Switzerland.

She serves lovely scones and breakfasts too, and has little trouble filling rooms. Its the simple things, she said. The Irishness is where its all coming from.

So many of our home holiday choices are influenced by PR and marketing. From the Wild Atlantic Way to hotel chains and honeypots like Dublin and Kerry, big players have large budgets and loud voices.

But theres far more out there  one reason Thomas Breathneach drove from Carnsore Point to Ballycotton for this weeks travel pages, and Mark Keenan tried out a barge holiday. You think B&Bs are niche? Try barges.

Reminding ourselves of these hidden gems is timely. Overtourism is a global issue, with pinch destinations growing crowded and expensive in peak season.

Contrast that with somewhere like north Mayo, whose Ceide Fields have just won the Carlo Scarpa Prize, despite attracting just 30,000 visitors a year. You wont find tour buses on the new Lough Derg Blueway, at the Burren Slow Food Festival (May 1113) or the Cavan Walking Festival (May 411, pictured above), either.

Scour the map for places in between, and youll find all kinds of rewards... while spending less, particularly if you can travel midweek and during school term.

This Thursday, Failte Ireland unveils its next major tourism brand. Encompassing the Midlands, it will complement the Wild Atlantic Way, Dublin and Irelands Ancient East, with the aim of driving tourism development across a region of midwest Ireland, it says.

Ill be waiting for details. And hopefully a scone.

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John Downing Opinion Merkel dusts off caretaker hat as German parties weigh up coalition options

So, will Angela Merkel, wearing a caretaker hat, be delivering yet another address to the German nation on New Years Eve? The question was evoked by the person who may be about to succeed her as head of the government in Berlin, Olaf Scholz, whose party just shaded a very tight election on Sunday.
Film-maker James Toback potentially broke laws in four sexual abuse investigations but will not face charges because the allegations fall outside Californias statute of limitations, a prosecutor has ruled.

Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office released documents on Monday that detailed investigations against Toback, who has reportedly been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 400 women.

Hollywood stars Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore are among those to make public allegations against Toback, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing 1991s Bugsy and has made denials.

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A deputy district attorney reviewed five claims made by unidentified women against Toback, spanning between 1978 and 2008.

They include claims he exposed himself to a woman during a drive after she declined his request for sex when he pushed her against a wall in the earliest case.

One claims she accompanied him to what was believed to be a private movie screening in 2008 where she complied out of fear at a request to masturbate.

@GlennWhipp 1 - #JamesToback approached me in the 80's on Columbus Ave with the same language - wanted me to audition, come to his apt.  Julianne Moore (@_juliannemoore) October 24, 2017

The suspect knelt down in front of her, placed his hand on the armrests and rubbed his penis on her bare leg until he ejaculated, the document adds.

A separate accuser made a similar claim that he masturbated while clothed, this time it was said to have occurred in the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1993.

Video of the Day

The prosecutor said in all the cases the statute of limitations had ended and in four of them he potentially violated laws.

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The remaining accuser spoke to law enforcement officers but did not attend an interview. The prosecutor said the case would be reviewed if she comes forward again.

The cases were investigated by police in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, the district attorneys office spokesman said.

Allegations against Toback emerged in the Me Too movement ignited by the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Weinstein apologised for his past behaviour but denied all allegations of non-consensual sex after around 100 women accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

The Los Angeles Times first detailed accusations of sexual harassment against Toback from 38 women. But a further 400 came forward with fresh claims in the days that followed, the paper reported.

The Press Association has been unable to contact Toback, 73, but he denied claims to Rolling Stone magazine and The Los Angeles Times.
One of the schoolchildren who survived the fatal bus plunge. Photo: AP

At least 24 children and three adults were killed when a school bus plunged off a mountain road in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh yesterday, police have said.

Santosh Patial, a senior police officer in Himachal Pradesh, said they had recovered 27 bodies from the accident site.

The adult dead included the driver.

The tragedy occurred when the bus swerved off the road and fell into a gorge.

The bus was transporting children, all below the age of 13, who were studying at a private school in Nurpur town, 300km from Shimla, the state capital.

"We have identified all the children and parents have been informed about the disaster," said Ram Nath Singh, a police officer at the accident site. He said three children with head injuries were taken to a government hospital.

Deadliest

India has the world's deadliest roads, with almost 150,000 people killed in accidents in 2015, the latest government data shows.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his deep anguish over the tragedy.

"My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident," he said in a tweet.
A conflict between China and Taiwan is becoming "more probable" after Donald Trump agreed to help Taipei build its own submarines, Chinese media said.

The US gave the go-ahead for defence contractors to help Taiwan build a fleet after repeated appeals from Taiwan for help to bolster its defences against an increasingly assertive China.

The decision has prompted Chinese officials to warn the US against playing the 'Taiwan card' amid an escalating trade war between the two countries.

Taiwan first sought help from the US to build submarines in 1969, but Washington and European nations were reluctant to assist building a 12-boat fleet because of Chinese objections.

George W Bush's administration said it would help Taiwan acquire diesel electric submarines but, after little progress, Taipei launched a plan to manufacture its own submarines last year.

The office of Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the US for its recent decision, while the defence ministry described it as a "breakthrough".

However, media and officials in China - which considers Taiwan a renegade province which will be reunited with the mainland - expressed anger at US interference in Taiwan. The nationalist 'Global Times' newspaper said: "The mainland needs to continue to prepare for a possible military clash across the Strait. A military showdown with Taiwan is becoming more probable and may take place sooner rather than later."

According to Xiamen TV, Liu Jieyi, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said: "Some Americans indeed intend to play the Taiwan card. This will not only harm the entire Chinese people, but harm rights and interests of Taiwan compatriots."

Taiwan's former defence minister Andrew Yang said the ruling was "a very important first step" in a process that could take at least 10 years. He said there was little surprise in Taipei over China's reaction.

"Beijing is always protesting US support for Taiwan in terms of providing defensive articles, particularly with regard to submarines. Submarines are more sensitive," he said.

Michael Tsai, another former defence minister, said: "China is expanding its very aggressive military activity around the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. Taiwan needs to strengthen its self-defence capability, including submarines, to deter China."

The decision has not been universally welcomed in Taiwan, where there are concerns it could provoke Beijing amid its worsening trade spat with the US. "This is the right decision at the wrong time," said Dr Ching Chang, a former naval officer and now research fellow at the Society for Strategic Studies.

"Given the present awful situation in cross-Strait relations and US-Sino interactions regarding commercial disputes, it is very hard for us to see it as a blessing and not a curse."

Jason Hsu, a leading member of the Kuomintang opposition party, said the decision was a further sign of the US "flexing its muscles to China" amid growing tensions over trade.

"This is a double-edged sword," he said. "We do need the technology. However, at this particular time I think it would be like swallowing an unknown medicine without knowing its consequences or side-effects."

( Daily Telegraph)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Burmas military has sentenced seven personnel to 10 years in prison and hard labour as alleged accomplices in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine state.

The countrys security forces carried out a brutal crackdown against the minority group in the state.

The military personnel also were permanently expelled from the army, according to a statement released by the army chief on an official Facebook page.

The army in January made a rare admission that its soldiers had killed 10 Rohingya villagers who were captured and accused of being terrorists during insurgent attacks last year in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine.

The military said its soldiers confessed to carrying out the killings.

The armys statement said an investigative group under the military had interrogated 21 military personnel, three police officers, 13 security forces, six civil servants and six Inn Din villagers.

It said the investigation proved that the soldiers violated the law by killing the villagers.

For the military personnel under the Military Act 71, four military personnel and three soldiers will be sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour and to be permanently expelled from the army, the statement said.

Burmas security forces launched brutal counterattacks against Rohingya Muslims after a Rohingya insurgent group attacked police outposts on August 25.

The military called it a clearance operation against the terrorists, but the US and the United Nations branded it an ethnic cleansing after the armys operation drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The military said in a statement on December 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies of Bengali terrorists had been found on the outskirts of Inn Din village in northern Rakhines Maungdaw region.

Local authorities and the military have carried out an investigation since.

The government usually refers to Rohingya Muslims as Bengalis, a term that denies they belong to Buddhist-majority Burma and implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September during the crackdown, international aid group Doctors Without Borders said in December after conducting a field survey.

Little or no information has been revealed because the Burma government has denied humanitarian workers and independent media access to northern Rakhine.
A single finger bone found in the Saudi Arabian desert has provided unprecedented insight into the early migration of our species out of Africa.

At 90,000 years old, the bone is the oldest confirmed Homo sapiens fossil found outside Africa and the Levant. It contradicts received wisdom concerning the history of humanity, suggesting instead that people were spreading far and wide 30,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The discovery is "a dream come true" for Professor Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, who led the project that found the bone.

Found at a site known as Al Wusta in the middle of the hyper-arid Nefud desert, the bone is the culmination of a decade's work by Prof Petraglia and his colleagues. During this period they scoured the region for signs of early humans, seeing it as a natural "stepping stone" for humans leaving Africa.

"We found many archaeological sites; many animal fossils, but one thing was always missing - ancient human fossils," said Dr Huw Groucutt, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford who directed the field work that led to the discovery.

That all changed with the discovery of the Al Wusta finger bone. Following the fossil's discovery in 2016, the scientists spent two years subjecting it to rigorous tests determining its age and confirming that it did, indeed, belong to a member of the Homo sapiens species.

The gender and age of the bone's owner are unknown, but based on their analysis of the site the archaeologists think they belonged to a flourishing community in what would have once been lush grassland. Hundreds of animal fossils were found at the site, including those belonging to hippopotamus, as well as plenty of stone tools made by humans.

These findings were outlined in a study published in the journal 'Nature Ecology and Evolution'. Though measuring no more than 3cm, the finger bone has big implications for our understanding of early human history.

"Traditionally the movement of modern humans - our species, Homo sapiens - out of Africa has been conceived of as a single rapid movement 60,000 years ago," said Prof Petraglia, noting that this view was supported by genetic evidence. "These groups - so the theories have gone - would have been moving on the coastlines out of Africa and subsisting on marine resources, and would have been using very advanced technologies."

In recent years, however, this outlook has been challenged by findings in Israel's caves that suggest humanity began to take its first tentative steps out of Africa far earlier. Prior to the Al Wusta discovery, however, early dispersals into the Levant were thought to have been unsuccessful, and confined to the forested Mediterranean regions. Now, archaeologists have evidence of humans successfully striking out into the unknown, early in our species' history.

"This discovery for the first time conclusively shows that early members of our species colonised an expansive region of south-west Asia and were not just restricted to the Levant," said Dr Groucutt.
The grandfather of murdered Ellie Butler said he is disappointed that social services and other agencies involved in the six-year-old's care have not faced criticism after an inquest into her death.

Retired high court judge Dame Linda Dobbs concluded, after a two-week inquest which comes five years after the girl was killed by her father, that the organisations could not be said to have "possibly or probably" contributed to her death.

Ellie was unlawfully killed, having suffered fatal head injuries inflicted by her father, the inquest at South London Corner's formally ruled on Tuesday.

The child was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her.

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She was returned to the care of Butler, and her mother, in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court.

Ellie was battered to death at the family home by Butler in Sutton, south London in October the following year.

Butler was convicted of her murder in June 2016 after a trial at the Old Bailey and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.

Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month term after being found guilty of child cruelty after the Old Bailey trial.

She had admitted perverting the course of justice.

Ellie's grandfather Neal Gray, speaking after attending court for the ruling in Croydon, became emotional as he described how any input to authorities from him or his late wife Linda during Ellie's short life was "ignored".

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He said: "I am grateful that Dame Linda Dobbs has scrutinised this case, but disappointed that the agencies that, in my view, failed my dear granddaughter Ellie have not had to account for the role they played.

He added: "Ellie was let down by fundamental failings in the system. It is essential that lessons are learned so that no other child suffers like she did."

He welcomed the news that a Prevent Future Deaths (PFD) report would be made on the case, saying he hoped it will "make concrete conclusions and provide clear directions about how childcare agencies must work together, even when faced with hostile and evasive parents."

Mr Gray said he hoped those in Parliament and in the family courts would "sit up and take notice" of the PFD conclusion, as he described what happened to his granddaughter as a "very bad miscarriage of justice".

He said Butler and Ellie's mother Jennie Gray had been too "readily believed" by authorities, adding that had they not been his granddaughter would still be alive today.

Coroner Dame Linda said any failings would be addressed in the PFD report but added "on the evidence I am unable to conclude that any acts or omissions by the relevant agencies possibly or probably contributed to the death of Ellie."

The decision that the inquest would cover only the period after the court decision to return Ellie to her parents was a missed opportunity, Mr Gray said.

He said this could have been a time to "reconsider and analyse the childcare law process and ensure that they are fit for purpose".

Following her ruling Dame Linda stressed that those worried about court judgments should feel able to raise those concerns.

She said: "Lawyers are only advisers, they are not decision-makers. That responsibility lies with the agencies themselves."

She added that anyone with concerns "as to the ramifications of any court order or any court judgment" should raise them.

Mr Gray said he will continue to fight for justice for his granddaughter, saying:

"I will consult with my legal team and this process is not yet over."

He said he could not comment on what form any further action may take.

Christine Davies, independent chairwoman of the Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), said she welcomed the ruling and "thoroughness" of the inquest.

She said: "Over the past two years, the main agencies in Sutton responsible for children's welfare have worked hard to learn the lessons from Ellie's death and put in place measures to ensure, as far as possible, such a tragedy never occurs again."

A spokeswoman for Services for Children said: "The death of Ellie Butler is truly tragic. We remain deeply saddened and devastated by her ordeal, and our thoughts and sympathies are with her grandfather.

"The inquest looked at the relationships between authorities and agencies and we hope this will help to ensure that the most efficient system possible is in place to protect children in future.

"We will continue to be dedicated to supporting parents, families and professionals in caring for children."

An NSPCC spokeswoman said: "The circumstances surrounding Ellie Butler's death are truly harrowing. Her young life was brutally cut short by her own father, a man who should have loved and protected her from harm but who was ultimately responsible for her murder.

"The levels of violence and abuse in this case may be exceptional but they are by no means unique. It is therefore vital that all agencies involved in Ellie's case and in child protection across the UK work to ensure the history of this appalling case is not repeated elsewhere."
A supporter of the Hungarian Socialist Party-Dialogue for Hungary reacts while watching election results at party headquarters in Budapest on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images

Hungary's ruling Fidesz party will look to capitalise on a crushing election victory last weekend by enacting new laws to curb the rights of civic groups that support refugees, senior party figures said yesterday.

The promise to move swiftly against international NGOs highlighted the growing EU divisions over Viktor Orban, the prime minister, who has repeatedly attacked Brussels for its handling of the 2015 refugee crisis and the imposition of mandatory migrant quotas.

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As Mr Orban promised to push ahead with reforms, his campaign was criticised as "xenophobic" by official international election monitors yesterday after Mr Orban demonised refugees as "Muslim invaders" and warned of a Jewish conspiracy to dilute Hungary's Christian identity.

The final vote count confirmed Mr Orban had won a 144-seat 'supermajority' in Hungary's 199-seat assembly, opening the door to the so-called Stop Soros laws aimed at curbing groups funded by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist.

"Voters had a wide range of political options, but intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing constricted the space for genuine political debate," said the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Confirmation of 54-year-old Mr Orban's third term in office drew sharply divided responses across Europe where the Hungarian prime minister is seen in some quarters as a serious threat to liberal democracy.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament, called Mr Orban's campaign "vile", attacking Manfred Weber, the head of the conservative EPP grouping, for offering congratulations to Mr Orban.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's foreign minister, warned that unless big EU countries like France and Germany did more to confront Mr Orban, the bloc faced trouble in the future.

"Today it is Hungary and Poland, tomorrow others in eastern and central Europe, even a big founding country of the EU, could develop a taste for undermining values and scaremongering," he said.

But despite widespread misgivings about Mr Orban's growing capture of the Hungarian state through media ownership and other changes to the law, the Hungarian leader's victory was acknowledged by the major western EU powers.

Boris Johnson, the UK foreign secretary, sent "congratulations" adding that the UK looked forward to "working with our Hungarian friends".

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said her nation would be a "reliable partner" to Hungary, despite differences on migration, a spokesman said.

France said it would continue to pursue "political dialogue in the service of the European project and its values".

The European Commission was more guarded. Jean-Claude Juncker, its president, was scheduled to call Mr Orban while noting that the EU was a "union of democracies" whose values needed to be defended by all member states "without exception".

Populist leaders across Europe hailed Mr Orban's victory, including France's Marine Le Pen, Italy's Matteo Salvini, the Netherlands' Geert Wilders and Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, who said the Hungarian leader was the "EU's biggest nightmare".

Regional analysts said that EU leaders had to work with Mr Orban, even though his increasingly autocratic approach was undermining attempts to reunite the EU club after Brexit.

( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Members of the ver.di union attend a rally as part of a public sector pay strike in Berlin (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Public sector workers are staging a strike for better pay at German airports, local transportation companies and nursery schools.

The walkout has forced German airline Lufthansa to cancel some 800 flights and is expected to paralyse traffic in many of the countrys western cities.

Affected airports include Frankfurt, which is Germanys biggest, as well as Munich, Cologne-Bonn and Bremen.

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The ver.di union said Germanys healthy economy is filling public coffers with record tax income and public workers deserve a cut.

It wants a 6%, or at least 200 euros (174) per month, pay rise for some 2.3 million public sector employees.

Workers who stand to gain include airport ground crews, bus drivers, hospital staff, daycare employees and other municipal employees.

Further strikes are planned in the coming days.
Public workers on strike at the international airport in Frankfurt (Michael Probst/AP)

Strikes by German public sector workers and French airline staff have forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in Europe as unions demand better pay.

The planned walkouts in Germany also affected public transport, nursery schools and municipal administrations.

German carrier Lufthansa cancelled some 800 flights at Germanys biggest airport in Frankfurt, as well as in Munich, Cologne-Bonn and Bremen.

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The ver.di union said Germanys healthy economy is filling public coffers with record tax income and public workers deserve a cut.

It wants a 6% pay rise  at least 200 euros (174) per month  for some 2.3 million public sector employees, including airport ground crews, bus drivers and hospital staff.

In France, a quarter of Air France flights were cancelled on Tuesday as pilots, ground staff and others went on strike, also demanding a 6% pay rise after years of salary freezes.

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It was the sixth such Air France strike since February, and unions plan further walkouts in the coming weeks alongside French train worker strikes over President Emmanuel Macrons economic reforms.
A campaign of mass protests is under way in Gaza (Khalil Hamra/AP)

Soldiers heard in video footage cheering as a Palestinian is shot during Gaza border clashes will be disciplined, Israels military has said.

An initial probe shows the video was taken in December during violent riots, it said.

The footage emerged on Monday appearing to show a soldier shooting a Palestinian near the Gaza fence, while other soldiers are heard cheering when he falls.

The military said the man was a main instigator in the clashes and was shot in the leg and wounded.

It said the troops behaviour does not reflect the armys values and they will be dealt with accordingly.

Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, is currently leading a campaign of mass protests at the border and 26 Palestinians have been killed since it began two weeks ago.
Russia blamed Israel for a missile attack on a Syrian air base yesterday morning, which came after President Bashar al-Assad triggered international outrage by carrying out a suspected chemical attack in a besieged suburb of Damascus.

The US and France both denied attacking the T-4 airfield near Homs, which is close to the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria.

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Russia said Israel launched eight missiles, five of which were shot down, from outside of Syrian airspace.

At least 14 fighters, including Iranians, were killed in the early morning strike, according to the monitoring organisation the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria also accused Israel of carrying out the strike.

A military spokeswoman for Israel, which has struck Syrian military positions several times in recent years, declined to comment on the strike.

A Syrian military source was quoted in local media as saying air defences shot down eight missiles fired at the base, where defence analysts say there are large deployments of Russian forces, and where jets fly regular sorties to strike rebel-held areas.

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Price

It came after Donald Trump on Sunday warned Russia's Vladimir Putin that there would be a "big price to pay" for a suspected Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed 70 people, including children.

In his harshest criticism of the Russian leader since taking office, Mr Trump said Mr Putin was partly "responsible" for the attack on rebels in Douma, a town in Eastern Ghouta.

The US president also criticised Barack Obama's failure to police a "red line" over chemical weapons, while a senior White House official said no form of response was "off the table".

The comments raise the possibility of a US airstrike against the Syrian regime.

Mr Trump approved a strike a year ago after a similar chemical attack.

The UN security council is expected to meet today after the UK, France, America and six other countries called for an emergency session.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was also under pressure to join any US military intervention against the Assad regime, though MPs are not expected to be recalled to parliament.

In a phone call with Mr Trump on Sunday night, French President Mr Macron strongly condemned the "chemical attacks", and the pair vowed a "strong, joint response", the White House said.

Russia, Iran and Syria all denied chemical weapons had been used, with the Kremlin warning that any military response from the West would be "absolutely unacceptable".

A residential area of Douma, one of the last-remaining rebel-held areas in Syria, was struck by the suspected chemical weapons attack around 8.45pm on Saturday.

Footage from the ground showed the dead bodies of children and adults foaming at the mouth with open eyes. Many had been in a basement when the attack hit.

Mr Trump tweeted: "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria.

"Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world.

"President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay.

"Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"

He also criticised his predecessor's failure to launch air strikes after past chemical weapons use, tweeting: "If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!"

Rhetoric

US media reported that Mr Trump would meet military leaders yesterday while Republican congressmen demanded that he follow through his tough rhetoric with action.

The attack came almost exactly a year after deadly sarin gas was used on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which prompted Mr Trump to approve dropping US Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian airbase.

The Union of Medical Relief Organisations, a US-based charity that works with Syrian hospitals, said 70 had been confirmed dead but the toll was expected to rise.

If it reaches above 80, it would be the deadliest chemical attack since the 2013 sarin strike on Eastern Ghouta which left around 1,400 dead.
Donald Trump has said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be "met forcefully" hours after Russia warned US military action could cause "grave repercussions".

The US president met with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night to discuss the response to the "horrible attack" on Douma, saying a decision would be made "tonight or very shortly thereafter".

Mr Trump did not give a time frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because "we are able to stop it".

"We are the greatest fighting force anywhere in the world," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We are making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met forcefully, and when I'm not saying because I don't like to talk about timing."

The president's comments came after Moscow's ambassador to the UN warned of the potential consequences to Western intervention in Syria.

Vassily Nebenzia said US attacks on Syria "could lead to grave repercussions" during heated exchanges at the UN Security Council.

US ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia of having "the blood of Syrian children" on its hands after Mr Trump said that "nothing's off the table" in dealing with the alleged outrage.

Mr Nebenzia dismissed claims the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons as "fake news" as he called for inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fly to Syria on Tuesday to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Ms Haley urged the UN to take action, but stressed whether it acts or not "either way, the United States will respond".

She added: "Meetings are ongoing. Important decisions are being weighed, even as we speak."

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK was considering what action was necessary in response to the "barbaric" attack which has left at least 40 people, including children, dead.

Asked if the UK would join any US-led military action in Syria, Mrs May said during a visit to Sweden: "What we are currently doing is working urgently with our allies to assess what has happened here.

"We ... are working urgently with our allies to asses what has happened. But, we are also working with our allies on any action that is necessary."

Mrs May sidestepped a question on whether Parliament would be recalled from recess to debate any military intervention.

Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague said he had "little doubt" that if he was still in office he would recommend military action in Syria.

Lord Hague, who was foreign secretary when then prime minister David Cameron lost a Commons vote he wanted to back action in Syria, said the aftermath of the defeat left the UK "enfeebled spectators of one of the most destructive conflagrations of our time".

The newspaper quoted an unnamed Government minister urging the PM to take direct action rather than risk a new Commons vote, saying: "Why would we want to open that Pandora's box again? There's no need to go to there, the Prime Minister should take direct action then go to Parliament afterwards."

Mr Trump said the US is still investigating the possible involvement of the Iranian and Russian governments in the apparent strike on Douma.

"If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," he said.

He added of Russian president Vladimir Putin, "everybody's going to pay a price - he will, everybody will".

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in February that Britain should consider joining military action against Assad's regime if there is fresh "incontrovertible" evidence he has used chemical weapons against his own people.

Mr Johnson discussed the situation with acting US secretary of state John Sullivan twice on Monday.

The US State Department said Mr Johnson and his Washington counterpart had discussed "potential further steps the US and UK governments might take in coordination with other partners".

The attack in Douma occurred late on Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.

Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.

Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths.

Reports suggested more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centres with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, and burning sensations in the eyes.

The attack comes almost exactly a year after a chemical atrocity in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

That attack prompted the US to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian military airport on Monday that reportedly killed at least 14 people.
On April 7 last year, the US armed forces fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase to punish Bashar al-Assad for his use of chemical weapons against his own citizens.

The Syrian president reportedly celebrated the anniversary of the strike on Saturday by ordering another attack with chemical weapons that opposition activists said killed dozens of people in Douma. This appears to be at least the eighth such attack by Assad this year - and the most brazen.

Having seen that the United States would not react to his repeated violations of international laws, Assad has intensified his use of weapons of mass destruction.

The latest atrocity reveals as hollow much of the praise for President Donald Trump's 2017 strike. That applause came not only from his sycophants ("We're proud of you," radio host Mark Levin told the president) but also from critics bending over backward to appear fair. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, for example, said in a joint statement: "Unlike the previous administration, President Trump confronted a pivotal moment in Syria and took action. For that, he deserves the support of the American people."

I, too, supported the strike, but I doubted it would amount to much. As I wrote at the time: "If Trump is interested in truly 'decisive' action in Syria, he will need to go a whole lot further. What is required is a comprehensive diplomatic-military plan to end a six-year civil war that has inflicted so much human suffering and empowered so many extremist groups."

Needless to say, no such plan was forthcoming from the Trump administration. The administration is, in fact, a black hole for all plans. In lieu of strategy, it is governed by presidential spasms and screeds.

Since taking a victory lap for his cruise-missile strike, Trump has left Assad, along with his Russian and Iranian backers, undisturbed to continue their meticulous work of mass murder. Trump even discontinued support for rebel groups fighting Assad and instead focused narrowly on the goal of eradicating Isil.

Now, with the finish line in sight, Trump appears to have set a deadline of October for the Defence Department to pull troops out - even though the Pentagon, State Department, CIA, Israel and the Arab states are all telling him this would be a monumental mistake. A premature departure will risk the success of the anti-Isil campaign and hand eastern Syria to Assad.

Trump's is the second presidency in a row that has made a hash of policy toward Syria. President Barack Obama committed rhetorically to getting rid of Assad but refused to do anything serious to achieve that result.

In 2013, Obama set a "red line" over the use of chemical weapons - and then refused to enforce it.

Instead, he reached a Moscow-brokered deal under which Assad claimed to have rid himself of all his chemical weapons. Only he hadn't.

Trump was a vitriolic critic of Obama's policies - and then proceeded to imitate them. Back in 2013, Trump tweeted: "Again, to our very foolish leader, do not attack Syria - if you do many very bad things will happen & from that fight the US gets nothing!"

Four years later, Trump attacked Syria, afterwards reverting to his original isolationist position.

Trump also repeatedly warned against revealing US military plans. Again in 2013, he tweeted: "The great Generals MacArthur and Patton, real leaders and fighters, are spinning in their graves as we give Syria info & time to prepare." Now he is telegraphing to the US's enemies that it is preparing to leave Syria - an assurance that no doubt has emboldened Assad to step up his use of chemical weapons.

On Sunday, Trump was blasting Obama for failing to enforce "his stated red line in the sand" - ie, doing what Trump advised him to do in 2013 - and fulminating against "Animal Assad". Perhaps he will once again lob a few cruise missiles. Military retaliation would be well-warranted, because it is important to maintain an international norm against weapons of mass destruction. But it won't amount to a serious Syria policy. As I've been arguing in recent weeks, the best policy for the US, now most of the moderate opposition has been defeated, is to support the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab militia that holds roughly one-third of Syria's territory. But that would require the kind of sustained commitment in the Middle East Trump is congenitally allergic to.

On March 29, the president said: "We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now." That's precisely what the "other people" are doing.

The result: another grotesque chemical-weapons attack that reveals the barbarism of the Russian, Iranian and Syrian regimes - and the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Trump regime. ( Washington Post)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has briefed top ruling party officials on his vision for the future direction of dialogue with the US and his upcoming summit with South Koreas president, the Norths official media reported.

Kim gave a profound analysis and appraisal of the prospects for North Korea-US dialogue at a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling partys Central Committee, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The report did not specifically mention plans for Kim to hold a summit with President Donald Trump, expected in May or June, but it suggested Pyongyang is actively preparing for the meeting and is ready to let North Koreans know big events may be ahead.

The Norths official media has thus far made virtually no mention of the diplomatic gestures Kim has made towards Seoul and Washington since January, though it did report Kims visit to Beijing last month to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

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That was the first time Kim has left the North since assuming power in 2011 and was also his first meeting with another head of state.

North Koreas parliament, the Supreme Peoples Assembly, is scheduled to convene on Wednesday. The assembly generally convenes once a year to approve the national budget and other policy and personnel issues that have already been decided on by Kim and the party leadership.

According to the KCNA report, the party leaders have approved a budget for this year that will be presented to the parliament.

It said Kim outlined in detail his analysis on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and mentioned the North-South summit, which will be held on April 27.

He then discussed the prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue and set forth the strategic and tactical issues to be maintained by the party.

Though the report did not explicitly mention plans for the summit with Mr Trump, it was the most concrete suggestion to date that Pyongyang is preparing for what would be the first ever summit between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president.

Mr Trump said on Monday their meeting might be in late May or in June. The location has yet to be announced.

The main issue at the summit will be North Koreas nuclear programme.

Speaking at the White House on Monday, Mr Trump expressed hope that a deal to get Pyongyang to denuclearise might be made.

Administration officials say the North has communicated that Kim is ready to discuss his nuclear weapons programme.
A medical worker gives toddlers oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack in Douma (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets/AP)

Russia is willing to help arrange a visit this week for experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria, a defence official has said.

Syrian opposition activists say 40 people died in Saturday nights chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion near Damascus.

The opposition blamed president Bashar Assads forces for the attack, accusations the government strongly denies.

.@POTUS Trump condemns the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. #Syria pic.twitter.com/qiEahlL3Ah  Department of State (@StateDept) April 9, 2018

Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defence committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia is anxious for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to finally start carrying out the functions it was created for.

Russias offer comes as US president Donald Trump is threatening an imminent military strike against Syria.

Syrian war monitors say government forces and their allies are on alert and taking precautionary measures at military bases and posts across the country amid fears of a US attack.

Mr Trump vowed to respond forcefully to the apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians and warned that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility will pay a price.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions.

The Sound and Picture Organisation, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near Iraqs border.
Smoke rising after Syrian government air strikes hit in the town of Douma (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

Syria said it has invited the international chemical weapons watchdog to send a fact-finding mission into the country to investigate a suspected poison gas attack near Damascus over the weekend.

The Foreign Ministry said Syria will help the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the alleged attack, which opposition activists say killed 40 people over the weekend.

The Syrian government denied it carried out a poison gas attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta suburbs.

Washington has threatened to take military action against Syria to punish it for the alleged attack.

Syria called on the OPCW to work with full transparency and rely on credible and tangible evidence.

Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump will miss an upcoming summit in South America and will remain in the US to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.

.@POTUS Trump condemns the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. #Syria pic.twitter.com/qiEahlL3Ah  Department of State (@StateDept) April 9, 2018

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump will not attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as planned. Vice president Mike Pence will travel in his place. The summit was scheduled to begin on April 13.

Mr Trump said on Monday he would forcefully respond to the alleged chemical weapons attack.
A medical worker gives a toddler oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

Syrian government forces and their allies are on alert and taking precautionary measures at military bases and posts in government-held areas across the country amid fears of a US strike in the aftermath of an apparent chemical weapons attack, war monitors said.

The measures came as a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus warned that Israels air strike on a Syrian air base on Monday that killed several Iranians will not remain unanswered.

Irans semi-official Tasnim news agency put the number of Iranians killed in the attack at seven.

It said the victims have been transferred to the Iranian capital Tehran and that funerals will be held in the victims cities of origin across the country.

Russia and the Syrian military blamed Mondays pre-dawn strike, which reportedly killed 14 people, on Israel.

There has been no comment from Israel on the strike on the T4 air base in Syrias central Homs province.

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The suspected poison gas attack in the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma, just east of Damascus, and Mondays air strike by US ally Israel have escalated tensions in the already volatile Middle East and raised the threat of possibly imminent American retaliation.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Irans supreme leader, issued his stark warning upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday. He was quoted by the countrys state-run news agency IRNA.

Iran is one of President Bashar Assads strongest backers and has sent thousands of Iran-backed gunmen to back his forces.

President Donald Trump has been threatening a military strike against Syria, vowing to respond forcefully to Saturdays apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Douma, warning that Russia  or any other nation found to share responsibility  will pay a price.

Syrian opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday nights chemical attack in Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion just outside of Damascus.

The opposition blamed Assads forces for the attack, accusations the government and its Russian backers strongly deny.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was outraged by Syrias apparent chemical weapons use against civilians.

If confirmed, the use of such weapons would be a violation of international law, Mr Guterres said in a statement.

Mr Guterres also said he reaffirms his support of an investigation into the alleged attack by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

I am outraged by the recent reports of use of chemical weapons in Syria. They require a thorough investigation by the @OPCW, without any restrictions or impediments. I encourage the Security Council to redouble its efforts to agree upon a dedicated mechanism for accountability.  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 10, 2018

A senior Russian politician said that Moscow is willing to help arrange a visit for experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to the site of the suspected poison gas attack.

Asked in Berlin whether she supports the idea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded unenthusiastically, saying that the evidence that chemical weapons were used there is very, very clear.

Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom dismissed the idea of military retaliation on Tuesday, saying its the role of the Security Council first of all to advocate a non-violent resolution to this, to avoid escalation.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions.

The observatorys chief Rami Abdurrahman said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organisation, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanons Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near Iraqs border.

A Lebanese politician with close links to the Syrian government confirmed that precautionary measures were being taken throughout Syria.

The politician said the atmosphere and American statements hint of a possible strike but there are no indications on the ground so far.

The politician said the Syrian government was expecting a limited strike, similar to the one on Shayrat air base last year, referring to last years US attack in the central province of Homs following a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that Washington blamed on the government.
Kolkata, Apr 10 (IBNS): Coca-Cola India, one of the countrys leading beverage companies, on Tuesday announced the launch of Thums Up Charged No Sugar, the companys first home-grown beverage to be offered in a no sugar variant with the same strong taste and extra thunder.

The introduction of the new variant is a step towards Coca-Cola Indias commitment to promote moderation and offer people the choice of regular, low-sugar and no-sugar options to choose from. Consumers can now enjoy their favourite Thums Up taste with the same taste while staying conscious of their sugar intake.

Commenting on the launch, Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice President, Public Affairs & Communication at Coca Cola India & South West Asia, said, Coca-Cola India is accelerating its strategic evolution to become a total beverage company by offering innovative and localized beverage choices to consumers. The launch of Thums Up Charged No Sugar not only marks the expansion of our product portfolio but also demonstrates our efforts to innovate products locally that meet changing consumer tastes and preferences. This is a significant milestone for us in our sugar reduction strategy and I am delighted to announce that leading this journey is our very own home grown brand Thums Up.

Vijay Parasuraman, Vice President-Marketing at Coca-Cola India & South West Asia said, Last year, we introduced Thums Up Charged to celebrate the forty thunderous years of the iconic brand Thums Up and were elated to see the love amongst our consumers. We are now eager to take the iconicity of this brand to the next level with Thums Up Charged No Sugar and recruit more consumers in our journey to make Thums Up the first home-grown billion-dollar beverage brand. The no-sugar, no-calorie variant is aimed at consumers who want to balance their sugar intake and enjoy their favorite drink as well. Additionally, we are supporting the brand by going beyond the traditional marketing practices and directly engaging with the consumers through interactive platforms and innovative formats.

To connect with its core drinkers, Coca-Cola India has unveiled a creative and innovative marketing campaign in association with Marvel. The cans and PET bottles of Thums Up Charged No Sugar feature illustrations of four Marvel Avengers Super Heroes namely Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and Black Widow. These superheroes share the attributes with the brand which is constantly challenging themselves to unleash their true potential. This association is expected to deepen the companys engagement with millennials and youth.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We are constantly seeking fun new ways to make our stories and characters a part of the everyday lives of our fans, said Bikram Duggal, Executive Director and Head  Studios & Chief Marketing Officer, Disney India. We couldnt be more excited about collaborating with Coca-Cola India in preparation for our historic release -- Avengers: Infinity War, he added.

The multi-faceted campaign includes TV Commercials featuring the Avengers, along with promotions on the brands social media pages across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thums Up, the flagship brand, encourages Never Settle For Less and epitomizes the Go get the superior attitude. This grit and will personifies the strength of the strong-tasting cola. The company is also undertaking on-ground activations including sampling across 14 cities, exclusive movie previews and in-store branded displays across modern trade.

Commenting on the TVC, Sainath Saraban, Creative Head, Leo Burnett, said, Just like the effervescence that rises to the top in a bottle of Thums Up Charged No Sugar, the heroes too rise when it is time to prove themselves. Thums Up Charged No Sugar is a metaphor for the display of inner strength that superheroes demonstrate. Through this TVC, we have tried to achieve this in a visually gripping manner. The film is an association between two huge and exciting brands - Marvel Avengers and Thums Up Charged No Sugar. There is a palpable excitement, energy, action and joy that both bring to their fans.
Image: FIle

New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Security is expected to be beefed up across different states in the country following the Union Home Ministry advisory in order to avoid any violence during the 'Bharat Bandh' called by certain groups against caste-based reservation in jobs and education on Tuesday.

According to reports, the call for the strike circulated on social media.

No group came forward to make the matter official.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday issued an advisory to all states to take necessary precautionary measures in view of calls on social media for Bharat Bandh on Tuesday by some groups.

The MHA has advised the states to beef up security and make appropriate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident, including issue of prohibitory orders, if necessary.

It has asked for intensification of patrolling in all sensitive locations so as to prevent any loss of life or damage to property.

The Advisory stressed that District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police be made personally responsible for ensuring that law and order situation remains firmly under control in the areas of their jurisdiction.

Last week, Bharat Bandh called by Dalit groups triggered widespread violence across several states in India.
Unnao, Apr 10 (IBNS): Brother of a BJP lawmaker, who has been accused by a 16-year-old girl of rape, was arrested by the police on Tuesday, reports said.

He is accused of thrashing the girl's father in Unnao town of Uttar Pradesh.

The arrested person has been identified as Atul.

The father of a woman, who had alleged raped by a BJP lawmaker and attempted suicide outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home on Sunday, died on Monday morning at the district hospital, media reports said.

The man was in judicial custody after a complaint was filed against his daughter's alleged rapists.

The woman had alleged that she was raped by Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the BJP legislator from Unnao, and his brother last year, but the police refused to take any action against them.

She also claimed that her family was being threatened after they tried to file an FIR.

It has been alleged that last week the woman's father was assaulted by Sengar and his brother. But instead of booking them, an FIR was filed against the victim and he was arrested by the Unnao police.

On Sunday, when the man complained of abdominal pain, he was admitted to the district hospital where he died on Monday, media reports said.

On Sunday, the woman, along with other members of her family attempted suicide in protest against the "inaction" of police.

According to CNN-News18, the woman first tried to pour oil and set herself ablaze outside Yogi's residence in Lucknow and then later at the Gautam Palli Police Station.

Meanwhile, Sengar called it a "pre-planned" incident. "There was an incident in their family and a case was registered. Police saved two innocent people, I am being made a scapegoat by them," he was quoted as saying in The Indian Express report.
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Curfew has been imposed in Bhind and Morena region of Madhya Pradesh and train services have been stalled in Bihar as the nation is witnessing a bandh against the caste-based reservation in jobs and education called by some groups on Tuesday, media reports said.

According to reports, the call for the strike circulated on social media.

No group came forward to make the matter official.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday issued an advisory to all states to take necessary precautionary measures in view of calls on social media for Bharat Bandh on Tuesday by some groups.

The MHA has advised the states to beef up security and make appropriate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident, including issue of prohibitory orders, if necessary.

It has asked for intensification of patrolling in all sensitive locations so as to prevent any loss of life or damage to property.

The Advisory stressed that District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police be made personally responsible for ensuring that law and order situation remains firmly under control in the areas of their jurisdiction.

Last week, Bharat Bandh called by Dalit groups triggered widespread violence across several states in India.
Kathua, Apr 10 (IBNS): A group of lawyers have stopped police from registering cases against those who are accused of raping and murdering an eight-year old girl in Kathua town of Jammu and Kashmir three months ago, media reports said.

The minor was held captive by the accused at a temple and later she was raped, mutilated and murdered in Rassana village of Kathua, crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir police stated.

Lawyer Himanshu Sharma said some of the advocates had been protesting over the demands of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the case, The Times Of India reported.

Reacting to the incident, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, tweeted, "Shame on them & their political masters. An 8 year old girl is raped & murdered and these so called lawyers do not want to see justice delivered."

Shame on them & their political masters. An 8 year old girl is raped & murdered and these so called lawyers do not want to see justice delivered. https://t.co/7624zoYnAR  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 9, 2018

Abdullah even attacked some of the media organisations over the incident. He said in a follow up tweet, "When lawyers try to prevent Crime Branch from filing the chargesheet before CJM #Kathua in the rape and murder of 8 yr old #Asifa . You can well imagine where we are. #JusticeforAsifa"
Hajipur, Bihar, Apr 10 (IBNS) : Union minister of state for HRD Upendra Kushwaha was on Tuesday reportedly manhandled by anti-reservation protesters in Bihar's Hajipur town as the state witnessed sporadic clashes, road blockade and disruption in train services, CNN-News 18 reported.

According to reports, the minister was on his way to Champaran, where the 100th anniversary of Champaran Satyagraha was to be honoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by ushering in 'Swachhagraha', when the incident took place.

However, no details about the incident have been reported.

Kushwaha, who hails from OBC community, is the president of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which is an ally of the BJP.

According to reports, pitched battles between anti-reservation protesters and reservation supporters took place in Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Lakhisarai and Arrah districts in which at least a dozen people were injured.

In Muzaffarpur, policemen, including ASP, DSP, were chased away by angry mobs in Gobarsahi area.

In Arrah, protesters managed to stop a train.

Internet services have been suspended in Nainital, Uttarakhand, many parts of western Uttar Pradesh, including Saharanpur and parts of Alwar.

As messages about Bharat Bandh began circulating on WhatsApp, the union home ministry asked states to be on alert. The call for shutdown, exactly a week after Dalit groups' country-wide strike and violence, appears to be a protest against caste-based reservation in jobs and education.

In the nation-wide shutdown called by Dalit groups on April 2, nearly a dozen people died in the violence across five states. Madhya Pradesh saw the most casualties, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
Kolkata, Apr 10 (IBNS): A decade-old bridge over river Kana Damodar fell down at Khanrapara village under Jagatballavpur Police Station limits in West Bengal's Howrah district on Tuesday early morning, reports said.

According to reports, the 100-foot-long and 15-foot-wide concrete bridge, which was a direct link between Khanrapara and Goalpota, abruptly collapsed at around 6:10 am.

A local police official told IBNS that no casualty was reported in the incident as the bridge was empty that time.

Locals alleged that the structure became ramshackle as no maintenance work was done at the bridge for a long time.

"Over 1000 people of nearby villages have been affected after the bridge collapse. We are demanding a new bridge at the same location," a local villager told IBNS.

However, a state administrative official told IBNS that local authorities are looking into the matter.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sit on a fast on Apr 12 to protest against the complete washout of the Parliament's budget session due to disruptions by opposition parties, media reports said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fast the entire day to protest against the oppositions' ruckus in the Parliament.

According to reports, BJP President Amit Shah will observe a hunger strike at Hubli in Karnataka.

Other party MPs will fast in their respective constituencies.
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that sanitation coverage has expanded from about 40 percent in 2014, to about 80 percent today.

He said toilet construction is ending social imbalances and is becoming a means of socio-economic empowerment and women empowerment.

He described the mass movement of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan as a phenomenon unparalleled anywhere in the world, in the 21st century.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the resolve for Swachhta would write a new chapter of a clean and prosperous India.

Modi said this in his address at the National Convention of Swachhagrahis at Motihari on Tuesday.

The event was organized, as part of the centenary celebrations of the Satyagraha led by Mahatma Gandhi, in Champaran.
Based on intelligence input, the troops of Kohima Battalion of Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR (North) conducted an operation based on specific information in general area of Phulbari Chowk, Kohima District along with a police representative and apprehended one NSCN (K) militant who was identified as Self Style Adjutant Job.

Security personnel recovered two NSCN/GPRN/K extortion slips for Rs 80,000 and Rs 20,070 cash.

Subsequently a follow up operation was launched to carry out search of the residence of Self Styled Adjutant Job in High School Junction wherein one receipt from Traders Union for Rs 35,000, one NSCN/GPRN/K extortion slip of Rs 7,000, one NSCN/GPRN/K blank extortion slip and one used NSCN/GPRN/K extortion slip pad were also recovered.

The apprehended militant alongwith recovered items was handed over to North Police Station, Kohima for further investigation.

On the other hand, Wokha Battalion of Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR (N) launched a search operation alongwith a police representative in Upper Mt Tiyi Colony, Wokha and recovered illegal arms and ammunitions.

The seized materials included four 12 bore Rifles, two Muzzle loaded Rifles, two Air guns, seven Rifles butt, three metal cup for modification of illegal weapon/bomb, four Air gun spring, nine hollow iron rod, six live rounds of 9 mm pistol, eight rounds of point 22 mm, eight point 22 empty cases and one hand made bomb.

The illegal material was recovered from the house of L D Yanthan Lano, a resident of Upper Mt Tiyi Colony in Wokha who was absconding from the house.

The seized illegal arms and ammunitions were handed over to Wokha police station and an FIR was also lodged for further investigations.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Unnao, Apr 10 (IBNS): Father of the 16-year-old Unnao rape victim died due to septicaemia, postmortem report revealed on Tuesday evening, media reports said.

According to the postmortem report, the father was not given proper treatment in the judicial custody.

The father of the girl, who had alleged raped by a BJP lawmaker and attempted suicide outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home on Sunday, died on Monday morning at the district hospital, media reports said.

The man was in judicial custody after a complaint was filed against his daughter's alleged rapists.

The girl had alleged that she was raped by Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the BJP legislator from Unnao, and his brother last year, but the police refused to take any action against them.

She also claimed that her family was being threatened after they tried to file an FIR.

Earlier on Tuesday, the brother of Sengar was arrested by the police.

The police has also set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the womans allegations of rape against the lawmaker.

It has been alleged that last week the woman's father was assaulted by Sengar and his brother. But instead of booking them, an FIR was filed against the victim and he was arrested by the Unnao police.

On Sunday, when the man complained of abdominal pain, he was admitted to the district hospital where he died on Monday, media reports said.

On Sunday, the woman, along with other members of her family attempted suicide in protest against the "inaction" of police.

According to CNN-News18, the woman first tried to pour oil and set herself ablaze outside Yogi's residence in Lucknow and then later at the Gautam Palli Police Station.

Meanwhile, Sengar called it a "pre-planned" incident. "There was an incident in their family and a case was registered. Police saved two innocent people, I am being made a scapegoat by them," he was quoted as saying in The Indian Express report.
Mumbai, Apr 10 (IBNS): Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has thanked everyone who lent their supports to him after he was convicted in a 20-year old Blackbuck case last Thursday.

In a tweet, Salman said: "Tears of gratitude . To all my loved ones who are with me and never lost hope . Thank you for being there with all the love and support . God Bless ."

Tears of gratitude . To all my loved ones who are with me and never lost hope . Thank you for being there with all the love and support . God Bless .  Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) April 9, 2018

Salman, who spent two nights inside the Jodhpur jail, is now out on bail.

He was granted bail by a Rajasthan court on Saturday.

The four other co-accused  actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam  have been acquitted.

The actors were accused of poaching a blackbuck, an endangered species protected under the Indian Wildlife Act, in Kankani village of Jodhpur during the shooting of film Hum Saath Saath Hain in September, 1998.

Khan was convicted under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

Post conviction, actors like Jaya Bachchan and Varun Dhawan shared solidarity with Salman.
New York, Apr 10 (IBNS): The United Nations on Monday launched an initiative to connect judges around the world so that they can learn from each other about ways to strengthen integrity in courts, such as by preventing corruption and undue political interference into judicial appointments and decisions.

This Network brings together lead institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law, and as such for attaining peace and justice, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said in a video message to a two-day event in Vienna organized by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to launch the Global Judicial Integrity Network.

More than 350 high-level members of the judiciary, who gathered for the event, discussed key topics, with a view to present recommendations on strengthening judicial integrity at the global level.

The Network will serve as a platform to assist judiciaries around the world to uphold judicial integrity, promote knowledge-building and peer learning, as well as provide access to a large database of thousands of resources, good practices and other judicial documents for immediate reference.

Justice Elisabeth Lovrek, Vice-President of Austria's Supreme Court, said: The Network will strengthen judicial cooperation between courts and tribunals from different legal and cultural traditions. In an increasingly globalized world, this is more important than ever.

In this first gathering, the Network discussed solutions for some of the key challenges confronting judiciaries today, ranging from undue political interference by the executive and legislature into judicial appointments and decisions, reducing budgets in the face of exploding case-loads and corruption in the justice sector, as well as diminishing public confidence.

Substantive sessions will cover an array of measures to help judiciaries tackle those challenges such as developing codes of conduct; establishing functioning disciplinary bodies and proceedings; balancing accountability and independence; and introducing financial disclosure rules for judges.

The Network will also discuss ways to deal with emerging issues, such as educating judges on the use of social media and the impact of digitalization on judicial integrity.

Judges need the opportunity to share experiences, exchange good practices and support each other. The Network will continue to serve as a resource for addressing new and emerging challenges, such as those posed by social media and other technological developments, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov in his message.

A plenary session on the Networks specific role in promoting judicial integrity was addressed by Diego Garcia-Sayan, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Christophe Regnard, President of the International Association of Judges; and Judge Rudolf Mellinghoff, President of the Federal Court of Finance of Germany and Member of the Judicial Integrity Group, which is the group of judges that initiated the dialogue on corruption in the justice system in 2000 and developed the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.



UNODC
OCHA Photo

New York, Apr 10 (IBNS): Regardless of their ethnicity, religion and citizenship status, we need to [] ensure that no vulnerable conflict-affected people are deprived of safe and sustained access to humanitarian protection and assistance, Ursula Mueller, the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on Sunday at the end of a six-day visit to Myanmar.

Protecting the most vulnerable people in Myanmar, she said, must be at the heart of the humanitarian response by the international community, national aid organizations and the Government.

At the outset of her mission, the senior UN relief official met with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, discussing the importance of ending conflict and to strengthen peace and reconciliation efforts in Myanmar.

Ms. Mueller also met with a number of senior Government officials for discussions of the humanitarian challenges in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states.

Humanitarian crisis on both sides of Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Ms. Mueller, also the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, visited Rakhine state  where widespread violence last year forced hundreds of thousands of minority Muslim Rohingyas to flee their homes for safety, with most finding refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Other senior UN officials including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have condemned what they describe as the systematic persecution and murders of Rohingyas by elements of the Myanmar military.

In Maungdaw township, located near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, Ms. Mueller met with local communities affected by the violence, visited a refugee return transit site that the Government of Myanmar is constructing some new housing projects and witnessed areas where villages had been burned down or bulldozed.

There is a humanitarian crisis on both sides of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border that is affecting the worlds largest group of stateless people, said Ms. Mueller, noting that while the crisis facing Rohungya refugees in Coxs Bazar, Banladesh, has captured the worlds attention, over 400,000 Rohingyas still living in Rakhine state continue to face hardship and marginalization due to movement restrictions.

These restrictions severely compromise their rights and obstruct their access to health, livelihoods, protection, education, and other essential services, she stressed.

Humanitarian workers have also been barred from access restrictions to violence-torn parts of Rakhine.

Furthermore, the situation in Myanmars Kachin state, in the countrys far north and Shan, in the east, has also deteriorated since the beginning of this year, with some 100,000 people displaced as a result of conflict between the military and armed groups.

The conflict in Kachin is one the worlds longest running, yet it is a forgotten humanitarian crisis, said Ms. Mueller, calling on all sides to ensure the protection of all civilians in line with international law.

Implement recommendations of Rakhine panel in the spirit they were written in

Ms. Mueller also underscored the need for the total and impartial implementation of recommendations made by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State in the spirit that they were written.

That panel, headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, outlined long-term solutions to help end the violence and marginalization for all communities in Rakhine. It also focused on issues of citizenship and freedom of movement.

The senior UN aid official also noted that the conditions for the dignified, voluntary, and sustainable return of refugees as well as internally displaced people can only be reached if the critical issues of freedom of movement, employment and access to services are addressed.

The lives of the poorest and most vulnerable communities of Rakhine state, whether they are ethnic Rakhine, Muslim, or from other minority groups, will be profoundly transformed if each recommendation is genuinely addressed and implemented, she said.
New York, Apr 10 (IBNS): A great migration of humanity into cities is under way, and with millions drawn to urban areas for the promise of a better life, the main United Nations forum on population opened its annual session on Monday examining ways to protect people on the move and help create cities that can embrace the massive number of new arrivals.

People are moving at high rates within national borders, and international migration is growing more complex, with more countries serving simultaneously as countries of origin, transit and destination, said Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the opening of the 51st Session of the Commission on Population and Development.

Created to advise the UN and its Member States on population issues and trends, the Commission is meeting this year under the theme sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration.

Over the next week, delegates will tackle a host of matters related to the dramatic population shifts under way driven by the movement of people from rural to urban areas, between cities of different sizes and from one country to another. By 2030, six of every 10 people will be an urban inhabitant. By 2050, it may be two out of three, according to the UN.

Mohammed said that some of the rapid population change is due to growing drivers of displacement, including conflict, poor economic prospects and, in some cases, climate-related hazards. But much of the mobility also stems from people seeking new opportunities  better jobs, education and training, expanded social and family connections, and more.

Questions of migration and urbanization cannot be distinguished from those of sustainable development because as young people seek a better life in cities, the potential loss to communities and countries of origin can be significant, she said.

Some cities have successfully managed migration, said Mohammed

For example, since 2013, Sao Paulo has been successful in this endeavor through an awareness-raising campaign focused on ending xenophobia and better policy coordination. These measures have helped the Brazilian city embrace migrants and their families and provide them with assistance.

In London, the Home Secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury have launched a new scheme to encourage community groups to sponsor a refugee family. An online service for refugees in the UK now makes it easier for any individual to support refugees, allowing local authorities to focus on the provision of public goods and services.

Data collection is crucial to improve collective understanding of the changing situation.

The Government of Zambia has partnered with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to generate district-level development indicators. Analysis of data collected have been used to inform the latest national development plan and mobilize investments in health and education for children and youth.

The Dominican Republic highlighted the contributions of Haitian migrants to gross domestic product (GDP), as well as the limited services they received.

Because gaps in understanding are easily filled by myths and misperceptions, better data can usefully inform global discussions of migration and related issues, Mohammed said.

It is for this reason that the Commission on Population and Development, with its focus on population data and its emphasis on evidence-based policy-making, plays such a vital role, she added.

Dominic Chavez/World Bank
Washington, Apr 10 (IBNS): US President Donald Trump has said his government is going to take a 'major decision' on the crisis in Syria after an alleged chemical attack in Douma region left 70 people killed.

"We are studying that situation extremely closely. We are meeting with our military and everybody else, and well be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours," Trump told reporters.

"We are very concerned when a thing like that can happen. This is about humanity. Were talking about humanity. And it cant be allowed to happen," he said.

He said: "So if its Russia, if its Syria, if its Iran, if its all of them together, well figure it out and well know the answers quite soon. So were looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously."

Russia has invited for a fair investigation into the alleged Syrian chemical attack incident.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS: " We are in total support of a fair and immediate investigation, when they ask for it. However, when the investigation is intended to come at a predetermined point - that is, it was done by Assad with Putins support - there are no grounds for a serious discussion."

US President Donald Trump earlier attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the suspected chemical attack.

Trump tweeted: "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price. To pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!."

The White House issued a statement where it said that Trump spoke to President Emmanuel Macron of France and both the leaders condemned the attack.

The statement said both the leaders agreed that the Assad regime must be held accountable.

"Both leaders strongly condemned the horrific chemical weapons attacks in Syria and agreed that the Assad regime must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses. They agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response," read the statement issued by the White House.

Moscow said that there will be dire consequences if the West uses this as an excuse to attack Syria.

A chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held stronghold near Syria's capital, Damascus, has killed at least 70 people and affected hundreds, rescue workers have told Al Jazeera.

Image: Donald Trump Facebook page
Kabul, Apr 10 (IBNS): At least 45 insurgents, including the Taliban shadow deputy governor for Uruzgan province, have been killed during various operations carried by Afghan security forces, reports said on Tuesday.

The operations were carried out on Monday, local Tolo News reported.

Confirming the news, Afghan Ministry Of Defense said that Talibans shadow deputy governor for Uruzgan, Abdullah, was gunned down during the encounter.

Mohammad Radmanish, the ministrys deputy spokesman, said that the militant was killed in Khas Uruzgan district of the province.

He added that at least 13 insurgents were killed in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar, while six each were gunned down in Khas Uruzgan of Uruzgan province, Nad Ali district of Helmand province and Zurmat district of Paktia province.

In Bala Block district of Farah province, four insurgents were killed, while a similar number of militants died in Kohistan district of Faryab province.

The army also killed three insurgents, who were planting mines in Gereshk district of Helmand province.

The remaining three militants were shot dead in Shahjoy district of Zabul province.

The deputy spokesperson added that at least 37 other insurgents were wounded during the operations, while 25 more were nabbed.

The Taliban has not yet commented on the report.
Islamabad, Apr 10 (IBNS): A Pakistani girl, who was burnt alive after being allegedly raped, died at a hospital in Pakistan's Lahore city on Monday, media reports said on Tuesday.

"Residents of the area and the victim's family members took to the streets to protest the gruesome murder. A complete strike was also observed in Chichawatni," reported Dawn News.

Demanding for justice, protesting residents were seen holding banners in their hands and raising slogans.

The eight-year-old victim had gone missing from her Chichawatni residence since Sunday.

She left her home to buy some sweets and did not return, reports said.

She was later found in an unconscious condition with burns all over her body.

She was initially taken to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital. However, the victim was later shifted to Jinnah Hospital in Lahore for treatment.

Dawn News quoted doctors reported that the girl had received 70 to 80 per cent burns and passed away during treatment on Monday.

Her post-mortem is scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

Sahiwal District Police Officer Mohammad Atif Ikram told Dawn News that police had filed a case and took a suspect into custody.

He told the Pakistan-based newspaper that a murder case has been filed whereas rape charges will be added after receiving the forensic report.

He said the culprits will be arrested soon.

Reminder of Zainab Tragedy

People in Pakistan were left horrified in January when six-year-old Zainab was abducted, raped and then murdered in Kasur area of the country.

Kasur witnessed protest after body of Zainab was found in a garbage heap.

Politicians from different political parties have condemned the incident.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC), which was hearing the rape and murder case of seven-year-old Zainab, gave death sentence to Imran Ali Naqshbandi in its verdict in February.


Kabul, Apr 10 (IBNS): At 15 Taliban terrorists were killed during an attack in the Chesht district of Afghanistan western Herat province, media reports said on Tuesday.

According to reports, two security personnel have been killed in the attack as well.

Jilani Farhad, the governors spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the militants attacked the Sar Chashma area of the district late Monday night.

He confirmed two security men were also killed and four others injured in the ensuing gunfight.

Capital city Kabul and rest of Afghanistan have witnessed several terrorist attacks in recent times.

More than 10,000 civilians have lost their lives or suffered injuries during 2017, according to the latest report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documenting the impact of the armed conflict on civilians in Afghanistan.

The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan  loss of life, destruction and immense suffering  is far too high said the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, during the launch of the latest annual report in Kabul.

The report detailed that in 2017, UNAMA and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 10,453 civilian casualties  3,438 killed and 7,015 injured.

The findings show that the majority of civilian casualties resulted from suicide attacks, improvised explosive device, ground engagements, targeted killings, explosive remnants of war and air strikes.
Maine is staying in the dark ages when it comes to Indian gaming.

But it's not for religious or cultural reasons, as the state is home to two non-Indian casinos. Thirty years after the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act , tribes are instead stuck with high-stakes bingo.

In hopes of addressing the situation, State Rep. Henry John Bear , who is a citizen of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians , introduced a bill that would ask the Maine Supreme Judicial to determine whether tribes can exercise their inherent authority and engage in gaming.

We need jobs. We want to pay our own way, Bear said during debate on his bill, known as House Order 58 , The Bangor Daily News reported. Thats the simple response to the question to us of why do you want to do it? Why do you want gaming?

But a majority of Bear's colleagues didn't want to find out the answer. They voted down his bill on Monday.

Similarly, a different tribal gaming bill is all but dead in the State Senate, the paper reported.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians , tribes possess the inherent authority to legalize and regulate gaming on their own lands. A year after the decision, Congress enacted IGRA to provide a national framework for dealing with casinos in Indian Country.

But most tribes in Maine aren't able to follow the law due to restrictions in their land claim settlements . Attempts to address the issue on the state level have failed repeatedly, even as voters approved the non-Indian facilities.

Read More on the Story: Maine House blocks another tribal casino bid (The Bangor Daily News April 9, 2018)

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Native people accounted for nearly 15 percent of fatal police shootings in Canada between 2000 and 2017, according to data compiled by CBC News.

Native people represented 4 percent of the entire population during that time. So they were over-represented in fatal encounters with law enforcement, the data shows.

"I think the statistics really confirm that there is a high level of police racism abuse and violence towards Indigenous peoples," Mi'kmaq lawyer, professor and activist Pam Palmater told CBC.

In some provinces, the rate was even higher. According to the data, 11 of the 19 people killed in police encounters in Manitoba were Native -- representing nearly 58 percent of the deaths in a place where Natives are about 6 percent of the population.

In neighboring Saskatchewan, 62.5 percent of police deaths were Native. Native people make up about 16 percent of the population in the province.

The data also shows that police deaths involving Native people were almost exclusive to provinces in western Canada, where Native populations are larger. For example, there were 0 recorded cases in Nova Scotia or in Newfoundland & Labrador during the period in question.

Overall, 69 of the 461 fatal police encounters involved Native people, according to the CBC data. The number of police deaths, per province or territory, follows: Alberta: 11 out of 71 deaths, or 15. percent of cases British Columbia: 14 out of 98 deaths, or 14.3 percent Manitoba: 11 out of 19 deaths, or 57.9 percent New Brunswick: 0 out of 4 deaths, or 0 percent Newfoundland & Labrador: 0 out of 3 deaths, or 0 percent Northwest Territories: 1 out of 1 deaths, or 100 percent Nova Scotia: 1 out of 3 deaths, or 33.3 percent Nunavut: 5 out of 5 deaths, or 100 percent [Nunavut is almost exclusively Native] Ontario: 7 out of 152 deaths, or 4.6 percent Prince Edward island: 0 deaths Quebec: 8 out of 87 deaths, or 9.1 percent Saskatchewan: 10 out of 16 deaths, or 62.5 percent Yukon Territory: 1 out of 2, or 50 percent

In the United States, Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police officers than any other racial or ethnic group, according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice . But there has been little official attention to the issue.

Read More on the Story: Deadly force -- Fatal encounters with police in Canada: 2000-2017 (CBC News April 6, 2018) Most people who died in police encounters in Manitoba were Indigenous, CBC investigation finds (CBC News April 6, 2018)

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Trump administration lifts environmental obstacles to building border wall in New Mexico

By Meagan BoudreauCronkite News

SANTA TERESA, New Mexico  The sign flashes red, day and night, in English and in Spanish: Be Prepared to Stop, a warning to the thousands of vehicles and people passing through the Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

Here in this stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expediting the construction of a border wall, acting on the campaign promises of President Donald Trump.

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has waived more than 20 environmental laws to allow for the building of the wall, calling it necessary for border security and the detection and prevention of illegal entry into the United States, according to the waiver. The laws set aside include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The waiver, issued January 22, covers a 20-mile stretch of border starting at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and moving westward. Existing vehicle barriers will be turned into a more formidable wall of tall steel bollards.

Cronkite News Video: Southern New Mexico border wall plan sparks controversy

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, with a population of about 2 million, sits just across the border. DHS has said the highly populated area is reason to expedite the border wall, in part, because the eastern portion of the project area includes developed areas where illegal aliens can quickly blend into the population and have ready access to roads, highways, and other infrastructure, according to the DHS waiver.

Groups across the country have publicly denounced the wall, which Trump envisions stretching 1,950 miles from Texas to California.

The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson filed suit March 22 challenging the waivers. Laiken Jordahl of the center said DHS does not have the authority to waive environmental laws.

We believe that the authority, the sole authority held by the Department of Homeland Security secretary, is actually unconstitutional, Jordahl said. The secretary in their sole discretion has the authority to waive any law, literally any law on the books in order to expedite the construction of the border wall.

The waiver allows construction to begin along the New Mexico border without considering its impact on air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity said.

Aubrey Dunn, the New Mexico State Land Comissioner, posts signs to prevent trespassing on state trust land. Dunn wants DHS to apply before building a new wall here. Photo courtesy of Kris McNeil / New Mexico State Land Commissioners Office

In its waiver, DHS notes the El Paso sector of the border, which includes Santa Teresa, is regularly confronting illegal immigration and drug trafficking. In 2016, Border Patrol agents reported apprehensions of 25,634 people in the El Paso sector; in contrast, agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector reported at least 186,830 apprehensions.

In order to justify the waiver of law, Jordahl said, they argued that this was a priority area of high cross-border activity. My experiences, actually spending time out there, were quite contrary to that idea. From my impression, there was very little traffic.

Ive spent a lot of time in the Arizona borderlands, and typically you see discarded water bottles, food wrappers, lay-up sites, generally areas of high border activity are riddled with clues to that activity. I didnt see anything like that in this area in New Mexico. It was very pristine in every way.

Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity also sued the Trump administration for using a similar waiver to replace border walls south of San Diego.

According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in February there was a 2.4 percent increase in individuals apprehended crossing the Southwestern border between established ports.

The Chihuahuan Desert stretches from west Texas to eastern Arizona. If built, the reinforced border wall would cut through a vast expanse of yucca, mesquite trees, mountain lions, bobcats, wolves, lizards, mule deer and many other animals.

Jordahl said the new border wall would essentially stop species in their tracks.

The main point is that if theyre waiving all of these laws, it means that theyre probably going to be breaking them, he said. Laws like the National Environmental Policy Act force the administration to consider the impacts of their activities. And every major project on public land has to go through this process.

New Mexicos State Land Commission oversees about 9 million acres of land, including some that federal officials want to use for a border wall. Revenue generated by state land goes to schools, hospitals, universities and other public institutions in New Mexico. Photo courtesy of Kris McNeil/ New Mexico State Land Commissioners Office

Aubrey Dunn, the New Mexico state land commissioner, also has spoken out against the border wall, but for another reason: The federal government has not compensated New Mexico for the use of state trust land. The 1-mile stretch of state trust land is part of the site proposed for the border wall.

The land office is responsible for 9 million acres of surface and 13 million acres of subsurface land, according to its website. Revenue generated by this land goes to schools, hospitals, universities and other public institutions in New Mexico. The states land trust was designated by Congress under the Ferguson Act of 1898.

In a letter to the DHS secretary, Dunn said the federal government has installed a border wall, infrastructure, and roads on state trust lands without state authorization and without compensation to the state trust.

DHS needs to fill out an application and apply.

Dunn has installed No trespassing signs at the edge of the state-owned land to keep Border Patrol agents away.

I think the Department of Homeland Security wants to work with us and get an easement in place, Dunn said.

DHS officials said they would like to meet with New Mexico land commissioners in April.

More from Cronkite News: Gov. Ducey sends 225 National Guard troops to Mexican border (April 9, 2018)

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What would you do if had an important examination on the same day as your wedding?

Facebook/DailyPost

There's not much one can do, unless you choose to be badass like these two Nigerian women. Not only did they complete their wedding ceremony, they also made it to the exam hall.

Now, that's what we call dedication.

The two final year students, who study Mass Communication, hastily said their "I dos" to their grooms before heading to an exam hall because of a date clash, reports CNN.

Dr Benjamin Ogbu, the course lecturer, told Punch: The timetable for the exam was earlier fixed before their weddings were fixed and interestingly, both were on April 7, 2018. Since the exam couldnt be shifted, the two brides left their various reception venues for the examination hall to sit for the exams in their wedding gowns."

"When I walked into the hall, for ten minutes everybody was just shouting before we started the exam and after the exam, I went back to the reception venue because my guests were waiting for me," said one of the brides.

So, if you put your heart on something, nothing will seem impossible and these two newlywed girls proved just that!
Cinema is a form of art and for actors, the luxury of becoming an actor also comes with their own shares of risks and experiments. For Alia Bhatt, there has been a constant juggle as she is trying to strike a correct balance between commercial and socially-relevant cinema.

While she can pull off a Badrinath Ki Dulhania with utmost ease and charm, she is someone who we have seen as Veera in Imtiaz Alis Highway, a film that was based on Stockholm syndrome.

And now, Alia Bhatt is all set for her next release Raazi, that has been directed by Meghna Gulzar.

BCCL

This is the first time that we will see Alia Bhatt play a character that has been inspired by a real-life character and incident.

(Also read: From Learning Self-Defense To Dialect Workshops, Here's How Alia Bhatt Is Gearing Up For Raazi)

In the film, Alia plays the role of Sehmat, a Kashmiri woman who is made to marry a Pakistani officer with a vested interest of digging out intelligence details, so that those discrete and sensitive details can be passed on to Indian forces.

In case you are wondering what Inspired Alia Bhatts role as a Kashmiri spy, we have all the information. The film is an official adaptation of Harinder Sikka's Calling Sehmat, a novel that was inspired by a real-life woman, and in order to protect her identity, Sikka chose to call her Sehmat.

The book revolves around Sehmat and how she chose to become a spy in order to be someone who later risks everything (including her love and life) to be able to help Indian army with top secret information.

When Sikka had gone to cover the Kargil war, he interacted with an Army officer, who told him that there are people who have chosen to risk everything in order to provide information to Indian intelligence and later Sikka found out that one such person was army officers mother, who was Sehmat.

Junglee Pictures/Dharma

Later in his book, he wrote about Sehmat who was that army officer's mother, a Kashmiri Muslim, who married a Pakistani officer to spy with the motive of passing on classified information to Indian intelligence during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Junglee/Dharma

Apart from tracing down the woman, Sikka interacted with her and convinced her to share her entire life journey, parts of which have been mentioned in his novel too. She was named Sehmat by Sikka because he chose to protect her identity.

In an interview with The Hindu in 2011, he was quoted as saying,

Hindu

"I am yet to fathom how Sehmat's father, a rich businessman in Kashmir then, could push his daughter to do such a dangerous thing. It was the ultimate test of patriotism for the family."

In the book, Sikka has mentioned how Sehmat manages to give several intelligence tip-offs and one of them include her giving information about Pakistan's plans to sink the INS Viraat and thankfully, the mission was averted after Sehmats tip-off.

BCCL

Directed by Meghna Gulzar and produced by Junglee pictures and Dharma Productions the adaptation of the book is all set to release on 11th May.

Watch the trailer of the film right here.
The world is ready for another Royal wedding. After the much elaborate Prince Will and Kate's wedding on 29th April, 2011, second in line Prince Harry is all set to tie the knot with his long time girlfriend Meghan Markle.

Twitter

The duo has opted for a traditional wedding at Windsor, UK on 10th May, 2018. However, they plan to do things differently this time. Instead of accepting lavish gifts from influential people from across the globe, Prince Harry and Meghan have asked their wedding guests to donate money to seven charities.

Twitter

One of them is Myna Mahila Foundation which supports women in Mumbai's urban slums.

Myna deals with the issue of menstrual hygiene management at its roots. Working within Mumbai's Govandi slum dwellers communities, Myna is helping to raise awareness around menstruation and in bringing affordable sanitary products directly to the women in need.



"Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill they have received since their engagement, & have asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion of their wedding considers giving to charity, instead of sending a gift," a post shared on Kensington Palace's verified Twitter account read.

Next up is @MynaMahila, which empowers women in Mumbai's slums by providing them with a trusted network, stable employment & the chance to grow as individuals & businesswomen, and breaks taboos around menstrual hygiene. https://t.co/suzul1y9cw pic.twitter.com/eIG3GP6bW7  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

The charity gives women access to low-cost sanitary pads at their doorstep, which helps mothers in these communities equip their daughters to stay in school. Ms. Markle visited @MynaMahila in January last year & wrote about it in @TIME: https://t.co/sn5EhZjaFy  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

The couple have personally chosen the seven charities which support areas they are passionate about. The Palace said that Harry and Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen, but they are keen to "amplify and shine a light on their work".

The seven charities also include CHIVA (Children's HIV Association), the homelessness charity Crisis, Scotty's Little Soldiers which helps bereaved Armed Forces children, StreetGames which uses sport to change lives, marine conservation charity Surfers against Sewage and The Wilderness Foundation UK, which promotes the enjoyment of wild nature.

The couple have also chosen @CorporalScotty, a charity that offers vital support and activities to children who have lost a parent while serving in the British Armed Forces, helping them to smile again. https://t.co/23tYNy7rSC pic.twitter.com/G6CISr2TvU  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

Also selected is @StreetGames, a charity which uses sport to empower young people to kick-start a cycle of positive change in their own lives. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle visited one of the charity's projects together in Cardiff earlier this year. https://t.co/UPY6Nyt2k6 pic.twitter.com/0XQJOL6iNj  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

The charities also include @sascampaigns, a national marine conservation & campaigning charity, which inspires, unites & empowers communities to take action to protect oceans, beaches, waves & wildlife. https://t.co/J7yExoY411 pic.twitter.com/IpXgh23Y13  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

Finally, the couple have chosen @WildernessUK, which promotes the benefits & enjoyment of wild nature. Through the great outdoors, the charity helps build resilience in vulnerable teenagers & introduces rural employment to urban youth. https://t.co/PqKQ9UkV2B pic.twitter.com/vL4UEJTlWL  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 9, 2018

Markle, who visited India in 2017, had met the founder of Myna Mahila Foundation, Suhani Jalota. The two had discussed about empowering and employing poor women in Mumbai.
Me Too campaign, Times Up movement and much more happened globally where the likes of high-profile Hollywood celebs including Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein were exposed. A lot of similar cases came to light in India as well.

A lot of Harvey Weinsteins exist in the industry too, said a lot of celebrities, but nobody named anyone. The power of money and status suppressed the voices of people.

BCCL

A few days ago, Telugu actress Sri Reddy took the matters in her hands, and grabbed the entire nations attention in her protest against casting couch. She sat outside the Telegu Film Chamber of Commerce, and stripped her clothes to protest against the casting couch in Tollywood.

BCCL

In return, Movie Artistes Association (MAA) banned her and threatened to also suspend those who would work with her. But she isnt afraid. She is ready to fight it off.

On what basis will they ban me? They have no right to do so. As a woman, I have the right to protest and to speak my mind. How dare they ban me and threaten other artistes?, she was quoted as saying by TOI.

BCCL

She also revealed some chilling details of what she has been through. Studios are used as brothels, she claims. A top producer's son sexually exploited her, she said.

He used to take me to the studio and he used to f**k me. He is the son of a top producer who is ruling the Telugu film industry. He used to force sex (on me). He would ask me to come to the studio and I said I will go only to talk, not for any sexual act. But after going there, he used to force (me to have) sex," she told India Today.

Meanwhile, her landlords have asked her to vacate the house she is living in currently, and she is unhappy that the "Telangana government has conveniently avoided the issue."
20 years and the Blackbuck poaching case against Salman Khan case continues. Bollywood's most bankable star, Salman Khan was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for killing an endangered species blackbuck in Jodhpur during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hai.

Twitter



While many were praying that he should get bail immediately, the actor was still put behind bars for two days till he got a bail and others including Neelam, Tabu, Sonali Bendre were acquitted.

One of Salman's co-stars from the film, Kunickaa Sadanand, who plays the evil aunt has now gone out in support of Salman Khan and even filed a case against the Bishnoi community.

But her reason is completely different. During the entire Salman Khan controversy last week, she came on a TV debate answering why she thinks Sallu should not punished.

Hum Saath Saath Hai/Screengrab

Speaking with Bombay Times, Kunickaa Sadanand said, "During television debates on the blackbuck poaching case, I was advocating that instead of punishing Salman, the Bishnoi community should use him as an example and not oppose the bail. Ideally, he should be made to do some work for the community, like breeding black bucks, adopting a jungle, etc. On one such panel discussion last week, I said that even Bishnois are hunters. I wanted to add that just like there are non-vegetarians in vegetarian communities, likewise but I was interrupted by the anchor."

Little did she know that she would be flooded with phone calls post the show from the Bishnoi community and would be threatened.

"A person called Santosh Bishnoi called me and wanted me to apologise for what I had said on television and I agreed, as I had no proof about Bishnois being non-vegetarian; I had only heard about it from a man in Kota. However, the phone calls did not stop, there were messages on Facebook, too. They threatened to file a case against me. By then, I'd had enough and I posted a video online, apologising for my statement. I also talked about the harassment," she said.

She has now filed a case against the community. "I filed a case under Section 507 against the Bishnoi community. I handed over all the details, including the numbers from which I received the calls, and screenshots of the lewd messages. They have leaked my address and phone numbers on social media and violated my privacy. I have got police protection, now it is up to them to take action."
It brings us immense agony, despair and anguish while we report, over and over, about gender discrimination - a subject women have fought over so long, yet nowhere close to victory.

Meet Lizzy Martinez, a 17-year-old high school student who was openly attacked for not wearing a bra by the school she goes to because it was distracting her male classmates.

I decided not to wear a bra today and got pulled out of class bc one of my teachers complained that it was a distraction to boys in my class. My school basically told me that boys education is far more important than mine and I should be ashamed of my body. @Manateeschools :)  liz (@lizzymartineez) April 2, 2018

Lizzy went to the school wearing a large, long-sleeve Calvin Klein shirt without a bra underneath it. Her actions made no difference to anyone except for the perverts who couldn't take their eyes off her, which obviously was Lizzy's fault, like always (sarcasm intended).

A few hours into the day and Lizzy is called to the school nurse's office for not behaving properly and breaching the 'expected' code of conduct. She was then asked to place Band-Aids over her nipples.

READ EVERY WORD OF THIS ARTICLE!!!

*school removes girl from class because her breast jiggled and distracted a boy

*school made her "bounce up and down" to see jiggle

*school made her put bandaids over her nipples

*school standing by their decision https://t.co/TTTHGMF83k  Melanie (@faithandflying) April 9, 2018

In the office, Lizzy was repeatedly humiliated for not wearing a 'bra' and was told that nipples and breasts were "distracting" other students and "a boy was laughing at her".

Her dress was reported by the teacher and boy student, who went to dean's office to call out on her.

Liz, I'm so sorry that "adults" embarrassed you and devalued your education. We, as a society, take girls out of the classroom, shame them for their bodies, all while expecting so little from our boys and sending damaging messages to everyone. #everydaysexism #rapeculture https://t.co/4w0ioqdpZn  Annie E. Clark (@aelizabethclark) April 9, 2018

She was then given four Band-Aids to put over her nipples. The school even asked her to cross out her nipples. They then asked Lizzy to jump up and down to see how they jiggled and whether or not they were still being an element of distraction.

When Lizzy took this to Twitter, she was immediately blocked by the school's Twitter account.

*school has student put bandaids over her nipples because it is a distraction then blocks them for calling them out on sexualizing her* :/ pic.twitter.com/x8dEDYjh2c  liz (@lizzymartineez) April 3, 2018

It's bizarre that an education institute that's supposed to guide students and impart knowledge over what's radical bears such a small appetite for social concerns and tolerance. In fact, this is not even a matter of tolerance, but sheer stupidity and bigotism.

When you tell a female student that her body is a distraction to the male students of her class you're making two very grave mistakes. One, you're telling the girl that her education is not as important as that of her male counterparts, and her body has to be a certain way for her to 'deserve' education. Second, you are validating the belief that it is okay for young men to be 'distracted' by a woman's body.

Shameful and shallow is what it is.
Of late, India has become the nation of offenders who bear a very tiny appetite for things. These self-proclaimed liberals who have an opinion on anything and everything, without any radical knowledge or experience on the subject cause a social tumult over just every passing trend.

Read more: Remember IAS Topper Tina Dabi Who Was Trolled For Dating A Muslim Guy? She Just Married Him

Take this case into consideration for instance. 2015 IAS topper Tina Dabi recently married the guy who lost the first position to her. The 24-year-old IAS officer who topped the coveted civil services exam tied the knot with 25-year-old Athar Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan in south Kashmir's Pahalgam on Saturday.

Id like to talk to you about our wedding.

Athar and I got married on 20th Marchby in Jaipur by Collector Shri Siddharth Mahajan.

Then we planned two wedding celebrations. The Kashmir celebration happened recently. The Delhi wedding celebration will be held on 14th April. pic.twitter.com/IlLk3pSwVi  Tina Dabi (@dabi_tina) April 9, 2018

From Shashi Tharoor to Barkha Dutt, everyone took it to social media to congratulate the couple who are an inspiration to the country's youth on many levels. Unfortunately, the youth didn't have many great things to say.

1.

Warm congratulations to @dabi_tina & @AtharAamirKhan , first and second rank holders in IAS2015, whose achievements are inspirational for thousands of young Indians, on setting another example through their marriage. Wishing them happiness, peace & enduring love& understanding.  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 9, 2018

2.

Tina & Athar- you give us hope- your individual achievements & your love for each other reminds us of what India is all about @dabi_tina & @AtharAamirKhan God Bless you both. https://t.co/yYHsZD5rPv  barkha dutt (@BDUTT) April 10, 2018

While a lot of these people indulged in raising concerns over the quota with which she bagged a spot in UPSC, others couldn't move past the fact that it was, in fact, a Hindu girl who married a Muslim.

1.

Tina Dabi is a Achhoot Dalit for uper cast Hindus and she follows Buddhism. But soon after she marries to a Muslim.... pic.twitter.com/03gMi1cl6w  Honest Liar (@Hones8Liar) April 10, 2018

2.

Tina Dabi The UPSC Topper & JKs Athar Aamir Did NIKAh & Chosen Kashmir As Their Final Destination

It Was Love For The Girl,Now See The Comment By A Muslim Boy From Grooms Side Congratualting Him For Bringing Her To Right Path And saying She Is Proud Muslim NowOnwards

Disgusting pic.twitter.com/JajzRygsnq   SINGH    (@HatindersinghR) April 9, 2018

3.

Those asking for proofs about IAS Tina Dabi's conversion to Islam, know that if news of her Nikah with a Muslim is true, she must be a Muslim. You will get the news soon.  Vashi Sharma (@VashiMant) April 9, 2018

4.

I quate an example of an eminent lady doctor of kashmiri pandit who long back married to a Muslim doctor of Kashmir.After decades of her marriage she was quated that she had done a blunder @Wait sir Tina Dabi will be in same line . BELIEVE ME.  Rakesh pandita (@Rakeshp30283129) April 9, 2018

5.

a presstitute with three muslim husband will support this ..what a shame  kunaldevil (@gautamkl) April 10, 2018

6.

Tina Dabi and her husband face hate again. This fascist of Hindu Sanhati, W Bengal who abducts Hindu women who are in inter-faith relationships, terms their marriage 'love jehad'. Don't call him 'fringe' - like Ajay Singh Bisht he too may be a CM tomorrow, hate pays in BJP raj. pic.twitter.com/4fzSBMWBja  Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) April 9, 2018

7.

Can any Indian Hindu Brahman dare marrying Dalit only Muslim did  Shams Khan (@shamskhan57) April 10, 2018

8.

But I Will 100% SUPPORT This Marriage.

Becoz :-#TinaDabi's Both Parents r Already High-Paid IES Officers.

But Still She Gets Benefit of #Quota; which MUST Go To Some Poor, Needy, Deserving #Dalit.

Hope -After Conversion To #ISLAM, Her Child Will NoMore Be Able To MisUse That. pic.twitter.com/sv7N17T9Mg  Gourab Mondal (@GourabMondalSun) April 9, 2018

Don't you think that everyone needs to take a step back and chill for a while? Let things be. It's horribly alarming that these days people butt-in more often than not, especially when their opinions are unsolicited. What the couple does with their life is no one's business. Who Aamir and Tina chose to marry, is no one's business.

Just because some people are blinded by hate, doesn't mean everyone has to follow in their footsteps. In fact, no one should.
BJP MLA from Alwar city Banwari Lal Singhal, known for his communal rants, has courted fresh controversy by urging Hindu families not to allow Muslims to enter their homes. Talking to TOI on Monday, the second-term MLA stated that Muslims were habitually involved in all kinds of crimes. He boasted that he neither allowed Muslims to enter his residence or office nor sought their votes.

Meo Muslims do not vote for BJP. I also do not go after them for votes. Seeking votes from them would mean that I have to help them in getting away with crime that they habitually commit. This is the main reason that I have always maintained a safe distance from them, said Singhal.

ANI

BJP MLA trying to polarise society

The BJP MLA, who has been associated with VHP and RSS in the past, alleged that Muslims were involved in crimes like cow slaughter, love jihad, creating fake identities and fraud.

The MLA is making these controversial statements to allegedly polarise the society following BJPs defeat in the Alwar Lok Sabha bypoll held in January this year.

Singhals anti-Muslim statements have come unprovoked and were made at his own community meeting at Alwar on Sunday. When asked by TOI to clarify his statements, the MLA repeated his rant more fiercely on Monday.

He claimed that Meo Muslims, who are predominant in Alwar and Bharatpur districts, receive a special package for carrying out love jihad (Muslim boys enticing and marrying Hindu girls).

Meo sect of Muslims never votes for #BJP. I also do not go to them for votes. Asking for votes from them would mean I would be compelled to help them in getting away with crimes they regularly commit. So I always stay away from them: BL Singhal, BJP MLA from Alwar. #Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/1yAuy91AQp  ANI (@ANI) 10 April 2018

"Love Jihad has become a tradition for Meo Muslims here. They create fake IDs on Facebook and lure Hindu girls to love relationships. They marry Hindu girls and make their life hell. On the contrary, Muslim girls despite being illiterate or less educated do not love or marry Hindu boys, said Singhal.

The Alwar MLA slammed Hindu women for falling in the trap of Muslim boys. Even those Hindu girls who are talented and intellectual become secular and marry Meo Muslim boys. These Hindu women are generally thrown out by their Meo Muslim husbands after two years. I appeal to Hindu families, parents and elders to not allow Muslims into their homes and check love jihad, Singhal said.

He continued his anti-Muslim rant by saying that Meo Muslims were butchers.
Ashfaq (17) dreamt of becoming a maulvi and raise his voice from the minaret of the local mosque-cum-madrassa to call out the faithful. On Friday, the same minaret came tumbling down and crushed him during the storm, but not before he had saved more than 20 lives. A hero in death, Ashfaq was one of the six children of Din Mohammeds family.

Thousands gathered at Bumbaheri village on Sunday to attend a prayer meeting for Ashfaq. While his father is both proud and sad, Ashfaqs mother Jaituni Begum said, With the crashing of the roof and walls of the madrassa, my world came crashing down.

By the age of 14, he had learnt 30 chapters of the Quran. My son was an intelligent, affectionate and brave boy, Jaituni said. Since the accident, I couldnt gather the courage to face my wife. She is inconsolable and I dont know what to tell her. My three-year-old daughter asks me where have I hidden her brother, said Din Mohammed, fighting his tears.

There were 22 students inside the madrassa when the accident happened. Locals said it was a result of strong winds. A heavy asbestos sheet, part of the cover of a shed 50m away, flew in the wind and hit the minarets. They finally collapsed on the roof of the madrassa. As the minarets and the walls started to collapse, Ashfaq  instead of running to save his life  helped his friends evacuate. As he pulled 21-year-old Mohammed out, one of the minarets fell on him, said Mohammed Sabir, a relative.

The maulanas rushed Ashfaq to the government hospital in Pinangwan, from where he was referred to the government hospital in Mandikhera and then to Shaheed Hasan Khan medical college in Nalhar. Considering the seriousness of his injuries, the doctors finally referred him to Delhis Safdarjung Hospital.

Enroute to Delhi, Ashfaq asked his father for some water, however, the doctor in the ambulance advised against it.

BCCL/Representational Image

Ashfaq made repeated requests for water. He said he would leave us now, and if possible, he should be given some water. He said otherwise he would die without having water, recounted his father. Then I helped him drink some water. Minutes later, my son breathed his last, said a wailing Din Mohammed. His funeral was conducted on Saturday.

On Sunday, chairman of Haryana Waqf Board Rais Khan announced Rs 10 lakh for the repair of the madrassa and Rs 2 lakh for the boys family. However, Din Mohammed immediately announced that the compensation money too should be donated to the madrassa. Another student, Abid Hussain (20), who was also injured in the accident is undergoing treatment at Shaheed Hasan Khan Medical College in Nalhar.
Weve gotten really used to digital assistants on our smartphones. Both the Google Assistant and Siri have spoiled us rotten, allowing us to vocalize questions and orders and having our phones execute them without lifting a finger. The obvious next logical step is to find a way to have them around the house, without having to keep our phones in our hands all the time.

Thats where smart speakers come in. And the much anticipated Google Home smart speaker finally becomes available for purchase in India from today. We got a chance to try it out in advance. Does the brand new Google Home give Amazon Echo (& Alexa) a tough fight? Let's find out...

Setup and use

As far as setting up the Google Home smart speaker goes, its a piece of cake. All you have to do is plug it into a power source, download the Google Home app on your phone (Android or iPhone), and follow the steps. The device even uses your saved passwords to access the Wi-Fi in your home without you having to type it in -- how convenient is that?. All youre going to have to do figure out how to do on your own is set up the voice recognition for your other family members, because you only register one voice at the beginning. Yet, even that is a pretty easy task, even if youve never seen a smart speaker in your life.

Whats going to take some time familiarising yourself with it are the devices quirks; the millisecond to keep between two different commands, to speak loudly and clearly. Aside from that, youre golden. Obviously, Google Home's deep integration into Google Assistant and Google services feels a more natural extension of your Android phone or if your virtual life revolves around Google -- something that Amazon Echo & Alexa can't compete with.

Great looks

If theres one thing that can be said about Google Home, its certainly the best-looking of the smart speaker group. Its small enough to sit unobtrusively on a table, without taking up too much space, and the combination of bone-white shell and quad-coloured LEDs make for a modern, classy aesthetic. Not to mention its shorter than the Amazon Echo Plus, so its not likely to tip over if your dogs wagging tail or your kids wandering hand bumps against it. Google Home's predominantly white with a unique shape, whereas the Amazon Echo's largely black (albeit it comes with textured sleeves). For your living room's decor, the Google Home feels more lively and will definitely be a centre-piece, whereas the Amazon Echo obsidian looks might be a bit foreboding.

Also Read: Alexa vs Google Assistant vs Siri vs Bixby: Which Voice Assistant Is The Best Of Them All?

Sound quality

As far as the audio goes, the Google Home isnt exactly blowing your roof sky high. Dont get me wrong, its a pretty good audio system on its own. The sound is pretty much what youd expect from a Bluetooth speaker of a similarly small size, and the Google Home's audio quality is clear enough. Its just that weve seen some amazing portable sound systems recently, and this doesnt reach those lofty standards. However, itll keep your little weekend house party going just the same. The Amazon Echo Plus is definitely a lot better than the Google Home in the sound department.

Virtual assistance

When it comes to getting work done, however, no one does it like the Google Home. With all the natural language processing and Google search engine power at your disposal, its not often that youll have a request it cant fulfill. And with the addition of English (India) compatibility, the assistant can almost perfectly understand you, no matter how strong your accent. A pity the voice used for Googles India assistant is so accented its almost a caricature, because thats what had me reaching for the option to switch her over to British English.

But theres a ton of stuff Google Home can do for you. With a linked music service account, you can play songs off Google Play Music, Gaana, Saavn, Apple Music, and more. You dont necessarily need to ask for a specific song either. Just pick pick a broad genre (Play me some jazz) or playlist (Play me the top 10 hits) and the Google Assistant will take care of the rest. With your default music app and language set, your music request is just one line.

She can also initiate a photo slideshow or start Netflix, as long as you have a linked Chromecast, can make calendar appointments, read out cooking recipes, and even do quick Google searches. Really, the list is almost endless. And sometimes, youll find yourself exploring just to see what Google Homes limits are. Its a load of fun.

Just dont ask her for any jokes. Like Siri and Alexa, she loves bad puns way too much.

Google Home Price In India & Availability

Google Home and Google Home Mini are now officially available on Flipkart in India. The Google Home smart speaker is priced at Rs 9,999, while Google Home Mini is priced at Rs 4,499.
PayPal: What Does The Future Holds For The Biggest Payment Processor? The Smart Investor - Wed Sep 29, 5:50PM CDT PayPals strategy for its core business is to continue focusing on the markets it operates in. The company processed around $936 billion worth of payments in 2020 and plans to cross the $1 trillion mark...

Soybeans Back in Black on Wednesday Barchart - Wed Sep 29, 4:57PM CDT Soybean futures were higher on Wednesday, gaining 4 3/4 to 6 3/4 cents on the day. The November to November spread widened to 29 1/4 cents by the close, but the spread is still well below the $1.80 inverse... ZSX21 : 1282-6 (-0.08%) ZSPAUS.CM : 12.3707 (+0.47%) ZSF22 : 1292-2 (-0.10%) ZSX21 : 1282-6 (-0.08%)

Corn Market Higher at Close Barchart - Wed Sep 29, 4:57PM CDT Front month corn futures were back up by 4 3/4 to 6 1/2 cents by the end of the midweek session. For December that erased Turnaround Tuesdays pullback. The December to December spread was tightened... ZCZ21 : 538-2 (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.1841 (+1.11%) ZCH22 : 546-4 (unch) ZCZ21 : 538-2 (unch)

Chart of the Day: IHeart Hancock Jaffe Barchart - Wed Sep 29, 3:59PM CDT The Barchart Chart of the Day belongs to the healthcare company Hancock Jaffe Laboratories (NASDAQ: HJLI ). I found the stock by sorting Barchart's Top Stocks to Own list first by the most frequent... HJLI : 10.59 (+0.28%)

Livestock Report Walsh Trading - Wed Sep 29, 3:36PM CDT Hogs consolidate, cattle markets retreat

Fighting wave of misinfo, YouTube bans false vaccine claims AP - Wed Sep 29, 3:35PM CDT YouTube announced a sweeping crackdown of vaccine misinformation Wednesday that booted popular anti-vaccine influencers from its site and deleted false claims that have been made about a range of immunizations.... $SPX : 4,359.46 (+0.16%) $DOWI : 34,390.72 (+0.26%) $IUXX : 14,752.89 (-0.12%)

Livestock Report Walsh Trading - Wed Sep 29, 3:35PM CDT Hogs follow through higher cattle in limbo and Feeders recover

Grain Spreads: Balance Sheet Beans Walsh Trading - Wed Sep 29, 3:07PM CDT Bean Numbers Examined
On the final weekend of the process, Luke Hitch said a key factor in the chosen model  an injury calculation tool known as whole person impairment (WPI)  had been glossed over and not thoroughly explained.

"We were blindsided, it was just in there," Hitch told ABC. "WPI has been around for 20 years or more they could have got that information to us in October. In any criminal jury situation this would be binned based on the fact that the jury had been misled."

The chosen scheme will see payments for medical treatments, income replacement, and loss of quality of life be limited to people who reached a 10% WPI threshold. This could reduce premiums on the 285,000 cars registered in the ACT by an average of $130.

Hitch told ABC that on the final Saturday, the jury was given a 30-minute briefing session on WPI and another scale called ISV, and that until the jury asked for more information, the organisers were quite happy for us to just roll on and make these decisions in this vacuum really.

When asked if they wanted to investigate the methods further, the jury declined.

"At that point I said I think it's been grossly corrupted it's broken and I walked away," Hitch told ABC. "In the first instance they were uninformed and then once they wanted information they were quite clearly misled. They really did portray (WPI) as quite benevolent, a simple, great process."

Another juror told ABC that the group was not presented information about edge cases, such as those people whose injury falls below the 10% threshold. The juror also said the group was not presented with the calculation on the reduction of total compensation in the ACT until they had specifically asked for the information on the last weekend.

Geoff Atkins of scheme designer Finity Consulting denied that they withheld information on WPI from the jury in the first sessions. But due to the technical difficulty of the measure, he said the material was "phased in" so that it came at a "logical time", ABC reported.

DemocracyCo, which ran the process for the government, said the jury received all the necessary information and the information identified as necessary by the stakeholder reference group, which included lawyers, insurers, health professions, government, and consumer representatives.

A spokeswoman for the ACT government, meanwhile, said the process was independent and robust, allowing the jurors to examine a range of perspectives on CTP insurance schemes in a timely and professional manner.

"The jurors overwhelmingly favoured the model chosen," the spokeswoman told ABC. "The inclusion of a minority report in the final jury report is a transparent way of the jury being open about any dissenting views on the chosen model."

Related stories:
Prosecutors told the District Court that the couple devised the plan to burn down the rental property for an insurance payout, with Krzysztof igniting the petrol he had poured throughout the house, causing a sudden and most unexpected explosion so powerful it damaged neighbouring properties, ABC and news.com.au reported.

The explosion was the result of petrol vapour, having accumulated in the house, igniting, Judge Paul Muscat said. As fire investigator who gave evidence at trial said such an explosion was basically a one-in-a-million occurrence.

Krzysztof managed to survive the blast with only a serious leg fracture, which Muscat said was nothing sort of a miracle.

Muscat said Krzysztof and Kuchar showed no remorse for their crimes and intended to appeal their convictions. The judge also noted how the two appeared not to appreciate the overwhelming nature of the prosecution case against them and were unfairly and unjustly blaming others for their criminal acts, ABC reported.

The two were each sentenced to six years in jail, with each given a two-and-a-half year non-parole period. Kuchar was allowed to serve her sentence in home detention to allow her to continue to care for her three young children, the reports said.

Related stories:
In its announcement this morning, the insurer said repurchases of the shares are carried out on a second trading line on the SIX Swiss Exchange, with Zurich as the exclusive buyer and Zurcher Kantonalbank acting as agent. It added that Zurich shares sold via the second trading line are subject to the Swiss federal withholding tax rate of 35% on the difference between the repurchase price and the shares nominal value of CHF0.10.

Meanwhile Zurichs board of directors intends to propose to the Annual General Meeting next year that the companys ordinary share capital be reduced via the cancellation of the shares repurchased under the buyback programme.

Zurich stressed that all shareholders must seek specific tax advice.

Related stories:
These security updates do not reflect a specific threat or concern. These measures are increasingly common in companies of our size and geographic presence and are simply intended to keep pace with current security standards. We have nothing further to add, State Farm spokesperson Jim Camoriano said in a statement.

On top of adding armed guards to its hubs, State Farm is also considering arming security at its major operations centers. Other measures being considered include more patrols and increased security presence, and additions such as turnstiles and revolving doors.

Notably, the company also said in its internal release that it is not changing its ban on weapons for employees.

Related stories:
Potacco pleaded guilty in November to money laundering and official misconduct in the second degree and third-degree practicing without a license.

According to New Jersey attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, Potacco  whose license was revoked in 2002  hired a licensed chiropractor to act as the straw owner of his South Orange Trauma and Rehab Center while he ran it covertly. Potacco then used illegal runners to recruit accident victims to use his facility  including so-called victims who had actually staged their crashes. He submitted fraudulent insurance claims for those patients, using the billing information of the straw owner.

Over a five-year period, Potacco funneled about $3,991,812 in claim money into his practices account, the AGs office said. He then laundered that money through a shell company and used that companys account for his own personal use.

The AGs investigation also found that Potacco collected money for referring patients to a personal-injury lawyer who filed claims on their behalf. Potacco then falsified medical records to support those claims.

For years, Phillip Potacco lied and cheated and broke the law to get what he wanted, but justice caught up with him today, said Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Tracy M. Thompson. He learned the hard way that insurance fraud isnt a path to easy money, its a path to prison.

Five other defendants have previously pleaded guilty to their participation in the scam.



Related stories:
A key Connecticut lawmaker says a proposed surcharge on insurance policies to raise money to help homeowners with crumbling foundations is not a dead issue.

Senator Cathy Osten, the Democratic Senate chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said Friday the surcharge will come out again this session, despite the Judiciary Committee defeating legislation last week on a 24-16 vote.

Eastern and central Connecticut homeowners with foundations crumbling because of an iron sulfide are angry lawmakers defeated legislation imposing a $20 surcharge on every homeowner policy issued in Connecticut to create an assistance fund.

The bill also would have required insurers to cover peril of collapse, which the industry says raises costs for everyone.

Lawmakers last year approved $100 million that still needs to be distributed, but homeowners say more is needed.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Homeowners Connecticut
Smith Brothers Insurance LLC has purchased the assets of Bailey Agencies Insurance of Groton, Conn.

Bailey was founded in 1890 by Henry Bailey to help protect families and businesses throughout the Southeastern Connecticut region. Owned and operated by the Scott family since 1980, Bailey Agencies Insurance has been a long-term fixture on the Southeast Connecticut shoreline.

With headquarters in Glastonbury, Conn., Smith Brothers is an independently operated broker in the U.S. and has offices throughout Connecticut, and in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Founded in Hartford, Conn., in 1971 by brothers Bob and Brian Smith, it seeks to help organizations and individuals manage risk, protect assets and grow.

Following the transaction, Bailey Agencies Insurance has moved to the Smith Brothers office in Niantic, Conn.

John Scott IV, former Bailey Agencies Insurance principal, stated in a press release issued by Smith Brothers that the company will help Bailey perpetuate a longstanding agency, deliver broader market scope and access and add to its client offerings.

Going forward, Scott will continue his role as commercial lines producer, and along with two other insurance professionals, he will work from the Smith Brothers Niantic office.

In the future, Smith Brothers long-term strategic focus is to grow along the shoreline to help protect families and businesses in the unique requirements of a coastal environment, said Jared Carillo, Smith Brothers director of foundation accounts, in the release.

Source: Smith Brothers Insurance LLC

Topics Agencies Connecticut
Specialist insurer Beazley has announced the appointment of Andreas Bergler as head of Broker Relations for Continental Europe. At the same time, the company said, Martin Fricke would succeed Bergler as head of treaty in Munich

In a newly created role, Bergler will focus on building out Beazleys pan-European broker relationship network and distribution strategy. He moved into the role on April 1 and reports to Will Roscoe, head of Broker Relations UK & Europe.

Since joining Beazley in 2008, Bergler has successfully led Beazleys treaty team in Munich and played a major role in developing Beazleys presence in Germany, said Beazley in a statement. He began his career at Munich Re before moving to New Re and then Aon Benfield.

Bergler has been succeeded as head of treaty in Munich by Martin Fricke, who reports to Patrick Hartigan, team leader of treaty business.

Fricke started his career at Aon Benfield before moving to Beazley in 2010, where, as treaty underwriter for continental Europe, he has been responsible for building relationships with ceding companies in Germany, Austria and central and east European markets.

European growth is a strategic priority for us, particularly for our international specialty lines business, said Roscoe. Andreas appointment will allow us to develop new relationships with brokers and build on existing ones as we continue to expand our offering in the region.

Beazley has had a treaty team in Munich since 2008. It underwrites European reinsurance business, with a focus on property catastrophe, property risk and casualty clash lines.

Source: Beazley

Topics Agencies Europe
The publisher of Consumer Reports magazine has reached a $16.375 million settlement of a lawsuit claiming it violated Michigan privacy law by selling readers subscription and personal data to third parties without their consent.

A preliminary settlement of the proposed class-action case against Consumers Union was filed on Monday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and requires a judges approval.

Consumers Union was accused of selling customers magazine subscription histories and reading habits to data mining companies and others in exchange for demographic and lifestyle data, and then selling enhanced customer profiles containing this data to other companies for a profit.

Data that was allegedly shared by the nonprofit included age, race, religion, income levels, charitable donations, medical conditions, political affiliations and travel habits, court papers show.

Consumers Union denied wrongdoing and said the settlement, which would be covered by insurers, would avoid the costs and uncertainty of further litigation.

We have long advocated for the rights of consumers to have control over their private information, a spokeswoman said. While we believe that our practices were in compliance with Michigan law, we chose to settle this case, without admitting liability, so that we can spend our time, effort and resources on protecting consumers.

Mondays settlement covers about 560,000 people who lived in Michigan from April 2010 to October 2016 and subscribed to a Consumer Reports publication.

The lead plaintiff was Don Ruppel, a Consumer Reports subscriber who claimed he received harassing junk mail and phone solicitations because his personal information was sold.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs may seek up to $5.46 million for legal fees and costs, court papers show.

The case is Ruppel v Consumers Union of United States Inc., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-02444.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis

Topics USA Michigan
Insurance broker Beecher Carlson Insurance Services has promoted Joseph Siech to chief executive officer and B. Scott Davis to chief operating officer.

Siech is responsible for planning and directing the execution of client services and growth initiatives as well as guiding the development of short and long-term financial goals. He will continue to oversee national sales while also focusing on recruiting and mentoring employees.

Siech assumes the role from Steve Denton, who has departed the company to pursue other opportunities. Denton is joining EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants as president of its parent company EPIC Holdings on May 1. Denton has served as Beecher Carlson CEO since 2013, when Beecher Carlson was acquired by Brown & Brown. Prior to that, he was president of Beecher Carlson,

Siech began his career as a property underwriter for Arkwright Mutual and advanced by developing a large book of risk management clients for Hobbs Group, which later became HRH in 2002. He was recruited to Beecher Carlson in 2005.

Davis will oversee and develop operational functions in the newly-created COO role. Davis will also continue as president, Casualty & Property, a role he assumed in 2013.

Prior to his 13-year tenure at Beecher Carlson, Davis worked with Willis of Tennessee. He served as senior vice president and team leader. His experience also includes serving as president and CEO of Lockton-Tennessee prior to selling that entity in 1997.

In May, 2013, Beecher Carlson was acquired by Florida-based Brown & Brown from Austin Ventures, FSPM and a group of individual employee and non-employee equity holders for $336.5 million in cash.
The top U.S. watchdog for consumer finance is seeking a record fine against Wells Fargo & Co that could exceed several hundred million dollars for auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.

The penalty would be the first issued by Mick Mulvaney, whom President Donald Trump tapped in November to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The fine would fulfill Trumps vow to come down hard on the countrys third-largest lender, which has been grappling with a sales practices scandal since September 2016.

The CFPB is readying sanctions alongside the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Wells Fargos day-to-day regulator. The agencies are ready to sanction Wells Fargo for layering extra insurance on drivers and collecting commissions on those policies, Reuters reported last month.

Both agencies have also been investigating the bank for wrongly levying fees on mortgage borrowers.

Mulvaney is eyeing a penalty that would settle both those matters and dwarf the $100 million the CFPB fined Wells Fargo in September 2016 to settle its phony accounts scandal, said the sources familiar with the talks. That 2016 fine had been the CFPBs largest ever.

Settlement terms have not been finalized but Mulvaney is pushing for a figure as high as $1 billion, said three people with knowledge of the discussions.

A stiff penalty against Wells Fargo could burnish Mulvaneys image as a tough regulator even as his agency has dropped cases against at least two payday lenders.

Mulvaney has said the CFPB has gone too far in policing industry in the past but that abuses do exist.

I think youre being naive if you think there arent folks out there who are breaking consumer financial protection laws, Mulvaney told an industry meeting last month.

The OCC and Wells Fargo declined to comment. A spokesman for the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.

Lawmakers will get a chance to question Mulvaney about the settlement talks at two separate hearings in Congress on Wednesday and Thursday. Wells Fargo is due to report earnings on Friday and some officials hoped to have a deal by then.

Mulvaney was asked about the Wells Fargo matter at an industry event on Monday and declined to comment.

In the case of Wells Fargo and auto insurance, agency lawyers have raised concerns about how different customers received different treatment from the bank.

Drivers who financed a car through a dealer could be pushed into insurance if Wells Fargo suspected a policy had lapsed. Drivers who went directly to the bank for a loan were not subject to such force-place insurance, the bank has said.

The bank has also said it waived mandatory insurance for customers with high credit scores. Borrowers with lower credit scores could get pushed into force-placed insurance.

Lawyers are debating whether the bank should pay a higher fine for the uneven treatment of customers, the sources said.

Trump had pledged tough penalties for Wells Fargo after Reuters reported in December that Mulvaney put the mortgage-lending abuse sanctions on ice.

(Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Michelle Price and Meredith Mazzilli)
Uber Technologies Inc.s $10 million settlement with women engineers who complained they were underpaid compared with men would also rid the ride-hailing giant of liability for potentially hundreds of sexual harassment incidents over the past five years.

The accord, which is up for a judges approval Tuesday, covers almost 500 women and people of color in an October class action alleging the company paid them less than their peers and didnt promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians. Harassment claims were added last month and Uber said in a court filing the same day that it agreed to resolve the case without any admission of wrongdoing.

In addition to providing almost $5 million to remedy pay disparities and as much as $3 million for plaintiffs attorneys, the deal creates a $1.9 million fund to compensate harassment victims who file detailed reports on how they were mistreated.

Uber was pilloried over its toxic culture last year when former engineering employee Susan Fowler published a blog post alleging that she was sexually harassed and that her complaint was mishandled. That led the startup to commission outside investigations that turned up more than 200 human-resources claims and resulted in more than 20 people being fired.

Court to Rule

A lawyer who negotiated the settlement on behalf of employees said hes confident the deal will pass muster in court. This is an excellent result for class members, said Jahan Sagafi.

An Uber spokesman said the accord fairly addressed the concerns that were raised and we are confident the court will allow it to proceed in a just and fair manner.

Any current or former employee who doesnt like the terms can opt out and preserve their individual right to pursue legal action. But if more than 5 percent of the covered workers opt out, Uber reserves the right to withdraw from the settlement.

An attorney who represents companies in employment disputes said he expects the settlement will raise concerns when its reviewed by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Rogers Gonzalez in Oakland, California.

Courts Perception

Its entirely possible the court may reject this, said Jim Evans, of Alston & Bird in Los Angeles, who isnt involved in the case. The judge may find the accord is too broad and the amount of money too small, he said. It just depends on the courts perception of fairness. It will depend on the judges interpretation of how many people are affected by this class settlement.

Some of Ubers previous settlements with customers and drivers have been faulted by judges as inadequate, forcing the company back to the drawing board to re-negotiate or continue litigating with the attorneys who brought the class actions. In January, Uber finally satisfied a Los Angeles judge who had twice withheld approval of a deal over the companys contractor-based business model. The state judge finally signed off on the agreement, in which Uber said it would pay $7.75 million, offering 1.6 million California drivers an average of $1.08 each.

Like the drivers case in Los Angeles, Sagafis complaint was brought under a California law that gives employees the right to step into the shoes of the state labor secretary to bring enforcement actions over labor code violations. He said workers bringing harassment claims would ordinarily be required under their contracts to resolve disputes through arbitration. But complaints based on the states Private Attorneys General Act cant be forced into arbitration, he added.

The portion of the settlement earmarked for alleged violations of equal-pay laws going back to 2013 would pay out an average of about $10,000 per employee, with exact amounts varying according to job title and tenure, as well as location of employment. In July, months before the lawsuit was filed, Uber said that it adjusted salaries to ensure equity in pay for women and minorities.

$19,000 a Person

Sagafi, whose law firm Outten & Golden LLP represents the two women who brought the case, said he has no way of knowing how many employees will file harassment claims. In a court filing last week, he outlined a hypothetical scenario in which 100 people filing claims would yield an average payout of $19,000 a person.

Victims would be asked on a claim form to describe each incident as specifically as they can, including who the perpetrator was, who witnessed the incident and whether Uber took action in response to any complaint to either the company or a government agency. The amount to be awarded to any individual would be determined by a settlement administrator using a point system.

The settlement caps individual payments at $100,000 barring exceptional circumstances and says that payouts to victims for emotional distress may be subject to income tax.

Evans, the employment lawyer who isnt involved in the case, said its very encouraging that the settlement includes a commitment by the company to at least start to change its business environment. That includes provisions promising regular reports on Ubers diversity metrics for three years, as well as a pledge to work with a consultant to address the companys job classification and compensation system.

But Evans voiced concern over how the settlement is structured and the broad scope of claims beyond pay equity for which Uber is being released from liability. He also questioned the provision that calls for each sexual harassment claim to be valued by a case administrator acting independently of the court.

It wouldnt surprise me to see the court jettison the part of the settlement that addresses sexual harassment, he said.

Sagafi responded that this is the way claims are evaluated in a settlement context.

Its too early for employees to formally object to the settlement. The lawyers first need to win preliminary approval from Gonzalez so that all eligible workers can be notified about the terms of the agreement.

The case is Del Toro Lopez v. Uber Technologies Inc., 4:17-cv-06255, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics California Claims Sharing Economy Ridesharing Uber
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Houston-based Integrity Transportation Insurance Agency LLC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Integrity Transportation Insurance Agency is a retail property/casualty broker serving Texas-based transportation clients, primarily long-haul truckers.

Hudson Knox III and his associates will continue to operate from their current location under the direction of Bret VanderVoort, head of Gallaghers South Central retail property/casualty brokerage operations.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Topics Mergers A.J. Gallagher Transportation
An Arkansas woman has been arrested on multiple felony charges related to arson and insurance fraud, the state department of insurance reported.

The Arkansas Insurance Department said Kittie Louise Payton, 55, of Little Rock, was arrested by AIDs Criminal Investigation Division investigators on four felony charges stemming from a November 2016 house fire at an unoccupied property she owned.

Payton was arrested April 5 on charges of Theft of Property (Class A Felony), Arson (Class A Felony), Criminal Attempt to Commit Theft of Property (Class C Felony) and committing a Fraudulent Insurance Act (Class D Felony).

On November 1, 2016, law enforcement and fire personnel responded to the report of a house fire at 3326 Pye Road in Little Rock. The result of the fire investigation showed that it was intentionally set by use of an accelerant, according to the insurance department.

Payton allegedly had rented the property to another person and submitted an insurance claim to Allstate for fair rental value.

Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr congratulated the CID investigators on their work leading up to Paytons arrest.

The Arkansas Insurance Department is committed to rooting out insurance fraud, especially in cases where there is a danger to the public, Kerr said in the departments announcement.

Source: Arkansas Insurance Department

Topics Fraud Abuse Molestation Arson
A lawsuit filed by a West Virginia miners widow says the Mine Safety and Health Administration didnt do enough to stop the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Carolyn Diana Davis filed the lawsuit April 5 that says MSHA didnt do its job as a watchdog agency to prevent the disaster and was negligent in its enforcement of safety measures at the mine.

The Plaintiff reasonably relied upon the United States to undertake its inspections and enforcement actions in a competent and non-negligent manner, and that reliance ultimately contributed to the wrongful death of Mr. Davis, the lawsuit states.

The explosion that killed 29 miners happened in 2010, during a shift change, when a spark ignited a pocket of methane, causing massive explosions at the mine. Federal investigators say an accumulation of coal dust exacerbated the explosion.

The lawsuit cites reports from the Governors Independent Investigation Panel, selected by then-Gov. Joe Manchin, which said MSHA knew about UBBs faulty ventilation system and ignored warning signs.

It also cites a federal Independent Panel Assessment that found MSHA didnt inspect the mine adequately.

The IPA concluded that MSHA failed to adequately perform its duties at UBB, and that this failure had a causal relationship to the explosion, the lawsuit states.

MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere wouldnt comment on the lawsuit.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Virginia Mining
Hailing workers compensation reform in California as a big hit, the two top people at the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau explained why the WCIRB governing committee on Monday submitted a lower mid-year pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance.

The beneficial effects of Senate Bill 863 continue to impact the system, said Bill Mudge, president and CEO of the WCIRB. He spoke to Insurance Journal with Dave Bellusci, executive vice president and chief actuary for the WCIRB, about the pure premium rates the same day they were filed.

SB 863 was a result of negotiations between labor and businesses, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012. It has garnered mostly praise in the past few years for reducing frictional costs in the states massive workers comp system.

The WCIRB mid-year filing will propose July 1, 2018 advisory pure premium rates that average $1.80 per $100 of payroll. That is 7.2 percent lower than the insurance commissioners approved average Jan. 1, 2018 advisory pure premium rate of $1.94 and 19.0 percent less than the industry average filed pure premium rate as of Jan. 1, 2018 of $2.22.

The proposed July 1, 2018 decrease follows six straight decreases since 2015. If approved, the decrease will result in an average drop of more than 35 percent from the January 1, 2015 advisory pure premium rates, according to the WCIRB.

Its a big hit, Mudge added of SB 863.

The filing submitted on Monday states:

Since the implementation of Senate Bill No. 863 (SB 863) beginning in 2013, the rate at which indemnity claims are settling has been increasing. We believe SB 863 has accelerated the rate in which claims have settled as a result of quicker medical treatment resolution through the use of independent medical review (IMR), reduction in the volume of liens and a significant decrease in the number of spinal surgeries.

Changes brought in by SB 863 include the use of evidence-based medicine to guide treatment decisions, treatment dispute settlements by independent medical reviewers, and improving workers access to network physicians. SB 863 also created an Independent Medical Review program, in which physicians use evidence to determine the necessity of requested treatments.

Bellusci also credited a more recently enacted law and a new drug formulary for part of the reason for the pure premium decrease.

A sharp decline has been reported in lien filings following the implementation of Senate Bill 1160 on Jan. 1, 2017. The new law requires the CDI to automatically stay liens belonging to providers who have been indicted or charged with crimes. The DIR issued a progress report in late March on its anti-fraud efforts, including updates on the suspension of 227 medical providers from treating Californias injured workers and the dismissal of 292,000 illegitimate liens with claims valued at more than $2.5 billion.

Bellusci said they anticipated a 10 percent reduction in lien filings as a result of the new law, but its had a much more dramatic impact.

Now that were a year into those reforms, were seeing about a 40 percent reduction in the number of new liens being filed, Bellusci said, adding that about a point of the pure premium reduction impact is coming with the reduction of liens.

Bellusci also credited a new formulary for prescription drugs in workers comp thats creating more efficiency and putting California on par with only a few states that are starting to recognize the value they bring to the workers comp system.

Its a pretty significant change for the workers comp system, he said.

Estimates are that the new formulary will reduce pharmacy costs by roughly 10 percent, which equates to roughly half-a-point reduction in the WCRIBs pure premium recommendation.

The governing committees decision was based on the WCIRB actuarial committees analysis of insurer loss and loss adjustment experience as of Dec. 31, 2017.

However, the actuarial committee noted that cumulative injury claims continue to increase, particularly in the Los Angeles region. In addition, medical severities show signs of increase after several years of more modest severity trends driven by Senate Bill No. 863 and allocated loss adjustment expenses continue to increase.

Mudge said those negative trends bear watching.

We continue to watch those and keep them on our watch list, he said.

What also warrants watching is that the state is set to get a new governor, a new insurance commissioner and a new director of the Department of Industrial Relations, who is appointed by the governor and has oversight of the states workers comp system.

For now, its unclear how interested those who take over the reins will be in keeping up with the reforms made over the last few years.

Were going to have a whole new team really, Mudge said.

Pressed on whether he was concerned about so much turnover at the top, he retorted, You tell me who its going to be.

He followed the quip by offering a positive outlook.

Theres so much good momentum here with labor and employersI think were on such a good path right now I dont see workers comp as being top of mind for those coming in.

Related:

Topics California Workers' Compensation
What is Singles' Day?

Singles' Day is a holiday celebrated in China on November 11. Unmarried people commemorate the occasion by treating themselves to gifts and presents, leading Singles' Day to become the largest online shopping day in the world, by quite some margin.

Understanding Singles' Day

Singles' Day always falls on November 11 because the date 11/11 represents four ones, or four singles, standing together. The name literally translates as "single sticks holiday."

Originally called "Bachelor's Day," the celebration began among students at China's Nanjing University around 1993 as a sort of anti-Valentine's Day. The most widely accepted theory is that four male students of Nanjing University's Mingcaowuzhu dorm ("all single men") discussed how they could break away from the monotony of having no significant other, and agreed that November 11 would be a day of events and celebrations in honor of being single. These activities spread through the university and eventually to other universities, appealing to both men and womenhence the name change.

Interestingly, Singles' Day now serves as an occasion for single people to meet, with parties and other social gatherings organized; it's a popular date for weddings as well. On the date, the Chinese media discusses and covers love-related issues and relationship topics.

Singles' Day has since caught on in other countries. It is now celebrated throughout Southeast Asia and some European countries, including Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Great Britains version was initiated by dating experts and falls on a different date: March 11.

Special Considerations

Although not an officially recognized public holiday in China, Singles' Day has become the largest online shopping day in the world. The holiday became a major commercial event in China during the first decade of the 21st century when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) offered deeply discounted merchandise on its platform for 24 hours, starting at midnight on Nov. 11, 2009.

Since then, Singles' Day has become a super shopping day, similar to the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. In 2019, Alibaba registered $38.4 billion worth of sales across its online platforms on Singles Day, representing a rate of 25% from the previous year's $30.8 billion.

Fast Fact: Chinas Singles' Day is by far the biggest day for internet commerce, easily surpassing the combined sales tallies of both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Could Singles Day shopping habits spread to the United States? According to Adobe Analytics, in 2019, American consumers spent $2.7 billion on Nov. 11, an increase of more than 38% over the prior year. However, Adobe blogger Taylor Schreiner believes competing holiday and shopping events in the U.S. make big growth for Singles' Day unlikely in America.

"Inserting a synthetic holiday around early-to-mid November (like Singles Day) in the U.S. would conflict with Veterans Day, as well as impact the way we celebrate Halloween," Schreiner writes, noting that "Amazon was able to create a shopping holiday (think: Prime Day in July) in the U.S. out of whole cloth, but it did so during a time of year when there arent many other retail landmarks."

That could be changing. When Nov. 11, 2020, actually dawned, website ShopStyle greeted its online customer list with "11 Must-Shop Single's Day Sales," featuring discounts from Nike, Macy's, Matches Fashion, and Saks Fifth Avenue, among other retailers. Stay tuned.
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9.50pm: Facebook has begun informing users whether their data has been compromised and improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Up to 45,000 Irish users may be affected.

From this evening, the social media site began directing users to a link at the top of their news feeds which will tell people if their information was accessed.

In a statement to Newstalk last week, Facebook said that while those impacted were predominantly in the United States, 15 people in Ireland installed thisisyourdigitallife, and up to 44,687 people may have been friends with someone who installed the app could therefore potentially be affected.

6pm:Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the company has a responsibility to make sure what happened with Cambridge Analytica does not happen again.

Mr Zuckerberg, who is giving evidence before Congress this week, said in his opening testimony that the company has taken several steps to restrict outsiders' access to people's personal information on Facebook.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released the prepared remarks today.

Mr Zuckerberg said the company is also investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 - something that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Facebook is under fire in the worst privacy crisis in its history after it was revealed that the Trump-affiliated data mining firm improperly accessed information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.
By Tom Tuite

A 14-year-old boy has been warned he is facing a six-month sentence for his part in a spate of robberies of taxi drivers in Dublin.

He and another boy, who was aged 16, had been charged earlier in connection with robberies of taxi drivers in the Tyrrelstown area on December 10, December 12 and Decemeber 17 last.

The younger boy pleaded guilty today to one charge of robbery of a driver of a phone worth 400 and cash which was taken from the taxi man at Curragh Hall on the first date on the first date.

The court heard the boy and three others booked the cab from Dublin city-centre to take them to the Clarehall area. However, during the route they asked to be taken to another where the driver's property and cash were taken.

The first-time offender admitted that he failed to pay a taxi for a journey, in Balbriggan in north Co. Dublin and trespassing at a building site there following a chase on December 12 last two days later.

At an earlier stage, Judge John OConnor ordered him and a co-defendant to abide by bail conditions including a curfew, an order to go to school and not to associate with each other. A breach of bail would result in being remanded in custody, they have been warned.

However, the judge noted from a garda that the bail terms had been broken and as he adjourned sentencing he warned the 14-year-old he was facing a possible six-month term in the Oberstown detention centre.

He asked for a probation report on the boy, who was accompanied to the hearing by his solicitor and his mother, to be furnished to the court. He said the teen faced serious charges and if he continued to break the bail terms a custodial sentence would be imposed.

Notwithstanding your age, the approximate starting point would be six months, he told the boy, who replied yes when asked if he understood.

Judge OConnor stressed that he had to change his ways, comply with the bail terms and not come to further garda notice.

He said under the Children Act he had to take into account the teens interests but also the victim and public policy. The boy was remanded on continuing bail to appear again next month.

His co-accused has not yet indicated how he will plead and had his case adjourned until a date in May.

He is accused of taking part in the same robbery of the driver of the 400 phone at Curragh Hall on the first date. It also alleged he was involved in a robbery of two other taxi drivers who had phones and cash taken over the following week.

The court has heard that up to six youths had been involved in the incidents and the 16-year-old was regarded as being an alleged leader of the group during the incidents.
By Daniel Hickey

A chief superintendent has told the non-jury Special Criminal Court he believes two men are members of the IRA.

Kevin Braney (44), with an address at Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin 24 and Ciaran Maguire (30), of Kippure Park, Finglas, Dublin 11 are both pleading not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on August 2nd, 2017.

It is the prosecution's case that one of two accused men told another man in Longwood, County Meath that they were the IRA and if he did not drop a claim against a former employer the next time they saw him they would shoot him.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Maguire told prosecuting counsel Fiona Murphy BL today that he believed both Mr Braney and Mr Maguire were members of the IRA on the day in question.

He said his opinion was based on confidential information.

Detective Sergeant Padraig Boyce, of the Special Detective Unit (SDU), gave evidence of Mr Braney's "association" with men convicted before the Special Criminal Court.

The detective said that he saw Mr Braney outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on February 3rd last year in conversation with Ciaran Burke, who in 2012 was convicted of possession of firearms and ammunition.

He said that at the time two men were on trial for the murder of Peter Butterly, during which a former accused turned State witness gave evidence.

Det Sgt Boyce said that Mr Braney was attending an "anti-supergrass protest".

The trial continues in front of Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Flann Brennan.
A group of heroic firefighters who saved a woman from drowning in the River Shannon in Limerick city, told how they were able to rescue the woman after being promptly alerted to the scene by gardai.

The firefighters reminded the public that, contacting Limericks fire service immediately after seeing someone in distress in the river will give that person a fighting chance of survival.

Peter Murphy said he and his fellow fireman, Des Fitzgerald, literally saved the woman by her fingertips after she disappeared under the waters surface in the early hours of last Saturday morning.

Seconds after the woman went under, Murphy and Fitzgerald, supported by their colleague Colin Gleeson, jumped out of their rapid response river rescue boat Fireswift into the cold dark river shortly after responding to the 4.30am alert from their firehouse on Mulgrave Street.

Our City Station Crews were mobilised by Munster Regional Control to reports of a person in the River Shannon. FireSwift was launched by our SwiftWater Rescue Technicians & successfully rescued the person from the water. #notjustfires pic.twitter.com/DbFp3BRjs1  Limerick Fire & Rescue (@LimerickFire) April 8, 2018

As we approached the casualty, myself, Des and Colin, saw she had gone sub-surface, so it left us with no option really but for two of us to enter the water. It was literally a finger tip save, Murphy said.

She had gone (under), with her hands over her head, so Des caught one hand and I caught the other hand. We managed to get her into the boat and back to safety, he added.

Last year Limerick City Fire Service received over 50 calls of people in distress in the river.

However, this rescue was different to most others, as Murphy and Fitzgerald, who normally retrieve a casualty from the water from the safety of their boat, had to jump into the raging river to save the woman.

One of the rules is that, you don't enter the water if you have the boat, but, at the time, situation dictates, and you have to do your own risk assessment, and see what's best for the casualty to try and get them back, Murphy explained.

Conditions were poor, and it was pitch black. It was 4.30 in the morning, and the tide was ripping, so you had a desperate flow going out. Visibility was very very poor.

The three firemen, backed up by their colleagues on land, are all trained as Swift Water Rescue Technicians (SRTs). They used all of their combined 26 years experience to keep calm in the midst of the murky, cold, intense river.

The River Shannon, going through Limerick, is probably one of the most dangerous stretches of water in Europe. We train for every event, known to man, on that river. When it comes to the training and quality of the swift water rescue technicians, Limerick is second to none, Murphy said.

He added: River calls are always the same here. When we get a person reported in the river, the adrenaline is running through the whole crew.

Shrugging off the tag of being a hero, Murphy added: To be honest, it's something we do on a regular basis, it's what we train for.

It's brilliant when we (save someone). Everyone plays a part, whether it's the control centre; or any member of the crew. It's something we are training for everyday; it's something we love, and that's why we joined the service.

Reminding the public how mere seconds really count when tasked with responding to a possible life-threatening rescue scenario on the river, Murphy said: Early detection is the key for us, because we know we can be on the water within four minutes, and whoever enters the water in Limerick has a fighting chance if we are mobilised to that call.

The fire service works in conjunction with Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Service, which is also alerted to river rescue operations by gardai and the Coastguard.

With the fire service actively recruiting new members, Acting Station Officer, Peter OToole, said the job is tough, but extremely rewarding: We're obviously looking for the basics - physical fitness, intelligence, problem solving, work well with a team, take direction well, and be able to stay cool under pressure.

If you have been affected by the above subject matter the following helplines can be contacted:

Samaritans 116 123 jo@samaritans.org

Console 1800-247-247

Aware 1890-303-302

Pieta House 01-601000 mary@pieta.ie

Teen Line Ireland 1800-833-634

Childline 1800-66-66-66
By Conor Kane

The HSE has issued an apology for the failings in care which led to the death of a woman who was fatally stabbed by another patient while she was a long-term resident of a unit on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital.

The apology was issued to the family of Maria OBrien (55) from Waterford city, who was violently killed in St Otterans Hospital in Waterford in 2014. The family took a civil case against the HSE in relation to Mrs OBriens death and the case was settled at Waterford Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Maria O'Brien pictured with her son Patrick Halley.

Ms OBrien had been a patient at St Otterans for several years and was living in a residential unit on the grounds of the hospital with three other people, including Paul Cuddihy, in September of 2014.

Mr Cuddihy (39) was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity at the Central Criminal Court in 2016.

The court heard at the time that Maria OBrien was stabbed more than 100 times on September 5 of 2014. Another resident of the unit and three nurses were also injured during the incident.

Mr Cuddihy, who was committed to the Central Mental Hospital following his trial, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia some years prior to Ms OBriens death. He was not taking his medication at the time of the incident, the circuit court heard.

David Bulbulia, barrister for Mrs OBriens son Patrick Halley who took the case against the HSE, said the family had participated in an inquiry conducted by the HSE into his mothers death. Mrs OBrien had been a long-term psychiatric patient and there was no claim for income loss by her dependents.

St Otterans Hospital, Waterford

But they all suffered in different ways when they learned of the circumstances surrounding this very violent death at the hands of another patient of the hospital, Mr Bulbulia said.

The claim was for 35,000, plus funeral, inquest and other expenses of 2,400, and the HSE had agreed to 100pc of the total of 37,400.

A letter written by HSE management to Mr Halley was read out in court on today: The management and staff of St Otterans Hospital, Waterford, offer their sincere apologies for the failings in the care of your late [mother] Maria OBrien, rest in peace, which led to her untimely and tragic death. We acknowledge the upset that this has caused to you and your family and wish you and your family all the best into the future.

The settlement figure was approved by Judge Alice Doyle, with 7,000 to be paid to Mr Halley and each of his two siblings; 2,000 to each of five siblings of the deceased; 2,000 to the deceaseds step-mother; 1,000 to the deceaseds husband from whom she had been separated for over 20 years; and 250 to each of four grandchildren. Two siblings and a step-sibling had not wanted any part of the settlement.

Afterwards, Patrick Halley there was a bit of justice done by the ruling. I do still feel there isnt a whole lot of repercussions for the HSE with regard to it, he said.

I still think that the HSE need to re-evaluate the safety measures and safety protocols that are in place because I still dont think that the safety measures are up to the standards that they should be. Also, the process if a patient is attacked by another patient or even if a staff member is attacked by another patient, there isnt really a proper procedure in place for it.

He described his mother as a very vulnerable person due to her illness, who wasnt always shown the love she deserved.

She was always a bubbly and happy person who nearly always had a smile on her face. She was a gentle, kind-hearted person who genuinely wouldnt harm a fly, she was also a very caring person who would do just about anything she could for anyone.
By Louise Roseingrave

A 35 year old man who died during an episode of 'disturbed behaviour' had cocaine in his system, a coroners inquest heard.

Gardai are investigating the death of Daniel Morris from Allenton Drive in Tallaght, Dublin 24. Mr Morris died on September 22 last at Tallaght Hospital.

Detective Inspector Liam Kelly of Crumlin Garda Station told Dublin Coroners Court that Gardai are preparing a file on the mans death for submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

This was a sudden and unexplained event, we are investigating all aspects of it and when we have gathered all the evidence we will make our recommendation, DI Kelly said.

Dublin Coroners Court heard that the man was formally identified by his mother Mary Morris at Tallaght Hospital following his death.

State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy conducted a post-mortem examination and gave the cause of death as sudden death during an episode of disturbed behaviour while under the influence of cocaine.

DI Kelly applied for an adjournment of the inquest for six months while investigations into the death continue. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane granted the application and adjourned the inquest for further mention on October 4 2018.
The Taoiseach has said the strongest legacy of the Good Friday Agreement has been peace on our island.

A number of events are taking place in Belfast today to mark 20 years since the historic deal was signed.

Speaking in Dublin, Leo Varadkar said: "We no longer wake up in the morning to hear on the news that a man has been shot in Belfast.

"We no longer have violence on our island thats anything approaching the kind of violence that many of grew up with or will remember from the times of the troubles."

He added that central to the Good Friday Agreement is power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

"Unfortunately, because institutions are not up and running we dont have that second crucial element of the GFA in operation.

"But I strongly believe it is possible to put it back on track, to get those institutions back up and running again," said Mr Varadkar.

"Its not the first time theyve failed. But what that requires of course is compromise between the DUP and Sinn Fein the two largest parties by far in NI and also, I believe from initiatives by the British and Irish acting jointly to assist the parties to come to an agreement. Its very much been my view and the view of the Tanaiste that we need to do that," he said.
Here is a timeline of events in the years before and after the Good Friday Agreement.

1988

January - Talks get under way between Gerry Adams and his main nationalist rival, the SDLP leader John Hume, to see how a political settlement in Northern Ireland could be achieved.

September - The Hume-Adams dialogue breaks down.

1991

January - Martin McGuinness takes part in British Government approved secret talks with MI6's Michael Oatley about ending the conflict.

1993

April - John Hume and Gerry Adams resume their dialogue.

October - The SDLP and Sinn Fein leader pass proposals to Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds on how to end violence and secure a permanent peace. Two months later, Mr Reynolds and Prime Minister John Major produce the Downing Street declaration setting out their vision for securing peace.

1994

August 31 - The IRA announced "a complete cessation of military activities", to be followed 43 days later with a similar ceasefire announcement by the main loyalist paramilitaries.

1995

May 10 - First official meeting in 23 years between Sinn Fein and a British Government minister.

1996

February 9 - The IRA ended its 17-month ceasefire with the bombing of London's Docklands and the killing of two innocent civilians. Government breaks off links with Sinn Fein.

1997

May 16 - Within days of becoming Prime Minister, Tony Blair delivers a keynote speech in Belfast, warning republicans: "The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train."

July 20 - The IRA reinstates its ceasefire to enable Sinn Fein to take part in talks.

September 17 - As Sinn Fein enters the talks at Stormont chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell, the DUP and other hardline unionists walk out. David Trimble's Ulster Unionists remain.

1998

April 10 - The Good Friday Agreement is signed and is endorsed a month later in a referendum by 71.12% of the people of Northern Ireland.

June 25 - The Northern Ireland Assembly Elections see the Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP emerge as the largest parties.

July 1 - David Trimble and SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon are elected First and Deputy First Minister at the Assembly's first meeting. However the UUP refuse to form a devolved government until the IRA disarms.

August 15 - The Real IRA bomb in the Co Tyrone market town of Omagh was the single deadliest atrocity in the history of the Troubles, claiming the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

1999

November 29 - After much wrangling the Assembly finally met and nominated executive ministers - only to be suspended the following February by Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson because of the IRA's failure to decommission any of its weapons.

2000

May 29 - Unionists agreed a return to Stormont and resumption of devolution on the basis of the arms issue being dealt with while the Assembly continued to function.

2002

October 14 - Devolution again suspended as power sharing fell apart over allegations of an IRA spy ring gathering intelligence at the heart of government.

2003

November 26 - Fresh Assembly elections saw Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party emerge for the first time as the largest party and Sinn Fein as the major voice of nationalism. Mr Paisley warned he would not sit in Government with Sinn Fein while the IRA retained weapons.

2005

July 28 - The Provisional IRA announced a formal end to its armed campaign, ordered units to dump all arms and pursue their goals through exclusively peaceful means.

2006

October 13 - Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern lay the foundations for a new devolution deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein. As part of the deal, Sinn Fein signs up in January 2007 to supporting policing on the understanding that that will lead to the DUP sharing power.

2007

March 6 - Following Sinn Fein's decision to endorse the police in Northern Ireland, the province went to the polls and returned both the DUP and Sinn Fein with increased numbers of seats.

May 8 - The Rev Ian Paisley becomes First Minister and Martin McGuinness is appointed Deputy First Minister at the head of the new power-sharing Executive two months after their parties triumph in an Assembly Election and then strike a deal to revive devolution. The pair's surprisingly warm relationship leads to them being referred to as the Chuckle Brothers.

2009

March - Police investigate the murders of soldiers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, by the Real IRA at Massereene Barracks in Antrim, and the murder of Pc Stephen Carroll, 48, by gunmen from the Continuity IRA in an attack in Craigavon.

Martin McGuinness branded the gunmen traitors to Ireland who had defied the expressed wishes of the Irish electorate which had endorsed the political structures born out of the Good Friday Agreement.

June 18 - It emerges that the Ulster Volunteer Force has carried out a significant act of decommissioning, with expectations that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) will follow suit.

2010

January 6 - The UDA announces that it has decommissioned all its weaponry.

2012

A vote at Belfast City Council in December to limit the days the Union flag flies from Belfast City Hall leads to street protests across Northern Ireland by Ulster loyalists. Most involve protesters blocking roads and some lead to riots. The vote to limit the flying of the flag increases tension between the two biggest parties.

2013

The flag protests continue. Tensions between Sinn Fein and the DUP are heightened when the DUP withdraws backing for a Peace and Conflict Resolution Centre on the site of the old Maze Prison, which housed paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from 1971 to 2000. Sinn Fein accuses Mr Robinson of caving in to hardline unionist opinion.

Richard Haass, the former US envoy to Northern Ireland, is brought in as an independent chairman of an all-party group set up to deal with divisive issues such as parades and protests, flags, symbols, emblems and related matters stemming from the past. Months of talks break up at Christmas without agreement.

2014

A crisis over welfare threatens to bring down power-sharing when Sinn Fein refuses to implement reforms demanded by London. Following 11 weeks of discussion, an agreement - known as the the Stormont House Agreement - is reached in December.

2015

Devolved government again faces possible collapse over a fresh welfare reform row between DUP and Sinn Fein. Devolution is already hanging by a thread after the murders of two former IRA men in Belfast in August. The chief constable of Northern Ireland, George Hamilton, says individual Provisional IRA members were behind the killing and the organisation still exists.

Crisis talks lasting 10 weeks result in the Fresh Start Agreement, a deal between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's two largest parties to find a way forward on paramilitarism and welfare reform.

2016

June - Press Association reports allegations of a multimillion-pound "cash for ash" scandal in relation to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) eco-scheme. In response, auditors confirm they are investigating.

December 16 - Martin McGuinness calls on Arlene Foster - the minister in charge of the department at the time RHI was set up - to "stand aside" as First Minister while the "cash for ash" scandal is investigated. Mrs Foster replies that she will not be stepping aside and "does not take her instructions from Sinn Fein".

2017

January 9 - Martin McGuinness resigns as Deputy First Minister in protest at the DUP's handling of the RHI scandal.

January 23 - Michelle O'Neill is named as the new leader of Sinn Fein in the north.

March 21 - Martin McGuinness dies from a rare heart condition aged 66.

2018

February 14 - Sinn Fein and DUP talks fall apart on Valentine's Day over disagreements about Irish language legislation. The two parties were reportedly close to a deal to restore powersharing, more than a year after the executive collapsed.

April 10 - 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

- Press Association
THE SUSI grant process for the 2018/19 academic year opened last week. Prospective students and their parents should apply as soon as possible.

Most students will be assessed on their parents income, so now is the time for the parents of Leaving Cert students to establish if the family will be able to avail of grant support while their child is in third-level education.

Dont assume you are not entitled to a grant, just because you are on the higher level of income tax. While the maximum grant is for those whose reckonable household income is less than 23,000, there is still considerable support for households with much higher incomes.

For example, where the household income is 39,875 or less, an undergraduate student (who is attending a college more than 45km from home) may be entitled to a grant of 3,025 per annum, plus the annual student contribution charge (currently 3,000). Students who attend a college within 45km of home are awarded a lower level of support.

The maximum income amount rises for families with more than four children and households with income of more than 60,000 may still be entitled to some support, depending on individual circumstances.

SUSI provide a simple eligibility reckoner on their website, susi.ie. This will give potential applicants an indication of whether they are entitled to support.

Preparation is key! Check out the below to get ready for your 18/19 SUSI application.  pic.twitter.com/qhZchuOAe0  @susihelpdesk (@Susihelpdesk) April 6, 2018

The levels are the same for all income types, but PAYE earners have the advantage of simple verification of income. For some categories of applicant, there may be a considerable amount of paperwork. This is true for those who pay tax other than through the PAYE system, such as farmers, the self-employed, and those who have rental or other income. The closing date is months away, but if you fall into one of those categories, it may take time to pull together the documentation SUSI require.

For the 2018/19 academic year, your application will be assessed on gross income, from all sources, for 2017. For those with self-employment/ farming/rental income, SUSI will look for a full set of trading accounts for 2017, plus the self-assessment statement that you receive from Revenue after submitting your annual return. If you have yet to make a tax return for 2017, you need to do so, before you will be able to complete the grant application. If the family has experienced a drop in income since the start of 2018, you can apply for this to be taken into account by emailing support@susi.ie and including change in circumstances in the subject line.

We are now open for applications for the 2018/19 academic year. See https://t.co/Xj3rAEas9G for the latest updates. All information regarding the grant process can be found here: https://t.co/ZDchF9nFsN. #SUSIOpenDate pic.twitter.com/DCNHkg9g1a  @susihelpdesk (@Susihelpdesk) April 5, 2018

Funding is also available for students who wish to study outside Ireland. Fees do not form part of the SUSI grant funding for students pursuing courses outside the Irish State, but the maintenance grant is available.

The course chosen must be full-time and of at least two years duration and must be be provided by a publicly funded educational institution in another EU member state.

Every year, SUSI receive thousands of applications after their summer closing date. These will still be processed, but late applications can often lead to delays in arranging the payments and students may struggle with the up-front costs of starting college, if they are still waiting on the grant to come through. There is no need to wait to apply, even if students think they may change their mind on what course they will do.

Leaving Cert students should have completed their CAO applications by now. They should go ahead with the application based on their first-choice course and adjustments will be made, if they end up changing their minds or being offered a different course.

Students are also free to work part-time and/or during the holidays, as they can earn up to 4,500 whilst in education, without any effect on grant eligibility.
Butterfly Skin is a beautiful name for an horrific disease that can lead to an aggressive cancer. Even a hug can be painful, Ailin Quinlan reports.

THIS, says Deirdre Callis, bluntly, is the worst disease youve never heard of. Callis is talking about Butterfly Skin, or epidermolysis bullosa, an excruciatingly painful and distressing condition. It causes the skin and internal body linings to blister and tear at the slightest touch. Patients with a severe form of the condition are susceptible to a very aggressive form of skin cancer, from as early as their teenage years.

Callis knows just how awful EB can be  shes had years of experience of this horrific genetic condition, in her capacity as family support manager (she was formerly a family support worker) with Debra Ireland, the organisation which provides patient support and drives research into the condition.

Essentially, the skin is a barrier to the outside world. When a baby is born with EB, that barrier doesnt work, so the child is susceptible to infection and disease, and also to damage from being picked up and hugged.

The people who love and who care for the babies can, unknowingly, pick up or hug a child in a way that causes damage, such as blistering or damage to the skin on a new-born baby. This is hugely upsetting for many new parents, says Callis (42), who says that most parents have never heard of EB until their child is born with it.

EB, which is caused by a fault in one of a number of genes responsible for holding the layers of skin together, varies from debilitating to devastating. Some forms are so severe that babies do not survive and others result in dramatically reduced life span.

Its very rare  affecting only about 1 in 18,000 babies, or 300 people, in Ireland  but so catastrophic is its impact, says Callis, that it can tear families apart.

Its very complex, and it has a huge impact on relationships and on families. Its very hard for new mothers to realise that every time you lift your baby, you could be potentially causing damage. For any new mum, things can be difficult, but, as Callis says, knowing that every time you lift your baby, you hurt it so much, is a huge stressor. When an EB baby is born in an ordinary maternity hospital, the condition is so rare, she says, that, nine times out of 10, doctors will have had no previous experience of it.

However, once it is  usually very quickly  diagnosed, the baby is sent to a special paediatric EB unit in Our Ladys Childrens Hospital in Crumlin (the service for adult EB sufferers is located in St James Hospital). A biopsy is carried out and the diagnosis confirmed, after which, depending on the severity of the condition, the baby will spend up to six weeks in the specialist unit.

The Crumlin care team usually advises the family to get in touch with Debra Ireland, says Callis, who lives in Dublin, but is a native of the Cork suburb of Togher.

At that point, either myself or a colleague will meet the family in hospital.

People are often desperately upset, she says, adding that when the Debra Ireland support workers arrive, theyre usually greeted by two reactions.

Theres enormous relief, because we know about this condition and are familiar with it.

However, also, it can be very upsetting, because meeting me or my colleague is an acknowledgement that your baby has this terrible disease.

Ive walked into Crumlin and seen a beautiful baby bandaged head to toe with only its face showing, and with wounds on the face where the blisters have been.

It can be harrowing and the parents are very upset.

Its like a deep sadness; you can taste it. You can literally feel the grief hanging in the air.

We usually see the babies in the first six weeks of life and, on the part of the parents, there is huge relief, but also sadness, says Callis, who travels to families all over Ireland from the organisations Dublin base  there are sufferers in almost every county.

We get into the car and go to the house, whether its in Valentia Island or in Derry.

I live in my car; most of any working week is based around home visits anywhere.

In consultation with hospital staff and parents, the organisation provides a diverse range of free equipment and supports, including special baby packs with silk-covered pads or pillows, which minimise damage to the babys skin and enable them to be  very carefully  lifted.

Depending on what the hospital staff recommend, we source everything from special pillowcases to seamless babygros or sheepskin liners for buggies. Its all free to parents, from Debra Ireland.

We also help organise nursing care, if needed, and we have provided funding for the provision of nursing care, Callis says.

This is crucial  every second day, an EB child has to endure four hours of excruciatingly painful dressing changes.

Imagine having no skin on your body and the bandage that acts as the skin having to be removed, head to toe, every day, Callis says.

Unsurprisingly, the organisation fund-raises exhaustively; one of its most important events is the forthcoming three-day Kerry Challenge, a daily, 25-kilometre run walk or hike, which involves up to 100 participants and takes place in Dingle, Co Kerry, between May 18 and 20.

How can I help support DEBRA Ireland?https://t.co/qF2t6HwPT4 pic.twitter.com/aa3GLwq9Bs  DEBRA Ireland - The Butterfly Skin Charity (@debraireland) March 9, 2018

Many of the participants have been regularly involved for years, says Judith Gilsenan, Debra Irelands head of fundraising and marketing, often because theyve come to know families with EB.

Every year, an EB family will join the participants at the hotel. People hear, first-hand, what its like to live with EB.

It really hammers home the importance of the fundraising event and the fact that the blisters you get from hillwalking will fade, but the blisters you get from EB never will. Importantly, says Callis, Debra Ireland also provides much-needed emotional support  the organisation remains in touch with families whose babies have died as a result of the condition.

Debra Ireland holds a memorial service every two years and, if families desire it, will put them in touch with other parents of EB children.

We believe there is a cure out there and that it will be found and we will champion that to the last breath in our bodies. Until that cure is found, we will be the support for these families, Callis says.
David Trimble was isolated, Mo Mowlan was sick, Bertie Aherns mother died, and Bill Clinton was on the line from the US, but, somehow, peace was achieved, writes political correspondent, Juno McEnroe.

Brits out. That was a mantra and goal of republicans during the 1998 Easter week talks for a peace deal in the North.

The unionist community was fractured and feared any dilution of power from London. Concessions were integral to the talks, as leaders here and across the Atlantic kept the peace train moving.

In the 1990s, the order of the day in the North was bombs, shootings, killings, and mayhem. But the changed regimes in Dublin and London, the mediation role of the US, and seminal moments aligned republicans and unionists during that historic, long week of talks in Belfast.

So, what were the key moments leading up to the Good Friday Agreement, that day when the snow fell and leaders signed off on a pivotal peace accord?

The month and weeks beforehand were fraught with obstacles.

UUP leader, David Trimble, was alienated from the Orange Order and from DUP leader, Ian Paisley, but the Bangor-native was determined to go into the all-party Belfast talks.

Relations with then Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, were also tense.

Mo Mowlam, John Hume and Gerry Adams.

Events were helped by a second IRA ceasefire the previous July, coupled with the election of Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail to power in Dublin and Tony Blair and Labour in London.

The stepping stones for a deal were in place and led to a dramatic finale, that Easter week in 1998, after a process of almost two years. A deadline set by talks chairman, ex-US senator, George Mitchell, of midnight, April 9, also focused minds.

The more-hardline DUP and Ian Paisley resented the involvement of Sinn Fein and Dublin in the talks, resulting in their refusal to engage.

As Bertie Ahern has said, the art of the possible in those negotiations was compromise. And that is what kept the more moderate UUP inside the tent.

At the beginning of April that year, talks at the office-type Castle Buildings in Belfast were at an intensive stage.

In the closing days, reporters slept on floors and chairs through the nights, a terminally-ill Mo Mowlam walked the corridors with an intravenous drip, Bertie Aherns mother died, and, all the while, US president, Bill Clinton, in Washington, was monitoring negotiations and on the phone.

It was a balancing act, trying to keep UUP on board, while giving concessions to Sinn Fein.

Unionists opposed strand two of the talks, setting up the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) and devolving powers. There were differences on policing reforms, as well as how the proposed Stormont executive would function.

Bill Clinton and Arlene Foster.

By April 7, an initial, 65-page document, with dozens of cross-border cooperations, was torpedoed by the UUP.

Then, Bertie Aherns mother, Julia, died.

On the day of her funeral, on Wednesday, April 8, he flew to Belfast for a breakfast meeting with Blair, but returned home in time for the requiem Mass.

At her graveside, officials whispered to him that he was needed back in Belfast, and so he returned for what turned out to be a key meeting and attempts to resolve a crisis in the talks over the NSMC.

File image of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Amid the drama, Ian Paisley and protesters arrived outside the gates of Castle Buildings, warning of a sell-out of the unionist position. The cries were ignored.

History was gathering pace. And it climaxed early on Friday, just after George Mitchells deadline.

Both Sinn Feins Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had met the two prime ministers and secured assurances on prisoner release. But there was a last-minute hurdle on decommissioning.

This was secured with a letter of comfort for unionists from Tony Blair and assurances from Bill Clinton.

George Mitchell then asked each party to personally come to him with assurances they were on-side.

Just before 6pm on the Friday, news broke that a deal was sealed. And the North changed forever.
While Sinn Fein has now styled itself as the fierce protector of the Good Friday Agreement, at the time it was viewed as a reluctant participant in the process.

While Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have become synonymous with the deal which has cemented 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland, during those now historic meetings of Easter Week, they often frustrated others around the table and stunted progress through delay tactics.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern remembers that a lot of the discussions centred around trying to convince Gerry that he would convince others.

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness outside the GPO in 1986.

On the Wednesday of that week, as negotiators thought they were finally getting close to an agreement Mr Ahern said Sinn Fein came in with 50 or 60 items to add to the agenda.

Likewise, Mark Durkan of the SDLP recently remembered Mr Adams as setting many conditions and quibbles in talks to drag the process out, whether that be ahead of the Good Friday Agreement or later on decommissioning.

Like Sinn Fein at large he had a habit of milking  not doing anything until he waited long enough to milk something more by doing it, he said.

And even when a deal was eventually struck, after around seven months of intense wrangling, Mr Ahern remembers Sinn Fein being the only group to attach a clause to its handshake, an element that he is at pains to remind people of.

Everyone agreed and Sinn Fein said agreed and will consult  which was to go to the IRA.

And there was a bit of dealing after that to get everything right before the referendum in May, said Mr Ahern.

Mr Adams has even alluded to this requirement to constantly go back to the grassroots and indeed consult with the IRA to ensure it was onside. He said even after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, there was trepidation about how would the Republican base respond.

Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin claimed that any delays came from a need to ensure that the agreement was the best deal possible.

If you are going to put an end to a 30-year conflict then the deal needs to be watertight, said Mr O Broin, who was working with the party in Belfast at the time.

It was after much to-ing and fro-ing, with draft and redrafting of the text and consultations that the 1998 deal was eventually signed.

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein members will argue that as far back as 1986 they had called for all-party negotiations.

But more than a decade before the Good Friday Agreement was eventually signed their moderate counterparts the SDLP  as well as the UUP on the other end of the political divide  were deeply committed to achieving peace.

They must be recognised as the architects of this peace.

It was John Hume who initially brought Gerry Adams in from the cold and brokered a seat for him in talks.

Albert Reynolds, Gerry Adams and John Hume in 1996.

He first made contact with the Sinn Fein president in 1998 to enter discussions.

On January 11, 1988, Mr Adams and Mr Hume met for several hours. That was despite protestations from some quarters including the SDLP.

In his book John Hume and the SDLP, Gerard Murray said the dialogue between Mr Hume and Mr Adams at that point signified the embryonic stages of drawing Sinn Fein into the mainstream political process.

The substance of these talks laid the basis for the later Hume/Adams dialogue in 1993 which was of paramount importance in that it led to the IRA cease-fire in August 1994, he wrote.

In the lead-up to that ceasefire, Mr Hume was again instrumental in coaxing Sinn Fein into engagement and again he faced criticism and claims of a monumental error of judgment in dealing with Mr Adams.

After meeting with then British prime minister John Major in 1993 he famously claimed that he didnt give two balls of roasted snow about the criticisms he faced for trying to bring Sinn Fein into talks.

While Sinn Fein now strongly stands by the Belfast Agreement and stresses the need to protect it, its foot-dragging and the commitment of Mr Hume to include it in the process must not be forgotten.
Unlike in 1998, unionism today is led by a dig your heels in mentality that may lead to its own undoing, writes Political Correspondent Fiachra O Cionnaith.

We rise from this table knowing that the union is stronger than it was when we first sat down. We know that the fundamental act of union is there, intact.

These were the words Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble used to greet the masses at the announcement of the Good Friday Agreement 20 years ago today.

In a day of speeches, soundbites and hands of history on our shoulders, the comment was in many ways sidelined in the memory of those in the Republic.

But, then again, the message was never meant to be directed at this community.

Two decades ago, the greatest fear within unionism was that while the Good Friday Agreement would bring long overdue peace it would weaken the treasured link to Britain and result in the slow march toward a united Ireland.

And despite Mr Trimbles insistence to the contrary on April 10, 1998, the reality is that for all the benefits the historic 1998 deal has brought and the dominant position the DUP is currently in, unionism increasingly appears to be stuck in a long-term no-mans-land.

While the community is acutely aware of what has been gained by the end of the Troubles, it is understandably fearful of its place in a scenario where greater cross-border involvement is taking place alongside a jaded view of Northern Ireland from London, with voters flocking to more extreme parties to protect what they have now as a result.

The clearest example of this issue is the change in roles of the UUP and its rival the Democratic Unionist Party over the past 20 years, which have swapped positions as the middle-ground gave way for the extreme.

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

In 1998, it was David Trimble who was both figuratively and literally inside the tent and being heralded as a courageous leader willing to sit down with his enemies, while the late Ian Paisley senior ranted and raved in fierce opposition to the deal outside.

However, while his own comments at the time showed he was aware at significant unionist anger at his decision to sit down and talk, the level of blow-back may have been understated.

In the immediate aftermath of the public vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement on May 22, 1998, six of the UUPs 10 MPs walked out of the party to join the DUP, which was the only major party to be outright opposed to the deal.

Just five years later, at the first Assembly election since the Good Friday Agreement had time to bed in, the DUP achieved a key electoral victory in 2003 when they became the largest party in Stormont, eclipsing their long-time rivals in the process.

The situation was repeated in the 2005 Westminster elections that saw the UUP lose all but one MP, Sylvia Hermon, who subsequently became an Independent.

And while many will remember Ian Paisley senior and Martin McGuinness striking up an unlikely Chuckle Brothers routine when the DUP eventually agreed to power-sharing with Sinn Fein in 2007, the reality is the unionist switch to the extreme due to the fear of the future has been a major reason for the repeated Stormont stalemates of the last 15 years, including that occurring today.

It may sound odd to suggest this is an example of unionisms increasing remoteness in no mans land, given the fact the DUP remains the largest party in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster remains first minister and the party has the whip hand in Theresa Mays patched together coalition government.

However, in many ways this is exactly what the scenario represents.

The middle-ground has been over-shadowed, a far more entrenched unionist elite has taken hold  and,

if it is not careful, the community that is just as key to lasting physical and political peace in Northern Ireland risks being left behind by a wider political world struggling to understand the unionist position, as last Decembers Brexit deal shambles so clearly showed.

Arlene Foster, Theresa May and Martin McGuinness.

While nationalists of all shades of green view the Good Friday Agreement as an almost universally positive step that has not only almost entirely ended the violence in Northern Ireland but also moved a united Ireland  or at least the debate surrounding it  a significant step closer, this is not always the case for unionism.

Yes, the guns have stopped firing, and yes, the daily, over-bearing indiscriminate threat of bomb blasts is over, but the future both for it and the people who hold the link to Britain so dear is far from clear.

Compared to the brave decision to sit down and talk in 1998, unionism today is largely governed by a dig the heels in and fervently protect what youve got mentality.

While understandable given the legitimate threats of interest from Dublin and ambivalence mixed with ignorance from London and further abroad, such a stance may ultimately be its own undoing, entirely in contrast to what Mr Trimble insisted was the case 20 years ago today.
Federal agents carrying court-authorised search warrants have seized documents from President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Mr Cohen's lawyer Stephen Ryan says the search warrants were executed by the office of the US Attorney for Southern District of New York but they are "in part" related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Mr Ryan said agents seized "protected attorney client communications". He is not elaborating on the contents. Mr Ryan says the use of the search warrants is "completely inappropriate and unnecessary".

Mr Cohen is Mr Trump's long-time personal lawyer. He has been under heavy public scrutiny in recent months for his payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Mr Trump in the mid-2000s.

- Digital Desk and Press Association
The figures released by the US Commerce Department show a global trade deficit of 48 billion in February, with Ireland being the second largest contributor to this deficit in Europe, behind Germany.

The latest figures come as President Donald Trump tries a variety of tactics to reset the balance between US imports and exports on the global stage. China has been the target for most of his vitriolic comment so far, as they are the largest exporter to the US globally, but buy much less from the US.

That led to a gap of 312bn in Chinas favour last year, which has increased 20% in the early months of this year.

Wall Street and European stock markets recovered quickly last week from the latest threats in the rising trade tension between the US and China, when each announced plans for tariffs on $50bn (41bn) in increased tariffs, indicating that businesses believe the exchanges are more bluff than substance for the time being at least.

And yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to try to de-escalate the spat by pledging to open the huge Chinese market to more car imports.

However, there is no doubting that a full-blown trade war between the worlds two largest economies, should one develop, will damage international trade growth and could cause a return to global economic contraction.

There is also the possibility of the Trump administration widening its tariff attacks and threats thereof, to other countries who contribute to the over US trade deficit, including Ireland.

South Korea, one of the early ones singled out by Trump because of its trade surplus with the US, attempted appeasement and has more than doubled its purchases of US semiconductor manufacturing machinery last year, while imports of liquefied natural gas soared, helping to push up imports from the US by 15% in January-February this year, data from the Korea International Trade Association show.

Those efforts didnt stop President Trump from insisting on renegotiating their bilateral free trade agreement.

President Trump called the deal unfair, complaining that the US deficit with Korea had doubled since it took effect in 2012. However, Seoul was granted an exemption to President Trumps steel tariffs.

India cut its trade surplus with the US as well, by 7% in the first two months, as it took delivery of defence purchases that were part of efforts to diversify its sources of military hardware.

More than half of its current inventory is Russian-origin equipment. Indias imports of aircraft and parts from the US more than doubled in fiscal 2017 to 3.5bn, Indias Commerce Ministry data show.

That included six Lockheed Martin military transport planes, according to the state-run Press Information Bureau.

India wasnt granted an exemption from the US tariffs on steel and aluminium although officials have said they will continue to seek one.

The continued increase in Irelands exports of goods and services to the US in January and February, which pushed up the trade gap by just under 6bn in the period, runs the risk of a backlash from the Trump administration.

This could mean a 36bn trade surplus for Ireland, a significant figure particularly when many European countries such as the Netherlands import more from the US than it sells to the US.

Ireland and Germany stand out as the major causes of trade imbalance.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has come in for criticism from Trumps administration for Berlins large trade surplus with the US. The deficit has grown as exports to the US increased by 13% in January-February, while imports fell.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde has also urged Germany to increase domestic spending and boost imports, warning that the build-up of large current account surpluses is partly responsible for the rise of protectionism elsewhere.

Ireland may not have the range of options Germany has to tackle the trade surplus with the US but there is a clear warning that an innovative review our trading strategy with the US is urgently needed.

John Whelan is a leading expert on international trade.
It emerged at this weeks meeting of Cork City Council that a deal to get the events centre built on part of the old Beamish & Crawford brewery site has yet to be finalised with the developers BAM Property Ltd and its partners, Live Nation.

In February, BAM and Tanaiste Simon Coveney  a Cork South Central TD  insisted a deal to secure the funding was imminent. But councillors bemoaned ongoing delays when officials told them on Monday that there is still no agreement on what share of the cost is to be paid from public or private sources.

BAM Ireland said yesterday that the funding gap, both private and public, has almost closed and the company is confident that funding to progress the project will be available.

We expect construction to be able to start during quarter four of this year, its statement said.

Cork City Council head of planning Pat Ledwidge told councillors on Monday that there was no definite start date for the events centre, but that all parties were willing to continue to a final agreement that bridges the funding gap.

The events centre is to be built on the southern zone of the 3.5-acre site, but work began on a student accommodation scheme at the northern end of the Brewery Quarter development on South Main St in November. BAM Property Ltd should know by tomorrow if its application to add an extra floor to that element is permitted by the council, which would see the number of student bed spaces increased from the 413 already permitted to 455.

The company got permission last week to replace a seven-screen cinema previously approved for the centre portion of the site, where the facade of the existing Counting House office building will be retained. Instead, increased office space is to be provided there, as offices proposed for the northern zone were replaced by more student accommodation than was originally permitted in 2011.

The conditions attached to the revised permission for the Counting House include requirements around minimum space to be dedicated to cultural use, and provisions that BAM provide appropriate space for exhibition of archaeological discoveries on the site and in relation to its industrial heritage.

Despite public criticisms of the removal of cinema use, Mr Ledwidge assured council members on Monday that nothing granted planning on the site to date contravenes the city development plan. He said the various planning changes are a result of changing market conditions.

Meanwhile, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht insisted it is still engaging with the council in relation to state investment in the events centre despite the projects omission from its 1.2bn Investing in our Culture, Language and Heritage plan launched yesterday. It said the plan sets out indicative investment levels for the national cultural institutions, including 22m for Corks Crawford Art Gallery.

These are the only cultural institutions with specific indicative figures set against them. However, the plan will also support investment in many other cultural projects around the country which are not detailed in the plan, said a spokesperson.
Thats a kiddie fiddler as in a child abuser, a criminal prone to preying on the most vulnerable and destroying lives?

If so, did this leader of the police force make such a groundless allegation in order to prevent the investigation of a corrupt practice by senior gardai that was having a detrimental effect on road safety?

These are the kind of questions Judge Peter Charleton will have to ponder when he writes his report on the Disclosures Tribunal.

Yesterday, Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness gave evidence which amounted to affirmative answers to the questions posed above. His evidence is hotly disputed by retired garda commissioner Martin Callinan but, over the coming days, others are expected to echo the substance of Mr McGuinnesss claims.

Mr McGuinnesss allegations were known for nearly two years, but he has added some detail.

The former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) got to know Sergeant Maurice McCabe in late 2013, as the PAC was investigating the Cavan-based sergeants claims about abuse of the penalty points system.

On January 23, 2014, Mr Callinan appeared before the PAC. At one point, he declared that he found the actions of Sgt McCabe and former garda John Wilson to be disgusting. It was a remark that sent Mr Callinan down a road which would lead to his premature retirement.

File photo: Martin Callinan

Yesterday, Mr McGuinness recalled that he had approached Mr Callinan in the immediate aftermath of the PAC meeting to thank him for his appearance. As he came into the commissioners orbit, the latter began relating a story about Mr Wilson.

Many years before, Mr Wilson had been called to an incident involving a Traveller on a horse in Dublins Grafton St. The garda noted that the animal was being abused.

In evidence, Mr McGuinness said that this was relayed to him by Mr Callinan, specifically in the following terms:

He [Mr Wilson] pulled the knacker off the horse and got on the horse, rode it back to the barracks, and tied it to the railing of the barracks, he said.

Then he made a reference to Sgt McCabe:

And the other fella fiddles with kids. Theyre the kind of fucking headbangers Im dealing with.

If the TD is to be believed, the then garda commissioner referred to a minority grouping in a derogatory manner and branded one of his own officers as a child abuser. Mr Callinan denies that he said these things.

Later in the day, it emerged that Mr Wilson had commandeered a horse in 1983, a year after he joined the force. Judge Charleton noted that there was nothing negative about the story.

Sometimes its easier to ride a horse than to lead a horse, he said. He did accept that it was allegedly uttered in an attempt to portray Mr Wilson as a bit of a fruitcake.

John Wilson arrivng at DisclosuresTribunal in Dublin Castle. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The allegation against McCabe was of a different order entirely. If found to be a fact, it would amount to a serving garda commissioner maliciously briefing politicians with false allegations of child abuse against a garda whistleblower.

Mr Callinan denies saying anything of the sort. Later yesterday, the tribunal was told that Superintendent Dave Taylor, who has a major role in the current module, will give evidence that he was there that day and heard Mr Callinan using the term kiddie fiddler.

In any event, Mr McGuinness also alleges that, the following day, he met Mr Callinan in a highly unusual meeting in a carpark on the Naas Road outside Dublin. Here, Mr Callinan was allegedly more specific, according to Mr McGuinness.

He suggested that he [McCabe] had sexually abused family and an individual, that he was not to be trusted and that I had made a grave error.

This was a reference to Mr McGuinnesss intent to bring Sgt McCabe to give evidence before the PAC.

Mr Callinan denies this as well. A succession of stories and episodes involving garda malpractice in recent years has left many inured to garda scandals.

However, if it was ever found as fact that there was substance to the allegations being made against the commissioner of the day it would amount to nothing less than disgusting.

There is no room in the conflicting accounts for misstatements, misremembering, confusion, interpretation, or even poor hearing. This is not a case of somebody getting the wrong end of the stick.

Either the garda commissioner said these things or he didnt. Either a long-standing politician or a former garda commissioner is giving an untruthful account to a statutory inquiry.

John McGuinness

Mr McGuinness repeatedly stated yesterday that he was there to tell the truth. Martin Callinans statement gives an entirely different account and he is expected to hotly dispute McGuinness when he gives evidence.

Mr McGuinnesss evidence continues tomorrow. He will be followed in the witness box by Fine Gael TD John Deasy. He stated in 2017 that he had been briefed negatively by a senior garda about Sgt McCabe around the time of the contentious PAC meeting.

He is expected to reveal the identity of the senior garda tomorrow. After him, the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy will give evidence.

He has provided a statement to the tribunal about what Mr Callinan said to him on the day of the PAC meeting.
Mr Woulfe said the courts system needs to return to a victim-centred approach.

If people had a somewhat greater understanding and awareness of the system and its rules and requirements and the procedures  that might help to demystify the process and help people understand the reasons for rules and procedure, he said.

This might be as simple as practising lawyers speaking to clients in plain language, and again that is an experience some of us have [when] ringing a colleague about a case thats on tomorrow.

We often just wish they would talk to us in more plain language instead of the gobbledegook that goes on even between ourselves.

He was speaking at a Victims Directive Conference held in Dublin where both Irish and international experts delivered talks about how to improve the legal system for vulnerable witnesses.

Mr Woulfe said the goal is to improve the experience of victims in our courts system through education and legal developments.

Not only is the victims credibility being attacked but we are asking victims of sexual violence to speak the unspeakable in open court Maeve Lewis of @oneinfourirish explains why vulnerable witnesses say if theyd known what was coming they would not have made a complaint pic.twitter.com/tEILfE0QET  ICCLtweet  (@ICCLtweet) April 9, 2018

Its important to recall again that the goal should be to return to a more victim-centred approach, he said. Its through legal developments coupled with education initiatives and attempts to demystify the legal process that we can improve the situation for victims and court users.

It falls to everyone now, lawyers and other people involved in the criminal justice system, to redouble the efforts to ensure that the needs and the rights of victims are not lost and to ensure the implementation of an improved system which takes account of the needs of the most vulnerable.

Mr Woulfe said that, because of the somewhat disinterested and objective nature of courtrooms, its not too surprising then to hear victims saying they find the courtroom intimidating, alien, and strange.

Also speaking at the event was Paul McGarry, chair of the Bar of Ireland.

He said: Its timely, I suppose, that we are discussing these issues now, but I suppose I should caution that although issues that are topical and newsworthy crop up from time to time and give these things a context and perhaps generate a little bit more attention, its important we dont lose sight of the fact that they [media and public attention] will go away but these issues will remain.

Margaret Tuite, European Commission co-ordinator for the rights of the child, also spoke yesterday.

Margaret Tuite of @EUCommission outlines some shocking statistics on violence against children. 90% of abuse against children goes undetected. #victimsrights pic.twitter.com/iMVSPg3Crd  ICCLtweet  (@ICCLtweet) April 9, 2018

She referred to the lack of data when it comes to crimes against children and crimes of a sexual nature.

No data, no problem. Good and comprehensive data inform good policies and procedures and help us to learn, said Ms Tuite.
It has reduced a three-year fixed rate for first-time buyers from 3.30% to 3.15% and dropped its five-year fixed rate from 3.40% to 3.25%.

The bank has also cut a number of fixed rates for borrowers with a loan-to-value ratio of 60% to 80% by 0.15%, a cut that can mean significant savings for the mortgage holder over the lifetime of the loan.

A first-time buyer borrowing 270,000 over 30 years at Permanent TSBs previous three-year fixed rate of 3.30% will have a monthly repayment of 1,182.

However, a buyer borrowing 270,000 at the banks new rate of 3.15% will have a monthly repayment of 1,160. This is a saving of 22 a month, or 264 a year.

Permanent TSB has also extended its 2%+2% cashback offer until September.

The reductions follow similar moves by KBC and Ulster Bank.

Permanent TSBs new fixed rates will be among the most competitive in the market.

Head of communications with bonkers.ie, Mark Whelan, said Irish borrowers have been paying much more than their European counterparts for too long.

It is the third mortgage rate reduction weve seen in three weeks which means were are in the midst of a new mortgage rate war, he said. All eyes will now be on AIB and Bank of Ireland to see how they respond.

To take advantage of the new mortgage rate war, borrowers should compare all rates available on the market and approach cashback offers with caution before committing.
Cork County Council engineers and consultants Arup have come up with a series of proposals to ease traffic gridlock in Little Island.

They said that the works should be carried out quickly, before Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) starts a 100m upgrade of the nearby Jack Lynch Tunnel/Dunkettle interchange.

More than 7,000 workers are employed in Little Island, with the vast majority driving to and from work.

Peter ODonoghue, the councils senior engineer in charge of traffic and transport, said he believes the plans will significantly reduce queuing at peak times.

The plans include the creation of an additional traffic lane on the flyover, to be achieved by reducing the width of footpaths.

It is proposed to introduce another approach lane, heading north from Ballytrasna, from Eastgate industrial estate to the Eastgate roundabout.

Mr ODonoghue said traffic modelling studies by Arup show this would speed up car movements.

A number of submissions on the proposals have been received from local groups and individuals, especially about the lack of cycle lanes and the reduction in the width of the flyover footpaths.

Councillors have also expressed concern about these issues.

Mr ODonoghue said the council is preparing a separate study focusing on the needs of cyclists and pedestrians in Little Island. This will be completed in the next few weeks.

It is also likely that a number of new pedestrian crossings would be introduced in the area.

We will give a commitment that the issue of pedestrian safety will be dealt with appropriately, said Mr ODonoghue. Were not going to ignore pedestrian safety. It will be dealt with to the highest possible standard at the detailed design stage.

Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said he was glad to hear the pedestrian concerns will be resolved.

We have a train station in Little Island, which unfortunately isnt being used as much as it should be and we need to look at that again, said Mr Barry.

Mr ODonoghue said traffic queuing would be monitored along the old N25 through Glounthaune village.

Mr Barry said he was concerned that when work starts on upgrading the Jack Lynch Tunnel/Dunkettle interchange, motorists will pile through Glounthaune to avoid it, using rat runs down through the villages of Watergrasshill and Knockraha.

He said he is still of the opinion that the only way to solve traffic jams in Little Island is to open up a new entrance off the N25 at the Cobh Cross side of Little Island.

A landowner in that area has offered the use of some of his land to construct that road.

People living in Little Island dont see any gain for themselves [with these plans]. Theyve been ignored for generations in favour of industries, said Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy.

Mr ODonoghue acknowledged this is not the complete solution to Little Islands traffic problems.

He said engineers are also preparing a report looking at all transport modes in the area.

It is expected the addition of extra lanes in Little Island will be completed by early 2019 at the latest.
John Calnan who is now living at The Presbytery, Roman St, Cork, was formally arrested and charged yesterday by Detective Garda Maurice Shanley.

As soon as Calnan was charged and cautioned by the detective, he replied guilty to each of the charges.

Inspector Daniel Coholan then told Judge Olann Kelleher at Cork District Court that the DPP had directed that all cases should be dealt with by indictment at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Joseph Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said there would be no requirement for the preparation of a book of evidence as the accused was prepared to enter signed pleas of guilty to the charges.

Judge Olann Kelleher then sent the cases forward for sentencing until the county sessions of Cork Circuit Criminal Court on April 24.

It will then be a matter for the accused to be sentenced on that date or adjourned until later in the sessions for sentencing.

No background details to yesterdays cases were given in Cork District Court yesterday.

The accused was remanded on bail to the circuit court.

At the last sessions of Cork Circuit Criminal Court last month, the same defendant pleaded guilty to carrying out the indecent assault on a communion girl in the late 1980s.

Calnan was sentenced to three years in 2015 for a similar assault and a concurrent year for another sexual assault.

The following year, the next complainant came forward and made her complaint to gardai about what the priest had done to her.

Last month, Judge Sean O Donnabhain noted the two previous jail sentences for similar crimes and said that there was no point in re- committing him to jail at this point in his life, so he imposed a suspended sentence.

Calnan was ordained in 1964, serving most of the time in West Cork.

In 1992, he stopped ministering as a priest and went to the Gracewell clinic in Birmingham to deal with his offending behaviour.

The full background to the three sexual assaults  to which Calnan pleaded guilty yesterday  will be given at the sentencing hearing.

It is anticipated that victim impact statements will also be given if the victims chose to make them.
In the last number of weeks, as weve watched the Belfast trial, a conversation has sort of been set up around the rights of the defendant and the rights of the complainant, said Cliona Saidlear, director of the RCNI.

What often is portrayed in that, is that its a competition  if you give complainant rights, you take them away from the defence. This isnt the case.
As we marched, Im guessing the thing we were hoping for most was that someone was listening. The Taoiseach, maybe, or his Minister for Housing. They have accepted, again and again, that this is a crisis. But they seem powerless to do anything about it.

Theres a fodder crisis in Ireland at the moment. Its a serious but probably a short-term thing. That didnt stop the Minister for Agriculture from appearing on virtually every media outlet possible. It didnt stop him from introducing new subsidies, updating the existing ones, meeting with every conceivable stakeholder.

So, in a matter of days, theres a new fodder import subsidy. Theres a new fodder transport subsidy. Money has been allocated for both. The rules and regulations, and the procedures for applying, are there on the departments website. Theyre the shortest set of rules and regulations for a state subsidy Ive ever seen. Theres even a statement from the Road Safety Authority announcing that a pragmatic approach will be taken to any trucker who works longer hours than they should in bring fodder to farmers and animals in distress.

I know the farming organisations have been slagging off the minister for not doing enough. It has even been suggested to him that he should, by some miracle, have seen the fodder crisis coming months ago.

But to an outsider, this has all the look of a crisis where the machinery of the State has been cranked into operation in double quick time. And the key to the response has been simple. If the rules as theyre written dont allow us to get help to farmers quickly enough, lets rewrite the rules. Even road safety rules have been relaxed in this crisis.

So what Im left wondering is, if hungry animals and angry farmers can force this kind of quickfire action, how come theres a complete silence from Government in the face of 20,000 people marching on the street? Is it possible that farmers have powerful lobbies and long memories, and homeless people dont  often cant  vote?

When I say the Government is silent about homelessness, perhaps thats a bit of an injustice. Actually, the Government appears to be saying quite often that theyre doing everything they can.

But two recent publications tell a slightly different story. First of all The Department of Housing published the most recent homelessness figures, covering a week in February. They show that 1,739 families are homeless in our rapidly recovering economy, that more than 1,000 of these are single parent families, and that those families have 3,755 dependents, the great majority of whom are children.

Although two-thirds of the people accounted for are in Dublin, there are homeless families in every county in Ireland. These figures are tracked and interpreted every month by Focus Ireland, and the trends they reveal are in some ways even more frightening  and shaming  than the raw numbers. In the last three years, Focus demonstrates, the number of adult males in homelessness has gone up by nearly 80%. The number of women in homelessness has more than doubled.

But the number of children in homelessness has more than quadrupled. If ever there was a case for a constitutional right to decent safe shelter, especially for children, it is to be found in these trends.

The other document published by the Department of Housing in the last few days looks, on the face of it, like a much more hopeful one. Its an update on something called the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund.

It was set up to enable state investment to be made in key infrastructural developments to support housing projects. The 30 projects now being supported by the fund are aimed at securing the building of around 20,000 houses by 2021.

Proud to march today in largest housing protest in over 30 years in Dublin. 10,000 in solidarity with all those affected by #HousingCrisis the homeless, students, renters, workers, migrants, Travellers - a new growing movement for the right to housing in Ireland @_HousingCrisis pic.twitter.com/1O1xFjlCOx  Rory Hearne (@RoryHearne) April 7, 2018

But the fund is not aimed at building the houses. Instead, it is designed to ensure that the roads the housing estate needs will all be in place. Not just roads  theres a couple of bridges, some water infrastructure, the re-routing of power lines in one or two cases.

All well and good. If we could assume that all the projects involved are what they call shovel-ready  the planning is done, the contractors have been appointed, the finance is in place  then this final piece of activation would be simply fantastic. Theres a good mix of private, affordable and social housing in all these projects, and they are, in the main, where people want to live. So if we could believe that all thats standing in the way is a little loop road, or the provision of mains water, you could almost begin to see an end to the housing crisis.

Alas, its not nearly as simple as that. Near where I live is Cherrywood. Cherrywood is two massive holes in the ground. The holes are big enough to build a new town on  certainly 2,000 houses if not more  and that new town would be served by the Luas, by a bus

network, and by a major link road to the M50, on which endless work has been done. In other words, the supporting infrastructure, all paid for by the state, is largely in place.

But there is no sign whatever of the holes being replaced by housing. A little further away, there are lands being prepared for housing development on what used to be the old Bray golf club. The land is owned by Nama, and my understanding is that it will take several years to consult and develop frameworks and masterplans before the search for planning can begin.

This all bears out what I was told by a housing developer recently. This man has 50m of housing projects in various stages of preparation, but very little of it actually under way. (50m sounds like an astronomical sum to me, but it represents the investment in around 200 houses.) Forget the guff you read about financing, he told me. Builders can get money now.

AND they know theres a buyer for every new house. The big issue is getting a project through the planning stages. He told me that although there are rules and timelines that ought to provide a streamlined approach, most builders operate on the basis of a presumption that planning will be refused rather than granted, and even in cases where the planners and the builders are on the same side, the process takes years rather than months.

So the list we need to see  and the minister needs to see it above all else  is the list of shovel ready projects that are being held up by bureaucracy. If he were to concentrate on, say, the 10 biggest, and made it his business to remove every last obstacle, he would then be able to publish a list of actual, as opposed to potential, houses that are on the way.

Maybe then we wouldnt have to march in protest.

Theres a complete silence from Government in the face of 20,000 people marching on the street
Arts Abstract Painter Soe Naing Says Art Can Be About 'Nothing'

Soe Naing at home with his work in Yangon. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  After decades struggling as a lesser-known artist, Soe Naing can now lead a decent life. But many years of work with canvas and paint have put his home at risk.

Will you sell your floor or shall I remove it and take it? some of his friends and fans have joked.

To most people, the floor of his house is just a bunch of wood planks splattered with blotches of colorful paint . To his fans, it is a priceless work of art.

Soe Naing has turned the entire upper floor of his humble two-story wooden house in Yangons North Dagon Township into his studio. There, he has created thousands of paintings. There, collectors have bought hundreds of his creations.

Today no one remembers when, some 30 years ago, Soe Naing had to walk from one magazine house to another to sell his illustrations.

Born with Thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder, Soe Naing never really enjoyed good health. But there was never a day that Soe Naing did not paint or draw.

Raised under the Burma Socialist Program Party, food and other supplies were scarce when he was young. But on the days his family cooked meat, he could not help using the leftover oil for his art.

I would always draw something with pen or pencil. Suffice it to say that I am inspired by the unconscious obsession, Soe Naing said.

He studied zoology in the hope that he would be able to draw animals. U Thein Han was one of his first artistic mentors while he was attending university.

Soe Naing was inspired by abstract expressionist artists Williem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and became a new figurative but struggling artist after his abstract depictions of humans, dogs, cats, horses and such won praise from critics.

Art and literature critic Zaw Zaw Aung said: Soe Naings paintings include figures of living things; they are not human figures, but sub-human figures.

Soe Naing has created a new trend in Myanmar modernism. He added small figures with intense and swift brush work, which was different from pure abstract works of Kin Maung Yin, Maung Di, Khin Wan and Aung Myint, contemporary artist U Aung Min wrote in his book on Myanmar contemporary art.

Though he set a new trend, his paintings were still not the most popular with collectors. Once, a member of the governments art exhibit censorship board even asked him to work, thinking the artist had stopped painting.

Soe Naing, however, had been working day in, day out. His paintings finally started to sell in the 2000s.

The artist does not like people asking him what his paintings represent. I dont like to define my paintings at all. Perhaps they think [paintings] are valuable only when they represent something. They are not satisfied when I say it is nothing, he said.

But more and more people are liking his work. Local and foreign collectors have come to his house and bought his paintings in bulk. He has also exhibited his paintings in Thailand and Singapore.

At an art exhibit last year, Soe Naing drew with pitch instead of paint to demonstrate that art can be created with anything.

Art is close to us. It is not pretentious, he said.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Bangladesh Struggling to Stop Rohingya From Fleeing Camps, Country

A Rohingya refugee boy carries water in the Kutupalong refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 22. / Reuters

DHAKA, Bangladesh  Authorities, aid workers and refugees say despair and strife  and the fear of repatriation, or relocation to a desolate island  are driving a growing number of Rohingya to flee Bangladeshs refugee camps, even the country, amid tightening restrictions on their movement.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy last week, a number of Bangladeshi government officials said many Rohingya were leaving the camps in search of better living, and that many were trying to obtain Bangladeshi passports from various regional offices of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP).

On Thursday, police stopped a 16-year-old Rohingya girl from a Coxs Bazar camp at a passport office in the port city Narayanganj, about 30 km from Dhaka.

Azizul Hoque, the inspector of the Siddhirganj police station in Narayanganj, said a 55-year-old man from eastern Comilla District arrived with the girl on Wednesday and that they went to the DIP office the next day to get her a passport.

The man introduced himself as her father and applied for her passport, Azizul Hoque said.

But staff saw that the girl could not speak Bangla and noticed that the application had been submitted with a false address in Narayanganj District.

The inspector said the girl had come to Bangladesh after the Aug. 25 militant attacks on security posts in Myanmars Rakhine State, which triggered a massive military and police crackdown on the areas Muslim communities. Some 700,000 Muslim Rohingya have since fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.

Police filed a case against the man under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, and a magistrate court placed him in pre-trial detention. The court also took a statement from the girl, who explaining how and why she was brought to the passport office. Police are still investigating to determine whether any other people were involved.

The girl told us that she was arranging the passport for her travel to Saudi Arabia for a job. She was basically lured by fraudsters. We found out that her mother is in a Coxs Bazar camp and we are trying to communicate with her to send her daughter back, Azizul Hoque told The Irrawaddy on Saturday.

On March 3, police stopped another teenage Rohingya girl at a passport office in Rajshahi City in northern Bangladesh.

Humayun Kabir, the chief of Chandrima Police Station, told The Irrawaddy: We could not catch the person who brought the girl here. The girl could not speak Bangla, so we could not get details about her. But she was brought here by a person from Coxs Bazar to arrange her passport. We sent the girl back to the camps in police protection.

DIP officials told The Irrawaddy that similar incidents had occurred in Mymensingh, Noakhalia, Chittagong and elsewhere.

In Chittagong, passport officer Abu Noman Md Zakir Hossain said the DIP had a three-tier verification system and that his office had confiscated applications from 11 Rohingya who submitted forged documents in the past five-and-a-half months.

Of the 11 applicants, only two had arrived in Bangladesh since late August.

Their main reason [for wanting passports] is to go abroad, Abu Noman Md Zakir Hossain said. We have been asked to tighten our verification process, and we decided that no passport will be issued without police verification.

Coxs Bazar police authorities have foiled attempts by more than 50,000 Rohingya to flee the refugee camps since September, and 3,014 others have been sent back to Coxs Bazar from across the country.

We rescued them and sent them to camps where they have to live under our supervision, Coxs Bazar deputy police chief Afruzul Hoque Tutul said.

Since September, Bangladeshi authorities have set up several checkpoints in Coxs Bazar to monitor the movement of the Rohingya, but many have still managed to leave. Getting a passport in Coxs Bazar appears to be difficult  the local passport office has caught dozens of people trying to use forged documents  so some are trying their luck at DIP offices elsewhere, often using forged documents and fake addresses.

Most of those who have been caught and returned to the Coxs Bazar camps were not included in the registration process now underway under the supervision of the DIP

As of last week, the DIP had registered about 1,095,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. Three offices in the Coxs Bazar camps are continuing the biometric registration process.

Once the registration is completed, we will blacklist their data on the server so that none of them can get a passport or other services, said a senior Home Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Norol Mostafa arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar in the first week of September with eight relatives. They have been trying to leave their refugee camp ever since.

Norol Mostafa told the Irrawaddy that his father and grandmother last tried to leave in February to get his grandmother medical attention for her eyes, but the police intercepted them and sent them back. So we are still in the camp, he said.

Why are Rohingya Leaving the Camps?

Bangladesh Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam told The Irrawaddy that the reasons the refugees are leaving the camps vary from individual to individual, but that many of them want to move freely because the camps have become suffocating for them.

He said most of them have become dependent on aid.

A police officer and a relief worker who interact with the Rohingya refugees regularly said they believed that internal conflicts, enmity and crime are forcing many Rohingya to leave the camps and rent housing elsewhere, though police banned renting to Rohingya back in September.

Officials with Bangladeshs Rapid Action Battalion said they have captured 13 thieves in and around the refugee camps in Ukiya and Tekhnaf. Six of them were Rohingya who were robbing other Rohingya with the help of locals.

District police said 13 murders have taken place inside the camps since September. Investigators believe they were the result of internal feuds, disputes dating back to Myanmar or power struggles within the camps. Another 24 people have been named in arms cases.

The Rohingya have not been given psycho-social counseling since they arrived here for the trauma they experienced, said Abul Kashem, executive director of Help Coxs Bazar, a local charity. He said that was another reason why refugees were leaving the camps, though he added that Bangladesh was doing the best it could with its limited resources.

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, Myanmar has approved for return only 556 Rohingya from a list of 8,032 refugees provided by Bangladesh in mid-February and wants more time before the repatriations begin.

Bangladesh is meanwhile preparing a list of another 10,000 Rohingya, according to an April 1 report by the Daily Manabzamin.

Apart from repatriation, the government has tasked its navy with building cyclone shelters and to develop a 10,000-acre site on the island of Bhasanchar to relocate some of the Rohingya. A Foreign Affairs Ministry official has said the government would involve the UN in the relocation process.

Bhasanchar, which sits in the estuary of the Meghna River, is a one-hour boat ride from Sandwip, the nearest inhabited island, and two hours from Hatiya, one of the countrys largest islands.

Many of us say they do not want to return to their homeland, and no one wants to go to Bhasanchar, so they are trying to leave the camps in advance, Syed Alam, a leader of the Kutupalong refugee camp, told The Irrawaddy.

He said Rohingya from Myanmar were still arriving.

From what Ive seen and heard from people  no access to health services, concerns about protection, continued displacements  conditions are not conducive to return, Ursula Mueller, the UNs assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told Reuters after a recent six-day visit to Myanmar.

In 2012 and 2013, Shahparir Dwip island was used as a transit point to reach large fishing trawlers that would transport refugees to Malaysia through Thai waters. But Thailand has cracked down on the trafficking in recent years under international pressure.

In late September an alleged trafficker on Shahparir Dwip said that those who used to move the refugees by sea were reluctant to do so again after some of them were killed or arrested by authorities.

Between February 14 and March 4, eight people in Coxs Bazar were sent to jail for one to six months for helping Rohingya enter Bangladesh across the Naff River, which separates the country from Myanmar.

Bangladesh Coast Guard spokesman Abdullah Al Maruf said two ships were deployed around the clock along the coastal belt to check the traffickers.
Burma Govt, Karenni Armed Group Agree to Formal Talks

KNPP and government representatives meet in Yangon on March 7. / Peace Commission / Facebook

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  The government and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) say they have agreed to hold formal talks to improve relations later this month in Loikaw, the capital of Karenni State.

Both sides told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that they agreed to start the two-day summit on either April 23 or 24 during an informal meeting in Loikaw on Friday between the KNPPs Peace Implementation Committee and the governments Peace Commission.

KNPP liaison officer Khu Nyay Reh said Fridays meeting included discussion of portions of the bilateral agreements they signed in 2012 and 2013 that have yet to be fulfilled.

During an informal meeting in Yangon in March, they discussed joint ceasefire monitoring, troop deployment, development of Karenni State and mining sector transparency.

Whether the KNPP decides to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) will depend on how far the government is willing to relax its terms during the formal talks, said Khu Nyay Reh, as the KNPP was presently focused on seeing the bilateral deals fully implemented.

U Hla Maung Shwe, an adviser to the governments Peace Commission, said the formal talks would focus on the bilateral agreements and that he expected the summit to prove productive.

The KNPP is a member of the defunct United Nationalities Federal Council and led its negotiations with the government for the past two years.

Two of the councils four members, the New Mon State Party and the Lahu Democratic Union, signed the NCA in February. The KNPP chose not to sign at the time, in part because it accuses the Myanmar army of executing some of its soldiers in December. Khu Nyay Reh said the Myanmar army, which has claimed that the soldiers were killed in a firefight, was still investigating the deaths.
Burma Rakhine Launches Investigation Into State Minister as Part of Impeachment Process

Rakhine State Planning and Finance Minister U Kyaw Aye Thein. / Min Aung Khaing / The Irrawaddy

SittweThe Rakhine State Parliament has formed an investigation team to bring impeachment charges against U Kyaw Aye Thein, the state minister for planning and finance, for his alleged failure to fulfill ministerial duties.

After 12 lawmakers submitted a petition to impeach the minister, State Parliamentary Speaker U San Kyaw Hla set up the investigation team on April 9.

U Kyaw Aye Thein is accused of failing to comply with financial rules and regulations and procedures in using state funds, as well as failing to perform his ministerial duties.

There are many wrongdoings that he has committed, especially concerning the public interest. We already have the evidence, U Nai Kywe Aye, a National League for Democracy lawmaker from Thandwe Township and the head of the investigation team, told The Irrawaddy.

The announcement about the investigation reads the team was formed in line with Article 263 (c) of the 2008 Constitution in response to a proposal to impeach Minister U Kyaw Aye Thein, whose failure to perform his duties has resulted in significant losses from regional development works planned in respective townships in Rakhine State.

The team will start its investigation after the Thingyan festival and is due to report its findings on May 30, U Nai Kywe Aye said.

In addition to U Nai Kywe Aye, the investigation team comprises lawmakers U Aye Thein, U Oo Than Naing, U Aung Than Tin of the Arakan National Party and U Tun Hla Sein of the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Municipal Minister U Min Aung of Rakhine was dismissed in December after being impeached by the state parliament for failure to perform his duties.
Burma Union Minister to Tour Refugee Camps on Visit to Bangladesh

Rohingya refugees walk inside Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Jan. 8, 2018. / Reuters

YANGON Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Win Myat Aye will inspect Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh during a two-day official trip, the first such visit from a senior member of the Union government.

I will meet directly with those in the camps. I heard they are not receiving the truth about what we are doing. So I will meet them and tell them what we have done and are doing, U Win Myat Aye said.

The minister, who is also the head of the governments Implementation Committee for Recommendations on Rakhine State and deputy head of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, said the visit was proposed by the Myanmar side to discuss the delayed repatriation process with Bangladeshi officials.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to begin the repatriation on Jan. 23. But as of today, not a single refugee has been returned.

U Win Myat Aye said Myanmar had approved about 750 refugees from a list of more than 8,000 that Bangladesh provided in February for Myanmar to check their backgrounds prior to their return.

We will discuss how we can start the repatriation immediately. It will be quick if the process is carried out as per the bilateral agreement, U Win Myat Aye said.

If the negotiations with Bangladesh go well, the repatriation can start immediately, he added.

Despite the governments repeated claim that it is ready to start taking back some of the almost 700,000 Rohingya who have fled the country, the UNs assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Ursula Mueller, said the country is not ready to handle the return of the refugees, after completing a six-day visit to Myanmar earlier this week.

U Win Myat Aye said he did not want to respond to her comments.

Only with cooperation with what we are doing will the repatriation succeed. But things that could cause hesitation are not good. I think cooperation is more important, he said.

Other members from the Union Enterprise, interfaith leaders and officials will also join the team.
News After Fighting in Northern Shan, Displaced Families Still Scared to Head Home

Houses are seen on fire during fighting between the RCSS and TNLA on March 13. / Tai Freedom

YANGON  Nearly a month since the latest round of fighting broke out between two ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State, displaced families have yet to return to their homes for fear of being recruited and extorted.

More than 800 people fled their homes in Kyaukme Township amid fighting between the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) from March 10 to 20 near the village of Tew Phe, Sai Tun Nyan, a Shan State parliamentarian, told The Irrawaddy.

Some dont want to go back because armed groups recruit and extort money from them, he said.

The TNLA, RCSS, Shan State Progress Party and two local militia are all active in the area.

The threat of landmines is deterring their return as well, said U Tin Maung Thein, chairman of the Jivitadana social organization.

There were casualties and damage to their houses during the fighting. They saw mortar shells falling near them and their houses burning. They were quite frightened, he said.

Locals make a living by growing tea plants, and the harvest season will end soon. But locals are too afraid to return to their plantations because of the armed groups, U Tin Maung Thein said.

They have no money because they cant pluck tea leaves, he said.

Twenty-two locals from Mansan village, 430 from Tew Phe village and 428 from Onmwe village fled their homes for Kyaukme Town on March 13 and have been getting by on odd jobs since.

Some of their houses were completely burned, said Sai Tun Nyan, adding that he had reported the situation to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

U Tin Maung Thein said he was also concerned that the fighting may escalate into racial violence between ethnic Shan and Palaung residents because of instigation on social media.

The two armed groups have been fighting on and off over disputed territory since November 2015.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
News Rights in Poorer Nations Must Be Upheld as Thai Firms Go Abroad, Activists Say

Workers collect chopped sugar cane on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 3, 2016. / Reuters

BANGKOK  Thailands businesses and its government must do more to protect the rights of vulnerable people abroad, analysts and activists said, after a landmark case filed by Cambodian farmers in a Bangkok court against a Thai sugar firm.

It is the first time plaintiffs from another country have filed a class-action lawsuit against a Thai company in a Thai court over its operations outside Thailand.

The two plaintiffs represent about 3,000 people who say they were forcibly removed from their homes and land in five villages in Oddor Meanchey Province in Cambodias northwest, to make way for a Mitr Phol sugarcane plantation between 2008 and 2009.

As cross-border investments in the region increase to tap resources, markets and cheaper labor, cases such as these will become more common because of differences in legislation and inadequate protections for workers and residents, experts said.

This is about ensuring that Thai companies respect human rights in the countries they operate in, and holding them accountable for violations, said Sor Rattanamanee Polkla at the Community Resource Center, which is representing the plaintiffs.

There is no Thai law against irresponsible outbound investment, and countries like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar do not have proper frameworks for environmental and social impact assessments. We had no choice but to file a suit, she said.

The plaintiffs are asking for their land to be returned and 4 million baht ($130,000) in total compensation, she said.

Mitr Phol, the Thai sugar producer, said it had received temporary concessions in compliance with all local and national laws, and had assurances from the Cambodian government that the areas had been processed legally and transparently.

Mitr Phol said it had withdrawn from the project in 2014, and that it had recommended that the Cambodian government return the land to the affected communities.

The case, filed last month, is set to begin on June 11.

Not Binding

Cambodia awarded large economic land concessions to foreign companies  mainly from China, Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand  to operate mines, power plants and farms in order to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty.

Such deals, which covered more than a tenth of the countrys surface area by 2012, have displaced more than 770,000 people since 2000, rights lawyers say.

Following protests and pressure from rights groups, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a moratorium on new concessions in 2012, and promised to review old ones.

But activists say the reviews did not lead to significant changes, and that even when concessions were cancelled, the land was often retained by the government.

In the case of Mitr Phol, the villagers first filed a complaint with the Bonsucro sugarcane sustainability initiative, and then the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Thailand, a government agency.

After a two-year investigation, the NHRC said rights violations had occurred, and Mitr Phol was directly responsible. It asked Mitr Phol to pay compensation in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

But the NHRCs powers are limited, Sor said, and the Cambodian farmers did not get compensation or their land back.

The NHRC can issue recommendations, but these are not binding. Filing cases is an option, but it is always a challenge to go through the judicial system, Angkhana Neelapaijit, a member of the NHRC, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The NHRC has received more than a dozen complaints about Thai overseas investments, particularly in Southeast Asia, related to their impact on the environment and people, she said.

Negative Impacts

In response to the NHRCs recommendations, the Cabinet issued resolutions in 2016 and 2017, calling for Thai investors to respect and protect the rights of local people, and to prevent adverse impacts on the environment and to livelihoods.

Last year, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the government intended to implement the UN guiding principles in a policy plan being drafted in consultation with rights groups.

But the region has proven to be a laggard in adopting an enforceable regional human rights system, said David Pred, co-founder of advocacy group Inclusive Development International.

We shouldnt hold our breath waiting for governments to adopt one. But that need not stop people from pursuing justice for business-related human rights violations in the national courts of the countries where the companies are domiciled.

Thai outbound investment in 2017 totaled about $20 billion, according to the countrys investment board, much of it going to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

But investors are backing projects with little regulation and often with disregard for the human and environmental rights impacts, according to a report from the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights published in November.

Negative impacts commonly include destruction of livelihoods, land grabs, and forced eviction, it said.

Thai investors must apply the highest international standards and offer remedy for abuses, said Surya Deva, a member of the UN working group, which concluded a 10-day visit to Thailand last week.

If Thai companies are benefiting from these investments, and outsourcing negative human rights impacts, it is critical that they also provide opportunities for any victims to file cases in Thailand if needed, he said.

It is a complicated process, but that option should be available, he said.
The University of Technology Sydney is the first academic institution to work with SAS and Cisco in a global Internet of Things partnership, creating a new research and teaching facility, the UTS-SAS-Cisco IoT Innovation Lab. The lab is already pursuing two significant projects which it claims will change the world.

The lab was announced today at the SAS Global Forum 2018. Dr Gengfa Fang, director of UTS-SAS-Cisco IoT Innovation Lab, Faculty of Engineering and IT, took some time from his schedule to speak to iTWire.

Its taken a lot of effort and collaboration to get to this point, but were very excited by the future, Fang said, explaining he first saw SAS at CeBIT 2016 and was impressed by the people and the technologies, while SAS was also interested in the IoT work UTS was doing.

A lot of people approach SAS and ask for collaborations, but UTS has a history of collaboration with Cisco, so SAS said lets get Cisco on board too and make it a more exciting and bigger joint IoT innovation lab. We didnt start off with the idea of an innovation lab but Cisco thought big and recognised UTS was an excellent location for them to be in the Sydney area. UTS has always been keen to collaborate with big industry players and already has achievements in the IoT space.

Cisco has previously worked with UTS on two Centres of Research Excellence with $15 million in government grants, on food agility  using IoT to enhance the supply chain  and on using IoT for transportation in a project titled I-Move. Cisco agreed to contribute to the lab with $2.4 million of IoT technology and the SAS licensing agreement followed shortly providing full SAS licensing.

With both infrastructure and data analytics on-board UTS had the ingredients to make its lab really unique. We believe streaming data analytics is the key for IoT, Fang said. It has to be real-time, making decisions in real-time. IoT isnt about downloading gigabytes of historical data and then processing it and reporting; IoT is all about real-time decision making.

Dr Fang explained the innovation lab uses an IoT platform called Edge-to-Enterprise. This involves a data centre which has historical data and creates models using its computational power and storage, then updates the models on the edge of the IoT network so it can make real-time decisions. "It's very exciting," Dr Fang says.

Currently, the innovation lab is working on two applications, both in pilot projects together with SAS and Cisco.

The first is microgrids and how to apply IoT to monitor how much power will be generated by thousands of microgrids and to predict how much energy will be generated tomorrow or next week or other future periods. This information means the amount of powered required by older generators becomes a known quantity, instead of over-generating or under-generating energy and either having waste or an insufficiency. There are many other applications, Dr Fang explains, such as pricing impacts, collaborative sharing of energy and more.

The second is a smart building project, which is part of the UTS IoT innovation lab itself. The building has 3000 sensors to monitor air quality, power consumption, people movement, weather and other things. The real-time data allows UTS to understand how power has been consumed and the current state of the air quality. For example, we can clearly see during lunchtime the dust level of some common places becomes high. We can clean-on-demand instead of a schedule because we can tell by the dust level if the carpet has to be cleaned, he says. We believe IoT and data are the future of smart buildings.

Dr Fang says the innovation lab has high ambitions. We want to make this place the hub of IoT in Australia, and make it a well-known innovation centre globally as well.

The IoT Innovation Lab will be an exciting local and global IoT hub, where IoT innovation will deliver positive technological impacts on the environment, society, people, governments and industries. The volume of data already being generated will only increase but its value to society can only be fully realised if we are able to use it productively."

Professor Michael Blumenstein, UTS' Associate Dean (Research Strategy and Management), Faculty of Engineering and IT, said, We are excited to work with SAS and Cisco on this world-first partnership, which will foster collaboration between top UTS FEIT researchers in the area of IoT and harness the power of industry platforms to deliver disruptive solutions for real-world problems."

David Bowie, SAS vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, said, SAS has a long history of support for the education sector and we are delighted to be involved with UTS in this exciting initiative. The value of edge data is at its greatest when analysed in transit, and this is what our trailblazing global partnership with Cisco makes possible.

Cisco is investing, together with the University sector, to accelerate short-term innovation and help develop Australias capability in solving large complex industry problems, said Reg Johnson, General Manager, Education, Cisco Australia & New Zealand. This exciting project with UTS is a leading-edge research and innovation initiative that is looking to make the energy sector more sustainable by creating a Real-time Internet of Things (IoT) Energy Brokerage. The initiative is the first global deployment utilising the Cisco and SAS Edge-To-Enterprise IoT Analytics Platform, which is underpinned by the Cisco Kinetic IoT Data Fabric.
Technology spending in Australia is forecast to grow 2.3% to reach A$84.5 billion in 2018, as the latest forecasts for global technology spending have been revised upwards by 1.8% to 6.2%  or US$3.7 trillion for 2018.

The latest report from Gartner forecasts Australian technology spending in 2018 will include A$30.4 million on IT services with communications services coming in as the second highest spend at A$26.6 million.

And Australia's forecast spending on software for the 12 months is A$12.5 million, with A$12 million forecast to be outlayed on devices.

Gartner reveals the global figures for tech spending are the highest annual growth rate since 2007, but it cautions that this is not a sign of a new cycle of IT growth.

According to Gartner, the declining US dollar has caused currency tailwinds of 3.2% and spending on IT around the world is growing at expected levels, with 3.0% in line with the expected global economic growth of 3.3% in 2018.

And Gartner cautions that multinational technology vendors will need to hedge against further currency fluctuations in 2018.

"Although global IT spending is forecast to grow 6.2% this year, the declining US dollar has caused currency tailwinds, which are the main reason for this strong growth," said John-David Lovelock, research vice-president at Gartner.

"This is the highest annual growth rate that Gartner has forecast since 2007 and would be a sign of a new cycle of IT growth. However, spending on IT around the world is growing at expected levels and is in line with expected global economic growth. Through 2018 and 2019, the US dollar is expected to trend stronger while enduring tremendous volatility due to the uncertain political environment, the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation and the potential for trade wars."

Gartner's report shows that worldwide spending for devices  PCs, tablets and mobile phones  is forecast to grow in 2018, reaching US$706 billion, an increase of 6.6% from 2017.Gartner also reports that enterprise software spending is forecast to experience the highest growth in 2018 with an 11.1% increase.

And, barring unexpected disruption, Gartner says the software industry is expected to continue capitalising on the evolution of digital business. Application software spending is expected to continue to rise through 2019, and infrastructure software will also continue to grow, bolstered by modernisation initiatives.

Even with a strong end to 2017, Gartner says worldwide spending on data centre systems is forecast to grow 3.7% in 2018, down from 6.3% growth in 2017.

The longer-term outlook continues to have challenges, particularly for the storage segment. The strength at the end of 2017 was primarily driven by the component shortage for memory components, and prices have increased at a greater rate than previously expected. Whereas previously, component shortages were expected to ease into 2018, the shortages are now expected to continue throughout the year with the supply not expected to ease until the end of the year, Gartner notes.

On the device market, Lovelock says it "continues to see dual dynamics. Some users are holding back from buying, and those that are buying are doing so, on average, at higher price points".

"As a result, end-user spending will increase faster than units through 2022. However, total end-user spending and unit shipments are expected to be lower compared with previous forecasts, as demand for ultramobile premium devices, ultramobile utility devices and basic phones is expected to be slow."

Graphics: courtesy Gartner
A decision by auDA, the body responsible for the .au namespace, to change domains from .com.au to .au has riled members of the organisation to such an extent that they are now calling for the chief executive and three board members to resign.

Jim Stewart, chief executive of digital marketing company StewArt Media, and one of those who has signed a letter calling for a special general meeting of auDA to discuss the position of CEO Cameron Boardman, told iTWire that no logic or business case had been advanced for the change which, he said, would in no way help businesses. A number of other changes have been proposed as well.

(iTWire's Stephen Withers has a detailed comment piece here looking at the changes).

The letter, signed by Stewart and two other auDA members, Joshua Rowe and Paul Szyndler, and dated 7 April, pointed out that as per the rules, a meeting needed to be called within 21 days of a letter that had the necessary number of signatures  there are 319 members and 5% or about 16 signatures are needed  being received. Szyndler is a former senior auDA executive.

Such a meeting is required to be held within two months of such a letter  such as the one submitted  being received.

Twenty-two identical letters were attached from other members, all seeking a vote on four resolutions: a vote of no-confidence in Boardman and the removal of Chris Leptos, Sandra Hook and Suzanne Ewart as directors. A detailed explanation of the reasons for asking for the special general meeting has been published at

Stewart said members had been promised a business case for the change but thus far nothing had materialised. He said it was somewhat illogical to first decide on a change and then try to advance a business case to justify it, agreeing that it was akin to putting the cart before the horse.

Some of the reasons advanced for the change were that .au would be more memorable, that it would give people more choice and everybody else was doing it, with the last reason citing the UK and New Zealand.

But Stewart claimed in the UK, the .uk names were being given away free as there was no take-up.

Boardman has provided industry with no business case for a major reform that is likely to have significant negative consequences and there has been very little consultation with industry to discuss this critical change," he said in a statement. Anyone who moves from .com.au to .au will have to pay for the new domain all over again.

Most people dont fully understand the implications. For instance, a competitor may secure your domain name without the dotcom. When the changes come into effect, any company can register say commbank.au or bhpcom.au, causing confusion and cyber security issues.

"If a company was able to register their name.au and just switched it on that would be a disaster, you would lose all your Google search traffic. By switching your current domain name (for example .com.au to .au) youre effectively creating a new website.

This means you run the risk of disappearing from Google searches. Imagine if you were an Australian retailer, what would that do to your business?" he asked.

Stewart said, in his experience, changing a domain for a moderately well-known site would mean that about eight weeks would be required to catch up with traffic.

He pointed out that the Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, Ed Husic, had spoken in Parliament recently about the risks of Australian businesses switching domain names.

Husic said organisations that have registered their business after April 2016 would have to reapply and potentially fight it out to claim the equivalent .au domains, which could cause significant financial and time costs to small businesses," Stewart said.

auDA has four directors from the supply side, four from the demand side and three industry figures. At the moment, Stewart said, there four directors from the supply side, two from the demand side and the three industry directors.

One director, Luke Summers, submitted his resignation to John Swinson, the chair of the 2017 policy review panel, on Saturday, saying he no longer had confidence "that the panel can proceed in a manner that is in the best interests of the Australian Internet community".

Apart from this change in domains, Stewart said there were also "what some members deem to consider poor governance processes ahead of a major industry reform without presenting a industry impact assessment or a solid business case".

iTWire has contacted auDA for its take on the issue and is awaiting a response.

Update, 5.25pm: auDA chair Chris Leptos responded to iTWire's request, saying the organisation could confirm that a small group of members had called for a Special General Meeting.

"Under the Corporations Act 2001, just 16 signatures are sufficient to call an SGM at auDA due to its small membership base of 319. This is the second SGM to be called in nine months," he said.

Leptos said the auDA Board remained committed to ongoing reform and policy development informed by consultation with members and other stakeholders.

"auDAs Board and management are focused on the critical projects currently underway, including preparing for a landmark transition to a new registry and awaiting the findings of a federal government review into the best framework for managing the .au domain with responsibilities to more than 21.18 million Internet users in Australia," he added.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times reports that FBI agents produced a warrant at the offices in the Rockefeller Center of Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, that allowed them to gain access and to spend hours going through and confiscating documents and equipment.

Trump lambasted the search to an audience of senior military officers as attack on our country in a true sense. He characterized it as a witch hunt, unwarranted, conducted by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and his team of the worst people, and made possible only by what he said was Attorney General Jeff Sessions unconscionable decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump mused in public about firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which he said many people had urged him to do.

Getting a warrant to go into an attorneys office is highly unusual because attorney-client privilege is protected under the law. It is only typically done when the FBI has reason to suspect that a subpoena would be ignored or would result in the destruction of the requested documents. The FBI team will have had privilege experts along with it to make sure they did not exceed the authority of the warrant. Going into the office would have had to be signed off on by a judge, by Geoffrey S. Berman, the US attorney of the southern district of New York, and by someone fairly high up at the Department of Justice, likely deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, or someone just below him in rank.

The legal search, under a warrant, came about because Special Counsel Robert Mueller came across suspicious information about Cohen in the course of his investigation of possible election collusion between the Trump campaign and the government of the Russian Federation. The inquiry into Cohen seems not to be related to Russia, which is why Mueller passed it to the FBI. It likely concerns the $130,000 hush money payment Mr. Cohen made twelve days before the November, 2016, election to pornographic film performer Stephanie (Stormy Daniels) Clifford regarding her tryst with Donald Trump, .

My own guess is that whatever Mueller tipped the FBI about goes beyond the possible violation of electoral laws by Mr. Cohen, inasmuch as a payment to Ms. Clifford intended to influence the course of the election would technically be illegal. Such a case would be very difficult to prove. It is likely that, in addition, Mueller came across evidence of some financial transaction that was more clearly illegal and more easily prosecuted.

The Rockefeller Center search comes just as Trump is threatening a strike on Syria in response to the alleged regime use of poison gas at Douma, a district of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, on Saturday. Indeed, the meeting with military officers at which he complained about the witch hunt against him was held in part to consider options for Syria.

There is some danger that Mr. Trump will launch a more robust Syrian operation than initially envisioned in order to take attention off the Stormy Daniels scandal. This tactic was immortalized in the 1997 film, Wag the Dog, about a president who starts a war to take attention away from a sex scandal on the eve of an election.

Any attempt by Trump to get up a major military campaign in Syria, however, would run into strong Russian opposition. Russian officials are already warning with some stridency against a US strike. If all that Trump does is send down some Tomahawk missiles on some Syrian base, the way he did in 2016, then that is likely to be ineffectual with regard to the ongoing conflict in Syria. The al-Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, is gaining control of more and more territory and has now removed all credible threats to the capital, Damascus. It seems likely that in the absence of some dramatic change on the ground, al-Assads regime will reassert fragile and brutal control over virtually the entire country within a couple of years.

Trump, however, is a wild card in this issue.



Bonus video:

Donald Trump: FBI Raid On Atty. Michael Cohen An Attack On Our Country | The 11th Hour | MSNBC
EDMONTON, April 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Altiplano Minerals Ltd. (APN:TSXV) (ALTPF:OTCQB ) (9AJ1:FWB) ("APN" or the "Company") is pleased to report a Maiden Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate centered on the newly constructed 395M Level at the Farellon Copper-Gold (Cu-Au) project, near La Serena, Chile. APEX Geoscience Ltd. ("APEX") of Edmonton, Alberta has estimated an inferred mineral resource at Farellon of 278,360 tonnes at an average grade of 1.92% Cu and 0.12 parts per million (ppm) Au at a lower cutoff of 1.0% Cu and utilizing a minimum horizontal width of 1.2 m. The actual average higher-grade vein width from all sampling is 1.84 m. APN will file a technical report supporting this mineral resource estimate within 45 days.

CEO John Williamson stated, "The results of the independent inferred mineral resource estimate are in line with our initial estimate for the Farellon Mineralized Cu-Fe-Au vein system. Further work and data points will likely enhance the results of this maiden resource as the Company has identified higher grades over the last year than we had originally expected. Our target is to deliver mineralized material greater than 2% Cu for toll milling."

Bulk sampling at the 395M level of Farellon continues to support the Maiden Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate, as the Company has delivered an initial bulk sample of 2,000 tonnes for processing, with a total of 1,352.85 wet (1,311.54 dry) tonnes having been processed as of April 4, 2018 at an average grade of 2.04 % Cu. A second bulk sample program of 5,000 tonnes is now in progress as the Company refines procedures and assesses next steps. Figure 1 from the Company's announcement of March 26, 2018 (filed on the Company and SEDAR websites) shows locations and selected grade-width results of underground channel sampling and diamond drilling on the 395M Level that were completed in 2017 and 2018.

As part of its ongoing program, Altiplano has carried out the recommendations contained in the APEX Report of February 10, 2017 (filed on the Company's and SEDAR websites) for the exploration and development of the Farellon project and is also relying upon past production records, underground sampling, related activities and current diamond drilling to estimate grade and widths of the mineralization. There are currently no mineral reserves on the property. The Company's maiden inferred mineral resource and continuing exploration activities are intended to be part of a program to determine if additional mineral resources can be identified and reserves outlined with future work. No production decision has been made at this time. Should a production decision be made without completing a feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability, there would be increased uncertainty as well as economic and technical risks associated with such production.

Maiden Inferred Resource Estimate

APEX estimated the Maiden Inferred Mineral Resource at Farellon utilizing 173 underground channel samples from a total of 87 lines and 230 diamond drill core samples from a total of 21 core holes that have intersected the Farellon Cu-Fe-Au Vein. Copper mineralization exists throughout the width of the vein system, but usually has a higher-grade portion with lower-grade shoulders. In some cases, the zone is split into two high-grade intervals with a lower-grade interval in between. The width of the high-grade interval ranges between 1.09 m and 3.1 m. Drilling has yielded copper grades of up to 6.11 % over 3.1 m core length. Channel sampling on the 395M level near site of the 2,000 tonne bulk sample has yielded results of up to 11.33 % Cu over 2.55 m true width and 9.91 % Cu over 1.55 m true width.

Table 1: Farellon Maiden Inferred* Mineral Resource Estimate

Lower Cu Cutoff Volume m3 Tonnes Density Copper (%) Gold (ppm) 0.50% 92,930 385,640 4.15 1.59 0.11 0.75% 77,560 321,860 4.15 1.78 0.12 1.00% 67,070 278,360 4.15 1.92 0.12 1.25% 49,530 205,560 4.15 2.20 0.12 1.50% 38,290 158,910 4.15 2.44 0.11 1.75% 34,890 144,800 4.15 2.52 0.12 2.00% 31,129 129,190 4.15 2.60 0.12

* Inferred Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There has been insufficient exploration to allow for the classification of the inferred resources tabulated above as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. There is no guarantee that any part of the mineral resources discussed herein will be converted into a mineral reserve in the future.

The estimated mineral resource was produced using inverse distance squared (ID2). The resource is based upon creating a composite file from the individual assays out to the full width of the mineralized portion of the vein including any intervening low grade samples (resulting in 109 composite samples). Search ellipses were based upon geology and variography. No capping was applied. A block model was created using a 2x2x2 m parent block size and sub-blocking down to 1x1x1 m. Drill core and channel sampling included an appropriate number of standards and blanks. No issues were identified in the QAQC work.

The mineral resource was divided into two main domains based upon a near vertical north-south fault and sequence of andesitic dykes that cut the vein. The fault and dykes were treated as a soft boundary for the purposes of estimating the grade in the two main domains on either side of the fault/dyke zone. The west-southwest domain is a lower-grade domain but contains the least amount of data and requires further drilling. The domain has the appearance of improving in grade to the far southwest and is open to the southwest and requires further drilling. The high-grade domain to the east-northeast of the fault and dyke zone is open to depth and to the east-northeast and also requires further drilling to improve the confidence level of the estimated resource and to potentially expand the resource to the east-northeast.

The technical contents of this press release have been reviewed by Apex Geoscience Ltd., as well as Osbaldo Zamora Vega, Ph.D, P.Geol., Vice President of Exploration for Altiplano and the Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

About Altiplano

Altiplano Minerals Ltd. (APN:TSXV) (ALTPF:OTCQB ) (9AJ1:FWB) is a mineral exploration company focused on evaluating and acquiring projects with significant potential for advancement from discovery through to production, in Canada and abroad. Management has a substantial record of success in capitalizing opportunity, overcoming challenges and building shareholder value. Additional information concerning Altiplano can be found on its website at www.altiplanominerals.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

/s/ "John Williamson"

President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the (TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) ("PEMC" or the "Company"), a hybrid prospect generator focused in British Columbia, is pleased to announce that partner-funded diamond drilling has recommenced on the Stars copper property (the "Property" or "Stars") in central British Columbia.

"Having multiple ongoing drill programs has always been an objective for us," commented Brad Peters, President and CEO of PEMC. "We are pleased to see our partner commencing a second round of diamond drilling following positive results from the initial diamond drilling campaign and information gathered from an airborne magnetic survey."

The current drilling program intends to test magnetic targets within the recently identified (approximately 1 km in diameter) Central Area and expand the newly discovered Zone 4 where ML Gold Corp.'s (TSXV: MLG) ("ML Gold") recent drill hole DD18SS04 intersected 204 metres at 0.5% copper equivalent from surface (see ML Gold news release dated Feb 28, 2018).



Figure 1: 2018 Partner-Funded Diamond Drilling and Airborne Magnetics at the Stars Copper Property



Current Drilling Targets at the Stars Property

Central Area  a broad (approximately one-kilometre diameter) newly identified circular magnetic low area with several inlying circular magnetic high anomalies. The Central Area is interpreted as a hydrothermal cell associated with a porphyry system and has the potential to host the core of said system.

Zone 4  a newly discovered zone identified on the margin of the main intrusion where mineralization has been identified in both the volcanic and intrusive rocks. Zone 4 shows significant similarities to the mineralization style and setting of the Huckleberry mine 60-kilometres to the south, where the primary ore body is located marginal to and not within the intrusion.

ML Gold's current drilling will be collared from existing areas of disturbance aimed to test new areas while it awaits the near-term granting of permits for new drill sites allowing for greater step-out drilling locations.

Additional information on the Company and its projects can be found on SEDAR at (www.sedar.com), and on the Company's website at www.pemcorp.ca. You may also email or call Investor Relations at (604) 356-6246.

Qualified Person

Rory Ritchie, P.Geo., is the Company's qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release, approving the disclosure herein. Mr. Ritchie is not independent of the Company as he is a consultant to the Company, a shareholder and holds incentive stock options.

About Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.

PEMC is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that employs a "hybrid prospect generator" business model and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC. The Company's strong portfolio of projects is a result of continuous generative work conducted since the Company's inception in 2012.

By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost RC drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying, and focusing on, the highest quality projects for partnerships and advancement.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Brad Peters"

President and Chief Executive Officer

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.

Tel: +1-604-356-6246

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

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about the planned exploration of the Ashley Gold mine, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
After-Tax Highlights Include Net Present Value (5%) of US$5.7 Billion, Average Cash Flow of US$664 Million Over First 5 Years, Internal Rate of Return of 25%

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2018) - American CuMo Mining Corporation (TSXV: MLY) (OTC Pink: MLYCF) ("CuMoCo" or the "Company") is pleased to report on positive results from an independent updated Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) of its 100% owned CuMo Project, a large Copper-Molybdenum-Silver-Tungsten-Rhenium deposit located in Boise County, Idaho. The independent, third-party analysis was conducted by Sacre-Davey Engineering of North Vancouver.

"CuMo is the largest Molybdenum, Silver, Rhenium and Tungsten deposit in the United States and one of the world's leading mining projects in terms of size, cost, and economics," said Shaun Dykes, President and Chief Executive Officer of CuMoCo. "The updated Preliminary Economic Assessment affirms projections and compels completion of the remaining environmental permitting aspects, pre-feasibility analysis and feasibility initiatives to advance our CuMo Project further. The project design prioritises features which will provide the highest levels of environmental protection, workforce safety, and operating efficiency while minimizing community impacts."

The PEA revision provides critical updates to the economic section of the November 2015 summary report by adding the Mineral Sorting benefits to the project. The PEA is a prelude to a Pre-Feasibility Study and allows the Company to independently verify the benefits of Mineral Sorting to the CuMo Project in a relatively short period. The 150,0000 tons per day case was selected for updating.

The revisions are illustrated through direct comparison between the two economic report sections. To show the benefits of Mineral Sorting, the price of molybdenum and copper used in the comparison are unchanged from the original report.

Metal Price per unit Mo (lbs) US$15 MoO3 (lbs) US$10 Cu US$3 Silver (oz) US$17.5 Rhenium (kg) US$2000 Sulfuric acid (ton) US$75

Highlights of the comparison are:

An increase in pre-tax net cash flow from $30.0 billion to $32.8 billion

An increase in pre-tax net present value at a 5% discount (NPV5) from $9.0 billion to $10.7 billion

An increase in after-tax net cash flow from $20.79 billion to $22.98 billion

An increase in production of molybdenum copper and silver

An overall decrease in cost to produce a pound of molybdenum oxide (MoO3) (net of byproducts) from $3.91 to $1.58 per pound or an overall decrease in cost to produce a pound of molybdenum metal (Mo) (net of products) from $5.87 to $2.37 per pound.

In the updated results, the Company and Sacre-Davey Engineering produced the current economics using the following metal prices:

Metal Price per unit Mo (lbs.) US$12.5 MoO3 (lbs.) US$8.33 Cu US$3 Silver (oz) US$17.5 Rhenium (kg) US$2000 Sulfuric acid (ton) US$75

The price of molybdenum(Mo) used is $12.50 to reflect long-term average prices. According to Roskill and Platts, molybdenum(Mo) is currently trading in the $12.80 to $12.90 per pound range.

The following table shows the current highlights from the updated results:

Economic Average First Total Parameters 5 years 40 years Pre-Tax Undiscounted cash flow $USM $775.5 $26,296.6 Net Present Value ("NPV") at a 5% discount rate $USM NA $7,910.8 Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") % NA 28.70% Payback Period years NA 3.66 After-Tax Cash Flow $USM $663.5 $18,196.7 Net Present Value ("NPV") at a 5% discount rate $USM NA $5,673.0 Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") at a 5% discount rate % NA 25.00% Payback Period years NA 3.97 Mining Life of Mine ("LOM") Years years NA 82 Mining Rate (short tons per day) 000's 491.2 451.2 Sorting Rate (short tons per day) 000's 293.3 243.7 Processing (short tons per day) 000's 150 150 Metal Production Molybdenum production (pounds) 000's 68,946.2 2,612,728.1 Copper Production (pounds) 000's 92,102.6 2,830,723.8 Silver production (ounces) 000's 3,179.6 100,194.9 Rhenium Kg 2,103.0 79,688.2 Sulphuric acid short tons 74,221.0 2,812,601.8 Costs Total Capital Expenditures (000's) $USM NA $2,817.5 Sustaining Capital (000's) $USM $37.6 $2,456.1 Operating Cash Cost per lb. Mo (net byproducts) US$ $1.10 $2.37 Operating Cash Cost per lb. Mo oxide (net byproducts) US$ $0.73 $1.58 Total Taxes Paid $USM $74.3 $5,643.80

Cautionary statement NI 43-101: The PEA was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature. It includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

For readers to fully understand the information in this news release, they are encouraged to read the complete PEA technical report, which the Company expects to file within 45 days from the date of this news release on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), in accordance with NI 43-101. The report will also be available at that time on the Company's website, including all qualifications, assumptions, and exclusions that relate to the PEA. The technical report is intended to be read in its entirety and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context.

The Company and Sacre-Davey Engineering personnel have identified several areas and opportunities that may provide significant costs savings and improved economics for the project, including the following:

Mining

- Optimization of the production schedule, including examining an increase in cutoff grade which would have the effect of reducing the current 82-year mine life but increasing the amount of metal being produced and thus the profitability and reducing the cost to produce.

- Optimization of the pit designs and definition of a mineable reserve.

- Optimization of waste and stockpile haulage methodology by switching to conveyor-based systems to reduce the amount of trucking involved and thus costs.

- Detailed equipment costing to determine potential discounts to list price for all major components.

Milling

- Additional metallurgical work to determine optimum grind size (the current assessment is based on the finest grind tested to date), analyze recoveries of the various metals, and analyze the effects of the higher grade coming from the mineral sorters on metal recoveries.

- Optimize reagents to reduce costs and improve metallurgy.

- Work on the potential for a tungsten recovery circuit is required (currently excluded).

Tailings

- Detailed analysis of tailings storage facilities and design to reduce overall costs.

Other

- Examine alternative concentrate transportation from the mill to the railhead.

- Optimization of the roaster capital and operating costs.

"These optimizations and further studies will be examined in more detail as part of the Pre-Feasibility Study the Company will commence later this year, with the goal of continuing to reduce overall capital and operating costs further and improve the already exceptional economics of our CuMo Project," stated Mr. Dykes.

The Company also announces that it will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, May 30, 2018, at 10 am PST at Suite 2300-550 Burrard Street, Bentall 5, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mr. Shaun M. Dykes, M.Sc. (Eng), P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company, is the designated qualified person for the CuMo Project and the Calida Gold project and has prepared the technical information contained in this news release.

About CuMoCo

CuMoCo is focused on advancing its CuMo Project towards feasibility. CuMoCo is also advancing its recently-acquired Calida Gold project. Please visit cumoco.com, idahocumo.com and cumoproject.com.

About Sacre-Davis Engineering

Founded in 1986, Sacre-Davey Engineering provides multi-disciplined engineering and project management services to clients in the mining, oil and gas, heavy industrial and clean-tech sectors. Sacre-Davey is certified by the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC as an Organizational Quality Management Certified organization.

For further information, please contact:

American CuMo Mining Corporation

Shaun Dykes, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (604) 689-7902

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this new release.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information

Forward-looking information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation including, but not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, such the Company's ability to move its CuMo Project to feasibility and production, and to become one of the largest and lowest-cost molybdenum producers in the world as well as a significant producer of copper and silver. Forward-looking information is based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including the result of exploration activities, the ability of the Company to raise the financing for a feasibility study and to put the CuMo project into production, that no labour shortages or delays are experienced, that plant and equipment function as specified that the Court will not intervene with the Company's proposed exploration activities at the CuMo Project, and the ability of the Company to obtain all requisite permits and licenses to advance the CuMo Project and eventually bring it into production. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future prediction, projection or forecast expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of molybdenum, silver and copper; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents, including the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ended December 31, 2017. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
TORONTO, April 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kerr Mines Inc.(TSX:KER) (OTC:KERMF) (FRA:7AZ1) (Kerr or the Company) is pleased to announce the results of the independent Pre-Feasibility study (PFS, Study) and resource update prepared by Hard Rock Consulting, LLC in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) for its past producing Copperstone Mine in Arizona, USA. On the momentum of a very successful 2017 Phase I exploration program and this PFS, the Company is pleased to confirm updated gold resources and positive economics at the Companys Copperstone Mine in Arizona.

Copperstone PFS Highlights (all values US$ unless otherwise noted):

Base case $1,250/oz gold;

Initial capital of $22.7 million which includes a mine equipment capital lease;

Study life operating margin (EBITDA) of $89M, Internal rate of return of 40%;

Payback of initial capital within 2.3 years of 2019 production start;

Recovery of gold averaging 95% using crushing, grinding and whole ore leach;

Average annual sales of 38,347 ounces gold;

Cash Operating Cost of $684 per gold ounce;

All-in Sustaining Cost ("AISC") of $875 per gold ounce;

Measured and Indicated (M&I) Mineral Resources of 1,124,800 tonnes averaging 7.63 g/tonne gold;

276,100 ounces contained gold in M&I Resource;

Inferred Mineral Resources of 666,000 tonnes averaging 6.81 g/tonne gold;

145,700 ounces contained gold in Inferred;

Proven and Probable (P&P) Mineral Reserves of 802,048 tonnes averaging 6.79 g/tonne gold;

175,093 ounces contained gold in P&P Reserve;

M&I gold resources ounces, which are not part of the P&P reserve ounces, are targeted for potential inclusion in the P&P reserves through recommended future drilling;

Inferred gold resources are open for further expansion and conversion through recommended future drilling in the Copperstone and Footwall zones.

The results of this PFS display the strong near-term production opportunity for the Copperstone Mine and robust returns for our investors. This is just the beginning," says Martin Kostuik, President. The impressive exploration upside displayed by the 2017 Phase I program, the historical production of over 500,000 gold ounces and the potential to generate solid positive cash flows by identifying the first four years of gold production, all point toward the opportunity of many more years, beyond the Study timeframe, of profitable production. In fact, there are 100,000 gold ounces of M&I mineral resources that were not included in the P&P mineral resources, part of which are immediately accessible for drilling and potential inclusion. Kostuik continued, Our intention is to finance the initial capital through corporate debt. We are currently engaged in discussions focused on non-dilutive financing options with several lending groups to finalize our forthcoming production decision. Furthermore, we shall continue our efforts to enhance shareholder value by pursuing other value-adding activities such as conducting an intense 2018 exploration program which is designed to increase mine life

Geology and Mineral Resource Estimate

The updated Mineral Resource Estimate was developed by Hard Rock Consulting, LLC (HRC). In order to support the mineral resource estimate, Kerr completed over 8,100 meters of infill and step-out drilling in the summer and fall of 2017.

The Copperstone deposit is a mid-Tertiary, detachment fault related gold deposit. Mineralization is predominantly controlled by the northwest trending shallow angle Copperstone fault and shear zone. These structures are not confined to any lithologic unit, although the majority of the mineralization is hosted in quartz latite porphyry. Breccia textures as well as chloritization, silicification, and hematite and specularite flooding are reliable indications of gold mineralisation.

On February 24th, 2018, HRC completed an updated mineral resource estimate. The last NI 43-101 resource report on the Copperstone Project was released in 2011, the estimate used a gold capping grade of 5 troy ounces per short ton and was domained primarily by gold grades. In order to support the mineral resource update, Kerr completed over 8,100 meters of infill and step-out drilling in the summer and fall of 2017. Since the 2011 report, the drillhole database includes 9,062 additional meters and an additional 5,552 gold grade determinations. HRC applied a more aggressive and restrictive capping analysis resulting in a more conservative model than previous estimates.

The drill hole database was vetted to identify missing values, duplicate records, interval overlap errors, from-to data exceeding maximum collar depth, and special (i.e. non-numeric or less than zero) values. Errors identified by the mechanical audit were reviewed with Kerr staff and resolved prior to modelling and calculation of the mineral resource estimate. In addition, 665 holes of historic core drill logs totaling 83,265 meters were re-interpreted for alteration and digitized for inclusion into the 2017 resource estimate program database. A random manual check of 10% of the assay database against original certificates was conducted by HRC. The error rate within the database is considered to be less than 1% based on the number of samples spot checked. Identified errors were corrected prior to modelling and calculation of the mineral resource estimate.

Gold grades were constrained within estimation domains modelled with 3D wireframe solids. Estimation domains follow the overall northwest, shallowly dipping structural trends, and were defined by drillhole interval selections of gold grades greater than or equal to 3.43 g/tonne (0.100 troy ounces per short ton, oz/ton). Domains were reviewed in 3D to ensure the models agree with the overall geologic interpretation and maintained continuity along strike and down dip. Samples were composited inside estimation domains to a target length of 1.5 meters. Composite gold grades within each domain were reviewed for statistically high outliers, which were then constrained and capped. The capping analysis considered each domain separately and a global gold cap was not used. Semi-variograms from composites were used to inform the search ellipse. Densities were determined inside and outside estimation domains by lithology from drill core.

Of 959 drill holes included in the mineral resource estimate, 716 drillholes intersected mineralised domains. 2,748 composites were used to interpolate grade into 6.1 x 6.1 x 1.5-meter (20 x 20 x 5 feet) blocks rotated and oriented along strike and down dip and sub-blocked to a minimum block size 6.1 x 1.5 x 0.3 meters (20 x 5 x 1 feet) using an ordinary kriging algorithm. Blocks mined out by open pit and underground operations were removed from the resource estimate.

HRC concludes that the sample preparation, security and analytical procedures are appropriate and adequate for the purpose of this Technical Report. The sample methods and density are appropriate, and the samples are of sufficient quality to comprise a representative, unbiased database.

Zachary J. Black, SME-RM, a Resource Geologist with HRC is responsible for the mineral resource estimate presented herein. Estimated blocks were classified as either Measured, Indicated, or Inferred, in accordance with CIM definition standards adopted by CIM Counsel on May 10, 2014, based on the minimum distance from composites to the block, the number of composites used to estimate a block, and the geologic/geospatial support for the domain. The mineral resources are confined of material exceeding the cut-off grade of 3.43 g/tonne (0.100 oz/ton) within coherent wireframe models. The cutoff is based on the following assumptions: a long-term gold price of $1,375/oz; assumed mining cost of $74/ton, process costs of $40/ton, general and administrative and property/severance tax costs of $14/ton, refining costs of $4.65/oz and metallurgical recovery for gold of 95%.

Mineral Resource

Classification Tonnes

('000's) Tons

('000's) Gold Grade

grams/tonne oz/ton Contained Gold

('000 oz) Measured 478.1 527.0 8.33 0.243 128.0 Indicated 646.7 712.9 7.12 0.208 148.0 Measured + Indicated 1,124.8 1,239.8 7.63 0.223 276.1 Inferred 666.0 734.1 6.81 0.198 145.7

The effective date of the Mineral Resource estimate is April 1st, 2018. The QP for the estimate is Mr. Zachary J. Black, SME-RM of Hard Rock Consulting, LLC. and is independent of Kerr Mines, Inc. Mineral Resources are quoted inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Due to the uncertainty that may be attached to Inferred Mineral Resources, it cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will be upgraded to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource as a result of continued exploration. Mineral resource is reported at an underground mining cutoff of 0.100 oz/ton Au beneath the historic open pit and within coherent wireframe models. The cutoff is based on the following assumptions: a long-term gold price of $1,375/oz; assumed mining cost of $74/ton, process costs of $40/ton, general and administrative and property/severance tax costs of $14/ton, refining costs of $4.65/oz and metallurgical recovery for gold of 95%. Rounding may result in apparent differences when summing tonnes, grade and contained metal content. Tonnage and grade measurements are in imperial and metric units. Grades are reported in troy ounces per short ton and in grams per tonne.

Mine Plan and Mineral Reserves

A detailed mine plan was engineered using only Measured & Indicated Resources. Mechanized overhand cut and fill was chosen as the preferred mining method. Datamines Minable Stope Optimizer (MSO) was used to generate the stopes utilizing a metal price of $1,250/oz for gold and a 3.77 g/tonne (0.111 oz/ton) gold cutoff.

The mine plan for the Project includes approximately 802,000 tonnes of ore grade material to be extracted by underground mining in 4.4 years. The mine production schedule calls for ore production of 544 tonnes per day and 762 tonnes of ore processed per mill working day, 5 days per week. Mining recoveries of 95% were applied and overall dilution factors averaged 25.3%. Dilution factors are calculated based on internal stope dilution calculations and external dilution factors of 10%. The Table below presents the annual mining schedule based on these assumptions. Due to the historic underground mining that has taken place on the property in 2012 and 2013 and the exploration drift put in by Kerr in the summer of 2017 there is a reduced amount of development required to get the mine up to full production.

Production Schedule Study

Totals Year -1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 MINE PRODUCTION Ore Mined (tonnes) 802,048 52,089 207,331 219,449 170,688 144,070 8,421 Au Grade (g/tonne) 6.79 7.22 6.70 6.86 6.63 6.83 6.82 Mine Development (meters) 13,295 1,002 5,153 3,613 1,940 1,476 111 Development Waste (tonnes) 487,159 40,203 202,717 139,695 57,501 43,750 3,292 Total Tonnes Mined 1,289,207 92,292 410,047 359,145 228,189 187,821 11,713

Dr. Dermot Ross-Brown from Tierra Group International, Ltd completed a review of the past geotechnical studies and visited the current underground workings in order to provide an estimate of the required ground support and maximum opening sizes for the mine plan. Main ramp development headings are planned at 4.2m x 4.2m, ore access drifts are planned at 3.7m x 3m and stope heights are planned at 3.7m with a maximum width of 4.9m.

In order to select the preferred mining method, several trade-offs were conducted as part of the pre-feasibility study. The results are summarized below:

Mining Method  The Copperstone orebody is relatively flat with an average dip of 38 degrees. Although there are some areas where the ore will flow, above a 45-degree dip, the majority of the deposit is too flat to facilitate a long hole mining method. Mining costs comparisons were completed on mechanized overhand cut and fill versus conventional overhand cut and fill utilizing slushers and hydraulic backfill. Although the conventional cut and fill reduces the required development costs versus the mechanized method, the savings were not enough to offset the higher operating costs. As a result, mechanized cut and fill was chosen as the preferred option. Mining utilizing the Shallow Angle Mining System  (SAMS) was also evaluated as an option. Although mining utilizing SAMS is currently being tested at a mining site in Canada, further geotechnical and hydraulic backfill evaluations for Copperstone must be completed and were beyond the scope of this Study. These factors resulted in not choosing SAMS for the Study.

 The Copperstone orebody is relatively flat with an average dip of 38 degrees. Although there are some areas where the ore will flow, above a 45-degree dip, the majority of the deposit is too flat to facilitate a long hole mining method. Mining costs comparisons were completed on mechanized overhand cut and fill versus conventional overhand cut and fill utilizing slushers and hydraulic backfill. Although the conventional cut and fill reduces the required development costs versus the mechanized method, the savings were not enough to offset the higher operating costs. As a result, mechanized cut and fill was chosen as the preferred option. Mining utilizing the Shallow Angle Mining System  (SAMS) was also evaluated as an option. Although mining utilizing SAMS is currently being tested at a mining site in Canada, further geotechnical and hydraulic backfill evaluations for Copperstone must be completed and were beyond the scope of this Study. These factors resulted in not choosing SAMS for the Study. Backfill Method  Patterson and Cooke assisted in developing costs for utilizing cemented hydraulic backfill (CHF) generated from the mill tailings versus cemented rock fill (CRF). By utilizing CHF from the mill tailings, the Phase 2 lift of the tailings dam will not be required providing a future capital cost savings for CHF. Although the CRF option will require additional backfill sourced from the waste fill located within the open pit, the capital cost and infrastructure for the CHF plant were too high to offset the higher operating costs of the CRF option. Based on these results, CRF was chosen for the mine plan backfill strategy.

 Patterson and Cooke assisted in developing costs for utilizing cemented hydraulic backfill (CHF) generated from the mill tailings versus cemented rock fill (CRF). By utilizing CHF from the mill tailings, the Phase 2 lift of the tailings dam will not be required providing a future capital cost savings for CHF. Although the CRF option will require additional backfill sourced from the waste fill located within the open pit, the capital cost and infrastructure for the CHF plant were too high to offset the higher operating costs of the CRF option. Based on these results, CRF was chosen for the mine plan backfill strategy. Operations Strategy - Contract versus owner mining was also evaluated based on contractor mining quotes using their own equipment and owner mining with quotes for purchasing new mining equipment. The owner mining scenario was found to be the most cost-effective option. Owner mining was also evaluated using purchased mining equipment versus capital leased equipment. Purchase and lease rates were provided and the equipment lease option results in an increase for IRR from 34% to 40%. The capital lease of the mining equipment was chosen as the preferred option.

Mr. Jeffery Choquette, P.E., MMSA QP Member, of HRC is responsible for the mineral reserve estimate presented herein. The Proven and Probable mineral reserves for the Study as of April 1st, 2018 are summarized in the Table below.

Mineral Reserve

Classification Tonnes

('000's) Tons

('000's) Diluted Gold Grade

grams/tonne oz/ton Contained Gold

('000 oz) Proven 346.7 382.2 7.30 0.213 81.4 Probable 455.4 501.9 6.40 0.187 93.7 Total Proven + Probable 802.0 884.1 6.79 0.198 175.1

The effective date of the Mineral Reserve estimate is April 1st, 2018. The QP for the estimate is Mr. Jeffery Choquette P.E. of Hard Rock Consulting, LLC. and is independent of Kerr Mines, Inc. The Mineral Reserve estimates were prepared with reference to the 2014 Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards (2014 CIM Definition Standards) and the 2003 CIM Best Practice Guidelines. Mineral Reserves are reported within the mine stope designs at an underground mining cutoff of 0.111 oz/ton. The cutoff is based on the following assumptions: a long-term gold price of $1,250/oz; assumed mining cost of $74/ton, process costs of $40/ton, general and administrative and tax costs of $14/ton, refining costs of $4.65/oz and metallurgical recovery for gold of 95%. Mining recoveries of 95% were applied. Overall dilution factors averaged 25.3%, dilution factors are calculated based on internal stope dilution calculations and external dilution factors of 10% for cut and fill mining. Rounding may result in apparent differences when summing tonnes, grade and contained metal content. Tonnage and grade measurements are in imperial and metric units. Grades are reported in troy ounces per short ton and in grams per tonne.

Processing

Kerr Mines and HRC contracted Resource Development Inc (RDI) who provided new metallurgical testing of the Copperstone deposit, confirmed prior metallurgical testwork and economically evaluated processing options. Metallurgical test work focused on the A, B, C, and D zones of the Copperstone Zone. Testing also confirmed bond work indexes, abrasion and density values. The production and sale of a dore bar versus sale of a gold concentrate has much lower offtake costs. Listed below is a description and results for three processing options:

Flotation Producing a Concentrate: This is the approach taken by the previous operators. The flotation concentrate is estimated to assay  500 g/tonne Au and would be sold to a broker or smelter. A marketing study is needed to determine the marketability and cost of sales for this grade of gold concentrate. The flotation circuit would consist of rougher flotation followed by two stages of cleaners to produce the required grade of concentrate. This confirms historical testwork and production results. Recoveries for gold from flotation for high grade saleable concentrate averaged 88%.

Flotation and Cyanide Leach of the Concentrate: The objective of this process is to produce a rougher concentrate maximizing recovery of gold, then leach the concentrate and produce a dore bar. Recoveries for gold from flotation concentrate produced for final leach averaged 90%. Testing for final recovery of gold from leaching the flotation concentrate is inconclusive and further testing is required.

Whole Ore Leach: WOL utilizes direct cyanidation leaching of the entire ore feed. This option also includes the production of a dore bar. WOL resulted in gold extraction of 88% to 97%. There exists an opportunity to decrease the Processing Cash Operating cost below the Study results with further cyanide consumption testwork, which is in progress.

WOL of Copperstone ore exhibits the highest operating costs of the three options but the increase in recoveries and elimination of concentrate smelter charges make this option economically superior. In addition, the existing processing plant will be simplified by eliminating both the course gold circuit and one of the mills. WOL leach was chosen as the base case processing scenario for the Study. The block flow sheet is shown below.

Copper may be a by-product of mining economic gold ores and extracting the copper during the processing of the economic gold ore at the Copperstone Mine is at the early stages of being evaluated. The economics of monetizing copper as a by-product are potentially attractive as the cash costs of production are shared with the cash cost of producing the primary product  gold. Further exploration drilling, assaying and modelling work of copper bearing gold ore is required. Metallurgical testing for the economic extraction of copper is ongoing, but currently incomplete, and further testing is required. Copper may be incorporated into a compliant mineral resource dependent upon favorable metallurgical results, and a complete review of copper data for adequacy.

Project Case Economic Results

The Project Case for the Study includes mine mobile equipment financing costs with no financing cost applied to the remaining Initial Capital. Capital costs were developed for the plant upgrade, infrastructure needs, and mining. The table below shows the estimated initial capital costs for the upgrade and restart of the Copperstone Mine using the optimal project case of a WOL processing scheme and owner operated mining, with an equipment capital lease for mine equipment financing. The capital costs reflect the in-place infrastructure, buildings, and equipment which is a beneficial aspect of the Copperstone Mine.

Initial Capital $USM Mine 5.99 Mine Development & Infill Drilling 5.38 Mill Upgrades 3.52 Indirects, EPCM, Owners Cost 4.02 Contingency 3.83 Total Initial Capital 22.74

The capital lease for the mining equipment is based on a major equipment manufacturers quote which includes a 3-year term at 10% interest and a 25% down payment. For this option, principal and interest payments reduce cash required from initial financing activity and gross capital costs are booked as assets on the balance sheet.

Economic analysis of the Project case uses a 3.77 gold g/tonne (0.111 oz/ton) cut-off grade and a gold price of US$1,250/oz, which is the 36-month trailing average price and $50/oz less than the closing spot price at the end of December 2017. The tables below summarize the results.

Before Tax After Tax $USM 19.12 Net Present Value (10.0%) $USM 17.91 % 41.7 % Internal Rate of Return % 40.1 % Yrs 2.26 Payback Period Yrs 2.27

Study Totals Year -2 Year -1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Gold Ounces in Dore oz 166,172 7,349 38,790 39,939 38,722 39,619 1,753 Gross Revenue $US 207,714,250 9,186,375 48,487,000 49,923,625 48,402,250 49,523,375 2,191,625 Cash Operating Costs $US (113,665,069 ) (4,615,312 ) (28,769,608 ) (27,427,293 ) (26,210,707 ) (24,553,976 ) (2,088,173 ) Royalties $US (4,154,287 ) (183,728 ) (969,740 ) (998,473 ) (968,045 ) (990,468 ) (43,833 ) Production Taxes $US (816,507 ) (57,138 ) (164,391 ) (169,687 ) (187,617 ) (237,674 ) - Total Operating Costs $US (118,635,863 ) (4,856,178 ) (29,903,739 ) (28,595,453 ) (27,366,369 ) (25,782,118 ) (2,132,006 ) Operating Margin (EBITDA) $US 89,078,387 4,330,197 18,583,261 21,328,172 21,035,881 23,741,257 59,619 Sustaining Capital/Closure $US (26,235,313 ) (500,000 ) (1,380,499 ) (13,314,127 ) (8,890,011 ) (4,261,740 ) (269,937 ) 2,381,000 Site All-In Sustaining Cost* $US (144,871,176 ) (500,000 ) (6,236,677 ) (43,217,866 ) (37,485,464 ) (31,628,109 ) (26,052,055 ) 248,994 Investment Capital $US (22,737,126 ) (603,670 ) (22,133,457 ) Site All-In-Cost* $US (167,608,303 ) (1,103,670 ) (28,370,134 ) (43,217,866 ) (37,485,464 ) (31,628,109 ) (26,052,055 ) 248,994 Cash Flow, pre-Tax $US 40,105,947 (1,103,670 ) (19,183,759 ) 5,269,134 12,438,161 16,774,141 23,471,320 2,440,619 Interest Expense $US (1,865,121 ) (450,161 ) (853,257 ) (474,699 ) (87,003 ) State & Federal Income Tax $US (1,961,421 ) (623,798 ) (2,662,724 ) 1,325,101 Free Cash Flow $US 36,279,406 (1,103,670 ) (19,633,920 ) 4,415,877 11,963,463 16,063,340 20,808,596 3,765,720 Cumulative Free Cash Flow $US (1,103,670 ) (20,737,589 ) (16,321,713 ) (4,358,250 ) 11,705,090 32,513,686 36,279,406 Study Life of Mine Yrs 4.4 * no corp cost

The lifespan of the project in the Study is estimated to be 5.4 years: one year of pre-production and construction, and 4.4 years of full operations. Approximately 175,093 oz of gold are projected to be mined, with 166,172 oz of gold recovered and produced for sale. An accumulated cash basis capital investment of $48.9 million, including initial capital, contingency, sustaining capital and reclamation is projected. Following the All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) guidelines, Study life of mine average base case Cash Operating Cost is projected to be $684/oz of gold sold, before credits for silver sales. The Study life of mine average Site All-in Sustaining Cost (including royalties, production taxes and sustaining capital/closure), before credits for silver sales, is expected to be $875/oz.

LOM Average Operating Costs $US/ tonne Processed $US/ oz Gold Mining 84.33 407.04 Processing 39.98 192.99 Site G&A 15.45 74.61 Transportation and Refining 1.94 9.39 Cash Operating Cost 141.70 684.03 All-In Sustaining Cost 183.58 874.83

Mineral resources were incorporated in the model only if classified as Proven or Probable Reserves according to CIM definitions. A throughput of 762 tonnes per day five days per week is the base case processing rate, and operations and capital factors were developed from this basis. Recovery for gold is expected to average 95% for the Project case. Construction of the facilities is projected to conclude at the end of year -1.

The Project, like almost all precious metals projects, is very responsive to changes in the price of its chief commodity, gold. From the base case, a change in the average gold price of US$50/oz Au would change the NPV-10 by approximately $5 million. After-tax economic results with sensitivity to gold price below.

Gold Price$/oz Net Cash Flow $M NPV 10% $M IRR % Payback

Yrs Payback Multiple 1,100 14.25 3.27 15.34 3.3 1.6 1,150 22.24 8.51 23.90 3.0 2.0 1,200 29.51 13.37 32.11 2.6 2.4 1,250 36.28 17.91 40.12 2.3 2.7 1,300 43.19 22.53 48.42 2.0 3.1 1,350 49.98 27.07 56.88 1.8 3.5 1,400 56.65 31.50 65.24 1.6 3.9

Equity Case Economic Results

The Equity case for the Study assumes no equipment financing and no financing cost for Initial Capital. The first table below shows the estimated initial capital costs for the upgrade and restart of the Copperstone Mine using the Equity model case of a WOL processing scheme and owner operated mining without mine equipment financing. The corresponding tables for this case are also below.

Initial Capital $USM Mine 17.53 Mine Development & Infill Drilling 5.38 Mill Upgrades 3.52 Indirects, EPCM, Owners Cost 4.02 Contingency 3.83 Total Initial Capital 34.28

Before Tax After Tax $USM 19.14 Net Present Value (10.0%) $USM 17.78 % 35 % Internal Rate of Return % 34 % Yrs 2.27 Payback Period Yrs 2.28

Study Totals Year -2 Year -1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Gold Ounces in Dore oz 166,172 7,349 38,790 39,939 38,722 39,619 1,753 Gross Revenue $US 207,714,250 9,186,375 48,487,000 49,923,625 48,402,250 49,523,375 2,191,625 Cash Operating Costs $US (113,665,069 ) (4,615,312 ) (28,769,608 ) (27,427,293 ) (26,210,707 ) (24,553,976 ) (2,088,173 ) Royalties $US (4,154,287 ) (183,728 ) (969,740 ) (998,473 ) (968,045 ) (990,468 ) (43,833 ) Production Taxes $US (816,507 ) (57,138 ) (164,391 ) (169,687 ) (187,617 ) (237,674 ) Total Operating Costs $US (118,635,863 ) (4,856,178 ) (29,903,739 ) (28,595,453 ) (27,366,369 ) (25,782,118 ) (2,132,006 ) Operating Margin (EBITDA) $US 89,078,387 4,330,197 18,583,261 21,328,172 21,035,881 23,741,257 59,619 Sustaining Capital/Closure $US (14,695,063 ) (500,000 ) (9,698,927 ) (4,896,252 ) (1,710,947 ) (269,937 ) 2,381,000 Site All-In Sustaining Cost* $US (133,330,926 ) (500,000 ) (4,856,178 ) (39,602,666 ) (33,491,705 ) (29,077,316 ) (26,052,055 ) 248,994 Investment Capital $US (34,277,376 ) (603,670 ) (33,673,707 ) Site All-In Cost* $US (167,608,303 ) (1,103,670 ) (38,529,885 ) (39,602,666 ) (33,491,705 ) (29,077,316 ) (26,052,055 ) 248,994 Cash Flow, pre-Tax $US 40,105,947 (1,103,670 ) (29,343,510 ) 8,884,334 16,431,920 19,324,934 23,471,320 2,440,619 Interest Expense $US State & Federal Income Tax $US (2,215,684 ) (878,061 ) (2,662,724 ) 1,325,101 Free Cash Flow $US 37,890,263 (1,103,670 ) (29,343,510 ) 8,884,334 16,431,920 18,446,873 20,808,596 3,765,720 Cumulative Free Cash Flow $US (1,103,670 ) (30,447,179 ) (21,562,846 ) (5,130,926 ) 13,315,947 34,124,543 37,890,263 Study Life of Mine Yrs 4.4 * no corp cost

LOM Average Operating Costs $US/ tonne Processed $US/ oz Gold Mining 84.33 407.04 Processing 39.98 192.99 Site G&A 15.45 74.61 Transportation and Refining 1.94 9.39 Cash Operating Cost 141.70 684.03 All-In Sustaining Cost 169.19 805.38

Infrastructure and Permitting

The Copperstone Mine benefits from extensive existing infrastructure development including 3,000 meters of underground development with two portals to access the underground mine from the bottom of the historic open pit mine. Supporting the underground development are electrical equipment, compressors and ventilation. Also present are a mineral processing plant with crush/grind and flotation capable of +762 tonnes per day, a tailings storage facility expandable, within existing permits, to contain the Study life of mine ore tailings; and other surface infrastructure including line power, office buildings, maintenance shop, fuel bay, wash rack, assay lab, warehouse and a dry. The entire mine-site layout is compact with the underground operations proximal to the process plant, tailings facility and site buildings.

All permits are in place for operations with the infrastructure as described above. Modifications to existing permits are underway for the Study case of WOL, and also for the ability to discharge ground water from the underground workings to a water storage/evaporation pond near the crest of the open pit.

2018 Phase-II Exploration Program

The 2017 Phase-I exploration program was developed to provide a pathway for increasing resources in both the Copperstone and Footwall zones. The program advanced knowledge of mineralizing controls of ore zones at the Copperstone Mine and provided a pathway for adding resources by confirming mineralization, improving continuity and increasing mineralized extents along continued open trends in both the Copperstone and Footwall Zones. The 2017 program is the foundation of the PFS economics and forthcoming production decision.

Building upon the outcomes of 2017 drilling and PFS, the 2018 Phase-II exploration drilling program is aimed at increasing mine life beyond the Study mine life through upgrading and increasing resources. The objectives of the 2018 program are extension of known gold zones and addition of Inferred mineralization near existing development.

Copperstone 2018 Phase-II Drilling Plan:

Up to 6,500 meters with the objective of upgrading Inferred tonnes to Indicated or better and to improve continuity and grade of the M&I mineral resource tonnes that were not part of the P&P mineral resource tonnes in the current resource.

Up to 5,500 meters to test additional zones and add Inferred tonnes.

Up to 2,000 meters for structural, geotechnical and metallurgical purposes.

Drilling location targets for additions and conversions are associated with structural, alteration and lithologic controls which have demonstrated to have significant support for mineralization. Drilling targets also include areas of magnetite skarns and replaced limestones which often demonstrate significant upside potential in near mine extents. The funding of this Phase-II program is not included in the PFS.

Qualified Persons

Qualified Person Company QP Responsibility/Role Mr. Zachary Black, RM-SME Hard Rock Consulting, LLC Mineral Resources Ms. J.J. Brown, P.G. Hard Rock Consulting, LLC Geology, Environment Studies and Permitting, Site visit Mr. Jeffery Choquette, P.E. Hard Rock Consulting, LLC Mineral Reserves, Mining Methods and Economic Analysis Mr. Deepak Malhotra, Ph.D. Resource Development, Inc. Mineral Processing and Plant Design Contributing Person Company Responsibility/Role Mr. Dermot Ross-Brown, Ph.D. Tierra Group International, Ltd Mine Geotechnical Mr. Matt Bachman, P.E. Paterson and Cooke Mine Backfill Design Mr. David Abranovic, P.E. Environmental Resources Management Permitting and Environmental Mr. Scott M. Bruno, P.E. BODEC, Inc. Mine Electrical Mr. Michael R. Smith, RM-SME Geological Professional Services, LLC Mine Ore Control and Quality Assurance, Quality Control

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed and approved by HRC. The qualified persons responsible for preparing the Copperstone PFS are named above. All of whom act as independent consultants to the Company, are Qualified Persons as define by National Instrument 43-101 and have reviewed and approved the contents of this new release.

HRC is a client focused consultancy comprised of a formal collaboration of industry professionals including geologists, engineers, and business advisors who offer a wealth and variety of professional experience - and a passion to gain more. As a team, HRC takes pride in our ability to apply practical solutions to real-world project challenges, whether in the field or in the office, for projects in North America and around the world. www.hardrock-consulting.com

A technical report in support of the Pre-Feasibility Study prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days of this news release. Readers are strongly encouraged to review the final technical report in its entirety.

About Kerr Mines Inc.

Kerr Mines is a North American gold development and exploration company currently advancing the 100% owned, fully permitted past-producing Copperstone Mine project. Copperstone is a high-grade gold project located along a detachment fault mineral belt in mining-friendly Arizona. The project demonstrates significant upside exploration potential within a 4,775-hectare (11,800 acres) land package that includes a production history of over 500,000 ounces of gold. The Companys current focus is on maximizing Copperstones potential by defining and expanding current resources and strengthening the mines economics leading to project financing and a production decision.

For further information contact:

Claudio Ciavarella

Chief Executive Officer

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

416-855-9305

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including current expectations on the timing of the commencement of production and the rate of production, if commenced. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the Canadian economy; the price of gold; operational, funding, and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; and the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with underground operations. Risks and uncertainties about Kerr Mines business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials, including its annual information form and MD&A, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. Kerr Mines assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless required by law.

Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release and no stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Cautionary Note to US Investors Regarding Mineral Reporting Standards: The Company has prepared its disclosure in accordance with the requirements of securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Terms relating to mineral resources in this press release are defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. The Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. The Company uses certain terms, such as, measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources, inferred mineral resources and probable mineral reserves, that the SEC does not recognize (these terms may be used in this press release and are included in the public filings of the Company which have been filed with securities commissions or similar authorities in Canada).
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 23, 2017) - Liberty Silver Corp. ("Liberty" or the "Company") (CSE:LSL) is pleased to announce that, following discussions with Placer Mining Corp. ("Placer" or the "Vendor"), the current owner of the Bunker Hill Mine, that have occurred over the last several... Read More
Rwanda is commemorating the 24th anniversary of the 1994 Tutsi genocide. This claimed the lives of between 800,000 and one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days.

This is a good time to reflect on the history of policy and practice of memory, justice, and recovery in the country over the past 24 years. Two questions are especially pertinent: how have Rwandans engaged in various forms of memory after genocide? How have these processes been meaningful?

From a series of nearly 60 interviews conducted in the country since 2015, I have learned from a diversity of perspectives about memory and justice.

The findings suggest that genocide memory in Rwanda is diverse and dynamic. The interviewees often offered surprising and unexpected perspectives. These could not have been assumed from reading secondary reports or by observing the commemorations from a distance.

For example many people  including genocide survivors and former perpetrators  have a more holistic concept of justice than punishing perpetrators. And there is a huge desire for spaces for dialogue about how memories of genocide emerge impact everyday life. These spaces would bring together survivors, perpetrators, returnees, and ordinary citizens. There is also a great desire for knowledge about how to use these memories to seek justice, validation, and promote coexistence, especially for future generations.

What we learnt

I interviewed genocide survivors, former perpetrators and ordinary citizens who were neither targeted for genocide but who did not take part in killing. Officials engaged in memory processes in Rwanda were also interviewed.

The commemoration ceremonies take place over 100 days, known as the Kwibuka period, beginning on April 7 each year. During this period Rwandans visit village, district, or national memorial sites known as urwibutso where genocide victims are buried. There they hold memorial ceremonies which include listening to survivor testimonies and representatives from survivors organisations. Local and national leaders relate the history of the genocide, and sometimes perpetrators give testimonies.

Bodies of victims are still being found to this day, in pits or on farms. These bodies are reburied in communal memorial sites during the kwibuka period. Sometimes icyunamo (time of mourning) is observed. This is the cultural practice of informal mourning that takes place throughout the night, usually around a fire.

Regardless of the programme of kwibuka, each process ideally pays respect to genocide victims and works to bring Rwandans together.

But not all acts of memory are necessarily guided by the intention of achieving peace and justice, unity and reconciliation. Some of this is because of individual differences in perspective and resilience. Simply put, some people cope better with the harms that they suffered for various reasons, among them faith, education and economic gains since the genocide.

Some individuals do not feel particularly connected to the memorial sites. Yet they still attend the ceremonies. This can cause conflicts of memory, especially when what is being remembered differs according to an individualss experience of the genocidal process. So it is important to ask Rwandans how urwibutso and kwibuka have or have not led to senses of justice, and what aspects of these processes are meaningful.

Local cultures of memory

It is also important to go back into the culture of Rwanda to inform the process of reflecting on and remembering the genocide. That serves to ensure that these processes are salient to Rwandans themselves, regardless of their backgrounds.

Achieving these goals is not an easy process. For example, proximity matters, as genocide survivors, genocidaires, returnees, and others still live together in close contact, in local communities and villages in Rwanda.

In addition, the genocide took place during a time of a civil war (1 October 1990-4 July 1994) and it was planned by a government that had abandoned its people. The government coerced many to participate in the killings. It used years of deliberate propaganda, hate speech and dehumanisation tactics to indoctrinate others into hate ideology.

Many of the survivors were born of so-called mixed marriages, with one Hutu and one Tutsi parent. This reality challenges the binary nature of victimisation and perpetration of genocide in Rwanda.

Meaning making and memorialisation

The interviews raise further questions: what are Rwandans empowered by and what do they find meaningful about memorial sites and kwibuka, in order to sustain these processes over time?

For example, the research shows that, although some survivors feel validated when former perpetrators join them at commemoration ceremonies, others fear that requiring former genocidaires to attend when they still dont accept their guilt might result in a backlash.

Some individuals attend kwibuka to support their neighbours but do not consider it their own story. Others consider it to be one of the most significant and emotional days of their lives each year. Some embrace kwibuka as a chance to remember their loved ones among the comfort of friends and neighbours. Yet, others fear it, because of the retraumatisation, grief, depression, and anger they might feel.

These are some examples of the diverse perspectives of kwibuka, all of which are valid and coexist in the same physical and emotional space every April in Rwanda.

Eric Ndushabandi, Director, Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace, Rwanda, co-authored this article.
Israel on Monday accused Syria of crimes against humanity over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town, saying President Bashar al-Assads regime was responsible.

Israel strongly condemns the chemical weapons strike carried out by Syria on April 7, one year after the mass murder carried out by the regime in Khan Sheikun, a foreign ministry statement said.

The Syrian regime continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity in using these outlawed weapons.

It added that it joins a long series of similar attacks using chemical weapons perpetrated by the regime since Assad undertook to disarm from such weapons.

The attack shows clearly that Syria continues to possess lethal chemical weapons capabilities and even to manufacture new ones, the statement said.

In so doing Syria is grossly violating its obligations and the decisions of the international community in this matter.

Separately on Monday with tensions high over the alleged chemical attack, Syria and Russia accused Israel of deadly missile strikes on a Syrian regime air base.

Israel declined to comment on the allegations.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in Syrias civil war, but it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to its enemy Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that is backing Assad.

It has also repeatedly warned it will not accept its arch-foe Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.
China on Tuesday warned against military action in Syria after US President Donald Trump vowed to respond forcefully to the latest alleged chemical atrocity in the countrys bloody civil war.

As he opened a cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday, Trump pledged major decisions to come within the next 24-48 hours after what he called a heinous attack on innocent Syrians in the rebel-held town of Douma that killed at least 40 people.

The Syrian regime and its ally Russia have rejected claims of a chemical attack, with President Vladimir Putin warning against any provocation and speculation on this matter.

Trump  who last year launched a missile strike on a Syrian regime air base after another alleged chemical attack  warned Sunday that there would be a big price to pay.

The crisis was discussed Monday at an urgent UN Security Council meeting, while the US also circulated a draft resolution for a new independent inquiry of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said his country was opposed to the wanton use of force or threat of force.

Before a comprehensive, impartial and objective investigation had been conducted into the incident, no party should prejudge the results and come to conclusions randomly, he said.

Military means will lead us nowhere.

China depends on the Middle East for its oil supplies but has long taken a back seat in the regions disputes, only recently beginning to expand its role, hosting high-level delegations from both the Syrian government and the opposition.

It consistently says the crisis needs a political solution but has numerous times vetoed UN Security Council measures aimed at addressing the conflict  including an investigation of war crimes in the country.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday his country would not accept Iranian entrenchment in Syria after missile strikes on a Syrian regime air base blamed on Israel.

We will not allow Iranian entrenchment in Syria no matter the price to pay, he told journalists. We have no other option. Allowing Iran to strengthen itself in Syria is like accepting that the Iranians strangle us.

Lieberman did not confirm Israel carried out Mondays deadly strikes, which Syria and Russia blamed on Israel.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in Syrias civil war, but it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to its enemy Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that is backing President Bashar al-Assads regime.

It has also repeatedly warned it will not accept its arch-foe Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

On Monday, Israel accused Syria of crimes against humanity over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town, saying Assads regime was responsible.
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Now that the children have shouldered their muskets and taken aim  figuratively speaking, of course  against the gun lobby, maybe we can interest them in another partisan conflict thats even more sweepingly about their survival: climate change. Not to minimize the horrific consequences of school shootings, but there are many more lives at stake from climate calamities. Threats from sea level rise, flooding, wildfires, and storms are multiplying while the impact of climate change  ranging from asthma and allergies to smoke inhalation and traumatic injuries  has inundated our physician offices and emergency rooms. The younger generation needs to take note.

In recent years, physicians voices have gotten louder: climate change is bad for our health. Over 20 prestigious medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have formed the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. Working with public health officials, this consortium aims to train practitioners while implementing policy approaches to limit climate change. Gary Cohen, president and co-founder of Healthcare without Harm, won the MacArthur genius award for his work on greening the health care sector (which contributes about 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions). Journal articles, textbooks, and online resources are available in abundance and are evidence of academic fervor. And finally, there is a slow but growing response among medical educators, who are working to develop and integrate curricular projects on the health impacts of climate change.

The tools and knowledge are there, so why arent young folk taking action? We decided to put this question to our medical students, who, as twenty-somethings, are closest to the generation next in line to advocate for a better world. In a class introducing first-year medical students to the health impacts of climate change, we implemented a beachball survey. This involved tossing around some plastic beach balls representing the earth. After the balls had crossed a few of the auditoriums latitudes and longitudes, we asked the students what barriers got in the way of making climate change a priority in their lives. They wrote their answers on post-its and affixed them to the beach balls before sending them to the front of the room for collection. Heres what we found.

Students admitted en masse to different forms of inertia. They were too lazy to do anything, (their words) too selfish, apathetic and too attached to convenience (also their words). They also had too many other things on their plate, and besides, what exactly could they, as individuals, really do? After all, the post-its said, corporate interests, economic factors, and politics played a far bigger role in the acceleration of climate change than any difference they could personally make. And finally, the post-its acknowledged, silence on information, or straight-out misinformation, added to a lack of sensed urgency. Climate change is taking place, but not exactly here and not exactly now.

Compare that with the high school students response to school shootings. Shootings feel close to home. They happen to privileged kids, they happen to people they know and love. They involve semi-automatic weapons. And those weapons are fired right now, front and center, with terrifying lethal effect, first at one school, then at another.

Climate change is not like that. Coral reefs are dying. Mussels dissolve in the oceans acidity. Storms coming blowing through. Tree-eating beetles are surviving warm winters. Lyme disease is spreading up north. More people have allergies. Ground-level ozone damages lungs. These findings are too random, too global and too removed from our daily lives. We cant connect the dots. No wonder then, that only 40 percent percent of Americans feel that climate change affects them personally. And no wonder that when we show our young people, with their feelings of invincibility, illustrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide at levels higher than at any time, and maps whose red and orange surfaces warn of rising temperatures, theyre inclined to shrug it off.

But every now and then you come across a medical student committed to activism. Mike Pappas is one. You cant be neutral on a moving train, Pappas says, quoting historian and activist Howard Zinn. As the climate change train appears to be gaining momentum, Pappas points to research by Erica Chenoweth on nonviolent revolutionary movements, which found that the likelihood of success correlated with the number of committed participants. Successful campaigns confronting opponent regimes represented only 3.5 percent of a population and yet sustained their results. We have two choices, Pappas muses, we can either choose the path of despair, allowing the train of our issue of interest to continue moving in its current direction, or we can choose to work towards that 3.5 percent to cause drastic change.

It turns out there are some young climate change activists whose efforts might edge their generation towards that 3.5 percent. Victoria Barrett, a freshman at UW-Madison, is suing the government for reneging on the Obama administrations plans to phase out fossil fuel dependence. In Juliana vs. United States, she joins 20 other plaintiffs, citing the long-standing failure of previous administrations to secure their future. Medical students can similarly consider how to act, and specifically, how to stem the rise of climate-related public health concerns that await them in practice. This means pressuring faculty and administrators for more curricular emphasis on climate change. It means tracking the annual policy recommendations by the UN-sanctioned Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, which has called climate change the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century. And it means integrating climate activism into their daily lives. Doing nothing on this moving train will have consequences. It will end up being more expensive in terms of dollars and human lives; it also will mean that when presented with an opportunity to be proactive and engaged, our future doctors will have failed to realize their own agency.

Caroline Wellbery is a family physician and Rhett Engelking is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Why cataract surgery is more complicated than it should be

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Eye surgery is a delicate business. It involves operating within an orb the size of a large marble to remove a cataract or repair a retinal detachment.

Not only is superb eye-hand coordination a must, but also an awareness of the myriad other medical issues in the elderly population most in need of eye surgery.

Traditionally, patients undergoing cataract surgery had a preoperative medical evaluation, including blood work, chest X-ray, and EKG, to determine their suitability for surgery. This is a remnant from the days when cataract surgery was a long operation with a week of hospitalization and bed rest.

Today, its a much quicker procedure, performed with minimal anesthesia. Patients return home an hour after surgery. Its no surprise that researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that routine preoperative testing before cataract surgery is neither necessary nor cost-effective.

Case closed, right? Not so fast. Enter the bureaucrats. The Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services require all patients undergo A comprehensive history and physical assessment prior to their surgery  including for post-cataract YAG laser procedures that take only minutes to perform. This usually means a referral to another doctor. But even worse, the bureaucracy mandates that the preoperative physical be performed No more than 30 calendar days prior to date the patient is scheduled for surgery in the [ambulatory surgery center]. Also, it must be done then Regardless of the type of surgical procedure. This means that a healthy 68 year old, who had her annual physical six weeks ago, needs to repeat the process in order to have a two-minute laser procedure.

Note that if the same patient were undergoing a molar extraction or a root canal  both longer and far more invasive surgeries  needs none of this.

Why all this bureaucratic red-tape? Its called defensive medicine. If an elderly patient happens, by timing and bad luck, to have a critical medical event during the few hours they are at the surgery center, the surgeon will be blamed for not knowing this would happen and not taking appropriate measures to prevent it. The tort lawyers will feast on his practice. Hence the excessive evaluation and testing, just in case.

Still another group of bureaucrats, insurance companies, have also nosed into eye surgery. Anthems new policy decrees, Its not medically necessary to have an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist on hand to administer and monitor sedation in most cases.

Says who? The suits in the corner office at Anthem think they know better than surgeons. Meaning that when the surgeon is intently focused on the delicate task at hand, and the patients blood pressure drops or their heart rhythm starts dancing, the surgeon is expected to notice this and manage it appropriately while at the same time performing intricate microsurgery on the eye. How might that work out?

I wonder how many Anthem executives would let their mother with high blood pressure have eye surgery without an anesthesiologist monitoring Moms vital signs?

Bureaucrats and surgery just dont mix. On the one hand, they mandate costly and unnecessary preoperative testing. On the other, they cut corners by refusing to pay for appropriate patient monitoring during actual surgery. They strain out the fly and swallow the camel.

And we wonder why medical care in the United States is so costly without outcomes that reflect this high cost. Because the bureaucracy thinks it knows better. It requires low-value preoperative testing, while at the same time casting patient safety aside in a misguided attempt to save a few dollars.

Brian C. Joondeph is an ophthalmologist and can be reached on Twitter @retinaldoctor. This article originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Sixth-year student at Loreto Secondary School Anna Phelan was recently selected from hundreds of youth volunteers and recognised for the exemplary work she carries out in her local community at the 2018 Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards Ceremony, held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

The only all-Ireland youth initiative of its kind, which is run in partnership with The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) and The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI), recognises young people for exemplary acts of volunteering in their local communities.

Anna is a Student Leader Ambassador for mental health awareness charity Cycle Against Suicide. Her involvement with the charity has changed her life.

Her passion for spreading the message its okay not to feel okay has involved organising a committee group within her school and last year, Loreto Secondary School, Kilkenny was picked as an anchor school for the charitys annual cycle.

As well as her work with Cycle Against Suicide, Anna also completed her Saint John Paul II Silver Award through volunteering with Archersrath Nursing Home where both her grandparents lived before passing away. Anna has also given speeches to her school sharing her experiences on mental health, womens rights and her Transition Year experience.

The two All-Ireland Youth Volunteers of the Year named at the event were Daniella Timperley from Randalstown in Antrim and Niall Gossan from Rush in Dublin.

This year also saw the top two Junior Honourees, Elaine Magee from Raphoe, Co Donegal, and Aimee Melaugh from Derry~Londonderry, receiving an additional 500 for their chosen charity.

These awards are designed to shine a light on the commitment and dedication of young people in todays society who give their free time to not only helping others but making their local communities a better place to live, said Andrea McBride, vice president, Pramerica Systems Ireland.

All our 2018 finalists carry out exceptional volunteer work with the ultimate goal of making the lives better of those less fortunate than themselves. Its great to see their achievements being recognised, and I look forward to hearing about their continued good work in the years ahead.

The selection committee that chose the two All-Ireland Youth Volunteers of the Year were: Andrea McBride, Vice President - Systems, Pramerica Systems Ireland, Clive Byrne, Director of NAPD, Paul ODoherty, Vice Chairperson, GTCNI, Denise Hayward, Chief Executive of Volunteer Now, Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, and Kieran Cody, Scouting Ireland.

For more information about the Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards, follow the Pramerica Spirit of Community Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter feed and Snapchat or visit spirit.pramerica.ie
A Waterford murder trial has heard that emergency services found a blood-soaked man on the ground outside the accused mans house, which was also covered in blood and littered with alcohol cans.



A garda and a paramedic gave the evidence to the Central Criminal Court today in the trial of a 37-year-old man, charged with murdering another man in Co Waterford more than four years ago.



Tadhg Butler, with an address at Seafield in Tramore and formerly from Kilkenny is accused of murdering 25-year-old Kilkenny man Michael ODwyer on 10th January 2014 at a location in the county. He has pleaded not guilty.



Denis Vaughan Buckley SC opened the trial for the prosecution yesterday. He told the jury that the deceased had been stabbed in his chest at the accused mans address. His heart and left lung had been injured, and he had died in hospital a couple of hours later.



I think therell be no issue in this case but that the accused had a knife, which did cause the death of the unfortunate deceased, he said.



The prosecutor also explained that Tadhg Butler had previously been called Thomas OGrady, but had changed his name by deed poll.



Theres nothing wrong whatsoever with changing your name by deed poll, he remarked. A lot of people do that.



A garda photographer explained that the front door of the house had been forced in by gardai when he arrived. Detective Garda Eoin Conway also testified that the entrance and the living room floor were covered in blood.



Bringing the jury through the crime scene photographs, he said that there was also quite a number of cans and empty bottles in the house.



The floor is littered with cans, he added.



Referring to an off-licence receipt for 48.50, he confirmed that it appeared that drink had been ordered and delivered in the box to which it was attached.



Under cross examination by Michael Bowman SC, defending, he agreed that it was clear that a very considerable amount of alcohol had been consumed in the very recent past in that property.



A paramedic testified that he was called to a stabbing at that address and arrived to find a man lying on the ground outside the front door.



Michael Fanning told Tony McGillicuddy SC, prosecuting, that a garda was holding a bandage to the mans chest. There was a lot of shouting and commotion, he added.



His colour was pale. He was covered in blood and his clothing was blood-soaked, he recalled. There was no attempt by him to breathe and no response. His eyes were fully dilated and there were no signs of any pulse.



He put the patient on advanced life support and took him by ambulance to hospital in Waterford, where he died within hours.



The trial continues this (Wednesday) morning before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of six men and six women. The jurors were told that they were the second jury sworn for this case, the first jury having been discharged due to one member having a difficulty.
By Lee Min-hyung



North Korea is vehemently denying its involvement in the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan frigate in 2010, as the regime hopes to stand in a strong bargaining position for the longstanding dispute over the legal basis of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), experts said Monday.



The NLL, established at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, is a maritime demarcation line in the West Sea between the two Koreas. The North has, however, claimed the boundary stands farther north.



"Pyongyang aims to make as many complaints as possible regarding the NLL and seeks to justify its provocations in the area," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.



The regime had repeatedly argued it has nothing to do with the sinking of the ill-fated ship, which left 46 South Korean sailors dead, as this can help raise the NLL issue, according to the professor.



The latest in a series of inter-Korean conflicts over the Cheonan came last week when Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, sarcastically maintained the regime is not responsible for the tragic incident by introducing himself as "the guy who the South claims masterminded the attack" to South Korean journalists who were on a Pyongyang visit.



But the remark came somewhat out of the blue, as the meeting was arranged to enhance reconciliatory inter-Korean relations ahead of a planned inter-Korean summit later this month.



Lee Jin-gon, a former professor of political science at Kyung Hee University, shared his view that the North will never accept its responsibility for the incident, as this will result in its further isolation from international society.



"To some extent, chances are the regime strongly denies its involvement in the incident, in a bid to continue making a fuss over the NLL issue," he said. "But the key reason behind its strong denial is because this will help to tighten the leadership grip of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un."



The two experts voiced their consensus that President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un are unlikely to bring the Cheonan incident to the dialogue table during the upcoming summit that falls on April 27.



Yang said: "The key agenda for the inter-Korean summit is peace, and therefore, chances are slim the two leaders will narrow their differences on such a contentious issue during the summit."



Lee also said, given the ongoing pro-North Korean policy stance of the President Moon administration, it appears highly unlikely he will discuss a series of pending politically sensitive issues with Kim.



South Korea's position is that the attack came from North Korea, but Seoul has yet to give details behind who or what organization was the main culprit.



Last week, the United States also stepped up its criticism on the North, stating that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo at the Cheonan, citing a months-long investigation following the incident.


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Page: 1 2 from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first LopDude

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04-10-2018 07:30 AM



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Post: #1 from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

Advertisement



The Thursday incident which left the man injured reportedly involved a moose and her calf.



The two moose left the area after the man had his foot stomped, Alaska Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters told the outlet. Hed given the cow a kick, she said.



As for the man involved? Hes believed to have avoided serious injuries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) spokesman Ken Marsh told the station.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/moose-...li=BBnbcA1 Let us honor the Lop fallen-never forget them Let us honor the Lop fallen-never forget them A moose kicked a mans foot last week in Alaska  after hed already given it a kick, KTVA-TV reports.The Thursday incident which left the man injured reportedly involved a moose and her calf.The two moose left the area after the man had his foot stomped, Alaska Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters told the outlet. Hed given the cow a kick, she said.As for the man involved? Hes believed to have avoided serious injuries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) spokesman Ken Marsh told the station. LoP Guest

lop guest

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04-10-2018 07:41 AM











Post: #2 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

I see a reason for WW3 in that article. Krampus

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04-10-2018 07:46 AM



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Post: #3 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first





Moose reaction after i got an exclusive interview:

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.  Mark Twain LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 08:01 AM











Post: #4 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

omg mosses at cute LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 09:26 AM











Post: #5 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first





Pin this But guys what's the plural of moose????Pin this Bullwinkle

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 09:59 AM











Post: #6 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

ban high-capacity assault mooses LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 10:41 AM











Post: #7 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-10-2018 09:26 AM) But guys what's the plural of moose????



Pin this

The plural of goose is geese.



The plural of moose is meese. The plural of goose is geese.The plural of moose is meese. JohnPrewett

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04-10-2018 10:47 AM



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Post: #8 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

Trading kicks with a adult moose ain't a good idea. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 10:57 AM











Post: #9 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

Krampus Wrote: (04-10-2018 07:46 AM) Moose reaction after i got an exclusive interview:



link to image: https://media2.giphy.com/media/3o6gaVpow.../giphy.gif

Those things would have to be related to Horses ! Those things would have to be related to Horses ! Albrecht Bear

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04-10-2018 01:34 PM



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Post: #10 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

Dammit. I misread the thread title as "Mouse kicks man" and got all interested. It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right. - Winston Churchill LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 01:53 PM











Post: #11 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-10-2018 08:01 AM) omg mosses at cute

You should learn how to spell. You should learn how to spell. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 01:54 PM











Post: #12 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-10-2018 09:26 AM) But guys what's the plural of moose????



Pin this

Moose is plural. Like the plural for deer is deer. Moose is plural. Like the plural for deer is deer. LoP Guest

lop guest

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04-10-2018 03:41 PM











Post: #13 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

I find this story amoosing. Alian2

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04-10-2018 03:48 PM



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Post: #14 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

I hate it when I get kicked in the Alaska. It hurts like hell! .

........ .

................ . LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 04:33 PM











Post: #15 RE: from lop's odd file: Moose kicks man in Alaska -- after he kicked first

Can you eat moose? Advertisement


















Apr 10, 2018, 1:53am ET

Buick to reveal two electrified cars in Beijing

Both models will likely remain in China.

Buick will continue its electric car offensive at the upcoming Beijing auto show. The company announced plans to unveil an all-electric SUV concept named Enspire and an electrified production car called Velite 6 during the biennial event.

The Enspire (Buick's spelling; not ours) will arrive as a close-to-production concept car. The company's dark teaser image reveals little. We see a shapely hatch, elongated headlights connected by a light strip, and a roof-mounted spoiler.

Officially, the concept is an inspiration of future design and technology elements. We suspect the model is already well on its way to production behind the scenes, however.

The Velite 6 will break cover ready to hit showrooms. Motor Authority reports it will come in plug-in hybrid and electric variants. Again, the styling remains under wraps. The teaser image hints at a more realistic design with a sharp rendition of the L-shaped lights found on current members of the company's line-up.

As of writing, it's too early to tell whether either of Buick's Beijing-bound electrified models will make the trip across the Pacific and land in American showrooms. The fact that they're breaking cover in Beijing after the brand fell silent in New York and in Detroit this year suggests they'll remain in China, where sales of electrified cars are booming thanks to ever-stricter government policies.

We'll learn more details about Buick's electrified models in just a few short weeks.
A Laois secondary school is planning to build an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) unit.

The project is part of plans drawn up by two Laois schools forextra classrooms.

Heywood Community School wants to build a three classroom extension at the school building near Ballinakill not far from Abbeyleix.

The co-educational school's board of management is to lodge plans with Laois County Council to build one general purpose classroom and a two classroom ASD unit.

Just over 700 students are enrolled at the interdenominational school.

Meanwhile, the board of management of Cosby National School in Stradbally is planning an extensive development at the Church of Ireland patroned-school.

The plan is to build build two classrooms with toilets, a resource room and a staff room.

The school has around 30 boys and girls in enrolled.

Details of the plans for both schools will be available from County Hall in Portlaoise. Planning notices for both projects have been published in the Leinster Express this week.

TROUBLED BUILDING FIRM SAYS IT CAN FINISH PORTLAOISE SCHOOLS
RTE Rose of Tralee host Daithi O Se is urging Laois householders to put the kettle on for Alzheimers Tea Day, which is held on Thursday May 3 to raise much needed funds for the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland - ASI.

Alzheimer services in Laois include day care, home care, social clubs, support groups and Alzheimer Cafe. In Lenister there are over 23,000 people living with dementia. For everyone person diagnosed three people are directly affected.

Daithi O Se enjoyed afternoon tea on board the Vintage Tea Tour Bus in Dublin to mark the launch of Alzheimers Tea Day.

Since the very first Alzheimers Tea Day in 1994 over 8 million has been raised to provide essential support to the 34,650 Women and 19,800 Men living with dementia in Ireland today. Every year thousands of people host tea parties in their homes, offices and schools. This year were asking you to join them, all funds raised locally stay locally.

The ASI is the national leader in advocating for and providing dementia-specific supports and services. Each year it provides more than one million hours of community-based dementia-specific care throughout Ireland.

There is nothing we Irish love more than sharing a cup of tea with friends and families, where the problems of the day are tackled. With 1 in 2 people in Ireland knowing someone who has been diagnosed with dementia, calling round for a cup of tea is also a great way to bring a little light into the day of someone who may be isolated.

"I'm delighted to support Alzheimers Tea Day again this year, for the third year running. By taking part in this campaign you are helping to raise vital funds and awareness of a condition that is affecting so many of our family, friends and neighbours. Whats important to remember is that money raised locally stays locally, so by getting involved youll be supporting your own community," said Daithi.

For more information or to register for Alzheimers Tea Day fundraising pack, visit www.teaday.ie or call (01) 207 3800 #timefortea

The Laois Alzheimer's Society Support Group meets next on Wednesday, April 18 7.30pm-9pm in Old Parochial House, Portlaoise.

The support groups provide an opportunity to meet others in a similar situation, to access information and practical advice in supportive environment. They are free to family members affected by dementia and memory issues.

For any information on dementia contact Ann Munnelly on 057 866 3398/086 8372168

Home-care Coordinator Old Parochial House, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co Laois

Email laois.branch@alzheimer.ie
The 31st annual Galway Cycle, run by Maynooth students has raised 83,000 over the weekend which will help fund a bereavement suite in the Coombe Hospital.

And it is expected that the figure will rise over the coming weeks and months.

It was the 31st consecutive Galway Cycle, an event that has raised in excess of 1.6 million over that time for numerous different charities.

The event began last Friday morning at the college in Maynooth and involved some 123 cyclists taking to the road just after daybreak, bound for Galway. They arrived into Eyre Square just before 6pm on Friday evening.

And after spending Saturday rattling buckets on the streets of the city on Saturday, they once again mounted their bikes and cycled the 200km back to Maynooth where they arrived to considerable fanfare on Sunday evening.

Cyclists greet the dawn in Oranmore, Galway on Sunday morning at the start of the return leg.

The bereavement suite at the Coombe is intended to provide for the parents and families of babies who do not survive, whether they are stillborn or die soon after birth. The project is intended to renovate three en-suite rooms to create a family-friendly home away from home that will afford bereaved parents both comfort and dignity. Each room will be designed in a way that enables essential medical equipment to be discreetly concealed, resulting in a much softer, more homely feel.

The Maynooth students were inspired to take part by the experience of local couple Terry and Sarah Fahey, whose son Tom was born there in 2015. At the 20 week scan, the couple were told that Tom had Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome. Its a condition that affects only one in 6,000 and essentially means that the baby will either not survive childbirth or not survive much beyond it.

Maynooth cyclists (in pink) created a carnival atmosphere in Galway on Saturday - seen here serenading a pair of newly weds.

It was Sarah and Terrys experience of their sons birth and subsequent passing after 11 days which inspired them to raise funds for the bereavement suite. This is where your memories are made in a very short space of time, says Sarah.

The suite is set to cost 120,000 of which the 83,000 raised so far is a significant dent.

Click here for more details or to donate.

As well as over 100 cyclists, there were more than 30 support crew, including Kilcock man Jack Hearns.
Imposing a conviction and a suspended sentence against Ruth McKinley at last weeks sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court, Judge Kevin P Kilrane said, She was charged with section two assault, she could and should have been charged with section three assault.



The injured party, Charlene Moran, gave evidence that she was walking home on her own on October 15, 2017 at Priests Lane, Townparks, Carrick-on-Shannon when she heard her name being called out.



She recalled turning around and observing the defendant, Ruth McKinley, 27 St Badens Terrace, Culduff, Co Donegal who approached her and then punched her in the right eye before kicking and punching her in the head while her hair was also pulled.



Ms Moran said she noticed two Gardai across the road and she begged them for help.



She added, The following day I tried to brush my hair and it started falling out.



Ms Moran said she has received counseling and therapy following the incident.



Under cross-examination from defending solicitor John McNulty, Ms Moran said, This was an unprovoked attack.



I was walking home minding my own business and I was mauled.



When it was put to her by Mr McNulty that she was shouting abuse Ms Moran replied, If I was screaming and shouting it was for a reason.



When asked if she dropped her bag and said lets do this when she was approached by Ms McKinley, Ms Moran replied, When I saw her running towards me I dropped my bag. I dont remember saying that.



Ms Moran added, There were Guards there on the night who witnessed what happened.



Outlining his client's circumstances, Mr McNulty said she is a single mother of one child who lives on her own and was in Carrick-on-Shannon visiting a friend.



Mr McNulty added, She accepts and made a full admission words were exchanged and there was an altercation.



She co-operated fully and pleaded guilty. I think she should be given a chance. She didnt come looking for trouble.



Having heard the evidence Judge Kilrane remarked, I am satisfied she assaulted Ms Moran.



Judge Kilrane continued, She bet her to the ground, punched her, kicked her and pulled her hair.



She is charged with section two assault but it could and should have been section three assault (causing harm).



Judge Kilrane imposed a conviction and a three month prison sentence, suspended for a period of two years on the condition that she is not convicted of any public order offence other than section four for a period of two years.



Recognisance in the event of an appeal was fixed at 300 own bond, cash.
A motorist who applied for a renewal of her driving licence only for authorities to discover the original licence was a fake was given the benefit of the Probation Act by Judge Kevin P Kilrane at last weeks sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court.



Giving summary evidence Inspector Denis Harrington told the court the defendant, Maria O'Neill, made an application for a renewal of her driving licence but it was discovered the original licence was not a genuine document.



After questioning, Insp Harrington said Ms O'Neill admitted getting the fake licence in America.



Ms O'Neill appeared before court charged with using a false instrument at NDLS, Townparks, Carrick-on-Shannon on September 5, 2017.



Defending solicitor Peter Collins said the defendant Maria ONeill, River Lodge, Knockashee, Boyle, Co Roscommon emigrated to live in America in 1999. He added that she was illegal in the US and was having difficulty obtaining ID.



Mr Collins informed the court, She paid an individual for what she thought was a genuine Irish licence.



Mr Collins added, A lack of green card and three children meant she returned (to Ireland) 18 months ago. She went to renew her licence thinking it was a genuine licence.



Having heard the evidence Judge Kilrane remarked, I have to take it she knew it was a fraudulent licence. An Irish licence, it doesnt just fall off the back of a lorry. I have to proceed on the basis she knew it was fraudulent.



Insp Harrington informed the court Ms ONeill has no previous convictions while Mr Collins said she is in receipt of social welfare.



Judge Kilrane concluded matters saying, Ill give her a chance, and gave Ms Collins the benefit of the Probation Act. Legal aid was assigned to Mr Collins.
IT seems strange today to imagine a windmill in Limerick city, even though Windmill Street, which runs from Henry Street to the Dock Road, is a constant reminder.

Lancelot Hill, brother-in-law to Edmund Sexton Pery, built the windmill in the late eighteenth century. Lancelot died in 1810 and the Chronicle stated of his death on February 3, 1810:

At 10 o'clock on Wednesday night last, at his house in George's-street, that highly respected character, Lancelot Hill, Esq., at the advanced age of 76  to attempt to describe his many amiable qualities, within the limit of our paper, would be impossible  whether we consider him as a Merchant, a Landlord, a Private Gentleman, or in the different departments which he filled, his conduct was worth imitation.

Laurence Durack then took over the mill, which was a large, tall, round, stone building, and which, pierced by windows, tapered inwards towards the top. The windmill was only in operation for a few years when it was struck by the first of two major fires on January 29, 1803. This fire did not damage the internal machinery and it was up and running quickly after the fire.

As the sails turned on the windmill on August 13, 1813, they witnessed a very interesting scene. A duel involving Daniel OConnell, the Liberator and Maurice Magrath, who the previous day in court, had thrown a legal book at O'Connell's head after O'Connell accused him of lying during a court case. This infuriated O'Connell, and after speaking to his friend, Nicholas Purcell O'Gorman, he insisted on challenging Magrath to a duel. This story was reported in the Limerick Advertiser (1806-1820) on August, 18 1813:

In consequence of a misunderstanding and warm altercation at the County Courthouse on Wednesday, between Counsellors O'Connell and Magrath, the parties met early on the following morning, at a field adjoining the Old Windmill; Mr O'Gorman who attended Mr O'Connell, and Mr Bennett, who attended Mr Magrath, measured the ground, and the parties were immediately placed on it.

A number of gentlemen here interfered, and after much conversation, Mr O'Gorman contested that the business should be adjusted, on Mr Magrath's declaration from his ground, with a loaded pistol in his hand, that he lamented what passed, and was sorry for it.

Here Mr Leader threw in, requesting, as Mr O'Connell was well known to entertain no enmity to Mr Magrath, he should say on coming to his ground, that he was about to fight a man against whom he entertained no enmity. This proposal created some pause; but Mr O'Gorman at length, on the earnest interference of mutual friends, and after consulting for some time apart, with all Mr O'Connell's friends present, assented.

Both gentlemen then came on their ground, with loaded pistols in their hands, and having complied with the above terms, immediately advanced amidst the loudest acclamations of all persons present, and shook hands.

They then stepped into the same carriage and returned to town together. Thus has ended, to the honour of all parties, an affair which created a deep interest in the public mind, from the estimation in which the two gentlemen were held, and from the vast and interesting stake depending on the event.

This was the last major event witnessed by the windmill of Windmill Street, as a second fire, which completely gutted the building, on November 15, 1813, consumed it. Jack OSullivan tells of this fire in an article for the Leader on June 9, 1952: "The machinery was all in motion, though on fire, a brisk gale of wind blowing, the night dark, and the spectacle awfully and sublimely grand".

Luckily for the owners of the mill, Laurence Durack, it was insured by Globe Insurance, who paid out the enormous sum of 1,339 19s. 5d. on February 10, 1815. Laurence Durack died in February 1824 in Tarbert. He was buried in St John's Churchyard, Johns Square under some controversy. The vicar of St John's Church, John Fitzgibbon, wrote in the Chronicle the following day:

On or about five o'clock, the remains of the late Captain Durack arrived for interment at the above Church, attended by a large number of friends. My attendance on the occasion not being necessary, I was looking from my window, when my Sexton came to inform me that a Roman Catholic Priest, in canonical habit, was officiating in my church-yard, and had been struck by some persons unknown... on going to the churchyard I found there the Rev Mr McCarthy, (whether Parish Priest or Curate of Tarbert, I am not prepared to say) habited as above, going through the service of his church  I called upon him to desist, and warned him of the consequence of a breach of the law  all to no purpose, as he persevered amid cries of 'Go on, we will die to a man, until you finish'... To speak of the manner in which I was myself treated would be to mention all that was insulting and disrespectful to the highest degree... I was induced to call on the military stationed in the neighbourhood, to protect me in my own Church-yard; but, no sooner had they come, than I ordered them away, determining with myself to withdraw, conceiving my duty was done, in forbidding this violation of the Law.

The windmill remained standing, though disused, for over 100 years. It was dismantled between 1915-16, when the stones were used as ballast on ships.

There were another two windmills in the larger city area; one on the Ennis Road, which was demolished in 1811, and the other, located in Ballinacurra, was built in 1800 to grind wheat and corn. As with the windmill of Windmill Street, this too was a circular building about twenty feet in diameter and fifty foot high, tapering towards the top. It was owned by Simon Vokes in 1840, and the miller was Robert Wheeler

The Chronicle on February 10, 1849 reported that the windmill near Ballinacurra, the property of Robert Wheeler, Esq. was broken into on Thursday night, and four sacks of meal carried off. Serjeant Riedy arrested Michael Hallinan on suspicion of the robbery and found a bag of meal in a field adjoining the mill.
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Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas Laserz

let there be light

User ID: kaput

04-10-2018 05:35 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #1 Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

Advertisement



Vice President Mike Pence will attend the summit instead.





http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...-americas/ President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed.Vice President Mike Pence will attend the summit instead. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 05:38 PM











Post: #2 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

Copy paste.

It seems most posters here can't be bothered to comply with fair use.



How hard is it to include an original comment? Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 05:40 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #3 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-10-2018 05:38 PM) Copy paste.

It seems most posters here can't be bothered to comply with fair use.



How hard is it to include an original comment?

Don't you appreciate the words from Breitbart? Don't you appreciate the words from Breitbart? Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 05:43 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #4 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas





http://www.summit-americas.org/default_en.htm This is the Summit website. It's the 8th summit and it will be held on Friday 13th. Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 05:53 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #5 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas







Trumps company asked Panama President to help in hotel spat in March.



https://apnews.com/bcba3f280f5f4ce78cc10a865ca617cb



Yes, that's right... President Trump's company asked the President of Panama to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries.



and don't forget that the governments invited to the Summit will address the central theme of Democratic Governance against Corruption.



Let's do some homework.....Trumps company asked Panama President to help in hotel spat in March.Yes, that's right... President Trump's company asked the President of Panama to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries.and don't forget that the governments invited to the Summit will address the central theme of Democratic Governance against Corruption. Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 05:58 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #6 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas





That's several days away.....



https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trum...1523366122 The President was scheduled to leave on Friday.That's several days away..... LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 06:00 PM











Post: #7 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

Fork Wrote: (04-10-2018 05:53 PM) Let's do some homework.....





Trumps company asked Panama President to help in hotel spat in March.



https://apnews.com/bcba3f280f5f4ce78cc10a865ca617cb



Yes, that's right... President Trump's company asked the President of Panama to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries.



and don't forget that the governments invited to the Summit will address the central theme of Democratic Governance against Corruption .



He's probably afraid he'd be flamed if he entered the building.



It'[s a witch thing. He's probably afraid he'd be flamed if he entered the building.It'[s a witch thing. Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 06:03 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #8 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-10-2018 06:00 PM) Fork Wrote: (04-10-2018 05:53 PM) Let's do some homework.....





Trumps company asked Panama President to help in hotel spat in March.



https://apnews.com/bcba3f280f5f4ce78cc10a865ca617cb



Yes, that's right... President Trump's company asked the President of Panama to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries.



and don't forget that the governments invited to the Summit will address the central theme of Democratic Governance against Corruption .



He's probably afraid he'd be flamed if he entered the building.



It'[s a witch thing.

Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-11-2018 06:28 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #9 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas





Trumps rhetoric on immigration and protectionism is not well received by the region as well as by Latin American leaders.



With negative reaction to Donald Trumps cancelled trip to attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru and Trump's previous comments and actions regarding some Latin American countries, Vice President Mike Pences message that the region should turn to the U.S. as their main trading partner may fall on deaf ears.



The summit would have been Trumps first foreign trip to Latin America. Now, it will mark the first time an American president has not attended the summit since it was first held in 1994.



https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trum...st-n864861 Trump's canceled trip to summit seen as confirmation of 'his lack of interest in Latin America'Trumps rhetoric on immigration and protectionism is not well received by the region as well as by Latin American leaders.With negative reaction to Donald Trumps cancelled trip to attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru and Trump's previous comments and actions regarding some Latin American countries, Vice President Mike Pences message that the region should turn to the U.S. as their main trading partner may fall on deaf ears.The summit would have been Trumps first foreign trip to Latin America. Now, it will mark the first time an American president has not attended the summit since it was first held in 1994. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-11-2018 06:33 PM











Post: #10 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

I'm a little bit surprised. This family loves it's tax payer paid trips. Ivanka is probably pissed. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-11-2018 06:35 PM











Post: #11 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

he canceled the trip because we will have attacked Syria by Friday LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-11-2018 06:35 PM











Post: #12 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

Fork Wrote: (04-10-2018 05:35 PM) President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed.



Vice President Mike Pence will attend the summit instead.





http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...-americas/

He must have got wind of something bad and decided to send pence lmfao. He must have got wind of something bad and decided to send pence lmfao. Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 1337

04-11-2018 06:54 PM



Posts: 40,873









Post: #13 RE: Donald Trump Cancels Peru Trip to Summit of the Americas

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2018 06:35 PM) Fork Wrote: (04-10-2018 05:35 PM) President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed.



Vice President Mike Pence will attend the summit instead.





http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...-americas/

He must have got wind of something bad and decided to send pence lmfao.

Trump Organization Sends Threatening Thug Letter To Panama's President



Remember a month or so ago in Panama City, when the majority owner of the Trump International Hotel wanted to dissociate from the Trump brand, and tried to kick out all the Trump managers and employees? Well, the fight continues in the lower courts in Panama, and it is not going the way the Trump Organization would like.



What to do?



Well, what would any mobbed up, small-minded, entitled, thuggish bully do?



Or, for short, WWAMUSMETBD?



You can use that if you want. You're welcome.



THREATEN the President of Panama, that's what.



https://crooksandliars.com/2018/04/trump...hreatening Trump Organization Sends Threatening Thug Letter To Panama's PresidentRemember a month or so ago in Panama City, when the majority owner of the Trump International Hotel wanted to dissociate from the Trump brand, and tried to kick out all the Trump managers and employees? Well, the fight continues in the lower courts in Panama, and it is not going the way the Trump Organization would like.What to do?Well, what would any mobbed up, small-minded, entitled, thuggish bully do?Or, for short, WWAMUSMETBD?You can use that if you want. You're welcome.THREATEN the President of Panama, that's what.
















A POPULAR Limerick school choir are set to be under starters orders at one of Irelands top racing venues.

The Corpus Christi School Choir, who have gained fame in recent weeks, after performing in Thomond Park during Munsters game against Scarlets, are to add another top sporting stadium to their repertoire when they perform at a race meeting in Leopardstown in Dublin.

The youngsters, who had already won the hearts of the nation by performing on RTEs Miriam OCallaghan show, were sounded out by Pat Keogh, the chief executive of Leopardstown, who wanted them to perform there.

Principal Tiernan ONeill said: It was a fantastic opportunity for the kids to showcase their talent. They are remarkable ambassadors not alone for the community of Moyross, but I think the city. It's great to see their talents showcased yet again on a national stage.

Tiernan added that the racecourse boss already has a good relationship with the Moyross community, arranging work placements for teenagers there.

Its a fantastic opportunity to give these kids a platform to showcase their talents. Thomond Park is an iconic Irish stadium, and Leopardstown is another one of those Irish landmarks. Its synonymous with Irish horse racing so to have the opportunity to perform there is phenomenal. If they get half the positive feedback they got from Thomond Park, they will be happy, Mr ONeill added.

It's great to see Moyross in the headlines for all the right reasons, getting national media attention at this stage. They are phenomenal kids, he said.

To mark the start of the Team Limerick Clean-Up on Good Friday, students also performed to JP McManus and Paul OConnell.
A SENIOR garda officer says the arrest of ten people in relation to a recent spate of burglaries should act as a warning to potential offenders.

The suspects  all young men  have been charged with various offences and brought before the courts.

It is a good success and its a great reflection of the professionalism of the gardai who are here and who are actively out and about engaging in patrols, said Superintendent Derek Smart.

We have an analyst based here at Henry Street (garda station) who looks at our crime and we he have specifically targeted our patrols to deal with the days and the times of the week which have been identified, he explained.

While a number of the arrests made over the past week formed part of Operation Thor, gardai say a divisional initiative  Operation Portable  is also having a significant impact.

We have used our roads policing unit to target hot spots of crime along with the drugs unit, the regional support unit and the regular units and they all work together and as a team and it has been a good success, said Supt Smart.

While investigations are ongoing, gardai say a number of the homes which were broken into were student houses and they are appealing to young people to ensure their homes are properly secured at all times.
THE University of Limerick has thrown its support behind a proposal to build a 'new town' on the Clare side of its campus, which it is claimed has the capacity to generate at least 3,500 jobs.

Clare County Council is seeking government approval to designate the UL campus in County Clare and its hinterland as the South Clare Economic Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) - which it claims will be will be "Europes first 21st Century University Town".

A 300 hectare site has been identified and Clare councillors have now given unanimous approval to the plan for a new economic development zone mixing academia and private industry on the north side of the UL campus.

The progression of the Northern Distributor Road has been central to the planned development, which is zoned for mixed use and the concept now requires government approval. Clare County Council believe that it could be a significant way towards completion within ten years and that a target of 3,500 jobs is at the minimum level.

The idea is modelled on the University of Bologna and UL is seen as unique in Ireland in that it has a wide availability of green space at its disposal.

It is working closely with Clare County Council on the plan and Dr Des Fitzgerald, UL president, said the university was "delighted to support Clare County Councils application to Government for the establishment of this Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) adjacent to the north campus of the university.

"UL works closely with both Clare County Council and Limerick City and County Council to fulfil its strategic development responsibilities in the Mid-West. This designation would position UL as the first university to participate in an economic SDZ, complementing our longstanding commitment to the economic development of our region.

"A strategic development of this scale, in a position so close to and including the university, would enhance our world-class educational and research proposition, would supplement our ongoing relationships with enterprise, industry and community, and would further establish UL as a hub for innovation.

"The announcement of the SDZ plan by Clare County Council is another milestone in the story of ULs transformative impact on the economy of the Mid West and we look forward to the implementation of this over the coming years, added Dr Fitzgerald.

Elected members and the Clare County Council Economic Development have given backing to the plans and the Clare local authority claims the new zone "will be Europes first 21st Century University Town providing for a full range of living, working, amenity, social, cultural and recreational spaces integrated with a range of University facilities, including teaching, learning and research".

The SDZ also will include the redevelopment and integration of the Errinagh canal, thereby providing the final inland waterway link between Lough Erne in County Fermanagh and Limerick City as well as the Shannon Estuary.

Cllr Tom McNamara, the Mayor of Clare, said Clare County Council was "working in close collaboration" with UL and other agencies in the delivery of the Economic Strategic Development Zone for South Clare.

"The establishment of a SDZ at this strategic location will be a catalyst for the further economic and social development of Ireland in line with national and regional policy," said Pat Dowling, Chief Executive of Clare County Council.

"The SDZ will establish a zone of substantial scale and strategic importance, advancing the region by creating a prime global site for investment with consequent high level employment opportunities for 3,500 people. The figure will be achieved by a mix of foreign direct investment and enterprise of indigenous origin.

"The SDZ acting as a homeland for significant investors and leaders of enterprise will become a fertile field of opportunity for entrepreneurs fresh from ULs NEXUS incubation hub to gain partners, raise capital and accelerate their innovative ambitions.

"The early deployment of these enterprise partnerships will greatly enhance the long-term prospects of young entrepreneurs in this Shannon Valley site as is evidenced in current Silicon Valley models, added Mr Dowling.

Liam Conneally, Director of Economic Development, said "the site has the capacity to become a game changer both regionally and nationally.

"Orderly, planned development as envisaged in the legislation enabling designation as a Strategic Development Zone will see the site generate 3,500 jobs in addition to the employment generated in construction and spin-off. Investment in both foreign and indigenous industry will partner with the University in expansion, placement, research and careers," he said.

"From a European perspective this is a project of scale. From a national perspective this is an exemplar project enabling an early start to the balanced regional development strategy and creating an early win for the vision set out for the Limerick Metropolitan Area as outlined in the National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan, said Mr Conneally.

Clare County Council said it would submit a formal application to Government for the designation of the South Clare Economic Strategic Development Zone in the coming weeks.

If the application is successful, a detailed masterplan for the area will be developed by the Local Authority, in conjunction with UL, local landowners and other stakeholders, it added.
AN 18ft shark-craft that travels at speeds of up to 80km per hour and soars 18ft along the water is among the major new attractions at Limerick's Riverfest 2018.

The Seabreacher Shark, a dare-devil ride all the way from Queenstown, New Zealand, will make its debut on the River Shannon as part of this years festivities, along with a free double zipline across the River Shannon, water zorbing, and kayaking.

Organisers say Riverfest 2018, taking place May 4 to 7, is set to draw over 85,000 people to the banks of the Shannon for the biggest celebration yet in the 14th year of the festival.

Visitors to the city look set to enjoy a four day celebration that includes everything from high-octane water based activities to the countrys biggest fireworks display of the summer, the largest BBQ cook-off in Ireland, outdoor and indoor concerts and the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run.

Weve had a very long winter, that very much consumed the spring but well be putting all that behind us with Riverfest, head of marketing and communications at Limerick City and County Council Laura Ryan said.

Its a brilliant mix of different elements and, most of all, offers something for everyone. The fact that the last act that many who come here for the festival do as they depart is to book again for next year says a lot about Riverfest. Its a great time for Limerick and this festival is a weekend long celebration of that," she added.

Riverfest 2018 will also include annual favourites such as The Riverfestival Village at Arthurs Quay and The Limerick Food Experience at the Hunt Museum which will showcase the best quality, locally produced food and drink that Limerick has to offer.

On Saturday, Irelands largest BBQ cook-off takes place with teams representing cuisines around the world competing for honours.

On Sunday, 13,000 people expected to take part in the annual Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run.

Big gigs taking place across the Bank Holiday weekend include Jack L and Bell X1 at King Johns Castle.

Mayor of Limerick Cllr Stephen Keary said the festival was a reflection of a "city on the up".

"It has grown and grown as a festival over the years to become not alone the biggest gathering in Ireland of the May Bank Holiday weekend by far but also one the biggest Irish summer festivals. Limerick is the largest urban centre on Irelands largest river so its only right that we would turn to it for a celebration like this."

Visit www.riverfest.ie for full details of the festival.
A YOUTH mental health service based in Limerick city is set to benefit from a major 1m fundraiser, supermarket giant Lidl has announced.

Lidl has signed a three-year charity partnership with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, which has 13 centres nationwide, including one at Arthurs Quay.

Jigsaw provides free confidential, professional support to young people aged 12 to 25.

Lidl stated this week that it pledges to fundraise 1m for Jigsaw over the next three years with over 4,200 employees aiming to raise funds through a variety of exciting activities.

Alongside these fundraising initiatives, Lidl also aims to raise awareness of youth mental health nationwide and encourages all customers and colleagues to be One Good Adult  a campaign for all adults to support a young person in their lives by being there to listen, support and advise when times are tough.

Jigsaw Limerick is a free, non-judgemental and confidential mental health support service for young people aged 12 to 25 living, working or studying in Limerick city or county. They provide guidance and support for young people who are going through a difficult or distressing time. They also provide advice and guidance for anyone who is concerned about a young person in their life. Jigsaw Limerick is part of a national network of Jigsaw Services supported by Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health. Jigsaw Services aim to provide tailored community-based help for young people s mental health needs.

Managing Director of Lidl Ireland, JP Scally said that they are delighted to partner with Jigsaw to help inspire and make a positive difference for youth mental health in Ireland. Up to 60% of young people in Ireland with mental health problems do not seek professional help.

Our aim through this partnership is to raise the profile of the fantastic work Jigsaw do and in turn reduce this number, by empowering our staff and customers to be One Good Adult in a young person s life. We want to empower all Irish adults to better support the young people in their lives and encourage young people themselves to seek help when and where they need to most.

CEO Joseph Duffy commented: In order to drive the change we see as essential in youth mental health, we see this partnership between Lidl and Jigsaw are one that can inform, support, educate and empower a wide section of our communities, enabling a better understanding of our collective responsibility in supporting young people s mental health. This partnership with Lidl enables us to do this with impact and at scale.

To contact Jigsaw Limerick, call 061 974510 or visit their website at www.jigsaw.ie/jigsaw_limerick/.
THE heroic actions of two Limerick firemen who jumped into the river Shannon to save a woman from drowning have been praised.

Peter Murphy and Des Fitzgerald entered the water near the Clayton Hotel, Steamboat Quay shortly after 4.30am last Sunday seconds after after the women went sub-surface as they approached her on the Fireswift rescue boat which was manned by Coxn Colin Gleeson.

As we approached the casualty we saw that she had gone sub-surface so that left us with no option but to enter the water and it literally was a finger-tip save, said Peter Murphy, 40, who has been a fireman for 18 years.

She had gone sub-surface with her hands over her head and Des caught one hand and I caught the other and we managed to get her into the boat and back to safety, he added.

With river calls the adrenalin is running throughout the whole crew  getting into your suit, driving to the call  but its what we train for and its brilliant when we get someone back and really everyone plays a part, he said.

The woman, who is aged in her mid-20s, was taken to St Michael slipway where she was treated by paramedics from the National Ambulance Service who were also deployed after the alarm was raised.

Gardai from Henry Street also assisted during Saturday nights rescue operation and its understood the woman is recovering from her ordeal.

Peter OToole, acting station officer with Limerick City Fire and Rescue service, says but for the actions of the three firemen on the night, the woman would most likely have drowned.

He explained the three firemen were on the water within four minutes of the emergency call being made and that things unfolded very quickly after that.

I was on Shannon Bridge and and we are able to quickly spot the casualty and get torches on her and once the boat (Fireswift) launched it was a case of guiding them out with the torch lights, he said.

Literally all I could see was one of the guys jumping off the boat which is very unusual and what we didnt realise at the time is that the two lads had to enter the water because they had gone so far downstream, he told The Leader.

Specially trained SRT crews from Limerick City Fire and Rescue service attended more than 50 river calls during 2017  making Limerick Fire Station one of busiest stations for such incidents in Europe.

____________________

If you have been affected by the above story, contact any of the following organisations: Aware (1800 80 48 48), The Samaritans (116 123) or Pieta House (1800 247 247).
May 4, 2021, 3 AM

Speakers at the April 6 stamp dedication (left to right): TV host Danni Washington; "kid reporter" Courtney Pine; NOAA's Dr. Mark Eakin; Marc Schulman, executive director, USA Science & Engineering Festival; Steven W. Monteith, VP of marketing, USPS; NASA's Kristi S. Brown; and Kavya Kopparapu, Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist. Photograph by U.S. Postal Service.

By Molly Goad

New United States forever stamps celebrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics were dedicated April 6 during the 2018 USA Science & Engineering Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

In keeping with the technology theme, the four STEM Education forever stamps were unveiled digitally on the big screen.

USPS dedicating official Steven W. Monteith talked about the importance of STEM in his organization, citing Informed Delivery, new technology that sends customers an email every morning with a digital preview of what they will receive in their mailbox. Monteith said Informed Delivery has nearly 9 million users so far since it was introduced last year.

It lets you monitor not just your correspondence from anywhere, but also track your packages; if youre not home, you can reschedule deliveries, he said. Its safe to say that Informed Delivery would have been impossible without STEM  In fact, the postal service has benefited from STEM since the very beginning more than 240 years ago. As we moved from manual sortation and horse-drawn wagons to air-mail delivery 100 years ago, to automation equipment that can process half a billion letters each day, all of our innovations have come through science, technology, engineering and math.

The USPS gathered a host of impressive experts using STEM every day to share their stories with the audience. NASAs Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator for education, spoke directly to the students in attendance, and asked them to dream for a minute.

Can you envision today where STEM might take you? she asked. You could be astronauts who live and work on Mars. You could be part of a team that discovers cures for cancer or for a debilitating disease. You could be a geologist who travels around the world to do field work. You could be instrumental at discovering life on a planet in another galaxy. The sky is the limit.

Dr. Mark Eakin is a coral reef specialist and coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch program, an effort focused on the monitoring of coral reef ecosystems not only at the source, but through satellite and paleoenvironmental observations. Dr. Eakin said coral bleaching  a process where corals expel algae and therefore turn white in color  is an important area that uses every aspect of the STEM discipline.

We have scientists, biologists, oceanographers who are looking at why corals bleach  we have technologists  who are developing the instruments that are going to go up on the satellites and then we have the engineers who are designing, building those NOAA satellites that take those instruments up and allow us to look all around the world to see whats going on, Dr. Eakin said, adding that mathematics is something they use every day in converting digital signals from the satellites and more.

Dr. Eakin also shared that he has been a topical stamp collector for many years.

Ive been collecting marine life stamps since I was a teenager, Eakin said. Shout out to that really cool set of bioluminescent stamps over there [refering to the U.S. Postal Service booth].

The final speaker of the day was an extraordinary 17-year-old Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist, Kavya Kopparapu. A senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Kopparapu is founder and CEO of the Girls Computing League.

I hope that in the future we can take the support that we have here  and work toward making technology a field of opportunity for students of all ages, all genders, all races and all backgrounds, Kopparapu said.

Danni Washington shared emcee duties with Courtney Pine from the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps. Washington is an ocean advocate, science communicator, and the first African American female to hose her own science show. Her program, XPLORATION NATURE KNOWS BEST, is syndicated on FOX and available on HULU, Amazon Prime, Roku and Yahoo View.

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The nondenominated (50) forever stamps are issued in a pane of 20. The panes may not be split for individual stamp sales, according to the Postal Service. For more information on the set, see USPS offers STEM Education commemorative stamps.
May 3, 2021, 8 PM

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

Finding a philatelic way to bridge a generational gap can sometimes be difficult, or it can be easy depending on the stamps subject.

For instance, Malaysia issued six stamps featuring Legos and childrens holiday activities Dec. 4, 2017, in conjunction with Stamp Week. These building bricks remain popular more than 80 years after the Lego Group was founded in Denmark in 1932. The company launched the plastic Lego brick in its present form 60 years ago, in 1958. The first Legoland theme park opened in Denmark 10 years later.

The sixth Legoland theme park, Legoland Malaysia, celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2017. Other Legolands are located in England, Germany, Dubai, Japan, and the United States (California and Florida).

The six Malaysian stamps, each denominated 60 sen, are se-tenant (side-by-side) in a pane of 36. In addition, the stamps were issued in separate panes of 10 with a large selvage showing scenes of Legoland Malaysia.

The stamps depict Legoland characters, and children and their families engaged in various activities. Inscriptions on the stamps describe these as quality time, water activities, picnic time, sightseeing, extreme activities and recreation. The surfer shown on one stamp and the toy solider on another are similar to Lego figures that have been sold by the Lego Group.

Combining a set of these stamps, or other Lego stamps, with a set of Lego bricks can make an excellent gift for a child.

For reference, Denmark, the Isle of Man and Sweden have issued Lego-related stamps. Two of these stamps are part of the 1989 Europa series featuring childrens toys: A Danish stamp depicts two red two-by-four bricks (Scott 871), and a stamp from the Isle of Man shows a boy building a fort using what appear to be Lego bricks (397).

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One stamp in Swedens Toy booklet issued in 2000 depicts a red and yellow Lego car, (Scott 2400f). In 2016, Denmark issued two more stamps that show Lego blocks and minifigures (1703-1704).
Apr 10, 2018, 7 AM

The selvage of this 2017 U.N. souvenir sheet pictures Eleanor Roosevelt holding one of the original documents of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The United Nations Postal Administration will issue a $2.50 definitive stamp May 3 honoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeating the design from the selvage of a souvenir sheet issued in 2017. A pre-release ceremony for the stamp will be held April 27 at Westpex.

By Denise McCarty

The United Nations Postal Administration will issue a definitive stamp May 3 with the theme of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The $2.50 stamp is for use from the UNPA post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City.

The stamps design may look familiar as it is based on last years souvenir sheet commemorating the translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into 500 languages. The sheet was issued Oct. 27, 2017, at UN Expo 17 in Bellefonte, Pa.

Like the selvage of that souvenir sheet, the $2.50 stamp depicts Eleanor Roosevelt holding one of the original declarations; Roosevelt chaired the committee to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This image of Roosevelt is based on a photograph taken Nov. 1, 1949, during her visit to U.N. headquarters, which at the time was in the former Sperry Gyroscope factory in Lake Success, N.Y.

Rorie Katz of the United Nations designed both the new $2.50 stamp and the 2017 souvenir sheet.

The stamp measures 50 millimeters by 35mm. Lowe-Martin Group of Canada printed it in sheets of 20 in a quantity of 5,000 sheets (100,000 stamps). The sheets include marginal inscriptions.

A pre-launch ceremony for the definitive stamp will take place Friday, April 27, at the Westpex stamp show at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront Hotel, 1800 Old Bayshore Highway, Burlingame, Calif.

The ceremony is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Adopted Dec. 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year.

The United Nations Human Rights Office of High Commissioners website commemorating that anniversary, said: Seventy years after its adoption by the UN General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is just as powerfully relevant as it was on its first day.

Thanks to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and States commitments to its principles, the dignity of millions has been uplifted, untold human suffering prevented and the foundations for a most just world have been laid. While its promise is yet to be fulfilled, the very fact that it has stood the test of time is testament to the enduring universality of its perennial values of equality, justice and human dignity.

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As reported in Linns of Nov. 6, 2017, the three stamps in the souvenir sheet included all 5,400 words of the declaration and its preamble: 1,771 words microprinted on the $1.15 stamp; 1,969 on the 2-franc stamp for use from the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; and 1,660 on the 1.70 stamp for use from the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria.

As also reported in that article, the UNPA has applied for a Guinness world record for the most words on a souvenir sheet.

For ordering details for the 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights definitive stamp, visit the website; or write an email. The souvenir sheet was also available on the UNPA website.
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Mid-Ocean Seismicity Portends Global Cooling Natura Naturans

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04-10-2018 06:33 PM



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Post: #1 Mid-Ocean Seismicity Portends Global Cooling

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This study illustrates how climate is not in any way predictable with our current science, and the idea that the science is "settled" is ludicrous.



http://notrickszone.com/2018/04/09/new-p...cKU0B.dpbs The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza This study came out of left field in the climate debates. Few suspected earthquakes in the deep ocean to have any predictive ability for climate. Yet the science appears well done and we will have to wait for the next few years to see if the correlation holds. There IS a school of thought that blames El Ninos on underwater volcanoes near Indonesia where the Kelvin waves begin that sweep across the Pacific to Peru causing El Ninos, but the evidence is weak in my opinion. The usual explanation of El Ninos is slowing trade winds and westerlies moving the hot water along the equator from Indonesia to Peru.This study illustrates how climate is not in any way predictable with our current science, and the idea that the science is "settled" is ludicrous.The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza (This post was last modified: 04-10-2018 06:37 PM by Natura Naturans .) Azmodeus

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04-10-2018 08:02 PM



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Post: #2 RE: Mid-Ocean Seismicity Portends Global Cooling

Undoubtedly there is more driving climate on earth than just human activities. I doubt any serious climatologist will deny that there is a combination of forces at work.



To me it is foolish to point at any one thing and say, 'This is the cause of climate change.'



Sources of carbon release from coal and natural gas petroleum have changed the chemistry of the atmosphere which has an effect on how much heat is trapped in the atmosphere.



Since the dawn of the Steam Engine where we started burning geologic thus sequestered sources of carbon humanity has released a hella lot of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.



And yes, the Earth has been doing its own thing, volcanic activity, forest fires, changes in populations of different species...



It is not just Man-made Green House Gases, But we can and should stop burning stuff for energy and seriously change our habits.



Even if the release of carbon isn't a 'big deal' when it comes to climate change, burning fossil fuels does pose many other hazards to health of humans and the rest of the species we live with. All of which is good enough reason to switch to wind, solar, wave and geothermal and of course pursue alcohol and other renewable sources which maintain a balance in things like the carbon cycle, hydro-cycle, etc. By the Grace of God.... Natura Naturans

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User ID: 1337

04-10-2018 09:33 PM



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Post: #3 RE: Mid-Ocean Seismicity Portends Global Cooling

Azmodeus Wrote: (04-10-2018 08:02 PM) Undoubtedly there is more driving climate on earth than just human activities. I doubt any serious climatologist will deny that there is a combination of forces at work.



To me it is foolish to point at any one thing and say, 'This is the cause of climate change.'



Sources of carbon release from coal and natural gas petroleum have changed the chemistry of the atmosphere which has an effect on how much heat is trapped in the atmosphere.



Since the dawn of the Steam Engine where we started burning geologic thus sequestered sources of carbon humanity has released a hella lot of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.



And yes, the Earth has been doing its own thing, volcanic activity, forest fires, changes in populations of different species...



It is not just Man-made Green House Gases, But we can and should stop burning stuff for energy and seriously change our habits.



Even if the release of carbon isn't a 'big deal' when it comes to climate change, burning fossil fuels does pose many other hazards to health of humans and the rest of the species we live with. All of which is good enough reason to switch to wind, solar, wave and geothermal and of course pursue alcohol and other renewable sources which maintain a balance in things like the carbon cycle, hydro-cycle, etc.

The implication of the greenhouse theory is the linear rise in CO2 would result in a linear rise of temperature. In an attempt to show that the climate bureaus of the world have been adjusting temperature records to try to show that. But since the el nino peak of temperature in 2016 ocean temperatures have dropped to almost average:







http://www.thegwpf.com/global-oceans-tem...6-el-nino/



Satellite temperature data sets also reflect this drop:







http://www.drroyspencer.com/2018/04/uah-...-24-deg-c/



The fact that lower troposphere temperatures stand at a quarter of a degree above the 30 year average shows CO2 has no power to raise temperatures. This is as it should be because any rise in temperature from CO2 is logarithmic and is over with by the time the concentration reaches 400PPM:



Climate change: It Was The Sun All Along  So Say The Bulgarians:







The gentle, much-appreciated warming of the second half of the 20th century could not have had carbon dioxide as its cause. Carbon dioxides logarithmic heating effect is weak at 100 ppm, tuckered out well and truly at 200 ppm and beyond 300 ppm  well never mind. We are now above 400 ppm from which it is a monotonic 0.1C for each 100 ppm increase. That doesnt explain anything and in turn leaves the Sun as the only possible causative agent for the Modern Warm Period. Based on when we run out of rocks to dig up and burn, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will peak out at around 560 ppm. We are now at 408 ppm so only another 0.15C to go before the deep oceans, over the subsequent centuries, take almost all the extra carbon dioxide down into the Davy Deep and our plants go back to near-starvation levels of it.



https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/09/c...ulgarians/ The implication of the greenhouse theory is the linear rise in CO2 would result in a linear rise of temperature. In an attempt to show that the climate bureaus of the world have been adjusting temperature records to try to show that. But since the el nino peak of temperature in 2016 ocean temperatures have dropped to almost average:Satellite temperature data sets also reflect this drop:The fact that lower troposphere temperatures stand at a quarter of a degree above the 30 year average shows CO2 has no power to raise temperatures. This is as it should be because any rise in temperature from CO2 is logarithmic and is over with by the time the concentration reaches 400PPM:Climate change: It Was The Sun All Along  So Say The Bulgarians:The gentle, much-appreciated warming of the second half of the 20th century could not have had carbon dioxide as its cause. Carbon dioxides logarithmic heating effect is weak at 100 ppm, tuckered out well and truly at 200 ppm and beyond 300 ppm  well never mind. We are now above 400 ppm from which it is a monotonic 0.1C for each 100 ppm increase. That doesnt explain anything and in turn leaves the Sun as the only possible causative agent for the Modern Warm Period. Based on when we run out of rocks to dig up and burn, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will peak out at around 560 ppm. We are now at 408 ppm so only another 0.15C to go before the deep oceans, over the subsequent centuries, take almost all the extra carbon dioxide down into the Davy Deep and our plants go back to near-starvation levels of it. The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza
















The Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics, located nearly a mile below the surface of the Gran Sasso mountain about 60 miles outside of Rome, detects tiny particles called neutrinos.

Deep below a mountain in Italy, in the coldest cubic meter of the known universe, scientists are hunting for evidence that ghostly particles called neutrinos act as their own antimatter partners. What these researchers find could explain the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe.

So far, they have come up empty-handed.

The latest results from the first two months of the CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment in Gran Sasso, Italy, show no hint of a process proving neutrinos, which are generated by cosmic radiation, are their own antimatter partners. This means if the process does occur, it happens so rarely that it takes place roughly once every 10 septillion (10^25) years.

The ultimate goal of this experiment is to solve one of the universe's most enduring riddles, and one that suggests we shouldn't even be here. That riddle exists because the theoretical Big Bang  in which a tiny singularity is said to have inflated over 13.8 billion or so years to form the universe  should have resulted in a universe with 50 percent matter and 50 percent antimatter. [Big Bang to Civilization 10 Amazing Origin Events]

When matter and antimatter meet up, they annihilate and render each other nonexistent.

But that's not what we see today. Instead, our universe is mostly matter, and scientists are struggling to discover what happened to all the antimatter.

That's where neutrinos come in.

What are neutrinos?

Neutrinos are tiny elementary particles with practically no mass. Each one is smaller than an atom, but they're some of the most abundant particles in nature. Like ghosts, they can pass through people and walls without anyone (even the neutrinos) noticing.

Most elementary particles have an odd antimatter counterpart, called an antiparticle, which has the same mass as its normal-matter partner but the opposite charge. But neutrinos are a little odd on their own, in that they hardly have any mass, and they are chargeless. So, physicists have surmised, they could be their own antiparticles.

When a particle acts as its own antiparticle, it's called a Majorana particle.

"The theories that we presently have simply don't tell us whether or not neutrinos are of that Majorana type. And it's a very interesting thing to look for, because we already know that we are missing something about the neutrinos," theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, a fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany, told Live Science. Hossenfelder, who is not part of CUORE, is referring to the bizarre unexplained features of neutrinos.

If neutrinos are Majoranas, then they'd be able to transition between matter and antimatter. If most of the neutrinos morphed into ordinary matter at the universe's inception, the researchers said, this could explain why matter outweighs antimatter today  and why we exist.

The CUORE experiment

Studying neutrinos in a typical laboratory is difficult, because they rarely interact with other matter and are extremely hard to detect  billions pass through you undetected every minute. It's also hard to tell them apart from other sources of radiation. That's why physicists needed to go underground  nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the Earth's surface  where a giant steel sphere encases a neutrino detector run by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics' Gran Sasso National Laboratory. [5 Mysterious Particles That May Lurk Beneath Earth's Surface]

This laboratory is the home of the CUORE experiment, which is looking for evidence of a process called neutrinoless double-beta decay  another way of saying neutrinos act as their own antiparticles. In a normal double-beta decay process, a nucleus decays and emits two electrons and two antineutrinos. However, neutrinoless double-beta decay wouldn't emit any antineutrinos, because these antineutrinos could serve as their own antiparticles and would annihilate each other.

In their attempt to "see" this process, the physicists watched for the energy emitted (in the form of heat) during the radioactive decay of an isotope of tellurium. If neutrinoless double-beta decay occurred, there would be a peak at a certain energy level.

To accurately detect and measure this heat energy, the researchers crafted the coldest cubic meter in the known universe. They compare it to an enormous thermometer with almost 1,000 crystals of tellurium dioxide (TeO2) operating at 10 milli-kelvin (mK), which is minus 459.652 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.14 degrees Celsius).

As the radioactive tellurium atoms decay, these detectors look for that energy peak.

The CUORE collaboration  a team of 200 scientists, engineers and technicians  released their first results. Their new paper, which was published March 26 in the journal Physical Review Letters,reveals that the experiment has not shown any neutrinoless double-beta decay after two months. However, they said they plan to continue the experiment for another five years to gather more data  the amount of time necessary to definitely rule out (or find) neutrinoless double-beta decay.

"The observation that neutrinos are their own antiparticles would be a significant discovery and require us to rewrite the commonly accepted Standard Model of particle physics. It would tell us that there is a new and different mechanism for matter to have mass," study researcher Karsten Heeger, a professor at Yale University, told Live Science.

And even if CUORE cannot definitively show that the neutrino is its own antiparticle, the technology used in the study may have other uses, said Lindley Winslow, an assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and part of the CUORE team.

"The technology that cools CUORE down to 10 mK is the same that is used to cool superconducting circuits for quantum computing. The next generation of quantum computers may live in a CUORE-style cryostat [a device that keeps the temperature extremely cold]. You could call us early adopters," Winslow told Live Science.

Originally published on Live Science.
Since January 2018, a team of about 100 Egyptian workers has been excavating an area in the Western Valley of the Valley of the Kings that may contain an undiscovered tomb.

Since January, about 100 Egyptian workers have been excavating an area in the western valley of Egypt's Valley of the Kings that may contain the tomb of King Tut's wife. So far, archaeologists have remained tight-lipped about their findings.

However, the Discovery Channel, which is funding the research, has released a photo of these excavations taking place in an area where a radar reading suggests a tomb entrance is located. [See Photos of Egypt's Valley of the Kings]

A royal entrance?

Previous excavations in the area had revealed four foundation deposits that contained pottery, flint blades and the skull of a cow. Deposits like these were often buried by the ancient Egyptians before they began construction of a tomb, archaeologistssay. Additionally, radar scans near those deposits showed a structure that may be the entrance to a tomb.

The deposits are located near the tomb of Ay (who reigned from 1327 B.C. to 1323 B.C.), a pharaoh who succeeded Tutankhamun(who reigned from 1336 B.C. to 1327 B.C.). After King Tut's death, his wife, Ankhesenamun, remarried Ay, and archaeologists have speculated that if an undiscovered tomb is present, it could belong to her.

Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Egyptian antiquities minister who is leading the excavations, told Live Science that he cannot comment publicly about what his team has found at this time. In Egypt, archaeologists often wait until the antiquities ministry gives them permission to announce a discovery.

Multiple tombs?

According to a statement from the Discovery Channel that was emailed to Live Science, the company has "exclusive" access to film the excavations, which they hope to turn into a series of documentaries.

There could be several undiscovered royal tombs in the western valley, the Discovery statement said. Hawass and other archaeologists have told Live Science in the past that this is possible, although the current excavations are focusing on finding just one tomb  the one whose entrance may have shown up in radar scans.

"Led by renowned archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, the crew of more than one hundred Egyptian workers are digging in the largely untouched western portion of the valley, where leading archaeologists believe several royal tombs lie hidden," Discovery Channel representatives said.

Hawass will also discuss the team's excavations in a lecture scheduled for April 20 in Tucson, Arizona, during the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt.

Originally published on Live Science.
For over 2,000 years, historians have argued over the route used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal to guide his army  30,000 soldiers, 37 elephants and 15,000 horses  over the Alps and into Italy in just 16 days, conducting a military ambush against the Romans that was unprecedented in the history of warfare.

Such an achievement required careful planning and strategizing, but with little physical evidence of the journey available today and few recorded details of the crossing, uncertainty remains about how it was accomplished.

However, in "Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps," a new documentary airing on PBS tonight (April 10), a team of experts takes a fresh look at Hannibals incredible trip across treacherous mountain terrain. Together, they re-create his long-lost route and reveal the latest discoveries about his historic accomplishment  and depict the famous elephants that played a critical part in his victory against the Romans. [Beasts in Battle: 15 Amazing Animal Recruits in War]

In 218 B.C., when the crossing took place, the powerful nations of Carthage and Rome were at each other's throats. To defeat the Romans, Hannibal did the unthinkable  he led an army through a mountain region spanning about 80,000 square miles (over 207,000 square kilometers)  and descended on Rome from the north, where the nation least expected an attack.

For the documentary, the production team assembled archaeologists, paleontologists, animal trainers and mountaineers, re-creating Hannibal's route on foot and testing evidence and methods along the way, the filmmakers said in a statement.

Finding the path

The most obvious route for Hannibal to have taken through the Alps is called the Col du Clapier, known in antiquity as the Way of Hercules, historian and archaeologist Eve MacDonald, a lecturer in ancient history at Cardiff University in the U.K., told Live Science.

MacDonald, who appears in the documentary, explained that the team uncovered evidence suggesting that Hannibal took a much more dangerous and extreme route  the Col de la Traversette  which was at a higher elevation and had a much steeper ascent and descent, but offered far quicker passage through the mountains, despite the extra risks.

"That's key  it was the fastest route, and the least expected," MacDonald said.

The climb to the Col de la Traversette, the alleged route of Hannibals crossing. (Image credit: Lion Television/an All3Media company)

This also supports historical accounts by the Greek historian Polybius, who lived from around 200 B.C. to 118 B.C., and who described Hannibal choosing "the highest paths" for his army, MacDonald added.

The clues that pointed to Hannibal's path were preserved not in recovered records or military artifacts, but in soil deposits along the Col de la Traversette, in miry areas that may have been used long ago by the army's many animals as watering holes  and as a toilet. Compounds that are found in horse manure were plentiful in the sediment, suggesting that thousands of years ago, an army-size group of horses likely relieved themselves while resting, according to the filmmakers' statement.

Beasts of burden

Speculation also lingers about Hannibal's war elephants and where they came from. Hannibal's beasts were long thought to be Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), due to prevailing myths that those elephants are more trainable than African elephants (Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis), Victoria Herridge, an elephant expert for the documentary and a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, London, told Live Science. [What's the Difference Between Asian and African Elephants?]

But that simply isn't the case. In fact, on coins from Carthage depicting realistic representations of elephants, the animals closely resemble the African species in the size and shape of their ears, and in their distinctive, saddle-shaped backs, raising the possibility that the Carthaginians were importing their elephants from northern Africa, Herridge said.

If that were true, Hannibal's elephants may have represented a smaller, now-extinct subspecies of African elephant; historical accounts described northern African war elephants as fearful of the bigger Indian war elephants, while modern Asian elephants are generally smaller than their African cousins, Herridge explained.

An artist's rendering shows Hannibal's long and dangerous route through the Alps. (Image credit: Heinrich Leutemann)

Elephants require vast quantities of food  about 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) per day  which the army would have needed to bring along with them, as there wasn't anything for the animals to eat along the way. But the elephants would likely have handled the terrain and the distance quite well, as they frequently have to cover great distances and cross mountain passes in both Africa and in the Himalayas, Herridge said.

Ultimately, Hannibal's brazen maneuver  elephants and all  couldn't save Carthage, which Rome defeated in the Second Punic War (218 B.C. to 201 B.C.). However, as this documentary demonstrates, his ambitious journey still fuels imaginations and raises intriguing questions about achieving the seemingly impossible  for people and for elephants.

"Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps" airs April 10 at 8 p.m. EDT on PBS (check local listings) and is available to stream on April 11 via pbs.org/secrets and PBS apps.

Original article on Live Science.
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A young male sperm whale washed up dead on the southeastern coast of Spain in February, and now scientists know what killed the animal.

During a recent necropsy, investigators discovered nearly 65 lbs. (29 kilograms) of plastic trash crammed into the dead whale's stomach and intestines, including dozens of plastic bags, chunks of mangled rope and glass, a large water container and several "sacks of raffia [a fiber derived from palm trees]," local authorities reported. A Twitter photo shared by a regional nature conservation agency shows the whale's stomach contents in grim detail.

The 33-foot-long (10 meters) whale was found dead on the beach at Cabo de Palos, near Murcia, Spain, on Feb. 27. Researchers at El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center performed the autopsy and determined that the whale likely died from a form of abdominal infection called peritonitis. The whale simply could not expel the vast amount of plastic it swallowed, the researchers said, causing the mammal's digestive system to become lethally impacted or infected. [Whale Album: Giants of the Deep]

This news provides another vivid example of the staggering amount of plastic waste humans are dumping into the world's oceans.

Scientists estimate that there are about 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean now and millions of tons of additional trash being added every year. According to a recent study in the journal Scientific Reports, there are more than 87,000 tons (79,000 metric tons)of plastic floating just in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch  a drifting trash heap with an area three times the size of France  which equates to about 250 pieces of refuse for every person on the planet.

The young male sperm whale was found dead on February 27. An autopsy revealed 65 pounds of plastic in his stomach. (Image credit: Comunidad Autonoma de la Region de Murcia)

This debris finds its way not only into large mammals like whales but also into birds, fish, sea turtles and even the deepest-dwelling crustaceans in the Mariana Trench.

Officials in Murcia are using the whale's sad story to launch an ocean plastic awareness campaign, which will include 11 beach-cleaning events and 19 public talks and forums.

The presence of plastics in seas and oceans is one of the greatest threats to the conservation of wildlife throughout the world," Consuelo Rosauro, director-general of the natural environment for the Murcian government, said in a statement (translated from Spanish). "The Region of Murcia is no stranger to this problem that we must tackle through clean-up actions and, above all, awareness of citizens."

Originally published on Live Science.
When someone erroneously believes that vaccines are loaded with dangerous toxins, it's tempting to want to plop down reams of data and argue them out of that opinion. But a new review of vaccination research suggests that trying to educate people about the safety of vaccines just doesn't work.

In fact, a far more effective strategy is to try to change that person's behaviors without changing hearts and minds, said Noel Brewer, a professor of health behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For example, instead of printing a pamphlet about the advantages of vaccination, public health departments could simply send out vaccination reminder cards.

"If you can't change people's opinions, you can certainly work with their good intentions," Brewer told Live Science. [6 Flu Vaccine Myths]

We don't need no education

Brewer and his colleagues reviewed the literature surrounding how to increase vaccination rates. They found that outright refusal of all vaccines is fairly rare in the United States, despite the loud voices of anti-vaccine activists, with only about 1 to 2 percent of people rejecting vaccines as a whole, Brewer said. But gaps in vaccination are more common, with about a quarter of 19- to 35-month-olds missing one or more vaccines. The problem of missing recommended vaccines becomes more common with age, Brewer said, with more parents and patients refusing adolescent vaccines and even more skipping vaccines such as the annual flu shot as adults.

In the review, the researchers looked at three types of efforts to improve vaccination rates: research on social processes, attempts to change behavior directly, and people's thoughts and feelings about vaccines. Much to the researchers' surprise, Brewer said, they found that educational initiatives aimed at changing people's thoughts or feelings simply weren't effective.

"We thought the educational interventions would work sometimes and not others and we'd have at least some really effective educational interventions," Brewer said. "We were really surprised when we reviewed the literature and couldn't find anything that was effective."

Reminders and recommendations

What did work, the research showed, were programs designed to alter behavior without any attempts at persuasion. Such programs might include a doctor starting from the assumption that his or her patients want the full suite of vaccines instead of immediately offering (and perhaps inadvertently introducing) the option to skip some shots, Brewer said. Recommendations from medical providers are the single most important intervention in increasing vaccination, he noted. [Just How Safe Are Vaccines? Here Are the Numbers]

Another behavioral intervention that works well is sending reminder cards in the mail, Brewer said, but many primary care offices don't send vaccine reminders.

"If those reminders are instead sent centrally by the state immunization branch, then most people will get those reminders, and those reminders will have a bigger impact," he said.

One major gap in the research is that it's unclear how social processes affect people's attitudes toward vaccines, Brewer said.

"The social context for vaccination is incredibly important and poorly understood," he said. Psychologists who study other behaviors have found that social networks, social norms and social contagion (when a behavior spreads through a social network) are important, but it's not clear how those phenomena work with vaccine acceptance, Brewer said.

"This is a really promising area for future research," he said.

The review was published on April 3 in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Original article on Live Science.
Satellite images reveal the dark zone of the Greenland ice sheet, which is leading to a positive feedback effect where melt begets melt.

From above, Greenland's ice sheet looks like a vast field of brilliant white  for the most part. In the summer months, the western margin is shaded by a dark zone that seems to have gotten darker in recent years, threatening to speed up the rate of melting.

A new study offers an explanation for the phenomenon, putting the blame on impurities like carbon and ice-dwelling algae.

"What we show is that the dark zone is covered in a finely distributed layer of dust and black carbon, which provide nutrition for dark-colored algae," study co-author Alun Hubbard, a professor at Norway's Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, said in a statement. [Photos: Under the Greenland Ice Sheet]

The ice sheet covers more than 80 percent of Greenland's landmass about 656,000 square miles (1.7 million square kilometers), an area three times the size of Texas, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The ice is more than a mile thick on average, and it holds 8 percent of the world's fresh water. If it melts completely, global sea levels would rise about 23 feet (7 meters), according to NASA.

A drone captured this image on Aug. 5, 2014, showing an overhead view of the tents and scientific equipment used for the Dark Snow Project. The dark zone is particularly visible east of the melt stream near the camp. (Image credit: Dark Snow Project/J. Ryan/J.Box /A.Hubbard )

Because of that disastrous prospect, scientists have been trying to understand why the shrinking of Greenland's ice sheet has been accelerating over the past few decades.

Blindingly white snow and ice have high reflectivity, or albedo, meaning they reflect more of the sun's energy than they absorb. Dark patches and meltwater, however, absorb more energy and can induce a positive feedback that leads to even more melting in an ice sheet. So, the dark zone in Greenland has become a focus of some recent research.

"The fact that a large portion of the western flank of the Greenland ice sheet has become dark means that the melt is up to five times as much as if it was a brilliant snow surface," Hubbard said.

Hubbard and his colleagues went to Greenland in August 2014 and used a hand-launched drone to capture high-resolution images of a section of the dark zone. While crevasses and pools of meltwater explained some of the dark spots, the researchers observed that the majority of the shadowy surfaces had a uniform coating of impurities. These impurities include trapped dust and soot that have accumulated over the years from faraway fires and factories, as well as dark-colored algal blooms from microbes that, scientists recently discovered, can thrive in Greenland's harsh environment.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications last month.

The scientists wrote that the nature and drivers of the impurities in the ice sheet are not yet fully understood. But some recent research has suggested that there could be another complex feedback effect in the dark zone: algal blooms fueled by some of the impurities that get trapped in the ice.

"The algae need nutrients and food, essentially dust, organic carbon and water," Hubbard explained in the statement. "In summer, these are plentiful, and the algal bloom takes off. Because algae are dark in color, they reinforce the dark zone. Thereby you get a positive feedback effect where the ice sheet absorbs even more solar radiation, producing yet more melt."

Original article on Live Science.
SMART, the North Bays nascent commuter railroad, got word Monday that it will receive $22.5 million in federal funding to complete a critical extension to the Larkspur ferry terminal.

The 2.1-mile extension to the Golden Gate Ferry terminal is considered a vital link that will lure commuters who travel between the North Bay and San Francisco. To make the trip now, SMART riders have to get off the train at the current end-of-the-line station in downtown San Rafael and take a bus to the ferry terminal or into San Francisco.

SMART officials believe a direct connection to ferries to and from San Francisco will significantly boost ridership.

Our Larkspur connection is an important link to San Francisco and will connect residents, employers and visitors to Sonoma and Marin counties, said Judy Arnold, a SMART board member. It will provide an economic boost for the North Bay.

SMART had been awarded the grant from the Federal Transit Administration in February 2015, but as the Trump administration overhauled the Department of Transportation, the funding became uncertain.

The grant makes up a large chunk of the $55.4 million cost of the extension, which is expected to carry trains by the end of 2019.

Construction started last fall, and crews are laying new rails south of downtown San Rafael. As part of the extension, San Rafael will have to move its downtown transit center to make way for the trains. Trains will head south from the San Rafael station to the already renovated Cal-Park tunnel to a Larkspur station a short walk from the ferry terminal.

Despite the uncertainty of the federal funding, work on the extension continued while federal officials pondered the project. But the money came in time to keep the project on track.

The project wasnt delayed, said Jeanne Mariani-Belding, SMART spokeswoman. We just kept working, waiting for word the funding would be coming.

SMART started running the North Bays first commuter trains in 60 years in August, traveling 43 miles between Sonoma County Airport and downtown San Rafael. Trains stop at 10 stations.

Trains make 17 round trips between San Rafael and Santa Rosa on weekdays and five each way on weekends and holidays. The trains are diesel-fueled and self-powered, meaning they arent pulled by locomotives.

Plans call for SMART to eventually span 70 miles, reaching north to Cloverdale, stopping en route. An extension north of Santa Rosa to Windsor is next, and could be completed as soon as 2021, depending on funding.

Since its start, SMART has endured the Tubbs Fire, which stopped at its tracks, limited service and prompted the railroad to give thousands of free rides to fire victims.

SMART nevertheless met or exceeded ridership and revenue projections for its first six months. About 15,600 passengers ride SMART trains each week.
A conservative commentator at a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned television station in St. Louis has resigned after a statement he made threatening to sexually assault David Hogg drew harsh criticism and sparked the beginnings of an advertiser boycott.

Jamie Allman, who hosts a nightly news show on KDNL, a Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate in St. Louis, as well as a morning FM radio show, wrote on Twitter that he was "hanging out getting ready," to sexually assault David Hogg with "a hot poker."

"Busy working. Preparing," read the March 26 tweet, which is too vulgar to print here in full, but was published as a screenshot by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as the remark begun to draw more scrutiny in recent days.

SINCLAIR EFFECT: Sinclair airs, undermines ad critical of 'fake news' scripts

Advertisers, including Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, St. Louis health center Palm Health, and local real estate office the Gellman Team all announced they would stop advertising on Allman's shows, spurred on by activists who took to social media to highlight the commentator's remarks, as well as Democratic state lawmaker Stacey Newman and others.

"We have accepted Mr. Allman's resignation, and his show has been cancelled," said Ronn Torossian, the CEO of the PR firm 5W, who is acting as a Sinclair spokesman, said in response to questions sent to the media company by The Washington Post.

INGRAHAM BOWS: Fox News host, facing boycott, apologizes for taunting Parkland survivor

The anger generated by Allman's remarks is reminiscent of the outrage after another conservative commentator, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, mocked Hogg after it was announced he did not get into some top colleges, only to face a fierce backlash from activists and advertisers. Advertising space for her show in the two days after the tweet fell by more than half and at least 18 advertisers have pulled out of her prime-time show.

And it represented the potential of yet another public relations crisis for Sinclair, which has come under harsh criticism in recent weeks after a video of dozens of its anchors reading the same mandated and seemingly Trump-esque script about "fake stories," went viral.

SINCLAIR EFFECT: Local media struggle to hold Sinclair accountable

Sinclair, the Maryland-based media company, is the largest owner of local television stations in the country with 173 stations in 81 broadcast markets. It has come under intense scrutiny as it awaits federal approval for a takeover of another media company, for injecting what many feel is a conservative bias into local news coverage. Its proposed buyout of Tribune Media, for which it needs approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice, would bring its coverage into the homes of as many as 70 percent of American households.

Compared to Ingraham's remark, Allman's statement, with the overt threat of sexualized violence, was an attack of a different magnitude, though he is not a national media figure like Ingraham.

Jeff Allen, the program director for FM NewsTalk 97.1, did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Entercom Communications Corp., which owns 97.1, did not respond to a request for comment sent to executive vice president and CFO Richard Schmaeling.

Allman's television show appears to fit neatly into the conservative-inflected programming for which Sinclair has become known. He often trumpets pro-Trump and conservative lines, assailing media coverage of the president, lambasting liberals and Democrats for seeming "to be all about one thing, shutting down people they disagree with." He has defended Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican who is awaiting trial on felony invasion of privacy charge after prosecutors said he tried to blackmail a former paramour with an illicit photo.

Allman has gone after David Hogg, recently calling him a "big complainer," after Hogg criticized his high school's new requirement that students carry clear backpacks.

"He says you shouldn't have the right to have a certain kind of gun but I should have the right to have any kind of backpack I want," Allman said incredulously on one segment. "Trying to nail this down. Very confusing. But these are confusing times."
Turns out that all the alarmist headlines about a current craze known as the condom snorting challenge, where teens are inhaling unwrapped condoms up their nose and yanking them out their mouth for viral video fame, can be blamed on San Antonios own Fox affiliate, KABB.

Only there is no such current craze and KABB didnt actually say there was.

A Washington Post story published recently tracked down the origin of all the brouhaha: a late March story on KABB on San Antonio-area parents attending a presentation called Dares, Drugs, and Dangerous Teen Trends by Texass Education Service Center.

The KABB story reported that educators were visiting area schools to talk about drug and alcohol prevention, and make sure parents are aware of dangerous trends like the condom snorting challenge.

My only comment is that everything in the story is factual, said Mandi Johnston Mendoza, news director for KABB and WOAI. The fact that other so-called journalists took that and turned it into something based on a headline is unfortunate.

In fact, KABB never said it was a current trend, just a dangerous one that was part of a presentation it was covering.

Nevertheless, the Post noted headlines soon followed the KABB report calling the condom challenge every parents worst nightmare and the latest dangerous social media trend.

The Washington Post reported the so-called condom challenge was briefly popular in 2013, when a video went viral of a teen snorting a condom up her nose while a Taylor Swift song played. Yet news reports at the time traced the challenge back to 2007, the Post said, which added that the U.S. poison control centers have identified just one single case of condom inhalation in the past five years.

A spokeswoman for Region 20 of the states Education Service Center, which staged the presentation for parents, confirmed that it was never labeled as a current trend. One topic was sensationalized. And that is not the intent of the presentation, Mayra De Hoyos said.
There's nothing better than seeing someone on TV and telling your friends, "That guy? He went to my high school."

Well, unless that guy happens to be on TV because he ended up being a serial killer.
Has anyone ever watched a Tony Gilroy movie and understood what was going on? Were not talking here about knowing generally, but rather, moment by moment, actually knowing whats happening, and why. Gilroys art seems to be not about illuminating, but about persuading an audience to not mind obfuscation. And the odd thing is, most of the time he gets away with this. Most of the time we end up not really minding, or not minding much.

Such is the case with Beirut, which he wrote and which he dominates, even though Brad Anderson (The Machinist) directed. You may spend half the film feeling like there are four or five books you probably should have read before walking into the theater. The audience is made to be like a fly on the wall, only this time literally: Flies never know whats going on, either. Yet Beirut is always hurtling in a distinct direction, and by the time its over, youll feel like youve been somewhere.

That somewhere is Beirut, from back in the day when the word Beirut was practically a synonym for horrible, dangerous place. (Sample early-1980s exchange: Hows Times Square these days? Forget it, its like Beirut.) Jon Hamm plays a diplomat, and at the start of the film its 1972, and he has the haircut to prove it  just over the ears, accompanied by the obligatory long sideburns. He is hosting a party, and he has the breezy air of a man in control of his destiny. In fact, he has no idea whats about to hit him.

But to get back to the hair and the fashion, for a moment. Its a nice part of Beirut that care is taken to get the visual details right. Usually, only the lead actors will look in the appropriate period, while the supporting players and especially the extras will look like they just got pulled off the street. But Beirut captures 1970s exuberance and then jumps 10 years to the more classic 1980s: Thin lapels, thick tie knots, constructed shoulders. And none of the women have big hair, because big 1980s hair didnt happen until the middle of the decade.

The point is, somebody cared, and this matters, especially in a movie thats confusing in its story: At least the audience can feel grounded in time and place.

By 1982, the young, snappy diplomat  Mason, played by Hamm  is a middle-aged man who has been hitting the bottle, and the bottle has been hitting him back. The CIA recruits him to return to Beirut, supposedly to give a lecture at a university, but hes not stupid and knows something bigger is afoot. When he gets there, they tell him: His friend and former colleague has been kidnapped by terrorists, and the CIA wants him to negotiate a prisoner exchange.

Thats all you need to know, because for a long while, thats all the audience knows, but theres a lot more going on than that. In the meantime, Hamm must deal with a contentious cast of characters. Theres Rosamund Pike, as the woman sent to be his assistant, but more like his minder. Theres Dean Norris, in a rather convincing toupee, as a CIA operative, and theres the always engaging Larry Pine as the American ambassador.

There are blown-up streets and blown-out buildings, and even a two-block walk is a calculated risk. But more than anything, there is an atmosphere of confusion, one which matches the confusion of the viewers. Everyone has a different angle and different interests  the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Israelis and the Christian militias, and even within the U.S. government, there are hidden and conflicting motives.

In such a story, having a movie star at the center is essential, and Hamm is a movie star. He can be drunk and unshaven and look like he slept in his clothes, but we know just by looking at him that hes our guy, and all we have to do is care about him, and the movie will reveal itself. So this is a good movie for Hamm, and also for Pike who, in her recent films, has too often been either a madwoman or a victim of circumstance (and sometimes both). Here she gets to be active and think on her feet, and it makes a big difference.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

Beirut

Drama. Starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. Directed by Brad Anderson. (R. 109 minutes.)

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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has howled in all caps for nearly a year as the Justice Department has delved deeper and deeper into his orbit. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted his former campaign chairman. Then he secured a guilty plea from his former national security adviser. All the while, Mueller and his investigators have spent hours questioning White House officials about whether the president had sought to obstruct justice.

But the FBI's seizure on Monday of privileged communications between Trump and his private lawyer, Michael Cohen - as well as documents related to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who has alleged a sexual affair with Trump - was a particularly extraordinary move that opens a whole new front in the converging legal battles ensnaring the administration.

Cohen is Trump's virtual vault - the keeper of his secrets, from his business deals to his personal affairs - and the executor of his wishes.

"This search warrant is like dropping a bomb on Trump's front porch," said Joyce White Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama.

Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer, said the seizure of Cohen's records "should be the most concerning for the president."

"You can't get much worse than this, other than arresting someone's wife or putting pressure on a family member," he said. "This strikes at the inner sanctum: your lawyer, your CPA, your barber, your therapist, your bartender. All the people who would know the worst about you."

The president spent much of Monday afternoon glued to the television. Aides said Trump watched cable news coverage of surprise raids on Cohen's Manhattan office, home and hotel room by FBI agents, who took the lawyer's computer, phone and personal financial records after a referral from Mueller.

As the sun began to fall in Washington, Trump offered reporters his initial reaction: "It's a disgraceful situation."

"I have this witch hunt constantly going on," Trump said. "That is a whole new level of unfairness," he added, leaving no doubt that he views Monday's actions as a personal affront. Trump called Cohen "a good man" and went on to criticize Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying he had made "a very terrible mistake for the country" by recusing himself from the Russia probe.

Asked why he had not fired Mueller, Trump left the door open. "We'll see what happens," he told reporters. "Many people have said, 'You should fire him,' " the president added.

Shortly after the raids began Monday morning, Trump received a heads-up at the White House. He huddled in the Oval Office with Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer who oversees its handling of the Mueller probe, as well as with White House counsel Donald McGahn and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, officials said.

Other aides said they did not understand what was happening and struggled to pinpoint the significance of the seizures. Many officials sought to keep their distance from the developments, deferring comment until a strategy was determined.

Aides said they viewed Trump's late-afternoon comments to reporters as a necessary venting session. He had been grousing privately about Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who oversees the Mueller investigation because of Sessions' recusal.

He complained about Rosenstein again Monday in private, a White House adviser said, and stewed all afternoon about the warrant to seize Cohen's records, at times raising his voice. Trump said that Rosenstein approved the warrant, that he wished Rosenstein was not in the job and there was no one making the prosecutors follow the rules, the adviser said. Trump complained sharply about Sessions and Mueller and asked detailed questions about who was behind the move - and said that people would be more critical of such a warrant if it wasn't intended to damage the president.

Still, a senior White House official said late Monday that no "imminent" personnel changes were expected.

It was unclear if Trump talked to Cohen, with whom he recently dined at Mar-a-Lago, the president's private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump "won't like that Cohen is in the crosshairs, but you have to remember: He'd prefer the heat be on Cohen than on him," said one of the president's advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. "His goal will be to figure out how much vulnerability he has."

This was Trump's first crisis without Hope Hicks, the recently departed White House communications director who knew her way around the broader Trump orbit, getting to the bottom of what was happening, counseling the president and intuiting how he would want the situation handled.

Trump also navigated Monday's turn without a full slate of legal advisers. He has yet to replace John Dowd, who resigned last month as his personal attorney in the Russia matter. Reached briefly Monday afternoon, one White House official sighed when asked about Trump's strategy, pointing to the "evident" limitations of the current legal team, as well as the absence so far of a public-relations plan to counter the hotly anticipated release next week of former FBI Director James Comey's memoir, "A Higher Loyalty."

There was fear in Trump's orbit that the president is liable to erupt in anger in coming days, escalating his attacks against Mueller at a time when his attorneys are negotiating a possible interview. And there was concern in some quarters that Trump, who has been shaking up his administration in recent weeks, may also seek to terminate Mueller.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a friend of Trump, called the Cohen raids "a little heavy-handed."

"Is this surprising? Yes," said Giuliani, also a former U.S. attorney. "Is it extraordinary? No. This is the way prosecutors get information - sometimes to convict and prosecute, sometimes to exculpate."

Criticizing Mueller for veering into "highly personal issues," such as the alleged Daniels encounter, Giuliani added, "The only thing that's happening, perhaps, is that Mueller is trying to compel the president to testify."

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week that he did not know Cohen had arranged the $130,000 payment for Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, just days before the 2016 election to prevent her from publicly speaking about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The president said he did not know where Cohen got the money and declined to answer whether he had set up a fund for Cohen to use. "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen," Trump said. "Michael's my attorney, and you'll have to ask Michael."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said repeatedly that Trump denies Clifford's allegations.

Without a lead attorney in Dowd's absence, Trump has absorbed some advice from a number of legal commentators on cable news, including Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor who has made supportive comments about the president.

"This may mark the end of the kind of cooperation that Trump's lawyers have been involved with," Dershowitz said Monday in an interview. "Cooperation doesn't seem to have much payback. Maybe it's better to go into a defensive fight mode."

Dershowitz advised Trump to use "every legal tactic available to him" to fight Mueller and the FBI. He said the president could "assert" his rights as Cohen's client and "go into court and seek to demand returned every bit of information that is arguably lawyer-client privilege before anybody has a chance to read anything."

Tim O'Brien, author of the Trump biography "Trump Nation," said the seizure of records from his private attorney probably would "smell of a mortal threat" by Trump. And, O'Brien added, "He is historically prone not to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. He is historically prone to come out with guns blazing."

Cohen has long been a fixer for Trump, as well as his family and business, and associates said he was disappointed when he was not brought officially on board the campaign, and again when he was passed over for a coveted White House job.

"He's done the dirty work that the president hasn't wanted to do himself, and he's been doing it for a decade," O'Brien said.

In the early weeks of the administration, Cohen was spotted unshaven, roaming the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington. He has stayed in touch with the president through late-night phone calls.

But now, Cohen is back squarely in Trump's orbit - though perhaps not in the way he had hoped to be. Cohen himself has become the kind of distraction that he was usually tasked with handling for his boss.

"When it comes to Michael Cohen, anything is possible," said Louise Sunshine, a former Trump Organization executive who knows Cohen. "Anything and everything is possible."

---

The Washington Post's Ashley Parker contributed to this report.
ALTON  An aldermanic committee Monday recommended the city accept Illinois American Waters proposed, mid-price option to buy Altons sanitary sewer and wastewater treatment system after an hour-long executive session.

Back in open session, the panel brought a multi-part amendment to the original resolution to the floor for recommendation vote. One part of the amendment eliminates allocation of not less than $25 million each to the Firemens and Police pension funds from the sale in the original document.

The amendment instead says auditors Scheffel & Boyle CPA would determine the proportions and amounts so as to produce the best use of said funds in fulfilling the obligations established by the State of Illinois within the year the proceeds are received by the city of Alton. The city is to contribute to each respective pension fund not less than the level payment schedule calculated annually for each fund by an independent actuary to accomplish full funding of each pension fund by the State of Illinois deadline, currently 2040.

Another amendment says upon the sale, the city would return funds to Bethalto that the village contributed to Altons sanitary sewer system reserve account; then similarly return money that the Village of Godfrey provided.

Then, from the remaining funds left in that reserve account, the city would deposit $1 million into a new account set up by the city comptroller and treasurer that would be used exclusively for demolitions of derelict or unsafe buildings, or for Alton to buy properties with such structures to be demolished. The City Council would have to approve each withdrawal from the account.

Also taking from the sanitary sewer system reserve fund, the city would deposit another $1 million into Altons motor fuel tax account for street and infrastructure improvements; then, 75 percent of the remaining funds are to go into another reserve fund to be established that would require a 2/3 majority of the City Council for any withdrawals. Interest that the new account generates would be deposited equally in the new demolition account and motor fuel tax account.

Finally, the amendment says the remainder of funds left in the sanitary sewer reserve account would go into the citys General Fund, up to $2 million. If more than $2 million remained, the city would put the excess into the new reserve account.

Recommendation votes were 6-1 on the amendment and amended resolution, with former city comptroller/Alderwoman Stephanie Elliott, 6th Ward, voting no both times. As good as it sounds, my issue is with the pensions, nothing is written down, Elliott said after the meeting. I know what they want to do, but they have no plan to fix it.

At close of the meeting, Mayor Brant Walker thanked the panel for its cooperation. This has not been an easy time, thank you for being open minded, thank you for hearing us out.

The matter will come back for the City Councils final vote of approval on Wednesday.

The city had negotiated a change in the mid-priced, $53.8 million offer  with what Walker said would be more beneficial to 85 percent of customers  by switching the rate schedule from the lowest, $50 million option to the higher priced offer, as follows:

Lower the existing monthly base rate from $22.08 (includes 1,000 gallons usage) to $20 in 2018; lower usage charge from $0.475 per 100 gallons to $0.30 per 100 gallons for usage from 1,000 to 2,000 gallons; and increase charge from $0.475 to $0.58 per 100 gallons for usage over 2,000 gallons.

In 2019 and 2020, Illinois American then would increase the proposed rates by 2.5 percent annually. The utility calculations still show reductions in typical monthly residential bills (3,500 gallons)  by $2.33 in 2018 (from the current $33.96 to $31.63); by $2.23 (to $32.42) in 2019; and by $2.12 (to $33.23) in 2020.

The bills also are subject to Illinois Commerce Commissions Gross Receipts Tax of 0.10 percent.

The proposed rates would provide savings for customers using 5,400 gallons or less per month in all three years, yet still support the full service and capital investment that Illinois American provides, the proposal says. The rates apply to residential and commercial customers.

Expensive repairs to both the sanitary sewer collection system and Altons dated wastewater treatment plant is one factor prompting officials to sell the system and plant. Also looming is yearly court-mandated contributions toward the $113,760,754 the city owed to the Firemens and Police pension funds, as of April 1, 2017.

Related to another capital-related issue, the committee voted to tentatively accept low bid of $522,253.81 from Burns Excavating Inc. of Plainview, Illinois, to separate and replace the old combined sanitary-storm sewer under sections of East Broadway from west of Henry Street east to Vine Street.

The panel also recommended resolutions allowing the city to: pursue the legal process to effect demolition of houses at 918 Danforth St., and 619 Brookside Ave.; accept transfer of property at 928 Humboldt Court; and establish a no parking zone on the north side of the 1600 block of Greenwood Street, while repealing the ordinance that prohibits parking on the south side of the street in that block.

The committee also tentatively OKd resolutions giving permission for Firehouse Lounge to close Wall Street from 2 p.m. July 3 to midnight on July 3 and on May 5 for street parties; for a church to close 1500 to 1600 Maupin Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 21 for a special event; and for city officials to sign a certificate of local approval in support of Oasis Womens Centers application for Illinois Department of Human Services Emergency Solutions Grant Program funding.

Other than the vote on selling the sanitary sewer system and treatment plant, all of the other recommendation votes were unanimous in favor and also will return for votes of approval Wednesday.

Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_Weller
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration warmly welcomed the visiting emir of Qatar on Monday, approving a new arms sale to the Persian Gulf state and describing it as a "valued partner and longtime friend."

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who opened two days of talks with Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Pentagon, praised Qatar's "critical support" for operations against the Islamic State. "We don't take this relationship for granted, and we appreciate what you do," he said before reporters were ushered out of their meeting.

Al-Thani is scheduled to meet and have lunch on Tuesday with President Donald Trump, who last summer accused Qatar of funding terrorism and posing a threat to the region.

At that time, Trump appeared to be taking his cues from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two U.S. allies whose longtime feud with their gulf neighbor erupted just days after the president visited Riyadh, where, he said, he learned from them of bad Qatari behavior.

Mattis and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson disagreed, pointing out to Trump that few states in the region have clean hands regarding past terrorism funding. They reminded him that Qatar hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, with about 10,000 service members at a base serving as the hub for U.S. air operations in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

During the summer, Tillerson negotiated and signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar on counterterrorism cooperation, and the Pentagon sold Qatar 36 F-15 fighters for $12 billion.

By September, Trump had changed direction and called on the Saudis and Emiratis to lift their blockade of Qatar and settle their disagreements. If they could not come to terms, he said at the time, he would bring their leaders to Camp David and negotiate among them.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have rejected U.S. arbitration, along with Egypt and Bahrain, who had joined them in breaking relations and imposing a blockade of Qatar. Most recently, the White House reactivated the invitation, with plans to hold a Camp David meeting in May, following last month's visit to Washington by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, this week's visit by Thani, and an upcoming trip here by Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto UAE leader.

A Camp David summit for the six Persian Gulf Coordinating Council members - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman - on a range of issues has been tentatively scheduled for September. If they don't settle their differences by then, a senior administration official said, the administration plans to put the dispute on the agenda.

The gulf states sit down together - without the United States - at an Arab League summit this month in Riyadh.

From the perspective of their gulf and Egyptian critics, Qatar's most egregious sin is allowing its state-funded media to give voice to Saudi and other critics of their governments, including hard-line Islamists.

While they have not spoken to each other, the quarreling allies have drawn Congress and the U.S. public into their dispute with multimillion dollar expenditures on lobbyists and on media campaigns in this country.

Charges that Qatar hosts representatives of the Taliban and Hamas in Doha, the Qatari capital, and provides extensive funding to Hamas in Gaza, have had some resonance among lawmakers.

Both organizations originally positioned themselves in Doha with the acquiescence of the United States, which has found their presence useful for negotiating purposes. At the same time, Israel has met with Qatari officials and tacitly approved millions of dollars of Qatari funding for Hamas-governed Gaza.

The United States, Israel and much of Europe have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. Qatar insists, and its gulf neighbors dispute, that it funds only the political wing of the organization and not its military side, and provides only infrastructure and energy aid.

The Arab world is split over Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt, whose ruler overthrew an elected Brotherhood government, and others consider it a terrorist organization. But in countries such as Jordan and Morocco, it operates as a legitimate political party.

Early in the Trump administration, efforts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization were stopped, in part by Tillerson, who explained in a June 14 congressional hearing that its status in various countries was part of the "complexities" of U.S. relations in the region.

Even Egyptian relations with Hamas have thawed over the past year, with both seeing reasons to cooperate, despite reservations by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi's about its Brotherhood ties. Last summer, Hamas agreed to increase its border security to assist Egypt in fighting an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

In return, Egypt let desperately needed fuel into Gaza, to ease the power crisis for its 2 million residents.

Both John Bolton, Trump's new national security adviser, and secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo have in the past called for the Brotherhood to be designated a terrorist organization.
First one shoe dropped. Then another. Then another and another and another and another.

The controversies surrounding Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's spending and management practices are only growing. But Republicans are divided on what to do about it.

Do they back Pruitt, whose mission to roll back regulations is widely popular within the GOP? Or do they condemn the Cabinet official after reports he rented a Capitol Hill condo for only $50 per night from an energy lobbyist and sidelined at least five EPA employees after they raised questions about the administrator's high-spending habits?

As lawmakers return to Washington this week, the pressure to take a stand will only intensify. So far, some Republicans are urging him to fight to keep his job. Others says they've had enough. Yet more want to wait to see what investigations into his alleged misdeeds yield.

None of that is good for the embattled EPA administrator. The only bright spot: The one man who matters most - President Donald Trump - seems to be in his corner. At least for now.

Here is a rundown of where Republicans stand on Pruitt.

All in:

Two tea-party firebrand senators, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, each sent out tweets praising Pruitt and questioning the motives of his critics, respectively.

Pruitt's fellow Oklahoman, Sen. James Inhofe, one of the harshest critics in the Senate of climate change science, issued a statement of unambiguous support. "Administrator Pruitt has been instrumental in carrying out President Trump's deregulatory agenda at the EPA," Inhofe said. "I look forward to continuing to work with him to restore the EPA to its proper size and scope."

Fed up:

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the only Republican to vote against Pruitt's confirmation, reiterated on CNN that Pruitt is "the wrong person to head the EPA." She added: "This daily drop of accusations of excessive spending and ethical violations serve to further distract the agency from accomplishing its very important mission. I think Congress needs to do some oversight."

Sen. John Kennedy (Louisiana), who did vote for Pruitt, was even more pointed on CBS News's "Face the Nation." "These are unforced errors," he said. "They are stupid. There are a lot of problems we can't solve. But you can behave. I don't mean to denigrate Mr. Pruitt, but doggone it, he represents the president of the United States, and it is hurting his boss and it needs to stop."

Pruitt's actions also drew a rebuke from Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa). "I don't appreciate the way he seems to have abused taxpayer dollars," she told Politico.

Waiting and seeing:

Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), powerful chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that oversees the EPA, praised Pruitt as "instrumental in returning the agency to its original mission" before adding: "Certain questions have been raised about internal operations of the agency and the administrator's actions. The White House has indicated it has taken on a formal review of these questions. I will wait for the outcome of that process."

Taking that tack during an appearance on ABC News's "This Week," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that Pruitt has "done a good job" but that he wants to see what a congressional oversight panel has to say. "The bottom line: This doesn't look good," Graham said.

Similarly, Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., told reporters he wants to wait to see what investigators say.

Oklahoma's other senator, Republican James Lankford, told the Oklahoman that Pruitt should not yet resign because administration officials "are still walking through it. EPA has their own ethics investigation and the hard part about this is all the facts getting out." Lankford also defended Pruitt's $50-per-night stay at a lobbyist-linked condo because it "would seem normal for most Oklahomans to say, 'If I know somebody in town, I'm trying to get a place, and in the meantime to be able to stay there.' "

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., too, sounded uncertain of Pruitt's future at the EPA on Monday.

Even within the White House, the message was out of sync. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Monday that "we are reviewing the specifics of each of those components."

But Trump seemed to come to his own conclusions on Saturday, tweeting:

"While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!"
Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling the states legislative leaders back to the table.

Rauner discussed his goals for the remainder of the legislative session at a news conference Monday in Chicago.

He wants a crackdown on illegal gun trafficking, lawmaker harassment and ethics reform, term limits (10 for lawmakers and eight for constitutional officers), an overhaul to the states business tax credit program, and a ban on lawmakers profiting from property tax appeals  a shot at House Speaker and property tax attorney Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Rauner said the leaders meeting hes calling for Thursday will be about the budget.

Were going to go deep this Thursday with the primary focus being on getting a balanced budget for a full year, not a partial year, with no new taxes, he said.

Rauner proposes that lawmakers send him a pension overhaul bill and once pension reform is approved by our courts, getting a billion dollar income tax cut.

The pension bill is sponsored by Sen. President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. It would give public employees a choice between raises that wouldnt count toward their pensions or less pay in order to keep a diminished automatic pay increase in retirement. Critics say it would likely be struck down as unconstitutional in court.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said the governor is right to call the leaders into talks.

We dont have any time to waste, he said.

Rauner said that his reforms were bipartisan measures that have been passed by Democrats in other states, but Democrats in Springfield have largely stood firm against Rauners agenda, even joining with a handful of Republicans to overcome his veto of a budget that raised the state income tax to 4.95 percent.

Madigans spokesman said his office had talked to Rauners office about the Thursday meeting and that the speaker plans to attend.

Cullertons office wasnt available to confirm that they would attend.

Lawmakers have until May 31 to pass a budget.
At 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to take the stand before the joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees. The following day, hell testify before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. He plans to wear a suit and take accountability for Facebooks big mistake, and his seven-page testimony has been released by the House. You can watch Zuckerbergs live testimony below.

Ahead of his hearing, we pulled apart Zuckerbergs testimony document. First, here are recaps of the two significant events that landed Facebook in hot water.

Recap: How did Cambridge Analytica get access to so much user data?

About 87 million is an oft-cited figure in connection with the number of users whose data was mishandled by Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm hired by President Donald Trumps campaign before the 2016 election. But the story behind how the firm got its hands on that information is a little murkier.

Zuckerbergs testimony claims that Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app on the platform in 2013 and that about 300,000 people installed it. At the time, laxer privacy settings across Facebook meant Kogan had access to data from tens of millions more users after their friends had installed the app. Zuckerberg says Facebook wasnt aware that Kogan had shared data with Cambridge Analytica until 2015 and that the company ultimately formally certified that they had deleted all improperly acquired data.

However, the firm likely used the information to build psychological profiles to categorize individual American voters. Besides a claim, theres no clear evidence Cambridge Analytica has since deleted that data -- but Zuckerberg says theyve agreed to a forensic audit by a firm Facebook hired.

Recap: How did Russian agencies spread misinformation ahead of the 2016 U.S. election?

After the election, Facebook found that bad actors ran ads and coordinated groups of fake accounts to endorse or denounce certain causes and candidates -- or sow widespread distrust in the political institutions themselves. One disinformation campaign linked to about 80,000 Facebook posts in two years was run by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), and the company estimates that 146 million people might have been served its content on Facebook and Instagram combined. The IRA also invested about $100,000 in Facebook ads seen by about 11 million people in the U.S., according to Zuckerbergs testimony.

Here are six concrete takeaways from Facebook's plan to prevent future incidents.

1. More secondhand data protections

The company is introducing restrictions on tools such as groups and events to protect the data of other users besides the one signing in, according to Zuckerbergs testimony. Theres no word yet from Facebook on exactly how those tools will be restricted, and the company didnt respond to a request for comment by publication time.

2. Restricted data permissions for apps

For Facebook users who havent used an app in three months or more, Zuckerberg says the app developers will no longer have access to their data. And instead of granting apps access to data such as public profiles and friends lists, users will now only need to provide their names, profile photos and email addresses. Facebook claims it has already begun showing all users a list of the apps theyve used and clear ways to revoke their data permissions at the top of the News Feed. As of publication time, Entrepreneur staffers were unable to see this tool.

3. More oversight for app developers

Zuckerberg says there will be more regulation on the back end as well, with developers signing contracts with strict requirements in order to ask anyone for access to their posts or other private data. Theres no word yet from Facebook on what those requirements will be.

4. More oversight for advertisers

One key change coming to Facebook ads: Every advertiser behind issue or political ads will need to be authorized based on identity and location. The company plans to extend that verification to users who manage large pages, in the hopes of preventing viral misinformation.

5. More political ad transparency

In the coming months, labels will be introduced for political and issue ads, including who paid for them, and Facebook will launch a searchable archive of past political ads. The company is also testing a tool that shows all of the ads any given page is running and plans to launch it worldwide in summer 2018.

6. Quicker implementation timeline

Zuckerberg says all Facebook ad changes should be complete months before the 2018 elections, as well as for upcoming elections over the next year in India, Pakistan, Mexico and Brazil.

Related:

Is Zuckerberg Happy to Share his Messages Publicly? No Prizes Guessing

Zuck Goes to Washington and Makes $3 Billion. Here Are 3 Things to Know Today.

5 Takeaways for Entrepreneurs From Facebook's User Privacy Mistakes



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Nearly 40 percent of American jobs could be automated within the next 15 years, according to a report from PwC, and it isn't just low-skilled workers who could be out of a job. Increasingly sophisticated machine-learning technology will also displace white-collar workers.

The exact impact of automation is unclear. Some anticipate that as with other technology, automation will cause a net increase of jobs in new industries that do not yet exist while others, notiably including Elon Musk and the organization Open AI, fear that artificial intelligence may have significant negative impacts on our society.

Whatever the outcome, you need actionable advice so youre ready. Rather than fret about unforeseen consequences of automation, you can prepare yourself for coming technological change. Make a plan to develop your skills, stay open-minded and you might just be able to future-proof yourself from automation.

Related: Bill Gates Believes Robots That Steal Jobs Should Pay Taxes

1. Adopt the AT&T model of self-guided education.

AT&T, one of the worlds largest telecommunications companies, employs hundreds of thousands of people. But despite employing so many talented individuals, the companys leadership knows that they may not have the talent theyll need to succeed in the future.

So, rather than fire existing employees in exchange for new folks with more advanced technical aptitude, AT&T gives existing employees a choice: Participate in educational opportunities provided by the organization and enhance your skills, or leave with a generous severance package.

Employees who opt into the training programs are offered a variety of in-person and online classes designed to develop key skills in areas like engineering and data analytics.

Its unlikely that your organization can afford the same robust opportunities that AT&T offers employees, but you can apply the same strategies to your own career. To start, survey senior managers within your organization whom you trust. Ask them to highlight a handful of key skills that they anticipate will be necessary to succeed within the organization and industry in the coming years.

Next, find an online course or certification program and begin investing in improving your professional skills. In some cases, your employer may even agree to help you pay for online courses if they believe the skills will help you succeed within the organization.

Related: The Robots Will Take Our Jobs. Here's Why Futurist Ray Kurzweil Isn't Worried.

2. Develop soft skills.

The need for rewarding human interactions is something that cant be automated (at least not anytime soon). As Thomas Friedman argues in Thank You for Being Late, empathic professions will be more in demand than ever before thanks to automation.

Already, humans are beginning to feel the effects of interfacing with technology for hours on end. Thanks to technological developments like social media and SMS, the way we communicate with one another is increasingly impersonal.

As AI kicks off another wave of technological advancement, theres no telling how human interaction may deteriorate even further.

Already, the United Kingdom has appointed a Minister of Loneliness to combat what some are calling a global epidemic brought on by technology.

This reality will mean that more and more people become hungry for human connection. As a result, the importance of soft skills will only increase in a world more and more dominated by artificial intelligence.

Develop soft skills by investing in activities and classes that bring you closer to meaningfully engaging with other people. That could be in the form of an acting class, a networking event, a public speaking lecture, or even sessions with a psychologist.

Related: Worried About Surviving in an Automated World? These Are the Skills That Will Save You.

3. Take the initiative to experiment with new tech.

You might be tempted to bury your head in the sand to savor a few, final years of automation-free employment, but you'll receive a rude awakening sometime in the not-so-distant future. Even if your day job doesnt require you to experiment with the latest technologies, take it upon yourself to improve your technological literacy. Maybe it's finally time to learn to code.

Understanding how new mainstream technologies work, and how your skills fit within the larger tech ecosystem can help you to anticipate what your next career move should be.

Udemy, Harvard and MIT all offer MOOCs (massive open online courses) designed to help lay people better understand important technological trends. Dive in and devote a few hours of your week to a class like this. Stay consistent and youll strengthen your professional skill set.

Related: 12 Sites That Will Teach You Coding for Free

4. Lookout for new jobs created by innovative technologies.

In 1987, Microsoft released the first version of Excel, a spreadsheet software that has since become a staple technology for most knowledge workers. As a result of Excel and similar tools, nearly one million bookkeepers lost their jobs. But nearly two million business analysts and accountants founded work as a result of Excel and tools like it, according to an analysis in the Wall Street Journal.

We will likely see a similar story play out with regard to automation. Some workers will lose their jobs as a result of new technologies, but many others will find new opportunities. Automation will certainly cause millions of people to lose their jobs. Some of these people won't find alternate work. This is a reality that our society must prepare for. However, if you prepare now you can position yourself for new jobs created by the automation boom.

The future is coming fast, so acquire new skills in order to take advantage of possibilities that others aren't expecting. Its about being proactive and putting in the extra work. Dont hold back. It will be worth it in the end.

Related:

Here's What You Can Do Now to Stay Employed When They Finally Have a Robot for Your Job

Can Automation Take Care of the Aged?

Automation Is Not Tomorrow -- It's Today



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


In messages with potential buyers of military artifacts, Antonin DeHays was an eager salesman who offered vivid descriptions.

When peddling World War II dog tags that had been recovered from a wreck, he pointed out the blood, fire and fuel stains on the metal, calling the markings "very powerful items that witness the violence of the crash."

On another dog tag, he texted a potential buyer that the item was "salty" or visibly war-damaged while also marketing the "partially burned" appearance of a Red Cross identification card from the same era.

But DeHays failed to mention one important detail in his sales pitches on eBay and by other means. The war relics he was hawking were government property, items he plundered during visits to the National Archives just outside of Washington, D.C., while leveraging his status as an expert on World War II.

ADDITIONAL VIDEO:

On Monday, a federal judge in Maryland sentenced DeHays to 364 days in prison for the theft of government records and ordered him to pay more than $43,000 in restitution to the unwitting buyers who purchased the stolen goods.

Many of the relics had been taken from the bodies of fallen servicemen, making the crime even more shocking, according to those who spoke at his sentencing hearing.

"He isn't just a thief, he's a grave robber," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.

DeHays, a historian, used his researcher identification card to gain access to hundreds of artifacts belonging to men captured or killed in World War II and made tens of thousands of dollars selling items pilfered from the public research room at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, for profit, according to his plea agreement. His scheme went on for years, from 2012 to 2017.

DeHays is a native of Normandy, France, home of the famous D-Day operation that eventually liberated Western Europe. During his sentencing hearing in federal court in Greenbelt on Monday, he said he sold the relics partly to pay for an addiction to collecting war memorabilia and to acquire a collection for a museum he dreamed of running one day.

"At that time I saw it as a sacrifice I had to make if I wanted my dream to come true," DeHays said. "It was irrational behavior and a lack of judgment that I regret every day."

DeHays stole nearly 300 dog tags belonging to U.S. service members and about 130 other records dating to World War II, the government said. The records were created by the German military, who kept materials from Allied airmen who crashed into Nazi territory in their reports of downed aircraft, federal prosecutors said. The materials were seized after the war and transferred to the National Archives in 1958.

DeHays stole immunization records, personal photos, military identification, letters, a Bible and pieces of fallen U.S. military aircraft, according to his plea agreement. He also pilfered official documents from the U.S. War Department, including papers related to the invasion of Normandy.

In December 2016, DeHays made off with two dog tags that belonged to a Tuskegee Airman who died after his fighter plane crashed in Germany in September 1944, the plea agreement states. He traded one of the dog tags to a military aviation museum "in exchange for the opportunity to sit inside a Spitfire airplane," court documents state.

All told, DeHays stole more than $45,000 worth of items, approximately the amount he received from buyers, prosecutors said. DeHays would often erase pencil markings left by the German military on items to avoid having them traced back to the National Archives, authorities said. In some cases, DeHays kept items for himself or gave them as gifts, officials said.

The government has recovered about 95 percent of the items DeHays stole, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas A. Mitchell said. He said DeHays owes restitution to 15 to 30 people who purchased the stolen goods.

In addition to prison time and restitution, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore D. Chuang ordered DeHays to serve 100 hours of community service and be placed on three years' probation, eight months of which will involve home detention. Chuang said that as a historian, DeHays should have known better than to engage in the "auctioning of our history to the highest bidder."

"This was an egregious, morally repugnant crime," Chuang said.

Even among the recovered items, some of the damage is irreversible, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero said. In one instance, DeHays stole two dog tags belonging to 1st Lt. Julian Columbus, who served in World War II. Columbus's father served in World War I, and Columbus wore both tags around his neck during his tour, Ferriero said.

After DeHays stole the dog tags, he removed the wire Columbus used to link father and son, "forever separating the items."

"DeHays's selfish acts," Ferriero said, "have robbed the public of an essential part of its history."
French President Emmanuel Macron's first annual checkup with the European Union's budget doctor won't be pretty.

His government, which may gain from accelerating growth, is postponing the spending cuts needed to narrow the structural budget gap as required by the European Commission, say two people with knowledge of documents being sent to Brussels this month. With elements of the plan to be unveiled to the French Cabinet this week, many are warning that the country needs to do more.

"Lasting fiscal consolidation demands that France tackle its high level of government spending," Bank of France Governor and European Central Bank Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday in Paris. "France is the only major European country that has both a large budget deficit and company funding needs," creating "the conditions of a lasting exterior deficit."

Yet about a year after taking office, Macron will be disregarding budgetary discipline, refusing to wean France off what his Prime Minister Edouard Philippe calls the country's "addiction to public spending." Macron's defense: If he cuts entitlements, he will have a revolution on his hands.

As rail workers, students, pilots, retirees and others take to the streets to protest his reforms, he wants to do everything he can to avoid a flaring of violent demonstrations like those 50 years ago that paralyzed France and destabilized then-president Charles de Gaulle.

"France is off the budget track and unlike his predecessor, Macron isn't even trying to pretend the contrary," said Francois Ecalle, head of the independent Paris-based fiscal-monitoring body Fipeco. "The government is axing taxes before spending; it's hard to see how this is going to work."

For starters, the Commission could demand tweaks to the budget plans to comply with its targets. On a broader scale, the lack of fiscal discipline may dent France's credibility with the markets and its partners, especially as Macron makes clear his ambitions for greater European integration.

"A key question is whether France's EU partners remain confident that Macron is able to deliver on the economic transformation agenda that he committed to," said Brussels-based Robin Huguenot-Noel, a researcher at the European Policy Center.

The French budget forecasts in the stability plan to be presented to the cabinet will be line with those presented in September, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information hasn't been made public. In September, the International Monetary Fund estimated France's deficit will reach 3.2 percent of output in 2019, larger than the EU's 3 percent target.

The euro region's second-largest economy is delaying from 2019 to at least 2023 reaching a so-called structural deficit -- the part of overspending which doesn't depend on the economic cycle -- of 0.4 percent of gross domestic product, as prescribed by EU rules.

France and Spain are the only EU countries under an excessive deficit procedure from the EC. The government expects its debt load will peak at 97 percent of GDP in 2019, while Germany's will have fallen to 58 percent.

Meanwhile, not only has Macron slowed fiscal consolidation, but he has back-loaded his calendar, postponing difficult decisions to 2020. Of the total 80 billion euros ($98 billion) of planned savings over five years, he's increased the share left for the last two years of his mandate to 48 percent from an initial 28 percent, according to a report by the French senate's fiscal committee.

The first take had already been deemed risky by the IMF, which said in September that it would require "timely specification and implementation" of "deep, efficiency-oriented spending reforms" as well as "strong political support over an extended period."

Six months on, there are still no signs of the steps recommended by the IMF such as downsizing the wage bill, consolidating local governments or reshaping social, health and retirement benefits.

Officials in Macron's government argue that the country's current social climate makes the combination of structural reforms and spending cuts explosive. The government is already battling protests as it dismantles labor protection, tweaks the education system, cuts taxes for some and raises them for others and deepens competition, starting with the railways.

And it's got more coming with tweaks to unemployment and housing benefits and the working conditions of government employees. The goal is to take steps to achieve firmer growth and job creation to avoid the strict austerity that was applied to Portugal and Spain.

The big question for France is: will the European Commission see it that way?

"The Commission has got to take the wider political-economy picture into account, without seeming to give the impression that France gets special treatment because it's a major economic player and net contributor to the EU budget," the European Policy Center's Huguenot-Noel said.
In an effort to address some of the greatest threats against mankind, the Outrider Foundation has put together a data visualization tool that shows the potential impact of a nuclear blast.

The tool allows visitors to see how devastating a surface or air nuclear explosion would be in any given city. Of the four bombs a visitor can choose from, the Tsar Bomba stands out as one of the deadliest.

The bomb was developed by the Soviet Union and test detonated in the northernmost part of Russia on Oct. 30, 1961, the BBC reported.

READ MORE: This nuclear-explosion simulator shows where radioactive fallout would go using today's weather

"In a flash, the bomb created a fireball five miles wide. The fireball pulsed upwards from the force of its own shockwave. The flash could be seen from 1,000km (630 miles) away," the BBC added. "In Soviet districts hundreds of miles from the blast zone, damage of all kinds  houses collapsing, roofs falling in, damage to doors, windows shattering  were reported. Radio communications were disrupted for more than an hour."

The Soviets never created another Tsar Bomba. Russia and the U.S. today own and control 93 percent of all nuclear weapons in the world, according to NBC News. That number amounts to roughly 13,950 nuclear warheads, according to data from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

It is this reality that inspired the Outrider Foundation's research, managing director Tara Drozdenko told Chron.com.

"If we had to pick one take-away it would be that people need to take action about nuclear weapons. Average citizens have already had a huge impact on nuclear weapons policy and have the ability to continue affecting change. We have resources outlining what individuals can do, and we also highlight how ordinary people have had an impact," Drozdenko said.

Swipe through the gallery above to see what sort of damage the Tsar Bomba could have caused on Texas' major cities.

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @fernalfonso.
TOKYO - Food products fraudulently mislabeled as Japanese brands that are registered under the government's Geographical Indication (GI) protection system, are being sold overseas, mainly in China. The brands are registered by the GI system to protect the value of high-quality local specialty products across Japan.

Research by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry found counterfeit versions of brands from 17 locations in Japan, including Kobe Beef, for sale on overseas websites.

The number of fake Japanese food brands has increased four-fold from the previous year.

The GI system protects and promotes Japanese products, but the system is being exploited.

An official of JA Minami Shinshu, a local JA agricultural cooperative in Iida, Nagano Prefecture, was angry after learning that dried persimmon fruits produced in China are being sold on the internet bearing the name Ichida Gaki, a local specialty brand produced in the region.

The official said, "If counterfeit products become widespread, the value of genuine Ichida Gaki persimmons will fall. Unless sales of fakes are stopped as soon as possible, we cannot export our products with a sense of security."

Ichida Gaki dried persimmons, which are known for their sweetness, are only produced in and near the city. The brand was registered under the GI system in July 2016.

The premium persimmons can cost about 100 yen (about 93 cents) each. In addition to domestic sales, about 30 tons are exported annually to Taiwan.

Chinese-made matcha powdered green tea mislabelled as Nishio no Matcha, a brand produced in Aichi Prefecture's Nishio region, was also being sold online

Hiroyasu Inagaki, 53, a farmer in the city who produces Nishio no Matcha, expressed concern, saying, "While exports are increasing, [counterfeit products] affect my business."

The agriculture ministry searched for GI-registered brands on 82 major online shopping sites overseas from June last year to February this year. The ministry confirmed that famous Japanese food brands, including Yubari Melon of Yubari, Hokkaido; Matsusaka Ushi beef of Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture; and Oita Kabosu citrus of Oita Prefecture were being sold.

About 80 percent of the websites were based in China. Sales of counterfeit food products were found also on websites in Brazil and the United States.

The ministry suspects that most of the products discovered were counterfeit - 662 were confirmed as being fake.

The ministry demanded online retailers selling such products remove the counterfeit Japanese food brands listed on their sites, explaining that it constitutes fraud.

More than 100 countries overseas have already introduced systems similar to Japan's GI that protect the value of their farming and fisheries products.

To prevent the sale of counterfeit products and unauthorized use of brand names, it is necessary for countries to sign bilateral agreements for their protection.

Japan signed this kind of agreement with the European Union in December last year. Under the agreement, for example, Japanese-made cheese products cannot use the name Gorgonzola, which is a recognized Italian brand of cheese.

If unauthorized use of brand names is discovered, the government of the country where the fraudulent mislabeling is conducted issues an order to halt sales of such products based on the agreement between the two nations.

Japan also plans to sign such agreements with Thailand and Vietnam soon.

However, it is unlikely that this kind of agreement will be signed between Japan and China. Under the current situation, it is not possible to crack down on the unauthorized use of Japanese brand names.

Yumi Ogose of Tokyo University of Science, an expert on intellectual property policy studies, said, "Japan should raise the brand recognition of GI-registered products in other countries and demonstrate the fact that the brands are strictly controlled. Japan should also sign bilateral protection agreements as soon as possible so that the brand names are not easily abused."

The GI is a system in which the government screens agriculture, forestry and fisheries products and processed food products produced in specific places, and certifies them as premium local specialty products. Seven items including Yubari Melon were registered in December 2015. In February, the number of items stood at 59. More than 160 items are on a list awaiting GI registration.
EDWARDSVILLE  Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton is back in the race for the 56th District Senate seat.

However, this time, hes running as a new party and hes calling it Downstate United.

Following four months of appealing to state appellate and circuit courts, Patton officially launched his petition drive Tuesday, April 10, after making an announcement at a press conference at the Gateway Commerce Center.

Patton said the next step is to gather enough petition signatures to get back on the ballot for the general election in November.

The most important next step are these petitions. These are the petitions that will need to be circulated and signed. We will need nearly 10,000 registered voters between now and the end of June, Patton said. Its a tall task for the amount of time that we have, but its another opportunity for us to get the message out there and to get people to participate in an important election.

Patton will need to acquire, at minimum, 5,200 petition signatures by Monday, June 25, to be put on the ballot for the general election.

Patton initially announced his candidacy six months ago with an intent to run for the Republican Senate seat for the 56th District; however, local courts opted to remove him from the ballot after he signed a petition for State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville. According to Illinois state law, a candidate cannot sign petitions for different parties.

With Pattons name off of the ballot during the March primary, he then appealed the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of getting back on for the Republican nomination.

However, Patton said the case dropped due to the lack of consideration.

What I was being told was we needed one member of the Supreme Court to bring that up for consideration and unfortunately, that information was not complete. The reality is there are four justices that are Democrat and theres three justices that are Republican. I needed a total of four justices to bring that up, according to what my attorney told me. Thats where it dropped, Patton said.

With his options narrowing to get back on the ballot, Patton said his best option was to form a new party, although he still considers himself a Republican.

In order to avoid any future legal challenges, my best option is to form a new party to run. This idea evolved over the last few weeks, as I met with local office holders and talked with many passionate supporters, Patton said. Im not in any way, shape or form leaving the Republican party. Ive clearly been in that since 1998. But, Ive also, as mayor and as an independent, Ive attracted other voters because of my willingness to not deal with the partisan politics.

Patton is looking for volunteer petition circulators. Those who wish to circulate petitions for Patton dont have to live within the 56th District; however, there is a restriction.

The only restriction is on the circulators. If you circulated a petition for another candidate, Republican or Democrat, you cannot circulate for me and for Downstate United, he said.

Pattons campaign emphasizes his successes so far as the mayor of Edwardsville, bringing new jobs to the area, building a new public safety building, adding funds in tax revenue and investing in new parks with no increase in property taxes.

Patton said ultimately, he hopes to represent all political parties and correct the election process in Springfield.

I believe it is time for downstate Illinois voters to take back their representation, to speak as one voice about the things that matter most to us, regardless of our normal political affiliation. A voting block working for the things we value, fiscal responsibility, excellent schools, job opportunities for our hardworking people and steadfast support for the First and Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Patton said.

I think I have the track record of being a positive representative, of growing a community, of treating people fairly, working with our unions and creating jobs for our trades. Ill put that track record against anyone, he added.

The 56th District includes all or parts of Edwardsville, Alton, Glen Carbon, Bethalto, Caseyville, Collinsville, East Alton, Elsah, Fairview Heights, Hartford, Godfrey, Granite City, Madison, Maryville, OFallon, Pontoon Beach, Roxana, Shiloh, South Roxana, Swansea and Wood River.

For more information about Hal Pattons campaign, visit his website at www.halpattonforsenate.com.
Ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on Capitol Hill this week, number of civic organizations and human rights groups in Myanmar have shared a detailed presentation with U.S. lawmakers on how the social network helped spread hate speech in the country.

The presentation, sent to key American leaders who will be questioning Zuckerberg on Tuesday and Wednesday, highlights a number of examples of alleged negligence by Facebook that they say helped propel violence in the Southeast Asian nation.

It features a video shared by a nationalist monk on Facebook in January 2016 that provocatively reenacted a controversial rape and murder of a Burmese woman. It took three days for the video to be removed, the organizations say, although it was "clearly designed to ignite further tensions between Buddhists and Muslim communities."

Before being removed from Facebook, the video had been viewed more than 120,000 times, according to the presentation. Indeed, despite the removal of the original video, the groups found copies of it in at least eight places on Facebook.

In other examples, the groups pointed to a November 2016 post on Facebook that described a respected journalist working for international media as "a terrorist" and called for him to be killed. The post was not found to violate the social network's community standards, but it was later removed when Facebook representatives were contacted directly, according to the presentation.

The groups also cited the Facebook page of nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu. His page had been reported for spreading inflammatory content for years but kept returning.

In a letter to U.S. lawmakers, the organizations emphasized that Myanmar should be a key priority in the questioning of Facebook because "lives are literally on the line." They pointed to a recent statement from United Nations investigators that concluded Facebook had played a "determining role" in alleged ethnic cleansing in the country.

In a phone call, Htaike Htaike, director of the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization, said that U.S. pressure was necessary after years of promises for action from Facebook. "After these endless promises, we believe that the U.S. Congress can really help force Facebook to do something," she said.

The groups suggested four questions for senators to ask Zuckerberg, included verbatim below:

- What concrete actions are you going to take to ensure that content that clearly breaches your own Community Standards is immediately removed?

- Countries such as Germany require Facebook to remove hate speech within 24 hours or face significant fines. Will you commit to removing all incitements to violence in Myanmar within 24 hours?

- Your emergency escalation processes clearly do not work. Will you put in place clear, easily accessible emergency escalation processes in all relevant languages?

- There is extensive misuse of your platform by bad actors, yet even serial offenders very rarely face closure of their account. How do you decide who is taken down, and what concrete actions are you going to take to remove users who breach your Community Standards?

Zuckerberg's appearance on Capitol Hill this week comes as the American social media giant reels from the alleged misuse of its platform for political influence in the 2016 U.S. election. Last month, it was revealed that a political consultancy firm hired by the Donald Trump campaign and other Republicans had improperly gained access to 87 million Facebook users, including 71 million Americans.

In planned testimony released this week ahead of Wednesday's appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Zuckerberg is expected to personally apologize for the misuse of the platform he created. "I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here," the Facebook executive plans to tell lawmakers.

The testimony is expected to deal almost exclusively with issues surrounding Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy firm, and alleged Russian interference in Western elections. Facebook's role in smaller countries such as Myanmar is not directly addressed.

Myanmar represents only a tiny slice of Facebook's giant global business. However, the social network has played a powerful role in Myanmar society as the country opened up to the world after years of isolation. One study found that 38 percent of Facebook users in Myanmar got most, perhaps even all, of their news from the site.

The U.S. social media giant has been accused of spreading "fake news" that inflamed ethnic tensions between the country's Buddhist majority and its minority Muslim populations. In 2017, a military crackdown caused more than 600,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya in the country's Rakhine province to flee across the border with Bangladesh - and left an unknown number of people dead.

In an email, the founder of one of the Burmese organizations said they have been corresponding with a number of senators' offices about Zuckerberg's comments. "We would therefore be very surprised if one or more senators did not ask about Myanmar," said David Madden of Phandeeyar, a leading tech hub that has worked with Facebook to draft its community settings for the Burmese language.

Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., of the Senate Judiciary Committee told CBS News last week that he wants Facebook to "stop people from running advertisements on Facebook that encourages the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma." (Burma is an alternative name for Myanmar.)

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, quizzed Facebook's general counsel last October about its role in Myanmar. "You have a great responsibility," Leahy said. "Not only can elections be swayed by people who are not favorable to the United States, but people can die."

Zuckerberg has acknowledged some of the criticisms from groups such as Phandeeyar. The Facebook CEO responded with a personal message to the groups after they published an open letter that accused him of misrepresenting Facebook's success in combating hate speech in Myanmar during a recent media interview. A spokeswoman for the groups later told BuzzFeed News that the response was "grossly insufficient."

Although the situation in Myanmar is especially fraught, critics in other non-Western countries have argued that Facebook turns a blind eye to the misuse of its platform. On Monday, a number of activists and independent media professionals in Vietnam released their own open letter to Zuckerberg, pointing to account suspensions in the country.

"Without a nuanced approach, Facebook risks enabling and being complicit in government censorship," the Vietnamese groups said.

Htaike Htaike said it was clear that concerns about Facebook are a global problem. Its actions in the United States and Europe may have drawn most of the attention, she said, but many people in other countries are asking: "What about us?"
Seven top officials of the website Backpage.com, long accused of facilitating child sex trafficking, have been arrested after a grand jury in Phoenix issued a 93-count indictment alleging conspiracy, facilitating prostitution and money laundering.

The arrests come after the government seized all of Backpage's websites around the world on Friday.

The indictment was unsealed Monday after all defendants made their first appearances before a magistrate in Phoenix. Among those charged are the site's founders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Carl Ferrer, the site's current owner was not charged. But the indictment claims the site continued to be financed by Lacey and Larkin and two other co-owners who all retained operational control of Backpage.

The indictment accuses Backpage of facilitating prostitution committed by those posting ads on the site, specifically citing 17 victims trafficked on Backpage, some as young as 14. Authorities also allege the company laundered some of the estimated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue the site has generated since its launch in 2004.

"Virtually every dollar flowing into Backpage's coffers represents the proceeds of illegal activity," according to the indictment.

The government alleges that Backpage netted profits of more than $112 million in 2013 and more than $134 million in 2014. A Senate report issued last year said that Backpage ran sites for 943 locations in 97 countries and 17 languages.

In addition to the criminal counts, the government is seeking to seize 10 residences in California, Arizona, Texas and Illinois, 25 bank accounts and 35 website domains in the U.S. and 20 other countries.

"Many of the ads published on Backpage depicted children who were victims of sex trafficking," the indictment states. "Although Backpage has sought to create the perception that it diligently attempts to prevent the publication of such ads, the reality is that Backpage has allowed such ads to be published while declining - for financial reasons - to take necessary steps to address the problem."

Backpage has argued that it assists law enforcement in tracking down victims and perpetrators of crimes, which some police officials have corroborated, and is not a participant in the advertising on the site. Some in the sex worker industry say that removing Backpage from the Internet takes away a safe mechanism for screening clients, and that the ads will simply move to sites outside the country, or to social media.

The federal investigation in Phoenix was first disclosed by Backpage in a court filing in February 2017. Lacey and Larkin created Backpage in Phoenix as owners of the New Times alternative weekly newspaper chain, which became Village Voice Media Holdings after Lacey and Larkin bought the iconic New York weekly.

Backpage's general counsel, Liz McDougall, did not return messages seeking comment. Larry Kazan, who told the Arizona Republic he was representing Lacey, also did not return a message.

Backpage is a classified ads website that grew after Craigslist.com stopped hosting "Adult Services" ads in 2010. Embedded among the ads for adult prostitutes on Backpage are solicitations for teenage girls and boys, anti-sex trafficking advocates said, enabling pimps to repeatedly sell children for sex. Though Backpage closed its "Adult Services" section in January 2017, the ads promptly reappeared in the "Dating" section, most recently with very little written copy accompanying photos of the males and females seeking dates.

One 16-year-old girl in Chicago was slain in 2016 after responding to an ad placed by her pimp on Backpage. The indictment discusses another girl who was murdered after being prostituted on Backpage, a case in which the killer then attempted to burn his victim's body. Backpage refused the victim's father's request to remove the ads showing his deceased daughter, the indictment said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said that 73 percent of the child trafficking reports it receives from the public stem from Backpage.

"For years, Backpage.com has been a major hub of sex trafficking, the place where some of our nation's most vulnerable women and children have been bought and sold," said Lauren Hersh, national director of World Without Exploitation. "The closure of Backpage removes one of the most prolific online platforms of exploitation. It is high time to hold websites accountable for the harm they knowingly cause by facilitating sexual exploitation."

Mary Mazzio, whose documentary "I Am Jane Doe" featured numerous women trafficked on Backpage said, "I don't think any of the children who filed suit against Backpage ever thought their fight for justice would result in a federal indictment or a legislative response. That Congress and the Department of Justice would respond with urgency to the voices of these children, as well as survivors from across the country, who lined up, shoulder to shoulder in support of these children, is stunning."

Seizing websites is not a new tactic for the Justice Department. The department last year said it had shut down AlphaBay, a site on the dark Web that functioned as an illicit marketplace for guns, drugs and fake documents. It has previously seized websites suspected of facilitating prostitution, such as RentBoy.com and MyRedBook.com, and obtained convictions of the sites' operators.

But Backpage had evaded prosecution, in large part by invoking the Communications Decency Act. Enacted in 1996, the law provides legal immunity for website operators for content posted by third parties, so long as the operators weren't involved in creating the content. Lawsuits brought by women who had been trafficked on Backpage were dismissed by federal courts in Chicago and Boston because of the immunity granted by Section 230 of the decency act, as was a criminal case in California filed by the attorney general there.

The courts in each case invited Congress to amend the decency act. So the Senate subcommittee on investigations launched a probe into Backpage, and found that Backpage employees were editing prostitution ads to delete references to underage girls, while still allowing the ads to be posted.

In addition, The Washington Post found that Backpage had hired a contractor in the Philippines to solicit ads from prostitutes advertising on other websites, creating ready-made ads for them on Backpage, though Backpage had said it was not involved in creating content. The indictment cites the Philippines operation and said internal emails showed it was part of a "five-year business plan" and the "main task is international market content acquisition."

Members of the House and Senate both launched bills last year to amend Section 230, and a combined version of those passed both houses last month. Nicknamed "FOSTA," for the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, it would enable victims and state prosecutors to pursue websites in criminal and civil court without being blocked by Section 230. It is awaiting President Trump's signature or veto.

But opponents of the bill noted that federal prosecutors already had the tools to pursue websites such as Backpage, and indeed the new indictment did not require the new legislation. It accuses Backpage of being on notice for many years, from law enforcement, news media and its own public relations firm, that its most of its ads were thinly veiled offers for prostitutes.

In addition to one conspiracy count, 50 counts of facilitating prostitution cite specific ads published on Backpage between September 2013 and February of this year The indictment also includes one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and then 41 counts of alleged instances where sums of money as large as $5 million were shifted between banks to allegedly avoid detection.

That included routing the money through seemingly unrelated businesses, wiring it through other countries and converting it in and out of bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency, according to the indictment.

In addition to Lacey and Larkin, also indicted were Backpage executive vice president Scott Spear, chief financial officer John "Jed" Brunst, sales and marketing director Dan Hyer, operations manager Andrew Padilla and assistant operations manager Joye Vaught.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon offered new details Monday about the types of activities National Guard troops would perform while deployed by President Donald Trump to the U.S.-Mexico border, but critical questions remain about how long the operation will last and how much it will cost.

National Guard troops will provide air support through drones and light-, medium- and heavy-lift helicopters, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement to The Washington Post. They will also help maintain roads and other infrastructure, clear vegetation and assist with facility maintenance, in addition to operating surveillance systems, including cameras and blimps, Davis said.

They will not be arresting migrants or carrying out armed patrols along the border.

Describing the mission as a support role for the Department of Homeland Security, Davis confirmed that the troops won't necessarily carry weapons. "National Guard personnel will only be armed for their own self-protection to the extent required by the circumstances of the mission they are performing," Davis said.

The troops can be drawn from National Guard units across the country and will be under the command of border state governors. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, responding to the executive order Trump signed last week, sent 225 Arizona National Guard personnel to the Tucson and Yuma Border Patrol sectors. He planned to deploy an additional 113 troops Tuesday.

Texas, which already had National Guard troops along the border, deployed additional forces over the weekend. New Mexico hadn't mobilized anyone but signaled plans to participate in the mission. California, the only state bordering Mexico with a Democratic governor, said Gov. Jerry Brown continued to review his options.

The deployments come as President Trump tries to meet his campaign promise to stiffen border security despite failing to persuade Congress to fully fund his $18 billion wall. To pay for the military operation, he doesn't need approval from lawmakers because the money will come from the Pentagon's $700 billion budget.

The Pentagon said troops would work on infrastructure projects but did not specify whether that would include wall construction. Previous border deployments of the National Guard have included barrier installation.

A two-year deployment of up to 6,000 troops to the border during President George W. Bush's administration cost about $1.2 billion. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis signed an action memo Friday approving the payment of up to 4,000 National Guard personnel through Sept. 30 and directed the Pentagon's comptroller to notify him if any money would have to be diverted from other programs. That's about double the number of U.S. troops deployed to Syria.

While Bush and President Barack Obama also used the National Guard to reinforce border security, those assignments came at moments of heightened drug violence, or followed urgent public appeals from state governors for federal help. They were not the kind of open-ended mission that Trump has called for by "sealing up" the border.

"Until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump said last week.

The troop deployment appeared to catch military and Homeland Security officials by surprise last week, as President Trump fumed at Mexico over reports that a caravan of more than 1,000 Central American migrants was en route to the U.S. border. Previous border deployments were done in coordination with the relevant U.S. governors and Mexican officials.

In 2014, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, R, sent more than 1,000 guard troops to the border after a surge of Central American families and children overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. The troop presence has dwindled since then as the crisis subsided, and by last week only about 100 remained, according to state officials. There was no specific appeal for help last week from the office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, to the White House, officials said.

The White House has also requested a detailed list of "existing facilities, including military facilities," that could be used for immigrant detention.

In a statement, the Arizona National Guard said that while its previous missions were in support "solely" of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the new assignment "will support the entire Department of Homeland Security." The Guard did not say what other DHS agencies the troops would assist, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for immigration detention and deportations, is a separate entity from the U.S. Border Patrol.

Immigration enforcement officials have not said they are facing a shortage of detention space, but court rulings generally prohibit the government from jailing families or children for more than three weeks while they wait to see a judge.

Skeptics of Trump's military plan point out that there are far more Border Patrol agents than there were in 2006, when Bush sent guard troops to the border in Operation Jump Start.

The Border Patrol had 11,000 agents deployed along the Mexico border in 2006, and they made more than 1 million arrests that year, an average of 90 arrests per officer.

Last year, the Border Patrol's 16,600 agents made 310,000 arrests, equal to 19 arrests per agent.
An FBI raid on his personal lawyer's office cut close to home for President Donald Trump, prompting an angry reaction from him that revived fears he might do the unthinkable and fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"Attorney-client privilege is dead!," Trump said early Tuesday in a posting on Twitter.

He followed up with: "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!"

In an eight-minute diatribe on Monday that ranked as one of the president's most vivid public responses to an investigation that has embroiled top aides and allies, Trump blasted the early-morning raid targeting his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen as "disgraceful" and an "attack on our country."

Few people outside his family are closer to Trump than Cohen.

The frustration betrayed concern by the president about an inquiry that has now reached deep into his inner circle, and threatened to return focus to the sordid story of a $130,000 payment Cohen made weeks before the 2016 election to a porn actress who said she had an affair with Trump.

His singling out -- by name -- of top officials throughout his Justice Department raised speculation that he may undertake an historic purge of law enforcement officials, a move that would draw bipartisan condemnation and amplify the stakes of an investigation that is broadening in ways that could imperil the Trump presidency.

"The words that the president chose tonight to describe his feelings about that raid definitely raise the stakes," former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday night in an interview with Fox News.

Trump's rhetoric was "escalating the situation" and "I don't think we've heard the last of the president's feelings on this," he added.

Mueller, meanwhile, appears to be making strategic moves that could help preserve his investigation even if Trump removes him, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Trump entertained an inquiry about firing Mueller as he spoke to reporters before a meeting with military leaders to discuss the situation in Syria. He repeated the question -- "Why don't I just fire Mueller" -- and then said "many people" had advised him to do it. He denounced the special counsel's team as "the most biased group of people," describing them as mostly Democrats and politically motivated, and added: "We're going to have more to say about this."

"I think it's a disgrace what's going on, we'll see what happens," Trump said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Trump should refrain from talk of dismissing Mueller.

"The main thing here is I have confidence in Mueller, the president ought to have confidence in Mueller, and I think it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller," Grassley said Tuesday on Fox Business Network. "The less the president says on this whole thing, the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be."

Grassley said Mueller may be "coming to a dead end as far as collusion of Trump with Russia in this election" but if Trump fires him, "Democrats would have a good issue in this upcoming election."

The president also turned his ire on the two men who stand between him and a bid to disband the Russia investigation.

Trump fumed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made "a very terrible mistake for the country" in deciding to recuse himself from the Justice Department's investigation into possible Russian interference in the election. Trump said he would have "put a different attorney general in" had he known Sessions intended to remove himself from oversight of the inquiry.

The president also criticized Sessions's deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who referred information about Cohen discovered during the special counsel investigation to the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, prompting the FBI raid. Trump noted that Rosenstein had signed a warrant to monitor a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, that Republicans have criticized as an abuse of foreign surveillance powers.

Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, is recused from the Cohen investigation, ABC reported Tuesday without attributing the information.

Rosenstein last month defended the Mueller probe in an interview with USA Today and said he did not see any justification for ending it. "The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein said.

Other Trump allies suggested another target within the Justice Department: FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was installed after Trump last year fired his predecessor, James Comey, over the Russia investigation.

"Time to fire the FBI Director," a sometime Trump adviser, Roger Stone, said in a tweet.

Other allies suggested that the Mueller investigation has become undisciplined or even criminal.

"It's clear Mr. Mueller's operation has nothing do with fair enforcement of the law or equal justice," Joe diGenova, a Washington lawyer who agreed to join the president's legal team last month before potential conflicts of interest prevented his hiring, said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. "It is basically a bunch of mobsters."

Congress, he said, should impeach Rosenstein for not complying with an August 2017 subpoena seeking records related to the origin of the investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

But Democrats warned Trump to allow Mueller to continue his work.

"If the president is thinking of using this raid to fire Special Counsel Mueller or otherwise interfere with the chain of command in the Russia probe, we Democrats have one simple message for him: don't," the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement.

"The investigation is critical to the health of our democracy, and must be allowed to continue," Schumer added.

Mueller appears to be attempting to insulate his investigation from potential interference himself. The Cohen raid is the latest example of this strategy, current and former government officials said. Because it was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, evidence seized can be shared with Mueller as needed or preserved if the special counsel is removed, the officials said.

Separately, Mueller and his team of 17 prosecutors are in what amounts to hand-to-hand legal combat with Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, whom they indicted for money laundering, conspiracy and tax evasion.

In a legal filing defending the indictment before a federal judge in Washington, Mueller said he has authority to investigate a wide array of crimes as long as he follows Justice Department rules and coordinates his activities with Rosenstein.

"Although a criminal investigation may start with a specific set of facts, the point of investigation is to explore those facts, develop new ones, and continually reassess the direction of the inquiry," Mueller's team wrote in an April 2 legal filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Mueller also said that other divisions of the Justice Department have been involved in his investigations and prosecutions -- another example of expanding and protecting his probe.

"Mueller has sent many signals," said Solomon Wisenberg, who served as deputy to the independent counsel that investigated President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. "Rosenstein can assign anybody within the department to look at the same stuff that Mueller is investigating."

Manafort has asked the court to dismiss the indictment, arguing that Mueller didn't have the legal authority to investigate matters beyond Russia's interference in the elections. It isn't clear when District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will rule on the matter, but whatever decision she makes will set precedent.

Rosenstein appointed Mueller last May, and his authority is defined by the deputy attorney general and Justice Department regulations written in 1999 that have never been challenged in court.

"If the court does agree with Mueller, then I think other defendants who might be tempted to make that same argument now have an uphill battle," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who's now managing director of the international investigation firm Berkeley Research Group. "That does give Mueller armor, or a sword, going forward and pursuing other cases."

---

Bloomberg's Kevin Cirilli contributed.
RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D, vetoed a bill Monday that would have prohibited the establishment of sanctuary cities, an issue that dominated his race for governor last year.

The bill was a single sentence: "No locality shall adopt any ordinance, procedure, or policy that restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws."

Northam suggested the legislation would require Virginia cities and towns to shoulder the burden of enforcing federal immigration law, either by deputizing local police or by holding undocumented inmates in local lockups. He called the measure "unnecessary and divisive."

"This legislation would force local law enforcement agencies to use precious resources to perform functions that are the responsibility of federal immigration enforcement agencies," Northam wrote in a statement accompanying the veto. "It also sends a chilling message to communities across Virginia that could have negative impacts on public safety."

Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, who sponsored the bill, said the measure was intended only to ban localities from interfering federal immigration actions, not press them into service.

"Ensuring that Virginia localities abide by federal immigration laws is a matter of public safety and upholding the rule of law, " Cline said. "Governor Northam's veto of my bill to ban sanctuary cities in Virginia is indefensible."

The General Assembly will have a chance to override Northam's veto when it reconvenes for its "veto session" April 18. But it is unlikely to do so because the measure passed both chambers narrowly.

Northam walked a fine line on illegal immigration during the race for governor last year, when Republican rival Ed Gillespie accused him of being soft on sanctuary cities and MS-13 gang members.

Northam generally dismissed the claims as political bluster since Virginia has no declared "sanctuary cities," a term generally used to mean localities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

But at one point during the campaign, Northam said he would support a ban on sanctuary cities if any sprang up in Virginia.

Cline said the governor and other critics of his bill have misinterpreted it as an effort to force localities to participate in programs with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), such as the one Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid quit in January. Under the contract launched in 2012, the county kept inmates targeted by ICE for as many as 48 hours beyond their release dates.

Kincaid noted at the time that Fairfax already complies with a state law requiring localities to determine whether inmates are in the country illegally and, then, enter that information into a state database made available to ICE.
There's a commonality between some of the most popular food brands founded over the past decade, including Beyond Meat, Noosa Yoghurt and Nona Lim: Whole Foods. The grocery chain became their first national retail partner and helped them earn a spot in the hearts and stomachs of customers.

But now many food entrepreneurs fear that recent decisions at Whole Foods, which was acquired by Amazon for $13.7 billion in June, will threaten its place as one of the largest incubators of groundbreaking food brands. Namely, that decisions on what ends up on shelves will no longer be made by the company's regional buyers but by one central body based out of the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas.

"A lot of the novelty, value and competitiveness of Whole Foods was being a launchpad for small, local and undiscovered brands," says Erica Liu-Williams, founder of gr8nola, which currently only sells through ecommerce. Liu-Williams says she thought of Whole Foods as her ideal first retail partner. "These decisions may turn [Whole Foods] into a conventional store."

Related: 10 Leadership Lessons From Amazon's Massive Success

Those decisions include the aforementioned centralization of decision-making, a fee that amounts to 3 to 5 percent of sales to cover the costs of restocking shelves and running promotions and a requirement for food companies to use a third-party service for in-store demos, a critical means of promoting a new brand.

While it's easy to blame efficiency-obsessed Amazon for these moves, all of these changes were being developed two years before Amazon's acquisition of the company, a Whole Foods spokesperson confirmed to Entrepreneur.

"All these moves are things Whole Foods needs to do," says Phil Lempert, a grocery analyst who runs SupermarketGuru. "Whole Foods was broken. Same store sales are slipping. We're seeing growing pains here."

Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillanDoolittle, a retail consultancy that doesn't work with Whole Foods, agrees that changes were needed.

"Whole Foods has been struggling with profitability over the past several years," he says. "There are a few reasons why: one is an over-proliferation of SKUs. That can be good for a customer but difficult to manage."

Meanwhile, Kroger, Safeway and Target are increasing their commitment to organic and healthy foods, which could pose a major threat to Whole Foods.

The Whole Foods spokesperson said that under the old system, food companies would have to maintain relationships with every regional buyer to keep their products on the shelves in that territory. So for example, a brand that's sold across all of Whole Foods' stores would have had to maintain contact with all 12 buyer groups under the previous system.

But now, bigger companies that sell in four or more regions are now referred to as global brands, and these businesses will only deal with the buyers in Austin. Smaller companies, which are only sold in three regions or less, will maintain their relationships with each of those regional buyers, who will still have the authority to make decisions on bringing in new products.

This new hybrid structure allows our regional buying team to focus exclusively on smaller, local suppliers," the spokesperson said. "We remain committed to supporting local brands, and working with suppliers of all sizes to create win-win partnerships.

Related: Turning Rejection Into Triumph: How Sarah Michelle Gellar and Her Co-Founders Built a New Baking Brand

Food entrepreneurs who spoke with Entrepreneur.com were mostly supportive of these changes at the grocery chain, but did express some concern about what it means for the next wave of emerging food brands.

"After the bumps are ironed it presents an opportunity for brands who have a story to tell," says Shazi Visram, founder of Happy Family.

But one entrepreneur, who runs a nationally distributed product company and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Whole Foods decisions have resulted in a loss of business for her brand due to confusion within the company and a lack of clarity about the new system.

"They went from being one of our biggest customers to barely doing business with them," she says. "Two years ago, the buyer sort of evaporated. We were seeing 40 percent growth year over year, but we lost placement. I don't think anyone knows what's going on."

It's this lack of clarity over the changes at Whole Foods that may be the biggest issue for the brand, as it's been hit by a slate of negative articles and even held a summit to address angry partners.

"While I think all vendors that work with Amazon Whole Foods are encouraged by what's possible, longtime partners of Whole Foods are certainly looking at it with trepidation because of what we don't know," says Michael Palmer, who runs the ice cream brand McConnell's. "Whether you're a small or big company, communication is what it's at."

It's a critical time for Whole Foods, which has to prove the merits of these changes to the companies it works with, as it not only battles other retailers but increasing competition online, even from its parent company.

"Retailers will be challenged to improve the in-store experience," says Peter Rahal, co-founder and CEO of RXBar. "You can't compete with the things going on online. You got to elevate the experience from the smell of fresh coffee to pizza being made.

Related: 3 Entrepreneurial Lessons From the Amazon/Whole Foods Mega-Merger

But what does this mean for food entrepreneurs trying to make it? It's not that much different than before: pursue the best opportunities for your brand, whether that's in retail or online, and focus on your story and having the best product.

"What [Whole Foods is] trying to do is become more efficient, not to become more corporate, and bring organic and natural foods to more people," Visram says. "The brands we love and trust and believe in will be the winners at the end of the day."

Related:

What Do the Major Changes at Whole Foods Mean for Food Entrepreneurs?

10 Leadership Lessons From Amazon's Massive Success

'Seeing Someone Cry at Work Is Becoming Normal': Employees Say Whole Foods Is Using 'Scorecards' to Punish Them



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The Texas Education Agency released the framework for how it will use State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores and other measures to dole out accountability ratings to schools on Tuesday, the same day students across the Lone Star state began taking the state-mandated battery of tests.

The state's accountability system will measure academic performance in three areas: student achievement, school progress and closing achievement gaps.

Measuring student achievement will be based solely on how well students scored on the STAAR test in elementary and middle school. At the high school level, STAAR scores will count for 40 percent of a school's accountability rating. Another 40 percent of high school accountability will be based on college- and career-readiness, and 20 percent will be based on graduation or dropout rates.

School progress will be measured by how much students improved their STAAR scores from the previous year or how well schools maintained passing scores. High school ratings also will take into account student progress in terms of college- and career-readiness.

The final measure will calculate how well historically disadvantaged groups, such as racial minorities, English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students, perform on STAAR tests and college- and career-readiness measures.

The changes come after lawmakers approved a new accountability rating system in the 2017 legislative session, which mandates the TEA assign A-through-F letter grades to schools and districts statewide. Districts will receive the letter grades in fall, while individual schools will be given the new ratings in fall of 2019.

Districts that earn an A, B, C or D will have met the state's academic standards, while those earning F marks do not.

The TEA also announced that it will not decide whether to grant accountability waivers to districts affected by Hurricane Harvey until June.

shelby.webb@chron.com

twitter.com/shelbywebb
A new Rice University study is showing what happens to high school seniors in Houston's largest school district years after graduating.

According to the research report, which tracked the lives of three groups of HISD graduates, only 31 percent earned a degree within six years of high school.

In addition, researchers said they found a high rate of idleness, with one-third of the graduates neither studying nor working after high school.

RANKED: Texas' top colleges, according to the Wall Street Journal

On the other hand, students who entered college immediately after high school saw higher rates of certificate, diploma and degree completion, the study showed.

To conduct the study, Rice University tracked high school seniors from the classes of 2006-08 using data provided by HISD.

One predictable finding from the research: College enrollment appeared out-of-reach for students with frequent absences and poor to mediocre test scores and grades.

Researchers also found a gap in college completion rates for students of different backgrounds.

"There are gaps across race and ethnicity but when you account for other background characteristics like limited English proficiency, socioeconomic status, achievements, school characteristics, a lot of those relationships disappeared and for blacks the relationships actually reversed," Brian Holzman, an author of the report, said in a news release.

SALARY DATA: What Houston-area school districts pay their teachers

Researchers said HISD has since implemented and expanded its college advising program to help curb the gap.

You can read the full study here.

Above: See which Houston high schools have the highest graduation rates.

Fernando Ramirez is a reporter for Chron.com and the Houston Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93.
Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that Texas would send more than 1,000 additional National Guard troops to the border in response to President Donald Trumps request to support federal agencies there.

Abbott, in an interview on KTSA-AM, said 250 troops were now on the ground and that the force would be ramped up to more than 1,000 in the state of Texas alone. He said Texas would add about 300 guardsmen a week to the border until we get it staffed up, and noted that the mission would be open-ended.

Aides to Abbott said the total assignment eventually could grow, to total up to 1,400 troops, and his office agreed with that as a possible range but could confirm no specific number.

Trump said last week that the troops would remain along the Rio Grande until a border wall is built. Abbott told the talk show Fox and Friends on Monday that the troops would amount to a virtual and personnel wall on the border.

From my understanding and in multiple conversations with the secretary of Homeland Security as well as the president, this is something where we may be in this for the long haul, the governor told KTSAs Trey Ware, a San Antonio talk-show host. The goal is what the president articulated from the very beginning of his campaign and during his administration, and that is to make sure that the United States of America does a better job of securing its border.

The guard had said Friday night that it would send 250 troops to the Texas-Mexico border immediately, with an unspecified number to follow. Guard organizations in New Mexico and Arizona also said they would send soldiers to their borders following Trumps call last week for a stronger military presence.

Trumps plan calls for a force of as many as 4,000 troops in four states and is expected to be modeled on two previous operations launched by Democratic and Republican presidents. While New Mexico, Arizona and Texas have agreed to support the presidents request, California has not yet responded.

As you know, he hoped to get funding that would provide greater security on the border, he didnt get exactly what he wanted, so this is a different tool in the toolbox of a president as Ive indicated earlier that presidents in the past have used, and so this is something thats not going to be ending in June or July, as I understand it, Abbott said. He added that the operation will be ongoing until Congress steps up and takes the action Trump thinks is needed.

The Texas Guard has had troops on the border in supportive roles for years and has helped federal and local authorities under a program led by Abbott called Operation Secure Texas. Its current footprint is small compared with past efforts, though, with only about 100 soldiers and airmen serving in a variety of roles until last weekend. The state of Texas has paid for those troops this year, at around $1 million a month, but the federal government will now cover their expenses, as well as for soldiers and airmen in the other participating states.

As in past operations led by Abbott, then-Gov. Rick Perry and Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the guardsmen are armed for self-defense but not allowed to make arrests. Texas Guard commanders, in interviews Friday, wouldnt rule out the possibility of using them for those purposes.

Obamas Operation Phalanx, which started in 2010, involved 1,200 soldiers, while Bushs Operation Jump Start saw 6,000 go to the border in 2006.

National Guard forces under state authority are not covered by the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids GIs serving under federal authority from making arrests, searches or seizures in the U.S. unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act. But the guard rarely acts in law enforcement roles. They did get that authority in New Orleans by Louisianas governor after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Abbott has the power to use troops under his authority in the same way, but suggested theyd serve in an observe and report status, not act in a law enforcement capacity. He said that whenever they are in a position where they could be confronted by someone who is very dangerous, they will be armed. Our National Guard will be able to fully defend themselves.

The point that youre talking about is that we want to downplay any notion  that would be misinformed  that our National Guard are showing up with military bayonets trying to take on anybodys coming across the border, because that is not their role, Abbott told Ware, the KTSA talk-show host.

The governor went on to say the guard would help federal authorities by providing a support role, providing that surveillance, providing other levels of activity so that there will be more Border Patrol boots on the ground who are actively engaged in the apprehension process.
Whether it was giving a friend a ride to the store or taking in a child who needed a place to stay, Barbara Ann Woods Smith never hesitated to help others.

Raising five children of her own, Smith also fostered hundreds of teens and preteens.

Some would stay for months and some for a few days, depending on what they needed, her daughter Diane Clark said. You never knew who was going to be there; youd go to sleep with a certain number of kids and wake up and there were extras.

Smith died March 31 at 80.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Smith, the eldest of four children, was raised with a strong example of helping others.

My grandmothers sister had a restaurant, would feed homeless people, daughter Sheila Frierson said. My grandmother and grandfather belonged to a lot of organizations  worked with their church and different projects.

Though Smith never graduated from high school, she constantly encouraged her children to get their education, especially her daughters.

She told us, You will get your education, you will not have a house full of babies, Frierson said.

Meeting her future husband on a blind date, Smith married in 1956, becoming a stay-at-home mom and volunteering with the PTA and other organizations.

More Information Barbara Ann Woods Smith Born: Dec. 24, 1937, Springfield, Ohio Died: March 31, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Flora Johnson and William H. Woods Jr.; a brother Survived by: Daughters Patricia Smith, Debra Baker and son-in-law Terry, Diane Clark and son-in-law Carl, and Sheila Frierson; son Marc Smith and daughter-in-law Sarah; 12 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; a sister; and a brother Services: Burial will be in Springfield, Ohio See More Collapse

The couple began fostering children after helping one of their daughters friends who was having trouble at home, Frierson said.

The kids always felt comfortable coming to our house, Clark said. They felt safe.

Smith also adopted her youngest child  and only son  after seeing him on a local news show.

Next thing we knew, we had a little brother, Clark said.

Volunteering as the stage manager for the community theater in Springfield, Smith also enjoyed taking on roles occasionally.

She took us with her; I remember her being in costume, Frierson said. When I was a kid, I could recite Oklahoma down pat.

Smith moved to San Antonio, where her daughter and a sister had settled, about 30 years ago, after she and her husband divorced.

Developing a new group of friends, Smith continued to volunteer, including at the San Antonio Food Bank and the now-closed Wellness Connection, which provided services for those with HIV.

She didnt judge you by the color of your skin or your gender, Frierson said. In addition, she made us understand its better to give than receive; she was always giving, no matter what.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
AUSTIN -- Who is President Donald Trump's favorite governor?

Fox Business journalist Neil Cavuto suggested Tuesday that it's Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has worked closely with the White House in Trump's first year in office.

Abbott has had interactions with the Trump Administration in coping with devastating Hurricane Harvey, the Sutherland Springs mass shooting and deploying thousands of National Guard troops to protect the U.S. border with Mexico.

Abbott smiled at Cavuto's suggestion, then deflected to praise Trump.

"He's doing great," the long-time Republican office-holder said of Trump.

In fact, the governor said, he talked to Trump on Monday -- a day in which the president was contemplating a response to the Syrian gas attack on civilians, the troop deployment to the border and an FBI on his personal lawyer's offices.

"He was in a great mood," Abbott said, perhaps a bit surprising considering Trump's visible irritation at an afternoon press briefing when reporters got him talking about the FBI raid.

In turn, Abbott said he and Trump "work well together" in what he characterized as a friendly relationship.

Abbott is in New York for two days this week promoting business investments in Texas while making the rounds of national news shows, including Cavuto's.

Other Abbott comments of note:

The FBI's Monday raid seizing private documents from Trump's lawyer, while the fodder for headlines, does not necessarily indicate that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller will find wrongdoing. Only time will tell, said the governor, a lawyer and former Texas attorney general.

The longer the Mueller probe runs without any court action makes it appear to be the "witch hunt" that Trump has branded it.

A decision by Trump to fire Mueller "could cause some problems," though the governor carefully did not specify what.

He supports a "new, modernized" version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that the Trump Administration is trying to hammer out this month, so long as it protects states like Texas that have benefited hugely from NAFTA. He predicted "an even better NAFTA" as the end result.

Texas officials are prepared for a long-term deployment of Guard troops along the Mexico border to bolster national security. "This is a gap filler" until (Trump) gets to build his wall, Abbott said.

He lauded Trump's trade sanctions on China that, as of Tuesday, have brought the Chinese back to the negotiating table. "This is a signal that the Chinese want to budge," he said.

So, Abbott likes what Trump's doing. No wonder, as Cavuto suggested, he's the president's favorite governor.

Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, covers Abbott and the Executive branch of Texas government, criminal justice and ethics. Follow him on Twitter @ChronicleMike, and email him tips at Mike.Ward@Chron.com.
A County Longford Hostel is to feature in the new series of RTEs At Your Service.

The Lakeside Lodge and Learning in Augnacliffe, features owner Caroline McDonnell who gave up her job in catering in Dublin to make a success of a struggling rural hostel.

The programme follows her progress in transforming the business and is to be aired on the 22nd April on RTE 1.

The popular new series kicked off last Sunday and a new series is currently in production. and the producers are looking for hospitality businesses to take part.

This year the producers are on the lookout for different and unusual projects as well as hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs caravan parks, self-catering cottages.

If youre thinking of diversifying, e.g. opening a shop, tearoom or other start-up business with a catering or hospitality element, please get in touch if you think the Brennans could help a spokesperson from Waddell Media commented.

The Brennans bring years of experience of running a successful hotel and hope to inspire others to up their game and bring in new business.

Their advice covers all areas; they look at staffing, analyse catering arrangements and suggest new menus. They inspect every room and advice about redecoration (both inside and out) and they look for new ways to exploit the less obvious aspects of each property.

While Francis Brennan conducts the main inspection and devises an overall strategy, his brother John looks at money issues and explores new marketing opportunities and suggest ways to develop in the future.

For more information, contact: atyourserviceseries11@gmail.com or call 0864077224 to receive an application form by post.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause

By Legislator Anker's Office Published: April 10 2018

On Saturday, March 24, 2018, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker honored Carol Moor for her retirement from Director of Invited In soup kitchen at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rocky Point.

Rocky Point, NY - April 10, 2018 - On Saturday, March 24, 2018, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker honored Carol Moor for her retirement from Director of "Invited In" soup kitchen at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in On Saturday, March 24, 2018, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker honored Carol Moor for her retirement from Director of "Invited In" soup kitchen at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rocky Point . For the past nearly 30 years Carol Moor has coordinated volunteers from Mount Sinai to Wading River to help prepare and serve hot meals every Thursday night to those in need in the community.

"I commend Carol fr her alturism. She saw a need in her community and has worked tirelessly to provide warm meals to those in need. I wish her all the best in her retirement," said Legislator Anker.

Under Moor's leadership as dirctor of "Invited In" soup kitchen, up to 75,000 meals have been served to those who attend their weekly dinners. She has also worked hard to secure grants and donations to ensure that the program can continue to help those in need.
Drunk Driver Charged with Assault, DWI, Reckless Driving After Hempstead Crash, Cops Say

Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2018

NCPD: Brandon G. Wagner of Uniondale, 25, was driving on Peninsula Boulevard when he struck another vehicle, injuring its driver.

NCPD reports the DWI arrest of Brandon G. Wagner of Uniondale, 25.

Hempstead, NY - April 10, 2018 - The Nassau County Police Department reports a DWI arrest by Hempstead Police on Sunday, April 08, 2018 at 3:53am in The Nassau County Police Department reports a DWI arrest by Hempstead Police on Sunday, April 08, 2018 at 3:53am in Hempstead

According to Police, defendant Brandon G. Wagner, 25, of Uniondale was operating his 2017 Ford Fusion color red, eastbound on Peninsula Boulevard when he struck a vehicle at the corner of Peninsula Boulevard and S. Franklin Street at 3:11am. The second vehicle, a 2017 Hyundai four door sedan driven by the male victim, 53, was traveling southbound on S. Franklin Street when he was struck. The victim suffered serious injuries and was transported to a local area hospital. The investigation is on-going.

Defendant Brandon G. Wagner is charged with Assault 2nd Degree, Vehicular Assault 2nd Degree, DWI, Reckless Driving and Reckless Endangerment. He was arraigned on Monday, April 9, 2017 in First District Court 99 Main Street, Hempstead.
Music, Movies & Entertainment, Local News, Arts & Culture

By Tom Needham Published: April 10 2018

Gretchen Carlson, the author of Fierce, and Alison Chernick, the director of Itzhak will be Tom Needhams guests this Thursday on WUSBs The Sounds of Film.

Stony Brook, NY - April 10, 2018 - Gretchen Carlson and director Alison Chernick will be Tom Needhams exclusive guests this Thursday at 6 P.M. on Gretchen Carlson and director Alison Chernick will be Tom Needhams exclusive guests this Thursday at 6 P.M. on WUSBs The Sounds of Film.

Former Fox News Host, Gretchen Carlson, will speaking to Tom about her book, Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Back Your Power. In the book, Gretchen shares her own brave story of fighting back against sexual harassment, and her very public battle for justice. Since then, Gretchen has had a new calling: to empower other women in their struggle against injustice. After Gretchen stood up and spoke out about her situation, women all over the world have joined the movement and began to take back their lives and dignity.

Gretchen Carlson is recognized all over the globe as a celebrity news anchor and former Miss America winner. In 2017, she was named one of TIME magazines most influential people in the world. Her 2015 book,Getting Real, was a national best-seller. In addition, she is the current chairwoman of Miss Americas board of directors.

Also on the program is director Alison Chernick, the director of Itzhak. The film shines a spotlight on the remarkable life of celebrated violinist, Itzhak Perlman. Chernick does a remarkable job of telling the story of a young polio survivor who came from Poland and Israel to America in order to be taken seriously as a music student when schools only saw his disability. The film also shares personal glimpses into the life of Itzhak and his devoted wife, Toby Perlman, as well as candid moments with Alan Alda and Billy Joel. Itzhak will be screening at the Port Jefferson Documentary Festival on Monday, April 16th at 7:00 at Theater Three. Allison Chernick is the scheduled guest speaker. Itzhak will have its exclusive U.S. broadcast premiere as part of the American Masters series on PBS.

About the Sounds of Film
Tal Golesworthy is the inventor of the ExoVasc, a bespoke implant that supports the aortic root when it has becomes weak and dilated. Tals invention was born out of his personal need for the device to support his aorta that was expanding dangerously due to Marfan syndrome. In 2004, Tal was the first patient to be implanted with the device that he invented, and many more patients have benefited from the ExoVasc Aortic Root Support since.

Medgadget editor Tom Peach spoke with Tal Golesworthy to hear about the inspiring journey that gave birth to the ExoVasc and to learn more about Exstent, the company that was formed as a result of Tals invention.

Tom Peach, Medgadget: So Tal, please could you introduce yourself.

My name is Tal Golesworthy and I am a chartered engineerwith a background in research and development in coal combustion of all thingsand because I have Marfan syndrome, and I was not satisfied with an aortic root replacement, I started the PEARS (Personalized External Aortic Root Support) Project. I am now the Technical Director of Exstent , where we manufacture bespoke implants, known as the ExoVasc external aortic root support, which supports dilated aortas. The implants are currently in use in 17 surgical centers around the world; I was the first patient to be fitted with the ExoVasc device 14 years ago, and I am still going strong!

Medgadget: What is Marfan syndrome and how did your personal story of Marfan lead to you creating the ExoVasc system?

Tal: Marfan syndrome is a connective tissue disorder that is inherited; so my grandfather had it, my father had it, and I have it. As a kid my Marfan-induced fibrillin deficiency meant poor eyesight and long thin bones that were prone to fracture. When I was about 35 my father convinced me to join the Marfan Association, and I went along to a genetic study, where I discovered that my aortic root was significantly dilated. From 1992 onwards, I had my aorta measured annually, which revealed that it was expanding steadily, and I began to learn about the frankly quite horrifying Total (Aortic) Root Replacement procedure.

I was told that the operation had been around since 1968; that during the procedure I would be on cardiopulmonary bypass; that my body temperature would be dropped to 18 centigrade (64 Fahrenheit); that my heart would be stoppedand that if everything was successful I would spend the rest of my life taking Warfarin, owing to a replacement metallic heart valve. Taking anticoagulants and walking that tightrope between a bleed and a clot was something I really did not want to be doing. But by the time it got to the year 2000, I thought I really had to do something.

I spoke to Tom Treasure, a cardiothoracic surgeon then at St Georges Hospital in London, and floated the idea of scanning the aorta, creating a rapid prototype model reproduction, and using that model to manufacture a perfectly fitting external support that would manage the tensile loads that my fibrillin-deficient aorta was not managing. The beauty of the idea was that the underlying vasculature was not changedI kept my aorta, I kept my endothelium, I kept my valveso I would not need any drugs at all!

The next four years were a crazy rollercoaster ride, and after raising money, building commercial and technical teams, and perfecting the process, in May 2004 John Pepper, a surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital, performed the operation and implanted the first ExoVasc device in my chest. I woke up in intensive care the next day and I can remember lying in the bed, listening and feeling very carefully to the vibrations in my chest and thinking: yeahI reckon it has worked. The whole thing was a hell of an experience, but I would not want to go through it again!

Medgadget: What are the alternative procedures and what are the particular advantages of PEARS?

Tal: Conventional aortic root replacement is the only other option, which, as we have said, is a major procedure that takes a long time, involves being placed on cardiopulmonary bypass, and requires body cooling and stopping the heart. If you have total root replacement (TRR) you need anticoagulation therapy for the rest of your life. If instead valve sparing root replacement (VSRR) is opted for, then the anticoagulation therapy is not needed, but the annual reoperation rate is around 1.3%, which does not sound good if youre having the procedure aged 40. In the 137 patients fitted with ExoVasc and 474 total post-operative patient years, weve had no re-operations due to device failure, so that reoperation rate for PEARS is effectively 0 right now.

Typically the PEARS procedure takes around 2 hours to complete compared to the 4-7 hours for TRR or VSRR, which is also a big advantage. And 75% of the time PEARS procedures are done without cardiopulmonary bypass. Finally, its always good to have a fall-back option. Now for TRR that fall-back is just doing the same failed procedure again, the beauty of PEARS is that no vasculature is removed so VSRR or TRR are always there as a fall-back.

I think these advantages of PEARS are really starting to speak for themselves, and the procedure is becoming more popular, but it has taken a long time to convince peopleit took 11 years to complete the first 50 PEARS procedures, but only two more years to reach 100 implantations.

Medgadget: So talk me through the journey from diagnosis to a patient having the ExoVasc device implanted.

Tal: A patient will meet with their cardiologist, and hopefully PEARS is offered as an alternative to root replacement. If PEARS treatment is elected, then the patient has a standard CT scan in ventricular diastoleso that the aorta is at its rest diameter. The hospital sends us that CT scan; we run the imaging through our bespoke reconstruction and CAD pipeline, which produces a virtual CAD model of the patients aorta. We then overlay the model on the original CT scans, which are sent back to the cardiothoracic surgeon as a sort of prescription for the bespoke medical device that the surgeon will have to sign-off. Following clinical approval, the physical model is created using rapid-prototyping, we manufacture the bespoke implant, and after a lot of checking, cleaning, sterilising and packaging, the implant is sent to the surgeon for implantation. Typically the entire process takes about six weeks.

During the implantation the ExoVasc graft is cut to allow access for the coronary arteries and placed over the diseased aortic root before being sewn-up along all the cut lines. The device then acts as an external scaffold, halting the expansion of the aorta, and eventually becoming completely incorporated into the vessel wall.

Medgadget: What is the ExoVasc implant made of?

Tal: Now crucially the device is not wovenit does not have sharp edges that could threaten the coronary arteriesit is actually knitted and is light, porous and very flexible, easily allowing pericardial fluid to pass through the device. So despite being made of polyester (or Dacron if you prefer the brand name), because of the manufacturing process, the finished textile is completely different to the stiff, watertight composite aortic root grafts that most surgeons are used to.

Medgadget: How is the ExoVasc device regulated, and where is it available?

Tal: Given that, classically speaking, the ExoVasc is a Class 3 implantable device, understandably the MHRA in the UK and FDA in the US take it very seriously. But because the device is bespoke, the typical CE mark route into the European market does not apply. All a CE mark really does is indicate that a product is produced to an identical standardbe it a replacement hip or a Birobut because all ExoVasc implants are non-identical custom devices, they are not eligible for CE marking. The manufacturing process that we use is identical each time, and is ISO13485 compliant, but the end result is always unique.

We are currently going through an FDA application process and hope to get approval for using the ExoVasc in the US by 2019. We have a small number of surgeons in the US who are very keen to start offering the PEARS treatment to their patients, but we have also got a route via Hospitals Corporation of America, which allows for pre- and post-operative care in the US with patients flying over to London Bridge Hospital to actually have the procedure performed in the UK. Our other treatment centers are spread across six countries and are as far-flung as New Zealand.

Medgadget: What does the future look like for Exstent and the PEARS procedure?

Tal: A lot of this is governed by the economics of the situation. If you can achieve a similar outcome with a shorter procedure time and lower reoperation rate, everyone tends to be happy. We always supply two implants, in case the first one gets damaged or adulterated or theres a problem with the initial placement. And because our implants are bespoke, they do cost more than a regular composite aortic root graft. But if you consider the lifetime cost, PEARS is considerably cheaper.

At current capacity we are able to produce grafts for around 150 procedures a year. In the UK there are currently around 250 aortic root replacements a year, and PEARS is a viable option for approximately 75% of those cases. This translates into about 1000 cases a year that are suitable for PEARS throughout Europe and another 1000 in the US and Canada. Whether that can actually come to fruition, though, is less clear. We have over 40 peer-reviewed publications detailing the successes of PEARS, but many surgeons still consider the procedure new and experimentalbecause, sadly for patients, the field is full of people who are obstructionist and very conservative.

Medgadget: Do you think that the bespoke nature of the PEARS procedure is a factor that is going to become far more common in healthcare?

Tal: I really believe that personalized medicine is the future. Now if we can get over the corporate and psychological resistance to innovation that you see in some of the large healthcare systems, then personalized medicine can offer a way forward that is both lower cost and higher quality. We are already seeing the impact in areas of imaging and rapid prototyping with innovations like bespoke knee replacements and personalized implantation jigs. We have just got to get around all the people saying, No. This will not work. I have spent 18 years working on this project and trying to do that, which has made me pretty outspoken about it; I passionately believe that in the UK the NHS has been the greatest gift to society of the 20th century, but if healthcare does not adapt, it will not survive. Fortunately, I have worked with some incredibly smart and generous surgeons who share my vision to make things better, and together we have drawn a new line in the sand

Tals TEDxKrakow talk from 2012:

Link: Exstent webpage
by Melynda Fuller , April 9, 2018

Last week legendary literary magazine The Paris Review announced Emily Nemens, co-editor of The Southern Review, will become its next editor in chief.

Nemens has been co-editor at The Southern Review since 2013, after graduating from the writing program at Louisiana State University.

In addition to her position as co-editor of The Southern Review, Nemens is a noted writer of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in N+1, Esquire and The Gettysburg Review. She also runs a popular Tumblr, where she publishes watercolor portraits of women serving in Congress.

Under Nemens' watch over the past year, The Southern Review has won two Pushcart Prizes and two O. Henry Awards, while three short stories were selected for this years edition of The Best American Short Stories.

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Akash Shah, a Paris Review board member who led the search for a new editor, stated in The New York Times: [Nemens] literary tastes, her accomplishments, the combination of her work ethic and her sense of collaboration  both with her writers and her staff  make her a really unique package of talent.

The Paris Review, which has a staff of 11 full time writers and circulation of approximately 23,000, was co-founded in 1953 by editor and writer George Plimpton, who edited the publication until his death in 2003.

Nemens is the fourth editor to take the helm. Immediately following Plimpton's death, Brigid Hughes took over. She now edits the journal A Public Space. Journalist Philip Gourevitch oversaw the publication from 2005 until 2010, when Lorin Stein was hired.

While Stein is credited with bringing back a lost luster to the literary magazine, he was removed from his position in 2017, following a sexual harassment investigation.

Since then, managing editor Nicole Rudick has been running the publication.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, April 9, 2018

Privacy watchdogs are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook's use of facial recognition technology, which enables the company to identify people based on photos uploaded by their friends.

"Facebook now routinely scans photos for biometric facial matches without the consent of the image subject," the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 13 other groups including The Center for Digital Democracy, The Consumer Federation of America and the Southern Poverty Law Center allege in a new FTC complaint. "Moreover, the company seeks to advance its facial recognition techniques by deceptively enlisting Facebook users in the process of assigning identity to photo images. This unwanted, unnecessary, and dangerous identification of individuals undermines user privacy, ignores the explicit preferences of Facebook users, and is contrary to law in several states and many parts of the world."

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EPIC and the others argue that Facebook's deployment of the technology violates the terms of a 2012 consent decree. That decree requires the company to avoid misrepresenting its privacy practices; it also obligates Facebook to obtain users' express consent before sharing their information more broadly than its privacy policy allowed when users uploaded the data.

Facebook originally used facial recognition technology to suggest people's names when they appeared in photos uploaded by friends. Earlier this year, the company also began using facial recognition to tell users when they appear in photos posted by other people. EPIC and the other groups argue that Facebook should have obtained users' opt-in consent to that change.

Facebook deputy chief privacy officer Rob Sherman counters that the technology "helps people manage their identity on Facebook."

"People can choose whether or not to allow this technology and they can change their mind at any time," he says in an emailed statement. "When someone has their setting turned off, we don't use this technology to identify them in photos."

This isn't the first time that Facebook's facial recognition feature, rolled out in 2010, has sparked controversy. Years ago, EPIC filed an FTC complaint over Facebook's use of the software.

More recently, a group of Illinois residents alleged in a class-action lawsuit that Facebook is running afoul of a state privacy law. The plaintiffs in that matter allege that Facebook is violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by failing to obtain people's written consent before compiling a database of their "faceprints."

U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of Illinois, who is presiding over the case, reportedly suggested recently that Facebook should try to settle that matter. With everything going on in the world, maybe its time for Facebook to look at all of its privacy practices and not just those in the news, Donato said at a hearing late last month, according to Courthouse News.

EPIC and the other watchdogs also contend that patent applications filed by Facebook show that it plans to use facial recognition data for commercial purposes. The complaint references four patent applications, including two submitted last November for "Using Facial Recognition and Facial Expression Detection to Analyze In-Store Activity of a User," and Facial Recognition Identification for In-Store Payment Transactions."

"The two applications detail a customer recognition system which 'intelligently detects and notifies a merchant when a customer is in need of assistance based on the customer's facial expression,'" the groups write. "Facebooks patent applications attest to the companys primary commercial purpose in expanding its biometric data collection, and the pervasive uses of facial recognition technology that it envisions for the near future."
by Larissa Faw , April 10, 2018

After launching Carl's Jr.'s new campaign in February, CKE Restaurants is further separating the chain from its sibling Hardee's with the "Welcome Home to Hardees" campaign. It celebrates the chain's distinct customer, food culture, and voice Hardees has in America.

This is Hardees first solo advertising campaign.

Developed with AOR Havas Chicago, the creative features real people, real moments and real food to emphasize Hardees Comfort Culture, what it calls a down-home-done-right approach to food and everything that surrounds it.

"While still putting an emphasis on quality food, this strategy and style is an intentional departure from its sibling brand, Carls Jr., to help define each brands own identity," says Jeff Jenkins, CMO, CKE Restaurants.

Matthew McConaughey does the voiceover for Carl's Jr.; Hardee's features hick-hop music star Big Wet, an "authentic persona with a relaxed, fun vibe."

His voice is featured on Hardees new television commercial and anthem song, the first of many pieces that will partner his musical style with real people in Hardees markets.

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The campaign appears on TV, radio and online video, as well as social-media engagement, such as chatting with fans in real-time. CKE spent $49 million on U.S. advertising for both chains during the first six months of 2017 and $100 million during 2016, according to Kantar Media.

On February 19, Havas and CKE introduced "Call of Carl's," the first Carl's only, multichannel campaign designed to "create a manifestation and vocalization of food craving," says an agency spokesperson.

Voiced by actor Matthew McConaughey, the 30-second TV spot supports the Western bacon cheeseburger by juxtaposing imagery of the ingredients and burger with wide-eyed Millennial-aged men and "space age-like" special effects.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, April 10, 2018

Visit Anaheim, a nonprofit tourism bureau aimed at promoting the citys places to visit and explore, has launched a branded campaign it calls Uncommon Characters.

The campaign, which began rolling out this week, gives a nod to Disney and Disneyland located in Anaheim, Calif., which plays off the term uncommon characters to illustrate new energy and innovative characters bringing change to the citys dynamics.

Designed by Greenhaus, a San Diego-based advertising agency, the multiyear campaign reveals hot spots, trendy culinary and craft beer experiences, and revamped neighborhood spaces. It invites visitors to experience a new side of Anaheim.

There are a lot of stories to tell about the people and places visitors can experience, said Charles Harris, senior vice president of marketing, Visit Anaheim.

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The campaign, which took about 18 months to develop, will be supported by digital ads across a number of ad networks. The first phase that launched Monday targets two types of visitors  those who come to Anaheim for business, and visitors who come to the city for leisure.

Search, video, online sponsored posts, websites and activations will make up the bulk of the advertising. About 90% of the advertising and marketing budget aimed at reaching leisure visitors will be spent online. About 70% will go toward print and 30% toward digital when reaching out to those who make the decisions around meetings and conventions.

Greenhaus, the agency, worked with local businesses to craft a cast of uncommon characters to attract both types of visitors, such as Captain Brew Beard, Pho Fan Girl, the Libation Sensation and the Crushers of Convention, to name a few.

For example, Captain Brew Beard takes a tour through Anaheims emerging craft beer scene. The cinemograph includes Greg Nagel, an Anaheim local and beer expert depicted at Barbeer, Center Street Promenades barbershop and beer bar.

To attract leisure travelers, the campaign will run in regional markets such as San Francisco, Phoenix and Seattle to attract visitors who are willing to stay several days at a time.

For the meetings and convention audience, digital and print activations will go live this month across a variety of national trade outlets.

As Anaheim continues to grow, develop and add character to its city infrastructure with new luxury hotels, innovative businesses and theme park developments, visitors will meet new characters during the coming years that represent ways to have experiences at new destinations.

There are plans to run the campaign internationally. Next month, the international travel industry conference, IPW, is being held in Denver, but Anaheim will follow in 2019. The campaign will roll out on the last day of the event to promote the following years conference.
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Doctors said that the girl's deformed skull was caused by anencephaly , which is a neural tube defect (NTD) where a portion of the baby's brain and skull would be missing.However, there is no known cure for anencephaly, and most of the babies born die early soon after their birth."We are facing hardship and struggling to raise her to survive on the planet. Our only hope is that doctors may be able to help, or a foreign doctor may help," said Ah Neath's parents.Ah Neath was in the hospital for two months and was kept on regular oxygen to regulate her breathing.She has been discharged and is living now with family in the Ponhea Kraek District.The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that anencephaly is a severe congenital disability, where the baby is born without parts of the brain and skull and is a type of neural tube defect.Ah Neath's parents Srey and Heang had to sell their home to cover the mounting medical expenses.The family is desperately crowdfunding to take Ah Neath to a hospital in the capital city Phnom Penh, hoping that the doctors would be able to help.Source: Medindia
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Now, a team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) led by scientist Dr. Hugh Clarke has found out who calls the shots when it is mealtime for the growing egg, how that cell-to-cell message is communicated and how the feeding tubes themselves are generated. It turns out the egg is in charge and its communication skills are highly sophisticated.These findings, which push the scope of our understanding of female fertility, were published in theThe study revealed that growth factors, especially one known as growth differentiation factor 9 - coming from the eggs drove the feeding tube multiplication and growth process, acting directly upon the genetic machinery of the follicle cells surrounding the egg. These discoveries put the spotlight directly on the egg itself, says Dr. Clarke."It shows that the egg is playing an active role in creating the microenvironment that it needs to continue its development," says Dr. Clarke, lead study author, who is also a senior scientist from the Child Health and Human Development Program at the RI-MUHC and a professor and research director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill University."We observed that the whole process of egg development and its interaction with its environment is not static. It's very dynamic," adds first study author Stephany El-Hayek, who was a PhD student in Dr. Clarke's lab at Glen site of the RI-MUHC at the time.The team also found that in older mice, the cells surrounding the egg produced fewer feeding tubes. Scientists know that the eggs of older women are less successful in producing healthy babies, but they don't know the reason why. Dr. Clarke's research offers a new possible explanation.Might it be because the cells surrounding the egg are not good at making enough feeding tubes as the egg grows older? The answer to that question, which Dr. Clarke's team is now investigating, could one day lead to the possibility of increasing fertility or even retaining fertility longer into older age, says the researcher."Understanding how the egg interacts with its environment will allow us to ensure that growing eggs retain their fertility," says Dr. Clarke.says Dr. Clarke.Source: Eurekalert
The term "atresia" is derived from the Greek a- (no or without) and tresis (hole or orifice) and refers to an inherited condition where obstruction and complete occlusion of the intestinal lumen occurs , which accounts for approximately 95% of all obstructions. Thus, atresia is the complete blockage or obstruction of any part of the intestine along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. There may also be absence of an entire portion of the intestine due to complete obliteration and separation into two separate parts. This contrasts with intestinal stenosis, which is the partial blockage of the intestine.

Although intestinal atresia can occur anywhere along the GI tract, it is generally confined to the small intestine. The frequency of occurrence, symptoms, and methods of diagnosis of intestinal atresia differ according to the site affected.

On an average intestinal atresia occurs in 1 in every 1,500 live births and affects both males and females equally.

Intestinal atresia may be of several types, depending upon the portion of the intestine affected. These include the following:

Pyloric Atresia:

This type of atresia occurs at the pylorus, the junction between the stomach and the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. Pyloric atresia occurs in approximately 1 in a million live births. Pyloric atresia is inherited and is generally a rare condition. Affected children tend to vomit out the stomach contents. The stomach becomes filled with gas, resulting in distension of the upper abdomen. X-ray of the abdomen is used for confirmation of the clinical findings.

Duodenal Atresia:

The duodenum is the first part of the small intestine into which the stomach contents are emptied. Duodenal atresia occurs in approximately 1 in 6,000 to 1 in 10,000 live births and is one of the most common congenital small bowel obstructions diagnosed prenatally. Approximately 50% of the infants with duodenal atresia are premature at birth. About 66% have abnormalities of the heart, genitourinary or intestinal tract. Duodenal atresia is strongly associated with Down syndrome. Almost 40% infants have Down syndrome. Infants with duodenal atresia usually vomit soon after birth, and their abdomen becomes distended. X-ray images show a large distended stomach and duodenum without any gas elsewhere along the GI tract.

Jejunoileal Atresia:

This type of atresia occurs in the jejunum (middle portion) or ileum (lower portion) of the small intestine. The most common type of neonatal intestinal obstruction, jejunoileal atresia occurs in 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 3,000 live births. Immediately before the constriction, the intestine is greatly dilated since it is not able to absorb nutrients and transport the accumulated food further down the GI tract. In approximately 10-15% of infants with jejunoileal atresia, parts of the intestine can become degenerated during fetal development. A large number of infants with jejunoileal atresia have problems with intestinal rotation and fixation. It has been found that cystic fibrosis is associated with jejunoileal atresia and can complicate the management of the condition. Jejunoileal atresia is classified into four types (Type I to Type IV) on the basis of severity. The newborn exhibits specific clinical symptoms depending upon the severity of the disease. These include abdominal distension and frequent vomiting of green bile.

Colonic Atresia:

This is a rare form of atresia that exhibits signs and symptoms similar to jejunoileal atresia with highly enlarged bowel. Colonic atresia is often associated with small bowel atresia, Hirschsprungs disease or gastroschisis.

Intestinal atresia is an inherited condition due to a genetic defect. An example is familial multiple intestinal atresia. One of the most common causes of intestinal atresia is due to a vascular accident, resulting in inadequate blood supply to the intestine of the developing fetus. This leads to ischemia in the respective segment of the intestine, resulting in loss of functionality.

Some of the symptoms and signs of intestinal atresia can be observed even before birth, including polyhydramnios. In this condition, there is more amniotic fluid in the uterus than normal. This occurs due to the inability of the developing fetus to absorb the amniotic fluid through the intestine. A prenatal fetal ultrasound can confirm the diagnosis. After birth, the following symptoms may be observed:

Aversion to take food by mouth.

Distended abdomen due to accumulation of gas.

Inability to pass stool due to lack of bowel movements.

Vigorous vomiting, which may be yellow or green in color.

Diagnosis of intestinal atresia can be divided into two phases - prenatal and postnatal diagnosis.

Prenatal Diagnosis

Intestinal atresia is nowadays diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound. A prenatal diagnosis of intestinal atresia is typically made in the third trimester of pregnancy, when the bowel becomes easier to see on ultrasound. Some diagnostic features found prenatally include the following:

Distended Bowel: A prenatal ultrasound will detect a distended (expanded) bowel before the obstruction.

A prenatal ultrasound will detect a distended (expanded) bowel before the obstruction. Double Bubble: This is a classic sign of duodenal atresia, when there is a dilated bowel and fluid in the stomach and duodenum but not further down.

This is a classic sign of duodenal atresia, when there is a dilated bowel and fluid in the stomach and duodenum but not further down. Polyhydramnios: This is the presence of excessive amounts of amniotic fluid in the uterus of a pregnant woman, which peaks in the third trimester of pregnancy and is caused by the failure of the intestine to absorb amniotic fluid. Polyhydramnios accompanies 53% cases of duodenal atresia and 25% of cases of jejunoileal atresia.

Due to the high incidence of associated birth defects, a complete prenatal evaluation and amniocentesis are recommended for mothers carrying babies with small bowel atresia to exclude any of the following conditions:

Cystic Fibrosis

Down Syndrome

Congenital Heart Disease

Bowel Rotational Abnormality

Annular Pancreas

Esophageal Atresia

Anorectal Atresia

Genitourinary Malformations

Postnatal Diagnosis

Besides prenatal diagnosis, postnatal (after birth) diagnosis can also be carried out. Babies with small bowel atresia tend to vomit frequently, which in itself is an indication that there is something wrong, thereby warranting further investigation. Some specific diagnostic modalities to detect small bowel atresia as well as congenital deformities include the following:

Abdominal X-Ray: An abdominal X-ray can be used to take images of the internal structures of the babys abdomen. This diagnostic investigation can often clinch the diagnosis.

An abdominal X-ray can be used to take images of the internal structures of the babys abdomen. This diagnostic investigation can often clinch the diagnosis. Upper GI Tract X-Ray: This procedure investigates any abnormalities in the upper GI tract, primarily the pylorus and duodenum. A contrast medium such as barium is administered through the mouth as a barium meal, which makes the internal structures clearer and more distinct on radiographs. X-ray photographs are then taken to evaluate the structures of the upper GI tract.

This procedure investigates any abnormalities in the upper GI tract, primarily the pylorus and duodenum. A is administered through the mouth as a barium meal, which makes the internal structures clearer and more distinct on radiographs. X-ray photographs are then taken to evaluate the structures of the upper GI tract. Lower GI Tract X-Ray: This procedure investigates the rectum, large intestine and the lower part of the small intestine. A contrast media is administered into the rectum as an enema . This contrast media is radio-opaque and coats the inner lining of the intestine. As a result, X-ray radiographs clearly shows the internal structures of the lower GI tract in minute detail, so that malformations such as strictures (narrowing of the lumen) and obstructions can be easily identified.

This procedure investigates the rectum, large intestine and the lower part of the small intestine. A . This contrast media is radio-opaque and coats the inner lining of the intestine. As a result, X-ray radiographs clearly shows the internal structures of the lower GI tract in minute detail, so that malformations such as strictures (narrowing of the lumen) and obstructions can be easily identified. Abdominal Ultrasound: Ultrasonography (USG) is a non-invasive investigative technique that uses sound waves to visualize the functionality of internal organs. These sound waves are emitted from a transducer that is placed on the surface of the body, and the sound waves get deflected by the internal organs and produce a visual image on a monitor. Abdominal ultrasound is used to detect and confirm any abnormalities within the abdomen of babies exhibiting clinical signs of intestinal atresia.

Ultrasonography (USG) is a non-invasive investigative technique that uses sound waves to visualize the functionality of internal organs. These sound waves are emitted from a transducer that is placed on the surface of the body, and the sound waves get deflected by the internal organs and produce a visual image on a monitor. Abdominal ultrasound is used of babies exhibiting clinical signs of intestinal atresia. Echocardiography: Babies born with intestinal atresia can suffer from life-threatening complications such as congenital heart defects. Echocardiography is used to diagnose any congenital abnormalities of the heart.

There is no prenatal treatment for babies diagnosed with intestinal atresia. Babies born with intestinal atresia require surgical intervention. The type of surgery involved depends on the nature and location of the blockage. The treatment strategy can be divided into the following stages:

Stabilization:

Prior to surgery, the baby needs to be stabilized.

A nasogastric tube is inserted through the nose down to the stomach in order to empty the stomach contents and accumulated gas under slight negative pressure. This will prevent the baby from vomiting and aspiration.

under slight negative pressure. This will prevent the baby from vomiting and aspiration. Nutrition will be provided via an intravenous (IV) channel.

Any investigative procedures such as X-rays and routine blood tests will be carried out during this period, prior to the surgery.

Surgery:

The surgery is done under general anesthesia (GA) so that the baby does not feel any pain or discomfort. The surgery may either be an open surgery or a laparoscopic surgery.

In case of an open type of surgery, a single large incision will be made in the abdomen and the affected portion of the intestine will be excised and the two ends will be sutured so that continuity is maintained. In case of laparoscopic surgery, several small incisions will be made, through which a camera and other instruments will be inserted in order to perform the surgery.

If the intestine requires a relatively longer time to heal, the surgeon may create a stoma (an opening). This is where the intestine is brought to the abdominal skin surface so that the feces can be collected and temporarily stored in a colostomy bag, instead of passing through the anus.

Post-surgical Care:

Post-surgical care is crucial for the babys full recovery. The baby is transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where the vital signs are monitored round-the-clock. Nutrition will continue to be provided through the nasogastric tube until the baby is able to take food by mouth. The duration of the hospital stay may vary between 1 to 3 weeks, depending on how quickly the baby recovers. After discharge from the hospital, a follow-up appointment with the surgeon is required for assessment of the growth parameters and general health and wellbeing of the baby.
People can make innumerable jokes or memes on Alia Bhatt. But, one cannot ignore the fact that from her debut in 2012 to doing movies like 'Udta Punjab', 'Highway', 'Kapoor & Sons' and 'Dear Zindagi'; Alia has proved herself as one of the finest and most versatile actresses in Bollywood. In a short span of six years, Alia has impressed us with her wide choice of films, including off-beat movies.

Dharma Productions

After portraying some very interesting characters, Alia is back in action with yet another promising movie, 'Raazi'. A burkha-clad Alia in the teaser and the fact that she plays a spy was enough to intrigue us. Finally, the much-awaited trailer is here and our jaws are hanging in shock after just a glimpse of how intense this movie is going to be.

Seriously, who needs '50 shades' of anything when you can turn a movie into 2018's biggest blockbuster (potentially) with just three shades? Jokes apart, here we are talking about the three shades of 'Raazi' or should we say Alia Bhatt's Sehmat  a daughter, a wife, and a spy. In other words, she is a spy in the garb of a wife.

Dharma Productions

Bollywood is getting experimental this year by introducing fresh pairs and it seems to be working in their favour. Just check out the crackling chemistry between Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in the trailer.

Set in the backdrop of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, 'Raazi' is a period thriller that revolves around a Kashmiri spy who is married to a Pakistani Army Officer. Our pulse was racing throughout the trailer and we can't wait to watch Sehmat singlehandedly ruin Pakistan's plans for war with her indefinable courage, wit and determination. While Alia intrigues us with her character, Sehmat, Vicky Kaushal impresses with his performance as well.

Directed by Meghna Gulzar, this movie is based on Harinder Sikka's novel 'Calling Sehmat' and will exhibit a tale of love, betrayal and patriotism. 'Raazi' is produced by Vineet Jain and Karan Johar and is releasing on 11th May 2018.
Early adopters of the bitcoin didn't know what they were getting into when they first started to invest in the technology back in 2011. Today, however, they are considered pioneers and are super rich just because they got into the crypto space at the right time.

While the value of bitcoin has dropped sharply since January 2018, it's still seven times its value from 2017. The crypto boom, therefore, has had a cascading effect on how millennial investors go about their investments and it has thereby given rise to a number of millionaires who got rich in the past 2-3 years.

 Twitter

Rich or not, the crypto-community on the internet (Reddit and Twitter) is highly influenced by pop-culture and therefore the Lambo (short for Lamborghini bought from crypto profits) is not just a car but a status symbol for them. And for those of you thinking how can someone spend almost $200k on a car getting influenced by a social media meme, think again!

 Twitter

Back in 2015, Motorcars of Georgia sold a Lamborghini Huracan to Peter Saddington for 45 BTC. Peter was an early adopter and had purchased the digital currency back in 2011 when its price fell sharply from $30 to $3. At the time he had only invested $115 to buy those 45 BTC which he paid for buying his $200k worth Lamborghini Huracan.

 Twitter

And that's not all. As the price of the bitcoin skyrocketed back in 2017, so did the sales of crypto community's favourite ride. The Lamborghini Newport Beach in Costa Mesa, California used to sell 1-2 Lambos to owners of the digital currency every month but back in December 2017, they sold over ten vehicles on the back of rising bitcoin prices. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency fell sharply and so did the sales.

While the crypto market right now is recovering from the crash two months ago, the Peter Saddington in you should be accumulating bitcoins if you ever want to ride that Lambo you've been dreaming of.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has revealed his plans of building a memorial in the name of a South Korean queen by the name of Heo Hwang-ok in Ayodhya, in a meeting with visiting South Korean Ambassador Shin Bong-Kil on Friday.

 Twitter

While the land of Ayodhya is a subject of decades-long dispute between Babri Masjid and Ram Janmabhoomi, it is also the focal point of another mythical story related to the Korean Peninsula. People of South Korea believe that some 2000 years ago, a Korean King Kim Suro married an Ayodhya Princess. Currently, the descendants of that lineage are members of the Crock Clan who have already built a memorial of their forefathers in Ayodhya. The site is also a big tourist spot for people visiting the country from South Korea.

 Twitter

The deepening cultural ties between India and South Korea come at a time when both countries are facing geopolitical risks with China and North Korea respectively. It must be noted that in December last year, the UP government had signed a MoU with South Korea for cooperation in the field of tourism, culture, farming and skill development.

Yogi Adityanath also invited the Korean envoy for 'Deepotsava', the festival of lights celebrating Diwali in November.

 Twitter

Currently, South Korean major Samsung has the second highest investment in Uttar Pradesh after Vietnam. With improving collaborations and the correct geographic dividends, UP has the potential to thrive as a business destination for multinational companies from all over the world.
Xiaomi hopes to lure smartphone component assemblers to Indian shores as the company seeks to establish the country as a strong manufacturing base. As part of the "Make in India" drive, Xiaomi plans to help roughly 50 assemblers of components suitable for smartphones and tablets to set up shop in the country, which will hopefully prompt further economic growth and provide local job opportunities.

The overall goals are to invest up to $2.5 billion in India and to create up to 50,000 jobs. The Chinese firm currently has six smartphone manufacturing plants in India in partnership with Foxconn and Hipad.

Xiaomi also announced its first SMT (Surface Mount Technology) plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) units in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, in partnership with Foxconn. Xiaomi says that current manufacturing operations in India only contribute towards 10 percent value of the smartphone, but with PCBA manufacturing, that number should jump to nearly 50 percent.

 Twitter

Xiaomi says that over 95% of its phones sold in the country are locally assembled, which is an interesting statistic as it means an overwhelming majority of sales are from the budget Redmi series. The Mi Mix 2, then, accounts for less than 5% of Xiaomi's sales.

These plans have been announced under the Indian Government's Make in India program that intends to boost local manufacturing by providing various incentives. Xiaomi's announcement comes following the government's recent decision to impose 10 percent import duty on certain smartphone components to encourage their local manufacturing.

 Xiaomi

According to Manu Jain, Xiaomi Global vice president and managing director of Xiaomi India, the scheme will "help our suppliers effectively assess and expand their manufacturing capabilities in the country; contribute towards meaningful investment and job growth; and help boost the overall economy."

The three new smartphone plants, built in partnership with Foxconn, are located across campuses in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and a new campus in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu with a total campus area of 180 acres. Xiaomi says the factories with Foxconn now employ more than 10,000 people, of which more than 95 percent are women, who are responsible for all the assembly work.
You may know Apple as the company behind some stellar smartphones that have made them a trillion dollar company. The company has been chasing the dream of using only clean energy and today, that dream has finally come true.

 YouTube

The company announced that its facilities are now 100 percent powered by renewable energy. Apple claims that this covers power usage in offices, stores, data centres and other sites in 43 countries. In terms of manufacturing, the company has got a commitment from 23 partners to build Apple products using renewable energy.

 YouTube

We're committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we're proud to have reached this significant milestone, said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. We're going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.

Apple currently has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world, totalling 626 megawatts of generation capacity, with 286 megawatts of solar PV generation coming online in 2017.

 Apple

Apple is not pushing its suppliers to adopt clean energy for manufacturing and suppliers such as Quanta Computer, Pegatron, Finisar, and more have already started efforts to make the switch. Some of Apple's clean energy projects include solar panels on the roof of Apple Park, solar facilities in Reno, Nevada and Maiden, North Carolina, more than 300 rooftop solar systems in Japan, 485 megawatts of wind and solar projects across China and an 800-rooftop renewable energy system in Singapore.

As Apple has made a firm commitment towards renewable energy as a source, we can only hope other tech companies follow suit in the near future.
The ban is necessary so that Taiwan can start negotiations with the United States to be exempted from the [countrys] Section 232 tariffs [on steel and aluminium imports] , a Taiwanese trader said.Several industry sources in Asia believe Taiwans ban - if it materializes - would apply to both cargoes meant for domestic consumption in the island as well as those meant for processing before being subsequently exported to other destinations.No official announcement has been published so far but several sources in Taiwan said government officials had reached out to them over the implementation of such a move.Even if it is just a rumor, Taiwanese buyers will be very reluctant to place orders for products from China because its simply too risky [in case future shipments are prevented from entering Taiwan], a stainless steel mill source in China said.If implemented, the ban is expected to disrupt Asian steel trade flows, especially for stainless steel since Taiwan is the biggest importer of these products from China, market participants said.Taiwan received the largest share of Chinas total stainless exports last year, at 21%, or 786,700 tonnes, according to a US Department of Commerce report.During the first two months of 2018, Taiwan accounted for 22% of stainless flats shipped from China China shipped a total of 1.63 million tonnes of finished steel to Taiwan last year, of which 780,236 tonnes were stainless flat steel, according to Chinese customs data.Market participants in the Chinese mainland have expressed concern over the possibility of other export destinations, especially those in Asia, considering a similar move against Chinese steel.Asian buyers procured 80% of all Chinese stainless flat steel exports in the first two months of this year.The Taiwanese government is said to be looking to block China-origin flat products, especially hot-rolled coil, hot-rolled plate, cold-rolled coil - annealed and full hard, according to a trader based in the territory.Local mills have been importing these Chinese products for coating and processing, before selling the value-added products to the US, the trader said.The US saw its steel imports from Taiwan rise from 983,245 tonnes in 2016 to 1.12 million tonnes last year. Of last years total, 340,415 tonnes consisted of metallic-coated sheet and strip, 212,368 tonnes were hot-dipped galvanized sheet and strip, and 129,298 tonnes were oil country tubular goods.The US also imported 133,807 tonnes of stainless steel from Taiwan last year, including 49,882 tonnes of cold-rolled stainless steel sheet, 33,875 tonnes of stainless steel pipe and tubing as well as 21,136 tonnes of cold-finished stainless steel bar.Another producer source in south China said there was a possibility for stainless steel to be excluded from the potential ban because many Taiwanese mills rely on materials from their counterparts in the mainland.One East Asian stainless steel buyer source said that Taiwan might decide to impose anti-dumping duties instead of a blanket ban.Otherwise, if the measure is too extreme and protectionist, international authorities such as the World Trade Organization might become involved, he said.Traders in Taiwan anticipate a ban to have a significant impact on the territorys stainless steel segment.About 70-80% of stainless steel imported to Taiwan is from China, a second trader on the island said.Taiwanese stainless steel mills will likely face supply issues and be driven to import more materials from other countries, especially Indonesia, several sources said.Tsingshan Group Holdings, one of Chinas largest stainless steel producer, started its Indonesian operations late last year. It has been producing hot-rolled stainless steel in the Southeast Asian country to export to the rest of Asia, Metal Bulletin understands.Aside from Tsingshan Indonesia, Taiwanese buyers might have to look for alternative sources such as Europe and India, according to a trader in Southeast Asia who handles Chinese materials.But buyers in Southeast Asian who procure value-added stainless steel from Taiwan might not accept the quality of products processed from non-Chinese materials, which could dampen Taiwans sales.If Taiwanese mills cannot get stainless hot-rolled coil from [major Chinese producers], some of their customers who want products of better quality will purchase directly from China, the Southeast Asia-based trader said.A ban will also worsen oversupply for the Chinese stainless steel sector and push prices down further, another trader in east China said.However, some market participants think a ban on Chinese products would not have that great an effect on Taiwans stainless steel sector.Taiwan has its own stainless steel producers too, so if they can produce more and export less, they might be able to meet domestic demand, a supplier source in China said.The second Taiwan-based trader reckons that domestic mills have enough capacity to supply to local consumers, in addition to them importing from other countries, but stainless steel products will become more expensive in Taiwan.The market will need some time to adjust, and its difficult to say how much Taiwans prices will rise, he said.Metal Bulletins assessment of prices for benchmark 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil was $2,080-2,130 per tonne cif East Asian ports for the week ended April 4 , down $10-50 per tonne week on week. As for stainless hot-rolled sheet, the price assessment for the same period was $2,040-2,140 per tonne cif, down $10-30 per tonne from a week earlier.On the other hand, a ban on Chinese steel imports in Taiwan will not have that big an impact on Chinas carbon steel segment, sources said.Taiwan does not import large quantities of carbon steel from China, according to data from the territorys Ministry of Finance.Last year, Taiwan imported 26,274 tonnes of alloyed flat-rolled steel under HS Code 7225 and 9,766 tonnes of non-alloyed flat-rolled steel under HS code 7208 from China. It also imported 12,143 tonnes of Chinese non-alloyed wire rod under HS code 7217. It did not import any rebar or rod in coils from China last year.Taiwanese trade authorities are negotiating with their US counterparts to gain exemption from the proposed Section 232 tariffs of 25% on steel imports.Taiwans Ministry of Economic Affairs said in late March that it was disappointed that the territory was not among a list of countries for which the tariffs are temporarily waived while talks for permanent exemptions take place.The Taiwan government will communicate fully with the US and strive for exemptions. It will also assist the steel industry in submitting product exclusion applications and pay close attention to the ongoing case, the ministry said.
UPPER THUMB  Legislation allowing bow hunters with physical disabilities to use air-powered weapons that shoot arrows has been approved by the Michigan House.

House Bill 5180 is currently making its way through the state Senate.

State Rep. Beau LaFave, an Iron Mountain Republican who sponsored the bill, says airbows would make bow hunting possible for disabled hunters, but hunting with the device is currently illegal in Michigan.

LaFaves bill authorizes the Department of Natural Resources to issue a permit allowing people with full use of one arm or less who are unable to shoot a crossbow to use the pneumatic weapons during bow season, as long as the applicant includes certification from a physician.

Additionally, the Natural Resources Commission would be allowed to determine if the pneumatic weapons can be used during firearms seasons for everyone else.

Hunters who dont have the strength or ability to draw back traditional bows or crossbows deserve every opportunity to go out into the woods and enjoy the natural resources our great state has to offer, said LaFave. This reform breaks down barriers by giving people with physical limitations the freedom to bow hunt without relying on assistance from another individual.

LaFave said hunters seeking the special exemption for bow season would be required to submit certification from a doctor documenting a disability preventing them from drawing, aiming or shooting a crossbow. The DNR would review each application and issue a permit when appropriate.

There isnt going to be some huge influx of hunters using pneumatic weapons during bow season, LaFave said. This bill is narrowly tailored to ensure only the people who cant physically shoot a crossbow on their own will be allowed to shoot an airbow.

Some advantages of an airbow include being more narrow than a crossbow, easier to load, and with fewer moving parts. Disadvantages are the need for compressed air, being heavier, and more expensive.

Because airbows are currently illegal to hunt with, Randy Brown of Randys Hunting says his shop does not sell them.

There isnt a use right now for them that I know of, said Brown.

However, Brown said he would not be opposed to the new legislation.
SANILAC COUNTY -- Michelle Campbell, a third/fourth grade teacher at Carsonville-Port Sanilac Elementary School, received a "life changing" award on Monday.

Campbell was named the 2017-18 LifeChanger of the Year award winner at a surprise ceremony during a celebration in the school's gymnasium. Roughly 185 faculty, staff and students attended the event.

As a LifeChanger of the Year award winner, Campbell received a $3,000 cash award to be shared with her school. The award was presented to Campbell by National Life Group representative Jay Dunlap.

Campbell was selected as a LifeChanger of the Year winner out of more than 825 teachers, administrators and school district employees nominated for the award from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. She was nominated by her principal, Jennifer Richmond.

Prior to this classroom placement, Campbell was her school's physical education teacher, Response to Intervention lead teacher, and dean of students. Her track record of helping students through difficult situations made her a great fit for the split classroom.

Campbell has been a leader in her district in terms of administrative tasks and technology grant writing, securing multiple smart phones to enhance her classroom curriculum. She has a true knack for engaging her students and making learning fun.
HARTFORD  Despite Republican opposition, House Democrats see tolls in Connecticuts near future.

Bringing tolls to the state will get a vote in the House before the legislature dismisses May 9, said Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, in a Capitol news conference Tuesday morning .

It is my hope it passes, but even without knowing whether it will pass or fail, it will be going up on the (voting) board, he said. The residents of the state of Connecticut, a lot of whom I hear from, just think its absolutely silly that every time that they go through the state of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore... they all have tolls.

Regardless of party, the next governor will support tolls, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, predicted boldly.

Thats what the people of Connecticut want, he said.

Last week, the General Assembly's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee  one of the largest and most influential of the committees  passed, by a party-line vote, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's bill authorizing the state Department of Transportation to implement statewide tolling.

Although the details are not worked out, tolls would likely be placed on interstates 95 and 84, the Merritt Parkway, and along state routes such as routes 8 and 9. The estimated $800 million in annual revenue would be used to fix roads and bridges and ease congestion.

Republican lawmakers adamantly opposed tolls, calling them another tax for an already overtaxed state.

"Between Greenwich and New Haven, there would be 12 tolls," said state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton. "That would represent $200 a month out of someone's income. It is a tax, not a toll."

Democrats are considering an income tax off-set for tolls for Connecticut residents, Aresimowicz said.

Staff reporter Bill Cummings contributed to this report.
Rain, with some wet snow mixed in, is making for a wet commute Tuesday morning.

The precipitation that moved into southwest Connecticut around 4 a.m., will end later this morning.

Because temperatures are above freezing across the region, no snow is accumulating.

Roads, however, are wet.

That could lead to some accidents later this morning if drivers dont slow down and leave plenty of distance between vehicles.

Just before 9 a.m., southwest Connecticut has no major accidents.

Its just the usual southbound congestion on I-95 from Bridgeport to Stamford and on the Merritt Parkway from Trumbull to Norwalk.

The biggest problem in the state is an overturned tractor-trailer truck on southbound I-91, near Exit in Emfield.

The National Weather Service says rain should taper off by 10 a.m.
CROMWELL  It has a new name and a new date, but the mayors gala continues its commitment to supporting medical care and research while honoring residents and businesses.

The event will take place April 28 at the Tournament Players Club at River Highlands.

The two previous galas, both of which took place in October, were formal events. However, Mayor Enzo Faienza said he made the decision to change the whole theme. And so, he has opted to go for a less dressy business-casual approach.

The gala will begin with a VIP reception at 6 p.m. followed by an hour-long cocktail reception form 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and awards to a local business and two prominent residents with a long commitment to serving the town.

Once the presentations have concluded, it will be time for dinner and then dancing to the music provided by Music Plus DJ Service.

In addition to honoring a company and local residents, the gala is also intended to serve as a fundraiser. This year, Faienza has chosen New Britains Hospital for Special Cares ALS treatment and research.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a group of rare neurological diseases that mainly involve the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. Voluntary muscles produce movements like chewing, walking and talking, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The disease is progressive and there is no cure or treatment.

ALS, which affects 14,000 to 15,000 Americans a year, is also known as Lou Gehrig Disease, named for the most prominent victim of the disease, the New York Yankees star first baseman of the 1920s and 30s.

Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS in 1939 and died of the disease in 1941. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in March, lived with ALS for more than 50 years.

Faienza lost a close friend in Italy to ALS, and has others near and dear to me affected by the disease. By directing money to ALS research, Faienza said, I hope I can help by create awareness of this very debilitating disease.

The Hospital for Special care has an enviable record both for treatment and research, Faienza said, explaining his decision to allocate money form the gala to the hospital.

The awards that will be presented include recognition of Arborio Construction as the corporate citizens of the year. The company, founded in 1913, is involved in construction in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to its website. The third generation of the family, brothers Joseph, Peter and Tim, continue the family tradition.

They are wonderful partners for the town, Faienza said. They are always prepared to give of their time and effort to help us out.

The annual humanitarian award is being presented to Rodney Bitgood, owner of Cromwell Automotive and cofounder of the Cromwell Merchants Association. The other CMA cofounder, Cara Ehlers, vice president at Liberty Bank, is being recognized with the volunteer award.

They have both been very involved in town affairs, Faienza said of Bitgood and Ehlers.

The CMA was instrumental in organizing Halloween on Main and Christmas on Main celebrations, as well as recognizing the contributions of Cromwells veterans, the mayor said.

Through the years, Rodney and Cara have generously given of their time to make Cromwell a better place.

Tickets are $100 each. The deadline to register is April 20 and registration is available at cromwellct.com. For information, contact the mayors office at 860-632-3412.
The Air Force Thunderbirds have cancelled their next two airshows following the death of fellow pilot Maj Stephen "Cajun" Del Bagno, the team's commander said Monday.

The Thunderbirds will not perform at the Lakeland, Florida "Sun-N-Fun Fly-In & Expo" or the "Wings over Columbus" show at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, according to a video statement from Lt. Col. Kevin Walsh, the Thunderbirds' commander.

Walsh said more shows for the 2018 season could also be cancelled, but said the squadron is prioritizing Del Bagno's legacy and family.

"We remember 'Cajun' as an airman, warrior, a talented fighter pilot and a great friend," Walsh said in the video.

The Thunderbirds, part of the 57th Wing, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, will host Del Bagno's family for a memorial service sometime this week, Walsh said, but did not provide specifications.

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Del Bagno was participating in a routine training flight at the Nevada Test and Training Range April 4 when the crash occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time, the Thunderbirds said in a release.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Del Bagno was the slot pilot flying the No. 4 jet for the Thunderbirds, according to the team's website. Before joining the team, Del Bagno was an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter evaluator pilot and chief of standardization and evaluation with the 58th Fighter Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

The Valencia, California, native had more than 3,500 flying hours in over 30 different aircraft, with 1,400 hours as an Air Force pilot, his official biography said.

He was in his first season with the demonstration team.

Tributes and condolences came pouring in after the accident occurred, including from actress Brie Larson, with whom Del Bagno worked in preparation for Larsons role as the Air Force-pilot-turned-superhero Captain Marvel. Larson, alongside Marvel Studios, tweeted out their condolences over the weekend.

As the Thunderbirds move forward, the health and safety of the team is also one of Walsh's concerns, he said.

"We're taking care of our squadron. We're holding each other up, but recognize we can't always do it alone," he said, adding additional teams and agencies are working with them for support and recovery.

"When the time is right, we will get back to executing our mission to recruit, retain and aspire," he said.

Walsh thanked fans, airmen and service members from around the world who have offered support for the team as they recover and work to honor Del Bagno's legacy.

"We are deeply moved by your compassion, and we ask that you continue to keep 'Cajun' and his family in your thoughts," Walsh said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The Navy is getting ready to deploy two brand-new aircraft variants at the same time.

The carrier-capable F-35C and the CMV-22 Navy-variant Osprey are set to enter service in 2020, and both are scheduled to deploy for the first time in 2021.

In an interview at the annual Sea-Air-Space expo Monday, directors with CMV-22 co-designer Bell Helicopter said steps are already being taken to ensure the Navy's Osprey operates smoothly with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"One of the components of the JSF engine is the lift fan," said Scott Clifton, director of business development for Bell. "So we've been able to create a device where we can carry the lift fan in the back of a CMV-22."

While the carrier-launched F-35C does not have a lift fan, its Marine Corps counterpart, the F-35B, does. The Rolls-Royce-patented design allows the F-35B to take off and land vertically on amphibious ships, giving it heightened flexibility for operations at sea.

Clifton said the carrying system for the lift fan designed to fit inside the CMV-22 would increase efficiency and decrease the chances of damage happening to expensive components in transit.

"[The CMV-22] will be able to deliver F-35 components directly to the air-capable ships," he said. "You don't have to sling-load it between ships during an [underway replenishment]. ... CMV-22 will be able to take those components directly to the ship, land there, roll them off and ready."

The CMV-22 is also being designed with other features specific to its designated mission of carrier onboard delivery (COD), including additional fuel tanks, a beyond-line-of-sight HF antenna, a public address system in the back of the aircraft, and a Navy-specific paint job.

The Navy is planning to buy 44 of the aircraft to replace the aging C-2 Greyhounds currently tasked with the COD mission.

Bell is working with the Navy, Clifton said, to develop training for pilots and aircrew who are switching to the new platform.

"We're handing those pilots basically the ability to go same range, same speed and the same payload, but now [they] can stop and land vertically when we get there," he said. "It actually makes things very simple."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Troops and family members who missed monthly Tricare premium payments due to a contractor swap Jan. 1 must make up missed payments, as well as pay one to two months in advance to reinstate coverage, Tricare officials confirmed Monday.

When Tricare shifted regions and contractors Jan. 1, premium payment information was reset for thousands of beneficiaries in the West region and former North region. Those users were sent letters by mail in November notifying them to update their payment information or risk losing coverage entirely after Jan. 1.

Tricare Young Adult, Reserve Select and Retired Reserve users pay monthly premiums for coverage, while retired Prime users can make annual or monthly payments.

Active-duty families, seniors on Tricare for Life and retirees using Tricare Select do not pay monthly premium fees.

As of late last month, 45,000 Tricare beneficiaries or households were missing payment information.

To fix the issue, those users could be required to pay up to thousands of dollars out of pocket at once, depending on their plan, officials said.

Tricare Retired Reserve and Tricare Young Adult users must pay five months out of pocket to keep their plans -- three months retroactively to Jan. 1 and two months in advance, officials said.

Those on Tricare Reserve Select and retired Tricare Prime users who do not pay by paycheck allotment must pay for the three missed months and one month in advance, according to Tricare's website.

For beneficiaries using the Tricare Retired Reserve family plan who reinstate coverage immediately, that means almost $5,192 out of pocket -- $1038.31 each for the three missed months, as well as April and May premiums in advance. For a Tricare Young Adult Prime user who fixes the payment issue immediately, that means $1,620 for retroactive and continued coverage.

Tricare officials said all beneficiaries using those plans should check to make sure their payment information is up to date, including those who updated it by late December as instructed in the November notices.

That's because a separate Tricare system freeze over December caused an unknown number of updates made before the due date to be lost, officials said last month.

Tricare officials warned that users who do not fix the payment problem within 150 days of the last payment, which likely was made Dec. 1, must wait a full year before they can re-enroll.

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- The Air Force is investigating after part of a parachute landed on a school Tuesday near the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

The incident happened at about 5 p.m. when a parachutist on a training mission from Yokota cut away his chute mid-flight and landed safely on the base, a statement from the 374th Airlift Wing said.

"A piece of parachute equipment was found off base at Hamura No. 3 High School, and there were no reported injuries or damage," the statement said.

The incident follows protests by Japanese residents over U.S. military aircraft parts falling onto schools on Okinawa and the arrival of CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at Yokota last week.

"Yokota Air Base takes matters of this nature seriously and the incident is under investigation," the statement said.
White House Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert resigned Tuesday, just one day after President Trump's new national security adviser, Ambassador John Bolton, began his tenure in the National Security Council.

White House officials confirmed Bossert's resignation to Fox News Tuesday morning.

"The President is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "Tom led the White House's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."

Bossert served as a deputy homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, and has held positions in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the Independent Counsel, and the House of Representatives. Bossert was also appointed as the director of Infrastructure Protection under Bush.

A White House source told Fox News Bossert's resignation is part of Bolton's "cleaning house" at the NSC.

A national security source also told Fox News that Bolton is considering a merger of the NSC and Homeland Security Council (HSC) within the White House. Right now, the NSC and HSC function as separate bodies, with their own meetings and policy issues, but share a staff.

Under the George W. Bush administration, the HSC and NSC worked as separate staffs. During the early years of the Obama administration, HSC and NSC merged, but later split.

The NSC primarily focuses on U.S. foreign policy and nuclear proliferation, while the HSC focuses on national defense-related issues like terrorism and border security.

If Bolton does merge the HSC and NSC, the bodies would hold joint meetings on mutually-agreed upon issues, and provide joint policy recommendations to the president, a national security source told Fox News.

President Trump appointed Bolton to replace National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster just last month. Bolton officially began at the White House on Monday.

Bolton has previously served in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, and served as a Bush lawyer during the 2000 Florida recount. Bolton served as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2001 to 2005.

The position of White House national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation.

Bolton is now Trump's third national security adviserreplacing McMaster, who replaced Michael Flynn.

Fox News' John Roberts and Gillian Turner contributed to this report.

Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.
The Arabian Gulf is temporarily without a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier as airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continue to wind down.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt, of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, recently left the theater after a four-month rotation and arrived back in the Pacific, according to separate releases from the service in recent weeks.

During the deployment, aircraft from the Roosevelt marked a historic first, launching strikes against ISIS extremists while simultaneously striking the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But how the Navy's role will evolve in the two-pronged fight remains unknown.

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The USS Harry S. Truman is set to depart Wednesday for Europe and the Middle East, according to a release Monday. The carrier strike group -- including the Truman; the guided-missile cruiser Normandy; and the guided-missile destroyers Arleigh Burke, Bulkeley, Forrest Sherman and Farragut -- will operate in the 5th and 6th fleet areas of operations, the release said.

A specific timeline for the Truman's deployment in the two theaters was not given. Ahead of the deployment, officials maintain the U.S. 5th Fleet continues to support the Middle East.

"The Navy remains committed to supporting U.S. Central Command to ensure it has the capabilities it needs for maritime security in the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command area of operations," Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokesperson for NAVCENT, told Military.com.

"We are not going to discuss the timing of operational movements of carrier strike groups into and out of the CENTCOM area of responsibility," she said in a statement Monday.

The Roosevelt (CVN 71) was the first carrier ever to launch simultaneous missions in two separate geographic locations on the same day, the Navy said last month. Fighters from the carrier conducted strikes in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria and Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan.

According to a report from USNI News, which visited the carrier in March, Carrier Strike Group 9 had at that point flown 1,027 sorties in support of the ISIS fight and 12 in support of the war in Afghanistan. The outlet reported that Afghanistan missions largely consisted of dropping ordnance on enemy targets, while missions over Iraq and Syria were more focused on close-air support.

"The missions to Afghanistan are sort of right at the limits of what we want our aircrew flying at from a fatigue standpoint, but it's still within reach. And with the Air Force tanking support that gets us there, it's totally possible," Capt. Robert Loughran, deputy commander for the Air Wing, told the publication.

Morgan said CENTCOM is working with the Joint Staff "to ensure it has the joint capabilities it needs to continue all operations."

"In general, a carrier strike group is inherently a maneuver force that offers commanders the ability to flexibly respond to a wide variety of missions and contingencies, and is capable of being redeployed rapidly across U.S. Combatant Command boundaries," Morgan said Monday. "Their presence reassures allies and partners while deterring potential adversaries."

Carrier airstrikes have played a significant role in the fight against ISIS since its start in 2014. Between August 2014 and May 2017, the Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornets flew the most combat missions in Iraq and Syria, while Air Force F-15Es dropped the highest number of bombs, according to statistics provided by U.S. Air Force Central Command at the time.

"While the F/A-18 has supported the deliberate air campaign in Afghanistan, the preponderance of the [Combined Air Operations Center's] weight of effort for the F/A-18 is on OIR," Air Force spokeswoman Capt. AnnMarie Annicelli said.

"It's important to note, as we demonstrated with the Nov. 19, 2017, F-22 strike in Afghanistan, war is conditions-based and we retain the flexibility to send assets where needed in support of operations across the USCENTCOM AOR," she said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday canceled a long-scheduled Latin America trip to focus on the crisis in Syria following a suspected chemical attack east of Damascus last weekend.

The White House announced that Vice President Mike Pence will attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, beginning Friday in Trump's place.

"The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

On Monday, Trump met at the White House with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the service chiefs to plan a possible military response to a suspected barrel bomb attack last Saturday on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma. The attack killed at least 40 and sickened more than 500, according to aid and monitoring groups.

Before the meeting, Trump said, "We have a lot of options militarily" and a decision will be made "shortly."

Last April, Trump oversaw the launch of 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles from two Navy guided-missile destroyers in response to a previous chemical attack in northern Syria. The U.S. warned Russian forces to keep clear of the area before the missiles were launched.

At least 80 reportedly were killed in the attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, allegedly with the nerve agent sarin.

Following the chemical attack, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers Ross and Porter launched a total of 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) against a Syrian airfield believed to have been the point or origin for the aircraft that carried out the attack.

The Tomahawk strikes were focused on the al-Shayrat Airfield, from which the U.S. charged that aircraft took off to hit Khan Sheikhoun.

On Sunday, Trump blamed the newest attack, allegedly carried out with chlorine and possibly a nerve agent, on the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He also charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran shared responsibility.

Since the attack, Trump has spoken by phone several times with French President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate on potential military action. Both leaders said a "firm response" is under consideration.

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Tuesday that Macron and Trump agreed that their shared intelligence "in theory confirms the use of chemical weapons."

In an attempt to ward off U.S. action, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow would submit a United Nations resolution calling for an investigation to determine whether chemical agents were used in the attack last weekend.

Lavrov, who has previously charged that the chemical attack claims were fabricated, said a "transparent and honest" investigation should take place with the involvement of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

If the resolution failed to pass, it would show the aggressive aims of those states that block it, he said.

"If, under the pretext of a lack of security guarantees, those who employ anti-Russian arguments to pursue their Russophobic aims do not allow experts to come, then it will be a verdict on their true plans and show that they have no interest in establishing the truth," Lavrov said.

The OPCW has authority only to determine whether chemical weapons have been used; it does not have authorization to determine responsibility for an attack.

It appeared Trump will make the decision on whether to attack Syria amid continuing turmoil on his national security team.

Shortly after the announcement of the cancellation of the Peru trip, the White House said Thomas Bossert, the White House Homeland Security adviser, had resigned.

"President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well," the White House said in a statement.

On ABC-TV's "This Week" program Sunday, Bossert said of the suspected chemical attack, "This is one of those issues on which every nation, all peoples, have all agreed and have agreed since World War II this is an unacceptable practice. I wouldn't take anything off the table" in terms of a U.S. response, he said.

Also on Tuesday, Russia, Syria and Iran renewed charges that Israel was responsible for an alleged F-15 airstrike on an airbase in southeastern Syria near Palmyra on Monday.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said seven Iranians were killed in the airstrike that left a total of at least 14 people dead.

Russian military personnel and members of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia are also believed to be stationed at the base. Israel has not acknowledged responsibility for the airstrike.

A joint statement released Sunday by the Syrian American Medical Society and other aid groups said that more than 42 people were found dead in their homes following the alleged chemical attack last Saturday.

In addition, "more than 500 cases -- the majority of whom are women and children -- were brought to local medical centers with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent," the statement said.

In a series of Tweets early Sunday, Trump said, "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria.

"Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad," he said.

"Big price to pay," Trump said. "Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com.
The Navy's stealthy carbon-fiber M80 Stiletto serves as a principal demonstration craft to test high-tech gear and new concepts in coastal and riverine warfare.

The craft, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia, attracted attention and made local news as it made its way up the coast to appear at the annual Sea-Air-Space 2018 exposition this week.

It has been an asset in the Navy's maritime technology test arsenal since it launched in 2006. The Stiletto has been used to test coastal operations for the Navy SEALs; operations of surface and underwater drones; and the recovery of small, unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Everybody's looking for the magic bullet," said Dennis Danko, the Stiletto program manager.

"Let's say somebody has a new radar. We'll say, 'OK, bring it aboard. Let's test it out,' " Danko said aboard the Stiletto dockside at the annual Sea-Air-Space 2018 exposition.

The test could come at 50 knots. The 88-foot, 6-inch Stiletto, with a 40-foot beam, can hit that speed with its unusual M-shaped hull, which pulls only 2.5 feet of draft.

The test craft will take on all comers. According to the Navy, testing is "open to all from small business to large industry, academia and all government and international partners."

At the Gaylord National Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland, Danko said, "We try to help them achieve their goals" -- cheaply.

Those testing new gear and concepts "typically only pay for their own labor and travel," according to a Navy release. The crew, craft and fuel are provided by the Stiletto program.

Stiletto is sponsored by the Pentagon's Rapid Reaction Technology Office and operated by Naval Surface Warfare/Combatant Craft Division (NSWCCD) at Little Creek.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The F/A-18 Super Hornet is gearing up to live-test Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), with a range test expected this year, a company executive told Military.com on Tuesday.

"Right now, we're doing captive-carry testing, and we'll have the first live shot off the F-18 later this year," said Alan Jackson, Lockheed's vice president of strike systems.

The AGM-158C LRASM will then become operational in September 2019, he said. Jackson spoke with Military.com during the annual Sea-Air-Space exposition here.

An F/A-18E/F Super Hornet successfully conducted a "jettison release" test at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, last year. The move paved the way for the ongoing captive-carry tests at Navy Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, Lockheed said at the time.

Related content:

The precision-guided, anti-ship standoff missile is expected to be fielded first on the B-1B Lancer bomber. In December, B-1 crews launched LRASM at Point Mugu Sea Range, California. It was first tested on a B-1B in August.

"This is the anti-surface warfare the Navy was looking for," Jackson said. "Flight testing is going well. We're six for six [successful tests] on the B-1 program."

Two more flights are expected this summer before the missile is operationally fielded on the non-nuclear bomber in September, Jackson said.

The Air Force and Navy are working together to streamline the testing process as it applies to each of their aircraft, he said.

"We have a greater-than-200 nautical mile standoff range," Jackson said. "So either one of those platforms is out of harm's way when it releases the weapon."

LRASM can also be deck-launched from a vertical launch system on a Navy destroyer, he said.

In comparison to the Tomahawk cruise missile, LRASM has a better survivability rate because it has low-observable technologies making it harder to detect. "Tomahawk is a fine weapon, but it's an older design," Jackson said.

LRASM was an easy fit for the B-1 because it can already launch the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, known as JASSM-ER.

The missile has all the capabilities that JASSM-ER has: the same lethal 1,000-pound warhead, pinpoint accuracy with an infrared sensor, and both GPS and anti-jam navigation. But the LRASM can detect, identify and attack moving, maritime targets.

"LRASM also has a datalink on board that gives it more flexibility," Jackson said, allowing it to communicate with its launch platform.

"We're in Block 1 production for LRASM now," he said, adding theres an Air Force contract requirement of 23 missiles thus far. "We certainly can build at a rate faster than 23, and I see those rates increasing as we go into lot 2, 3 and 4."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Raytheon Co.'s Joint Standoff Weapon version C is nearly ready for the U.S. Navy's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The defense company recently integrated the 1,000-pound precision air-to-ground weapon, known as JSOW-C, during a developmental test in the fighter, said Mark Borup, of Raytheon's medium-range strike and attack air warfare systems division.

JSOW-C now must complete operational testing before it is declared combat ready, Borup said.

"This is absolutely a critical opportunity for the Navy because now this is their top-line, medium-range precision strike weapon that is capable now of being integrated and is being integrated internally on JSF," Borup said in an interview Tuesday. He spoke with Military.com during the annual Sea-Air-Space exposition here.

Related content:

Borup said the F-35 is now able to penetrate targets in total stealth mode since JSOW-C -- carried internally in the weapons bay -- is also configured with low-observable technology.

"The great thing about JSOW is that mixed loads can be carried" in the aircraft, he said, noting this means the Joint Strike Fighter could carry air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons at the same time.

At maximum, two JSOW-Cs can be carried in the F-35C.

A live developmental test was completed earlier this year in the Western United States, Borup said. Operational testing is expected to be done by the end of 2018.

The F-35C -- designed to take off and land on aircraft carriers -- is not expected to reach initial operating capability until 2019. When asked how this affects JSOW incorporation, Borup said Raytheon is working with the service as the aircraft's own testing continues.

"Those are kind of going along in parallel steps and, as the aircraft is ready to accept certain capabilities, then we move forward," he said.

The weapon was tested with the aircraft's Block 3F configuration software.

"It's already to go in the next phases," he said.

JSOW-C, using a GPS-navigation system and thermal imaging infrared seeker, is already used in the F/A-18 Super Hornet, which gave Raytheon additional test data and insights during F-35 configuration.

The missile uses a tandem warhead to blow through hardened surface targets like bunkers: The first compartment has a forward-shaped, 220-pound charge to penetrate, and a secondary compartment features a 320-pound follow-through bomb.

"It has a smart fuse, so you can pick the level of penetration desired," Borup said.

The missile can also be programmed to have different effects, such as waypoints or dive angles, he said.

"You want the flexibility to have one weapon that can meet a broad range of targets, whether its to penetrate a bunker or maybe its aircraft on a tarmac.  So it's optimized for a large number of targets," Borup said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214
Ola 1

Cab-hailing service provider Ola is in talks to buy food delivery brand Freshmenu, along with at least one other brand, a report by Mint suggests.

However, no deal has been agreed to yet with either of the brands, the report stated.

Ola has been in talks with private food brands since it acquired Foodpanda in late 2017. The company is reportedly exploring the possibility of creating an independent food technology company.

In December 2017, Old had bought the Indian arm of Foodpanda from its German parent company Delivery Hero. Ola had said that it would invest USD 200 million into the food-delivery company in a bid to expand its operations.

On April 3, Ola had purchased public transportation app Ridlr.

Besides being a cab aggregator and having a food delivery service in Foodpanda, Ola also has an e-wallet business called Ola Money.

Foodpandas rivals Zomato and Swiggy are in talks to raise more money, just a couple of months after the latest round of funding.

The fresh negotiations, which are still in the initial stage, come at a time when investors are eager to back food delivery startups.

The two leading food delivery startups are said to be in talks with at least three new investors. Zomato may raise between USD 200 million and USD 400 million, while Swiggy may raise around USD 200 million.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) the countrys second largest two-wheeler maker, grew by as much as 22 percent last financial year, and ended it with sales of close to 6.1 million units.

The company is reluctant to invest further towards adding capacity. In conversation with Moneycontrol, Minoru Kato, President and CEO, HMSI, spoke about where the company wants to invest, his outlook on the company's performance, and its future prospects. Edited excerpts...

A. Almost all of this investment will be for Bharat Stage VI preparation. All models in the lineup need to upgrade to BS-VI. BS-IV and BS-VI are totally different. There will be a big change required.

A. In the future we have a plan to expand. We need to look for more capacity. As of now today we dont have any such plans.

A. The 1 million (extra) sales was under an unusual situation. We had a plan of selling 5.4 million units, but because of demonetization in 2016 we dropped our plans to 5 million. The 1 million units jump in sales covers the loss in volumes two years ago.

A. We expect that in the future, there will be more growth. In 2020, because of BSVI norms, total motorcycle market may struggle to increase. But after that, we strongly believe it will grow again. From a long-term strategy perspective, we have a strong intention to grow sales.

Yes. BS-VI presents to us the biggest chance to grow our market share. We have lots of technology.

A. Yes some of the models I want to discontinue.

A. This fiscal year we are going to maximise existing capacity to meet our double digit growth target. But of course, after that we have the BS-VI norms coming, and from a long term point of view, we have a plan to increase capacity again.

A. It depends on pricing strategy. Our competitors also have some strategy. Thanks to BS-VI, we also have some strategy on how to compensate or sacrifice our profitability to offer reasonable price to the customer. I hope to price our products competitively compared to our competitors.

Q. Will you use India as a base for global markets?

We dont have any global model coming from India currently. So we have raised our hands to become a candidate for an export hub for the developed countries. That is still under discussion at our headquarters in Japan.
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Axis Bank MD & CEO Shikha Sharmas decision to step down is seen adding to the pressure on the ICICI Bank board to re-examine the tenure of its MD and CEO, Chanda Kochhar.

Sharmas exit follows the Reserve Bank of Indias directive to the Axis Bank board that Sharmas tenure to be extended for only a year, and not three years, as was decided in July last year.

At ICICI Bank, Kochhar is battling allegations of nepotism over loans given to Videocon Group whose promoter Venugopal Dhoot had business dealings with her husband Deepak Kochhar's firm. When reports about the Dhoot-Kochhar link first surfaced last month, the ICICI Bank hastily issued a statement backing Chanda Kochhar. But media reports over the last few days hint that the board members are divided on the issue.

The Finance Ministry is understood to be keeping close tabs on the developments at ICICI Bank, although there is no official word from the government yet.

Investigative agencies are already probing the allegations. The government is getting updates on the matter on a daily basis, said a banking source, who didn't want to be named.

The executive added that the government will let the Reserve Bank of India take a call on the matter and if required, will intervene directly.

The issue of Chanda Kochhar leadership is likely to be discussed at the next board meet of ICICI Bank to be held shortly.

According to JN Gupta, MD at Stakeholders Empowerment Services, "It is for the independent directors to safeguard their reputation and come out with a call...Here, RBI should do its duty given that they know the best facts."

On calls for an external, independent probe, Gupta said this would question the independence of ICICI Bank's independent directors.

Government on ICICI Board

The government nominee on the board of ICICI Bank is Lok Ranjan, Joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services. LIC Chairman VK Sharma is also on the board. Agrawal was replaced by Lok Ranjan on April 5.

It has come to light that both, the previous government representative Amit Agarwal and Sharma, were missing from the March 28 board meeting held by ICICI Bank. At the meeting, the Board gave a clean chit to Chanda Kochhar, ruling out any wrongdoing in the Rs 3,250-crore loans given by the bank to Videocon Group.

LIC representative was away in the US due to his prior commitments.

A senior LIC official said, "They (Bank) are aggressively trying to sort out the issue and that space needs to be given to them."

Sources said that LIC has reposed its faith in the bank and the functioning of the organisation.

Contrary to reports, the country's largest insurer has denied seeking any meeting with the bank board. But it is keeping a close watch on this matter, being a large shareholder.

A Business Standard report said, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which holds about a 9.4 percent stake in ICICI Bank, and the governments new nominee on the private lenders board have called a meeting of the banks top management this week.

"There is no such official meeting being sought by us," said a LIC official close to the development.

Institutional investors are understood to be raising concerns over the alleged irregularities and conflict of interest in the banks Rs 3,250-crore loan to the Videocon Group in 2012. Dhoot set up NuPower Renewables, along with Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar.

On Monday, the private sector lender continued to face the heat as global rating agency Fitch said allegations over the loan to Videocon raise questions of corporate governance and pose reputational risks for the bank.

Fitch will closely monitor developments, and would take appropriate rating action if risks to the banks reputation and financial profile were to rise considerably, it said in a statement.

That said, the banks rating is underpinned by relatively strong capitalisation and profitability, it added.

This comes against the backdrop of declining investor confidence and concerns over losses incurred due to the decline in the banks stock price.

ICICI Bank has lost over 8 percent of its value since reports about the alleged conflict of interest against Chanda Kochhar came to light last month.

On Monday, the ICICI Bank stock closed at Rs 280 per share on BSE.

Meanwhile, the CBI questioned Kochhars brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar for the fifth straight day. He is likely to be questioned on Tuesday as well.

The CBI is expected to widen its investigation and question more officials from NuPower Renewables, which was founded by Deepak Kochhar, husband of the ICICI Bank chief and Rajiv Kochhar's brother.

Since last week, Rajiv Kochhar, Videocons consultant, Mahesh Chandra Pungalia, have been quizzed by the CBI as part of the investigations.
Shikha Sharma is the MD and CEO of Axis Bank. Sharma, who is serving her fourth term, has decided to shorten her tenure by more than two years. Sharmas decision came after the countrys apex bank the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) questioned the banks performance and its deteriorating asset quality. Under Sharmas tenure, Axis Bank  the countrys third largest private lender  reported its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising from 0.96 per cent in March 2009 to 5.28 per cent in December 2017. Axis Bank has also been pulled up twice by the central bank for under-reporting bad loans for financial years 2016 and 2017.

Almost like the Biblical Cain and Abel story, the ICICI sisters Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma are in news within weeks of each other. Aside from being among the most powerful Women or in deed leaders in the world of Indian business they are also counted as among the most powerful in the world. The latest piece of news occupying the business world today involves Axis Banks MD and CEO Shikha Sharmas premature exit planned for the end of December 2018. All you need to know about the wise and hows of this development, what was the reason behind it? Why did the Reserve Bank of India ask the board of Axis Bank to reconsider its decision for a full-term renewal of Shikha Sharma? What are Axis Banks current problems? How did Axis Bank evolve under Shikha Sharma and what legacy she leaves behind? All of that and more on this story of the day podcast right here on Moneycontrol with me Rakesh.

Even as news trickles in today that some members in the ICICI bank board may not favour the continuation of MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, we hear this latest development in Axis bank and one time colleague of Chanda Kochhar ICICI, Mz Shikha Sharma. On December 8th 2017 the board of India's third largest private lender that is Axis Bank had informed with decision tore-appoint Shikha Sharma as the MD and CEO for a period of 3 years with effect from June 1st 2018 subject to requisite approvals. But there were also reports soon after that the Reserve Bank of India had asked axiss board to reconsider Sharmas re-appointment at the helm for the 4th term on the grounds of the banks dwindling financial performance. And that story has seen resolution with MS Sharma herself requesting the board to reconsider the period of her re-appointment. Kindly note that MZ Shikha Sharma, Managing Director and CEO of the bank is request the board to reconsider the period of a re-appointment as the MD and CEO of the bank be revised from the 1st of June 2018 up to the 31st of December 2018, said Axis Bank in a filing to the stock exchanges. So what may be the reasons behind all of this? Let's take a look at some of the problems plaguing Axis Bank right now.

In an interview to Bloomberg in December 2017, Shikha Sharma said and I quote, we have burnt our fingers, we have learnt lessons from concentration risk, structure of the project and risk parcelling and leverage structures. I think we will keep all that in mind in the next cycle. Well unfortunately for Mz Sharma, that cycle ends in December this year. In her nine years at the bank, Mz Sharma has pushed for growth degrowth unfortunately has also come with the cost of deteriorating asset quality which in the end may well be the cause of her exit.

Reason 1 - Bad Loans. Axis Bank in recent times has posted a sharp rise in bad loans. Analysts they're going to say that Axis Banks asset quality review that is AQR in late 2015 led to a rise in bad loans for most lenders including Axis Bank. In many ways, troubles began in late 2015. In quarters that followed, Axis turned out to be among the banks worst hit by the Asset quality review. When Mz Sharma took over as the MD and CEO of Axis Bank back in 2009, Axis was well behind MS Sharma's previous employer ICICI bank. As of March 2009, the bank had advances of 81557 crore rupees. About half of this was loans to corporates and around this time the bank had managed to escape the worst in retail bad loans in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008 and then had a bad loan ratio of just about under 1% and then began the days of great corporate lending and miss Shikha Sharma took a leadership role in this corporate lending. Speculations at that time were rife that this was in a move to close the gap with HDFC bank and ICICI Bank especially ICICI bank because observers within the corporate circles obviously saw this is a competition between her and her erstwhile colleague Mz Chanda Kochhar who pipped Mz Shikha Sharma to become the head of ICICI bank as Mz Shikha Sharma was also in contention for that post. That slightly sexiest speculation aside, the result was a more than two fold increase in the banks loan book to 3.73 lakh crore Rupees as of March 2017. Corporate lending initially worked, the share retail loans in Axis Bank total rose to 46% by the end of December 2017 from 21% in June 2009 which was when Sharma took over. Profits also rose steadily during this period on the corporate side infrastructural ending also continued given the opportunites is provided for most banks including Axis Bank. But even during this time when Axiss quality was considered healthy with gross bad loan ratio well below 2%, net NPA well below 1%, they were concerns because it, peers like HDFC and ICICI with similar infrastructure focus were reporting higher loan ratios and Axiss numbers were divergent on the sectoral trend that we were seeing otherwise. Which would be our number 2 point but lets concentrate on the bad loans aspect right now. Like I said earlier, things were fine until 2015 which was when RBI announced an asset quality review. Gross NPA ratio which was. 0.94 to 1.6% between June 2009 and March 2016 jumped to over 2% for the first time since Shikha Sharma took over. In the quarters that followed it grew to be even worse. It rose to high of 5.28% by the end of 2017. During Mz Shikha Sharmas Tenure gross bad loans of Axis Bank grew from 915 cross back in 2009 to 25000 crore Rupees by the end of 2017.

Number 2 - Divergence. The Banks image was also probably hurt due to the divergence in the quantum of bad loans reported by it and what the regulator that is RBI judged bad loans to be. At the end of the fiscal year of 2017 the bank classified loans worth 21280 Rupees as bad loans. The RBI on the other hand pegged that number to be 26913. The difference, that is the divergence, was 5633 crore. For financial year 2016 the bank reported an even higher divergence of 9480 crores which was 156% more than the reported amount. So, within the past year and a half alone, the bank has been penalised by the RBI for underreporting of bad loans. In addition to all of these troubles there was WhatsApp. Where doesn't WhatsApp popup these days? UTI face the wrath of SEBI which ordered Axis Bank to strengthen it systems and conduct an internal probe to fix responsibility as the initial investigation showed the leakage of price sensitive financial information was due to inadequacy of processes at the bank in a WhatsApp leak case relating to its quarterly results of April to June 2017. So on top of bad loans and the underreporting of bad loans that was the WhatsApp leak in 2017.

Number 3 - The bottom line. In addition to the gross NPA ratio rising to as high as 5.28% compared to 0.96% in March 2009 when Sharma to charge the pressure of bad loans has also dented its net profit. At the end of December last year it was it 726 crore rupees against 562 crore rupees when she became the MD of the bank back in 2009. The profit growth has reduced from 69.5% in F5 2009 to negative 55.2% in 2017. Worse, its shareholder returns of 252% is less than the bankex index at 270%. The stock price has remained dormant over the past year and in March alone it stumbled by over 3%.

Meanwhile number 4 - The RBI had also dropped Axis Bank from a list of banks it has cleared to import bullion that is gold and silver in the current financial year that began April the 1. It was unclear back then why Axis, one of India's leading importers of bullion did not feature in the list, but now may answer some questions.

And number 5 - People who have been observing Axis Bank knew something was afoot because Axis Bank had appointed Egon Zehnder which is a consultancy firm to identify the next CEO which conducted preliminary search before the board decided on Sharma's reappointment. But of course the announcement of the reappointment was not without speculations which had been rife that it was time that Axis Bank chose a new successor. Being as MZ Sharma was a lateral mover in that she was hired from ICICI Bank speculation is rife that the next successive would be someone from within. But of course, casting a wide net to choose an external candidate has also not been ruled out as an option. A senior management level rejig is likely in the aftermath of Sharmas exit an appointment of a new chief. Some of the names doing the rounds as Mz Sharmas successors include Deputy MD V Srinivasan and Executive Director Rajiv Anand.

Number 6 - The problems that Axis Bank currently faces are not merely restricted to poor management of credit risks, there been other incidents as well. In 2013 Axis Bank along with ICICI bank and HDFC bank had been penalised for Know Your Customer norm violations after the website Cobra post.com caught bank employees advising clients on how to legitimize unaccounted money that is black money and more recently 2 bank managers from Axis were arrested during demonetisation on allegations of money laundering via accounts of Bullion traders. That incidence could well have contributed to why Axis Bank did not receive the RBI licence to import bullion for this financial year. So all these slings and arrows and frankly cannonballs, have led to the departure of Mz Shikha Sharma almost as if the 1812 Overture was playing in the background, Cannonball Run all. The next challenge is of course with the board and the bank to find a new successor. Having listed all of these troubles, the bank under Mz Sharma has for the last 2 years been trying to correct some of the mistakes. It has reduced loans given to specific groups in industries, it has focused on loans given to higher rated companies in order to cut down the bad loan ratio, the bank is going to provide data that its exposure to the top 20 borrowers as a percentage of Tier 1 capital has come down to 118% compared to 287% in March 2011 and banker has also provide the data that 85% of the banks incremental sanctions are now going to corporate rated A or above compared to 68% back and financial year 2012. But perhaps it was a case of too little too late. For now though, it continues to be the bronze medal holder while below HDFC and ICICI and investors continue to value it well below its peers including smaller ones like Kotak Mahindra Bank which by the way was also rumoured to be eying a merger with Axis bank as recently as last year.

But the final note on all of this is of course the fact that we will now be seeing the exit of Mz Shikha Sharma, one of the highest ranked bankers and certainly one of the top women bankers the country has ever seen. We will of course be remised if we did not end this podcast without also acknowledging the successes and achievements of Mz Shikha Sharma.

Sharing her birthday, that is November 19th with no less than Indira Gandhi, Shikha Sharma has gone to be one of the biggest names in corporate India. With a career of more than 38 years in banking, she joined ICICI in 1980 ahere she went on to lay the foundations of ICICI Banks personal financial services. In December 2000 she went on to head the insurance business of ICICI and took charge of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and repeated her success with retail banking. Investment on to be extremely successful crossing the 200,000 policies landmark within 2 years of its start with the premium income of 280 crore rupees. Because of all her successes within ICICI she became a contender for the top post at ICICI bank which eventually went to Mz Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma left to become the head of Axis bank. But her entry into Axis Bank was just as stormy as her impending exit. She was the successor to PJ Nayak who had headed the erstwhile UTI bank which later became renamed as Axis bank and Naik was keen on promoting an insider to take over from him as CEO. The board of course had other plans and approached Shikha Sharma. Business journalists from that time and people who follow the news back then remember what are widely reported conflict that was and eventually the board won and Shikha Sharma was appointed to head the bank. She took over like I said earlier in 2009 June. Her entry into Axis was far from easy, it witnessed a flurry of senior management exists upon the appointment to whom they so as an outsider as the banks CEO. Sharma almost completely changed the old guard and picked her own deputies. Under Shikha Sharma Axis became a truly universal bank with an enviable investment banking team. Axis still regularly features in the top three of every League table in debt and equity fund raising. One of her first moves upon moving to Axis was to acquire Enam securities with that specific aim in mind. But of course, this deal valuation also came under criticism back then in April 2012, the deal size was cut by almost a 3rd to 1396 crore rupees from 2070 crore rupees. Eventually the deal did pay off as Axis Capital which was carved out of Enam business grew to feature in League Tables are like I said just earlier. Getting more retail business also became a Priority even as the bank continued to focus on corporate lending which may well have been the beginning of the end as well and some ways and focusing on retail business as per share of retail loans in Axis banks total book rose to 46% at the end of December 2017 from 21% in June 2009 when Sharma took over. On the liability side also Axis Bank grew on to have a name under Shikha Sharma because it's now recognised as a lender with a strong franchise of low cost current and savings account deposits. Profits grew steadily during those periods from 2009 onwards until of course 2015.

Under Shikha Sharma's leadership Axis Bank also saw a different way of thinking. Under her predecessor P J Naik decision making was largely top down at the bank had been growing in a different environment and then took on a new corporate identity. But Sharma who was more used to participative processes realized that as the organisation scaled up and became more and more complex and markets grew larger, it would need more layers of decision making which was where her personal leadership style of delegation paid off and it was during this time that she planned her first major strategic planning exercise for Axis calling it Vision 2015 with the entire top team participating and not merely her dictating her vision. The first task was to sort out the retail business. When Axis identified retail lending as one of its main focus areas in the vision 2015 plan analytics was an area the bank knew it would have to concentrate on. NPAs in the personal loans business for unacceptably high and the problem could be addressed only through analytics and retail behaviour. It was also important to identify the right customers for the bank and that was when Mz Sharma decided to hire Jairam Sridharan whom she had worked with at ICICI Bank from Capital One in the US to head the banks retail business. The bank then put in place a detailed risk management system and overtime they saw a reduction in retail NPAs and that was showing on the balance sheet. So slowly her Vision 2015 was gaining momentum and Sharma kept benchmarking herself against her own targets, making sure that she was neither to quick nor to slow in implementing the changes. In some ways a very sure footed leadership. Well where they were highs there were lows as well. For such a flying achiever, Sharma has been consistently described by many people who have met and interacted with her as disarmingly modest. All too willing discuss her own failures and drawbacks. A the start of her career as she went on to say at an interview was not particularly propitious during the placement period the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmadabad or IMA where she is a graduate and where she also met her husband to be she was unable to land a job until day 8 or day 9. She went on to say that foreign banks had rejected her and that she was losing confidence in herself but was able to take it in his stride. And it was then that ICICI gave her the break that defined her career path which would eventually lead her to Fortunes most powerful women in business list as recently as 2017. In interview with Forbes India in 2014 she was asked the question - What Legacy would she want to leave behind at Axis bank? She said, I'll say what I told investors in 2009. I took over a good business, I want to leave behind a great institution. As the dust settles how Shikha Sharma as contributions will be evaluated, only time will tell, but it is a matter of absolutely no doubt that Mz Shikha Sharma through her storied career has influenced and inspired countless women and men alike in the becoming one of the most successful bankers the country has ever seen.

This has been everything you wanted to know about Shikha Sharma and her impending exit from Axis Bank. Until the next time I see you, this is me Rakesh saying thank you for joining us and stay with us on Moneycontrol.
Have a long-term outlook | Timing investment is logically impossible because the best entry and exit opportunities are known only in hindsight. No one can predict market movements with certainty. Therefore, it is important to allow your investments to compound over a long term.

India and Egypt today held talks on providing new opportunities for investments in IT, education and health, and discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral ties.

The talks were held between India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan on the sidelines of celebration the an India Day held in the coastal city of Alexandria.

"We met the Governor in the morning and thanked him for the support provided to Indian investments and to Indians in Alexandria as well as to Indian cultural activities, especially the International Yoga Day," Bhattacharyya said.

"We discussed new opportunities for investments in IT, education and health. I briefed him on establishment of infrastructure projects, to which he responded very favourably, noting priority in transport and public utilities," he said.

The film festival was opened with the popular Indian film 'Om Shanti Om' starring Shah Rukh Khan. An exhibition on Gandhi is also being organized.
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India and the European Union will meet on Thursday in Brussels to take forward discussions on the Free Trade Agreement between the two regions, a top diplomat said today.

"The goods and services trade with India exceeded 100 billion Euro last year. The current trade deficit is very balanced between India and the EU," EU Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski told reporters here.

Identifying India as a "natural partner", he said the country will remain one of the main trade destinations for the EU. On the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Kozlowski said, "We are in the process of formalising the FTA. This is a complex issue, but we are approaching with an open mind. On April 12, another meeting will take place in Brussels between the FTA chief negotiators."

The EU and India have decided to work in partnership in a host of areas such as water management, climate change, renewable energy and sustainable development, he said.

Talks for an India-EU FTA began in 2007, but was put on hold in 2013. The matter came up for discussion again during the 14th India-EU Summit held in Delhi in October last year, followed by the EU's chief negotiators for the FTA meeting the Indian side informally in November.

Kozlowski said the EU and India have decided to step up their association in handling radical and terror elements in both the region as well as at the global level.

"Radicalisation is a challenge to both India and the EU. So, we have decided to convene a meeting between the law enforcing agencies to have better coordination and how handle the challenge in a better way," he said, adding the talks will take place in May in New Delhi and NIA will represent India.

The diplomat said that the EU upgrades the list of terror outfits and terrorists every six months.

Regarding the issue of immigration, he said migration is a big challenge globally, especially since 2005. "We had challenge in handling it, but it is now under control. We are not accepting any new migration for any economic reason and doors are closed for that."

Kozlowski said discussions on a global level are needed to handle matters related to migration. "The EU organised many high-level meetings. We are trying to work out a principle and resolution. But we think that a global solution is needed on migration issues. We are stepping up our cooperation with India on migration issue as India is also facing the same," he said.

Asked about India-EU relations post the Brexit, the diplomat said there should not be a major change in trade in view of it.

"Brexit will not have any negative impact on EU-India. EU will remain the main partner for India. I don't expect a big change in trade between EU and the UK as the overall customs duty is very less. The UK will remain a major market for the EU," he added.
Dang Dinh Quy, the Vice Foreign Minister of Vietnam, today met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and held discussions on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and on ways to further boost ties.

"Vice Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy of Vietnam called on EAM @sushmaswaraj today. They discussed comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam and the plan of action to further expand our relationship," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

After a decade of being strategic partners, India and Vietnam formally upgraded their relationship status to "comprehensive strategic partnership" in 2016.

Defence and trade are important components of the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

There have been two high-level visits to India from the Vietnamese side earlier this year.
The induction of high-power electric locomotive will significantly improve average speed of freight trains, Union Minister Manoj Sinha said here today.

Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha made the remarks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off the 12,000-horsepower freight electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory in Bihar.

There was a need of high horse power engines. Average speed was lower due to less horse power engines but now goods train will also run on good speed and the average speed will improve, Sinha told reporters here.

He said that increase in speed would result in improving punctuality and capacity.

Sinha, who was here to attend 63th regional railway week celebration organised by the north-western railways, said that investment in the railway sector has increased multifold in the last four years and the government is focusing on improving the infrastructure and safety.

"Investment has significantly increased in railway sector in the Modi government which will result in improved infrastructure and facilities, he said.

Sinha felicitated railway officials and other employees on the occasion.

He also visited a railway exhibition at Jaipur junction.
Niti Aayog

The NITI Forum for North East today outlined five development missions for promoting sectors like horticulture, tourism and food processing in the region, NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said here today.

Other missions will cover bamboo-based handicrafts and medium scale industries with focus on 'Make in North-East', he said. Kumar said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to establish a regional NITI Aayog forum for the north eastern states.

A regional forum for Himalayan and Coastal states will also be set up soon, he said. Kumar was addressing the first meeting of the newly constituted forum here.

There has been outflow of resources of North East to other parts of India, he said, adding that the states in the region "must bring back not only its resources but also additional resources. For that we will have to create employment opportunities in the region".

There is a challenge to bring the north eastern region into the mainstream and the central government is working to connect it with the rest of India, he said.

"To make north-east more familiar in the rest of the country, one emporium would be set up in all the districts of the country, so that people can know about the products of the region," Kumar added. He also pointed out that in the 1950s, per capita income of North East was highest in India.

In his address, Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) minister Jitendra Singh said that the government has already initiated talks with a private airline for connecting Agartala with Dhaka and Chittagong.

He also underlined the need for completion of the 15 km long Agartala-Akhaura rail link for improving connectivity of north-east with Bangladesh. The meeting also discussed the need to complete of the bridge on the river Feni in Sabroomn which connects Chittagong and Tripura, he added.

After completion of the bridge on the river Feni at Sabroom in South Tripura district, broad gauge railway track would be extended to Chittagong port, and Tripura would act as the gateway for the North-East, the minister said.

Among others, the meeting was attended by Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and ministers from other North Eastern states.

The NITI Forum for North East was constituted in February 2018 to ensure sustainable economic growth of the region. The secretariat for the Forum has been established in the DoNER Ministry.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari

India and South Korea today signed an agreement on mutual recognition of competency certificates of seafarers, paving the way for Indian mariners to seek employment on more than 500 Korean ships.

Indian shipping and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, who started his four-day visit to Korea yesterday, said the pact will benefit both the nations, who are eyeing partnerships in ship-building, waterways and smart transportation, among others.

"India signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the Republic of Korea on mutual recognition of certificates of competency of seafarers. This paves the way for the two governments to mutually recognise the certificates of maritime education and training, competency, endorsements and medical fitness of seafarers issued by each other," the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement here.

The agreement was signed by Gadkari and his Korean counterpart Kim Young-choon at a ceremony in Busan today.

The statement quoted Gadkari as saying, "The signing of the agreement will benefit both countries. Korea is a large ship owning nation. As of now, Korean entities own more than 500 foreign going ships, and need seafarers to work on their fleet. India has around 1,54,349 seafarers. The agreement will open up employment opportunities for Indian seafarers on Korean ships."

On the second day of his official visit, Gadkari -- who is also holding water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation portfolio -- held a bilateral meeting with the South Korean Oceans Minister Kim Young-choon.

He visited Busan Port and attended India-Korea Maritime Cooperation Forum (IKMCF).
Ahmedabad: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses a round table conference on Global Growth Through Indian Economy in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. PTI Photo(PTI5_23_2017_000170B)

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there is no inherent bias or mandate in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission that could be construed as discriminatory against the states which have made good progress in population control.

He was responding to concerns expressed by Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as well as the Congress-ruled union territory of Puducherry over the ToR of the Commission.

Also Read: Decoding the role of Finance Commission

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the finance ministers of south Indian states at a conclave at Thiruvananthapuram said that ToR was against the principles of federalism enshrined in the Constitution and also would result in revenue loss to the performing states.

"The ToRs of 15th FC rightly balance both the needs' represented by latest population and 'progress towards population control' very well," Jaitley said in a Facebook post. He further said that a needless controversy was being sought to be created that the terms of reference of the Commission were loaded against any particular region of the country. "Nothing could be further from truth," he added.

The share in central taxes, he said, is allocated to the states based on recommendations made by the Commissions to help them meet fiscal deficiency in providing a minimum standard of services to their people.

"This calls for assessing states' needs' on rationale and equitable basis. FCs use appropriate criteria to assess true needs of States. Population proxies very well for the needs of the people in quantitative sense.

"Another criterion, the Income Distance, which captures very well relative poverty of people in the States, is used to assess qualitative needs. These two parameters allocate more resources to the populous and poorer States, which need additional funds for providing education, health and other services to the people, which own resources of these poorer states may otherwise not allows," he added.

Although the 14th Finance Commission had no specific mandate for using 2011 census, he said, it has rightly used the 2011 census population data to capture the demographic changes since 1971 to make realistic assessment of the needs of the states.

The 14th Finance Commission had allocated a 42 per cent share in the central taxes to the States more than ever before, he said.

Pointing to the specific inclusion of reference -- efforts and progress made in moving towards replacement rate of population growth -- he said it recognises the efforts of all the states which have done well in population control.

"This specific ToR would allow the 15th FC to propose a specific incentive scheme to reward the states which have achieved replacement level of population growth, and also, if the 15th FC wishes to do so, to assign appropriate weight to the progress made in population control while allocating resources," he added.
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Vice President - Equity Research, Ajcon Global Services

Eicher Motors Q3FY18 results were in line with our expectations and expect Q4FY18 to be much stronger. With the commencement of its third plant at Vallam Vadagal, its total capacity will go upto 9,00,000 units in FY19. Plan for Phase-II expansion at the Vallam Vadagal plant would be finalised in May 2018. In the absence of Phase-II expansion, production capacity would be 900k for FY19.

The management expects strong growth in 7 out 10 states where Royal Enfield has a market share of 2-4 percent. The Company recently hiked prices by 1 percent on 350 CC models. The company is looking to expand its dealership network in smaller towns for its flagship product Royal Enfield. The Company estimates dealership network to 925 by FY19 which would augur well to its topline. In addition, the management is looking to capture the under-penetrated 250-750 cc market globally and has already opened exclusive stores in Colombia, two in UK, one each in UAE, France, Spain, Australia and Indonesia.

In VECV segment, the management expects strong demand owing to thrust on infrastructure, pick up in mining activities, take off in e-commerce and due to the strict overloading restrictions in some markets. The company is operating at 100 percent utilisation level in VECV segment and expects the momentum to sustain.

The company is trading at a P/E of 28x of FY19 estimated EPS which is at a premium. However, with strong brand equity of Royal Enfield (RE), RE segment business reporting excellent set of numbers and VECV segment picking, we believe, it is fair to provide premium to companys valuations. Our target for 6 months would be Rs 34,000.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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"Nifty has immediate resistance zone at 10,420-10,440 levels. Crossing this zone on sustainable basis, next zone for index is seen at 10,560-10,630 where 50 percent of rise and February congestion highs are seen," Ashish Chaturmohta, Head Technical and Derivatives at Sanctum Wealth Management said in an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol's Kshitij Anand.

Domestic equity markets extended gains for the third consecutive day as trade war concerns between US and China dissipated slightly. The Nifty closed the day yesterday at 10,379 levels up by 0.5 percent. Market breadth was positive with almost two advancing against a decline on NSE. But BSE midcap and small cap indices underperformed the benchmark as managed gains 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

The bounce back in Nifty has almost reached 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement of the fall from 11,172 to low of 9,952 which comes around at 10,420 levels. Also, the 50 and 100 day moving average are in the region 10,440 levels. Thus, index has immediate resistance zone at 10,420-10,440 levels. Crossing this zone on sustainable basis, next zone for index is seen at 10,560-10,630 where 50 percent of rise and February congestion highs are seen.

On the downside immediate support is seen at 10,290-10275 levels and 10,200 levels. Breaking below 10,200 level Nifty may see retest of recent low of 9,950 levels.

Here are the top 5 stocks to buy which can give up to 15% return in the near term:

Biocon | Rating: Buy | CMP: Rs 620 | Target: Rs 700, stop loss: Rs 595 | Return: 13%

The stock witnessed breakout after nine months of consolidation from Rs 400 odd levels at the end last year and then quickly rallied to touch all time high of Rs 658 in the month of January this year. Since then stock has been trading sideways between Rs 658 to Rs 560 odd levels consolidating its gains over last couple of months.

Biocon has witnessed high volume on days of up move suggesting buying participation during this range bound period. In the short-term, the price has formed pennant pattern on daily chart and seen breakout from the same. Yesterday price witnessed price momentum and good volume action suggesting breakout is likely to sustain.

MACD has moved above neutral level of zero suggesting change of trend from sideways to up. Thus, Biocon can be bought at current level and on dips to Rs 610 with stop loss below Rs 595 for target of Rs 700 levels.

Indraprastha Gas Limited | Rating: Buy | CMP: Rs 303 | Target: Rs 350, stop loss: Rs 288 | Return: 15%

The stock is in long term uptrend forming higher tops higher bottoms on its daily and weekly chart. Recently, the stock hit all-time high of Rs 345 in the month of January and then corrected down to Rs 271 levels. From here, it rallied to Rs 317 levels where it faced resistance at 50-day moving average and then tested the low of Rs 271.

The bounce back in last three trading sessions is leading to formation of bullish double bottom pattern on daily chart. Relative strength index on weekly chart has given positive crossover with its average after five months suggesting downtrend might be over and the stock is likely to move higher. Thus, IGL can be bought at current level and on dips to Rs 298 with stop loss below Rs 288 for target of Rs 350 levels.

Bombay Dyeing | Rating: Buy | CMP: Rs 262 | Target: Rs 300, stop loss: Rs 248 | Return: 14%

The stock touched all time high Rs 305 in the month of January last year and then corrected down to Rs 177 odd levels. From there, it quickly rallied on back of buying participation as seen from high volumes at lower levels to touch high of Rs 295. Since then price has corrected 50 percent of the rise from Rs 177 to Rs 295 which comes around Rs 235 and held above it.

The price has crossed falling resistance trend line originating from February high of Rs 295 connecting high of Rs 272 and closed above the line. Yesterday the price witnessed price momentum and good volume action suggesting breakout is likely to sustain. Thus, Bombay Dyeing can be bought at current level and on dips to Rs 257 with stop loss below Rs 248 for target of Rs 300.

Tata Elxsi Limited | Rating: Buy | CMP: Rs 1042 | Target: Rs 1150, stop loss: Rs 1005 | Return: 10%

The stock is in long term uptrend forming higher tops higher bottoms on its weekly chart. The price touched high of Rs 1123 and then corrected down to Rs 923 levels where found support at 100-day moving average and the witnessed bounce back to Rs 1068 levels. It again tested the 100-DMA and on line daily line chart price has formed bullish double bottom pattern.

The price has given breakout from Bollinger bands with expansion of bands suggesting trend likely to continue in direction of breakout. MACD has moved above neutral level of zero suggesting change of trend from sideways to up. Thus, the stock can be bought at current level and on dips to Rs 1130 with stop loss below Rs 1005 for target of Rs 1150.

HDFC Bank Limited | Rating: Buy | CMP: Rs 1939 | Target: Rs 2100, stop loss: Rs 1880 | Return: 8%

The stock is in long term uptrend forming higher top higher bottom formation. It recently touched high of Rs 2015 in the month February and then corrected down to Rs 1830 odd levels. Since then the price has been trading in sideways range for last couple of months and witnessed consolidation in a range of Rs 1920 and Rs 1830 odd levels.

Yesterday, the stock witnessed breakout from this trading range and also given breakout from Bollinger bands with expansion of bands suggesting that the trend is likely to continue in direction of breakout. Thus, HDFC Bank can be bought at current level and on dips to Rs 1910 with stop loss below Rs 1880 for target of Rs 2100.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Last one year for IndiGo Airlines, largest in India by market share, has not been very good. It has been in news for wrong reasons more often than not. We list 10 such occasions when IndiGo made headlines:

On April 10, a Bengaluru-based doctor accused the carrier's staff to have manhandled him and offloaded him from the aircraft when he complained about mosquitoes on board the flight. IndiGo, however, said that he was offloaded from the plane for 'unruly' behaviour, alleging that Rai became 'aggressive' and used 'threatening language' before his concerns regarding mosquitoes on board could have been addressed.

On November 4, last year, ace shuttler PV Sindhu claimed that an IndiGo ground staff behaved very badly and rudely with her. However, the carrier denied the claim blaming her oversized bag which she wanted to keep in the overhead bin. The airline said that it was extremely proud of Sindhus sporting achievements but safety of the operations was paramount. (Reuters)

The following week, a video of two IndiGo staff manhandling a flyer surfaced in November last year. The flyer was stopped from entering the airline's bus by two staffers on October 15. One of the staffers who took a video of the incident was sacked by the company. Later, both staffers who assaulted the flyer were fired by the company after a hue and cry.

Continuing the streak of bad luck, a Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight on November 11 witnessed a 'laptop burn' in the cabin. The crew smelt something burn, and immediately took action after they realised it was coming from a flyer's cabin baggage. After spotting the bag, they noticed that a laptop had almost caught fire. The crew immediately put the laptop in a container full of water. (Representative image- Wikimedia Commons)

Same day, a woman passenger of IndiGo was injured after she fell from a wheelchair while being ferried by the airline staffer at the Lucknow airport. IndiGo claimed that the mishap happened due to crack in the floor at the airport, however, the Airports Authority of India said it was "gross negligence of IndiGo staff". (Representative image- Wikimedia Commons)

Next day, passengers on board a Hyderabad-bound IndiGo flight had a close shave as the plane hit a boar while taking off at Vishakhapatnam airport. While the plane was taking off from the runway, it ran into a wild boar damaging the rear wheel and killing the animal. In total 154 people were on board, including 150 passengers and four crew members, at the time of the mishap. (Reuters)

In November again, two IndiGo staffers misbehaved with a female lawyer at the Guwahati Airport. Krishna Sarma alleged that IndiGo staffers at Guwahati airport forcibly snatched her phone to delete pictures she had taken. The pictures were of her luggage being screened before the check-in procedure. The staffer asked her to delete the pictures and in spite of her telling that she had done so, he snatched her phone and deleted the pictures from her 'recently deleted' folder. The employees were later suspended by the carrier. (Wikimedia Commons)

Two days after the Guwahati incident, a police complaint against IndiGo was filed by a flyer who accused the airline crew to have refused to accept Indian currency for payment of food items, among others, for flights to foreign destinations. In his complaint, he said another passenger faced the same 'mistreatment' by the airline. (Flickr/Alan Wilson)

In the same month, on November 26, noted historian Ramchandra Guha took to Twitter to complain of "unprovoked rudeness" by staff of IndiGo. In his tweet, he said that he does not usually take to Twitter 'as a means of consumer redressal' but couldn't help but do so as he claims that the staffers misbehaved thrice in the same week. (Wikimedia Commons)
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An insider who is familiar with the culture and the operational problems will be best suited for the top job at Axis Bank, said human resource experts Moneycontrol spoke to.

On Monday, Axis Bank MD & CEO Shikha Sharma said she was stepping down, but would stay in her role till December to ensure a smooth transition.

"In the past, the (bank) board had indicated that they would prefer a candidate from within," said a senior human resource consultant on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said that the bank is now scouting for a large executive search firm to identify Sharma's successor.

Sunil Goel, Managing Director of executive search firm GlobalHunt, said that there should be a fine mix between what an organisation needs today and what the growth strategy will be for the next five to ten years.

Goel added that the advantage of an insider is that they are operationally aware, and that they have grown with the system and know their strengths and weakness.

However, he also said that someone with multi-company experience could help drive Axis Bank's growth path going forward.

In 2017, the bank had chosen executive search firm Egon Zehnder to identify its next CEO. Sources said that the firm had also conducted an initial search for this process.

However, Axis Banks board decided to re-appoint Shikha Sharma for three more years starting June 1 this year.

A source close to the development said that since the bank is facing a mini-crisis situation, an insider who is aware of their exact market position will be beneficial.

"The bank is in the midst of closing the accounts for the last fiscal. On an immediate basis, the key is to assuage the concerns of the investors and for this an insider would do a good job. Also, eight months may not be an adequate period to get an outsider as a successor," said the India head of a mid-size C-Suite search firm.

Axis Bank has, in the past, decided on a mandate to get a new chief, and even invited internal applicants to apply. But sources said that due to paucity of time and the fact that they were unable to arrive at a consensus on a candidate, the process was abandoned at that point.

According to another HR consultant who has been in talks with the bank in the past, the first step will be to get an interim CEO after Sharma steps down. Then a rejig could be done, after which a new CEO will be appointed.

However, the consultant added that given that Axis Bank has a large focus on retail lending, an external candidate with a good exposure to this space from the BFSI segment could be a good fit as the deputy chief executive officer.
The Nifty50 is expected to open higher on Tuesday tracking positive trend seen in other Asian markets. The index closed 47 points higher at 10,379 on Monday.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicated a positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 41 points. Nifty futures were trading around 10,434-level on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Wall Streets major indexes rose on Monday as a softer stance by U.S. policymakers on China tariffs powered a rebound from last weeks selloff, but stocks pared much of their gains late in the session after a report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the office of President Donald Trumps lawyer, Reuters reported.

Asian shares edged lower on Tuesday as Wall Street retreated from its highs. The Nikkei 225 edged down by 0.59 percent and the Topix slipped 0.44 percent. South Korea's Kospi index, meanwhile, lost 0.68 percent, Reuters reported.

Stocks in news:

Axis Bank: Shikha Sharma asks Board to reconsider period of her re-appointment as Bank Head. Board has accepted Shikha Sharma's request pending approval from RBI

HDFC hikes retail prime lending rate by 20 bps w.e.f April 1

Alembic to buyback 1,02,50,000 equity shares at Rs 80 per share

Wipro: Telecom client in India filed a petition to initiate CIRP with NCLT. The company likely to see a negative impact of 65-75 bps on net income level

HealthCare Global Enterprises approved the allotment of 9,34,500 equity shares at Rs 321 per share on Preferential basis to the promoter of the company

ICICI Bank: Fitch has said that allegations pose reputational risks and will take appropriate action if risks to reputation and financial profile rise
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The Air India divestment is in its final leg and the political ruckus is growing in volume. The Congress has already criticised the government for offering Air-India to a foreign airline while glossing over the fact that the pathetic state of affairs at the flag carrier was possible only because of mismanagement during its regime. Naturally, the communists are complaining as their nationalism gets triggered only when a foreigner picks up an Indian company.

Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress calls the profusely bleeding Air-India the Jewel of our Nation. This is an odd description for a company that has over Rs 50,000 crore in debt and is losing money every year.

The parliamentary panel that was set up to look into divestment was of little help, suggesting that divestment be delayed by five years. In what it calls advice the committee recommended writing off the debt and pumping in equity to revive the airline.

Wisely, the government has decided to get rid of the airline and has taken a tough stance on it.

While homegrown budget airline IndiGo, the first airline to express interest to buy Air-India, and Jet Airways both deciding to pull out the race is seen as a body blow to the divestment process, the government has decided to continue with its stance of selling the airline without splitting Air-Indias business into domestic and international.

It was in 2007 that the Congress decided to merge Air-India and Indian Airlines into a new company. However, after five years, in 2012, civil aviation minister of the Congress Ajit Singh went on record to say that merging the two airlines was a big mistake, but de-merging them would be a lengthy business and a futile exercise.

Companies like IndiGo are not interested in the loss-making domestic business of Air-India. They cannot be blamed for it as they have already carved out a position in the domestic business. It is only late entrants like the Tatas and Air Asia who might be keen on picking up a big chunk of domestic market share by acquiring Air Indias domestic business as well as the international routes.

But for foreign players, Air-India offers a great opportunity to participate in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. Government sources have been quoted as saying that there are a lot of interested and probable bidders who are looking at the transaction.

Among the names that are being floated are global carriers like Germanys Lufthansa, British Airways and Singapore Airlines besides a few West Asian and Southeast Asian airlines.

The government is offering a 76% stake in Air India and 100% stake in Air-India Express (AXIL), the fully-owned budget arm of Air India along with a 50% stake in the ground handling joint venture of Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (AISATS).

Air-India has 44 per cent of the international business originating in India while the remaining is shared between IndiGo, Jet Airways and SpiceJet.

What makes Air India a prized catch is that the national carrier has 2,543 international slots, including to the US, the UK and Far East, and bilateral rights for 970,389 seats negotiated with numerous countries.

The vast domestic and international network along with the infrastructure at almost all airports makes the company a valued target.

What goes against the company is its mountain of debt and a massive workforce.

But while one can be put off by these negatives, Air India offers enough room for improvement. The company has enough room to cover in terms of operational efficiency parameters as compared to its peers. This is the lowest hanging fruit for any company that acquires the airline. Without too much investment but right management, the companys operational parameters like aircraft utilization, occupancy rates and revenue per seat can be improved by sweating the assets to the fullest. These measures will improve the companys cash flows and help service its debt better.

On the employee front nearly 40 per cent of the employees are retiring over the next five years, so the new owners will either have to bide their time or come out with a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to take care of the issue. Employee unions, by trying to stop the inevitable, are being short-sighted: Taxpayers already view them as free-loaders.

There are three main reasons why a foreign airline scores over Indian suitors. First is that the foreign player, who does not have any presence in the domestic segment, would surely develop its share of this prize market, as against an Indian player, who would push its own services at the cost of Air-India. Second, the foreign player, as is the case with Etihad/Jet Airways, would capitalise on the outgoing traffic from India to fill its seats on connecting flights. The slots available from Air India can supplement the slots the foreign airlines will have across the globe. Finally, a foreign airline has the biggest advantage of having access to low-cost funds. Even swapping the existing high-cost debt of Air India will be a life-saver for the airline.

The way things stand it is very likely that a global player may get Air India. Though there will be a lot of political breast-beating if Air India is sold to foreigners, it is arguably a better outcome for the airline. It's best to put the airline up for adoption rather than persist with a prodigal child for the sake of fake nationalism.
21:36 Massive anti-IPL protests in Chennai; two detained for throwing slippers into ground

Massive anti-IPL protests by pro-Tamil groups erupted here today with scores of activists including film directors being detained even as police chased away agitators in some places.

One incident of protesters burning yellow jerseys, the attire of Chennai Super Kings players,

was witnessed.

Two activists belonging to a pro-Tamil outfit threw slippers into the ground when the Chennai Super Kings-Kolkata Knight Riders match was in progress at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, police said.

However, the match went on and the activists belonging to Naam Tamizhar, detained.

The slippers fell near CSK fielder Ravindra Jadeja who was fielding at long-on.

The incident occurred when the eighth over was in progress with the Kolkata Knight Riders batting. (PTI)

21:18 Parliamentary panel discusses NPA issue with RBI Governor, bankers

A Parliamentary panel today met RBI Governor Urjit Patel, top public sector bankers and government officials to discuss about mounting bad loans and ways to resolve the problem.

Several bankers apprised the Committee on Subordinate Legislation of Rajya Sabha about different aspects of non-performing assets and the efforts being made to tackle the menace, sources said.

According to the sources, the bankers told the panel that the 'one-day' default provision for NPA classification as per the latest RBI circular was too harsh and that it should be made more practical.

The circular was issued on February 12 amid rising concerns over bad loans in the banking system.

The bankers also informed the panel, headed by senior Congress leader T Subbarami Reddy, that the 180-day resolution plan for NPAs under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is "too less", sources said.

Top officials of about 16 public sector banks attended the meeting, which lasted for over three hours. (PTI)

21:00 Unnao gang rape case: BJP MLA's kin arrested; SIT probe ordered

The police today arrested Atul Singh, brother of a BJP MLA, in connection with the gang rape of an 18-year-old woman and the custodial death of her father in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, as an SIT was formed to probe the incident.

A plea was also moved in the Supreme Court for a CBI probe in the matter.

"The Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Additional Director General (ADG) of Police (Lucknow zone) will go into the entire gamut of issues involved in the incident," ADG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told a press conference here.

A home department spokesman said a case had been registered against Atul Singh under various IPC sections including 302 (murder).

The victim has alleged that she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brothers, and blamed the lawmaker for her father's death.

The BJP MLA, however, has rejected the charges as a "conspiracy" by his opponents. (PTI)

20:40 Volkswagen says considering board 'changes', may name new CEO

Scandal-hit car giant Volkswagen said today it was considering reshuffling its board and that chief executive Matthias Mueller could be replaced, although no decision has yet been made.

"The Volkswagen group is considering further evolving the leadership structure, which could be connected with changes in the board... a change to the chief executive could be involved," VW said in a statement.

Supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch had been "speaking with different members of the supervisory and executive boards" about moving or replacing some of them, it went on, adding that Mueller "signalled he was open to play a part in the changes."

Business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Herbert Diess, head of the VW brand -- one of the group's 12 makes of cars, trucks and motorbikes -- was slated to take Mueller's place.

A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment on the rumours when contacted by AFP. (PTI)

20:28 EPFO says pension can't be denied for want of Aadhaar

EPFO has asked banks not to deny monthly pension to people for want of biometric national ID, Aadhaar, and said that alternate means for identification should be used if needed.

The Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) HAS listed out alternate mechanism of handling pensioners who do not possess Aadhaar or those whose identity cannot be authenticated due to wear out of finger print. (PTI)

20:19 Trumps homeland security adviser Tom Bossert resigns

Donald Trumps homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, resigned on Tuesday, reports The Guardian.

In a statement, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said: "The president is grateful for Toms commitment to the safety and security of our great country."

"Tom led the White Houses efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."

Bossert has been with the Trump administration since its inception in 2017.

19:37 India, EU to resume FTA dialogue on April 12: Diplomat

India and the European Union will meet on Thursday in Brussels to take forward discussions on the Free Trade Agreement between the two regions, a top diplomat said today.

"The goods and services trade with India exceeded 100 billion Euro last year. The current trade deficit is very balanced between India and the EU," EU Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski said. (PTI)

17:58 MSME Ministry, GSTN to soon ink pact for data sharing

The MSME ministry will soon sign an agreement with GSTN, the IT backbone of GST, for sharing of data related to small and medium enterprises as it looks to widen its reach to such enterprises, an official source said. The data-sharing will enable the government to reach out to more MSMEs and educate them on benefits offered by government schemes.

Around 44 lakh micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are registered with the ministry's Udyog Aadhaar portal, while the number of MSMEs on GSTN database is around 1 crore. (PTI)

17:26 All BJP MPs, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Amit Shah, will go on a daylong fast on April 12 in Karnataka. Amit Shah to go on 'dharna'. BJP Karyakartas across the country to fast, reports News18.

The Centre sought to allay fears that water was not being released to Tamil Nadu for irrigation from Cauvery basin reservoirs due to non-formation of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

Union Water Resources Secretary UP Singh clarified that as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award, water can be released from the dam between February and May only to maintain 'environmental-flow' in the river and not for any other purpose.

Members of Sikh groups today staged a protest near the Congress headquarters here demanding the removal of Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler from the party for their alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.Police stopped the protesters from reaching the All India Congress Committee headquarters on Akbar Road here.

The protesters raised slogans and scaled barricades, even as police tried to push them back.

The Enforcement Directorate today questioned former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram in connection with the Aircel Maxis money laundering case, officials said today.This is the first time the agency is questioning him in connection with the case, they said.

The case relates to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by then finance minister P Chidambaram.

Tech giant Google has launched its voice-activated speakers 'Home' in the Indian market as it looks to take on rival's devices like Amazon Echo.

The Google Assistant-powered 'Home' and 'Home Mini' will be priced at Rs 9,999, and Rs 4,499, respectively. It will be available online exclusively on Flipkart, and in over 750 retail stores including Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay Sales, among others.

16:17 BJP

034cr

FY17

Seven national parties declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore in FY17, with BJP having the highest - Rs 1,034.27 crore, says a report by Delhi-based think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms. Indian National Congress followed with Rs 225.36 crore - 14.45% of the total income, it said, adding that CPI has declared the lowest income of Rs 2.08 crore which forms a mere 0.13%.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma said it was normal for the world's two largest economies to have problems with trade but tackling them with a trade war is just like treating a flu with chemotherapy, reports PTI.

OVL's

Farzad-B

Iran has agreed to take the gas produced from the ONGC Videsh-discovered Farzad-B field in the Persian Gulf, but differences remain over returns on investments made by the Indian firm, reports PTI.

Rabri

IRCTC

The Central Bureau of Investigation questioned former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in connection with the alleged IRCTC hotel scam during the tenure of her husband Lalu Prasad as the railway minister, reports PTI.

16:09 Sensex

4th

The Sensex kept its winning run going for the fourth straight day by adding another 92 points, tracking gains on other Asian bourses as China revealed its future economic agenda including further opening up of economy and lowering import tariffs on certain goods. The signs of easing global trade war concerns made investors more confident about taking positions. The broader NSE Nifty also ended above the key 10,400-mark.

16:06 Exide

Exide Industries launched the country's first completely sealed and maintenance-free battery 'Advanz' for the automotive after-market.

Panasonic is aiming to have around 30% market share in Rs 1.5 lakh and above camera market, as the firm is targeting new age photographers and videographers along with youtubers, reports PTI.

Pawan

The government has withdrawn the preliminary information memorandum for proposed disinvestment of helicopter services provider Pawan Hans after failing to attract enough bidders, reports PTI.

15:54 Rishad

Premji

Nasscom

FY19

IT industry body Nasscom said it has appointed Wipro Chief Strategy Officer and Board member Rishad Premji as its chairman for FY19. It has also appointed WNS Group CEO Keshav Murugesh as Vice Chairman for FY19.

A special CBI court rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by the owners of Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure, which is accused of cheating banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore. In related news, the Income Tax Department conducted searches at various premises of the Vadodara-based company.

15:31 WhatsApp

At a time when the controversy around Facebook's data leakage is nowhere near closure, WhatsApp has said it shares its payments information with third-party service providers including Facebook, reports Mint. According to WhatsApp, the company shares data such as the mobile phone number, registration information, device identifiers and payment amount, among others.

Hours before the CSK-KKR tie, some pro-Tamil activists tried to stage a demonstration outside the MA Chidambaram stadium against holding of the IPL fixtures in Tamil Nadu amid the raging Cauvery protests, reports PTI.

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu ordered an enquiry into IndiGo staff off-loading a passenger at Lucknow airport, reports PTI. Saurabh Rai, a cardiologist, has claimed that he was deboarded after complaining of mosquitoes onboard an IndiGo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru.

bandh

A nationwide anti-quota bandh called today received mixed reactions with shops remaining closed in some parts of states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, amid heavy security arrangements, while internet services were restricted in a few sensitive areas, reports PTI. Reports from Bihar showed attempts to block trains, while some schools suspended their bus services in Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh.

Analysts at Barclays see enough similarities to develop a pricing model for Bitcoin that takes its cues from the world of epidemiology. Their diagnosis: Bitcoin has probably peaked, reports Bloomberg.

14:25 HMSI

800cr

FY19

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the countrys second largest two-wheeler maker, announced an Rs 800 crore investment for the current fiscal with a promise to launch 18 upgrades and one new product during the year, reports Moneycontrol News Swaraj Baggonkar. Despite operating at 95% of its existing installed capacity, the Delhi-based company has deferred plans for investing in a new capacity for the time being.

14:05 Blockchain-related

Jobs in the blockchain sector are in high demand in India and Bengaluru leads in terms of opportunities in this sector, says a report by global job site Indeed. Bengaluru is the leading city for those seeking job opportunities in the blockchain sector, with over 36% of all the blockchain job postings in India. It is followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai, making up the top five destinations for blockchain careers in the country.

835cr

ETFs

FY18

Investors remained bearish on gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as they pulled out Rs 835 crore from the instrument in FY18, making it the fifth consecutive financial year of outflow.

The market continues to trade higher amid volatility ahead of corporate earnings that will start later this week. The Sensex is up around 100 points and the Nifty is hovering around 10,400 levels. Axis Bank is the top gainer among Nifty50 stocks, rising nearly 5% after Shikha Sharma's demand to cut short her tenure as MD & CEO has been accepted by the board

European markets are trading higher, after Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to soothe investor concerns about the prospect a full-scale trade war between the world's two biggest economies. Xi promised to open the economy further and lower import tariffs on products including cars.

Housing sales rose by 12% in seven major cities to 49,200 units during January-March period over the previous quarter on better demand from end-customers post enactment of new realty law RERA, according to property consultant ANAROCK. Sales stood at 43,800 units in the October-December quarter of 2017 across seven cities: Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. New supply increased by 27% to around 33,300 units in Q1 2018 from 26,300 units in Q4 2017. As a result, unsold inventory decreased by mere 2% from 7.27 lakh units in Q4 2017 to 7.11 lakh units by Q1 2018.

recognised

The government has amended income tax rules that will now allow transgenders to be recognised as an independent category of applicants for obtaining a Permanent Account Number (PAN) for their tax-related transactions, reports PTI.

CCI

Online search giant Google has on Monday filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal against a judgement from the Competition Commission of India that found it guilty of search bias, reports Reuters. In February, CCI imposed a Rs 1.36 billion fine on Google, saying it was abusing its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets.

12:56 Indian Railways said deaths and injuries from train collisions or derailments more than halved to 254 people last fiscal from a year ago.

E-way bill for movement of goods worth over Rs 50,000 within the state will be rolled out from April 15, starting with five states - Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 6.38% at 300,722 units in March as against 282,698 units in the same month last year. Car sales were marginally up at 191,082 units last month as against 190,236 units in March last year, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Motorcycle sales last month jumped 25.13% to 11,45,221 units compared to 915,259 units in March 2017. Sales of commercial vehicles grew 24.55% YoY to 1,08,681 units in March.

NASA is launching a new spacecraft to Mars from America's West Coast, that will study the deep interior of the red planet to learn how all rocky planets and their moons are formed, reports PTI.

12:08 SBI

225m

State Bank of India has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK), with an initial capital commitment of 225 million from its parent entity. The bank said ring-fencing and subsidiarisation of the retail franchise - SBI UK, the bank's largest overseas operation, offers UK customers stability and reassurance amidst continuing uncertainty around the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

ICICI

The market continues to trade higher with moderate gains, amid positive global cues, on hopes that the trade dispute between the United States and China could be resolved soon. The Nifty is hovering around 10,400 levels while the Nifty Midcap index has erased its gains and is trading lower. The Axis Bank stock is up 4.5% after the Board accepted a request from its MD & CEO Shikha Sharma to shorten her tenure to six months from three years.

Heena

Sidhu

25-metre

Heena

Sidhu

25-metre

11th

11:21 Mahindra

Zoomcar

EVs

India'shas won a gold medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games taking place in the Gold Coast in Australia. The medal came in thepistol shooting event and was India'sgold medal at the games so far. Apart from 11 gold medals, India has also won 4 silver medals and 5 bronze medals.

Mahindra Electric joined hands with self-drive rental platform Zoomcar, as part of which the auto major will offer its 100 electric vehicle 'e20 plus' on the latter's platform in New Delhi.

The Centre is likely to provide financial support of about Rs 55 per tonne to cane farmers for produce sold to sugar mills, two government sources told Reuters.

10:55 Sebi

algo

In order to facilitate small and medium sized trading members, Sebi asked stock exchanges to introduce 'managed co-location services', wherein space will be provided to vendors along with technical knowhow and other expertise. Besides, the regulator has taken a number of measures to strengthen algo trading framework, including providing some services for free.

10:47 UIDAI

eAadhaar

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has brought in secure digitally-signed QR Code on e-Aadhaar that will now contain a photograph of the Aadhaar holder too, in addition to demographic details, to facilitate better offline verification of an individual, reports PTI.

Binani

Lenders of Binani Cement are looking forward to April 13 when the Supreme Court hears a petition by parent Binani Industries in the insolvency case, reports PTI. The hearing is expected to bear a major impact on the ongoing takeover tussle of Binani Cement between Dalmia Bharat Cement and Aditya Birla group-owned UltraTech Cement.

10:40 Shares of Axis Bank rose as much as 4% in morning trade on the bourses after its CEO and Managing Director Shikha Sharma's tenure was shortened.

A parliamentary panel has recommended a probe into alleged tax violations by Tata Trusts and has accused them of favouring foreign institutions like Harvard Business School over Indian universities, reports PTI.

Bhushan's

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is an operational creditor to Bhushan Steel, termed the resolution plan of debt-ridden firm as discriminatory and arbitrary saying its Rs 900 crore outstanding has not been given due priority by the Committee of Creditors, reports PTI.

10:19 Citi

Sensex

The Sensex may climb 5% to 35,700 in 2018, Surendra Goyal and Vijit Jain, analysts at Citigroup Global Markets India, wrote in a note dated April 8. The year-end target has been cut marginally to reflect higher volatility, earnings downgrades and a drop in local fund flows. It sees higher borrowing costs for financial companies and pressure in businesses such as healthcare and telecom leading to lower-than-expected FY19 earnings. The brokerage is overweight on financial firms and automakers, and underweight on software exporters and consumer companies.

10:11 Dzire

FY18

Compact sedan Maruti Suzuki Dzire ended FY18 on a robust note, nearly surpassing sales of mini car Alto to emerge as one of the fastest growing models in the country, reports Moneycontrol News Swaraj Baggonkar. Dzire saw sales grow 20% to 2.4 lakh units last year, which is also when it received a full body overhaul, only the second time since its debut in 2008. In comparison, Alto, the largest selling model yet again, increased volumes by just 7% to 2.58 lakh last year, signalling a shift in the buying pattern where consumers are making spacious and feature rich sedans as their first car as against a cramped and less powerful mini car.

10:03 Airtel

mbps

Bharti Airtel announced new home broadband plans with speeds of up to 300 mbps over WiFi and 1,200 GB data for a monthly rental of Rs 2,199.

IndiGo

The government said it will still want to see if IndiGo bids for Air India, even as the budget carrier had last week announced its decision not to bid for the national carrier, reports PTI.

The market is holding on to its opening gains following positive cues from global stocks after China's comments on free trade. The Sensex is up over 100 points and the Nifty is trading above 10,400 levels, driven by banks, metals, IT and infrastructure stocks. The midcaps are trading in line with front-liners while the Nifty Metal is the biggest gainer among sectoral indices, rising nearly 2% The Wipro stock is down over a percent after the company hinted at an impact on its profitability as one of its telecom clients is undergoing insolvency proceedings.

09:36 Nirav

Modi

PNB

Punjab National Bank (PNB) will take care of problems emanating from Rs 13,000-crore fraud perpetrated by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi on its own and will not seek any government's assistance, its managing director Sunil Mehta told PTI. The bank has enough resources and capability to meet the challenges posed by the fraud of this nature, he said.

Nirav

Modi's

A special CBI court issued a judicial request to be sent to the UK after the central probe agency moved a petition, seeking to attach a bank account of beleaguered diamond trader Nirav Modi, a key accused in the Rs 13,000-crore fraud in Punjab National Bank, reports PTI. CBI counsel Om Prakash told the court that Modi's Barclays bank account in the UK had about 12,79,517 pounds (about Rs 12 crore) and $1,244 (over Rs 80,000). After hearing the agency's plea to attach the account, special CBI court judge SR Tamboli allowed it and issued a Letter Rogatory (LR) to the UK. A judicial request, also known as a Letter Rogatory, is issued by courts on the request of an investigating agency when it wants information from another country.

Wipro

India's third largest software services firm Wipro said its profitability may be impacted by 65-75 basis points in the March quarter as one of its telecom clients is undergoing insolvency proceedings.

09:08 IndoStar

Sebi's

000cr

Non-banking finance company IndoStar Capital Finance has received market regulator Sebi's go-ahead to raise an estimated Rs 2,000 crore through an initial public offering. The IPO comprises issuance of fresh shares worth Rs 700 crore. Besides, existing shareholders will offer up to 2 crore scrips. The company plans to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue towards augmenting its capital base to meet future capital requirements.

09:04 FinMin

The Finance Ministry has received about 37 fresh applications for the post of RBI Deputy Governor, a position that fell vacant after SS Mundra completed his three-year term on July 31, 2017, reports PTI.

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to open the countrys economy further and lower import tariffs on products including cars, in a speech that comes amid rising trade tensions between China and the United States, reports Reuters. Xi also said China would raise the foreign ownership limit in the automobile sector as soon as possible and push previously announced measures to open the financial sector.

jawans

Rajouri

Two jawans - Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma - were killed in heavy mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu & Kashmir, reports PTI.

ICICI

Kochchar

Some members in the ICICI Bank Board may not favour continuation of Chanda Kochhar as CEO and Managing Director of the bank amid allegation of nepotism in the Videocon loan case, sources told PTI. Kochhar's continuation at the top post may not find favour from some of the independent directors, they said.

US President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un next month or in early June, indicating a historic summit between the Cold War rivals is still on track, reports AFP.

08:26 Twenty-seven children of Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School were among 30 killed when a school bus ferrying them back home plunged into a deep gorge near village Gurchal on the Nurpur-Chamba highway.

Aviation advisory firm Swiss Aviation Consulting denied it has expressed interest in buying the debt burdened state-run carrier Air India, reports Reuters.

Zuckerberg

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ruled out resigning over his company's privacy practices as he announced formation of an independent research committee in the backdrop of the elections in countries like India, Pakistan and the US, reports Atlantic Magazine.

Zuckerberg

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg in his written testimony released by a House of Representatives panel that he accepts responsibility for the social network's failure to protect private data and prevent manipulation of the platform.

07:30 HDFC

HDFC upped its lending rates by up to 0.2% on Monday, in line with similar moves by commercial banks. The increase in the Retail Prime Lending Rate, on which it benchmarks the Adjustable Rate Home Loans, is effective from April 1, an official statement said.

07:27 Shikha

Axis Bank chief Shikha Sharmas term has been reduced to six months from three years at her request, reports Moneycontrol News Beena Parmar. The decision to reduce the term comes days after reports suggested the Reserve Bank of India had asked Axis' Board to reconsider Sharma's reappointment at the helm for the fourth term on the grounds of the bank's dwindling financial performance.

President Donald Trump vented at his Justice Department, his Cabinet members and his former political opponents in searing remarks on Monday evening, reports CNBC. "It's a disgraceful situation, it's a total witch hunt," Trump said of recent reports that the FBI searched the office and residence of Michael Cohen, Trump's long-time personal lawyer, after receiving a referral from the special counsel Robert Mueller. He also spoke against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who became a regular target of the president's ire in public and private after recusing himself from the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Onida

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Mirc Electronics, the maker of popular household electronic goods under the Onida brand, is now aggressively targeting mini-metros to push sales as it looks to get back its market share in the competitive white goods industry.

"We have a very strong presence in South and West and are expanding aggressively in Northern markets," said Vijay Mansukhani, MD, Mirc Electronics (Onida), in an interaction with Moneycontrol. "We are actively focusing on mini-metros, which is really paying off and we have seen good traction in our sales from these towns," he said.

Mini-metros are places like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Pune, which are almost at par with the metro cities and also have a high-spending customer base.

Onida has presence across 4,500 dealers and is adding 1,000 dealers every year across India, he explained. While the company had kept a low profile for the past few years, it has re-entered the white goods space aggressively.

Mansukhani said that Onida was affected by entry of large foreign players over the last couple of years, and also by the slew of measures by various state governments on duty benefits, which made the industry fragmented in terms of manufacturing and pricing of goods.

"Now that goods and services tax has been implemented, we are on the same level playing field with all these large foreign players," he said.

Focus on air conditioners & IPL

On the products front, air conditioners as a segment has been a growth driver for the company.

According to Mansukhani, the company is planning to double its air conditioner sales to Rs 700 crore, up from last year's sales of Rs 360 crore, and achieve 40 percent of its overall sales just from air conditioners.

He said that the growth predicted in Indias white goods market is 17 percent, whereas the company expects to increase its revenue at a rate of 20-25 percent.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2017, the company had reported revenue of Rs 210.43 crore and profit of Rs 12.23 crore.

As summer rolls in, Onida has released a new campaign for its air conditioners. For this, the company has also decided to bring back the once-familiar Onidas Devil out of his hiatus.

On the advertisement front, Mirc is planning to spend Rs 25-30 crore across all formats like television, print, outdoor and digital. It has also tied up with the Indian Premier League (IPL), 2018 and will be spending Rs 20 crore on IPL advertising alone, said Mansukhani.

IPL is one of the most followed sport across the nation with millions of viewers increasing every year and this is a golden opportunity for all the brands to promote themselves which reaches their target audience. This will create visibility across the country for our products, the Mirc MD said.

Onida had been an advertiser with the IPL when it was first launched in 2007.

Speaking about the company's financials, Mansukhani said control measures and improved efficiency have resulted in good margins and profitability. He said this has resulted in an increase in revenues and have attracted marquee investors from the market.

"The investors have infused Rs 143.35 crore into the company, which has led to increase in focus of expanding our market share through increased focus on advertising and strengthening sales and other senior management team from leading white goods and consumer durable companies," Mansukhani said.

India's demographic dividend may also prove to be advantageous for Onida. Not only are more and more rural Indians moving to urban areas, but there has been a marked increase in disposable income too.

"There is lots of potential in televisions, air conditioners and washing machines in this country. Especially the penetration level in air conditioners in India is 3 percent as against the global average of 60 percent, whereas washing machines is at 8.8 percent against a global average of 70 percent. This gives us lots of room for growth in our existing segments," Mansukhani said.
Punjab National Bank | ICRA revised rating on bank's Basel III Compliant Tier II bonds to AA (hyb) (Stable) from AA- (hyb) (Stable). (Image: PTI)

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Scam-hit Punjab National Bank is among some government organisations which ignored the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) advice to act against its allegedly corrupt staff, the anti-corruption body has stated in a new report.

The non-compliance of the advice has been mentioned in the CVC's annual report for 2017 tabled in Parliament recently.

The report comes at a time when the bank is facing multiple agency probe in the over Rs 13,000 crore loan fraud allegedly committed by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems.

The latest CVC report refers to a case in which the PNB sanctioned a Cash Credit (CC) limit of Rs 200 lakh and Term Loan (TL) of Rs 150 lakh to a firm for setting up a manufacturing unit in Dehradun against mortgage of property that was find unviable.

"(The) loan was secured by hypothecation of stocks, plant and machinery mortgage of factory land valued at Rs 42 lakh and mortgage of another immovable property as collateral security situated in Delhi.

"Further CC limit of Rs 150 lakh & TL of Rs 50 lakh was sanctioned for setting up Unit II. Charge over existing collateral security was extended and a second immovable property in Delhi was also mortgaged," the CVC said.

It has been observed that the bank accepted the two properties situated in Delhi "without ensuring genuineness of property papers as well as its geographical location", it said.

In case of one property, the seller was not the rightful owner, while the other was found to be a 'gram sabha' land and thus both mortgages were found to be defective and not enforceable, the Commission said, without mentioning when the deals took place.

"The bank (later) reported that the chain of title deeds at the time of equitable mortgage was not critically examined independently by the concerned official and the report of advocate was simply relied upon," it said.

The Commission advised initiation of major penalty proceedings against the senior manager of the PNB. Out of 14 charges, the inquiry officer has held only two charges as proved and one charge as partly proved.

"On conclusion of inquiry, the disciplinary authority proposed to levy a minor penalty of 'censure'," the CVC said.

The Commission decided to treat the case as a deviation from its advice and to report the same in the annual report, it said.

Government departments like Railways Ministry, Department of Telecommunications, Civil Aviation Ministry, Road, Transport and Highways Ministry, Exim Bank of India, Finance Ministry, Steel Ministry, Ministries of Coal and Defence, and Delhi Jal Board which also did not folow the CVC advice in some cases against allegedly corrupt staff.

"Non-acceptance of the Commission's advice or non-consultation with the Commission vitiates the vigilance process and weakens the impartiality of vigilance administration," the CVC said in the report.

Giving details of another case, the Commission said a Group General Manager (GGM) of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) was caught red-handed by the CBI in his office demanding and accepting illegal gratification.

The Commission had advised prosecution and initiation of major penalty proceedings on January 15, 2013. On being approached for reconsideration after four years, the Commission reiterated its advice on August 28, 2017, it said.

The disciplinary authority did not implement the Commission's advice and issued administrative warning to the then GGM of IRCTC on August 30, 2017 for lapse regarding non-intimation of transaction of certain movable properties.

"The procedure laid down for consultation has also not been followed before deviating from the advice of the Commission," the report said.
Global web-hosting and cloud company GoDaddy, which crossed 1-million user mark in India, is betting on the untapped market of small and medium businesses in tier 2 and 3 towns to drive the company's next level of growth.

Currently, only about 20% of the total 51 million SMEs in India are IT-enabled. We have barely scratched the surface. We expect at least one-third of the remaining SMEs to come online in next five years and we want to play a major part in it, said Nikhil Arora, GoDaddy Indias Vice President and Managing Director.

The company claimed that about 50% of all new businesses on-boarded by GoDaddy today comes from tier 2 and 3 towns such as Rohtak, Sonipat, Meerut, Jaipur, Patna, and Ludhiana among others.

GoDaddy had launched its product in several Indian languages besides English, such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, in 2016, which is also the year when it gained leadership in .IN domain registrations.

GoDaddy now offers the product in 7 different Indian languages, which is expected to further help the company make inroads beyond metropolitan cities. According to Arora, 9 out of 10 future internet users in India will be from non English-speaking belt.

Our focus this year will be to provide flexible product plans for every stage of businesses. Basically, we want to go deeper into personalisation. We will also adopt a flexible pricing because we believe that is fit for SMEs, Arora added.

GoDaddy entered the Indian market in 2012, with less than 40% brand presence, has now managed to double it to 80%. But the company will have to battle biggies such as Google to make a mark in its next stage of growth.

Last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a series of new initiatives to attract India's 51 million small and medium businesses on its cloud platform. The new initiatives include tools to build websites, a training program and support service to help the businesses get online.

The company also launched a Cloud region in Mumbai that uses Google's core infrastructure, data analytics and machine learning to offer several services including compute, big data, storage, and networking.

Over 8 million Indian SMEs are already using Google's platforms, in contrast to GoDaddys 1 million. GoDaddy delivers integrated suite of cloud-based online products to help small businesses leverage the power of Internet, from domain name registration to website creation to business email and productivity tools, designed to create and manage online presence.
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Here are the stocks which are in news today:

Axis Bank: Shikha Sharma asks Board to reconsider period of her re-appointment as Bank Head. Board has accepted Shikha Sharma's request pending approval from RBI

HDFC hikes retail prime lending rate by 20 bps w.e.f April 1

Alembic to buyback 1,02,50,000 equity shares at Rs 80 per share

Wipro: Telecom client in India filed petition to initiate CIRP with NCLT. Company likely to see negative impact of 65-75 bps on net income level

HealthCare Global Enterprises approved the allotment of 9,34,500 equity shares at Rs 321 per share on Preferential basis to promoter of the company

ICICI Bank: Fitch has said that allegations pose reputational risks and will take appropriate action if risks to reputation and financial profile rise

IDFC Bank: The lender has cut MCLR across all tenors by 5bps effective April 8

Super Crop Safe board meeting on April 17 to consider issue of equity shares and convertible warrants on preferential allotment basis

Neuland Laboratories approved issuance of up to 16,75,000 equity shares through qualified institutional placement

Indian Overseas Bank revised the MCLR with effect from 10.04.2018

Gravita starts commercial production of PPCP Granules from its Chittoor plant

Max Financial Services approves fund raising proposals

CARE rating revised Waterbases long term bank facilities rating to CARE A- Stable and short term bank facilities rating to CARE A2

Simplex Infra board meeting on April 14 to consider issue of warrants on preferential basis

Indian Bank: Has raised MCLR Across All Tenors By 10-15bps

Unitech: It has submitted a List Of Assets As Directed By SC

SpiceJet: The airline said that it is not considering partnership with foreign airline to bid for Air India

Airtel introduces 300 mbps home Broadband plan for Rs 2,199

Merrill Lynch buys ICICI Bank shares worth Rs 823 cr

Generic Engineering allotted 10,89,431 equity shares to the investors and and 17,00,000 warrants to the promoters

Syndicate Bank keeps MCLR unchanged across all tenors

Ashok Leyland to invest Rs 400cr in LCV push - ET

Minority shareholders challenge NCLAT's Rel Comm asset sale nod - ET

Jet Airways not to bid for Air India - BS

ITC tweaks juice ads following PepsiCo suit - BS
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Tata Motors

Brokerage: Kotak Sec | Rating: Maintain Buy | Target: Cut to Rs 465 from Rs 520

The brokerage house highlighted how weakness in UK and Europe hit JLR sales and volumes there declined by 8 percent year on year in March. It further stated that the outperformance by new models was offset by steep decline in volumes of existing models. It has lowered its FY19-20 consolidated EPS estimates by 17-22 percent. Going forward, it expects JLRs overall volume to increase 3.5% yoy in FY2019 led by growth in China JV. It is also building in 6.3-6.4 percent EBIT margin for JLR in its estimates.

Adani Ports

Brokerage: Kotak Sec | Rating: Upgrade to Buy from Add | Target: Cut to Rs 450 from Rs 475

Kotak Securities said that the revised target is factoring in worst case business impact of closure of Mundra plant. It highlighted that ports data for key cargo classes suggests a healthy 3-9% yoy vol growth for FY18. It has cut estimates by 10 percent to factor nil imported coal volumes for Mundra power plant.

Hindalco

Brokerage: Credit Suisse | Rating: Maintain Outperform | Target: Rs 310

Credit Suisse said that aluminium prices have bounced back sharply driven by news of sanctions on Rusal, but the impact of the same is unclear. It also said that the stock is trading near the lowest EV/EBITDA multiples since 2012.

IT

Brokerage: CLSA

CLSA expects cross-currency benefits to support growth and margin for Indian IT companies, even as they are seen to be reporting the strongest March quarter in four years. It expects revenue for the quarter to grow 2.1-3.1 percent, while the margin may expand by 50-260 basis points. While overall demand trends havent improved, deal signings are better, it observed.

Among stocks, it expects Infosys to guide for 6-8 percent growth in dollar terms, while maintaining a margin of 23-25 percent. For HCL Tech, it sees a guidance of 10.5-12.5 percent growth in dollar terms, while the margin is seen at 19.5-20.5 percent. For Wipro, it sees growth guidance of 0.5-2.5 percent in dollar terms on a QoQ basis for the first quarter of next year. The brokerage has maintained a buy call on HCL Tech, Infosys, TCS, & Sell Ratings On Tech Mah & Wipro.

Wipro

Brokerage: Morgan Stanley | Rating: Underweight | Target: Rs 290

The global research firm highlighted the companys exchange filing, which said that one of its telecom service provider clients in India filed a petition to initiate insolvency resolution process with the National Company Law Tribunal in February 2018. It subsequently admitted its claim in March 2018.

Since then, Wipro has been engaged with the client to discuss the potential outcome of the process. It has now estimated that this development will have an adverse impact on both revenue and profitability.

The impact would be 0.65-0.75% of consolidated revenues at the net income level for 4Q18, the brokerage cited Wipros filing. We believe impact on IT Services revenues for the quarter is likely to be less than the impact on profitability, given the likelihood of provisions against receivables hitting the bottom line. We think the company may still report revenues within the guided range, the research note from Morgan Stanley added.

SAIL

Brokerage: HSBC | Rating: Upgrade to Hold from Reduce | Target: Raised to Rs 88 form Rs 84

The global financial services firm pointed that domestic steel sector is witnessing one of the best time in many years. Steel prices trending higher on the back of uptick in demand, while both flat and long prices are up 15 and 20 percent quarter on quarter, respectively. The crude steel production run rate is also steady at about 4.5 percent for six months.

HSBC said that SAIL has shown a remarkable turnaround with the company posting a profit in Q3. All of its major plants are profitable at EBIT level and finished steel capacity has increased by 45 percent.

Going forward, it expects the company to report an average volume growth of 11 percent and EBITDA growth of 46 percent for FY19-20. It is also expecting the company to return to profitability for the first time in four years.

Axis Bank

Brokerage: CLSA

CLSA said that change of top management can also drive discussion around M&A possibilities. It further said that appointment of successor will be key to stability & valuation. Having said that, it sees limited risk to earnings of the bank.

Banks

Brokerage: UBS

UBS said that stressed corporate debt has largely been flat since March 2015. Further, around 15.5 percent of loans needed a haircut, of which 3.6 percent are yet to be recognised as NPL.

It pointed out that a fresh wave of NPLs rose following PNB fraud and new RBI rules as well. It has cut loan growth and earnings estimate by 0-22 percent for Fy19.

It is removing ICICI Bank from its Asia Pacific key call list and has retained anti-consensus cautious views on Yes Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and IndusInd Bank. It prefers ICICI, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

On their earnings, it cited RBI rules being a new threat and the results could be 27 percent lower in a downside scenario.
As Indian market steps into the first month of June quarter, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are as many as 15 stocks on the BSE which rose up to 190 percent in the June quarter of last 2 out of 3 years.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed the March quarter with a loss of 3 percent but it rallied by about 4 percent in the June quarter of the year 2017 but many small and midcap stocks outperformed benchmark indices in the same period.

Stocks which rallied over 100 percent in at least one of the three years of June quarter include names like C&C Construction, Emami Infrastructure, Indiabulls Real Estate, Indiabulls Ventures, Himadri Speciality, Emami Infra, and Muthoot Capital etc. among others.

Stocks which registered double-digit returns in the last 2 out of 3 quarters include names like Pankaj Polypack, ACI Infocom, Cubex Tubings, Indokem, Phillips Carbon Black, and Visaka Industries etc. among others.

The S&P BSE Sensex might have plunged by over 10 percent from the highs but we have already recouped around 4 percent of losses and as India Inc. starts declaring results for the quarter ended March, expectations of smart recovery is likely to be on the cards.

The extent of the correction seen in Indian market is largely in-line with the recent previous dips seen in markets across the globe. The volatility is likely to continue in days to come on account of a possible trade war, elections lined up during the year, March quarter earnings as well as rise in oil prices.

We expect earnings recovery to be broad-based in Q4 compared to 12 percent growth seen in Q3, fading impact of GST to aid earnings, Hemang Jani, Head - Advisory, Sharekhan told Moneycontrol.

The D-Street is currently factoring around 14 percent growth in revenues & 15 percent growth in earning for Nifty companies in Q4FY18, while for next 2 years street is factoring a 20 percent plus annual growth rate in Sensex earnings over FY18 to FY20, he said.

Investors will also watch out as to what US Federal Reserve will do in its upcoming policy meeting in the next 3 months. The US Central bank will meet in the month of May and then again in the month of June in this June quarter.

From a global market perspective, tightening of rates by the US Fed, shrinking Fed balance sheet and the imposition of tariff barriers have led to weakness in global equity markets, Akash Singhania, Sr. VP & Fund Manager, Motilal Oswal AMC told Moneycontrol.

On the local front, news flow around the state and central government elections, resolution of asset quality stress in the banking sector and pick-up in corporate earnings and growth would drive the Indian markets, he said.
Some quality stocks too have taken a beating in the recent market correction. From a medium term investment horizon, it may be worth looking at some of these slow-and-steady investment ideas. We have selected two such companies which we feel are available at attractive valuations, given their robust fundamentals.

Gandhi Special Tubes (Price: Rs 383, M Cap: Rs 561 crore) is a manufacturer of small diameter seamless and welded steel tubes, used in automotive, hydraulics, refrigeration (condenser tubes) and other engineering services. The company commenced operations around 30 years ago at its Halol (Gujarat) plant, set up in technical collaboration with Benteler (Germany).

In the automotive space, the companys products are used as fuel injection tubes in the M&HCV (medium & heavy commercial vehicles) segment. Gandhi Special Tubes is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) approved tier-2 supplier of seamless tubes, which are eventually used by Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and M&M amongst others. Seamless tubes contribute a good chunk of the total revenues, and the growth is dependent on the performance of the M&HCV segment domestically.

In hydraulics, the companys products are used in material (bulk) handling equipment for construction and mining. In the hydraulics segment, the clientele includes Larsen & Toubro, BEML, Bhel and JCB amongst others.

Welded steel tubes find application in refrigeration and automobile (fuel lines, oil lines & air brake lines) segments.

The company also manufactures cold formed tube nuts for fuel injection tube assemblies, hydraulic & other tube assemblies, which act as an auxiliary unit for its seamless tube segment.

The company has a lean, debt free balance sheet with net cash & investments of close to Rs 96 crore. Even after the recent share buyback, the cash position continues to be robust, thereby ensuring that the generous dividend policy can be maintained.

With surplus capacity on stream, the company is well positioned to capitalise on upturn in segments like construction equipment and automobile. An upswing in commodity prices is a potential an investment risk.

Promoters stake continues to remain high at 73.3% post the buyback. Finally, the valuation at 14XFY19P earnings look reasonable in the context of healthy financials and a bullish outlook on the user market.

Tiger Logistics (price: Rs 196, M Cap: Rs 210 crore) is a small Third Party Logistics player (3PL). Its core business is to facilitate movement of goods in coordination with various agencies across the world. It has an asset-light model and most of the investments are in working capital.

A large part of its business (~55%) comes from its multimodal operations (the movement of goods through multiple modes of transport under a single contract). It has a Multimodal Transport Operator license, an Authorized Economic Operator license and a Custom House Agent License.

The company has come a long way from handling 10,000 TEUs in 2006 to 73185 TEUs in 2016.

The company has diversified its customer base, with the top 5 clients now contributing less than 20% of total revenue, compared to around 50% in 2013. In addition, the company has also been able to attract business from new customers and has opened offices in Singapore and Dubai.

The company caters to verticals like Projects & Heavy Lifts, Automotive (2W and 4W), Yarn & Textiles, Rice & Wheat, Consumer Durables, Cold Chain logistics and Defense.

Tiger predominantly caters to export logistics. Hence there is untapped potential to grow in in import logistics and domestic logistics where it doesnt have a major presence currently.

Even in export logistics there is a lot of scope of expansion in new geographies. The company has forayed into defence logistics which is a high margin business. The management is focusing on domestic logistics by leveraging its existing infrastructure and network to enter the lucrative segment of Less than Container Load (LCL) segment.

The Indian logistics market is expected to be worth around US $160 bn by 2020 and has potential for strong growth. Initiatives like Make in India, revival in the economy, roll out of infrastructure and Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), development of ports, investment in road, rail infrastructure and exponential growth in E-Commerce are the key future drivers.

The implementation of GST will result in huge reformation of warehouses, creating new regional warehouses in key locations based on operational and logistics efficiency and further employing 3PL companies to manage their overall distribution and supply chains.

Tiger has a lean balance sheet with a debt to equity ratio of 0.14X. The stock trades at 18X FY19P earnings.
Korean Air | Ranked at the 10th spot, Korean Air owns 164 aircraft (138 passenger and 26 cargo) and operates scheduled flights to 123 cities in 43 countries worldwide, including 13 cities in South Korea. As of 2016, the carrier served about 28 million passengers annually with a reported operating revenue of $10.8 billion. (All images are copyright of the respective airlines)

Azul | Only South American airline in the list, Azul is placed ninth according to travellers reviews on TripAdvisor. Its rank has dropped six rungs compared to a similar list by TripAdvisor in 2017. As per the latest data made public by the Brazilian carrier, it has 138 aircraft and serves about 105 destinations in the US, Europe and South America.

Qatar Airways | Only the third five-star rated airline in the list, the carrier serves 150 destinations across the six continent. Based in Hamad International Airport in Doha, it employs over 46,000 staff globally. Started in 1997, Qatar Airways claims itself to be the worlds fastest-growing airline.

Jet2 | The third largest airline in the UK flies 12 million passengers annually. Along with its sister service Jet2Holidays, it generated over $2.39 billion of revenue in FY17. With its 50 aircraft, the low cost carrier flies to more than 50 destinations across Europe.

Southwest Airlines | Worlds largest airline by market value ($33.6 billion, Forbes) ranks sixth on the Travellers Choice Awards for Airlines in 2018. Southwest operates about 4,000 weekday departures among a network of 100 destinations in the US and 10 additional countries. Overall, it serves 120 million passengers annually.

EVA Air | One of the only eight 5-Star Airlines named worldwide by international quality ratings organization Skytrax, the Taiwanese carrier flies to more than 60 destinations across the world. It has a fleet of 70 aircraft which include products of Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus.

Japan Airlines | The airline which reported an operating revenue of $13.47 billion for the first nine months of the financial year 2017-18 ranks fourth in the Travellers Choice Awards by TripAdvisor. In a year, the carrier serves about 41 million passengers.

Emirates | Ranking third, the Emirates is one of the two airlines from the Middle East placed in top 10. With a fleet of more than 265 aircraft, which include 100 Airbus A380s  the world's largest passenger airliner, it currently flies to over 155 destinations in more than 80 countries around the world.

Air New Zealand | The Kiwi carrier which flies more than 15 million passengers a year ranks second in the TripAdvisors list. With an operating fleet of 105 aircraft which ranges from mighty Boeing 777-300 to the Bombardier Q300, the airline dominates the Pacific Rim.
Gujarat has asked the central government for help in getting Madhya Pradesh to release more water from river Narmada, as both states are experiencing a dry spell. Madhya Pradesh has refused to give any more than the promised amount from the river, reported The Times of India.

The Narmada in Gujarats Bharuch area has dried up, which is why the state government is scrambling, but MP is also facing extreme conditions. Gujarat had approached the Ministry of Environment and Forests in December 2017 and followed up recently in March, to get water from MP.

MS Dagur, additional chief secretary of the Narmada department, wrote to the ministry, It is requested to direct Narmada Control Authority to come out with a solution by enhancing quantity of water to be released downstream and release at least 1,500 cusecs during current water year up to June or till a solution is arrived at. This will certainly help.

The MP government was caught in a controversy last year when it had released water to Gujarat from the Narmada before the inauguration of the Sardar Sarovar dam by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Therefore, it is being careful now, keeping this in mind along with the dire drought conditions in its own state.

The MP government is committed to releasing 5,500 MCM water to Gujarat in one water year from July to June. Gujarat had received 5,000 MCM water by January and had asked for an additional 800 MCM, according to the report.

In January, MP politely refused to release the 800 MCM to Sardar Sarovar dam that Gujarat had asked for in one go, sources told TOI.
Gautham Machaiah

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has for long remained an unassailable leader of Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) district in North Karnataka. But his attempts to promote his son Priyank at the cost of other long-serving party men threatens to erode his position and even derail his chief ministerial ambitions.

Kharge, who has not tasted a single electoral defeat, has won 11 consecutive elections since 1972. In 2008, following delimitation, the Gurmitkal reserved constituency, from where he had won eight times in a row, was declared a general seat. This forced him to shift to Chittapur (SC), where he again continued his winning streak. Gurmitkal is now part of the new Yadgir district.

In 2009, he quit his assembly seat to successfully contest the Lok Sabha elections and went on to become a Union minister. In 2014, he braved the Modi wave to be elected to Parliament for the second time and was handpicked by Sonia Gandhi for the Congress floor leaders post in the lower house.

Trouble began when Kharge decided to field his son from the Chittapur seat that he had vacated, much to the chagrin of other Congress aspirants. The by-election results came as a rude shock with Priyank losing the seat to BJP. For the first time in nearly four decades, the Kharge legacy was being questioned.

However, Priyank managed to wrest the seat during the 2014 general elections to the state assembly, and this time the senior Kharge had bigger plans for his son. During a mid-term reshuffle, Priyank, a rank junior, was inducted as minister of state in Karnataka and was quickly promoted to cabinet rank, ignoring the claims of seniors including Mallikaya Guttedar, a six-time MLA from Afzalpur in Kalaburagi.

To Priyanks credit, his performance as IT/BT and tourism minister received appreciation from all quarters, including his critics. Start-ups received a fillip, while Bengaluru got a logo of its own on the lines of Amsterdam. In a short span, Priyank left a mark on his department.

Now, with elections being announced, the chink in the Congress' armour is only growing wider. While the detractors are ganging up against Kharge, a disappointed Guttedar has quit the party to contest on a BJP ticket. The exit of a strongman like Guttedar comes as blow to the Congress, especially with the passing away of two of its stalwarts from the region, former chief minister N Dharam Singh and senior Muslim leader Qamarul Islam.

But why are the results of one district crucial? It is no secret that Kharge has been harbouring a desire to become the chief minister for quite some time and should such an eventuality present itself after the elections, his bargaining power could be severely compromised if his son loses his seat or if the BJP surges ahead in his home district.

Although incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah is likely to continue in the event of a comfortable Congress win, a hung assembly will open new vistas for people like Kharge.

If former prime minister HD Deve Gowdas Janata Dal (Secular) emerges kingmaker and decides to support the Congress, he will be looking for alternatives to Siddaramaiah, with whom he shares an uneasy relationship. Being a respected Dalit leader, Kharge stands a good chance, but for that, he should first douse the fire raging in his backyard before it consumes him.
India and Bangladesh today inked six MoUs, including one for the construction of a 129.5-km long oil pipeline between Siliguri and Parbatipur, and discussed the Teesta water sharing issue as well as the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Shahidul Haque reviewed the areas of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on issues of mutual interest, the Indian High Commission here said in a statement.

"Both sides expressed appreciation for the notable progress achieved in the implementation of the decisions and initiatives taken during the visits of the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in June 2015 and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India in April 2017," it read.

The two sides signed six MoUs including India-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline between Siliguri & Parbatipur and an agreement between Department of Atomic Energy, India and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

"This is part of our endeavour to undertake projects in Bangladesh in various socio-economic sectors, including education, culture, health, community welfare, road infrastructure etc, for which we are providing 1,600 crore taka under grant financing," Foreign Secretary Gokhale said.

The MoU on oil pipeline is aimed at pumping diesel from India to Bangladesh with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum.

"The MoU focuses on deepening bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and the mutual benefits for both sides that would accrue from the proposed construction of approximate 129.5-km long oil pipeline from the Siliguri Marketing Terminal of the Numaligarah Refinery Ltd (NRL) in India to the Parbaripur depot of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC)," the brief description of the MoU read.

The other MoUs are on cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Betar, installation of an Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Urdu Chair in Dhaka University, Addendum to the GCNEP-BAEC Interagency Agreement, grant projects to set up language labs in 500 schools in Bangladesh and upgrade different roads in Rangpur city.

An addendum was signed relating to Inter-Agency agreement between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) of India's atomic energy department and Bangladesh's atomic energy commission.

Gokhale said Delhi remained a "committed development partner" of Dhaka and has extended lines of credit of over USD 8 billion to Bangladesh in the last seven years.

"This is the largest amount of credit India has ever committed to any single country....We are confident that this credit will be useful to Bangladesh as it pursues its developmental priorities," he said.

Gokhale also cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks that Bangladesh and India are not just "pass pass" (close to each other) but also "saath saath" (together).

India also extended full support to Bangladesh's efforts for resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis, including the early repatriation of the displaced people to Myanmar.

"India has been fully supportive of the efforts being made to resolve the crisis, including early repatriation of the displaced people," Gokhale said in a statement after his meeting with Haque on the second day of his three-day visit.

Later, Gokhale called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Sangsad Bhaban office and discussed several issues of bilateral interest.

He informed Premier Hasina that Prime Minister Modi wants to fulfill all the commitments he made to Bangladesh, her press secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted Gokhale as saying.

Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh and India have resolved many problems successfully through discussions.

"Now one problem needs to be resolved," Hasina said, adding that she is hopeful of settling the Teesta issue, too.

According to Karim, the foreign secretary said India is well aware of Bangladesh's problems due to the arrival of Rohingya refugees.

"We're well aware of Bangladesh's problem arising out of influx of more than one million Rohingyas...Our prime minister and the entire Indian government shall do best for Bangladesh in this regard," the top Indian diplomat said.

A massive Rohingya influx began since August 25 when Myanmar Army launched a crackdown in the northwestern Rakhine State, the homeland of the ethnic minority community.

More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape the crackdown.

Karim said the premier sought intensified Indian pressure on Myanmar.

"We want India to put more pressure on Myanmar to take back its citizens from Bangladesh," she told Gokhale.

Hasina said her government is preparing an island to relocate about one lakh Rohingya refugees as there is a possibility of landslide in Cox's Bazar during monsoon.

She also mentioned that Bangladesh is in touch with five neighbouring countries, including India, China and Thailand, over settling the issue.

The foreign secretary arrived in Dhaka yesterday, his first visit after assuming the office on January 29.

Before the bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Gokhale called on Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali.
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In a yet another alleged manhandling report, IndiGo's staff asked a surgeon to get down from the aircraft after he complained of mosquito menace.

The Bengaluru-based surgeon, Dr Saurabh Rai, was asked to offload from flight 6E 541 at Lucknow Airport on Monday evening. Eyewitness claimed that neither the staff nor the security men arranged any vehicle to drive Rai back to the airport lounge and he had to walk all the way back, according to a report in DNA.

"The Indigo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru was full of mosquitoes. When I raised objection, I was manhandled by the crew and offloaded from the aircraft. I was even threatened," Rai told ANI in an interview on Tuesday.

The Indigo staff at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Lucknow, however, refused to talk about the incident, but the airline's Twitter handle @IndiGo6E put out a tweet on Monday stating that Rai was offloaded from 6E541 for 'unruly' behavior, alleging that Rai became 'aggressive' and used 'threatening language' before his concerns regarding mosquitoes on board could have been addressed.

"...Keeping in mind safety protocols, as well as the passenger's unruly behavior, the pilot-in-command decided to offload Mr. Rai," it further tweeted.

SLIDESHOW | IndiGo Airlines' brushes with controversy - passenger assault & other incidents

This is not the first case where an IndiGo staff is reported for manhandling passengers. The airlines has been in news for nearly nine other such cases including a video of two IndiGo staff manhandling a flyer surfaced in November last year that went viral. The flyer was stopped from entering the airline's bus by two staffers on October 15. One of the staffers who took a video of the incident was sacked by the company. Later, both staffers who assaulted the flyer were fired by the company after a hue and cry.

IndiGo's president and director Aditya Ghosh apologised for the incident and said that stern action was taken against an airline staff for manhandling the passenger.

In another manhandling case, Indigo had apologised to a woman passenger who was injured after she fell from a wheelchair while being ferried by the airline staffer at the Lucknow airport. IndiGo claimed that the mishap happened due to crack in the floor at the airport, however, the Airports Authority of India said it was " gross negligence of IndiGo staff".

Earlier this year, a parliamentary committee on flier satisfaction had advised IndiGo to adopt a consumer-friendly approach while dealing with passengers. The committee had also pulled up Ghosh for suggesting that the staff members of the airline hired from tier-II and III cities were often untrained in soft skills and unable to speak fluent English, as many of them went to government schools.

The report stated that 30.5 per cent flyers had poor customer service experiences.
15:12 Siddaramaiah files nomination from Badami

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has filed his nomination from Badami, Karnataka for the Assembly polls. It was decided earlier that he would contest from Badami, besides Chamundeshwari.

April 24

16:24 BJP releases a second list of 82 candidates for Karnataka Assembly elections.

There are no Muslims or Christians among the 82 candidates.

April 16

20:25 That's all for today. We'll resume our continuous coverage of the Karnataka assembly elections tomorrow. Thank you!

17:39 Karnataka is heading towards a hung Assembly this year, an India Today-Karvy Insights opinion poll conducted just over a month before the high-stakes election in the state predicts. The biggest takeaway from the opinion poll is that no one party is expected to reach the magic number of 112 in Karnataka's 225-member Assembly. The Congress, currently in power, can hope to win between 90 and 101 seats while the BJP will win between 78 and 86 seats. Going by the opinion poll, HD Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular) may be the kingmaker in Karnataka, with the party and its pre-poll alliance member, Bahujan Samaj Party, winning between 34 and 43 seats.

16:56 BJP President Amit Shah spared no time in reacting on the reports that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah might shift his constituency for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls. The BJP chief who was in poll-bound state on Friday said this was the "first major lead" that the saffron party would win the election.

16:03 The Congress may finalise the first list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls on Friday, said its state-unit president G Parameshwara in a PTI report. The party leaders had discussion over the names of candidates in the morning on the day and there is a possibility of releasing the names of contenders for about 136 constituencies out of 224 in the state by the evening.

15:25 Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has decided to contest from the two seats in the upcoming assembly elections. As per the media reports, the CM has decided to contest from the Badami assembly constituency in Bagalkot district of North Karnataka, as well as Chamundeshwari in Mysuru district of South Karnataka, reported The Times of India.

11:40 Meeting of the BJP central election committee over the upcoming Karnataka elections is scheduled to be held on 15th April at BJP headquarters in Delhi, as per news agency ANI.

10:10 BJP President Amit Shah will take out a road show in Gokak, Karnataka. He will also interact with students of Nehru Medical College and attend several other public programs on the day.

April 11

18:44 BJP President Amit Shah to sit on dharna in Hubballi on April 12

1

4:51

Siddaramaiah

finalise

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend close to 10 rallies in the coming two days. According to OneIndia, the BJP party wanted Modi to have stage time for atleast 15 rallies in the coming month.

The Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah is in Delhi to lock-in the final candidates set to take part in the Assembly elections, according to OneIndia. The final list is set to be released on April 15. The list will be made with Rahul Gandhi part of the process.

Rumour

Karnataka

What seems to be 'do-or-die' battle for the Congress for this year's polls has sparked rumours that former Congress leader SM Krishna would be returning to the Congress,according to a News18 report.

Karantaka

OneIndia

finalised

Thurdsay

Bommai

Bangarappa

Veerappa

Moily

Deve

Gowda

The Congress looks to release the final list of its candidate for theAssembly election by April 15, according to. The Congress has130 names for the elections. The remaining are to be decided over a meet on.11:45 What was the common destiny shared by SR, S, M, SM Krishna and HD all familiar names in Indian politics  that has turned into a political curse over the last three decades?

Read the full story by Ramakrishna Upadhya here.

11:02 In Karnataka elections, Congress veteran Kharge faces dynasty problems of his own

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has for long remained an unassailable leader of Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) district in North Karnataka. But his attempts to promote his son Priyank at the cost of other long-serving party men threatens to erode his position and even derail his chief ministerial ambitions. Read the full story.

09:59 BJP's 2nd list of candidates likely on April 11: Yeddyurappa

The BJP's Karnataka unit chief B S Yeddyurappa today said the second list of party candidates for the May 12 assembly election in the state was likely to be announced on April 11.

The former chief minister also announced that he would file his nomination from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district on April 19.

"We have announced a list of 72 candidates last night, day-after-tomorrow another list of 65-70 candidates will be released. Later, in the days to come remaining candidates list will be announced," he told reporters here.

Read the full story here.

09:50 Hello! This live blog will track the latest developments from the southern, poll-bound state of Karnataka. The voting is scheduled to happen on April 12. The counting will happen on May 15.

Both, the ruling Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have already begun intense campaigning in the state. The Presidents of both parties, Rahul Gandhi and Amit Shah respectively, have already completed multiple rounds of campaigning
Information technology (IT) and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday met top officials of the IT ministry to decide on a plan of action against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, following the recently-exposed data breach, reported Mint.

The move comes after Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (CA) submitted responses to the questions sent to them by the IT ministry. The social media network had said that data on as many as 87 million users was improperly shared with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

"The government has taken serious note of the points made by Facebook and CA and will soon decide on the next line of action," a person aware of the matter told the paper.

Also Read 'My mistake, I'm sorry,' Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to tell Congress: Prepared text

In its response to the Indian government, the British firm claimed it did not hold data of Indian users obtained illegally from Facebook, an Economic Times report said on Saturday.

The ministry of information technology had sent queries to CA on March 23, wherein the government had warned of legal action against it, in case there was no response by March 31. The company had sought a weeks extension of the deadline.

Also read  Give me another chance: Zuckerberg on leading Facebook

Facebook said most of the affected users (more than 70 million) are in the United States, though there are over a million each in the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK. It said the total number of potentially impacted users in India (562,455 people) is 0.6 percent of the global number of potentially affected people.

A Facebook spokesperson said privileged data of users who had downloaded the app called 'thisisyourdigitallife', developed by Aleksandr Kogan, may have been compromised.

Also read  Facebook creates tool to remove login for third party apps  here's how to do it

There are around 200 million Facebook users in India. Of them, "only 335 people" were directly affected through the installation of the app, while another 562,120 people were "potentially affected" as friends of those users, the spokesperson said.
Q18. Which Mumbai-based charity, which works in slums, is one of the seven charities that the royal couple Harry and Markle has asked people to give aid to?

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen a charity working for women in Mumbai's slums among a handful of organisations unveiled today that will become recipients of donations in place of gifts for their royal wedding next month.

Myna Mahila Foundation is among seven charities hand-picked by the couple as they announced that anyone who might wish to mark their wedding day on May 19 should consider making a donation to one of the charities, rather than sending a wedding gift.

The foundation, which aims to offer Mumbai women stable employment close to their homes as well as breaking taboos around menstrual hygiene by offering them access to low-cost sanitary napkins, was chosen by Markle after she saw its work "first-hand" during a visit to India last year, Kensington Palace said.

"Myna Mahila Foundation is delighted to be a part of this special occasion for Ms Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. This support will enable us to expand our reach into more urban slums in Mumbai, empowering local women through access to menstrual hygiene products and employment opportunities," said Suhani Jalota, who founded the charity in 2015.

The foundation works as a "trusted network" in Mumbai's urban slums, empowering its staff through training in women's health, English, Maths, and life skills such as self-defence.

The sanitary products are manufactured and distributed by women from these communities as part of wider professional and personal support to help them "grow as individuals and businesswomen".

Markle had written about the charity in 'Time' magazine after her visit to Mumbai in March, 2017.

"During my time in the slum communities outside of Mumbai, I shadowed women who are part of a microfinance system where they manufacture sanitary napkins and sell them within the community," the American actress wrote.

"The namesake of the organisation, Myna Mahila Foundation, refers to a chatty bird ('Myna') and 'Mahila' meaning woman. The name echoes the undercurrent of this issue: we need to speak about it, to be 'chatty' about it," she said.

Kensington Palace said Harry and Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen.

"The couple have chosen charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women's empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the armed forces. Many of these are small charities, and the couple are pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work," the palace statement said.

The other charities chosen include the Children's HIV Association (CHIVA), which supports children growing up with HIV and their families across the UK and Ireland, Crisis - the UK's national charity for homeless people, Scotty's Little Soldiers - a charity for bereaved Armed Forces children, StreetGames, which uses sport to change lives across Britain, Surfers Against Sewage - a UK-based marine conservation and campaigning charity, and the Wilderness Foundation UK, which promotes the benefits and enjoyment of wild nature.

"Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit. The couple have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to charity, rather than sending a wedding gift," the palace statement said.

Harry, 33, fifth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, are set to get married in a ceremony at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19.

They had earlier revealed that their wedding flowers will also be given to different charities after the occasion.
By Ramakrishna Upadhya

What was the common destiny shared by SR Bommai, S Bangarappa, M Veerappa Moily, SM Krishna and HD Deve Gowda  all familiar names in Indian politics  that has turned into a political curse over the last three decades?

All of them occupied the Karnataka chief ministers chair after long political innings lasting three to four decades, but none could enjoy a full term of five years nor get the second chance they so coveted.

In fact, there were a total of 12 chief ministers since 1988 (when Ramakrishna Hegde stepped down) who suffered the same fate. In this category, a minor exception was BS Yeddyurappa who had two terms of 7 days and 3 years, 62 days.

So, all eyes are glued on the present chief minister Siddaramaiah as to whether he will break the jinx and get a second successive term. He has already broken the myth of losing power soon after visiting Chamarajanagar district  which several chief ministers, including SM Krishna, scrupulously avoided  by making more than a dozen visits.

Siddaramaiah is well on the way to completing his full five-year term before facing the assembly elections due on May 12.

But it is certainly not the case that all those who had their terms as chief ministers cut short went into oblivion. Politics being such an unpredictable game of pot-luck, Deve Gowda later became the prime minister of the country and SM Krishna, the governor of Maharashtra and the Union external affairs minister.

Heres a brief flashback on all Karnataka CMs since RK Hegdes exit:

Bommai (1988-89: 281 days): Dismissal of his government in 1989 without affording him a chance to take a floor test resulted in a landmark Supreme Court judgment. He went on to become the national president of Janata Dal from 1990 to 1996 and briefly, a Union minister in the United Front government.

Veerendra Patil (1989-90: 314 days): This was Veerendra Patils second innings as chief minister, after leading Congress as KPCC chief to a massive victory with a record 181 seats. He had returned to the post after 18 years, serving for the first time during 1968-71. But less than one year into office, fate intervened in the form of massive paralysis, and the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi infamously dismissed his government, talking to the media at Bangalore airport.

S Bangarappa (1990-92: 2 years, 33 days): One of the most colourful and popular politicians Karnataka has seen, he got elected to assembly seven times and four times to the Lok Sabha, each time from a different political party, including Samajwadi Party. After Narasimha Rao unseated him as chief minister on corruption charges, he changed many parties but could never regain his political clout.

Veerappa Moily: (1992-94: 2 years, 22 days): During the days of the sealed envelope coming from the High Command, Moily pipped the more popular SM Krishna to the post, thanks to his mentor K Karunakaran. After Moilys term ended, Congress hit its nadir in Karnataka winning only 39 seats. But, thanks to the benevolent party, he later not only became an MP, but a Union minister in UPA government.

Deve Gowda (1994-96: 1 year, 172 days): When Deve Gowda finally achieved his ambition of becoming chief minister in 1994, he would never have dreamt that something bigger awaited him. Just 17 months later, a campaign spearheaded by Ramakrishna Hegde won 16 Lok Sabha seats for Janata Dal, but destiny beckoned Deve Gowda to become prime minister, though he remained in office only for 11 months.

JH Patel (1996-99: 3 years, 129 days): A quintessential politician who publicly acknowledged his love for wine and women, he had to weather turbulent times in Janata Dal, after Hegde and Gowda fell apart. His Lingayat credentials helped him to hold on to his chair till the elections in 1999, which he lost, and died a year later.

SM Krishna (1999-04: 4 years, 230 days): The Oxford-educated Krishna brought sophistication to administration and also restored investors faith in Bengaluru. He would have easily completed a full term, until a little bird told him to go for simultaneous polls with Lok Sabha in 2004, and the Congress party lost miserably. But that did not end his political career.

Dharam Singh (2004-06: 1 year, 245 days): First chief minister of a coalition government in Karnataka, he tried to provide a good administration amidst all the pinpricks from Deve Gowda, de facto leader of coalition partner JD(S). The amiable Dharam Singh did not lose his smile even when Gowda pulled the rug from under his feet to install Kumaraswamy, his son, as chief minister.

HD Kumaraswamy: 2006-07: 1 year, 253 days): Being the first-time MLA from Ramanagara, Kumaraswamy, during his short stint, showed that politics was very much in his genes when he ran a coalition government with the BJP. But his failure to hand over power to Yeddyurappa at the end of 20 months as per an agreement gave him the tag of a betrayer, which he is still struggling to shed.

BS Yeddyurappa (2007-11: two terms of 3 years, 69 days in all): Yeddyurappa promised much, but delivered little, as he was embroiled in one controversy after another and he was dogged by dissidents in his own party. BJPs southern hopes have risen and fallen with BSY, and ironically, even in 2018, the situation remains the same.

DV Sadananda Gowda (2011-12: 343 days): A perfect model for Colgate with his permanent smile, Sadananda (which, appropriately, means ever happy) could barely settle down when he was ousted by internal bickering in the party. But he has won three Lok Sabha terms from three different constituencies and currently is the Union minister for statistics in the Modi government.

Jagadish Shettar (2012-13: 304 days): A former president of BJP, before he could take control of the party or the government, elections were upon him. He saw the BJPs strength slide from 110 to 40 seats and handed back power to the Congress.

Siddaramaiah (May 13, 2013): A protege of Ramakrishna Hegde, he later turned to Deve Gowda and turned against Gowda in 2006 when he realised that the Gowda family was merely using him. He campaigned hard and almost single-handedly brought Congress to power in 2013 and became the chief minister. He has taken firm grip of the party; he is looked upon as the master strategist who can win 2018 elections as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on April 12 in New Delhi to protest against the disruption of Parliamentary proceedings by opposition parties.

BJP president Amit Shah will sit on a dharna in poll-bound Karnataka and BJP MPs across the nation will also join the PM in fasting, in what is being seen as an attempt to turn the tables on the Congress, a day after it held a symbolic fast at Rajghat.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said that the idea of the fast was mooted by the PM. He said that it is a way to communicate to the entire country that the BJP is aware of the suffering imposed on them by the logjam in the Parliament. This is why all NDA MPs had also decided to forego their salaries for 23 days of the budget session of the Parliament, he added.
Google-owned YouTube has been accused of violating child protection laws by collecting personal data of children aged under 13. The allegations were levelled by a legion of 23 child advocacy, consumer and privacy groups who have registered a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stating the video streaming company had been collecting data for advertising purposes.

The 23-member group which consists of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), the Center for Digital Democracy along with 21 organisations have accused Google of not practicing what it preaches. The group said, although the video streaming site claimed to be serving users above 13 years of age, it was well aware that children below 13 were using the site and did nothing about it.

Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy said: Google has acted duplicitously by falsely claiming in its terms of service that YouTube is only for those who are age 13 or older, while it deliberately lured young people into an ad-filled digital playground.

He added, Just like Facebook, Google has focused its huge resources on generating profits instead of protecting privacy.

The group alleged that Google instead gathered personal information such as location, information of the device being used, the phone number, and the websites accessed by the user, without acquiring parental consent as mandated by the US Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

For years, Google has abdicated its responsibility to kids and families by disingenuously claiming YouTube  a site rife with popular cartoons, nursery rhymes, and toy ads  is not for children under 13, Josh Golin, executive director of the CCFC was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

Google profits immensely by delivering ads to kids and must comply with Coppa. Its time for the FTC to hold Google accountable for its illegal data collection and advertising practices, Golin noted.

The group has urged the FTC to probe the matter and take appropriate actions against Google.

The 59-page complaint filed with the FTC said, YouTube also has actual knowledge that many children are on YouTube, as evidenced by disclosures from content providers, public statements by YouTube executives, and the creation of the YouTube Kids app.

A spokesperson for YouTube responded to the allegations and said, While we havent received the complaint, protecting kids and families has always been a top priority for us. We will read the complaint thoroughly and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve. Because YouTube is not for children, weve invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.
Facebook does not let them identify you as it shares all the personal information in bulk. The social networking site while sharing the information with any third party anonymises the data so that they are not able to know who you are. For instance, it will share a phone number but wont tell whose number it is. However, if you are one among those who are concerned about privacy, there is a way to edit the apps which you had logged in through Facebook and manage what information you want to share. Just follow the steps below:

Facebooks recent privacy row has got the whole world sitting up and taking notice of the issues staring right into their faces regarding the way tech companies across the world are collecting and handling users private data.

The company has been bogged down by one issue after another since whistleblower Christopher Wylie exposed Facebooks involvement in a data mismanagement by political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

The issue began in 2014 when Facebook users were invited to take part in a personality quiz via an app developed by Cambridge University researcher Dr Kogan called thisisyourdigitallife. According to records, data of about 270,000 users  who took part in the quiz  were collected by the app. Taking advantage of loopholes in Facebooks data regulation rules, Cambridge Analytica illegally mined data of more than 87 million users across the world.

While the initial number of affected users was pegged at 50 million across the world, Facebook came out with a revised number last week which said the affected users could be as high as 87 million. However, trouble seems to be mounting for the company as it recently announced that the affected users are not limited to US and UK.

Facebook recently revealed that 63,714 users from New Zealand has been affected by the issue after 10 users from the country downloaded the quiz app.

For New Zealand, we estimate a total of 63,724 people may have been impacted  10 are estimated to have downloaded the quiz app with 63,714 friends possibly impacted, said Antonia Sanda, head of communications for Facebook in Australia and New Zealand.

Facebook informed John Edwards, New Zealands privacy commissioner, that it will soon alert all the affected New Zealanders about the breach.

I think we have some real information deficits that I hope my colleagues in the UK and the US will uncover... I am not sure New Zealanders were 'targeted' but I think there is a level of complacency [in New Zealand]. And when you say we're so far away, we're only one click away really, Edwards said.

Edwards clarified that he is working with his counterparts in US, UK Australia and Canada on understanding the nature and severity of the entire issue and seeking further information on this from Facebook on priority.

Edwards revealed that he deleted his Facebook account as soon as the whole Cambridge Analytica row broke out and urged his countrymen to follow suit.

I am actually quite concerned about the drip-feed of information [from the social media giant]. These events occurred four years ago. There was knowledge about Cambridge Analytica's targeting tactics a good two years ago, yet we are really only seeing Facebook confront this issue now, Edwards said.

The scope for abuse is huge. What we have seen with Cambridge Analytica is just a little taste of what could happen, the potential for political manipulation. It is almost an unimaginable scale of harm that a malicious actor could do with that level of information.

Edwards confirmed that they are keeping a keen eye on the ongoing investigations in the world and will not be conducting a separate investigation on the breaches in New Zealand.
Representative Image

Chinese government which has been cloud seeding to make artificial rains for years has okayed its largest-ever project to force rainfall and snow over 1.6 million sq km, an area roughly three times the size of Spain.

As per media reports, the Communist Party government is going to use new military weather-altering technology developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The technology uses combustion chambers on the ground which burn a solid fuel resulting in a spray of silver iodide billowing towards the sky. The authorities plan to build tens of thousands of combustion chambers on Tibetan mountainsides.

More than 500 burners have been deployed on alpine slopes in Tibet, Xinjiang and other areas for experimental use. The data we have collected show very promising results, an unnamed researcher told the Morning Post.

Sometimes snow would start falling almost immediately after we ignited the chamber. It was like standing on the stage of a magic show, he said.

A single combustion chamber can make a strip of clouds covering a five km area.

Earlier, China used military planes and rockets to seed the clouds over an area to force rain. The seeding particles of silver iodide provide something for passing water vapour to condense around, forming clouds. These clouds, then start falling as rain or snow.

Rain and snowfall on the Tibetan plateau are vital for China as well as adjoining countries including India and Bhutan. Many of the rivers like the Brahmaputra flowing into India from China collect their water from the rainfall over the Tibetan plateau.

Since 2013, China has been forcing 55 billion tons of artificial rain a year. During the 2008 Olympic games, the country launched over 1,100 rockets containing silver iodide to spay over the clouds over Beijing so that the mega sporting event can go rain free.
President Ram Nath Kovind after receiving the order of lion from Swaziland King Mswati III at Lozitha Palace in Swaziland, Shikhuphe. (PTI)

Indian shooter Heena Sidhu poses with her medal during a medal ceremony after winning gold in the Womens 25m Pistol final event at the Commonwealth Games 2018, in Brisbane, Australia. (PTI)

Supreme Court judge Justice Jasti Chelameswar talks to Congress senior leader Salman Khurshid during the book launch 'Appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court of India' in New Delhi. (PTI)

India's Saina Nehwal plays against Malaysia's Sonia Cheah Su Ya during the women's singles mixed-badminton team final at Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast. (PTI)

Embroidery artist used as a human shield by the Indian Army last year, Farooq Ahmed Dar, with former JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid release a report on the incident on its first anniversary, in Srinagar. (PTI)

China's President Xi Jinping prepares to deliver his opening speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao in south China's Hainan province. Xi promised to cut auto import taxes, open China's markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies in a speech Tuesday that called for international cooperation against a backdrop of a spiralling dispute with Washington over trade and technology. (AP/PTI)

Tear gas floats in the air near a protester during an evacuation operation in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, France. (REUTERS)

112 years and 259 days old Masazo Nonaka from Japan poses for a photograph with his family members as he receives a Guinness World Records certificate naming him the world's oldest man during a ceremony in Ashoro, on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, in this photo taken by Kyodo. (REUTERS)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during 'Satyagrah Se Swachhagrah' programme on the concluding ceremony of Centenary of Champaran Satyagraha celebration at Gandhi Maidan in Motihari, Bihar. (PTI)
US President Donald Trump said today he plans to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un next month or in early June, indicating a historic summit between the Cold War rivals is still on track.

Speaking at the White House, Trump expressed hope that relations -- which for a century have been marked by war, animosity and a perilous arms race -- could be put on a friendlier footing.

Trump told reporters before a cabinet meeting that the summit would be sometime in "May or early June" -- letting the original May time line slip a little, but confirming the meeting is still on.

"I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking," he said.

"Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years." After Trump's shock March announcement that he had accepted an invitation to meet the reclusive North Korean leader, there have been doubts about whether the talks will go ahead.

For decades, North Korea has dangled the prospect of "denuclearization" -- freezing its nuclear weapons programs -- but only if the US withdraws its forces from South Korea.

That would be a non-starter for almost any US president, or for Seoul.

But Kim's recent trip to China and a series of back-channel contacts between the US and North Korea have raised hopes that a deal may just be possible.
Chinese President Xi Jinping today defended his ambitious multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying China has no "geo-political calculations" and the project will benefit the world.

Touted as Xi's pet project, the BRI has become a major stumbling block in India-China relations as the controversial USD 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been listed as its "flagship project".

In a key speech outlining his vision at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) at the Chinese city of Boao, Xi said the BRI may be China's idea but its opportunities and outcomes are going to benefit the world.

"China has no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocs and imposes no business deals on others," he said in an apparent reference to apprehensions that the BRI in which China is investing billions of dollars in port, road and rail connectivity projects all over the world is aimed at furthering China's influence.

The BRI focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe. India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and boycotted a high-profile Belt and Road Forum organised by China last year.

At the BFA meeting attended among others by Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Xi said, "It must be pointed out that as the BRI is a new initiative, it is perfectly natural that there will be different views on cooperation."

"As long as the parties embrace the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, we can surely enhance cooperation and resolve differences," he said.

"This way, we can make the BRI the broadest platform for international cooperation in keeping with the trend of economic globalisation and to the greater benefit of all our peoples," Xi said.

This is the first major speech by Xi after he began his second five-year tenure last month.

He is widely expected to continue in power for life as China's parliament has removed the two-term limit for the president through a constitutional amendment.
In todays Money Morning Im going to take a different tack. Im going to talk about valuationas in fundamental, old school asset valuation. Im also going to talk investor psychology and how when you get the two of them working together, or in this case against each other, the results can be spectacular.

The topics are close to my heart. I use fundamental valuation analysis in my investment advisory Crisis & Opportunity. And I combine this with an assessment of the psychological state of the market via charting analysis.

If that all sounds a bit confusing, it will become clearer by the end of this essay.

The company I want to talk about in relation to these topics is Blue Sky Alternative Investments Ltd [ASX:BLA]. This company, a sort of private equity style fund manager, has been the target of California based short seller Glaucus Research over the past few weeks. Its a very public slanging match over who is right in their analysis. The final arbiter of that is, of course, the market. And judging the results so far, Glaucus is winning the argument.

Before we take a look at the numbers, keep in mind this is hindsight analysis, where everything looks much clearer than it does in foresight. In the past, I briefly looked at the company from time to time (given the trajectory of the share price, which was up) but always thought the stock looked a little rich for me.

When a stock is expensive, and I dont really understand how it makes its money, I just give it a miss. There are plenty more opportunities where you dont have to take such risks.

But given the recent controversy over Blue Sky (why that namewhy?) I thought it would be interesting to perform an intrinsic value calculation to see where actual value is for the company.

In calculating intrinsic value, I use a methodology espoused by Brian McNiven in his excellent book, A Wonderful Company at a Fair Price. Its a methodology driven by logic. As a simple example, if you as an investor have a required rate of return of 10%, and the company youre looking at generates a return on equity capital of 10% (and pays out 100% of earnings as a dividend) then the most you would pay would be the equity value of the company.

Put another way, youd pay a price-to-book multiple of one and nothing more. If you paid two times book (book is another name for equity) you would only earn 5% on a company generating a 10% return on equity.

Lets apply this same logic to Blue Skys 2017 reported numbers. Last year, the company generated a return on equity (ROE) of around 18%. It paid out 60% of its earnings as a dividend and reinvested the remaining 40%. Given that generating high returns on reinvested earnings is the engine of wealth creation, a good valuation model must take that into account.

I wont go into the detail of those calculations here, but Ill just say its not as simple as the paying out 100% of earnings model. You have to account for the effect of compounding.

Number crunching Blue Sky Alternative Investments

Say my required rate of return for investing in Blue Sky is 10%. How much should I pay for the business, which generates an 18% ROE? Taking into account reinvested earnings and an equity value at the end of 2017 of $142 million, Id pay $337.4 million for the business, or $4.35 per share.

Now, if you look at the chart below, following the 2017 results (in mid-August) the share price quickly jumped to $11, more than double intrinsic value. By that stage, investors wouldve been looking to 2018. They mustve been, because they certainly werent looking anywhere else

Source: BigCharts

[Click to enlarge]



For example, they werent looking at the cash flow statement. Operational cash flow of just $8.4 million didnt inspire confidence in the net profit figure of $20.6 million. After making some investments and paying dividends, Blue Sky had a cash deficit for the year of $26 million. It increased debt levels by $34 million to keep the cash balance healthy.

That in itself isnt a reason to panic. But when a stock is expensive and the company isnt generating enough cash to sustain the business, you want to know why.

If we look at earnings estimates for 2018, the stock is expected to generate a return on equity of 22.6%. Thats being optimistic, but lets go with it anyway. Using a required return of 10% and a 65% payout ratio, I calculate an intrinsic value of $6.05 per share.

That compares with a current share price of $5.75. Realistically, though, the share price should trade at a much bigger discount. There is clearly uncertainty about the earnings of the company and uncertainty about its equity, or book value.

No doubt Glaucus thought the same thing, and licked its lips at the shorting opportunity as the share price spent most of the past four or five months above $12.50, more than 100% above a reasonable estimate of intrinsic value.

This is where psychology comes into it. 50%, if not more, of the market value of the company was due to belief. That is, investor belief in the model and the growth trajectory. This is why Glaucuss approach is to be highly public. It wants to erode the value of that belief. And if its got its research right, it will do just that.

Thats why the share price has collapsed recently. Belief in the story, and the companys management, has collapsed. The thing is, Im not even assuming a decline in the intrinsic value of the company, which there surely will be after a public relations disaster like this.

My guess  and its just a guess  is that the share price is going lower. In a black box vehicle like this one, trust and belief in the people plugging the numbers in is everything. If that goes, Im not sure if there is any value left.

Regards,

Greg Canavan,

Editor, Crisis & Opportunity
Earning commission without a base salary does little to protect borrowers from road reps whose primary concern is earning a living, not putting them into financially-sound mortgages.

I think when you have someone whos on salary at the bank, you can argue a little stronger thatyes, theyre incentivized to make money for the bankbut theyre less financially incentivized by each deal, but when you have a commission sales rep for a bank, why are they treated differently than us? said Matthey.

They should have the same requirements for continuing education, the same requirements to protect the consumer, they should have the same requirement to fill out paperwork that says theyve deemed that the mortgage is suitable for the customer, and why.

Mattheys position is supported by DLC Mortgage Centre broker Daniel Johanis, who believes mobile mortgage specialists should be regulated by FSCO

I think they should be regulated, he said. By not being regulated by FSCO, I wouldnt necessarily say its the Wild Wild West, but there should be some accountability and oversight. It seems a little more difficult for them to make a living and thats where the conflict comes into play. Are you putting clients best interests first, or are you trying to close a sale for the sake of a closing sale?
A recently released report from CBRE noted that investing in Canadas hotel segment is an excellent move at the moment, considering the markets 2017 investment and operations strength that is expected to continue well into this year.

According to CBREs 2018 Canadian Hotels Outlook, last years hotel investment volume reached $3.4 billion, including mergers and acquisitions. Taken together with the $4.1 billion in 2016, the hotel segments past two years have been characterized by strong merger and acquisition deals along with healthy tourism numbers, especially in the countrys three largest cities.

I do think the industry is quite synchronized right now, CBRE executive vice-president (hotels capital markets group) Bill Stone said, as quoted by Property Biz Canada. Weve got strong fundamentals. The Canadian economy is performing quite well and perceived globally as a true safe haven.
It is amazing the people of Illinois have not staged a coup.

The frustration is becoming palpable, though.

One of the clearest indicators was in the just-passed primary election. Incumbent Bruce Rauners narrow defeat of Jeanne Ives, a state representative he once characterized as a fringe candidate, cannot be spun as anything less than a rebuke of the way government has been operating.

And for yet another year, U.S. Census Bureau statistics estimate people are moving out of the state in hemorrhagic numbers.

That shouldnt rest solely on the shoulders of the governor. Obstructionist lawmakers have fought any attempts to change or to base spending on actual revenue.

Instead, there is an obstinate insistence on gouging taxpayers for more and more money.

Rauner addressed some of this Monday, asking legislative leadership to meet and discuss ways to present a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year without furthering burdening taxpayers.

The current system traps people in their homes, vaporizes their equity, drives mortgages under water, and in some cases, pushes people out of our state. We have to fix it, Rauner said.

Sure, part of this is political posturing from an incumbent who faces tough Democratic competition for the governors office in November.

Still, the message should not be dismissed. Illinois residents pay some of the highest taxes in the Midwest.

Its ironic that the call for fiscal sensibility comes as a proposal in the Senate would blast many Illinoisans with a blood-boiling increase in gasoline taxes.

Senate Bill 3279 would increase the per-gallon taxes on gasoline by 30 cents  to 60 cents  making it the highest motor fuel tax in the nation. There is even discussion that it should go even higher, to 85 cents a gallon for gasoline and almost $1 a gallon for diesel fuel.

It doesnt stop there, though. The same Senate proposal calls for a 50 percent hike in vehicle registration fees. That yearly cost is $101 now but would jump to about $150  although some talk has floated the idea of making the fee $578.

Others have resurrected the possibility of a per mile fee, in which drivers would be assessed 4 or 5 cents for every mile they travel in a year.

What all these ideas have in common is the legislative mantra of ignore the real problem by making taxpayers dig deeper.

The system is broken.

Fix it, dont just pass the problem along.

Stop the taxpayer blood-letting.

We know this oft-repeated message is being heard in Springfield, so we can only assume no one cares.